In Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines, fears of further democratic backsliding have dominated conversations among democracy advocates. To counter this backslide, civil society groups and democrats are experimenting with strategies on responding to a populist president who has openly attacked human rights norms and democratic institutions. Some are considering convicting Duterte in national and international courts, others [...]

By MAXINE TANYA HAMADA | This article first appeared in World Movement for Democracy. The most beautiful and powerful movements in history are born out of pain, sorrow, anger, and fear. In 1986, Filipinos were reeling from a decade of Martial Law and 20 years of corruption, cronyism, human rights abuses, and impunity. Two armed conflicts [...]

By ANA MARTHA F. GALINDES & PATRICIA NICDAO | This article first appeared in Center for International Private Entrerprise  With increasing challenges in democratic spaces and values around the world, can the youth still claim its space in nation building? This has been the question that guides us as we launched discussions with different young individuals in recent months for our project, The Government We […]

By CLEVE ARGUELLES In Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines, fears of further democratic backsliding have dominated conversations among democracy advocates. To counter this backslide, civil society groups and democrats are experimenting with strategies on responding to a populist president who has openly attacked human rights norms and democratic institutions. Some are considering convicting Duterte in national and [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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] [...]

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…

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 [...]