The Filipino dream
The Filipino dream can be thought of as a set of good, reachable and desirable outcomes that the average citizen desires to attain. When seen as a collection of wants, it defines a fusion of realizeable goals for the nation
Just take it, it’s good for you
Not all who take sugar-sweetened beverages will indulge to excess. And not even all who over-indulge will become obese or diabetic. Yet, the proposal would penalise all these people in the same way. I hate to say it: just like the war on drugs.
Economics of living long lives
My topic today deals with the economics of living far beyond one’s economically productive years . My starting point is the thread of life from the histories of two mothers whose lives have affected my own in extraordinary ways.
Hollow and shallow
A comparison of growth numbers with key social indicators suggests that the quality of economic growth in the Philippines has been hollow and shallow. While the economy grew 6.1% in the first half of 2012, unemployment and underemployment rose while hunger incidence deepened. For those who were left behind in the growth process, the better-than-expected...
Reality check
October being National Statistics Month, it is particularly timely to give credit where it is due: to the Philippine Statistical System and the NSCB in particular, for doing a great job in spite of the tremendous financial and personnel constraints under which it is operating.
Population, poverty, politics and the Reproductive Health bill
The population issue has long been dead and buried in developed and most developing countries, including historically Catholic countries. That it continues to be debated heatedly in our country merely testifies to the lack of progress in policy and action. The Catholic Church hierarchy has maintained its traditional stance against modern family planning (FP) methods,...
Good, average, or poor performance?
While everyone in the media is playing guessing games on what President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address will be, NSCB has just put out StatDev 2011, which monitors the performance of the government in implementing the Philippine Development Plan.
Tribute to a public servant
After 21 years as Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Romulo “Romy” A. Virola has hung up his spurs, so to speak, having reached age 65 and therefore forced to retire, per government fiat. His retirement is not only a loss to the NSCB and the Philippine Statistical System (PSS) but also...
What Has Really Happened to Poverty in the Philippines? New Measures, Evidence, and Policy Implications
That poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon is no longer debatable. What remains a contentious issue is whether the various dimensions of individual deprivation should be aggregated–and how these are to be aggregated–into a summary measure of poverty.This study employs the Alkire-Foster aggregation methodology, which preserves the “dashboard” of dimensions of poverty, to systematically assess the...
