The Philippines proudly ranked 65th in the 2026 Atlas of Impunity, high-fiving itself for staying competitive in the regional “nothing ever happens to anyone” league while trailing only the true professionals of chaos. Officials celebrated…
Forget the nonstop “Trump, Trump, Trump!!” screams and click-baiting in America; Southeast Asia also knows how to produce good political theater. Lately the region’s ancient gods and goddesses appear to have grown bored with the…
Corruption remains a significant challenge across much of ASEAN, as reflected in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI – published annually by Transparency International), where Singapore ranks highly clean while countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and…
Embarrassing political chaos, Duterte’s imprisonment, elite squabbles, and an economic slowdown are causing concern and skepticism after Manila assumed ASEAN chairmanship in January of this year. Malaysian and Indonesian figures are criticizing the Philippine legal…
A diplomat, after a seven-year tour of duty in the Philippines, once christened the islands an “enchanting archipelago.” Whether he was merely being polite, or had succumbed to government pitchmen, or had himself become enchanted…
