Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

It was sad when I went to Ayala Center Cebu to eat at Hussam Middle Eastern Cuisine. They had closed their office at Il Corso. They moved out of Ayala Center Cebu at the end of January . I remember talking to someone who said that the old location can be "very hard to find" when you enter the mall. Right now, I remember how trying to find Hussam in Ayala can be comparable to trying to find the magic lamp in Aladdin's  Cave of Wonders. That's what I felt back then, I ate at Hussam back in 2024 . Ayala Center Cebu probably had a low visibility problem. They had their soft opening on Black Saturday. They missed the Hari Raya Puasa date, a holiday for the Muslim population. This time, the use of glass walls makes it obvious to passersby that it's a Middle Eastern restaurant, that grilling is underway, and that it's certified halal .  The place still maintains the same pristine cleanliness I recall from Ayala Center Cebu. The place's transparent glass windows ...

ABS-CBN News I thought about what life was like in the late 1990s. It was a boomer vs. millennial clash . I remember how often I kept complaining about high school during the K+10 era. Even worse, the real problem why I hated school was that school cared more about grades for the sake of grades , instead of teaching students how to get good grades based on learning first. What may have compounded it is that we've had boomer parents who thought that fatigue is a badge of honor .  What I realized is the common problem of toxic positivity . We have the "good vibes only" or "everything will turn out right in the end". Sadly, life doesn't always turn out that way. You can tell a terminally ill cancer patient that, and the cancer patient would die anyway. No amount of toxic positivity ever fixes the problem. This time, I'd like to rant once more about how toxic positivity has been used to defend the outdated 1987 Constitutio of the Philippines.  The classic r...

Yes, you found that right. Did you know that the Filipino First Policy caused the Philippines to succeed and Carlos P. Garcia was the best president ever? Today, because of the Iranian War crisis, we need to talk about a new important discovery. What I realized is that the oil deregulation policy is bad . Do you want the oil prices to fall under control? Then read this new blog to find out.  A new audit was revealed in the world's greatest economic forum. The Trust Me Bro School of Economics invited the trustworthy IBON Foundation to speak at Intrigador Financials . I was so wrong not to notice the genius behind the likes of Makabayan Bloc.  What have I done compared to the youths  of Kabataan Partylist ? I even discovered that  the IBON Foundation is the most credible economic think tank . As I realized that  Filipinos should only listen to Filipino economists ,  I have found that there are literally  tons of studies  from the famous Trust Me Br...

Al Jazeera Who can remember the execution of three drug mules in China on March 30, 2011 ? These were three separate cases where the three convicts were  Sally Villanueva , Ramon Credo (who was cremated before his remains were brought home, and Elizabeth Batain (whose face was never shown). Sally had an episode in the GMA-7 TV show Magpakailanman,  where her husband was personally interviewed by Mel Tiangco. We never got Sally on the big screen. The husband's side of the story said that his wife was guilty of a frame-up, while Mel herself said, "If the offer is too good to be true, don't take it, or you could end up in the same pickle." Take note that I'm just paraphrasing Mel's words, not saying the words she said.  Reviewing the three drug mules who got arrested, based only on what's available for public viewing on the Internet If we read through the circumstances , this is how they were arrested, proving they weren't a trio: China has brushed aside...

Millennials' Voice I would like to clarify first and foremost that this post isn't an attempt to say that the late Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III's legacy was all bad. Some good things happened. However, let me be clear that it's stupid to say, " We don't need economic cha-cha because of the late Noynoy. " However, let me clear that I decided to write this because of a Facebook post called Millennials' Voice , which wrote this: Did you know that during President Noynoy Aquino's time, the price of oil in the world market was high, between $100 and $110 per barrel. But even with those high prices, gasoline and diesel at local pumps in the country were still relatively affordable.  Under President Duterte, world oil prices went up and down, from a low of $41 to a high of $101 per barrel. The big jump to $101 in 2022 happened because of the war between Russia and Ukraine.   Now, under the current president, world oil prices have gone up again to around $...

Inquirer Gasoline prices have increased again, haven't they?  A few days ago, I wrote  why #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba's view of gas prices is questionable . Today, I feel like writing this after several complaints on Facebook. I would like to create a follow-up post. People are complaining too much without understanding the real reason why some countries have lower prices of gasoline. Real talk. We need to talk about economic policies,  and  of course, please do a study on supply-demand analysis  on supply chain management . Let's examine the complaints made by Bulatlat Bulatlat Here's a chart from Bulatlat that compares the increase in prices of gasoline between the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It's always problematic when people ignore simple economics. It's funny, but Bulatlat mentions this on their website: Note also how expensive our diesel and gasoline products are compared to those of our ASEAN neighbors. The estimated common price today of diesel in...

International State College of the Philippines Today is Flor Contempacion Day , and rallies are expected. However, whether it's Flor's death anniversary or not, rallies are expected for the wrongest of reasons. I would like to address this photo from the International State College of the Philippines' Facebook page. The demands here are rather clunky and stupid. We have the following demands that would naturally clash with each other, such as: No to the oil deregulation law while demanding lower oil prices. This is simply ignoring the basic fundamentals of economics, namely the law of supply and demand . They say that oil companies are greedy for gain. These rallyists probably don't really understand the difference between revenues and profits . Let's understand the Oil Deregulation Law  The Oil Deregulation Law, or the Republic Act No. 8479 , passed on February 10, 1998, under the late Fidel Valdez Ramos. Here's how the liberalization works: CHAPTER II  LIBERAL...