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When disaster events capture global attention users of Twitter form transient interest communities that disseminate information and other messages online. This paper examines content related to Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) as it hit the Philippines and triggered international humanitarian response and media attention. It reveals how Twitter conversations about disasters evolve over time, showing an issue attention cycle on a social media platform. The paper examines different functions of Twitter and the information hubs that drive and sustain conversation about the event. Content analysis shows that the majority of tweets contain information about the typhoon or its damage, and disaster relief activities. There are differences in types of content between the most retweeted messages and posts that are original tweets. Original tweets are more likely to come from ordinary users, who are more likely to tweet emotions, messages of support, and political content compared with official sources and key information hubs that include news organizations, aid organization, and celebrities. Original tweets reveal use of the site beyond information to relief coordination and response.

The global goal to attain gender equality, including ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, and ensuring their safety, is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Its attainment means that every person, regardless of sex, is empowered to reach his or her full potential. This entails both men and women being given equal opportunities to education, paid employment, and real decision-making power, whether in the private or public sector. This paper discusses how the country fares in several gender and gender-related indicators that can be used to monitor progress toward gender equality and women empowerment. It provides an overview of the current situation in areas such as equality of human capabilities, equality of economic opportunity, equality in political voice and leadership, and the safety of women and girls. The paper also identifies priorities for public policy while seeking new directions in a number of transformational issues to attain gender equality and women's empowerment in the country.

Guided by the principle of "leaving no one behind", the world targets to achieve gender equality as part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Through the said SDG, United Nations member-states, like the Philippines, have committed to ensure that the rights and privileges afforded to all citizens are the same regardless of sex. This Policy Note presents current statistics on female representation in key leadership positions in the Philippine government and industry. It reveals a dearth of female representation in senior or lead positions and discusses some recommendations to address this systemic underrepresentation of Filipino women.

The global goal to attain gender equality, including ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, and ensuring their safety, is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Its attainment means that every person, regardless of sex, is empowered to reach their full potential. This entails having both men and women being given equal opportunities to education, paid employment, and real decision-making power whether in private, or public sectors. This paper discusses how the country fares in several gender and gender-related indicators that can be used to monitor progress toward gender equality and women's empowerment. It provides an overview of the current situation in areas such as equality of human capabilities, equality of economic opportunity, equality in political voice and leadership, and the safety of women and girls. The paper also identifies priorities for public policy while seeking new directions in a number of transformational issues to attain gender equality and women's empowerment in the country.

This paper examines the link between reliance on Facebook for news, political knowledge, and political engagement in the Philippines. We tested five hypotheses using data gathered from an online survey of 978 Filipinos conducted from February 1 to March 31, 2016. Findings support the hypothesis that those who rely less on social media as a news source exhibit higher levels of perceived knowledge about politics than those who rely more on it for news. Controlling for traditional news use, following political officials or institutions on social media is associated with higher levels of political interest and engagement, those with more politically active friends on Facebook have higher levels of exposure to political content online, and there is a positive correlation between Facebook being a source of information about politics and discussing politics more often with others. However, the hypothesis that those with more friends on their network who are politically active, will have greater political knowledge and more political engagement than those who have few politically active friends on their Facebook network is not supported.

In 2008, about 12 percent of five- to fifteen-year-old children were not in school, five years later this had gone down to about 5 percent. Adjusted net primary school attendance rates have increased from 90.8 percent in 2008 to 96.45 percent in 2013. In this paper, we examine this decline in the proportion of out-of-school children and improved primary school participation in the country and attribute them to three key government interventions. First is the passage and full implementation of mandatory kindergarten and the K-12 Law, which aims to enhance basic education through key reforms in the curricula and addition of kindergarten and two years to basic education. Second is the increasing budget that the Department of Education has obtained from the national government. And third is the expansion of the government`s conditional cash transfer program that requires families under the program to send their children to school. These three broad public programs to invest in our human capital changed the way basic education is implemented in the country, and have helped bring the country closer to its goal of universal primary education. Ways forward include continued making full use of information systems especially the learner information system, improving school participation in the secondary education level, monitoring and evaluating the alternative learning system and alternative delivery modes of schooling, addressing gender disparities in basic education, and improving the quality of basic education.

It is common in the Philippines for celebrities in entertainment, news, and sports to run for public office and win, even with little experience in political life and limited education. The preponderance of celebrities in politics is often identif ied in the public discourse as a problem with important implications on national policy. This paper examines empirical correlates of voter preference for celebrity Presidential candidates with data from a nationally-representative survey. It finds support for the hypotheses that the likelihood of voting for celebrity candidates for President and Vice President is associated with education, television exposure, and residence in the capital city. The findings are discussed in the context of political knowledge and its role in shaping voter preferences. Keywords: Television, celebrity politics, entertainment politics, vote choice, voter preference

The global goal to attain gender equality, including ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, and ensuring their safety, is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Its attainment means that every person, regardless of sex, is empowered to reach their full potential. This entails having both men and women given equal opportunities to education, paid employment, and real decisionmaking power whether in private or public sectors. This paper discusses how the country fares in several gender-related indicators that can be used to monitor progress toward gender equality and women empowerment. It provides an overview of the current situation in areas such as equality of human capabilities, equality of economic opportunity, equality in political voice and leadership, and the safety of women and girls. The paper also identifies priorities for public policy while seeking new directions in addressing several transformational issues to attain gender equality and women empowerment in the country.

From 2012 to 2015, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) released a full report, two discussion papers, and two policy notes on Out of School Children (OOSC) in the Philippines. These PIDS papers examined the magnitude of the problem, comparative trends across subgroups of location, sex, and income group of their families, as well as the various possible causes of OOSC. The OOSC statistics from this PIDS-led country study came from national surveys in earlier years, largely the waves of the Annual Poverty Indicator Surveys from 2008 to 2013, as well as from administrative data from the Department of Education, chiefly the 2008-2014 Basic Education Information System. The current study aims to: obtain estimates of out of school (both in magnitude and rates) ; profile OOSC and their families, as well as provide a discussion of the reasons why these children are out of school, and what makes children at risk of dropping out of school; and, discuss and recommend policies to reduce OOSC in the country. The OOSC estimates were generated before the full roll-out of K-12 program that mandates kindergarten, as well as adds two extra years (of senior high school) in basic education. In this context, this current study updates information about OOSC from household surveys and DepED administrative data, partly to assess the degree to which the government has been able to close gaps in education access and completion while at the same time extending its mandate through the K-12 Law. In order to gain a full picture of the problems faced by current OOSC, results of unstructured interviews with parents, school educators, and administrators are also discussed. [.]