Context.ph

Tourist arrivals in the Philippines surged by 14 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year, reaching 2.56 million, despite a double-digit decline in the arrivals of Filipinos living overseas, based on data from the Department of Tourism.

Megaworld Corp., the listed property development company of billionaire Andrew Tan, said it will use the  P973 million proceeds from the sale of 79.7 million common shares of MREIT Inc., its listed real estate investment trust, for further development in four township projects in Luzon and the Visayas.The funds raised from the sale of MREIT Inc. shares, priced at P12.30 per share, will be directed towards the development of Megaworld’s Northwin Global City in Bulacan, ArcoVia City in Pasig City, The Mactan Newtown in Cebu, and the Bacolod Projects in Bacolod City.

Filinvest Development Corp. said its hospitality arm, Filinvest Hospitality Corp., is upgrading its various hotel operations as well as its food and beverage concepts as it seeks to get a bigger pie of the steadily expanding travel and tourism industry.

DoubleDragon Corp. said its board has given the go signal for a retail bond issue that will raise up to P10 billion for various projects of the listed property developer. Local credit rating agency Philippine Rating Services Corp., has rated DoubleDragon’s retail bonds with an issue credit rating of PRS Aaa, reaffirming its robust creditworthiness.

The National Food Authority (NFA) has purchased 3.32 million 50-kilo bags of palay as of 5 June this year of which over 3.17 million bags were purchased from rice farmers the past six weeks.