When we think of the ties that bind us, a nation of disparate people separated by seas and straits, spread out among 7,107 islands and speaking over 70 different languages and dialects, we tend to home in on food, religion and kinship. But perhaps the one thing we really all can relate to is good old Pinoy humor. Sometimes mababaw, often a clever play of words, our humor is side-splittingly punny and funny. It’s just da bess!

Flipping Pinoy humor with us is the legendary Rex Navarrete, one of the first Fil-Am comedians to become a mainstream international comedy sensation. He talks with surprising candor about how laughter heartens, heals, and humbles — not to mention unites — both audience and comic. Life is hard for many Filipinos. And whether you’re an immigrant in the US, or a Pinoy at home trying to get through the daily grind, laughter becomes the balm that keeps us sane. Tawa nalang ng tawa!

Hospitals, airports, cruise ships ... Filipinos are EVERYWHERE. So why are we nowhere? Or why has it taken this long for us to appear, as us, as Filipinos on TV shows and in movies? We chat with two industry experts — one running the show and another facing the audience — about why we need to create our own stories and support our storytellers. Flipping all the narratives with us are director, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging consultant, and veteran entertainment and media policy expert Cris Sales and Victor Lirio, critically acclaimed actor and theatre director specializing in text-based impact theatre, who, before the pandemic, was working at the Old Vic/National Theatre in London.

They raise important questions of identity and visibility, how we see ourselves and how we want to be seen. So we’re on the hunt: nasaan nanga ba ang mga Pinoy? We need to be onscreen, definitely, but we should have a seat at the decision-making table, too.

Girl can’t help it, she needs to tell stories. Ramona Diaz, the award-winning documentary filmmaker, has brought to the screen some of the most disturbing, heart-rending, inspiring and ultimately illuminating tales of the Filipino experience - the fearless journalist facing a lying and vindictive president (A Thousand Cuts), an unknown cover singer with incredible vocals who fronts a legendary rock band (Don’t Stop Believin’: Every Man’s Journey) teachers recruited to teach in inner city schools in Baltimore (The Learning), a delusional former First Lady (Imelda), and more.

She sits down with us to flip the notion of love of country, likening the draw of the motherland to the lure of an ex-boyfriend: we don’t stop believin’ but he still keeps on disappointin’ … so where do we go from here without shattering our psyche? Or further widening the polarizations in our society? Sometimes all we need is a welcome shot of babaw Pinoy humor.

We took a break. It was unplanned. Like many Filipinos, we needed a moment. The last elections were ... something. There are certain things — like the party line, hours of zero electricity, mullets, "salvaging" (the martial law euphemism for extrajudicial killing), and martial law itself — that just shouldn't make a comeback. Yet here we are: back with not one, not two, but three of our history's more controversial leaders back in power. We find ourselves celebrating Filipino Independence Day (and our first year anniversary!) with all sorts of feels. In this episode, we flip and flip again (sometimes frenetically, like oxygen-deprived tilapia on a bangka), trying to make sense of where we are and where we're going, and committed to finding hope and a way forward.

Children in the Philippines are often raised to be obedient and respectful; independence of thought and purpose is unfortunately not as vigorously encouraged. But times they are a-changing. As a demographic, Gen Zs and Millennials have an outsize significance in this election: they comprise 56% of the electorate. It’s no wonder candidates have been assiduously courting their vote. But how else can young Filipinos make their voices heard? Flipping the idea that our youth are timid and quiet are two young women, Yanna Garcia and Katya Lichauco, co-editors of Big Deal (get your copy now: bit.ly/BigDealPreOrder!), a groundbreaking anthology of writing and art by and about young Filipinas and their daily struggles, challenges, traumas and triumphs. They have spoken, and now we listen.

The noontime variety show is a staple of Philippine mass culture. A celebration of the kitsch and the banal, it is often a formulaic whirl of trite skits and musical entertainment marked by toilet humour and even lewd asides with anti-intellectual bent. To be fair, it has at times been a platform from which unexpected singing superstars have emerged. But how have decades of this Eat Bulaga sort of lunchtime diet impacted Filipinos as thinkers and, more importantly, voters? TV gave America Trump; it gave Ukraine Zelensky. What about the Philippines? 

Flipping with us are veteran award-winning journalist Ces Drilon and one-third of the famed OPM (Original Pilipino Music) pioneer APO Hiking Society, Jim Paredes, who once upon a time hosted a noontime variety show. Mula Aparri hangang Jolo, is it just “that’s entertainment”?

It was the revolution that stunned the world. Millions of Filipinos managing to oust — without a single drop of blood shed — a brutal dictator who ruled for 20 years that included glory days, torture, and killings? For a brief, shining moment, the Philippines was the inspiration of the world. Almost 40 years later, what does EDSA mean? In this episode, we flip with veteran journalist and author of The House on Calle Sombra, Marga Ortigas, and businessman, non-profit champion, and writer of Philippine politics, culture, history and identity, Nik Skalomenos de Ynchausti. What was EDSA for Filipinos and the world? Why was it glorious? Where did we fail? And more importantly, how do we channel the same courage and hope to accomplish revolutionary change?

It’s not every day that we have a Nobel Prize winner as a guest flipper. Award-winning journalist, icon of press freedom and all-around badass Maria Ressa talks about fighting for truth, navigating a sea of trolls on a raft of facts, fending off death by a thousand cuts, not to mention finishing a new book, launching #factsfirstph - all while never losing hope for the country we all love. A little moaning every now and then helps, too!

Let’s be honest. We’re a halo halo nation in large part because of the interracial relationships that have been taking place since precolonial times. Yes, love is love is love, but people consciously or subconsciously still make assumptions about class, race and the power dynamics in a relationship when they see a white man with a Filipina, especially if she conforms to a stereotype that some have called “island souvenir.” So what’s love got to do with it? We flip white love, white worship, white weddings and mestizo children with award-winning broadcast journalist Mark Litke and former PR & communications maven Tippin Coscolluela who’ve lived and worked all over the world in the decades they’ve been together.

Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all, sang the late vocal powerhouse and gay icon Whitney Houston. For the month of love, we talk self love and inclusive love. Drag is a form of self-expression; being a drag artist is already an act of activism, say our guest flippers, Precious Paula Nicole and Maria Cristina, founders of Drag Academy PH, who perform at Obar. We flip over Filipino drag: where it came from, where it is now, some controversial issues, and the uniquely Filipino care that’s always been central to the community. Sometimes a bit of artifice is all you need to become your authentic self. Can we get an Amen?

What a Flipping Year!

2021, that’s a wrap! Seven months and 14 episodes later, Laura Verallo de Bertotto, Luis de Terry and Bambina Olivares reflect on the year that was, the issues that were flipped in unexpected ways, and the guests who flipped with them, and how their own understanding of what it means to be Filipino remains constantly evolving and ever more multidimensional. We’re everywhere, world, get used to us!

And of course, they thank their growing audience, some of whom have suggested the show’s most downloaded episodes to date. Happy Holidays! 

And 2022, we’re flipping ready for you!

As a people, Filipinos love to dance and sing, get up and do their thing. There’s no doubt that ours is a country whose cup runneth over with the sheer amount of musical - and performing arts - talent. And yet the road to even a modicum of recognition, not to mention decent pay, for our artistes is a long, arduous and often thankless one. Is it any wonder that they end up performing overseas in front of appreciative audiences? From Broadway to the West End, from HK Disney to The Ellen Show, Filipino performers are present, and applauded. Tanya Manalang played Kim in Miss Saigon in London, and Rissey Reyes Robinson is a Disney Princess, while Reb Atadero has appeared in Ang Huling El Bimbo, among others. They flip and float the possibility of our government and fellow countrymen investing in and supporting local talent, instead of claiming them only after they find fame and success overseas.

If anyone thought Filipinos had seen the last of the Marcoses when they fled to exile in Hawaii in 1986, they were sorely mistaken, as events have clearly born out. “Enough!” we said, “Never Again!”. Yet years later they were welcomed back into the country, and now the late dictator’s son is eyeing the highest office in the land. So what is it about Filipinos and their short memories? Or their forgiving natures? How is it that young Filipinos think the two decades of Marcos rule were positively utopian? Simultaneously shaking their heads in disbelief and flipping through history with us are award-winning veteran journalist Marites D. Vitug, history teacher Joey Fernandez and newly politicized singer, actor and rising TikTok star Reb Atadero. If we want to hold out for a hero, we’d better heed the lessons of history first.

Let the games begin! With the presidential elections looming, election fever is starting to heat up. A bevy of candidates have thrown their proverbial hats into the ring of what are probably the most consequential elections in the history of the Philippines, with the future of the country literally hanging in the balance. Do we choose democracy, decency and competence, or do we restore a dynasty - not to mention entrench an administration - with a reputation for corruption and a dubious record for human rights? Our guest flippers, noted columnist and political commentator Manuel “Manolo" Quezon III, himself the grandson and namesake of the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, and former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) secretary economist, academic, columnist and radio host Solita “Winnie” Monsod, talk trolls and polls, and caution against underestimating the intelligence of the Filipino voter. 

The love language of the Filipinos is food. “Kain tayo” - let’s eat - is almost always the follow up to hello. Food for us is kinship, and is always meant to be shared. After decades of being under the radar, Filipino cuisine - sweet, sour, saucy, spicy, tart, crunchy, slurpy and for some foreigners, perhaps mystifyingly exotic - is finally getting international recognition. Food historians and culinary book editor Ige Ramos and chef and founder of the Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement Jam Melchior flip the tables with us on the Philippine palate and talk about how halo-halo we are in food and identity, how our incredibly rich but little-known indigenous cuisine is also tickling discerning tastebuds, and how Pinoy sweet spaghetti with hotdogs is taking over the world.

Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the American occupation of the Philippines is the dominance of the English language. It is one of the country’s official languages, and most Filipinos claim to speak it, albeit with varying degrees of fluency, which automatically makes it a socio-economic marker. And then there’s the accent, which snobs like to pounce on as a further indicator of class and regionality, with the “Manila” accent and diction considered the benchmark that separates the elites from the plebs, the urbanites from the provincials. But why do we make such a big deal about accents, and look down upon those who twist and mangle the English language, not to mention the non-Tagalog speakers who can’t quite shed their Visayan accents when they converse in Filipino? We ask FEU Professor Dennis H. Pulido, who has a PhD in Linguistics, Chris Upton, president of John Robert Powers, and writer, editor and entrepreneur Apa Ongpin if accents do matter, or are we still trying to be little brown Americans?

Filipinos have a strange relationship with sex, specifically their sexual organs. Blame our strict religious upbringing and sociocultural sense of shame that valued virginity above all for warping our views towards sex. If noted obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Theresa Henson had her way, she would urge every woman to have a happy vagina, and that starts with sincere curiosity and an open mind when it comes to all things sex-related. And a lack of guilt when it comes to seeking sexual pleasure. Forget the vagina monologues, our guest flipper says, it’s time for women to have honest-to-goodness dialogues with their vaginas.

A particularly Philippine claim to fame is that our country is the bastion of Christianity in Asia. Indeed, over 86% of the population is Roman Catholic, and evangelical Christianity is on the rise. So is, for better or worse, atheism, and its close cousins, humanism and agnosticism. Which begs the question: how fundamental to Filipino identity is the belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, not to mention the Virgin Mary and all the saints in heaven? And what of the forgotten but no less Filipino minority, the Muslims in Mindanao? Can atheists and believers co-exist without one wanting the save the other, be it from the fires of hell, or the chokehold of irrational faith and manmade guilt? Our guest flippers, Fr. Arnold Eramiz, a Catholic priest in the Agustinian and Ignatian traditions, and Red Tani, co-president of Filipino Freethinkers, a society committed to reason, science and secularism in the Philippines, duke it out in the most civilized way. God only knows who won this round :)

To live and die in the so social class you're born into is a godsend if you happen to be at the top of the pecking order in the Philippines. For the lower classes, however, the lack of social mobility can be a curse. Sometimes you have to win a beauty contest, become a movie star, or create an app that becomes indispensable. For our flipper Xyza Cruz Bacani, seeing the world with unflinching yet compassionate eyes – with the help of a camera of course – changed the trajectory of her life from that of a second generation migrant domestic worker in Hong Kong to internationally acclaimed documentary and street photographer, with a whole slew of awards, fellowships, commissions, not to mention a book. But the caste system that defines Philippine society isn’t just a socioeconomic hindrance; it's also at the root of generational trauma. By the way, she takes her fame in stride: her bullshit radar is still switched on to high.

Once upon the 16th century, say the history books, we were a collection of chiefdoms that most likely would have been absorbed into the Muslim sultanates of neighboring Borneo. But then came the conquistadores, bringing Christianity with them and changing the course of Philippine history forever. Catholicism remains Spain's most enduring legacy, but did we imbibe enough of Spanish culture to become the Latinos of Asia? Or are we really Asian with a hint of Latino in us? Flipping with us in an attempt to understand this conundrum in the Filipino psyche are architect and now restaurateur Leon Araneta, who was born in Manila and raised in Mexico, and Ivan Man Dy, a “Manila boy” of Chinese descent, who also happens to be a heritage activist, author and the man behind the thematic heritage tour Old Manila Walks. At the end of the day, the best way to describe who we are is to say that we’re halo-halo. Topped with leche flan, of course.