Indonesian officials said Indonesia’s main exports, such as agricultural products and timber, will continue to face high non-tariff barriers in the form of quality standards, while Japanese high-tech imports will be able to enter the Indonesian market with lower import taxes.

Pulling a 21-foot effigy of a sinking ship, members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan marched from Tandang Sora Avenue to just beyond EVER Commonwealth to join other anti-Arroyo groups in a “People’s SONA”. The counter-SONA described the state of the nation as “a sinking ship with the captain even robbing its passengers”.

New studies by the University of the Philippines - Center for Labor Justice (UP CLJ) and the Bangkok and Manila-based policy think tank Focus on the Global South revealed
Arroyo’s slow progress towards achieving key targets on economic growth, poverty reduction, and job generation.

In a metro-wide survey conducted by IBON Foundation on July 12-13, 87.33% of respondents agree with the proposals to scrap the VAT on petroleum products.

While the Big Three oil firms in the Philippines claim losses due to under-recoveries, their mother companies abroad continue to report record billions in profits, according to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation.

There is a growing clamor for the removal of the VAT on petroleum products to ease local prices, especially since it adds from P4 to P6 peso to pump prices. Just recently, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines echoed the same demand. But the Arroyo government flatly rejected it. What is it with the VAT that the Arroyo government is so adamant at rejecting all proposals to remove this form of taxation on petroleum products?

BY JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 15, May 18-24, 2008
Hurting from the continuous oil price hikes, militant labor leaders echoed their sentiments along the streets of Quezon City during the recent transport strike. All of them were clamoring for changes. All of them were fighting for a better life. As they cheered [...]

Analysis | Time and again, the specter of inflation and factory closures are being raised every time a wage increase is in the offing. And it is terribly insulting to workers that this is again being raised even if the wage-and-allowance hike being floated for workers in Metro Manila is a mere pittance at P20 per day.

One only needs to look at government data to see the basis for a substantial wage hike, and one only needs to do simple mathematical computations to prove the anti-poor character of the proposed 10-percent wage hike for government employees.

BY DANILO ARAÑA ARAO
Unlike in the past, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration and a segment of the business [...]

A recently-signed free trade agreement between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would grant Japanese corporations unhampered access to the region’s markets, prohibiting ASEAN members to protect their own economy while allowing Japan to protect its domestic advantages.
According to IBON research head Sonny Africa, the signing of the Agreement on Comprehensive Economic [...]

The JPEPA can be best described in three words: unequal, defeatist and destructive. Recent government propaganda, however, has been trying to depict the JPEPA as an indispensable agreement– even as the country is currently reeling from a food crisis brought about by the same neoliberal framework that JPEPA was designed from.

Various anti-Arroyo groups will come together in protest once again, but this time, the focus will be the economy.
Groups aligned with the United Opposition (UNO), the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Edsa 3 Coalition, Laban ng Masa, the Be not Afraid Movement and other Opposition forces will converge at Plaza Miranda in Manila at 4:00 pm [...]

“The consumers should not be left at the mercy of the free market. There should be at least some protection from skyrocketing prices during these times of crisis.”

The presence of a rice cartel is only part of the monopoly control of land and capital in Philippine rice production, trade, and marketing and aggravated by neoliberal policies adhered to by the Philippine government.

Bayan expects the crisis to worsen and oil and rice prices to increase as the government continues to implement the same flawed policies that helped worsen the crisis.

The World Bank said growth in the Philippines will slow down to 5.9 this year. It expressed concern that the strong performance last year (7.9 percent GDP) has not reduced poverty. (Read the report’s executive summary, introduction and the Philippine section.)

Below is the introduction of the World Bank’s “East Asia & Pacific Update” released April 2, 2008.
Introduction
Despite falling growth in exports to the US, rising volatility in global financial markets, high and volatile international commodity prices, and an increasingly clouded outlook for the world economy, economic activity in most East Asian economies continued at strong [...]

Below is the executive summary of the World Bank’s “East Asia & Pacific Update” released April 2, 1008.

Executive Summary
Last year Developing East Asia recorded its highest growth rate in over a decade (10.2 percent), capping a decade of improvements following its home-grown financial crisis in 1998.1 Yet this is hardly a time for celebration, but [...]