Category Archives: Guest Writer

BLT and the Bird’s Nest

By: Butch Galicia “Not the ending any of us wanted, but I’m so proud and thankful for all my teammates and staff. Thanks to all the fans for their support!” tweeted Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, after the Jays flew home with wings clipped by a huge American League (AL) Championship Series loss to the Kansas… Read More »

Of Saints and Souls, Masks and Ghouls

By Butch Galicia Bewitched. Two years past, I put on a bloody red devil’s mask, with horns and beard. On seeing me, my granddaughter exclaimed: “Look, a goat!” Last year, I put on a very ugly mask. My body covered in black cloth, I stood in the dark. A candle flickered in front of my head. As soon… Read More »

Cultrural pride

On July 27, 2015, the Kapisanan Philippines Centre for Arts and Culture sent me an e-mail. It was a cut-and-paste ‘message’ that graced the Kapisanan webpage since July 24, wherein Kapisanan’s executive director Nicole Cajucom took issue with a news item Filipino centre helps youth reach higher, written by Gilbert Ngabo and published in Metro’s July 23, 2015… Read More »

APHORISMS

There is an e-mail going around the Web about the subject of aphorism. My wife forwarded it to me which caught my attention to let Balita readers, especially the boomers, put their ego into perspective. The word is new to me but no worry because Mister and/ or Miss Google showed me a few definitions but here is… Read More »

PHILIPPINES 2030 IS A DUD

The ending (of this series) is the beginning so says me who also have tipsy moments trying to impress silent and sober readers. It is really the shut up piece and the beginning of silence waiting for another think coming, from readers. If as Heraclitus has said character is fate and if essays have character, then this is… Read More »

Taste of Manila should thrive by Ray Sabatin

“It was a huge crowd of Filipinos at Bathurst and Wilson. The place was awesome”, my son was saying during our get-together in November last year. Of which I responded considering I know nothing about this gig “they were lucky it was a nice weekend. Good weather gets people out.” We are talking about the Taste of Manila, a… Read More »

THE ONLY WAY OUT FOR THE BINAYS

NOT  LAWYERS or Psychics  but  Professors of Management who teach  quantitative techniques (within  operations research) in decision-making should be able to give the ultimate advice to Vice President Binay to pull him out of the quicksand where  he is bumbunan-deep now.  I don’t have the credentials as my UPCA transcript of math grades will attest high probability to bungle it. But I can try as I  have… Read More »

PHILIPPINES 2030 IS A DUD

  PH2030 is a dud.  In Tagalog  it means mintis,  in Espanol  Pidgin: pallado.  For Pinoy New Year’s Eve revellers  it’s a  fizzled whistle bomb.  Very  likely by  2030 in   the Philippines  24/7   it is still happy days for the sons of guns (sanamagans coined by the late Max  Soliven).  That is if the realist  reader has read PH 2030 to the 3rd of  this series.  I told my realists friends the  essays on PH2030  are  fiction based on truth learned from 17… Read More »

THAT BUGGER CALLED TRAFFIC TICKET

I am referring to the piece of paper colored green, yellow or the 2-page-same-side letter size a police hands you after you are caught by them violating a section/s of the Highway Traffic Act or the Toronto Municipal Code. It is called Form 4, Provincial Offences Act, Ontario Court of Justice. I refer these pieces of paper as… Read More »

PHILIPPINES 2030 (Third of a Series)

What was it that I wrote in the first two pieces using my crystal  ball in my time travel? FIRSTLY: “By  2030 the country would have undergone four national  parliamentary elections held every four years simultaneously with  the twelve  regional parliaments; massive no nonsense nation building have  involved the more than and still growing 100 million citizenry from… Read More »