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China has become increasingly dependent on the rest of the world for the huge quantities of raw materials that are required for continuous, albeit slower, growth.  It is already the world’s largest buyer of copper, the second biggest buyer of iron ore, and the third largest buyer of alumina.  It absorbs around a third of the global supply of coal, steel and cotton, and half of its cement. It is the second largest energy consumer after the U.S. with nearly 70 percent produced from burning coal.  In 2005, China used more coal than the U.S., India and Russia combined.  In 2004, it accounted for nearly 40 percent of the increase in the world demand for oil.  Although its growth has been slowing down to 5 per cent or less in  recent years and may never reach the income per head now enjoyed by the US and other OECD countries, the more than 700 million Chinese who have already attained middle-income levels will be making huge claims on the world’s supply of grain harvest such as soybean, wheat and maize.  As the other 700 million are able to go beyond just subsistence level of existence, food security will be the greatest challenge to this country that even today already has the largest GDP if measured, not at nominal figures but at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms.  As of 2020, China’s GDP in PPP terms, according to IMF, was at $24.162 trillion compared to $20.807 trillion for the U.S.   To satisfy such a huge demand of the domestic market, China will need to import huge amounts of raw materials from other countries.

I am indeed fortunate that my late father sent me to a great school for my MBA, which in 2020 was number 2 in the Global MBA Ranking.  In addition, I had a happy career in banking as a senior executive in a number of financial institutions.  Nonetheless, I still get confused with the relationship between GDP growth rate, unemployment, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation rates.

Having a protective natural barrier and a small population, a bubble needs less resources and time to eradicate the virus and protect itself from imported re-infection. It can establish herd immunity with less vaccines without waiting for the whole country.  An LGU with a shifting population cannot achieve this even if it vaccinates all its residents.  Bubbles residents can return to unrestricted normal lives even as the rest of the country battles the pandemic. An LGU cannot do this since no LGU is safe until every LGU is safe. But a bubble is safe even if everyplace around it is not.  LGU’s within the same bubble could pool their resources and together drive the virus out of their island, a feat not possible if each fought the virus separately.  Lockdowns, testing, vaccination and financial assistance would achieve better and faster results if done by bubble, instead of by LGU’s, type of industry, profession, and age group as we do currently.

 In 1992, the late President Corazon C. Aquino signed into law Republic Act No. 7581 (The Price Act). It provides protection to consumers by stabilizing the prices of basic necessities and prime commodities and by prescribing measures against undue price increases during an emergency situation and similar occasions. The Price Act was amended  by Republic Act No. 10623 in 2013, signed into law by another Aquino, President Benigno III.

It’s this time of the year when banks and corporates are reporting their net income. It ‘s also stockholders’ eeting time.

Monetary transfers, remittances and currency exchanges used to be the almost exclusive domain of banks. This is not true anymore. The increased sophistication of the financial system, aided by technological advancements, has enabled non-bank entities to enter these operations as, indeed, they have mushroomed into a separate industry by themselves into what is now referred to as the money service business or MSB. In parallel moves, governments across the world realize the need for consumer protection from these enterprises and have therefore regulated them to assure that they are operating with safety, soundness and reliability. This is also the regulatory environment in the Philippines. This article will be in two parts to introduce the readers to the MSB, to its constituent entities, and to their basic operations.

Weeds are plants in the wrong place, growing where they are not wanted and where they should not be. There are many weeds that are useful. In Flor’s Garden, weeds that are edible, we call “Weedibles” and weeds that are medicinal “Weedicinals,” as coined by Sally Sabalburo, a hobby natural farmer from La Union.

Many of us grew up fantasizing about Batman as a superhero.  Unlike Superman, he did not come from planet Krypton and devoid of super human powers.  But he is able to do incredulous work because of dedication to his mission and leadership qualities.  I have started to call some Mayors as Batman.  Despite resource constraints, and inadequate assistance from central government, they have done incredibly well.  They have devised contact tracing, conducted targeted testing, put up infrastructure for isolation and treatment.  On their own, they have implemented programs to help the poor.  They created supply chains that guarantee communities with access to food and basic services.

With just a relatively minor easing on the quarantine protocols within the so-called NCR plus bubble, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) was prompted to extend its self-imposed policy on “no disconnection of services” until the end of this month.

Philippine political relationships with China are fraught with difficult challenges.  A most recent provocation was the presence of 220 Chinese vessels that were spotted moored at Whitsun Reef last March 7, 2021.  The reef is within the Philippines exclusive economic zone over which our country enjoys the exclusive right to exploit or conserve any resources.  An official diplomatic protest has already been lodged by our government.   This incident is just another reminder of the tense territorial standoff in which China, the Philippines and four other governments have been locked over resources, sea lanes  and busy waterways for decades.  Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio described very succinctly the source of this tension in a column in The Inquirer.  He referred to China’s three warfares strategy which China adopted in 2003.  The strategy was meant by the  Chinese to seize the South China Sea without triggering a war. 

Philippine health authorities temporarily suspended on April 8 the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people below 60 years of age to investigate reports of blood clots coming from overseas like the United Kingdom, after the European Medicines Agency found a “possible link” between the vaccine and blood clots.

On March 29, Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) – the strictest level of quarantine – was once again imposed on the National Capital Region (NCR) and the adjoining provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal. It was supposed to be in effect until April 4 but was subsequently extended by another week. This was in response to a rapidly rising wave of Covid infections.

These are the recommendations and strategies of the research project of the Consumers International and the CGAP to assess the state of consumer advocacy and policy work in financial consumer protection in low and middle income member countries.

I do understand that given the situation we’re all in, we have to be creative. But, no matter how I think of it, I can’t get enough of the news update about the flag-carrier going into food delivery.

A year after the National Capital Region (NCR) and the rest of Luzon Island went into the dreaded ECQ, or enhanced community quarantine, for two months, here we are back to square one with the resurgence of COVID-19 cases and hard lockdowns in NCR plus the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal.

Reading about a plague terrified me when I was a kid.  Watching its effects dramatized in movies gave me nightmares.  Although it has been given a benign name, a pandemic is a plague that brings death, fear, and untold misery. 

Article III on the Bill of Rights also contains more principles containing values to be protected.  Section 3 protects private data by declaring communication and correspondence to be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court or when public safety or order require otherwise as prescribed by law.  In Section  4, the freedom of speech is guaranteed by declaring that no law shall be passed abiding the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.  Also highlighted is the freedom of religion:  “The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed.  Section 7 recognizes the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.  Section 8 defends the freedom of association for purposes not contrary to law.  Especially relevant to economic progress is the protection of private property as declared by Section 9 affirming that “private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.”