September 2025 Recap

What an Explosive Month!
(Quick Recap for September 2025)

Outrageously Bad News

People in Indonesia rioted across what is routinely called "the world's largest archipelago" apparently over corruption scandals, but reportedly triggered by the police's killing of a delivery rider and a fat housing allowance that legislators awarded to themselves in the face of widespread hardship among common folk.

Over 2,000 people died in a magnitude 6 earthquake in Afghanistan, with the Taliban's no-skin contact rule for women a big obstacle in rescue operations.

A funicular in Portugal crashed, killing scores of passengers.

Unprecedented rampaging floodwaters and storms seemed to be everywhere, making you wonder whether it was once again the end of the world: Taiwan (where a large bridge was swept away!), Macau, Hong Kong, China... even in places where there are presumably no corruption-infested ghost projects and substandard flood control infrastructure. After all, it's typhoon and flood season, and who knows, maybe the unusual volume and speed of precipitation itself is the biggest factor. Researchers need to take a look at this because the falling of rain this month seemed extra-heavy: by the drums instead of by the droplet, dipper, or pail.

A high-rise in Gaza City was bombed by Israel's military -- yet again. Reading the comments, I get the sense of most people saying, "Don't throw stones if your house is made of glass" and "Don't awaken a sleeping lion" and other equivalent expressions, meaning they are tracing the conflict to the day Israel was infiltrated and attacked by Hamas without any provocation, something that I noticed liberal mainstream media avoid mentioning. I am not saying this is the best viewpoint on the conflict, let me be clear.

‎A man named Charlie Kirk was shot dead while speaking at an event in a US university. Never heard of this man despite myself and the circles I frequent online. (Wait, what circles?) He turns out to be "an American right-wing political activist, author, and media personality."

The murder case sharply divided people, based on the comments, with young people who proudly consider themselves "woke"...not exactly celebrating the death but refusing to lament it like Kirk's fellow conservatives do for the reason that Kirk's views oppose their own take on various matters of great concern. (Not knowing him at all, I can't tell whether I agree with the things he said that so offended his assailant and his ensuing social media critics and haters.)

The cold blood murder also has a chilling effect: it sends the message that you could get killed by someone if you hold an opinion different from anyone who is murderous. (Someone pointed out correctly that silencing someone, instead of giving a rational retort, means you have lost the argument.) Now, Kirk, who is unknown outside the US, is now world-famous and an instant Christian martyr worldwide, definitely no thanks to his murderer, a young fellow white man named Tyler Robinson!

Gen-Z protesters set the Nepalese Parliament on fire due to a number of reasons: a ban on social media and allegations of corruption among them.

Then regime changed happened overnight not just in Indonesia and Nepal, but also in Japan, France. Who's next?

(I wrote about this and the ensuing "Trillion Peso March" in two separate posts. To sum up: Filipinos are rightly scandalized at the extent of allegedly stolen public funds and are truly fed up this time, and there's no telling what will happen next. But the centrist forces avoid calling for the current president to resign for fear of a Duterte comeback.)

The North Korean leader executed (as in killed as punishment!) 30 officials in a purge over flood response, a report said. In contrast...

Israel attacked residential buildings in Qatar. I failed to follow up on the reason why.

No thanks to super-typhoon 'Lando,' there was a scary landslide along Marcos Hi-way squashing several SUVs! It was equally sad seeing videos and photos of landslides in such famous scenic spots as Batanes, Sagada, and Malico, San Nicolas, Pangasinan.

'Lando' and another super-typhoon with another country bumpkin-sounding name, Opong, brought so much destruction in Calayan Is., Batanes, Cagayan, Masbate, and so on.

A busy Bangkok street with a big hospital right beside it collapsed into a massive sinkhole! A leaking pipe or a subway construction was blamed.

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Word Watch

There are quite a number of new words that cropped up this month.

I often encountered this strange word among young Filipino men: paldo, paldong-paldo. It is supposed to originally mean "bale" or "a large bundle," but in slang means "a huge amount of money." Example: Paldong-paldo ka sa OT pay ha! So I guess it is synonymous to tiba-tiba.

"Nepo baby," from "nepotism," of course, was as ubiquitous as the common cold virus. Used derisively (or with contempt), it refers to the excessively and unjustifiably rich kids of political dynasties.

Unfortunately, other everyday terms that got regarded as evil overnight include: contractor, engineer, politician, and DPWH.

The anime "One Piece" and its character, Luffy, were mentioned a worrying number of times, prompting a quick online search about who the devil this character is. As a viral post by Ian R. Casocot pointed out, you don't underestimate the soft power of culture and arts, particularly pop culture icons or popular art. They have a way of sneaking in until they grab you in the face if you are not watching out.

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Neutral News

Japan’s Prince Hisahito became the first male member of the imperial family to come of age in four decades—and might also be the last. (But I was like, who still cares about royalties in this day and age? If you view God as the only one true king of the universe, then we are all of equal stature, all "royal blooded" children of His, yes or no?)

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Sad News

Shocking: Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto was accused of scandalous deeds. But in an interview with Ces Drilon, he denied everything.

Acting legend Robert Redford passed on at age 89. Of course, I automatically had a mental retrospective of movies I had watched with him in it, but I can only remember two, both excellent: "The Way We Were," "a romantic drama featuring Barbra Streisand, exploring love and political differences," and "All the President's Men," "a political thriller where he portrays journalist Bob Woodward during the Watergate scandal." Redford also turns out to be the director of a movie on the complex dynamics of family relationships that I, of course, found very instructive and touching, "Ordinary People."

Nearly 40% of Filipino adults were classified as obese, driven by a combination of genetic, environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic factors, according to health experts citing recent findings. I blame the obvious: high-sugar, high-vegetable oil diet called fast-food.

Gregorio Brillantes, a great Filipino writer, passed on. I remember him the most for the short story, "The Flood in Tarlac," "a gripping narrative that explores the tragic events surrounding a middle-class family during a devastating flood, culminating in a violent confrontation that reflects deeper social issues." What a prescient story, considering today's headlines about flood unwittingly exposing corruption at high places vis-a-vis yawning social disparity! Considered the father of Filipino speculative fiction, Brillantes has that rare gift of literary prestidigitation.

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Funny News

A lot of netizens hopped on to the Google Gemini trend of generating a computer-generated simulacrum of themselves as a 3D statue of sorts.

Senator Joel Villanueva's over-the-top speech in the Senate trended because, as someone said, it resembled a workshop at the Ogie Diaz School of Acting, complete with blocking and 'garalgal' (raspy) vocals and all.

For some reason Tagalogs (or is that Ilocanos) and Visayans are warring online. I am not sure if this latest inanity is worth digging into.

The Trillion Peso March generated a lot of hilarious protest placards and memes too many to mention.

A young legislator named Kiko Barzaga (Cavite) made headlines by meow-meowing his way through something. Funny, but also a strange and undignified stunt.

At the height of legislative inquiries, Senator Rodante Marcoleta was called names and became the subject of funny memes.

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Good News

Carlos Acutis was canonized, making him the first millennial saint. Another Italian youth, Pier Giorgio Frassati, was also canonized. Acutis was fond of computer games, while Frassati, I must point out, smoked. What is remarkable about this canonization is it happened at all, at a time when it is almost impossible for the young to be Christian, much less a saint, with all the digital doodads as distractions and occasions for sin readily waiting at one's fingertips, and we all know what we are talking about.

The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo, a tree kangaroo species last seen in 1928, thought lost for about 50 years was rediscovered in New Guinea. I hope all the other species we have officially declared as extinct turn out to be secretly thriving somewhere, starting with the dodo. (By the way, I have personally seen around three kangaroo tree species in their natural habitat (trees) without flying to Australia or New Guinea, when I visited Avilon Zoo somewhere in Rizal. I wonder if they are still alive, but seeing them in the flesh was a most surreal experience because I didn't even know back then that tree kangaroos exist (no, they are not that usual kangaroo we know). (By the way, Manila Zoo used to have kangaroos, and a black bear, different types of monkeys including an entire family of pink monkeys (maybe albinos), and dozens and dozens of other exotic species that are no longer there today. Yeah, I was a lot luckier as a kid.)

Two young teenage boys were swept away by rampaging floodwaters in a dam in Sitio Pangulo, Carangian, Tarlac City, but were found in a cave alive after more than a day of intensive search operations. A miracle!

Owen Cooper, 15, won best actor at Emmy Awards, making history as the youngest winner ever in that category.

Meanwhile, people were dancing to this bubblegum K-pop hit, "Soda Pop" by I don't care to name which autotune-heavy group.

I'm sure these are three great news to fellow Filipinos all over the world, not minor footnotes: Jessica Sanchez emerged as "America's Got Talent" season 20's grand champion and the first Filipino-descent winner of the competition. (Yours truly be like: Meh, shouldn't she have won the first time around? That effortless rendition of hers of Whitney Houston-style "I Will Always Love You" is simply unforgettable.) Another man named Kirk -- a proud Igorot model named Kirk Bondad -- won as Mister International 2025. Third: Veejay Floresca (da who?) won Project Runway's season 21, "a show in which clothing designers worldwide are invited to compete for the top prize." (Who knew there's even such a thing?)

To end, another "wow factor" this month is an injectable drug called benralizumab, "the first new asthma attack treatment" in half a century, targeting "an overactive part of the immune system that drives severe flare-ups of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)." Sounds a lot like a great discovery against an appalling disease that upsets something so basic in life: breathing.

An international men's volleyball tournament was held in Manila.

Pole vaulter EJ Obiena won an event held at an unlikely venue: along Ayala Ave., Makati.