ILOILO CITY—As the World Cup fever nears its climax in South Africa, basketball-crazy Filipinos should know that they have a hero to inspire them to switch to football as a national passion.
And it’s not the great Pelé of Brazil, Argentinian legend Diego Maradona or the current world top player Lionel Messi, also of Argentina, or [...]

By Carla P. Gomez
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — A Palace official is encouraging local communities to turn to Filipino martial arts, as a tool in maintaining peace in the city’s villages.
Presidential Deputy Spokesman Anthony Golez launched on Saturday a training program to teach the city’s village watchmen the Pekiti-Tirsia Kali system — an ancient Ilonggo martial [...]

By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.

MANILA, Philippines—Seeing rice husk left on the fields in Iloilo where he taught as an agriculture professor, Alexis Belonio thought of putting them it to good use: he invented a stove powered by rice husk, whose leftover ashes he used either as a fertilizer or a raw material for fiber cement [...]

THE responsibility of feeding thousands of Olympic athletes and officials in Beijing falls on the cooking hands of a Filipino chef — an Ilonggo.
Ryan Jaranilla is the senior executive chef of the Olympic Catering Services Project of the Athletes’ Village in Beijing.
Jaranilla said this is definitely not a picnic, as the kitchen will be open [...]

By Ducky Paredes
FORMER MWSS Administrator Lorenzo Jamora was recommended to the post by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales and for good reason. Raul’s provincemate had done well as Local Water Utilities Administrator.
In 2001 LWUA was in bad financial shape. Loan availments for various projects reached only P642 million. Collection of interest and principal payments from loans [...]

By Trina Mendoza 
IT ALL STARTED with a sincere desire to improve rice-growing conditions and farmers’ livelihoods. Greta Gabinete, then a PhD student majoring in soil science at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and a professor at West Visayas State University (WVSU), College of Agriculture and Forestry, Iloilo, thought of how to increase [...]

By Maricar Calubiran
SHE DANCES, walks and speaks like an ordinary member of the Pan-ayanon, an indigenous people from the town of Tapaz, in the province of Capiz. What makes her different, however, is that she’s one of the four remaining indigenous people who reached 100 years old.
Lisa Castor, actually, is already 104 years old. She [...]

By Nestor Burgos Jr.
AN ILONGGO who worked as taxi driver in New York and was recognized four years ago for returning $70,000 worth of black pearls left in his cab died here on Thursday from stomach cancer.
Nestor Sulpico, who was called “New York’s most honest taxi driver,” died at 51 years of age without fulfilling [...]

IS JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez on the way out? The report below from Inquirer.net gives us a glimpse on the political future of one of Iloilo’s controversial politicians.
Arroyo confirms Cabinet revamp
CEBU CITY – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has confirmed a looming shake-up in her Cabinet in the coming weeks, but kept mum on who among the officials [...]

By Federico D. Pascual Jr.
BICAM BICKERINGS Rep. Ferjenel Biron of Iloilo has been vociferously criticizing the bill on cheaper medicines being consolidated by the bicameral conference committee co-chaired by Sen. Mar Roxas and Rep. Antonio Alvarez of Palawan.
Some of Biron’s colleagues are puzzled by his behavior considering that he is one of the principal authors [...]