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Riza Lozada The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will remain resilient, creative and innovative in its policies to keep the economy at a steady pace of growth.

Riza Lozada The Philippines suffers from a situation where the economy is among the fastest-growing in Asia but the jobless rate of between 6 and 7 percent is also among the region’s highest, according former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.

“Dangerously overbroad and fails to address the flaws of the Epira.” This was how Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago described Joint Resolution No. 12 that Malacañang certified as urgent in 2014 seeking emergency powers for President Aquino to resolve the looming energy crisis.

Oliver Teves / The Associated Press Seventy years have not dulled the memories of survivors of the month-long Battle of Manila. The mass killings by Japanese forces, the loved ones lost and the desperation are etched in their minds, as is the elation when American forces finally rescued them in the closing months of World War II.

Luis Leoncio A new Malacañang-sanctioned budgeting scheme called Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP) has allotted P20.9 billion from the P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget to fund thousands of projects in various towns and cities nationwide under a so-called bottom-up budgeting (BuB) scheme developed by the Department of Budget and Management.

Although legislative support for the Bangsamoro Basic Law appears to have crumbled following the Mamasapano clash, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has said the House of Representatives would try to meet the June 11, 2015, deadline the passage of the measure.

Riza Lozada Rotating brownouts might start hitting the Luzon grid as early as March when electricity demand begins to peak coinciding with the regular maintenance shutdown of several aging power plants, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said.

Security forces from the Eastern Police District’s Civil Disturbance Management Unit prevented protesters belonging to the “Edsa 2/22 coalition” from occupying steps of the Edsa Shrine on Sunday, the kick-off of a planned series of protest actions against President Aquino.

Luis Leoncio Conclusion The Aquino administration’s stock reason in defending the fare increases for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems is the removal of government subsidies on utilities including the railway system on its claim the fare hike would require the entire nation to subsidize the spending of Metro Manila commuters.

Riza Lozada The Senate panel looking into the proposed special powers Malacanang is seeking to address the feared electricity-supply shortage in Luzon has recommended the junking of the Palace request, and proposed instead the interruptible load program (ILP), which has proved adequate in stabilizing supply in the country’s other major regions.