Opinion

INCLUDING the excise tax on single-use plastics in the government's priority bills is a welcome development. That complements many other initiatives to curb pollution and recent efforts to rehabilitate waterways, particularly the Pasig River. Just on Friday, the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, or Ledac, added five measures to the Common …

A SENATE budget hearing earlier this week refocused attention on the online exploitation and sexual abuse of Filipino children, a social menace that continues to fester. Senators were shocked to learn from the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology …

FOR nearly two years, concerns over North Korea receded from the global spotlight as the Russia-Ukraine war drew more attention. As many know, that ongoing conflict has been blamed for the external factors threatening the global economy, from raising the specter of recession in Europe to disrupting grain supplies worldwide. …

THE newly minted strategic partnership between the Philippines and Australia opens the door to a more comprehensive road map of cooperation between the two countries. Among the wide array of fields covered by the partnership is soil and land management. Specifically, it is about how the Philippines can draw from …

ON the heels of the government's imposition of a retail price ceiling on rice, the Department of Finance (DoF) has proposed a temporary reduction in tariffs on imported rice, from the 35 percent that applies to most imported rice to “zero, or at most 10 percent,” according to Finance Secretary …

THE Philippines and Australia have entered into a landmark security and economic alliance that firms up their cooperation in bringing about “an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.” The Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership was signed last week by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It …

RECENTLY in Jakarta, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that Southeast Asia should resist foreign powers with hegemonic ambition. For that, the Philippines should work with its neighbors to bolster intra-regional trade, which has been stagnant since 2008, and deepen economic cooperation. “History will ultimately judge whether the supremacy of the …

IN 2017, then President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 10931, or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act,” expanding opportunities for college education for millions of deserving but poor students. In Senate hearings on the proposed national budget for next year, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno called for …

THE ongoing FIBA World Cup basketball tournament has captured the imagination and enthusiasm of almost everyone in the Philippines, and even though it has not turned out as well as hoped for our own Gilas with three tough losses and a first-round exit, the entire event has been a success …

AFTER hogging the headlines in the past few months because of impertinent immigration officers asking for yearbooks as proof of graduation, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has again become the target of attacks on social media and among the general public. Last week, its Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) issued …