Category: Economy

SMC’s Infrastructure Empire: How Flood Control Unlocks Trillion-Peso Land Values in the Philippines

August 8, 2025 Oman 1 Comment

San Miguel Corporation controls the Philippines’ most extensive private land portfolio through strategic infrastructure projects, with holdings valued at over ₱1 trillion concentrated in flood-prone areas that would dramatically appreciate with improved water management systems. The conglomerate’s 2,500-hectare New Manila International Airport anchors a 12,000-hectare aerotropolis in coastal Bulacan, while proposed Manila Bay reclamation projects…

Development, Economy, Government, Media

Marcos Returns from Washington with an UNFAIR DEAL for the Filipino people

July 29, 2025 Ramon Ortoll 18 Comments

“It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.” Henry Kissinger President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has concluded his visit to the United States. Marketed as a reaffirmation of “ironclad friendship” between Manila and Washington, the trip was hyped by Malacañang as a breakthrough moment for Philippine economic and security…

Business, Economy, Government

High tariffs and the global “Great Depression” at hand is the OVERDUE crisis humanity needs

April 8, 2025April 8, 2025 benign0 6 Comments

We are, indeed, facing the crisis we all knew had to come that could destroy the balance kept by traditional powers-that-be. When people lament the “climate crisis” gripping humanity, all roads in the conversation lead to the inevitable reality — to “save the planet” humanity needs to take a drastic hit on their standard of…

Development, Economy, Environment

People who don’t understand why Donald Trump won will NEVER get it

November 12, 2024 Ramon Ortoll 3 Comments

Had to believe that a veteran political operative such as Lito Banayo dislikes US president-elect Donald Trump. What’s not hard to believe is he has a child who is a US citizen. Most of the children of the elite of our country are dual citizens or have migrated to other countries for obvious reasons. Banayo…

Economy, Politics

Why Filipinos are More Enamored with America than with China

June 30, 2024July 1, 2024 Hector Gamboa 5 Comments

It was reported that the Chinese Embassy in Manila has accused the United States (US) of stoking tensions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). Chinese Embassy officials further claimed that the US is doing this to advance its own geopolitical interest in the region. Of course, right on cue, Duterte sycophants, who are likened to…

Culture, Economy, History, Politics, Science

50% of Filipinos stunted at childhood in the 1980s could be why the Philippines is so intellectually-bankrupt today!

June 25, 2024 benign0 3 Comments

For many of the world’s richest — or even emerging — economies, the biggest threat to continued prosperity is a rapidly aging and, in the worst cases, declining populations. The effect of wealth and better education on fertility has long been known. As people get better-educated, enjoy a greater variety of lifestyle options, and gain…

Development, Economy, Education

Smoke and mirrors mask dire situation surrounding rice prices as elections loom

May 21, 2024 Ramon Ortoll No Comments

Most political analysts describe former President Rodrigo Duterte as a populist but he wasn’t close to being one when it came to economic policies which he left to his finance secretary to set. The Rice Tarrification Law (RTL) was passed to put an end to rice subsidies and corruption at the National Food Authority (NFA)…

Economy

“Poverty” is such a BORING topic!

May 4, 2024 benign0 69 Comments

Considering that the Philippines has been poor for most of its history, it’s quite a wonder that “poverty” gets the inches and air time it does in the Philippines’ mainstream media and the rhetoric of its “activists”. It really isn’t news anymore. The effort to “analyse” Pinoy-style “poverty” is effort wasted as there really is…

Economy, Society