A PCIJ Primer: Unpacking Federalism
by Crystal Joy de la Rosa, Justin Oliver Fiestada, Steffi Mari Sanchez, Malou Mangahas, and the PCIJ Data Team; Infographics by Ojie Sarmiento and John Reiner Antiquerra
THE PHILIPPINES has a total land area of about 300,000 square kilometers (sq km).This is according to the cadastral survey and estimated land areas certified and provided to the Department of Budget and Management by the Land Management Bureau, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as of December 2013.Nearly half or 43 percent consists of […]
Sidebar
IF THE push for federalism is at core a variant of decentralization, the nation’s experience with the Local Government Code that passed in 1991 is an object lesson.Dr. Rosario G. Manasan, a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), has raised timely reminders about the billions of pesos that the project […]
A PCIJ Primer for Citizens
by Malou Mangahas, Crystal Joy de la Rosa, Justin Oliver Fiestada, Steffi Mari Sanchez, and the PCIJ Data Team
IF FEDERALISM is the answer, what is the question?If federalism is the solution, what is the problem?Indeed, where are the people in the debate and what motives or reasons drive the pitch to shift? And what good, bad, and ugly tidings does federalism signal? For the last two years, President Rodrigo R. Duterte and his […]
Project Bangon Marawi, Year 1
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan, PCIJ;
and Carolyn O. Arguillas, MindaNews
THE SIEGE of the Islamic City of Marawi marks its first anniversary on May 23 but its vaunted multi-billion peso rehabilitation and reconstruction program remains a patchwork of disconnected promises mired in multiple problems.The government has pledged to roll out a total of 892 programs, activities, and projects for Marawi under an ambitious “master plan.” […]
200 Pinoys, firms in 'Paradise Papers'
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan
WHAT DO some bankers and fund managers, a few senior government officials, a dozen top taxpayers, and a handful of companies located in the country have in common? They are among some 200 Filipinos, Philippine residents, and corporations that own or are linked to offshore accounts in tax havens across the world, according to the […]
by Malou Mangahas
NO, JUANA, there has not been any big change in tactics in the government’s war against drugs just yet.By all indications, as well as the statements of President Rodrigo R. Duterte himself and his senior advisers, the supposed revert to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as the “sole agency” assigned to the drug war […]
by Steffi Sanchez, Data Team, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
WILL THE NATION see the return of a virulent war on drugs? Nine days after he issued a memorandum placing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as the “sole agency” in charge of the drug war, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said at a forum of overseas Filipino workers last Oct. 19: “You have been downgrading […]
THE DATA PRIVACY ACT “is not meant to serve as a subterfuge to prevent the processing and/or disclosure of personal information sanctioned under law.”This, according to Chairman Raymund E. Liboro of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) is a core principle that should inform the discourse on the right to information of citizens to get true […]
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| Posted Wednesday, September 27th, 2017
Can 'privacy' trump transparency?
by Malou Mangahas
A CHIEF JUSTICE was impeached in 2012 for failure to declare the true and detailed list of condo units he owned, and pesos and dollars he had in banks.Ten years prior, a President was forced out of the Palace for collecting millions in kickbacks and commissions from state contracts and excise taxes, as well as […]
by Vino Lucero
MORE THAN a year after President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed the Freedom of Information executive order, a practice completely reverse of the policy has been creeping onto some documents requested by the public. The likely tool for the unexpected move: a black marker.Redactions on items declared by Cabinet officials in their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, […]
