SARS-CoV-2 has caused the greatest pandemic of the past 100 years. Understanding its origins is crucial for knowing what happened in late 2019 and for preparing for the next pandemic virus.

THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report has confirmed much that we already knew: Human activities have caused an unprecedented warming of the Earth and, as a result, we’re seeing more frequent droughts and heat waves, extreme rainfall and record-breaking temperatures.

I had tagged several bankers in my critique on whether or not the financial sector was doing enough during these COVID times, and Wick Veloso, current President of the Bankers Association of the Philippines dropped me a one-liner, “you should hear the Bankers’ plea to help — call me for clarity,” which I of course happily obliged.

Voter registration is scheduled to end on Sept. 30. In Makati City, where I reside, registration has been temporarily suspended because of ECQ and MECQ (first and second most stringent levels of quarantine, respectively), and will resume on Sept. 1. That is, if MECQ will not be extended beyond Aug. 31. Or, that the COVID-19 situation will not worsen and send us back to ECQ by next month.

Our rapidly moving world has developed actionable concepts in response to the problems created by rising consumption, intense economic activity, and, in general, because of the greed of man and the lack of effective action on long-standing problems on the part of those in power.

At this time, nobody is likely to question, much less shrug off, all the accolades, gifts, and cash being showered on the medalists in the recent Tokyo Olympics. The conversations around this subject center on the hard work and training getting to the podium and the support (or lack thereof) from the public and private sector. In general, many just want to bask in the reflected glory of these new entrants in the country’s celebrity club.

Arecent Leader (Editorial) in the prestigious economic weekly publication The Economist (July 31) provokes some very important questions about our long-term economic future.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage societies and economies, Philippine society is currently confronted by an information crisis characterized by widespread disinformation and misinformation. The political and economic predicaments borne by these conditions reinforce the democratic decline being experienced by established, developing, and fledgling democracies.

OVER the past two decades, the Asia-Pacific region has made remarkable progress in managing disaster risk.

When Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 9-2021 was issued, the enterprises registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) became concerned as their once value-added tax (VAT) zero-rated local purchases would be subject to 12% VAT starting on June 27, 2021.

Under the aegis of the old Corporation Code, the Supreme Court began to evolve a theory of “Corporate Social Responsibility” on corporations vested with public interests that imposed a fiduciary duty of diligence beyond their shareholders but primarily stakeholders who are most affected by the corporations’ business or economic enterprise.

LOTTERIES are widely derided as a tax on stupidity. The odds are heavily stacked against the ticket buyers. The randomized systems that select the winning numbers eradicate any trace of skill from the competition. But none of that diminishes my enthusiasm for having a weekly flutter on an arbitrary set of digits chosen by an algorithm.