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By Luis Leoncio President Aquino is being asked to devote his last State of the Nation Address (Sona)—his legacy speech, according to many—to unfulfilled promises and the improvement of his countrymen’s daily lives.

By Luis Leoncio The pork-barrel system that was resurrected in the 2015 budget, reaching as much as P700 billion in lump sums, was the likely result of a conspiracy of some members of the Executive and Legislative branches to park lump-sum appropriations without intending to use these for the recommended purposes but actually for the selected legislators to realign their …

The Philippines economy is heading for a slowdown as the effects of the European debt contagion that manifested in the problem of Greece are starting to spread worldwide.

By Jerry Maglunog The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has imposed stricter capital requirements on 10 of the country’s biggest universal and commercial banks, called domestic systemically important banks (DSIB) or those deemed too big to fail, requiring them to increase their capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to between 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent.

By Luis Leoncio The Department of Energy (DOE) has stopped DM Consunji Inc. (DMCI) group’s Semirara Mining and Power Corp.’s operations in Semirara, Antique, after a wall in the vast coalpit collapsed early Friday morning, killing five miners.

By Luis Leoncio Sen. Ralph Recto has warned the country of a possible “made-in-China food shortage,” as colleague Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. chided the government for limiting its options on the territorial dispute with China by closing the door to bilateral negotiations.

President Aquino’s economic managers have put a positive spin on an otherwise damning report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the administration’s budgeting innovations that cited the lack of transparency in the use of public funds. A top official even went to the extent of saying the IMF report was an “indicator” of fiscal transparency under the Aquino administration.

By Riza Lozada The International Air Transport Association (Iata), the global regulator of the international airline industry, has urged the Philippines to promote the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Pampanga as “temporary support” and “interim solution” to relieve the growing demands of international travelers coming to the country.

Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina, former Customs Commissioner Guillermo Parayno Jr. and former Customs Deputy Commissioner Primo Aguas are facing plunder and graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with an “unceremoniously cancelled” P650-million contract for a modern integrated customs processing system at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the United Kingdom and other industrialized nations were among the 50 countries that signed last Monday the Articles of Agreement of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).