By Herman M. Lagon The social media post from TheTopTens.com naming the Philippines as the country with the best singers did what most viral rankings do best: stir pride, debate, laughter, disbelief, and a whole buffet of opinions from every corner of the globe. Filipinos on Facebook lit up with comments ranging from modest delight …
Impulses
‘Pulang Araw’ lives
By Herman M. Lagon From the first episode of “Pulang Araw,” I already knew I would write about it. Watching it in full 110 episodes just this April only confirmed what I had long felt: This series is not just a period drama; it is a poetic time machine, a history lesson woven into the …
When numbers fall short
By Herman M. Lagon The comeback was anything but predictable. In a race flooded by big names, massive war chests and heavily publicized machinery, two names clawed their way back into the Senate with minimal fanfare but maximum substance: Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan. It was not just a triumph of strategy or endorsement. It …
Misassigned, misaligned, misled
By Herman M. Lagon In a country that consistently struggles to perform in global science and math assessments, one would expect its education system to ensure that only the best-prepared professionals handle these subjects. But reality, backed by hard data from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), tells a far more disturbing story: …
Credit where free college law is due
By Herman M. Lagon Let us clear the haze around who truly authored the landmark Free Higher Education Law. A flood of near-identical online posts — many linked to Duterte’s daughter Kitty — have recently claimed that former President Rodrigo Duterte deserves more credit than Senator Bam Aquino. These posts do more than boost Duterte’s …
Reading between the Senate votes
By Herman M. Lagon It did not take a clairvoyant to read the room this election season. The 2025 senatorial results, still humming in partial tallies but clear in trend, offer more than a list of names. They whisper of change, signal a recalibration, and murmur a subtle, but telling critique of a political culture …
Where learning feels right
By Herman M. Lagon Schools should be more than just places for lectures and exams. They should feel like a second home — where students are not only learning but also feeling safe, seen and supported. True inclusivity is not just about rules or compliance. It is about building a culture where everyone feels they …
Lost in literacy
By Herman M. Lagon There is something heartbreaking yet numbing about reading a Grade 9 essay that begins with “Win I grown, i wanna 2 be nars.” This is not just a spelling error or a typing mistake. It is the voice of a learner four to five years behind the expected reading and writing …
How much does one vote count?
By Herman M. Lagon Every election season, the question arises: What does one vote really mean as campaign jingles fill the streets, the airways and the cyberspace? The response is more profound than we might think in a troubling nation like ours, where politics is sometimes as chaotic as it is colorful. Though apparently little …
Let logic guide our votes
By Herman M. Lagon There was something poetic about learning logic in the 1990s at 5:00 p.m., with the sun yawning over the University of Iloilo’s old engineering building — the same one now turned into a hotel. Our professor, a fiscal lawyer whose name has faded into the margins of my memory, walked into …