Latest news with #Marcos
Filipino Times
6 hours ago
- Business
- Filipino Times
Pag-IBIG Fund continues to grow members' savings as investment income climbs 50%
Pag-IBIG Fund recorded a 50% increase in investment income in the first four months of 2025, reflecting its prudent financial stewardship and growing capacity to support members' savings and housing needs. The development affirms the agency's key role in advancing the Marcos administration's agenda of strengthening government financial institutions and improving the lives of Filipino workers through responsive social benefits. From January to April 2025, the agency earned ₱2.73 billion in investment income alone—significantly higher than the ₱1.81 billion posted during the same period in 2024—driven by strategic placements in bonds and other debt securities, money market instruments, equities, and investment properties. Chief Executive Officer Marilene C. Acosta highlighted that the agency's investment portfolio stood at ₱158.15 billion as of April 2025, reflecting a 42% year-on-year increase from ₱111.39 billion in April 2024. She noted that this growth forms part of Pag-IBIG Fund's sound and strategic allocation of its more than ₱1.11 trillion in total assets—a milestone the agency reached earlier this month. Based on the latest available data, Pag-IBIG Fund's earning assets have reached ₱1.09 trillion, consisting of ₱856.96 billion in housing-related assets, ₱77.94 billion in short-term loans, and ₱158.12 billion in income-generating investments. The remaining ₱20 million accounts for other assets, including property and equipment, cash, and intangible assets. 'Our investments play a vital role in providing our members with the best possible returns,' Acosta said. 'We begin by meeting our housing investment requirement to help more Filipinos own homes through affordable financing. We also maintain adequate funding for our short-term loans, ensuring members have access to immediate financial assistance. Remaining investible funds are placed in secure instruments that deliver competitive returns while preserving liquidity for members' claims. Through this balanced, disciplined approach—anchored on the strategic allocation of our resources to housing, short-term lending, and investments—we fulfill our mission to safeguard our members' trust and deliver meaningful benefits, the Lingkod Pag-IBIG way.' Meanwhile, the agency also formally welcomed Secretary Jose Ramon P. Aliling this week as the newly appointed Chairperson of its 11-member Board of Trustees. His leadership is expected to further guide Pag-IBIG Fund's strategic direction in line with the Marcos administration's housing and institutional development agenda.
The Star
8 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
Marcos admin wants seven bills enacted before new Congress starts
President Marcos address both chambers of Congress. Screenshot from RTVM/LIVE via PDI/ANN MANILA: The Marcos administration is pushing for the enactment of seven priority bills for the remaining six session days of the 19th Congress. At their meeting this week, the members of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council said the following bills are scheduled for deliberation in the Bicameral Conference Committee: Amendments to the Foreign Investors' Long-Term Lease Act; Rationalisation of the Mining Fiscal Regime; Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act; e-Government Act/ E-Governance Act; Konektadong Pinoy Act; Virology Institute of the Philippines; and Blue Economy Act. The Marcos administration remains 'hopeful that the remaining set of bills will be passed just in time before the end of the 19th Congress,' said Arsenio Balisacan. He is Secretary of the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev). So far, 32 out of the government's 64 common legislative agenda bills have been enacted into law. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
a day ago
- Politics
Philippine president's Cabinet revamp retains defense chief, a vocal critic of China's aggression
MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will retain Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who is among the most vocal critics of China in Asia, as Marcos presses on with a midterm overhaul of his Cabinet, a senior official said Thursday. Teodoro, who has strongly echoed Marcos' criticisms of China's increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea, will remain in his post, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin told a news conference. Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III will be the next chief of the 232,000-member national police. Torre led the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte in March and his turnover to International Criminal Court detention in The Netherlands for his deadly anti-drug crackdowns, Bersamin said. Last year, Torre oversaw the arrest of Philippine religious leader Apollo Quiboloy, a key Duterte supporter who was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list after being indicted for sexual abuses and trafficking in the U.S. Torre would take over his retiring predecessor, Gen. Rommel Marbil. Marcos asked all of his Cabinet secretaries last week to submit resignations in what the government said was a 'bold reset' of his administration following the May 12 midterm elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats. Marcos, the 67-year-old son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency in the deeply divided Southeast Asian country by a landslide in 2022 in a stunning political comeback as he made a steadfast call for national unity. But his equally popular vice-presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, later had a falling out with him that has sparked intense political discord. With support from friendly countries including the U.S., a treaty ally, Marcos emerged as the most vocal critic of China's actions in the disputed South China Sea while contending with an array of longstanding domestic issues including inflation, delayed fulfillment of a campaign promise to bring down the price of rice and many reports of kidnappings and other crimes. Teodoro told The Associated Press in March that China's aggressive policies in the disputed waters were now considered the greatest threat to the Philippines' national security and should also be regarded as a global threat because it could choke a trade route that is crucial for global supply chains. "The greatest external threat actually is Chinese aggression, Chinese expansionism and the attempt by China to change the international law through the use of force or acquiescence … or its attempt to reshape the world order to one that it controls,' Teodoro told the AP. Bersamin, who serves as executive secretary to Marcos and the Cabinet, has not specified the reasons for each Cabinet change but said 'the president has no patience for under performance." Bersamin said last week that Marcos decided to replace Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo with Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro, who has relayed Philippine protests and led talks with Chinese officials concerning an alarming spike of confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in recent years. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade and security route despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling initiated by the Philippines that invalidated those expansive claims based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also are involved in the long-seething territorial standoffs regarded as a flashpoint in Asia.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Philippine president's Cabinet revamp retains defense chief, a vocal critic of China's aggression
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will retain Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who is among the most vocal critics of China in Asia, as Marcos presses on with a midterm overhaul of his Cabinet, a senior official said Thursday. Teodoro, who has strongly echoed Marcos' criticisms of China's increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea, will remain in his post, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin told a news conference. Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III will be the next chief of the 232,000-member national police. Torre led the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte in March and his turnover to International Criminal Court detention in The Netherlands for his deadly anti-drug crackdowns, Bersamin said. Last year, Torre oversaw the arrest of Philippine religious leader Apollo Quiboloy, a key Duterte supporter who was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list after being indicted for sexual abuses and trafficking in the U.S. Torre would take over his retiring predecessor, Gen. Rommel Marbil. Marcos asked all of his Cabinet secretaries last week to submit resignations in what the government said was a 'bold reset' of his administration following the May 12 midterm elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats. Marcos, the 67-year-old son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency in the deeply divided Southeast Asian country by a landslide in 2022 in a stunning political comeback as he made a steadfast call for national unity. But his equally popular vice-presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, later had a falling out with him that has sparked intense political discord. With support from friendly countries including the U.S., a treaty ally, Marcos emerged as the most vocal critic of China's actions in the disputed South China Sea while contending with an array of longstanding domestic issues including inflation, delayed fulfillment of a campaign promise to bring down the price of rice and many reports of kidnappings and other crimes. Teodoro told The Associated Press in March that China's aggressive policies in the disputed waters were now considered the greatest threat to the Philippines' national security and should also be regarded as a global threat because it could choke a trade route that is crucial for global supply chains. "The greatest external threat actually is Chinese aggression, Chinese expansionism and the attempt by China to change the international law through the use of force or acquiescence … or its attempt to reshape the world order to one that it controls,' Teodoro told the AP. Bersamin, who serves as executive secretary to Marcos and the Cabinet, has not specified the reasons for each Cabinet change but said 'the president has no patience for under performance." Bersamin said last week that Marcos decided to replace Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo with Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro, who has relayed Philippine protests and led talks with Chinese officials concerning an alarming spike of confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in recent years. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade and security route despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling initiated by the Philippines that invalidated those expansive claims based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also are involved in the long-seething territorial standoffs regarded as a flashpoint in Asia.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Philippine president's Cabinet revamp retains defense chief, a vocal critic of China's aggression
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will retain Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who is among the most vocal critics of China in Asia, as Marcos presses on with a midterm overhaul of his Cabinet, a senior official said Thursday. Teodoro, who has strongly echoed Marcos' criticisms of China's increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea, will remain in his post, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin told a news conference. Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III will be the next chief of the 232,000-member national police. Torre led the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte in March and his turnover to International Criminal Court detention in The Netherlands for his deadly anti-drug crackdowns, Bersamin said. Last year, Torre oversaw the arrest of Philippine religious leader Apollo Quiboloy, a key Duterte supporter who was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list after being indicted for sexual abuses and trafficking in the U.S. Torre would take over his retiring predecessor, Gen. Rommel Marbil. Marcos asked all of his Cabinet secretaries last week to submit resignations in what the government said was a 'bold reset' of his administration following the May 12 midterm elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats. Marcos, the 67-year-old son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency in the deeply divided Southeast Asian country by a landslide in 2022 in a stunning political comeback as he made a steadfast call for national unity. But his equally popular vice-presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, later had a falling out with him that has sparked intense political discord. With support from friendly countries including the U.S., a treaty ally, Marcos emerged as the most vocal critic of China's actions in the disputed South China Sea while contending with an array of longstanding domestic issues including inflation, delayed fulfillment of a campaign promise to bring down the price of rice and many reports of kidnappings and other crimes. Teodoro told The Associated Press in March that China's aggressive policies in the disputed waters were now considered the greatest threat to the Philippines' national security and should also be regarded as a global threat because it could choke a trade route that is crucial for global supply chains. 'The greatest external threat actually is Chinese aggression, Chinese expansionism and the attempt by China to change the international law through the use of force or acquiescence … or its attempt to reshape the world order to one that it controls,' Teodoro told the AP. Bersamin, who serves as executive secretary to Marcos and the Cabinet, has not specified the reasons for each Cabinet change but said 'the president has no patience for under performance.' Bersamin said last week that Marcos decided to replace Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo with Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro, who has relayed Philippine protests and led talks with Chinese officials concerning an alarming spike of confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in recent years. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade and security route despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling initiated by the Philippines that invalidated those expansive claims based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also are involved in the long-seething territorial standoffs regarded as a flashpoint in Asia.
