Welcome to the first volume of the 2019 issue! The issue begins with Gina Fontejon-Bonior’s article on teacher education and development. In our country’s educational landscaping, several initiatives have been introduced. At the forefront of these educational reforms are the teachers. In her article then, Bonior brings forward the narratives of Filipino literacy teachers as they navigate the many changes in the system. In his article, Jose Edwin C. Cubelo surveys “carabao” mango farmers to find out their pest management strategies and to gauge their impact on farming aspects such as pest reductions, yield, profitability, and environmental safety. Marshalay Baquiano writes about the controversial Philippine Priority Development Assistance Fund. She investigates Filipinos’ understanding of it by using the word association technique, asking her participants the social meanings they associate with the fund scam. Mary Joy V. Sienes investigates how Bahraini and Vietnamese students realize the speech act of thanking. Examining their thanking strategies and semantic formulae in expressing gratefulness, Sienes aims to find out the verbal variations of students and reflect on how these can be used in the classroom to heighten learners’ communicative competence. The last full-length paper is a study on pragmatics. Deo Mar E. Suasin examines the video blogs submitted by his senior high school students and analyzes the utterances contained in the vlogs using Searle’s Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts. Aside from these five research articles, two articles are included in the Notes Section. The first one is by Haide M. Estudillo who writes about the use of 3Ts to increase the academic and spiritual engagement of teachers in Christian schools. The other one is by Novee E. Maestrecampo and Emervencia L. Ligutom who write about the contribution of the Silliman University Marina Mission Clinic. This issue’s cover art is by Negrense artist and fashion designer Dan Ryan E. Duran. It is a copy of his painting that is part of his collage series called “Contemporary Renaissance.” He describes this work as “an intuitive re-interpretation of portraits from the renaissance era.” I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the contributors and reviewers of this issue.

Warlito S. Caturay Jr., Ph.D.
Editor