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Virtual checkups: The doctor will see you now…online
“DO you sleep on your side? That side where you have the rashes on your face?” Doc Claire…
2021 is the year of Genshin Impact
THERE were over 2 billion tweets about gaming in 2020 and that’s not suprising. Tweets about gaming are…
Be a blessing
Two years in intermittent lockdowns. And you are still here. Safe at home with your loved ones while…
Big value in small doses
WHEN relating to existing and prospective members, many associations still fall into the trap of communicating value by…
Tattoos, taboos and trading: Riddles of culture (With apologies to Marvin Harris)
A war is raging online. It is not on drugs; it is neither between nations. It is about…
Philippine GDP halftime report
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released Q2-2021 gross domestic product data on Tuesday, August 10, 2021. Now, the…
Underdog Pacman and Yorme’s compelling narratives
IN the world of politics, fate is kinder to the victims of political persecution. Filipinos love an underdog…
The importance of the Olympics
Last July, New York Times columnist Lindsey Crouse wrote that despite the issues that constantly surround the Olympics—like the exorbitant…
Lexus loyalty highlighted
RAYMOND T. Rodriguez, the Lexus Manila president, is all smiles these days. Why? Because Lexus became the highest…
Dr. Derma and why our real lives matter more
A FEW days ago, on one of those rare weekday downtimes, I was watching a Bewitched rerun on…
Acting in ‘Tennessee Williams’s Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh’
IN February 1983, Tennessee Williams flew off alone to London, Rome and Italy. A week after, he was…
The TV serial gets a makeover
Perky, wholesome and unashamedly earnest, last year’s Metro Manila Filmfest entry The Boy Foretold by The Stars is…
The ‘Delta pandemic’ and the 2022 polls
The near riot caused by people flooding vaccination centers a day before Metro Manila and Calabarzon went into…
What you need to know about the SSS Retirement Benefit Program
You reached your 50th year and have started to think about the future in the next 10 years, not…
Disregarding the fit-to-work certification by company doctors
A fit-to-work certification by the company doctor can be set aside by the courts since the inherent merit…
Technical, economic and environmental aspects of good planning
In my previous column, I explained what transpired in our discussions with a top official of the Metals…
Bandwagon effect: The most dangerous cognitive bias
Humans are less intelligent than birds, that flock together with the same feathers, when they decide and take…
Increase your social intelligence
I WAS painfully shy as a kid. I would always go to my room whenever we had visitors, or…
Blind Spot
NO COMMENT THE actress has disabled comments on her social-media accounts reportedly because the wife of her boyfriend…
Beneo Palatinose
WHAT is Palatinose? Palatinose is simply a better alternative to sugar, I’ll let BENEO explain: “Palatinose is a naturally…
Being disciplined–makes the difference!
Almost everyone wants to be disciplined, right? But for some reason, we just can’t seem to be consistent. Maybe we…
Investing has a deeper meaning
AFTER understanding your risk profile, its definition and the different types of financial instruments, it would be better…
Short lockdown period will preserve our economic gains
The gross domestic product figures for the second quarter could be out as early as today. The favorable…
How to win an election
IT is probably a good thing that we have the triumphs of Philippine Olympic athletes to occupy our…
Value-added tax refund under CREATE
One question that remains unanswered even with the deferral of the implementation of Revenue Regulations 9-2021 is the…
Mayor Fred S. Lim’s love affair with the City of Manila
Amid the horrors of Covid-19 that had its worst outbreak in Southeast Asia in August last year, former Mayor…
The art of unproductive conversations
MY Generation Z sisters are on video calls all day. They have infinite Messenger groups and Discord servers,…
Mon Confiado continues to take the right steps
Once Mon Confiado takes on a role, be it big or small, he gives it his all. With…
ECQ 3.0: Gallery shutdowns, show extensions for Manila art spaces
THE latest omnibus guidelines released on August 6 by the IATF-EID (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of…
Together, our Singapore spirit: Singapore at 56 and Mabuhay to our enduring partnership with the Philippines
The Republic of Singapore turns 56 today, August 9, 2021. The last 56 years may have been rife…
Musings on the amendments of the Accountancy Law
Tenth of a series With the ongoing discussions on the amendment of the Accountancy Law (Republic Act 9298)…
Olympic lessons: Hidilyn-and-seek
Part One Hide-and-seek refers to that well-liked childhood game where one player closes his or her eyes for…
Why not a National Traffic Authority?
We all know, worry, complain and argue about how our traffic affairs are being managed in Metro Manila;…
On language and the economy
This month we celebrate Buwan ng Wika, and the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino, the agency that leads the national…
Showbiz personalities in ICT firm’s brand day concert
Sarah Geronimo, boy group SB19 and the popular love team of Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla are among…
Poco X3 Pro: Hand of the king
IN the HBO series Game of Thrones, the Hand of the King (or Queen), is the most powerful…
The art of long looking
Speaking of surge, there is a tsunami that is about to overwhelm us. It’s the digital wave that…
A multi-medal haul
With the Tokyo Olympics winding down this weekend, our countrymen are already reveling at the fact that for…
Anatomy of greed: Equity fraud threatens to erode investors’ confidence in the stock market
They say that money is the root of all evil. Its intoxicating allure drives wily people to engage…
Golden moments in amateur boxing
Boxing is our country’s most prolific sport. The Pinoy athletes’ superb performance in the on-going 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics…
My own rhapsody in August
The clouds were few and the view of the city from above was clear. It was the right…
Endgame rally
“Last two minutes!” These are familiar words to Filipino basketball fans who grew up in the 1980s. In…
Tiered membership: The power to choose
I have read that there are two sacred cows in association management dynamics: governance structure and membership model. Based…
GR Yaris is here
IT is really a wonder that Toyota keeps on unwrapping wondrous cars almost unstoppably, pandemic or no pandemic.…
Virtually covering the Games
THERE is an interesting angle to the Olympics happening at present in Tokyo: the intense online streaming of…
The elites are different
American author F. Scott Fitzgerald of The Great Gatsby fame is said to have had a conversation with the equally…
Inspiring our girls to be women in tech
THIS pandemic has opened my eyes further as a parent to guide my kids beyond school work and…
It’s okay if all you do during ECQ is survive
508 days since March 15, 2020 when the first enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was declared in the country,…
Morally responsible government officials
I have always been particular about good values in life, both as a parent and as Chairman of the…
The SSS educational assistance program
WE Filipinos have a deep regard for education. When I was young, my parents used to remind my…
Vaccine patent waivers in the time of Covid-19 pandemic
As part of a bid to widen access to Covid-19 vaccines and address supply constraints, the rationale is that by forcing manufacturers to share their intellectual property for vaccines with other manufacturers they can also start to produce them, thereby increasing supply.
Why Petecio missed gold
NESTHY PETECIO did not fight a boxer yesterday. Who said she did? So, stop wondering why Petecio lost. She fought…
Reimagining tomorrow
AMONG the three major sectors of the Philippine economy, agriculture was least affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in…
Leading technical teams
AS you move up in managing people, you will notice that your people skills increase while your technical…
Champions and accomplishments despite the pandemic
I would like to congratulate newly promoted Air Force Staff Sergeant Hidilyn Diaz for giving the Philippines our…
It’s my business
A couple of days ago, a comment was posted on Twitter. “If you are stocking up on booze…
CREATE VAT confusion
The implementation of Revenue Regulations 9-2021 is in suspended animation. What happens now? Some believe that everything goes…
Direct democracy through e-governance
Section 1, Article II of the Philippine Constitution declares: “The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides…
Japanese sports with Shinkawa
IT was a day after the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremonies, held this year, 2021, that I…
On money scams and how to avoid them
THE title of my column now may sound like a popular movie about finding magical creatures. In real…
Dominating organizations: Are they looking after society?
Digital capitalism ON July 27, everyone saw immediately how well quasi-monopolists pay off—for themselves, not for society. You…
JEFRË, creator of city icons
YOU may not know it but visual artist JEFRË has already made you look. Unveiled last week along…
Probiotics and prebiotics: What is the difference?
TWO of the biggest health and wellness buzzwords today are probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics are live microorganisms that…
Fashion designers in film
I WILL have to read my copy of The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness,…
Meet 5 professionals who beat the coronavirus
LIKE it or not, life’s downturns convey vital lessons that even the most expensive education cannot provide. Bouncing…
Redesigning services using timely customer data, analytics and insights
LOCAL governments, as noted, have opportunities to change how they work using technology. Better personalization, effective identity management,…
Notes on life insurance
How much life insurance should a man own? That depends on what his responsibilities are. People’s needs differ. Family…
This is the season for recognition
The past month continuing to this month of August has been the season of recognition of academic achievements,…
Searching for that Filipino vaccine
Vaccination of the general populace remains to be the key to normalcy. With the Delta variant now on…
An honor and a privilege
WE could only imagine how challenging it must have been for Noynoy Aquino to grow up in the…
Twisting deep
WHEN I saw reports about Simone Biles pulling out of gymnastics team competition for the United States of…
Preserving every hometown’s story
I have never been to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental. I heard that it is one of the…
New app provides access to integrated digital health care
ONE thing that we have seen in quarantine is the boom of telehealth services, where you can book…
Olympic gold fever
IT has been a stressful week of thunderstorms, floods, earthquakes, the threat of another Taal eruption, the Delta…
Toyota in Tokyo Olympics
TOYOTA has proven once more that it is not only into motoring business but in sports development as…
Dealing with the Delta variant
AT the time this article was being written, Philippine health authorities have detected no less than 114 infections…
The return of VP Jojo Binay
Overshadowed by the victory of our sports heroine Hidilyn Diaz at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics is the announcement…
Symbols and sports: The Tokyo Olympiad
History plays a significant role in the return of the Olympics to Japan. In 1964, Japan was granted…
Prosecutor’s fallacy in the war on drugs
Quoting from Oxford Reference, Prosecutor’s fallacy is a misstatement of a probability as result of misunderstanding of conditional…
Advancing good governance in associations
ON the invitation of the Brussels-based AssociationWorld Foundation, I recently attended its webinar on “Moving from Governance to…
Chasing the vaccine
ON Tuesday, I finally received my second jab of the precious vaccine against Covid-19. I got it in…
‘The Politician’: Dangerously disarming
THERE is a fabulous series on Netflix. It is delicious to the senses, endearing in its evil ways.…
Olympic gold, an original series
Television is a powerful medium. So powerful that it can make someone as jaded as I am cry.…
Olympic Genie
NOW that Hidilyn Diaz has given us a gift of precious gold—one that had seemed out of reach…
China at war with the world and itself
This is the way the event was reported. July 16, 1971: “Yesterday, President Nixon shocked the world by…
Australian lawmaker tags Dito Telecom a ‘Trojan Horse’
I was among many people who were utterly disappointed that President Duterte’s last State of the Nation Address…
Now is the best time to teach kids entrepreneurship
MY husband and I have become a repeat customer of a 10-year-old girl named Aleeza. We love buying…
Maternity benefits for female SSS members
When starting a new family, soon-to-be parents often ask themselves these questions: Can they handle the diaper changes,…
Let’s celebrate activism
An avatar called “Tumindig” recently became viral with the message that one must stand up for what he believes…
Paying attention to agriculture
OVER the years, compared to the other economic pillars of our gross domestic product, namely, industry and services,…
Hidilyn makes us all winners
WE are all winners in the victory of Hidilyn Diaz in the Tokyo Olympics. Every nation oozing with…
Blind Spot
BYE IMPLANTS EVERYBODY’S been asking why the TV personality looks somehow different. You know how it is when…
Warning: bad manager
WHILE waiting for the elevator recently, I heard a woman shouting at the head of security because, apparently,…
Iglesia Ni Cristo is 107 years old
The Iglesia Ni Cristo turns 107 years old today. No question that it has gone a long way since…
Laws are not meant to be pretty
“Kung makukulong ako, ikaw na ang bahala sa’kin, ha?” Every law student or lawyer has heard this line…
VAT zero-rating: Directly and exclusively used in registered activity
Revenue Regulations 09-2021 (RR 09-21) created confusion among the concerned regulators and businesses when it declared that the…
Lessons to be learned from our Asian neighbors
The Philippines cannot avoid the local transmission of the more infectious strain of Covid-19. The Delta variant has…
Pre-SONA 2021
AS I write this, State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2021 is a few hours in the future.…
Investing in the stock market
DO you want to grow your hard- earned money? Or maybe you have goals in the future that…
How do entrepreneurs achieve their goals?
I basically achieved in my life what I wanted to achieve. But there is one thing that I…