[Vantage Point] Inside the addictive architecture of the AI microdrama

Microdramas introduce an ingenious twist to the familiar psychology of the infinite scroll: monetize the cliffhanger.

UNTOUCHABLE

Sara’s dirty money

Amid seeming boredom among the populace and among the hard-working judges of the 20-senator Senate impeachment court, the trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte has entered its most crucial chapter.

Mother tongue education matters

UNDERSTANDING a lesson can become harder when students are also trying to understand the language being used to teach it. This is the gist of a new policy note from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies…

Who should be the next president of the Philippines?

On Aug. 20, 2025, the President of the Philippines stood on a riverbank in Barangay Piel, Baliwag, Bulacan.

How Trillanes withdrawal may have backfired

THOSE who may have wanted former senator Antonio Trillanes IV kept away from the Senate witness stand should reconsider what they have accomplished. His withdrawal from the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara…

No Filipino without them

Based on United Nations estimates, there are almost 500 million Indigenous Peoples across the globe, spread out across almost a hundred nations.

No to lipstick on this pig

First Word WITH the final curtain rung down on the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, and the national sports delegations now on their way home, the squeeze is on to massage a disappointing Filipino performance at the…

Super El Niño, super trouble

The thermometer reads 30 degrees Celsius as I write this but it feels way hotter than any measuring tool can calculate – scorching, dry and furnace-like.

When loyalty collides with evidence

IN the midst of the political maelstrom stirred by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, perhaps it’s time to press the pause button and take a deep breath. To be clear, this is not a plea to evade the issues. Serious…

Allegations

We are in a strange season.

Selling hopes

THERE are a couple of interesting things happening this week, including the Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) being held at the Philippine International Convention Center on Wednesday and Thursday, and the…

EDITORIAL - No absolute bank secrecy

The spirited effort to stop the testimony yesterday of the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council during the impeachment trial highlights the need to ease bank secrecy laws.

The 14th vote

THE prosecution’s decisive challenge is no longer merely reaching a legal threshold of 14 votes; it is making conviction politically defensible to senators whose judgment will turn on both the evidence and public…

The not so lost years

First of two parts THERE is a dearth of detail on the life of the Brains of the Katipunan Emilio Jacinto after his leader, friend and mentor Andres Bonifacio’s death on May 10, 1897. But he left papers that give us an…

Our tragic affair with our town’s water canals

UP to the 1980s, I still fondly remember the times when our band of boys would reconnoiter the water canals of our town in Padre Garcia, Batangas. We considered those canals as part of our childhood adventures. Yes, the…

‘Super El Niño’ as national crisis and its impact on 2028 elections

PAGASA has warned of an intensifying Super El Niño, which could persist from October 2026 and peak toward the first quarter of 2027. It is described as an exceptional warming of sea surface temperatures to almost 2…

An opportunity for Tulfo to lead on land use

THE Senate has an opportunity to finally move forward on a national land use policy that the Philippines has discussed for far too long. Sen. Raffy Tulfo, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural…