Did you know that yesterday, Jan. 23, was a special working holiday? Republic Act No. 11014 declared Jan. 23 of every year “The First Philippine Republic Day.” Before that, in 2013, Benigno S. Aquino III by proclamation, declared Jan. 23 as “Araw ng Republikang...

When I was a boy, my father regularly brought home “pirated” copies of current United States bestsellers from Taiwan. It seemed that anything and everything published anywhere in the world could be had cheaply in Taiwan. One of my father’s associates, the eminent...

Preparing column topics for the year entails looking over significant historical milestones for 2025. Offhand, it is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. In the Philippines, one can focus on the 1945 Battle for Manila that a previous generation referred to...

Following the praise releases regarding ongoing reform and improvement at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), I can’t wait for my next overseas trip to experience all these good things for myself. I never had problems at the airport even in the days when it...

Ateneo graduates of a certain generation all used the same Spanish language textbook. We all know about the adventures of Ana West, and how to order an orange juice (jugo de naranja) from a waiter (mesero). We had 12 units of Spanish but didn’t get to the end of the...

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) should have rolled out the new polymer notes last November, if only to gauge acceptance or resistance to this usual “aguinaldo” on Christmas. The last major revamp of Philippine banknotes was in 2010 with the so-called “New...

Historians deal with the past, this makes writing a New Year column difficult. We all want to throw 2024 in the dustbin of history and look forward to a better 2025. I looked up the Inquirer headline for Jan. 1, 2024, “ASEAN MINISTERS WORRY OVER RISING SEA TENSIONS.”...

My “noche buena” memories are largely sensory: chatter and laughter from uncles, aunts, and 50 first cousins; piping-hot nilaga made hearty by jiggling pork belly fat; gifts wrapped and ribboned; last but not least, the scent of freshly minted banknotes as these were...

I will be asleep when this column appears online. Still nursing indigestion from “noche buena” or Christmas Eve dinner. I must get up for Christmas Day lunch, another round of overeating followed by the opening of Christmas gifts. Everyone is thanked, of course, some...

Wikipedia has a long list of Filipino Christmas songs and carols. I do not know nor recognize more than half of these except those that start blaring in Philippine malls from Sept. 1, to prime or condition us to shop compulsively at Christmas. All those Jose Mari Chan...