# The Philippine STAR

> The Philippine STAR is a news source in the TOLD catalogue, based in Philippines. TOLD classifies its editorial position as **Balanced**.

- **Domain:** philstar.com
- **Website:** https://www.philstar.com
- **Country:** Philippines
- **Region:** Asia
- **Language:** English
- **Editorial position on TOLD:** Balanced
- **Founded:** 28 July 1986

## About

On the Philippine STAR's leader page the target is usually the same: money that went into flood control and never came out. The paper that audits public spending every morning is majority-owned through a telecoms pension fund whose chairman it never names, and prints a power company's spokesman as a business columnist. Below it sit fifty staff bylines a day, a hawkish West Philippine Sea line, and an impeachment covered procedurally from both sides.

## Profile

- **Ownership:** PhilSTAR Daily, Inc. publishes the newspaper and Philstar Global Corp. the website. Hastings Holdings holds 50.998 percent of the print publisher and about 75 percent of the website directly and indirectly; Hastings is a subsidiary of MediaQuest Holdings, owned by the beneficial trust fund of the country's largest telecoms company and chaired by Manuel V. Pangilinan. The founding Belmonte family holds 20 percent and runs the company; Miguel G. Belmonte is president and chief executive and Ana Marie Pamintuan has been editor-in-chief since 2012.
- **Funding:** Advertising, print circulation, a labelled branded-content vertical and voluntary reader contributions; the website is free with no paywall. The publisher's last disclosed revenue figure is about 578 million pesos.
- **Focus areas:** National politics and governance, courts and the vice-presidential impeachment, business and markets, the West Philippine Sea and foreign affairs, plus a daily unsigned editorial and a large signed columnist bench.


## What the position means

TOLD classifies what an outlet publishes over time, based on ownership, funding
and focus. It describes a pattern; it is not a rating of quality and not a
ranking. Nothing in TOLD sorts, hides or promotes a source by its position.
State-aligned and partisan outlets are in the catalogue on purpose, labelled.

## Latest headlines

Read from this source's RSS feed. Follow the link to the newsroom that published it.

- [WATCH: Pampanga flooding causes NLEX traffic buildup](https://www.philstar.com/nation/2026/08/31/2553116/watch-pampanga-flooding-causes-nlex-traffic-buildup) — 2026-08-31T11:07:00.000Z
- [Palace orders alternative work, classes in 15 Luzon provinces on Sept. 1](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/08/31/2553103/palace-orders-alternative-work-classes-15-luzon-provinces-sept-1) — 2026-08-31T10:45:00.000Z
- [Cyclones, habagat toll climbs to 33 dead, 8.8 million affected](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/08/31/2553092/cyclones-habagat-toll-climbs-33-dead-88-million-affected) — 2026-08-31T10:15:00.000Z
- [Knee-deep in prayer: Despite floods, churchgoers still attend Mass at Barasoain](https://www.philstar.com/nation/2026/08/31/2553095/knee-deep-prayer-despite-floods-churchgoers-still-attend-mass-barasoain) — 2026-08-31T09:56:00.000Z
- [Lacson: P3.713B may have been wasted on Taguig reclamation projects](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/08/31/2553083/lacson-p3713b-may-have-been-wasted-taguig-reclamation-projects) — 2026-08-31T09:01:00.000Z
- [Prosecution braces for Poa's defense as possible hostile witness](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/08/31/2553085/prosecution-braces-poas-defense-possible-hostile-witness) — 2026-08-31T08:18:00.000Z
- [Hundreds march through Bulacan floods in protest vs corruption](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/08/31/2553081/hundreds-march-through-bulacan-floods-protest-vs-corruption) — 2026-08-31T07:59:00.000Z
- [Oil price rollback set in first week of September](https://www.philstar.com/business/2026/08/31/2553079/oil-price-rollback-set-first-week-september) — 2026-08-31T07:03:00.000Z

## Assessment note

Latest assessment: 2026-08-19. Generated with TOLD Source Prompt Brief v1.2.7. TOLD summarizes framing patterns and third-party classifications; it does not assess factual accuracy, intent, or legitimacy. External classifications: 11 (5 themes).

Corrections: report@told.news

## This source on TOLD

- Profile page: https://told.news/news-sources/philstar.com
- Full catalogue: https://told.news/md/news-sources

## Other pages

- [How TOLD works](https://told.news/docs) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/docs)
- [Front page](https://told.news/) — [markdown](https://told.news/md)
- [News sources](https://told.news/news-sources) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/news-sources)
- [About](https://told.news/about) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/about)
- [AI transparency](https://told.news/ai) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/ai)
- [Cookies and data](https://told.news/cookies) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/cookies)
- [Agent overview](https://told.news/llms.txt) and [full reference incl. the whole source catalogue](https://told.news/llms-full.txt)
- [AGENTS.md](https://told.news/AGENTS.md) — how to read told.news programmatically
- [Sitemap](https://told.news/sitemap.xml)

Every page on told.news answers with markdown when the request carries
`Accept: text/markdown`.

---

TOLD news is operated by Gaerhenäs, Sweden. Contact: report@told.news