It is speculative and even pointless to argue about whether the unprecedented total lockdown of the economy which we undertook to stem the onslaught of the feared COVID-19 pandemic was the right move to make or not. True, some countries, notably Sweden, chose the path of herd immunity (without lockdown), with results not too different from those that chose total lockdown.
16 June 2020 – MBC hosted a digital forum with Dr. Victor Calanog, Head of Commercial Real Estate Economics of Moody’s Analytics (New York) to discuss how the US economy and real estate has been affected by and is recovering from post-COVID. He and participants discussed parallels and effects with Philippine property.
The undersigned organizations express their profound disappointment over the verdict against Rappler’s Maria Ressa and former writer Rey Santos Jr. It is a big blow to press freedom especially given serious constitutional questions on whether the law is applicable at all.
MBC organized a briefing on government’s COVID-19 spending based on the research of the Citizen’s Budget Tracker project for embassies and international partners. Ken Abante, a former DOF chief of staff, leads the project and gave the briefing.
Despite COVID-19, private schools had hoped for the normal June start to the 2020-21 school year. Not before Aug. 24, the Department of Education (DepEd) declared in April. Only after a vaccine is available, President Duterte decreed on May 25. He reconsidered on May 28, after a DepEd appeal for support of its “blended learning” plan; an August start may be possible. Playing safe, the Senate approved a bill on June 1 permitting the president to start school beyond the August deadline prescribed by law.