Culture and Spirituality

Heritage awareness, history and spirituality are the focus of our offerings this week as we try to slow down the too-quick turnover of days (or so it seems, this year already two months gone).

At the forefront, our Manila-based writer, Menchu Aquino Sarmiento profiles the esteemed conservation architect and heritage planner, Augusto Villalon, recently awarded an Honorary Membership to the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), one of only 84 in the world and the first Filipino endowed with such stature. Villalon is a long-time advocate of cultural and eco-tourism that goes beyond monuments and artifacts. In "Nation-Building with Suman and Stone," Villalon's world view is given a proper airing.

Veteran journalist Sylvia L. Mayuga gives us the history of the tarot, the ancient art of divination, as a way of introducing Cartas Philippinensis, a set of 22 tarot cards created by Saul Hofileña and painted by Guy Custodio that interprets archetypes in Philippine colonial history. 

And from independent filmmaker Collis H. Davis, Jr. comes a book review of jazz artist/historian Richie Quirino who wrote The Amen Vibration Volume II about his mystical journey towards spiritual enlightenment.

For more secular concerns, here is an updated list of benefits for senior citizens (both resident and visiting) in the Philippines.

We are also posting Wikipedia's latest list of fake news sites in the Philippines.

And our Happy Home Cook recipe this week is a version of Pinakbet from New Jersey-based Melanie Q. Suzara.

Here's our In The Know links for this issue: 

The Bolo Wielding Peasant: The Biggest Misconceptions About Andres Bonifacio
https://www.townandcountry.ph/people/heritage/the-bolo-wielding-peasant-the-biggest-misconceptions-about-andres-bonifacio-a1957-20180223-lfrm2

Conversations at the Edge of Carnage
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2018/march/conversations-edge-carnage-laurel-flores-fantauzzo#.WpSo9AEJIJM.twitter

The struggle for Marawi has only just begun
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/02/02/the-struggle-for-marawi-has-only-just-begun/?utm_content=buffer56144&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

House panel approves divorce bill
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/21/18/house-panel-approves-divorce-bill

For Video of the Week, GMA's I-Witness uploaded a video featuring the revelations of the Duterte family during Martial Law.

Gemma Nemenzo

Editor, Positively Filipino