Category: Business Mirror

Before the Sierra Madre becomes a headline, it is already speaking.

On September 26, the Prelature of Infanta, through its Social Action Center, gathered communities for Mass at St. Mark and Infant Jesus Cathedral, followed by a motorcade toward the General Nakar boundary bridge. People’s organizations, youth, Indigenous Peoples, clergy, and lay leaders joined.

This was more than an observance. It was a public act of memory and participation. It asked whether affected communities are genuinely heard.

We have learned to remember the Sierra Madre in fragments. We remember it when storms arrive or flooded streets appear on our screens.

But the mountain does its work when the sky is clear. Its forests and terrain help moderate winds, regulate water, hold soil, and sustain communities.

For Infanta, General Nakar, and neighboring areas, it is water, food, work, protection, and ancestral home.

September 26 is not arbitrary. Proclamation 413 declared September 26 Save Sierra Madre Day and called the society and government to protect the mountain. It reminds us of what the Sierra Madre does for the country, and what the country continues to do to it.

The memory of late November 2004 remains impossible to dismiss. Heavy rains associated with Tropical Depression Winnie and succeeding weather systems triggered landslides and flash floods across Infanta, General Nakar, and Real.

One documented account records 165 deaths in Infanta alone. Rainfall may trigger disaster, but vulnerability is shaped by terrain, watershed condition, exposure, and decisions made long before the water rises.

Yet national attention often arrives only after disaster. Once the images disappear, the communities disappear with them. Many places carry environmental burdens that never enter the national conversation.

This indifference is a social cancer. Environmental questions are not secondary to politics or economic hardship. Ecology is the ground on which public life stands.

Participation must therefore mean more than a hearing held for compliance. Under applicable environmental and Indigenous-rights rules, participation requires timely information, accessible documents, a genuine chance to question and respond, and a process that can take people’s concerns seriously.

A consultation that begins after decisions have hardened may satisfy paperwork while failing the democratic purpose of participation.

The concern over the Kaliwa Dam must not be reduced to a contest between progress and opposition. The need for water is real. The project is intended to provide an additional 600 million liters of raw water per day for Metro Manila.

But so are the questions involving its watershed, its project area in General Nakar and Infanta, and the rights and welfare of Dumagat-Remontado communities.

Water security cannot treat the watershed’s people as an afterthought.

The same seriousness must be brought to quarrying. The first thing people see is the trucks: dust, traffic, danger on public roads, and the burden placed on communities.

But the trucks are not the beginning of the story. They are the visible consequence of decisions made long before they appeared on the roads.

The deeper questions concern clearances, consultation, environmental and engineering assessments, enforcement, and whether agencies act before harm becomes ordinary.

This is not a rejection of legitimate business or development. Communities need water, energy, jobs, and investment.

What must be rejected is greed disguised as development, consultation reduced to ritual, and bureaucracy bent toward convenience. A permit may show that a legal step was taken. It does not, by itself, settle the larger question of legitimacy.

The same standard must apply to wind energy. Renewable does not mean impact-free. Environmental Management Bureau records list approved Environment Compliance Certificates for wind projects in the wider area, including a proposed 200-megawatt wind farm in Minahan Sur, General Nakar, and a 600-megawatt project covering parts of Infanta, Real, and General Nakar.

These records begin public questions about ecological compatibility, cultural practices, cumulative impacts, and the common good.

These concerns can be held together by three Filipino words: ‘Kalikasan, Kamalayan, and Kalooban.’

Kalikasan is the living world that sustains us. Kamalayan is the capacity to see what is happening, remember beyond disaster, and allow affected people to participate. Kalooban is the moral condition of those who speak, organize, oppose, and decide.

Indignation has its place. It shows that conscience is alive. But it cannot be reduced to noise or become hatred. A movement that refuses to listen to disagreement may reproduce the closedness it condemns.

This is not a search for enemies. It is an invitation to remain open, including to those who differ from us.

We do not claim to be right all the time. Our process and intentions must also be examined and purified. A movement is measured not only by the volume of its protest, but by its fidelity to truth, willingness to listen, and capacity to seek justice without losing charity.

The Church’s role is not to manufacture an enemy or sanctify one side. It is to accompany communities, awaken conscience, widen dialogue, and help citizens and institutions listen more honestly.

Here lies the double betrayal. First, society weakens the natural defenses that protect communities. Then the institutions meant to hear warnings and protect those exposed fail to act with courage and responsibility. The first wound is ecological. The second is institutional.

The September 26 movement is, therefore, not noise for its own sake. It is a knock on the doors of government, a call for records to be opened, decisions examined, communities heard, and action taken while prevention is still possible.

We cannot remember the Sierra Madre only when floods make it national news. We must defend it while the sky is clear, beyond the camera’s gaze. It is not a backdrop, but an active condition of life.

To defend it is to defend water, homes, livelihoods, cultural survival, and the right of communities to shape their future. The mountain remembered only after the flood is one we have failed to hear.

On Save Sierra Madre Day, may Kalikasan, Kamalayan, and Kalooban taught us to listen before the next flood.

From processing fish and squid to producing salt, women in Daram, Samar are turning the island municipality’s abundant seawater into an additional source of livelihood, with the support from the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).

Through the Development of the Salt Industry Project (DSIP), BFAR Region VIII (Eastern Visayas) provided the Daram Association of Fish and Squid Processors and the Brgy. Ubo Dried Fish Vendors Association with materials and inputs to establish solar salt production facilities, complementing their existing fish-processing activities.

The two associations, composed of 16 and 25 fisherfolk members, respectively, each received ?100,000.00 worth of Solar Salt Production in Low Linear Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) with Frame modules, along with a generator, submersible pump, and HDPE drums.

BFAR VIII also conducted comprehensive salt-making training in Tacloban City and provided capability-building activities to equip the associations with the knowledge and skills needed to properly operate and manage the technology.

The intervention allows the communities to transform locally available seawater into salt through a simple solar evaporation process.

Clean seawater is filtered before being placed in an LLDPE-lined drying area covered with UV film.

Under the heat of the sun, the water gradually evaporates, leaving salt crystals that can be collected after approximately four to five days, depending on weather conditions.

Their initial production has already yielded 180 kilograms of salt, which the associations used for their fish-drying activities. The early results demonstrate how locally produced salt can both provide an additional livelihood and help support the supply requirements of existing fish-processing enterprises.

For Gilda Dosal Añez, president of the Daram Association of Fish and Squid Processors, salt-making presents a practical livelihood opportunity for women in coastal communities.

She said salt-making has great potential as a livelihood because it does not require a large amount of capital and can be easily managed, particularly by women.

Daram is an island municipality composed of 57 coastal communities and one upland community. Fishing remains its primary livelihood, with 98% of residents recorded as municipal fishers by the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist-Fisheries Services (OMA-FS).

With the municipality surrounded by seawater, local officials see salt production as a practical way to make use of an abundant local resource while creating additional economic opportunities for coastal communities.

The local government unit of Daram organized the associations, provided initial seed capital, and facilitated their connections with government agencies and development partners for technical assistance and training.

BFAR’s support through the DSIP is set to expand further. BFAR VIII will distribute ?300,000.00 worth of Collapsible Salt Production Setups to associations in Daram, Samar, to increase their production capacity and availability of locally produced salt while providing fisherfolk with an additional source of income.

The associations also plan to add more liner setups, move toward mass production, and eventually develop iodized, food-grade salt. They are likewise looking into value-adding opportunities and the possible replication of the technology in other barangays interested in adopting solar salt production.

The locally produced salt currently sells for ?20 per kilogram, providing the associations with another product while helping meet the salt requirements of local fish processors.

At the regional level, the DSIP has identified 230 individuals from 13 associations and one cooperative in Eastern Visayas as beneficiaries of salt production interventions.

Target areas include Daram Island in Samar; San Roque in Northern Samar; Maasin and Hinunangan in Southern Leyte; Baybay City in Leyte; Guiuan and Arteche in Eastern Samar; and Naval and Maripipi in Biliran.

From seawater to salt, and from salt production to stronger coastal livelihoods, DSIP is helping turn the country’s salt resources into an industry-one community, one producer, and one livelihood opportunity at a time.

A CRUSH can make even the most ordinary day feel a little more special.

There’s breakfast, traffic, a walk by the beach, something cold to drink, and a few hours spent wondering if the other person feels the same. Then comes the question: will there be a kiss before the sun goes down?

Malaysian RandB singer-songwriter Nigel Tay taps into that kind of attraction in his new single, ‘Manhattan Beach’-the kind that doesn’t come with grand declarations, but stays on your mind from morning until sunset.

The song turns a day in Los Angeles (LA) into a nostalgic summer memory, following a couple through food, traffic, and beachside wandering before arriving at the possibility of a kiss.

‘When I was writing ‘Manhattan Beach,’ definitely I was picturing it as a whole-day event,’ Nigel told SoundStrip in an exclusive interview earlier this month. ‘When that kiss-you’re already thinking about it from the morning.’

The anticipation, rather than the kiss itself, becomes the song’s emotional center.

‘It’s kind of like that moment is going on in your mind the whole day,’ he said. ‘The sunset would be the best time, when you’re waiting for the right moment, when it feels perfect to go in for that kiss.’

A much quieter LA

THE song takes its name from Manhattan Beach, one of several LA locations mentioned in its lyrics.

Nigel, who lived in LA, said the choice was deliberate. Venice Beach and Santa Monica are among the city’s better-known coastal destinations, but their popularity also means crowds.

He wanted somewhere more serene. ‘Manhattan Beach is that perfect spot,’ he said, describing it as a more relaxed place where two people could simply spend time together.

The setting also gave the song a convenient romantic detail: stronger wind and waves.

‘And when girls are cold, you have that opportunity to keep them warm,’ Nigel said. ‘So it’s part of my master plan.’

Mundane as big things

‘MANHATTAN Beach’ is filled with details that could easily disappear from a bigger love song: eggs, chopsticks, cold drinks and sitting in traffic.

‘THE NOCTURNAL CEREMONY’ | New release by The Night Rituals is a psychological music experienceThe young artist kept them because, to him, memory tends to work that way. ‘As humans, we remember small details,’ he explained. ‘Even though sometimes big events, obviously, we remember them, it’s these small little things.’

Nigel recalled noticing the small physical habits of someone he once knew-the way she moved her eyes when uncomfortable or scratched her nose.

‘That’s what makes me remember this person a little bit more deeply,’ Nigel said.

Nigel said that sweetness came naturally, especially because the kiss had been on his mind since the start of the day.

‘Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like all boys are like that,’ he said. ‘I think it’s just naturally sweet. The song is just naturally sweet.’

Simplicity above all

FOR Nigel, the uncomplicated quality of ‘Manhattan Beach’ is also a return to an earlier relationship with music.

A graduate of Berklee College of Music, he first gained wider recognition as a Top 7 finalist on The Voice of China in 2018. He later worked as a producer, arranger, instrumentalist and bandleader on Mango TV’s Me to Us in 2020, eventually becoming vocalist and leader of MiLK.

His career eventually expanded across Greater China.

His latest album, CRÉMA, came out in 2025, followed by a headline tour in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing.

That background could have pushed the song toward a more elaborate production. Instead, Nigel found himself stripping things back.

‘After being in Berklee, you have all this knowledge, all this music knowledge,’ he said. ‘You want to put it in your music. You want to add these chords, vocal runs, crazy stuff.’

‘Manhattan Beach,’ however, reminded him of his early days in LA and of why he started making music in the first place. ‘Everything is simpler,’ he said. ‘The production is not as crazy. The melody is a little bit simpler and singable.’

Finding an audience

NIGEL arrived in Manila on September 10 for a performance at the Music Museum, opening for Jesse Barrera and Albert Posis, before continuing to Jakarta and Bangkok on September 12 and 13, respectively.

He is scheduled to perform in Singapore on November 19, opening for Jesse Gold.

The Manila audience was new territory. Nigel said it was his first time performing in the city, but the reception surprised him. ‘They didn’t know me, but they were so interactive, they were so warm,’ he said. ‘It was really like a warm, fuzzy moment. I really felt at home.’

The response is significant for an artist whose career has largely developed across Asian markets outside his home country.

Following ‘Manhattan Beach,’ Nigel said more music and collaborations are already being developed, with projects involving artists in Southeast Asia, China and Taiwan.

A handwritten correction on a page, a voice that trembles while speaking, or a mistake openly acknowledged may be among the strongest proofs of humanity, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio ‘Ambo’ David said as he urged educators to resist machine-like standards of perfection in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Speaking before the graduating class and faculty of De La Salle Araneta University (DLSAU) at the Philippine International Convention Center on September 19, David said schools must focus not only on producing competent graduates but also on forming people capable of growth, compassion, and moral courage.

The Kalookan bishop delivered the message as DLSAU conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, recognizing his contributions to biblical scholarship, pastoral leadership, social justice, and the promotion of human dignity.

David acknowledged that artificial intelligence has become one of the most transformative developments confronting modern education. AI systems can now summarize texts, organize research, generate polished prose, and solve complex problems in seconds, he noted.

Yet even as technological capabilities advance, he said machines remain incapable of moral discernment, genuine empathy, and the human capacity for conscience.

‘Even some of the people developing the most advanced AI systems are warning us that these technologies are progressing faster than our institutions can adequately evaluate, regulate, and supervise them,’ he said.

‘Technological power can advance much faster than human wisdom,’ he added.

The greater challenge, according to David, is not the prospect of machines becoming more human but the possibility of people trying to become more like machines.

‘The greater danger may be that human beings will try to become too much like machines, obsessed with optimization, efficiency, productivity, performance, and perfection,’ he said.

Rather than pursuing flawless performance, David encouraged educators and students to embrace vulnerability and imperfection as essential features of authentic humanity.

‘What reveals our humanity are often our imperfections,’ he said, pointing to hesitations, handwritten corrections, cracked voices, and mistakes honestly acknowledged as signs of a person willing to learn and grow.

He pointed out that while machines can process vast amounts of information and provide answers with remarkable speed, education has a deeper purpose.

‘Let artificial intelligence become better at being artificial, and let education help human beings become better at being human,’ David said.

True education, he added, forms the conscience, cultivates critical thinking, and teaches people how to build meaningful relationships.

A machine may analyze data and recognize patterns, but it cannot look at a struggling student with genuine concern and offer encouragement.

Drawing from the Lasallian mission of faith and service, David challenged graduates to use their education not merely as a pathway to personal success but as a means of uplifting others.

He also offered a broader interpretation of the honorary degree bestowed on him, saying honoris causa should inspire people to make their education, influence, and privilege a ’cause for the dignity of others.’ing his address with a challenge to the graduates, David urged them to become the kind of people no technology can replace.

‘Form human beings whom artificial intelligence can never replace,’ he said.

‘People capable of compassion, of moral courage, of solidarity and wonder, of loving, acknowledging a mistake, asking for forgiveness, beginning again, and sacrificing themselves for something greater than themselves,’ he pointed out.

One of the most creative figures in the underground music scene is Darwin Dacanay.

With his emo band Richard Collier, he put out an underground classic album, For the Love of Death, under the legendary Take Four Collective Label. It was a one-off, then the band called it a day.

When Dacanay resurfaced four years later, he was with his New Wave band, The Skeleton Years, that put out a bunch of extended play singles under another equally mythic underground label, Still Ill Records.

Now, while waiting for the vinyl release of their album, Real Curses, under Eikon Records, Dacanay has dropped a new and intriguing release – The Nocturnal Ceremony with his post-punk electronic side project, The Night Rituals.

The music heavily draws from industrial, goth, and post-punk music with Joy Division, Ministry, and Heavens as inspiration. The Night Rituals blend minimal synthesizer textures, driving basslines, melancholic melodies, and emotionally charged lyrics.

According to Dacanay, the five-track indie release with Patrick Santa Maria (synthesizer, bass, and drum machine, who has his own electronic project Tekiyaki) is a conceptual mini-album where each of the five songs serves as some sort of chapter in a vicious cycle of twisted obsession and murder.

Described by Dacanay, who is a fan of the horror and suspense genre, ‘The Nocturnal Ceremony is a psychological music experience that is meant to be visualized, felt, and pieced together.’

The compact disc releases were under New Pond Records and have since sold out. Fans can listen to The Night Rituals’ music on their Bandcamp page.

ST. LOUIS-As tens of thousands of Catholic worshippers stood Thursday in a football stadium-turned-temporary cathedral, all eyes focused on a teenage boy walking solemnly toward the makeshift altar, accompanied by his parents and siblings.

James Fulton Engstrom carried an ornate vessel containing the relics of his namesake, the man whom the Catholic Church credits with his miraculous survival as a newborn-Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who died in 1979.

It was a highlight of a lengthy ceremony of beatification for the famed 20th century TV prelate, who will now be known as Blessed Fulton Sheen-one step away from sainthood.

Catholic devotees converged on St. Louis for the afternoon ceremony, taking place at the Dome at America’s Center after years of delays. The indoor stadium was chosen because there wasn’t a venue large enough in his home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the anticipated crowd.

The ceremony comes 16 years to the month since James was born at home without a pulse and was rushed to the hospital, even as his parents and others prayed earnestly and asked Sheen to add his heavenly prayers, following the Catholic tradition of seeking the intercessions of departed holy people.

After a formal inquiry, the Catholic Church determined that James’ resuscitation-when medical workers were about to declare him dead-was a miracle attributable to Sheen’s prayers. To qualify for beatification, the Vatican typically requires one miracle attributed to the candidate.

James’ mother, Bonnie Engstrom, said before the ceremony that she expected it would feel like a ‘foretaste of heaven.’

She said she’d been praying to Sheen throughout her pregnancy, and ‘it was just a very natural thing in the hardest hour of our life’ to seek his help.

The presentation of the relics, placed on a pedestal by the altar, was a highlight of a lengthy service that began with a formal procession of hundreds of priests and scores of bishops, lasting more than half an hour and accompanied by robust organ, choral and orchestral music.

A 20th century bishop draws a new audience

About 50,000 tickets were distributed, according to organizers. The halls and exhibit areas were thronged in the morning by pilgrims-priests in cassocks, nuns in habits, families with young children in tow, elderly worshippers who recalled watching Sheen on TV.

Scores of bishops, a thousand priests and hundreds of religious order members, seminarians and deacons participated.

Many thronged exhibit booths or stood in long lines to give confession. Others quietly meditated throughout the morning in a makeshift chapel in front of a Eucharist displayed on an altar, including some who knelt on the concrete floor.

Bishops have been seeking to promote this traditional devotion, which Sheen practiced regularly.

The Vatican’s top evangelization official, Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle, the lead celebrant for the Mass, brought greetings from Pope Leo XIV, calling him Sheen’s ‘fellow Illinoisan.’

Tagle called Sheen a model for evangelization, or sharing the faith.

Sheen was once a regular presence in the living rooms of millions of Americans-including that of the future pontiff, who says he watched Sheen’s broadcasts while growing up in Chicago.

Attendees, many too young to have seen Sheen’s broadcasts, said they’ve taken inspiration from his books and online videos.

‘There’s just a revival in the American church as a whole,’ said Joseph Punswick, a seminarian from the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas.

‘To have an American pope, to have an American beatified man, is amazing to see. Look around. You see kids, you see young families, you see college kids,’ he said.

Other attendees, such as Mary Chalupsky of Milford, Connecticut, recalled watching Sheen’s original TV programs. ‘He brought so many to the faith,’ she said.

Sheen’s journey from Peoria to primetime

Sheen was a pioneering radio priest who quickly adopted the burgeoning medium of television in the 1950s, when he began hosting the Emmy-winning program, ‘Life is Worth Living.’

Dressed in a cassock, cape and skullcap, he stood at a chalkboard and delivered moral and religious lessons without a narrow Catholic focus.

Sheen was born in 1895 in the small town of El Paso, Illinois, and raised in Peoria. After becoming a priest and earning a doctorate in philosophy, he became a professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

He became known for his academic lectures and his plainspoken addresses from the pulpit and the broadcast studio. He often signed off with the benediction, ‘God love you.’

Sheen appeared in a Time magazine cover article, and he guided celebrities and others converting to Catholicism.

He met with popes and spoke at the reformist Second Vatican Council. He railed against communism, though he opposed the Vietnam War.

Sheen raised funds and traveled the world on behalf of Catholic missions. He served as a bishop in New York State, retiring as an archbishop.

After his death at 84, he was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York until his niece won a court battle in 2019 to move his body to Peoria’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, which now draws pilgrims to his tomb.

The Illinois teen tied to Sheen’s path to sainthood

The late Pope Francis approved the beatification, attributing to Sheen the miracle of James’ resuscitation.

Bonnie Engstrom said she and her husband chose Sheen for James’ patron after discovering the prelate’s old videos, adding that Sheen’s Midwestern-accented voice reminded her of her grandfather and great-grandfather.

‘He’s like a local boy,’ she said at a news conference.

James, who just turned 16, has a devotion to Sheen, but he’s largely avoiding the media spotlight.

‘He’s a delightful young man, but he’s still just a teenage boy, and he needs to be given the space and the grace to have his own journey of life,’ his mother said.

Sheen’s beatification backstory

The beatification was originally scheduled for 2019, but the Vatican delayed the ceremony. The Diocese of Rochester, which Sheen briefly led in the 1960s, requested the delay out of caution, due to legal investigations taking place then into the oversight of priests accused of sexual abuse across New York State.

Church officials later concluded that Sheen’s record gave no cause for further delay, and plans for the ceremony resumed. Pope Leo approved the beatification earlier this year.

Monsignor Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, said church investigators review records and interview witnesses before determining whether a healing qualifies as a miracle.

He said there are now six more cases under investigation; a second miracle would qualify Sheen for sainthood under Vatican rules.

Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka said he believes the wait for canonization will be shorter than for the beatification, especially with an Illinois-born pope who’s ‘very much aware of who Sheen is and how he influenced his own life.’

STO. TOMAS CITY, Batangas-Archbishop Gilbert Garcera of Lipa said the international status of the Padre Pio shrine brings greater responsibility to serve the sick, poor and marginalized.

‘This recognition by the Holy See is both a profound blessing and a solemn responsibility,’ Garcera said at a news conference on September 23 before Mass marking the shrine’s elevation and the feast of St. Padre Pio.

Garcera said the designation recognizes how a local devotion has grown into a major pilgrimage site drawing Catholics from across Asia to the 17-hectare sanctuary.

Greater responsibility to serve the suffering

He said the shrine’s mission must remain centered on people facing illness, poverty and other forms of suffering, through its monthly Healing Masses and pastoral care.

Garcera also called on the shrine to become a place of peace and reconciliation amid political divisions, social anxiety and religious tensions.

‘Padre Pio’s timeless message of trust in God and radical charity offers a direct antidote to contemporary despair,’ he said.

The archdiocese said it is continuing a long-term master plan for the shrine, focusing on prayer, pilgrimage and service to the poor and weary.

‘As an international shrine, we are called to welcome pilgrims from every corner of the world,’ said Garcera, who also heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Vatican status gives shrine a global mission

The elevation ceremony came nearly four months after the Vatican approved the Lipa archdiocese’s petition to declare the Batangas shrine an international shrine.

The Dicastery for Evangelization issued the decree on May 25, coinciding with Padre Pio’s 139th birthday.

The designation also formalizes the shrine’s spiritual bond with the Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, where the Capuchin friar lived and is buried.

Under the Vatican’s Code of Canon Law, international shrines are pilgrimage sites whose designation and statutes require approval from the Holy See.

Local bishops approve diocesan shrines, bishops’ conferences approve national shrines, and the Holy See approves international shrines and their statutes, including their purpose and governance.

The Vatican says shrines should provide opportunities for prayer, worship, spiritual guidance and Christian formation while promoting charity toward people in need.

The Shrine of St. Padre Pio is the Philippines’ second international shrine, after the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, or the Antipolo Cathedral, received the designation in March 2023.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, then pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s section for new evangelization, said in February 2024 that international shrines should welcome people from around the world, especially the poor.

‘Being an international shrine is not just a privilege that is granted, but a mission that must be shared,’ Fisichella said during Mass at the Antipolo shrine.

Indian cardinal to Padre Pio pilgrims: ‘Let this shrine change you’

Meanwhile, the head of India’s Catholic hierarchy has challenged pilgrims to allow the experience of the new international shrine dedicated to Saint Padre Pio to change how they live.

Cardinal Anthony Poola, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said the shrine’s international status should inspire pilgrims to embrace reconciliation, hope and compassion.

‘Let us not leave this shrine unchanged,’ Poola said during the Mass on September 23.

Poola, who is also archbishop of Hyderabad, said the shrine should become ‘a home for all people,’ especially the sick, poor, families, young people and elderly.

He described the celebration as ‘a day of grace’ for the Church, devotees and pilgrims who come seeking renewed faith and spiritual consolation.

‘A shrine is a place where heaven touches earth, where wounded hearts find consolation, where tears become prayer,’ Poola said. ‘Let this celebration renew our faith.’

The cardinal said Padre Pio’s life of prayer, suffering, humility and surrender to God shows that holiness can be found even amid human pain.

The Italian Capuchin friar, who died in 1968, was known for his devotion to prayer, the Eucharist and reconciliation, as well as for bearing the stigmata, or wounds resembling those of Christ’s crucifixion.

Poola recalled Padre Pio’s familiar advice, ‘Pray, hope and do not worry,’ saying it remains relevant in a world marked by anxiety, division, sickness, loneliness and fear.

He urged pilgrims to follow Padre Pio’s example by embracing the Eucharist, seeking reconciliation, carrying suffering with hope and serving others with compassion.

More than 40 bishops concelebrated the Mass, which was presided over by Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, vice president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

The shrine’s new international character was also reflected in the presence of devotees from across Asia and bishops who lead episcopal conferences in the region.

WHISKY and cigars have a reputation for being intimidating, even prestigious. Especially nowadays, there are unfamiliar terms, elaborate tasting rituals, expensive bottles, and, in this case, a cigar that costs thousands of pesos a stick.

For someone who only occasionally smokes and knows little about whisky, the combination can easily feel like a club with a vocabulary of its own. At Leaf and Barrel, however, that vocabulary became part of the evening’s lesson.

The whisky-and-cigar pairing series on August 25, 2026, at Solaire Resort Quezon City brought together five expressions from The Macallan and the limited-edition Solaire UNCUT Grand Cru Robusto cigar by Davidoff, alongside guided tastings, entertainment and conversations about the two.

The setting certainly looked the part: warm lighting, an oval bar and an atmosphere designed around slow pours and cigars. Yet underneath the formality was a tasting experience that was less difficult to enter than it initially appeared.

What the puff?

THE cigar for the evening was the Solaire UNCUT Grand Cru Robusto, a limited-edition cigar crafted by Davidoff.

For an occasional smoker, the first draw was anything but casual.

The smoke came with a distinct intensity, but the more interesting discovery was that cigar tasting has its own vocabulary. Like wine and whisky, cigars are described through different stages of flavor and aroma, with characteristics changing as they are smoked.

The Grand Cru Robusto presented woody notes at first, followed by a lighter, more citrus-like character as the cigar progressed. Its profile included creamy cedar and delicate floral notes, according to the tasting notes presented during the evening.

There was also a practical lesson for newcomers: The cigar does not simply burn indefinitely. When the draw slows down, it can go out and needs to be relit.

That part of the experience was made considerably less intimidating by the staff, who walked guests through how to handle and taste the cigar rather than assuming prior knowledge.

At more than P2,000 per stick, the cigar is firmly positioned as a premium product. Its price also reflects the kind of experience Leaf and Barrel is offering-not necessarily a casual smoke, but an introduction to a category where craftsmanship, provenance and presentation are part of the appeal.

And for the lady, perhaps an alcohol?

THE whisky side of the evening followed a similarly detailed approach.

Rather than simply pouring five glasses and leaving guests to figure them out, the host explained the aroma, palate and finish of each expression, giving even first-time tasters a framework for identifying what they were drinking.

The Macallan 12 Years Old Double Cask opened with fudge, creamy vanilla and apple before moving toward candied orange peel, honey and oak spice. Its palate leaned toward butterscotch, baking spices, raisins and citrus, finishing with dry oak spice and vanilla.

Then, A Night on Earth in Scotland went in a richer direction, with vanilla, baked apples, dark plum and almond biscotti on the nose. Its buttery shortbread character was joined by dried orange peel, cinnamon and toasted marshmallow.

The third expression, A Night on Earth in The Journey, was brighter. Toasted coconut, citrus blossom and rice pudding appeared on the nose, followed by mandarin, lime zest, candied ginger and toasted coconut on the palate.

Then came A Night on Earth in Jerez, the heavier of the group. Dark raisins, dried figs and orange marmalade led into flavors of poached pear, anisette, cinnamon, nutmeg and dark berries. Its long finish carried the influence of sherry and seasoned European oak.

The final pour, A Night on Earth: The First Light, offered a lighter profile, with citrus, yellow peach and vanilla followed by lemon curd, toasted malt and honey.

The differences can sound excessively technical on paper. At the table, however, having someone point out what to smell and taste made the process considerably easier to follow.

Better together

FOR newcomers, the guided format mattered.

The event did not require guests to arrive already knowing the difference between a nose and a finish or understanding why one whisky might work better with a particular cigar profile. The hosts explained the pairings throughout the evening, turning what could have been an exclusive-feeling ritual into something easier to participate in.

That accessibility, however, existed alongside the unmistakable prestige of the setting and products.

The Macallan is a luxury whisky name, the cigar was a limited-edition release, and the event took place inside a premium resort setting. The atmosphere therefore remained deliberately polished, even as the hosts explained the basics.

Between tastings, performers Fay Castro and dancing duo Jane and Alex of the Lucky Stars provided entertainment, adding movement to an evening otherwise built around sitting, sipping, and smoking.

Moving forward, Leaf and Barrel is set to continue at Quezon Club every month, with its next edition scheduled for September 29, 2026. All photos by Bless Ogerio/BM

Gelina Lutaro is 50 years old, a single mother of five, and an FIA-certified intervention marshal at this year’s inaugural Spanish Grand Prix. Getting there took 18 years, most of them spent away from the children she was doing it all for.

People call her Ghie. Her kids -Jonard, Jeric, Joven, Jolina, and Jelaine-are the reason she left Tabaco City in the Bicol region of the Philippines for Abu Dhabi in November 2007. She was hired as a domestic worker for an Arab family, and by her own account, the four years that followed were rough. She doesn’t go into detail about it. What she will say is that the experience taught her things, some good, some bad, and that she learned early to keep the good lessons and let go of the rest.

By 2011 she wanted out of that household. The problem was practical: domestic workers rarely get a day off, so there was almost no way to job-hunt through normal channels. She made her own channel instead. Every time her employers sent her to a supermarket or mall, she’d find the Filipino cashiers working the registers and ask, quietly, if they knew of any family looking for help.

One of them did. She handed Ghie an address for an agency that placed nannies with expat families. Ghie called, got interviewed over the phone, and landed a job with an American family tied to NYU Abu Dhabi. She says they treated her with real kindness. That family eventually left the Emirates, but her name stuck around inside that university’s expat network-she kept working as a nanny for one NYU Abu Dhabi family after another for years, sending money home the whole time, watching her children grow up mostly through phone calls.

In 2015, almost by accident, the second half of her life started. Her roommate, a Filipino named Ryan Doloroso, asked if she wanted to volunteer as a race marshal. No pay involved. She said yes before he finished the sentence.

To understand why, go back further-She grew up watching car races on television in the Philippines, in the years when Michael Schumacher’s name was inescapable. She used to wonder if she’d ever watch a real race in person, whether she’d ever get the chance at all. That question followed her through her move to Abu Dhabi, through four hard years with her first employer, through the long, patient search for better families to work for. Ryan’s offer-unglamorous-was the first real opening she’d had to answer it herself.

She trained as a flag marshal, then intervention marshal, then fire marshal, then digital panel operator-each one a separate certification, earned on her own time, at posts along the track where the job is to respond fast when something goes wrong: a car on fire, a driver trapped in a wrecked cockpit, debris that has to clear before the next wave of traffic comes through. None of it pays. She did it anyway, race after race, working her way up to Post Chief, the marshal responsible for an entire station on the circuit.

By the end of 2015 she was marshaling national races in the UAE alongside international fixtures-the Lamborghini and Ferrari Challenge, the Fun Cup, the Gulf 12 Hours, the Le Mans 24 Hours, car drifting events. Then, in 2018, she worked her first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. She calls it the happiest day of her life to that point-adrenaline, and the answer to a question she’d been carrying since she was ten. She went back every year after that, 2018 through 2021, each one adding another patch to her tabard collection.

Move to Spain

It didn’t last. In 2023 the NYU Abu Dhabi families she worked for started heading back to the United States, and Ghie moved to Spain. What followed were two years without legal status-she doesn’t dress that period up. It would have been reason enough for most people to drop an unpaid hobby in a country they weren’t cleared to stay in. Ghie did the opposite. She spent those two years running the same play she’d run in the supermarkets years before: reaching out to every marshal she’d ever crossed paths with, especially the international ones, keeping those relationships alive so she could get back on a track once her papers came through. She’d already decided, long before she had any legal right to act on it, that she was going to marshal in Spain.

This month, at the first-ever Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, that decision finally paid off. She worked the race wearing an Intervention Marshal, Course Access tabard. She calls Madrid just the beginning.

I should explain how I ended up hearing any of this. I got to Madrid by way of the Monza Grand Prix and the Venice Film Festival, landing the evening of September 9. I’d missed an early-morning track tour I’d come a day ahead of schedule to catch, so rather than waste the morning, I walked the circuit a different way, from the photographers’ wall along the fence. Somewhere along that walk, past a stage where drivers were being interviewed in front of a growing crowd, I noticed a woman whose face I recognized before I could say why. ‘Are you Filipino, ate?’ I asked. She said yes. That’s how it started.

Hearing her full story afterward hit me harder than I expected, and the part that has stayed with me the longest isn’t the marshal training or the bib or even Madrid. It’s this: Ghie hasn’t seen her five children in three years. Jonard, Jeric, Joven, Jolina and Jelaine have grown up mostly on video calls, raised at a distance by a mother trying to give them a better shot than she got. Her hope, she told me, is to see her youngest graduate next year-one more milestone she’s missed in person, and one she’s now counting down to.

That is what perseverance actually costs. Ghie’s version ran for eighteen years, through a bad employer, through unpaid weekends spent training to fight fires and pull people out of wrecked cars, through two years without legal papers in a country not her own, through birthdays and report cards and ordinary Tuesdays she wasn’t there for. The dream she’d been chasing since she was ten years old finally caught up with her in Madrid this September. But it caught up with her without her kids beside her, because keeping them fed and in school was the whole reason the dream had to wait as long as it did.

She got the marshal’s tabard in the end. She earned every patch the same way-piece by piece, year by year, on her own time, thousands of miles from home. What she is still waiting on is the one she wants most: to be in the stands, not on a circuit, when her youngest walks across a stage next year.

Mindoro and Basilan clash for a playoff slot at 7 p.m. on Monday in the SportsPlus Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League 2026 Season Play-in Stage at the Calapan City Gymnasium in Oriental Mindoro.

The winner takes the seventh seed in the South Division, with the loser relegated to a knockout match with the winner of the 5 p.m. game between Zamboanga and Imus.

Already in the quarterfinals are Quezon Province, Binan, Gensan, Batangas City, Cebu and Rizal Province.

Tamaraws lean on MPBL All-Stars Bambam Gamalinda and JC Recto, Jayjay Caspe, Marion Magat, RJ Ramirez and John Apacible in their bid for a repeat of their 83-75 elimination-round win over the Steel.

Basilan parades gunners John Wilson and Byron Villarias, Gab Cometa, Jervy Cruz and JV Casio.

Mindoro made the 2025 Season playoffs as No. 8, falling to top qualifier and eventual division champion Quezon, 0-2, in the quarterfinals.

Zamboanga beat Imus, 102-92, in the eliminations.