The Philippine Navy (PN) has completed its first ship-to-ship helicopter resupply mission with a United States Coast Guard vessel in Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough or Panatag Shoal), West Philippine Sea (WPS). Captain Marie Angelica Sisican, director of the PN public affairs office, said the...
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief has proposed three options to help end the decades-old conflict between Lebanon 's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israel when the 8,100-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon ends on Dec. 31. All of the options presented to...
The United States (US) is pushing the pedal to the metal in developing its feasibility study (FS) for the proposed Subic-Clark-Manila-Batangas (SCMB) Railway as it searches for a railway expert to oversee progress on the project. In an advisory, the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced...
The United States plans to transfer a Coast Guard cutter to the Philippines to bolster the latter’s maritime security amid ongoing tensions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the vessel transfer following a high-level bilateral meeting with Department of...
The United States (US) is seeking to leverage the growing appeal of convenient meal products in the Philippines to widen its reach in the packaged soups and ready meals market, further expanding its presence in its 10th-largest export market. In a May 26 report, the US Department of Agriculture...
The inflation-targeting Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is expected to continue raising interest rates to contain surging inflation despite the risk of slower economic growth. In a May 22 report, Japanese financial giant MUFG Bank Ltd. said the Philippines is facing one of the most severe...
The Department of National Defense (DND) has advanced its strategies to expand the country’s cyber defense and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities during a recent meeting with United States officials. DND Undersecretary for Information Systems and Cybersecurity Fabian M. Pedregosa met with...
The growth of global merchandise trade is expected to ease to as low as 1.5 percent this year as geopolitical tensions cast doubt on supply chains and threaten demand for critical inputs such as semiconductors, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In its...
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the United Nations (UN) is unlikely to take action on a written statement submitted by the International Career Support Association (ICSA) and circulated by the Human Rights Council (HRC), describing the group’s allegations as “baseless claims.” In...
The World Bank warned that the Philippines’ broad-based economic slowdown in the first quarter of 2026 could spill over into weaker household incomes and higher food prices as the country grapples with an escalating energy price shock triggered by tensions in the Middle East. In its latest...
Washington is pressing Manila to grant unprecedented legal protections—potentially including a form of diplomatic immunity—to secure American corporate investments in the planned mega artificial intelligence (AI) hub in New Clark City, a proposal Philippine officials have already rejected. US...
Asia United Bank Corp. (AUB) posted a record net income of ₱3.2 billion for the first quarter of the year, driven by expanding margins and a surge in low-cost deposits that helped the lender weather global economic headwinds stemming from conflict in the Middle East. In a disclosure to the...