I point to two critical challenges, which can gain so much from a well-structured and implemented public-private partnerships (PPPs) environment:

Isn’t it ironic that the D&E socioeconomic classes, the very sector that needs social and economic reforms the most, are the stronghold of the Marcos and Duterte UniTeam.

Today, May 9, 2022 is General Election Day. The day when eligible voters will elect 18,180 new officials for the executive and legislative branches of the government — 77 national posts and 18,103 provincial and local positions, except for the barangay officials.

The US State Department has been issuing its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices since the 1980s, with special emphasis on the recipient countries of US economic and military assistance. A series of laws passed by the United States Congress in the latter part of the 1970s, during the James Carter Presidency (1977-1981), makes respect for human rights a condition for such aid.

Some commentators have started to talk about GOTV — get out the vote. It was grueling, but now we are in the last week of the 90-day campaign period. This is inexorably the culmination of the whole process of the political campaign.

May, when we honor and celebrate our Blessed Mother Mary and hold beautiful festivals like the Santacruzan, is also Heritage Month. The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic cancelled and altered many of the plans for this wonderful month over the past two years. However, resilience is the quality that characterizes the Filipino spirit. The show must go on, albeit on a smaller scale and online to protect the people.

The big news, of course, is the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade, what with the leaked draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s ponencia in Politico magazine. The ramifications of that will be discussed in a later article. The other big news, coming earlier, of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, led to absolutely deranged breakdowns from woke progressives.

Are we working on building a better world, a better society for the future? Are businesses focusing more on positive impacts rather than profit? Are capitalists directing more investments into businesses that promote and ensure sustainability? Are investors widely supporting ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals? And, are they making money from doing so?

Monday, May 9, 2022, Filipinos all over the world will elect the 17th president of the Philippines, the vice-president, 12 senators, hundreds of district representatives and party-list congressmen, more than a thousand mayors and vice-mayors. Councilors, hundreds of board members, and more than 80 governors and vice-governors. That’s a few days from now, Thursday, May 5, and that’s quite a number of candidates whose qualifications and track record one has to evaluate and assess.

NEW DELHI feels like it is on fire. The heat comes off the road in blistering waves, and the water that flows from the cold tap is too hot to touch. Daytime temperatures have hit 44° Celsius (111° Fahrenheit) and often do not fall below 30° in the night. A giant landfill on the outskirts of the capital spontaneously combusted a week ago, and the 17-story high dump that contains millions of tons of garbage continues to smolder, worsening the city’s already dangerously polluted air.

IN A FEW DAYS, all the guessing and strategizing over momentum, regional gains and losses, and the effect of endorsements and press conferences will be over. The previous surveys using a miniscule sample (sometimes as small as 1,200 respondents) will be replaced by the actual voting population of 62 million. There will be no more undecided voters, only absentees. And the frontrunner in this case will be assuming office by the end of June.

Filipinos have suffered the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years. It has certainly exacerbated the many long-standing ills confronting our people.