WRITE TO EMPOWER

For generations, the Himalayas have been described as eternal—immovable walls of rock and ice rising above Nepal and Tibet. But there was nothing eternal about what came crashing down from those mountains this week. On August 26, a massive section of glacier and mountainside collapsed near the Nepal–Tibet border, releasing a violent mixture of ice, water, mud, boulders and other debris into the narrow valleys below. The torrent tore through communities along the Himalayan riv

MANILA — Flooding in the Philippines has become so routine that the images almost arrive with the predictability of the monsoon itself: commuters wading through brown water, stalled vehicles, families carrying children above waist-deep floods, classrooms converted into evacuation centers, and mountains of garbage collecting along waterways. This August has been no exception. Weeks of southwest monsoon rains, repeatedly enhanced by tropical cyclones, have inundated communiti

For months, the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte was treated like another episode in the Philippines’ favorite political teleserye: Marcos versus Duterte, former allies turned enemies, accusations of persecution, loyalty tests, conspiracy theories, and enough political drama to keep Facebook comment sections employed full-time. Then the Senate impeachment trial started doing something considerably less exciting. It began looking at receipts. And that may be where Sa

My father may indeed have been medically stable enough to leave the hospital. I was never insisting that he remain simply because I was frightened to bring him home. I wanted to know what bringing him home would require so we could have the right people, equipment, instructions, and follow-up care ready.

My support for the Philippines’ claim of sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea is not rooted in hostility toward China, nor in the easy excitement of waving a flag whenever another country tests our patience. It comes from a simpler conviction: a nation that refuses to defend what is legally and historically its own eventually teaches others that its boundaries, rights, and dignity are negotiable. For Filipinos, the West Philippine Sea is not an abstract patch of blue disc

There are two kinds of OFWs in the world: (1) The one who sends money home like a national hero. (2) The one who sends money home and also somehow finances everyone else’s Netflix, birthday parties, and mysterious “emergencies.” If you’re reading this, congratulations! You’re probably both. Let’s be honest. Being an Overseas Filipino Worker doesn’t just mean earning in dollars. It means carrying the emotional weight of an entire barangay. You are not just a worker. You are a

I get teary-eyed when I see people protesting for immigrant rights. It’s not just empathy, it’s recognition. Every chant, every placard, every raised fist feels like an embrace meant for me. It feels like they’re fighting for my place in a world that sometimes forgets how hard it is to begin again, to rebuild a life on foreign soil while carrying the ghost of another home in your chest. When I see them march, I feel seen. I feel like my neighbors love me not because they have

I sometimes question the career choice I made. Not in a throw-my-laptop-out-the-window-and-open-a-beach-bar kind of way — although that fantasy does visit me every Monday at 7:13 a.m. — but in a quieter, more persistent way. The kind that shows up when I’m driving down I-680, coffee in one hand, existential dread in the other, wondering how my life became a series of phone calls that begin with, “Hi, just looping you in…” Being a nursing home administrator is not just a job.

Although unlikely to pass, the Philippine House of Representatives’ vote to allocate nothing but PhP1,000 (US$20) to the Commission on...

Human rights protection in the Philippines is on the verge of extinction after the country’s House of Representatives voted to...