MEDIUM RARE If you have three thumbs, use each and every one of them to greet the good news courtesy of Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto: The 15.6 percent growth in GDP is the highest in the last 16 years! And more: We are going to be the 13th largest consumer market by 2030, with consumer...
MEDIUM RARE If music is poetry with sound, thank God for its language that speaks to the soul. Musicians are not necessarily emotional people, they just know how to demonstrate their feelings through music. What is expression but letting go, whether as a sigh, whisper, oration, a plea or...
MEDIUM RARE Those two words are in quotation marks because I didn’t say it, though I wish I had. They were used by Ermelita Valdeavilla, chairman of the Philippine Commission on Women, who was a guest of former San Juan mayor Guia Gomez at the opening of a two-day bazaar at Robinsons...
MEDIUM RARE With Olive and Niwa Ang in their car, I was able to visit again Baliwag, Bulacan, home of our friend Manny Samson, interior designer who has clients, including grand hotels, on both sides of the globe. And just as I remembered, Manny’s famous white house occupies an entire block on...
MEDIUM RARE Two of my friends sat in the front row for Rowena Arrieta’s homecoming concert last March 14. Several rows higher up, I thought I had a better view of the pianist’s hands and her right foot on the pedal in spite of her long gown. Rowena was a young girl when she, along...
MEDIUM RARE It’s a Buddhist-Hindu concept, but no one in the Philippines can say that they don’t know what Karma means. In real life (listen to your neighbors) or in soap operas (turn on your TV), Karma is a word freely thrown about between quarreling parties, words like “Ma-karma ka sana!”...
MEDIUM RARE First lady Liza A. Marcos was walking fast, almost running, near the Goldenberg Mansion, one of the heritage houses that she has renovated and updated within Malacañang Park. I waved at her, “Why the hurry?” and she said she was late for a meeting. Trying to keep up with her...
MEDIUM RARE This is a true story. Only the name of the narrator, “Amy,” is a fiction. Amy, looking 18 but thinking 25, is in second year college majoring in theology, civil law, and philosophy. Her assignment: visit a “typical” family of six, find out how they live on one...
MEDIUM RARE Surrounded by tall, impressive structures in Bonifacio Global City, a cozy two-story building glows with mellow lights on Rizal Drive. It is soon after sunset, shortly after cocktails, and guests have started streaming into the building’s 120-seat theater. Singapore’s embassy...
MEDIUM RARE There is a God. A God who overrules forecasts of very hot weather by the simple expediency of sending us a constellation of clouds to partly cover the face of the sun for part of the time. Clouds are my thing. I love them, don’t you? And that’s why I wish meteorologist and...
Medium Rare Beauty is big business. And Ruby S. Coyiuto knows it. She has a Flawless beauty salon in every mall and a string of franchises longer than her two arms put together. I wouldn’t have known about Ruby’s flourishing business until she invited me, as the former classmate of her mom,...
MEDIUM RARE To continue our tour of Manila’s Malate district as exemplified once upon a time by fashion designers Pitoy Moreno (favorite of the beautiful, gracious Meldy Cojuangco), Ben Farrales, Christian Espiritu, Ernest Santiago, Aureo Alonso, Auggie Cordero. Malate’s crown jewel was...
