TALK about being authentic and, often you will hear this quote from Paulo Coelho: “We are in such a hurry to grow up, and then we long for our lost childhood. We make ourselves ill earning money, and then spend all our money on getting well again. We think so much about the future that we neglect the present, and thus experience neither the present nor the future. We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we had never lived.”

AFTER meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore last week, the regional bloc and China announced a breakthrough in the drafting for the framework for a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, which would form the basis for future negotiations regarding an eventual COC.

UNTIL five years ago, the Philippines had the lowest registered vehicles ratio per population in the whole of North and Southeast Asia. It only had 79 registered vehicles per 1,000 population.

IF the structure of the Philippine government is supposed to have been patterned after that of the United States, why wasn’t the federal system of America also applied to the Philippines?

FINANCIAL ANALYSTS routinely evaluate current corporate performance by comparing it with that of the previous period. Thus a listed stock that briefs investors and analysts on net income need to state how it compares year on year, whether flat, down, or up and by how much. It is not enough to make billions of pesos in net income for the quarter, the number has to be set against the quarter or year before. It is even compared to the anticipated number. All these comparisons can make even awesome numbers disappointing when paired against last year.

In the last scene of The Wolf of Wall Street, the main character Jordan Belfort (portrayed by Leonardo di Caprio) gets introduced to an...

THE rationalization of fiscal incentives is a long-overdue reform. It is a necessary reform for several reasons.

PACKAGE 2 of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) has been met with protests, especially from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and the Board of Investments (BoI). One of the notable features which remains to be the most controversial portion of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program is the incentive reform.

WHEN Congress or a constitutional convention begins proposing revisions to the 1987 Constitution much attention and discussion will focus on the transitory provisions.

WHEN government and society come together to address a national problem, the “whole-of-nation” principle is at work. It epitomizes national unity, solidarity, and teamwork. This is what Rotary Club of Manila’s (RCM) “One Rotary, One Philippines, One for Marawi” attempts to do — harnessing private sector companies and civic groups to partner with government agencies to address humanitarian assistance needs of people impacted by armed conflict and natural disasters.

Scratch that; the draft Constitution drawn up by the Puno Consultative Commission, is uber-terrible.

I chanced upon Mocha Uson’s video on Facebook where she and co-host, a certain Drew Olivar, performed a lewd dance supposedly meant to educate our people about federalism.