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Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Vol. 20 No. 151
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
SPUR A 50-BPS RATE CUT’
PRAYERS FOR JUSTICE Families of Extrajudicial Killing (EJK) victims and their supporters gather for a holy mass at Ina ng Lupang Pangako Parish in Payatas, Quezon City, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. The solemn gathering honored their loved ones and renewed calls for justice amid the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of an arrest warrant for former President Rodrigo Duterte over alleged crimes against humanity linked to his controversial war on drugs. NONOY LACZA
I
By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto @reine_alberto
F a hard landing—or the Philippine economy falling into recession— occurs, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said key policy rates could be reduced by as much as 50 basis points (bps) in its upcoming rate-setting meeting in April.
In a forum on Tuesday, BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr. said the central bank can cut rates by up to 50 bps, even more, in April “if things look much worse than we thought or what we call a ‘hard landing.’” “But as long as we’re more or less on track, it will be [a 25-bps cut] at a time,” Remolona quickly added. The Philippine economy, the central banker said, is “highly unlikely” to fall into a recession. As inflation eased unexpectedly to 2.1 percent in February, below the BSP’s forecast of 2.2 to 3.0 percent, Remolona said the central bank is “happy” about inflation missing its outlook. “[It is] lower than the bottom of our range. If we’re going to miss it, that’s the way to miss it,” he added. With the recent arrest of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte which
caused the decline in yields of government bonds on Tuesday, Remolona said political noise is normal and will not prompt the BSP to change its model. In its previous meeting, the BSP kept its key policy rates unchanged at 5.75 percent due to global uncertainties and will recalibrate its models to better account for these uncertainties. Remolona said the BSP is still assessing the uncertainties in its outlook as central banks around the world are concerned about uncertainties as well. “We’re all looking at it. We’re all trying to figure out what to do.” The governor said that so far, the BSP’s measures of policy uncertainty have spiked but the markets have not, as the country’s credit default swap spreads have not widened too much. See “Hard,” A2
DUTERTE SEEKS SC RELIEF AS INTERPOL SERVES ICC WARRANT
Peza, BCDA split functions over Clark City investments By Andrea E. San Juan
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@andreasanjuan
HE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), some of the country’s top investment promotion agencies (IPAs), have made a pact to separate their functions to
speed up the decision-making process in facilitating investments in New Clark City in Tarlac. Under this interim arrangement, Peza Director General Tereso O. Panga told BusinessMirror, “BCDA will monitor and report investment approvals for developer projects, while PEZA will monitor and report See “Peza,” A2
OUT THIS WEEK
IN this April 19, 2018, file photo, former President Rodrigo Duterte jokes to photographers as he holds an Israeli-made Galil rifle at Camp Crame in Quezon City. Duterte was arrested Tuesday, March 11, 2025, on a warrant from the International Criminal Court accusing him of crimes against humanity. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ
By Samuel P. Medenilla and Joel R. San Juan
A
N unprecedented legal battle looms over the arrest of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday in relation to his crimes against humanity case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his bloody war against illegal drugs.
About 12 hours after his arrest Tuesday, video showed the former president being whisked off in a Lear jet, presumably to The Hague, over objections by his family and lawyers. He was accompanied by former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. His daughter Vice President Sara Duterte called it “a blatant affront to our sovereignty” and said as she was dashing off her See “Duterte,” A2
In our March 2025 issue, the Philippines Graphic takes a look at newly-installed Balaan, Bataan Bishop Rufino C. Sescon Jr.’s pastoral journey—shaped by immersion as a partner of civic society, government, and business, in consonance with justice and the common good. The full import of the Philippine Catholic Church’s role amid the fast-moving changes in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy is summed up by Dr. Clarence M. Batan, Sociology Department chair of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST): “We are amidst a shift. Pope Francis has opened pathways for more diverse voices in Church leadership. While I wouldn’t raise expectations too high, what matters is that Filipinos are now part of the conversation in ways we weren’t before.”
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 57.3460 n JAPAN 0.3897 n UK 73.8616 n HK 7.3823 n CHINA 7.8995 n SINGAPORE 43.0332 n AUSTRALIA 35.9961 n EU 62.1401 n KOREA 0.0393 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.2870 Source: BSP (March 11, 2025)