A Strongman’s Prison Cell Spectacle
Issue 34 — Key Developments Across the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam
Editor’s Note
by Karen Ysabelle R. David, Lead Editor - Pacific Corridor Desk
Halfway across the world from Southeast Asia, in faraway The Hague, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sits detained by the International Criminal Court. Yet as Arianne De Guzman writes, even as he is set to face trial for his alleged crimes against humanity, strongman and “criminal populist” Duterte has still managed to turn his stay in a prison cell into a spectacle for his supporters.
From Singapore, Nurul Aini reports on the 2026 Build for Impact hackathon. Her interview with the co-founders of Build Learning, who co-organized the event, presents a more optimistic view of AI. With the technology set to be everywhere, co-founders Ash Ang and Jin Yi Chua focus on cultivating students’ mindsets into viewing AI as a tool for societal improvement.
Meanwhile, the global gold rush triggered by recent geopolitical uncertainties has also reached Vietnam, as discussed by Tri Vo in his article. It is now up to the country’s central bank to put measures in place to safeguard its monetary system and stability. More than just about gold, this incident is the latest reminder to Southeast Asian countries that they must always be prepared for the ripples and repercussions of political developments elsewhere.
The Philippines 🇵🇭
Marketing the Strongman
by Arianne De Guzman, in Bulacan
In the Philippines, criminal populism has shaped public discourse on crime and disorder. It has also become a central feature of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s governance and mass appeal, allowing him to redefine justice and leadership.
On 26 January 2026, the International Criminal Court (ICC) declared that Duterte is fit to undergo pre-trial proceedings over his alleged crimes against humanity linked to his war on drugs campaign. The court also set a confirmation hearing on 23 February to determine whether the prosecution’s evidence is sufficient for the case to proceed to trial. This followed claims by his lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, that the 80-year-old man is medically unfit due to alleged cognitive impairment.
However, three (3) ICC judges disclosed that medical experts found him capable of exercising his legal rights. Duterte also lost in his previous attempts to secure an interim release and in his bid to dismiss the entire case based on jurisdiction.
Health concerns and national sovereignty arguments are used to delay judicial scrutiny and influence public opinion. More broadly, they reflect how criminal populism functions as a strategy to exploit public fear of crime. Under this framework, penal populist leaders mobilize support, redirect attention to other issues, and justify extreme forms of governance. Hence, involvement in crimes such as violence can become a political asset rather than a liability.
This pattern was evident throughout Duterte’s presidency and intensified following his ICC arrest.
Human rights groups documented up to 30,000 extrajudicial killings, allegedly carried out by secretive police death squads from 2016–2022. Killings occurred without due process, trials, or warrants of arrest, leaving victims with no opportunity to verify accusations or defend themselves.
For the victims and their families, the issue is one of long-delayed justice. Meanwhile, among Duterte’s supporters, the ICC case is framed as foreign interference and political maneuvering. This narrative is amplified by online media figures such as Sass Rogando Sasot, Krizette Chu, and Mark Anthony Lopez through sensationalized content and disinformation that normalizes violence and distorts facts.
It also reflects a broader trend in populist politics.
Research suggests that populist leaders defy legal challenges because their emotional connection with the masses overrules democratic accountability. This is evident in the case of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, whose approval rating improved across all regions and socioeconomic classes, increasing from 52% in February to 59% in March 2025. Her trust ratings also rose from 53% to 61% over the same reporting period. According to University of the Philippines (UP) Political Science Professor Jean Encinas-Franco, this increase has been attributed to developments surrounding the ICC arrest warrant issued on 11 March 2025.
Through criminal populism, legal proceedings and investigations become stages for political spectacle, where Duterte portrays himself as a strongman defending the people against elites and foreign intruders.
As Dr. Christopher Magno observed, criminal politicians such as Duterte convert both their criminal acts and narratives within criminal justice systems into political capital to maintain public support and escape accountability. In this process, political legitimacy is preserved not through innocence, but through influence.
Arianne has experience in policy research at De La Salle University’s Jesse M. Robredo Institute of Governance, where she contributed to projects on systemic reform. She earned a degree in Political Science from Colegio de San Juan de Letran. Currently, she works in government relations, specializing in advocacy strategy, legislative monitoring, and stakeholder engagement. Beyond her professional work, she is actively involved in youth development and grassroots initiatives through the Rotaract Club of Santa Maria.
Singapore 🇸🇬
Rethinking Hackathons with Design Thinking and Innovation
by Nurul Aini, in Singapore
On 24 January, The ASEAN Frontier was invited to the 2026 Build for Impact hackathon, co-organized by IMDA, SGInnovate, and Build Learning. The event featured SEA-LION, a regional large language model designed for Southeast Asian contexts. Students tackled real-world issues in charity, sustainability, and wellness. I spoke with Build Learning co-founders Ash and Jin Yi about the hackathon’s goal to emphasize thoughtful application over pure technical building.
Aini: What drove you to co-organize this event?
Ash: Going back to the genesis of Build Learning, the idea for this startup began as a project in Stanford University. Eventually, we wanted to see how design thinking and innovation mindsets can be brought to students.
Jin Yi: For myself, I had previously done innovation projects. I then moved to Samsung as an incubator; again, working with innovation projects. At the same time, as part of Samsung (outreach), I also did a few industry engagements in places like Lasalle, School of the Arts (SOTA), and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) to help students understand design research and innovation a little bit more.
That’s when Ash and I decided, “Hey, why not do something together?” He comes from an education background, and I come from industry. If AI can provide answers, think for you, and do almost everything, the important question becomes: what kind of mindsets do we want to cultivate in youth? At Build Learning, we aim to merge our education and industry experiences to reimagine what a hackathon can be.
Aini: Given your startup’s interdisciplinary approach and the growing debate around AI’s role in enhancing or diminishing human skills, how do you view AI as a tool, and how do you hope to shape its impact differently?
Ash: I think that AI will inevitably be integrated into our lives and we can’t really avoid it. And it’s really about how we intentionally use it. Going back to the question as to why we wanted to co-organize this event, we really wanted to focus on questions such as: how do you build something that is useful for society, and how do you build with intention? That’s why we invite many local founders and emphasize not just building during hackathons, but thinking critically about what to build and understanding real-world constraints.
Aini: How do you see the development of AI locally and regionally?
Jin: (To clarify and add on to the previous question) We are not an AI company. The reason we use AI for this hackathon is because AI now has this ability to churn out quotes really quickly. If you type into Lovable and want to build something, it instantly gives you a visual. Having AI do that can really be instantly gratifying for the students. Today, the kids can be building something 3D printed but that doesn’t make us a 3D printing company. Again, we are not an AI company — we are really about design thinking and innovation.
Ash: We use AI tools to increase access, as unlike hackathons from a few years ago that required coding skills, today’s AI allows more students to start building without needing technical expertise.
Aini is currently pursuing a master’s degree in English literature at Nanyang Technological University. She has experience working in youth groups, contributing to the planning and management of outreach activities.
Vietnam 🇻🇳
All that Glitters
by Tri Vo, in Ho Chi Minh City
As the Lunar New Year (Tet) approaches, Vietnam’s financial markets are grappling with volatility that could strain the country’s monetary system. Over the weekend of January 24–25, the price of SJC gold bars shattered previous records, trading at around US$5,500 per ounce, a surge fueled by global prices, breaching the threshold of US$5,000 per ounce. This gap between domestic and global valuation presents a daunting challenge to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) as it seeks to maintain monetary stability to ensure Vietnam’s overall economic health.
The current market fluctuation is far from being solely speculative but also structural. Vietnamese household savings have traditionally hedged against inflation through the storing of physical gold, but the current premium indicates a severe supply-demand imbalance stemming from the rise in global instability that has drawn more capital, or even more speculation, toward gold, as well as the constricted domestic supply pipeline of the precious metal in the face of such heightened demand growth. Economists warn that this resurgence of goldization threatens to drain liquidity from the formal banking sector. Should capital flee savings accounts to chase bullion, the SBV may be forced to hike interbank interest rates, inadvertently further cooling the already lowered credit growth target of 15% set for 2026.
To stymie such an insalubrious development, the regulatory framework has been updated significantly. The government’s issuance of Decree No. 232/2025/ND-CP, which officially ended the state monopoly on gold bar production, was intended to ease supply constraints. However, the market reaction suggests that the lag between policy issuance and bullion production is creating a space for continuing speculation. While commercial banks are now authorized to produce bullion under the new framework, the stringent licensing requirements (requiring charter capital of at least approximately US$2 billion for banks) mean that new supply has yet to enter the market sufficiently to meet current demands, not to mention the Tet rush, where the demands will spike in anticipation of the God of Wealth Day.
Beyond immediate containment, the government is moving toward a long-awaited structural fix. On 25 January, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed an urgent directive requesting the Ministry of Finance and SBV to rapidly finalize the proposal for a National Gold Exchange by the end of January. Such a centralized exchange, coupled with the expanded supply pipeline, would bring transparency to the market, helping to narrow the persistent gap between domestic and global prices as well as to channel capital into more productive sectors. By the end of 2025, the SBV confirmed it had received applications from nine enterprises seeking licenses to produce gold bars under the new Decree 232 framework.
However, with the SBV’s commitment to shoring up the Vietnamese dong, which was reaffirmed in its first directive of 2026, prioritizing inflation control, the government is expected to roll out further measures to stabilize the price of gold. For foreign investors, the message is one of ambiguity: while the macroeconomic fundamentals remain sound with an 8% growth in 2025 and a 10% GDP growth target on the horizon, the distortion in the country’s gold market serves as a vivid reminder of the inherently unique behavioral economics governing Vietnamese capital flows.
Tri has experience in management consulting and strategy, having worked with institutions such as the UNDP, The Asia Group, and ARC Group. He has provided strategic, legal, and operational insights to clients in sectors including manufacturing, energy, and technology. He holds both academic and professional experience related to Southeast and East Asia, with a focus on regional development and policy.
Editorial Deadline 03/02/2026 11:59 PM (UTC +8)
