With the alarming increase of mental health illnesses today, with more than 300 million people suffering from depression alone according to the World Health Organization, the enactment of Republic Act No. 11032 or the Mental Health Act last 20 June 2018 is a boon to Filipinos. It is an affirmation of the basic right of all Filipinos to mental health as well as the fundamental rights of people who require mental health services.

As a former screenwriter in Philippine cinema from the late Fifties to the early Eighties, the one film I wish I could have written is The Battle of Manila, presented a-la Rashomon, that classic Japanese motion picture about a killing, recounted from different perspectives.

ONLY WEEKS AGO, the world’s leading climate scientists warned that 2˚C of global warming would have even worse impacts than anticipated. The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for a more rapid decarbonization of the global economy to limit warming to 1.5˚.

Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in the country has been a political project for both civil society and government. Taking off from the global agenda of advancing women’s human rights in the context of armed conflict and conflict transformation, commitment to WPS has been institutionalized through several National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security (NAP WPS): the first generation covering 2010-2016, the second generation that introduced amendments in 2014, and the third generation that includes the period from 2017 to 2022.

For most Filipino companies, diversity and inclusion (D&I) is hardly a top priority. Although Corporate Philippines generally welcomes women and LGBT into the workforce -- unlike other societies where they are overtly excluded -- there is hardly any effort to ensure that office rules and policies promote D&I.

WHAT is it? Let’s say you were born with the gift of knowing how to drive but had never driven on the streets. Then the traffic policemen, who guide you, through the mean streets of Metro Manila with all their support systems and rules are “facilitating” your process of reaching from where you are to where you want to go.

THE term “generation gap” is applied to situations where there is miscommunication arising from different contexts or points of view between generations, say a baby boomer and a millennial, analog versus digital, old versus young, and very old versus very young.

A sure way to bring down prices in any market is to replace monopoly with open competition. And if that market supplies a good that almost everyone relies on, then the cascading impact of lower prices will surely pull the inflation rate down.

Two weeks ago, I traveled from Manila to North Luzon by bus. Going up via NLEx, SCTEx, Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, finally to Gonzaga, Cagayan. I went there to visit a friend, also gave a talk on TRAIN law and inflation at Cagayan State University (CSU) Gonzaga campus. Going back I took the Cagayan Valley route, passed Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, SCTEx, NLEx.

One could not have thought of a better title for the latest book of UP Economics Professor, former Dean and National Scientist Raul Fabella, a deceptively slim volume (120 pages) but a real heavyweight. It has amazing sweep and depth on what ails our economy, and provides possible solutions, cogently pulling together literature and research on what has worked here and elsewhere.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity...some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” -- A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens

The filing of certificates of candidacy for those aspiring to capture political seats in the 2019 midterm elections has just finished and as expected by most of the Filipino populace, the same names and faces surfaced. But the trouble is the usual confusion for those who have identified certain candidates with particular political parties and those they are allied with. The colors red, blue, orange and yellow have not emerged but a combination of everything and everyone -- the usual list as they say.