It is with pleasure to share with you Stratbase ADR Institute’s Special Study entitled, “COVID-19 and Security Governance: An Initial Examination of the Philippine Experience and its Possible Implications for Policy Development”, authored by ADRi Non-Resident Fellow and Chairperson of the Political Science Department of De La Salle University, Prof. Sherwin Ona, Ph.D.

This particular special study utilizes the concept of securitization to examine the experiences of select countries in their struggle against COVID-19 and explains how existential threats were securitized at the onset. By delving into the experiences in other countries, their securitized approach was evidently demonstrated by President Rodrigo Duterte, citing the need for a whole-of-government approach in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. The elaborate discussions aimed to strike the balance between the Securitization-Desecuritization Process, thus insinuating the development of clear security governance agenda to check the practice of a prolonged securitization, which in the long run may cause more harm than good.

Towards the end, the paper posits that a highly securitized approach to public health emergencies is not sustainable, thereby pointing to the need for a desecuritization process and creating a security governance agenda to ensure resiliency. In the case of the Philippines, there is a need to reexamine existing policies and identify the possible gaps.