Column

IT is probably just me, but I cannot wrap my head around a group calling itself “Just Stop Oil” promoting its cause and publicizing its protest activities on the “X” social media platform. It takes a colossal lack of self-awareness to post an “X” message using a Smartphone or computer through the Internet, which is all 100 percent dependent on crude oil.

CREATE is just barely two years old but there is already clamor for its amendment. Why? Is it broken?

The Philippines has one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, judging from the 5.9-percent gross domestic product expansion it registered in the third quarter of the year. Sustaining this robust economic expansion through the next few years is now the challenge.

Third part

WE are still celebrating National Book Development Month and National Reading Month this November, with the last week of the month being made more special for it is also the 89th National Book Week. To take part in the advocacy, everyone is encouraged to nurture their passion for books and reading by supporting the events being held in celebration of these festivals, going to book fairs, joining storytelling activities, and supporting local libraries.

Officially, there is no Thanksgiving Day in the Philippines. As an American colony before, the country used to celebrate it on the same day as in the United States. While the holiday for “roasting turkeys” has been abolished many years ago, some Filipinos still observe the tradition of celebrating the day dedicated to expressing gratitude. As I studied, worked, and lived in the US for a significant number of years, I too was one of the Filipinos who commemorate Thanksgiving Day. After all, four siblings live in the US. I wrote about Thanksgiving a few times in this same column many years back. Still, it remains fitting to look back and see how the years have come and gone. There will always be a part in us that desires to reminisce the memories, then move forward as part of learning some of life’s lessons, enhancing our skills, and growing in faith.

Holderfin B.V., the buyer of the tendered shares of Holcim Philippines, should come out clean in its purchase of the now-delisted shares of stock of the cement company. After all, the hallmarks of business dealings from companies in the West are governance as well as transparency issues where China walls are part of the buzzwords in transactions these firms get into.

IN his introduction to the book, Ang Mahaba’t Kagyat na Buhay ng Indie Sinema (which I freely translated as The Long and Urgent Life of Indie Cinema), Aristotle J. Atienza asks us to treat the said phenomenon as a problematique. Within that label of being a cinema and at the same time bearing independence is the ideological aspect of what the book is attempting to define.

IT must be mentioned that the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 aims to promote an inclusive, innovative, and healthy financial sector. So, the following outcomes will be pursued by the government: 1) financial inclusion broadened and deepened; 2) financial innovation strengthened and accelerated; and 3) financial sector health ensured. In fact, just last Monday, November 20, 2023, Congressional Research Fellows from the Ateneo de Manila University, namely Dr. Alvin P. Ang, Dr. Luis F. Dumlao, Mr. Genesis Kelly S. Lontoc, and Dr. Ser Percival K. Peña-Reyes, went to the House of Representatives to present their paper on strategies to achieve such desired triple outcomes in line with the PDP.

Reaching the age of 60 is a milestone that some of us are looking forward to but it’s also a reality dreaded by many. For people who worked for most of their lives, reaching the age of retirement means a life without stress or pressure and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Unfortunately, this situation does not apply to every individual, particularly for those who were not able to secure well-paying or to a lesser extent, decent jobs. The fact is that many Filipinos grow old without any savings to speak of, no pensions to enjoy and no family to take care of them during their most vulnerable period in life.

Mindboggling and alarming was the pronouncement made recently by no less than an official of our land transport agency, LTO Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza, who said that more than 65 percent or 24 million vehicles, which have previously been registered are now unregistered or with expired registration. Worrisome as well is the fact that the government, mostly LGUs and government agency regional offices, owns many of these unregistered vehicles. This should not be the case, given that they are the ones that are supposed to uphold our laws.  

The global financial center has shifted around the world for several thousand years, usually in a westward direction. There were two common denominators to the movement regardless if it was short or long geographic spurts or how long that financial center lasted.

WHILE 44 million of us Pinoys, not just the young but even oldies, are engrossed doing TikTok, they should expect the worst because TikTok faces partial or total ban, pretty soon.