Utang nga kabalaslan

“Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.”

—Rob Reiner

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE shouldn’t condemn people who continue to look up to former President Rodrigo Duterte with high adulation and veneration even if he is now detained in the The Hague.

We shouldn’t question why there are so-called “Marcos loyalists”; why there are still Aquino devotees, and even fans of Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo and so on and so forth.

We all have utang nga kabalaslan (debt of gratitude) with anyone who become part of our life in one way or the other, especially those instrumental in lifting us up from dire straits.

Big favors we owe from anyone become heavy debt of gratitude.

When somebody lent us money “at a time when we needed it most”, that’s utang nga kabalaslan in Hiligaynon or utang na loob in Tagalog that’s hard to ignore, deny or forget.

When we get appointments in “profitable” government positions by the sitting governor, mayor, or even president, that’s a huge and major league-level utang nga kabalaslan.

 

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This explains why some Filipinos continue to give mind-boggling allegiance and even heap (mostly undeserved) praises on political has-beens and disgraced former leaders with derogatory records.

It’s mostly utang nga kabalaslan as the culprit, not because those former leaders with shady characters with loathsome history are respectable and doyens of public service.

There are those who have enriched themselves while in power because they were placed in that lucrative appointed portfolios when their bosses—the former political leaders—were still in power.

We can’t underestimate the level of loyalty and admiration they continue and will continue to give those former leaders who “changed their lives.”

Among Filipinos, debt of gratitude is embodied by favors, a profound cultural value meaning "debt of the inner self," creating a lifelong obligation to repay significant favors with loyalty and support, deeply influencing family, social, and business relationships, often involving non-monetary reciprocity but sometimes causing stress, especially when expectations clash with individual needs or Western values.

 

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In a recent Swedish study of nearly 5,000 boys ages 15 to 18, those who ate fish frequently scored higher on intelligence tests. How much higher? Eating fish once a week was enough to boost scores by an average of 6 percent. Eating fish more than that resulted in nearly an 11 percent increase.

TAI CHI HELPS STROKE VICTIMS. 136 adults who had suffered a stroke more than six months earlier took three months of weekly classes in the Chinese movement practice tai chi or a general exercise regimen that included breathing techniques and stretching. The tai chi group outperformed the other group in tests that involved balance.

SAVING OUR PLANET.  Let's push away pest. The smell of camomile deters most small flies. Let's make our own pesticide by infusing camomile flowers in hot water for ten minutes. Spray on plants to prevent pests alighting.

SAVING OUR NATURE. The dirty work. When we rent glasses for our next party, let's try to find a hire company that takes them back dirty and washes them. They will probably be washing in bulk so it will be more energy efficient than we doing it.

BETTER BREAST CANCER SCREENING. New research: In a study of 334 women at high risk for breast cancer (due to personal history or other factors), 86 women alternated between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening and mammography at six-month intervals for up to four years. Result: This method detected a total of eight cancers--all of which were identified by MRI--three were found by mammography.

HOW TO BECOME A GREEN TEA LOVER. About 50 types of Chinese or Japanese green tea can be found at specialty-food stores or online. If we don't like the taste of green tea, let's just add lemon and/or one teaspoon of sugar or honey--and try iced green tea.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

It’s a nightmare: 1 US dollar hovers under P60

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

—Henry Ford

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

MANY Filipinos think the biggest economic shocker when we entered the year 2026 was not the reported “slightly higher-than-expected” December 2025 inflation (1.8 percent).

It’s neither the central bank (BSP) “signaling the easing of interest rates, and ongoing discussions about fiscal reforms (like VAT) amidst slower growth and a recent corruption scandal” reportedly with hopes for an economic recovery in the second half of 2026 driven by stronger investor confidence.

It’s the ongoing nightmare of Philippine peso against the US dollar.

Before noontime January 6 in New York, I checked the exchange rate in a Filipino remittance center on Queens Boulevard and here’s what I learned: Viamericas (1 dollar-P59.21); Ria (1 dollar-P59.22); Logo (1 dollar-P59.26); Dolex (1 dollar-P59.26).

As of this writing, the US Dollar (USD) was hovering around under P60 in exchange rate at Philippine Peso (PHP) 59.33.

The dollar to peso exchange rate has generally been going up (strengthening the dollar/weakening the peso), with the PHP hitting record lows recently reportedly due to prospects of Philippine interest rate cuts and investor concerns, though it's fluctuating with slight daily movements around the 59 PHP per USD mark.

 

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Economists projected the trend indicates continued pressure on the peso as the Philippine central bank considers easing policy, while global economic factors also play a role.

For someone in the Philippines, it costs more pesos to buy dollars.

For someone holding dollars and converting to pesos, their money goes further.

Here’s the scarier part. The Philippine Peso's future is reportedly mixed: some analysts predict a rebound due to central bank support and remittances, potentially strengthening it in early 2026, while others foresee continued weakness towards or past the 60 PHP/USD mark.

It is reportedly influenced by global trade, US policy, and domestic spending, with some expecting a weaker peso to help certain sectors like tourism and remittances.

Recent activity indicated it hovering around the 59 PHP/USD level, with central bank easing and government spending impacting its direction.

 

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Even if they won’t admit it, the Marcos Jr. administration has actually “lost” its battle to bring back fugitive former presidential spokesman Harry Roque.

He would have been taken back to the Philippines to face the human trafficking among his other criminal cases in December 2025 if the Philippine government succeeded in blocking all the remedies Roque had earlier dug up in his arsenal of tricks.

In fact, we don’t see it in our radar for Roque to be flown out of The Netherlands sooner or later. We theorize the Dutch authorities have granted his request for political asylum.

Roque wouldn’t be louder and braver now in the social media if his chances of being kicked out of The Hague were possible and crystal clear.

 

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DON'T PUT ICE ON A BURN. Several published studies have shown that putting ice on a burn can damage the skin further, even causing frostbite. It is much better to run the burn under cold water, take a pain reliever and cover the burn with gauze.

DOODLING IMPROVES MEMORY. People who doodled while listening to a boring phone message remembered 29% more about the message than those who didn't doodle.

INJURIES FROM FALLING TVs are on the rise among children age nine and under--sometimes because TVs are pulled or pushed by children or tipped over when a child is climbing. THEORY: In recent years, heavier and larger, tip-prone TVs have increased in popularity. SELF DEFENSE: Strap a TV to a table stand or mount it to a wall.

GARDENERS ARE AT RISK FOR TETANUS. The bacteria that causes tetanus, also caled lockjaw, is commonly found in dirt and on tools. Gardeners account for more than 1/3 of the tetanus cases reported in the U.S. each year. SELF-DEFENSE: Get a booster shot every 10 years. Tetanus is rare, but it can be fatal.

THE FRESH SMELL OF RAIN COMES FROM PLANTS. When the weather is dry, certain plants secrete an oil that is absorbed by rocks and soil. When it rains, the oil is released into the air as a gas, creating an aroma called petrichor. KnowledgeNews.Net

Some of the largest breasts ever recorded figure in the book "Human Oddities" by Martin Monestier. The weight of each breast of the woman he mentions in the book is 44 pounds (19.8 kg) while their circumference is 33" (83.82 cm).

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

Foiled abduction of Iloilo editor

“You can't pick and choose which types of freedom you want to defend. You must defend all of it or be against all of it.”

―Scott Howard Phillips

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IT has been 36 years since our colleague, former News Express editor Teopisto "Pet" Melliza, escaped from would-be abductors by the skin of the teeth one afternoon on July 6, 1990 outside our editorial office at the Immaculate Concepcion Bldg., Ledesma St., Iloilo City in the Philippines.

Had it not been for staff writer Fems Pedregosa’s cleverness and our presence of mind (we call it "grace under pressure") during the crisis, now Atty. Pet Melliza would have been "captured" and God knows what would have happened next.

It was actually a combination of luck, right timing and a little guts on the part of Fems, who bravely faced and confused the pony tailed male visitor we learned later to be one of the “hired killers” that arrived from Mindanao with a task "to abduct the editor of News Express and teach him a lesson (this statement had been confirmed by the late former Zarraga mayor Orlando Lacson)."

 

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What lesson? Lacson told a small group of "trusted" reporters (he must have trusted me also because I was there) months later in the ballroom of Hotel del Rio that the would-be abductors had been dispatched by a political warlord in the fifth district of Iloilo "in sympathy" with then San Miguel mayor Simeon Suero, who was on the warpath with News Express.

According to Lacson, Suero was "fuming mad" when he narrated to the political warlord how News Express had "tarnished my reputation as mayor of San Miguel." 　

Suero was referring to a headline story a week before the foiled abduction in the paper’s Hiligayon section entitled "Mayor namago, baylehan naputo" (Benefit dance went bankrupt when mayor didn’t pay) which Suero claimed had pictured him in bad light.

Even after President Marcos Sr. fell and President Tita Cory assumed power, extra judicial killings continued unabated targeting and victimizing mostly political activists and community journalists.

Lacson admitted he was privy to the “plot” as he was present when Suero and the political warlord discussed the abduction.

In fact, Lacson didn’t oppose the plan, he said, as he also “had a score to settle with the newspaper” and hard-hitting DYBQ Radyo Budyong anchorman Rani Jangayo.

The newspaper and Jangayo both had criticized Lacson as “protector” of illegal gambling in his town.

 

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At this juncture, Jangayo’s colleague, the late broadcaster Antonio “Tony” Laniog, who had one drink too many, berated Lacson. "Yots, ano kamo mamatay taga media? Patyanay na lang ta di ho" (So you want to kill us, media men? We might as well start killing each other here now).

The late Gus Bacabac, a former Capitol official and friend of both Lacson and some media men present, pacified Laniog. "Ton, tama na ina. Hinaya lang tingog mo" (Ton, that’s enough. Just minimize your voice).

The situation became tense when Lacson stopped talking and turned his back like looking for somebody behind him.

One Francis Terania later approached and whispered something to Lacson. Bacabac pointed his finger at Terania and ordered him in a loud voice to "Get out! You are not included here."

Lacson and everyone in the group knew Laniog, then president of Capitol press corps, had a .45 caliber gun tucked in his waist. The atmosphere was so tension-filled that everyone started leaving as soon as silence beckoned.

"Upod lang ta ya pre puli a (I will go with you, buddy)," the late Alex Sumagaysay, a colleague of Laniog and Jangayo, told me. No untoward incident happened. We dispersed at past 1 o’clock in the morning.

 

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Atty. Melliza had nothing to do whatsoever with Suero’s supposed agony.

It was Fems, in charge of the Hiligaynon page, who wrote the story about the benefit dance after being tipped off by an SK official whose association had hosted the benefit dance.　

In the SK official’s allegations, Suero and his bodyguards did not pay when they entered the dance hall. Because many of them were armed, residents who wanted to join the dance, shied away.　

Going back to our editorial office. The male visitor, who was allowed to go upstairs by printing press workers, was looking for “Pet.”

Fems became suspicious when the visitor refused to give details about his purpose and did not identify himself.

She excused herself from the visitor and whispered to me, "Lex, sugataa to si Pet sa dalum kon e nga indi anay magsaka kay diskompiado gid ako sa tawo nga ini (Lex, go wait for Pet downstairs and tell him not to enter our office yet because I don’t trust this guy here)."

 

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I went downstairs and saw the visitor’s other cohorts some 50 meters away (their vehicle was parked near a barber shop) from the Malones Printing Press.

They were restless and looking from one direction to another like watching a "live" tennis match.　

I went back inside and exited through the back door (going to the now Mary Mart Mall) where I met the unsuspecting editor. "Pet, indi ka anay magsaka kay delikado (Pet, don’t go upstairs yet; it’s dangerous)," I told the editor. We left the area.

The thugs had to endure about two to three hours waiting for nothing. They left empty handed.

While we were drinking coffee at Central Market several years later, Suero, who was no longer mayor, confessed to me his knowledge about the issue. "Wara ron to a. Nadala lang ko to sa emosyon ko" (Let’s forget everything. I was only then carried by my emotion).

How many journalists have been murdered in cold blood only because the likes of Suero were "only carried by their emotions?"　

Suero, who was weak and limping during our coffeeshop talk, has died.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor in chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines—Ed)

Avoiding Vice Mayor Aimee Paz’s ‘second death’

“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.”

—Albert Einstein

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

JUDGING from the way colleagues in public service, constituents in Duenas, Iloilo and prominent Iloilo leaders described her as a public servant and friend, we can conclude that the late Vice Mayor Aimee Paz Lamasan was a quality human being.

Twenty-two days before her untimely death on December 30, 2025, Lamasan wished for peace for her constituents in Duenas during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 2025.

AIMEE PAZ LAMASAN

Although Lamasan left the physical world in a rather freaky manner, her good deeds while serving the people of Duenas and its environs were enough to compare her physical death to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Having been “preserved” by God’s special grace from all stain of original sin like the Blessed Virgin Mary in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, made the well-loved Lamasan also free from concupiscence (the inclination to sin); she, too, was not subject to the dominion of death as a punishment for sin.

 

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With her legacy and quality, Lamasan shouldn’t die twice. Voltaire said, "On meurt deux fois, je le vois bien: Cesser d'aimer & d'être aimable, C'est une insupportable mort; Cesser de vivre ce n'est rien" (We die twice, I see well: To stop loving & being loved, Is an unbearable death; To stop living is nothing).

Lamasan’s first death from a bullet wound, officially ruled by the La Paz Police Station as accidental, was physical, the biological end of her life, when her heart stopped and her brain ceased to function.

Like many of those who joined our Creator, Lamasan could also suffer from so-called “oblivion” or the second death.

It’s the Catholic doctrine of a dead person’s final fading from memory and history, when the good vice mayor’s name would no longer be celebrated, remembered, uttered, read, or thought of.

Those who truly love Lamasan can prevent the second death by continuing to share her many interesting stories, honor her good memories, and speak her name to keep her essence alive.

After all, Lamasan had helped and touched so many lives in one way or the other in her brief stint as public servant and friend of many people in Iloilo.  

 

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WHY FRIENDS SHOULDN'T LET FRIENDS EXERCISE SOLO. Natalie Gingerich says that working out a deux can make a tough routine feel easier. A University of Oxford study found that exercisers tolerated discomfort better when working out in a group, compared with doing it alone. Researchers believe partner workouts may heighten levels of hormones such as endorphins that boost mood and block pain signals.

CAREFUl, DEAR STUDENTS: Education can make you lonely. Academics are single more often than people without degrees. The reason: They often spend their evenings working overtime.

HEART DISEASE AND DIABETES. Lack of sleep is associated with higher levels of stress hormones that may raise blood pressure and affect glucose metabolism. A new study found that the risk for high blood pressure among insomniacs who slept less than 5 hours per night was 500 times greater than those who logged more than 6 hours.

SLEEP! IT'S NON-NEGOTIABLE. I was bed-ridden because of colds as a result of less sleep these past weeks. I just learned from Health News & Trends that a good night's sleep isn't just about hitting the ground running in the morning. If we get 7 to 9 hours experts advise, we can expect these added benefits, said Catherine Winters.

WOMEN NEED TO SAVE MORE FOR RETIREMENT THAN MEN. Reason: After retirement, women live an average of 22 years, compared with 19 for men. Women must save an additional 2 percent a year for 30 years to make up for that difference.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)