Senior business leaders from across the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc voiced growing concern over recent, rapid changes in the global trade and financial landscape during the second APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting of the year, held in Toronto, Canada. In a...
The Philippines reported a robust 5.6 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2024—the highest in the ASEAN region. From 2021 to 2023, the country also allocated the highest national budgets among ASEAN nations (surpassing even Singapore) and tied for second with Malaysia in 2025, just...
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has sought an investigation into the implications of a 17-percent reciprocal tariff imposed on the Philippines by the United States, the country’s largest export market. Gatchalian said it is important for the government to ascertain the potential impact of the...
In business school, one of the fundamental lessons is that the greater the risk you undertake, the higher the return you should anticipate. Government-issued bills, notes, and bonds represent essentially sovereign risk and are typically regarded as the safest instruments in the market, consequently...
Gordon MacDonald’s Ordering Your Private World , one of my all-time favorite books, insightfully reveals how we can inadvertently trap ourselves in a "golden cage." I first encountered this impactful work in the 1980s, yet its wisdom remains relevant today. It opened my eyes to the subtle ways in...
When Republic Act No. 11223 was enacted in February 2019, it was hailed as a landmark achievement in Philippine public health policy. Also known as the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, the law carried the promise that every Filipino would have equitable access to quality and affordable health...
Senatorial candidate Ben Tulfo has called on business owners, particularly members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), to take a stand against flawed practices and systems. Senatorial candidate Ben Tulfo Speaking at a press conference in Cagayan De Oro, Tulfo emphasized the...
Philippine Business Bank reported that its net income dipped to ₱1.8 billion last year from the ₱1.82 billion earned in 2024 as lower trading offset higher core earnings. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said its interest income grew 14.4 percent to ₱10.6 billion in...
US President Donald Trump is tilting at windmills. Like it or not, his unexpected decision to hike US tariffs on imports is likely to be economically damaging in the long run. No one doubts that such a large US tariff increase is the biggest disruption in recent memory, given the pervasive...
Roughly 6,000 to 7,000-megawatt (MW) capacity ramp up is expected in the next two years, yet grid development is still stuck in the slow lane and woefully unprepared to handle the influx. Now, the government wants to pass the burden to power producers, especially the renewable energy (RE)...
Inspired by Holy Week, former Secretary of Health Jimmy Galvez Tan, “the Doctor of the Masses,” requested to interview me in his program on my "7 Last Words/Message” to my family. Dr. Jimmy is a very good friend, my mentor, and a resource teacher in Flor’s Garden in medicinal plants,...
From left to right: Light Fuels Retail Trade Manager, Dwight Christian Jonas Villon; Vice President and Head of Commercial Fuel Trade, Alvin Lato; First Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Atty. Constance Marie Lim, CPA; Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Brigitte...
