BULAKAN, Bulacan—In the waning heat of the day, 57-year-old Reneboy Ybañez would begin raking salt from clay-lined salt ponds in Barangay San Nicolas in Bulakan town. By 3 p. m., most of the seawater in the ponds had evaporated, leaving salt crystals that he and the other workers would harvest. Reneboy and his wife May,...
Category: Business
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‘Ride Safe 2.0’ expands the initiative on bike safety
Ride Safe, a campaign begun in 2021 by leading insurance company Allianz PNB Life to push public awareness on bike safety and the benefits of active transport, has been beefed up. Having worked with local government units and partnered with key cities such as San Juan, Taguig and Manila in building more bike-friendly infrastructure, Allianz...
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Displacement, commute woes plague communities near delayed MRT-7 project
The ride from San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan to Diliman in Quezon City—a distance of about 23 kilometers—shouldn’t take more than one hour and a half. But for commuters like students Sarwen Abad and Lei Ann Soreto, it takes two and a half hours. “It’s suffering before the success,” 19-year-old Abad said. He...
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Forced to move, coastal communities in Bacoor struggle with relocation
(Last of two parts) Bert Cabornay, who at 56 has been fishing for three decades, used to farm clams and mussels in the area now occupied by the Manila-Cavite Expressway or Cavitex. Forced to move farther out, he now takes 20 minutes in his boat to reach his mussel farm in Bacoor Bay. Building his...
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Bacoor rezones waters for reclamation, reducing fishing grounds
(First of two parts) While he still can, Bert Cabornay continues to fish in the sea off Bacoor City, Cavite. He rows farther than usual, towards clearer waters and away from his mussel farm that is barely operating. Cabornay, 56, noticed in 2020 that the waters around his farm had become turbid. It was during...
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No such thing as ‘plain rice’
Makò Micro-Press held a zine-making workshop for Masipag farmers and urban poor gardeners from Payatas in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija, four Saturdays ago, and I remain in awe of how palay seeds and the idea of small, independent presses weave together so well. I must admit that I knew very little of rice farming prior...
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Albay aims for 100% renewable energy in 2050
GUINOBATAN, Albay—Crizel Joyz Amano, 22, is back in town after signing up at a review center in Manila in preparation for a chemical engineering exam. Here in Albay, she must still regularly log in at 6 p.m. for an online review, all while dealing with the constant power interruptions in the province. “We experience almost-daily...
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SmarTrade, ATFX strengthen partnership to drive Filipinos’ financial empowerment
SmarTrade, a training and consultancy company providing free financial education led by its president and CEO Joyce Mayo, recently welcomed key executives of global online trading broker ATFX to its headquarters in Makati City, Philippines. The visit of ATFX’s chief commercial officer Siju Daniel, Southeast Asia CEO Jeff Hsu, and business development manager Journey Zeng...
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Grab fares surge under opaque algorithm
Rica Torres, 37, used to take a Grab car almost every day to take her six-year-old son to and from school. The app-based service was more convenient than riding a jeepney, a tricycle, and crossing an overpass. “I don’t want my son to go through all those because it saps his energy or sours his...
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The harrowing experiences of ‘consolidated’ jeepney operators
In February 2017, the Philippine government ratified the Paris Agreement, embedding its principles of reducing carbon emissions into national policy. To support the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the decarbonization initiative, the Department of Transportation (DOTr), along with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), introduced the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) in...