Category: Philippine Star

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is investigating how fugitive businessman Charlie ‘Atong’ Ang managed to elude law enforcement authorities and leave the country.

Ang, the alleged mastermind in the kidnapping and killing of cockfighting aficionados or sabungeros, has fled the Philippines and is reportedly in Cambodia, according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.

PNP spokesman Col. Allen Rae Co said there is an ongoing probe on Ang’s reported departure in coordination with other concerned government agencies.

‘We will be investigating all circumstances surrounding this development,’ he said at a news briefing in Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Ang is accused of ordering the systematic murder of hundreds of sabungeros who allegedly cheated in cockfight games, with most of the bodies allegedly buried in Taal Lake, Batangas.

Co assured the victims’ families they will not stop until Ang is arrested and brought to court to face trial.

‘Regardless of his current whereabouts the PNP remains committed to serving the warrant of arrest, bringing him before the courts to answer for the charges against him,’ he said.

Lifestyle and travel show ‘I Heart PH’ is returning to Hong Kong for a new season featuring the city’s cultural attractions, culinary destinations and local businesses which will premiere on October 25 in GTV.

In partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), the award-winning show will feature destinations that highlight the city’s blend of heritage, creativity and modern lifestyle.

The upcoming episodes were previewed during the ‘I Heart PH’ media launch at Winford Resort Manila recently.

Chian Jia Liew, HKTB regional director for Southeast Asia, welcomed the partnership, which aims to encourage Filipino travelers to explore Hong Kong beyond its familiar tourist attractions.

‘We are delighted to partner with I Heart PH once again to showcase the many experiences that can be found Only in Hong Kong,’ Liew said.

‘Hong Kong is a city where you can experience dynamic contrast of East and West, heritage and innovation, vibrant city life and stunning nature, all within easy reach,’ she added.

The show will feature five destinations and experiences, including the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which houses collections of Chinese art and historical artifacts, and Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, where visitors can see wax figures of international personalities.

Among the Filipino celebrities featured at Madame Tussauds are boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach, Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, actress-host Anne Curtis and actress Kathryn Bernardo.

The program will also visit Ma Wan 1868, a former fishing village that combines historical landmarks, creative spaces and local dining spots. Visitors can explore the area’s Tin Hau Temple and enjoy views of the Tsing Ma Bridge.

Another featured experience is the Ding Ding Foodie Tour, which takes visitors around Hong Kong Island aboard an air-conditioned tram while introducing them to the city’s food culture, history and neighborhoods.

The season will also include Hong Kong Disneyland, which offers attractions, themed lands and entertainment inspired by Disney stories. Its Christmas activities are scheduled to begin on November 20.

Beyond tourist attractions, ‘I Heart PH’ will spotlight businesses that reflect Hong Kong’s culture and creative identity.

Among them is Bakehouse, an artisanal bakery founded by Grégoire Michaud, who previously served as executive pastry chef at Four Seasons Hong Kong.

The show will also feature Kingstone Engraving, which preserves the traditional craft of hand-carved personalized stamps, and TeemTonefai, an ice cream and gelato brand known for its distinctive flavors and towering gelato creations.

Goods of Desire (G.O.D), meanwhile, offers accessories and home decor inspired by Hong Kong’s architecture, traditions and everyday life. Its founder and designer, Douglas Young, established the brand to celebrate the city’s cultural identity through locally inspired products.

The program will also visit Dara, a Filipino restaurant that serves familiar comfort food to Filipinos and other diners in Hong Kong.

Jermaine Bunoan, Dara’s co-founder and head of operations, said the restaurant draws inspiration from the simplicity and familiarity of home-cooked Filipino meals.

Through its new season, ‘I Heart PH’ aims to introduce viewers to Hong Kong’s diverse attractions, from historical sites and culinary experiences to creative enterprises and places that offer a taste of home for Filipinos living abroad.

So far, so good.

That was how Nxled coach Guidetti Ettore viewed his Chameleons after roaring to a third straight victory following a 25-16, 22-25, 25-17, 25-19 victory over ZUS Coffee yesterday in the PVL All-Filipino Conference at the MOA Arena.

‘It’s nice to see that we have the same resilience that we showed in the last part of the PVL on Tour as well as the Invitational,’ said Ettore. ‘Definitely following the same line of determination and they’re more serene when faced with difficult situations.’

While there was a slip of concentration in the second set, Nxled was relatively calm almost all throughout in carving out a third straight triumph.

The Highrisers went down to their third loss in a row.

It helped that Jonah Sabete-Escamillan stepped up when Brooke Van Sickle struggled, and unloaded a 22-point performance that she spiced up with 18 kills, three blocks and an ace. Van Sickle wound up with just 12 hits but helped preside over the squad’s floor defense with a match-best 13 digs.

For Sabete-Escamillan, quickness was their weapon. ‘Knowing matatangkad sila, kailangan namin ng fast game,’ she said.

The Chameleons have been riding high on their runner-up finish – their best finish in franchise history – in the Invitational just a month ago. And the way they’re playing right now, there is a strong chance they may end up going all the way.

Murder charges have been filed against eight suspects tagged in the murder of a barangay chairman in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

The charges were filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor in Sto. Tomas on Wednesday afternoon.

Of the eight suspects, only Michael Ben Calalo, 30, was arrested. The rest including two businessmen, two drivers, a former politician, a barangay kagawad and the gunman remain at large.

Calalo allegedly helped the gunman, who was reportedly his cousin, escape after killing Dennis Austria in Barangay Anastacia on Oct. 15.

Calalo and the assailant sped away on a motorcycle before transferring to a Toyota Vios.

The suspect was arrested on Tuesday at his alleged hideout in Barangay Balagtasin in the nearby town of San Jose.

Police said the arresting team recovered the Vios, which was reportedly registered under the name of Calalo.

Video footage of a closed-circuit television camera showed Calalo and the gunman transferring from a motorcycle to the Vios.

Calabarzon police deputy chief Col. Mario Mayames Jr. said Calalo signed an extra-judicial confession, admitting his participation in the crime.

The mastermind of the murder reportedly promised the gunman P250,000.

With the filing of the charges, Mayames said the Austria murder case is considered solved.

Col. Oliver Ebora, Batangas police director, urged anyone with information about the case to coordinate with the police, to help strengthen the charges and ensure conviction of those responsible.

It’s a crucial PBA Governors’ Cup duel against Blackwater that looks all too familiar for Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

Last game of the group stage, two ways to advance to the playoffs.

Seal it with a win. Or at the very least, get the Last-8 ticket by emerging on top of a potential three-way tie at 4-6 with Meralco and the Bossing (3-6) after tiebreak.

Thanks to their +30 points differential against the Bolts (+7) and Pat Aquino’s Bossing (-37), the Gin Kings can still afford to drop tonight’s Group B windup at Ynares Center-Antipolo and move forward – as long as the losing margin won’t reach 24.

Otherwise, it would drag Cone and his bunch to second among the three, allowing Meralco to catch the last bus to the crossover quarters instead.

For the Bossing to overtake the two in a tiebreaker, they must to beat Ginebra by a whopping 45 points.

Six countries from Southeast Asia will not be present at the 75th Miss Universe competition next month in Puerto Rico.

The development stems from warring factions among executives of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) and Miss Universe East (MU East) chief Nawat Itsaragrisil.

Nawat is a Thai beauty entrepreneur who also heads several national Miss Universe franchises, as well as the Miss Grand International (MGI) pageant based in his native country.

MUO and Nawat in recent months have been at odds over publicizing information and whether the latter has the authority to speak on matters involving the organization.

As a result, MUO announced last month that it will not recognize any national franchise agreement done without a legal licensing framework, for they are unauthorized and void.

The nations affected by this are the franchises in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore, though MU East previously indicated it would back the six countries’ participation in the diamond edition of Miss Universe.

Laos and Indonesia have not yet selected a delegate for Miss Universe 2026, while the other four have:

Thailand – Tharina Botes

Vietnam – Nguyen Quynh Anh

Singapore – Vion Tan

Malaysia – Eunice Wong

For many Filipinos, financial needs rarely arrive one at a time. A household may be managing monthly bills when an unexpected expense comes up, while a small business owner may need extra capital to restock or keep operations moving. Having a bank account or e-wallet makes it easier to move money, but it does not always mean the right financial support is available when it is needed.

With 58% of Filipino adults now owning a formal financial account, the next challenge for financial inclusion goes beyond access and into the actual usage of services to save and borrow securely.

Reaching more people with responsible credit, for example, requires more than a single institution. Banks, fintech companies, payment networks, businesses, regulators and industry groups each bring different strengths, from capital and technology to distribution and consumer protection.

For Tala, bringing those strengths together has become an important part of how it plans to grow and serve more customers. The AI-native credit infrastructure company is expanding partnerships within and beyond the financial industry to reach more Filipinos in line with its mission to empower the global majority and turn wider credit access into greater financial agency.

“Financial inclusion thrives when different parts of the ecosystem work together,” said Moritz Gastl, president and General Manager of Tala Philippines.

“With over a decade of experience in assessing thin-file borrowers through alternative data, Tala brings real-time credit decisioning and proprietary risk intelligence to the table, while our partners bring reach, capital, and other strengths. Together, we can serve more Filipinos in ways that are practical, responsible, and relevant to how they already manage money,” Gastl added.

Expanding where and how Filipinos access credit

Through embedded finance, Tala aims to make its proprietary credit scoring capabilities and infrastructure available to other companies so they can fund and offer credit through their own apps or networks.

Tala offers Credit-as-a-Service, or CaaS, a plug-and-play infrastructure that businesses can integrate through lightweight APIs or an SDK, with real-time credit decisions delivered within minutes.

For businesses, it offers a secure and sustainable way to provide financing without building the full underwriting infrastructure themselves.

For customers, it creates another way to safely and seamlessly access credit through platforms already part of their lives, including for economically active people whose ability to repay may not be fully captured by conventional credit records.

Once approved, customers still need an easy way to access their funds. Tala’s disbursement and cash-out network connects them to e-wallets, banks, and over-the-counter payment channels, so they can receive money through services they already use.

That matters because many Filipinos move between digital payments and cash depending on what they are paying for and how they manage money day to day.

Serving more customers also requires enough capital behind that credit. Through loan channeling partnerships, Tala can combine its technology and customer reach with the funding capacity of financial institutions, unlocking larger pools of capital at lower cost and expanding credit supply.

Growing credit access with stronger protections

As credit reaches more Filipinos, the protections surrounding it also have to keep pace.

Through its leadership role in the Consumer Lending Association of the Philippines and engagement with other trade associations, Tala works alongside industry peers on responsible lending, consumer-centric co-regulation, anti-fraud efforts and policies that strengthen consumer protection.

Its Debt with Dignity advocacy is part of that work. Through the Global Debt Collection with Dignity Initiative, Tala is advancing a framework that governments, regulators and organizations can adapt to protect borrowers from abusive collection practices. Wider access should come with clear standards for how customers are treated throughout the credit journey.

Together, these relationships allow Tala to address different parts of the same challenge, from expanding where credit is available and how funds are accessed to increasing capital supply and strengthening safeguards.

For Filipinos, the value of those partnerships should ultimately be practical. Credit should be easier to reach, customers should have more choice in how they access their funds, and stronger protections should grow alongside digital finance.

When those pieces work together, broader financial access can become something more meaningful: greater resilience, opportunity and financial agency.

Following a landmark Supreme Court decision declaring the 2024, 2025 and parts of the 2026 national budgets unconstitutional, Senate leaders vowed yesterday to strictly guard the proposed 2027 outlay against irregular realignments.

Finance committee chair Sen. JV Ejercito assured the public that the Senate would draw lessons from the SC’s ruling and thoroughly study its implications for the preparation and approval of next year’s budget.

‘Let me assure the Filipino people: what transpired in past budget deliberations will not happen under my watch in the proposed 2027 national budget,’ Ejercito said in a statement.

He maintained that even during the 2026 budget deliberations, lawmakers had already ‘exercised restraint and agreed not to increase unprogrammed appropriations beyond the amount proposed in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).’

In a 121-page decision made public on Tuesday, the SC ruled that Congress committed grave abuse of discretion by inflating the executive branch’s recommended budget for unprogrammed funds from P281.9 billion in the NEP to P731.4 billion in the enacted 2024 budget.

The court emphasized that Congress is constitutionally prohibited from increasing the President’s total recommended appropriations.

For Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the public should brace for ‘iyakan’ among members of the House of Representatives, as the Senate intends to restore ‘hundreds of billions’ of pesos in cuts and realignments made by the lower chamber, particularly concerning foreign-assisted projects and flood control funding.

‘One good thing about the Supreme Court ruling is its timing. It couldn’t have come at a better time when the House version of the 2027 General Appropriations Bill is undergoing scrutiny by the Senate,’ he said.

Worst budgets

Lacson, who noted he was not part of the Senate when the assailed budgets were passed, said the past two outlays would go down in history as the worst budgets ever passed by Congress after the 2013 GAA which was marked by the pork barrel scandal.

Senate President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III, who also was not a senator during the crafting of the 2024 and 2025 budgets, voiced his commitment to an open process, promising to maintain the live-streamed committee deliberations implemented during the 2026 budget cycle.

Addressing rumors of fresh budget insertions, Sotto said the Senate would rely on the SC’s parameters to block any unconstitutional moves.

Asked about the possible effects of the SC decision on the assailed budgets, he said: ‘As far as I know, the possible consequences are – those that remain unspent may not be disbursed anymore; those already spent may not be invalidated.’

Limited impact

Public finance expert Zy-za Suzara welcomed the ruling but said it would have limited immediate impact on the proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 national budget.

‘However, Congress needs to comply with the conditions imposed by the SC in passing the UA. They cannot increase the level of the UA,’ she told The STAR.

Although the ruling did not abolish UA, Suzara said it would help prevent corrupt lawmakers from using the standby funds to create fiscal space and channel them to hundreds of billions of pork.

Former finance undersecretary Cielo Magno said the ruling ‘should serve as a guide to the present and future Congresses to abide by constitutional standards when crafting a budget.’

She added that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should stop releases of the affected funds ‘out of courtesy.’

In a statement, the DBM said it is in coordination with the Office of the Solicitor General and other concerned executive offices to assess the ruling’s legal, fiscal, technical and operational implications before determining its next steps.

DA budget

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., meanwhile, appealed to the Senate committee on finance to support his department’s proposed P198.4-billion budget for 2027, saying farmers and fisherfolk are facing a ‘perfect storm’ of climate threats, rising production costs and geopolitical shocks.

While the Department of Agriculture cannot control the weather or global oil prices, Tiu Laurel said it can strengthen farmers’ and fisherfolk’s capacity to withstand their effects. He told the committee a worst-case scenario could impact as many as 4.6 million of the 10.4 million Filipinos engaged in agriculture.

Another flood control scam?

Also at the hearing, the People’s Budget Coalition warned of a potential second ‘flood control scandal,’ flagging nearly P190 billion in agricultural infrastructure insertions made by the House, including multimillion-peso farm-to-market roads with coordinates placing them in the middle of the ocean.

The group represented by co-convenor Kenneth Abante revealed discrepancies in 7,054 DA projects inserted by the lower chamber into the proposed 2027 budget.

Abante presented coordinates from the House version of the budget showing a P23-million farm-to-market road meant for Nueva Ecija but turned up in the ocean near the Philippine (former Benham) Rise, based on coordinates.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, meanwhile, is appealing to the Senate to restore and augment the department’s budget for its Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program amid the looming super El Niño phenomenon.

During yesterday’s hearing on DSWD’s budget, senators questioned why the AICS allocation in the 2027 NEP dropped to P33.3 billion from this year’s P63 billion.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo expressed surprise over the cut since President Marcos was supposed to have positioned the DSWD as frontline agency.

Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian defended the program, noting its contribution to immediate relief of distressed sectors. ‘The transport sector alone got close to P1 billion in one month. That’s the lifeline, hence the quick response,’ Gatchalian said

The Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the most controversial elements of the 2024, 2025 and 2026 national budgets.

The ruling was almost expected. Congress deviously toyed with the constitutional parameters. The legislators skirted around the constitutional bar on appropriating sums larger than what the executive branch proposed by bloating this anomaly called ‘unprogrammed allocations.’ They tried to pull the wool over our eyes.

‘Deviously’ is well considered. Money was taken from education, health and foreign-assisted projects by simply moving it to the ‘unprogrammed’ column. Then district-level projects were inserted into the ‘programmed’ column.

These were not small amounts. In the 2024 GAA, the bicameral conference committee bloated unprogrammed allocations by P449.5 billion. In the 2025 GAA, Congress unconstitutionally increased appropriation for the Special Road Fund by P17.992 billion.

The Court struck down the cynically named ‘Strengthening Assistance for Government Infrastructure and Social Programs’ (SAGIP) in both the 2024 and 2025 GAAs. The Court saw this as a prohibited lump sum appropriation. It gave legislative authority to the executive branch by giving it unchecked post-enactment discretion in identifying projects and allocating funds for them.

The President, who signs the budget into law, could not have missed the crime being perpetrated here. When the proposed 2025 budget became the subject of controversy because of blanks in the bicameral committee’s working documents, President Marcos Jr. claimed he had read the 4000-page budget document from cover-to-cover. Few people believe that, given Marcos Jr.’s unremarkable work ethic.

For three years running, the nation has been operating under seriously flawed budget allocations. Tens, perhaps hundreds, of billions were lost to corruption because of the built-in flaws in the GAA. The executive branch, because it received hundreds of billions by way of an opaque pork barrel, had a glaring conflict of interest in signing the flawed budgets into law.

What consequences will the Supreme Court ruling have on the money misspent and lost the past three years – and on the misallocations written into the House version of the 2027 budget? Who will be held accountable for the scandalously undocumented bicameral committee sessions that sealed the criminal insertions into place?

The Court ruling, with all its grave implications, comes in the nick of time. We have only a few weeks left to reconfigure the 2027 budget and take out the pork inserted by the congressmen.

For three years, we have allowed the budget process to become a racket. All the insertions inflated the deficit that forces us deeper into debt.

The national debt was about P12 trillion when Marcos Jr. became president. It could be double that by the time his term ends.

Embarrassment

No one seems to be minding the store in the wake of the scandalous 2027 budget document that emanated from the House of Representatives. Everyone seems engrossed with this silly controversy concerning the Chinese ambassador.

Consider the funny sequence here. The ambassador was thrown a question during a forum. He gave a safely qualified answer. Our politicians – at least those angling to build a ‘nationalist’ constituency for themselves – cherry picked one sentence. The sentence is repeated out of context. A political circus ensues with every mediocrity in sight calling for the ambassador to be expelled.

The rest of the region is aghast at the depths of stupidity Filipino politics have descended into. Our political leaders are driving the nation to perdition for a moment of imagined glory at the rostrum of jingoism.

It was bad enough that the Philippines has been completely out of tune with the ASEAN, especially in this year when we chair the regional body. We have been stubbornly pursuing an infantile confrontational approach while everyone else is thinking a century ahead. The poorer our economy turns, the more hysterical our foreign policy becomes. We have become a living specimen of what the old Greek philosophers warned about those the gods wish to destroy.

This circus would not be happening if we had a President with a little more gravitas. Instead, we see a squad of half-literate senators trying to dictate the country’s foreign policy. We have some social media-crazed Coast Guard officers usurping the role of our DFA. We have the LP-Akbayan axis going to town with their all-consuming sinophobia.

Our politicians have morphed into the persona of huffing and puffing fraternity goons aching to rumble. Amidst all their unworthy noise, they have surrendered all tactical advantages to Beijing. China, with its cadre of ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats, now have a pretext to lean on us harder.

Beijing dared us to expel her ambassador. We could not. We know the agitation was contrived by attention-seeking politicians. We know how heavy China’s hand could get when they decide to retaliate in kind.

Our tourism is dying because we lost our just share of the millions of Chinese tourists going abroad. The flow of Chinese investments is down to a trickle. No new infra projects supported by China have been offered. Our trade deficit is flashing red lights.

More immediately, we are trying to get the region’s leaders to grace the ASEAN summit in Manila next month. After that, the APEC summit will be held in China. We are trying to borrow $1 billion from the AIIB to save our economy.

Samuel Johnson, over two centuries ago, warned: ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ He should see our senators now.

Kyle Antolin and Angelie Cabalo ruled the men’s and women’s divisions of the Salomon Gravel Lobo 12k trail run in Malabrigo, Lobo Batangas earlier this month.

Antolin topped the men’s division after completing the race in an hour, 22 minutes and 44 seconds. He edged Napoleon Tolentino, who finished second with a time of 1:29:24, followed by Jomari Aguisanda in 1:31:55.

Cabalo, for her part, finished first in the women’s division with a time of 1:22:45. Erica Lachica finished second in 1:52:14, with Angelica Villarante rounding out the podium in 1:53:25.

‘Congratulations to all who finished the Gravel Lobo run. The sun did not exactly cooperate with us, but the extra challenge from the heat made it more fun as we got to know ourselves more out there,’ Cristelle Corpuz, Salomon marketing manager, said.

The runners competed across beach shorelines, gravel roads and paved sections.

‘A few years ago, Salomon realized that runners do not just really run on one type of surface. This realization is applicable to Filipino runners who enjoy different surfaces,’ Corpuz said.

‘We have started gravel running in the Philippines last year and would like to introduce it through a larger scale. We want more people to experience the thrill of gravel running,’ she added.

Runners also competed across four age brackets in each of the men’s and women’s divisions.

In the 29-and-below division, Neil Patrick Untalan led the men in 1:33:41, followed by Jasper Jo Loberes in 1:37:33 and John Joseph Taneo in 1:42:46. Victoria Echavez topped the women’s category in 2:00:17, ahead of Martine Corpus (2:01:36) and Kate Manondon (2:01:52).

Binz Angeles claimed the men’s 30-39 age division title in 1:33:26, with Jun Kevin Dalangin second in 1:34:16 and Alaric Lopez De Leon third in 1:35:49. Kimberly Alia Bacaron won the women’s division in 1:58:29, narrowly edging Charisse Faye Tibe, who clocked 1:58:51. Istin Ganda finished third in 2:13:21.

Mac Azanes topped the men’s 40-49 field in 1:53:13. Fernando III Serra placed second with a time of 1:53:55, while Patrick Aquino took third after notching a time of 1:58:09. In the women’s category, Abigail Tud won in 2:15:17, followed by Jennifer Pagaduan in 2:21:05 and Ma Glaiza Edejer in 2:25:47.

Ulyses Dolor led the men’s 50-and-above division in 1:44:10, with Alexander Cenzon (1:52:25) and Erlan Olavere (2:03:29) completing the top three. Lorena Bulanhagui won the women’s category in 2:21:25, followed closely by Grace Panalangin in 2:22:03. Rhodora Fe Pinili finished third in 2:55:25. (Contributed story)