Gemma Cruz Araneta | LANDSCAPE

The Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic arrived in 1924, a decade after the  “pedagogical invasion” of the Thomasites when   Leonard Wood, a retired  Army general and medical doctor, was the governor of the Philippine Islands. Our country was then a colony of the United States of America, and the Maryknoll sisters were invited by no less than the influential … Read more

Two years ago, the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), a non-government and purportedly non-partisan organization, celebrated its 56thanniversary at the Centennial Pavilion of the Manila Hotel. Its prime objective is to promote respect for the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. It does not specify which but I suppose it includes respecting the memory of … Read more

I have been busy putting together a new book, like the previous one (Rizal’s True Love), it is a compilation of essays I have written for this newspaper. During a span of 13 years, from 2006 to 2019, I had researched and written about the most obscure period of our history, one that was purposefully, … Read more

Those three words combined must have been the sweetest, most soothing they had ever heard because the message was salvation; they would see their families again.  Never mind the shattered boat, tons of fish reclaimed by the dark waters of Recto Bank, curse the Chinese fiends who left them to drown and die, but, thanks … Read more

You have probably complained about millennials, these sapiens aged 18 to 30 who seem to be connected to another world that exists beyond your comprehensions specially if you are a senior (like me).  On mainstream and social media, there are commentaries about how millennials communicate through gadgets even when they are sitting around the same … Read more

Or, is it “Anak ng Jue!” Is it Jueteng or Hueteng?  I remember reading Jueteng which probably betrays the historical origin of that forbidden but extremely lucrative game of chance. The letter J is pronounced as an H if found before a vowel, in Spanish style. Later it became an H when the National Language … Read more

This year, I vowed to blow 158 candles for the birthday of someone we all know but have mindlessly forgotten.  I have been invited to go to his house, with our relatives, but those of us who were present last year will not be there this coming June, simply because we were so mortified by … Read more

“Mansyon” is a musical about heritage houses; as you know, heritage conservation is one of my passions, maybe because all the heritage homes I would have wanted to save were reduced to rubble in February, 1945, during the Battle for Manila.  Secretly or perhaps not so secretly, I envy those who have inherited heritage houses … Read more

My elders used to call it Cuaresma, a word I have not heard in a long time. In school, I learned that Cuaresma which is Spanish came from the Latin word Quadragesima, but before that the Greeks called the 40th (fortieth day) tessarakoste. For Catholics, there seems to be something mystical about the number 40: … Read more

I have to say something about Boracay, even if I was Secretary of Tourism for only two years and eight months. I had not visited the island before then and was more familiar with the Hundred Islands in Pangasinan and Tali and Nasugbu in Batangas where I used to spend weekends with my in-laws. Boracay … Read more