We beg to differ.
Photo courtesy of Time.com I couldn’t help but smirk when I found out that Team P-Noy’s election rally was a dud here in Baguio last Sunday (17 March 2013). Melvin Jones field, with a capacity of 5,000 people, managed to gather less than 1,500 attendees, even under fair weather. Though their pet media outlets would…
In a press briefing last week, Philippine Airlines (PAL) President and CEO Ramon S. Ang announced that the airline’s plans to construct a $6 billion airport as an alternative to the outdated and overcrowded Ninoy Aquino International Airport were being put on hold. According to the Philippine Star (which still insists on calling the privately-owned…
Read More “Annoyed by Anti-Monopoly Policy, PAL Puts Airport Plans on Hold” »
At the very end of 2012, the US media and public was gripped with near-panic over what was then called the “fiscal cliff,†a combination of tax increases and a programmed series of government spending cuts that was to automatically take effect on January 1 of this year. Just as the deadline passed, the US…
Although the record of the current administration of the Philippines with respect to regulating labor has been unimpressive so far, Republic Act 10361, also known as the Batas Kasambahay or “Domestic Workers’ Act,” which took effective on February 10, is a notable exception. The law, which was signed by President Aquino on January 18, provides…
In past years, the dates of the EDSA People Power revolution were declared national holidays. This means even workers had the day off. This year, though, it seems only students had the day-off. People with jobs had to go to work. For those who normally going through EDSA, it would mean slugging it out in…
Read More “Making sense of EDSA I, 27 years down the yellow brick road” »
Although the topic has not appeared on the media radar for a couple months, the always-contentious issue of the minimum wage will again be front-page news in 2013, if everything goes according to the Aquino Administration’s plans. By the end of this year, the government has a goal to replace the current minimum wage regulations…
(As published in The Manila Times, Thursday, February 21) One of the key reasons Southeast Asia is the world’s most economically-promising region is the strength and stability of the regional multilateral partnership, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). With the debatable exception of the European Union, no other multinational cooperative in the world performs…
Read More “Moving Away from the ASEAN is a Costly Mistake” »
Many ‘activists’ who are focusing on how much money is spent by election candidates and where and when their colourful messages are being flashed miss the whole point of elections. Elections are a necessarily messy occasion. Messiness is a good symptom of a healthy number of options presented to “the people” — those folk that…