Inspired by Dwight De Leon’s “My Favorite Stories That I Wrote in 2025,” here is the official WALPHS WRAPPED 2025.
This past year was a "beautiful excess" of stories that kept me busy and the internet talking. My 2025 was the usual schizophrenic mix: high-stakes political shifts that felt like watching a slow-motion train wreck, lifestyle pieces to keep the existential dread at bay, and movie reviews that continue to live up to the BAKS OFFICE mandate: “Think Outside the Baks.”
These are my 11 favorite WALPHS.com original stories for 2025. In keeping with the usual cycle, 10 of these eventually found their way into various newsrooms and outlets once I was done with them:
This piece let me state the obvious: a man who treated due process as a punchline was suddenly invoking it with great sincerity. The article trusts irony over outrage, memory over noise, and documents a moment when the country’s moral math became impossible to ignore. Click here for the Inquirer.net version.
Every June, corporations pretend they have a soul for the marketing benefits. Then July hits, the spreadsheets look nervous, and the rainbows vanish faster than a politician’s promise. I wrote this because watching brands retreat from their “values” the moment things got mildly inconvenient was the most predictable comedy of the year. It’s just math, really. Click here for the Inquirer.net version.
Hollywood loves a subversive twist, especially one involving men in expensive lace. I wrote this because the film treats biological reality as a high-stakes thriller, while the Church treats it like a clerical error. It is my first international publication. Apparently, being irritated by hypocrisy is a globally recognized skill. Click here for the OUT.com version.
We like our historical myths neatly packaged, usually with a hyphenated hero and a clear villain. I wrote this because Lav Diaz’s film refuses to provide the satisfaction of a grand battle, suggesting instead that history is just a series of expensive mistakes and anonymous bodies. The truth is much quieter and far more exhausting than a textbook. Click here for the Adobo Magazine version.
Having already annoyed the Lapulapu fans, I moved on to the presidents. I wrote this because Jerrold Tarog treats national icons like actual humans, a move that predictably offended several descendants. It turns out heroism is mostly a collection of human flaws with a better tailor. Questioning a statue remains the easiest way to start a very loud, very unnecessary argument. Click here for the Adobo Magazine version.
I spent the morning watching a priest bless 1,600 square meters of home decor, which is a lot of holy water for a retail space. Writing lifestyle is a chore because I refuse to be a corporate mouthpiece, so I injected enough brutal honesty to see if the genre would break. This piece helped put me on the radar of various PR agencies, which explains why my inbox spent the rest of the year filling up with “exclusive” invites to countless store openings and product launches. Click here for the ABS-CBN.com version.
I finally found a film that understands why women in this country are forced to pray for options and then punished for finding them. Antoinette Jadaone manages to turn an illegal abortion pill transaction in Quiapo into a moment of biting religious irony, creating a vital, uncomfortable look at a nation that insists on children being born without ever bothering to provide a world worth living in. “Sunshine” is my pick for the best Filipino film of 2025. Click here for the ABS-CBN.com version.
This one hit differently. After it was published, one of the show’s writers reached out on Instagram to say that among all the coverage, my review was the one that made him tear up — that I actually got what they were trying to do. Someone from the production even found me on X just to call my review “beautiful.” Click here for the ABS-CBN.com version.
My partner and I attended the launch with our cats, Moira and Offred, who were invited as well. When I received the invitation explicitly addressed to my felines, I laughed at the terrifying research power of PR agencies. It was a rare, almost unnerving instance of the corporate machine actually doing its homework, resulting in a surreal morning spent watching Liza Soberano advocate for the same feline wellness we practice at home, presumably because the cats now have better social lives than we do. Click here for the ABS-CBN.com version.
This was my first time writing a concert review, and I’m glad it was for a show that challenged our reflex to label everything “pang-international.” Seeing BINI at the Philippine Arena felt less like a quest for validation and more like a realization that we’ve already set our own bar. Between the solo stages and the sheer grit they showed when an aerial prop nearly sent the night sideways, the group proved they are finally working on their own terms. Click here for the ABS-CBN.com version.
This was my most-read review last year, which is quite surprising for a piece published just as the year was ending. Director Jun Robles Lana even caught it on X, appreciating my deep dive into their “beautiful excess.” He got really excited about the technical details, from their “color bible” to a deleted scene where light symbolized motherhood, an exchange that actually sparked fans to clamor for an uncut version. Now, I’m just eagerly waiting for Star Cinema to maybe send a little something my way once that director’s cut finally drops and becomes a hit. Just kidding, of course. Click here to read my full review.