Romancing China under DU30
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan
First of Two PartsAT THE close of his four-day state visit in Beijing last October, a pleased President Rodrigo R. Duterte proclaimed to the world that the Philippines and China were now besties, or the best of friends.As proof positive, Duterte and his Cabinet secretaries showed off to reporters and businessmen from 300 Philippine-based companies […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this analytical essay, PCIJ fellow Kenneth Cardenas takes a closer look at the multibillion-dollar deals signed during President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s state visit to China in October 2016 and raises questions about transparency, due diligence, and the role of money in the current administration. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- By Kenneth Cardenas* Fellow, Philippine Center for […]
AS PART of its mandate to supervise and monitor corporate activity in the Philippines, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintains the i-Report database, which contains electronic copies of publicly available corporate filings with the agency. The most readily accessible registry of business entities in the Philippines, the database is indispensable for the everyday work […]
MORE THAN a century ago, Filipino workers marched down what is now known as Claro M. Recto Street in Manila to assert and claim their rights.The Congreso Obrero de Filipinas (COF), also known as the Congress of the Philippine Labor, led the protest action. More than 10 years later, a new union called the Katipunan […]
by The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
HE LOOKED calm and collected even as he lay one serious allegation after another against the highest official of the land, and even after saying that he expected to be killed because of all that he has been saying in public.Indeed, retired SPO3 Arturo Lascañas seemed to know exactly what he wanted to say, although […]
by The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
EIGHT YEARS before retired SPO3 Arturo Lascañas admitted to participating in killings done by the Davao Death Squad (DDS), supposedly on the orders of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, four other individuals had given sworn statements on the DDS and those who they said were behind it.Three gave their sworn affidavits on separate […]
503 requests on e-FOI portal
by Aura Dagcutan
MORE THAN three months after the Freedom of Information (FOI) Executive Order took effect on Nov. 25, 2016, requests for data from state agencies have been coming in, but not at the volume expected by government officials.Yet the relative low number has not meant quick processing for several of the requests, leaving some requestors in […]
R2RKN report on first 3 months of FOI EO
by The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition,
ANGKOP, and Action for Economic Reforms
HAVING HAILED Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016), operationalizing for the Executive branch the people’s constitutional right to information, as a major step forward, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition (R2RKN) committed to engage processes related to it, and launched a new round of FOI practice centered on its implementation. This report covers the […]
FOI Practice projects of 6 CSOs
by The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition and
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
SUPER QUICK or interminably slow action, a few or all documents, and clear or vague policies and lines of authority — a mix of good and bad practices marked the conduct of state agencies and personnel that recently received access to information requests from six civil society organizations (CSOs) of the Right to Know, Right […]
De Lima's failure, Aguirre's conflict
by Malou Mangahas
SWORN STATEMENTS of key informants, the transcripts of stenographic notes, and official records and documents from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), as well as reports of other state bodies and rights groups into the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) over the last eight years should have moved the story about this alleged group of […]
