PBBM’s defining moment
By Calixto V. Chikiamco
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. may be facing a defining moment in his presidency: the fight against inflation. Whether he succeeds or fails in...
Coronavirus: Signs of normalcy emerge as China reopens
AS CHINA has started lifting lockdown restrictions, its economy is slowly getting back on track. Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity’s Andrew Ness looks at the latest developments in Asia, and considers how some cash-rich companies in North Asia could prove survivors of the crisis.
Philippines’ coal ‘over-dependence’ could lead to massive power rate hike, groups say
By Alanah Torralba
Environmental think tank groups are warning of massive power rate hikes due to imminent financial losses resulting from stranded assets of new...
Foreign investment liberalization and national security
By Calixto V. Chikiamco
The purveyors of “zombie apocalypse” scenarios, as a friend put it, are at it again. They take the most extreme and scariest scenarios and project these to keep change from happening. Don’t change. Keep the status quo. Otherwise, the zombies will come and get you.
What Duterte should do in West Philippine Sea
By Richard Javad Heydarian
Back in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a public pledge not to “militarize” disputed land features in the South China Sea. Three years on, what we are witnessing is nothing short of “militarization on steroids” across the whole area.
Marcos then — Marcos now
By Luis V. Teodoro
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was in the United States on a six-day state visit, and was pointedly absent during the 50th commemoration of his father’s Sept. 21, 1972, Presidential Proclamation (PP) 1081 which placed the entire Philippines under martial law.
Virus, bacteria, and pneumococcal diseases
By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr.
Before the China virus -- a.k.a. SARS-Cov-2 which causes Covid-19 -- scare, pneumococcal diseases caused by a bacteria called Streptococcus pneumonia and their treatment were in the news. The bacteria can affect people of all ages, from babies to senior citizens, and pneumococcal diseases are a leading cause of death among children below five years old. When the bacteria invade the lungs, they can cause pneumonia and death. They can also invade the bloodstream and cause bacteremia, or invade the tissues and fluids surrounding the brain and spinal cord and cause meningitis.
Department of Plastic Works
By Marvin Tort
Kudos to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for approving the use of plastic bag waste in national road construction nationwide.
While not...
Jesus under a pink moon
By Jemy Gatdula
The Fallacy of relative privation (sometimes known as “appeal to worse problems”) is the tact of dismissing an argument or position by declaring there are graver or more important problems elsewhere. This statement is made regardless of whether those problems bear relevance to the actual argument or position first made.
A pandemic in numbers
By Amelia HC Ylagan
A global recession has been brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In its latest Global Economic Prospects Report, the World Bank (WB) said in June that the global economy will shrink by 5.2% in 2020, representing “the deepest recession since World War Two.” Developed countries’ economic growth will decline 7%, and that of emerging markets and developing countries by 2.5% — their first contraction as a group in at least 60 years. Per capita incomes will fall by 3.6%, pulling some 60 million people down into extreme poverty, the report said.
Getting the message across
By A. R. Samson
“Signaling” has become a new management watchword. It means consistency with a brand image or a value system by being ever mindful of unintended...
Reflections on a just transition
By Rhoda Viajar
The Conference of Parties (CoP29) or the climate summit wrapped up in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024 with two clear outcomes: having a new...