We beg to differ.
As a professional tennis player, Alex Eala’s one job is to play world class tennis in a manner that wins matches. Can it be simpler than that? Her tennis and grace on and off court had, until mid this year, gotten her on the map and in the spotlight that drew the legions of fans…
Among the writers here at Get Real Philippines, I am perhaps the most unsophisticated or instinctive. So please forgive the way I present this idea of how I think democracy ought to work. It hit me recently while going through a cardboard box tucked away in the back of my closet—a collection of keepsakes from…
Read More “Pet Sematary Pinoy Democracy: Why the System that Returned After 1986 Came Back Wrong” »
In advocacy work, you kind of have to push open whatever doors you can find. I just sent over our position paper to Senator Chiz Escudero and Senator Bong Go—not because they chair the main health or drug committees, but because I’m fortunate to have friends on their staff who can make sure this lands…
Read More “Beyond Paper Rights and Ritalin: Taking Our ADHD Policy Proposal to the Senate” »
Did former presidential legal adviser and lawyer Sal Panelo just admit vice president Sara Duterte’s presidential bid is a no go? He might as well have said it outright. You can pretty much line up everything he has said about the impeachment of vice president Duterte with his latest statement in the Philippine Star and…
Read More “Sal Panelo Drops Sara Supports Bong Go or Robin Padilla for President” »
Living with undiagnosed ADHD means existing in a perpetual state of DIY neuro-engineering. Without access to formal diagnostic pathways or medical guidance, I have had to turn my life into a living laboratory. I constructed a strict routine just to function and maintain baseline productivity. Every habit, meal, and supplement in my daily regimen is…
Read More “How I Manage Undiagnosed ADHD (and Why It Still Isn’t Enough)” »
When Vice President Sara Duterte follows her father’s playbook by exploiting the word adik to score political low blows against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., she isn’t just engaging in political theater. She is weaponizing a slur that inflicts profound psychological harm on millions of Filipinos living with undiagnosed and untreated neurodivergent conditions. The intense shame…
Few people talk about how the stigmatization of addiction and the bloody Duterte drug war exacerbated the suffering of ten million Filipinos. It would be great if the arrest and detention of former President Rodrigo Duterte magically ended their daily struggles. But their misery continues. Duterte characterized drug users as violent beasts who ought to…
(Note: I am an undiagnosed ADHDer dealing with the challenges of being unmedicated. This is for everyone living with ADHD and other ND. God bless us all! Also, I had to write this with Gemini, it is based on a very long conversation that I asked it to organize into an article. Why? Because I…
Read More “Why Red Ollero’s Pharmacy Runs Highlight a Broken System for Neurodivergent Filipinos” »