Bamboo scaffolding was being pointed as the main culprit in the deadly Tai Po fire in Hong Kong. That accusation, made as flames raced up seven residential towers, killing 151 people, including a Filipino domestic worker, and leaving 40 missing,…
Investors navigating the Philippine market are behaving as if they are changing lanes on a busy highway: even as stocks slow to a crawl under the weight of a deepening flood-control scandal, traffic in government bonds is moving steadily—and in…
“Dalifornication” is the kind of phrase that sticks because it captures a cultural mood as much as a place. The Economist’s recent description of young Chinese “Dalifornia dreamin’” has turned the ancient city of Dali in Yunnan into shorthand for…
While much of the world leans toward protectionism, Asia is quietly redrawing its trade map. The newly signed ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol—sealed in Kuala Lumpur on October 28—signals how the region plans to keep growth alive even…
The diamond business is cracking—not just metaphorically, but economically. A gemstone once sold as a timeless store of value is now being remade in laboratories. The result isn’t imitation; it’s disruption. Lab-grown diamonds—chemically identical to mined stones—are upsetting decades of…
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s three-day state visit to Cambodia, the first by a Philippine leader in nearly a decade, is being cast as “highly important” by Manila’s diplomats. But its real weight lies not in protocol or photo opportunities. The…
In the South China Sea, diplomacy is often as turbulent as the waters themselves. Now, the Philippines wants to calm the storm with a legally binding Code of Conduct. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has vowed to make this his regional…
For the Philippines, the South China Sea is both a vital resource and a recurring flashpoint. Its reefs and shoals are not only rich fishing grounds but also gateways for energy exploration and global shipping. Yet the disputes that play…
For a brief moment this year, the Philippines had something rare in the cutthroat world of trade policy: an edge over its Southeast Asian neighbors. When U.S. President Donald Trump rolled out his first volley of tariffs in April, Manila’s…
If war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, who stands with whom? Long debated in policy circles and military simulations, this question is no longer theoretical. With tensions escalating across the Indo-Pacific, the prospect of conflict between the United States…
