Category: Philippine Star

Consumer borrowing and spending are expected to accelerate toward the year-end holidays following the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s latest rate cut, according to global credit bureau TransUnion Philippines.

TransUnion said the timing of the rate cut coincides with the country’s peak retail and remittance season, when household consumption typically surges from September to December. Lower borrowing costs are expected to boost demand for consumer credit products such as credit cards, personal loans and buy now, pay later services.

‘This latest rate cut by the BSP sets the stage for a more active lending environment as we move through the BER months,’ TransUnion Philippines president and CEO Peter Faulhaber said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the BSP trimmed its benchmark rate by another 25 basis points to 4.75 percent, marking its fourth consecutive cut this year and the lowest level in three years. The move aims to support domestic demand amid signs of softer business confidence.

‘It’s a timely boost for consumers preparing for the holidays and for lenders aiming to meet that demand,’ Faulhaber added.

He also said that lenders can benefit from the easing cycle by rolling out ‘first-mover strategies’ that offer more personalized financial products while maintaining prudent risk management.

Based on BSP data, loans disbursed by universal and commercial banks expanded by 11.2 percent year-on-year in August, slower than the 11.8 percent increase in July. The August reading marked the weakest growth in nine months.

Bank loans reached P13.62 trillion in August, higher by P1.37 trillion compared to the P12.25 trillion recorded in the same month last year.

TransUnion also expects loan delinquencies to remain stable or even improve slightly in the coming months, supported by strong overseas remittance inflows that enhance borrowers’ repayment capacity.

‘What matters now is how the formal financial industry capitalizes on this momentum,’ Faulhaber said, emphasizing the importance of responsible borrowing and long-term financial discipline.

Separate BSP data showed that the industry’s non-performing loan ratio rose to 3.5 percent in August from 3.4 percent in July. It marked the fastest pace in three quarters or since the 3.54 percent in November 2024. Loans are classified as non-performing when unpaid for at least 90 days past their due date.

With inflation seen to moderate further and policy rates now at their lowest since September 2022, TransUnion said the lending environment is well-positioned for recovery heading into 2026, particularly as consumer sentiment improves alongside easing financial conditions.

Diesel and kerosene prices are set to decline today, bringing much-needed relief to motorists.

In separate advisories, Seaoil, Petron and PTT Philippines announced a rollback of P0.70 and P0.60 per liter for diesel and kerosene prices, respectively.

Gasoline prices, meanwhile, are poised to increase by P0.10 per liter.

The rollback was due to worries over a market surplus amid global oversupply and a weaker oil demand forecast, according to the Department of Energy.

Department of Energy-Oil Industry Management Bureau assistant director Rodela Romero said crude prices remained under pressure due to oversupply from major producers, including OPEC, Russia and the United States.

The International Energy Agency also trimmed its global oil demand projections following worries over a market glut.

Jetti Petroleum president Leo Bellas, meanwhile, noted that global market volatility may persist amid concerns that India could halt its imports of Russian oil.

‘The geopolitical tensions among Russia, the US and Ukraine are also bringing further uncertainty over global energy supplies,’ Bellas said.

Farm Fresh drew another supernova effort from Helene Rousseaux as it dumped Capital1, 25-22, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22, to extend its historic run in the PVL Reinforced Conference on Tuesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The prolific Belgian spiker uncorked a masterful 36-point effort, including 33 on spikes, to power the Foxies to their best start in franchise history with this third straight victory.

‘I’m super happy, I didn’t know that this is like history for Farm Fresh to be 3-0 and I’m grateful to be part of it,’ said Rosseaux.

Rosseaux’s recent feat came two hits shy from duplicating her mammoth 38-point performance in their first win over Nxled in Dasmariñas last October 9.

In all, the Belgian has compiled a whopping average of 30.3 points in three outings that put her in early contention for the Best Foreign Player award.

For Farm Fresh coach Alessandro Lodi, he compared all their wins to birth pains.

‘I don’t want to sound blasphemous, but sometimes these team gains were like giving birth,’ said Lodi. ‘I feel like we’re a team that never gives up but we kind of like to make it harder.’

‘But we need to grow if we want to be contenders,’ he added.

Lodi’s wariness was caused by Farm Fresh’s loss of concentration in the second inning that allowed Capital1 to snatch a set.

Good thing Rosseux came through.

‘Overall, we take the win. It’s not easy to win in this league, we’re 3-0 so it’s a good day,’ he said.

The Solar Spikers dropped to 1-2.

Standing over 8,000 meters above sea level, Mt. Everest is a mammoth to be reckoned. Summiting and surviving it requires years of preparation, solid teamwork and sheer willpower. It’s in this hostile environment that a handful of Filipinos have made history.

This October, R.O.X. (Recreational Outdoor Exchange) pays homage to Filipinos who have stood on the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest, which is considered as every mountaineer’s dream.

It recently held the photo exhibit ‘Ating Tugatog: Filipinos on the World’s Highest Peaks’ in its Bonifacio High Street store.

The exhibit showcased 40 rare photographs chronicling the five Filipino trailblazers-Romi Garduce, Carina Dayondon, Noelle Penetrante, Miguel Mapalad and Jeno Panganiban-who have stood atop the world’s most unforgiving peaks, including Mount Everest.

Garduce, Penetrante, Mapalad and Panganiban attended the exhibit opening and they shared their personal anecdotes of hardships and triumphs.

Who could forget Garduce, one of the first Filipinos to summit Mount Everest in 2005, and later, the first to complete the Seven Summits-the highest peaks on each continent.

Rare images from his Everest expedition capture both the enormity of the climb and the humility of the man behind it.

Of his many memories, he also recalled how he had to carry a set of production equiptment for TV including a camera and satellite among others so he could document and time his time at the peak of Everest.

Garduce’s discipline and methodical approach shaped his remarkable career as a mountaineer. As such, he shared his advise to young-and old-Filipinos aspiring to climb Mt. Everest.

‘Really build your name,’ he said in gaining the trust of sponsors. This include investing in oneself, going on your own expeditions and trips so that sponsors would be familiar with your name.

‘When I felt that I was ready, that’s when I started doing my program to start my Seven Summits journey. I made a structure and sponsorship [program],’ he added.

Penetrante, who was among the first Filipina Mt. Everest summiteers, echoed this and added, ‘You will have to be creative, makapal ang mukha at desidido sa gagawin mo kasi ang daming lunok ng pride din talaga.’

Penetrante was part of a team of Pinays who summitted Mt. Everest via a reverse traverse in 2007. Together with Carina Dayondon and Janet Belarmino, the trio redefined what Filipino women could achieve in extreme adventure despite countless sacrifices.

Completing the lineup were Mapalad and Panganiban, who recently made history when they successfully summitted Mt. Everest in May.

Mapalad, who had long dreamed of climbing Mt. Everest way back in early 2000s, felt that it was the right time for him, beyond the physical, mental and financial preparations.

‘May tamang oras para sa akin, o para sa kung sino mang gustong umakyat [ng Mt. Everest],’ he said.

Both Mapalad and Panganiban are now part of the Philippine 14 Peaks Expedition Team, aiming to scale all fourteen 8,000-meter mountains.

Their stories bring a modern perspective to the pursuit-balancing ambition with environmental responsibility and community advocacy.

As it highlights real stories even from the world’s most unforgiving environments, R.O.X. affirms its role as the outfitter of choice for explorers-providing globally trusted, high-performance gear that empowers them to reach new heights-both on the mountain and beyond.

Alex Eala improved a notch on her career-best WTA ranking ahead of her campaign in the WTA250 Guangzhou Open starting today.

From No. 54, Eala improved to No. 53 despite her early exit in the Japan Open last week.

In Guangzhou, she teams up with WTA doubles No. 58 Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine against the fourth-seeded pair of Great Britain’s Emily Appleton (No. 80) and China’s Qianhui Tang (No. 69) at 10 a.m.

CJ Cansino is off to a flyer in his sophomore year in the PBA.

The Meralco shooting guard played a key role in the Bolts’ three-game, five-day swing in the second week of the 50th Season Philippine Cup.

With his performance, Cansino, who averaged 15.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in that stretch, was named as PBA Press Corps Player of the Week for the period October 15-19.

Cansino closed the week by notching career-highs of 23 points and four blocks in Meralco’s 78-76 win over Magnolia last Sunday at the Ynares Center-Montalban.

The Meralco second-year player also stepped up on both ends of the floor in the Bolts’ 89-75 win against Barangay Ginebra where he had 18 points and two steals last Friday, and played quality minutes by chipping in six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes during their 105-96 win over Blackwater at the start of the week.

‘I’m happy na binibigyan ako ng ganitong role. Pero for me, sa sistema kasi ni coach Nenad (Vucinic, Meralco active consultant), wala ‘yung ganung role. Kung sino ‘yung mainit sa game, binibigay namin. Nasaktuhan lang na maganda ‘yung nilalaro ko sa offense nitong mga last game,’ said Cansino.

Meralco coach Luigi Trillo praised Cansino for his offseason work which is paying dividends early in the conference.

‘He has put in the work in the offseason. I think he has gotten 12 pounds of muscle. More than anything, you see the stats and the scoring but to me, nakakataba ng puso kay CJ because he is playing defense. Last conference, we had to go through those times that they were attacking him. This time, he is holding the fort,’ said Trillo.

Cansino won over teammate Chris Newsome, and the San Miguel duo of Marcio Lassiter and Cjay Perez for the plum handed by scribes from major broadsheets, tabloids, and online publications covering the PBA beat.

Although controlling inflation remains the most urgent national concern of Filipinos, fighting graft and corruption has surged as among the key issues that they want the government to address, a recent survey conducted by the OCTA Research group showed.

The survey, conducted from Sept. 25 to 30, found that 31 percent of the respondents selected fighting graft and corruption as among their top three most urgent concerns.

It went up by 18 points from 13 percent in a similar survey conducted by OCTA in July and reflects a similar trend seen in a recent Pulse Asia survey.

‘This marks the highest level of concern recorded and the first time that corruption as an issue has entered the top five national concerns in OCTA’s Tugon ng Masa surveys,’ the research group said.

‘The sudden surge in concern over corruption has overtaken improving or increasing wages, which had consistently ranked among the top three urgent national issues since March 2024. This reflects a notable shift in public priorities – from primarily economic anxieties to governance and accountability concerns,’ it added.

Like in previous polls, controlling the increase in the prices of basic goods remained the top priority, although it continued its downtrend from 50 percent in July to 48 percent in September.

This was the first time that inflation was not selected by a majority of the respondents under the present administration.

The last time was in February 2022, when it was at 41 percent. It went up to as high as 73 percent in December 2023.

Tied with fighting graft as a top priority is ensuring access to affordable food, which was selected also by 31 percent, similar to the previous poll.

The respondents were asked to select up to three issues that they think the government must immediately address.

Other issues included improving salaries of workers (27 percent), reducing poverty (23 percent), creating more jobs (19 percent), providing free quality education (18 percent), fighting drugs (16 percent), lowering the prices of rice (15 percent), addressing hunger (10 percent) and fighting criminality (10 percent).

Issues selected by less than 10 percent of the respondents included promoting peace, providing assistance to farmers, equal enforcement of the law, providing support to small entrepreneurs, defending the country’s ownership in the West Philippine Sea, reducing taxes, stopping the destruction of the environment, defending Philippine territory, controlling population growth, providing assistance and changing the Constitution.

OCTA’s third quarter survey had 1,200 respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus three percent.

Our fiscal authorities are obviously in panic over proposals to reduce the value-added tax (VAT) to 10 percent from 12 percent. Understandably so. We are in dire need of revenues, no thanks to the fact that billions have been stolen in ghost and substandard flood control projects.

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, the former lawmaker who authored the Expanded VAT Law, said lowering VAT might ‘lead to massive revenue losses, resulting in fewer public services and may force the government to borrow even for basic operations, such as personnel salaries.’

The entire VAT collection for 2025, amounting to P1.39 trillion, he said, ‘can only fund nine months’ worth of payroll, premiums and pensions of active and retired government workers.’

Finance Undersecretary Karlo Adriano said the proposal to cut the VAT rate to 10 percent could cost the government roughly P330 billion annually, derail fiscal consolidation efforts and disproportionately benefit high-income earners.

The panic, as I said, is understandable. Reducing the VAT would derail the country’s fiscal consolidation efforts and force it to borrow more than previously planned just to maintain education and social services.

‘If we have a target of 5.5 percent fiscal deficit this year, with the reduction of VAT to 10 percent, our fiscal deficit will be at 6.5 percent. So definitely, we will not be able to do fiscal consolidation because our fiscal deficit last year was only 5.7 percent,’ Adriano said.

One-month income tax holiday

Even the proposed one-month income tax holiday is making fiscal authorities jittery. As GlobalSource said, the ‘regressive effect and potential fiscal cost could invite criticism from technocrats, business leaders and credit watchers concerned about fiscal discipline.’

Against this backdrop, we, the Filipino taxpayers, find ourselves in a lamentable situation.

Our government wants – needs – to continue raising much-needed revenue through taxes and yet, we’re not seeing and feeling that the money we pay is being put to good use, at least a significant portion of it.

Our taxmen should be reminded that it is also the responsibility of the government to make sure that taxpayers’ money is spent well. We can’t be slapped with taxes left and right only to see the money lining the pockets of our corrupt politicians and government executives.

Who wants to keep paying taxes in this situation?

This is particularly burdensome for the middle class, who are most affected by the continued imposition of taxes.

What to do then? The government must plug the loopholes with urgency.

As the Department of Finance said, up to P118.5 billion a year is lost to flood control corruption. We also learned that from the smuggling of oil and general merchandise, the Bureau of Customs has lost P150 billion.

The fight against graft and corruption – not just in public works, but in all forms, from smuggling to tax evasion -must be taken with unwavering resolve and a genuine commitment to accountability.

The long road to justice

Nearly three months since the biggest corruption scandal in history erupted, we still do not see anyone being tried in court or thrown in jail. Instead, key players are scrambling to become state witnesses.

Even for the ghost projects, where the element of crime is easiest to prove, nobody has been sent to jail just yet.

The country’s business groups are getting impatient. Usually quiet and afraid to make noise, they issued a strongly worded statement urging President Marcos to prosecute all those responsible for the flood control mess, regardless of rank, position, political affiliation or personal relations.

Seeing the limitations of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, the business organizations urged Marcos to immediately empower the commission with ‘full legal authority and independence for a swift and comprehensive investigation into alleged irregularities.’

More than 30 business organizations signed the statement released over the weekend. They include the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., Federation of Philippine Industries and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines.

This crisis, they said, ‘has eroded public trust and now threatens our national security.’

In addition, the groups pushed for the immediate implementation of institutional reforms for the recovery of ill-gotten wealth and embezzled funds.

Prosecution and the return of stolen funds would be the closest we can get to instant relief from this unprecedented corruption scandal, if the government cannot afford to reduce our taxes.

Reforming the pension system

Aside from plugging leaks due to the looting of state coffers, there are other measures pending, such as proposals to reform the so-called pension system of the military and other uniformed personnel (MUP).

This pension for retired uniformed personnel is shouldered entirely by taxpayers. For this year, the MUP had a budget of P144.72 billion.

Because the MUP pension system reform has yet to become law, it remains included in the annual budget.

This means that our military and other uniformed personnel continue to enjoy the benefits of a pension system even without any contribution to the fund. That’s a ticking fiscal time bomb.

The MUP is just one example where the government can reform to address revenue loopholes.

As for the rest of bureaucracy, it also reeks of inefficiency and unnecessary expenses – swollen confidential funds in executive offices and fat paychecks and bonuses for those in GOCCs and other agencies with redundant functions. Even both chambers of Congress are swimming in allowances and endless bonuses.

One doesn’t have to touch the funds for health and education.

There’s more than enough to fix, really.

The country’s newest all-in-one sports app is giving collegiate hoops fans a chance to win free tickets in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 88 men’s basketball tournament.

Through Alta Sports’ UAAP Fan Experience Challenge, fans can win tickets by following and posting their most memorable UAAP experience, whether an unforgettable story or a throwback photo with their favorite UAAP legends, in the Forum Section of the Alta Sports App from October 24 to October 31.

The top 10 posts with the most hearts on the app will win three tickets. Winners will be announced on November 3.

The local stock market opened the week with a flat performance with no fresh leads in sight.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined for a third straight session, inching down by 0.09 percent or 5.46 points to end at 6,084.07 yesterday.

The broader All Shares index also slipped by 0.09 percent or 3.16 points, settling at 3,661.92.

‘The PSEi edged lower as the market remained cautious ahead of the earnings season,’ Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said.

Early in the trading day, however, Limlingan said that some buying pressure emerged as uncertainty from the US eased after President Donald Trump signaled a possible tariff cut.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the PSEi corrected marginally lower for the third straight trading session after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported a smaller balance of payment surplus in September.

Overall, total value turnover was anemic at only P3.65 billion.

Sectoral gauges were dominated by those in the red territory, with mining and oil taking the deepest plunge at 2.54 percent.

Property and industrial indexes, meanwhile, managed to pull off gains, rising by 0.55 percent and 0.28 percent, respectively.

Market breadth was negative as decliners squashed advancers, 122 to 75, while 50 issues were unchanged.

ICTSI was the session’s top traded, declining by 0.65 percent to P539 per share, followed by BDO Unibank and Ayala Land which fell by 0.79 percent and 0.44 percent, respectively, to P138.60 and P22.45.