The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

The Asian Banker recently recognized the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) as the Strongest Bank in the Philippines in 2021. The award is part of The Asian Banker’s pioneering and most credible annual ranking analysis of all major banks in the Asia Pacific Region based on their strongest balance sheet performance.

Rarely does internationally acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz (“Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino,” “Ang Babaeng Humayo,” “Panahon ng Halimaw,” “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan,” “Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis,” “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” etc.) give interviews especially on cam particularly in online shows as his closest and trusted friend and talent Hazel Orencio said, “mahirap pong umoo ito sa (he is …

100 Small business owners invited to set up shop in SM malls It has been almost two years since the pandemic brought Filipino life and many livelihoods to a screeching halt. According to a 2020 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study of 1,804 Philippine MSMEs, 70.6% were forced to temporarily close with 66.2% reported to have temporary staff cuts during the height of …

Vice President Leni Robredo, after days of intense discernment, announced she will run for president in next year’s elections. She filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) the same day she made the announcement, October 7, the penultimate day for filing of COCs.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is investigating the illegal use of alert notification services that contained text messages favoring presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos because of its pitch for “BBM”. 

Moody’s Analytics, an economic research think tank, reported that the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia should re-open their economies with caution due to the prevailing risks from new COVID-19 strains.

Some prominent names in the Philippines emerged in a far-reaching new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) media consortium, which found that more than a dozen heads of state and government around the world are using offshore tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The US State Department has revealed the number of nuclear warheads the country stockpiles for the first time in four years, after former president Donald Trump placed a blackout on the information.

Laurencio Jun Yulaga of the Philippine Green Republican Party, a self-proclaimed international scientist and Harvard graduate, who filed his COC for President, claims to have a cure for Covid-19 that Filipinos may find literally shocking. When reporters asked for his platform of government after filing his Certificate of Candidacy with the Commission on Elections, Yulaga said Covid patients just need …

‘New Hope’ – that’s the title of Episode 4 of the Star Wars saga, the first of nine films. It also serves to describes the surge of optimism felt by Filipinos when Vice President Leni Robredo declared she is running for president in next year’s polls.