For the second time, the Philippines will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in 2015, following China in 2014 and preceding Peru in 2016. This year’s Apec is in Indonesia. The Philippines first hosted the Apec in 1996 where the association’s Manila Action Plan for Apec (Mapa) was adopted.
To protect their interests in Cuba during the revolt of the Cubans against their Spanish masters, the US government sent its battleship USS Maine to Havana in January 1898. A few days later in February, the forward gunpowder magazines of the battleship exploded killing nearly three-quarters of its crew. The cause of the explosion was [...]
I often use in writing the word “inept” to describe people in government who do not know what they are supposed to do or are unable to do what is required of them in certain critical situations. They may not be corrupt but their ineptness leads to waste in government similar to what we lose through corruption. The worst happens when inept government officials are also corrupt because, freed from work through their ineptness, they now have all the time to think of ways and means to take advantage of their positions for their own profit.
I teach economics part time at the University of San Carlos with a load of 6 or 9 units per semester. This increased to 12 to 15 units in the last two years when the Department of Political Science asked me to handle subjects in the their newly opened program on public management and development. [...]
The economy grew in average by more than 6 percent in the first three quarters of the year, the fastest in Southeast Asia except China.
A Swiss couple also responded to the query made by my friend Paul from among his guests and friends from Europe about what they like or what they want to see in places they would like to visit like Cebu. Paul says that this one is of particular interest because the Swiss couple, both in [...]
My friend Paul, a Swiss business executive who has retired in Argao town, southern Cebu wrote: “A couple of days ago, I read in Cebu Daily News that you have conducted a panel discussion (or something like it) on the subject of how to boost tourism in Cebu. Here are some unsolicited thoughts pertaining to [...]
Located in the middle-eastern coastal region of Cebu, Mandaue City has the advantage of being closest, among the local government units in Cebu, to both the International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City in Mactan Island and the International Seaport in Cebu City at the edge of the city’s southern boundary. The city is also the main [...]
The Philippine economy grew by 5.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, up from 3.4 percent recorded in the same quarter last year. With the recorded 6.4 percent growth in the first quarter, overall growth in the first half of the year was a respectable 6.1 percent. With these, it is more likely [...]
Last month, House Bill No. 6022 was approved on third and final reading by the Lower House. The Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), whose members include 30 air carriers that serve the Philippines, welcomed the approval.
The country’s Gross Domestic Product or total output of goods and services grew by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the upwardly revised 4.9-percent growth in the same period last year.
Government report says that a surplus of P31.024 billion was posted last month, trimming down year-to-date deficit to P2.885 billion. Indeed, revenues surged by more than a tenth in April and by 11.4 percent for the first four months of the year, while disbursements recorded an uptick of 9.1 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.
The country is presently characterized by slow and exclusive growth, where whatever little progress being achieved goes only to the rich or better-off segment of our society. Up to a fourth of the country’s labor force is either unemployed or underemployed. Not surprisingly, about a fourth of our people still live in poverty, majority in the rural areas or regions far from the more developed Metro Manila or National Capital Region.
