TACLOBAN CITY — Eastern Visayas posted a sharp decline in the value of external trade in October 2025, even as the region shipped more goods by volume compared to the same month last year.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority(PSA), the total value of trade in the region fell to USD 37.70 million in October 2025 from USD 475.19 million in October 2024, marking an annual decrease of 92.1 percent.
The region’s balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) turned positive, registering a USD 9.90 million surplus in October 2025, a significant turnaround from the USD 39.46 million deficit recorded in October 2024.
The total value of exports plunged 89.1 percent, from USD 217.87 million in October 2024 to USD 23.80 million in October 2025, while imports also fell 94.6 percent, from USD 257.32 million to USD 13.90 million.
Despite the drop in monetary value, the volume of exports surged, reaching 617.25 million kilograms, more than doubling the 239.14 million kilograms exported in October 2024.
The leading export commodity was animal, vegetable, or microbial fats and oils, including edible fats and waxes, which were shipped mainly to Spain. These exports totaled USD 14.18 million, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the region’s total export value.
On the import side, Eastern Visayas brought in 75.98 million kilograms of goods in October 2025, a 66.9 percent decrease from the 229.56 million kilograms imported in the same month last year. Mineral fuels and oils topped the list of imports with a value of USD 11.52 million, representing 82.9 percent of total import value. South Korea was the largest supplier, providing USD 5.67 million worth of goods, or 40.8 percent of total imports.
Analysts note that while the region is exporting more in terms of volume, the sharp decline in trade value points to lower-priced commodities dominating shipments and fluctuations in global market prices.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
Like Christ, we have to be the world’s salt and light
IF we want to be like Christ, we need to be the world’s salt and light. This, in fact, Christ said so very clearly in the gospel of St. Matthew (5,13-16). We have to seriously figure out how we can conform ourselves to what Christ wants us to be. We know that salt somehow gives a certain flavor to our food as well as helps in preserving highly perishable fool items. Light, of course, enables us to see things clearly.
We can readily conclude that what Christ wants is for us to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving as well as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so exposed to a lot of confusing changes, many of them with their luggage of dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits.
We also are meant to give light to the others by giving good example and by actively doing apostolate, leading people to God along the right if prudent, tortuous and treacherous paths of this world. With rectitude of intention, we have to inspire others to follow us so that with us they can come to Christ.
Let’s be like St. Paul who, with rectitude of intention, said: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11,1) These words are a corollary to what Christ said about us being light of the world: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5,16)
Let’s try our best that we too can echo another of St. Paul’s words: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) This is the ideal to aim at, because Christ himself said, “I am the light of the world…the man who follows me will have the light of life.” (Jn 8,12)
Let’s remember that since we are not only individual persons but also social beings, always having some relation with others, we cannot avoid having this duty. We are not meant to be alone, indifferent and detached from others, and especially from God. We are meant to live in communion with others and pumping goodness always to the system, so to speak.
We therefore should not be afraid to be in the limelight. In fact, we have to foster a holy desire to be there. Our understanding of humility and that delicadeza of passing unnoticed should not exclude this need for us to give good example and be models of virtues for everyone to see and to hopefully be edified, especially in a world that is increasingly sinking in darkness and confusion.
Obviously, we have to do it properly and with the right intention. And that’s because we also know very well of our warped desire to be in the limelight for the wrong reasons. We have the tendency to show off our vanity and frivolity, and to act out our pride, greed, envy, etc. Instead of sowing good things, we can be spreading our unfortunate motives to others.
Perhaps what can be helpful here is for us to regularly bring this topic to our prayer so we can come up with relevant daily strategies in the presence of God and with the right intention. We can also make a regular review of how we are faring in this aspect by considering it in our daily examination of conscience. That way we can hopefully keep the right intention as we give ourselves as an example to the others.