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After backlash, Immigration to review proposed P480 fee

by Iris Gonzales - June 4, 2026 - 12:00am

Following widespread backlash on social media over its proposed immigration fee of P480 per round-trip international passenger, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has committed to reviewing the planned charges.

OFWs oppose proposed immigration fee

by Iris Gonzales - June 2, 2026 - 12:00am

Overseas Filipino workers are unhappy with the proposed P480 immigration fee that the Bureau of Immigration may charge as early as the latter part of 2026.

Is the P480 immigration fee justified?

by Iris Gonzales - May 31, 2026 - 12:00am

The Bureau of Immigration planned new border security system can rake in as much as P14 billion in its first year of operations alone from user fees of P480 charged per passenger on round-trip international...

Immigration to charge passengers P480

by Iris Gonzales - May 28, 2026 - 12:00am

Yes, you read that right. That’s P480 to be charged on all departing and arriving international passengers, on top of the travel tax, currently at P1,620.

Protect Philippine ube

by Iris Gonzales - May 26, 2026 - 12:00am

Our beloved ube, that quintessential and famed purple delicacy, is having a moment on the global stage.

From lawmaking to lawbreaking

by Iris Gonzales - May 24, 2026 - 12:00am

It’s been a grueling and exhausting two weeks just watching events unfold grotesquely at the Senate.

The Hormuz deadlock and the Phl

by Iris Gonzales - May 21, 2026 - 12:00am

We are approaching the third month of the US and Israel’s war against Iran and what we now have is a deadlock.

Ceasefire

by Iris Gonzales - May 19, 2026 - 12:00am

Some may call it a fragile ceasefire but for the minority shareholders of companies in the Lopez Group, it is a welcome break from the ugly and very public battle that erupted among the Lopez cousins.

From statesmen to scoundrels

by Iris Gonzales - May 17, 2026 - 12:00am

There was a time – which now seems to be not one but many lifetimes ago – when wise men filled the Senate of the Philippines.

Shameless

by Iris Gonzales - May 14, 2026 - 12:00am

At a glittering reception filled with diplomats on Tuesday, the buzz was as hot as the scorching summer evening and the question repeatedly asked by foreign dignitaries was: “What’s happening to your...

Our GDP twin shocks: Hermès and Hormuz

by Iris Gonzales - May 12, 2026 - 12:00am

I could not help but laugh when the indefatigable Jun Neri, the lead economist at BPI, shared his thoughts on the latest jaw-dropping snail-pace performance of our economy at just 2.8 percent growth in the first...

Two-year transition eyed for broker-director term limits

by Iris Gonzales - May 10, 2026 - 12:00am

The simmering war between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange over a controversial plan to limit the terms of the PSE’s broker-directors may have been averted, at least...

Piki’s ‘poison pills’ can be antidote to Gabby’s woes

by Iris Gonzales - May 7, 2026 - 12:00am

There’s so much brouhaha surrounding Piki Lopez’s so-called “poison pills” embedded in the multibillion-peso deals between Lopez-led First Gen Corp. and tycoon Enrique Razon’s Prime...

Navotas landfill fire: Who owns the mess?

by Iris Gonzales - May 5, 2026 - 12:00am

Last Friday, as the sun set over Metro Manila, I stood at the foothills of Rizal overlooking the city.

Lopez war spooks family businesses in Phl

by Iris Gonzales - May 3, 2026 - 12:00am

Rarely is a war’s fallout contained; more often, it ripples far and wide, across classes and generations.

Bank secrecy

by Iris Gonzales - April 30, 2026 - 12:00am

Among this week’s biggest stories is the filing of a criminal complaint by lawyer Manases Reyes Carpio, the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, against officials led by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor...

‘The Lopezes are fighting over crumbs’

by Iris Gonzales - April 28, 2026 - 12:00am

It was once a sprawling business empire that was, at one point, the biggest and most powerful in the country.

House of Marcos-Romualdez now a house of cards

by Iris Gonzales - April 26, 2026 - 12:00am

Business circles and dinner parties among the well-heeled crowd over the past several days have been buzzing with only two hot topics: Martin Romualdez’s fate and the Lopez war – both about families fractured...

Tragic

by Iris Gonzales - April 23, 2026 - 12:00am

Manila in the time of war is just as tragic even though the conflict is tens of thousands of miles away, and this tragedy is in the death of a motorcycle taxi driver who died while waiting for his ayuda.

Inside the Gabby Lopez-led coup

by Iris Gonzales - April 21, 2026 - 12:00am

This Lopez empire teleserye has turned into a high-stakes battle with all the elements of an edge-of-your-seat drama comparable to HBO’s Succession – a coveted throne, billion-peso deals,...

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