This report on OFWs debt burden is being republished with PCIJ’s permission. —Ed. (Last of two parts) Many Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong are hounded by their lenders from the Philippines, who even hire debt collectors to threaten and harass their employers. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) found that Hong Kong...
This report is being republished with PCIJ’s permission. —Ed. (First of two parts) In 2022, “Jessica” tried to apply for a local job and went to a police station to request a clearance certifying she has no criminal record. But she was arrested and thrown in jail right then and there. She had no idea...
My students found it very difficult to identify two of the current administration’s notable accomplishments in public finance. I can appreciate their difficulties. The budgetary deficit in 2022 was a staggering P1.61 trillion, or 7.33% of GDP. Government spent P5.16 trillion last year but raised only P3.54 trillion in revenues. I cannot help but wonder why...
SunAsia Energy Inc. and its partner and investor Blueleaf Macquarie Capital have been recognized as the first beneficiary of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order No.18 “constituting green lanes for strategic investments.” At the ceremonial launch of the green lanes attended by the President and held at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila last July 13, the...
The number of people exploring online trading continues to grow, for good reason. Online trading provides an opportunity for buying and selling stocks, currencies, commodities, and other financial instruments through a trading platform easily accessible via the internet. It is a viable means to create an additional income stream and build generational wealth. But because...
The strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was said to have achieved some measure of success in “Masagana 99,” when farmers harvested more palay per hectare in the late 1970s. Backed by new technology, high-yielding varieties, cheap fertilizers and the construction of megadams in Luzon, the rice production program yielded modest surpluses for farmers for one or...
Last May 31, with lightning speed, the Senate passed the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill in a plenary session that ran until 2 a.m. Until the end, critical lawmakers’ questions were unanswered and their concerns unaddressed. Because the House of Representatives subsequently accepted the Senate version in its entirety, the bill was no longer...
On the morning of May 9, GCash issued an advisory intended to assure its millions of users: “We’re back!” The advisory was posted after GCash extended a scheduled maintenance job “to investigate and determine that no hacking had occurred” the day before, when unauthorized deductions were made on certain accounts. The downtime that prevented users...
The government has awarded to SunAsia Energy Inc. and Blueleaf Energy the contract to build and operate the world’s largest floating solar project in the Philippines. The project has a cumulative capacity of over 750 megawatts (MW). The move is viewed as a milestone in the Philippine energy sector, with the Department of Energy (DoE)...
The easing of pandemic restrictions and the opening up of economies saw Southeast Asia’s growth for 2022 being calculated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at a higher 5.5% from an earlier estimate of 5.1% “on stronger-than-expected domestic consumption, exports and services, particularly tourism.” Downplaying the Philippines’ seemingly impressive 2022 growth of 7.6%, economist JC...
