FACTORY ACTIVITY in the Philippines expanded at a steady pace in August amid a “modest” improvement in operating conditions, with firms ramping up production, S&P Global said. Read the full story.
Luxury real estate developer Filigree has unveiled its 1-Bedroom Classic Unit at its Golf Ridge Private Estate in Mimosa Plus, a 201-hectare mixed-use development in Clark, Pampanga.
The 3.3-hectare estate, developed by Filigree, offers high-end residential units within a premium golf community, near the Mimosa Plus Golf Course.
“Filigree recently opened Golf Ridge’s actual 1-Bedroom Classic Unit, which exemplifies the comfort and elegance that residents can expect at the estate,” Daphne Sanchez, business unit head at Filigree, said in a statement on Aug. 29.
Golf Ridge Private Estate is situated near Clark International Airport, providing access for international travelers and expatriates.
The property is also in close proximity to Quest Hotel, the Workplus office campus, Eats by the Park food market, as well as various retail centers, hospitals, and schools, all within a short distance or an hour’s drive.
“The 1-Bedroom Classic Unit price ranges from P16 million to P19 million as of November 2023. It is designed to accommodate starting families and serve as an excellent investment opportunity,” Ms. Sanchez told BusinessWorld on Sept. 2.
The unit ranges from 72 to 83 square meters and includes a dining area, living room, master bedroom with a built-in closet, bathroom, and kitchen.
“The newly opened and substantially completed 1-Bedroom Classic Unit gives clients a glimpse of the deliverables and will allow them to visualize the life they can have at Golf Ridge Private Estate,” Ms. Sanchez said.
She said with the opening of the mock-up unit, Filigree is expecting continued high demand for the 1-Bedroom Classic Unit since it is “well-received by the market.”
“Golf Ridge Private Estate is set to turn over its units in the last quarter of next year, 2025,” Ms. Sanchez added.
Amenities at Golf Ridge Private Estate include an infinity pool, an outdoor lounge area, and a function room.
Filigree said that recent developments, such as the growth of multinational companies in Clark, are expected to further stimulate the region’s economic expansion.
The company also noted that the government has reaffirmed its commitment to boost tourism in Clark by constructing a 35,000-seat arena, which will position the area as a key venue for major international events and concerts. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante
BDO UNIBANK, Inc. has appointed former Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual as an independent director, it said on Monday.
The Sy-led bank’s board of directors approved the appointment in a meeting on Aug. 31, the lender said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
Mr. Pascual resigned as DTI chief effective Aug. 2 after being appointed to the position in June 2022.
“Mr. Pascual served as DTI Secretary from June 2022 to August 2024, where he played a crucial role in leading the Philippines through robust economic growth amidst global challenges,” BDO said.
Mr. Pascual is a former president of the Management Association of the Philippines and the Institute of Corporate Directors. He was also formerly the lead independent director of SM Investments Corp. and an independent director on the boards of other listed companies.
BDO shares closed unchanged at P152.80 apiece on Monday. — A.M.C. Sy
Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Monday, September 2, 2024.
PHILIPPINE STOCKS inched up on Monday, tracking US shares’ performance on Friday, on expectations that Philippine headline inflation slowed anew in August.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.37% or 25.87 points to end at 6,923.41 on Monday, while the broader all shares index went up by 0.23% or 8.60 points to close at 3,751.41.
“The local market rose this Monday as expectations that inflation declined last August compared to July’s 4.4% drove market sentiment,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Senior Research Analyst Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco said in a Viber message.
“Investors also took cues from Wall Street’s positive performance in last week’s close,” he said.
Headline inflation likely eased in August and returned within the central bank’s 2-4% target band amid a drop in prices of rice and fuel, analysts said.
A BusinessWorld poll of 15 analysts yielded a median estimate of 3.7% for the August consumer price index, within the BSP’s 3.2%-4% forecast for the month.
If realized, this would be slower than the nine-month high of 4.4% in July, which also marked the first time since November 2023 that headline inflation exceeded the BSP’s 2-4% goal. This would also be below the 5.3% print recorded in August 2023.
Meanwhile, US markets closed higher on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index improved by 0.55% or 228.03 points to 41,563.08; the S&P 500 Index surged by 1.01% or 56.44 points to 5,648.40; and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed by 1.13% or 197.20 points to 17,713.63.
“Philippine shares got off to a lukewarm start for September despite several private and public institutions suspending work due to the heavy downpour,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message.
“Sentiment got a boost from the US as well, which saw their equity markets close in the green over the weekend,” Mr. Limlingan added.
Sectoral indices ended mixed on Monday. Holding firms climbed by 1.27% or 71.98 points to 5,738; services rose by 0.89% or 19.51 points to 2,200.74; and financials went up by 0.55% or 11.79 points to 2,122.42.
Meanwhile, mining and oil fell by 2.27% or 187.26 points to 8,039.58; property dropped by 0.97% or 27.62 points to 2,794.60; and industrials declined by 0.39% or 36.67 points to 9,310.71.
“JG Summit Holdings, Inc. led the market’s climb, jumping 3.62% to P24.35. Wilcon Depot, Inc. was at the tail end, falling 3.51% to P18.14,” Mr. Tantiangco said.
Value turnover dropped to P4.89 billion on Monday with 555.41 million shares changing hands from the P13.31 billion with 1.74 billion issues traded on Friday.
Advancers outnumbered decliners, 105 to 84, while 56 names closed unchanged.
Net foreign buying reached P419.29 million on Monday versus the P306.25 million in net selling recorded on Friday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
AT LEAST three people died after Tropical Storm Yagi (Enteng) and the southwest monsoon battered the Philippines late Sunday evening, causing some its rivers to overflow.
Government offices, schools and financial markets were shuttered for the second time in a week as torrential rains flooded Manila, the capital and nearby cities and provinces. More than two dozen local flights to and from the capital were canceled, airport authorities said.
The presidential palace in a statement later in the day also suspended government work and classes at all levels in Metro Manila and the Calabarzon region for Sept. 3.
In an 8 a.m. report, the country’s disaster agency said two people died in Central Visayas, while 10 others were hurt amid heavy rain. Naga City police in the Bicol region in a Facebook post said an eight-month-old baby drowned after several areas of the city struggled with floodwaters on Sunday night.
At least 400 families had been evacuated in Metro Manila’s neighboring provinces such as Cavite, Laguna, Quezon and Rizal on Monday, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Calabarzon office.
About 1,500 people were staying in 23 evacuation centers in the four provinces, it said, adding that 43 passengers were stranded in the port of Real, Quezon.
A second-level alarm was hoisted over the Marikina River in the capital region as it reached 17 meters. The state weather bureau on Monday warned that La Mesa Dam in Quezon City could overflow and affect low-lying areas in parts of Metro Manila.
The water level at the dam had reached 80 meters as of 1 p.m., just 0.15 meter shy of its spilling level, the state weather bureau said on its website.
It expects the water level to rise further, which would affect low-lying areas along the Tullahan River from Quezon City such as Fairview, Forest Hills Subdivision, Quirino Highway, Santa Quiteria and San Bartolome; Valenzuela City including the North Luzon Expressway and La Huerta Subdivision; and Malabon City.
The center of Yagi, the fifth tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year, was over Quirino province after making landfall in Casiguran, Aurora province north of the Philippine capital, the bureau said in a separate 5 p.m. bulletin.
It was packing sustained winds of up to 85 kilometers per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 140 kph, it said, adding that it was moving north-northwestward at 20 kph.
The storm was expected to continue moving northwestward or northward over Cagayan Valley or the northern Cordillera Administrative Region before turning northwestward over the Babuyan Channel by Sept. 3.
OUT BY WEDNESDAY
It was expected to move westward over the South China Sea until Thursday. “On the track forecast, this tropical cyclone may exit the Philippine area of responsibility on Wednesday (Sept. 4) morning or afternoon.”
Yagi was forecast to maintain tropical storm category during its traverse of mainland Northern Luzon. It could become stronger from the afternoon of Sept. 3 onward, and could intensify into a severe tropical storm by Tuesday afternoon or evening.
It could become a typhoon by Thursday.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s office suspended classes and government work at 8:30 am, but locals said the timing was too late.
The President told reporters he had ordered authorities to ensure that the suspension of classes and work were announced before bedtime “so people can adjust.”
The Philippines lies along the typhoon belt in the Pacific and experiences about 20 storms each year. It also lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes strike.
A river in Naga City that winds through 11 villages in the Bicol region’s metropolis reached critical levels as early as Sunday evening, prompting the local government to evacuate residents especially those in low-lying areas.
Water in Ipo dam in Bulacan province north of the capital also rose to near-spilling levels, forcing authorities to release an amount of water that they said would not endanger areas downstream.
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said about 28,000 customers had been affected by brownouts, mostly in Metro Manila and Cavite, as well as in parts of Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Batangas and Quezon provinces.
“Our crews are working to restore power service to affected areas as soon as possible,” it said in a statement. “We continue to monitor the situation and urge our customers to practice electrical safety.”
Parts of Luzon including Metro Manila were still reeling from the effects of Super Typhoon Gaemi (Carina) and monsoon rains that killed dozens of Filipinos and triggered more than 40 landslides in July.
A World Weather Attribution study on Gaemi and its effects on northern Philippines, Taiwan and China’s Hunan province released last week showed that climate change was enhancing conditions conducive to typhoons.
“When they occur, the resulting rainfall totals and wind speeds are more intense,” it said, noting that tropical cyclones were becoming more intense and wetter.
The study was conducted by 23 researchers including scientists from universities and meteorological agencies in the Philippines, China, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Sweden, United States and United Kingdom.
It showed that Gaemi’s wind speeds were about 14 kph or 7% more intense due to climate change, increasing the rainfall by up to 14%.
“The warm sea surface temperatures that fueled Gaemi would have been virtually impossible without climate change,” it said.
Since 1900, there has been a 30% increase in the number of typhoons as intense as Gaemi that form in the northwest Pacific Ocean, according to the study. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Sheldeen Joy Talavera and Adrian H. Halili
By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza and John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporters
THE PHILIPPINES on Monday said it had expressed its displeasure with China after another collision of their vessels that it said didn’t help in efforts to cool tensions in the South China Sea.
“We have made the necessary approaches to China in terms of contacting them through various means to express our complaint and displeasure at what happened,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo told reporters at the presidential palace.
Mr. Enrique said the Philippine side had raised its concern over the fact that the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel that was hit by a Chinese vessel thrice near Sabina Shoal at the weekend was just practicing innocent passage.
He said the Chinese side, in response, “accused us, as usual, of doing this and that.” “We’re contemplating, at the moment, possible approaches to this issue,” Mr. Manalo said when asked whether Manila would lodge another diplomatic protest against Beijing.
“I think, maybe, in the coming days or weeks, we’ll probably have a better picture of where we’re headed for this.”
Mr. Manalo said the incident “doesn’t help the situation” in the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important waterways that China claims almost in its entirety.
A Philippine task force handling sea disputes with Beijing on Saturday accused a Chinese vessel of “deliberately” ramming the Philippines’ largest coast guard vessel named BRP Teresa Magbanua thrice near Sabina Shoal.
The Chinese Coast Guard vessel caused significant damage to BRP Teresa Magbanua and endangered the lives of its personnel, the task force said.
The Chinese side made a similar claim, with Coast Guard spokesperson Liu Dejun saying the smaller PCG vessel had “deliberately” collided with their ship.
“China exercises indisputable sovereignty” over the shoal, he said on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, condemning what he called “unprofessional and dangerous” conduct of the Philippine ship.
The 97-meter-long BRP Teresa Magbanua has been near Sabina Shoal since mid-April, as Manila has accused Beijing of dumping dead corals at the atoll to alter its elevation.
Sabina lies 140 kilometers off the Philippine westernmost island of Palawan and is part of the Spratly Islands.
Sabina has been a staging ground for Philippine resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila grounded a Navy vessel in 1999 to serve as an outpost for a handful of Filipino troops.
Manila and Beijing came up with a resupply deal in July after a June 17 standoff in which Chinese forces threatened, using bladed weapons, Filipino troops delivering supplies to the Navy outpost.
The Philippine side said the Saturday collision was the fifth incident of Chinese harassment at sea in August.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) last month said the government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had filed 173 diplomatic protests against China from July 1, 2022 to Aug. 12, 2024, 40 of which were lodged this year.
‘UNPROVOKED AGGRESSION’
Meanwhile, think tank Stratbase ADR said joint patrols, escorts to resupply missions and external defense capacity-building efforts with like-minded partners would help the Philippines exercise its “sovereignty, territorial integrity and economic rights” within its exclusive economic zone.
“The Philippines, as a maritime nation supported by friends and partners, will not back down in the face of this aggression,” Stratbase President Victor Andres C. Mahit said in a statement.
“The institute underpins the importance of reinforcing alliances and elevating partnerships through joint patrols and exercises to respond to threats posed by antagonistic states like China,” he added.
The think tank described Saturday’s incident as “an act of desperation” on China’s part that violated international law.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.
The United States, New Zealand, and Australian embassies have expressed concern over the incident, urging China to follow international law.
Last month, the US and French navies held war games in the Philippine Sea to advance their interoperability “in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” according to the US 7th Fleet.
Manilla, Washington, Ottawa and Canberra held their first joint military exercises in the South China Sea on Aug. 7 and 8 amid Beijing’s increased military buildup in the waterway.
“Chinese behavior, including repeated incursions of its vessels into Philippine territory, unprovoked aggression and the propagation of disinformation are clear violations of international law,” Mr. Manhit said.
Also on Monday, the DFA urged the Senate to ratify a United Nations (UN) agreement on the conservation of marine life and resources beyond a nation’s jurisdiction amid recent sea scuffles with China.
In his speech at a symposium in Makati on the UN agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ), Mr. Manalo said his agency was working with the Senate to refine the country’s laws on marine resources.
“To achieve the goal of conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity, the international community must continue to strengthen international cooperation and coordination, especially through the BBNJ agreement,” he said, based on a copy of his speech sent to reporters via WhatsApp.
The UN agreement entails international cooperation in promoting environmental impact assessments and capacity-building in the transfer of marine technology.
The Philippines signed the treaty at the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in September last year.
Congress has approved a bill that seeks to set up Philippine sea lanes and another establishing maritime zones to assert the country’s territorial claim over the South China Sea.
The Senate last month passed another bill that tasks the government to draft a plan to manage marine and coastal resources to cut land and sea-based pollution and overfishing.
“The agreement embodies our collective response and responsibility towards ensuring the health and productivity of our oceans for generations to come,” Mr. Manalo said.
By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES’ Department of Education (DepEd) plans to order schools nationwide to revert to the one-hour duration of subjects under a new curriculum to ease teachers’ workload, according to its chief.
DepEd took notice of teachers’ plight under the Matatag curriculum, which shortened the time for each subject to 45 minutes, Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara told a budget hearing at the House of Representatives on Monday.
He said they are close to finalizing an order that he would issue soon. “We are preparing a department order to inject flexibility, meaning we’ll go back to six one-hour subjects,” Mr. Angara said in mixed English and Filipino.
“Our thought process behind the Matatag curriculum is that the 45-minute lessons maximize learning time… for students,” he said. “We listened to the situation on the ground, and some teachers, as well as some schools, are struggling.”
Vice-President and ex-Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio introduced in August 2023 the new curriculum, which seeks to streamline learners’ education by focusing on reading, literacy and numeracy in the first three schooling years of a student.
Party-list Rep. France L. Castro said the curriculum is “problematic” because teachers are forced to congest their teaching hours to 45 minutes per class to meet their teaching load.
“Our high school teachers have seven to eight [teaching] loads… so it’s really necessary to review this immediately,” she said in Filipino at the hearing.
An April 2024 DepEd order said teachers should spend six hours of their workday to classroom teaching, with the remaining two hours constrained to tasks such as curriculum planning and learners’ assessment.
Going back to the one-hour subject duration is a step in the right direction toward better education quality, Ferdinand Pol L. Martin, who teaches education at the University of the Philippines, said by telephone.
“Forty-five minutes is sometimes too short,” he said in Filipino. “Often, you have routines and ceremonies [before you start your teaching] and you run out of time, leaving you with just 30 minutes.”
“Other teachers go overtime as well, so there’s really nothing left for you. One hour is just right,” he added.
The Education department is also preparing for the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) by strengthening science learning and improving computer literacy, Mr. Angara said.
The upcoming PISA survey is a “particular challenge” for the Philippine education system due to the lack of science teachers, made worse by the country’s poor performance in previous assessments.
“The President is particularly concerned about the next PISA exam,” he told congressmen.
“This is in March 2025 next year, just a few months from now, so we have formed a PISA technical working group within the department to organize test materials and [conduct] school infrastructure assessments,” he added.
Filipino students were among the world’s weakest in math, reading and science, according to the 2022 PISA. The Philippines ranked 77th out of 81 countries and performed worse than the global average in all categories.
DepEd is looking at digitizing its “PISA-focused science program” in online learning platform Khan Academy this month, according to the Education chief.
“From October to December, we will hold learning sessions for 1.6 million 15-year-old public school learners,” he said.
DepEd would keep holding “intensive learning sessions” until the day of the survey, he added.
THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT and the local Maoist movement were still in exploratory talks for the resumption of their peace negotiations, a presidential peace adviser said on Monday.
The exploratory talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines’ political wing were still “ongoing” as seen in a November mission statement by the two camps, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr. said at a Palace briefing.
Mr. Galvez was referring to a joint communique signed by the two camps in November last year to signify their openness to peace negotiations amid “serious socioeconomic and environmental issues” as well as foreign security threats facing the country.
The Cabinet official said there are three processes under a peace negotiation, including coming up with a vision statement and a framework agreement.
“Then number three is the final peace agreement,’’ he added.
In their joint communique, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Philippine government recognized the “need to unite as a nation in order to urgently address these challenges and resolve the reasons for the armed conflict,” citing socioeconomic and environmental issues as well as foreign aggression.
It was signed by the Special Assistant to the President Secretary Antonio Ernesto “Anton” F. Lagdameo, Jr. on behalf of the Philippine government with Mr. Galvez and former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Emmanuel Bautista as witnesses.
NDFP’s National Executive Council member Luis G. Jalandoni, Negotiating Panel interim chairperson Julieta de Lima, and member Coni Ledesma signed the agreement.
The communique acknowledges Mr. Bautista for initiating informal talks in the past years with the late NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria C. Sison, founder of the 55-year-old Maoist insurgency.
Earlier in the day, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Monday vowed to implement all signed peace agreements with various rebel groups including those covering the country’s south.
“You can depend on this Administration to implement all signed peace agreements for the security, the inclusive progress, and stability not only in Mindanao but throughout the country,” he said in a speech marking the 28th anniversary of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
He said peace processes with former revolutionary organizations including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Cordillera Bodong Administration-Cordillera People’s Liberation Army, and a communist-inspired partisan group were in “the advanced stages of implementation.”
He also cited the implementation of a transformation program that seeks to uplift the socio-economic conditions of MNLF combatants, their families, and communities.
The 1996 agreement is the government’s main policy framework in implementing a 1976 pact between the Philippine state and MNLF for the establishment of an autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao.
The 1970s pact has two phases: the integration of MNLF members into the Philippine military and police, and the implementation of individual and community-level interventions to deliver peace dividends, according to Mr. Marcos’ office.
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity engages with two primary MNLF groups: the faction led by founding Chairman Nur Misuari; and the group led by BARMM Minister of Labor and Employment Datu Muslimin Sema.
Meanwhile, Mr. Marcos called on the MNLF and other stakeholders to ensure a peaceful and credible conduct of the Bangsamoro region’s first parliament elections next year.
“The forthcoming election is an important reminder not only of the democracy that empowers us to mold our destinies but also of the visionaries who paved the way for the freedom that we all relish today,” he said.
Replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, BARMM was inaugurated in 2019 following a peace negotiation between Moro separatists and the Philippine government in 2014 that paved the way for an organic law in 2018.
The first-ever parliament elections in the region was originally set for May 2022 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the failure to come up with an electoral code. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
THE PHILIPPINE Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. (PDRC) and the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) have agreed to boost cooperation on the peaceful resolution of global disputes amid tensions between Manila and China in the South China Sea.
In a statement on Monday, the PDRC said it had signed an agreement with the international court on Aug. 28 to hold arbitration meetings and hearings in the organization’s facilities in Taguig City.
At the event, Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands Jonathan E. Malaya said the partnership would raise the Philippines’ “profile as an advocate of a rules-base order.”
“The signing of the PDRC-PCA Cooperation Agreement raises the international reputation of the Philippines as a preferred arbitral forum and promotes the use of arbitral institutions located in the country,” he said at the signing ceremony at the PDRC’s headquarters in Taguig City, based on the statement.
The organization, which is composed of lawyers, former members of the judiciary, doctors, among others, is engaged in promoting the use of arbitration and mediation in settling disputes in the maritime, banking, finance, securities and intellectual property industries. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
A PHILIPPINE senator on Monday urged the government to immediately enforce a recently signed law imposing tougher penalties on financial scammers and providing aid to human trafficking victims after authorities rescued more than 160 foreign nationals at an illegal offshore gaming hub in Cebu at the weekend.
In a statement, Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel cited a provision in the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA), which was signed into law in July, that would liquidate assets seized in cases of economic sabotage to be used as aid for human trafficking victims.
“AFASA also has a provision that allows the use of seized assets for victim protection. It is time we set the law in motion,” she said.
“Our hearings have strongly established that these POGOs are run by organized and syndicated criminal groups in complicit with some public officials.”
Under the AFASA law, individuals found guilty of economic sabotage face life imprisonment and a fine of at least P1 million but not more than P5 million. Those found guilty of fraud face jail time of as many as 12 years and a fine of not more than P1 million. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
THE PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) on Monday said it deployed over 5,000 police officers for rescue and manning of evacuation centers amid tropical storm Enteng (International name: Yagi).
“Our PNP chief has also ordered that the respective regional directors activate our Regional Disaster Incidence Management Task Groups to make sure that we follow management protocols for humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR),” PNP Spokesperson and Acting Public Information Office Chief Police Col. Jean S. Fajardo, said in mixed English and Filipino in an online briefing.
“So far, the focus of HADR is on region 5, 4-A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon), and the National Capital Region where the affected areas are so far,” she added.
The PNP leads the Law and Order Response Cluster, which is among the 11 response clusters activated by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Sunday evening.
According to the country’s disaster agency, at least three people died due to the typhoon. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
