For Philippine manufacturers, the next factory may require more than retained earnings and a friendly bank. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is urging them to look beyond traditional financing and prepare to tap the capital markets as they scale up.

A Japanese power utility is sizing up a new Philippine market, and it is starting with something factories cannot do without: electricity.

In high school, our mentors taught us noun declensions, Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul and four-part harmony. Somewhere between Latin and music, we also acquired the comforting belief that we were neither rich nor poor. With P50 in our pockets, we could go places and still come home with change. Life was a picnic. We did not realize the picnic had an expiry date.