PEOPLE TALK about changing character traits by changing habits. Habits change by changing daily behavior.

It has been six years since the Zamboanga Siege took place on Sept. 9, 2016. It was an armed incursion into Zamboanga City led by a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) loyal to Nur Misuari. Fighting ensued between the MNLF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Mindanao, with six regions, has the highest poverty incidence (36% in 2015) among the three main island groups including Luzon and Visayas. The region hosts a disproportionate percentage of rural poor. Agriculture diversification is key to reducing the high rural poverty.

“A power ‘to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for a limited time, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.’... The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of individuals.” -- James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 43, 1788.

We are all familiar with the story of David and Goliath, the Biblical account of a shepherd boy beating with a mere sling shot a giant warrior. How did a boy not trained for armed combat defeat in battle a giant of a veteran warrior?

A statement I often hear from Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III is his recognition of the contribution of his predecessors and the previous administrations in providing the building blocks for the current comprehensive tax reform program. Recently, in a thanksgiving lunch he hosted for former finance secretaries, other former senior government officials, and reputable economists and technocrats from the private sector and civil society, including critics of the administration, he again emphasized that the current Department of Finance (DoF) has built on the good work that others have done.

Every summer, when the sun is beating down hard on the archipelago and dam water levels are low, a familiar visitor comes a-calling in the islands. Its name: Red Alert. It comes mostly in mid-afternoons and early evenings. Its message: be forearmed for a power outage is nigh. And when in some areas the warning blows real, economic activity slows down or stops altogether. With some untimely equipment failures, brownouts envelope more areas and a power crisis is declared, followed by the familiar howl and congressional hearings.

Of course you can call or text on your phone while driving. You can even read your e-mail and reply quickly on your iPad. You might want to catch some quick news on Yahoo, or get your daily fix of cute dog antics on YouTube.

At 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 16, 1810 in Dolores, Mexico, Father Miguel Hidalgo ordered the church bells rung as he gathered his congregation. There, he cried out against the abuses of the Spaniards and the many Criollos (wealthy Mexican mestizos) who oppressed the Mexican masses. He urged the faithful to revolt against Spain. That event, known today as “Grito de Dolores” (“Cry of Dolores”), marked the start of Mexico’s 11 year struggle to be a self-governing republic. On Aug. 24, 1821, Mexico’s fight for independence came to a victorious end with the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba. Mexico considers Grito de Dolores as its spiritual day of Independence.

The most accessible and most credible source of information for most Filipinos, broadcast media made much of September’s advent this year for the usual -- and depressingly trivial -- reasons.

It seems bizarre to need to say it but bizarre seems to be the norm nowadays. Anyway, here it is: religious freedom is a fundamental constitutionally protected right.

“AT LEAST it’s better than smoking” was a common mantra when it came to vaping devices. Not anymore.