Other Writings

selected bylines in various publications + miscellaneous writing ✧˚ · .


Sustainability, Climate, and Environment

It’s easy to call out corruption as the root cause of these uprisings. Corruption, a quotidian occurrence that conjures images of greedy, power-hungry figures who take more money than they should, who keep wealth hidden in offshore accounts and Swiss banks, who purchase ostentatious luxury cars, bags, and real estate to overcompensate for their lack of self-worth. It’s too easy, too bland, to say that these events are caused by corruption, a word we’ve become too apathetic towards from its ubiquity.

Far from corporate boardrooms where esoteric sustainability measures are discussed, a small yet formidable team on Palawan’s remote shores gets its hands dirty with regenerating the Earth’s lifeline: the ocean.

It’s a stark reminder that our everyday choices—from our demand for convenience, to the way we consume, and ultimately how we discard waste—are interconnected with a destructive cycle that disproportionately harms the most vulnerable in society.

Circularity necessitates critical thinking, going against the status quo, and saying no to excessive production, spending, and acquisition. It opposes the collective indifference towards environmental and social harm that we as a society have been ingrained with in this hyper-capitalist, competitive world.

“Disabilities are not the problem,” Shiela May Aggarao, COP28 delegate, points out. “It’s the social and environmental barriers that restrict persons with disabilities on their participation and personal development in the community.”

Focus on how your life feels rather than how it looks online, where people feel that they constantly need to prove their status and identity through never-ending, avoidable purchases. […] Let us not be carelessly swayed by the demands of a consumerist culture, as they are not in favor of the planet’s health, and therefore, not in favor of us.

“My dream for the Philippines is the same dream I have for everywhere else. It’s pretty simple: it would be to have a society that prioritizes the planet over profit,” Mitzi says. “That’s what climate justice is really calling for. It's a society where no one is left behind.”

“We need the declaration of the climate emergency to initiate an urgent whole-of-government and whole-of-society mobilization to respond to the climate crisis at the unprecedented scale and speed needed to address it and protect people, properties, ecosystems, and the economy,” Virginia Benosa-Llorin, senior climate justice campaigner of Greenpeace Philippines, said.

From policymakers and traffic enforcers to its citizens, the road to a cycle-friendly Metro Manila is a community effort.


Mindful Living and Culture

It isn’t only about fostering kindness and respect towards ourselves, but allowing these values to echo in our environment for a more tender world.

What’s important is that we don’t allow ourselves to be shackled to the past and to be helplessly worried about what lies ahead, and that we keep on keeping on, whatever our means may be.

What I’ve gained from my transient time of being offline is the same heavenly peace of mind I had when I was a child: knowing that I’m able to live life fully, even without the worlds that don’t concern me.

You are living the unrealized dreams of those who have set out before you.


Misc.

The good old days are happening now.

In the darkest hours of the night, do you know this feeling?