Teka Teka

The squid on our plates may have come at a devastating human cost. A new investigation by the Environmental Justice Foundation, based on five years of research and more than 430 interviews with Filipino and Indonesian fishers, uncovers widespread forced labour, wage theft, violence, illegal fishing, and even deaths aboard distant-water squid vessels. Many of the workers are Filipinos, recruited with promises of steady jobs only to find themselves trapped at sea for months, or even years, with little chance of escape.

Tuberculosis remains one of the Philippines’ deadliest public health challenges, with the country now ranking third globally in TB burden. Philippine Tuberculosis Society (PTSI), founded in 1910, has been on the frontlines for over a century evolving from isolation care at the historic Quezon Institute to today’s decentralized network of clinics.Former Health secretary Dr. Paulyn Ubial, who is now PTSI’s executive director, explains how TB spreads, why stigma and fear remain barriers to treatment, and how their strategy is reshaping the fight against TB. Their goal is clear: to eliminate TB in the Philippines by 2030.For more information from PTSI, click here.

A necessary tool for social order. This was how affected residents viewed tokhang, according to Dr. Marco Garrido, an associate professor of Sociology from the University of Chicago. His ethnographic work reveals that in high-density, impoverished neighborhoods, the disruption caused by drugs was seen as a collective threat, derailing their very survival. More about his study—which argues that the poor’s support for the drug war was not a result of ignorance, but a rational, complex trade-off between human rights and the urgent desire for neighborhood security—in this episode of Teka Teka.

Scientists monitoring Bais Bay in Tañon Strait say the damage caused by a toxic wastewater spill in an ethanol distillery has evolved into something even more dangerous: a slow-moving ecological crisis that threatens corals, fisheries, and livelihoods. This episode examines why the spill continues, the gaps in environmental enforcement, and what must happen now to prevent irreversible damage to the country's largest marine protected area.

We’ve been seeing, reading and hearing it all over the news: a so-called “Super” El Niño is here. How will this climate event affect the Philippines, a country that is highly exposed to weather and climate hazards?In this episode of Teka Teka, climate and environment journalist Jhesset Enano speaks with meteorologist and climate scientist Rafaela Jane Delfino on this global climate pattern, unpacking complex terms and jargon to help Filipinos better prepare for the looming El Niño conditions. Is it accurate to call it ‘super,’ or even ‘Godzilla’ El Niño? Who are the most vulnerable to its impacts and how can the government help them mitigate the worst possible scenarios?Reporter and host: Jhesset EnanoProducer: Tricia AquinoAudio editor: Anthony TobiasVideo editor: Ces Leslie Salada/Ron Lobiano

In this episode of Teka Teka, we explore periods: the physical and social costs of having them; what organizations and the government are doing to improve the experience for young Filipinas; and why we as a society, seem to shy away from conversations about this normal, everyday occurrence.

In “Pictures that matter,” a special mini-series to commemorate the tenth year of the drug war, we talk to media workers who covered one of the bloodiest terms in modern Philippine history and ask them to tell the stories behind the troubling—and powerful—images splashed on our screens and newspapers. What kind of mark did this period leave on these journalists, and how have they made sense of what happened? This final episode features award-winning photojournalist Eloisa Lopez.

Democracies are grappling with a new threat supercharged by AI. Reporting from Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, independent journalist Nica Hanopol unpacks the rise of “malicious AI swarms.”  They are opaque, personalised, and cross-platform, making it harder to detect. In this episode, she explores how these networks could fabricate consensus during elections and undermine people’s right to form their own opinions free from interference. It features insights from UN OHCHR Digital Technologies and Human Rights Chief Wafa Ben-Hassine; SINTEF Digital Researcher Daniel Schroeder; Monash Data and Democracy Research Hub Co-Director Ika Idris; and National Democratic Institute Deputy Director of Elections Julia Brothers.To learn more about this issue, read the research paper here: “How malicious AI swarms can threaten democracy”

In “Pictures that matter,” a special mini-series to commemorate the tenth year of the drug war, we talk to media workers who covered one of the bloodiest terms in modern Philippine history and ask them to tell the stories behind the troubling—and powerful—images splashed on our screens and newspapers. What kind of mark did this period leave on these journalists, and how have they made sense of what happened? This episode features veteran producer Rica Concepcion.For more of this story, read “They are slaughtering us like animals” by Daniel Berehulak, who won a Pulitzer Prize for this photo essay in The New York Times.