Iloilo ramps up economic life

By Alex P. Vidal

“Only a strong economy can create higher asset values and sustainably good returns for savers.”— Ben Bernanke

THERE is a positive sign that Iloilo’s economic growth rate will dramatically barrel upward in the next few months amid recent reports that city hall and capitol were in quandary whether the mask mandate will be strictly imposed anew now that Covid cases were reportedly up once more in the months of March and April.

Before the ruckus on the reported resurgence of Covid came, IBS Digital Network posted a report from the city government information office that AyalaLand Offices would be constructing two BPO towers following the groundbreaking last month of 12,000-sqm each building site at Atria Park District, Mandurriao.

This came after SM Investments Corp. Vice Chairman Teresita Sy-Coson, visited the City Government’s newly-opened Offsite Payment Center at SM City Iloilo in February, according to the online news magazine.

“Expansion of SM City and new mall in Jaro district are in the pipeline while condo development of SMDC at the Circumferential Road has started construction works,” read the information from the City Hall posted on IBS Digital Network.

It added: “Megaworld Corp. Executive Vice President Kevin Tan graced the groundbreaking of Iloilo City Action and Response (ICARE) at Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao March 3 where he revealed the 20-hectare expansion of 72-hectare township and new high-impact projects. He went back during the inauguration 30/36 MVA substation of MORE Power March 22.”

Meanwhile, the information continued that Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas had met with top executives of Lopez-owned First Balfour relative to their proposal for an electric or e-vehicle Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) poised to become a very important milestone in the transportation industry. It said the Lopezes trace their roots to Iloilo.

“This will be very good for Metro Iloilo since this will help us avoid what happened to the traffic situation of the NCR and Cebu. I look forward to this project and it is my hope that it will move forward smoothly,” it quoted Treñas as saying.

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ONE of the biggest stories in the US on April 18 was the settlement of the defamation case filed by the Dominion Voting Systems with the Fox News.

Fox is reportedly paying Dominion $787.5 million, which appears to be one of the largest defamation settlements in history and is one that constitutes a humiliating admission of fault by the network, even though, as The New York Times’s Jim Rutenberg reported, the deal doesn’t require Fox to apologize.

But The New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg said the public will be deprived of seeing Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and several of their colleagues grilled on the stand, forced to reckon with the real world, unable to fall back on the dense lattice of misinformation that typically sustains Fox’s narratives.

At least, Goldberg wrote, the public will be deprived for now. Smartmatic is still suing Fox for $2.7 billion, though no trial date has been announced yet.

“Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign,” Smartmatic lawyer J. Erik Connolly said in a statement on Tuesday. “Smartmatic will expose the rest.”

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If we see tremendous improvements in our fingernails at least a month after taking Vitamin D and Omega-3 Fish Oil, that means 36 of our organs are well taken care of. Thank you medical science for the education.

Enoki, chanterelle, portabella, and shitake are all types of gourmet edible mushrooms.

Saint Thomas Aquinas was the greatest medieval Catholic philosopher. He devoted his life to the clarification of Christian doctrine and its integration with Aristotle’s metaphysics.

Friendship is a gift that is fair in all things. It takes root from one’s heart and involves memories that stay not for a while but for a lifetime.

The prime purpose of our time on earth is not about acquiring possessions, attaining status, achieving success, or even experiencing happiness. God created us to love Him. We do it by loving others.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)