FORMER VICE-PRESIDENT Jejomar C. Binay and his son — dismissed Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” S. Binay, Jr. — were indicted by the Office of the Ombudsman with multiple counts of graft and falsification for “conspiring to rig” the procurement processes of the P1.3 billion Makati Science High School (MSHS) building.
LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA — HBO’s chief said on Wednesday that the company is conducting a forensic review of its computer systems to better understand the scope of a cyber attack that surfaced over the weekend.
THE Philippines Football League (PFL) transfer that saw Phil and James Younghusband move from FC Meralco Manila to Davao Aguilas FC was made official on Wednesday night in a signing ceremony held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.
EARNINGS of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power retailer, slid in the second quarter dragged by the lower contributions of its subsidiaries and increased competition in the retail electricity business.
THE ACTORS Actors Guild of the Philippines or the Katipunan ng mga Artistang Pilipino sa Pelikula at Telebisyon (KAPPT) has signed an agreement with the Social Security System (SSS) for the compulsory coverage and remittance of contributions for self-employed movie and television industry workers. The deal, which will be under the existing “ArtistaSSSya” partnership, will cover 1,600 KAPPT members, including actors, actresses, singers, producers, stage personalities, commercial artists, and stunt men. “Art is the highest form of expression so we should take care of our people in the movie industry. We must ensure that they will have a secure future especially when they retire,” SSS Chairman Amado D. Valdez said in a statement. KAPPT President Imelda A. Papin, for her part, said that to encourage SSS membership, the association will pay for the initial contributions of its members. “The board decided to pay the initial SSS contributions of the first 250 active members to encourage others to join so that each one of us can say na nakasandal na kami sa pader (we have a wall to lean on),” Ms. Papin, a singer, said.
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Reporter
MACAU — Already experiencing tremendous exponential growth in TV ratings and social media engagements in the first half 2017, ONE Championship expects the numbers to continue to improve for the rest of the year as it continues to further build connection with its audience through various ways it presents its content.
CEBU, PHILIPPINES — A Cebuano businessman has urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to look into the stagnant growth of the country’s mango industry. Justin Uy, owner of Cebu-based Profood International Corp., a top dried mango producer, said he recently met with DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol to voice out the challenges faced by the mango industry today. “The biggest challenge in the mango industry today is that there are no corporate growers,” Uy said in an interview Tuesday, citing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is against corporate growers. The CARP, enacted in 1988, is the redistribution of public and private agricultural lands to farmers and farm workers who are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement. One of the major programs of CARP is land tenure improvement, which seeks to hasten distribution of lands to landless farmers. Secondly, Uy also emphasized the country’s outdated technology in growing mango as he called for the conduct of more research and development (R&D) activities aimed at increasing mango production per hectare. “We are also having less crops due to more pests and other factors,” the businessman said. He said he had told the DA secretary it’s about time the government and stakeholders in the mango sector must look into how they can help revive the country’s mango production especially that it has developed a huge market abroad specifically for dried mangoes. “We must look at this area and help the farmers to produce more,” the Profood owner said. Uy said other Asian countries are taking advantage of the Philippines’ short delivery. “We can’t deliver to all the countries we have built a market. Because growth of our mango supply is stagnant,” Uy further lamented. He said the Philippines used to rank sixth in terms of mango production in Southeast Asia but now he supposed the country is now on the eighth spot. However, the Philippines remains a top exporter of dried mangoes abroad. Today, India and China are among the top global producers and exporters of mango, he said.
THE Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) has given 52 inactive trading participants until the end of September to signify their intention to continue operations or else be declassified. This is part of the PSE’s bid to bring down broker ownership of the bourse in order to pass regulatory hurdles to its proposed merger with the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corporation (PDS).
COACHING rivals for nearly three decades, Tim Cone and Yeng Guiao have figured in memorable battles.
NEW YORK — Two albums by Linkin Park reentered the top 10 on the US sales chart Tuesday as fans mourned the suicide of frontman Chester Bennington.
THE SUPREME Court has ordered the judges in charge of cases involving the Sept. 2, 2016 bombing in Davao City to comment on the petition of the local government to transfer the trials to Taguig City in Metro Manila. During the City Peace and Order Council meeting on Wednesday, City Prosecutor Nestor M. Ledesma said the Office of the Court Administrator has ordered Regional Trial Court Judges Lope L. Callo of Branch 33 and Evalyn A. Morales of Branch 17 to respond to the transfer petition, which has been endorsed by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. Mr. Ledesma quoted Ms. Morales as saying that she supports the transfer “in the interest of justice and safety of all the persons concerned.” The other judge, Mr. Callo, has yet to comment on the matter as he has asked the lawyers of those charged to first file a comment on the petition. The suspects’ lawyers have previously manifested in open court that they did not want the trial to be transferred. Mr. Callo is handling the murder aspect of the cases while Ms. Morales is handling the terrorism charges. Of the 14 arrested, only five were charged, three of them became state witnesses while the others were freed. The Sept. 2 bombing at a busy night market left 14 people dead and more than 60 injured. — Carmelito Q. Francisco
