OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Where else does one show how fintech can promote financial inclusion but in poor countries where access to electronic payments and settlement could spell the difference between life and death during this pandemic. Last year, the IMF focused on Rwanda’s...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It is not entirely correct to check whether we should go for COVID-19 vaccines to attain herd immunity on the basis of the number of vaccinated persons against the number of incidence and deaths. It is one thing to get a few vaccination data from Our World...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Last Friday, two sets of economic data were released by the BSP. They were disappointing and might likely be markers for bumpy roads ahead. First, foreign portfolio investment (FPIs) for March 2021 and for the first quarter of the year showed more outgoing...
The water samples collected from the ship MV Sarangani, which was caught allegedly discharging wastewater while docked near the Manila Bay on April 25, had no presence of oil content and harmful substance based on initial laboratory results, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Monday, May 3....
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo The Philippine Review of Economics (PRE) is releasing a special issue in honor of Dr. Benito Legarda, Jr., former deputy governor for research of the then Central Bank of the Philippines. I had the good fortune of succeeding him after his three worthy...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Two issues hogged the headlines and the social media in the last few days. The first issue is the administration of vaccines to priority health-care front-liners, senior citizens and other vulnerables. Only 63 percent of our estimated 1.7 million health...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo We have a circular strategy of managing the pandemic by imposing community quarantines (CQs) and re-opening the economy with very little done during time outs. Increment is marginal; it is bound to be never ending. We cause economic scars and uncertainty,...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Two columns ago, we referred to noted book author Yubal Noah Harari’s contribution to Financial Times published in February which argued that “while science has turned (epidemics) into a manageable challenge,” we reaped death and poverty during...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo After inflicting us with economic scars which portend another bad year for output and employment, this pandemic is spreading the spirit of fear. From a Christian perspective, this is pathetic. The Scripture is categorical that “God hath not given us a...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo There is science in lockdowns. Starting the first quarter of 2020, with shared information and scientific findings among scientists, lockdown strategies have been designed to be principles-based, aimed at fast but regular succession between lockdowns and...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT T hree years ago, Yubal Noah Harari released his book, 21 Lessons for the 21 st Century . Harari wrote on contemporary affairs and future of human societies. He observed the overwhelming victory of liberal democracy at the end of the 20 th century against fascism and...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT L ast week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report on the Philippines’ death statistics for January 2019 through December 2020 must have surprised many. The PSA reported fewer deaths in 2020 relative to 2019 tally. Despite the 9,244 deaths due to COVID-19 in...
