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EDILBERTO C. DE JESUS

[ANALYSIS] The costs of school closures

May 13, 2020

When measuring education losses arising from COVID-19, countries like Australia, France and the UK calculate hard cash losses from the drop in foreign student enrollment. They also worry about the erosion in the international renown of their universities and the legacy of their global roster of graduates. While we do earn revenue from foreign students, we cannot yet claim heavy losses from a decline in whatever "soft power" our universities contribute.

CIELITO F. HABITO

The looming OFW challenge

May 12, 2020

"Remittance flows from abroad are literally a major economic lifeline," assert professors Alvin Ang and Jeremaiah Opiniano in a recent policy brief from the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development. Disrupt this lifeline, and we're bound to have a major problem - and analysts have already warned of the danger to this lifeline that had been building up even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. "This lifelin... backstop(s) whatever public funds the Philippine government is now unloading to meet urgent survival and social protection needs of Filipinos," the authors point out. The imminent drop in this vitally important inflow is but one of several factors that will shrink the country's resource picture this year, just when it has had to expend extraordinarily large sums to deal with the crisis.

EDILBERTO C. DE JESUS

Launching the ARK

May 09, 2020

Business leaders have stepped up in their individual and corporate capacity in the campaign against COVID-19. They responded quickly to cushion the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) impact on their employees, including contractuals compensated on a no-work-no-pay basis, suppliers, and customers. Acutely sensitive to business and economic signals, they recognized the resumption of "normal" life as urgent and began dealing more directly with the pandemic.

CIELITO F. HABITO

Shaping the new normal

May 08, 2020

"New normal" is a phrase we're constantly hearing these days, it's beginning to sound like a cliche. But it reflects how everyone is expecting lasting changes in various facets of our daily lives in the aftermath of the worldwide contagion-induced lockdown none of us has seen happen before.

CIELITO F. HABITO

Worst time for red tape

May 05, 2020

My daughter told me that her American in-laws received their government's COVID-19 cash assistance in their US bank accounts without doing anything. Her husband, who has been working and living here with her, received a check mailed to his permanent US address, as he did not register a bank account with the US Social Security System. The Philippines is not America, of course, but suffering Filipinos who are made to go through various hurdles to apply for (with no guarantee of receiving) whatever cash assistance government will give them, would be even more agitated to know this.

CESAR V. PURISIMA

A promise to keep dreaming better

May 02, 2020

Former secretary of tourism Ramon "Mon" Jimenez Jr. was a titan of the Philippine advertising industry, a highly esteemed and successful Cabinet secretary, and a great friend and colleague to many. Above all, he was a loving and faithful husband to Abby whom he now joins in heaven, and a doting father to his daughters Nina and Sassa, as well as to his dogs. I first met Mon at Better Dog, a behavioral school for dogs. Mon was an absolute joy to be around; he had a way with people (and dogs) that showed how a heart could be filled with so much love for others.

CIELITO F. HABITO

Is ECQ worth it?

May 01, 2020

Patience is beginning to wear thin, I'm sure, for most of us in areas where enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is further extended to May 15. As the economic costs of ECQ promise to add up to astronomical levels on an economy-wide basis as days and weeks pass, one might ask if the benefits of the virtual lockdown have justified the costs. Intrigued by this question, Dr. Antong Victorio, a long-time economist friend from Davao who established his professional career in the New Zealand academe, recently reached out to me. What benefits does the ECQ bring?

EDILBERTO C. DE JESUS

[ANALYSIS] Going back to school - and the challenges ahead

May 01, 2020

After the premature end of school year 2019-20, schools wanted a June start for the incoming school year. UP's Institute of Resilience recommended December 2020. The Commission on Higher Education decided it would be September for face-to-face classes and August for those with "flexible" systems. The decision, focused on health risks, has serious financial consequences. COCOPEA (Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations), representing about 2,500 institutions, estimates revenue losses at P55 billion by August and P142 billion by December. These are staggering figures, considering that a survey of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) reporting that only about 20% of its members can meet their payroll costs beyond mid-May probably reflects the state of the sector.

CHING JORGE

PH education and the new normal

April 28, 2020

If last year's enrollment figures are to be a basis, the Philippine education system will be expecting around 27 million students to enroll in the Basic Education System in the coming school year. With the early closure of the school year in March, the enhanced community quarantine in effect, and the still unclear future that the COVID-19 pandemic will bring, the Department of Education (DepEd) and our millions of learners are facing enormous challenges.

CIELITO F. HABITO

Giveaway oil, giveaway loans?

April 28, 2020

Something strange happened last week. For the first time in history, crude oil actually traded at nearly -$40 per barrel. Yes, negative $40! That means that oil sellers actually paid someone to take a barrel (about 42 gallons, or 159 liters) of crude oil off their hands. And did you know that some central banks had already adopted a negative interest rate policy, meaning, you'd have to pay your bank to hold your deposits, rather than earn interest from the money you effectively lent them? With the world seeing negative oil prices and negative interest rates, we must be in rather unusual times - and indeed we are.