BY ALEX ALAGON
FROM THE early post-World War II Days, in the late 1940s, Indian merchants were doing business in Davao City along San Pedro Street. We still remember some of them: Filidian Bazaar, owned by the Hemandas Family; Lila Department Store, owned by the Balchand Family, Mahtani family, and others who have since left Davao City.
But the Indian families have grown in population and thrived as a growing, successful community in the city.
Last Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, we were invited to celebrate the 80th Indian Independence Day and the Raksha Bandhan Festival held at the clubhouse of North Town in Bajada, Davao City.
The guest of honor was Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shri Harsh Kumar Jain. Also invited were Japanese Consul General Ono Hirotaka, Belgian Honorary Consul Leonilo Claudio, represented by his son Paolo Claudio, former councilor Pilar C. Braga, founder and president of MMEMS, Dr. David Koil Pilai, and DMEMS CEO Anthony Doss. Also among the guests were Philippine Retirement Authority executives and Brahma Kumaris representatives.
The Indian Community of Davao is affiliated with the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FICCI) in Manila, and its mission is to foster unity, promote cultural understanding, provide support to its members, and engage in community development initiatives within Davao City.
The cultural program began with the traditional diya lighting by His Excellency Shri Harsh Kamar Jain and Kishore Jethmal, president of the Indian Community of Davao. The members of the Diplomatic Community delivered messages, after which DMSG students presented a dance number.
THE OFFICE of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) notified the Trial Chamber III on Aug. 5 that it has disclosed a total of 6,909 evidentiary items to the defense team of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte between Jan. 7 and July 31, 2026.
According to official filings before the tribunal, the disclosure process is part of pre-trial procedures designed to ensure defense preparation, witness credibility testing, and procedural fairness under the Rome Statute.
Legal analysts and case filings emphasize that the 6,909 items do not represent individual criminal accusations against the former chief executive, as the majority of the material forms part of mandatory prosecution disclosure obligations to enable a robust defense.
Evidentiary categorization breakdown
The official filing categorizes the disclosed items into three distinct legal designations:
- Incriminating Material (INCRIM) — 2,279 items: Classified as predominantly incriminating, these materials pertain to allegations surrounding the Davao Death Squad (DDS) during Duterte’s tenure as Davao City Mayor, as well as Barangay Clearance Operations and High-Value Target (HVT) operations conducted during his presidency. The batch also covers contextual background elements and legal modes of liability.
- Rule 77 Defense Preparation Material — 4,573 items: Representing the majority of the disclosure, this background material does not constitute prosecution evidence against the accused.
- Under Rule 77 of the ICC Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Prosecution is legally mandated to disclose these items to allow the defense adequate time and context to prepare its case.
- Potentially Exculpatory Material (PEXO) — 57 items: Material that may favor the defense, undermine the credibility of prosecution witnesses, or suggest alternative lines of defense.
A footnote in the official filing explicitly clarifies that item classifications reflect only their predominant character, noting that a single document or media file may contain overlapping elements of INCRIM, Rule 77, and PEXO information.
- PSSO pushes for active shooter drills to close response gaps
THE PUBLIC Safety and Security Office (PSSO) is strengthening its security program for schools across the city, combining embedded campus security with backup from uniformed police units as part of a broader active shooter preparedness plan.
PSSO head Angel Sumagaysay said while security personnel are already embedded in schools and colleges, PSSO will augment the number of uniformed units from the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) task force, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Bureau of Fire Protection, and the maritime police.
“We need to cluster our forces so we can avoid duplication and maximize our troops to avoid duplication and prevent the waste of resources,” Sumagaysay said during the iSpeak Media Forum on Thursday.
The office will assess overall manpower strength and distribute personnel to schools that need them most. Larger schools, he said, require greater security visibility.
To sustain the coverage, Sumagaysay said the PSSO plans to hold further meetings on a clustering strategy to deploy mobile patrol cars to rotate through school campuses.
“We can use mobile cars nila para mag-swing lang sa campus, making security more reachable for schools that need to request assistance,” he stressed.
The office is also continuing coordination meetings with the Department of Education (DepEd) to recalibrate its active shooter simulation exercise (SIMEX) program.
Sumagaysay said DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education have called for the conduct of a regional SIMEX.
Addressing active shooter threats, Sumagaysay highlighted a critical gap in emergency response, which is the crucial minutes before police forces arrive at the scene.
“When an active shooting happens, there is a critical window before law enforcement arrives. Police Operational Procedures are clear on what officers must do upon arrival, but the most critical situation occurs before they get there,” he said.
The PSSO is promoting the emergency response doctrine of “Hide, Run, and Fight. Sumagaysay clarified that for younger learners, such as elementary students, the focus remains strictly on “Hide and Run” to get out of harm’s way immediately.
To test these measures, the PSSO has coordinated with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to conduct regular simulation exercises (SIMEX) across basic and tertiary schools.
Discussions are also underway with DEPED and CHED to organize a regional-level active shooting simulation exercise.
Sumagaysay said the PSSO will also propose to DepEd and CHED a policy requiring students to use transparent bags as an added security measure.
At present, Holy Child College of Davao and St. John Paul College of Davao have required students to use transparent bags.
THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) presented a 16-month runway of shared reforms aimed at advancing not only PhilHealth’s RISE30 Mission, but also improving access, equity, and efficiency in Universal Health Care (UHC) delivery across the Philippines.
More than 100 participants, including global development partners, financial institutions, academe, foundations, civil society organizations, other government oversight agencies, and stakeholders, as well as PhilHealth officers and technical staff, convened today at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Headquarters to align resources and technical expertise behind UHC reforms.
Co-sponsored by the ADB through its Build Universal Health Coverage (BUHC) Project, the 2026 PhilHealth Partners’ Forum was led by DOH Acting Secretary Dr. Edwin M. Mercado, Acting PhilHealth president and CEO Dr. Beverly Lorraine C. Ho, and ADB country director Andrew Jeffries. The forum facilitated direct alignment of partner resources and expertise with the sector’s Shared Agenda and PhilHealth’s multi-year Technical Assistance (TA) Agenda.
The program also featured a tribute honoring the coordinated success of PhilHealth and its partners over the past 18 months, recognizing the collective effort behind the gains made in advancing UHC reforms. Primary Care Champion and Department of Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go expressed his support for the agencies’ shared agenda. Dr. Eduardo Banzon, ADB director of the Human and Social Development Sector Office and former PhilHealth CEO, commended the progress PhilHealth has made over the past year.
PhilHealth recognizes both leaders as pillars of support for the Build UHC Program, whose continued partnership has been instrumental in driving the impact and reach of PhilHealth’s programs nationwide.
Looking ahead, PhilHealth remains fully committed to building this ecosystem of support alongside the Department of Health. With primary care as the backbone of UHC, the TA Agenda continues to build on the strong collaboration in long-term planning and further expands the partner network in support of ongoing UHC reforms. To ensure the success of these outcomes, PhilHealth laid down the pathway for stakeholders to provide their continued support and active engagement toward this shared, coordinated success.
LEADING online job platform Jobstreet by SEEK is partnering with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for WorldSkills Philippines Clark 2026, the 21st National Skills Olympics (21st NSO), to champion Filipino technical-vocational talent and advance their global competitiveness.
Set for September 7–11, 2026 in Clark, the competition will bring together Filipino talent in Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET), allowing them to showcase their skills across different fields and elevating the capabilities of Filipino talent.
This initiative aligns with Jobstreet by SEEK’s commitment to empowering jobseekers by helping equip skilled talent with the knowledge and tools they need to navigate the workforce and pursue viable career opportunities.
As part of the partnership, Jobstreet by SEEK will support TESDA’s skills competition activities through its Career Readiness Program, where participants will take part in career readiness training, hear from resource speakers on employer expectations and navigating the hiring process, learn about developing CVs, and participate in mock job interviews.
The sessions are designed to help participants translate the technical skills they have developed into strengths they can communicate to potential employers and better understand what it takes to move from skills development to employment.
“WorldSkills gives us a powerful view of what Filipino talent can achieve, but the bigger opportunity is what happens when that talent meets the right employer. We want to help close that gap. By working with TESDA, we’re assisting skilled Filipinos move beyond proving what they can do and toward finding where those skills can take them,” said Dannah Majarocon, Managing Director, Jobstreet by SEEK Philippines.
For TESDA and Jobstreet by SEEK, WorldSkills Philippines Clark 2026 is an opportunity to help participants take the next step, underscoring the growing importance of technical-vocational careers in building a skilled and future-ready workforce.
SUNNYVALE, California – Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, announced it has acquired Virtue AI, an innovator in AI runtime protection, automated AI validation, and security for autonomous AI systems. The acquisition advances the company’s broader Security for AI strategy and vision for securing the agentic enterprise, building on Fortinet’s existing AI security solution portfolio, including its FortiGate Hyperscale Firewall.
As organizations rapidly deploy AI applications and autonomous agents, their attack surface expands beyond traditional networks, users, endpoints, applications, and cloud workloads. It now includes prompts, models, agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, application programming interface (API) calls, and AI infrastructure. Organizations need to adopt AI with confidence, keep it secure in production, and trust it behaves as intended.
Fortinet met that need earlier this year with FortiAIGate, which safeguards large language models (LLMs) from prompt injections, data leakage, model poisoning, excessive resource consumption, and other emerging AI-specific risks. Virtue AI extends that security to AI models, applications, and agentic systems, from development through runtime, leveraging Virtue AI’s Guardian Agent abilities and key product capabilities, including:
- Agentic system red-teaming: Tests autonomous agents for exploitable weaknesses across more than 50 sandboxed environments and 14 high-stakes domains, including simulated prompt-injection and MCP-based attacks against leading agent frameworks.
- Agent protection, governance, and visibility: Provides full visibility into agents and AI tools running in their environment, discovers unsanctioned AI applications and agents, scans MCP tools and source code for hidden risks, monitors agent behavior, and blocks malicious tool calls before they act.
- Continuous AI validation: Identifies new risks across every model update and fine-tuning of policies, while generating audit-ready evidence to support security and compliance reviews. The automated red-teaming runs across hundreds of attack vectors and more than 1,000 risk categories, with multimodal testing and on-demand reporting for security, risk, and compliance teams.
- Real-time guardrails: Enforces customizable policies across text, images, video, audio, and AI-generated code to prevent harmful content, sensitive data, jailbreaks, and vulnerable code from reaching users or downstream systems.
“AI is fundamentally changing enterprise computing, and security must evolve just as quickly,” said Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer at Fortinet. “Virtue AI’s technology will advance our vision for continuous AI assurance, helping customers govern and protect AI systems throughout their lifecycle while operating them confidently at enterprise scale.”
According to Gartner®, “the market for securing AI ecosystems and AI agents is rapidly expanding; products and tools are expected to expand from $2.8 billion in 2026 to $16.4 billion by 2030.”[1] Fortinet believes that anticipated market expansion reflects evolving industry demand to secure the AI era.
Customers already rely on the Fortinet AI-native Security Fabric for integrated protection across networks, endpoints, clouds, applications, and AI deployments. This acquisition complements FortiAIGate and further strengthens Fortinet’s AI runtime security capabilities with Virtue AI’s automated validation and real-time protection. Combined with coordinated enforcement and FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence, it will give organizations the confidence to secure AI systems throughout their lifecycle.
Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed, and the amount paid by Fortinet as consideration is immaterial to Fortinet’s business.
MANILA, Philippines — The 2026 Global Outsourcing AI Readiness Index, just published by Ataraxis, ranks the world’s top 25 outsourcing destinations on AI adoption, workforce AI literacy, enterprise AI readiness, and AI education pipeline. The Philippines ranks #5 globally on AI readiness, placing it in the top tier of outsourcing destinations and ahead of every other country in Southeast Asia except Malaysia.
Philippines snapshot: #5 of 25 outsourcing destinations globally on AI readiness. Source: 2026 Ataraxis Global Outsourcing AI Readiness Index.
2026 Index Data Relevant to Your Coverage
• The Philippines scores 69.05 out of 100 in AI readiness, ranking #5 among the top 25 outsourcing destinations, behind only India (84.55), Brazil (76.1), Malaysia (75.65), and Hungary (69.1).
• The Philippines ties Brazil for #2 in workforce AI literacy across the top 25 outsourcing destinations, behind only India. At 76, the Filipino workforce scores higher than every other outsourcing destination in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. This is the Philippines’ strongest dimension.
• Hungary’s total (69.1) edges the Philippines (69.05) by just 0.05 points. The Philippines outscores Hungary on the two sub-indices most directly tied to AI service delivery: workforce AI literacy (76 vs. 54) and enterprise AI adoption (71 vs. 67). Hungary’s higher overall AI readiness ranking is driven largely by population AI adoption (86 vs. 69).
• The Philippines is one of only three outsourcing destinations to rank #1 or #2 in workforce AI literacy: India (#1), Philippines (tied #2), and Brazil (tied #2). On the sub-index most directly tied to AI-augmented service delivery, the Philippines sits in the top tier globally.
• The Philippines is the only top-5 outsourcing destination for AI readiness outside the EU bracket besides India and Brazil. Of the five top-ranked destinations, two (Hungary and Czechia) benefit from EU-level digital infrastructure documented in the Index methodology. The Philippines competes in the top 5 without that structural advantage.
• The AI education pipeline is the Philippines’ critical gap. At 52 in the AI education pipeline, the Philippines ranks #15 of 25 outsourcing destinations and last among the top 5. India scores 83, Malaysia 84, Brazil 69, Hungary 69. The Philippines’ AI talent development infrastructure trails every other top-5 destination by at least 17 points, a structural risk for sustained AI readiness over time.
• In Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranks #2 behind Malaysia (75.65) with a 6.6-point gap, and leads Indonesia (61.05)
by 8 points. The region’s three top outsourcing destinations span a 14.6-point range in AI readiness, with the Philippines firmly in the middle.
• The Philippines and Brazil are the only two outsourcing destinations in the entire index outside of India to score above 70 on workforce AI literacy. Among outsourcing destinations specifically, AI workforce depth is concentrated in three countries: India, Brazil, and the Philippines.
“The Philippines has already proven it can staff the AI era — its workforce AI literacy rivals countries with far larger tech sectors. The open question is whether the education pipeline catches up quickly enough to keep that talent pool growing at the pace enterprise demand will require,” said George Atuahene, CEO and founder of Ataraxis.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
MANILA, Philippines — Global girl group KATSEYE enters an electrifying new era with the release of their third EP, WILD, via HYBE x Geffen Records. Shaped by a defining two-year journey, the project captures a wild ride fueled by growth and transformation. The five-song EP includes Billboard Hot 100 hits “PINKY UP” and “Animal.” WILD follows the group’s GRAMMY®-nominated 2025 EP, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, which debuted in the top five of the Billboard 200. The new release arrives as KATSEYE continues to strengthen its presence with fans around the world, including the Philippines.
Filipino EYEKONS have had another reason to celebrate KATSEYE’s growing global presence, with the group appearing on the June cover of Allure Philippines. The group also appeared on Allure covers in the United States and Korea. KATSEYE was Vanity Fair’s “VANITIES” subject for its July issue, marking the first time the magazine selected a group for the long-standing feature. They also led Billboard’s 2026 “21 Under 21” list and appeared in Variety’s “Power of Young Hollywood Impact Report.” These milestones accompany the group’s latest musical chapter with WILD.
Moving beyond the beautiful chaos of their previous EP, WILD finds KATSEYE embracing something more euphoric and untamed. Lead single “PINKY UP” brings a confident and playful energy, while “Animal,” co-written by Ed Sheeran, celebrates embracing one’s wild side. “Hootie Frutti” pairs Brazilian phonk-inspired percussion with maximalist pop production, with its official video bringing KATSEYE into a vibrant underground Brazilian party. The emotionally charged
“Bel Air” explores the bittersweet feeling of outgrowing something once loved. Closing track “That Way” explores power dynamics and desire entirely on the group’s own terms.
KATSEYE’s new era also extends beyond the music with KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS, now in a limited theatrical engagement across more than 60 countries. Directed by Nadia Hallgren, the film features never-before-seen footage, EYEKONS fan videos, and intimate interviews with the members. It explores the bond between KATSEYE and the global fandom that has grown around the group. KATSEYE will also launch THE WILDWORLD TOUR on September 1 at Dublin’s 3Arena after the global arena run sold out in under 48 hours. The tour includes two-night stands in London, New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City.
WILD features five tracks: “PINKY UP,” “Animal,” “Hootie Frutti,” “Bel Air” and “That Way.” International retailer exclusive editions also include the bonus track “Unloveu,” written and produced by KATSEYE member Lara Raj with Amy Allen and Ross Golan. The EP is released through HYBE x Geffen Records, the joint venture behind the development of the global girl group. The partnership combines HYBE’s expertise in artist discovery, training and fan engagement with Geffen Records’ music production, marketing and global distribution network.
INLIFE Benefits and PhilHealth recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to bring the PhilHealth YAKAP Program closer to employees in the private sector, marking the first partnership of its kind between PhilHealth and a private healthcare benefits provider. The collaboration aims to raise awareness of preventive healthcare services, encourage early disease screening, and help more Filipinos maximize the health benefits available to them.
The partnership brings together PhilHealth’s preventive healthcare initiative and InLife Benefits’ network of corporate clients, creating a bridge that connects employees with accessible screening and wellness services before illnesses become severe. This collaboration addresses a persistent challenge for PhilHealth regarding member awareness. Although a significant portion of the workforce holds membership, familiarity with the preventive services under the YAKAP Program remains low.
“There are a lot of diseases that could be prevented if only they were screened earlier. Now we see our national health insurance moving towards preventive health,” said Isabel Umali, MD, deputy medical director, InLife Benefits. “That’s the gap that we want to close by giving people the chance to take charge of their health before catastrophic diseases happen.”
To bridge this gap effectively, PhilHealth strategically chose to collaborate with an organization capable of scaling the program’s reach. “The gap is usually that there’s a problem with membership awareness in the YAKAP program. Through this initiative, we can reach out to those private companies, since we discovered that InLife has a vast connection and great IT infrastructure,” said Bernadette C. Lico, vice president, PhilHealth Regional Office, NCR and Rizal.
The YAKAP Program is supported by a wide network of healthcare providers, with more than 4,000 YAKAP clinics nationwide, including over 750 accredited facilities in Metro Manila, making preventive services readily available once members are connected to the program. Beyond expanding access, both organizations see the partnership as a model for greater collaboration between government and private healthcare institutions.
Future plans involve extending the initiative beyond employees to encompass their dependents, with the long-term vision of maximizing the number of Filipinos benefiting from preventive healthcare. As the partnership moves forward, InLife Benefits and PhilHealth NCR aim to engage more employers and expand participation across industries, demonstrating how public-private collaboration can strengthen employee wellness and improve utilization of PhilHealth services.
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