The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The media should inform the public about the possibility of a super El Niño without turning a potential climate crisis into an early panic campaign. Filipinos have barely recovered from months of rain, flooding and storm damage. Now warnings of severe drought and possible water interruptions are beginning to dominate the news cycle. The threat deserves preparation, but preparation is …
Points of View & Perspectives
October, 2026
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11 October
The Fault is in the Stars
Recent findings of anthropologists point towards one of our cultural groups as carriers of an ancient form of mitochondrial DNA linking us to tens of thousands of years to the earliest humans on earth. That that strand of human genome originating from the navel of Africa towards our islands is in itself incomprehensible, given the lack of means to travel …
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11 October
AMLC should learn from China
EBITDABy DIEGO C. CAGAHASTIAN The ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte in the Senate became a venue for the public and the senator-judges to know and look into the details of how our AMLC operates, and whether this agency follows the mandate given to it by the law. For instance, Senator-judge Alan Peter Cayetano called out the Anti-Money …
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4 October
When the paper trail becomes the story
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon’s quick shift into damage-control mode is understandable. His categorical declaration that there were “no ghost projects in Taguig” has now been qualified by: “Where the evidence leads, that’s where we’ll go.” That may sound prudent. Politically, however, it sounds like retreat. Simply, that’s damage control. The controversy intensified after documents gathered by Senator Ping Lacson’s meticulous research …
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4 October
Drowning in Promises
REALPOLITIKBy Benjie Alejandro While many of us complain about the scorching heat or the relentless rise in market prices, a vital sector of our society is quietly collapsing under a dual crisis: the wrath of climate change and the apathy of bureaucracy. These are our small-scale fishers—the unsung providers of protein for Filipino households—yet they remain among the hungriest, stranded …
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4 October
Honoring Our Indigenous Peoples, Culture, and Heritage
LOVE FOR ALLBy: Virginia Rodriguez The Philippine government stands with Indigenous Peoples in protecting their rights, ancestral lands, cultural heritage, and aspirations for a better future. This October, that commitment takes on special meaning as the nation honors the courage of our ancestors, the wisdom of our elders, and the enduring strength of Indigenous communities across the country. Indigenous Peoples, …
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4 October
No visa for 55 countries
EBITDABy DIEGO C. CAGAHASTIAN Already naturally endowed with majestic mountains, rivers and lakes, beaches and islands, historic landmarks, architectural wonders, unique festivals and a hospitable people, China still continues to develop its local and international tourism in ways other countries are simply planning to do. The growth of the Chinese tourism industry is phenomenal, and is the envy of similarly …
September, 2026
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27 September
2/3 OF WHAT NUMBER?
Filipino youth have been winning in math contests, given our significant Chinese genetics and the Xavier schools of the Jesuits. Yet for the past several days, the whole world of Filipinos became an arithmetic class for Grade 3 students. What is 2/3 of 24 senators? 16. What if a senator has died in the meantime, what is 2/3 of 23? …
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27 September
Legal circus around the impeachment trial
The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte appears ready to begin another legal circus aimed at undermining the Senate impeachment court after a majority of senator-judges voted to lower the threshold required for conviction. The Vice President’s lawyers have only one legal anchor: the Constitution. It provides the two-thirds requirement for conviction, and they are expected to seize on that …
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27 September
Reliable Pew attitudes survey
EBITDABy DIEGO C. CAGAHASTIAN Buried in the news pages of newspapers last week was an interesting item on the Spring 2026 Attitudes Survey of the US-based Pew Research Center. It was about behavioral patterns, political sentiment and attitudes, across various age groups in the Philippines, particularly on the issue of China. According to the survey, there is a striking age …