Have you bought tikoy for the Chinese New Year on Wednesday, January 29? In a way, we had the privilege of celebrating it early last Saturday, January 25, in Escolta, Manila, where the Chinatown arc stands proud and where Rappler held its first 2025 elections kapihan featuring local candidates running for posts in Manila.
The intimate venue was the FIRST Coworking Community in Manila’s famous art deco building, the First United Building (formerly called Perez-Samanillo) in Escolta, which was designed by Andres Luna, son of the national hero and painter Juan Luna. High ceilings, bold colors, distinct shapes, and photographs from the past greeted us as we walked into it. Students and young professionals know, and love, this building; it represents Manila’s old grandeur and its modern-day challenges.
As soon as we stepped out of the historic building after the kapihan, we found ourselves in a maze of narrow and dingy streets, vibrant stalls and mouthwatering street food, and residents in seemingly mindless walks to nowhere. There’s a method to it, somehow: Manila’s old glory and present madness.
Two tandems attended the kapihan — mayoral bet Raymond Bagatsing and running mate Chikee Pablo Ocampo; mayoral bet Michael Say and his son Solomon — as well as reelectionist Representative Joel Chua of the 3rd district. The city’s problems are as old as itself: traffic, garbage, demolitions, corruption, crime. Yet, no mayor has succeeded in stopping the city’s decay and preserving its old glory in a sustainable manner.
Will the coming May elections make any difference? Watch the candidates tackle the issues here.
- The two fiercest rivals for the race shunned our invite: incumbent Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan and former mayor Isko Moreno. Remember Isko, who took a shot at the presidency in the 2022 presidential elections (and landed a far fourth in a 10-way race)? We profiled his rise from the slums of Tondo in this story.
- Remember, too, the Manila Central Post office, a neoclassical landmark along the Pasig River that was gutted by fire in 2023? We visited it to see how damaged it was. Watch it here.
- Last year, city hall drew flak for its filthy health testing facility. We wrote about the Manila Public Health Laboratory here.
- Manila was ranked the 5th riskiest city for international tourists in 2024. Find out why in this story.
- Indeed, “the city of our affections,” as the late National Artist Nick Joaquin once wrote, also breaks our hearts. Watch and listen to theater actor Gabriel Tiongson read Joaquin’s ode to Manila in this pilot episode of LIT by Rappler.
Is there hope for the country’s capital?
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa talked about hope in her keynote at the Vatican over the weekend before thousands of Catholic communicators. Hope comes from action, she said to the crowd that came for the Jubilee of the World of Communications, a time of renewal for Catholics involved in the media world. Watch/read the speech here.
Here are some of Rappler’s bests that you shouldn’t miss:
- What’s all this hullabaloo about masturbation? Here are the facts about the adolescent pregnancy prevention bill.
- Rappler’s JC Gotinga was in Maguindanao to commemorate the Mamasapano massacre, which occurred a decade ago.
- Inday Espina-Varona writes that the Marcos government, under the radar, is running after aid groups and that Western nations should take a good look.
- Meet Aissa Domingo, a natural history artist who wants you to look at the world with wonder.
- Why do news websites require readers to register? And what does it mean when we say, if you aren’t paying for it, you’re still paying for it? Read the latest from Tech Thoughts.
- Some significant pushbacks in the US. Michael Bloomberg will help fund the climate program of the United Nations following US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of support for international funding to address the climate crisis and a US judge temporarily blocked Trump’s order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship. Mexico also refused a request from a US military aircraft to bring deported migrants there.
To hope as we welcome the Chinese New Year!
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– Rappler.com
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