Good day. Here are the stories of The Manila Times for Saturday, September 26, 2026.
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BANNER: Carlos Yulo grabs Asiad double gold
CARLOS Yulo delivered the second gold medal for the Philippines in the 2026 Asian Games in less than 24 hours. Fresh off giving the country its first gold in the men’s floor exercise on Thursday, Yulo headed to the Nagoya City General Gymnasium on Friday afternoon to assert his mastery in the men’s vault by averaging 14.599 points. Doubts had hounded the two-time Olympic gold medalist during his preliminary performance, when he came close to missing a final slot after falling and slipping on the vault, finishing with an average of 13.649. But the 26-year-old Yulo bounced back in the finals, performing a routine with a high 5.6 difficulty value on his first vault and scoring 9.133 in execution for a total of 14.733 points. He opened with a strong first vault, executing a double pike followed by a half turn.
In his second vault, Yulo lowered his difficulty to 5.2. Known for being elegant up in the air whenever he spins, Yulo capped his performance with an almost perfect landing. The 5.6 difficulty value was the same level that he posted in vault 2 when he won the gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Still, the highest difficulty level that Yulo posted was 6.000 in Vault 1 during the Olympics.
SPORTS: Pressure builds as Eala vies for Asian Games gold
FAVORED to win the gold medal in the 2026 Asian Games, tennis ace Alexandra “Alex” Eala faces more pressure to deliver in Nagoya, Japan after her early exit in the Singapore Open. Eala, ranked 18th in the world, played a gruesome three-hour battle against world No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova in the round of 16 of the Singapore Open and lost, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, on Thursday night. Eala fought hard in Singapore but was outplayed by Prozorova, who scored a victory against a top 40 player for the first time. With the early exit, Eala can now focus on her Asian Games campaign where she is the top seed.
READ: Marcos postpones barangay, youth polls
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has postponed the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) three days before the filing of Certificates of Candidacy (COCs). In a press briefing in Ilocos Norte on Friday, Malacañang Press Officer Claire Castro confirmed that Marcos has signed Republic Act 12326 deferring the elections scheduled for Nov. 2. RA 12326 also extended the terms of current local and youth leaders from four years to five years.
READ: President grants absolute pardon to Mary Jane Veloso
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has granted absolute pardon to Mary Jane Veloso, the former overseas Filipino worker who spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia before being transferred to a correctional facility in the Philippines. The president said he signed Veloso’s pardon on Friday. Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia had earlier disclosed during a House budget deliberation that Marcos was “seriously considering” an absolute pardon to Veloso based on humanitarian grounds. Malacañang said the pardon was based on letters Veloso sent to the president appealing for her freedom. Veloso was arrested in 2010 at the Yogyakarta airport after 2.6 kilograms of heroin were found in her suitcase. She had unknowingly been recruited as a “mule” or courier by a neighbor who worked for a drug trafficking syndicate. She was sentenced to death by firing squad and spent the next 15 years waiting for her execution to be carried out.
READ: Fuel price rollback projected next week
AFTER a series of sharp spikes, the prices of diesel and gasoline are expected to go down next week. Sources in the local fuel sector project diesel to drop by P7 to P7.50 per liter and gasoline by 50 centavos and P1 per liter. The sources attributed the price reduction to the global oil market reacting to the renewed efforts to negotiate an end to the war between the United States and Iran.
All eyes on PH following landmark EU trade deal
THE signing of the free trade deal between the Philippines and the European Union has attracted the attention of Belgian commercial interests, the ambassador of Belgium to Manila said Friday. Ambassador Vladislava lordanova told a press briefing the Philippines has become a priority market for Belgium, particularly for businesses connected to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Europe’s second-largest port.
BUSINESS: ‘Challenging conjuncture’: IMF slashes PH forecasts
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its Philippine growth forecasts, citing the impact from the continued war in the Middle East, tighter global financial conditions and weaker investments. The IMF trimmed its 2926 growth outlook to 3.4 percent from 3.9 percent, below the government’s downwardly revised 3.5- to 4.5-percent target. That for next year was also lowered to 5.1 percent from 5.5 percent, within the 2027-2030 goal of 5.0-6.0 percent. The economy grew by just 2.3 percent in the second quarter, slowing from 2.8 percent in January-June, following the oil shock from the Middle East conflict and the lingering impact of last year’s massive flood control project scandal.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras and Danton Remoto are today’s front page columnists. Contreras looks at petitions being filed at the Supreme Court against the voting threshold, while Remoto talks about the politics of blood and vice versa.
Today’s editorial says the economic outlook for the country is “challenging”. Read the full version in the paper’s opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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