Nobody ever loses in Philippine elections. Many losers claim they were cheated and file an electoral protest. This pattern goes all the way back to the founding fathers, to March 23, 1897, when Andres Bonifacio and 44 others issued a document that has come down in history as the “Acta de Tejeros.” Unfortunately, many students [...]
Voting was uneventful where I voted last Monday. No election irregularities, no machine breaking down or jamming. It just took so long—a little past two hours—from the time I entered the barangay hall to the time the machine flashed the message that I had voted successfully. A drop of indelible ink applied on my finger was the last step in a process that should’ve taken just a little more than half an hour. If I were a senior citizen I would have finished in half the time, but I struggle, vainly, to keep from entering middle age. I endured a long, slowly moving line to get the ballot, a long piece of paper that reminded me of school and multiple-choice exams.
Somebody asked me yesterday (Thursday) if I have written anything on dynasties. Of course, he was referring to local political dynasties and their kind running in the coming elections, but I associate dynasties with the ancient Chinese ceramics of: Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming or Ching.
Summer is still upon us, temperatures still sizzle, and while most students should be enjoying their “long” vacation, some are busy with all sorts of workshops that their parents decided to spoil the break with. Some students are taking up foreign languages or art lessons, or attending sports clinics. Why can’t some parents leave vacation alone?
Some years ago, I advised a friend looking for a dining table that she was better off buying a second-hand hardwood table from Bangkal in Makati than getting the plastic or glass-top versions readily available in the malls and department stores. With some effort, I told her: You can find a good table of Philippine [...]
The correspondence of Vicente Lukban (1860-1916), the military general in charge of Samar and Leyte during the Philippine-American War, awaits a local historian to work on it. Some of his letters, orders, decrees and reports translated from the original Spanish were published in the five-volume compilation by Capt. John R.M. Taylor. The compilation is known [...]
Command responsibility is something no one should take lightly. A responsible leader ultimately takes credit or blame for the outcome of things undertaken by underlings.
Facebook is a wonderful tool in our world because it provides faces to names and turns strangers into friends. Moderating a Facebook Fan Page for some time now, I have been posting photos of people who figure in Philippine history so that through a face-name connection, they come out not just as textbook references to be memorized but real people to a new generation.
Onofre D. Corpuz (1926-2013) served as education secretary not once but twice, first in 1968-1971 then in 1979-1983. He served as president of the University of the Philippines in 1975-1979. These are challenging posts that make or break careers. He excelled in both, but a reputation based on administration is fleeting, and he is best [...]
There has been much comment on the way Pope Francis is opening windows in the Vatican. That he happens to be the first Jesuit pope, and who resembles Inquirer columnist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, has not escaped comment in social networking sites. One question that bugs me relates to the Jesuits’ vow of obedience to their superiors and the special vow of obedience to the Pope. When Pope Francis (the “White Pope”) met the Jesuit Father General (the “Black Pope”), the roles were reversed, so who obeys who now?
Historians searching for primary-source material on the Philippine-American War often turn up at the National Library in Manila, which preserves thousands of official documents by Filipinos that were captured by the enemy. For an eyewitness account of the Battle of Caloocan in 1899, a historian can look under the files of Antonio Luna for the [...]
We are advised never to judge a book by its cover. We are also advised not to judge people because they are not books. However, we have to accept the fact that what initially attracts us to a book on a shelf or a person in a crowd is the cover! The thickest Filipiniana title [...]
