Philippines News

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised on June 8 the status of Mayon Volcano in Albay to Alert Level 3 after it showed an “increased tendency towards a hazardous eruption.”

The controversial "Team Europe" deal with Tunisia's autocratic leader, Kais Saied, set a new low in the European Union's efforts to

The Government has given councils new powers to make street changes more easily in pursuit of locally-agreed needs and objectives, Transport Minister David Parker said today.

"Councils have asked for law change that gives them greater autonomy in how they modify their streets. Decisions at this level should be made locally, not by central Government," David

The low-pressure area off the coast of Eastern Samar has been forecast to develop into a tropical cyclone last night or today as it brings rains over parts of the country.

President Marcos urged the graduates of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy to assist the country in sustaining its positive reputation in the maritime industry, and called for a maritime education that is “even more responsive” to the nation’s needs.

A rights group on Thursday condemned the decision of the Supreme Court upholding the dismissal of a civil forfeiture case involving P1.052 billion in alleged ill-gotten wealth against the family of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

The implementing rules and regulations for the New Agrarian Reform Emancipation Act or Republic Act 11953 are expected to be ready by September, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III said yesterday.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration is eyeing to convert unused sugar for export to the US and the rest of the world to B classification or for domestic use, to boost current supply.

Senators led the topping-off ceremony at the new Senate Building in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig on Thursday.

The Department of Migrant Workers will assist the family of the Filipina household service worker who was found lifeless near a pier in Hong Kong.

The Department of Education will kick off the implementation of the National Learning Camp on July 24, coinciding with the second State of the Nation Address of President Marcos.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro believes that former president Rodrigo Duterte had the best interest of the Philippines in mind when he met and spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week.

Beginning July 24, the turnaround time for the processing of passports in the National Capital Region will be reduced from 12 to 10 working days for regular applications and from seven to five working days for expedited applications.

Cebu Pacific (CEB) ranks third among the strongest brands in the Philippines for 2023, and one of the country’s most valuable brands overall, according to a study by a London-based brand valuation consultancy firm.

CEB received a Brand Strength Index score of 81.0, corresponding to a rating of AAA-, according to Brand Finance’s 2023 report on the most valuable and strongest Filipino brands.

CEB also placed 20th among the Philippines’ most valuable brands for this year—the first time the airline made it in the list—with a brand value worth US$194 million.

Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy firm, published the annual list of the most valuable and strongest brands following a survey of over 100,000 respondents worldwide to assess their perception of more than 4,000 brands.

The survey was complemented with an analysis of the companies’ investments in marketing and research and development, as well as ratings by review sites, social media engagement, customer churn, market share, among others.

According to Brand Finance’s report, the Philippines’ strongest brands are determined based on a balanced scorecard that evaluates the marketing investment, shareholder equity, and business performance of each company. (PR)

BANK of the Philippine Islands capped its first half of 2023 with net income of P25.1 billion, up 23 percent, delivering a return on equity of 15.5 percent.

Drivers of the strong financial performance were average asset base expansion, margin growth and lower provisions.

Total revenues for the first semester of the year ramped up 13.8 percent to P65.6 billion, on the back of the 27.4 percent increase in net interest income to P50.1 billion, attributable to average asset base expansion of 9.2 percent and net interest margin widening by 56 basis points to 4.03 percent.

This was tempered by the 15.4 percent decline in non-interest income to P15.5 billion due to the property sale gain recognized in the prior year.

Removing the impact of this one-off transaction, non-interest income would be higher by P2.2 billion or 16.3 percent, led by the increase in fees from credit cards, various service charges and securities trading. (PR)

DOUBLEDRAGON Corp. worldwide hotel expansion subsidiary Hotel101 Global Pte. Ltd. Wednesday, July 20, 2023 signed Master Service Agreements with Orience, PSI Consultants and L&L RSM Law as the exclusive advisory service providers to process the residency applications by investment option for buyers of at least three units in Hotel101’s first European project, Hotel101-Madrid located in Valdebebas Madrid, Spain.

A Golden Visa for Spain, officially known as the Spain Investor Visa is a residence permit issued to non-European citizens who make a substantial investment in Spain such as buying a real estate asset worth 500,000 euro.

The Golden Visa applications are for evaluation and approval of the proper authorities of the Government of Spain, at its discretion, but the purchase of Hotel101 units may be used by the foreign buyer to comply with the 500,000 euro Spanish real estate investment requirement.

The Golden Visa processing and advisory fee that cost about 6,000 euro will be free of cost for those who will purchase three Hotel101 units in Madrid Spain from the start of the unit pre-selling until Dec. 31, 2023 or until the units are fully sold out, whichever comes first. Hotel101-Madrid is set to become one of the Top 5 largest hotels in Madrid, Spain.

Hotel101-Madrid is set to be the first homegrown Filipino hotel chain to enter Spain. (PR)

THE Cebu City Tourism Commission (CCTC) will soon deploy two bus units that will take local and foreign tourists from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) to Cebu’s port terminals for free.

CCTC head councilor Joy Pesquera made this pronouncement on Thursday, July 20, 2023, during the first day of the Cebu Tourism Summit of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry held in SM Seaside City Cebu.

CCTC is currently in talks with MCIA and will also seek permission from the Cebu Port Authority to allow these buses to pick up and drop off passengers.

Pesquera said these buses are meant to improve the tourism experience of tourists when they arrive in Cebu. This free transport is also meant to provide them seamless mobility.

“We want to maximize Cebu as a hub and at the same time help airlines provide good service to their passengers. This is also to make our missionary routes to Baguio, Laoag, Cotabato and Tawi-Tawi sustainable,” said Pesquera, explaining that passengers from neighboring islands can easily take these buses going to the airport.

The buses will ply with a 30-minute interval.

Pesquera said the CCTC will make use of the buses already owned by the Cebu City Government. They have yet to identify the cost of the project as they are still studying the cost of the gasoline and of dressing up the buses.

The CCTC head said they plan to roll out this project this year.

New parks

Besides providing convenient transport to Cebu’s major gateways, Pesquera also announced the plan of CCTC to co-manage the idle Ayala Heights in Barangay Sirao, Cebu as they want to turn it into a park.

Pesquera said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has already reached out to Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) for the possibility of co-managing the Ayala Heights project and opening it for public use.

“We need more parks. This can be a venue for activities like camping and other outdoor events,” she said.

Ayala Heights is a 200-hectare property owned by ALI originally developed as an ultra high-end residential project. Its development was halted because of geological issues.

Ayala Heights was developed in the latter part of the 1990s at a time when Asia’s economy was badly hit by a financial crisis. It is supposed to be another luxury residential project similar to Maria Luisa Estate Park, among others. (KOC)

A TOTAL of 3,000,079 visitors from foreign countries have arrived in the Philippines from Jan. 1 to July 19, 2023, surpassing the international arrival count of 2.65 million for the whole of 2022.

This figure reflects the “continued recovery and the gains” of the country’s tourism sector, a top official from the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Wednesday, July 19, 2023.

The country’s inbound tourism receipts from January 1 to June 30 also went up to P212,467,522.100.14, which is 502.02 percent higher than the P35,292,495,457.14 tourism revenue generated in the same period last year.

The tourism sector had experienced a drought for nearly two years due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

“We are glad to report that in roughly seven months, we have already achieved the three million international visitor mark, reflecting continued robust recovery and the gains of the Marcos administration towards the resurgence of Philippine tourism,” said Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco in a statement.

“Tourism provides employment and livelihood to millions of Filipinos. We are grateful for the renewed interest worldwide in the Philippines which offers a multitude of reasons to love travel across our islands,” she added.

Frasco also expressed gratitude to Filipinos who continue to travel domestically, supporting local communities and families who are all part of the tourism value chain.

Top arrivals

Of the over three million international arrivals, 91.36 percent or 2,740,802 are foreign tourists, while the remaining 8.64 percent or 259,277 are overseas Filipinos.

The country had most tourists from South Korea, at 741,658 or 24.72 percent of the total arrivals; followed by 550,569 or 18.35 percent from the United States; 146,062 or 4.87 percent from Australia; 143,227 or 4.77 percent from Japan; and 132,018 or 4.40 percent from Canada.

Other visitors were from China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia.

In 2022, the country’s international arrivals reached 2.65 million, surpassing the agency’s target of 1.7 million foreign visitors, which translated to P214 billion or roughly $4 billion in estimated revenues, exceeding the targeted revenue of P155.03 billion by 38.06 percent.

For this year, the DOT’s target for foreign visitors is 4.8 million, the same level before the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world.

In May, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023 to 2028 that aims to transform the country into a tourism powerhouse in Asia.

The plan includes ways to address essential issues of tourism development, such as the development of infrastructure, connectivity, as well as digitalization, the equalization of tourism, development and promotion, the enhancement of overall tourism experience as well as the strengthening of tourism governance.

Frasco said programs under NTDP will be anchored on Filipino culture, heritage and identity.

The DOT launched on June 27 its new tourism campaign slogan “Love The Philippines.” (TPM / SUNSTAR PHILIPPINES)

THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is once again calling on all cellphone users to register their SIM cards as the extension granted for the registration is set to expire on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.

According to the most recent NTC data, 103,670,164 people, or 61.70 percent, have registered their SIM cards as of July 17.

The NTC revealed that 7,359,116 of them have signed up with Dito Telecommunications, 47,267,960 have signed up with Globe, and 49,043,068 have signed up with Smart.

According to the data of NTC in December 2022, there were a total of 168,016,400 subscribers.

Those who have yet to register may follow the following procedures:

First, check the SIM registration website of the service provider such as Globe, Smart and Dito.

Second, provide your 10-digit mobile number and click the “Register” button. You will receive a text message containing a One Time Pin (OTP), which you must immediately input on the registration website.

Once your OTP has been validated, you can proceed with the registration. Among its requests are complete name, birthday, gender, address, and nationality.

To validate information, pre-paid users will be asked to also submit a selfie and a government-issued ID such as passport, national ID and Social Security System ID, among others, as part of the requirements.

Once done, one can click the “Submit” button to complete the process. After the process, a reference number will appear on your screen confirming that your SIM card has been registered. (ANV / TPT)