Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

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...

It's a shame, really, that I didn't think about writing this article on OFWs again. I got somewhat fixated on the  gas prices , and my mind was exhausted. I thought about how I even asked, " Will #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba economics even lower down the prices of gasoline? " It's one thing that the Philippines has been overly reliant  on the Middle East for gasoline. What I overlooked was the OFW phenomenon again . It was so easy to hype on the OFW phenomenon, like what happened with the Filipino nurse, Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, way back in 2015. The OFW hype would've compounded the Philippine economy's "reliance model" to a whole new level of bottleneck!  Analyzing the bottleneck of relying on the Middle East It's already a known fact that several OFWs are sent to the Middle East. I even remember running across a presumably retired dancer who would be 64 today, on Facebook. The guy actually bragged about how he was a dancer at the Excelsior Hotel in...

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...

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...