Strong leader as miracle worker: Deng Xiaoping drilled down
In the early 1980s, the battle for the hearts and minds of China was raging between the Deng Xiaoping partisans who shared his vision of a market and an open economy and the Chen Yun partisans who clung to a planned and closed economy.
Implementing the free college tuition law
The free college tuition law is too generous and will threaten our budgetary capacity, while possibly weakening the quality of our state collegiate institutions.
Check out the evidence
What does the evidence show? That’s what you, Reader, should be asking, so that you can make an informed decision about whether to vote for or against the proposed changes in our system of government.
Übermensch
In Shakespeare’s Act III of Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony joined the funeral of, after Brutus and kindred souls had done the Ides of March number on, Julius Caesar. The starting line of his famous spiel included: “I came to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”
The case for a federal form of government
There is no magic wand in the choice of form of government. Effective governance results from the actions of leaders to adopt the appropriate policies and to make the right choices of actions to respond to the challenges they face.
Constitutional amendments – Senate hearing concerns
In connection with the hearings being conducted by the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, I have been asked for my views on the proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
I am answering all the questions posed by the committee in this column.
What to expect in 2018 for the economy
At this time of the year, many are wondering what 2018 holds for the Philippine economy.
Time is of the essence
Dr. Dans joins over 60 medical organizations in the Philippines as well as other civil society groups which have gotten together to petition President Duterte to make sure that TRAIN includes sin taxes.
Millions of Filipino lives at stake
Eighty organizations representing the health sector and civil society are petitioning the President and the Senate to use the comprehensive tax reform package to address two of our most important health problems: tobacco use and malnutrition.
Breaking down the tax reform package
Without even looking at the details, the reader can see that the bottom 60 percent of income earners are negatively impacted by the package (the figures are in italics, and are parenthesized) as well as the top 0.1 percent. Those are the DOF estimates.
Duterte’s 2nd SONA
The second State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Duterte departs from the typical formula. Instead of the heavy recounting of the previous year’s developments and achievements with a plethora of statistics, he zeroes in on actions being undertaken.
An anti-poor tax package
So the question is: How can a 95-5 split of the direct benefits of the TsT in any way represent a “the poor will benefit the most” situation, between the “middle” and “low” income groups? Ask any child: If candies are split 19 and 1 between two children, is that fair? Is it most beneficial...
