A party-list group in the Philippines is pushing forward a bill that will grant 50 percent discounts from funeral services to poor families, as well as grant free funeral services for families in the country considered to be extremely poor.

A fierce critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drug war accepted a top post on Wednesday to help steer the campaign, pledging to halt killings of the innocent.While critics said the appointment is an effort to tarnish an adversary, the move will put Leni Robredo in the cockpit of the internationally condemned crackdown.Duterte offered the post to Robredo, who is vice president but was elected separately, after her repeated criticism of a campaign that has killed th

As media practitioners across the world gather tomorrow to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, reporters in the Philippines have little to celebrate.For the third year in a row, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Global Impunity Index has named the Philippines as the country with the most unsolved murders of journalists, with perpetrators of 41 killings over the past 10 years yet to be served justice.The Philippines was second to Iraq fro

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has come under fire for referring to a newly-opened coal-fired power plant as “clean”, raising concerns about the country’s focus on renewable energy in the face of its increasing energy needs.The 500-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Mauban, Quezon, will provide additional energy supply to the Luzon grid and boost Duterte’s Build, Build, Build infrastructure program according to the Presidential Communications Operations Office.The US$1.1 billion pl

Getting business done in the Philippines has just become a whole lot easier.Jumping 29 spots in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 study – the biggest mover in ASEAN – the Philippines can attribute its rise from 124th to 95th to a variety of factors. Thailand and Myanmar were Southeast Asia’s other big movers after both shifted up six spots, while Singapore remains the best Southeast Asian nation in second.Released yesterday, the study is the 17th in an annual series that

The ASEAN Post recently published an article on the possible real victims of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s “War on Drugs”.

Researchers Abbey Pangilinan, Maria Carmen Fernandez and Nastassja Quijano recently released a report which attempts to bring fresh evidence of how hundreds of families have been plunged deeper into poverty amid the Philippines’ war on drugs, birthed by the country’s President Rodrigo Duterte around three years ago.The study is focused on the beneficiaries of the Philippine conditional cash transfer programme – a monthly subsidy targeted at poor households with the aim of breaking intergenera

The Philippines' top policeman, who leads the nation's deadly drugs crackdown, quit on Monday as he faces allegations of protecting officers accused of selling a huge haul of seized narcotics.Though the scandal dates from before Oscar Albayalde's time as national police chief, it has raised fresh criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte's signature anti-narcotics campaign, which is key to his massive popularity among Filipinos.As part of Duterte's internationally condem

A Philippine court said Tuesday it has thrown out a decades-old civil case against the widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, dealing a fresh blow to a protracted effort to recover alleged ill-gotten wealth.In ruling for Imelda Marcos, the special anti-graft court chastised government lawyers for their "unjustified" absence at court hearings and for submitting "mere photocopies" of documentary evidence that the judge rejected.Filed shortly after Marcos fled to the US in

Metro Manila has been found to be the most congested city in developing Asia after a study of 278 cities to measure citywide congestion by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).Congestion arises when demand for travel exceeds the transportation network’s maximum capacity, and the pollution that comes along with it are important issues faced by city planners in ASEAN and abroad.An urban sprawl of 17 cities characterised by outdated infrastructure, a booming economy and an increasing population, Met