With a new Olympic record lift, three-time Olympian Hidilyn Diaz won the country’s first gold medal since its Olympics debut in 1924 at the Paris Olympics, the first in the modern era.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, especially of publicly listed companies, are required to explain certain entries that may be vague or out of the ordinary. Such items as “other income” need to be given a breakdown of their component parts, such as revenues from subsidiaries or Christmas cash gifts. “Advances to affiliates” need details on which companies are involved and the nature of the advances given and whether it is expected to be liquidated at some future time.

From what we have written so far, it is clear that the first Industrial Revolution (IR 1.0) would not have occurred were it not preceded by long periods of a gradual increase in the productivity of the agricultural sector.

President Rodrigo Duterte has delivered his last State of the Nation Address (SONA). Lasting for almost three hours, the national chief executive presented his administration’s accomplishments and his calibrated prognosis of the current state of the country, its economy, and its people.

Almost four years after the death of Kian delos Santos, a 17-year-old student who allegedly fought back yet was shown in a CCTV footage to have helplessly died in the hands of our own law enforcement officers, the growing clamor for transparency and accountability in the operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP) persists.

FROM THE US to the European Union, governments are clearly uneasy with the pervasive power of Big Tech: The influence of their social media platforms on elections, the security of the vast amount of consumer data they store, and the exploitation of gig economy workers who don’t enjoy health insurance or receive overtime pay. In the US, Congressional hearings have been conducted and anti-trust lawsuits filed, but nothing substantial has come about. Judging by the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index, Big Tech in the West is still thriving.

Newspaper editors can be an edgy lot. Especially when something big happens when they’ve already put their papers “to bed” and the presses are ready to roll. Pre-pandemic, that would delay the trip to their favorite hangout to unwind. 

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.