By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   LAST Thursday morning at 3:23 a.m., my niece Jam sent me a message, “Yung moon may rainbow”, accompanied by a photo. I went out to see it, but it was a bright moon with no rainbow. At 10:16 p.m. on the same day, Jam sent…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   LAST year on 15 April 2023, my niece Emerald Grace Sacedor Catbagan posted a shocking revelation: “I have Lupus. On my 35th, three months after being diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), I finally have the courage to tell everyone.“ In that post, she mentioned…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IT took twenty-nine years for Taguig to win a boundary dispute with Makati, from 22 November 1993 to 03 April 2023. In 2023, the Supreme Court affirmed Taguig’s jurisdiction over the Fort Bonifacio military reservation (including Bonifacio Global City and the ten Enlisted Men’s Barrios…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   WHY is the beach so important for many people? For some, it is enough to hear the sound of the waves, to see the horizon, to feel the gentle caress of the waves, to be one with its rhythm. Others go to the beach to…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THERE, from a distance, the moon is hidden, a part of me that stayed away. I sense your presence in the abysmal silence. I could truly touch, hear, taste, smell and see you, the way I am aware of parts of my body without looking,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo    PABLO Neruda in his poem “If you forget me” gave two choices to his lover: to forget him or show her commitment to him, issuing an ultimatum, an open threat: If you forget me, I will go, “I shall lift my arms and my roots…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THE third day is unfolding, 362 days still to unfold in 2025. I look at the dark sky, slowly taking in the light, and realize, I don’t know specifically, what can happen. What’s happening now is that an airplane cuts across the blue, unaware if,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   JUST as there are plant lovers, there are those who suffocate with a lot of trees, especially in forests. This is clearer to me now than ever before, having met a few of them. One is a neighbor who stealthily cut away big branches while…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   WHEN I reflect about what happened in the last five years to my siblings and their families, I am surprised how they could have surmounted so many difficulties seemingly without solutions in sight, then. But they did, so did I. Amazing how the human spirit,…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THERE is something magical in our lives, stories narrated by our grandparents and our parents, before Santa Claus came to our consciousness. As children, my grandfather Laki Ilot, often told his experiences with the magical as a natural part of everyday life. He would tell…