Natural disasters of various kinds continue around the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a major 7.5-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska last Monday, sending off tsunami waves, only three months after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the same region. Across the ocean, the...
It was in 2018 that market prices – inflation in economic terms – rose to a peak of 6.7 percent in October, after steadily rising throughout the year. High rice prices were seen as a major cause of the inflation, rice constituting a big major part of the Filipino diet. As Congress met on this...
Poll surveys have become an important part of life and government in countries around the world. People in democratic countries get to declare what they want and support openly in periodic elections. In between elections, poll surveys indicate how people think and feel about government programs and...
It is still two months away from the country’s most revered religious tradition of the “Simbang Gabi” but both religious and government leaders are already planning for it. We have cancelled so many of our traditional practices because of COVID-19 since March, among them the Visita Iglesia...
“Can we not have justice with compassion?” This was asked by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in a statement it issued on the death and burial of a three-month-old baby who was separated from her mother Reina Mae Nasino, just a month after she gave birth to her on July 1 while under...
With traffic in Metro Manila fast returning to pre-pandemic congestion, there was welcome news last Tuesday – the 18-kilometer Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 was finally completed after almost four years of construction work at a cost of P44.8 billion. The elevated expressway connects the two major...
One development arising from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the huge drop in industrial activity around the world, as factories shut down, millions of cars stayed off the roads, and people stayed home in lockdowns ordered by governments to help stop the spread of the virus. This year, the...
We should have the national appropriation bill approved by the House of Representatives before Friday when the Special Session of the House of Representatives ends. The House finally settled all issues related to the speakership last Tuesday on the first day of the Special Session called by...
The Philippines has thousands of islands from the Batanes group in the north to the Tawi-Tawi group in the south. Most people are familiar with the bigger islands – Luzon, Mindoro, Panay, Negros, Samar, and Mindanao. But there are thousands of other islands – 7,641 at the last official count,...
Today, Tuesday, October 13, the Congress of the Philippines has been called into special session by President Duterte with one express purpose – to approve the National Appropriation Bill for 2021. The President took this unprecedented step of calling for a special session at this time of the...
The world is watching the interplay of moves and events in the United States as it moves closer to its presidential election on November 3, only three weeks away. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Tokyo, Japan, last Tuesday to meet with officials of Japan, Australia, and India, America’s...
The government is closely watching developments on two fronts in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. One is the number of infections and deaths, the direct impact of the coronavirus on the people. The other is the economic impact of the pandemic — the big losses in national development and on the...
