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Ayala Land Hospitality, Marriott to build a Moxy Hotel in Makati

AYALA LAND Hospitality and Marriott International formalized their partnership to build a Moxy Hotel in Makati during a signing ceremony held on July 30. — AYALA LAND HOSPITALITY

AYALA LAND HOSPITALITY (ALH) has signed a deal with American hospitality group Marriott International to build a 260-room hotel in Makati City.

Under the agreement, ALH will collaborate with Marriott International to debut Moxy Hotels, the foreign hospitality group’s lifestyle brand.

The property will rise within the 21-hectare Circuit Makati, Ayala Land, Inc.’s (ALI) mixed-use township in Barangay Carmona, Makati City.

The location is near retail and boutique shops, event grounds, green and active lifestyle spaces, and arts and entertainment venues, ALH noted.

“Moxy Hotels is celebrated worldwide for its playful, high-energy vibe that makes travel feel exciting and different,” Kevin Iranzo, director, hotel development – Philippines, Marriott International, said in a statement.

“It’s the perfect fit for dynamic urban destinations filled with culture and entertainment. We’re truly excited to bring Moxy Hotels to the Philippines and especially in Circuit Makati.”

Marriott International, which has a portfolio of over 9,500 properties worldwide, operates 12 properties under six brands in the Philippines.

The hotel will feature contemporary rooms and suites with a playful, multi-functional design.

Upon check-in, guests will be welcomed with a drink from Bar Moxy. Other amenities include social spaces, a fitness center, a swimming pool, event venues, and meeting rooms.

According to ALH, Moxy Circuit Makati is designed for global travelers seeking immersive, culturally rich experiences.

The hotel is envisioned as a social hub for guests looking for a fun and adventurous experience. Interiors will feature graphic designs by Filipino comic book artists, showcasing the humor and nostalgia found in Philippine comics.

“We are excited to design something truly lifestyle-driven, while beginning to tell the story of a different kind of art form, an ode to the illustrators and komiks artists who have long shaped a powerful visual narrative in the Philippines,” ALH Creative Director Paloma Urquijo Zobel de Ayala said.

“From design to service touchpoints, every stay is thoughtfully curated to reflect the spirit of the neighborhood and the moments that matter, always with a dash of fun and a sense of adventure,” Ms. Zobel de Ayala said.

The hotel also aligns with ALH’s plan to build 8,000 rooms by 2030, it said.

“Our vision remains steadfast: to bring Filipino hospitality to the global stage by crafting experiences that connect guests more deeply with each place and its culture,” said George I. Aquino, president and chief executive officer at ALH.

“With Moxy Hotels, we offer travelers a playful and vibrant hotel experience. We’re excited to collaborate with Marriott to create what we believe will set a new benchmark for authentic, dynamic, and imaginative urban destinations,” Mr. Aquino added.

At the local bourse on Thursday, ALI shares declined by 3.10% or 80 centavos to close at P25 apiece. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

Wednesday Season 2 gets gothic global premiere in London

LONDON — Hit Netflix series Wednesday expands the Addams Family world as it returns to screens nearly three years after the show launched in November 2022.

Season Two of the dark fantasy series premiered at London’s Westminster on Wednesday, with its cast and creators walking a purple carpet outside Central Hall and Queen Elizabeth II Centre.

The new season sees Wednesday Addams, played by Jenna Ortega, returning to Nevermore Academy as a celebrated hero, much to her dismay. The tetchy teen puts her detective hat back on to solve new supernatural mysteries, while dealing with glitches in her psychic powers.

Wednesday also faces another nuisance — family. Her little brother Pugsley, played by Isaac Ordonez, starts his studies at Nevermore and their parents are a frequent presence on campus.

“She’s kind of knocked off her feet this season. So it’s a lot of pressure,” said Ms. Ortega.

The series’ creators and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar said Wednesday returns “bigger and better.”

“There’s more of the Addams Family this season,” said Mr. Gough. “We learn more about the characters you got to meet in Season One and they have their own storylines.”

The sophomore season also introduces new characters, including Steve Buscemi’s Nevermore principal Barry Dort and the Addams family matriarch Grandmama Hester Frump, played by Joanna Lumley. Pop star Lady Gaga makes a guest star appearance as a teacher in Part 2.

Mother-daughter dynamics are at the heart of the new season, said Mr. Millar.

“It’s about mothers and daughters, it’s three generations of Addams women together. It’s also about learning to not be in control of everything, for Wednesday. And it’s really always about female friendship and female sisterhood,” he said.

Ms. Ortega, 22, also executive produced the new season. Rather than control, it gave her “freedom” she said.

“She’s kind of our cast spokesperson. Any time I felt like something needed to be said or if I had any ideas, she was always like, ‘come to me and we’ll make it work.’ She just looks out for us,” Emma Myers, who plays Wednesday’s roommate Enid Sinclair, said.

Filmmaker Tim Burton also returns as one of the directors and executive producers.

Wednesday Season Two will be released in two four-episode installments, with Part One dropping Aug. 6 and Part Two out on Sept. 3. — Reuters

Meralco downgrades energy sales forecast for 2025

A lineman is working on an electric pole in Ermita, Manila. — PHILIPPINE STAR/RYAN BALDEMOR

POWER DISTRIBUTOR Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has lowered its energy sales volume forecast for this year due to cooler weather, a company official said.

At a recent press briefing, Ferdinand O. Geluz, Meralco’s senior vice-president and chief revenue officer, said the company has revised the forecast to 1-2% from 4-4.5%.

“The downgrade in our energy sales forecast stems mainly from industry, weather, and macroeconomic factors,” Mr. Geluz said.

For the six months ending in June, Meralco reported a slow uptick in energy sales volume of 0.5% to 27,091 gigawatt-hours (GWh), coming off a high base last year when the Philippines experienced the El Niño phenomenon.

Meralco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan is banking on the generation business to drive the company’s goals.

“While energy sales volume growth has been lower than anticipated, we remain on track to meet our overall targets as power generation is expected to deliver higher-than-expected performance, offsetting the anticipated slower demand growth,” Mr. Pangilinan said.

In the first half, the distribution utility business accounted for 54% of Meralco’s core net income, which rose by 10% to P25.5 billion.

Mr. Pangilinan earlier said the power distributor is on track to hit its target earnings of P50 billion for this year, driven by its power generation business.

“As we move into the second half, we remain focused on achieving key milestones that will enable us to meet our full-year profit target and business goals,” he said.

Meanwhile, in its retail electricity supply business, private equity firm CVC Asia has expanded its partnership with MPower to cover the renewal of existing accounts and the inclusion of new ones.

CVC Asia, a private equity strategy arm of global private markets manager CVC, has investments in Southeast Asia Retail, Inc. — the company behind Landers Superstore — and in Professional Services, Inc.

Through the government’s customer choice programs — the Competitive Retail Electricity Market and the Retail Aggregation Program — CVC Asia is transitioning its Philippine investments to access “more competitive rates, flexible energy options, and long-term sustainability.”

“This collaboration is a clear example of how we actively partner with our investee companies to unlock tangible, long-term value. By connecting them to more competitive and sustainable electricity solutions, we’re not only reducing operating costs — we’re also helping build more resilient, future-ready businesses,” said Brice Cu, senior managing director and country head of the Philippines at CVC.

Meralco’s majority owner, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Voice actors push back as AI threatens dubbing industry

STOCK PHOTO | Image  from Freepik

PARIS/BERLIN — Boris Rehlinger may not turn heads on the streets of Paris, but his voice is instantly recognizable to millions of French filmgoers.

As the French voice of Ben Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, and even Puss in Boots, Mr. Rehlinger is a star behind the scenes — and now he is fighting to keep his craft alive in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

“I feel threatened even though my voice hasn’t been replaced by AI yet,” the actor, who is part of a French initiative, TouchePasMaVF, to protect human-created dubbing from artificial intelligence, told Reuters.

He said there was a team of professionals, including actors, translators, production directors, dialogue adapters, and sound engineers, to ensure audiences barely notice that the actor on screen is speaking a different language than they hear.

The rise of global streaming platforms such as Netflix, which relies heavily on dubbing to make global hits such as Squid Game and Lupin, has amplified demand.

Consumer research firm GWI says 43% of viewers in Germany, France, Italy, and Britain prefer dubbed content over subtitles.

The market is expected to grow to $4.3 billion in 2025, reaching $7.6 billion by 2033, according to Business Research Insights.

That growth could also amplify demand for the so-far nascent technology-based solutions, with platforms competing for subscribers and revenue, and seeking to win over advertisers from their rivals by emphasizing their increasing reach.

But as AI-generated voices become more sophisticated and cost-effective, voice actor industry associations across Europe are calling on the European Union (EU) to tighten regulations to protect quality, jobs, and artists’ back catalogues from being used to create future dubbed work.

“We need legislation: Just as after the car, which replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we need a highway code,” Mr. Rehlinger said.

Worries over technology in the movie industry and whether it will replace the work of humans are not new. AI has been a flashpoint in Hollywood since the labor unrest of 2023, which resulted in new guidelines for the use of the technology.

Netflix Co-Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ted Sarandos said this month that the company used generative AI to produce visual effects for the first time on screen in the original series El Eternauta (The Eternaut).

It has also tested generative AI to synchronize actors’ lip movements with dubbed dialogue to improve the viewing experience, according to three sources familiar with the work.

These experiments rely on local voice actors to deliver the lines, rather than use AI to synthetically translate the on-screen performer’s voice into another language.

Such a use of AI for dubbing is permitted under the new SAG-AFTRA actors’ union contract, which covers voice-over dubbing from foreign languages into English. It also requires that the actor rendering the dubbing service be paid.

Netflix declined to comment on its use of AI in dubbing when asked by Reuters.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Such test-runs by an industry giant will do little to allay the fears of dubbing actors.

In Germany, 12 well-known dubbing actors went viral on TikTok in March, garnering 8.7 million views, for their campaign saying “Let’s protect artistic, not artificial, intelligence.”

A petition from the VDS voice actors’ association calling on German and EU lawmakers to push AI companies to obtain explicit consent when training the technology on artists’ voices and fairly compensate them, as well as transparently label AI-generated content, gained more than 75,500 signatures.

When intellectual property is no longer protected, no one will produce anything anymore “because they think ‘tomorrow it will be stolen from me anyway,’” said Cedric Cavatore, a VDS member who has dubbed films and video games including the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII Remake.

VDS collaborates with United Voice Artists, a global network of over 20,000 voice actors advocating for ethical AI use and fair contracts.

In the United States, Hollywood video game voice and motion capture actors this month signed a new contract with video game studios focused on AI that SAG-AFTRA said represented important progress on protections against the tech.

STUDIOS EXPERIMENT
Some studios are already cautiously exploring AI.

Eberhard Weckerle, managing director of the Neue Tonfilm Muenchen studio, hopes AI and human dubbing can one day coexist.

“The fear is that AI will be used to make something as cheap as possible and then people will say, ‘Okay, I’ll accept that I’ll have poorer quality.’ And that would actually be the worst thing that could happen to us,” said the sound engineer whose studio worked on the German version of Conclave and is currently dubbing Guy Ritchie’s new film.

Earlier this year, the German-dubbed version of streaming service Viaplay’s Polish crime series Murderesses was removed after criticism from viewers about the monotony of its AI-generated dialogue.

The streamer had decided to look into alternative dubbing options due to how prohibitively expensive going through the traditional channels can be in Germany.

The hybrid dubbing, created with Israeli startup DeepDub, used a mix of human and AI voices. DeepDub did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

“We’ll continue offering subtitles and reserve dubbing for select content,” said Vanda Rapti, the executive vice-president of ViaPlay Group, ViaPlay Select & Content distribution.

Despite the disquiet over that series, other potential viewers seem more sanguine. According to GWI, nearly half of viewers said their opinion would not change if they learned that the content they liked was generated by AI.

Some 25% said they would like it slightly less, and only 3% said they would like it much more.

‘INTEREST IS HUGE’
Stefan Sporn, CEO of Audio Innovation Lab, which used AI to dub the Cannes Film Festival entry Black Dog from Chinese to German, believes AI will reshape, but not replace, voice work.

Humans will always be needed for emotion, scripting, and language nuance, he said, “just not to the same extent.”

Audio Innovation Lab’s technology alters the original actor’s voice to match the target language, aiming for authenticity and efficiency.

“Interest is huge,” said Mr. Sporn, adding that producers, studios and advertisers all want to know how well it works.

Another startup, Flawless AI, bills itself as an ethical AI company that works with local voice actors and uses its technology to match the on-screen actor’s lip movements to the different languages.

“When AI technologies are used in the right way, they are a silver bullet to change how we can film-make in a new way,” co-CEO Scott Mann said. — Reuters

Chinabank net income climbs 14% to P13 billion

BW FILE PHOTO

CHINA BANKING CORP. (Chinabank) saw its net income climb by 14% year on year in the first half on continued core business growth.

The listed bank’s net income was at P13 billion in the six months through June, it said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday.

This translated to a return on equity of 15.2% and a return on assets of 1.6%.

“We continue to deliver strong operating results in the first semester while supporting the needs of our customers and contributing to the growth of our economy,” Chinabank President and Chief Executive Officer Romeo D. Uyan, Jr. said in a statement. “We are sustaining our growth momentum as we execute our strategy and focus on delivering quality service and value to our clients and stakeholders.”

“Our robust performance was driven by our commitment to addressing client needs while effectively managing risks and promoting efficiencies. We have ensured that our balance sheet remains strong,” Chinabank Chief Finance Officer Patrick D. Cheng said.

The bank’s financial statement was unavailable as of press time.

Chinabank’s revenues surged by 34% year on year to P38.9 billion in the first semester.

This was driven mainly by the 15% increase in its net interest income to P34.9 billion, which it said came on the back of higher asset yields and loan volume.

Its net interest margin improved by 13 basis points to 4.57%.

Meanwhile, the bank’s operating expenses reached P16.6 billion in the first half as it saw higher technology, manpower, and business volume-related costs.

“With revenue growth outpacing rising expenditures, Chinabank recorded a healthier cost-to-income ratio of 43%,” it said.

Gross loans rose by 18% year on year to P964.7 billion at end-June “amid the accelerating economic activities and increasing consumer confidence” that led to increased credit extended to the consumer and corporate segments.

Chinabank also set aside loan loss provisions amounting to P6.5 billion in the period.

Its nonperforming loan ratio was at 1.6%, while NPL coverage ratio was at 125%.

On the funding side, total deposits rose by 5% to P1.3 trillion as of June, driven by the 10% growth in its checking and savings accounts.

Chinabank’s consolidated assets expanded by 8% year on year to P1.7 trillion at end-June.

Total equity also went up by 15% to P174 billion.

Its capital adequacy ratio was at 15.62%.

Book value per share increased by 15% to P64.65.

The bank’s consolidated network is made up of 650 branches and 1,109 automated teller machines.

It also offers other financial services through its subsidiaries, including China Bank Savings, Inc., Chinabank Capital Corp., and Chinabank Securities Corp.

Chinabank’s shares went up by P1 or 1.55% to close at P65.50 each on Thursday. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

Peso sinks to P58 level on hawkish Fed

BW FILE PHOTO

THE PESO plummeted to the P58 level on Thursday, hitting a near six-month low versus the greenback, following hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell that dampened hopes for a September rate cut.

The local unit plunged by 74 centavos to close at P58.32 against the dollar from its P57.58 finish on Wednesday, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed. This was the peso’s weakest close in nearly six months or since it ended at P58.34 per dollar on Feb. 4.

The peso opened Thursday’s session weaker at P57.86 against the dollar. Its intraday best was at just P57.85, while its worst showing was at P58.40 against the greenback.

Dollars exchanged surged to $2.6 billion on Thursday from $1.86 billion on Wednesday.

“The dollar-peso closed higher on strong US data and hawkish comments from Mr. Powell following the Fed’s decision to hold,” the first trader said in a phone interview.

The dollar’s strength overnight after the Fed kept rates unchanged for a fifth straight meeting caused the peso to open the session weaker, the second trader said in a text message.

“This strong dollar opening set the stage for the rest of the day, as the dollar-peso spot rate soared to a high of P58.40. If I were to hazard a guess on the cause, it’s likely due to panic from the strong opening in the morning,” the second trader added.

For Friday, the first trader sees the peso moving between P58.10 and P58.50 per dollar, while the second trader expects it to range from P58.30 to P58.50.

The dollar flirted with a two-month peak after Mr. Powell stuck to his patient approach on rates in a closely watched policy decision and offered little insight on when they could be lowered, Reuters reported.

The greenback was also on track for its first monthly gain for the year, bolstered by a hawkish Fed and US economic resilience, with uncertainty over tariffs beginning to ease given recent trade deals struck by Washington.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar dipped slightly to 99.67, but was not far from a two-month peak hit in the previous session. The dollar index was set for a monthly gain of about 3%.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to avoid signaling imminent rate cuts despite relentless political pressure underscores its prevailing caution and has forced investors to dial back expectations for an easing at the next policy meeting.

The Federal Open Market Committee held interest rates on Wednesday in a split decision that gave little indication of when borrowing costs might be lowered. It also drew dissent from two Fed governors, both appointees of US President Donald J. Trump who agree with him that monetary policy is too tight.

The overnight policy rate controlled by the Fed remains in a 4.25%-4.5% range. The last rate cut was in December and the Fed hiked rates from March 2022 to July 2023 to fight inflation.

The lack of a clear signal that the Fed was warming to interest rate cuts as soon as the next meeting in September lifted Treasury yields and the dollar in late trade and turned stocks lower.

Fed funds futures traders are pricing in a 46% probability of a rate cut by September, down from about 65% a day ago, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. They are no longer pricing in two full 25 basis point cuts by yearend as they were in recent days.

Mr. Powell was careful to keep his options open on monetary policy. “We have made no decisions about September,” he said in a press conference. He also noted there was still time to take in a wide range of data before the central bank next met in mid-September.

Mr. Powell has come under intense pressure from the White House to lower interest rates, with Mr. Trump regularly berating him for being too slow to lower borrowing costs. —  Aaron Michael C. Sy with Reuters

Globe completes transfer of 96 towers to MIDC, PhilTower

GLOBE.COM.PH

GLOBE TELECOM, INC. said it had completed the transfer of 96 towers to MIESCOR Infrastructure Development Corp. (MIDC) and Phil-Tower Consortium, Inc. (PhilTower) for a combined P1.34 billion.

Globe said in separate disclosures on Thursday that it had completed the final sale of 12 towers to MIDC for P144 million and 84 towers to PhilTower for P1.2 billion.

This final closing with MIDC brings the total number of towers transferred since 2022 to 1,725, while Globe has closed 1,244 out of 1,350 towers, or nearly 92.15% of the total towers to be acquired by PhilTower.

“Progressing toward the completion of our tower sale and leaseback program signals Globe’s bold steps toward future-ready growth. It underscores our disciplined execution, strategic focus, and commitment to building a more agile and capital-efficient organization,” Globe President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Raymond R. Cruz said in a media release.

This recent development also brings the total number of towers officially turned over to 6,945, generating total proceeds of P89.3 billion.

Broken down, 2,410 towers were turned over in 2022; another 2,057 in 2023; and 2,205 in 2024. This year alone, a total of 273 towers have been transferred, generating P3.5 billion in proceeds.

MIDC is a joint venture between Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corp., a subsidiary of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), and alternative investment firm Stonepeak, while PhilTower is a local tower company that builds shared telecommunication infrastructure for mobile operators.

“Today marks another milestone in our tower monetization initiative. With the substantial handover of sites, we continue to move forward with our goal of strengthening Globe’s financial position,” said Globe Chief Finance Officer, Treasurer and Chief Risk Officer Juan Carlo C. Puno.

To recall, Globe signed agreements with MIDC and Frontier Tower Associates Philippines, Inc. for the sale of 5,709 telecommunication towers and related passive infrastructure for about P71 billion. Frontier Towers is set to acquire a total of 3,529 towers for P45 billion, while MIDC will acquire 2,180 towers for P26 billion.

In the same year, it also signed an agreement with PhilTower for the telco’s 1,350 towers.

At the local bourse, shares in Globe closed P6, or 0.36% higher, to end at P1,670 each. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

Venice Film Festival to give career award to US director Julian Schnabel

LABIENNALE.ORG

MILAN — American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, whose movies include artist biopics At Eternity’s Gate and Basquiat, will be given a career award at this year’s Venice Film Festival, organizers said on Wednesday.

The 73-year-old will be presented with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award, dedicated to people who have made a particularly original contribution to contemporary cinema, on Sept. 3, a festival statement said.

Before the ceremony, the festival will host the out-of-competition premiere of Mr. Schnabel’s latest feature, In the Hand of Dante, starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, and Martin Scorsese.

“I never dreamed I would become a filmmaker, let alone be honored with this award,” Mr. Schnabel said in the statement.

Festival director Alberto Barbera praised Schnabel’s work as “a gift to film,” calling his new feature “his most ambitious project to date.”

The Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6. — Reuters

‘Nasa likod ninyo ang pamahalaan!’

PHILIPPINE STAR/NOEL B. PABALATE

We can assess and describe President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.s’ 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA) a hundred ways, but two stand out.

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s nudging did not seem to work on the President and those who helped him craft the SONA. Despite the elephants in the room, the SONA ignored online gambling and the tariff issues.

There was no better time than the SONA for the President to have defined his Administration’s position on legislation seeking to ban or to regulate e-gambling. Such an omission could betray a lack of heart over the snowballing impact on families with members grappling with a gambling addiction, and those whose finances were simply wiped out by gambling debts. True, even Singapore has succumbed to gambling, which includes card games, roulette, and slot machines, and the city state is now the third biggest market in the casino industry. While gambling there is tightly regulated through strict laws to ensure law and order, the adverse social implications cannot be dismissed. This is one instance that we would rather not be cited as among the top in the world — just an emerging market. Yet we already have colossal issues with gambling losses.

Economists may argue that the market will always find ways to gamble, especially online, so banning the activity does not make much sense as it will never work. On the other hand, regulation sets the rules of the game, and we know parameters tend to limit excessive behavior. What is more, the government can even make money from taxes and other fees.

So, Malacañang could have weighed in — whether it intends to propose banning or regulating — by stressing on the government’s serious pursuit of economic growth. We can always identify other business activities that promise greater productivity and returns to Filipino families with little or no social cost as a game of chance. Moving away from the gambling industry should be consistent with the President’s much applauded announcement in the 2024 SONA that POGOs were to be banned by the end of last year.

This year’s SONA could have also allowed the President to explain why the Philippines was slapped with a relatively high reciprocal tariff by US President Donald Trump when, one, its trade surplus with the US has been relatively modest; two, it is not a transshipment point for China’s exports; and, three, we are the strongest US ally in this side of the Pacific. Yes, nothing is definite yet on the net two-percentage loss from the US’ reciprocal tariff on Philippine exports — from 17% to 20% to 19%. Yes, tariff burden or tariff severity could always be mitigated by the kind of US imports from the Philippines because the US grants certain exemptions like technology-related products. But Malacañang, even at this point, could have turned the table and assured civil society that all efforts are in full swing to pin down better specific terms.

The challenge for the Philippines is to shape up and reach a higher level of global competitiveness. There is some scope for making up for the higher price of Philippine exports in the US market. The President could have also sounded the call to attract those multinational companies relocating from China and other higher-tariff countries. The caveat is the sustained support of government in terms of better infrastructure, stronger connectivity, ease of doing business, cheaper and more reliable energy. After all, this was what the President for the most part of his SONA amplified with feeling.

Without a counterweight and public support, the higher tariff could reduce the country’s economic growth. Nomura announced its forecast of a possible impact of up to 0.4 percentage point. In contrast, Indonesia, which faces the same 19% reciprocal tariff, is expected to weather this shock with only a 0.2 percentage point decline. Domestic growth prospects may be dimmer than expected.

Beyond these two key issues, it was only right for the President to have spent more time on accountability. This was also the focus of the other SONA presented to the Filipino people by the parliament of the streets.

According to the 2025 SONA, accountability should be established on the funding and execution of flood control projects. An ironic picture in one of the broadsheets shows a citizen of this Republic sitting on a table in his flooded house and listening to the President delivering his critique against the flood control programs of his own government. The President could not have been more accurate when he described our flood control projects as “sub-standard or mere figments of imagination.”

The President inspired a standing ovation for challenging the guilty parties with “Let us not pretend. The people know that there are rackets in the projects. Mahiya naman kayo! (Shame on you.)”

Then Marcos challenged the guilty parties to be shamed by the sight of houses submerged in deep floods because those projects did not yield the desired result of flood control, by the liabilities of future generations in terms of repaying the debt incurred to fund sub-standard flood control projects, because a large part of their budgets was kept by the politicians themselves.

We hope this is not just lip service, but the order to submit a list of flood control projects from every region to be examined by regional monitoring groups should have been done many presidencies ago, and, in Marcos’ case, the moment he was sworn in as head of state. Publishing the list is actually superfluous because this should be part of transparency and accountability in public spending. An ordinary Filipino would have no means, background, or even competency to pass judgment on these projects. An independent Commission on Audit should be doing this.

We can only be awed by the sheer magnitude of corruption here.

Senator Ping Lacson estimated that of the P2 trillion allocated for flood control since 2011, almost half may have been lost to irregularities. That is roughly P66 billion a year, or P183 million a day in kickbacks. As far as he is concerned, it is absurd that the rise in floodwaters “is directly proportional to the increase in the annual budget for the National Government’s flood control management program.”

Question: Will the guilty parties be charged and jailed, be made accountable beyond the Blue Ribbon Committee if the report does not garner sufficient support from the senators? Or in the house, beyond the appropriate committee?

It will be good to see how the President will start vetoing those components of the 2026 budget that deviate from the government’s national expenditure program, or those unprogrammed allocations for which loans are to be incurred for funding. Will both houses of Congress agree to open up the bicameral conference to the public when the budget is reconciled and finalized?

The war on corruption — thank God it’s no longer on drugs — is expected to extend to other infrastructure projects. “We will not allow corruption, design flaws, poor quality materials, delays or neglect in maintenance and repair.”

While he also talked about food security, the President could have also warned concerned public agencies on agriculture and food for their failure to stabilize food supply and logistics. By this time the President should have already admitted that bringing rice prices down to P20 a kilo is impossible without structural reforms. Subsidizing the Kadiwa centers to the tune of more than P100 billion a year is absolutely not sustainable. It can only be financed by borrowed funds, or higher taxes.

Finally, the President could have also touched on fiscal sustainability.

Bordering on idealist allocation, the President assured the Filipino public of various public interventions in all spheres of civic life. For business, there shall be capital grants to small business, free training on entrepreneurship, and industrial revitalization. For agriculture, 15 million hybrid and high-quality coconut seeds shall be planted, and more lands shall be distributed to the farmers. For energy, 200 power plants shall be completed in the last three years of his presidency and 1 million households shall be provided with access to electricity.

For education, more school counselors shall be employed, 300 barangay child development centers shall be built, vaccination shall be completed among schoolchildren, more classrooms shall be constructed, scholarships shall be offered. For poverty alleviation, the conditional cash transfer shall be sustained, and the feeding program shall be extended to 750,000 households.

For public health, the President assured those with heart conditions need not worry anymore: treatment for heart ailments, open heart surgery, and heart valve repair or replacement shall be covered by PhilHealth. The treatment for cancer shall be enhanced, dialysis treatment three days a week shall also be covered, and the limit on the kidney transplant subsidy was already increased. Most importantly, the President informed all of us during the SONA, access to public funds would be open to those sick of dengue, those with eyesight issues, and those PWD in need of therapy and rehabilitation. And a hundred more items will be covered by PhilHealth.

We wonder whether our economic managers briefed the President on the emerging fiscal picture. As of June 2025, National Government (NG) debt has reached P17.267 trillion from the level a year ago of P15.484 billion. When the GDP for the first half of 2025 is announced, the ratio could exceed 62%.

It might be difficult for the President to deliver on all these promises considering that the revenue to GDP ratio has been historically low at around 15% while public expenditure to GDP ratio has been higher at about 22%. Those promises — business activities, agriculture, power, education — mean higher spending. Unless supported by higher taxes, this government will have to incur more borrowings.

Fiscal consolidation in the context of SONA cannot be achieved by lower spending. Lower spending will spell failure to translate the President’s vision and commitment to something beyond “palamuti” (decoration). There is no other option but to maximize each peso of public revenue and this means promoting good governance and eliminating corruption in public office.

Let us take up the President on his assurance that “sa mga matitinding hamon na binabato at hinaharang ng ating mundo ngayon, nasa likod ninyo ang pamahalaan.” (In the face of the severe challenges our world is facing today, the government is behind you.)

 

Diwa C. Guinigundo is the former deputy governor for the Monetary and Economics Sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). He served the BSP for 41 years. In 2001-2003, he was alternate executive director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He is the senior pastor of the Fullness of Christ International Ministries in Mandaluyong.

DBP hopes to refile charter amendments within this year

BW FILE PHOTO

THE DEVELOPMENT BANK of the Philippines (DBP) is hoping to refile within this year the bill replacing its decades-old charter to increase its capital stock.

“It was vetoed, so we will have it refiled. But the most important part of the charter is the increase in the authorized capitalization from P35 billion to P300 billion,” DBP President and Chief Executive Officer Michael O. de Jesus told reporters on the sidelines of an event on Thursday.

The new bill to be filed will address the issues that led to the veto, he said.

“We will just have to address (them) to make sure that it won’t be vetoed again. There were actually very minor issues that really did not affect the main part of the bill. But whatever it is, we will address those in the refiling.”

Asked when the proposal will be filed, the official said: “Maybe within the year. Maybe towards the end of this year. We will work on it.”

The Finance department has pushed for the amendments to DBP’s charter to strengthen its financial position and give it easier access to the capital markets. The proposal approved by the 19th Congress sought to increase the state-run lender’s capital stock to help finance its priority sectors, such as social infrastructure and small businesses.

The bill would have also paved the way for DBP’s listing as it would have allowed the bank to offer up to 30% of its shares to the public, with the National Government mandated to own 70% of its capital stock at all times.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in May vetoed the bill “due to certain provisions that are either vague or confusing, or conflicting with the Constitution, existing laws, and principles of good governance,” he said in his veto letter to Congress.

Mr. Marcos said in his veto letter that the bill’s provision allowing DBP to temporarily appoint directors in its subsidiaries undermines the authority of the Executive over government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCC) and the standards of accountability and oversight under the GOCC Governance Act. A provision that allows shareholders to vote for the bank’s board members also goes against another provision that authorizes the President to do the same.

He added that the authority granted to DBP to receive dividends from its subsidiaries contradicts the law that requires all GOCCs to remit at least 50% of their annual net earnings to the National Government.

Mr. De Jesus said these issues could have been resolved “easily,” but they did not have the time as the 19th Congress was about to close when the bill was vetoed.

“We’re just waiting for the completion of the committee assignments in the Senate and in the House. So, maybe once they’re completed, we can write a refile with the Department of Finance’s guidance,” he said.

Meanwhile, DBP on Thursday signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Education to launch the DBP Integrated Scholastic Program for Inclusive and Responsive Education (INSPIRE), a five-year omnibus assistance program for the education sector.

The bank will be allocating P510 million to support both the basic and higher education sectors.

For the higher education sector, P437.5 million will be allocated for tuition and miscellaneous fees and student support for five batches of scholars, while P87.5 million will benefit at least 350 scholars for each batch.

For the basic education sector, P72.5 million will be used to support up to 150 public schools in five years, while P14.5 million will be used yearly to assist 20 public elementary schools and 10 public secondary schools.

“I am proud to share that we also have approved a grant amounting to P87 million for the first tranche of the INSPIRE scholastic component. Under this, the program can aptly support the tertiary education sector by providing funding resources to the first batch of DBP INSPIRE scholars, or up to 460 individuals, whose four-year course programs shall be covered under the program,” Mr. De Jesus said.

DBP’s net income stood at P2.53 billion as of end-June, its financial statement posted on its website showed. — A.M.C. Sy

PAL income climbs to over P3 billion in Q2 on passenger volume growth

PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

PAL HOLDINGS, INC., the operator of flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), saw its second-quarter attributable net income rise by 40.51% to P3.33 billion, driven by higher passenger volumes.

“To sustain our momentum in this dynamic operating environment, we will continue to focus on generating healthy revenues, maintaining financial discipline, sustaining operational integrity and providing the kind of exemplary travel experience that our customers deserve,” PAL President Richard Nuttall told the stock exchange on Thursday.

For the second quarter, PAL posted total revenue of P46.39 billion, up by 2.81% from P45.12 billion in the comparable period a year ago.

The company’s topline for the period was mainly driven by an increase in its passenger revenue, which rose by 1.11% to P39.94 billion from P39.50 billion in the same period last year.

The flag carrier carried 4.4 million passengers for the April-to-June period, 9% higher than previously, PAL said, noting that its revenue growth was slightly tempered by slow international yields. Further, the company said it operated 29,584 flights across both international and domestic routes during the second quarter.

Its ancillary business logged revenue of P4.15 billion, up by 22.52% from P3.39 billion in the same period last year; while its cargo business recorded a revenue of P2.27 billion, higher by 3.18% from P2.20 billion previously.

For the second quarter, PAL said its total expenses grew by 2.74% to P42.36 billion from P41.23 billion in the same period in 2024. The company attributed the increase to higher rental charges, third-party contract costs, and depreciation, although this was partly offset by a reduction in fuel expenses amid lower global fuel prices.

For the six months ending in June, PAL’s attributable net income climbed by 28.31% to P7.66 billion from P5.97 billion in the same period last year. Combined revenues for the January-to-June period rose by 2.66% to P93.34 billion from P90.92 billion a year earlier.

The increase in second-quarter net income contributed to higher earnings for the first semester, PAL said, noting that it carried 8.47 million passengers and operated 57,598 flights during the January-to-June period.

Further, the airline is preparing to operate 22 brand-new aircraft in the next few years, starting with the delivery of the Airbus A350-1000, which will be added to PAL’s fleet by the end of the year.

PAL is also expecting the delivery of additional A350-1000s and 13 A321neo regional aircraft starting in 2026, as well as the arrival of 18 retrofitted Airbus A321ceo aircraft by October this year.

At the local bourse on Thursday, shares in the company fell by six centavos, or 1.44%, to end at P4.10 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

New Mexico judge dismisses Alec Baldwin’s ‘malicious’ prosecution suit in Rust case

ACTOR Alec Baldwin in a scene from Rust. — IMDB

A NEW MEXICO judge has thrown out a misconduct lawsuit filed by actor Alec Baldwin against local prosecutors and sheriff’s officials over their pursuit of criminal charges against him for the fatal 2021 shooting on the set of the Western movie Rust.

Judge Casey Fitch dismissed Mr. Baldwin’s complaint on Tuesday for lack of “significant action” in the case over the past 180 days. The one-page order, made public on Wednesday, allows any party in the lawsuit to seek reinstatement within 30 days.

In a statement later on Tuesday, Luke Nikas, a lawyer for Mr. Baldwin, said settlement discussions were underway and the case could be refiled if they were unsuccessful.

Mr. Baldwin sued special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, Santa Fe County law enforcement investigators, and other public officials in January, accusing them of malicious abuse of process, defamation, and mishandling of evidence.

The lawsuit said the prosecutors and others had conspired to manufacture a criminal case against Baldwin for political and personal gain when they charged him with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The civil suit followed the abrupt dismissal of Mr. Baldwin’s criminal case in July 2024 during his trial in the New Mexico capital.

The trial judge ruled then that the special prosecutor and sheriff’s office had deliberately withheld evidence from Mr. Baldwin on the source of a live round that killed Ms. Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.

Ms. Hutchins’ death, Hollywood’s first on-set fatal shooting in nearly 30 years, shocked the movie industry and sparked calls for an overhaul of firearms safety on film productions.

Ms. Morrissey has said prosecutors had long known the actor would file a retaliatory civil lawsuit.

The Ukrainian-born cinematographer died when Mr. Baldwin pointed a pistol at her while rehearsing, cocked the weapon and possibly pulled the trigger as they set up a camera shot on a movie set near Santa Fe, his lawyers said.

The gun, a reproduction 1873 single-action army revolver, fired a live round inadvertently loaded by Hannah Gutierrez, the production’s weapons handler. Ms. Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Mr. Baldwin, also a Rust producer, has always said live rounds should not have been allowed on set and he was not responsible for weapons safety. — Reuters

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