Yellow Pad By Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III The World Bank has come out with a Philippine poverty assessment report titled Making Growth Work for the Poor (2018). It works on the assumption, now an adage, that growth is a necessary but insufficient condition to reduce poverty. The publication has loads of information, drawn […]
Yellow Pad By Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III Some quarters led by politicians (it doesn’t matter whether the politicians are pro-administration or anti-administration) have called for the suspension of the increase in the fuel excise tax brought about by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN). Senator Bam Aquino is the most outspoken […]
Yellow Pad By Madeiline Joy Aloria The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) estimates that the country’s total housing backlog will accumulate to 3.6 million units by the end of 2018. For some politicians, addressing this long-existing problem means giving the most generous tax and non-tax perks to real estate developers. This is […]
Yellow Pad By Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III Being the coordinator of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) or being an advocate, I have to cut a public persona. That means I write columns, I speak in forums, I attend assemblies, I post on social media, I appear on TV for interviews. The last is […]
Yellow Pad By Zak Yuson Policy reforms, and reform in general, are always difficult pills to swallow. Any doctor will tell you to complete the full course of antibiotics to address an infection. Likewise, a reform process that is halted mid-way is not much of a reform at all. So when some lawmakers recently […]
The recent move to oust Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno by any and all means casts a dark shadow upon the rule of law in the country. In particular, we are deeply disturbed over the quo warranto against the Chief Justice. This must be stopped, lest we risk courting another institutional crisis. We need not […]
Yellow Pad By AJ Montesa The “tyranny of the minority” is a term not often used. In democracies such as ours, primacy in decision making is given to the majority. But the power of the minority can be very real. Whether by formal or informal political structures, it is the reason that obviously beneficial […]