The earlier part of this two-article series discussed how and why AI, authenticity and mental health will continue to be major conversation themes. What other issues are worthy of discussion?
If you have not yet read the first part, you may access it here.
Climate change
The effects of climate change hit really close to home among Filipinos. The World Risk Index ranked the country as having the highest disaster risk in 2022 and 2023. The 2025 Climate Risk Index (CRI) shared recently by environmental policy think tank Germanwatch placed the Philippines 10th among the countries most affected by extreme weather occurrences. According to the study, more than 6.4 million Filipinos were affected by 372 extreme weather events from 1993 to 2022, with economic losses hitting almost P2 trillion.
Even without data from such studies, scorching summers and stronger and more frequent typhoons that cause landslides and floods and destroy crops, infrastructure and even lives all prove how vulnerable the country is to climate change. Damage to agriculture alone result in higher food prices, exacerbating inflation and rising cost of living.
Businesses are not impervious to these risks. Infrastructure damages and loss of manpower days due to floodings and other natural calamities directly affect companies. Economic losses overall are significant. The country, in fact, was ranked by a study of 36 countries released by the Swiss Re Institute in early 2024 as among those exposed most economically to the impact of climate change, with losses amounting to 3 percent of GDP or US$12 billion.
Because of the country’s geographic location, the Philippines will continue to face such great threats. Mitigating the effects of the climate crisis is no longer just the government’s concern. The conversation on this includes everyone because everyone is affected. So how can everyone get involved?
How can PR be leveraged to steer the conversation on climate change in the right direction? What role do PR professionals play in this and is this role taken seriously enough? How can communicators work with companies and brands to ensure efforts in this area do get some results?
ESG and sustainability
With the perils caused by climate change a hot-button topic, ESG or environmental, social and governance is increasingly moving to the front of conversations.
Remember when CSR or corporate social responsibility started becoming such as a huge thing that practically all companies said they were undertaking CSR initiatives? CSR remains a significant subject matter, and businesses with sustained CSR efforts are doing a good job.
But while CSR enables companies to run programs that benefit the community, it may not be enough to ensure sustainability, especially as regards green initiatives and programs aimed at tackling the climate crisis. ESG adds the aspect of measurement. ESG guidelines evaluate companies’ efforts in achieving overall sustainability, specifically in the areas of environment, social and governance.
ESG as part of the conversation is therefore increasingly important amid the need to address environmental concerns in the face of climate emergency. The environmental guidelines under ESG, for example, may include how businesses may be evaluated in the areas of energy use and conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management and compliance with other environmental regulations.
In the Philippines, such guidelines and regulations, coupled with more stringent regulations, could enable the country to make some headway in responding to the climate crisis. Companies and individuals could be more accountable. Publicly listed companies are required to submit their ESG reports. How about those not listed? Don’t they have similar ESG responsibilities? Both the government and private sector could be more proactive instead of just reactive, and everyone involved much more actively.
Sustainability as it relates to food security and nutrition is increasingly a topic of conversation as well. With food prices continuing to climb, it is no wonder nutrition remains a serious problem, affecting in particular the elderly and children. As regards the elderly, inaccessible and inadequate food and nutrition create a lot of problems, especially because the country’s healthcare is the way it is. For the children, besides the stunted physical growth, undernutrition hampers the education and potential of this future generation of Filipinos.
Are all these reflected in companies’ PR campaigns? How impactful thus far have CSR and ESG initiatives been? Better yet, how are these measured PR-wise? How can PR efforts be maximized to get the discourse on sustainability on high gear?
Politics
It’s an election year. The political gear is up and running. As early as Q4 2024, candidates have been “silently” making their presence felt, and many actually leveraged the Christmas season to share goodwill and demonstrate their compassion and generosity of spirit. Way ahead of the official start of the campaign period, posters, billboards and other sorts of advertisements have started appearing. A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) report citing data from the Nielsen Ad Intel said Sen. Imee Marcos and Las Pinas Rep. Camille Villar, both seeking a Senate spot, have already spent more than P1 billion on aired ads from January to September 2024.
PR teams of aspiring public servants have a lot of irons in the fire from managing a candidate’s brand, crafting policy narratives and essentially making sure their candidate is top of mind. They not only have to bring a candidate closer to the public, which in itself already involves organizing a lot of public appearances and making said candidate relatable through spreading information about their personal life, family and aspirations. PR teams have to do all these while handling the candidate’s public persona at the same time, and in some cases they may even have to start from scratch in creating that candidate’s public persona and brand.
As the campaign picks up and debates, sorties and all sorts of information spread about candidates, reputation management and crisis communication make the task even more fraught with challenges. Boosting voter engagement requires a lot of PR and grassroots activities, all of which may involve putting out fires as they simultaneously handle the flow of information — including misinformation or controversial issues — about their candidates.
The public meanwhile has to filter fact from fiction and weed out fake news and mal-, dis- and misinformation. No easy task. Social media is a hotbed for fake news in all its forms, and many have used it to put them in a better light while presenting others negatively, sometimes even causing harm.
Conversations between now and May will also center on policies and platforms, candidates’ track record, including any scandal and pending cases, and performance on debates, that is if they attend at all. Polls and surveys will be used and their results highlighted or questioned depending on the candidate’s standing in said survey. A survey carried out by one candidate or their party will be contested by an opposing candidate and their party, and the public left to figure out which survey is based on actual on-the-ground data.
Popularity and recall unfortunately remain a strong element in Philippine elections. It’s no wonder celebrities are increasingly at the helm of the executive and legislative branches of government. The principles of democracy allow anyone to run for office, but it is high time the discourse on the elections underscored that fame does not equal competence.
Political dynasties is another conversation topic. PCIJ noted that the majority of Philippines cities are under political dynasties. More than 50 percent of all city mayors or 80 percent are from political dynasties hoping to get reelected in May.
Voter education should be prioritized, and not just awareness about candidates’ CV but about real socioeconomic and political issues that will affect both present and future. Such voter education conversations should include the issue of handouts and how these ayudas are becoming our public servants’ way of addressing the problems of society, meaning bandaid gestures that inadvertently make seeming beggars out of the public these politicians swore to serve.
Policies, previous performance as a public servant, domain knowledge, political agenda or vision, local government problems and fiscal situation, governance-related issues, socioeconomic problems, poverty and crime rate. These should start dictating conversations from now till May. The candidates, their PR teams and the public can hopefully contribute to the discussion.
DEI
Another acronym, yes. Discussions and initiatives revolving around diversity, equity and inclusion in recent times pretty much underlined gender. This will continue to change as conversations on DEI also tackle more themes surrounding race, religion, ethnicity, disability, age, socioeconomic background and other aspects of identity.
Filipinos are inherently an accepting people. The warm welcome we extend to guests to our homes reflects our natural compassion and congeniality. DEI therefore has gained much traction in the country, including in the workplace. With wokeness being such a strong theme among the younger population, DEI will likely remain part of the conversation.
The public relations industry is one of the most diverse, and most PR companies have a mixed workforce. This diversity is probably where PR agencies get their creativity, the various backgrounds, experiences and insights sparking innovative ideas.
Staff hiring should not be the only area where DEI is practiced though. Workplace DEI conversations can also look into programs from training through career development that actually provide opportunities for all. More buildings and establishments now have facilities to ensure ease of access and use for everyone, something that was not as pervasive in past years.
In fleshing out DEI measures, the discussion should delineate among the three — diversity, equity and inclusivity. This is because diversity doesn’t necessarily mean inclusion. Nor does it automatically translate to equity, which means equal access to similar opportunities for all. A group may be diverse yet not diverse enough to cater to all. One may be included but not be given the same opportunities.
Besides awareness or the lack thereof, conversations addressing DEI looks into bias, whether conscious or unconscious. This is why communicators must discern and avoid stereotyping of any kind. In this area, social media may play a crucial role, but that would require more responsible use of social media and similar platforms.
Cybersecurity
The country climbed in the 2024 UN Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) — moving from 61st in 2020 to 53rd last year. Notwithstanding this positive development, the cybersecurity threat remains high.
Cyberattacks last year on government sites, including the Philippine Navy, and even private companies such as Jollibee (said to be the largest data breach in PH history with 11 million customers and connected companies affected) compromised confidential data.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) reported recently that cybercrime complaints for 2024 totaled 10,004, a huge jump from 3,317 in 2023. Consumer fraud led complaints, followed by online fraud. There were also complaints about financial fraud, job and investment scams, and love scams. Losses from recorded cybercrime incidents totaled P198 million.
The complaints may be deemed as a reflection of the growing awareness among Filipinos about the need to protect themselves against cybercrimes. This can be a positive development. But still education on online risks and threats needs to be a priority, especially among the younger generation who may fall easy prey to online predators.
Besides the growing risks, conversations about cybersecurity must zero in on how to optimize best practices, and not just technology-wise best practices, to effectively lower the risks of attacks. Capacity building and training of team members are equally important topics here. Smaller businesses, which oftentimes are the most vulnerable not just because of the lack of awareness but more because of the lack of the necessary infrastructure to protect their network, need to be part of the conversation.
How can PR campaigns be leveraged and PR pros be involved in boosting awareness about cybersecurity? No doubt PR companies are also at risks — they have databases with confidential client data, which is why AI use should also be monitored to avoid data leaks.
With the younger generation always online, should cybersecurity be part of school curriculum alongside internet etiquette? That is, if they are not being taught already. What about use of social media? Obviously, regulating it isn’t that easy but certainly something can be done to help reduce the risks of scams and similar perils on social media platforms, or at least conversations about it can pick up pace.
As the year progresses, there will be other issues and topics around which conversations will revolve. The new leadership in the White House and how it will shape things globally, the health of the Pope, territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea, the future of TikTok, the next online megasale. These are just some of those other themes. As events unfold in the political, economic, social and financial spheres, developments and issues will come up and these will influence conversations, business decisions and perhaps the future of us all.
Sources
- https://actamedicaphilippina.upm.edu.ph/index.php/acta/article/view/11983
- https://backendnews.net/ph-rises-to-53rd-place-in-global-cybersecurity-index/
- https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2034106/extreme-weather-study-says-ph-10th-hardest-hit
- https://pcij.org/2025/01/27/2025-philippine-elections-blog-midterm-polls/
- https://pcij.org/2025/01/26/113-out-of-149-philippine-cities-also-ruled-by-political-dynasties/
- https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/1/31/cicc-records-over-10-000-cybercrime-complaints-in-2024-1628
- https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/health-and-family/2024/11/05/2395223/filipino-youth-and-mental-health-are-we-listening-enough-heads-ph-advocates-awareness-support
- https://www.sangfor.com/blog/cybersecurity/jollibee-data-breach-philippines-affected-11-million-customers
- https://www.swissre.com/press-release/Economic-losses-set-to-increase-due-to-climate-change-with-US-and-Philippines-the-hardest-hit-Swiss-Re-Institute-finds/3051a9b0-e379-4bcb-990f-3cc8236d55a1
- https://www.usaid.gov/climate/country-profiles/philippines
- https://www2.deloitte.com/ph/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/now-decides-next.html
