Nueva Ecija

The initial batch of LCS units was turned over in June to Kalawakan Elementary School in Bulacan, Bully Elementary School in Quezon, and Maguawa Integrated School in Davao del Norte.

Subsequent completions include Don Marcelo Marti High School in Zambales, Dordio Elementary School in Davao do Oro, Loon North High School in Bohol, San Jose Elementary School and Lenec Elementary School in Nueva Ecija, Lubau Elementary School in Pampanga, and Digap Fulgasino Community School in Pangasinan.

A total of 878 units are slated for construction under the first two phases of the LCS project.

The quick build project forms a key part of DEPED's broader strategy to address the country's shortage of 165,000 classrooms.

Uh, saang province mo sa Philippines?

Well, um, we are from Nueva Ecija-

... which is the north part of the Philippines.

By 2019, it was more than three million, and the US Department of Agriculture ranked the Philippines as the world's biggest rice importer.

So why can't Filipino farmers just grow more rice cheaply? That same agency, working with the International Rice Institute, compared farms in Nueva Ecija with farmers in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

Growing a kilo costs almost twice as much here.

The biggest single gap was higher labor, more than three pesos a kilo higher than in Vietnam or Thailand.

Wages from abroad keep households buying.

Imports keep the market supplied.

Neither one makes a field in Nueva Ecija worth planting.

Go back to Novelyn Waguin's harvest in Lupao, the one that barely covered what it cost.

Nearly every town is in feud with its neighbors, and the practice of taking heads leads to frequent murder and combat.

A most curious tribe of persistent headhunters are the Ibilao, or Ilongots, who live in the Caraballo mountains between Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya.

On other islands of the Philippines, there are similar wild tribes.

On the island of Palawan, there are the Tagbanuas and other savage folk.

Death of General Luna.

With the cessation of heavy rains, the fighting was begun again in northern Luzon.

The Filipino army had its headquarters in Tarlac, and its lines occupied the towns of the provinces of Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija, stretching in a long line of posts from the Zambales Mountains almost to the upper waters of the Rio Pampanga.

It was still well-armed, provisioned, and resolute, but the brilliant, though wayward, organizer of this army was dead.

Homecoming dinner of grilled tilapia, pakbet for Mary Jane.

General Mamertu Natavidad, Nueva Ecija, grilled tilapia and pinakbet, vegetable stew, served with soup and a side of shrimp paste, bagung, with tomatoes and chili peppers made up the simple homecoming dinner requested by Mary Jane Veloso on Saturday night after over 16 years of waiting, suffering and deep-seated hope.

Veloso returned to her house in Barangay Boral at 5 p.m. after being released from the Correctional Institution for Women, CIW, in Monteluyong City.

Her release came after the absolute pardon granted by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during the four-hour drive from Manila.