(conclusion)
It has been five years since Gracie and I broke up and my mother hadn’t seen any other girl with me since then. I had just celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday and apart from my female college friends, all my well-wishers were men. “I don’t know how to answer your question, Mother,” I said. “If you [...]
(part 3 of 4)
After that, it seemed that the scales of ignorance were removed from my eyes. Everywhere I would go, I would meet and catch the gazes of men who’d look me over like I was some piece of meat for their taking. Inside the jeepney on my way to class, in the review [...]
(part 2 of 4)
I never pursued my feelings for Emily, or the next girl after. Perhaps, to lash out for his apparent possessiveness, I started having sex with others. With the school bus driver, with the janitor and groundskeeper, with a brick layer at work in a building a block from our house, with this [...]
(Part 1 of 4)
I don’t remember the exact point in time when I became Mike. I had always preferred to be addressed by my real name. No nickname, no pet name. This was because my whole name was simple as it was: Michael. When I was a boy, my late father liked to call me [...]
Yesterday marked the passing of one of the most prominent Filipinos I’ve known in my lifetime. After more than a year of battling colon cancer, former President Cory Aquino passed away peacefully, amidst the flurry of prayers and support from Filipinos around the world. A healing mass was held here in Phnom Penh last Friday [...]