BETWEEN 1980 and 2010, the Philippines established its reputation as the “sick man of Asia,” growing by only 3.6% annually -— much slower than the “Tiger economies” of East Asia, which grew by over 6% a year over the same period.

MANY PEOPLE want to plant trees on Earth Day, April 22, which is in the middle of our summer. We don’t encourage planting on that day. We tell our partners, unless you’re planting in your own backyard, do not have any illusions about planting on Earth Day.

WITH EVERY CHANGE of administration comes the question of what needs to change, and what needs to be retained. In this episode of BusinessWorld B-Side podcast, multimedia reporter Patricia B. Mirasol takes a look back at how the 1987 Philippine Constitution was drafted with Bernardo M. Villegas, an economist and one of its framers.

THE EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE has forever changed due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, something the new administration must address, especially for a workforce that is still struggling to adapt to the new normal.

ASIDE FROM the current and impending global economic challenges seeping through the local economy, attracting employees back to the office remains one of the top concerns faced by corporates and employers.

THE Philippine economy is definitely on its way to recovery and Colliers Philippines believes that will have a significant impact on the property market’s own recovery.

BY THE TIME this article is published, I would have clocked in a full 26 years in the corporate real estate industry. I started the same time that talks began on the redevelopment of Fort Bonifacio and Makati City was clearly the top central business district with few capable of competing on sheer scale, Ortigas Center being the closest.

THE MALL CULTURE is deeply ingrained in Filipinos, pandemic or not. With around 65.3% of the eligible population (about 71.6 million individuals) vaccinated against COVID-19, more people are seeking a sense of normalcy by going to malls to shop, dine, and socialize.

PLANNING a smart city is not simply an exercise in deploying the most wondrous new technology. If the Philippines’ planners have their way, future city architecture will serve as a tool for making prosperity more broad-based, and attractiveness to investors more sustained. In other words, the building works may be critically important on the surface, but the social engineering may matter more in the long run.

A QUICK SEARCH on the internet for “Philippine map at night” will invariably return satellite images showing the country lit up by evening lights. It’s easy to spot the National Capital Region and neighboring areas since they appear as a glowing streak stretching from Pampanga in the north to Batangas in the south. Metro Manila, at the center, shines with a fierce intensity which reflects the population density and electricity use in the area

THE WORLD never anticipated the global medical and economic freeze from COVID-19, but this is now part of a regular cadence of pandemics that we should continuously prepare for. 

LOCKDOWNS and restrictions imposed at the height of the pandemic saw cinemas and other places of public entertainment shuttered for almost two years. Late in 2021, movie theaters started opening again. In the interim, streaming services and other media stepped in to meet audience demand for entertainment. Are cinemas still the best seats in the house?