Galen Altavas 
Quezon City to Makati — 1:00 pm
On Feb 26, 2016, about 11am, we decided to drive from Quezon City to Makati to meet some friends.
The trip from Congressional Subd. in Quezon City to the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati is 17.6 kilometers.
The trip should have taken
There are forgotten heroes who died during the tyrannical Martial Law regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
What can I tell the future generation of Filipinos?
That we were almost there?
That we lost it?
That we were on the cusp of greatness and prosperity and that we blew it?
That we did not elect the right president in 2016?
Where are we now?
During the past five years of the PNoy Aquino administration, the Philippine economy has grown steadily at an average rate of 6.2 percent a year, which has been the highest in the past 40 years.
I came upon a graphic (actually my nephew posted it on his Facebook page) which showed the composition of the First Senate of the Philippines (1916), showing the occupations of this illustrious group of lawmakers:
Please click on graphic for a larger and clearer image.
The first senators were:
| Jose Altavas | Mario Guarina | Manuel L. Quezon |
| Hadji Butu | Pedro Guevara | Celestino Rodriguez |
| Aquilino Calvo * | Vicente Ilustre | Esteban Singson |
| Nicolas Capistrano | Leoncio Imperial | Pedro Ma. Sison |
| Jose A. Clarin | Francisco Tongio Liongson | Filemon Sotto |
Here is my attempt to rate the top four Philippine presidential candidates in the 2016 elections.
Jose Cortes Altavas, great politician, statesman, a man of letters and an illustrious son of the province of Capiz, was born on September 11, 1877 at Balete, Capiz (now Balete, Aklan). His parents were Jose Aguilar Altavas from Aragon, Spain, who settled in
