Category: Philippine Star

Malacañang has rejected recent renewed calls by lawmakers to zero out the P250 billion unprogrammed appropriations in the proposed 2026 national budget, saying the funds are crucial for government programs and are subject to strict oversight.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said at a press briefing on Wednesday, October 8, that the funds serve as a reserve for urgent and unforeseen expenses, such as emergencies, and are not automatically disbursed.

‘Hindi po ito nagagasta nang basta-basta (This is not spent arbitrarily),’ Castro told reporters.

‘Kahit po ito ay nasa unprogrammed appropriation, ang ibig pong sabihin nito ay hindi po ito agad-agad makukuha kung wala pong sapat na dokumento,” she added.

(Even if it is in the unprogrammed appropriation, it means it cannot be released immediately without sufficient documentation.)

Unprogrammed appropriations are funds authorized in the national budget that are treated as standby reserves. This means it must only be released once the government meets specific revenue targets, such as securing new loans or tax collections, or upon special presidential authorization.

However, large allocations for standby funds have become controversial under the Marcos administration. Critics say the mechanism allows the administration to stash away money for pre-planned programs with less transparency and greater political discretion than regular, itemized budgets.

In a privilege speech yesterday, Rep. Chel Diokno (Akbayan) urged Congress to reduce the allocation to zero. He said the P250 billion was not a necessary contingency fund, but was instead being earmarked for “large, planned, and regular programs” that should be subjected to the rigorous scrutiny of line-item budgeting.

When asked about Diokno’s call on Wednesday, Castro directly rejected the feasibility of zeroing out the appropriation.

The funds, Castro said, are under ‘conditional implementation,’ meaning agencies cannot access them unless specific requirements are met.

“Hindi po ba may mga nagrireklamo na hindi raw sila nabibigyan o nari-release-an ng mga pondo (Isn’t it some agencies are complaining of the delays in the release of funds)?” Castro said.

“Iyan po ang ginagawa ng Pangulo dahil ito po ay nasa ilalim ng conditional implementation. Ibig sabihin po, pinangangalagaan ng Pangulo ang pondo ng bayan,” she added.

(That is what the President is doing because it is under conditional implementation. This means the President is safeguarding the people’s money.)

Growing calls to remove unprogrammed funds

The Senate has the same stance as Diokno and earlier called to remove the standby funds from the spending plan for next year.

Senate President Tito Sotto previously bared plans to eliminate all unprogrammed funds from the 2026 budget, calling them ‘sources of questionable insertions.’ He and Senate finance panel chair Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian have agreed to aim for ‘100 percent no unprogrammed funds,’ with only foreign-assisted components possibly retained.

The controversy over unprogrammed appropriations is playing out against a backdrop of investigations that have revealed billions of funds meant for flood control projects have been misused in past years.

This, according to lawmakers, was made possible through covert budget insertions done behind closed doors by small committees.

Growing awareness of the anomalies in budget insertions has prompted critics to call massive UA allocations a possible alternative for insertions. In arguing for its removal, another Akbayan lawmaker, Rep. Perci Cendaña, earlier pointed out that 70% of UA allocations in the 2026 budget are for infrastructure projects.

‘If the unprogrammed appropriations stays, then it might cast a shadow on our efforts to cleanse the stain of corruption from our national budget,” Cendaña said Tuesday.

Today’s column title can apply to the crumbling leadership and integrity of the Senate, it could apply to the many commercial buildings in Bogo, Cebu that crumbled or crashed during the recent earthquake or the Piggatan bridge in the town of Alcala, Cagayan.

Built to break could be ‘by design,’ poor choices or simply by mismanagement. Sadly, it is Filipinos who suffer the consequences – directly or indirectly – with lives, lost wealth or progress.

The Senate has gone through three Senate presidents – Zubiri, Escudero and now Sotto. The new Senate Blue Ribbon committee is now destined to have a rotation from Marcoleta to Lacson to I don’t know who. In contrast their multi-billion building remains unfinished.

What nobody is talking about is where did the disruption in the Senate begin. Or who is the ‘Disruptor?’ Listening to the ‘elected’ and ‘appointed,’ it is apparent that President Bongbong Marcos greatly influenced the changes, based on what Sen. Sotto said regarding a conversation with PBBM.

While Malacañang will disavow this to hell, ‘the testimony of many’ (senators) tells us otherwise. In truth, there is no real separation of powers in the Philippines. It is all about the political majority and who is president.

As far as the ruling party or PBBM is concerned, there are only two major political concerns: the impeachment of Sara Duterte and protecting President Marcos Jr. from the stain of theft and shame now spreading like a virus over government.

Those agendas, however, have become so intertwined that the overhaul of the Senate leadership has turned into a political minefield. You can’t touch one raw nerve without triggering the other. Any wrong move or negative perception by the public can become a political career ender.

And so, we are where we are, you have a thinly split Senate where political colors and alliances are blurred and even questionable, where the once congenial body has turned into a daily dog fight with utter loss of respect and honor.

Meanwhile, here are two important lessons for PBBM and the senators: ‘He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.’ (Proverbs 11:29)

In the context of ‘casting out undesirables:’ ‘Now. when the pharisees heard it, they said, ‘this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.”

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: ‘Every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.’

There was a time when a hollow block was proudly ‘Jackbilt,’ meaning the company placed its reputation behind hollow blocks that surpassed industry standards for strength and load bearing walls.

But nowadays, any enterprising fellow can put up a backyard hollow block making plant with no permit, no safety standards, not even government rules on the sand-to-concrete ratio or how many days to sun dry homemade hollow blocks.

Having ‘built’ two resorts and two homes, I myself have had issues with adulterated imported cement, hollow blocks that crack and crumble because of low cement content with brown sand or muddy river sand.

Now we have steel bars that may or may not pass Bureau of Standards tests, and we can add to that substandard steel bars made from induction furnaces banned but imported from China.

After the destructive earthquake that hit Bogo, Cebu, I got to watch videos of government buildings, commercial establishments, as well as many homes that crumbled during the magnitude 6.9 earthquake.

While a magnitude 6.9 earthquake is highly destructive, I could not ignore the fact that many of the structures I saw were ‘all flesh and no bones’ – or showed inadequate steel reinforcement.

The front columns of a government office revealed that the palitada or plaster was two times thicker that the concrete post it was covering, obviously to make the column ‘big.’

I thought that the more modern and commercial establishments would be better off but were not. I assume that builders cut corners in terms of amount of steel bars used or the quality of those round bars.

Earthquakes are one thing, but quality and safety standards are within human control. When the local construction and cement industry complained about adulterated imported cement, it took government a while before clamping down.

The same problem happened to backyard-made hollow blocks and an effort was made among local governments to clamp down on these. Unfortunately, it was ningas cogon or a short-lived blaze that died.

Last year and this year, the media called out the problems regarding imported steel bars and conduction furnaces that do not eliminate impurities, resulting in low-grade round bars that easily snap or break where the impurities are.

The DTI tries to do its best but being undermanned and underfunded, they are barely able to scratch the surface or cover all the regions in the Philippines. Congress needs to enact stricter laws regarding imported steel and totally ban the use and importation of induction furnaces.

Lastly, we also need to be stricter on the management side so that major bridges don’t crumble one after another like the Cabangan bridge in Isabela and the Piggatan bridge in Alcala, Cagayan province. Is it poor construction or poor management against overloading?

The Philippine manufacturing sector rebounded in August, with output returning to positive territory, driven by the performance of the food and metals sectors.

Preliminary data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) yesterday showed that the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) for manufacturing posted a 1.4-percent increment in August from a 1.8-percent contraction in July.

VoPI growth in August was also slightly faster than the 1.3-percent uptick in the same month last year.

The PSA said the uptrend was primarily due to food products, which accelerated by 20.2 percent in August from the previous month’s 11.4 percent.

Basic metals, which registered a slower decline of 9.6 percent in August from 26.8 percent in the previous month, also contributed to the latest VoPI growth.

Another major driver of the VoPI growth was machinery and equipment, which posted a 6.7-percent increase in August from a 3.1-percent contraction in July.

Of the remaining 19 industry divisions, nine posted positive VoPI growth in August. These are: transport equipment; electrical equipment; tobacco products; other non-metallic mineral products; other manufacturing and repair and installation of machinery and equipment; wood, bamboo, cane, rattan articles and related products; computer, electronic and optical products; leather and related products including footwear; and fabricated metal products except machinery and equipment.

On the other hand, the following registered declines in VoPI in August: furniture; printing and reproduction of recorded media; textiles; basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations; rubber and plastic products; wearing apparel; paper and paper products; beverages; coke and refined petroleum products; and chemicals and chemical products.

Based on responding establishments, the average capacity utilization rate for manufacturing in August was reported at 77.3 percent, up slightly from the previous month’s 77.2 percent in July 2025.

‘All industry divisions reported capacity utilization rates of more than 60 percent during the month,’ the PSA said.

The top three industry divisions in terms of reported capacity utilization rate in August were tobacco products (85.8 percent); coke and refined petroleum products (82.8 percent); and beverages (81 percent).

Around 42.6 percent of establishments operated at full capacity or 90 percent to 100 percent in August.

Meanwhile, 34.7 percent were running at 70 to 89 percent capacity and 22.7 percent were below 70 percent capacity.

MYNLD’s owners (Anthoni Salim and the Consunji Family) are some of the most adept stock market operators that we have in this country, and the company is ‘faced’ by MVP, who has a long resume of capital market experience to justify his role in this transaction. I’m going to dig further into this IPO once the final price is known, but (for me) the price won’t have that big of an impact on my interest. Water concessionaires are not a part of my investment thesis, so I’m not about to start ripping up some of my other trades just to make some dry powder for this deal. But even if this kind of company was something that was part of my thesis, it fails as a potential investment (for me) because I invest for the long-term and I do not trust MVP to be the steady hand of growth that I usually look for when making big bets in infrastructure. It’s entirely possible that my own prejudices against the sector and the management team will cause me to miss out on something that will list and eventually get PSEi inclusion and do fantastically well over the next year or two, but that’s a risk that I’ve learned to take after all my years of investing in this market. Maybe it’s a dumb nuance of my own personal system. It does almost feel like a superstition at this point, but it works for me, just like my lucky underwear.

Theater and TV actress Pinky Amador posted a clip about fighting fake news that prominently features a food brand associated with broadcaster Anthony ‘Ka Tunying’ Taberna.

Pinky is seen walking towards a kiosk of Ka Tunying in an undisclosed location. As she nears it, she turns to the camera while pointing at the signage, ‘Bibili sana ako ng fake news.’

‘Ingat po tayong lahat sa mga papapakin natin. Maging mapanuri sa mga balita, iwasan ang pagpapakalat ng maling impormasyon,’ she wrote on the caption of her clip uploaded on her Instagram and Facebook pages. She also used the hashtags #Satire, #LabanSaFakeNews and #KurakotIkulong.

Ka Tunying is the name of Taberna’s bakeshop chain that sells baked goods, coffee and Filipino food. It has kiosks in the malls and airports.

Taberna recently made news after his past endorsements of an insurance firm linked to the controversial contractor couple Sarah and Curlee Discaya resurfaced. The insurance firm, Stronghold Insurance Company Inc., welcomed Taberna in a 2022 Facebook post as its first endorser.

Stronghold is reportedly the provider of bonds for Discaya’s Department of Public Works and Highways’ flood control projects. The firm said in a statement it is “not privy” to the contract between the contractor and the government. It also denied any links to the Discaya couple.

Taberna also made news after saying in his vlog that Sen. Risa Hontiveros made budget insertions for infrastructure projects in this year’s proposed national budget. Hontiveros has denied the allegations.

When the leading pharmaceutical company and one of the fastest-growing digital and eCommerce platform today join forces, there are countless reasons to celebrate growth in business.

The Unilab Bayanihan Center in Mandaluyong City was recently filled with positive and exhilarating energy as numerous people trooped to the venue for the first-ever Unilab Grand Affiliate Day. The event was a fitting celebration for the partnership between Unilab and TikTok Shop.

‘It is through TikTok that I discovered how different it is to connect with others today,’ said Jose Antonio Evangelista, operating vice president and head of Unilab Consumer Health, during his opening remarks.

He highlighted the event as an opportunity to recognize and thank the affiliates for their continuous patronage while reintroducing Unilab’s extensive and trusted portfolio of brands.

An affiliate is an individual who promotes products or services of a company using TikTok as their platform. During the Grand Affiliate Day, about a thousand affiliates were invited to access numerous booths with fun-filled games, activities, product giveaways, prizes, overflowing food and engaging talks that made the occasion truly memorable.

In his opening remarks, Evangelista highlighted the company’s values of ‘husay at malasakit’ (excellence and compassion) and its mission to make Filipinos happier and healthier for the last eight decades.

He continued, ‘We see you not just as creators or affiliate marketers, but as people who can share our mission with others. We believe you can embody our values while playing the role of reliable and strong business partners. He concluded with a reassurance of Unilab’s constant support.

Carme Tunguia, digital ecommerce director, corporate digital transformation, echoed the message.

‘We realized we cannot do it alone. We need partners to reach every home, family and community. That’s why we saw the potential in TikTok’s affiliate network,’ she said.

Observing the smiling faces of the attendees, Tunguia explained how the company carefully selects affiliates who produce objective content and can inspire followers to become advocates of Unilab products.

‘You are vital to our mission of delivering trusted healthcare and quality medicine across the Philippines,’ she emphasized.

Tunguia also highlighted TikTok’s role in connecting with the Gen Z demographic. She explained how Unilab’s diverse product range increases online exposure and how TikTok has been instrumental in this effort.

‘The best-seller differs online from offline and across other platforms. TikTok has helped us understand our target markets better,’ Tunguia noted, illustrating how Unilab and TikTok are leveraging each other’s strengths.

Tunguia reiterated her earlier point, ‘You are not just our partners but our advocates, reaching millions to extend the gift of health. One click, one share and one sale at a time.’

She later added, ‘We call this partnership with TikTok as the Impact Duo-that’s influence meeting impact.’

The event continued with TikTok sharing the platform’s most popular features and exciting opportunities. The platform also outlined new ways for affiliates to boost their reach, engagement and earnings, detailed the most preferred products, provided tips on how to effectively promote health items, reminded the audience about common violations on the app, and shared key contact information for assistance.

The crowd swelled as the day continued with more activities.

‘I can feel that you care for and value each affiliate here. You treat us as partners,’ shared an attendee. He jokingly added, ‘I wish other brands would do the same.’

With a brand partner like Unilab, being an affiliate is a promising journey. As TikTok creator and licensed pharmacist Karenn Casil, popularly known as the Pinay Pharmacist, stated, ‘There is no difficulty in selling Unilab products because the people already trust the brand. When it comes to quality, they opt for Unilab.’

She further noted that even before she started creating content on TikTok, her pharmacy business was already experiencing strong sales of Unilab products.

The first Unilab Grand Affiliates Day in partnership with TikTok proved to be a success. Strengthening this mutually beneficial relationship, more TikTok users are expected to join the community.

Tunguia shared some ideas on what makes a good affiliate, emphasizing, ‘It’s all about your content-how clearly you pass the message, being truthful about what you stand for, and staying objective and factual. Followers trust you because they follow you and are highly engaged.’

She added that to succeed as an affiliate, one must be authentic, genuine and consistent in their messaging.

The event was not only a celebration of the strong partnership between Unilab and TikTok but also a showcase of the promising benefits awaiting their affiliates. These partners left the venue armed with bags filled products and special gifts, but most importantly, with hearts full of hope and gratitude.

The number of Filipinos without a job declined in August 2025, pushing the national unemployment rate down to 3.9%, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday, October 8.

National Statistician and PSA Chief Claire Dennis Mapa reported that the number of Filipinos aged 15 and above who are unemployed dropped to 2.03 million in August 2025, a significant decrease from the 2.59 million recorded just one month earlier in July.

This means that the number of jobless individuals decreased by 560,000. This is also lower than the 2.07 million unemployed Filipinos in the same period in 2024.

Despite the overall drop in unemployment, five sub-sectors saw the largest decreases in employed persons between July and August 2025:

Human health and social work activities – 105,000

Mining and quarrying – 103,000

Professional, scientific and technical activities – 102,000

Manufacturing – 70,000

Education – 54,000

Underemployment. The underemployment rate for August 2025 was at 10.7%, showing a slight decrease from the rates of 14.8% in July 2025 and 11.2% in August 2024, according to the statistics agency.

For August 2025, 5.38 million Filipinos-out of a total employment base of 50.10 million-expressed a desire for more extensive work, whether through increased hours in their current position, taking on an additional job, or finding a new job with longer working hours.

Employment rate. The country’s employment rate reached 96.1% in August 2025, marking an improvement over the 96.0% recorded in August 2024 and a significant increase from 94.7% in July 2025.

This translated to an employed population of 50.10 million Filipinos that month, up from 49.15 million a year earlier and 46.05 million in July 2025.

The services sector continues to dominate the labor market, accounting for the largest share of total employment at 61.5%.

This is followed by the agriculture sector at 20.4% and the Industry sector at 18.1%.

Compared to August 2024, the top five sub-sectors that registered the highest increases in employment were:

Construction – 540,000

Fishing and Aquaculture – 448,000

Administrative and Support Service Activities – 307,000

Agriculture and Forestry – 300,000

Other Service Activities – 239,000

Employment class by worker. Wage and salary workers accounted for the largest share of the employed persons at 64.4% in August 2025.

This group includes workers in private establishments, with 78.0% of all wage workers and those employed by the government, with 14.1% of all wage workers.

The remaining employed individuals were categorized as self-employed without paid employees with 27%, unpaid family workers with 7% and employers in their own family-operated business with 1.6%.

Total number of people in the labor force. The labor force participation rate, which includes both employed and unemployed individuals aged 15 and above, rose to 65.1% in August 2025.

This figure is higher than the 64.8% posted in August 2024 and the 60.7% recorded in July 2025.

The estimated labor force participation translates to 52.13 million Filipinos who were part of the labor force during the month.

We should be clear about this point. Everything in our life should be an occasion, a means, a reason for prayer. Whatever the condition and situation in our life, whether considered humanly speaking as good or bad, proper or improper, in solemn or jovial moments, etc., we should see to it that we manage to connect ourselves with God through prayer.

Prayer can take on any form or method. The important thing is that we manage to be with God always, since that is actually what is proper for us. Without him, we would just be living like animals, perhaps a little bit better than them, but in the end, no better than them really. Without him, it would just be a matter of time before we fall into some disorder insofar as we are rational animals, let alone, as we are children of God.

Without God who is our creator and source of all good things, we can only do evil. We would be like a branch cut off from the vine. We may manage to give an appearance of life and goodness, but without him, we actually have and are nothing.

We have to be constantly aware that we cannot be simply on our own. We need God and we need to be with everybody and everything else. We have to overcome our tendency that we can afford to be isolated. We should never forget that we are always in communion and we need to make that communion alive and healthy. And prayer is what enables us to achieve these goals.

As early as possible, as in when one is still a little child, everyone should be told and taught about this important duty of ours which is actually a necessity of ours. Prayer should be like the beating of our heart, the breath we make instinctively. It is what makes us alive spiritually and supernaturally, and not just biologically and naturally.

We have to see to it that we learn how to really pray. That is, we have to learn how to vitally engage with God, our Father and Creator, mainly through our mind and heart, and later through the other faculties and powers that we have –our imagination, memory, feelings and passions, and the physical and natural powers we have.

Ideally, everything should be an act of prayer, whether we are doing our sacred or mundane duties, whether things are good or bad for us, whether we are alone or in a crowd, etc.

And just like any training, it at first has to be taught under a controlled environment. That is why, at the beginning we were taught as children to recite and put into memory some vocal prayers. We may not understand everything said there, but that at least initiates us to the practice of prayer.

Then further steps ought to be made. We have to learn how to exercise our faith, how to meditate and contemplate, how to find a proper place, time and even posture for it. And then how we can have presence of God the whole day, rectitude of intention in all our actions, the habit of offering everything to God, and literally of conversing with God and discerning his will as we go on with our daily activities.

In the end, the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our prayer. If we truly are with God the whole time, we would know what to do at any given moment. We would practically share in the very power, wisdom, and goodness of God himself.

In consideration of those affected by recent typhoons and the earthquake that jolted Cebu, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has extended the validity of motor vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses that expired on Sept. 30.

LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said he has directed all regional and district offices to implement the extension and to waive fines or surcharges for late renewals.

‘This is in consideration of the cancellations of government work caused by the recent typhoons and the earthquake that struck Cebu,’ Mendoza said in a statement.

He said the move is part of the LTO’s efforts to ease the burden on the public, particularly motorists who were unable to process their license and registration renewals.

The LTO also extended until Oct. 15 the settlement of traffic apprehension fines.

Emilio Aguinaldo College made key stops in the crunch as it repulsed Jose Rizal University, 68-65, yesterday for its first victory in NCAA Season 101 at the Filoil EcoOil Arena.

It was a fitting bounce-back victory for the Generals after faltering and going down to a 74-63 loss to the St. Benilde Blazers on Saturday.

‘Our goal is to be in the top two,’ said EAC coach Jerson Cabiltes of their goal in Group B in the elims phase. ‘This win kept us on track in reaching our short-term goal.’

The Generals played tough on defense in the stretch and denied the Bombers of what could’ve been a second straight win and a place at the helm after opening the season with a shock 73-69 triumph over the Letran Knights Friday.

Earlier, Arellano U also bounced back from a loss with an 82-66 win over San Sebastian. The Stags stumbled to 0-2.