11 May 2025
I loved my mom too late—far too late.
As a kid, I hated her. I was a daddy’s boy, not a mama’s boy. I didn’t see it then, but she was always the one who stayed. She treated me like a son. My dad treated me like a tool.
We fought all the time. I avoided her, resented her. And every time they argued, I took my dad’s side—blindly. Not realizing I was standing with the one who broke her. And I regret that more than anything.
It wasn’t until I grew older—old enough to really listen to understand the quiet pain in family conversations—that I saw the truth. They treated her badly.
27 April 2025
Katubóan ma'g humay,
Ang kabal-anan ni Tatáy;
Katugkan ma'g tanom,
Ang tanáman ni Manóng.
Sáhì da man usab
Ang basahón nga tanan
Nga tuig-tuig katuyboan
Og bag-ong kalimuhágan.
19 April 2025
Si Lola, maagang bumabangon, nagsisimula sa pagluluto—isang matamis na kwento ng saba mula sa aming bakuran, ng ube, ng kamote, ng landang na tila mutya, nagsasayaw sa mainit na gata.
Siya’y nagluluto ng binignit. Ito’y kadalasang niluluto tuwing Biyernes Santo, isang tradisyon na ipinasa-pasa mula sa kanyang mga magulang, at isang handog sa amin na walang katumbas na tamis.
Ang buong kusina napupuno ng init, ng tamis na yakap, ng simula ng paghihintay.
08 April 2025
Cebu really is a small, small world. Every now and then, malls and parks felt like one big game of hide-and-seek from people I went to highschool with or college blockmates I avoided like the plague. Sometimes I’d see the hyperactive boy who sat beside me in the fourth grade, and I’d run the opposite direction. Though, for some reason, I can never leave. Every song on the radio is the same, after all, but even if a spry group of friends dream big enough to fill stadiums and fields, it’ll be the same four chords.
08 April 2025
The University of San Carlos (USC) Supreme Student Council (SSC) Commission on Elections (COMELEC) released the initial list of candidates for the 2025 SSC elections on their Facebook page Monday, April 7, following an eleventh hour extension to the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy.
04 April 2025
Habang nagtatanghilain kami nabanggit ng aking ama ang sumusunod:
“Gusto kong mahirapan siya, gusto kong maparusa siya.”
Ang taong tinutukoy ng tatay ko ay isang lalaking maraming beses na naging sentro ng iilang pag-uusap at pakikipagtalo tuwing kumakain. Halos isang dekada na kaming mag-ama, maging kaming buong pamilya, na nag aaway at nadadala sa sigaw dahil sa iisang tao na ito. Isang tao na kamakailan lang ay walang sawang paghahanga at kung minsa’y pagsasamba sakanya ang nagagawa ng pamilya ko, lalo na ang papa ko. Isang tao na sa tatlumpu’t taong niyang pagiiral sa dyaryo at isipan ng mga Pilipino, ay tunay na nagbigay kahulugan kung anong klaseng bansa at samakatuwid, anong klaseng tao tayo. Ang taong nais makita ng aking ama maghirap at maparusahan ay si Rodrigo Duterte.
27 March 2025
Whenever somebody finds out that I am a lesbian, it always garners a mixed bag of reactions. Some people would immediately have this expression on their face like things suddenly clicked into place, while others would have such a huge reaction like they weren’t expecting me to be one. It was sort of understandable, given that I never really… look like a lesbian? Maybe it’s the lack of carabiners.
24 March 2025
When I was born, I wasn’t a woman, but a blank canvas. But because of my sex, I was already assigned the role of a woman before I could even pronounce my name. The physician who tended to me likely wondered what kind of husband I would have in the future, and my parents probably speculated how many children I would give birth to someday, even when they only held a creature with no sense of self-identity in their arms.
23 March 2025
Off to the right of my peripheral vision was this mysterious orange glow just outside our bedroom door where our altar was. My parents rushed to and from the bathroom and the bedroom door with buckets of what I can only assume was water as I sat on the bed, confused and with no idea of what was going on. It was past midnight, and I was half asleep. Everything seemed like a blur to me. I had not known it yet, but a candle that was not properly put out a few hours ago had just grown into something that we almost could not control.
21 March 2025
Housework is the single most significant unpaid labor in all of history. Whether it is appreciated or unnoticed, it remains existent in all households. While the gap is prominent in eastern countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, with some men reporting that they do zero hours of domestic work, and not so much in western countries such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, where men on average still do household chores yet still lags an hour less than their female partners, the fact remains the same.
