The issue is power. And the one under national scrutiny the past week has been this government’s use of that power in issuing its “enhanced community quarantine” measure to control the spread of the China-originating coronavirus.

The Corona outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), describing it not just as a public health crisis, but one “that will touch every sector.”

Virginia Woolf once wrote, “I don’t believe in aging. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun.”

NO economy is immune to a fast-spreading pathogen. But where activity is organized more formally, authorities can at least try to reach the pain points with liquidity, credit, tax rebates, salary supplements or rental discounts.

PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS, sitting on a record $388 billion of dry powder in Asia, may be about to get their reward for patience. Cash is king as corporate finances are stretched by the coronavirus outbreak. Having sat on their hands for much of the past year in protest at unappealing valuations, the virus-induced stock market meltdown is creating a potential parade of bargains. Blackstone Group Inc.’s reported plans to acquire Hong Kong-listed property company Soho China Ltd. may be just the start.

The community quarantines for Metro Manila and Luzon started on March 15 and on March 17, respectively, and are expected to last until midnight of April 14. Travel in and out of the island is restricted for most forms of transport -- land, sea, and air. People are advised to limit their movements and stay home as much as possible to avoid being exposed to the virus.

I spent some time outside the house yesterday, sitting in the driveway to get some sun. I have not done that for a long time. It was pleasant to enjoy a slight breeze, and hear birds chirping. And from where I sat, which was about 50 meters from the main road just outside our community’s main gate, I could see a few cars and motorcycles, and pedestrians passing by.

When President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at Maynilad and Manila Water that hold concession agreements (CA) with the government via the MWSS on Dec. 3, 2019, the stock prices of both companies and their allied firms suffered significant declines starting Dec. 4, which continued until mid-December. I continued the series to last Monday, the last trading day of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The percentage decline of stock values until this week remains big, 49% and 32% for Manila Water Co. Inc. (MWC) and Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPI) respectively.

SHOULD OPINIONS and conversations always be about the issues of the day? Does the opinion page need to follow the events in the front page and the latest posts on the net? Can we talk about something else aside from the virus and the economic recession it seems to be causing along with the travel restrictions and their effects on the price of oil?

IF COVID-19 spreads as fast as experts predict, the memories that will stick with Americans years down the road will be of desperately ill people turned away from hospitals.

OPEC may not survive to celebrate its own 60^th birthday later this year. Saudi Arabia’s decision to abandon output restraint and flood the market with cheap crude signals the end for a group dubbed the world’s most successful cartel.

A foreigner was once quoted as publicly saying that the best man in the Philippines is the Filipino woman. It is not surprising therefore that an international accrediting organization has ranked the Philippines as number one in the world in percentage of women in senior executive positions, many of them actually being CEOs. Although we have had two women presidents, a distinction the richest nation in the world has not achieved, the fact is the women presidents have gotten there through derived credentials: Cory Aquino’s husband who was martyred was presidential timbre, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s father was president.