On the Verge of Lunacy

Inday struggles through the door with her groceries as her son Cedric, 3, clings to her and asks for a penny. She has to move fast if she doesn’t want her family to starve tonight. Her sister-in-law helps her prepare the dinner while she computes the previous results of last night’s lotto draw. For her, this routine is a must. “I do not know if this is effective, but I do it every night. For someone who relies on last-two for the daily expenses, I don’t see it as a gambling game anymore.” Without a stable job to rely on, so many people have taken chances in gambling. Small-time betting like last-two is rampant. In this numbers game, the winning combination is derived from the last two numbers of the first prize of the Sweepstakes draw. Depending on the day of the week, the source of the winning combination varies from the 4-digit draw to the 6-digit draw. Like Jueteng, last two is an illegal numbers game listed under Republic Act No. 9287. Yet it still thrives in communities like th...

For Doreen Mariz, a freshman BS Biology student, every morning is always a race to the bathroom. Armed with her blue pail and dipper, she wills herself to get up earlier than she usually does at home. "I have to get there first so I have enough water to use", she said. The finish line is not always a pretty sight to look at, however. Who would have thought that my younger sister would experience the same dilemmas I had just to prepare for the day. "It looks like any other public bathroom", she relates, "The only difference is that they do not have doodles on the walls, you have clothes hanging like bandiritas instead." But is not all about the bandiritas that most students are concerned about. The first few lucky residents who get there in the morning are rewarded with ample amount of water and a fairly decent view of the dormitory in the morning. Scattered plastic wrappers, toilet papers, and - oh yes, sanitary napkins. Scattered artifacts and remai...