Travel
A helpful development in making our archipelago more accessible to distant lands in the entrepreneurial spirit of regional airlines.
Last week’s announcement that two new airlines are coming to the Philippines is welcome.
The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has announced that Greater Bay Airlines has started to provide flights between HongKong and Manila five days a week.
From Dec. 1, Malaysian-based Batik Air will fly daily between Kuala Lumpur and Manila.
Improved access to the Philippines from the region will be helpful to our expanding tourism industry.
What we would like to see more is non-stop flights from overseas to our Region 6 airports. I believe that this would engender significant increases to our tourist business.
Europe has an enormous package tour activity between regional airports. Manchester (UK) to Malaga (Spain) is a typical example. Tourists do not generally want to travel via London Heathrow en route to a pleasant holiday in sunny Spain.
The Philippines has a natural advantage of having a warm, though not excessively hot, year-round climate. Package holidays involving non-stop flights from Incheon (Korea) to Caticlan, Iloilo, Bacolod-Silay have significant, though currently underserved, potential.
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Macroeconomics
Last week’s announcement form the Bureau of the Treasury that we are steadily increasing our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) without incurring substantial indebtedness is welcome.
In fact we have managed to reduce our debt-to-GDP ratio to 60.2 percent compared to 63.6 percent in the third quarter of 2022.
This lower debt-to-GDP ratio means that we can continue to reduce our debt without experiencing adverse effects on the economy.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno may be an unlikely candidate for National Hero but we believe he is doing a good job in implementing a sound debt management strategy.
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Royalty
To-day marks the 75th birthday of His Majesty King Charles III of the UK. He has many roles including providing ‘checks and balances’ over the government of the day. This is not always a trivial task. In the 1980s, Charles’ mother, HM Queen Elizabeth II had, reportedly, torrid discussions with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about the latter’s decision-making.
Dame Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep were the protagonists in a filmed version of the encounter.
There are no sinecures in a fully-functioning democracy!/PN
