The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

By Riza Lozada  There appears to be no immediate end in sight to the standoff between the country’s telecommunications giants and the newly formed regulator, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), over a P70-billion telecommunications megadeal. 

Two controversial measures that came out of the two-day Davao City summit among businessmen and the Duterte economic team were a proposal to raise the value added tax (VAT) from 12 percent to at most 15 percent, and to provide President-elect Rodrigo Duterte with emergency powers—for two years, at most— to address the traffic crisis in Metro Manila. 

By Riza Lozada To make up for the rise in the number of school dropouts amid the increase in school years through the Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 (K-to-12) system, incoming Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis-wBriones said the Alternative Learning System (ALS) will be boosted to allow more students to advance in their studies outside of a classroom.

By Riza Lozada
 To comply with market regulators’ requirements on a P70-billion megadeal, listed Liberty Telecoms Inc. (LIB) will voluntarily delist from the stock market,  as its shares will be the subject of a tender offer.
  

Listed property giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. will start with the development of its P94 billion reclamation project in the cities of Pasay and Parañaque with a combined size of 600 hectares after getting approval from the next administration.
    

Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the listed developer and operator of Solaire Resort and Casino, has signed a deal to sell its controlling stake in its hotel and casino in South Korea’s Jeju Island for about P4.76 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the P20-billion fixed rate bonds offering of conglomerate Ayala Corp. under its debt securities program.

New York City—The Dow (Dow Jones Industrial Average) continues to fall. But it is far from that critical 14,000 level where it starts to affect the Philippine bourse. Far from it.

We pooled around the receptionist’s desk, fanning our distress and stirring each other’s sorrow over the impending loss of a bush. Higher-ups had decided that its lushness—leaves so tight together no breath could penetrate, flowers so open a woman easily sees in it her own bareness—started to harm instead of lend some joy.

Exiting President Noynoy Aquino introduced the world to his presidency with an early major international embarrassment. This was the hostage-taking incident at the Luneta where several tourists from Hong Kong were either killed or wounded.