FROM THE FRINGES: Retrospection, August 2026

FROM THE FRINGES: Retrospection, August 2026

By Jerome Aning | August 28, 2026

As part of our arrangement with this news website’s publisher, the fourth column of every month willbe a retrospection of the three previous columns, devoting space for updates, addenda, and epilogues, as well as feedback or comments from readers, clarifications, and corrections.

Writing history in a hurry

While writing my Aug. 7 column on History Month and listing historic events in our country that I covered as a print journalist, I failed to mention two important ones: the 2000 Rizal Day bombings andthe 2008 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars. The Rizal Day bombings served as a wake-up call for Philippine authorities on the rising threats of terrorism perpetrated by Islamic extremist groups while the Princess of the Stars tragedy compelled the government to improve its maritime safety regulations, such adopting new policy of banning all passenger ferries from going out to sea in areas where there is a storm signal.

During the Rizal Day bombing, I arrived at the LRT Blumentritt station, where one train coach was bombed, just in time to witness the gruesome and sad sight of scene-of-the-crime police operatives re- assembling dismembered limbs and torsos strewn all over the coach. I proceeded to a nearby hospital, where I interviewed one of the surviving passengers, who had been temporarily blinded by the explosion. He said he was shielded from the blast by other bodies alighting from the coach and likened the sound of the explosion to ripe watermelons being dropped and squashed to pieces. On the other hand, as a reliever of the Philippine Coast Guard beat, I covered several hearings of the board of marine inquiry investigating the sinking of Princess of the Stars off Sibuyan Island in Romblon that killed more than 800 people.

I remember the testimony of one crew member, the cook,who recalled the last moments of the passenger ferry amid the onslaught of Typhoon Frank. He said hegave his life vest to another passenger and that he survived by diving deep into the waters to avoidbeing hit by the waves which he describedbeing “as tall as buildings”. He later managed to swim to alifeboat but he and other survivors had difficulty stabilizing it amid the raging storm. He recalled aperson on the lifeboat imploring the others, “Those here who have a God, start praying.” The survivorswere eventually saved by local rescuers. In an exchange that was later stricken off the record, one boardmember lauding the cook for his determination to survive and asked if he felt lucky that he wastraveling in a ship rather than an aircraft because one is supposed to have a better chance surviving asinking ship than a crashing plane. To which the cook replied, “I’d rather be in the [crashing] planebecause I won’t have to suffer for long and will die quickly,” eliciting laughter from the hearing attendees.

I asked myself if I was so traumatized by the two incidents that my mind subconsciously forgot about them. But in retrospection, I figured that it was most probably because I did not get to write about how those stories ended, so to speak. I was later transferred to other beats and the further developments of the two events moved to higher investigating bodies and the courts, which other reporters cover. But I still got to write about the Princess of the Stars while covering the justice beat years later, when the Public Attorney’s Office was assisting the survivors and victims’ heirs in prosecuting the case and seeking compensation from the ill-fated ship’s owner.

Filipino and the Philippine Journalist

Reacting to my Aug. 14 column, an American friend trying to learn Filipino complained that he is having a difficult time understanding what are the rules, if any, regarding place names. He asked if it’s still “Lungsod ng Quezon” when speaking or writing in Filipino. I replied that one already can use Quezon City in conversational Filipino, in the same way that we no longer “Filipinize” place names derived from Spanish. For example, in Filipino, we continue to use the original Spanish spellings of Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Parañaque, not Nuweba Esiha, Pampangga, or Paranyake. Also, when speaking in Filipino, we use the English rather than the Spanish place names. For example, we say “London, United Kingdom” and “Brussels, Belgium” rather than “Londres, Reino Unido” and “Bruselas, Belgica”. We do use “Estados Unidos” and “España” but not “Noruega”, “Dinamarca” or “Suecia”. Years back, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) sparked controversy after recommending that the name of our country in Filipino should be “Filipinas” and not “Pilipinas”, since, among other reasons, the Filipino language had already adopted “f” from the Spanish alphabet, and that “Pilipinas” is the Tagalog spelling. The recommendation was scrapped years later when the KWF itself recognized that “Pilipinas” is already the recognized Filipino name and that even the official Filipino translation of the 1987 Constitution used “Pilipinas”. This also means that in the Filipino language, the proper demonym or terminology for a person who lives in, comes from, or is a citizen of, the Philippines is “Pilipino”.

On another front, the Filipino names of government agencies and other public entities are being used less and less frequent, particularly by media firms broadcasting or publishing in the Filipino language. For example, many broadcast and tabloid journalists speaking or writing in Filipino would use “Department of Foreign Affairs”, “Bureau of Internal Revenue” and “Overseas Workers Welfare Administration” instead of “Kagawaran ng Ugnayang Panlabas”, “Kawanihan ng Rentas Internas” and “Pangasiwaan sa Kagalingan ng Manggagawa sa Ibayong-dagat”. In a 2013 publication of the KWF that listed the names of government agencies in Filipino, the longest has 117 characters: “Tanggapan ng Pangalawang Kalihim para sa Maralitang Tagalungsod, Pamilya ng Informal Settler at iba pang Tanging Usapin” or in English, the Office of the Undersecretary for Urban Poor, Informal Settler Families and Other Special Concerns, which is under the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The runners-up are two agencies of the Department of Science and Technology whose Filipino names contain 107 and 106 characters, respectively. They are: “Sanggunian ng Pilipinas para sa Pananaliksik at Pagpapaunlad ng Industriya, Enerhiya, at Bagong Teknolohiya”, or in English, the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development; and

“Sanggunian ng Pilipinas para sa Pananaliksik at Pagpapaunlad ng Agrikultura, Paggugubat, at Likas na Yaman”, or in English, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development. One can see which names, for mediamen, are less laborious to pronounce and more convenient to write or type on a keyboard. Certainly, the English names of these government agencies should already be considered Filipino.

LRT-1 Cavite Extension: For the people, not politics

House Assistant Majority Leader and Las Piñas City Rep. Mark Anthony Santos has welcomed the agreement reached last Aug. 7 by Department of Transportation (DOTr) officials and representatives of the Villar Group of Companies finally pushing through and fast-tracking the construction of the Las Piñas station of the LRT-1 Cavite Extension project. The Villar Group, which is donating the lots where the station will be located, agreed to the conditions sought by the DOTr.

“We will continue to monitor every phase of this project and ensure that the interest of Las Piñas

residents will prevail. We won’t stop until this project is fully implemented,” Santos said in a statementposted on his Facebook page.

I wrote in my Aug. 17 column that the blame game over the delay should stop and all stakeholders should focus on real beneficiaries of the project, i.e., the commuters and riding public of Las Piñas and Cavite, to ensure its completion. Thus, it is comforting to hear Santos saying, “This project is not just about infrastructure, it’s about giving every Las Piñas resident more orderly, faster and safer transportation that they long deserve.”

The congressman called the agreement was “a big step” towards the realization of the extension of LRT-1 system into Las Piñas that the city’s residents have been aspiring for a very long time. The extension is “an important investment for the future of our city,” he added. “It will pave the way for faster travel, ease up the flow of traffic, expand livelihood opportunities, and improve the quality of life of every family in Las Piñas.”

Following his efforts to fast-track the completion of the extension project, Santos said he will keep an eye on the implementation of the agreement, adding, “[O]ur stand remains: that true victory will only be achieved once the construction has started, the station finished, and it is already benefiting our [constituents],” he added.

Under the check-and-balance principle enshrined in our Constitution, the legislature exercises oversight functions on the implementation of public-partnership projects initiated by the Executive branch. Due vigilance not only by Santos but all concerned residents of Las Piñas is needed to see to it that the project is smoothly and quickly completed.

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