Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

The license of a driver who was heard making an inappropriate remark about a road incident was revoked by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for violating the Anti-Distracted Driving Act.

The LTO said the driver violated traffic laws by using a cellphone while driving to record the incident. ‘[He] deliberately slow[ed] down amid heavy traffic to record the incident while driving,’ it said.

The video showed the driver saying, ‘Sayang naman, hindi pa namatay (What a waste, he didn’t even die),’ referring to the incident being attended to by law enforcers.

According to the LTO, the driver’s use of a cellphone while driving and his deliberate decision to slow down to record the incident posed a danger not only to his own safety but also to that of other motorists.

The investigation also found that the driver had a previous record with a local government unit’s traffic enforcement office for an earlier counterflow violation.

‘As a result, the driver was declared an Improper Person to Operate a Motor Vehicle, which served as the basis for the LTO’s revocation of his driver’s license,’ the LTO said in a release on Monday, Oct. 5.

The driver has already voluntarily surrendered his license, while the vehicle remains under alarm status as part of the agency’s enforcement action.

‘An incident in which someone is injured or put at risk is no laughing matter, so motorists should not disregard any act that could endanger people on the road,’ said Assistant Secretary Markus Lacanilao.

‘In this case, it is clear that the driver is accountable for using a cellphone while driving and for his actions during the incident. Because of this, the LTO imposed the appropriate action in accordance with existing laws,’ he said.

The LTO once again urged motorists to use mobile phones responsibly while driving and to observe proper conduct on the road.

Some customs brokers and truckers are expected to halt operations today at Manila’s ports in a voluntary ‘rest day’ protest over what they say is foreign shipping lines’ failure to address a mounting backlog of empty containers that has disrupted cargo flows since 2025.

The protest calls on customs brokers to hold off on securing gate passes, booking trucks and releasing shipments, while truckers are being urged not to haul containers until shipping lines provide enough space to take back their empty boxes.

Reynaldo Soliman, chair of the Practicing Customs Brokers and Port Truckers Alliance of the Philippines Inc. (PCBAPI), said the protest could last for a week, depending on the response from shipping lines and the government.

Although the protest is voluntary, Soliman expects broad participation among practicing customs brokers serving terminals at the Port of Manila. He estimated that around 3,000 brokers could take part.

‘Even though we want to ship, we can’t move,’ Soliman said in an interview with the Inquirer, claiming that even without the protest, only 10 percent of goods at Manila ports are moving while the rest face backlogs.

At the center of the dispute are empty shipping containers that Soliman said can take two weeks to a month to be accepted for return after imported goods have been unloaded.

The problem has persisted since December but worsened around August, he said, when truckers increasingly resorted to temporarily storing empty containers in their own yards to free up vehicles for other shipments.

Those storage spaces, he added, have since filled up.

Soliman estimated that thousands of empty containers are now stranded on trucks and in private container yards awaiting acceptance.

‘They (shipping lines) don’t have a container yard. That is why we are demanding that they provide a container yard depot to solve the congestion,’ he said.

In a statement, PCBAPI called on shipping lines not to neglect their ‘business, social, and moral obligation and responsibility’ to provide adequate depots for their empty containers.

‘Vacate your empty containers now, bring them home to the origin,’ PCBAPI said.

‘We pay what you want, we deserve better services,’ it added.

Soliman said the bottleneck had also driven up logistics expenses through detention, storage and trucking costs.

‘Our demand is to remove the pileup to normalize and lower the cost of our food and other goods. It’s a pass-on cost,’ he said.

Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said exporters would naturally be concerned about any disruption, although he did not expect the protest to deliberately hold up urgent shipments.

He nevertheless said the dispute showed longstanding problems involving foreign shipping lines.

‘There should be a way that we can regulate shipping lines,’ Ortiz-Luis told the Inquirer.

PCBAPI’s calls for a rest day could prove critical as it coincides with the fourth-quarter peak shipping season.

Soliman said Manila’s ports handle around 70 percent of the country’s imports, with the remainder passing through Batangas, Subic and other international gateways.

Senate impeachment court spokesperson Atty. Reginald Tongol on Monday expressed gratitude to the senator-judges after he was criticized for alleged repeated blunders.

Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo earlier took to the open court his qualms over Tongol’s remarks over the weekend seemingly preempting an end-date for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment proceedings, saying Tongol must be admonished.

‘I’m very grateful actually for their guidance and for always hand-holding me in how to perform this job as a spokesperson. So I’m just full of gratitude,’ Tongol told the media as a reaction to Tulfo’s remarks.

Tongol also said he accepts the comments of the senator-judges.

‘As a good soldier in this line of profession and as my duty as a spokesperson, I take the comments of the good Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo and all the other senator-judges. I take it on the chin,’ he added.

The southwest monsoon or habagat season has officially ended, the state weather bureau said Monday, as weather patterns gradually shifted and monsoon-related rains weakened across the country.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said it had observed several changes in the prevailing weather pattern, including the strengthening of a high-pressure system over East Asia and the southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

Pagasa also noted weaker winds and declining rainfall associated with the southwest monsoon.

Forecasts indicated these conditions would persist in the coming days, prompting the official termination of the habagat season.

‘In view of this, the habagat season has officially ended,’ Pagasa said. ‘This also marks the termination of the rainy season over the western sections of Luzon and Visayas.’

The weather bureau said it would continue to monitor the country’s weather and climatic conditions. It also advised the public and all concerned agencies to regularly monitor relevant weather information.

Tax collections in the first semester fell short of the government’s target by P16.6 billion as weaker infrastructure spending and softer consumption amid the oil-price shock weighed on several major revenue streams.

The Development Budget Coordination Committee’s (DBCC’s) latest midyear report showed that tax revenues rose 5.4 percent to P2.14 trillion in the first half from P2.03 trillion a year earlier. However, collections fell short of the P2.16-trillion midyear program by P16.6 billion.

The shortfall was largely due to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which collected P1.65 trillion but missed its target by P22.6 billion after growth in several major revenue streams slowed to single digits.

‘The oil price shock affected the consumption of Filipinos. This is evident in the collections of consumption taxes such as the VAT and excise tax,’ the DBCC said.

Withholding taxes, including those on corporate and personal income, contributed to the weaker performance, with net income and profit-related tax collections growing by only 6.3 percent to P901.7 billion, down from the 13.3-percent growth a year earlier.

Value-added tax collections increased 6.5 percent to P360.7 billion, slower than the 15-percent growth recorded a year earlier, while excise tax collections dropped 4.3 percent to P156.1 billion from 16.3-percent growth last year.

Taxes on bank deposits and percentage taxes on banks and financial institutions declined by 26.8 percent and 23.7 percent, respectively, while documentary stamp tax collections fell 2.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the BOC exceeded its target by P7 billion after collecting P491.9 billion against a P484.8-billion goal.

The stronger customs collections were partly supported by a weaker peso and higher global oil prices, which increased the peso value of imports and, consequently, import-related tax collections.

We live in a transformative era that demands a new kind of leadership. Market disruption, technological innovation, changing customer expectations, evolving regulations, talent shortages and the growing need for diversity and inclusion are reshaping the business landscape. As a result, transformation is now a fundamental business capability.

Research conducted by EY reveals that constant market disruption is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. As many as 82 percent of CEOs and board members believe that market disruptions are becoming more frequent and impactful, while 65 percent of Forbes 2000 companies plan to increase transformation spending over the next three years. For many organizations, transformation is an ongoing process of adaptation and reinvention.

Yet despite significant investment, transformation success remains elusive. Studies consistently show that only 10 percent to 30 percent of transformation initiatives achieve their intended outcomes. EY’s global research further found that 67 percent of senior leaders have experienced at least one underperforming transformation in the past five years. The findings suggest that organizations often focus heavily on processes, technology and strategy while underestimating the human and emotional dimensions of change.

The research identifies transformation fundamentally as a human challenge. Both leaders and employees experience emotional journeys during significant change, and these journeys can determine whether transformation succeeds or fails. Employees who have experienced unsuccessful change initiatives are more likely to associate transformation with job insecurity, layoffs and uncertainty, resulting in lower trust, reduced engagement and diminished productivity.

The human-centered approach

To address this challenge, the research proposes a human-centered approach to transformation. Rather than viewing people as a single component within a broader program, successful organizations place humans at the center of their transformation agenda.

This requires leaders to balance a business objective with a deep understanding of employee needs, emotions and experiences.

The study highlights critical leadership actions that drive transformation success. Leaders must first lead by demonstrating inclusive leadership and aligning diverse stakeholders around a common purpose. They must inspire through a clear and compelling narrative that helps employees understand why change is necessary and what role they play in the journey. They need to care by fostering trust, psychological safety and participation, ensuring that people feel heard and valued throughout the process.

Equally important, leaders must empower employees by encouraging creativity, experimentation and innovation. They must build by leveraging technology that enhances both organizational performance and employee experience. Finally, they have to collaborate, breaking down silos and enabling teams to cocreate new ways of working that support success.

Paradoxes and challenges

The research also highlights several paradoxes leaders must navigate. They must deliver results today while disrupting business for tomorrow. They need a clear vision while simultaneously remaining humble enough to embrace uncertainty. They have to foster broad engagement while managing the emotional isolation that often accompanies leadership decisions, and they need to balance disciplined execution with the freedom that fuels innovation.

The consequences of getting transformation wrong can be significant. Among employees who have experienced an underperforming transformation, 50 percent agree that transformation is simply another word for layoffs, while 49 percent say it creates concerns about job security. In addition, 42 percent believe their organization does not really need to transform and is already performing well.

In the near term, these perceptions can erode trust in the organization, reduce psychological safety and contribute to disengagement, attrition and lower productivity. Over the long term, the effects can carry into future transformation efforts, making it more difficult to improve employee satisfaction, secure stakeholder buy-in and achieve business objectives.

Creating the conditions to deliver long-term value

In an environment of constant disruption, transformation is no longer simply about changing processes or adopting new technologies. It is about building an organizational culture that can continuously evolve to deliver long-term value. The ability to transform repeatedly, effectively and at speed is becoming a core determinant of business resilience and growth.

Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo on Monday asked the Senate impeachment court to admonish its spokesperson, Reginald Tongol, over alleged repeated blunders and for preempting the tribunal.

Tulfo cited Tongol’s latest statement to the media, in which he was quoted as saying that the court might have its final verdict on the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte by December 16.

‘I remember, nag issue kayo ng warning dati sa spokesman ng prosecution. In the same manner, nag issue din kayo ng warning sa spokesman ng defense. Now, it’s about time na mag issue tayo ng warning sa sarili nating spokesperson,’ the senator-judge initially said.

(I remember, you issued a warning before to the prosecution’s spokesperson. In the same manner, you also issued a warning to the defense’s spokesperson. Now, it’s about time that we issue a warning to our own spokesperson.)

‘Why? Kasi over the weekend, marami akong mga kakilala, kaibigan, tumawag sa akin. Sabi, na-pre-judge niyo na agad yung outcome ng impeachment. Kasi itong si Reynald Tongol…nagsalita sa media na sa December 16, magkakaroon daw tayo ng final verdict sa impeachment trial ni VP Sara,’ he went on.

(Why? Because over the weekend, many people I know-friends and acquaintances-called me and said that you had already prejudged the outcome of the impeachment case. [Reginald] Tongol spoke to the media and said that we would supposedly have a final verdict in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial on December 16.)

Tulfo then asked Presiding Officer Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero if there was any truth to the spokesperson’s pronouncement.

In response, Escudero said the statement was ‘not entirely accurate.’

‘So that’s fake news?’ Tulfo asked.

‘Yes. But that statement is not entirely accurate,’ Escudero said, adding that any statements about the timetable that came out over the weekend could have been based only on the pretrial order.

In the pretrial order, the prosecution proposed 62 trial days, while the defense requested 30 days, for a total of 92 trial days, which was approved by the impeachment court.

‘So that is just simply based on the calendar contained in the pre-trial order. But the court, at this point in time, let it be placed on record and let it be known, is based on math, not based on the realities on the ground of the trial,’ Escudero said.

‘It may be a working mathematical equation, but certainly not based on reality, much less that the point of view of the court. The court will instruct the spokesperson accordingly,’ he added.

Tulfo then suggested: ‘Maybe it’s about time na para i-admonish niya, Mr presiding officer. Kasi this is not the first time. Maraming beses na siyang sumablay, pumalpak. Paulit-ulit na lang.’

(Maybe it’s about time to admonish him, Mr. Presiding Officer. This is not the first time. He has made mistakes and blundered many times. It just keeps happening over and over again.)

‘Buti pa siya, marami siyang alam. Itong mga senator- judges, mga kasamahan ko, there are things na hindi namin alam. Nabubulaga na lang kami, pag nagdakdak siya sa media, kumbaga inuunahan niya tayo, pini-prempt nya tayo,’ he said.

(Good for him, he knows a lot. But we, the senator-judges, my colleagues, there are things that we don’t know. We’re simply caught off guard when he goes on the media, so to speak. He gets ahead of us and preempts us.)

Presiding officer Francis Escudero on Monday denied Senator-Judge Imee Marcos’ objection to presenting foreign currency accounts in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.

During the 33rd day of the trial, Marcos objected to foreign currency accounts being discussed as Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Secretariat Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura read details of a transaction report that included a non-peso account.

‘I would like to make that objection, please. It’s very, very clear and well established in both the [former President Joseph Estrada] and [former Chief Justice Renato Corona] impeachment that foreign currency accounts are excluded,’ Marcos said.

But Escudero said that during the Corona impeachment, the court allowed testimony on foreign currency deposits covered by the AMLC.

Escudero also issued an extended ruling on the matter, citing Section 76(2) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Manual of Regulations on Foreign Exchange Transactions, which explicitly states that the ‘absolute confidential nature of foreign currency deposits under the [Foreign Currency Deposit Act] shall not apply to a covered institution that reports foreign currency deposits in covered transaction reports or suspicious transaction reports to AMLC], pursuant to Section 9(C) of Republic Act 9160.’

‘Thus the suspicious transaction reports or CRTs submitted to the AMLC do not acquire the status of absolute confidentiality merely because they contain information concerning foreign currency deposit accounts,’ he added.

He also noted that in the case of Republic vs. Sandiganbayan, the court ruled that the AMLC cannot invoke the confidentiality provisions under AMLA to prevent disclosure of information on covered and suspicious transaction reports.

‘The court did not distinguish between peso, foreign currency, and denominated transactions,’ Escudero said.

‘Therefore, the prohibition and confidentiality prohibitions of AMLA cannot apply to it. Otherwise, it will contravene its direct mandate under Section 7 and duly hamper criminal prosecution of money laundering activities,’ he added.

However, Escudero, in making the ruling, clarified that it is not at this point compelling the bank or covered institutions to disclose information concerning foreign currency deposits maintained by the respondent. Instead, the witness is merely being asked to testify on records and financial information ‘already in their lawful presentation.’

No ticket won the jackpots in the Grand Lotto 6/55 and Mega Lotto 6/45 draws on Monday, Oct. 5, according to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

The Grand Lotto 6/55 winning combination was 28-34-18-32-53-20 for a jackpot of ?248.36 million. No ticket matched all six numbers.

The Mega Lotto 6/45 winning combination was 13-25-03-02-12-21 for a jackpot of ?92.17 million. No ticket matched all six numbers.

Minor games

4D Lotto: 2-6-2-5 – ?10,000; 87 winners

3D Lotto 2 p.m.: 1-5-3 – ?4,500; 199 winners

3D Lotto 5 p.m.: 7-5-0 – ?4,500; 116 winners

3D Lotto 9 p.m.: 3-4-0 – ?4,500; 255 winners

2D Lotto 2 p.m.: 15-15 – ?4,000; 661 winners

2D Lotto 5 p.m.: 23-25 – ?4,000; 60 winners

2D Lotto 9 p.m.: 27-15 – ?4,000; 211 winners

Draw schedule

Grand Lotto 6/55 draws are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, while Mega Lotto 6/45 draws take place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

A little over a month after the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte began, what currently dominates online conversations is not facts from the case, but memes mocking a female prosecution lawyer. Her offense, according to her critics, was appearing too flirtatious. They called her style of questioning ‘malandi’ and said she intentionally made the word ‘baril’ sound like a double entendre. Some went so far as to say that her ‘bedroom voice’ was more fitting for a sex worker than a lawyer or political leader.

A lawyer’s courtroom conduct, especially in an important trial like this, is open to scrutiny. But that is not what many of these memes do. Legitimate criticism asks whether she was effective. Sexual shaming, by contrast, uses perceptions of her femininity or sexuality to question her character and credibility.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental democracy organization, identifies sexualization and objectification as recurring forms of gendered disinformation used to humiliate women and undermine perceptions of their professional capacity. The implicit argument behind sexual shaming as a tactic is that if a woman can be made to appear morally questionable, then her trustworthiness and professional legitimacy become questionable too-overshadowing the merits of her education, experience, and overall performance.

This is not just a Philippine problem, but a regional issue that cannot be ignored. A 2025 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), conducted in partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, found that 60 percent of women lawmakers surveyed across the Asia-Pacific had been targeted online by hate speech, disinformation, image-based abuse, or doxxing. That is the highest rate for this type of abuse in any of the IPU’s regional studies, and an important reminder that making political spaces safer for women needs to be an urgent priority.

Advances in deepfake technology have also compounded the problem and made this tactic easier to weaponize. Female leaders are targets for fabricated, nonconsensual sexual imagery designed to discredit them. The result is a hostile environment that makes it harder for women in leadership, and for those in the pipeline, to thrive.

Repetition alone can also do significant damage. Hear a sexual rumor or joke often enough and it can become attached to a woman’s name in the public mind, whether or not it is true. That is why I have deliberately withheld the lawyer’s name. I want to discuss the issue without contributing further to that association.

What makes the issue even more insidious is that no version of womanhood is safe. A woman can be attacked for appearing too sexual, labeled promiscuous and immoral. She can be attacked for being insufficiently feminine, deemed bossy, abrasive, and unsympathetic. And then she can also be attacked for being overly feminine, too soft and emotional, and therefore unfit to lead. Research shows that women leaders often feel pressured to shift between masculine and feminine styles to satisfy these conflicting expectations and maintain both credibility and likeability.

Ultimately, women are often judged not just on their performance as leaders, but on whether they conform to society’s expectations of how a woman should act. And whereas men are often afforded a wider margin for error-where scandals involving sexual misconduct or personal failings do not immediately compromise perceptions of their credibility-women leaders are easily judged as unfit to lead after a slight misstep or deviation from the ideal.

Sexual shaming and other forms of sexism against women in politics threaten both democratic participation and inclusive governance. Unfortunately, too often, our lawmakers are part of the problem. Last week, Sen. Raffy Tulfo said the prosecution should be careful not to bring in ‘pa-cute’ lawyers. He could have used his platform to condemn the vicious online comments and steer the discussion back to the merits of the prosecution’s case. Instead, his remarks inadvertently reinforced the sexist framing behind the attacks. I applaud House prosecution counsel Atty. Lorna Kapunan for immediately calling him out and reminding him that it was the Senate that passed the safe spaces law and should model those standards in political discourse.

The rest of us have a role too. For every sexist meme or demeaning comment, we can push back by centering the substance of a woman’s argument and body of work. We can remind lawmakers that criticism should never cross the line into misogyny and hold to account those who do.

Because while the public argues about a lawyer’s tone, almost no one is discussing the merits of the case. The memes have effectively crowded out the very thing the public is supposed to be watching: an accountability process involving the second-highest official in the land.