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Art, feminism, and history are interconnecting at Tandang Sora Women’s Museum. Alas ng Bayan 2.0 runs until Nov. 23. Museum opens 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.,Tuesdays to Sundays. Admission is free.
Excerpt from a poem by Pablo Tariman: I like the peace that comes with the prospect of dying./ But when you die young you pause and think of the possibilities of a more fruitful life ahead./ Then and now, you learn to appreciate the long and short of a borrowed life.
A total of 250 sites scattered throughout the country exalting the “lineage and achievements” of the Marcoses have been catalogued by the project “Have we honored the Marcoses enough?” of the Third World Studies Center at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The project falls under the Marcos Research Regime program, which documents the permanent sites, structures, and objects commemorating the Marcos and Romualdez families.
“Karne” gets under one’s skin, leading one to wonder why Filipinos perpetually “simmer” in crises. Resilience is laudable until it isn’t. “Karne” runs at the FEU Center for the Arts Studio on Sept. 11–13, 18–20, 25–27; Oct. 2–4, 9–11, 16–18, 23–25, 30; and Nov. 6–8. The show starts at 6:30 p.m.For tickets, connect with FTG on Facebook: Far Eastern University Theater Guild, Instagram and TikTok: @feutheaterguildofficial, and Twitter/X: @ftg1934.
Three years into Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration, two questions hang in the air: How is the Philippine economy faring and how are Filipinos surviving? At the recent IBON BirdTalk Midyear 2025, IBON executive director Sonny Africa said there are more poor and hungry Filipinos despite the accomplishments Marcos enumerated in his 2024 State of the Nation Address
The first step — acknowledging the reading crisis in Filipino students — is done. The next steps must, first, alleviate teachers’ taxing circumstances so they can focus on teaching; second, rebuild the schools’ curriculum and literacy programs; and, third, strengthen teachers’ ranks.
The MSO season begins with the first concert “Music for Peace” on May 24 at the Aliw Theater, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the post-Liberation MSO concerts organized between 1945 and 1946. Violin soloist Emanuel John Villarin, a Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra pioneer member, will play Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 9 — From the New World” and German composer-pianist Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major Op. 61. Villarin will be coming home from Berlin, where he’s on a scholarship, to do the show with conductor Marlon Chen, MSO’s current music director and principal conductor.
Conferences like “War & Memory” are few and far between, insufficient to cover gaps in Filipinos’ history education. It’s worrying that many Filipinos are oblivious to the Philippines’ colonial history, and to the struggles against Spanish, Japanese, and American colonizers. Philippine history is no longer taught as a standalone subject except in “grades 5 and 6 and in a college class called “Readings in Philippine history.”
Authors Marites Dañguilan Vitug and Camille Elemia raise the question: What can be done to make Filipinos believe that Duterte’s embrace of China is plain treachery?
IBON’s Sonny Africa: It’s not true that the Philippines is developing and is the star of Asia. Things are pretty bad. There’s a great disconnect between government hype and what’s happening on the ground.
