PH Debt: All’s well that swells

Hunyo 13, 2020

The finance department underscores the need for government to borrow from foreign sources to fund its economic recovery plan. Multilateral and country creditors have unsurprisingly exploited the situation and recycled funds to lend. But do we really need to borrow for COVID-19 response? How are we going to pay for all of these debts?

Duterte administration’s recovery plans help the rich more than the poor

Hunyo 5, 2020

government’s supposed recovery plans are more concerned about supporting business profits than helping the mass of unemployed Filipinos. The finance department’s PH-PROGRESO and stimulus bills in Congress give considerable support to businesses while millions of affected families get token support at best.

IBON Executive Director on the CREATE Bill and FDI

Mayo 28, 2020

Duterte gov’t giving up Php667-B in potential COVID response funds to boost corporate profits

Mayo 20, 2020

At a time when funds are urgent for the huge COVID-19 response needed, research group IBON said that the Duterte administration is giving up Php667 billion in revenues to boost the profits of the country’s largest corporations.

Financial strength, development weakness

Mayo 14, 2020

COMMENTARY

In this kind of situation, you don’t obsess about fuel-efficient driving or not red-lining the tachometer or limiting the car’s mileage – you step on the gas. Glorifying ‘financial strength’ is stepping on the brakes.

PH economy was already slowing – COVID-19 just made it worse

Mayo 7, 2020

NEWS

The Philippine economy was already weak coming into the COVID-19 crisis. Growth will remain slow if the government does not acknowledge pre-existing weaknesses that the pandemic merely intensified.

POGOs not an essential sector, only 0.23% of gov’t annual tax revenues

Mayo 4, 2020

NEWS

Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) generate minimal income and employment for the country, contrary to government’s claim that it is an essential sector and should be partially reopened.

The pre-COVID-19 plight of the poor and government’s old ways

Abril 22, 2020

BIRD FEED

Doesn’t the plight of the poor tell us that something is wrong with the way things are and needs fixing? That relief for millions of vulnerable households is still taking too long to arrive now that there is a public health emergency bares government’s long-standing unconcern for them.

Why do we keep on begging China for friendship?

Abril 21, 2020

BY ROSARIO GUZMAN

In the face of the Filipino people’s growing anxieties about COVID-19 and life after the lockdown, president Duterte keeps heaping praises on China.