Category: Business Mirror

WITH the El Niño dry spell on the horizon, PMFTC Inc. continued to step up its act, purchasing most of locally produced tobacco for a third-straight year while also providing a safety net for local farmers.

Heeding the government’s call to support the agricultural sector ahead of a challenging cropping season, the local affiliate of Philip Morris International acquired 8.297 million kilograms of Philippine tobacco in 2025, representing a whopping 69 percent of the 12.1 million kg delivered to local manufacturers.

‘We remain committed to support the livelihood of thousands of Filipino tobacco farmers in the country. We recognize the vital role that tobacco farmers play in our supply chain and in the communities where they operate. As the leading leaf buyer, we remain committed to contribute to the growth of the Philippine agriculture sector and generate economic activity for the country.’ said PMFTC President Zhenya Ivanov.

PMFTC’s latest numbers represent a three-year rise for the tobacco giant’s investment in the local industry. Back in 2023, the company purchased 7.189 million kg of homegrown tobacco, which was about 56 percent of the 12.734 million kg delivered to manufacturers, and then 7.495 million kg of the 11.9 million kg the following year for continued leadership of the industry.

The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) president and chief executive officer, Belinda Sanchez, hailed the private sector’s role in ensuring the country is ready for the challenges a tough farming season would bring.

‘Tobacco remains an important cash crop for thousands of Filipino farmers and their families. We welcome PMFTC’s continued support for the industry, having purchased the majority of the country’s locally produced tobacco leaf over the past three years,’ she said.

‘This provides our growers with a stable and reliable market for their harvests. We thank PMFTC for its continued support of the Philippine tobacco industry and our tobacco farming communities,’ Sanchez added.

The NTA has continued to urge tobacco farmers to participate in contract-growing arrangements, saying these provide growers with a guaranteed market, technical assistance and production support while helping ensure a stable supply of quality tobacco leaf for buyers.

PMFTC said it intends to continue working closely with tobacco farmers, trading partners and government agencies to strengthen the local tobacco value chain.

‘Philippine tobacco farming depends on strong partnerships across the value chain,’ Ivanov said. ‘We will continue investing in long-term relationships with local growers to help ensure that Philippine tobacco remains competitive both locally and internationally.’

A 35-page memo, dated March 31, sat inside Ottawa, Canada’s Department of Industry until a recent Access-to-Information request pried it loose. Most of the pages were redacted with black ink. What survived was the plan itself: a proposal to sue Canadian citizens over social media posts the department itself judged ‘false and misleading.’

The department’s full name is Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, ISED for short, run by Minister Melanie Joly. Innovation and science do not seem to appear anywhere in the memo. What appears instead is a proposal to monitor citizen speech for ‘recurring inaccuracies’ and hold lawsuits in reserve, ‘proportionate and subject to senior level approval,’ bureaucratic for a manager deciding the fine without an impartial judge in the process.

Henry VII created the Star Chamber in 1487 to handle cases regular courts avoided: disputes involving powerful people and offenses against the Crown’s authority. Within a century it had become something else entirely, a body where the same officials who brought a complaint also decided whether the criticism was accurate and set the punishment. No unbiased jury or outside review was allowed. The Crown defined the offense and enforced it in the same room, and its sentences went beyond fines.

The pamphleteer William Prynne had his ears cropped on the Star Chamber’s order for writings judged offensive to the queen. Parliament finally abolished the Star Chamber a century and a half later, but the name survived as shorthand for a tribunal that is prosecutor, judge, and executioner all at once.

How examining and punishing people for their Facebook posts is furthering Canadian ‘Innovation, Science and Economic Development’ is missing from the memo.

ISED is building the same room the Star Chamber occupied. The department decides whether a citizen’s social media post is ‘factually incorrect, misleading or out of context,’ then sets the penalty. The people grading the speech are the people offended by it, an arrangement that ran a century and a half before England shut it down.

England has not fully learned its own lesson. British police now make more than 30 arrests a day for offensive online posts with ordinary statute law applied using the same evil instincts.

Manila has walked partway down this corridor before and, to its credit, mostly turned back. The objection raised every time was the correct one: who guards the guards, and what happens when they decide they do not want to answer to anyone. That question killed every bill filed since 2017 before it reached a floor vote.

Not this time. Last month the House of Representatives passed the Digital Media Anti-False Information Act on third and final reading, carrying prison terms up to 12 years and fines running into millions for deliberate disinformation. Human Rights Watch called the language vague enough for officials to abuse. The bill now sits with the Senate, one chamber closer to law than anything Ottawa has managed with an internal memo and a black felt pen.

Manila already runs a working version of solving this ‘factually incorrect, misleading or out of context’ problem, and it does not require a ministry with a vendetta. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange police disclosure, not opinion. A listed company that misstates earnings answers to auditors, to filed documents, and eventually to a court that had no hand in writing the original complaint.

But nobody at the PSE decides a stockbroker’s research note is wrong and fines the analyst who wrote it. Nobody at the PSE decides whether your nasty X post about the exchange or a listed company crosses a legal line. The separation is the entire design of how markets function, and it works because the party with the grievance is never the party with the gavel.

The Digital Media Anti-False Information Act does not borrow that design. It borrows ISED’s instead, treating the offended party and the judge as one entity, on the theory that a prison term will teach Filipinos to choose their words the way a Star Chamber clerk once chose his.

The chilling effect needs no courtroom to work. A citizen who knows a wrong word online carries a six-year sentence thinks twice before typing, and that hesitation is the function of the law, not a side effect of it.

Neither government explains where the threshold sits. Human Rights Watch says the Philippine bill leaves that judgment to prosecutors. A citizen sure of his facts still cannot know, in advance, where the line is, because the state has not told him.

A government confident in its own credibility answers bad speech with more speech. Both of these governments answered it with a penalty.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.

THE biggest hurdle that the Philippines faces right now is not driven by politics but its exposure to imported fuel, which has stunted the country’s progress over the years, according to Citi Philippines.

‘Let’s not forget that the biggest challenge for the country right now is not even driven by politics. It’s really external unfortunately because of our exposure to imported fuels,’ Citi Philippines CEO and Banking Head Paul Favila told reporters.

‘If you take that away, then maybe we would have made a lot more progress,’ added Favila.

He said this during a briefing on Tuesday in Taguig City, in the context of how the Philippines is ‘viewed from the outside’ after the bank hosted the Philippine Economic Team at its headquarters in New York in April-which he said was ‘right smack in the middle’ of the Middle East conflict.

‘As a Filipino, I’ve always also been curious about how we were viewed from the outside and compare it with how we view things on the ground,’ Favila said, adding that there was a ‘very strong’ message that he received.

The CEO of Citi Philippines said the first fact he heard is what the Philippines is going through politically ‘is no different from what we see everywhere around the world,’ especially in Asia.

‘Politics is politics-it lives in its own realm, if you will,’ Favila said. Quoting the person he was in discussion with, he said: ‘The one thing that makes the Philippines different is that your politics actually seeps into your economy.’

While this is the same case being experienced by most countries, he pointed out that the Philippines has ‘not gotten to the level’ wherein parliamentarians are throwing chairs at each other.

Favila explained this after he was asked a question on the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate against the Philippines’s Vice President Sara Duterte and how this will affect investor confidence and sentiment in the Philippines.

‘And I hope we don’t. But that has never detracted these countries from continuing to progress economically. And I guess that’s the message that we’re saying,’ added Favila.

‘We are not too fussed about politics because politics, that’s human nature. And we all understand politics from that perspective. This is about individuals playing politics,’ Favila explained further, adding that politics is an ‘industry in itself’ but it has no place in the economy.

‘Because politics does not know how to run an economy,’ Favila pointed out.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) projects that the Philippines will become an aging society by 2030, placing greater pressure on a smaller working-age population to sustain economic growth. This makes investing in the health and development of today’s children more important than ever, with proper nutrition being a critical foundation for learning, productivity and long-term national resilience.

Yet this foundation is already under threat from hidden hunger-a lack of essential vitamins and minerals that can affect brain development, immunity and overall health, even when people have enough food to eat. According to the 2023 National Nutrition Survey by the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), many Filipino children and pregnant women still suffer from critical nutrition gaps.

When children do not receive proper nutrition early in life, the effects carry into adulthood-Inadequate brain development and physical growth, weaker learning outcomes, lower productivity, and reduced economic potential. For a country seeking sustained growth, the cost of inaction is significant. Findings from Nutrition International’s Cost of Inaction Tool estimates that the economic cost of undernutrition in the Philippines is at least $8.5 billion (or 2 percent of the gross national income) per year.

Why does iodized salt in the Philippines matter?

Strengthening agriculture to ensure food security is a good start. From supporting farmers to building vital infrastructure, the national government is moving in the right direction toward developing the foundations of a more resilient economy in the long term.

Encouragingly, more Filipinos are getting more health conscious-especially regarding their dietary quality. But while individual food choices matter, many micronutrient gaps cannot be solved by behavior change alone. They require strong, reliable systems that make essential nutrients available through commonly consumed foods.

One such critical micronutrient is iodine. This matters because adequate iodine intake is especially important during pregnancy and early childhood when it supports healthy brain development and helps prevent the lifelong consequences of iodine deficiency, including mental impairments. Iodizing salt has long been recognized globally as one of the most effective ways to reduce iodine deficiency.

The risks of iodine deficiency are serious. Even mild deficiency during early childhood can reduce IQ by 8 to 10 points, affecting educational attainment and lifetime productivity.

At a national scale, persistent iodine deficiency can weaken human capital and economic growth by limiting children’s ability to learn, thrive and reach their full potential. This is not just a public health issue-it is a long-term economic challenge that affects productivity, workforce quality, and national competitiveness.

Since salt is widely consumed by Filipinos, adequately iodized salt is one of the most practical ways to deliver iodine at scale. Salt iodization remains one of the most cost-effective public health interventions in the world, generating up to US$30 in economic returns for every US$1 invested. At minimal cost, adequately iodized salt can reach households across the country and help improve health, learning outcomes, and workforce productivity.

The Philippines: Strong policy, persistent gaps

The government of the Philippines has long recognized the importance of iodized salt in protecting public health and strengthening human capital. This commitment was institutionalized through Republic Act No. 8172, or the ASIN Law, in 1995, which requires all food-grade salt produced, imported, and sold in the country to be adequately iodized to address widespread micronutrient deficiencies.

The law established national standards for the production, regulation, and monitoring of iodized salt, making mandatory salt iodization a key strategy under the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) to eliminate iodine deficiency.

Despite this policy framework, actual household consumption tells a different story. Data from the DOST-FNRI shows that only 34.9 percent of Filipino households consume adequately iodized salt.

These numbers point to uneven compliance and persistent gaps in quality control across the supply chain. Strengthening enforcement, quality assurance and improving access to adequately iodized salt-especially for low-income households-should therefore remain a national priority.

The path forward: What can the Philippines do?

Reinvesting in iodized salt should be part of building a more nutrition-secure and economically resilient Philippines. As the country prepares for the challenges of an ageing population, stronger coordination among government, industry leaders, experts and local stakeholders can help ensure the salt iodization system delivers consistently for all households.

While the government is committed to strengthening the local salt industry, stronger implementation, stricter monitoring and shared accountability are needed to address the iodine gap.

Reinstating patak sa asin (Drop of Salt) and conducting regular inspections and audits of iodized salt manufacturers can strengthen enforcement, accountability, and consumer protection. On the supply side, government policies should better support local salt producers, while regulators provide the technical and financial assistance needed to strengthen consistent iodization capacity. Stronger coordination and governance, including through the creation of a Regional Bantay Asin Task Force and improved inter-agency collaboration, can also help ensure consistent monitoring, enforcement, and public awareness.

Bridging the iodine gap as a strategic investment

Building a healthier Philippines is not only a public health priority, but a strategic investment in the country’s long-term socio-economic growth. Healthier populations translate directly into higher productivity, stronger learning outcomes, and greater economic potential.

With a strong regulatory foundation already in place, the key challenge now is closing the gap between policy design and consistent implementation.

Strengthening salt iodization implementation and regulation offers a practical, scalable and high-impact pathway to protect children’s development, improve human capital and support sustainable economic growth-at relatively low cost and with long-term returns for the entire economy.

Dr. Temitope Akintunde is the Global Portfolio Director, Nutrition Governance Nutrition International

The path forward: What can the Philippines do?

Reinvesting in iodized salt should be part of building a more nutrition-secure and economically resilient Philippines. As the country prepares for the challenges of an ageing population, stronger coordination among government, industry leaders, experts and local stakeholders can help ensure the salt iodization system delivers consistently for all households.

While the government is committed to strengthening the local salt industry, stronger implementation, stricter monitoring and shared accountability are needed to address the iodine gap.

Reinstating patak sa asin (Drop of Salt) and conducting regular inspections and audits of iodized salt manufacturers can strengthen enforcement, accountability, and consumer protection. On the supply side, government policies should better support local salt producers, while regulators provide the technical and financial assistance needed to strengthen consistent iodization capacity. Stronger coordination and governance, including through the creation of a Regional Bantay Asin Task Force and improved inter-agency collaboration, can also help ensure consistent monitoring, enforcement, and public awareness.

Bridging the iodine gap as a strategic investment

Building a healthier Philippines is not only a public health priority, but a strategic investment in the country’s long-term socio-economic growth. Healthier populations translate directly into higher productivity, stronger learning outcomes, and greater economic potential.

With a strong regulatory foundation already in place, the key challenge now is closing the gap between policy design and consistent implementation.

Strengthening salt iodization implementation and regulation offers a practical, scalable and high-impact pathway to protect children’s development, improve human capital and support sustainable economic growth-at relatively low cost and with long-term returns for the entire economy.

Dr. Temitope Akintunde is the Global Portfolio Director, Nutrition Governance Nutrition International

Gold jewelry supplier Marigold Philippines continues to make its presence felt with the recent opening of its Manila branch at Victoria De Manila 2 in Malate, Manila.

With over 1.4 million followers on TikTok alone, Marigold has expanded beyond its popular direct selling business model, with thriving physical stores in Caloocan and Davao.

Established by Davao-based Meriam Dangcalan-Bayacag, a former school teacher, Marigold Philippines began when Meriam started to partly fund her dream with a salary loan.

Meriam, also known as Madam Ayam, does not see jewelry, especially gold jewelry, as expensive accessories that enhance one’s looks. Given their value, people can view them as an investment that can lead to financial empowerment.

‘True to our mission, we always strive to make fine jewelry accessible, even for those with a limited budget. A little investment in a piece of gold can go a long way in building wealth,’ Ayam noted.

More than just selling jewelry, Marigold Philippines aims to promote financial empowerment through gold investment. The company believes that even with a limited budget, anyone can start building wealth, one piece of gold at a time.

With high-tech carat technology, customers are assured of fine craftsmanship that defines Marigold’s brand of authentic, accessible gold jewelry. ‘We offer high-quality gold at prices even lower than most pawnshops,’ she further noted.

THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) has adopted a competency-based approach to training and assessing aviation personnel, moving the sector away from hours-based instruction toward a system that measures actual performance.

The regulator formally launched its Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) Framework on Tuesday, ahead of an anticipated global mandate from the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) expected to take effect within the next two years.

Caap Director General Raul L. del Rosario signed a memorandum circular prescribing an interim policy governing its implementation across the civil aviation system.

The framework covers Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders and Approved Training Organizations (ATOs), positioning the local aviation industry to comply early with ICAO’s forthcoming CBTA requirement.

‘We are building a future where Philippine aviation professionals are recognized not only for meeting international standards but also for helping define them. Through CBTA, we are preparing a generation of Filipino aviators who are competent, resilient, globally competitive, and ready for whatever lies ahead,’ said Caap Deputy Director General for Operations Rozzano Briguez.

CBTA departs from the traditional model of completing prescribed training hours.

Instead, aviation personnel will be assessed on whether they can consistently demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to perform safely and effectively in real-world operational environments, in line with internationally recognized standards.

To ease the transition, Caap will roll out a hybrid implementation model that blends the existing Pilot Proficiency Check (PPC) system with Icao’s competency-based assessment framework, allowing stakeholders to gradually shift to the new methodology without disrupting operations or regulatory compliance.

The Philippine government has taken another step toward boosting the country’s economic core by throwing a lifeline to micro-entrepreneurs. On June 22, 2026, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) officially released Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 04-2026 prescribing the guidelines and procedures for a one-time tax abatement program designed specifically for micro taxpayers. This was issued pursuant to the power of the Commissioner to abate or cancel tax liabilities under Section 204(B) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended. By offering an affordable mechanism to clear unresolved liabilities, the program aims to ease regulatory friction, clean up the national taxpayer database, and seamlessly reintegrate small businesses into the formal economy.

For years, many small businesses and self-employed professionals in the Philippines have found themselves trapped because of bureaucratic complications. Legacies of unfiled tax returns, known colloquially as stop-filer cases, alongside ballooning penalties and disputed assessments, often discouraged micro-entrepreneurs from updating their status. Recognizing that heavy financial penalties frequently push struggling enterprises into the informal sector, the BIR introduced this framework as a complementary component to broader ease-of-doing-business reforms.

To determine eligibility, the regulation relies on the statutory definition of a micro taxpayer. Businesses or individual professionals whose annual gross sales is less than P3,000,000 qualify for the program. For mixed income earners, the said gross sales threshold shall only cover business income, excluding compensation income earned under employer-employee relationship. Crucially, the relief also extends to former business owners who have already ceased operations but remain burdened by inactive registrations and unresolved tax obligations. By resolving these legacy accounts, the government is making it significantly simpler for entrepreneurs to formally close out past ventures and eventually embark on new economic activities without the shadow of tax debt.

The scope of RR No. 04-2026 is comprehensive but tightly bound by specific financial thresholds. The one-time abatement covers delinquent tax accounts, outstanding tax assessments (regardless of whether they are preliminary or final, disputed or undisputed) and open stop-filer cases, among others, that existed as of December 31, 2025. However, to prevent abuse and ensure the program serves its intended demographic, the regulation establishes a strict threshold that the total basic tax liability or penalties sought to be abated must not exceed P80,000 per taxable year. Taxpayers who exceed this threshold are ineligible for the tax abatement program.

For qualified taxpayers who meet these criteria, the path to compliance is remarkably straightforward and affordable. Instead of paying years of accumulated surcharges, compounding interest, and compromise penalties, applicants are only required to pay a flat, one-time abatement fee of P5,000 per approved application. The application must be filed manually with the Revenue District Office (RDO) that holds jurisdiction over the taxpayer. It must be submitted per taxable year, and the applicant is required to clearly specify the covered tax types and basic amounts due using BIR Form No. 0605.

Once an application is filed, the taxpayer has five working days to settle the P5,000 fee, either electronically or manually, and submit proof of payment to the RDO. Failure to submit the proof of payment within five working days voids the application, but without prejudice to re-filing the same within the availment period.

The BIR, on the other hand, has committed to a swift turnaround, stating that the respective RDO will issue an official Certificate of Availment within five working days from verifying the payment. This certificate serves as definitive proof that the covered tax case is closed. Business owners must act quickly, as the window of opportunity is narrow. The program is currently set to run only until December 31, 2026, unless a formal extension is recommended by the BIR Commissioner and authorized by the Secretary of Finance.

From a broader economic perspective, RR No. 04-2026 represents a practical shift in tax administration. Rather than spending valuable state resources auditing micro-enterprises with minimal revenue potential, the BIR is clearing its backlog of dormant files to focus its enforcement energy on high-risk, large-scale compliance. For the entrepreneur, it offers total peace of mind. Business owners can now wipe away years of tax anxieties for a nominal fee, clean their credit records, and position themselves for growth in an increasingly transparent and digital financial environment.

The author is a Senior Associate II of Du-Baladad and Associates (BDB Law) (www.bdblaw.com.ph).

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal, or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported, therefore, by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at ernesto.dayao@bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 local 340.

SENATE Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has questioned the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) decision to conduct another verification of alleged ghost projects in Taguig after earlier reviews by the agency found no ghost projects in the city.

Cayetano, in a Facebook livestream on July 20, expressed hope that Public Works Secretary Vivencio Dizon ‘would stand by the department’s earlier findings,’ recalling that ‘the secretary had told me on three separate occasions’ that Taguig’s projects had already been verified

‘I hope he will not allow himself to be pressured and I hope he tells the truth because he had told me three times already that they verified, and determined there are noghost projects in Taguig,’ he said, partly in Filipino.

Cayetano said it does not make sense for him to push for continued Senate hearings on alleged flood control anomalies while ignoring alleged irregularities involving flood control projects in Taguig.

‘It’s so illogical that I am fighting for the truth and for the Blue-Ribbon [committee] hearing tapos meron pala kaming problema sa sarili naming bakuran [and then it turns put I have a problem in my backyard],’ he said.

Cayetano also recalled proposing during the DPWH budget deliberations that all government infrastructure projects be documented through photographs from groundbreaking to completion, saying the measure would make ghost projects easier to detect and improve transparency in public works implementation.

‘When he was in the DPWH budget hearing here, I told him, ‘Sec. Vince, why don’t you have someone take photos by cellphone of all the projects? Start with . 2025, 2024, 2023, then backwards. So that, if from the cellphone alone we find out a project has been paid for but there is no structure, that’s ghost,’ he said.

He said he later followed up the proposal on the Senate floor and noted that Taguig had already adopted the practice.

Cayetano called for ghost project allegations to be investigated across all localities instead of focusing on Taguig alone, maintaining that any investigation should apply the same standard to everyone.

‘Isabay-isabay na natin kung gusto [If they wish, let’s take it up altogether] but don’t single people out. From the start I have said, investigate everybody,’ he said.

Malacañang is still considering ‘legal remedies’ to hold accountable the people behind the poor service of PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp. in previous years even after it changed ownership.

Last December, Villar Group announced that it sold PrimeWater to Crystal Bridges Holding Corp., which is owned by retail tycoon Lucio Co. The transaction was approved by the Philippine Competition Commission. The sale of PrimeWater took place months after it received numerous complaints from the local water districts, where it provided services. Some of the said water districts accused PrimeWater of being plagued with frequent and prolonged water interruptions, poor water quality, and exorbitant water rates.

President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to probe the said allegations.

In July 2025, the Palace said it has started to review the large number of pieces of evidence on PrimeWater’s alleged poor service and that LWUA is considering taking over its operations as a last resort.

Castro said the government may still take action against the previous operator of PrimeWater.

‘Regarding the accountability of those who allegedly fell short in their service should be held liable, we are currently looking into legal remedies to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.’

The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) undersecretary said Marcos has directed LWUA to continue improving water services nationwide by developing new water sources and the expansion of water networks as well as reducing non-revenue water for qualified water districts.

LWUA also committed to ensure the companies will respect their commitment to water districts.

‘LWUA also stated that they are committed to their mandate and responsibilities regarding these water districts. Thus, LWUA continues to monitor, examine, and assess the services provided by the water districts,’ Castro said.

Japanese electronics logistics firm Tokai Electronics Philippines Inc. is expanding its logistics operations after securing approval from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) to establish an additional warehouse facility at the Lima Technology Center-Special Economic Zone in Malvar, Batangas.

The expansion was formalized through a supplemental agreement, amending the company’s original 1998 registration agreement with Peza.

Under the revised agreement, Tokai Electronics may operate and maintain a warehouse within the Batangas ecozone for the storage, safekeeping and handling of electronic goods and products.

The expanded registration also authorizes the company to import, procure and manage electronic products intended for resale, including packing, repacking and preparing goods for transfer, disposition or export.

Tokai Electronics has been registered with Peza as an Ecozone Logistics Service Enterprise since 1998. Under its original registration, the company was authorized to conduct warehousing operations only within the Laguna Technopark-Special Economic Zone in Biñan, Laguna.

The additional warehouse broadens the company’s logistics operations by extending its registered activities to another Peza-administered economic zone in Batangas.

Peza Director General Tereso Panga said the expansion reflects the continued growth of existing locators within the country’s economic zones.

‘It’s a sign that Peza remains a place where investors don’t just set up, they scale up, and we are pleased to continue supporting their growth every step of the way.’