Staying on the sidelines
By A. R. Samson
Not all those who analyze business and follow its ups and downs are necessarily movers and shakers, or even real players in the game....
Power shortage as election issue
By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr.
Until last week May 3, another yellow alert has been issued by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) because of insufficient reserves due to the following: (a) forced outage due to earthquake of GN Power Mariveles (316 MW), (b) unplanned/forced outage of SEM Calaca U2 and Team’s Pagbilao U1 (582 MW), and (c) derated/reduced capacity of five power plants (736 MW). Total 1,634 MW unavailable, that’s big.
In Honor Of Peddlers
By Maria Victoria P. Tibon
Recently, Chinese-Filipino businessman, Henry Sy, Sr. died. An immigrant from an impoverished family in Jianjiang, a town near Xiamen, China, he started as a shoe peddler and when he died two Saturdays ago at the age of 93, he owned one of the world’s biggest shopping chains and the Philippines’ largest retailing chain. In 2018, he was listed as the richest man in the Philippines by Forbes with a net asset of $18.3 billion.
Understanding the two proposals to rehabilitate NAIA
By Andrew J. Masigan
How serious is NAIA’s congestion problem?
Consider this: The country’s principal gateway processed 42 million passengers last year, 11 million more than it was built...
Church and politics
By Luis V. Teodoro
About 84% of Filipinos are at least nominally Catholic, which makes the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines potentially the most powerful force in politics and governance.
President Duterte failed to do the impossible: end contractualization and ‘endo’
By Oscar P. Lagman
As this is being written (hours before the State of the Nation Address), a massive protest rally is being mounted to denounce President Rodrigo Duterte for failing to fulfill his campaign promise to put an end to contractualization and “endo.”
Reform in the time of Duterte
By Aj Montesa and Karla Michelle Yu
“Are we in the midst of a crisis?”
The race is on… for talent
By Wilfredo G. Reyes
Besides showing that the company cares for society/the environment (in concrete details, instead of paying lip service) and provides a competitive salary as the two key requirements for attracting the best among Gen Zs, there are a couple of other steps to sweeten the pot.
The Coaseian Bargain in the PUV Modernization Program
By Raul V. Fabella
On Feb. 28, 2023, Senate Resolution 44 urged the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to postpone the planned phaseout of the traditional...
Market-oriented reforms in the Senate
By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr.
“Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.” -- Margaret Thatcher, UK Prime Minister (1979-1990)
Israel’s right to self-defense
By Jemy Gatdula
The movie Team America: World Police starts off with the counterterrorism group saving Paris from a bunch of ruthless Islamic terrorists that wanted to...
Energy realism: Decarbonization and deindustrialization
By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr.
The rush for “net zero” emissions and decarbonization is evident in Europe while many Asian countries are not so enamored with this rush. I have put together a chart showing how the United Kingdom and Spain are in a mad rush towards decarbonization by ditching their coal consumption, compared to China’s more considered conversion and Vietnam’s rejection of decarbonization.