New distinctive Christmas lanterns with 16 white rays spreading out from the center are now being installed on streetlight posts in Manila. Makati’s business district is now all lighted up at night by Ayala Land, an annual tradition. Caloocan’s Christmas lanterns at the...
Several storms and typhoons have been ravaging our islands in succession since October, following a westerly route with Catanduanes as the first land to be hit, followed by Albay, Camarines Sur and Norte, then Quezon Province. Storms get their power from the sea. As they proceed further inland,...
At a time when most of the world is groping for hope in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and national economies are at record low levels with few expectations for recovery anytime soon, China held its annual “Single’s Day” shopping spree last Wednesday. This annual sale was conceived by...
The Department of Justice (DOJ) assured last Wednesday, November 4, that those who provide information to the mega task force created to investigate corruption in the government will be given security under the Witness Protection Program. It may be recalled that President Duterte created the task...
That patch of white sand – actually crushed dolomite rock – in Manila Bay on Roxas Boulevard was in the news again last Thursday. A part of the beach had turned dark, apparently covered by black sand brought in by the waves from the bay. Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, and International...
It is All Saints Day today, November 1.  It is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honor  of all saints. It is shared by  all Christian churches – the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches,  Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, the Methodist Church, the...
Some 92 percent of Filipinos are said to be Christians and most of them – 81 percent – are Roman Catholic, a legacy of the 350 years of Spanish colonial rule in the country. The Americans who came in 1898 may have deeply influenced everything else in the nation’s life – its government and...
Today, Sunday, churches in Metro Manila will have more worshippers than at any other time in the last seven months as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved the Metro Manila Council recommendation to allow up to 30 percent capacity in...
The South China Sea has long been a major field of contention between the United States and China, with the US actively challenging China’s claim to sovereignty over most of the sea within a nine-dash line, and constantly sending ships and planes into the area asserting freedom of navigation in...
Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta led a group that inspected the dolomite sand beach in Manila Bay last Wednesday, along with Associate Justices Rodil Zalameda, Mario Lopez, Edardo delos Santos, and Ricardo Rosario. There had been charges that the dolomite beach posed a danger to public health. There...
There is today a piece of a concrete wall measuring 3.65 meters by 1.2 meters and weighing 2.8 tons at the Bonifacio Shrine beside the Manila City Hall. It is a part of the old Berlin Wall donated by the German government to the Philippines in 2014, displayed at the National...
The Philippines, along with the rest of the world, suffered considerable contraction of its economy because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In its October, 2020, Economic Update for East Asia and the Pacific, the World Bank said it expects the Philippine economy to contract by 6.9 percent in 2020. But it...
