TERRORISM is a persistent and evolving global menace. No country is immune. Social media, encrypted communications and the dark web are being used to spread propaganda, radicalize new recruits and plan atrocities. The threat ranges from the crude tactics of lone actors to sophisticated coordinated attacks and the horrific prospect of terrorists using chemical, biological, or radioactive weapons.

For Arsima Aslan, a teacher in Al-Barka, Basilan in Mindanao, living in or near conflict-prone areas puts residents under constant stress.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s rantings against the Catholic Church and against God Himself, calling the Lord “stupid” for creating imperfect creatures in Adam and Eve and the snake (and, by extension, all mankind) may be forgivable if one considers his own tacit admission that he himself is imperfect, thus his kanto boy logic.

Consumer personal data has played an increasingly pivotal role in many markets and economies.

Just last week, the National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Summit was held, with a good mix of participants from the public and private sectors.

I object to Senator Leila de Lima’s description that President Duterte is the “pambansang tambay.” Here is the press statement of Senator de Lima.

“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world -- one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time. That one thing is trust.” -- Stephen M.R. Covey The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything (2008).

The many feature articles that appeared in various publications last week in commemoration of Jose Rizal’s 157^th birth anniversary brought to mind the series of articles he wrote in La Solidaridad from 1889 to 1890 on the Philippines 100 years from then. We quote passages from the articles which have significance to our times.

The GOCC Governance Act formally characterizes the members of the Governing Boards and Officers of GOCCs as “fiduciaries of the State” with “the legal obligation and duty to always act in the best interests of the GOCC, with utmost good faith in all its dealings with the property and monies of the GOCC.”

I am pleased to share with you the political section of our latest quarterly report, (“Of Deficits and Rising Risks,” May 20, 2018) for GlobalSource Partners, a New York-based network of independent analysts (globalsourcepartners.com). Our subscribers are principally global asset managers and banks who are mostly focused on the more quantitative economic sections of our reports. Christine Tang and I are their Philippine Advisors.

“Make the Philippine embassy in Spain the most productive in Europe, if not the world” -- this is Ambassador Philippe Lhuillier’s marching orders to his team of consuls.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 or RA 9136 was among the most important pro-market reforms in the Philippines. Before that law, the government-owned National Power Corporation (NPC) was the single-biggest debtor agency and the single-biggest deficit generator, fiscally bleeding the taxpayers while providing unreliable power supply.