The Impossible Girl In Coffee City

Today marks the 23rd year of the 7.8M earthquake Luzon island in the Philippines in the afternoon of 16 July 1990. I was seven, in first grade, just a month in my new school (classes here start in June). Our class were dismissed and our group was the assigned cleaners of the day so we were left in the classroom by ourselves. We have been scrubbing the blackboard with glee, singing the song we learnt in Music class that day. Me and classmate, who I remember vividly, went to dust off the eraser when suddenly she stared at me and said calmly, "Gumagalaw ang lupa (The ground is moving.)." We were first graders so we do not know what exactly was happening, just the ground moving. After realising what that meant, we screamed and went inside our classroom, to our classmates, nearby until the teacher of the morning session possibly heard us, as the Faculty Room were a few feet from our classroom, went to us to calm us down and told us exactly what happened. Our class adviser, who wa...

This again appeared in my personal Tumblr dated 25 May 2013. Updated. Dear Mr Tolentino, Greetings and peace in the Holy Spirit! You may not know me. I am a mere citizen of the country. I admire you for the work you have done in our metropolis. I also admire you that you answer to almost every call of the media to answer questions and problems. However, your actions in the past week disappointed me. You see, I'm also an avid reader and fan of Mr Dan Brown. In Mr Brown's book,  Inferno , it was said that Manila, the most densely populated city in the world, is the "gates of hell". I think you have taken it out of context. It was mentioned as such because it was the personal feeling of the character. You deemed it as a description of Manila in general but I don't. We all experience our personal "hell", as simple as in our own houses. Don't we all call our homes "hell" when something bad happens? I think this is what was depi...