Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Philippine car sales showed signs of recovery at the start of the third quarter, with July emerging as the industry’s strongest month of 2026 so far, but sales still ended 2.5 percent lower than a year earlier.

Data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and Truck Manufacturers Association Inc. (TMA) released on Tuesday showed member companies had sold 37,319 vehicles in July, down from 38,295 units in the same month last year.

Still, this marked a slight uptick from the 37,079 units sold in June 2026.

Including estimated sales from nonmember brands, the groups said total Philippine vehicle sales reached 42,880 units in July, the highest monthly tally so far in 2026 and the first time monthly industry sales posted annual growth this year.

‘With this continuous growth, the industry is riding on a good momentum,’ Campi president Jose Maria Atienza said in a statement.

That July performance brought overall sales for the first seven months of 2026 to 241,725 units, still 10.2 percent lower than the 269,207 units sold in the same period last year, as the Philippine automotive industry took a hit from soaring fuel prices stemming from the Middle East conflict that had begun in late February.

Bright spot

While the industry began the year with a 500,000-unit sales goal, Atienza conceded in May the target may already be out of reach due to tempered consumer demand, with the Middle East crisis emerging as the ‘biggest factor’ behind the industry’s sluggish performance.

Since the start of the crisis, the electric vehicle (EV) segment has been the lone bright spot for the Philippine automotive industry.

From January to July, electrified vehicle sales reached 38,286 units, more than double the 16,195 units sold in the same period last year.

In July alone, EV sales surged 161.8 percent to 7,086 units from 2,707 units in the same month in 2025.

Atienza said ‘the shift to electrification continues to accelerate,’ with EVs accounting for 29.5 percent of the overall automotive market in July.

Of all EV segments, battery electric vehicles saw the largest jump in July, with sales surging 1,315.7 percent to 2,520 units from just 178 a year earlier. Plug-in hybrid EV sales reached 1,602 units, up 1,151.6 percent, while hybrid EV sales climbed 23.4 percent to 2,964 units.

Overall, Toyota Motor Philippines remained the market leader with 17,797 units sold during the month, followed by Mitsubishi Motors Philippines with 6,271 units and Suzuki Philippines with 1,689 units.

In the battery EV segment, VinFast led July sales with 813 units. Toyota, meanwhile, dominated hybrid EV sales, selling 1,709 units in July and accounting for 57.66 percent of the segment.

Jetour Auto Phil. Inc. led the plug-in hybrid EV segment with 491 units sold during the month.

Looking ahead, Atienza said he was ‘hopeful that the positive trend will continue for the remainder of the year

Vice President Sara Duterte knew and had authorized all activities related to the use of confidential funds under her office’s disposal, a top official of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) testified during Duterte’s impeachment trial on Tuesday.

‘Based on my understanding, sir, and based on what I know, sir, yes, the vice president knows about the confidential activities and how it is being implemented,’ Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio, who is also the OVP assistant chief of staff, told the Senate impeachment court on the 18th day of the trial.

Declared by the court as the second hostile witness, Ortonio was responding to questions from Sen. Francis Escudero, the presiding officer.

Escudero particularly wanted to find out if Duterte knew, supervised, allowed, and authorized everything related to the funds-from requesting the money from the Department of Budget and Management, to how it was cashed, released, spent, liquidated, and how the OVP responded to the Commission on Audit issuances.

‘She knew and authorized everything?’ Escudero asked, to which Ortonio responded ‘Yes, Your Honor.’

Spent in 11 days

Ortonio also confirmed that in 2022, the OVP managed to disburse P125 million in confidential funds in just 11 days, from Dec. 21 to Dec. 31, 2022. He said the funds were requested and planned for the fourth quarter of that year or from October to December.

Escudero asked why the funds were spent immediately when the budget was good for two years. Ortonio said this was because the request was made for 2022, particularly in the last quarter.

During direct examination, prosecution counsel Mae Divinagracia asked Ortonio if there was any ‘threat of cataclysmic proportion’ against Duterte when the OVP requested confidential funds for that year.

But defense counsel Kristine Ferrer objected, calling Divinagracia’s phrasing vague and lacking basis.

The prosecution lawyer clarified that she was asking about any serious threat against Duterte during the period within which the confidential funds were requested.

At this point, Ortonio said he had no personal knowledge of any threats against the Vice President which may have justified the request for or use of money.

But he explained that such concerns were not part of his duties and that such information should come from the OVP’s security personnel.

Guarding VP

Divinagracia also noted that as much as P500 million was allocated for the security of the vice president, on top of the ‘473 soldiers and police officers guarding her, paid for by the Republic from other funds.’

‘No vice president in history has ever had this,’ she said.

The prosecution lawyer also described the explanations given for the OVP confidential funds as a ‘sham,’ and that the supposed failure to account for such ‘gives rise to the presumption of misappropriation.’

This drew another objection from Ferrer, noting that the statement was a ‘conclusion of fact and law,’ aside from being ‘mere speculations and conjectures … all theories.’

Also on Tuesday, Palace press officer Claire Castro said Malacañang believed that the prosecution had presented enough evidence to convict Duterte over her alleged misuse of confidential funds.

‘According to the Palace, in a way, yes,’ Castro said, noting that OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta established that Duterte ordered the release of confidential funds to retired Army Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, the former head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group.

Castro said Acosta, in her testimony during the trial’s 17th day on Monday, pointed to the Vice President and Lachica as the ones who controlled the disbursement of the confidential funds of the OVP amounting to P500 million.

Acosta testified that she released confidential funds to Lachica, despite not being an OVP-bonded disbursing officer, on Duterte’s orders.

Tight power supply in the Visayas has placed Tacloban City and the Leyte towns of Palo and Babatngon on alert, with the local electric cooperative warning consumers of possible service disruptions on Tuesday.

The Leyte II Electric Cooperative (Leyeco II) said the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas Grid under red alert from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

The NGCP’s 8 a.m. update on Tuesday showed that the Visayas had 2,421 megawatts of available capacity against a projected peak demand of 2,570 MW, leaving a supply shortfall of about 149 MW during the peak period.

Leyeco II attributed the tight supply situation to the forced outage of several power plants and the reduced operating capacities of other generating facilities.

Forced outage

The NGCP reported that 10 power plants were on forced outage while 13 others were operating at reduced capacities, resulting in a combined 904.5 MW of unavailable capacity.

Among the factors cited by the NGCP were the unavailability of major coal-fired power plants in the Visayas, including TVI 1, TVI 2 and KSPC 1, as well as limited power imports from Mindanao.

Leyeco II warned that if the tight supply condition persisted and the NGCP directed the cooperative to reduce its load, it could implement manual load dropping (MLD), or the temporary disconnection of electricity in selected areas to reduce overall consumption.

The cooperative said any MLD would be implemented only when necessary and upon appropriate notice from the NGCP.

A red alert means available power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand. A yellow alert means the operating margin is insufficient to meet the grid’s contingency requirement

The number of Filipinos who experienced involuntary hunger over the past three months has dropped, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from June 20 to June 29.

The survey found that 20.3 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger-or being hungry and having nothing to eat-at least once between April and June.

The figure was the sum of 15.8 percent who experienced moderate hunger and 4.5 percent who experienced severe hunger.

The 20.3 percent was 2.9 percentage points down from the 23.2 percent recorded in the previous March survey, and 0.1 percentage points above the 20.2-percent average of 2025.

It was also 0.8 percentage points below the record-high 21.1-percent average at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Highest in Mindanao

Moderate hunger refers to those who experienced hunger only once or a few times in the last three months, while severe hunger refers to those who experienced it often or always during the same period.

Compared to March, moderate hunger fell by 1.9 percentage points from 17.7 percent, while severe hunger fell one percentage point from 5.5 percent.

The survey found that hunger was highest in Mindanao at 24 percent, up 2.3 percentage points from 21.7 percent in March. It was followed by the Visayas at 22.3 percent (down 5.7 percentage points from 28 percent), Metro Manila at 21 percent (down one percentage point from 22 percent in Metro Manila) and Luzon outside Metro Manila at 17.3 percent (down 5.1 percentage points from 22.4 percent).

Moderate hunger was highest in Mindanao at 20.7 percent, up from 18 percent in March. It was followed by the Visayas at 18.7 percent (down from 21.7 percent), Luzon outside Metro Manila at 13 percent (down from 16.6 percent) and Metro Manila at 12.7 percent (down from 15.3 percent).

On the other hand, severe hunger was highest in Metro Manila at 8.3 percent (up from 6.7 percent), followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila at 4.3 percent (down from 5.8 percent), the Visayas at 3.7 percent (down from 6.3 percent), and Mindanao at 3.3 percent (down from 3.7 percent).

Self-rating

The June survey also found that 49 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as ‘mahirap’ (poor) while 14 percent rated themselves as borderline (on a line dividing poor and not poor), and 37 percent rated themselves as ‘hindi mahirap’ (not poor).

Regarding self-rated food poverty, which is based on the type of food eaten by their families, the June survey found that 36 percent of families rated themselves as food poor, 15 percent rated themselves as food borderline (on the line between food poor and not food poor), and 49 percent rated themselves as not food poor.

Classes in all levels in public and private schools in Masinloc town and nearby Olongapo City remained suspended on Wednesday (Aug. 26), as the southwest monsoon continued to bring rains over the area.

Masinloc Mayor Hazel Lim suspended all classes in public and private schools, including work for teaching and non-teaching personnel, for the safety of students and school personnel.

The municipal government cited the heavy rainfall outlook issued by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) due to the intensified southwest monsoon, which could cause flooding and landslides.

Residents were advised to avoid unnecessary travel and monitor official announcements from local authorities.

In Olongapo City, Mayor Rolen Paulino Jr. also cancelled all classes in both public and private schools saying that weather conditions were expected to be similar to or worse than those experienced on Tuesday.

The city government encouraged schools to shift to alternative learning mechanisms to minimize disruption to students’ education.

In its latest advisory, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the southwest monsoon will still affect the province which was expected to receive 50 to 100 millimeters of rain until Friday noon

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is keeping the door open to testing Binance-linked services in the Philippines, but stressed that participation in its regulatory sandbox does not guarantee eventual approval.

SEC Chair Francis Lim said the regulator was willing to test emerging technologies rather than reject them simply because they were new or unfamiliar.

‘We should not close our minds to innovation,’ Lim said. ‘We do not approve innovation only because it is new; neither do we reject it because it is unfamiliar.’

His comments came after Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Ramon Monzon had questioned the SEC’s decision to admit Blockshoals Technologies Inc., a local partner of global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, into its regulatory sandbox.

Lim stressed admission into the sandbox was only part of an evaluation process and that the initiative ‘may or may not happen.’

‘But we have to test,’ he said. ‘We look at the data. We look at the appropriate regulation. In fact, it is a complete set of due diligence.’

SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo likewise clarified that sandbox participation neither clears a company of previous violations nor puts it on a fast track toward securing regulatory approval.

‘Being in the sandbox does not cure the penalties that will be imposed on a company that has committed violations against the Securities Regulation Code,’ Quevedo said.

He also said the SEC would ensure that testing would not expose the investing public to potential abuses.

‘The sandbox is not an excuse to get on the road to approval by the SEC,’ Quevedo said, noting that applicants would still have to undergo several processes before securing the regulator’s green light.

Lim said sandbox testing could also take time. Citing the SEC’s survey of other markets, he noted that even in Singapore, it could take about two years before a participant ‘graduates’ from a regulatory sandbox.

Beyond cryptocurrency, Lim said the SEC was studying other innovations that could widen participation in the Philippine capital market.

Among these is the potential tokenization or unitization of shares, which could make high-priced stocks more accessible to a broader pool of investors.

‘That can generate more market participants,’ Lim said.

The SEC chief maintained that regulators should remain receptive to emerging technologies as financial markets evolve globally, while subjecting new products to appropriate scrutiny

The Department of Energy (DOE) is looking to sell remaining government-procured liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stocks to local retailers, with no plans yet to order additional supply despite renewed attacks in the Middle East.

DOE Secretary Sharon Garin said the agency would unload the remaining LPG supply acquired by the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC).

LPG is the region’s top clean cooking fuel. In the Philippines, about 80 percent of the consumption is attributed to households.

To recall, the state-run group received about 21,000 metric tons of LPG from the United States in May after placing the order in April, about a month after the bombing attacks in the oil-producing region had begun, affecting energy trade.

‘Because while we have it, we have to pay for storage. I mean, the rent of the space to store it. So, the longer we keep it, the more expensive the storage,’ Garin told reporters last week.

Garin said the government may sell them for P60 per kilogram. In July, PNOC began releasing LPG inventory priced at P68.72 per kilogram.

Garin said there’s no need to place a fresh order. ‘We have really enough,’ she said.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon on Wednesday said various master plans for flood mitigation structures across the country are not yet complete, citing climate change concerns and a lack of plans in some areas.

Dizon shared this update during the House Committee on Appropriations’ briefing on his agency’s proposed 2027 budget.

‘Hindi pa po kompleto ang ating master plans nationwide,’ Dizon said, noting that many river basin master plans across the country are either outdated already or not yet finished.

(Our master plans nationwide are not yet complete.)

He said that the agency can’t just utilize old master plans or studies from several years ago, as he pointed out the effects of climate change.

‘Alam naman po natin given what we have seen with climate change, the updating of master plan is critical because they have a direct impact on the engineering design of the infrastructures that need to be built,’ Dizon added.

(We know that given what we have seen with climate change, the updating of the master plan is critical because they have a direct impact on the engineering design of the infrastructures that need to be built.)

He also shared that there is no master plan for the National Capital Region yet, except in some areas such as Quezon City, Pasig City, Marikina City, and Manila City. He noted that many master plans being formed are being patterned with Quezon City’s drainage master plan.

He then emphasized the importance of coordination among the agencies and regional, provincial, and local authorities to ensure that projects worth millions or billions of pesos are properly accounted for.

‘Kaya pumapasok yung requirement yung regional development councils, provincial development council, local development council or at the very least, certificate of no objection from the LGUs [local government units] para coordinate ang mga proyekto ng DPWH sa ating regional, provincial, local authorities,’ he said.

(This is why the requirement of regional development councils, provincial development council, local development council, or at the very least, a certificate of no objection from the LGUs [local government units] comes into the picture to coordinate the projects of DPWH with our regional, provincial, local authorities.)

No national plan for flood mitigation

In the same hearing, Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno asked Dizon if the agency still has no national master plan for flood mitigation. Dizon answered in the affirmative, citing the agency’s strategy.

Dizon noted that while it has no national flood control master plan, it has master plans per river basin and urban center.

‘Apparently when I asked the same question, ito raw yung recommendation ng ating foreign partners to do it per major river basin and also on per urban center basis especially for drainage master plan,’ Dizon answered.

(Apparently, when I asked the same question, this was the recommendation of our foreign partners to do it per major river basin and also on a per urban center basis, especially for a drainage master plan.)

Diokno also asked Dizon if the executive department is abandoning the idea of coming up with a national flood control master plan. While Dizon said that he thinks the plan is not being neglected, he noted that there are general principles applicable nationwide that are ‘standard to all the other river basin master plans.’

He said that such general principles include focusing on retarding basins rather than simply putting up dikes, focusing on needs-based approaches, and focusing on upstream intervention rather than downstream interventions.

The secretary also shared that of all the 18 major river basin master plans across the country, 14 are being updated. He said that the agency asked its consultants to complete the updates by the first half of 2027.

The agency noted that of the 18 master plans of major river basins, seven are located in Luzon, three in the Visayas, and eight in Mindanao. It underscored that the Japan International Cooperation Agency said master plans must be updated within five years, while the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development advised updating them within three years due to the effects of climate change.

Dizon then expressed support for the proposed Master Plan on Infrastructure and National Development Act.

When Japeth Aguilar officially retired from national duties in the first window of the 2027 Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers, June Mar Fajardo was the obvious next in line to assume the role of Gilas Pilipinas’ veteran voice.

Now that Fajardo has made it known that his stint with the national team is running on borrowed time, there is a need for a new leader to step up for the squad.

That’s where Chris Newsome comes in.

‘All I can do is really just share my leadership, the knowledge that I have and pass that down so that way, they can continue to carry the torch like the guys that came before us did for us,’ the Meralco star in the PBA said.

‘I think everybody on this team has their sacrifices and things that they have given up just so they can be in this position. Something that we always talk about is never taking this opportunity for granted.’

The 36-year-old Newsome isn’t the only veteran on the Gilas roster, nor is he the only longtime member of the national pool. PBA stars like Scottie Thompson, CJ Perez and Troy Rosario have received their share of callups and can definitely be the kind of locker room presence that glues a team together.

But Newsome has played the leader role the longest.

‘Me being one of the older guys here, I definitely don’t take this for granted,’ said Newsome, who is averaging just 2.7 points, 1.8 assists and 1.2 rebounds in six games in the qualifiers. But the more interesting stat is he hasn’t missed a single window yet.

And his presence allows young guards like RJ Abarrientos and Juan Gomez de Liaño to soak up some of the things he has learned as a National.

‘I try to pass down all that knowledge that I’ve had throughout my experiences here on Gilas to these younger guys that are coming up. They’re definitely receptive to it,’ Newsome said.

Grief continues to grip Ateneo de Zamboanga University (AdZU) a week after the Aug. 18 fatal shooting inside its Tumaga campus that claimed the lives of two high school students, including the shooter.

‘A week has passed, but grief does not follow a timetable. Some may be ready to return to familiar routines; others will need more time, more support. So let us continue to be patient with one another, especially gentle with those who are carrying the deepest grief,’ AdZU president Fr. Guillrey Anthony Andal said in a statement on Monday.

The university continued its ‘accompaniment activities’ following the deadly shooting, allowing junior high school students to retrieve their belongings from the Tumaga campus in Zamboanga City on Monday.

The AdZU community also gathered for a candle-lighting and prayer service at its Salvador campus, led by student leaders from El Consejo Atenista. Faculty and staff held a Kumustahan Session, with similar activities planned for college students in the coming days.

‘As we continue to understand what happened, we must also be clear: violence has no place in our society,’ Andal said, underscoring that preventing violence is a shared responsibility of families, schools, government, religious institutions, media and the wider community.

Appeal to public

The Jesuit-run university reiterated its appeal to the public and media organizations to exercise prudence in sharing images, recordings and information related to the incident.

‘Inaccurate information and unnecessary circulation of materials, including those AI (artificial intelligence)-generated involving minors, can cause further harm to families already carrying great pain,’ Andal warned.

Andal declined to comment on the shooting incident pending the final police investigation, which the university was awaiting on Monday.

On Aug. 20, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said after visiting the AdZU Tumaga campus that the final police report on the shooting was expected by Aug. 24.

‘We had hoped to receive it [on Monday], but until it is formally provided to us, we will refrain from commenting on findings that have not yet been officially communicated,’ Andal said.

He stressed that the university continues to fully cooperate with authorities and will share verified information once it becomes available.

Andal said the university had updated Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Olaso on its cooperation with police and its ongoing efforts to strengthen campus security and provide psychological support to affected students and families.

The mayor expressed support for the initiatives.

AdZU has begun implementing enhanced security protocols at the Tumaga campus, including the procurement of additional walk-through metal detectors and X-ray machines. Improvements to perimeter security, CCTV coverage and live monitoring are also being pursued.