The Philippines is suffering from a deteriorating merchandise trade gap. From January to July 2018, total exports was only $38.74 billion (vs. $39.87 billion same months in 2017) while total imports was $61.23 billion (vs $52.92 billion same months in 2017). So the trade deficit was $22.49 billion or an average of $3.2 billion a month. This is the worst trade performance of the country all these years.

When the inflation rate of 6.4% for August was finally announced by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) last week, there was a storm of fears that lashed stronger than the most powerful typhoon of the season (Signal No. 4), “Ompong” that trashed northern Philippines and rained heavily the whole weekend on the rest of Luzon.

Education in the Philippines has been getting a boost, money-wise. For 2018, the budget for the Department of Education was set at P553.31 billion, making it the second highest (next to the military) in allocation. It will increase by around 12% in 2019, for a possible P659.3 billion. There is also the free tuition law starting this schoolyear 2018-2019.

By revealing that it was Solicitor General Jose Calida who “did the research” on which he based his proclamation that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s 2011 amnesty is void ab initio, President Rodrigo Duterte demonstrated once again how successfully his regime has been undermining itself. Calida had earlier denied having anything to do with the proclamation. But Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Calida had asked for his help, and that he directed him to the office that had custody of Trillanes’ amnesty papers.

“There is more to happiness than financial security” — Dylan Evans, Emotion: The Science of Sentiment

MANAGEMENT seminars on leadership like to point out that leaders need to be “givers” not “takers.” Definitions of these seemingly too obvious terms are not provided, presumably too self-evident to require further elaboration. Suffice it to say that “givers” are the ones in the white hats. And who are the villains? It’s the takers who need to be either converted into givers or asked to ride out into the sunset. They can take their own horses.

IN June 2018, 38 member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) signed a statement calling on President Rodrigo Duterte to stop the killings in the Philippines and to investigate abuses resulting from his administration’s controversial war on drugs.

THIS is a continuation of the earlier column published on Sept. 4, 2018. We are exploring some inconsistency in the formulation that “more smoking (and drinking) prevalence means more cardio-vascular diseases (CVD), cancer, etc.” and hence, people live less healthy and live shorter.

PEOPLE tend to take more decisive political action after experiencing the convergence of what may be labeled as economic and political discontent, and the persistence of such discontent. If people are unhappy with governance, but happy with the economy, then they tend to be subdued or reserved in their opposition. The same with the reverse. But if people are unhappy with both the government and the economy at the same time, then expect some trouble.

AS A marketing strategy, promoting a restaurant as a haven of comfort food seems risky. In terms of Filipino cuisine, comfort food usually consists of meals taken at home without calling delivery. It is traditional home cooking for Sunday family lunches.

IN August, inflation clocked in at 6.4%, once again exceeding official targets and market expectations. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) projected inflation to be within 5.5% to 6.2%. Last month’s inflation also marked the highest increase in almost a decade. Month-on-month inflation also picked up to 0.9% in August from 0.5% in July, after it started losing its momentum in the last few months. For the first eight months of the year, inflation already averaged at 4.8 %, exceeding central bank’s upper end target of 4% for 2018.

IN grade school in Tacloban, Leyte, what we pupils dreaded most was to be told by the teachers, “Bobo…better go home and plant kamote!”