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FDI INFLOWS SHRINK ON GLOBAL JITTERS IN FEB www.businessmirror.com.ph
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Tuesday, May 13, 2025 Vol. 20 No. 212
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 28 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
BREAKING BARRIERS, CASTING VOTES From senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) to persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), Filipino voters showed determination to cast their votes in the 2025 midterm elections. (Clockwise from top left) A senior citizen with limited vision is guided by his grandchild in Las Piñas. In Baguio City, Councilor Vladimir D. Cayabas (inset) casts his vote in full Cordilleran attire as a tribute to his heritage. In Cainta, Peter Young, 60, who suffers from arthritis, casts his vote at Marick Elementary School. Heavily armed police personnel secure a polling precinct in Bangued, Abra amid heightened security due to election-related violence. Comelec Chairman George Garcia (inset) inspects the PDL voting site at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, ensuring that even those behind bars are not left out of the democratic process. District 5 residents in Malate, Manila cast their votes at Robinsons Manila mall—part of the Comelec’s effort to make polling more accessible, safe, and comfortable for voters. Voters at Commonwealth Elementary School scan the master list to locate their designated polling precincts. NONIE REYES, NONOY LACZA, BERNARD TESTA, ROY DOMINGO, JOEL SAN JUAN, MAU VICTA
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By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
OB-GENERATING investments from abroad fell for the fourth consecutive month in February due to high global uncertainty. Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows declined by 61.9 percent to $529 million in February 2025 from the $1.4 billion posted in February 2024. While the BSP said the decrease was “primarily attributed to base effects,” local economists believe the country’s lackluster performance in attracting investments is already a reflection of the uncertainty in the global economy. “FDI from the United States will be on hold while uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and other policies lingers,” Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Dante B. Canlas
told BusinessMirror. “But if a new and stronger regionalism is forged among Asean; Japan, South Korea, and China; and the ANZ [Australia and New Zaland], FDI may be expected to flow from these countries,” he added. In November 2024, then Presidentelect Trump pledged big tariffs on the three largest trading partners of the US—Canada, Mexico and China. Trump, who took office last January 20, said he would impose a 25-percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. He also announced plans to slap a See “FDI,” A2
DOF CHIEF: ECONOMIC GROWTH TOP PRIORITY OF MARCOS GOVT By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto
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@reine_alberto
HE Marcos administration will stay the course on pursuing its economic reform agenda, with GDP growth remaining as the government’s top priority. Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto told BusinessMirror on Monday that the administration remains committed to implementing the Philippine Development Plan, aimed at creating more jobs and reducing poverty, even if the midterm elections would introduce new dynamics in Congress. “Having elections is essential to improving governance. Our credible, efficient and peaceful elections will only bolster investor confidence,” Recto said. In this year’s midterm elections, the
country’s high-ranking officials, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and his now estranged vice president Sara Duterte, are supporting rival political aspirants. Half, or 12 senators, of the 24-member Senate could determine the fate of Duterte, who is facing an impeachment trial for claiming that she hired someone to assassinate Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. BDO Capital & Investment Corp. President Eduardo Francisco told BusinessMirror that investors want to see a peaceful election. Marcos and Duterte were running mates under the UniTeam alliance in 2022, but their relationship soured after the release of the “Tambaloslos” video, which caused Duterte’s resignation as Education secretary and vice chair of the anti-communist task See “DOF,” A2
Comelec touts fewer technical woes in polls By Justine Garcia, Samuel P. Medenilla and Bless Ogerio
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ESPITE technical glitches and delays in some areas, the Commission on Elections on Monday declared that no failure of elections occurred in the May 12 midterm polls—only extensions of voting hours in select precincts. It touted, as a big factor for this, the relatively high efficiency of an overwhelming majority of the newly-leased automated counting machines (ACMs). “There is absolutely no failure of elections anywhere. All polling places functioned,” Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said in Filipino at a press briefing at the
Manila Hotel Tent City, just an hour before precincts officially closed. Comelec said the newly-leased automated counting machines (ACMs) are outperforming older units, with a significantly lower malfunction rate recorded on election day. Garcia reported that only 311 ACMs out of 110,000 units had to be replaced—far fewer than the 2,500 vote-counting machines (VCMs) that broke down during the 2022 polls. “The machines weren’t even technically broken. We gave strict instructions: even if a machine rejects a ballot once or twice, we don’t take chances anymore—we remove and replace it immediately,” Garcia told reporters. See “Comelec,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.5690 n JAPAN 0.3809 n UK 73.6456 n HK 7.1486 n CHINA 7.6700 n SINGAPORE 42.7618 n AUSTRALIA 35.5530 n EU 62.4040 n KOREA 0.0396 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.8156 Source: BSP (May 9, 2025)