The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

As if change happens without warning, like the blinding brightness of an April sun, which had hit our table on the first celebration since those cooped-up, cold gray days, at a restaurant in our Vancouver neighborhood. When small comforts get compromised, even the shifting sky that in a seeming sleight of hand spotlights the paltry, turns into a culprit. 

Some 80 days before the future ex-President steps down from office, discussions regarding his legacy are rising to higher decibels.

By Butch Galicia / Philippines News Agency Toronto—When Filipino-Canadian seniors meet in coffee shops and fast-food courts on weekends, they fill up lazy minutes with spirited talk on any subject — from the mundane to the beyond. 

By Luis Leoncio Credit watchdog Fitch Rating, affirming the investment rating on the country last Friday, failed to impress Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, who claimed the country remains underrated.

By Jerry Maglunog With the inflation rate stable, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has decided to close down its so-called special deposit account (SDA) window which has attracted more than P2 trillion in deposits.

Fiscal agencies are pushing for higher infrastructure spending in 2017 in a bid to further improve public infrastructure, raise potential economic growth, and reduce poverty in the country. This will entail not only allocating more funds to build quality infrastructure, but also linking medium-term plan priorities to annual budgetary considerations. 

To ensure quality health care for all Filipinos, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will work with the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd) in establishing thousands of public school-based barangay health stations (BHS) nationwide. 

The Philippine Public-Private Partnership Center (PPP Center) and International Project Finance Association (IPFA), with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) held a PPP forum, titled Accessing the Philippine Capital Markets for PPPs–Innovations in Infrastructure Financing, last Friday at the New World Makati Hotel. 

A militant lawmaker is seeking to prohibit the conversion of prime agricultural lands into other uses to avoid food insecurity and protect the environment and ecology of the country. 

The safety rating of what’s once considered a high-risk road leading to Baguio City has improved with the integration of engineering countermeasures.