Trend Intel: Chinese microdramas have Filipinos in a chokehold – are you watching?

What drives Filipinos’ consumption of these bite-sized and often emotionally exaggerated shows?

ASEAN’s pivot towards renewable energy

ASEAN has emerged as a dynamic economic region, supported by regional cooperation, expanding markets and population growth.

TROUBLING TANDEM

Bruno Mars

I take a respite from toxic impeachment and adopt the following column of my lawyer-daughter Ivy as my column:

The private capital challenge in development

THIS weekend, the heads of most of the world’s major multilateral development banks (MDBs) are meeting at the Asian Development Bank here in Manila, following the World Bank Group-International Monetary Fund annual…

The links that feed a nation

Pinggang Pinoy is a healthy plate. A cup of rice with a piece of grilled bangus alongside a generous serving of pinakbet, a bowl of monggo with malunggay and a banana to finish. Mostly vegetables and fruit, with just…

The Ombudsman may be building its own defeat

A PLUNDER charge is grave, so prosecutors must prove it carefully. In the case over P75 million in campaign donations to Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, the Ombudsman must show more than a large transfer or irregular…

UPLB takes the lead in sustainable and inclusive mobility

The UP Los Baños campus has always been an oasis for nature lovers, students and those seeking clean air away from the polluted, congested metropolis.

From pixel to paper

Last of two parts WRITING in the classroom is making thinking visible. It matters because it turns assessment into observation. When students write outside supervision, the process is hidden: The teacher sees the final…

Asean coffee cooperation

While it is still coffee month which is October as declared by the late president Fidel V. Ramos in 1997, we now turn our focus on ASEAN coffee.

Ghost of Impeachment Past

THE curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Alan Peter, starting up into a half-recumbent posture, found himself face-to-face with the unearthly visitor. “Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?”…

$1:P63.06

Our currency is depreciating faster than the President’s job approval ratings are declining. The two are not unrelated.

US set to dismantle the ICC

THE United States escalated its sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) this month, from those directed against court officials to ones directed at the institution itself, US Secretary of State Marco…

EDITORIAL — Incestuous embrace

Former Pampanga Third District congressman Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales was charged before the Sandiganbayan yesterday with three counts of graft related to the award of flood control projects worth nearly P611.6 million to…

Go buy pails — a dismal governance advice

ON Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said this during a media interview in Singapore: “Bumili na kayo ng balde para ‘pag umulan, makokolekta na ninyo lahat (Buy pails/buckets already so that when it…

How can PH not be Ukraine in US-China rivalry?

First of two parts OCT. 2, 2026, was the day Dr. Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean diplomat and scholar, delivered a lecture, “Colloquies in Social Sciences: US-China Rivalry,” at the Leong Hall Auditorium of the Ateneo…

Duterte impeachment trial: Where the prosecution gets to throw the punches and the defense is told to keep quiet

THERE is something profoundly disturbing about an impeachment trial where the prosecution parades accusations against the Vice President Sara Duterte before the nation, subjects her to months of public condemnation, and…

Segregate at source: Political waste management 101

First of two parts CAN anything good come out of the Senate impeachment court? Some say the hearing it conducts to try the case against Vice President Sara Duterte is costly and a waste of public resources. The point is…

The Houthis’ varied arsenal used to strike Saudi Arabia

PARIS — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have built up a missile and drone arsenal that gives them varied and sustained strike capabilities, as Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government it sponsors are finding out. Since early…