Philippines

class=”MuiTypography-root-142 MuiTypography-h1-147″>A rare murder conviction in the Philippines reveals a 'broken' justice system

Since former President Rordrigo Duterte launched his so-called “war on drugs” in 2016, convictions of law enforcement officers have been rare. But the recent murder conviction of former police officer Jeffrey Perez shows signs of justice and accountability in the overburdened courts.

The WorldMarch 21, 2023 · 3:30 PM EDT

• By Ashley Westerman

Men place their hands over their heads as they are rounded up during a continuing "war on drugs" police campaign of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila, Philippines, Oct. 7, 2016. 

Aaron Favila/File/AP

A Philippine court has found a former police officer guilty of murdering two teenagers in connection with the country’s so-called “war on drugs.”

Former Caloocan policeman Jeffrey Perez faces up to 40 years in prison without parole for the killings of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz, and 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, in 2017, according to court documents made public on March 13. 

Perez has also been ordered to pay the families a total of nearly $13,000 in civil damages. 

Since former President Rordrigo Duterte launched the anti-drug campaign in 2016, convictions of law enforcement officers have been rare.

The former cop was already serving jail time for another conviction related to the same murders. In November 2022, Perez was also found guilty of torturing and hiding evidence of the murders. 

Still, it took five years for the case to work its way through the courts after charges against Perez and another former policeman, who died in prison in 2019, were initially filed in 2018.

Carlos Conde, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch in Manila, said that while this latest verdict is very welcome, it shows how broken the Philippines justice system really is. 

“Because this is just the second conviction for murder in a drug war case out of the thousands, probably tens of thousands of similar cases, that occurred since 2016,” he said. “The fight for accountability has barely begun.”

An overburdened justice system

It wasn’t until two years into former President Duterte’s so-called “war on drugs” that the first murder conviction was handed down.

In November 2018, three former police officers were found guilty of shooting and killing 17-year-old Kian delos Santos during a drug raid the year before. 

Witnesses and CCTV played a crucial role in both cases, human rights lawyer Maria Sol Taule said. 

“In the Philippines, you have to have hard evidence, meaning physical evidence, like videos, CCTV recordings, documentary evidence and you don't have that, it's like a ‘he said, she-said’ thing.”

Both of these murder cases also got a lot of media coverage, which helped them, Taule said. 

“But many, many victims were not covered by the mainstream media and so, you know, they end up statistics of victims of the drug war,” she said. 

In this Aug. 21, 2017, file photo, protesters display placards and light candles outside the wake for slain Kian Loyd Delos Santos, a 17-year-old Grade 11 student, who was killed in a shootout with police, following a march in suburban Caloocan city north of Manila, Philippines. 

Credit:

Bullit Marquez/AP/File

Government officials say only a little over 6,200 people have died in anti-drug operations since the drug war began in 2016. But rights groups, such as CenterLaw Philippines, estimate that number could be three times higher with most of these killings being extrajudicial — committed by vigilante groups or police officers themselves.

Human rights experts also say most of the victims are poor, low-level drug pushers at best and some, like Kian delos Santos, were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Meanwhile, Taule said families are usually hesitant to pursue justice because these trials are so stigmatized and can also be lengthy and expensive. 

“Because if you let the public prosecutors handle it, they're already overburdened,” she said. 

“So you want to have a competent and focused legal counsel, that means you have to hire private counsel, it's expensive.”

The Philippine justice system is plagued by other problems, she said, including a lack of public defenders. 

According to the Philippine Collegian, the student-run newspaper at the University of the Philippines Diliman, the 2,400 public defendants of the Public Attorney’s Office must juggle 816,000 cases nationwide per year. That’s an average of 340 cases per public defender. 

Meanwhile, Taule said there is also a lack of available forensic scientists and doctors to perform autopsies. There are only two forensic pathologists in all of the Philippines, and one is nearing retirement age. 

“We have really overburdened courts because of the drug war, which means that cases are really slow, at a snail’s pace every time,” Taule said. “It’s really hard for us.”

‘It has to go deep’

Rev. Flaviano “Flavie” Villanueva, a missionary with the Society of the Divine Word in Manila, said there is also a lack of political will to bring convictions. 

“How do you prosecute the criminals if they are the police themselves?” asked Villanueva, who has worked with drug war victims’ families.

His Catholic nonprofit Program Paghilom has helped the widows and orphans of drug war victims with everything from food assistance to counseling for years.

Villanueva said prosecutions should not stop at low-level cops — should go much higher, all the way to Duterte himself. 

“It has to go deep or even high up to the author of the killings themselves,” he said. 

“If they will not be investigated, then we're just putting up a show here and are missing out on the core people who architected all this.”

But prosecutions of such high-up officials would need to happen though the international justice system, he said.

Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court announced it was resuming its investigation into alleged atrocities connected to the ongoing drug war. The initial probe was put on hold in 2021, as the former Duterte administration sought to conduct its own investigation. But the ICC said the former government has come up short of convincing them that an outside investigation wasn’t needed.

However, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has made it clear that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines and has vowed to not cooperate with any investigation.

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class=”MuiTypography-root-142 MuiTypography-h1-147″>Record-breaking inflation rates in the Philippines are pushing people to take on extra jobs

The Philippines' inflation rate hit a new 14-year high in January, putting a damper on what economists had previously hoped would be a leveling-off in 2023. And it's forced many people to look for extra work to support their incomes.

The WorldFebruary 10, 2023 · 2:15 PM EST

• By Ashley Westerman

A worker fills up a plastic container with gasoline at a gas station in Pasay, Philippines, Oct. 11, 2022. Many Filipino drivers complain that inflation, and especially the rising price of diesel, is forcing them to work more to get by.

Aaron Favila/AP/File photo

Inflation in the Philippines hit a new 14-year high at 8.7% in January, fueled by rising food, housing and utility costs, according to the latest government numbers released this week.

The latest rate surpasses the country’s previous record of 8.1% recorded in December, according to the Philippines Statistics Authority on Tuesday, and it puts a damper on what economists had previously hoped would be a leveling-off of inflation in 2023.

The high inflation rate is also throwing water on another indicator that the country should be celebrating — the Philippines’ lowest unemployment rate since before the COVID-19 pandemic — by creating a situation where people don’t feel like they’re making enough at their current jobs.

“Having one job really isn’t enough, especially in this economy, so we have to make ends meet,” Joy Cruz, 25, of the Metro Manila area said.

Even though she has a full-time job as a 3D artist for a global retailer, Cruz also has a freelancing job on the side, making her one of the thousands of Filipinos taking on extra work to make more money. 

After working her regular 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift, during which she makes roughly $700 per month, Cruz said she then goes to work on her side job — where she makes about another $500 per month.

“It’s either I don’t have sleep, or I don’t have extra funds,” said Cruz, who lives by herself and likes to spend her money on weekends going out and recharging with friends. We aren’t using her full name because her full-time employer, a global retailer, does not allow moonlighting.

Like much of the world, the Philippines saw inflation rise steadily last year — fueled by, among other things, a combination of lingering pandemic economic woes and a spike in global fuel and food prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“When you think about inflation, it’s a general price increase, so it means that the purchasing power of Filipinos will be lesser.”

Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr., professor, Ateneo de Manila University

“When you think about inflation, it’s a general price increase, so it means that the purchasing power of Filipinos will be lesser,” said Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr., a professor of economics at Ateneo de Manila University.

By mid-2023 the Philippine peso hit its weakest point in 17 years: Nearly 56 pesos to the US dollar and the currency has been hovering around that point ever since.

In order to maintain a certain standard of living, Lanzona said many Filipinos have been looking for more work on top of their regular jobs at an increasing rate for the last 10 months. 

“Underemployment means that you’re currently employed, but you think that the income you’re getting is not enough, because of the quality of work and kinds of wages that you’re getting,” he said.

The Philippine government says the underemployment rate is about 14%, which is three times higher than the 4% unemployment rate.

Because of this discrepancy, Filipinos are actually not better off, Lanzona said. “There’s a lot more precarious jobs, unstable short-term jobs. Mainly because certain types of jobs that used to be available are no longer there.”

Mid-level jobs that pay decently are few and far between in the Philippines, Lanzano said — a long-term problem that the country has been grappling with for decades. This means most of the extra jobs people are taking are low-skilled or in the informal sector, such as freelancing, gig work and the like. 

Epidemiologist Miko Balisi, 33, works between five and seven part-time jobs all at once. Among other jobs, he works at a regular 8 a.m to 5 p.m. job, teaches online for two universities, consults with media doctors on research and rents his property out to visitors in the seaside town of La Union. 

Even though he makes somewhere about $5,000 a month doing all of this, it’s still not enough, because he has to support not only himself, but also his parents and three younger siblings, as well.

“It’s getting harder, like I still have all this income, but it still isn’t enough,” Balisi said, noting that the government has done virtually nothing for the people to help relieve inflation woes.

“Two or three hours [of sleep] is good enough for me because, you know, time is money.”

Related: The return of Chinese tourists restores hope in the Philippines' tourism industry

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Email AddressEmail AddressSubscribeI have read and agree to your Privacy Policy.Related ContentThe return of Chinese tourists restores hope in the Philippines' tourism industryA bakers’ rebellion looms in France to defend baguettesMaine’s lobster industry is still feeling the effects of the trade war with ChinaLost luggage finds a new home at this Spanish nonprofit

class=”MuiTypography-root-142 MuiTypography-h1-147″>The return of Chinese tourists restores hope in the Philippines' tourism industry

When the Chinese government made the decision to relax its pandemic restrictions and allow for travel abroad again, tourism professionals in the Philippines welcomed the news, but concerns linger about the expected increase in mass tourism.

The WorldFebruary 1, 2023 · 11:45 AM EST

• By Ashley Westerman

White Sand beach on Boracay Island, in the Philippines. 

Ashley Westerman Loboda/The World

When the Chinese government earlier this month made the decision to relax its pandemic restrictions and allow for travel abroad again, countries that are heavily dependent on Chinese tourism dollars were immediately buoyed.

In the Philippines, where 12% of the economy is tourism-dependent and Chinese tourists were the second-largest market pre-pandemic, the news came as a relief. 

The arrival of Chinese tourists “will greatly help us in our effort to transform and recover the tourism industry,” Philippine Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco told reporters last week when the first plane of Chinese visitors arrived at the Manila airport.

“Our intention is not only to regain our pre-pandemic numbers, but to exceed it,” she said.

‘We are hoping the Chinese will come’

Tourism workers on Boracay Island, the Philippines’ most popular vacation destination, are working hard to prepare for the influx of travelers this year. 

Known for its glistening white sand beach, gorgeous sunsets and incredible diving, Boracay saw more than 2 million visitors in 2019, according to the government. 

But once the pandemic hit, virtually no one made any money for about two years.

“Maybe we lost, like 80% [of revenue],” Ga Arboleda, manager of DiveGuru’s boutique hotel, restaurant and dive shop said.

She added that once the pandemic took hold, many of her approximately 30 employees wanted to go back to the mainland. So for nearly two years, only she, her husband, their daughter and a couple of other employees ran the business, which barely survived, thanks to the few tourists stranded on Boracay, a special permit they received from the government to stay open and some one-off contracts to teach diving lessons.

“In 2020, we are already happy to get like 500 tourists in Boracay every month,” she said. “It just started to pick up again in the last part of 2021.”

Ga Arboleda, manager of DiveGuru’s boutique hotel, restaurant and dive shop.

Credit:

Ashley Westerman Loboda/The World

That’s when Filipinos started traveling domestically again. The Philippine tourism industry is primarily fueled by domestic travelers, so once the country started loosening its harsh pandemic restrictions, experts say people launched into revenge travel mode after being cooped up for nearly two years.

In 2022, the Philippine government allowed foreign visitors back into the country and things improved further for the badly battered sector. The provincial government reports that tourism in the Philippines in Aklan Province jumped over 400% between 2021 and 2022.

Arboleda has high hopes for this year. “[From] the tourism point of view, we are hoping the Chinese will come.”

Chinese mass tourism 

Phoebe Areno, a tourism official with Aklan Province, said tourism in the region is projected to grow more than 100% in 2023. Between Jan. 1 to Jan. 22 of this year alone, she said, over 125,000 tourists have arrived with a little more than 28% from abroad.

“We are assuming that in the first quarter we are going to receive flights coming in from mainland China,” she said.

Max Cawed gives a diving lesson.

Credit:

Ashley Westerman Loboda/The World 

The Philippines is banking on Chinese visitors so much that a tourism deal to boost relations with China was signed when the Philippines President Bongbong Marcos visited Beijing earlier this month.

The pandemic paralyzed the Philippines' burgeoning tourism industry, John Paolo Rivera, the associate director of the Andrew Tan Center for Tourism at the Asian Institute of Management, said. “Because of it, revenues were almost zero.”

So, the potential of Chinese tourists to the Philippines cannot be undermined, he said — and this has specifically to do with the way Chinese tourists travel.

“They go by mass tourism. A huge, huge amount of tourists, and they come by buses, in ships, in planes,” Rivera said.

“But then they're also characterized as tourists who absolutely spend [a lot] whenever they go to a country, because they spend so much on entertainment and luxury items.”

Pre-pandemic, Chinese tourists racked up some $255 billion in spending and accounted for almost 20% of tourists globally, according to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization. For Southeast Asia, especially, data for 2019 shows that before the pandemic, Chinese tourists were the leading source of foreign travelers for the region — making up about a quarter of all tourists.

“So, the arrival of the Chinese, yes, it gives hope,” he said.

COVID concerns

Still, Rivera and other experts say the Philippines should be cautious of the impact an increase in foreign tourists will inevitably have — particularly when it comes to the environment and the ongoing pandemic. 

Dive shop manager Ga Arboleda laughed nervously when asked if she had any concerns about the expected increase in travelers.

“Well, because we don’t know [if] that virus, again, will arrive if we open the border already to all the people,” she said.

“I’m also thinking about what will happen if we get a new variant and then the vaccine we have will not shield us from that kind of variant.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the Philippines has logged more than 4 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 66,000 people have died. In preparation for more travelers from China this year, the Department of Health has called for “heightened surveillance” of visitors from there.

Still, only proof of vaccination is required upon arrival in the Philippines for foreign travelers, or a negative COVID-19 test if the traveler is unvaccinated. And even though almost 94% of Filipinos are vaccinated, health experts say, with new variants of the coronavirus on the horizon, more booster shots are still needed.

Trying to make a living and keep her beloved employees safe and healthy is a difficult balance act, said Arboleda, who arranged last week for all of her employees to get their second booster shots. 

“Most of our employees are two years or up to 21 years with us, so we really treat each other as a family,” she said.

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class=”MuiTypography-root-126 MuiTypography-h1-131″>A member of the Marcos family is returning to power — here’s what it means for democracy in the Philippines

The son of the Philippines brutal dictator Ferdinand Marcos has won election to the presidency, showing how wedded the country is to dynastic politics — and image manipulation.

The ConversationMay 13, 2022 · 3:30 PM EDT

• By Adrian De Leon

Politics is the Marcos family business.

Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Some 36 years after the People Power Revolution restored democracy to the Philippines, a member of perhaps the most brutal and corrupt political dynasties in the nation’s memory is set to return to the Philippine presidency.

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., has won the presidential election, according to preliminary results. It will return him to the Malacañang Palace where he lived as a child and from which his parents fled in 1986. His running mate, Sara Duterte, the daughter of current President Rodrigo Duterte, is also set to win the vice presidency by a landslide.

Like father, like son?

Credit:

Alex Bowie/Getty Images

Both candidates hail from political dynasties with long histories of abuses of power. The human rights offenses of the first Marcos regime, from 1965 to 1986, are well documented, involving an estimated 3,257 deaths and over 50,000 victims who were tortured and detained during the martial law period alone. Also well documented is the estimated US$10 billion Marcos plundered.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Duterte administration is notorious for its so-called “war on drugs,” during which his infamous death squads killed more than 6,200 as of 2022.

The election has been mired in tax scandals, bureaucratic corruption and voter suppression.

But despite these scandals both past and present, dynastic families remain in full force in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

As a scholar of Philippine history, I know this “rule by dynasty” dates from the days of American colonial rule. But it has been enhanced by a more modern curse: media manipulation and disinformation.

The political economy of dynasties

The tenacity of political dynasties of all political orientations to outlast the Philippines’ halted revolutions — both in 1986 and a later uprising in 2001 — shows that popular mobilization did not lead to a more democratic government.

The late political scientist Benedict Anderson famously called the Philippines a “cacique democracy” — a fusion of popular electoral power and feudal, dynastic rule.

While landowning elites existed during the 19th century, this “cacique democracy” – cacique referring to local political bosses in Latin American countries — developed during the American colonial rule of the Philippines between 1898 and 1942. The aim was to cultivate an Indigenous leadership that could collaborate with American colonial rule.

To establish loyal allies among the local population, the U.S. expropriated 400,000 acres owned by the Catholic Church between 1898 and 1941 and auctioned it to landowners and economic elites. These same leaders, bolstered by their consolidated agricultural economic base, formed a new political class in Manila, as they participated in the new legislature of the colony.

With their wealth and political influence strengthened under American occupation, these ruling families held disproportionate sway over the development of the fledgling nation following independence in 1946.

These “caciques,” or native feudal lords, went on to become the ruling class of today. The Marcos family is descended from regional landowners in Ilocos Norte, in the north of Luzon, the Philippines’ most populous island. But unlike his forebears, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. rose from regional leader to national prominence, first as the president of the Philippine Senate in 1959, then as national president in 1965. Through his own charisma — and the popularity of his wife, Imelda Romualdez Marcos — the family consolidated their political base.

At the opposite end of the political spectrum are the Aquino family, hailing from a clan of elite landowners in Central Luzon, whose patriarch was one of the original members of the republican government formed after the 1896 Philippine Revolution. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., a senator and outspoken Marcos critic, was assassinated in 1983. His wife, Corazon Aquino, was elected on the back of the mass fervor of the 1986 Revolution, and later their son reached the presidency.

Dynasties have long dominated Philippines politics. But the fact that the Marcos name not only survived the overthrow of its patriarch but managed to become rehabilitated in the following decades hints at the tenacity of dynastic politics in the Philippines.

Media and disinformation

Despotic power cannot be shored up by birthright claims alone. So it is no coincidence that the return of the Marcos family has coincided with large-scale attacks against journalism, waged by the national executive and its allies.

In 2022, the Philippines was ranked by Reporters Without Borders 147th out of 180 countries for press freedom. This is a stark contrast to the period before the election of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1965, when the country’s press was considered the most free in Asia.

During the six years of Duterte’s rule since 2016, the president developed a reputation as someone who used social media disinformation — especially via Facebook — to cultivate support for his brutal “war on drugs.” At the same time he frequently attacked the work of journalists and critics of his regime.

Duterte made a deliberate attempt to undermine the free press. In December 2020, after months of systematic targeting by President Duterte, the Philippine Congress voted to shut down ABS-CBN — the country’s largest broadcasting network.

The Philippines remains one of the most dangerous places for reporters. As recently as December 2021, journalist Jesus Malabanan was shot by gunmen in his own home. Malabanan, a well-respected reporter who worked on Reuters’ coverage of the Philippine drug war, was the 22nd journalist murdered during the Duterte regime.

The weakening and intimidation of independent journalism and media paved the way for disinformation to flourish.

Bongbong Marcos’ presidential run has been widely criticized for media manipulation. And disinformation has been central to the shift in public opinion toward the family.

In 2019, Rappler, the independent news website founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa, ran a three-part investigation that revealed the extent to which Marcos deployed digital propaganda to propel himself into public favor through the use of disinformation spread on other social media platforms, and through various fan pages and other viral content. The first Marcos regime was recast in misleading propaganda that portrayed the era as a time of progress while denying its human rights abuses.

And in 2020, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Barbara Kaiser alleged that Marcos had reached out to the firm – known for its harvesting of Facebook users’ data for political campaigns – in an effort to further bolster his family’s image. The Marcos campaign denies this connection.

Never again?

The election of Bongbong Marcos comes close to 50 years after his father declared martial law, on Sept. 23, 1972.

That original Marcos era — with its extrajudicial killings and rampant corruption — has been subjected to revisionism, with many Filipinos looking back at the Marcos years as a time of stability and growth while ignoring the abuses. The $10 billion plundered by the Marcoses — which once dominated headlines — gets talked about less. Imelda Marcos, herself a notorious kleptocrat, has been transformed into an object of fascination.

Meanwhile the voices of survivors of the martial law era and the activists who oppose authoritarian rule have grown less effective in the face of President Duterte’s popularity. Their message of “never again” failed to disrupt the Marcos family return to power.

In 2018, on the 35th anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, Imee Marcos – Bongbong’s sister – stated that “the millennials have moved on [from Ferdinand Marcos’ history], and I think people at my age should move on as well.”

The electoral victory of her brother seems to have have proved Imee Marcos correct.

Adrian De Leon is assistant professor of American studies and ethnicity at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing the expertise of academia with the public, under a Creative Commons license.

class=”MuiTypography-root-134 MuiTypography-h1-139″>Candidates go ‘green’ on the campaign trail for Philippines national election

Climate change is taking center stage on the campaign trail in the Philippines as candidates talk about renewable energy more than ever before.

The WorldMarch 22, 2022 · 1:30 PM EDT

• By Ashley Westerman

Boxing legend and presidential candidate, senator Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao greets the crowd in Pasay city, Philippines, March 14, 2022. 

Aaron Favila/AP/File photo

Climate change is taking center stage on the campaign trail leading up to the Philippines’ national elections.

Candidates are talking about renewable energy more than ever before, filling activists with hope that the next administration will finally make climate change a mainstream issue.

“I think, probably for the first time, energy is getting the attention it deserves."

Albert Dalusong III, energy transition adviser, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, Manila, Philippines

“I think, probably for the first time, energy is getting the attention it deserves,'' said Albert Dalusong III, the energy transition adviser at the Manila-based think tank Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. 

He points to a recent commercial issued by presidential frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, featuring a model wind turbine.

It’s a symbol that declares, “I’m for clean energy,” Dalusong said.

Related: The dramatic jingles of election season in the Philippines

Since campaign season officially began in February, even longshot candidates such as Manny Pacquiao, Panfilo “Ping” Locson and Leody de Guzman are addressing climate change and renewable energy in stump speeches and media interviews.

Intense typhoons have brought the public’s attention to the impact of climate change in the Philippines, Dusulong said. But a diminishing water supply is also a concern, due partly to drought.

Related: Campaign season in the Philippines ramps up 

A boy sits beside water containers as residents line up for water as pipelines and electricity were damaged due to Typhoon Rai in Cebu province, central Philippines on Monday Dec. 20, 2021. 

Credit:

Jay Labra/AP

Electricity usage is also skyrocketing as global temperatures increase, creating high demand for air conditioning. In February, Dalusong’s office released a report that warned that the electric grid may not hold up during the hottest months this year.

“And if the administration cannot deliver basic services, there’s a problem. It’s a direct impact on the people,” he said.

Right now, 40% of the Philippines’ electricity comes from coal — the dirtiest fuel — mostly imported from Indonesia. In 2020, the Philippines announced a moratorium on any new coal-fired power plants, but energy companies continue to lobby for coal to burn in their plants. They say coal is still the cheapest and most reliable fuel available, Dalusong said. 

Related: Indonesia poised to ease export ban on thermal coal

But that’s not always the case, because coal-fired power plants are known to ratchet their power outputs up and down based on power demand and coal supply, he explained.

“In fact, it is so unreliable that I’m calling it intermittent because the power plants shut down randomly,” he said. “Now that, to me, is intermittent.”

The World reached out to all five major power companies in the Philippines about Dalusong’s recent report — two responded.

An AboitizPower spokesperson said via email that the company plans to meet the Philippines’ power needs “throughout the forecasted peak demand period this summer.” AboitizPower invests in renewable power sources such as solar, geothermal and hydro, and is the largest owner and operator of renewable energy power generation in the Philippines, based on installed capacity, according to the email.

Adding additional renewable energy options to the mix will allow for more flexibility for power companies, Dalusong said. And more renewable energy options will also help create more jobs.

Wind farms need a lot of employees because turbines require a high level of maintenance; biomass fuel sites also require a large number of workers to harvest and plant; even hydroelectricity outfits need employees dedicated to protecting the watersheds.

“There are more jobs in renewables, primarily because they are smaller in scale and more distributed,” Dalusong said.

Many presidential candidates are plugging sustainable development and renewable energy, but most still fall a bit short on policy specifics.

Related: A star-studded list of candidates files for president in the Philippines

But even a conversation on green jobs has climate activists excited, such as Joshua Villalobos, co-founder of the group Youth for Climate Hope. He notes that current Vice President Leni Robredo’s 5-point labor plan includes adding more green jobs.

“I love that, because climate jobs was not discussed, I think, even in the past year, so it’s very important that she raised that,” he said.

Incumbent vice president and presidential hopeful Leni Robredo gestures during an event in Manila, Philippines on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. 

Credit:

Aaron Favila/AP

A renewable energy market already exists in the Philippines with about 24% of its energy coming from renewables. The current government has committed to boosting that number to 35% by 2030.

Companies like Philergy, a German-Filipino solar company, can help the country get there.

Established in 2011, Philergy’s founder Jochen Staudter said he saw massive market potential when he first came from Germany to the Philippines. The tropical country with lots of natural sunlight also has some of the highest electricity rates in Southeast Asia.

“The fact that we often use aircon, especially when we are in an urban area like Metro Manila, makes the electric bills extremely high. … Coming from Germany, where nearly everyone has solar, I did not understand why it was not leveraged.”

Jochen Staudter, founder, Philergy solar company

“The fact that we often use aircon, especially when we are in an urban area like Metro Manila, makes the electric bills extremely high,” Staudter said. “Coming from Germany, where nearly everyone has solar, I did not understand why it was not leveraged.”

Workers install solar equipment with Philergy, a German-Filipino solar company. The founder saw huge potential for solar in the tropical country that has lots of natural sunlight and also some of the highest electricity rates in Southeast Asia. 

Credit:

Ashley Westerman/The World

Philergy is now a leading solar company in the Philippines, working with both residential and commercial clients.

Staudter said he likes presidential candidate Leni Robredo’s call to prioritize domestic and renewable power sources as part of a roadmap to turn the Philippines carbon neutral. The plan goes well with a rapidly expanding renewable energy market.

“The market is very, very, very colorful and very volatile, but in a positive way,” Staudter said, noting that solar is the only electricity source in the last five years to multiply by 70%.

Still, the switch to solar, for most, is more about cutting costs.

“The major reason is [clients] want to save on electric costs and, of course, there are some who want to, of course, benefit the environment. But the thought of saving is always first,” he said.

That goes a long way on the hottest days when the airconditioning is powered up, he pointed out.

class=”MuiTypography-root-134 MuiTypography-h1-139″>The dramatic jingles of election season in the Philippines

With the upcoming election in May, it can sometimes feel like a “circus” of huge, enthusiastic crowds, awe-inspiring performances and, of course, catchy, upbeat jingles.

The WorldFebruary 23, 2022 · 1:45 PM EST

• By Ashley Westerman

Former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and his team wave Philippine flags on stage during his proclamation rally promoting his presidential bid for the 2022 national elections, at the Philippine Arena, Bulacan province, north of Manila, Philippines, Feb. 8, 2022.

Basilio Sepe/AP/File photo

For decades, campaign jingles have been the soundtrack to elections in the Philippines.

With the upcoming election in May, it can sometimes feel like a “circus” of huge, enthusiastic crowds, awe-inspiring performances and, of course, the upbeat jingles.

The catchy compositions can range from a short 30-second snippet to a full-length song.

Related: Campaign season in the Philippines ramps up

Jingles have been election staples in the Southeast Asian country since the 1950s, when then-presidential candidate Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay ran for president with the “Magsaysay Mambo.”

“['Magsaysay Mambo' is] very catchy — it basically made history."

Krina Cayabyab, composer and assistant professor, University of Philippines College

“It’s very catchy, it basically made history,” said Krina Cayabyab, a composer and assistant professor with the musicology department at the University of Philippines College.

The 1953 jingle, a mash-up of Tagalog and English, tells the story of a disorderly country and calls out the corruption of the then-incumbent president.

“Our democracy will die unless we elect Magsaysay,” the catchy chorus with the mambo beats proclaimed.

“Since that campaign jingle was launched, jingles have been all over the place [over] the following years and decades,” Cayabyab said.

Related: A star-studded list of candidates files for president in the Philippines

What makes a good jingle? 

Nearly every candidate running a national campaign has to have one, said Anton Gabriel Largoza-Maza, a master’s student at the University of the Philippines, who studies campaign jingles.

A successful campaign jingle, he said, involves a catchy tune that is often a parody or directly lifted from a popular song, promotes name recognition of the candidate, and resonates with the constituency either through the candidates’ own stories or through their campaign promises.

There are several good examples from this year's campaign, but the 2010 presidential campaign jingle of candidate Manny Villar stands out, Largoza-Maza said. The “Earworm,” which remains wildly popular to this day, addresses the daily hardships of poverty in the Philippines, like unemployment and living in unhygienic conditions.

In the jingle, Manny Villar promised to be the solution to these problems. Villar, himself, was born into poverty in Tondo, a district of Metro Manila, but is now one of the wealthiest men in the Philippines. 

Villar served as a senator from 2001 to 2013, and also served two years as Senate president.

Related: Philippine president reverses threat to void longstanding defense deal with the US

“That’s one of the things that most candidates hinge on. … They make this image that they’re one with the poor, or they’ve been part of the poorest of the poor.”

Anton Gabriel Largoza-Maza, master’s student who studies campaign jingles, University of the Philippines

“That’s one of the things that most candidates hinge on,” Largoza-Maza said. “They make this image that they’re one with the poor, or they’ve been part of the poorest of the poor.”

Still, a successful campaign jingle doesn’t always translate into guaranteed votes or a winning campaign, he said — but they do “appeal to the musical minds of the Filipino people.”

Music of the moment 

Campaign jingles tend to reflect popular music at any given time.

Just as the mambo beat was popular in the 1950s, candidates are now using more pop, hip-hop and rap elements. This election season presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has even revised the jingle his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, used in the 1970s to make it sound more trendy for today — all while still keeping with the message that a Marcos in power will bring change. 

Singers, songwriters and composers from all over the country work on these jingles. Sometimes they’re paid; sometimes they do it for free for a candidate who has their support. 

Musician Krina Cayabyab just composed her first campaign jingle for senatorial candidate Teddy Baguilat, a representative of Indigenous Filipinos. 

She said she worked to incorporate both northern and southern Indigenous Filipino rhythmic and pitch elements, while also trying to craft a more popular, modern sound. The jingle sings about how Baguilat, an Indigenous local hero, will work for the Filipino people. 

“[Teddy Baguilat's] advocacies include the development of culture, environmental awareness, the rise of the Filipino people. … So, immediately I said, yes, I want to support this candidate.”

Krina Cayabyab, musician and assistant professor, University of Philippines College 

“His advocacies include the development of culture, environmental awareness, the rise of the Filipino people,” she said. “So immediately I said, yes, I want to support this candidate.”

class=”MuiTypography-root-134 MuiTypography-h1-139″>Campaign season in the Philippines ramps up 

The 2022 campaign season in the Philippines officially kicked off on Tuesday with presidential campaign rallies across the country. It’s the start of a 90-day sprint to Election Day on May 9. Ten candidates are running to replace current president Rodrigo Duterte, who is term-limited. 

The WorldFebruary 9, 2022 · 4:00 PM EST

• By Ashley Westerman

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, center, gestures as he greets his supporters during a motorcade promoting his presidential bid in the 2022 national elections in Manila, Philippines, Feb. 8, 2022.

Basilio Sepe/AP

Some 1,000 people turned up in Hero’s Park in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, for Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso’s proclamation rally on Tuesday — the official first day of the 2022 election campaign season.

The former actor-turned politician has attracted attention because of his work and advocacy for the disadvantaged during his brief stint as mayor of Manila. Moreno, who has a rags-to-riches story of his own, has long advocated for more, decent housing and government investing in job creation as solutions to help the urban poor.

Related: Remote learning in the Philippines has no end in sight

Now, Moreno is among the 10 candidates running to replace current President Rodrigo Duterte and one of several who could be considered proxies of the sitting president.

Duterte, who is constitutionally limited to a single, six-year term, has led a tumultuous and unpredictable administration since taking office in 2016. In addition to his deadly yearslong war on drugs, Duterte has also been accused of cozying up to China, mishandling the country’s COVID-19 response and not following through on infrastructure and job-creation promises — all punctuated by crass rape jokes and explicit-filled outbursts that have made him world-famous. 

Filipinos want change

Myres Bandojo, who was waiting for the Moreno rally to begin wearing a shirt that bore the mayor’s image, is someone who can’t wait for change. The middle-aged woman said she likes what he’s done for her hometown, that he works fast and cares about the elderly.

Even though the campaign season just began, Bandojo said her vote “is set” and she is enthusiastic that Moreno has what it takes to bring real change to the Philippines.

Twenty-three-year-old Paul Reyes, who was also attending the rally in Hero’s Park, said that he is interested in what Moreno has to say: “I want to know his platforms in governance, and I just want to make sure that his platforms are suitable to my agenda.”

Reyes said that he wants to see a leader who will stand up to China’s aggression toward the Philippines in the South China Sea.

In 2016, the Philippines won an arbitration case at The Hague after Manila challenged many of Beijing’s claims to islands in the South China Sea. But many Filipinos, including Reyes, criticize Duterte for not taking advantage of that ruling and allowing China to continue to build airstrips and bully fishermen in the disputed waters.

Hours later, Moreno, 47,  told the crowd of enthusiastic rallygoers that he gets things done. His tone was calm, yet inspiring.

“I listen to specialists,” he said. “I listen to good people with good intention … we always come up with a solution.”

Campaign kickoff nationwide

Similar proclamation rallies were held across the country, including in many candidates’ hometowns.

Related: Health care workers in the Philippines reject new COVID-19 rules as 'inhumane'

Opposition leader and current Vice President Leni Robredo, the only woman running for president, kicked off her campaign in her hometown of Naga — a town in Southern Luzon, nearly eight hours east of Metro Manila.

Robredo, clad in her signature pink, promised to establish a government to address the needs of the people, to take care of the nation’s finances and to focus on the marginalized.

Analysts say that Robredo can distinguish herself from the current administration, but her victory will depend on whether Filipinos have the appetite to elect another “establishment candidate.” 

Just north of Manila, thousands packed Philippine Arena to attend Bongbong Marcos’ proclamation rally. The Duterte ally and son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos promised to unite the country under two powerful political families: his own and the Duterte’s. His running mate, Davao Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, is the daughter of the current president.

Related: A star-studded list of candidates files for president in the Philippines

“That’s why the Marcos-Duterte tandem is a nice example because if one from the north can unite with one from Mindanao, I believe that we can unite the whole Philippines,” he said in Tagalog to the cheering crowd.

Critics of Marcos, who has been the subject of several recent controversies involving the media, are quick to point out that his campaign may not be legitimate because he’s been convicted of tax evasion. In the Philippines, public officials who have been convicted of tax crimes are supposed to be barred from participating in elections. 

What’s at stake

“What we have seen is a consolidation of the forces,” Dindo Manhit, political analyst and president of Stratbase ADR Institute, a Manila-based think tank, told The World.

The latest polling from Pulse Asia suggests that over 50% of voters would pull the lever for Marcos, whose support is concentrated in the sprawling Manila metro area. 

“What we have seen is a consolidation of the forces.”

Dindo Manhit, political analyst and president of Stratbase ADR Institute

Related: Nobel Peace Prize is 'a testament to how truth prevails,' Rappler journalist says

The December poll showed Robredo in second with 20% of the vote. While Moreno is polling third at 8%, and boxer-turned-politician Manny Pacquiao also sits at 8%.

Still, Manhit said not to dismiss the other candidates — all of whom could siphon influence away from Marcos in other parts of the country.

“We could see a very tight and competitive race going into March or April,” Manhit said. “Or, you could see a landslide by Marcos if those things don’t happen.”

The top issue for voters is the economy, he said: “They want jobs and livelihood opportunities. They want wages, better wages so they can deal with the reality of cost-of-living. So, that is the greatest challenge — who can best address that.”

class=”MuiTypography-root-134 MuiTypography-h1-139″>Remote learning in the Philippines has no end in sight

The Philippines is one of several countries that have kept students out of the classroom the longest since the start of the pandemic. Lacking critical resources to sustain virtual learning, the situation leaves teachers, students and parents across Metro Manila exhausted and frustrated. 

The WorldJanuary 27, 2022 · 2:15 PM EST

• By Ashley Westerman

Teachers wearing face mask and face shield behind plastic barriers to prevent the spread of the coronavirus use computers during online classes at Senator Renato "Companero" Cayetano (SRCC) Memorial Science and Technology High School in Taguig city, Philippines, Oct. 19, 2020. 

Aaron Favila/AP

Sisters Eve Bandola and Enzel Bandola miss going to school. They’ve been learning remotely ever since March 2020, when the Philippines shuttered schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eve Bandola said she especially misses her friends and teachers. 

Their father Avel Bandola said that when they first heard about the remote learning plan two years ago, teachers told them it would be temporary and that face-to-face classes would eventually resume. 

“If there’s lots of children online they tend to make noises and can’t get into focus,” said the 41-year-old who works as a messenger in Marikina City, just outside Manila, the capital. 

But for families in the Philippines, distance learning has no end in sight, unlike in countries throughout North America and Europe that have started to send students back to the classroom. Lacking critical resources to sustain virtual learning, teachers, students and parents across Metro Manila are exhausted and frustrated.

Related: Uganda's schools reopen, ending world's longest lockdown

Abigin Bandola and Avel Bandola's daughters both attend school online due to COVID-19 protocols in the Philippines. 

Credit:

Ashley Westerman/The World

This week, students in the capital region returned to remote learning after being off all last week for a “health break.” The Philippines Department of Education called for the pause on Jan. 14 amid rising COVID-19 cases among teachers throughout Metro Manila. 

In November 2021, after 20 months of distance learning, a pilot program was launched that allowed 100 schools across the nation to try in-person classes. But because of the rise in cases linked to the omicron variant, schools in Metro Manila suspended the program. 

Related: India postpones in-school learning as omicron surges 

Eve Bandola and Ensel Bandola both attend school virtually since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. 

Credit:

Ashley Westerman/The World

Meanwhile, primary schools in five provinces surrounding the region will remain closed through the end of January. 

The Philippines remains near the top of the list of countries that have kept students out of the classroom the longest since the start of the pandemic. And it has mostly remained that way, leaving some groups like the UN’s children agency, UNICEF, to worry about a “lost generation.”

The Bandola sisters' parents said they try to stay positive and encouraging when it comes to helping their two daughters do their lessons from home, but the current process is difficult. 

The girls learn through the “module method,” where parents pick up a lesson booklet — or module — from the school, and then students go through the lessons with their teachers online, from home, filling out the booklets along the way. Later, the parents deliver the booklets back to the teachers at the school for grading. 

Avel Bandola said the lesson plans are often unclear and the booklets sometimes have errors. He worries that his daughters aren’t picking up everything they need to learn through this learning method. Their mother, Abigin Bandola, worries that her daughters are losing important socialization skills, but she said she has no choice but to keep doing all they can to keep her girls’ lessons on track. 

She doesn’t want her daughters to return to school until the Philippines has reached “zero-COVID” status. 

Related: Uruguay's virtual education was ahead of the curve when the pandemic hit

Module learning booklets are sent home with students who then go through the lessons with teachers online. 

Credit:

Ashley Westerman/The World

Pleading with government

Education activists say the government is not addressing the needs of students or teachers when it comes to virtual learning or a plan to return to the classroom. 

“We will feel more safe if the government will allocate a specific budget for the health and wellness aspect of teachers."

Rosanilla Constad, deputy secretary, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Philippines

“We will feel more safe if the government will allocate a specific budget for the health and wellness aspect of teachers,” said Rosanilla Constad, the deputy secretary of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers. 

ATC is the largest union for public school teachers in the Philippines with some 180,000 members.

Constad, a special education teacher at a high school in Butuan province, said her group believes a specific COVID-19 budget could do everything from helping teachers obtain the proper technology to supporting educators if they contract the coronavirus. It would also give teachers and educators a say when it comes to making decisions about whether to return to in-person classes, she said. 

Without more money, Constad noted, students will continue to stay out of the classroom. 

The Department of Education did not respond to The World’s request for comment for this story.

Persistent problems 

Since the Philippines transitioned to mostly remote learning, the agency has worked to provide some laptops and SIM cards, but it’s just not enough, activists say. 

Nearly two years on, educators say many problems faced early on in the pandemic remain, including a lack of proper technology for students to complete their lessons. 

“Not all students are capable of having gadgets…such as drawing tablets, headsets with noise-cancelling features, web cameras, laptops. … I should say it would be a great help if the government can provide us with those tools.”

James Morris Jr., assistant principal, Nuestra Señora de Guia Academy, Marikina City, Philippines

“Not all students are capable of having gadgets … such as drawing tablets, headsets with noise-canceling features, web cameras, laptops,” said James Morris Jr., the assistant principal at Nuestra Señora de Guia Academy, a private high school in Marikina City. “I should say it would be a great help if the government can provide us with those tools.”

Out of a population of over 109 million people, nearly 23% of Filipinos live below the poverty line, according to government data released in 2021. A nationwide survey conducted last year by the Social Weather Stations also revealed that some 42% of students did not use any distance learning device for school. 

Morris also teaches math and, like many teachers, said he doesn’t feel as connected to his students because getting feedback is difficult and many students are trying to learn in difficult home environments. 

To make distance learning even more challenging, the internet in the Philippines is unreliable, expensive and slow — the slowest in all of Southeast Asia. 

Morris said it costs families money to upgrade their internet so their children can do their lessons. Troubleshooting connectivity problems waste valuable teaching time. 

Many teachers have had to use their own money to obtain the resources they need, like tech training and gadgets. 

“I was forced to buy this tablet with a stylus with a pen, so I could easily teach math — particularly problem solving — since I’m doing algebra and graphing,” Morris said. “So, I really needed that tool for me to be able to teach math.”

Even as an administrator, Morris said he doesn’t know when it will be possible to bring students back into the classroom. 

“We really don’t know yet what is going to happen next,” he said.

class=”MuiTypography-root-135 MuiTypography-h1-140″>Health care workers in the Philippines reject new COVID-19 rules as 'inhumane'

Many front-line workers and organizations immediately condemned the new rules, calling them “not safe, not fair” and not a solution to the “chronic and accurate problem of understaffing.”

The WorldJanuary 14, 2022 · 3:00 PM EST

• By Ashley Westerman

Medical Technologist Erika Alvarado performs a COVID-19 test on a patient who just delivered a baby outside a hospital in Manila, Philippines, on Dec. 24, 2021.

Aaron Favila/AP

New guidance that shortens the isolation period for health care workers in the Philippines who catch COVID-19 has drawn the ire of many doctors and nurses across the country who say the reason for the change is not scientifically sound.

On Jan. 6, the Inter-Agency Task Force, the group in charge of the Philippines’ pandemic response, released new rules stating that fully vaccinated, front-line workers who test positive for the virus only have to isolate themselves for five days before returning to work. The previous rules gave a 10-day timeline.

“There is evidence, really, that fully vaccinated individuals, and especially those with boosters, have lower viral load than those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.” 

Maria Rosario Vergeire, Philippines Department of Health undersecretary

“There is evidence, really, that fully vaccinated individuals, and especially those with boosters, have lower viral load than those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated,” the Philippines Department of Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told news network ANC earlier this week.

Related: Inclusion, walkability will be key to rebuilding cities after the pandemic

Still, many front-line workers and organizations immediately condemned the new rules, calling them “not safe, not fair” and not a solution to the "chronic and accurate problem of understaffing."

If this all sounds familiar, particularly for an American audience, it should.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the same guidance for US health care workers just last month, with CDC head Rochelle Walensky pushing the same rationale in interviews with the media.

“So, having that as evidence, we have adopted the CDC guidelines,” Vergeire told ANC, noting that individual hospitals can decide if they want to implement them. She said the need to bolster the Philippine health care workforce, which has seen more and more people become infected with COVID-19, prompted the policy shift.

Philippine General Hospital in Manila, the country’s leading COVID-19 hospital, soon waded further into the controversy by announcing that they would allow vaccinated workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 to come into work — as long as they are asymptomatic.

Related: Uganda's schools reopen, ending world's longest lockdown

PGH Dr. Jonas del Rosario told CNN Philippines that those workers wouldn’t pose a risk to patients and colleagues.

“When we ask them to go back to work, they’re also wearing the proper PPE [personal protective equipment],” he said.

They’ll also expect workers to monitor themselves and if they start feeling symptoms, they’ll be pulled out of work and tested, Rosario said — and if that test comes back positive, they’ll be sent home.

Neither the Department of Health nor the task force coordinating pandemic response immediately responded to The World’s requests for comment. 

Overworked, understaffed

The new guidance comes at a time when coronavirus cases are surging in the Philippines, slamming short-staffed medical centers and overwhelming overworked doctors and nurses who report low morale and widespread frustration.

This past week, the country not only breached 3 million total cases, it also broke its own daily record for new cases for the entire pandemic four times.

Nurse Cristy Donguines said that she and her staff at Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center are exhausted heading into the junior year of the pandemic.

“We are overwhelmed, it’s very, very difficult and very, very tragic for us,” Donguines said.

Related: India postpones in-school learning as omicron surges 

“Even though we are not a COVID-referral hospital, we are still catering to COVID patients,” she said. “But the problem is we cannot handle it anymore because we are super, super understaffed.”

The nurse of over 22 years said it’s not unusual to work 16 hours one day and then 12 hours the next.

Still, her union of government and private health care workers, the Alliance of Health Care Workers, condemns the rule change.

“We [do not] agree on this kind of very inhumane department order. It is an anti-health care worker guideline.”

Cristy Donguines, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, nurse

“We [do not] agree on this kind of very inhumane department order,” Donguines said. “It is an anti-health care worker guideline.”

Dr. Joshua San Pedro, a community physician in Metro Manila and with the Coalition for People’s Right to Health, also opposes the policy shift.

“It’s concerning that you might be going back to work infected,” he said, pointing out that front-line workers in the US have also pushed back on the issue that there’s been no solid evidence that people are less contagious after five days of infection.

Related: Brazil heads into latest COVID surge amid public health information blackout

San Pedro said that these new rules, along with the perpetual issues facing Philippine health care workers like PPE shortages, low pay and meager benefits, really have the country’s health care workers feeling dejected.

“And the concern that nothing is really changing wave after wave, surge after surge and that the work is just getting harder and harder,” he said. 

Super Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines on December 16. The wind speed reached 270 kilometers per hour. The hurricane tore down trees, tore off rooftops, cut off power lines. Strong tropical showers came to the region with the wind. More than 10 thousand settlements were found in the typhoon affected area. At least two people were killed and three more injured. More than 100 thousand residents were evacuated to the Philippines.

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