IN January this year, the Daily Guardian echoed the lament of filmmaker Rodolfo “Jun” Robles Lana Jr. over rising movie ticket prices, saying the cost has affected the ability of Filipino families to watch films in cinemas. Current ticket prices, ranging from PHP 500 to PHP 600 per person, are beyond the
February 18, 2026
THAT quotation is the title of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s most famous story, which is about a merchant wrongly imprisoned in Siberia for a murder he had not committed. The story reminds me of the reaction of Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima to the news report that the International Criminal
February 16, 2026
TOMORROW, February 14, the world will celebrate Valentine’s Day – the unique day when married couples, fiancés and fiancées exchange love notes, whisper sweet nothings and go out for dinner or enjoy the night somewhere romantic. The most visible symbol of this day in mythology is the legendary winged Cupid. Armed with
February 13, 2026
FORTY years have passed since the gruesome assassination of former Antique Governor Evelio B. Javier in San Jose, Antique on February 11, 1986. But the date has been permanently etched in history books as a prelude to the People Power revolution a few days later on February 22-25, 1986 that led to
February 11, 2026
THE current population of the Philippines ranges from 117 to 118 million individuals. This is alarming because only one year and seven months has passed since July 2024 when the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) declassified its most recent population census revealing 112,729,484 Filipino residents. Compare that to the total population of the
February 4, 2026
TIME flies, everybody says, and that’s because certain things that happened long ago remain “recent” in our consciousness. One moment in time takes me back to 56 years ago in the eye of the First Quarter Storm. The First Quarter Storm refers to a series of student protests against the administration of
February 2, 2026
NOW it can be told, the last chance for former President Rodrigo Duterte to move out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Detention Centre at The Hague is to win his case for crimes against humanity. However, no less than her lawyer daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, doubts it. Ouch! She did
January 30, 2026
REMEMBER that TV advertisement of a patent medicine where a woman sweeps away leaves while a movie actor advertises a cough medicine? If its intention was to subdue the rising tide of public patronage for “lagundi” leaves, it failed. That expensive and pervasive TV ad has failed to deter local drug manufacturers
January 28, 2026
THE overnight confinement of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City on Wednesday (January 21) has inevitably brought up the question, “What if he gets incapacitated or dies as a result?” Before we get to that unwelcome possibility, let us see whether the disease is life-threatening. By
January 26, 2026
IT is my personal opinion that Iloilo 1 Electric Cooperative (ILECO 1) could not cope with competition if and when the bill of First District Rep. Janette Garin (House Bill 6292) passes into law. The bill would grant MORE Power and Electric Corp. (MORE Power) the legislative franchise to compete with ILECO
January 23, 2026
OVER coffee with businessman Alfonso Tan at Hotel del Rio, I asked him whether any of his hotels could still accommodate tourists coming to Iloilo City for the Dinagyang Festival on January 24 and 25. “Fully booked,” he quipped. As I was saying in a previous column, local and foreign tourists come
January 21, 2026
AS announced by Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu, this year’s celebration of the Dinagyang Festival (Sunday, Jan. 25) heralds the theme “Bugay sang Ginoo, Bugal sang mga Ilonggo” (God’s Grace, Pride of Ilonggos). And so, the Iloilo Festivals Foundation, Inc. (IFFI) is maxing out Dinagyang’s “religiosity” through a “unity dance” by the seven participating
January 19, 2026