Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Manila Bulletin Today is Labor Day, and it's a non-working holiday . Since it's May 1, it's easy for me to think of the Kilusang Mayo Uno movement. The same slogan still shows up almost every rally, "Raise the national wage to PHP 1,200.00 per day." It "doesn't help" that I do get the  Tu Quoque argument or "You too!" fallacy. It may look like "I haven't done much" compared to KMU , but I would like to address truths that would never change. It's all about that one fact, " Economics doesn't care about how many times you insult it. It never bends just to silence the insults. " However, it looks like KMU thinks that if they insult economics enough, economics will bend to their whims. However, history has proven them wrong and will still prove them wrong . This time, I'm going to raise an extreme example . KMU is in the situation of, "You may want it when you don't get it. You may no longer want it ...

Foreign Trade University It's time for another Jollibee-related post. I first wrote an article about Jollibee's success in the world market in 2022 . I "followed up" the post I just shared with an article talking about hypocritically rejoing that Jollibee is rising worldwide, while still opposing FDI . My recent focus has been on Jollibee World's success in Vietnam . I'd like to share an excerpt from this ABS-CBN News report by Arthur Fuentes: Since debuting in Ho Chi Minh City in 2005, the chain has expanded to over 250 outlets across 50 provinces. Jollibee said its strategy has relied on "local relevance," tailoring its flagship fried chicken and spaghetti to Vietnamese palates while aggressively targeting the youth demographic .  “ Vietnam is a highly dynamic and competitive market, and our progress reflects our focus on understanding local consumers and executing well on the fundamentals ,” said Ernesto Tanmantiong, Global President and CEO of J...

Behind Asia I wrote a post on whether or not Behind Asia gets what causes a lack of FDI in the Philippines . Granted, Behind Asia could be composed of several people and not just one person running the entire page. Right now, this is a post that hopefully has Behind Asia getting the root cause: The 1987 Constitution contains a deeply emotional economic rule : The 60/40 provision. It dictates that critical public utilities (like telecom, water, and transport) must be at least 60% owned by Filipinos. It was written out of a genuine, historical trauma to protect us from foreign colonial exploitation. But look at the unintended macroeconomic consequence: It created the worst local monopolies in Asia . 🇵🇭📉 Because massive foreign telecommunications companies and global infrastructure firms were legally banned from owning majority stakes in the Philippines, they simply didn't invest here. Who benefited from this? The local Filipino billionaires . Because foreign competitors were lega...

I was following the Facebook page,  Behind Asia . Right now, I have to get into the argument s . It's not going to be easy to deal with a Facebook page that has at least 217K followers. I'm going to say that my purpose isn't to win the debate, but to spread the facts. I might just be a nobody, but that doesn't mean I should shut up and do nothing. I have my limited freedom of speech, which I can and should use. I'm going to go into Behind Asia's and try to refute some of its ridiculous ideals. I wouldn't take too much time refuting them all, but those I feel like need to be refuted, as soon as possible . Claim: 60-40 isn't an issue, and economic charter change is the "easy solution" This is one of Behind Asia's recent posts . I would like to share the claim before shooting it with common sense. The political elite is pushing aggressively for Economic Charter Change (Cha-Cha). The central argument is that the 1987 Constitution’s restrictive ...

Philippine Daily Inquirer After an exhausting night of refuting the IBON Foundation's wealth tax argumen t, I read news that Jollibee's acquisition of Shabu All Day has been approved by the South Korean government . This is a detail from the Philippine Star I would like to share: Jollibee Group International chief executive officer Richard Shin said the company is preparing for the closing of the deal and the integration of the brand into its operations in South Korea. The acquisition, to be carried out through Jollibee subsidiary Jolli-K, involves a 70% stake in All Day Fresh Co. Ltd. "Shabu All Day is a strong operational fit for our Korea platform, with a proven format and clear levers to support continued expansion—while maintaining the brand’s quality and guest experience," Shin said. Once completed, Shabu All Day is expected to account for about 2% of the group’s revenues and contribute around 8% to its global earnings before interest and taxes . Shabu All Day ...

Updated: April 21, 2026 Some time ago, I wrote about why I don't trust the IBON Foundation as an "economic think-tank" . I remember getting a lot of insults (and I've decided to block such people), telling me stuff like, "What have you done for the Philippines compared to IBON?" or "What about your mass base?" There's also that 88% survey result from Pulse Asia, which I heard has a very biased sampling size. Regardless, it's important to speak out facts and figures even if only one percent believes it and 99% doesn't! As I was looking to challenge myself in writing, I thought of challenging IBON's ongoing stance on the wealth tax. They had an article written in 2023. It's all about taxing the super wealthy . Is it good or bad? It's time to think about it.  Differentiating income from net worth Here's a sample of what IBON had written: A billionaire wealth tax can substitute for many consumption taxes that disproportionat...