MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Oh, the people you meet at a tree lighting! Especially when tree rhymes with duty-free, as in Duty Free Philippines, where imported meets Philippine-made, global grade. Tourism Secretary Christina G. Frasco arrived at Duty Free’s Luxe boutique at the center of Mall of...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza For one whose life was once lived snapping a perpetual “Yes, sir” to his superiors in the military, where the unwritten law is “No talk, no mistake,” Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong is now saying that “people should feel government” enough to act and...
Deck the hall with boughs of jolly Images by the author NATIVE, AS IN NATIVITY Santa Claus arrives in a flower-bedecked calesa at Diamond Hotel, where the entrance sports a Filipino theme ‘Tis the season to shine and give off sparks of joy! With hotels and malls leading the way, Christmas trees...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Starting December, the Japanese government will cut household electricity bills by 20 percent to fight inflation. How envious could we get, we who are second only to Japan in the cost of electricity! Green up to the gills? We could also seek a reaction from the new DOE...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza How hard is it to make a choice between wearing a mask and not wearing one? Having been herded like docile little lambs every which way by IATF and NTF for two years, following their every do and don’t like they were god-like cult leaders, when the time came to decide...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza We have enough celebrities, A-listers, and VIPs shining bright and constant like the stars. Maybe it’s time to find another meaning for the “I” in Very Important Person or Persons. For a change, how about I as in Interesting? My first nominee for Very Interesting...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza After declaring the Percy Lapid murder a “closed case” out of the blue, investigators have now counted 160 persons of interest to engage Roy Mabasa’s attention, forcing him, as he puts it, to swim against the tide and schools of fish in the ocean. The 160 POI are...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Imagine 100 families living in a condo all flushing their toilets at the same time. Then imagine 30 new condos, each 20 stories tall, rising in the NCR. Question: Are you comfortable drawing up such a flushing scenario? Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink,...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza POGO or stop? After a five-hour hearing in the Senate, how much do we – and tourism officials in China – know about these mysterious Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators? If sending 40,000 of them back to China means creating a humanitarian crisis – in the words of...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Our health care system has long been a patient lying in wait for a doctor with an Rx for a cheap instant cure. With shortages left and right, forever and ever, of nurses (at present count, 106,000, compared to the six million needed by the world), doctors (67,000), and...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza A radio commentator was the first to prick the conscience of residents of a barangay in San Miguel, Bulacan who “did not want to be rescued” and as a result caused the death, though inadvertently, of five volunteers who had braved the cold dark rainy night to save...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Japanese cars. Swiss watches. French perfume. Thai silk. Belgian chocolates. And Philippines? Filipino hospitality, you bet. There’s more. So much more that reminding ourselves to “buy local, save jobs” doesn’t quite say enough anymore. Now we must tell the world...
