Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Just as structure should follow strategy, so should budget support this strategy.

At the Department of Agriculture (DA), this is happening, but not enough.

The first step is to decide on a correct strategy. For a long time, the strategy of agriculture exports as a key focus was ignored. There was no structure to support this, and no budget.

But first, is an agriculture export strategy correct for us? Definitely. Let us consider Vietnam. For economic growth and poverty reduction, its government decided to strategically focus on agriculture exports. They backed this up with both structure and budget.

Vietnam’s population is 101 million, similar to our 113 million. Last year, their agriculture production value was $60 billion, twice our $32 billion.

Worse, their agriculture exports totaled $70 billion, eight times our $8.5 billion. If we only attain 60 percent of their agriculture exports, we would not have needed the 2025 overseas remittances of $39.6 billion, done at great cost to our social lives.

Our agriculture system, unlike Vietnam’s, is severely flawed. They implemented what we taught them. We did not implement. As a result, we have low value-added, fragmented farms, defective logistics, weak processing and poor market development. On top of this, until Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. took over in late 2024, we had no export vision.

As the elected private sector international committee chair of the legislated public-private Philippine Council of Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), I saw firsthand what Tiu Laurel accomplished. He established the structure of an Export Development Office (EDO) headed by Undersecretary Philip Young.

Given the government’s Export Development Plan of $8.6 billion by the end of 2028, Tiu Laurel helped deliver $8.5 billion in 2025, three years ahead of schedule. Last year, our agriculture exports increased by 19 percent, even higher than Vietnam’s growth rate of 13 percent and Thailand’s 3 percent.

DA budget

The limited High-Value Crops (HVC) budget, which also finances the DA export strategy, is only 0.5 percent of the total P250-billion DA budget. It has three parts: P1.8 billion for HVC1 products for domestic and household consumption; P600 million for 16 priority export products; and P400 million just for coffee.

HVC1 covers crops such as lowland vegetables (e.g., tomato, eggplant, etc), spices (e.g., onions, black pepper, etc.), and fuits (e.g., guyabano, langka, etc).

HVC2 covers 16 priority export crops. In addition, the budget support for all agriculture export and promotion is lodged here. Considering that agriculture exports is now a major strategy, it is incongruous that HVC2 has such a small budget.

Consider the table below.

Internal discussions among the different units and departments sometimes have puzzling results. Congress must now use its ‘power of the purse’ to make the necessary corrections.

Take the case of banana. The good news is that there was a reported 37-percent increase in value in 2025. (Note: There is a need for stakeholders to significantly improve our reporting system accuracy, which implies an increased budget for this). However, our 2025 export value decreased to one-half of 2020. A proposal was made for an annual P1-billion annual budget for the next five years. This would not only restore our lost ground, but result in $1 billion in increased revenue over that period.

It was rejected, despite the very high return on investment. Banana now has to get a small share of the P600 million allocated for the 16 priority products.

With this budget orientation that does not support strategy, the EDO stated that we will soon lose our market shares to countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. This means huge job losses, increased poverty and a weakened trade balance.

Next steps

Tiu Laurel and the EDO have done their share, as proven by their commendable performance with our exporters last year. There are now well-conceived export sector programs, meaningful governance participation with the stakeholders and an Export Help Desk, which is a focal point and provider of fast service. This has helped build exporter trust and confidence in the DA.

Will Congress now support the agriculture export strategy with the appropriate budget? If not, the export gains that have been recently won will be wiped out. Instead, Congress should lead the way so that this crucial strategy transforms from rhetoric to reality, and moves our agriculture and nation forward.

Jema Galanza continued to dazzle in the PVL Invitational Conference, exploding with 26 points to help Creamline fend off Farm Fresh in five sets.

Galanza tallied 22 kills, two blocks, and a pair of aces on top of 18 excellent receptions and 11 digs in the Cool Smashers’ 25-18, 24-26, 25-22, 23-25, 15-4 win over Farm Fresh, inching closer to the Invitational final on Thursday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The former league MVP attributed her stellar game to their campaign in the PVL on Tour, where they won two preseason matches.

‘I think our three-month preseason training was a big help. We really took our time with our conditioning and focused on the basic skills. That’s why now, we have a better idea of what we need to do, and everything feels a little easier,’ said Galanza in Filipino.

Galanza scored five points in the fifth, joining hands with Jaja Santiago-Minowa to dominate the Foxies en route to a 3-0 record.

‘Of course, we want to win. This is already our third game, and we have a good chance of making the Finals. In my mind, we really don’t want to let this opportunity slip away because we’re already here,’ she said. ‘We’ve had a lot of games before where we were already close, only for it to suddenly slip away. So we really don’t want to let this one go because we’re already here. We’re so close.’

Galanza and the Cool Smashers try to clinch a Finals berth against EST Cola of Thailand on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

‘It’s a good thing we experienced a game like this because as we get closer to the end, the games will only get tougher since everyone wants to make the Finals. So I think this was a wake-up call for us to see what we still need to fix, and we have to fix those things right away,’ Galanza said.

Left ‘unconvinced’ with the invocation of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s ‘exceptional circumstance,’ the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division on Thursday affirmed its earlier ruling which blocked the move of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada for temporary freedom.

Estrada on Aug. 3 filed a motion for reconsideration (MR) on the anti-graft court’s resolution denying his motion to fix bail even without a hearing.

‘The motion for reconsideration is DENIED,’ said the six-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Gener Gito ‘After a careful review of accused Estrada’s arguments, the court finds no compelling reason to depart from its ruling.’

In support of his position, Estrada cited the Supreme Court decision on Enrile vs Sandiganbayan case in 2015 to allow the late senator to post bail in his plunder case without a bail hearing at that time.

‘The Supreme Court held that Senator Enrile was entitled to bail regardless of the strength of the evidence against him because he was not a flight risk,’ stated the 13-page MR of Estrada.

Estrada’s motion said he is ‘similarly situated’ with Enrile in a sense that both of them were not flight risk.

‘Accused Estrada once again places heavy reliance on the Enrile ruling,’ the resolution said. ‘The court remains unconvinced.’

According to the court, the circumstances of Enrile and Estrada are ‘materially different.’

‘The Supreme Court considered, among others, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s advanced age and fragile state of health, together with other circumstances demonstrating

that his continued detention posed serious humanitarian concern,’ the resolution said.

‘No comparable circumstance involving advanced age, frail health, or any other compelling humanitarian consideration similar to those present in Enrile has been shown,’ it added.

Estrada is facing plunder case stemming from alleged ‘intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations’ within the Department of Public Works and Highways’ infrastructure portfolio for fiscal year 2025 worth P573 million, according to prosecutors.

The senator has repeatedly denied the accusations.

Also on Thursday, Estrada refused to enter a plea during his arraignment, when the formal reading of his charges was read to him, prompting the court to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf

Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III said on Thursday his agency is ‘moving full speed ahead’ in breaking up collective land titles as the World Bank-financed project nears expiry.

The Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project is an initiative by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) partly funded by the World Bank – that aims to break up collective land titles covering 1.38 million hectares issued to over a million agrarian reform beneficiaries.

At a congressional budget hearing, Estrella said there are about 750,000 Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CCLOA) pending before DAR as the loan is set to expire in Dec. 2027.

‘We might make it at 500 [thousand], or a little less, for this year, and then finish the entire thing by next year,’ he told lawmakers.

Estrella said the project ‘is still a priority’ of DAR, as he touted that his agency is ‘one of the best, if not the best, agencies implementing World Bank-funded projects.’

Speaking to the Inquirer after the hearing, the agrarian reform secretary said breaking up CCLOAs ‘is easy.’

‘If it were only up to us, we would finish this right now,’ he said in Filipino. ‘It’s the World Bank slowing things down because they are strict in the use of funds.’

Land reform is a contentious issue in the Philippines, an agricultural country where vestiges of Spanish colonial land ownership have endured for decades, concentrating land possession among a few.

About 47 percent of the country’s total land area is agricultural land, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Local banana growers here are set to benefit from disease-free planting materials with the opening of a local government unit (LGU)-owned banana tissue culture laboratory on Wednesday.

The facility, located in Barangay Macasing, marks a major agricultural milestone as the first fully functional banana tissue culture laboratory in the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9). While similar ventures were attempted previously across the region, Pagadian City is the first LGU to sustain operational culture production successfully.

‘Many have tried and started similar laboratories, but so far, we are the only one who sustained it,’ said city agriculturist Engr. Ramon Rodrigo Jr. ‘We hope to continuously propagate tissue-cultured seedlings through this facility.’

Designed to uplift rural livelihoods, the laboratory directly supports City Mayor Samuel Co’s initiative to convert idle city lands into productive agricultural areas.

The facility will primarily produce high-yielding Lakatan banana seedlings to address the city’s persistent local market deficit.

‘Currently, our local market lacks a steady supply of locally grown bananas,’ Rodrigo noted, adding that existing produce from upland barangays like Lison Valley remains insufficient.

Bananas offer immediate benefits-first for household consumption, and second for commercial sale. ‘If production scales up significantly, we will prepare market linkages outside Pagadian, such as Manila and Cebu,’ he added.

The laboratory eliminates the financial burden on smallholder farmers, who previously had to buy expensive seedlings brought in from other regions.

To encourage adoption, Co announced that initial distributions of Lakatan seedlings will be free of charge to small-scale and backyard growers, alongside technical monitoring from the City Agriculture Office.

‘For those doing backyard farming, we will provide the seedlings for free,’ Co stated. ‘However, for large-scale commercial plantations requiring hundreds or thousands of seedlings, planting materials will be offered at a minimal cost.’ The Macasing laboratory currently yields 5,000 to 10,000 seedlings per cycle, with a maximum capacity to produce up to 15,000 tissue-cultured plantlets.

The Supreme Court (SC) has invited the Office of the Ombudsman to file a ‘proper complaint’ following Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla’s statement on Thursday regarding the Court of Appeals (CA) decisions reversing cases dismissed by the anti-graft body.

Remulla, during the Senate finance committee’s deliberations on the Ombudsman’s proposed 2027 budget, raised the issue of alleged delays in the country’s justice system.

He said, ‘Many of those that we have dismissed in the Office of the Ombudsman institutionally, in many cases, we’re talking about many, many cases that were reversed by the Court of Appeals.’

The Ombudsman also mentioned that he had discussed the matter with Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

Following this, the SC said in a statement Thursday evening that it takes allegations pertaining to partiality, misconduct and corruption ‘seriously.’

‘[The SC] acts on such allegations when proper complaints are filed, evidence is presented, and the judges or justices concerned are given the opportunity to respond,’ SC spokesperson Atty. Camille Ting said.

But the spokesperson pointed out that the SC ‘cannot act on broad allegations against an entire appellate court based only on public statements.’

‘We therefore invite the Ombudsman, or any concerned party, to file the proper complaint and submit supporting evidence. This will allow the Court to determine the facts and, when warranted, exercise its disciplinary authority,’ she emphasized.

Ting pointed out that the SC upholds the public’s ‘right to freedom of expression,’ including their right to criticize the courts and their decisions.

She specifically mentioned the high court’s recent ruling clearing political analyst and Inquirer columnist Richard Heydarian, Akbayan party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña and presidential anti-poverty czar Larry Gadon of indirect contempt.

The three became respondents in the indirect contempt petitions after criticizing the SC following the release of its 2025 decision dismissing the 2024 impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte.

‘Despite the strong statements made against the Court concerning one of its rulings, the Court upheld the respondents’ freedom of speech and did not hold them in contempt,’ the SC spokesperson said.

‘The Court welcomes fair criticism. At the same time, serious accusations against judges and courts should be raised through the proper processes so they can be fairly investigated and resolved,’ she added.

The Inquirer reached out to Remulla about the SC’s statement but he had not responded as of press time

The Commission on Audit has submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman 50 fraud audit reports on flood control projects, COA Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba said on Thursday.

Cordoba made the confirmation during COA’s budget hearing at the Senate committee on finance after its chairperson Sen. JV Ejercito asked for updates on the agency’s audits on the flood control projects.

‘Nakatapos na po kami ng 50 fraud audit reports at nasubmit na namin sa Office of the Ombudsman para sa kanilang preliminary investigation at saka sa mga cases that they file,’ Cordoba shared.

(‘We have completed 50 fraud audit reports and have submitted them to the Office of the Ombudsman for their preliminary investigation and also in the cases that they file.)

In an earlier budget hearing for the Office of the Ombudsman, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said there are 31 flood control cases filed before in the Sandiganbayan and four in regional trial courts, while another 166 are under preliminary investigation.

Cordoba said COA auditors also serve as witnesses for flood control cases already filed in courts or even during the Ombudsman’s preliminary investigations.

He further highlighted that COA is particularly concentrating on auditing flood control projects in Bulacan, saying it appears to be the ‘ground zero’ for the infrastructure proje ts controversy.

In less than 24 hours, police cracked a nighttime heist at a commercial establishment in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental, arresting one suspect and killing another in a gunfight on Wednesday.

The Police Regional Office 10 (PRO-10) reported that the robbery occurred at around 11:15 p.m. on September 1. The suspects breached the building by smashing a hole through the rear concrete wall, forcibly opened the vault, and fled with an estimated P60,000 in cash.

Investigators from the Ozamiz City Police Station quickly analyzed the crime scene and the CCTV footage, identifying the perpetrators as alias ‘Joe’ and alias ‘Boy,’ both residents of Ramon Magsaysay, Zamboanga del Sur.

Records revealed that ‘Joe’ has an existing arrest warrant for robbery under Criminal Case No. 2022-10-4516 in Zamboanga del Sur.

According to initial police findings, the duo are alleged members of the Pondoyo Robbery Group operating across Zamboanga del Sur and neighboring provinces.

Authorities also tied them to two earlier heists: one in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, in February 2026, and in Tudela, Misamis Occidental, on April 24, 2026.

Tracking the leads, operatives launched a hot pursuit operation and captured ‘Joe’ at his residence.

When police moved in on ‘Boy’s’ nearby home, the suspect allegedly opened fire with a .45 caliber pistol. Officers returned fire in self-defense, inflicting fatal gunshot wounds on ‘Boy,’ who was declared dead at the scene.

Brig. Gen. Nestor Babagay Jr., PRO-10 regional director, lauded the Ozamiz police force for swiftly resolving the case.

‘This accomplishment demonstrates the value of focused and intelligence-driven policing,’ Babagay said.

‘In less than 24 hours, our personnel developed vital leads, identified the suspects, and acted swiftly to place one of them under arrest. We will continue to pursue individuals and groups involved in robbery and other criminal activities through lawful and properly coordinated police operations,’ he added.

PRO-10 pointed out that the swift operation aligns with the agenda of the Philippine National Police leadership and directives from the Department of the Interior and Local Government to ramp up responsive anti-criminality campaigns.

Alex Eala marched on to the third round of the US Open 2026 after turning back Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine, 6-1, 6-4 on Friday at Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York.

Eala built on her blazing start to withstand Oliynykova’s comeback in the second set and surpass her breakthrough second-round finish at Flushing Meadows last year.

‘I think my patience and the consistency of my focus. I think that was the key to winning the match today,’ Eala said in the on-court interview.

She faces either Iva Jovic or Francesca Jones in the Round of 32.

Eala, the world No. 18, won the first eight points to race to a 2-0 lead before building a 4-0 advantage and wrapping up the set, 6-1, in just 23 minutes.

FINAL: Alex Eala turns back Oleksandra Oliynykova, 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the third round of the US Open!

Alex Eala now at match point! 40-15.

Alex Eala now serves for the match.

Oliynykova, though, answers with a hold. She’s still down 5-4.

Alex Eala looking to break for the match.

Alex Eala wins back to back games for a 5-3 edge in the second set.

Looking to consolidate the break, Alex Eala up 40-0 on serve.

Alex Eala also responds with a break to regain the lead, 4-3, in the second set.

Oliynykova breaks back and ties the second set at 3-3.

Alex Eala with a couple of errors as Oliynykova takes a 40-15 lead in the sixth game.

Alex Eala now leads 3-2.

Oliynykova double faults, handing Alex Eala the first break of the second set.

Alex Eala at break point.

Alex Eala forces a deuce.

Neck and neck here in the fifth game and Oliynykova takes the advantage, 40-30.

Another love service game for Alex Eala to tie the second set, 2-2.

40-0 lead for Alex Eala.

Lefty angle shot from Alex Eala to open the fourth game.

Oliynykova with a much steadier showing in the second set. She retakes the lead, 2-1.

30-0 lead for Oliynykova in the third game after Eala’s hit sails out.

Alex Eala with a love hold! She ties the second set at 1-1.

Alex Eala up 40-0 on serve in the second game.

Oliynykova holds to take a 1-0 lead in the second set.

Oliynykova back to back points to take advantage.

Alex Eala reaches break point with another winner.

Oliynykova leads 40-30 on serve, but Eala forces a deuce.

Second set underway. Oliynykova serving first.

The Commission on Audit (COA) is studying the possibility of modifying its 11-year-old circular being used as a basis in auditing confidential and intelligence funds, COA Commissioner Douglas Malillin said on Thursday.

Amid the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, COA’s Joint Circular (JC) No. 2015-01 with the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Government Commission for GOCCs, and the Department of National Defense has frequently been the subject of debate, particularly in its enactment.

‘After all the concerns and issues that were raised regarding the confidential funds, we were taking a look at the joint memorandum circular, which was issued in 2015… and we find that there are certain revisions that need to be modified or revised,’ Malillin said.

Malillin enumerated some of the provisions in the circular that they may reform.

These include the supporting documents or documents evidencing payments, particularly the data that should be included, and how auditors will identify sufficiency of the documents.

He also mentioned that there may be a need to have requirements for people who have knowledge of the identities of people using aliases, should they be allowed.

‘The present joint memorandum circular does not exactly prohibit nor does it really straightforwardly allow the use of aliases,’ Malillin pointed out.

Malillin also mentioned that the current JC lacks provisions on evidence of success and casual links, which he characterized as ‘very crucial features’ on the payment of rewards – an allowable use for confidential funds.

Furthermore, Mallilin noted the need for COA to also identify informants for confidential activities for purposes of auditing.’There should be a balance between protecting the identity, but also a point of where COA, based on certain clearances, can actually take a look at the identity of the person without compromising national security and the confidentiality of the activity,’ he explained.

The specific steps in issuing credit notices and notices of disallowance must also be revisited, Mallilin pressed.

A credit notice is issued when an agency passes an audit, while a notice of disallowance is issued to agencies that have been flagged by COA for discrepancies in use or documentation of government funds.