Equity

Human Development and Wealth Distribution Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund Agadir, November 1, 2010 As prepared for delivery It is a great pleasure to be here today, to talk about this all-important topic of human welfare and economic stability.

– “More unequal countries have worse social indicators, a poorer human development record, and higher degrees of economic insecurity and anxiety. In too many countries, inequality increased and real wages stagnated—failing to keep up with productivity—over the past few decades. Ominously, inequality in the United States was back at its pre-Great Depression levels on the…

The Palace claimed yesterday that the Aquino administration had exorcised the controversial P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of so-called ghost-family recipients and that beneficiaries in the program are guaranteed to be among the poorest of the Filipino poor while expressing confidence yesterday Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, who will implement the program, will…

Much has been written, for and against, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Arroyo government that President Aquino has decided to extend as a key component of his administration’s anti-poverty thrust, with an outlay of P21.2 billion in the 2011 national budget.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

THE P21 BILLION budget for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps has passed the House of Representatives. This program for conditional cash transfers or CCTs now awaits full Congress approval. It is an ambitious project that has expanded rapidly.

IT IS quite obvious, from the way it seeks to double the magnitude of the previous administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, that the P-Noy government has decided this will be its immediate response to poverty. Whether conditional cash transfers will also define its strategic approach to this nagging social problem is not yet…

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives will insert special provisions in the P1.64-trillion national budget to oversee the implementation of the Aquino administration’s controversial P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program next year, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said yesterday.

Last Sept. 29, Meralco announced the strong likelihood of its exceeding the company’s core net income target of P11 billion for 2010. Set on top of its reported P7-billion income for 2009, this is already well beyond a whopping 60-percent profit growth that’s sure to signal a lot more happier days for the power firm.

MANILA, Philippines – Opposition congressmen want to meddle in the implementation of President Aquino’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program after failing to convince the House of Representatives to cut the funds by P6 billion.

The combined net earnings of listed firms in the first half of 2010 increased by 20.1 percent to P232.2 billion from P193.36 billion year-on-year while consolidated revenues of listed companies also rose by 20.1 percent, reaching P1.57 trillion as compared with P1.31 trillion in the previous year.

Food manufacturer CDO-Foodsphere Inc. has teamed up with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a non-profit corporate foundation established by prominent businessmen led by PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, for a supplemental feeding program to save indigent children out of malnutrition in a pilot site in the northern part of Metro Manila. Odyssey Foundation…

In its Global Gender Gap 2010 Report, released last week, the World Economic Forum ranked the Philippines 9th among nearly 200 countries in gender equity. The Philippines is also Asia’s highest-ranking country (followed by Sri Lanka at 16, and Mongolia at 27). It ranks 1st on both education and health among Asian countries, and boasts…

The combined net income of listed firms grew a fifth in the first six months because of the strong performance of the economy, according to the local bourse. In a statement, the Philippine Stock Exchange(PSE) said the combined earnings of listed companies jumped 20.1 percent to P232.2 billion from P193.36 billion during the same six-month…

There were many blasts from the past last week in the first budget interpellation by Congress-woman Gloria Arroyo (Pampanga, second district) since she moved from the Palace to the House of Representatives. The last time she raised questions on the national budget was in the Senate in 1997, before she won the vice presidency the…

Unless the economy grows at 7 percent or higher  annually, it will be hard for P-Noy to bring down the country’s poverty rates to a more manageable level of say, less than 20 percent by the time he leaves Malacañang in 2016. It was very high at 33 percent when the country’s poverty incidence was…

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is renewing its pitch for a P21-billion program to benefit the “poorest of the poor,” appealing to Congress to keep the funds intact.

The BIR has no choice on the matter. According to former BIR Chief Jojo Bunag, the law mandates the publication of the list of taxpayers. The “list” was the subject of our conversation over breakfast when I saw Jojo at the Tuesday Club.

FORMER President turned Rep. Gloria Arroyo of the Second District of Pampanga has expressed opposition on the government’s planned massive expansion of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, a poverty reduction initiative that started under her administration in 2008. The former president was referring to the CCT initiative, which provides cash assistance to extremely poor…

MANILA, Philippines – It’s payback time. Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo played out her role as opposition leader in grilling administration officials over their budget proposal.

Last Wednesday, when I reported on the publication of the list of top 500 taxpayers, I made the comment that Bobby Ongpin was only at 306th and paid P2.8 million in income taxes. I did not imply Mr Ongpin was evading his taxes but was merely wondering why movie starlet Rufa Mae Quinto, 133rd, paid…

According to Forbes maga-zine, the richest Filipinos and their respective networths are: 1. Henry Sy Sr., $5 billion; 2. Lucio Tan, $2.1 billion; 3. John Gocongwei, $1.5 billion; 4. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, $1.2 billion; 5. Andrew Tan, $1.2 billion; 6. Tony Tan Caktiong, $980 million; 7. Enrique Razon, $975 million; 8. Beatrice Campos, $840…

We played a new game at the Tuesday Club yesterday. It is called Can You Believe What Your Favorite Tycoon Paid in Taxes? Tony Lopez brought the latest issue of his magazine, Biz News Asia, whose cover story is entitled Heroes, or the list of the top 500 taxpayers based on 2008. Tony said he…

OSLO—The heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), along with other leaders, today called for a broad international commitment to a jobs-focused policy response to the global economic downturn. At a historic conference in Oslo—hosted by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway and co-sponsored by the IMF and ILO—leaders…

Former Social Security System (SSS) president Romulo Neri, along with some top executives of the agency allegedly appropriated for themselves bonuses and other incentives totaling more than P127 million over three years based on data provided the Senate in relation to its current probe into excessive compensations given to officials of government-owned and -controlled corporations…

MANILA, Philippines – Four board members of state insurer Social Security System (SSS) made a killing from the P78.9-million sale of shares of stock of Philex Mining, all of which were never turned over to the pension fund, it was revealed during yesterday’s Senate hearing on the alleged excessive salaries and perks enjoyed by the…

Malacañang on Monday acknowledged a warning made by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and said that it would focus its economic development program on building and expanding the country’s middle-class. “The reality is we have not really expanded our middle class considerably. And this doesn’t compare favorably with the records of our neighboring countries in…

New ADB study recommends better wages MIDDLE-class Filipino families with a large number of household members are at risk of falling into poverty if the government fails to create policies that improve wages, education and healthcare, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study has warned. In the study, “The Rise of Asia’s Middle Class,” the Manila-based…

Noticing the gap between economic growth and poverty reduction, the World Bank urged the Philippines to work for a more inclusive growth that benefits the poor.

NEW DELHI — They are every marketeer’s dream and the future of the world economy — now, Asia’s aspirational middle classes have been laid bare in a major new study focusing on their astonishing growth.