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PenTalk - of Lian National High School Publication, Malaruhatan, Lian (2026)

21/08/2026

𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 | Benigno Simeon Aquino Jr., better known as Ninoy Aquino, once declared that “the Filipino is worth dying for.” Decades later, his words remain more than a reminder of his sacrifice. They leave Filipinos with a question: Are we truly worthy of the freedom he was willing to die for? Death does not always mark an ending. Sometimes, it becomes the beginning of a nation’s awakening.

Ninoy Aquino Day is observed every August 21 as a special non-working day in remembrance of the former senator, who was assassinated upon his return to the Philippines in 1983. His death sparked widespread public outrage and intensified opposition to the Marcos dictatorship, contributing to the growing movement that eventually culminated in the 1986 People Power Revolution.

Ninoy emerged as one of the leading opposition voices against President Ferdinand E. Marcos. After Martial Law was declared in 1972, he was imprisoned and later sentenced to death by a military court in 1977 on charges that included subversion, illegal possession of fi****ms, and murder. In 1980, after suffering a heart attack, he was permitted to travel to the United States for medical treatment. He remained there for three years, continuing to speak against the dictatorship before deciding to return home.

On August 21, 1983, Ninoy returned to the Philippines and was assassinated upon his arrival at the Manila International Airport. His death became a turning point in Philippine history, strengthening public resistance to authoritarian rule and helping fuel the movement that would eventually bring millions of Filipinos to the streets during the 1986 People Power Revolution.

Remembering Ninoy, however, should not end with remembering how he died. His sacrifice raises a greater responsibility for those who inherited the freedom that followed. To honor him is not merely to place his name on a holiday or repeat his famous words. It is to value democracy, speak against injustice, protect the truth, and refuse to become indifferent when the rights of others are threatened.

His words remain: “The Filipino is worth dying for.” The question now belongs to us. Are the Filipinos still worth fighting for? And more importantly, are we doing enough to prove that we are?

✒️: Elise Andrey M. Baon
🖼️: Aiziyah Faith H. Bentula
💻: Gary Emmanuel S. Aganan

21/08/2026

𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 | Heavy rains lash rooftops, strong winds tear through communities, and floodwaters swallow homes and streets. For the Philippines, these have become an all-too-familiar reality over the past two weeks. But when classes are suspended, the same storm can create two entirely different worlds. One student finds refuge behind a dry roof, while another must brave the rain on the way home.

For Diomar I. Guevara, a Grade 10 – SPFL-CM student, the announcement of “Walang Pasok” brings a sense of relief. “Finally, I can finally rest easy,” he recalled, describing the suspension as a chance to step away from the demands of school and recharge. Away from the classroom, his day moves at his own pace. He helps with chores, plays games, watches TikTok or YouTube, and works on digital art and animation projects. With an animation collaboration deadline approaching, the unexpected free time gives him more room to create, although procrastination sometimes gets in the way. His days settle into a familiar cycle of waking up, scrolling, gathering ideas, creating animations, finishing chores, and eventually going to sleep.

Yet home offers Diomar more than a break from schoolwork. He describes school days as something that drains his “battery,” while staying home gives him the chance to recharge and spend time with his family. But even from the comfort of home, his thoughts drift toward the storm outside. As he worries about the rising river and the possibility of floods reaching homes in Lian, he imagines the struggles of students caught in the weather. What if I was one of these students who experience these burdens? He wondered.

For Soffia Lorraine A. Capacia, a Grade 9 – Yakal student, the journey home demanded a different kind of endurance. Strong winds pushed against her as heavy rain fell around her, while muddy and slippery roads made every step uncertain. She worried about her shoes getting wet, but more importantly, she kept thinking about her safety and how to protect her belongings from the rain. “I felt afraid because the wind was strong and the rain was heavy,” she shared. The road offered little comfort. Each slippery step brought her closer to home while reminding her how difficult the journey had become.

When she finally arrived, fear gave way to relief. “I felt relieved and thankful because I arrived home safely.” For Soffia, the suspension was not simply a break from school. It was a reminder of how quickly a journey home can become difficult when the weather turns harsh. She believes classes should be suspended immediately when conditions worsen because strong rain and winds can make the trip home dangerous.

For Diomar, the storm creates a pause. It is a chance to create, rest, and reconnect with family. For Soffia, it transforms the road home into a careful journey through wind, rain, mud, and uncertainty. The same two words, “Walang Pasok,” can therefore carry entirely different meanings. One can sound like a welcome break, while the other can arrive as a race toward safety.

A suspension may take only a few words to announce, but its effects stretch far beyond the classroom. Behind every cancelled class are students experiencing the storm from different places. Some listen to the rain from behind a window, while others walk through it with their belongings held close. When the skies finally clear, what remains is more than a missed school day. It is the story of how each student made their own way through the storm.

✒️: Elise Andrey M. Baon & Gary Emmanuel S. Aganan
💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago
📷: Marianne Hurel

19/08/2026

𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 | The rain may take the day, but learning must not be washed away.

As weather-related class suspensions continue to disrupt schooling, EDCOM II warns of another casualty beyond lost classroom time: learning itself.

A class may be suspended for safety, but a cancelled school day should not have to become a lasting learning setback. Students facing floods, power interruptions, and unsafe roads should not be expected to carry the burden of lost learning on their own. Storms are inevitable; an education system unprepared for them should not be. If suspensions are necessary, the response must go beyond simply cancelling classes – it must ensure that students can safely recover what was lost without being left further behind.

The scale of the problem makes that urgency clear. The country loses an average of 40 to 50 instructional days each year to disruptions, according to EDCOM II Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee. These are not merely empty spaces on the school calendar, but lost opportunities to teach, practice, and reinforce essential skills. When disruption becomes routine, every lost day adds another crack to an already widening learning gap.

The warning carries greater weight because it comes from EDCOM II, which has cautioned that repeated weather-related suspensions could further widen the country’s learning gap. Yee particularly pointed to Grades 1 to 3 learners, who are still developing the foundational literacy and numeracy skills on which their education depends. When the youngest learners are repeatedly pulled away from the classroom, the cost is not measured in cancelled classes – it is measured in skills left unbuilt.

A class suspension is a shield, not a solution: it protects students from immediate danger, but it cannot by itself address the learning left behind. In a country where severe weather is a recurring reality, the response cannot begin and end with deciding when to suspend classes. The system must also determine how missed competencies will be recovered, which learners need additional support, and how schools can remain functional when disruptions occur. The storm may stop the class, but the system must not let it stop the learning.

The answer is not to ask families already navigating flooded roads, blackouts, and damaged homes to face the challenge of learning continuity on their own. The goal is not to choose between safety and education, but to build a system where neither comes at the expense of the other. DepEd must review the school calendar against recurring weather patterns, strengthen targeted catch-up programs, identify essential competencies that must be prioritized at all cost, and invest in climate-resilient schools and classrooms.

If storms are a yearly reality, preparedness must be built into how education is planned, delivered, and recovered – not improvised after every disaster. The government cannot control when the next storm arrives, but it can decide how much learning the storm takes with it. The rain may halt the school day, but it should never be allowed to wash away a student’s chance to learn.

✒️: Gary Emmanuel S. Aganan
🖼️: John Peter T. Tolentino
💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago

17/08/2026

𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐓 | Uncertainty may be scary, but it also brings endless possibilities. Embrace the unknown and see where it takes you.

💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago

11/08/2026

𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 | Tomorrow is not pink. Tomorrow is not green. Robredo will not save you, and neither will Duterte. Marcos will not save you, nor will Aquino. No color will build the future for you. Real change begins when you stop waiting for a politician to save you, and start demanding that every politician earn your trust.

With the 2028 national elections approaching, political colors are already resurfacing across the Philippine political landscape, renewing questions about whether voters will choose leaders by their platforms, or by the camps they represent.

Politics was never meant to be a coloring contest, yet too many voters pick a shade before they bother to read the fine print. Red, pink, yellow, green. Four colors, countless loyalties, and somehow, a whole lot of selective blindness. We cheer when our crayon wins and cry foul when someone else’s does, as if political colors could erase broken promises, excuse incompetence, or repaint a record stained by failure. Take away the colors, and the picture becomes clearer: leaders should be judged by the lines they draw in office, not the colors they use to get there.

The crayons are not imaginary, they have shaped how Filipinos see politics. In 2022, 88% of Marcos supporters and 79% of Robredo supporters were considered firm voters, while the election itself divided the country between Marcos-Duterte’s red-green camp and Robredo’s pink movement. Even the yellow associated with the Aquino-Liberal legacy has remained a recognizable political identity, showing how colors can outlive campaigns and become shorthand for entire political camps. When loyalty to a color becomes stronger than scrutiny of the person wearing it, democracy stops being a search for the best leader and becomes nothing more than a contest over which crayon gets to fill the page.

Worse, we have learned to remember politicians by their colors before their platforms. Yellow becomes Aquino, pink becomes Robredo, red becomes Marcos, and green becomes Duterte - as if a shade could summarize a leader’s promises, policies, failures, and legacy. We memorize the colors plastered on campaign materials, but forget the platforms printed beneath them; we defend the person holding the crayon without asking what they intend to draw. A democracy that remembers colors better than policies is not choosing leaders - it is choosing teams.

The numbers reveal how quickly political allegiance can harden into a camp mentality. Pulse Asia’s February 2022 survey placed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at 60% and Leni Robredo at only 15% among likely voters; even after Robredo’s nine-point rise the following month, Marcos remained ahead at 56% to 24%. Such overwhelming gaps are not proof that voters ignored platforms, but they expose how difficult it can be for competing ideas to break through once political identities have solidified. When the color is chosen first, the platform may never get a fair chance to be read.

The crayons do not have to disappear; they simply have to stop deciding for us. Before defending a color, look beyond the campaign banners and ask the harder questions: What did this leader promise? What did they actually deliver? Who benefited, who was left behind, and what does the record say? Vote with your judgment, not your color. Because democracy does not need voters who color within political lines - it needs citizens willing to erase them when the facts demand it.

✒️: Gary Emmanuel S. Aganan
🖼️: John Peter T. Tolentino
💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago

10/08/2026

𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 | Lian National High School officially opened its Intramurals on August 8, 2026, bringing students together in a celebration of sportsmanship, teamwork, and school spirit despite the challenges brought by the typhoon.

During the opening ceremony, Ma'am Maria Elizabeth S. Andino delivered an inspiring speech, emphasizing that the unfavorable weather conditions would not stop the school community from coming together and celebrating the Intramurals. Her message encouraged students to remain determined, united, and enthusiastic throughout the event.

Adding excitement to the ceremony, Musika't Pinta presented an intermission performance under the guidance of their club adviser, Sir Manuel Aclan. CEPA also showcased a dance intermission under the guidance of their club adviser, Ma'am Jenny Cabungcal, energizing the crowd and setting a lively atmosphere for the day's activities.

Meanwhile, Ma'am Jenelyn Cabungcal led the yell presentation of each group, allowing students to showcase their enthusiasm, creativity, and support for their respective teams.

One of the highlights of the opening ceremony was the lighting of the torch, symbolizing unity, determination, and the spirit of competition. The torch-lighting ceremony was led by student-athletes who represented the school in the Regional Athletic Association Meet (RAAM): Andrea D. Anario, Leidy Chlouie L. Lagrisola, Arjay U. Nueve, Elijah Angelo M. Baon, and Luiz Emanuel Biscocho.

Despite the weather challenges, the opening of the Intramurals demonstrated the resilience and unity of the LNHS community. More than a competition, the event serves as an opportunity for students to develop teamwork, discipline, sportsmanship, and camaraderie while proudly representing their respective groups.

✒️: Arjellaine H. Betis
💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago

10/08/2026

🖋️ 𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 | 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗦 𝗣𝗔𝗣𝗘𝗥

A pen is small. Its impact doesn't have to be.

INKQUEST 2026 is calling all aspiring campus journalists to put their skills to the test this Saturday, August 15, at 7:00 AM.

Choose your craft. Sharpen your skills. Tell stories that matter.

📰 𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦
• Editorial Writing
• News Writing
• Feature Writing
• Science and Technology Writing
• Sports Writing
• Column Writing
• Editorial Cartooning
• Photojournalism
• Copyreading and Headline Writing
• Radio Broadcasting and Scriptwriting

Registration is open throughout the week. Interested participants may register through their English teachers.

Catch the thought.
Craft the plot.
Take the shot.

Make that pen talk. 🖋️

10/08/2026

𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐓 | No matter how hard today feels, brighter days are ahead. Keep going and trust the journey.

💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago

05/08/2026

𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐁 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍?

Warning: Joining Pen Talk may cause:

✅ Sudden improvement in writing.
✅ Random camera addiction.
✅ Uncontrollable urge to correct grammar.
✅ Late-night layouts.
✅Unexpected press conference medals. 🏅
✅ Mysterious urge to circle August 15 on your calendar. 🗓️

Side effects may vary.

04/08/2026

𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 | Speed thrills. Hospital bills.

As kamote drivers continue to trend across social media through viral videos and firsthand accounts, the issue has evolved from mere online entertainment into a growing public safety concern. Behind every shared clip is a reminder that reckless driving remains an everyday threat on Philippine roads.

Every road has its own species, and the kamote driver is somehow always the loudest in the wild. They treat traffic signs as friendly suggestions, turn signals as optional subscriptions, and speed limits as personal insults - as if confidence could replace common sense. The sad punchline is that when their "diskarte" backfires, innocent motorists are forced to pay the price for someone else's ego. Roads are not stages for stunt shows; if basic discipline feels like a burden, then perhaps the steering wheel isn't the problem, it is the one holding it.

A student from Lian National High School once shared how a tricycle driver sped off before she had even settled into her seat. She managed to grab onto the vehicle just in time; otherwise, she could have fallen onto the road. In another incident, she and another classmate were on their way to school when the same kind of recklessness turned an ordinary commute into what felt like an amusement park ride. They laughed about it afterward, but beneath the humor was a frightening truth: some drivers value speed more than the lives they carry.

And this is far from an isolated experience. In 2024 alone, the Philippines recorded 31,258 road crashes, with 87.17% linked to reckless driving - he very behavior often dismissed as ordinary kamote driving. Those crashes claimed 2,747 lives in a single year, proving that what many excuse as "diskarte" can end in irreversible tragedy. Behind every statistic is a family mourning a loved one, a child who never made it home, or a passenger whose only mistake was trusting the wrong driver.

If recklessness were an Olympic sport, some kamote drivers would surely bring home the gold. They race through streets as if arriving five minutes earlier is worth risking someone else's life, forgetting that roads are shared, not privately owned racetracks. A driver's greatest achievement should never be reaching the destination first, but ensuring that everyone else reaches theirs too. Because on the road, there are no trophies for being the fastest, only funerals for those who never should have lost the race.

The problem is not the absence of laws - it is the absence of consistent enforcement. Section 48 of Republic Act No. 4136 already prohibits reckless driving, yet kamote drivers continue to treat public roads as personal racetracks. The Land Transportation Office and local government units must strengthen roadside enforcement, strictly implement the Driver's License Point System against repeat offenders, and ensure that traffic laws are applied consistently rather than selectively. Until accountability becomes as common as the violations themselves, every viral video of reckless driving will remain a reminder that our laws are only as effective as the will to enforce them.

✒️: Gary Emmanuel S. Aganan
🖼️: John Thomas Yaj C. Trinidad
💻: Jos Dexine A. Magbago

PenTalk - of Lian National High School Publication

21/08/2026

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