Ashtine Olviga takes charge of first solo concert

 

By Neil Ramos

Published Jun 26, 2026 12:06 pm

Actress-singer Ashtine Olviga is returning to her musical roots, and this time, she's making sure her voice is heard both on and off the stage.

Ahead of her first solo concert, "Love Like Ashtine," the rising star revealed that she has been deeply involved in every aspect of the production, from the show's concept and setlist to the costumes and stage design.

"Siyempre may mga taong assigned to do all that, pero thankful ako na pinapakinggan nila ang mga suggestions ko, yung mga sinasabi ko," Ashtine told us.   

The hands-on approach marks a significant change for the actress, who admitted she used to keep her opinions to herself out of fear of offending others.

"Kasi po, before, nakakatakot magsalita. Baka kasi may ma-offend. So parang, 'Sige po, okay na po 'yun.' Ganoon po ako dati," she shared.

"Ngayon, I am very much involved. Super thankful ako kasi hinahayaan nila akong ma-involve. Sobrang welcoming ng production team. Ipinaramdam nila sa akin na kung may ideas ako, puwede kong sabihin."

Beyond shaping the show's creative direction, Ashtine also had a hand in selecting many of the concert's special guests.  

"Karamihan sa mga kinuha ko, kakilala ko na rin. Para masaya," she said with a laugh.

Asked if her guests were willing to take direction from her, she smiled and replied, "Opo! Yung mga guest din po, sila pa yung parang nagsabi na, 'O sige, okay lang kung sino ang mga gusto mo.'"

Set for Aug. 23 at the New Frontier Theater, "Love Like Ashtine" will feature an eclectic lineup of artists from music, P-pop, and acting.

Among the confirmed guests are singer-songwriter Rob Deniel, who starred alongside Ashtine in "My Melody," an episode of the anthology series "Viva One Originals: Ashtine," as well as hitmaker Amiel Sol, whose viral song "Sa Bawat Sandali" was memorably covered by the actress.

P-pop groups GAT and RAYA will also perform, alongside Ashtine's former Litz groupmates Yumi Garcia, Fatima Anonuevo, and Bianca Santos.

Joining the celebration are her "Ang Mutya ng Section E" co-stars Sara Joe and Jastine Lim, together with fellow Vivarkada artists Nicole Omillo, Krissha Viaje, and Aubrey Caraan.

The impressive lineup has turned rehearsals into what feels like a reunion.

"Yeah, kaya po sa rehearsals ang saya lang namin. Kahit napapagod na kami, madalas tawa lang kami nang tawa," she said.

Fans can also expect brand-new music during the concert.

Ashtine revealed she will premiere five new songs, including "Nasaan Ka Na?," a track she personally wrote.

"So, bale sa concert ko po, maglalabas po kami ng additional five songs. Isa na rito yung 'Nasaan Ka Na?' which ako po ang sumulat."

She said the song came from exploring a more vulnerable side of herself.

"Yung inspiration? In-explore ko lang yung vulnerable side ko. Yung mga nakikita kong stories na malulungkot."

The concert comes as Ashtine continues to expand her music career following the release of her debut single, "Love Like U," which has already surpassed 840,000 streams.

Produced in collaboration with acclaimed songwriter Thyro Alfaro, the track introduced fans to another side of the actress, blending modern pop with soulful melodies while highlighting her sweet yet confident vocals.

With new music, surprise collaborations, and a more personal creative vision, "Love Like Ashtine" promises to showcase not just Ashtine the actress, but Ashtine the performer and emerging pop artist.

Tickets are now available via TicketNet.

MILF supporters urge gov't to continue implementing all peace accords

 

MILF supporters rally in Cotabato City. (Bangsamoro Multimedia Network)

By Keith Bacongco

Published Jun 27, 2026 05:17 pm

DAVAO CITY – Supporters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) pressed the government to continue honoring and implementing the peace agreement amid the political tensions hounding the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

A group known as Recover BARMM Movement (RBM) has reiterated its call to the government to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), and all signed peace agreements.

On Thursday, June 25, thousands of MILF supporters rallied in front of the Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City and criticized the government for alleged intervention in the internal affairs of the BARMM government.

The MILF supporters, coming from different parts of Central Mindanao, occupied the entire stretch of the kilometer-long road leading to the BARMM compound.

Aside from Cotabato City, thousands of MILF supporters in Lanao del Sur gathered in Marawi City to join the call.

In a manifesto released to the media, RBM expressed concern on the political developments in the region, claiming that it does not only threaten the integrity of the peace process but could also undermine the spirit of the Bangsamoro peace agreements.

“The Bangsamoro peace process was built upon decades of sacrifices, countless lives lost, and the unwavering commitment of generations of Bangsamoro leaders and communities who struggled for justice, genuine autonomy, and self-determination,” said the MILF-affiliated group.

The group called for the reinstatement of MILF Chairman Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim as the interim chief minister of the BARMM.

On March 2025, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. appointed Abdulraof Macacua as the new interim chief minister, replacing Ebrahim who held the post since BARMM was formed in 2019, catching the Bangsamoro community by surprise.

Macacua was then chief of the staff of the MILF armed wing Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF).

However, due to some controversies involving the MILF leadership and Macacua, he was suspended as BIAF chief early this month.

For RBM, Ebrahim must be reinstated as he “remains the foremost symbol of the Bangsamoro peace process” in respect to his role and contributions to the Bangsamoro struggle.

The group also called on the government to restore the leadership of the MILF in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

The MILF, according to RBM, remains the principal signatory to the peace agreement.

“The Bangsamoro Transition Authority must reflect the spirit, mandate, and political reality envisioned in the peace process,” it added.

The MILF has questioned composition of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority as some of its members were not recommended by the MILF.

The MILF said that the Bangsamoro Organic Law states that 40 BTA members shall be recommended by the MILF. Thirty-nine others will be recommended by the government.

However, when the BTA’s term was extended after the 2025 elections, seven of those appointed by Marcos did not reportedly come from the MILF list.

RBM urged the government to appoint a chairperson in the peace implementing panel.

The government has yet to designate a new peace panel chairperson following the resignation of Cesar Yano last January.

RBM said that the absence of a peace panel chair slowed down the implementation of important commitments under the peace agreement.

The Bangsamoro people deserve action, not neglect, the group pointed out.

Reimagining the future

By Tonyo Cruz

Published Jun 27, 2026 12:02 am | Updated Jun 26, 2026 03:37 pm

HOTSPOT

A couple of weeks ago, I jokingly asked a friend: “When do we intend to flee the country and migrate?”

Without missing a beat, my friend replied: “Why should we be the ones who ought to leave?”

“It is the thieves and the exploiters who should be chased out of the country,” my friend said.

Indeed, the big landlords, compradors, traditional politicians and dynasts stay in the country because the system suits them, allows their every whim, and there’s impunity for whatever crimes they commit. No surprise because they set this system up, and maintains it with an iron fist. For everyone else, there’s only daily hardship.

We cannot think of other countries that would allow the elites to “do business” there, in the same manner they conduct business here. They would most probably be immediately arrested, prosecuted and thrown in jail there. There’s no special treatment for them outside of the Philippines.

Of course, there are exceptions. There are humane, patriotic, conscientious and God-fearing elites. But they are —again — exceptions.

This is the tragedy or comedy of today’s Filipino life.

Ordinary working-class and middle-class Filipinos can aspire to work abroad and immigrate to other countries. There, they get gainful employment, enjoy healthcare and social services, and modern infrastructure. They are recognized for their economic, professional, and other contributions. True, there’s rising racism, anti-immigrant sentiments, sometimes downright fascism or wars, but in their brutally honest calculations, going back to the rotten and corrupt system in the Philippines is a lot worse.

Place a Filipino in any part of the world, where there’s a measure of fairness and freedom, and that Filipino would thrive and excel. (This is also possible in the Philippines but it takes lots of extra effort due to red tape, corruption, patronage, the abject lack of basics and overall unfairness that rig the system against ordinary folk.)

If left alone by or freed from the elites, I guess we could transform the country and change the system to make it work for us. Whether it is healthcare or housing, mass transport or education, agriculture or the environment, or even how to conduct politics, I believe the workers, farmers, professionals, entrepreneurs and the balikbayans who have helped build other countries would have superior ideas and would win in a truly democratic arrangement.

I have always believed that our overseas Filipino workers’ heroism is not just about the remittances that keep the bankrupt economy afloat or even about how they lift their families from poverty. They can do more than that, if only we ask them. These are people who built entire economies from nothing, laid down and managed train systems and power grids, managed and manned hospitals and healthcare systems, built mass housing, taught generations of children, worked in hi-tech companies and scientific labs, dominated the international maritime industry, and so on. Their individual and collective experience could be tapped for nation-building, and could put to shame the so-called economic plans that almost always benefit only a few. Our OFWs know what’s good and what’s possible. They have seen it, and they have done it in other countries. Hopefully soon, they could play a key role in making change in our own country.

In a related news, the government recently boasted that foreign nationals view the Philippines as a top retirement destination. I frankly don’t mind it and unsurprised about it. Who wouldn’t want to retire in our beautiful country? But we also ought to ask: Are Filipinos also looking forward to retire with dignity and good health in their own country?

Tough question, I know. But the answer is important, and how we could radically make things better equally important as well. Filipinos here and abroad have a stake in it.

(See you in the streets this weekend. June 27 is the date of Love LabanPride PH Festival at UP Diliman, and of the Metro Manila Pride March and Festival at Remedios Circle. June 28 meanwhile is the date of the White Ribbon Movement March at the EDSA People Power Monument.)

Eating well in a world that never stops feeding you

 

BY MITCH FELIPE MENDOZA

JUNE 27, 2026

Photo by Monika Grabkowska/Unsplash+

The biggest nutrition challenge today isn’t knowing what to eat. It’s learning how to live in a world where food is constantly competing for our attention. Convenience, easy access to food, and constant exposure are no longer temporary trends, but they are part of modern life and will only continue to grow. We cannot control these changes, but we can control how we respond to them in ways that protect and support our health.

Growing up in the 1980s, I ate meals at regular times. Sometimes I’d have biscuits or a small bag of chichirya from the local sari-sari store. Eating out with my family was a treat—maybe once a month—and family trips were rare. I don’t remember craving sweets as much as people seem to now.

If my childhood felt different from today’s food scene, just think about the generations before us. My late mom used to tell me how slim people were when she was young, and how many women her age had 22-inch waistlines or even smaller in their 20s.

Hello, anxiety: my old friend

 

By Joyce Lorraine Mina

“Hi, Joyce! How are you?”

“I’m good,” is how I would usually respond when asked such question. But deep down, what I honestly want to say is, “I’m constantly on edge, with unexplainable worst-case scenarios already playing out in my head.”

After viewing “Inside Out 2” in 2024, I felt nothing but mixed emotions chaotically stirring within me, like a storm not to be reckoned with.

I imagine Joy and Envy standing in front of the monitor, both applauding and cheering inside the headquarters of my bewildered mind. Beside them were Fear, Sadness, and Embarrassment, as they took turns comforting one another, each of them taking their own time processing the entire movie.

Of course, let’s also not forget Anger and Ennui, who were watching impatiently from the sidelines, already itching to leave the crowded, noisy cinema and head home.

Then last but not least, my old friend Anxiety—the primary controller of my life—who, like in the movie, lets a single tear fall from the corner of her eye, for she has never related to a character as much as Riley’s Anxiety.

“If only this movie had been released sooner, then maybe I would have gotten the help I desperately needed,” I hear Anxiety voicing out my thoughts. Because then I would have figured out why my heart was tugging me away from every classroom door all these years, or why I suddenly have trouble breathing whenever I attend public events or parties. Would I have been able to identify these scary, unfathomable symptoms of mine sooner?

I always believed it was normal to have recurring fits of uncontrollable sobs whenever my head was heavy from the routine thoughts of daily life. I also thought it was common to overanalyze the simplest habits—like rewriting and deleting words and sentences over and over again until you are left exhaustingly burned out. But what truly hit the fan for me was the entire school year 2022–2023, stretching all the way back to Grade 12.

Back when it was slowly transitioning to face-to-face classes, little did I know that my insurmountable, unexplainable, and unlivable fear of school would heighten.

I would skip classes or pretend to be sick from school, all because I was suffocating in an environment where teachers would never fail to remind rebellious students like me that I was not up to their standards, while my classmates looked at me with pitiful and scornful gazes that sent shivers up my spine.

Mind you, this was an entirely new experience for me, so undergoing all this was a disaster waiting to happen.

And in fact, it did. I would regularly attract attention in class by randomly tearing up in between classes due to the insufferable emotional pain that I had been welling up for the entire school year. At that point, I requested to see my guidance counselor, who, at the time, only said that I just needed to interact more with my classmates. But this did not solve my lack of sleep, caused by constant rumination about the past and overwhelming thoughts about the future.

By the time I entered college, I had finally found my answer through my psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), an excessive form of anxiety that I would not wish even on my worst enemy.

GAD is a mental health condition marked by persistent, excessive worry that often extends into a person’s everyday life without a clear cause. Some of these symptoms include, but are not limited to, fatigue, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, and difficulty sleeping, among others.

After a few months of taking my prescribed medication, my anxiety started to settle, calming itself down for the first time.

“So this is what it feels like to not worry about everything,” I thought, as I confidently looked into the eyes of strangers, feeling relieved and overwhelmed at the same time. This is all thanks to my understanding college counselor, who was the only person to see right through me.

To those who have their anxiety constantly steering the wheel, just know that I am giving you the warmest hug.

I know that it is difficult to be surrounded by people who hardly understand the predicament that you’re going through. But no matter what they say, please know that your feelings are always valid, no matter how big or small.

And to you, my Anxiety, I want you to know that you will always be a part of me, and I do not blame you for all the things that you have put me through. Because, after all, you only did those things to keep me safe from everything I couldn’t handle.

“Are you sure you are doing fine?” My friend asks again. I snap back from my swirling thoughts as I imagine Joy and Anxiety pushing up the lever together. I respond with a warm smile.

“Well, not really. But I am sure that I will be alright.”