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Five students have asked the Supreme Court to stop the cutting of trees along Roxas Boulevard and Quirino Avenue for the Southern Access Link Expressway project, bringing public backlash over the SMC-backed tollway to the high court.

Joaquin Bautista, Elisha Zantua, Benjamin Francia, Paul Callorina and Hannah Guerra filed the petition Thursday, July 23, asking the Supreme Court to issue a temporary environmental protection order against further tree-cutting for the SALEx project.

Named respondents in the petition include SMC Southern Access Link Expressway Corp., the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the judge of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 41.

Challenge to PPP Code

The students also asked the high court to declare unconstitutional Section 23 of the Public-Private Partnership Code of the Philippines.

They said the Manila RTC cited the provision when it denied their earlier request for a temporary environmental protection order.

The case remains pending before the Manila RTC. Only the students’ request for preliminary relief was denied, which they have now raised before the Supreme Court.

The petition also asks the high court to nullify the RTC resolution denying the protection order.

Tree-cutting backlash. The tree-cutting along Quirino Avenue and Roxas Boulevard is tied to the SALEX project, which is intended to connect the Skyway to Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

The DENR has said the tree-cutting underwent environmental review, technical assessment and consultations before permits were issued.

The work has drawn strong public backlash because of the number of mature trees affected and concerns that some activities allegedly continued despite SMC’s voluntary suspension of the project.

A rescued island dog from Aklan named Felicia has now found a new home in Massachusetts, United States after months of waiting.

According to animal welfare group Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), Felicia was rescued by the Aklan Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Center days before she was to be euthanized at a local pound.

A Massachusetts native named Katie offered to adopt Felicia, which began a long arduous process to get the canine across the sea.

PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera posted a personal appeal on Facebook asking who could help get Felicia a flight.

A pet supplies brand aided in the search, which garnered the attention of flag carrier Philippine Airlines who offered to fly Felicia.

The dog stayed at the PAWS shelter in Quezon City to complete her treatment, regain her health, and secure the documents required for international travel. Several individuals from the airline visited Felicia last week to coordinate her final preparations.

Felicia received special merchandise from the airline before flying out last July 21. Philippine Airlines will likely fly Felicia to New York then organize a connecting flight to Massachusetts, where the canine will now call home.

You rarely think about customer support until you need it. A simple request can be resolved in moments, while others take longer because more information is needed. Either way, people usually want the same thing: they want to know what is happening.

To mark Customer Support Day, Olymptrade spoke with members of its customer support team about what happens after a user reaches out for assistance. Their experiences offer a closer look at how human expertise, technology and clear communication work together to assist Olymptrade’s more than 100 million registered users across 130 countries.

This global community represents a highly diverse audience, ranging from experienced traders to complete beginners. Some users come from highly digitalized markets, while others live in regions where digital adoption is still developing.

Because each group comes with different expectations and levels of familiarity with financial products, maintaining standardized, clear processes and transparent communication is just as vital as resolving inquiries themselves.

How does Olymptrade support keep users informed?

During the interviews with members of the support team, one message came through clearly. For users, good support means timely updates, clear explanations and practical guidance on what comes next.

One member of the customer support team highlighted how this works in practice. The team’s main focus is ensuring users always know where their request stands. Whether it’s a quick question or a more detailed inquiry, specialists guide users through the next steps and clearly communicate if any additional information is needed.

Another team member noticed something similar. “What they really want is reassurance that we are actively working on their case and doing everything we can to help.”

Even when an inquiry takes time to resolve, the team’s primary goal is to ensure users understand what is happening, where their request stands, and what to expect next.

Specialists look at transaction details, clarify steps, and keep communication completely transparent to maintain trust and confidence. What users are looking for is reassurance that a real professional is actively working on their case and doing everything possible to help.

As another specialist explained: “We keep the user informed about the status of the case, make the process transparent and provide the user with realistic expectations so that their trust and confidence is maintained.”

Those interviews offered a simple reminder: good customer support is measured not only by how fast someone replies, but also by whether people understand what is happening while their request is being handled.

Olymptrade continues to heavily invest in expanding and improving this area of its operations. This progress stands out in markets where the traditional industry standard is often limited to overloaded phone lines available only Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m.to 5 p.m.

By delivering 24/7 localized support, these operational efforts have earned external recognition, including the Excellence in Customer Support Middle East 2026 award from International Business Magazine.

Why AI and real human support work better together

When serving a large global user base, technology is necessary to keep up with incoming requests.

Olymptrade uses automated chat systems as the first point of contact to answer common questions and direct traffic efficiently. If a user simply needs help finding a platform feature or understanding a standard process, automated support delivers the answer instantly.

However, automation is built for routine tasks. When an inquiry requires additional context or extra information, human specialists step in to provide personalized guidance and coordinate with internal departments.

This layered system ensures that technology handles speed at scale, while human professionals focus their time on cases that need a personalized touch.

How do support conversations improve the platform?

Some questions come up more often than others.

When different users ask about the same feature or need help with the same step, those conversations begin to reveal patterns.

The support team pays close attention to those patterns and shares them with the teams responsible for the platform.

The result is not always a major update. Sometimes it is clearer wording, and sometimes it is a simpler screen or a more intuitive user flow.

Changes like these rarely begin in a meeting room. In some cases, they begin with a question from a user.

That is another role of customer support. Every conversation offers a chance to make the platform a little accessible for the next person.

What do Olymptrade support reviews reveal?

Search results can tell you only so much.

To understand the full context, it helps to look at how the support process works in practice.

The Customer Support Day interviews offered that kind of perspective.

They showed that customer support is built around more than quick replies. Helping users understand what’s happening, explaining the next step, and making communication clear all came up repeatedly during the conversations.

The interviews also showed where AI fits into the picture. Routine questions can often be handled straight away, while requests that need more context are passed to real human support.

Another point stood out.

Those interactions do not disappear once a case has been closed. Questions that appear again and again help highlight areas where instructions, navigation, or the overall user experience can become easier for everyone.

That is the picture these conversations leave behind. They are less about individual cases and more about how the support system works every day.

Most as asked questions

How quickly does Olymptrade respond to support requests?

Olymptrade reports an average first response time of under 20 seconds, with an overall average response and resolution update window kept under 50 seconds.

Is support available globally?

Yes. Olymptrade provides around-the-clock, 24/7 support across 130 countries. To ensure clear and transparent communication, assistance is fully localized and provided in 14 languages, including English, Arabic, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesia, and Spanish.

Does user feedback actually change the platform?

Olymptrade does not treat support interactions as isolated tickets. Recurring queries or navigation patterns are systematically categorized and escalated to product development teams to streamline layouts, clarify wording, and improve user interface elements.

What do Olymptrade support reviews usually talk about?

Many Olymptrade support reviews focus on response time, accessibility, and clarity of communication. Users exploring these evaluations typically want to verify how fast the team responds, who handles their inquiries, and whether the process remains transparent during more detailed reviews.

Conclusion

Millions of questions reach Olymptrade every year. Some take only a few moments to answer. Others need more time, more context, or input from different teams.

Behind each one is the same goal: helping users understand what is happening and what comes next.

That is what the Customer Support Day interviews revealed. It is also the core idea behind Olymptrade’s “Care that counts” initiative: meaningful service is measured not only by finding answers, but also by keeping people updated throughout the process.

Now that Filipino cuisine is slowly but surely getting the recognition it deserves on the global culinary stage, even sparking food trends like the ube craze that has been taking place in recent months, Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo realized that it is time to mount a serious discussion on not just the present state but, more importantly, the future of Filipino food.

The institution staged “From Plates to Pages: A Gastronomic Dialogue and Tasting Feast” at Areté in Ateneo de Manila University last May 21.

The event brought together chefs, scholars, food advocates, media practitioners, and culinary enthusiasts for an afternoon of meaningful conversations and curated gastronomic experiences centered on Filipino food, culture, and sustainability.

Inspired by two books that have recently been released – “Pinas Simpol” by Chef Myke “Tatung” Sarthou and “Bukambibig” by food scholar Ige Ramos – the gastronomic dialogue examined the evolving identity of Filipino cuisine and the urgent need to preserve, document, and strengthen the systems surrounding it.

Discussions centered on food sustainability, accessibility, agricultural systems, regionalism, culinary heritage preservation, and the growing role of Geographical Indications (GI) in protecting local products and food traditions.

Sharing the stage with the two book authors as speakers and panelists were Chef Cyrille Soenen, technical director and executive chef of Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo; anthropologist and Professor Emeritus Dr. Fernando Zialcita; and resource persons Estella Duque and Rob Villacabral.

Meaningful conversation

More than a celebration of food, the conference highlighted the need to bridge cultural appreciation with systems that genuinely support Filipino farmers, producers, MSMEs, and regional food communities.

Also a major point of discussion was the importance of codification and documentation in preserving culinary heritage. The collaboration with Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo made it possible to create a meaningful dialogue on both Filipino and French culinary traditions, particularly in how cuisines are preserved, taught, and presented internationally.

Le Cordon Bleu, the mother institution of Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo, is one of the world’s leading culinary institutions rooted in French gastronomy. Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo played an important role in framing the conference discussions through the lens of culinary education, codification, preservation, and gastronomy as cultural heritage.

During the panel discussions, Chef Soenen raised key reflections surrounding French gastronomy and its relevance to the future of Filipino cuisine. Among the central questions explored were how French recipes and kitchen systems were standardized and codified, the role codification played in establishing French cuisine on the global stage, and what French cuisine can continue to learn from Filipino cuisine today.

The discussions highlighted how French culinary traditions became globally influential not only through technique, but through structure, consistency, culinary literature, and formal systems of education that allowed knowledge to be transmitted across generations. At the same time, the panel recognized the unique strengths of Filipino cuisine, complete with its regional diversity, adaptability, communal dining culture, and deeply rooted storytelling traditions.

Rather than positioning French and Filipino cuisines against one another, however, the conference emphasized the value of dialogue between both culinary cultures. French gastronomy offered perspectives on preservation, codification, and institutional learning, while Filipino cuisine contributed lessons in cultural memory, hospitality, regional identity, and emotional connection to food.

Among the major themes that emerged during the dialogue were the challenges of making quality Filipino ingredients more accessible, the realities faced by local producers, and the importance of documenting and preserving food traditions beyond nostalgia.

Speakers also discussed the role of regionalism in Filipino cuisine, emphasizing that the country’s culinary identity is shaped by diverse regional stories, ingredients, and traditions rather than a singular culinary narrative.

The Philippines has finally moved into the upper-middle-income bracket, but global investors are still ranking it behind several of its Southeast Asian neighbors.

That gap showed up in Kearney’s 2026 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index, where the Philippines slipped in the emerging-market rankings and trailed Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Kearney Philippines country head Marco de la Rosa and Southeast Asia managing partner Varun Arora said the country’s new income status gives it a stronger story to tell investors, but the upgrade has not yet translated into stronger investor confidence.

“Unfortunately, in the last two to three years, in the FDI index and the investments, Philippines has dropped rankings a bit vis-a-vis the ASEAN countries, which has also reflected the flow of the money,” Arora told Philstar.com.

The challenge now, they said, is for the Philippines to match its upgraded income status with stronger competitiveness, infrastructure and governance.

Investor confidence gap

Kearney’s FDI Confidence Index is based on an annual survey of global business leaders and ranks markets where investors are likely to place capital in the next three years.

In the 2026 index, the Philippines ranked 18th out of 25 emerging markets, down from 16th place in 2025.

Other Southeast Asian economies ranked higher. Thailand placed sixth, Malaysia seventh, Indonesia 13th and Vietnam 16th.

De la Rosa said the Philippines’ income upgrade should, in theory, help its standing in the index.

“It should improve the ranking of the Philippines in the confidence index because at least the scoring of the Philippines will improve because that one factor of financial performance should be reflected. But it also depends on how the other factors hold up,” De la Rosa said.

According to De la Rosa, global business leaders identified talent and skills availability, natural resources and economic performance as the top factors that attract investment to the Philippines.

But investors rated the country lowest in infrastructure and governance, pointing to gaps that could weigh on long-term competitiveness.

The income upgrade

The World Bank reclassified the Philippines this year after its gross national income per capita reached $4,850, clearing the $4,636 threshold for upper-middle-income status.

The move ended nearly four decades of the Philippines being classified as a lower-middle-income economy.

But de la Rosa noted that the country remains near the bottom of the upper-middle-income bracket, which runs from $4,636 to $14,375 in GNI per capita.

“I mean, we’ve moved up a level in terms of the classification, but we are still actually, from a gross national income standpoint, lower than Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, etc,” De la Rosa said.

A tougher league

De la Rosa and Arora likened the country’s new status to a football club being promoted to a higher league.

The Philippines has shown enough progress to move up, they said. But the new status also puts it in a more competitive field, where investors will compare it more closely with stronger and better-prepared markets.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has already used the new income status in his pitch to foreign investors. During his July 14 to 16 working visit to Singapore, Marcos described the Philippines as a newly designated upper-middle-income country with “solid macroeconomic fundamentals.”

“As a newly designated upper middle income country with solid macroeconomic fundamentals, the Philippines offers a secure, transparent and stable environment for businesses to thrive,” Marcos said in his arrival statement.

Kearney said the upgrade should be treated not as a finish line, but as a reason to move faster on infrastructure, governance and economic diversification.

As in competitive sports, moving up means facing stronger opponents and higher stakes, De la Rosa said.

“The stakes will only keep getting higher and higher,” De la Rosa said. “Ultimately we need to compete to win.”

As part of its 12th anniversary celebration, Marco Polo Ortigas Manila elevates the festivities with an exciting lineup of anniversary raffle prizes.

Full-paying adult diners at Cucina and Lung Hin will have the chance to win exceptional experiences, including the grand prize of a three-day, two-night stay at Marco Polo Hongkong, complete with round-trip airfare and one-way airport transfer from Manila to NAIA.

Other prizes include an overnight stay at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila with breakfast and a Sunday lunch buffet, as well as Lung Hin’s signature Peking Duck.

“Our 12th anniversary is a celebration of the trust and loyalty our guests have shown us over the years,” said General Manager Fredrik Johansson. “As we mark this milestone, we remain committed to creating memorable experiences and delivering the thoughtful hospitality that defines Marco Polo.”

Hotel Manager Marie Buenaobra added, “To celebrate this landmark occasion, we’re surprising our loyal guests with a raffle that highlights one of Filipinos’ favorite destinations, Hong Kong, through a stay at the iconic Marco Polo Hongkong”.

This exciting surprise will run from July 9 to 31, with a raffle draw on August 3, and winners to be announced through Marco Polo Ortigas Manila’s official social media channels.