On Dec. 12, 2017, Congress approved the Philippine Mental Health Act after a tedious review of its Senate (SB 1354) and House of Representatives (HB 6452) versions. President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11036 or Philippine Mental Health Law last June 20. The Philippines is among the last 30 percent in the world without a […]
The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1363-1644), Zhu Yuan Zhang (朱元璋), followed the tradition of previous dynasties to set up the deng wen drum (登聞鼓) at the capital. The drum was for common people, government officials and employees to beat when they needed to bring to the imperial court’s attention grievances that had not […]
China has intensified its crackdown against online gambling in the past months. Reported extensively only in Chinese media, China conducted several big raids and arrests of gambling operators with ties to the Philippines. Apparently, after illegal online gambling operators in the Philippines were arrested, the reports say, the Chinese government was able to gather data and […]
On a recent family trip to Hong Kong, we saw a woman asking her granddaughter to pose for a photo. The girl, probably 7 or 8 years old, was obviously not happy about it and smacked her grandmother’s hand so hard, the mobile phone flew a few meters away. My mother could not help herself […]
In Spain, there are officially around 200,000 Chinese residents, spread out all over the country but primarily in the main cities and the most vibrant regions. There are 28,800 in Andalucía in the south while out of the 54,432 in Cataluña region, 45,636 are in Barcelona and 54,512 live in Madrid. Despite the serious economic […]
The 16th century Chinese adventurer 林鳳 is known throughout the English-speaking world as Limahong or Limahon, but also, and especially more recently, as Lin Feng. Which is right? Lin Feng is the pinyin romanization of 林鳳, but that is not what he would have called himself. He was from Teochew, and his full name, 林阿鳳, […]
‘Yuri, send mo na yung thesis mo sa department email!” reminded Ate Erika, our department library staff. I was in the library writing some letters. I looked up from my laptop and nodded assent. A few minutes after I’ve sent what I thought was the PDF copy of my thesis, she came up to me […]
A president is elected to office with a mandate. He is handed stewardship of the nation’s welfare. People place in him their collective trust that he will do right by them. Yet, the specter of dictatorial rule hovers over the country ever more so. This makes even more poignant the memories of Sept. 21, 1972, […]
The Chinatown in Manila is said to be the first Chinatown in the world. But it’s apparently not the present Chinatown that is synonymous to the famous Ongpin Street. The street, formerly Calle Sacristia, only got its name in 1915 in honor of Roman Ongpin, the famous Chinese-Filipino financier of the Philippine revolution. To be […]
I knew of Merlie “Milet” B. Mendoza 10 years ago, before she knew me. The evil kidnapping menace was rampant then, in Metro Manila as well as in Mindanao. Mendoza was abducted and held for 61 days, together with her fellow social worker, Esperancita “Espie” Hupida, in Basilan on Sept. 15, 2008. Both of them were working […]