Trust in news in the Philippines plummeted by 10 points in 2026, the steepest decline among all 48 markets covered by this year’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report (DNR), amid deep political divisions, sustained attacks on the media and a continued shift toward social media, video platforms, creators and AI tools. Only 28% of Filipino...
Category: Specials
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Six state-run schools assigned land in 9,450-hectare ‘smart, green and resilient’ city
NEW CLARK CITY — As a strategy, developers set aside land for a school to make real estate projects attractive to potential residents or investors. This government project in Central Luzon has allotted parcels of land to not one but six educational institutions. The scale of the project may explain the plan to put up...
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Possible giant leap in real property tax alarms Ayala Alabang Village residents
Residents of Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City have expressed alarm over an increase of up to 4,304% in the value of residential land in the posh neighborhood that will raise their payments of the yearly “amilyar,” or real property tax (RPT). At a public hearing on Feb. 11 in the barangay hall of the...
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AI use is growing faster than Southeast Asia can keep pace with
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) across Southeast Asia is accelerating faster than governments, schools, and institutions can keep pace with, with 75% of students using AI in the Philippines, according to studies released by the Asean Foundation. “Across Asean, we are seeing AI use grow faster than our systems’ ability to guide it,” said Asean...
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Asking the question we’d rather avoid
The traditional newsroom is under siege, and the invaders aren’t just algorithms—they are individuals with smartphones and opinions. According to the latest insights from the Reuters Institute, 2026 marks a tipping point where generative AI and human “influencers” are squeezing traditional media institutions into a corner of perceived irrelevance. We are moving away from the...
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CoverStory’s best-read reports in 2025
The interview with Raul C. Pangalangan, a retired justice of the International Criminal Court which now has custody of former president Rodrigo Duterte, topped CoverStory’s best-read reports in the year just past. The Q&A, titled “The Court has ‘jurisdiction over jurisdiction,’” was conducted by Oliver Teves. The other reports on the best-read list are: •...
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16 years on, the Maguindanao massacre continues to provide lessons to campus journalists
PILI, CAMARINES SUR—Journalism student Jevan Dex Miranda was a child when the inconceivable happened: bodies unearthed by a backhoe, families grieving while searching for their loved ones, and headlines marking the Philippines as the setting of the deadliest single attack on journalists in world history. Miranda was among the students, human rights advocates and media...
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Here are 5 ways to detect pro-China propaganda
Last March, several prominent pro-Duterte vloggers and influencers admitted in a congressional hearing that they had attended a China-funded training seminar in 2023. Former presidential communications secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles confirmed that she and bloggers Mark Lopez, Tio Moreno, Philstar.com columnist Pia Morato, and lawyer Ahmed Paglinawan took part in a two-week program in Beijing run...