Category: General

MANILA: The Office of the President (OP) is seeking a budget of PHP10.4 billion for next year, almost PHP200 million lower than its budget for 2024. According to the 2025 National Expenditure Program (NEP) posted on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) website, the OP is proposing a total budget of PHP10,446,475,000, lower than 2024’s PHP10,645,573,000. Under OP’s spending plan, PHP1,274,479,000 is allocated for personnel services; PHP7,955,419,000 for maintenance and other operating expenses; and PHP1,216,577,000 for capital outlay. Meanwhile, there is no change in the OP’s proposed confidential and intelligence funds worth PHP4.56 billion, of which PHP2.250 billion was

MANILA: Both the local stock market and currency declined on the first day of trading this week. The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell by 1.14 percent to 6,649.23 points, while All Shares also decreased by 0.68 percent to 3,605.33. Among sectoral indices, only the Industrial counter closed in the green territory, higher by 0.16 percent finishing at 9,174.50 level. Financials had the biggest drop for the day, declining by 2.65 percent; followed by Mining and Oil, down by 1.18 percent; Property, down by 0.90 percent; Services, down by 0.84 percent; and Holding Firms, down by 0.51 percent. Philstock Financials,

GEORGE TOWN, Several firearms, including imitation ones, were seized by the police following the arrest of four men in connection with a fight that broke out in Bukit Mertajam last month (June 13). Penang Police Chief Datuk Hamzah Ahmad said all four suspects were arrested last Saturday with the first one in Juru near here. Following the arrest, he said, the police were led to a house belonging to one of them in Sungai Bakap, near here, where various firearms were found. “We seized two We Tactical air pistols with only the bullet casings, a packet of ball bearings and

MANILA: Holiday Factory, the leading tour operator in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has launched its services for affordable tour packages in the Philippines. On the sidelines of the Holiday Factory launch in Pasig City Monday, its business development director for international markets Hakan Bakar told the Philippine News Agency that the Philippines is the first country in Southeast Asia where it offered its budget-friendly holiday trip packages. ‘We are in Dubai, we are in Georgia, and this is the first one here in Southeast Asia,’ Bakar said. He said the company has opened its customer care center in Cebu

IPOH, Children of all faiths and backgrounds are disproportionately affected by poverty, representing half of those subsisting on less than the bare minimum despite comprising only a third of the global population, said the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah. His Royal Highness said that children are also suffering disproportionately in humanitarian crises and conflict situations. There are now four million children in Sudan facing acute malnutrition, while in Ukraine, the United Nations (UN) estimates that 3.5 million children are living under severe to catastrophic levels of need. In Gaza, half of the 1.7 million people displaced from their homes