Editorial

The latest World Competitiveness Ranking is out, with the Philippines seeing an improvement from 51st place out of 69 economies included in the index last year to 47th out of 70 in the 2026 study. That four-spot improvement is the highest for the country since landing in 45th place in …

Barely three weeks into the new school year, the nation has witnessed a succession of heartbreaking stories involving young Filipinos. What began with the trauma of a powerful earthquake disrupting the first day of classes for millions of learners was followed by an even more disturbing tragedy. The puzzling question …

Transparency is the cornerstone of democratic governance. It cannot rest solely on declarations of good intentions. It must be institutionalized through systems that allow citizens to scrutinize how public resources are managed. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s launch of the Centralized Open Monitoring Platform for Appropriations and Spending Statistics (COMPASS) …

Planting rice can be backbreaking work, and the labor must be worth it. The modest returns from traditional rice farming have deterred the children of many farmers from following in their parents’ footsteps. This problem is sharper in challenging terrain, such as terraced rice paddies. For many years now, the …

The Philippine government is right to push back against proposals in the United States (US) that could discourage companies from outsourcing customer-service operations overseas. At stake is not merely an industry, but one of the country’s most important economic pillars. The information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector has …

As of yesterday, handheld metal detectors were being retailed online for prices ranging from P451 to over P16,000 each. Walk-through metal detectors, meanwhile, including portable, collapsible versions, were also on offer for prices ranging from over P24,000 to P386,000 per unit. Surely the national or local governments can spare funds …

The deadly shooting at the San Jose National High School in Tacloban City has raised questions on the state of juvenile detention and rehabilitation facilities in the country. Under Republic Act No. 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, as amended by RA 10630, local government units …

The digital economy has transformed the way Filipinos save, spend, invest, and transfer money. With a few taps on a smartphone, financial transactions that once required long queues and paperwork can now be completed in seconds. Yet the convenience of digital banking has come with a growing threat: cyber fraud. …

A female staff sergeant of the Philippine National Police regional office in Eastern Visayas has been relieved and placed under restrictive custody while undergoing investigation. This is in connection with her 9mm Glock service pistol, which her 14-year-old nephew used in the gun attack that killed three students and wounded …

How safe are our schools, and what more must be done to protect our children? We are raising this in the aftermath of the recent violent incidents involving students in Tacloban City and Negros Occidental. The fatal shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City and the stabbing …