Month: September 2021
A disjointed and stressed health system
September 27, 2021by Orlando Oxales originally published in The Manila Standard “We must remember the lessons of this crisis and choose our next leaders wisely.” I felt a restrained sense of ire in the voices of the speakers in last Friday’s most recent virtual town hall discussion of think tank Stratbase ADR Institute. Various representatives of health stakeholders, seemingly […]
They may be trying to do it again
September 20, 2021It has been 49 years since President Ferdinand E. Marcos signed Proclamation No. 1081 declaring the Philippines under Martial Law. September 21, 1972 was the start of 14 years of authoritarian rule that destroyed our democratic institutions and established a dictatorship that preached the ideology of a so called “new society”. Martial law was […]
Malampaya issues and dynamics
September 20, 2021Energy regulators need to act faster on power plant builds to move our power situation from barely sufficient to surplus. Before economic recovery can take off, our energy supply must be at a level of stability and affordability to attract new investments that we will need to compete versus other economies that experts already predict will recover earlier than ours.
What’s happening with Malampaya?
September 16, 2021On September 11, natural gas supply from the Malampaya gas field came to an abrupt stop. The shutdown occurred weeks before the gas field’s scheduled maintenance shutdown in October. As a result, two gas-fired power plants of First Gen Corporation, Sta. Rita (1,000 MW) and San Lorenzo (500 MW), shifted to high-cost liquid fuel […]
Arrogance, impunity, greed
September 6, 2021by Orlando Oxales originally published in The Manila Standard “Only a credible investigation will settle this corruption issue that is a painful betrayal of public trust.” Disappointment, frustration, and rage are probably mild descriptions of what I am—and I am sure many Filipinos are—feeling after the developing exposés of the past few weeks. It started with the […]