miniZibaldone

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Philippine Daily Inquirer ,   "Learn from last year " Many experts agree: After suffering one of the most challenging years in recent memory, the Philippine economy is poised for a comeback this year. And this early into 2019, there are already several encouraging signs that give credence to this belief. For one, the local currency, a key barometer of foreign and local investors’ confidence in the local economy, has appreciated significantly since it hit multiyear lows last year. The equity market has also been on an upward trajectory in recent weeks, with the Philippine Stock Exchange Index no longer flirting with bear market levels as loss-weary investors had grown accustomed to just a few months ago, but with bull market territory that indicates the return of confidence in the country’s economic prospects. Then there is that issue of inflation — the main killer of confidence last year, which forced many consumers and business conglomerates to tighten their purse stri...

Philippine Daily Inquirer's   "Unfair Protection " Local cement manufacturers appear to have succeeded in presenting a convincing storyline to the Department of Trade and Industry about the alleged destructive impact of imports on their profitability. Last week, the DTI announced the imposition of a provisional safeguard duty on imported cement starting next month, claiming it needed to protect local manufacturers who were at a disadvantage because of cheap imports. “With the elements of surge and injury clearly established, DTI is mandated to impose a safeguard duty. DTI is thus imposing a provisional safeguard duty of P8.40 per [200-kilo] bag, equivalent to about 4 percent,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez told reporters covering him. That’s an additional tax of 4 percent on imported cement.   [link] Mindanao Daily  "Will Moreno join the ‘Roa family’ reunion? " President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is expected to attend the annual “Roa Family Reunio...

Sun.Star Cebu's  Carvajal: "From the bottom up" PHILIPPINE democracy is hardly that because colonial masters handed it down on a people steeped in a comprehensively authoritarian culture. To this day, in fact, all  basic social institutions around a so-called democratic government are authoritarian in degrees ranging from mild to despotic. The Filipino family is authoritarian. Not-so-authoritarian parents simply do not bother to consult much less consider the opinion of children while despotic parents  impose their iron will on children, choosing professions and even spouses for them.  Schools are no less authoritarian. Most are run as business concerns by profit-oriented stockholders. More to the point, professors and teachers simply dole out  knowledge to their students and demand that such be regurgitated back to them at exam time. A good memory is all you need to get through an authoritarian school  system. Catholic Churches are even more authoritari...

Inquirer   on  Asia-Pacific economic growth After a successful summit in Manila, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) headed home with the region facing prospects of slowing economic growth.[...] Alan Bollard, executive director of the Apec Secretariat, observed that economies across the Asia-Pacific continued to grow but now found themselves in a “holding pattern of lower growth in the absence of high trade volumes.” [...] The blame goes to the declining contribution of trade to the region’s economic growth—quite ironic because the Apec was formed with the vision to make a free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific. [full page] Sun.Star Cebu   about gambling One of the spins used by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to soften the opposition by some sectors to the introduction of the three-number combination lottery “Swertres” years ago was that it would kill the illegal numbers game called by Cebuanos as masiao. Years after Swertres ...

Inquirer on three images during Apec Three images from the past week may come to define the 2015 edition of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting, in global public opinion.[…] The first of the defining images...involved Obama, taking part in only his fifth Apec powwow, breaking protocol (and stolid Apec tradition). He gamely served as moderator of what turned out to be the liveliest panel during the Apec CEO Summit[…] The second of the defining images came right after Obama’s session, when Xi addressed the same audience […] But the distance between hope and reality was captured, perhaps unwittingly, in the third of the defining images: Xi’s awkward walk down the red carpet of the Philippine International Convention Center, all but ignored by Mr. Aquino and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who were engrossed in an animated conversation. [full page] Sun.Star Cebu on public transportation and private interest When SM Holdings made a pitch for the operatio...