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Superstar rookie Bella Belen will make her much-awaited debut as Capital1 clashes with Choco Mucho in today’s opener of the PVL Reinforced Conference at the Ynares Center Montalban.

‘I love the new challenges in whatever league and whoever players I play against,’ said this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, who was a three-time UAAP MVP and champion from National University.

‘But for me I have to prepare for this conference because the level of play in the collegiate and the PVL are different,’ she added.

Nonetheless, Belen eyes nothing less than a finals appearance for the Solar Spikers this conference.

They start their campaign versus the Flying Titans at 6:30 p.m.

‘I have high expectations for the team and have that mentality that we can make the finals, we’re aiming high,’ said the Alas Pilipinas standout.

Interestingly, she will face off against a familiar face, fellow neophyte and national team mainstay Tia Andaya, who will partner with Deanna Wong at the setter position.

‘She’s ready to play,’ said Choco Mucho mentor Dante Alinsunurin of his prized setter from Ellensburg, Washington who suited up for US NCAA Division I school Gonzaga U.

Also taking center stage at 4 p.m. are ZUS Coffee and Akari.

The Thunderbelles parade 5-11 American outside spiker Anna DeBeer from University of Louisville, who along with the return of Thea Gagate from national team duty, should bolster their chances in this compressed and ultra-competitive two-month tournament.

The Chargers, meanwhile, will brandish a veteran American in Annie Mitchem, who had stops in Jakarta, Italy, Turkey and Brazil after a standout effort at University of Hawaii.

She will have around her a strong core in Ivy Lacsina, Grethcel Soltones, Fifi Sharma, Faith Nisperos, Eli Soyud and Ced Domingo.

‘Greg-zilla’ is ready to take the path back to the PBA and the Southeast Asian Games.

Aside from declaring his intention to play in the pro league after a four-year absence, Greg Slaughter is also offering his service for the Gilas Pilipinas team that will defend the SEAG gold in Thailand in December.

In attendance for the PBA’s opening ceremonies the other day, the seven-foot center said he wants to run it back and help coach Norman Black duplicate their triumphant campaign in the biennial meet 14 years ago in Jakarta.

‘I actually reached out to coach Norman as soon as I found out he was going to be coaching the (Gilas Pilipinas) SEAG Games (team). We were able to win one in 2011 together and when I messaged him, I told him that I would love to do that again,’ he said.

Slaughter was a key member of Black’s all-college Sinag Pilipinas crew back then, dropping 16 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the 85-57 clincher over the Thais.

‘So hopefully that’s a possibility. I know a lot of the PBA players won’t be available for that. So one of the first things I did was reach out to coach and told him I’d be available for that,’ he added.

At the same time, Slaughter said he already got in touch with Aldriene Anglim, team manager of Titan Ultra, the new franchise that replaced his old team NorthPort, to explore his possible PBA comeback.

Issues involving massive corruption are seen as having a temporary impact on the country’s property sector, which has been experiencing robust growth in recent quarters.

‘There might be a pullback on transaction volume, but I don’t think prices are going to fall. I think this is highly temporary,’ Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC) chief executive officer David Leechiu said.

‘As far as the property market is concerned, we are very blessed because the office market continues to perform very strongly. Despite all the problems of the world and this country, the property market continues to perform very well. Data centers, malls, office tenants and residential tenants are expanding. And what you see, which is the depression in the stock market and the depression in the currency, it’s all sentiment-driven,’ he said.

In its third quarter Philippine property market report, LPC reported gains in the office market, despite market shifts, with demand reaching 966,000 square meters year-to-date, or 88 percent of the full-year 2024 target, which was achieved without any boost from the Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO) sector.

LPC said that the IT-BPM industry continues to anchor demand, accounting for the largest share of office transactions nationwide, while the impact of the POGO exit has dissipated and no longer weighs on contractions.

For the residential market, LPC said that Metro Manila is gaining traction, with demand rising, a modest number of new launches, and inventory dropping to 31 months.

Rental yields also remain low, with rents still under pressure due to the lingering effects of the POGO exit.

LPC said that affordability remains a key issue as most units are still priced beyond the reach of the majority of Filipino households.

The upper-income segments are driving market recovery, with sales of luxury units or those priced at P68 million and above soaring by 431 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter.

Alex Eala, with a new career-high world ranking at No. 54, is enjoying a little break in Wuhan, China before resuming her campaign in Japan next week in a bid to win her second professional title and barge inside the Top 50 for the first time ever.

Eala got an early boot from the WTA1000 Wuhan Open last week, absorbing a 4-6, 6-3, 2-6 defeat against Japanese Moyuka of Japan in Round 1 of the qualifiers but proved enough in her WTA rise once more, thanks to a string of playoff finishes before that.

From No. 58 last week, Eala improved four rungs with 1131 points and is determined to shore up her drive as one of the seeded main draw players in the WTA250 Japan Open in Osaka on Monday alongside Leylah Fernandez and Naomi Osaka.

The grind continues for Eala from there, strutting her stuff in the Guangzhou Open from October 20-26 and the Hong Kong Open from October 27 to November 2.

It’s been a loaded Asian swing for Eala so far with three stops in China marked by a semifinal stint in the WTA125 Jingshan Open. She had a quarterfinal finish in the WTA125 Suzhou Open after that before an early elimination in Wuhan.

Before that, the 20-year-old Filipina pride won her first WTA Tour crown in the WTA125 Guadalajara Open in Mexico and had a Top-8 finish in the WTA250 Sao Paulo Open in Brazil on top of a US Open milestone as the first Filipina winner in any Grand Slam main draw.

Eala, after her non-stop Asian tour, is tipped to play in the slated home leg of the WTA Tour to be branded as the Manila or Philippine Open in early 2026 after her possible national team return in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games this December in Thailand.

The Commission on Elections might hold a manual parliamentary election for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in March, the Comelec said yesterday.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laundiangco said the possibility comes after the Supreme Court ordered the poll body to hold the first parliamentary polls by March 31, 2026 – a schedule he described as tight.

‘The Comelec has prepared two contingency plans. We are studying the possibility of holding a manual election to comply with the Supreme Court decision,’ Laudiangco said during the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing yesterday.

The second plan, he said, is for the Comelec to change the date, if there is really not enough time to do it in March.

Laudiangco said the Comelec believes that a manual election is feasible for BARMM residents to vote for a regional parliamentary political party and a district parliamentary representative.

The high court has given the Bangsamoro Transition Authority until Oct. 30 to come up with a new law on the redistricting of BARMM.

According to Laudiangco, the Comelec will be left with limited time to prepare if the law is crafted after Oct. 30.

The Supreme Court previously stopped the automated BARMM parliamentary vote set for Oct. 13 after declaring the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act Nos. 58 and 77 unconstitutional.

If Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano wants resignations and a snap election for the president, vice president and members of Congress, he can lead the way and step down first, according to his brother.

The proposal could ‘spark’ genuine transformation, but only if the senator and his family of politicians make the first move, former Taguig mayor Lino Cayetano said yesterday.

‘I support this proposal. I agree with my brother Alan and ask that we start with ourselves. Give up power.

And this movement for real transformation will be a legacy our father will be truly proud of,’ Lino Cayetano said in a Facebook post over the weekend.

He said the Senate ‘will function without the Cayetanos.’

The Cayetano ‘political party,’ he noted, has had 15 years to institute reforms, and that the Senate should be strong enough to continue without them.

‘If you truly believe what you say, then trust and have faith that if some of the old guard step down now, it will inspire others to follow,’ the former mayor said. ‘I will support further that no Cayetano should run in 2028 – all of us.’

The younger Cayetano, who was Taguig City mayor from 2019 to 2022, stressed that the proposal should not just be dismissed as a political gimmick but as a sincere effort to respond to the people’s ‘anger and demand for change.’

He said his elder brother’s proposal may convince older politicians to step aside to give the next generation a chance to lead.

‘For the status quo to step down may be the only way to give our country a chance – maybe this is our only hope for real change,’ he said.

Comelec: Law needed

But in the absence of a law, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) cannot allow the holding of snap elections.

While he is open to the idea, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said a snap election would only be possible if an amendment to the Constitution is made or if a law allowing such is enacted.

‘Under the present 1987 Constitution, with all due respect, that would be a problem because the terms of office of government officials are fixed,’ Garcia said in Filipino in a radio interview.

On Sunday, Cayetano dared elected officials – from the president to lawmakers – to resign to give way to snap elections, where none of them would be allowed to participate.

‘Uncertainty, chaos’

For Senate President Vicente Sotto III, holding a snap election would be ‘flirting with uncertainty and chaos.’

In rejecting Cayetano’s proposal, Sotto said the country has ‘no constitutional nor legal framework for a snap election.’

Sotto said resignations cannot be an option, especially since not all elected officials have betrayed public trust.

Instead of resignations, Sotto said the Senate may be able to restore public trust by making the budget-making process transparent and accountable.

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, for his part, said the real solution lies in holding corrupt officials accountable, not in replacing elected leaders through another election.

He also warned that another election could ‘fuel more corruption’ as candidates resort to vote buying, often using public funds.

The Makati Business Club (MBC) said changing systems, not calling for the mass resignation of elected officials, is key to strengthening government institutions and democracy.

‘Simply changing the people in power will not achieve the lasting improvement in the country’s governance,’ the business group said in a statement yesterday.

The group said there are many proposed systemic changes languishing in the legislature, including an anti-dynasty law, changes in the bank secrecy laws and Freedom of Information law.

In the ongoing probe on corruption in flood control, the MBC said Filipinos are demanding transparency, accountability and justice.

‘These are immediate measures that need to be put in place for meaningful reforms that the country needs,’ the MBC said.

Jannik Sinner retired on Sunday from the Shanghai Masters after suffering from cramps in his third-round match against the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor, easing the way for Novak Djokovic’s shot at a record-extending fifth title.

The 38-year-old Serb battled through to the L16 with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, despite admitting that he had been ‘hanging by a rope’ early in the match.

It was a sorry end for Sinner, who had been hoping this week to add to his China Open victory.

Meanwhile, Amanda Anisimova beat Linda Noskova 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 to win the China Open for her second title of a breakthrough year and fourth overall.

The third-seeded American survived a second-set wobble to overpower the Czech 26th seed in one hour and 46 minutes in Beijing.

By a twist of fate or perhaps destiny, three people will probably decide the fate of the nation in the coming months – retired Justice Andres ‘Andy’ B. Reyes Jr., 75; former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary Rogelio ‘Babes’ Singson, 77, and SGV country managing partner Rossana A. Fajardo.

The trio constitutes what is called the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) tasked by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to investigate the biggest act of corruption in this country – the syndicated stealing of P1 trillion worth of DPWH funds from 2016 to 2025, our flood-gate.

‘Flood’ because the P1 trillion plundered was flood control money. And ‘gate’ is as in Watergate, Washington DC hotel broken into to hide an act of corruption. The break-in eventually brought down President Richard Nixon on Aug. 9, 1974, after it was revealed he ordered the FBI to stop the investigation of the burglary.

Of course, there is a fourth man to help out in our own burglary-induced unprecedented crisis -newly installed DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, 51. His job is to document how the P1-trillion heist was undertaken, who are behind it and institute the biggest overhaul of a Cabinet department immediately. Vince’s task is daunting. ‘Every day I discover incredible wrongdoing and acts of inhuman greed,’ he winces. ‘I feel like I want to give up and jump into the river.’

Finally, the buck stops with just one man, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., aka BBM – Bongbong Marcos. He is the first whistleblower leader in recorded history, the first president to tell the nation and the world, ‘Hey, my country has been engulfed by corruption. I need help.’

BBM’s disclosures – and revelations in the now ‘stopped’ investigations by the House and the Senate – triggered a people’s rage so furious and disruptive it could bring down a sitting government and destroy all that Filipinos have built since 1898, 127 years ago.

The Philippines was Asia’s first republic. Filipinos founded Asia’s first nation and first democratic state when much of the region as we know it today did not exist. The Philippines, in fact, was the richest democratic country in the 1950s, after the Second World War reduced to ruins Japan, then Asia’s richest and mightiest military power, by the first ever two nuclear bombs in commercial scale.

Today, Filipinos face a nuke bomb of a different kind – corruption. We have a corrupt House of Representatives, a corrupt Senate, a corrupt judiciary and, of course, a parade of corrupt presidents, including one who waged mass murders. With unbridled corruption everywhere, the nation has lost is pride, its sense of purpose, its aspiration for greatness, its desire to exist.

In this light, the man of the hour is Marcos Jr. himself. He created the ICI. But the ICI is now using the very same techniques that the cabal behind the P1-trillion flood-gate used with such breathtaking elan – closed door meetings, deals involving hundreds of billions in ‘one-for-you, one-for-me fashion’ and a small committee deciding which guy gets what moolah. The mafia also employed such techniques, but with deadly results.

The hope is that the ICI could indeed produce results, establish the pattern behind the SSS – syndicated symphony of stealing, identify the culprits and file charges before the ombudsman.

So far, the ICI has brought to the ombudsman its very first case, the one against congressman-contractor Zaldy Co of Bicol. He is being accused of malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents in one project worth P289 million in Baranggay Tagumpay in Naujan, Oriental Mindorol – the construction of a 425-meter long road dike along Mag-asawang Tubig River. Co’s Sunwest Inc. won the rigged bidding and funded it with his insertions in the budget.

Co’s companies bagged P86.1 billion worth of DPWH contracts. At an average of P150 million per contract, P86.1 billion is equivalent to at least 574 contracts. Since Co habitually did shoddy jobs per contract, Co potentially faces 574 acts of malversation. Under the law, each malversation is non-bailable and punishable by life imprisonment. Co faces 574 life terms, each life equivalent to 30 years. Co will age or die in jail, if he is found.

If the ICI can produce cases as tight as Zaldy Co’s, then there is hope for this country. People will believe there is indeed justice.

I now see the logic of closed door ICI meetings. It’s a discovery of evidence, not a hearing. The ICI trio goes by the evidence. Since the contractors sign and present all kinds of docs, mostly manufactured, it’s easy to build a case for malversation through falsification of docs.

One big downside is since senators and congressmen don’t sign documents (they use the point system – point projects in the GAA, the General Appropriations Act), it’s not easy to pin these bastards down, except through accounts of witnesses like the Discayas and the DPWH engineers who most of the time say they did not deal directly with the suspect senators and congressmen. You cannot build a case on hearsay.

People have asked me, what happens to former Senate president Chiz Escudero, a lawyer and the other Bicol Boy of Flood-gate, and former House speaker Martin Romualdez, said to be the key partner of the original Flood-gate Bicol Boy, Zaldy Co, the Martin House’s chair of the committee on appropriations?

If Comelec is earnest in enforcing the law on illegal campaign donations, it can look into the P30-million donation of a government contractor to Escudero when he ran for senator in 2022. Chair George Garcia ordered Chiz to appear before the Comelec on Oct. 13 to explain the P30-million donation from contractor Lawrence Lubiano. Escudero says he violated no law.

And Martin? The ICI rule is: go by the evidence.

The government is considering the use of a debarment list as a tool to boost accountability in government projects, according to the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev).

‘I think that the public being aware of what is a good partner and a bad partner should be part of that accountability mechanism that we need to put in place,’ DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a press conference yesterday, when asked if the government is open to creating a list of firms barred from participating in projects due to violations in procurement rules.

Multilateral development institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank currently implement cross-debarment with other signatory institutions to prevent corrupt entities from participating in projects they finance.

Recently exposed corruption issues in flood control projects have highlighted the need for reforms.

Budget Assistant Secretary Romeo Matthew Balanquit said in the same event that the Government Procurement Reform Act, approved in July this year, is expected to bring improvements by enabling the government to flag unscrupulous practices.

Under the law, he said bidders are required to disclose all procurement data and documents, including beneficial ownership.

‘So I think this would be a very good way of not only deterring these possible incidents happening again in the future, but also [in determining] the appropriate penalty that can be also imposed on those people who made these anti-competitive practices,’ he said.

For his part, Zafer Mustafaoglu, division director for the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei at the World Bank said that the corruption issues provide a good opportunity for the Philippines to increase transparency, step up monitoring and strengthen good governance.

‘That should normally increase the investment environment and appetite for investment. And that should actually support long-term growth. So the short-term corruption action would be a good opportunity to enhance long-term growth,’ he said.

As the Philippines aims to achieve upper-middle income status, he said there are opportunities to use official development assistance funding to increase transparency and introduce improvements for greater accountability.

‘Looking ahead, we remain guided by the Philippines Development Plan, which continues to bring institutions together behind your development goals. Collectively, the development partners stand ready to extend around $50 billion in support over the next three years, if requested by the government, to accelerate the delivery of better services for Filipino citizens,’ he said.

He said efforts will focus on areas including social development and human capital, infrastructure, as well as strengthening governance.

Balisacan said the government and its development partners are committed to ensuring that policies, programs and investments are responsive to the needs of Filipinos and support the country’s long term vision.

He said the government would also be working with development partners in embedding impact evaluation and monitoring in projects to learn and prevent costly mistakes.

‘We will continue to strengthen our monitoring and evaluation systems to guide budget alignment and ensure that every intervention delivers value and impact,’ he said.

He said reforms including the revision of the Investment Coordination Committee guidelines, the simplification of grant processing, as well as the the passage of landmark legislation such as the Public-Private Partnership Code, E-Governance Act, and the Accelerated and Reformed Right-of- Way Act are also expected to improve governance.

‘Development is a shared responsibility,’ he said.

‘With the continued support of our development partners, the private sector, civil society and the media, we are confident that we can deliver on our promise of inclusive and sustainable development for all Filipinos,’ he said further.

Resigning from office is ‘not enough’ to clear officials behind anomalous infrastructure projects, as they must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for the loss of lives and other damage they caused, President Marcos said.

In his latest podcast interview released by the Presidential Communications Office yesterday, Marcos stressed that accountability extends beyond stepping down from office, especially when negligence or corruption results in devastating consequences.

‘That’s not sufficient. That’s not enough,’ the President said, rejecting Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s call for his resignation as well as of the Vice President and all lawmakers to pave the way for snap elections.

Marcos said flawed, substandard and ghost flood control projects have caused a great deal of damage, not only financial and economic but actual harm to people’s lives.

‘A lousy flood control project that collapsed during the flood, that killed a family. I mean, how can you live with that? I can’t live with it. So, I won’t live with it. So, I – we’ll keep pushing (for prosecution),’ the President said.

Marcos also stressed he exposed irregularities in flood control projects not for political reasons but because he cannot allow ‘deeply entrenched’ corruption to continue. ‘Why would I even start such a thing if it was somehow for political advantage?’ he said.

‘The reason I brought it up and made it part of the national discourse was quite simply because this could not go on. Because if it kept going – suddenly you discovered how deeply entrenched this entire system was,’ he said.

‘Nothing will happen to the Philippines if we carry on this way. The economy will never grow properly. People are not going to get helped. The schools will not get better. The hospitals will not get better. We will not get anywhere,’ Marcos pointed out.

During the interview, the President stressed the need to build airtight cases against those who benefited from the anomalies, accusing them of stealing the future of communities.

‘Look, what will happen: we rush it, the evidence is not complete, our evidence is unclear, but we forced it. The case is dismissed. Can you imagine? I think that would be much, much, much, much worse,’ Marcos said.

Marcos accepted last month the resignation of Manuel Bonoan as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways while other public works officials had been dismissed.

Former House appropriations committee chairman Zaldy Co, whose whereabouts are unknown, also resigned after being linked to the flood control scandal.

Funds won’t be wasted

With the country getting bad press over the multibillion-peso flood control controversy, Marcos assured the country’s development partners at a forum yesterday that he would not allow state funds to be wasted as he vowed to reduce bottlenecks that hinder the optimal use of funding assistance.

Speaking at the Philippine Development Forum, Marcos said his administration continues to listen to the concerns and recommendations of its development partners and is ‘determined to go further.’

‘No money will be wasted. We will not allow the money of the nation to be wasted,’ the President said during the event, attended by members of the diplomatic community as well as by representatives of the World Bank.

Marcos said the national budget should serve as the Philippines’ ‘moral and economic compass’ and ‘must always point toward making life better for our people.’

He also said that measures are in place to ensure that assistance from development partners is optimized. The government has strategically channeled official development assistance (ODA) toward vital sectors such as education, health care, infrastructure, social protection, agriculture and disaster risk resilience.

‘We know that funding alone is not enough. Critical bottlenecks and systemic challenges have long hindered us from optimally utilizing the ODA. So, we are taking action,’ the President said.

‘To streamline the process, cut bureaucratic delays, accelerate public service, we have revised the Investment Coordination Committee guidelines, the first comprehensive update in a decade,’ he maintained.

Marcos also highlighted measures designed to strengthen the educational system like enhancing early childhood care and development, prioritizing foundational skills such as reading and literacy and ensuring that every learner has a safe and conducive environment for growth.

He ordered the Department of Economy, Planning and Development, as well as the budget and finance departments and other concerned agencies to ensure that the administration’s highest priorities – especially education – receive appropriate funding and support.