two weeks left to negotiate with Washington, Philippine industries are not waving the white flag yet even after the country’s Asean counterparts Indonesia and Vietnam, its toughest competitors on garment shipments to the US, managed to haggle for lower tariffs with Washington.
WITH his issuance of Proclamation No. 973, series of 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has officially declared the country’s population has reached 112.73 million nationwide. Under the two-page issuance dated 11 July 2025, the chief executive has made official the outcome of the 2024 Census Population (Popcen), which showed the country’s total population was at 112,729,484 as of 1 July 2024. The latest Popcen was conducted from July to September 2024.
By Lenie Lectura and Samuel P. Medenilla
TO prevent the possible paralysis of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) due to lack of quorum, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has named Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (Iemop) President Francis Saturnino C. Juan as its new chair, as well as its two new members.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro announced on Thursday the ap-
pointment of Juan, a seasoned energy expert who has played a key role in operationalizing the wholesale electricity spot market, advocating consumer protection and promoting renewable energy development through tariff reforms.
“With his deep institutional knowledge and leadership, we are confident that Chairperson Juan will steer the ERC toward more efficient, transparent and proconsumer decision making,” Castro said.
“We look forward to his smooth and seamless transition under his
chairmanship,” she added. The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary also announced the appointment of Amante A. Liberato and Paris G. Real as new ERC commissioners.
Liberato is currently serving as deputy executive secretary for finance and administration at the Office of the President, while Real is a seasoned litigator and a legal advisor with more than two decades of experience including active participation in high-impact ERC regulatory proceedings.
“Together these appointments reflect the President’s commitment to energizing the ERC with leaders who uphold integrity, transparency and public service. We look forward to the reforms and progress they will help bring under Bagong Pilipinas [New Philippines],” Castro said.
Malacañang made the announcement after it confirmed the resignation of ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta, which is effective 8 August 2025.
“The PSA in coordination with the Presidential Communications Office, is hereby declared to disseminate copies of the 2024 Census of Population: Population by Province, City/ Municipality, and Barangay to all concerned government agencies,” Marcos said. Batas Pambansa Blg. 72 (s. 1980) requires the President to issue the necessary proclamation for the results of the census to be considered official.
The latest Popcen showed that the country’s population grew by 3.69 million compared to the
By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto @reine_alberto
THE Department of Finance (DOF) made clear that interest income from bank deposits—not the savings—will be taxed at a uniform rate of 20 percent to “correct an unfair system” that favors the rich.
In a statement on Thursday, the DOF warned the public against “fake news” about the recently enacted Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act (CMEPA), clarifying that savings will not be taxed at 20 percent. Misleading headlines and art cards have been making the rounds of social media, causing the public to air their frustrations over a per-
ceived added tax burden.
“CMEPA does not impose a new tax, instead standardized the tax rate on interest income to correct an unfair system that favored the wealthy,” the DOF explained.
Before CMEPA was passed into law, a 20-percent final tax was applied on interest earned from bank deposits with a maturity of less than three years.
Deposits that mature in four to five years and three to four years are subject to just 5 percent and 12 percent tax, respectively. Meanwhile, deposits with a maturity period of more than five years are exempt from tax.
Under CMEPA, interest income is now taxed uniformly at 20 percent, regardless of the deposits’ matu-
rity period, to simplify compliance, remove confusion and ultimately, level the playing field for all.
Specifically, a 20-percent final tax will be applied on the interest, yield or other monetary benefit earned from any currency bank deposit, deposit substitute, trust fund or other similar arrangements.
This includes peso and foreign currency time deposits, as well as US dollar and other third-currency deposits held under Foreign Currency Deposit Unit accounts.
Government savings programs, such as those under the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System and Pag-IBIG, will remain exempt from the 20 percent tax.
“CMEPA merely corrects this
outdated and inequitable system that placed a heavier burden on ordinary Filipinos who do not have the extra cash to put in banks for longer periods,” the DOF clarified.
Citing data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), 99.6 percent of total deposits were already subject to the 20-percent tax rate before, while only 0.4 percent enjoyed preferential rates.
“This special tax treatment favored depositors who can afford to park their savings in long-term deposits, making the tax system unfair for short-term depositors who face liquidity issues and need immediate access to their funds,” the DOF said. The standardized tax rate is not
Andrea E. San Juan
DOF clarifies ‘fake news’ on savings tax
retroactive and will not apply to financial instruments that issued or transacted before July 1, 2025.
Existing long-term deposits made before the effectivity of the law will continue to enjoy the preferential rate until their maturity.
Moreover, CMEPA seeks to allow ordinary Filipinos to diversify their sources of income and invest in the capital market.
The stock transaction tax rate was reduced to 0.1 percent from 0.6 percent, while documentary stamp taxes (DST) on the original issuance of shares were slashed to 0.75 percent from 1 percent. The DST on collective investment schemes was also removed.
Specifically, CMEPA removed the DST on the original issuance, redemption or transfer of mutual fund shares, as well as certificates or proof of participation in mutual funds or investment trust funds.
A uniform 0.75-percent DST on bonds, debentures and certificates of stock or indebtedness issued in foreign countries, regardless of jurisdiction, was also imposed.
“These measures are seen to cut transaction costs, encourage market participation and financial planning, boost market liquidity, make the country’s equities market regionally competitive and increase capital market growth,” the DOF said.
Coconut group pins tariff tweaks hope on PBBM trip
By Ada Pelonia @adapelonia
THEUnited Coconut Association of the Philippines (Ucap) remains hopeful that President Marcos Jr.’s visit to the United States will yield positive results.
This, after the US administration reduced the reciprocal tariffs levied on Indonesian goods to 19 percent from 32 percent. Indonesia is a leading producer of coconuts worldwide.
According to Ucap Chairman Marco Reyes, negotiations between the Philippines and the US regarding the final reciprocal tariff are still ongoing. Washington slapped a 20-percent tariff rate on the Philippines.
“Offhand, with these high-level talks, I guess the final tariff will be way below the 20 percent. So let’s wait how that will come about,” Reyes told the BusinessMirror on Thursday. He recently said that Indonesia is among the Philippines’s “closest rivals” when it comes to coconut products.
Marcos is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump for a bilateral meeting from July 20 to 22.
Dent demand
MEANWHILE , Reyes recently noted that the 20-percent reciprocal tariffs slapped by Washington on Philippine coconut products would be passed on to American consumers.
“If this higher tariff persists, what will happen is that it will dampen economic activity in the USA as a whole. American consumers will buy less coconut products due to the higher prices. Purchasing power drops,” he said.
“The expected drop in American demand will have an effect on Philippine exports of coconuts to the USA since it is the second biggest market
for Philippine coconuts.”
He also said Ucap has sent position papers to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to continue negotiations with the US on bringing down the tariff.
“After all, the Philippines is a long-time colony of the USA, and we are a crucial strategic geopolitical partner of the USA in the Southeast Asia region,” Reyes said.
“Strengthening and growing our exports to the USA, particularly coconut, will go a long way in further strengthening the USAPhilippine relationship.”
Diversify
REYES also said the country’s coconut industry should rethink its approach to exporting coconutbased products, particularly in diversifying markets and value-
added products. He noted that over 60 percent of coconut exports are “overly dependent” on the European Union and the US.
“It is a wake-up call for our Philippine coconut industry [ . . . ] We have to act double time to expand our export markets to other markets,” he said, noting that this includes protecting the local market from the “onslaught” of palm oil, which is a coconut oil substitute for cooking.
Reyes added that the country’s coconut export is mostly crude coconut oil, which is just one value-added product from copra or dried coconut meat.
“[We have to] diversify our coconut products into more valueadded and downstream products,” he said, noting that this includes coconut milk, coconut water, virgin coconut oil, and oleochemicals, among others.
109.04 million in 2020. It also showed that the population growth has slowed down to 0.80 percent from 2020 to 2024 compared to the 1.63 percent in 2015 to 2020.
Factors for slowdown THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) attributed the slowdown to several factors including declining fertility and birth rates, elevated mortality during the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, and subdued migration activity.
“Compared to the 2020 Census of Population and Housing [2020 CPH], the Philippine population in 2024 increased by 3.69 million from 109.04 million in 2020,” PSA noted. The Philippine population growth rate (PGR) slowed to 0.80 percent annually from 2020 to 2024. The rate at which the country’s population grew from 2015 to 2020 was higher at 1.63 percent, PSA data showed.
“The slowdown in the growth rate may be driven by several interrelated factors such as but not limited to declining fertility and birth rate, elevated mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic, and subdued migration activity,” PSA said in a statement on Thursday.
billion,” Robert M. Young, Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (Fobap) President, told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview on Wednesday.
Young explained that after Washington cut Vietnam and Indonesia’s reciprocal tariffs to 20 percent and 19 percent, respectively, “It will be a hard climb now for the Philippines to compete.”
Global news reports revealed on Wednesday that Indonesia was able to secure a lower country reciprocal tariff for its exports to the US, bringing down the initially-imposed 32 percent to 19 percent, after it reached a trade deal with the US. The Indonesian government reportedly agreed to give “full access” to the US, among others, to secure the lower tariff.
However, Young remained optimistic: “We are still fighting. We’re not waving the white flag. We’re not surrendering.”
Young is banking on the assurance of Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (SAPIEA) Frederick Go, as the President’s economic czar, that the Philippines still has something to offer to the US, contrary to what other industry leaders may perceive.
He said: “Robert, don’t worry, we still have bullets,” the Fobap president said, as he had a “short communication” with Go. Young said he is still hoping the country’s negotiating team would successfully lower the country’s reciprocal tariff to 10 percent. He told this newspaper: “The ideal, as practitioners in the industry, we think it should be 10 percent. And this will be like a breather.”
A week after the announcement of higher tariffs and a few weeks before the implementation of the 20-percent reciprocal tariffs on Philippine goods entering the US, Young divulged that the local garments industry is looking at alternative markets.
“We’re now looking at other markets...alternative. We’re talking to Russia. We’re talking to EU and other countries. Because it looks like it was also our mistake to concentrate with our business to America. So we became complacent also,” Young noted. He admitted that the US market is big, just by observing how Vietnam and Indonesia “reacted.”
“We have been dealing with them for 25 years, particularly garments and apparel. They are the biggest. They can have the volume. They have the numbers
by the hundreds of thousands, even millions. Can you imagine? Sometimes they order half a million t-shirts. So, where can you get this kind of quantity from other countries?” added Young.
The industry leader stressed that the garments industry, despite these developments, will “go on.” He added: “Because otherwise, it’s a waste of our effort. And we don’t want the industry to perish just like the footwear industry.”
Through the lens of the semiconductor and electronics industry, Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) Chairman Norberto Viera told this newspaper that the industry group is still working with the government to bring down the Philippines’ reciprocal tariff.
“We have been working with the government to negotiate with the US,” Viera told the BusinessMirror in a text message on Wednesday.
Viera underscored that 15 percent of the country’s semiconductor exports may be affected should the US push through with slapping Philippine goods the 20 percent tariffs on August 1.
“We are also watching the situation and getting feedback from our Corporate Headquarter. No advice yet, but if ever the 20 percent will be imposed on our semiconductor exports, 15 percent which are going to the US will be affected,” added the SEIPI Chairman.
“Current export outlook is flat to 3 percent positive. We are seeing some growth in the 3rd and 4th quarter,” added Viera.
Last July 9, US President Donald Trump wrote President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. saying: “Starting on August 1,2025, we will charge the Philippines a tariff of only 20 percent on any and all Philippine products into the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs. Goods transshipped to evade a higher tariff will be subject to that higher tariff.”
In a statement issued last week, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expressed concern that, notwithstanding its efforts and constant engagements, the US still decided to impose a 20 percent tariff on Philippine exports. Still, the Philippines’ Trade department said it will continue to actively engage with its US counterparts toward a “balanced and mutually beneficial trade relationship.”
A Philippine delegation is scheduled to hold discussions in the US this week ahead of the tariff’s implementation on August 1.
Of the 18 administrative regions, PSA said Region IV-A (Calabarzon) recorded the largest population in 2024 with 16.93 million. This was followed by National Capital Region (NCR) with 14 million and Region III (Central Luzon) with 12.99 million.
PSA said the combined population of these three regions accounts for about 39 percent of the Philippine population, while six other regions recorded population exceeding 5 million in 2024.
Meanwhile, the least populated region is the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 1.81 million, or about 1.6 percent of the total population of the country.
PSA noted that 16 out of 18 regions experienced a slowdown in annual population growth rate from 2015-2020 to 2020-2024, indicating a downward trend across a significant portion of the country.
“Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [BARMM] was the only region to post an increase in its annual PGR while Region V [Bicol] experienced a decline in the population,” PSA underscored. BARMM remained to be the fastest-growing region with an annual PGR of 3.43 percent. It is followed by Region III (Central Luzon) with 1.08 percent, Region IV-A (Calabarzon) with 1.07 percent, NCR with 0.91 percent and Region X (Northern Mindanao) with 0.73 percent.
Meanwhile, Region V or the Bicol Region was the only region that posted a negative growth, posting the lowest PGR at -0.07 percent.
Andrea San Juan, Samuel P. Medenilla
resolved through the grievance procedure in their CBA. If still unresolved, the parties may proceed with voluntary arbitration. In unorganized firms—those without a union—employers and workers are encouraged to correct the distortions together.
If a dispute arises, it should go through mandatory conciliation-mediation via the Single-Entry Approach (SEnA) of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB). If no settlement is reached, the issue may be brought to a labor arbiter or submitted to voluntary arbitration by both parties. The NWPC also recommended using formulas such as Pineda, PinedaCruz-So, Philippine Construction Supply, Wirerope, Percentile Approach, Bagtas, and JODA in correcting wages. However, the commission reminded employers and workers that these formulas are only meant to serve as guides in adjusting wage structures. Companies and their workers may develop and agree on their own formulas based on specific workplace needs and conditions.
House bill penalizes abuse of seniors
By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
ANEW bill that provides protection to senior citizens from abuse, neglect, and exploitation has been filed in the House of Representatives.
The bill was prompted by the story of a once-prominent businesswoman from Pampanga who became a victim of elder abuse.
Laguna Rep. Ann Matibag filed House Bill 2012, or the proposed Anti-Elder Abuse Law of 2025, calling attention to what she described as a “growing and urgent” crisis affecting thousands of elderly Filipinos.
Currently, Matibag said, cases of elder abuse are often
prosecuted under broad laws such as the Revised Penal Code or, in some instances involving older women, under the AntiViolence Against Women and Children Act (RA 9262).
However, she said that these existing laws fail to address the specific needs and vulnerabilities of senior citizens.
“Today, elder abuse cases are squeezed into existing laws—often filed under the Revised Penal
No ICC warrant yet for dela Rosa–Palace
MALACAÑANG said on Thursday it has yet to receive any information on a warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the co-accused of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing crimes against humanity for the committed by state and non-state forces during his was against drugs.
“To date, we have not received any communication on an arrest warrant for former President Duterte’s coaccused,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in a news briefing on Thursday.
She was reacting to a question about the statement issued by Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin that the
government is open to cooperating with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) if it will serve the arrest warrant against Sen. Ronald dela Rosa. Dela Rosa was Duterte’s first National Police (PNP) chieg, when the former President launched an intensified campaign against criminality, which resulted in an official count of more than 6,000 deaths. However, humanrights groups said as many as 30,000 were killed during that period.
Last March, Duterte was arrested and sent to the Netherlands to face his ICC case after the government cooperated with the Interpol. Samuel P. Medenilla
Lawmakers vow to build on momentum of 19th Congress
FOLLOWING the widely praised “blockbuster” hearings of the 19th Congress, lawmakers on Thursday pledged to build on the momentum and deepen public trust in the House of Representatives as the 20th Congress opens this month.
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V and Zambales Rep. Jay Khonghun, both leaders of the House Young Guns said the Quad Committee hearings—focused on issues such as illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos), drug syndicates, and extrajudicial killings— were credited for driving a surge in public confidence.
The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey show that trust in the House rose dramatically from 34 percent in April to 57 percent in June.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez’s personal trust rating also climbed steadily, from 23 percent in April to 26 percet in May and 34 percent in June.
Lawmakers credited Romualdez’s steady, disciplined leadership for setting the tone in the previous Congress and vowed to support his continued efforts to deliver tangible results in the 20th Congress.
“This trust [rating] is not just a reward. It’s a responsibility. We will work even harder to protect it,” Khonghun said, saying in the
Code or sometimes under RA 9262. But these laws, while important, do not account for the unique vulnerabilities of the elderly,” she said.
She pointed to the case of Cita N. Rodriguez, an 89-year-old accountant and philanthropist from Pampanga whose ordeal made headlines and went viral on social media. Reports revealed that Rodriguez was allegedly exploited by her niece, who took control of her finances and properties, leaving the elderly woman isolated and dependent on a meager allowance.
“Tita Cita’s case was not an isolated one,” Matibag warned. “It is part of a larger, more disturbing pattern of elder abuse, one that our current legal system is ill-equipped to confront.”
The proposed Anti-Elder Abuse Law of 2025 seeks to recognize that elderliness is not just an aggravating circumstance in criminal offenses but a condition of
vulnerability that perpetrators often exploit. Modeled in part after child protection statutes, the bill defines elder abuse as “a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within a relationship of trust, causing harm or distress to an older person.”
Under Section 5, the bill outlines various prohibited acts that constitute elder abuse:
n Physical Abuse: Any use of physical force resulting in pain, injury, or impairment, including slapping, punching, force-feeding, and misuse of medication or restraints.
n Sexual Abuse: Any nonconsensual sexual contact, especially involving elders unable to give informed consent.
n Emotional or Psychological Abuse: Includes verbal assaults, threats, isolation, humiliation, and intimidation.
n Financial or Material Exploitation: Unauthorized use of an elder’s finances, such as forging checks, coercing the signing of documents, or misusing guardianship.
n Neglect: The refusal or failure to provide basic necessities like food, hygiene, and medical care.
n Abandonment: Desertion by caregivers or responsible individuals.
Section 6 of the bill details the graduated penalties, anchored in existing laws such as the Revised Penal Code and Republic Act No. 9262 (Anti-VAWC). Penalties range from arresto mayor to reclusion temporal, depending on the severity of the offense.
In cases involving financial exploitation, penalties escalate based on the amount stolen: below P50,000—prision correccional, P50,000 to P500,000—prision mayor, and over P500,000—
Lawmaker challenges OVP: What millions for impeachment trial are you talking about
ALAWMAKERS on Thursday challenged the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to release a cost-benefit analysis if it insists that the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte would cost the government “millions and millions” of pesos.
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V made a statement after Duterte’s new spokesperson, Ruth Castelo, claimed that the country would be “very lucky” if the Supreme Court halted the impeachment trial, arguing that the case was “technically defective from the beginning” and that stopping it would “save the government millions.”
“Millions and millions? How many millions exactly? Where would we even be saving money? If they can answer those kinds of questions, maybe I’d be convinced by their argument,” Ortega said.
20th Congress, lawmakers will work even harder, legislate even better, and ensure that the people continue to feel the results of good governance.
For his part, Ortega said lessons and achievements of the 19th Congress will guide the next chapter.
The 19th Congress was marked not only by high-profile investigations but also by active oversight committees like the Tri Committee on disinformation and fake news and the Quinta Committee on food affordability. These panels helped expose coordinated misinformation campaigns and pushed legislation that reduced the price of basic goods like rice.
“The public saw that we were willing to ask hard questions and hold even the highest officials accountable. That is the essence of a functioning democracy,” Ortega said.
Khonghun said the 19th Congress showed that transparency and results—not grandstanding—build public confidence.
Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Lordan Suan, also of the House Young Guns, emphasized that rising trust in President Marcos, the House, and Romualdez reflects the public’s appetite for solution-oriented governance.
Ortega also questioned whether the cost of an impeachment trial would even come close to the P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds that were allegedly misused by the OVP and the Department of Education—both under Duterte’s leadership.
“They might want to present a matrix or cost-effectiveness analysis. I highly doubt the trial would cost anywhere near P612 million,” he added.
Asked directly whether the impeachment trial could cost more than the alleged misuse of funds, Ortega replied, “Maybe. Let’s see their matrix.”
Vice President Duterte is facing
impeachment charges on multiple grounds, including the alleged misuse of confidential funds and the spending of P125 million in just 11 days in December 2022.
The complaint has already been endorsed by 215 members of the House of Representatives, well beyond the one-third constitutional threshold required to transmit the case to the Senate.
The Senate is expected to convene as an impeachment court, with the trial potentially beginning on August 4.
Ready for trial
THE House is prepared to move forward with the impeachment trial of Vice President Duterte once the Senate impeachment court reconvenes on August 4, Ortega said, urging both sides to prepare as the nation closely watches the proceedings.
Ortega said the House has remained consistent in its position, emphasizing that the matter is now in the hands of the Senate.
“We’ve been consistent all along—this is now in the hands of the Senate.”
He stressed that the House would follow the Senate’s lead on the matter.
“Scheduling adjustments like this are normal. Unpredictable scenarios will always come up,” he added.
Ortega stressed that the House will defer to the Senate’s timeline.
“If the Senate sticks to its calendar, that’s perfectly fine with us. Both the prosecution and the public are waiting for this,” he said.
The House prosecution panel earlier affirmed its readiness to present the Articles of Impeachment transmitted to the Senate in February this year.
Ortega emphasized that while adjustments are expected, what matters is that proceedings finally begin.
Asked about Vice President Duterte’s statements that she is willing to face the impeachment court, Ortega took a neutral stance but underscored the need for readiness.
“Her defense team is likely on top of it already. They’ll set it in their calendars. They should be ready by then,” he said.
“We should push forward with the August 4 date. I’m sure both sides are ready. It’s just a matter of setting the schedule—put it in your phone calendar and be prepared,” he added.
Ortega noted that even the Senate has had enough lead time to prepare.
“The Senate should be ready too. They’ve had time to plan, and this is already a new Congress,” he said.
He added that this level of civic attention is healthy for the democratic process.
Ortega said the public discourse will remain speculative and partisan until the Senate trial begins.
“This is a clash of opinions. Why argue over speculation? Everyone—citizens and actors alike— has a different view, and we’ll keep debating until the trial starts,” he said. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
Philippines, US militaries conduct 8th MCA
UNITS from the Armed Forces (AFP) and the US Indo-Pacific Command (USIndopacom) conducted their eighth bilateral maritime cooperative activity (MCA) on Wednesday.
The training activity took place at the strategic waters ofd Palauig, Zambales, to Cabra Island, Occidental Mindoro, Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., Armed Forces chief of staff, said in a statement.
“These maritime engagements demonstrate our commitment to maintain a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific [region]. The eighth bilateral MCA reinforces both countries’ shared commitment to uphold international law, free -
dom of navigation, and regional stability,” Brawner said.
Participating Navy (PN) assets included the guided missile frigate BRP Miguel Malvar (FFG-06), an AW-109 “Power” helicopter, a C208B reconnaisance aircraft, and an Air Force (PAF) search-andrescue aircraft.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard (PCG) deployed patrol vessels BRP Cabra (MRRV-4409) and BRP Suluan (MRRV-4406).
The US side was represented by the USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54), an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight I) Aegis guided missile destroyer and a P-8A “Poseidon” maritime patrol aircraft.
The eighth MCA featured a
reclusion temporal. To ensure immediate intervention, barangay officials and law enforcement officers are mandated to respond promptly to reports, assist victims in seeking medical help or relocation, and document the incident without delay. Failure to act or any form of influence to suppress cases may lead to administrative sanctions against public officials.
Immunity from liability is granted to any private citizen or official who intervenes to protect a senior citizen, provided no excessive force is used. The bill also prohibits the use of intoxication or drug influence as a defense in elder abuse cases.
Furthermore, physicians, social workers, and caregivers are obligated to report suspected abuse to authorities. Confidentiality is paramount, with violators facing fines up to P200,000 for unauthorized disclosures.
Financial compensation for crime child-victims gets backing at Congress
THE House of Representatives on Thursday expressed support for the government’s plan to provide financial compensation to young victims of violent crimes, emphasizing the critical role of the state in helping children heal and rebuild their lives.
Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, Speaker of the 19th Congress, made a statement after the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier announced an agreement establishing a referral system enabling child victims to access monetary remuneration for their basic needs and other recovery-related expenses.
“Our young ones deserve to be cared for, nurtured, and protected. When they become victims of cruel, violent crimes, it becomes the government’s duty to ensure that they are properly supported on the way to healing and recovery,” Romualdez said.
“By making it easier for them to access financial compensation that can cover expenses for treatment, therapy, legal support, and education, we give young survivors a real chance at a fresh start—with the government standing firmly by their side,” he added. Romualdez also vowed to push for the institutionalization of the program in the House of Representatives and to ensure it receives adequate funding under the national budget.
“We represent these children in Congress—victims of violence who cannot speak for themselves. It is only right that we give them all the support they need to rise above their trauma,” he said.
range of operational drills and cooperative maneuvers. These included a communications exercise to test coordination protocols, followed by maritime domain awareness and contact reporting.
The PCG also conducted a visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) operation to demonstrate law enforcement interoperability at sea.
Further exercises involved division tactics and officer of the watch maneuvers, which allowed both navies to practice coordinated ship movements and formation sailing. A photo exercise followed by a finish exercise that integrated all learned skills in a simulated scenario.
Rex Anthony Naval with PNA
The newly signed memorandum of agreement allows the DSWD to refer children in its residential care facilities (RCFs) to the DOJ’s Victim Compensation Program (VCP). The VCP provides monetary compensation to victims of violent crimes to help offset the damage caused by such acts.
Eligible cases include rape, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance, human trafficking, and online sexual abuse and exploitation, among others.
Romualdez lauded the program as a timely and compassionate intervention that would provide significant relief to the child victims and their families.
“By helping them jumpstart their recovery and reintegration into society, we are not only fulfilling our duty as public servants—we are also giving these children the chance to dream again and reach for a better future,” Romualdez said.
Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
Senator seeks probe into impact of SC ruling on fishing
By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM
ASENATOR is calling for an investigation into the impact of commercial fishing within the 15-kilometer municipal waters, amid mounting concerns over its effect on small-scale fishermen, marine biodiversity, and national food security.
The proposed investigation, formalized through a resolution filed on July 8, seeks to determine whether the recent SC ruling that allowed commercial vessels to operate in shallow waters has compromised
Mega health center to rise at Clark New City
IN a bid to expand healthcare reach in Central Luzon, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) partnered with the local government of Capas, Tarlac, for the construction of a mega health center that will rise in a one-hectare lot at the the New Clark City in Clark Field, Pampanga.
In a statement on Thursday, BCDA said that during a discussion with Capas Mayor Roseller Rodriguez, BCDA President and Chief Executive Officer Joshua M. Bingcang outlined plans for the proposed facility, wherein the state-run company pledged to allocate a one-hectare land in New Clark City.
The project will be funded by the Department of Health (DOH), with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) overseeing bidding and construction.
BCDA told reporters that this mega health center has a project cost of P30 million.
Upon completion, the town government of Capas will be responsible for its operations and maintenance, BCDA said.
The state-run company said this initiative forms part of its commitment to help build smart, inclusive, and resilient communities through “meaningful intergovernmental collaboration.”
“This project strengthens our shared goal of making essential services more accessible to Filipinos. With the Capas municipal government funding the facility and BCDA providing the land, this health center will be a product of true public sector synergy,” said Bingcang.
The health center will serve as a critical addition to the growing infrastructure in New Clark City, offering expanded medical services to both urban and rural populations in Tarlac.
New Clark City currently offers healthcare services through the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) Sports Medicine and Wellness Center. This facility provides basic medical and dental services and has future plans to expand into a 200-bed hospital. Andrea San Juan
the livelihood of millions of Filipinos who depend on these areas for their daily catch.
The resolution also questions the scientific basis—if any—behind the 15-kilometer boundary and the 12.8-meter depth restriction, urging the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform to explore possible legislative interventions to protect municipal waters and uphold the rights of small fishermen.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who filed the resolution, warned that continued encroachment by commercial vessels into municipal fishing grounds could “starve small fishermen of their liveli -
hood” and accelerate the collapse of critical fish populations such as sardines and anchovies.
“This is about more than boundaries,” Pangilinan said. “It’s about protecting the very communities who have long been the stewards of our seas—and ensuring that our oceans remain a source of life and livelihood, not a battleground for survival.”
The controversy stems from a petition filed by Mercidar Fishing Corp. on October 25, 2023, challenging restrictions on commercial fishing in municipal waters.
On December 11, the Regional Trial Court in Malabon ruled in favor of the petitioner, saying the 15-kilometer boundary was a
Few PHL businesses leverage AI
By Andrea San Juan @andreasanjuan
ONLY 17 percent of Philippine businesses have successfully scaled artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives enterprise-wide in the past three years owing to issues in balancing budget, and the existing expertise and skills gap that hinder these firms to unlock AI value, a study conducted by multinational technology company IBM showed.
This, IBM underscored in a statement on Tuesday while CEO respondents globally expect the growth rate of AI investments to more than double over the next two years.
Key findings for the Philippines revealed the challenges faced by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in the country such as “competing pressures” of short-term (return on investment) ROI and long-term innovation; the struggles faced in budget allocation given the need to earmark funds for innovation; and the skills gaps.
The IBM study noted that only 23 percent of Philippine CEOs report that AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI over the last few years, and 17 percent have scaled enterprise wide.
“Sixty percent say it’s better to be ‘fast and wrong’ than ‘right and slow’ when it comes to technology adoption,” the multinational tech firm said.
Meanwhile, Philippine CEOs are calling for more “agility and budget flexibility” as more than half or 58 percent of surveyed CEOs admit their organization struggles to balance funding for existing operations and investment in innovation when unexpected change occurs.
The IBM study also noted that 65 percent of CEO respondents say more budget flexibility is needed to “capitalise on digital opportunities that drive long-term growth and innovation.”
On talent, the study pointed out that heads of companies underscored the importance of “strategic leadership and specialised talent” as essential to unlocking AI value amid expertise and skills gaps.
For one, the IBM study noted that 78 percent of surveyed CEOs in the Philippines said their organization’s success is directly tied to maintaining a broad group of leaders with a deep understanding of strategy and the authority to make critical decisions.
Moreover, 60 percent of Philippine CEO respondents said that “differentiation” depends
on having the right expertise in the right positions with the right incentives.
The IBM study also pointed out that surveyed CEOs said roughly one-third or 31 percent of the workforce will require retraining and/or reskilling over the next three years in the Philippines.
“Sixty percent of executive respondents say they are hiring for roles related to AI that did not exist a year ago,” the IBM study also revealed.
Abraham Thomas, managing partner, IBM Consulting, Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) said business leaders in Asean are “under pressure” to demonstrate ROI from AI while needing to invest in long-term capabilities to stay competitive.
“This balancing act is made even more complex by the region’s fragmented digital landscape, with varying national regulations and inconsistent standards for cross-border data flow,” added Thomas.
He said that as Philippine organizations accelerate AI adoption in order to stay ahead in a dynamic market, their success to unlock real business value from their investments “will hinge on overcoming challenges in data integration and workforce readiness.”
Housing agency set to implement 34 delayed community projects
THE Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) has approved a proposal to revive 34 on-site Community Mortgage Program (CMP) projects that had been on hold for several years.
This paves the way for about 5,000 low-income families across the country to begin securing land tenure and future housing upgrades.
The proposal, submitted by the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), seeks to prioritize long-pending CMP projects for communities that have been
organized and waiting for formal land awards.
“We need to prioritize highimpact and implementable CMP projects and assist our beneficiaries transform their communities,” Housing Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling.
The CMP allows legally organized associations of low-income residents to collectively purchase land, either the lots they currently occupy or new relocation sites, under a system of community ownership.
Moreover, it aims to help squatter or informal settler families move toward secure land tenure and, eventually, improved and resilient communities.
SHFC president Federico Laxa explained that the revived projects are now being prepared for the initial awarding of lots,
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Continued from A3
Suan credited the synergy between the Executive and Legislative branches for advancing priority measures on infrastructure, jobs, digitalization, and social protection.
He also pointed out that the Marcos-Romualdez partnership has helped move key legislation
political designation without scientific merit.
The Supreme Court’s First Division upheld the RTC ruling on August 19, 2024, citing procedural lapses by the Office of the Solicitor General, which represented the Department of Agriculture in appealing the case.
While legal efforts to overturn the ruling continue, small fishermen and their families are already bearing the brunt. Pangilinan’s resolution cited studies indicating that if the decision stands, municipal fishers could lose access to 98 percent of their traditional fishing grounds.
Recent data supports fears of a looming crisis: municipal fish -
eries production dropped by 8.8 percent, from 879,960 metric tons in 2023 to 802,770 in 2024. In contrast, commercial fishing output rose by 4.2 percent, reaching 857,330 metric tons.
“Experts and advocates warn that unregulated access by commercial fleets will lead to overfishing, bycatch, and habitat destruction,” the resolution said.
“The risk to food security, coastal livelihoods, and biodiversity is too great to ignore.”
The inquiry aims to explore legislative and policy solutions that balance the sustainable use of marine resources with the protection of the country’s most vulnerable fishing communities.
Philexport presses passage of 8 bills in 20th Congress
THE Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport) is pressing the government to pass eight bills in the 20th Congress, including the Magna Carta for MSMEs, Customs Amnesty bill, Konektadong Pinoy bill and the proposed PhilPorts Act, among others.
A document handed to reporters by the trade group unveiled the list of bills that the umbrella organization of Philippine exporters deem important to be passed in the 20th Congress that starts session this month.
Topping the list is the Customs Amnesty bill which aims to help raise additional revenues for the government through voluntary disclosure without imposing new taxes, clear the Bureau of Customs (BOC) off pending liquidation accounts and prevent harassments on importers using these pending transactions.
Another priority measure included is the Magna Carta for MSMEs. Philexport said this bill seeks to extend the mandatory allocation of MSME loans by banks and remove the Bangko Sentral (BSP) regulatory cover on Small Business Corporation to allow it to extend MSME development loans within an “out-of-the-box” framework.
with plans to support future site development.
He also noted that these CMPs have been in the pipeline for several years and may also evolve into incremental housing programs. Under this setup, households can gradually improve their homes with government assistance as their finances allow.
“We will be more transformative with our CMP projects now, with consideration to incorporating development in our sites,” Laxa said.
The CMP projects were temporarily put on hold during the initial rollout of the government’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) program, which focused on high-rise public housing.
DHSUD and SHFC will begin to land awards to beneficiaries by October. Bless Aubrey Ogerio
forward, including measures on infrastructure, jobs, digitalization, and social protection.
“People trust what they can see. And right now, they see a government that is working, not bickering,” Suan said.
Suan pledged to help sustain this momentum by pushing for local development, modern governance, and accessible public services in the 20th Congress. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
The export group is also hoping the Congress will greenlight the International Maritime Trade Competitiveness Act to trim the shipping costs.
“International shipping costs to and from the Philippines are expensive compared with other countries in the region,” Philexport noted.
“We believe that these high charges are caused by a lack of regulatory oversight as there is no agency assigned to oversee local charges imposed by international shipping lines,” it pointed out. With this measure, the export group said: “We want to ensure that the charges are (a) based on international best practices; (b) reasonable; and (c) subject to taxes, as these are charged at a local level.”
As to the piece of legislation related to ports, Philexport said it supports the “decoupling of the regulatory and developmental functions of the PPA which gets a cut from all the fees imposed at the seaports.”
“Under HB 4317 and 1400, PPA will be converted into a Philippine Ports Corporation
[Philports] mandated to commercially develop and operate public ports,” Philexport noted, adding that once enacted, this measure would pave the way for the transfer of PPA’s regulatory functions to the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).
The group also hopes the Konektadong Pinoy bill would be passed in the coming Congress, a priority measure that aims to expand internet access in the country and ease the entry of new players in the data transmission industry.
Another reform is the amendment in the [Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines] Caap Charter. Pending bills in the 19th Congress on de-linking the Caap functions include House Bill 2234 and Senate Bill 1073.
“The proposed reform aims to transfer the functions of Caap to a new entity [organizational de-linking] outside of Caap. The entity will be responsible for the development and commercial functions of all Caap airports as evidence reveals that organizational de-linking provides greater flexibility to the regulator to focus on its core function,” Philexport explained. Consistent with the export group’s “thrust” to boost Philippine export competitiveness in the international market, Philexport said “We express our strong support to the passage of these bills institutionalizing the development of a national quality infrastructure in the country.”
Philexport underscored that the inability to comply with international standards had been one of the several factors why it is difficult for the country’s exports to gain market access and increase participation in the global value chain.
The eighth bill on the list of measures that Philexport supports is the proposed Clima Act. The trade group said there is a need for clarification regarding the decision to designate Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and as an additional agency for businesses to report to, instead of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and to add a representation from the Industry in the Climate Change Reparations Board as “we are a significant stakeholder in the regulatory process and the penalties proposed in the bills.” Andrea San Juan
DepEd, DOTr, UK partner to build Education City with transit hub
By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3
SOON to rise: Education City, a major transport hub connecting two of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, the North South Commuter Railway (NSCR) and the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP) railway to bring safer, more accessible, and sustainable transportation options to learners and educators.
Shark Conservation Week 2025: Over 200 shark and ray species in PHL waters facing extinction
OVER 200 species of sharks, rays, and chimaeras are found in Philippine waters, but more than half of these species are facing extinction due to habitat degradation, bycatch, and illegal trade. Worse, despite the urgent need to protect them, about 70 percent of all sharks, rays and chimeras remain an unprotected.
This is the reason why the need for collective action has never been more urgent, nongovernment organizations pushing for shark and rays protection and conservation said, as they spearheaded the launch in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan the Shark Conservation Week (SCW) 2025 from July 17 to 22.
Organized by the Save Sharks Network Philippines (SSNP) in collaboration with the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines (MWWP), Save Philippine Seas (SPS), and in partnership with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and supported by the SM City Puerto Princesa and Hertz Philippines, this national celebration will culminate in the 5th Shark Summit on July 21–22 at the Alvea Hotel.
This year’s theme, “Sharkada sa Bawat Isla: Empowering the Shark Conservation Network across the Philippines,” reflects a growing nationwide movement to champion shark and ray protection from the grassroots to government levels.
“Sharks are indicators of a healthy ocean. Conserving them is not just about preserving a species, but also about safeguarding the ecosystems and livelihoods that millions of Filipinos depend on,” says Dr. AA Yaptinchay, Director of MWWP and Co-Convener of Shark Conservation Week.
“Through Shark Conservation Week, we invite every Filipino, from the fisherfolk of Palawan to the youth of Metro Manila, to join the ‘sharkada’ and become advocates of our shared seas,” adds Anna Oposa, Executive Director of SPS and Co-Convener of Shark Conservation Week.
SCW 2025 is more than a celebration; it is a call to action, anchored on science, community, and collaboration. The event will feature a wide range of activities designed to educate the public, strengthen conservation efforts, and celebrate the incredible role sharks and rays play in marine ecosystems:
“Sharkada sa Bawat Isla” Exhibit (SM City Puerto Princesa):
DIVE into the fascinating world of sharks and rays through an interactive and educational exhibit that explores their biology, conservation status, and ecological significance. Visitors will learn about the 10 Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) across the country, citizen science projects like Shark Spotted PH on Facebook, and the Philippines’ leadership in international agreements such as CITES.
Community activities:
SCW 2025 will host a series of engaging events including the Anak ng Pating Youth Forum with junior and senior high school students, a community mural painting, Baby Shark storytelling sessions for children, a “Finyasa” yoga class, and an eco-conscious whale shark interaction tour. These events create a platform for inclusive conservation, ensuring youth, artists, elders, and visitors all have a role in shark protection.
Film Screening: “Iyo ang Dagat (The Sea is Yours)” THIS powerful documentary explores the intimate relationship between humans and marine life in the Sulu Sea, featuring local fishermen, rangers, scientists, tour operators, and communities that interact with sharks and rays daily.
“Shark conservation is not just an environmental issue; it is a matter of national heritage and food security. Through science-based approaches and local partnerships, we can ensure that sharks and rays continue to thrive in Philippine waters,” says Kate Lim, Country Director of the WCS-Philippines. “This week is a powerful reminder that protecting marine wildlife is a shared responsibility, across islands, sectors, and generations.”
Summit for Sharks: From Vision to Action
SCW 2025 will culminate in the 5th Shark Summit, a two-day national forum to advance shark and ray conservation. Key stakeholders, including representatives from BFAR, SSNP members, researchers, and community leaders, will gather to launch the newly approved Shark, Ray, and Chimaera Conservation and Management Framework (SCF) and develop a concrete action plan and timeline for implementing the Framework.
A highlight of the Shark Summit, the “Migo sa Iho” (Friend of Sharks) Awards recognize individuals and groups making a real impact in shark and ray conservation. This year’s awardees are: BFAR, for their key role in developing the SCF; Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol, for championing sustainable whale shark tourism; Gio Endaya, from a Marine Education and Preservation Institute, for his active protection of blacktip reef sharks in San Teodoro, Batangas. Their efforts serve as powerful examples of how science, governance, and community action can work together to protect our ocean’s vital species.
The 5th Shark Summit is a pivotal gathering that marks a turning point for Philippine marine conservation. By aligning scientific research, policy initiatives, and community engagement, the Summit seeks to conserve shark and ray populations not only as wildlife but as allies insustaining marine biodiversity and food security.
The Department of Education (DepEd) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (UK FCDO), in line with the initiative of President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s vision of improving public transportation to enhance the mobility and quality of life for Filipino learners.
The collaboration, through the Senate-DepEd (SEED) Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Project, centers on the 14-hectare DepEd Complex in Taguig City, which DepEd plans to transform into an Education
City—a future-ready, climateresilient, and sustainably mixedused space featuring green commercial and residential buildings, open spaces, transit hubs, training and MICE facilities, and teacher accommodation.
“This partnership ensures that our learners and educators will also directly benefit from a wellplanned, green, and safe environment that ultimately contributes to the public education objectives,” said Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara.
The SEED Project aims to build well-connected, well-planned, and accessible communities around the major rail corridors, making it easier for students and
142 bidders pre-qualified
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
THE Department of Energy
(DOE) has pre-qualified 142 bidders who offered new power generation capacities from ground-mounted solar, roofmounted solar, floating solar, and onshore wind (OSW) projects under the fourth round of the green energy auction (GEA-4).
On Thursday, the agency released the list after evaluation and deliberation conducted by the GEA-Bids Evaluation and Awards Committee (BEAC).
“The evaluation of qualified bidders follows a rigorous process to ensure transparency, fairness, and compliance with the GEA-4 guidelines. The selected companies have demonstrated the technical, legal, and financial capabilities necessary to participate and contribute to the Philippines’ long-term clean energy targets,” the agency said.
A pre-bid conference is scheduled on July 28. The auction, the DOE had said, is scheduled on September 2 while the valuation of submitted bids will be on September 17. The issuance of certificate of award is set on
residents to live, learn, work, and move within Metro Manila.
In addition to improving connectivity, the project is expected to generate long-term revenue opportunities that will help DepEd fund the construction of more classrooms and advance digital learning in public schools.
“The UK is proud to bring in British expertise and innovation to pioneer a TOD where people can live, learn, work, and thrive—connected by efficient transport systems, designed with people at the heart, and guided by principles of sustainability and resilience,” British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said.
Under the MOU, a working group will be formed to oversee the project’s implementation and mobilizes the Phase 2 of the plan, which includes technical studies and a project concept to be submitted to the NEDA Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) for approval.
The initiative is funded under the UK FCDO’s Green Cities and Infrastructure Programme, drawing inspiration from London’s Elizabeth Line, a known model for smart transit-linked development. DepEd and DOTr will collaborate with experts from Crossrail International and top British architectural and engineering firms.
for DOE’s fourth round of green energy auction
January 9, 2026. Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) submitted the most number of bids at 27; followed by Joy-Nastalg Solaris Inc., 9; SMC Global Light and Power Corp., 8; Alabel Solar Energy Corp., 7; Envision Philippines Power Corp., 7; TPI Azimuth Corp., 6; Freya Renewables Inc., 5; Mainstream Renewable Power Philippines Corp., 5; Econergy Renewables Power Philippines Inc., 4; Nortesol IV, Inc., 3; and Giga Ace 6, Inc., 3. The other bidders submitted one or two bids.
GEA-4 aims to accelerate the country’s renewable energy transition by adding new capacity from ground-mounted solar, roofmounted solar, floating solar, and OSW projects. Significantly, this round marks a milestone as the first auction to integrate Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Systems (IRESS), specifically solar power plants paired with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). With an additional 1,100 MW of solar capacity equipped with energy storage, these projects are expected to enhance grid reliability and flexibility while supporting the country’s growing electricity demand.
MALACAÑANG ordered all government agencies and instrumentalities to promote maritime and domain awareness to drum up more public support in their efforts to defend the country’s territorial waters.
Last week, Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin issued Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 87 wherein he called on the National Maritime Council (NMC) through the Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns (POMC) to implement year-round programs and activities to promote the Philippines as a “Martime and Archipelagic Nation.”
He said the activities should include the annual commemoration of the Maritime and Archipelagic Nation Awareness Month (MANA Mo), which is held every September.
“To raise and deepen public
understanding of the country’s maritime and archipelagic issues and concerns, it is imperative to strengthen public awareness, national consciousness, and intergenerational appreciation of the Philippine national territory and maritime zones,” Bersamin said in MC 87.
The Presidential Communications Office was tasked to implement communication strategies and disseminating information to inform, educate, and engage the general public to promote the country as a Maritime and Archipelagic Nation.
Through synchronized government efforts, Bersamin said they hope to boost the protection of the country’s maritime domain and heritage.
MC 87 will require each concerned government agency to have a dedicated budget for the said promotion.
See “Palace,”
Senate should probe online baby-selling racket cases, says Sen. Pia Cayetano
By Butch Fernandez
Last month, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) released the green energy auction reserve (GEAR) prices for GEA-4.
In a resolution, the ERC has set a price of P5.68 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for rooftop solar, P4.4832 per kWh for ground-mounted solar, P6.5258 per kWh for floating solar, P6.0869 per kWh for OSW, and P5.4028 per kWh for solar plus energy storage system (ESS).
As the regulator of the power industry, the ERC is mandated to set the GEAR price, or the maximum price in pesos per kWh that will serve as the ceiling price for the auction, offering a total of 10,653 megawatts (MW). These will comprise 9,553MW from ground-mounted solar, roofmounted solar, floating solar, OSW projects and 1,100MW of solar capacity equipped with energy storage.
“GEA-4 forms part of the government’s broader strategy to promote competitive RE procurement and fast-track the integration of additional green capacities into the national grid. Through this initiative, the DOE aims to ensure affordable, reliable, and sustain -
able energy for all Filipinos,” the DOE said.
Tetchi Capellan, a pioneer in solar energy in the Philippines, meanwhile commented that “there is no price that will satisfy everyone,” referring to the GEAR prices.
“I think the price itself is a point that we can validate once the auction happens. So far, it is a price that will attract participants. So having said that, I think the challenge is not so much the price. It is the auction design. There’s two different things. So, the price is done by ERC, the auction design is prepared by DOE,” Capellan, who is also the president of Sun Asia Energy, said. In the auction design, Capellan pointed out that some rooftop developers have difficulty in posting the surety bond and securing the letter of credit. “We have rooftop developers and participants who have limited income, limited capital, smaller in size. And what we want is to draw them into the auction. And the only way you can draw them is remove any financial burden. The less barrier, the more participant, the more competitive,” she said.
2 sacks of human remains found in Taal Lake–DOJ
JBong Go files bill to set up PHL Senior Citizens Hospital
SEN. Christopher “Bong” Go has filed
Senate Bill No. 411 seeking to create a dedicated institution for the care of the country’s growing elderly population.
By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573
USTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin
Remulla on Thursday said two sacks of human remains were recovered at the exact area in Taal Lake where witnesses claimed the bodies of 34 missing cockfighting enthusiasts or sabungeros were dumped four years ago.
At a press briefing, Remulla said the recovery of confirmed human bones by divers from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is a positive indication that their witnesses, including whistleblower Julie “Totoy” Patidongan are “very reliable.”
Remulla said investigators have yet to determine whether the recovered human remains belong to different individuals.
He gave assurances that all government agencies involved in the case of missing sabungeros would exert all possible means to identify the remains.
Earlier, Remulla said the Philippine government will seek the assistance of the Japanese government in conducting forensic examinations on the bones recovered from the so-called “ground zero” for the search and retrieval operations at the Taal Lake.
who went missing or the desaparecidos. So DNA was the one used,” Remulla said.
Remulla said they expect more witnesses will come out as new pieces of evidence are being uncovered.
“It would be a domino, some people will not come out until we are able to reach a certain point of the investigation,” he said Meanwhile, PCG divers are expected to continue the search and retrieval operations at the Taal Lake despite the minor phreatic eruption recorded at the Taal Volcano.
Go aims to establish the Philippine Senior Citizens Hospital and Research Institute (PSCHRI), a tertiary specialty hospital under the direct supervision of the Department of Health (DOH), to serve as the national center for geriatric healthcare and research if enacted into law.
In his explanatory note, Go underscored the urgent need for specialized care for senior citizens, citing the demographic reality that the elderly population is projected to surpass 14 million by 2030, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
of Health. The hospital will offer affordable, quality, and timely people-centered hospital care for senior citizens and will develop geriatric health services in collaboration with other government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and stakeholders. If passed, the proposed hospital will also serve as a center for consultancy and technical assistance in setting standards for geriatric wards nationwide while building capacity in nursing homes, residential care facilities, and senior citizens’ wards in hospitals, as mandated by RA No. 9994.
The DOJ secretary said among those found inside the two sacks were human ribs.
Aside from Japan, Remulla said they are mulling over writing the Argentine government to also request for assistance in conducting DNA tests on the remains.
“Today, human remains were found in the areas pointed to us by our sources and that was also identified by alias ‘Totoy.’ This time in the specific quadrant pointed to us as a site where people are being disposed of,” Remulla said.
“As I said, if we have to write Argentina because there is a precedent, that based on their program they were able to establish identities of people through DNA remains, persons
Phivolcs Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division said such activity of Taal Volcano, being on alert level 1, has been usual and recurring since 2021.
Likewise, the direction of the plume is opposite the location of the retrieval operations.
Remulla said the retrieval operations would be immediately suspended if any risks to the divers arise and upon the advice of Phivolcs.
DTI suspends definitive safeguard on HDPE items
THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has suspended the imposition of the definitive general safeguard measure on importations of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pellets and granules from other countries.
“In view ther eof, and in order to avert any supply disruption of HDPE products, DTI hereby orders the suspension of the imposition of the definitive general safeguard measure on importations of HDPE from various countries,” read the Department Administrative Order (DAO) No. 25-08 published on DTI’s website.
DTI said the suspension shall be effective
for the remaining period of the imposition or until such time that JG Summit Olefins Corporation (JGSOC) resumes its normal operations, whichever comes earlier.
Unveiling the events that led to the suspension of the safeguard measure, DTI said: On September 30, 2022, the DTI issued DAO No. 22-13, imposing a definitive general safeguard measure on importations of HDPE pellets and granules from various countries.
O n December 2, 2022, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) issued Customs Memorandum Circular (CMC) No. 172-2022 notifying all concerned of the issuance of DTI’s DAO.
O n January 20, 2023, BOC issued Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) implementing the DTI DAO 22-13 for a period of three years.
On January 30,2025, JG Summit Holding, Inc., announced the “indefinite” commercial shutdown of its petrochemical business, JG Summit Olefins Corporation (JGSOC), due to challenging market conditions in the global petrochemical industry.
A month later, the Philippine Plastics Industry Association, Inc. (PPIA) wrote a letter to the DTI Secretary requesting for the suspension of imposition of the subject definitive general safeguard duty on imported HDPE.
The said request is being made in light of JGSOC’s indefinite commercial shutdown, and in order to stabilize the local supply of plastic resins,” DTI said.
O n March 14, 2025, JGSOC, as the sole domestic producer of HDPE products, confirmed to DTI in its reply letter that it has indeed implemented an indefinite commercial shutdown, but it expects to continue selling HDPE products from its existing inventory until the third quarter of 2025.
DTI said the DAO shall take effect upon the issuance of the relevant Customs Memorandum Order of Customs Memorandum Circular by the BOC. Andrea E. San Juan
“Elderly individuals often suffer from chronic illnesses due to their advanced age. Their conditions often manifest in functional decline and cognitive impairments which require long-term care, rehabilitation, and palliative services,” Go emphasized.
He acknowledged the existence of the Dr. Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal National Center for Geriatric Health (DEMMNCGH), but pointed out its limitations, as it operates under the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center and is not a stand-alone facility exclusively dedicated to senior citizens.
Go’s bill reflects his health reforms crusade and complements the objectives of existing laws such as Republic Act No. 11223, or the Universal Health Care Act, and RA 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act.
“This bill seeks to establish a dedicated senior citizens’ hospital to be known as the Philippine Senior Citizens Hospital and Research Institute to provide comprehensive, dedicated care for senior citizens, promote geriatric research and training, and serve as a national model for elder care,” he explained.
The measure formally titled the “Senior Citizens’ Hospital Act of 2025” says the PSCHRI will provide specialized care tailored to the unique needs of aging individuals and promote medical research and training in geriatric medicine.
Among the key provisions of the proposed law, the PSCHRI will have its own Medical Center Chief, a licensed physician with at least five years of hospital administration experience, to be appointed by the Secretary
The PSCHRI will also develop and implement research studies on diseases associated with aging, translating findings into policy and healthcare solutions. This aims, he added, to develop and implement research studies on diseases related to old age to translate research outcomes into policy and specialized health care solutions, and publish research studies that shall serve as a critical information resource for the medical and research community, in coordination with the Philippine Council on Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and the Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (IA-NIH).
The PSCHRI will maintain a core information hub on geriatric studies, coordinate with relevant institutions and agencies, and participate in knowledge-building activities on geriatric health services both locally and internationally.
To streamline elderly care, the proposed PSCHRI will coordinate closely with the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) in developing its programs and services and may call upon other government departments or agencies for assistance.
Go has been at the forefront of advancing measures that protect and uplift the welfare of senior citizens. One of his key legislative accomplishments is Republic Act No. 11982, which he co-authored and co-sponsored. This landmark law grants senior citizens a P10,000 cash gift upon reaching the ages of 80, 85, 90, and 95—long before turning 100.
Go is also a co-author of Republic Act No. 11916, which amended the Expanded Senior Citizens Act to increase the monthly social pension for indigent senior citizens.
Editor: Angel R. Calso
Trump softens tone with China in pursuit of summit with Xi Jinping and trade deal
By Jenny Leonard & Mackenzie Hawkins
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has dialed down his confrontational tone with China in an effort to secure a summit with counterpart Xi Jinping and a trade deal with the world’s second-largest economy, people familiar with internal deliberations said.
Six months into his second term, Trump has softened his harsh campaign rhetoric that focused on the US’s massive trade deficit with China and resulting job losses. The warmer posture contrasts with his threats against other trading partners to ravage their economies with crushing tariffs.
Trump is now focused on cutting purchase deals with Beijing— similar to one he forged during his first term—and celebrating quick wins instead of addressing root causes of the trade imbalances.
China posted a record trade surplus in the first half of the year amid booming exports.
On Tuesday, the US president said he would be fighting China “in a very friendly fashion.”
In meetings with his staff, Trump is often the least hawkish voice in the room, some of the people said.
Administration officials stressed that Trump has always liked Xi personally and pointed to moments in his first term when he nevertheless imposed sweeping restrictions on Huawei Technologies Co. and tariffs on the majority of Chinese exports.
Trump’s fluid playbook and his departure from promised hawkish policies have worried policymakers inside his administration as well as outside advisers, the people said. This week only exacerbated concerns that previous US red lines with China are now negotiable.
Allowing Nvidia Corp. to sell its China-focused, less-advanced H20 chip once again—something multiple senior officials had said was not on the table—reversed
the administration’s own stated approach of keeping the most critical American technologies out of Beijing’s hands.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last month cited H20 controls as evidence of the administration’s toughness on China when pressed by senators who worried the US could trade advanced semiconductors for the Asian country’s rareearth minerals.
While the US will still require approval for such exports—a restriction former President Joe Biden declined to impose—some Trump officials have privately objected to granting licenses they say will only embolden China’s tech champions, the people said.
Others have argued successfully that allowing Nvidia to compete with Huawei on its own turf is essential to winning the AI race with China. That view, championed by Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, has gained traction inside the administration, people familiar with the matter said.
‘Productive’ talks
TRUMP has the final say in all trade decisions, an administration spokesman said. The president has “consistently fought to level the playing field for American workers and industries, and the Administration continues to have productive discussions with all of our trading partners,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. In a further effort to ease tensions, US officials are preparing to delay an Aug. 12 deadline when US tariffs on China are set to snap back to 145% after the expiration of a 90-day truce. Bessent signaled
in a Bloomberg Television interview this week that the deadline was flexible.
One person familiar with the plans said the tariff truce could be extended another three months. This comes as Trump is rolling out duties for other countries— including key allies—and threatening more actions on industries including pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a summit between Trump and Xi is likely. Rubio, once among the staunchest China hawks in the Senate, said he had a “very constructive and positive” sit-down Friday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
‘Big steps’
ON Wednesday, Trump praised China’s moves to tighten controls on chemicals used to make fentanyl, part of steps taken after the US president imposed a 20% tariff on the nation for facilitating flows of the drug.
“China has been helping out,” Trump told reporters. “I mean, it’s been, it’s been a terrible situation for many years with fentanyl. But since I came here, we’re talking to them, and they’re making big steps.”
Some administration officials, meanwhile, are focused on getting China to agree to purchase some volume of to-be-determined US goods and services, people familiar with the matter said. That could satisfy Trump’s concerns about the trade deficit but won’t do much to close the yawning trade gap over the longer term.
Trump’s gentler handling of China is causing a rift among his advisers. Some members of his trade team want to hold a tough line against Beijing and have promised privately that export controls would never be part of trade discussions, people familiar with their deliberations said.
Yet during last month’s trade talks in London, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick openly said that recent export controls—officially justified on the basis of national security—were also designed to “annoy” Beijing. And this week, he—along with Bessent and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks—said plainly that allowing some less-advanced Nvidia chip sales to China is indeed part
Japan’s June exports fall as US tariffs stoke recession fears
By Yoshiaki Nohara
JAPAN’S exports fell for a second month as US President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign continued to weigh on trade, further raising the risk of a technical recession for the nation’s sputtering economy.
Exports edged down 0.5% in June from a year earlier, dragged down by sharp falls in the value of car and steel shipments, the Finance Ministry reported Thursday. The overall figure came in weaker than a forecast for a 0.5% increase by economists.
The drop in exports will continue to fuel concerns that Japan’s economy may shrink again in the second quarter, ushering in a technical recession that would add to the bad optics for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s embattled minority government. That outcome would also add to reluctance at the Bank of Japan to make its next rate hike move with the final level and likely impact of US tariffs still unclear.
“Given the fluctuating statements from President Trump, uncertainty is likely to persist,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute, who is among the economists seeing the economy sliding into technical recession last quarter. The consensus in estimates is for Japan to still eke out growth in the second quarter.
The latest report showed exports to the US sank 11.4% from a year largely in line with the previous month’s drop. The value of vehicle shipments slid 27% while steel tumbled 29%. Still, the fall in autos appeared largely down to aggressive price cutting by Japanese carmakers in response to the tariffs, as the number of passenger cars shipped actually rose 4.6% from the previous year.
“Exports to the US, particularly autos, have fallen significantly. Carmakers are cutting costs and sacrificing their profits to absorb the impact of the tariffs, which
is why car exports are falling in value, while they are rising in volume,” Minami said.
The Trump administration’s threats and implementation of higher tariffs are keeping uncertainty in global commerce at elevated levels, with few bilateral deals so far completed. Negotiations between the US and many nations including Japan are dragging on as countries find it difficult to come to an agreement.
Tokyo has been hit by a 25% tariff on cars and car parts and a 50% levy on steel. Separately, in June it was also facing a 10% baseline tariff on all other shipments to the US. The across-the-board levy is set to rise to 25% on Aug. 1 barring a deal, slightly higher than the 24% originally set in April.
Despite seven trips to Washington by Ishiba’s trade envoy, Ryosei Akazawa, a deal is not yet in sight, raising the prospect that the duties will rise at the start of next
See “Japan,” A9
of ongoing trade negotiations.
This development is raising questions about how far Trump would go in negotiating away national security actions if the Chinese demanded it. Some hawkish advisers fear that a further rollback of chip controls is now inevitable, people familiar with the matter said. Others have maintained that allowing sales of H20s—which are far less capable than Nvidia’s best models—is a far cry from exporting that leadingedge hardware, which they say is not up for discussion.
“You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack,” Lutnick said Tuesday on CNBC.
Closely watching the situation are allies and companies across Europe and Asia whose help the US wants to squeeze China’s tech sector. Government and industry officials in those regions have gotten the message that Washington’s strategy is subject to change, people familiar with the matter said.
A half-dozen tech industry officials who’ve interacted with Trump’s team on China said they
often leave meetings wanting details only to see core goals evolve in later discussions.
Surprise reversals
IN many cases, those in charge of China tech policy have made decisions without involving offices that historically have played a role. Restrictions imposed in May on sales of chip design software to China—which have since been reversed—were part of a raft of Commerce Department measures that came as a surprise to many within the administration, Bloomberg has reported.
The decision on H20 chips was also tightly held, people familiar with the matter said. Other actions that have been under consideration for months—including sanctions on Chinese chip giants and an effort to slap curbs on Chinese tech subsidiaries—have been delayed as officials pursue a trade deal.
But Trump is also known for reversing course on China often and sometimes quickly after taking a position—as was the case when he fulfilled Xi’s personal request to lift sanctions on Chinese telecom
giant ZTE Corp. in 2018. He’s also susceptible to criticism of his approach, which might indicate Trump could change his tone yet again.
“President Trump is set on a China deal, but it may be shortlived,” said Derek Scissors, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “The US trade deficit is well higher to date this year and the new budget will boost demand for imports in the fourth quarter. If a record 2025 trade deficit gets reported, all bets are off, including with China.”
Beijing has made no secret it believes it has the upper hand. In London, US officials were taken aback by their Chinese counterparts’ gloating over the position they find themselves in, people familiar with the exchange said. The Asian country’s leverage stems from its grip on rare earth magnets and its ability to weaponize America’s dependence on those supplies. China now requires companies to hand over sensitive data and reapply for rare-earth export licenses every six months. With assistance from Jordan Fabian and Catherine Lucey/Bloomberg
Senate passes $9 billion spending cuts to public broadcasting, foreign aid requested by Trump
By Kevin Freking & Mary Clare Jalonick The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—The Senate has passed about $9 billion in federal spending cuts requested by President Donald Trump, including deep reductions to public broadcasting and foreign aid, moving forward on one of the president’s top priorities despite concerns from several Republican senators.
The legislation, which now moves to the House, would have a tiny impact on the nation’s rising debt but could have major ramifications for the targeted spending, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to US food aid programs abroad.
It also could complicate efforts to pass additional spending bills this year, as Democrats and even some Republicans have argued they are ceding congressional spending powers to Trump with little idea of how the White House Office of Management and Budget would apply the cuts.
The 51-48 vote came after 2 a.m. Thursday after Democrats sought to remove many of the proposed rescissions during 12 hours of amendment votes. None of the Democratic amendments were adopted.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Republicans were using the president’s rescissions request to target wasteful spending. He said it is a “small but important step for fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue.”
But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the bill “has a big problem—nobody really knows what program reductions are in it.” Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats in voting against the legislation. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell,
the former Republican leader, had voted against moving forward with the bill in a Tuesday procedural vote, saying he was concerned the Trump White House wanted a “blank check,” but he ultimately voted for final passage.
The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes after Republicans also muscled Trump’s big tax and spending cut bill to approval without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase future federal deficits by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.
Lawmakers clash over cuts to public radio and TV stations
ALONG with Democrats, Collins and Murkowski both expressed concerns about the cuts to public broadcasting, saying they could affect important rural stations in their states.
Murkowski said in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday that the stations are “not just your news—it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”
Less than a day later, as the Senate debated the bill, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground. The situation is “a reminder that when we hear people rant about how public broadcasting is nothing more than this radical, liberal effort to pollute people’s minds, I think they need to look at what some of the basic services are to communities,” Murkowski said.
The legislation would claw back nearly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public
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Republican senators caution Trump against firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
By Stephen Groves The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is gaining some key backing on Capitol Hill from GOP senators who fear the repercussions if President Donald Trump follows through with threats to try and remove the politically independent central banker.
As Trump seemingly waffled back and forth this week on trying to dismiss the Fed chair, some Republicans in Congress began to speak up and warn that such a move would be a mistake. Trump would potentially obliterate the Fed’s independence from political influence and inject uncertainty into the foundations of the US economy if he fires Powell.
“If anybody thinks it would be a good idea for the Fed to become another agency in the government subject to the president, they’re making a huge mistake,” GOP North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said in a floor speech.
The measure of support from
GOP members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs showed how traditional Republicans are carefully navigating a presidency in which Trump often flirts with ideas—like steep tariffs or firing the Fed chair—that threaten to undermine confidence in the US economy.
Tillis, who recently decided not to seek reelection after clashing with Trump, later told The Associated Press that the economic fallout from Powell’s firing would mostly hurt “little guys like me that grew up in trailer parks that may have a few thousand dollars in a 401k.”
He also pointed out that the underlying complaint that Trump has with the Fed—its reluctance to cut interest rates—is not controlled by Powell alone, but instead a 12-member committee.
“The markets expect an independent, central bank,” said GOP South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who cautioned against firing Powell. “And if they thought for a minute that he wasn’t independent, it would cast a spell over the forecasts and the integrity of the decisions being made by the bank.”
Still, plenty of other Republicans think that dismissing Powell is a fine idea.
“The most incompetent, worst Federal Reserve chairman in American history should resign,” said GOP Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno.
Trump said he was also encouraged to fire Powell during a meeting with about a dozen far-right House members Tuesday evening.
Do presidents have authority to fire the Fed chair?
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters that he was “unhappy with the leadership” at the Fed, but added “I’m honestly not sure whether that executive authority exists” to fire Powell.
House Financial Services Committee chair French Hill has underscored that presidents don’t have the authority to fire the Fed chair, yet has also been sympathetic to Trump’s complaints about Powell’s leadership. He and other Republicans have also noted that Powell’s term as chair is ending next year anyway, and Trump will have an opportunity to name a new chair then. When Congress started the Federal Reserve over 100 years ago, it insulated it from political pressure by stipulating that its governors and chair could only be fired “for
cause”—a higher bar than most political appointees. However, the Trump administration has maneuvered to meet that standard by accusing Powell of mishandling a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Fed’s headquarters.
“When his initial attempts to bully Powell failed, Trump and Republicans in Congress suddenly decided to look into how much the Fed is spending on building renovations,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a speech Wednesday. “Independence does not mean impunity and I have long pushed for more transparency and accountability at the Fed. But give me a break.”
After Powell sent Congress a letter detailing parts of the renovation project, Sen. Tim Scott, the Senate Banking Committee chair, released a short statement saying Scott “has continued to call for increased transparency and accountability at the Federal Reserve, and this letter is consistent with improving the communication and transparency he is seeking.”
Avoiding a protracted legal battle
REGARDLESS , it would be legally dubious to fire Powell over the renovation.
“That would be litigated and I don’t see a reason, for cause or otherwise, to remove him,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican member of the Senate committee that oversees the Fed, told reporters this week.
He added that he understood the president’s “frustration” with the Fed’s reluctance to lower interest rates as it tries to tamp down inflation, saying, “I get that, but I think it’s very important the Federal Reserve remains independent.”
Even those Republicans who argued that the president has grounds to fire Powell and piled criticism on the central banker conceded that it would still be a painful step.
“That’s a decision the president will make, and he’s being very deliberate about it,” said Moreno, the Ohio senator who called for Powell’s resignation. “But I don’t think we should put the country through any of that.”
Syrian government, Druze minority leaders announce a new ceasefire
By Abdelrahman Shaheen & Kareem Chehayeb The Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria—Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel.
Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syria’s Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold.
A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement.
Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement.
Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus THE announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military.
The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians.
The violence appeared to be the most serious threat yet to efforts by Syria’s new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, ending a nearly 14-year civil war.
Interim President Ahmad alSharaa, in footage on state television early Thursday, called the Druze an integral part of Syria and denounced Israel’s actions as sowing division.
“We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our
top priorities,” he said, specifically addressing Druze people in Syria.
“We reject any attempt—foreign or domestic—to sow division within our ranks. We are all partners in this land, and we will not allow any group to distort the beautiful image that Syria and its diversity represent.”
He said Israel sought to break Syrian unity and turn the country into a theater of chaos but that Syrians were rejecting division.
He said Syrians did not fear renewed war but sought the path of Syrian interest over destruction. “We assigned local factions and Druze spiritual leaders the responsibility of maintaining security in (Sweida), recognizing the gravity of the situation and the need to avoid dragging the country” into a new war, he said.
Syria’s new, primarily Sunni Muslim, authorities have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, especially after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed.
No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces. Israel threatens further escalation ISRAEL has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense
Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad’s fall.
That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the “painful blows have begun.”
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders, saying it doesn’t want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
Kats said in a statement that the Israeli army “will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area—and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”
An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a “multitude of scenarios” and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights.
Syria’s Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating the ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday.
Druze fear for the lives of relatives in Sweida REPORTS of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate.
In Jaramana, near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she feared that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, was dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan commuted to Sweida for work and was trapped there when the clashes erupted.
Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias.
When her husband’s colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal.
“They shot my husband in the hip, from what I could gather,” she said, struggling to hold back tears. “The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened.”
A Syrian Druze from Sweida
living in the United Arab Emirates said her mother, father and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital, where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets outside. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted.
She had struggled to reach them, but when she did, she said, “I heard them cry. I have never heard them this way before.”
Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cousin told her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it.
It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in 2018, she said. Her uncle was among many civilians there who had taken up arms to fight back while Assad’s forces stood aside. He was killed in the fighting.
“It’s the same right now,” she told The Associated Press. The Druze fighters, she said, are “just people who are protecting their province and their families.”
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas
VIDEOS surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses.
The observatory said at least 27 people were killed in “field executions.”
Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington is “very concerned” about the Israel-Syria violence, which he attributed to a “misunderstanding,” and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore calm.
Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Abby Sewell in Beirut, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
month in line with a letter Trump sent to Ishiba earlier in July.
“I think probably we’ll live by the letter with Japan,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
The talks are ongoing with Akazawa speaking with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick by telephone Thursday morning. Still, there appears little chance of a deal being announced before Japan goes to the polls on Sunday for an election that is likely to strip Ishiba of his majority in the less powerful upper house.
Beyond the drop in exports to the US, the report showed exports to China declined 4.7% and shipments to Europe rose 3.6%. The yen averaged 144.04 against the US dollar in June, 8% stronger than a year earlier, according to the Finance Ministry. A stronger yen tends to cut the value of dollar-denominated trade figures when converted into the Japanese currency.
Japan’s trade balance returned to a surplus for the first time in three months, at ¥153.1 billion ($1 billion). Imports inched up 0.2%.
Still, looking ahead, the impact of Trump’s barrage of tariffs is likely to deepen, threatening the progress made by Tokyo toward establishing a positive price, wage and growth cycle. While the majority of economists still see growth for the economy in the last quarter, about half of surveyed analysts expect a contraction in either the second or third quarters.
“If reciprocal tariffs are raised to 25%, the impact on exports other than automobiles would also be significant, potentially putting pressure on corporate profits and weighing on winter bonuses and next year’s wage increases,” Minami said. Bloomberg News
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BusinessMirror The World
Hospitals find simpler ways to recover hearts for transplant from ‘circulatory death’ donors
By Lauran Neergaard AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON—Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies—advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused.
The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone who dies when their heart stops. Called DCD, or donation after circulatory death, it involves a controversial recovery technique or the use of expensive machines.
Surgeons at Duke and Vanderbilt universities reported Wednesday that they’ve separately devised simpler approaches to retrieve those hearts. In the New England Journal of Medicine, they described successfully transplanting hearts to a 3-month-old infant at Duke and three men at Vanderbilt.
“These DCD hearts work just as well as hearts from brain-dead donors,” said Vanderbilt lead author Dr. Aaron M. Williams.
How hearts are saved for donation MOST transplanted hearts come from donors who are brain dead. In those situations, the body is left on a ventilator that keeps the heart beating until the organs are removed.
Circulatory death occurs when someone has a nonsurvivable brain injury but because all brain function hasn’t ceased, the family decides to withdraw life support and the heart stops. That means organs can spend a while without oxygen before being recovered, a time lag usually doable for kidneys and other organs but that can raise questions about the quality of hearts. To counter damage and determine whether DCD organs
are usable, surgeons can pump blood and oxygen to the deceased donor’s abdominal and chest organs—after clamping off access to the brain. But it’s ethically controversial to artificially restore circulation even temporarily and some hospitals prohibit that technique, called normothermic regional perfusion, or NRP.
Another option is to “reanimate” DCD organs in a machine that pumps blood and nutrients on the way to the transplant hospital. The machines are expensive and complex, and Duke’s Dr. Joseph Turek said the devices can’t be used for young children’s small hearts—the age group with the direst need.
New ways of preserving hearts TUREK’S team found a middle ground: Remove the heart and attach some tubes of oxygen and blood to briefly assess its ability to function—not in a machine but on a sterile table in the operating room.
They practiced with piglets. Then came the real test. At another hospital, life support was about to be withdrawn from a 1-month-old whose family wanted to donate—and who would be a good match for a 3-month-old Duke patient in desperate need of a new heart. The other hospi -
tal didn’t allow the controversial NRP recovery technique but let Turek’s team test the experimental alternative.
It took just five minutes to tell “the coronary arteries are filling well, it’s pink, it’s beating,” Turek said. The team promptly put the little heart on ice and raced it back to Duke.
Vanderbilt’s system is even simpler: Infuse the heart with a
nutrient-rich, cold preservative solution before removing it from the donor’s body, similar to how hearts from brain-dead donors are handled.
That “replenishes the nutrients that are depleted during the dying process and helps protect it for transport,” Williams explained, adding that Vanderbilt has performed about 25 such transplants so far. “Our view is you don’t nec -
essarily need to reanimate the heart.”
More donated hearts are needed
THERE’S a huge need for more transplantable hearts. Hundreds of thousands of adults suffer from advanced heart failure, yet many are never even offered a transplant because of the organ shortage. Every year about 700 children in the U.S. are added to the transplant list for a new heart and about 20% die waiting. Turek said infants are at particular risk. Last year, people whose lives ended via circulatory death made up 43% of the nation’s deceased donors—but just 793 of the 4,572 heart transplants.
That’s why many specialists say finding ways to use more of those hearts is crucial. The new studies are small and early-stage but promising, said Brendan Parent of NYU Langone Health, who directs transplant ethics and policy research.
“Innovation to find ways to recover organs successfully after circulatory death are essential for reducing the organ shortage,” he said.
If alternatives pan out, “I absolutely think that cardiac programs will be thrilled, especially at hospitals that have rejected NRP.”
Healthy babies born in Britain after scientists used DNA from three people to avoid genetic disease
By Maria Cheng & Laura Ungar
The Associated Press
LONDON—Eight healthy babies were born in Britain with the help of an experimental technique that uses DNA from three people to help mothers avoid passing devastating rare diseases to their children, researchers reported Wednesday. Most DNA is found in the nucleus of our cells, and it’s that genetic material—some inherited from mom, some from dad—that makes us who we are. But there’s also some DNA outside of the cell’s nucleus, in structures called mitochondria. Dangerous mutations there can cause a range of diseases in children that can lead to muscle weakness, seizures, developmental delays, major organ failure and death.
Testing during the in vitro fertilization process can usually identify whether these mutations are present. But in rare cases, it’s not clear.
Researchers have been developing a technique that tries to avoid the problem by using the healthy mitochondria from a donor egg.
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Broadcasting, which represents the full amount it’s due to receive during the next two budget years.
The corporation distributes more than 70% of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some funding administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.
They reported in 2023 that the first babies had been born using this method, where scientists take genetic material from the mother’s egg or embryo, which is then transferred into a donor egg or embryo that has healthy mitochondria but the rest of its key DNA removed.
The latest research “marks an important milestone,” said Dr. Zev Williams, who directs the Columbia University Fertility Center and was not involved in the work.
“Expanding the range of reproductive options … will empower more couples to pursue safe and healthy pregnancies.”
Using this method means the embryo has DNA from three people—from the mother’s egg, the father’s sperm and the donor’s mitochondria—and it required a 2016 UK law change to approve it. It is also allowed in Australia but not in many other countries, including the US.
Experts at Britain’s Newcastle University and Monash University in Australia reported in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday that they performed the new technique in fertilized embryos from 22 patients, which resulted in eight babies that appear
But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save, while leaving behind all other stations, including many that serve Native populations.”
Slashing billions of dollars from foreign aid
THE legislation would also claw back about $8 billion in foreign aid spending.
Among the cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and sanitation and family reunification for those who flee their own countries and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion cut for
to be free of mitochondrial diseases. One woman is still pregnant.
One of the eight babies born had slightly higher than expected levels of abnormal mitochondria, said Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell and developmental genetics scientist at the Francis Crick Institute who was not involved in the research. He said it was still not considered a high enough level to cause disease, but should be monitored as the baby develops.
Dr. Andy Greenfield, a reproductive health expert at the University of Oxford, called the work “a triumph of scientific innovation,” and said the method of exchanging mitochondria would only be used for a small number of women for whom other ways of avoiding passing on genetic diseases, like testing embryos at an early stage, was not effective.
Lovell-Badge said the amount of DNA from the donor is insignificant, noting that any resulting child would have no traits from the woman who donated the healthy mitochondria. The genetic material from the donated egg makes up less than 1% of the baby born after this technique.
programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations.
Democrats argued theTrump administration’s animus toward foreign aid programs would hurt America’s standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said the amount of money it takes to save a starving child or prevent the transmission of disease is miniscule, even as the investments secure cooperation with the US on other issues. The cuts being made to foreign aid programs through Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency were having life-and-death consequences around the world, he said.
“People are dying right now, not in spite of us but because of us,” Schatz said. “We are causing death.”
After objections from several Republicans, GOP leaders took out a $400 million cut to
“If you had a bone marrow transplant from a donor…you will have much more DNA from another person,” he said.
In the UK, every couple seeking a baby born through donated mitochondria must be approved by the country’s fertility regulator. As of this month, 35 patients have been authorized to undergo the technique.
Critics have previously raised concerns, warning that it’s impossible to know the impact these sorts of novel techniques might
have on future generations.
“Currently, pronuclear transfer is not permitted for clinical use in the U.S., largely due to regulatory restrictions on techniques that result in heritable changes to the embryo,” Williams, of Columbia, said in an email. “Whether that will change remains uncertain and will depend on evolving scientific, ethical, and policy discussions.”
For about a decade, Congress has included provisions in annual funding bills banning the Food and Drug Administration from
PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under thenPresident George W. Bush.
Looking ahead to future spending fights
DEMOCRATS say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation’s priorities. Triggered by the official recissions request from the White House, the legislation only needs a simple majority vote instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster, meaning Republicans can use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines.
The Trump administration is promising more rescission packages to come if the first effort is successful. But some Republicans who supported the bill indicated they might
be wary of doing so again.
“Let’s not make a habit of this,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn’t providing enough information on what exactly will be cut. Wicker said there are members “who are very concerned, as I am, about this process.”
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis echoed similar concerns and said Republicans will need to work with Democrats to keep the government running later in the year.
“The only way to fund the government is to get at least seven Democrats to vote with us at the end of September or we could go into a shutdown,” Tillis said.
accepting applications for clinical research involving techniques, “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.”
But in countries where the technique is allowed, advocates say it could provide a promising alternative for some families.
Liz Curtis, whose daughter Lily died of a mitochondrial disease in 2006, now works with other families affected by them. She said it was devastating to be told there was no treatment for her eightmonth-old baby and that death was inevitable.
She said the diagnosis “turned our world upside down, and yet nobody could tell us very much about it, what it was or how it was going to affect Lily.” Curtis later founded the Lily Foundation in her daughter’s name to raise awareness and support research into the disease, including the latest work done at Newcastle University.
“It’s super exciting for families that don’t have much hope in their lives,” Curtis said.
Ungar reported from Erie, Pennsylvania.
Republicans face a Friday deadline COLLINS attempted to negotiate a last minute change to the package that would have reduced the cuts by about $2.5 billion and restored some of the public broadcasting and global health dollars, but she abandoned the effort after she didn’t have enough backing from her Republican colleagues in the Senate and the House. The House has already shown its support for the
IN this photo provided by the Lily Foundation, Rosie and Katie Merritt, of England, hold their sister, Lily, who died of a mitochondrial disease in 2006 at 8-months old. LILY FOUNDATION VIA AP
THIS photo provided by DukeHealth shows surgeon Joseph Turek during pediatric heart surgery in Durham, N.C., in 2021. SHAWN ROCCO/DUKEHEALTH VIA AP
44 areas in NL affected by tropical depression ‘Crising’
ATOTAL of 44 areas in Northern Luzon were affected by Tropical Depression Crising, the state weather bureau reported, prompting Malacanang to mobilize concerned government agencies to brace for the potential impact as its strength intensifies upon landfall on Thursday night.
The third weather disturbance to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility this year, Crising brought heavy rains, which were aggravated by the prevailing Southwest Monsoon or Habagat.
Classes were also suspended in some of the severely affected areas, including some parts of Luzon and the Visayas.
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical, Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has issued a flood and storm surges advisory before noon on Thursday.
“The President has already issued a directive to concerned agencies like the NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council) to raise a Blue Alert Status on July 16 as of 11 am,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in Filipino in a press briefing last Thursday.
Under a Blue Alert, concerned disaster government bodies were directed to heighten their monitoring, consolidate and report all related incidents, and ensure prompt coordination with concerned agencies and offices.
NDRRMC also conducted a pre-disaster risk assessment and activated its Virtual Emergency Operation Center.
Castro said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are now on the alert with regard to the potential effects of Crising.
Despite the inclement weather, airports in the Bicol Region, including Legazpi, Naga, Virac, and Masbate, are fully operational and are making the necessary preparations, the Civil
DENR calls for science-based action to address flooding
THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday called for a science-based action to address flooding in light of the changing weather patterns influenced by climate change.
In an official statement, the DENR highlighted the need to understand the causes of flooding, particularly in Metro Manila.
The DENR stated in response to the claim made by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) that the controversial “Dolomite Beach” is to blame for recent flooding in some parts of Metro Manila.
MMDA Chairman Don Artes said in Manila, the Dolomite Beach is to blame, because it caused the blockage of three major drainage outfalls namely Faura, Remedios, and Estero de San Antonio Abad.
This reportedly forced rainwater to be rerouted through a sewage treatment plant, that is, however, incapable of handling flood volumes during heavy rains.
When sought for reaction, the DENR in response cited that meteorological data over the past decade indicates a striking increase in rainfall volume, attributed to climate change.
“This noticeable shift in weather patterns has exacerbated the challenges faced by urban areas like Metro Manila, where heavy rainfall can overwhelm drainage systems and lead to significant flooding,” the DENR stated. Jonathan L. Mayuga
Energy. . .
Continued from A1
With the looming departure of Dimalanta from the supposed five-man ERC, only Floresinda Baldo-Digal and Marko Romeo Lizada Fuentes will remain as members of the Commission. This has led to concerns that the quasi-judicial regulatory body will not be able to perform its regulatory function due to lack of members unless the President immediately appoints its new members.
No more vacuum
BUT now, industry power stakeholders are assured there will be no regulatory vacuum following the appointments of Juan and the two commissioners.
The three join commissioners Floresinda Baldo-Digal and Marko Romero Lizada Fuentes.
The Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, Inc. (Philreca) congratulated and pledged full support to the three commissioners.
“Atty. Juan’s extensive experience as former President and CEO of Iemop and his prior tenure within the ERC provide him with invaluable institutional knowledge of the power industry’s complexities. Coupled with the robust legal and administrative backgrounds of Commissioners Liberato and Real, we
Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said on Thursday.
However, CAAP reported that two flights (DG 6171/6172) between Clark and Masbate were canceled, affecting 109 passengers.
CAAP also said that all the 44 commercial airports it operates are on heightened alert.
All area and airport managers in potentially affected regions were asked to activate their respective airport emergency plans without delay, and to maintain close coordination with local disaster risk reduction and management councils, airline operators, and other airport stakeholders to ensure passenger safety, secure facilities, and uphold continuous operational readiness, CAAP said.
PAGASA said Crising continues to strengthen as it moves northwards. Crising may become a typhoon before it makes landfall on Thursday evening.
Jonathan L. Mayuga & Samuel P. Medenila
Senate.
syndicates in these online baby-selling cases, but also the systemic gaps that allow this to happen, and to ensure that our law enforcement agencies, social workers, and regulatory bodies are equipped and coordinated in stopping this practice,” Cayetano stated.
The senator also urged for stronger community education and digital monitoring efforts, in light of reports that even unborn babies are being offered for adoption in exchange for money.
“This issue is a painful reminder of the deep poverty and desperation that some families face, but that cannot justify the exploitation
Palace. . .
Continued from A5
Palace Press Officer Clair Castro stressed the importance of promoting the country’s maritime territory especially as China continues to claim parts of the West Philippines Sea (WPS), which were already invalidated by the 2016 Arbitral ruling.
“We should just. We should just promote and defend our sovereign rights, and those pertaining to our country. That’s why we say, again, let’s unite; every Filipino should fight for what we have in the Philippines; always be pro-Philippines,” she said in Filipino in a press briefing last Thursday.
In a related development, the Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary said President Ferdinand Marcos backs the passage of the Blue Economy Act, which was refiled by senators Loren Legarda and Risa Hontiveros in the 20th Congress. The bill aims to protect the country’s coastal and marine ecosystems including those found in the WPS.
“For all the good things that can make the environment better, and help in the upliftment of our people, fishermen, the President will not oppose this,” Castro said in Filipino.
During the 19th Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives were able to pass on third and final reading their respective versions of the said piece of legislation, but they were not able to ratify a reconciled version of the said measures.
are confident that this new leadership will bring renewed vigor, expertise, and a balanced perspective to the Commission’s vital role,” said Atty. Janeene Depay-Colingan, Philreca Executive Director and General Manager.
Juan served as ERC executive director and general counsel. Liberato, meanwhile, served as Deputy Executive Secretary for Finance and Administration at the Office of the President. Leal
The Independent Power Producers Association (Pippa), composed of 28 members with a combined installed capacity of about 18,132 megawatts, is confident the new ERC chief will continue to pave the way for energy modernization, promoting regulation that is best for all sectors to ensure energy security, reliability, and efficiency.
“Pippa looks forward to a dynamic ERC in the coming years of their service,” PIPPA President Executive Director Atty. Anne Estorco-Montelibano said. Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGEN), the power generation arm of Meralco, said Juan is going to be a “valuable asset” in the power sector, adding that his appointment comes at a critical time, as the industry continues to navigate the demands of the energy transition while safeguarding affordability and reliability.
“We look forward to working closely with Atty. Juan and the ERC in supporting policies that foster innovation,
encourage responsible investments, and build a resilient and sustainable power sector for the Philippines,” said MGen President Emmanuel Rubio.
Consumer advocacy group Power for People Coalition (P4P) urged the new appointees to put the accountability of power players and protection of consumer rights at the top of their agenda, ultimately bringing down the high cost of electricity.
“The P4P will as usual remain vigilant in ensuring the ERC does its mandate of protecting the interest of consumers,” P4P Convenor Gerry Arances said.
PHILRECA also urged the new ERC leadership to prioritize these critical areas deemed vital for the stability and growth of electric cooperatives and the welfare of consumers: the expeditious resolution of over/under recoveries; timely action on pending petitions; appeal to hold in abeyance ERC Resolution No. 13, Series of 2024.
“Philreca expresses its unwavering commitment to collaborate closely with Chairman Juan and Commissioners Liberato and Real,” said the group.
“Definitely a positive development to have a complete commission. Incoming Chairman Juan’s vast relevant experience will be a huge plus, and should help address the many challenges and backlog that the commission and industry face,” said ACEN Corp. president Eric Francia.
South China Sea: Asean and China reach milestone on COC negotiations
THE recent agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China on a Single Draft Code of Conduct (COC) Negotiating Text marks a significant milestone in a complex and protracted diplomatic journey spanning over two decades. This development not only reflects the commitment of regional powers to foster stability in the South China Sea but also underscores the urgent need for guidelines that curb escalating tensions and prevent potential conflicts in one of the world’s most strategically vital maritime regions. (Read the BusinessMirror story: “Asean, China finalize draft Code of Conduct text after 20 years of talks,” July 14, 2025).
The COC negotiations began in 2003, but progress has been slow, with the completion of the first reading only achieved in 2019 and the second in 2023. This slow pace is emblematic of the challenges inherent in balancing national interests and regional security amid competing territorial claims. The finalized draft now provides a “frame” for more intense discussions, where critical issues such as self-restraint among claimant states will be tackled. This focus on self-restraint is particularly crucial given the backdrop of China’s aggressive maneuvers in the South China Sea, including the militarization of artificial islands and assertive coast guard activities.
The South China Sea is not merely a geopolitical chessboard; it is a vital artery for global trade, carrying over $3 trillion in annual commerce. Rich in fisheries and untapped energy reserves, the South China Sea is critical for the economies of Asean members. With overlapping territorial claims from countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, the COC serves as a necessary framework to mitigate disputes and foster cooperation.
Asean’s commitment to concluding negotiations by 2026 is commendable, but it is also fraught with challenges. Key issues still loom large, including whether the COC will be legally binding, the geographic scope it will cover, and the enforcement mechanisms that will be put in place.
As the Philippines prepares to assume the Asean chairmanship next year, there is an opportunity to spearhead these discussions with vigor and urgency. Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro’s emphasis on “fast-tracking” the negotiations is promising, yet it must be tempered with the understanding that meaningful dialogue takes time. The upcoming meetings in Malaysia, Singapore, and China will be critical in laying the groundwork for a substantive agreement.
Maintaining an environment conducive to negotiations is essential. Asean foreign ministers have rightly called for practical measures to reduce tensions and risks of misunderstandings. Confidence-building measures are vital for enhancing trust among parties. Upholding international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), will be a cornerstone of any successful COC.
The agreement on the COC is a hopeful development that, if effectively implemented, could serve as a critical cornerstone for regional security. The eyes of the world will be watching as Asean and China navigate the complexities ahead, and the stakes have never been higher. We trust that Asean and China will meet this challenge for the sake of both regional and global security.
BusinessMirror
The surge of Latin honors in UP
TKuwentong Peyups
HE heavy downpour last July 6, 2025 did not dampen the festive mood of the 5,017 Iskolars ng Bayan who were conferred with academic degrees at the University Amphitheater of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus.
Among the 3,876 bachelor’s degrees holders, 2,369 (or 61 percent) finished with Latin honors wherein 241 are summa cum laude (SCL), 1,143 are magna cum laude (MCL), and 985 are cum laude (CL).
The “Latin honor” system usually has three levels of honor (listed in order of increasing merit): wherein SCL is the university’s highest academic distinction for graduates with a weighted average grade of 1.20 or higher, followed by MCL (1.21-1.45) then CL (1.46-1.75). In UP, the highest grade is 1.0, the lowest passing grade is 3.0, and the failing grade is 5.0.
In 1911, UP had its first commencement exercise. But it was in 1949 that general commencement exercises were first held at the UP Diliman Sunken Garden.
It was the same year of UP’s 40th anniversary celebration held in February 1949 that was highlighted by the transfer of the Oblation from UP Manila.
Social media is abuzz during graduation season on the surge of Latin honors linked with “grade hyperin-
flation”. It refers to a situation where a larger proportion of students are graduating with Latin honors than in the past.
In a 2014 piece by Linda Bolido, she noted that since 1949 until 1984, SCL graduates on its main campus numbered in single digits.
The highest numbers of SCLs during that period, nine, were registered in two consecutive years,1982 and 1983.
Over a 35-year period, there were 14 years when there was not a single graduate who qualified for the SCL. In fact, there was an eight-year stretch—from 1964 to 1972—when there was no SCL.
Back in 1975, the entire UP system produced only one SCL, from UP Los Baños; UP Diliman had none.
In 1985, UP Diliman had its first double digit number of SCLs with 11. But it was followed the following year by a single honoree, the last time UP Diliman would have a single SCL graduate.
The next 18 years would see SCL graduates in single digits.
From 2 in 2004, the number rose
to 10 in 2005, then 12 in 2006 and dropped to 8 in 2007.
Except for 2007 with 8 SCLs, the numbers of SCLs since 2005 are in double digits until 2021 as the SCLs jumped to triple digits starting 2022.
During the term of UP President Emerlinda Roman (2005–2011), there were 10 SCLs in 2005; 12 in 2006; 8 in 2007; 15 in 2008; 17 in 2009; and 25 in 2010.
During the term of UP President Alfredo Pascual (2011–2017), there were 21 in 2011; 19 in 2012; 15 in 2013; 20 in 2014; 29 in 2015; 30 in 2016.
During the term of UP President Danilo Concepcion (2017–2023), there were 36 in 2017; 29 in 2018; 54 in 2019; 28 in 2020; 29 in 2021; 150 in 2022.
After Angelo Jimenez took office as UP President in February 2023, there were 305 SCL in 2023; 286 in 2024; then 241 in 2025.
For magna cum laude, there were 250 in 2015; 325 in 2016; 337 in 2017; 402 in 2018; 437 in 2019; 302 in 2020; 199 in 2021; 661 in 2022; 1,196 in 2023; 1,109 in 2024; then 985 in 2025.
For cum laude, there were 921 in 2015; 936 in 2016; 1,016 in 2017; 1,004 in 2018; 1,173 in 2019; 683 in 2020; 456 in 2021; 644 in 2022; 742 in 2023; 788 in 2024; then 985 in 2025. There were less than five summa in 1991, including Marikina representative Stella Quimbo as our batch valedictorian in UP School of Economics.
Aside from 241 SCLs in UP Diliman this year, other UP units had 2 in UP Cebu, 2 in UP Visayas, 2 in UP Baguio, 2 in UP Mindanao, 27 in UP Los Banos.
What has changed for Filipino households between 1985 and 2023?
AThe increase in Latin honors graduates raises concerns about the perceived value and exclusivity of these distinctions.
Some question whether the current system reflects genuine academic excellence or is merely a result of inflated grades.
“Are grade-stingy “terror” professors a dying breed indeed? Are more sociable and image-conscious millennial teachers who are more nurturing and grade-lenient taking their place, helping bring about this perceived grade inflation?” economist Cielito Habito said in his column. Habito added that “a contrary view maintains that the current generation of millennials and Gen Zs are genuinely smarter for various reasons, and hence truly deserve the Latin honors no less than their forebears did.”
Pascual said in an interview that one possible explanation is that with AI assistance, students have been able to raise the quality of their academic output as seen in written work, class discussion, and exams.
“Latin honor system ought to be “more reflective of the kind of learning environment that we have right now,” Professor Danilo Arao earlier said in an interview. To the new UP graduates, savor the brightness of the sunflowers and be true to the lyrics “Humayo’t itanghal, giting at tapang. Mabuhay ang pag-asa ng bayan!”
Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@ sapalovelez.com, or call 0917-5025808.
EAGLE WATCH
GENERATION is defined as the average length of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their children and is commonly held to fall between 20 and 30 years. It is popular practice to refer to people as coming from various generations, including the Baby Boomers (those born from 1946-1964), Gen X (1985-1980), Millennials (1981-1996), Gen Z (1997-2012), and Gen Alpha (2013-present).
The period 1985 to 2023, which spans 38 years, thus covers a length of two generations and has seen the birth of people grouped into three generational categories (Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha). The 38-year period is noteworthy as it encompasses a time of significant
changes in the Philippines—political, social, and economic. It includes the last full year of the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. to the first full year of the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and six other presidents in-between.
The period also lends itself well
to examining of how Filipino households’ lives have changed, since the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) publicly makes available the microdata of the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) starting 1985 up to the 2023. The FIES is a nationally representative survey undertaken by the PSA and is the main source of data on family income, sources of income, family expenditure, and other related information.
How different do Filipino households live in 1985 compared to 2023 based on the FIES?
In 1985, the average nominal per capita income of a Filipino household was just P6,294 compared to P102,014 in 2023. In other words it has increased to more than 16 times the 1985 level.
Of course, in the period prices have also increased. According to the PSA’s consumer price index, on average, price level in 2023 was 8.7 times that in 2023. If incomes are
adjusted for price level, the real per capita income in 1985 (at 2023 prices) was equivalent to P54,796. This means that in 2023 real per capita income, or income in terms of what it can buy, it was 86 percent higher than in 1985. Over the 38-year period, this means that real per capita income grew an average of (only) 1.6 percent per year. According to the FIES, income inequality declined between the two years, although it remains
Dennis Gorecho
Trump escalates campaign against Fed Chair Powell
By Josh Wingrove
PRESIDENT Donald Trump said he’s not planning to fire Jerome Powell, and still managed to make it sound like a threat.
Trump’s comments capped a hectic few hours that took his pressure campaign against the Federal Reserve chief to a new level— and sent markets into a short-lived nosedive.
He ran the idea of sacking Powell by a receptive group of Republican lawmakers late Tuesday. An aide said Wednesday morning he was likely to follow through. Then the president publicly backpedaled—with a major caveat.
“I don’t rule out anything, but I think it’s highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud,” Trump said Wednesday when asked about axing the Fed chair.
It was a nod to the latest front that Trump has opened against Powell: Intensifying scrutiny of the Fed’s renovation of its two main buildings in Washington. The president and his allies say the project is unnecessarily lavish and way over-budget, and they’ve hinted at financial wrongdoing, too.
All of this is rooted in Trump’s view that the Fed is keeping interest rates too high—and it’s increasingly disturbing for investors, who tend to think central bankers should be left alone by politicians, not besieged by them.
Markets have gotten used to Trump’s verbal attacks on Powell, a staple of his rhetoric for years. They were briefly confronted on Wednesday with the possibility that words might translate into action—and soon. Reaction was sharp: The dollar slumped more than 1 percent, and long-term Treasury yields spiked.
The moves were largely reversed after the president signaled a reprieve. The question now is how long that will last.
Powell’s term as chair ends next May anyway, and Trump has begun the search for a successor. But he’s also making it clear that he won’t let up on the renovation issue anytime soon.
Powell has called reports about the project inaccurate, and asked the bank’s inspector-general to review it.
“There are many people who say he should be removed because of the fraud of what he’s doing,” Trump said in an interview with Real America’s Voice broadcast on Wednesday. “He’s spending two and a half billion dollars to, I guess it’s a renovation.”
‘Up to him’
“IF he wants to resign, that would be up to him. They say it would disrupt the market if I did,” Trump said when asked about firing Powell.
It’s not clear if the president even has the power to remove a Fed chair. Still, Trump says that when he met Tuesday night with about a dozen House Republicans and polled them on the subject, almost all were in favor.
With Trump, conversations like that are often a precursor. He tends to publicly toy with ideas, and poll aides and even crowds at rallies, before moving forward with them.
Trump was said to have brandished a draft dismissal letter in the meeting, though he later denied that.
Next up for the beleaguered central bank is the prospect that a trio of Trump aides might visit the renovation site, casting a fresh spotlight on the project. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte—one of Powell’s most vociferous critics—are pushing to carry out an ad-hoc investigation of their own.
“His time has come and the president has made clear that he doesn’t want him here,” Pulte told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, demurring on whether he personally drafted the dismissal letter Trump was said to have waved in front of lawmakers.
The pressure campaign is a lopsided fight, because Powell is constrained
Speaking the languages of plants
Tin how far he can push back publicly against Trump’s barrage. Still, the Fed chief isn’t without defenders.
The list effectively includes global financial markets. One view is that the president was floating a trial balloon on Wednesday, and was deterred by what he saw.
“We think Trump is testing the markets to see whether he can fire Powell,” wrote Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg Economics.
“The sharp reaction appears to have convinced him to pull back on the firing rhetoric for now.” But she predicts more escalation, and warns that firing Powell would slow growth and raise unemployment and inflation.
Also stepping up to the Fed chief’s defense on Wednesday was Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and a longtime Powell critic. She poured scorn on the administration’s scrutiny of Fed renovation.
“Give me a break,” Warren said. “Nobody is fooled by this pretext to fire Chair Powell. And markets will tank if he does.”
‘New leadership’ CONGRESSIONAL Republicans were split on the move. “My understanding is he doesn’t have any intention of doing that,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he wasn’t sure Trump had the power to do so, though referred to the frustration in party ranks by saying “new leadership would be helpful at the Fed.”
Internal GOP tensions may help explain the timing of Trump’s latest salvo against Powell. The president is looking to shift attention away from the saga over the release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case—which has sharply divided his base. Trump said Wednesday he had “total” confidence in Attorney General Pam Bondi over the matter, and he’s angrily urged supporters to shift their attention elsewhere.
That’s not much consolation to Powell, who faces consequences even if the threatened firing doesn’t materialize. The political storm could complicate the central bank’s path to lowering interest rates, which it’s been reluctant to do because of uncertainty over how much impact Trump’s tariffs will have on consumer prices.
Another gray area concerns Powell’s future at the central bank after his tenure as chair ends in May—assuming he makes it that far. His seat on the Fed board extends for about a year-and-a-half longer.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg Television this week that it would be better if Powell bowed out entirely when he departs as chair. Powell hasn’t made his intent known publicly. Bessent is among the key aides advising the president on who to pick as Powell’s successor—and might be a candidate himself. The other top contenders are Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council—who is said by some to have the inside track—and Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor.
The president reiterated on Wednesday that whoever gets the job will be expected to deliver lower rates—another potential hammer blow to the central bank’s autonomy, even if Powell escapes firing.
“Fortunately, we get to make a change in the next, what, eight months or so,” Trump said. “I’m only interested in low-interest people.”
With assistance from Erik Wasson, Caitlin Reilly, Hadriana Lowenkron, Kailey Leinz and Tyler Kendall/Bloomberg
ANNOTATIONS
HE plant looked exotic (that’s coming from an uninitiated like this writer). An alien species. To others though it may come across as common as an ordinary weed—still not the right way to apprehend this plant. I am seeing it by way of Lander’s Vlogs. The plant is called “Pangupung.” Or “Pangopong.”
He calls it a “ligaw na halaman,” a wild plant. Lander tells us the flower grows first and what I was seeing appeared to be a long stem at the end of which was a cluster of unopened fern-like leaves all pressed to each other. The vlogger would transform the said plant by cooking it. First, he cut the lower stem, producing a tube, which he then sliced into cubes and cooked in coconut. The remaining parts of the plants, also in tube form, were roasted the way we would an eggplant. After the plant had turned cold to the touch, Lander peeled the burnt skin and spread the flesh. He added eggs and cooked them in oil. The responses from viewers were effusive.
“Have you tried this before?” I was asking Lia Monteverde, a cousin who has opted for this nom de guerre by sending her the video of Lander’s vlogs. She is the gourmet/chef in the family and more open to all kinds of food. She has what I may call the gift of polyphagy—she could try plants and animals and have the system to appraise them. I, on the other hand, am severely limited by a tongue with an attitude although anthropologizing the surroundings helps me cope with what Levi-Strauss coined as “good to think with.”
From this particular vlog of Lander, I went on to conduct a cursory re -
search on the plant. It does grow big and large, this “Pongapong,” which is known as elephant food yam. For reference, it goes by the name Amorphophallus paeoniifolius
Unlike here in our coun try, where the plant is al most unknown (Lander shared the snack with a Mangyan friend who said it was his first time to taste the delicious merienda), the said yam has varied and important uses in many parts of Southeast Asia. The food even appears in rituals in Southern India.
Following what struc tural anthropologists be lieve in, that the food preparation is itself a lan guage—a semantic expres sion of culture—the way we approach plants and other vegetables including animals is in itself a world-view. We are always classifying ourselves in relation to others as we move that which to us is raw to that, which to us is cooked. And yet, when others look at the results, the other human group may end up appraising a different sense of rawness and “cookness.”
a food resource. Literature would show that even the leaves are used as dishes and the flesh of the tubers are transformed into chips.
How did it lose its value and utilization in the Philippines? And how did Lander discover or re-discover its use? In the vlog, Lander warns the viewers to be careful in peeling off the skin of the tuber. He even finds time for self-deprecation when he describes the plant as may “kakatihan” (can cause itchiness) unlike him who is delectable but cannot bring about the same discomfort.
Experts say we should thoroughly cook the tuber in order to cleanse it of oxalate crystals, the properties that cause stinging or severe itchi-
ness. Lander has a memory of these properties with regard to plants, which means he still possesses certain knowledge about pangopong.
In India, the pangopong or pangupung has a widespread use as
The plant still speaks to him. He has memories of culture and nature around him.
My interest in plants and obscure culinary traditions has lately been triggered by the fact that colonial traditions have obstructed our collective memory of what is native and endemic to us. What confronts us always are strictures in knowledge: our idea about foods has become so impoverished they reproduce the poverty that characterizes not only our economy but also our culinary tradition and practices. We have not explored fully yet the other vital functions of plants around us. We are neglecting one aspect, that which Frederike Middelhoff and Arnika Peselmann, Arnika expressed in “The Stories Plants Tell: An Introduction to Vegetal Narrative Cultures. We have developed “plant blindness” as we neglect to consider the “significance of plants for storytelling practices and the intricate relationships between plants and narratives.”
The two authors call our attention to the works of ethnobotanists, which extend outside the symbolic meanings of plants. Working with or being part of Indigenous communities themselves, “ethnobotanists ask how plants are part and parcel of human societies—as remedy, food, textile, or trade commodity—but they also investigate taxonomic classifications of plants and narratives of vegetal beings in myths and legends.”
Online, we have vloggers and resource experts already looking at vanishing traditions. There are local plant scientists going into the field and popularizing the knowledge about plants and their everyday use. This could be the beginning not only of a discipline but a desire to know more about ourselves in relation to the living things that surround us but have remained mystical for us.
E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com
UK pushes US to drop key sticking point to steel trade deal
By Lucy White
UK officials are optimistic that the Trump administration will soon agree to modify the domestic-production requirements that are holding up a trade agreement to lower US tariffs on British steel.
The UK has asked that steel imported from European countries such as the Netherlands—and then manufactured into products in the UK—qualify as British for the purposes of US tariffs, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. That would mean products made by Tata Steel UK, which no longer has its own furnace and must rely on raw steel from elsewhere, could be exported to the US tariff-free
Negotiators for the UK said US counterparts are amenable to such an exemption as long as steel from countries that are seen by President Donald Trump as strategic rivals aren’t covered under the UK deal, one person said. An agreement could come soon, they added.
Finalizing that deal would be a
Eagle Watch. . .
the country reported having electricity in 1985—95 percent of those in the richest 10 percent of households, but only 16 percent of those in the poorest 10 percent of households. In 2023, 96 percent of households reported having electricity—100 percent of those in the richest decile and 85 percent of those in the poorest decile.
Only 30 percent of households reported owning a TV in 1985 compared to 80 percent in 2023. In 1985, only 19 percent reported having a refrigerator, 1.3 percent an aircon, and 3.7 percent a car. In 2023, these have increased to 52.1 percent having a refrigerator, 16.9 having an aircon, and 9.6 percent owning a car, although refrigerator, aircon, and car
boost for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is under pressure as the UK economy slows.
The trade agreement with the US that was announced May was initially seen as a win for Starmer by promising to save the UK from the steep tariffs Trump was threatening to impose on other countries around the world. Starmer was the firs—and still one of the few—leaders to reach such a pact with Trump, who said he would cut tariffs on UK steel and cars in return for an increase in the quota of beef and ethanol that the US can export to the UK tariff-free.
But the terms of trade on steel have yet to be finalized and Starmer came under criticism last month for giving the US what it had asked for without guaranteeing that tar -
ownership remain highly unequal across income deciles.
In 1985, only 37 percent of household reported living in houses with roofs made of strong materials like galvanized iron and aluminum. This increased to 92.5 percent in 2023. In 1985, only 29.4 percent reported living in houses with strong walls like concrete, brick, and stone. This increased to 62.5 percent in 2023.
In 1985, only 52.1 percent of households reported using hygienic water-sealed toilets and only 18.8 percent had community water system piped into their dwelling or yard. In 2023, 83 percent of households already had a toilet that flushed into a septic tank or piped sewer system, and 65.4 percent had community water system piped into their dwelling or yard. In 1985, only 7.4 percent of house-
iffs on steel were slashed to zero. Instead, they have remained at 25 percent while avoiding the rise to a 50 percent rate faced by other countries.
The stumbling block has been the US’s insistence that steel must be melted and poured in the UK to count as British for tariff purposes— a requirement which Tata UK, one of the country’s biggest producers, can no longer meet after closing down its blast furnace last year. Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s business and trade secretary, said he was keen for a deal that all manufacturers could benefit from.
Tata UK’s new electric arc furnace is not due to be up and running until late 2027. The business is currently importing large amounts of steel from its sister companies in India and the Netherlands but believes it could fulfill most US orders if its products made from Dutch steel qualified for tariff-free treatment.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he expected to “re-
hold heads reported completing college, 35.2 percent of those in the richest decile but only 0.2 percent of those in the poorest decile. This has gone up to 23.5 percent in 2023, 67.1 percent of those in the richest decile and 4.5 percent of those in the poorest decile. Employment has changed dramatically. More than half of household heads were employed in the agriculture sector in 1985 but only 26.1 percent in 2023. Only 33.8 percent of household head worked for a private establishment in 1985 but this has gone up to 53.2 percent in 2023. As a result, the average contribution of wages and salaries to total household income increased from only 37 percent in 1985 to 56 percent in 2023. All these show that there has been a notable improvement in the living conditions of Filipino households in
fine” his trade deal with the UK during a state visit in September.
The UK’s backup plan would be to increase production at British Steel, another major producer that runs the country’s last remaining blast furnace. That steel could then be sold to Tata UK for further manufacturing.
Even so, British Steel would not likely be able to supply the correct types of metal to cover all of Tata’s US exports, including the packaginggrade steel used in products such as Heinz beans tins.
British Steel was taken under government control earlier this year from its Chinese owner Jingye Group, which had threatened to shut down the loss-making company’s furnaces.
One official with knowledge of the UK’s plans said the government’s negotiating team had been working around the clock to finalize its agreement with the US. However the US team had been distracted by its negotiations with other countries, the person said, leading to delays. Bloomberg
the 38-year period. This can be seen in per capita income gains but also in non-income gains, such as in greater access to electricity, more hygienic water supply and toilets, and more durable goods. The real per capita income gains, however, are relatively small, especially when viewed in terms of annual change. And large inequalities remain, even in non-income indicators. The 1985-2023 period saw significant domestic political and economic turmoil, especially in the first half of the period. Moving forward, the challenge is to maintain political and economic stability and, not coincidentally, accelerating the gains and making these more equitable. Dr. Geoffrey Ducanes is Associate
Tito Genova Valiente
PhilHealth may soon regain subsidies of ₧53.3B for ’26
By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto @reine_alberto
THE Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) may soon regain its government subsidies in 2026, after being stripped of additional budgetary support this year, according to the country’s Finance chief.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said P53.26 billion is the amount of subsidies proposed for PhilHealth next year.
The figure, however, is lower by 28.44 percent from the P74.43 billion that was proposed last year for 2025, but which was removed by the Bicameral Conference Committee for PhilHealth to utilize its reserve fund.
As of the end of March 2025, PhilHealth has a reserve fund worth P280.575 billion. This decreased by 42.40 percent from P487.155 billion in the same period in 2024, as PhilHealth used the majority of the funds to expand its benefits to
members.
In fact, PhilHealth has paid P145.36 billion in benefit claims as of end-June 2025, an 89.04-percent increase from P76.89 billion in the same period last year.
Despite the reduced reserve fund and zero subsidy from the government, Fund Management Sector Senior Vice President Renato L. Limsiaco Jr. said PhilHealth can still accommodate the increase in its benefit packages. PhilHealth is projected to have an ending fund balance of P348 billion for 2025.
“The universal healthcare budget will also be increased [next year]. So education and health, would be the
priorities of the budget,” Recto said.
Moreover, the government will focus on further improving PhilHealth’s benefit packages and health services in hospitals under the Department of Health (DOH), Recto said.
The lack of hospitals in the provinces remains a problem in the country, Recto said. “But definitely, we will improve the services of all DOH-run hospitals within the year and next year.”
“A zero-balance billing is possible, including in the specialty hospitals,” the Finance chief said, adding that there are no plans to
increase members’ contributions to PhilHealth.
To recall, the DOF ordered PhilHealth to transfer P89.9 billion to the National Treasury after the state-run health insurer was found to have over P500 billion in reserve funds.
The fiscal strategy to fund the unprogrammed appropriations, however, faced criticisms from medical groups, lawmakers, the Church, former Cabinet secretaries and highranking officials, among others.
Because of this, PhilHealth has only remitted P60 billion to the Treasury after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order.
By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto @reine_alberto
RESOURCES held by the Philippine financial system reached the P34-trillion mark as of May 2025, preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
Total funds and assets of the country’s financial sector, except the BSP, increased by 6.16 percent year-on-year to P34.099 trillion from P32.119 trillion.
About 82.78 percent, or P28.228 trillion of the total resources, were from banks, while nonbank financial institutions hold the remaining 17.22 percent or P5.871 trillion.
Broken down, universal and commercial banks (UKBs) had the highest share in banks’ resources, at 92.82 percent, with P26.202 trillion in total funds and assets.
UKBs’ resources rose by 5.65 percent year-on-year as of endMay 2025, from P24.799 trillion.
Resources of thrift banks (TBs) expanded by 21.86 percent year-onyear to P1.342 trillion from P1.102 trillion. This represented 4.75 percent of all Philippine banks’ total resources as of end-May 2025.
Rural and Cooperative Banks (RCBs), meanwhile, held 1.92 percent or P543.2 billion of the total resources of Philippine banks as of end-May this year.
Total resources of RCBs grew by 18.62 percent from the P457.9 billion level that these banks kept during the same period last year. Moreover, digital banks’ (DGB) resources climbed by 33.17 percent to P140.1 billion as of endMay 2025 from P105.2 billion a year ago. This accounted for 0.49 percent of the Philippine banks’ total resources. Meanwhile, nonbank financial institutions have P5.871
By Justine Xyrah Garcia
AS the P50 daily wage increase in Metro Manila took effect on July 16, labor groups warned that unorganized workers may end up excluded from the full benefit of the adjustment if employers fail to comply with rules on correcting wage distortions.
Wage distortion happens when a minimum wage hike compresses the pay gap between entry-level and more senior or skilled workers, undermining internal salary structures based on rank, tenure, or responsibility.
Under Republic Act No. 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act, employers are encouraged to adjust internal wage structures to address any resulting distortions, regardless of whether a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) exists in the workplace.
According to Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) Secretary General Josua Mata, however, that legal safeguard may hold little weight—especially in non-unionized settings where workers lack the power to negotiate or demand proper wages.
“In the real world, most employers will not lift a finger unless they’re forced to. And with low union density, the vast majority of workers in Metro Manila are vulnerable, isolated, and denied what is rightfully theirs,” Mata said.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that as of August 2022, only 4.5 percent—or 1,626 out of 36,342—of establishments with at least 20 workers had registered unions.
Just 4 percent or 1,444 have active CBAs. Union density, or the share of union members among total paid employees, stood at 6.5 percent or around 347,750 out of 5.35 million workers.
Mata noted that while the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) have laid out formulas and procedures to correct distortions, employ-
ers can still choose not to implement them if workers lack the organization or leverage to hold them accountable.
“This is why the fight for higher wages must go hand in hand with the fight to organize. Wage justice will not be handed down. It must be demanded,” he added.
Meanwhile, Federation of Free Workers (FFW) President Sonny Matula urged employers to remain fair in their internal pay structures and ensure that workers affected by wage distortion receive proper adjustments.
“The process invites meaningful participation and dialogue in the workplace, helping build trust and improve labor relations,” Matula said.
Given that workers without CBAs may find it difficult to negotiate with management, FFW urged non-unionized workers to form a core group of representatives and request a meeting with management to raise and resolve possible wage distortions in good faith.
“When approached constructively, wage distortion becomes an opportunity to strengthen democratic engagement in the workplace and advance wage justice for all,” Matula added.
On June 30, the Metro Manila wage board approved a P50 daily wage increase for all minimum wage earners in the region.
Around 1.2 million minimum wage earners are expected to directly benefit from the wage order, while an additional 1.7 million workers earning just above minimum may also see adjustments due to enterprise-level corrections to address wage distortions.
How should wages be corrected?
UNDER NWPC Advisory No. 01, series of 2023, the commission outlined the procedures for correcting wage distortions.
In organized firms—those with a union—the employer and the workers’ union are expected to negotiate to correct the distortions.
If disputes arise, these should be
‘US-China
By Andrea E. San Juan
LOWER domestic output and tepid job gains due to the new tariff policy of the United States are now the biggest threats to Philippine economy, according to a local think tank.
In its regular economic report dubbed The Market Call, the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) said the possible influx of products from China would create problems for local producers.
Washington imposed a tariff of 145 percent on products from China.
“We think the country’s main growth threat has shifted from inflation to lower domestic output
tariff war to hit local factory output’
and employment due to China’s exports to us with Trump tariffs reducing their shipments to the US,” UA&P said.
The think tank said it expects only a “modestly better” gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.7 percent in the second quarter. This is slightly faster than the 5.4 percent recorded in the first quarter of this year.
It emphasized that the larger problem arises from the “flooding” of the country with diverted imports from China at the expense of local producers.
UA&P said faster growth will have to wait for “much lower interest rates and more competitive exchange rates, with the latter enabling local
producers more room to expand output and employment.”
It also noted that consumers failed to “manifest” greater optimism towards the second quarter, notwithstanding the low inflation.
“BSP’s reluctance to cut policy rates more aggressively, reflecting more concern about possible inflation due to Trump tariffs, has impeded household demand for residential units and firms from borrowing for expansion,” it said.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that Philippine imports from the People’s Republic of China grew by 17.8 percent to
Editor: Jennifer A. Ng
B1 Friday, July 18, 2025
Ayala Land hikes spending for redevelopment of malls
By VG Cabuag @villygc
AYALA Land Inc. has increased its budget for the renovation of its shopping malls nationwide to P17.5 billion.
Ayala Malls reported that renovations at Glorietta and Greenbelt in Makati, Trinoma in Quezon City and Ayala Center Cebu remain on track, with key milestones set for completion in the coming months.
The program, initially launched in 2024 with a P13-billion budget, has since been scaled up by P4.5 billion to include more malls and elevate design and experience standards across the board.
“This extensive transformation is far more than just renovation; it’s about creating spaces where life happens, where memories are made, and one that aligns
perfectly with Ayala Land’s longterm growth story of building places that people love,” Mariana Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Malls president and head of leasing and hospitality group, said. Zobel said the initiative reflects the company’s intent to remain at the forefront of physical retail by adapting to changing consumer behaviors and urban lifestyles. As the retail development and leasing arm of Ayala Land, the company is taking a more active role in shaping malls as integrated lifestyle centers— evolving from traditional retail spaces into multifunctional hubs
that support commerce, community engagement and cultural experiences.
“We’re reimagining every aspect of the Ayala Malls experience with fresh eyes and renewed ambition,” Paul Birkett, COO of Ayala Malls, said. “It’s not just about redesigning spaces; it’s about understanding how people want to live, move and be inspired.”
The redevelopment includes modernized architecture and improved navigation, allowing for more intuitive movement across multiple levels; new green and al fresco zones, integrating nature and wellness into the shopping experience; curated brand mixes, including new-to-market
Globe: Cell sites to use clean energy
GLOBE Telecom Inc. has begun shifting more than 3,000 cell sites and low-energy facilities in Metro Manila and Region 4-A to renewable energy (RE).
Yoly Crisanto, Globe’s Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer, said the migration of these sites to RE are expected to be completed “no later than 2028.”
She noted that Globe is the first telco to adopt the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) Retail Aggregation Program (RAP), which allows businesses to consolidate multiple facilities within a distribution utility’s franchise area to directly procure renewable energy from licensed suppliers.
Globe expects to source 80 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually from renewable sources, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 5.5 million kilograms of CO2 equivalent per year.
“With RAP, we are able to address the urgent need to reduce
emissions at scale. By expanding our sourcing of renewable energy to thousands of additional sites, we are taking deliberate steps toward our net zero goals and proving that clean energy is not only viable but necessary across all operational levels,” Crisanto said. In 2019, Globe became the first in the industry to utilize both the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) and Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) to power high-energy utilization facilities with renewable energy.
Today, 33 of these sites--22 of which are supported by power purchase agreements with Ayala-led ACEN RES--are already running on clean energy.
The RAP arrangement further expands this transition, enabling Globe to go beyond its larger facilities and reach thousands of smaller cell sites, said Crisanto. It also strengthens Globe’s alignment with its ScienceBased Targets initiative (SBTi) com-
mitments, which include a 42-percent reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 25-percent reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2030, from a 2021 baseline.
The company’s long-term target is a 90-percent reduction across all scopes by 2050.
“This collaboration with Globe reflects the strength of synergies across the Ayala group in driving meaningful climate action. By enabling the shift of over 3,000 sites to renewable energy, we are not only accelerating Globe’s Scope 2 emissions reduction, but also advancing our collective net zero ambition as a group,” said ACEN Corp. senior vice president and Head for Communications and Sustainability Irene Maranan.
The partnership between Globe and ACEN supports the Department of Energy’s goal of substantially increasing the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 and to 50 percent by 2040. Lorenz S. Marasigan and Lenie Lectura
Paterno is new chairman of PHL Seven
PHILIPPINE Seven Corp. (PSC), the exclusive licensor of 7-Eleven in the Philippines, has appointed Jose Victor Paterno as the new chairman of the PSC board.
Paterno succeeds Jose T. Pardo who will take on the role of chair emeritus and member of the advisory board.
The company’s longtime chief of operations, Richard Lee, steps into the role of president, and will oversee the day-to-day operations of the country’s largest convenience store operator.
Paterno said the new appointments would not lead to significant changes in the company’s operations.
Lee has played a key role in building operational alignment with PSC’s regional partners, particularly 7-Eleven Taiwan, whose technical and strategic collaboration has been instrumental to PSC’s success in the Philippine market.
“Richard has been an integral part of our leadership team for years. His steady hand, commitment to execution, and strong ties with key stakeholders in Taiwan will help carry PSC into its next chapter,” Paterno said. Lee will now oversee the company’s expansion to 5,000 branches by next year, from this year’s more than 4,000 stores. The company said it would spend
retail concepts and experiential stores; and elevated amenities and shared spaces, such as wider walkways, better seating, upgraded restrooms and coworkfriendly areas.
The redevelopment is part of Ayala Malls’ broader growth strategy, which includes adding over 700,000 square meters of gross leasable area (GLA) across new locations over the next five years. These include malls in key growth areas such as Parklinks, the joint estate development with Eton Properties in Quezon City and Pasig.
Ayala Malls posted P5.7 billion in revenues during the first quarter of the year, a 4- percent increase year-on-year, driven by stable occupancy and increased GLA at One Ayala and Ayala Malls Vermosa. Excluding areas under renovation, flagship and premium malls registered 14 percent quarter-on-quarter growth, contributing to an 11-percent gain across the broader portfolio.
THE telco arm of the Pangilinan Group has joined the retail aggregation program (RAP) of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and its wireless arm, Smart Communications Inc. (Smart), said Thursday they partnered with MPower, the local retail electricity supplier of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), to activate 144 cell sites and nine facilities under the RAP, which allows leads from multiple end-users within the same franchise area to be aggregated to meet the minimum energy demand requirements.
“Our Group has always believed that national progress depends on two essential foundations: reliable power and strong digital connectivity. One cannot function without the other—hand in glove, so to speak— and both are critical to ensuring that our people--especially those in the margins—have access to opportunity,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman and CEO of PLDT, Smart, and Meralco.
“This is why this collaboration is consequential, because it reflects our continued effort to align our resources and capabilities, to serve our customers better with reliable and consistent power and connectivity.”
PLDT and Smart’s transition into the RAP through MPower’s energy solutions cover a total demand of over 2,500 kilowatts (kW) across the PLDT Group’s integrated network. Additional RAP implementations across more sites in Visayas and Mindanao are targeted for rollout before the year ends.
“As we future proof our network to deliver 5G and AI capabilities to our customers, we are also mindful of the cost to operate the network and our impact to the environment. This partnership with MPower will allow us to operate a smarter and greener network and manage our energy costs, all in a manner that is more kind to the planet,” said PLDT Chief Operating Officer and Head of Network Menardo G. Jimenez Jr. In 2024, 30 sites of the group were switched to 100 percent renewables—24 in Metro Manila and 6 in Mindanao. In 2023, PLDT and Smart tapped geothermal energy for 5 network facilities in the Visayas.
“As we scale up our 5G network, Smart welcomes this partnership with MPower, as it supports our goal of delivering simply reliable service that our customers can count on,” said Smart Chief Operating Officer Anastacio R. Martirez. Lenie Lectura
licensee of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the Philippines, announced the appointment of Jose Victor Paterno (left) as its new chairman during a press briefing after the company's stockholders' meeting on July 17. Richard Lee (right), PSC chief of operations, is stepping into the role of president.
‘Financial inclusion goes beyond owning account’
HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipi-
Tnas (BSP) said financial inclusion must go beyond simply increasing account ownership, after the reported slight decline in account penetration in the 2024 World Bank Global Findex.
In a statement it issued late Tuesday, the BSP said it remains committed to deepening financial inclusion in the Philippines as persistent challenges still remain.
According to World Bank’s report, the account ownership rate slightly declined to 50.2 percent in 2024, compared to 51.4 percent in 2021.
“These results highlight the need to go beyond account ownership and focus on improving financial health, especially for vulnerable sectors,” the BSP said.
The reason for the slight decline in account ownership in the Philippines is the easing of pandemic-related incentives to use transaction accounts, according to the BSP.
Nevertheless, the central bank said gains were observed in 2021
to 2024, such as the increased use of mobile money accounts, formal savings and improved financial resilience, as measured by the ability to access extra funds within 30 days.
Women, the poorest 40 percent and those out of the labor force also posted higher account ownership during this time, the BSP said.
While advancements have been made in those three years, the BSP still identified connectivity gaps, low financial literacy and trust issues as enduring problems.
The BSP said it will work with partners to onboard more Filipinos to the formal financial system and support their financial well-being through inclusive, secure and accessible financial services.
The report revealed that while there are 82 million adult Filipinos, only 77.9 million of them have either bank, mobile or digital accounts. This leaves some 4.1 million or 5 percent who do not have accounts.
Alberto
Reine Juvierre S.
Dual-tenor bond offer raises ₧8.25B for DBP
THE Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) announced it generated P8.25 billion from its latest dual-tenor local bond offering to cover general corporate requirements and expand support to priority sectors of the economy.
A statement issued by the DBP last Thursday read that the staterun lender raised fresh funds from its seventh tranche of fixed-rate bonds. DBP’s minimum issue size was P5 billion, which was 1.65-times oversubscribed.
The three-year tenor 7A Bonds generated P3.457 billion for the state-owned bank and fetched an annual yield of 5.8751 percent. Meanwhile, the annual yield of the five-year 7B Bonds settled at 6.1454 percent.
Proceeds from its latest issuance will be used for the lender’s general corporate requirements, including funding source diversification, balance sheet expansion and expanded support for strategic lending activities, according to DBP President and
CEO Michael O. de Jesus.
“DBP’s latest successful mobilization of the capital markets allows it to expand its funding base and subsequently, finance more projects and initiatives that complement President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s vision of sustaining long-term economic expansion and promoting greater financial inclusion,” de Jesus was quoted as saying in the statement.
The bond issuance is part of DBP’s P150-billion bonds program. The bonds were enrolled and traded through the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. with China Bank Capital Corp. as issue manager, sole arranger and sole bookrunner.
“This latest bond issuance is also reflective of the unwavering trust and confidence of the market in DBP as a strong and relevant government financial institution, one that plays a crucial role in advancing sustainable and inclusive economic growth, especially in unserved and underserved areas of the country,” de Jesus said. Reine Juvierre S. Alberto
More taxes on online gaming touted, operator bucks ban
By Reine Juvierre Alberto @reine_alberto & VG Cabuag @villygc
FURTHER taxing online gambling could contribute at least P20 billion more in annual revenues, as the Marcos Jr. administration balances tighter regulation and boosting collections rather than an outright crackdown, according to Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto.
Speaking to reporters last Wednesday, Recto said increasing the rate of how much the government collects from licensed operators’ gross gaming revenues (GGR) could help the state generate more funds while keeping operators in check.
“I’m leaning more toward increasing whatever revenue is collected through Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.],” the Department of Finance (DOF) chief said adding “this will be the fastest way of doing it.”
Recto said a total of 38 percent of licensed operators’ GGR is currently being taxed by the government.
The Finance chief explained that raising the rate by an additional 10 percent to a total of 48 percent could translate to P20 billion more in revenues for the government every year.
In the Philippines, licensed operators pay an average of 30 percent of their GGR as a license fee to Pagcor, including an additional 10 percent audit fee on the Pagcor share or 3 percent of GGR.
A franchise tax of 5 percent of GGR is also paid to the Bureau of Internal Revenue. That levy is on top of standard corporate taxes on nongaming income, business taxes, withholding employees’ income taxes and contributions to the government’s social benefit programs.
Gaming revenues rose by 27.44 percent to P104.12 billion in the first quarter from P81.70 billion a year ago. This was driven by online games, such as bingo, casino and sports betting, contributing almost
The Pareto Principle and Board Governance
IFIRST encountered the term “Pareto Principle” in my MBA class many summers ago. Named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, the principle is also known as the “80/20 Rule,” a concept that suggests that roughly 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes.
The 80/20 distribution, however, is not a strict rule but rather a generalization that highlights a common imbalance where a minority of factors contributes disproportionately to the overall result. Over time, this observation has been applied in business, economics, time management, and various other areas, becoming a widely recognized rule of thumb.
Applying the Pareto Principle to governance in an association can provide valuable insights:
1. Decision making. A minority of decisions often has a significant impact on the association’s direction and success. By focusing attention on key strategic matters, Boards can avoid micromanaging less impactful issues and ensure that their efforts align with the association’s mission and goals.
2. Resource allocation. A significant portion of the association’s resources may be tied to a small percentage of activities or programs. Boards and leadership should assess the impact of various programs and activities on the association’s mission.
Allocating resources in alignment with the 80/20 distribution ensures that the most impactful initiatives receive the necessary support, contributing to the
ssociation World
association’s overall success.
3. Strategic programming. Applying the Pareto Principle to programming and events allows the association to concentrate on the initiatives that yield the greatest impact. Identifying the top 20 percent of programs that resonate most with members enables the association to refine its offerings, ensuring that resources are directed toward activities that align with the majority of members’ interests and needs.
4. Member services. A minority of member services or benefits may be responsible for the majority of member satisfaction and retention. Boards should prioritize member services that contribute most significantly to member satisfaction and engagement. Regular evaluations can help identify and enhance these key services, ensuring that the association meets the needs of its members effectively.
5. Member engagement. In many associations, only a small percentage of members actively contribute to discussions, initiatives, and governance processes. Recognizing and engaging with this active subset of members is crucial for effective governance. Boards
half, or P51.39 billion, to the total gaming revenues.
Gaming ban
RECTO also expressed disinclination to banning online gambling, saying doing so would not only result in losing much-needed revenues but would also encourage operators to engage in illegal activities.
According to the DOF chief, illegal online gaming operators make up 60 percent of the market while legal operators compose the remaining 40 percent. Additional taxes could shrink the latter.
To prevent this, Recto said the government may also require operators to be listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange, apart from obtaining licenses from Pagcor.
“We can force them to list so we can identify who are the people behind it. It becomes more transparent. That’s a possibility,” the DOF chief added.
Another way the government is looking to regulate online gambling is by using the National ID to identify the age of the bettors and prohibit those below 21 years old from playing games.
As to when the government aims to enforce all gambling-related measures, Recto said everyone is chasing the deadline before the President’s State of the Nation Address (Sona).
“I’m sure there will be statements to be made during the Sona,” mused the DOF chief.
In his Sona last year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. announced
and the executive team can focus on involving this vital few in decisionmaking processes, seeking their input, and ensuring their representation in key committees.
6. Revenue generation. The Pareto Principle can guide associations in optimizing revenue streams. By identifying the key products, services, or membership tiers that contribute the most to the bottom line, associations can strategically allocate resources and marketing efforts to maximize returns.
7. Risk management. A minority of risks may pose the most significant threats to the association’s stability and reputation. Boards must identify and prioritize the most critical risks. By addressing these key vulnerabilities, they can implement risk management strategies that safeguard the association’s interests and reputation.
In essence, applying the Pareto Principle to governance in an association involves recognizing and prioritizing the vital few elements that significantly contribute to the association’s success. This approach ensures that governance efforts are focused, efficient, and aligned with the overarching mission and goals of the association.
Octavio Peralta is founder and volunteer CEO of the
not necessarily reflect those of the BusinessMirror E-mail: bobby@pcaae.org.
a ban on offshore gaming operations in the country.
However, Recto said he thinks that online gambling will not be banned.
“I think that through more regulation and higher taxes, we’re covered. So, hopefully with that, players will be lessened,” the Finance Secretary added.
Bet on regulation
MEANWHILE, the owner of eGames operator Total Gamezone Xtreme Inc. (TGXI) warns of the consequences of a total ban on online gaming, a move it said policymakers should weigh carefully.
According to DigiPlus Interactive Corp., the experience of other countries has shown that banning licensed platforms does not eliminate demand for online gaming, but merely shifts users to unregulated black markets where there are no protections, no taxes, and no accountability.
DigiPlus owns 100 percent of TGXI, which is the assignee and purchaser of the assets, rights and interests of Digiwave Solutions Inc., which in turn is the operator and licensee of Pagcor eGames stations.
“We believe regulation is the path to player protection. It’s the only way to safeguard players, preserve jobs, and close the door on illegal, underground platforms that operate without any oversight,” DigiPlus Chairman Eusebio H. Tanco said last Thursday.
“In contrast, a well-regulated environment can protect players, generate billions in government revenue, and sustain over 40,000 jobs across tech, marketing, entertainment, customer service, and compliance,” Tanco added.
According to DigiPlus executives, the publicly-listed gaming firm has “consistently aligned” with the principles being raised by lawmakers and advocacy groups.
“In fact, many of the proposed safeguards are already embedded across its platforms. All users undergo strict know-your-customer verification, including government ID checks and age gating. Responsible gaming features, such as deposit limits, self-exclusion options,
Tand cooling-off periods, have been readily accessible since November 2024,” the company said through a statement.
The company formerly engaged in fertilizer and chemical production said it is rolling out a new wave of initiatives, including enhanced affordability checks, behavioral nudges to curb excessive gaming and referral pathways to licensed mental health experts.
Model in Asia
ACCORDING to DigiPlus, it plans to launch in-app community spaces “to engage players in responsible gaming conversations and peer support.” Across all its platforms, responsible gaming content is now featured more prominently than ever, not as fine print, but as part of the core user experience.
The company also complies with existing advertising restrictions and is actively revising its promotional strategies in light of new government guidance. Its internal marketing mandate prohibits targeting minors, avoids depictions of wealth or urgency, and excludes messaging that could be construed as predatory. According to the company, it has also partnered with nongovernment groups “to promote financial literacy and digital responsibility among players, efforts that go beyond what is required under current law.” DigiPlus emphasizes that these measures are not reactions to regulatory pressure, but part of a multiyear strategy to build a responsible gaming ecosystem. The company invests in data science, player support systems, and compliance technologies precisely because it believes the future of gaming depends on trust and transparency. That is why it fully supports updated legislation, particularly around stronger penalties for illegal operators, and clearer advertising standards.
“With the right rules in place, the Philippines can be a model for safe, transparent online gaming in Asia,” Tanco said. “We are ready to work hand-in-hand with regulators, legislators, and community groups to make that vision real.”
plans to access $10M
HE Philippines is looking to access up to $10 million grant to bolster the country’s climate finance readiness
A statement issued by the Department of Finance (DOF) last Wednesday read the agency seeks to obtain the money under the Readiness and Preparatory Support Program (RPSP3) of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Under the first proposal, a grant of $7 million aims to enhance the DOF’s capacity as the country’s National Designated Authority (NDA) to the GCF. The proposal includes developing long-term strategic tools and plans that align with the country’s National Adaptation Plan and the Nationally-Determined Contributions Implementation Plan. The second proposal, worth a maximum of $3 million, will implement and operationalize the strategies and systems created under the first proposal.
“Together, the two proposals present a programmatic, sequenced, and synergistic approach to strengthening the Philippines’ climate finance readiness,” the DOF statement read.
The finance department represented the Philippines at the 42nd Board Meeting of the GCF held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from June 30 to July 3, 2025, pushing to accelerate developing countries’ access to climate financing.
The DOF said its representatives advanced the Philippines’s climate finance agenda through bilateral discussions with the GCF Secretariat on the sidelines of the meeting. The agency said DOF officials pushed for the approval of the country’s RPSP3, which backs country-driven initiatives to enhance institutional capacities, governance mechanisms and planning and programming frameworks in support of a long-term climate action agenda.
The GCF, meanwhile, approved key reforms including the Revised Accreditation Framework and the establishment of a GCF Regional Presence. The Revised Accreditation Framework introduces a more efficient and adaptive process for entities seeking to partner with the GCF, improving access to funding for develop -
ing countries and fast-tracking the deployment of resources for immediate on-the-ground climate action.
At the same time, the creation of a Regional Presence enables the GCF to gain deeper insight into local contexts, build stronger partnerships and ensure that climate finance effectively reaches the frontline of climate action.
On top of the reforms, the GCF Board also approved $1.225-billion worth of financing for 17 projects. This is the largest funding package endorsed by the GCF Board in a single meeting. This investment will support a diverse range of climate adaptation and mitigation projects globally and accelerate efforts to combat climate change and build resilience.
The Philippines, through the DOF, is an active Alternate Board Member under the AsiaPacific Group constituency. The DOF said it supports key reforms to ensure that climate finance is more responsive and rooted in the needs of developing nations. Reine Juvierre S. Alberto
Octavio Peralta A
I got scammed!
IT was a muggy afternoon, and amid my trying to keep cool while writing my news story for the day, I received a text message from what I believed was Smart, my telco provider.
“Smart reminds you: Your Reward Points (6,309) expire today. Please redeem you gift soon,” providing a link which seemed to be a Smart address. I was distracted, and while trying to nail down the right words to use in my piece, I absent-mindedly clicked on the link to check how I could redeem these points.
Just as a background, I failed to redeem my sizeable Globe points a few years ago because I never received any messages from the telco reminding me about them. I lost those points and despite my appeal to its PR person, this fell on deaf ears. Ergo, I wasn’t able to get those points back and exchange them for gifts or food vouchers, etc. So it was this past experience that dictated my actions from receiving said point-redemption message recently from “Smart”.
After clicking on the link, it brought me to a page where several prizes were available which had corresponding points. I could get these and just pay P12, which I had assumed was a service fee. I had chosen, among the short array of prizes, a fitness watch along with earbuds, which to be fair was an actual product as per my Google search.
Upon checkout, I first wanted to pay for the item via GCash, but that was not an available payment option. Then I tried to pay via my Debit Card, but the screen returned with a message that due to “maintenance issues”, it could not process the payment, and perhaps I could try another payment option or “try again later” with the same debit card.
Impatient girl that I am, of course, I next tried my credit card. Listen, I was trying to beat my office deadline for my news story, and I was pissed it was taking so long processing this simple P12 payment, thus my idiotic decision to use my credit card. (Excuses, excuses!)
Finally, my purchase went through — or so I thought. I keyed in my credit card details, then my credit card company texted me a one-time PIN (OTP) which I inputted on the checkout screen. But after submitting the OTP, the purchase failed to go through. So I tried three more times and stupidly submitted the corresponding OTPs.
On the fourth try, which failed again, I got annoyed even more and just decided to stop the purchase and totally focus on my newswriting task instead. It was when I closed the link and my phone screen went to my SMS/ Messages that I noticed that the corresponding OTPs were not just for a P12 charge but for other purchases which cost anywhere from 1,148 Swiss francs (P8,407.23) to 21,050 UAE Dirhams (P327,231.85). WTF?!?!
So I immediately called Chinabank, which was my issuing bank for my credit card, and after two tries — they were quite busy — I finally got an agent on the line and I told him what had happened. I requested that he block all the four charges and the agent said these purchases had already been blocked… for the simple reason that these made me go over my credit limit. (Thank goodness I had previously purchased a new pair of eyeglasses because my grade had already changed, because if not the scammers would have had full access to funds available under my entire credit limit.)
I had asked the Chinabank agent to block my entire card, to which he agreed, and said he would send a new card within 5-10 days. He double-checked my home address. Then he said, because I willingly keyed in my OTPs despite these being mistakes, he said the bank would have to charge me P500 to replace my credit card.
To which I responded, “Yes! No problem!” I was just thankful Chinabank had alert agents that could stop funding problems before these even blew up. So kudos to the Chinabank cards team.
I next turned to Smart to report what had transpired.
Sarah Reodica, PLDT/Smart’s energetic PR executive, confirmed via Viber that it was a scam. I asked if their rewards site had been hacked, but she said, “It’s not from a legit website.” Explaining in a mix of English and Fili-
pino, Sarah said, “They spoof websites to make it appear these are legit, but it’s a scam po once they ask for credit card details.”
She further explained, “Some of them go around buildings and they have backpacks, or sometimes they just meander in coffee shops while carrying their illegal fake cellsites. They are able to bypass telcos because they have their own cell sites…. All the phones within their radius will receive a text. They can mask their sender name as ‘Smart’ (or something else).”
Sarah was furious that these scammers exert a lot of effort to perpetrate their illicit activities, even as she admitted it was quite difficult to catch them. She then enjoined me to check with my bank regarding the status of my funds, to which I replied that I already had. Listen, I never thought I would be someone who would fall for scams. These used to be simple efforts — an email from some “Nigerian prince” saying he needs the recipient’s help to access his ginormous amount of funds, but that he need a processing fee to release these. The “prince” will usually ask the recipient to send him that upfront fee.
From email, the scammers have moved to mobile phones where a text tells the recipient that he won a prize or thousands of pesos in a lottery sponsored by a politician, a government agency, or even the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. And one only need to click the link available on the nefarious SMS or to call a certain phone number to claim the prize. Upon calling the number, the recipient will be told that they only had to send a fee to claim the prize.
There’s also another scam targetting senior citizens, where a stranger calls them, claiming their daughter or grandson is in an accident and needs money for his immediate hospitalization and treatment.
In those previous scams, at least one could still detect a modicum of falsity in the messages. These would come from unknown mobile phone numbers or email addresses. And for seniors, one could just call her daugher or grandchild to check if the latter were indeed sick or in the hospital.
But these new scams, where even telcos are spoofed, making their SMS appear as real and legitimate, are scarier. That I was not paying attention to the procedure See “Scammed,” B5
Eugenia Last
and change what irks you about your life. Stop complaining about people and situations when action is necessary to achieve happiness. HHHH
g LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Keep absorbing information and using your discoveries to improve your life. Research, travel and make a move; it will help you find the happiness or satisfaction you’re searching for. Gratitude comes with attitude and making choices that will stimulate your mind and connect you to people who contribute to your happiness. HHH
h
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Look at what’s available and focus on using whatever you see fit in beneficial ways. Transform whatever you discover into something that improves your life or your relationships. Channel energy into what you can do to help a cause or improve yourself. HHH
iSAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Take pride in your surroundings. Pay it forward and give away items you no longer need or use. Once you lighten your load, you’ll feel better about yourself and the convenience of simplicity. Make love a priority. A kind gesture, romantic suggestion or an event that can lead to love will pay off. HHH
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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Home is where the heart is; turn your space into a place you love to hang out. Pay attention to loved ones. Make plans that unite. Be the glue, the go-to person, and enjoy the attention and love. A change
SWOLLEN LOOK
THE fans of a young actress are criticizing the celebrity doctor under whose care she is when it comes to aesthetics. The fans say the young actress is starting to look like the doctor’s clients who are in their 40s and 50s. The young actress is still lovely but the procedures she undergoes are not for someone who is young and fresh like she is. The doctor is known for giving her clients that swollen look on their cheeks which can be seen from the back. Another popular patient of hers is an actress whose eyes are now fox-like.
FINANCIAL WOES
THE couple married in grand fashion but the husband had to borrow money from his showbiz colleagues to fund it. The wife seemed oblivious to their financial state. After they got married, the couple moved into a mansion which was not fully paid for. Guess what? The couple no longer lives there. The couple are both in showbiz and still working but no longer big earners. They still help the girl’s family financially and this has contributed to their woes.
NO OFFERS
A STARLET from a recent successful show has not gotten any offers for endorsements or ambassadorships. This is contrary to the expectation of her fans that she will be very much in demand. She is not. The negative image fostered by her presence on the show seems to have made an impact on her marketability. She seems to be the full package but no brand wants to be associated with her.
HIS OWN HASHTAG
THE politician is one of the few who has a social media team for himself. His constituents don’t know if that is being paid with taxpayers’ money but it shouldn’t, they said, because the social media team is being used by the politician personally. So if you see a public official with his own photographer posing for glamor shots, it’s him. He’s always loved attention and even had relationships with celebrities so that he’d always be featured in videos on social media. He is also one of the few politicians with his own hashtag.
Celebrity moms form P-pop group, become ambassadors of Surf2Sawa
By Patrick Villanueva
BEING a P-pop star is not just for the young ones. Actress, comedian and mom Melai Cantiveros-Francisco, alongside Sexbomb Girls Rochelle Pangilinan-Solinap, Jopay PaguiaZamora, Sunshine Garcia-Castro, and CheChe Tolentino, just had their contract signing of the newly formed P-pop group MAMAMO under Converge ICT Solutions for internet service provider Surf2Sawa. Former SexBomb Girls member Rochelle Pangilinan-Solinap is proud of this moment, saying how they are representing moms in an industry full of young people. “Para sa’kin, ang MAMAMO ay hindi lang basta grupo; isa itong para mai-angat at maipag-diwang ang mga ilaw ng tahanan,” shared Rochelle. “Sobrang proud na proud ako sa mukha ko kasi pinagkatiwalaan ng ‘to ng Surf2Sawa,” Melai said in jest about being an ambassador of the service. Sobrang kaba at hiya yung naramdaman ko kasi nilagay pa ako sa gitna, pero sobrang nagpapasalamat ako sa kanila kasi todo support sila sakin. I pray that this partnership continues to be successful,” she added. Surf2Sawa or S2S is a prepaid fiber internet plan that’s unlimited, inexpensive, and without contract, perfect for moms who want to provide internet connection in their home without getting tied to complicated stuff.
Writing love, desire and liberation for the screen
Iam watching this Japanese film, titled Kucchi muite yo Mukai-kun (Turn to me Mukai-Kun), and I realize that while I am too jaded to learn how to navigate the mazeways of love, I am learning how certain films allow us to understand the difference between film criticism and film education. Or at least learn when to criticize and when to know about life through the characters that are portrayed in the kind of cinema presented.
Turn to me Mukai-kun is a casual and smart walk through the contemporary lives of young Japanese with no survival problems. The air is jovial and fresh; the feeling is of a world where everything is working just fine. Whatever problems or crises the people in this universe may face, the color is never dark but pastel, bright and pleasant.
The narrative is brisk and the flow of events speak of economic times that are under control. The pacing is no-nonsense; the production design has the right amount of grit; the lighting is lovely.
The actors are compelling and all good to look at, with quirkiness and human eccentricities added to each and every personality.
Satoru Mukai – our Mukai-kun (for the uninitiated, “kun” is a diminutive used for young men or boys to indicate intimacy and friendliness) – is a successful “salaryman.” He is 33 years old but looks young for his age. Eiji Akaso, the actor, possesses the natural ease and charm that makes his character a natural standout. He is the kind of young man one would want to bring home as a prospective suitor for a sister. He would certainly be loved and welcomed by an avid mother-in-law. There is one hitch though: Mukai-kun has been loveless for the last 10 years.
If the film Turn to me Mukai-kun had focused greatly on the leading man’s travails, it would have been less significant. But the writers and the directors had the wisdom and curiosity to look into the women of the story. And not only look but look deeply, and explore other facets of how it is to be a woman in the fast and changing worlds of Japanese society.
Much misunderstood, the Japanese woman has always suffered in the hands and imagination of writ
In the case of Mukai-kun, we are able to discern the change in the psychology of this loveless man by the women surrounding him. This is the tricky part and the lovely strategy employed by the film.
At home, Mukai-kun has Mami, his sister whose husband lives with them. It is a strange arrangement, one that hits a dissonant chord when Mami opted to reconsider their marital status. Is it right that they remain married? For Mami, her husband Genki loses his appeal when he assumes his duties as a breadwinner. She loves Genki but being married does not connote love. For the outsiders, Mami has a cold heart. When the father of Mukai-kun comes home on a break, he begins to be active in looking for a prospective woman for his son. To this, the mother bristles with disgust. Here we find a startling contrast: the Japanese mother is more open-minded and less intrusive, berating her husband for not allowing their son to decide for himself his future. Again, the discourse rears its strong head – marriage does not mean happiness.
To the question of those long years without love, the film brings us back to the past of Mukai-kun, to Miwako, the beautiful girl with whom he had a relationship. They broke up over what Mukai-kun in his moment of vulnerability and, shall we say, overflowing passion, expressed his desire to protect Miwako at all cost. Isn’t this our idea of chivalry and gallantry, that men are supposed to protect women always? But Miwako took a step back and stared hard at Mukaekun to ask why the need to protect her.
Dhing Pascual, Vice President at Business Unit
Head of Surf2Sawa, wants to celebrate moms and their role in family building, saying “Napansin namin, hindi ba ang mga nanay ang madalas na gumagawa ng mahahalagang desisyon sa bahay? Sila ang ilaw ng tahanan at sila rin ang nakakaalam ng tunay na kailangan ng pamilya, lalo na sa mga praktikal solusyon sa pang araw-araw. Kaya naisip namin, bakit hindi sila ang mismong i-celebrate?”
Surf2Sawa provides speed up to 50 Mbps, which you could connect up to six devices, making the low price of P4 per person. Installation costs only P999 from the start. Then, you can get unlimited internet for only P50 per day, up to P 700 for 30 days.
Ten years later, when the two former lovers met again, Mukai-kun thought that was the reason why they separated, that they quarreled over that notion. Is there a chance for reconciliation for Mukae-kun and Miwako?
Between those 10 years and the eventual reunion of Miwako and Mukae-kun, another woman enters the picture: Hara Chikka. She constantly talks about marriage. When finally she is confronted by Mukae-kun by her constant nagging thoughts about getting married, she confesses to the truth about a woman depending on her age as that is related to having children. It is both bitter and sweet on the part of this young woman to think about her own happiness and admitting how only she can bring this about to fruition.
Throughout the fugue in the life and love and Mukae, there is the drinking buddy of Mukae-kun, a woman named Koki. She dispenses advice even as she struggles with her own attraction to a divorced colleague. While she is almost brutally objective with Mukae-kun, she controls her fatal passion and with it that overwhelming loneliness she hides behind her couture dresses and sophisticated gestures.
A cautionary tale in the guise of quiet afternoons in tony cafes, with yummy curry rice and good beer from izakaya, Turn to me Mukai kun is a soft interlude of cultures, deceptive in its fluid depiction of statuses. Turn to me Mukai-kun is directed by Kusago Shono and Shigeyama Yoshinori. Watanabe Mako is the writer of this series which streams on Netflix. n
‘Mommy Dearest’ pays tribute to mothers in touching finale
more twists and turns one last time, as the highly-successful GMA afternoon series Mommy bids goodbye this Friday, July 18. The secret is finally coming out that Olive (Camille Prats) killed her twin, Jade, and pretended to be her. Ligaya (Amy Austria) is determined to expose the truth and help reunite the family of Emma (Katrina Halili), Danilo (Dion Ignacio) and Mookie (Shayne Sava). However, Olive is ready to fight for her dream family until the end, even if it means harming them and herself. In the middle of chaos, danger, and scrimmage, Olive breaks down, revealing her painful childhood and obsession with keeping Mookie. How will Olive redeem herself and heal from her past traumas? Is she still deserving of forgiveness from everyone she has hurt? When does a mother learn to
love their child in the right and healthy way?
In an Instagram post, Camille pens a lengthy and touching message for the people who supported Mommy Dearest since the beginning. She says, “Playing Olive breathed new life into my passion for acting. I’m truly grateful to have explored this different side of my creativity.”
In return, avid viewers express their love for the show and the cast. According to one comment on GMA Network’s YouTube channel, “Matatapos na ang inaabangan ko tuwing hapon nakakalungkot naman. Mami-miss ko kayong lahat sobra. Ang husay nilang umarte lahat at sobrang iconic ng mga eksena. Sana magka-Season 2!” The finale of Mommy Dearest airs this Friday at 3:20 pm on GMA and Kapuso Stream. More information can be found at www.GMANetwork.com.
TAKE A FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW HARRY POTTER AS HBO BEGINS FILMING SERIES
HBO has officially started production on the highly anticipated Harry Potter TV series adaption, the network announced Monday, also revealing a first look at the titular character.
The photo released by HBO shows Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, donning the signature Hogwarts uniform paired with round-rim glasses and a lightning bolt scar, not unlike the iconic costume worn by Daniel Radcliffe in the eight-part film series.
The show began production at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the UK, and is expected to debut in 2027.
A new round of actors were announced Monday, including Rory Wilmot as Neville Longbottom, Amos Kitson as Dudley Dursley, Louise Brealey as Madam Rolanda Hooch and Anton Lesser as Garrick Ollivander. The network announced in late May that McLaughlin was cast as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger,
and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley. Several high-profile actors have been announced in other key roles, including Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore and Katherine Parkinson as Molly Weasley.
The new series adaption begins production nearly 14 years after the final movie adaption of J.K. Rowling’s books, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, was released in theaters. In addition to the blockbuster movies, the franchise has inspired a Broadway play, video games and theme parks since the first installment was released 28 years ago.
The new series will be “a faithful adaptation of the beloved Harry Potter books,” the network previously wrote, and “will feature an exciting and talented cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail and much-loved characters Harry Potter fans have adored for over 25 years.” AP
I got scammed!
Continued from B4
the scammer was making me follow, I have to admit is entirely my fault. After this almost costly mistake, I need to be hyper-vigilant from now on, and just not click on any link sent to me even if it comes from what appears to be a legit company with which I’ve been doing business.
The final punchline to my entire ordeal is this: upon checking on the legit Smart app, I realized that I didn’t have any reward points at all. Gadernmit! Hay, tanga. n
CAMILLE PRATTS KATRINA HALILI
MPIF Inaugurates Visayas’ First Mangrove Propagation and Information Center
Metro Pacific Investments Foundation, Inc. (MPIF), the corporate social responsibility arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), officially inaugurated the newly renovated Mangrove Propagation and Information Center (MPIC) in Cordova, Cebu.
This milestone event was held under MPIF’s environmental flagship program, Shore It Up!, and was graced by local government officials and community partners.
The reopening of the two-story facility symbolizes a new era of community-based marine preservation efforts, especially following the devastation caused by Typhoon Odette, which heavily damaged the original structure.
The MVP Group of Companies, under the leadership of Manuel V. Pangilinan, has continued its devoted efforts to the Philippines’ recovery from the typhoon, which struck in December 2021 and caused widespread devastation across multiple regions. A total of P30 million was raised through contributions from Pangilinan himself, First Pacific, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, Maynilad, Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, PHILEX Mining Corporation, and Mr. Benny Santoso. Further support came from the Makati Medical Foundation, Alagang Kapatid Foundation, and PLDT.
While immediate needs were addressed in the aftermath, the MVP Group has continuously prioritized sustainable recovery—aiming to restore livelihoods, empower communities, and help them thrive long after disaster strikes. In line with this goal, MPIF funded a P4.5 million repair and rehabilitation project for the Center, breathing new life into the structure and restoring its vital role in the local ecosystem.
The MPIC is the first and only center of its kind in the Visayas, dedicated to the protection and propagation of mangrove forests in Cordova and surrounding coastal areas. The facility serves as a hub for raising awareness on the vital role mangroves play in coastal defense, biodiversity preservation,
and climate resilience, while also offering opportunities for nature appreciation and ecotourism.
During the turnover, MPIF also provided tools and equipment essential for the Center’s operations—including a Smart TV, sound system, electric fans, tables, and chairs—to support its daily activities and visitor engagement.
Coinciding with the inauguration was the induction of five newly trained Mangrove Eco-Guides—local community members nominated by the municipality. These individuals will handle the daily operations of the Center, including leading tours, conducting orientations, and assisting in mangrove park maintenance. Their training included immersive sessions with environmental consultants and local government partners, where they gained essential knowledge and learned best practices. MPIF will co-provide a monthly allowance for these Eco-Guides over the next three years, ensuring the continuity and sustainability of their service. With their training and commitment, they are fully equipped to guide visitors through the Center and surrounding mangrove park.
The ceremony was attended by Cordova
Mayor Cesar Suan, Vice Mayor Victor Tago III, and local government officials, and Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation Vice President for Tollways Development & Engineering, Fernando M. Autor.
In his remarks, Suan shared: “Thank you for changing the image of this center. It becomes the best place for us to be proud of, along with our mangroves. Rest assured that under my command, we will take care of this center, we will continue our projects, and we will invest more for the future of Cordova.”
MPIF President Melody del Rosario reflected on the greater meaning behind this project: “Today marks not just an inauguration, but the beginning of a shared legacy. The opening of the Cordova Mangrove Propagation and Information Center, the only one of its kind in the Visayas, is a historic step forward in preserving, understanding, and empowering communities through our mangrove ecosystems. This center is not just a building. It is a symbol of partnership, science, stewardship, and local pride. In MPIF, we believe that protecting our environment is not just a philanthropic duty or corporate responsibility, it is an act of love.”
Support Local, Save Big: Proudly Pinoy Essentials Now at MR.DIY
THIS July, MR.DIY, the country’s fastest-growing and leading home improvement retailer, shines a spotlight on Filipino pride with its “Proudly Made in the Philippines” campaign, offering great deals on locally crafted home and school essentials.
With over 800 stores nationwide, MR.DIY brings “Gawang Pinoy” products closer to Filipino households, making them more accessible through discounts of up to 30 percent on a wide range of items that reflect everyday practicality and quality.
The push to support Filipino-made products aligns with broader efforts to uplift local manufacturers and artisans. Choosing local goods goes beyond convenience or cost—it’s a conscious decision that fuels the economy, sustains livelihoods, and promotes environmentally responsible consumption by minimizing reliance on imported goods.
“At MR.DIY, we believe that every purchase has the power to create change,” said Roselle Andaya, CEO of MR.DIY Philippines. “When our customers choose ‘Proudly Pinoy’ products, they’re not just bringing home quality essentials; they’re also investing in Filipino craftsmanship, helping sustain local jobs, and strengthening the communities that produce these goods. It’s a small act with a big ripple effect.”
With its wide reach and strong community presence, MR.DIY plays a growing role in making Filipino-made goods part of everyday living—proving that support for local products can start with something as simple as your next shopping trip.
Filipino-made items have long stood out for their durability, thoughtfulness, and cultural relevance. From storage bins and cleaning materials to school essentials made with care, these products reflect the values of practicality and pride shared by many Filipino families. Choosing local also becomes a way to honor cultural identity and support community resilience.
As more consumers reflect on the impact of their purchasing decisions, campaigns like “Proudly Made in the Philippines” serve as timely reminders that quality doesn’t have to come from afar—and that every peso spent locally helps strengthen the fabric of the nation.
Visit your nearest MR.DIY store from July 1 to 31, 2025 and discover homegrown products that are affordable, reliable, and proudly made for every Filipino home.
For more details, visit www.mrdiy.com/ph or follow MR.DIY Philippines on social media - Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates and extra special promotions.
Electronic shelf labels: Worthwhile investments by smart retailers
systems is no longer optional; it’s essential to long-term operational stability.
Industry experts warn that many low-cost ESL products may suffer from poor wireless connectivity, short battery life, inconsistent display quality, lack of cybersecurity safeguards and limited vendor support.
These weaknesses become especially problematic during peak business hours, when even minor failures can lead to lost sales, slowed fulfillment, or compliance violations.
Cases in point: In healthcare and pharmaceuticals, outdated or incorrect shelf information can place consumer safety at risk.
High-quality ESL systems offer several advantages: stronger security protocols, longer battery life, seamless integration with point of sales or POS and enterprise resource planning or ERP systems, remote updates with centralized management, and access to real-time analytics that drive smarter business decisions.
These features are no longer just the proverbial “bells and whistles”—they’ve become necessities in today’s fast-moving retail and logistics environments where speed, accuracy and integration can make or break operations.
As ESLs enable real-time pricing and promotions, regulators across Asia are beginning to scrutinize their use in sensitive sectors such as food retail and pharmaceuticals. Systems that lack transparency or allow price manipulation HIGH quality ESL (Top) compared to the cheap kind. may be subject to increased regulation and fines. The bottom line: Companies must weigh short-term savings against long-term costs. Premium ESL solutions help safeguard operations, build consumer trust, and support scalability as businesses grow.
In today’s fast-paced retail and logistics world, innovation backed by resilience isn’t just a safeguard—it’s a competitive advantage. With the right ESL systems in place, businesses can move forward with confidence.
Robbie Antonio’s Armani
deal marks start of bold era in PHL luxury development
LONG before Robbie Antonio took the reins of the Jose Antonio Group Inc. or JAGI, now the Antonio family’s consolidated private investment vehicle, he was already making waves for forging bold, high-profile collaborations in luxury real estate. Among the most talked-about projects is his partnership with Italian fashion icon Giorgio Armani.
The project is Century Spire, a 60-story tower in Makati’s Century City completed in 2022. Designed by star architect Daniel Libeskind and outfitted by Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio, the skyscraper embodied Antonio’s vision of elevating Philippine real estate to world-class stature. Armani’s studio was tapped to curate not just the interiors of the private residences but also the shared spaces — down to the lobbies, pool lounge, and library. The result was a seamless blend of design, fashion, and function.
Now, as CEO of JAGI, Antonio is taking that same mindset to a broader playing field. While real estate remains part of the equation, JAGI’s portfolio has expanded to include healthcare, fintech, technology, and consumer goods. The group’s mission is to back ideas that create long-term impact and push boundaries.
“The Armani collaboration showed us what’s possible when you mix visionary design with strategic ambition,” Antonio said. “That level of creativity and precision is something we want to bring into all our investments — not just buildings, but brands, platforms, and people.”
Antonio’s focus on the family office, Jose Antonio Group Inc. (JAGI), isn’t a departure from his roots, but a continuation of the ethos that made his projects stand out from the start. Where others saw buildings, he saw experiences. Where others stuck to tradition, he courted change-makers. Century Spire may be complete, but its influence remains. It’s a case study for what happens when Filipino development is unafraid to engage global talent. And as JAGI looks ahead, it’s clear that partnerships like Armani/Casa weren’t just for show, but were proof-of-concept. From branded towers to cross-sector investments, Antonio is steering JAGI with the same daring that first caught the world’s attention. If the Armani collaboration marked a high point in Philippine luxury real estate, it also laid the groundwork for a future that’s more agile, ambitious, and globally minded.
PwC Acceleration Center Manila Donates Laptops to DepEd to Empower Future-Ready Learners
PWC in the Philippines, through its delivery hub PwC Acceleration Center Manila (AC Manila), donated 200 laptops to the Department of Education (DepEd) to help empower Filipino learners in bridging the digital divide in public schools.
Leading the DepEd delegation was Secretary Sonny Angara, who received the donation on behalf of the department. Representing PwC in the Philippines was Nilesh Sharma, Partner and General Manager, and Dennis Basilio, Chief Operating Officer of AC Manila.
“This donation is more than just about technology—it’s a promise to invest in our youth’s potential and a testament to our belief in a future where every student has the right tools to thrive,” said Sharma. “At PwC in the Philippines, we’re proud to work handin-hand with the public sector and like-minded partners to bridge the digital divide and contribute to equitable growth.
“This initiative also reflects our commitment to society and directly aligns with one of the three pillars of ;our Community Impact strategy—Education,” Sharma continued. “Together with
Environment and Health, Education serves as a key focus area where we aim to make a lasting impact. By empowering young learners through access to technology, we are reinforcing our goal of driving meaningful, inclusive progress within the communities we serve.”
The donation was made possible through the support of key education and industry advocates. Geraldine Acuña, President and CEO of Khan Academy Philippines, joined the event to reaffirm their mission of providing free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Also present was Genny Marcial, Head of Membership at the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), who emphasized the importance of advancing digital skills development nationwide. The initiative also drew support from Carlos “Charlie” Rufino, President of NEO and a passionate advocate for education.
This initiative reflects PwC’s purpose of building trust in society and solving important problems— and focuses on enabling the next generation of Filipino learners.
Cordova Mayor Cesar Suan and Vice Mayor Victor Tago III (center left), MPIF President Melody del Rosario, and CCLEC Vice President for Tollways Development & Engineering, Fernando M. Autor (center right), together with the inducted Mangrove Eco-Guides.
Robbie Antonio with Roberta and Giorgio Armani
In the photo are, from left, Genny Marcial, IBPAP Head of Membership; Nilesh Sharma, PwC AC Manila Partner and General Manager; Education Secretary Sonny Angara; Dennis Basilio, PwC AC Manila COO; and Geraldine AcuñaSunshine, Khan Academy Philippines President and CEO
On the track, the New Cannon delivers
Story & photos by Randy S. Peregrino
AFTER its successful launch at the 2025 Manila International Auto Show, GWM Philippines hosted a test drive event on the track, showcasing the New Cannon 4x4 pickup. Backed by the brand’s legacy as the No. 1 Pickup Truck brand in China with a commanding 50% market share, GWM boldly claims that the latest Cannon is set to elevate the benchmark for pickups in the Philippine market.
“The New GWM Cannon represents the next evolution of pickups in our market — capable, refined, and packed with features that today’s drivers value,” said Dax Avenido, Brand Head and Marketing Director of GWM Philippines. “This event allowed our guests to experience that firsthand, and to see just how much engineering and innovation went into this vehicle.”
One of the latest pickup’s highlights is the new and upgraded 2.4-liter turbo diesel engine paired with a nine-speed automatic transmission. Now generating 181 hp and 480 N-m of torque, that’s a 13 percent increase in power and 20 percent more torque. According to GWM, fuel efficiency has also been optimized, resulting in a 10 percent reduction in consumption. Another advanced feature is the Torque on Demand (TOD) Intelligent Permanent 4x4 System, which offers maximum traction across various terrains.
The event also comes as GWM Philippines continues to gain momentum in the local automotive scene. From April to June, the brand exceeded its sales targets, achieving 124 percent of its goals in April and sustaining a strong average growth rate of 39 percent in the second quarter. This solid second-quarter performance reflects growing market confidence in GWM’s offerings, particularly with the New Cannon leading the way.
The New Cannon LUX 4X4 variant retails at P1.348 million, while the top-of-the-line Cannon SLUX 4x4 variant is at P1.498 million. Available colors are Atlantic Blue, Pittsburgh Silver, Scarlet Red, Iceberg White, and Midnight Black.
The New Cannon in action MEANWHILE , under the guidance of expert drivers, participants engaged in a series of exercises at the R33 Drift Track in San Simon, Pam -
panga, demonstrating the New Cannon’s exceptional handling, braking, stability, Level 2 ADAS features, and ease of parking.
There were various stages designed to demonstrate specific extreme situations. The initial phase focused on acceleration, followed by a series of bends that highlighted the pickup’s handling and its ability to stay in lane despite constant turns. Despite the large frame with a higher center of gravity and stiff damping, particularly the rear leaf-sprung setup, the
MARK LUIGI BAUTISTA reports about “unbeatable” deals from Toyota, starting with an 80,000 peso savings upon purchase of the Toyota Tamaraw 2.4 Dropside Diesel M/T. On top of that is a down payment of only P140,000, plus a free first year insurance, free 3-year LTO registration and zero chattel mortgage. Mark says the Wigo can be had at P110,250 down payemnt and as little as P7,636 monthly instalment under the 50-percent down payment and 60 months to pay.
Now for the hybrid Corolla Cross, you pay only P12,617 per month under the Pay Light option, Zenix for only P18,249 per month for a savings of P150k via straight cash deal, Vios at P8,340 per month and a savings of P75k via straight cash. “As part of Toyota’s commitment to road safety,” says Mark, “Toyota is offering a free periodic maintenance service (PMS) until the 20,000 KM check-up for all brand-new Raize, Veloz and select variants of the Vios, Fortuner, Hilux, Innova and Avanza.” T amaraw buyers between July 7–31, 2025, will receive a P1,200 service discount voucher, applicable to nine periodic maintenance services from 1,000 km to 40,000 km. Additionally, owners who bought a Rush, Corolla Altis or Wigo within the same period will also receive a P1,200 service discount voucher, covering PMS visits from 1,000 km
to 30,000 km, valid for 36 months from release date.
Mark also says that P25k rebates can be had on trade-in deals of Vios, Innova, Fortuner or Hilux for a brandnew Vios, Wigo, Yaris Cross V CVT/G CVT, or Zenix V CVT.
“Buyers of new Toyota vehicles get a 3-year or 100,000-kilometer Manufacturer Warranty, whichever comes first,” says Mark.
Visit https://toyota.com.ph/promos/ JulyRainySeasonDeals for more details. Meanwhile, in a statement, Toyota has endorsed Standard Insurance Co., Inc. as the second model End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) dismantling facility in the Philippines in its “Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers Project.”
Toyota’s statement: STANDARD Insurance primarily handles vehicles insured under its portfolio, with an average of 850
vehicle managed to minimize body roll. There, we expected nose dives, but with reasonable anticipation of when to make a sudden turn, it was compensated.
Sterring feedback was also good and reactive.
THE next stage was more extreme and considered critical to every vehicle’s ability to remain in control. It was about doing a panic brake during a tight turn. From a full-throttle acceleration, we slammed on the brake pedal while turning after reaching a specific marker. Impressively, the vehicle stopped momentarily and avoided veering towards the outer lane.
Then, it was time for ADAS to take over. While following another vehicle that suddenly came to a complete stop, our test unit automatically applied emergency braking to prevent a collision. It also demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to adjust its speed while following another vehicle automatically. The exercise was conducted at a slow speed of under 30 km/h for safety. Lastly, we tested the 3D surround view, which features a unique all-around view angle, displaying not only what is underneath but also the low and blind angles. While backing up and navigating around obstacles, we relied solely on the high-definition display screen.
Now that is one essential feature, especially for a pickup.
While all these extreme tests would typically be conducted on crossovers, MPVs, and other applicable family movers, doing so with a 4x4 pickup is also relevant and crucial to demonstrate the pickup’s steadfast handling and control, both on and off the road.
Peace of mind
vehicles dismantled annually.
“Located in Naic, Cavite, the facility spans approximately 8,840 square meters and has a dismantling capacity of up to six (6) units per day.
“Backed by an investment of P17.8 Million, this initiative represents a major private sector involvement in appropriate vehicle life cycle management and circular economy.
“End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) dismantling facilities serve as a vital foundation for building a circular economy in the automotive industry. These facilities ensure that inoperable vehicles are processed responsibly, minimizing environmental impact by safely managing hazardous materials and maximizing resource recovery for reintroduction in the manufacturing cycle.
“With two established dismantling facilities now operating in the country, the private sector beefs up the local capacity for responsible ELV
ASIDE from standard active and passive safety features, the New Cannon comes with a comprehensive suite of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). These features include Adaptive Cruise Control, Intelligent Cruise Assistance, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Center keeping Assist, Lane Change assist, Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Keeping Assist, Lane Change Assist, Cross Traffic alert, Traffic Sign Recognition, Overspeed Alarm, among others.
Some of the standard safety features are a surround-view camera system, Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Hill Descent Control, and Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Currently, GWM is the only Chinese pickup truck brand in the Philippines offering a 7-year warranty. Moreover, GWM Philippines is offering an exclusive 5-Year Periodic Maintenance Service (PMS) package, providing worry-free ownership and exceptional value. The pickup is also reinforced with a high-strength steel frame, ensuring structural durability and safety. The New GWM Cannon also carries a 5-star ANCAP safety rating.
management. This expansion not only supports local sustainability efforts, but also addresses the climate-related risks posed by ELVs globally.
“Standard Insurance bolsters the Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers Project being the fifth on its list in the Southeast Asian region.
“‘We are very grateful to Standard Insurance for its voluntary resolve, making Toyota customers also feel assured with a proper place for ELVs to go,’” said TMP president Masando Hashimoto.
“The Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers Project is a worldwide initiative that seeks to establish proper ELV dismantling operations in different strategic locations around the world. Through this network, Toyota aims to address key environmental challenges such as pollution and resource depletion by promoting responsible disposal and recycling practices.
“Standard Insurance, a partner in TMP’s
THE New Cannon in action on the track. GWM PHILIPPINES
THE Philippine spec gets the dark-themed interior
THE new and more powerful
2.4-liter turbodiesel engine
DE LA SALLE and Ateneo bring their iconic rivalry onto the fairways as they headline the inaugural International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Intercollegiate Golf Tour Friday at the Royal Northwoods Golf and Country Club in San Rafael, Bulacan.
Ateneo, which skipped the event’s soft-launch last month, is now fully committed by fielding a deep and talented roster to challenge De La Salle in a fresh arena of school pride, strategy and sportsmanship.
T he IIT, developed by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. and the Philippine Golf Foundation, aims to reshape collegiate golf by offering a competitive yet developmentfocused platform for student-athletes transitioning from junior play.
The tournament also bridges the junior golf circuit and elite amateur and professional ranks, offering a national stage for rising talents and opening a much-needed grassroots-topro pipeline in Philippine golf. Open to both school teams and individual entries, the Tour encourages wide participation from various regions and collegiate leagues, creating a unified platform for golf development.
T he event uses a four-round stroke play format, with the threeto-play, two-to-count team scoring system that highlights depth and consistency, where every shot can sway the team standings.
R anking points are awarded to the top eight teams and individual players in each division—15, 12 and 10 points for the top three, followed by 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 for fourth to eighth placers. Team and individual competition scores are based on the best two rounds out of four, with the top three teams and top three individuals (including independent entries) advancing to the grand finals.
T he Tour unfolds across several premier courses in Luzon. Round 2 takes place on July 27 at Splendido Taal (men), Round 3 on August 9 at Caliraya Springs (women) and Round 3 continues at Pradera Verde on August 11 (men and women).
T he men’s Round 4 will be held on August 17 at Beverly Hills Golf Club in Pampanga, while the women’s final round is on August 24 at Eastridge Golf Club in Rizal. The grand finals are set for September 23 to 25 at Splendido Taal.
A total of 108 players are vying for individual and team honors.
Yu, 12, bringing amazing times to swim worlds
YU ZIDI of China is only 12 years old and will race at the world swimming championships later this month in Singapore.
That’s amazing.
B ut her age is only part of the picture.
Not only is she very young, but her times in three events this year are among the best in the world. And here’s the kicker—those times would have been very close to medals in last year’s Paris Olympics.
A gain, she’s 12. That’s a sixth- or seventh-grade student depending on the school system. Not yet a teenager.
“I think i t’s a great story. I don’t know where it will lead,” Greg Meehan, the national team director for the American squad in Singapore, told The Associated Press.
A s promising young swimmers do, Yu is clocking personal bests (PBs) almost each time she competes and her PBs are more than just confidence boosters, they put her in sight of records, medals and stardom.
Yu has qualified in the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys and the 200 butterfly—she could win a medal in all three. Her time of two minutes and 10.63 seconds in the 200 IM at the Chinese championships in May was the fastest ever by a 12-year-old swimmer— male or female—according to World Aquatics, the global governing body of the sport. That was only the start—her time of 2:06.83 in the 200 butterfly in the same meet would have placed her fourth in last year’s Paris Olympics as it was the fifth-fastest time in the world this year and would have been good enough for gold in the 2024 worlds.
A gain, Yu is 12 years old. To cap off the national championships she swam 4:35.53 in the 400 IM, the fifthfastest time of the year in that event— that also would have been good for fourth place last year at the Olympics, just 0.6
Sports BusinessMirror
B8 | Friday, July 18, 2025
mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
Editor: Jun Lomibao
Pacquiao to Barrios: Where’s your horse?
By Josef Ramos
AS VEGAS—Hall of Famer Manny
LPacquiao looked formal in a striped black suit over a white shirt, black pants and leather shoes in Wednesday’s (Thursday in Manila) press conference at the MGM Grand. His op ponent, reigning World Boxing Council welterweight champion Mario Barrios was, as Texans always do, wore a cowboy hat, black shirt and khaki pants and wore a pair of blue sneakers.
W hen the two fighters were asked to do a face off on stage, Pacquiao, jokingly, asked Barrios: “Where’s your horse?” That literally brought the house down. And that, practically, is your typical Manny Pacquiao— always jolly and playful with his words. Then came the serious talk about this Saturday’s main event where Pacquiao is going after Barrios’s belt to become the only boxer to win titles in nine different divisions.
All I can say right now is I’m back,” Pacquiao said. “I returned because it is hard to resist fighting. I love boxing. My body is looking for it.”
Pacquiao (62-8-2 win-loss-draw record with 39 knockouts) added: “I’m thankful to my trainers for being there, to remind me to stop during trainings.”
The 46-year-old boxing icon had with him the legendary and fellow Hall of Famer Freddie Roach and Buboy Fernandez, his bosom buddy and trainer from way, way back.
A +210 un derdog against Barrios’ -280 favorite in the betting lines, Pacquiao said he’s not bothered at all.
“That’s fine. I’m an underdog most of the time in some of my matches, but I always brought surprises during the fights, yes, surprises,” Pacquiao said. “And Manny Pacquiao always bring surprises.”
Barrios’s trainer Bob Santos, meanwhile, declared his ward from San Antonio, Texas, is all geared up for Saturday’s fight.
“ We’re ready for an all-out war, toe-totoe,” Santos said. “When you prepare for your absolute best, you should be confident. And Mario has prepared to his maximum effort by pushing himself harder than ever.”
Barrios, expressing full confidence, said he will leave the arena with his belt intact.
“I know it’s going to be a hell of a fight against a living legend. But at the end of the night, you are going to hear.…‘And still the champion,’” Barrios
(29-2-1 record with 18 knockouts) said. “It’s my time now and we have been putting in some serious work…I’m ready for war.”
Pacquiao’s always been no trash-talker.
“It’s going to be fantastic. Our job is to give
behind bronze medalist Emma Weyant of the United States. The 400 IM is dominated by 18-yearold Canadian Summer McIntosh, who holds the world record of 4:23.65 and the 200 IM mark of 2:05.70—she’s a generational talent, the winner of three gold medals in Paris. By comparison, Yu at 12 is swimming roughly 15 seconds faster in the 400 IM than McIntosh did at 12, and about 12 seconds faster in the 200 IM—in a 50-meter pool, 12 to 15 seconds would be a half-lap of the pool, depending on the event. Yu is not the first young swimmer to excel, but it’s how she’s doing it—the stunning times and the promise of more to come. Of course there are no guarantees of success, and young swimmers can burn out. Yu said she began swimming at 6 in a
water amusement park. “The summer was too hot, and my dad took me to the water park,” she told China’s official Xinhua News Agency. “I enjoyed the coolness of the water and spent a lot of time in different small pools for kids. One day, a coach approached me and asked if I wanted to swim faster.”
The rest is history, as they say, as she explained her event preference.
Since I am not competitive in the sprint events, I have to choose the 400-meter individual medley and the 200-meter butterfly as my favorites,” Yu told Xinhua. “My age is currently an advantage and I hope to grow and develop more strength in the future.”
Yu trains at the Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club in Hengshui City, south of Beijing in Hebei Province. Alzain Tareq of Bahrain swam in the
enjoyment and satisfaction to the fans, provide a real fight, and not a boring fight,” he said.
Fernandez predicts MP by knockout BUBOY FERNANDEZ does’t want the fight to go deep into the night.
“First three rounds? There will be a knockout so let’s go home right away,” Fernandez told reporters in the same press conference. Fernandez said Pacquiao has “newlyimproved conditions, strength, quickness, ring tactics and mindset” that he will use to the hilt against his 30-year-old opponent who’s almost a head taller at 6 feet flat.
“If Manny’s left hand hits Barrios, there is your bonus,” said Fernandez, who compated this fight to Pacquiao’s dismantling of the great Oscar Dela Hoya in eighth rounds at MGM Grand I 2008.
This is an all-out war. The storm from the pacific is back at 300 miles per hour at signal No. 5,” he said. “We will immediately go home to the Philippines.”
He added that Barrios is not defensiveoriented fighter “so the chances of him getting hit is high.”
Bob Santos, meanwhile, clarified his early pronouncement that Pacquiao would “end up in a hospital and cemetery” stressing it’s “not personal but a needed motivation for Barrios not to put his guards down.”
2015 worlds at only 10 and finished last in her event. World Aquatics now has stricter age rules than a decade ago— swimmers must be at least 14 unless their times meet qualification standards.
In effect, this means there is no age limit.
If Yu were to win Olympic gold in three years in Los Angeles, she would be 15. But that wouldn’t make her the youngest swimmer to take gold.
Kyoko Iwasaki of Japan was 14 years and six days old when she won gold in the 200 breaststroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
The specialty publication and website SwimSwam lists seven swimmers—all women—who won Olympic gold before they turned 15—three, including Iwasaki, did it in individual events, and four got gold in relays.
American superstar Katie Ledecky was 15 years and 139 days when she won the 800 freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics—the first of her nine gold medals over four Olympics.
S he’s still swimming and is the overwhelming favorite to win the 1,500 meters in Singapore. Ledecky has the top 23 times in history in the event, and also No. 25.
For another jolting perspective, consider this. Ledecky’s first gold came several months before Yu was born— October 6, 2012.
“I h ave no idea what it’s like to compete abroad,” Yu told Xinhua. “I really want to experience the worldclass competition.” The world is watching. AP
GC rivals show respect as Pogačar falls off bike near finish in Stage 11
TOULOUSE, France—Tour de France favorite Tadej Pogačar crashed near the finish while Norwegian rider Jonas Abrahamsen won the 11th stage on Wednesday.
Pogačar, the three-time champion, crashed with 3.9 kilometers remaining after hitting the wheel of Tobias Johannessen in front. His rivals for the general classification slowed down so he could get back on his bike and rejoin them and was able to reattach the chain on his otherwise undamaged bike.
Pogačar thanked them for waiting.
All good, all good,” Pogačar said over the UAE Team Emirates XRG radio.
“Respect to the peloton, respect to everybody.” Johannessen apologized as he felt responsible.
“I think the whole peloton moved to the right and I just followed the movement of Matteo Jorgenson and some other guys. I think Pogačar was on the radio so we just bumped into each other and I think it’s something that happens,” Johannessen said. “But I really didn’t want him to crash and I don’t think any other guy in the peloton wants Pogačar to go down. We just stopped and waited in the group straight away and I hope he’s fine.” Abrahamsen, who attacked from the start, beat Swiss rider Mauro Schmid in a photo finish.
A pro-Palestinian protester did not distract either rider as they sprinted for the finish, racing each other at the end after they’d worked together to stay ahead of Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel’s late push to catch them. AP
JONAS ABRAHAMSEN sprints as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the 11th stage. AP
IN this photo taken January 15, 2025 and released by Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club, 12-year-old pool sensation Yu Zidi (left) and teammate Li Bingjie are seen training together in the land training room of their club in Hengshui City in Hebei Province. AP
AT 5-foot-6, Manny Pacquiao (left) couldn’t do a stare down at Mario Barrios (right) who’s 6 feet tall, but the man called the “People’s Champ” is never a trash talker so it’s fun time in Wednesday’s press conference where they are presented by Tom Brown of TGB Promotions. AP
