#DGLookBack2025: The stories that led me back

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor 

Antique was a home away from home – until the stories demanded that I treat it as one.

I was born in the hinterland barangay of Pitac in Tibiao, Antique, but I grew up northern Iloilo, far enough that the province became a footnote in my personal history.

For most of my life, it existed in fragments – family mentions, half-remembered places, stories told rather than lived.

That changed this year, when my work as a journalist kept leading me back, not out of nostalgia, but because the stories demanded attention.

In 2025, Antique became the place where many of my reports converged.

What first appeared as isolated developments slowly revealed deeper questions about power, consent, and what communities are asked to give up in the name of development.

There was a seawall that threatened to erase a fishing ground, roads pushed through upland forests without the permits meant to protect them, and projects broken into smaller pieces – on paper – to slip past environmental safeguards.

There were mining proposals framed as opportunity, and even the mention of a future nuclear power plant, dropped into public discourse with little explanation but enormous consequence.

I did not set out to cover Antique as a theme.

It simply kept appearing in my notebook – again and again – as a place where big projects met small communities, and where the imbalance was impossible to ignore.

What stayed with me most, however, was not the scale of the projects, but the response of the people. Fisherfolk who went to court and won a temporary halt.

Upland communities who questioned roads cutting through a protected mountain range.

Church leaders, civil society groups, and local officials who spoke plainly against mining, even when resistance was inconvenient or politically costly.

In a time when opposition is often dismissed as being anti-development, Antiqueños insisted on a different conversation – one that asked whether development that degrades ecosystems, bypasses safeguards, and excludes communities is progress at all.

Reporting on Antique this year felt like returning to a place I barely remembered, only to realize it had been fighting battles that mirrored the country’s larger struggles.

It reminded me that some of the most important stories are not found in capitals or boardrooms, but in provinces where people are still willing to say no – and mean it.

Here are some of the stories that brought these struggles into focus:

1. Mineral Reserve Declaration Threatens Antique Upland Towns
2. NO TO MINING: Antique Officials Reject Mineral Reservation Plan
3. Mining Opposition in Antique Grows as Senator Warns of Environmental Risks
4. ‘PROTECT THY HOMELAND’: DENR Secretary Urged to Shield Antique from Mining Activities
5. SUNWEST CARVES PANAY: DPWH urged to suspend, review inter-Panay road project
6. Antique among potential sites for nuclear power plants in PH
7. Antique alliance opposes proposed nuclear power plant
8. ‘NO, NOT EVER’: Senator rejects nuclear power plant plans in Antique
9. ‘SUPERCONTRACTOR’: Sunwest corners 65 projects worth over P4-B in Antique 
10. PATTERN OR PRIVILEGE? Sunwest secures 41 road contracts near Zaldy Co’s hydropower sites
11. Sunwest road projects in Antique lack required ECC
12. SCARS OF PROGRESS: 41-KM Panay road projects’ permits revoked over environmental breaches
13. Group urges Legarda to act on Antique environmental violations
14. Court asked to stop Antique seawall-esplanade project
15. ‘Victory for Antique’s coast’ as court halts esplanade project