The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Ed Javier / Where I stand Last week, we wrote about the dilapidated state of the Metro Rail Transit-Line 3 (MRT-3) and the never-ending misery of commuters, despite the P57-million monthly maintenance budget and billions of pesos the railway system receives from the national government.
Points of View & Perspectives
March, 2015
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2 March
The power-crisis preemptive program
Dean dela Paz / The Next Page Within days, those massive and debilitating power outages energy officials warned us against which found the aggressive political offensive to grant Benigno Aquino III emergency powers that would, among other things, allow him to siphon off immeasurable funds to procure inordinate generating capacity, should be upon us.
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2 March
Hibernating as a word
Alegria A. Imperial / Peregrine Notes Wouldn’t you wish you could willfully hibernate, when before your eyes the tiles you have stacked up into an impregnable fort begin to tumble?
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2 March
The great MRT-3 train robbery
Ed Javier / Where I stand As we write this piece, the Metro Rail Transit- Line 3 has suffered another glitch. The government pays Global APT, MRT-3’s service maintenance provider, the amount of P57 million a month, but many are wondering: Where does the money go?
February, 2015
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23 February
On the eve of the end
Dean dela Paz / The Next Page For any economy, even the most resilient, none can survive without foreign investments because domestic production and eventual supply, the assets behind it and the capital raised to fuel productivity will always fall short of local and international demand. The world is insatiable. Where economies are globalized, the hunger for productivity extends over …
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23 February
On looking down when walking
Alegria A. Imperial / Peregrine Notes Some rules when walking in New York or Vancouver don’t apply to me: No sauntering abreast on sidewalks so designed to allow “unimpeded…sufficient space both laterally and longitudinally to avoid conflicts with others.” No crowding on corner inclines—delivery carts and wheeled carriers use these; when warned of an oncoming pram, or roller shopping tote, …
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23 February
Is Malacañang afraid of Truth Commission?
Ed Javier / Where I stand The proposed creation of an independent Truth Commission on the Mamasapano massacre is dead, very dead. Just like the ‘Fallen 44’ of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force.
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16 February
DAP and the MRT fare hike
Dean dela Paz / The Next Page What does a patently unconstitutional patronage system have to do with train fares? Normally, nothing. Until funds are malversed and immediately the disconnect disappears. In its place, anger seethes.
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16 February
It feels like a kind of loving
Alegria A. Imperial / Peregrine Notes More as devotion, this kind of love has no bearing on the common notion, though it feels like one for me. Or how does one explain the enormity of emotions it draws out—so compelling that we agonize over this beloved’s miseries, want to right the wrongs done to her, and even die for her …
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16 February
Purisima’s ‘pa-pogi’ turns ugly
Ed Javier / Where I stand Talks are rife that resigned Philippine National Police Director-General Alan Purisima was planning to stage a spectacular comeback as PNP chief by bagging international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, the so-called “Osama bin Laden of Asia,” while serving his six-month preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman for allegations of graft and …