Wala Lang Looking west over Rizal Park is the statue of Lapu Lapu, “the Statue of the Sentinel of Freedom.” Standing proudly with a sheathed kampilan , sculptor Juan Sajid Imao sought to depict the Mactan chief as “a strong and peace-loving man, who is also ready to defend himself against...
Wala Lang The “Genesis” curtain by H.R. Ocampo, Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, CCP Enter the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Nicanór Abelardo and you’re greeted by a blaze of red, a giant tapestry. The artist, Hernando R. Ocampo, would have been 110 years old last month and...
Wala Lang Hi from your usual writer Jaime C. Laya – Final questions from virtual hiker me and answers from genuine hiker Bambi Guevara. * * * * * * * * * * Having been mostly indoors sitting down looking at walls and fence going on 14 months now, I need to see if my legs and brain are still...
Wala Lang Hi from your usual writer Jaime C. Laya. Let’s say the year-long Covid-19 lockdown is already getting to you and you’ve decided that you need fresh air, exercise, and something to look at other than wall and fence. You already know more or less what hiking possibilities are but...
Wala Lang THE IMPORTANCE OF TREES Geff Cedeño amid kalumpit trees that he planted in 2012. The internet is a marvelous invention and I learned a lot in just a few days of texting and emailing with Gerardo “Geff” Cedeño, the man behind Facebook’s Philippine Native Hardwood Tree Seedlings...
Wala Lang (PART I) Salad bowls, giant spoons and forks, man-in-a-barrel, anyone?Our handicraft shops have plenty.Carved from our best woods, they attest not only to our ignorance of the value of what we have but also to our low regard for our natural endowment. Native forest tree seedlings ready...
Wala Lang I received a message after my article last week hit the streets. On collectors feeling rich while tracking auction results, Jayson Ong texted, “It’s really very joyful to compute for the present estimated value of our collection but it’s also very hard for us to let go of pieces we...
WALA LANG VIEWS OF MANILA by José Honorato Lozano (photo courtesy of Leon Gallery) With a starting bid of five million, the super rare letras y figuras Views of Manila must have sold for an eye-watering sum in last Saturday’s Leon Gallery auction. It was painted in the 1840s by José Honorato...
WALA LANG IMPORTANT CULTURAL PROPERTIES: NCCA invitation for comments on the delisting petition. The latest excitement in heritage circles is over a temple in Santa Ana that a Ms. Chloe Chizu Go , wants removed from the National Museum’s “Important Cultural Property” list. How she became...
COVID-19 has spawned a new generation of planters. Not sugar barons or coconut tycoons, but plantitos and plantitas growing super expensive plants often with weird-looking inedible green-and-white leaves. Spare time while in self-quarantine made me an accidental farmtito. I had tossed overripe...
WALA LANG SHARP OBJECTS AND BLADED WEAPONS Talibóng of the Mundo (Panay-Bukidnon) warriors and the handle of one, depicting a Makara, a mythical being of Hindu origin. (photo courtesy of Floy Quintos) Apart from what my kasambahay calls kutsilyo or nayp , the most familiar weapon nowadays is the...
WALA LANG PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK. The Rizal Monument at Rizal Park before the pandemic. Color/Number Coding . I’m all for reducing traffic and certainly number-coding helps. Those who can afford it, however, buy a second car, maybe even a third, to use when their first car is grounded. Traffic is...
