The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

If you’re the type who thinks 1960s British rock music and buddy-cop movies and television shows are the best in entertainment, consider yourself lucky. Why? Because last week saw the local debut of a documentary about an iconic band and the small-screen version of a successful Hollywood franchise that may give you a nostalgic fix. 

Don Papa Rum, the premium aged rum from Negros Occidental province, introduced recently the three designs that won in its first Don Papa Art Competition and are now featured in the canisters and packaging of its limited-edition Don Papa Art Canister Series.

While the rest of us slipped in and out of inanities, as it often happens midway in lunch gatherings like a year ago in Westbury, New York, Lille, whose family immigrated from Manila in the 1970s, stared at her iPhone, waiting for results of her DNA from ancestry.com. “Once and for all, I can finally understand who I am,” she …

By Luis Leoncio The antitrust body Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) received crucial backing from the influential Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) in exercising its mandate to probe the P70-billion telecommunications deal among giants San Miguel Corp. (SMC), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom.

A “win-win” strategy to end the “end-of-contract”, or “endo”, practice among big local firms has been proposed by an inter-agency body and accepted by President Duterte.

The government is set to release on Sept. 22 the results of the audit of the operations of the country’s 40 metallic mines, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said more mines would be shut down.

Progressive groups expressed support for President Duterte’s declaration of an independent foreign policy, as they urged him to “do a Dirty Dozen” and reject US military domination, just as the 12 senators did in the “historic vote” that booted out US military bases, 25 years ago on Sept. 16, 1991.

By Riza Lozada Some senators, notably members of the Senate energy committee, are convinced that the country should use nuclear power in generating the rising electricity needs of the country, but not all of them favor rehabilitating and recommissioning the 32-year-old mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

The country’s external debt stood at $77.7 billion by the end of President Aquino’s term this year, from $57.3 billion when he assumed office in June 2010, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed.

By Luis Leoncio Two local think tanks see “hidden components” in the proposed tax-reform measures of the Duterte administration as favoring the rich while providing minimal benefits for poor wage earners.