In December 2020, Tobacconomics launched the first edition of its “Cigarette Tax Scorecard,” a study assessing cigarette tax policy performance in more than 170 countries between 2012 and 2018. The good news is that the Philippines ranked seventh in total performance, together with Bahrain, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. Among all East Asian countries, the Philippines scored the highest, with an overall score of 3.75 out of five.

June 12, 2021. It was the 123rd anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence from Spain by Emilio Aguinaldo at Kawit, Cavite. Why did it feel like it was just another Independence Day? The news preceding the day was hogged by this feisty-looking little woman with her jaw thrust out to challenge the world record for the oldest living female person in the world — 123-year-old Francisca Montes-Susano of the Philippines!

When one of our kababayan (countrymen) is picked-on or becomes a victim of injustice, the rest of us rally behind them. This is the essence of being Filipino.

In his blog on LSE British Politics and Policy, Chile’s former finance minister Andres Velasco, now professor of public policy and dean of LSE’s School of Public Policy, listed five macroeconomic lessons that COVID-19 has taught us. Focusing these lessons on the Philippines should be very interesting and, yes, instructive.

President Rodrigo Duterte is supposedly considering five possible PDP-Laban candidates for President in 2022: Manila Mayor “Isko” Moreno, his confidant “Bong” Go, the boxer Manuel Pacquiao, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and his daughter Sara.

I HAVE NEWS from the world of cryptocurrency: After many years of doubt and uncertainty, a killer app has finally been found. That’s why crypto prices, in spite of numerous plunges, have remained much higher than many skeptics expected.

The stunning dance concert Of Balanghai and Galleons was a tour de force by Filipino Heritage Festival, Inc. (FHFI). It was a fitting finale to the successful National Heritage Month.

“Poor people are poor because they don’t know how to save.” — a grave misconception. What if I told you that research has shown that the poor constantly save? This is the focus of my column today.

As things are nowadays, one cannot help but get the impression that the middle class will soon be a thing of the past. And not because the segment has levelled up. It is more like the reverse, with the pandemic dragging down the economy, and the middle class along with it. The same goes for private schools catering particularly to the middle class, given new tax rules.

I BEGIN my remarks today by saying how proud I am of thousands of our frontliners on what they accomplished last year in the teeth of the pandemic — our network build, installs and repair, sales force and storefront staff, our account managers.

ONCE CONSIDERED a stage performance aimed at a slightly inebriated male audience in a dark bar, pole dancing has become a fitness program. With a pole in one’s bedroom, this gym routine can be enhanced with mirrors and music, with no need for provocative movements. Then it does not need to be performed with much skill, only diligent effort and sweat, yet another form of working out from home.

For those who want to understand better how the pandemic has impacted on the world of work, I would suggest a book written by famous journalist, Thomas L. Friedman, entitled Thank You for Being Late, with the sub-title “An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations.” He was also the one who explained to the non-specialist the complex process of globalization in another best seller entitled The World Is Flat. The key word is “acceleration.”