SL Agritech president and Sterling Group founder Henry Lim Bon Liong received the Order of Lakandula for his significant contributions to Philippine society as a businessman, leader and philanthropist.
Pathways Fellows Lucio Blanco Pitlo III and Aaron Jed Rabena have been actively going the rounds of conferences, discussions and media engagements. At the Lido Wednesday Roundtable held on June 19, Pitlo and Rabena discussed issues of fisheries and marine resources in the context of bilateral relations with China before an audience of Manila-based reporters. This was in the wake of the Recto Bank boat sinking incident. Several news agencies, including GMA, Rappler, and Philippine News quoted their remarks in the media forum.
With them were resource persons from the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources and Philippine Coast Guard.
On July 10, both were guest speakers at another Lido media forum, held to mark the third year anniversary of the arbitration ruling. The other notable speakers were former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay, former Senator Francisco Tatad, and political analyst Richard Heydarian.
What are the exigent challenges, opportunities, and ways forward for Philippine-Australian relations amid great power geopolitical competition in the Asia-Pacific? Both countries are allies of the U.S. and thus part of the latter’s “hub and spokes” system, and they face similar security challenges.
Manila-based think-tank Asia- Pacific Pathways to Progress. (APPFI) and the Brisbane-based Griffith Asia Institute (GAI) jointly organized this year’s Philippines-Australia Dialogue on July 18-19. Held with the support of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, the theme of the dialogue was “Connecting the Spokes”.
Last July 22, Dr. Jae Hyon Lee, Research Fellow and Director of Center for ASEAN and Oceania Studies at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, spoke at a joint public forum on The Significance of South Korea’s New Southern Policy (NSP) for the Philippines and ASEAN held in Quezon City.