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I learned about the fire at 12 am a few weeks ago. I couldn’t sleep. I was reminded of the question, “What would you bring on the way out the door if your house were on fire?”

When I went there to do a story about the things they left behind, I discovered that most of them had nothing left. The community was a maze of ruins and burnt structures, and some of the residents have returned from the evacuation sites, either living in what’s left of their homes or rebuilding their houses from the ground.

It was raining and people were scavenging through the ashes, looking for things to salvage.

Johnny Jay Lorenzo and his wife (photographed above) still live in what was left of their house. He told me that his daughter was in medical school. They lost everything and she was in school, asking for uniforms to borrow from her classmates.

They invited me inside, but I politely declined. I could see what was left from the view of the window. Inside their house were two half-eaten cans of sardines. There was a plastic table without its legs, and he told me that was where they have been sleeping for the past few days.

Another man recounted coming back to a pile of ashes after leaving his house to pick up his mother.

Someone stepped on a mound of debris. A guy shouted at him, still smiling, “Uy, bahay namin dati yan!”

A woman, looking for relief goods, cried as she told me that despite everything, she knew she could get through this. She is not alone; a lot of them believe that they can rise from the ashes, and some of them have already started

If you want to help the Malugay community, they are located at Zones 2 and 6 of Malugay St., Parañaque.

Note to self:

It’s okay to carry the weight of the world; we need more people who feel responsible for others, more people who think that the weight is not a burden, but an extension of themselves. In a world where most of us navigate within our limited personal spheres, remind yourself to find purpose in each day– to do more than subsist.

But in the process of finding meaning in every day life, the weight tends to feel heavier than it actually is. So, always remember to keep your head up. Look up from time to time. The view is nice.

They call this one of the most beautiful views in the world.

When you’re driving against the wind down a Hawaiian highway with the speakers blasting, “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride”, and you’ve just made the turn towards adulthood, still full of hope after 21 years of being and bruising, you’ll tend to agree.

It’s easy to find beauty in the unfamiliar, especially in deep blue water that reflects the clear skies so naturally. Maybe new places fascinate so easily precisely because we have never seen them before.

But show me grit, show me the familiar, bring me to places where I have forgotten to look. Maybe I’ll find rust on the gate I’ve never noticed before or rediscover the black patches on the ground, which we burnt when we were kids melting crayons on a rainy afternoon.

Take a walk down the street you grew up in and tell me if you still feel something for it. Maybe you’ll find something beautiful in a place unremembered.

I’ve been putting off writing here for a long time. I’ve tried to convince myself that it’s because I couldn’t find the words, but the truth is, I just couldn’t find the answers to my own questions.

When you’ve been doing something for a long time, you tend to ask yourself why you’re doing it. It’s easy to explain why I take photos; it’s not simple or brief, but I definitely know why. The reasons have evolved over the years, and some of them have been selfish, but I’d like to think that I have found purpose where there was once ambition and pride.

But blogging is different. I’ve had this blog since 2008, but the frequency of posts has dwindled over the years. Mostly because I’ve been busy spending my time shooting, leaving very little time for editing and posting. But it’s not just the time that’s lessened; the drive did, too. Maybe because I couldn’t find a proper answer to why I had to write about life, so I let the days and thoughts scatter in my head. I write less these days, and while it’s good for suppressing nostalgia, I remember less.

My friend and I were talking about the people who have been writing in their blogs for years now, and we agreed that it was nice to see how they’ve grown.

A lot has changed since a proper blog post; I’ve recently graduated as a film student, after living life as if it were a long to-do list of papers and productions. I’ve started seeing things in a completely different way. I’ve gone back to my high school to teach photography to kids, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m pursuing photojournalism and documentary photography now, having left fashion and portraiture to the people who know how to direct models. Somehow, I feel like I’ve lost track of how I have grown over the past three years. It would have been nice to see how I’ve changed, day by day. But the photos aren’t enough and I have no words to go back to.

So here’s a promise to myself: to write here more frequently, to document my days. And maybe a promise to others as well, to document their days; to tell the stories that need to be told about the people that we tend to forget, regardless of how small the audience here is, in the hope of raising awareness about the world we live in now.

(Photo above is of a man scavenging for recyclable materials along the Pasig River despite the rains brought by Falcon)

There are too many stories and I’ve lost track.

I’ve been shooting a lot, although inconsistently. The Manila I know now is different from what it was before.

But in between, somehow, I’ve grown. I’ll tell you about it some day, but for now, I promise to post more.

Observing Barber Shops

Kino Punch Magazine Release

Uno Morato

 Hi everyone! I am collaborating with Share Movement for the second time around. Raniel Hernandez and I will be leading an Instameet/photo walk on March 14, 2015 in UP Diliman. That’s this coming Saturday! We’ll be giving out booklets containing photography tips, juice from Juice Hut Manila, and other freebies. Proceeds of the event will be given to Joseph Feeding Mission, which regularly organizes soup kitchens all over the Philippines. 

You can use any kind of camera! The route and meet-up point will be given once you settle your payment with Share Movement. 

REGISTER NOW: http://tinyurl.com/instacauseph

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Regular Fee: Php 200/each
Group of 3 discount: 150/each

One Billion Rising

Rise against violence, poverty, and impunity

Bonifacio Shrine, February 14, 2015