Beauty contest bloopers on social media make for light entertainment to end a long working day. These remind me of a time when monks were commenting seriously on the Miss Universe pageant Q&A. Everyone shared a better answer to each question until one of the monks...

Audience questions after my presentations, in Jakarta, on the evolution of the shape of the Philippines from early maps, were varied. While I could field historical questions with my eyes closed, nonhistorical ones stump me. Indonesians wanted to know more about the...

An archipelagic nation like the Philippines should have a maritime museum, to connect the land-bound Generations X, Y, and Z with their water-bound past. The closest to a maritime museum is the National Museum of the Philippines branch in Cebu which curatorially...

College-level Philippine history is now taught through primary sources in a course called “Readings in Philippine history.” When I ask teachers what Philippine history textbook they require or use, answers vary. Some reuse Department of Education supplied modules,...

What do Basco, Dasmariñas, Echagüe, Lemery, Norzagaray, Obando, and Raon have in common? They are all places named after governors general of the Spanish Philippines. Remembering them was prompted by mooncakes currently in season. Glazed mooncakes come in bright red...

News that the Philippine Coast Guard patrol ship BRP Teresa Magbanua recently withdrew from (Josefa Llanes) Escoda Shoal, in the disputed Spratly Islands should push Filipinos to look beyond current events to fully appreciate the historical significance behind these...

Just when I was getting used to taking the point-to-point (P2P) bus from Ayala One to UP Town Center, the system started to fail. Buses caught in traffic would be late or, worse, miss scheduled departure and arrival times. When a bus was decommissioned for repair, it...

The meme 9/11 is universally associated with the 2001 terrorist attack that brought the World Trade Center in New York crashing down. To “martial law babies” like me, 9/11 is the birthday of Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. From 1966 to 1985, Marcos celebrated his birthdays in...

Heavy continuous rain this week has resulted in flooding that brings water and mud into low-lying homes. I am afraid to even imagine what else comes with the floodwaters: snakes, rats, germs, and disease. I’ve been eye to eye with a live rat in Chinese restaurants....

In March 1938, Commonwealth President Manuel Luis Quezon made a surprise visit to the Luneta Police Station and caught the personnel literally “off guard.” To make things worse for the detachment commander, a policeman’s service pistol was left on a bench beside one...