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SPECIAL REPORT: By the time PAGASA sounded the alarm, Manila’s students were already in schools
A closer look at why the rainfall warning came late, and why classes couldn’t have been suspended sooner There were no rainfall warnings hanging over Metro Manila in the early hours of Wednesday, September 9, even as clouds gathered thick and low across the region overnight. Then, without a single…
Does Metro Manila need a Governor?
Flood, garbage, and fragmented power have pushed the capital region to the breaking point, says lawmaker Metro Manila is a megacity of 13 million people at night and 15 to 16 million during the day, and for decades, not one person has been fully in charge of it. That is the central argument…
Marcos administration secures €60M EU Green Economy Program grant for circular economy, climate action
The Marcos administration has secured a €60 million grant from the European Commission under the Green Economy Programme for the Philippines, covering circular economy, waste and plastic reduction, renewable energy, and climate change mitigation—one of the major international environmental…
Teacher Mariane waited 27 years for her first promotion: Solo parent teacher’s story puts a human face on BBM’s education reform
For 27 years, Teacher Mariane Luchavez stayed at Teacher I—not because she lacked the talent or the will to advance, but because life demanded she choose between her own professional growth and the future of her three children. Luchavez, a public school teacher in Valenzuela City who has been…
No administration ever did this before: Marcos launches PH’s first-ever anti-hunger program
For the first time in Philippine history, the national government has launched a comprehensive program designed specifically to eliminate hunger, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said Saturday, July 25. Because hunger is the most severe form of poverty, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s…
36 years after the 1990 Luzon earthquake, the Philippines is still trying to learn the same lessons
Thirty-six years ago today, the ground beneath northern and central Luzon shook with a violence Filipinos of that generation have never forgotten. At exactly 4:26 in the afternoon of July 16, 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck—the strongest and most destructive to hit the Philippines in two…
DZRH at 87: The station that gave Cesar Chavez everything—including the nerve to walk into sniper fire
In December 1989, a young radio reporter walked alone down the entire length of Connecticut Street in Quezon City, reporting live under the crosshairs of rebel snipers during the bloodiest coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino. His name was Cesar Chavez, and the station that sent him there…
How the DOJ under the Marcos Jr. administration is overhauling the PH corrections system
For years, the Philippine corrections system was synonymous with overcrowding, poor food, paper records that went missing, and persons deprived of liberty who waited far too long for releases they were legally entitled to, a system that punished people not just with imprisonment but with…
Stronger justice from the ground up: How the DOJ is building the prosecution service the Philippines has needed for decades
For years, the Philippine justice system operated with too few prosecutors, too little training, and offices that barely reached beyond Manila, a combination that left millions of Filipinos, especially those in the provinces, waiting years for cases to move and justice to arrive. Under the Marcos…
DOJ ends decades-old practice that weaponized the justice system against ordinary Filipinos
For decades, a destructive practice haunted Philippine courtrooms and police precincts: cases were filed first, and evidence was gathered later, a pattern that allowed the powerful to harass the powerless, pile up cases that would never succeed, and turn the justice system into a tool of…
Is there still hope against climate change? Filipino scientist warns window for action is already narrowing
The world has not yet reached the point of no return on climate change, but the window for meaningful action is narrowing with every passing year, Filipino physicist and Manila Observatory Executive Director Fr. Jose Ramon “Jett” Villarin said Saturday, offering a message of cautious hope nearly…
How Ariel Nepomuceno is taking on corruption, patronage, and resistance at the Customs bureau
When Ariel Nepomuceno took over the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in July last year, he knew what he was walking into. The bureau had long carried a reputation for corruption so entrenched that even the mention of reform invited skepticism. His response was immediate—and deliberate. “‘Yung mga ayaw…
DOST chief to households, farmers, LGUs: here’s how to get ahead of El Niño
With an intensifying El Niño forecast to grip most of the Philippines by the last quarter of 2026, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is urging communities not to wait—laying out a practical set of low-cost interventions that households, farmers, and local governments can begin acting…
What you need to know about HIV: transmission, prevention, and where to get tested
The Philippine National AIDS Council is urging every Filipino to arm themselves with accurate information about HIV, as new data shows the country’s epidemic is accelerating at an alarming pace. HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, was first discovered in 1981 and the Philippines recorded its…
Gringo Honasan: Fidel Ramos is the gold standard of Filipino leadership, and the country needs that model now
In the middle of one of the most turbulent weeks in recent Philippine political history, former Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan reached back four decades to find the model of leadership the country needs right now—and the name he came up was a former president who once spent two hours over…