LANDSCAPE If the USA should “alienate sovereignty” it means that the USA is giving up territory incorporated in its body politic, like Puerto Rico, and at one time, the Philippines Islands. Just as the USA acquired and incorporated territory by treaty, purchase or conquest, it could very well...
LANDSCAPE We have been waffling on this question – should we prepare for war? I do not mean as a belligerent party because the 1987 Philippine Constitution renounces war as an instrument of national policy and adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the...
LANDSCAPE How unfortunate that Secretary Christina G. Frasco of the Department of Tourism (DOT) should suddenly be mired in the fiasco of “Love the Philippines,” the new branding titled “GINTO, Greater Innovation, New Tour-ism Opportunities” launched last June 27 to celebrate the golden...
LANDSCAPE Did your parents ever take you to Luneta to watch the Independence Day parade? Or a reenactment of Rizal’s execution? My maternal grandfather, Dr. Alfredo Guerrero, would take my brother and I to Luneta on July 4, that was when Independence Day was celebrated in those days. I enjoyed...
LANDSCAPE During Jose Rizal’s 162nd birthday, Calamba Mayor Roseller H. Rizal expressed how proud he is that his constituents’ appreciate Jose Rizal’s exceptional life which was too short, but significant nonetheless. Even if there were different programs implemented in Calamba in the...
LANDSCAPE As early as I can remember, it was Dr. Leoncio Lopez-Rizal, Lolo Leoncio to my generation, who was the “Cap-tain of the Guard.” His mother, Narcisa Mercado (married to Antonio Lopez) was the third child of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso y Realonda. Because he was a sickly child,...
LANDSCAPE Very few know that one of our declared National Cultural Treasures, the mural “Filipino Struggles Through History” by Carlos V. Francisco, a worthy recipient of the Order of Filipino National Artist, was saved by the Department of Tourism when the late Ramon Jimenez, Jr. was...
LANDSCAPE There was a time when I used to visit out-of-the loop towns in search of potential domestic tourist destina-tions. Many were dense with cultural and heritage capital, a wealth of apocrypha, historical minutiae written off as mere footnotes. Curiously, the local government rep assigned to...
LANDSCAPE Eminent Filipino historian, Dr. Floro Quibuyen, shared two ChatGPT stories about Marx and Batman. The first one was from a blogger who prompted, “write a story of Marx and Batman.” ChatGPT made Marx and Batman fight and the latter won. With titanic imagination, Dr. Quibuyen asked...
LANDSCAPE During a Mothers’ Day dinner, I told my son and daughter-in-law that their only child had asked me to write my memoirs. My son immediately accessed ChatGPT to ask for a Gemma Cruz memoir. At warp speed, ChatGPT presented a table of contents (with errors): I. Introduction – early life...
LANDSCAPE Last Sunday, I had lunch with my youngest granddaughter, Uma Leona, who will turn 19 at the end of the year and will probably be taller than I am by then. As we crossed the street to her home, she said that for history homework, she had to paint three scenes from El Filibusterismo. I was...
LANDSCAPE A week ago, students “hot housed” in some public schools fainted and were rushed to medical centers. DepEd spokesman Mr. Michael Poa announced that when the heat is unbearable, school authorities can cancel in-person classes and revert to Alternative Delivery Modes (ADMs). The...
