How Did Your 2016 Go?

To look back at what I personally consider an emotionally challenging year (to say the least), we asked veteran journalist/editor (and community activist) Cherie Querol-Moreno to sum up what happened to our community, our homeland and our world the past 12 months. Her report, "The Year That Shocked," is supplemented by a personal year-ender from our publisher Mona Lisa Yuchengco titled "The Year of Living Anxiously." And with these two pieces, I say 'nuff said.

We also end this year with a list of 15 Filipinos we can be proud of, each of them noteworthy for their achievements, their talents and their being good human beings. 

And for those who missed it the first time, Read Again poet/essayist/martial arts expert Rene J. Navarro's interesting take on Jose Rizal as a martial arts warrior. It was more than just genius or resignation that enabled our National Hero to face the last few days and hours of his life calm, composed and productive -- he wrote farewell letters to his loved ones and an immortal poem, among others. Navarro contends that it was thanks to "feral nerve" or what the Japanese call mushin no shin -- a mastery of self that can only come from the discipline of martial arts.

And with the New Year about to descend upon us, our resident foodie Elizabeth Ann Quirino shares with us her recipe for ginataang bilo-bilo, a traditional merienda that meets the requirement of eating round things for good luck in the coming year.

For our last Video of the Week of 2016, we feature Coca Cola Philippines' latest Christmas commercial which honors the store employees who work during the holidays so that we can enjoy ours.