US PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump is imposing a bigger-than-expected tariff on Philippine exports to the United States, as part of a broader reciprocal tariff plan that will apply to all its trading partners. Read the full story.
WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court is hearing a bid by an arm of a Catholic diocese in Wisconsin for a religious exemption from the state’s unemployment insurance tax in the latest religious rights case to reach the justices.
The Catholic Charities Bureau — a nonprofit corporation operating as the social ministry arm of the Catholic diocese in the city of Superior — and four entities that the bureau oversees have appealed a lower court’s decision rejecting their tax exemption bid.
At issue is whether the denial of the tax exemption violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion, as well as its separation of church and state.
The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has taken an expansive view of religious rights in a series of rulings in recent years. President Donald Trump’s administration is supporting the Catholic Charities Bureau and the other challengers in the appeal.
During the Great Depression, Wisconsin in 1932 became the first US state to enact an unemployment compensation law, which collects taxes from employers and provides a temporary source of income to jobless workers.
Three years later, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the landmark Social Security Act of 1935 that established, among other programs, a cooperative federal-state unemployment insurance plan that would eventually lead to all US states enacting their own unemployment relief programs.
The federal government and all states exempt certain religious entities from having to pay into unemployment insurance programs. Most of these laws, including Wisconsin’s, require that organizations be “operated primarily for religious purposes” to be eligible for a religious exemption.
The Catholic Charities Bureau since 1917, it said on its website, has provided “services to the poor, the disadvantaged, the disabled, the elderly and children with special needs as an expression of the social ministry of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Superior.”
Wisconsin state officials in 1972 determined that the group was subject to the state’s unemployment insurance tax. But after a subsidiary of the Catholic Charities Bureau in a separate case was deemed by a state court to be tax exempt, the bureau and four of its other subsidiaries in 2016 also sought religious exemptions.
Among the subsidiary groups involved in the case before the Supreme Court are organizations that provide services to people with disabilities including job placements and training, as well as daily living services and home visitation, according to court papers. The Catholic Charities Bureau and these subsidiary groups do not require their employees to be of any particular religion, nor do they seek to instill Catholic beliefs in those who benefit from their services.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2024 rejected the tax exemption bid, finding that although the groups “assert a religious motivation behind their work,” their activities were “primarily charitable and secular” and thus were not “operated primarily for religious purposes.”
The challengers have argued that the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling violates the First Amendment “by favoring some religions over others, entangling courts in religious questions, and interfering with church autonomy.”
Secular advocacy groups told the Supreme Court that a win for Catholic Charities Bureau would be far-reaching.
The legal rationale offered by the Catholic Charities Bureau “would allow all religiously affiliated organizations, including six of the 10 largest health systems in the US, to exempt themselves from unemployment insurance and numerous other government regulations,” the Freedom from Religion Foundation said in a written brief.
That would put hundreds of thousands of employees “at risk of losing their unemployment benefits overnight,” it added.
A ruling in the case is expected by the end of June.
The Supreme Court on April 30 is due to hear another case involving Catholic interests. The justices will consider the legality of a bid led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a case testing the separation of church and state. — Reuters
FWD Life Insurance Corp. (FWD Life Philippines) has launched an investment-linked life insurance plan with benefits for milestones hit by policyholders.
The Set for Life Plus unit-linked insurance plan guarantees life protection and has a start-up account value bonus of up to 25% of the basic annual premium, the life insurer said in a statement on Thursday.
It also comes a one-time guaranteed milestone increase, which can be activated once the policyholder hits “major life goals” like marriage, having a baby, graduation, buying property, or retirement.
“As the insurer of the next generation that’s committed to nation-building, FWD recognizes the ever-evolving goals and aspirations of Filipinos. We want to help them celebrate living while building their best future. With Set for Life Plus, they can embrace every opportunity in life and fulfill their goals while having reliable life protection and financial growth,” FWD Life Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Antonio Manuel G. De Rosas said.
Set for Life Plus policyholders will also receive a loyalty bonus of 1% of their average monthly account value once the plan hits its 10th anniversary and every five years afterwards.
A premium extension bonus of 2% will be invested into the account when premium payments are continued after the required period.
The insurance plan’s benefits include accidental death coverage and waiver of premium.
“Policyholders can also customize according to their needs and add coverage such as additional life protection, hospital cash benefit, and critical illness protection,” the life insurer added.
The payment term for the product is five or 10 years and the plan covers an insured person until age 100.
Clients can also choose from various peso investment funds offered by FWD Life Philippines, depending on their risk appetite.
FWD Life Philippines booked a premium income of P39.85 billion last year, data from the Insurance Commission showed. Its net income stood at P848.5 million. — A.M.C. Sy
Netflix’s Adolescence has ignited global debate.
The series traces the disturbing journey of 13-year-old Jamie Miller, whose exposure to misogynistic online communities may have contributed to him to killing a female classmate. Its graphic portrayal has captivated audiences, with more than 66 million views.
This week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wants to see it shown in high schools, framing it as a cautionary educational tool against the toxic “manosphere.”
His office said showing Adolescence would help students better understand the impact of misogyny, dangers of online radicalization, and the importance of healthy relationships.
Should parents be watching the series with their kids?
Before you turn on the TV, remember Adolescence is not a documentary. It is a drama series. And the issues it raises require care and nuance.
The manosphere is a collection of digital spaces such as forums, influencers, and content creators, that promote extremist sexist views under the guise of male empowerment.
While initially focused on fathers’ rights, controversial content creators like Andrew Tate have shifted its focus toward pushing extremist beliefs to boys and young men. Core beliefs include:
• men and women have strict and opposing roles they must follow;
• women manipulate men through sex and their appearance;
• men are either winners (dominant and attractive), or losers (weak failures), pressuring boys to obsess over power or resign themselves to failure.
A growing body of research is showing some young people are being influenced by these views.
So it is hugely important to address misogyny and gender-based violence in our community. But we need to approach young people with care.
Many boys are now growing up in a culture where masculinity itself can be framed as toxic.
Adolescence fits into this framing, dramatizing an extreme case of a boy radicalized into violence. But presenting it without nuance risks implying all males are innately aggressors.
This could alienate young men who might already be hesitant to discuss their struggles.
Research shows boys often avoid seeking help for depression or anxiety because it makes them seem vulnerable and not masculine. They can be taught from an early age crying or admitting fear risks ridicule.
So this presents a challenge. We need to be able to confront harmful behaviors without making boys feel “inherently broken.”
We also need to be careful not reinforcing any feelings of shame that might prevent boys from seeking help.
Meanwhile, we need to understand the power of online worlds and social media. Adolescence (ages 10–14) is a time of vulnerability. As puberty reshapes their bodies and brains, teens become hyper-sensitive to social judgement and peer approval. For insecure teens, social media can function as a “super peer” — shaping attitudes and behaviors, much like a big brother or sister.
Extremist content preys on insecurity by offering dangerously simplistic answers to complex questions about who they are and how they should behave:
• simplistic rules (“This is how you should act”)
• belonging (“We understand you”)
•scapegoats (“Your pain is their fault”).
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok also use algorithms which promote the content that triggers strong reactions. We see this in manosphere content, and content that focuses on other areas of vulnerability, such as physical appearance, relationships, and life goals.
So teens need help to navigate this digital landscape in an informed and balanced way.
Adolescence can serve as one potential starting point for crucial discussions about gender, identity, and online influences.
As a dramatic series rather than a documentary, it’s value lies in its ability to provoke questions and start conversations, rather than provide answers.
If you are watching it with your child you could talk about:
• why certain ideas about masculinity and femininity appeal to them and to others;
• how social media shapes their sense of identity;
• what healthy self-expression and relationships really look like;
• what voices are missing from the series (such as the perspective of the girl killed and her family);
• what support teens would find meaningful from parents and teachers.
The series succeeds if it makes viewers more thoughtful about the content they consume and the identities they choose to embrace, but we shouldn’t mistake it for a comprehensive solution.
And if it’s not right for your child or household, Adolescence should not be seen as mandatory viewing. The most important thing is to create spaces where adults and teens can critically examine how they use social media, identity, and relationships.
Good discussions can start anywhere, from a Netflix drama, to a news article, or a student’s personal experience. What matters most is that we’re having them – and we keep having them as children and young people grow up.
THE CONVERSATION VIA REUTERS CONNECT
Joanne Orlando is a researcher on Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing at the Western Sydney University. She receives funding from NSW Department of Education and previously from Office of eSafety Commissioner.
THE AVERAGE price of electricity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased in March, as demand rose while supply decreased due to forced outages, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said.
Data from IEMOP showed that the WESM price increased by 95.5% to P5.34 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in March, from P2.73 per kWh in February.
From February 26 to March 25, the available supply declined by 4.4% to 19,611 megawatts (MW), attributed to forced outages and deration of some power plants.
Demand, on the other hand, rose by 5.9% to 13,670 MW, driven by extreme heat during the first week of March.
For Luzon, prices surged by 102.7% to P5.50 per kWh from P2.71 per kWh.
Supply decreased by 6.5% to 13,530 MW, while demand grew by 7.1% to 9,713 MW.
The WESM rate in the Visayas increased by 95.5% to P5.48 per kWh from P2.81 per kWh.
Supply in the grid decreased by 1.3% to 2,365 MW, while demand rose by 2% to 1,913 MW.
The Mindanao average price last month climbed by 61.3% to P4.39 per kWh from P2.72 per kWh.
While supply improved by 2.1% to 3,716 MW, demand also increased by 4.5% to 2,044 MW.
IEMOP operates the WESM, where energy companies can purchase power when their long-term contracted power supply is insufficient for customer needs.
In February, the market operator anticipated an increase in spot prices during the dry season due to the expected higher demand. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
LOS ANGELES — Sony Pictures said its big-screen story about The Beatles will be told through four films released in April 2028, each from the perspective of one of the Fab Four.
Director Sam Mendes also revealed the cast for the films on Monday at the CinemaCon industry convention in Las Vegas.
Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon, Barry Keoghan will play Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison.
While the groundbreaking British band’s rise to fame has been well-chronicled, “I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore,” Mr. Mendes said on stage to an audience of theater owners.
The four films will be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028, Mr. Mendes said, adding that Sony executive Tom Rothman described it as “the first bingeable theatrical experience.”
“Frankly, we need big cinematic events to get people out of the house,” said Mr. Mendes, who won an Oscar for directing American Beauty.
Mr. Mescal starred in Gladiator II and All of Us Strangers and was nominated for an Oscar for Aftersun. Mr. Keoghan received an Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin.
Mr. Dickinson starred in Babygirl, and Mr. Quinn appeared in Gladiator II and Netflix hit Stranger Things.
The four actors appeared briefly on stage dressed in all black and bowed in unison, a hallmark of Beatles performances.
Sony titled the movies The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event.
“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” said Mr. Rothman, the chief executive officer and chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group. — Reuters
US PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump is imposing a bigger-than-expected tariff on Philippine exports to the United States, as part of a broader reciprocal tariff plan that will apply to all its trading partners. Read the full story.
Two of our valuable customers sent separate letters to our chief executive officer commending the work of our sales representative. The person being commended is a headache for us, having failed to achieve his monthly quota for the past three months. In fact, we’ve just started placing him on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). We suspect that the letter may have been solicited from the sales agent’s friendly customers. How do we manage the situation? — Boiling Point.
It’s not easy. Your challenge is reconciling the worker’s performance with the commendation letters. If they can’t be reconciled, tackle them separately with the following questions: How truthful are these commendation letters? Unfortunately, only the letter sender can affirm that.
On the other hand, how does the commendation translate to actual sales performance? The evidence must be weighed against the sales agent’s failure to achieve his quota. Also a consideration is maintaining your company’s relationship with customers.
Indeed, it’s difficult to verify the authenticity and validity of the commendation letters. They’re valid because they depend solely on the “testimony” of the letter-writers, who may have experienced a positive experience with the worker being commended. Take the letters at face value.
One thing to consider is whether the letter-senders hold a low-ranking position. This is not to belittle their job or anything, but only to assign a value to their letters. Look into whether the letters were written by a team leader, supervisor, or even a manager from those companies, who may not have the authority to represent their organization.
If the letters were indeed worth writing, the best thing that they could have done was to have those letters co-signed by their department heads. This gives credibility to the process, especially if the letters contain detailed accomplishments of the sales agent. In addition, the letters must contain specific statements on how the worker’s actions greatly benefited their respective organizations.
If their commendation letters are bereft of details other than plain recognition or words of appreciation, then you may be right to suspect that they were solicited by your sales agent to protect him from the adverse effects of his poor work performance.
APPROACHES
Act like a professional manager in managing this issue. Be objective. Make it appear that everything is in order when dealing with the customers who sent the commendation letters. Do your best to get by with their bare facts. It should help you make a better decision. Besides, mere suspicion is worthless.
Now, here are approaches that you can explore to manage the situation.
One, acknowledge the letter-senders. Do it right away. Make your reply short and simple. There’s no need to challenge the customers’ intent by bringing up the worker’s actual poor performance. Use objective language. Express your sincere gratitude for their kind words.
Two, acknowledge the letters right away. Any delay may telegraph your suspicions, especially if they know that their “commendation” was solicited by your sales agent. If the commendation letter was done the old-fashioned way, meaning through a formal letter, then follow the same route.
Three, give your sales agent the benefit of the doubt. Inform him that you’ve received the customers’ letters. Don’t talk to him about your doubts. Treat it as a separate issue from his actual poor performance. Stick to the facts. Proceed with the PIP. Closely monitor the salesperson’s progress and give advice as soon as cracks become evident.
Four, correlate the commendation with actual performance. It will be tempting to find a connection between the commendation letters and the sales agent’s performance. Whatever the result of your investigation, don’t bother raising the issue with the sales agent to avoid unnecessary conflict.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Organizations seeking to maintain and improve their competitive advantage must be able to manage the behavior of their employees. At times, you must consider other extraneous factors such as customer behavior when the sales agent performs the requirements of their job.
You may be distracted by external factors that may have or may not have anything to do with the workers’ performance. That’s why organizations, regardless of their size and nature of business, must link their mission, vision, and value statements to work performance standards.
Your sales agent is a key ingredient in the success and growth of the company. Therefore, managing his performance should be the central focus of your control. It’s the systematic process by which an organization requires the active involvement of its employees, as individuals and as members of a group.
Bring Rey Elbo’s 15-hour (three half-days) leadership program called “Superior Subordinate Supervision” to your management team. Learn from an effective training methodology designed to keep the lessons stuck to its core. E-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com.
EAST WEST Banking Corp. (EastWest Bank) has launched a new credit card co-branded with Puregold Price Club, Inc., which offers rewards points that can be converted into shopping credits.
The bank on Thursday launched the EastWest Puregold Always Panalo Visa credit card, which offers a conversion rate of one reward point for every P30 spent at Puregold. For other purchases, every P100 spent is equivalent to one reward point.
Cardholders can also accumulate up to P3,000 in their Puregold P-wallet monthly when they convert their rewards points.
“This card is a collaboration between EastWest and Puregold that delivers practical, real-world benefits. It turns regular grocery runs into opportunities to earn cash rebates, which can then be converted into Puregold P-Wallet credits. This helps cardholders stretch their budget while enjoying the ease of cashless payments,” EastWest Bank Chief Executive Officer Jerry G. Ngo said at the event.
The new offering is meant to attract new customers to boost its credit card business, he said. EastWest Bank’s credit cards in force reached 1.4 million last year.
“At the same time, we want to welcome our new EastWest customers who may be applying for their very first credit card. There’s a lot of new-to-card customers in the Philippines. I’m very excited to expand that penetration rate to provide that flexibility to everyone. This collaboration with Puregold builds on that strong momentum that we’ve seen in our credit card business at EastWest Bank,” he said.
“This partnership is rooted in the shared goal… of serving the Filipino household, something that Puregold has done for years by being a dependable part of their everyday lives,” Mr. Ngo said.
EastWest Bank’s net income rose by 25% to an all-time high of P7.6 billion in 2024.
Its shares closed unchanged at P10.10 apiece on Thursday. — A.M.C. Sy
DONALD TRUMP has offered varying justifications for tariffs, depending on his audience and what’s expedient at any moment. When the president chooses to mount an economic case for levies, it usually comes with the contention that trading partners are ripping off Americans. Factories need to come home — to the extent they ever left — and duties will do the trick. He professes to not care much about the crockery broken in the process, and has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day” in honor of his protectionist broadsides. Yet the global system he sees as a prison was anything but.
Barely mentioned is that for decades, American companies were buoyed by making products abroad. The practice brought benefits for the domestic economy, helped put a lid on inflation, and delivered influence for Washington. US partners prospered and, as their living standards climbed, they in turn bought goods and services from firms headquartered stateside. It would be too easy to call this arrangement a win-win; unions complained about outsourcing and wealth wasn’t always spread evenly in host nations. There was, however, a circle of self-interest. It worked for a long time, and still can, if Trump’s team recognizes the pluses that accrued and not just the drawbacks.
What is clear is that corporations pursued manufacturing in far-flung destinations as a deliberate strategy. The approach had its roots in the postwar world of US industrial dominance, but it was turbocharged in the 1990s. This often meant that to land big deals, it was best to offer the home patch something. A classic method was to make components in the jurisdiction you sought business from. This helped local employment and provided the technological sweeteners that governments were keen on. Who, if anyone, was being ripped off? If there was advantage being taken, there was a lot to go around. The US trade deficit with Southeast Asia has widened over the years, but opportunities were also plentiful.
The contours of the model were laid out for me in Malaysia, where I reported for Bloomberg News in the mid-to-late 1990s. Before a financial crisis derailed a lot of plans, Asia was seen as a gold mine for aircraft makers. Boeing Co. and Airbus SE competed vigorously. In 1996, Boeing landed a huge contract with Malaysian Airline System Bhd. for 777s and 747-400s, beating out its European rival. I recall Tajudin Ramli, the Malaysian tycoon who helmed MAS, lauding then-Boeing CEO Phil Condit as his good friend. Local content was all the rage. The Arlington, Virginia-based plane maker joined with local companies to make parts, such as wing components. It didn’t escape attention that the venture would set up a facility in the northern state of Kedah, home to both Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister at the time, and Tajudin.
The nearby Malaysian state of Penang offers an example of how a slightly earlier version of this approach took root. In the early 1970s, US computer chipmakers were looking for places to invest that were not only cheaper, but offered little prospect of labor strife. For nations like Malaysia and neighboring Singapore, wooing firms also offered the tantalizing prospect of industrial development. At a time when diplomatic experts at august think tanks bemoaned the loss of influence that accompanied withdrawal from Vietnam, semiconductors kept ties with the US pivotal. “Rather than dominoes falling to Communism, America’s allies were even more deeply integrated with the US,” Chris Miller wrote in his book Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology.
Attracting foreign capital was a core economic objective of Singaporean officials. For Philip Yeo, the former head of the Economic Development Board, this mission meant more than just traveling a lot and working the corridors of corporate behemoths. He saw his role as akin to a concierge. Singapore would provide the infrastructure, an educated workforce — and tax incentives. The benefits to the city-state were real: Jobs, money spent in the local economy, a healthy property market, and income. Yeo pressured the principal of the Singapore American School to find a place for the child of the Western Digital Corp. executive appointed to run its local operation. The kids of Levi Strauss & Co.’s top person were distraught at the quarantine endured by the family dog, and Yeo took it upon himself to find a solution. “Even a dog became my problem,” he recounted in an interview for a biography, Neither Civil Nor Servant, by Peh Shing Huei. “We needed the investment, so it’s okay. I would do anything to get the deal over the line.”
Were Americans being exploited, as Trump insists? Hardly. Would it have been better if Airbus triumphed at the expense of Boeing, or would shareholders prefer less-friendly locations than Singapore, a country that enjoys close economic and strategic ties with the US. Of course, not. These are just a couple of examples of where the connective tissues of trade and capital, for all their imperfection, brought tangible advantages.
If Trump sets in train responses that diminish the effectiveness of this model, there will be many losers. It’s doubtful anyone will truly earn the right to be called a victor.
BLOOMBERG OPINION
FAST LOGISTICS GROUP said it plans to launch four startups under its newly established venture studio aimed at enhancing the country’s logistics and supply chain.
The Revv-EVODINE Venture Studio, unveiled in Cabuyao, Laguna, on Thursday, aims to support startups focused on improving operational efficiency and reducing logistics costs for businesses nationwide.
The venture studio will focus on leveraging artificial intelligence for forecasting, automation, and digital freight matching, among other innovations, FAST Logistics said in a statement.
“Through Revv-EVODINE, we are creating a platform where promising ideas evolve into real-world solutions and scalable ventures, guided by an evidence-based, outcome-driven approach,” Manuel L. Onrejas, Jr., chief executive officer (CEO) for logistics at FAST, said during the launch.
Under the program, early-stage startups will undergo a 16-week incubation, where founders will receive personalized mentorship, critical resources, and real-world testing environments from a pool of executives and venture builders.
The studio will also leverage the company’s warehouse network, transport capabilities, and best-in-class technology infrastructure to foster innovation in the country’s logistics sector.
This will allow startups to validate their technology, refine their business models, and accelerate their market readiness.
The Revv-EVODINE Studio will also incubate ideas from FAST’s internal teams, as well as those recognized during last year’s Philippine Startup Week.
The program will be led by Mark Philip Comandante, Exoasia Innovation Hub CEO and Revv-EVODINE Venture Studio president and chief operating officer.
“Revv-EVODINE ensures that startups not only develop innovative solutions but also align them with industry needs and market demands, ensuring they are market-ready and capable of driving measurable impact in the logistics sector,” Mr. Comandante said.
The Philippine startup ecosystem raised $1.12 billion in 2024, a 16% increase from the previous year, according to the latest Philippine Venture Capital Report by the Boston Consulting Group and venture capital fund Foxmont Capital Partners. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Thursday, April 3, 2025.
