TABANGOS, Philippines — This Fourth Class Municipality of Leyte staged for the 4th consecutive year on Monday, Jan. 14 its Tambayayong Festival with the crowds growing each year since it first started in 2015.
Continue reading (511 words, 2 pictures)

Who is the Santo Niño? Is he really miraculous? Does it have Biblical basis? Why do Catholics believe in him? Why do the faithful give importance of his image? Is it not against the Ten Commandments as provided for by the book of exodus?
Continue reading (536 words, one picture)

Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year’s Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar.
Continue reading (286 words, 2 pictures)

“The Pampanga was hobbled by a number of weaknesses. Fresh water supply was limited as its pumps had difficulty sucking water from its tanks. The ship’s desalination plant was badly in need of repair or replacement. The satellite phone assigned to them had many blind spots at sea. Of the four binoculars on the ship, one was borrowed, only one was reliable while the others had poor vision. But the patrol had to go on.”
Continue reading (1,309 words, 2 pictures)

In the context of Philippine showbiz, Eddie Garcia is a gem, or a rare gem, or perhaps an oddball.
Unlike others in the television and movie industries, Eddie early on did not view acting or directing as a goal in life.
Continue reading (1,822 words, 8 pictures)

An estimated 4,000 tons of garbage are sitting in Songdo International City, Incheon, pending lawsuits, after a separate case in which a container full of plastic waste was found to have been illegally exported to the Philippines.
Continue reading (461 words, one picture)

Due to Plasencia’s Catholic mindset and the Spanish vengeance to cleanse the lands of “heathens”, early Filipino’s were trained, forced, and convinced to associate some of these beings with the devil. The Spanish were successful in eliminating the belief in deities and de-powering the spiritual leaders, but they were no match for superstitions. Legazpi stated his mission soon after he arrived on the Islands.
Continue reading (1,917 words, 2 pictures)

The Suludnon, also known as the Tumandok, Panay-Bukidnon, or Panayanon Sulud, are an indigenous Visayan group of people who reside in the Capiz-Lambunao mountainous area of Panay in the Visayan islands of the Philippines. They are the only culturally indigenous group of Visayan language-speakers in the Western Visayas.
Continue reading (1,807 words, 4 pictures)

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE of the Trinity holds that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons or hypostases —the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit—as “one God in three Divine Persons”.The trinity doctrine is not unique to, nor original with, Christianity. It has deep Pagan roots, dating back to at least two centuries BC, and has been prominent in many Eastern religions ever since.
Continue reading (2,258 words, 4 pictures)

Engkanto are environmental spirits. They are often associated with the spirits of ancestors in the Philippines. They are also characterized as spirit sorts like sirens, dark beings, diwata, and more. Belief in their existence has existed for centuries, and continues, with some, to this day. Anito is used to refer to spirits, deceased ancestors, nature-spirits nymphs and diwatas. Ancient Filipinos kept statues to represent these spirits, ask guidance and magical protection.
Continue reading (1,297 words, one picture)

Psychopomp is a word that is derived from Greek psukhe ‘soul’, pompe ‘procession’ and pempein ‘send’. In world mythologies they are described as guides for the souls of the dead, which are usually accompanied to some sort of afterlife.
Continue reading (1,172 words, 4 pictures)

There is a special place in the Bagobo underworld for children who died at their mothers’ breasts. They are nourished by the goddess Mebuyan whose entire body is delicious with milk glands. When they no longer need nursing and can shift for themselves, they go trooping to another district underground to join people who died later in life of disease or any form of sickness.
Continue reading (937 words, 3 pictures)

The stories of ancient Philippine mythology include deities, creation stories, mythical creatures, and beliefs. Ancient Philippine mythology varies among the many indigenous tribes of the Philippines. Some groups during the pre-Spanish conquest era believed in a single Supreme Being who created the world and everything in it, while others chose to worship a multitude of tree and forest deities (diwatas).
Continue reading (780 words, 4 pictures)

“The Visayan still holds to many of the old superstitions, not because he has reasoned them out for himself, but because his ancestors believed them and transmitted them to him in such stories as these. [The Creation Story is] A very old explanatory tale. In a slightly varying form it is found in other parts of the Islands.” – Mabel Cook Cole, 1916
Continue reading (1,226 words, 4 pictures)

There was a time in the Philippines where homosexuality was regarded in high esteem. Homosexuals were given the same rights as that of heterosexual folks. In some cases, they held important powers and leadership roles in the community – next to the “Datu” or the chieftain. The records and evidence to support these claims are tied to the traditional concept of the Babaylan.
Continue reading (1,449 words, 3 pictures)