Sonny Africa
Sonny Africa is the executive director of IBON Foundation.
Red Red Whine
November 18, 2020
FEATURES
Progressive ideas will be tolerated if spoken from armchairs or as rhetoric in speeches and policymaking. But red flags are raised when these ideas are connected to each other and, especially, when they’re borne by the organized power of politicized Filipinos in a mass movement for change.
IMF sees Vietnam overtaking PH: It’s not because of COVID
October 15, 2020
COMMENTARY
Our economic managers would do well to stop being blinded by their neoliberal dogma and start taking a more strategic view of national development. Without radical changes in our economic policies the Philippines will just keep getting left further behind.
Duterte govt: Just Can’t Debt Enough
October 4, 2020
BY SONNY AFRICA
The debt crisis is already upon us – just not the kind that the economic managers and creditors are worried about where debt payments to lenders are interrupted.
Ombudsman’s efforts hide admin corruption
September 23, 2020
COMMENTARY BY SONNY AFRICA
With the government’s infrastructure budget bloating and the pork-filled 2021 budget being railroaded through Congress, every check on corrupt government officials is more urgent than ever.
Bayanihan 2: Too small, hinders health and recovery
August 21, 2020
BY SONNY AFRICA
The beggarly Bayanihan 2 bill preferred by the economic managers and imposed on Congress is much too small for the magnitude of the crisis facing the country.
PH has the money for Php1.6 trillion stimulus
August 12, 2020
BY SONNY AFRICA
A robust stimulus response is needed and very possible. If there is none, it’s only because the Duterte administration chooses not to have one.
Stimulus: Spend, spend, spend Php1.6 trillion
August 11, 2020
BY SONNY AFRICA
Maybe all it takes for something to become government policy is to say it thrice?
SONA 2020: “Boracay is doing well because of its scenery”
July 28, 2020
BIRD FEED
The president is at the commanding heights of policymaking in the country. If this last SONA showed anything, it’s the lack of leadership over pandemic response at the very top — Pres. Duterte doesn’t seem to appreciate the worst public health crisis and economic decline in the country’s history.
The unbelievable indifference of the Duterte administration
July 16, 2020
FEATURES
The Duterte government insists that it is successfully responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality is a little bit different – it hasn’t done enough, and is planning to do even less.
