Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Wednesday announced that it is relaxing its policies when it comes to claiming Z Benefit packages for selected orthopedic implants for those affected by the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu province on Sept. 30.

In a statement, the state-run insurer noted that there was only one accredited health facility in Cebu that was authorized to provide Z Benefit packages for orthopedic implants, prompting the PhilHealth Board to effect special policy relaxations in order to widen access.

‘This is not just a matter of policy, but of timely action to save lives and limbs. By easing restrictions, we are ensuring that those injured in this calamity receive the proper treatment without delay or undue cost,’ said PhilHealth acting President and CEO Dr. Edwin Mercado.

‘We are loosening policies not to compromise standards, but to maximize access to care at a time when scarcity of accredited providers could mean the difference between recovery and permanent disability,’ he added. Taking effect retroactively on Sept. 30, PhilHealth said health care institutions in Cebu have been granted provisional accreditation to claim Z Benefit packages for orthopedic implants, covering injuries sustained during the quake.

Among the services offered by contracted providers of Z Benefit packages include implants for hip arthroplasty or hip replacement surgery, implants for hip fixation, implants for pertrochanteric fracture, implants for femoral and tibial shaft fracture, implants for total knee replacement, and implants for upper extremities. Earthquake victims needing urgent orthopedic intervention will also be exempted from the 24-hour confinement rule. No co-payment policy is also extended to those with eligible injuries.

The deadline for the filing of claims is also extended up to 120 calendar days from the date of discharge, and will also include retroactive coverage for admissions up to 60 days before Sept. 30. PhilHealth added that it will reduce the requirements for claiming benefits to only include forms 1 and 2, as well as the operative record.

Health-care professionals accredited by PhilHealth will also be compensated for performing surgeries regardless of where it is conducted, even in health facilities that they are not affiliated with.

These provisional measures will be in effect until the ‘state of calamity’ declaration in Cebu is lifted, said PhilHealth.

In last week’s column (see ‘Learning languages, seeing realities,’ (10/01/25), I wrote about the 2025 Speak Dating event, where I got to both brush up on my languages and make new friends.

While awaiting our turn at the Ukrainian booth, I met a young professional who wants to learn languages because she is so interested in European politics. She could talk about European policies, Ursula von der Leyen and her work before she took leadership of the European Union, and the Russia-Ukraine war, which she connected to our conflicts with China in the West Philippine Sea from both economic and ideological standpoints.

I found myself having to dig through my memories, because my goodness, she could talk! I had met only very few people like her, and most of them are already faculty members in political science or international relations.

Her friends often criticized her as being too quiet, she said, almost exasperatedly; but she also said that she would rather remain silent than speak up and feign interest for a topic that she didn’t understand or like.

She wasn’t someone educated in what we often label as our top educational institutions, nor was she employed by a diplomatic office. She had a desk job, had come from a city university, and was simply eager to learn.

My fellow faculty members would call this grit. It’s what professors dream of when we interact with students, what thesis advisers love when they watch their advisees grow from student-hood to scholarship, what non-academic circles prize when they seek out new hires.

Some might lambast the idea of grit: that it glorifies long hours of work at the expense of one’s health, both physical and mental; that it encourages the growth of bad systems because it reduces people to their output; that it makes people workhorses rather than valued members of society.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it equates grit with effort. There is no critical examination as to whether that effort is truly fruitful and efficient, or simply effort performed for the sake of showing that one is doing something.

We see this in our students when they negotiate their grades with us, and say that we didn’t see their ‘effort.’ Their output, however, shows that the process they went through wasn’t right: they did work at the last minute, didn’t move systematically from one idea to the next, were too focused on grades.

We have to keep reminding them that the A does not stand for ‘average.’ Rather, an A is given to those who can rival even our graduate students, who take risks and work beyond their comfort zones, who are unafraid of uncertainty, who can show that they have a broader understanding of the connections among disparate concepts.

Grit is not working hard per se. It’s showing that one is willing to put in the long hours of thinking and sorting out ideas, but is also willing to be criticized when those ideas fall flat. It is the ability to appreciate that not everyone will be gentle, or will speak your language, or will know how to cushion the blows of criticism. It is effort joined with humility. It is a willingness and flexibility to learn and unlearn.

Last week, my fellow professors and I echoed these sentiments as we went through strategy planning. We could only do so much planning, but if our students aren’t willing to make mistakes and to bounce back from them with renewed vigor, then our plans would amount to nothing.

As we discussed our ideal student, I couldn’t help going back to the young woman I met and conversed with at the language fair. I remember how she told me that she liked reading news and commentaries because there was just so much to know about the world, so much to discover in the mess of content.

A few days after the event, she found me on Facebook, and we’ve been chatting ever since.

She wants to take a graduate degree in international studies, with a focus on European politics, but she doesn’t know where to start. I’ve been coaching her on how to make connections between her current work and the field in which she wants to do research.

She has been eager to get back to school, even with her undergraduate degree and current job being in separate fields. She wants to teach after she graduates, but she is more interested in learning about a field she has always wanted to study-even if it means having to approach a whole other world with very few tools to go on.

I still have students who like to learn and are less fixated on their grades. But in these last few years, I’ve had more and more students despairing when they don’t get the grade they want, disengaging from difficult material when their first forays challenge their skills, or celebrating only their high grades but forgetting their lessons when they move to the next semester. Perhaps we can add a few more concepts to grit: a hunger to learn in the long term, a willingness to get dirty and messed up in an uncertain world. The kind of spirit that breeds leaders who are not afraid to condemn corruption. The kind of courage that makes citizens.

The over P12 billion set aside for the Department of Education (DepEd) school-based feeding program will still be the highest-ever allocation, despite P50 million being removed from it for 2026, House of Representatives lawmakers said on Wednesday.

During the hearing of the Budget Amendments Review Sub-committee (BARSc), appropriations chairperson and Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Suansing informed members of the panel that the proposed P1.88 billion increment to the school-based feeding program has been changed to P1.83 billion.

The P50 million cut, Suansing said, would go to the Palarong Pambansa – which means that the proposed allocation will still be under the DepEd budget.

‘For the school-based feeding program, you can see that there’s a little bit of a reduction, but only because we needed to carve out – upon the request of DepEd – we needed to carve out an additional amount for the Palarong Pambansa,’ Suansing said.

‘Because if we will not give additional funding for Palarong Pambansa, what will happen is that delegates from Luzon will travel by sea. And as said by Secretary Angara, that kind of has a problem in terms of the equity because students are already tired by the time that they get to the venue for Palarong Pambansa,’ she explained.

FPJ Panday Bayanihan party-list Rep. Brian Poe, meanwhile, said the school-based feeding program is still enough to address the needs of Filipino students.

‘I just want to clarify also for our fellow Filipinos online who are watching – that the school-based feeding program amendment is still the largest school-based feeding program amendment we’ve had at P1.8 billion increase, in recent Congresses,’ Poe said.

‘And the change was only P50 million, which was reallocated still within DepEd,’ he added.

Suansing, for her part, thanked Poe for the clarification, noting that the current allocation for the school-based feeding program is the largest ever.

‘So for the school-based feeding program, there is already an allocation of P11 billion within DepEd, and again, with the additional P1.83 billion that we’re adding, that is the highest-ever budget for the school-based feeding program, ever in history,’ she repeated.

‘So definitely, we did not take out anything from education. We just reallocated this to be able to fund the P50 million, so in general, the realignments increased,’ she added.

Other education amendments

Suansing also said that there are other amendments to the education budget, including the increase of the proposed budget under the Basic Education Facilities (BEF), from P22.5 billion to P35 billion.

The BEF includes allocation for the construction, completion, and rehabilitation of classrooms, and the provision of furniture.

‘We have found the fiscal space to add more to the basic education facilities program, towards the new construction, completion, and rehabilitation of classrooms,’ Suasing said.

‘So, if before what the BARSc approved is P22.5 billion, we are able to find the space to increase that to P35 billion. So that’s an additional P13 billion towards the creation of classrooms,’ the lawmaker said.

‘So just to clarify, that’s in addition to what’s already there in the NEP for the BEF. So there is currently P28 billion in the NEP (National Expenditures Program) for BEF. So if we add the P35 billion, that will be P63 billion in total for classrooms,’ she noted.

Last September 23, during the BARSc’s first hearing, the panel proposed to transfer P37.3 billion of the P255.5 billion budget cut suffered by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to the education sector.

A huge chunk of the changes was for DepEd’s Basic Education Facilities (BEF), as the BARSc’s current proposal will place P22.5 billion for the construction of new classrooms, and the provision of school equipment.

The proposed amendments will be just an addition to what has been allocated under the NEP.

Suansing said the P63 billion would allow the government to build around 25,000 classrooms for 2026.

‘So with the new proposal for the BEF amounting to P63 billion, we will now be able to create more or less this, because it’s spread across construction, completion, rehabilitation, and fixtures. We’ll roughly be able to build 25,000 classrooms in 2026,’ she said.

‘In addition to that, in addition to the NEP amount, we are also proposing to add P414 million towards the computerization program of DepEd, and an additional P50 million towards the procurement of textbooks and learning materials,’ she added.

Several proposed amendments to the budget have been geared at enhancing allocations to the education sector, in accordance with the 2026 NEP’s theme.

Last September 26, Suansing also announced that there will be a special provision in the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) ensuring that the P12.3 billion deficit brought by the implementation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA) will be addressed.

According to Suansing, the provision will compel the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to release P7.8 billion for the UAQTEA deficits, while the remaining P4.4 billion will be appropriated by the House as part of its GAB.

Suansing also told state universities and colleges that the funding of the UAQTEA deficit will come on top of programs that the House committee on appropriations has allocated to CHEd programs like the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) and the Tulong Dunong Program.

The BARSc also previously hiked allocation for TES and the Tulong Dunong Program, leading to an additional P6.6 billion and P2.6 billion. /apl

Among the simple pleasures of my 36-kilometer daily commute to school is sitting by the window while a random song blasts through my earphones. I ride a bus, a jeepney, and a tricycle almost every day, and I’ve memorized each tree, house, and stoplight through my extensive commute. Traveling is a weary sacrifice, but I have turned this into a sublime quest for the mundane.

Commuting is not just simply sitting inside a vehicle, but a chance to connect to the world around me. There are days when a group of students will ask for directions, help a lady lift her baggage, pass fares to the driver, and have conversations with strangers. These small acts of kindness give more significance to my existence, and these conversations made me realize that these traveling people, aside from their luggage, carry their distinctive stories, too.

One random Wednesday, a middle-aged lady going to Mindoro sat beside me on the bus. She carried a backpack and a tote full of pasalubong. Since the bus was almost full, she was separated from her husband. Unsure of how much the fare was, she asked me how to read her bus ticket. We had a chitchat that turned into a meaningful conversation about life and family.

Traveling also has its share of appalling encounters. Times when a passenger and driver would fight, getting a headache while paralyzed in traffic, discomfort due to the confined seats, long lines in terminals, the epic race during evening rush hour, and the entirety of the trip itself. But there is no space for complaints because they are a part of the journey.

Last week, I went to Manila. As a probinsyano, the skyscrapers and skyways felt foreign to me. Everything that travels at a constant speed seems to accelerate twice as if the roads were collapsing behind. There was so much going on in the metro, where people were in an endless procession to ride and commute. I’ve never quite seen anything like it. The arrival of the jeepney looked like a piece of bread dropped to a flock of birds. I wondered how people survive this kind of daily setup. Was this normal? Or people somehow tailored themselves to endure the adversities that the government fails to see? Somehow, it felt unfair to me watching them swarm while I sat inside an air-conditioned bus. Do we deserve this? I wish I had never sat beside the window that time.

In contrast, there were also times when kindness and humanity manifested themselves inside public vehicles. Like when somebody would pay for someone’s fare or offer their shoulder to a sleepy student. We commute, ride, travel. Would it be selfish to desire and wish for comfort and accessibility from the higher-ups to give us a smooth avenue to reach our distinct destinations, metaphorically, and literally?

The majority may see this as a mere tableau of mundanity, but to me, this prosaic likeness is what makes it an odd metaphor for life. I realized that the entirety of our life is an endless journey, a trip to define the very meaning of our existence through our patterned living, to a definition that can be deduced only if you see beyond what’s visible.

Each passenger commutes to survive life, and each of them bears untold narratives. Though I may not know each premise, their dedication and perseverance are the prologue of their life. Through all these ‘supercuts’ of windowpane moments, my constant travelling gave me a lot of realization; that the desire to arrive at your destination is more important than anything else. Everyone is constantly traveling, not to work or school, but toward their existence.

My eyes have seen many faces: inside the bus, on pavements, in bookstores, and in restaurants. Overheard conversations through loud phone calls inside a jeepney, laughed secretly at couples’ cheesy text messages that I read from my periphery, and talked to a total stranger on the back of a tricycle. These scenarios are pretty normal if you commute a lot. You’ll be exposed to different kinds of strangers who are also traveling to their destinations.

As a student commuter, aside from my leather bag and the books inside, I also carry a vision of certainty, that no matter what road we take and wheels we ride, every one of us will arrive at the destination that we always aimed to be.

James Permejo, 22, is a graduate of english language studies at Batangas State University-TNEU who loves seeing the world from a window seat.

Consumers might pay more for electricity this month as power generation charges could rise, utility firm Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said.

‘This is due to the depreciation of the peso, which affects costs of our suppliers that are mostly dollar-denominated,’ Joe Zaldarriaga said in a statement on Tuesday. He is vice president and head of corporate communications at Meralco.

The generation charge accounts for more than half of the monthly electricity bill.

With the US dollar gaining more ground against the local currency, this means that costs related to power producers and supply deals that are dollar-denominated could become more expensive.

But Zaldarriaga remained optimistic that the possible hike could be softened by the reduction in prices at the spot market.

Spot prices down 34%

On Monday, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said the prices of electricity traded at the spot market dropped by 33.8 percent in September. This settled to its lowest in the last seven months.

IEMOP operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market. It is a platform where power is traded between producers and distributors to boost their supply.

The systemwide power rates covering the September supply declined to P3.04 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the previous month’s P4.59 per kWh. This will reflect in consumers’ October bills.

This, as the supply volume slightly rose to 20,712 megawatts (MW). Meanwhile, demand fell by 2.9 percent to 13,640 MW.

All three major island groups booked lower prices amid weaker demand. Both the Visayas and Mindanao grids saw a 37-percent drop in prices. – INQ

The 50th anniversary kickoff of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) served as a gathering of beauty queens, with titleholders serving as the teams’ muses, led by Miss Universe Philippines 2025 Ahtisa Manalo.

Aside from Manalo, her 2025 national pageant batchmates, Laguna’s Eloisa Jauod, and current The Miss Philippines-Cosmo Chelsea Fernandez were also at the PBA kickoff event.

Fernandez waxed emotional as she shared a photo of a pageant observer’s page wherein the three of them are posing side by side with their respective muse sashes. ‘My queens,’ she posted.

Manalo will represent the Philippines in the coming Miss Universe pageant in Thailand next month, while Fernandez will compete in the Miss Cosmo contest in Vietnam in December.

Also among the muses was 2024 Binibining Pilipinas International Myrna Esguerra, who is set to compete in the 63rd Miss International pageant in Tokyo, Japan, next month.

‘My First PBA opening appearance (I’m so lucky because Queen Ahtisa was also present and I finally got the opportunity to have a picture with her),’ she posted on Instagram.

Manalo was also a Binibining Pilipinas titleholder and was sent to the 2018 Miss International pageant, where she finished second overall.

Also at the event was Manalo’s Miss Universe Philippines predecessor Chelsea Manalo, the reigning Miss Universe Asia.

The PBA kicked off its golden anniversary in a grand celebration held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum at the Araneta City in Quezon City on Sunday, Oct. 5.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo is the acting chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon panel at present, said Senate President Vicente Sotto III.

Sotto confirmed the matter to reporters in an ambush interview on Wednesday following an hour-long caucus with the majority bloc.

The Senate president said Senators JV Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros, Pia Cayetano, Raffy Tulfo, and Francis Pangilinan all declined to head the committee.

‘None of the five wants it now. As of now, acting chairman is Sen. Erwin Tulfo. When he comes back, we are going to conduct a blue ribbon meeting,’ said Sotto.

The Senate chief explained that the five declined because they want to focus on their committees.

Tulfo, meanwhile, is the vice chairperson of the powerful blue ribbon committee.

Sotto earlier said that if none of the five senators accept their offer to chair the panel, Tulfo would automatically be named as its head, being the current committee vice chairman.

According to Sotto, committee hearings in the chamber will continue despite the Senate’s scheduled session adjournment on Friday.

‘Just because we’re on break or some are out of town, it doesn’t mean that the Senate will not proceed,’ said Sotto. ‘The reason why we have this break [is] so that the committee hearings continue.’

‘There will be continuous hearings of different committees, most especially the committee on finance,’ he noted.

But now that Tulfo has been designated the acting chairperson of the Blue Ribbon panel, will he become permanent in his post? Sotto said it would be decided upon by Tulfo and the majority.

For now, the Senate president said Tulfo accepted the post: ‘He accepted. He said: ‘Just acting in the meantime, right?”

The search for the next blue ribbon panel head started after Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson resigned.

In a resignation letter, dated Oct. 7 and addressed to Sotto, Lacson explained how a number of their colleagues have expressed disappointment with the ‘direction’ of the blue ribbon committee hearings regarding the anomalous flood control projects.

‘Some senators publicly and secretly pursue the narrative that I am zeroing in on several of my colleagues while purportedly protecting those members of the Lower House perceived to be the principal actors in the budget anomalies related to the substandard and ghost flood control projects,’ said Lacson.

But according to him, nothing could be further from the truth.

‘This narrative is categorically false. These misrepresentations are being floated mostly by critics opposed to our efforts to get to the bottom of the flood control anomalies,’ he said. /apl

A lot can change in a year. Ten years? That’s a lifetime in basketball.

Just ask Mark Barroca.

It was 2015, and the then-Star Hotshots were clawing for survival in the Philippine Cup quarterfinals. Every possession counted, every inch covered. And then, the moment that’s haunted Barroca for years-he coughed up a crucial turnover, the ball swiped cleanly by LA Tenorio, sealing the game for Barangay Ginebra and sinking the Hotshots’ title hopes.

Fast forward a decade, and the man who once broke his heart is now calling the shots from the Magnolia bench.

‘I never expected him to be my coach but you really never know how fate works,’ Barroca told the Inquirer during the PBA Season 50 opener. ‘As fate would have it, we’re in the same team now, except he’s the coach and I’m the player.’

The past has long been buried, and if anything, Barroca and Tenorio’s new alliance couldn’t have had a more poetic start-an 80-73 win against none other than Ginebra.

‘This is special for the both of us because we’re on the same side for a change. We’re not opponents this time around,’ Barroca said, grinning.

Barroca’s numbers weren’t eye-popping-seven points, five assists, two rebounds and a steal on 3-of-9 shooting-but his presence was steady, his trust in the team unwavering.

More importantly, the win felt personal.

‘We aren’t pressured by coach LA to win but we want to win for him. We respect him,’ said Barroca. ‘We want to give him our best. Even if he says he isn’t pressuring us, us players are talking and we all want to win for him.’ INQ

True to its commitment of republishing ‘some of the best out-of-print ‘lost classics’ of Philippine literature,’ Exploding Galaxies brings back into circulation two important volumes: ‘Sarap: Essays on Philippine Food’ and ‘Palayok: Philippine Food Through Time, On Site, In the Pot’ by Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N. Alegre.

‘Seeing ‘Sarap’ and ‘Palayok’ republished is incredibly gratifying. I remember on the 10th year anniversary of her passing, my mother-Doreen’s sister-was so moved at the many tributes remembering her, and amazed that 10 years on, not only had she not been forgotten but her work continued to be recognized as pioneering and revolutionary,’ says Maya Besa Roxas, niece of Doreen G. Fernandez.

Doreen Fernandez and Ed Alegre

Reviving the classics

The release of these two volumes on Oct. 15 via Exploding Galaxies and select branches of National Book Store, Fully Booked, Kultura, Mt. Cloud Bookshop in Baguio, and Everything’s Fine in Makati commemorates a couple of milestones. First, Exploding Galaxies’ push into nonfiction, and second, republished editions in excelsis since they first came into circulation in 1988 (‘Sarap’) and 2000 (‘Palayok’).

‘Novels and fiction have been our focus, but we heard the call of Doreen Fernandez’s books as something just as urgent to republish,’ says Mara Coson, Exploding Galaxies publisher. ‘These books have long been out of print and yet [are] so sought after.’

Doreen Fernandez | Photo by Stella Kalaw

Touted as seminal guides to Filipino food culture and identity for their ‘elegant prose that teaches us to taste, contextualize, and appreciate the world around us’ (Ambeth Ocampo), as well as their bold takes on Filipino food ‘as an essential marker of Filipino identity’ (Clinton Palanca), the new editions offer fresh opportunities for Filipinos to (re)connect with Fernandez and ‘Palayok’ co-author Alegre.

Gianne Encarnacion, Kitty Jardenil, Elle Shivers, and Eva Yu all lend their artistic points of view on ‘Sarap,’ while photojournalist Jilson Tiu makes a go at ‘the eateries and arteries of Manila, of first catches and ferments, of kitchens, tables, and fiestas all over the country’ in ‘Palayok.’ Kristian Henson and Miguel Mari, meanwhile, designed the tactility and beauty of the books and the weight of the written words.

Edilberto Alegre | Photo by Doreen Fernandez

An invitation to join the voyage

Lakan Uhay Alegre, son of Edilberte N. Alegre, lauds the re-release. ‘In college, when I was already reading more of Tatay’s works, I had found out that there were limited copies of ‘Sarap,’ and that its market value had quadrupled from its original selling price. How can scholars truly understand Filipino food if ‘Sarap,’ a canon on Filipino food studies, remains rare and inaccessible?’

‘Republishing ‘Sarap’ comes with making invaluable knowledge on Filipino food affordable. Like freshly caught sapsap sold at the talipapa, the republication of ‘Sarap’ is a blessing,’ he adds.

Rendered with renewed visuals and typography that speak to the modern reader, Fernandez and Alegre’s invitation is unflinching in its metaphorical gaze. To enamor you with such language is beauty that keeps you well-fed for a lifetime.

‘We invite our readers as well to join the voyage: we want readers who cook, who like to eat, who enjoy reading about cooking and eating, who are curious about the subtext beneath our food.’-Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N. Alegre, ‘Sarap,’ (pg. vii)

Maddie Madayag made her comeback for Choco Mucho after a fruitful stint with Kurobe Aquafairies in the Japan SV.League and Alas Pilipinas.

Madayag saw limited action but made a huge impact, scoring five points, including the back-to-back kill blocks that sealed Choco Mucho’s 33-31, 26-24, 25-23 sweep of Capital1 on Tuesday night at Ynares Center Montalban.

‘I guess playing overseas and with the national team helps a lot, too. But PVL is a different situation, so I still need to adjust a bit. In training though, I try to share whatever I’ve learned from my experience outside. I’m just really happy that I get to contribute more in that way,’ said Madayag in Filipino.

Madayag was thrilled to contribute and don the Flying Titans jersey once again as well as teaming up with new faces.

‘I just did my job when I was sent in, and as always, we just follow the system. As long as we stick to that and stay on the right track, I think the outcome of the game will turn out well,’ she said.

‘Our new players are really brave, and I’m super proud and happy to have them on the team. We know they can really bring a lot to the table.’

Choco Mucho will have to repeat its triumph performance against Capital1 after the league and participating teams agreed to replay the opening games after missing their imports due to the dispute over International Transfer Certificates.

It will give Madayag more time to reconnect and form a stronger bond with the Flying Titans.