by Jaileen F. Jimeno
DATU PAGLAS, MAGUINDANAO — Prayers echo from the minaret of a mosque through a vast banana plantation. Owned by a company called La Frutera, the 1,000-hectare land used to be a “killing field.” At the time, men in the area wound up either as members of secessionist groups or in the middle of a “rido” or clan war.
by Jaileen F. Jimeno
UBAY, BOHOL — Antonia Quirino sits with a dazed look on top of the stairs of her bamboo house amid a large swath of cornfield. She speaks laconically, as if every word is a labor. Filth surrounds her; debris of past meals remain on the dirty kitchen and table, the clotheslines display tiny clothes too grimy and stained to be considered ready for wear. Nearby, a few of her children sleep the day away.
by Fides Lim
FRAIL BUT feisty still at 95, the diminutive doctora is proof positive of her own prescription for longevity: “Leave the dining table a little less full, a little hungry, and you will live longer.”
The black bouffant wig nods on her tiny, spare frame as she ticks off a simple diet mostly of fish and vegetables with little rice, plus a fondness for cheese. Yet there is more to this admittedly “lazy eater” who eats, she says, “because it’s there.”
Fe del Mundo, doyenne of Filipino doctors, is a woman of many firsts, whose many accomplishments have changed the lives of millions of people.
We are already on our second female head of state, and for some people that may be enough to say we have achieved gender equality. We can also point out that the female participation in the labor force is quite high; one business advisory firm says as well that 85 percent of local companies have women in senior positions. Girls are even doing better in school, and have higher retention rates than the boys.
by Rorie R. Fajardo
SHE SAID it was a crucial journey for her children’s future.
Weeks before classes opened last month, Myrna Verde packed few clothes, gathered her four school-age children, and boarded a bus for Manila, some 138 kms from their village in Zambales. It was their first time to travel that far from home, but Verde, 57, had a mission: to look for kind-hearted city people who would give her money or any kind of help so that her children — all blind since birth — could continue going to school.
by Jaileen F. Jimeno
LIKE ALL other transactions involving money, buying books is governed by the rule caveat emptor — let the buyer beware. In the case of children’s books, the buyer is usually one of the parents. The more “book-wise” parent, of course, is often the one who also devoured a lot of books as a child.
by Isa Lorenzo
WOMEN’S literature has been around for ages, but the subgenre now known as chick lit didn’t really come to life until the late 1990s. Here in the Philippines, industry insiders place its debut to have taken place in 2002, which is about the time Summit Books began publishing English-language novels for young, female urbanites. Since then, chick lit has become one of the top moneymakers of the local book industry, with its books having print runs far beyond those of other local titles. The usual print run for other books is 1,000 copies each. Summit, which is credited even by its rivals as having gotten chick lit going, has printed at least 10,000 copies of each of its 12 chick-lit titles. Three of these have enjoyed second print runs.
by Katrina Stuart Santiago
N.B.S.B. (No Boyfriend Since Birth). Love hurts. Hearts heal. Relationships are overrated. Marriage or living in? Promiscuity versus loyalty. Every girl needs a gay best friend. Better pay or fulfilling job? M.U. (Mutual Understanding). Shopping! Vacations. Self-worth and confidence. Self-love. Single — not an old maid. Falling in love with your male best friend. The search for Mr. Right. H.D. (Hidden Desire).
You think superficial. I say, quite interesting. Useless crap, you say? I think, give it a chance.
Sidebar
by Frank Cimatu
SAGADA, Mountain Province — A tourist here points to red cheeks of a healthy Sagada baby, and the mother quips, “strawberry cheeks,” prompting the tourist to laugh out loud.
Strawberry is selling cheap in the Baguio market right now, and so are the other products that come from it, like wines, jams, preserves, and even champoy. That should be good news to strawberry lovers, and there seems to be a lot of them.
by Frank Cimatu
THERE ARE about four television sets in Tinoc, a remote town in Ifugao Province at the eastern foot of Mt. Pulag. The TVs are powered by solar panels. But there is no TV or even radio signals in the area. The TV sets are used in conjunction with DVD players.
One would think that Tinoc would have a long list of wants and needs. But last December 1 saw the inauguration of a local law that is expected to change profoundly the lives of the people of Tinoc and the rest of the province: the Ifugao Reproductive Health Code.
