Factory of Alleged Virtues

by Alfonso Manalastas

Charting a life shaped by colonialism, capitalism, and climate collapse, Factory of Alleged Virtues grapples with survival and its inherent contradictions. Moving between documentary and dreamscape, these poems do not seek to offer answers to the questions of our troubled times. Instead, they pose a clinical inquiry into how the self endures, resists, and remakes itself within a world on fire. At once tender and incisive, this is poetry as record, as refuge, as refusal to look away.

Genres: Poetry

142 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2025

Reviews

[Alyosha]

gusto q na si manalastas, ang author, 'yung alay sa libro. [eh kasi sino ba naman, kung hindi siya (?)]. pero hindi. madaling pagusapan ang arkipelago batay sa particularities nito: pwede sa lente ng transversal becoming, aquatic/land spaces, yada-yada-yada. but no. pinli niya ang kaniyang retrato para i-mapa ang uri ng capture mayroon ang pilipinas bilang archipelagic: isang subaltern, pagkapa sa post-colonial idenitity, at syempre pagiging pilipino / being-filipino. kaya minsan hinuhusgahan ko siya sa mga tendencies niya. lol! ofc, short-sighted 'yung ganitong pagbasa. babawiin naman ng mambabasa yung mga ganitong judgement sa huli (hopefully).

ang oryentasyon ng libro ay from archipelago to untangible. pero ang laman ng poems ay untangible/tangible to archipelagic. sa mahirap na sabi: islands become onsciousness and consciousness becomes islands. hanudaw [???]. may binubulgar ang ating tendencies sa kung nasaan tayo, at may binubulgar ang espasyo kung paano tayo mag-isip. ang magandang halimbawa nito ay ang kaniyang apartment complex (pg.85), kung saan mababasa natin na nagkaroon ang bida ng intimacy sa pader... LOL. i mean, kung naninirahan ka magisa, tapos sa labas ng apartment mo ay harrowing liminal space ng hallway, at ang sign-of-life malapit sayo ay ang pader na nangingig dahil sa washing machine ng kapitbahay, u tend to make life out of something... that reminds of u being-human. the little sounds, little rumbling organs, ika nga niya. this is the kind of alienation we can found from loneliness and the inherent space divide that breeds isolation rather than individuality. see: the poem tells us the tangible/intangible, and we are able to map out the space and emotions he may hav. we can use this to think about bigger things katulad ng panghihimasok ng neolib policies, dehumanizing infrastractures, atbp. the same way applies to all of his poems. arguably lahat ng poems. basta. lots of dialectic at play.

what i love sa book ay yung last section: self-portrait as intangible. side eye malala from parents kasi i was reading them out loud with passion. with galit. with conviction. they are all true, valid, readings of anger, madness, cowardice. i had my standing ovation from them when i read the factory of alleged virtues (pg.129). kasi tangina, this is the culmination part of all these poems cartographing victimhood, identity-on-limbo, of being-filipino tapos he asked: nugagawen ate... all these counterfeit mythmaking is all around us which: softens hate, shames all transgressive emotions, mellows us to the ground. he actually did "map a people, [paninindigan q archipelagic theme q lol]" where he list people [virtues] that contribute to this type of surrender. something is holding us back to the ground. and we can't see it. something is suspending us in limbo, and we are wearing it. anyway.

tinatamad na q. ayaw q na. pinal na iskor: 4.87. edit q na lang pag may time. hahaha.

[Josue Mapagdalita]

Ang ganda, sobra! One of my best reads this 2025.

“What I Would Give to be a Screwdriver” really hits hard. 😭

Auto-5 ⭐️ ka saken! (Full review to follow.)

[Steno]

Madaling sabihin na cerebral o intellectual ang mga tula ni Alfonso Manalastas dahil iyon naman talaga ang una mong mapapansin kapag binasa o pinakinggan mo ang mga akda niya. And that is a huge accomplishment in itself already.

Pero kung ako ang tatanungin, ang pinakatumimo sa aking puso habang binabasa itong mga tula ni Manalastas ay yung grit ng self o ng persona.

Habang nagugunaw ang mundo o habang binabalasubas tayo ng mga dayuhan, dinarahas ng gobyerno at ng kapitalistang sistema, at binabagabag ng nakaraan, lagi’t laging naroroon ang sarili (o ang persona o self) upang banggain ang mga puwersang nakahihigit sa kanya.

Sa tunggaliang iyon lumilitaw ang quintessential na “liwanag sa dilim” o, sa mga salita ni Tita Laura Gilpin, “…as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.” Which is to say, may refusal.

Parang sinasabi ng makata sa librong ito na, “Sige, mga buwaka-ng-ina kayo, lipulin n’yo ang mundo, sunugin n’yo lahat, wasakin n’yo ako, pero di n’yo ako mabubura. I refuse erasure!”

And I think that’s beautiful.

Marami akong paboritong tula sa koleksyong ito pero nangingibabaw sa akin ang Modus Operandi, siguro dahil napapanahon sa buhay ko ngayon. It reminds me of Love After Love ni Derek Walcott.

Gustong-gusto ko rin ang Milagro sa Agusan River dahil sa mga ine-evoke na imagery nito at yung tenderness n’ya. Love ko rin ang The Moon Addresses Her Enemies dahil napaka-feisty ng buwan. Parang I see myself in her. 😅

Ang dami pang mahuhusay na tula rito pero di ko na ii-spoil sa inyo. Bumili na lang kayo ng kopya para kayo mismo ang makaranas at makaramdam ng mga kinuda ko rito. Pramis, walang tapon. Sulit na sulit.

Dahil d’yan, magpainom ka naman, Alfonso Manalastas! Kelan ang solo book launch? Sana meron. Isang bonggang-bonggang pagbati sa iyo. More poems and books to cum, este, come! 🫶🏻

Rating: 4.5/5

[J.A. Lorenzo]

We are... literally... The Factories of our own (Alleged) Virtues

Sobbing, heart wrenching, introspective.

This was such an emotional read for me. It literally reminds me that colonialism in any shape or form is bad. The diaspora, themes, of longing, the narrative when going to “colonizer's” countries from a subaltern view, the reminiscence of the past—

The collection itself is a fragment(s) of an individual from Southeast Asia traveling to First World countries—Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan—that once colonized and exploited the Philippines, viewing the aftermath and lingering traces of colonization.

A reminder that identities are made, embraced, and also transmogrified, rather than innate.

The book itself consists of avant-garde writing and is filled with experimental forms. This book is fresh, to the eyes of the contemporary landscape. If you are planning to read this, you may read it as is, then on your close reading, Postcolonialism as a primary lens is suited for this book, along with Postmodernism and Queer Theory (Poetics)

Virgules, Staggered lines, Scattering, Whitespace, are most utilized in the poems. Some are also Prose-Poetry, Enjambment, vignettes, epigrams, nonlinearity.

If I'm going to be an instructor soon, I would include this in my syllabus, for contemporary Postcolonial reading, especially in contemporary literature or Philippine Literature in English (if BSEd or in Literature courses in general.)

Favorite Pieces:

• What I Would Give to Be a Screwdriver
• Watching my Ex-Lover Leave Our Favorite Speakeasy at 4:00 a.m.
• Visa Application
• Heritage
• Apartment Complex
• Archaeology
• Paint by Numbers as Van Gogh
• Factory of Alleged Virtues
• An Evening in Hotel Luna

6/5

[Meeko]

Having read some of the poems from Alfonso’s previously published zines, there is a sense of familiarity with this book. To me, there is an established voice throughout this collection that only Manalastas can manage to portray in his poetry.

I have been a fan and a follower of the author but this collection lets me peak a bit more of who he is, his virtues, all laid out in this carefully curated compilation. I really like the poems about his hometown in Butuan, and his family. There is so much history in it and he writes it in a way that not only describes but also is entwined with his principle and social awareness. Themes of colonialism, pandemic, climate change, history, and queerness, all in a striking and empowering depiction within these poems.

With bias, yes, I will say that I want to be like Alfonso Manalastas when I grow up! I am glad to have been living in the same time period as him, to witness his works, albeit in a world that is constantly trying so hard to not be as virtuous as we need it to be (wow).

[Pia]

Final Thoughts
Alfonso Manalastas’s debut Factory of Alleged Virtues is a four-part series of ‘self-portraits’. The book’s abundance sometimes works against itself, with the distant-gazing entries feeling like the compulsory rehashing of writerly cliches (the moon, the apocalypse, geologic time scale), stanzas with flourish words and borrowed feelings. The best of Manalastas’s poems here are of a provincial young man, looking outward, from a globalized/semi-colonized Metro Manila in the 2020s—for they have such a complete wakefulness to this reality that they are startlingly visceral, and unnervingly close. Ultimately, Factory of Alleged Virtues is defined by how its poet wades steadily through personal contradictions with colossal things like colonial history, US hegemony, and pandemics, to find his generation’s pulse in this uncharted place.

[Christian Joriz]

It welcomes you to the overwhelming epiphany of how our collective history and familial ties shape us into who we are... until it doesn't; until it hits you that you are on your own, until you let whatever was bugging you die on it's own and teach you a lesson.

[Miko Biong]

favs:
- Milagro sa Agusan River
- What Would I Give To Be a Screwdriver
- Archaeology
- On Language, 5
- The Moon Addresses Her Enemies

[Nico]

First time mabasa si Fonso. Grabe ang tama ng Milagro sa Agusan River at On Language, 3.

[yans]

christ is INDEED reborn in gen. malvar cubao

[miguel]

The curation of poems makes this book so fascinating. From personal to global, Manalastas explores different temporalities, sceneries, and psyches with rawness.