The population in Metro Manila in 2012 was about 12.2 million. Assuming five per family, that means we have 2.4 million families, and the number of poor families was therefore 2.6 percent of 2.4 million, or 63,000 families.
How can 63,000 poor families generate daily ridership of at least 540,000 passengers a day for the MRT, and 560,000 passengers a day for the LRT1 (I don’t know what it is for LRT2)? Please.
In other words, the majority of the riders in the rail transit system are not poor. Keeping fares down subsidizes the nonpoor more than it helps the poor. If we want to subsidize the poor, charging everybody low fares is not the answer. And remember that the subsidy is being paid by Filipinos everywhere, who are probably poorer than their Metro Manila brethren. Also, remember that the fare increases will only reduce the total subsidy by P2 billion, or only one-sixth of it, according to estimates. So the Metro Manilans are still the favored offspring.
P-Noy, in his 2013 Sona, said, “Wala tayong balak magpamana ng problema sa susunod sa atin.” He is not going to export the problem to his successor. And he is not going to favor Metro Manilans at the expense of the rest of the Filipinos. Bully for him. I wish he would do it more often. In this, he is acting like a statesman, in contrast to the other politicians who, conscious of the Metro Manila vote, are standing on their heads trying to justify an unjustifiable situation.
via Metro Manilans are the favored offspring | Inquirer Opinion.
Why the MRT Fare Hike is a step towards the right direction
Need Ideas. The MRT is the/a Government’s Subsidy to all the companies located at Makati Taguig and Ortigas while probably 70 of the work force lives in places as far as cavite/bulacan/pampanga/batangas/qc/caloocan/paranaque/muntinlupa.
The same people who bash the fare hike are probably against the concentration of wealth/business in metro manila. If we want to spread the wealth then we have to dismantle the hidden subsidies that support the primacy of Makati/Mandaluyon/Taguig Business Districts.
My Two Cents
As an aside I really need to learn to write in long form and well thought out essays. This like most of my one paragraph post could well be long form pieces except I have no time and skill to do such pieces yet 
How $50 Oil Changes Almost Everything – Bloomberg
Emphasis mine. I have to remember this on judging the performance of the next admin. If the price of oil hovers at 40 USD per barrel and our GDP growth is not anywhere near 7.6% then the next admin is probably failing.
If the price falls past $39 a barrel, we could see it go as low as $30 a barrel, said Walter Zimmerman, chief technical strategist for United-ICAP in Jersey City, New Jersey, who projected the 2014 drop.
“Where prices bottom will be based on an emotional decision,” Zimmerman said. “It won’t be based on the supply-demand fundamentals, so it’s guaranteed to be overdone to the downside.”
The biggest winner would be the Philippines, whose economic growth would accelerate to 7.6 percent on average over the next two years if oil fell to $40, while Russia would contract 2.5 percent over the same period, according to an Oxford Economics Ltd.’s December analysis of 45 national economies.
via How $50 Oil Changes Almost Everything – Bloomberg.
CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Why Experts Buy Generic
Need to show this to the mrs.
The overall pattern is clear: those who are less knowledgeable are more likely to buy brand names, presumably because they feel that there is quality difference in doing so. Those who are more knowledgeable are more likely to go with generic equivalents, because they feel comfortable making their own judgements about quality–and then going with the lower price.
via CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Why Experts Buy Generic.
After New Era, it's harder than ever to mock Russell Brand as a hypocrite | Antony Loewenstein | Comment is free | The Guardian
Political success for society’s invisible souls is rare. So when US investor Westbrook Partners announced last week that it had withdrawn from evicting families at the New Era estate in East London, it was cause for celebration. Instead of building expensive properties, the company sold its development to Dolphin Square Charitable Foundation, an affordable housing organisation. People who faced skyrocketing rents now have security and hope before Christmas.
British writer and comedian Russell Brand was key to this victory. His support of the campaigners on the ground and on social media led The Independent to describe New Era as “Proof that [his] revolution may actually be working”.
via After New Era, it’s harder than ever to mock Russell Brand as a hypocrite | Antony Loewenstein | Comment is free | The Guardian.
Why we need a factcheck.org Philippines or How I will improve the FOI bill!!
I have spent about 30 minutes trying to find a video of Miriam Defensor Santiago’s interview where she promised to have herself shot if something happened. Then there is another video interviewing her after and she saying I lied afterwards laughing maniacally.
Then there are the gaffes of senators and lawmakers about one issue and another.
There are the swipes of cabinet officials against other people.
There are the tantrums thrown by Presidents and other public officials.
There are more importantly the public policy speeches of government officials/politicians/ other actors of the political sphere.
The FactCheck.org Philippines is a step towards the Philippines that is uses facts to make decisions. It is a step towards true democracy, not one dominated by the so called bobotante.
If we cannot even take note/archive/make use of things in the public domain what gives us any chance of using the voluminous data that an FOI bill will produce.
The FOI bill must also have a component for keeping into record and transcribing and exposing via the internet all the speeches, interviews, videos produced in local television. This is one of the way that we can make the FOI bill more useful.
The Top 10 Movies of 2014 «
Wesley Morris has Norte, the End of History as his film of 2014.
1. Norte, the End of History
Lav Diaz’s contemplation of life after someone else’s death taxis a runway for the first 35 of its 250 majestic minutes. Once it takes off, you can’t believe you’re flying. You don’t want to land. The story, set in the Philippines, of a man wrongly imprisoned for murder, the wife he’s left behind, and the moral rot of the real killer, is like a work of philosophical and spiritual origami — Dostoyevsky with human levitation and mood lighting. The movie roves wastelands; it climbs to heaven. With each passing scene, Diaz finds new ways of compounding the visual and emotional scope of the film, reaching a degree of artistry that provokes an involuntary response. When it ended the first time I saw it, I stood up, with tears in my eyes, and clapped. The second time, I just sat in my seat, awed by what Diaz had achieved, and perplexed as to how. On neither occasion did I feel like I had simply gone to a movie. I had answered the call of God.
via The Top 10 Movies of 2014 «.
Liberal Party eyes Roxas-Poe tandem | Inquirer News
In spite of his low survey numbers, Roxas has “worked really hard to serve the nation and has always excelled in all his endeavors long before he became a favorite target of demolition attacks by political foes,” Sarmiento said.
“He has been a congressman, a senator and a member of the Cabinet in different capacities and has excelled in all these positions. He is one of President’s Aquino’s most reliable troubleshooters in nearly all aspects of governance because he is an outstanding problem-solver,” he said.
“Secretary Roxas will be very effective in managing the nation and in pursuing the reforms and programs that were started by President Aquino while Senator Poe can be the rallying figure for our people to unite and work together in building our nation,” he added.
via Liberal Party eyes Roxas-Poe tandem | Inquirer News.
Will Erap endorse Roxas in 2016? 'It depends'
Estrada had nothing but warm words and praise for Roxas, who once served as his trade secretary.
Estrada said Roxas, who was at the event, pushed for e-commerce during his stint as trade chief, paving the way for the business process outsourcing (BPO) boom in the country.
“He created thousands of jobs,” Estrada told a crowd of informal settler families.
But even before anyone could imagine Estrada raising Roxas’ hand in the lead-up to the 2016 elections, the political powerhouse added: “Hindi ako nangangampanya. Nagsasabi lang ako ng totoo (I’m not campaigning here. I’m just telling the truth).”
via Will Erap endorse Roxas in 2016? ‘It depends’.
The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality – Quartz
The new middlemen
There are only two requirements for an on-demand service economy to work, and neither is an iPhone. First, the market being addressed needs to be big enough to scale—food, laundry, taxi rides. Without that, it’s just a concierge service for the rich rather than a disruptive paradigm shift, as a venture capitalist might say. Second, and perhaps more importantly, there needs to be a large enough labor class willing to work at wages that customers consider affordable and that the middlemen consider worthwhile for their profit margins.
Uber was founded in 2009, in the immediate aftermath of the worst financial crisis in a generation. As the ride-sharing app has risen, so too have income disparity and wealth inequality in the United States as a whole and in San Francisco in particular. Recent research by the Brookings Institution found that of any US city, San Francisco had the largest increase in inequality between 2007 and 2012. The disparity in San Francisco as of 2012, as measured (pdf) by a city agency, was in fact more pronounced than inequality in Mumbai (pdf).
Of course, there are huge differences between the two cities. Mumbai is a significantly poorer, dirtier, more miserable place to live and work. Half of its citizens lack access to sanitation or formal housing.
Another distinction, just as telling, lies in the opportunities the local economy affords to the army of on-demand delivery people it supports. In Mumbai, the man who delivers a bottle of rum to my doorstep can learn the ins and outs of the booze business from spending his days in a liquor store. If he scrapes together enough capital, he may one day be able to open his own shop and hire his own delivery boys.
His counterpart in San Francisco has no such access. The person who cleans your home in SoMa has little interaction with the mysterious forces behind the app that sends him or her to your door. The Uber driver who wants an audience with management can’t go to Uber headquarters; he or she must visit a separate “driver center.”
via The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality – Quartz.