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Food & Beverage

Daily intelligence on the Food & Beverage beat

Sunday, November 8, 2026

Issue #137

PBA Semis Berths and a Jobs Warning Lead the Day

Converge reaches its first PBA semifinal and San Miguel forces a Game 5, while a Philippine Statistics Authority report puts September unemployment at 5.4 percent. Cebu hog raisers press for help as farmgate and retail pork prices diverge.

By the MMI Food & Beverage Desk

PBA Semis Berths and a Jobs Warning Lead the Day

Converge's 120-109 win over Rain or Shine on Friday night sent the FiberXers into the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) semifinals for the first time since the franchise joined the league in Season 47, and the celebration spilled from the Smart Araneta Coliseum floor into the hallway where ejected forward Calvin Abueva waved a white towel and shouted "Bora!" at the eliminated Elasto Painters. The same evening, San Miguel Beer erased a 17-point deficit to beat Barangay Ginebra 108-102 and force a deciding Game 5 in their best-of-five quarterfinal series, a result that produced two of the day's most-read sports stories: Chris Ross crediting a halftime exchange with Ginebra assistant coach Olsen Racela for his second-half outburst, and Tim Cone blaming a late foul call for ending his team's comeback.

Those two games generated the bulk of the day's sports coverage in the items reviewed here, and they arrived with the usual apparatus of Philippine basketball: postgame interviews in mixed Filipino and English, a coach's complaint about officiating, and a columnist inviting readers to judge the replay themselves. The PBA is the country's premier professional basketball league, and its Governors Cup is the season-ending conference; the quarterfinals are best-of-five, so a series tied at 2-2 goes to a single winner-take-all game. Both outcomes matter beyond the box score. Converge and NLEX, the two teams that will meet in one semifinal starting December 4, have never won a PBA championship, and NLEX has never reached the finals since entering the league in Season 40.

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More Food & Beverage

San Miguel Forces Game 5 as Converge Reaches First Semis

San Miguel Beer erased a 17-point deficit behind Chris Ross and George King to level its PBA Governors Cup quarterfinal against Barangay Ginebra at 2-2, while Converge reached the semifinals for the first time since taking over the Alaska franchise.

Inflation Hits 7.8% as Transport Costs Drive Prices

Philippine inflation climbed to 7.8 percent in October, the highest since November 2022, with transport costs contributing nearly two-thirds of the increase. The reading drew coverage across broadsheets, tabloids, and online outlets, and prompted renewed calls for tax relief.

SMFB Profit Falls 9% as Petron, MSMEs Face Cost Pressure

San Miguel Food and Beverage reported a 9% drop in nine-month net income to P30.6 billion as costs rose and consumers spent less, while Petron's earnings nearly halved and a new PSA figure put the digital economy at 9.8% of output.

San Miguel Stays Alive as Converge Nears First Semis

San Miguel avoided a sweep against Ginebra in the PBA Governors' Cup quarterfinals while Converge moved within a game of its first semifinal appearance. The day's business pages carried Petron's 44% profit drop, the first waste-to-energy auction results, and a Palace pledge to hold basic goods prices through December.