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By Riza Lozada  There appears to be no immediate end in sight to the standoff between the country’s telecommunications giants and the newly formed regulator, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), over a P70-billion telecommunications megadeal. 

Two controversial measures that came out of the two-day Davao City summit among businessmen and the Duterte economic team were a proposal to raise the value added tax (VAT) from 12 percent to at most 15 percent, and to provide President-elect Rodrigo Duterte with emergency powers—for two years, at most— to address the traffic crisis in Metro Manila. 

By Riza Lozada To make up for the rise in the number of school dropouts amid the increase in school years through the Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 (K-to-12) system, incoming Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis-wBriones said the Alternative Learning System (ALS) will be boosted to allow more students to advance in their studies outside of a classroom.

By Luis Leoncio  The proposed income-tax cuts hijacked by President Aquino are expected to be realized under the incoming administration, but with a consequent increase in the sales tax or the valued-added tax (VAT), according to the policy agenda drafted by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers.

By Riza Lozada Local users will have to put up a little longer with the notoriously slow pace of the country’s internet, as the much-awaited improvement expected to be ushered in by a deal among the country’s three biggest telecommunications companies (telcos) may be delayed for some time. 

A World Bank (WB) study has found that casual work contributes to the poverty of Filipinos, as the low-earning capacity of such jobs cannot lift people out of their indigence. 

By Luis Leoncio Port stakeholders said it would be prudent for the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to withhold action on the 37.45-percent tariff-increase petition of the Manila North Harbour Philippines Inc. (MNHPI) until President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a full complement of officials of the regulatory body.

By Jerry Maglunog and Luis Leoncio  NOT too fast, the newly formed Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has admonished the three telecommunication giants involved in a P70-billion deal, after they claimed the transaction was “deemed approved” and that all that was needed was for them to file a notice. 

By Luis Leoncio  President-elect Duterte is expected to bring in a “populist” administration whose national budget will be targeted for massive infrastructure spending, and which will aim to convert the economy from being consumption-driven to one that is led by exports and investments to generate jobs. 

Big port stakeholders are protesting the “indecent haste” at which the Bureau of Customs (BOC) sought the approval of the draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).