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...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT O ur column last week “Israel shows how to do things right” elicited several comments, admitting that while Israel also fouled up in the early days of the pandemic, it got things right towards the end of 2020. Israel’s government imposed lockdowns a few times and...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT President Duterte made the correct move when he “gave his directives to the Cabinet that the Philippines would not be placed on Modified General Community Quarantine unless there is a rollout of vaccines.” He was quoted by the presidential spokesperson that he wanted to...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo In the last quarter of 2019, this column discussed in three parts the whys and wherefores of financial literacy. We were inspired by the earlier discussions during the first Asia Pacific Financial Education Institute organized by our friend Dave Fernandez,...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo In many of our previous columns, we would always emphasize that mobility and business activities are not something that government can simply mandate and wish for. Mobility and business activities are not something like rising pork and chicken prices that...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Our economic managers fully realize, and we agree, that prior to the pandemic, they inherited one of the most promising, most dynamic emerging markets. We reaped the benefits from a 30-year pursuit of policy and structural reforms that unleashed the...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo UP Diliman early this week unveiled an art installation appropriately labelled “Barikada” at the Oblation Plaza. Toym Imao could not have created a more fitting tribute to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1971 Diliman Commune. When this eight-day...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT O ne thing we cannot ascribe to the British is the propensity to secrecy. In monetary policy, the Brits could not be more than transparent. The Bank of England for over 20 years has been publishing the minutes of its meetings on monetary policy held eight times a year. While...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo We certainly are not Hamlet to contemplate on whether it is better to live or to die. It is quite obvious for us to keep safe and stay healthy. We all want to live unless we give more weight to Hamlet’s musing that life is lack of power. Some of us must...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo In our last column for 2020, we called on the Philippine authorities not to drop the ball this year. It’s 2021. There’s no more time to catch up; we are in the last quarter of the game. Even a full-court press, man to man guarding of every political or...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Heard over the morning edition of the National Public Radio last December 28, Patti Neighmond wrote an extremely informative article “Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not be Worth It.” It was unquestionably refreshing to know we are learning more...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT (Last of two parts) That old family mirror my father used in his youth was my father himself during the Japanese occupation. In some of his more popular short stories, as critics and scholars observed, like Teodoro Agoncillo (Mga Piling Kuwento 1886-1948), there were no...
