Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano saw how the Department of Public Works and Highways/budget scams managed to enrage a public long resigned to and numbed by corruption. Beyond the massive amounts involved and the telegenic impact of floods on people’s resources and lives, the lack of any effort to conceal the corruption added insult to injury: identical cost estimates for infrastructure projects in different areas; the same before-and-after photographs to document the progress of work; projects claimed to be completed and fully paid in an impossible record time; paid, unfinished, and ghost projects.

Cayetano’s alarmed response, rightly connecting corruption to leadership, called for all incumbent elected national officials to resign their posts and commit not to run again. The intent was a radical ‘system reset,’ to allow for leadership change through new elections. Critics quickly dismissed the proposal as ‘political theater,’ pointing to constitutional constraints and practical implementation issues. The most suspicious suggested that this idea would benefit those endangered by ongoing congressional hearings on corruption; better to trade current and future elective positions for a get-out-of-jail card.

In fairness, let us acknowledge the significance of Cayetano’s confession. It admitted the breakdown of the governance system and erosion of public trust in government. We have structures, systems, and laws to prevent corruption: civil service rules and regulations check the bureaucracy; constitutional commissions provide oversight; the division of powers ensures institutional checks and balances. All guardrails proved easily bypassed, dismantled, or ignored. Even enforceable Ombudsman convictions could be quietly reversed. Nothing works when leaders expected to protect the public ignore, or worse, participate in the plunder.

The Cayetano initiative does not condemn all government officials as guilty. Proving individual guilt will take effort and evidence. But if not everyone is complicit, it is accepted that, especially at the highest levels of government, everyone is culpable. The failure is institutional and systemic. Institutions failed in their basic obligation to ensure that people’s hard-earned taxes met the country’s most urgent needs. All government branches and all political parties, even those considered ‘progressive,’ benefited from the manipulation of the budget that they failed to check. Apparently, only Sen. Risa Hontiveros declined to sign the final version of the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 budget.

Cayetano regarded resignation as necessary to rebuild public trust in government, the ‘sacrifice’ he was willing to make. Since 1995, a Cayetano has continuously served in the Senate. Alan Peter won a congressional seat in 1998, when his father, the dynastic patriarch Rene, was still a senator. This combination was repeated when he was in the Senate and his brother Lino was in Congress. In some years, he and his sister, Pia, were both senators, as they are today. He was former President Rodrigo Duterte’s Foreign Affairs secretary when his wife, Lani, was Taguig mayor and Pia a senator. After three consecutive terms, Lani yielded Taguig to Lino in 2019, with Alan Peter back in Congress and Pia still in the Senate.

To break a 30-year legacy of public service and power was not a small price to pay. But will this not mean only a one-term pause? In an electoral system dominated for decades by political dynasties, who are likely to fill the vacancies if not other relatives of resigned incumbents? Dynasties, now reinforced by the perverse party list system that our laws have allowed to flourish, damage democracy in multiple ways, starting with the inevitable conflict-of-interest and impunity issues, when institutions supposed to check each other are headed by relatives. The monopoly of political power is the most damaging effect of dynasties. Who can compete against entrenched dynasties, deploying accumulated wealth and the network of political connections commanded by relatives in high government positions?

Not surprisingly, some groups demanding accountability for corruption also seek a ‘reset’ for new leadership-but outside electoral and constitutional processes. This is a cure worse than the disease. Dynasties are not equally ‘fat’ or equally bad. The public can access information about them. Voters can discriminate among dynasties and choose their poison. But we know little about shadowy figures who may claim, by force, a seat in variously labeled, unelected ruling councils. This is the danger that even dynasties must sacrifice to prevent.

Cayetano does not have to resign to regain a measure of public trust. He and his family can instead work for a long-overdue, constitutionally mandated antidynasty law. Who knows? Perhaps, the Villars, the Singsons, the Marcoses, and others among some 70 dynasties may be moved to follow the Cayetano example.

Edilberto C. de Jesus is professor emeritus at the Asian Institute of Management.

Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. still saw a 5-percent dip in its core income for the first three quarters amid the absence of a one-time gain from bank merger gains in 2024.

The group said Thursday its consolidated core profits hit P19.3 billion, down from P20.3 billion a year ago.

For the third quarter alone, the company’s core net income spiked to P4.6 billion from P2.1 billion, mainly propelled by its airline and property businesses.

Its decision to cease operations in its petrochemicals business had also resulted in a ‘significant’ reduction in losses.

‘We continue to exhibit a strong upward trajectory in our recurring core profits, driven by the performance of our listed strategic business units, as well as the curbed losses from our mothballed petrochemical plant,’ JG Summit’s president and chief executive officer Lance Gokongwei said.

A tearful Jimmy Kimmel struggled to speak before the audience during his live show on Wednesday, Nov. 12 (Nov. 11 in the United States), as he paid tribute to his show’s late bandleader and childhood friend Cleto Escobedo III.

The American TV host dedicated his opening monologue to Cleto, who died earlier that day at age 59.

‘We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way, but this one’s the hardest,’ he began, lamenting how the musician was ‘too young to go.’

‘Everyone here at the show, we are devastated by this. It’s just not fair. He was the nicest, most humble, kind, always funny person,’ he added.

Kimmel then looked back at how they started their friendship after they met in 1977 as neighbors. They had been inseparable since then, with the TV host crediting Cleto for teaching him a lot of things.

Kimmel also underscored how he treats Cleto’s parents as his second parents. Cleto’s dad is also part of Kimmel’s show band.

‘We had our own language that almost no one else understood. We didn’t have to say anything,’ Kimmel recalled.

The comedian further spoke about how growing up, Cleto was the ‘star’ between the two of them but that the latter never had even an ounce of ‘jealousy, envy, passive aggressiveness’ toward him.

‘He was proud of me. He loved me,’ Kimmel said. ‘He’s just a great older brother. No baggage, all love. There’s no one in my life I felt more comfortable with.’

‘Even though I’m heartbroken to lose him, I can take yet another lesson from him and acknowledge how lucky I was to have him at literally at my side for so many years,’ he continued.

While Cleto’s cause of death was not immediately disclosed, Page Six reported that it may have been due to ‘complications stemming from a liver transplant.’

Kimmel expressed his gratitude to the medical staff of UCLA for taking good care of the musician.

Concluding his message, Kimmel reminded his viewers, ‘Cherish your friends. We’re not here forever.’ Kimmel said the show will take a couple nights off in light of Cleto’s passing.

An advocacy group has called on the national government to adopt a unified national framework that integrates power, transport, and telecommunications resilience through public-private partnerships (PPPs), following the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Uwan.

CitizenWatch Philippines proposed the renovation of power, telecommunications, and transportation infrastructure into an integrated network of protected underground conduits through PPPs.

‘This is the moment to move from patchwork recovery to long-term resilience,’ CitizenWatch lead convenor Orlando Oxales said in a recent statement.

‘If we align our energy, transport, and digital infrastructure under one resilience agenda, we don’t just survive the next typhoon – we ensure that every community stays connected, every rescue can be made, and every Filipino can count on a nation that works even in crisis,’ he added.

According to Oxales, the government should classify digital infrastructure as a ‘lifeline utility’ and ensure that it aligns with global best practices. Doing so, he said, would mandate minimum power and communications backup standards, infrastructure co-location, and investments in mobile cell units for emergency deployment.

Oxales also encouraged the government to expand its PPP models for integrated resilience clusters – linking telecom towers, power substations, and logistics hubs through pre-cleared emergency transport corridors.

‘These investments are lifesaving assets,’ Oxales said.

‘Every peso spent on resilience saves four pesos in recovery and avoids immeasurable human suffering,’ he added.

The group cited Japan, Taiwan, and New Zealand as primary examples of countries that have implemented such measures to prevent paralyzing blackouts and communication breakdowns during disasters.

In Japan, after the magnitude 9.1 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, telecom operators implemented cross-network resource pooling and backup power sharing, restoring emergency communication lines within hours.

Taiwan, on the other hand, built a multi-layered network linking terrestrial, undersea, and satellite systems nationwide to maintain connectivity even when submarine cables are cut during typhoons.

New Zealand, for its part, institutionalized joint planning between power utilities and telecom providers to reinforce undersea cables and establish joint repair corridors, thereby minimizing downtime.

‘These countries show that resilience is not about rebuilding after every calamity – it’s about designing systems that never go completely dark,’ Oxales said.

‘When grid power and transport networks fail, the communications network becomes the bridge between life and recovery,’ he added.

Vice President Sara Duterte believes that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should be investigated and jailed over the flood control anomalies, insisting on the role he played in signing the annual budget despite questions.

In an interview in Cebu City, Duterte also wondered why the president would not include former House Speaker Martin Romualdez to be sent to jail over the controversies surrounding government-funded infrastructure projects.

‘What we’re talking about here is the 2025 budget,’ Duterte said at a chance interview. ‘From that, you can already determine who among congressmen has insertions and who among them received those insertions.’

This was her response to the president’s pronouncements that all officials involved in the flood control anomalies would spend their holidays behind bars. But when the president was asked if his statement included Romualdez, his cousin, he did not think so.

She insisted that the main evidence-in the case of the flood control projects-would be the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), stressing how it can be used against Romualdez.

‘Once [GAA] goes through the House, the budget ballooned,’ Duterte said. ‘The budget grew when it was still a bill. Then you would ask, who ordered that? Those congressmen from out of nowhere? No, it would be the leader, the speaker [of the House].’

Duterte also recalled when she was education secretary, when her department faced difficulties in securing funding for their school building program, noting how this was taken from them by the Office of the House Speaker, then under Romualdez.

She claimed that House leaders ‘chopped’ the funding for the school building program by distributing it to their allied lawmakers.

The president himself, according to Duterte, should also be included in the list of officials who should be investigated and sent to jail over the flood control anomalies.

She explained that the president signed the 2025 budget bill despite questions of its constitutionality raised before the Supreme Court.

‘You’re the President. Once [the bill] arrives at you and let’s say there are thousands of pages, you have enough people around you to examine each page, right?’ Duterte said.

‘Yes, he can send himself to jail. He just has to admit that he has lapses on his end and not just that, he also has shortcomings in doing his job for our country, that’s why he can already jail himself,’ she pointed out.

As Team Philippines was eliminated in the latest episode of ‘Physical: Asia,’ two of its members, Justin Coveney and Ray Querubin, expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to be part of the sports-themed show.

Team Philippines – composed of Coveney, Querubin, team captain and CrossFit athlete Justin Hernandez, CrossFit athlete Lara Liwanag, national team Sambo athlete Mark Mugen, and national team hurdler Robyn Lauren Brown – is the latest team booted from the reality show on its Nov. 11 episode after an intense physical match against Team Korea.

In the show’s latest episode, Team Philippines bowed out after getting beaten by Team Korea in a Sack Toss face-off.

Coveney took to his Instagram page on Wednesday, Nov. 12, to thank the show’s supporters for ‘cheering them on throughout [their] journey.’ Coveney said in a separate post that being part of the show and taking the role of team captain is an honor that he will ‘carry with pride,’ adding that their team’s journey is a display of Filipino strength.

‘Captaining the very first Team Philippines in the first ever Physical: Asia following in the footsteps of Manny Pacquiao will always be a badge of honor I’ll carry with pride,’ he said.

‘Leading a team of five incredible athletes, I hope we showed the world the true Filipino strength: never giving up, even in the hardest moments, and always showing up with heart. This isn’t the end.we’ve only just paved the way,’ he added. Meanwhile, Querubin said on his Instagram account that he learned a lot from being part of the show.

‘We’ve learned a lot during this competition, understanding our own strengths and weaknesses while building a strong team. We have witnessed blood, tears, pain, and success. The real power of a team isn’t in muscles – it’s in unity. Team Philippines, Laban Pilipinas!’ he said.

‘Proud to team up with PH best of the best athletes!’ he continued. Team Philippines’ elimination came a week after eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao announced his sudden exit from ‘Physical: Asia’ due to ‘obligations’ he needed to fulfill in the country.

The sports show is a spinoff of Netflix’s ‘Physical 100,’ featuring teams of different countries competing against one another in a series of physical challenges.

The bodies of three women believed to have perished during Typhoon Tino were recovered in Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental, on Wednesday, Mayor Ella Garcia Yulo confirmed.

One of the victims was identified as Felipa de la Cruz.

Meanwhile, in Sibunag, Guimaras, the body of a young boy was discovered. Authorities described the child, believed to be between 3 and 7 years old, as bald and wearing a camouflage shirt.

Police also reported that nine bodies have been found in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental, following the onslaught of Tino.

As of Tuesday, the Office of Civil Defense recorded 64 deaths and 68 missing persons in Negros Occidental due to the typhoon.

The theatrical run of ‘Meet, Greet and Bye’ – a family film starring Maricel Soriano, Piolo Pascual, Joshua Garcia, Juan Karlos and Belle Mariano – is off to a great start, as it grossed P10.5 million on its opening day.

‘Meet, Greet and Bye’s’ box-office sales was announced by Star Cinema on its Instagram page on Thursday, Nov. 13, a day after the film premiered in cinemas.

‘What a journey. What a family. What a love. Thank you for making Meet, Greet and Bye such a beautiful success – one built from your hearts, your stories, and your love for family,’ Star Cinema began.

‘Because of you, our first day in cinemas was incredible – P10.5 Million strong and full of heart!’ it added.

Directed by Cathy Garcia-Sampana, the film centers on the Facundo family, featuring its matriarch Baby (Soriano), as well as her children Tupe (Pascual), Brad (Garcia), Leo (Juan Karlos) and Geri (Mariano).

It tells the story of Baby grappling with the aftermath of a cancer relapse, with her children desperate to convince her to undergo chemotherapy. With a fan meeting of her celebrity crush Park Seo-joon on the horizon, Tupe made a deal with Baby that he would secure VIP tickets for her, as long as she goes through treatment.

Also part of the film are Kaori Oinuma, Kaila Estrada, Matet de Leon, Jeffrey Tam and Robbie Jaworski.

The impact of Super Typhoon Uwan (international name: Fung-wong), which generated meter-high storm surges and high tide-induced floods, submerged fish farms across central Pangasinan towns and this city, causing thousands of ‘bangus’ (milkfish) and other cultured fish to escape from ponds.

A fishpond operator from Binmaley town said water began rising around 9 p.m. on Nov. 8 and continued to increase rapidly. By 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. the next day, almost all the fishponds were underwater.

Marcos Lopez, a fishpond operator from Barangay Balagan in this city, said that unlike previous storms when water levels rose gradually, Uwan’s surge gave them no time to react.

Washed out

‘During Uwan, the water rose so fast,’ he told the Inquirer, adding that while some operators had installed nets around their ponds, these were toppled by the typhoon’s powerful winds.

In Dagupan City, fish pen operator Peter Pinlac said the sudden rise in water caught residents off guard.

‘This was the first time that we experienced a storm surge. Everything was crushed. The pens were washed out, and our bangus stock escaped to the river. The boats we used to transport fish to the market were all destroyed,’ Pinlac shared in a separate interview.

He added that not only were their fishpens destroyed, but even the fruit trees in their backyard were lost as seawater overtopped the seawall along their community of Sabangan in Barangay Bonuan Gueset here.

‘We are back to zero. This is the worst catastrophe that happened to us,’ Pinlac lamented.

Another operator, who asked not to be named in this story, said this was the second time this year that local fish farms had been inundated-‘but this flooding was far worse,’ he said, as the water breached dikes and nets.

The milkfish growers’ association Samahan ng Magbabangus sa Pangasinan (Samapa) said Dagupan City’s bangus industry was the worst hit by Uwan, although it has yet to provide an estimate of the losses suffered by operators.

By Sunday morning, markets and roads in Dagupan and Binmaley were flooded with bangus selling for P50 to P70 a kilo, depending on their sizes – down from P150 to P170 the day before the typhoon struck, when some farmers conducted emergency harvests.

‘The bangus were caught by local fishermen using ‘lambat’ (nets). They can sell at lower prices because they didn’t spend on production costs. Also, with the power outage, they can’t store the fish,’ Lopez explained.

Hopeful

Fishpond operators remained hopeful that at least half of their stocks survived.

‘But we won’t know until we harvest and drain the ponds,’ Lopez said.

Fish cages in western Pangasinan, however, were reportedly spared from damage, ensuring an adequate fish supply for the province.

‘We may be down now, but definitely we’re not out-we’ll rise again,’ said another operator from Dagupan.

In nearby Sto. Tomas town in La Union province, Rochelle Corpuz said the snapper, ‘lapu-lapu’ (grouper) and ‘malaga’ (rabbitfish) that she and her husband were set to harvest in December were all lost when their stock escaped from the cage.

‘We lost our livelihood, but we thank the Lord that we’re alive,’ Corpuz said.

Samapa has started coordinating with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and other government agencies to assist affected fish farmers, particularly small-scale growers, in recovering from their losses.

University of Santo Tomas started UAAP Season 88 like a contender in a hurry.

The Tigers jumped to a 4-1 record in the men’s basketball tournament in a manner that left its opponents gasping-in the case of Ateneo during a triple-overtime duel, almost literally.

But as quickly as their status as title contenders rose, the Tigers halted.

Full stop. Screeching. UST’s strong start didn’t just lose steam; it turned into a free fall-from Big Bang to Big Crunch in a snap of a cosmic finger.

In a lot of those losses, it was easy to pinpoint what went wrong.

In their fourth loss through five games since their blazing start, the Tigers missed 24 free throws in a one-point loss to defending champion University of the Philippines.

For a team that went from tempering expectations to talking about the need to hang together in the middle of a crisis, that defeat gave the Tigers a starting point.

If they were to salvage a season, they would need to do it together-even when it came to relearning free throws.

‘We’ve been working as a team in terms of free throw,’ Collins Akowe, the team’s hardworking foreign student-athlete, said. ‘After and before practice, we stay there to shoot free throws as a team. We don’t do it individually.’

There was still much to be desired on Wednesday, when the Tigers swamped winless University of the East, 109-97, to improve to 6-5.

After shooting just 54 percent from the stripe against the Maroons, UST made 24 out of 39 attempts against the Warriors (62 percent), good enough against a team with little to fight for.

Akowe personified that improvement, going 6-of-10 after missing half his free throws against UP.

But the Tigers know they need to get better-together.

Saved by offense

At one point during the season, they shared the tournament lead and were largely in the hunt for a Final Four bonus. Now, UST needs wins to gain a more solid footing in the next round.

‘Heading into the coming games, we will keep working and hopefully, we get better . [and] come out in future games and get some wins,’ Akowe said.

The win against UE will give UST some momentum, especially since it was built on the same road the Tigers took to that 4-0 star: Dizzying start, offense-heavy.

There were traces of the stall that led to that string of avoidable defeats-the Warriors managed to bite off a 20-point third-quarter lead, coming to within nine in the fourth.

But UST turned to its offense again, knocking two triples late in the game to take a 100-83 spread.

The Tigers earned a reprieve. But there’s still work to be done.

‘We want that unity. We need to stay together during these tough times,’ Akowe said. ‘I’m kind of happy because at least we still showed progress.’