Category: Business Mirror

Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) is thrilled to announce the top 10 Sporting Class players and top 10 Junior Class players who will be competing in the upcoming National Finals of the 2026 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Philippines Esports GT Championship.

This season, more than 400 sim racers across the country participated in the qualifiers, where players put in their fastest lap time around the Laguna Seca racetrack using the stock Toyota GR 86.

The TGR Philippines Esports GT Championship is the country’s premier sim racing tournament, which aims to provide aspiring racers with an avenue to kickstart their racing careers, as well as gather sim racing enthusiasts together to celebrate the thrill and joy of motorsports. Participants compete wheel-to-wheel in the game Gran Turismo.

Since it was launched in 2020, the TGR Philippines Esports GT Championship (formerly known as the GR GT Cup), has been pioneering competitive sim racing in the country, offering attractive prizes, and the opportunity to face against other sim racers in Asia and the world.

As a grassroots tournament, the series also bridges the gap between sim racing and real-life racing by transitioning winners of the competition to TMP’s premier racing series, the TGR Philippine Cup (formerly known as the Vios Cup).

The champion of each class will be receiving a cash prize of PHP 100,000 and a slot in the Asia Finals, where they will go head-to-head with other sim racers in the region as part of Team Philippines. The runner-up of each class will be receiving PHP 75,000 and a chance at the third and final slot in Team Philippines. The final slot will be given to the runner-up with the higher number of points at the end of the National Finals.

Aside from the thrilling competition, fans can try their hand at the public sim racing rigs, and check out displays of the GR Yaris, GR Corolla, GR 86, and Tamaraw one-make-race car. The new GR merchandise lineup will also be available for purchase at the event for those who want to show off their brand love.

‘The esports community has grown a lot since last season, where we only had 250 participants for the qualifiers. We are thrilled to see that there a more people getting into motorsports through sim racing, and we look forward to finding out who will be coming out on top at the National Finals,’ shared First Vice President for Vehicle Sales Operations Elijah Marcial.

‘We are especially encouraged by the strong participation in our Junior Category, which plays a vital role in our esports program by giving young racers an avenue to develop their skills, gain competitive experience, and pursue their passion for motorsports from an early age. Through initiatives like this, we hope to continue nurturing the next generation of Filipino racing talent,’ Marcial added.

The 2026 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Philippines Esports GT Championship National Finals will also be livestreamed on the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Philippines Facebook Page.

For more information on the TGR Philippines Esports GT Championship and other TGR Philippines products and events, follow TGR Philippines on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube.

There is a particular way I like to experience Bangkok: on foot, with no real plan beyond whatever interesting places I happen to find on Google Maps and an appetite.

I wander through alleys, past sizzling woks and food carts, and keep walking until the streets light up with neon signs. I stop whenever something smells too good to walk past.

On my most recent trip, I averaged around 20,000 steps a day while exploring historic neighborhoods, food streets, night markets, shopping districts, and, yes, even meeting someone I matched with on Bumble. One night, I ended the day with 26,000 steps.

A 50-baht bowl of tom yum from a roadside stall. Mango sticky rice in a hidden alley. Coffee in a century-old shophouse. A late-night meal at a night market. That is Bangkok for me: walk, eat, walk some more.

Talat Noi and Song Wat

I spent time walking the approximately one-kilometer Song Wat Road, one of Bangkok’s most interesting stretches for food and cafés. Historic Chinese shophouses have been converted into coffee shops, restaurants, galleries, and creative spaces, while nearby Talat Noi remains packed with murals, workshops, small eateries, and old family businesses.

At Mother Roaster Cafe, the entrance is almost comically un-café-like. The ground floor doubles as a scrap-metal yard and souvenir shop, while the small coffee shop is hidden upstairs, above all the clutter.

In Song Wat, I stopped at Bukowski and Co., partly because the name reminded me of Charles Bukowski. It turned out to be more than a literary reference. It serves coffee by day and cocktails by night, with a vintage-inspired interior.

For mango sticky rice, Wanjai Cafe House tells another neighborhood story. A poster inside traces its roots to Je Sa, who began selling mango sticky rice from a cart 45 years ago in Talat Noi before passing the tradition to her eldest daughter.

That is the kind of Bangkok food story I find more interesting than another influencer recommendation.

Chinatown After Dark

If Bangkok has a switch for its appetite, Yaowarat flips it after sunset. Neon signs light up the street as vendors fire up their grills and charcoal burners. Seafood, crispy pork, noodles, desserts, and everything in between compete for attention while diners crowd the sidewalks.

For me, the fun in exploring Chinatown is not knowing exactly where I will eat next. You see something interesting, stop, order, eat, and continue walking. Instead of sitting down for one big meal, you can have a little of this, a bite of that, and still have enough left for dessert.

Siam and Banthat Thong Road

Around Siam and Chulalongkorn University, the food scene shifts toward younger crowds, busy restaurants, dessert shops, and cafés.

I was about to call it a night and work on my laptop at my hostel around 8 p.m. when the receptionist told me about a food market nearby. I checked Google Maps. It was just 1.2 kilometers away. Of course, I decided to add a few hundred steps to the day.

Banthat Thong Road becomes livelier at night, packed with young diners moving between restaurants, dessert shops and cafés. The area is also home to several Michelin-starred and Bib Gourmand establishments. The easiest way to spot some of them is simply to look for the queues.

And then there are the cafés.

As someone who occasionally needs to open a laptop and chase a deadline while traveling, I appreciate Bangkok’s digital-nomad-friendly cafés almost as much as the coffee.

Old and New Bangkok

Around the Grand Palace, history and food remain intertwined. On Lok Yun, established in 1933 by a Chinese immigrant, is a kopi tiam-style coffee shop that has survived generations of Bangkok’s changes.

Then there is Auntie Nid, who has become something of a social-media darling. Wearing her signature blue ‘Teapot’ apron, red lipstick and a different headband each day, the 68-year-old serves 40-baht Thai milk tea and milk coffee from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

She has followed the same traditional brewing method for more than 30 years, using strong black tea, a muslin cloth, and sweetened condensed milk.

In the Ari neighborhood, NANA Coffee Roasters Ari, Porcupine Café and Yellow Lane show just how far the city’s café culture has evolved.

But I keep coming back to the old places. One of those meals was near Patpong. And yes, I was just walking by Patpong. Promise.

After my fancy lunch at the La Petite Maison pop-up at Anantara Siam, Waan, one of the restaurant’s staff members, recommended Thipsamai to me. ‘Best pad Thai in Bangkok,’ she said. I hadn’t even planned to look for it.

But that’s the point of exploring Bangkok’s gastronomic scene on foot. You start the day thinking about 20,000 steps. Then Google Maps tells you something is only another kilometer away. You walk. And in Bangkok, that extra kilometer usually comes with something worth eating.

A fuel-flow correction born of hard math is trimming every 2027 Grand Prix by two laps – and Baku’s qualifying hour, where Honda conceded defeat on the straights and the paddock bet everything on a single pit stop, showed exactly why the FIA ran out of patience with the current formula.

By Friday evening at the Baku City Circuit, the story of Formula 1’s 2026 season had resolved itself into a stark hierarchy, if you knew how to read the timesheet.

George Russell took pole in 1:42.526, more than eight tenths clear of the field – a margin so wide on a street circuit that it read less like a qualifying lap than a statement. Charles Leclerc slotted onto the front row in 1:43.363, Oscar Piastri missed second by a thousandth of a second, and Lando Norris, dogged all weekend by straight-line speed he couldn’t find, settled for fifth. At the back of the order, Honda’s power unit told a blunter story: Shintaro Orihara, the manufacturer’s trackside chief engineer, did not attempt to dress it up. ‘The results reflect the PU performance at these sorts of circuits with long straights,’ he said after Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas qualified 20th and 22nd for Cadillac. ‘This is our reality.’ None of it looked like a single bad session so much as an entire grid negotiating, lap by lap, with an engine formula that has never quite behaved as intended.

That negotiation is precisely what the FIA moved to end this week, four thousand miles away in a London conference room, when the Formula 1 Commission approved a structural change to the 2027 regulations: every grand prix will run roughly 15 kilometres shorter, two to three laps trimmed from the 305-kilometre standard that has held since well before the current engine generation existed. It is not a cosmetic trim aimed at shaving minutes off a broadcast. It is an admission, arrived at under Stefano Domenicali and Nikolas Tombazis, that the sport’s own power unit rules had outrun the distances teams are asked to cover.

The pairing that chaired that meeting is not incidental to the outcome. Domenicali, born in Imola in 1965 – a detail that matters, given the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari’s status as a kind of spiritual home ground for Italian motorsport – joined Ferrari in 1991 and spent nearly two decades climbing from the finance department into senior management, ultimately serving as Team Principal from 2008 to 2014 and delivering a Constructors’ Championship in his first year running the Scuderia. A subsequent stint at Audi and a run as Lamborghini’s chief executive from 2016 to 2020 gave him a commercial education in luxury branding and global markets before he returned to the sport in January 2021 as President and CEO of Formula One Group. That dual fluency – a racing lifer’s instinct for what keeps an audience watching, married to a road-car executive’s grasp of sponsorship and audience growth – explains both his defense of the calendar’s expansion into Qatar and Saudi Arabia amid criticism of those countries’ human rights records, and why he now bears responsibility for betting that a shorter, sprint-heavy format holds a fracturing global audience.

Tombazis carries a different kind of authority, rooted in the physics rather than the commerce of the cars. Born in Athens in 1968, he entered Formula 1 in 1992 with Benetton and spent the better part of two decades in senior design and technical roles at Ferrari and McLaren, embedded in the aerodynamic and chassis decisions of championship-winning machinery before crossing to the regulatory side. He joined the FIA in 2018 overseeing single-seater technical matters and was elevated to single-seater director in 2023 – the post from which he has led development of the sustainability and technical rules landing in 2027, the same rules that made this week’s distance cut necessary. If Domenicali understands what an audience wants, Tombazis understands, down to the fuel-flow rate and energy-deployment curve, what an engine can physically deliver. The reduction to 290 kilometres carries his fingerprints as plainly as it carries Domenicali’s signature.

Baku’s qualifying hour supplied a tidy demonstration of the problem this correction is meant to fix, and it arrived in two parts. The first was the Honda concession – a manufacturer conceding, on the record, that its power unit simply cannot compete once a circuit rewards sustained combustion output over a long straight, precisely the vulnerability the 2026 formula’s heavy reliance on electrical deployment was always going to expose. The second, subtler tell came from Pirelli. Motorsport director Dario Marrafuschi noted that ‘the data gathered so far confirms that a one-stop strategy remains the most competitive option,’ with drivers extracting three, even four consecutive flying laps from a single set of Soft tyres rather than burning through fresh rubber to chase raw pace. Russell needed only three sets across the entire session to take pole; Leclerc matched that economy en route to second. That kind of restraint – a field treating tyres as a resource to be managed rather than spent – points at the same underlying condition as Honda’s straight-line concession: teams and manufacturers alike calibrating for endurance within a formula that punishes anyone who tries to simply drive flat out.

The 2027 rules correct the energy-flow half of that equation by raising the permitted fuel-flow rate, returning more of the performance workload to the combustion engine and restoring a more natural power delivery through a lap. But the fix creates a second-order problem: an engine burning fuel faster needs more of it to cover the same 305 kilometres. More fuel means a larger, heavier tank, which cascades into chassis packaging, weight distribution, crash-structure placement, and the aerodynamic surfacing built around it – the kind of homologation-triggering overhaul that costs every team tens of millions of dollars regardless of the budget cap, for what was supposed to be a mid-cycle rebalancing rather than a new chassis generation.

Faced with a choice between redesigning every car to carry more fuel over an unchanged distance or shortening the distance so existing tank capacity still gets a car to the finish, the Commission took the cheaper, faster, far less disruptive route. Cutting the race to 290 kilometres lets the higher-flow engine function as intended without triggering a second wave of costly redesigns just two seasons after teams absorbed the last one.

Two adjacent changes in the same package confirm this was engineering cleanup rather than showmanship. A new hard stop for weather- or red-flag-disrupted races now runs alongside a two-hour cap on actual racing time, replacing the old rule that simply demanded a race conclude within three hours of its original start – the kind of provision that mattered again in Baku, where a red flag for Formula 2 debris pushed qualifying’s start back and left teams recalculating their remaining track time on the fly. Gearbox homologation, meanwhile, has been eliminated for 2027 entirely, a smaller, related loosening that trades a rigid old constraint for something workable under the new engine philosophy.

Distance is never merely an engineering variable in Formula 1, however clinical its origin. It is pacing, strategy, tyre degradation, and the emotional arc of a race weekend. Teams that have spent a decade optimizing for 305 kilometres now recalibrate for 290, and in a sport where thousandths of a second separate podiums from also-rans – Piastri missed the front row by exactly that margin in Baku – that recalibration will be invisible to anyone not staring at telemetry. Which is exactly why the sprint expansion, not the distance cut, will dominate conversation among fans who never see a fuel-flow graph but notice immediately when a race weekend gains a second grid.

Formula 1 will grow its sprint programme from six events to ten in 2027, and the addition drawing the sharpest scrutiny is Monaco – a circuit whose identity rests on the near-impossibility of overtaking, where qualifying position functions less as a starting grid than as a verdict. Monaco has long been the sport’s most beautiful contradiction: an unmodifiable ribbon of public road, glamorous beyond reason, often processional beyond patience. Grafting a sprint format onto that geometry is a wager that a second competitive session, with its own grid and its own jeopardy, can manufacture drama the principal race increasingly struggles to produce alone – and the format leaves little room for error.

Drivers will get a single one-hour practice session before qualifying begins, a sharp reduction from the usual three, forcing teams to lean almost entirely on prior years’ data rather than fresh track time. Lando Norris backed the change as good for fans, framing it as a shift that could sharpen the show after several comparatively flat years at the venue, while acknowledging the compressed schedule leaves drivers ‘relying more on data from this year’ with far less room ‘to build up to things’ before the stakes turn real – a sentiment that echoed his own frustration in Baku, where he described ‘dealing with some challenges this weekend, especially with straight-line speed,’ a car whose true pace stayed hidden behind a lock-up on his final qualifying run.

The rest of the sprint slate mixes the predictable with the strategic: Bahrain, Australia, Japan and Abu Dhabi host the format for the first time alongside Monaco, while Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil and Qatar get another turn. The list maps where Formula 1 believes its commercial weight now sits – legacy markets with entrenched fan bases alongside newer or reinvigorated ventures that have paid handsomely for the extra eyeballs a Saturday sprint guarantees. Nearly doubling that inventory in a single year is less a competitive decision than a commercial one dressed in the language of sporting drama – Domenicali’s Lamborghini-honed instincts are not hard to spot in that calculus.

The 2027 calendar retains its 24-race scope, opening with a Bahrain-Saudi Arabia double-header in March and closing with Qatar and Abu Dhabi in December. Monaco opens the European leg on its new June date, followed by Portugal’s return at Portimão on a two-year deal after a hiatus since 2021, then Silverstone, Belgium, and Hungary. September brings one of the calendar’s more elegant strokes of logistics: Monza’s Italian Grand Prix and Madrid’s Madring circuit – hosting only its second-ever F1 race weekend – form a back-to-back double header, letting freight move efficiently between the two rather than crisscrossing the continent. Trkiye returns the same month on a five-year deal through 2031, slotted into a triple header with Azerbaijan and Singapore. Barcelona-Catalunya and Zandvoort step aside for the year, with Barcelona expected back in 2028 as part of a rotation with Spa-Francorchamps.

Engineers and fans alike have noted, quietly and openly respectively, that the shortened distance and the sprint expansion pull in slightly different directions. A 290-kilometre race is a shorter dramatic runway – less time for a compromised strategy to be salvaged, less time for tyre degradation to open a passing window. Compress the format further with sprint weekends, where practice time shrinks to accommodate an added qualifying-and-race cycle, and teams have even less runway to understand a car before it matters. That is precisely the trade-off Norris gestured toward at Baku: less preparation, more consequence, compressed into a tighter window – a preview, in miniature, of what every 2027 sprint weekend will demand of every garage on the grid.

What the FIA is wagering is that shorter races and more sprints are not contradictory impulses but complementary ones – that a sport competing for attention against an ever-fragmenting media landscape needs shorter, punchier units of drama rather than longer ones. That the bet is being placed jointly by a former Ferrari team principal turned Lamborghini chief executive and a former Benetton, Ferrari, and McLaren car designer turned chief regulator is no accident.

Domenicali understands what keeps an audience watching; Tombazis understands what an engine can physically deliver within that window, and how far its new fuel-flow ceiling could be pushed before it demanded a car nobody had budgeted to build. Monaco’s inclusion in the sprint format is the clearest signal of that philosophy: a circuit where the show has traditionally struggled precisely because nothing changes once the lights go out is being handed a second, higher-stakes session specifically because the FIA believes qualifying-adjacent drama, not raw racing, is what the venue can reliably deliver.

Whether that bet pays off will not be settled in a conference room in London. It will be settled on tracks like Baku, over a season in which teams relearn their fuel strategies around a shorter distance, drivers navigate a sprint calendar nearly double its previous size, and fans in Lisbon, Istanbul, and Madrid welcome Grands Prix back or for the first time while supporters in Zandvoort wait a year to learn if their race returns at all. Formula 1 has always been as much a business of calendars and contracts as of carbon fibre and combustion, and the 2027 package – shaped in equal measure by a commercially minded former team boss and a technically minded former car designer, anchored by a fuel-flow calculation few fans will ever see spelled out – makes that plainer than most. So, for that matter, does a Friday afternoon in Baku, where a Japanese engineer conceded the fight on a long straight, a field of drivers rationed rubber they didn’t need to spend, and Race Control quietly began drafting the case for a shorter finish line.

BEING a world-renowned musician does not stop Lisa from enjoying one of her pastimes, which is gaming. That’s why she decided to partner with gaming giant Sony’s PlayStation to bring a new cosmetic to the DualSense Controller, making her presence known more in the gaming world.

This is not the first time that Lisa and PlayStation have worked together, as the K-pop star joined last year for the PS5’s global campaign. This time, however, both parties worked together further by introducing the Lisa Limited Edition DualSense controller.

As a global icon herself, she has iconic figures that fans would know about, especially her ‘dynamic stage presence and her bold approach to fashion.’ With that in mind, PlayStation made sure that her controller skin looks just as glamorous and iconic as the BlackPink member.

The controller uses her favorite color-the Chroma Pearl colorway. The design, meanwhile, is straight up a reference to Lisa, as it includes her iconic bangs and eyes in the DualSense wireless touchpad. Her signature ‘LL’ is also written in the controller.

‘Gaming is something I do whenever I have time to relax, so getting to create this collection with PlayStation was very exciting. I had a lot of fun adding in little details that I knew my fans would notice, and I wanted the fans to have something they can connect with. I’ve always loved expressing myself through music and fashion, so this collaboration gave me a new way to be creative and show a different side of myself. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do,’ said Lisa in the PlayStation blog post.

In Southeast Asia, participating retailers would have this in highly limited stock by October 30, as pre-orders for the controller would start by October 2. For the Philippines, the suggested retail price is P5,411.

A FEW weeks ago, I wrote about the best and worst parts of living alone-including the undeniable pleasure of having complete control over the television, my viewing schedule and, perhaps most importantly, the remote.

But there is one downside I forgot to mention.

When you live alone, every bill has your name on it.

There is nobody to split the internet bill with. Nobody else is paying for the streaming services. Your mobile plan, cloud storage, apps and all those subscriptions that seemed inexpensive when you signed up are yours, yours, yours and yours.

Apparently, I have collected quite a few.

I realized this while reviewing my monthly expenses and seeing how many separate services had become part of my routine. There was my internet connection, mobile plan, streaming subscriptions, cloud storage and the apps I regularly use-plus a few recurring charges I could no longer immediately identify.

You know the ones. A charge appears on your statement, and you stare at it for a few seconds thinking, ‘Ano nga ulit ito?’

Then there are the passwords, renewals and verification codes that come with maintaining all those accounts.

Now that I have officially entered what people politely call their ‘golden era,’ I have developed a greater appreciation for simplicity. I can remember the lyrics to a song I have not heard since the 1980s, but ask me which variation of a password I used two months ago and we are in trouble.

Was it the one with the capital letter? Did I add an exclamation point? Or did I use my old password and attach another number because the app insisted that I create a ‘new’ one?

That is why I have become less impressed by technology that gives me another thing to manage. I appreciate services that take something off my plate.

And I am managing all these accounts for only one person.

Imagine doing it for an entire family.

ONE HOME, MANY DIGITAL LIVES

CONSIDER what happens inside a Filipino home on an ordinary evening.

Someone is watching television in the living room while another family member catches up on a series using a tablet. One child is gaming with friends. Another is scrolling through videos on a phone. Someone else has a laptop open for work or school.

Several screens and devices may be running simultaneously, all relying on the same internet connection.

Other devices remain connected in the background and are barely noticed-until the internet stops working.

Once everyone steps outside, another set of digital needs takes over. Mobile data is needed for messages, maps, social media, music, video calls and practically everything else people expect to access wherever they go.

I remember when having internet at home meant connecting one computer. You went online, did what you needed to do and logged off. Everyone had a schedule because everyone had to share limited bandwidth.

Today, I could not tell you how many things in my home are connected without walking around and counting them.

The internet is no longer something we occasionally use. It runs through work, school, entertainment, communication and much of everyday family life.

That also means connectivity is no longer represented by a single bill.

There is home internet, mobile data, streaming and cable television. None of these expenses may appear unreasonable on its own. It is only when you see them together that you realize how many separate services are competing for a share of the household budget.

For years, choosing a home internet plan largely came down to two questions: How fast is it, and how much does it cost? Both remain important. But there is now a third question worth asking:

What else am I getting for my money?

If a household is already paying separately for internet, entertainment, calls and mobile connectivity, finding a slightly cheaper version of each service may not be the only way to save.

It may make more sense to stop paying for everything separately.

WHAT IS PLDT HOME FIBER UNLI

THAT is the idea behind the new PLDT Home Fiber Unli All plans.

Take Fiber Unli All 1499. For ?1,499 a month, subscribers get speeds of up to 200 Mbps, unlimited fiber internet, more than 60 live Cignal channels, HBO Max Standard, Unli Calls and a total of 9GB of Smart mobile data every month.

That is a long list for something we traditionally think of as an internet plan.

The Cignal inclusion provides households with live television channels, while HBO Max Standard allows two people to stream simultaneously in Full HD. Subscribers may also download up to 30 titles for offline viewing.

The included landline comes with unlimited calls to five nominated Smart, Sun or TNT numbers.

The Smart mobile data allocation is distributed among as many as three registered Smart or TNT numbers, with each receiving 3GB valid for 30 days. These numbers must be included among the five mobile numbers nominated for Unli Calls.

The benefits are therefore not intended for one person to keep. They can be distributed among members of the household.

For families that need more bandwidth, Fiber Unli All 1899 offers speeds of up to 400 Mbps, while Fiber Unli All 2599 goes up to 800 Mbps. All three plans carry the same basic proposition: combine home internet, entertainment, calls and mobile data under one subscription.

Now the ‘All’ in Fiber Unli All makes considerably more sense.

ONE DIGITAL LIFE, MULTIPLE SCREENS

WHAT makes the bundle practical is that it reflects how people actually use technology.

I could begin the morning working at home, stream something during lunch, leave to cover an event and use mobile data for navigation, messages and social media, then come home and finish the day watching something on HBO Max.

I have not developed three different digital lives. It is still me moving from my laptop to my phone to my television-and from home to somewhere else and back again.

Multiply that behavior by three, four or five people in one household, and connectivity becomes much bigger than ‘home internet.’

Speed still matters, particularly when several people are using the connection at the same time. But value should also be measured by how much of the household’s actual digital routine is covered by the monthly payment.

Does the plan support how the family works, studies and relaxes? Does it provide useful services beyond the home connection? Can it reduce the number of separate subscriptions and bills that somebody must remember to pay?

For households already paying for several of these services, a bundle can provide a simpler alternative. The actual savings will depend on which services the family currently uses, so it still pays to compare the plan with existing monthly expenses.

But if Cignal, HBO Max, landline calls and mobile data are already part of the household routine, getting them together may be more convenient than maintaining them separately.

FEWER THINGS TO REMEMBER

PEOPLE always say the best things in life are free.

Love. Friendship. Family. A beautiful sunset.

That is true enough. But many of the things that keep us connected, productive and entertained now come with a monthly bill.

I do not mind paying for services that make my life easier, help me stay productive or give me something good to watch at the end of a long day. What I mind is the administrative burden that comes with them: different bills, separate subscriptions and another set of account details to remember.

A bundled plan will not eliminate every subscription or solve every household expense. But if it gives a family services it already uses while leaving fewer separate accounts to monitor, that is a practical form of convenience.

Perhaps the old saying simply needs a digital update. The best things in life may be free.

But when it comes to my digital life, I will happily take Unli.

GAC Philippines is driving the future of electric mobility to new heights with an exciting new value-adding program for its cutting-edge electric vehicle lineup.

From September 1 to December 31, 2026, customers who purchase and take delivery of a brand-new GAC AION UT or GAC AION V will receive a complimentary 7-kW Wall Charger alongside a Free Two-Year Preventive Maintenance Service (PMS) program.1

Each included 7kW unit operates at 32 Amps and is engineered to draw safely from standard Philippine residential 220V lines. This high-efficiency charger refuels a standard 60kWh EV battery from low to full in about 8 hours, making it ideal for overnight home charging, and features a connector type compatible with GAC AION vehicle ports.

Designed to elevate the overall EV ownership experience, this limited-time promotional offering ensures that transitioning to a sustainable, electric lifestyle is more seamless, rewarding, and worry-free than ever before. Under the program, PMS benefits may only be redeemed at the authorized service center of the selling dealer. Customers are required to present the PMS Voucher and vehicle records during each PMS visit, and services must be performed according to GAC’s prescribed maintenance schedule and intervals. The free PMS program shall cover only the PMS labor and parts specifically prescribed under standard maintenance.

‘We are thrilled to introduce this special program to our Filipino customers,’ shared GAC Philippines President Calvin Cheng. ‘We want to make EV ownership as convenient and worry-free as possible for our Filipino customers. Offering a free wall charger and two years of free PMS with the AION UT and AION V is also our way of thanking them for the strong support they have shown for both models.’

With manufacturing expertise shaped by over two decades of collaboration with Toyota and Honda, and growing strength in electrification and intelligent mobility, GAC brings together proven craftsmanship and next-generation technology-Where Craft Meets Technology.

GAC Philippines supports its owners through a nationwide network of 30 dealerships, a dedicated parts warehouse, two years of free roadside assistance, and tailored warranty coverage. ICE models (EMZOOM and All-New GN6) include a 5-year or 150,000 km warranty, whichever comes first. EV models (HYPTEC HT, AION UT, and AION V) carry an 8-year or 160,000 km basic warranty, along with an 8-year or 200,000 km plan for the traction battery and electric drive, applicable up to the specified milestone. PHEV and HEV models (GS4 Max HEV, E8 HEV, GN8 PHEV, and GS8 HEV) offer a 5-year or 150,000 km basic warranty, complemented by an 8-year or 150,000 km policy covering the power battery, driving motor, and motor control unit.

Visit a GAC dealership near you or explore the new energy lineup of GAC Philippines gacgroup.com/en-ph/test-drive. For the latest news and updates, follow @gacmotorph on Facebook and Instagram.

Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC), together with dealer partner North-min Auto Dealers, Inc. (NMADI), successfully gathered fleet operators, cooperatives, non-government organizations, bank partners, business leaders, and industry stakeholders during the Isuzu NMADI Trucxpo 2026, held on September 14-15 at the Isuzu Cagayan de Oro Showroom.

The two-day event showcased Isuzu’s comprehensive lineup of commercial vehicles alongside trusted body builders and equipment suppliers, allowing attendees to explore transport solutions tailored to various business applications. By bringing together transport solution providers, industry experts, and business decision-makers, the expo served as a platform for collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and business development across Mindanao.

‘At Isuzu, we understand that businesses require transport solutions that are reliable, efficient, and aligned with their operational requirements. Through the Isuzu NMADI Trucxpo, we provide customers with access not only to our commercial vehicle lineup, but also to the expertise and specialized solutions of our trusted partners, helping them make informed decisions for their businesses,’ said IPC President Mikio Tsukui.

As Northern Mindanao continues to grow as an important center for commerce, logistics, agribusiness, and various industries, the Isuzu NMADI Trucxpo 2026 underscored IPC’s commitment to supporting regional economic development through dependable commercial vehicles and comprehensive customer support.

Business-Ready Mobility Solutions for Mindanao Enterprises

The Trucxpo’s vehicle displays highlighted Isuzu’s ability to support a wide range of business applications, from people mobility and cargo delivery to cold-chain logistics and more. Featured with specialized body configurations from trusted partners, the lineup demonstrated how Isuzu vehicles can be customized to meet the evolving requirements of businesses across Northern Mindanao.

Leading the display were the three configurations of the Isuzu TRAVIZ, demonstrating the vehicle’s versatility as a light-duty transport solution. These included a Utility Vehicle (UV) configuration for equipment and passenger mobility, a Refrigerated Van for temperature-sensitive deliveries, and an Aluminum Van designed for enclosed cargo transport.

Also featured were the Isuzu FVR Refrigerated Van and Isuzu FRR Refrigerated Van, highlighting Isuzu’s capabilities in supporting cold-chain operations. These medium-duty truck applications help businesses transport perishable goods such as food products, pharmaceuticals, and other temperature-sensitive cargo while maintaining product quality throughout the delivery process.

Completing the display lineup was the Isuzu NQR Dropside, a practical transport solution for businesses requiring efficient loading and unloading of cargo. Its dropside body configuration makes it suitable for transporting construction materials, agricultural products, hardware supplies, and various commercial goods.

Driving Business Growth Through Knowledge and Collaboration

Beyond the vehicle showcase, the Isuzu NMADI Trucxpo 2026 provided attendees with opportunities to gain valuable industry insights through a series of breakout sessions, technical consultations, and networking activities.

One of the event’s highlights was a technical forum facilitated by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), which discussed cold-chain standards and transport regulations relevant to businesses involved in temperature-controlled logistics. The session provided participants with practical guidance on regulatory compliance, operational best practices, and emerging industry developments.

Throughout the event, attendees also engaged directly with Isuzu representatives, body builders, equipment suppliers, bank and loan institutions, and industry experts to discuss transport solutions that not only comply with NMIS standards but also address their specific business needs.

Reflecting the event’s focus on enabling business growth through transport solutions, NMADI General Manager Nyle Balasabas underscored the importance of supporting the industries that drive the entire Mindanao economy. ‘We don’t just sell trucks. We help businesses move. And when businesses move, industries move. When industries move, communities move. And when communities move, Mindanao moves forward,’ said Balasabas.

The Trucxpo concluded with the Isuzu NMADI Partners’ Recognition Night, which recognized fleet customers, government and local business enterprises as well as bank and insurance partners for their continued trust in Isuzu products and services. Awards were presented across several categories, including Corporate Sales Excellence Award, Government Sales Excellence Award, and Fleet Aftersales Excellence Award, among others.

The recognition program reflected IPC’s commitment to building long-term partnerships with businesses across Mindanao. By honoring organizations that continue to rely on Isuzu vehicles and aftersales support to drive their operations, the awards highlighted the important role that customer partnerships play in sustaining business growth and operational success.

Through the Isuzu Trucxpo 2026, IPC reaffirmed its commitment to being a Responsible Partner to Filipino businesses by bringing together transport solutions, technical expertise, and trusted industry partners to help customers drive productivity, compliance, and business growth.

GAPS in job-placement networks and difficulties in transferring specialized skills from foreign workers to Filipinos remain hurdles to improving employment outcomes, according to two studies by the Department of Labor and Employment’s Institute for Labor Studies (DOLE-ILS).

Job placement offices (JPOs) remain largely constrained by limited personnel, funding and institutional support despite their role in helping students and graduates transition from school to work.

‘The data across all five clusters reveals one common theme,’ ILS Supervising Labor and Employment Officer Athena Marie Son said.

‘JPOs are being asked to solve a national problem, the educated jobless phenomenon, and improvement of PES, without the standardized mandate, resources, or structure to succeed,’ she added.

At the time of the research, 383 JPOs were accredited, with 61 percent operating in higher education institutions that represented only 11 percent of all HEIs.

The findings came from a study titled ‘The Role of Job Placement Offices in Public Employment Services: Five-Cluster Diagnostics,’ which examined governance and strategy, organization and management, labor market services, partnerships, and performance management.

Researchers surveyed 83 JPOs nationwide and supplemented the survey with focus group discussions, key informant interviews, document analysis of 82 memorandums of agreement and site visits in Regions 5, 11, 9, 8 and the National Capital Region.

Limited resources

Around 30 percent of the JPOs surveyed were classified as high-performing in governance, while 45 percent were still developing their governance systems.

Only half had a standard manual of operations, while just six had reporting systems for their activities.

Staffing was another major constraint, with 86 percent of JPO personnel performing placement functions as an additional responsibility and 51 percent of offices having only one to two staff members.

More than half also had annual budgets below P100,000 or no dedicated budget, while only 34 percent rated their office space as fully sufficient.

‘JPOs should be completely institutionalized for them to effectively provide quality public employment service,’ Son said.

JPOs provide services such as job fairs, career development assistance, job matching and referrals, labor market information, employer engagement, alumni mentoring, livelihood and entrepreneurship support, and assistance for vulnerable youth.

Digital tools were used by 67 percent of the offices, although Son noted that online job postings can also expose students and graduates to unverified opportunities.

‘You can only apply for jobs you know about,’ Son said, stressing the importance of making employment opportunities more visible to young jobseekers.

The study recommended institutionalizing JPOs, creating a national manual of operations, establishing a development fund, strengthening capacity-building programs and developing better systems for tracking outcomes.

Son said stronger partnerships among JPOs, DOLE offices and other stakeholders could also help improve employment services and labor-market alignment.

Foreign skills hard to localize

A separate ILS study found that companies transferring specialized knowledge and technology from foreign nationals to Filipino workers face challenges involving language barriers, limited training time, advanced skills requirements and succession planning.

ILS Senior Labor and Employment Officer Chelsea Nicole Pineda presented the findings from ‘Technology and Skills Transfer through the Understudy Training Program and Skills Development Program: Good Practices and Lessons Learned.’

Under the Understudy Training Program, two Filipino workers next in rank are expected to eventually assume the foreign national’s position and disseminate the knowledge acquired, while the Skills Development Program does not impose the same next-in-rank requirement.

Only 39 percent of the 140 enterprises surveyed had implemented a UTP or skills development program, with nearly 70 percent of those implementers coming from the manufacturing sector.

Language emerged as one of the more difficult areas of skills transfer, particularly for BPO positions requiring Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, French or German.

‘Imagine for you to have a native level proficiency, it would take you more than 5 to 10 years and you need exposure to practice this language,’ Pineda said.

Some jobs also require cultural knowledge, including culinary positions where authenticity matters and casino roles involving VIP clients.

Coaching, succession key to skills transfer

Companies commonly use coaching and mentoring, job shadowing, practical application, peer-to-peer learning, simulations, product demonstrations and rotational assignments to transfer specialized skills.

‘The most effective way of transferring knowledge, skills, or technology is through a coaching and mentoring approach,’ Pineda said.

About 48 percent of respondents reported having transition frameworks for localizing positions previously held by foreign nationals, including succession planning, job-readiness assessments, transition timelines and formal turnover documents.

Turnover among understudies, insufficient training periods, enterprise-specific skills, staffing requirements and regulatory compliance were among the difficulties reported by participating companies.

Pineda said human-resource personnel also need to incorporate skills transfer into workforce planning to ensure that Filipino workers are prepared to assume positions eventually vacated by foreign nationals.

‘It is very important for these Human Resource personnel to really have a workforce planning and to plan how to train the other workers and at the same time how to facilitate the training to achieve their key performance indicators within the company,’ she said.

The study recommended creating a subcommittee under the Interagency Task Force on Employment of Foreign Nationals to identify specialized skills lacking in the local workforce and determine appropriate transfer methods and training periods.

Researchers also proposed a standardized UTP template identifying the skills, technology or knowledge to be transferred, proficiency levels, training methods, assessment mechanisms and target evaluation periods.

Both studies underscored the need to better connect employment services, education, employer demand and skills development to address labor-market mismatches.

THE private sector has proposed extending the transition period in the implementation of the Republic Act (RA) No. 12001 or the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act (RPVARA), which will cap real property tax to 6 percent during the first three years of its implementation.

During its meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday in Malacañang, the Private Sector Advisory Council Infrastructure Sector (PSAC-Infra) has proposed moving the start of the implementation of RA 12001 by four years to 2031 and the phased transition that would cap real property tax increases at 6 percent annually during the first three years of said law.

Under RA 12001, local government units are required to update the Schedule of Market Values (SMV) within two years from the effectivity of the said law in 2024.

During the first year of effectivity of the approved SMVs, any increase in real property taxes shall be limited to a maximum of 6 percent of the real property taxes assessed on such properties before RA 12001 was enacted.

In case the SMVs are not yet available or updated, the Bureau of Internal Revenue shall adopt the existing SMVs, zonal values or the actual price in consideration as stated in real property transaction documents, whichever is higher, for purposes of computing any internal revenue tax.

The Council also said the government should study providing incentives or credits toward balanced housing requirements to developers so they provide discounts to their ‘higher-priced, ready-for-occupancy condominium units,’ to help address the country’s estimated 3.7-million-unit housing backlog.

It further recommended adjusting the socialized housing price ceilings this year, ahead of the scheduled December 2027 review, due to rising construction costs, which is slowing down the launches and construction of such projects.

This as real estate’s contribution to GDP dropped to 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2026, compared with the 6.65 percent prepandemic average in 2018 and 2019.

‘Through these recommendations, PSAC seeks to support a balanced approach that considers housing affordability and manageable property costs while sustaining investment, construction and jobs across the economy,’ PSAC said.

Aside from real estate-related matters, PSAC also tackled in its latest meeting with the President the proposed National Artificial Intelligence Implementation Task Force and the lifting of the moratorium for information technology (IT) centers and IT parks in Metro Manila.

Among the firms which participated in the meeting were Aboitiz, Alliance Global Incorporated, Ayala Corporation, Ayala Land Incorporated, Robinsons Land Corporation, and SM Prime Holdings, Inc.

Malacañang earlier said that Marcos wants the suspension of any increase in real property taxes so it will not become an additional financial burden for property owners amid rising cost of living.

THE POTENTIAL pricing of GCash shares at a lower level could make the upcoming Mynt initial public offering more attractive to a broader base of investors, including ordinary Filipinos who have traditionally had limited participation in the Philippine stock market, according to investment analyst April Tan.

Tan said the lower price should be viewed in the context of current market conditions, where companies seeking to raise capital may need to make their shares more attractive to investors.

‘I think, obviously, a lower price would mean that the stock is going to be cheaper, so therefore it might be more attractive,’ Tan said in an episode of Intelligent Investing.

Rather than viewing the potential lower pricing solely as a reflection of the company’s condition, Tan said it could be a response to the weakness of the broader market.

‘The market is really so weak, and if you want to raise capital, then you have to make the stock more attractive,’ she said.

The observation puts the GCash IPO in the broader context of efforts to expand participation in the Philippine capital market, particularly at a time when market conditions remain challenging.

For the mass market, a potentially more accessible share price could provide an opportunity for more Filipinos to become participants in the country’s equity market, although the actual level of participation will ultimately depend on the final offer price, investor demand and other IPO terms.

The potential wider participation is significant because the GCash platform already reaches tens of millions of Filipinos through its digital financial services, giving the Mynt IPO an unusual opportunity to connect a mass-market digital finance user base with the country’s formal capital market.

Tan stressed, however, that investors should not assess the IPO on price alone.

She said investors should examine Mynt’s financial performance and determine whether its profitability continues to grow, pointing out that a lower price in a weak market could potentially present an opportunity if the company’s underlying fundamentals remain strong.

‘Let’s look at the numbers. Let’s see if its profitability is still growing,’ Tan said.

Her comments highlight a potentially broader role for the Mynt IPO: not simply as another major listing, but as an opportunity to encourage greater participation in the Philippine capital market by bringing the conversation about stock ownership closer to the ordinary Filipino.

For first-time investors, the distinction remains important. A lower IPO price may make shares more accessible, but prospective investors still need to consider the company’s financial performance, valuation, risks and the terms of the offering before deciding whether to invest.

Against the backdrop of a soft market, the Mynt offering could therefore become a test of whether a major consumer-facing company can help broaden the base of Philippine equity investors while raising capital for continued business growth.

The potential outcome would be a more inclusive capital market in which participation is not confined to large institutional investors and experienced traders, but increasingly includes the ordinary Juan who wants to understand and participate in the growth of Philippine companies.