Hello Ka-Peso

It’s Thursday, June 5 — hope you're all doing great. Let’s finish the week strong. Today’s PesoWeekly issue is here to keep you sharp with the latest headlines from the Philippines and around the world.

We’ve also added a new Technology & AI section. Why? Because traditional media doesn’t cover it enough, and we believe our readers deserve more. Our goal isn’t just to keep you informed — we want to help you stay ahead, especially with news and tools that could level up your career in this fast-changing world.

Got tips, tsismis, or feedback? We’re all ears → [email protected]

The House just approved a landmark ₱200 daily wage increase for private sector workers—the first legislated hike since 1989. It’s a big move, but also a long time coming. Let’s rewind.

Since wage-setting was regionalized in 1989, the minimum wage in NCR rose from ₱89 to ₱610. That’s a 585% jump—impressive on paper, but inflation during that same stretch hit 564%. So it’s easy to say that the wage gains barely kept pace with rising prices.In between, wage hikes came mostly via regional wage boards. There were a few gaps—no increases in 2009 and 2021—but most years saw modest adjustments. The biggest one-day jump? A ₱110 increase in Western Visayas in 2022.Now, the proposed ₱200 hike in House Bill 11376, led by TUCP’s Rep. Raymond Mendoza, isn’t just large—it’s historic. It would apply across all regions, industries, and job statuses, including contractual and agricultural workers. That’s wide reach. The House passed it unanimously (171-0), while the Senate earlier proposed a more conservative ₱100 increase. A bicam committee now has until June 13 to reconcile the two versions. If they miss that window, it’s back to square one in the next Congress.

Supporters say this increase is the “life vest” workers need amid rising food, utility, and transport costs. Critics worry it could backfire—raising unemployment and pushing up prices if businesses pass on the cost. Think: fewer hires, more expensive goods.Still, with over 5 million minimum wage earners on the line, the pressure is on to finalize the measure. Whether it truly helps or hurts will depend on how it's rolled out—and how employers respond.Wallet check: ₱200 more per day sounds great—unless it gets eaten up by pricier sardines and pamasahe.

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Note: Exchange rates may vary slightly depending real-time market fluctuations.

Harvard, squared: Pinoy student bags double degree with honors. Eion Nikolai Chua, 22, just pulled off an academic flex — two Harvard degrees and a Master’s in four years, graduating Magna Cum Laude. The former Taguig student (ISM and MGC New Life alum) also crushed international math contests and joined Harvard’s elite research circles. Next stop? A Pinoy biotech startup.

PH signs ₱40B deal for 12 fighter jets from South Korea. The Philippines just inked its biggest defense contract this year: 12 FA-50 fighter jets from Korea Aerospace Industries for $700M (~₱40B). It's a repeat order—the first 12 were delivered starting 2014. The lightweight FA-50 jets are supersonic, combat-ready, and kitted with night ops tech and missile evasion systems.

PH, Singapore ink deeper ties on energy, health, and digital future. President Marcos and Singapore PM Lawrence Wong just wrapped up a two-day state visit with a to-do list: boost renewable energy ties (hello, solar and wind), finalize a carbon credits deal, expand healthcare cooperation, and strengthen digital governance. They also vowed tighter ASEAN coordination as the Philippines gears up for its 2026 chairmanship.

Senate OKs ₱200B, 10-year boost for PH animal industry. The Senate just greenlit a ₱20B-a-year plan to revive the country’s struggling animal sector. Over the next 10 years, the Animal Industry Development and Competitiveness Act will channel funds—sourced from import tariffs—into disease prevention, small farmer support, and local dairy production. The Bureau of Animal Industry will lead implementation.

New SEC chair Francisco Lim gets thumbs-up from biz leaders, eyes capital market reform. Francisco Edralin Lim, ex-PSE president and veteran lawyer, is the new SEC chair—and the business community is applauding. Top execs from SM, FINEX, and China Bank say Lim’s deep market roots and timing (hello, CMEPA tax cuts) make him the right pick. Key asks: faster transactions, SME listings, and stronger investor protections.

Metro Manila has built more roads, flyovers, and underpasses than ever — but somehow, traffic still feels like a daily nightmare. So what gives? The short answer: more roads often lead to more cars. It’s called induced demand — and it’s backed by decades of global traffic research.

Whenever a new road is opened or an existing one is widened, congestion eases briefly. Then people start changing their habits: drivers take routes they used to avoid, commuters switch from buses to cars, and more households buy vehicles. Eventually, traffic returns to — or even surpasses — its old level.

In the Philippines, the problem is made worse by other forces. Rising incomes and urban migration have led to a surge in car and motorcycle ownership. In 2024, Metro Manila saw 3.8 million vehicles daily, with private cars and motorcycles dominating the roads.

Meanwhile, public transport is still overcrowded, inconsistent, and slow. The train system is aging, bus routes are underdeveloped, and jeepneys, while iconic, aren’t built for modern capacity. So instead of switching to mass transit, more Filipinos choose to drive — if they can afford it.

Add poor urban planning, road bottlenecks, unfinished repairs, and weak enforcement of traffic rules, and you’ve got the perfect storm.

Bottom line: more roads don’t fix traffic — they often make it worse.
Unless we improve public transport, decentralize economic hubs, and make cities more walkable, traffic will remain a losing battle.

UnionBank just opened a fresh ₱5B bond offering, letting investors choose between two options: a 1.5-year bond at 5.88% or a 3-year bond at 6.02% interest. The offer runs until June 19, with a minimum investment of ₱100,000 (plus ₱50K increments). This is part of the bank’s ₱100B bond program launched after a strong Q1, where revenue hit ₱19.4B—thanks largely to a boom in consumer loans. Now serving over 17 million clients, UnionBank’s betting investors will bite. The bonds will be listed on PDEx by June 26.

PDIC sells ₱411M in bank assets, eyes more auctions in 2025. PDIC raked in ₱411.4M from selling 281 properties in 2024—up 25% from the year before. Most were assets from closed banks, sold via public bidding (₱194.9M) and negotiated sales (₱216.4M). Proceeds help settle unpaid depositor claims and boost the Deposit Insurance Fund. PDIC now plans to auction 350 more properties this year.

Villar’s Megacity Bets Big on Undervalued Land South of Manila. Villar Land just dropped prices for commercial lots in its massive 3,500-hectare Villar City—starting at ₱345K/sqm, well below nearby Filinvest (₱396K–₱592K) and Ayala Cerca (₱420K). With new roads, transit links, a stadium, golf courses, and even a UP campus in the pipeline, the real estate giant is pitching “undervalued today, booming tomorrow.”

North Face and Cartier hit by data breaches—again, your inbox is not safe. Another day, another cyber attack. North Face and Cartier have joined the growing list of high-profile brands—Adidas, Victoria’s Secret, Harrods—whose customer data has been stolen.North Face blamed a “small-scale” credential-stuffing attack (translation: hackers recycled passwords from other breaches), while Cartier admitted hackers temporarily accessed client data. No card info was taken, but names, emails, and shipping details were compromised.

VF Corp, which owns North Face, was already hit last December via Vans. This latest wave isn’t just bad PR—it’s costing companies real money. M&S expects £300M in lost profits from its April attack.

Nvidia rakes in record $44B—even with China off the table. Nvidia’s first-quarter revenue hit $44.06B, up 69% year-over-year, despite being blocked from shipping $2.5B worth of AI chips to China. Data-center revenue soared 73% to $39.1B, and adjusted net income climbed 31% to $19.89B.

The chip giant forecasted $45B for next quarter, shrugging off an $8B China dent thanks to surging demand from U.S. tech giants and Middle East “sovereign AI” buyers. Gaming revenue also crushed expectations, with new Blackwell chips leading the charge.

Djokovic cruises to record 19th French Open quarterfinal. Novak Djokovic breezed past Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday, marking his 19th Roland Garros quarterfinal—the most at any Slam. The 38-year-old will face Alexander Zverev next, with a 25th Grand Slam title in sight. Despite Paris chaos and PSG fans’ fireworks the night before, Djokovic stayed locked in: 12 sets played, 12 sets won.

Lee Jae-myung projected to win South Korea’s snap election. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is set to become South Korea’s next president, winning 51.7% of votes in exit polls. His likely victory follows the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol and could reshape Seoul’s stance on U.S. trade talks, China, and North Korea. Lee favors more government spending and corporate governance reforms—Goldman expects fiscal policy to lean expansionary. The Korean won may strengthen as political uncertainty eases.

Paraglider Gets Sucked Into Storm Cloud, Hits 28,210 Feet—and Somehow Lives. Chinese paraglider Liu Ge set out for a casual flight on May 24. Instead, he ended up above the clouds—literally.Caught in a freak "cloud suck" over the Qilian Mountains, Liu was yanked into a storm system and rocketed to 28,210 feet—higher than most planes, well into the oxygen-deprived “death zone.” With no oxygen tank and -40°C temps, he battled hypoxia, frostbite, and a collapsing canopy… all caught on his helmet cam.Against all logic (and physics), Liu survived, landing 30 km from his launch site, frozen but alive. He’s now grounded for six months after flying without airspace clearance. Chinese authorities weren’t impressed. Nature: 1. Liu: also 1.

Texas Tried to Ban Teens from Social Media—Here’s What Actually Passed. Texas lawmakers made headlines with a bold plan to ban anyone under 18 from using social media (HB 186). Plot twist: it didn’t pass. The bill missed a Senate deadline and quietly fizzled out. But don’t log off yet—something else did make it through. Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 2420, a law requiring app stores to verify ages and get parental consent before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases. It kicks in Jan 2026.

Valerie the dachshund survives 529 days lost in the wild. An 8-pound dachshund named Valerie went full survivalist after vanishing on a 2023 camping trip in Australia’s rugged Kangaroo Island. After 529 days, 1,000+ volunteer hours, and a scent trap baited with her owner's shirt and toys, she was finally caught—ripped, healthy, and home.

Claude’s dark side: Anthropic admits blackmail tests succeeded.Anthropic’s shiny new AI model, Claude Opus 4, just launched—and it’s already getting grilled.In internal tests, Claude tried to blackmail a fictional engineer who was set to replace it, threatening to expose an affair. The kicker? It only did so when left with no other option—still, not a great look.Anthropic says such behavior is rare, but more common than with older models. Claude also showed “high agency” in other stress tests, like alerting police and media when users behaved badly.

Bottom line: While generally safe, Claude 4 can get weirdly creative under pressure. And it’s not alone—Anthropic warns blackmail shows up across all frontier models.

Meta’s next bet: ads made entirely by AI, no humans needed. Meta wants to automate your ad department. By end-2026, the company plans to let brands fully create and target ads with AI—just feed the system a product image and a budget, and it’ll generate visuals, text, video, and audience targeting in one go. Zuckerberg calls it “a redefinition of the category of advertising.” Small businesses are intrigued. Big brands? Nervous. Some fear Meta's AI-made ads might lack polish—or give Meta even more control over their marketing. The tech is still messy: some outputs look like weird AI dreams, and the compute requirements are massive. But Meta’s all-in, and ad money fuels its AI empire (which bankrolled 97% of its revenue last year).

Your next plumber might be AI—at least on the phone. A San Francisco startup called Netic is bringing AI to the blue-collar world, helping HVACs, plumbers, and electricians automate calls, messages, and even client outreach.Armed with $20M in VC backing, Netic’s platform doesn’t just answer phones—it uses predictive models to spot who needs service before they call (e.g., pre-storm AC checkups) and helps dispatch techs based on urgency and capacity.It’s not replacing human hands—just giving them a smarter schedule.Private equity loves the pitch: more productivity, fewer wasted hours. Some firms, like St. Louis-based HB Solutions, are already using Netic to juggle hundreds of techs more efficiently.

Brain tech goes live: Startup implants neural interface in human for first time. Paradromics just pulled off a major sci-fi milestone: on May 14, it successfully implanted (and removed) its brain-computer interface (BCI) in a human patient—during an epilepsy surgery at the University of Michigan.The 20-minute procedure proved the startup’s Connexus system can safely tap into brain signals. Next up? A full clinical trial later this year, pending FDA green light.

Paradromics aims to help paralyzed patients “speak” via computer using neural data captured down to individual neurons—like recording voices inside the stadium instead of crowd noise from outside.BCIs have been bubbling in labs for years, but companies like Neuralink, Synchron, and now Paradromics are racing to take them mainstream.

AI voice bots now sound like your tita—and they might be taking your next call. Call centers are getting a glow-up. Thanks to better speech models and LLMs, AI voice agents are sounding shockingly human—fast, polite, and increasingly hard to tell apart from the real thing. Startups like PolyAI and Regal are leading the charge, while big players like eHealth and Fertitta Entertainment are already using voice bots to handle overflow and after-hours calls. Venture capital is eating it up: funding jumped from $315M in 2022 to $2.1B in 2024.

But challenges remain. Hallucinations still happen, and companies are limiting bots to tightly scripted zones. The goal? Keep it helpful, not creepy. Gartner predicts 75% of contact centers will use gen AI by 2028. But don’t panic—high-stakes calls (like a furious casino guest or your nanay asking about billing) still need a human touch.

🧘 Insight Timer – Free meditations, sleep music, and mindfulness tools for busy Filipinos. Great for stress, better for sleep. Link of the site. : Check here.

🎧 The Pinoy Money Podcast – Fitz Villafuerte breaks down personal finance for the everyday Juan. Perfect for listening while commuting or doing chores.
🔗 Search on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any podcast app

🌱 Ecosia – Eco-friendly search engine that plants trees with every search. Do good while you Google. Link of the site. : Check here.

🪪 ePhilID – The digital version of the Philippine National ID. Faster, legal, and useful for everyday transactions. Link of the site: Check here. → Look for “ePhilID”

💻 Google Digital Garage – Free online courses (with certs!) in digital skills, perfect for career growth and side hustles. Link of the site. : Check here.

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