Category: Business Mirror

The Philippine automotive market struggled to entice consumers to purchase new cars in January to July mainly due to geopolitical tensions, but its performance in the previous month gave the sector a much-needed shot in the arm.

Data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed that vehicle sales reached 241,725 units in the seven-month period, down 10.2 percent from 269,207 units a year earlier.

Car companies heaved a sigh of relief in July, however, as Campi-TMA members sold 37,319 vehicles during the month, just a tad below the 38,295 units recorded in July 2025 and 0.6 percent higher than June’s 37,079 units.

‘With this…growth, the industry is riding on a good momentum. We are hopeful that the positive trend will continue for the remainder of the year,’ Campi President Jose Maria Atienza said.

Despite the July improvement, most vehicle categories recorded weaker sales compared with last year. Passenger car sales fell 11 percent to 47,856 units from 53,767 units. The segment accounted for 19.8 percent of total industry sales.

Sales of commercial vehicles, which accounted for 80.20 percent of the market, declined 10 percent to 193,869 units from 215,440 units.

Within the commercial vehicle segment, Asian utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles posted a 7.9-percent drop to 43,706 units from 47,452 units. Light commercial vehicles slid 10.4 percent to 144,652 units from 161,388 units.

Light-duty trucks and buses plunged 14.2 percent to 3,388 units from 3,948 units, while medium-duty trucks and buses dropped 12.3 percent to 1,770 units from 2,019 units.

Heavy-duty trucks and buses saw the sharpest contraction, with sales plunging 44.2 percent to 353 units from 633 units a year earlier.

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. led Campi-TMA member brands in July with 17,797 units. Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. followed with 6,271 units, while Suzuki Philippines Inc. recorded 1,689 units.

Electric performance

The clearer shift in the market was in electrified vehicles (xEVs), with sales continuing to expand rapidly even as the overall market remained below last year’s level.

Sales of xEVs-covering battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)-reached 38,286 units in January to July, 136.4 percent higher than the 16,195 units sold in the same period last year.

Their share of total industry sales consequently more than doubled to 15.84 percent from 6.02 percent.

July alone accounted for 7,086 xEV sales, up 161.8 percent from 2,707 units a year earlier and 3.6 percent higher than June’s 6,843 units.

Atienza said xEVs accounted for 29.5 percent of the market in July, up 18 percentage points from the same month last year.

‘The shift to electrification continues to accelerate, with xEVs accounting for 29.5 percent of the market last July. This is up 18 points from same month last year,’ he said.

HEVs remained the largest electrified-vehicle segment for the seven-month period, with sales rising 55.9 percent to 20,716 units from 13,290 units.

BEV sales, meanwhile, jumped 300.3 percent to 10,476 units from 2,617 units, while PHEV sales surged 2,363.2 percent to 7,094 units from just 288 units.

For July alone, HEVs accounted for 41.83 percent of xEV sales, followed by BEVs at 35.56 percent and PHEVs at 22.61 percent.

The figures cover BEVs, HEVs and PHEVs recognized by the Department of Energy as of August 10.

More than one in six construction establishments and projects monitored in Metro Manila were initially found non-compliant with occupational safety and health standards (OSHS), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported.

The regional office recorded an initial OSHS compliance rate of 83.09 percent following this year’s High-Impact, High-Visibility Inspection (HIHVI) among construction establishments and projects in the National Capital Region.

DOLE-NCR conducted 52 inspections, 698 monitoring activities and eight joint monitoring inspections covering 15,692 construction workers.

Of the establishments and projects monitored, 580 were found compliant with OSHS while 118 were initially identified as non-compliant.

The findings prompted the regional office to stress the need for sustained inspection, corrective action, technical assistance and monitoring in the construction sector.

‘The accomplishment particularly highlights the continuing importance of occupational safety and health enforcement in the construction industry,’ DOLE-NCR said in its report.

The 118 establishments and projects initially found non-compliant will undergo corrective measures through formal examination by an authorized labor inspector.

DOLE-NCR said compliance cannot be treated as a ‘one-time’ accomplishment because construction activities, working conditions, equipment, work locations and hazards may change as projects progress.

The joint monitoring and inspection activities were conducted with the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines, Bureau of Fire Protection, Department of the Interior and Local Government and Department of Public Works and Highways.

DOLE-NCR reminded employers and contractors to establish occupational safety and health systems, including construction safety and health programs, designation of OSH personnel and provision of personal protective equipment.

Employers were also reminded to install safety signs, barricades and safe scaffolding and observe electrical safety, lockout/tagout procedures and safe lifting and crane operations.

Other requirements include emergency preparedness, first-aid and medical facilities, sanitary and welfare facilities, safe access and egress, and other site-specific hazard controls.

On general labor standards, DOLE-NCR reminded employers to provide applicable wages, including overtime, holiday and premium pay, as well as rest periods and statutory benefits.

Construction workers should also be covered by the Social Security System, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, while employers must maintain proper employment records and comply with other applicable employment conditions.

As a follow-through to the inspection, DOLE-NCR held a forum where construction workers were briefed on social protection programs and benefits from Pag-IBIG Fund, the Employees’ Compensation Commission, SSS and PhilHealth.

Introduction: We have come a long way, but are we there yet?

It has been more than a decade since RR No. 2-2013, or the Philippine TP Regulations, was formally established. Much has changed since then-from the audit techniques introduced under Revenue Audit Memorandum Order No. 1-2019 to BIR Form 1709, which requires certain taxpayers to disclose their related-party transactions. There is certainly an intention on the part of the tax administration to go after MNEs and domestic enterprises that may be taking advantage of related-party relationships to reduce their tax payments.

However, while we have come a long way, we still have a lot of catching up to do. While neighboring ASEAN members are already implementing their own versions of Pillar Two, the Philippines is only beginning to move in this direction. In August 2025, the BIR also presented draft regulations for a formal Advance Pricing Agreement program.

These are significant developments and, if I may say, long overdue. But the bigger question remains: Is the Philippines ready?

APA: A welcome development toward a more mature TP framework

An Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) is an arrangement between a taxpayer and the tax authorities to determine in advance how transactions between related companies will be priced for tax purposes. While prevalent mostly for cross-border transactions, it can also be entered into domestically through a domestic APA.

Controlled transactions covered by an APA generally cannot be audited by the BIR for a period of five years. Therefore, an APA provides tax certainty, especially for complex intercompany transactions. It also helps prevent double taxation since the contracting parties-or jurisdictions-are bound to respect and implement its provisions.

Among these benefits, I would like to emphasize the first one: tax certainty.

Transfer pricing involves considerable professional judgment. Taxpayers and the BIR may arrive at different conclusions despite evaluating similar facts and circumstances. They may disagree on the characterization of the entity, the most appropriate transfer pricing method, the tested party, whether domestic or regional comparables are appropriate, or even the arm’s-length outcome.

A taxpayer can therefore prepare extensive documentation today, only to discover several years later during an audit that the BIR has taken an opposing position. If transfer pricing is inherently judgment-driven, certainty may be just as important as having the right rules.

An effective APA program could provide this certainty and prevent burdensome and lengthy disputes. It could also allow the BIR to focus more resources on tax collection and other responsibilities that matter, while greater predictability could mean a great deal to investors considering the Philippines for their next ventures.

But an APA should not be viewed simply as another addition to the BIR’s transfer pricing arsenal. Its success should ultimately be measured by whether it makes the tax system more predictable and efficient.

The bigger question: Are we modernizing tax administration-or simply adding more compliance?

The continued development of Philippine transfer pricing is certainly welcome. But modernization should not automatically mean more compliance, more assessments, or more burden on taxpayers. If an APA program represents the next stage of Philippine transfer pricing, the more important question is whether our tax administration is ready to implement it efficiently.

The draft RR indicates that the program shall be administered by an Advance Pricing Arrangement Division, meaning that the BIR will establish a separate team to handle APAs. I wonder, however, how feasible this would be, knowing fully well that establishing a transfer pricing team is already a difficult feat considering the scarcity of resources. Adding another team could mean reallocating the limited manpower currently available across different divisions.

Another consideration is the timeline. The draft RR states that the BIR will endeavor to conclude APAs, whether UAPAs or BAPAs, within 12 to 24 months. Even in mature tax jurisdictions, it generally takes an average of three years to finalize a single bilateral deal. The proposed timeline is optimistic and may be difficult to achieve given the resources and coordination required.

I also have reservations about the procedures. These arrangements require sophisticated transfer pricing practices, careful functional and economic analyses, and, particularly for bilateral APAs, coordination between tax authorities. Considering where we currently stand in the development of our transfer pricing practice, I am quite worried about how these challenges could impact taxpayers hoping to avail themselves of the program.

An APA that requires years of negotiation and creates additional compliance issues for taxpayers would only defeat one of the primary purposes for which it was established: tax certainty.

The government undoubtedly has a legitimate responsibility to protect the Philippine tax base. However, better tax administration should not simply mean imposing additional requirements on taxpayers already within the system. As our tax rules become increasingly sophisticated, equal attention should be given to improving collection efficiency, simplifying compliance, reducing unnecessary administrative friction, ensuring consistency in the application of tax rules, and broadening the tax base.

This should also be viewed from an investment perspective. Businesses consider not only tax rates and incentives, but also tax certainty, compliance costs, predictability, and the risk of prolonged disputes when deciding where to invest or expand. A sophisticated tax regime may lose some of its appeal if it comes with greater uncertainty and administrative burden.

A stronger tax system should not only be better at collecting taxes. It should also help create an environment where there is more economic activity from which taxes can sustainably be collected.

If implemented properly, an APA should not become another layer of compliance, but rather a mechanism that provides certainty, prevents lengthy disputes, allows the BIR to use its resources more efficiently, and strengthens investor confidence.

4. Final thoughts: The real ‘next big move’

APAs could represent an important milestone in Philippine transfer pricing. But simply introducing an APA mechanism does not automatically bring the Philippines to the level of more mature TP jurisdictions. The real measure of success will be how it works in practice.

Can it provide certainty? Can it prevent lengthy disputes? Can it be administered efficiently? And can it improve the investment environment rather than simply add another layer of compliance?

The Philippines does not have to choose between protecting its tax base and remaining attractive to investors. A mature tax system should be capable of doing both.

Perhaps the Philippines’ next big move in transfer pricing should not simply be adopting more sophisticated rules, but building a system that taxpayers can understand, tax authorities can administer efficiently, and investors can trust.

The author is a Senior Manager of the International Tax and Transfer Pricing Unit of Du-Baladad and Associates (BDB Law) (www.bdblaw.com.ph).

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal, or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported, therefore, by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at joannelesley.padilla@bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 local 310.

Londoners are facing historic levels of subsidence risk after five successive heat waves dried out the clay soil on which much of the city is built.

Insurance claims tied to subsidence-a phenomenon associated with bouts of hot, dry weather that shrink the soil and destabilize the foundations on which buildings stand-hit a record last quarter, according to data provided by the Association of British Insurers. On average, households claimed £20,000 ($27,200) for the risk, more than in any previous quarter and a 15 percent jump from the same period in 2025, the ABI said.

Laura Hughes, head of general insurance at the ABI, says the upward trend is likely to continue. ‘We expect to see more subsidence cases because of the hot weather,’ she said in an interview.

Londoners have taken to social media to express their dismay. On Reddit, people offered personal accounts telling of ‘horrendous cracking’ in their homes, and ‘doors sticking’ due to subsidence. One said it was ‘genuinely scary’ to discover that their kitchen had moved as the foundations of the home shifted.

Another Reddit user described the response of a structural engineer they contacted for help. ‘Before I could finish explaining he laughed and said, ‘You and 20,000 other people in southeast London’,’ the person wrote.

‘It’s crazy, what’s happening now,’ said Otso Lahtinen, chief executive of Geobear, an engineering firm that’s regularly called in to repair damage caused by subsidence. ‘It’s the new norm, and it seems it will happen more often in the next 20-30 years.’

Data provided by Aviva Plc show that the areas of London that are most at risk are some of the UK capital’s most sought after, namely the boroughs of Westminster, as well as Kensington and Chelsea. While subsidence has been affecting homes in the British capital for decades, climate change is making it worse. London clay is especially sensitive to fluctuations in moisture, expanding when wet and contracting when dry.

The threat of subsidence in the UK is concentrated in and around London as well as in parts of the southeast. In the four years through 2025, insurance payouts for subsidence damage soared roughly 90 percent to reach a record £297 million, according to data provided by the ABI.

The most vulnerable properties are Victorian or Edwardian homes that were built directly onto the upper layers of London clay. By contrast, modern office buildings in the City of London and Canary Wharf have much deeper foundations and are therefore less exposed to such risks.

Subsidence is part of a long list of heat-related challenges to which the UK is now struggling to adapt. Over the past months, extreme heat has forced schools to close, led bus drivers to go on strike, and seen banks relax in-office work requirements to protect staff from unbearably hot commutes. Most of England has been gripped by drought and the country’s hospitals have shown signs of buckling under the strain.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that the city will need to turn to private investors to help fund the cost of dealing with the impact of rising temperatures. His office estimates that London now faces an annual bill as high as £36 billion into the 2050s in order to prepare the city for what climate change has in store.

‘The impact that climate change is having is undeniable,’ said Hughes of the ABI.

Subsidence can devalue a property by an average of 20 percent to 25 percent, according to the Federation of Master Builders. In some cases, homeowners prefer to cover the cost themselves rather than wade through complicated claims processes. The traditional engineering fix for subsidence damage, known as underpinning, can cost anywhere from £20,000 to more than £100,000.

The development represents a particular risk to insurers, with subsidence claims making up an ever larger chunk of the payouts they need to make to customers.

The phenomenon poses ‘a significant challenge for UK home insurers,’ says Cherry Chan, a partner at Deloitte. The consultancy has warned that UK home insurers risk losses in 2026 due in part to the trend.

Along with flash floods and wildfires, subsidence is becoming ‘an increasingly material climate-related risk,’ Chan said. It requires that insurers display ‘careful consideration in long-term exposure and risk management strategies.’

Extreme weather patterns in 2026 ‘will not only impact more new claims in this year, but could cause claims deteriorations for unsettled subsidence claims reported in the past,’ she added. That includes 2025, which was a so-called surge year for subsidence impacts.

Fresh estimates from the British Geological Survey indicate that under what is known as the RCP 4.5 emissions scenario-reflecting a trajectory that closely aligns with current climate policies-1.8 million properties, or about 5 percent of the UK total, are ‘highly likely or extremely likely’ to be susceptible to shrink-swell subsidence by 2070. Under a higher emissions scenario, the figure rises to 4.2 million, or 11 percent, of British properties. Areas most at risk are densely-populated parts of London, Kent and south-east of England.

The development has the potential to lead to ‘increased insurance premiums, depressed house prices and, in some cases, engineering works to stabilize land or property, replacement of utility pipeworks and unstable transport infrastructure,’ according to the BGS.

Geobear, which tackles subsidence by injecting resin under buildings, says it’s received more homeowner inquiries this summer than ever before. It says insurance clients have confirmed a similar trend, with one telling Geobear it had received 180 claims on a single day, which is significantly more than normal.

PARIS Olympian gymnast Aleah Finnegan, former skateboard star Margielyn Didal and even Eumir Felix Marcial won’t be in Nagoya but Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino believes Team Philippines will have enough potential gold medalists in the 20th Asian Games.

‘There are names who won’t be competing in next month’s Asian Games because of many reasons, but it opens the door for many athletes to show what they got,’ said Tolentino on Tuesday after sealing a partnership with Bilyonaryo News Channel (BNC) the ‘POC Phil Olympic Hour’ program on the platform that opens on October 10.

‘We will miss some athletes, but we can get medals from the new ones,’ Tolentino said. ‘I’m optimistic that we can match and surpass our four gold medals [plus two silvers and five bronzes] in Hangzhou four years ago.’

Jakarta 2018 Asian Games gold medalist Didal is injured and so is Finnegan, gold medalist in last year’s Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok.

Marcial, bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and silver medalist at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, announced that his eighth professional fight against American Omar Ulises Huerta is scheduled on the same day of the opening ceremony of the Asian Games on September 19.

Paris 2024 double gold medalist gymnast Carlos Yulo and brother Karl Eldrew, Asian Games and Asian record holder pole vaulter EJ Obiena, tennis star Alex Eala and Olympic medalist boxers Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam and Aira Villegas tops the list of gold medal potentials.

Team Philippines is also pinning hopes on rising skateboarding ace Mazel Paris Alegado, as well as the esports bets who will be among the 443 athletes the country is fielding in 38 sports in Aichi and Nagoya.

Tolentino and BNC SVP for Marketing and Sales Maria Fatima Baylon and BNC SVP for News and Current Affairs Chair Favila, meanwhile, signed the contracts for the POC program that will air from 11 a.m. to 12 noon every Saturday starting October 10.

A red flag, a wrecked home hero, and a decisive late move from Lando Norris closed out Zandvoort’s run on the calendar. Formula 1 now turns to Monza, where Ferrari’s engine gamble and Mercedes’ grip on the title face their first real test.

Zandvoort’s last race on the calendar had rain, a red flag, a home hero in the wall, and a finish that came down to the final laps. Lando Norris ran down Andrea Kimi Antonelli to win by 11.5 seconds under partly cloudy skies, his 13th career Grand Prix victory, his second in as many races after Hungary, and McLaren’s third straight Dutch Grand Prix before the event leaves the schedule.

Norris took the trophy from King Willem-Alexander himself, a fitting closing image for a track that has rarely done anything quietly. Max Verstappen’s afternoon was over almost before it began. His RB22 hit the wall at Arie Luyendijkbocht, the high-speed banked final corner, before Lap 2 was even complete, caught out by a patch of track still drying from a shower minutes before the start.

Saturday already told you how this weekend would go. George Russell took Sprint pole at 1:11.567 and converted it into the Sprint win over Charles Leclerc and Norris, crossing the line just as rain began falling on the circuit. Norris answered in qualifying proper, snatching pole from Russell by 0.102 seconds and from championship leader Antonelli by 0.133, both drivers scrambling to finish their laps before a late shower reached their visors. Piastri lined up fourth, Hamilton fifth, Leclerc sixth, Verstappen seventh. Sunday’s weather wiped the grid clean within two laps.

Norris held the lead into Turn 1. Antonelli took second from Russell. Leclerc moved past both Hamilton and Piastri. Then the race changed entirely: Verstappen clipped the white line on a still-damp patch, lost the rear, and hit the barrier hard enough to tear a wheel off the car. ‘It caught me out, simple as that,’ he said afterward. ‘I tried to correct it but couldn’t. And then you hit the wall – but it could have been a lot worse; there were a lot of cars behind me as well.’ He confirmed the impact stayed under the 15G threshold that would have sent him to the medical center, called it ‘a decent hit’ by his own standards, and climbed out unaided. His home Grand Prix, the last one Zandvoort will host under the current agreement, was finished. Oliver Bearman retired in the same stoppage after a total electrical failure, and Gabriel Bortoleto spun through the resulting smoke without further damage. Race control reset the field to its Lap 1 order for a second standing start. Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto were penalized for passing under yellow flags during the incident, a drive-through and a ten-second penalty respectively.

The restart split the field by strategy before it split by pace. Pirelli had nominated the same middle trio it ran at Zandvoort a year earlier: C2 hard, C3 medium, C4 soft, and the red flag gave every team a free tyre change to rebuild the race around it. Norris came out on softs, Antonelli on mediums, Piastri committed to hards. Antonelli used the tyre advantage to force Norris wide at the second start, take the lead, and hold it while Norris sat behind with no way past. ‘For the first half of the race, especially on the soft tyre, I honestly didn’t think a win was possible,’ Norris admitted after. ‘I struggled a lot with the pace and balance.’ The pit stops then reshuffled the field on their own terms: Russell stopped first and dropped to ninth in traffic, Piastri’s stop cost 5.4 seconds and handed his position to Russell, and Hamilton inherited a lead he hadn’t planned to defend, built simply by running his stint longer than anyone expected.

Norris’s second stop decided the race. McLaren abandoned a Lap 40 undercut the instant Antonelli pitted first, left Norris out seven laps longer, and brought him back on hard tyres, offering a tyre offset large enough to erase a six-second deficit. ‘Once we put the hard tyres on, the car came alive,’ Norris said. ‘I could push, and we were able to put Mercedes under pressure.’ He closed on Antonelli, watched Hamilton defend against the Mercedes, and picked his moment. ‘I did a couple of clicks of brake balance. I knew I was going to commit to the braking, and that move won me the race,’ he said of the pass on Hamilton for the lead, with Antonelli following him through a lap later to demote the Ferrari to third. A Virtual Safety Car for Esteban Ocon’s stricken Haas then forced Mercedes into a rushed double-stack, and Antonelli emerged from it behind his own teammate despite fresher tyres. Over team radio, Russell pushed back before yielding: ‘Is he fighting for the win? Or is he planning to catch Norris?’ He was told to let Antonelli through once it was clear the Italian had the pace to use the place, and from there Russell’s job was containment on aging rubber. Antonelli, for his part, wasn’t fully sold on the call. ‘Yeah, great job,’ he told his engineer, ‘but on strategy, that was too risky. I think it was a bit too risky for both of us.’

Russell was rescued with two laps remaining. Carlos Sainz braked late over the bump into Turn 1 on worn hards, collected teammate Alexander Albon, and triggered a Virtual Safety Car that froze the gap between Russell and a closing Hamilton at seven tenths. Sainz took a ten-second penalty for the contact. Hamilton had one shot at Russell on the final lap and couldn’t make it stick. Norris crossed first, Antonelli second, Russell third, Hamilton fourth, Leclerc fifth with the fastest lap at 1:14.230. Piastri finished sixth. Liam Lawson carried the entirety of Red Bull’s afternoon to seventh in Verstappen’s absence. Nico Hulkenberg took eighth for Audi after evading Bortoleto’s spin on reflex, stretching the team’s run to four consecutive points finishes. Fernando Alonso ran the most disciplined strategy of the day, fresh softs during the red flag and a single stop to hards, for ninth on the weekend. Aston Martin debuted Honda’s new-specification power unit without incident. Gasly took the final point in tenth for Alpine, ahead of Tsunoda, Lindblad, Bortoleto, Colapinto, Perez, Sainz, and Albon, who completed 66 of 72 laps but retained his classified 17th. Bottas, Ocon, Stroll, Bearman, and Verstappen made up the retirements. Every one of the ten point-scorers arrived by a distinct route, in a race Pirelli had modeled for a single stop before the rain and the red flag forced most of the field to two or three.

Zandvoort will not get another finish like this. Event director Robert van Overdijk confirmed the race is privately funded and that rotating it with other European venues never worked economically, the reason the organizers ended the agreement after this year. Verstappen rejects the finality of it and says he intends to keep lapping the circuit long after Formula 1 stops coming. On the day itself, he sounded less interested in sentiment than in speed. ‘I think overall we had a disappointing weekend, pace-wise,’ he said. ‘We just couldn’t really fight with the guys ahead. Now I hope we’ll be more competitive at Monza.’

Antonelli left Zandvoort with the wider view a championship leader needs. ‘I’m disappointed to have led so many laps today and not won,’ he said, ‘but P2 was ultimately the maximum we could have done, given that we didn’t have the pace. It’s a great result for the team, with George doing a brilliant job to keep the Ferraris behind.’ Norris, meanwhile, was already looking past the celebration. ‘This fight is still on,’ he told his team over the radio. ‘Just keep bringing upgrades, just keep bringing performance, please.’ Asked about defending his title, he shrugged off the theatrics of it: ‘It sounds boring, but one race at a time. There’s still plenty of things we can do better if we’re going to fight for a championship.’

The whole championship table moved in one afternoon. Antonelli leads on 242, 59 points clear of Russell and Hamilton, who are level on 183 with Russell ahead on countback, two wins to one. Norris rises to fourth on 159, now 83 behind the leader and just ahead of Leclerc on 155; Verstappen holds sixth on 112 despite Sunday’s result, Piastri seventh on 104. Mercedes leads the constructors’ standings on 425, 87 clear of Ferrari’s 338, with McLaren third on 263 and Red Bull fourth on 186.

Twelve rounds complete, the championship moves to Monza for September 4-6, where Pirelli will bring its softest available trio, C3 hard, C4 medium, C5 soft, a deliberate reversal from the middle-range compounds used at Zandvoort. Ferrari’s home race carries stakes beyond sentiment this year. The team is targeting Monza for the second phase of its ADUO engine allowance, a redesigned turbocharger meant to recover the straight-line speed lost when the FIA’s five-second pre-start procedure erased the advantage of its deliberately undersized original unit. Internal simulations project roughly 15 additional horsepower and two tenths a lap, on top of the gain already banked in Austria. Mercedes has already confirmed its own concession at the same race: team principal Toto Wolff announced Antonelli will take a grid penalty of at least ten places at Monza for exceeding his season allocation of power-unit parts, a decision Mercedes chose to absorb at one of the easier circuits on the calendar for overtaking. ‘We need big points,’ Wolff said. ‘Kimi is going to probably lose some in Monza starting in the back, so hopefully we can pocket some here.’ Antonelli has already exhausted his penalty-free allowance; if Mercedes changes multiple components rather than one, he could start from the very back regardless of where he qualifies. Red Bull arrives with more to answer for than any team on the grid. Team principal Laurent Mekies called Zandvoort a step back from the team’s pre-summer-break form, leaving Lawson, a tenth off Verstappen’s qualifying pace in an unfamiliar car, as the one result worth carrying into a circuit that will demand something entirely different from him.

Brand Protection Bootcamp equips businesses with practical tools and guidance to strengthen intellectual property protection in e-commerce

As the Philippine digital economy continues to grow, protecting intellectual property (IP) has become increasingly important to sustaining business confidence. Valued at P2.74 trillion and contributing nearly 10 percent of the national GDP, the digital economy continues to create new opportunities for businesses, with e-commerce accounting for over 32 percent of the sector and supporting over 75 percent of digital economy jobs.

Against this backdrop, Shopee Philippines recently held its Brand Protection Bootcamp, bringing together representatives from the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), brand owners, and industry partners to share practical approaches to protecting IP in today’s digital marketplace.

The bootcamp combined practical demonstrations with discussions on emerging IP challenges in e-commerce. Participants received a walkthrough of Shopee’s Brand Portal, a self-service platform that enables rights holders to report suspected IP infringements through a structured process, and joined a panel discussion on how businesses, platforms, and government each contribute to strengthening trust across the e-commerce environment.

In a keynote speech, IPOPHL Deputy Director General for Policy, Legal Affairs and External Relations Nathaniel Arevalo emphasized that effective IP protection and enforcement must move from a whole-of-government to a whole-of-society approach. ‘When businesses know their brands and innovations can be protected, they are more willing to invest, expand, and bring new ideas to market. This requires both a strong government policy framework for IP protection and rights holders who actively use available mechanisms to safeguard their IP, strengthen consumer trust, and protect their competitive edge,’ explained Arevalo.

Meanwhile, for many brand owners, protecting intellectual property extends beyond addressing suspected counterfeit listings. It is about safeguarding the years of investment, innovation, and trust they have built with customers.

‘Building a brand takes years of hard work, investment, and constant improvement. Seeing someone copy your products is frustrating because they’re benefiting from work they never had to do,’ said Atty. Kristian Nico C. Acosta, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Cosmic Technologies, Inc. (CTI) Group, which operates the Pure Living brand. ‘Every product and every customer matters. Having practical tools to help protect our brand gives us peace of mind and allows us to focus on improving our products and serving our customers,’ he added.

The bootcamp reflects Shopee’s broader efforts to strengthen trust within the e-commerce landscape by equipping rights holders with practical tools while reinforcing platform safeguards. Alongside resources such as the Brand Portal, Shopee continues to enhance proactive detection capabilities, strengthen seller accountability measures, and work closely with brands, industry partners, and government agencies to address IP infringement.

These efforts build on Shopee’s longstanding collaboration with IPOPHL through the E-Commerce Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which Shopee joined as one of the original signatories in 2021. Since then, Shopee has participated in annual reviews, shared best practices with fellow signatories, and worked alongside government agencies and brand owners to strengthen online IP protection and support the MOU’s implementation.

‘E-commerce is no longer just a sales channel. It is where brands are discovered, customer relationships are built, and business reputations are earned,’ said Jack Ng, Head of Commercial, Shopee Philippines. ‘As more businesses establish an online presence, protecting their IP becomes increasingly important. Through initiatives like the Brand Protection Bootcamp and our continued collaboration with our government partners, we want to equip businesses with practical knowledge and tools to better protect what they have worked hard to build.’

Shopee will continue working with IPOPHL, brand owners, and industry partners to strengthen IP protection and foster a trusted digital marketplace where legitimate businesses of all sizes can continue to grow.

THERE is a particular kind of quiet that follows a major change. The first night in a new apartment after a move, the first Monday after a job ends, or a child leaves for college. The boxes are unpacked or the paperwork is signed, yet something in you has not caught up to the new reality just yet. You keep reaching for a routine that no longer exists, and the space where it used to be feels strange and it becomes hard to describe to anyone who has not felt it.

Major life transitions rarely follow the neat timeline people expect. You might assume that once a decision is made, the hardest part is over. But most of the time, the opposite is true. The decision was simply the beginning of a longer process. One where your daily habits, your sense of identity, and even your body need time to adjust to circumstances that changed faster than your mind could process. A new job title does not immediately feel like your own, or a new city does not immediately feel like home. Giving yourself permission to feel unfamiliar is one of the most overlooked steps in moving through a transition. And it is far more common than the confident stories other people share about their own big changes.

Part of what makes transitions so disorienting is the loss hidden in the changes you actively wanted. Starting a new career you are genuinely excited about can still bring grief for the coworkers you saw daily, the small rituals that structured your week, or simply the version of yourself who existed in that old role. This grief does not mean you made the wrong choice. It means you are human, and humans form attachments to routines and identities that took years to build. Naming this loss out loud, rather than pushing it aside because the change was supposedly a good one, tends to speed up the adjustment rather than slow it down. A short conversation acknowledging what you left behind often does more for your peace of mind than weeks of forcing yourself to feel grateful. Structure becomes especially helpful during periods when everything else feels uncertain. When your surroundings shift dramatically, even small consistent habits can act as an anchor. These could

be new habits like a morning walk at the same time each day or a weekly call with a close friend. These anchors do not need to be significant to matter.

Their value comes from repetition, giving your

mind something familiar to hold onto while everything else changes around you, one ordinary habit at a time.

It also helps to resist the pressure to feel settled before you actually are. Friends and family often ask how the new chapter is going within the first few weeks, expecting a tidy answer. You may feel tempted to respond with bravado, even when you are not quite there yet. Real adjustment often takes months rather than weeks, and there is nothing wrong with telling people honestly that you are still finding your footing. This honesty tends to invite more genuine support than a rehearsed answer ever could. It also gives you permission to move at a pace the transition actually requires, instead of the pace others expect from a distance.

Support during this period matters more than most people admit. Reaching out to someone who has been through a similar change, whether a career shift or a move to an unfamiliar place, can shorten the sense of isolation considerably. They understand the particular exhaustion of learning new ways of working while also grieving old ones, and their presence reminds you that the disorientation you feel is a normal part of the process rather than a sign that something has gone wrong. Even a single conversation with someone who has walked a similar path can quiet the fear that you are somehow adjusting more slowly than you should.

Eventually, without a specific moment marking the shift, the unfamiliar becomes ordinary. The new apartment starts to feel like home rather than a temporary stop. The new role starts to feel like your job rather than a costume you are still wearing. Looking back, you may struggle to pinpoint exactly when the transition ended. And you may realize that you had stopped bracing for the old routine and started living fully inside the new one. You will soon find yourself carrying forward everything you learned along the way, ready for whatever the next chapter eventually asks of you.

Author’s Note: This marks my final article for this column. Writing to you these past years has been a genuine privilege, and I hope every piece has offered even a small measure of comfort or guidance along the way. As I step back, my hope for each of you is simple: Keep finding small ways to grow a little every day, however modest the step. Thank you for reading, and take care of yourselves

A bank has foreclosed on a property. The purchaser wants possession. But another person is already living there and says the property is theirs. Who gets heard-and when?

For a Philippine lawyer, the answer does not sit in one provision. It runs through a statute enacted in 1924, later amendments, procedural rules and decades of Supreme Court rulings. The broad rule sounds simple: once the redemption period has expired and title has been consolidated, the foreclosure purchaser is ordinarily entitled to a writ of possession. The hard part is knowing when that rule gives way-especially when the person on the property claims a right independent of the debtor-mortgagor.

This is where fluent AI prose stops being impressive. The useful question is whether a system can find the controlling line of cases, separate the rule from its exceptions and let the lawyer check every step.

Intellegal was put to exactly that test. It was asked to identify the requirements for a writ of possession after an extrajudicial foreclosure under Act No. 3135, and to explain when a third party already in possession could resist it. The report pulled together statutes, procedural authorities, court issuances and 110 Supreme Court decisions issued between 1941 and 2023. More importantly, it organized them around the facts that change the legal answer.

Lawyers already have an AI shortlist. ChatGPT is a general-purpose assistant, and OpenAI cautions that it can produce incorrect or misleading information. Harvey is a global enterprise platform built for firm-wide legal and professional-services work. Intellegal makes a narrower, more local bet: Philippine law, researched against a dedicated legal corpus and presented with the underlying authorities left open for inspection. That difference matters. A fabricated citation is not just a software glitch; it gives opposing counsel an easy target, weakens the filing and puts pressure on the lawyer’s duties of competence, diligence and due care.

A legal AI earns trust one link at a time-from a sentence in the report to the case or statute that supports it.

Visual Digest: Shows a long decision as a timeline, a map of the arguments and a clear view of the parties, courts and claims.

Citation Map: Turns one decision into an explorable network of cases, statutes and doctrine, with every authority one click away.

Deep Synthesis: Breaks a difficult question into researchable issues, searches Philippine legal sources and returns a cited report.

The answer changes at two legal checkpoints

The first thing Intellegal got right was timing. If the redemption period is still running, Section 7 of Act No. 3135 requires a sworn ex parte application in the proper court and a bond equivalent to 12 months’ use of the property. Once the period has expired without redemption and ownership has been consolidated, the purchaser’s right is no longer provisional. The bond is generally unnecessary, and the court’s issuance of the writ becomes a ministerial duty upon proper application and proof of title.

Then comes the question that often decides the dispute: who is actually in possession, and under what right? A mortgagor, agent or successor whose claim comes from the mortgagor generally cannot stop the summary process simply by attacking the foreclosure. A genuine third party claiming an independent right adverse to the mortgagor stands differently. The court may need to receive evidence, and the purchaser may have to bring an ordinary action to recover possession.

During redemption: Verified ex parte application, proper venue and proceeding, plus a bond tied to 12 months’ use of the property.

After consolidation: Proof of foreclosure, lapse of the redemption period, consolidated ownership and title; no bond is ordinarily required.

Critical exception: A third party in actual possession must substantiate an independent right adverse to the debtor-mortgagor. Mere occupancy or a bare assertion is not enough.

The cases do not turn on the occupant’s objection alone. They turn on the source of the claimed right. Intellegal separated claims derived from the mortgagor from claims arising independently, and distinguished a bare attack on the mortgage from an adverse claim backed by evidence. That is the work a litigator needs: rule, exception, burden and remedy-not a polished version of ‘it depends.’

Three tools built around how Philippine lawyers actually research

The three views follow the rhythm of a serious research session: understand the decision in front of you, trace the authorities behind it, then step back and see what the larger body of law says.

01 · Visual Digest

See the structure of a long decision before committing an afternoon to it

Anyone who has opened a long Supreme Court decision knows the problem. The passage that matters may be buried beneath the Regional Trial Court record, the Court of Appeals proceedings, procedural detours and separate opinions.

Visual Digest pulls out the timeline, the argument structure, the legal concepts and the relationships among parties, courts and claims. It then lays them out as a set of structured visuals. The route from trial court to appellate court to Supreme Court becomes easy to scan, and each ground raised on review appears beside the court’s treatment of it.

Regional Trial Court

Facts and first ruling

Court of Appeals

Issues on review

Supreme Court

Final disposition

Ground raised: Court’s treatment and result

Legal concept: Relevant rule, exception and factual trigger

Party or entity: Role, relationship and procedural position

A paragraph can tell counsel what a case was about. Visual Digest shows how the decision is built. Before giving the case an afternoon, a lawyer can see whether it reaches the right issue, at the right procedural stage, on facts close enough to matter.

02 · Citation Map

Turn one authority into a navigable network of cases, statutes and doctrine

One precedent leads to another, then to a statute, then to a doctrine stated more precisely in an older case. Following that chain manually means opening document after document and trying not to lose the original question.

Citation Map puts the chain on screen. From any decision, a lawyer can see the cases it cites, the laws it applies and the principles it invokes. Case nodes are marked by disposition type, so different procedural outcomes remain visible as the research expands.

Cited cases with outcome labels

Statutes and rules linked to source text

Legal principles and doctrinal clusters

Every case node opens to the full decision. From there, the user can launch another Citation Map, compare two cases side by side or generate a new Visual Digest. The research can move outward without becoming a trail of disconnected tabs.

That traceability is practical, not decorative. A fabricated citation, a misstated holding or a missed procedural posture can damage both a pleading and a client’s position. Citation Map keeps the proposition, the authority and the wider line of jurisprudence connected.

03 · Deep Synthesis

Move from a complex legal request to a source-linked strategy report

Deep Synthesis is for questions too large for a single decision. Write the issue in plain English and the tool breaks it into focused sub-questions, searches Intellegal’s Philippine legal database and current web sources, drafts an IRAC-structured report, and checks its citations against the sources it actually retrieved.

Frame the issue: Turn one difficult request into focused research questions without losing the client’s actual problem.

Search the law: Retrieve statutes, rules, issuances, jurisprudence and relevant current materials.

Check the answer: Match citations to retrieved sources and flag the strength of the report’s support.

In the foreclosure test, Deep Synthesis separated the requirements during the redemption period from those after consolidation, isolated the third-party exception and reconciled the cases that appeared to pull in different directions. It also turned the law into an evidence plan. The purchaser’s side would need sale records, proof of notice and publication, title documents and evidence connecting the occupant to the mortgagor. The occupant’s side would need an independent chain of title, proof of possession, contracts, tax records, receipts or barangay certifications.

Statistics that guide the reading-not predict the result

Deep Synthesis also plots the retrieved cases over time and connects legal principles with dispositions. In this run, all 110 results were Supreme Court decisions: 22 were tagged as granted, four as partly granted, 75 as denied and nine as other or non-merits outcomes.

110: Supreme Court decisions in the retrieved case set

82 yrs: Coverage from the earliest to the latest retrieved decision, 1941-2023

3 tools: Visual Digest, Citation Map and Deep Synthesis in one connected research workflow

Those figures are not a win-rate forecast. A petition marked ‘denied’ does not necessarily reveal who ultimately prevailed in the underlying property dispute, and a retrieved set is not a statistical model of future cases. Its value is simpler: counsel can see the shape of the authorities, spot clusters and decide where close reading should begin.

Why this matters beyond foreclosure

Foreclosure is only the stress test. The same research burden appears across Philippine practice: statutes in one place, rules and circulars in another, and judicial decisions that refine one another over decades. The difficult work is not merely finding a document. It is identifying the controlling authority, seeing when a newer case narrows an older formulation and explaining the result without cutting it loose from its sources.

Intellegal connects that work across Case-Law Analytics, Law Explorer, Visual Digest, Citation Map and Deep Synthesis. For law firms, in-house teams, banks, developers and public-interest lawyers, the immediate gain is time: a difficult client question becomes a research path with the cases, statutes and evidence exposed for review.

Intellegal still cannot decide whether a witness is credible, authenticate a deed or know the missing fact that changes a case. Nor should it pretend to. Those judgments remain with counsel. What the platform can do is shorten the route from a messy question to the authorities that deserve a lawyer’s attention.

Fluent answers are now cheap. A research trail that survives inspection is harder to build-and far more useful. A century of foreclosure doctrine is a demanding test of that promise. Intellegal makes the test public, source by source.

Bring your next difficult Philippine-law question.

Intellegal will build the research path. You can open the authorities, challenge the analysis and decide whether the answer holds.

A MAJORITY of adult Filipinos continue to feel safe in their communities, but confidence in personal and household security has weakened significantly since 2023, according to the latest Tugon ng Masa (TNM) survey by Octa Research.

The July 2026 survey found that 72 percent of Filipinos feel safe in their neighborhoods, while 68 percent said they are not afraid to walk alone at night. However, only 54 percent said they are not worried about robbers breaking into their homes.

Although Filipinos generally maintain a positive perception of peace and order in their immediate communities, concerns become more pronounced when safety is viewed in terms of specific personal and household risks.

The survey, conducted from July 4 to 11 among 1,200 probability respondents aged 18 and above, has a margin of error of ±3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

The national figures, however, reveal wide varying perceptions across the country.

The Visayas posted the highest level of confidence in neighborhood safety at 84 percent, while the National Capital Region recorded the lowest at 58 percent.

For walking alone at night, agreement was highest in Balance Luzon at 72 percent and Mindanao at 71 percent, but fell to only 48 percent in NCR.

Home security generated the weakest national result. Balance Luzon registered the highest share of respondents who said they were not worried about robbers breaking into their homes at 61 percent, compared with only 44 percent in NCR and 47 percent in Mindanao.

The regional differences become even more glaring when looking at individual regions.

Cordillera Administrative Region and Caraga recorded almost universal confidence in neighborhood safety, at 100 percent and 99 percent, respectively. Ilocos Region followed at 94 percent, while Western Visayas posted 92 percent.

At the other end of the spectrum, only 45 percent of respondents in Davao Region said they felt safe in their neighborhoods, followed by Cagayan Valley at 53 percent, NCR at 58 percent, and Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City).

Furthermore, Davao Region also posted particularly low confidence on the other two measures. Only 58 percent said they were not afraid to walk alone at night, while just 23 percent said they were not worried about robbers breaking into their homes.

Perhaps the most significant finding is the deterioration in safety perceptions compared with March 2023.

The proportion of Filipinos who said they feel safe in their neighborhood fell 15 percentage points, from 87 percent in 2023 to 72 percent in 2026.

The decline was even larger for home security. The share saying they were not worried about robbers breaking into their homes dropped 17 points, from 71 percent to 54 percent.

Meanwhile, those who said they were not afraid to walk alone at night declined 13 points, from 81 percent to 68 percent.

NCR experienced the sharpest deterioration among the major areas.

The proportion of NCR residents who felt safe in their neighborhood plunged from 91 percent in March 2023 to 58 percent in July 2026, a 33-point decline.

Even more striking was the drop in confidence about walking alone at night, which fell from 88 percent to 48 percent, or 40 percentage points.

The share of NCR residents who were not worried about home break-ins also declined, from 61 percent to 44 percent.

Balance Luzon also recorded substantial declines, including a 23-point drop in confidence about home security and a 19-point decline in the perception of neighborhood safety.

The Visayas stood out as the only major area where perceptions of general safety and nighttime security did not decline from 2023.

The percentage of Visayans who felt safe in their neighborhoods actually increased from 81 percent in 2023 to 84 percent in 2026.

Those who said they were not afraid to walk alone at night also edged up from 70 percent to 71 percent.

Nevertheless, confidence in home security slipped slightly, from 57 percent to 55 percent.

Octa said the comparatively steady figures in the Visayas may point to a possible role for consistent, visible local policing and community-based mechanisms, although it stressed that this is only one possible explanation and that the survey cannot establish the cause of the differences.

The survey also showed that perceptions of safety weakened across socioeconomic groups, with Class ABC recording some of the largest declines.

Among Class ABC households, the share who felt safe in their neighborhood dropped 23 points from 92 percent in 2023 to 69 percent in 2026.

Those who were not afraid to walk alone at night declined 19 points, from 89 percent to 70 percent, while confidence about home security fell 22 points, from 70 percent to 48 percent.

Class D also recorded substantial declines, while Class E registered comparatively smaller changes.

Octa cautioned against interpreting the results as a direct measure of actual crime.

The poll measures public perceptions of safety, not crime incidence itself. The research group noted that comparing the survey findings with official crime statistics could provide a fuller picture of the relationship between perceived and actual safety.

Overall, the July 2026 TNM findings paint a delicate scenario of peace and order in the Philippines. ‘Most Filipinos still feel safe where they live, but that confidence becomes weaker when they think about walking alone at night or protecting their homes from break-ins,’ Octa said.

More importantly, the broad decline from 2023 suggests that the country’s sense of security goes beyond whether people feel safe in their immediate communities.

The widening gap between perceptions of overall community safety and concerns about personal and household security could be an important consideration for policymakers and local authorities as they work to strengthen public confidence in peace and order.