Malampaya is dying, and with it, a key pillar of our energy security. For over two decades, this offshore gas field has powered nearly 20% of Luzon’s electricity, providing vital fuel for gas plants that help keep the lights on in Metro Manila. But the Department of Energy (DOE), as cited by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian…
The external threat now has become more pronounced, more worrisome.” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., February 2025 Something’s changing in the Pacific and fast. Not long ago, the Philippines was focused inward. Its soldiers chased insurgents in the jungles of Mindanao. Coast guards cracked down on pirates and smugglers in the southern seas. Disaster relief was…
What if your backyard, your oceans, your islands, your home, was being watched by a foreign power, every single day? Not with bullets or bombs, but with silent ships, unmanned drones, and radar signals that never sleep. Welcome to the Philippines in 2025, a tropical paradise caught in the crosshairs of one of the most…
It’s not just another carrier docking, it’s a global message. That’s how a U.S. Navy officer summed it up as the USS George Washington, a 100,000-ton symbol of American naval dominance, sailed into Manila Bay, drawing the eyes of both allies and rivals across the Indo-Pacific. On the shoreline, Filipino fishermen watched silently as the…
In what could mark a seismic shift in U.S. force posture across the Indo-Pacific, American lawmakers are pushing for the construction of a major ammunition manufacturing and storage plant at the former U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay — a site once considered the crown jewel of Washington’s military footprint in Southeast Asia. If the plan…
The sight of MV-22 Ospreys soaring above the northernmost frontier of the Philippines marked a symbolic and strategic milestone on June 1, 2025, as U.S. Marines from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364 (VMM-364), under Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, extracted their counterparts from the 3rd Littoral Combat Team, 3rd Littoral Regiment, 3rd…
Two nations. One land. And a question that refuses to die, was Sabah merely leased… or permanently surrendered? For more than a century, that single question has haunted Southeast Asia, fueling one of its most sensitive and explosive territorial disputes. Today, the guns are silent, but the legal battles rage on. Heirs of the once-powerful…
June 2025, In the sweltering heat of the South China Sea, a Philippine resupply vessel is rammed by a Chinese Coast Guard ship near Second Thomas Shoal. A 3.5-foot hole is torn through its side, forcing an emergency retreat and injuring multiple crew members. This isn’t a one-off event, it’s the latest in a string…
Grounded Chinese Ship Sparks Alarms: What’s Really Happening in the South China Sea? On a tense Saturday morning, June 7, 2025, a Chinese vessel unexpectedly ran aground near a Philippine-occupied island in the fiercely contested South China Sea. But this was no ordinary maritime mishap. For many observers, it signaled something far more deliberate, an…
In a dramatic display of tightening alliances and growing urgency, the Philippines and the United States concluded their seventh joint maritime exercises in the South China Sea just days ago, on June 5, 2025. This followed closely on the heels of a major U.S. proposal offering Manila a fleet of F-16 Block 70/72 fighters valued…
