(Privilege speech delivered at the Senate on November 9, 2009 )

A GOOD neighbor, in the words of an old Chinese saw, is better than an absent brother.  Today, I rise to speak about a good neighbor. A neighbor that showed the attributes of good-neighborliness to us not only in words but in deeds, and not only in times of bliss but especially in times of distress.  I speak of that neighbor with whom we should deal as a nation equal to us—hopefully without antagonizing anyone.  I speak of Taiwan, which by destiny is located right at our northern borders across a narrow sea. So near that when a cock crows in the islet of Yami, Batanes, a cock in one of those islets at the southernmost tip of Taiwan crows back in response. And they apparently understand one another without need of any interpreter.

Conclusion

THE economy grew by an average of 4 percent during the Ramos period, mainly because after the depressed Aquino years, there was no place to go but up.  Nevertheless, there was a feeling among sectors of the middle class that it was the reforms of the Fidel Ramos administration that accounted for the upward movement in the economy, a key manifestation of which was the boom atmosphere in the real estate and stock markets. 

I recently spoke at the Magazine Publishers of America’s Magazine Innovation Summit in New York. During my remarks, I made the point that the forces at work in the hard-hit magazine business—increased competition, rapidly shifting technologies and emerging disruptive business models—are the same forces that are reshaping many parts of the global economy. In other words, the challenges of the magazine industry are the challenges of industry, period.