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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to exempt more small corporations from the mandatory submission of audited financial statements as it seeks to shrink ‘unnecessary’ compliance costs for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

In a statement, the corporate watchdog said it had submitted a policy paper to the Department of Finance (DOF) recommending that corporations with total assets or liabilities not exceeding P3 million be required to submit only annual financial statements.

These must be certified under oath by their treasurer or chief financial officer before submitting the documents in lieu of audited financial statements.

The proposed policy will apply to financial statements covering fiscal years ending on Dec. 31, 2025. This is still subject to the approval of the DOF.

‘Our proposed policy will not only improve the ease of doing business, but will also cut unnecessary compliance requirements for micro entities, in support of the government’s goal of driving inclusive economic development,’ SEC Chair Francis Lim noted.

The SEC currently requires corporations with total assets or liabilities of at least P600,000 to submit annual financial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant.

However, the regulator pointed out that the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines also recognized the authority of the DOF to determine the cap.

In pushing for the expansion of the threshold, the SEC is also seeking to reduce incidents of rubber-stamp audits, cut barriers to registration and simplify compliance obligations.

‘We have repeatedly said that MSMEs are the backbone of the Philippine economy, which is why the SEC remains committed to implementing measures that will foster a business environment that is easier to navigate for our budding entrepreneurs,’ Lim said.

This is the agency’s latest move to make it easier for MSMEs to do business. Earlier, the SEC announced that its newest policies have resulted in over P80 million worth of discounts for small corporations. The total covered over 40,000 transactions, including company filings.

Of the total discount, more than half, or P40.9 million, went to MSMEs, according to the SEC.

In July, a time-bound 50-percent discount on the physical and authenticated copies of company filings took effect, translating to over P36.5 million in discounts. These documents include articles of incorporation and by-laws, general information sheets and annual financial statements that used to cost up to P2,000 each.

The discount will be effective until the end of the year.

Under a separate memorandum, the SEC also provided discounted rates on filing fees to support MSMEs. This allowed a total of 8,506 MSMEs to accumulate P21.4 million in discounts on fees that need to be paid before they are registered as corporations.

Ai-Ai delas Alas revealed that the revocation of estranged husband Gerald Sibayan’s green card coincided with her filing for a divorce, although it has yet to be finalized at this time.

In a ‘Fast Talk with Boy Abunda’ interview on Thursday, Oct. 30, delas Alas admitted that revenge prompted her to revoke Sibayan’s green card in the US for what he did to her.

‘Noong una, ayoko talaga gawin ‘yun pero noong bandang huli naisip ko, parang ayoko naman maging santa or something kasi ‘yun na lang ba ‘yung, kahit panget, ‘yung ganti ko para sa sarili na nasaktan ako,’ she said.

‘Siya naman nagsabi na gusto niya pumunta ng America eh, hindi naman ako ‘yung nagbigay sa kanya na, ‘Oh halika na punta na tayo sa America.’ Siya naman yung nag sabi na gusto niya pumunta ng America,’ she continued.

(At first, I didn’t want to do it but I eventually decided to do it in the end. I don’t want to be a saint or something because for me, despite how ugly it sounds, this is revenge for myself. I was hurt. He was the one who said that wanted to go to America anyway, not me. I didn’t tell him, ‘Come on, let’s go to America.’ He was the one who said he wants to go to America.)

Delas Alas also shared that the day of the revocation of Sibayan’s green card petition coincided with her filing for a divorce. While she has yet to disclose further details, she said that it has yet to be finalized, as of this writing.

‘Sa totoo lang, I’ve moved on. I’ve been trying to move on. Pero hindi pa totally healed. Minsan, naalala ko pa rin. Minsan naiiyak ako. Pero nand’un ako sa 80% na okay na (Honestly, I’ve moved on. I’ve been trying to move on. But not totally healed. I sometimes remember the pain. I cry sometimes. But I’m at the point where I’m 80% okay),’ she added.

With a grandkid on the way and other blessings, the actress-comedienne said she is ‘at peace.’

‘Ako ngayon ay at peace. Meron akong legacy of peace. Gusto mo lahat ng magiging pananaw mo sa buhay puro positive. Pain was my teacher and healing is my revolution (I’m at peace. I have a legacy of peace. I want things in my life to be positive. Pain was my teacher and healing is my revolution),’ she said.

Delas Alas, who confirmed her split with Sibayan in November 2024, announced the revocation of his green card last May.

According to the ‘Tanging Ina’ star, her estranged husband expressed his intention to end their marriage through chat in October of last year.

Local governments in Siargao activated their disaster response teams, issued advisories for preemptive evacuation, and heightened coastal monitoring as Typhoon Tino advanced toward the Caraga region on Tuesday.

After a series of emergency meetings over the weekend to coordinate contingency plans with local councils in Surigao del Norte and the Province of Dinagat Islands, the Caraga Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) issued an advisory directing all local disaster offices to activate emergency operations centers, preposition rescue assets and ensure the readiness of evacuation sites to accommodate people coming from low-lying and landslide-prone areas.

In General Luna town, the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) issued an early evacuation advisory to its 19 barangays, particularly urging families in flood-prone coastal zones to evacuate early and not wait for weather conditions to deteriorate.

MDRRMC also encouraged local lodging houses, resorts, and private establishments to voluntarily open their facilities to evacuees who may need temporary shelter.

Among those who offered help is General Luna resident Alexa Ray Paroz, who opened her house to everyone who would need assistance.

‘Everyone is welcome. We can keep our community safe through kindness and readiness,’ Paroz stated on her Facebook page.

The MDRRMC also reminded residents to identify the nearest evacuation centers and prepare essential supplies.

Town and village officials went house-to-house to ensure that residents were aware of where to go in times of disaster.

The Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fire Protection also opened their coordination lines for immediate emergency rescue operations should the storm intensify.

In neighboring Del Carmen town, which had boosted disaster preparedness since the devastation of Odette in 2021, the MDRRMO apprised the town’s 20 barangays of its updated list of evacuation centers and emergency hotlines for the public to tap in times of emergency.

In the past, disaster officials in both Siargao and Dinagat Islands stressed preparedness measures that included preemptive evacuations, mangrove rehabilitation, and the building of typhoon-resilient housing to minimize risks amid potential heavy rains and strong winds that typhoons like Tino would bring

We like to say political dynasties are the root of corruption.

The story goes that families capture government, drain public resources and weaken institutions.

But the truth cuts the other way: Corruption keeps dynasties alive.

It is the fuel that powers their machines and the glue that binds their networks. Remove the corruption and most of these families would not last another election cycle.

If dynasties created corruption, we could end the problem with an antidynasty law. But the real issue is that the rules of public spending make political power profitable.

The system rewards those who can manipulate projects, capture budgets and redirect funds to secure loyalty.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the recent flood control scandal.

Billions in questionable projects, overlapping allocations and padded contracts have turned disaster prevention into a political racket.

Flood control is the perfect camouflage.

It sounds technical, looks urgent and delivers contracts fast. Behind it is a chain of rent-seeking that reaches from the local contractor to the congressman. Each layer takes a cut, each cut buys loyalty.

In this economy of favors, dynasties thrive. Infrastructure has become a political currency. Projects buy votes, rents finance campaigns and loyalty keeps the system intact.

The more opaque the budgeting, the deeper the control. The result is a political ecosystem where corruption sustains lineage, not service.

Contrast that with programs that cannot be milked as easily.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, is audited, monitored and evidence-based. It invests in people rather than projects.

The conditions are clear-children must go to school, families must access health care, parents must attend Family Development Sessions. These sessions, unique to the Philippine version of Conditional Cash Transfers, are designed to change attitudes. They teach responsibility, citizenship and self-reliance. This is how dependency is broken.

Yet 4Ps remains politically unpopular. It is branded as a dole-out, while infrastructure projects, however tainted, are hailed as development.

The government would rather pour billions into flood control than expand a program that actually builds human capital.

The irony is painful. We build concrete walls to hold back water, but ignore the social foundations that could protect people from poverty and climate shocks.

If social protection were treated as the true infrastructure of nation-building, corruption would lose its hiding place.

Programs like 4Ps are bound by clear rules and measurable outcomes. Flood control and other ‘hard’ projects, on the other hand, are governed by weak oversight and vague objectives.

It is this imbalance that keeps corruption alive and dynasties strong.

The 8-Point Development Plan of the administration reflects the same blind spot.

It puts infrastructure and investment at the center while treating social protection as a side note. Poverty reduction is framed as relief and an outcome, not strategy.

When welfare is detached from development, the poor remain vulnerable and corruption keeps its leverage.

Other countries understood this long ago.

Brazil’s Bolsa Família and Mexico’s Oportunidades reduced poverty while raising productivity. South Korea’s postwar welfare and education programs turned farmers into industrial workers and citizens into taxpayers.

Chile and Bangladesh linked cash transfers with training, jobs and climate resilience.

These countries built growth from the ground up. Their social protection systems created citizens who demanded accountability-and that weakened their dynasties.

The Philippines has all the ingredients to do the same.

The 4Ps, with its Family Development Sessions, already builds both capacity and conscience. It can prepare communities for employment, entrepreneurship and climate adaptation.

But the government continues to see it as welfare, not investment. Instead of linking it to programs that generate income and resilience, it keeps pouring money into concrete projects that drown in corruption.

Ironically, this scandal made the connection now obvious. Corruption keeps the poor dependent. Dependency keeps dynasties in power. Misguided policies sustain both.

When social protection is starved and infrastructure is politicized, corruption flourishes. The poor remain clients instead of citizens, and the political class continues to profit from the same cycle of waste and control.

Breaking this system means changing how we spend, not just whom we elect. Transparency, accountability and citizen participation are the real term limits of dynasties. Once corruption stops paying, family politics will wither.

Corruption builds dynasties. It feeds their campaigns, funds their patronage and finances their survival.

The reform that matters is not another law against family power, but a budget system that makes corruption impossible. The nation will only grow when protection means more than concrete and politics stops being a business.

Until then, the water will keep rising, and the same names will keep floating. -CONTRIBUTED

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, expects a flattish growth in energy sales this year, but a rebound is on the horizon in 2026.

Ferdinand Geluz, Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer, said that while the group saw its customer base growing to 8.18 million, which added around 750 gigawatt hours, there was an ‘organic contraction’ as they came off a high base due to El Niño.

Meralco had a strong performance, especially in the early part of 2024, as Filipinos experienced extreme heat, resulting in a surge in electricity consumption.

‘But the good thing is, as we continue our aggressive energization this year, it will some sort of generate a lot of sales next year,’ he told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia Clean Energy Summit 2025 in Singapore.

The executive also said the normalization of temperature after the El Niño and La Niña effects could help stabilize electricity sales.

While the exit of the Philippine offshore gaming operations (Pogos) has also hit its sales, the group stays positive about regaining them as some properties are being repurposed, Geluz said.

‘And, of course, some of the occupancy left by Pogos, some of it will be occupied by office spaces,’ he said.

‘So that being said, we’re still confident that by next year, with the continuous energization that we’re having now, plus some sort of normalization, we’re still confident that next year, [there will be] an increase of around 1,700 MWh, so more than 3 percent,’ the official added.

Meralco said earlier that its consolidated reported net income had climbed 9 percent to P36.82 billion as of end-September.

Consolidated core net income settled at P40 billion, up 14 percent.

The core income of its distribution utility business contributed P21.9 billion to earnings, equivalent to 37 percent of the total.

Meralco delivers power to Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and selected areas in Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.

No major untoward incidents were recorded in this year’s commemoration of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, or ‘Undas,’ according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

‘Nationwide monitoring showed 1,345,116 visitors across public and private cemeteries, with no recorded violations, arrests, or disorder,’ the PNP said in a statement Sunday night.

‘The Undas 2025 commemoration remained generally peaceful with zero major untoward incidents recorded across the country,’ it added.

The national police force, however, noted that seven ‘minor, isolated’ incidents were recorded, including a drowning case in Central Luzon, an illegal gambling case and a grave threat case in Calabarzon, a physical injury incident in the Bicol Region, a theft case, and an illegal drug use case in Metro Manila

‘All incidents were immediately responded to by concerned police stations and did not affect the overall peaceful situation,’ the PNP maintained.

It added that crowd movements in both memorial parks and transport hubs were smooth.

The PNP previously said it was on heightened alert for the commemoration of Undas from Oct. 29 to Nov. 3, adding that over 50,000 police officers were deployed nationwide.

Resty Jane Olaguir continued to shine as Alas Pilipinas girls’ setter, spelling the difference in their 2nd AVC Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship campaign.

A day after she caught the attention of Japan coach Daichi Saegusa, who said Olaguir is ‘a very good setter’ in their 25-17, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20 win to fend off Alas. The 15-year-old setter displayed her brilliant playmaking anew, helping Alas reach the quarterfinal round after sweeping Iran, 25-21, 25-22, 25-22, early Monday (Philippine time) at Princess Sumaya Hall here.

Olaguir credited her impressive play to her coaches – including the ones back home – after preparing her for her first international stint.

‘I’m really happy [to hear that from the Japanese coach] and I’m grateful to all our coaches, especially Coach Wata, who helped me learn how to become a better setter,’ Olaguir told the Inquirer.

Alas U16 coach Edwin Leyva believes their opening day loss to defending champion Japan prepared them to stay focused and be more composed against the Iranians amid an intense duel.

‘The loss actually helped us. We talked to the players about improving their on-court attitude. We can do a lot more if we learn to adjust to both controllable and uncontrollable situations,’ said Leyva.

‘Some of them said the lights were too bright or the crowd was too loud, but we reminded them that those are things we can’t control. What we can change is our attitude and how we respond.’

Olaguir, the playmaker from Gracel Christian College Foundation Taguig, vows to approach Alas’ next game with the same mindset.

‘We’ll give our best and prove that even if we’re small, we can still play with great skill and heart,’ she said.

A fire broke out in a residential area along Lindayag Street in Barangay Asinan, Olongapo City, on Sunday night.

According to a report from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, responders from the Bureau of Fire Protection, the city police, and other emergency teams immediately rushed to the area after receiving the alarm.

The blaze was contained within minutes and was declared out at 10:55 p.m.

No injuries were reported. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage

Residents here began moving to evacuation centers ahead of Typhoon ‘Tino’s’ expected landfall this week, recalling the lessons from Super Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ (international name: Haiyan) that struck the city 12 years ago.

Among the first to leave was Ma. Corazon Liberty Ladrera, who, with her husband and six children, sought shelter at the Tacloban Convention Center (Astrodome) before local authorities issued evacuation orders.

‘We didn’t wait for instructions. We don’t want what happened during Yolanda to happen again,’ she said.

As of Monday morning, 11 families (62 individuals) were staying at the Astrodome, with more expected after Mayor Alfred Romualdez ordered the forced evacuation of residents in coastal and landslide-prone areas.

Moderate to heavy showers were reported by midday.

Romualdez, in a video message, said all city offices and emergency units were on full alert. He also suspended work and classes and imposed a liquor ban as part of precautionary measures.

Other shelters include public schools, barangay halls, and churches.

In Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Mayor Annaliza Gonzales-Kwan said 109 families (1,776 individuals) from 15 coastal villages had been preemptively evacuated to avoid possible storm surges and flooding

The Bacolod City police officer who confessed to killing a woman did it ‘out of jealousy,’ according to the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday.

The victim’s vehicle was found abandoned and bloodied in Hinigaran town, Negros Occidental last Wednesday, the PNP noted. The cop surrendered to the police last Saturday and admitted to killing her.

‘They are in a relationship. According to the suspect’s own admission, she is his girlfriend. Based on the statement he gave as a confession, they were talking inside the said vehicle,’ PNP public information chief Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuaño said, speaking in Filipino, in a press briefing in Camp Crame.

‘He got jealous. He got mad and accidentally shot her,’ Tuaño added.

Tuaño did not name the victim nor the suspect, only identifying her as a former nurse and a single mother; and the cop as a staff sergeant assigned to the Bacolod City Police Substation 5.

He added that the police officer has yet to detail for how long they were having relations.

The PNP also did not mention whether the victim was found.

‘The case for murder was forwarded nung Nov. 2 sa Negros (Occidental) Prosecutors’ Office. Ang hinihintay na lang na dokumento ay yung death certificate ng biktima,’ Tuaño said.

(The case for murder was forwarded last Nov. 2 to the Negros Occidental Prosecutors’ Office. The only document they’re waiting for is the death certificate of the victim.)

He added that proceedings have begun to dismiss the officer from the service/