THE Blue Star Construction and Development Corp. and the Masungi Georeserve Foundation, which runs the Masungi Georeserve, a conservation area in Baras, Rizal, as well as Rublou Inc. and its subsidiary, Green Atom, would have to apply for a Special Use Agreement in Protected Areas (SAPA) from the Department of Environment and...
THIS time is different has been a recurring theme during the boom and bust periods of Bitcoin’s little more than a decade long existence. With the largest cryptocurrency topping $20,000 for the first time, the mantra is growing louder.
Dave Weisberger, co-founder and chief executive officer of trading software...
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) clarified on Friday that the conglomerate is not interested in getting any share of revenues generated by the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), stressing that its proposal for purely the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the airport is to ensure that it operates better and more efficiently until...
The Covid-19 daily cases recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) on Friday hit the 2,000 mark after logging over 1,000 in the past 19 days.
As of 4 p.m. of December 18, the total number of cases in the country surged to 456,562 after 2,122 additional cases were...
THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) closed the year with a resumption of its “prudent pause” in monetary policy as inflation rises along with optimism for economic recovery pinned on vaccine hopes.
In its last monetary policy meeting for the year, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno announced the Monetary Board’s...
AMID a raging pandemic, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) managed to collect over a trillion pesos worth of taxes in the January to October period this year.
In a statement, the BIR said it collected P1.6 trillion from taxes, which is 12.25 percent higher than its goal of...
DAVAO CITY—The coastal city of Mati in Davao Oriental, which boasts of one the country’s longest white-sand beach, has announced it will be enforcing stricter measures on entry of people, including tourists, to the city during the holiday season.
The city was one of the few local governments to...
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday announced that over 1,000 schools have been nominated for the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes.
In an interview with PTV, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said their regional directors have already nominated 1,114 schools for the said initiative, which will be implemented...
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) celebrated its 85th anniversary with a fleet review and wing flyby joined by 63 air and naval assets on Wednesday near the coast of Bataan.
The BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Davao Del Sur led the contingent from the Philippine Navy and...
A suspected ranking member of the New People’s Army (NPA) on the most wanted persons list in Cagayan Valley Region was captured on Monday night in Pangasinan as the Philippine National Police (PNP) intensified its legal offensive against rebels in support of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict...
Hundreds of families who lost their homes due to geological hazards will be receiving a much-needed boost from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The agency has been donating confiscated forest products, such as wood, which can be used to reconstruct school furniture like chairs and tables...
WASHINGTON—Federal authorities expressed increased alarm Thursday about a long-undetected intrusion into US and other computer systems around the globe that officials suspect was carried out by Russian hackers. The nation’s cyber-security agency warned of a “grave” risk to government and private networks.
The hack compromised federal agencies and “critical...
Britain’s biggest business lobby group called on the European Union (EU) to delay introducing new customs checks after Brexit because firms haven’t had enough time to prepare amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents 190,000 businesses, is also asking for companies to be given...
Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine won backing from a panel of experts who advise US regulators, setting the stage for its shot to be the second vaccine cleared in the US.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers voted 20 to 0, with one abstention, on Thursday that the benefits of...
If it weren’t for a cricket accident that almost killed him, Uday Kotak probably wouldn’t be the world’s richest banker.
A ball that hit him in the head and led to an emergency surgery pushed a 20-year-old Kotak to abandon his dream of becoming a professional player. After a...
RAMALLAH, West Bank—The mayor of Bethlehem on Thursday said Christmas celebrations in the birthplace of Jesus will be limited to just a handful of people this year as Palestinian officials announced a strict new lockdown across the West Bank due to a soaring coronavirus outbreak.
In an interview, Mayor...
SAMAHANG Basketbol ng Pilipinas program director Tab Baldwin wanted Kai Sotto to return to the country as soon as possible for the 7-foot-2 center to gel with the national team in time for the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asian Qualifiers third window in February at the Clark bubble.
“Certainly...
EIGHT-DIVISION world champion Manny Pacquiao, at 42, could take on anyone—including Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) superstar Conor McGregor or unified welterweight world champion Errol Spence Jr.—despite his age, according to the senator’s long-time strength and conditioning Justine Fortune.
McGregor expressed interest in facing the reigning World Boxing Association welterweight...
GMA Network and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) officially sign a landmark deal covering the broadcast rights for the league starting in Season 96 next year.
GMA Network Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon and President and COO Gilberto Duavit Jr. and NCAA Season 96 Policy Board President...
IF the entire country was so happy to see Eumir Felix Marcial win his professional debut, no one was happier that his fiancé, Princess Jenniel Carabadilla Galarpe.
“I’m so proud of him. There was only one thing that went in my mind—he deserves to win with all the sacrifices...
Fear. Disruption. Uncertainty. These words perhaps best sum-up the feelings felt by all Filipinos this 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some sectors were somehow able to weather the resulting storm slightly better than the rest, it is the most vulnerable who truly bore the biggest brunt and suffered the...
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says holiday shopping in crowded stores is a “higher risk” activity and that people should limit any in-person shopping, including at supermarkets.
Colonial mentality is “the internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by people as a result of colonization. It corresponds with the belief that the cultural values of the colonizer are inherently superior to one’s own.” That definition is probably too narrow as that mentality also extends to politics and economics.
The age of artificial intelligence might be closer than we think. This early, if you are not preparing your career—or your children’s—for this new revolution, then you will most probably find the transition more difficult when it finally happens.
On the part of the...
The classic children’s rhyming poem “Roses Are Red” may have taken on a new fragment for color blind people: “Roses are brown, violets are grey.” Levity aside, people with color vision deficiency actually do see color, but in a much narrower range. It is calculated that a...
Part three
IN the world of digital, the term “digital operations” is not as common as compared to the other functions of management. According to the Boston Consulting Group, digital operations focuses on the customers’ journey, the end-to-end business processes, as well as IT operations that support the enterprise.
ON a long train ride inside a dark tunnel, it’s best to have entrepreneurs as fellow passengers: they always hope to see the light at the end.
Hope is what many implementers of social enterprises latch on as the lockdown measures against the Covid-19 pandemic have brought the economy...
Lockdown measures against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has demolished the four corners of the classroom.
It wasn’t easy; and still is, as educators put efforts to rebuild those corners that are now situated in learners’ domicile.
Educators from the Department...
THE past five years of the Philippine tobacco industry paint a bleak future: dwindling tobacco area and declining number of farmers.
The major culprit? Falling domestic cigarette consumption due to higher excise taxes and anti-smoking initiatives both by the government and the private sector.
Despite this,...
About half of the country’s 2.1 million rice farmers availed of government programs, but only 38,640 planters obtained loans from state-run banks in 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In a recently published annual report, the PSA said from 2017 to 2019, more than 80 percent of...
The World Bank has approved $900-million worth of new project loans the government sought to recover from the pandemic, improve competitiveness and build resilience against shocks and natural disasters.
The World Bank said in a statement it has approved a $600-million worth “Promoting Competitiveness and Enhancing Resilience to Natural...
The Philippines is one of the few countries that belong to the “watch out economies” in terms of digital intelligence, according to a study conducted by the Fletcher School at Tufts University and Mastercard.
Based on the study, titled Digital in the Time of Covid, the Philippines joins other...
To keep businesses afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemic, companies must learn to promote health and wellness and innovate products to retain jobs of employees.
These are the realizations of entrepreneur and health advocate Maura de Leon, popularly dubbed as the queen of stevia, who pioneered Sweet and Fit, the...
Oman is a destination known to Filipinos as a hub for OFWs. With 52,000 Filipino workers employed in various capacities including domestic work, retail, and health care according to data from the Philippine Embassy as of May 2020, it is known as a safe destination for workers in the Middle East.
Filipino exporters of food products and housewares and furnishings are encouraged to seize the potential of Germany and France, major markets in Europe, even amid the pandemic.
Benedict Uy, Commercial Counsellor at Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) Brussels, said food products offer business opportunities, noting...
By Liz Kislik
Almost every leader has been in the uncomfortable position of managing people who think their performance is terrific when it’s actually just adequate, or worse. In fact, in my 30 years of consulting, this challenge has been one of the most frequent and draining management problems...
By W. Chan Kim & Renee
Mauborgne
The world has recently enjoyed
the longest business cycle since the National Bureau of Economic Research has
kept records.
Despite the macroeconomic
uncertainty and the unpredictable business cycle, companies need to develop
their investment and growth strategies. The question they...
When a series of typhoons, capped off by Typhoon Ulysses, ravaged the country and unleashed heavy rainfall enough to overflow dams in Luzon, plenty of Filipinos were perplexed that water supply was suddenly interrupted. Doesn’t an immense amount of water in a dam indicate a surplus of water supply? The answer is...
There are many compelling ways to make a solid case for deploying powerful analytics within your compliance program. As a Bloomberg article put it, compliance programs “like everything else in the 21st century must be data-driven”.
MENTION Mabini, Batangas and instantly, scuba diving comes to mind. The municipality has been synonymous with scuba diving, being the birthplace of this underwater recreational sport.
Situated within the world’s so-called Coral Triangle, Mabini has the most diverse concentration of the planet’s marine biodiversity and has 48 dive sites...
WITH 10 films in the official list of entries for the coming Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) slugging it out to get their fair share of the non-traditional movie audience, producers are currently in a frenzy on how to market and promote these films properly.
By Vanessa Gera | The Associated
Press
WARSAW, Poland—Poland’s government on Friday
accepted a compromise candidate as the new director of Warsaw’s landmark Jewish
museum, ending a long impasse that had raised concerns over the popular
institution’s future.
The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
has been without a...
IF you’re a morena, it’s likely that you’ve struggled with finding a blush that would suit your complexion. Blush is actually trickier than lipstick or eyeshadow.
According to the “rules,” women with darker skin tones look best in deep fuchsia, berry, warm brown, raisin and tangerine shades.
Those with medium skin, on the other hand, would...
ON December 8, the names Margaret Keenan and May Parsons became etched in history as UK marked “V-day,” the start of its mass vaccination campaign. Keenan, who just turned 91, was the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine and Parsons, a...
Ayala Corp. (Ayala), one of the oldest and largest conglomerates in the Philippines, has adopted GCash’s PowerPay+ disbursement platform to disburse incentives to its employees at the parent company.
PowerPay+ is a bundled funds disbursement facility that allows companies to pay out salaries, commissions and allowances more conveniently and securely to...
Much like the Oscar Award-winning 1962 classic on the American Wild West frontier, there’s a stirring story on how our own version of the West—Western Visayas that is—won its fight over the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the region’s strict adherence to health protocols, the virus has been kept to a...
NOTHING is more satisfying for car enthusiasts than owning a brand-new car customized to own personal preference, much more if you are an avid MX-5 fan.
Mazda Philippines recently kicked off the Build Your Personal MX-5 Program, which adds more value and prestige to the already intimate and proud...
AT the beginning of 2020, no one knew that the world would have to take on a pandemic, where health and safety become first priority, where accessibility to most essential goods and services is crucial for survival, and where proper home living is both a privilege and a necessity.
MENTION Mabini, Batangas and instantly, scuba diving comes to mind. The municipality has been synonymous with scuba diving, being the birthplace of this underwater recreational sport.
Situated within the world’s so-called Coral Triangle, Mabini has the most diverse concentration of the planet’s marine biodiversity and has 48 dive sites...
Highlighting the “best of the best” of protected areas in Asean, the Asean Heritage Parks (AHP) Programme, even in the midst of the pandemic, offers an opportunity to strengthen biodiversity protection and conservation measure through protected area management.
Asean comprises 3 percent of the world’s total land area, but...
MAYOR Mar-len Abigail S. Binay-Campos recently announced that Makati City’s government has started the distribution of pre-Kindergarten learner’s packages to 1,087 enrollees aged four in its local pre-Kindergarten education program.
According to the mayor, the initiative is part of the city’s thrust to ensure continuous education for the youth...
SIX personnel from the Foreign Affairs Department were honored with the Gawad Mabini and the Order of Sikatuna—the Presidential awards for exemplary service to the Filipino people and nation.
On behalf of President Duterte, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. on December 11 conferred the awards on...
The country’s new cardinal, Jose Advincula, recently called on laypeople to be living witnesses and “missionary disciples” even amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Cardinal Advincula of Capiz said there are many ways to be missionaries—taking what they have learned and sharing it with others.
“Even if most...
El Nido, Palawan—El Nido Resorts and Lio
Tourism Estate was awarded as the first in the world to receive the Sea Turtle
Friendly Tourism Certification by the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network
(WFEN).
Working with WFEN
since 2017 to develop, implement and pilot best practice guidelines for
resorts, tour operators and...
CEBU CITY—The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) on Thursday turned over to the city government some 15,000 cash cards to be distributed to senior citizens to cheer them up during the Yuletide season.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said these cash cards will be given before Christmas, in time for...
As the virgin coconut oil (VCO) was announced to be beneficial for the prevention of probable and suspected Covid-19 cases from becoming severe, the continuous supply of quality coconuts is being prepared through the planting of hybrid coconuts.
“With all the recent buzz about the efficacy of VCO in...
Christmas is the season to be jolly, but these happy times can also bring risks to your health. That is because alcohol consumption increases during this time of the year.
“Alcohol consumption is widespread during Christmas, noted Dr. Diana A. Payawal of the Philippine Society of Gastroenterology during the...
THE street where her home is situated is named Mayaman, a word that means rich in Pilipino.
It is a fitting description for the town house’s rich array of sculptures, and large and small art pieces—all of which came to life under her expert hands.
She...
"It was the first day of the lockdown and I knew the situation was serious and not good for kids. They will be holed up in their homes completely, far from what they’ve been used to. I thought kids could be scared and this concerned me.” These were Robert Alejandro’s thoughts as...
A pharmacist of a dermatological company asked me to partner with her to put up our own drugstore with me as the industrial partner. I’m good at selling and have always been very good at building relationships with clients.
After a short period of time, I decided to go to London to work as a domestic...
If you’re fortunate enough to be able to donate money this year, plenty of causes need your attention.
In a year like 2020, choosing where to direct your financial donation is like picking your favorite child. Should your money go toward nonprofits providing basic needs, organizations fighting for social...
From a repurposed car dealership to an award-winning real estate business, Damosa Land Inc. (DLI) has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
Having won Best Boutique Developer, Special Recognition in Sustainable Construction, Special Recognition for Building Communities, Special Recognition in CSR, Best Housing Development, Best Green Residential...
From a repurposed car dealership to an award-winning real estate business, Damosa Land Inc. (DLI) has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
Having won Best Boutique Developer, Special Recognition in Sustainable Construction, Special Recognition for Building Communities, Special Recognition in CSR, Best Housing Development, Best Green Residential...
Biogesic has continuously reminded us Filipinos of the importance of unconditional care for ourselves or others. With the new normal changing our daily lives, the brand understood that our capacity to care may have changed in form or expression, but never in intent.
Addressing this reality, the brand launched...
The extended lockdown has found many of us at home and unable to visit our go-to dining haunts to satisfy our food cravings—be it in malls, hip restaurant strips or that cozy hole-in-the-wall favorite find. Some of these establishments have turned to take-out and delivery; while gourmet food, straight out of home...
Formed only this year, reon (stylized as all lowercase) is a duo composed of singer-songwriters Noah Glynn Alejandre and Reanne Julia Borela.
According to them, they got their name from Kanji characters (麗音) that mean "beautiful" and "sound" and describe their music as bedroom pop.
I WAS pleased by readers’ enthusiastic response to my recent article, What our creative industry can learn from the Koreans and their K-Dramas (published here on November 30, 2020), but I was especially thrilled to learn that some women friends—UP graduates all who share the qualities of...
HAVING just celebrated Thanksgiving has given us pause to refocus on something that has not been top of mind for some time: being grateful. Of course, finding reasons for gratitude in a world reeling from the effects of the coronavirus, natural disasters, and economic difficulties is not...
As the Christmas season comes with a coldness and a vibrance like none other we have ever experienced, pinoy grunge band, Gin Rum and Truth (GRT) comes in with a fresh take on the classic OPM Christmas song, "Pasko Na Sinta Ko," with a hard-hitting cover that is uniquely GRT.
