BusinessMirror June 02, 2026

‘Weak institutions may dim growth prospects’

By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

POLITICAL instability could eventually affect the longterm economic viability of the Philippines, a former deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warned.

Former BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo raised this concern in a televised interview on Monday as he pointed out that there is a strong correlation between politics “and even the movement of the peso itself.”

“When the Senate is perceived to be inconsistent with certain prin-

ciples of the Constitution, issues about credibility would actually crop up,” Guinigundo said.

The former BSP official said credibility, as well as loss of confidence, are already weighing on investment decisions.

“In terms of issues about governance, can the Philippines provide stability and long-term viability to investors? And therefore, in the process, investor sentiment is also affected, and therefore social cohesion is also affected,” added Guinigundo.

As for the local currency, he said the political noise is also affecting financial markets.

“Well, three weeks ago when the Senate drama started, the peso was doing at about 60, 61 pesos [as against the US dollar]. And as the drama unfolds in the next two weeks, we saw the significant depreciation of the Philippine peso,” he said.

“So, on that basis alone, we see the strong correlation between politics and even the movement of the peso itself. And you also see that in terms of the risks assigned to Philippine global bonds, and that is shown in the international capital markets,” he added.

Still, Guinigundo said the recent situation that transpired in the up-

per chamber of the Philippines’s Legislative branch “is not exactly beyond repair.”

“I think there are possible solutions for the Senate to be able to restore its credibility and it should do it fast,” Guinigundo said, adding, for instance, that the upper chamber “can always reaffirm constitutional independence.”

“And we have yet to see that today or perhaps in the next few days in the way the Senate conducts itself. Number two is to ensure transparency in their leadership, transparency and consistency with established rules,” he added.

By Ada Pelonia @adapelonia

THE Philippine manufacturing sector recovered in May as output rose due to new orders, but Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Market Intelligence warned of possible disruptions to supply chain caused by geopolitical tensions.

The country’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 50.8 in May from 48.3 in April, rebounding above the 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction. S&P Global Market Intelligence economist Maryam Baluch, however, said the latest PMI data for the Filipino manufacturing sector presented a mixed picture. “While manufacturers registered renewed growth in output and new orders, supply-chain disruption and cost pressures worsened as the Middle East conflict entered its third month. Both buying and hiring activity declined,” Baluch said. Despite this, she added that

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Special to the BusinessMirror

SOME $1.64 billion (P100.86 billion) in tourism investment pledges and opportunities have been generated by the recent state visit of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Japan.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) said the investments and leads covered tourism-enabling infrastructure, digital connectivity, wellness and medical tourism, destination retail, mobility and transport support systems, and broader tourism

ecosystem development. Total investment pledges secured by Marcos Jr. during his visit reached $3.4 billion (P209.1 billion).

Marcos Jr. was accompanied by Cabinet members including Tourism Secretary-designate Ma. Bernadita Angara-Mathay, who prior to her current appointment, was a member of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Foreign Trade Service Corps. For years she served as the Commercial Counselor at the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Tokyo, and was

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

MALACAÑANG said “recalibrated” economic targets based on the impact of the Middle East crisis will be finalized in time for the crafting of the 2027 national budget.

Quoting Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Acting Secretary Kim Robert C. De Leon, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) has started reviewing the said targets based on the latest developments on economic growth, inflation rates,

foreign exchange and oil prices.

The DBCC held its last meeting last week.

“The committee has agreed to further study the effects of these variables in the country’s fiscal position in the short- and mediumterm,” she said in a press briefing last Monday.

“Recalibrated figures will be finalized to serve as input for the preparation of the 2027 budget,” she added.

The House of Representatives usually starts its budget hearings for the succeeding year in August. President Ferdinand Marcos

BAYANIHAN BEFORE THE BELL As Brigada Eskwela 2026 runs from June 1 to June 5 ahead of the June 8 start of Term 1 under the theme “Bayanihan sa Paaralan: Nagkakaisa para sa Kaayusan at Kaalaman,” communities across Metro Manila mobilized in preparation for the new school year: faculty and staff of Parañaque Elementary School Unit II in San Dionisio cleaned and readied school premises, parents at Esteban Abada Elementary School in Project 7, Quezon City, worked together to refurbish classrooms, while in Ilaya, Divisoria, Manila, a grandfather was seen fitting

school uniform for his grandchild amid the bustling market known for affordable school needs, collectively reflecting the spirit of shared responsibility in getting learners ready for class. NONIE REYES & NONOY LACZA

SENATOR Jinggoy Estrada held a press conference at the Senate on Monday, June 1, 2026 before voluntarily surrendering to the CIDG in connection with the arrest warrant in the plunder case he faces at the Sandiganbayan. In photo, he is seen with Interior SEcretary Jonvic Remulla and Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano (partly hidden). Related stories on pages A3 and A12. ROY DOMINGO

Orders…

companies continued to be optimistic, anticipating that enhanced demand would support output growth.

“However, firms remained increasingly optimistic about the future, hoping improved demand will support output growth. Indeed, sustaining this growth will depend on how certain customers feel in the economic and geopolitical outlook,” she added.

S&P attributed the overall expansion last month to new orders, driven by improved client demand and new customer wins.

Underlying data indicated that the upturn stemmed from improved domestic demand as the exports picture remained “bleak,” with new sales from abroad plunging to its sharpest pace since July 2020.

Despite this, S&P noted that the uptick in overall new business motivated firms to raise their production levels at a “solid pace” in May, after growth had stalled in the survey last April.

“However, supply-chain disruption intensified. Lead times for inputs lengthened to one of the greatest extents in nearly a year-and-a-half amid shipping delays as companies decided to consolidate orders to limit costs.”

Citing qualitative evidence, S&P said the war in the Middle East had driven up fuel and raw material prices further, resulting in manufacturers facing greater cost burdens. The rate of inflation was the fastest since August 2022 and marked overall.

“Filipino manufacturers were more upbeat about the outlook for output in May. The level of positive sentiment was the highest in 18 months, as firms were hopeful that demand conditions will improve.”

PHL strengthens political, defense ties with Vietnam

By Samuel P Medenilla

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos is pushing for “stronger political and defense cooperation” with Vietnam after Manila elevated its diplomatic ties with Hanoi to an Enhanced Strategic Partnership amid growing global uncertainty.

The chief executive made the announcement after the government witnessed the exchange of four new agreements with Vietnam on defense, digital cooperation, tourism, and education after his bilateral meeting with General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tô Lâm in Malacañang.

Lam concluded his two-day State Visit in the country last Monday making him the first-ever Vietnam’s party leader to make such a trip.

“Today, we elevate our ties to an Enhanced Strategic Partnership, which will be defined by wider pathways for cooperation, stronger political and defense cooperation, and closer linkages between the Filipino and Vietnamese peoples,” Marcos said. This comes two years after the country expanded its strategic partnership with Vietnam.

Last week, Marcos announced Manila has elevated its diplomatic relations with

Tokyo into its highest level—the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership—to help Japan and the Philippines become resilient to global supply chain disruptions caused by the Middle East crisis.

He said Enhanced Strategic Partnership will also allow the Philippines and Vietnam to launch more regional cooperation.

“On Regional Cooperation, we engaged in a productive exchange on regional and multilateral affairs and affirmed our unequivocal mission to advance a genuinely people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN, ensuring that our strategic initiatives translate directly into safer, more secure, and truly prosperous societies,” Marcos said.

Defense cooperation

MARCOS stressed the importance of the country’s enhanced strategic partnership with Vietnam as the Indo-Pacific region copes with “geopolitical fragmentation, supply chain vulnerabilities, trade pressures, and the rise of emerging technologies.”

On defense, he said both the Philippines and Vietnam continue to collaborate to preserve international law in the region.

The Department of National Defense has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam providing a framework of boosting the bilateral co-

operation between defense agencies and its respective militaries.

“This strategically important framework will significantly bolster our joint capabilities in maritime security, military education, and disaster risk reduction and management,” Marcos said.

‘Non-negotiable’

THE said military cooperation, he said, may extend to preserving the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

Both countries currently have maritime territory disputes with China as it intensifies its presence in the South China Sea.

“As fellow claimant states, we reaffirm that maintaining peace, stability, and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea remains non-negotiable,” Marcos said.

He said the government is also exploring collaboration in combating severe cross-border threats such as internet fraud, human trafficking, illegal gambling, and people smuggling.

New pathways THE Philippines and Vietnam are now discussing collaboration in agribusinesses, seafood processing, and joint scientific research for climate-

Institutions…

Guinigundo said if these reforms are undertaken by the Senate itself, “it could have a positive impact on the economy, on perception of risks, perceptions of instability by both entrepreneurs as well as investors from foreign as well as domestic.”

Impact on monetary policy

AS for the impact of political uncertainty on the country’s monetary policy, Guinigundo noted that recent developments in the political landscape has made the work of the central bank more difficult.

“Because while the BSP can provide very decisive forward guidance with respect to interest rate as well as the exchange rate, the other factors pulling it apart is the political noise that we hear from the Senate,” he said.

He said, however, that the central bank should continue anchoring inflation expectations and even the movement of the Philippine peso which depends on what the BSP is saying or “telegraphing” to the markets.

“It has little control over what

resilient farming to ensure food security for both our peoples.

Both countries also signed a new MOU on Information Technology and Digital Transformation as well as a Tourism Cooperation Program for 2026–2029.

“Building upon a strong performance in 2025, which saw nearly half a million Filipino travelers going to Viet Nam and a rising number of Vietnamese tourists coming to our shores, we have agreed to work closely to enhance air connectivity and increase commercial flight frequencies,” Marcos said.

Also signed was the MOU between the University of the Philippines and the Academy of Public Administration and Governance, Ho Chi Minh National Academy, which will institutionalize student and faculty exchanges.

A strategic partnership was also finalized between VietJet and the Airworks Aviation Academy in Cebu for cadet pilot training.

“Capitalizing on our shared demographic dividend of a young, techsavvy, and highly innovative workforce, we have agreed to launch joint cultural initiatives and commercial partnerships in high-growth creative sectors, including animation and game development.”

the Philippine Senate is doing at this point, but if the BSP will just continue anchoring expectations and trying to increase public confidence in public policy, particularly on monetary policy, I think it can do its share in helping stabilize the situation,” Guinigundo said.

“So, the bottom line is, are we looking at a long-term economic viability of the economy of the Philippines? Those are important issues.”

He said when political instability and uncertainty become an important factor in the viability of the economy itself, “I think systemic risks are generated in the process.”

In a recent commentary by Japanbased think tank Nomura, it said it expects the BSP to remain “measured” and ruled out the possibility of an offcycle hike “as the output gap remains negative and political uncertainty is rising, which could still affect the fiscal outlook.”

(See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2026/05/28/ off-cycle-rate-hike-unlikely-withpolitical-noise/).

John Paolo Rivera, Senior Research Fellow at state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies told this newspaper last week that the strength of an economy “ultimately reflects the strength of its institutions.”

responsible for the growing direct investments of Japanese businesses in the Philippines.

The DOT said in a statement that Angara-Mathay initiated a “new strategic engagement format” for the State visit, which gathered senior executives from Japan’s leading companies and financial institutions “in a coordinated dialogue focused on tourism, investments, infrastructure, connectivity, and broader economic development.”

This “economic tourism” format enabled Marcos Jr. to promote the Philippines not just as a major tourism destination, but as a fitting place for investments especially in infrastructure, with prospective Japanese investors and strategic businesses.

More nonstop flights LAST year, Japanese nationals were the third top tourists in the Philippines at 469,521, up 13.8 percent, year on year (yoy). They accounted for 7.24 percent of the 5.94 million in total foreign tourists in 2025, according to DOT data.

As per the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, net foreign direct investments from Japan reached $904.15 million (P55.61 billion) in 2025, up 28.73 percent from 2024.

The DOT said among the discussed initiatives to support tourism during Marcos Jr.’s State visit include increasing nonstop flights between Japan and the Philippines, building digital infrastructure for destinations, improving visitor services using digital payments and financial technology, mounting systems that will transport tourists across cities and destinations, medical and wellness tourism opportunities, enhancing heritage and nighttime tours, sustainable tourism infrastructure, and improving access to regional destinations.

Angara-Mathay said the initiatives discussed reflect the DOT’s evolving direction toward a more integrated tourism development framework.

“Tourism today is closely interconnected with aviation, mobility, digital infrastructure, healthcare, energy reliability, and broader investment readiness,” she said. “Our objective is to strengthen the ecosystem that supports tourism growth while creating wider opportunities for regional development, connectivity, investments, and economic participation,” she added.

The DOT said among the tourism and travel firms that were part of the roundtable discussion with Marcos Jr. were All Nippon Airways and JTB Corp., both of which cited the expanding two-way passenger traffic between Japan and the Philippines.

Participating companies

DOT data showed 852,643 Filipinos traveled to Japan last year, up 8.04 percent, year-on-year. Japan was the Filipinos’ second top destination abroad in 2025. There are over 60 nonstop flights between both countries.

InfiniVAN Inc. and IPS Inc. discussed digital connectivity initiatives that can strengthen tourism access, improve connectivity in underserved area, data infrastructure, and support for medical and wellness tourism ecosystems.

The Resorttrust Group discussed their interest in the Philippines as a potential destination for long-stay wellness and healthcare-related tourism.

has said that the government is reassessing its GDP target as the Middle East conflict disrupted global supply chains and caused a surge in pump prices. The Marcos administration has already lowered its projected GDP target to 5 to 6 percent this year from 6 to 7 percent.

The chief executive said he is hopeful the government can still achieve a 6-percent economic growth this year as the government accelerates its spending during the first half of the year and secures more investments in the country to boost the economy.

MUFG and Mitsubishi Corp. highlighted the growing role of digital finance and cashless systems in improving visitor services, tourism spending, and the participation of micro-, small, and medium enterprises in the tourism economy.

MinebeaMitsumi and Murata Manufacturing discussed technologies that may support smart tourism applications, connectivity, lighting systems, visitor safety, and improved tourism experiences in heritage and regional destinations.

Marubeni Corp., Mitsui & Co., and J-Power underscored the importance of infrastructure, energy reliability, water systems, logistics, and urban resilience in supporting long-term tourism competitiveness and destination development.

Retail and lifestyle firms such as Uniqlo, Nitori Holdings, and Itochu Corp. also discussed opportunities linked to destination branding, Philippine products, regional craftsmanship, cultural promotion, and tourism-oriented consumer experiences.

Sandigan orders Jinggoy arrest for plunder in flood fund mess

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

THE Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division  on Monday issued an arrest warrant against Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan and three others for the nonbailable plunder and graft charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.

T he arrest warrant also

district engineer Denryl Caesar Cortuna and district engineers

Manny Bulusan and  Arturo Gonzales, Jr.

T he Ombudsman accused Estrada of receiving kickbacks

from the government’s flood control projects amounting to over  P573 million.

T he Ombudsman said the respondents were involved in an  “intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations” within the DPWH infrastructure portfolio for the year 2025.

T he anti-graft body said its evaluation of the records shows that  “substantial public funds were deliberately funneled  into designated infrastructure projects in exchange for pre-determined commission fees or kickbacks.”

The Sandiganbayan issued the arrest warrant despite Estrada’s plea to defer acting on the Ombudsman’s complaint pending resolution of his motions filed last week.

E strada said his lawyers filed several pleadings before the antigraft court seeking the consolidation

of the cases and the deferment of the issuance of any arrest warrant.

I t may be recalled that last Friday, the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division issued an arrest warrant against Estrada and Bonoan for a separate graft charges.

Yesterday, Estrada said his legal team filed a third pleading seeking the quashal of the information for plunder and graft filed against.

I n the alternative, Estrada’s asked the Fifth Division chaired by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses to suspend its  proceedings and remand the case for reinvestigation and/or the completion of the preliminary investigation.

These are not mere technicalities.

I firmly believe that I am entitled to avail myself of the remedies available under the law, including the filing of a motion for reconsideration, especially considering that I received a copy of the Ombudsman resolution

on the plunder case only on Friday evening,” the senator said.

It is only fair and just that I be afforded the opportunity to fully exercise these legal remedies before any coercive measures are taken against me,” he added. The Ombudsman claimed  that the illicit payments amounted to over P573 million which were “systematically delivered” to Estrada.

E strada has denied the charges and stressed that he has no budget insertions based on the certificate issued by Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Officer (LBRMO).

E strada was previously jailed also for plunder in connection with his involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam but was eventually acquitted and ordered release from jail.

Jinggoy surrenders on plunder raps, shuns Senate protection

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

AS reports broke of an arrest warrant being issued against him by the Sandiganbayan for the nonbailable plunder charge related to the flood-control fund mess, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada on Monday announced he will never use the Senate as a sanctuary from the law, and will surrender voluntarily and defend himself before the courts.

E strada called a press conference to share his plans with journalists, amid information the antigraft court had already issued a warrant for his arrest. This, despite urgent manifestations filed by his lawyers Monday morning asking the court to first consolidate the charges against him.

Earlier on Friday, he had personally gone to the Sandiganbayan to post bail after the court issued warrants for his cases of graft and indirect bribery. From the CIDG at Camp Crame, he then presented himself before the Sandiganbayan.

H e also said he “will remain firmly with the majority bloc under the leadership of Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano.” In Filipino, he said, “I will not be swayed by any harassment, threats,  or political maneuvering to make me turn my back on this principle.”

He added, “I will not yield to threats. I will not be intimidated. I will not be pressured into surrendering my independence of judgment.”

E strada also gave “instructions to the Senate Secretary to put my salary on hold,” in contrast to another beleaguered senator, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who remained on the Senate payroll despite being absent since November 2025, when word first broke of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Estrada said it was his personal decision “to show the Filipino people that I have no intention to benefit from taxpayers’ money while I am clearing my name.”

“At higit sa lahat, hindi ako papasailalim sa kustodiya ng Senado. I will not seek Senate custody. Hindi ko

gagamitin ang Senado bilang panangga laban sa mga alegasyon sa akin.”

He said in Filipino he was “ready to defend myself in court and will not hide behind this institution in order to avoid the process. I will defend myself till the every end to prove that the charges against me are baseless.”

No less than the Senate Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO), he noted, had told the Ombudsman “they have no document or record showing that I made any insertion in the 2025 national budget.” This vital information was acknowledged, he said, bye former Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairperson Panfilo Lacson “as significant evidence that disproves the allegations against me.”

How, he wondered, “can the Office of the Ombudsman file a plunder case against me when I am not even alleged to be part of, or the mastermind of, the supposed scheme? Wala akong kinalaman dyan [I have nothing to do with that].”

He claimed he received several offers to turn his back on the “independent majority bloc” in

exchange for dismissing the case against him, but he refused these.

He continued: “I stand my ground because what is at stake here goes far beyond my personal circumstances. What is at stake is the independence of the Senate itself.

This institution must never become vulnerable to external pressure. It must remain free from political coercion, free from undue influence, and free from any scheme designed to weaken its constitutional role as a coequal and independent branch of government.

“ If this is the price I must pay for the decisions I have made and the principles I have chosen to uphold, then I am prepared to face the consequences—however difficult they may be, especially for my family.”

I n citing the three pleadings his lawyers filed between Friday and Monday morning, Estrada insisted, “These are not mere technicalities. I firmly believe that I am entitled to avail myself of the remedies available under the law, including the filing of a motion for reconsideration, especially

considering that I received a copy of the Ombudsman Resolution on the plunder case only on Friday evening. It is only fair and just that I be afforded the opportunity to fully exercise these legal remedies before any coercive measures are taken against me.”

E strada’s decision to turn himself in at the CIDG for the nonbailable plunder case spares the Senate from a similar spectacle and dilemma as what gripped the chamber in the events from May 11 to 14, when the NBI tried to serve an arrest warrant on Senator dela Rosa, from the ICC, for the crimes against humanity case he faces in The Hague for his key role in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war against drugs that resulted in thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

D ela Rosa was given “protective custody” by the new Senate majority led by Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, but at dawn of May 14, he escaped from the premises with the help of Sen. Robin Padilla, who is facing a potential obstruction of justice charge.

House prosecutors: Impeachment timeline tweaks must not cause delay

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

AN adjustment to the Senate impeachment court’s tentative timeline for the trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte should move the proceedings forward rather than delay them, with the Constitution mandating that the trial be conducted “forthwith,” the House lead prosecutor said on Monday.

H ouse Committee on Justice Chairperson Gerville Luistro emphasized that the Constitution mandates not only the convening of the impeachment court but also the immediate conduct of the trial, including the presentation of evidence and witnesses.

“ Let us remember that the mandate of the Constitution that is to be forthwith is not only with respect to the convening of the impeachment court. It says, ‘trial forthwith,’” Luistro said during a press conference.

In other words, by trial, we mean presentation of evidence [and] presentation of witnesses. If ever there will be changes to July 6, it should be earlier and not later,” she added. Her remarks come amid reports that the Senate is considering resuming investigations into alleged flood control corruption, raising concerns about possible effects on the impeachment timeline.

Luistro said the 11-member prosecution panel remains focused on

fulfilling its constitutional duty and is ready to proceed whenever the Senate impeachment court sets the schedule.

“Of course, there are always apprehensions. But let us be clear—the constitutional duty of the House is to present the evidence,” she said.

D rawing from her experience as a public prosecutor during the first impeachment effort against Duterte in the 19th Congress, Luistro conceded concerns that the proceedings could again be derailed through procedural moves such as remanding or archiving the articles of impeachment.

“ Having that kind of experience in the impeachment process, because I was already part of the prosecution team during that time, of course I cannot remove those apprehensions concerning the current impeachment process,” she said.

D espite this, she expressed optimism, noting that the Senate has already convened as an impeachment court and is considering pretrial and trial dates.

“ We acknowledge the possibility of delays, but we are more inclined to be positive and forward-looking this time since the impeachment court has already convened. We want to believe this will proceed continuously,” she said.

L uistro also said the prosecution panel will continue to trust the judgment of senator-judges, even amid controversies involving some members of the Senate Blue Ribbon

Committee, stressing that the presumption of innocence prevails.

So regardless of the controversies surrounding the members of the majority bloc, I still defer to their judgement as far as the impeachment trial is concerned,” she said.

We express our faith and confidence in all senator-judges because hearing this impeachment case is their constitutional duty, just as prosecution is ours,” she added.

T he lead prosecutor expressed hope that the tentative dates reported in the media—a June 15 pretrial conference and a July 6 start of trial—will push through.

“ We hope these dates will proceed as reported because this is what the Constitution envisions,” she said.

L uistro explained that the proposed timeline aligns with the Senate’s impeachment rules, including deadlines for the respondent’s answer, the prosecution’s reply, and pre-trial proceedings.

U nder the proposed timeline, both parties would submit pre-trial briefs containing stipulations of facts, lists of witnesses, documentary exhibits, and positions they intend to raise before trial.

B oth parties are expected to submit pretrial briefs outlining stipulations of facts, lists of witnesses, documentary evidence, and legal positions before trial.

The pretrial brief, to be submit -

PHL has no fiscal space for US’s 3.5%-of-GDP defense spend ideal

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

MALACAÑANG said the Marcos administration has no fiscal space for now to comply with the push of the United States for its allies to raise their defense spending to 3.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

At the weekend, US Secretary for War Pete Hegseth said in his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that they will demand that their allies comply with the minimum defense spending.

The Philippines is America’s oldest formal military ally in the Indo-Pacific.   President Trump is setting the gold standard. We demand 3.5 percent from our allies and partners, and we are going well beyond that number. We expect every single ally and partner to match that kind of resolve,” Hegseth said.    Q uoting Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Acting Secretary Kim Robert C. De Leon, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said the country’s defense spending falls short of Hegseth’s criteria.

“[Under the] 2026 GAA [General Appropriations Act], defense budget is P423.7 billion or 1.37 percent of GDP,” she said.  For the succeeding years, Castro said the DBM will determine if the government can boost its defense spending based “on actual need and our emerging fiscal space.” C astro said the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) justified Manila’s low defense spending since the country is still considered a low-income country.

“ We are in a catch-up mode investing in defense capabilities and modernizing our Armed Forces,” she said.

President Ferdinand Marcos maintained that modernizing the AFP is among the priority of his administration to help secure the country’s borders.

Comelec eyes raising ballot shading threshold to 25% for BARMM polls

By Mary Jade Jadormio

THE Commission on Elections plans to raise the ballot shading threshold for the 2026 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections to 25 percent.

T his, after  concerns were  raised during the 2025 national polls over vote-reading standards in automated counting machines.

ted by both prosecution and defense, should include stipulations, witnesses, marked documents, and positions to be raised before trial,” she said. She added that the marking of exhibits should occur between the pretrial conference and the issuance of the pre-trial order, which will govern the conduct of the trial.

This pretrial order is binding on both parties. We cannot deviate from it during trial,” she said.

Despite circulating timelines, Luistro noted that the prosecution panel has yet to receive any official notice from the Senate impeachment court.

I am more concerned about the official notice, which we have not yet received to this date,” she said.

Still, she reiterated that any reconsideration of the July 6 trial date should result in an earlier schedule, not a delay.

The vice president is expected to submit her answer to the articles of impeachment within the day, marking the 10-day deadline from receipt of the Senate’s writ of summons.

Trial preparations MEANWHILE, the House prosecution panel has refined its trial preparations by reassigning lead prosecutors for two of the four articles of impeachment against Duterte to strengthen readiness ahead of pretrial proceedings.

See “House,” A9

Comelec Chairman George Erwin M.  Garcia said the proposal is intended to remove doubts surrounding the vote-counting process, even if the previous 15-percent threshold did not affect the integrity of the elections.

“From 15 percent, our technical people are recommending that we increase it to 25 percent so there will no longer be issues surrounding the threshold,” Garcia said at the hardware acceptance test (HAT) on Monday. Under the proposed adjustment, automated counting machines would recognize ballots with lighter or less fully shaded marks, provided they meet the 25-percent threshold.

Garcia clarified that the existing 15-percent standard had already proven reliable during the 2025 elections, citing the results of the random manual audit that produced a 99.9992-percent accuracy rate. Even at 15 percent, the machines were already accurately reading the ballots,” he said.

Garcia said the commission is nevertheless considering the adjustment to address recurring criticisms from election observers and political groups questioning the scanners’ sensitivity.

H e said the proposal remains subject to approval by the Commission en banc, noting that the current guidelines for the September 14 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections still retain the 15-percent threshold used during the 2025 polls.

DOE warns gencos, rushes power augmentation measures in Visayas

By Carmel Pedroza

CEBU CITY—The Department of Energy (DOE) is ramping up efforts to augment power supply in the Visayas as the region continues to grapple with recurring yellow and red alerts caused by the prolonged outage of several major power plants.

D OE Undersecretary Mario Marasigan, in an online press briefing on Monday, said the Visayas grid remains under significant strain with available supply falling well below peak demand levels.

“ The actual demand in the Visayas has exceeded 2,700 megawatts during peak hours, while available supply can go as low as 2,044 megawatts,” Marasigan said.

The supply shortfall has triggered frequent power alerts across the region.

Since May 12 alone, the Visayas grid has recorded 17 yellow alerts and four red alerts.

A s of June 1, yellow alerts continue to be imposed from 3pm to 9pm.

Marasigan attributed the situation primarily to the continued unavailability of four major generation facilities: Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) Units 1 and 2, each with a capacity of 169 megawatts; Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) Unit 3 with 150 megawatts; and Kepco SPC Power Corp. Unit 2 with 100 megawatts.

The DOE expects Kepco Unit 2 to return to service on June 2, while PEDC Unit 3 is scheduled to resume operations on July 3. TVI Units 1 and 2 are expected to come back on August 22 and August 30.

To help address the shortage, the DOE is also counting on two renewable energy projects in the Visayas that

are expected to provide an additional 68.99 megawatts of capacity.

Marasigan noted that power imports through the interconnection projects have been crucial in helping stabilize the Visayas grid.

Currently, up to 450 megawatts can be transferred from Mindanao to the Visayas, while as much as 250 megawatts can be sourced from Luzon.

One of the factors helping the Visayas meet its demand is the full transfer capacity from Mindanao, while we can also optimize imports from Luzon,” he said.

B eyond immediate supply augmentation, the DOE is pursuing additional ancillary service facilities to improve grid stability and reliability.

Being considered are diesel power barges, modular generator sets, and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

A 3 0-megawatt BESS project in Mactan, Cebu is undergoing testing and commissioning, while negotiations are under way for the installation of a 20-megawatt modular diesel generator set.

Marasigan said the DOE has written the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), urging it to take advantage of existing policies that allow direct negotiation for ancillary services.

The parameters needed to proceed

with direct negotiation have already been met. We frequently experience yellow and red alerts, indicating insufficient supply, and the cost of maintaining reserves is already being passed on to consumers,” he said.

A ccording to the DOE, the Visayas needs at least 150 megawatts of additional reserve capacity to stabilize power supply conditions.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin emphasized the urgency of implementing temporary power solutions while long-term generation and transmission projects are still under development.

“ We need to fast-track these interventions in the Visayas. This will be a prolonged problem because the completion timelines of power plants and transmission projects do not always align. Some plants take three years to finish, while others take five years,” Garin said.

She said the government is pushing temporary energy supply projects that can provide additional reserves for the next one to two years while awaiting the completion of permanent infrastructure.

“ Hopefully, within the month, we can bring in these additional power supplies to the Visayas,” Garin added. Marasigan clarified that while the

Hog raisers face new woes: liveweight hog prices drop

By Ada Pelonia

THE liveweight price of hogs fell below break-even cost due to a glut in pork imports and consumer pullback triggered by wardriven inflation, local producers said.

N ational Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NatFed) Vice Chairman Alfred Ng told the BusinessMirror that the liveweight price of hogs dropped to a low of P170 per kilo in Luzon and P150 per kilo in Visayas and Mindanao.

H e noted that depressed liveweight prices further compounded

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the woes of hog raisers already beset by the hike in production costs to P185 to P205 per kilo, as the Middle East war jacked up prices of animal feed.

The production cost before the Iran war was P180 to P200 per kilo. The cost of feeds has increased by 4 to 6 percent. The farmers are suffering huge losses,” he told this newspaper.

N g attributed the decline in liveweight prices to the “oversupply” of imported shipments competing with fresh pork in wet markets and the pullback in consumer spending.

H e attributed the depressed

By Henry J. Schumacher

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has revealed that as of July, only 16.55% or just 662 of around 4,000 enterprises registered with the DTI had submitted to the National Solid Waste Management Commission their programs for the proper management of their plastic wastes. These i nclude plastic bags, sachets, labels, laminates, and both rigid and flexible plastic used for such products.

W hile it is good to see that quite a number of companies have responded to the call for sustainability in terms of changing their business model to address natural resource consumption, raw material selection, product/

prices “to oversupply of imported pork that competes with fresh pork in wet markets, many of which were sold without freezers and refrozen if not purchased, which becomes a food safety issue.”

D espite this, Ng claimed that no retailer has been apprehended since the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) said local government units (LGUs) have jurisdiction over the matter.

D ata from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed pork imports have reached 151,788 metric tons (MT) as of February, higher

packaging design, we have to admit that the numbers remain small, looking at the DENR data.

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than the 124,047 MT in the same period last year.

M eanwhile, Ng noted, the surge in food and electricity prices due to the global oil crisis has pushed meats on the sidelines, denting demand for pork.

Filipinos’ budget for food, gasoline, water, and electricity increased, so they cut back on pork and chicken purchases,” he said.

Economists from the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) recently said the Philippines could again see double-digit inflation for the first time in nearly two decades as second-round

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return of Kepco Unit 2 will provide 100 megawatts of generation, it will not significantly improve reserve margins because the larger outages involving TVI and PEDC remain unresolved.

The return to service of Kepco is still primarily providing energy. The three other major facilities are the ones that need replacement to ensure adequate reserves,” he said.

Meanwhile, Garin warned that the DOE is closely monitoring the performance of generation companies nationwide and may impose penalties on those that keep failing to deliver their committed capacities.

The department’s recently issued circular on generation company accountability, she said, seeks to hold power producers responsible for poor operational performance.

“ We are finalizing the list of companies whose service has not been satisfactory. We are evaluating their performance and looking at possible penalties, including the cancellation of their certificates of endorsement,” Garin said.

“ You cannot claim to have 100 megawatts of capacity and then deliver only 20 megawatts throughout the year. Unfortunately, there are a few generation companies like that not only in the Visayas but across the country,” she said.

effects from the Middle East conflict continue to spread across the domestic economy. (See:  https://businessmirror. com.ph/2026/05/28/ double- digit-inflation-seenamid-war-impacts/ ) I n its latest Market Call report, UA&P said inflation is likely to remain above the government’s 2- to 4-percent target range for the rest of 2026, warning of the “possibility of double-digit inflation rates due to base and second-round effects creeping into succeeding inflation readings.”

S hould this materialize, it would be the first time monthly inflation could hit double digits since September 2008, when inflation reached 10.1 percent during the Arroyo administration.

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NFA to raise buying price for dry palay to P27 a kilo

THE National Food Authority (NFA) will increase its buying price for dry palay to P27 per kilo in the wet season harvest to ensure profitability of farmers. A griculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., who chairs the NFA Council, said the move aims to shield planters from losses despite the spike in fertilizer and fuel prices.

“ Even before harvest starts nationwide, the NFA will already set a buying price of P22 per kilo for wet palay and P27 per kilo for dry palay,” Tiu Laurel said. “The goal is to set a benchmark for the industry and help ensure that farmers can earn a reasonable profit.” For his part, NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said the grains agency intends to play a more active role in the coming harvest season. Unlike during the dry season when we came in later mainly to match prices already being offered by private traders, we will be more aggressive this coming season. We will be buying early and at higher prices,” Lacson said. For the dry season harvest, the NFA purchased dry palay at a range of P25 to P30 per kilo.

L acson also said the grains agency is milling a significant portion of its buffer stocks to free up warehouse space for incoming harvests and support the government’s P20 rice program.

The DA said it is preparing NFA warehouses ahead of the September harvest season by reducing existing inventories and moving stocks to create additional storage capacity. “ We are clearing warehouse space so the NFA will be ready to accept more palay from farmers once harvest season begins,” Tiu Laurel said.

The DA chief also assured farmers that the government will continue supporting them as they navigate climate risks, rising production costs, and market uncertainties in the months ahead. Ada Pelonia

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Cross-border privacy cooperation deepens between Manila and Tokyo

Commissioner Johann Carlos S.Barcena.

TBy Ada Pelonia @adapelonia

HE Philippines and Japan have committed to strengthen crossborder cooperation on personal data protection and privacy enforcement amid the rapid and increasingly borderless flow of

information in the digital age.

The Philippine National Privacy Commission (NPC) and Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) signed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) last June 1. The ceremonial signing was held at the PPC Office in Tokyo, Japan, and was signed by PPC Chairperson Satoru Tezuka and NPC Privacy

“This agreement reflects our shared commitment to addressing the evolving challenges of privacy in the borderless digital environment. It likewise creates meaningful opportunities for the Philippines and Japan to exchange best practices and reinforce our collective efforts to uphold and advance personal

data protection in an increasingly interconnected world,” Barcena said in a statement.

Under the MOC, the NPC and the PPC will collaborate on information sharing and mutual assistance in privacy investigations, as well as exchange of best practices, and experiences on data protection policies and privacy-enhancing technologies.

Gatchalian confident for 24,527 new classrooms to ease 147,000 backlog

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

WIt also opens opportunities for joint research initiatives, capacity-building activities, training and education programs, and “other mutually agreed undertaking aimed at advancing data protection and privacy.”

Manila and Tokyo said they recognize the vital role of international cooperation in addressing privacy risks arising from rapid

technological developments and expanding global data flows.

“The MOC reaffirms the commitment of the Philippines and Japan to uphold the protection of personal information and deepen regulatory cooperation in support of a trusted and secure digital economy,” the NPC said in a statement.

ITH only a few days before the opening of School Year 2026–2027, Senator Win Gatchalian expressed confidence that the construction of new classrooms will gain significant momentum this year as the government moves to address the country’s massive classroom shortage.

the classroom backlog at 147,000.

Gatchalian recalled that under the 2026 national budget, P67.931 billion is allotted to construct classrooms, including technical vocational laboratories. This will build up to 24,527 classrooms, which will benefit up to 4.6 million learners. As of July 2025, the Department of Education (DepEd) estimated

The senator also emphasized that the 2026 national budget allows more flexibility on classroom construction. While the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) used to have the sole mandate to construct classrooms, a special provision in the 2026 national budget also allows the DepEd to enter a memorandum of agreement with local

‘Bayanihan at trabaho’: Angara touts expanded Brigada Eskwela with TUPAD cash-for-work

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

THE Department of Education (DepEd) conducted the Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (YAKAP), which provided free primary healthcare services, medical consultations, and medicines in partnership with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). Meanwhile, the national kick-off event of the Brigada Eskwela took place on Monday at Cabadbaran City National High School in Agusan del Norte. Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, who led the simultaneous nationwide launch of this year’s Brigada Eskwela to prepare the public schools for the opening of classes on June 8, said that they are expanding the multi-sectoral school readiness campaign to provide emergency employment for local communities.

Ang Brigada Eskwela ay patunay ng lakasngatingbayanihanparasakinabukasan ng mga kabataan. Sa paggabay at suporta ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos, pinag-isa natin ang TUPAD at Brigada upang hindi lang ihanda ang mga paaralan,kundimaghatiddinngkabuhayansa mga pamilyang nangangailangan,” said Angara who is in Agusan del Sur. Driven by the theme “Bayanihan sa Paaralan: Nagkaisa para sa Kaayusan at Kaalaman,” the annual volunteer drive mobilizes communities for cleaning, minor repairs, repainting, and classroom and school ground reorganization.

Angara joined volunteers in the school preparation activities, helping paint a blackboard and a table at the Home Economics room.

A key highlight of this year’s Brigada Eskwela is the strengthened partnership between the DepEd and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) through the

Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) Program.

Under the collaboration, DOLE has allocated around P2 billion to bankroll shortterm cash-for-work initiatives for school preparation, prioritizing public schools in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAS), underserved communities, and disaster-affected areas.

This inter-agency convergence targets to provide temporary employment to 240,000 workers, giving priority consideration to qualified parents and relatives of learners, while preparing public schools for the opening of classes for School Year 2026-2027.

In addition to DOLE’s support through TUPAD, various government agencies and private sector partners have likewise committed resources, technical assistance, volunteer services, and community-based interventions to further enhance the implementation of Brigada Eskwela 2026.

Solons push ADUs as nationwide solution to 6.5-M housing backlog

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

LAWMAKER S are pushing for the adoption of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) as a nationwide strategy to address the Philippines’ growing housing crisis, which has reached an estimated 6.5 million-unit backlog.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luigi Villafuerte and Camarines Sur Rep. Migz Villafuerte said integrating ADUs into the government’s expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (E-4PH) Program could significantly boost housing supply, particularly in densely populated urban areas where land is scarce and expensive.

ADUs—commonly known as “granny flats” or “backyard homes”—are small, self-contained housing units built within the same lot as a primary residence. Widely used in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia, these units are seen as a fast, cost-efficient way to increase housing stock without requiring large-scale land development.

The lawmakers said the Philippines could replicate this model to complement existing housing programs and accelerate efforts to close the housing gap.

“We welcome President Marcos’ commitment to close the housing backlog, and

we suggest to the DHSUD [Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development] to consider building ADUs as an effective solution in our country where the gap in mass or low-cost housing has unfortunately ballooned because of how expensive lands have become especially in urban areas,” Luigi Villafuerte said.

“Because of this cost factor, priority developers tend to focus on building middle to high-income housing units instead of the low-cost or more affordable ones,” he said.

The proposal is embodied in House Bill 8813, which seeks to institutionalize ADU development nationwide, simplify permitting processes, and provide incentives to homeowners and small-scale builders.

Migz Villafuerte said the measure responds to persistent structural challenges, including rising construction costs, limited land availability, and delays in housing approvals and land titling.

“Traditional housing approaches alone will not be enough to meet the country’s needs. We must explore complementary solutions that are faster to implement and more accessible,” he said.

Under the bill, ADUs may be built as detached units, extensions of existing homes, converted garages, rooftop dwellings, or modular structures. These units

would range from 18 to 75 square meters and may rise up to two floors, subject to minimum lot requirements.

To encourage adoption, the measure proposes incentives such as real property tax reductions and income tax exemptions on limited rental earnings, particularly when units are used for affordable housing, worker accommodation, or family use.

The proposal aligns with the government’s expanded E-4PH housing program, which now includes a broader mix of housing options—from vertical developments and subdivision projects to rental housing and community-based financing for informal settler families.

The DHSUD has also introduced reforms aimed at increasing private sector participation, including digital permitting systems and enhanced financing support through the Pag-IBIG Fund.

Lawmakers said ADUs could play a key role in maximizing existing urban spaces, reducing urban sprawl, and providing flexible housing options for students, workers, and multi-generational families. They also cited international data showing the effectiveness of ADUs in rapidly increasing housing supply. In California, for instance, ADUs accounted for a significant share of new housing permits in recent years.

government units (LGUs), other government agencies, and civil society organizations to build the facilities.

“KungmasmaramingLGUsatiba’t-ibang sektor na makakatulong sa pagpapatayo ng mgasilid-aralan,masmapapabilisnatinang pag-abot sa target ngayong taon hanggang sa mapunan natin ang kakulangan sa mga silid-aralan,” Gatchalian said.

New digital tool FertMap matches fertilizer to crop

and location to boost soil health

THE Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) on Monday launched an online platform that generates suitable fertilizer per crop and location as part of efforts to improve soil health.

BSWM Director Gina Parde-Nilo said the platform, dubbed FertMap, provides access to soil analysis data across regions nationwide gathered through the agency’s Mobile Soil Laboratories (MSLs).

This, as the agency flagged the “significant disconnect” between soil science and farming practices along with fragmented soil analysis data across different formats.

FertMap consolidates soil data, offering a crop-calibrated fertilizer recommendation engine.

End-users can input their farm location, check soil data, and generate fertilizer recommendations for the crop they want to grow. The recommendations include chemical, organic, and biofertilizers.

“This will help maximize the yield and provide the correct timing of when planting is most profitable,” she told reporters.

Prior to this initiative, Nilo said fertilizers often go to waste on farmers’ assumption that applying more would result in better yield.

She warned, however, that wrong fertilizer application would affect the crop that could also leach to the environment.

“The timing of application tends to be wrong, and the crop can’t absorb it,” Nilo said. “If it’s not absorbed, it will leach to the environment, which is harmful.”

The FertMap is a project under its National Soil Health Program (NSHP), which focuses on promoting and maintaining healthy soils through holistic and science-based approaches.

BSWM said the NSHP puts primacy on soil testing and the proper management of fertilizer use, ensuring that recommendations are grounded on actual soil conditions and geared toward sustaining agricultural productivity over time.

“Through [FertMap], the DA-BSWM makes soil information more accessible not only to farmers, but also to researchers, academic institutions, and local government units—supporting better decisions, research, and policies for sustainable agriculture.”

Ada Pelonia

House panel to oppose move to dismiss impeachment case

THE House prosecution panel said it will oppose any move to dismiss the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Z. Duterte, stressing that Senate impeachment rules provide only for a trial that ends either in conviction or acquittal. Lead prosecutor and House Committee on Justice Chairperson Gerville Luistro of Batangas said any motion or pleading seeking dismissal of the case will be firmly opposed by the prosecution.

Storm warning for BARMM: Think tank cites spike in violent extremism, hunger, and political friction

By Rizal Raoul Reyes @brownindio

THINK tank Climate Conflict Action Asia (CCA) warned on Monday the current transition period will be volatile for Bangsamoro as all identified security, political, and environmental vulnerabilities are converging directly on the September parliamentary elections.

“This election represents far more than a standard democratic exercise; it is the ultimate test of whether the Bangsamoro political transition can achieve genuine institutional legitimacy,” said the CCA.

“However, the process remains exposed to renewed cycles of vertical violence and insurgent movements. Security indicators suggest potential spikes in violence as the election season converges with the traditional agricultural lean months of July to September. The coming months will determine whether this milestone election lays the foundation for a durable, inclusive peace, or triggers a renewed cycle of regional conflict,” the CCA explained.

“These regional anxieties are worsened by a perceived lack of fiscal discipline, laid bare by the corruption allegations hovering over the education ministry. More concerning to local analysts is the relative silence of traditional civil society organizations regarding localized institutional corruption. These structural irregularities in Marawi rehabilitation funds and regional flood control initiatives represent a severe test for the region’s foundational promise of moral governance,” it added.

The CCA also noted the first half of 2026 has witnessed a resurgence of violent extremism (VE) on the Mindanao mainland alongside a troubling reemergence in Sulu, according to think tank Climate Conflict Action Asia (CCA).

From the first five months of 2026, the CCA said there was a sharp increase in both VE incidents and casualties compared to the preceding five-month period (August to December 2025). Incidents rose from 29 to 40, while fatalities more than doubled from 9 to 20.

The CCA said the terrorist group Dawla Islamiyah (DI) suffered major operational setbacks in April 2026 due to successive military operations and intense tactical encounters.

The most significant blow occurred on April 17, when ten DI members—including their emir—were killed during a surgical military operation in Brgy. Banga-Pantar, Marantao.

Those neutralized were linked to a January 2026 ambush in Munai that killed four Philippine National Police (PNP) officers.

Following the Marantao operation, Marawi City and neighboring municipalities were placed on red alert over fears of retaliatory attacks. Notably, this incident highlighted critical flaws in local integration and rehabilitation programs for former combatants, as three of the neutralized DI members had previously surrendered to state forces.

The DI suffered another casualty spike in Maguindanao del Sur on April 26, when three members were killed in a military airstrike in Brgy. Tuayan Mother, Datu Hoffer. These individuals were suspected of orchestrating a previous ambush in Shariff Aguak that killed five members of the PNP Provincial Mobile Force Company. A running gun battle between DI remnants and state forces persisted into the first week of May, leaving four Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) members injured.

site straddles a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) camp. This proximity casts doubt on structural aspects of the ongoing normalization agreement between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF, said the CCA. The CCA said heightened political instability across the Bangsamoro has resulted in the legislative rescheduling of the historic first parliamentary elections to September. “Rhetorical friction between internal MILF factions, rapid political realignments, and legal challenges escalated sharply between April and May,” it said.

The establishment of the Bangsamoro Federal Party (BFP)—composed largely of supporters of Interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua—is widely viewed as a direct challenge to the MILF’s mainstream political vehicle, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP). Concurrently, legal petitions aimed at barring the UBJP from fielding candidates were deployed to undermine the party’s electoral influence. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) eventually dismissed these petitions, clearing the UBJP for participation.

These tensions culminated in mid-May with the high-profile removal of veteran peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal from his dual posts as Member of Parliament and Minister of the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE). Chief Minister Macacua cited corruption allegations within the bureau as the driver for the dismissal, framing the ouster as a necessary step to protect the region’s “moral governance” framework. Iqbal maintained that his removal lacked due process but called for internal sobriety.

In response, an estimated 37,000 MILF members and supporters staged an emergency peace rally in Cotabato City the following day. Demonstrators demanded the secure retention of MILF Chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim as Chief Minister, the reinstatement of 41 original MILF nominees to the Parliament, and strict adherence to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

The CCA said Bangsamoro Autonomous Region In Muslim Mindanao's underlying security challenges are severely compounded by a localized economic crisis driven by Middle East energy supply disruptions, a public works corruption scandal, and an extended El Niño cycle. Surges in theft and property crime have begun plaguing drought-stricken areas, particularly within the SGA. Field monitors report that small retail (sari-sari) stores are being frequently targeted, and public “Piso Wi-Fi” cash boxes are being forcibly pried open as community economic safety valves dry up.

On May 14, 2026, the Bangsamoro region was officially placed under a state of calamity under Proclamation No. 0002 due to the compounding impacts of the global fuel crisis and El Niño. The dual crises have heavily disrupted regional food security, agricultural output, transport, and general livelihoods. How effectively the interim government manages these delivery failures will serve as a primary metric for voters in the upcoming polls. Furthermore, the anticipated arrival of the regional flooding season later in the year threatens to directly disrupt voting infrastructure and election proceedings in September.

“I said earlier that the Senate rules on impeachment do not speak about dismissal. The rules neither speak about remand nor about clarification,” she pointed out. She emphasized that once the Senate sits as an impeachment court, the process is straightforward and must proceed to trial.

Luistro said the prosecution’s position is anchored on the Senate’s impeachment rules, which do not provide for dismissal or other procedural actions that would halt the trial before judgment.

“To be moved or request[ed] towards the dismissal of the impeachment complaint, we will definitely oppose that,” said Luistro. Luistro made the statement in response to questions on how the prosecution would react if Duterte’s defense were to seek the dismissal of the impeachment complaint. The House has already impeached Duterte and transmitted the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, which has convened as an impeachment court.

The Articles of Impeachment accused Duterte of alleged misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, bribery, and issuing threats against President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.

House prosecutors said they are ready to proceed with the next phase of the case and are awaiting formal notice from the Senate impeachment court regarding pre-trial proceedings and the start of the trial.

Test for public trust

LUISTRO also said the impeachment trial could help voters assess Duterte’s fitness for higher office, especially amid reports of her possible presidential bid in 2028.

Meanwhile, suspected remnants of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) appear to be regaining ground in Sulu—a province that had otherwise enjoyed a tentative, three-year period of declining violence. On February 1, an armed encounter between government troops and rogue elements in Patikul, a former ASG stronghold, resulted in four fatalities and one injury.

Separately, on April 12, the military uncovered war materiel and weapons fabrication equipment in Brgy. Pabrica, Marogong, Lanao del Sur. While state forces claimed the cache belonged to the Dawla Islamiyah-Maute Group (DI-MG), monitoring networks noted that the

The CCA said the incoming national transition from the Marcos administration to a new government in 2028 is creating its own set of regional political flashpoints. It pointed out that the collective vote banks of the Bangsamoro are critical to shaping wider Mindanao voting blocks, making the region an essential prize for any 2028 presidential contender.

“The preceding midterm elections exposed profound fractures in traditional MILF loyalties and strained the underlying political settlement between the regional periphery and the central government in Manila. It remains highly uncertain whether these fractures will heal before September 2026, or if the upcoming local ballot will deliver an electoral setback to Malacañang Palace’s preferred candidates,” the CCA said.

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Death toll in Angeles building collapse climbs to 13

By Ashley J. Manabat

ANGELES

CITY, Pampanga—The

death toll from the collapse of a nine-storey condo-hotel under construction in Barangay Balibago rose to 13 on Sunday as rescuers recovered more bodies from the rubble more than a week after the tragedy.

Based on the latest update from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Central Luzon as of 1 p.m. on June 1, a total of 13 bodies had been extricated from the site since the structure collapsed before dawn on May 24.

According to the Unified Command, the 11th victim was recovered from Quadrant 2 of Sector 1 at around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. Search, rescue, retrieval, and clearing operations continue as authorities race against time to locate those still unaccounted for.

Rescue teams have been using heavy breaching equipment, including jackhammers, sledgehammers, acetylene cutters, and other specialized tools to penetrate layers of concrete and twisted steel. Lifedetection radar, acoustic devices, and K-9 units have also been deployed to aid in the operation.

Authorities said at least seven more people are still feared trapped beneath the rubble.

Victims identified THE Angeles City Police Office (ACPO) has confirmed the identities of several fatalities recovered from the collapse, including Larry Sueno, 48; spouses Elsa Angcao, 50, and Joey Angcao, 48; Roberto Sabile; Mohd Rezal Abdullah, a Malaysian national; Mark Laurence Capungay; Porperio Alikaway; and Christian Sabile.

Roberto Sabile was identified as the father of Christian Sabile, whose body was earlier located by a Philippine Coast Guard K-9 rescue unit.

Several recovered bodies remain under the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Protocol to establish their identities before authorities formally notify their families.

Investigation underway MAYOR Carmelo “Jon” Lazatin II on May 30 ordered the creation of a fact-finding body tasked with determining the technical, structural, administrative, and operational causes of the collapse. The panel is composed of representatives from the Department of Public Works

and Highways, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Fire Protection, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines, United Architects of the Philippines, and other local government offices.

Initial findings are expected within 15 days.

Officials suspended

LAZATIN also ordered the preventive suspension, effective June 1, of City Building Officer Ar. Norbert Lagman and City Engineer’s Office structural engineer Engr. Marion Lingat for up to 60 days to ensure an impartial investigation.

City legal counsel Darwin Reyes said contractors and government personnel could face criminal liability if negligence is established.

“We have to wait for the findings and conclusions. As of now we cannot conclude who’s at fault. Priority natin yung mga victims,” Reyes said.

“We will leave the findings and conclusions

to the investigating body. And the LGU assures those who will be found responsible will be held accountable,” he added.

Lawyers representing both the building owner and contractor said they would cooperate fully with investigators while conducting separate reviews.

“ Kami ay nakikiisa sa Angeles City government para malaman talaga kung ano ang sanhi. Gusto din namin malaman angpinagmulannginsidente,” said lawyer Willie Rivera, counsel for property owner Ernest Jackson Lim.

“We will conduct a parallel investigation to clarify and verify what really happened. We will also secure the services of structural engineers. As of now, we cannot conclude anything,” Rivera added.

Nico Manguerra, legal counsel for contractor Golden Years Construction and Steelworks, said the company remains focused on assisting affected workers and their families.

“We are here to manifest our intention to cooperate,” Manguerra said.

He added that the contractor would shoulder funeral and burial expenses as well as other necessary costs, and encouraged affected families to directly approach the company for assistance.

Structural integrity under scrutiny

AS investigations continue, construction and safety experts stressed that contractors bear the primary responsibility for translating engineering plans into a safe and structurally sound building.

Choi Cruz, an occupational safety and health consultant of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), said structural integrity depends heavily on the contractor’s execution, workmanship, and oversight of subcontractors.

“Structural integrity does not rely solely on the contractor, though they bear the heaviest burden for physical execution,” Cruz said.

He explained that contractors are responsible for ensuring that concrete is properly mixed, poured, and cured, while also managing specialized trades whose work could affect the building’s structural stability.

Architects and engineers, meanwhile, establish the design parameters and safety standards that contractors must follow.

Cruz noted that ensuring the use of proper materials is a shared responsibility among project stakeholders, although the

House. . .

Continued from A5

“That is why the impeachment trial should happen because considering that she has already her intention to run for president in 2028, this impeachment trial will help the sovereign Filipino decide whether or not she deserves the faith and confidence of the electorate,” Luistro said.

However, she stressed that it would be premature to judge the Vice President’s qualifications without hearing her defense.

“Well, we understand that we’ve been expressing the strong Articles of Impeachment against the Vice President. I have reservations as far as the defense is concerned,” Luistro said.

“We have not seen a single piece of their evidence and have not heard a single response to the allegations. I cannot make a conclusion until both sides are presented,” Luistro said. She added that the impeachment process

contractor carries primary accountability.

“The contractor is legally and operationally primary in-charge of workforce management and site safety,” he said. He added that property owners are generally not held responsible for structural failures unless they directly interfere with technical decisions affecting the integrity of the project.

Architect Josua Cruz, likewise, emphasized that both design and execution play crucial roles in ensuring structural safety, although responsibility for quality control and material compliance largely falls on contractors and project management teams.

Aviation compliance review THE collapsed building, located within Clark International Airport’s heightrestricted zone, is also expected to face scrutiny over its compliance with aviation regulations and permit requirements. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) earlier announced that it would review the project’s height-clearance approvals and related certifications as part of the broader investigation.

Authorities have yet to determine the exact cause of the collapse.

is designed to allow both the prosecution and the defense to fully present their cases before the Senate sitting as an impeachment court. Luistro also said her role is defined by constitutional duty rather than personal or political preference.

“I am not simply motivated, I am bound by my constitutional duty. As I’ve been saying, this is not a question of choice,” Luistro said. Luistro also expressed confidence in the senator-judges who will hear the impeachment case, while noting that the Filipino public will closely monitor the proceedings.

“We again express our faith and confidence to all of them as the senator-judges of this upcoming impeachment trial,” Luistro said.

She said pending legal issues involving some senators would not affect their role in the impeachment court, stressing that such matters are separate and distinct from the trial. Luistro also reiterated that all senator-judges are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Editor: Angel R. Calso

US bombs Iranian military sites; Kuwait hit by drone, missile fire

By Jon Gambrell The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—The United States said Monday that it bombed radar and drone sites in Iran after Tehran shot down an American drone over the weekend. Iran then said it launched a strike of its own, and Kuwait reported incoming fire.

The nominal ceasefire between Iran and the US has been repeatedly tested with such back-and-forth attacks, even as officials from both countries try to negotiate an end to the war. It’s not clear how close they are to a deal—and there is always the risk that an attack could derail those talks.

In the meantime, Iran has maintained its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies and driving up the price of fuel around the world, with far-reaching consequences.

Fighting has also escalated between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, despite their nominal ceasefire. Israel has extended its occupation

Blast at building storing explosives in Myanmar kills more

than 45 people

By Grant Peck The Associated Press

BANGKOK—A blast on Sunday at a building in northeastern Myanmar said to have been storing explosives for mining has killed more than 45 people, according to rescue workers and independent media reports.

About 70 other people were injured in the explosion that took place around noon in the village of Kaungtup, in Namhkam township.

The area, located about 3 kilometers (2 miles) south of the Chinese border, is under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed group which has engaged in sporadic fighting against Myanmar’s central government.

A rescue worker who rushed to the site of the blast told The Associated Press that 46 bodies, including six children, had been recovered by Sunday evening and taken for cremation.

The rescuer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said 74 injured people had been transported to the township hospital and rescue operations were continuing.

Another rescuer in Namhkam, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 40 people were killed and more than 100 houses near the blast site were damaged.

Myanmar media outlets, including Shan State’s online Shwe Phee Myay news agency, reported death tolls ranging from 50 to 55. They published photos and videos showing smoke from the explosion and damaged buildings and debris in its aftermath.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported the explosion caused multiple deaths and injuries, with many residential houses being severely damaged, but did not give figures.

It said that according to preliminary investigations, the blast occurred at a site where large quantities of explosives used for mining operations were stored.

Local authorities are currently providing relief, medical care and resettlement assistance to affected residents, said the report.

deep into Lebanon, and Hezbollah—which joined the war in support of its main backer, Iran — continues to launch drones into Israel.

US military attacks Iran

THE US military’s Central Command said it carried out the strikes in Iran on Saturday and Sunday around the city of Geruk and on Qeshm Island.

“The measured and deliberate strikes occurred ... in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” Central Command said.

“US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters.”

Kuwait reports incoming fire

KUWAIT said its air defenses opened fire early Monday morning to intercept incoming drone and missile fire.

Around the same time, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it responded to an American attack

without saying where, likely referring to the attack on Kuwait. In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, the Guard said that US forces had targeted a telecommunications tower.

Kuwait is home to US Army Central, the Mideast forward command for the Army. While the US Air Force no longer flies the MQ-1 Predator, the US Army still does.

Iranian state television later shared footage of the ballistic missile launch, including a close-up showing a sticker on its body depicting a bruised US President Donald Trump overlaid on a “closed” Strait of Hormuz with the caption: “Until the last American soldier leaves the region.”

Attacks rattle ceasefire talks

THE attacks represent the latest escalation between the US and Iran. Over the weekend, the US fired a missile into the engine room of a Gambia-flagged cargo ship trying to break its blockade of Iranian ports.

A trickle of ships has made it out of the strait, through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed, but pressure continues on global energy supplies, as well as on chemical fertilizer. That has led to fears of food shortages. The Gulf region produces 30% of globally traded chemical fertilizers.

Trump met with advisers on Friday but has yet to decide on whether to move ahead with a deal to extend the ceasefire and reopen the strait. Iran has said the deal had not been finalized.

The US and Israel launched the war with strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Trump has offered shifting goals for the conflict, although preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon is among them. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though it has enough highly enriched uranium to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so.

US Vice President JD Vance suggested last week that negotiators are trying to strike general terms on Iran’s nuclear program, with the specifics to be hammered out in the ensuing talks.

Trump expressed optimism about the talks in a post on his Truth Social platform early Monday in Washington.

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” he wrote. “Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end—It always does!”

Israeli army captures strategic castle in Lebanon in deepest incursion into the country in 26 years

By Bassem Mroue, Kareem Chehayeb & Melanie

Lidman

The Associated Press

BEIRUT—Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusaderbuilt castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said Sunday, while US Secretary of State spoke to Lebanese and Israeli leaders to an effort keep negotiations going.

The taking of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, followed days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants.

The capture marked a major Israeli advance in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the US and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.

Since then, Israel has launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border. Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington starting Tuesday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to propose a fresh path to continue ongoing negotiations, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations. Under the proposal, Hezbollah would halt all attacks on Israel and Israel would refrain from escalating military operations in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to the official.

In a televised statement, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, said he can guarantee the militant group’s “full, comprehensive and immediate commitment to a ceasefire.”

“But who will force Israel to stop its aggression?”

he said in a statement on his television station, NBN.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Israeli military

operations in Lebanon, which he described as “unacceptable.”

“Nothing can justify the prolongation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its increasingly deep occupation of Lebanese territory,” Barrot said Sunday on French television BFM TV.

Diplomats said the council meeting might take place Monday afternoon, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

A historic and strategic fortress

THE Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted photographs on X showing Israeli troops walking outside the castle, and Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that they raised an Israeli flag over the castle. Israeli troops previously captured the castle in 1982 and held it until they withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.

“Twenty-six years after the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, the Israeli flag has returned to fly on the peaks that overlook the Galilee towns,” Katz said Sunday at a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in its previous occupation of southern Lebanon.

Katz said Israel intends to hold the castle as its troops work to destroy thousands more homes that he says were used by Hezbollah and other military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

The Beaufort fortress, perched high atop Lebanon’s rolling green hills and overlooking the Litani River, has been a strategic military asset for centuries.

Built as a Crusader castle around the 12th century on top of previous fortifications, it has also been used by Saladin’s Jerusalem army, Mamluks, Ottomans, the French mandate and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Crusaders named it Beaufort, which is Old French for “beautiful fortress.”

The 1982 capture of the castle from the PLO was a major victory for the Israeli military, which was then led by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister. At the time, the Israeli army pushed all the way north and occupied Beirut.

In 2000, the castle was partially restored and opened to visitors.

A8 Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Malaysia enforces ban on social media accounts for children younger than 16

By Eileen Ng The Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—

Malaysia on Monday began enforcing rules barring millions of children younger than 16 from owning social media accounts, joining a global effort to tighten online safety protections for young users.

The rules require social media platforms to implement age-verification systems and block users under 16 from creating accounts. They apply to platforms with at least 8 million users, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Companies that fail to comply

A VIEW of the TikTok app logo, in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 28, 2020. AP/KIICHIRO SATO

platform features designed to encourage excessive use.

could face penalties of up to 10 million ringgit ($2.5 million). But parents whose children manage to bypass the law will not be penalized.

The government said the measures are aimed at protecting children from harmful content, cyberbullying and

Other countries including Australia, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social media. Countries including Britain, France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are also studying or developing similar approaches.

Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission said the rules are not intended to prevent children from accessing the internet or digital technology. Instead, it set expectations for service providers to address online harms and ensure age-appropriate safeguards are in place.

“These measures help strengthen the protection of children in the online environment, while providing added reassurance to parents in navigating increasingly complex digital risks,” the regulator said in a statement last month.

Platforms will be required to introduce safety-by-design features, including protections against manipulative design that encourages compulsive use, and take action against underage accounts and harmful content.

Technology companies have yet to detail how they will comply with Malaysia’s new requirements.

The regulator said a grace period will be given for platforms to complete implementation of ageverification systems.

Clara Koh, Meta’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia, had cautioned in April that Malaysia’s blanket under-16 ban could backfire by driving teenagers away from protected apps and into unregulated corners of the internet.

She said Meta has launched “teen accounts” for those under 18 that limits contact, screen time and exposure to inappropriate content.

Malaysia’s curbs come as governments face growing pressure to address concerns about social media’s impact on children’s mental health and online safety.

In March, a US jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay millions of dollars in damages in a case alleging that platform design features contributed to harm suffered by a young user.

Despite support from many parents, Malaysia’s move has also raised concerns over data privacy.

“It is very much following the trend but in a way that is raising alarms due to requiring a government ID for age verification,” said Benjamin Loh, social science lecturer at Monash University in Malaysia.

Loh said experiences elsewhere suggest age-based restrictions have yet to prove consistently effective. Without parent penalties, he said families can easily bypass the law by creating accounts for their children.

“This is a major gap that unless regulators are willing to fix, will result in the law having little effect in stopping children from using social media,” he added.

WHO chief reports 5 Ebola recoveries as treatment center opens in Congo

By Justin Kabumba & Mark Banchereau The Associated Press

BUNIA, Congo—Five patients have recovered from a rare type of Ebola virus, the head of the World Health Organization said Sunday during a visit to Bunia in eastern Congo, a city at the heart of an outbreak.

“Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the opening of a new Ebola treatment center in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

“Of course, we’re still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn’t mean that people cannot recover from Ebola,” he added.

The WHO said Friday a patient had recovered from the Bundibugyo virus, the current species of Ebola, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. It was the first documented recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo patient during the current outbreak.

The health organization said authorities have reported 134 confirmed cases in Congo and neighboring Uganda, including 18 confirmed deaths as of May 29.

Recovered patients describe their experience

BARAKA BULAMBULU , one of those who

recovered, told The Associated Press on Sunday that community members feared contracting an unknown illness from them, keeping their distance while delivering food and medicine. He said the uncertainty was overwhelming, as he and other patients believed they might die without knowing what disease they had, though testing eventually confirmed Ebola.

“Being able to come out of this alive is an immense source of happiness,” Bulambulu said. “Many people who were in the same situation died.”

Ezo Étienne, a nurse, said his symptoms began during ward rounds when he suddenly felt dizzy, then rapidly deteriorated into vomiting, intense itching, severe diarrhea and extreme weakness. He was tested seven times before Ebola was confirmed. His treatment remained purely to treat the symptoms: medications to control vomiting, fluids to prevent dehydration and pain relievers. “That was all they could provide,” he said.

He urged the public and healthcare workers not to dismiss early symptoms such as vomiting and headaches, warning that misinformation leads many people to believe they have been poisoned rather than seeking hospital care.

Lack of supplies, distrust and insecurity complicate response Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said

DIRECTOR General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, meets with health workers who recovered from Ebola in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. AP/MOSES SAWASAWA

See “Ebola,” A9

Blast. . .

Continued from A7

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, said in a statement released on its Telegram channel that gelignite had been stored by the group’s economic department for use in mining and stone quarrying sites, and that an investigation into the cause of the explosion is underway.

Gelignite is widely used in mining and rock blasting, but can become highly unstable over time and if poorly stored.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, is a member of the rebel Three Brotherhood Alliance, and has controlled the Namhkam area since the alliance and

Ebola. . .

Continued from A8

Saturday the virus continues to spread faster than the response despite better-organized health facilities and new aid arrivals. It called for the immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.

The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.

Tedros stressed the importance of involving the community in the outbreak response during the opening of the new treatment center on Sunday.

“If you come to health facilities when you have symptoms, you can get the support and recover, so the key is to come forward as early as possible and to get the necessary support,” the WHO chief said.

“We can stop this Ebola and anyone who has it can also recover. But the rule ... is this thing is everybody’s business and every citizen should be involved,” he added.

Attacks in the region by the Allied

Israeli. . .

Continued from A7

During the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, UNESCO gave enhanced protection to 34 cultural sites in Lebanon, including Beaufort Castle, to safeguard them from damage.

The castle is a few kilometers north of the Israel border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon and northern Israel. In Arabic, it is called Al-Shaqif castle, an old Syriac word referring to the formidable rocky area.

Beaufort is symbolic across the region, including in Israel, where it was one of the best-known places Israel controlled during the 18-year occupation. An Israeli film titled “Beaufort” explores moral questions about war in the last days before the military withdrew.

Israel expands invasion in Lebanon

IN recent days, Israel has expanded the scope of its operations in Lebanon, sending troops across the Litani River, which previously served as a de-facto boundary, and demanding that residents leave much of southern Lebanon.

“The occupation of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policies we are leading,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, citing the military occupation of security zones in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza along Israel’s borders. He said Israel has killed 3,000 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war. Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualty numbers.

Israel has designated the area from the Litani up to the Zahrani River a combat zone. Some residents have already left the area due to intense strikes in recent days, but people remain.

Israeli troops have been advancing for days in villages close to Beaufort castle. They are now about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Nabatiyeh, a major center in southern Lebanon. They have called on people to leave that area, as well as the coastal city of Tyre, the country’s fourth-largest city, and its surroundings.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or the Lebanese government on the Israeli push.

its allies launched a major offensive against the military in northeastern Myanmar in late 2023. The alliance members and other ethnic armed groups have long fought for increased autonomy.

The TNLA signed a ceasefire with Myanmar’s military following Chinamediated talks in October last year, but relations remain tense.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, triggering widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.

Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.

ADF fighters killed seven people Saturday in Beni, North Kivu province, an area also affected by the outbreak, the Congolese army and civil society groups said. The illness also has been reported in both North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu.

“The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope,” Pierre Akilimali, incident manager at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, said during the inauguration on Sunday.

“With the symptomatic treatment that we are currently providing, we are seeing patients recover,” Akilimali added.

“We truly have hope. The virus here is not as complicated as those we have dealt with in the past, and with the support of all our partners, we believe we will be able to bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” said Davin Ambitapio, another doctor at the treatment center.

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

The expanded operation would give Israel an upper hand in the upcoming talks with Lebanon in Washington, said Beirut geopolitical analyst Joe Macaron.

“We are at a tipping point,” Macaron said, adding that it is still too early to say how Hezbollah will react to the loss of land.

“The more land they (the Israeli military) can grab before the ceasefire, the more they can impose conditions on Hezbollah before their withdrawal.”

Exchanges of fire across the border continue

ISRAEL has continued striking near Tyre, including near the Hiram Hospital. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 health workers were wounded in the strike. Elsewhere, a strike in Deir al-Zahrani, near Nabatiyeh, killed eight people and wounded 16 others, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Hezbollah overnight claimed two attacks targeting Israeli troops and a Merkava tank in the southwestern town of Bayada near the border. In recent days, the group has said it has clashed with Israeli troops in several towns just north of the river near Nabatiyeh and the strategic castle. It also claimed attacks deeper into Israel near the northern city of Haifa, Nahariya, as well as border areas.

Hezbollah on Saturday fired salvos of rockets into northern Israel, including Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in the area.

Hezbollah’s use of hard-to-detect fiber optic drones has been deadly for the Israeli military, which is struggling to respond. There have been nearly 200 alerts for Israeli civilians across northern Israel warning of drones and missiles in the past 24 hours, according to Israel’s military.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,350 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million people.

According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 25 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, including one on Saturday. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Powell uses JFK award speech to warn against political pressure on Fed, courts and schools

By Leah Willingham The Associated Press

BOSTON—Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Pow -

ell used one of his first major public appearances since leaving office to defend independent institutions while accepting an award Sunday honoring his efforts to preserve the central bank’s independence.

Speaking at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library overlooking Boston Harbor, Powell called universities, courts, Congress and the central bank “the foundation and the embodiment of our democracy” and argued that the Fed’s independence was a “priceless asset” that must be protected.

It was one of his most direct defenses of Fed independence, warning that a single administration’s decision to remove bank officials over policy differences would open the way for future elected officials to follow suit, ultimately undermining the credibility that the Fed has spent decades building.

Powell, who frequently clashed with Trump during his eight years as chair, stepped down as his term expired in May. He was succeeded by Kevin Warsh, whom Trump selected to lead the central bank.

After stepping down as chair, Powell took the unusual step of keeping his seat on the Fed’s governing board, which he has until January 2028. By doing so, he has deprived the Trump administration of an opportunity to appoint another member of the board.

The Trump administration has also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, which would open an additional seat on the rate-setting committee the president could fill.

House. . .

Continued from A3

Luistro announced that Manila Rep. Joel Chua will now lead the case involving the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds, while Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores will head the bribery charge.

The leadership for the remaining articles remains unchanged—Iloilo Rep. Lorenz Defensor will continue handling the grave threats charge, while Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon will oversee the unexplained wealth allegation.

“As previously shared, each of the four articles is assigned to a lead public prosecutor,” Luistro said.

“For Threats, the team leader is Rep. [Lorenz] Defensor. For confidential funds, it is now Rep. Joel Chua. For bribery, Rep. Keith Flores, and for unexplained wealth, Rep. Terry Ridon,” she added.

Luistro said further adjustments may still be made as the prosecution finalizes its strategy.

“Until the presentation of evidence is completed, changes in assignments may

Comelec. . .

Continued from A3

If approved, Garcia said all automated counting machines intended for the Bangsamoro elections would be reprogrammed to accommodate the higher threshold.

Comelec is also conducting hardware acceptance tests on around 6,500 automated counting machines to be deployed for the parliamentary elections.

Garcia said the testing process aims to ensure that all machine components, including scanners, printers, and transmission devices, are functioning properly before the poll body formally accepts the units from the supplier.

“Once we accept the machines, there is already a presumption that they are working

Reserve Board Governor

Yet Cook sued and the courts have so far let her keep her seat.

While Powell never mentioned Trump by name Sunday, he repeatedly returned to the importance of protecting institutions from political pressure and preserving public trust in their independence.

“Like many other institutions, the Fed has been undergoing a stress test,” he said. “Congress wisely chose to insulate monetary policy decisions from political pressure. All other advanced economy nations have done the same.”

Since 1989, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award has recognized public servants who make what the foundation describes as courageous decisions of conscience despite personal or professional consequences.

Previous recipients include former Presidents Barack Obama and George H. W. Bush, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former Vice President Mike Pence.

In March, the foundation said it was awarding Powell for protecting the independence of the

still happen,” she said. She said decisions on how evidence will be presented—including which witnesses to call and when—fall under the exclusive authority of the prosecution.

The panel is currently focusing on pretrial preparations, which are expected to streamline the presentation of evidence and witnesses during the trial.

Under impeachment rules, both sides must submit stipulations of facts, identify witnesses, and mark documentary exhibits during the pre-trial stage.

Luistro noted that this process is especially crucial because three of the four articles involve extensive documentary evidence—specifically those on confidential funds, bribery, and unexplained wealth.

“We also submit the list of the witnesses, and we do the marking also of the exhibits, which will be very, very helpful to us considering that three out of four articles have voluminous documents to consider,” she added.

While media reports suggest a June 15 pretrial and July 6 trial start, Luistro reiterated that no official notice has been received.

properly, which is why every component is being inspected carefully,” he said.

Aside from the hardware inspections, Comelec will also conduct simulation exercises across provinces in the Bangsamoro region to test machine performance, ballot transmission, and contingency procedures ahead of election day.

The poll body has also allocated contingency machines and standby batteries in every province and municipality to minimize disruptions in case technical issues arise during voting.

Garcia said Comelec’s priority is to ensure that no polling precinct in the Bangsamoro region experiences a failure of elections.

“We cannot promise that there will be absolutely no problems, but what is important is that we have contingency plans in place,” he said.

Federal Reserve “despite years of personal attacks and threats from the highest levels of government.”

Trump harshly criticized Powell throughout his tenure as chair, frequently attacking the Fed’s interest-rate decisions and urging the central bank to cut borrowing costs more aggressively.

Beyond the Federal Reserve, Powell defended US universities and research institutions, the Constitution, Congress and the court system.

“The United States has long been the leader of the world’s freedom-seeking people—the indispensable nation. Other countries know us as a nation built on integrity, and that integrity must be maintained,” he said.

In his remarks, Powell indirectly acknowledged mistakes as chair. The Fed is legally required to seek stable prices, but inflation surged amid the pandemic’s supply chain crunch. Many economists believe the central bank should have raised interest rates more quickly in response.

“At the Fed, we are, of course,

“We have no official information yet on whether the pretrial will proceed, and the same goes for the trial schedule,” she said.

Nevertheless, she expressed confidence that the proceedings will move forward following the Senate’s formal convening as an impeachment court.

human and thus imperfect,” Powell said. “When we make mistakes, we acknowledge them and change course.”

Powell was honored alongside residents of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, who received the award for what the Kennedy Foundation described as acts of courage during a federal immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests and the deaths of Minneapolis mother Renée Good and nurse Alex Pretti, both of whom were killed while observing or documenting enforcement activity.

“It’s wonderful just to be invited, honoring Renée,” Good’s father, Tim Granger, said as he entered the library with family members.

Kennedy’s only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy, and her son, Jack Schlossberg, said in a statement that without people like Powell and those in Minnesota “willing to put their lives on the line to hold America to its promises, our democracy can’t survive.”

Attendee US Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is running for governor of Minnesota next year, reflected that the award was unusual because it recognized ordinary residents rather than elected officials.

“This didn’t go to an elected leader for a reason,” Klobuchar said. “It’s because the people stood up. They stood up by marching 50,000 strong. They stood by bringing kids they didn’t even know—strangers’ kids—to school, by bringing them groceries and they didn’t blink. And that’s what this award is about. It’s about courage.”

AP journalist Christopher Rugaber contributed from Washington.

The prosecution panel is conducting workshops, reviewing documents, and holding mock trials in preparation.

“Right now, our preparations are in full swing. We are reviewing materials, conducting workshops, and doing mock trials,” Luistro said.

FEDERAL

Jerome Powell, the former Federal Reserve chair, center, stands with former ambassador Caroline Kennedy, right, and her son Jack Schlossberg, as Powell’s wife Elissa Leonard takes a picture at left, while being honored with the Profile in Courage Award at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Boston. AP/CHARLES KRUPA

Pessimism deepens: The Mideast conflict is weighing heavily on PHL businesses

FOR the second consecutive month, the country’s business community has sunk deeper into pessimism. The latest Business Expectations Survey (BES) from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) paints a sobering picture: the confidence index (CI) plummeted to -35.8 percent in April 2026, a sharp drop from March’s already troubling -24.3 percent. (Read the BusinessMirror story: “Business confidence slips for 2nd month,” May 30, 2026).

What is driving this anxiety? It is not a domestic policy failure or a seasonal lull. The culprit lies thousands of kilometers away—the ongoing Middle East conflict. This war is not merely a geopolitical headline; it has metastasized into a direct economic threat, keeping global oil prices and inflation stubbornly elevated. Local firms are now feeling the heat in the most tangible ways: rising operating costs, shrinking consumer purchasing power, and tighter access to credit.

The survey’s granular data is alarming. Confidence in the volume of business activity has turned negative, falling from a positive 2.2 percent in March to -15.3 percent in April. Total orders booked are down. Capacity utilization, while still positive, is waning. This is not just a statistical anomaly—it’s the unmistakable sound of businesses, from manufacturers to retailers, tightening up and bracing for impact.

Yet, in a twist that reveals the resilience—and the desperation—of the Filipino entrepreneur, the outlook for the near term (three months) and medium term (12 months) has actually improved. Firms are pinning their hopes on the start of the academic year to drive demand for loans, clothing, and apparel. Longer-term, they look to stronger demand in business process outsourcing, construction, and transportation.

But hope is not a strategy. The improved outlook is contingent on a “possible resolution of the Middle East conflict.” That is a fragile foundation upon which to build a recovery.

This is where the BSP must step in with clarity and conviction. To its credit, the central bank has acknowledged the gravity of the situation, stating it is ready to take “necessary monetary action to prevent de-anchoring of inflation expectations from the 3-percent target.” That is a prudent stance, but words must be matched by vigilance.

The shift to a monthly BES in January 2026 is a welcome reform, offering more timely data. However, timely data is only useful if followed by timely action. The BSP cannot lower inflation by sheer will, but it can ensure that monetary policy remains tight enough to manage expectations without strangling growth.

Moreover, this crisis underscores the country’s chronic vulnerability to external shocks. Our dependence on imported oil leaves our economy hostage to conflicts we did not create. While we cannot control the geopolitics of the Middle East, we can accelerate the transition to renewable energy and strengthen local agricultural production to reduce import dependence. That is a medium-term imperative, but the time to start was yesterday.

For now, Filipino businesses are navigating a perfect storm: war abroad, inflation at home, and a pessimistic mindset that threatens to become self-fulfilling. The BSP and the broader economic team must reassure the private sector that they are not alone. Clear communication, prudent monetary policy, and targeted fiscal interventions are no longer optional—they are essential.

The confidence index is a mirror. Right now, it reflects a nation worried but not defeated. It is the government’s duty to give businesses a reason to smile again.

Opinion

OJohn Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

N January 17, 2019, I divided the world into zones of roughly one billion people each. Moving from the Americas to Europe and beyond, chaos and disorder built then as now to a peak in the Middle East, finally giving way to a sea of tranquility stretching across the one billion primarily encompassing the member-states of ASEAN. Six years later, after a pandemic, a land war in Europe, a Middle East in open flames, and the most disruptive inflation cycle in four decades, that sea of tranquility is still the bestperforming real estate on the planet. The question in 2019 was how to explain it. Even with China’s regional arrogance, the question in 2025 is how anyone still manages to be surprised by it.

The pandemic was supposed to break Southeast Asia first. Thin public health infrastructure, heavy dependence on tourism, remittances, and export manufacturing, modest fiscal reserves—every vulnerability was visible and documented before the first lockdown. The zone absorbed the shock, restructured its supply chains, and became the primary beneficiary of the single biggest consequence of Covid-19 that no one predicted in March 2020: the permanent erosion of confidence in China as a sole-source manufacturing base. In 2025, investment in Vietnam remained highly robust, with actual FDI disbursements hitting a fiveyear peak of $27.6 billion. Indonesia is commissioning nickel processing infrastructure that makes it a nonnegotiable intersection in every elec-

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tric vehicle supply chain on earth. Malaysia has become the default relocation destination for semiconductor firms caught between Washington’s export controls and Beijing’s political risk.

The manufacturing exodus from China did not go to India, which remains infrastructure-constrained. It did not go to Mexico, which absorbed some nearshoring but lacks the deep supplier networks. It came to Southeast Asia.

In that same 2019 column, I noted that all Southeast Asian nations were classified by Western experts as flawed democracies, hybrid regimes or worse. I asked how to reconcile that with the region’s economic performance. The six years since have sharpened the answer.

Ukraine, a country the West certi-

fied as a democracy worth defending with other people’s money, is now the largest land war in Europe since 1945 and shows no structural path to resolution. Several Western democracies spent the pandemic demonstrating that clean electoral systems do not guarantee competent crisis management. The flawed-democracy designation was always a Western category applied by institutions simultaneously failing their own populations on housing, inflation, and institutional trust. The diversity argument has also aged well. Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Hinduism, Confucian secular ethics, and indigenous traditions operate within 50 kilometers of each other across this zone without producing civilizational conflict. Unless facilitated by foreign sources as ISIS-affiliated militants in the Philippines, of course.

ASEAN did not fracture. This was true in 2019 and remained true through the years when global commentary predicted that Covid nationalism and supply chain competition would fracture regional cooperation. Intra-regional trade still accounts for only 21 percent of the bloc’s total commerce, and ASEAN has already moved to fix it. The Second Protocol upgrading the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement was signed in October 2025. An organization that has kept 11 nations with genuinely incompatible political systems at the same table for nearly six decades without a single interstate war among its members deserves more analytical credit than it gets.

Southern China’s coastal prov-

inces remain part of this zone economically regardless of what Beijing’s political posture suggests at any given moment. These operate on commercial logic older than the People’s Republic.

For the Philippines, six years have clarified both the opportunity and the failure to fully grab it. The remittance economy set a new record in 2025, channeling nearly $36 billion into domestic consumption through banks alone. The mineral reserve base remains among the largest in the region and substantially unmonetized. The Business Process Outsourcing sector has held its ground through the first serious wave of AI-driven displacement better than most analysts projected. The BSP managed monetary policy through a genuine inflation cycle without the institutional credibility collapse that damaged several peer central banks. These are not small things. They are also not enough. The sea of tranquility I identified in 2019 was not a temporary weather pattern. It was a structural condition built over centuries of trade-driven coexistence and refined through decades of institutional habit. Every stress test since has confirmed the structure.

The best billion on the map was not an accident then. It is not an accident now. The only remaining question is how much longer it is going to take the Philippines to get off its butt and act like it knows that.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.

AI bubble debate gets real as chip stocks rally turns historic

By Jeran Wittenstein & Ryan Vlastelica

CHIPMAKERS are by far the hottest stocks in the market, but their recent surge is lending urgency to the debate over whether investors are buying into an artificial-intelligence bubble that’s due to burst.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is on pace for its best quarter ever after soaring 69 percent in the past two months. Chips are the best performing sector in the S&P 500 Index this year by a wide margin. The gains have gotten so extreme and widespread that the group is now heavily represented among the benchmark’s leading stocks.

The most dramatic moves are coming from the memory side of the business, where overwhelming demand for high-bandwidth chips used in AI data centers is sending prices skyrocketing. Micron Technology Inc.’s shares have more than tripled this year. In Asia, SK Hynix Inc. has soared 260 percent, and Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, is up 165 percent. All three now have market capitalizations above $1 tril-

lion, meaning taken together they’re suddenly worth more than the Magnificent Seven’s Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. combined.

This is where the debate comes in.

Bulls see a boom driven by structural changes that are transforming the notoriously cyclical semiconductor industry. Bears see an overheated market fascinated by the latest shiny object. And investors are caught in the middle, transfixed by the momentum, but wary of what could come next.

“You could see another leg up if you’re looking to buy here, but I keep going back to how volatile chips can be, and how everything can be great until it’s not,” said Ed O’Gorman, chief executive and managing partner at River Wealth Advisors, which holds positions in semiconductor giants Nvidia Corp. and Broadcom Inc.

The stakes are high because the stock market has become so reliant on chipmakers for growth. Almost 80 percent of the S&P 500’s 11 percent gain this year is coming from just 10 companies—all are in technology and seven are semiconductor stocks. The two biggest contributors are Micron and Nvidia.

The chip industry is considered cyclical because it regularly goes through booms and busts. The time from an order being placed to when it’s delivered can be months. When demand is strong, that’s not a problem. But when the economy sours or orders slow due to over-supply, chipmakers are often left with cratering earnings from bloated inventories and weak pricing.

This is most acute for memory makers since their products are commodities. The previous memory chip boom was during the pandemic lockdowns when consumers rushed out to buy electronic devices. In 2022, Micron’s annual profit hit $8.7 billion. In 2023, it reported a loss of $5.8 billion because of a supply glut that management warned was coming but turned out to be worse than even they expected. The rise of high-bandwidth memory chips has changed the equation somewhat, as they’re harder to make and have a higher failure rate. That means they take up an outsized chunk of industry production capacity, placing an even bigger strain on companies’ ability to meet demand. This is causing shortages in other key markets such and smartphones and personal computers.

The profits being generated by makers of memory chips right now are staggering. Micron’s earnings are projected to jump to $66.8 billion in 2026, up from $8.5 billion in 2025. In 2027, net income is expected to be about $120 billion, more than Amazon.com Inc. is expected to deliver. Which gets to the heart of the debate: Can the companies sustain this growth because something has been permanently altered, or is this a massive cyclical blip? The conversation goes beyond memory to the broader chip industry. Profits for semiconductor-related companies in the S&P 500 are projected to double this year, more than four times See “AI,” A11

Lung cancer patients on drug from China’s Akeso lived longer

By Robert Langreth, Gerry Smith & Amber Tong

ALUNG cancer drug developed by Akeso Inc. extended patients’ lives by about four months in a late-stage trial in China, results that will likely raise expectations for a closely watched new class of treatments.

The study included more than 500 patients with advanced cancer given either the experimental drug ivonescimab or a standard cancer therapy often used in China as a first line of treatment. Everyone in both groups also received chemotherapy.

Patients on ivonescimab had an overall survival of about 28 months, compared with almost 24 months for patients on the established drug, according to data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. The difference was statistically significant.

Ivonescimab is being developed by China-based Akeso and its US partner, Summit Therapeutics Inc., which licensed Akeso’s assets for $500 million upfront in late 2022.

The results could help dispel one of the big questions surrounding a new type of cancer treatment, which activates the immune system to fight tumors while cutting off their blood supply.

Numerous drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., have pledged billions of dollars to gain the rights to these treatments, known as a PD-1/ VEGF bispecific antibodies. They essentially merge the mechanisms of Merck’s blockbuster cancer therapy Keytruda and Roche Holding AG’s Avastin into a single drug.

The investment frenzy is based on the belief that combinations may become the gold standard over Keytruda, an immunotherapy used in many cancers that has been the world’s best-selling medicine. Until now, the novel approach has offered little proof that it helps patients live longer.

“This is good incremental progress,” said Roy Herbst, an oncologist and deputy director of the Yale Cancer Center. While the results will need to be verified in other studies outside of China, he said they were better than he had expected and called the survival difference clinically meaningful.

A rival drug jointly developed by Germany’s BioNTech SE and BristolMyers also generated encouraging responses in a mid-stage, global lung non-small cell lung cancer study presented at the meeting. The medicine, pumitamig, was originally developed by China-based Biotheus.

Patients had a robust response to treatment, including those with lower levels of the PD-L1 protein that helps tumors evade the immune system. The results support its potential to benefit a broad range of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, said Solange Peters, lead investigator and director of oncology at the University Hospital of Lausanne.

New approach

AKESO’S positive, if not spectacular, result is almost certain to heighten interest among drugmakers in the dual-targeting approach, said Christine Lovly, chief of thoracic medical oncology at City of Hope in the Los Angeles area. She said the type of lung cancer in the study is par-

Opinion

TAX LAW FOR BUSINESS

‘Ease of closing business’ reform of the BIR

By Atty. Ernesto N. Dayao Jr.

IN 2024, the Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) Act was passed into law. In general, the law intended to facilitate the conduct of business here in the country. To this end, there were many reforms that were presented mainly to simplify the compliance obligations of taxpayers. One of these relates to the process on the cancellation of their registration in case of dissolution, as it is not a secret that closing a business in the Philippines involves a lengthy, complex, and paperwork-intensive process.

Note also that the circular made it clear that only these documents must be submitted for the cancellation of the taxpayer’s business registration.

“We are not in the ‘this time it is totally different’ camp, but we are firmly in the ‘higher for longer’ camp,” said Jorry Noeddekaer, London-based head of global emerging markets and Asia at Polar Capital, which owns positions in memory

ticularly hard to treat, making new methods welcome.

Numerous questions remained unanswered. It’s unclear which patients are most likely to benefit and whether the dual-acting drug will lengthen lives long term, as opposed to bumping up the median survival a bit.

“The data are intriguing, but still immature,” Lovly said in a phone interview.

The study also comes with an important caveat: It was conducted in China.

The Food and Drug Administration typically wants to see trial results that involve US patients. Summit is running a similar study that includes Americans and has applied for FDA approval of ivonescimab for those with a different form of lung cancer.

The trial presented at ASCO compared ivonescimab against Tevimbra, an immunotherapy marketed by BeOne Medicines Ltd that works similarly to Keytruda. It is approved in China as a first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Akeso already showed its drug outperformed Tevimbra in delaying cancer progression.

The new study targeted squamous non-small cell lung cancer, a condition often linked with smoking. Survival rates vary depending on when it’s detected. According to Cleveland Clinic, about two-thirds of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer are still alive after five years, while less than 10 percent of those whose cancer has spread live that long.

Analysts have highlighted Akeso’s presentation as a key barometer for the Chinese drugmaker’s ability to innovate. Akeso and Summit rose to international fame in 2024 when they claimed that ivonescimab was more effective than Keytruda in staving off a type of lung cancer.

Investors have grown skeptical as more research emerged in other studies. In a different trial that included US patients with another type of lung cancer, Summit said the drug didn’t significantly prolong overall survival.

“This feels like a true ‘now or never’ moment for China biotech,” Cui Cui, head of Asia healthcare research at Jefferies, said in an interview ahead of the conference. Strong data could reinforce Chinese firms’ credibility globally, while negative results could sow doubts about the whole sector. With assistance from Sonja Wind /Bloomberg

Akeso’s positive, if not spectacular, result is almost certain to heighten interest among drugmakers in the dual-targeting approach, said Christine Lovly, chief of thoracic medical oncology at City of Hope in the Los Angeles area. She said the type of lung cancer in the study is particularly hard to treat, making new methods welcome. what’s expected for the benchmark as a whole, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

chip stocks like Micron and Sandisk Corp. “The supply side has changed meaningfully with the evolution of high-bandwidth memory, and demand remains strong. We also see a plausible scenario in which longerterm contract pricing structures emerge, reducing cyclicality and allowing for better capacity and pricing management on the downside.”

Soaring profits have helped keep memory chipmakers’ stock market valuations in check despite the rally. Indeed, Micron and Sandisk

As a rule, the taxpayer needs to close its business with the local government unit and with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) office where it is registered. Thereafter, it shall proceed with its closure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC would approve the dissolution only after a certificate of tax clearance from the BIR is submitted. A tax clearance is issued only after completion of the BIR’s tax audit and payment of deficiency taxes, if any.

The EOPT Act aimed to simplify the procedures. The law, as amended by the Act, now provides that the registration with the BIR of any person or entity shall be cancelled upon mere filing, either electronically or manually. However, the law, at the same time, provided that this process shall not preclude the BIR from conducting an audit in order to determine any tax liability. The tax liability needs to be settled prior to the issuance of

tax clearance for business closure.

With this, there were a lot of clarifications posed. What does the provision truly mean? How did it change the previous procedures? These questions were left unanswered for a while, until our tax authority finally issued a revenue circular, RMC No. 47-2026, that clarifies the procedures and requirements in case of business closure. The RMC applies to all registered business taxpayers that have permanently ceased their operations.

Under the RMC, the following documents must be submitted in the application for closure: (a) Application Form; (b) list of ending inventory of goods and supplies, including capital goods, for VAT taxpayers; (c) unused invoices, supplementary documents and all other unutilized accounting forms; (d) original registration certificates/permits; and (e) proof of authority of the taxpayer’s representative filing the application.

Further, the circular had finally settled that, once the taxpayer files an application and submits the complete documents as mentioned, it is no longer required to file its tax returns subsequently. The registration status of the taxpayer is updated, and its tax form types shall be set to “deregistered” in the BIR’s system. Consequently, penalties for non-filing of tax returns shall no longer accrue after submission of the requirements.

Moreover, taxpayers are no longer restricted to long queues at physical tax offices as their closure applications can be submitted through both online and offline avenues. Filing can be done either manually or electronically. Electronic submission is done by sending the documents to the BIR office’s email address or through the BIR’s online registration facilities like ORUS (Online Registration and Update System) and TRRA Portal (Taxpayer Registration Related Application Portal).

Recognizing that micro enterprises (businesses with annual gross sales under P3,000,000) bear the heaviest administrative burden, RMC No. 47-2026 exempted them from the mandatory exhaustive tax

audits during closure. In addition, if a micro taxpayer has no open cases or outstanding liabilities, the BIR will issue its tax clearance within three working days from document submission. If open cases exist, the three-day period starts as soon as those liabilities are settled. While the process is streamlined, the procedures do not dispense with the requirement of full settlement of the outstanding liabilities of taxpayers before their businesses are officially closed.

But what is important is, it is now clear that, as soon as the taxpayers close their business and apply for closure, from that moment, they are not required to file their tax returns anymore. We believe that this was the intention of our lawmakers—to relieve at once the taxpayers from their filing compliance obligations upon closure.

The author is a Senior Associate II of DuBaladad and Associates (BDB Law) (www.bdblaw. com.ph). The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal, or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported, therefore, by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the

US hits Vietnam with third probe as trade pressure grows

By Francesca Stevens

THE US has launched a third trade investigation into Vietnam in as many months, as the Trump administration turns up the pressure on the export-reliant nation.

The Office of the US Trade Representative announced Friday the probe will look into Vietnam’s acts and policies surrounding intellectual-property protection and enforcement and “assess their impact on US commerce.”

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer plans to consult with President Donald Trump if “responsive action” is needed, a process that could take months.

The investigation, which is being carried out under Section 301 of the Trade Act, opens the door to new tariffs on Vietnamese goods.

“We need to see Vietnam resolve these long-standing concerns, including on a range of IP enforcement

issues, in a manner that is sustained and that deters future IP infringements,” Greer said in a statement.

Vietnam was identified as a “priority foreign country” in a late April report, marking the first time in 13 years that a nation has been placed in that category. The designation is reserved for countries with the most egregious IP-related acts.

The US has launched a raft of trade inquiries as Trump looks to rebuild his tariff wall that was toppled when the Supreme Court earlier this year overturned his previous global tariffs.

The Southeast Asian nation is already the subject of two separate Section 301 probes into alleged excess

manufacturing capacity and forced labor. The investigations, which could provide the legal basis for the US president to unilaterally impose tariffs on imports from countries deemed to engage in unfair trade practices, are expected to conclude in July.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Le Minh Hung said the country is committed to combating intellectual-property violations after meeting the Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer in Hanoi earlier this month. The government ordered a monthlong crackdown on piracy websites, counterfeit goods and trademark infringements shortly after the USTR report was released, targeting a 20 percent increase in enforcement cases from the previous May.

The trade probe comes even as the two countries deepen defense relations, as both have concerns over China’s activities in the South China Sea. Vietnam’s top leader To Lam met

Friday with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said they plan to increase maritime cooperation, including with unmanned systems.  Vietnam was initially hit with a steep 46 percent tariff last April, later reduced to 20 percent, but despite months of negotiations the two sides have yet to reach a final trade deal, leaving uncertainty hanging over one of America’s largest trading partners. The talks have stalled over issues including transshipment, market access and Vietnam’s large trade surplus with the US, which has only continued to grow as manufacturers shift production to the country amid broader supply-chain realignments. The trade gap widened sharply to $178.2 billion in 2025, an increase of around $54.7 billion from 2024. In March, Vietnam posted the second-largest trade deficit with the US after Taiwan, ahead of China and Mexico. Bloomberg

Sheinbaum accuses US of interfering in Mexico’s politics

By Gonzalo Soto

MEXICAN President Claudia Sheinbaum launched her strongest criticism to date against what she says are blunt US attempts to interfere in Mexican domestic politics.

What had been a recurring theme in her recent speeches became on Sunday a rallying cry to stir up her supporters at a rally in Mexico City, where she claimed that since the deaths of two CIA agents on April 19, efforts by US authorities and far-right groups to destabilize her government have intensified.

The most serious attempt at intervention to date, according to her, came days after that incident when the Department of Justice indicted 10 Mexican officials—including Rubén Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa state—on charges of alleged drug trafficking offenses.

look downright cheap at around 10 times earnings over next 12 months, compared with the Philadelphia semiconductor index, which trades at almost 27 times. However, those valuations are based on the assumption that this boom is going to last. Using trailing profits, valuations look much more extreme, with Micron trading at a multiple of 46 and Sandisk at 58.

The semiconductor index is around 71 times profits, the most expensive since the aftermath of the 2008 fi-

“An incident of this magnitude is unprecedented in our bilateral relation,” she said. “Is this really a legitimate, genuine interest in helping Mexico? Or are we perhaps seeing sectors of the US far right positioning themselves ahead of their 2026 elections?”

The president assured that Mexico is open to and committed to maintaining security cooperation in order to prevent drug trafficking. She pointed to the willingness to continue working together on border issues, adding that this does not mean that the US can determine who is guilty of a crime or not.

“We’ll continue to collaborate to avoid drugs crossing the border, because it’s our humanist conviction and because we understand the pain it causes,” Sheinbaum said.

Mexico has ramped up collaboration with the US since the start of Sheinbaum’s government in 2024 and so far

nancial crisis. And at 15 times sales, it’s at the highest in data going back to 2002 and more than three times the average over that span.

“When it comes to chips, we only know when peak earnings were with hindsight,” said Kai Wu, chief investment officer at Sparkline Capital, whose exchange-traded funds hold chipmakers including Intel Corp. and NXP Semiconductors NV. “It all comes down to: To what extent can we expect the AI buildout to continue? If it does go on, then chips

has extradited at least 92 persons criminally charged in the US, including 11 high-level drug lords. In late February, Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Oseguera Cerventes “El Mencho,” Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpin, in an operation that included US-provided intel.

The case involving the 10 indicted individuals has become the main point of tension between Sheinbaum and President Donald Trump’s administration, as it marks the first time a US authority has requested the arrest and extradition of a sitting, elected Mexican official.

“When pressure is applied to our institutions from outside, when it becomes accepted that another country can intervene in matters that are the responsibility of Mexicans, we’re no longer talking about cooperation; we’re talking about interference,” said Sheinbaum.

will probably continue doing well. But there’s also a chance that we’re getting over our skis.”

The spending backing the boom looks durable, at least for now. The four biggest buyers of computing equipment—Amazon, Meta, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp.— expect to plow as much as $725 billion into capital expenditures in 2026, with most of it going toward AI data centers. And they plan to spend significantly more in 2027. However, the companies are start -

“First they come for some, then for others, until the Department of Justice becomes the main decision-maker in Mexico,” she said. “Who decides in Mexico? Foreign agents or the people?” With assistance from Manuela Tobias / Bloomberg

The Mexican government asserts that the Justice Department has not presented compelling evidence against the accused. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office has already opened an investigation into the case, and last week Rocha Moya and the rest of the indicted individuals testified before prosecutors, with the exception of two officials from Sinaloa who are already in custody in the US. Sheinbaum said it’s important to question the legitimacy of any extradition order, especially when it targets elected officials, and encouraged her supporters to launch media campaigns and messages opposing foreign interference.

ing to use more debt to fund the spending, which raises a whole new set of questions.

“It seems likely that there’s bound to be a plateauing of spending, at a minimum, even if it is at a higher absolute level than it was before,” said River Advisors’ O’Gorman. “We know chips experience cycles and boom-bust behavior. And that’s still the case when you have something with massive growth.” With assistance from Ian King and Youkyung Lee/Bloomberg

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

2nd Front Page

BusinessMirror

MARCOS: PHL KEEN ON FORGING INVESTMENT TIEUPS WITH VIETNAM

By Samuel P. Medenilla

RESIDENT Ferdinand R. Mar-

Pcos Jr. is aiming to boost the country’s total trade with Vietnam to over $10 billion by positioning the Philippines as a “premier destination for smart, sustainable manufacturing and high-value services.”

The chief executive made the statement during the Vietnam-Philippines Business Forum, which was attended by 600 business leaders and representatives, in Manila last Monday.

“While trade continues to reach new heights, we see even greater opportunities in investment,” he said.

“The Philippines is positioning itself as a premier destination for smart, sustainable manufacturing and high-value services,” he added.

Through said business forum, Marcos said he hopes to promote two-way investments, particularly in industries which “shape the future” such as manufacturing, green technology, and the digital economy.

“We are open to partnership, ready for investment, and eager to work with you in creating new opportunities for growth,” Marcos said.

“The Philippines seeks to maximize the value of its vast green metal resources and its operating nickel mines to support electric vehicle production, battery manufacturing, and digital infrastructure supply chains,” he added.

He said the country is also currently strengthening its shipbuilding

industry and defense-related manufacturing capabilities.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Ferdinand A. Ferrer announced that during the Vietnam-Philippines Business Forum 15 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) were signed on trade and technology development, energy, green transition, tourism and aviation, health care and education, agriculture, telecom, transportation, and Artificial Intelligence.

He said the said agreements “will create jobs, build industries, and improve the lives of the citizens of both nations.”

Under the Joint Statement on the Enhanced Strategic Partnership between the Republic of the Philippines and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, both countries have committed to increase their total trade to exceed $10 billion and to aim for a “balanced trade.”

Last year, total trade between the two countries reached its peak since 2020 when it hit $7.2 billion. Of which, $5.6 billion were the country’s imports from Vietnam, while $ 1.5 billion were the country’s exports to the said country.

Among the Philippines’s top imports from Vietnam were highquality rice ($1.32 billion), alongside essential electronic apparatuses.

The country’ top exports to Vietnam include $424 million in digital monolithic integrated circuits and over $200 million in electric motors.

Analysts: Oil at $160/barrel a major shock for economy

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE Philippines, a net oil importer, would see its inflation rate accelerate by as much as 3 percentage points if oil prices skyrocket to $160 per barrel.

Local economists sounded the alarm after New York-based data and analytics firm Moody’s Analytics warned that the prolonged conflict in the Middle East could jack up oil prices to more than $160 per barrel, which could hit “highly import-dependent economies.”

In its Asia-Pacific outlook, Moody’s Analytics said: “Risks to the outlook have skewed to the downside since the onset of the Middle East conflict in late February. A prolonged conflict, in which the Strait of Hormuz is closed throughout the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, could drive oil prices to more than $160 per barrel, as we simulate in a new high-oil-price scenario in our May alternative scenarios.”

The data and analytics firm underscored that such a surge in energy prices “would shave off about 6 percent from its regional baseline growth forecast.”

Sought for comments on the effect of the high oil price scenario on the Philippine economy, experts said this could lead to higher inflation, slow growth, and weaker peso, among others.

For John Paolo Rivera, a Senior Re-

search Fellow at the state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), this oil price scenario “would be a major shock for the Philippines.”

“As a net oil importer, the country would face higher fuel, transport, electricity, and logistics costs, which would feed into inflation and erode household purchasing power,” Rivera told the BusinessMirror in a Viber message on Monday.

He said this would also widen the trade deficit, put pressure on the peso, and weaken business confidence.

Jonathan L. Ravelas, senior adviser at Reyes Tacandong & Co., said if oil prices jump to $160 per barrel, the Philippines will feel it through “higher inflation, slower growth, and a weaker peso,” adding that this is “effectively” a tax on consumers and businesses.

Ravelas also divulged to this newspaper that the immediate risk of this oil price level is a “2-3-percentage point jump in inflation,” driven by higher transport, power, and food costs.

This scenario, he said, will squeeze household spending and trim growth momentum.

Interventions

TO cope with the oil shock, economists underscored the need for the government to provide “targeted and time-

‘Oil prices inching closer to pre-war levels’

By Lenie Lectura

PUMP prices will decline this week and bring prices to pre-crisis levels, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Monday. The agency announced it was expecting gasoline prices to drop by P4.76 per liter, diesel by P9.26 per liter, and kerosene by P10.86 per liter.

“From tomorrow up to Monday next week, there will be a major rollback....Some companies actually have done some advanced rollback, some have done their staggering in advance of the rollbacks, or some are actually giving even lower prices. So, monitor the situation in your favorite gasoline stations but these are the prescribed DOE rollbacks,” said DOE Undersecretary Alessandro Sales during an online news conference.

Oil firms have yet to announce their price adjustments as of press time.

“We are getting closer to the pre-war prices, which were around P50 to P60 per liter. And

now we’re getting closer and closer to this amount. Hopefully, no more surprises in the events that are happening in the Middle East, especially with Iran, Israel, and the United States,” said Sales. Meanwhile, the Philippines is working on the establishment of a strategic petroleum reserve program, including the development of new stockpiling facilities, to bolster national energy security.

“There are certain objectives that we are trying to reach, but the primary purpose is to add more to the 60-day stockpile of private companies, or the 30 days. It could be 30 to 60 days, depending on the resources of our private companies. The objective is to have more than what the private sector has. I think the minimum that we have agreed upon is there should be at least another 30 days,” said Garin. As of May 29, the country’s fuel supply is good for 45 days.

The DOE and the Philippine National Oil Company, in partnership with the Maharlika Investment Corp., are developing a strategic petroleum reserve and oil storage facility. Maharlika proposed a consortium with PNOC and the private sector to build oil depots to store strategic reserves. Maharlika would act as a capital provider, PNOC would contribute assets and private operators would manage the facilities.

The investment is initially pegged at P5 billion per storage tank, capable of storing 500,000 to one million barrels of oil.

The plan may take three years before it is implemented. “It will really take time, but we are already doing out feasibility studies, our evaluation, and the most fitting government company that will embark on this would be PNOC, which has the mandate to ensure energy security in the Philippines. At the same time, Maharlika has the funds for this project and also access to funding. We will start with an initial

inventory, and then later, over the years, we can keep improving,” said Garin.

She added that Japan is “fully supportive” of this plan and may assist the Philippine government in providing technical expertise, in the conduct of feasibility studies, and provide capacity-building assistance. Japan, she added, is also promoting a broader “ASEAN-wide joint stockpiling scheme.

“The plan is to have a regional reserve so that whoever has a problem in the country can access the inventory in the Asean-wide stockpiling or reserves.

This is the plan and this is being studied. We are also presenting ourselves to be a regional venue for this because we have possible areas that we can host regional stockpiling,” said the energy chief.

As the ongoing developments in the Middle East continues to create volatility of prices in the global oil market, the government remains vigilant and prepared to implement measures that will help protect the country from potential supply constraints and maintain the availability of essential fuels.

bound” interventions especially to the most vulnerable sectors—transport and agriculture.

“The key for the government is not to control prices—which it can’t—but to control the spillovers: provide targeted subsidies to the most vulnerable sectors like transport and agriculture, secure food supply to stabilize prices, and let monetary policy stay vigilant to anchor expectations,” Ravelas told this newspaper.

Rivera, for his part, stressed the need to preserve fiscal space and maintain “adequate” external buffers “because higher oil prices can simultaneously pressure inflation, growth, the peso, and the [balance of payments] BOP.”

He added that a prolonged period of high oil would not just be an energy issue.

“It would become a macroeconomic issue affecting inflation, growth, employment, public finances, and poverty,” said Rivera.

Rivera said this requires a “coordinated response” across monetary, fiscal, energy, and food security policies as the central bank cannot solve all of these challenges through interest rates alone.

At the same time, Ravelas said this should serve as a “wake-up call” to fasttrack energy diversification and reduce long-term dependence on imported oil.

“In short, manage the shock today, but fix the vulnerability for tomorrow,”

he added. The country’s headline inflation accelerated to 7.2 percent in April, its highest level in over three years. Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects the inflation print for May to settle within the 7.1 to 7.9 percent range. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2026/06/01/ bsp-banks-inflation-in-may-couldhit-7-9/)

Weak peso LAST month, Ravelas told this newspaper that a prolonged Middle East conflict could weaken the Philippine peso further to P65 against the dollar on the assumption that the price of oil shoots up to $150 to $170 per barrel (Brent Crude). (See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2026/05/14/prolonged-middleeast-war-may-see-1%e2%82%b165exchange/)

Data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) showed the Philippine peso plunged to P61.746 against the dollar on Monday. This rate is 15 centavos weaker than its previous finish of P61.59 on Friday, May 29,2026. The value of the local currency on Monday almost touched the P61.75 level, the country’s all-time low against the greenback, which was last seen on May 19.

‘Protest’ or ‘boycott’? No Senate session as Majority joins Estrada

By Butch Fernandez

POSSIBLY for the first time in the Senate’s history, no session was conducted on Monday, as the majority senators stayed away from the session hall and accompanied a beleaguered colleague who surrendered to authorities on a plunder charge.

However, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano did not serve formal notice that they had no plans to convene, drawing a stinging rebuke from minority senators, who called it a simple “boycott of duty,” and not an assertion of Senate independence to protest alleged Executive harassment of a senator.

“The Solid Bloc 11 minority senators were present today for the 5 p.m. resumption of session, ready to work, ready to vote on pending bills and ready to keep the Senate running, but the majority led by SP Cayetano chose not to show up,” Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in a statement on behalf of her peers.

“They did not even have the courtesy to inform us when they ignored the rules, and could not extend the basic decency of telling the minority that they had no intention of convening,” she lamented.

“Let us focus on the work, because the Senate has serious business before it, and if the majority wants to protest, deliver privilege speeches or defend its position, the proper place to do that is on the floor, not by making the chamber stand still.”

The Senate, the minority stressed, is not the possession of someone who “holds the gavel. It is an institution of the people, and so many important measures were stalled because of the drama of the majority.”

They cited the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, the AntiHospital Detention Bill, the confirmation of generals before the Commission on Appointments and the bills granting Philippine citizenship to Bennie Boatwright III and Matthew James Ramos.

“Let us call this for what it is: the claim that this is about Senate independence is false, because what happened today was about the rule of law, public accountability and a lawful process be-

fore the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan that no senator, no bloc and no presiding officer controls.

“This is a boycott because of the arrest of Senator Jinggoy Estrada, and the public should not be asked to believe another convenient line from a leadership that has repeatedly twisted the truth.”

Estrada, on whom the Sandiganbayan issued an arrest warrant for plunder for his alleged role in the flood-control fund mess, earlier told reporters he had rejected offers to have his case dismissed if he would turn his back on the Cayetano-led majority.

Estrada then announced he would not use the Senate as sanctuary to avoid court process, and then proceeded to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the National Police; and later, to the Sandiganbayan to voluntarily surrender.

Hontiveros wondered aloud if by their boycott of the session, the majority was rejecting the due process of law in seeking accountability for the flood mess.

“Today was a step toward accountability in a controversy that the public has long demanded action on, and after years of people asking why nothing was happening in flood control investigations, it is unacceptable to suddenly call the rule of law an attack on the Senate.

“Is Senate President Alan Cayetano now questioning the rule of law?”

This, said the minority, “may be the first time in decades that Senate work stopped because the presiding officer himself refused to work, because even during typhoons and the height of the pandemic, work was suspended only because of necessity or because systems still had to be set up, not because the leadership chose a boycott of duty.”

The minority wanted to know: “will they do this again for the next two session days, and will they keep the Senate idle simply to avoid facing the numbers on the floor?”

“Finally, we call on the Filipino people to watch the Senate closely, because when an institution refuses to work, public vigilance becomes the people’s first line of defense.”

DA CRACKS DOWN ON PRICE CAP COMPLIANCE Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Constante Palabrica inspected rice grains at a retail stall in Muñoz Market, Quezon City, on Monday, June 1, 2026, as part of a nationwide simultaneous crackdown to enforce compliance with the temporary P50 per kilo price cap on 5 percent broken imported rice, with the monitoring drive aimed at ensuring fair

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Nordeco, Aboitiz subsidiary swap misinformation claims

By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief @awimailbox & Lenie Lectura @llectura

DAVAO City and Manila–The Aboitiz-owned DLPC and Power Co. Inc. (DLPC) and the Northern Davao Electric Cooperative Inc. (Nordeco) last Monday swapped accusations of misleading the public on who really owns the electricity franchise for Davao del Norte.

In a statement, the DLPC said the misleading information had been circulated in the communities concerning its operations in the entire province of Davao del Norte.

“DLPC’s authority to operate in these areas is anchored on Republic Act (RA) 12144, which expanded its franchise coverage to the Provinces of Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro,” read the company’s statement. According to the subsidiary of the Aboitiz Power Corp., this law has been upheld by the Supreme Court (SC).

The company also pointed to a Writ of Possession issued by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Tagum City, Branch 2, which covers the City of Tagum and the municipalities of Asuncion, Kapalong, New Corella, Sawata, and Talaingod, allowing DLPC to lawfully operate and manage electric distribution services in accordance with law. The RTC of Panabo City, Branch 4, likewise issued a Writ of Possession covering the Island Garden City of Samal, the company noted.

“With these legal bases, DLPC is now responsible for the full operation of the electric distribution system within its franchise area, including maintenance, customer service, billing, and collection,” It said. However, the Nordeco “strongly disputed” DLPC’s public announcement claiming full operations be-

ginning midnight of May 26. The cooperative called the statement “baseless and unlawful while court cases remain unresolved.”

DLPC has the original franchise for Davao City. The franchise was expanded in the 1980s to cover the Davao del Norte areas of Panabo City, Braulio Dujali and Santo. With RA 121444, DLPC has franchise rights over Davao City, Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro. RA 121444 originated in the House of Representatives, which passed it on December 10, 2024. It was amended by the Senate of the Philippines on February 3, 2025, and which amendments were concurred into by the House of Representatives a day later. It lapsed into law on April 6 last year without the signature of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who previously vetoed the bill.

Nordeco

THE Nordeco also insisted last Monday that it remains the legal franchise holder in distributing electricity in its Davao franchise area.

According to Nordeco, the cooperative is “strongly” opposing the expansion of the DLPC as the dispute is still pending before the courts. It vowed “to continue to fight for what is lawful and fair,” saying “this commitment is not only for the Cooperative itself but also for its memberconsumer-owners.”

Nordeco Project Supervisor Emmanuel B. Galarse was quoted as saying in a statement that the cooperative has officially filed legal actions before the High Tribunal “to seek clarification and reconsideration of recent rulings emphasizing coexistence between the cooperative and DLPC.”

“At the same time, there are still ongoing cases before the Regional Trial Court regarding the disputed takeover and possession of Nordeco assets, which are also raised before the SC. These matters are not yet final and are still being decided by the courts,” Galarse added According to Nordeco, it has received the Notices issued by the SC dated April 8 and April 22, 2026, informing the cooperative of the consolidation of General Register Number (GRN) E-05431 and GRN E-05481 with GRN 280275 and GRN 280734. These cases challenge the constitutionality of the Davao Light Expansion law (RA 12144), a law that authorizes the DLPC to expand its franchise coverage into areas that are presently and actively being served by Nordeco.

“These consolidated cases challenging the constitutionality of RA 12144 provide Nordeco with a continuing legal basis to uphold and assert the validity of its franchise, which remains in effect until October 2028,” Nordeco Acting General Manager Elvera S. Alngog was quoted in the same statement as saying. “As these constitutional issues remain unresolved and are currently under judicial review, Nordeco will continue to pursue all available legal remedies, including challenging the provisional authority previously granted to DLPC by the ERC, as both the law and the actions arising from it remain subject to ongoing legal scrutiny.”

On May 26, Nordeco also filed another petition before the SC asking for an injunction, temporary restraining order, and status quo order against the “Supplemental Order of

Expropriation” and “Supplemental Writ of Possession” issued by the RTC in Tagum City.

As these legal cases are still pending, Nordeco cannot yet approve requests for withdrawal of billing deposits. However, the matter will be referred to the Energy Regulatory Commission for proper guidance and action based on existing laws and regulations, read the cooperative’s statement.

Consumers

NORDECO is encouraging consumers “to immediately document and report incidence involving DLPC personnel replacing Nordeco’s kilowatthour meters in some areas.”

“As a member-consumer-owner of Nordeco, I am deeply concerned by reports that our cooperative’s kilowatt-hour meters were allegedly replaced by DLPC personnel,” Rene Boy S. Abrea, EC-Wide chairman and national vice-president of the Mindanao National Center of Concerned Electric Consumers Inc., said. “Such actions create confusion among consumers and raise serious questions about authority, transparency, and respect for our rights. We call on the concerned agencies to investigate these reports and ensure that the interests of consumers are protected.”

The DLPC, meanwhile, also warned that “any person or group without proper authority who conducts operations, billing, collection, or disconnection activities is acting illegally and may be subject to legal action.”

The company said it would encourage customers and communities to remain vigilant and cautious when dealing with individuals claiming to represent an electric utility.

“For safety and protection, the public is advised to always ask for proper identification and authorization, deal only with official DLPC personnel and report any suspicious or unauthorized activities immediately through the official channels of DLPC or the police,” added the company.

JTI buys add’l 3,320MT of tobacco

JT International (Philippines) Inc. announced it purchased an additional 3,320 metric tons (MT) of green weight tobacco leaf from farmers to absorb excess supply in the market.

The company’s purchase came after the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) said an overproduction in Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra, and La Union led to an excess of 5,000 MT of flue-cured Virginia tobacco.

“We are glad that we were able to help local tobacco farmers this time,” JTI Philippines General Manager Alan Jackson was quoted in a statement as saying. “It is the combined responsibility of all parties—the government, industry players and tobacco farmers—to ensure a sustainable tobacco leaf growing industry in the Philippines. In this regard, we are heartened by the commitment of the NTA to avoid another excess production in the future,” Jackson added.

JTI Philippines explained that the supply glut stemmed from tobacco farmers planting traditional varieties without marketing tie-ups with trading companies, anticipating a recurrence of the strong demand experienced last year.

Global output, however, posted an overproduction in 2026, resulting in a weaker demand for Philip -

DAVAO City–Every day since the fifth of March, passersby and motorists in a section of this city witness the rise of a complex of buildings that its developers expect could support investors.

The Alsons Development and Investment Corp. is banking on the P1.2-billion “CentralHub Davao” would meet the increasing demand for modern industrial facilities across Mindanao, bolstering the region’s manufacturing, export, and distribution sectors.

A project by the CentralHub Industrial Centers Inc., “CentralHub” broke ground on March 5 in Barangay Lasang, 30 kilometers north of downtown Davao City. It was established by a joint venture of (Alsons Dev) and DoubleDragon Properties Corp. (DoubleDragon).

The two corporations said the industrial hub in Lasang “marks the start of construction of the first CentralHub in Mindanao, a 6.2-hectare industrial warehouse complex that will support the region’s growing logistics and distribution needs.”

THE Po-led Arthaland Corp. expects to generate P12 billion in revenue from its upscale Sondris residential project in Makati.

Arthaland Marketing Group Head Pamela S. Go said the company will capitalize on resilient demand for premium sustainable real estate.

The 37-story tower is being developed through a joint venture with Mitsui Fudosan Co., one of Japan’s largest real estate conglomerates whose portfolio includes the Tokyo Disneyland and the Tokyo Dome Arena.

Demand for the development has already triggered price increases, Go said.

Across-the-board prices for units have risen approximately 5 percent since the project’s launch in January, she said.

The one-bedroom units that initially debuted at P21 million now cost P22 million.

The development features a lowdensity layout of six to10 units per floor. It features 252 units.

Homeowners may choose from

Once completed, CentralHub Davao will feature a projected leasable space of 40,392 square meters, designed to support a range of uses including warehousing, cold storage, commissaries, light manufacturing, and other related services.

The place is strategically located along the Pan-Philippine Highway near the Lasang Public Market, and the site provides convenient access to key logistics gateways such as Sasa Port, Davao International Container Terminal Inc., and Francisco Bangoy International Airport, “enabling faster and more efficient movement of goods across Mindanao.” Alsons Dev President and CEO Miguel A. Dominguez said “CentralHub” Davao reflects the “shared commitment” of his company and DoubleDragon “to delivering infrastructure that supports economic growth in Mindanao.”

The new project, Dominguez added, builds on the companies’ previous collaboration on CityMall Northtown within Alsons Dev’s Northtown township in Cabantian.

four unit types ranging from 46 to 61 square meter one-bedroom units, 91 to 114 square meter twobedroom units, 135 to 137 square meter three-bedroom units and the garden units that are 180 to 230 square meter in size.

Beginning with the two-bedroom units and extending to all larger residences, the Sun Room will be offered as a new feature, transforming standard balconies into intimate spaces designed exclusively for privacy, sunlight and renewal.

Individual investors are largely absorbing the entry-level one-bedroom inventory, but the company said affluent families from southern Metro Manila are driving sales for the premium three-bedroom units. These larger residences are priced at P72 million each.

The company said its garden residences and larger bedroom configurations are selling fast, with two-bedroom units as the bulk of the remaining available inventory.

Continued on B2

pine tobacco leaf. With this predicament, the firm said tobacco farmers in Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley risk financial losses if they fail to sell their crops.

“In response to the crisis, JTI Philippines decided to support Filipino tobacco farmers by stepping up to absorb more than two-thirds of the excess production.”

While expressing gratitude to the JTI, NTA President and CEO Belinda S. Sanchez also vowed the government agency would “ensure that a similar situation will not happen in the coming years.”

Sanchez emphasized the agency has bolstered its Tobacco Contract Growing System (TCGS) among local government units (LGUs), tobacco farmers, and the private sectors to prevent another surplus while ensuring the production of high-quality tobacco. “This will be achieved through a shift from traditional tobacco varieties to early planting of improved Virginia tobacco varieties,” Sanchez said.

According to the NTA, the TCGS mandates that authorized tobacco companies commit to purchase the produce of contracted farmers under agreed terms and conditions, providing farmers with assured markets and more stable income. Ada Pelonia

Banking&Finance

BTr bags ₧40B as pensive investors troop to T-bills

By Reine Juvierre Alberto @reine_alberto

THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) upsized the volume of Treasury bills (T-bills) it awarded to P40 billion as yields ended mixed on expectations of faster inflation and further rate hikes by the central bank.

P11.6 billion.

According to Jonathan A. Ravelas, senior adviser at Reyes Tacandong & Co., demand was solid and helped anchor some yields lower.

Investors’ asking yields for the 91-day debt papers averaged 5.143 percent, up by 0.1 basis points than the previous auction’s yield of 5.142 percent. The Treasury accepted yields ranging from a low of 5 percent to as high as 5.2 percent.

The average yield on the 182-day tenor, meanwhile, fell to 5.624 percent, down by 7.6 basis points from 5.7 percent in the previous auction.

percent to 6.325 percent.

“Today’s mixed yield movements reflect a balance between strong liquidity and cautious positioning,” Ravelas said, noting that investors remain selective.

“There’s lingering uncertainty from global rates, particularly [US Federal Reserve] timing, and some caution around inflation risks,” Ravelas added.

BSP Governor and Monetary Board Chairman Eli M. Remolona Jr. said in a recent interview that raising interest rates is still on the table.

“It’s a toss-up whether we do an offcycle or just wait for the regular meeting, which is not that far anyway,” Remolona said. The Monetary Board, the highest policy-making body of the BSP, is set to meet on June 18.

of Iran’s nuclear dust.”

Looking ahead, Ravelas said he expects yields to move sideways with a slight downward bias, albeit these will remain sensitive to external shocks.

Meanwhile, Ricafort also cited uncertainty surrounding negotiations between Washington and Tehran on a ceasefire extension and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The auction attracted a total of P70.505 billion in bids, or 1.76 times in oversubscription. The Treasury initially offered P34 billion in T-bills. Strong investor demand enabled the Treasury to accept increased amounts for the 91-day and 182day tenors to P20 billion and P13 billion, respectively. The Treasury capped awards to P7 billion for the 364-day T-bills.

Investors demanded yields from a low of 5.490 percent to a high of 5.749 percent.

The 91-day securities fetched the highest demand at P36.105 billion, while the 182-day tenor attracted P22.830 billion in bids. Tenders for the 364-day debt papers reached

Power of financial foresight

IFIND the statement “Let’s cross the bridge when we get there” problematic. It reflects a tendency to delay preparation and overlook potential challenges.

I’ve long wondered why many Filipinos—especially those in the middle class—struggle to elevate financially. The skills, the desire, and even the opportunities are present, yet many eventually revert to their current state. Relatives and people in the community play a significant part in our environment. For many in the middle class, the fresh insights gained from reading books or listening to financial planners often fade once they return home. Here are some mindsets that reveal a lack of financial foresight.

Many Filipinos remain skeptical of financial products, especially life insurance. They hesitate to secure a policy, viewing it as an unnecessary expense. Some rationalize that since no one wishes to face illness or death, there is no need for coverage. These misconceptions often spark tense discussions within families.

Even when a relative offers to pay the premium, resistance often remains. Many elders believe insurance is only for the wealthy, insisting that living a decent life makes coverage unnecessary. For them, insurance is an overkill. When death or critical illness eventually occurs, loved ones are left to confront it only once it becomes a reality.

One of the most effective ways to build wealth is by creating multiple streams of income. Many families succeed by strategically managing both their capital and their time. Scaling up inevitably involves risk, and for entrepreneurs, the fear of failure is a natural part of the journey. Benchmarking the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nearly half of new businesses close within their first five years.

Micro-scale, small-scale and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) owners, therefore, must balance risk reduction and growth. In the Philippines, one of the reasons why fail to meet their full potential is founder burnout. Founder burnout is a state of extreme physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion experienced by entrepreneurs due to constant stress of running a company. When operations are not delegated, sales opportunities slip away, administrative tasks are neglected, and overall business growth is hindered. Businesses with savings can invest a portion of it to hire employees or train the next generation to manage operations, ensuring continuity

PERSONAL FINANCE

and growth.

Estate planning is often treated as a cultural taboo in the Philippines. Many families avoid discussing it because talking about death, inheritance, or succession is seen as disrespectful, or something that only the wealthy need. Parents think that their assets are not significant to discuss estate planning with their children. They often say, ‘We only have a modest house and a small farm lot—we’re not multi millionaires.’

Regardless of the value of assets, families of deceased still must file for estate tax. Under the National Internal Revenue Code, heirs are required to file an estate tax return when a person dies, regardless of the value of the estate. Under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law, the estate tax rate is six percent with a standard deduction of five million pesos and family home deduction of ten million pesos. When Estate Tax is not filed, there will be penalties and no title transfer.

Closely tied to estate planning is succession—the transfer of ownership upon death. Yet this is rarely discussed, and most estates in the Philippines pass through intestate succession, meaning no will has been prepared. Here, the law dictates the distribution order and size of share of each heir. A valid will, on the other hand, is easier as there is a clear instruction from the testator thereby reducing disputes. A probate court is still required even if there is a will.

According to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, 40 percent to 45 percent of Filipino households belong to the middle class. Financial foresight is essential to be more than middle class. Changing people’s beliefs is never easy. Yet the younger generation’s openness to financial literacy marks a significant step toward a more financially foresighted future. Through financial literacy, more Filipinos can build a wealthier, more secure life.

Marion Irvin Sales Evangelista is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. The views and opinions he expressed herein do not necessarily represent the BusinessMirror. To learn more about personal financial planning, attend the 116th RFP program this June 2026. Email info@rfp.ph or visit rfp.ph to learn more about the program.

For the 364-day securities, the average yield rose to 6.269 percent, 10.6 basis points higher than the previous auction’s 6.163-percent return.

Awarded yields ranged from 6.050

Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said T-bill yields remained elevated as investors continued to price in inflation risks and the possibility of further monetary tightening by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The BSP expects May inflation to settle within the range of 7.1 percent to 7.9 percent, driven by rising prices for rice, vegetables, and meat, as well as the depreciation of the peso.

“[US President Donald] Trump signaled readiness to make a final determination on a preliminary agreement to extend a fragile ceasefire; but later left a Situation Room meeting without making a decision,” Ricafort said. “Trump made a list of demands to Iran, including the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the destruction

This June, the Treasury is set to auction 91-day , 182-day and 364day T-bills every Monday to raise as much as P128 billion. It will also issue 3-year, 4-year, 5-year, 7-year, 8-year and 10-year Treasury bonds on Tuesdays to generate up to P140 billion. The Treasury plans to borrow P2.682 trillion this year, with 77 percent of its financing expected to come from domestic sources and 23 percent from foreign borrowings. Outstanding national government debt climbed to a record P18.488 trillion as of end-March, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 65.2 percent, the highest level in 21 years.

BIR to ring fence metallic miners’ royalty returns

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has ordered large-scale metallic mining companies to file and pay separate quarterly royalty returns per agreement, strictly enforcing a ring-fencing policy to maximize revenue collections.

In a circular issued by Internal Revenue Commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza, the BIR said large-scale metallic mining contractors or operators with two or more mineral agreements, financial or technical assistance agreements and/or operating agreements must file and pay quarterly royalty returns separately for each contract.

“Each agreement shall be treated as a distinct ring-fenced project for purposes of determining, reporting,

and accounting for the corresponding quarterly royalty liability,” the BIR stressed.

To calculate the correct royalty and windfall profits tax, ring-fencing requires the proper attribution of income and expenses on a per-project basis, PwC Philippines (Isla Lipana & Co.). Tax Advisor Samantha Joy Oreta explained in a note.

“This rule prevents mining companies from offsetting losses or deductions from one project against the profits of another project,” Oreta said.

The BIR said the royalty for each ring-fenced project is based on the gross output base, allowable deductions and the applicable royalty rate, depending on whether operations are within or outside mineral reservations.

Pagcor tweaks e-gaming rules, asks fee for venue

THE Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) overhauled its electronic gaming framework to ease accreditation requirements for central bank-supervised payment providers, while introducing a processing fee for changes in gaming venues.

According to the Pagcor, it simplified the accreditation requirements for BSP-Supervised Financial Institutions (BSFIs)— or banks and non-bank financial institutions licensed and supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)—seeking to operate as support service providers.

The Pagcor now only requires the submission of valid BSP-issued licenses and proof of compliance with the central bank’s fit-and-proper standards.

The regulator, likewise, removed references to the submission of notarized Personal Disclosure Statements (PDS) in annual documentary requirements.

Instead, applicants will be required to submit copies of valid licenses, permits, certifications or authorities issued by relevant regulators and professional organizations.

For payment gateway solution and payment channel providers, the Pagcor said BSFIs must submit valid and applicable BSPissued licenses.

Matters regarding the preventive suspension, cancellation or revocation of the accreditation of BSFIs must likewise be coordinated with the BSP, the Pagcor said.

Meanwhile, BSFIs accredited as support service providers, will be governed by anti-money laundering rules applicable to their specific business activities.

“Any non-compliance therewith shall be reported by the BSP to [Pagcor’s Anti-Money

Laundering Supervision and Enforcement Department] and may constitute grounds for the imposition of corresponding penalties, as prescribed,” the regulator said.

Moreover, the regulator introduced a processing fee worth P50,000 for applications for the relocation, expansion or reduction of gaming venue areas within the same building, compound or complex.

The new processing fee will carry the same validity period as the unexpired term of the existing gaming license.

Pagcor said the amendments are part of its continuing mandate to “improve its rules and regulations for electronic gaming operations, to address the inconsistencies, provide clarity and to avoid any confusion among the existing regulatory policies.”

The new rules, contained in a memorandum issued on May 26, were approved during the meeting of the Pagcor board of directors on May 21. Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

The quarterly royalty must be filed and paid within 60 days after the end of each calendar or fiscal quarter, the BIR added.

Mining firms must temporarily use BIR Form No. 0605, which will be considered as advance or initial compliance with the quarterly royalty liability for the corresponding period, the BIR said.

Once the dedicated royalty return is issued, along with the availability of the corresponding electronic filing and payment facilities, the BIR said filings will be subject to validation, monitoring, reconciliation and necessary adjustment.

Moreover, mining firms must maintain, preserve, and submit upon request such records as support the determination of the gross output base, allowable deductions, and the applicable royalty rate. Republic Act 12253, or the Enhanced Fiscal Regime for Large-Scale Metallic Mining Act, was passed into law in September 2025 to establish a fairer, clearer and more accountable fiscal regime for the mining industry. The measure is expected to generate an average of P6.3 billion in additional annual revenues from existing mining projects, with even greater gains expected as new investments come in.

The law simplifies the mining fiscal system by removing complex tax distinctions among different types of mining agreements to improve tax compliance. Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

Govt fees via QR waived using

FLandbank’s portal

EES on select online government payments made through QRPh were waived by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank).

The state-run bank announced last Monday it will forgo fees for person-to-government payments starting June 1 to December 31, 2026. QRPh-enabled payments conducted via the LandBank Link.BizPortal, QRPh standees at participating government offices and government agency websites that use LandBank Link.BizPortal will be covered by the zero-fee policy.

These include payments for police clearance, real property taxes, business permits, apostille certificates and other dues to select national government agencies, state-run corporations, local government units, water districts and state universities and colleges.

Charges imposed by other payment channels, merchants or service providers, if any, except QRPh will remain in effect, LandBank noted.

“This supports our broader goal of advancing financial inclusion and delivering services that are more responsive to the needs of the public,” she added.

According to the LandBank, the initiative also supports the state’s “whole-of-government” response to rising costs and global economic pressures.

Just recently, LandBank reduced InstaPay transfer fees for personto-person transactions to P8 from P15 to encourage wider adoption of cashless payment channels.

(See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2026/05/21/landbank-plansmore-cuts-after-instapay-feesslashed/ ) In 2025, LandBank processed a total of 800.26 million digital transactions amounting to P4.41 trillion, a 30-percent rise in transaction volume from a year ago.

According to LandBank President and CEO Lynette V. Ortiz, the move makes government transactions more convenient amid economic challenges, while promoting greater digital banking adoption. Ortiz was quoted as saying in a statement that waiving fees for online government payments is expected to make services more accessible and brings more Filipinos into the digital financial ecosystem.

Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

Marion Evangelista

Art BusinessMirror

Nothing separates utopia and dystopia in Ivan Co’s ‘Harbinger Metropolis’

VAN CO’S artworks hit in waves.

IFirst, the captivating visual impact of his kinetic sculptures which are entire universes unto themselves, where pendulums sway, marbles run, and the mind flies. Next comes the breathtaking realization of the sheer complexity involved, before landing at an even deeper contemplation of the artworks’ profound meaning.

“My philosophy, ‘ancestral futurism,’ is based on a simple idea,” Co said. “To design the future, we must first master the weight of our past.”

The artist is branded as an “artificer of the unseen,” operating in the fascinating intersection of ancient mythology, fine jewelry craftsmanship, and purely mechanical, analog physics. To him, the boundaries between utopia and dystopia blur into an uncertain horizon. Nothing in the future is for certain, which is why his pieces can either be precursors to a golden age or a harbinger of a dark one.

Such is the premise of Co’s new solo exhibition mounted at Conrad Manila’s Gallery C. Titled Harbinger Metropolis, the exhibit opened on May 26 and will be on view until July 25.

“Over the years, my relationship with art has matured,” Co said in his welcome speech during the show’s opening reception. “I realized that as I build these constructs, they are also building me. They have taught me that mastery is an internal law that does not negotiate with the world. I invite [everyone] to slow down, reflect, and find your own rhythm within this manifestation. The metropolis is now in motion.”

It truly is through the show’s 10 featured artworks,

with each one more distinct than the last. Persona Infans Cleopatrae, for instance, features Co’s signature golden wire network shaped like a human head.

The artist describes the material as “reimagined Aurichalcum,” most famously defined by Plato as a precious material mined in the lost city of Atlantis. The piece also presents gemstones like rainbow moonstone, mystic topaz, green jade, rose quartz, and onyx—adding touches of color and opulence—to go with a stunning, vibrant base made of marble and pearls on hand-poured resin with Chrysocolla.

Meanwhile, Now or Never appears as a towering labyrinth, and Fenestra Procella Nebula is like a portal to another, mythical dimension.

“The intricate gears of the automaton, the relentless journey of the gravitram, and the hypnotic

swing of the pendulum serve as harbingers, symbols of accelerating change that will inevitably reshape our urban landscapes and our very existence,” Co said.

Harbinger Metropolis figures as the 41st installment of Conrad Manila’s quarterly artistic presentation under the Of Art and Wine Series. It will also run through the hotel’s 10th anniversary on June 15.

“Ivan Co’s works are compelling centerpieces to the celebration of Conrad Manila’s 10th anniversary this June,” said Rupert Hallam, general manager of Conrad Manila. “Magnificent in form and profound in meaning, the collection invites guests to reflect on both the uncertainty and the boundless possibilities of what lies ahead. It seamlessly aligns with the hotel’s commitment to providing meaningful and enriching experiences.”

BERLIN’S PERGAMON MUSEUM WILL REOPEN IN MID-2027 AS A LENGTHY RESTORATION MOVES FORWARD

BERLIN—Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, traditionally one of the German capital’s top tourist attractions, will reopen next year after the first part of a painstaking restoration effort that has kept its centerpiece out of the public eye for more than a decade.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees many of Berlin’s museums, announced Monday that the museum will reopen on June 4, 2027.

The museum’s centerpiece is the 2ndcentury B.C. Pergamon Altar. Decorated with a marble frieze, it was built between 197 and 156 B.C. in what is now Bergama, Turkey.

The Pergamon Museum has been closed altogether since October 2023. The part of the building containing the Pergamon

Altar has been closed for far longer, since 2014.

Some parts will remain closed for work even after next year’s reopening, notably the wing containing Babylon’s Ishtar Gate. The museum is slated to reopen fully in 2037.

The museum is being restored as part of a long-term plan to overhaul the neoclassical Museum Island complex, which was built between 1830 and 1930 and is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Parts of the island were badly damaged during World War II, and cash-strapped communist East Germany never fully restored it. Work on three of the five museums has already been completed and a new entrance building for the complex, the James Simon Gallery, was opened in 2019. AP

you to use your skills and attributes to your advantage. Call the shots instead of letting someone outmaneuver you. Use your intelligence and insight to offer a passionate presentation. ★★★

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Be careful sharing personal information. Dealing with institutions and government agencies will lead to problems. Concentrate on lifestyle changes and reclaiming your dreams. Being generous will not help you get what you want. Venture down a path that satisfies you. Take care of your responsibilities. Mixed emotions require you to be honest with yourself. ★★★

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Being detailed, having precision and remembering discipline will be important. Refuse to let what others choose to do tempt you. Pay more attention to whatever makes you feel good, and put your energy into achieving what you set out to do. Progress will satisfy the soul and help you discover what and who makes a difference in your life. ★★★★★

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You’ll be stepping back in time if you don’t leave the past behind you. Stop holding yourself back when letting go offers you the freedom to find your niche and power yourself forward. Don’t expect those you meet through interviews, networking or socializing to be honest. Misleading information is apparent and requires you to do your due diligence. ★★

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Traveling, socializing, starting a new pastime or expanding your interests will lead to interesting conversations and unexpected relationships. Whether work or personal, the encounters you experience will have an impact on what you choose to do next. Getting a new adventure underway will boost your ego and motivate you to explore new possibilities.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Pay attention to legal, financial and medical issues. Look for opportunities to mix and mingle with people who can offer inside information or help you gather your thoughts as to how to best take care of your concerns or needs. Manage debt, and avoid temptation and emotional spending. ★★★

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Trust your instincts over the information you receive. Fact-check and prepare to branch out in directions that are better suited to what you want to achieve. Run the show instead of sitting on the sidelines. Put your energy into home, family, relationships and choosing the lifestyle that

JOURNALISTS look at the Grand Altar of Pergamon. AP

TopBreed, GMA Kapuso Foundation step up support for rescued pets

FOR many rescued pets across the country, a second chance begins with consistent care, proper nourishment, and the support of communities that step in when it matters most.

Through a long-term partnership with the GMA Kapuso Foundation, TopBreed is helping strengthen rescue and relief efforts nationwide by providing pet supplies to animals in need.

“We are very honored to partner with the GMA Kapuso Foundation. We deeply admire their dedication to uplifting Filipino communities—not only by supporting people in need, but also extending care to animals and local pet communities. Through this partnership, we aim to support animal welfare efforts and help give rescue pets the top love and top care that they deserve,” said Universal Robina Corp. Agro-Industrial Group marketing director Jane Bernardo.

Part of this collaboration is the initial support extended to rescued pets after the recent Mayon Volcano eruption under the care of the Albay Veterinary Office, with donated supplies helping address the animals’ nutritional and recovery needs.

“Because of the economic challenges, it’s difficult to support pets during calamities, which is very heartbreaking,” said GMA Kapuso Foundation EVP and COO Rikki EscuderoCatibog. “This is why the GMA Kapuso Foundation partnered with TopBreed to finally prioritize our pets’ welfare, so that no pet gets left behind.”

The partnership of TopBreed and the GMA Kapuso Foundation reflects a shared commitment to improving the well-being of pets in need while supporting the communities and organizations working tirelessly to care for them.

Through this, TopBreed aims to help provide nourishment and everyday care for pets.

Beyond the immediate assistance, the collaboration highlights the importance of community-driven efforts in advancing animal welfare. By working together, organizations and local communities can help create safer, healthier environments for rescued pets and encourage more responsible pet care practices.

This partnership reflects TopBreed’s commitment to supporting animal welfare efforts, highlighting how collaboration can create a safer, healthier world for every paw and tail.

BALLET MANILA CELEBRATES LOVE AND TRIUMPH WITH HISTORIC FULL-LENGTH WORLD PREMIERE OF ‘PAQUITA’

FILIPINO audiences have long embraced stories of sweeping romance, hidden identities, and hard-won triumph. Ballet Manila now brings these themes to life in a landmark moment: the country’s first-ever full length staging of the classical masterpiece Paquita. Choreographed by the company’s founder and artistic director, Lisa Macuja Elizalde, the production goes onstage at the Aliw Theater, Pasay City, with performances on June 19 at 8 pm, and on June 20 and 21 at 5 pm.

Though Paquita is a cornerstone of classical ballet, it is rarely performed in its entirety. And because of its dramatic narrative, Lisa believes that it will be remarkably relatable to the Filipino. Lisa describes the narrative as “quite like a soap opera, with twists and turns that are amusing and entertaining, which is perfect for Filipinos who love a great story or telenovela.”

Set in Spain, the story follows a young Romani woman who saves the life of a French officer, Lucien, from a governor’s assassination plot. Along the way, she discovers her own noble heritage, allowing the couple to overcome rigid social barriers and marry in a happy ending that many Filipinos love.

The journey to this landmark production began in March 2025, when Paquita’s grand divertissement was performed during Ballet Manila’s Pearl Gala celebration. The brief excerpt sparked a deeper curiosity in Lisa as she recalled starting to dig into the story behind the ballet excerpt: “When I finally read it in full, I decided that it would be exciting and perfectly manageable to present a two-act classical ballet to the Filipino audience.”

Working closely with her team has reinforced Ballet Manila’s strong Russian ballet foundation. Lisa noted that the company’s 40-member ensemble is the perfect size to handle the intricate, challenging choreography. At the heart of this production, two luminous pairs alternate in the main characters: Joshua Enciso with Abigail Oliveiro, both principal dancers, and Shamira Drapete with Jos David Andes, both soloists. Together they embody the dual spirit of Paquita and Lucien, bringing fresh brilliance to one of classical ballet’s most dazzling showcases.

The Philippine ballet scene will reach another milestone with the historic world premiere of Paquita. Keep up-to-date with Ballet Manila’s schedule of performances and celebration events by visiting Ballet Manila’s website (www.balletmanila. com.ph) or Ticketworld (www.ticketworld.com.ph

Show BusinessMirror

Something new for Heart Evangelista

FOR celebrities, reinvention has become the most common path to stay relevant. And world-class Filipina Heart Evangelista always knows how to reinvent herself.

Heart takes on the lead hosting chore for The People Have Spoken, the newest game show of GMA Network which is set to air on the early evening Saturday time slot starting June 6.

Hosting a game show is definitely something new for Heart, who started her showbiz career very early on in life, and she is more than excited to tap into this territory.

“I got really curious when the idea was first pitched to me, and it is something that kept me really interested and excited as preparations unravelled. The concept is interactive so the contestants and even the audience will be able to share their thoughts and answers to the show’s questions.”

Joining Heart is the very charming Sparkle artist Sean Lucas, who passed the auditions for the show’s anchor with flying colors. “I’m just grateful to be able to get this big break in my young career. There will definitely be a lot of learnings and realizations about myself, and the participants, the audience, and their thoughts about life in general through this game show.”

Sean is happy that he is getting all the support he needs, not only from the network but also from Heart herself. “Heart is making it very easy for me, and I’d like to think that we click in the most natural way.”

Across the board, successful celebrity reinvention and rebranding are those wherein the celebrities have maintained their authenticity. One thing that I think is of utmost importance is that when a celebrity like Heart goes through any kind of refresh, the celebrity needs to make sure he or she is doing it for all the right reasons.

I remember years ago that when she was just starting to make a name in the international fashion circuit as an influencer, Heart told me that the best way to reinvent yourself is to be unapologetic for being who you are.

I’ve known Heart for many decades now, and she has effortlessly maintained her authenticity—she says what she feels, she does what makes her happy;

she is fair, grounded, pleasant, very realistic, and she is not afraid to reinvent herself and try on new adventures. In a culture that is constantly changing, Heart continues to evolve beautifully because she can manage to balance the act of both reinvention and authenticity.

In the very unpredictable world of show business, a celebrity’s need to evolve and reinvent herself is driven by the demand to adapt to shifting cultural trends, to avoid audience fatigue, and, more importantly, to maintain relevance.

And that is what Heart is good at. By evolving

her personal brand, she continues to transition into new creative ventures, outgrow dated undertakings that no longer fits her, and capture the attention of an entirely new generation of fans and followers. Evolving naturally has allowed Heart to align her outward image with who she truly is, which audiences generally adore and respect.

While reinvention is crucial for longevity, it also relies on a delicate balance. When executed well—like the strategic rebranding and reinvention seen in both local and global entertainment scenes—it almost always leads to enduring careers, just like Heart’s.

YOUTUBER BOX OFFICE BOOM: ‘BACKROOMS’ AND ‘OBSESSION’ DRAW GEN Z TO THEATERS

YOUNG audiences turned out in droves to movie theaters around the country this weekend. It wasn’t for the big budget Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, which fell sharply in its second weekend, however, but for a small budget horror from a 20-year-old first-time filmmaker that began on the internet.

Backrooms  released by A24 in 3,442 locations in the US and Canada, made an astonishing $81.5 million in its first three days in theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday. That’s just a few hundred thousand dollars shy of what The Mandalorian and Grogu earned in its first three days last weekend; and Backrooms, which was directed and co-written by YouTube creator Kane Parsons, cost only $10 million to produce.

The wild success of Backrooms didn’t even hurt Obsession, which is also the directorial debut of a YouTuber, Curry Barker, who is only 26. Three weekends in, Obsession, a movie that cost less than $1 million to make, still hasn’t dropped below its opening weekend earnings. This weekend, it was up 10 percent with another $26.4 million for a secondplace finish, leaving Star Wars, the legacy franchise movie from the veteran filmmaker and the Walt Disney Studios, in third with $25 million.

YouTube might not be the death of movie theaters after all. If this weekend is any indication, it could be the industry’s new great hope.

This is a weekend where theaters also hosted the debuts of The Breadwinner, a PG-rated family comedy starring the popular comedian Nate Bargatze, and Pressure, a solid World War II drama about the tense 72 hours before D-Day with Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser. But it was the 20-something YouTubers that drew the most crowds. And both Backrooms and Obsession were produced by Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Abhijay Prakash, the president of BlumhouseAtomic Monster, said that the weekend is both staggering and validation of their business, which has from the beginning championed original horror movies that appeal to younger audiences, and generated over $10 billion in box office to date. He noted that they’ve made a point of looking for up and coming talent on YouTube and, knowing how Hollywood works, this weekend likely inspire a wave of copycats. But beyond that, he’s encouraged by the fact that the young creators who’ve already had enormous success online still value the cultural currency of theatrical movies.

“It’s a great sign of relevance for us,” Prakash said. “With some distance, we’ll probably look back at this as a real turning point.” Backrooms started as a creepypasta—an internetgenerated urban legend—before Parsons turned the concept, about a never-ending expanse of dull, depressing rooms and hallways, into a viral web series, which he made with the help of the opensource 3D graphics software Blender. It caught the attention of James Wan and Shawn Levy’s production companies who were interested in taking it to the next level; Soon a movie was in development with Chiwetel

Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve starring.

It wasn’t just a domestic hit either; including international showings, Backrooms has already made $118 million globally. A24 said Parsons is now the youngest director to have a No. 1 film globally. It’s also a record opening for the studio, whose previous high-water mark was Civil War, which opened to $25.5 million in 2024.

The R-rated film was well-reviewed by critics and drew a young and diverse crowd to theaters. According to exit polls, 86 percent of the audience was under 35, more than half were under 25 and 44 percent were under 21. Many attended in groups and there were reports of sold-out shows, packed theaters and repeat viewings. Audiences gave it a less-thanstellar “B-” CinemaScore, however.

But the buzz is still creating a frenzy of all ages, even teenagers, wanting to see Backrooms. Some theaters have even posted employees outside of the screens to make sure that anyone under 21 is accompanied by an adult. The same is true for the R-rated Obsession, which has now made $104.7 million in North America, and is now Focus Features’ highest grossing domestic release.

The Mandalorian and Grogu, meanwhile, fell around 69 percent from its opening last weekend. The movie has now made $246.6 million globally.

Michael landed in fourth place with $11.7 million in its sixth weekend—the musical biopic has made $339.9 million domestically to date. The Breadwinner, released by Sony, rounded out the top five with an estimated $7.5 million. Pressure opened in seventh place with $5.8 million.

“Everyone’s asking what’s the next big thing in Hollywood for movies, and what can bring people back to the movie theater? And this may be it,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. AP

PhilHealth, IBP seal partnership to strengthen member protection, rights, access to legal support

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) have signed a two-year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) aimed at strengthening member protection, promoting patient rights, and expanding access to legal support for Filipinos under the Universal Health Care (UHC) program.

PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Edwin M. Mercado and IBP National President and Chairperson of the 27th Board of Governors Atty. Allan G. Panolong led the signing ceremony held at the IBP Building in Pasig City.

The agreement establishes a framework for collaboration between PhilHealth and the country’s national organization of lawyers to improve support systems for PhilHealth members, particularly in addressing concerns related to healthcare benefits, patient rights,

and access to information.

Under the partnership, PhilHealth and the IBP will work together to promote greater awareness of members’ rights and entitlements under the UHC Act through joint information and education campaigns. The two institutions will also collaborate on policy initiatives that seek to enhance patient welfare and improve the delivery of healthcare services.

The agreement also covers collaboration in health law and policy development, capacitybuilding programs, continuing legal education for PhilHealth

lawyers, and fraud prevention efforts. These initiatives are expected to strengthen PhilHealth’s ability to deliver responsive services and ensure that members receive the benefits and protections they are entitled to under the law.

A key feature of the agreement is the provision of free legal aid activities for qualified PhilHealth members, particularly those who are indigent or marginalized, on matters related to healthcare benefits and claims. PhilHealth will support these initiatives by providing the necessary information and documentation to facilitate legal assistance.

The partnership will likewise support the enhancement of existing dispute resolution mechanisms within PhilHealth to further improve service delivery and ensure that member concerns and benefitrelated issues are addressed in a timely, fair, and efficient manner.

Through this partnership, PhilHealth reaffirms its commitment to protecting the interests of its members and advancing Universal Health Care by ensuring that every Filipino not only has access to health insurance coverage, but is also equipped with the information, support, and legal safeguards needed to fully enjoy their healthcare rights.

PCPPI, Gawad Kalinga celebrate culmination of READ Program in Cavite

PEPSI-COLA Products Philippines, Inc. (PCPPI), in partnership with Gawad Kalinga, recently marked the successful culmination of its Reading for Excellence and Development (READ) Program at Pinagsanhan Elementary School (PES) in Maragondon, Cavite.

The READ Program ran from January to April 2026 and supported 30 Grade 1 and Grade 2 PES students through structured learning sessions and the provision of necessary reading materials. This initiative aimed to help address learning gaps while encouraging students to build confidence, improve comprehension, and develop a stronger appreciation for reading.

“At PCPPI, we believe that education is one of the most meaningful ways we can help create lasting impact in the communities we serve,” said Joongmin Kim, PCPPI Chief Strategy Officer.

“Through the READ Program, we are honored to support young learners as they build stronger reading skills, gain confidence, and discover what they can achieve through learning. This initiative reflects our commitment to working with partners and communities to help create better opportunities for Filipino children,” he added.

The culmination activity gathered students, teachers, volunteers, and program partners to celebrate the learners’ progress and recognize the collective efforts that helped bring the program to life. The event was attended by representatives from PCPPI, led by Rhoyal Ancheta, Senior Public Relations Manager, and Gawad Kalinga, represented by Nikko Navida, Area Development Officer.

Throughout the program, school leaders and teachers likewise observed meaningful changes among students. According to PES School Principal Lilibeth Marquez, student engagement improved significantly: “Naging matagumpay ang programa dahil nakita namin ang interes ng mga bata at ang malaking improvement nila sa pagbabasa [The program was successful because we saw the children’s interest and their significant improvement in reading].”

“Malaking bagay ang READ Program para sa aming Grade 1 at Grade 2 learners. Bago sila pumasok sa susunod na baitang, hindi lang sila basta marunong magbasa. Naiintindihan na rin nila ang kanilang binabasa at alam nila ang ibig sabihin nito [The READ Program is a big deal for our Grade 1 and Grade 2 learners. Before they

PLDT Group’s regional Stevie wins spotlight community-driven digital inclusion

AT this year’s Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, multiple initiatives from the PLDT Group were honored across categories spanning community engagement, corporate social responsibility, digital platforms, and executive thought leadership. These awards point to a broader shift: how connectivity, when paired with partnerships and purpose, can support more inclusive growth.

Among the highlights was a Gold Stevie® for the TINBO (Tindahan ni Bossing) platform powered by PLDT Global. TINBO is the one-stop marketplace that enables Filipinos around the world to access digital goods and services that help them stay connected with their families in the Philippines.

Several initiatives focused on community transformation also received Silver Stevies®. These included the Digital Farmers Program and eBizNovation, which help agricultural communities and MSMEs strengthen digital capabilities and market participation; #LearnSmart, which expands access to learning through technology; and #BeCyberSmart, which promotes safer digital engagement as more Filipinos navigate an increasingly complex online environment.

Bronze Stevies®, meanwhile, cited initiatives that strengthened engagement with overseas Filipinos and industry partners, including Hong Kong Fest 2025 and the Asia Corporate Collaboration Conference 2025.

Another Bronze Stevie® for thought

leadership was awarded to Albert V. Villa-Real, President and CEO of PLDT Global. The citation highlights his work in advancing partnerships and platforms that support digital inclusion initiatives for overseas Filipinos and partner communities across markets.

Across these initiatives, the honors reflect how the PLDT Group continues to combine connectivity with community collaboration to expand digital participation across sectors.

The annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards recognize organizations across 23 markets for innovation. Winners were honored during a recent gala ceremony in Macau.

enter the next grade, they not only know how to read; theyalso understand what they are reading and know what it means],” said Evelyn Gabay, PES teacher and READ Program volunteer teacher.

Jonabeth Muyrong, PES teacher and READ Program volunteer teacher, shared that the program helped address the specific areas where learners needed support:

“Napakalaki ng naitulong ng programa dahil natutukan ang mga bahagi kung saan nahihirapan ang mga bata. Dahil dito, mas naging handa sila para sa susunod na school year [The program was very helpful because it focused on the areas where the children were struggling. As a result, they were better prepared for the next school year].”

Furthermore, for Navida, the program carried a message of hope made possible through collaboration.

“Para sa mga estudyanteng naging bahagi ng READ Program, nawa’y palagi nilang tandaan na ang programang ito ay hindi lamang tungkol sa pagbabasa. Ito rin ay pagasang ibinigay sa kanila ng mga volunteers at partners na naniniwalang sa ating bansa, walang imposible kung magtutulungan tayo [For the students who were part of the READ Program, may they always remember that this program is not just about reading. It is also a hope given to them by volunteers and partners who believe that in our country, nothing is impossible if we work together],” Navida said.

The READ Program forms part of PCPPI’s broader commitment to community development and supports the company’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, which promotes inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

PCPPI is the exclusive manufacturer of PepsiCo beverages in the Philippines, with products such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7Up, Mirinda, Mug, Gatorade, Sting, Tropicana, Lipton Iced Tea, Milkis, Chum Churum, Saero, and Premier. More information about PCPPI and its products is available via www. pepsiphilippines.com.

Solaire Resort North, Solaire Cares build the hope of tomorrow with outreach programs for the youth

IN the spirit of celebration, Solaire Resort North and Solaire Cares have partnered with local Quezon City communities for a series of back-to-back outreach activities to support the youth of the city. As Quezon City’s first and only five-star integrated resort approaches its 2nd anniversary, the spirit of hope, support, and connection matter shine through as Solaire Resort North gives back to uplift the youth with the “Balik Eskwela” program, and Solaire Cares partners with the LOLA Foundation for the children of San Agustin, Novaliches.

Last May 18, 2026, a day full of fun activities, creative games, delicious food, and laughter was celebrated with over 350 children of Sitio San Roque in Barangay Bagong Pag-Asa who are set to enroll in school for the coming school year. The event was opened with a speech by Michael Diopenes, Solaire Resort North’s Vice President for Finance, before the activities began. Children from the area spent the day with the integrated resort’s team members alongside the local barangay team, working together

CHS HS ‘77 holds Golden Golf Cup

ALMOST 100 golf enthusiasts including showbiz personalities participated in the College of the Holy Spirit (CHS) Golden Golf Cup held at the South Forbes Golf Club, Silang Cavite recently. A project of the high school batch 77, the celebrity golfers included Michael V and wife Carol, Vince Hizon and wife Patricia Bermudez, and Ronnie Henares among others.

Hosted by Kat Abano, the event was a fund raiser in preparation for the upcoming Golden Jubilee of CHS high school class of 1977 slated in February next year. The golf tournament was chaired by Dada Miranda-Cua and co-chaired by Viqui Torres-del Rosario. Committee members were Susie Achacoso-Cruz, Connie SantosToledo, Chinggay Cabrera, Issay dela

Rosa-Padilla, Brigitte Ignacio, Mace Mendoza, Belle Tiongco and Jingay Guevara-Facuri.

Winners in the golf cup were Vince Hizon, Alex Flora, Max de Leon, Jeff Delgado, George Buncayao, Jeff Handog, Timothy Facuri, Arnold Policarpio, Jedd Llanes, Judd Soriaga, Eric Conception, Eugene Dimaano, Patricia Hizon, Jessica Eusebio and Ian Dercades. The success of the CHS Golden Golf Cup was made possible by the collective effort and commitment of the HS-77 classmates together with the following: platinum sponsors Metro Pacific Investments, South Forbes Golf Club, Marriott International, former House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr, Stella Tansengco-Schapero and Parikit Manila. Gold Sponsors were Mike and Connie

to create lasting memories for the young community.

Heartfelt initiatives come from Solaire Resort Entertainment City’s yearly outreach activities rooted in the dedication to inclusivity, community engagement, and hospitality for all ages. Now adopted by Solaire Resort North, the commitment to the local community finds its basis in fostering a community built on support, hope, and a positive influence on the generation of tomorrow.

On May 20, the children of San Agustin shared a day with the Solaire Cares team in partnership with the LOLA Foundation. Children received school supplies, shoes, bags, hygiene kits, and vitamins to support a fruitful school year with essential items to encourage education and overall well-being.

Solaire’s continued outreach program focuses on the importance of compassion and community support in each initiative it pursues. In an effort to give back to its home, Solaire celebrates through the spirit of generosity and support for the generation of tomorrow.

Toledo, SPES Construction Inc , Asia Link Finance Corporation, Snap Fitness, Home Beauties and Gallerie Genesis. Silver sponsors were Belmont Agricorp, Skin Station, Bueno Group of Companies, Fundador, Over Doughs, Magsalin Law, CEL Logistics, PAL Mabuhay Miles, Dr. Gil Soap & Julie Santos-Gil. Bronze sponsors were 3 Strokes, Timberpro, DBP, BDO Capital, Gourds & Lentils, Minoxiplus, Viqui & Noli del Rosario, Dada & Jimmy Cua, MCC Space, StratEdge.Ph, Sta. Lucia Land, Inc, Mileage Asia, Rhic Rhic Clinic & Dental Laboratory, Beyond Dreams, Vital Water, Mike del Carmen, Yebisu Ramen & Purr Delight. Minor sponsors were The Chandelier Events Place, Mang Inasal, Lorraine Sylianteng, Smart Communications, Dra. Patricia Bustos-Lagunda, Marivic Panis-Nisce, Relax Reflexology, Clover/ Farmer John Chips, Mercury Drug, Sugi Makati, Casa Prime, Santinos Pizza, ENI Lubricants.

Solaire Resort North partners with Barangay Bagong Pag-Asa for the “Balik Eskwela” outreach program for the children of the Sitio San Roque community last May 18

Representatives from PCPPI, Gawad Kalinga, and Pinagsanhan Elementary School, together with some of the participating students, gather during the culmination activity of the READ Program in Maragondon, Cavite.

At a taxpayer-funded treatment center for adoptees, allegations of abuse, neglect, and minimal oversight

By Sally Ho & Claire Galofaro

The Associated Press

LAKE OZARK, Mo.—A facility deep in rural Missouri promises relief for desperate parents whose adopted kids are struggling—a lakeside, summer camp-like academy where kids can heal by bonding with golden retrievers, and where caring employees “create joy.”

The company that operates the place known as Calo Programs says it exists “to serve the hardest-to-treat cases—the students and families the broader system has given up on.”

But an Associated Press investigation paints a more complicated and less idyllic picture.

Law enforcement is often called to Calo to investigate assaults or track down runaways. State agencies that pay to send kids there have questioned its operations, training and transparency.

Parents and former employees say there is minimal treatment and barely any schooling, with only young, poorly trained staff to supervise the kids. Two mothers described it as something out of “Lord of the Flies.”

The price is steep and taxpayers often pick up the tab. Also known as Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks, Calo has charged up to $20,000 a month to treat adopted children. Some stay for years.

It is part of the so-called troubled teen industry, a sprawling network of loosely regulated, for-profit residential centers, boarding schools and wilderness programs that have been quietly institutionalizing adopted children at extraordinarily high rates—adoptees are as much as 10 times more likely to be sent away than the general population.

A deep dive into Calo’s practices— how it makes money, and what happens to kids under its watch—offers a window into a larger phenomenon: Some youth treatment centers, backed by private equity companies, share a business model that depends on government funding, despite limited oversight and few consequences for negligence.

The AP obtained troves of state data and documents through public records requests and interviewed young adults who recently attended, parents who sent their children there, former employees and lawyers who are engaged in more than a dozen lawsuits against the company.

In emailed statements, Calo denied allegations of wrongdoing and said student outcomes prove the strength of their approach and innovative treatment.

“Over and over again, parents across the country have come to us in their moment of need, and we are proud of the track record we’ve established helping treat their children and return them to their families with the skills and tools they need to get ahead.”

Hundreds of pages of Camden County Sheriff’s Office reports documenting calls to the facility from 2020 to the fall of 2025 show that children in Calo’s care have been alleged victims, witnesses and perpetrators.

There was the free-for-all last summer when escaping girls ran toward the woods and jumped into the lake to swim away, employees chasing them and returning them, only to see them escape again. (Calo said none of them were injured.)

Just before that, sheriff’s deputies wrote that two kids had reportedly gotten high on methamphetamine that a Calo employee brought in her purse.

(Calo said the employee was fired and the substance was never confirmed to be meth.)

Not long before that, deputies called to Calo were told staffers were outnumbered as teens “stormed” a room to attack another student. One boy climbed onto the roof, jumped, landed on rocks below and had to be airlifted to the hospital. (Calo said altercations happen among troubled kids, staff followed protocol in calling for help, and the boy

who jumped sustained a sprained ankle.)

Stacy Roberts, who runs the local juvenile detention center, said his agency is frustrated by Calo and processes as many as a dozen cases each year involving Calo kids who live out of state.

Many families have decried the conditions at Calo as jail-like. Roberts rejects that comparison—because traditional juvenile detention centers like his are held to a higher standard, he said. Unlike Calo, Roberts answers to the public, a judge and the juvenile justice system, which monitors children’s stays within his facility.

“It’s a business,” Roberts said. “They’re not doing this because they want to help. They’re making money off these kids.”

Selling hope at a vulnerable time

CALO opened in 2007 with 40 beds and has expanded greatly since, with a capacity of 144 this year. It specializes in adoption trauma and says 90% of its clients are adopted.

Many are diagnosed with a rare condition called reactive attachment disorder, which experts say has been misapplied to many adoptees who struggle with the trauma of being divorced from their birth families and, for foreign adoptees, their country and culture.

The company says it’s treated thousands of young people ages 9 to 20 from more than 30 states as one of the nation’s largest for-profit centers of its kind, popular for out-of-state placements.

Critics ranging from advocacy groups to local law enforcement say serving faraway families has allowed places like Calo to avoid dedicated oversight and strict regulation.

Calo said it responds to serious incidents as required by law, and it “operates under rigorous, continuous external oversight” from governments that fund its students, some of which visit the campus annually or monthly.

And it defends its marketing efforts aimed at families in distress.

“It is a common misconception that for-profit entities are more expensive or less ethical than non-profit organizations,” Calo said in a statement. “Reaching them through thoughtful outreach and advertising helps break down the mental health stigma that keeps people from seeking treatment …”

Nationally, the need for youth mental health services has skyrocketed, along with its cost.

That demand, coupled with freeflowing public funds, has attracted investors. It’s estimated that the broader industry taps billions of dollars annually from government sources, including health programs, child welfare agencies, school districts and juvenile justice systems.

Calo was acquired around 2011 by a private equity firm led by the Stanfordgraduate Alex Stavros, who over the next 13 years expanded the business by merging with other treatment centers to become the parent company Embark Behavioral Health. Stavros, who stepped down in 2024, did not respond to The Associated Press for comment.

Stavros claims in his LinkedIn profile that he built Embark to 38 programs across 20 states and achieved a remarkable 40-fold increase in revenue, to $180 million. Under his leadership, Calo shifted its business model “from entirely private pay to majority third party reimbursed,” including both private health insurance and Medicaid, and a range of government programs.

This is so integral to Calo’s business model that Nicole Fuglsang, its current CEO, once led a presentation at an industry conference on how to diversify revenue. The 2014 session was titled: “Show me the Money—An Innovative Approach to Finding Funding for Families.”

In the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, as residential programs struggled with enrollment, Calo kept admissions humming.

Among the residents in 2020: a 9-year-old boy adopted from Haiti. Illinois education funds paid for his stay there. He later told his mother he was bullied. Other kids used racial slurs against him and defecated and urinated on his bed, his mother said. When she took him out, he woke up screaming for weeks, she said, before finally telling her that he’d been sexually assaulted there by an older boy.

Calo officials later told law enforcement that they couldn’t substantiate the sex abuse claim and that the bullying was mutual, according to the incident report.

His mother, who the AP is not naming to protect the identity of her son, said she reported what happened to him to everyone she could: law enforcement, Illinois state authorities and Calo’s parent company. She felt that no one cared. Though they told her they investigated, she said she watched as Calo continued business as usual.

“The almighty dollar will prevail once again,” she wrote to the Illinois State Board of Education, “and Calo will grow in wealth from school systems and cause harm to young children like my son.”

A month after her son arrived at Calo, Embark called on dozens of industry people to talk business strategies. “DOING EPIC SH$T” was printed on the cover of the August 2020 “Embark Academy Sales & Marketing Conference” handbook. It featured a session on how to “overcome objections” with sales tactics to “build your client base and keep your pipelines full!”

Attendees were urged to touch hearts to help “assure a doubting child or resentful spouse.” In a session that touted admissions as a vital part of the treatment team, the handbook noted: “The admissions person sells hope when the family is at their lowest and most hopeless, scary, and vulnerable time.”

At Calo’s request, the AP called families who the company recommended and said had good experiences. Several said they believe the facility helped heal their children.

Bill Hayden said his daughter, who was adopted from Russia, was never harmed during the 15 months she was at Calo, starting in 2016. A retired doctor, Hayden believes Calo changed his daughter’s life, and said that his daughter agrees.

“I felt that they were dedicated professionals who were trying to do their best with about the toughest group of kids you could probably ever house,” Hayden said. “We were content that things were going as well as they could with kids with extraordinary problems.”

Reported abuse, little accountability

A NEW Hampshire family said they paid about $100,000 for their adopted daughter’s 10-month stay, beginning in June 2023, when she was 10 years old.

The New Hampshire state government provided additional funds.

The girl had already suffered so much before her adoption—in-utero drug exposure, violence, sexual abuse and extreme neglect, her mother said. In her new home, she still struggled with

mental health problems and increasingly explosive behavior.

Her mother remembers the red flags she ignored—how dirty the facility was and how unhappy the children looked. Her daughter woke up screaming during a visit, months into her stay. Her mother found a disturbing journal entry: “I had a vision that (she) attacked me but not just a few scratches,” her daughter scrawled, naming the assailant. “I had blood dripping everyw(h)ere.”

Late one night weeks later, the mother’s phone rang. It was another mom whose daughter had been at Calo. The woman, from Illinois, told her both of their daughters had been molested by another girl.

The AP is not naming the mothers or their daughters because it does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.

The mothers say they both reported their concerns to the same therapist who treated their daughters, and allege Calo covered up the assaults.

The Illinois mom said her adopted 11-year-old daughter was sent to Calo after struggling with thoughts of suicide.

In February 2024, she told her mom that a girl in her preteen program had months earlier touched her genitals while lying next to her and had threatened to beat her up if she told anyone about it.

Such incidents of abuse were rampant at Calo, the girl said to her mom: “(She) touched me, but (she) touches everybody. Everybody knows that.”

The mother says the Calo therapist first dismissed it as “girls playing footsie” before the company acknowledged it had lost track of the daughter’s initial report.

The mother also alleges the therapist and a Calo director later told her the issue had been “handled,” assuring her that the troubled girl was gone, so everyone was safe.

The mother was frustrated, but she believed Calo’s claim that it was just an innocent communication mistake and that the problem had been remedied.

Then, weeks later, the girl told her mother that the same attacker had done the same thing to an even younger girl, the one from New Hampshire.

Both families immediately took their daughters home and notified authorities. They are now among a group of families suing Calo.

After the mothers complained, Calo said it immediately reported it to authorities, including the state child welfare agency, which looked into it and “determined the claim did not meet the requirements for a full investigation.”

“We acknowledge the delayed report due to a staff member not following the established protocols and failing to route the statement to the quality assurance team for processing,” Calo said in a statement.

The Missouri Department of Social Services has previously noted that Calo has repeatedly failed to fully report serious incidents. In 2022, for example, the state ordered them to turn in five such missing files, to which a company official “acknowledged Calo needs to change their practice as it is not currently working.”

The mothers were also the first to report the allegations to law

enforcement. The sheriff’s office told AP in a statement that deputies “revealed what appears to be a mistake by Calo staff not reporting the allegations,” though deputies did not investigate further.

They also contacted authorities in their home states, some of which were helping to pay the tab for the girls to stay at Calo.

The Illinois mother said her daughter’s treatment was paid by a little-known program called the Family Support Program run by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services that is designed to fund behavioral healthcare. She learned about it from Calo. She and other Illinois parents told AP that they believed the state had vetted the program because it paid for so many kids at Calo.

That agency and the Illinois State Board of Education both list Calo among approved residential treatment programs they fund. Over the last decade, the two Illinois agencies have spent more than $35 million sending kids to Calo, according to data obtained by AP.

Last year alone, the Board of Education paid more than $1.6 million to send 13 kids there for special education services. Healthcare and Family Services spent $1.2 million for 19 kids. Some families used money fr om both.

Melissa Kula, an Illinois government spokeswoman, said in a statement on behalf of both agencies that they don’t oversee Calo’s day-to-day operations or regulate the facility, and rely on the Missouri government for Calo’s licensing and approvals.

The Illinois State Board of Education said the state doesn’t have a direct role in placements—it only reimburses school districts that determine where students go. The education department said it has never set foot on Calo’s campus. The law only requires on-site visits if the facility is within 50 miles (80.47 kilometers) of Illinois state lines.

‘An effort to stonewall’ HEALTHCARE and Family Services visited for the first time in May 2024, after multiple reports of children suffering severe harm, including the girls from Illinois and New Hampshire.

The Illinois team of five nurses and officials arrived at Calo and the report of what they found there, obtained by the AP through a public records request, is scathing.

Calo administrators insisted they attend a new employee training session, and the team was shocked by what they saw, according to the report: It “was only a drum circle,” they wrote. “There was no explanation regarding how the drum circle related to therapeutic activities nor any explanation of the purpose in training new employees.”

To the AP, the company defended the drum circle as a “therapeutic, experiential activity.”

The Illinois investigators said they were “closely controlled,” and denied free access to much of the staff and property, including reviewing records and training curriculum. The team worried there was “an effort to stonewall” their inspection.

“This, along with witnessing the drum circle’s supposed training for new staff training led the reviewers to think that an organized training curriculum and training plan does not exist,” the report said.

Calo asserts that investigators weren’t denied access to its campus but acknowledged that there was “a disagreement” over restricted records. Its employee had “an error in judgment” that the company said was promptly corrected, and that Illinois investigators were later offered full access digitally.

Calo’s parent company, Embark, swooped in to negotiate changes. The Illinois investigators ultimately said they believed the company was committed to the “commendable” swift reforms it pledged, including raising salaries and lowering capacity until it could hire more staff.

“At the end of the visit, we recognized that we may have talked past each other regarding our clinical offerings— something we were able to address and resolve through subsequent dialogue with the evaluators,” Calo wrote in a statement.

Former teachers like Dustin Wood, who worked at Calo for six years as an English teacher before quitting in 2024, said when he tried to report his concerns to company leaders, Calo administrators stopped inviting him to parent retreats and started writing him up for infractions like contacting parents to discuss their children’s progress.

Wood said all employees got the same minimal training, whether as a teacher, cook or “coach” tasked with monitoring the children 24 hours a day. They were told all the kids had something called reactive attachment disorder, but were given no guidance as to how to help them, he said.

Calo said it conducts 40 hours of training. It said it investigated and addressed “in good faith” the concerns raised by Wood and another teacher that company officials “thought were valid.” Wood said as Calo took on more kids, sometimes younger children mixed in with older teens, without enough adults to supervise them. It grew increasingly chaotic, he said.

“There’s not a single kid,” Wood said of the students he worked with, “who left in better condition than when they started.”

‘She’s a runaway from Calo’ ONE day last June, Amos Pierce jolted from a nap to the sound of his Ford F-150’s engine turning over. He ran outside and saw a girl hiding inside the truck.

He’s lived within earshot of Calo for decades, and figured she was from there, partly because he was so used to constant screams, escapes and vandalism, he told AP.

Pierce said he tried to coax the girl, who was screaming and crying, out of the truck. He had a daughter about her age, he told her. He wasn’t mad and wouldn’t hurt her. Come out, he said, and we can call the police.

“I could tell that girl was so scared that she was prepared to do whatever she had to do to get away from what had her in that panic state,” he said. He watched as she drove off, ploughing over his plants as she backed out of the drive, nearly careening into a ditch. She clearly was too young to know how to drive.

“I had tears in my eyes,” Pierce said. “I was upset, by tenfold more scared for that child than I was worried about my truck.”

The girl’s desperate escape from Calo thrust her into a tense and at times dangerous encounter with law enforcement.

Deputies spotted the truck and followed, lights and sirens blaring. Two other police departments were called in. They stretched spike strips across the highway road to puncture the truck’s tires and stop her.

After she got out of the truck, at least one officer pointed a gun at her. The girl climbed over a median to dart across the highway, running into a swamp as officers chased her, according to Lake Ozark police body camera video obtained by AP. She panted and sobbed as she was arrested face-down on the side of the road, surrounded by officers.

Ho is a former Associated Press reporter.

The Illinois team was also skeptical of claims the school made about their therapy methods, noting that staff was “not aware of any research” supporting their effectiveness. They found the facility did not seem to have a “professionally appropriate” understanding of serious mental health problems children likely suffered, such as bipolar disorder. Instead, Calo insisted that the children’s problems were always viewed as a symptom of adoption trauma.

DAWN breaks on the Calo Programs Residential Treatment Center in this aerial photo, Feb. 25, 2026, in Lake Ozark, Mo. AP/AUSTIN JOHNSON

June 2, 2026

Commissioner’s Cup Finals: Who blinks first?

BARANGAY Ginebra San Miguel wants payback against TNT Tropang Giga—a team that beat them three consecutive times in a championship series—as the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Finals going Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. A nd the most previous loss was in the same conference last season— Ginebra blew a 3-2 lead after dropping Game 7 in overtime, 87-83. “ We’re

series.” B oth teams are coming off 4-2 semifinals victories with Ginebra frustrating Rain or Shine and TNT disappointing Meralco before a record Ynares Sports Arena crowd of 11, 321 in Antipolo City on Sunday. For Tim Cone, he wanted a different result this time

respect

[Finals],” Cone said. “I will be surprised if I don’t see them in the Finals.” He added: “Even though they were the eighth seed [quarterfinals], the fact that they still made it in the championships for the fourth consecutive time, it doesn’t surprise me.” T NT’s Chot Reyes, however, stressed they’re the underdogs in the series.

Alas Men, Women make Asiad roster

THE Philippines has qualified its men’s and women’s teams in indoor volleyball at the NagoyaAichi 20th Asian Games this September, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino announced on Monday.

This is great news for our volleyball program,” said Tolentino, adding the POC received the email from the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) on the country’s qualification for the Asiad over the weekend. The Alas Women made the cut based on its FIVB ranking in Asia at No. 10 and the Alas Men at No. 15. There will be 16 teams each in the men’s and women’s categories in Asian Games volleyball to be played at the Aichi Prefecture from September 27 to October 3. The qualified men’s teams are Japan, Iran, Pakistan, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Qatar, Bahrain, Chinese-Taipei, India, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong. Competing in the women’s side are Japan, Kazakhstan, Iran, China, Chinese-Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam,

AMERICAN Grandmaster (GM) and world No.

Qatar, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Mongolia and North Korea.

AVC president Ramon “Tats” Suzara confirmed the good news to Tolentino, whose POC is bound to be the “caretaker” of the country’s volleyball affairs following the FIVB’s suspension of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation.

The indoor volleyball teams’ qualification completes the Philippine entries in the sport in the Asian Games after the beach volleyball squads—led by Bangkok 2025 Southeast Asian Games champions Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons—made it to the 12-country competition. They will be up against teams from China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, Kazakhstan, Qatar and Oman in the event set at the Hekinan Ryokuchi Beach Court in Hekinan City.

The POC is fielding at least 700 athletes to the Asian Games with Tolentino hoping to have more qualifiers in esports, modern pent and kurugi of taekwondo.

playoffs,” Reyes said. “The key here is our ability to continue to adapt to Ginebra’s game and

for us how to play at a high level.”

The previous record doesn’t matter to me now,” Reyes added.

Head-to-head, Reyes is 5-3 over Cone at Ginebra and TNT is up 5-3 since they met the first time in the 2004 Philippine Cup but under different coaches.

C one, owner of 25 PBA titles, aims to steer Ginebra to its 16th crown while Reyes targets a 12th championship for TNT.

Cone also acknowledged that despite losing 7-foot-3 Bol Manute Bol to injury, TNT got a worthy replacement in Chris McCullough.

“ They just started to get their stride and then Bol Manute Bol went down during the playoffs,” Con said. “But they brought a guy who knows how to win in this league, and he’s familiar with the league, and a really good fit.”

NINE-YEAR-OLD Jaicee

Jehanne Mendoza posted

First-timer

M cCullough, who powered SMB to the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup title against TNT, averaged 29.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists in three games in the semifinals.

G inebra’s Justin Brownlee, on the other hand, is bringing to the Finals his averages of 29.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists. Game 1 is set at 7:30 p.m. Josef Ramos

“ It’s seldom you get to see a No. 2 player in the world in person so I’m happy to get that chance myself,” Woman GM Janelle Mae Frayna.

us together is our great love of chess,” he added. Nakamura amiably agreed to sign autographs and pose for pictures with hundreds of fans.

A total of 75 teams of two players each from 22 countries signed up for the event organized by Wadim Rosenstein, founder of the organizing WR Chess who shelled out the total cash pot of $100,000 (P6 million).

with grit, resilience, and an unwavering belief in themselves. The club’s famous “Crazy Gang” developed a reputation for unsettling opponents long before kickoff, and Jones quickly became one of its most visible symbols.

H is style was simple. He competed for every ball as if the match depended on it. Opponents knew they would be in for a physically demanding afternoon whenever Jones was on the field. He embraced the role of football’s enforcer and never apologized for it.

T he defining moment of his playing career came in 1988 when Wimbledon stunned Liverpool to win the FA Cup.

Cervantes carded a resilient four-over 75 for a commanding six-stroke lead in the girls’ 7-10 division of the International Containter Terminal Services Inc. Beverly Place Junior Philippine Golf Tour (JPGT) Championship at the Beverly Place Golf Club on Monday in Mexico, Pampanga.

Cervantes, an Assumption College standout, sits precariously in 10th place in the race for the Elite Junior Finals with only eight points, looked like a long shot after a struggling seven-overpar frontside round.

But she mastered the unpredictable greens on the back nine, gunning down birdies on Nos. 11, 16 and 17 to pull away by six from Andrea Dee, who faltered with an 81.

It’s very hard to read the speed of the greens, but I was able to get the tempo and speed in the last nine holes,” Cervantes said. “I will just focus on my putting and not let my emotions get into me.”

Should Cervantes hold on to win the maximum 15 points, she will leapfrog the absent No. 4 ranked Laura Pablo, turning the final leg at Eagle Ridge into an absolute blockbuster.

experience by firing a 75 to share the boys’ 7-10 lead with Alexian Ching, two strokes ahead of Lee Sooreen (77), while current ranking No. 2 Zoji Edoc wavered with a 78.

I got to sink 6 birdies, but some holes have fast greens,” said Jeturian, who remained mathematically out of the finals race but is eager to play spoiler. “I will try to play my game and not get pressured by the other players.” I n the girls’ 11-14 bracket, Georgina Handog rode the momentum of her recent Sherwood Hills victory, carding an impressive 72 to build a comfortable five-stroke cushion over Aerin Chan (77) in the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. I was able to sink most of my putts and I got really lucky on some of them,” said the 12-year-old Handog, who adjusted her long game to survive the layout’s narrow fairways. I actually hit most of my drives to the right, but I was able to fix them. My plan for the finalround is to keep on going and don’t think about the last

Papa,

Madis triumph big time in Palawan Open tennis meet

FOURTH-RANKED Filipino-American ace Christopher Papa and 18-year-old sensation Tennielle Madis completed spectacular two-title sweeps in the P2-million Palawan Open 2026 that wrapped up Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

P apa capped off a week of high-octane surprises by dethroning the country’s top player, Alberto Lim Jr., 6-4, 6-4.

O n the women’s side, Madis reasserted her mastery over Marian Capadocia, 6-2, 7-6 that was nothing short of a psychological thriller.

The P100,000 victory was Madis’ second consecutive triumph over Capadocia after the semifinal round on her way to victory in the Philippine Tennis Association (Philta) National Open.

Papa punched his ticket to the championship of the event sponsored by the Palawan Group of Companies and sanctioned by Philta and the Universal Tennis Ranking (UTR), by stunning top-seed Digvijay Singh, of India, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4) in a semifinal thriller.

The singles triumph came less than 24 hours after Papa partnered with doubles specialist Casey Alcantara to thwart Eric Jed Olivarez and Nilo Ledama for the men’s doubles crown on Saturday.

M atching Papa’s heroic weekend, Madis also claimed the women’s doubles crown earlier in the tournament, partnering with Stefi Aludo to dismantle sisters Kaye-Ann and Mica Emana, 6-0, 6-2.

It remains one of the greatest upsets in English football history. Against a team filled with stars, Wimbledon refused to be intimidated. Jones embodied that attitude. The victory cemented both the club’s legacy and his own place in football folklore.

O f course, Jones was also a controversial figure.

H is disciplinary record became nearly as famous as his football. Some supporters admired his fearlessness and commitment. Critics argued that he crossed the line too often. Whether loved or disliked, however, he was impossible to ignore. In an era filled with colorful personalities, Jones stood out even more than most.

W hat is often forgotten is that his career lasted far longer than many expected. He enjoyed successful spells with several clubs and even represented Wales internationally. Managers trusted him because they knew exactly what they would get every week: commitment, competitiveness, and leadership.

A fter retirement, Jones accomplished something few athletes ever manage.

introducing him to an entirely new generation.

Today, Jones occupies a unique place in popular culture. He is remembered as both a footballer and an entertainer. Yet his lasting appeal stems from something deeper than either profession. People remember characters. Football has always produced great players. What it produces far less often are personalities who

GINEBRA’S Tim Cone (left) and TNT’s Chot Reyes are honoring each other with

ahead of the Finals. PBA IMAGES

an 86, Adrianna Cabrera and Cecilia Mamauag matched 88s, and Gwyneth Handog and Elizabeth Laurel carded identical 90s.

Andres Jeturian, 8, meanwhile, defied his lack of JPGT

JAICEE CERVANTES gets pointers from her coach Keena Puzon. JPGT PHOTO

MARIAN MADIS and Christopher Papa reassert their lofty billing in clinching the singles crowns. PPS PHOTO