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Parts of Cavite and Laguna are forecast to experience thunderstorms, reported the state weather bureau on Thursday, Oct. 9.

In its 11: 45 a.m. advisory, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said moderate to heavy showers with lightning and strong winds are expected in specified areas within the next two hours.

The advisory covered the Cavite towns of Tagaytay, Alfonso, General Emilio Aguinaldo, Magallanes, Maragondon, and Ternate.

In Laguna, the affected towns are Luisiana, Majayjay, Liliw, Nagcarlan, Rizal, San Pablo, and Alaminos.

Similar conditions are already occurring in Batangas and Quezon, which may persist for 2 hours and affect nearby areas.

Meanwhile, in a separate update, Pagasa reported that Tropical Storm Nakiri slightly intensified as it approached the northeastern boundary of the Philippine Area of Responsibility, although it is not expected to have any direct effect on the Philippines.

Rey Remogat’s hot shooting night for University of the Philippines ended abruptly after being whistled for a flagrant foul penalty two during a UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament clash on Wednesday.

In the dying seconds of the Fighting Maroons’ 83-69 win over Ateneo, Remogat was ejected for a hard foul on Ateneo swingman Ian Espinosa during a fast-break play.

The former University of the East guard, though, said there wasn’t any malice in his attempt to stop a runaway bucket.

‘I just wanted the play to stop for a dead ball because I thought they weren’t going to shoot. I just really went for the ball,’ he explained at Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday.

Before getting thrown out, Remogat was balling out with 20 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Based on UAAP house rules, Remogat would automatically be dealt a suspension and a disqualification from winning any awards.

But with new rules introduced this season, all unsportsmanlike fouls now reviewable by the league board, giving Remogat a chance to appeal.

Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin also came to Remogat’s defense and shrugged the foul off as just another ‘tough and physical’ play.

‘UP is tough and physical, they have been since Goldwin (Monteverde) has been there. Nobody in our dugout is crying about that,’ the veteran tactician said.

‘I didn’t watch the replay but I believe Rey. I believe it was a hard foul with purpose to stop the fast break but I seriously doubt that there was malice,’ he added.

The magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Cebu last week reportedly killed 74 people, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Thursday.

In its 6 a.m. report, the NDRRMC said that 74 deaths and 559 injuries were pending validation, while no persons were reported missing.

In a Viber message to reporters, the agency said that the two latest fatalities were recorded in Tabogon and Medellin, Cebu.

The agency also said that the deadly earthquake has affected 189,620 families, or 666,439 people.

It added that of this figure, 601 families, or 2,578 people, were served inside six evacuation centers (EC), while 990 families, or 5,235 persons, were receiving assistance outside ECs.

Aside from this, the earthquake damaged 71,996 houses and 706 infrastructure facilities in Central Visayas.

Additionally, eight road sections and 20 bridges were affected.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) initially measured the earthquake’s magnitude at 6.7 before revising it to 6.9.

The earthquake occurred at 9:59 p.m. last September 30, with its epicenter located 21 kilometers northeast of Bogo City, Cebu.

Phivolcs also said that the earthquake generated 9,204 aftershocks as of Wednesday noon. Of these, 1,682 were plotted, while 38 were felt.

Phivolcs has also identified the fault that caused the earthquake, with its rapid response team locating the inland extension of the newly named Bogo Bay Fault in Sitio Looc, Brgy. Nailon, Bogo City.

It said that ‘the team observed fault scarps, open cracks, and small pressure mounds within a 2-meter-wide deformation zone.’

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has asked internet service providers (ISPs) to block more than 10 websites that allegedly stream Filipino films illegally.

The IPOPHL made these requests following complaints from entertainment company Viva Communications Inc. and its streaming platform Vivamax.

The first request sought the blocking of 13 FREECINE-related sites. These include freecineplus.com, freecine.ph, freecineph.com, freecine.com.co and freecine.site.

A second request was filed against ASYAMINIK (asyaminik.com).

Pirated titles

According to the complaints, FREECINE has been illegally distributing its copyrighted titles through its mobile app without any license or authorization. These include ‘Bedspace,’ ‘Dilig’ and ‘Room Service.’

Viva also said in its filing that its shows, such as ‘Chasing in the Wild,’ ‘Safe Skies Archer,’ ‘The Rain in España’ and ‘Avenues of the Diamond,’ are illegally shown on the ASYAMINIK site.

‘The FREECINE application contains unauthorized copies of cinematographic works, including those owned by them and allows users to stream or download these for free,’ the complaint read.

‘The content was illegally made available for viewing to the public via online streaming within the pages of ASYAMINIK and full copies of the content could be downloaded within ASYAMINIK for later or offline viewing,’ it said.

The company said these acts are an infringement of Viva’s copyright and other intellectual property rights.

Voluntary blocking

The IPOPHL lodges the requests based on the agency’s Memorandum Circular No. 2023-025 or the Rules on Voluntary Administrative Site Blocking.

The memo states that an ISP should implement an effective mechanism to block access to a pirate website within 48 hours upon receipt of the site-blocking request.

It defined a pirate website as any site that features or facilitates copyright infringement, or that contains goods, materials or contents distributed without the consent of the copyright owner, right holder or those authorized by the right holder.

First Gen Corp. is strengthening its presence in Mindanao as it bagged a new power supply deal for a cold storage facility.

Mets Cold Storage Services, Inc. (Mets) tapped the Lopez-led firm to energize its warehouse in Cagayan de Oro City, the latter said on Wednesday.

Currently, the Mets facility has a capacity of more than 7,100 metric tons of cold storage space.

Under the agreement, First Gen will provide up to 2,050 kilowatts in support of the facility’s expansion.

The electricity supply will come from First Gen’s Mt. Apo Geothermal Power Plant in Cotabato. Energy Development Corp. operates this facility.

‘We are pleased to partner with First Gen to reduce the energy intensity of our cold storage operations,’ Mets chief operating officer Donna Robles said in a joint statement.

‘This move will reduce not just our energy cost but our carbon footprint as well, while providing a stable power supply,’ Robles said.

Track record

With about 15 years of experience in the market, Mets has already scaled up its operations with facilities in Cavite, Bulacan, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.

‘Cold storage is critical for ensuring safety and sanitation across the supply chain for food and even medicines,’ said Arlene Sy-Soriano, assistant vice president and head of sales and engagement at First Gen.

The bulk of First Gen’s renewable energy portfolio is from geothermal power, reaching about 1,200 megawatts (MW).

The group’s hydro, wind and solar projects have a combined capacity of more than 400 MW.

Portfolio target

First Gen has set an ambitious goal of growing its portfolio to 13,000 MW by 2030. This push includes interests in natural gas plants.

To hit this goal, First Gen’s top officials said the firm would heavily bank on expansion in the geothermal power segment. This, given that geothermal power generators can run round the clock to meet minimum demand.

The group finished the first half of 2025 with an almost flat growth in net income at P8.6 billion. Gains from its hydro were not enough to offset its weaker geothermal power and gas businesses.

The House committee tasked to review amendments to the country’s spending plan for next year seemed to have cranked out an additional P56.6 billion for the education sector, setting up the proposed 2026 national budget as the largest education funding plan in Philippine history.

‘This is unprecedented,’ said Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing, chair of the House appropriations committee, during Wednesday’s meeting of the budget amendments review subcommittee (BARSc). ‘This is the first time in history. This will be the highest education budget in history.’

Suansing said the P56.6-billion increase covered, among others, an additional P35 billion for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) basic education facilities, P414 million for its computerization program, and P4 billion to cover part of the government’s three-year funding shortfall for state universities and colleges (SUCs).

SUCs would also receive an extra P1.8 billion for campus infrastructure, while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is set to gain P3.6 billion more for its Training for Work Scholarship Program and Special Training for Employment Program.

These augmentations are on top of the P1.224-trillion education allocation in the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

If approved by the Senate and retained in its reconciled version of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill, this would mean that the education sector would receive P1.280 trillion in total.

Over 4 percent of GDP

The increases, Suansing added, would push education spending past 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) a long-recommended international benchmark.

Under the Constitution, the education sector was identified as the proper priority in public spending, but the rule was barely followed in previous years because military modernization and other spending needs were prioritized.

On Sept. 22, the BARSc had already moved to augment the budget of several agencies, including the education cluster, using the P255 billion originally cut from the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) flood control budget.

At the time, the education cluster, composed of the DepEd, Commission on Higher Education, SUCs, Tesda, and Philippine Science High School System (PSHSS), had already gotten a P36-billion boost.

However, ‘once the agencies saw which ones were included in the BARSc proposal, some of them came back to us and said if you’re allocating this much to our agency, can we ask for funding in this item instead, as this is the more urgent priority,’ Suansing said.

The BARSc constituted for the first time in Congress’ history is part of Suansing’s reforms to make the budget process more transparent and accessible and avoid a repeat of the 2025 General Appropriations Act.

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck La Union at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported.

In its bulletin, Phivolcs said that the earthquake’s epicenter was located 2 kilometers northeast of Pugo town at a depth of 10 kilometers.

Intensity V was felt in Baguio City, while instrumental Intensity III was felt in Aringay, La Union; Bontoc, Mountain Province; Sison, Pangasinan; Intensity II in San Fernando, La Union; Nampicuan, Nueva Ecija, and Dagupan City; and Intensity I in Lingayen and Urdaneta, Pangasinan.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) destroyed P16.08 billion worth of illegal drugs by burning them at a waste management facility in Trece Martires City, Cavite, on Thursday.

The drugs were seized in anti-drug operations and ordered destroyed by the courts handling their respective cases after serving as evidence, the PDEA said in a statement.

According to the agency, the destroyed drugs included:

2,336,482.63 grams of shabu (crystal meth)

529,906.12 grams of marijuana

3,067.69 grams of ecstasy

8,790.88 grams of cocaine

11,315.99 grams of ketamine

10,146.26 grams of nimetazepam, a hypnotic drug

41.56 grams of toluene, a clear liquid that occurs naturally in crude oil and the tolu tree

4.79 grams of opium poppy

0.58 grams of nitrazepam, another hypnotic drug

0.17 grams of diazepam, an anxiety medication

4,506.72 milliliters of liquid marijuana

851.13 milliliters of liquid shabu

8,760 milliliters of ephedrine, a stimulant; and

5,000 grams of assorted surrendered expired medicines

‘The destruction process is always done in full view of the public guided by the principle of transparency and accountability to address issues of drug recycling,’ PDEA Director-General Usec. Isagani Nerez said in the statement.

South Korean dancer-actress Dasuri Choi encountered unfortunate incidents during her Europe trip, after she lost her luggage to thieves and ‘got hacked’ apparently after she used a public Wi-Fi in France.

Choi narrated her experience through a video on her TikTok page on Tuesday, Oct. 7, showing herself at a train station in Marseille.

‘I took a train. Nawala ‘yung isang luggage ko, ‘yung old one na dinala ko from the Philippines,’ she said. (One of my pieces of luggage got lost, the old one which I brought from the Philippines.)

‘Yesterday, I had this feeling [of wanting] to buy one more luggage, ‘di ko alam kung bakit. So bumili ako. Bale dalawa na ‘yung luggage ko,’ she explained. (I don’t know why but I did buy one. So I had two pieces of luggage.)

Choi said she put her P17,000 worth of winter clothes into her old luggage, then her important belongings into her new one.

‘It’s really hard to solo-travel,’ she said. ‘I don’t know when they got it. Hindi ako nakatulog e (I did not fall asleep).’

She then advised fellow travelers to always check their luggage every time the train stops at a station to unload passengers.

‘Be careful na lang. You have to always check your luggage,’ she added. ‘It’s my fault.’

At the latter part of her video, Choi showed her remaining luggage attached to a railing with a lock and said, ‘Sige, try mo ulit magnakaw.’ (Try to take it again.)

In the caption, Choi added, ‘[There’s more, guys]. I got hacked in both BPI and GCash after using the train’s public Wi-Fi. I never opened both app!’

Expressing dismay over the incidents, Choi wrote, ‘Europe is so beautiful, but the security system?’

Hindi pa tapos guys.. I got hacked in both BPI and GCash after using the train’s public Wi-Fi. I never opened both app! Europe is so beautiful, but the security system?.

It was not immediately disclosed if she had already recovered her e-wallets. Choi, based on her recent social media posts, had already left France and had arrived in Switzerland.

Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin found no excuses for his team’s collapse in the 83-69 loss to University of the Philippines in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday.

The Blue Eagles saw their four-game winning streak snapped with Baldwin saying his team couldn’t execute a way to stop a well-prepared Fighting Maroons side.

‘There wasn’t a letdown, just a lack of execution of the game plan,’ he said at Mall of Asia. ‘I went into the dugout at half time and I was wondering, did they really prepare well for us?’

After holding a slim cushion at the half, 40-38, UP took advantage of Ateneo’s problems in the second half with Harold Alarcon in the driver’s seat.

UP FIghting Maroons’ Harold Alarcon during a game against Ateneo Blue Eagles in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

‘I think Harold just got on a run and those coaches rode that a little bit. We didn’t answer the call. The adjustments we made weren’t effective and you saw a really good UP team in the second half,’ Baldwin said.

Alarcon ended up with 17 points, five assists and four rebounds to break the Blue Eagles’ four-game win streak.

Ateneo allowed UP to score 24 points in the third quarter, which proved to be the runaway for the Fighting Maroons.

The same pattern happened in the Blue Eagles’ close 81-74 win over La Salle.

After leading by as much as 31 points, Ateneo gave up 36 fourth-quarter points to the Green Archers and nearly blew the game.

Ateneo survived that second-half meltdown, but wasn’t able to pull off the same feat against UP.

‘I don’t think it’s a letdown on our part. It was just UP elevating their game while we were still lacking composure without discipline,’ Baldwin said.

The Blue Eagles look to reclaim their winning ways on Saturday when they take on University of Santo Tomas in their own backyard at Loyola Heights.