The Philippine government continues to find ways to revitalize a sluggish economy from recession and to overcome an ongoing pandemic with a national public health infrastructure that is barely coping with its deleterious effects. While attention is presently focused on ramping up vaccinations...
One fundamental factor in the sustained growth of a country is having a strong and purposive research and development (R&D) program. R&D plays an essential role in society’s advancement. It provides science-based knowledge for the development of new products, solutions and services....
The country’s progressive farmers and corporate farms have high productivity and their products could compete with imports. Despite food exports totaling $5.1 billion, the Philippines still incurred a $5.9 billion trade deficit, thus earning the dubious distinction of being the only country with...
Last May 12, a day after the Philippine Statistical authority (PSA) reported that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.2 percent in the first quarter of the year, the Monetary Board (MB) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) “decided to maintain the interest rate on...
Filipinos have reason to expect a “better Christmas” this year as the government aims to achieve “herd containment” in September followed by “herd immunity” in November. Thus declared Secretary Carlito Galvez, the country’s vaccine czar, in a report during President Duterte’s...
From the twin woes of a health crisis and an extreme economic slowdown, the business and industry sectors are now gearing for a much-awaited economic turnaround that could materialize after the government’s massive immunization against COVID-19 shall have been implemented. Being firmed up in...
After more than six weeks of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and its modified version (MECQ), President Duterte has once again placed the National Capitol Region Plus area under a ‘stricter’ general community quarantine (GCQ) from May 15 to 31. Recall that before the start of Holy Week, ECQ...
The country’s economy shrank in the first three months of the year, marking its fifth straight quarter of recession triggered by a prolonged pandemic. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.2 percent in January to March, worse than the...
It has been nearly two years since the labor sector enjoyed prime time attention. That was when President Duterte vetoed the Security of Tenure Act passed by Congress in answer to the clamor for ending “abusive” practices in labor-only contracting – popularly known as "endo" – that was a...
By virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 37 issued by President Joseph Ejercito Estrada in 1999, the month of May was declared as the Month of the Ocean (MOO). Perhaps preoccupied by the pressing demands of containing a still-raging pandemic, the government’s current observance of May as the...
Philippine Red Cross joined the celebration of World Red Cross Red Crescent Day last May 8 to honor the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize . IFRC is the world’s largest...
There are countless awards—Entrepreneur of the Year, National Artists, Best Actress, Miss Universe, Asia CEO Awards, the Nobel Prize—but none as widely known that recognizes excellence in perhaps the most essential of duties, parenthood. What price motherhood? It is a labor of love, but it is...
