What makes the recent obsession with the Trader Joe’s tote bag fascinating is not the bag itself. Over the past few months, the reusable mini canvas tote bags from the American grocery chain Trader Joe’s have gone viral online, with Filipinos buying them through ‘pasabuy’ sellers or balikbayanfamily members. Strip away the pastel colors, the TikTok hype, the pasabuyculture, and what remains is, quite literally, a grocery bag.
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Taon-taon, binibigyang-boses ng University Elections ang mga Tamaraw. Ngunit kung tahasang isinasantabi ng Far Eastern University (FEU) Commission on Elections (COMELEC) ang malinaw na pagtutol ng mga estudyante sa mababaw na politika sa pamamagitan ng abstention votes, nagbubunyag ito ng mas malalim na tanong na kung kaninong boses nga ba ang tunay na pinakikinggan.
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Inaction can be a political action. Sometimes, abstention simply means an expression of resistance. It signifies that students are cognizant of the consequences of voting — that when we participate in the electoral process, we legitimize a problematic system that is anti-student.
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Student elections occupy an indispensable place in the formation of students’ civic consciousness. Yet, the gravest peril to democratic life is when students habitually withdraw from their obligations to keep the student government in check and participate in the University’s political processes. If students get used to treating campus elections as trivial, they are being trained — subtly but effectively — to approach something bigger, such as national elections, with the same detachment.
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All it took was one TikTok video to bring back the debate over what women are worth. When men make demands of women, it has long been seen as normal. But when the same demands came from women, love suddenly became “too conditional.” As if expecting security in this unstable economy is something women should apologize for.
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In the halls of power, words matter. Yet recently, Filipino male lawmakers have made their disregard for women impossible to ignore; not in private whispers, but aloud over microphones in the very halls meant for governance. From Bong Untay’s jabs at Anne Curtis to incidents like Christian Sia’s remark about single mothers and Robin Padilla’s disturbing comments about women’s supposed roles in the bedroom, the real story isn’t just what was said, but also the ease with which it was delivered.
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There is a particular violence in the way we speak about wombs when money is involved. The language grows sterile, managerial. The body becomes “gestational capacity,” the mother reduced to a service provider, and the child to an outcome. We call it empowerment and progress, but in the long shadow of capitalism, I find it difficult not to call it what it is: a market transaction carved into living flesh.
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When professional healthcare becomes a luxury, alternatives become our only option—whether reliable or not. In a world where a doctor’s visit can cost a week’s pay, asking for health advice from a chatbot becomes a practical choice.
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Open TikTok and you will likely run into the ‘factory reset’ trend within minutes. Every video follows the same arc: queerness cast as a phase, a chance meeting with the ‘right’ partner, and a punchline declaring a return to being straight, often set to Moira Dela Torre’s ‘Titibo-tibo.’ To some, the joke lands because it leans on an old assumption, one that treats sexual orientation as a temporary detour rather than an identity, erasing queer experiences and reinforcing a regressive, harmful logic.
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Bilang lamang ang ligtas na espasyo para sa mga aktibista at mamamahayag, lalo na sa mga kabataan at estudyante. Kahit sa loob ng paaralan, lugar na dapat nagpoprotekta sa kanila, wala rin silang tunay na seguridad. Hind nila binibigyang-halaga ang malayang pagpapahayag, bagkus sila pa ang nagbibigay-tuldok sa kalayaan nito. Sa impluwensiya ng administrasyon, patuloy na nagkakaroon ng banta sa kaligtasan ng bawat kabataang lumalaban para sa bayan.
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