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By Rowena C. Ocfemia After more than six months of vacillation, the government has officially signed an agreement to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The proven faith and resilience of Filipinos, not the claimed achievements of the Aquino administration, prompted the optimism for the new year expressed by about 90 percent of Filipinos in a Pulse Asia survey, according to former National Treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, lead convenor of the budget watchdog Social Watch Philippines (SWP).

By Riza Lozada  The stock index is expected to hit the 8,000-point mark anew this year amid the continued upbeat sentiment in the local market and in spite of the overall gloom abroad.

Hanoi—Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has hailed the formation of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Community as a historic milestone in the regional connectivity process in Southeast Asia.

By Luis Leoncio Government collections from the excise tax on “sin” products, such as cigarettes and alcohol, in November 2015 increased by 39.58 percent to P16.298 billion, compared to those in the same period in 2014, according to the latest data of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). 

By Jerry Maglunog Beginning Monday, Jan. 4, banks will no longer accept checks with erasures and alterations, in compliance with an agreement between the Philippine Clearing House Corp. (PCHC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

By Luis Leoncio  The P3.002-trillion national appropriations for 2016, the last of the Aquino administration, which Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has described as a “legacy” budget, is nothing but an election budget loaded with lump-sum appropriations and pork, according to Social Watch Philippines (SWP). 

The economy will sustain its robust growth next year, despite forecasts of continued headwinds in global trade, and will remain a “bright spot” in Asia, Sergio R. Ortiz Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport), said. 

By Riza Lozada  The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) is confident of hurdling the regulatory barriers on its planned merger with fixed-income market operator Philippine Dealing System Corp. (PDS), which is crucial to the country’s goal of meeting the requirements of a cross-border trading platform linking Southeast Asian stock markets under the Associated of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) economic bloc. 

By Luis Leoncio The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will petition the courts to compel regulator National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to reassign part of the right of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to the prized 700-megahertz (MHz) frequency allocation that telecommunication companies need to upgrade data services.