By Rex Catubig YEARS ago, a friend of mine took me to an impromptu whirlwind spiritual tour in the heart of Metro Manila. In what felt like a modern-day ferry across the innards of the city, and after enduring apocalyptic traffic, touring the St Jude church and the Padre…
By Rex Catubig WHILE the hotly debated issue of where Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed along the Lingayen Gulf’s color-coded beaches may never be resolved, the one incontrovertible fact that we Dagupeños are rightly proud of and no one else can lay claim to, is upon his return, when he…
Mabuhay, Joe! 3rd time’s a charm
By Rex Catubig MY high school class celebrated its Ruby or 40th anniversary in 2005. Our class president Ramon Reyna wanted no less than the best and brightest. And after attending a preliminary meeting, I was prevailed upon to conceptualize the event. I thought of a Western theme to recapture…
A face to face reunion
By Rex Catubig VICTORIO Edades as an illustrious son of Dagupan may be the primus inter pares among the city’s brightest sons. But his memory precariously dangles on the corroding recall of people in the city he lived in, and in the fading fragile minds of those related to…
Who U? Getting to know Edades on his birthday
By Rex Catubig 2,000 years ago, an unlikely birth made the biblical headlines, and subsequently became the matrix of Christianity. We are familiar with the circumstances of Joseph and Mary’s trek to Bethlehem from their home in Nazareth to comply with an edict for villagers to return to their…
Why Baby Jesus ended up in Baratilyo
By Rex Catubig THE train in the ‘60s was for me heaven sent. At an early age, I suffered from motion sickness that triggered vertigo and nausea when riding a car or the bus on long trips. It did not help that the Pantranco bus had hard wooden bench…
A train dream
By Rex Catubig GAMBLING or games akin, provided the perk in our tranquil barrio. The kids indulged in the harmless though not exactly wholesome ‘buntayog’ or ‘tatsing’. While the elderly would sit for hours in front of the sari-sari store figuring out their moves in ‘dama’. But the more…
Betting in jueteng
By Rex Catubig THE fascination with chance is rooted in my boyhood. But it is not all related to the DNA chain. Juvenile flirting with the bewitching flytrap of luck is the plausible excuse. It was the fun-filled Fifties. In the corner sari-sari store of Nana Pacing which I…
Picking ‘kulkuldit’
By Rex Catubig AN SOS from atanor Lilia Tuason sent this nocturnal senior scurrying through the maze of Galvan street market in search of burong dalag in the heat of midmorning. Not that she is conceiving the immaculate way but it was a favor for a friend. I’m loath…