12/02/2026
‘What keeps us afloat’
This piece is inspired by the recent typhoon ‘Basyang’ where the lives of the many are tested; the past repeated—from huge logs of wooden trunks to huge clumps of accumulated junks choking the passages of the town’s bridges. During campaings, every corners of the city is flooded with campaign posters displayed with their huge smiles and platforms but now, every corners are flooded with the same plastics, all soaked in mud. What happened?
Reciliency is overrated and accountability has been in a bed of webs since then. It has always been the community—who struggles and yet still rises, helps each other hand-in-hand amidst the incompetency of those who are at the summit of the political seats.
These people who promised us “change”, the same people who traced our ancestral lineage and claimed to be one of our relatives so they could be closer to our hearts but not that much by blood [to begin with]; they may RELATE to us in a distant bloodline but at times like these, I wonder if they can RELATE to our situation because while we remain afloat, they are probably drowned in their comforter sheet’s WARMTH inside that airconditioned room at 22-ADJUSTED temp, having the control to the room temperature while the unsheltered mass outside shivers from the COLD rain and surging waters—unable to adjust but forced to ADAPT.
Change is long overdue and we’re still here afloat. What keeps us afloat may have always been our resiliency and our fighting spirit but we shouldn’t always keep on floating at times like these, stranded in the wide body of muddy waters and false hopes. At some point, there should be settlement—not the settlement of an incompetent public servant but the settlement that gives us the big “relief” that we need after all the years of staying afloat—not the “relief” of ayudas that not even all of us get after a major disaster but the relief of a cemented assurance—not a half-meant one but a hundred percent sure.
How many “pag amping” and “hold on” shall we endure?
The skies are long enveloped by the clouds of cries from the sambayanan; the sun has sunken and we’re still afloat. It should’ve been getting any better by now. We remain afloat because we’re resilient, we stay afloat because they couldn’t be better.
We deserve better.
This piece will be displayed at .art for the ‘AGINOD’ exhibition this coming February 14 ,2026 (Saturday)🤍
