The most honest classroom rarely has blackboards. Some of the most valuable classrooms do not look like classrooms at all. They look like offices filled with paperwork, supervisors offering instructions, and desks where the day moves according to deadlines. That was the atmosphere I sensed while speaking to the Grade 12
March 13, 2026
I did not arrive that late Monday morning at the first-floor space of the COEd Building in ISUFST – Tiwi expecting to judge a championship debate. I had simply stayed long enough in the venue, listening and observing, when I suddenly found myself becoming an instant judge. Life sometimes nudges us
March 12, 2026
Some debates fade away with time. Others keep coming back, like a stain that refuses to leave a white shirt. The debate about how women dress belongs to the latter. Every few years it returns—after a celebrity remark, a viral post, or a lecture that sounds more like a sermon. Recently
March 11, 2026
You do not need to live in Tehran, Tel Aviv, Caracas, or Washington to feel a war. Sometimes it reaches you while you are standing at a gasoline station in Jaro, watching the numbers jump faster than your patience. Sometimes it arrives in the market, where a vendor apologizes for the
March 10, 2026
March had barely begun, purple ribbons had barely been pinned, and the country had barely warmed up to Women’s Month when Congress handed us one of those scenes that make you put down your coffee and stare at the screen in secondhand shame. Forgive this piece, too, if it runs a
March 9, 2026
Imagine trying to explain Spotify, Wi-Fi, and ChatGPT to someone from 1925. Back then, life was mostly rooted in the land, lit by kerosene, and shaped by survival. Days moved slowly. Most people knew only their neighbors. Goals were more about getting by than getting ahead. Telling someone a hundred years
March 8, 2026
Language may shape thought, but the way we joke, hint, or sidestep often says more. In our classrooms, where teachers balance modules and quiet pushback, idioms are not just flair — they are lifelines. Whether softening a correction or nudging a colleague to speak up, these phrases are less textbook and
March 7, 2026
They slip into our speech like old jokes or fresh tsismis. You hear them everywhere — kids on swings, sari-sari store chika, even in a politician’s punchline. These word pairs like wishy-washy, flip-flop, or hocus-pocus turn stiff talk into everyday kwentuhan. For Pinoys, they are more than playful sounds — they
March 6, 2026
It rarely begins with noise. First, the cashier lane disappears. Then, your banking app starts doing what tellers used to. Before you can even ask what changed, your officemate who used to handle the monthly reports is suddenly moved elsewhere—her old tasks now taken over by software that sounds like a
March 5, 2026
Not all fashion lives on runways. Some of it breathes in places like Mary Mart Mall in Iloilo—where survival meets style, and heart beats louder than any brand. It was there, surrounded by dusty racks and my daughters’ excited nudges, that I stumbled into the joyful mess of ukay-ukay. Before that,
March 4, 2026
There is a certain awkwardness you cannot quite shake off when you are in a graduate classroom and have nothing to say. I learned this the hard way. My first attempt at postgraduate life was an MBA, entered with only my newsroom instincts, a press ID, and the hope that writing
March 3, 2026
After hearing young writers tackle big topics with brave, simple words, you begin to notice how a city speaks about learning in its quiet moments. In Iloilo lately, the chatter has shifted from “diin ka nag-eskwela?” to “diin sila mapatindog?” Of course, there’s excitement, but there’s also the usual criticism: another
March 2, 2026
