Kunwari deep

Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.

February 25 marks the 36th anniversary of the People Power revolution, a march of unarmed but angry and determined Filipinos that brought a 21-year long dictatorship to an end without the use of a single bullet. But the social ills that the revolution aimed to bring down have never been resolved–if anything, the state of the nation is at the worst it’s been since the Marcos regime. And perhaps this is why so many disillusioned Filipinos view the People Power Revolution as a failure. The revolution did not solve the country’s problems; but it was not a failure. It’s just unfinished, and it’s memory and the memory of the heroes and martyrs behind it suffer erasure through the historical revisionism that Bongbong Marcos is using to reclaim for himself the throne his father lost.

The revolution isn’t over. But in order to stop the nation from slipping in and out of the same shadow of abuse and oppression, in order to finish the revolution of 1986, we need to keep its memory alive.

Ferdinand Marcos, the Dictator

Martial Law

Ferdinand Marcos became president of the Republic of the Philippines in 1965, and was re-elected in 1969. By 1972, his time was almost up. So after staging bombings in Metro Manila and pinning the blame on communist insurgents, he declared Martial Law on September 23, 1972 in order to secure a hold on power indefinitely. Congress was dissolved, and military was given free range to exercise authority as they saw fit. Unions and assemblies were banned, curfew was implemented, and media platforms were restricted or shut down completely.

Ferdinand Marcos on television, declaring Martial Law

we planted roses

now we only have thorns

The Philippines' 2022 election was rigged and marred with violence, and now the son of a dictator we ousted is being put into power again.

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