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TJ Palanca

Philippines

    On the News: No Double Standard Here

    NO DOUBLE STANDARD - The World Economic Forum published its Global Gender Gap Report 2013, which assesses the level of gender equality in different countries. The Philippines is ranked 5th highest in terms of gender equality, an improvement from past years, and the highest in Asia. Of the four aspects, the country performed well in terms of educational attainment and health, but was performed poorly in terms of economic and political participation.

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    On the UAAP Season 76: DLSU vs UST Finals Game 1

    The UST Growling Tigers stole the first round of the UAAP 76 Men’s Basketball Finals, at 73-72. (Photo: inboundpass/Flickr, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0)

    What a heartbreaking loss! After recovering from a 17-point deficit, the DLSU Green Archers struggled to make the winning basket in their finals matchup against the UST Growling Tigers. To come to terms with it, I’ve tried to analyze the outcome of the game the way I know best: through data. Let’s take a look at the numbers on the hard court.

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    On the News: The Philippines is hitting the jackpot, and the cash is here to stay

    This week in news: The Philippines posts large gaming revenue gains from recent resort and casino developments along Manila Bay, and the risk of capital flight remains relatively low amid prudent government finance and capital controls. Read more about them in this post.

    New developments along the Manila bay, like Solaire in Pasay City, have boosted Philippine gaming revenues to significant levels, and more are likely to come as a large PAGCOR gaming complex is being built. (Photo: Flickr/Renzelle Mae Abasolo, CC-BY-2.0)

    I’ve decided to restart my previous series highlighting notable pieces of news that don’t really make it into the headlines, but (at least for myself) merit attention and interest. It’ll mostly be about the Philippines, business, and economics, and a little humor in between.

    Amidst the pork-barrel scam, its ensuing antics, the Zamboanga crisis, and a new revelation regarding the Corona impeachment, there are at least some things that Filipinos can be happy about: Our investments near the Manila bay have actually brought a significant amount of gambling revenue to our shores, and the economy is unlikely to be affected by the emerging markets crunch.

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    On the Effectiveness of Higher Sin Taxes

    UPDATE (Sept 16 2014)

    This post has been updated with 2014 Q2 data.

    UPDATE (Dec 11 2013)

    This post only uses data for the first two quarters of 2012. I’ve updated it with the latest 3rd quarter national accounts data in a quick new post, so you might want to check that out afterwards.

    Around 1% of household expenditures go toward purchasing cigarettes. (Photo: Flickr/Bachmont, CC BY 2.0)

    HOW EFFECTIVE ARE HIGHER SIN TAXES? Last year, President Aquino signed the Sin Tax Bill, raising the effective tax burden on sin products from 26% to 63% within 5 years. It had two goals: (1) raise revenue for the government, and (2) reduce cigarette consumption and negative externality. It’s now been half a year since the new taxes were implemented, and it’s a good time to assess how it’s been achieving its goals so far.

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    On Buying from Abroad through Philpost Express Mail Service (EMS)

    Ordering online from the Philippines is a difficult journey through inaccurate web trackers, inactive phone numbers, uncoordinated post offices, and high tax levies. However, if you really want the product and can’t get it locally, then a little grit, persistence, and information should let you wrench your package out of the system faster than usual.

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    On What Manila Could Have Been

    After Dan Brown, in his new novel titled Inferno, summarily compared the Philippine capital to the “gates of hell,” and caused quite a stir. MMDA Chairman Tolentino expressed disdain in an open letter and Philippine Bishops ‘scolded’ the author. I can only help but think about the state of this expansive metropolis.

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    On Ngrams - Philippine History Quantified in Books

    I’ve been messing around with the Google Ngram Viewer which was highlighted in a previous video post. If you don’t already know, ngrams are basically charts that display how often a word or phrase appears in Google’s entire book collection. It’s a rough but quick and easy way to find out what people were writing about in various time periods.

    I’ve been digging around for interesting results on Philippine history and this is what I found. These range from revealing censorship in the Marcos period, proving that Rizal really was the spark of the Philippine revolution, to a weird time in the 1980s when people were crazy about the Barong Tagalog.

    I have another set coming up soon on the Philippine economy, so watch out for that if this interests you. :D

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