MAGALANG, Pampanga—A surge in land prices in a residential subdivision in Muntinlupa City following the construction of a publicly funded access road to a central business district (CBD) has presented the city government an opportunity to get a share of the unearned windfall gains of landowners. But the city government has overlooked this source of...
Author: Juan V. Sarmiento Jr. (Juan Sarmiento Jr.)
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The resilience-based deterrence of the Philippines’ Batanes
The recent declaration by Chinese academics that the Philippine province of Batanes is a “natural geographical extension” of Taiwan, an island democracy that China claims as its own, is part of Beijing’s “gray-zone” tactics to intimidate the Philippines, according to a Filipino scholar in Chinese studies. Gray-zone tactics range from coercive military presence and air...
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Banca for Life keeps small fishermen afloat
Some 180 subsistence fishermen in the island-province of Catanduanes, who lost their boats to storm surges triggered by Supertyphoon “Uwan” on Nov. 9, 2025, have been thrown a lifeline. A coalition of civic organizations has gifted them new outrigger boats, restoring their shattered livelihoods and pushing back the constant threat of hunger stalking their precarious...
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UP Open U to set up Intelligent Futures Hub in New Clark City
The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) will establish an “Intelligent Futures Hub” at a UP building in New Clark City (NCC) in Tarlac, while keeping its headquarters in Laguna. An earlier report said the UPOU headquarters would be transferred to the 9,450-hectare NCC, which is envisioned as an “alternative” government center and touted...
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Six state-run schools assigned land in 9,450-hectare ‘smart, green and resilient’ city
NEW CLARK CITY — As a strategy, developers set aside land for a school to make real estate projects attractive to potential residents or investors. This government project in Central Luzon has allotted parcels of land to not one but six educational institutions. The scale of the project may explain the plan to put up...
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Possible giant leap in real property tax alarms Ayala Alabang Village residents
Residents of Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City have expressed alarm over an increase of up to 4,304% in the value of residential land in the posh neighborhood that will raise their payments of the yearly “amilyar,” or real property tax (RPT). At a public hearing on Feb. 11 in the barangay hall of the...
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The government’s flood control projects are a systemic failure
A University of the Philippines (UP) study presented this conclusion after an examination of the havoc that flooding has wrought on the country’s infrastructure despite the humongous amounts of taxpayer money spent on flood control projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). “Its flood control projects alone are supposed to abate damage,...
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Who else benefited from the diversion of taxpayer money to graft-ridden public works projects?
The practice of diverting funds from education, health, poverty alleviation and other programs to graft-ridden public works projects, including flood control, also benefited congresspersons, senators, the Vice President and the President, who have seen their budgets surging over the past several years. This is the observation stated by the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) in...
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Subdivision residents upset at discovery that Discaya firm bagged contract for bridge rehab project
ALABANG, Muntinlupa City — With the revocation of the project contractor’s license, residents of a private subdivision here are questioning the scheduled closure next month of a bridge to pave the way for retrofitting the South Luzon Expressway crossing. To their surprise and consternation, the residents of Pleasant Village learned just last week that the...
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Take the ‘Trump tariffs’ to the local levels and to the May elections, economist says
How can the Philippines cope with the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump, who has upended the rules-based global trading system with a tariff war he is waging against scores of countries? “We cannot predict what Trump will be doing next [during his second four-year term]. We can’t rely on the US to maintain rules-based...