VANTAGE

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Livelihood

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Brain Drain

Filipino workers abroad sent home a record $35.63 billion in 2025. The same system that produces that money is why hospitals cannot fill their wards, and the two facts are harder to separate than either side of the argument admits.

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One fact each

Accountability

₱612.5 million left Land Bank in cash across seven cheques.

Explained

Filipino workers abroad sent home a record $35.63 billion in 2025.

Explained

One trial court stopped a raise for 1.1 million workers.

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Government & Politics

Who Gets to Run

The Constitution asks a candidate for president to be 40, a natural-born citizen, a resident, and able to read and write. No degree, no experience, no exam. Whether that should change is an older argument than it looks.

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Government & Politics

Communism and Capitalism

The Philippines is a market economy with protectionist clauses written into its Constitution, a communist insurgency in its sixth decade, and a live fight over both. The abstract debate obscures how specific the local one is.

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Livelihood

System Loss

Why a line on your electricity bill charges you for power that never reached your meter, what the law says about it, and why removing it is harder than the applause suggested.

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Also explained

The Wage Hike TROA Pasig judge halted the P85 Metro Manila minimum wage increase. The Labor Code appears to forbid exactly that, and the reason it may not is a single word in the statute.
Confidential FundsWhat confidential funds are, the disclosure law that was never written, and how ₱612.5 million left Land Bank in cash across seven cheques.
Charter ChangeHow the 1987 Constitution can be changed, why no attempt has ever reached a ratification plebiscite, and what each route would cost.