Jose Rizal is a hero who was shot for two novels that nobody seems to have read. The physical books were quite rare in the hero’s lifetime, mere possession of them was considered subversive, and if you believed the rabidly religious, reading these would lead you to...

I often assign my students to transcribe 19th-century notarial documents in Tagalog because many of them, who read and write on their smartphones, are not used to reading handwriting in cursive script. Going over American soldiers’ letters home from the islands during...

Independence Day, June 12, will come and go as it does every year. Philippine flags will be raised solemnly at historic sites and town plazas from Aparri to Jolo while most people sleep in, enjoying a public holiday that does little to remind us of the long struggle...

I once seriously considered downsizing and selling my library. Physical books and files take up a lot of space in my home, compared to my digital library, in a one terabyte external drive that fits in my palm. I have soft copies of all the books, articles, references,...

When I read about the President distancing himself from the recent change of leadership in the Senate and admitting that he knew that something was brewing, I recalled the experience of Ferdinand E. Marcos regarding leadership in the House of Representatives in...

While the Philippine flag was officially introduced to the Filipino people on June 12, 1898, when the declaration of independence was read from a window of Emilio Aguinaldo’s Kawit home, this flag was first unfurled and saw action during the Battle of Alapan on May...

How does one settle the debate over Baguio’s “official flower”? Should it be by legislation, through a city ordinance, a presidential proclamation, or an act of Congress, or should it be by acclamation, the flower with the most votes wins? Long before the city...

I was 7 or 8 years old when I caught the American TV series “The Time Tunnel.” I cannot recall specific episodes, but the whirling psychedelic tunnel was permanently etched in my mind. Surely, stray episodes or clips of “The Time Tunnel” are to be found somewhere on...

Wildman is a name you may find in footnotes of books and articles on the first decade of the United States annexation of the Philippines (1898-1908). It may be confusing at first, because there are two Wildmans: Rounsevelle Wildman (1864-1901), US consul general in...

Of all the pseudonyms of our heroes, one of my all-time favorites is Artemio Ricarte’s “Vibora” (Viper). His pseudonym adds detail to the name immortalized in our textbook history, Ricarte is someone made larger-than-life but fossilized in marble and bronze monuments....