Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Alex Eala opens her 2026 US Open campaign vs Mary Stoiana of the United States in the first round of action in New York.

Playing before a predominantly Filipino crowd against an American in the US Open, Alex Eala didn’t disappoint after dispatching Mary Stoiana, 6-1, 6-2, at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York on Wednesday (Manila time).

Eala, seeded 17th in the final Grand Slam of the season, needed to dig deeper in the second set, battling back from a 2-1 deficit to fend off the promising Stoiana.

‘It was very difficult. Every exchange has its own challenges, especially the start of the second set; she put me in uncomfortable situations,’ Eala said during the post-match interview amid loud celebrations from her supporters.

‘She’s been having a great run coming from quali and a good past couple of weeks, so I’m really happy with this match.’

FINAL: Alex Eala dispatches American qualifier Mary Stoiana, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to the US Open 2nd round.

Stoiana wide. Eala match point

Stoiana brilliant shotmaking, break point, 40-30

Eala 30-30

Eala double fault, trails 30-0

Eala serving for the match

Stoiana net. Eala on the verge of victory, 5-2

Stoiana double fault. Eala advantage

Eala break point, 40-30

Eala forehand winner, 30-15

Eala return special, 15-15

Eala three straight points for a 4-2 lead

Eala service winner, 30-30

Stoiana scores on an overhead, 15-0

Stoiana with 21 unforced errors to Eala’s 13

Stoiana wide. Eala breaks to gain the upper hand, 3-2

Eala break point, 40-15

Stoiana double fault. Eala 30-15

Eala holds to level, 2-2

Stoiana wins the rally, break point, 40-30

Eala backhand cross court winner, 15-0

Stoiana fighting back, takes a 2-1 lead.

Stoiana advantage

Eala hits the net. Stoiana 30-15

Eala comes back from 15-40 down to hold, 1-1

Eala crushes a forehand down the line, advantage

Eala service winner, deuce

Stoiana long. Eala 30-40

Eala double fault. Stoiana break point, 40-15

Stoiana holds to love to open the 2nd set, 1-0

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Salmon, a fast-growing financial technology company in the Philippines, today announced a multi-year marketing partnership that makes Salmon an Official Partner of the NBA in the Philippines.

The announcement was made this morning at NBA House Philippines 2026 presented by Gatorade in Makati City by NBA Head of Southeast Asia and Asia Marketing Sheila Rasu, NBA Asia Head of Growth and Innovation Ed Winkle, and Salmon Co-Founders George Chesakov, Pavel Fedorov, and Raffy Montemayor.

As part of this collaboration, Salmon will engage the millions of basketball fans in the Philippines through NBA-themed consumer promotions, fan events, and NBA-branded premiums. Salmon will have a presence at marquee NBA events in the Philippines, which will include serving as a Supporting Partner of the NBA House Philippines – a free, immersive basketball experience and fan event taking place at SPACE in One Ayala today, Aug. 29 and Sunday, Aug. 30. Beginning with the 2026-27 season, Salmon will also serve as Presenting Partner of NBA 3X Philippines Open, a 3-on-3 tournament featuring men’s and women’s teams and authentic NBA entertainment.

‘Basketball is a part of our daily lives as Filipinos, from the courts in our barangays to the TV screens in our homes, and it is woven into the country’s cultural fabric,’ said Montemayor. ‘We want Salmon to work the same way: a reliable partner that is present for everyday money moments and a brand that brings people together. Aligning with the NBA, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, is a natural, strategic move to connect with Filipinos through something they love.’

‘Salmon shares our commitment to using the power of basketball to bring Filipinos together and we couldn’t be more excited to work together to create new touchpoints for NBA fans across the country,’ said Rasu. ‘We look forward to joining forces in an effort elevate NBA-themed experiences at events like NBA House and NBA 3X Open that celebrate their passion for the game.’

NBA games reach fans in the Philippines on One Sports, RPTV, NBA TV Philippines and streaming platforms Disney+, Pilipinas Live, Prime Video and NBA League Pass, the league’s premium live game subscription service available via the NBA App. Fans in the Philippines can follow the NBA’s localized social media accounts on Facebook, TikTok and X. Official NBA merchandise is available at the NBA Stores at GH Mall, SM Mall of Asia and SM Megamall and at NBAStore.com.ph.

For more information on Salmon, fans can visit www.salmon.ph and download the Salmon app via the App Store and Google Play.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) President Ramon Ang attributed the flooding along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) to soil and debris left behind during the 2024 repair of the NLEx Tulaoc Bridge.

Speaking to Bulacan journalists on Tuesday, Ang said the debris had obstructed the flow of water released from Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, which cascaded through Pampanga before emptying into Manila Bay.

‘The soil had blocked the waterways. They just left it there. They have to remove it to clear the waterways,’ he said.

Ang offered to help NLEx address the flooding, which caused up to eight hours of traffic congestion on Monday.

Ang is set to serve as chief executive officer of the planned ‘mega tollway’ company that will be formed through the merger of the country’s two largest toll road operators, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) and SMC.

MPTC operates NLEx, while SMC operates the South Luzon Expressway and other major toll roads.

The planned merger is expected to create a larger tollway operator with a wider network of expressways across Luzon.

Broader drainage problem

In a statement, MPTC assured motorists that it would continue working with national and local agencies to speed up flood-prevention measures and restore reliable travel along the affected NLEx corridor.

The company said it was closely coordinating with the Department of Transportation, Toll Regulatory Board, and other government agencies to assess immediate measures to assist motorists.

MPTC said it would raise the northbound and southbound pavements in Tulaoc, San Simon, Pampanga, once the Tulaoc Bridge elevation was completed.

MPTC cited Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda’s statement that the flooding reflected a broader drainage problem in the province, with water backing up because downstream areas such as Macabebe and Masantol were already saturated and floodwaters could not readily drain into Manila Bay.

MPTC likewise cited Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon’s observation that the sheer volume of water brought by the southwest monsoon had overwhelmed the drainage system.

Even Coco Gauff had to applaud a couple of times when her opponent hit some nifty shots.

There was the ball that Zeynep Sonmez tracked down deep in the corner and hit down the line on the run. There was a volley with unusual spin that just cleared the net for another point.

Many of the rest of the highlights belonged to Gauff.

The No. 4 seed opened her quest for a second US Open title on Tuesday by beating Sonmez 6-3, 6-4, regaining control of midway through the second set after her opponent from Turkey picked up her play.

‘I know that I can raise my level if I need to do and I like to challenge my opponent to let them keep up the level the whole match,’ Gauff said. ‘And if they do, I clap my hands and I walk off court with my head held high.’

Instead, she’s walking into a second-round match against either Paula Badosa or Daria Kasatkina.

No. 17 Alex Eala, men’s No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev and Gael Monfils, playing on his 40th birthday, were scheduled later Tuesday.

Gauff was battling serving woes when she arrived in Flushing Meadows last year and began working with a new coach on the eve of the tournament. There wasn’t time to fix her problems and Gauff had to battle though a rocky opener before getting easily ousted by Naomi Osaka in the fourth round.

Gauff returned this year with the confidence and momentum of a serious contender, winning the title in Cincinnati after semifinal runs at Wimbledon and Toronto.

She also won the hard-court tournament in Cincinnati in 2023 before going on to become the first American teenager to win the U.S. Open title since Serena Williams in 1999, topping Aryna Sabalenka in the final

The fatalities in the highway tragedy in Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur, involving a speeding van that allegedly lost its brakes on Tuesday noon, have climbed to seven, and 13 others were injured, the local government unit (LGU) said.

Initial reports Tuesday afternoon confirmed only six individuals dead, five of them on the spot.

The Dumalinao government expressed its sympathies to the victims of the road disaster, urging the public to refrain from sharing unverified information, photos, or the victims’ identities, and to respect the privacy of affected families.

‘To everyone affected by this tragedy, you are in our thoughts and prayers,’ the LGU said in a statement issued Tuesday evening.

The LGU also acknowledged the different responders who immediately rushed to the crash site at the national highway in Barangay Paglaum.

The immediate responders included the Dumalinao Municipal Police Station, Municipal Fire Station, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), Rural Health Unit (RHU), traffic enforcers, and concerned community members.

Dumalinao Mayor Raul Famor said additional support arrived later from the Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), the Pagadian City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), and the Regional, Provincial, and City Bureau of Fire Protection Special Rescue Force (SRF).

‘They joined in the difficult rescue and recovery efforts,’ he said.

Responders worked together to retrieve trapped victims, administer first aid and triage, and transport the injured to medical facilities in Pagadian City.

The clearing operation was completed at around 4:15 p.m. with the assistance of municipal motor pool personnel, who used the local government’s boom truck to remove the vehicles involved.

An initial police report said the crash occurred when a speeding silver metallic passenger van allegedly lost its brakes, hit a motorcycle, and rammed into a parked wing van.

The van was bound for Pagadian City from Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Authorities said an investigation is still ongoing to determine the circumstances behind the accident.

Former Department of Education Chief of Staff Michael Poa is sworn in as a witness in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.

The prosecution has called Poa to testify on Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, which concerns the alleged misuse of confidential funds. He is expected to testify about the DepEd’s use of confidential funds while Duterte served as education secretary from 2022 to 2024

Service work, including BPO, is knowledge work. It spans call center agents, accountants, doctors, lawyers, bankers and engineers. Like manufacturing, it ranges from low-value execution to highly specialized design, engineering and coordination.

Lower value work

Today, the Philippines remains concentrated in relatively lower-value knowledge work. Much of the highest-value knowledge work stays in the West, where companies research, design and coordinate complex products. Lower-value execution is outsourced to countries like the Philippines.

This encouraged the local service economy to specialize in work that clients had already decided was not worth deeply investing in. These functions were often cost centers, removed from strategic decision-making and given weak incentives for automation. The industry was neither equipped nor motivated to transform them.

The same problem exists within Philippine companies. Because labor is relatively inexpensive, companies often rely on growing headcount instead of standardized processes and software. Manual work accumulates until it becomes operational debt. By the time systems begin breaking under scale, the problem is expensive and difficult to untangle.

So what will enable the Philippine BPO industry to move up the value chain?

The answer is institutional knowledge.

What AI cannot replace

High-value knowledge work emerges when companies develop a deep understanding of a problem, together with the processes, culture and organization needed to solve it repeatedly. That knowledge is built through execution, coordination and iteration.

Our outsourced industries struggle to develop it because few local companies have created environments where it can accumulate. Repetitive manual work persists, while management often substitutes inexpensive headcount for process discipline, automation and enterprise investment.

AI, particularly large language models, is both a threat and a possible antidote to this incentive structure.

As repetitive execution becomes automated, demand and margins for low-value work will fall. At the same time, coding agents are making software faster and cheaper to build. Local companies can increasingly adapt battle-tested, often open source software already widely used in more mature markets.

This can create a healthier cycle. Companies will be pushed toward software, standardization and automation. Work that was once tedious and error-prone will become routine because the solution has been implemented, documented, and improved. These systems will generate institutional knowledge that compounds over time, raising labor productivity and justifying further investment.

This is why focusing only on English proficiency, AI literacy, or critical thinking is insufficient. It treats workers as better raw inputs that can be plugged into higher-value companies.

But LLMs are rapidly commoditizing many of these capabilities.

The hardest problems in implementing AI are context, coordination and accountability. These are precisely the capabilities the Philippine service industry can develop. These come from deep experience in specific industries, not generic classroom training. The correct answer is often knowable only through the high-resolution context of real work.

Moving up the value chain will be difficult, risky and slow. But building institutional knowledge through automation, standardization and repeated execution is the most realistic path forward.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) should remain committed to taming inflation and must resist calls to prematurely end its interest rate-hiking cycle for the sake of the struggling economy, New York-based think tank GlobalSource Partners said.

It added that markets are looking for ‘stronger forward guidance’ from policymakers.

In a commentary, Diwa Guinigundo, analyst at GlobalSource, said the peso’s slide to the 62-per-dollar level despite the central bank’s recent quarter-point rate hike could indicate that ‘the market did not seem fully convinced that the BSP had signaled an unambiguous commitment to staying on top of inflation.’

Guinigundo, a former central bank deputy governor, said the real interest rates-or the actual cost of financing after factoring in inflation-remain negative despite the BSP’s tightening actions that have lifted its key rate to 5 percent, as inflation remained above 6 percent as of July. This, he said, raises the question of whether the BSP has done enough to fight inflation.

‘The issue is not simply whether the BSP should raise, hold or eventually cut its policy rate,’ Guinigundo said. ‘The more fundamental question is whether monetary policy is sufficiently restrictive in real terms to bring inflation back to target and keep expectations firmly anchored.’

Since the start of the BSP’s anti-inflation campaign in April, policymakers have raised the policy rate guiding bank lending costs by a total of 75 basis points. BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said that last week’s rate hike was a ‘preemptive’ response to emerging risks from a severe El Niño episode and possible wage hikes.

Policymakers now expect inflation to average 6.1 percent this year-down from the prior estimate of 6.4 percent but still above the BSP’s 3-percent target-while raising the 2027 outlook to 5.4 percent from 4.5 percent before.

On the growth side, the BSP said the economic fundamentals ‘appear to be intact’ over the medium term, adding that a recovery in government spending could help stimulate activity in the second half of the year. The economy expanded just 2.6 percent in the first half amid the war-driven oil shock.

Looking ahead, Guinigundo said the October policy meeting would be an important test for the BSP, adding that the central bank should resist the temptation to declare the tightening cycle effectively finished simply because growth is weak. Other authorities-not the BSP-must deal with the structural and supply-side impediments to growth, he stressed.

‘This is not an argument for indiscriminate tightening or for ignoring growth. It is an argument for recognizing the hierarchy of responsibilities,’ he said. ‘Asking monetary policy to compensate for weaknesses elsewhere risks creating the worst of both worlds: weak growth and persistent inflation.

The bodies of two of the four missing occupants of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) that plunged into the Tarlac River following the partial collapse of Agana Bridge on Aug. 29 were recovered on Tuesday in separate areas of Pangasinan.

The remains of James Patrick Taborlupa were snagged in the net of a fishing vessel off Lingayen around 10 a.m. Hours later, the body of Shanen Tuhao was found in Bayambang, according to the Tarlac City government.

The lone survivor, 20-year-old Nataniel Dizon, said he had to save himself after the vehicle was swept away

Burnham Lake reopened to the public on Tuesday, coinciding with Baguio City’s 117th Charter Day celebration and bringing back boat rides at one of the city’s most iconic tourist attractions.

The man-made lake had been closed since October 2025 for a P480-million rehabilitation and improvement project.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Mark Lapid, Rep. Mauricio Domogan, Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan, and other city officials led the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The reopening came after the lake was enclosed by galvanized steel barriers as Tieza undertook extensive repairs and a makeover of the century-old attraction.

The rehabilitation formed part of the national government’s broader program to modernize Burnham Park and other tourism destinations in Baguio.

The 33-hectare park, including its nearly 4-hectare lake, was part of the original 1903 Burnham Plan prepared by American architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham. The park was designed as one of the city’s major open spaces and remains among Baguio’s most visited public attractions.

Baguio was established as a mountain resort city under the American colonial government and was formally granted a city charter on Sept. 1, 1909.

The rehabilitation of Burnham Park had been programmed as early as 2013 as part of a national tourism redevelopment initiative covering Baguio and Boracay. While the Boracay rehabilitation was completed in 2018, the Baguio project was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A P500-million allocation originally intended for the city was instead used for pandemic response measures.

Improvements

The work included the construction of a wooden boardwalk around the roughly 10-meter-deep lake, concrete benches that also serve as reinforced embankments, and improvements to the view deck. About 14 new boats had also been brought to the lake grounds.

The lake normally holds about 34,000 cubic meters of water.

Returning concessionaires were previously asked to provide new boats instead of the swan-shaped boats that had long been associated with the attraction.

The Department of Tourism recorded 117,137 visitors arriving in Baguio from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31, 2025.

The city government, however, clarified that the reopening of Burnham Lake does not mean all areas of Burnham Park have reopened. Some facilities remain subject to safety assessments.

Tieza is also validating city plans for the next phase of the Burnham Park rehabilitation, which will cover Children’s Park, Skating Rink and Rose Garden, where a bust of Burnham stands