Latest news with #Manila
UAE Moments
3 hours ago
- Business
- UAE Moments
Oman, Philippines Sign Visa Waiver for Diplomatic Passports
Oman and the Philippines just made it easier for certain passport holders to travel between the two countries. Officials have signed a mutual visa waiver agreement covering diplomatic, special, and service passports —a step that signals tighter collaboration between the two nations. Signed in Manila The deal was inked during a meeting in Manila between Oman's Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi and the Philippines' Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro. While they were at it, both leaders also talked about broadening cooperation in economic, scientific, and strategic areas. More Than Just a Travel Deal This isn't just about skipping visa lines. Both sides said they're committed to deepening their relationship through more memoranda of understanding and new agreements. They also announced that the second Oman–Philippines Investment Forum will take place next year in Muscat. Talks Go Beyond Business Beyond economics, the ministers also exchanged views on regional issues, shared plans to boost knowledge exchange and skills development, and discussed stronger collaboration between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and ASEAN. Secretary Lazaro thanked Oman for its humanitarian efforts, especially in helping free sailors from the MV Galaxy Leader in Yemen. She also gave a nod to Oman's fair treatment of Filipino workers and praised the country's balanced foreign policy under Sultan Haitham bin Tarik.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Shift to Smarter Systems: Why Philippine Enterprises Choose HashMicro ERP
MANILA, Philippines, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philippines' IT landscape is evolving rapidly, with the ERP market projected to reach USD 76.38 million in 2025 and grow to USD 98.21 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.2%. This growth reflects the country's increasing commitment to a digital-first economy, driven by supportive government programs, strong fintech momentum, and a tech-savvy workforce ready to embrace modernization and compete on a global scale. The government is playing a key role in this transformation, investing heavily in infrastructure and digital policies, from broadband expansion to cybersecurity frameworks. Yet despite this progress, many businesses remain hesitant. Manual processes, siloed systems, and fragmented workflows are still common, often due to fears around cost, complexity, and change management. Without addressing these challenges, the Philippines risks falling short of its full digital potential. HashMicro, a Singapore-based enterprise software provider, understands that true digital readiness is not just about having the right technology. It involves digital literacy and building trust among users as well. With years of experience across Southeast Asia, HashMicro delivers solutions that align with local business cultures and workflows, making digital transformation feel more natural and less overwhelming. "In Southeast Asia, we tend to believe that if something worked before, it'll always work," says Lusiana Lu, a representative from HashMicro. "But the way we work has changed. It takes more than just advanced features and tech jargon to build trust in digital tools. We ask ourselves what else needs to exist for these tools to really work." HashMicro supports its clients through intuitive, integrated systems that replace disconnected processes with one centralized platform. Businesses are guided through the transition with ready-to-use templates, automation flows, and non-intimidating interfaces that simplify the shift from manual to digital operations. Recognizing that people drive transformation, HashMicro also invests in talent development. Internal teams are trained regularly on system updates and best practices, and this knowledge is passed on to clients so they can truly take ownership of their digital journey. "We don't just build the tools, we build the people behind them," Lusiana explains. HashMicro also ensures that its systems stay compliant with Philippine regulations through localization and regular updates, helping businesses grow within the legal framework. "We've helped many Filipino companies move past their doubts," Lusiana shares. "Once they see how smooth the shift can be, they don't just adapt, they thrive." View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE HashMicro
Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
AI and disinformation fuel political rivalries in the Philippines
Manila, Philippines – When former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, Sheerah Escuerdo spoke to a local television station, welcoming the politician's detention on charges of murder linked to his war on drugs. Escuerdo, who lost her 18-year-old brother, Ephraim, to Duterte's war, clutched a portrait of her sibling during the interview with News 5 Everywhere as she demanded justice for his killing. Days later, she was shocked to find an AI-generated video of her slain brother circulating on Facebook, in which he said he was alive and accused his sister of lying. 'I'm alive, not dead. Are they paying you to do this?' the computer-generated image of Ephraim said. The video, posted online by a pro-Duterte influencer with 11,000 followers, immediately drew thousands of views on Facebook. One of the comments read, 'Fake drug war victims'. It was Escudero and her brother's image from her News 5 Everywhere interview that the influencer had used to falsify their family's tragedy. The video has since been reposted countless times, spreading to other social media platforms and resulting in Duterte supporters hounding Escuerdo daily. 'I wake up to hundreds of notifications and hate messages,' she told Al Jazeera. 'The worst thing is reading comments of people who believe this is real!' she added. The same kind of harassment has been levelled at other vocal drug war victims, especially those under the group Rise Up, who actively campaigned for the ICC's intervention. Duterte's arrest in March came amid a bitter power struggle between the ex-leader and his former ally, the incumbent president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Their alliance collapsed last year due to disagreements over policy, including Marcos Jr's courting of the United States. The president's supporters are now leading an effort to impeach Duterte's daughter, Sara, from her post as the country's vice president. As tensions have escalated, supporters of Duterte and Marcos Jr have stepped up digital smear campaigns, using disinformation. Apart from fake accounts and doctored images, the disinformation mix has noticeably included AI-generated content. Both the Marcos Jr and Duterte clans have been known to deploy disinformation tactics. Marcos Jr won the election in 2022 following a disinformation campaign that sought to whitewash his father Ferdinand Marcos's brutal rule during the 70s and 80s. But fact-checkers and experts say the recent uptick in posts peddling false narratives can be attributed more to the Duterte camp. Disinformation nation Victims of the drug war, their families, supporters and even their lawyers say incessant online disinformation has targeted them. In a statement, the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), which represents Rise Up, a group of drug war victims, said the 'online hate' was being 'directed at widows, mothers, and daughters of drug war victims, attempting to intimidate them into silence'. Both NUPL and Rise Up have now formally requested the government to investigate the increasing online harassment. The campaign by Duterte's supporters aims to discredit the ICC, demonise their detractors and paint their family as persecuted victims leading to and after the May 2025 mid-term polls, according to Danilo Arao, mass media expert and convener of election watchdog Kontra-Daya. 'The Duterte camp aims to deodorize the image of both patriarch and daughter. They will resort to disinformation to get what they want, even if it means twisting certain data,' Arao told Al Jazeera. He pointed to posts circulating online that the ICC consented to grant Duterte's request for an interim release, which in reality was denied. The surge in disinformation has caused worry among Filipinos. A report released in June by Reuters Digital News found that a record number of Filipinos – nearly 7 out of 10 – were more concerned with disinformation than ever before. In the same month, Duterte-allied senator, Ronald Dela Rosa, shared an AI-generated video on his official Facebook page. The video, which showed a young man criticising the 'selective justice' targeting Sara Duterte, was posted on June 14, garnering at least 8.6 million views before it was taken down. The vice president defended the video, saying there's 'no problem sharing an AI video supporting me as long as it's not for profit'. Arao, the mass media expert, countered, saying the politician is trying to normalise disinformation, and that she 'badly needs media literacy'. the Philippines' pioneer fact-checking coalition, noted that fact checks on posts about Duterte's ICC arrest over a six-week-period account for almost a quarter of the 127 news articles curated by the group. The figure surpasses the two dozen pieces of news related to Sara Duterte's impeachment. On Sara Duterte's deepfake defence, coordinator Professor Rachel Khan told Al Jazeera that 'for the educated, it reinforces their already tainted image of disregarding truth. But for followers, it could reinforce the dictum that 'perception is truth.'' In reality, the popularity of the Duterte family has waned significantly. Opinion and approval surveys conducted in March indicate that at least 51 percent of the public want Rodrigo Duterte to be tried for his alleged crimes. Likewise, polls in June found that at least 66 percent of people want Sara Duterte to confront allegations of corruption against her through an impeachment process. AI growth The government of last year launched a task force to mitigate disinformation and the use of AI. However, spikes in disinformation were already noticeable in December as the Marcos-Duterte rivalry heated up. tracked the increasing use of AI in disinformation before the mid-term elections held in May this year. It found that from February to May, out of 35 unique altered claims, nearly a third 'likely involved deepfake technology to impersonate public figures or distort reality'. 'This is a problem of human behaviour, not AI. It's a disinformation influence operations problem, exacerbated by the unethical usage of AI tools,' Carljoe Javier, executive director of Data and AI Ethics PH, told Al Jazeera. All mainstream political forces in the Philippines have, to some extent, deployed AI technologies to boost their agendas. The latest OpenAI Safety Report revealed that Comm&Sense, a Manila-based tech firm, used AI for a campaign using thousands of pro‑Marcos Jr and anti‑Duterte comments across Facebook and TikTok. Besides generating content, the firm also used AI to analyse political trends and even draft public relations strategies. The report said Comm&Sense manufactured TikTok channels to post identical videos with variant captions while handling shell accounts to post comments and boost engagement. The use of AI to outline plans, not just create content, marks a shift away from the Marcos Jr administration employing troll armies as he did in his 2022 campaign. 'If you have the resources and the bully pulpit of the government, you can afford to keep on swatting the Dutertes and their partisans for whatever statements they have made against the Marcos government,' said Joel Ariate Jr, a researcher tracking political developments at the University of the Philippines Third World Studies Center. 'If you put AI in the hands of an already good public relations or marketing team, the capacity for disinformation is amplified by so much. They can have one message and instantly generate 20 different versions of it,' explained Javier. The Philippines has several pieces of legislation in congress concerning the responsible use of AI. For a healthy policy approach, Javier believes that technical and ethical experts would be crucial. He said he hoped the country's leaders can take important steps, but said he has doubts about their appetite for ethical AI legislation. 'Is there enough push for legislators to advance a policy given that they may be benefitting from the current state of political operations?' he asked.
Al Jazeera
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
AI and disinformation prompt political rivalries in the Philippines
Manila, Philippines – When former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, Sheerah Escuerdo spoke to a local television station, welcoming the politician's detention on charges of murder linked to his war on drugs. Escuerdo, who lost her 18-year-old brother, Ephraim, to Duterte's war, clutched a portrait of her sibling during the interview with News 5 Everywhere as she demanded justice for his killing. Days later, she was shocked to find an AI-generated video of her slain brother circulating on Facebook, in which he said he was alive and accused his sister of lying. 'I'm alive, not dead. Are they paying you to do this?' the computer-generated image of Ephraim said. The video, posted online by a pro-Duterte influencer with 11,000 followers, immediately drew thousands of views on Facebook. One of the comments read, 'Fake drug war victims'. It was Escudero and her brother's image from her News 5 Everywhere interview that the influencer had used to falsify their family's tragedy. The video has since been reposted countless times, spreading to other social media platforms and resulting in Duterte supporters hounding Escuerdo daily. 'I wake up to hundreds of notifications and hate messages,' she told Al Jazeera. 'The worst thing is reading comments of people who believe this is real!' she added. The same kind of harassment has been levelled at other vocal drug war victims, especially those under the group Rise Up, who actively campaigned for the ICC's intervention. Duterte's arrest in March came amid a bitter power struggle between the ex-leader and his former ally, the incumbent president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Their alliance collapsed last year due to disagreements over policy, including Marcos Jr's courting of the United States. The president's supporters are now leading an effort to impeach Duterte's daughter, Sara, from her post as the country's vice president. As tensions have escalated, supporters of Duterte and Marcos Jr have stepped up digital smear campaigns, using disinformation. Apart from fake accounts and doctored images, the disinformation mix has noticeably included AI-generated content. Both the Marcos Jr and Duterte clans have been known to deploy disinformation tactics. Marcos Jr won the election in 2022 following a disinformation campaign that sought to whitewash his father Ferdinand Marcos's brutal rule during the 70s and 80s. But fact-checkers and experts say the recent uptick in posts peddling false narratives can be attributed more to the Duterte camp. Disinformation nation Victims of the drug war, their families, supporters and even their lawyers say incessant online disinformation has targeted them. In a statement, the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), which represents Rise Up, a group of drug war victims, said the 'online hate' was being 'directed at widows, mothers, and daughters of drug war victims, attempting to intimidate them into silence'. Both NUPL and Rise Up have now formally requested the government to investigate the increasing online harassment. The campaign by Duterte's supporters aims to discredit the ICC, demonise their detractors and paint their family as persecuted victims leading to and after the May 2025 mid-term polls, according to Danilo Arao, mass media expert and convener of election watchdog Kontra-Daya. 'The Duterte camp aims to deodorize the image of both patriarch and daughter. They will resort to disinformation to get what they want, even if it means twisting certain data,' Arao told Al Jazeera. He pointed to posts circulating online that the ICC consented to grant Duterte's request for an interim release, which in reality was denied. The surge in disinformation has caused worry among Filipinos. A report released in June by Reuters Digital News found that a record number of Filipinos – nearly 7 out of 10 – were more concerned with disinformation than ever before. In the same month, Duterte-allied senator, Ronald Dela Rosa, shared an AI-generated video on his official Facebook page. The video, which showed a young man criticising the 'selective justice' targeting Sara Duterte, was posted on June 14, garnering at least 8.6 million views before it was taken down. The vice president defended the video, saying there's 'no problem sharing an AI video supporting me as long as it's not for profit'. Arao, the mass media expert, countered, saying the politician is trying to normalise disinformation, and that she 'badly needs media literacy'. the Philippines' pioneer fact-checking coalition, noted that fact checks on posts about Duterte's ICC arrest over a six-week-period account for almost a quarter of the 127 news articles curated by the group. The figure surpasses the two dozen pieces of news related to Sara Duterte's impeachment. On Sara Duterte's deepfake defence, coordinator Professor Rachel Khan told Al Jazeera that 'for the educated, it reinforces their already tainted image of disregarding truth. But for followers, it could reinforce the dictum that 'perception is truth.'' In reality, the popularity of the Duterte family has waned significantly. Opinion and approval surveys conducted in March indicate that at least 51 percent of the public want Rodrigo Duterte to be tried for his alleged crimes. Likewise, polls in June found that at least 66 percent of people want Sara Duterte to confront allegations of corruption against her through an impeachment process. AI growth The government of last year launched a task force to mitigate disinformation and the use of AI. However, spikes in disinformation were already noticeable in December as the Marcos-Duterte rivalry heated up. tracked the increasing use of AI in disinformation before the mid-term elections held in May this year. It found that from February to May, out of 35 unique altered claims, nearly a third 'likely involved deepfake technology to impersonate public figures or distort reality'. 'This is a problem of human behaviour, not AI. It's a disinformation influence operations problem, exacerbated by the unethical usage of AI tools,' Carljoe Javier, executive director of Data and AI Ethics PH, told Al Jazeera. All mainstream political forces in the Philippines have, to some extent, deployed AI technologies to boost their agendas. The latest OpenAI Safety Report revealed that Comm&Sense, a Manila-based tech firm, used AI for a campaign using thousands of pro‑Marcos Jr and anti‑Duterte comments across Facebook and TikTok. Besides generating content, the firm also used AI to analyse political trends and even draft public relations strategies. The report said Comm&Sense manufactured TikTok channels to post identical videos with variant captions while handling shell accounts to post comments and boost engagement. The use of AI to outline plans, not just create content, marks a shift away from the Marcos Jr administration employing troll armies as he did in his 2022 campaign. 'If you have the resources and the bully pulpit of the government, you can afford to keep on swatting the Dutertes and their partisans for whatever statements they have made against the Marcos government,' said Joel Ariate Jr, a researcher tracking political developments at the University of the Philippines Third World Studies Center. 'If you put AI in the hands of an already good public relations or marketing team, the capacity for disinformation is amplified by so much. They can have one message and instantly generate 20 different versions of it,' explained Javier. The Philippines has several pieces of legislation in congress concerning the responsible use of AI. For a healthy policy approach, Javier believes that technical and ethical experts would be crucial. He said he hoped the country's leaders can take important steps, but said he has doubts about their appetite for ethical AI legislation. 'Is there enough push for legislators to advance a policy given that they may be benefitting from the current state of political operations?' he asked.
News.com.au
a day ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Jetstar announces major sale as airline expands into the Philippines
Jetstar is celebrating its expansion into the Philippines with the launch of two direct routes from Brisbane and Perth, with flights starting at $188. From November 27, the budget airline will offer year-round flights direct from Perth to the Manila, with seasonal flights direct from Brisbane to Cebu launching from December 3. Starting at midday Tuesday, Jetstar will offer sale one-way fares from Brisbane to Cebu from $188, and one-way fares from Perth to Manila from $199. The sale for tickets for Brisbane to Cebu will end at 12pm on July 16, while the discounted fares from Perth to Manila will end on Friday July 18 unless sold out prior and excluding checked bags. The services will operate three times a week, using the new Airbus A321LR aircraft, which the airline said is quieter and more fuel-efficient. As part of the expansion, Jetstar will redeploy its wide-bodied Boeing 787 Dreamliners and the state-of-the-art Airbus A321LR and A320neo aircraft. The expansion into the Philippines is an 'exciting milestone' for the airline, Jetstar Group chief executive Stephanie Tully said. 'From the pristine beaches of Cebu to the vibrant energy of Manila, these new routes offer greater value options for an overseas holiday,' she said. 'As demand for low-cost international travel continues to grow, our pipeline of new aircraft is helping us deliver even more low fares to new destinations – so our customers can take off more, for less.' Brisbane Airport chief executive officer Gert-Jan de Graaff said the new flight path 'strengthens important ties for Queensland's large Filipino community' and makes it easier for families to reconnect 'while boosting trade and business between two regions'. 'We know Queenslanders love to experience new destinations and Cebu will deliver in spades with gorgeous islands and people, rich Spanish colonial history, and vibrant street food culture, it is a tropical getaway waiting to be discovered,' he said. 'This new route marks Brisbane Airport's 34th direct international connection, which is the most ever, continuing our commitment to expanding travel opportunities and bringing the world closer to Queensland.'
