By Eliza Bellones I love being a girl. Being born into a matriarchal family and surrounded by friends I consider sisters has always given me a deep sense of safety and belonging. The knowledge that I am truly understood and supported by the women in my life is one of my greatest comforts. But there
October 7, 2026
We are taught that basic needs consist of what we require to survive: food, water, air, shelter. These are the necessities that have sustained human life since our earliest ancestors. But our needs have evolved beyond the Paleolithic period. Survival in the modern world is no longer defined solely by what keeps
September 24, 2026
I consider my last two years of high school some of the best years of my life, and while there are many reasons why, one stands above the rest: school was a place where I felt genuinely safe. Feeling safe at school made it possible to simply be a student—to learn, dream,
August 26, 2026
A mere five years ago, the capabilities of publicly accessible AI were largely confined to rudimentary text completions and simplistic artistic outputs. Being somewhat detached from the computing sphere, I considered genuinely intuitive artificial intelligence to be eons away. And yet, I now write this article in a society where many columns
August 13, 2026
There is something unsettling about how often humanity mistakes “more” for “better.” We speak endlessly about innovation, efficiency, and progress. Yet beneath all this advancement lies a question we seem reluctant to ask: why does progress so often demand that something else be sacrificed? After watching The Odyssey, I found myself thinking
July 28, 2026
Democracy depends on an informed public. Citizens can only hold leaders accountable when they have access to accurate information and the ability to distinguish fact from political narrative. In the Philippines, however, that democratic ideal faces a new challenge. As one of the most online countries in the world, Filipinos increasingly experience
July 9, 2026
Before a recent trip abroad, I found myself doing what many Filipinos do before passing through immigration: worrying. Not because I lacked documents. Not because I had done anything wrong. Yet somewhere between checking my passport and waiting for my flight, I felt a familiar anxiety that many Filipino travelers would likely
June 24, 2026
There is something strange about opening social media in the Philippines during a political controversy. Within minutes of a senate hearing going off the rails, clips begin circulating online stripped of context and edited for virality. Screenshots become reaction memes. Political figures become caricatures of themselves almost instantly, reduced to punchlines, fancams,
May 28, 2026
The other week, I found myself in a conversation with my Grab driver about gas prices, a topic that has become a mainstay in discussions across the country. Just moments before, we were talking casually about how he had moved from Iloilo, our shared hometown, to Manila in search of better opportunities.
April 29, 2026
It is so easy to feel like we are falling behind. Perhaps this is why “locking in” has become such a common phrase. You hear it before any moment that feels important enough to change your life, the looming reminder that there is always more to do, more to achieve, more of
April 15, 2026
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, or so some say. In the chaos of modern society, many of us have come to believe that the only person we can truly rely on is ourselves. We have been conditioned to be self-sufficient: to solve our own problems, to carry our own weight. Independence
April 1, 2026
Great advancements in science have rendered things previously thought impossible well within our reach. Artificial intelligence can write essays in seconds. News from across the globe travels instantly to our phones. Nations possess technologies capable of defending—or devastating—millions. We have mastered the art of transmitting information. But it is less clear that
March 4, 2026