DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 9 March) – As I expressed my personal expectation in my earlier post, “WHAT COMES AFTER?” (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1SxmnbCSG6), between the highest Islamic scholarship (marjaʿiyyah) and political credentials, the latter qualification would be given more weight in the
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 7 March) – In the language of maps, we often assume neutrality. A river flows where it flows. A mountain stands where it stands. A gulf is simply a gulf. But Social Constructivism reminds us that
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 February) – We were in Day Two. Around a hundred representatives from selected LGUs in Maguindanao del Sur and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) such as provincial board members, mayors, barangay officials, planners, and Municipal
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 1 February) – “Time has changed.” If I had a peso for every time I heard that line whenever modesty is discussed, perhaps I could fund a community library by now. The phrase always comes out
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 24 January) – Make no mistake about it. The downing of Starlink would only delay but never deter the US attack on Iran. That, in itself, is not strategy. It is anthropology. It is the inherent
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 30 December) – I write this not merely as a reader of history, but as a Bwayan’n—someone whose memory is tethered to a river older than the republic, older than the textbooks that taught us to look north
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 23 December) – In Philippine politics, words do not merely describe reality. They perform it. That is why, in our social media feeds, the title “political analyst” enjoys a privileged seat, which is usually higher than
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 16 December) – Every few years, someone declares—often with alarm—that “wala na ang values ng kabataan.” As if morality were a wooden ship docked somewhere in the past, now stripped plank by plank by modernity, social
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 10 December) — December 10 again. International Human Rights Day. And again, I find myself asking: Whose rights are we really remembering today? While the world posts ready-made templates about “dignity” and “freedom,” my mind drifts,
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 9 December) – December 9 quietly passes every year as the International Day against Corruption. It is a date rooted in the universal approval when the United Nations Convention Against Corruption was signed on 31 October 2003.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 28 November) – If there is anything I have learned from years of sitting in circles (whether academic, dialogue, or sometimes no-words spoken but circles still gathered under mango trees) it is this: stories are the
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 7 November) — The sea is a storyteller. Yes, it was a storyteller and has always been so. It carries memories, not just ships. It holds the whispers of travelers who once dared to cross its
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 5 Nov) — So, it finally happened. A Muslim. A democratic socialist. A son of Ugandan immigrants. The mayor of New York City. If this were a movie, it would open with a young man walking
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 26 October) – My infatuation with psychology was never conscious. Not until recently. Or so I thought. My Roommate is a Psychology graduate. My uniqa hija is also a graduating Psychology student; her own decision entirely. Although I never formally pursued
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 6 October) – It was a bright morning at the Bangsamoro Government Center when the Office for Settler Communities, led by MP Susana Anayatin, attended, as we learned through her Facebook post, the launch of the
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 12 September) – Rappler has already apologized “deeply,” in fact, to Sen. Robin “Abdul Aziz” Padilla and the Muslim community. Case closed? Perhaps. But moving on without reflection only invites a repeat performance. But if we
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 10 September) – It was a lazy Doha afternoon yesterday (September 9). Many Qatari families had retreated into their homes for their customary siesta, curtains drawn, the desert heat pressing down outside. In that very hour
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 24 August) – I was a neophyte woodpusher in Grade 4 when I first discovered the mischievous power of the fianchetto. For me, it wasn’t some high theory tucked inside Aron Nimzowitsch’s My System or Alexander
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 August) — It was almost 10 years ago. It has been almost 10 years since the first Titayan symposium-workshop was convened in April 2016, in the shadow of the Mamasapano debacle. Back then, the focus
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 8 August) – In the January 2019 plebiscite, the Province of Sulu said “no” to its inclusion in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Around that time (December 2018), Sulu—alongside two others—petitioned the Supreme
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 02 August) – There are moments in one’s professional journey that arrive quietly yet carry the weight of meaning… …like being asked to sit beside the Fatwa Division Chief of the Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta’ in a legislative
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 31 July) — Never did I imagine teaching in a Jesuit university. In fact, when I was an elementary student deliberating on where to pursue college, I had already been granted a scholarship in a Catholic
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 July) – February 1986. The air in Mindanao State University – General Santos City carried the usual scent of excitement and springtime sweat. The Mindanao State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association (MSCUAA) Meet was in full swing.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 16 July) — Twelve days. That’s how long the recent imposed war by the Zionist entity and the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran has raged—twelve days of missiles and mayhem, but also of
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 15 July) — Two weeks. That’s how long it has been since the newly elected local officials in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao — like their counterparts across the country — took their oath
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 05 July) – Somewhere between the ruins of Homs and the olive groves of Quneitra, the sand no longer remembers the footsteps of resistance. It only remembers the boots. And perhaps in a five-star New York
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 28 June) – Just a few days into the Zionist entity’s imposed war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, my phone pinged with a familiar sound—the Facebook mention that signals either drama, gossip, or, in rare
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 27 June) The crescent of Muharram has just appeared. The sacred month that signals not only the start of the Islamic year but also the annual reenactment of a tragic yet timeless question: Who stands with
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 15 June) “What is more dangerous—nuclear weapons in the hands of a theocracy, or the silence of the world when a rogue state flaunts its impunity?” That message from a former student on the morning of June
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 13 May) “Moral Governance,” they said. But in the alleyways of May 12, we saw more envelopes than ethics. It was barely dawn when I prepared for the polling station, walking with a frozen shoulder—a gentle
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 12 May) – It was still dark when the call to prayer echoed through the quiet neighborhood. The dawn air was cool, almost expectant. My roommate and I—without even a sip of coffee or bite of
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 11 May) Let’s be honest. In this liberal democracy—this noisy, flashy, personality-driven fiesta we call an electoral process—there exists a peculiar, unofficial holiday observed with more discipline and stealth than any national commemorative day. It’s not
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 9 May) – As videos of the recently held ballot testing flashed across my Facebook feed—complete with fist fights, flying chairs, and flared tempers—I found myself not just disturbed, but momentarily transported. Transported back to a
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 8 May) – “Power is the ability to get what you want.” Joseph Nye didn’t just say it. He reframed it—reimagined it, softened it, and made it resonate beyond bullets and ballots. And on Tuesday, May
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 7 May) When I first heard the phrase “Ansar Allah is attacking ships in the Red Sea,” my initial thought wasn’t about missiles or military calculations. It was about symbols—and the stories that nations, peoples, and
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 1 May) — In our community in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, certain slogans rise and fall like tides—repeating themselves in critical political moments, like background chants to our unfolding public story. One of them, increasingly familiar
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 28 April) – Today, we unsheathe another sword. Today, we release into the world a book that was never meant to be merely read—but to be felt, grieved, and acted upon. Today, The Politics of Peace
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 28 April) – I have a confession to make. After much soul-searching, relentless fact-checking, and a deep dive into my ancestral archives, I must finally admit the truth: I have Sub-Saharan roots. Yes, you heard that
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 27 April) — It happened too fast. Nobody — neither the West’s analysts nor the Arab street’s coffee shop prophets—predicted it. The fall of Bashar al-Asad in a matter of 11 days (Nov 27 – Dec 8,
