Rodrigo Duterte came into office as Philippines’s 15th President on June 30, 2016. His approach to South China Sea dispute and his overall foreign policy once shocked many in the region, and more around the world. As his approach to South China Sea dispute differs from his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III (in office 2010-2016), the world is watching what will come out of this diversion.

Under Benigno Aquino III’s presidency, Philippines was very assertive in emphasizing its claim upon the competing claims by several other countries in the South China Sea. During Aquino’s administration, the Philippines brought the case against China to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2013. The decision came on July 12, 2016, about two weeks after Duterte assumed office. read more

On Friday (9/21/18), Dr. Alfi Rahman from the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC) of Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh attended the UGM PSSAT Library to provide material about Communicating Disaster Risk in Enhancing Community Resilience: Lesson Learned from Simeulue Island, Aceh in SEA Talk # 23.

In his presentation, Dr. Alfi argues that on Simeulue Island, Aceh, residents have their own preventive measures to prevent tsunamis being based on their local wisdom. The local wisdom is in the form of songs which in the lyrics contain prevention of tsunamis. Evidently, in the past December 26, 2004 Aceh Tsunami, only a small number of residents on the island of Simeulue, Aceh were victims, even though their area was included in the affected area. read more