Welcome to the Makabayang Memo

My name is Sydney Montevirgen. I am a first generation Filipino American with my mother’s family originating from Leyte and my father’s from La Union, and I have visited the Philippines six times. I am also a junior in high school who intends to pursue business and marketing and I am hoping to obtain my dual citizenship in the near future.

As a whole, I seek to explore how power has been shaped through political campaigns in the Philippines as well as diaspora in the United States. I analyze how branding, digital media, and propaganda have and continue to influence democracy, development, and public trust.

This site is a collection of my research and summaries of current events. It largely covers:

• Marketing and political influence

• Corruption and economic growth

• Diaspora identity and responsibility

This platform is both a learning project and a public journal for me to think about and analyze strategy, ethics, and global conflicts from a personal scale. My goal is to not only to obtain more knowledge about my home country, but empower those who seek more information or wish to feel more connected to home despite living across the world.