The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Day after Christmas, we are sure many are still in a festive mood after all the family gatherings and celebrations with friends. Laughter and stories must have filled the air as we celebrated the birth of our Savior, Baby Jesus.
Points of View & Perspectives
December, 2016
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25 December
Scarlet dawns as I remember
Flawless iridescent skies on freezing cold days and nights get grayed over and hazed for weeks like now in the constant shift of winter forecast—sometimes mere drizzle or icy rain, flurries or blizzard, or if indicated by a snowflake icon, a feather-quiet snowfall.
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25 December
Government urged to institutionalize free public higher education
Although additional funds for State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) are welcome, the research group IBON said free tuition for higher education needs to be institutionalized as a right of all Filipinos rather than discretionary, depending on the availability of funds.
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18 December
A corporate Christmas carol
In the Philippines corporate world, December is practically a mere half month as the Yuletide season goes into full gear and the season’s default operations overwhelm and oftentimes overtake the day-to-day commercial operations of many companies relative to other times of the year.
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18 December
The comeback of GMA
“GMA,” of course, is former President and current Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
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18 December
A true bagel: Quite a debate
So what should a bagel be? For me, it’s really nothing more than a roll shaped like a donut, the size of my hand. According to food writer and connoisseur, Mimi Sheraton, among commenters solicited by The New York Times for an item on the State of the Bagel in the NYT, “a bagel should be about 3.5 inches in …
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11 December
Above the political fray
As we approach the end of 2016, rather than prepare for the merriment of the holidays, Kris Kringle and Christmas parties, and what is effectively a half-month of toiling at the proverbial salt mines at the height of the Yuletide season, the backroom offices and cubicles of most accounting departments across the archipelago are busy pouring over the year’s T-accounts, …
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11 December
Duterte should give MMDA’s Orbos a rest
Last Friday, motorists were fuming as a new traffic scheme being implemented by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) along Edsa and Annapolis Street in Greenhills, San Juan City, caused virtual paralysis in the country’s main road artery.
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11 December
On the Blessed Mother and breastfeeding
I once took for granted that all mothers breastfeed— among Filipinos especially, who doesn’t? Yet, with Pasko in our minds as early as September, I’ve hardly thought of the Blessed Mother nursing the Baby Jesus; have you ever? Like me, I’m sure you haven’t, so much so that seeing her openly feeding the Baby in a fresco at the Basilica …
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4 December
The opportunity costs of a political scandal
We were asked by at least three respected gentlemen to identify the economic losses of the ongoing investigations into the illegal-drugs trade that seemed to have spread wildly and had interwoven itself deep into the fabric of the government bureaucracy. Indeed, public concern is high and feverish to the point of pandemic alarm and utter nauseating disgust. Congressmen, living up …