OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Putting up the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) cannot save us from the more urgent economic and social problems we face this year. For instance, no government can prevent shear line-induced heavy rainfall that caused flash floods and landslides in Mindanao...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Nobody can accuse the Philippines for lack of strategic economic ideas on how to overturn what many believe to be an inexorably uncertain future for this nation of 112 million Filipinos. This is true not only today but also during the previous political...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Seven years ago, in October 2015, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) published a study entitled “Demographic sweet spot and dividend in the Philippines: The window of opportunity is...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It was necessary for the President to have met his economic managers last Oct. 18 and discussed inflation, exchange rate and interest rates. Our people should be reassured that today’s critical situation has the attention of those in the highest places....
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It was just a few days after Typhoon Yolanda pummeled most of the central Philippines in November 2013 that we appeared before CNN in New York in the course of the Republic’s global fund-raising exercise. We updated the world about the damage we...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Smart households set aside some contingency funds, whether in cash or in bank deposit. It’s a precaution which may sound costly but the peace of mind that it buys is priceless. It’s no different for the sovereigns, but it’s their central banks or...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Some 14 years ago, Daron Acemoglu, Davide Ticchi and Andrea Vindigni argued in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper (‘A Theory of Military Dictatorships’) that one, the elite who wish to maintain their political power motivate a...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It’s not news anymore, that latest Pulse Asia’s “Ulat ng Bayan” survey that was conducted between June 24 to 27 with some 1,200 respondents showing that the most urgent concern among Filipinos was controlling inflation, or the rate of increase of...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo Make no mistake about it, but the relatively softer inflation reading for August 2022 of 6.3 percent should not lead one to celebrate that inflation is now over the hump. Inflation is yet to be tamed. Unlike in the early part of 2022, inflation today is no...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo (Conclusion) The second question is quite obvious: What are the key risks that we face today? First, the risk of pandemic resurgence. Covid-19 may now be treated like a common flu, but this requires massive rollout of the vaccines plus two boosters. As of...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo In the late 1970s at the then Central Bank of the Philippines, we would at times be assigned the task of consolidating the draft write-ups on the various sectors of the Philippine economy. Under its charter, the monetary authority is mandated to submit...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Hearing those tales of some Mangyan servants of God was more than heartbreaking. Their children had to trek for three hours each way to reach school to get some learning. Instead of entering school at seven years of age, they would wait until around 10...
