HOTSPOT As I write this, boxer Carlo Paalam is already assured of a silver medal; his fight today will determine if the Philippines could win a phenomenal second Olympic gold medal. This high hope and high expectation stem in no small part from weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz’s historic Olympic gold...
HOTSPOT People have a lot of questions about the government’s Friday announcement that Metro Manila would again be placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine from August 6 to 20. ECQ is the toughest and most painful type of quarantine since 2020, and thus not easy to forget. We don’t want a...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Many migrant Filipino workers and Filipino immigrants are familiar with pandemic-related aid. I’m not talking about paltry sums of Social Amelioration Program (SAP). I’m talking about adequate aid. The US government sent $2,000 checks to Americans. That’s on top of social...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz His daughter’s Facebook post quickly spread like wildfire. Neil Doloricon passed away in the wee hours of July 16. It was just hours after we got news that he was fighting for life in the ICU. We all thought Sir Neil would survive the night and this entire tragic pandemic he...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Thanks to fellow city residents, health workers, and the local government for making this possible: On Friday, July 9, I got my second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a Quezon City public school where I also received the first dose 28 days earlier. Mayor Joy Belmonte deserves...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Fandoms of traditional politicians are at it again: Perpetuating the myth that their political idols should get credit for the inception or completion of public works projects. Yes, there have been a couple of fact checks about their competing claims. But the biggest fact has so...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Former President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III’s sudden passing on June 24 shocked a nation reeling from the pandemic and his successor’s response to it. Statements of condolences from across the political spectrum immediately flooded mainstream media and social media, in a...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz I started using Clubhouse last February 17, when my Indonesian friend Chichi Utami nominated me. Within minutes, our group of former bloggers from across Southeast Asia started a room which lasted for about an hour. As a frequent user, moderator and club founder, I’ve found...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Filipinos love to talk. In the past months, more Filipinos seem to be gravitating towards audio drop-in chat apps which allow users to talk with one or more other users all at the same time, and about any topic that they’re interested in. The more familiar of the two most...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The House of Representatives this week failed the nation’s public school teachers as the chamber passed the so-called Bayanihan 3 bill. While the House inserted and approved the P54-billion pension fund for police and military pension that is totally unrelated to the pandemic...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Last February 15, Filipinos woke up to news that the police violently raided the Lumad Bakwit School in Cebu, and arrested seven teachers and students. Resorting to red-tagging, authorities claimed that the students and teachers there had all been “kidnapped” by communist...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz For the past few weeks, Facebook has become a sea of black-and-white photos, plain black profile pics, eulogies and announcements of deaths of relatives and friends due to COVID-19. The pandemic has reached our inner circles, and can no longer be denied as a deadly threat to our...
