By Nick Joaquin THE MORETAS WERE spending St. John’s Day with the children’s grandfather, whose feast day it was. Doña Lupeng awoke feeling faint with the heat, a sound of screaming in her ears. In the dining room the three boys already attired in their holiday suits, were at breakfast, and came crowding around her, [...]

by Carlos P. Romulo I am a Filipino – inheritor of a glorious past, hostage to the uncertain future. As such, I must prove equal to a two-fold task – the task of meeting my responsibility to the past, and the task of performing my obligation to the future. I am sprung from a hardy [...]

Bukidnon (Mindanao) A long time ago there was a very big crab which crawled into the sea. And when he went in he crowded the water out so that it ran all over the earth and covered all the land. Now about one moon before this happened, a wise man had told the people that [...]

ni Erlinda Kintanar Alburo (Alang kang Rene, sa Leap Year 2004) Naa pay daghan dihang naglumpayat. Pananglitan, ang ulan sa sandayong— Ang liso sa iyang bayanan – Ang itoy nga nagkiat – Ang mananaog sa lumba – Ang naghikog diha sa taytayan – Si Inday nga mao pay pagkadawat og sulat ni Undo – ug [...]

by Fatima V. Lim Six months since she arrived And yet she does not speak She must have been chained This I guess from the bruises On her wrists. But she will not Let me touch them. She trembles at the sight Of tall men, more so at those With shadows on their lips.

by Bienvenido N. Santos if time took longer than the blood rushing to my face or the pace were gentler than the flow of everlasting covenants I would with dedicated slowness remove my clothes piece by piece and fold them into a corner of your life and go back to them only after a quest [...]

Narrated by Anicio Pascual of Arayat, Pampanga, who heard the story from an old Pampangan woman. Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a brave and powerful datu who had only one son. The son was called Pedro. In the same place lived a poor wood-cutter whose name was Juan Manalaksan. Pedro [...]

A Tinguian Folktale

One day a little boy named Elonen sat out in the yard making a bird snare, and as he worked, a little bird called to him:

“Tik-tik-lo-den” (come and catch me).

If you can answer the following ten questions correctly, then your love affair with our very own language is confirmed. Go on, dive into it.