Business, Economics and Consulting

I was driving along in Quezon City when I encountered an apparition that was common in Davao but rarely seen in Manila’s major thoroughfares: a trisiboat. With the streets typically congested to road rage-inducing levels, trisiboats are not normally found head to head with vehicles in QC. But there it was, inching its way slowly ahead of my car as I moved forward with the green light, stalling my progress and forcing me to reduce speed to ten KPH, until we were both in the middle of the intersection as the light turned orange. That was when I … Continue Reading

There are places that can manage to grow faster than the others. Most of these places are the natural and historical growth centers or hubs. In the Philippines, there are the Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Davao City. They are the so-called primate “cities” or urban places in the country.

Metro Manila serves as model for growing cities – a model of best practices worth replicating to some other cities, and a model of worst and lamentable situations to avoid. On the whole, however, it remains as the country’s dominant showcase of advancement and the main … Continue Reading

If we were to enumerate the problems besetting the Philippines today, we can classify them as falling under any of these four broad categories: political instability, economic struggles, criminality and corruption. Of these four categories, corruption may be considered to be the gravest and with the direst consequences, as it directly or indirectly influences the continued existence of the other three.

Ask any Filipino today, and ten out of ten would respond that corruption is alive, well and thriving despite widely-publicized efforts to implement the slogan “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap”. The continued preponderance of poverty affecting 40 … Continue Reading