Selinog is her name. She lies off the coast of Zamboanga del Norte and sits in the Philippines’ Bohol Sea. The Approach She can be …
Read Full StoryBATANES: Islands of Wind and Fire
THE NUTSHELL: (AKA WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW) WHERE: Northernmost islands of the Philippines : closer to Taipei than Manila. Regularly battered by typhoons. WHAT: …
Read Full StoryREWIND: On a Wing and a Prayer
A version of this was originally published on the Al Jazeera English website in July 2011. AT THE START I was not having a particularly …
Read Full StoryPapi’s Puzzles: Love, Loss, & Logic
My father did the crossword every evening when he came home from work. I think solving puzzles helped him wash away the day. He’d fold …
Read Full StoryIn Search of Roots: A Return to the Former Colonies
I was born in Spain. In the capital Madrid, to be precise. I feel very Spanish, although my roots are not. My mother was born …
Read Full StoryMarawi
By the side of Lake Lanao strips of dodol hang by a thread wrapped in cellophane and corn husks like body bags strewn together loosely unlike the …
Read Full StoryThe Woman With No Name: Leading a Double Life in Manila’s Drug Underworld
For her, a seemingly simple question was very difficult to answer. She paused the second I asked: “what should I call you?” She looked at …
Read Full StoryThe Comfort of Women
Dressed in her Sunday best, eighty-six-year-old Hilaria Bustamante stood by the roadside waiting with a warm, friendly smile on her face. The tiny woman was …
Read Full StoryBrothers, In Arms
It was a very hot day. The unforgiving kind that left nowhere to hide. Cradled within the sweltering curves at the centre of one of …
Read Full Story“Bitun”, the Bakwit
They call them “bakwits”. Thousands of displaced, transient, residents in the Southern Philippines with no permanent place to call home. Caught in the cross-fire, bakwits …
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