COL. SALVADOR “Buddy” TURARAY,Dental Service (Retired) JUNE 15, 1950 – MARCH 9, 2026 By J. Irving I know he was sick, but his death overcame me with paralyzing disbelief. We were not done yet, I went to him to tell my predicament as a fellow Daeteño – “nagsumbong ako saiya!” Buddy and I were childhood acquaintances […]

By J. Irving When campaign ends and power are finally in the hands of these politicians, change in attitudes emerges. This is true even in the Barangay level. The very people whom we trust to implement the Katarungan Pambarangay are the ones breaking the law. They begin to see their office NOT as a responsibility but […]

By J. Irving ft. Generative Pre-trained Transformers There is a quiet but unmistakable satisfaction that settles in a leader’s heart when subordinates show genuine happiness upon seeing him. It is not merely courtesy or protocol; it is something deeper—something reflected in their eyes, in the warmth of their greetings, and in the ease of their […]

Just like most of us, General Nick Ojeda and many others, we began as an infantrymen — trained to fight face-to-face with the enemy, to hold ground, and to prevail through courage. That identity never leaves us. But warfare has changed. Today, battles are fought not only on hills and streets, but across networks, satellites, […]

By J. Irving Holy Rosary Minor Seminary was the place where my life quietly took shape. Entering the seminary at the age of twelve, I was still a boy—curious, unsure, and searching for direction. Those four years of secondary education coincided with the most formative stage of adolescence, a period when character, conscience, and identity begin […]

By J. Irving January 21, 2026, marks what should have been my mother’s 100th birthday. I cannot bring myself to call it “happy.” This day is heavy with grief — born not of age or fate, but of injustice. An injustice committed by Barangay No. 8 of Daet and the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Camarines Norte, […]

This is a story about the kidnapping and rescue of the late BISHOP FEDERICO O. ESCALER,
S.J., when he was the curate of the Diocese of Ipil in 1985. He was abducted together with
eleven companions; brought and held as hostages by the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) inside their stronghold.

By J. Irving ft. Generative Pre-trained Transformers Ipil had already learned how to whisper before it learned how to scream. In the weeks before the massacre in 1995, fear moved quietly through the town—passed from market stalls to parish pews, from fishermen to teachers. Men with guns had been seen too often, their faces hidden […]

By J. Irving ft. Generative Pre-trained Transformers As mistahs, our shared memories began in the same company barracks, classrooms, on the same parade grounds, in the same noisy corridors of youth. Back then, as plebes, the world was simple: reporting to upperclassmen, compliances, punishments, escape and evasions; then, as yearling and an uppie: exams, weekend […]