About two years ago, Republic Act 10666 or the Children’s Safety on Motorcycles Act took effect and placed conditions on small children riding as passengers on motorcycles -- or two-wheeled motor vehicles. I support this law, but I do not understand why tricycles were seemingly exempted from it.

THE BOSS always thinks his word is law -- when I say jump, you can only ask: how high? But is the boss always followed? Being a subordinate doesn’t mean doing exactly what the boss orders, even when the latter is evaluating performance -- “subordinate is disrespectful, surly, and exhibits mutinous behavior.”

In December 2018, Philippine Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana declared that he wanted a review of the 1951 Philippine-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). He stated that it is high time for the two allies to examine the treaty’s provision in light of the growing tension in the South China Sea. According to him, the DND wanted Washington’s definitive stance on whether or not Manila could depend on its ally to come to its assistance in case of a confrontation with outside powers in the nine land features that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) occupies in the South China Sea. In a yearend news briefing, Secretary Lorenzana admitted that his call for a review has been triggered by China’s challenging the Philippine occupation of these islets and rocks by aggressively building fortified military facilities on the reclaimed islands it created in the South China Sea. He said that the review of the MDT is needed to make the alliance stronger as the US remains the Philippines’ only formal treaty ally.

In this digital world, mobile phones are a necessary part of our daily lives. As we become heavily dependent on these gadgets for communication and for the accomplishment of our daily task, we encounter some service issues and technical glitches, including connectivity to the internet. Sometimes, subscribers simply tolerate and continue to pay for the poor service, as they do not want the inconvenience of changing their mobile numbers for fear of losing important contacts and opportunities. Others are left with no choice but to change their mobile service provider to avail of better service, which necessitates the changing of their mobile numbers. And trivial as it seems, this leads to the inevitable inconvenience for both the subscriber and his contacts -- e.g. subscriber has to inform all his contacts of such change, and for the contacts to manually delete the old and save the new number.

The horrible mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which claimed the lives of 50 (so far) and wounded another 50, was the handiwork of someone believed to be a white supremacist.

In a Facebook post two weeks ago, I said that while the Philippine economy continues to grow in good pace on the back of government spending and consumption, its fundamentals are inferior to that of Vietnam whose economy is driven by investments and exports. I further urged the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to review its industrial policy and begin developing new export winners.

Despite the rice tariffication law or RA 11203, there is a chance rice prices can go up this year if the government fails to manage well the changes it causes. The law is about a month old. But from what I know, it is not implemented yet.

Starting this week, this column will produce a series of Market-Oriented Reforms for Efficiency (MORE) articles related to recently enacted laws and proposed legislations in the Philippines on various sectors. Thus, recent Republic Acts (RA) and some pending bills for bicameral committee meetings after the May 2019 elections will be discussed.

Vox populi, vox Dei. The voice of the people is the voice of God, so let the people decide come election time, say personages of national stature.

To many people, ‘election debates,’ is a means to inform voters of how the issues of the day are framed and discussed by candidates. The exchange of ideas that happens between opposing candidates is supposed to reveal information that voters need especially in knowing and evaluating candidates -- what they stand for, what their plans are, among Pothers. Equipped with this knowledge, voters are said to be more capable of making informed decision of who to vote for or not.

It would be helpful to discuss briefly the hierarchical value of the SEC Corporate Governance (CG) Codes in relation to the provisions of the Corporation Code (CC) and the Securities Regulation Code (SRC) that actually have within their frameworks systems of CG.

As May elections draw near, legislators are faced with the daunting task of reflecting upon -- and marketing -- their legacies. Two candidates of note are Senator Sonny Angara and Senator JV Ejercito, both of whom authored bills instituting universal health care in the Philippines. President Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11223, the Universal Health Care Act, in late February 2019.