By this time tomorrow, over 50 million Filipino voters would have already cast their vote. It is the culmination of months of rigorous campaigning by those vying for the over 1,800 open positions in the national and local government, which ended yesterday evening, with today characterized by a relative respite from all the noise and…
Category: Opinion
Unoriginal Originals
As a story writer and comic artist, I can honestly say that creating Original Characters (OCs) is something that I take very seriously. An Original Character is exactly what it sounds like, a fictional figure where its whole life story is dictated solely on the creator’s imagination or desires. These characters are, technically, sort of…
Opportunity in sacrifice
I was, in a short while, an immigrant in a far off country. The warm humid air I was accustomed to was now cold and dry. The sky was bright and clear much like one back home, yet it was not hot and sultry. The frost brought a strange chill to my lungs. My bones…
Off the map
Twenty-seven attempts but to no avail. For the modern-day Filipino, this phrase would be seen as an opportunity to interject hugot lines about failure and rejection. But let me save you from all the bitterness that we are all bound to outgrow by saying that this is not about sad tales of such. You’re welcome.…
Responding to the chaos
The past few weeks have been crazy for several prominent universities in Metro Manila. Last March 28, the Ateneo de Manila University received yet another bomb threat from a still undetermined source. Students, faculty, and staff were then swiftly evacuated while the bomb squad conducted two sweeps of the campus. Only a few days passed…
Law Bending
On March 8, 2016, Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe Llamanzares, or simply known as Grace Poe, became an official presidential candidate after the Supreme Court of the Philippines gave its legal blessing to reverse the ruling of the Commission on Elections to cancel her certificate of candidacy in the 2016 Philippine elections. As a foundling…
It has been a month since Manny Pacquiao sparked outrage among LGBT groups and allies for his masahol pa sa hayop statements, for which he has since then apologized online. The consequences of his 28-second interview excerpt, copies of which have been circulated and discussed extensively on social media, have been disastrous — first on…
Editorial: Remembering Ramon Magsaysay
When it comes to presidents, the Philippines has seen it all. We have been under the leadership of a former action star, a brilliant but ruthless dictator, a newspaper founder, a courageous housewife, and a high-ranking military man, to name a few. And then there was Ramon Magsaysay, a former automobile mechanic whom esteemed political…
Only human
On December 29th, 2015, I hit a car. It wasn’t a huge crash or anything like that, and thankfully, no one got hurt. Still, it was the first accident I had ever gotten into, and it’s safe to say it shook me up quite a bit. At the time, I was just hoping to get…
Remnants of a revolution
February 25, 2016 marks the 30th year since the EDSA Revolution, which overthrew a two-decade oppressive regime characterized by rampant corruption, abuse, and unjust rule of law. Throughout the series of demonstrations, more than two million Filipinos united under cries of “Laban!” along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, with thousands more in other cities and…