Not a Broadway Number Do You Hear the People Sing? is not theater in the Philippines. It is not performed on a stage. It is performed in the slums, in evacuation centers, in the lines at pawnshops and remittance centers. It is the anthem of people who were promised a better life by every administration and then handed crumbs. The
Tag: poverty
Every nation has flaws, but not every nation repeats them with the stubbornness of a drunk who swears he’s sober. We Filipinos have perfected the art of messing things up, proudly, consistently, and sometimes cheerfully. From politics to culture to economics, we manage to sabotage ourselves with a creativity that could have made us great if only it were directed
“A nation once poised to soar—grounded by the very hands entrusted to lift it.” Once upon a Republic, the Filipino Dream was real. Not the American kind with white picket fences and Disneyland tickets—but the Filipino kind: a home with hollow blocks that didn’t crumble in a typhoon, a job that didn’t require a passport, a country where your vote
I left the Philippines in 2013. Since then, I’ve lived in the U.S., discovered the joy of functioning public libraries, and gotten spoiled by tap water you can actually drink. But even after more than a decade away, my screen still lights up with poverty maps of the Philippines—every shade of red feels personal. It’s as if the map knows
So the headlines screamed: “₱200 wage increase approved by the House!”And for a brief moment, it felt like we might finally be able to afford breakfast and dinner. Workers got excited. Lawmakers posed for Facebook banners. The internet lit up with memes about finally buying “the expensive canned tuna.” But here’s the twist:That ₱200 increase? It’s not law yet. Not