It’s presidential election season again. The airwaves these days are buzzing with news about the ongoing campaigns—doubly so because our elections are happening at the same time as those of the United States. Anyone who’s even casually followed a presidential campaign should see all the telltale signs of one. There is a recurring formula: (Insert […]
You’ve seen the music videos when browsing through the channels. You’ve heard some of the catchy beats playing in your favorite café. Maybe you even have a friend who’s been transformed into a screaming fan, one of hundreds of thousands in the country. One thing’s for sure: K-Pop is no longer just a phase, and […]
I make my way along the narrow and portion of Kalaw in Ermita towards a small structure, tucked away, made up of massive slabs of perfectly squared tiled blocks. It looks out of place among the other sights on the street—topless young boys flinging their slippers at each other, other young children begging for alms. […]
Fifty years of Manila trash is what makes up Smokey Mountain, the infamous mountain of stinking and rotting refuse heaps in the slums of Tondo. Called home by thousands of Manila’s poorest of the poor, the Tondo slums remain as the largest slum area in the entire metropolis. For the longest time, Smokey Mountain has […]
With the recently released seventh episode of the Star Wars saga, George Lucas’ sci-fi phenomenon has been everywhere. People are donning shirts featuring the likes of Darth Vader and Yoda, and profile pictures with Kylo Ren’s infamous crossguard lightsaber have been popping up around social media. Capitalizing on this sudden hype, Angelo S. Casimiro, a […]
Once, while riding the train, I sat next to a nun reading the Bible. She wore a religious habit, with her arms covered up to her wrists, legs pressed close, eyes focused downwards. Maybe she loved the man in the book. And maybe there was no real difference between her love and my love for […]
Long before the 16th century-colonization of the Philippines by the Spaniards, tribal Filipinos already had their own established beliefs and practices. Being the ethnic archipelagic norm at the time, polygamy was widely accepted and practiced by the early Filipinos, with tribal men often having three or more wives. It was the advent of Catholicism that […]
“Buti pa yung kalendaryo, may date. Eh ako?” It’s almost ironic how every February, right around Valentine’s season, social media explodes with these hugot lines that everyone seems to love. On the surface, they’re meant to be bitter one-liners that exude pain and heartbreak. Somehow, though, they have evolved into a predominant piece of both […]
To most seniors about to graduate from the University, one of the culminations of their college journey normally comes in the form of an on-the-job training (OJT). Engineering students get to tinker with professional tools and gadgets, while business students try their hand at managerial work for multinational firms. In fact, both the University’s Applied […]
My boyfriend and I were lucky enough to have been able to reserve tickets online to the early screenings, since Episode VII was only going to be shown for a week before the annual Metro Manila Film Fest took over. That story was interesting as well—it seems the fans’ faith was disturbing enough to create […]