Dindo Manhit, President, Stratbase ADR Institute The health crisis has worsened and COVID-19 community transmission has spread like wildfire, but the government continues to assure the public that everything is under control. As of July 30, the Philippines had already overtaken the 84,292 COVID-19 cases registered by China, after the Department of Health reported 89,374… Read More

Terry Ridon, Non-Resident Fellow of the Stratbase ADRi and Convenor of InfraWatch PH In last week’s State of the Nation Address, the President started with a rambling, vaguely coherent rant, complaining about the poor level of service of the two leading telcos and urging them to improve their services by December so he can “call… Read More

Insofar as to what have been claimed about the achievements of the Duterte Presidency and as we are fast approaching the remaining years of its political timeline, the Filipino citizenry should in turn look into four challenges under which we can move and act together to recover, heal, develop, and build forward better. The first… Read More

Orlando Oxales, President of Stratbase Research and Intelligence (SRi) and Lead Convenor of CitizenWatch Philippines As of this writing we have been in quarantine restrictions for 139 days. The July 30 official report of the government showed the Philippines total number of positive Wuhan (COVID-19) virus cases surpassing China’s count by 2,011 cases at 89,374.… Read More

Paco A. Pangalangan, Executive Director, Stratbase ADR Institute As Filipinos, we have weathered countless calamities, emergencies and challenges. In the process, we have shown how our patience, resilience, and sense of community have helped us make it through any challenge thrown at us. On the flipside though, these usually good Filipino traits become bad when… Read More

Paco A. Pangalangan, Executive Director, Stratbase ADR Institute I was surprised how much President Rodrigo Duterte had to say about Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday. Early on in his address, the President brought up e-commerce and the need to enforce consumer and data protection,… Read More

Dindo Manhit, President, Stratbase ADR Institute Every society, located in specific political junctures, manifests a set of social risks. In this context, Philippine society is at a critical moment confronted by two conditions—the COVID-19 pandemic and the penultimate year of the Duterte presidency. Among other risks, the continuing public health challenges, corruption and inequality represent… Read More