By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

“My height is a gift from God,” said Ijaz Ahmed, a towering Pakistani who has come to the Philippines to raise funds for his right leg operation.

Ahmed claims to be 8 feet and four inches and weighs 287 pounds.

According to doctors, Ijaz, 26, is still expected to grow by three to four inches, giving him the chance of clinching the Guinness World title for world’s tallest living man.

Ijaz hails from Punjab and has worked as farmer before his injury, having been born to a family of farmers.

In 2002, he injured his foot in a car accident.

Doctors had told him the operation would cost $50,000 and so in 2006, he embarked on a tour to raise money for his operation.

Over the past two years, Ijaz has raised a third of the total amount required for his operation.

Ijaz took a trip to the Philippines after he met Ann Sia of Clara International during a 2006 event in Malaysia.

Sia said Ijaz was a guest in her company’s event along with a three-foot man. Upon learning of Ijaz’s condition, she offered to host Ijaz after he visits Manila for his fund raising project.

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FILIPINO celebrity kids Paul Salas, Jane Oineza, Eliza Pineda, Kristel Fulgar and Micah Torre pick their favorite dinosaur and talk about lessons they learned from the Dinos Alive World Tour currently open to visitors at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, Philippines. Watch this video report of INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Izah Morales.

By Anna Valmero

HER love for drawing portraits and collecting photographs since childhood led to a business she now dubs a “stylistic preservation of portraits” on canvass.

As I was strolling Shang Ri-La Mall, I chanced upon the month-long Pinoy Pop Art exhibit showcasing 13 pop culture icons of the country painted on canvas.

“The exhibit aims to bring awareness to Filipinos 13 pop icons that can be emulated for their supremacy in their particular field and personal values,” says Bing Bernardo-Gaw, creative head and owner of Gallery 7 or “Art is Me,” the graphics design house that developed the exhibit.

The exhibit included Fernando Poe Jr., Efren “Bata” Reyes” Dolphy, Sharon Cuneta, Judy Ann Santos, The Apo Hiking Society, Gloria Diaz, Gary Valenciano, Michael V., Peque Gallaga, Parokya ni Edgar, Leah Salonga and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. Gaw said the they chose the 13 icons from a list of Filipino idols that can inspire Filipinos.

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GOOGLE his name and the first entry leads to a collection of trivia naming him the longest serving editor-in-chief in the world. Unofficially, at least.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Sir Etienne Dupuch holds the “world’s longest editorship” at 72 years — he was editor-in-chief of the Nassau Daily Tribune in the Bahamas from 1919 t0 1972, and then as contributing editor until his death in 1991.

Sy Yinchow, meanwhile, stakes his claim as the world’s longest-serving editor-in-chief, since technically, Dupuch held that title for only 53 years.

Yinchow (also known by his pen name Chua Kee) first became editor-in-chief of the Manila New Day, an underground newspaper he founded in 1945 at the height of the Japanese occupation.

Since then, he’s been editor-in-chief for at least three newspapers — until today he’s the chief editor for United Daily News, a broadsheet catering to the local Chinese community.

Born in China’s Fujian province, his family migrated to the Philippines when he was three years old.

Until now, he’s been living in the same house in Binondo with his wife Jade, whom he affectionately refers to as a former beauty queen and the first acknowledged “model mother” within the Chinese community.

A place in the world record books would be just icing on the cake, though. Yinchow has published several books, translating Chinese poems from — as far back as the Tang and Sung dynasties — into English.

The 90-year old Yinchow was born in 1919, according to him during the height of the renaissance in Chinese literature.

Journalism is his career but he considers literature his passion. So he takes pride in numerous accolades given to him for his precise “word-for-word, rhyme-by-rhyme, meter-by-meter” translations.

During my conversation with him, I was quite amazed at how he was able to remember all the highlights of his career, realizing I am talking to someone more than nine decades old already.

So what’s his secret? For starters, running as a sport and eating shrimps and walnuts.

FILIPINO celebrities Maxene Magalona, Jay Jay Lozano, Angel Aquino and Jaycee Parker reveal what movie characters scare them in these video interviews for INQUIRER.net VDO Halloween special.

Also, watch this video story about pumpkins sold in Dangwa, which is popularly known as the place where you can buy affordable flowers. INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Marjorie Gorospe discovers a special flower shop that not only sells flowers, but also peculiar pumpkins harvested for the Halloween season. Rene Carreon, staff at Puentespina Orchids and Tropical Plants, Inc., discusses the variety of pumpkins the store sells and how the business is surviving despite the strong competition in the area.