HOTSPOT Did you know that there were 18,087 positions at stake in the 2022 elections? Give or take a few positions whose terms of office exceed three years, this would be roughly the same number of positions to be contested in 2025. I again looked for this number after I saw a widely-shared social...
CLINICAL MATTERS Conspiracy theorists went into overdrive anew when several mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, published stories suggesting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory. Anti-China rhetoric went into overdrive and...
DRIVING THOUGHTS It has been a week of talk about the old and the modern jeepney and all the issues that come with the transition. We’ve heard the jeepney drivers, operators, and transport groups protest the planned phaseout of the jeepney with the PUV Modernization Program (PUVMP) which was...
THROUGH UNTRUE When two or more events occur simultaneously, seemingly by chance and for no particular reason, we call it a coincidence. For instance, when you are about to call a friend and he suddenly calls you, this unexpected convergence of events can be a coincidence. Our gospel reading today...
HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPEVINE: OUR NEW ABNORMAL Let’s be honest, it’s not often we Filipinos can legitimately say we’re numero uno in the world in some category. Back in the early years of this century, I would hear reports about how we were number one in “speed texting” and text...
HOTSPOT It is unconventional wisdom but governments, past and present, actually owe generations of jeepney drivers and operators a lot. The fact is, these family-run micro-enterprises have been the backbone of public transportation nationwide. Without them, there’s no mobility across the...
WORD ALIVE Many from our older generation might still remember the Hollywood rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley who went on to make dozens of gold records, sent millions of hysterical fans into ululations of delight, and grossed US$1 billion in earnings — before he died at the young age of 42, in...
MEDIUM RARE When Sebastian Chua throws a birthday party, as he did last week, it’s bound to mutate, as it always does, into an anniversary celebration or reunion. Old friends meet again, some of the new faces from last year are back. There must’ve been 300 people in Ballroom C of East Ocean...
Cavite 4th district Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. gave this "honest opinion" Wednesday, Feb. 1 regarding his erstwhile House of Representatives colleague from Valenzuela City's 1st district. Cavite 4th district Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. (left) and DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian (Facebook) "President...
TECH4GOOD Monchito Ibrahim The rapid digitalization of everything we do today is fast changing the country's financial inclusion landscape. Although the share of the unbanked population in the country is still one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region according to Statista research, the...
CLINICAL MATTERS DR. EDSEL SALVANA What a wonderful holiday season we just had. Face-to-face gatherings are once again the norm after two years of keeping to our own households, and celebrations have been on par or exceeded pre-pandemic festivities. The fireworks on New Year’s Eve were as noisy...
FROM THE MARGINS My visit to Bacolod last week brought back memories of my days with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). I worked with the corporate-led social development foundation from 1978 to 1987, initially tasked to manage a demonstration farm in Laguna to show that a farmer...
