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Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) on Monday opened its new office building in Quezon City as part of its modernization plans. It features ‘touchless’ and facial recognition technology.

RLC business unit general manager Jericho Go told reporters GBF Center 2 at the Bridgetowne estate would be the first to use these new features.

‘We have a full destination control system,’ Go said.

According to him, the GBF 2 lobby features facial recognition-enabled turnstiles and ‘state-of-the-art filtration systems.’

An employee’s face is recognized at the entrance after registering their biometrics via the Go Work mobile application. Then, their assigned floor is identified and they are assigned a specific elevator in the lobby. This ensures efficient operations and electricity savings, Go explained.

The 30-story GBF 2 follows the 2023 launch of GBF Center 1, which has already leased out 60 percent of its available space.

‘Premiumization’

According to Go, they were looking to also upgrade the lobbies of their other office buildings as part of RLC’s ‘premiumization’ strategy.

Earlier this month, RLC announced it would develop a new office tower in Davao City to expand its footprint across the country’s second-largest island group. The nine-story building is slated for completion in the first half of 2027.

Once completed, this will add to the developer’s Mindanao portfolio. This consists of eight shopping malls, three GoHotels, one Grand Summit Hotel and two office buildings.

This expansion and upgrade of its office portfolio forms part of RLC’s plan to double its net income to P25 billion by 2030.

Apart from office buildings, this includes the expansion of RLC’s portfolio of upscale condominiums and introduction of luxury and ultra-luxury hotels.

RLC also recently launched The Jewel. It will have a mall, four office towers and a five-floor basement parking area.

The Jewel will have a projected gross leasable area of around 320,000 square meters. This would make it RLC’s biggest project in a single location. INQ

Kanlaon Volcano in Negros Island remained under Alert Level 2 on Tuesday, September 30, as the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported heightened activity over the past 24 hours.

In its latest summary observation report, Phivolcs said that Kanlaon continues to log increased unrest, with 31 volcanic earthquakes recorded from only seven quakes in the previous monitoring period.

Sulfur dioxide emissions – a colorless gas from magma releasing dissolved gases – also rose to 1,141 tons per day from 1,027 tons. Plumes reached 150 meters from the summit before drifting southwest.

Ground deformation is still inflated, which means that the ground around the volcano is swelling or bulging outward.

Alert level 2 remains raised on Kanlaon. This signifies moderate unrest with evidence of magma involvement.

Phivolcs warned of potential hazards, including sudden steam-driven or phreatic eruptions and possible magmatic activity.

Authorities reiterated that entry into the four-kilometer permanent danger zone is strictly prohibited, and flying any aircraft near the volcano should not be allowed. /das

Former BigBang member T.O.P is set to return as a solo artist in the fourth quarter with a full-length album, industry sources said Tuesday.

It will be his first solo music release since his digital single ‘Doom Dada’ 12 years ago.

The star will be bringing in help for the video with a creative virtuoso he worked with while acting in Netflix series ‘Squid Game 2.’

‘T.O.P’s studio album is scheduled for release sometime in or after October. He has completed recording and plans to shoot several music videos. An art director of ‘Squid Game’ will oversee the production,’ an industry source told The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity.

The art director and production designer for Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ is Chae Kyoung-sun, who won Art Directors Guild Awards in 2022 and 2025 for her work on the series, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award in 2022 for outstanding production design.

Hints of a T.O.P solo comeback surfaced before. Last November, he replied ‘2025’ to a fan asking about his solo activity on his Instagram account. In June, he revealed plans to return as a solo artist this year during an international interview promoting ‘Squid Game 2.’

After parting ways with YG Entertainment and leaving Big Bang in 2021, T.O.P has remained without an agency. Another industry insider said he is in talks to sign with Kakao Entertainment, a local entertainment giant, but the company has denied the claim.

T.O.P faced controversy in 2016 when he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, for using marijuana while serving as a conscripted police officer.

His mandatory military duty was later converted to an alternative social service. Following the incident, he announced his retirement from the entertainment industry but reversed course by appearing in ‘Squid Game 2.’

In an interview with local media in January, the rapper reflected on his past.

‘In my 20s, I was fortunate to receive so much love, but I made huge mistakes and collapsed mentally. I still feel ashamed and believe I must always reflect on those mistakes,’ T.O.P said.

‘Whenever I’m in the studio, I feel alive. I’ve been working constantly and created a lot of music, and I believe the time has come to share it with the world,’ he added.

Apart from naked greed and selfish political agendas, a faulty understanding of national budgeting principles may have led our legislators to feel little guilt or shame over their unprecedented self-serving national budget realignments. Massive amounts reallocated in the 2025 budget to spurious flood control projects came prominently from the defunding of nearly P300 billion in official development assistance (ODA) or foreign loan-funded projects and from relegating them to the unprogrammed budget. This part of the budget, which has ballooned after 2022, is, in effect, a ‘waiting list’ of expenditure items that can only push through if unexpected additional funds become available. By implication, these are lower-priority expenditures that the country can afford to set aside in favor of those in the main or programmed budget.

The problem is, ODA projects are nothing like that. They are by nature priority projects, having passed rigid scrutiny by the interagency Investment Coordination Committee and rigorous technical analysis by the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (formerly National Economic and Development Authority). They form part of the Public Investment Program accompanying the Philippine Development Plan and are essential to the fulfillment of our PDP goals and targets. For our ODA partners, PIP projects are the ‘shopping list’ of priority projects from which they can choose what to fund with their soft loans (loans with lower interest rates and longer grace periods and repayment terms) to be truly responsive to our development goals. These are most certainly not low-priority projects we can set aside in favor of budget insertions by legislators, many of which have turned out to be ‘ghost’ projects that put fabulous sums in the pockets of conniving lawmakers, government officials, and contractors-as is now being exposed in full view.

Why the seeming lack of hesitation to shove aside ‘counterpart funding’ for ODA projects despite these having high priority? Most lawmakers don’t seem to understand what these ‘counterpart funds’ really are, a misunderstanding I’ve found to be common since my days in the government in the 1990s. The term ‘counterpart’ misleads many, including lawmakers, to think of it simply as the government’s equity share in the funding for ODA projects, and that the foreign lender’s ‘counterpart’ will still be there to spend even without the government’s share. But that is not the case.

‘Appropriations cover’ is the better term rather than ‘counterpart funds’ for the budget allocation needed to release ODA loan proceeds. Every peso of ODA loan proceeds needs to be appropriated in the budget to be spent. In the national fiscal accounts, ODA loan proceeds are treated as ‘deficit financing,’ not additional funds to the government’s budgetary resources from taxes, fees, and other revenues. That is, ODA project loans, which must be paid back, count as part of the total government borrowing to finance the deficit, or the gap between its revenues and expenditures, which now cumulatively totals P17 trillion. (On the other hand, foreign grants that need no repayment are automatically appropriated, hence need no budget line. Here, the term ‘counterpart’ is correctly used as it’s widely understood and is indeed the government’s equity shares to supplement the donor’s grant.)

This is why shifting some P300 billion of ODA ‘counterpart funds’ to the unprogrammed budget is such a serious matter. It means none of the shifted ODA project’s loan funds will get released at all, unless the government manages to raise more revenues than were projected for the year. It’s an outright breach of loan agreements signed with our foreign partners, who have been scratching their heads over our seemingly irrational repudiation of assistance they have so kindly offered us, as this is what defunding the ODA programs amounts to. And because these soft loans are dispensed through financial institutions, customary commitment fees apply, meaning, if we don’t spend the funds, we pay the lender a penalty for keeping the money idle.

But the bigger cost our irresponsible lawmakers have brought upon our country is the chilling signal it has sent to the financial markets and investment community that our government is not to be trusted. The signs are already evident. The peso has been depreciating much faster than it should, even as the United States Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate easing should have moved it in the opposite direction (like our neighbors’ currencies have in fact done). While our peso declines in value, our neighbors’ currencies are moving the other way. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas won’t say it publicly, but they see the problem.

The insatiable greed in high places, now being exposed to all, is pulling the entire economy and country down. This time, we shouldn’t let them get away with it.

Amid her battle with several autoimmune diseases, Kris Aquino looked well and radiant during her and her children Josh and Bimby’s recent visit to a friend who celebrated his birthday.

The Queen of All Media, albeit wearing a face mask, appeared smiling while bonding over a meal with hair and makeup artist Jonathan Velasco at the latter’s intimate birthday celebration.

Aside from the Aquinos and Velasco, a few other companions, including those who appeared to be Kris’ medical staff, were present at the gathering, as seen in the photos shared by the makeup artist on his Instagram page.

‘A huge thank you to the Aquino family for making my birthday so special,’ Velasco captioned his post. ‘Love you po, Madam Kris, Josh and Bimb.’

Velasco’s comments section was then flooded with messages from Kris’ supporters who thanked the makeup artist for sharing his recent moment with the actress-TV host.

Just earlier this month, Kris underwent two surgical procedures. She also previously had surgical procedures last August as she began a ‘more aggressive treatment’ for her 11 autoimmune diseases

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday urged government officials to strengthen integrity and credibility in public service.

Speaking to newly elected and appointed officials of the League of Vice Governors of the Philippines in a ceremony in Malacañan Palace, Marcos stressed that ‘unscrupulous abuse of power and greed must come to an end.’

‘Many Filipinos are frustrated by the layer upon layer of issues that plague them every day,’ Marcos said in Filipino.

‘Our people are exhausted, they are disappointed, and they are angry. And as I have said before, their rage is valid. It is born from years of frustration at a government characterized by systemic dysfunction and unfulfilled promises,’ he added.

The President also called on leaders to ‘confront’ the anger of the public and be humbled enough to provide concrete solutions to the nation’s problems.

‘Let us not dismiss their anger. Let us confront it. Let us be humbled and provide concrete solutions. Alam naman natin ang mga mali, kaya dapat nating itama,’ President Marcos said.

Marcos also underscored his administration’s commitment to eradicating entrenched corruption, implementing useful reforms, and delivering an honest and accountable government.

The proposed safeguard duty on cement imports is unlikely to raise prices but instead help safeguard the local industry against unfair competition, an industry group said.

‘The measure is needed to give local manufacturers a fair chance to compete against foreign suppliers that enjoy government support,’ the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines Inc. (CeMAP) said in a statement on Monday.

The group said this safeguard measure would keep the domestic cement manufacturing viable and protect local jobs.

‘It is of national interest to promote and protect the local cement industry against unfair competition from other countries. The Philippines’ [cement industry] is not subsidized,’ CeMAP executive director Rey Baja said.

Other groups, including the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Philippine Industries, have signified their strong support for imposing the safeguard duty.

To recall, in February, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) slapped a provisional safeguard duty of P400 per metric ton (MT), or P16 per 40-kilogram bag, on imported cement. This is good for 200 days from the date of issuance of the relevant Bureau of Customs order.

The cash bond was enforced after the DTI’s preliminary investigation discovered a ‘casual link’ between the increased imports of these cement types and serious injury to the local industry.

‘The increased volume of imports, both in absolute terms and relative to domestic production, was found to be the substantial cause of the overall impairment in the local industry,’ the DTI said in its Department Administrative Order No. 25-01 issued in February.

The Tariff Commission subsequently initiated an inquiry into the merits of imposing a definitive safeguard duty against importations of Ordinary Portland Cement and Blended Cement from various countries.

On top of existing tariffs

Under the Safeguard Measures Act, the state may impose safeguard measures on top of current tariffs in case increased imports cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the sector.

‘Since then, cement prices have stayed stable, with many local manufacturers keeping the market competitive,’ CeMAP said.

The group pointed out that the industry incurred P5 billion in losses as well as experienced slower operations and job cuts due to the entry of imported cement.

Cement imports stood at 7.6 million MT in 2024, mostly from Vietnam, even as the local industry has a total capacity of 51 million tons.

However, demand was only 35 million tons while actual production dropped to 27 million tons, meaning only 53 percent of the overall output capacity was used.

‘Industry leaders say the situation is unfair. Some Vietnamese cement companies are state-owned or receive government incentives that Filipino manufacturers do not get,’ CeMAP said.

‘This allows them to sell cement at very low prices, even when the Philippines already has enough supply,’ it added.

According to CeMAP, cement manufacturing contributes at least one percent to the country’s gross domestic product and supports about 130,000 direct and indirect jobs. INQ

The data center arm of PLDT Group has sealed a pact with two global technology leaders to give key sectors access to artificial intelligence’s (AI) full potential without hefty infrastructure investments.

ePLDT said on Monday that it teamed up with Dell Technologies and Katonic AI. They are launching the Philippines’ ‘first sovereign AI solutions stack’ dubbed Pilipinas AI.

Introducing this in the local market will help local businesses to break through challenges in deploying AI, such as complex integration requirements and the lack of AI specialists, according to the firm.

The group also said the service is hosted at its Vitro Sta. Rosa, the first AI-ready hyperscale data center in the Philippines.

The firm hopes to reach sectors, like banking and finance, business process outsourcing, health care, public services and academia. It said that the Pilipinas AI has the capability to detect fraud, provide AI-driven weather forecasting and AI-assisted medical diagnostics, boost customer experience and others.

‘By working with trusted, world-class tech partners, we are putting the right foundation in place for Philippine enterprises to embrace AI with confidence. Pilipinas AI gives them access to computing power and advanced tools that help accelerate adoption, streamline operations and drive innovation at scale,’ Victor Genuino, president and CEO of ePLDT and Vitro Inc., said in a statement.

Not if, but when

‘AI adoption is no longer a question of if, but when. With Pilipinas AI, we are making sure that when Philippine enterprises take that leap, they do so on solid ground,’ Genuino said.

ePLDT currently operates 11 data centers across the Philippines. These are in Makati, Taguig, Pasig, Parañaque, Subic, Clark, Cebu and Davao.

In the first six months of 2025, PLDT’s core income inched up by 1 percent to P17.6 billion from P17.3 billion a year ago. Consolidated service revenues also reached P97.1 billion, with data and broadband accounting for 85 percent. INQ

Sen. Francis Escudero on Monday pointed a finger at former House Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez for supposedly orchestrating allegations linking him and other senators to anomalous flood control projects.

‘There’s only one person behind this script and ‘sarswela (local theater and opera show),” Escudero said in a manifestation before the plenary session on Monday. ‘Why is it that in the House of Representatives, also right here in the Senate, and in some media outlets, they are unable to blurt his name? Then, I will say it: Martin Romualdez.’

The senator questioned the absence of Romualdez and other congressmen from ongoing investigations, despite being named in affidavits and testimonies.

He also alleged that House lawmakers wield direct control over the budget in hundreds of districts across the country, including funds intended for infrastructure and flood control projects.

‘Is this how powerful Martin Romualdez is? That despite no longer being speaker, it appears that he remains ‘the name that cannot be mentioned,’ and he can still do what he wants in terms of selective justice,’ he said.

Deflection

Escudero and Romualdez previously led the two chambers in the 19th Congress and briefly in the 20th Congress. Escudero was ousted as Senate President on Sept. 8 while Romualdez stepped down from the speakership nine days later.

In a statement on Monday, Romualdez said Escudero’s speech was merely recycled accusations. He also noted that the senator chose to deflect instead of answering allegations against him. (See related story on this page.)

‘With respect, what we heard was not an exposé but a [Duterte Diehard Supporters] script-the same recycled accusations we have long seen on troll pages and social media posts. Nothing new and no truth to them either,’ he said in a statement.

Escudero, on the other hand, said Romualdez could not escape accountability following the testimony of retired Sgt. Orly Guteza, a former VIP security for Rep. Elizaldy Co, that he had delivered 37 pieces of luggage containing cash amounting to P1.7 billion to the Makati residence of the Leyte congressman. Co resigned as Ako Bicol party list representative on Monday.

‘Let all those who were name-dropped answer and be investigated – all congressmen, senators, and other officials mentioned. And they should include Martin Romualdez,’ he said.

Bigger fish?

He lamented that Romualdez was neither included in the recommendation of the National Bureau of Investigation for possible graft and bribery charges nor in the asset freeze order by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

He said witnesses kept on name-dropping senators despite the lack of direct evidence implicating them.

‘Why? Is it because the senators are the bigger fish, their positions are higher, and they are more well known than congressmen, and they are hoping that the anger of the people over the anomalous flood control projects would subside, and they would be able to escape their accountability?’ Escudero said.

He also vowed to defend himself against malicious accusations. ‘In fact, I will be filing the necessary and appropriate charges against my accuser [.] I am confident that I will be vindicated and declared innocent,’ he said.

‘Mob justice’

He warned against political machinations aimed at weakening the Senate as an institution, misleading the public and shielding the real masterminds from accountability.

‘For that is what is happening now – selective justice and mob justice. Members of the Senate have been thrown off a cliff and before the court of public opinion in an attempt to mollify the people’s rage, thereby covering up the real perpetrators and giving them a chance to get away,’ Escudero said.

‘Are we truly for transparency and accountability? Or are we merely offering a politically convenient sacrificial lamb?’ he asked.

He ended his speech by reiterating his opposition to Romualdez’s alleged efforts to deflect scrutiny and destabilize institutions.

‘Here comes the rain again,’ to quote The Eurythmics. Falling on my head like a memory, the memory-still very fresh-is of staggering amounts of money stolen by contractors and congressmen, even senators, in the form of kickbacks, suitcases full of kickbacks, for flood control projects that never once saw the light of day.

Along with rising water levels, school closures, and lost working days, sudden downpours summon with alarming frequency the ghosts that we have so desperately and ineffectively failed to banish from our cursed existence: the ghosts of corruptions past, present, and future.

Sudden downpours summon with alarming frequency the ghosts that we have so desperately and ineffectively failed to banish from our cursed existence: the ghosts of corruptions past, present, and future.

These ghosts live not just in luxury penthouse apartments and sprawling mansions in gated villlages, basement garages lined with top-of-the-line European cars, or row upon row of Birkin bags. They cling to every substandard bridge that’s collapsed, every potholed road that leads to nowhere, and every floodgate whose construction was approved and funded but never built.

And they taunt us from their social media accounts, thanks to their clueless nepo babies who fancy themselves influencers as they flaunt their ostentatious (and often tasteless) lifestyles-filched from our taxes.

Money, money, money

A recent report issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese named the companies are aiding and abetting an ‘economy of genocide,’ fully complicit in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people of Gaza. The list includes tech giants such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Palantir, as well as industry titans like Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, and even Hyundai, to name a few.

When asked why Israel’s genocide continues, she replied, ‘because it is lucrative for many.’

When asked why Israel’s genocide continues, she replied, ‘because it is lucrative for many.’

By the same token, one could say that an economy of corruption persists in the Philippines because it is lucrative for many. So lucrative for contractors in particular that many of them were emboldened to run for office and today sit as elected members of Congress. One could thus conclude that being an elected representative of the people and holding office is extremely lucrative for many, despite official monthly salaries not exceeding P334,059 for a senator, congressman or department secretary, while a department undersecretary earns P226,319, max.

These are decent salaries in a country where the median monthly salary is P44,979.62, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). However, they won’t necessarily cover the mortgage payments on that unit in Aurelia, much less an afternoon’s shopping spree at Chanel in Paris. Ditto a business class ticket to New York.

Yet corruption apparently pays, if the ongoing Senate investigative hearings are anything to go by. And funds these lavish lifestyles. It’s an ecosystem entrenched in hierarchy, too, it seems, where everybody has their price for looking the other way and getting things done. Or in the case of ghost projects, not done.

Ten percent for the departmental employee who issues the necessary permits, fifteen percent for the next higher-up and so on, each one taking their cut of the project, with an astonishing thirty percent (if not more) for the congressman or senator, bundled into suitcases and hand-delivered to their homes by trusted bagmen.

No Lalamove for this sort of delivery. For a project that’s worth billions, that’s easily a van-load of suitcases. Or, to use the clever little code name given to these money drops: basura. As in, ‘Take the trash to Congressman So-and-So’ (who’s another piece of trash, by the way).

Selling your soul

The levels of meta here are just beyond. They’ve rubbished our own hard-earned contributions to the country’s coffers; they’ve rubbished the trust given to them by virtue of being elected into public office; they’ve certainly rubbished all those so-called Filipino and Christian values of honesty, hard work, and integrity. They’ve rubbished themselves. And they’ve rubbished the country’s reputation.

This is what really irks me. That deep down, they have such little regard for the country they profess to love, and zero respect for the people they are supposed to serve, that they can’t even do a proper job of building what they were contracted to do.

Take your ten percent. Yes, you-engineer, contractor, undersecretary, congressman, senator. Hell, take your twenty, even your thirty percent. I don’t really care. But build the goddamn flood control barriers to the requisite standards of quality, safety, and durability. Present something decent to show for the billions you stole apart from the fourteen houses in Forbes Park.

Build the goddamn flood control barriers to the requisite standards of quality, safety, and durability. Present something decent to show for the billions you stole apart from the fourteen houses in Forbes Park.

Have a modicum of shame, if not for your countrymen who are literally drowning in fetid flood waters every time it rains, then for the foreign direct investments you keep trying to woo to our shores. Is it any surprise that investors choose Vietnam, Thailand, or Indonesia over the Philippines when corruption is so rampant, the infrastructure so inferior, and the cost of doing business so high? In an economy of corruption, basura begets basura.

We now know the price for your willingness to compromise your own morals in pursuit of wealth, power, and, it would seem, immunity from prosecution. Apparently, it runs to billions. But what is the price for you to grow a conscience?

The great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, writing with acute eloquence over fifty years ago about his own people’s exile and occupation, penned these lines:

‘I don’t know who sold our homeland

But I saw who paid the price.’

How profoundly tragic it is that we Filipinos know exactly who sold our homeland. And that we will still be paying the price for generations to come.