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3 weeks ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
THE country posted modest gains in human development in 2023 but remained below the regional average for East Asia and the Pacific, according to the latest report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In its Human Development Report 2025, the UNDP ranked the Philippines 117th out of 193 countries, with a Human Development Index (HDI) score of 0.720—a 1.4 percent improvement from 0.714 in 2022.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
AS the polls closed and ballots were cast during Monday’s midterm elections, another kind of problem lingered—piles of campaign litter scattered around voting precincts and surrounding communities. A total of 6.10 tons or 6,100 kilograms of garbage, including election-related materials, were collected by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) after election day.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
THE physical presence of a winning candidate is not a legal requirement for proclamation, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) clarified on Tuesday. Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said the commission is bound by the legal process of proclamation, and a candidate’s presence is merely symbolic. “The raising of hands is only symbolic or ceremonial,” Laudiangco told reporters in Filipino at the Manila Hotel Tent City.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
The country experienced warm and humid conditions on Monday, May 12, as voters headed to polling stations for the 2025 midterm elections, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported. The weather bureau’s 4:00 p.m. forecast showed that Metro Manila and most of the country had partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers and thunderstorms caused by easterlies, or warm winds from the Pacific Ocean.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to kick off a random manual audit of votes from 762 precincts across the country and one online voting from overseas starting May 14, just two days after the midterm elections. The audit will take place at Citadines Bay City Manila in Pasay, with the Comelec eyeing to wrap it up in about 45 days.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
TO ease the crowds and protect those most at risk, the Commission on Elections urged senior citizens, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities (PWDs) to vote as early as 5:00 a.m., which is a two-hour window ahead of the regular 7:00 a.m. precinct opening. “I hope we reach 12 million senior citizen voters. For PWDs, I hope we get 530,000 or even more. I hope all of them show up and cast their vote,” Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia told reporters in Filipino on Sunday, May 11.
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1 month ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
BLAME global uncertainties, sluggish production and front-loaded election spending for the Philippine economy’s slower-than-expected growth in the first quarter of the year, economists said. On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s GDP grew by 5.4 percent from January to March. This was slightly faster than the 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, but slower than the 5.9-percent growth in the same period last year.
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1 month ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
The Philippine economy opened 2025 on a steadier note, with growth inching up in the first quarter, according to the latest government data. On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the total value of all goods and services produced within a country, rose by 5.4 percent from January to March.
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1 month ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
LIVES lost to road accidents jumped sharply in 2023, reaching 13,125 fatalities, or about 1.9 percent of all deaths nationwide, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Aside from the latest figure marking the deadliest year in over a decade, this was also a 7.2 percent increase from 2022, when 12,240 people died in similar accidents.
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1 month ago | 
businessmirror.com.ph | Bless Aubrey Ogerio
DESPITE a slight dip in joblessness, more Filipinos found themselves stuck in part-time or low-paying jobs in March 2025, while overall employment also edged down, government data showed. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s unemployment rate in March 2025 was at 3.9 percent, marginally up from 3.8 percent in February and the same figure in March last year.
