If I could Interview Jesus Christ
LENT is a season of Christ’s teachings which are presented self-righteously, mournfully, nasally, coldly, feebly, flamboyantly, blandly in a thousand pulpits across the nation. If I were asked the rationale…
Read More
Mayweather and Pacquiao: The epic, cracking fight
LOS ANGELES—Who said downtown LA only gets crowded when the Lakers are playing? Last Wednesday, the only game in town was when boxing superstars Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao…
What does a woman want?
The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What…
The journey of Friends
THEY say that friends is the difference between a lonely life and lively one. What are friends for? What can you count on them? How much weight can a friendship…
If I were a man
IT is difficult to be a woman. You could get raped in a dark street. You have to make use of a pretty face to be accepted at first glance,…
The camera never blinks
IT is hard to find words to describe photographers. They work long and hard on their photos, which tell a story and accompany their dreams of becoming good press photographers, of…
Once upon a press club
There was once a press club in the heart of a city where everyone lived in harmony with each other and their surroundings. Photographers and writers, they were affable and…
A daughter’s wedding
CALL it another rite of aging. But one of the rewards of getting older is to be able to gather friends for a happy time and look at the faces…
The perfect ‘newshen’
THE apple that fell far from the tree, one I could only dream of—a perfect newshen, God’s little pencil. If only she was mine, the daughter I could not have….
Valentine combustion
Perhaps the heart is not just a sort of Valentine, nor just a beating thing in our chest that sustains life. It is also the wellspring of faith, hope and…
A story of three loves
Love in any form manifests itself into various ways and this narrative is about the myriad colors of passion. To see a battered woman. It is like nothing you can…
Songs that my mother taught me
My first knowledge of the world and about life came to me through my senses. They were directed by my mother. She was the first one I saw, felt and…
Not guns, but bullets that kill
THEY consist of running bits of metals through the flesh of men—large, small, pointed, square, round and splintered bits that tear and kill. It is not the metal in its…
The Soldier
IF I could look into a soldier’s heart and know everyone’s story, I’d ask: why are they fighting? Who will tell them (if the reasons exist)? Who is going to…
A good conscience is the best pillow
Everyday seems to be a constant struggle to decide between what is right and wrong, in small ways that nobody ever sees. You win one day and lose the next…
An evening for scribes and lensmen with Consul General Leo Herrera-Lim
IT is said that when God wanted to separate light from darkness, day and night were created. When media men had a similar itch, they simply bonded together. Since then,…
When they grow too old to dream
THIS little piece takes us, not just to a place, but into the minds and hearts of those, who are in their twilight years, in a society that glorified youth….
The season for dance lovers
THIS is not the column one usually pursues. There was no edge to it, no compelling plot, no dynamic change. It is about a lot of ballroom dancers with bundles of…
A father’s legacy
THIRTY one years ago, my husband left me. He died, leaving a house fill of daughters, young and adorable, innocent, with the world on their side. In the face of…
Female power
THE Fil-Am community, characteristically controlled by men, is highly-motivated by independent women. They pursue common goods and interests over coffee or meals, largely conceived, created, produced events. Call it female…
Today’s path-breaking role of the news magazine
In a world running at digital pace, many newspapers have long been forced into the traditional news magazine model, with larger form writing and more big picture thinking. But we…
Here comes another year
THE old year is put to bed. One’s business is finished. We commemorate the year past while invoking the illumination of the year’s days of authentic indulgence, simplicities, celebration and…
Wrestling with an angel
Everybody has a story to tell. But we stop telling stories when we start to lose that sort of time—pausing time, reflecting time, wondering, while life rushes us along. Very…
December’s Gifts
IT comes to us wrapped, not in tissues and ribbons but in cherished events of ceremonies, celebrations, and connections, through parties that constellate about the holiday seasons. Guests that trooped…
If love were all, I should be lonely
EACH of us encounters those sad stormy days, when we feel very small, very fragile and very frightened, as if one might shatter into a thousand pieces and break into…
Glitz and glamour on the red carpet
IT was once a stately glamorous ritual limited to lavish red carpet gala premieres, which flourished in Hollywood’s golden era gods and goddesses. It used to be synonymous with night…
It’s beginning to look like Christmas
It’s because everywhere, you see good cheers, as the season bring tidings of comfort and joy. Everyone seems decided to be happy, living, fulfilled, generous, peaceful, contented, joyful, festive and emotionally…
Diosdado Rey Banatao: An inherited surname
WITHOUT question, this interview is due to a name, to a relationship, to the fact that he is Disodado Banatao’s son. This may sound unfair and discourteous, perhaps it is. The…
On a Saturday evening
IT is the time I prepare myself for worship on Sunday, by reading beautiful and poetic stories from the Bible. Our knowledge of the Bible was limited to memorizing the…
Pacquiao: The triumph of the spirit
THE boxing arena has all the great literary themes. Money, power, romance get played out in the careers of the these elite marquee fighters—perhaps a little bigger, a little gaudier…