THE 1987 Philippine Constitution declares the Filipinos to be sovereign, and this is very interesting because to be “sovereign” means to be in “total control.” What it means in the arena of natural resources management is that the benefits derived from such are owned and managed exclusively by the national government for and in behalf of all Filipinos.

MANILA, July 14 (PIA) -- Those interested to run in the forthcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) posts may file their Certificate of Candidacy starting October 3 up to October 5.

This is based on the Calendar of Activities listed in Comelec Resolution No. 10151.

MANILA, Philippines - Representatives from Switzerland, Germany, the US and other nations with federal governments will attend the roundtable discussions set by the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan as the Duterte administration steps up its campaign for a shift to federalism.

A round-table discussion on Federalism has ensued before audiences from the government, business society, academe, and civil society in Davao city with the goal to build understanding on how the Duterte Administration can achieve this system shift.

CANBERRA—The first thing President Duterte did after his inauguration was to fly to Davao City to start dismantling the superstructure dominance of “Imperial Manila” as the national capital of the unitary Philippine state for more than 400 years.

Centuries before international laws, pirates ruled the high seas, plundering and pillaging wherever they went.

Into this dangerous, unruly seascape steamed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which will be the basis for a historic court judgement on Tuesday in a dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea.

MANILA, July 9 - President Rodrigo Roa Duterte joined a few members of the Muslim community in celebrating the first Mindanao Hariraya Eid’l Fit’r 2016 held in Davao City.

In his speech, President Duterte assured the moro brothers and sisters present, that he will once again bring peace in Mindanao, but they should give him a chance to “perfect an agreement”.

He said “tatanggapin natin sa isa’t isa (we should accept among us). Let us build a nation that will be founded on peace and understanding”.

Uncovering ill-gotten wealth of government officials may soon get easier, with a proposed measure by Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson seeking to exclude them from the Bank Secrecy Law.

Lacson's Senate Bill 47 effectively removes from all public servants the "protection" afforded by Republic Act 1405, which prohibits disclosure or inquiry into bank deposits.

POVERTY, according to the United Nations, is “a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.”

Metro Manila, being the highest seat of power in the country since colonial times, naturally benefits from a centralized system of governance. But the concentration of power in the capital also perpetuates the oligarchic nature of the Philippine economy. The only way to rectify this is by means of an asymmetric model of the federal system—if critics of the prevailing system are to be believed, one that should be anchored on just entitlements for everyone and the right to self-determination, a form of rectificatory justice, given hundreds of years of neglect.