I haven’t blogged in a very long time. But my silence doesn’t mean I have lost the desire to write.

In grade school, I envied how my older brother’s writings could affect me and other people. In high school, my journalism mentor opened me to the possibility of being a voice to the voiceless. In the Ateneo, I graduated from a programme that valued integrity and solidarity – to speak truth for others who cannot. I knew in my heart, I wanted to write to change the world.

Then real life happened and I realized that ideals will either make you or break you.

In the many years I have worked in the Middle East, I have learned to choose my battles. I was forced to be silent, not to bring to light the many abuses I have witnessed and gone through myself. For the sake of the lives of people I love, I hid my pen, shut my mouth and painfully swallowed all the injustices I saw every time I opened my eyes.

I walked away from a life of luxury, hoping one day I can write about the truth.

Then I came back home to the Philippines and learned that there is more evil in my own backyard, snakes so beautifully disguised, you wonder what animals they really are.

I cry for all the abuses that will never be known, for the injustices that will never be put right, for lies that will continue to give birth to deceit and to snakes that will transform to seemingly beautiful butterflies.

Now I stand on the line between fighting for integrity and accepting reality. But the snakes have awakened the sleeping hawk inside me. I have dusted off my pen and am staring at it again. In time, the truth will come out. Perhaps in a theater play, a hardbound cover, an indie movie or a comic strip?

Good writers cannot be caged. You can silence them for awhile but they will arise in the most unexpected times. You can kill them, but their deaths will tell stories.

To you who have been silent for so many years, it’s ok. God hears you, so very loudly. Hang on to your pens and keyboards for your time will come.
Our silence doesn’t mean we have lost our desire to write.