The real deal behind Philippines’ power crisis

Atty. Hanna Viola, Energy and Infrastructure Fellow of the Stratbase ADR Institute and Convenor of CitizenWatch Philippines Since the first quarter of this year, the Luzon grid has been dealing with continuous thinning or zero reserves, prompting the raising of yellow and red alerts. A “yellow alert” is issued by the National Grid Corporation of… Read More

Risk and uncertainty of ‘Build, Build, Build’ program

Edwin Santiago, Executive Director of the Stratbase ADR Institute For many years, the state of infrastructure development in the Philippines has been described as pitiful—generally, inhibited by government underspending, hampered by inefficiency and sub-optimal absorptive capacity, bogged down by politics and patronage, and riddled with corruption. The gold standard for infrastructure spending is widely-accepted to… Read More

Stratbase ADR Institute’s First Quarter 2019 SPARK: “The 2019 Elections: Democracy, Dutertismo, and the Battle for Succession”

We are pleased to share with you our first quarter SPARK paper, entitled “The 2019 Elections: Democracy, Dutertismo, and the Battle for Succession,” written by Richard Javad Heydarian, a Non-Resident fellow at Stratbase ADR Institute. His paper discusses the dynamics and relevance of the Philippine 2019 midterm elections given the intensified structural transition both internal… Read More

Infrastructure maintenance matters too

Edwin Santiago, Executive Director of the Stratbase ADR Institute There is so much attention and discussion on the “Build, Build, Build” program of the Duterte administration. On one side, you have his drumbeaters extolling this administration’s infrastructure spending, presenting numbers that show that the country never had it this good. On the other hand, critics… Read More