THE classification of a province by our government as to whether it is first-class, second, third, fourth, up to fifth-class is based on its income.
In Western Visayas, which has six provinces, we have three provinces classified as first-class — Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Capiz. Aklan and Antique are second-class, and Guimaras is fourth-class.
The other fourth-class [...]

COULD you imagine if one day, without notice, the water system will be closed and we will have no longer any water to use and wash ourselves, bathe or drink? It appears that Bangko Sentral did almost like this to the people of the particular areas served by 15 rural banks that it all suddenly [...]

THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) plans to construct another flyover in Iloilo City, this time at the corner of Gen. Luna and Jalandoni Sts., near the University of San Agustin.
Mayor Jerry Treñas has welcomed the idea and is in fact pushing at the same time for the construction of a third one [...]

FESTIVALS like our Dinagyang are nice, but it is the day after that gives a problem. The aftermath leaves the city in disarray and full of garbage the following morning!
It is not unusual to see garbage drums overflowing with trash and broken bottles of softdrinks, beer and some other intoxicating drinks consumed during the festival.
Usually, [...]

Fantastic Four move

FOR several years now, it is the vast army of overseas workers that has kept the Philippine economy afloat with their remittances. Our present government has considered them as heroes because of this. They helped to build up the country’s foreign exchange reserves which rose to a record $37.1 billion as of [...]

THE sight of so many cars and other types of vehicles crowding our city streets during the holidays seemed to belie the fact that we are affected by the economic crisis hurting many other countries.
For example, a day before Christmas, we went to SM City to buy a printer cartridge for our computer. We had [...]

WE wrote last week that, from what we see around us, we seem to be unaffected by the so-called financial crisis triggered by the downfall of two of the biggest US investment banking houses in Wall Street.
But Malacañang suddenly came up with a twin proposal of increasing the deposit insurance coverage of the Philippine Deposit [...]

OF course, you have heard or read in screaming headlines about the financial crisis or meltdown last September in the United States, causing the immediate collapse due to bankruptcy of two financial giants in Wall Street – Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch – as a consequence of the massive housing mortgage loan failures all over [...]

LAST week, while passing the corner of Benigno Aquino Avenue and El 98 Street towards Jaro Plaza, Iloilo City, we saw an old, drab orange Fiera jeepney parked by the roadside. It had a crew of four or five people cooking asphalt in a drum, with some sand and gravel beside them.
This was our first [...]

WAY back in 2005, we had the privilege to join a tour with an itinerary that took us to the Vatican, Rome, Venice and its canals, the Italian lakes at Varese near the Swiss border; Lucerne, Switzerland, also with its lakes and high mountain peak, Mt. Pilatus, near Zurich; Paris, with its museums and the [...]