If we were still of that age, when droves of students write up their CVs and send out resumes, we would be very worried. One, where do you apply for work? In my younger days, schools would send your names to prospective employers (like hotels as I took Hotel and Restaurant Management) and, with luck, you may land a job easily.

“IT NEVER RAINS, but what it pours,” sang Judy Garland to Mickey Rooney in 1938, memorably describing what happens “if Lady Luck should happen to desert you.”

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (PRRD) will deliver his sixth and last State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2021 hours after I submit this paper to my editor today. So, I can only write and assess his SONA speeches for the last five years, each speech ranging from 10 to 20 pages long.

ROUGHLY TWO MONTHS before the filing of candidacies for the 2022 polls start, we’ve seen presidential and vice-presidential tandems and senatorial lineups fielded. Politicians have made their plans to run for office known. Don’t we wish to see the same clarity, energy, and haste in coming up with a roadmap for the reopening of schools? Classes are set to start in September. Yet students are likely to spend another year attending classes from home despite the challenging remote learning setup.

I am pleased to share with readers a June 29 note to subscribers of GlobalSource Partners (globalsourcepartners.com), a New York-based network of independent emerging market analysts. Christine Tang and I are their Philippine advisers.

The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law is now ready to be implemented.

“At the start of this pandemic, I warned that the battle could be long. Considering this, it was important to maintain fiscal responsibility. We must be ready for the long haul and keep our powder dry for a protracted battle.”

I wrote two columns in the last two months about the state of Philippine education under the leadership of Education Secretary Leonor Briones.

Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. In general, it stands for change. In chemistry, delta is the change in energy levels. In business, it compares the change in the price of an asset. Its uppercase “D” denotes discrete change from one point to the other. Its lowercase “d” measures infinitesimal change which is the subject of much of calculus.

A survey by the polling firm Social Weather Stations (SWS), the results of which were released on July 12, found that hunger incidence among Filipinos had reached 21%+ of the country’s 105 million population, or more than four million families whose members had gone hungry at least once during the past three months. Only in the National Capital Region (NCR) has hunger incidence declined; it has risen in Mindanao, the Visayas, and the rest of Luzon.