By CZARINA MEDINA-GUCE This blog is first of a series that discusses parts of the working paper, “Democratic Backsliding and Shrinking Civic Spaces: Problematizing Philippine Democratic Institutions”, written by Czarina Medina-Guce and Ana Martha Galindes, released on February 26, 2018. The author will also discuss the paper in full in the Social Weather Stations Kapihan session on May 30, 2018, 4PM. (Interested participants […]

iLEAD Executive Director Czarina Medina-Guce will be presenting the working paper, “Democratic Backsliding: Problematizing the Strengthening of Philippine Democratic Institutions” at the “Kapihan sa SWS” on May 30, 2018, Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., SWS Knowledge Center Auditorium, Social Weather Stations. The paper discusses about how Philippine democracy is sliding back, its manifestations, and how the enablers of such backsliding has […]

By Paul Rothman, Assistant Partnerships Officer at the Center for International Media Assistance in Washington, DC. This article first appeared in Center for International Media Assistance.  The last two years have been a tumultuous period for Filipino democracy. Since the People Power Revolution in 1986, the Philippines became something of a beacon for democratic development in a region beset by authoritarian rule. But in the face of President Duterte’s […]

iLEAD fellow Richard "Bon" Moya, one of the pioneers of Open Data in the Philippines, shares his insights on open movement and how it has been helping democracies in the world. This is a series of four vlogs that discusses [1] the Open Data initiative, [2] the successes and challenges in its operationalisation in the Philippines, [3] its role [...]

This working paper problematizes the challenges to Philippine democracy through the lens of its democratic institutions. The paper argues the existence of democratic backsliding, which happens when a nominally democratic government infringes on political and civil rights or restricts political competition or accountability, and is characterized by (a) gradual breakdowns in the structures of freedom of assembly, organization, and speech, or the shrinking of civic […]

By ATTY. JOEY MENDOZA Crisis and the challenge of staying the course with democracy Around the world, we see a growing global clamor for fundamental political and economic reform. Whether it goes by the name Arab Spring or Brexit, it is generally a clamor for change in the manner in which the ruling class oversees [...]