It has been a messy few weeks for artificial (AI) regulation in our neighborhood. Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines recently scrambled to slam the brakes on Grok, the generative AI tool linked to Elon Musk’s xAI. Regulators hit the panic button over deepfakes, harassment, and the spread of sexually explicit
January 29, 2026
We need to talk about how we handle family drama on air. The Iloilo Media-Citizen Council (which I currently lead) recently received a complaint about a broadcast and a social media post that blew up a private family dispute. It included photos of people who never asked to be famous
January 24, 2026
By Francis Allan L. Angelo The Department of Public Works and Highways is trying to fix Iloilo’s flyover mess with a familiar script: promise a deadline, talk tough on safety, and sprinkle in a little politics. It is not enough anymore. Accountability means names, documents and penalties, not just deadlines. Public safety is not compatible
January 20, 2026
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)’s 2026 budget push for the Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridges, the Iloilo-Capiz-Aklan Expressway (ICAEX), and the Boracay Bridge is being sold as a simple promise: shave travel time, lift tourism, and let Region VI finally move like one economy. The money is real, too, from
January 15, 2026
In the noisy, chaotic world of Philippine social media, it is easy to assume that we are drowning in information. But a closer look at the map reveals a concerning counter-narrative: vast swathes of the archipelago are going dark. A recent study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS),
December 2, 2025
By Francis Allan L. Angelo It’s a cruel joke every Ilonggo knows. One week, we are bracing for floods, our streets turned into murky rivers. The next, we are staring at dry taps, calculating if the last drops in the tank will be enough for a morning bath. This is the central paradox of life
November 19, 2025
Something amazing is happening in the Philippines, and it’s not in Manila. My feeds are buzzing about a massive event touching down in Bacolod this month. It’s called Terra Madre Asia & Pacific, and it is, quite literally, a world-first for our region. From November 19 to 23, the city will
November 14, 2025
I will not mince words. The new report from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) is a national tragedy, a 30-year-old failure, and a multi-generational indictment of our priorities. The number is 24.8 million. This is nearly a quarter of our entire population. Twenty-four million, eight hundred thousand Filipinos
November 8, 2025
While the nation’s eyes are rightly fixed on the horizon, watching the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) bravely face down Chinese water cannons and blockades in the West Philippine Sea, a second, more insidious battle is being waged. This war is not for territory, but for the Filipino mind. It is
November 7, 2025
Let’s talk about the unsung heroes of our modern era: politicians. They brave the fluorescent lights of committee rooms, wrestle with unwieldy binders, and occasionally, with truly staggering effort, manage to cut the ribbon on a public works project that was already scheduled for completion. And what is our default
November 3, 2025
President Donald Trump’s return to Asia for the first time in his second term is being framed as a high-stakes diplomatic tour, a chance to reassert American influence through a series of critical summits and bilateral meetings in Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea. He will arrive to an audience of
October 27, 2025
Welcome to the “Chronicles of Cracks and Amnesia,” a tale of two maladies – one in Iloilo and the other in the Philippines. On one hand, we have a Iloilo Hall of Justice so structurally anxious it closes every time the earth hiccups, trapping legal proceedings in a state of
October 21, 2025