WALA LANG Rainwater was forever flooding the sala so my wife and I decided to roof the rear terrace and make it into a library. We removed the heavy wood and glass sliding doors, replacing them with arches and columns that I discovered in a junk shop on España near Welcome Rotonda. That was in...
WALA LANG The house—mansion actually—of his grandmother’s grandfather still stands and Álvaro Bartolomé Ruiz was awestruck. He lives in Madrid, visiting the Philippines for the first time. Bartolomé’s ancestor Valentín Teus (1832-1909) was from Navarra at the foot of the Pyrenees. At...
WALA LANG I could and probably should have stuck to equities like San Miguel and Ayala Corporation. As it was, my savings have been going to paintings, books, and the open-ended list of what ex-friends called junk. Not that it was money badly spent. The Ang Kiukoks and HR Ocampos I got as a toiling...
WALA LANG I was seated at dinner recently with two gentlemen from Vietnam who happened to be here in the early 1980s. They remarked that then, Vietnam was importing a lot of things from here, including food. One thing led to another and the conversation led to how come it’s now the other way...
WALA LANG Among the barong-clad sekyu trying to be invisible, sweating equipment-bearers, staff members with pen and pads in hand, newsmen, nurses, and doctors following cigar-chomping President Fidel V. Ramos was the 21-year-old Jojo T. Terencio, neophyte reporter. His task was to write official...
WALA LANG In response to the charge that the Marcoses will now rewrite history, Senator Imee Marcos replied that they will simply try to present their side. Indeed the past 36 years as well as the recent campaign demonstrates what an 18th century biographer said, “it is the victor who writes...
WALA LANG As Netflix addicts know, the Vanderbilts and Astors of New York’s Gilded Age outdid each other with Fifth Avenue mansions, Newport cottages, yachts, and European noblemen for sons-in-law. Their 19th-century lowland Pinoy equivalents were small fry in comparison but were just as...
The China Bank restoration project WALA LANG Chinatown is jumping. New buildings are up and more are rising. The ultramodern Binondo-Intramuros bridge has opened (to be sure, over the objections of heritage people). The latest is the magnificent restoration of the China Bank Building at the...
WALA LANG A few days after President Ferdinand E. Marcos was flown to Hawaii and Mrs. Corazon C. Aquino took over in February 1986, members of the Marcos Cabinet led by Prime Minister Cesar E.A. Virata called on Mrs. Aquino. That was the last time the entire Marcos Cabinet were together. Lawyer...
WALA LANG I spent so much time on election night keeping track of the count and along the way reading Facebook posts of both Pinks and Reds. The temperature was obviously high, carried over from the campaign period when strangers insulted strangers, friends unfriended friends, siblings disowned...
WALA LANG After all the promises, denunciations, allegations, fake and genuine news, rumors, threats, protests, whoever is today’s victor will not have an easy six years ahead. The Makati Business Club issued a statement last week on where we are and what lies ahead. So many companies closed...
What’s old is new again. At least that’s how it looks on TikTok. Especially when it comes to popular rapper Shehyee’s songs. Several of the hit rapper’s previously released songs have been trending for the past few months now on TikTok. Namely “Trip Lang.” Released back in June 2013,...
