Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck late Tuesday night in Cebu, causing power outages in Tagbilaran, Bohol and sending residents fleeing into the streets.

The quake occurred at 9:59 p.m., with a depth of 10 kilometers and an epicenter 17 kilometers northeast of Bogo City, Cebu, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

In Barangay Booy, residents rushed out of their homes. ‘I ran for fear,’ said John Rey, who was watching television when the quake hit.

Business Process Outsourcing employees evacuated Alta Citta, while some nurses and patients at Gov. Celestino Gallares Medical Center were also forced to leave hospital buildings over safety concerns.

It was still raining past 10:30 p.m.

Phivolcs reported Intensity III in San Fernando, Cebu, and Intensity II in Laoang, Northern Samar. Instrumental Intensity VI was recorded in Cebu City and Villaba, Leyte.

Authorities have yet to report casualties or major damage as assessments continue.

Phivolcs also warned that aftershocks are possible in the coming hours and days, urging the public to remain alert and follow safety protocols

Authorities say at least 69 individuals reportedly died due to the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that jolted Cebu on Tuesday evening, Sept. 30.

The quake damaged several heritage churches, houses and schools, while causing widespread power outages in the region.

ICI to subpoena Romualdez, Co, Villar as it probes into flood control scams

Former House Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, resigned Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co and Senator Mark Villar are set to be subpoenaed by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to attend its investigation on the flood control anomalies.

ICI executive director Brian Keith Hosaka said this in an ambush interview on Wednesday.

NBI to Interpol: Help us bring back Garma

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday said it would seek the assistance of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to compel former Police Col. Royina Garma to return to the country and face charges of murder and frustrated murder over the 2020 killing of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Wesley Barayuga.

According to NBI Director Jaime Santiago, the investigating team has already reached out to Interpol agents in the country, who would relay the matter to counterparts in Malaysia, where Garma is presumed to have been staying since leaving the Philippines on Sept. 7.

Lacson: Photo with Discayas taken during midterm poll campaign

‘I did not know the Discayas and that was the first and only time outside of the blue ribbon committee hearings that I met them.’

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson issued the statement Wednesday, addressing the circulating image of him with the controversial contractor couple Cezarah ‘Sarah’ and Pacifico ‘Curlee’ Discaya.

The Bureau of Customs BOC may auction 13 luxury cars owned by the Discaya couple if they fail to prove the legitimacy of the purchases, according to BOC Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno on Wednesday.

Pacifico ‘Curlee’ and Cezarah ‘Sarah’ Discaya have been linked to anomalous flood control projects.

In a previous Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the flood control mess, Sarah admitted to owning 28 luxury vehicles.

The luxury cars are inside the compound of the BOC after the agency issued a warrant of seizure and detention covering the 13 vehicles after finding sufficient grounds for seizure due to improper documentation of purchases.

‘It means that it is a formal process where the cars will be forfeited and will become properties of the government if they fail to prove for one last time that they have proper documentation and payments,’ Nepomuceno told reporters in an interview. Nepomuceno said that the Discayas, Pacifico and Sarah, will be given an opportunity to prove the legitimacy of importation and documentation.

He said that hearings will start on October 9.

Nepomuceno gave three options once the vehicles are forfeited: auction; complete destruction of the vehicles; and donation to other agencies.

He, however, said that the agency will neither destroy the vehicles nor donate to other agencies.

‘These can be auctioned. We will ensure that once we do it, the auction will be transparent and the bidding will be competitive so the money collected from it will be used for programs of the government,’ Nepomuceno said.

He noted that all of the 13 vehicles may be sold at around P220 million in total.

He also explained that of the 13 cars, the seven cars were found to have no import entry records and certificate of payments (COP):

Toyota Tundra

Toyota Sequoia

Rolls Royce Cullinan

Mercedes-Benz AMG G83 AMG SUV

Mercedes-Benz G 500

Lincoln Navigator 2021

Bentley Bentayga

Meanwhile, the remaining six vehicles have import entry records but dubious COPs or no payment documentations at all:

Lincoln Navigator 2024

GMC Yukon Denali

Cadillac Escalade 2021

Maserati Levante Modena

GMC Yukon XL Denale

Cadillac Escalade ESV Last September 10, the BOC announced that as part of its initial investigation, eight cars were classified as smuggled for having no import entry records and COP while another seven had import entry documents but no payment certificates.

Nepomuceno previously announced that if the Discayas fail to prove the legitimacy of the purchases, the agency would issue a warrant of seizure and detention.

‘They complied with providing documents but when we looked at those, we were not convinced that the documents were proper,’ they said.

Nepomuceno also said that upon validation, two of the 15 cars initially found to have missing documents have been proven to have legitimate papers.

The BOC previously secured 30 luxury vehicles of the family to undergo verification of importation records and assessment of duties and taxes.

Nepomuceno also shared that 17 of these cars were purchased from car dealers with good track records of documentation and payment.

However, he said that they will still undergo post-audit clearance.

Who are the BOC personnel responsible for this?

Nepomuceno said that the BOC issued show cause orders to more than 10 of its personnel to explain how the cars entered ports under their authority.

‘At this point, it’s still a show cause order. If it elevates into a case, then we will have the opportunity to disclose. At this point, we are protecting their privacy once we find out that their explanations may be accurate,’ he said.

‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ the sequel to the 2009 film ‘Avatar,’ is returning to Philippine theaters for a limited theatrical release starting on Oct. 1.

The James Cameron-helmed film will be screened in the Philippines for a ‘one-week special engagement’ on Oct. 1, while it will hit international theaters two days later, according to a press statement.

‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ which originally premiered in 2022, follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family more than a decade after the events of the first film.

While Jake is already the chief of the Omatikaya clan, he and his family move to the Metkayina clan, the eastern side of their home planet Pandora – as it faces another colonization threat.

The film grossed over $2.3 billion and it bagged the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It is currently the third-highest grossing movie worldwide.

Joining Worthington and Saldaña are Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet, Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Bailey Bass, and Jack Champion. /edv

It seems even the Department of Health (DOH) has its own ‘flood control version’ after the agency revealed that most of the health centers built under its health facilities enhancement program (HFEP) remained idle due to a lack of personnel.

During the House plenary debates on the DOH’s proposed P253-billion budget for 2026, Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno questioned why only 200 out of the 600 health centers built under the HFEP were functional as of 2025.

He noted that this was despite the allocation of more than P170 billion for its infrastructure and equipment in the past decade.

The figure rises to P400 billion if its funding for commodities and human resources are included.

‘Is the reason why the secretary of health described the HFEP as the flood control version of the DOH, was because only a few, according to him, of the health centers are actually functioning?’ he asked.

Diokno was referring to Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa’s comment at the committee-level briefings for the DOH budget, where he likened their travails over the HFEP-which aims to improve delivery of basic, essential and specialized health services-to the DPWH’s own troubled flood control program.

Lack of personnel

Budget sponsor and Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia clarified, however, that the HFEP had no ‘ghost health facilities.’

‘They exist, but because of the lack of personnel and health-care professionals who could run them, they are not functioning,’ he explained.

He added that the DOH had entered into memorandums of agreement with local governments ‘in good faith,’ expecting them to provide personnel for the facilities they requested.

‘Probably some of our LGUs (local government units) lacked the funds to hire doctors and midwives, which is beyond the jurisdiction of the secretary,’ Garcia said, pointing out that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) may need to step in since it oversees LGUs.

‘But they are there waiting to be activated and hopefully we can assign personnel to them so they could provide services to our countrymen,’ Garcia said.

Denial of service

Diokno challenged the DOH to address the persistent problems in the program implementation as its inefficiencies deny poor Filipino families of essential health services.

‘They’re already at a disadvantage because of high prices of food, lack of jobs. If the HFEP is a failure, they would also be at a disadvantage in terms of health,’ he lamented.

Launched in 2008, the HFEP is a banner program under the DOH that aims to ensure that the poor and marginalized sectors of society have access to appropriate health facilities.

Specifically, it provides funding assistance for infrastructure and equipment of government health facilities nationwide, including barangay health stations, rural health units, district and provincial hospitals, and specialty centers.

In a 2017 performance audit, the Commission on Audit (COA) had already flagged deficiencies in HFEP implementation, including problems with procurement of equipment not aligned with the actual needs; undistributed equipment at DOH regional offices; and the construction of health stations on ineligible and nonworkable project sites.

Catch-up plan

Diokno noted that it had been seven years since the findings but only now was the DOH enforcing stricter controls.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies, in a 2025 study, likewise found inequities in the HFEP’s grant distribution, with some LGUs receiving funds despite not being among those most in need.

To address gaps, the DOH said it had launched a ‘catch-up plan’ in the second half of 2025 by revising HFEP guidelines to expand implementation modes, and opening 55 Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service centers nationwide to temporarily provide primary care while idle facilities await personnel.

Priority project

Data from the DOH’s National Health Facilities Registry show that as of March 2025, the country has 41,963 health facilities.

Of these, 1,338 are hospitals, 630 are infirmaries, 2,674 are rural health units (RHUs), 26,239 are barangay health stations (BHS), and 11,082 are other health-related facilities.

According to the HFEP Management Office, of the total BHS, RHUs and hospitals, the HFEP-funded infrastructure accounted for 8.6 percent, 2.6 percent and 31.5 percent, respectively.

The report of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives, released in July 2025, showed that the HFEP has also recently funded the establishment of super health centers (SHCs) to help decongest hospitals and expand access to outpatient services.

SHCs are larger than traditional RHUs and serve as intermediate facilities that offer a wide range of services. The rollout of SHCs has gained momentum, with allocations made for 307 centers in 2022 and 322 in 2023.

The HFEP was assigned as a separate line item in the General Appropriations Act starting in 2007, highlighting its significance as a priority initiative of the DOH in line with broader health sector reforms.

A widening corruption inquiry into flood control projects threatens to cast a shadow over the Philippines’ growth outlook, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned, as intensifying scrutiny may slow the government’s infrastructure push.

Speaking at a press conference in Manila, Andrew Jeffries, the ADB’s country director for the Philippines, said the scandal’s economic impact may show up in the lender’s updated growth forecasts due in December.

For now, Jeffries said the fallout was difficult to quantify, as funds originally earmarked for flood control works are expected to be redirected to other government priorities.

Recall that some P255.5 billion had been slashed from the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) proposed 2026 outlay following President Marcos’ order to conduct a sweeping review of its original P881.3-billion budget.

‘Temporary slowdown’

Malacañang had said the money would be shifted to social services and education, among other key sectors. Even so, the budget department had warned that a ‘temporary slowdown’ in infrastructure spending was likely as the DPWH verifies completed projects and tightens scrutiny of billings and payment claims.

‘That’s certainly a risk to economic projections going forward,’ Jeffries said. ‘More broadly, corruption has broad impacts on economic growth in general and investment sentiment. We’re monitoring that and how that may be affected going forward.’

In its flagship Asian Development Outlook report, the ADB pegged its growth forecast for the Philippines at 5.6 percent for this year. If realized, gross domestic product (GDP) expansion would settle near the low-end of the Marcos administration’s 5.5- to 6.5-percent target for 2025.

Looking ahead, the bank trimmed its projection for 2026 to 5.7 percent, from 5.8 percent previously. This would fall short of the government’s 6- to 7-percent goal, with the ADB mainly attributing the downgrade to external headwinds, including higher US tariffs that could sap investments.

Infrastructure outlays

The government’s growth ambitions hinge partly on keeping infrastructure outlays at 5 to 6 percent of GDP. With investigations into alleged irregularities in flood control projects ongoing, Jeffries said the ADB would hold off on revising its outlook until more data is available.

‘We didn’t see a reason at this point in time to reduce those GDP projections due to that issue. But it’s certainly a heightened risk,’ he said.

Despite the recent revisions, the ADB still ranks the Philippines as Southeast Asia’s second-fastest-growing economy this year and next, trailing only Vietnam. The country is also expected to outpace Developing Asia-a group of 46 economies projected to expand by an average of 4.8 percent this year and 4.5 percent in 2026.

‘The Philippines’ growth outlook remains resilient amid a global environment of shifting trade and investment policies and heightened geopolitical uncertainties,’ Jeffries said.

‘Though these uncertainties pose increased risk, we see strong domestic demand anchoring growth, with sustained investments and an accommodative monetary policy supporting the economy’s expansion,’ he added. INQ

The recent corruption scandal reminded me of the parallel struggles faced by experts and scientists in navigating our research system. In 2024, I wrote a letter (see ‘Access to resources still a problem for researchers’ 1/23/24) describing the challenges of research governance and administration in the Philippines. Sadly, nearly two years later, little has changed.

Many researchers still encounter rules and processes in procurement, hiring, contracting, and financial management that are often complex, inconsistent, or unclear. Sometimes, even small, legitimate expenses are hard to process or reimburse. In a few cases, expenses may be disallowed based on subjective interpretations of unwritten rules rather than clearly written guidelines. These situations contribute to delays in project implementation and discourage some researchers from pursuing their studies.

This results in a system where our experts and researchers, despite their commitment and resourcefulness, spend more time untangling administrative hurdles than advancing knowledge, and improving practice. While these rules are intended to safeguard public funds and ensure accountability, we dare to ask: Are these mechanisms still relevant, effective, and fit for today’s research landscape?

I call on our research leaders, managers, and national agencies, such as the Department of Health and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, to discuss and address these systemic barriers. I believe it is time to review and rationalize procurement, accounting, HR, and audit rules so that they may continue to protect public funds while enabling researchers to fulfill their work to improve people’s lives.

Team strategy and communication will be key elements for the North and South squads as they open their three-day, three-format duel for the right to be called the first ICTSI Junior Elite Finals champion starting on Wednesday at the ultra-exclusive The Country Club layout in Laguna.

Four-ball action opens up play where each of the four members from three different age-groups of each team will play, leaving the onus on team captains to pick out the proper tandems for the crucial head start.

Alternate play (foursomes) will be the format on Thursday before the culminating singles are held the day after, as the team that wins 24.5 points first will have bragging rights.

‘Keep the ball in the fairway and greens in regulation,’ Team North coskipper Ryan Tambalque said when asked of team strategy. ‘[We want]them [to] enjoy the game. I’m confident in our players-and they’re all good, strong players.

‘Whichever way we pair them, I know they’ll do their best.’

South skipper Alfred Gaccion, meanwhile, exuded quiet confidence.

‘The opposing team is equally equipped, so we’re focusing on a balanced fielding of players,’ Gaccion said. ‘Fortunately, we have strong representatives in every age division.’

Gaccion singled out the girls’ 15-18 division as a potential game-changer as he has a team that is loaded to the brim. Tashanah Balangauan, Crista Miñoza, Precious Zaragosa and Mikela Guillermo make up his squad. INQ

Maynard Ngu, the tech billionaire behind Cherry Mobile now linked to the billion-peso flood control scandal, has resigned from his post as independent director of Altus Property Ventures Inc.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Altus, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp., said its board of directors had accepted Ngu’s resignation.

It noted that Ngu had resigned ‘due to personal reasons,’ although his exit from Altus comes just days after he was linked to the corruption allegations surrounding anomalous flood control projects being investigated at Congress.

Kickbacks

Last week, former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo alleged that he had coursed P160 million in kickbacks through Ngu.

This, Bernardo said, was supposedly meant for Sen. Francis Escudero.

The former Senate President has since denied his involvement, saying Bernardo’s claims were part of a ‘well-orchestrated plan to attack the Senate and its members,’ and to ‘divert the public’s attention from the real perpetrators.’

As a result, Ngu is among the 21 individuals, including senators, a congressman and officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, that may face charges of graft, bribery and malversation of funds, among others, according to the National Bureau of Investigation. He joins Escudero, Sen. Joel Villanueva, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co.

Independent director

Ngu, who is currently Malacañang’s special envoy to China for trade and investment, had been serving as Altus’ independent director since 2019.

The 46-year-old businessman is the CEO of Cosmic Technologies Inc. and president of Cherry Mobile, Cosmic Mobile Advertising Inc., Versatile Customer Care Solutions Inc., Kosmos Technomobile Inc. and Fimobile Technoloby Inc.

He is likewise the CEO of Land Traders Properties and Development Co. Inc. and Starway Piping Technology Inc.

Ngu, a management and finance graduate of De La Salle University, holds director positions in several other companies.

NCAA’s 101st season will open with a bang as last year’s Final Four teams clash in a double-header to raise the curtain on the league’s new century.

Jose Rizal University athletic director and NCAA Management Committee member Paul Supan said the league wanted to start strong by pitting its best right away.

‘We have the top four teams on the first day and we already have a salvo between all of them,’ he said during the Philippine Sportswriters’ Association’s weekly forum on Tuesday.

After the opening festivities at 12 noon, host school and defending champion Mapua battles Lyceum at 2:30 p.m. at Araneta Coliseum.

The Cardinals and Pirates last met in Season 100’s semifinals, where Mapua prevailed behind Finals MVP Clint Escamis, who erupted for a career-high 33 points in their 89-79 win.

The second game will feature another semifinal rematch, with College of St. Benilde colliding with San Beda. Like Mapua, the Blazers also advanced by ousting the Red Lions in the Final Four.

Beyond basketball, Supan highlighted the NCAA’s broader role in shaping Philippine sports across generations.

‘I’m sure for the past 100 years of the NCAA, we’ve seen athletes from the member schools rise to the elite level,’ he said. ‘For the next 100 years, with the help of the PSC and all the member schools, we hope that we can sustain our contribution to the national training pool,’ he added.

The NCAA kicks off Season 101 on October 1 at Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.