It is with pleasure that we share with you our Occasional Paper for September entitled “Philippine Defense Modernization: A Comparison Between Horizon 2 and the Military Modernization of Indonesia and Vietnam” written by Gregory Wyatt of Pacific Strategies and Assessments (PSA) Philippines Consultancy. The paper compares the recent efforts of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam… Read More

Dr. Renato de Castro, Trustee and Convenor of National Security and East Asian Affairs Program of the Stratbase ADR Institute Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte conveyed to his countrymen that he expected China to be fair on the South China Sea dispute and that they should accept Beijing as a good neighbor. “I am sure… Read More

Dr. Renato de Castro, Trustee and Convenor of National Security and East Asian Affairs Program of the Stratbase ADRi The Philippine government, for the first time since 1946, released a national security strategy (NSS) doctrine in July 2018. Entitled “Security and Development for Transformational Change and Well-being for the Filipino People,” the 59-page NSS provides… Read More

Dindo Manhit, President of the Stratbase ADR Institute The signs of economic trouble have been brewing since the first quarter of this year with the whole nation being hit by the rising price of commodities. Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia has admitted that inflation was the growth “spoiler” in the first three months of the… Read More

Weslene Uy, Resident Economist of the Stratbase ADR Institute During President Rodrigo Duterte’s “tete-a-tete” with his Chief Presidential Legal Counsel last Tuesday, he conceded that inflation is high but that his economic managers are “working on it”. After his televised interview, he convened his top bureaucrats, presumably to ask them some questions about this urgent… Read More

Weslene Uy, Resident Economist of the Stratbase ADR Institute In August, inflation clocked in at 6.4%, once again exceeding official targets and market expectations. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) projected inflation to be within 5.5% to 6.2%. Last month’s inflation also marked the highest increase in almost a decade. Month-on-month inflation also picked up… Read More

Atty. Hannah Viola, Energy Fellow of the Stratbase ADR Institute and Convenor of CitizenWatch Philippines The Philippines’ inflation rate has been the highest in Southeast Asia since January this year, compared to Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Consumer prices continue to inch up as inflation consistently continues to climb up. Based on the latest… Read More