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...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo There’s an interesting anti-inflation strategy emerging in the United States. The US Senate calls it Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and they consider it a major achievement for the Democrats after spending over a year to craft what should have been...
Diwa C. Guinigundo OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Nothing was trivial for FVR, for at the time he was gunning for the presidency, every little support meant the world for him. There was no mistaking that FVR seemed to hold no chance at all. The New York Times reported on Dec. 1, 1991 that Laban ng...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo He declared it was his duty to deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, July 25. No doubt aware of both domestic and external challenges shaping the times and the seasons, he assured the nation finding solution will be a continuing...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo We thought after the BSP delivered a decisive monetary action last Thursday, many market uncertainties would have died down. On the lighter side, as one broadsheet described the move as “surprised,”the BSP appeared to have done a patellar reflex, or an...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Two weeks ago, we wrote a cautionary tale about Sri Lanka. It was showing an economic meltdown, with grassroots reality of struggling in endless queues for food, fuel and medicine, with rolling blackouts. Power is also in short supply. It was the...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It’s difficult not to discern the similarities. But the impact of the crisis in Sri Lanka on the people’s lives is many times more severe even school examinations were called off. Their pupils had no pad paper to write on. People struggle with fuel,...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It is good to remain watchful of the impact of sustained increases in oil prices on output and inflation following the Ukraine-Russia war and whatever is left of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC’s leverage in oil pricing...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo This coming May 9 election is a defining moment for the Filipino people. We could not think of a better subtext than Palawan Pawnshop’s quintessential tagline: “Alahas ang isinasangla, hindi ang iyong kinabukasan.” Beyond endorsing VP Leni, it...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo 1Sambayan could not have clarified it more clearly, that no less than the Supreme Court in January 1999 ruled that the Marcoses owed the government ₱ 23.3 billion in estate taxes. For their failure to pay, the Marcoses accumulated tax liabilities...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It was good that the Department of Finance (DOF) decided to prepare “a transition plan to help the next administration manage the country’s debt.” Some of its components must still be tentative. We have not seen a copy of the plan but it is crucial...
