The COVID-19 pandemic has not only strained the public health care system; it also impeded economic activities that eventually led to a contraction in the economy. The case is true in practically all countries around the world. On the other hand, the situation created a significant improvement in air quality due to reduced movement during… Read More

Terry Ridon, Non-Resident Fellow of Stratbase ADR Institute and Convenor of InfraWatch PH In a recent speech, President Rodrigo Duterte declared that face-to-face classes will be suspended until a vaccine for the coronavirus disease 2019 has been found. As a result, the country’s educational system, from basic to higher education, finds itself abruptly shifting to… Read More

Paco A. Pangalangan, Executive Director, Stratbase ADR Institute It is interesting how deeply infused technology is with shifts in Philippine political and social landscapes. In 1986, Radio Veritas’ broadcast played a pivotal role in gathering protesters on EDSA and bringing an end to the Marcos dictatorship. In 2001, it was text brigades that gathered people… Read More

Dr. Renato de Castro, Trustee and Convenor of the National Security and East Asian Affairs Program, Stratbase ADR Institute One year ago, at midnight of June 9, 2019, a Chinese fishing vessel suddenly rammed and sank a wooden Filipino fishing boat, the F/B Gim Vir 1, which was anchored at the Reed Bank. The captain… Read More

Dr. Renato de Castro, Trustee and Convenor of the National Security and East Asian Affairs Program, Stratbase ADR Institute On June 2, 2020, Philippine television channels aired the breaking news Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. announcing that the government has suspended the Philippine-U.S. Visiting Force Agreement’s (VFA) termination “in the light of “the… Read More

Dindo Manhit, President, Stratbase ADR Institute The world continues to struggle with how to contain the transmission and mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 416,000 people worldwide are reported to have died from COVID-19, and more than 7.3 million confirmed positive cases have been recorded so far. World Health Organization (WHO) officials… Read More

Paco A. Pangalangan, Executive Director, Stratbase ADR Institute Last week I saw a video circulating on Facebook of a bicycle shop owner giving a teary-eyed street vendor his dream bicycle after noticing that the man had been coming into the shop week after week just to ask about it. Last month, I read about a… Read More