Category: Business Mirror

There has been a recent conversation in the Philippine theater community about ‘elite’ and ‘non-elite’ theater-about which companies are legitimate, which audiences matter, and whose work is supposedly more worthy of recognition.

Perhaps it is time to move beyond these labels.

There is no such thing as a ‘legitimate’ or ‘illegitimate’ theater company. Philippine theater has never been one thing. As theater scholar and critic Dr. Nicanor G. Tiongson has documented, it has evolved through indigenous traditions, folk forms, colonial influences, popular entertainment, and contemporary practices. Its diversity is not a problem to be resolved; it is part of what makes Philippine theater distinctly Filipino.

Different companies have different aesthetics, resources, training, audiences, and ways of telling stories. That does not make one inherently more valid than another. Theater is bigger than any individual company or artistic brand.

The better questions are: What does a production contribute? Who does it reach? And does it create more space for people to make, watch, and love theater?

One of the challenges Philippine theater must confront is its Manila-centric structure. Metro Manila has understandably become the country’s major theater center, but geography should never determine artistic value.

Excellence does not have an address.

Regional theater communities are already creating meaningful work and developing artists and audiences. What is needed is greater circulation of artists, productions, ideas, and audiences.

YPC Stage, the commercial arm of the Biñan Youth Performance Council, offers one example. Its inaugural production, Mapanakit, staged 14 full-house shows at UP Diliman, bringing Biñan-based performers to Quezon City and placing them alongside professional theater actors.

The purpose was not to prove which group was better, but to create a crossover between community and professional theater, regional and Metro Manila artists, and different audiences.

Regional artists should not have to become ‘Manila theater’ to be recognized. The goal is not to make regional theater imitate Manila, but to make Philippine theater genuinely national

Tiongson’s idea of Teatro para sa Tao offers another useful lens: theater must remain connected to the people it serves. Theater cannot thrive without audiences, and accessibility is more than cheaper tickets. It also means making theater geographically reachable, culturally welcoming, and relevant to people who may not traditionally see themselves as theater audiences.

A community production may introduce someone to theater. A commercial production may turn that first experience into a habit. An experimental production may challenge an experienced audience. A regional production may allow a community to see its own stories onstage.

These are not competing functions. They are parts of an ecosystem.

But accessibility cannot mean that theater workers must continually subsidize the art through unpaid labor.

Theater is expensive to produce, and artists deserve to be paid. Audiences readily understand paying for concerts, movies, books, and streaming services. Theater should not be treated differently.

Buying a ticket is not merely paying for entertainment. It supports an entire creative ecosystem.

If Philippine theater is to become a sustainable profession, audiences, producers, institutions, and government must recognize the economic value of creative labor.

The real challenge is not that there are too many theater companies or productions. It is that there are still too few people going to the theater.

The Philippines needs to develop a theater-going public.

The competition is not simply between theater companies. It is for the attention of Filipinos choosing among movies, concerts, streaming, sports, social media, and countless other forms of entertainment. Every production that brings someone into a theater and gives that person a reason to return helps build the industry.

If the Philippines is to become a thriving creative industry in Asia, it needs a theater ecosystem that is broad, sustainable, and genuinely national – one that creates opportunities beyond Metro Manila, supports different forms of theater, pays artists fairly, and makes theater part of Filipino cultural life.

This belief is also personal.

Formal theater education provided me the foundation, but years of practice led me to a deeper grounding in the power of community theater. Through teaching in universities and working with emerging artists and students, that same passion and love for theater can be passed on to another generation.

Because theater is ultimately sustained by love.

Not the kind of love that asks who is better, more legitimate, or more deserving.

But the kind that keeps people creating when resources are limited, brings artists from different communities into the same room, gives young artists the courage to believe they have a place onstage, and keeps practitioners building even when the work is difficult.

That love should not compete. It should multiply.

Philippine theater does not need one kind of theater to rise above the rest. It needs more people to create, more people to watch, and more people willing to make space for one another.

The future of Philippine theater is not about deciding who belongs. It is about making the stage big enough for everyone.

That is a theater for all.

A delegation of Filipino Catholic priests and archbishops will depart for Cairo next week to undergo a 10-day intensive training course on Islamic Shariah, in what both Manila and Cairo describe as a landmark interfaith initiative.

The program was first proposed by Cardinal Jose Advincula, Archbishop of Manila, during a bilateral meeting with Dr. Osama Al-Azhari, Egypt’s Minister of Religious Endowments last April.

Egyptian Ambassador to Manila Nader Zaki said the idea was to ‘train the Catholic priests in one region in Egypt to know more about the Sharia, to know more about what are the sensitive issues for Muslim Filipinos in order to enhance… a peaceful co-existence in these regions.’

Zaki emphasized that cultural exchange remains the strongest pillar of Egypt-Philippines relations.

‘If you don’t have people-to-people engagement, don’t count on political relations (to be) very sustainable. Cultural exchange is our best success story between both countries,’ Zaki told BusinessMirror in an exclusive interview.

The training is designed to deepen the clergy’s understanding of Islamic law and cultural sensitivities, knowledge seen as critical for priests assigned to pastoral roles in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Daily pastoral work there often involves navigating interfaith marriages, community disputes, and cultural practices rooted in Islamic tradition.

In Cairo, the program will combine lectures with field visits to historic churches, mosques, and landmarks along the route of the Holy Family’s journey in Egypt. Zaki invited Filipino pilgrims to rediscover this heritage.

‘Jesus Christ and Mary spent four years in Egypt before returning home. We have mapped every stop they made, with churches and monasteries in these areas. Through this program, we hope Filipinos will also visit the Holy Family route,’ he said.

The initiative follows earlier exchanges, including visits by Egyptian imams and sheikhs to the Philippines for Shariah training, and is expected to expand further to include Filipino judges and lawyers as the country establishes Shariah courts.

A MANILA-BASED climate and energy policy nongovernment organization on Thursday said that beyond hard infrastructure, effective flood resilience requires long-term climate solutions that integrate nature-based solutions, early warning systems, and community-driven initiatives.

Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) Executive Director Angelo Kairos dela Cruz said Metro Manila and nearby provinces have been experiencing heavy rainfall for almost three weeks now, exposing Filipinos to daily flooding that submerges their homes, disrupts livelihoods, makes commuting to and from work quite impossible, and leads to school cancellations.

‘The burden is not the same for everyone, as those with the fewest resources to prepare, evacuate, recover, or rebuild are often the ones who suffer more. This alone should signal the need for immediate action to at least minimize the impacts already being felt across different areas in Luzon, as climate science projections show that impacts will continue to worsen. We cannot afford any delay in raising our ambition to increase resilience without sacrificing accountability and transparency,’ he said.

Citing the first of the four-part Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in August 2021, dela Cruz said scientific findings warned of how climate extremes-such as heavy rainfall, heatwaves, and droughts-are projected to become more severe and more frequent, as an effect of the global warming.

The report also highlighted that rainfall over land will become more intense and variable, with some areas getting wetter and others getting drier.

‘With the impacts we are seeing, which are endangering lives and livelihoods, being reactive will never be enough. What we need are long-term solutions that empower people and communities, providing them the skills and tools to face the impacts of climate change.

‘We recognize efforts made by the national and local governments in providing rainfall warnings and facilitating timely evacuations in affected areas. There is progress, but we should translate these experiences into real systemic change. As extreme weather events are a facet of the changing climate, planning cycles should already shift from a merely reactionary to an anticipatory mode,’ he said.

‘As investigations of flood control anomalies remain ongoing, we remind the Philippine government of its responsibility and accountability to Filipinos in ensuring that resources are properly allocated, utilized, and reported. Funds for climate action are limited, we have to make sure that every peso counts.’

He said, moving away from the fixation on hard infrastructure as the primary solution to flood control becomes imperative.

‘While hard infrastructure remains necessary, it is no silver bullet. Effective flood resilience requires a broader, systems-based approach. We have to prioritize and invest in long-term solutions that embed hard

infrastructure with nature-based solutions, early warning systems, and community-driven initiatives, maximizing what already exists in different ecosystems, backed by science-based ecological assessments,’ he said.

‘We urgently ask for the country’s leadership in ensuring that climate action efforts are moving forward at the needed speed and scale. The current impacts we are experiencing from Habagat should not be treated simply as a story about unusually heavy downpour; it is a result of years of insufficient planning, weak scientific grounding, and uncoordinated implementation. We can move forward; we already have the information that we need to advance effective climate action: heed the science, anticipate the extreme scenarios, plan and design around nature and local geography with local communities as partners, and mobilize resources with transparency and accountability mechanisms in place.’

Immediate passage of the Child Online Safety and Protection Act-an expanded version of the original Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) Law-is being pushed among the urgent interventions meant to reckon with the rise of school violence that has confounded authorities.

In seeking immediate passage, Senator Risa Hontiveros stressed that the measure equips the state with the legal authority it needs to confront Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE).

The bill is currently in the period of amendments in the Senate and has passed on third reading in the House.

‘This bill should be certified as urgent. NVE is an alarming new trend that needs immediate action. Passing the amended Anti-OSAEC bill would give law enforcement agencies the tools to apprehend suspects and perpetrators. Huwag na nating hintayin na dumami pa ang school shooting bago umaksyon,’ Hontiveros said.

Presiding over the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality hearing on NVE, the senator said the chamber now has a rare legislative window to close the gaps that allow the same digital ecosystems to groom, radicalize, and steer children toward violence.

OSAEC and NVE remain distinct threats, she noted, but both are enabled by the same digital platforms, the same blind spots, and the same failures of early detection and child protection. The bill, if passed, will punish these forms of technology-facilitated violence against children, sexual or non-sexual.

Hontiveros has been at the forefront of child online safety policy since authoring the original Anti-OSAEC law, and has continued to press for its full and faithful implementation through sustained Senate oversight.

‘We authored the Anti-OSAEC law to shield our children from different forms of online abuse and exploitation. Ngayong may panibagong banta laban sa kanila, tungkulin nating tugunan ito nang walang pag aalinlangan,’ the senator concluded.

The second Gentry Open officially opened today at the Colegio de San Agustin Tennis Stadium, bringing together more than 1,600 registered players for 11 days of competition and putting a bigger spotlight on the future of Philippine tennis.

The tournament runs from August 20 to 30 and returns considerably larger than its inaugural edition. This year’s event carries a ?3 million prize pool and the theme ‘Building the Future of Philippine Tennis,’ with competitions covering men’s and women’s singles and doubles, professional-amateur doubles, club doubles and junior events.

For Gentry Open founder and tournament owner Hayb ‘Pareng Hayb’ Anzures, the size of this year’s field is already a sign of how quickly the tournament has grown.

’11 days is really not enough,’ Anzures said during the tournament’s second official press conference on Wednesday.

The expanded field includes some of the country’s familiar names, among them AJ Lim, Eric ‘Jed’ Olivarez, Francis Casey Alcantara and Ruben Gonzales.

The competition will also have an international element, with players from India, New Zealand and Thailand joining the field.

That international participation gives Filipino players an opportunity to face opponents they might otherwise have to travel abroad to meet. For the younger competitors in particular, the tournament provides a chance to see the level and variety of tennis outside the usual local circuit.

The junior events are an important part of that picture. Rather than limiting the tournament to established players, Gentry Open has created space for younger competitors to experience a large-scale competition alongside some of the country’s best-known players.

The organizers have also pointed to the rise of Alex Eala as an example of what Filipino tennis players can achieve when given opportunities to develop and compete internationally. Her success has brought renewed attention to the sport, while tournaments such as the Gentry Open provide a more immediate platform for players still working their way up.

The tournament’s growth can also be seen in the support behind it.

This year’s Gentry Open has attracted a larger group of private-sector partners, including Honor Philippines, Beauty Elements Ventures, Philippine Bottling Beverages, Palawan Group of Companies and Sky Warrior Philippines. The additional support has allowed organizers to expand the services available to players during the tournament.

A satellite gym has been set up at the CSA Tennis Stadium through a partnership with Armonyx Fitness Gym, while Cristalino Spring are providing hydration and Kojie.San, Defensil and Danarra are extending personal-care support for players. The player’s lounge also features a recovery zone, where massage chairs from Zion Philippines are made available for the athletes.

The prize money remains one of the biggest draws. The men’s singles champion will receive ?400,000, while the women’s singles champion will take home ?200,000, with prize money distributed across the tournament’s different divisions.

But the organizers are looking beyond this year’s winners.

The Gentry Open has already received Grade A status in the Philippines, and organizers have discussed plans to continue the tournament in 2027 while looking at ways to bring in more international players and pursue further tournament accreditation.

That gives this year’s edition a significance beyond the trophies that will be handed out at the end of the competition.

For a professional player, the tournament is another chance to compete for a title and prize money. For an aspiring junior, it can be a chance to measure their game against stronger opponents, experience the atmosphere of a major domestic tournament and understand what the next level of competition looks like.

That is part of what Hayb Anzures wants the players to take away from the event.

‘I want especially the athletes to be inspired,’ he said ahead of the tournament.

The second Gentry Open now begins with a field that is larger, more diverse and more competitive than its first.

For the next 11 days, the courts in Colegio San Agustin in San Jose del Monte will determine who takes home the titles.

What the tournament leaves behind for Philippine tennis may take considerably longer to measure.

AN education expert underscored the importance of creating a culture of open communication amidst another school shooting incident in Zamboanga.

Rossana Llenado, founder of Ahead Education Group, said that schools must look beyond physical security and build a culture where students feel safe speaking up and more teachers become equipped to recognize concerning behavior.

‘School safety is not only about what we do when there is an emergency,’ Llenado said. ‘It is also about creating a school environment where students feel that they belong, teachers are attentive to their students, and concerns are taken seriously.’

As schools confront bullying, student conflicts, online threats and other forms of harmful behavior, Llenado says prevention must become part of everyday education.

A multi-awarded education advocate, Llenado started Ahead Education Group, which operates nine education brands. It has been recognized nationally and across Asia for excellence in education,

entrepreneurship and leadership. It is the country’s most awarded review center with over 35 recognitions.

Teachers spend much of their day with students and may notice changes in behavior, relationships or classroom participation. They should not be expected to diagnose psychological problems, Llenado stressed, but they can be trained to recognize when something is concerning and know when and how to refer it to school leaders or appropriate professionals.

‘Teachers can help create safer schools by listening more to their students but she also cautioned against creating stereotypes about students who may be considered ‘at risk’.’

‘We have to be careful that our efforts to prevent violence do not result in labeling children,’ Llenado said.

Parents are also part of the prevention equation. Regular communication between families and schools can help ensure that serious concerns do not remain unnoticed or unaddressed, Llenado added.

Llenado also said that digital citizenship should be treated as an essential part of education but she said that prevention comes down to relationships and building trust and open communication between and among the parents, school authorities, teachers and students.

‘Education is not only about academic achievement,’ Llenado said. ‘We need to prepare young people to become responsible members of society. Teaching them how to resolve conflict, respect others, ask for help and speak up when something is wrong.’

Llenado is starting a ReviewLab Scholarship Program in September to enable more students from across the country to get more access to review facilities. ‘We encourage our students to be the change the world needs. We hope that they can be a force of good for our country.’, she said adding that a culture of friendship and camaraderie and open communication are also instituted in Ahead.

BUSINESSES are seeking clearer and more consistent rules on how cross-border services are taxed, as a policy dialogue convened by Arangkada Philippines examined implementation issues arising from Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 5-2024.

The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC), through its ‘Arangkada Philippines’ initiative, said greater tax certainty is needed because tax rules affect how companies structure transactions, plan operations and assess investments.

‘Arangkada serves as a vital bridge between government and business, creating a platform where practical policy concerns can be openly discussed and translated into clear, actionable implementation that supports both compliance and competitiveness,’ Arangkada Project Director Matthew Scalin said during the dialogue last Wednesday.

Issued in January 2024, RMC 5-2024 requires service fees paid to nonresident foreign corporations to be subject to Philippine final withholding tax and value-added tax when the services are used, applied or consumed in the country, even if the work is performed abroad.

The rule, which draws from the Supreme Court’s ruling in Aces Philippines Cellular Satellite Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, broadens the basis for determining the tax situs of services from where the work is physically performed to where the resulting economic benefit or utility is realized.

For businesses, the change raises questions on how the rules should be applied to cross-border transactions, particularly where services involve operations spanning several jurisdictions.

The JFC comprises the American, Canadian, European, Japanese and Korean chambers of commerce and PAMURI, representing more than 3,000 companies operating across various sectors of the Philippine economy.

Arangkada will consolidate the issues and recommendations raised during the dialogue and pursue further discussions with concerned government agencies and stakeholders.

The initiative is part of Arangkada’s broader advocacy for policy reforms aimed at improving the investment environment and competitiveness of the country.

To balance financial sustainability with rapid package growth, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is shifting toward prevention by expanding the primary care system with the Department of Health (DOH) and securing adequate premium funding from both the government and contributors.

In her first news briefing last Thursday, newly-assigned PhilHealth President and CEO Beverly Lorraine C. Ho said a working primary care system will sustain the insurer’s sustainability, as better health promotion and prevention could reduce the number of patients requiring costly therapies.

To do this, the PhilHealth and DOH will scale up the health insurer’s primary care program it dubs ‘Yakap’ (embrace), which aims to provide members with preventive and outpatient services, Ho said. She added the program will be brought to schools and workplaces instead of relying on patients to visit clinics, as well as integrating other government health programs for a more unified health system.

This is part of PhilHealth’s new shared roadmap with the health department anchored on five pillars, such as bringing services close to people, strengthening primary care, expanding access to affordable care, cutting red tape and strengthening PhilHealth’s organization.

The PhilHealth will also crack down on fraudulent claims to ensure that funds are not wasted and that quality services are paid for, and will seek continued support from Congress to ensure adequate funding for premiums, particularly for indirect contributors.

‘[This is] also an appeal to the formal sector and the direct contributor that everyone has to pay their premiums consistently,’ Ho added.

Aside from improving primary care, PhilHealth plans to increase the number of hospitals offering No Balance Billing, including private hospitals willing to provide services at NBB rates.

The PhilHealth and the DOH will likewise seek to cut red tape for healthcare providers by streamlining their licensing and accreditation processes.

Ho said the agencies could eventually allow providers to submit requirements through a single platform instead of separately dealing with the DOH and the PhilHealth, although stronger information technology system would be critical to making the reforms work.

The insurer will also proceed with organizational reforms mandated by the Governance Commission for GOCCs, while seeking to give its employees greater responsibility and fair compensation.

Further, a ‘task-shifting’ mechanism is being studied to allow certain services traditionally performed by doctors or specialists to be handled by nurses or general practitioners where appropriate, Ho added.

The new PhilHealth chief she would not abandon reforms initiated under Edwin Mercado, who was recently appointed as health secretary.

‘We’re just going to build on the gains,’ Ho said. ‘We will actually just focus on better execution moving forward.’

‘Our main goal is to address challenges systematically in the fastest possible ways so that we reduce friction,’ she added.

MALACAÑANG on Thursday warned companies covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law to comply with their plastic recovery obligations as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has issued 155 show-cause letters to potential violators.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said the DENR is auditing companies’ plastic recovery rates to determine compliance with Republic Act 11898 or the EPR Act of 2022.

The law requires covered enterprises to recover or offset an increasing portion of their plastic packaging footprint, with the target reaching 60 percent in 2026, 70 percent in 2027 and 80 percent from 2028 onward.

‘Kapag hindi nag-comply, bibigyan po sila at papatawan ng penalty [Companies that fail to comply will be fined],’ Castro said, quoting the DENR.

The warning came as garbage, particularly plastic waste, clogged Metro Manila’s waterways and pumping stations, worsening the flooding woes.

During an inspection of the Tripa de Gallina Pumping Station in Pasay City, Marcos said even fully operational pumps could lose efficiency when garbage enters the system.

Castro said the DENR had issued 155 show-cause letters to potential obligated enterprises that failed to meet their EPR obligations.

She clarified, however, that the 155 letters do not necessarily mean the companies have already been penalized.

Castro also said compliant companies should be recognized, particularly those that exceed the required recovery targets.

According to DENR data cited by Castro, audited recovery rates in 2024 reached 59.98 percent for rigid plastics and 56.33 percent for flexible plastics, exceeding the 40-percent target applicable that year. With PNA

The Cebu Provincial Government has distributed at least P79 million in calamity cash assistance to thousands of households affected by Typhoon ‘Tino’ and the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Northern Cebu last year, with the latest payouts reaching victims in Mandaue City and Consolacion.

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, 1,126 households from 11 barangays in Mandaue City received P10,000 each, totaling P11.26 million, through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO). Each beneficiary also received 10 kilograms of rice from the national government.

The assistance was led by Gov. Pamela Baricuatro at the Barangay Ibabao-Estancia Gym as the provincial government continued its coordination with local governments to reach residents affected by the typhoon and flooding.

Also on Aug. 19, 340 Typhoon Tino-affected residents in Consolacion received P10,000 each, amounting to P3.4 million in provincial assistance, along with 10 kilograms of rice.

A separate relief effort provided rice to 3,125 farmers and fisherfolk in Consolacion.

Prior to the latest payouts, 873 residents of Liloan and Compostela received P10,000 each on July 13. The distribution covered 482 beneficiaries in Liloan and 391 in Compostela, bringing the assistance to P8.73 million.

On June 24, the provincial government distributed P9.93 million to 993 households in Danao City whose homes were severely damaged by Typhoon Tino. Each household received P10,000 and 10 kilograms of rice.

Livelihood support was also extended to farmers and fisherfolk, including farm equipment, fishing materials, fertilizer, and seeds. The Provincial Veterinary Office also provided 10 carabaos and 20 goats to the city government.

Three days earlier, on June 22, 37 households on Bantayan Island received P10,000 each, or P370,000, after their homes were damaged by the earthquake or Typhoon Tino. Rice, veterinary medicines, and assistive devices were also distributed.

On June 3, the provincial government provided P32.15 million to 3,215 Bogo City households whose homes were completely destroyed by the September 2025 earthquake. Each received P10,000 and 10 kilograms of rice, alongside agricultural, fisheries and livestock assistance.

The earliest payout in the series was on May 20, when 1,394 households in Medellin and Daanbantayan received a combined P13.94 million. The beneficiaries were among those severely affected by the earthquake.

The provincial government has also provided various livelihood inputs and livestock assistance as part of its broader recovery efforts for communities affected by the disasters.