Despite repeated correction over the decades, some stubborn, ahistorical people cannot let go of “Maynilad” with a “d.” Promoting this mistake are the water concessionaire Maynilad and misguided folks in Manila City Hall. Like Quiapo, which got its name from “kiapo,”...

Having read and reread all the journals Jose Rizal kept during his travels, I have always wondered why one of the shortest is that written in the United States of America. He was in the US less than two months, arriving in San Francisco from Japan on Sunday, April 28,...

One hundred twenty-five years ago, the United States went to war with Spain due, in part, to the sinking of the US battleship Maine in Havana, Cuba, on Feb. 15, 1898. Fake news is not new, and on that day, US newspapers were quick to blame Spain with the meme...

Ascending the winding staircase of the Inquirer building for the last time before it was torn down brought back many happy memories of people who helped this column see print for the last 32 years. One of the front pages hanging on the glass wall by the editorial desk...

Long before 9/11 became a date to remember, I always associated it with Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s birthday. September is a red-letter month for the Marcoses. Aside from the declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, there were three birthdays to celebrate: Ferdinand Sr. on...

I arrived in Washington last Sunday at midday and since my hotel room was not available till 4 p.m., I decided to kill time by walking aimlessly toward the Mall to visit the Smithsonian museums. Down the road from my hotel on Rhode Island Avenue is the Philippine...

Traveling along Roxas Boulevard, passing by the Magsaysay Center, the Laurel Library, an empty lot earmarked for the Roxas Center, and a statue of President Elpidio Quirino, I wondered when we will have presidential libraries. Tracking down scattered primary source...

Norman Hingston Hill (1887-1971) is a name that would not ring a bell, not even for many Filipino historians. Hill served on the staff of William Francis “Frank” Murphy (1890-1949) during his term as governor general of the Philippines (1933-1935) and as first United...

With all the bad press our airport and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have been receiving for some months now, my last two hassle-free departures from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 can probably be described as miraculous. On the Skyway to Terminal...

Many people I know can’t believe I take the point-to-point (P2P) bus from Ayala One to the Ateneo, instead of being in the chauffeur-driven, air-conditioned comfort of a Grab or private car. The first P2P buses I took, as a sixth-grader in 1975, went from Cubao...