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republicasia Intelligence for Southeast Asia

[email protected] Republic Asia empowers the Filipino people, especially the Millennials and Gen Z.

We tell their story, and we let them tell their story. We provide them a platform to speak, to be heard, and be counted. This site is a celebration of this young generation, aware that they would be the country’s leaders, movers and shakers. What's your story? Share it with us at
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The 2028 field — who might run for president.Two years out, the Philippine presidential field is taking shape as a map o...
19/05/2026

The 2028 field — who might run for president.

Two years out, the Philippine presidential field is taking shape as a map of political camps, not a horse race.

Pro-administration. The thinnest bench. Jonvic Remulla stepped back in May. Vince Dizon declined. Sonny Angara hedges.

Liberal–progressive opposition. Risa Hontiveros is positioning. Bam Aquino is the cleanest fallback. The bloc plans to consolidate by end-2026.

The Duterte camp. Sara Duterte is the only declared candidate — and was impeached again on May 11. Baste Duterte is now Plan B. B**g Go is the deeper fallback.

Wildcards. Imee Marcos. Vico Sotto. Manny Pacquiao.
The declined. Robredo. Tulfo. Moreno. Escudero. Zubiri. Their absence reshapes the entire field.

Only one candidate has declared. Three frontrunners have declined. The 2028 field is wide open — and the bloc that consolidates first wins the narrative before it wins a single vote.

What young Filipinos are actually spending their attention on.A new RepublicAsia intelligence chart, companion to The Pa...
19/05/2026

What young Filipinos are actually spending their attention on.

A new RepublicAsia intelligence chart, companion to The Pandemic Skip.

Read together, these eight categories do not describe eight separate markets. They describe a single behavioural pattern.
A generation that trades down on the everyday to fund the indulgent. That distrusts polished celebrity advertising and rewards micro-creator authenticity. That expects a visible ethical posture from any brand it commits to — and walks when one is absent.

That is roughly five years ahead of its own employers on AI fluency. And that approaches politics with economic grievance first, ideology second.

For brands: the ones that will win this market over the next five years are the ones that stop selling to a demographic and start designing for a behaviour. Polished is over. Performative sustainability is over. Celebrity-led recall is over.

What works now: micro-creator partnerships, vertical-video native formats, product tiers that allow trade-down without exit, loyalty anchored on identity rather than points, and — most underrated — editorial intelligence over advertising. Brands that learn to think like media outlets will outlast brands that think like marketing departments.

For institutions: the same chart that maps a consumer also maps a citizen. Categories 03, 06 and 08 are political signals as much as commercial ones. By 2028 this cohort becomes the largest single voting bloc in the country.

Companion Fig. 01 to the eight-part Pandemic Skip essay.

Save for reference.

The Pandemic Skip — an intelligence essay in eight parts.An entire Filipino cohort lost three formative years to lockdow...
19/05/2026

The Pandemic Skip — an intelligence essay in eight parts.

An entire Filipino cohort lost three formative years to lockdowns they did not choose. They are now between 19 and 30 — graduating, voting, working, marrying, deferring, leaving.

By 2028 they will be the largest single voting bloc in the country. Every serious institution should already be paying attention.

Volume I of a RepublicAsia series on the generational shifts shaping Southeast Asia.

Paradise does not break overnight. It breaks quietly, for 18 months, until one video forces the country to look.This is ...
06/05/2026

Paradise does not break overnight. It breaks quietly, for 18 months, until one video forces the country to look.

This is what Siargao has been carrying.

For nearly two years, the people of this small island — surfers, mothers, clergy, Lumad musicians, business owners — quietly documented what was happening to their home. Young Israeli tourists, many of them post-service IDF soldiers, were arriving in waves. Staff called “slaves.” Bills walked out on. Homestays trashed. Stones thrown.

Then came the proposal. A Chabad House, planned for General Luna. Built, residents said, without consent, without consultation, without conversation.

So the community responded.

Maria Lalaine Tokong, a Lumad musician, posted a single sentence that traveled across every Filipino feed that saw it:

“We are feeling less at home in our home.”

80 residents walked across Sunset Bridge under a banner that read SIARGAO AGAINST OCCUPATION. 3,550 signed the petition. The Iglesia Filipina Independiente and the United Church of Christ stood with them.

For a year and a half, Manila looked away.

Then in April 2026, a video. Within days the Bureau of Immigration moved. Within two weeks Israeli ambassador Dana Kursh did something rare in modern diplomacy — she asked the host country to arrest her own citizens.

Israel is the Philippines’ second-largest arms supplier — 28% of every weapon Manila imports. In December 2024, the two countries signed a tourism agreement targeting direct flights.
The Siargao crisis arrived before the planes did.

This is no longer a hospitality dispute. It is a sovereignty story disguised as one.

When does the right to welcome become the duty to protect?

—

Paradise Resists — a RepublicAsia Special Report. 16 slides. Swipe through.

Follow for the intelligence behind the headlines.

From a student project to an international film festival.“RUNO!” — a 14-minute Filipino animated short about an aspin cr...
06/05/2026

From a student project to an international film festival.

“RUNO!” — a 14-minute Filipino animated short about an aspin crossing post-apocalyptic Manila to find her owner — just had its North American premiere at the 2026 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, screened April 30 to May 3 under the festival’s “Duty Free” program.

The film traveled four stops to get there: a third-year animation class at iACADEMY in Manila, the first-ever fully-animated short to receive a QCinema Film Festival grant, a public premiere at Sine Pop in Cubao, and now Los Angeles.

Behind it: directors Lysa Catolico and Jaz Pateña, mentored under Keith Sicat’s iNDIEGENIUS Project Lab — the same pipeline that produced Cannes-selected “Agapito.”

Filipino animation finds its global stage. The talent is already here.

Poster: official RUNO! / QCinema artwork, used under editorial fair use for news coverage.

The Philippines steps into convener-in-chief this week. The 48th ASEAN Summit opens in Cebu, May 6–8, with President Mar...
06/05/2026

The Philippines steps into convener-in-chief this week. The 48th ASEAN Summit opens in Cebu, May 6–8, with President Marcos chairing under the theme “Navigating Our Future, Together.”

What’s actually on the agenda — five things worth tracking:
Energy and food security as the two issues defining regional resilience in 2026.

The BIMP-EAGA Special Summit — the Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area — convening alongside. The sub-regional corridor where trade, infrastructure, and capital flows actually move.

The inaugural ASEAN–EU Sustainability Summit on May 7. 200+ representatives across government, business, and civil society on green finance and supply-chain resilience.

Three days in Cebu. The 2026 regional playbook starts here.

ON THE RECORD — May 2026Two parallel proceedings now define the political calendar.ICC. The pretrial chamber confirmed c...
06/05/2026

ON THE RECORD — May 2026

Two parallel proceedings now define the political calendar.
ICC. The pretrial chamber confirmed crimes-against-humanity charges against Rodrigo Duterte on April 23 (murder, attempted murder, 2011–2019).

Trial date is pending. He has been in ICC custody at The Hague since March 11, 2025.

Impeachment. The House justice panel adopted articles against Vice President Sara Duterte on May 5, citing misused confidential funds, unexplained wealth, and threats against the President, the First Lady, and the Speaker. The plenary needs 106 of 318 votes to transmit to the Senate.

Two parallel calendars. The procedural questions — ICC trial-date assignment, Senate court convening, plenary vote arithmetic — will define 2026 more than the political ones.

Sources: ICC, HRW.

Do you agree? Is the middle class — the working class — the new poor in the Philippines?The data tells a story most midd...
04/05/2026

Do you agree? Is the middle class — the working class — the new poor in the Philippines?

The data tells a story most middle-class Filipinos already feel:

→ Middle-class share dropped from 43.5% (2018) to 39.8% (2021)
→ 51% of Filipino families now self-rate as poor (SWS, Nov 2025)
→ 12.6 million households squeezed by March 2026 inflation
→ The Philippines came $26 short of upper middle-income status in 2024

Dr. Tony Leachon calls it directly: "The middle class — long considered the backbone of our economy — is increasingly becoming the new poor."

We pay taxes through automatic withholding. We pay VAT on almost everything we spend. We pay 5% to PhilHealth. But we earn just above the threshold for ayuda — and one medical emergency, one job loss, one price shock can push us down.

20 slides. Process, evidence, voices, and the policies already in motion to address it.

Tell us in the comments — where does your family fall?

Sources: PIDS · BSP · SWS · World Bank · NEDA · DOH · Senate of the Philippines.

The House Committee on Justice transmitted the Articles of Impeachment to the plenary today. The plenary vote could land...
04/05/2026

The House Committee on Justice transmitted the Articles of Impeachment to the plenary today. The plenary vote could land May 11. The Senate could convene as an impeachment court May 13.

Most Filipinos have an opinion on this case. Far fewer know the constitutional thresholds, the actual charges, or the financial trail behind them. This is the institutional brief.

Sources: 1987 Constitution Art. XI Sec. 3; House Committee on Justice; Commission on Audit; AMLC; PSA; UP Law Impeachment Primer.

A nationwide Pulse Asia survey shows where Filipinos actually stand on the West Philippine Sea — weeks before Manila hos...
04/05/2026

A nationwide Pulse Asia survey shows where Filipinos actually stand on the West Philippine Sea — weeks before Manila hosts the 48th ASEAN Summit.

The numbers are clear: transparency on China, alignment with traditional allies, and a strong public preference for who walks into the summit hall.

Swipe →

Source: Pulse Asia Research Inc., Feb 27 – Mar 2, 2026 · n=1,200 · ±2.8%

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