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Camarines Norte robbery-shooting suspect nabbed after 8 hours

An eight-hour manhunt ended with the arrest of a man suspected of shooting a driver of a public utility during a robbery in Basud town, Camarines Norte, on Tuesday, a belated report says.

Police cornered the suspect at 5:35 p.m. in Purok 1, Barangay Napolidan in the municipality of Lupi, about 43 kilometers from Basud, according to Police Lieutenant Col. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, Bicol police spokesperson.

She said the robbery took place at around 9:30 a.m. along Metal Bridge in Barangay Tuaca. The suspect was commuting in a van bound for Daet from Naga City when he allegedly ordered the driver to stop and declared a holdup.

But the driver suddenly moved the vehicle as the suspect stood near the door, prompting him to shoot the driver in the chest, Calubaquib said.

The suspect then fled on foot toward the mountainous Bicol Natural Park. Police units from Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur launched a coordinated pursuit.

Police recovered about P24,000 in cash, three cellular phones and a wallet from the suspect, which investigators believed could have been taken from the van’s other passengers.

They also seized an Armscor pistol with one round in the chamber, a steel magazine and six additional rounds of ammunition.

Police said the suspect had also been tied to a September 14 shooting incident in Bato town in Camarines Sur.

Mining opponents take rights complaints to PNP headquarters

INDIGENOUS peoples and environmental and human-rights groups took their campaign against large-scale mining to the Philippine National Police headquarters on Thursday, denouncing what they described as police harassment, arrests and the filing of cases against communities resisting mining projects.

Around 30 protesters staged a demonstration outside Camp Crame in Quezon City led by Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), with Indigenous groups including Katribu and Tignayan dagiti Agtutubo ti Kordilyera para iti Demokrasya ken Rang-ay (TAKDER).

The groups called on the PNP and the Marcos administration to investigate alleged human-rights violations against environmental defenders and Indigenous communities opposing mining operations.

Among the cases raised during the protest was the continuing dispute in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, where Indigenous residents and farmers have maintained a barricade against the exploration activities of North Luzon Mineral Resources Corp. (NLMRC).

Residents in Barangay Paquet have been opposing the entry of fuel and other supplies intended for the company’s mineral exploration activities, citing concerns over the possible effects of mining on their farms, water sources and ancestral lands.

The dispute came to a head on August 28 when police dispersed a barricade and arrested 11 protesters who had sought to prevent vehicles carrying fuel and supplies from entering the area.

The 11 were charged with grave coercion and resistance and disobedience to a person in authority. They were released on bail on September 1.

Human Rights Watch said the protesters included members of Indigenous communities and raised concerns over the police action during the dispersal.

Police, however, said they responded to a 911 call reporting that three vehicles carrying fuel and supplies were being prevented from passing through the barricade.

Police Regional Office 2 said officers initially attempted to resolve the standoff through dialogue and repeatedly asked protesters to clear the road, which local authorities had certified as a public road.

Police said they intervened only after efforts to resolve the dispute peacefully failed and some protesters allegedly continued to resist.

Environmental groups dispute the police account and have accused authorities of using law enforcement to suppress community opposition to mining.

Kalikasan PNE and Indigenous groups participating in Thursday’s Camp Crame protest called for an end to what they described as the criminalization of environmental and Indigenous-rights advocates and demanded accountability for alleged abuses against mining-affected communities.

The protesters also called for greater protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral lands and for communities to have a meaningful say in projects affecting their territories.

Thailand warned of fiscal collapse

Thailand’s fiscal system could face a severe crisis within a decade if the government does not urgently undertake reforms, warns a political scientist from Chulalongkorn University.

“The country’s fiscal system can still carry the burden at the moment, and the government can still keep the money circulating. But if no reforms are undertaken, the system will collapse within 10 years, similar to Greece. This is my concern,” said Weerasak Krueathep, a lecturer in the Department of Public Administration at Chulalongkorn University.

Thailand’s fiscal system could face a severe crisis within a decade if the government does not urgently undertake reforms, warns a political scientist from Chulalongkorn University.

A collapse of the fiscal system would affect welfare mechanisms and other government services that rely on budgetary funding. The government could potentially lack the budget to pay for fuel for garbage trucks, said Mr Weerasak at the university seminar.

The country’s increasingly strained fiscal position has been building for a long time, but the government only became concerned about it around two years ago, as it reached a point where authorities could no longer sustain the burden, he noted.

“Public debt is expected to rise over the next two years, with the government likely to raise the public debt ceiling to 80% of GDP, up from 70%. The ceiling is expected to eventually be moved to 100% of GDP within 5-6 years,” said Mr Weerasak.

“If we delay reforming the country’s fiscal system, we may have to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund again, and Thailand could repeat Greece’s experience.”

Once Thailand reaches that point, it could take a decade to restore its economy, he said.

As of July, the government’s public debt was 67.5% of GDP, with the statutory ceiling at 70%. The projected debt levels do not include the possibility of an economic crisis, noted Mr Weerasak.

Another concern is debt within state-owned financial institutions is not included in the government’s calculation of its public debt burden, he said, which conceals government borrowing from these institutions under Section 28 of the State Fiscal and Financial Discipline Act.

URGENT REFORM NEEDED

The government needs to reform the public sector to reduce government expenditure, as some government agencies have overlapping functions, said Mr Weerasak. For example, Vietnam has undertaken public sector reforms that reduced the number of civil servants by 30-40%.

Governments elsewhere have sought to streamline bureaucracy by determining which functions the state should perform. In terms of national security, Thailand has numerous agencies with overlapping responsibilities, including the Internal Security Operations Command, the National Intelligence Agency, and the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, he noted.

Another necessary reform is strengthening checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches, said Mr Weerasak. The executive has considerable authority over public spending, as tax relief measures can be proposed and approved simply through the cabinet. Similarly, the executive can independently use off-budget funds, such as with the TH-AI Passport project, which utilises off-budget funding from the Digital Economy and Society Ministry.

Meanwhile, tax exemptions granted to investment projects promoted by the Board of Investment amount to more than 200 billion baht a year. Yet analyses suggest the economic returns generated by these tax incentives may not be commensurate with the revenue lost by the government, he noted.

TAX BASE EXPANSION

Thailand’s tax base is relatively narrow and outdated. The country has more than 40 million workers, but only around 5 million people pay personal income tax.

The value-added tax (VAT) system also leaves many people and businesses outside the system, while some businesses maintain multiple sets of accounts to evade taxes. Online businesses have mushroomed, yet the tax system has struggled to keep pace with collecting revenue from them, said Mr Weerasak.

Thailand needs to restructure its tax base, he noted. For example, around 20 million people work in agriculture, a sector widely regarded as the backbone of the country, and agricultural income is exempt from personal income tax.

The government should reconsider which types of farmers should qualify for tax exemptions, said Mr Weerasak. For instance, should farmers who own large plots of land be exempt from income tax?

Meanwhile, technology could be used to improve tax monitoring and collection, he said.

Populist policies could also use a rethink. The Prayut Chan-o-cha government distributed state welfare cards to roughly 14 million people, while the National Economic and Social Development Council estimated there were 4.8 million poor people in the country, about one-third the number of people receiving welfare assistance.

Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas recently sought to reduce the number of state welfare card recipients to 9 million, but the move faced opposition. The government needs to be firm and target state assistance for specific groups of beneficiaries rather than distributing it universally, said Mr Weerasak.

From a political perspective, distributing welfare cards to 14 million people during the Prayut government did not translate into more votes for the incumbents, as during the 2023 election Mr Prayut’s party received fewer than 14 million party-list votes.

As for raising the VAT rate, Mr Weerasak said there was no need to rush to hike it in the short term. Instead, the government should accelerate efforts to broaden the tax base.

After the tax base has been comprehensively expanded for 3-4 years, Thailand may have little choice but to raise VAT as it is a major source of government revenue, he noted.

Every increase of one percentage point in the VAT rate could generate as much as 100 billion baht in additional government revenue, said Mr Weerasak. The statutory VAT ceiling is 10%, which is lower than in many European nations, where VAT can reach 20%.

Number, value of approved building permits dip in July

Both the number and value of construction projects covered by approved building permits declined in July, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

PSA said a total of 15,890 building permits worth P47.22 billion were recorded during the month, lower by 1.2 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, from July 2025.

This compares with 16,079 approved building permits valued at P47.66 billion in the same month last year.

Residential buildings accounted for the bulk of approved permits at 9,805, or 61.7 percent of the total.

Single-type houses comprised 8,274 permits, accounting for 84.4 percent of all residential building permits approved during the month.

In terms of value, residential construction projects increased 2.3 percent to P20.79 billion from P20.33 billion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, non-residential buildings accounted for 3,662 permits, or 23 percent of the total.

Commercial buildings made up the majority of non-residential projects with 2,431 permits, equivalent to 66.4 percent of the category.

Despite the increase in permits, the value of non-residential construction projects declined 7.7 percent to P20.48 billion from P22.20 billion a year earlier.

Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) economist John Paolo R. Rivera said the decline in construction activity showed the impact of elevated inflation on construction and property costs, making projects and housing relatively less affordable for consumers.

PSA data showed the average construction cost increased 3.5 percent to P11,995.74 per square meter in July from P11,591.69 a year earlier.

Condominium buildings posted the highest average cost among residential projects at P16,319.96 per square meter, while institutional buildings had the highest average cost among non-residential projects at P13,500.07 per square meter.

Rivera said high borrowing costs were also weighing on both consumers and developers, making housing purchases more expensive and raising the cost of financing new projects.

He also pointed to weak business confidence, which could make private firms less inclined to advance new construction projects, further constraining supply.

‘If they don’t release many projects, then the supply remains to be constrained. Demand is also constrained. So that will constitute the decline in the pricing, in volume, in performance of the property market,’ he told reporters.

Rivera also emphasized that weaker construction activity could weigh on overall economic growth as construction contributes to investment spending and economic activity.

‘Compared to the previous years, together with consumption, its construction is actually beefing up the economy,’ he noted.

‘So in this slowdown, it is actually commensurate that its contribution to our economy will also slow down. Slower construction spending will also result to slower economic expansion,’ he added.

Profitability of Cyprus banking sector falls by 21.1% in first half of 2026

Profitability in Cyprus’ banking sector fell by pound 122 million, or 21.1%, in the first half of 2026, reaching pound 456 million compared with pound 578 million in the corresponding period of 2025, according to aggregate data published on Thursday by the Central Bank of Cyprus.

The decline in profitability was mainly attributed to a loss from foreign exchange differences.

Meanwhile, total assets of the banking sector increased by pound 1.146 billion, or 1.6%, during the second quarter of 2026, reaching pound 71.378 billion at the end of June, from pound 70.232 billion at the end of March. The increase was mainly attributed to higher loans and advances and debt securities.

As regards capital adequacy, the banking sector’s Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio increased by 0.4 percentage points to 25.5% at the end of June 2026, from 25.1% at the end of March.

According to the CBC, the increase was mainly due to higher CET1 capital, which offset the increase in the total risk exposure amount.

Utomi begins talks with Atiku, Obi, others over single opposition candidate

Pat Utomi, professor of Political Economy, is set to lead fresh negotiations with major opposition presidential candidates as pressure mounts for the parties to unite behind a single candidate against President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.

Utomi-led Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) said the consultations with the candidates and their party leaders would be conducted behind closed doors and concluded within two weeks.

James Ezema, media coordinator of MCE, disclosed this in a statement, saying the initiative was designed to address the recurring problem of opposition coalitions agreeing on the need for unity but failing to agree on who should lead them.

Among those expected to participate are Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Seyi Makinde of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Sandy Onor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Agada of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC).

MCE said the process would be based on ‘credibility, transparency, fairness, due process and a level playing field’, with participating candidates required to commit to respecting the eventual outcome.

The movement said its criteria would include national acceptability, competence, integrity, leadership profile, policy orientation and capacity to unite diverse interests.

‘The Nigerian people deserve more than a coalition of political personalities. They deserve a coalition of ideas, competence, values and a coherent ideological programme,’ MCE said.

The initiative comes amid separate efforts by opposition figures and groups to forge a common platform ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Real Estate investor expands property portfolio across US, Africa

Real estate investor, philanthropist and entrepreneur Musa Sangarie, popularly known as Mansa the Investor, has continued to expand his property portfolio through investments in the United States and several African countries, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

Sangarie, an American with ties to Nigeria and Sierra Leone, has reported investments in more than 500 properties, comprising land, houses and estates.

His reported real estate holdings span the United States, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana and other African countries.

Beyond real estate, Sangarie’s business interests span healthcare, financial technology, food delivery, transportation and mobility, communications, logistics, renewable energy, consumer products, technology and media.

His affiliated ventures include Sanga Group, LLC, Sanga Corporation, Inc., Sanga Eats Limited, Sanga Technologies, Sanga Motors and Prime Elite.

The businesses were established at different times: Sanga Motors and Prime Elite in 2015, Sanga Corporation in 2016, Sanga Group and Sanga Technologies in 2019, and Sanga Eats in 2023.

Sangarie has held various positions across the ventures, including founder, investor, chairman and business strategist.

In August 2026, Sangarie sponsored the Cheetah Cup 2027, which organisers describe as an African youth scouting tournament scheduled for June 2027 in Ghana.

The tournament is expected to feature 32 clubs from 13 African countries, alongside more than 20 European scouts.

Later in 2026, Sangarie acquired two landed properties on Lagos Island for real estate investment, according to information about his investment activities.

The acquisitions added to his reported property holdings in Nigeria and formed part of his broader real estate investments.

Nigerian businesses must pair AI adoption with stronger workplace culture – NWCCA

Nigerian businesses must embrace artificial intelligence to become faster and more competitive without allowing the technology to weaken trust and human connection in the workplace, Deji Osasona, the Chief Executive Officer of WINBOX (The Behavioural Centre) and convener of the Nigeria Workplace Culture Conference and Awards (NWCCA), has said.

Speaking at NWCCA 2.0 in Lagos, Osasona said AI was already transforming work while employee expectations were changing, making workplace culture increasingly important to business performance.

‘Technology transforms how work gets done, but culture determines how people choose to do it,’ he said.

According to him, organisations must adopt AI without losing the humanity, trust and connection that enable employees and businesses to thrive.

‘AI is already here. Our challenge is to embrace its power without losing the humanity, trust and connection that make organisations thrive,’ Osasona said.

His comments set the tone for discussions at the conference, themed The Adaptive and Trusted Workplace: Building Human-Centred, AI-Enabled Workplaces in Today’s Changing World.

In his keynote, Obadare Adewale, founder and CEO of Digital Encode, said AI adoption had moved beyond theory, with businesses increasingly using generative AI and AI agents to perform tasks across functions.

He said the technology would change jobs and workforce structures, making AI literacy and reskilling increasingly important for employees and employers.

‘The future workplace won’t be won by the most automated company. It will be won by the most adaptive and trusted company that requires putting humans at the centre and AI at the service,’ Adewale said.

He urged human resources professionals to understand how AI systems are deployed, identify potential biases and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place as businesses integrate the technology into their operations.

Panelists also warned that businesses must manage the human consequences of automation.

Ayuba Gadzama, General manager H.R, BUA foods, said some processes in his organisation had been automated, but workers were being trained to operate the new technology rather than simply displaced.

He said transparency would be critical as businesses adopt AI because fear of job losses could undermine employees’ trust in the technology.

Emmanuel Michael, Director of Human Resources, Eko Hotels and Suites, said AI could handle repetitive and transactional activities, but human expertise remained necessary to assess its output.

‘AI can hallucinate and produce wrong statistics,’ Michael said, stressing the need for employees with sufficient domain knowledge to validate AI-generated work.

Damilare Babalola, representing Kunbi Adeoti, Chief people experience officer, Leadway Assurance, said organisations should also see AI as a tool for augmenting employees and redesigning jobs rather than simply reducing headcount.

He cited an organisation that initially planned to recruit additional engineers but, after conducting a skills-gap analysis, introduced AI tools to support its existing workforce.

Osasona said the broader challenge for Nigerian businesses was to build workplaces that could adapt to technological change while maintaining employee trust and engagement.

‘Culture is a leadership responsibility. It is a business responsibility. And increasingly, it is a national competitiveness imperative,’ he said.

As AI takes over more workplace tasks, Nigerian businesses face a choice between simply automating work and redesigning it around people and technology. Speakers at the conference argued that the latter will determine whether AI becomes a source of sustainable productivity or another source of workplace distrust.

Tinubu moves Digital Free Zones to implementation stage

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has moved Nigeria’s Digital Free Zones initiative to its next phase, as the Renewed Hope administration seeks to make it easier for Nigerian technology and service companies to raise global capital, employ Nigerians and build for international markets without moving their businesses and intellectual property abroad.

The President, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said the initiative will also create opportunities for more young Nigerians to work for global companies from Nigeria and expand the domestic ecosystem of engineers, developers, designers, lawyers, accountants and other professionals who provide services to growing digital businesses.

‘Nigeria has the talent, enterprise and ambition to build companies that can compete anywhere in the world. Our responsibility as a government is to ensure that Nigerians do not have to leave Nigeria or rely on other jurisdictions to realise that potential.’

The statement stressed that the government wants more of the economic value created by Nigerian talent to remain in the country through jobs, investment, professional services, intellectual property and growing Nigerian businesses.

President Tinubu has consequently directed the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, in her capacity as Vice-Chairman and Implementation Coordinator of the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones, to work with the Itana Innovation project and the Committee to develop the roadmap for the full launch of the initiative within 180 days.

The President established and chairs the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones as part of efforts to modernise Nigeria’s free zone framework, created more than three decades ago, for the requirements of the digital economy.

The statement recalled that the Africa Finance Corporation is backing the $500 million Itana Innovation project at Alaro City, Lagos. The project will combine an enabling policy environment with an innovation campus, access to capital and ecosystem services designed to help African startups build at scale and retain more of the value they create on the continent.

‘For too long, some of our most promising young entrepreneurs have felt compelled to establish their companies and intellectual property abroad to access global capital and markets. I do not accept that this must remain the case.

‘I want the next generation of African technology, finance and service companies to be built, headquartered and scaled to the world from Nigerian soil,’ the President said.

President Tinubu said the administration’s ambition extends beyond developing technology parks.

‘We want African companies to be incorporated in Nigeria, financed here and governed from here, while serving markets across Africa and the world.

‘I want a young Nigerian in Kano, Enugu, Warri, Minna, Maiduguri or Ibadan to be able to work for a global company without leaving home, and I want our founders to raise capital globally while their companies and intellectual property remain in Nigeria.

‘When these businesses grow here, they employ Nigerians, use Nigerian professional services and retain more of the value they create in our economy,’ he said.

President Tinubu said the initiative will also position Nigeria to take advantage of the rapid expansion of Africa’s digital economy and the growth of digitally enabled trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.

‘Nigeria has the talent and the market to reshape Africa’s place in the global technology and digital economy value chain.

‘This is what our Renewed Hope commitment to a digital economy looks like in practice, and this is how we transform reform into opportunities.

‘We made a promise to Nigerians. We are keeping it,’ President Tinubu said.

PHL told: Tap digital, service economy

THE Philippines must tap the digital and service economy more aggressively to accelerate its climb toward high-income status and avoid getting stuck in the middle-income trap, the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) said on Thursday.

ADBI Dean and CEO Bambang Brodjonegoro said the main challenge for the Philippines and other upper-middle-income economies today is adapting to the digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) while maintaining the economic foundations needed to sustain growth.

‘AI itself actually is part of the digital economy and also part of service economy, meaning that if the Asian countries would like to escape the middle-income trap, they need to switch quickly to the service economy while still maintaining the foundation of manufacturing,’ Brodjonegoro told reporters on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Public Policy Conference.

The country’s digital economy already accounted for 9.8 percent of the total gross domestic product in 2025, generating P2.74 trillion in gross value added, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

It also employed 10.39 million people, equivalent to 21.2 percent of total employment.

Services, meanwhile, accounted for 64.6 percent of the Philippine economy in the second quarter of 2026, up from 63.3 percent a year earlier, although growth in the sector slowed to 4.5 percent from 6.9 percent.

Brodjonegoro said the shift toward digital and service activities is taking place under a much different global environment from the one faced by earlier Asian economies that successfully moved into the high-income group.

He noted that economies such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore benefited from manufacturing, export-oriented growth, and a more favorable geopolitical environment.

Today, however, geopolitical and geoeconomic fragmentation has changed the environment for developing economies.

‘There is no special interest from the bigger economy to help the middle-income Asia to be high-income,’ Brodjonegoro said, adding that a country now has to largely ‘fight for itself.’

Unlike during the Cold War, when major powers had stronger strategic incentives to support allied Asian economies, today’s global economy is more fragmented, he said.

This means upper-middle-income economies have less external support as they seek to move up the income ladder.

At the same time, the ADBI chief noted that today’s economies face challenges that earlier Asian economies did not confront at the same scale, particularly AI and climate change.

Brodjonegoro said AI is changing the role of services in economic development, giving Asian economies an opportunity to capture new sources of value through digital transformation while retaining their existing economic foundations.

Climate change, meanwhile, is putting additional pressure on public resources.

Countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia are experiencing more typhoons, floods and other hydrometeorological disasters, requiring spending on relief and reconstruction.

These pressures mean the path toward high-income status is now more difficult, Brodjonegoro said.

‘In general, you will see that opportunities are maybe the same or a bit shrinking, but the cost or effort will be much harder,’ Brodjonegoro said.

‘I would say that the challenge of current upper-middle-income Asia will be much more difficult than the past upper-middle-income Asia.’

The Philippines entered the World Bank’s upper-middle-income category on July 1 after its gross national income (GNI) per capita reached $4,850 in 2025, exceeding the $4,635 threshold for the income group.