Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) rescued and assisted a distressed woman in the Batangas town of Balete on Thursday (Aug. 27).

The PCG Batangas Station said its personnel from the Balete sub-station received a report from the village chief of Barangay San Sebastian about a woman near a cliff along the shoreline of Taal Lake who required immediate assistance to prevent a potential accident, because of the hazardous rocky terrain and rough conditions on the lake.

During the rescue operation, however, the woman evaded the responding Coast Guard personnel, climbed the cliff, and then scampered towards the lake where she dove before the Coast Guard and members of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) managed to secure her.

The woman was identified through documents found among her belongings. She had no apparent physical injuries but was unable to communicate coherently.

Photo courtesy of PCG Batangas station

She was temporarily sheltered at the barangay hall while authorities coordinated with the concerned local government offices and her family.

The woman was later turned over to the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office for appropriate intervention and further assistance

Bella Belen is excited for Capital1’s future, as she and Premier Volleyball League MVPs Vanie Gandler and Erika Santos have started forming a strong connection while serving national cause for Alas Pilipinas.

Capital1 may have lost its two preseason games, capped by a 20-25, 25-19, 22-25, 25-12, 15-10 defeat to Farm Fresh in the PVL on Tour’s Victorias City stop on Saturday, but Belen believes the best is yet to come.

‘We haven’t been able to visit their training that much because we’ve been busy with Alas and the league just recently ended,’ Belen said in Filipino.

The former Rookie of the Year and Capital1 newcomers Santos and Gandler missed the On Tour as they continue to train with the Alas squad that is preparing for the Asian Games next month.

A three-time UAAP MVP out of National University, Belen relishes the chance of building their teamwork as a trio while with the national team, which earned a historic silver in the second leg of the SEA V Cup a few weeks back.

‘I think that will be a big help because I’ve already played with [Gandler and Santos],’ she said. ‘I already know how they play and what they’re like outside the court. I’m excited to see what they can bring to the team, and at the same time, what we can learn from them.’

Capital1 has more time to prepare ahead of the PVL All-Filipino Conference starting in October when the league celebrates its 10th year.

Belen puts a premium on team chemistry with several newcomers joining their team after landing Santos and Gandler from defunct Cignal, tabbing free agent setter Jaja Maraguinot while drafting Detdet Pepito second overall and Khy Cepada in the second round.

‘One of the things we need to improve on is our chemistry. Just because we have talented players doesn’t mean everything will be easy,’ Belen said. ‘We still have to [work hard] and take it one day at a time, get to know each other and learn how to play together as a team.’

Belen is also happy with the growing fan base of the team, which they witnessed when the Ilonggos gave them a warm welcome in Negros Occidental.

‘Of course, I’m really happy because I didn’t expect Capital1’s fanbase to grow this much. I hope they continue to support us, especially in the upcoming season,’ Belen said.

Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) spokesperson Jayrex Bustinera said Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s medical check-up was authorized by a court order, dismissing the ‘special treatment’ remark from two political prisoner support groups.

‘The medical check-up of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was covered by a court order,’ Bustinera told the Inquirer on Friday.

‘BJMP was implementing a lawful court directive, not extending special treatment,’ he said, adding that the court order was issued by the Fifth Division of Sandiganbayan.

On Thursday, Danilo dela Fuente, vice chair for Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto said the senator’s condition is ‘not generally considered an emergency.’

Amanda Echanis, spokesperson of Laya Campaign for the Release of All Political Prisoners, said ‘plunderers are treated with kid gloves.’

Meanwhile, Dr. Fernando Syquia, an orthopedic surgeon, recommended surgery to treat the meniscus tear in Estrada’s left knee, saying ‘it’s pretty bad.’

After securing permission from the Sandiganbayan on Monday, Estrada underwent a knee X-ray.

He was brought to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City on Wednesday.

Estrada said in his motion before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division that he had been experiencing joint effusion even before his June 1 detention at a jail facility in Quezon City.

He also disclosed that he had previously been diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

The senator has been accused of receiving as much as P573 million in kickbacks from budget insertions and allocations for government infrastructure projects under the 2025 national budget

The strong monsoon rains that have been pouring in the Cordillera region for nearly three weeks now have cost vegetable-producing Benguet province up to P446.55 million in farm losses, according to data consolidated by the Regional Development Council on Wednesday.

Benguet’s losses accounted for some 94.31 percent of the total P473.474 million in agricultural damage throughout the mountain region.

Benguet supplies between 70 and 80 percent of salad vegetables like broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and beans that are sold in markets in Luzon provinces, including Metro Manila. Prior to the monsoon season, Benguet farmers and food truckers were already struggling due to high fuel costs triggered by the already six-month-long war in the Middle East.

On Monday, the Benguet provincial board placed the province under a state of calamity due to the impact of the heavy rains on Benguet’s vegetable farms.

More than 13,000 families in Benguet’s 14 towns have been affected by weeks of heavy rains, landslides and flooding, with the provincial government estimating damage to both agriculture and infrastructure at over P1 billion.

Benguet’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 2026-0999, which contained the state of calamity declaration, noted that 40,121 residents belonging to 13,000 families were heavily impacted by the weather disturbances. Of these, 470 families had been displaced.

The declaration cited the recommendation of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, which pegged Benguet’s overall damage at P1,067,973,728.32.

Vice Gov. Marie Rose Fongwan-Kepes said the declaration was made after the board noted the severity of the prolonged and intensified monsoon on farms and mountain roads and many critical transport routes across the province.

Veggie hub

The provincial declaration came days after La Trinidad, the capital town, was placed under a state of calamity on Aug. 18.

A vegetable trading hub, the La Trinidad local government reported P57 million in infrastructure damage, including blockages along the Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya Road. Rehabilitation costs were estimated at P220 million.

Damage to houses in La Trinidad was placed at P1.609 million, while initial agricultural losses were estimated at nearly P25 million.

Crop losses in Mountain Province accounted for P16.592 million; some P100,000 in major rice producer Kalinga; P3.114 million in Abra; and P7.1 million in Baguio City’s urban farms.

Ifugao province, home of the World Heritage-inscribed rice terraces, had no report for farm damage at press time on Thursday.

The impact of constant rains also affected farms in other provinces in Luzon.

Other Luzon areas

In Pangasinan, the provincial agriculture office reported agriculture losses throughout the province at more than P508 million. Almost all of its coastal towns and communities along the path of rivers reported flooding.

In Oriental Mindoro, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has recommended to the provincial board to place the entire province under a state of calamity.

The province has so far recorded more than P2 billion in estimated damage to infrastructure, livelihood, government projects, power supply and other sectors from Aug. 6 to Aug. 19.

In contrast to the deluge suffered by Luzon areas, the province of Dinagat Islands in Mindanao was placed under a state of calamity due to a prolonged dry spell.

According to Gov. Nilo Demerey Jr., at least 18,000 people, or some 15 percent of the province’s population, are affected by water shortage as traditional sources either significantly declined or dried up.

Most vulnerable are communities dependent on rainfall-sensitive springs and shallow groundwater sources

Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) spokesperson Jayrex Bustinera said Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s medical check-up was authorized by a court order, dismissing the ‘special treatment’ remark from two political prisoner support groups.

‘The medical check-up of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was covered by a court order,’ Bustinera told the Inquirer on Friday.

‘BJMP was implementing a lawful court directive, not extending special treatment,’ he said, adding that the court order was issued by the Fifth Division of Sandiganbayan.

On Thursday, Danilo dela Fuente, vice chair for Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto said the senator’s condition is ‘not generally considered an emergency.’

Amanda Echanis, spokesperson of Laya Campaign for the Release of All Political Prisoners, said ‘plunderers are treated with kid gloves.’

Meanwhile, Dr. Fernando Syquia, an orthopedic surgeon, recommended surgery to treat the meniscus tear in Estrada’s left knee, saying ‘it’s pretty bad.’

After securing permission from the Sandiganbayan on Monday, Estrada underwent a knee X-ray.

He was brought to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City on Wednesday.

Estrada said in his motion before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division that he had been experiencing joint effusion even before his June 1 detention at a jail facility in Quezon City.

He also disclosed that he had previously been diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

The senator has been accused of receiving as much as P573 million in kickbacks from budget insertions and allocations for government infrastructure projects under the 2025 national budget

The government’s budget deficit ballooned by 461.7 percent to P106.3 billion in July from P18.9 billion last year as a sharp ramp-up in spending outpaced subdued revenue growth.

Total revenues modestly rose 2 percent to P482.3 billion from P472.3 billion.

Tax collections climbed 7 percent to P452.7 billion from P423 billion, while nontax revenues contracted by 40 percent to P29.6 billion from P49.3 billion.

Meanwhile, expenditures jumped nearly 20 percent to P588.6 billion from P491.2 billion amid the implementation of the Unified Package for Livelihood, Industry, Food, and Transport framework, as well as higher disbursements for defense modernization and foreign-assisted rail projects.

From January to July, the fiscal shortfall now stands at P893.1 billion, equivalent to 53.9 percent of the government’s full-year ceiling of P1.658 trillion.

The jump in expenditures, however, did not extend to infrastructure.

Infra spending

A year into the fallout from the flood control corruption scandal, government infrastructure spending continued to slump after falling by 40 percent in the first half of 2026.

Latest data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed infrastructure and other capital outlays plunged 40.8 percent to P367.4 billion from January to June, from P620.2 billion in the same period last year.

This was equivalent to only 39 percent of the P931.54-billion program for the period.

Including equity and capital transfers to local government units, total infrastructure-related spending reached P548.3 billion, down 26.3 percent from P743.6 billion a year earlier.

This was also less than half of the revised P1.272-trillion program.

Spending in June alone fell 34 percent to P98 billion from P148.8 billion a year earlier.

‘The decline in year-on-year spending partly reflected the implementation of strengthened review, audit, validation, and documentary safeguards intended to ensure that government payments are made only for properly verified and compliant infrastructure works,’ DBM said.

Recovery

The DBM is now eyeing a recovery in infrastructure spending in the third quarter on the back of higher DPWH allotments.

‘We are not proposing any relaxation of safeguards. In fact, we want more safeguards. What we are looking at is how we can hasten implementation and procurement,’ DBM Acting Secretary Kim Robert De Leon said on Thursday.

The Philippines has gone from having one of the lowest estimated rates of new HIV infections among adolescents in Southeast Asia in 2000 to recording the region’s highest estimated incidence in 2025, according to newly released Unicef data.

The estimated incidence of new HIV infections among Filipinos ages 15 to 19 reached 0.49 per 1,000 uninfected adolescents in 2025, up from below 0.01 per 1,000 in 2000, based on Unicef’s Key HIV epidemiology indicators for children and adolescents aged 0-19, 2000-2025.

The figures were analyzed by University of the Philippines Diliman associate professor and Inquirer data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao, who noted that the Philippines’ trajectory was markedly different from those of several Southeast Asian countries that started with higher estimated adolescent HIV incidence.

‘Twenty-five years ago, the Philippines was among the Southeast Asian countries least affected by HIV among adolescents. Today, it has the region’s highest estimated incidence,’ Panao said.

‘Put another way, that is about 49 new infections for every 100,000 uninfected adolescents in a year, or roughly one for every 2,000,’ he added.

As a rough illustration of the rate, Panao noted that in a high school with about 10,000 students, it would correspond to around five new infections in a year.

From one of the lowest to the highest

Unicef data showed that the Philippines had an estimated adolescent HIV incidence of below 0.01 per 1,000 in 2000. Its estimated rate then rose to 0.10 in 2011, 0.25 in 2019 and 0.49 in 2025, according to Panao.

‘Interestingly, countries in ASEAN that started much worse have gone in the opposite direction,’ Panao said.

Thailand, for instance, reduced its estimated incidence from 1.80 per 1,000 in 2000 to 0.29 in 2025. Myanmar brought its rate down from 1.26 to 0.43, while Cambodia reduced its estimate from 0.68 to 0.16.

Panao described the contrast as significant because the Philippines started with a much smaller estimated adolescent HIV problem than those countries.

‘Twenty-five years ago, the Philippines was among the Southeast Asian countries least affected by HIV among adolescents. Today, it has the region’s highest estimated incidence,’ he said.

Philippines has taken steps

Still, Panao noted that the Philippines has introduced measures aimed at improving HIV prevention and access to testing.

Under Republic Act No. 11166, the age of consent for voluntary HIV testing was lowered to 15. The Philippines has also added pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to the Philippine National Formulary.

Comprehensive sexuality education has likewise been expanded.

However, Panao said implementation remains uneven ‘due to local resistance, cultural taboos and other institutional bottlenecks.’

Prevention needs to reach young people

Panao said the rise in estimated incidence calls for consideration of measures that could make HIV prevention and testing more accessible to adolescents.

‘[M]aybe it is time to give serious thought to expanding confidential, routine HIV testing beyond traditional clinics; ensuring consistent access to condoms, PrEP and HIV self-testing; strengthening comprehensive sexuality education; and bringing youth-focused prevention into the spaces where young people actually seek information and support, including online platforms,’ he said.

He said the experience of other countries in the region shows that high adolescent HIV incidence is not necessarily irreversible.

‘Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia have shown that high adolescent HIV incidence can be pushed down,’ Panao said.

‘The Philippines began with a much smaller problem. It now stands to face a much bigger one,’ he added.

Four Benguet towns suspended face-to-face classes on Friday (Aug. 28), as the province braces for potentially heavy rainfall brought by the prevailing southwest monsoon.

In Kibungan, face-to-face classes from daycare to senior high school, including its Alternative Learning System (ALS) program were cancelled due to the orange rainfall warning issued by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

Buguias likewise suspended face-to-face classes from daycare to senior high school, including ALS, under Executive Order No. 96, series of 2026.

The suspension in Atok covers preschool to elementary classes.

Meanwhile, Bakun suspended face-to-face classes in all elementary and secondary levels extending its earlier suspension of classes on Thursday afternoon (August 27) amid heavy rainfall and inclement weather.

The suspensions came after Pagasa Weather Advisory No. 19 forecast accumulated rainfall of 100 to 200 millimeters over Benguet from noon Friday until Saturday (Aug. 29).

An orange rainfall warning indicates that moderate to heavy rain may pose a serious risk of flooding and landslides.

Local governments urged parents, guardians, learners and school personnel to remain vigilant, avoid unnecessary travel and monitor official advisories.

Buguias officials also reminded learners not to loiter in public places while classes are suspended.

The latest suspensions add to the continuing weather-related disruptions in Benguet, where prolonged monsoon rains have triggered floods, landslides and other hazards.

All 13 municipalities in this province suspended face-to-face classes at all levels in public and private schools on Friday amid non-stop heavy rain.

The affected municipalities are Subic, Castillejos, San Marcelino, San Antonio, San Narciso, San Felipe, Cabangan, Botolan, Iba, Palauig, Masinloc, Candelaria, Santa Cruz, as well as nearby Olongapo City.

The municipalities and city government issued similar advisories, with several encouraging schools to use alternative learning modalities such as online, modular, or asynchronous classes.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) maintained its heavy rainfall outlook for Zambales.

In its latest forecast, 100 to 200 millimeters of rain is expected over Zambales from Friday to Sunday (Aug. 30), with rainfall potentially higher in mountainous and elevated areas.

The Department of Energy (DOE) hopes major power players will invest in the country’s first coal blending terminal to maximize domestic coal supply and reduce the Philippines’ vulnerability to foreign policy changes.

On Thursday, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin told reporters that the DOE is mulling building a centralized blending facility to reduce local coal power plants’ imports from Indonesia.

The ideal location is Mindanao due to its coal sites and port terminals, with Garin expressing optimism that private sector development will occur with minimal government oversight.

The blending terminal will source both domestic and foreign coal, combining high- and low-grade varieties for industrial needs.

The Philippines relies on Indonesia for over 90 percent of its coal needs. However, Indonesia will revise its export guidelines in January, potentially impacting the Philippines.

‘We don’t have energy security as far as coal is concerned, because 95 percent of our coal is imported from Indonesia. Anything can happen,’ she said on the sidelines of the 15th Energy Smart Forum in Makati City.

‘So what we need is to have a diversification of our risk. So we need to source it from different countries if there’s an option, or the best option is to source it in our country. Most of our coal, they say, is not good enough for our coal power plants. But there’s a way to do that: we can mix our coal with something that can be useful for our coal power plants,’ Garin added.

Garin said the government is negotiating with Australia, Russia, and others for new supplies since the blending facility won’t be operational soon.

At the same time, the DOE is preparing for a coal mine auction, including the Semirara site, before the year ends