As Women’s Month comes to an end, I am rereading essays written by my mother (Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, CGN) about the Filipino woman. She was not a feminist, yet she defended women’s rights to education, freedom of speech and assembly, the pursuit of happiness and self-fulfillment. Her most famous articles about women were published in … Read more
How I wish I had asked my grandmothers more about themselves. Both lived in historical times; both survived a yesterday of revolutions and wars of invasion; their today overlapped with mine and they unobtrusively prepared me for a tomorrow of uncertainties. My paternal grandmother, Concepcion Arguelles (Lola Conchita), married Mauricio Cruz, son of Maria Rizal, … Read more
To celebrate Women’s Day (March 8), I resurrected the first ever article I wrote about my mother, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, published in a widely-circulated daily in 1964, a month after I had won the Miss International Beauty title in Long Beach, California. Here are excerpts of that essay: Because she had to be both father … Read more
In September 2013, with Syria in mind, Pres. Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation said that the founders of the United Nations Organization must have understood that decisions affecting war and peace should be made only by consensus. And with the USA’s consent, the veto of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council … Read more
My zoom mates and I were arguing about People Power 1. What happened to all that enthusiasm that toppled a dictator? When the dust settled, the old order crept back into place. The pyramid of possibilities for structural changes crumbled steadily. Then someone asked if we believed in cosmic coincidences. Why, do you think we … Read more
Let us get a handle on Biac-na-Bato, that tangled network of caves and rivers in San Miguel de Mayumo, Bulacan, 42 kilometers away from the Barasoain church of Malolos. Pres. Manuel Quezon declared it a national park in 1937 because of the historic events that unfolded there. In 1897, a battle-weary Revolutionary Army headed by … Read more
Trouble in paradise? Disquieting news of restlessness in the Philippine military sector blew over the Pacific Ocean to Mexico City where I lived. It was February 1986, I was the asistente principal of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). According to the Philippine Embassy grapevine, a somewhat covert group of idealistic military officers, the Reform … Read more
If you are among those who still have not heard of the First Republic of the Philippines, this column was humbly written with you in mind, so kindly read on. While members of the Malolos Congress gathered in Barasoain church in 1898, to debate on the 101 articles of the eponymous Constitution, groups of patriotic … Read more
Last 23 January, we should have celebrated the 123rd anniversary of the First Philippine Republic with fireworks, parades, platitudes and flowered wreaths. You may have noticed that we have never done that, not even in Manila, the seat of government. Bulakeños call their province the nation’s cradle; they do commemorate the Malolos Congress and Constitution … Read more
Mariano Ponce always kept a low profile probably because he was the tallest among the Filipino expats in Europe. In that iconic Gomburza-like “triumvirate “ studio photo with Jose Rizal and Marcelo del Pilar, Mariano Ponce had to sit down sideways on a stool with legs outstretched in front of his two shorter companions. In … Read more