Love, broadly given: Strengthening the social fabric that binds generations

By Manila Bulletin

Published Feb 14, 2026 12:05 am | Updated Feb 13, 2026 05:52 pm

For many, Valentine’s Day arrives wrapped in predictable gestures — roses, ribbons and restaurant reservations. It is a welcome ritual to celebrate romance and devotion. Yet for a nation navigating anxious times, perhaps the truest observance of the day calls us to something broader and more enduring than candlelight and confections.

Love, at its best, is not confined to romance. It is a virtue — steady, generous and quietly transformative. It is found in the daily decision to place another’s well-being alongside our own. Today, Valentine’s Day, we might consider reclaiming the holiday not by diminishing its traditions, but by enlarging them.

For 126 years, Manila Bulletin has chronicled the story of our people and one truth appears again and again in our archives: Filipinos endure not by sentiment alone, but by sacrifice, solidarity and service.

Love, in our tradition, has never been confined to courtship.

It is found in the quiet heroism of mothers and fathers who leave for overseas work so their children may have opportunities they themselves did not.

It is seen in neighbors who arrive unasked when a typhoon floods a barangay, bringing food, blankets and steady hands.

It is present in parish volunteers who organize relief drives, in jeepney drivers who extend kindness to a struggling passenger, and in teachers who dig into their own modest resources so their pupils can learn with dignity.

The need for such quiet acts has not diminished. If anything, it has grown. We live in an age of speed and distraction, when disagreement too often drowns out decency. Public discourse can feel sharp-edged. Loneliness, though seldom visible, is widespread. Under such conditions, a single act of kindness can carry significant weight.

What might it look like to honor Valentine’s Day in this spirit?

It may be as simple as writing a note of gratitude to a teacher who shaped a life long ago, or to a colleague whose diligence often goes unremarked. It may mean checking in on an elderly neighbor, or extending patience in a long queue when tempers run thin. It may be choosing civility in conversation where disagreement would be easier.

For congregations and civic groups, Valentine’s Day offers an occasion to reaffirm bonds of fellowship. A community meal, a blood drive, a coordinated effort to assist a struggling household — these are expressions of love that ripple outward. They strengthen the social fabric that binds town to town and generation to generation.

Even within marriage and romance, the most meaningful tokens are rarely the most extravagant. A faithful presence through hardship, a willingness to forgive, a shared commitment to weather life’s uncertainties — these are the foundations upon which lasting affection rests.

To broaden our understanding of Valentine’s Day is not to scorn its sentiment, but to deepen it. Romance remains a worthy and beautiful expression of love. Yet if the holiday begins and ends at the dinner table, we have missed an opportunity.

In a world inclined toward self-interest, choosing kindness is a quiet act of courage. It affirms that we belong to one another. It declares that courtesy and compassion are not antiquated virtues but living necessities.

Today, let us celebrate love in all its forms: in romance, certainly, but also in responsibility; in affection, but also in action. Let us give generously of our time, our patience and our goodwill.

Love, broadly given, remains the surest foundation of a strong and decent society.

BLACKPINK's 'Kill This Love' reaches 1 billion streams on Spotify

 

Spotify announced the 36 new members of its Billions Club for January, or songs have reached one billion streams on the music platform.  

By Jonathan Hicap

Published Feb 13, 2026 02:34 pm

These include “Kill This Love,” “Try” by Pink, “Pump It” by Black Eyed Peas, “Born to Die” by Lana Del Ray, “Shower” by Becky G, “From The Start” by Laufey, “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, “I Like You (A Happier Song)” by Post Malone and Doja Cat, “Moral of the Story” by Ashe, “Feel This Moment” by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera, “Ribs” by Lorde, “Confident” by Justin Bieber and Chance The Rapper, and “Hate Me” by Ellie Goulding and Juice Wrld.  

When we ask for a sign from heaven

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THERE are two ways of asking for a sign from heaven—the good one and the bad one. The former is when we do it to see if what we intend to do is really what God wants us to do. This happens when we are not sure whether the initiative we are making is really coming from God. The bad one is when we are doubting the divinity of Christ, just like what some Pharisees did in the gospel of St. Mark (8,11-13). They did it to tempt Christ.

We need to see to it that our faith in Christ, in God, is beyond question. Only then can we start to perceive the loving guidance Christ is giving us at every moment of our life. We should not question the divinity of Christ. We need to understand that it is Christ who guides us and cares for us, directing us toward our ultimate perfection.

But for that to happen, we should truly be humble to capture this reality. It is humility that is the gateway for God’s grace and Christ himself to enter into our lives, empowering us to do what God himself, who is all love, does. Humility involves a certain giving up, a certain dying that actually gives rise to a better life, just like a seed has to die before it bears fruits. 

Remember what Christ said about this point. “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (Jn 12,24) And he continued: “Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life…” (12,24)

How important it really is to learn how to be humble, unafraid of the many inconveniences it would surely involve! To humble oneself is actually never an act of cowardice nor the misfortune of a defeat. On the contrary, it requires a lot of courage to leave behind the nest of our comfort in order to fly to far distances, pursuing nothing less than heaven. And success and victory are assured, since Christ himself promised it. We should just have faith in Christ.

Humility is emptying ourselves that would strengthen our faith, since we would fill ourselves with nothing less than God himself, of whom we are supposed to be his image and likeness. Humility enables us to receive grace, and with grace we are enabled, in spite of our weaknesses and differences and conflicts among ourselves, to do what is impossible for us to do. It would be Christ doing it for us and through us.

We need to be humble to attract and receive God’s grace that would enable us to do what we cannot do on our own—to be able to love everyone, including our enemies. Christ has told us, nay, commanded us to love our enemies, and that is just impossible for us to do unless we have God’s grace.

But the grace of God, which is always made available, cannot enter into our heart and would have no effect in us unless we humble ourselves, denying ourselves of our own likes and preferences and willing to carry the cross of Christ, which is the cross that signifies everything that we do not want and also all the sins of man.

 

PSEi falls after foreign investment pledges plunged 50%

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell on continued profit-taking on Friday, Feb. 13, after the government reported a steep fall in foreign investment pledges. The main index dropped 86.67 points, or 1.34 percent, to close at 6,384.58. Miners led the retreat across the board. Read more

Breaking up with the dating app

 

Now that all my dating apps are uninstalled, I don’t have it in me to be ashamed of admitting I’ve had my fair (borderline desperate) share of window shopping for potential significant others. After all, my job doesn’t really give me space to meet a lot of people, so I’ve had many accounts set up on different apps.

There have been a few “matches” that led to so many boring conversations that I’m still not sure whether they actually found me interesting or if one of us accidentally swiped right. Needless to say, none of those “matches” equaled actual compatibility, nor have any meaningful relationships sprouted out of them. Zero actual matches with people, and instead, matches between characters and curated personas.

The only other period when I didn’t have a dating app was in mid-2024, when I thought I didn’t need one anymore because I’d met someone to fill that void in real life. But once that ended, I found myself dealing with a severe case of withdrawal from romantic affection. Suddenly, the dating apps were back. But something was different this time. It was no longer exciting. It wasn’t fun. And then I realized that the whole time I had invited the apps into my life, it had not been fun at all. Then I came to an even greater realization: dating apps will never work for me because my self-worth demands fairness to myself and my conscience demands fairness for others.

Bumble, my most frequently-used one, has a feature called “best photo,” which can determine which of the first three Bumble profile photos gets the most attention and then place it on top. The temptation would be to gather all the pictures with your best angles. Then, from that selection, weed out any pictures that don’t contribute to the persona you’re trying to present. Come up with a witty bio, one that aligns with your persona. This is not a one-time process. It’s an ongoing process of updating every time something impressive (and hence, attractive) happens to you. By the end of it, you’re your own brand manager.

This constant curation has worn me out over the years. At first, I thought I was being pretentious while everyone else was being real, but from the conversations I’ve had with people there, it became clear to me that everyone there was presenting a persona that was far different from their actual selves.

I had an entanglement with a person who had fallen in love with an idea of me that he had created for himself, and got very disappointed when I felt safe enough to reveal my humanity. After that, my growing self-worth gnawed at me to be immediately authentic, as well as unapologetically potentially unlikable. The act of depending on the algorithm and on strangers on the internet for acknowledgment that you look good in the pictures wasn’t sustainable. It was also happening during a critical period of my life when I was being misunderstood by many around me, and I needed to be sure of myself, no matter what. It wasn’t fair to myself anymore that I wasn’t applying the lessons I had been learning in my platonic and professional life to my romantic life.

It also wasn’t fair for everyone else that I wasn’t giving them my real self. The heartbreak had forced me to reflect that we really could fall in love with the idea we have of others instead of who they actually are. If someone could fall in love with a persona I didn’t create, who can say that can’t happen for a persona in a dating app that I did actively create?

If you want something sustainable, you would have to eventually break down that mask. They would have to re-learn you all over again, and that isn’t necessarily what most sign up for. How could I possibly demand that of someone and expect them to be fine with me going, “Actually, I lied on that profile. I’m not as interesting or likable as I seem to be. Here are facts about me I intentionally left out”?

I don’t think love works that way: “Love me first and then I’ll tell you the unlovable things later.” I think we are supposed to know people with the good and the bad, and then see if there is anyone you’re willing to love despite the less-than-desirable qualities. My life had already re-routed itself to be open to being unlikeable. I could easily just be honest and put the most authentic version of myself on the app, but that would mean getting back into the cycle of curation, only this time subscribing to a different set of criteria.

Of course, some people do end up together after meeting on dating apps—all the best for them, absolutely. I can never make assumptions, and I don’t have any ideas about the conditions that led them to that happy ending, but what I do know for myself is this: I’m not sticking around to find out.

On turning 80

BY RANDY DAVID

FEBRUARY 8, 2026

Read Next

Talk of the Town: When gods obfuscate

Exactly a month ago today, I turned 80. It was an event I didn’t expect to feel any different from my previous birthdays. But thanks to my fellow Inquirer columnist Ambeth Ocampo, who devoted an entire column to the lunch my sisters prepared at our childhood home in Betis, I received a lot more greetings and attention than usual.

Far from the “Kapampangan feast” by which Ambeth titled his piece (1/14/26), lunch that day consisted of the simple dishes my late mother used to cook when we were growing up—easy to prepare, nutritious, tasty, and inexpensive viands. Perhaps the only thing “special” was the callos my daughter Kara contributed. But given how we have come to associate fiestas with elaborate dishes rich in spices and ingredients, I can understand how the faintly familiar but long-forgotten meals of our childhood can strike one as special. Marcel Proust was right: a large part of our memory resides in our taste buds.

But that is the public side of marking a birthday. At my age—or rather, in one’s elderly years—the private side is more deeply felt. The question I ask myself is no longer how many years I have left, but how much longer I can walk for an hour without pain, and think clearly enough to compose a column every week without being tempted to ask ChatGPT for a draft. I realize—and for this I am eternally grateful—that I am still healthy enough to regard these as indicators of successful aging.

Sam Cantada ready for UAAP seniors debut

 

By Mark Rey Montejo

Published Feb 12, 2026 09:35 pm

With tons of expectations weighing on her shoulders, highly touted rookie Sam Cantada vowed to make an impact as she gears up for her UAAP women's volleyball debut with National University this weekend.

With tons of expectations weighing on her shoulders, highly touted rookie Sam Cantada vowed to make an impact as she gears up for her UAAP women’s volleyball debut with National University this weekend.

The 18-year-old Cantada, who spearheaded Adamson in the junior ranks including back-to-back finals appearances, is set to don the Lady Bulldogs’ colors when they battle the UST Golden Tigresses on Sunday, Feb. 15.

The Dasmariñas, Cavite native acknowledged the pressure but said the support of her coaches and teammates makes it easier to manage.

“As of now po, mahirap po siya. Pero, d'yan naman po ‘yong mga coaches and ‘yong mga teammates na pwede po silang tumulong po sa akin para ma-overcome ‘yong pressure po,” said Cantada.

“Siguro po, mas tatapang po talaga ako this season. Lalo na po, kailangan po mag-peak ng round 2 po,” she added.

Surely, suiting up for a powerhouse school like NU, which was then powered by decorated spikers Bella Belen and Alyssa Solomon in the previous seasons, is already a daunting assignment for a freshman.

But it was not the case for the 5-foot-7 outside spiker as her transition went smooth after receiving warm reception from the Lady Bulldogs mainstays and veterans.

“Okay naman po sila. They're trying their best naman po mag-lead, lalo na po ‘yong mga ga-graduate na po,” Cantada stressed.

Last May, Cantada started her run with NU after she and the Lady Bullpups represented National Capital Region in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

There, she met senior stars Belen, Solomon, Vange Alinsug, Lams Lamina, and Shaira Jardio, to name a few, who supported them live at the jam-packed PCV Socio-Civic and Cultural Center in Bacarra, a neighboring city of Laoag.

They won the gold medal after beating Tay Tung College (Western Visayas) in the secondary girls’ finals and their reign extended in the Shakey’s Girls Volleyball Invitational League (SGVIL) a week later at the expense of the very same Bacolod-based school.

Cantada backs the likes of Alinsug, Lamina, and Jardio, with new head coach Regine Diego, as they go for a three-peat.

“Hindi po magiging madali ‘tong season, pero I think pag lahat kami iisa ng mga teammates ko, may mataas po kami na chance na makuha namin ‘yon,” she concluded.

GOAT: A rewatchable family movie

 

Published Feb 13, 2026 08:00 am

By Margaret Siytangco

Let me say this first: GOAT is not just another animated sports movie.

It’s fun. It’s loud. It’s heart-filled. And for a mom who turned this into a Valentine’s mom-and-son date? It was such a win.

(Images courtesy of Columbia Pictures)

Produced by Stephen Curry and backed by the same creative energy behind KPop Demon Hunters and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, you can immediately feel that bold, stylized DNA. The aesthetic? Watercolor-y but graffiti. Soft, but edgy. It feels like a sketchbook collided with a street court. Completely unique. Completely eye-catching.

And yes — it’s inspired by Curry’s own underdog story. The underestimated player. The doubted kid. The one who dared to dream way bigger than people expected. Except here, the underdog is literally a goat. Greatest. Of. All. Time. The metaphor is not subtle — and I love that it doesn’t try to be.

The voice cast? So good. You’ll recognize Caleb McLaughlin, Aaron Pierre, David Harbour, Nicola Coughlan, and Gabrielle Union — plus Curry himself. And you can tell they had fun with it. The characters feel rich. Distinct. Not just filler voices reading lines.

Now, can we talk about the sneakers?

Because excuse me. Those rubber shoes are about to become collectible. I am calling it. The designs are bold, colorful, and very Gen Alpha coded. If these drop in real life, kids are going to want them. It’s giving serious “Sold out in three days” vibes.

But beyond its style and branding potential, what really makes GOAT work is its heart.

This is an underdog story done right. It’s entertaining. It’s funny. It doesn’t drag. It doesn’t preach. It just lets you root for someone who refuses to shrink himself. And as a mom watching beside my kiddo? That hits.

My son was locked in. He was laughing, reacting, and fully invested. And that shared movie moment? That’s the real win.

Is it deep, dark cinema? No.

Is it emotionally draining? Not at all.

Is it going to become one of those well-loved, rewatchable family movies? I genuinely think so.

This feels like the kind of film families will put on again on a random Saturday. The kind kids quote. The kind that quietly becomes part of childhood.

Bring the kiddos. Bring the whole family.

If you’re looking for something entertaining, stylish, and heart-forward — GOAT is worth the watch.

I LOVE YOU!

 

This week, it's time again for Valentine's Day. Expensive flowers, sweets, lunches, hotel overnights ...

Do you know something about the legend of St. Valentine? The history of Valentine's Day – and the story of its patron saint – is indeed shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.

From February 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. ... Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.

Being married for almost 43 years now, Valentine's Day lets me always recall lovely moments from the past.

In a very old issue of PHILADELPHIA NEWS, which is still on my desk, columnist Larry Fields confessed: "I lead a life of wine, women and song (by the way, a wonderful waltz by the Austrian king of waltz Johann Strauss!) - it's cheaper than petrol, food and rent!"

Well, some marriages are made in heaven. You know some? I do. The best of the rest are down-to-earth. Maybe also yours? I am blessed and happy to celebrate my  43rd wedding anniversary next month.

Maybe you remember this: "Then the prince swept the lovely young maiden into his arms and carried her home to his castle. And they live happily ever after!" Indeed, they did.

What I would like to see is an autonomous in home affairs study of all these titles of nobility bearers seven years after their happily-ever-after marriages. or even earlier, because the so-called darned and tricky seventh marriage year could be even the first one already.

The truth is that life isn't made up of the continual highs found in the initial stages of courtship. Of course, flirting is fun and a wide groove exists. But after a while our system needs a rest. Unanimously we're in the second stage sooner or later and our marriage life badly needs a new outside coating.

All of a sudden, the partner prefers day and night watching all the sports channels, falls asleep while you're revealing your innermost secrets and even forgets the anniversary for the first or even second time . Just bear in mind: You've won each other's acceptance  and sometimes even feelings are terribly gloomy. This acceptance shouldn't be undervalued.

Even we see a house that has to be cleaned, many other things have to be organized, and the partner, who looks as fatigued and bored as you feel. Logical question: "That's it? That WAS it?"

And suddenly, we experienced the third stage and learned why it's worth the ups and downs. Maybe we men don't mention any more, how incredible she looks, but we enjoy bleating and grousing at her spending innumerable hours putting her together. But then, suddenly, we men unload the garbage without being asked for it.

Although no marriage is continually blissful - it can be pretty good most of the time. When we last through arguments, money worries, and kid's problems or slowly but surely coming up mid-life crises, we should face reality that our relationship is not always a big day celebration.

It's because the fundamental  reason for a marriage has outlasted the craziness of day-to-day living: we love each other. That's MY idea of "Happily ever after, indeed!"

And one more thing: in my opinion, Valentine's Day shouldn't be only on February 14. It doesn't matter if one is married or not.

Celebrate friendship on Valentine's Week

By Pinky Concha-Colmenares

Published Feb 12, 2026 12:02 am | Updated Feb 11, 2026 04:44 pm

DRIVING THOUGHTS

It’s almost Valentine’s Day when we will be surrounded by loud love. Red roses, candlelit dinners, staged affection posted online. Love, apparently, must be visible, romantic, and preferably photogenic.

But some of the most enduring forms of love don’t show up with flowers. They arrive quietly. And they are almost never celebrated on Feb. 14.

Friendship is one of them.

Well, a group of friends, mostly couples in their senior years, celebrated Valentine’s week without those photogenic or Instagramable moments. They went camping. Driving through kilometers of desolate landscape of sand trails left by Pinatubo’s eruption decades ago, stirring a whirlwind of sand in its path, crossing a river, dodging tree trunks — and finally reaching a surreal landscape of rolling green grass, pine trees, and a serene lake.

This is Lake Mapanuepe in Zambales, a truly hidden paradise visited only by the adventurous with 4x4 vehicles, and a few brave 4x2 drivers, all of them with the spirit of Indiana Jones.

Far from the restaurants where most couples will dine on Valentine’s Day, this group who call themselves the Senior Car Campers Plus seek the outdoors to celebrate friendship. Under the stars, the chilly wind of the lake threatening to blow away tents and awnings, these senior citizens cook meals on neatly-assembled kitchen tables, lay the sumptuous food on tables extended by coordinated planning, and sit on camp chairs each brings along.

The Great Outdoors is what draws these seniors together. Total strangers before they met in some campsite years ago, they have now become friends and act like neighbors, although their home addresses are scattered around Metro Manila.

This week, and on Valentine’s Day, they celebrate friendship, a form of love that hardly attracts attention online. To me — and I am sure, to many of you — friendship has kept you grounded many times in your life. To have a friend who knows your voice well enough to hear the bad day before you say a word. The one who sends a message that simply reads — “Are you okay.” You have a treasure when you have a friend who remembers how you take your coffee, your irrational fears, and your old stories — and listens to them again and again.

Friendship is love without performance. With the red roses and chocolates. There’s no public milestones for it, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of knowing each other’s worst habits. And because it does not follow the familiar romance narrative, we often treat it as secondary — important, yes, but somehow not central.

That’s a mistake.

Friendships are the relationships that hold us together when romantic love falters, or ends. They are the ones who survive distance, heartbreak, career changes, parenthood, grief, and personal reinvention.

Unlike romantic love, friendship is rarely about possession. It allows space. It doesn’t panic when you change. It understands that silence doesn’t always mean absence. All it asks for is something simple — “Be there when I need you.”

There’s humor in friendship too. The kind that only exists when you’ve known someone long enough to laugh without explaining the joke. With the seniors who’ve shared only about two years together, the laughter comes from jokes about appetite or one’s build that prevents one from setting up an awning. All that said with affection, the banter goes on and on from one campsite to the next. The laughter refuses to leave.

With this group, they linger together from one campsite to the next, until, as one of them said, “We run out of clothes and food.” That’s not extraordinary; with friends, lunch extends to dinner, and cocktails to midnight snacks.

And yet, on Valentine’s Day, friendships are politely ignored. We don’t buy chocolates for the people who sat with us through uncertainty. We don’t celebrate the ones who stayed when we were not particularly lovable.

Maybe because friendship feels too ordinary to honor. Or we assume it will always be there, quietly waiting.

But friendship is not accidental. It is built and maintained. It requires time in a world obsessed with speed. It needs presence in a culture addicted to distraction and multitasking. It requires listening without giving advice, honesty but not cruel comments, and care without conditions.

That’s not small love.

If romantic love is fireworks, friendship is the steady light that shows you where you are. It doesn’t overwhelm. It stays long after the noise — or the camping ends.

So maybe this Valentine’s week, we expand our definition of love. Maybe we acknowledge that some of the deepest connections in our lives do not arrive wrapped in romance. They arrive in shared silence — when we set up camp, each quietly assembling tents, kitchens, beds. They come with old conversations of repeated jokes, and whimsical dreams of what one wants to buy for the next camping. It mingles in the comfort of being fully known to strangers who now sleep in tents beside mine.

Some loves do not ask for roses. They ask for time — to get away from the comforts of the city to some desolate campsite. They ask for honesty — to ask for help to set up a new tent and not pretend one can do it all by himself. They ask for staying – through three days to seven days in two to three campsites.

Those quiet friendships deserve to be celebrated! This week, I celebrated friendship with Lawrence Dy, Danny and Beng Yan, Dean and Nette Baltazar, George and Josie Coscolluela, Zaldy and Claire Ramonez, PJ and Gay Beltran. We missed Bodz Rivera and Richard Siy, regular campers who couldnt get away for the week. (Email: pinky.colmenares@mb.com.ph)