GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay For many Filipinos, last week’s series of “rotating brownouts” brought back uncomfortable memories of those hellish power outages of the 1990s. But they also reminded us that our energy sector remains in a deplorable state despite pledges...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay We seem to be hearing more bad news than good news these days, and these do not bode well for government’s optimistic scenario of a jumpstarted economy by the second quarter of the year. The scenario is dependent on two factors. One is the...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay There is an open disagreement between Cabinet officials over a proposal to require beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), some 4.4 million Filipinos who come from the poorest of the poor, to have themselves vaccinated...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The recent hard lockdown has again disrupted business and economic activities in Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, and Rizal. These are the country’s major economic hubs, and disruptions in these areas impact heavily on the goal of...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay With the national elections scheduled a year from now, it is quite understandable if some sectors of society – mostly commentators, political observers, and supporters and campaigners of known political personalities – are occasionally...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The discredited Health Secretary, asked if the country could also experience the unprecedented number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 being recorded in India, said that such a grim scenario could happen if the public fails to observe the...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The outpouring of kindness and generosity through the community pantries has been nothing short of phenomenal. As of last count, over 300 community pantries have been set up nationwide, all of them offering Filipinos displaced economically by...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The economy, according to a statement from the Trade Secretary, lost an estimated P180 billion during the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) imposed by the government in Metro Manila and four other provinces. On the other hand, those...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Last week, I was asked to speak before a webinar sponsored by the UP Portia Alumnae Association on my experiences as a human rights lawyer during martial law. As many of you know, I began my career as a lawyer in the 1960s, trading the comforts...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay On Good Friday came the shocking news from the Department of Health (DOH) that the number of active COVID-19 cases for the day totalled 15,310. Many experts had predicted this would happen sooner than later, but its announcement on Good Friday...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Over the weekend, the government placed Metro Manila and four adjacent provinces, what the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) refers to as NCR Plus, under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) status - a softer, benign term for a hard lockdown –...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay As I write this column, Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal have been placed under a “bubble” in an attempt to prevent a further surge in the number of viral infections caused by COVID-19. The Department of Health (DOH) has...
