Water You Up To, Mr. President?

December 13, 2019

FEATURES

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is posturing against oligarchs again. This time, the tough talk is against corporate water giants Manila Water and Maynilad. It is a popular and justified stance – the firms make billions of pesos every year while consumers suffer expensive water and incomplete services.

Attacks on Civil Society, M&E, and Democracy

November 25, 2019

In governance today and in our M&E ecosystems, our biggest challenge is increasing official hostility to diversity.

Counterproductive Counterinsurgency

November 17, 2019

BY SONNY AFRICA

Development policymaking is hard enough as it is – the Philippines after so many decades of so many development plans is a case in point. Now the military wants to take that over as well?

Solving the NCR mass transport crisis

October 28, 2019

The mass transport crisis is real. Millions of commuters in the National Capital Region (NCR) suffer inconvenient and inefficient travel every day. Average commuting time was around 37 minutes in 1980 and 51 minutes in 1996, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). A survey by commuter group Komyut reported this rising to as […]

Global crisis even less reason for charter change

September 28, 2019

The Duterte government argues that the protections for the economy in the 1987 Constitution are outdated, and that removing them will increase foreign direct investment (FDI) and improve competitiveness. This is however oblivious to the reality of growing protectionism worldwide amid slowing growth, trade and investment. Adverse global economic conditions undermine the arguments for economic […]

21st Century Neoliberal Authoritarianism for Whom?

September 12, 2019

(Statement for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Inquiry on “The Current Situation Impacting on the Work, Safety, and Security of Human Rights Defenders in the Philippines” delivered on September 11, 2019) IBON Foundation was set up in 1978 and is in its 41st year of service to the Filipino people. We are a small […]