A Very Slender and Short Man - Ambeth Ocampo

MANILA, Philippines -- It’s the start of yet another year and I’m planning yet another visit to the historical shrines and landmarks I have seen so many times before. Why do I do this, when most people visit these places once and never again? If you take the trouble to see old things in a new way, everything -- a book, an artifact, an old document, a historic place or landmark -- can yield things you overlooked previously.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=109876

Sense of Nationhood - Manny Villar

DR. JOSE RIZAL, our foremost National Hero, is generally regarded by historians as the First Filipino. He eloquently articulated the common dream of the oppressed people all over this country for emancipation from colonial rule. He saw early on the unifying effect of a shared tragic experience.

http://www.mb.com.ph/OPED20080102113180.html

Hello 2008 - Job Tabada

This is my last column for 2007. To welcome the New Year, I find it momentous to cite one major event taking place on Jan. 1, 1808, exactly 200 years ago tomorrow, when the importation of slaves into the United States became a thing of the past. It became so through a constitutional amendment restricting slavery. While this was a reality in the land of honey, Filipinos were struggling for freedom from the clutches of the oppressive Spanish regime, which cost the lives of revolutionary leaders like Andres Bonifacio. Ironically, the forces of the very country that put an end to servitude came, drove away the Spaniards and made the Philippines its colony under the 30-silver leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo. We see the fiendish effects still resonating in our midst.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view_article.php?article_id=109666