MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Gifts unwrapped. Boxes torn open (why the day after Christmas is also known as boxing day in Western countries, when presents bought in a store are allowed to be returned or exchanged for another size, style, or color). Some children looking disappointed. There’s always...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza For the first time in two years of lockdown I dared set foot in a flashy hotel-casino-resort and not feel guilty about it (without an escort). To reach the restaurant where I was to meet friends, I was advised by a tallish usherette to walk through the casino, straight...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Who cannot be impressed by the size of adoring crowds that adorn every political event where the rule is the more the merrier? It’s Christmas, the season of joy. It’s also a time of extreme climates – a super typhoon just the icing on the cake after heavy rains...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza The 99.9 percent solution applies to commonly used household products, everything from bath soap, detergent, disinfectant, toilet bowl cleaner, even shampoo, everything that requires cleaning and cleansing, getting rid of germs, or so the TV commercials say. As the...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Why is the camp of Bongbong Marcos not replying to accusations that he has not paid his taxes, not filed his income tax returns? “Why should we do their work for them?” said a source in BBM’s inner circle. “They make accusations that cannot stick and they’re too...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza It might as well have been a weekend. But because it was a national holiday, feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the whole world seemed to be in one great big place, gathered to celebrate the holy day as well as the coming holidays, and they were there at MOA,...
Medium Rare Jullie Y. Daza More than three million Filipinos lost their jobs and seven million were underemployed as of October 2021. Ten million did not have enough to eat or to buy the most essential goods to keep their heads above water. Multiplied by five dependents each, that’s 50 million...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza As James Bond says, “No time to die.” We’re all aging uniformly with each tick of the clock, at the same pace, the same rate, though in different ways. This is not the time to let our guard down. We’re losing more than 100 COVID-19 patients a day and the numbers...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza What would you do if you were found by a contact tracer and told to report to the local epidemiology and surveillance unit because you’re suspected of having been exposed to a COVID-positive person? A panic attack might have ensued for Greg had he not stopped to think...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza All in one day, presidential candidates Lacson, Marcos, and Pacquiao talked about, tested for, showed off the results – negative – of their drug tests. But for Senator Ping Lacson, displaying a bottle containing his urine, eww, could not have been as memorable as...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Who is the candidate who has reared 820 children with only one Mrs. (and no mistresses) by his side? “Lou Salvador and Ramon Revilla? I’m second to none!” Who is the one with three closets and drawers full of shirts in flowery prints? “We live in the tropics; why...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza There’s a Christmas store in every imagination, including the one where Santa and his elves – and Mrs. Claus? – work the whole year round creating and wrapping presents. This one on San Francisco del Monte in Quezon City is unique. On a...
