President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed an executive order updating the Philippines’ investment regime, setting out sectors open to foreign participation and those subject to restrictions. Executive Order No. 113, dated April 13, amends the 12th Regular Foreign Investment Negative…
The World Bank has approved $600 million in financing to support a Philippine government program aimed at improving learning outcomes for more than 21 million students in kindergarten to Grade 10 and assisting about 770,000 teachers nationwide. The funding will…
Bilateral relations between the Holy See and the Philippines will reach their 75th anniversary on April 8, a milestone that underscores one of Asia’s longest-standing church-state relationships, shaped by shared history, faith, and social engagement. A commemorative Mass will be…
A decade after hackers siphoned off US$81 million from Bangladesh’s central bank, Dhaka’s envoy in Manila said the remaining funds laundered through the Philippines could still be recovered, as legal and criminal proceedings continue across multiple jurisdictions. Bangladesh Ambassador to…
Washington has approved a new envoy to Manila as the United States seeks to reinforce ties with one of its oldest allies in Asia. The Senate confirmed Florida businessman Lee Lipton as the next U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, replacing…
Plastic pollution threatens the Philippines’ coastal communities, ecosystems, and climate resilience, making action urgent across sectors, a Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) official said on Saturday. Addressing young leaders in Manila, she urged the region’s youth to help…
More than three decades before he would become president of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung was a young human rights lawyer representing some of the most vulnerable workers in the country’s industrial zones—many of them migrants from across Asia seeking opportunity…
The shock waves from a new war in the Middle East are rippling far beyond the Gulf, unsettling fuel markets, financial forecasts, and the security calculations of governments thousands of miles away. In Southeast Asia, leaders are taking steps to…
A mountain of garbage gave way at the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal on February 20, sending an estimated 420,000 cubic meters of waste cascading down a slope in Barangay San Isidro. According to reports, at least one…
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) first public hearing on former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte opened on Monday, February 23, with a pointed reminder: this is not a trial—and the court has not found him guilty of anything. From the bench…
