The visit comes as the administration speeds – up both emergency relief and long-term infrastructure investments to stabilize the region’s agricultural output.

Accompanied by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., the president emphasized the need to protect the supply chains that move high-value highland crops to the rest of the country.

Laurel warned that current disruptions in vegetable transport are beginning to threaten the livelihoods of local producers and the food security of major urban centers, including Metro Manila.

The trading center serves as a critical economic engine for the region, moving approximately 165,000 tons of produce annually with an estimated value of 6.4 billion pesos. On a typical day, the facility connects more than 110 farmers to buyers, facilitating the distribution of staples such as cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and broccoli.

However, the surge in fuel prices has severely strained this network, forcing some farmers to delay harvests or risk spoilage as they wait for wholesale prices that can cover their increased overhead.

In response to these bottlenecks, Marcos directed the Department of Agriculture to deploy government trucks to haul produce directly from farms to trading hubs. This logistics intervention is intended to bypass market hurdles and prevent post-harvest losses.

As of mid-April, the department has facilitated the sale of nearly 28 metric tons of vegetables, with another 57 metric tons scheduled for delivery to various markets across the Philippines.

During the inspection, the president oversaw the distribution of P15.4 million in production inputs, machinery, and trading capital to 45 farmer cooperatives and associations.

The assistance is a portion of a larger P859.6 million allocation for the Cordillera Administrative Region in 2026.

This broader funding package is designed to provide seeds, fertilizers, irrigation support, and post-harvest equipment to more than 1,300 agricultural groups and 3,700 individuals.

Despite these measures, the agricultural sector continues to face significant headwinds.

Fertilizer prices have spiked, and inter-island shipping costs have increased by as much as P10 per kilogram, with the increase leading to a noticeable decline in the presence of wholesale buyers, slowing down trading activity at the La Trinidad facility.

Laurel noted that the productivity of Benguet farmers remains essential to the national food system, supplying everyone from wet market consumers to large-scale institutional buyers and restaurants. He stated that sustaining market access for these highland producers is a top government priority because any disruption in the Cordilleras is felt throughout the entire national supply chain.

Moving forward, government officials said that continued investments in the trading center’s infrastructure and more efficient market matching systems will be the primary strategy for stabilizing food supplies and protecting farmer incomes against volatile global energy prices. NLMonitor

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Nathan Belandrez, 17, led the Baguio Jungolf Association squad with 30 points, while 10-year-old Marco Angheng contributed 26 while Basti Saycon, 16, and William Sulit, 15, added 24 and 18 points, respectively, for the only junior squad competing under the “four-to-play, four-to-count” format.

Action in the charity tournament, the largest in Northern Luzon, shifts to John Hay Golf Club for the second and third rounds this weekend.

George Punasen of Greenwater captured individual honors for the day with 37 points, propelling his team to the top of the regular men’s A standings with 117 points.

Punasen was supported by Douglas Puckett’s 28 points, Garry Puckett’s 27 and Sonny Fontilea’s 25. Davao Eagle Masters III sat in second place with 109 points following performances by Christopher Tan, Regino Capa, Roderick Lo and Larry Baluso.

In the inaugural ladies division, Baguio Olympics 2 and Igolfers USA Team 13 are tied for the lead with 106 points each.

The Baguio Olympics 2 roster features Glaissa Del Rosario, Dina Eden, Jolannie Sacyat and Myles Bazar, while the Igolfers USA squad includes Marceline Bangonan, Vivian Gomeyac, Gloria Moguet and Kim Telles.

Golden Razcals dominated the Seniors A division with 167 points, led by Elias Bulut Jr., Bernard Capuyan, Kit Moreno and Swanny Mangaoang. In Seniors B, Team Pugo Adventure set the pace with 170 points behind the efforts of Eugene Martin, Cesar Pasiwen, Willy Cayat and Robert Basco.

The tournament continues through April 18, with nearly 400 players from 94 domestic and international teams competing for titles across two courses. CGFI Release

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President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. previously announced that the Department of Agriculture, in partnership with local government units, will buy surplus harvests to prevent waste and mitigate financial losses for agricultural workers.

“I am thankful if the President fulfills his word because the farmers are truly suffering,” farmer Arisa Dulinen told the PIA in Filipino.

While farmers welcomed the intervention, some urged the government to pick up produce directly from the farms to offset the “crippling” cost of transportation.

“If they could buy the vegetables directly from the provinces, it would help,” said farmer Hazel Basquial. “Even if we bring the vegetables to the market, if the buying price is low, everything just goes to fuel costs. There is no profit left to cover our expenses.”

Jaren Butag, another local farmer, noted that many in the industry have faced bankruptcy during the current crisis. He said some farmers have even opted to leave crops unharvested because the cost of gasoline exceeds the potential return on investment.

The Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) has ramped up marketing assistance in response to these challenges.

DA-CAR Regional Director Jennilyn Dawayan said the agency is coordinating with LGUs and farmers’ cooperatives that have been equipped with government-provided trucks. These vehicles, along with three trucks owned by the DA-CAR, are being used to transport produce to various markets.

Dawayan added that the agency is actively linking farmers with institutional buyers to ensure a guaranteed market before the crops leave the farm.

“We have coordinated with municipal agriculture offices to identify produce at risk of being wasted,” Dawayan said. “We look for partners who can buy in bulk because we don’t want farmers to transport their goods here without a certain buyer.”

The DA-CAR is also calling on private companies in need of steady vegetable supplies to coordinate with their office to establish direct links with Benguet farmers. NLMonitor with a report from PIA-CAR

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The White House said any further talks would likely take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, though no decision had been made on whether to resume negotiations.

The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports continued as the Trump administration warned it would ramp up economic pain on Iran with new economic sanctions on countries doing business with it, calling the move the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.

Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator after it hosted direct talks between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad that authorities said helped narrow differences between the two sides. Mediators are seeking a new round before the ceasefire expires next week.

Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire agreement, regional officials reported progress, telling The Associated Press the United States and Iran had an “in principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, took part in a preliminary meeting with Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Iranian state media reported. It said talks would continue Thursday.

But even as mediators worked for peace, tensions simmered.

The commander of Iran’s joint military command, Ali Abdollahi, threatened to halt trade in the region if the U.S. does not lift its naval blockade.

And a newly-appointed military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he doesn’t support extending the ceasefire.

Iranian state media quoted Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as saying: “Unlike the Americans who are afraid of continuous war, we are fully prepared and familiar with a long war.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the White House has warned countries and private companies they could face sanctions for doing business with Tehran.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. had not “formally requested an extension of the ceasefire” with Iran, which is set to expire Tuesday.

“At this moment, we remain very much engaged in these negotiations, in these talks,” Leavitt said, adding that any further in-person talks “would very likely” return to Islamabad.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points that derailed direct talks last weekend — Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran is open to discussing the type and level of its uranium enrichment, but his country “based on its needs, must be able to continue enrichment,” Iranian state media reported.

The negotiating team led by Vice President JD Vance urged Iran to agree to a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment as part of a potential deal to end the war, according to the regional official and a person briefed on the matter.

The Iranians countered with an offer to suspend enrichment for five years, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the negotiations.

The White House rejected that. The dueling proposals were first reported by The New York Times.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Meanwhile, Israel pressed ahead with its aerial and ground war in Lebanon. The country’s National News Agency reported airstrikes and artillery shelling throughout southern Lebanon on Wednesday, including near Bint Jbeil, where Israeli forces have encircled Hezbollah fighters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops were about to “eliminate this great stronghold of Hezbollah” and would continue expanding control of areas in southern Lebanon.

The fighting continued after Israeli and Lebanese officials concluded their first direct talks in decades. Netanyahu said negotiations are continuing, with disarming Hezbollah a key goal.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Israel struck three teams of paramedics Wednesday in southern Lebanon, first hitting one team and then two more that rushed to help. The attacks killed three paramedics and wounded six others, the ministry said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel. AP

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But the weight of that phrase truly sunk in at the O’Smach Resort complex that we visited on Tuesday. Thailand’s military, which conducted a tour for the media, said that the whole area encompasses around 197 acres (80 hectares), equivalent to 150 American football fields.

It wasn’t my first time at a scam center, but its scale dwarfed anything I had seen before.

From my base in the region, I have followed this issue for the past few years, watching its scale only grow larger and larger.

Scam compounds have mushroomed across Southeast Asia since the pandemic. Inside these industrial-scale complexes, workers attempt to lure unsuspecting targets from countries all across the world in sophisticated online-based scams. The latest estimates from the U.N. office on Human Rights are that around 300,000 workers are caught up in the industry regionally.

Thailand’s military invited journalists back to the huge scam complex it seized in December during its border conflict with Cambodia. The military said it took the area in response to the Cambodian side using it as a base of operations for launching attacks.

The complex was called the O’Smach Resort, owned by Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat, who faces U.S. sanctions for rights abuses in the very same complex. It’s unclear, however, whether the new construction also belongs to Ly. Throughout the massive grounds of the self-contained town, there were signs of construction. Piles of bricks and construction cranes sat waiting for workers to finish the job.

The military also took us to the premises where workers likely scammed Americans. FBI data released on Tuesday shows that Americans lost near $21 billion to scams in 2025 alone.

On the desks inside a four-story office building were still snacks from the previous users, as well as scripts and notes in Chinese on each aspect of the scam. American SIM cards were scattered about as well.

There was an elaborate backstory to target the Americans. One of the scripts on the desk was 24 pages of an in-depth character sketch of a woman named Mila who had earned a lot of money on the gold options trading market.

But the script went further. Mila had lost her husband to leukemia when their daughter was just a baby. It constructed memories of her childhood, such as her getting bullied by other girls, and then her parents sending her to South Africa to live with her uncle in order to be in a healthier environment.

There are 157 buildings, 29 of which housed the scam companies and their offices. The rest included massive dorm complexes, and more luxurious accommodations that included apartments and three-story villas. The military officials said they estimated that at least 10,000 people were living there.

There was also a variety of Chinese restaurants, catering to people who wanted spicy Hunan cuisine, or southern Shaxian cuisine, or hot and sour rice noodles, a Sichuanese classic.

While Thailand and Cambodia have vowed to tackle the scamming problem, its scale is far more global.

“Every country of the world has to join together to solve this problem, (we) cannot do it alone with Cambodia and Thailand,” said Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornchaidee, who was one of the officials leading the tour. AP

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a second round of talks could happen “over the next two days,” telling the New York Post the negotiations could be held again in Islamabad as diplomats worked through back channels to arrange them.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres concurred, saying it’s “highly probable” that talks will restart. He cited a meeting he had with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

Oil prices fell on hopes for an end to fighting, and in the U.S. stocks surged close to records set in January. The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region.

Meanwhile in Washington, the first direct talks in decades between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. concluded on a productive note Tuesday, according to the U.S. State Department.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said the two countries are “on the same side of the equation” in “liberating Lebanon” from the militant Hezbollah group. Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad called the meeting “constructive” but urged an end to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Since March, that war has displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel.

First round of talks with Iran failed to end conflict

Last weekend in Pakistan, an initial round of talks aimed at permanently ending the U.S.-Iran conflict failed to produce an agreement. The White House said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a central sticking point.

“I think they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said in an excerpt from an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” scheduled to air Wednesday morning. He added: “I view it as very close to over.”

A U.S. official said Tuesday that fresh talks with Iran were still under discussion and that nothing has been scheduled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s finance minister, told The Associated Press that “our leadership is not giving up” on efforts to help the U.S. and Iran end the conflict.

Though the ceasefire appeared to hold, the showdown over the strategic Strait of Hormuz risked reigniting hostilities and deepening the regional war’s economic fallout.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Tankers turned around after blockade took effect

U.S. Central Command said Tuesday no ships made it past the blockade in the first 24 hours, while six merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and reenter Iranian waters.

The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began Feb. 28. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash that’s been vital to keeping Iran running.

Tankers approaching the strait Monday turned around shortly after the blockade took effect, though one reversed course again and transited the waterway.

Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels avoiding the waterway. Tehran’s effective closure of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East. AP

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This after the ceremonial tee off today, which signaled the formal start of the tournament, was graced by local leaders and officers of the CGFI at JHGC’s Hole 15.

Participants will vie for top honors in both team and individual categories across the regular, seniors, and ladies divisions, in what is now considered one of the biggest amateur tournaments in Northern Luzon.

Around 51 teams are lined up for the men regular A, B, C and D titles while 38 seniors team will vie for the class A, B, C, and D titles.

This year saw the inclusion of the ladies division with five teams, including one from the United States, are vying for titles.

Adding excitement to this year’s edition is the participation of junior golfers, with the youngest entrant aged 10, alongside lady golfers from both the Cordillera region and the United States.

Several entries are also seasoned competitors from the prestigious Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament, widely regarded as the longest-running and largest amateur golf tournament in the Asia-Pacific region.

Beyond competition, the annual tournament continues to gain strong support from partners and sponsors due to its sustained outreach initiatives funded through tournament proceeds.

Since its inaugural staging in 2023, CGFI has funded the construction of school buildings in remote Cordillera communities and donated internet connectivity devices, laptops, and other educational equipment to public schools.

This year, CGFI further expanded its impact by donating four hemodialysis machines to key public hospitals, including facilities in Bontoc, Kalinga, Apayao, and Benguet.

The hemodialysis machines donated for the Dennis Molintas District Hospital in Bokod, Benguet and Bontoc General Hospital in Mountain Province are already operational.

The machines for Flora District Hospital in Apayao and Kalinga Provincial Hospital are up for instillation this week.

Additional medical equipment has also been distributed to selected rural health clinics, along with wheelchairs and basic healthcare tools for 10 rural health units in Abra. Press Release

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Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) personnel apprehended the suspect, a resident of Itogon, shortly after the explosion occurred.

The blast was reported early Monday after a witness alerted a police fixed visibility point at Upper Magsaysay.

Preliminary investigations indicate the suspect was intoxicated and had allegedly committed acts of lascivious conduct against the shop’s caretaker earlier in the day.

After being mauled by bystanders in response to his actions, the suspect reportedly returned to the establishment and threw a plastic container filled with black powder, triggering the explosion.

“This incident highlights the critical role of prompt police action and community cooperation in maintaining public safety,” said P/Col Ruel Tagel, BCPO city director.

At least ten individuals are still being treated at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, where nine remain under observation while four individuals were treated and discharged from Pines City Doctors Hospital.

Responding units secured the scene and coordinated with specialized forensic teams to process the evidence. The suspect remains in police custody and faces multiple criminal charges, including frustrated murder and illegal possession of explosives.

The BCPO continues to investigate the origin of the explosive materials. NLMonitor

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The tournament, which runs through April 25, has become a proving ground for regional teams like Baguio City, Benguet and even Tarlac City, where coaches and parents are navigating financial and physical hurdles to give their players a shot at a national title.

At least five squads from Baguio, and another from Benguet will test the mettle of some 170 teams from across the archipelago.

Coach Rafael Lapena said Baguio City is also fielding a massive delegation, sending championship-caliber teams from Mabini Elementary School, Dona Aurora National Elementary School, and Baguio City National High School.

“This our way of supporting grassroots of baseball and softball in Baguio,” said Lapena, who also thanked Baguio Councilor Vladimir Cayabas for providing financial assistance to the group.

Lapena said despite the prestige of the event, the road to the championships remains a grassroots struggle.

While the Baguio city government covered the P20,000 registration fee, the burden of uniforms, meals and the eight-hour transport from the mountains to the northern plains fell on the parents.

But even with the meager support, Lapena remains upbeat of their chances as they seek a podium finish in this year’s edition.

“The team is intact, they are well prepared. Ready for battle,” summed Lapena.

A first timer in the Philippine series, Tarlac is also hoping to make a decent finish.

The team was in La Trinidad last week for a skirmish with Baguio and Benguet squads.

Coach Dennis Pimentel, the journey to the Under-16 division represents a milestone for the local program, describing the opportunity to represent the city in this category as a dream come true, following an intensive recruitment process that integrated the best players from across the province to form a 16-player roster.

Pimentel added the trip was designed to build team cohesion and ensure the children would not be intimidated by the scale of the national tournament and fine tune their ball contact and defensive fielding as they eye a potential podium finish in the tournament. Roderick Osis

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