Philippine news digest - July 18, 2026

President Marcos is back from Singapore and now fully in prep mode for his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27. This year's version is being deliberately scaled down: no red carpet, no long gowns, and a budget House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil describes as "significantly" smaller than the P20 million spent in 2024, a figure that drew heavy criticism at the time. The simpler staging is meant to read right against the backdrop of the ongoing energy crisis and the Mindanao earthquake recovery (via Manila Bulletin).

Sen. Rodante Marcoleta's plunder case is inching forward unevenly. His three co-accused, Michael Defensor, Joseph Espiritu, and Aristotle Viray, have already pleaded not guilty and are largely skipping bail motions in favor of heading straight to trial (only Viray has filed to be released). Marcoleta himself hasn't even been arraigned yet: his lawyers are still fighting a motion to quash the whole case before he'll enter a plea or seek bail of his own (via Inquirer).

Duterte's impeachment court is dark today, as usual on weekends. Day seven resumes Monday, July 20, and it's a loaded one: senator-judges are set to rule on the prosecution's push to subpoena the vice president's bank, BIR, and anti-money-laundering records, and NBI Director General Melvin Matibag is due to testify as the last witness on the fourth impeachment article, covering the bureau's probe into her alleged assassination remarks against Marcos, the First Lady, and Martin Romualdez. His slot got moved from an earlier date so he could catch a flight to an FBI-hosted crime summit in Bangkok (via Inquirer).

Qatar's air defenses shot down a fresh wave of Iranian ballistic missiles over Doha before dawn on Friday, with one child hurt by falling shrapnel. It's the latest in a run of strikes on Gulf host nations, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan have all taken hits in recent days, since the US-Iran ceasefire fell apart (via Euronews).

It matters here because every escalation in that region is exactly what's driving the pump price shock the DOE is warning about below, and it keeps the calculus for repatriating OFWs from the Gulf just as complicated as it's been all month.

Routine day on the meteorology front. PAGASA raised a thunderstorm advisory over parts of the country this morning and had already lifted it by 9:45 a.m., nothing at typhoon scale.

The bigger story, one this digest hasn't caught up on yet, is Mayon. The volcano is now on its 193rd straight day of effusive eruption under Alert Level 3, still spilling incandescent lava down three gullies (Basud, Bonga, and Mi-isi) with regular rockfalls and pyroclastic density currents. PHIVOLCS logged a moderate explosive burst with several strombolian bursts Thursday evening. Roughly 4,100 people remain displaced across a dozen evacuation centers, and the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone is still off-limits (via GMA News).

Taal, further north, is calmer on paper (Alert Level 1) but keeps producing small phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions, its third one this month hit Friday, with seven volcanic earthquakes and six tremors. PHIVOLCS says these steam-driven blasts are notoriously hard to forecast, though officials stress they don't necessarily point to a bigger eruption (via Inquirer).

The Development Budget Coordination Committee has cut its 2026 GDP growth target to 3.5-4.5 percent, down from 5-6 percent, blaming the escalating Middle East conflict, soft consumer and business confidence, and a possible El Niño return. June inflation held at 6.4 percent, above the central bank's target band for a fourth straight month (via BusinessWorld).

It's a sharp turn from just two weeks ago, when the World Bank bumped the Philippines up into upper-middle-income territory on the back of a record $4,850 GNI per capita (via Inquirer), a reminder that one good milestone doesn't cancel out an oil shock.

There's real money moving for workers, though: the first tranche of Metro Manila's P85 minimum wage hike takes effect July 25, lifting the non-agricultural daily minimum to P780, with a second P25 tranche following in January 2027. Wage Order No. 27 covers well over a million private-sector workers in the capital (via Inquirer).

In corporate news, GMA Network closed 2025 with net income up 6.28 percent to P2.2 billion, helped by election ad spending and a 13 percent jump in digital ad revenue (via BusinessWorld).

Globe Telecom, meanwhile, took out its second loan in barely a month, a P10 billion term facility with Landbank (via Philstar).

Friday was a genuinely good day for local stocks, oil war or not. The PSEi jumped 78.96 points, or 1.25 percent, to close the week at 6,404.11, its best finish in weeks, with the broader All Shares index up 0.89 percent to 3,444.07. Foreigners were net buyers to the tune of P857.49 million, and advancers beat decliners 103 to 85. Ayala Land led the index, up 5.72 percent to P17, with Globe close behind at plus 2.52 percent to P1,870 (via Philstar).

The peso firmed too, closing at P61.587, up 3.3 centavos, its second straight day of gains. Don't get too comfortable, though: Fitch Group unit BMI is warning the peso could swing back out to the P61-63 range in the near term as the Gulf war grinds on, before settling closer to P61 by year-end as oil eases and remittances pick up (via Manila Times).

The one everyone's bracing for: the DOE is still flagging an "extra-large" pump price adjustment for Tuesday, July 21, with diesel projected to rise P9 to P10 a liter and gasoline P3.50 to P4.50, which could push both fuels past P100 a liter in Metro Manila. It's the direct reason behind this week's expanded Uplift cash aid and the DOE is even weighing scrapping its usual weekly price range in favor of one hard number, given how fast things are moving (via BusinessWorld).

LPG has already been climbing for weeks: an 11-kilogram tank in Metro Manila now runs P1,110 to P1,600, up from the P830 to P1,110 range not long ago, and LPG alone drove 35 percent inflation in that basket in June. Rice hasn't been kind either, regular-milled is averaging P50 a kilo nationwide versus P42 a year ago, with well-milled rice around P56.15 in mid-June (via Philippine Statistics Authority price data).

PBA Governors' Cup elimination games shift venues today, moving out to Ynares Center in Antipolo. Terrafirma takes on San Miguel at 5:15 p.m., followed by Rain or Shine against Meralco at 7:30 (via all-starmagazine.com).

Alex Eala is coming off a career-high No. 28 WTA ranking, the highest any Filipino has ever climbed on tour, on the strength of her historic Wimbledon fourth-round run that included a win over 2025 champion Iga Swiatek. She's expected to open her hard-court swing at the Washington DC Open before heading into the Citi Open, which starts July 27 (via GMA News).

Nothing new on Gilas Pilipinas, the team already wrapped its opening FIBA World Cup qualifying round at 2-4, third in Group A, and won't play again until the next window.

Binibining Pilipinas 2026 crowns its winners tonight at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, and the race got a late shake-up when heavy favorite Ivy Padilla of Misamis Oriental withdrew, leaving the field wide open among nine strong contenders, per Metro.Style's rundown of ones to watch. Catriona Gray, MJ Lastimosa, Miriam Quiambao, and Nicole Cordoves host, with performances from Alamat, Kyle Echarri, and Jericho Rosales, and the winners head on to Miss International and The Miss Globe later this year (via ABS-CBN Metro.Style).

Celeste Cortesi and boyfriend Jonathan Sterling are once again pushing back on breakup and cheating rumors that have followed them since June. Speaking to press at the retail launch of her cosmetics line in Taguig this week, both said "all is well" between them and that their focus is on their newborn son, Sergio (via PEP.ph).

The Manila Coffee Festival, running alongside Coffee Expo Manila and the Biyaya Sustainable Living Festival, wraps up this weekend (July 17 to 19) at SM Megamall's Megatrade Halls, worth a stop for anyone into coffee or sustainable living vendors.

Anime & Cosplay Expo 2026: Radiant Ruby also takes over the SMX Convention Center in Pasay today and tomorrow, with cosplay competitions, meet-and-greets, and the expected announcement of this year's Cosplay Mania lineup.

Apple quietly raised its Philippine prices this week: Apple Music now starts at P169 a month, and iCloud+ storage tiers went up too (via YugaTech).

Elsewhere, Infinix made its HOT 70 Pro 5G+ official, OnePlus announced it's exiting the US and European markets while insisting Philippine operations continue as normal, and Google rebranded NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook (via YugaTech).