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South Cotabato is looking to expand markets for its tilapia industry as it launched its first five-day Tilapia Festival on Monday, Oct. 26, to help fish farmers reach more buyers and boost their livelihoods.

Running until Oct. 30, the festival features a product expo, aquaculture training, lake cleanups, bamboo planting, cooking contests, art workshops and cultural performances. It will culminate in Sugba-Sugba sa Dalan, a street-grilling event showcasing locally produced tilapia.

Provincial government data showed that at least 4,000 fish farmers in South Cotabato depend on the industry for their livelihoods.

The province produced 545.22 metric tons of tilapia in the first quarter of 2026, up 22.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

But farmers continue to face challenges, including unstable prices, high production costs and limited buyers, according to the Department of Agriculture in Region 12.

Provincial agriculturist Raul Teves said the festival complements government assistance to fish farmers, including fingerling distribution, technical support and training.

‘The event goes beyond just a celebration, it serves as a strategic platform to empower our fish farmers in the province,’ Teves said.

The festival opened at the EMR Center here with the Negosyo sa Tilapya Products Expo, where local entrepreneurs are showcasing products made from tilapia.

Other activities include training on good aquaculture practices and sustainable hatchery operations, a summit on developing value-added tilapia products, distribution of tilapia fingerlings and agricultural and fisheries inputs, and the Tilapyesta Forum and Art Workshop.

Beyond the festival, the province is pursuing a proposed P23.23-million tilapia enterprise approved under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project Scale-Up, according to a provincial government report on Oct. 22.

The project, to be established in Barangays Malaya and Cinco in Banga, aims to link fingerling production with the consolidation and marketing of market-size tilapia.

Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. said the festival recognizes the contribution of fish farmers to food production and local livelihoods.

It seems that the public will be seeing more project inspections from the heads of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Transportation, as DOTr Sec. Vince Dizon acknowledged the criticisms he got for doing so.

As Dizon bids farewell to the DPWH and returns to DOTr, he said he and new DPWH chief Giovanni Lopez will conduct joint inspections in the coming weeks and months.

‘I think you will be seeing the two of us together jointly going around inspecting projects kasi marami akong ipapasa sa kanya, marami rin siyang ipapasa sa akin,’ Dizon said in a press conference.

(I think you will be seeing the two of us together jointly going around inspecting projects because we have a lot of projects to turn over to each other.)

Dizon’s tone then shifted playfully when he acknowledged the ‘turo’ (point) he got from his critics whenever he conducted inspections.

‘Alam ko marami sa mga media, marami sa mga komentarista, lagi kaming kini-criticize na turo daw kami nang turo. ‘Wag kayong mag-alala, turo pa rin kami nang turo hanggang ngayon kahit DOTr na ako at DPWH na siya,’ Dizon said, which earned laughs from the crowd.

(I know that many of those in the media [industry], columnists, always criticize us for always pointing out [in inspections]. Don’t worry, we will still be doing that now that I am back in DOTr and he will be in DPWH.)

The two secretaries regularly conducted inspections of infrastructure projects and public transportation before their leadership revamps.

Dizon also shared that the two of them did not have a hard time accepting their new leadership roles, emphasizing that he already worked with Lopez in the past.

‘Madali yung conversation. Madali at magaan para sa aming dalawa. ‘Yung coordination, ‘di pwedeng mawala. Ang dami naming kailangan gawin, which we have been doing since last year. Pero mas lalo ngayon,’ he added.

The Philippine Golf Tour and Ladies Philippine Golf Tour wrap up their regular seasons Tuesday at Apo Golf and Country Club, with two championships and the men’s and women’s Order of Merit titles at stake in the ICTSI Apo Golf Classic.

Angelo Que and Jeffren Lumbo headline the men’s money race, while Yvon Bisera faces a tight challenge from Tiffany Lee, Harmie Constantino and Chanelle Avaricio in the women’s division.

The P2.5-million men’s tournament will run for four days, while the P1.25-million women’s championship features 24 players competing over three rounds.

Que, seeking a second straight Order of Merit crown, leads the men’s standings with P1.36 million in earnings. Lumbo, still chasing his first victory this season, trails with P1.18 million.

But the championship itself remains wide open.

Clyde Mondilla arrives fresh from ending a two-year title drought at South Pacific, where Sean Ramos nearly forced a playoff and Keanu Jahns and Que mounted strong final-round charges.

Justin Quiban, winner of the season opener at Lakewood, returns from international competition after tying for 35th at the Hong Kong Open. Korean-American Micah Shin, the 2018 Country Club Invitational champion, also joins the field.

In the women’s race, Bisera holds a narrow lead with P620,400, followed by Lee at P583,350, Constantino at P537,100 and Avaricio at P504,850.

Bisera won at Lakewood and Pradera Verde but has struggled to close out recent tournaments, opening the door for Lee, whose victory at Pueblo de Oro and runner-up finish at South Pacific strengthened her title bid.

‘Apo is definitely the decisive factor. Winning will be crucial in deciding the Order of Merit race,’ Lee said.

She expects the course’s elevated greens and longer holes to demand a more conservative approach.

‘I’ll need to avoid the aggressive shots I usually play and just play smarter,’ she said.

Constantino, a winner at Caliraya Springs, remains in contention, while defending Order of Merit champion Sarah Ababa hopes to avoid finishing the season without a victory.

A 42-year-old driver and his 11-month-old child died after a dump truck crashed onto their motorcycle on Tuesday morning, Oct. 27, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) confirmed.

Based on initial investigations, a dump truck was travelling along Congressional Avenue toward Luzon Avenue in Quezon City when it tipped over onto the victim’s motorcycle at around 12:30 a.m.

The 29-year-old driver, alias ‘Randel’, reportedly lost control of his vehicle.

The victim was said to be traveling with this live-in partner and their child.

They were immediately brought to the nearest hospital for urgent medical attention. However, the attending physician ultimately declared the rider and his 11-month-old baby dead.

His partner, on the other hand, remained hospitalized and treated for her injuries.

According to the QCPD, the dump truck rider is now in police custody while the investigation continues.

He may face alleged violations of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, physical injuries, and damage to property.

‘Muling pinaalalahanan ng QCPD ang lahat ng motorista na tiyaking nasa ligtas at maayos na kondisyon ang kanilang mga sasakyan, magsagawa ng regular na inspeksiyon at maintenance, at mahigpit na sumunod sa mga batas-trapiko at alituntunin sa kaligtasan sa kalsada upang maiwasan ang mga kahalintulad na trahedya,’ the QCPD stated in a statement.

(The QCPD once again reminds all motorists to ensure that their vehicles are in safe and good condition, to conduct regular inspections and maintenance, and to strictly adhere to traffic laws and road safety guidelines to prevent similar tragedies.)

I’ve written before of how we have nearly double the number of farm cooperatives than Thailand has, yet only about a third of our farmers are co-op members, versus almost all (95 percent) in Thailand-a difference that could well explain why Thailand’s agriculture is so much more productive than ours.

We Filipinos take pride in our bayanihan spirit, yet we don’t see it in a proliferation of successful co-ops in the countryside. As National Cooperatives Month draws to a close, let me focus on one thing that has made cooperativism in the Philippines weaker than in nearby countries like Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea, where co-ops were key to their rapid economic development: leadership. Cooperative Development Authority data show that Filipino co-ops fail mostly due to leadership and governance weaknesses. On this, one might say that the cooperative sector simply mirrors our challenges as a nation. Inequality in the sector likewise reflects the stark inequality in our society: the largest four to five percent of our co-ops control nearly three-quarters of total cooperatives’ assets. The rest are mostly micro-coops with assets not exceeding P3 million. We seem to see co-ops more as safety nets for the poor rather than launching pads for wealth creation. But there is no free lunch. We cannot regulate our way into effective co-ops unless we invest heavily in the human capital running these entities.

I’ve mentioned before a model of how we could do this: South Korea’s leadership training system for the Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement), to which that country’s economic miracle has been attributed. The bags of cement and steel bars the government gave to villages were not the story. The real engine was the Saemaul Leaders Training Institute-a rigorous, immersive leadership incubator designed to replace a pervasive culture of defeatism (sound familiar?) with the three pillars of diligence, self-help, and cooperation. It’s time for us to establish a Philippine Cooperative Leadership Academy (PCLA) with nationwide reach, patterned after this exact model. If we want our tiny co-ops to scale up to the average size of Thai co-ops, for example, we need to massively overhaul how we train their leaders. Four key elements in South Korea’s system are worth copying.

First, PCLA must set aside dry, theoretical academic lectures in favor of what the Koreans called Bundan Toi-late night highly-charged, case-based group discussions. The curriculum should feature successful Filipino co-op pioneers sharing raw, real-life struggle stories; for example, let our micro-coop leaders debate how an agricultural co-op in Bukidnon bypassed exploitative middlemen to supply major supermarkets directly.

Second, we must integrate, not eliminate. The biggest curse of Philippine governance is our bad habit of reinventing the wheel with every new initiative. We do not lack cooperative training initiatives; we lack synchronization. The PCLA should act as an apex orchestrator, handling high-level strategy and certification of trainers. State universities and colleges could serve as regional residential campuses. Excellent existing networks of accredited training providers and federations like Natcco or MASS-SPECC could be the frontline execution nodes using an upgraded and unified national curriculum.

Third, the Saemaul movement’s dual-leadership system, which mandated electing one male and one female coleader for each community, would serve us well too. In our context, this serves two vital purposes. It ensures that leaders are democratically validated by their peers, and insulates co-ops from being co-opted by local trapos who see them as ready-made voting blocs. It also systematically builds a pipeline of female executives in a sector where women make up the bulk of the workforce but are hardly seen in the boardroom.

Finally, PCLA must adopt South Korea’s formula of social flattening. There, Cabinet ministers, chaebol corporate titans, local officials, and poor farmers wore the exact same green uniform, slept in the same barracks, and ate the same meals. Imagine a training camp where the chief executive officer of a multibillion-peso credit union from Metro Manila shares a room and meals with a struggling seaweed farmer leading a micro-cooperative in Tawi-Tawi. And by requiring Municipal and Provincial Cooperative Development Officers (local government unit [LGU] positions mandated by law) to train alongside grassroots leaders, we could transform LGUs from regulatory roadblocks into active economic partners.

If we can forge a disciplined, unified, and self-reliant cooperative leadership system, thousands of struggling micro-cooperatives can become effective engines of countryside growth. It will need political will, institutional humility, and a collective realization that true economic empowerment requires building the leaders before we can build the economy.

Malacañang on Tuesday said it was ‘too premature’ to discuss who would succeed Vice President Sara Duterte if she were convicted in the impeachment trial.

Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano urged fellow senators to reject any offer from Malacañang to take over the country’s second-highest post if Duterte is convicted.

But Palace press officer Claire Castro said such discussions were premature out of respect for the Office of the Vice President.

‘Unang-una po ay hindi po dapat pinag-uusapan ang pagpalit kay Bise Presidente sa panahon na ito, napaka-premature. Para sa akin, igalang natin ang opisina ng Bise Presidente,’ Castro said at a briefing in Cagayan de Oro City.

(First of all, we should not be discussing replacing the vice president at this time. It is far too premature. For me, we should respect the Office of the Vice President.)

‘Kung mayroon mang hindi gumagalang sa Pangulo, kung mayroon mang nagpapahayag ng mga negatibo sa Pangulo – kahit hindi na siya ang irespeto, irespeto na lang natin ang opisina ng Bise Presidente,’ she continued.

(If there are people who do not respect the President, or who make negative remarks about him-even if they do not respect him personally, they should at least respect the Office of the Vice President.)

Cayetano is also in no position to dictate his fellow senators, and such a call shows disrespect to the OVP.

‘Una, very premature; dahil sabi niya dahil premature walang paggalang sa opisina ng Bise Presidente; pangalawa, wala naman siyang karapatang magdikta sa lahat ng senador kung anong gusto ng senador; pangatlo, at wala rin po siyang karapatan pangunahan ang nais ng Pangulo,’ Castro said.

(First, it is very premature. She said it is premature because it shows a lack of respect for the Office of the Vice President. Second, she has no right to dictate to all senators what they should want. Third, she also has no right to preempt the President’s wishes.)

In a Facebook post on Monday, Cayetano expressed support for Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero’s statement that he would reject any offer to assume the vice presidency if Duterte were convicted in her impeachment trial.

‘Tama po ito! All of us Senator-Judges should make this declaration,’ Cayetano said.

(This is right! All of us Senator-Judges should make this declaration,)

‘It’s essential that in all impeachment proceedings (especially of Presidents and Vice Presidents), Senator-Judges are politically neutral and will have no incentive to convict except for evidence that proves the article/s of impeachment,’ he added in his post.

Escudero, who serves as the presiding officer in Duterte’s impeachment trial, made the declaration on his podcast over the weekend.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, however, said it was uncalled for to preempt Marcos and limit his choices for a possible replacement for Duterte. ‘We should not yet be discussing who would become or be appointed vice president. The impeachment trial is still ongoing, and we cannot be certain of the verdict. It’s as if we’re already sure of the outcome. It’s premature to talk about it,’ he said.

Barangay Ginebra drew first blood over San Miguel Beer in their 2026 PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinal series with a 104-95 victory on Tuesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Import Jordan Murphy tallied 29 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks, but the Gin Kings also got a big lift from Isaac Go, who made key plays in the second half to create separation from the Beermen.

Go scored six of his 14 points in the third quarter in perhaps his best performance since a lengthy absence due to a knee injury.

The win was Ginebra’s fourth in the last five games since its campaign was put in jeopardy with a 3-5 record in the group stage.

Ginebra can make it two in a row over San Miguel in Game 2 on Friday at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

CJ Perez and Don Trollano scored 21 points apiece while import George King added 20 for the Beermen.

Two threes from Go in the last three minutes of the third were among the reasons that momentum swung in Ginebra’s favor.

The Gin Kings ended the period up 76-70 before the lead ballooned to a high of 20 in the fourth.

Approximately 1.25 million passengers are expected to pass through Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) during the Undas holiday travel rush from October 27 to November 4, prompting airport operator New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) to step up preparations for the busy period.

These include round-the-clock monitoring, additional personnel and passenger assistance services, and tighter security measures to manage the expected influx. October 30 is projected to be the busiest day, with around 149,000 passengers.

But with airport terminals expected to be packed this holiday weekend, what can travelers do to prepare? Here are eight travel hacks to help make your departure during Undas more manageable.

Hack 1: Check your flight details and head to the airport early

Getting to the airport early is especially important this weekend, as travelers may encounter heavier road traffic and longer queues at airport checkpoints.

NNIC advises passengers to arrive at least two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights. However, Cebu Pacific recommends arriving three and four hours early, respectively, during the peak travel season.

Before leaving home, verify your flight schedule and assigned terminal, and check for any last-minute changes. Plan your transportation accordingly, allow extra time for possible road congestion around NAIA, and follow your airline’s latest travel advisories.

Hack 2: Keep your travel documents organized and accessible

Keeping your travel documents in a secure, easily accessible pouch can make airport checkpoint verification much smoother.

Saving digital copies of your boarding passes, booking confirmations, and other travel documents can also serve as useful backups. However, these should not replace required original documents, such as passports and physical IDs. For international flights, check your destination’s visa requirements, including whether it accepts printed or electronic copies.

For families, it can be helpful to designate one adult to organize everyone’s travel documents. Just make sure each passenger’s paperwork is readily available for individual verification when needed.

Hack 3: Check in online before going to NAIA

To simplify check-in, use your airline’s website or mobile app as soon as the service becomes available.

Once you’ve done so, save your boarding pass on your device and keep an offline copy for easy access. If you have checked baggage, check whether your airline offers dedicated baggage-drop counters to speed up the process.

However, online check-in does not always eliminate the need to visit an airport counter. Passengers with checked baggage will still need to drop off their luggage, while international travelers may require additional document verification.

Hack 4: Complete your eTravel registration ahead of time

This next hack is for international travelers only.

Filipino passengers departing the Philippines, along with most passengers arriving from abroad, must complete their eTravel registration within 72 hours before their scheduled departure or arrival.

Registration is free through the official eTravel website or the eGovPH app. After registering, download the generated QR code or take a screenshot for easy presentation when airline or airport personnel request it.

Take note that domestic flights do not require eTravel registration.

Hack 5: Settle applicable travel taxes before your flight

For passengers traveling abroad, check whether the Philippine travel tax is already included in their airline ticket.

If it is not included and you must pay, you can settle the amount through TIEZA’s official online travel tax system before heading to the airport. Keep your payment receipt in case the airline requests verification.

The standard full economy-class travel tax is P1,620, although exemptions and reduced rates are available for eligible travelers.

If online payment is not possible, passengers can also pay at the appropriate airport counter. However, settling the tax ahead of time can help avoid another queue during the holiday rush.

Hack 6: Secure and identify your luggage

Always check your luggage before leaving home.

Any seasoned traveler will tell you that luggage can take a beating during transit, whether at the airport or while being loaded onto an aircraft. That’s why you should inspect your bags for damage, especially the wheels, handles, zippers, and other openings.

Using a luggage lock can help deter tampering, although bags may still need to be opened for inspection. Attaching a recognizable luggage tag, strap, or accessory can also make your bag easier to identify at baggage claim.

Weigh your luggage before heading to the airport to ensure it meets your airline’s baggage allowance. Also check for prohibited or restricted items, especially in your carry-on, to avoid unnecessary delays during screening.

Hack 7: Pack your pockets and dress for security

For a smoother experience at security checkpoints, consider transferring loose items such as keys, watches, and other accessories into a small, secure pouch inside your carry-on before joining the queue. This way, you can keep your belongings together instead of emptying several pockets when it’s your turn for inspection.

Wearing joggers or trousers that do not require a belt can also make the process easier. The same goes for comfortable shoes that are easy to remove and slip back on if security personnel request additional screening.

Of course, always follow airport security instructions, as certain items may still need separate inspection.

Hack 8: Prepare for long waits and possible delays

With the large influx of passengers expected this weekend, airport processes may take longer than usual. So it’s best to prepare for longer waits and unexpected delays.

A little patience and something to keep yourself entertained can go a long way. Bringing a book to read is always a good idea. If you prefer digital entertainment, download movies, music, or podcasts beforehand so you can enjoy them without an internet connection.

Just be sure to charge your devices before leaving home. If you plan to bring a power bank, pack it in your carry-on and check that it complies with your airline’s restrictions.

Lastly, remember to stay fed and hydrated while waiting for your flight, and follow airport rules on food and liquids.

Don’t forget to prepare your home before leaving

This last point isn’t much of a travel hack but rather an important precaution before heading out on your trip.

Home security should always be a priority when going on vacation. Before leaving, make sure your doors and windows are locked, unnecessary appliances are unplugged, and water and gas connections are safely turned off where appropriate. If you’ll be away for several days, consider asking someone you trust to check on your home from time to time.

Pet owners leaving their fur babies behind should arrange a trusted caretaker or check them into a reputable boarding facility.

Preparing for a trip can be stressful, especially during a busy holiday weekend. But taking these extra precautions can go a long way toward making your journey smoother and more enjoyable.