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Pedestrians First measures walkability for babies, toddlers, their caregivers, and everyone in cities.

Source: Pedestrians First

Analysis and Opinion By Joe America My sense is that Filipinos will be ready to get serious about building a nation after having wallowed in a serial psycho-drama for six years. A transition from cronyism, dynasties, corruption, and incompetence to a vibrant, progressive nation on the way to decency and enrichment will take a little […]

The transition from Duterte to Yellow

Source:

https://www.pagibigfund.gov.ph/Membership_ModifiedPagIBIG2.html

The MP2 Savings is a special savings facility with a 5-year maturity, designed for Pag-IBIG Fund members
who wish to save more and earn even higher dividends, in addition to their Pag-IBIG Regular Savings.

The program is also open to pensioners and retirees who were former Pag-IBIG Fund members.

The HMDF invests the funds collected from the Pag-IBIG MP2 mostly in its housing loan program, as well as its short-term loan programs. Funds grow through interest payments from borrowers. The rest is invested in corporate bonds, time deposits, and government securities.

Who can save under MP2?

You can open a Pag-IBIG MP2 account if you belong to any of these groups:

• Active Pag-IBIG Fund Members;
• and Former Pag-IBIG Fund Members with other sources of monthly income and/or Pensioners, regardless of age, with at least 24 monthly savings prior to retirement.

Why you should open a Pag IBIG MP2 account?

MP2 enrollment is an optional savings account and one should have a compelling reason to join. Here are a few good reasons to apply and start saving under the Pag-ibig MP2 program.

1. Relatively high dividend rates.

The primary reason to save under MP2 is its relatively high annual dividend rates.

In the past few years, MP2 dividend rates have grown steadily, averaging at 7.65% from 2016 to 2018.

Although the pandemic would probably negatively affect the current dividends this is still expected to beat the rates of commercial papers

2. Relatively affordable and flexible way to save.

The MP2 has a minimum of only least Php 500 as an initial deposit and as a monthly deposit should you decide to remit every month thereafter.

It makes saving money easy on the budget, especially for low-income earners. 500 a month roughly translates to walking a daily short jeepney ride or tricycle ride.

The MP2 also offers flexibility on how often you want to save.

The three options are Monthly, Annually, or Lump Sum

3. The Pagibig MP2 savings are Government-guaranteed and tax-free earnings.

The Pagibig MP2 savings are private sector rates for a government guaranteed investment vehicle. You essentially get the best of both worlds.

The primary caveat is that the earnings of the savings are not guaranteed since they depend on the net income of the HDMF.

4. The Pagibig MP2 program allows you to make saving a habit.

The Pagibig MP2 is like a time deposit but with higher interest and harder to withdraw. This makes it extremely good for creating a saving habit.  

Analysis and Opinion By Karl Garcia Let us look Philippine industrialization — after our recent look at agriculture.   ASEAN INTEGRATION ASEAN integration was a measure intended for a level playing field in terms of development. The trade war showed us the ugliness of imposing high tariffs all in the name of protectionism. The said trade […]

Philippine Industrialization

Analysis and Opinion By Karl Garcia We want to save this planet but at the same time we are destroying it: 1. We tried to tackle air pollution with so many accords and so many protocols. We have China notwithstanding her use of giant air purifiers made by Dutch inventors. They still have the worst […]

Regenerative Development

Analysis and Opinion By Irineo B. R. Salazar Will Villanueva figuratively struck me with his comment to my article “Towards FILIPINO modernity”: “The Philippines is next-door neighbor to the Garden of Eden, what we may call Ayala Alabang Gilid, not Village, a cardboard and tape settlement that amazingly has a long shelf life, unable to […]

How can the Philippines get out of the mud?

Analysis and Opinion By Karl Garcia We are known for people power, but in most cases it is like an event following a spontaneous combustion due to several reasons like the fraudulent elections during Marcos and the perceived kangaroo Erap impeachment court not wanting to open an envelope. Power to the people is in full […]

Institutionalizing People Power

Whether writing, directing, acting, or producing, Hawke spends most of his waking hours thinking about storytelling. His productivity is unique among his acting peers. After lunch, we walked around the corner to his office, where he was preparing to direct a film adaptation (written with Shelby Gaines) of Tennessee Williams’s lyrical political fantasia “Camino Real.” Set in a barbarous Spanish-speaking backwater, the play is a paean to nonconformity, told, as Williams put it, “in the spirit of the American comic strip.” Trapped within the town’s ancient walls, various literary figures—Casanova, Lord Byron, Don Quixote, Madame Gautier—and Kilroy, a former boxing champ and eternal Punchinello, contend with illusion and desperation. In 1999, Hawke played Kilroy in a memorable production, directed by Nicholas Martin, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the experience stayed with him. “It’s like sticking your finger in an electric socket and having it shoot through the audience,” he said. “The way Williams deals with iconography and sexuality and self-hatred and self-love—it’s just the most incredible bit of performance I’ve ever had. I’ve been chasing that feeling and wanting to give it to an audience.”

Source: The Many Faces of Ethan Hawke | The New Yorker

Good advice. All of them

The future will never provide the reassurance you seek from it. As the ancient Greek and Roman Stoics understood, much of our suffering arises from attempting to control what is not in our control. And the main thing we try but fail to control – the seasoned worriers among us, anyway – is the future. We want to know, from our vantage point in the present, that things will be OK later on. But we never can. (This is why it’s wrong to say we live in especially uncertain times. The future is always uncertain; it’s just that we’re currently very aware of it.)

It’s freeing to grasp that no amount of fretting will ever alter this truth. It’s still useful to make plans. But do that with the awareness that a plan is only ever a present-moment statement of intent, not a lasso thrown around the future to bring it under control. The spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti said his secret was simple: “I don’t mind what happens.” That needn’t mean not trying to make life better, for yourself or others. It just means not living each day anxiously braced to see if things work out as you hoped.

Source: Oliver Burkeman’s last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian