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AIA: Filipinos taking charge of finances and health

FREEPIK

AIA PHILIPPINES Life and General Insurance Co., Inc. is seeing a shift in Filipinos toward more proactive financial and health planning, driven largely by family values and a desire to prepare for crises.

A recent survey of 872 Filipino respondents found 83% are more proactive about health after experiencing crises, signaling a move away from the traditional bahala na (come what may) mindset toward a handa na (prepared) approach.

“Filipinos are taking steps to be more proactive about health, to stay healthy and financially independent longer, so that they can be secure and confident through the rest of their lives,” AIA Philippines Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Henson told a news briefing on Wednesday.

She noted that family remains a central influence across generations.

The survey suggests increased awareness could translate into higher insurance demand, with 42% indicating they are likely to buy insurance products within the next 12 months.

More than half of the respondents see the future as tangible and worth preparing for, while 47% remain proactive despite having a safety net such as a health maintenance organization (HMO) plan.

Most respondents reject the bahala na mindset, disagreeing with statements like “I feel fine today, so why plan ahead?” (53%), “It’s hard to invest in benefits I can claim years away” (42%), and “I’ll just wing it when stress hits” (60%).

Filipinos also show growing confidence in managing finances and health. About 56% agree financial planning can be simpler than it seems, 54% find health advice easy to understand, and 53% remain confident even when guidance is complex. Survey results showed 77% prefer customized insurance plans, 56% are setting aside money for the future, 70% are taking charge of physical health, and 71% are planning for mental well-being.

However, some respondents still prioritize the present, with 57% focusing on immediate mental wellness and 59% rewarding themselves with short-term gratification.

Family continues to shape attitudes and behavior. Sixty-two percent said family influences their overall health attitudes and choices, 63% cited family as a motivator for taking care of health, and 59% said spending habits mirror their household.

Seventy-one percent noted family relationships affect mental well-being, and 56% said daily health decisions are guided by family.

The study also found 45% report that supporting their family affects their mental health, while 43% sacrifice personal financial goals for family needs, underscoring the enduring role of family in Filipino financial and health planning decisions. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

The doctor in the box

STOCK PHOTO | Image by Drazen Zigic from Freepik

Imagine a nurse in a rural health unit in some far-flung province. She has a basic X-ray machine, a basic smartphone, no internet access, and a patient in front of her with a cough that has not gone away in three months. The nearest radiologist is four hours away. The nearest specialist is in Manila.

That gap between the patient who needs a diagnosis and the specialist who can give one is a key concern of our public healthcare system. The Universal Health Care Act of 2019 gave us the legal basis to fix it. What we have not yet done is reach for the tools that could actually address the concern.

One of those tools arrived quietly last year as the result of research by the US National Institutes of Health, through its National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

The tool is called Merlin, aptly named after the legendary, powerful wizard and prophet in Arthurian mythology.

A doctor can feed Merlin a 3D scan of a patients body and Merlin reads that scan the way an experienced radiologist would, looking for signs of disease across hundreds of conditions at once. This is what makes Merlin unique as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool for medical science.

Older medical AI programs were narrow: one program for tuberculosis, a separate one for lung tumors, another for broken bones. If a patient had all three problems, the doctor had to run three separate programs. Merlin looks at everything in a single pass, predicts five-year health risks with 75% accuracy, and flags the most urgent cases first — strokes, tumors, and blocked arteries.

Merlin learned to do this by studying 1.3 million scans alongside the written reports that radiologists made about those scans. Over time, it learned to connect what a scan looks like with what a doctor would say about it. A clinician can now ask it a question in plain language, and it will look, even for things it was never specifically programmed to find.

For a well-equipped hospital in an urban center like Makati City, this is a useful upgrade. But for the rest of the country, where there are not enough specialists and where internet connections outside cities are unreliable, it is something bigger. It is a chance to improve diagnostic capability.

This is already happening in other countries with similar challenges. In India, for instance, a company has deployed AI software on ordinary smartphones and low-cost devices to screen chest X-rays for tuberculosis and other conditions like pneumonia, operating offline without internet.

Available information indicate that the AI runs locally on small devices or phones at clinics, giving rapid imaging analysis without distant servers, and providing specialist-level opinions on medical images regardless of connectivity, like a compact diagnostic expert.

In China, various AI-assisted systems have also been deployed in rural clinics to enhance diagnostics, and provide offline diagnosis recommendations, similar case retrieval, and medical info lookups without internet. Other initiatives include smart village doctor systems with AI for exams like blood pressure and glucose, plus tools using data for prescription references.

And in Nigeria and Uganda, AI tools reportedly enable faster TB and fracture diagnosis in remote areas with minimal prior support, processing images offline on local devices or phones. These act as compact, on-site “diagnostic experts” independent of servers or connectivity.

In all these situations, the AI does not live in a distant server somewhere. It lives in a small box on-site, doing its job whether or not the internet is working. The “doctor” is a “jack in the box,” offering informed opinions on medical imaging data provided by the rural health unit or the patient.

This is the model the Philippines needs to follow. And the law we already have, the Universal Health Care Act, gives us the legal foundation to do it. One section of that law requires hospitals and clinics to use compatible digital health records, the data AI needs to work properly. Another section of the law created a government body responsible for approving new medical tools for public use. The pieces are in place. What is missing is the connection between them.

The approval process for new medical tools is currently designed for physical equipment like an X-ray machine, or a blood pressure monitor. AI is different. It improves as it processes more data. A tool approved today will be more capable in two years. What we need is an approval process that accounts for that.

We should also settle the issue of legal responsibility. If an AI tool clears a scan as healthy, the doctor agrees, and the patient later turns out to be seriously ill, who is at fault? The Department of Health needs to formally recognize AI as a support tool, something that helps the doctor but does not replace the doctor’s judgment. The doctor makes the final call. The law needs to say that clearly. Without that protection, most doctors will simply refuse to use AI tools, and no one can blame them.

Also, a tool like Merlin was trained mostly on scans from patients in Western countries. A 70-year-old Filipino patient has a different medical history from the American patients whose scans shaped Merlin’s training. Different childhood diseases, different diet, different baseline health conditions, etc.

A tool that reads scans accurately in the US may miss things here in the Philippines. So, before any foreign AI tool is used widely here, it must be tested and adjusted using a representative sample of Filipino patients. This is not red tape. This is basic patient safety.

Moreover, clinics will not adopt new technology if it only adds to their costs. PhilHealth can change that by paying clinics more when they use AI to catch tuberculosis and other diseases early. In short, the government should turn a public health goal into a financial incentive.

None of this has to happen all at once. It can start small: AI on smartphones in rural health units, the way India began. It can grow to regional centers with better equipment. It can eventually connect to a national system with full predictive capability. But the groundwork has to be laid now, in law, in regulation, and in budget.

The Universal Health Care Act gave every Filipino the right to health. Merlin, and AI tools like it, give the government the means to deliver on that promise without waiting for enough specialists to be trained and posted to every far-flung clinic in the country. We should start digitizing healthcare and make it real.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council.

matort@yahoo.com

Vinexpo Paris overtakes ProWein as world’s largest trade show

THE Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting corner, featuring the 2023 vintage. — SHERWIN A. LAO

PARIS, France — For decades, ProWein in Düsseldorf held the uncontested title as the world’s most influential international wine trade fair. But in 2025, a decisive shift occurred — one that industry insiders had been whispering about for years and are now openly acknowledging: Vinexpo Paris has overtaken ProWein as the premier global wine business event. And this recently concluded Vinexpo Paris just cemented this fact decisively.

VINEXPO PARIS 2026’S NUMBERS
The official numbers from Vinexpo Paris: 63,541 trade visitors from 169 countries, 51% of whom were international (up 20.75%), and 6,537 exhibitors from 63 countries (up 20%). I was among the record-breaking number of visitors and part of the 51% who were international or non-French.

Meanwhile, at its peak, ProWein received around 61,500 trade visitors, and that was way back in 2019, before the world experience the COVID-19 pandemic. While the ProWein Düsseldorf 2026 numbers are not out because it was still ongoing as I was writing this column (it ran from March 13 to 15), it is quite safe to assume they will not be higher than those recorded by Vinexpo Paris.

Last year, ProWein welcomed only around 42,000 visitors, a 10.6% decline from their 2024 numbers. That same year, Vinexpo Paris saw over 52,600 visitors.

HISTORY AND ASIAN EXPANSION
The first Vinexpo took place in Bordeaux, France on June 22 to 26, 1981. That fair was considered a success at that time, with 11,000 trade visitors and 500 exhibitors. It was also the first international wine and spirits exhibition of its kind, designed to connect producers, distributors, and buyers on a global scale. Bordeaux was chosen as the host city because of its reputation as the wine capital of the world.

On the other hand, the very first ProWein was held in Düsseldorf, Germany, on Feb. 23 to 24, 1994. It was originally called ProVins and featured 321 exhibitors, and it attracted many visitors from parts of Europe and beyond. By 2019, 25 years after it started, attendance peaked at 61,500 visitors with over 6,800 exhibitors. These 6,800 exhibitors still remain the number to beat to-date, as even this year’s Vinexpo Paris did not exceed this number of exhibitors.

I attended my first ProWein in 2008, and it was before the Vinexpo Paris fair, and it was by far the largest wine event I had been part of back then.

Both event organizations have done well in their expansion, with Vinexpo adding Asia via the launching of Vinexpo Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong in 1998. More recently, in 2023, it was made into an annual event alternating between Hong Kong and Singapore. Just last year, they launched Vinexpo America in Miami, Florida, USA.

ProWein, on the other hand, held their first wine fair outside of Düsseldorf in Asia, in Hong Kong in 2013. In 2014, there was ProWein China, held in Shanghai. This was followed in 2018 by ProWein Southeast Asia, held in Singapore; in 2024, ProWein Japan, held in Tokyo; and this year a ProWein in multiple Asian cities is on its way.

The competition is fierce, and Asia offers the biggest opportunities for wine development and consumption in the world.

I have attended several Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, including the ones held in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and, more recently, Singapore, but I have yet to attend a single ProWein outside of Düsseldorf, Germany.

HOW PROWEIN DEVELOPED
ProWein was most successful in the 2000s and 2010s, partly because many wine producing countries felt it was a more neutral ground for international wine exhibitors. First of all, Germany is not as large of a wine-producing country as France. Germany always ranks in the lower end of the Top 10 producers, either in the 8th or 9th position, and produces only 1/5 of what France does. For wine exhibitors, they feel that trade visitors are traveling to Düsseldorf not so much for German wines, but more for other global wine producers.

Also, controversy struck Vinexpo Bordeaux in 2003, when the majority of the Australian wine producers, including several big names, boycotted that year’s Vinexpo due to what the Australians felt were unfair treatment of exhibitors. This included complaints on poor location and dissatisfaction with service.

Then in 2007, Vinexpo Bordeaux organizers had another major crisis when New Zealand totally withdrew from the fair, the Americans substantially reduced their presence, Wines of South Africa withdrew its sponsorship, and the Italian Trade Agency (the government agency that promotes Italian exports) stopped its support of Vinexpo due to space allocation issues.

The 2003 Australian boycott and the bigger 2007 fallout were often cited as a turning point in Vinexpo’s history. This also marked the beginning of a shift in global wine trade show dominance, with ProWein steadily rising and eventually surpassing Vinexpo in scale (until recently).

WINE PARIS, VINEXPO MERGER
Wine Paris began in 2019 as a merger of two French wine fairs — Vinovision Paris, which showcased cool‑climate wines, and Vinisud, which focused on Mediterranean producers. The idea was to consolidate France’s fragmented wine exhibitions into one major international event in Paris, making it more accessible to global buyers and competitive against ProWein Düsseldorf. The initial edition drew about 26,700 visitors and 2,000 exhibitors, immediately positioning Paris as a serious contender in the trade show landscape.

That same year, Vinexpo Bordeaux held its last fair, from June 13-16. The show had a decent showing, but clearly ProWein was still ahead, and, in fact, ProWein had its best performing year that 2019.

So the next year, in 2020, Wine Paris merged with Vinexpo to create Vinexpo Paris, combining Wine Paris’ domestic strength with Vinexpo’s international prestige. In just six years, Wine Paris evolved from a national consolidation project into the world’s leading wine trade show, surpassing ProWein in both visitor and exhibitor numbers. Its rapid rise reflects not only Paris’ strategic advantages as a preferred international location for trade professionals, but also the industry’s shift toward a more globally connected, dynamic hub for wine commerce. Paris has now firmly established itself as the new epicenter of the wine trade.

But like any competition, I expect ProWein to do something in return. We just must wait and see!

 

Sherwin A. Lao is the first Filipino wine writer member of both the Bordeaux-based Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux (FIJEV) and the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers (CWW). For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, wine consultancy and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at wineprotege@gmail.com, or check his wine training website https://thewinetrainingcamp.wordpress.com/services/. Also check out his YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/@winecrazy.

Yuchengco-led BKS energizes P1.8-B solar farm in Isabela

STOCK PHOTO | Image by jcomp from Freepik

YUCHENGCO-LED BKS Green Energy Corp. said it expects to supply electricity to around 33,000 households annually after energizing a 40-megawatt (MW) solar farm in San Pablo, Isabela.

In a statement on Wednesday, BKS Green said it has switched on its first renewable energy project in the Cagayan Valley, which can generate about 59 gigawatt-hours of clean energy per year.

The P1.8-billion solar power plant uses 52,640 solar photovoltaic panels supplied by Chinese manufacturer Trina Solar.

The project was developed in two phases: a 6-MW Phase 1, which is connected to the Isabela Electric Cooperative II system, and a 34-MW Phase 2, which will connect to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ 69-kilovolt Tuguegarao-Cabagan line through a dedicated transmission line.

BKS Green is a subsidiary of Rizal Green Energy Corp., a joint venture between PetroGreen Energy Corp. and Japan’s Taisei Corp. PetroGreen is the renewable energy arm of listed PetroEnergy Resources Corp.

“The current Middle East conflict highlights once more the absolute necessity of securing our country’s energy supply and reducing our dependence on imported energy sources,” PetroGreen President and Chief Executive Officer Francisco G. Delfin, Jr. said.

The Department of Energy has certified the solar power project as an energy project of national significance due to its contribution to economic growth.

PetroGreen currently operates four utility-scale solar projects across Tarlac, Bohol, and Nueva Ecija. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

SSS rolls out MySSS Card with EastWest Rural Bank

PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO

THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM (SSS) has partnered with East West Rural Bank, Inc. to expand the MySSS Card to underserved areas.

SSS President Robert Joseph M. de Claro and EastWest Rural Bank President Shiela Marasigan-Bajado signed a memorandum of agreement authorizing the bank to issue the card, which serves as both an official SSS ID and debit card, mainly for rural members while remaining accessible nationwide.

“The MySSS card also allows SSS to provide digital payment facilities for our registrants, members, pensioners and beneficiaries,” Mr. de Claro said in a statement on Wednesday.

The state pension fund uses the national ID database to verify membership and issues cards via partner banks, with benefits disbursed through linked accounts.

Ms. Bajado said the application process would be available at EastWest Rural Bank’s 112 branches and branch-lites nationwide this year, most of which are in Mindanao and the Visayas, and may also be offered digitally at cross-selling desks at EastWest Bank branches.

Cardholders will have waived maintaining balance requirements and can earn interest once balances reach P500, she added.

Launched in October 2025, the MySSS Card replaces the unified multi-purpose identification card and functions as a digital banking tool. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

On rising government bond rates, US public debt and war

Positive economic news is hard to find these days. Nonetheless I consider these reports in BusinessWorld as positive news, all published on March 17: “Slightly positive business sentiment signals ‘cautious optimism’ in the Philippines,” “House approves bill allowing Marcos to suspend or cut excise tax on fuel,” “Senate approves bill authorizing President to temporarily reduce or freeze fuel excise,” and “PHL in talks with China to obtain more fertilizer.”

I believe that the government should cut the various oil taxes under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act of 2017 (RA 10963), implemented in 2018-2020, which made the tax on diesel go from zero to P6/liter, gasoline from P4 to P10/liter, LPG from zero to P3/kilo, and so on.

Sure, revenue will decline slightly, but government has windfall revenues from higher VAT collection on oil products — while the VAT on P60/liter diesel will garner it P6.60/liter, VAT on P90/liter diesel will give the government P10.80/liter. That will help compensate for the temporary removal of the diesel excise tax of P6/liter.

Another measure is to have spending cuts on certain sectors and agencies, like climate and war-mongering agencies and departments.

Other sectors in the Philippines oppose an oil tax cut and prefer creating or expanding subsidies for public transportation. I do not support this because it creates sectoral favoritism. Tractors, harvesters, irrigation pumps, trucks, fishing boats, and other agri-fishery machinery also need subsidies and the government will ignore them under the current transportation subsidy scheme. If the government should subsidize, it should subsidize all or none at all. An oil tax cut coupled with a spending and subsidy cut somewhere is still the easiest to administer, and would be most fair to all.

With these moves for either higher spending or cutting taxes, the yields on Philippine 10-year government bonds have spiked, from 5.92% on Feb. 27 (the day before Israel and the US attacked Iran) to 6.73% on March 17 — a 13.7% jump. Thailand has seen a higher expansion of 27% as it plans a huge oil subsidy via its Oil Fuel Fund. In Europe, the largest increase in 10-year bonds was that of Switzerland, from 0.20% to 0.33% yield (see Table 1).

Our outstanding public debt in 2025 was P18.05 trillion. Even if we do not borrow more in 2026, at a 6.7% average interest rate our public debt will rise to P19.26 trillion by end-2026 — the P1.21 trillion increase represents interest payment alone.

Hence, the need to confront the bloated spending problem. Tax revenues keep rising, but any gain or increase is quickly dissipated by increases in public spending. The various agencies, bureaucracies, and legislators have very fertile imaginations when it comes to expanding spending. We also need to do large-scale privatization of some government assets and corporations, like the Agus-Pulangi hydro plants in Mindanao.

We also need to embrace hydrocarbons and fossil fuels, not demonize them. We should encourage more exploration and development of indigenous oil, gas, and coal, and stop these “net zero” and “decarbonization” moves. The global energy transition now is from Middle East fossil fuels to fossil fuels from Russia, North America, Indonesia, etc.

Meanwhile, the US under President Donald Trump has gone crazy, embroiled in various wars, both actual and in preparation for. They have had a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine for more than four years now. They are engaged in a Middle East-wide war against Iran, and they are preparing for war against China over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Wars are never cheap, they are costly, both in public finance, people’s lives, and property damage. I checked the numbers of US public debt — it is getting worse.

During the four years of the Biden administration, US public debt was rising by $2.12 trillion/year, or an average of $5.8 billion/day. During Trump’s first year, the debt increased by $2.25 trillion or $6.2 billion/day.

During war preparations against Iran, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 27, US debt was rising by $8.2 billion/day. Since the war started, debt has been rising by $13.1 billion/day. So, estimates of $1 billion/day spent on the Iran war alone may be understated (see Table 2).

Ending the current big war in the Middle East is the logical thing to do. But the US-Israel tandem is already embroiled, and Iran is already heavily damaged and will seek prolonged revenge. Then there has been some damage to seven Middle East countries that host US military bases or facilities.

The Philippines, as Chair of the ASEAN in 2026, should play a major role in pursuing peace and prosperity, at least in East Asia. It should focus more on trade and commerce, investments and tourism, and not war mongering. Peace and prosperity, not war and destruction.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. Research Consultancy Services, and Minimal Government Thinkers. He is an international fellow of the Tholos Foundation.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Using traditional ingredients in modern ways

SCREEN GRAB from Seaweed Harvesters Risk Their Lives in the Philippines (Gamet) from FEATR’s YouTube channel. — YOUTUBE.COM/@FEATRMEDIA

HOW CAN ONE use traditional Filipino ingredients when following a modern lifestyle? That was a topic tackled by James Beard awardee Erwan Heussaff* and the team behind his digital video channel in a talk at the Maya Kitchen on March 14 called “The Not-So-Modern Filipino Pantry.”

In line with FEATR’s work, which features the creation and procurement of obscure Filipino ingredients and how to use them in the kitchen, they told a story using ingredients they had made already documentaries about: gamet, podpod, and pakaskas, among others.

These came in a small market bag thoughtfully provided by Featr so guests at the talk could see, feel, and taste these ingredients — and also featured some of them in a buffet lunch later in the day.

“Filipino food begins with geography,” Mr. Heussaff said, and they conveniently provided a brochure with a map showing how far-flung these ingredients can seem from the capital. Not only do the ingredients show the different flavors one can have on a Filipino plate, but the sheer diversity of ways of living in the Philippines.

For example, there’s gamet from Ilocos Norte and Cagayan Valley. Showing clips from their documentary, Mr. Heussaff explained that it is a local species of seaweed, and quite rare — it costs about P1,000 for one square foot, giving it the name “black gold.” There isn’t much gamet to go around in the country because of the sheer difficulty of collecting it: the seaweed is collected as it is thrown closer to shore by huge waves.

Pakaskas, meanwhile, is a sweetener that comes from the buri palm (the same one whose leaves are used for hats), and typically made in Isla Verde in Batangas. Podpod, meanwhile, is a smoked fish patty made in San Vicente in Eastern Samar. It is a labor-intensive process. The fish is cooked with rice, simmered in vinegar, deboned, skinned, crushed, seasoned, pressed into molds, then smoked over coconut husks.

“If you put the pressure on having to serve Filipino ingredients in traditional ways, the spectrum is too small (in) what you’re allowed and not allowed to do,” said Mr. Heussaff. That is why they used these ingredients in myriad of ways during the lunch: they used a kiping (a thin rice wafer best known for its use in decorations in Lucban, Quezon’s fiesta) as a chip to dip into an aioli that used gamet (coloring it purple), and used the podpod to flavor roasted cabbage.

“Filipino food is not just Filipino recipes. It’s also Filipino ingredients used in international recipes. Representation happens on so many different fronts. It’s really about building that ecosystem of representation,” he said.

“A lot of things can be true at the same time. You can enjoy eating Chickenjoy next to podpod. You don’t have to be one or the other. I think if you become a little too purist with your food and your ingredients, you also run the risk of being elitist, and also the food not moving forward, because it’s so difficult [to make].

“I always tell people: be flexible on how you eat. Be flexible in how you think about Filipino food,” he said. “You don’t want food to become pieces in a museum,” he added. “Food is an artifact of culture: but at the same time, it’s continuously evolving.”

Despite the laxity this philosophy provides, Mr. Heussaff still recommends further exploration. “I recommend everyone to go home today, look in your pantry, and then try to understand the geography of that pantry.

“If it only comes from one area; one supermarket: question it.” — Joseph L. Garcia

*Erwan Heussaff won in the Social Media Category of the James Beard Broadcast Media Awards in 2023.

Megawide order book climbs to P50B, driven by housing projects

MEGAWIDE.COM

MEGAWIDE Construction Corp. said its order book reached P50 billion last year, up 15% from a year earlier, driven mainly by residential project contracts.

“We are back to our comfortable level of around P50 billion, which will give us more revenue visibility over the medium term,” Megawide Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edgar B. Saavedra said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company said the order book represents about three to four years’ worth of revenue and serves as an indicator of its construction segment’s performance.

Megawide said residential projects accounted for 35% of the total order book, followed by office and commercial projects at 28%, expanded Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) projects at 23%, and infrastructure at 15%.

“More important, we want to highlight an emerging segment in our portfolio — the expanded 4PH — which we believe will provide a solid and sustainable pipeline as we aspire to build over 100,000 socialized housing units in the next five to seven years,” he said.

The expanded 4PH is a national government program aimed at delivering affordable housing.

Megawide said it expects to utilize unused capacity in its precast facility as it expands into the 4PH program, while also strengthening its traditional order book to support a steady revenue stream.

The company added that nearly half of the P23.4 billion in new contracts secured last year came from 4PH projects — Avesta, JAB, and Jenara Residences in Cavite — amounting to P10.7 billion.

Other new projects include Megaworld developments Uptown Modern and One Portwood worth P11 billion; the new passenger terminal building of Caticlan Airport valued at P1.6 billion; and solar power plants in Lucanin and Lumbangan from its affiliate Citicore Power, Inc. worth P270 million.

“On a broader scale, the company hopes that by sharing and adopting the technology, it can accelerate housing construction in the country and serve as a catalyst for modernizing the local industry,” it said.

Megawide said it plans to expand its precast capacity by setting up a new facility next year of similar size to support its growing 4PH order book.

Earlier, the company announced plans to redeem its maturing P1.5-billion Series 5 preferred shares on April 17.

“The redemption is part of our long-term financial management program. Already, we see substantial improvement in our debt levels this first quarter of 2026 and, combined with a healthy order book and reduction in preferred shares, can free up incremental cash flows. This will allow us to explore a shift in our dividend strategy to tap a broader shareholder base,” Mr. Saavedra said.

On Wednesday, shares in the company rose by four centavos, or 1.39%, to close at P2.92 each. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

FM Resilience Index: Philippines improves, but remains fourth least resilient among Southeast Asian nations

The Philippines climbed four places to 90th out of 130 countries and territories in the 2026 FM Resilience Index by commercial property insurance company FM Global. The index assesses a country or territory’s business environment resilience based on 18 equally weighted factors, including six physical factors and 12 macro factors. On a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the lowest resilience and 100 is the highest, the Philippines scored 48.92. It was the fourth least resilient compared with other Southeast Asian countries and territories.

7 Filipino AI startups head to GITEX AI Asia

COLLO

SEVEN FILIPINO startups developing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven solutions will showcase their technologies at GITEX AI Asia 2026 in Singapore, highlighting the Philippines’ growing presence in the global innovation space.

The firms span sectors from education and agriculture to property technology and disaster monitoring, reflecting a broader push to bring locally developed solutions to international markets, the Department of Science and Technology-Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DoST-TAPI) said in a statement on Wednesday.

GradeChum, developed by CodeChum Software Solutions, Inc., uses AI to evaluate handwritten and digital student assessments, reducing teachers’ workload while providing real-time insights.

Farmesto Technologies, Inc. combines AI and Internet of Things sensors to automate nutrient dosing, irrigation and climate control in greenhouses, helping farmers improve yields and resource use.

Duon Technologies, Inc. developed DUON Wayfinding, a real-time indoor navigation platform that lets users locate facilities in large buildings while generating foot-traffic data for businesses.

Also among the seven is Collo Property Technology Solutions, Inc., which offers a cloud-based system that automates tenant management, billing and collections for property operators.

Meanwhile, Cerebro provides an integrated platform for school administration and digital learning, supporting hybrid education systems for K-12 institutions.

GreenVisions delivers AI-driven farm diagnostics and monitoring tools designed to reduce costs and improve crop output through precision agriculture.

WEHLO Resilience Technology Corp. has developed a localized weather and environmental monitoring system aimed at improving disaster preparedness and climate-related decision-making.

The startups are backed by the Technology Application and Promotion Institute, the commercialization arm of the DoST, which supports innovators through intellectual property protection, pre-commercialization services and market linkages.

Their participation in GITEX AI Asia is supported under government programs including the Grants and Assistance to Leverage Innovations for National Growth, Technology Innovation and Commercialization program and Expanded Venture Financing program.

The showcase comes as the Philippines continues to improve its standing in global innovation rankings. In the Global Innovation Index 2025 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the country ranked 50th out of 139 economies and third among lower middle-income economies.

Other reports point to steady progress in the startup ecosystem. The Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2025 by StartupBlink cited continued growth, while the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome said the Philippines is transitioning from an emerging ecosystem to a growth-stage hub, particularly in fintech, artificial intelligence and sustainability.

The seven startups are scheduled to present at GITEX AI Asia 2026 on April 9 to 10 as part of efforts to expand the global reach of Philippine technologies and connect with international investors and partners. — Norman P. Aquino

From enforcement to insight: Modernizing data loss prevention for today’s threats

TRUSTPAIR.COM

By Bambi Escalante

ORGANIZATIONS today operate in an environment where data moves faster and farther than ever before. As digital transformation accelerates, many are rethinking how to secure sensitive information across complex cloud, SaaS (software as a service) and artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystems. Every transaction, collaboration and innovation depends on data that is constantly being accessed, shared and stored across multiple platforms. This has made data security a core element of business resilience rather than a back-end function.

Many organizations are now taking a more structured and strategic approach to protecting sensitive information, going beyond technology alone. Investments in insider risk management and data protection rose significantly last year, reflecting a stronger awareness among leaders of the need to safeguard their most valuable assets.

Despite this progress, data loss incidents continue to rise. The 2025 Data Security Report by Cybersecurity Insiders and Fortinet found that 77% of organizations worldwide experienced at least one insider-related incident in the past 18 months, with 58% reporting six or more. The same trend is evident in the Philippines, where insider threats ranked as the fourth-most common cyber-risk, according to a recent Fortinet-commissioned IDC study.

With higher budgets and smarter strategies already in motion, the question remains: Why does data loss continue to happen?

OUTGROWING OLD DEFENSES
The Cybersecurity Insiders and Fortinet report revealed that most organizations have increased their investments in insider risk management and data protection. Seventy-two percent raised their budgets last year, with more than a quarter implementing significant increases. However, despite these efforts, data loss incidents continue to cause substantial impact.

Almost half of the surveyed organizations experienced direct financial losses from insider-related incidents. Among them, 41% estimated damages ranging from $1 million to $10 million in their most significant case, while 9% reported losses of more than $10 million. The consequences extended beyond financial impact, with 43% citing reputational harm and 39% encountering operational disruptions.

The issue lies not in how much organizations invest, but in the tools many still rely on. Traditional data loss prevention (DLP) solutions were designed for an era when data resided largely within on-premises networks. Their primary role was to prevent regulated information such as credit card details, personal identifiers or medical records from leaving the organization. These tools focused on perimeter control and compliance, which worked when data stayed within defined boundaries.

Today’s reality is far more complex. Sensitive information now moves continuously across cloud infrastructures, SaaS platforms and AI-driven systems. Teams collaborate across borders, share intellectual property with partners and increasingly use AI tools to analyze and generate data. While these practices drive productivity and innovation, they also introduce new and often invisible data exposure risks.

Legacy data loss prevention tools struggle in this environment. Many lack visibility into how employees actually interact with sensitive data, particularly within SaaS and generative AI tools, and they often fail to distinguish between malicious activity and simple human error. Almost half of insider-related incidents stem from negligence rather than intent, yet traditional systems treat every event the same. These tools also operate in silos, with endpoint, e-mail and network data loss prevention rarely working together, making it difficult to connect events into a clear risk picture. In many cases, organizations wait weeks or even months before gaining meaningful insight from these deployments.

The result is a false sense of control: more alerts, but less clarity. In fast-moving, data-driven environments, that lack of context undermines resilience rather than strengthening it.

FROM ENFORCEMENT TO INSIGHT
Protecting data today requires more than enforcing static rules. It demands a deeper understanding of behavior and context, how people interact with information and why certain actions occur. Knowing that a file was shared is no longer enough. Security teams need to understand who shared it, whether the behavior is typical and if the activity represents genuine risk.

Modern data loss prevention solutions are designed to deliver this level of insight. By using behavioral analytics and contextual monitoring, they help distinguish mistakes from malicious intent and surface abnormal patterns early. Crucially, these platforms provide visibility from day one, enabling teams to see how sensitive data moves across users, applications and environments as soon as they are deployed.

As data flows beyond traditional perimeters into cloud services, SaaS applications and AI platforms, advanced data loss prevention solutions help close visibility gaps by correlating activity across channels. This transforms isolated events into coherent risk narratives, allowing security teams to prioritize what truly matters and respond with confidence.

A strong example of this approach is the unification of data loss prevention with insider risk management to deliver real-time, behavior-aware visibility across endpoints, cloud, SaaS, and AI environments. Fortinet enables this through FortiDLP and the Fortinet Security Fabric, which integrate identity, access and activity data to help prevent small mistakes from escalating into costly breaches.

DATA LOSS PREVENTION FOR THE MODERN ERA
Despite stronger security strategies and increased executive support, many organizations continue to experience damaging insider incidents. A key reason is continued reliance on legacy data loss prevention tools that were never designed for today’s distributed, cloud-first environments and often add complexity without delivering clarity.

As data protection programs evolve, real progress will come from adopting platforms that deliver insight and understanding, not just alerts. Moving from enforcement to intelligence-driven data protection is essential to building resilience, maintaining trust and enabling secure growth in an increasingly connected digital economy.

 

Bambi Escalante is the country manager at Fortinet Philippines.

IC joins agencies to boost insurance cybersecurity

REUTERS

THE INSURANCE COMMISSION (IC) has partnered with five government agencies to strengthen cybersecurity in the insurance sector.

On March 16, the IC signed a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of the Treasury, Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. and Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK), it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The collaboration aims to improve detection, prevention and response to cyberthreats through advanced monitoring, enhanced analytics and stronger security controls.

Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go said the initiative protects Filipinos’ savings, supports sector stability and reinforces public trust in insurance as a financial security tool.

LANDBANK will serve as procurement agent, handling bidding and acquisition of the cyber-defense solution.

Participating agencies will form a joint technical working group to set requirements and oversee implementation, and an interagency oversight committee of chief information officers and information technology security officials will monitor developments and recommend safeguards.

“Cybersecurity is a critical component of institutional resilience in today’s increasingly digital environment,” IC Commissioner Reynaldo A. Regalado said in the statement. “Through this collaboration, the Insurance Commission is strengthening its capacity to protect critical systems and safeguard sensitive information against evolving cyberthreats,” said. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

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