The Philippines, through the Department of Agriculture (DA), will host the 47th Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) and related events from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, 2025, in Pasay City.
One of ASEAN’s five founding members, the Philippines last hosted AMAF in September 2015 in Makati City.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. will chair the high-level sessions, which will tackle regional cooperation in food, agriculture and forestry.
“We anticipate a meaningful and productive gathering, particularly as AMAF works to craft a new roadmap that will shape agricultural and forestry policies across the region for the next decade,” Tiu Laurel said.
“This effort aligns with ASEAN’s broader vision of becoming a single market and production base,” he said.
The Philippines will preside over several major sessions, including the 47th AMAF meeting, the 25th AMAF Plus Three meeting (with China, Japan and South Korea) and the second ASEAN-Japan Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry Meeting (AJMAF).
Recognized as ASEAN’s highest decision-making body on agriculture and forestry, AMAF brings together agriculture ministers and senior officials from all 10 member-states: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Ministers from China, Japan and South Korea will also join the Plus Three sessions. Timor-Leste, which was accepted “in principle” as an ASEAN member in 2022, is expected to participate, alongside dialogue partners and international stakeholders.
The agenda will cover timely regional concerns, including food security, expanding intra- and extra-ASEAN trade in agriculture and forestry products, and advancing technology generation and transfer to boost productivity and agribusiness development.
AMAF also intends to keep supporting rural community development and human resource capacity-building, encouraging private sector involvement and investment, promoting sustainable natural resource management and conservation, and reinforcing ASEAN’s cooperation and unified response to regional and global challenges.
The meetings will also address the impacts of climate change on Southeast Asian agriculture, highlighting the region’s collective commitment to resilience and sustainability.
Consumer credit perception in the Philippines remained broadly stable in 2025, with Filipinos expressing increased trust in credit products, although concerns over high interest rates and digital fraud continue to hold back active usage, a new survey showed.
The country scored 73 out of 100 in TransUnion Philippines’ 2025 Credit Perception Index (CPI), one point lower than the previous year, but marked a notable six-point increase in credit product trust.
The study also found that credit messaging receptivity—the likelihood of using credit after learning about its potential benefits—significantly declined by nine points. High interest rates and fears of scams and fraud were cited as the most persistent deterrents to credit adoption among surveyed Filipinos.
Michelle Chan, country manager of Advance Credit Bureau Philippines (Advance CBP) and ADVANCE.AI Philippines, said digital fraud fears were a “lived reality” that shapes how Filipinos engage with the financial system.
“When trust is fragile, people would hesitate to use formal credit channels and often risk falling back to informal lenders,” Chan said in an emailed statement to the Manila Standard. These lenders often provide quick access to credit but “usually come with unfair terms or long-term consequences that can trap families in cycles of debt,” she said. Thony Rose Lesaca
