Submit!

Just a note to aspiring writers, Palanca season is upon us so write, write, write, and better yet, submit, submit, submit. There are millions of Filipinos in the country and we won't know you have such great work unless you submit. There are stories of writers who become famous post-humously but that assumes your family (or whoever you're staying with) has access to your manuscripts once you're dead and not, say, throw it in the trash thinking it was just "scratch paper" or worse, format the hard drive thinking it's all junk.

If the Palanca's is not your field of interest, might I interest you in Philippine Genre Stories? Or just buy the damn digest if you want an interesting read. I mean it's one of those few publications that's actually dedicated to stories instead of the magazine/fiction hybrid (not that there's nothing wrong with that--it's just nice to see both types of publications proliferating).

There's also the foreign market. Wildside Press is looking for cat stories. Be sure to read the guidelines though. Either that or you could pose as the author of "The Lunch Thief".