Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Friday, November 8, 2024.
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READ: Marce whips N. Luzon
TYPHOON Marce (international name: Yinxing) slammed into the northeast tip of the Philippines on Thursday, uprooting trees and sending building materials flying, weeks after Severe Tropical Storm Kristine left at least 150 people dead. More than 21,000 people across 200 villages in Cagayan province were evacuated in the hours before the mid-afternoon landfall, provincial disaster official Rueli Rapsing said.
READ: Marcos signs law on enterprise-based training
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday signed into law the EnterpriseBased Education and Training (EBET) Framework Act to address persistent issues of jobs mismatches and to build a highly skilled, globally competitive Filipino workforce. A priority measure under the Marcos administration, Republic Act (RA) 12063 or the EBET Act aims to address the persistent issue of job-skills mismatch that has hindered many Filipinos from securing employment or better-paying jobs.
READ: Times' Balita program to educate voters
THE MANILA Times columnist Carl Balita has launched a program primarily designed to educate Filipino voters and help them campaign for political candidates, especially in the May 2025 midterm elections. Given the huge number of candidates who filed their certificates of candidacy for various elective posts, Balita said his new program would limit interviewing only those aspirants for senators and party-list representatives.
READ: Economic growth slowed to 5.2%
SUBDUED household and government consumption slowed economic growth to 5.2 percent in the third quarter of 2024, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday. The result was markedly down from the revised 6.4 percent in the previous three months and the 6.0 percent posted in the same quarter in 2023. It was also lower than the 5.7 percent median in a Manila Times poll of economists. The third quarter gross domestic product result was the lowest since the economy managed to grow 4.3 percent in the second quarter of 2023. The year-to-date growth rate of 5.8 percent was below the 6.0 to 7.0 percent target of the government for the year. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the country needs to grow at least 6.5 percent in the last three months of the year to hit the government's lower-end growth target.
BUSINESS: Growth goal likely to be missed
In a related development, this year's economic growth target will likely be missed after a slower-than-expected third quarter that has also put pressure on monetary authorities to keep lowering interest rates, analysts said. Subdued household and government spending limited gross domestic product (GDP) growth to just 5.2 percent in July-September, markedly down from the second quarter's 6.4 percent and below the 5.7-percent median in a Manila Times poll of economists. This brought year-to-date growth to 5.8 percent, below the 2024 goal of 6.0-7.0 percent. Household consumption — the top contributor to GDP growth — edged up to 5.11 percent from 4.7 percent in the prior quarter but remained below levels seen in the last two years, while government spending slowed by more than half to 5.0 percent from 11.9 percent.
SPORTS: PH curling team wins title in Canada
Over to sports, the Philippine curling team made history at the Pan-Continental Curling Championships in Canada. The Philippines finished the tournament undefeated en route to topping the B Division of the tournament, after beating Kazakhstan in the final. This historic triumph paves the way for the team to move up to the A Division and brings them a big step closer to realizing their dream of competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. The team is composed of Christian Haller (vice), Enrico Pfister (second), Marc Pfister (skip) and Alan Frei (lead). The victories in the preliminary round against strong opponents such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Puerto Rico demonstrated the team's strong teamwork, but the road to the final was not without challenges. In the semifinal match against Hong Kong, the team mastered a hard-fought victory, demonstrating its strong nerves and team harmony. In the final against Kazakhstan, the Filipinos continued to play with confidence and prevailed. With their promotion to the A Division, Team Philippines will now face the best curling teams in the world. This new challenge opens up the possibility of qualifying for the 2026 Olympics in two qualifying tournaments — a goal that is now within reach.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Rigobero Tiglao and Francisco Tatad are today's front page columnists, as both weigh in on the upcoming second Trump administration in the US.
Today's editorial analyzes why a Southeast Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will not work in the long run. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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