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SEC orders Digido to permanently halt financing operations

SEC.GOV.PH

THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered Digido Finance Corp. to permanently cease all its financing operations after discovering that the company continued operating despite the revocation of its corporate registration and secondary license last year.

In an order dated Feb. 18, the SEC’s Financing and Lending Companies Department (FLCD) found Digido administratively liable for violations of Section 12(b)(1) and (2), and Section 14 of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 8556, or the Financing Company Act (FCA).

“The order came following an investigation by FLCD which found that Digido continued to engage in the business of financing even after the Commission’s issuance of an order on May 9, 2025, revoking its certificate of incorporation and certificate of authority to operate as a financing company,” the Commission said in a statement on Friday.

Section 12 of the FCA IRR bars entities from operating as a financing company or representing themselves as one without a valid certificate of authority and certificate of incorporation. Meanwhile, Section 14 penalizes failure to comply with any lawful, immediately executory order from the Commission.

The SEC then ordered Digido to pay a P600,000 administrative fine, consisting of P100,000 each against the company and its five officers.

The FLCD denied Digido Finance Corp.’s argument that the order was not yet final or appealable, explaining that revocation orders qualify as immediately executory under the 2016 SEC Rules of Procedure.

The FLCD said that Digido continued processing and approving loan applications, disbursing funds to borrowers, issuing disclosure statements and promissory notes, and maintaining active loan accounts.

“Each post-revocation loan transaction constitutes a discrete and independent act of engaging the business of a financing company without authority. The statutory violation is not theoretical; it attaches to every extension of credit made after revocation,” the order read.

The FLCD also discovered that Digido had been handling loan servicing and collections through Fingertip Finance Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Robocash Pte. Ltd.

“The continuation of collection operations through Fingertip is particularly telling. Collection and servicing are not ministerial remnants of past activity when they are executed through structured payment channels, borrower communications, and organized remittance instructions,” the order read.

“They are integral incidents of financing operations. By directing borrowers to remit payments through Fingertip after revocation, [Digido] sustained the operational core of its financing business despite the Commission’s withdrawal of authority,” it added.

BusinessWorld sought comment from Digido Finance Corp. via e-mail but had not received a response as of press time. — Alexandria Grace C. Magno

Milan Fashion Week: Dolce & Gabbana goes all black; Demna presents 1st Gucci show; Armani gets ‘sparkling’ touch; Prada pairs winter jackets, light dresses

MILAN — Italian luxury label Dolce & Gabbana unveiled an almost entirely black collection at Milan Fashion Week on Saturday, drawing on elements that define the house’s roots and identity.

(Watch the show here: https://tinyurl.com/5ebb2v78 )

Pop superstar Madonna, who recently fronted the brand’s advertising campaign for two new fragrances, watched the show from the front row.

The fashion house has made substantial investments in its beauty division, which it brought in‑house three years ago, even as demand for high‑end goods has softened.

The show, titled “Identity,” opened with a series of coats and jackets featuring backs that replicated their buttoned fronts.

Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana dressed models in tailored suits and see‑through black lace dresses, often worn with shawls and mid‑calf socks, paired with low lace‑up shoes or stiletto heels.

“Identity is the ultimate luxury — a language built on roots that are still alive: Sicily as emotion, black as strength, lace as intimacy, tailoring as authority,” they wrote in the press notes.

GUCCI
Gucci’s new creative director Demna presented a collection of legging-pants, seamless mini dresses, and shimmering gowns in his first fashion show for the Italian label, as French owner Kering bets on a creative reset to revive its flagship brand.

(Watch the show here: https://tinyurl.com/mm2n8dmv )

Demna’s range of different looks and stylistic propositions sought to appeal to a wide variety of people, he said in the press notes.

The Georgian designer, who spent a decade at Kering’s Balenciaga brand, took over as Gucci’s creative director in July last year, after a two-year tenure by Sabato De Sarno.

“In general I intend for Gucci to become lighter, softer, more refined, more elaborate, more emotional, even senseless sometimes. I don’t want it to be intellectual,” Demna, 44, wrote in a letter published in some newspapers on Friday and released on Instagram on Thursday.

At the September Milan Fashion Week, Demna unveiled his first collection for the brand in a lookbook on Instagram and screened a short film in which actors wore the outfits.

The new collection is called “Gucci Primavera.”

“My vision of Gucci is about the coexistence of heritage and fashion. Here they are not opposites, they are lovers,” Demna said in the letter. “This first Gucci show introduces a universe of people, archetypes, consumers and dress codes that will shape my design language moving forward,” he added.

A selection of items from the new collection would be available for sale on Friday in some shops and online, ahead of the official launch in July.

“It was important to give a sign of speed and dynamism,” new Kering Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Luca de Meo told journalists on the sidelines of the show. Mr. De Meo was appointed last September to lead a turnaround at the group and particularly at its flagship label Gucci, whose sales fell 22% in 2025. He said he believed the brand was moving “in the right direction.”

ARMANI
The heirs of Giorgio Armani — his partner Leo Dell’Orco and his niece Silvana Armani — said they “had fun” working together on the Emporio Armani collection, which stays true to the late designer’s style while introducing some new touches.

(Watch the show here: https://tinyurl.com/2n3hmfyb )

“We managed to give continuity to what Mr. Armani used to do, but with the addition of something he would not have included himself,” said Silvana Armani, head of womenswear.

The collection was “a bit younger, a bit more dynamic and sparkling,” added Mr. Dell’Orco, head of menswear.

Emporio Armani’s autumn/winter collection — the first jointly developed by the two — was titled “Maestro,” in homage to the brand’s founder, who died last September.

In his will, Mr. Armani instructed heirs to gradually sell the fashion house he created 50 years ago or consider a market listing.

Models — women in double‑breasted jackets and men in flat caps — walked in a trademark Armani color palette ranging from beige‑grey to brown, with touches of blue and violet.

PRADA
Prada’s autumn/winter show in Milan on Thursday included embroidered satin dresses, sheer skirts and wool sweaters, while the front row presence of Mark Zuckerberg fueled speculation about a potential smart glasses partnership.

(See the show here: https://tinyurl.com/bdnzm6t3)

Designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons chose to have only 15 models walk the runway, each wearing multiple looks to focus on layering clothes to best effect, including short jackets over lightweight tunics.

“As a woman, your life is layered — each day demands not only a shifting of clothes, but a richness of identities within yourself,” said Miuccia Prada in the press notes.

Brightly colored handbags and quirky kitten heel shoes were also on display.

Mr. Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook owner Meta Platforms, and his wife Priscilla Chan sat alongside Prada’s CEO Andrea Guerra and Prada’s family heir Lorenzo Bertelli.

In November, Mr. Bertelli, who is Prada’s chief marketing officer, told Reuters that the group had had “exploratory talks” with EssilorLuxottica over the potential development of smart glasses under its brands, but no decision had been made.

Prada has a licensing agreement with the Franco-Italian eyewear maker, which has a partnership with Meta to develop artificial intelligence-powered glasses. — Reuters

Industrial policy revival: Can it lead to real economic transformation?

WORKERS are seen at a manufacturing facility in Santa Rosa, Laguna. — PHILIPPINE STAR KRIZ JOHN ROSALES

During the 63rd Annual Conference of the Philippine Economics Society, I had the privilege of participating in a plenary session on industrial policy and shifting perspectives on development. Professor Danny Quah of the National University of Singapore observed that industrial policy today operates in two worlds: In advanced economies, it is increasingly an instrument of statecraft; in developing economies, it remains a tool of structural transformation.

The question for countries like the Philippines is not whether industrial policy is back — it clearly is. The real challenge is whether we can design and implement it in a way that leads to genuine economic transformation rather than episodic, short-lived interventions.

GLOBAL CONTEXT
We are operating in a fragmented global order, a “G-minus world” where coordination weakens and strategic competition intensifies. The US CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts, the EU Green Deal, and China’s Made in China 2025 signal a decisive shift: Competitiveness is no longer defined solely by efficiency. It now encompasses resilience, technological sovereignty, and economic security.

Industrial policy has thus become a form of strategic self-protection. For smaller economies, however; it cannot be about power projection. It must be about capability building.

Global supply chains are restructuring, creating new openings as firms seek trusted and diversified partners. Risk diversification is accelerating. The green transition is driving demand for batteries, electric vehicles (EVs), and clean energy systems. At the same time, digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are reshaping production models. These megatrends are redefining industrial policy worldwide.

For the Philippines, these shifts present windows of opportunity, but only if we move beyond sites of assembly toward becoming partners in value creation. This is where targeted and coherent industrial policy becomes decisive. Windows of opportunity close quickly when domestic capabilities are weak. We must, therefore, strengthen our industrial base even as we navigate an increasingly fragmentated global landscape.

THE PHILIPPINE JOURNEY
Our industrial story has been characterized by policy swings. We pursued import substitution after the war. We embarked on a rapid trade liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s, arguably before our industries were ready. Then came the services boom of the 2000s: growth accelerated, but manufacturing remained shallow. Its average contribution to GDP declined from an average of 22% in 2001 to 2005 to 18.6% in 2021 to 2023.

The East Asian experience suggests a different pattern. Korea and Taiwan built capabilities before opening fully. Vietnam linked FDI (foreign direct investments) attraction with supplier development and export upgrading. Thailand sequenced liberalization with sectoral strategies, raising its manufacturing share from an average of 22% in 1981-1985 to 31% in 2006-2010, emerging as a regional manufacturing powerhouse in automotive, electronics, and agro-processing. In contrast, Philippine manufacturing fell from 25% to 22% during the same period.

The lesson is not protectionism, the lesson is sequencing and learning: liberalize after firms have learned, not before they can compete. This means aligning investment, innovation, and skills development so they advance together.

INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN PRACTICE: THE CARS EXPERIENCE
Beginning in 2014, successive efforts were made to revive industrial policy. The Aquino administration implemented the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) under the Comprehensive National Industrial Strategy. CARS aimed to strengthen domestic parts manufacturing by providing time-bound, performance-based tax credits to firms investing in metal stamping and large body and plastic parts production.

Wary of the distortions with earlier import substitution policies, President Benigno Aquino III required strong private-sector commitment before approval. More than 45 Japanese firms expressed their intent to invest and support the program. The incentives were targeted, conditional, and subject to performance metrics.

Industrial policy, however, is not costless. Programs like CARS compete with education, social protection, infrastructure, and education spending. They must pass a fiscal test demonstrating expected productivity gain, production and export impact, domestic value-added expansion, and long-run tax revenue potential.

The succeeding administrations continued the same policy through the Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy (i3S) and later the science-, technology-, and innovation-driven framework organized around four clusters: industrial, manufacturing, and transport; technology, media, and telecommunications; health and life sciences; and modern basic needs and resilient activities.

Yet, the initiatives faltered due to weak coordination, limited resources, and the lack of a durable governance framework. The CARS experience illustrated both possibility and fragility. Funding uncertainties, leadership transitions, and budgetary classification under unprogrammed appropriations undermined continuity. Industrial policy requires institutional architecture that survives political cycles.

GOVERNANCE: THE BINDING CONSTRAINT
Industrial policy is difficult not because the strategy is unclear, but because governance discipline is demanding.

Its implementation requires sustained political commitment, ideally led at the highest level. In Korea, President Park Chung Hee personally monitored firm performance. In Thailand, the National Committee for Industrial Development, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, coordinated ministries, business, and academe in implementing industrial restructuring.

For the Philippines, key governance principles should include:

• Clear performance benchmarks tied to productivity, exports, and technological upgrading;

• Time-bound incentives with sunset clauses;

• Transparent monitoring and reporting systems;

• Independent technical evaluation capacity; and,

• Automatic review mechanisms for continuation or termination.

Support must be conditional, not permanent, and discipline must accompany incentives.

INDUSTRIAL POLICY AS CAPABILITY AND CREDIBILITY
The Tatak Pinoy Act, authored by then Senator, now DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara, provides an opportunity to rebuild our productive base and to compete not on cost, but on sophistication, credibility, and quality.

Modern industrial policy is not about shielding firms from competition. It is about enabling them to learn, innovate, and scale. The Act seeks to link human capital, infrastructure, and innovation within a unified framework — aligning education, technology, and enterprise development so that Philippine industries can move up the value chain.

In semiconductor and electronics assembly and testing, where the Philippines has established strengths, the challenge is to move toward higher value functions such as integrated circuit design, advanced materials processing, automation integration, AI-driven production systems, and mineral processing linked to clean energy supply chains.

Industrial policy must therefore be tightly linked to skills transformation, deepening of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), AI capability development, university-industry Research and Development (R&D) partnerships, and supplier upgrading programs.

This is our own form of economic statecraft, which is demonstrated not by projecting power, but by building trust and credibility. “Made in the Philippines” should signal reliability, creativity, and excellence.

To strategically implement the Tatak Pinoy Act, the Tatak Pinoy Council could evolve into a Presidential Industry Council that aligns programs, integrates education and industry policy, tracks measurable upgrading outcomes, coordinates with fiscal authorities, engages the private sector in structured dialogues, and ensures policy continuity across administrations.

True industrial transformation occurs when institutions learn together.

REINDUSTRIALIZATION THROUGH SERVICIFICATION
Manufacturing today is no longer defined by smokestacks. With automation, digital design, and AI, goods now embed services — software in hardware, intelligence in machines, data in production systems. This convergence, known as “servicification,” integrates manufacturing and services into smart, knowledge-driven industries.

Servicification offers developing countries a potential pathway to leapfrog towards their goals, but only if institutional coordination, skills systems, and innovation ecosystems are aligned.

The Tatak Pinoy Strategy should therefore lead toward building smart, service-rich manufacturing that competes in technology and trust.

CLOSING REFLECTION
Big economies use industrial policy for power; smaller ones must use it for empowerment. Our form of statecraft is not coercion, it is capability.

Industrial policy for the Philippines should aim to deepen domestic value creation, increase export sophistication, build technological capability, enhance supply chain resilience, and raise productivity sustainably.

Modern industrial policy begins with a clear economic rationale. It is justified where markets systematically underprovide learning and innovation, coordination across sectors, long-term risk capital, and skill formation aligned with frontier technologies.

In a fragmented global landscape where national security increasingly intersects with economic security, our competitive advantage must rest not on low cost but on credibility, innovation, and trust. Industrial policy is not about shielding weakness. It is about building capability and resilience.

 

Rafaelita Mercado Aldaba is a strategic advisor at the Department of Education Philippine Qualifications Framework Secretariat and Education Center for AI Research. She is an emeritus research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, and a fellow at Action for Economic Reforms.

Peso may fall as US, Israel attack Iran

BW FILE PHOTO

THE PESO could depreciate against the dollar in the coming days amid mounting geopolitical risks as the United States and Israel attacked Iran over the weekend.

On Friday, the local unit closed at P57.665 per dollar, weakening by 5.7 centavos from its P57.608 finish on Thursday, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines showed.

Week on week, however, the peso jumped by 48.5 centavos from its P58.15 close on Feb. 20.

“The dollar-peso traded higher on cautious positioning ahead of the release of US PPI (producer price index), which will clarify the US Federal Reserve’s policy trajectory,” a trader said by phone on Friday.

The peso declined as Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee signaled more rate cuts this year, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

The US dollar rose on Friday after hotter-than-expected producer price data for January and on concerns about rising tensions between the United States and Iran, Reuters reported.

The PPI for final demand rose 0.5% last month after advancing by a downwardly revised 0.4% in December. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI gaining 0.3% after a previously reported 0.5% increase in December.

For this week, the trader said the peso could be pressured by the faster-than-expected US PPI data.

The trader added that players will await the release of February inflation data as this could provide clues on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ policy path.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ricafort said the peso could be weighed down inflation concerns due to higher oil prices amid potential supply disruptions as the US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran.

The trader sees the peso moving between P57.40 and P57.85 per dollar this week, while Mr. Ricafort expects it to range from P57.50 to P58.

Israel said it launched another wave of strikes on Iran on Sunday, as Iranians grappled with uncertainty after the killing of their supreme leader in US and Israeli attacks that threaten to destabilize the wider Middle East, Reuters reported.

Hours after both nations said an airstrike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the most ambitious series of attacks on Iran in decades, the country’s state media confirmed the 86-year-old leader’s death on Saturday.

Iran’s armed forces would soon retaliate again with their biggest offensive against US bases and Israel, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed in a statement on Sunday.

On Saturday, Tehran warned that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow conduit for about a fifth of global oil consumption, raising expectations of a sharp jump in oil prices. — Aaron Michael C. Sy with Reuters

BMW X1 gets a plug-in hybrid powertrain

The BMW X1 xDrive25e M Sport is priced at P3.998 million.

SMC ASIA CAR Distributors Corp., the official importer and distributor of BMW in the Philippines, recently introduced the new BMW X1 xDrive25e M Sport, priced at P3.998 million, through a selling display at the Rockwell Power Plant Mall. Significantly, this is the first time for the compact crossover to come with a plug-in hybrid powertrain — joining the brand’s lineup of electrified models here — and will be the sole motivator for the X1 nameplate moving forward.

In a release, BMW in the Philippines said the arrival of the X1 PHEV is another expression of its “Power of Choice” strategy which provides customers with “the flexibility of both a combustion engine and an electric motor.”

The system submits a total output of 245hp and 477Nm of torque translating to, among others, a standstill-to-100kph time of 6.8 seconds. Electric range is 101 kilometers, enabled by BMW’s fourth-generation battery technology in the X1. The company said this makes it “ideal for daily urban commutes.” Combined with the internal combustion engine (a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder gasoline sipper) range, the X1 can muster up to 764 kilometers.

For now, the X1 PHEV will come in a single M Sport variant, with another one (the X1 xDrive25e xLine) to arrive in “mid-March,” according to a source. That xLine variant is expected to be priced at P3.498 million.

The M Sport gets design accents including an M Aerodynamics package, high-gloss Shadowline trim, and M light-alloy wheels. Aboard is the newest BMW Widescreen Display with iDrive Operating System 9 for “seamless connectivity and intuitive control.” Sport seats are wrapped in M Alcantara/Veganza, and content will find expression through a high-fidelity Harman Kardon loudspeaker system.

The model also comes with BMW ConnectedDrive. Said to be a first in the country, an “integrated data SIM card enables BMW Live Maps with real-time traffic information and route calculation.”

The new BMW X1 xDrive25e M Sport is available in “a limited introductory quantity” with six color choices: Alpine White, Black Sapphire, Space Silver Metallic, M Portimão Blue Metallic, Cape York Green Metallic, and Fire Red Metallic.

For more information, visit www.bmw.com.ph or any authorized BMW dealership nationwide. — Kap Maceda Aguila

Gov’t debt yields go down

YIELDS on government securities (GS) mostly went down last week on strong demand and as players repositioned as the month closed and following updates on the country’s potential re-inclusion in the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Government Bond Index-Emerging Market (GBI-EM) series.

GS yields, which move opposite to prices, fell by an average of 2.69 basis points (bps) week on week at the secondary market, according to PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates as of Feb. 27 published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.

At the short end of the curve, yields on the 91- and 182-day Treasury bills (T-bills) slipped 0.07 bp to 4.4312% and 1.95 bps to 4.5242%, respectively. Meanwhile, the rate for the 364-day tenor went up by 2.62 bps to 4.6208%.

Rates at the belly declined across the board, with the two-, three-, four-, five-, and seven-year Treasury bonds (T-bonds) dropping 0.84 bp (to 5.1526%), 3.12 bps (5.3151%), 4.28 bps (5.4422%), 4.7 bps (5.5515%), and 4 bps (5.7332%), respectively.

At the long end, yields on 10-, 20-, and 25-year debt papers fell by 4.41 bps (to 5.9238%), 4.2 bps (6.5371%), and 4.67 bps (6.5354%), respectively.

GS volume traded increased to P58.58 billion last week from P44.06 billion previously.

“Overall, the week saw downward pressure on yields, especially at the short to belly portion of the curve, driven by strong auction results, sustained liquidity, and the month-end rush,” the first bond trader said in a Viber message.

The trader said both the T-bill and T-bond auctions last week saw strong demand as investors likely wanted to lock in yields at their current levels on expectations that rates would go down further.

“The decent participation in the three-year and seven-year tenor, to a lesser degree, suggested that investors are comfortable with some duration risk, leading to the flattening yield curve for belly tenors later during the week,” the trader added.

“BTr (Bureau of the Treasury) auctions this past week continued to attract robust demand, with most participants channeling excess liquidity into the Philippine peso-denominated government bonds market as bond yields continue to offer attractive spreads over the BSP’s (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) policy rate,” the second bond trader likewise said in a Viber message.

The trader said the country’s potential inclusion in JPMorgan’s GBI-EM Index drove strong demand for tenors at the belly and the long end.

“Sentiment improved midweek after the National Treasurer shared updates regarding the Philippines’ potential inclusion in the JPMorgan Government Bond Index. Estimated inflows of up to $3 billion, if inclusion materializes, would be meaningful for the local market. Beyond the headline number, the structural implication is deeper foreign participation,” Lodevico M. Ulpo, Jr., vice-president and head of Fixed Income Strategies at ATRAM Trust Corp., said in a Viber message.

National Treasurer Sharon P. Almanza told Bloomberg last week that the Philippines could attract about $3 billion in inflows if its government bonds are added to the foreign bank’s emerging-market index, as it would have an initial weight of about 1%. She said an update on the country’s inclusion bid could come as early as this month.

For this week, Mr. Ulpo said the BTr’s bond auction would be a trading driver as this would test demand for tenors at the belly of the curve.

He added that the release of February inflation data on Thursday (March 5) would be a key catalyst for the market. “A downside surprise would reinforce expectations of continued policy easing and support a further bull flattening. Conversely, an upside print could temper dovish expectations and prompt some profit taking.”

“We could expect relatively neutral movements in the coming weeks with broadly stable macroeconomic conditions. However, upside inflation risks could push the long end of the curve higher. Markets appear to be anticipating a faster local inflation print in February, but any surprise to the upside could spur broad risk-off sentiment,” Marco Antonio C. Agonia, an economist at the University of Asia & the Pacific, said in an e-mail.

“Yields will likely trade sideways with a slight upward bias as the BSP’s expectations on the inflation data anticipate higher CPI (consumer price index). The front end of the curve will likely remain anchored by BSP policy expectations, while the long end will take cues from US Treasury movements and global developments,” the first bond trader said. “Overall, barring any surprise data, the yield curve may continue to be stable or trade slightly higher on local CPI data, supported by strong domestic demand.”

The analysts added that market players will also monitor external developments, such as the movements of US Treasuries, geopolitical news, and US economic data releases. — Isa Jane D. Acabal

Palm oil expansion raises concerns over environment, coconut industry impact

CRAIG MOREY/FLICKR/CC BY-SA 2.0

THE government’s plan to expand palm oil production in Mindanao must not come at the expense of the coconut industry or the environment, industry leaders said.

Danilo V. Fausto, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc., said the government should prioritize the development of the coconut industry.

“We should first accelerate the development of our coconut industry, where the Philippines has a dominant and competitive edge in the world,” he told BusinessWorld via Viber.

Mr. Fausto said the government should invest in post-harvest facilities, logistics, and technology to increase coconut farmer incomes.

In a statement on Friday, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is ramping up efforts to expand oil palm plantations in Mindanao to curb imports and bolster the supply of edible oils.

Oil palm yields average about 3.8 metric tons per hectare, compared with less than one metric ton per hectare for coconut. Because of higher yield, oil palm farmers earn at least double the roughly P90,000 that coconut farmers earn annually, the DA said. 

Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Administrator Dexter R. Buted said it is working on establishing nurseries in Mindanao and cultivating planting materials on a local basis.

Former Agriculture Undersecretary Fermin D. Adriano said Mindanao is suitable for palm production because it is rarely visited by strong typhoons, but cited land consolidation as a major constraint.

“The main problem is acquiring contiguous lands for palm oil production. You need thousands of hectares. The Malaysians and the Japanese tried in the past but failed to consolidate land for palm oil production,” he told BusinessWorld via Viber.

Former Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said the DA’s palm oil expansion plans must not disturb forested areas.

“We need to protect our environment while pushing for the expansion of palm oil production in the country,” he told BusinessWorld via Viber.

Mr. Dar said joint ventures between agribusiness companies and clusters of farmers should be encouraged to develop the industry.

“In effect, a public-private-producer partnership will be the best business model anchored on regenerative and resilient agriculture,” he said.

Charles R. Avila, chairman of the Confederation of Coconut Farmers’ Organizations of the Philippines, expressed his opposition to expanding oil palm, citing risks to biodiversity and the potential for exploitative labor practices.

“The conversion of natural vegetation to monoculture plantations, as in oil palm, definitely reduces biodiversity… the industry is associated with exploitative practices, low wages, disappearance of land rights, and precarious working conditions for farm workers,” he told BusinessWorld via Viber.

Mr. Avila also said it was a mistake to task the PCA with overseeing oil palm expansion.

“It is the same PCA that was made to assure the nation that they have the formula to double the income of coconut farmers through its various productivity and social service programs,” he said.

“Does not the government believe its own PCA? Why, then, use (the coconut industry’s) low productivity as an argument to shift to oil palm?” Mr. Avila added. — Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel

Angkas eyes more units, expansion of AngCars services

ANGKAS.COM

RIDE-HAILING APP Angkas, operated by DBDOYC, Inc., is planning to expand the rollout of its four-wheel vehicle services and deploy more units.

“We just rolled it out. We are doing our own pilot test. What our focus really is how (can we) have more EVs (electric vehicles) on the road. We have been working with a lot of vendors in China and in the Philippines so that we can roll out a much larger EV fleet,” Angkas Chief Executive Officer George I. Royeca told reporters on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Editors and Economic Opinion Leaders Forum last week.

The ride-hailing app rolled out AngCars, its four-wheel ride-hailing service, in 2024 within Metro Manila.

The company currently has about a thousand units for this service, Mr. Royeca said, adding that it is studying the deployment of more units while also expanding its area coverage.

“We are still not making a dent in the industry, but we are studying how we can really provide a unique value proposition… Right now, we are in Metro Manila but of course we are opening into other provinces as well,” he said.

The rollout of Angkas’ four-wheel service complements its existing two-wheel operations.

Mr. Royeca also expressed optimism that the motorcycle taxi law will soon be legalized, strengthening the company’s position in the market.

Currently, Angkas operates under the pilot study of the Department of Transportation, implemented through the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

The proposed Motorcycles-for-Hire Act, which aims to amend Republic Act No. 4136, seeks to legalize motorcycle ride-hailing services in the country by classifying them as public utility vehicles.

“We are working with the committee on transportation… [The MC taxi legalization] is one of their priorities… I know the Department of Transportation is also working on a Department Order to make sure that we can continue our services,” he said. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

Margiela files made public

SCREENCAPS of Margiela’s files from Dropbox.

IN AN unprecedented move, Maison Margiela, known widely for its avant-garde approach to fashion, is making its files accessible for all to view. The files were made available earlier this month — prosaically, through several Dropbox folders, just like one would access files in the office.

The folders aren’t a leak or anything illegal. They have been presented as a teaser for a series of exhibitions around China, beginning with their Fall/Winter 2026 show in Shanghai on April 1. Furthermore, the show will be followed by a series of exhibitions and experiences in four cities in China, “each dedicated to a different code that shapes our identity: Artisanal; Anonymity; Tabi and Bianchetto,” ran a press release.

We took a peek at the files: while the actual folder for the upcoming fashion show is empty, the folders for the other exhibition themes are full. The Artisanal folder explores their couture line, with a series of archival looks beginning in 1989 and beyond. Anonymity explores the psychology of their lack of branded labels and the masks at their runway shows. Tabi explores one of their most famous creations, the split-toe Tabi shoe which has influenced fashion both fast and slow, and finally, Bianchetto explores their white overpaint technique, which has become a signature of the brand.

In the 51-page document for the Artisanal line, it says, “Historically, each Artisanal piece was accompanied by a detailed log, recording its intention, the materials used, the hours required, and the unique nature of its construction offering a insight into the labor, time, and craftsmanship behind each piece.” It’s true: dresses from the Spring/Summer 2007 archives are shown made from vintage silk scarves, bowties, and vintage beads.

Meanwhile, Anonymity, in 24 pages, shows the various ways they have attempted to blur and conceal identities, such as through wigs, masks, and veils. Tabi, running 27 pages, shows the evolution of the Tabi silhouette, from the very first Tabi boot in the 1980s. Bianchetto, meanwhile, shows all the things they have painted white: “This gesture introduced paint as a means of leaving a trace, evoking notions of movement and temporality. From the outset, paint functioned as a medium that revealed rather than concealed the passage of time.

“As the project evolves, new files will be added for everyone to explore and collect, revealing new information about the experiences while documenting the journey from concept to exhibition,” said a release. “We invite you to follow the MaisonMargiela/folders, delving into its documents that chart the journey as it unfolds.”

The Maison Margiela files can be accessed through https://www.maisonmargiela.com/maisonmargiela_folders.html. — JL Garcia

Crimes against humanity: Inflection point

FAMILIES of extrajudicial killing victims are emotional as they gather at the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) in Quezon City. — PHILIPPINE STAR/MIGUEL DE GUZMAN

The inflection is on the word humanity. These are not crimes against humans alone.

There are crimes and there are crimes. For most part, these are wrongs visited on individuals. Often, too, groups, and even fairly large communities, are violated, mostly at frays or breaking points of the ways the many human societies weave themselves together.

Occasionally, the transgressions are shocking, even to humans with a cultivated cynicism. Euphemisms are invented to soften the impact of such deeds on the squeamish, for instance: collateral damage.

Human beings are collectively the only species known to kill for pleasure. But even the brutishness of pathological human predators (for instance, serial killers) are globally assumed to be aberrations that can be neutralized by the various human societies within the order of things each subscribes to.

Crimes against humanity are an entirely different matter. These threaten the definition of being human and transcend boundaries between and among human communities.

HUMANITY
The accusations against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC), are of crimes against humanity. It bears reiterating: not against humans alone.

The details of each instance of horrendous death — about which Duterte is charged with ordering, or inspiring, or creating the environment for — concern individuals on the wrong side of his “policies.” Without an assiduous press and civil society, the victims would have remained anonymous.

Many Filipinos regard these as crimes against humans that can be processed into retributive outcomes within the Philippine legal system.

There is considerable noise about sovereignty at stake: that the “foreign,” in this case the ICC, transgresses the Filipino right to self-determination. That, yet again, the colonial powers (the hoary ghosts!) are trampling Philippine independence underfoot. Even senators who should know better, snivel thus.

There is even bigger noise about the “right” of Philippine society to its own definition of human rights. They mistakenly cite the beheadings that are part of Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, for instance, to argue that crime and punishment are culture based and should allow for radical variation.

And this is the point where “culture” is hauled in to refract the very idea of crimes against humanity.

THE ANONYMOUS
The relative or metaphoric anonymity of the victims of Duterte’s drug war seems to support this abominable twisting of the global consensus on crimes against humanity.

Anonymity allows for victims to be tarred, wholesale, as a threatening group of humans — drug addicts or dealers whose numbers are so large they require extermination as vermin — and consigned to a collective image of a scourge on society.

Typically, these are the poor. Their crimes are (also typically) misdemeanors. Only a few actual drug dealers were brought to punishment, and these and the rest of the cases are extrajudicial kills.

Moreover, the kills were deliberately made out to be pictures that horrify. In fact, maximum horrification. (And woefully, maximum stretch of language use to encompass terror.)

For Filipinos to agree, as a nation, to be terrified into submission to a rule and environment of extrajudicial killings, is to succumb to blindness to the staging, the performance of the terrifying.

And submission and blindness are only possible if the individual victims are not people, really, but a collectivity defined exclusively by the executioners and the source of orders to kill.

To many privileged Filipinos, even to the middle class, the poor are not people.

And when the president of the Philippines avowed that “drug addicts are not human,” the stage was set for impunity.

THE PROPOSITION
To be sure, the overt victims of Dutertean horror-making are individuals with lives to live — many, youth who merit presumption of hopefulness about better futures than the abject circumstances of their time of death.

But what constitutes crimes against humanity is more than their violent ends. Which, yes, indeed, can be or should be dealt within the Philippine criminal justice system.

The larger picture includes dehumanizing the poor and treating them as props to power-mongering, the staging of bodies for a years-long stretch of terrorizing images, the pressuring of the Filipino national community towards acceptance of a politics of fatal hatred, the parading of grisly executions in front of the global community of nations as a Filipino version of justice, and the appropriation of cultural explanation to rationalize validity for this form of madness.

All these are a single proposition to the world: that being human, at this point of human history, includes horror-making as a form of governance. That the victims are inconsequential humans, indeed non-humans.

That the state is entitled to exercise lethal power outside the legal system. That theater as governance can take the form of the theater of the macabre.

That being human includes the deadly irony that extrajudicial killings can be judicial for a “good” cause, which, in the Philippines under Duterte, was the false narrative of national salvation from narco-economics.

This proposition — snuff pornography writ large is a form of humanity — is a crime against humanity.

 

Marian Pastor Roces is an independent curator and critic of institutions. Her body of work addresses the intersection of culture and politics.

Analysts’ February inflation rate estimates

PHILIPPINE INFLATION may have hit its fastest pace in over a year as price pressures from higher costs of electricity, oil and rice pushed up the headline print in February, analysts said. Read the full story.

Mitsubishi Motors Philippines has produced 900K L300s

PHOTO FROM MITSUBISHI MOTORS PHILIPPINES CORP.

MITSUBISHI MOTORS Philippines Corp. (MMPC) recently marked a milestone with the local production of its 900,000th unit of the Mitsubishi L300. In a release, MMPC said this reinforces “the company’s long-standing commitment to operational excellence and quality manufacturing in the Philippines.”

The locally produced Mitsubishi L300 continues to be one of the most trusted commercial vehicles in the country, “supporting business continuity and economic activity across industries.”

MMPC said it achieved this milestone through the “consistent demand” for its locally assembled Completely Knocked Down (CKD) models “alongside ongoing kaizen activities implemented by its Manufacturing Division.” MMPC has worked on optimizing the production line, improving efficiency, and strengthening quality across all CKD units.

“The 900,000-unit production milestone of the Mitsubishi L300 reflects the dedication of our people and our commitment to continuous improvement in manufacturing,” said MMPC President and Chief Executive Officer of Ritsu Imaeda. “Through disciplined operations and teamwork across our organization, we have been able to sustain production excellence while delivering vehicles that our customers have relied on for many years.”

Known for durability and reliability, the Mitsubishi L300 has long been a dependable partner for small and medium enterprises, logistics providers, and fleet operators. “Its robust build and practical cargo capacity have made it well-suited for delivery operations and various business applications, helping support daily operations and long-term growth,” said MMPC. Its cost-efficient ownership further makes it a practical commercial vehicle choice. Designed to balance performance, durability, and operating efficiency, it continues to serve as a valuable asset for businesses seeking dependable transportation solutions.

MMPC maintains that as the L300’s production continues, “the company remains focused on strengthening its manufacturing capabilities, upholding quality standards, and supporting the evolving mobility needs of customers.”

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