MANILA: Fitch Ratings on Monday upgraded the Philippines’ sovereign credit rating, citing the nation’s strong economic performance and policies and pointing to no immediate impact on investment from President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.
Fitch, the first credit rating agency to raise the Philippines’ credit rating to investment grade in 2013, said investor confidence remains strong, as indicated by solid domestic demand and inflows of foreign direct investment.
“As such, there is no evidence so far that incidents of violence associated with the administration’s campaign against the illegal drug trade have undermined investor confidence,” it said in a statement.
Its upgrade to BBB from BBB- aligns the agency’s ratings on the Southeast Asian country with those of peers Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investor Services.
Although the Southeast Asian nation is among the fastest growing economies in Asia, some analysts had flagged risks Duterte’s war on drugs could pose to investment.
The Philippines has drawn international criticism for the killing of about 3,900 people in police anti-drugs operations since Duterte took power in June last year. But the police deny allegations by human rights advocates that many of the killings were executions.
A statement from Duterte’s office on Monday said the upgrade was an affirmation of the administration’s fight against crime and corruption.
Fitch forecast real gross domestic product growth of 6.8 percent for the Philippines in 2018 and 2019 and said it would maintain its place among the fastest-growing economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Fitch said it expects higher infrastructure spending under the government’s public investment program to support continued robust growth over the medium term.
Duterte has pledged to modernize the country’s airports, roads, railways and ports through a six-year $180-billion, “Build, Build, Build” initiative to attract much-needed foreign direct investment and lift economic growth.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said he expects more positive rating actions for the Philippines over the next two years.
“Our macroeconomic fundamentals are on par with, if not better than, those of higher-rated sovereigns and continue to improve,” he said in a statement.
Investors’ reaction was muted, with the peso slightly firmer against the US dollar following Fitch’s announcement. It opened at 50.42 and rose further to 50.31 from Friday’s close of 50.50.
The Philippines’ benchmark stock index was down 0.2 percent at 0312 GMT.
Fitch upgraded the Philippines by one notch to ‘BBB-’ in 2013, with the agency citing Manila’s efforts to achieve fiscal sustainability, curb corruption and increase infrastructure spending.
The move to investment grade was followed by S&P’s less than two months later, lifting the Philippines’ ratings to BBB- from BB+. Moody's followed suit, upgrading the Philippines by one notch to Baa3 from Ba1.
Moody’s and S&P have since raised their respective ratings to Baa2 and BBB.
Duterte: Fight against crime and corruption paying off
Duterte: Fight against crime and corruption paying off
Nigeria tanker truck blast toll rises to 86: rescuers
LAGOS: The death toll from the explosion of a petrol tanker truck in Nigeria that killed people rushing to gather fuel has risen to 86, emergency services said Sunday.
"The final death toll from the tanker explosion is 86," said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in Niger state.
The truck carrying 60,000 litres of gasoline exploded after flipping over on a road in the centre of the country on Saturday, authorities said.
Pope Francis calls for Gaza ceasefire to be ‘immediately respected’
- Pope Francis: I also hope that humanitarian aid will even more quickly reach... the people of Gaza, who have so many urgent needs
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis called Sunday for a ceasefire in Gaza to be “immediately respected,” as he thanked mediators and urged a boost in humanitarian aid as well as the return of hostages.
“I express gratitude to all the mediators,” the Argentine pontiff said shortly after the start of a truce between Israel and Hamas began.
“Thanks to all the parties involved in this important outcome. I hope that, as agreed, it will be immediately respected by the parties and that all the hostages will finally be able to go home to hug their loved ones again,” he said.
“I pray so much for them, and their families. I also hope that humanitarian aid will even more quickly reach... the people of Gaza, who have so many urgent needs,” Francis said.
“Both Israelis and Palestinians need clear signs of hope. I hope that the political authorities of both, with the help of the international community, can reach the right two-state solution.
“May everyone say yes to dialogue, yes to reconciliation, yes to peace,” he added.
A total of 33 hostages taken by militants during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel are scheduled to be returned from Gaza during an initial 42-day truce.
Under the deal, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are to be released from Israeli jails.
The truce is intended to pave the way for an end to more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.
It follows a deal struck by mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt after months of negotiations, and takes effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president.
Bangladesh seeks arrest of MP cricketer over bounced cheques
- Bangladesh court issues warrant for Shakib Al Hasan for bounced cheques totaling $300,000
- Hasan is a former lawmaker from the party of autocratic, ousted ex-leader Sheikh Hasina
Dhaka: A Bangladeshi court issued an arrest warrant on Sunday for cricket star Shakib Al Hasan for bounced cheques totalling more than $300,000, in the latest blow for the ousted lawmaker.
“The court has previously summoned Shakib but he did not appear at the court,” said Mohammed Shahibur Rahman from the IFIC Bank, which filed the case.
“Now, the court has issued the warrant,” he said.
Shakib is a former lawmaker from the party of autocratic ex-leader Sheikh Hasina, who was overthrown by revolution and fled by helicopter to India in August 2024.
His links to Hasina made him a target of public anger and he was among dozens facing murder investigations for a deadly police crackdown on protesters during the uprising.
He has not been charged over those allegations.
Shakib was playing in a domestic Twenty20 cricket competition in Canada when Hasina’s government collapsed and has not returned to Bangladesh since.
The left-arm allrounder has played 71 Tests, 247 one-day internationals and 129 Twenty20s for Bangladesh, taking a combined 712 wickets.
However, he was left out of the 15-man squad for the one-day international tournament in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and Dubai next month.
Najmul Hossain Shanto will captain the side, with Bangladesh placed in Group A alongside India, Pakistan and New Zealand.
UK family visa applicants from war-torn countries caught in bureaucratic limbo
- Home Office granting just a handful of waivers to people in countries where biometric information cannot be collected
- Those seeking refuge from Gaza, Sudan and Afghanistan among those awaiting authorization
LONDON: Refugees trying to escape Gaza, Sudan and Afghanistan and join family members in the UK are in limbo between government bureaucracy and a lack of biometric processing facilities.
As part of the family reunification visa application process, applicants must submit biometric information, usually including a fingerprint, at centers in the countries from which they apply.
But such centers often either do not exist in war-torn areas or the facilities are not available to gather the information. This means applicants must either complete the biometric processing once in the UK or be excused from the biometric process entirely.
Figures published by The Guardian on Saturday, however, show that just a handful of these deferrals or exemptions have been granted by the UK.
As of May 2024, 114 people had requested to have their applications “pre-determined” by delaying the submission of biometric data until reaching the UK. Another 84 people had requested to be excused from providing biometric information altogether. By February 2024, just eight predetermination cases and one excusal had been authorized.
The highest number of the requests came from Palestinians and those in Afghanistan and Sudan, where visa application centers have been forced to close due to conflict.
Members of parliament and charities have accused the Home Office of blocking people such in areas from joining their families in the UK.
They compared it to the situation in Ukraine, where people can apply for family reunification visas in the UK without submitting biometrics beforehand.
“The UK rightly welcomed Ukrainian refugees fleeing war. Why can’t the same compassion be shown to people from Gaza and elsewhere?” a coalition of independent MPs, including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, told The Guardian.
Nick Beales, head of campaigns at the charity RAMFEL, which helps vulnerable migrants access justice, said: “This disclosure proves that it was actually impossible for people in conflict zones, such as Sudan and Gaza, to apply for visas even when they had clear family ties in the UK.”
A Home Office spokesperson told The Guardian they understood applicants may face challenging circumstances to reach a visa application center to submit biometrics, saying: “That is why individuals have the option to submit a biometric deferral request, which is assessed on its own merits, and exceptional circumstances are considered.”
Taliban deputy tells leader there is no excuse for education bans on Afghan women and girls
- The Taliban government has barred Afghan females from education after sixth grade
- There are reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women
A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.
Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province.
He told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn’t be one at all.”
The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women.
In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban.
“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” said Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X. “We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature.”
Stanikzai was once the head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
It is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve to have an education. He made similar remarks in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months and before the introduction of a university ban.
But the latest comments marked his first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia program, said Stanikzai had periodically made statements calling girls’ education a right of all Afghan women.
“However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for a change in policy and questioned the legitimacy of the current approach,” Bahiss said.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban on women and girls’ education.
She was speaking at a conference hosted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League.
The UN has said that recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place and women can’t go out in public without a male guardian.
No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, but countries like Russia have been building ties with them.
