Philippines
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39 articlesOpenAI made a Filipino consultancy the only seller of ChatGPT Enterprise here
Thinking Machines, a Philippine-founded firm with more than 150 data scientists, is now the single door a local company goes through to buy the business version of ChatGPT.
Read →August 17, 2026The cybercrime agency plans to handle 30,000 cases next year with 54 people
The government wants its cybercrime center to take on six times the caseload in 2027. Its staffing table has 85 slots, only 54 are filled, and the program's budget goes down, not up.
Read →August 15, 2026Three bills would bar under-16s from social media. Youth groups are pushing back.
Senate Bill 2066 and two House bills would force platforms to check ages, with fines up to 50 million pesos. A youth consultation found 63 percent want rules instead of a ban.
Read →August 14, 2026The House voted 286 to 3 to criminalize undisclosed AI fakes. The Senate is next.
House Bill 9465 covers AI images, video and audio posted without saying they are AI. The penalty runs 6 to 12 years in prison and up to 2 million pesos.
Read →August 14, 2026Balisacan says the forecast that AI takes 1 million BPO jobs by 2030 is exaggerated
A London research firm warned this week that about 1 million Philippine outsourcing jobs could be automated by 2030. The government's chief economic planner says the industry is still growing.
Read →August 13, 2026Youth unemployment hit roughly 13.5% in June. The jobs thinning are the middle ones.
A new International Labour Organization report says clerical, sales and service work across Southeast Asia shrank 4.1% in two years. Those are the roles most exposed to AI.
Read →August 13, 2026Tonik's CEO says 9 in 10 Filipinos have never had a bank loan
Greg Krasnov told ANC that digital payments are basically a solved problem, and that the next fight in Philippine banking is credit. He puts the missing lending at around 100 billion US dollars.
Read →August 12, 2026MMDA asks cybercrime police to hunt down AI-made flood photos
The agency says manufactured photos of garbage-filled floodwater are criminal, and has tapped the police and the government cybercrime center. It has not named a single post yet.
Read →August 11, 2026The NPC says your face in an AI photo is your data, and you can demand it be removed
The National Privacy Commission put out a notice on Tuesday saying AI images and videos of real people count as handling their personal data. Doing it without a lawful reason can carry criminal penalties.
Read →August 10, 2026The Philippines ranks 68th of 135 on responsible AI. On jobs and skills, 81st.
A new global scorecard gave the country 32.98 out of 100. Its lowest marks were on retraining workers and on telling the public which government systems use AI.
Read →August 10, 2026AI was supposed to kill Philippine call centers. They added 80,000 jobs.
The Economist reports that Philippine offshoring is still growing. Revenue is on track for 42.3 billion dollars this year, up from 40 billion in 2025.
Read →August 10, 2026PH data centers were underused before the AI boom, an AI industry group says
Michelle Alarcon of the Analytics and AI Association of the Philippines wants someone to show where the demand numbers came from before the country builds more.
Read →August 9, 2026Six Filipino inventions went to Hong Kong. One is an app for people who cannot speak.
The science department sent six homegrown technologies to the first LEAP East Hong Kong, from a wearable cooler to an AI that counts baby chicks.
Read →August 9, 2026Davao tech leader: our school curricula are 5 years behind on AI
Belinda Torres of ICT Davao says schools are teaching what industry needed five years ago. Her group is answering with a hackathon in November and a plan that runs to 2030.
Read →August 8, 2026DOST wants AI in 10,000 small businesses in 2 years. The country has 1.24 million.
Science Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. says a program called CUATRO will send government engineers into small businesses one at a time, aiming to lift output by 25 to 30 percent.
Read →August 8, 2026Chel Diokno filed House Bill 10362 to shield Filipino workers from AI
The Akbayan bloc's National AI Governance Act would give workers displaced by AI retraining, redeployment and a say before the machines are switched on. It is still only a filed bill.
Read →August 8, 2026The BSP wants GCash, Maya and banks to check you against the national ID
A draft rule gives e-wallets, digital banks and crypto apps three months from the day it is signed to plug into the government's ID checker. Uploading a photo of your ID stops being the way in.
Read →August 7, 20261 in 4 Filipino workers is an advanced AI user. The world average is 1 in 6.
Microsoft surveyed 20,000 workers in 10 countries. Filipinos came out ahead on advanced AI use, and ahead on worrying about being left behind.
Read →August 6, 2026NotarioPH will notarize your documents by video call. The rules came in 2025.
A law firm and a Manila tech company are launching a Supreme Court accredited platform that notarizes over live video. Not every document qualifies.
Read →August 5, 2026The Philippines picked a date for its first rocket launch: February 14, 2027
The government is aiming for Valentine's Day 2027 to fly SIKLAB, its test rocket, out of Cagayan. The space agency says the date is symbolic, not a promise.
Read →August 4, 2026Globe and Ayala's data center arm is scaling to 128 MW. It says our power is not pricey.
STT GDC Philippines, jointly owned by Globe, Ayala and Singapore's ST Telemedia, told the trade department it is building toward a 128 megawatt pipeline. Its regional chief says Philippine electricity sits mid pack in Southeast Asia.
Read →August 3, 2026Imee Marcos wants Pax Silica probed over 130 million liters of water a day
Senate Resolution 547, filed Monday, asks how a Tarlac AI hub that needs 3 gigawatts of power and 130 million liters of water a day will hit farms and household bills.
Read →August 3, 2026PLDT gave 3 Cebu city halls a laptop, a phone and paid ChatGPT
Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay joined PLDT and Smart's AI-in-a-Box program. Cebu City is one of four pioneer cities nationwide and the only one from the Visayas.
Read →August 2, 202624 airlines at NAIA now take the digital OFW Pass. No printed OEC.
OFWs flying those carriers only need a passport and a QR code on their phone at check-in. The Department of Migrant Workers says the paper exit clearance is no longer part of the counter.
Read →August 2, 2026The Philippine digital economy is 2.5% of GDP. Taiwan's is 6.1%.
The Asian Development Bank finally put a number on how much of our economy is actually digital. We trail most of the region on infrastructure and skills, but we are near the front on money apps.
Read →August 1, 2026Teleperformance is opening its first Vietnam site. 60,000 Filipinos work for it here.
The call center giant will open a Vietnam site by the end of 2026, aimed at AI data work. Weeks earlier, the Philippine industry group cut its own 2028 job forecast.
Read →July 30, 202679% of PH firms expect AI to reshape their offices. Only 18% have started.
Office deals in Metro Manila slowed in the first half of 2026 while companies wait to find out if AI shrinks the number of desks they need. Property firm JLL says the deals are delayed, not dead.
Read →July 30, 20269 in 10 Philippine companies are betting on AI. Their top worry is data.
A survey of IT decision makers found 91 percent of Philippine firms are positive about AI, but 51 percent said data privacy and security is the biggest thing holding them back.
Read →July 30, 2026The military wants to make AI and cyber people officers. Here is what that means.
The AFP says it will recruit cybersecurity and artificial intelligence experts, through a widened program that hands civilians an officer's commission without the military academy. The guidelines are still being written.
Read →July 29, 2026PH launches its first rocket from Cagayan in 2027. Target height: 5 kilometers.
The Philippine Space Agency will fly a liquid-fueled sounding rocket carrying a 2 kilogram Filipino-made payload. Space officially begins at 100 kilometers, so this is a first step, not a trip to orbit.
Read →July 29, 2026BSP launches auto-pay for bills and lifts the InstaPay business cap to 500,000
The Bangko Sentral switched on three new payment services on Wednesday, including one that lets a biller charge you automatically on your due date. It also raised the business transfer limit tenfold, from 50,000 pesos to 500,000.
Read →July 28, 2026No, AI did not raise your Meralco bill this month. Here is what did.
The July increase adds about 69 pesos to a 200 kWh bill. The cause is gas, not data centers. But the data center bill is coming, and it is worth knowing the difference.
Read →July 27, 2026Marcos put Pax Silica in his SONA, with no jobs figure, no cost and no date
The President gave the Tarlac hub one paragraph, on the same day a scientists' group disputed its job promises. Here is the passage in full, the three details in it that are new, and the numbers it left out.
Read →July 27, 2026Marcos says AI is 'here to stay' and puts a number on it: 1.8 million trained
In his fifth State of the Nation Address, the President gave artificial intelligence its own section. Here is exactly what he claimed, and the one number that sits awkwardly beside it.
Read →July 27, 2026A new order keeps the government's secret files in the Philippines. PLDT says it's ready.
Executive Order 119 requires anything the government labels top secret or secret to be stored inside the country. Until now, about 90 percent of government data has been sitting overseas, mostly in Singapore.
Read →July 27, 2026AI is lifting our chip exports and squeezing BPO at the same time, AMRO says
A regional economic research office says semiconductors are now one of the Philippines' biggest tailwinds, while call center work is its most exposed industry. ICT and business services grew 4.4 percent, the slowest in five years.
Read →July 27, 2026Scientists dispute Pax Silica's promises as BCDA names 3 affected barangays
A scientists' group says the Tarlac AI hub will not bring lasting jobs and will take water away from farmers. BCDA has already listed the residents it will affect.
Read →July 26, 2026Landbank and the DICT are building AI helpers for small businesses, in Filipino
The two signed a memorandum on July 20 to build a phone-based set of AI assistants that can draft a business plan, explain a contract, and point an owner to financing. It is still a pilot, not an app you can download yet.
Read →July 25, 2026Pax Silica: a US-led AI hub in Tarlac promising 190,000 jobs and 3 gigawatts
The government has set aside 1,620 hectares in Capas, Tarlac for a US-led technology hub. The projected numbers are enormous. So are the unanswered questions about power, water and land.
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