It's the time of year when Daily Tribune management and staff let their hair down and dress up in the spirit of Halloween fun.  Call it trick or "treatment," as the editors are wont to say.

On 28 October,  everyone let their imagination work to interpret the costume theme: "One million."

Managing head and lifestyle editor Dinah Ventura said: "It's become a tradition. Tradition helps keep families strong, and when our Halloween soiree started in 2018, its purpose was to give the Daily Tribune family a chance to bond with its new owners.

"Seeing how they got creative with their costumes, how they came up with their look, how they actually made the costume — reveals so much of their personalities. So it's another way of getting to know the people we work with outside of the daily routine.

"Also, we all work so hard, we thought it would be fun to get ghoulish for a day and howl our stress away…"

Creativity went free-form, as a curious medley of interpretations came up:  One million in the form of money, gold, and possessions.  Others presented wild scenarios and events as backstories of their outfits of the day.

Those who seemed to be wearing normal clothes — or none at all — wowed their colleagues with their wit and tall stories.

One editor showed up half-naked and claimed he was in a casino earlier and lost P1 million, including, literally, his shirt. Another editor insisted he was a barangay captain from Marawi soliciting P1 million for his constituents.

But come judgment time at 3 p.m., the Katribu family gathered for the fun showdown. The crowd cheered wildly as many of the normally serious-looking colleagues revealed their other side. There was a casino dealer; a princess who wished a million smiles for everyone; a psycho nun declaring a holdup and asking P1 million for the poor; a winning lotto ticket; and one who posted a "wanted" sign for an office mate with P1 million as reward.

In Daily Tribune fashion, the Top 10 Costumes were declared:

'Gising Na!' host Chingkee Mangcucang looked like a million bucks in her beauty queen crown and blue evening gown as Mrs. Philippines. Meanwhile, associate editor Manny Angeles showed up as a barangay tanod and gave a humorous spiel while asking for donations for his constituents.  Lifestyle 's Princess Loirenne Adao came as Rapunzel in the movie Tangled.'  Advertising rep Jelene Galvan sported a lotto ticket-inspired look.

The list was trimmed down to the Top 3 Winners.

Third place went to Iwin Francisco of Housekeeping, who said she "went insane thinking of what to wear, so she came as woman who looked the part."

Reporter Jom Garner bagged second place for his casino look complete with a portable table for cards and dice.

Kudos to editor Windsor Genova who wore a mask illustrated with dead millionaires in 2022 and their respective net worth.

As always, this year's theme was in step with the times. Ventura said: "It always amazes me to see what everyone comes up with for their costume every year. We always try to make the themes apt for the times. The first year of the pandemic was about the horrors and silver linings we could express through our costumes. Last year was heroes and characters in a 'maskplay,' which meant wearing a costume with a creative mask.

This year was hilarious because the theme was deliberately vague. Interpret "one million" any which way, in a manner of aiming for  the collective goal of reaching a million followers of Daily Tribune online.

Adding more cheer to the Halloween bash were kind and generous sponsors: PLDT Home, Ripple8, PRC, Inc., Century Properties, mediaXchange, Heineken, Italianni's, KFC, and Jollibee.

"No matter what, we can always count on DT ghouls and gremlins to participate in the frenzy. It's bloody fantastic," Ventura said.

Till next year, Katribu!

With Princess Jade Flores