Essays/Editorial

• Who really is the ‘sick man’? —Letter to the Editor

BY CITING the study of a population-control organization, purportedly showing the Philippines lagging behind Thailand and blaming the former’s non-adoption of population control, Manuel F. Almario (“Study reveals why RP lags behind neighbors,” Inquirer, 11/10/09) is merely like the junketing birth-control advocates who parrot what they have been fed in the West, which financed their junketing. Almario fails to apply a critical historical lens to the study; he even forgets the Philippines’ own history.

Read more

• A gift from Sierra Madre

IT WAS after the opening Misa de Gallo, when I saw that little girl, who was walking alone across the rough road of one of the summits of Sierra Madre. She was wearing a small stained white blouse, a navy blue skirt, and a threadbare pair of slippers. Although she was only seven then, she already taught me one of the most inspiring lessons that I will treasure forever.

Read more

• Handicapped to move forward

WHILE most freshmen find themselves excited to enter college, I prove to be in a different crowd. Just when most of them seem to begin expanding their horizons, I then found myself still trapped in my shell, thinking that changing myself for a university setup is pernicious.

Read more