IN THE PHILIPPINES, the end of Ferdinand Marcos’s 20-year dictatorship in 1986 was a tumultuous time. The new government of Corazon Aquino was being challenged on all fronts: from the Right, by ambitious military factions plotting coups; from the Left, by peasant guerrillas and angry protesters demanding radical reforms. In those days, I was working as a journalist in Manila, finally able to cover the country’s problems with corruption, crime, economic stagnation, and insurgency without fear of censors.

MARAGONDON, Cavite – Since school opened last June, the balitaan portion of eighth-grader Micaella Javier’s Araling Panlipunan class has been full of reports on the deaths prompted by President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s war on drugs.Save for stories about the State of the Nation Address and the controversy over the West Philippine Sea, nearly all the news 13-year-old Micaella can recall from the daily exercise are those about the killings of drug suspects.

TV REMAINS the major source of information and entertainment among Filipinos even as watching content via digital platforms has risen in the last two years among those with Internet access.

TANAY, RIZAL — The fresh wind blowing through the spacious rundown facility can make one feel relax, energized, or even nostalgic. But many of those who had taken temporary residence here had been constantly plotting to escape it – until recently.