The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

Story and photos by Alvin I. Dacanay / Special to The Market Monitor website Today, Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady: The Musical, the expanded version of ZsaZsa Zaturnnah graphic novelist Carlo Vergara’s one-act play that was first mounted, to much acclaim, at the ninth edition of the Virgin Labfest, begins its month-long run at the Peta (Philippine Educational Theater Association) Theater …

By Luis Leoncio The unholy alliance between a huge freight/cargo forwarding firm and a multinational tobacco company has been defrauding the government of billions of pesos in taxes, but despite documents detailing the collusion, the government has not lifted a finger to stop it, Deputy Speaker Sergio Apostol has told The Market Monitor in an interview.

A paradox awaits the next administration: How to raise more money to fund government programs while heeding the public clamor to make the tax system equitable by lowering individual income-tax rates? Former Budget Secretary Banjamin Diokno, now a faculty member of the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics, said the “harsh reality” is that the next administration would …

American boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. proved that conditioning, speed and determination to win are not enough anymore to win in a modern-day boxing match where guile now is a necessity, a fact that Filipino icon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao learned the hard way.

By Edwin O. Fernandez and Noel Y. Punzalan / Philippines News Agency Cotabato City—The country’s most wanted bomber who has long eluded arrest by government forces was killed in a clash with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Maguindanao as the country was busy watching the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing match on Sunday, a ranking police …

By Jerry Maglunog There are plenty of big-ticket projects in the Philippines that cost billions of pesos, and only the giant conglomerates can complete them. These projects are those classified as public-private partnerships (PPP), the battlecry of the Aquino administration seemed to decrease severe lack in public infrastructure ranging from expressways, ports, roads, bridges and airports.

Exclusive By Riza Lozada The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) set a minimum bid price of P267.15 million for the 7,633.1-square-meter Metropolitan Theater (the Met), a price which barely matched what the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) said was needed just for the rehabilitation of the heritage structure.

International Container Terminal Services Inc.’s (ICTSI) Subic Bay Freeport unit, Subic Bay International Terminal Corp. (SBITC), in partnership with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), recently opened a one-stop shop (OSS) to fast-track documentary transactions in Subic Bay’s container terminals. Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras led the launch of the OSS, together with SBMA Chairman and Administrator …

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) stressed the need for better land governance and increased infrastructure investments in agriculture and rural areas, as these remain critical for productivity, job generation, and poverty reduction in many parts of the Philippines.

When the government first conceived of a dole system during the Arroyo administration, its objectives and amount, real or underlying, were less than a quarter as ambitious as its resurrection under the current dispensation. Arroyo was a legitimate and an infinitely more skilled economist than those in today’s Executive branch. She understood both the political, as well as the economic …