Category: Business Mirror

Senate President Win Gatchalian is urging the Department of Education (DepEd) and local government units (LGUS) to ensure the timely repair and replacement of monsoon-damaged classrooms, a move that he says is crucial to the safe resumption of classes in affected areas.

According to the DepEd, the combined effects of two tropical cyclones and the enhanced southwest monsoon damaged 6,681 classrooms as of August 14.

‘Tuwing bumabangon tayo mula sa mga kalamidad, kailangang agarang kumpunihin o palitan ang mga nasirang silid-aralan upang ‘wag malagay sa panganib ang mga mag-aaral dahil lamang sa mga pasilidad na hindi agad naaayos [Each time we survive a calamity, we need to immediately repair or replac e damaged classrooms so that learners are not put in danger from unattended facilities],’ said Gatchalian.

He emphasized that if these classrooms are not repaired or replaced, the shortage of facilities for basic education will get worse. As of July last year, DepEd data showed that the classroom backlog stood at 147,000.

The 2026 national budget’s P67.9 billion allocation for basic education facilities covers the replacement of school buildings. The DepEd recently announced that it would allocate P34.355 million for cleanup and clearing operations in 1,195 affected schools, while P201.586 million is allotted for minor repairs in 4,114 classrooms.

Mega Sardines is expanding into the mainstream United States grocery market, with the Philippine brand set to go on sale in 2,750 stores operated by American retail firm The Kroger Co. by mid-September.

Mega Prime Foods Inc. (MPFI) Chief Executive Officer Michelle Tiu Lim-Chan said the products are already being shipped to the US, covering Kroger and its banners Mariano’s, Fry’s, Dillons and Pick ‘n Save.

Mega is currently the first and only Filipino brand listed with Kroger, according to the company.

The rollout has been in development for about nine months, including Mega’s participation in major US food trade shows to gauge consumer interest, the company official said during a press briefing at the company’s main headquarters last Tuesday.

She said the company decided to proceed with the expansion amid trade and geopolitical uncertainties as demand for sardines remains strong in the US.

‘Actually, it’s about timing, because the sardines right now is moving. There’s a lot of demand,’ she told reporters on the sidelines of the event, noting that some US stores have experienced sardine shortages.

‘We’re not really concerned with geopolitical (tensions), because it’s about food security. So, sardines, it’s a food product.’

Mega may also adjust its products for US consumers based on sales performance, including developing variants with lower sodium content or using olive oil.

The company has not set a specific sales or revenue target for the US market this year, saying it first wants to assess how its products perform in mainstream retail.

‘Initial orders, however, have already increased as retailers seek additional stocks. We have already shipped five containers to the US. And there is also shipping every week because we feel that there is a lot of demand.’

The US is being considered as one of Mega’s potentially larger international markets, alongside its existing markets in Malaysia, Canada and Dubai.

In Dubai, it’s second largest market after the Philippines, the brand is sold through Carrefour, giving it an established presence in mainstream retail.

Long-term plans

Despite the international push, exports currently have only a small account of Mega’s business, leaving the domestic market as its main source of sales.

‘As of now, it’s not a big percentage. Within 5 to 10 percent of exports. So, that’s it. That’s why we still have a lot of domestic markets. We really need to take care of our domestic markets,’ Lim-Chan said.

Mega has also recently entered Azerbaijan, Kenya and Jordan and has at least 10 other countries in its pipeline, the company said.

For Lim-Chan, the company’s longer-term international strategy could eventually extend beyond exporting its existing products.

This could include acquiring or developing brands in other markets, as well as gaining access to additional fishing grounds and sources of raw materials.

LOOK who’s bitten by the pickleball bug? Paris Olympics double gold medalist Carlos Yulo.

‘It’s been raining all the time so I train here at home,’ said Yulo, who bought a house in Alabang where he stays most of the time. ‘And I cross-train in pickleball, and even badminton.’

Pickleball has gotten so popular that global sports icon are playing the leisure sport that’s a cross among tennis, badminton and table tennis.

‘These sports [pickleball and badminton] are very important for the mobilization of muscles and mind as well,’ said the 60-year-old three-time world champion, who plays with brother Karl Eldrew and friends but under the keen monitoring of physiotherapist Bethel Solano.

‘But of course, we always go down to serious training in Intramuros,’ said Yulo, who’s hell bent at winning his first Asian Games gold medal in Aichi-Nagoya.

‘That’s the only one missing,’ said Yulo, stressing he targets not just one but multiple gold medals to redeem himself after going empty in Hangzhou three years ago.

‘I want not just one, but more,’ he said. ‘I will do my best to win the floor, vault and individual all-around.’

The Yulo brothers will lead a 14-athlete gymnastics team to the Asian Games.

They are Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace de Leon, Zachary Cortins Nuñez, Levi Ruivivar, Kylee Kvamme, Chiara Dawn Andrew, Lauren Supnet and Haylee Garcia in artistic gymnastics; Breanna Labadan and Jasmine Althea Romulo in rhythmic gymnastics; and Jerry Ilano Jr. and Luvicar Janine Padilla in trampoline gymnastics.

After the Asian Games, Yulo will head to the world championships in Rotterdam in The Netherlands from October 17 to 25.

MSD in the Philippines (NYSE: MRK), a trade name of Merck and Co., Inc, Rahway, NJ, USA, today announced the appointment of Mary Srethapakdi as Managing Director for the Philippines, while concurrently leading MSD’s operations in Thailand. She succeeds Andreas Riedel, who has been appointed Managing Director for MSD Vietnam.

With more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, Srethapakdi has held senior leadership roles at leading healthcare companies and advised healthcare organizations globally during her tenure at Boston Consulting Group. Since joining MSD as Managing Director for Thailand in 2021, she has driven business growth and advanced initiatives to improve patient access. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cornell University.

With this new appointment, Ms. Srethapakdi will lead the company’s efforts to expand access to innovative medicines and vaccines, strengthen healthcare partnerships, and address the evolving needs of Filipino patients.

She said her priorities include deepening collaboration with healthcare stakeholders and improving patient access across the country.

‘I am honored to lead MSD in the Philippines at a critical juncture, when health is a pronounced priority in the public and private sectors,’ Srethapakdi said. For over three decades in the Philippines, MSD has worked with government, healthcare professionals, patient advocacy groups, industry partners, and health champions in the Philippines to advance medical innovation and patient care. ‘Today, we reaffirm this commitment to help bring broader access to innovative medicines and vaccines, with the aim of delivering better health outcomes for Filipino patients.

DESPITE a sharp reduction in this year’s privatization revenue target, the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) will push through the sale of several big-ticket assets by year’s end.

On the sidelines of HSBC’s flagship event on Tuesday, Chief Privatization Officer and Finance Undersecretary Michael Peter A. Alejandro told reporters the three flagship assets in the pipeline will remain for disposal in the second half of the year.

These assets include the Mile Long building in Makati City, targeted for disposition by the end of the third quarter, as well as Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) and the government’s 20-percent stake in the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) slated for sale in the fourth quarter.

The government is currently conducting appraisals for the properties, which will have to undergo the required approval process before they can be offered for sale.

‘We’re looking forward to FTI and Mile Long. We’re really getting things rolling for that,’ Alejandro said.

Any of the planned 2026 asset sales that do not push through this year would instead be carried over to 2027, he noted.

In the first half of the year, the government generated P1.9 billion in privatization revenues, Alejandro said, nearly matching the P2 billion raised in 2025.

However, this accounts for only 4.9 percent of this year’s lowered privatization revenue target of P38.1 billion, recently adjusted by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

The supposed target of P101 billion was moved to 2027 due to ‘accounting issues,’ Alejandro said, as the government expects proceeds from the sale of the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydropower assets to come in next year.

About P36.27 billion in proceeds from CBK’s privatization will be remitted, while the Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex is also being considered for a transaction next year.

Alejandro said the government is exploring a public-private partnership (PPP) for the hydroelectric complex located in Mindanao.

The Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex consists of seven run-of-river hydroelectric power plants with a combined installed capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW), but only 700MW are operational due to aging infrastructure.

The Department of Energy has said that the government may award the contract by the end of 2026 to rehabilitate the hydro asset. The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) is also evaluating two unsolicited proposals.

The government is also expecting around P800 million from the disposal of smaller assets next year, Alejandro said.

There are over 28,000 titles, mostly small assets measuring about 200 square meters, up for sale, according to the Department of Finance.

By privatizing state assets, the government monetizes underutilized assets and generates additional funding for public spending.

This year, the government aims to raise P4.807 trillion in revenues, of which P327 billion will come from non-tax revenues.

‘The world is full of ghosts, and some of them are still people.’­-Peter Straub, ‘The Throat’

AUGUST 13 to September 19 this year is known as the ghost month. It is the seventh month of the lunar year.

Chinese Taoist and Buddhist cultures view it as not a promising period because it is believed to be the time when the gates of the afterlife open for the spirits to roam the earth. There are superstitious traditions or practices observed in some countries. But some view it as a period of piety, charity, and gratitude rather than a time for fear.

Still, many believe it is not a good time to make life changing decisions, that it is inauspicious timing to make huge financial commitments such as starting new ventures, clinching of new contracts because the roaming spirits may bring bad luck.

Thus, many believe it is a matter of faith and folklore rather than a fact.

Yet at times, facts tend to lead one to consider what may be folklore. Allow me to cite a few updates.

According to a domestic bank’s recent blog, historically, August has been one of the worst performing months for the PCOMP (Philippines Stock Exchange PSE Index) with an average return of -2.48 percent with 20 out of 30 years (66 percent hit rate) being negative since 1992.

On Wall Street, August is the month associated with the worst performances for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and SandP 500 index, the blog reads.

At the start of the ghost month, an international publishing company reported that Europe’s fifth heat wave of the summer is set to peak on August 13, the latest in a string of extreme weather events that have strained health systems and energy networks across the region. A series of high-pressure heat domes has put the United Kingdom on track for its hottest ever summer.

On the same day, the Philippine peso closed weaker at P61.343 against the US dollar, slipping back over the threshold of P61.00. Analysts say it is due to regional profit taking, ongoing Middle East uncertainty, and macroeconomic pressures.

One may wonder if indeed during the ghost month, one should avoid making major life changes.

In fact, it is observed during the ghost month, investors rest and avoid trading, and hence, usually, at this time, markets are dull and are in a lull and that trading volumes are lower than in other periods.

But for those who do not believe or follow Chinese superstitions, life goes on because they look at market prices as driven by basic economic fundamentals, corporate earnings, and real world news, not folklore, not superstitions. Hence, look at what’s happening in Wall Street: on August 13, 2026, (again, the start of ghost month), the SandP 500 had in fact set a new record high of 7,798! So, is this the ghost month or not?

Wise investors see financial opportunity in a reduced market activity. There is window for long term investors to take advantage of the ‘dips’ and bargain hunting. As they say, ‘buy the dip, and sell the rip’ for later when the market becomes vibrant again.

So ghost month: ‘Careful, careful?’ Or ‘go, go, go?,’ for after all, while ‘the world is full of ghosts, some of them are still people,’ per American novelist Peter Straub.

Conchita L. Manabat is an incorporator and the president of the Development Center for Finance, an incorporator and Trustee of San Carlos School of Cebu Inc. and a Trustee of the Coalition of Services for the Elderly. Dr. Manabat is also an incorporator of and Lifetime Fellow at the Institute of Corporate Directors, a member of the Stakeholder Advisory Council of the International Federation for Ethics and Audit, and chair of the Advisory Council of the International Association of Financial Executives Institutes. The views and opinions she expressed herein are hers and do not necessarily represent the BusinessMirror.

Before refrigerators reached a small town, every household bought ice from Aling Ising.

The town gave her the only delivery route. In return, she had to serve every house, including the distant ones where the road was rough and the trip unprofitable. The arrangement made sense. Two competing ice carts would duplicate horses, helpers and storage while leaving the farthest households uncertain of service.

Each morning Aling Ising bought one hundred kilos from the ice plant. By evening, her ledger showed only ninety-four kilos delivered and paid for.

Four kilos had melted despite ordinary care. The sun was hot, the roads were long, and no cart could carry ice without some loss. Two more kilos had been chipped away, mismeasured or taken before reaching a paying household.

Those losses were not alike. One came from physics. The other from conduct.

But Aling Ising had paid for all one hundred kilos. She therefore spread the cost of the missing six among the households that did pay.

A family at the end of the route objected: why should we pay for ice we never received?

The mayor agreed. At the next town meeting, he announced that households would no longer be charged for missing ice.

The applause came before the arithmetic.

The ice plant still charged Aling Ising for one hundred kilos. The decree had removed six kilos from the household receipt, but not from anyone’s cost. Aling Ising could absorb the loss, raise the price of the 94 kilos delivered, reduce service to distant homes, spend less on insulated boxes, ask the town treasury for support – or become much better at preventing theft.

Each choice put the burden somewhere different and created a different incentive.

The missing ice did not vanish when it disappeared from the bill.

As the last installment showed, a cost can arise in one place and appear on the bill somewhere else. Distribution makes that easier to see.

The parable is the distribution system in miniature. The route is the franchise. The obligation to visit every household is the duty to serve. Melting is technical loss; chipping, mismeasurement and theft are non-technical loss. The customer is captive, the distributor has paid for the full hundred, and the law must decide where the missing six belong.

Of all the companies in the electricity chain, the consumer knows one best. The generator is anonymous. The grid operator is a rumor. The name on the bill-Meralco in the capital, a local utility or electric cooperative elsewhere-is the distributor. Because it collects the total, it also collects much of the blame.

Distribution utilities and electric cooperatives are monopoly networks. They maintain local wires, transformers, meters and substations. Duplicating those networks would be wasteful, so the state permits recovery of prudent costs and, where applicable, a regulated return. The bargain runs both ways: captive consumers pay regulated rates; utilities must deliver efficient service.

A monopoly does not risk losing customers to a cheaper network next door. Regulation has to manufacture that discipline. If every prudent-looking peso is simply added to rates, the utility has little reason to ask whether the same service could have been delivered for less.

Some system loss is unavoidable. Excessive loss is different. Electricity generated but not billed to the responsible user is ultimately paid for by someone else. The regulatory task is to distinguish unavoidable loss from preventable loss and place each where the incentive to reduce it is strongest.

The logic works both ways. If every missing kilowatt-hour can automatically be recovered, the incentive to invest in better meters, feeder upgrades, theft detection or maintenance weakens. But if no unavoidable loss can ever be recovered, a utility may spend more eliminating a loss than the electricity saved is worth.

Good regulation sits between those errors.

That is the purpose of performance-based regulation. Rate-setting should not simply ask what a utility spent. It should ask what efficient performance should cost. At each reset, targets should reflect reasonable benchmarks and comparable utilities, not merely improvement from the utility’s own past. Otherwise a poor baseline becomes a permanent excuse.

The issue is immediate. Meralco’s distribution charge, unchanged since 2022, is under reset now-an application to raise it from P1.35 to P2.34 per kilowatt-hour. Whatever the outcome, the right question is the same: not merely what was spent, but what efficient service should cost.

A rate case decides which costs belong to consumers, which risks belong to the utility, and how much inefficiency the public should finance. Those choices eventually become centavos on a bill.

System loss is only one way inefficiency can migrate onto somebody else’s bill. Cooperative debt provides another. The mechanism is different; the incidence problem is the same.

Electric cooperatives brought electricity to remote barangays, islands and mountain communities that private utilities had little commercial reason to serve. Geography and poverty can make their networks genuinely more expensive. But mission cannot become immunity.

Some cooperatives are distressed because the territory is difficult. Others because collection is weak, governance is poor or debts accumulate. When debt is forgiven without fixing the cause, the cost does not disappear.

It moves.

EPIRA itself condoned roughly P18 billion of cooperative rural-electrification debt, assumed by PSALM in 2002. Two decades later, the Department of Finance reported that two Mindanao cooperatives alone owed PSALM more than P16 billion in unpaid power bills, attributing the problem to ‘financial mismanagement and low collection efficiency.’

Now Congress is again being asked to forgive cooperative obligations. House Bill 7291 would condone accumulated interests, penalties and surcharges, including unpaid universal charges, while creating a P5-billion refinancing facility whose repayment may ultimately be recovered through regulator-approved charges.

The point is not that distressed cooperatives should never receive relief. It is simpler: a debt does not disappear because Congress forgives it.

If government does not fund the relief from the budget, somebody else pays.

The universal charge is collected from electricity consumers nationwide. So, a customer of a well-run utility can end up paying part of another institution’s failure through his own monthly bill.

That is one way somebody else’s inefficiency becomes your electricity price.

Debt relief may still be justified where distress is genuine. But without structural reform it weakens the discipline that debt is supposed to impose. Relief should therefore come with conditions that bite: fit-and-proper standards that can remove unfit managers, performance targets backed by disallowance, escrow arrangements that cannot casually be waived, and step-in rights government is actually willing to use.

This is not an argument for private utilities over cooperatives. A private utility can perform badly if regulation is weak. A cooperative can perform well under difficult conditions.

The test is simpler: which structure gives consumers reliable service at efficient cost? And the consumer should be asked to pay only for that.

What the consumer is often asked to pay for, however, includes something else entirely: other people’s subsidies.

Atty. Laurence R. Rogero is an infrastructure lawyer with three decades of experience in the Philippine and international power and water sectors. He held senior positions at Mirant Philippines and Manila Water and served as President and CEO of Metro Pacific Water. He has consulted for the ADB and the World Bank. He is Lead Independent Director of Vivant Corporation, which has interests in energy and water, and lectures at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he is pursuing postgraduate studies in economics. He graduated magna cum laude from the UP School of Economics, earned his law degree from UP, and obtained an LL.M. with Distinction from Georgetown University as a Fulbright Fellow. The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization with which he is affiliated.

THE value of approved construction projects in the Philippines jumped by more than a fifth in June, driven by a sharp increase in non-residential building activity, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Latest PSA data showed the value of construction based on approved building permits reached P74.34 billion during the month, 22 percent higher than the P60.94 billion recorded in June 2025.

Non-residential buildings accounted for the bulk of the construction value at P43.80 billion, or 58.9 percent of the total. This was 56.4 percent higher than the P28.01 billion worth of non-residential projects approved a year earlier.

Industrial buildings accounted for the largest share at P19.40 billion, or 44.3 percent of the non-residential total.

In contrast, the value of residential construction fell by 25.8 percent to P20.24 billion from P27.29 billion in June last year. Residential projects accounted for 27.2 percent of the total construction value.

Single houses comprised the largest portion of residential construction value at P13.04 billion, equivalent to 64.4 percent of the residential total.

The value of alterations and repairs to existing structures more than doubled to P8.82 billion, posting an annual increase of 111.7 percent. Additions also rose by 18.9 percent to P728.84 million.

Other constructions, which include demolition, street furniture, landscaping and signboards, declined by 12.8 percent to P750.43 million.

The higher value of approved projects came even as the number of constructions slipped by 0.3 percent to 17,081 from 17,126 a year earlier. The decline, however, was slower than the 6.5 percent contraction recorded in May.

Residential buildings continued to account for the majority of approved constructions at 11,392, or 66.7 percent of the total, despite declining by 2.1 percent year on year.

Of the residential projects approved during the month, 9,272 or 81.4 percent were single houses.

Meanwhile, the number of non-residential constructions increased by 4.6 percent to 3,352, accounting for 19.6 percent of the total. Commercial buildings comprised the majority of these projects at 2,243.

PSA said total approved floor area also declined by 11.1 percent to 4.21 million square meters from 4.74 million square meters a year earlier.

Non-residential floor area expanded by 11.2 percent to 2.52 million square meters, while residential floor area contracted by 32.2 percent to 1.64 million square meters.

The average construction cost consequently rose by 31.1 percent to P15,365.21 per square meter from P11,723.71 per square meter in June 2025.

The PSA noted that the average construction cost excludes alteration and repair activities, as well as certain non-residential projects without reported floor areas.

According to the agency, construction statistics derived from approved building permits provide an indication of the level of building activity nationwide, including the number, type, and value of projects approved each month.

Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed) is looking beyond the digitization of pathology slides as it seeks to establish itself as a national hub for digital pathology and help build the foundation for the next generation of artificial intelligence-assisted cancer diagnosis in the Philippines.

The hospital recently inaugurated the Aperio GT180 DX digital pathology scanner, an investment that its pathology leadership sees not simply as an upgrade in laboratory equipment but as part of a broader effort to expand collaboration, preserve diagnostic information digitally and eventually create a repository of data that can support research and the development of AI tools suited to Filipino patients.

‘This acquisition represents a profound leap forward in our institutional commitment to precision medicine,’ said Dr. Agripino ‘Beng’ Javier, director of Medical Services at MakatiMed.

Strengthen diagnostic capabilities

He said the technology is expected to enhance diagnostic precision, reduce technical rework and strengthen the hospital’s diagnostic capabilities.

But for Dr. Redante D. Mendoza, chairman of MakatiMed’s Department of Pathology and Laboratories, the significance of the new system extends well beyond its ability to scan a larger number of slides.

MakatiMed has a tradition of being among the first to adopt digital pathology technologies. Mendoza recalled that the hospital acquired an Aperio digital scanner in 2019, which he described as the first digital scanner in the Philippines. The new GT180 DX represents the next step in the hospital’s digital pathology journey.

Unlike its predecessor, which could handle one slide at a time, the new system can process up to 180 slides in one run, allowing MakatiMed to move toward a workload-integrated digital pathology system.

Yet Dr. Mendoza stressed that faster turnaround time is not the primary reason for the investment.

MakatiMed is already achieving a 96-percent compliance rate within its three-to-five-working-day pathology turnaround time, with many cases completed in two days. The greater value of digitalization, he said, lies in areas such as urgent specialist referrals, remote consultations, second opinions and long-term archiving.

Digital slides can be retrieved and shared in real time, allowing pathologists to consult specialists in other institutions or overseas without having to physically transport glass slides.

Preserve access to cases

The technology can also help preserve access to cases that might otherwise become difficult to retrieve as physical slides age, are damaged or become lost.

For Dr. Regina T. Edusma-Dy, medical oncologist at MakatiMed’s Cancer Institute, the potential impact is particularly significant for cancer patients, who often wait anxiously for pathology and biomarker results before treatment decisions can be made.

She said digital pathology can support multidisciplinary discussions involving complex and rare cases, including sarcoma and lymphoma, while enabling specialists who cannot be physically present to participate in consultations.

For patients in the provinces, the technology could also reduce the need to physically transport pathology slides or travel to another medical center simply to obtain a specialist opinion.

Building a national network

These capabilities form the basis of a larger ambition for MakatiMed.

Dr. Mendoza said the hospital intends to establish a Digital Pathology Academy where other institutions adopting digital pathology can train with MakatiMed’s team, not only in reading digital slides, but also in understanding the workflow involved in implementing the technology, including the challenges, mistakes and lessons learned along the way.

The longer-term vision is a digital pathology network that could connect hospitals across the country with specialists who can review difficult cases, whether elsewhere in the Philippines or overseas.

Such a network could help address one of the challenges facing pathology: access to highly specialized expertise.

Leica Biosystems Vice President and General Manager for Asia-Pacific Bob Blalock said the shortage of skilled pathologists, increasing cancer cases and the growing complexity of diagnosis are among the pressures facing pathology departments globally.

‘Digital pathology is the foundation, the essential first step,’ Blalock said, noting that computational pathology and AI can eventually build on that foundation to provide more consistent and precise insights to pathologists.

Benedict Poh, PI Solutions Architect for APAC at Leica Biosystems, similarly emphasized that digital pathology is not simply about scanning slides more quickly.

It enables remote case review, internal consultations, multidisciplinary team discussions, education and case sharing, allowing pathology information to become more readily accessible across locations.

The Aperio GT180 DX can scan a 15-by-15-millimeter area at 40x magnification in about 32 seconds, with a stated sustained throughput of up to 81 slides per hour. It can accommodate up to 180 slides and produces high-resolution whole-slide images.

Preparing for AI-with Filipino data

Perhaps the most consequential part of MakatiMed’s digital pathology strategy, however, lies not in what the technology can do today but in what it could enable in the future.

Dr. Mendoza said the digitalization of pathology slides will create the repository of virtual slides necessary for future AI-assisted image analysis, quantitative biomarker assessment and research.

But he cautioned against simply importing AI systems developed using data from other populations.

‘When we acquire AI-assisted pathology systems from overseas, we need to train them for Filipino cancers,’ Dr. Mendoza said, pointing to genetic variation among populations.

For him, the hospital must first build the digital data necessary to train and validate such systems before AI-assisted pathology can be responsibly integrated into clinical practice.

Dr. Mendoza said MakatiMed sees AI-assisted pathology becoming a possibility around 2027 or 2028, depending on the maturity of the technology, validation and available resources.

AI to support, not replace, pathologists

Importantly, he does not envision AI replacing pathologists.

‘AI will only be assistants to pathologists,’ he said, emphasizing that the technology should augment rather than replace professional expertise.

This approach also reflects the broader role MakatiMed sees for digital pathology-as an enabling technology rather than an end in itself.

Arnold C. Ocampo, MakatiMed chief financial officer and interim co-president and CEO, said the move from glass slides to digital platforms represents a shift toward more precise diagnostics, seamless collaboration and more responsive patient care.

But he emphasized that the true measure of the investment will not be the installation of the technology itself.

‘The true value of innovation is realized not when the technology is installed, but when it starts to produce meaningful results for the patients that we serve,’ Ocampo said.

For MakatiMed, those results could eventually extend beyond the patients who walk through its doors.

By creating a digital repository, developing local expertise, training other institutions and establishing pathways for remote collaboration, the hospital hopes to contribute to a broader digital pathology ecosystem in the country.

And as that database grows, it could provide something equally important for the future of cancer care: a body of Philippine pathology data that can help researchers and clinicians develop, train and validate AI tools with greater relevance to Filipino patients.

‘Being the first has its responsibilities,’ Dr. Mendoza said.

For MakatiMed, that responsibility now appears to extend from being an early adopter of digital pathology to helping bring the country’s pathology community-and eventually its AI capabilities-into the digital age.

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released an additional P1.855 billion to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) to cover its Zero Balance Billing (ZBB) program, medical services and specialized treatments.

In a statement on Wednesday, the DBM said P1.04 billion of the additional funding will support a broad range of medical services at the state-run hospital.

PGH is a national university hospital operated by the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila and one of the country’s foremost referral centers.

About P800 million will also be allotted to finance the hospital’s ZBB program, a government policy that seeks to reduce or eliminate out-of-pocket hospital expenses for patients admitted to basic accommodation or a ward in facilities accredited by the Department of Health (DOH).

The remaining P15 million will likewise fund the treatment of patients with Dystonia-Parkinsonism, or Lubag Syndrome, including specialized treatment and related medical requirements.

‘This P1.855 billion is not simply additional funding on paper – it means more resources for treatment, less financial pressure on families, and continued support for patients who depend on PGH for critical and specialized care,’ Budget Secretary Kim Robert C. de Leon was quoted as saying.

The DBM noted that the release was made in accordance with budget execution rules and requirements to ensure that the additional funds are used for their intended purposes.

For 2027, budget allocation for UP System’s Health Services Program, which covers PGH’s operations, is proposed at P7.290 billion, almost 10 percent lower than this year’s P8.096 billion.

The consolidated health sector budget is proposed at P1.06 trillion for next year to improve access to hospitals, medicines, health facilities, financial assistance, and other essential health services, according to the DBM.

‘Our fiscal space may be limited, but when lives and essential health services are at stake, government must find the resources and make them count,’ de Leon said.