Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake jolted Cebu Tuesday evening, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported.

In its latest update, Phivolcs said the tectonic earthquake occurred at 9:59 p.m.

Its epicenter was located 17 kilometers northeast of Bogo City, Cebu, at a depth of 10 kilometers. Phivolcs reported the following intensities in affected areas:

Intensity III- San Fernando, CEBU

Intensity II- Laoang, NORTHERN SAMAR

Instrumental intensity IV was also recorded in Cebu City, Cebu, and Villaba, Leyte.

Phivolcs said aftershocks and damage to properties are expected./mcm

Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Rep. Leila M. de Lima on Tuesday called on the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) and President Marcos Jr. to expedite the selection of the next Ombudsman in light of the ongoing investigations into anomalous government projects.

In a statement, De Lima said the state watchdog post must not be left vacant for too long ‘so that cases can continue to progress, those who should be held accountable can be held accountable, and the people can achieve justice.’

Her statement comes after the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI)’s recommended to the Office of the Ombudsman to file criminal and administrative charges against former Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co and 17 others over an anomalous flood control project in Oriental Mindoro.

The project was implemented by Sunwest Inc., a company Co founded.

The Ombudsman is also expected to play a greater role in the broader anti-corruption crackdown ordered by President Marcos Jr.

However, as of Sept. 30, Mr. Marcos has yet to appoint an Ombudsman, which has remained pending since former Ombudsman Samuel Martires retired on July 27, 2025.

As of last week, the JBC said it would hold its deliberations on the vacancy ‘in the coming weeks’ instead of last Sept. 19 to give Sen. Francis Pangilinan, the new chair of the Senate committee on justice, time to review the applications.

The current acting ombudsman is Dante Vargas, who so far has ordered the suspension of 16 Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials over their alleged involvement in anomalous flood control projects.

Still, ‘given the extent of the collusion and the number of legislators and government officials involved in the anomalous flood control projects, there is a need for a regular Ombudsman who can truly focus on and respond to the complaints that land in their office,’ De Lima said.

The former justice secretary added that it was all the more imperative for an Ombudsman to oversee the proceedings as the office was expected to receive additional complaints as the ICI investigation progressed.

She expressed hopes that the future Ombudsman appointee would also address the unnecessary and unfortunate dismissal of cases due to inordinate delays in fulfilling its mandate under the Constitution. ‘As the country’s Tanodbayan, the Ombudsman should champion the government’s anti-corruption efforts. It must be swift, serious, and fair in filing solid cases against erring public officials who plunder the nation’s wealth,’ she said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Regional Office in the Bicol region have imposed a price freeze on all basic agricultural commodities across Masbate province after extensive damage caused by Typhoon Opong (international name: Bualoi ).

In a phone interview on Tuesday, DA Bicol information officer Lovella Guarin said the price freeze aims to ease the burden on affected communities after the storm ravaged major agricultural areas in the island province last Friday.

She said that a total of 1,394 farmers and fisherfolk were affected, with over 1,000 hectares of farmland devastated.

According to the initial assessment, 781 hectares were damaged, while 219 hectares were destroyed. The combined production loss amounted to 1,236 metric tons.

Guarin noted that the rice sector was heavily impacted, with 637 farmers affected and losses totaling nearly 394 metric tons, valued at P5.64 million. The hardest-hit area for rice was Masbate, where 487 farmers reported losses of 256 metric tons, valued at P3.84 million. Other affected provinces include Albay, Camarines Sur, and Camarines Norte.

‘Based on initial reports collected from the ground, about P42.85 million worth of agricultural crops have been lost across the Bicol region so far due to Opong,’ Guarin said

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has taken custody of a suspected underwater drone recovered by local fishermen in the waters off Barangay Barangonan, Linapacan, Palawan, according to Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea.

Tarriela said the device-approximately 13 feet long-was discovered on Sunday by a group of fishermen from Sitio Tapic, Barangay New Colaylayan, Linapacan, during routine fishing operations.

Later that same evening, the fishermen handed over the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to coast guard personnel. It has since been secured at PCG Station Linapacan for further verification, technical examination, and investigation, in coordination with relevant national security agencies.

The AUV is now undergoing detailed forensic analysis to determine its origin, operational history, and any potential security threats.

‘The sensor includes Chinese labeling and a serial number (CTD-20090334), along with visible corrosion from prolonged saltwater exposure. It is mounted on a rugged metal frame, typical of components in autonomous underwater vehicles commonly known as underwater drones,’ Tarriela added.

He noted that this incident is the latest in a string of similar recoveries in Philippine waters since July 2022./coa

Apart from naked greed and selfish political agendas, a faulty understanding of national budgeting principles may have led our legislators to feel little guilt or shame over their unprecedented self-serving national budget realignments. Massive amounts reallocated in the 2025 budget to spurious flood control projects came prominently from the defunding of nearly P300 billion in official development assistance (ODA) or foreign loan-funded projects and from relegating them to the unprogrammed budget. This part of the budget, which has ballooned after 2022, is, in effect, a ‘waiting list’ of expenditure items that can only push through if unexpected additional funds become available. By implication, these are lower-priority expenditures that the country can afford to set aside in favor of those in the main or programmed budget.

The problem is, ODA projects are nothing like that. They are by nature priority projects, having passed rigid scrutiny by the interagency Investment Coordination Committee and rigorous technical analysis by the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (formerly National Economic and Development Authority). They form part of the Public Investment Program accompanying the Philippine Development Plan and are essential to the fulfillment of our PDP goals and targets. For our ODA partners, PIP projects are the ‘shopping list’ of priority projects from which they can choose what to fund with their soft loans (loans with lower interest rates and longer grace periods and repayment terms) to be truly responsive to our development goals. These are most certainly not low-priority projects we can set aside in favor of budget insertions by legislators, many of which have turned out to be ‘ghost’ projects that put fabulous sums in the pockets of conniving lawmakers, government officials, and contractors-as is now being exposed in full view.

Why the seeming lack of hesitation to shove aside ‘counterpart funding’ for ODA projects despite these having high priority? Most lawmakers don’t seem to understand what these ‘counterpart funds’ really are, a misunderstanding I’ve found to be common since my days in the government in the 1990s. The term ‘counterpart’ misleads many, including lawmakers, to think of it simply as the government’s equity share in the funding for ODA projects, and that the foreign lender’s ‘counterpart’ will still be there to spend even without the government’s share. But that is not the case.

‘Appropriations cover’ is the better term rather than ‘counterpart funds’ for the budget allocation needed to release ODA loan proceeds. Every peso of ODA loan proceeds needs to be appropriated in the budget to be spent. In the national fiscal accounts, ODA loan proceeds are treated as ‘deficit financing,’ not additional funds to the government’s budgetary resources from taxes, fees, and other revenues. That is, ODA project loans, which must be paid back, count as part of the total government borrowing to finance the deficit, or the gap between its revenues and expenditures, which now cumulatively totals P17 trillion. (On the other hand, foreign grants that need no repayment are automatically appropriated, hence need no budget line. Here, the term ‘counterpart’ is correctly used as it’s widely understood and is indeed the government’s equity shares to supplement the donor’s grant.)

This is why shifting some P300 billion of ODA ‘counterpart funds’ to the unprogrammed budget is such a serious matter. It means none of the shifted ODA project’s loan funds will get released at all, unless the government manages to raise more revenues than were projected for the year. It’s an outright breach of loan agreements signed with our foreign partners, who have been scratching their heads over our seemingly irrational repudiation of assistance they have so kindly offered us, as this is what defunding the ODA programs amounts to. And because these soft loans are dispensed through financial institutions, customary commitment fees apply, meaning, if we don’t spend the funds, we pay the lender a penalty for keeping the money idle.

But the bigger cost our irresponsible lawmakers have brought upon our country is the chilling signal it has sent to the financial markets and investment community that our government is not to be trusted. The signs are already evident. The peso has been depreciating much faster than it should, even as the United States Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate easing should have moved it in the opposite direction (like our neighbors’ currencies have in fact done). While our peso declines in value, our neighbors’ currencies are moving the other way. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas won’t say it publicly, but they see the problem.

The insatiable greed in high places, now being exposed to all, is pulling the entire economy and country down. This time, we shouldn’t let them get away with it.

Oxford-Everything, everywhere, all at once. That’s how I felt shortly before heading out of the country again for yet another academic engagement. Barely a week after returning to the country following my visiting scholar stint in Canada, where I met senior policymakers, academics, and community members from across the country, I headed out to the United Kingdom to further hone my public policy analysis under a Jardine scholarship at the University of Oxford. Thanks to the generous (and highly competitive) scholarship and the impeccable academic environment at Oxford, I looked forward to finally carving out some time to fully focus on research, deep writing, and, overall, to embracing a measure of scholarly solitude.

Truth be told, my mind was tethered to developments back home, especially after an intense week that started with covering the historic ‘Trillion Peso March’ and, over the following days, holding long conversations with leading experts and citizens of the country. In fact, just before I flew out of the country, I hosted a quadrilateral episode for my ‘Deep Dive’ podcast with former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, a titan of our West Philippine Sea struggle; former Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna, a leading jurist who helped frame both the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions; and former Political Affairs Secretary Ronald Llamas, a rockstar pundit and a beating heart of social democracy in the Philippines. At the core of our discussions was a singular question: Are we peering into the abyss?

Just as I warned earlier this month (see ‘Fighting corruption: Brazil’s hard lessons,’ 9/16/25), comparative politics in developing democracies shows that anticorruption investigations tend to become polarizing, politicized, and ultimately destabilizing. This is especially the case if institutions are weak, clowns and crooks dominate elected offices, and the public is fed up with continuous cycles of corruption and misgovernance. As dramatic as it has been, the revamp in the government-starting from the change of leadership in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as the comprehensive purge of top leaders in the Department of Public Works and Highways-is far from sufficient. People are asking for blood, and heads have to roll. To begin with, the people’s outrage is palpable. From journalist Kara David to celebrities, such as Vice Ganda, prominent personalities are openly calling for the literal demise of corrupt officials or the reinstatement of the death penalty: ‘Sana mamatay sila!’ ‘Bring back the death penalty for corrupt officials. Jail even their families.’

Moreover, there seems to be no center of gravity, nor a clear road map. It’s far from certain where and how far President Marcos is willing to take his newly found anticorruption crusade when corruption is so endemic and could reach the highest echelons of power.

To put things into perspective, Sen. Panfilo Lacson has claimed that almost all senators, with the notable exception of principled progressives such as Sen. Risa Hontiveros, made shady insertions in the previous fiscal year. ‘It was humongous . I have never seen such amounts,’ the current chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee claimed, referring to at least P100 billion in de facto pork barrel funds.

Just like Brazil in the mid-2010s amid the ‘Operation Carwash’ corruption scandal, we might end up with the collapse of the entire political center. And this brings us to the third factor, namely the vultures circling and ready to destabilize and dismantle our democracy altogether.

The riots in Mendiola by unidentified elements are just the tip of the iceberg. ‘If only Sara Duterte were not the Vice President, you guys would have taken over,’ an administration ally shared in a closed-door meeting. He was referring to rumors of a possible coup. No less than Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manny Mogato referred to an ‘attempt to unseat’ the President, with ‘a large Christian-denomination sect [meeting] with a top Army commander days before the protest’ to trigger an en masse defection in the barracks on the back of the massive anticorruption protest on Sept. 21. In fairness, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has vehemently rejected the rumors, which are yet to be substantiated.

What is clear, however, is that the next ‘Trillion Peso March’ may turn less peaceful if the chief perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity and the notorious Discayas are given de facto immunity under a witness protection program. Criminal liability is what people are demanding beyond the seeming theatrics of hearings and investigations.

A new low-pressure area (LPA) has entered the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR), the state weather bureau said Tuesday night.

According to the 10 p.m. update from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), the LPA entered the PAR around 8 p.m. Tuesday. It was last located 1,095 kilometers east of southeastern Luzon.

Pagasa said the LPA still has a ‘medium’ potential of developing into a tropical depression within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the weather bureau earlier reported that the easterlies-warm winds coming from the Pacific Ocean-are expected to continue bringing scattered rains to Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

An alleged member of the Islamist militant Dawlah Islamiya Group was killed during a drug buy-bust operation in Barangay Sapakan, Rajah Buayan town of Maguindanao del Sur, around 4 p.m. on Monday.

Captain Joel Lebrilla, chief of police for Rajah Buayan, said the suspect, Moner Usman, a resident of Darampua village in nearby Sultan Sa Barongis town, was a suspected member of the Daulah Islamiyah Hassan Group and had pending warrants of arrest.

According to Lebrilla, personnel from the Rajah Buayan police, the Special Action Force (SAF), and other units of the Provincial Police Office (PPO) of Maguindanao del Sur were about to conduct the operation when the suspect sensed he was transacting with police officers, prompting him to fight.

He was fatally shot during the exchange of gunfire, while one member of the SAF sustained injuries.

Authorities recovered a firearm, ammunition, and a sachet of illegal drugs.

Usman had six standing warrants of arrest-two counts of murder, one count of carnapping, and three counts of frustrated murder.

He was also tagged as the most wanted person by the Isulan municipal police station and one of the top three most wanted persons by the Sultan Kudarat provincial police office.

The wounded police officer is now recuperating in a hospital

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 lack of personnel.

During the House plenary debates on the DOH’s proposed P253-billion budget for 2026, Akbayan Representative Chel Diokno questioned why only 200 out of the 600 health centers built under the HFEP were functional as of 2025 despite the allocation of over P170 billion for its infrastructure and equipment in the past decade.

‘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 called the HFEP-which aims to improve delivery of basic, essential and specialized health services-as the ‘flood control version’ of the DOH.

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 also explained that the department had entered into memoranda of agreement with local governments ‘in good faith,’ expecting them to provide personnel for the facilities they requested.

‘Probably some of our LGUs lacked the funds to hire doctors and midwives, which is beyond the jurisdiction of the secretary,’ Garcia said, adding 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 added.

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.

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

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), in a 2025 study, likewise found inequities in 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 (BUCAS) centers nationwide to temporarily provide primary care while idle facilities await personnel. /cb

A few weeks ago, actress, realtor, and content creator Christine Li posted a simple thought on her Threads account: can a certain 24-hour gym chain consider putting up a women-only branch?

That’s it. That, as the kids of my age used to say, is the tweet (well, Threads). There wasn’t even a straight-up demand-it was a kind, polite request to even just consider the thought.

The reactions came swift, and the post became a moderate amount of viral; not the craziest numbers, but enough to drift onto my own For You feed on Threads. Men were mad-for reasons that can only really be construed as sadness and offense, because they won’t get to see good-looking women wearing figure-hugging gymwear, should the idea come to fruition.

‘We thought you wanted equality?’ they ask. ‘Why are you now demanding special treatment?’

Meanwhile, the women were understandably and obviously supportive. One woman even recounted her own experiences with being stalked by a guy in the gym of the same chain Li goes to. Others have quickly pointed out that the bizarre overreactions from the guys was just proving Li’s point.

Give the women what they want

So here I am, as a guy with some column space on this newspaper: Li’s right. If the women need a women-exclusive branch of that gym to work out in peace, let them have it. For the women who are just fine working out in regular branches, they still get to do that.

If the women need a women-exclusive branch of that gym to work out in peace, let them have it.

A friend has personally recounted to me that the reason she doesn’t work out in commercial gyms is because she felt she was being ogled and sexualized. And as someone who wants all my friends to be lifting or at least working out in some form, that doesn’t sit right with me.

The women who ask for and champion this very clearly just want to be left alone. It’s because many dudes can’t keep their eyes and audacity to themselves, thinking that their attention is wanted just because they’ve maxed out their physiques.

In 2021, a survey by Women’s Running UK found that 69 percent of women don’t feel safe or comfortable when receiving unwanted attention from men while working out, and 76 percent report feeling like men were regularly staring at them creepily. Although this study was done in another country, it’s clear that the experience is universal.

Photo by Brook Cagle/Unsplash+

In fact, a different survey by American corporate wellness platform WellHub found that 65 percent of women would feel comfortable attending a women-only gym. That’s how bad the problem is.

Start acting right

Any claim from offended guys of women ‘ragebaiting’ or ‘seeking special treatment’ with these asks is simply masking their need to ogle attractive ladies in the gym. As another woman in Li’s post points out, if you’re secure in your masculinity and are actually in the gym to lock in and work, this suggestion wouldn’t set you off the way it has for so many guys on Threads. Basically, the real issues women have shouldn’t sit right with you. And feeling another type of way about it is quite telling.

Plus, I actually have a second reason why I support a women-only gym: there are too many people, even at late hours. As much as I am pro-women’s safety, I am also very pro-fewer people in the gym. Anything that frees up room in there and keeps me from having to wander around, figuring out which machine I can use, is a great idea to me.

So let the ladies have their own branch. This isn’t even a new idea, as some franchises abroad have already long adopted the women-only model to some success. If you have a real problem with it, start acting right. Tell your boys to act right, and maybe the women won’t be so scared to lift beside you.