YOU must have noticed that the Christmas season is not always one of good cheers for the less fortunate. Even we in the “middle class” grimace over rising prices of food, notably ham, which increases in price with each beginning of the Yuletide. It’s now impossible for a family of three to spend
December 19, 2025
ALL roads now lead to Christmas parties that celebrate the world-accepted birthday of Jesus Christ. Even non-Christians celebrate it. In fact, it was an American Jew, Irving Berlin, who composed one of the most popular Christmas songs, White Christmas – first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942. On the other hand, there are Christian
December 17, 2025
DID I hear right that Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin would no longer push for the expansion of the franchise of MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) to her turf if Iloilo 1 Electric Cooperative Inc. (ILECO 1) brings down its electricity rates? Good idea, yes, but her constituents fear
December 15, 2025
HOW many Filipinos are there in the Philippines today? It is a question that has different answers from different sources. But if we base it on the 2024 Philippine census by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the national population in that year was 112,729,484, making our country the 14th most populated nation on
December 12, 2025
THERE was a time when this corner exposed the lament of Central Philippine University (CPU) over the millions of pesos it had not collected from the pre-need College Assurance Plan (CAP) on behalf of beneficiaries who had availed themselves of its pre-need education plan. The late CPU President Juanito Acanto confirmed the
December 10, 2025
THE residents of the 1st District of Iloilo are waiting with bated breath for the passage of a bill filed by Congresswoman Janette Garin. House Bill 6292 is aimed at expanding the franchise of Iloilo City’s distribution utility (DU), MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to her constituency, which includes the
December 8, 2025
AS the editor of a weekly newspaper in the 1990s, I would often meet with the late Palanca awardee and English professor Dr. Leoncio Deriada, who happened to be one of our columnists. He would often transmit “visual” thoughts to readers through idiomatic expressions. An idiom is a group of words in
December 5, 2025
SOMETIME this year during a chance meeting with former ABS-CBN TV newscaster Nony Basco at Hotel del Rio, I greeted him warmly over its “reopening” as a franchised mainstream network. “Not true” was his answer. I was to learn later that no less than ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak had already debunked the
December 3, 2025
ONE recalls that on July 2 this year, Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa refiled a bill that had failed to pass in 2019. Senate Bill No. 1343 seeks to reinstate capital punishment through lethal injection for large-scale traffickers of illegal drugs. In a press conference with Senate reporters, Dela Rosa said, “While putting behind bars
December 1, 2025
WILL Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin succeed in passing her bill seeking to expand the franchise of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to her constituency? Her constituency includes the towns of Igbaras, Tubungan, Oton, Tigbauan, Guimbal, Miag-ao and San Joaquin. If we heard her right, she filed House Bill
November 28, 2025
WHAT if Central Negros Cooperative (CENECO) were still the power-distribution utility in Bacolod City and the rest of Central Negros when super typhoon Tino lashed the island, packing gustiness of up to 220 kilometers per hour? What if Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC) had not come in? To recall, typhoon Tino’s
November 26, 2025
WHILE shopping for condiments in a public market, I momentarily thought my eyes were “lying” after seeing the price tag of red onions at PHP 300 per kilo, a big jump from the previous PHP 230. I exclaimed, “Wow, it costs more than meat!” I could only blame the decline in value of the
November 24, 2025