And do you know, Reader, that in August. 2018, the average retail price of rice was P44.66. Yes. The price of rice 5 years ago was higher than the price of rice now, which has alarmed our government so much that they are calling for a price ceiling.
Question: If judging BBM on the country’s economic growth versus the ASEAN 5 opens a can of worms, then how should he be judged?
Politics has reared its ugly head in the JBC, because, as an example, in the Duterte presidency, the short list of candidates presented to him seemed to very often have a San Bedan (his alma mater). The study shows that 40% of his appointees were Bedans, whereas the average for all the other presidents was only 10%.
The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2022 is the basis of Inconvenient Truth #8: The Philippines has the lowest score, and the lowest rank, among the ASEAN-5 as far as the Rule of Law is concerned. What is so galling is that eight years ago, in 2015, the Philippines had a score (0.53) higher than everyone else, except Malaysia (0.57). As you can see, Reader, the Duterte administration really brought down the Philippines Rule of Law score and ranking – from 0.53 to 0.47, and from 51 out of 102 to 97th out of 140. . One would have hoped that the BBM would see those scores and ranks going up, but judging from what is happening in the de Lima case and what happened in the Remulla fils case, that gleam of hope is fading. In the Philippines, the rule by law still reigns supreme.
Weep, Reader, for the blighted future of our country’s current crop of 10-year-olds, with only one in ten of able to read and understand what she is reading.
A lot of hoopla there was, about Congress needing its own national-level think tank; about academic research and published work not finding its way into legislation (this from the first-person experience of Cong. Quimbo – a staunch defender of the Maharlika Investment Fund)
If the CPBRD, the present think tank of Congress, is so inadequate as to need the help of 25 “Congressional Research Fellows”, whose fault is it? It is under the Office of the Speaker, after all.
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?
Reader, if you want to find out for yourself the truth about the Marcos dictatorship and/or whether or not those years could be considered “GOLDEN YEARS” as far as the Philippine economy and its polity are concerned, there are two documents that will give you very hard evidence on the matter, and which are available on the internet.
PBBM’s appointment of Romeo Lumagui, Jr. as head of the BIR is a slap in the face of the Filipino people. It is a declaration of intent: he will act in his best interests, not in the best interests of the people, and of the country.
Wouldn’t you like to see, in black and white, Reader, a list of the PBBM’s accomplishments and mistakes, in his first hundred days of the presidency? I will try to oblige.