Asianet Pakistan Private Limited

Inflation in the Philippines may have accelerated beyond 2 percent in September, driven by rising rice, fish and fuel costs, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said, though the central bank’s estimate showed that price growth was still likely to remain within its target range.

In a statement on Wednesday, the BSP predicted that the consumer price index may have settled between 1.5 and 2.3 percent last month.

This forecast suggested that the upcoming inflation number due on Oct. 7 may beat the 1.5-percent clip recorded in August Even so, the central bank expected price growth to stay within its 2 to 4 percent target range.

‘Upward price pressures for the month are likely to arise from higher prices of rice and fish. Elevated domestic fuel costs likewise contribute to upside price pressures for the month,’ the BSP said.

‘These pressures could be partially offset by the decline in vegetables and meat prices along with lower electricity rates,’ it added.

Policy steps

The stretch of subdued price gains could influence the central bank’s next policy steps.

Last August, the BSP trimmed its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 5 percent-a level Governor Eli Remolona Jr. described as ‘Goldilocks,’ neither too low to fuel inflation nor too high to choke economic growth. Market observers said the BSP’s easing cycle was close to running its course. But Remolona kept options open, signaling the Monetary Board could consider another reduction at its October or December meetings if demand shows signs of weakening.

Jonathan Ravelas, senior adviser at Reyes Tacandong and Co., said inflation could remain below 2 percent for the rest of 2025, absent any major shocks.

‘For the remainder of the year, there is a chance inflation could edge higher with holiday demand, weather risks and movements in global oil prices,’ he added.

Eyes on next meeting

Aris Dacanay, economist at HSBC Global Investment Research, believed that the BSP may leave its policy rate unchanged at its Oct. 9 meeting, which would be a ‘tough call between a hawkish cut or a dovish hold.’

‘The only guidance provided by the BSP, so far, is that the central bank could lower interest rates in as early as October if there are signs that the economy is already losing momentum,’ Dacanay said in a commentary.

‘We think there is limited data to conclude with conviction that, indeed, the economy is slowing down. While consumer vehicle purchases are falling and government capital spending tightening, goods exports are still holding up,’ he added.

At first blush, it sounded as though outgoing Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian was just being pleasant when he addressed Vice President Sara Duterte during China’s 76th founding anniversary and his farewell reception, ‘At this moment of parting, I bid farewell to VP Sara Duterte. Madam Vice President, thank you for your support and dedication to China-Philippines friendship. Hope our bilateral relations will get back to a sound and healthy track soon,’ he said.

But nothing is accidental in the geopolitical arena and in diplomacy. Every word is deliberate. And in the context of Philippines-China relations, especially our current rejection of the latter’s expansionist stance and its gray-zone tactics, the outgoing ambassador’s message is rife with meaning.

Huang’s words were not just polite farewell words of any ambassador about to leave his post. He looked upon and addressed the Vice President fondly and with effusive praise. Under the administration of the VP’s father, the Philippines adopted a policy of appeasement toward China. Between 2016 and 2022, Manila leaned away from its traditional partners toward accommodation of China, despite the maritime tensions it initiated. In fact, the former President Rodrigo Duterte declared that Philippine relations with China were at their best during his time.

The Chinese thus likely hoped that with the election of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., Sara Duterte’s running mate, their happy days would continue. Sara Duterte as Vice President provided some hope that even with the change in administration, the Philippines would still accommodate China’s bullying. They expected a foothold in Philippine politics that can secure its strategic interests beyond the Duterte presidency.

But Marcos Jr. had a different policy altogether, even declaring that the Philippines would not surrender even a square inch of territory to any foreign power.

Getting back to a ‘sound and healthy track’ tells us that China sees the current relationship as unsound and unhealthy. The Marcos administration has visibly pushed back and resisted China’s attempts to assert its unfounded claims on our sovereignty, even going to the extent of spreading disinformation on the matter.

In pursuit of its own interests, China may be seeing this stance by the Philippines as offtrack, an aberration. It may be longing for the Dutertes as their preferred partners in Manila. For the Chinese, the healthy path means returning to the Duterte-era policy of preferential engagement and turning a blind eye to Chinese incursions into the West Philippine Sea.

The words are a thinly veiled criticism of Mr. Marcos’ firmer stance in defending Philippine sovereignty, reinvigorating defense ties with like-minded partners.

With the arrival of a new Chinese ambassador, there is little reason to expect a change in Beijing’s posture. Its pattern of aggression reflects a long-standing strategy that transcends personalities in the embassy. Diplomats may change, but China’s objectives remain the same: to expand its hegemonic control in the entire South China Sea.

But equally telling was what VP Sara Duterte said during the event. She described Philippines-China ties in language uncannily similar to Beijing’s script: ‘mutual respect, sovereign equality, and a shared commitment to peace,’ even claiming that cooperation was ‘anchored in international law.’

Such statements are far removed from the lived reality of Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea, where China has ignored international rulings, harassed fishermen, and undermined Philippine sovereignty. Sara Duterte should not deny the depth of the Filipino people’s opposition to Beijing’s influence: in a September 2024 survey held by Pulse Asia, 72 percent of Filipinos said they would support an anti-China candidate, while only 17 percent favored a pro-China candidate. The decisive margin underscores that any political figure openly aligned with Beijing risks losing the confidence of a clear majority of voters. These results confirm that defending Philippine sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea is not just a foreign policy imperative but also an important issue in the country’s electoral politics.

With Filipinos overwhelmingly rejecting pro-China candidates, defending sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea has become a defining political issue.

And our leaders must listen.

China is pursuing its expansionist ambition, even if that means disregard for international law and baseless claims regarding its own and other countries’ sovereignty. But Philippine leaders-acting on China’s behest and adopting a policy of appeasement and accommodation when they should be the first ones to defend our country from persistent acts of aggression-are another story.

We must be extremely wary of them, see through their crafty messages, and refuse to let them represent us again.

The hour of reckoning has come for Royina Garma. This week, a Mandaluyong court issued warrants of arrest against the former police colonel and trusted Duterte aide, as well as retired police officer Edilberto Leonardo, and three others on charges of murder and frustrated murder.

The five are accused of being behind the 2020 assassination of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Board Secretary Wesley Barayuga. Garma was Barayuga’s boss as general manager of the PCSO from 2019 to 2022, appointed to that position by former President Rodrigo Duterte after her early retirement from the police force with the rank of police colonel.

From those once lofty posts, she is now facing interminable days in jail, because the charges against her are nonbailable. Once Garma is brought back to the country from Malaysia where she had flown reportedly to meet with representatives of the International Criminal Court (ICC), she would go straight to a cramped prison cell. There, she’d have more than enough time to contemplate, and perhaps rue, how her past life choices led to the current state of existence she’s enduring now.

In her heyday, Garma most likely thought the happy days would last forever. She had seemingly hit the jackpot, after all-or what counted for it in a country still ruled by powerful political warlords and kingpins: proximity to power.

Most trusted

As a long-time top cop in Davao City (and later in Cebu City), Garma became one of then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s most trusted foot soldiers, such that, according to the affidavits filed at the ICC by self-confessed former Davao Death Squad (DDS) hitmen Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascañas, Garma was among those with direct knowledge of and participation in the killing sprees carried out by the DDS in the name of Duterte’s ‘war on drugs.’

Per Lascañas, Garma-and Leonardo, now his co-accused in the Barayuga case-allegedly took direct orders from Duterte. In 2016, three Chinese drug lords detained at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm were summarily killed. The suspects were two prisoners who, in 2024, submitted affidavits to the House quad committee looking into extrajudicial killings that it was a cop named Arthur Narsolis who gave the order to kill the Chinese detainees.

Narsolis was not only a subordinate of Garma at that time; he was also her boyfriend. A jail officer would also tell the House that Garma had warned him against ‘interfering’ in the operation to kill the three Chinese. More damningly, Garma allegedly told him it was part of Duterte’s drug war.

Lucrative post

In Cebu City where she became police chief beginning 2018, Garma’s name struck fear and loathing in impoverished communities targeted by the brutal antinarcotics campaign of her boss. A victim’s mother testified at the House how, at the wake of her son who was gunned down by cops in an alleged drug raid, Garma arrogantly barged in, angry that such a wake was being held for a drug suspect and demanding why ‘there is only one dead, when there are many of them’ killed during the operation.

Garma had a full 10 years left to her career as a cop, but apparently, she was promised much bigger things, because she opted to retire early. Just days after chucking her uniform, she was installed as PCSO chief by Duterte. The state gambling regulator turned out to be a lucrative post not only for Garma, but also for her family. She hired seven family members to various PCSO positions and set up a party list led by relatives and associates that, according to House lawmakers, profited from its connection to Garma as PCSO chief.

But it was also here, at the peak of her power and influence propped up by the iron hand of a strongman, that Garma’s sense of impunity appeared to have made a fatal overreach. In July 2020, Barayuga was killed in a shocking vigilante-style shooting in Mandaluyong.

Bare minimum

Nothing came of the investigation into his killing until, four years later, yet another cop would disclose to the House that Garma and Leonardo had allegedly masterminded the assassination, to prevent Barayuga from delving into irregularities in the PCSO.

Confronted with the barrage of incriminating information against her, the once swaggering, untouchable Garma was reduced to a sputtering mess before lawmakers, at one point begging not to be detained for contempt because she supposedly needed to take care of a sick daughter at home-the one she had previously placed in the PCSO’s payroll as a ‘confidential agent.’

Now that the moment of reckoning has come for Garma, she must make amends and pay back for her actions on two nonnegotiable fronts: one, by serving time in prison if she is found guilty of Barayuga’s murder; and two, by testifying at the ICC, fully, and without dissembling, about the extent of the mass killings done by the DDS under Duterte’s command.

National University arrived at University of Santo Tomas’ own home floor with something that two previous Tigers opponents didn’t have: familiarity with one Collins Akowe.

For two games, the 6-foot-8 Nigerian-a product of the NU high school program-had bulldozed his way to an average of 24.5 points and 18 rebounds, powering the Growling Tigers to upset wins over defending champion University of the Philippines and last season’s finalist La Salle. But on Wednesday at the Quadricentennial Pavilion, the Bulldogs smothered him into irrelevance.

Akowe finished with just five points on 1-of-7 shooting-his lowest output of the season-and eight rebounds. Without their anchor, UST struggled to sustain its hot start to UAAP Season 88.

It was the Bulldogs that did just that, roaring to a share of the lead with a 76-69 victory, the team’s third straight win.

‘The players really worked hard to get this,’ NU coach Jeff Napa said. ‘I’m happy because they really followed the game plan. They are disciplined to do it, the effort is there-that’s what I always remind them.’

And while the defense was suffocating, it was Jake Figueroa who delivered the clutch blows.

Cold-blooded triple

With UST ahead by one late in the fourth, Gelo Santiago put NU back in front with a layup. Then Figueroa rose for a step-back jumper to make it 70-67 with under two minutes left.

Nic Cabañero kept UST alive with a basket, trimming it to 70-69. But Figueroa wasn’t finished. Off a Tigers turnover, he buried a cold-blooded triple with 38.2 seconds left, the dagger that sealed the triumph.

‘I just took advantage of the responsibility coach gave me,’ Figueroa said. ‘It was something I had to own, so I did my part and it worked out.’

Figueroa finished with 22 points, including nine in the fourth, while also grabbing nine rebounds. Omar John provided muscle inside, posting 10 points, 12 boards, three blocks, three assists and two steals in his battle with Akowe.

The win tied NU with idle Ateneo at the top of the standings at 3-0 (win-loss).

For UST, the defeat marked the end of its perfect start. Cabañero paced the Tigers with 19 points on 8-of-19 shooting, while Amiel Acido broke out with a career-high 18. Mark Llemit added 12 points, five rebounds and two steals, and Forthsky Padrigao chipped in 10 points and six assists.

But without Akowe’s usual dominance, the Tigers lacked the finishing punch against a well-drilled NU squad.

Both teams return to action on Saturday, still at UST’s QPav. The Bulldogs face UP in a battle of contenders at 4:30 p.m., while UST looks to bounce back at 1:30 p.m. against winless UE.

Philippine factory activity slipped in September, breaking from the broader regional trend and marking an uncommon stumble in the country’s postpandemic recovery after domestic demand had faltered.

A monthly survey of about 400 firms showed the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)-a key barometer of manufacturing health-fell to 49.9 from 50.8 in August, SandP Global said on Wednesday. Any reading below 50 indicates a decline in activity.

It was only the third time in more than four years that the index had slipped into contraction, a downturn SandP described as ‘highly unusual’ given the sector’s steady momentum since the pandemic.

The weakness contrasted sharply with the broader region, where the Asean PMI rose to 51.6-a 14-month high.

Only the Philippines and Malaysia, whose index eased to 49.8, recorded deteriorating conditions. First sales decline in 6 months

‘New orders and output decreased slightly, as firms mentioned a fall in client numbers and a modest drop in production from the suspension of rice imports,’ David Owen, a senior economist at SandP Global Market Intelligence, said in a commentary.

External demand offered some cushion. A month after the Aug. 1 expiration of US tariff deadlines, Filipino manufacturers continued to record growth in export orders.

Even so, companies surveyed reported their first decline in overall sales in six months. Producers responded by scaling back production, snapping three months of expansion and leading to ‘subdued’ hiring activity. Domestic market

The softness, SandP said, was concentrated in the domestic market-a sign of weakening household demand, long a mainstay of the Philippine economy. Poor weather and import restrictions on rice also weighed on output.

Shivaan Tandon, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said Asia’s economies more broadly are likely to face sluggish growth through the rest of this year and into 2026, as tighter fiscal policy and weaker exports, weighed down by higher US tariffs, offset resilient household spending.

‘And with inflation likely to remain low, we expect central banks in the region to cut interest rates further,’ he said. Still, manufacturers in the Philippines appeared guardedly optimistic.

The Philippines is looking to host its first-ever Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 125 tournament, with discussions underway for the event to be held early next year.

The plan was raised in a meeting between Navotas Mayor and Philippine Tennis Association secretary-general John Rey Tiangco and Philippine Sports Commission chairman Patrick Gregorio on September 29. If plans materialize, the event could be held from January 26 to February 1, 2026.

Also being discussed is the possible public opening of the Rizal Memorial Tennis Courts, a move that officials said would expand access to the sport.

‘This partnership with the PSC paves the way for a new chapter in Philippine tennis,’ Tiangco said. ‘We are pursuing the hosting of the WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open and the ITF J30, exploring the opening of Rizal Memorial to the public, and continuing plans for the Philippine Tennis Center in New Clark City.’ Gregorio added that staging a WTA event would give Filipino athletes a chance to test themselves against top players while helping inspire the next generation.

The timing comes as Filipino tennis star Alex Eala continues to climb the world rankings, with organizers hoping to create opportunities for her and other local players to compete on home soil.

The Philippines is already confirmed to host the International Tennis Federation (ITF) J30 event from late November to December 7, 2025, featuring rising juniors aged 13 to 18 from Asia and beyond.

Officials said the proposed WTA event would mark a breakthrough moment for Philippine tennis, combining grassroots development, international hosting, and sports tourism.

The police in Maguindanao del Norte and Sultan Kudarat impounded a total of P11.4 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in separate law enforcement operations on Thursday.

The first operation was in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, where the police, led by Lt. Colonel Esmael Madin, flagged down a closed-van cargo truck at about 4 a.m.

Responding to a tip that a cargo truck from Lebak, Sultan Kudarat was to pass through Barangay Dalican, Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Madin alerted his men manning several checkpoints in the town’s capital.

A cargo truck was intercepted and upon inspection, police found 266 cases of imported cigarettes from Malaysia.

‘It was estimated to cost about P9.5 million,’ Madin told reporters, adding that the contraband was supposed to be delivered to an unidentified consignee in Tacurong City.

The suspects are now detained at the Datu Odin police detention facility while appropriate charges are being prepared against them.

A few hours earlier, members of the 2nd Sultan Kudarat Mobile Force Company and Lebak municipal police station confiscated about P1.9 million worth of smuggled cigarettes at a checkpoint in Barangay Christianuevo, Lebak, at about 11:30 a.m.

Two men, the driver and the helper, were arrested and are now detained at the Lebak police detention facility.

Brig. Gen Arnold Ardiente, regional director for Police Regional Office 12, said smuggling will never prosper in the Soccsksargen region because the public has been helping the police foil all illegal activities in the region

Not only does Phoenix await the Aces in the WNBA Finals, but so does history.

Las Vegas has the opportunity to become champions for the third time in four years, a feat surpassed only by the Houston Comets, who won the league’s first four titles in 1997-2000 The second-seeded Aces, who won championships in 2022 and 2023, open the best-of-seven Finals by hosting the No. 4 Mercury on Friday.

But minutes after getting past No. 6 Indiana 107-98 in overtime on Tuesday night, coach Becky Hammon wasn’t ready to think about the potential history the Aces can make.

‘I haven’t thought about it,’ Hammon said. ‘We’re just trying to make it through a quarter at a time. Look, we have a special group here. I’m not surprised that they’re here because I know who they are. I know how they’re built.’

The Aces beat the Mercury in three of their four meetings this season, including both in August when Las Vegas was in the midst of compiling its 16-game winning streak to close the regular season. It’s tied with the second-longest streak in league history with the 2014 Mercury. The Aces are making their fourth Finals appearance in six years. They lost to Seattle in the COVID-19 bubble Finals of 2020, but then defeated Connecticut in 2022 and New York in 2023, securing both clinching victories on the road.

In defeating the Liberty, the Aces became the first team since Los Angeles in 2001-02 to win back-to-back titles.

Then this year, A’ja Wilson became the first four-time MVP. She was key to lifting the Aces out of a rut with that late charge in the regular season.

‘When you’ve been in the trenches and you really don’t know what is the problem or you don’t know what’s wrong, you’re trying to figure out answers,’ Wilson said. ‘At the beginning of every season, we write out our goals and our goals are always to win a championship. That’s everybody. But to get there, the road, we weren’t expecting it to look like it is.

Social Security System (SSS) members hit by the powerful earthquake in Cebu can now apply for a calamity loan effective Oct. 2.

In a statement on Thursday, SSS president and CEO Robert Joseph De Claro said the new guidelines allowed the pension fund to respond sooner than before, as the activation process of its calamity loan program had been significantly shortened. Members and pensioners affected by the earthquake may borrow up to P20,000 at an interest rate of 7 percent per annum. Loan applications can be filed using members’ My.SSS account.

In addition to Cebu, De Claro said the SSS calamity loans also covers members affected by the recent tropical cyclones-Mirasol, Nando and Opong-and the enhanced southwest monsoon.

A state of calamity was declared over 85 towns and cities in Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Oriental Mindoro, Romblon, Masbate, Aklan,and Maguindanao del Sur as a result of the weather disturbances. /dda

It’s been an eventful past few months on the hardcourt for Jericho Cruz-winning Finals Most Valuable Player honors during San Miguel Beer’s run to the PBA Philippine Cup crown and helping Guam notch its first-ever victory in the Fiba Asia Cup.

But for Cruz, those milestones pale in comparison to a far greater blessing off the court. ‘Winning Finals MVP and making history for Guam isn’t the most important,’ Cruz said. ‘The important thing that happened to me was welcoming our baby.’

Cruz and his wife Mosh welcomed their third child during the offseason, giving the veteran guard a deeper sense of purpose heading into the new PBA campaign.

Season 50 opens this weekend with the Philippine Cup, leaving the Beermen little time to savor the title they clinched in late July as they look to extend their dominance in a conference they’ve won seven times in the last 10 stagings. ‘Like what our coaches are saying, we have to take it one game at a time and not think too much about trying to repeat,’ Cruz said.

Turning 35 soon, Cruz is expected to play a vital role for the Beermen-especially after earning Finals MVP honors from the PBA Press Corps and helping Guam reach the Asia Cup quarterfinal qualification stage.

He missed Guam’s final two games due to a hamstring injury but has since fully recovered and even saw action in San Miguel’s recent tuneup games.

‘Of course, my confidence will always be there,’ said Cruz, now entering his 11th PBA season.