The guilty verdict on some of the principals responsible for the Nov. 23, 2009 Ampatuan Massacre is the first instance in which members of a powerful warlord clan have been convicted as masterminds in the killing of journalists in the Philippines. No masterminds and only 14 assassins had previously been convicted of the killing of the remaining 133 journalists out of the 165 who have been murdered for their work since 1986.

It is to be expected -- the conviction after 10 long years of Zaldy Ampatuan and some others for the murder of 58 people back in 2009. How can it be otherwise?

THERE IS NO shortage of worthy causes asking for help. Even in small communities like the office, alumni classmates, chat groups, there are always those in need of financial help, ostensibly not to pay off credit card debts. The practice of “passing the hat” seems prevalent in our culture. There is no real hat to throw in coins and bills in nowadays, just a bank account number (please send photo of the deposit slip).

TWO INCIDENTS incited me to pen this story about storytelling.

AS THE year ends, a partial and brief cease-fire seems imminent in Donald Trump’s trade war on the world. The United States and China may sign a deal as early as next month. But make no mistake: The protectionist impulse behind the trade war remains as ineradicable as ever.

JUNK IS surprisingly pervasive in Star Wars, playing an understated role in nearly every film in the series. In The Phantom Menace, we meet young Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, working at a small electronics scrap yard and repair shop. In A New Hope, Luke Skywalker’s uncle buys R2-D2 and C-3PO from a group of Jawas, a species that drive massive, sand-crawling junk trucks. The recently released Rise of Skywalker is largely a coming-of-age story for Rey, the last of the Jedi, who spent her youth scavenging electronic scrap on Jakku, a remote outer planet.

As I wrote this on Christmas Day, I couldn’t help but think about how technological advances particularly in communication have changed many of us, socially. I went simply by the number of Christmas greetings I had received these past few days: no greetings via telephone call or via e-mail; and, only one Christmas card via regular post/mail.

These past few years, we have witnessed a renewed and resurging interest in Filipino history and heroism. This is most evident in popular culture, with the release of semi-autobiographical films such as Heneral Luna and Goyo, and works that depict the tumultuous 1970s and ’80s, such as Liway, ML, and Respeto. In many universities, theater productions such as Dekada ’70, Desaparesidos, Nana Rosa, and The Kundiman Party invite audiences to reflect and revisit our wellspring of memory as a nation.

Imagine these four cases of emotional hardships and social stigma in one island in the Philippines in the late 1930s.

ECONOMISTS MAY be finally closing in on the reason for asset bubbles. How to pop them before they grow too large, however, is a much harder problem.

FOR ALL the flak the pharmaceutical industry has taken for its exorbitant pricing practices, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s been a pretty stunning decade for medical progress.

This continues the discussion started on Dec. 16 on aspects of the Concession Agreements (CA), which have been tagged as “onerous” and “grossly disadvantageous” by the administration.