MANILA City — Climate advocates from civil society and development partners from the private and public sectors gathered at the 1st National Stakeholders Conference 2024 on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) held on June 27 to discuss and develop strategies for addressing the Philippines’ urgent need for sustainable and responsive action through climate financing.

In 1992, when I was a staff member at the newly-established Office of the President-Mindanao, we crunched some numbers and concluded that Mindanao wallowed in negative economic growth at minus 0.48 percent. Although that figure would climb steadily to 4.12 percent by 1995, midway through Fidel Ramos’s presidency, that 1992 backwater fact was telling.

For one, it compared with the national figure—0.4 percent—a similarly dismal reality. For another, it dovetailed a story of how a nation clawed its way out of the abysmal hole of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s (FM) martial law years.

It’s been weeks since hundreds of policemen brazenly made their presence felt before the Quiboloy facilities in Davao. Yet I’ve to wrap my head around the fact that it happened at all, now in this day and age when dictatorships are supposed to be a thing of the past.

“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.” – Sun Tzu

Former President Rodrigo Duterte and Mayor Sebastian Duterte arrived at Tacloban City’s Sto. Niño Church at noon on Sunday just when the last of the morning worshippers were about to leave. It caught nearly everyone by surprise.

The vendors and a few bystanders near the entrance could not believe their eyes. Is it really him?

“I have finally seen him in the flesh,” a vendor muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.