The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

8990 Holdings, the country’s No. 1 mass-housing developer, continues to carve an enviable niche in the housing industry even as it forges ahead with its disruptive innovation that has opened the eyes of big property players to the fact that the affordable-housing segment provides a sizeable contribution to the bottom line. 

Once again, the creative geniuses behind the string of television commercials of presidential aspirant and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas appear to be experimenting. 

Payments by the national government of its maturing foreign debt along with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) foreign-exchange (forex) operations resulted in the drop of foreign reserves in January. 

Real estate is becoming the favored destination of any company that are headed for diversification. Leading conglomerate San Miguel Corp., which has been diversifying from the food and beverage business since the early 2000s, said the margins in real-estate venture are one of the highest among all businesses. “Name any corporation that is expanding, definitely the additional equity will go …

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has sought the abolition of the graft-ridden Road Board and transfers its powers and functions instead to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). 

By Weng C. Ocfemia The Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act, according to Sen. Ralph G. Recto, will protect the interest of the government by putting safeguards in contracts so that the government is not shortchange and will not be left holding the bag alone in problematic joint ventures. 

By Daryl Rose Virtudazo Five groups have expressed interest in the P 171 billion North-South Railway Project (South Line) of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) under the government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program. 

Based on the preliminary results of the 2013 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) conducted nationwide which was released Wednesday, there were 1,113 construction establishments with total employment (TE) of 20 and over in the formal sector of the economy. 

In the Philippines, the city of Marikina alone produces 150 million pairs of shoes every year. That’s 150 million shoeboxes hoarded or turned to waste. But what once was discarded has now been transformed into an instrument of hope. 

Thanks to the continuity of the European Union in support of the Bangsamoro Peace Process, Konrad Adenauer Foundation Philippines Office (KAS) was awarded a grant to promote the political development in Muslim Mindanao. Since 2007, the EU has invested more than P650 million in programs that contribute to the peace process in southern Philippines.