The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

Story and photo by Alvin I. Dacanay  A day before Rodrigo Duterte is inaugurated as our country’s new president, the Virgin Labfest (VLF), Metro Manila’s foremost festival of new one-act plays, will open its 12th edition—aptly christened Binyag (Baptism) and represented by a hatched egg containing the number “12”—at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) …

Sixty-five movies, including 10 new ones from the Philippines, will be shown in select cinemas in Metro Manila as part of the third World Premieres Film Festival (WPFF), which will run from June 29 to July 10.

On Thursday President Aquino will take his bow and exit the political stage to allow his successor Rodrigo Duterte to enter and take his place under the blinding lights that are trained on him as his audience, the Filipino people, wait for him to act. 

By Luis Leoncio  The proposed income-tax cuts hijacked by President Aquino are expected to be realized under the incoming administration, but with a consequent increase in the sales tax or the valued-added tax (VAT), according to the policy agenda drafted by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers.

By Riza Lozada Local users will have to put up a little longer with the notoriously slow pace of the country’s internet, as the much-awaited improvement expected to be ushered in by a deal among the country’s three biggest telecommunications companies (telcos) may be delayed for some time. 

A World Bank (WB) study has found that casual work contributes to the poverty of Filipinos, as the low-earning capacity of such jobs cannot lift people out of their indigence. 

By Luis Leoncio Port stakeholders said it would be prudent for the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to withhold action on the 37.45-percent tariff-increase petition of the Manila North Harbour Philippines Inc. (MNHPI) until President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a full complement of officials of the regulatory body.

By Riza Lozada Government regulator National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) plans to bid out new frequencies for broadband Internet on the heels of the recent mega deal in which telecommunications giants Globe Telecom and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) bought San Miguel Corp. (SMC) unit Vega Telecom Inc. for P70 billion to primarily access the 700 megahertz (MHz) band allocated …

Dominant power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has obtained Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approval for its P15.5 billion capital expenditures for this year, the company reported to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).

Globe Telecom has sought government help to develop broadband access in the Philippines by investing in internet infrastructure in rural and far-flung areas if the country hopes to achieve its economic development goals and social inclusion of all communities.