crunching numbers
Management by Illusion
DA through the Food Terminal, buying onions at P140 million pesos of onions at P537 per kg. and selling them through the Kadiwa at P170, thus losing about P96 million. Whose brilliant idea was that? Selling at P170 was clearly to create the impression that Filipinos were now paying only that amount for onions, or the Kadiwa was doing a great job. “Management by illusion” is how the late Rafael Salas described the management style of PBBM’s father. Is this also true of the son?
Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
Our Criminal Justice, according to the 2022 World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index, has the lowest score among 8 factors that comprise the Index. We were given a score of 0.32 (0 is the lowest, showing weakest adherence to the rule of law, and 1 is the highest score showing strongest adherence). For context, the global average is 0.47 and the regional average, i.e. East Asia and the Pacific, is 0.53. That’s how bad our system is.
Onions and the DA
Did you know, for example, Reader, that a 1997 study showed that the Philippines has a comparative advantage in onions? That means, essentially, that we should be a net exporter of onions. Did you know that a summary of a one-hectare average cost and returns of onions in 2019 shows that the net returns per hectare is P237, 681 (compare that to rice, where the 2021 net return per cropping season is P19,593 ) ? That the net profit-cost ratio is 2.15, which means that the ROI (return on investment) is 215%?
Tough Decisions to Make
BSP Governor Felipe Medalla and his monetary board have to answer the question: how much economic growth is the government willing to give up in order to bring inflation down?
Poverty Data: Too late to make a difference
isn’t this information about the performance of cities and mayors with respect to poverty reduction vital to a voter? If only for comparison purposes? And if the leaders of an area know that their performance with respect to this matter could make or break their chances for reelection, wouldn’t they try much harder?
Grading the President
If we were to grade the Duterte administration’s performance on the basis of hard evidence, not just on the spiels of the administration’s various PR personnel and spokespersons, what would that grade be?