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By Yoo Seungki Seoul—South Korea is divided on whether to deploy a sophisticated US missile defense system in its territory over worries about the expected escalation of regional tensions and the unproven plausibility of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad), both militarily and environmentally.

By Luis Leoncio  The next president of the Philippines should focus on agriculture, as this sector is vital to achieving broad-based and inclusive growth, a recently released policy paper of the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) said. 

By Jerry Maglunog  The Bankers’ Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) have jointly issued a warning against a certain Global Investment Bank, or GIB Philippines Bank Ltd., which, according to the central bank, is currently engaged in unauthorized banking activity. 

The “contentious” Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), spearheaded by the United States “would undermine people’s rights and prevent national development,” local think tank IBON said as it urged the government to reconsider its plan to join it. 

By Lito U. Gagni  High energy prices and telecommunications issues are expected to be the priority concerns of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), the new agency tasked to address competition issues in industries by leveling the playing field among participants. 

By Riza Lozada Local trade groups are up in arms against new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements for local firms, including the need to make official the new locations of their principal offices through amendments to their articles of incorporation that would require approval of stockholders and submission to the SEC. 

By Luis Leoncio  There may yet be a happy compromise to end the raging controversy over the P2,000 increase for pensioners of the Social Security System (SSS) that was aborted by a presidential veto that now seriously threatens the electoral chances of the ruling party’s candidates in next May’s elections, from its presidential candidate down. 

By Riza Lozada  While most Filipinos, particularly car owners, public-transport operators and drivers and commuters, have benefitted greatly from the decline in the world prices of oil, the development has become a nightmare for the country’s estimated 2.2 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East, the world’s main oil source, who are now in danger of losing their …

By Jerry Maglunog  A wave of mergers is expected to engulf local banks after integration has become the norm, with the establishment of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) last December. 

Malacanang said it was saddened by the deaths of 14 Filipinos in a hotel fire in Iraq’s Kurdistan region Friday and that it was working with Iraqi authorities to bring home the remains of victims.