For former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia, a thing wasn’t just very good, it was “very, very good.” I’m not sure if he still has that verbal mannerism today but it was… Read More

The proposal to break up the Archdiocese of Cebu into three territories needs fine tuning on priest assignments and finances, the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles John Brown wrote Archbishop… Read More

The buzz was mainly on two dishes prepared by top-notch chefs married to each other but occupying stations at opposite ends of the sprawling three-ballroom setup that was the grand launch of… Read More

On Sunday, the priest who had me barred from entering the Archbishop’s Residence apologized and explained what happened. I won’t be naming him. He’s young and I hope he mov… Read More

The inventory of the heritage church of Boljoon is missing, its parish secretary confirmed to me this week. They are still looking for it, she said over the phone. A person familiar w… Read More

Encased in an ornate and antique tabernacle or urna at the parish museum of Boljoon is a pitiful sight – a wooden replica of the Niño Dormido sleeping on a stainless steel bed t… Read More

Let the panels from the pulpit of the heritage church of Boljoon in southern Cebu be the property of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) but displayed at the parish from which it wa… Read More

By Dad, the writer of this The Freeman headline meant a Cebu City Councilor. “After child fell to death: Dad wants condos’ permits checked.” The presence of the word &ldquo… Read More

The Cebu Provincial Government will write to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to clarify its legal opinion on the pulpit panels from the heritage church of Boljoon in southern Cebu… Read More

The following is the transcript of my interview with National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) Director General Jeremy Barns. I have decided to publish it in full to serve as reference on the… Read More

The Cebu Provincial Government is preparing a case against officials of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) on the issue over the four pulpit panels stolen from the heritage church… Read More

Binignit, that dish of root crops cooked in coconut milk, finally broke out among the trending Google search terms for the Philippines today. Today is likely its peak. For the past fe… Read More

Greta Garbo stipulated in her contract that the studio had to provide her with silk underwear, said The New Yorker writer Susan Orlean. Producer Louis Mayer questioned having to spend money… Read More

The Facebook messages came one after the other, “is this true?” By this, those who contacted me meant a report yesterday by a local news outfit about the return of pulpit panels… Read More

Writing it down on paper will help you figure it out, artist and writer Jenny Odell said in her talk on “The Art of Observation” hosted by the NUS Libraries Writers’ Centre… Read More

“Ave Maria” is how Carmel Grace Alde Fulache would greet me in chat messages. That is also how she greets people in person. She is shown in this photo inside the Chapel of Holy R… Read More

This urna or tabernacle was reported to have been sold for P1.44 million, inclusive of commission, in 2017. This was briefly mentioned during the discussion among Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Gar… Read More

Don’t expect any statement from the Cebu-Citizens Press Council on that vulgar and inhumane interview by Juril Patiño and Dennes Tabar on Brigada News FM. I asked Atty Pachico S… Read More

Controversial broadcaster Juril Patiño on Wednesday let a 4-year-old rape victim recount her experience in lurid details and on air over Brigada News FM. “Mao to gi open na n… Read More

For two centuries, the baptistery of the Boljoon Church was adorned with a painting by Manila-based artist Severino Flavier Pablo of the baptism of St. Augustine. It was lost in the late 197… Read More

Andoni Aboitiz, chair of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) Board of Trustees, met with Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia at the Capitol late Tuesday afternoon. I wrote about it for R… Read More

Several people I talked to separately all said essentially the same thing: Edwin Bautista initially wanted to donate the panels directly to Boljoon but then changed his mind and donated it t… Read More

What’s your verbal mannerism? Mine is to say, “boanga no?” (That’s crazy or isn’t that crazy?) I say this a lot during interviews and even for such munda… Read More

Disappointed was the word a few priests used to describe what they felt about the silence of the Archdiocese of Cebu on the deceptive move to gather signatures for a people’s initiativ… Read More

By several accounts, Brigida Gerzon was a diligent student and great friend. One of her former blockmates at the Cebu Normal University (CNU) said Gerzon, known to those close to her as Brig… Read More

In 1996, a newbie reporter at The Freeman submitted a news article about then Cebu City Mayor Alvin Garcia’s comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What happened, as is often th… Read More

The Commission on Laity (COL) has sent out three questions for discernment by members of the laity and eventual inclusion in the Sugbuswak proposal that will be submitted to the Catholic Bis… Read More

“The Church’s inherent nature is to give rise to local churches,” said the guidelines for 13th General Pastoral Assembly (GPA) of the Archdiocese of Cebu. The GPA opened ye… Read More

I woke up today to several messages about an ongoing press conference on Sugbuswak, the move to break up the Archdiocese of Cebu. I knew there was to be a launch of a Facebook page on Sugbus… Read More

I can’t find any report that indicates the level of popular support for Sugbuswak or the move to break up the Archdiocese of Cebu. I’m not sure if anyone in the Archdiocese is lo… Read More

For a Church that moves at a takyong’s pace (context below), how meaningful a consultation can one do in just a few weeks? Not much, some priests have told me. From what I understand a… Read More

(The following is the welcome address of Cebu Archbishop Jose S. Palma during the Day of Prayer and Discernment last September 19, 2023. The Clergy Recollection was held to discuss the move… Read More

If the recommendation to study the viability of breaking up the Archdiocese of Cebu came after the Cebu Archdiocesan Priests’ Congress on August 20, 2002, why did the move happen only… Read More

A key concern on the division of the Archdiocese of Cebu that was shared by several priests and lay people I’ve interviewed these past few weeks is the timeline. Sugbuswak was a… Read More

I’ve covered several news beats and in my experience, the Church is among the least transparent. At times, their approach to dealing with the media is Old Testament Biblical – li… Read More

The Archdiocese of Cebu will be split into three new territories: Archdiocese of Cebu-Central, Diocese of Cebu-North and Diocese of Cebu-South. During the Day of Prayer and Discernment on Se… Read More

On World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Cebu media will hold a forum on “How Cebu City’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Ordinance Works.” K. I’m sure it’s importa… Read More

On the trail of St. Vitalis of Milan, I found myself at this stall selling religious images behind the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. St. Vitalis was an early Christian martyr described by… Read More

The post Algorithmic clustering and radicalization on socmed appeared first on Leon Kilat: The Tech Experiments Read More

Cebu Updates, the current iteration of what used to be the Cebu City Public Information Office (PIO) Facebook page, mocked the decision by Mayor Michael Rama’s administration to hold t… Read More

The only flavor in the thing I am loathe to call batchoy was provided by the small packet of McCormick ground black pepper that came with the bowl. I don’t use condiments with batch… Read More

Technology is neutral, it’s how we use it, artist Jan Leeroy New told Cebu bloggers at the sidelines of the Cebu leg of the 55th Pilipinas Shell’s National Student Arts Competiti… Read More

A key problem with using text to speech (TTS) services like Amazon Polly is the foreign accent it renders certain words. One such word is Cebu, which systems often pronounce as “say bu… Read More

Do newsrooms still have publication standards apart from engagement? Apparently not the Sun.Star Cebu Facebook page, judging by its recent posts. There is a noticeable shift by the page to t… Read More

The accusation published by Manila Bulletin that singer Moira dela Torre was paid P5 million to perform at a Leni-Kiko campaign rally is an example of what journalist Nick Davies described i… Read More

A recent story by Manila Bulletin illustrates the inanities of traffic whoring by the rewriting-social-media-posts beat. The story amplified a serious accusation – that the artist Moir… Read More

Google Trends predicted the winners of the past two presidential elections in the Philippines. Except for former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, Google Trends predicted the winn… Read More

Miffed at being criticized over a news coverage, a reporter once juxtaposed his “real journalism” of being out on the field with “armchair journalism.” The attempt… Read More

Dimitris got locked inside our AirBnB unit when he visited the Philippines in March 2019. He called up his son back in Lamia, Greece, who then messaged us for help. It was his son who booked… Read More

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Ahong Chan shared on his Facebook page today results of a survey reportedly by a group called Pulse Phil Survey that shows not only that he leads bitter rival Rep. Paz R… Read More