As to the nursing retake, I just don’t see the reasons why all of the examinees have to have a retake, besides the actions against those responsible against this problem should be taken first ahead of the retake. I would have wanted the leadership of BON and PRC resigned for the subsequent actions made after the controversy. The problem really is about credibility of those institutions and should not be particularly focused on whether the board passers are qualified to pass or not because of the leakage.

Amadeo, theoretically economic competition will.

Joselu says, pertaining to the refusal of some nursing graduates to have a retake of the board exam: “… I think we should be more concerned of protecting the integrety of the exsam that counts.”

Well, Joselu, try substituting your word “EXSAM” with something like… ELECTIONS!

Contrary to popular opinion and belief the peso dollar exchange rate is managed by the BSP to control inflation. (Our inflation is structural)Our modern standard of living is almost entirely import dependent.

Every budget year the BSP together with the budget department target a foreign exchange rate average. This year the band is between Php 51-53 to the dollar. It is always announced at the start of the budget year.Fixed rates of exchange mean a managed band. The Peoples Bank of China uses a narrow band with stringent controls of capital movement while we use a wider band with interest rate differentials acting as the lever to control the band. The peso is not a fully convertible currency and there are partial exchange controls on the peso. You cannot export more than Php 10,000 per individual. Not that many export it abroad since there is very very very limited demand for it.

Money traders smuggle physical currency to Hongkong to take advantage of the rate arbitrage of Filipinos who wish to change their dollars into peso or other travelers into HK or traders who require it. You need more dollars to buy pesos in the retail markets in HK. Also with basic metals at a high, people are exporting Philippine coins for their metal content to take advantage of high metal prices. Dont’ you love the free markets when there is a profit to be made.

Business and governments do not have a day or weeks time frame. For individuals it is a different story.

Add to this the fact today that Asian Central banks have a cash hoard of $3 trillion and with the dangers of having too much cash infusion in their economies they lend it to the U.S. and to other governments like the Philippines that have higher yields on their debt paper. Short term rates in Japan are still close to zero compared to ours which is closer to 10%. Clearly a no brainer. So the basics of supply and demand take hold in some respects and we have a very good currency trader (former Citi trader Omar Cruz) in charge of the tresury who knows how to time borrowings and payments to cut down on our interest payments. The treasury also did a lot of debt swaps to replace high interest bonds with lower interest ones due to the benign conditions abroad.
An example of how benign conditions were abroad was when the Thai coup happened their interest rate differentials in the markets did not move at all.
After the Asian crisis of 1997 the Philippines joined the Chang Mai initiative and signed currency swap agreements with Japan, China and South Korea as a safety net source of hard currency insurance in case of balance of payments problems. In return we granted them special deals. Beggars can’t be choosers. Our international reserves amount to less than 1% ($20B+)of the Asian hoard and we have a dollar or foreign debt exposure of over $60 billion. We have effectively been running on empty since 1997. Our reserves are not our own since it is all composed of borrowed funds.

Maybe we could trade (ship them overseas) another 10 to 20M people for cash to solve that problem!!!! So far Japan has agreed to only a microspic figure for now. China will have a growing demographic problem in the medium to long term so there is still hope.

That is why for my clients I always say, go very short on peso assets and always long on the dollar assets, euro assets, Canadian or Australian assets. If you can afford it keep 10% to 20 % in gold for the medium term. It will be rocky hopefully for that period only.

Unfortunately or fortunately for us Mike and Gloria had nothing to do with what has transpired. Our increased tax payments also helped.

i remember the days when i first exchnaged my dollar with seven pesos in a secluded place somewhere in kamuning and edsa.