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By Luis Leoncio It will be Christmas in May for government employees, but mostly those in the top echelons, as President Aquino signed an executive order (EO) last Friday granting salary increases to 1.3 million state workers, including the Chief Executive, which would cost a total of P226 billion. The pay raises are retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016. 

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima hopes to contribute to the daang matuwid (straight path) campaign for continuity by seeking a new upgrade from credit watchdogs that would bring the country to two notches above investment grade.

Tokyo—Japan’s economy contracting in the last quarter more severely than median market expectations, against a backdrop of ballooning social-welfare costs connected to an ongoing demographic crisis, has led some analysts to believe that the “Abenomics” rhetoric has run its course.

By Jerry Maglunog The government has borrowed $2 billion (P86 billion) more from the international capital market through 25-year dollar-denominated bonds, further raising the already record-high foreign debt under the Aquino administration.

President Aquino will leave his successor with P6.4 trillion in national government outstanding debt, P4.16 trillion of it in borrowings made during his term, according to the fiscal watchdog, said the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), a budget watchdog.

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.