Category: Business Mirror

THE law of averages caught Ernest John ‘EJ’ Obiena as the two-time Olympian settled for a silver medal at the Domspringen Wesel International Pole Vault Meeting in Germany, barely three days after winning gold in Berlin.

‘It was a rough day and [tiredness],’ said the Asian Games-bound Obiena, whose 5.75-meter effort landed him behind France’s Robin Emig (5.80m) and just enough over the US’s Cole Walsh (5.70m) on the podium.

He went for 5.85m but the environment at the Grober Mrkt in Wesel make him fail thrice.

‘Eventually caught up after six competitions this last 14 days [since August 17],’ the reigning Asian and Asian Games champion said. ‘So many mistakes at the earlier bars and paid the price.’

Obiena has nine gold medals from his indoor and outdoor campaign this season with his silver in Wesel his third since moving camp from Formia to Athens under a new coach and trainer.

But his most significant accomplishment was clearing 5.90m that didn’t merit a podium finish at the Zurich Wanda Diamond League last August 27, but a berth to next year’s world championships in Beijing.

Gautam Kaji, former Vice President of the World Bank for East Asia and the Pacific, was more than one of the world’s respected development leaders. He was a close adviser and a true friend of Subic and the Philippines at a time when we were trying to prove that Filipinos could transform a former American naval base into a world-class economic center.

He gave Subic his full support. At a time when we had to convince the world that this new experiment could work, Gautam and the World Bank gave us something equally valuable: credibility. He understood what we were trying to build and believed that, given the right conditions, Subic could become a catalyst for investment and growth far beyond its gates.

With his passing, I remembered a remarkable letter he wrote to President Fidel V. Ramos more than three decades ago (33 years ago), when he was serving as the World Bank’s Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific. It was unsolicited and remarkably frank, but never insulting. It was the advice of a man who knew the Philippines intimately and cared enough about our country to say what needed to be said.

Gautam offered President Ramos five essential prescriptions: maintain macroeconomic discipline; provide a stable, consistent and predictable environment for investment; ensure the success of Subic; reverse the stagnation of Philippine agriculture; and use the government’s political capital decisively while the opportunity for reform remained open.

His warning on Subic was particularly telling. Gautam saw its infrastructure, its skilled and dedicated workforce and, in his words, its ‘dynamic and charismatic Chairman.’ He urged the President to ‘pull out all stops’ to make Subic succeed, while warning that ‘political jealousies and bureaucratic hurdles’ could easily thwart otherwise solid efforts.

He understood that Subic was never meant to succeed in isolation. Its development was supposed to radiate throughout Central Luzon, creating infrastructure, investment and jobs. Two decades later, I continued to pursue that vision through the Regional Investment and Infrastructure Coordinating Hub (RICH) bill, which passed both Houses of Congress, only to be vetoed by President Rodrigo Duterte. Decades later, we are again talking about integrating Subic, Clark and the surrounding areas through the Luzon Economic Corridor.

The names may have changed. The idea has not. And look at Gautam’s other warnings. He warned us more than 30 years ago that countries like Vietnam were competing for the same investments we wanted. Look at the region today. Vietnam has surged ahead. Indonesia and Malaysia have strengthened their industrial and investment bases. Singapore remains a regional economic powerhouse. Meanwhile, we are still talking about red tape, bureaucracy, policy uncertainty and many of the same obstacles Gautam warned us about decades ago.

He warned against bureaucratic red tape, uncertainty and the constant flip-flopping of economic policy. More than three decades later, businesses still complain about the same things.

He warned about agricultural stagnation. Agriculture continues to struggle, while too many of our people in the countryside remain dependent on dole-outs instead of being empowered through productivity, infrastructure and sustainable livelihoods.

The same failure to sustain long-term thinking can be seen elsewhere. We have talked for decades about flood control and preparing communities for disasters, yet every rainy season many of the same places are flooded again. We spend enormous amounts responding to problems we have long known about instead of addressing their causes with foresight, discipline and continuity.

That is what makes Gautam’s letter so striking today.

It does not read like an old document. It reads like something that could have been written this morning. This was not a man lecturing the Philippines from afar. Gautam knew us. He worked with us. He supported Subic when that support mattered, and his confidence helped give us credibility before the international community.

More importantly, he cared enough to tell us the truth.

His letter was written not because he had to, but out of a sense of duty and friendship to a country whose potential he had seen firsthand. He warned us about the dangers of bureaucracy, political interference, inconsistent policy and lost opportunities. He told us what needed to be done while there was still time to do it.

More than 30 years have passed, yet much of Gautam’s advice could have been written yesterday.

That should trouble us.

Gautam wrote not to criticize the Philippines, but because he believed we could do better. He had seen our potential. He wanted us to succeed. That is why his words deserve to be remembered today-not merely as a historical letter from a World Bank official to a Philippine President, but as advice from a friend who cared enough to tell us the truth.

We should have listened more carefully then. We should listen now.

Because after more than three decades, we must ask ourselves a difficult question: Have we really learned?

We have had the warnings. We have had the plans. We have had the opportunities. The problem has never been that we did not know what needed to be done.

The question is whether we have learned to do it-and to stay the course.

When will we ever learn?

The author is a former senator of the Republic of the Philippines, and Founding Chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

Filipino households purchase eggs, considered the cheapest source of protein, as it does not cost as much as pork or chicken. Whether it is paired with rice or eaten as boiled, eggs are filling and can stave off hunger, which is why it is a popular food item in the Philippines. That is why the recent pronouncement of poultry farmers and suppliers that eggs could become expensive due to disease outbreaks is a cause for concernIn the coming weeks, Philippine Egg Board Association (PEBA) warned that retail price of eggs could go up following spikes in farmgate prices. The group attributed this to poultry disease outbreaks, such as infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT), inclusion body hepatitis (IBH), and low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI). These diseases, PEBA said, is compounding the production issues confronting the layer industry.

This development shows that animal diseases have now become a significant contributor to consumer prices and inflation. Apart from poultry diseases, the Philippines continues to grapple with African swine fever (ASF) which has killed thousands of hogs and made pork prices more expensive. Despite the disruptions caused by these diseases to the agricultural value chain and their impact on the economy, the country is still far from finding viable solutions to stopping them on their tracks.

The inability of the Philippines to minimize the threat of the scourge that is animal diseases should prompt policymakers to revisit their response and plug the gaps in the government’s animal disease surveillance system. The government’s plan may look good on paper but the fact that these outbreaks continue to happen means there are deficiencies that must be immediately addressed. What is happening on the ground proves that the plan is not yielding the results that the government, the private sector and consumers want to see.

Citing data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) noted that 65 barangays in 41 cities/municipalities of 20 provinces reported having active ASF cases as of August 7. In Negros, new ASF cases were reported in Siaton, Amlan, Tanjay City, Zamboanguita, and Pamplona. In Mindanao, FAO said a large number of pig deaths have been reported in villages such as San Roque, Tumaga, Culianan, Manicahan, Curuan, Vitali and Capisan involving mostly backyard raisers.

As for avian influenza, data available on the website of the attached agency of the Department of Agriculture showed that six barangays have ongoing bird flu cases as of August 14. Chicken and ducks were affected by the outbreak of bird flu subtype H5N1, which first emerged in 1996. The World Health Organization noted that since 2020, a variant of these viruses belonging to the H5 clade 2.3.4.4b has led to an unprecedented number of deaths in wild birds and poultry in many countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.

At this point, the Philippines is fortunate because it has not had to deal with price surges seen in the United States where the price of eggs peaked at more than $6 per dozen, equivalent to more than P300, in March 2025. The unprecedented increase in US egg prices was attributed to massive outbreaks of bird flu in major-producing states. While the US experience may seem far-fetched for the Philippines, it would do well for stakeholders to remember that it takes just one instance of mishandling sick animals for animal diseases to again devastate major livestock producers in the country.

THE United States will practically match $1 to every $2.55 the Philippines invests in a new multi-year bilateral health agreement.

The US is committing more than P11.8 billion ($193 million) to the national health care system to strengthen detection, treatment and prevention of HIV and tuberculosis (TB), while bolstering global health security.

Under the Philippine-US Health Strategic Objective Agreement, Manila pledged more than P30 billion ($492 million) in co-investment over the next five years, marking the resumption of US health aid after the 2025 freeze.

Together, the two countries’ total joint investment would add up to P42 billion ($685 million) that, according to the US State Department, will help transition the Philippines to ‘greater autonomy and self-reliance in its health systems while strengthening [its] capacity to detect and respond to global health threats, including HIV, TB, and other infectious diseases.’

‘This agreement marks a new, five-year phase of bilateral cooperation and joint investment with the Philippine Department of Health,’ the US Embassy said in a statement.

The embassy highlighted that the US has been providing health aid in the Philippines for over 60 years.

That assistance-along with other development projects-was halted after the Trump administration’s freeze. USAID’s dismantling cut off about $34.7 million in President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief/USAID support for the Philippines’ HIV response in 2025.

Broader suspensions tied to the aid freeze disrupted up to $168 million in Department of Health programs covering the abovementioned diseases.

Unlike earlier USAID-backed portfolios, the new bilateral accord appears to have excluded malaria programs, narrowing its scope to HIV and TB alongside health system resiliency.

‘The agreement will save American and Filipino lives, increase the resiliency of the [national] health system through coordinated co-funding, and promote innovations to slow the spread of infectious diseases, like TB and HIV, that threaten both the US and the Philippines,’ the embassy added.

It described the agreement as ‘a milestone in the Trump administration’s ‘America First Global Health Strategy,” underscoring the shift toward bilateral, co-financed partnerships rather than open-ended grant aid.

Ambassador Lee Lipton signed the pact, highlighting the administration’s move away from the USAID-driven model that dominated for decades.

THE next digital divide in Asia and the Pacific may have little to do with who can get online and more to do with what countries can actually do once they are connected.

The warning comes as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the region’s digital infrastructure, increasing the need for faster networks, computing capacity and systems that can process data and support real-time decisions.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (Escap) newly-released Asia-Pacific Digital Transformation Report 2026 found that the region’s average Digital Transformation Index (DTI) score reached 50.28.

It was slightly above the global average of 49.63, yet digital development outcomes in high-income economies were nearly four times higher than in low-income economies.

The gap raises concerns that AI could widen existing disparities if countries with weaker digital infrastructure and institutional capacity are unable to keep pace with the technology.

‘Ensuring that AI-native network infrastructure benefits all economies of the region, rather than deepening existing inequalities, will require deliberate and coordinated policy action by Governments individually and through regional cooperation,’ United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Escap Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana said.

According to the report, the convergence of AI, advanced networks, computing and data is changing digital infrastructure from systems that primarily carry information into ones that can analyze it and support real-time decision-making.

That could have practical consequences in areas such as disaster response and public services. The report, for instance, cites SatGPT’s ability to generate flood-prone maps from simple prompts and highlights applications of AI in early warning systems.

AI-enabled systems could also be used in transport, energy and other critical services, but their adoption depends on more than internet connectivity. Escap identified continuing gaps in innovation capacity and institutional conditions across the region.

These disparities are now part of discussions on the next phase of regional digital cooperation.

Ministers and senior officials are meeting over three days at the Escap Committee on Information and Communications Technology, Science, Technology and Innovation to discuss the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway action plan for 2027-2030.

The proposed plan includes measures to strengthen resilient and cross-border digital infrastructure, improve public services through emerging technologies, facilitate the sharing of digital solutions and develop secure and trusted data systems.

It also calls for targeted support and knowledge-sharing for countries and communities facing the greatest barriers to adopting new technologies.

The report was launched at the opening of the committee meeting.

ASIDE from the National Capital Region (NCR), the haze attributed to the forest fire in Indonesia is also affecting Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and parts of Central Visayas, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources- Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) reported.

However, air quality in these areas outside Metro Manila has already shown marked improvement, the DENR-EMB reported.

‘Based on current monitoring and meteorological assessments, the haze is possibly associated with smoke and transboundary haze from ongoing fires in Kalimantan, Indonesia, which may have been transported toward the Philippines by prevailing winds,’ the EMB Environmental Quality Management Division said.

Engr. Jundy del Socorro, EQMD Chief, DENR-EMB, explained this could be due to several factors. According to the Asean Specialized Meteorological Center (ASMC), as of 5 pm on September 1, the wind direction is shifting dispersion slightly toward the southwestern, western, and central parts of the Philippines. Consequently: 1) levels are currently high in Talisay, Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro; 2) air quality in NCR has improved slightly; 3) additionally, the weather became warmer this morning, which contributes to the vertical mixing of pollutants.

The DENR-EMB said it is continuously monitoring air quality conditions through its nationwide network of air quality monitoring stations to assess the extent of the haze and its potential effects on public health and the environment.

In the NCR, the latest ambient air quality monitoring on September 2 revealed improvements using the PM2.5 Air Quality Index as a gauge.

Nine cities: Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina (Parang), Muntinlupa (Filinvest City), Navotas, Pasay, Pateros, San Juan, and Valenzuela, have AQIs of 100 and below. On the other hand, cities still have high AQIs of 100 or above 100, which fall under the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups,’ namely, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon City, Paranaque (Don Bosco), Quezon City (Ateneo and Commonwealth Avenue, and Taguig (TUP).

The marked improvement may be attributed to the monsoon rains that filter the air in these areas.

Nevertheless, the DENR-EMB issued a public advisory encouraging the public in areas with high levels of PM2.5 to minimize prolonged outdoor activities in areas where haze is visible.

The DENR-EMB also said sensitive individuals, including children, older persons, and those with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions, should limit outdoor exposure and take necessary health precautions.

For their own safety and protection, the public is advised to wear a well-fitting face mask, preferably an N95 mask or equivalent, when going outdoors in areas affected by haze.

The DENR-EMB said it will continue to closely monitor the air quality situation and provide timely updates as more information becomes available. The public is urged to remain calm and rely only on official government sources for verified information regarding the haze situation.

Antonelli starts from the back. Ferrari lights a new engine. Monza will not decide the 2026 title, but it will tell us who is still allowed to want it.

Kimi Antonelli will start his home Grand Prix from the back. Ferrari will fire up a new engine in front of the tifosi. Lando Norris will roll into the lowest-downforce weekend of the year on the back of two straight wins.

Max Verstappen, the reigning Monza champion, is here as a spoiler. If the 2026 championship has felt like a Mercedes procession for most of the summer, the Temple of Speed is where it stops feeling that way.

After a runner-up finish at Zandvoort, Antonelli leaves the Netherlands with 242 points and a 59-point lead over teammate George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, tied on 183 – Russell ahead on countback with two wins to Hamilton’s one. Norris, on 159, has clawed 46 points off Antonelli’s lead across Hungary and Zandvoort, narrowing the gap from 129 points before the summer break to 83 now. Charles Leclerc sits fifth on 155, Verstappen sixth on 112. In the constructors’, Mercedes lead Ferrari 425 to 338, McLaren third on 263, Red Bull fourth on 186. Monza will not decide any of it. It can bend the arc.

This is also the last time it will do so as a standard weekend. Monza has been confirmed for the sprint format from 2027 through 2029, meaning three days without a mid-Saturday sprint – three sessions of practice, one qualifying hour, one race – is now a scarce commodity here.

The weekend’s biggest fact is a paperwork fact. Mercedes will bolt a fresh internal combustion engine into Antonelli’s W17 – his fifth of the season, one beyond the four-unit allocation – along with a fresh turbocharger, energy store, control electronics, MGU-K, exhaust and PU ancillary component. The cumulative sanction exceeds fifteen grid places, which means Antonelli will start behind the entire field regardless of what he does in qualifying. Some outlets have tallied the penalty at a full twenty places. The effect is identical.

It is not a failure penalty. It is a strategic one. Mercedes have been running near the ceiling of their allocation since Antonelli’s Barcelona retirement and a subsequent forced change at Spa-Francorchamps, and, as Toto Wolff told reporters after Zandvoort, his engineers ran the numbers on where a fresh unit would cost them least. The answer was long straights, easy overtaking and a Mercedes power unit tuned to the circuit. ‘The algorithm,’ Wolff said, ‘does not take nationality into consideration.’ Antonelli, publicly, has agreed with the math; privately, he has to work his way through the entire grid in front of the crowd that grew up watching Alberto Ascari.

Russell, whose reliability profile is similar, has not yet been assigned a matching penalty. Motorsport.com reports that Mercedes are weighing Baku – longer straight, more forgiving overtaking – as the venue where he serves his own hit. For this Sunday, that leaves Russell as Mercedes’ pole hope and the only Silver Arrow with a clean shot at a home-race raid on Ferrari.

The engine story on the other side of the paddock is the one the tifosi came for. Ferrari’s engine department, led by Enrico Gualtieri, has cleared the evolved 067/7 power unit – developed under the FIA’s Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities framework, marketed internally as ADUO2 – for its competitive debut at Monza. Both Hamilton and Leclerc will run the upgraded six-cylinder as their fourth unit of the season, and, per reporting from Scuderiafans and Motorsport.com, neither will take a grid penalty for the swap.

The claimed gain is roughly 15 horsepower, sourced from a revised combustion chamber, a reworked turbocharger (same diameter, different blade angle and count) and a new Shell fuel developed in Hamburg. Ferrari’s own modelling, cited by Motorsport.com, suggests it should halve the deficit to the class-leading Mercedes M17 unit built in Brixworth. Torque delivery has been reshaped to better distribute the hybrid’s electrical energy across a lap that offers almost nothing to recover it. The SF-26 will race in its lowest-downforce configuration of the year, running a new, more aggressive version of the Macarena rear wing and retaining the FTM blown-exhaust system unless Ferrari decide on Saturday night that even more drag has to come out of the car. The livery will nod to Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari years, a piece of theatre the marketing department could not resist and the sporting department cannot afford to embarrass.

Because that is the tension. Ferrari have won three of the last 19 Italian Grands Prix and finished fourth and sixth here in 2025. They are 87 points behind Mercedes with ten rounds still to run after Monza. If the tifosi are being asked to believe in a title revival, the belief has to start on Sunday afternoon – with a car that is not, on paper, ideally suited to the circuit even after the wing change.

If Monza is a referendum on Ferrari’s engine, it is also a referendum on McLaren’s summer. Norris won at the Hungaroring – slow, high-downforce – and then at Zandvoort – banked, twisty, direction-changing – by 11.536 seconds over Antonelli after taking pole. Monza is the aerodynamic opposite of both: the shortest lap of the year in wing area, the highest in top-end demand. If the MCL40 is quick here, it is quick everywhere. Team principal Andrea Stella has already called the weekend the team’s real benchmark. McLaren confirmed on 29 August that Norris will remain with the team through at least the end of 2030, closing off one of the noisier silly-season rumours before it could infect the run-in.

Oscar Piastri, on 104 points, starts the weekend seventh in the drivers’ table on a consecutive points-finish streak now above 40 races – the third-longest in Formula 1 history, and one only Lewis Hamilton (54) sits comfortably clear of. It is a stat that flatters and indicts him at once: nobody has been more reliable, and nobody near the front has converted less of it into wins since the break. Norris’s surge is not McLaren’s collective surge, and intra-team management will matter more as the calendar tightens than the team has publicly allowed.

The defending Monza winner arrives having crashed out on lap one at Zandvoort. Verstappen qualified seventh, said he had left nothing on the table, then lost the rear on painted asphalt exiting the final banking corner and hit the barrier hard enough to red-flag the session. Laurent Mekies called it ‘a step backwards.’ Verstappen is 130 points behind Antonelli, and his title defence – mathematically alive, functionally over – has stopped being interesting.

Monza is a useful diagnostic. Twelve months ago Verstappen took pole with a 1:18.792, the fastest lap in Formula 1 history at an average of 264.681 km/h, and won by 19.207 seconds over Norris. The 2026 rulebook is different and the RB22 is not the RB21, but Monza remains a circuit that flatters Red Bull’s engine package. If the team cannot make Q3 count here, Zandvoort was not a bad weekend. It was the direction of travel.

Alongside him, Isack Hadjar’s status is still unresolved. The Frenchman, eighth in the standings on 68 points, fractured his wrist during the summer shutdown – punching a heavy bag, he told reporters at Zandvoort – and missed the Dutch Grand Prix. He said this week that the wrist was healing quickly and that he was hopeful of racing. Liam Lawson, who scored six points as his stand-in at Zandvoort, is on standby.

The story worth watching in the midfield is Oliver Bearman. The 21-year-old Haas driver is 13th in the championship on 18 points – almost all of Haas’s 21-point constructors’ total – and leads Esteban Ocon 8-4 in Grand Prix qualifying this season, per Sky Sports’ team-mate head-to-head data. Monza’s minimal tyre stress and premium on ballistic straight-line speed suits a Ferrari-engined car with nothing left to prove but its driver, and Bearman, remember, made his F1 debut in a Ferrari in 2024, subbing for Carlos Sainz in Jeddah at 24 hours’ notice.

Elsewhere: Racing Bulls sit fifth on 66 points, three clear of Alpine, where Pierre Gasly (44) added a single point at Zandvoort and Franco Colapinto has signed a 2027 extension. Audi, in only their second race back from summer break, jumped to eighth on 16 points, with Gabriel Bortoleto continuing to outscore Nico Hlkenberg. Williams (11 points) will be watched most closely for Carlos Sainz, who is nearing a fresh contract after admitting to a ‘worry’ phase this summer. Aston Martin, ninth on three, again pin their hopes on Fernando Alonso. Cadillac – Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez – remain on zero, and the paddock chatter around Bottas’s future has already started.

Pirelli’s nominated compounds are the C3 Hard, C4 Medium and C5 Soft – the softest trio in the 2026 range, one step softer than Zandvoort. Monza’s smooth, recently resurfaced tarmac produces almost no graining and almost no wear; the 2025 race saw just 19 pit stops across the field over 53 laps. The default remains a one-stop built around a long C3 stint. What could complicate that is the forecast, per GP Blog: 33°C on Friday, 34°C for both qualifying and the race, with a two per cent chance of rain. The Hard compound will be the tell. If it holds, one stop. If it does not, the Medium and Soft are close enough in raw pace to make a two-stopper plausible.

Lights out is 15:00 CEST on Sunday, 6 September, following practice at 12:30 and 16:00 CEST on Friday, a final practice at 12:30 on Saturday and qualifying at 16:00.

Expect pole to Russell, who has never wanted a Sunday more. Expect Norris to win it, in a car that will make its own case on the straight better than the Ferraris will on power alone. Expect Leclerc on the podium and Hamilton just off it, close enough to keep the ADUO2 project honest without vindicating it. Expect Antonelli through to the points on merit rather than mercy, and Verstappen no better than eighth. Expect, for the first time since Barcelona, a championship that is no longer just Kimi Antonelli’s to lose.

Asia United Bank Corp. announced that shareholders recently approved key strategic capital initiatives designed to strengthen the bank’s balance sheet and position it for long-term expansion.

During a special stockholders’ meeting held on August 28, AUB stockholders formally approved the amendment of AUB’s Articles of Incorporation to increase its authorized capital stock by 393 percent to P72.50 billion from P14.70 billion, subject to regulatory approvals, a statement by the lender read.

Stockholders also approved the declaration of a 100-percent stock dividend, the official record date and payment date of which will be fixed and announced following the receipt of all requisite regulatory approvals.

The Office of the Ombudsman’s decision to make former Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan and other Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials state witnesses drew criticism on Wednesday, as a former law school dean argued that those who oversaw the design, bidding, implementation, and payment of allegedly irregular projects should be considered key figures in the alleged plunder scheme and should face prosecution instead of receiving immunity.

Former Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) president and College of Law Dean Jose Roy III, who served on the defense team of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012, said DPWH officials controlled crucial stages of government projects, including funding, design, bidding, contractor selection, approval of completed works, and payment releases, making their role central to any alleged irregularities.

‘I have long noticed that DPWH officials are repeatedly being given immunity in these cases,’ Roy said, questioning why officials with direct control over projects were being protected from prosecution.

His remarks came after the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division approved the Ombudsman’s request to remove Bonoan as an accused in cases involving an alleged P573-million flood-control kickback scheme, allowing him to serve as a state witness.

Roy argued that under the law, a state witness must not appear to be the most guilty among those accused. He questioned whether lawmakers accused of receiving kickbacks could be considered more responsible than officials who controlled the transactions.

He said DPWH officials handled the documents, approvals, and processes needed for government funds to be released, giving them a major role in determining accountability.

The ruling differed from an earlier decision by another Sandiganbayan division, which kept Bonoan as an accused in a separate graft case.

Roy warned that allowing officials who allegedly played major roles in the transactions to escape prosecution could weaken efforts to hold those responsible accountable.

Meanwhile, the camp of former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez questioned the Ombudsman’s continued focus on the Leyte congressman, saying there was no credible evidence linking him to the alleged flood-control controversy.

Romualdez’s legal counsel-spokesman Ade Fajardo said the investigation appeared to unfairly single out the former House leader despite other officials being removed from allegations after witnesses withdrew their claims.

Fajardo said five members of the so-called ’18 Maleta Boys,’ including alleged star witness Orly Guteza, formally retracted their accusations against Romualdez through sworn affidavits.

He added that 25 colleagues of the recanting witnesses also disputed the original allegations, further weakening the claims against the former Speaker.

Despite the withdrawals, Fajardo said the Ombudsman continued to pursue a case against Romualdez, which he described as difficult to understand.

‘We are puzzled why the former Speaker is being treated this way. It appears that the matter has become personal,’ Fajardo said.

Estrada remains charged

THE Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division, voting 2-1, earlier dropped Bonoan as co-accused of Sen. Jose Pimentel Ejercito alias Jinggoy Estrada in the plunder and graft charges filed against them in connection with the flood control scandal.

In a 29-page resolution, the court granted the motion filed by the Ombudsman on June 29, 2026 seeking the amendment of the information to exclude Bonoan as co-accused in the case.

‘Accused Manuel Manligas Bonoan is accordingly excluded from the information in these cases and the warrants of arrest and hold departure order issued by this division against him in these cases are recalled,’ the resolution read.

The anti-graft court held that the decision to move for the discharge of an accused ‘is part of the Ombudsman’s prosecutorial discretion in the determination of who should be used as a state witness to bolster the successful prosecution of criminal offenses.’

The Ombudsman moved for Bonoan’s removal from the plunder and graft case following its decision to accept his offer to become a state witness against high profile individuals, including Romualdez, who are being linked in the flood control mess.

It earlier said that Bonoan has valuable information to offer in connection with the budget process, particularly on the DPWH budget, in which the House leadership allegedly made insertions for kickbacks.

Romualdez has been tagged ‘master plunderer’ by Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla for allegedly manipulating and pocketing funds intended for flood control projects of the government from 2022 to 2025 amounting to at least P56 billion.

The former House leader is now a subject of a preliminary investigation for plunder, graft, bribery and money laundering charges before the Ombudsman.

The Sandiganbayan further held that the Ombudsman has the prerogative to exercise its power to grant immunity to a witness under Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Act of 1989.

The anti-graft court did not give weight to the opposition raised by Bonoan’s co-accused that his exclusion from the information would prejudice their defenses.

‘As correctly argued by the prosecution, the participation of accused Bonoan is not deleted in the information, he is still included in the facilitation of the inclusion of the DPWH projects,’ the anti-graft court pointed out.

In his opposition, Estrada argued that Bonoan’s discharge as state witness would be prejudicial to his rights as the latter can now be expected to take the stand and deflect the blame to him.

The Sandiganbayan, however, ruled that Estrada’s claim ‘is speculative.’

‘The accused are not deprived of their defense as they may still deny any conspiracy or agreement between themselves or as between accused Estrada and Bonoan.

‘They shall also be fully afforded the opportunity to cross-examine accused Bonoan and impeach his testimony during trial,’ it added.

Thus, the Fifth Division finally set the arraignment of Estrada on September 3 (Thursday) for the plunder and graft charge.

Three other co-accused in the case namely DPWH-Manila assistant district engineer Denryl Caesar Cortuna and district engineers Manny Bulusan and Arturo Gonzales, Jr. have previously been arraigned.

However, Bonoan remains as Estrada’s co-accused in the graft case pending before the Second Division.

It may be recalled that last month the Second Division denied the Ombudsman’s motion to amend the information and exclude Bonoan as co-accused.

The Second Division held that Estrada had already been arraigned on June 4, thus, dropping Bonoan as his co-accused would alter the theory of the prosecution from one involving concerted criminal action to one involving a lone criminal action.

The Second Division added that Bonoan’s exclusion will force Estrada to prepare a different defense.

The senator is being detained on plunder and graft charges filed by the Ombudsman for allegedly receiving kickbacks from the government’s flood control projects amounting to over P573 million for the period 2024-2025.

The Ombudsman claimed Estrada along with former Department of Public Works and Highways officials and several individuals were involved in an ‘intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations’ within the DPWH infrastructure portfolio for the year 2025.

THE power grids in Visayas and Mindanao were placed on yellow and red alerts on Wednesday due to lack of power supply.

The red alert takes effect from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Visayas and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Mindanao. A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

The yellow alert, which is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement, took effect from 1pm to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 11p.m. in Visayas. For Mindanao, the yellow alert was issued from 12 noon to 1 p.m., 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Visayas’ available capacity was at 2,139MW as against a peak demand of 2,555MW.

There are currently 8 plants on forced outage: 6 have been out since August 2026, 1 since July, 2 since June, 7 since May, 3 since 2025, 2 since 2024, 2 since 2023, and 1 since 2021. In addition, 14 plants are operating at reduced (derated) capacities. In total, 840.1 MW of generating capacity is unavailable to the grid.

The Mindanao grid’s available capacity stood at 2,526MW while peak demand reached 2,545MW.

Seven power plants are on forced outage, 13 plants since August, 4 plants since July, 1 plant since June, 2 plants since January, 1 plant since 2025, and 1 plant since 2024, while 7 plants are running on derated capacities, for a total of 855.1MW unavailable to the grid.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said it is actively coordinating with the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, NGCP, Energy Regulatory Commission, generation companies, and industry stakeholders to expedite the safe restoration of affected facilities and implement all available measures to stabilize the grid and protect consumers.