Others are not documented at all.

Watch this special report on the two most recent cases involving four young activists who played their captors. They are alive, and ready to tell their story. In one case, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) found a smoking gun against the military’s intelligence service.

Read related stories:

• In pattern of ‘fake surrenders,’ 1 case links abduction to military intel service
• Play the psy-war game: Young activists try to crack the case of disappearances

– Rappler.com

Since the pandemic, more people have turned to biking to get around. As a response, the government put up bike lanes across the metro. To find out how bike-friendly Metro Manila is, Rappler rode a loop of 120 kilometers around the capital in January for a documentary. Riding 100 kilometers or more is part of the bucket list of many bikers due to its sheer distance and the challenge it poses.

The loop covered Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City, Valenzuela, Malabon, Caloocan, Manila, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, and Taguig.

To assess bike-friendliness, Rappler drew up criteria evaluating the bike lanes using four factors: lane width, road conditions, obstructions, and segregation. 

These are factors that affect a biker’s safety on the road, also take into account the infrastructure the government put in place, and gauge the attitude of other motorists with respect to the lane and the bike commuter.

Only portions of the major roads covered in the loop were measured in the scorecard. 

But how safe is Metro Manila for bikers? Rappler’s Iya Gozum biked a 120-kilometer loop in Metro Manila to find out. – Rappler.com

Reporter/writer: Iya Gozum
Producer/field director: Nina Liu
Supervising producer: Beth Frondoso
Video editor: JP San Pedro
Environment editor: Jee Geronimo
Animator: David Castuciano
Graphic artists: Raffy de Guzman, Marian Hukom, Nico Villarete
Director of photography: Jeff Digma
Second camera operator: Errol Almario
Assistant cameramen: Danny Espina, Ramil Cedeno

Improving active transportation facilities and policies is part of the call of various groups to #MakeManilaLiveable. On Rappler, we have created a dedicated space for stories and reports about liveability in Philippine cities. Learn more about the movement here.

Heavy rainfall triggered multiple, fatal landslides that buried 11 children, and destroyed at least 100 houses. 

But this wouldn’t have happened, community sources said, if they weren’t forced to leave their shoreline homes two years earlier to pave the way for private resorts. One of the resorts is owned by a political family. 

Watch the documentary here. – Rappler.com

Researchers and writers: Raizza Bello and Laurice Angeles
Content editors: Chay Hofileña, Jee Geronimo, Herbie Gomez, Inday Varona
Creative director: Emil Mercado
Illustrator: Marian Hukom
Animator: David Castuciano
Graphic artist: Nico Villarete
Voice overs: Jeff Digma and Franz Lopez
Master video editor: Emerald Hidalgo
Supervising producer: Beth Frondoso

This reporting project was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists.

The Philippine Fisheries Code provides municipal fisherfolk exclusive access to their 15-kilometer municipal waters. In some coastal towns in Northern Samar, local governments are strict in keeping commercial fishing vessels, or vessels weighing three tons and above, out of their municipal waters.

But even with strict enforcement, local fisherfolk already deal with a number of challenges, such as dwindling fish stocks and the effects of climate change. Their worries are compounded by proposed amendments to the Fisheries Code, which might see big operators in municipal waters.

Watch the documentary here. – Rappler.com

Reporter: Michelle Abad
Writers: Michelle Abad and Iya Gozum
Environment editor: Jee Geronimo
Director of photography and drone operator: Jeff Digma
Audioman and camera operator: Errol Almario
Master video editor: Emerald Hidalgo
Graphics: Rappler Creatives Team
Field producer: Jaira Roxas
Supervising producer: Beth Frondoso

Ngunit nitong mga nagdaang taon, nasaksihan ng mahigit limang libong residente ng isla ang pagbabago ng dagat na kailanman ay hindi pa nila nakikita at nararanasan.

Sa dokyumentaryong ito, binisita ni Rappler researcher-writer Jezreel Ines ang Isla Pamarawan sa Malolos, Bulacan upang alamin ang sitwasyon ng mga residente at tukuyin ang dahilan kung bakit unti-unting nalulunod ang islang tinuring na nilang tahanan.

Panoorin ang buong video sa Rappler. – Rappler.com

Para sa mga nais tumulong sa pamilya Bonghanoy, maaaring magpadala sa GCash ni Sarah Bonghanoy (09509172363). Nagbigay ng pahintulot si Sarah na ibahagi ng Rappler ang kanyang numero.

Merong mga tao na nasa gitna – mga malalaking vlogger na mayroong napakaraming sumusubaybay kahit na hindi nila ikinakahon ang kanilang sarili na kakampi o kalaban ng gobyerno.

Sila ang mga boses sa gitna, ang mga vlogger na nakahanap ng kanilang komunidad sa isang mundo sa internet na nagkakawatak-watak ang mga tao.

Sa documentary na ito, sinundan ni Rappler reporter Rambo Talabong ang tatlong mga vlogger. Masalimuot ang pagitan ng mga para at laban sa gobyerno. Saan sila pumoposisyon?

Panoorin ang buong video sa Rappler.

Must Watch

DOCUMENTARY: Ang bagong media ng bagong lipunan

– Rappler.com

9/11: The Philippine Connection tells the story of the plot that was tested in Manila and later came to fruition in 9/11.

Why is it important to us Filipinos? The extremist ideology that spawned the leaders of the 9/11 attacks and lives on in terror networks all over the world is the same ideology that runs through the homegrown terror groups in the Philippines and in the region until now.

Watch 9/11: The Philippine Connection for an in-depth look back at the turbulent decade that reverberates into our own times.

Rappler received permission from ABS-CBN to air this documentary. – Rappler.com

Since its construction in 2000, Masungi Georeserve has become a haven for endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna.

While the founder and staff of Masungi have preserved the area for years, the threat of illegal encroachers remains a challenge to this day. It’s a challenge that its forest rangers have long accepted.

In this documentary, Rappler tells the story of Masungi founder Ben Dumaliang, his daughter Billie, and Kukhan Maas, a park ranger who almost lost his life guarding the conservation area. – Rappler.com

Host/narrator: Iya Gozum
Writer/producer: Nick Villavecer
Production specialists: Franz Lopez, Jeff Digma
Video editor: Emerald Hidalgo
Supervising producer: Beth Frondoso

By noon of June 30, 2022, Robredo stepped down with no regrets, fulfilled that she and her team at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) achieved the goals they set for themselves. She also looked back at her presidential run in the 2022 elections, which inspired a massive volunteer movement that defied traditional campaigns in the Philippines.

Robredo lost the race, but she did not truly feel defeated.

Rappler trailed Robredo during the last three days she spent at the Quezon City Reception House, which served as the OVP’s headquarters during her six years in office.

Watch Leni Robredo’s final days as vice president. – Rappler.com

Producer: Mara Cepeda
Production Specialists: Bryan Jeff Digma, Edrian Kagahastian, Errol Almario
Video Editor: Jaene Zaplan
Graphics: Nico Villarete and Alyssa Arizabal
Supervising Producers: Beth Frondoso and Marga Deona

And it was a colossal “rock.” Under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, human rights suffered unprecedented setbacks that could only be compared to another dark era in Philippine history, Martial Law under the despotic President Ferdinand Marcos. 

By his own estimate in 2018, Gascon said around 27,000 were killed in extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

In 2017, congressmen loyal to Duterte reduced the commission’s annual budget to P1,000 or approximately $20. That move to debilitate the commission was thwarted by the Senate. 

Gascon kept chipping away at this gigantic rock that demonized human rights. President Duterte famously said in a 2018 State of the Nation address, “Your concern is human rights. Mine is human lives.” 

That statement, uttered by the highest official of the land, further alienated the Filipino people from the concept of human rights, that is at its core about the quality of life of humans. 

In 2020, he again told policemen, “I don’t care about human rights,” then told them to shoot addicts, because “all addicts have guns… even if you don’t see a gun, just go ahead and shoot him.”  

Gascon was undeterred in pounding the rock. CHR Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit says the government’s “wanton disregard for life” fired up Gascon’s passion. 

A student activist who played a huge role in the EDSA uprising 36 years ago, Gascon saw the rise in the dead body count as a repudiation of our country’s democratic past. The Philippines ignited the flame of People Power across the world in 1986 as one of the first countries to depose its tyrant through a bloodless revolution.

Pounding the rock, he was unfazed despite the lies and vicious personal attacks Duterte inflicted on him.  

“Every single strike, every moment whether in times of victory or frustration, what we do every day will make a difference,” Gascon said.

In this documentary, Rappler, in partnership with Friedrich Naumann Foundation For Freedom – Philippines, tells the story of Gascon’s legacy in the fight for democracy and human rights. – Rappler.com