I received an email from Mr. Ibrahim Faizal, erstwhile general secretary of the Airport Facilitation Committee of the Republic of Maldives. This entity is backed by presidential authority and comprises all the relevant ministries and departments including immigration, tourism and national security. Once the committee makes a decision, it is final. “We have made sure … Read more
Last year, 129 million tourists came to Southeast Asia and left $329.5 billion, 12 percent of the region’s GDP according to the World Travel &Tourism Council. Those figures are expected to increase in the next five years. The mighty tourism wave will continue to crest as barriers to the industry disappear. However, there are already … Read more
Early this month, at a forum held in Makati City, a Philippine Airlines (PAL) vice president for external affairs, Maria Socorro Gonzaga, affirmed support for the ASEAN Single Aviation Market and added that our country needs an “open skies” policy. I was not at that forum and am basing my comments on a news report … Read more
As early as 1573, King Philip II prescribed the conditions for laying out the Spanish grid — the Quadricula — in all the colonial possessions of the Spanish kings. Curiously enough, the Quadricula is not Spanish but Roman and I use it deliberately because, after all, the Portuguese arrived first in this archipelago. The central … Read more
My first brush with the International Council of Museums (ICOM) was sometime in the late 1960’s after I was appointed director of the National Museum by then President Ferdinand Marcos. If memory serves, it was the French embassy which announced that Mr. Hugues de Varine Bohan, director of ICOM, was coming to town and that … Read more
Three Filipinos all of them in their twenties, born in 3 cardinal points of this Republic were the finalists for YouthAmbassador of Language, Kabataan Ambásadór sa Wika. The eldest, 23-year old Jhon Joseph D. Pandong II was born in Malaybalay, Bukidnon and is a graduate of the Dalwagan Elementary School, Bukidnon National High School and … Read more
Monique Wilson portrayed Apolinario Mabini; the alternate was another woman, Hazel Maranan. What is going on? Maia Dapul was Gen. Arthur MacArthr and Sigrid Balbas, Gen. James Franklin Bell. The “transgender” casting discomfited me, but since I am an admirer of librettist Nicanor G. Tiongson and director Chris B. Millado, I felt it was worth … Read more
By virtue of Cuba’s strategic location at only 90 miles from mainland USA, it was inevitable for the “Pearl of the Caribbean” to be swallowed by the gluttonous expansionism of North America. That was the danger in the 19thcentury, which continues with more intensity today. Three US presidents — James Polk (1845-49), Franklin Pierce (1853-57), … Read more
Last Sunday, I found out quite by chance that my dear aunt, Elena Roces Guerrero, widow of my late uncle Dr. Mario Xavier Guerrero, an elder brother of my mother, had passed away last 8 July, and no one had the kindness to tell me. I was not out of town, my cell phone has … Read more
In a few days, I will launch my new book, a collection of articles about the conquest of the Philippines by the USA, published in this very space during the last 13 years. As you probably know, the title is 50 Years in Hollywood (subtitle: The USA Conquers the Philippines) and in the author’s foreword, I explain … Read more