After my recent lectures in Canberra and Sydney, some remarked in jest, that I would be at a loss because Jose Rizal did not visit Australia. Rizal is not the end-all of my research, and I find Filipiniana everywhere. At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra,...

While Filipino historian Reynaldo C. Ileto is best known for his landmark book “Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines” (1979), I prefer his essays, which bring obscure events, places, and people out of the proverbial dustbin of history. From a...

Canberra is not on the Pinoy tourist’s go-to list for Australia, which is topped by Sydney and Melbourne. Two days into a short visit, on the invitation of the Australian National University Philippines Institute, I can say that Canberra isn’t as bad as I was warned...

Any historian who attempts to write a history of the past 50 years will be overwhelmed by all the available material. I cannot even imagine plowing through all the printed government publications. Worse, the online material is more than one brain can handle in 10...

How will future generations remember the plunder that was lying in plain sight all these years at the Department of Public Works and Highways? Inflation may have increased theft values from millions to billions, but in scale and brazenness, the late president...

I wonder how Filipino moviegoers will relate to Lav Diaz’s new film “Magellan,” which opens in cinemas this week. When I first read the press releases following the previews in Europe, I was intrigued because Diaz allegedly did “seven years of research” to make the...

People who find me browsing around at auction previews often ask one of two things: first, what I recommend they buy, and second, what I would buy for myself. For the Magnificent September Auction at Leon Gallery, my hands-down answer to both questions would be a...

While people are complaining about recent flooding and railing against corruption and ghost projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways, I’m hoping that prehistoric artifacts will be found when floodwaters recede. Over the years, I have heard of Chinese...

When I started exploring Intramuros on foot in the 1980s, it was undergoing the early phase of “beautification.” I was first drawn to “Plaza Sampalukan,” where tamarind trees grew. The story behind the plaza was gripping: a 17th-century crime of passion committed by...

There is an old Spanish saying, that in stealing, “one must steal threefold: once for himself, once for his judge, and once to pay the penalty.” This may explain the outrageous sums stolen in flood control projects over the years. When it rains, it really pours, and...