Just like me, we began as an infantryman — 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, and invisible cyber terrain. Armies can be paralyzed […]
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 In the neon hum of Manila’s late-night traffic, the phone on the 1326 cybercrime hotline began to ring again. On the other end was a young call-center agent named Jess, working the graveyard shift at the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC). He had been on duty only […]
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 […]
By J. Irving ft. Generative Pre-trained Transformers The 2022 elections taught us a painful lesson. Senator Ping Lacson ’71—arguably one of the most qualified candidates—lost. And many of us asked: Why can’t a Peemayer win the presidency? This massive and blatant corruption that is happening now is our own fault for placing the corrupt ones […]
Reference Book: Yuson, Alfred. In the Footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola (The Life of Bishop O. Escaler, S.J., D.D.). Jesuit Communications and Ernest Escaler. 2017. —————– By the time I finished writing the manuscript of my book (The Expired Valor), I stumbled on an article (from Philippine Star webpage dated 27 August 2017) of […]
By J. Irving ft. Generative Pre-trained Transformers Many asked me, “Why just now? Why are you so passionate to recommend Boy Bolo for the Medal of Valor when the three-year prescription period has already lapsed?” It was not an easy question to answer. Time has its way of dulling memories, but not the truth. The […]
Cyber Arnis 