The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

The Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP) continues to gain traction as the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) launched the operations of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) at the project’s Camp Aguinaldo Station. Under MMSP’s Contract Package 103, four TBMs will be utilized for the tunneling of the Anonas and Camp Aguinaldo Stations. Transportation Undersecretary …

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) calls on the public not to engage or transact with a Facebook account “Transportation in Manila,” which is allegedly giving away free transport cards for the entire year as part of the agency’s 126th anniversary celebration. The account, which has a Facebook handle @Transportation-in-Manila or Transportation in Manila, is supposedly giving away Beep Cards by …

To address cybersecurity challenges in the country, the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde Hub of Innovation for Inclusion (HiFi) collaborated with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) to cover concerns, such as phishing, intrusion detection, security automation, and adversarial artificial intelligence (AI).  CICC, an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), has the mandate to formulate …

P-pop boy group 1621BC opens new era showing the members’ bolder and braver side in the comeback single “Bagamundo.” The upbeat OPM track highlights 1621BC members JM, JC, Pan, Win, Migz, and DJ’s determination to rise above life’s challenges and work their way towards achieving their dreams. “It’s about a story of achieving one’s dream through years of travel and …

PASSERBYBy Nestor Cuartero Boom, bang, bang. Boom, bang, bang. Goes the giant drum beating to the rhythm of cymbals, gongs, and the noisy footsteps of a team of dancers taking control of a large, flexible dragon puppet using poles. The dancers are in colorful costumes in bright red, yellow and orange, simulating either a dragon or a lion.  Through the …

By Rose de la Cruz With a record importation of 4.78 million metric tons of rice last year, it would not be surprising at all, that P34 -billion tariff was collected from the legal and legit arrivals of the grains. But how about the smuggled volumes, they could even more than the recorded imports, for which tariff denied our country …

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) attained a milestone achievement by surpassing the P2.848 trillion Emerging Goal target set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) last March 2024. Although the numbers are still being finalized, the BIR confirmed that they have definitely reached the Php 2.848 trillion mark for 2024. “The exact figures will be finalized by around mid-February, …

By Rose de la Cruz Political spending for the 2025 May midterm elections and fueled by their investments in digital assets would lead to an expected rebound for media companies. Globalinks Securities and Stocks Inc. sales Toby Allan C. Arce told Business World that “the continued growth in online platforms and content consumption allows media companies to reach younger, tech-savvy audiences …

BingoPlus, the country’s most comprehensive digital entertainment platform, celebrated yet another milestone. A lucky player won a massive jackpot prize of 312 million pesos. To commemorate this big win, a special awarding ceremony took place on January 10, 2025 at a hotel in Manila. Doubling the previous jackpot prize, the avid BingoPlus player broke the record for winning the biggest …

METRO MANILA – BingoPlus, your comprehensive digital entertainment platform in the country, hosted another exciting movie experience with the 50th Metro Manila Film Festival entry, The Kingdom, starring BingoPlus male endorser Piolo Pascual, on January 9, 2025. The Kingdom is set in an alternate reality where the Philippines was never colonized, referred to as the “Kingdom of Kalayaan.” Piolo Pascual …