By Rex Catubig   MY brother was a Civil Engineer and a pioneer OFW way before the acronym was coined. He was working at the Pangasinan Public Works and Highways, building roads and bridges across the province, when the war in Vietnam escalated and there ensued a demand for construction…

By Rex Catubig   IT was the mid ‘70s: the height of flower power, make love not war, and the iconic peace sign. It was my first trip to good ol’ USA, it was summer, and there was much more to see and experience than the must-visit recreation parks. Luck…

By Rex Catubig   THE patriotic fervor was at its crest. The centuries of unrest and uprising against two imperial powers and the gruesome resistance against a third would-be colonizer, had finally paid off. In July 4,1946, the Filipinos proudly raised its flag up high as it gained its penultimate…

By Rex Catubig   JUNE is branded as the marryingest month.  Of the several schools of thought, one harks back to the Roman times, citing the goddess Juno, who the month is named after, as the inspiration behind. “The goddess was the protector of women across all aspects of life,…

By Rex Catubig   NOTE: This article pays tribute to the lives of those hardy individuals who dared to break out of the mold in a cruel and uncertain time, and face an unwelcoming world. The Pride Month of June seeks to review that world, to overcome the gay stereotype,…

By Rex Catubig   FOREWORD: By a stroke of serendipity, I came across this piece I wrote in the Village Voice Newsmagazine of Cesar Duque, which detailed the assassination of a police officer in a town then infamous for unsolved killings. It’s been almost four decades, but with the spate…

By Rex Catubig   I often wonder what spell it casts, but among the months, May is embedded in our consciousness, not for the colorful events it celebrates– the fiestas, Flores de Mayo, Santacruzan– but for the simple memories it holds amid the flamboyance of summer. May is youth remembered….

By Rex Catubig   IT’S a morality tale for all time. And it runs the length and breadth of the years—from the bible story of Judas losing his mind and killing himself, to the Greek dramaturgy of antiquities, on towards unraveling history and the present. It’s the same throughout, with…

By Rex Catubig   SHE is a creature of habit. And the habit that drives her to the point of obsession is what has defined her– Unliserbisyo—the expeditious delivery of basic services not to the public in general, but to those most in need—the indigents and marginalized sector– the children, the…

By Rex Catubig   THE recent Placemaking competition organized by trailblazing creative Cong Toff de Venecia, whose culminating event was held a few days ago, harks back to the street art exhibit and installations that transformed an otherwise abandoned and lifeless shells of what was the OVR or Office of…