I have been focused on the rioting in Paris lately...

kaya konti lang ang posts ko re GLORIAGATE recently. ;)

-- Lito Banayo on Arroyo's "reforms"

Funny how everything they do in this government is made in the guise of "reforms".

Because they have sustained criminally huge fiscal deficits during the first part of her term, and borrowed criminally huge sums both locally and abroad to finance these deficits, they vowed to undertake difficult and painful financial "reforms".

Read the rest here. We keep hearing na matagal nang masama ang ekonomiya natin under erap. Well, if that's the case then she should have instituted reforms immediately after edsa dos in 2001 instead of focusing her energies on destroying the opposition like ping lacson, and preparing for the 2004 elections. but maybe the economy wasn't all that bad during erap's time, and it was GMA who made it worse by borrowing heavily from overseas to finance her presidential election campaign.

-- Jake Macasaet: Jobs will be lost with higher pay

PRESIDENT Arroyo’s call for Congress to enact a law raising wages will definitely wipe out the few jobs she has so far created. The cost-push that results from the plan will raise prices even higher.

Up to this writing, we do not yet know what the numbers are although we have heard of government officials talking about an increase – by operation of law – of P125 a day.

Compliance with a new higher mandated wage is difficult. Worse than that, the proposal will leave many companies hopelessly uncompetitive.

When shortages come about as a result of being uncompetitive, the consumers’ appetite for imported and smuggled goods will be whipped up some more.

The result is a drain on foreign exchange reserves without increasing production.

The stupidity of the plan is the refusal to recognize the fact that more than 90 percent of business operations are small.

They will be hit hardest by the new proposed higher mandated wages. The option is to cut the number of workers or shift to a two or three-day work week. Or simply close shop.

RTWT.

Malaya Editorial: The liars are at it again

Told ya this EVAT thing is a bad idea. Alam ni Arroyo na mahihirapan ang tao kapag tinaasan niya ang buwis. But what do you expect, she borrowed money heavily overseas during 2001-2004 -- kaya lumaki ang utang natin -- para lang "manalo" sa eleksyon, and now we taxpayers are the ones who have to pay for her reckless borrowing and spending.

More here: Big business scores GMA’s lack of direction

-- Bryan Preston: A duplicitous Fatwa that would make Bill Clinton proud

-- Why aren't bloggers more upset with U.N. efforts to regulate the Internet? Hindi maapektuhan rin tayo nito, lalo na if we have a paranoid fake president like Arroyo still in Malacanang?

More from Foreign Policy: Battling for Control of the Internet