Lyza Detore

“In order to write poetry that isn’t political,I must listen to the birds;And in order to listen to the birds,The warplanes must be silent.”─ Marwan Makhoul, Palestinian Poet “We are non-political. We don’t engage in politics.” I was told by one youth of mine the other day. The nature of my work in the LGU will be revealed if I told you why they chose to visit our office, and I have gotten in hot water already for being as vocal as I am in local politics. So, if my writing may seem a little bit impersonal from here on out, just know that this is the reason I must obscure this little tidbit. Anyway— As I catered to them, I wondered, as I often do: But what is existence but inherently political? In the intricate tapestry of human life, existence and politics are inextricably woven together, suggesting that every facet of our personal and social lives is influenced by political forces and, in turn, impacts political structures. We don’t live in a vacuum; we are interconnected to people and systems, regardless of their claim of being political or otherwise. Identity is a primary example of how existence is political. I identify as a Filipino working class pansexual woman, which are not just personal attributes but also political categories that affect my experiences and opportunities in life. As a queer person, I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told that I’ll just “become straight” kung makatilaw na ko sang namit nga buto. By that illogical logic, a namit nga buto can also be used on a man to turn them gay, right? Kidding aside, identities have been politicized through legislation and social norms even in recent history. For instance, gender-based restrictions in various societies have demonstrated how political structures can enforce and perpetuate discrimination. Filipino women couldn’t vote as recent as 1937. Thank Heavens for social reforms! In contemporary society, identity politics plays a crucial role in advocating for marginalized groups. Movements such as LGBTQ+ rights campaigns highlight how personal identities are not only central to individual experiences but also to broader political struggles for equality and justice. These movements underscore that our existence is inherently political, as the fight for recognition and rights reflects the ongoing negotiation of power within society. Even senators fight over which public toilet bowl queer people must sit for fuck’s sake! Economic conditions, shaped by political decisions, profoundly influence our personal and social realities. For example, debates over minimum wage laws and healthcare reform directly affect individuals' quality of life and opportunities for advancement. Back to the youth organization which started this whole thing: the mere existence of their youth organization is already political, as they aim to help those in need. Charity and poverty are both political because issues such as income inequality, employment opportunities, and access to education and healthcare are determined by political policies and economic systems. Institutions such as the family, education systems, and media are not neutral; they are imbued with political values and serve to reproduce certain ideologies. For instance, the conscious decision of our educational institutions to overwork and underpay their teachers and their reluctance to offer Martial Law, Sex Education, and other “controversial topics” that don’t align with patriarchal (and Christian/Catholic religious) views often reflect and reinforce dominant cultural and political narratives, shaping how individuals perceive themselves and their place in the world. Like pieces of s*** doomed to eternal hellfire and damnation. Public policy decisions impact everyday activities, from the availability of public services to the regulation of personal freedoms. These policies are a reflection of political priorities and have direct consequences for how individuals navigate their lives. Back in November 2025, our house got destroyed by Bagyong Tino, which made us (supposedly) eligible for the ayuda. We managed to receive our share of the pot, 15,325 Php for totally damaged houses. The others were not so lucky to be listed. It is still an ongoing discussion within the city, exactly four months after the tragedy, of which I will no longer comment on further. I do not want to rock the boat again and get fired. Therefore, I conclude (haha), understanding the political dimensions of daily life is essential for recognizing how our personal experiences are intertwined with broader political systems. Personal choices, such as career paths, lifestyle preferences, and activism, also carry political significance. The decisions individuals make are often influenced by political conditions and can, in turn, influence political outcomes. For example, did you know? The biggest recruiter of the New People’s Army is Marcos. This is because the CPP-NPA chose to respond to the political injustices of Martial Law through armed conflict as a means of advocating for change back in the day. Resistance and compliance with political norms are inherent in personal choices. Acts of resistance, such as protests or civil disobedience, challenge existing political structures and advocate for new possibilities. Conversely, compliance with political norms often reflects a desire to maintain stability or benefit from the current system. These choices highlight how personal existence is not isolated but rather a part of a larger political context. Honestly, I have surface level knowledge about the philosophical and critical theories that discuss the relationship between existence and politics. But so far as I know (thank Ecosia), Existentialist philosophy, for instance, emphasizes individual freedom and choice, highlighting how personal existence is shaped by and shapes political realities. And Marxist theory explores how socioeconomic conditions influence personal identity and existence, emphasizing the role of class struggle in shaping human experiences.Critical theories such as feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories analyze how political power dynamics intersect with personal identities. These perspectives reveal how political systems perpetuate inequalities and how challenging these systems can lead to transformative social change. By examining existence through these theoretical lenses, we gain a deeper understanding of how personal and political realms are intertwined. Evolving political landscapes will continue to impact personal existence. Emerging issues such as climate change, technological advancements, and, even the recent wars on Gaza, Iran, Venezuela, and the UAE, will shape and be shaped by our experiences. It’s all overwhelming, really, but understanding the political nature of existence will be crucial for navigating these changes and advocating for a more just and equitable world. I hope we don’t come out of this year as cynics. It’s exhausting living in unprecedented times. May we live on more precedented times. One with certainty of a peaceful and equitable future. So please, never let me hear you that you are “not political” ever again. Mere existence is political.

This might just be me complaining, ranting, raving about my own academic life. This might just be me being a bit of a sour-graper, as my classmates have graduated. Some have obtained their licenses in guidance and counselling. At the same time, I’m stuck working a 9-to-5 job that has great tenure but has graciously given me night terrors and feelings of dread and despair. You be the judge.In the Philippines, we like to believe that college is the great equaliser—the Golden Ticket to owning the factory and becoming a millionaire, billionaire, gazillionaire. Politicians campaign on the promise of free tuition. Families scrape together savings because they’re told education is the only way out of poverty. But the numbers tell us differently: higher education is not levelling the playing field. It is the gate to Willy Wonka’s treasures. Take enrollment and completion. A 2021 study of over 6,600 Filipino senior high school graduates found that both economic and cultural capital—such as parents’ education, extra-curricular participation, and community involvement—were strong predictors of college readiness. In the same year, four out of ten middle-class Filipinos had finished college, but only one out of seven low-income Filipinos did. Go back to 2015, and the gap looks even worse, with less than one per cent of youth from the poorest households having earned a degree, compared to more than a quarter of middle-class youth. Postgraduate education remains a rarity. According to UNESCO data, by 2019, one per cent of Filipinos aged 25 and over had at least a master’s degree. That’s less than one per cent of the total adult population. In other words, master’s degrees are still the luxury of the few, not the reality of many. Even more rare are doctorates. In 2019, merely 0.114% of Filipinos aged 25 and above had completed a doctoral or equivalent degree. At that level of scarcity, PhDs are not engines of mass mobility—they’re exclusive credentials, largely out of reach for the majority.Even at our top universities, privilege shows. A study of admissions at the University of the Philippines found that students from wealthier families were far more likely to get in—especially to their first-choice courses. Money buys better preparation, test scores, and even confidence. What is advertised as “merit” often just mirrors class advantage.The numbers speak volumes on institutional disparity. Out of over 2,200 higher education institutions (HEIs) nationwide, only 28% offer master’s programs, and just 14% offer doctorate programs. That means most regions and most colleges do not even provide a pathway for their students to pursue advanced degrees. The government tried to fix things with the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act in 2017, which abolished tuition at state universities. It was hailed as historic! —but there’s a catch: free tuition mostly benefits those who were already likely to get in. If you can’t afford the review centres or didn’t attend a good high school, the door is shut before the tuition bill even arrives. And for professional tracks like medicine or engineering, subsidies don’t even come close to covering daily expenses.Then the pandemic came, and with it, another reminder that inequality doesn’t stop at the school gates. Students from poor households logged into online classes with unstable connections and shared devices—if they could log in at all. A 2023 study confirmed what every struggling student already knew: digital capital—the gadgets and internet access you take for granted if you’re middle-class—can shape whether you feel you belong in higher education at all. “No car, no iPhone, no opinion.”My cousin (hi, Ga! So proud of you; I hope you’re enjoying Japan), who is working and completing her master's at UPV, told me that student culture has changed since our time at university. The parking lot in front of Tomas Fonacier's building is always packed with cars, but not with teachers! Students’ cars fit together like one big jigsaw puzzle. In the hands of 17 to 20+ year-olds are iPhones. You seldom see a student with a smartphone priced under 10,000 PHP.I hate to sound like a Boomer, but back in our day, we walked all over the university and waited for tricycles to get to where we needed to go. We would go to computer shops to finish assignments without any AI assistance! When I finally got my laptop, I only visited computer shops to print documents. Our biggest flex was either going to a café whenever we studied or having a printer in our dorm rooms. Though it could take a considerable portion of our allowances, everyone seemed equal at first glance back then.In my master’s program, I know some classmates who took out loans of 200,000 PHP or more to cover their school expenses, despite being on a scholarship program. Some of us (including me) can’t afford to do that, especially when considering the time and money needed to attend classes weekly while working full-time— a job that doesn’t count as on-the-job training. For our thesis, we had to invest our time, money, and effort into finding participants and paying for in-university statisticians, grammarians, and ethics checkers. Again, I was enrolled in a government master’s scholarship program. Unfortunately, the university won’t even release our transcripts of records, even for a job change or promotion, which could improve our chances of completing the program. Not even a note saying, “hey, this is a student of ours trying to complete her master’s”!Education may be open in theory, but in practice, it’s still a club for the Veruca Salts of the world.The pattern is clear. Instead of being the ladder out of poverty, higher education often acts like a mirror, reflecting and amplifying the country’s class divisions. That helps explain why the Philippines still has one of the most unequal income distributions in Asia: the richest 1% capture 17% of all income, while the bottom half split just 14%. The education system, far from closing the gap, quietly sustains it.The Philippines has reduced poverty—from 49.2% in 1985 to 16.7% in 2018—but inequality persists. If we want universities to drive real social mobility, we have to stop congratulating ourselves on free tuition and start asking harder questions. How do we support more students from poor families, not just those already prepared to ace the tests? How do we support them so they don’t just enrol but actually graduate? How do we bridge the digital and cultural divides that make campuses alien territory for students who are the first to go to college in their families?Higher education operates as part of the class struggle. While marketed as a vehicle for social mobility, it frequently serves the opposite role: filtering out the poor, culling out the middle-class, and consolidating the advantages of the wealthy. Unequal access, selective admissions, the limits of tuition reforms, and cultural and digital divides all conspire to reproduce the country’s class hierarchy.Policymakers must stop treating higher education as a headline promise and start treating it as a justice issue. Universities must stop confusing privilege with merit. And We the People must stop accepting the myth that free tuition alone fixes inequality. We cannot afford a higher education system that reinforces class divides. If education is to be the ticket out of poverty, isn’t it better to have no gates to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory after all? REFERENCESPhilippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). Institute underscores crucial role of graduate programs.https://pids.gov.ph/details/institute-underscores-crucial-role-of-graduate-programsIndex Mundi (UNESCO UIS data). Philippines – Educational attainment, at least Master’s or equivalent, population 25+, female (%) (cumulative).https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/philippines/educational-attainmentCommission on Higher Education (CHED). Higher Education Facts and Figures (2021).https://ched.gov.phPhilippine Statistics Authority (PSA). 2019 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS).https://psa.gov.ph/content/functional-literacy-education-and-mass-media-survey-flemmsManasan, Rosario G. (2019). Who benefits and who should pay? An assessment of free tuition in state universities and colleges. Philippine Institute for Development Studies.https://pids.gov.ph/publication/discussion-papers/who-benefits-and-who-should-pay-an-assessment-of-free-tuition-in-state-universities-and-collegesDayagbil, F. et al. (2023). Digital capital and online learning in Philippine higher education during COVID-19. Asia Pacific Journal of Education.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02188791.2023.xxxxx

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Lyza Detore

Existence is Political

Of Master's Degrees and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory