Category: Development

BusinessWeek cites Aquino anti-corruption drive in 2Q growth report

August 30, 2012 benign0 4 Comments

The National Statistical Coordination Board of the Philippine Government announced today that the Philippine economy grew 5.9 percent in the three months to the end of June 2012 over the same period in the previous year. Several news reports credited increased spending by the government and favourable perception created by the “anti-corruption” drive of Philippine…

Development, Economy, Media, Money Talks

Are the obvious solutions to the Philippines’ problems feasible?

August 27, 2012 Kate Natividad 15 Comments

I keep reading about people proposing sensible and obvious things to combat the biggest problems we face today, like controlling (and maybe even reducing) population, reducing carbon emissions, and voting for the best leader. All sounds like the ‘intelligent’ things to do, don’t they? But all that is just asking too much when you consider…

Development, Environment, Lifestyle, Society

It’s about time the Philippine government blasts squatters out of the water

August 14, 2012June 13, 2013 benign0 44 Comments

Apparently emboldened by the rising anger over the man-made nature of the massive floods that devastated much of Metro Manila last week and increasingly loud calls to rectify the problems related to it that politicians had allowed to fester for decades, President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III has issued a strong mandate for decisive action…

Development, Environment, Government, Society

RH Bill ‘debate’: When Tito Sotto says ‘jump’ Filipinos ask ‘How high?’

August 13, 2012 benign0 20 Comments

Whatever the content of Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III’s anti-Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill) speech broadcast via radio today was, the bottom line is quite simple: Tito Sotto is a celebrity. His impassioned speech delivered in Tagalog, the lingua franca of Philippine showbiz, will likely have resonated across the Filipino masses. Sure, he made debatable…

Culture, Development, Education, Lifestyle, Politics, Religion

Solution to Manila flooding may involve more of living with it than protecting against it

August 12, 2012June 13, 2013 benign0 29 Comments

Metro Manila is, by its very nature, a city vulnerable to flooding. Yet it has grown and developed into a monstrous megalopolis that, today, teeters on the brink of catastrophic failure. Manila is bisected by the Pasig River into which connect a system of natural waterways that both feed into it and absorb excess water…

Development, Environment, Government

Is PNoy to blame for the recent flooding in Luzon?

August 10, 2012June 13, 2013 Ilda 99 Comments

When former President Gloria Arroyo (GMA) was in power, people were quick to blame her government for what happened during the flooding brought about by typhoon Ondoy in September 2009. Yes, her government could have done more to prevent the flooding but the deluge brought forth by the rains induced by the storm that caused…

Development, Environment, Government, Politics

Metro Manila a candidate for urban ‘catastrophic failure’ according to policy expert

August 10, 2012 benign0 39 Comments

The virtue of ‘resilience’ has become a dirty word now in the Philippines as third-time unlucky Manila is again hit by another one of those “one-in-one-hundred” calamities that were once the key statistical notion underpinning urban planners’ archaic flood “control” master plans. Although response to the disaster has “improved”, the feel-good rhetoric around Filipinos’ cockroach-like…

Development, Environment, Government

Social Media and Big Telco emerge as Filipino heroes

August 9, 2012August 9, 2012 benign0 3 Comments

In another one of its infomercial articles that it would like to pass off to the average sucker as a news “report”, ABS-CBN trumpeted another one of those dubious “achievements” Filipinos owe mainly to their enormous population — our undisputed place in the global scheme of things as the “social media capital of the world”….

Development, Environment, Money Talks, Politics

Vys
on The REAL solution to inflation lies in the rich and middle classes curbing NON-ESSENTIAL spending
YOU'RE insensitive and economically incorrect. You have no right to
History
on UK Immigration, Lies in History and Wokeness Debunked by Simon Webb
Not entirely false. People have been migrating to Britain for
History
on UK Immigration, Lies in History and Wokeness Debunked by Simon Webb
Depends on the individual immigrants. In the past, Britain did
History
on UK Immigration, Lies in History and Wokeness Debunked by Simon Webb
Absolutely wrong. Colonizers are technically migrants. Subsequent migrants also helped
History
on UK Immigration, Lies in History and Wokeness Debunked by Simon Webb
Blacks were not nobles. But there were Black and brown
History
on UK Immigration, Lies in History and Wokeness Debunked by Simon Webb
Absolutely wrong. Colonisers are technically migrants. Subsequent migrants have also
megget
on WHO instructed Tab Baldwin to “limit” his public “apology” to just “four minutes”?
"Risa eyes German embassy help to summon Gorebox maker" now
benign0
on WHO instructed Tab Baldwin to “limit” his public “apology” to just “four minutes”?
Apologies, this from the Manila Times editor! Honesty needed in