That amount is equivalent to only 14.7% of the budget for the planned Mega Manila Subway (P102 billion), which is expected to carry 370,000 passengers per day. It’s also equivalent to just 9.8% of the budget for the planned North-South Commuter Railway (P152 billion), which is expected to transport 400,000 passengers per day. It’s likewise...
Category: Business
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Jeepney driver says: Let us run our own show
By all means, phase out the traditional jeepneys, but let the operators and drivers modernize on their own—basically, run their own show—without the need of a cooperative that may only serve big business. This, in essence, is jeepney driver Rey Escanilla’s stance on the government’s fresh push to modernize the Philippines’ iconic “king of the...
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Needed: a just transition for jeepney drivers and operators
EDITOR’S NOTE: What was intended as a weeklong strike starting March 6 to protest the phaseout of traditional jeepneys was ended late the next day by strike leaders after a meeting with officials in Malacanang. Manibela chair Mar Valbuena said the protesters were banking on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to concerned agencies to fully...
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My understanding of economics
High prices often confront us. Government is trying to control inflation, which is increasing beyond its desired levels—an ideal of about 2% annually but currently is about 9%. Why do prices increase and why do they drop? Why do things appreciate and increase in value over time? Why do they depreciate? Market forces, we are...
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The struggle against trade liberalization continues
The Senate concurred in the ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Feb. 21, with a vote of 20 in favor, 1 against and 1 abstaining.In lamenting the results of the Senate vote, Trade Justice Pilipinas joins 130 other organizations and 9 individuals who issued a collective statement calling on the Senate to...
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Is the Philippine economy ‘backward’?
We are not a “backward” economy. It’s just that economies capable of producing sophisticated manufactures necessarily require economies that must specialize in raw material or labor exports. That’s global capitalism for you. Ours is a developed capitalist economy to the extent that the capitalist economic system that grips the world today is already fully mature,...
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Will World Economic Forum folks believe Bongbong?
Before leaving for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he will “highlight the significant economic gains we have achieved in the last part of the year.” He is the only leader eager to attend from Southeast Asia. The WEF was set up in 1971 as a global multistakeholder...
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‘Pasadang’ Pandemic: Transport workers during Covid-19
The Philippine public land transportation industry was beset with problems during the Covid-19 pandemic. With restricted mobility and physical distancing measures enforced as early key strategies to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, it was inevitable that the livelihood opportunities of transport workers would be negatively affected as the number of trips and passengers dwindled. ...
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In 2022, crisis in incomes and jobs pummeled labor sector
Despite the economy’s recovery from the recession induced by the pandemic, workers faced a worsening crisis in incomes and jobs in 2022. Thus, while businesses were slowly recuperating, formal and informal workers continued bleeding from wage and income erosion, job losses, and a fall in employment quality. Inflation climbed steadily for the whole year, from...
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Nuclear power: Energy agency wants objective study by independent party
(Last of two parts) President Marcos Jr. is all for the idea of reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), but the Department of Energy (DoE) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the safety, if at all possible, of the controversial facility that has been lying dormant for nearly 40 years. Weeks after Mr....