Action for Economic Reforms (AER)

While following the mid-term elections from a distance, I found myself turning to studies by such scholars as Benedict Anderson, Nathan Quimpo, John Sidel, Eve Lotta Hedman, David Wurfel, Patricio Abinales, Paul Kramer, among others. Reading their work, I came away with a number of observations and questions. I list them here for whatever they’re [...]

By itself, my vote will not count. My beliefs and preferences do not reflect those of the majority. Probably, other voters think the same way I do—that the individual vote is insignificant. (Hence, the excuse of some to sell their votes.) But I am likewise a believer in collective action. Putting aside people power revolution, [...]

Manila Bulletin is not the first choice for a Philippine newspaper. It can be boring, and it suffers from its image of being associated with the pro-martial law brand of journalism. But being a humdrum paper also has an advantage: It reports without sensationalism, which the leading dailies are prone to. It thus pays to [...]

Campaigners have a lot to learn from the victory of the sin tax campaign of 2012. Yet few articles have been written about the fight to reform sin taxes—the gains and the losses, the backroom deals, and the trade-offs that led to a historic victory for health advocates and civil society organizations. A significant victory [...]

We welcome the recent policy statements and actions of policymakers, especially from the Bangko Sentral ngPilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Finance (DOF). We advocate a pro-Filipino, pro-investment exchange rate policy, and we are happy that the Philippine government through the BSP and the DOF has leaned towards achieving the goal of making the exchange [...]

ACCORDING to Antonio Dans et al. (Lancet, Feb 19, 2011) chronic non-communicable diseases or NCDs (stroke, heart disease, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]) are a major public health problem in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia faces an epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases, now responsible for 60% of deaths in the [...]