Offerings to No One in Particular

Nonfiction by | February 9, 2026

“A bunch of rubbish” was my initial thought when I saw it on my daily walk to school. It was in my periphery, an eyesore against the pristine pinkish-white walls as its background, nestled under the shade of a young but bent kalachuchi tree in its unassuming yet interestingly cluttered glory. You walk a few steps ahead and you’ll see the board exam passers of our university, perfectly lined up with minimal design, painting an obvious disparity. With my cheap phone, held together by wrist bands and wishes, I would take a series of photos of a makeshift altar of sorts by the roadside of our school campus between June and September 2025. I was always compelled to take photos, as it was ephemeral, ever-changing, and seemingly included everything.

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A Eulogy for Aida Rivera-Ford

Nonfiction by | February 2, 2026

The first time I came within the sphere of Aida Rivera-Ford was 58 years ago, when she cast me as one of her players in a short sketch performed before the student body of the University of Mindanao. That was also my first introduction to theatre arts. That experience encouraged me to join the school’s Dramatics Guild, which further honed my interest and passion for the genre. But it was not until 1982 that I seriously embarked on the world of legitimate theatre, owing largely to her orchestration.

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Staying Alive (Excerpt)

Nonfiction by | February 2, 2026

for Aida Rivera-Ford

On the eve of the Chinese Lunar Festival in October 2009, Aida Rivera-Ford invited me to her farm in Mintal to see sculptures of Nick Joaquin and NVM Gonzales made by National Artist Victorio Edades. I grabbed the chance to spend some time with her, a woman writer I considered a kind of literary mother for having paved the way for those of us who write fiction in English. I used to teach her story “The Chieftest Mourner” in my Philippine Literature classes and La Mujer Esa is an icon for me. As it turns out, Aida had a more interesting story to share. And it’s not the one about Don Jose Oyanguren, the Spanish conquistador who took Davao and whom she considers her soulmate.

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The jailbreak of helium atoms

Fiction by | January 26, 2026

For the rest of the Universe, elements are survivors—existing both since and because of fusion in the stars.

But us here on earth were neither born from the greatest explosions in the sky nor from Her most enduring fires. Below the surface of this planet, we dwell like an earthworm. We feast ourselves with the dampness of its soil, squirming through like wearing a wet glove, while our feet tread the crackling flames of the mantle.

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