In the Claws of a Police State

“Failing to address its terrible welfare issues, the Philippine government has resorted to its first priorities: punitively attacking the weak and needy and cracking down on dissent.” The Baffler

Being Fil-Am in the Age of Trump and Duterte

I struggle under the two names that dominate my countries. CNN Philippines

Conversations at the Edge of Carnage

“There are more videos and accounts of atrocity available more quickly than ever before in history, in every imaginable medium. But do so many opportunities to bear witness only create opportunities to turn away? To harden our gazes and retreat into our own narratives?” World Literature Today

Prayer to the Dead

A meditation on violence and witness, in collaboration with visual artist Roberto Jamora. 7x7 LA

The Animals in My Home

A memoir essay on illness, vulnerable creatures, and friendship in Quezon City. The Rumpus

Deadly Populism

“On the night of 9 May 2016, when Duterte’s victory was assured, I was in a friend’s apartment, listening to the radio. I felt as I had in 2013, when Typhoon Haiyan was heading towards the Philippines and we were listening to alerts and uncertain predictions. ‘These storms. They take people,’ someone had said to me then. As I listened to the radio announcers reporting the election results, I felt the same, typhoon-sized sense of dread. I was sure: many individuals who were alive that day in May would die when Duterte’s leadership, like a cruel tempest, arrived.” The Mekong Review

The New Strongman of Manila

“I told the officer I was worried that a Duterte administration would usher in a new dictatorship, undermine civil liberties and even endorse death squads, as Mr. Duterte is said to have done while mayor of Davao City — all horrors that many Filipinos, including my family, had fled in the 1970s. ‘Should I be scared?’ I asked.” Opinion, the New York Times

‘I am of both countries, and I feel sanctuary in neither.’

In the face of state-sanctioned violence and a campaign rhetoric of racist dictatorship, a Filipina American author stumbles into a stunned silence. CNN Philippines

Questioning Tony Meloto

Antonio Meloto once joked about the benefits of cappuccino children for the Philippines. Here, a Filipina American cappuccino responds, investigating how one dark-skinned indigenous group in the Philippines felt about Meloto’s non-governmental organization, Gawad Kalinga. Esquire Philippines

Road Tripping with my 93-year-old Grandmother

“On the morning I accompany my demented grandmother on a bus from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, my Uncle Bartolo makes pancakes in his kitchen. He's the brother my mother and my aunts are always scolding and protecting, because of his displacement and his sins.” Gawker