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by Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III
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Monday, 30 August 2010 |
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Yes, the Philippine government is ultimately accountable for the death of eight Chinese tourists in the bungled operations to rescue the hostages. Exacting accountability means heads must roll.
Yes, the Philippine President failed to immediately answer the urgent call of Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang.
Yes, some Filipinos displayed insensitivity by having souvenir photos taken, with the bullet-riddled bus where the hostages were killed as background. Or by having the Philippine flag draped over the coffin of the hostage taker. |
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by Luis F. Dumlao
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Monday, 23 August 2010 |
What is in for Ayala Avenue (my version of America's Wall Street) and for JP Rizal Avenue (my version of America's Main Street) in the first 100 days of P-Noy Aquino's administration?
In terms of economic growth, a period of 100 days is too short, and there is not much one can do to speed up or slow down the gross domestic product (GDP). Consider my time series and real business cycle (RBC) metaphor of a car running 100 kilometers per hour (kph) on flat land. No act of man that can put the car in full stop or speed it up to 200 kph in three seconds’ time. If one does not step on the gas or the brake and let the car be, the car keeps its natural speed. The natural speed might be less than 100 kph, but no way drastically different from 100.
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by Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III
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Monday, 16 August 2010 |
Political capital is precious, and it must be used well.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer (14 August 2010) reports that the P-Noy administration is “ready to sacrifice political capital” in implementing the imposition of the value-added tax (VAT) on road tolls. It is not just about the application of the VAT on the increased tolls of the South Luzon expressway (SLEx) but on the tolls of other expressways as well.
The news item quoted presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda: “In the short term, we’d rather be unpopular because in the long term we know that the [value-added tax] that will be collected will be used for the social services that we have promised.”
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by Kay Añonuevo
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Monday, 09 August 2010 |
Despite knowing that Psycholinguistics, what I teach, does not exactly inspire passion from students, I was astonished by the blank faces that greeted me when I referred to the more radical versions of the Whorf hypothesis. The 40-page reading on Linguistic Determinism, a chapter from Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought, is admittedly not Eat, Pray, Love. But I had assigned it more than a week ago, so I couldn’t understand why their expressions were similar to when I was teaching them German (in German) last week as an exercise in foreign-language acquisition.
My colleagues and I usually bemoan how students these days do not “read” the texts we so carefully choose as fodder for reflection and springboards for discussion. As much as I am baffled (How can anyone not be impressed by Pinker’s examples and arguments?) and disappointed by the lack of thoughtful answers to whether the experiment presented in class supports the claim that “language has a profound effect on how its speakers reason and see the world,” I think that maybe, by expecting my students to be able to summarize and extract the thesis statement of a chapter just like that, I have inadvertently done a disservice to learning and the culture of ideas and arguments.
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by Action for Economic Reforms et al.
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Monday, 23 August 2010 |
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We welcome the statement of President Benigno Aquino III to back
reforms on excise taxes on sin products, including tobacco and
cigarettes. In his statement, President Aquino said that, "From
asocietal concern, I say yes to the idea of an increase in sin
taxes.There are trade-offs. As you know, these sin products have a
health burden on the people, and this health burden has a peso value."
Year
after year, tobacco-related diseases claim the lives of millions. Inthe
Philippines alone, approximately 90,000 die every year or about 10
Filipinos every hour die from smoking-related diseases. [1] We believe
that increased excise taxes, particularly on tobacco products, will not
only address the economic costs by curbing tobacco usage, but also
increase revenues for the government.
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by Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition
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Monday, 26 July 2010 |
Appeal for Inclusion of the Passage of the Freedom of Information Act as one of the President’s Priority Measures for the 15th Congress
Dear Mr. President:
We are members of the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition, a network of organizations and individuals from various sectors that have long been campaigning for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act. We count among our ranks public-interest groups, organizations of print and broadcast journalists, environmental protection advocates, farmers organizations and support groups, women’s organizations, private and public sector labor unions, migrant workers, businessmen, lawyers, academics, student and youth organizations, and concerned individuals.
We join the rest of the country in hopeful anticipation of your first State of the Nation Address. We look to your SONA to clearly spell out for the government sector the policy choices that your administration will implement in order to bring to fruition the governance direction that you set in your inaugural speech.
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by Michael M. Alba and Jessaine Soraya C. Sugui
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Thursday, 20 August 2009 |
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Motives and Giving Norms Behind Remittances:
The Case of Filipino Overseas Workers and their Recipient Households
The literature has focused on motives to explain remittance behavior.
But as non‐anonymous transfers, remittances are apt to be influenced by
giving norms as well. We formulate an empirical specification that
takes account of remittance motives involving worker‐household pairs.
We find that altruism dominates the exchange motive among overseas
workers who are likely to be the primary breadwinners of their
recipient households. We also find that, in the subsample in which
overseas workers are likely to be secondary breadwinners, (a) household
labor income is an endogenous explanatory variable and (b) the error
covariance of the household income and remittance selection equations
is positive. A possible reason for (a) is that
secondary breadwinners use household income as an imperfect signal of
opportunity cost or to detect unobserved effort, i.e., moral hazard, in
generating income. As for (b), we surmise that it indicates the
presence of incentive‐compatible mechanisms against moral hazard. On
giving norms, we find that, in samples that include overseas workers
who are secondary breadwinners, remittance amounts are afflicted with
negative selectivity. We present evidence that this is consistent with
Filipino giving practices, in which everyone gives but in modest
amounts.
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Monday, 16 August 2010 |
It wasn’t exactly the best time to discuss Facebook.
After all, it was the launch of a book about how Philippine
institutions, harnessed properly, could effect meaningful change in a
country famously desperate for reform.
But on August 4, the date of the book launch, Berthold Leimbach, the
Philippine resident representative of the German foundation Friedrich
Ebert Stiftung (FES), brought the matter up in any case.
“We only have a limited time on earth," he said at the Sining Kamalig
art gallery in Gateway Mall in Quezon City, surrounded by a few
reporters. “Why waste all that time on Facebook?"
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Thursday, 12 August 2010 |
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Action for Economic Reforms has transferred to a new office. We are
now at Unit 1403 West Trade Center, 132 West Avenue, Quezon City,
Philippines 1104. You can still contact at us at (632) 426 5626 and
(632) 426 5632.
As AER nears its 15th year, the organization reaffirms our commitment to sustainable growth, equity and people-centered governance.
 The new office will house our teams on the Alternative Budget Initiative, Right to Know. Right Now! campaign, Bantay Kita, and Rice Watch.
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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 |
Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair. – George Burns
Last week’s tragedy spawned a lot of expert opinion. It came from everywhere—Congress, blogs, social network sites, talk shows, opinion columns, street corners, bars, whorehouses—everywhere you can shake a stick at.
They all said “coulda, woulda, shoulda.” I agreed with most of the opinions expressed but I disagreed with two in particular: criticism of the Palace aide who screened the call of Hongkong chief executive Donald Tsang and criticism of the negotiators for not giving in to Capt. Mendoza’s demands.
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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 |
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Where there’s smoke, there’s mirrors.
On July 30, 2010 President Aquino signed Executive Order No. 1 creating the Truth Commission. Marines commandant Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban immediately declared that his men would testify about cheating in the 2004 election.
Col. Angel Querubin, the highly decorated soldier charged with trying to overthrow Gloria Arroyo, welcomed the good news. "The statement of General Sabban, that the Marines will cooperate, will snowball…”
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Wednesday, 18 August 2010 |
I have an agreement with the houseflies. The flies don't practice law and I don't walk on the ceiling. – Groucho Marx
“Gloria Arroyo’s House allies asked the Supreme Court to nullify Pres. Aquino’s executive order creating the Truth Commission.”
“Why, don’t they want to know the truth?”
“That’s not the point. They claim that Pres. Aquino violated the separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branches of government.”
“If that’s their only problem then why don’t they just file a bill creating the Truth Commission using the same language as Aquino’s Executive Order?”
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by Lisandro Claudio
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Friday, 02 July 2010 |
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The administration of Corazon Aquino had its flaws, but many remember it fondly because the former president was able to hold together a country that was falling apart at the seams. The president had to make tough decisions in order to ensure the stability of our democracy.
For example, some blame Cory for not punishing top military men linked to the Mendiola massacre. Looking back at this decision, however, it made sense from a realpolitik perspective because she needed as much support from the military as she could get. Had she antagonized the military early on, more men in uniform might have joined the ranks of Honasan in their various coup attempts.
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