WRITE TO EMPOWER

A weather pattern born thousands of miles from our kitchens is now threatening to show up at the grocery counter. The World Meteorological Organization says El Niño is firmly established, strengthening, and almost certain to persist through February 2027. NOAA gives it more than a ninety-percent chance of becoming very strong. Scientists are even discussing the possibility that it could exceed every El Niño measured since 1950. “Super El Niño” sounds like a movie villain, and

I am tired of LGBTQIA people being discussed as if our lives are a national argument—as if our right to exist safely is still awaiting a final vote. We are not legislation. We are not a cultural controversy. We are not material for a campaign speech, a sermon, a podcast, or some coward’s social-media rant. We are human beings who go to work, pay taxes, care for our aging parents, argue with our spouses, worry about bills, walk our dogs, and try to get home alive. Yet in Ameri

There is something mildly insulting about being told to “make coffee at home” when your mortgage has gone up, your electric bill looks like a car payment, groceries cost noticeably more than they did a few years ago, and filling the gas tank requires a small act of financial courage. Yes, Americans can make better financial choices. Most of us probably have at least a few expenses we could eliminate without diminishing our quality of life. But we should also acknowledge reali

I did not come to Fairview, Quezon City, for a vacation. There were no carefully planned itineraries, no sightseeing agenda, and certainly no excitement about checking into a hotel. I was there because my dad was confined at Commonwealth Hospital and Medical Center, and during those difficult days, all I really needed was a place nearby where I could sleep, regroup, and prepare myself for whatever the next day might bring. SotoGrande Neopolitan Hotel turned out to be exactly

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