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Luxury vehicles costing more than ₱8 million could face a 75-percent excise tax under a new House proposal that seeks to make the country’s tax system more progressive while raising additional revenue from high-value consumption. Marikina 2nd District Rep. Miro Quimbo filed House Bill No. 11465 on Wednesday, proposing changes to the excise tax provisions covering automobiles and other non-essential …

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is tightening security across Metro Manila, including its cyber defenses, ahead of the 49th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits scheduled on Nov. 16 to 18. PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. has ordered the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and other police units to intensify preparations around summit venues, hotels, airports and major …

Cyber-related offenses now account for as many as eight out of every 10 complaints received by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), even as the agency faces a sharp reduction in its proposed 2027 funding. NBI Director Melvin Matibag told senators Wednesday that the bureau’s workload has increasingly shifted toward cases involving digital platforms, including cyberfraud, scams and other technology-assisted …

By Tracy Cabrera Former House Speaker and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez is expected to ask the Sandiganbayan for temporary liberty as his legal team prepares to file a petition for bail in his ₱7.4-billion plunder case. Sources from Romualdez’s camp said his lawyers are preparing the petition and may submit it before the Sandiganbayan Third Division as early as …

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has granted an absolute pardon to Mary Jane Veloso, ending the nearly 16-year legal ordeal of the Filipina who was once just hours away from execution in Indonesia. Marcos confirmed Friday that he had signed the pardon the previous day, putting into effect the government’s move to grant Veloso executive clemency on humanitarian grounds. “Pinirmahan ko …

The Senate impeachment court’s vote on the proposal to lower the two-thirds threshold needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte has exposed a disturbing dimension of Philippine politics: the power of fear. Senator Mark Villar’s decision to break from the minority bloc and support lowering the conviction threshold is significant not only because of its potential impact on the impeachment …

Filipino youth have been winning in math contests, given our significant Chinese genetics and the Xavier schools of the Jesuits. Yet for the past several days, the whole world of Filipinos became an arithmetic class for Grade 3 students. What is 2/3 of 24 senators? 16. What if a senator has died in the meantime, what is 2/3 of 23? …

The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte appears ready to begin another legal circus aimed at undermining the Senate impeachment court after a majority of senator-judges voted to lower the threshold required for conviction. The Vice President’s lawyers have only one legal anchor: the Constitution. It provides the two-thirds requirement for conviction, and they are expected to seize on that …

EBITDABy DIEGO C. CAGAHASTIAN Buried in the news pages of newspapers last week was an interesting item on the Spring 2026 Attitudes Survey of the US-based Pew Research Center. It was about behavioral patterns, political sentiment and attitudes, across various age groups in the Philippines, particularly on the issue of China. According to the survey, there is a striking age …

The Philippines is making a major push to rediscover its oil and gas potential, reviving large-scale government-funded exploration mapping for the first time in about four decades. The Department of Energy (DOE) is investing nearly ₱2.8 billion in new geophysical surveys covering about 120,000 square kilometers across the Agusan-Davao and Visayan basins, hoping better data will draw private investors back …