In 1998, the Philippines (PH) and the United States (US) heralded a new chapter in its long-standing alliance with the signing of the PH-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). This agreement established necessary mechanisms for military exercises and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) efforts in the Philippines. Moreover, it offers the strategic advantage of knowledge-sharing… Read More

It is with pleasure that we share with you Stratbase ADR Institute’s Occasional Paper for February 2020. Entitled “Civil Society Engagement in Addressing Terrorism in Southeast Asia,”  the paper examines the significance and role of civil society in counteracting and preventing terrorism especially in Southeast Asia considering that the primary threat today is no longer… Read More

Dindo Manhit, President, Stratbase ADR Institute Recent “strongman” moves by the Duterte administration have sparked multisectoral protests with possible repercussions on a nationwide scale. These moves range from threats to nullify government contracts with water concessionaires, the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), to “trashing” the franchise of media giant ABS-CBN. The motivations are… Read More

Edwin Santiago, Fellow and Member of the Editorial Board, Stratbase ADR Institute Seemingly without any semblance of cognizance nor of comprehension of good governance, the Duterte administration strikes again in another brazen display of power—to try to take away the franchise of ABS-CBN—seen by many as a brute attempt to curtail the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of… Read More

Jaime Jimenez, Ph.D, Deputy Executive Director for Research, Stratbase ADR Institute Corruption is a universal evil. It spans countless countries, regardless of the level of economic development and political orientation. As the pervasiveness of corruption simply undermines all efforts attempted by a government in trying to make things better for a country, the responsibility is… Read More

Dr. Renato de Castro, Trustee and Convenor of the National Security and East Asian Affairs Program, Stratbase ADR Institute Despite the senior senators’ pleas to reconsider his plan of abrogating the 1999 Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), President Rodrigo Duterte decided to scrap the 20-year-old treaty. He ordered his executive secretary to instruct the foreign… Read More

Dr. Renato de Castro, Trustee and Convenor of the National Security and East Asian Affairs Program, Stratbase ADR Institute (This column was written before Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. gave formal notice to the United States of the termination of a Visiting Forces Agreement on 11 February 2020.) During the senate hearing reviewing the… Read More