Another year

With this issue STARweek marks 20 years, six and a half months after our parent, The Philippine STAR, marked its 20th anniversary. We started as a broadsheet magazine to serve as the Sunday edition of The Philippine STAR, which was then a six-day paper. Our first cover girl was Kris Aquino, with the story written by no less than our founding chairman, Betty Go Belmonte. Kris was then not yet the showbiz star that she is today, at that time just a precocious young girl thrust into the limelight by a martyred father and her mother the President of the republic, a housewife hailed the world over for facing up to a dictator and restoring democracy to our country.

Two decades may have passed and a lot of things have changed, but our commitment remains the same: to spread truth, to bring accurate information to all corners of the country so that our citizens can make informed decisions and actively participate in governance and nation building. Then as now, we strongly and firmly believe in the Philippines and the Filipino, in what we are, what we can be and what we can do. There is much to celebrate about the Filipino: nationally and internationally, the Filipino continues to achieve great things, to scale new heights. It has been and continues to be our privilege to share these stories with you. We take this opportunity to thank all of you, our readers, for keeping faith with us through these 20 years, for your encouragement and kudos as well as complaints and criticism. Each time you call, email, write, or otherwise give feedback, we are grateful for the chance to have been a part of your Sunday.

One area we will put special focus on are issues on the environment, sustainable development, and responsible consumption. The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) brings the issue of global warming and its dire effects on our world into sharp focus (please see page 14 for a summary of the highlights of the report). We can no longer deny our responsibility in caring for our environment: we cannot keep taking without giving back, destroying without rebuilding, wantonly consuming without paying a price. Fortunately, there are many who have responded positively and actively to this urgent crisis, coming up with new methods of building, manufacturing, energizing, and living. By bringing attention to both problems and solutions, we hope to be a positive force and help, in however small a way, make our world a better, more beautiful, and sustainable place.