More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Mompreneur must be one of if not THE worst neologism ever coined. But this lady put her skills to use during the pandemic and has become a huge success.
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| https://business.inquirer.net/594498/cebuano-mompreneur-rambie-go-rises-above-the-pandemic-to-build-a-gawad-madiskarte-winning-brand |
When Rambie Go returned to Cebu after nearly 12 years of working in Dubai, she faced an uncertain future. Unemployed, adjusting to life back home, and navigating the challenges brought about by the pandemic, she turned to handmade crafts as a creative outlet and source of comfort.
Today, that passion has evolved into Rambie’s Collection, a thriving Cebu-based accessories brand known for its handcrafted statement pieces inspired by Filipino culture, sustainability, and Cebuano artistry. Her inspiring journey recently earned her the Diskarteng Fiber Biz Mompreneurs’ Choice Award at the 4th Gawad Madiskarte, in recognition of her creativity, resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit.
Accessories add the perfect finishing touch to any outfit. Even a simple shirt and jeans can be enhanced with the right jewelry. It becomes even more special when you incorporate a bit of Filipino culture into your accessories, transforming a fashion item into a story that’s alive and personal.
Through Rambie’s Collection, she creates distinctive accessories using upcycled materials and locally sourced elements. Inspired by nature, travel, and the confidence of strong women, each piece reflects the beauty of Filipino heritage while celebrating the artistry of local craftsmen.
Rambie’s Collection was born from Go’s love of design. She first explored making handmade accessories and crafts in college. When she moved to Dubai to work in corporate, she set aside her creative passions to focus on supporting her family.
In 2019, Go and her family returned to Cebu to start a new chapter. The transition was anything but smooth. Hit hard by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, both Go and her husband found themselves jobless after years of working abroad. Long disconnected from the local Philippine market, they faced staggering financial uncertainty and periods of deep self-doubt.
Amid adjusting to life back home and navigating a personal battle with depression, Go picked up handmade crafts again as a hobby and an emotional outlet.
“What began as a simple creative escape slowly became my passion and purpose,” Go recalls. “I realized I wanted to create pieces with purpose—designs that are not only beautiful but also meaningful, sustainable, and proudly Filipino.”
From creating pieces entirely alone at home, Go has grown the brand into a small, community-centered venture. As the brand expanded, so did its heart. Rambie’s Collection began partnering with local weavers, artisans, students, mothers, and small-scale suppliers. This turned a personal lifeline into a community livelihood, providing local craftsmen with opportunities to proudly showcase sustainable Cebu-made products.
For Go’s immediate family, the business became a source of stability during uncertain times. “Rambie’s Collection helped our family regain stability and hope after years of difficult transition,” she notes. “More than financial support, it became a source of inspiration for my children and family. It taught us resilience, creativity, and the importance of supporting one another through hard times.”
Determined to prove that beautiful fashion can coexist with sustainability, Go built her collections around a striking assortment of raw and upcycled materials, chosen specifically so every piece would reflect sustainability, creativity, and uniqueness. Her signature designs use raffia leaves, wood, upcycled fabrics, mixed metals, gemstones, semi-precious stones, pearls, and crystals.
By blending traditional Cebuano craftsmanship, local weaving influences, and tropical inspirations with contemporary design, each piece tells a uniquely Filipino story.
The impact of this unique artistry has traveled far beyond Cebu’s shores. Through key partnerships and government-supported initiatives, Rambie’s Collection has been showcased in major exhibitions and events, including the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu.
This article is actually an advertisement for PLDT but that does not negate her accomplishments.
Reconstruction on the Waterfront Manila Hotel & Casino was shelved during the pandemic and it will remain that way for at least another two years.
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| https://mb.com.ph/2026/06/11/gatchalian-shelves-waterfront-manila-rebuild-as-costs-double |
Acesite (Phils.) Hotel Corp., a hospitality firm led by businessman William Gatchalian, is shelving the reconstruction of the fire-damaged Waterfront Manila Hotel & Casino for at least two years.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said the decision comes after estimated costs more than doubled to ₱3.6 billion, compounded by a prolonged slump in tourism and the local gaming sector.
“The management of Acesite (Phils.) Hotel Corporation is currently revisiting the business prospects of reopening the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel,” the firm reported.
Reconstruction of the 22-story structural shell, which was severely damaged by a fatal fire in 2018, commenced in 2019 using ₱1.5 billion recovered from insurance claims.
The company slowed rehabilitation work during the pandemic, expecting to ramp up operations once international visitor arrivals established a clear trajectory toward recovery. Instead, persistent inflation and supply-chain pressures have altered the economic outlook for the development.
“The revised reconstruction estimates today of ₱3.6 billion have shown a marked increase in refit costs as compared to original cost estimates made during the pre-pandemic era,” Acesite said.
Both material and labor costs have spiked alongside rising fuel prices, pushing the budget far beyond the insurance collected. Acesite added that imperative structural and civil corrective measures, alongside important design re-layouts, have driven the overall reconstruction budget even higher.
The phasing plan initially conceived and submitted to regulators targeting a soft opening in 2026 was meant to balance the investment timing with the reconstruction program's cash requirements.
“However, the inability of the local market to generate sufficient foreign room sales in 2026, as well as the weak indications of an uptick in tourism arrivals projected for 2027 due to the ongoing, protracted US-Israel-Iran War, are issues that need serious attention,” Acesite said.
The company also noted that Manila's gaming market is facing a plateau as online gaming grows in popularity. Despite a no-visa policy for Chinese tourists, inbound tour operators from China have been reluctant to bring back the players who frequented the city when Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) were still permitted.
“These considerations have prompted management to reconsider pouring additional considerable sums into reopening the hotel at this point in time. Until industry indicators on visiting tourist arrivals stabilize, management elects to adopt a cautious stance toward committing the sizeable investments needed to rebuild the hotel,” Acesite said.
The firm added that construction will only restart when projected marginal increases in average room rates, room occupancy, and gaming revenues are evident enough to cover loan repayments and investment returns. The earliest estimate for this is 2028.
To improve the company’s balance sheet, ₱764 million in retained earnings was recently appropriated for the hotel's reconstruction. Moving forward, Acesite said it will put an annual maintenance budget in place to keep the hotel superstructure in a safe and usable condition.
Costs continue to rise! If only the pandemic had not occurred reconstruction on the hotel would have been finished by now.
A measles outbreak has hit the Philippines and other SEA countries exposing vulnerabilities to future pandemics.
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| https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/what-measles-reveals-about-health-security-in-southeast-asia |
While the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda commands headlines due to its deadly and exotic nature, the risk of the virus spreading widely is epidemiologically low – little comfort for those dealing with the immediate consequences, but a relief for the wider world with still-fresh memories of a global pandemic.
But the threat from virus infections remains very real – and in a region much closer. The resurgence of measles in Southeast Asia reveals more about the state of regional health security than a distant outbreak ever could.
Measles is not an emerging disease. It is among the most extensively studied vaccine-preventable diseases in public health. A safe and highly effective vaccine has been available for decades. Measles was one of the first diseases targeted when the World Health Organization launched the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in 1974, and vaccination has subsequently become part of routine childhood immunisation across Southeast Asia. Therefore, when measles returns at scale, it reflects weaknesses in health systems – not scientific uncertainty, unlike the situation in the early days of Covid-19 when uncertainty itself led to poor outcomes.
Measles outbreaks are increasingly viewed as a sensitive indicator of health-system performance. Working towards elimination requires consistently high vaccination coverage, effective surveillance, strong primary healthcare, and public confidence in immunisation programs. Unlike Ebola, which primarily tests emergency preparedness and outbreak response capacities, measles tests whether health systems can reliably perform their most fundamental functions over time: vaccinating children, reaching underserved populations, and sustaining routine healthcare delivery, therefore maintaining public trust.
The scale of these outbreaks should prompt reflection on how health security is understood in the region.
Recent trends across Southeast Asia are concerning. The Western Pacific Region recorded a 743% increase in measles cases between 2022 and 2024. The most recent data revealed that from January to May 2025 Vietnam reported more than 81,000 suspected measles cases. Cambodia reported 2,150 cases between January and April 2025, while the Philippines reported more than 2,000 cases during the first months of that year. WHO and UNICEF attribute much of the resurgence to immunity gaps created during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scale of these outbreaks should prompt reflection on how health security is understood in the region. Since Covid-19, governments have invested heavily in epidemic intelligence by establishing laboratory networks and employing genomic surveillance. This supported emergency preparedness mechanisms and maintaining its investments remains essential (Shet et al., 2022). Yet preparedness for extraordinary events does not necessarily translate into resilience in routine public health functions. The pandemic exposed how gains in emergency response can coexist with declining childhood vaccination coverage and widening inequalities in access to essential services.
This exposes a fundamental tension in contemporary health security thinking. Much of the post-pandemic discourse has focused on future threats: the next pandemic, the next zoonotic spillover, or the next Ebola-like emergency. Yet health security is ultimately sustained through ordinary institutions rather than exceptional interventions. Resilient health systems depend not only on surveillance and emergency response capabilities but also on strong primary healthcare, routine immunisation programs, reliable supply chains, and trusted relationships between communities and health authorities.
Measles reveals whether countries and their health systems have truly recovered from Covid-19, including their ability to reach missed children, protect vulnerable communities, and rebuild vaccine confidence.
This challenge is inherently regional. Increased mobility through tourism, labour migration, and economic integration across Southeast Asia mean that immunity gaps in one country can quickly become vulnerabilities elsewhere. The effectiveness of one country’s measles control effort is linked to the performance of neighbouring health systems, as infectious diseases do not recognise national borders.
For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the policy implications are significant. Regional health cooperation has understandably prioritised pandemic preparedness since Covid-19. However, the current measles resurgence suggests that preparedness frameworks should place equal emphasis on strengthening routine immunisation systems. Investments in surveillance and laboratory capacity remain important. But they cannot substitute for vaccination outreach, community engagement, and strong primary healthcare.
Indeed, immunisation programs should increasingly be viewed as health security infrastructure. They build trust, generate surveillance data, and create delivery platforms that can be mobilised during future emergencies. Strengthening routine immunisation therefore improves both current health outcomes and future pandemic preparedness.
In this sense, measles functions as a governance audit for health systems. It reveals whether states can convert policy commitments, financing, and surveillance capacity into routine population protection. While global attention remains focused on Ebola, a more revealing test of regional resilience is unfolding much closer to home.
Measles is not the next pandemic. But its resurgence suggests that health security ultimately depends less on preparing for exceptional threats than on sustaining the ordinary institutions that prevent known ones.
After the pandemic, the Philippine automotive industry is reassessing the market as the economy has grown but incomes for most Filipinos have not risen equally.
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| https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/06/16/fast-times/the-dangerous-myth-of-a-richer-philippines/2366075/amp |
AFTER years of silence caused by the pandemic, the Automotive Vehicle Importers and Distributors Inc. (AVID) revived its industry summit this week, bringing together executives, economists, and industry stakeholders to discuss the state of the Philippine economy and the future of mobility.
The timing could not have been better.
The automotive industry is undergoing its most dramatic transformation in decades. Chinese brands are disrupting established players. Electric vehicles (EVs) are challenging conventional business models. Consumers are becoming more demanding even as economic uncertainty lingers.
Against this backdrop, one presentation at the AVID Summit stood out — not because it talked about cars, but because it explained the market every car company is fighting for.
Presented by SGV, the briefing painted a picture of a Philippines that is growing rapidly, attracting investment, and emerging as a major economic player in Southeast Asia.
But hidden within the data was a reality many automotive executives still appear reluctant to confront.
The Philippines may be getting richer.
But most Filipinos are not.
Every few years, someone presents a slide deck proclaiming that the Philippines is finally on the verge of becoming an economic powerhouse.
The numbers certainly look impressive.
A nearly $500-billion economy. More than 114 million people. One of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia. Investment-grade ratings. Infrastructure spending. Free trade agreements. Foreign investors arriving with increasing frequency.
On paper, the Philippines has never looked more attractive.
But buried inside an economic briefing presented this week was a statistic that should make every business executive — and especially every automotive executive — sit up and pay attention.
Only 3.6 percent of Filipinos belong to the upper-middle-income, high-income, and rich categories combined.
Let that sink in.
The overwhelming majority of Filipinos remain clustered in the low-income and lower-middle-income segments. Even the much-celebrated middle class remains relatively small and highly vulnerable to inflation, fuel prices, interest rates, and economic shocks.
In other words, the Philippines may be getting richer, but it is not rich.
And that distinction is becoming one of the most important realities shaping the future of the automotive industry.
For years, many established automakers approached the Philippine market as if economic growth alone would automatically translate into rising vehicle prices and higher margins. The assumption was simple: As incomes rise, consumers will naturally move upmarket.
The problem is that the numbers increasingly suggest otherwise.
Filipinos are becoming more sophisticated buyers, but they are not necessarily becoming wealthier at the same pace.
That is precisely why the biggest disruption in the automotive industry today is not coming from technology.
It is coming from value.
The rise of Chinese brands has exposed a blind spot many legacy manufacturers failed to recognize. While traditional automakers focused on protecting brand prestige, premium positioning, and established pricing structures, Chinese manufacturers studied the actual income profile of Filipino consumers.
The result is now visible everywhere.
Consumers who previously could not afford advanced safety systems can now buy them. Families who once thought an electric vehicle (EV) was out of reach can suddenly enter the segment. Features once reserved for luxury models are becoming available in mainstream products.
This is not simply a product story.
It is an economic story.
The Philippine consumer is sending a very clear message: Value matters more than heritage.
Meanwhile, government policymakers are attempting to shift the country’s growth model away from its traditional dependence on remittances and business process outsourcing (BPO). The new emphasis is on investment-led growth supported by trade agreements, structural reforms, and infrastructure spending.
That strategy makes sense.
Remittances remain important, but their share of gross domestic product (GDP) has steadily declined over the years. The BPO sector remains a global success story, but it too is evolving amid rapid technological change.
To sustain growth, the country needs more investments, more factories, more infrastructure, and more industrial activity.
For the automotive sector, that presents both an opportunity and a warning.
The opportunity is obvious.
The Philippines is becoming too large a market to ignore.
With a population approaching 114 million and vehicle ownership rates still relatively low compared with neighboring countries, the long-term potential remains enormous. Every global automaker wants a larger share of that future.
But the warning is equally clear.
The Philippines is still too price-sensitive to misunderstand.
Many executives continue to look at headline GDP figures and conclude that consumers are ready for ever more expensive products. Yet the income distribution data tells a different story.
Most Filipinos are still making difficult financial decisions every month.
Every peso matters.
Every monthly amortization matters.
Every fuel bill matters.
And increasingly, every kilowatt-hour matters as electric vehicles gain traction.
The brands that succeed in the next decade will not necessarily be those with the most prestigious badges or the longest histories.
They will be the ones that align their products with economic reality.
That means affordable electrification rather than aspirational electrification.
It means practical mobility rather than marketing-driven mobility.
And it means understanding that consumers do not buy vehicles based on GDP statistics. They buy vehicles based on household budgets.
The lesson extends beyond automobiles.
Real economic progress is not measured by how large the economy becomes. It is measured by how many people actually participate in that growth.
A country can boast record GDP numbers while millions remain one emergency, one illness, or one inflation spike away from financial distress.
That is the vulnerability hidden behind the growth story.
The Philippines is undoubtedly moving forward. The investment momentum is real. The reforms are underway. The opportunities are growing.
But perhaps the most dangerous mistake businesses can make today is believing that a bigger economy automatically means a wealthier consumer.
Because the data says otherwise.
The Philippines is no longer too small to matter.
But it is still too poor to misread.
And in the automotive industry, those who fail to understand the difference may soon discover that market size alone is no guarantee of market success.
While demand for vehicles is recovering, most consumers remain price-sensitive, which is pushing automakers to focus more on affordability and value rather than premium branding. This shift is also accelerating the rise of lower-cost Chinese brands and electric vehicles in the market.
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