“Becoming a teacher is a difficult task. You’ll be underfunded, underappreciated,” these were the words hammered in my mind ever since I was a child, having admitted that I wished to take up teaching as a profession, all the way to my major courses in college. Everyone says that education is a vocation, a sacrifice…
The Philippines was never ready for a pandemic, and yet here we are. From the lack of hospital beds to the scarcity of ventilators, the country’s weak healthcare infrastructure has become prone to collapse, as those in the highest offices of the government continue to blunder in their response. This lack of decisive leadership and…
“Tayo naman!” so exclaimed many after the news of Joe Biden’s projected election into the United States presidency, expressing hope that with the end of Donald Trump’s damaging populist tenure, the Philippines would see the same result in 2022. But while we have reason to believe that better leadership is within our grasp, this is…
Up to what extent can we give someone the benefit of the doubt? Where do we draw the line in order to ease the pain, anger, and heartbreak? A couple of years ago, a man told me he loved me. Although I was sure that the word “love” meant almost nothing to him, I made…
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article mentions suicide. Readers are advised to proceed with caution. Whenever you look at an entangled ball of yarn, your mind tries to find a workaround to fix the knots. Possible approaches might be to throw the entire mess away, remove each strand—handling each one properly—or cover the yarn and place it…
In 1999, I was a freshman at 17 years old, a perfect lifetime ago. In those days, TLS was housed on the 3rd floor of the SPS Building, in one long room together with the Malate Literary Folio and Ang Pahayagang Plaridel. One or two bulky desktops littered the space on the long table and…
Martial law was declared on Saturday, September 23, 1972. On September 21 and 22, we went about our usual activities. The dictator Marcos already started his revisionism as early as then, by setting the date of the declaration to Thursday, September 21. When I entered DLSC in June 1974, the entire Philippine society had pretty…
2004-2005 was a definitive time in movies. Among now film greats like Troy, V for Vendetta and Kill Bill 2, that period saw the release of Pixar’s The Incredibles, Howl’s Moving Castle by Studio Ghibli, Christopher Nolan’s opening salvo Batman Begins, the controversial and ambitious Butterfly Effect and still my favorite installment in the HP…
When Walt Disney Studios released a teaser last year for a live-action adaptation of Mulan, the film gained widespread attention for casting mostly Asian-descended personalities, with Chinese star Liu Yifei playing the titular character. A little over a month later, calls to boycott the film flooded social media after Liu expressed support for police brutality…
We should not want to go back to the way things were. President Rodrigo Duterte still holds the highest seat in the Philippines. The War on Drugs tactics of the Duterte administration was perhaps put on hold by the outbreak—yet just as existent in the mobilization of the military and police during a health crisis.…
