Butch Dalisay recently wrote about Filipino-ness in Writing:

When I write a story, I worry about plot and character—not about how that story will be labeled by somebody else. Writing a story that people will want to read again is difficult enough. Ultimately, the only nation that will matter to the writer is the one whose passport consists of the published book. As his student Allan Aquino remembers NVM Gonzalez saying, “Writers create their own nation, even if they’ve never set foot on it.”

I’ve highlighted the Filipino nature of The Bayanihan Blog Network numerous times, whenever I discussed our objectives, how the member blogs relate topics to the Philippines, or how they cover Philippine topics. But we don’t believe that it’s enough to be Filipino. As Butch Dalisay wrote, it ultimately doesn’t matter what the nationality of the writer, or a blogger for that matter, is.

In many ways, this blog network is about creating its own nation: a Philippines that has a lot to offer to the offline and online world. We try to go beyond the casual negativity that many Filipinos are guilty of, and focus on things we can be proud of. But we’re more than just that.

The Bayanihan Blog Network is more than just a Filipino blog network. That much is obvious from the way we write and what we write about, as Butch Dalisay writes. Yet what really matters is the quality content and unique perspectives we offer on a regular basis. Only through this can we hope to stand out from the millions of online publications out there.

So I welcome you to check out the different member blogs of our network, and let us know what you think.