Except for frontliners and APORs (authorized persons outside of residence), today, we, in this urban jungle and the nearby provinces, are now back on house arrest. It’s a bitter decision the authorities have to impose to curb the surge in the number of victims caused by the virulence of the Delta...
As my favorite market strategist puts it, the change in the economic outlook to “negative” by credit rating watchdog Fitch Rating is “writing on the wall” and that conditions may go downhill should the leadership continue to be dispassionate, even, oblivious. The Fitch team visited the...
This Sunday marks 24 years since the 1997 Asian financial crisis (AFC) brought the regional economies spinning down in a trance. Former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando “Say” Tetangco, Jr., in my previous exchanges with him, admitted that “it was the most challenging...
I had, occasionally, joined the media delegation to trail President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III or PNoy in one or two of his 40 official and state visit travels to 24 countries. Despite this, I haven’t had the opportunity to interview him one and...
Makati Business Club President Ed Chua and seasoned banker Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso, two well-known personalities in the business community, are film enthusiasts. Mr. Wick, Philippine National Bank president, takes great pleasure in watching Tagalog films in his spare moments. This we –...
Guilty! Yes, that’s me. I am at fault. Mea culpa. Maxima me culpa! I have violated the intellectual property rights (IPR) by buying DVDs, the videos of movies that I missed watching on the big screen, through whispering. Oh, don’t tell me you’re not guilty as well. One time or another, most...
I’ve always been a PAL (Philippine Airlines) watcher. Any development, specifically on this issue, perks me up. More so with quite a number of queries I received on my wall asking for updates regarding the financial restructuring-cum-rehabilitation of the flag carrier. The latest word going...
I am not referring to the monetary board’s key interest rate policy. ‘Am talking about the national government’s budget deficit target for this year. The deficit level stays at 8.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this year and hopefully go down further to 7.2 percent in 2022 from...
In this virus time, it gives me goose bumps to hear the word contagious. However, this is not about COVID’s virulence that we hear and read day in and day out with our ears already oozing with information overload. I am talking about the contagion effect on the act of kindness of Ana Patricia...
Papa Ben tells me that the selection procedure of the next president of the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) is a “fascinating process,” this year. The nomination forms were farmed out to the 45 member-banks on the day I wrote about the leadership succession in the...
