“We demand that the World Bank (WB) review the Philippines’ rating, and make a correction immediately given our country’s increases in the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) scores, which was, unfortunately, offset by the grossly inaccurate and understated findings in the Getting Credit indicator of the Report.

When does a political family become a political dynasty? A political dynasty is established in two instances. First, when an elected government official is succeeded by a member of his household up to the first degree of consanguinity or affinity. Second, when several members of a family occupy various positions in government simultaneously.

INUTILE. That’s how I felt at my beautiful sister Mae’s bedside when she died in 1995, barely a year since arriving back home from her chemotherapy in Michigan. She had two daughters -- Ynna Belen and Angela Jed, just as beautiful as her. She had beautiful dreams ...

What the media described as an “apology” last Oct. 24 from former Marcos Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile was in the same league as that of Marcos’s daughter Imee’s and son Bongbong’s.

If to migrate means leaving one’s country, then one is entitled to do so. Our own Constitution provides that the right to choose one’s abode or to travel cannot be impaired except by court order or by law in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health, respectively.

Moving on with our attempt to understand the proposed federal Constitution, a glimpse of one very cherished provision of the Bill of Rights deserves a prominent place in the national discourse -- The Freedom to speak, express and assemble.

The 10^th international conference Ako Para Sa Bata (Nov. 19 and 20, SMX Convention Center Manila) has the theme “INSPIRED,” an acronym that means: Implementation and enforcement of law, Norms and values, Safe environments, Parent and caregiver support, Income and economic strengthening, Response and support services, Education and life skills, and Delivery systems.

Integrated Public-Private Partnership (PPP) means the construction then operation and maintenance (O&M) phases will be done by a single entity while Hybrid PPP means the construction is done by one entity, the O&M to be done by another entity. Funding of the former therefore will be fully shouldered by that entity while in Hybrid PPP, construction cost to be funded via ODA/foreign loan or Philippine government budget appropriation, O&M by a local private firm.

Whether here or abroad, the level of nastiness in national politics in recent years has reached perhaps its highest peak in history. It often appears that the gloves are off for most candidates, many of whom find it appropriate to make the most horrible public comments about others, often their opponents or critics, but sometimes even completely uninvolved people.

About 18 years ago, I had a management professor at AIM who wasn’t completely sold on recycling. In one class discussion, Ning Lagman, whom I believed has retired from teaching, expressed the opinion that recycling would be insignificant in a production process that reduced or minimized, if not eliminated, “waste.” Without waste, there will be nothing to recycle.

WITH the invention of the camera built into the handphone, a gadget as indispensable as the wallet or purse (OMG, I forgot my phone at home), any grouping of people can be photographed and the image quickly posted. A camera always at hand has changed behavior, especially the social pastime of rumor mongering.

We have a deeply rooted, overwhelming governance problem. What surveys show as the citizen’s waxing and waning support for the national leadership has a continuously dark undertone -- the people have a generalized distrust of government. This is unsurprising as most of those in power are not merely ineffective, they are dysfunctional. They are not merely incompetent as rule enforcers, they are distorting the rules.