Not so long ago, my P100 got me a full meal, a movie ticket and a jeepney ride home. Today I showed one to the barista and all I got was a sympathetic nod and a small glass of service water.

Tennis players have long had a peculiar relationship with the calendar. They are expected to live on airplanes, play through aching bodies, cross time zones as casually as they change rackets, then somehow be fresh when the tournament director calls their name.

The electric vehicle has arrived in the Philippines with a promise familiar to anyone who has spent an afternoon crawling along EDSA: less dependence on gasoline, quieter motoring, and a little less money disappearing into the fuel tank. It’s an appealing proposition. The only complication is that the Filipino road has never been particularly interested in making life easy for anyone.

A gun is not ill-gotten wealth simply because it is a gun. But a P900,000 gun is not invisible money either.