Whenever I pass by Changi area, these are the first three things that come to mind: Changi Museum, Changi Prison, and Flor Contemplacion. The Contemplacion part, I will explain later. Changi Museum is a must-see attraction in the area. We have always lived in the eastern part of Singapore. Next to Changi, a town called […]
Category: Singapura
I’ve passed by Labrador (back when I was working in the area) never bothered to explore it. And it’s strange because the place is a historical site and I’m supposed to be a history buff. I have corrected this error. My plan was to do some bird watching the entire morning then proceed to WWII […]
When I vlogged (is that even a word?) about El Presidente, Emilio Aguinaldo’s River Valley Road hotel, where he met with US consul Spencer Pratt, I thought that’s a one-off. Well, I found out that before he left Singapore, he returned the favor. He paid the American a courtesy visit. You see, reading history is […]
I finally made a vlog! I don’t know whether to be happy with it or not. But I thought it’s an important message to deliver. The revolutionary Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo visited Singapore once, not to do some sightseeing (although I wish he did and wrote about his experience) but to attend a meeting with […]
The Mansion’s significance One of the most important events in our history is a little-known meeting between Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and Edward Spencer Pratt, who served as US consul general from 1893-99 to Singapore. The American facilitated the meeting with the goal of persuading Aguinaldo to resume his armed struggle against Spain. Pratt pledge that […]
My wife and I have been making plans to visit the Istana for many years. Whenever we’re about to go something comes up, and we end up putting it off. So it was with great relief when we finally pulled it off two weeks ago! It’s only open to the public during the country’s official […]
Governor General Juan de Silva’s mission to go after the Dutch outside Spanish Philippine territory, deep into the Malay peninsula, was not without its critics. “Silva set sail from Manila late in the season, ill-staffed, ill-equipped, under a barrage of criticism from the church, the orders, the bishops, the cabildos and the Audiencia Real. Worst […]
According to historian Peter Borschberg (National University of Singapore), “Spanish Governor of the Philippines, Juan de Silva, commissioned the construction of what was arguably the largest European armada seen in Asian waters before 1620. In the course of joint operations scheduled for the years 1615 and 1616, the Spanish and Portuguese sought to evict […]
The few fiction titles I enjoyed growing up were Les Miserables, The Last of the Mohicans, Don Quixote and The Old Man and the Sea. In college, an even shorter list, there’s Sophie’s World and some Stephen King classics. I prefer non-fiction—history books–of course. I picked up Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince” when I was […]
We have no immediate family here in Singapore, so I thought a two- to three-day family vacation would be a great way to celebrate my son’s second birthday. Last year, we arranged a Jollibee party for him. It was attended mostly by family members and a few of our closest friends in southern Metro Manila. […]
When I heard a relative telling his friends that the fish Lapu-Lapu was named after Lapu-Lapu, the Mactán chieftain who furiously defended his turf against Fernando Magallanes (popularly known as Ferdinand Magellan), I thought of correcting him. But then again, I didn’t want to embarrass him. As early as grade school, I learned from […]
Last month, I visited the historic villa that became the Singapore headquarters of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. I found out about this place from a Chinese-Singaporean cab driver who I met three years ago. While he drives his cab here in the Lion City, his Filipino family is in Iloílo. The daughter studies in a Chinese […]
A young local politician told me that the origin of Alabang is the word abang (tagalog for “to wait”). Bandits during the Spanish era use to ambush unsuspecting people he said. Legends are more appealing than real history. The small Rio Alban (the one in Festival Mall) gave her name to Alabang. Boring story, I […]
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