It was supposed to be a proud moment at sea, a Philippine Coast Guard mission to bring fuel, ice, and supplies to our hardworking fishermen under the “Kadiwa Para sa Bagong Bayaning Mangingisda” program. But on August 11, 2025, as BRP Suluan, BRP Teresa Magbanua, and the fish carrier M/V Mamalakaya sailed just 10.5 nautical…
The Philippines, a breathtaking archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has always had one big challenge: getting from one island to another. For centuries, ferries and flights were our only options. They brought romance to travel, sure, but also delays, storms, and long waits. Now, imagine cutting those hours of travel into just minutes. That’s…
What if I told you that in 2025, the Philippines isn’t just surviving one disaster after another, it’s living through the worst storm season we’ve seen in years? In just a few days this July, one typhoon, Co-may, killed 25 people. Not in a warzone. Not on some remote island. Right here. Entire families were…
They’re here, east, west, and center.” That’s how one Philippine Coast Guard officer described what he saw off the northernmost tip of the country this week. In a move never before seen, three hulking Chinese coast guard cutters, each the size of a football field, slid into position around Batanes, the quiet island province now…
The heat in Asia’s geopolitical kitchen just got cranked up. Imagine the Philippines standing in the middle of two giants, China and the United States, while the issue of Taiwan smolders like a ticking time bomb. That’s exactly where President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. placed his nation after a bold statement that Beijing clearly didn’t…
While many countries are still playing catch-up in a shaky global economy, the Philippines just pulled off something remarkable. In the second quarter of 2025, the country posted a solid 5.5% GDP growth year-on-year, beating expectations and outpacing economic giants like China (4.8%) and Indonesia (5.1%). Only Vietnam, with its 8% sprint, managed to stay…
You could hear the thunder before you saw it. Locals near Subic Bay looked up in shock as a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, one of the world’s largest military aircraft, came roaring out of the sky and landed at the former US naval base without any public announcement. It wasn’t part of any…
The South China Sea is boiling. It’s 2025, and what used to be silent standoffs are now full-blown, high-stakes maritime showdowns. Filipino crew members wake to the sound of steel grinding against steel. In early morning hours near Ayungin Shoal, their boats, on peaceful supply runs are rammed, sprayed with water cannons, and blocked by…
What if I told you the Philippines doesn’t need to match China’s warships one-for-one to defend its waters? What if the smarter play is turning into a porcupine, small, but too painful to mess with? That’s exactly the strategy the Philippines is adopting in the West Philippine Sea, and it’s shaking things up in the…
Something big is happening in the Indo-Pacific and it’s shaking Beijing to the core. The United States, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and India are no longer just regional powers, they’re rapidly transforming into a unified deterrent force. What brought them together? China’s relentless military moves, its aggressive expansion in the South China Sea,…
