More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Filipino couples prefer pets over children, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) said on Wednesday, as they take into consideration the financial aspects in their relationships.
Mylin Mirasol Quiray, who heads the agency’s Knowledge Management and Communications Division, said their findings were based on a recent study.
“Why is the preference so in Filipinos? Actually in our study, a qualitative study, it is said that Filipinos prefer them because of economic considerations first and even some prefer pets over children,” said Quiray in a televised briefing aired on state-run PTV.
“That’s the way it is now! In malls, what we see are strollers but what’s inside? Dog or cat,” she added.
Aside from economic considerations, some Filipino couples would want to travel first, according to Quiray.
“Even though it’s economic considerations, they still want to travel before having children. Live-in or cohabitation is also on the rise. That’s what we see in Filipinos today,” she said.
From 5 percent in 1993, couples who opted to live in already quadrupled in 2022.
"Pinoys are currently increasing live in, formal marriages are decreasing and even births, more than 600,000 formal marriages but more than 800,000 are in live in situation," she said.
The agency earlier said that the Philippines might have an aging population by the year 2030, as it notes a slowdown in the country's population growth.
The slowdown, it said, could be attributed to the COVID pandemic, changes in fertility intentions and behavior of Filipina women, and even rising mortality rates among Filipinos.
At least that is one among many reasons for the change.
BPO firms are driving the office leasing surge post-pandemic says Leechiu Property Consultants.
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| https://insiderph.com/were-all-shocked-leechiu-says-it-bpo-firms-drive-strongest-post-pandemic-leasing-surge |
During the first six months of 2025, office take-up reached 740,000 square meters, which was 67 percent of the total demand for 2024, data from Leechiu Property Consultants showed.
This suggests that office take-up will easily breach last year’s 1.1 million square meters, despite significant vacancies caused by the ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators that took effect at the end of 2024.
“We are all shocked at the amount of leasing activity in the first six months of the year,” David Leechiu, the CEO and co-founder at Leechiu Property, said during their quarterly briefing on Thursday.
“We have not seen those levels since 2017, and these numbers are already happening without the POGO steroid factor,” he added.
While POGOs started in 2016, it was only during the periods of 2018 through 2019 when the sector took off.
“And this is despite companies talking about work-from-home. This is despite AI [artificial intelligence] ravaging jobs—not just in the Philippines, but globally,” Leechiu said.
“The jobs coming into the Philippines are offsetting those losses. We’re able to deploy and reassign labor to so many new roles,” he said, adding that AI could actually create new jobs for Filipinos in the next four to five years as new content moderation, AI teaching roles emerge.
The IT and outsourcing sector remains the backbone of Philippine office leasing, accounting for 86 percent of their 2024 demand during the first six months.
Overall net office take-up for 2025 is projected to grow about 16 percent to 490,000 sqm.
“The BPO sector is the backbone of the industry, so we will need to protect that industry,” said Mikko Barranda, director for corporate leasing at Leechiu Property.
“Because they’re the anchor industry, we need to make sure that the industry has legs and longevity,” he added.
Office vacancies in Metro Manila remain elevated at an average of 18 percent, driven by higher rates in Manila Bay (27 percent), Alabang (25 percent), and Quezon City (19 percent).
In contrast, Bonifacio Global City posted the lowest vacancy at 10 percent, followed by Makati City at 15 percent, while Ortigas, Mandaluyong, and San Juan each recorded around 18 percent.
Barranda added that vacancy rates are lower when considering the typical space requirements of 5,000 square meters of contiguous space—something locators seeking expansion need to consider.
In their study, Leechiu found that only four buildings in Bonifacio Global City meet those requirements, and that number drops to just two buildings if PEZA accreditation is required.
Despite the wide gap in their vacancy rates, Makati City and Alabang are comparable in terms of the number of available buildings that meet these requirements, based on Leechiu data.
Makati City has nine available buildings and five PEZA sites, similar to Alabang’s nine buildings and four PEZA sites.
It's an indicator of more economic growth. But then again it's BPO's and that is a service industry.
During the pandemic internally displaced persons returned to their homes in Sulu which they were forced to abandon because of clashes between the AFP and Abu Sayyaf..
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| https://mindanews.com/feature/2025/07/forgotten-grandmothers-from-a-war-gone-by |
For approximately 30 years, this municipality had been the site of many armed encounters between the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Against the backdrop of Bud Dajo, the area became a nest for ASG terror operations, including kidnap-for-ransom and local recruitment. The ASG-AFP war led to the displacement of thousands of families with ten of its 30 barangays becoming “Ground Zero.” In the course of the war, its 20 other barangays became hosts to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and also suffered evacuations at a lesser degree.
After languishing in various evacuation sites for roughly five years, a total of 254 families or 1,270 individuals of Barangay Bungkaung bravely returned to their village in February 2020, after long negotiations and planning with the AFP and other agencies.
They became the pilot area for the Balik-Barangay Program (BBP), a comprehensive multi-agency initiative aimed at facilitating the return and reintegration of the displaced residents. The bravery of the IDPs from Bungkaung emboldened other evacuees from barangays Kabbontakas, Buhanginan, Maligay, Tugas, Latih, Bakung, Panglayahan, Pansul, ang Langhub to return to their villages.
By 2022, even at the height of the COVID19 pandemic, a total of 17,031 individuals or 3,234 households from these 10 barangays had joined the Balik-Barangay program and returned to their abandoned communities. The program implementers thought that the IDPs were less vulnerable to the pandemic in their villages as compared to the congested spaces in the evacuation sites.
Among the returning IDPs are senior citizens who were most severely affected by the war and now faces the challenge of rebuilding their lives. Their total numbers are unknown, but the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) places the proportion of the senior citizens at 8.8 percent of the total population. In the 10 Balik-Barangay areas, this would place the estimated number of elderly at 1,498. MindaNews went to Patikul, Sulu and investigated the conditions of this seemingly invisible segment of the population.
The armed conflict did not stop with the signing of the peace agreement between the Philippine Government and the Moro National Liberation Front on September 2, 1996 because by the turn of that decade the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), an armed group that emerged in the early 1990s, expanded in membership and Patikul became one of their bases. The presence of ASG here attracted incessant military armed operations. Thus, the displacement of Apuh Nuratul’s family continued in the 1990s up to 2020.
This program was implemented throughout the pandemic with the reason being "IDPs were less vulnerable to the pandemic in their villages as compared to the congested spaces in the evacuation sites."
Filipino-American businesses barely survived during the pandemic and not they are in danger after being hit by Trump's tariffs.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/pinoyabroad/dispatch/952431/fil-am-leaders-urge-ph-to-negotiate-remittance-tax-and-product-tariffs-with-trump/story/ |
Filipino American politicians, community leaders, and financial experts are calling on Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to negotiate against two controversial provisions under U.S. President Donald Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill,” now enacted into law. They argue that these measures—a 1% tax on overseas remittances and a 20% tariff on all Philippine imports to the U.S.—will place an undue burden on Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), the Filipino American community, and the Philippine economy.
New York State Assemblymember Steven Raga, the first Fil-Am elected to the New York legislature, urged President Marcos to use his scheduled meeting with former President Trump next week to protect Filipino interests.
"This is going to significantly impact the Filipino American community and everyday Filipino immigrants here in New York. The cost of goods affected by these tariffs will ultimately be passed on to consumers, as business owners are only intermediaries.
So, the consumers of Filipino products—mostly the Filipino community—will have to pay more because of these harsh tariff increases imposed by Trump.
We have a growing Filipino population here, with many Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) regularly sending remittances back home. These remittances help keep our families and the Philippine economy afloat.
Therefore, any potential taxes on these remittances or the 20% tariffs should be addressed. I believe President Marcos has a real opportunity to negotiate on behalf of the Filipino community to ease these burdens.”
Raga emphasized that the Filipino population in the U.S. continues to grow and contributes significantly to the U.S. economy through entrepreneurship and essential services.
Asian American and U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng, who voted against Trump’s bill, warned that the law would punish small businesses and immigrant communities still recovering from the pandemic.
"This is a serious concern for the Filipino American community — and for many other communities here in New York and across the country. The chaos and unpredictability of this policy are hurting our families, our entrepreneurs, and our small businesses.
Many of these businesses already struggled to survive during the pandemic — some barely made it through. And now, after everything they’ve endured, they’re being hit again with these tariffs.
This bill is effectively taking food off the tables of our children and our senior citizens. It’s making it harder to access basic health care. A large number of Filipino Americans work in the health care sector — in hospitals and as caregivers — and this will strip critical funding from our medical institutions.
That means care will be more expensive and harder to access, and our essential workers — who deserve the very best — will be left with even less."
With President Marcos expected to meet Trump next week, Filipino leaders are united in calling for strong diplomatic engagement to shield Filipino families, businesses, and the national economy from what they describe as one of the harshest economic policies ever imposed on the Filipino diaspora.
Remittances will also be hit hard due to a 1% tax. Fil-Am leaders say it's an undue burden but the reality such a tax keeps more US dollars inside the US where they belong.
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