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I congratulate the Manila Bulletin as it celebrates its 125th founding anniversary! It is amazing to think that the Manila Bulletin started as a shipping journal on Feb. 2, 1900 with its avowed purpose of giving “the public accurate and reliable shipping and commercial information.”

I do not consider myself an alarmist. In fact, I almost always see the glass half-full than half-empty. But I also think that a good manager, whether in government or the private sector, needs to be aware of certain situations that may impact the organization.

Two surveys released by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) one week apart this new year really piqued my interest. No, they are not surveys about the senatorial candidates for the 2025 national elections (although I would find that interesting as well). The two surveys are about self-rated poverty, which was released on Jan. 8, 2025 and hunger, released on Jan. 14. Both studies were conducted between Dec. 12 to 18 among 2,160 respondents nationwide with a sampling error margin of two percent according to the SWS website (www.sws.org.ph) which, by the way has a massive amount of data and information about the country over a long period of time.