Marcos to make another...

During the meeting, U.S.Asean Business Council president and chief executive officer Ted Osius said the members of the nonprofit organization are looking forward to deepening their engagements with the Marcos administration and creating more partnerships with the Philippine businesses.

"We're very much focused and you highlight these themes on sustainable development, transformative digitalization, innovative healthcare solutions, supply chain resilience, and ease of doing business," Osius told Marcos.

"We are determined that we come here not just to talk but also to bring a lot of action to create real partnerships and to show our commitment in the form of investments," he added.

Osius, a retired U.S. ambassador, was joined by representatives of 30 companies, the largest delegation to visit the Philippines in the 40year history of the U.S.-Asean Business Council. n

PH billionaires’ combined wealth rises...

stayed on third spot after earning the biggest dollar. His fortune increased by $2.5 billion to $8.1 billion.

Shares in Razon's company, International Container Terminal Services Inc., were said to have jumped 24 percent on "sustained improvement in supply chains."

The top 3 were followed by Ramon S. Ang, the president and CEO of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., who climbed five spots to No. 4. His fortune increased by almost 40 percent to $3.4 billion, following San Miguel's acquisition of his majority-owned Eagle Cement.

Rounding up the top five was Tony Tan Caktiong of Jollibee Foods, who was in the seventh spot last year. His net worth jumped by $600 million, to $3.2

Defense chief visits EDCA...

These are Balabac Island (Palawan), Camp Melchor Dela Cruz (Gamu, Isabela), Lal-lo Airport (Lal-lo, Cagayan) and Naval Base Camilo Osias (Santa Ana, Cagayan).

Earlier this week, Teodoro and his American counterpart Lloyd Austin III held a telephone meeting for the second time this year to reaffirm the two countries' ironclad defense alliance.

Andolong said that during the meeting, Austin reaffirmed the U.S.’ commitment to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support.

Both officials pledged to fasttrack pending defense initiatives, billion.

Joining the list were the Aboitiz family with $3.15 billion in wealth (6th), Lance Gokongwei and his siblings with $3 billion (7th), and Isidro Consunji and siblings with $2.9 billion (8th).

Jaime Zobel de Ayala was in 9th place with $2.8 billion and Lucio Tan in 10th with $2.6 billion. n such as the conclusion of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

Austin highlighted the importance of GSOMIA for the transfer of technology in support of the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

A growing network of criminals are using unregulated online portals such as Instagram, WeChat, and Tik Tok to lure in job seekers with promises of quick and easy money.

by Mark Hedin Ethnic Media Services

IT’S a sad fact of life: If it seems too good to be true, beware!

In this Wild West era of still largely unregulated online portals such as Instagram, WeChat, Tik Tok and others, the Federal Trade Commission is battling a new crime wave: huge networks of criminals offering fake but real-seeming ways to make money.

“There’s a whole range of different, horrible business practices scammers use,” Kati Daffan, of the FTC’s Marketing Practices division, said at an Aug.

9 press briefing hosted by the FTC and Ethnic Media Services.

“These schemes are having an incredible impact,” Daffan said. Already this year, the agency has fielded 26,000 fraud reports describing $223 million lost to fake job and “big opportunity” scams.

And that’s just the ones that have been reported, she noted, adding later that fewer reports come in from Black or Spanishspeaking victims. “We know that’s just a fraction of what’s actually happening to people,” she said.

The scams range from offers of what appear to be job opportunities to “coaching scams” that claim they’ll quickly teach you how to make money investing in real estate, the stock market, or various selfemployment strategies, and more. She described one FTC shut down, “My Online Business Education.” In that case, the FTC last year was able to return $23 million to people who’d been scammed trying to learn how to make money. The FTC has more information on this particular type of rip-off available at ftc.gov/ IncomeScams. u PAGE A4