The Holy Week [Semana Santa] for many Filipinos affords us a few days’ vacation when we can go away for a well-deserved break or seek some quiet and do some deep thinking. For others, it is an opportunity to do some penance by recreating the events leading to Christ’s crucifixion and his rising from the dead.

In 1646, five successive naval battles were fought between the Dutch, with their eighteen warships, and the Filipino-Spanish forces, with only two merchant galleons to back them up.

Surprisingly, the Filipino-Spanish contingent won in this encounter, now known in history as the Battle of La Naval.

One does not begin to understand the true meaning of the phrase “the reek of humanity” until one has stepped foot into the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) in Cebu City. Imagine an overwhelming stench of sweat plus a terrifying assortment of bodily odors that have dried up and then denied escape through decent circulation channels. It is a smell that is not forgotten easily. Combined with the heat and the humidity, “that alone is punishment enough,” says Efren Nemeño, BBRC’s young jail warden.

And it’s no longer an exaggeration. Extreme overcrowding is the biggest problem of the Philippine penal system and the BBRC is a clear example—imagine over 2,000 inmates in a facility that was originally designed for a mere 250 people, a ratio that would be brutal even to livestock and zoo animals. It’s enough to make the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals rethink their advocacy. It is not without irony that “bagong buhay” means “new life” in Filipino.

It took four years in the making, and now it stands there, the big blue house at the Bolipata farm in San Antonio, Zambales, a testament to artist Plet Bolipata’s creativity, foresight, ingenuity, and project management skills.

Because Plet is popularly known for her Manet-inspired paintings, it’s surprising that the interiors of this house that shelters two great Philippine artists (she is married to painter Elmer Borlongan) is a mixture of Spanish and Mexican influences.

Think Alfonso Arau’s Like Water for Chocolate, and imagine the main character Tita stepping out from the book’s pages and into Plet’s kitchen, which is painted in inviting colors of blue, yellow, and brown. As you watch mesmerized, taking in the aroma of a home-cooked meal, you forget that this is not Mexico but a farm in Zambales, just a short walk to the coast overlooking the South China Sea.

LONG RIDES ARE MEANT to prepare you for a much-awaited destination. So a companion and I were all psyched up when we boarded an FX (fare: P45) at Edsa Central on a weekend. The destination: Balaw Balaw Restaurant in Angono, Rizal, a little more than an hour's ride. It took ages before the vehicle filled up and we were on the road. Traffic was smooth. It was Saturday morning, after all. Most people would probably be staying in bed till lunch while we were going out of town for some good Filipino food.

Every 10 minutes we would check our watch and ask the driver, "Manong, malapit na po?" (Are we near?) The buildings were becoming scarcer as we drove farther away from the metro. We were seeing acres and acres of greens as we anticipated road signs telling us that we had finally reached Angono.

A clothes washer sits outside her makeshift home under the Katipunan flyover, the day’s laundry hanging overhead, providing a messy albeit colorful landscape.

In Avenida, a street child finds rest in a corner, with a page from the daily paper as her mat: the headline says, ironically, “Maging maligaya kahit wala ka mang pera” (Be happy even without money).

After the demolition of a shanty community in Navotas, a mother and her two children recover a piece of wood—a door, perhaps, or a partition from a dismantled home?—and sit down for dinner.

IT IS HARD TO MISS Bahay Pawid. From the corner of Pedro David Street, a stone’s throw from the Betis church in Guagua, Pampanga, you’ll see it—the venerable two-story structure, proud and tall, having sheltered generations of Davids for 105 years (this includes UP professor Randy and his brother, lawyer Dante; the street is named after their late father).

Atty. Dante David opened the doors of the restored family home and showed us around, proud of this project that has taken him years to execute.

The Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991 had elevated a big part of Pampanga, and the ground floor of the David home was covered. In 2002, after much planning, Atty. David started a home renovation that would go on for years.