Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Residents in several parts of Occidental Mindoro were advised to limit outdoor activities after thick haze was observed in the province on Tuesday.

The Occidental Mindoro Provincial Information Office said the haze may be linked to widespread forest and land fires in Indonesia, particularly in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which have generated smoke that winds could carry to other parts of Southeast Asia.

The public was urged to avoid prolonged outdoor exposure, particularly in areas where smoke or haze is noticeable.

Those who need to go outside were advised to wear face masks to help reduce the inhalation of smoke and fine particulate matter.

Children, older adults and people with sensitive respiratory systems were advised to take extra precautions and, if possible, remain indoors while the haze persists.

The advisory cited information from the Environmental Management Bureau central office.

Residents were also encouraged to monitor official advisories for further updates on air quality and health precautions

Privileged access is the elevated permission that lets an identity change systems, reach sensitive data or override normal controls.

In effect, it is the keys to the most valuable parts of an enterprise.

For years it was a contained problem, held by a small group of administrators and managed through periodic reviews.

That world has disappeared.

Privilege now lives in service accounts, cloud roles, data platforms and, increasingly, the artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence (AI) agents that enterprises across Asia-Pacific (Apac) are deploying at pace.

Each is a holder of privilege in its own right, and together they are far more distributed, less visible and harder to govern than the static controls most organizations still rely on.

The scale of the shift is now visible in the market.

International Data Corporation projects global security spending will pass $307 billion in 2026, with identity and access management software among the largest categories of that spend.

Gartner, meanwhile, expects 40 percent of enterprise applications to embed task-specific AI agents by the end of this year, up from less than 5 percent in 2025, and every one of those agents is a privileged identity that has to be discovered, scoped and eventually retired.

The consequence is already being priced in: Gartner predicts that by 2028, a quarter of enterprise breaches will trace back to AI agent abuse.

For chief information security officers across the region, this has moved from a horizon-scanning exercise to a governance gap opening in real time.

Recent SailPoint research found that while 62 percent of security leaders say AI and automation are already creating new privileged accounts in their environments, only 18 percent rate themselves as highly prepared to govern that privilege.

Even more concerning, recent data reveals that 97 percent of AI agents already have access to sensitive data, yet only 21 percent of organizations feel highly confident in managing AI agent security risks.

It is precisely in the distance between adoption and control that risk tends to concentrate.

The instinct is to close that gap by buying more tooling, but that is the wrong lesson to draw.

Most enterprises already run a mix of Privileged Access Management and Identity Governance and Administration and cloud entitlement tools, so tool presence has never really been the problem.

The problem is posture, and that is where leaders should focus their attention.

Here are the priorities that matter most:

1. Redraw the map of what ‘privileged’ actually means

Most privileged access programs were designed for a small, well-understood population of human administrators, and that definition simply no longer holds.

Many organizations still classify only their people as privileged users, which leaves their fastest-growing risk surface effectively unmonitored. The first priority, therefore, is an honest inventory that captures not just who holds privilege, but what holds it, what that access can reach, and who is accountable for it. You cannot govern what you have never mapped.

2. Treat standing privilege as the liability it has become

The most dangerous pattern in AI adoption is the overpermissioned agent, granted broad and persistent access because the teams building it are optimizing for capability rather than constraint.

Standing privilege that sits idle on a human account is already a risk; the same privilege attached to an autonomous, nondeterministic agent becomes a structural exposure.

The answer is not a bigger vault, but a shift to Zero Standing Privilege, where access is granted just in time for a specific task and revoked the moment that task is complete.

Organizations must also deploy specific defensive controls such as prompt security to redact sensitive data before it reaches large language models and centralized kill switches to instantly isolate rogue AI agents.

When privilege expires by default rather than persisting indefinitely, the blast radius of a compromised agent or credential collapses, and the window an attacker can exploit closes with it.

3. Move from periodic reviews to continuous posture management

Quarterly access certifications made sense when environments changed slowly, but they cannot keep pace with agents that are created, cloned and connected daily.

Leaders need to move from point-in-time review to continuous discovery and risk assessment, surfacing excessive or unused privilege as it accumulates, rather than months later at audit.

And because not all privilege carries the same exposure, the goal is not to review everything equally but to prioritize by risk, focusing on the access paths that reach sensitive or regulated data, and on the identities that would do the most damage if abused.

4. Hold AI to the same standards of accountability as people

An AI agent that acts on the enterprise’s behalf should be as traceable as an employee who does the same work.

In practice, that means every agent has a defined owner, scoped entitlements, a clear lifecycle and a full audit trail, not a reused human login and a set of permissions that nobody quite remembers granting.

The case for a unified approach

What ties these priorities together is a recognition that isolated controls can no longer keep up.

In a dynamic digital landscape, siloed security tools inevitably leave critical gaps between them, and those gaps are exactly where over-permissioned agents and forgotten credentials go undetected. Investing in in a unified and intelligent architecture helps eliminate these silos.

Instead of adding one more product to an already crowded stack, it delivers a continuous and intelligent layer of protection woven across the entire enterprise, securing every identity, in every environment, at any speed.

That unified lens is what makes it possible to govern human and non-human privilege with the same rigor, and continuously rather than in periodic bursts.

Govern first, and scale with confidence

None of this is an argument against AI.

The productivity case is real, and the enterprises pulling ahead in APAC are the ones deploying agents aggressively.

But the organizations that will still be ahead in a few years are those that build governance into the foundation rather than bolting it on after an incident, because privileged access has quietly become the discipline that determines whether AI adoption compounds into advantage or into liability.

In the AI era, the real constraint on ambition is not how capable your agents are; it is how well you can account for what they are allowed to do

The Philippine National Police (PNP) intensified its deployment and monitoring of roads and expressways to help stranded motorists amid flooding and traffic congestion.

‘Motorists are usually left on their own in dealing with flooded roads. We do not want that to happen,’ said PNP chief Gen. Melencio Nartatez Jr. in a statement on Tuesday

‘There should be police presence in areas where they are needed, and that includes this kind of situation in cases of emergencies and other forms of assistance that the PNP is capable of,’ Nartatez added.

Nartatez said police vehicles must be strategically deployed and prepositioned in flood-prone areas for quick response to emergencies.

He said the deployment is particularly important amid severe traffic congestion, such as the recent situation along the San Simon portion of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx).

Flooding along the San Simon section of NLEx, which began Friday and worsened over the weekend, left motorists stranded for hours.

On Tuesday morning, heavy traffic was still observed at Tulaoc, San Simon Interchange along NLEx amid rising water levels in the Pampanga River.

The northbound traffic tail-end extended to Candaba and covered more than seven kilometers.

Meanwhile, the southbound queue reached about five to six kilometers.

Traffic management measures were implemented in the area, with Class 1 vehicles directed to the innermost lane.

Trucks and buses were then allowed to use the second lane.

Nartatez said flooded roads should be included in regular ground monitoring and considered in the deployment of police personnel and resources for public safety.

Police units were instructed to maintain visibility, assist stranded motorists, and facilitate the passage of emergency vehicles.

‘We urge motorists to avoid unnecessary travel through the affected area,’ said Nartatez.

‘Those who need to travel should exercise caution, follow traffic advisories, and cooperate with police and highway authorities on the ground,’ he added.

Venus Williams bowed out of her 26th U.S. Open singles appearance early Monday morning, falling in straight sets to fellow American wild card Sofia Kenin after not getting on the court until midnight.

The 46-year-old lost 6-2, 7-6 (6) in what could be the final singles match at a Grand Slam, if not her illustrious career. It was Williams’ 15th consecutive singles defeat dating to her last victory in Washington in July 2025.

Williams has now lost six in a row at the U.S. Open since winning in the first round in 2019. With doubles coming up later this week with sister Serena, Venus was not ready to contemplate her future in tennis.

‘I don’t think I should have to,’ Williams told a small group of reporters after the match. ‘My mind is fully focused on that: how I recover from this completely insane evening and get ready for the next one.’

Williams and her 27-year-old opponent waited extraordinarily long to take the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium, delayed by Novak Djokovic’s 4-hour, 36-minute defeat to Mariano Navone that threatened to move them next door to Louis Armstrong Stadium. The men’s action ended just in time to play on Ashe – but not before making some history.

At 12:13 a.m., it was the latest start to a match at the U.S. Open, six minutes later than the previous record of Aryna Sabalenka against Ekaterina Alexandrova in the round of 32 in 2024.

‘It’s not ideal,’ Williams said. ‘I would have preferred something else, definitely. It wasn’t great for either of us, so I think we both tried our best.’

Kenin needed just 32 minutes to win the first set, but Williams took advantage of mistakes and made some shots in the second that gave the late-staying crowd reason to cheer, rallying from down 4-2 to force a tiebreak before losing several set points and striking the ball into the net to end it.

‘Venus obviously was playing some amazing tennis,’ Kenin said. ‘I just tried to keep fighting. I didn’t feel 100% game-wise, some nerves, but I tried to do the best to stay strong in those moments.’

Concluding at 2:01 a.m., it became the latest finish for a first-round match in U.S. Open history. It is the third-latest for a women’s match at any stage of the tournament.

‘I had a lot of great moments,’ Williams said. ‘As the match progressed, I just kept pushing myself to try to find my best tennis and to find my rhythm. It’s not easy to do in the first round. It’s not easy to do at 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning to try to find your rhythm and play your best, but I tried my best.’

Williams is a quarter-century removed from her second of back-to-back championships in New York. She also won Wimbledon five times from 2000-08 to give her seven Grand Slam singles titles.

She attempted to enjoy the experience Sunday night into Monday as much as possible, though she was mostly worried about her on-court play.

‘I always try to appreciate it, but it is definitely all business and there’s no room for error,’ Williams said. ‘Try to soak it in, and soaking it in is more fun when the ball’s going in.’

As she continues to reach greater heights, Alex Eala brings her impressive run to the US Open, hoping to save the best for last in her final Grand Slam campaign of the season.

From a breakthrough win last year, the Filipino tennis ace carries the momentum of her historic Grand Slam run at Wimbledon, where she reached the round of 16.

The 21-year-old Eala recently won her first Women’s Tennis Association title in Washington and broke into the top 20 with a new career-high ranking of No. 18.

What began as an accidental catch ended with two green sea turtles safely back into the sea after a fisherman voluntarily turned them over to authorities.

On Monday, August 31, at around 4:20 p.m., fisherman Rendel Amarilla of Rawis-Anibong here accidentally caught two green sea turtles in his net while fishing near Barangay Amandayehan, Basey, Samar.

Rather than keeping the turtles, Amarilla brought them to the Fishery Law Enforcement Team (FLET) office on Tuesday morning, Sept. 1.

The turtles, later named ‘Bea’ and ‘Heaven,’ measured approximately 46 centimeters and 44 centimeters in length, respectively.

Personnel from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) examined both turtles and found them to be healthy and in good condition.

After the necessary information was documented, the turtles were fitted with identification tags to support monitoring and future identification.

After the assessment, documentation, and tagging were completed, Bea and Heaven were safely released back into the sea.

The incident highlights the important role that fishermen and coastal communities play in protecting marine wildlife.

Accidental capture can happen during fishing activities, but the prompt and responsible turnover of marine animals can give them a better chance of surviving and returning to their natural habitat.

Green sea turtles are marine reptiles that spend most of their lives in the ocean and play an important role in healthy marine ecosystems. Like other sea turtles, they face threats from accidental capture in fishing gear, habitat degradation, pollution, and other human activities

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) on Tuesday urged residents along the shores of Laguna de Bay to remain vigilant as the lake’s water level continued to rise above its critical high-water mark amid persistent rains brought by the enhanced southwest monsoon and a low-pressure area (LPA).

‘Due to persistent torrential rains brought by the southwest monsoon and a Low Pressure Area, the water level of Laguna de Bay has exceeded its critical high mark of 12.50 meters, reaching 12.67 meters,’ the LLDA said in an advisory issued at 10:15 a.m.

The agency said the recorded 12.67-meter water level was at 10 a.m. The LLDA considers 10.50 meters as the lake’s critical low-water level and 12.50 meters as its critical high-water level.

According to the LLDA, Laguna de Bay reached the critical high-water level of 12.50 meters last week before rising further to 12.58 meters on Saturday, August 29.

‘Residents living along the shores of Laguna de Bay are strongly advised to remain vigilant and closely monitor official public announcements,’ the agency said.

The LLDA also urged lakeshore residents to prepare for possible flooding and strictly follow local evacuation protocols if heavy rainfall persists.

The agency noted that Laguna de Bay serves as a natural catch basin for water from watersheds in Laguna and Rizal provinces, as well as parts of Metro Manila. Rising lake levels therefore increase the risk of flooding in low-lying communities along its shores.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said heavy rainfall was expected in parts of Luzon from Monday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon due to the southwest monsoon, which in turn was being enhanced by Tropical Storm Pilandok.

Meanwhile, the weather bureau monitored three other weather disturbances outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).

The LLDA urged local governments and residents in vulnerable areas to remain prepared and closely monitor weather developments.

Authorities were also advised to keep drainage systems and tributary rivers leading to the lake free of obstruction to help minimize flood risks.

Located between Laguna province to the south and Rizal province to the north, Laguna de Bay is the Philippines’ largest lake and one of Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lakes by surface area, covering approximately 911 to 949 square kilometers.

Local stocks snapped a four-day losing streak on Tuesday as investors hunted for bargains, while stronger manufacturing data eased concerns about the domestic economy.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) jumped 2.31 percent, or 137.56 points, to close at 6,093.89, recovering above the 6,000 level after last week’s selloff.

Philstocks Financial Inc. said investors bought battered shares after four straight sessions of declines.

Sentiment also improved after the SandP Global Philippines Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) climbed to 54.9 in August from 51.8 in July.

The higher reading signaled a stronger expansion in the country’s manufacturing sector, helping temper worries over the economy, according to Philstocks.

Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp., said the local index closed higher following strong buying pressure after last week’s selling.

‘Market participants took advantage of attractive valuations, particularly among blue-chip stocks, supporting the broad-based recovery,’ Limlingan said.

Strong trading

Trading activity was strong, with net value turnover reaching P8.24 billion.

Foreign investors, however, remained on the selling side. Net foreign outflows stood at P92.52 million.

Sectoral indices ended mixed. Services led the market’s advance, surging 5.45 percent, while mining and oil posted the steepest decline at 1.20 percent.

Among index members, DigiPlus Interactive Corp. was the session’s top performer, jumping 7.91 percent to P10.78.

Meanwhile, JG Summit Holdings Inc. was the biggest index laggard. Its shares fell 5.88 percent to P20 each.

Analysts noted that the rebound occurred after concerns about the domestic economic outlook and persistent foreign selling pressured the PSEi in recent sessions.

Tuesday’s recovery brought the benchmark back above the psychologically important 6,000 mark, with investors finding some relief from the latest manufacturing data despite continued foreign outflows.

A record-setting 25th Grand Slam title looks even further from Novak Djokovic’s grasp after the Serb great’s brutal first-round exit from the US Open.

The 39-year-old was reduced to tears by an Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd trying to will him to victory on Sunday night, but his physical distress left him powerless against determined Argentinian Mariano Navone, who triumphed 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Djokovic, knocked out in the first round of a major for the first time in 20 years, said the vomiting, cramping and back pain that hindered him throughout were symptoms that had plagued him for much of the year – and so far he’s found no solution.

‘I’m trying, man, I’m trying,’ he said in comments made available to media. ‘I’m just trying to address really what’s going on and how far I can go this way.’

It has been three years since Djokovic secured his 24th Grand Slam triumph at the 2023 US Open.

Since then he’s had 12 chances to break the record he shares with Australian Margaret Court, reaching two finals and half a dozen other semifinals.

He’d been tantalizingly close this year, beating Jannik Sinner on the way to the Australian Open final, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz.

He reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, but Djokovic said he’s battled his body throughout 2026.

‘It’s something that I’ve been carrying, unfortunately, pretty much every match this year,’ he said. ‘You know, vomiting, throwing up, a serious issue there.

‘Then my whole body, you know, starts to collapse, basically cramping and pain. Yeah, the back just gave up in the end and shoulder, and I couldn’t close it out, you know?’

Djokovic said at Wimbledon he wanted to play the grass court classic ‘at least one more time.’

He turned back the clock there with an epic win over third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the longest Wimbledon quarterfinal ever before falling to Sinner in straight sets.

But Djokovic has shown little of his vintage brilliance in his abbreviated US hardcourt season.

He was sick and slow in an opening loss in Cincinnati, saying the early exit had given him more time to ‘get my body and mind into the right state’ for Flushing Meadows.

In his diminished physical state he still managed to rally from a set down to seize a two-set-to-one lead against 49th-ranked Navone before it all became too much.

Navone, 25, was aware of the magnitude of the moment.

‘I don’t know what can I say more because Novak is the GOAT in this sport. I beat him in US Open, Arthur Ashe, night session.

‘I got up many times so early to see Novak in Australia, to see Novak in French Open, to see Novak in US open and going late before school … it means a lot.’

The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) flagged the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) deteriorating spending efficiency, saying further increases in its budget warrant serious reconsideration as unused appropriations reached nearly three times its proposed funding increase for 2027.

In its latest Agency Budget Notes, the CPBRD said the DPWH left P303.6 billion in unused appropriations in 2025, nearly three times the P113-billion increase proposed for its 2027 budget.

The DPWH’s proposed expenditure program for 2027 stands at P643.9 billion, up 21.3 percent from P530.9 billion in 2026.

‘The agency’s disbursement rates have steadily declined in FY (fiscal year) 2023 (60.5%), FY 2024 (53.3%), and FY 2025 (35.6%). This deterioration has correspondingly increased unused appropriations: P93.9 billion in 2023, P167.3 billion in 2024, and P303.6 billion in 2025,’ the CPBRD said.

This means the DPWH managed to disburse only about P0.35 for every P1 appropriated to it in 2025, compared with roughly P0.61 two years earlier.

‘This marked decline in spending efficiency, compounded by systemic corruption within the Department, warrants serious reconsideration of whether budget increases for the DPWH are justified,’ the CPBRD said.

‘Rather than additional allocations, improvements in spending efficiency could themselves generate the financial resources implied in the agency’s budget proposal,’ it added.

Already, all eyes are still on the DPWH budget as it grapples with the lingering fallout from the flood control corruption scandal, which has since markedly slowed disbursements and dragged economic growth to just 2.6 percent from January to June.

As it is, infrastructure spending remained in a major slump in the first half of 2026, falling 40.8 percent to P367.4 billion during the period amid tighter oversight of DPWH projects.

The CPBRD likewise flagged the Flood Management Program (FMP), which posted the highest disbursement rate among the DPWH’s major programs but remains the agency’s most controversial.

‘Revelations regarding the corruption and misappropriation of these funds place the disbursement rate in a different light,’ CPBRD said.

‘Had the President not exposed the corruption in flood-control projects, one can argue that the disbursement rates for the FMP could be even higher-but with an even greater loss of funds to fraudulent activities,’ it added.

Flood control funds were allotted P107.4 billion for next year, the lowest allocation for the program since 2019.

Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon has since defended the allocation despite the flood control scandal that has hounded the DPWH.