Like food for the gods, the Cavendish bananas of Tagum City, Davao Del Norte are spotless. Sealed with stickers to mark their perfection, they are being shipped to countries in the Asia Pacific contributing billions to the domestic economy. But what many don’t know, these bananas were grown on a soil soaked with sweat and…
Tag: Journalism
“It Would Be Unfair to the Kids”
It was late afternoon on a summer day about seven years ago and I was fake-sleeping inside my mom’s hospital room because it was my turn to guard her. She was admitted because of a mild stroke and she was talking to her attending physician about what happened to her. “Will I still be able…
Understanding the Angry Christ
Churchgoers would know that most images of Jesus Christ were of a loving man. While there are biblical accounts of Jesus Christ being angry, he was never pictured like that. That is the most baffling part of Angry Christ.
The Rising Burma
Five years ago around this time, in one hot summer day in Singapore, I woke up to a good news from a dear friend that I’ll get a chance to tour Myanmar for free. I was set to go back home in Manila after finishing a 10 month-contract in an F&B company, so I thought…
Ang Resureksyon ng ROTC
Pormal nang inaprubahan ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang sapilitang pagpasok ng lahat ng mag-aaral sa Grade 11 at 12 o Senior High School sa Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC). Sa pagbubukas ng Palarong Pambansa sa Antique noong Abril 24, nagbanta pa ang Pangulo sa mga umaalma sa ROTC na posible pa siyang magpatupad ng sapilitang pagsisilbi sa…
Farewell
I hope this message finds you well. The world calls you millennials — and with your diverse skills, the possibilities are endless. Yet understandably, it is also a time of uncertainty since you are about to leave the comfort zone of the classroom. If you may have entertained doubts, everything is still alright. We live in a time when…
#Taiwanderlust: Discovering the Underrated Asian Dragon
It’s only been half a year since Taiwan has opened up and relaxed its visa rules for its Asia Pacific neighbors, and already we’re seeing a surge in tourists arrivals in Taipei. In 2016 alone, there was a 25% spike in the number of Filipinos who visited this island-nation barely the size of Luzon. These were 172,475…
Ora Prono Bis
The commemoration of the Passion of the Christ is an opportune time to pause for a while and reflect on all that has been and all that will be. And while a very few blessed kababayan can afford to travel either to the Sistine Chapel in the Holy See or the Holy Land in Jerusalem, you…
False Balance in Journalism
Can a journalist really create a false sense of balance in one’s work? This was one of the points of discussion during a journalism training I attended in Cambodia this month. UNESCO sponsored the workshop and selected fourteen journalists from the ASEAN region. The issue is interesting, relevant and somewhat controversial, as balance is a…
Gabe Bondoc: The Homecoming of a YouTube Sensation
One. Two. Seven. Nine. It took a while before I (as well as hundreds of other fans) got to hear that intro live in Manila straight from the man himself—Gabe Bondoc. It was long overdue, but damn was it worth the wait. We Match Unlike many of his over 300,000 subscribers, I didn’t find Gabe…
Sulu: A Lost Paradise
Berwina Timbang, a grade six student in Sultan Jamalul Kiram Elementary School in Maimbung, Sulu, was diligently listening to her English teacher when I first saw her. I was in Sulu then for a one-day news coverage. Occasionally, she would glance outside the window, her eyes innocent and her face hopeful. In a class of…
Kayumanggi and Proud: Life as a Filipino Gay Immigrant in Denmark
Alvin Tuling, 37, has always been reserved and shy. He admits he is not openly gay as some of his friends are. He wears typical men clothes and tries to “act like a heterosexual man.” “I do not like drawing attention to myself,” he says. Alvin comes from the Philippines, a country populated mostly by Catholics….
Sa Wakas: A Realistic Finale
A boy meets a girl. They go through a series of dilemmas and may even be separated for period of time, but they would still eventually end up together. This has been the typical formula for cliché love stories — no matter if the film is foreign or Filipino. But this is not the kind…
Care Divas: An Important Story in These Trying Times
To celebrate their golden anniversary, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) re-staged the award-winning musical hit “Care Divas,” a story about five gay Filipinos working as caregivers in Israel and doing drag shows as a sideline. Without divulging much of the plot, let me attempt to explain why you should watch ‘Care Divas’ and take away with it…
Maxine Medina: More than the Terno
“Maria Mika Maxine Medina, Philippines!” Confident and laced with strong words of conviction, Maxine Medina stunned the hometown crowd with her performance during the pageant preliminaries. She is no longer just a woman with the elegance of a beauty queen. She now has the tenacity of a beast too — dominating, ruthless and savage with a will to become more…
Q & A: The Psychology of Beauty Queen Blunders
The question and answer portion is a much-anticipated part in beauty contests. It is an opportunity for a contestant to convince the judges that she deserves the title. But this moment can be frazzling for candidates. More so, if they are expected to eloquently answer in a foreign language. I, too, had experienced the pressure…
To the Boy Who Lost His Father to the Drug War
It was eight o’ clock in the evening along Taft Avenue in Manila when a street child was going around each store to ask for food, if not for some coins. He was thin, muddled, and soaked in the rain. He approached me with the usual demand, “Kuya, pahingi naman ng pambiling pagkain.” (Older brother,…
Year of the Rooster
Hudyat ang bagong taon ng simula ng panibagong siklo ng pag-ikot ng mundo sa Araw. Natuldukan na ang mapanghamon at madalas malupit na mga araw ng 2016, subalit entrada lang ang mga iyon sa mga paparating pa ngayong bagong taon. Bukod sa kapalaran ng bawat isa, o ang kahihinatnan ng tambalang KathNiel, JaDine at iba pa…
Only Suman
My father used to be very muscular and heavy but after the war he has changed so much. It was a bad night for him as he woke in the middle of the night screaming and drenched in sweat. He kicked me off the banig (a woven sleeping mat) and only then that I shook…
Christmas In London, Finally
The story starts at a high end hotel on Drury Lane in London one summer day in June of 1997. Regina ‘Regie’ Laborce, then 31 years old, was scrambling to get in contact with someone she knows in the United Kingdom. If they don’t answer their phones, she has nowhere else to go. The fancy hotel was…
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