We beg to differ.
(From The Manila Times, Saturday, June 1. Apparently, the link to this article has been giving some readers a bit of trouble, which is probably attributable to the Times’ website upgrade being only a couple days old. Please bear with us.) While President Aquino and the presumptive new Senate President Franklin Drilon have both expressed…
Read More “Political, economic reform: Best left to the grown-ups” »
If outgoing Rep. Edgardo “Sonny†Angara Jr. of Aurora wins the election to the Senate seat of his father, as he is widely expected to do, it seems he will be starting his tenure in the upper house of the Philippine legislature under an extraordinary cloud of controversy. Last week, in a statement whose timing…
Already wrestling with the public relations fallout of the latest poverty statistics, the Aquino administration apparently was too busy last week to notice the press release from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) announcing the results of a study that raises serious concerns about the preparedness of the Philippines’ small- and medium-enterprise (SME) sector…
It is probably welcome news to environmental activists but a disappointing turn of events for anyone who likes the idea of tapping the Philippines’ imposing stockpile of mineral resources to attract tangible industrial investment and create jobs: Some subtle hints have recently been made by the companies behind the most promising planned mining operations that…
If there is one thing that has been thoroughly regrettable about the apparent economic progress of the Philippines in the Aquino 2.0 era, it is that it has led the Administration to believe that what it is doing is actually working. Perhaps we should not judge them too harshly for that – after all, far…
Read More “Non Sequiturs are poor policy, and even worse credit references” »
Later on this evening (between 8:30 and 9:30 pm, to be precise), the Philippines will join 151 other countries around the world in celebrating Earth Hour, an annual exercise in environmental slacktivism that began in Sydney, Australia in 2007. The main activity of Earth Hour is, of course, switching off one’s residential and other non-essential…
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and CEO Ramon S. Ang announced that the airline’s plans to construct a $6 billion airport as an alternative to the outdated and overcrowded Ninoy Aquino International Airport were being put on hold.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” »
My colleague John Baybay posted a thought-provoking article to GR Business Online a couple days ago (“Fair Process and the Myth of Inclusive Growthâ€, available at www.grbusinessonline.com). The article makes the broad point that what is lacking in the present Administration’s approach to the economy – and which has as a result turned President Benigno…