MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza For days on end, TV correspondents could not get over how parents and their tykes swarmed Manila’s Dolomite Beach because the children had to have their fresh air, outdoor exercise, and liberation from 19 months of cabin fever. Adults who had been feeling the same sense...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Baguio, the summer capital, now just a capital without summer as storm winds lashed and tropical rain fell in sheets alternating with drizzles. In one corner of the cake shop at Baguio Country Club on the first working day of the week, I thought I spotted the general,...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza As an admirer of political scientist Clarita Carlos – and even if I were not – I agree with her sagacious opinion: Groom the young ones and see them shine! If Prof Carlos was talking about political candidates, I would guess she had in mind, without naming names,...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza How do opinion surveys like those that pop up every election season compare with astrology, feng shui, and plain guesswork? Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, a leading contender in the presidential polls, was all set to file his certificate of candidacy on Oct. 1 when someone in...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza As senior citizens’ champion Romy Macalintal puts it, why are those survey results coming out so early in the game? Early, Attorney, with the filing of certificates of candidacy now in full swing? What I find audacious is not the timing but the unexpected scores – how...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza The father of a child enrolled in a classroom at home for distance or blended learning put it best when he said, “Ang nanay, maraming natututo.” (Mothers, they’re the ones learning much.) As parents and kids are finding out, the strategy is to let mama do the...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Without trying to steal the thunder from Isko Moreno, the pressure is now on Senator Manny Pacquiao. Who’s going to be his running mate for vice president? Last we heard, there were six guys aspiring for that position, none of them audacious enough to drop the Champ’s...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Doctora Claire is a heart doctor, but four days in the week she is assigned to the hospital’s COVID ward. She begins her day when most people at home are just waking up, wondering how late the doctora got in last night. It’s almost always a long, psychologically...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza For the first time in months, it didn’t feel so stressful to sit in front of the TV watching bad news and more bad news. On the first day of an experiment called alert level systems 1-5, supposedly a less strict classification of rules on behaving in public. Pure...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Finally, an admission from DILG Usec Jonathan Malaya: “ Nakakalito .” He meant “confusing” and he was talking about the various Q’s that we’ve had to live with and under, locked in and locked down, for the last 18 months. Not that the new Q-less grades are any...
Medium Rare Jullie Y. Daza The stage is set for the Fight of the Century! In the blink of an eye, the Clash of the Titans! (Drum roll) In this corner, Sara Duterte, defending champion of poll surveys! In the other corner, Leni Robredo, challenger! The signs are all there. The drama no longer...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Stop calling them heroes but treating them like beggars. Pushing them against the wall, taking pleasure in their desperation, waiting for them to make good their threat to quit en masse. On National Heroes Day, doctors and nurses and other frontliners came out in small...