Impulses

At a Senate hearing meant to protect young Filipinos online, the conversation drifted in a strange direction. Instead of data or policy, Senator Robin Padilla opened with a blunt line: the youth today are “weak.” He said it almost apologetically, like an uncle at a reunion who knows his remark might sting. He compared them …

By Herman M. Lagon It often resurfaces like a classroom leak nobody wants to claim: officials say there is no “mass promotion,” teachers say there is, and learners quietly move up a grade level carrying the same gaps like an old backpack. The denial is often technically correct in the narrowest sense. There is no …

By Herman M. Lagon By February each year, a familiar dilemma returns to schools: Should February 25 be treated like any other busy day, complete with quizzes and late submissions, or should it become a moment to slow down and remember something larger than the day’s lesson plan. As the 40th anniversary of EDSA approaches, …

By Herman M. Lagon I went to the fifth Iloilo screening of “Tigkiliwi” last Sunday afternoon, February 1, because a friend invited me, and because the title itself sounded like a dare. Rynshien Joy Olivete — a spirited colleague from Dakila Collective — invited me to come, and I did, partly out of support, partly …

By Herman M. Lagon “Decriminalize libel” sounds, at first hearing, like the sort of phrase that makes careful people clutch their pearls and careless people clutch their phones. Some imagine a lawless internet where anyone can malign anyone, then walk away laughing. Others imagine a healthier democracy where public criticism stops being treated like a …

By Herman M. Lagon Childhood teaches an early lesson about responsibility: When you break something, you fix it; you do not ask to be thanked for the attempt. You just fix it, say sorry, and do better next time. So when a celebrity spouse recently suggested — on record — that the public “does not …

By Herman M. Lagon Somewhere between the wet market and the comment section, the word “Makapili” crawls back into Philippine conversation like an old fever. People use it too easily sometimes, the way we toss “traydor” in a barkada argument. Still, the return of the label signals something real: The quiet dread that betrayal is …

By Herman M. Lagon Some policies do not collapse because the goal was wrong. They collapse because the execution went sideways and everyone quietly learned to live with it. “No Child Left Behind” is starting to feel that way. It sounds gentle, almost untouchable, until you look at the classroom reality: teens who can quote …

By Herman M. Lagon There is a reason the word diskarte feels familiar even before it is explained. Most Pinoys meet it early, long before it appears in essays or debates. It shows up in kitchens where budgets are stretched, at jeepney stops when the last ride leaves too soon, and in classrooms where teachers …

By Herman M. Lagon Some issues only feel “national” when they reach the dinner table. The West Philippine Sea (WPS) is one of them. You can ignore it until galunggong or tuna gets pricier, a fisherman comes home early because the sea feels “crowded,” or students repeat a viral clip claiming we are “just visitors” …