“Can rights and values be universal if they seem, even after lengthy explanations of the communitarian case, to be rationed by a subset of rules about sovereign boundaries? Perhaps we should agree to think of rights and values as limited resources...” -- Jeremy Harding, “Europe at Bay,” London Review of Books 34(3), 2012

Section 116 of the Revised Corporation Code (RCC) defines a “One Person Corporation” as a corporation with a Single Stockholder, who must either be a: (i) natural person; (ii) trust; or (iii) estate, and which shall be governed by a special set of provisions under its Chapter III, Title XIII. However, as will be demonstrated in the discussions below, it would be easier to view the Single Stockholder in a One Person Corporation (OPC) setting as simply a natural person.

The good news in the country’s labor force survey reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is that unemployment rate has significantly declined, from 6% in October 2014 to only 4.5% in October 2019. The underemployment rate has also declined to only 13%.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS are supposed to define one’s role, accountability, and sometimes the resources to be made available. (You are not entitled to any information or funds.) Anyway, no matter how a subject performs the duties specified in the job description, he still needs to serve in some committee.

We are ending the last quarter of the year, which is our main harvest season and when palay prices are seasonally at their lowest. Farm prices had fallen at an unprecedented rate since the 1970s during this quarter. Surely, the combined effects of the harvest season and rice import liberalization have caused the decline of palay prices and farm incomes. Have they bottomed out, or are they still falling even now in the major rice producing areas?

“PHL lags in global education survey,” read BusinessWorld’s front page banner story on Dec. 5. A one-fourth page graph showed the latest results of the education survey by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

On the Saturday nearest May 30, Spain celebrates its Armed Forces Day with much pageantry. This year, it was celebrated in the southern city of Seville with no less than King Philip IV and Queen Letizia headlining the ceremonials.

This week sees Human Rights Day, celebrated globally every 10^th December to mark the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 61 years ago. The contribution of former Filipino general-turned-diplomat, Carlos P. Romulo, in drafting and negotiating that historic document remains well known at a time when human rights face severe challenges in the Philippines and around the world.

THAT SPORTS is a unifying force and a great purveyor of any country’s heritage and cultural identity is not a matter to be debated. It is a reality. Sports is and has always been an enabler and should be harnessed for binding us closer as a nation rather than breaking us apart.

It is a simple case to make. We are totally dependent on energy for our essential needs. Our stores and factories require electricity. Our airports, sea ports, and all sorts of transport terminals require power to operate. By any definition, legal or otherwise, any facility that provides such a service is a public utility, a vital installation of national interest for national security.

The transport, accommodations, athletic facilities, press accreditation and food issues, among others that hounded the Philippines’ hosting of the 30^th Southeast Asian Games prior to its opening date, were real enough. But the response of government officials, Netizens, much of the public, and even the press itself to that “cauldron of errors” being reported by the Philippine media also underlined the need for developing authentic media literacy programs not only for the enlightenment of the citizenry but also, and perhaps even more urgently, for the education of the so-called leaders of this country.

The world undergoes upheavals and periods of turmoil. There have been many crises -- floods, earthquakes, epidemics, and wars.