REFLECTIONS

“Consummatum Est!”(It is finished!) were Rizal’s last words during his execution by firing squad in Bagumbayan on December 30, 1896. His words are said to have been the same ones used by Jesus Christ shortly before he died of crucifixion. The last word is the best news of all. A happy ending after all? Really?…

During my time as radio host in different radio stations in the Philippines, this song has been requested innumerable times. “Those Were the Days” is a song credited to Gene Raskin, who put a new English lyric to the Russian romance song “Дорогой длинною” (literally “By the long road”), composed by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) with…