When I was 6 years old, an article in The Manila Bulletin caught my eye. The new prime minister of Pakistan was only 35 years old,  intelligent, Harvard + Oxford educated, and a Muslim woman! A first for an Islamic state that was rocked by armed conflict and racial tensions. It was the year of the Dragon and I spent most of my time reading whatever newsprint I could salvage from my dad's morning routine. It was the same year when Lolo Ismael, my maternal grandfather, came to visit and tell us how young women were supposed to behave.

At age 6, when people ask little girls what they'd want to when they grew up, the standard responses include secretaries, nurses, teachers, doctors and lawyers. Since the Ghostbusters was my favorite TV cartoon, I'd tell everyone that I  wanted to be like Dr. Egon Spengler. Secretly, I wanted to be the Prime Minister, just like Benazir Bhutto. Of course, my family would have none of that, so I chose to just read and read and read about the lives o...

If you can't play, display!

Photos by: Ipe Closa
Ateneo Loyola College Covered

Starring: Joco Sabio (sexy dancing!), Angel Aguinaldo (sexy saxplaying!), Paolo Javier and Aaron Co (sexy strumming!) and the rest of our blocmates.

Justice Nimfa Cuesta Vilches (our homeroom teacher) of the Ateneo Law School gets a surprise birthday party from the class of 1-E 2010.

venue: Room 109, ateneo professional

Old habits die hard.

Why I'd still choose to march from the Senate to the San Carlos Seminary with Higaonon tribesmen (and women! and children!) from Sumilao, Bukidnon, instead of studying for Corporations Law class (God bless you for not calling me to recite, Atty. Alexander Dy, my-one-and-only), might be a mystery for some. For me, it's coming to terms with the need to embody that beautiful AHRC maxim:

Learn the Law, Serve the People.

Photos by: Mark Robert Dy
Senate, Makati City Hall, JP Rizal

Despite the "favorable" Malacanang decision, the struggle, my dear friends, the struggle for rightful ownership of ancestral land, is far. from.