Pia Wurtzbach has been a staunch ally of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others) community since her much-celebrated journey into pageantry. And nine years after she was crowned Miss Universe in 2015, the actress and global influencer is still advocating its cause. In welcoming Pride Month this June, Wurtzbach gallantly...
Tag: diversity
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All the past Presidents (but one) and Club Mwah
Name any past Philippine president since the 1986 Edsa Revolution. All except one went and watched the shows at Club Mwah in Mandaluyong City during their incumbency. They visited the glittery entertainment venue and enjoyed the world-class performance of its stars in colorfully designed costumes and sets. It was only Rodrigo Duterte who didn’t experience...
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To break the isolation and reach out to indigenous peoples in Aklan town
Time slows down and nature reigns supreme in Dalagsaan, according to visitors to this barangay nestled deep in the municipality of Libacao in Aklan. Amid sweeping landscapes, meandering rivers and terraced paddies, a closely knit community steeped in tradition thrives in Dalagsaan. It is the ancestral homeland of the indigenous Akeanon-Bukidnon and regarded as the last...
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Justin Jones: Black, Filipino, civil rights activist
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Republican-dominated House of Representatives in Tennessee in the United States has expelled two of three Democrat lawmakers who took part in a protest action calling for more gun-control measures a week after a school shooting in Nashville in which six persons, including three children, were killed. One of the two expelled is...
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Protesters vs Kaliwa Dam disheartened but unbowed
The members of the Dumagat-Remontado tribe protesting the construction of Kaliwa Dam are back home in the provinces of Quezon and Rizal, disheartened that their nine-day, 148-kilometer march to Malacañang ended without a dialogue with President Marcos Jr., but unbowed. “We won’t stop until he (Mr. Marcos) responds to our letter,” tribe leader Conchita Calzado...
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Once more into the breach: Indigenous folk march against Kaliwa Dam
Some 240 tribespeople and advocates are trekking to Malacañang to press President Marcos Jr. to stop the construction of Kaliwa Dam in their ancestral land in the Sierra Madre mountains in Quezon province, and the memory of a similar protest march in 2009 against Laiban Dam upstream in Rizal province is still fresh on their...
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Into the forest, across streams and rivers, and up and down hills
I went back to the remote Barangay Villa Espina in Lopez, Quezon, one Tuesday morning. At 6:30 a.m. after insufficient sleep the night before, I jumped into a decrepit jeepney—only one unit plies the route twice daily if the weather is fine—bound for the barangay (village). It was sunny, unlike the first time I embarked...
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Celebrating multi-identities and diversity
This year, Philippine sports got a big boost by the performance of its women’s national football team. In February, the team, Filipinas, reached the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup, thus qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. In May, it copped a first-ever medal finish (bronze) at the 31st Southeast Asian Games. And...