Category: Development

Duterte and his chosen successor will achieve more infrastructure development than any other post-Marcos president

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 Ramon Ortoll 4 Comments

Us martial law babies remember past Independence Day celebrations before. Flag-raising at the Rizal monument followed by a military parade at the Quirino Grandstand. What most Opposition “thought leaders” seem to conveniently leave out of their version of recent history is that, post-Marcos, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was largely-divided into Marcos loyalists…

Development

Senators in oligarchs’ pockets a serious roadblock to reforms needed to attract more foreign investment

June 7, 2021 Ramon Ortoll 1 Comment

“Filipino last?” Boo Chanco poses the question in his PhilSTAR piece of the same title today and answers in the end, “Our Filipino First policy only made Filipinos last. That’s the awful truth.” It never ceases to amaze me how Chanco can easily flip-flop on policy now that he beats the drum on openness to…

Business, Development

Philippines’ rail system finally being fixed and expanded after being messed up by Noynoy Aquino government

May 27, 2021 Ramon Ortoll No Comments

Dean dela Paz in his Daily Tribune piece “Tugade’s transport triumphs” recalls the state of transport infrastructure under the administration of former President Noynoy Aquino and the fiascos that punctuated his term… We need not list a litany of the successive failures as they are deeply etched in the consciousness of the public, like festering…

Development

The Philippines needs less emotional millennials who can think strategically in terms of national interests

May 24, 2021 Ramon Ortoll No Comments

Excellent read, this piece “A millennial considers the new German Problem after 30 years of peace”. Its author, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and German millennial Ulrike Franke, laments how her demographic “struggle to think in terms of interests, we struggle with the concept of geopolitical power, and we struggle…

Development, Society

The Politics of Business: an account of political persecution by Herminio Disini

May 20, 2021May 28, 2021 Ramon Ortoll 3 Comments

If you want to have an idea of how the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was weaponized against the Marcos “cronies” you should read this book, The Politics of Business: How the Government Tried My Case Without Me, by none other than Herminio T. Disini. Disini begins with his origins in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur…

Business, Development

When did the dispute between the Philippines and China REALLY begin?

May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 Ramon Ortoll No Comments

Here we go again. Retired former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio writes yet again in his latest piece “China does not possess the [West Philippine Sea]” published on the Inquirer. He continues to assert ad nauseum that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is “sending a message to oil and gas companies with Service Contracts from the…

Business, Development

Why is the Philippines always BEGGING for stuff?

April 9, 2021April 9, 2021 benign0 20 Comments

The Philippines begs just like a scorpion stings. That’s just what the Philippines does. It begs. It begs for “foreign investment”. It begs for foreign “aid”. Begs for loans. Begs for military support. Begs for military equipment. Begs for International Criminal Court intervention. Begs for foreign employment. Begs for rice. Begs for tourists. Begs for…

Culture, Development

The Philippines was a crisis waiting to happen even before COVID-19 struck

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 Ilda 12 Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed humankind’s long-ignored exposure to the risk of virulent diseases running wild and severely impacting the world order. It all but levelled the playing field. People from both rich and poor countries were not spared from the disease’s harmful, and in a lot of cases, deadly effects on the human body….

Development, Society