The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

A team from the World Bank (WB) recently visited select subprojects in Regions 1, 2, 3, and Cordillera under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP). 

By Alvin I. Dacanay Members of Manila’s literary community last week expressed grief and gratitude for, and paid tribute to, prize-winning writer and editor Luis Joaquin M. Katigbak, who succumbed to complications from diabetes and kidney disease on April 20. He was 41.

The National Book Development Board (NBDB) is set to hold the 7th annual Philippine International Literary Festival (PILF) on April 28 and 29 at the Quezon Memorial Circle’s QCX Museum, and it will have “Against Forgetting” as this year’s theme. 

The National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Manila Critics Circle (MCC) are now accepting nominations for the 35th National Book Awards (NBA). 

Celebrated entertainer Willie Nepomuceno, or Willie Nep, is set to leave audiences breathless with laughter when he mocks our current batch of candidates for president in the “show that happens only once every six years”—titled this time as Pang^gulo ng Pilipinas—at the Music Museum on Saturday. 

Are you ready for another #HeleChallenge? 

The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is inviting Filipino filmmakers to join the Ika-28 Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video (CCP Independent Film and Video Competition), better known as Gawad Alternatibo, at the CCP Tanghalang Manuel Conde (Dream Theater) from Aug. 6 to 8, 2016. 

By Lito U. Gagni  Cybersecurity firm FireEye, which has been hired to investigate the $81-million heist against the Bangladesh Bank, has expressed fears that Philippine firms are “twice as likely to face advanced cyberattacks than the worldwide average,” due to its outmoded cybersecurity platforms. The company said an analysis of the Philippines’s capability showed that it was 30 percent likely …

Moved by the devastation wreaked by the October 2013 earthquake in Bohol province, Bangladeshi Ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes has donated P100,000 of his own money for the rehabilitation of the Loboc Church. 

By Luis Leoncio  A light fine or the equivalent of a slap on the wrist.