By Rex Catubig THE groundbreaking and construction of the new bridge that will span across the Calmay River, linking the city to its island barrios and becoming the modern gateway to the Western towns, has suddenly drawn flak and been subjected to defamatory innuendos. Yet, this project that no…
By Rex Catubig Note: Please allow me to indulge in some rumination to start my birthday month and await my upcoming birthday week. I am inspired by the AI photos created by my friends, Adams Ryan and Archimedes Fronda. Struck by the blurry image of hanging laundry in the…
By Rex Catubig THEY are the calamity and crises staple. Once referred to as “Relief”, they have since mutated into various aid acronyms,–AICS, Tupad, 4P’s, etc., but are collectively popularly known as “Ayuda”, the palliative, temporary support in emergency situations, financial or in kind. During typhoons, flooding and other…
By Rex Catubig IN Biblical times, God directed the Israelites to smear the doors of their houses with the blood of a lamb as a sign to set them apart so that the Angel of Death would pass them over and spare them from imminent harm. Today, the blood mark…
By Rex Catubig WITH the onrush of high tide, storm surge, and floods that have engulfed the consciousness, that have made life miserable, and have dragged along monumental debris of scandal, I am drawn to haunting memories of catastrophes in the past, similarly destructive and horrific. Yet I was never in…
By Rex Catubig NOTE: I’m reprising this column in support of the Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month, and the World Suicide Prevention Day September 10. This is to give face to the menace of suicide that afflicts even the seemingly normal person, robbing the young of their power to…
By Rex Catubig Mention San Roque during the monsoon season, and it conjures fear and triggers the flare up of goosebumps. A dam, sacrilegiously named after the saint, and notorious for unleashing water that turns into horrendous floodwaters as it cascades down the lowlands, is to blame for its…
By Rex Catubig I was raised on Caton, that handy vernacular alphabet primer that looked like a thin prayer book. While we had the primer on hand, the teacher wrote the alphabet with chalk on the blackboard, said them one by one, and we would repeat after her. It…
By Rex Catubig ARELLANO-Bani was not always bustling. In the past, it was merely the route that led to Bonuan Catacdang and onwards. In the ‘70s, aside from the honky tonky joints, the only identifiable establishment in the area was the Dawel seafood restaurant, whose name derived from the…
By Rex Catubig I always threw it a glance but never really acknowledged its presence so that it might as well be non-existent. The edifice has always stood there—conspicuous yet unobtrusive. It stands unperturbed amid the cacophony and chaos of the marketplace, the Malimgas market being its next-door neighbor….
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