Christmas is upon us and here is part 2 of my Christmas Wish Ko Lang series. Last week, we heard from members of the different branches of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force) and a member of the Philippine Military Academy. This week, let’s hear it for members of the private sector and various advocacy groups.
Christine Cunanan
Publisher, Travel Life
Director, Nagatacho Ohka restaurant, Japan
Proprietor, La Esperanza Granada, Andalusia, Spain.
On my wish list is a photograph from the Diorama series of Hiroshi Sugimoto, the Japanese contemporary art photographer. I have the perfect spot for it in my living room in Tokyo. Also, an apartment in Granada with a view of the Alhambra, with which I fell in love when I first saw it four years ago. It’s owned by someone in Silicon Valley, and now it has been quietly put up for sale. I wish someone would buy this for me, but it’s wishful thinking. There’s an Issey Miyake outfit I saw in the store display window as I was driving through Omotesando the other day. It’s pricey but at least it’s somehow within my budget compared to my other choices. I also wish for tickets on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul via Venice for next year. This only takes place several times a year and it has long been on my bucket list. It would be nice to get a suite.
Rose Baldeo
Chairman of the board, Global Group of Companies Consortium Inc.
Subic Bay Freeport Zone
I wish this holiday season brings joy, peace, and well-deserved rest to my employees and their families. May the coming year be filled with new opportunities, both personal and professional for growth and prosperity. I’m also wishing my employees and their loved ones good health, happiness, and continued strength throughout 2025.
Dr. Mary Grace Lualhati D. Barretto-Tesoro
Professor, University of the Philippines School of Archaeology.
My wish is for adequate and well-equipped classrooms for school kids for conducive learning, for increased salary for teachers, who are overworked and underpaid, for more archaeology topics or lessons in elementary and high school so young students will be introduced to the deep history of the Philippines and its importance to our identity and heritage, for effective implementation of heritage laws to help reduce and prevent the loss of archaeological resources, and for adequate dog parks and regular free spaying and neutering of pets, specifically dogs and cats, as well as free anti-rabies vaccines.
Jomar Encila
Historian, City Government of Taguig
I hope the Taguig Cultural Mapping Project will bring about more ideas, projects, and programs. Under Republic Act 11961, the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, all local government units are expected to conduct comprehensive cultural mapping in their regions. In Taguig, with the help of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), we have received community validation last November on 132 cultural properties after extensive mapping for five months since July. This is expected to result in broadening awareness and knowledge on the history and culture of Taguig, which is considered “probinsyudad” (urban/rural). I also wish that everyone in Taguig gets more opportunities to learn and improve skills and knowledge and, ultimately, themselves and the city. Here’s to a prosperity, health, happiness, and more guidance from God for everyone.
Johnson Bernardo
BPO consultant
Member, national organizing committee, Advocates for Heritage Preservation (AHP
My first wish is for peace and bountiful blessings for my family and especially for those in need. My second wish is the sustained growth of the AHP Parol Project, now on its sixth year. The AHP Project supports indigenous people by using diminishing indigenous skills to create Philippine Christmas lanterns to sell, not only to provide them with bountiful blessings during the holidays, but most important, to help preserve the culture. Third, good health and sound mind to help create more programs and help spread to the youth the importance of heritage preservation. Fourth, I hope to sustain the ability to lead people, both young and seniors, to become more inspired in life and continue to learn heritage preservation, taking off the stigma that heritage preservation is only for the elites. Fifth, I hope to always be thankful to the Lord and to be able to give back and share some of the blessings to all but most especially to those who have faith in me and have helped me achieve what I have in life.