There is a quiet unease when a system keeps delaying people’s chance to decide. It feels like a test being moved again and again—not because people aren’t ready, but because the one in charge isn’t. Eventually, effort fades. People start asking if it is still worth caring. That is where the
April 23, 2026
There is something oddly familiar about SALN season in government offices. It is not dramatic. No headlines. Just stacks of forms, quiet sighs, and the soft tapping of keyboards as employees try to remember when exactly they bought that secondhand refrigerator or how much remains on a loan they have been
April 22, 2026
There is something oddly personal about remembering Pope Francis a year after he passed. Not distant, not formal—more like remembering a lolo who sat quietly in the corner, listening more than speaking, but somehow knowing exactly what to say when it mattered. April 21 comes and goes. Rome pauses for Mass
April 21, 2026
There is a certain hour in Iloilo Central Market when everything feels most real. Not during the speeches, not during the tours, but early—when the fish are still wet from travel and the vendors are just settling into their spaces. You hear it before you fully see it: the clatter of
April 21, 2026
By Herman M. Lagon It is one thing to name a problem. It is another to remove it from a system that has quietly learned to live with it. When EDCOM II Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee spoke about ending “mass promotion,” he was not just pointing to a flaw. He was opening a
April 20, 2026
There are moments when a hearing stops feeling like a hearing. It becomes something else—something closer to a story unfolding in real time, except no one knows yet which parts will hold. When Ramil Madriaga began reading his affidavit in Congress, it felt like that kind of moment. Not dramatic in
April 19, 2026
There is something oddly memorable about a political acronym that seems to forget part of what it promises. Reform Alliance for Good Governance and Accountability—RAGE, they call it. Somewhere between the “A” and all the applause, you begin to wonder: where did accountability go? Was it left somewhere backstage, or is
April 18, 2026
Donald Trump recently went after Pope Leo XIV, calling him “weak” and implying he should keep out of world issues. It came out in that familiar tone—straight, cutting, almost like it was obvious. The Pope did not respond like that. He stayed where he has always been—talking about peace, about slowing
April 16, 2026
There are a few vape shops squeezed into one short stretch of road. No need to exaggerate it. Just spend a quiet afternoon in Barotac Nuevo—you will see tricycles waiting, students passing by, and those glass shelves glowing with bright cartridges that look more like candy than anything else. It does
April 15, 2026
Try this—pause and really look at what is around you. Oil is probably part of many of those things, even if you do not think of it that way. It is in your phone, your table, your shoes, and even the small items you barely notice. Most of us only remember
April 14, 2026
The easiest applause line in politics is often the most dangerous one. Say “abolish the SK,” and many exhausted citizens will nod before the coffee cools. They have seen the lazy stereotypes: the endless basketball leagues, the beauty pageants with tarpaulins louder than the programs, the chairperson who learns the art
April 13, 2026
There is a small moment many Filipino teachers know too well. Payday comes, the salary credit notification arrives, and for a second, there is relief. Then comes the payslip. You look at the numbers, but your eyes settle on the spaces in between—what was already taken, line by line, before it
April 12, 2026