BusinessMirror August 06, 2024

FAVOR KEEPING

By Cai U. Ordinario

E@caiordinario

ASING

inflation may be enough reason for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to consider a “less restrictive monetary policy stance.”

In a presentation at the House of Representatives on Monday, BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr. said, however, that given current inflation conditions, it was prudent to keep policy rates steady.

In its latest month-ahead inflation forecast, the BSP said inflation may settle from a low of 4 percent to as high as 4.8 percent in July 2024. (See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2024/08/01/bsp-inflationlikely-beyond-july-target/).

“Evolving inflation conditions show that the BSP can hold its policy settings steady for the time being. If price pressures continue to ease, it will be possible for the BSP to consider a less restrictive monetary policy stance,” Remolona said.

“Nonetheless, lingering supply concerns, geopolitical risks warrant continued and close monitoring of risks to the inflation outlook,” he added.

Remolona stressed the importance of non-monetary measures in efforts to cool down inflation. One of these measures is the reduction of rice tariffs under Executive Order 62.

He noted there is a “strong push” to enhance the supply of “high-quality seeds, farm and fishery gear and equipment, and other policies that address supply issues.”

Overall, Remolona said headline inflation is expected to remain within the target range of between 2 and 4 percent for both 2024 and 2025.

PCCI: TIRADE VS. LOTILLA CREATES UNCERTAINTY

By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry

(PCCI) has expressed concern over allegations hurled against Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla in relation to the moratorium on coal-fired power generating facility project, saying this could create “air of uncertainty” in attracting investments.

“We are concerned at the damage the allegations against Secretary Lotilla could cause the DOE and the whole industry. We are competing against other countries in the region in enticing foreign direct investments to come to our shores, let us not create an air

of uncertainty that could dissuade these investments,” PCCI said in a statement of support for Lotilla, issued on Monday.

The business group said this after “cause-oriented” groups filed complaints against the Energy Secretary on the alleged violation of the moratorium on coal-fired power generating facility project.

“We recognize the excellent work that Secretary Lotilla is doing. We support the directions he is taking to achieve energy security and affordability for the country, the two key components to bring in investments, expand domestic enterprises and enhance our productivity and competitiveness,” PCCI said.

The business group emphasized

that, “This is not the time to unnecessarily distract the DOE from its work with misunderstandings of policies and misguided priorities.”

PCCI explained that the policy on the moratorium on coal-fired power projects is “quite clear”— it applies to greenfield power generation facility projects.

“Existing and operational coal-fired power generation facilities, coal-fired power projects classified as committed, existing power plant complexes with firm expansion plans, and projects with significant progress such as signed agreements are NOT affected by the moratorium,” added the business group.

BSP: INFLATION TRENDS

BRUSHSTROKES OF HOPE Two ICCT Cainta Criminology students appreciate the vibrant murals created by various Rizal local government units from Antipolo to Teresa, outside the walls of the Rizal Police Provincial Office Headquarters in Hilltop Tikling, Taytay, Rizal. These murals, depicting “Kabataan Pangarap sa Komunidad,” showcase the community’s vision and aspirations for the youth. BERNARD TESTA

GOLDEN YULO PAVES WAY

PINOY TRIO

Villegas, EJ Obiena and Nesthy Petecio are next to toe the Olympic line after compatriot Carlos Yulo made history as the Philippines’s first double Olympic gold medalist by reigning supreme in the men’s

gymnastic vault final at the Paris Games.

also won gold in the floor exercise earlier.

Çakıroğlu in

semifinals on Thursday. Petecio,

earned

at the Tokyo Games, advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 57kg division by defeating China’s Xu Zichun and will contend for a spot in the gold medal match against Poland’s Julia Szeremeta on Wednesday, August 7.

Obiena, a decorated pole vaulter, competes in the men’s pole vault finals early Tuesday at the Stade de France. AP

NG to gain P54B from rice tariffs in H1, says DOF chief

By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

THE national government stands to gain P53.9 billion in the second half of 2024 to 2026 despite the reduction of rice tariff rates, according to the Department of

Finance.

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said at the budget hearing on the proposed 2025 national budget on Monday that the government will still collect P8.1 billion from July to December 2025 from rice tariffs.

To recall, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board led by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., approved the tariff reduction for rice to 15 percent from 35 percent as part of the Comprehensive Target Program (CTP) for 2024 until 2028.

Continued from A

target of 3 to 4 percent and below the global average of 5.9 percent and 8.3 percent for developing economies per the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“With favorable conditions, we are on course to become an uppermiddle-income country by 2025. Ibig sabihin nito, makakaasa tayong mas tataas ang kabuuang kita ng bawat Pilipino. [This means, we are assured that the income of every Filipino will increase],” Recto said.

The Finance chief said if 10 million more Filipinos will be elevated above the poverty line in the next four years, the government’s target of reducing the poverty rate to a single digit, or 9 percent, by 2028 will be achieved as well.

This, after the DOF was asked by House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas on the expected revenues from rice tariffs, and if the Filipino farmers have already received their cash allowances from rice tariff collections.

Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said 100 percent

This would bring down rice prices by P6.00 to P7.00, to slash the price of rice per kilo to P29 at least for the poor. Broken down, the government will generate P20.3 billion in 2025 and P25.5 billion in 2026 from the collection of rice tariffs. However, the state will lose a total of P49.9 billion in foregone revenues due to the reduction of rice tariffs. If the EO were not implemented, a total of P103.7 billion could have been collected from rice tariffs.

of the excess cash assistance from 2022 allotted to farmers, amounting to P12.795 billion, has already been disbursed. About P12.090 billion went to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund’s (RCEF) Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) pro-

gram while P704.009 million was used for the implementation of the Palayamanan Plus or the crop diversification program.

For 2023, Recto said P29.9 billion in rice tariffs was collected in 2023, of which the mandatory P10 billion went to the RFFA program, leaving

BSP…

an excess of P19.9 billion. Under Republic Act 11598 or the Cash Assistance to Filipino Farmers Act of 2021, rice tariff collections in excess of P10 billion would go to the RFFA program. Rice farmers tilling two hectares and below will receive P5,000.

Continued from A

This estimate is based on the assumption that the price of Dubai crude oil will be within $65 to $85 per barrel based on Dubai crude oil futures prices.

It also takes into consideration exchange rate projections, for the peso to be within P55 and P58 against the US dollar this year.

On Monday, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) showed the peso closed at P57.9 to the greenback from the P58.08 close on August 2, Friday.

This, based on BAP data, marked the strongest level of the peso since May 28 this year when it closed at P57.97 to the US dollar.

Meanwhile, Remolona said, the country has sufficient international reserves to respond to external shocks. The country’s reserves averaged $101 billion in the last five years.

For this year, the BSP Governor said the country’s reserves are expected to reach $104 billion. The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) settled at $104.70 billion as of end-June 2024 from the end-May 2024 level of $105.02 billion.

The biggest inflows that will boost the country’s GIR are expected to come from the country’s remittances. The BSP earlier reported that cash remittances reached $2.88 billion in May this year. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2024/07/16/ amid-weak-peso-ofw-remittancesat-2-88-billion/).

“These reserves are more than ample to defend the country against external shocks. Having presented the macroeconomic backdrop, here are the assumptions behind the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2025,” Remolona said.

Remolona earlier hinted at the possibility of an anticipated reduction in key policy rates in August. (See: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2024/08/02/despitehigh-inflation-bsp-could-cutrates/).

According to Remolona, a 50-basis-point (bps) reduction in interest rates is still on the table, with a possible 25-bps cut in the upcoming Monetary Board policy meeting on August 15 and another 25-bps reduction later in the year.

Continued from A

With this, PCCI said it is endorsing the “holistic” energy solution presented by the Department of Energy (DOE), where coal remains an “important” component for economic growth while waiting for clean, reliable, and affordable baseload technologies.

Hence, the business group said that while it supports the need to decarbonize, “we must do so in a careful manner without prejudicing the country’s economic progress.”

Given that the Philippines is “not a major carbon emitter” and is “not a wealthy” country, PCCI stressed that “a more pragmatic approach towards climate change needs to be emphasized, focusing our limited resources towards climate adaptation.”

“Let us avoid being distracted by western policies that may be appropriate for their country contexts but not ours,” the major business group said.

Meanwhile, with the recent onslaught of Typhoon Carina which PCCI pointed out “downed electricity poles resulting in power outages,” it noted that “insecurity of supply causes harm that can affect the lives of daily consumers and businesses and ultimately hinders our country’s resilience and march toward progress.”

“We need to prioritize energy security to keep factories open, to keep jobs and to ensure that families can continue to put food on the table. In light of increasingly inclement weather, we must also be mindful to invest in greater resilience of our energy systems, of which coal, gas and other technologies can provide us greater security against high winds and strong rains,” said PCCI.

“It is imperative that all sectors of business and our society should come together and work together behind this priority,” it also noted.

The latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) showed the unemployment rate in May 2024 decreased to 4.1 percent from 4.3 percent in the same month last year. However, this is the highest since the 4.5 percent posted in January 2024. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2024/07/08/ unemployment-in-phl-the-highest-in-four-months-psa/).

Underemployment rate also slowed to 9.9 percent in May, the lowest since 2005. The unemployment rate also went down to 4.1 percent.

A total of 48.9 million Filipinos are employed as of May, higher than the estimated 48.26 million employed persons in May 2023 and 48.36 million in April 2024.

Along with the employment figures, the Philippines’s gross national income (GNI) per capita reached $4,230 in 2023. GNI per capita measures the domestic and international earnings of each Filipino. A higher figure reflects economic prosperity and an increased standard of living.

The World Bank defines UMIC economies as those with GNI per capita ranging between US$4,516, or around P250,000, and US$14,005 (P770,000) for 2025.

“This is the be-all and end-all of all our efforts. As this is the definitive indicator that our growth has translated into real improvements in the lives of Filipinos through more and better jobs, higher levels of education, and healthier lives,” Recto said.

“Let us all together carefully choose projects in the budget that deliver the biggest growth and economic benefits for our people,” Recto said.

“Let us operate within the parameters of the Medium-Term Fiscal Program that reduces our deficit and debt gradually, creates jobs, increases income, and decreases poverty,” Recto added.

Continued from A

This means the purchasing power of the poorest Filipinos is only 0.7746 for every peso. This means, low income Pinoys need to spend P122.54 today for P100 worth of items in 2018.

“It also has negative implications on the purchasing power of households, especially those belonging to lower-income groups, who have a lesser capacity to weather high prices,” the brief stated. Earlier, based on estimates from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s Gross National Income (GNI) levels in 2023 was at P26.99 trillion.

With a population estimate based on the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH), the country’s per capita GNI at current local prices is at $4,335.60.

PSA Macroeconomic Accounts also said using the new population projections, the 6 percent GDP in 2024 will result in a per capita GNI at current local prices of $4,530.63.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan estimated that the country needs to post a GNI growth of 6.7 percent to attain its UMIC goals. Balisacan estimated that the country’s current GNI per capita at $4,230. This

House leaders tell government economic managers: Spend people’s money wisely

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

THE leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday called on the administration’s economic managers on Monday to ensure that every peso in the proposed P6.352 trillion 2025 national budget is wisely spent, as it also stressed the importance of passing a “realistic budget” that can be supported by revenues.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez emphasized that the 2025 national budget aims to sustain economic growth and ensure that its benefits reach all Filipinos.

“The direction of our budget for 2025 is clear. Ensure the continuous uplift and strengthening of the economy. Make sure that all Filipinos benefit from this progress. Strengthen good governance for the benefit of everyone,” Romualdez said during the first day of the budget hearing.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Bangko Sentral Governor Eli Remolona Jr. briefed House members on the President’s budget proposal for 2025.

Romualdez underscored that the national outlay is the best tool to ensure that all people, especially the poor, feel the tangible benefits of the country’s economic achievements. He questioned the value of economic progress if it does not benefit

ordinary Filipinos, stressing the importance of inclusive growth.

He said that by prioritizing programs that uplift the most vulnerable and provide essential services, the budget “serves as a bridge, connecting our economic successes with the daily lives of our people.”

Romualdez highlighted the budget’s role in bridging economic successes with the daily lives of Filipinos by prioritizing programs that uplift the most vulnerable and provide essential services. He reiterated the commitment to inclusivity and equity, ensuring that national progress is shared by all.

“The national budget is a critical tool for steering a country’s development path. It not only determines how resources are allocated but also sets the policy direction for economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability,” the House leader said.

He said on top of the spending priority list is education with an allocation of P977.6 billion, followed by public works with P900 billion, health with P297.6 billion, interior and local government with P278.4 billion, defense with P256.1 billion, social welfare with P230.1 billion, agriculture with P211.3 billion, transportation with P180.9 billion, judiciary with P63.6 billion, and justice with P40.6 billion.

He said it is critical for lawmakers “to exercise vigilance and guarantee

SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez

that the allocation is utilized in accordance with its intended purpose.”

“We must ensure that every peso is judiciously allocated and spent, and will go to programs that greatly benefit the Filipino people. Every peso should be tied to a program or project. Every peso must provide benefits to all Filipinos,” he said.

‘Realistic

budget’

THE House Committee on Appropriations chairman, Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, stressed the importance of a well-crafted budget in addressing the country’s pressing issues, from economic recovery to social equity and food security.

Co asked his colleagues in the House to carefully analyze the numbers presented by the government’s economic managers, who are part of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee, to ensure a “realistic budget” that could be supported by revenues.

“The proposed national budget is more than just a financial document. It

reflects our priorities, commitments, and vision for the future,” Co said.

With priority tax reform measures in place, the Department of Finance (DOF) is expected to generate P4.296 trillion in tax revenues in 2025, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Based on the 2025 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing, the DOF will collect a total of P3.788 trillion in 2025 from the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Customs (BOC).

This is higher by 13.38 percent from the P3.789 trillion in programmed revenues for 2024, which was also lowered by 0.82 percent, or P31 billion, from the P3.820 trillion set by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

Next year, the government’s outstanding debt is seen to balloon to a record-high P17.353 trillion, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The state will borrow P2.545 trillion in 2025 to finance the national government’s programs and projects, while shelling out P2.051 trillion to pay off its debts.

Moreover, Co said the 2025 budget could help more Filipinos hurdle the poverty threshold, especially after government action that brought down the rice tariff to 15 percent starting July 16 this year from 35 percent.

“It [the budget] outlines the gov-

Padilla asks SC to rule on Congress voting as constituent assembly

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM & Joel San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

SEN. Robinhood C. Padilla on Monday petitioned the Supreme Court to resolve a key issue in the 1987 Constitution—whether both houses of Congress should vote jointly or separately—in discussing amendments to the Charter. Padilla, who chairs the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, filed an instant petition seeking declaratory relief regarding Sections 1 and 3 of Article XVII of the Constitution.

The petition sought the High Court’s “authoritative declaration” on the following constitutional issues:

Whether or not the Senate and House of Representatives should jointly convene, as a constituent assembly when proposing amendments to, or revisions of, the Constitution under Sec. 1(1), Art. XVII of the Constitution; When voting jointly, should the requirement of 3/4 vote under Sec. 1(1) be treated as 3/4 vote by the Senate plus 3/4 vote by the House; or 3/4 by the 24 senators with all members of the House of Representatives;

Whether the Senate and House should jointly convene and assemble when voting for calling a Constitutional Convention and/or submitting to the electorate the question of calling such a convention;

When voting jointly, if the requirements of 2/3 vote under Sec. 3, Art. XVII, be treated as 2/3 vote in the Senate plus 2/3 vote in the House; or 2/3 vote of all 24 senators and all members of the House; When voting jointly, should the requirement of “majority vote” under Section 3, Article XVII be treated as a majority vote in the Senate plus majority vote in the House; or a majority vote of all 24 senators voting with all members of the House.

Padilla, who filed and signed the petition, said he could not carry out his functions as chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes “due to the ambiguities of these provisions,” and invoked the High Court’s constitutional power to “settle an existing actual controversy” which are purely questions of law “as it ruminates on the proper application and interpretation of Constitutional provisions.”

Also, Padilla cited news reports quoting President Marcos as saying both houses of

Go visits San Jorge, Samar

SEN. Christopher Go has once again reminded Filipinos to strengthen bayanihan efforts in their communities and prioritize their health and well-being amid challenging times.

On Saturday, August 3, Go visited San Jorge, Samar as part of the province’s week-long festivities in anticipation of its Araw ng Samar celebration. During his visit, Go joined a gathering of community health frontliners to promote the importance of access to healthcare especially for disadvantaged sectors in the grassroots.

Gathered at the San Jorge Municipal Covered Court, Go partnered with the provincial government to provide much-needed support to healthcare frontliners. In his speech, the senator reiterated the importance of working together for the betterment of their communities.

ernment’s plan to stimulate economic growth, enhance social services, improve infrastructure, and ensure sustainable development. In these challenging times, a well-crafted budget is essential for addressing our country’s pressing issues, from economic recovery to social equity and food security,” said Co.

Stable prices

THE House Appropriations Committee senior vice chairperson, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, highlighted the importance of maintaining stable prices for basic commodities through targeted inflation rates.

“Increasing employment rates and wages are important, but we must ensure that these translate to genuine improvements in job quality and living standards. It is crucial to monitor rice prices and ensure sufficient supply, with robust support for farmers and fishermen,” Quimbo said.

“We must ensure that economic development translates into real, tangible benefits for every Filipino. It is not enough for our numbers to show progress; it must be felt in the daily lives of our people.

She also questioned the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on the national budget and stressed the necessity of managing the budget deficit sustainably.

“If we spend more than we earn and need to borrow, how will additional borrowing affect our debt-to-

GDP [gross domestic product] ratio through 2028? Can we manage our current debt stock without sacrificing long-term growth. Can we manage to service our current stock of debt without sacrificing our long-term growth?” Quimbo asked. Aiming for upper middle-income nation status by 2028, Quimbo also queried the country’s progress in alignment with the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework.

Reflecting on the severe economic impact of the pandemic, she said, “We were the hardest hit in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean] [region], with our growth rate plummeting to -9.6 percent in 2020. Thirty months after the official end of the pandemic, have we achieved a full, clear, and sustainable economic recovery?” Quimbo also called for an assessment of social protection programs, asking if they effectively lifted Filipinos out of poverty.

She questioned the readiness of the Philippine economy to embrace the 2023 Philippine Development Plan’s Transition Agenda and the journey toward a Bagong Pilipinas.

“Our actions against the effects of climate change must be clear and concrete, demonstrating the government’s preparedness for disasters,” she said.

Quimbo also stressed the need for infrastructure projects to have a direct, positive impact on Filipinos’ daily lives.

Congress settled the “storm” surrounding the debate on how to amend the Charter, through his intervention.

“As we have witnessed, the leadership of the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch have come together to address these issues. These two branches, however, on their own, cannot resolve these constitutional issues by themselves,” he said.

“Without the Honorable Court’s declarative pronouncements, these questions, as well as the unstable relations between the two Houses of Congress, shall persist,” he added.

Padilla likewise noted many resolutions proposing to amend provisions in the Charter had been filed, but remain pending in their respective committees.

“Neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives wants to give in to the other’s interpretation... In other words, the same misinterpretations caused by

the ambiguities, which Congress seeks to resolve, are preventing all of its efforts to resolve the controversy,” he added.

Padilla said copies of his petition were furnished to the Office of the Solicitor General; Senate President Francis Joseph Escudero; and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, among others.

A declaratory relief is a special civil action that can be filed by any person interested under a will, contract or other written instrument whose rights are affected by a statute, executive order, regulation, ordinance, or any other government regulation.

In an interview with reporters after filing the petition, Padilla said it is high time for the SC to rule on the said issues and all the bickering among lawmakers.

“As you all know, for the past 37 years we have been arguing on the issue of how to amend or revise the Constitution. cannot remain silent on the issue anymore. I am also mindful of the bickering between the Senate and the House of Representatives on this issue,” he said.

Padilla noted that even the drafters of the Constitution have admitted their failure to address issues on how to revise or amend the Constitution.

Padilla also maintained his position that the Senate and the House of Representatives should vote separately in amending the Constitution.

Philippines asks Houthis to free 3 malaria-stricken Pinoy seamen

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

THE government has asked Houthis in Yemen to free the three Filipino seamen who recently contracted malaria while being held at Hodeidah port, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Robert Ferrer said the three Filipino seamen, who belong to the crew of MV Galaxy Leader have been released from the hospital after they recovered from malaria.

Philippine Honorary Consul to Yemen Mohammad Saleh Al-Jamal is now requesting the Houthis to release the three Filipinos based on “humanitarian grounds.”

“We are appealing to them [Houthis] to release the three Filipino crew. They are innocent victims. They have nothing to do with the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” Ferrer told the B USINESS M IRROR

Of the 25 crewmen on board MV Galaxy Leader, 17 are Filipinos. They were held last November 2023 by the Houthi-led naval commandos who seized their boat as part of sympathetic attacks in retaliation for Israel’s all-out offensive against Hamas in Gaza Strip.

MV Galaxy Leader is partly owned by Ray Shipping, which is co-owned by Israel businessman Abraham Ungar.

Ferrer said they would have wanted that all 17 Filipinos be released but at this

time, it is “more realistic” to request for the immediate release of the three Filipinos who were hospitalized last month. She said Honorary Consul Al-Jamal learned about the health condition of the 3 Filipino crew after the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs alerted them on July 18 following a tip from one of the wives of the seafarers. He then visited the Consular Affairs Department at the Yemeni Minis z z z try of Foreign Affairs last July 20. Al-Jamal then relayed that the sick Filipinos be released immediately.

The Yemeni Consular Department said they do not have an official line on the issue with MV Galaxy Leader but it appears that they are “open to negotiations” on the matter of release of three Filipino crew.

“They (Consular Department) promised they will discuss this with the Yemeni President (Mohammed Ali al-Houthi),” Ferrer said.

Although the Philippines did not officially recognize the Houthi-led government in Yemen, the honorary consul who is based in Sana’a was given an audience by the foreign ministry. Ferrer said they are also talking with Qatar, Oman and Iran to help as mediators, through quiet diplomacy, and convince the Houthis to release the Filipino crew

Berlin sees new defense cooperation agreement with Manila by December

GERMAN Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Monday said Berlin is optimistic of finalizing a new defense cooperation agreement with Manila before the end of the year.

The Philippines is currently strengthening its defense ties with other countries amid China’s growing aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Go’s advocacy also extends to the indispensable role of community health frontliners who act as the first point of contact for healthcare in their communities. To ensure fair compensation and benefits for these frontliners, he introduced Senate Bill 427, also known as the Barangay Health Workers Compensation BILL. The proposed law aims to improve compensation benefits for BHWs if enacted into law and recognizes their invaluable contributions in delivering primary healthcare services, raising health awareness, and safeguarding the well-being of the community. It aligns with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s call to prioritize the welfare of BHWs, especially given their significant contributions during the nation’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Go and his Malasakit Team distributed grocery packs, shirts, basketballs, volleyballs, vitamins, and snacks to 1,000 individuals, composed of Barangay Health Workers (BHW), daycare workers, and Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS). The senator also gave away bicycles, shoes, mobile phones, and watches to select beneficiaries. Meanwhile, through the collective efforts of Go in partnership with Sen. Robin Padilla and the local government led by Gov. Sharee Ann Tan, Congressmen Stephen James “Jimboy” T. Tan and Reynolds Michael Tan, Vice Gov. Arnold Tan, Mayor Leoncio De Guia, and Vice Mayor Jay G. Bisnar, among others, financial assistance was given to each beneficiary.

In his courtesy call to President Marcos in Malacañang, Pistorius gave updates on his discussion with National Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. during the weekend.

“And I had a really splendid talk with my colleague Secretary Gilbert yesterday, very trustful, very candid, and we decided both of us that we would like to have a security agreement—a defense agreement—between our two countries, and we want to try to sign it by the end of the year,” Pistorius said.

Teodoro earlier said the new defense pact will pave the way for better cooperation between Manila and Berlin on military capabilities, training, and exchange of information.

China continues to insist it has jurisdiction in the WPS citing “historical claims” despite the 2016 Arbitral ruling, which invalidated such claim based on the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

Pistorius said the new Philippines-Germany defense pact will help ensure compliance to international order in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Philippines and Germany signed a military cooperation agreement in 1974 that allowed Filipino military officers to have advanced schooling in German military schools.

As a result many promising Filipino officers were sent to theFührungsakademie der Bundeswehr (FüAkBw) or Bundeswehr Command

and Staff College in Hamburg.

“We are convinced that it is necessary even more than ever before to work together, to stand together, to support rules-based international order, because all of us know and we experience every day that the security of one region is always at the same time the security and stability of the other region,” he said.

For his part, Marcos thanked Germany for its assistance to the Philippines.

“We are grateful to Germany for continuing to support the rules-based international law that we all abide by,” the President said.

Pistorius concluded his three-day trip to the Philippines last Monday. He is the first German defence minister to visit the country although Germany is one of the first countries to have a military agreement with the Philippines. Samuel P. Medenilla

SEN. Robinhood C. Padilla

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

DTI set to launch biggest B2B e-commerce platform

By Andrea San Juan @andreasanjuan

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will launch soon the “biggest” business-to-business (B2B) Ecommerce platform in the country which will focus on wholesale goods, acting Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Aldeguer-Roque said.

“We’re going to launch it already soon…the DTI Bagong Pilipinas marketplace. It is the biggest B2B in the entire country. So that’s like Alibaba,” AldeguerRoque said in a televised interview on Monday.

Aldeguer-Roque explained that the e-commerce platform is different from the e-commerce retail stores like Shopee and Lazada. Instead, she noted that this will focus only on wholesale goods, meaning “we buy six pieces and above, it’s for business people.”

Aldeguer-Roque, who was the Undersecretary for DTI’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Development Group prior

to being appointed as Acting DTI secretary last August 2, revealed this as one of the initiatives that will support micro,small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

According to DTI Philippines’ Youtube channel, “This B2B platform is designed to be a gateway for Filipino MSMEs. With just a few clicks, entrepreneurs can seamlessly engage in wholesale trade, expanding their network of suppliers and buyers; tap into the vast potential of both domestic and international markets and cultivate long-term partnerships that lead to sustainable growth.”

With the MSMEs topping the list of Aldeguer-Roque’s priorities, she also revealed that DTI “will be opening now mini stores in all the embassies of the Philippine embassies all over the world.”

“So that we will get the people to know that these are the Filipino products that are compliant and that are ready for export, the MSME products, and also the

products of the country,” she said.

With the focus on small merchants, the Acting DTI secretary underscored that the MSME sector “cannot be denied,” adding “An instantaneous increase in the sales or in the income of the MSMEs is an instantaneous increase in the economy of the country.”

The then-head of DTI’s MSME Development division emphasized that “There’s really a chance for the MSME to grow, but they need to have the proper mindset, they need to have the proper goals, and they need to have the proper assistance of the government to be able to push them, because right away we can move the MSMEs, because we have control of them here in the Philippines.”

During the same televised interview, Aldeguer-Roque noted that apart from MSMEs, the DTI under her watch will prioritize international trade, consumer protection and fair trade.

“The priority will be one,for the international trade. We will continue to work extensively with the

House panel passes LDF bill

By Jovee Marie Dela Cruz @joveemarie

THE House of Representa-

tive’s Committee on Ways and Means on Monday approved a bill granting juridical status and privileges to the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) Board— a State of the Nation Address (SONA) priority measure.

The panel’s chairman, Albay Rep. Jose Maria Clemente “Joey” Sarte Salceda said that asserting the country’s preeminence in the fight for climate justice is President Marcos’s “biggest foreign policy victory so far.”

The substitute bill, referred to the tax committee by the Committees on Foreign Affairs and on Climate Change, grants legal and juridical personality to the LDF Board.

“This is the most concrete demonstration that we have recovered our moral ascendancy in climate advocacy.”

He emphasized that the principle of loss and damage was a hard-won victory for developing countries like the Philippines.

“Having been a member of various Philippine delegations to the Conference of Parties, or COP, I, along with many Filipino climate experts, fought to have developed and industrialized countries acknowledge that there are losses and damages that can no longer be addressed by mitigation and adaptation—and should thus be compensated by those who benefited from emissions the most,” Salceda said.

He highlighted his efforts in Lima, Peru, where he chaired the predecessor of the Loss and Dam-

age Fund, the UN Green Climate Fund, raising approximately $13 billion and becoming its first Asian co-chair.

“We fought for the principle of loss and damage formally as part of the Group of 77 with China, when we submitted a formal position on November 12, 2013 to the Warsaw talks under the UNFCCC,” he said.

Salceda was also the former chairman of the UN Green Climate Fund.

“When loss and damage were finally acknowledged as a consensus position, it was the result of a decade of negotiation founded on the intellectual and moral work done by the Philippine delegation.”

Salceda also paid tribute to the late Ambassador Bernaditas Muller, former lead negotiator and coordinator for the Group of

[Board of Investments] BOI, [Philippine Economic Zone Authority] Peza, and all other agencies that will push for international investments and international investors coming in the country, because, one, we need that very badly, or we need that to be able to drive the economy, and we need that also to be able to give jobs to the people,” she said.

Another important area to focus on, she noted, is consumer protection, explaining that “We need to protect the consumers from the products that are being brought in and from the products that we have.”

Stressing the importance of complying with standards, she said “Our products need to be of a certain standard so that we can export.”

She added that “We cannot sell products, let’s say food, that are not [Food and Drug Administration] FDA-approved because that will harm the consumers and we need to protect the prices also.”

77 plus China, an umbrella group of some 130 developing countries, who pushed for the principle of loss and damage in climate talks.

“This is the fruit of her tireless work,” Salceda said.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Marcos urged Congress to enact enabling legislation, which would grant the Philippines legal personality and the right to serve on the board of the Loss and Damage Fund, a fund dedicated to climate disaster relief.

Marcos announced that the Philippines has secured a seat on the board of the LDF and has been chosen as the host country for the fund. This development is expected to bolster the nation’s efforts to combat the adverse effects of climate change.

The President highlighted the importance of securing a seat on the LDF Board and being selected as the host country for the fund as a testament to these efforts.

Defining moments in our lives

By Henry J. Schumacher

IJUST r ead the memories of a jeepney rider: “For more than 18 years, the jeep has been part of my life. In a jeep find people of different walks of life. Senior citizens and high school students. Those in suits and those in pajamas. Those going to job interviews and those going to school. Even without talking to them, just riding in the same jeep, is already an experience in and of itself. By watching and listening, I discover many wonderful life stories.” I love to use this intro for the defining moments in our lives:

While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. If we embrace these elements, we can create more moments that matter:

What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later?

What if a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers?

What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children?

What if you get creative ideas by listening to the other jeep riders?

Why do we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest?

Why do we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not? And why are our most cherished memories clustered into a brief period during our youth?

Do you have any idea how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in

a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends? (What happened in that time?)

Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. I want to know—and surely other readers as well: What was that simple question?

Many of the defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we can create them?

No one teaches you that and, frankly, no one can teach you that: You have to discover it yourself.

Learn how to be comfortable being alone. Unplug from distractions and business and come back home to your thoughts.

For this, meditation is an incredible practice, but you have to practice—as you do it more and more, you’ll get better at connecting to yourself. And you have to connect to people: In life, it’s not your IQ; it’s your EQ (emotional quotient) that determines your success. (Soft skills are far more valuable than hard skills.) Learn how to connect, relate, and empathize with people. Learn how to build rapport and comfort.

Stimulate investment in basic research. New business models are needed because the share of government research funding has been shrinking for decades:

Breaking down research silos, for example tying together biology, software and engineering in innovations. Change structures, for example with incubators in which scientists and companies network.

In conclusion: Why can certain brief experiences jolt us and elevate us and change us? And how can we learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work. And what did the father of the world’s youngest female billionaire ask her family at the dinner table?

I am still hunting for answers. If you have ideas, let me and others know. Contact me at hjschumacher59@gmail.com.

Hog raisers to DA: Continue importing vaccines vs FMD

By Ada Pelonia @adapelonia

HOG raisers belonging to the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NatFed) urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to continue importing vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) as a precautionary measure.

Alfred Ng, vice chairman of NatFed, issued the statement after Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. signed Special Order (SO) 1083 that created a technical working group (TWG) to study the feasibility of locally producing FMD vaccines.

The DA noted that Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam are among the country’s neighboring countries that recently reported FMD cases.

“We should import accredited FMD vaccines as a buffer stock in preparation for a possible FMD virus incursion,” Ng told the B USINESS M IRROR in Filipino.

“It may take a lot of time to manufacture the vaccines, considering the trials for FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approvals,” he said.

Laurel said that while the country has been recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) as FMDfree without vaccination practice since May 2014, he still sees a significant impact on the economy of an unlikely outbreak of the highly contagious livestock disease.

According to DA, the Philippines has not inoculated livestock against FMD for decades. Cattle, swine, and goats are among the farm animals susceptible to FMD.

“To maintain the country’s status (as an FMD-free jurisdiction), and prepare it for contingencies, there’s a need to

explore the viability and feasibility of manufacturing FMD vaccines locally to be used in the prevention and control of FMD incursions,” Laurel said.

He designated Assistant Secretary for Swine and Poultry Constante Palabrica, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, as chairman of the technical working group. The team will provide technical inputs to ascertain the viability and feasibility of locally producing FMD vaccines. It is also tasked to prepare documents, such as the criteria of minimum facility capabilities, criteria of minimum personnel capacities, biological risk assessments, and cost-benefit analysis.

“If our Pinoy scientists can produce FMD vaccines, then it’s very good. We support all local production,” Ng said. The DA and the Department of Health (DOH) earlier signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which allowed the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to evaluate animal vaccines and biologics that aim to stop the spread of viral diseases that threatened the local poultry and hog sectors.

The FDA should also issue a License to Operate (LTO) to BAI for manufacturing or importation and the issuance of certificate of no objection for BAI’s importation of vaccines and biologics for its evaluation and research.

“This MOA will significantly strengthen our fight against transboundary animal diseases such as African swine fever and highly pathogenic avian influenza,” Laurel said in a statement. “By enhancing our regulatory framework and fostering greater cooperation among key agencies, we can better safeguard the animal industry, secure the livelihoods of our farmers, and mitigate the impact on our economy.”

Garcia seeks US DOJ help on new offshore accounts tied to him

OMMISSION on Elections Chairman

CGeorge M. Garcia will be seeking help from United States authorities to investigate the new offshore bank accounts, which are being linked to him bySagip Party-list Rep. Rodante D. Marcoleta.

The poll chief said he will coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to send the formal request to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to probe the said accounts.

“We need to get to the bottom of it and the people who were involved. It involves destroying the [public] trust in the electoral process,” Garcia told reporters in Filipino in an online interview.

He is hopefulthe US DOJ will grant his request to finally settle the matter.

Last week, Marcoleta said his “volunteers” from the US were allegedly able to deposit US$100 each to two offshore accounts, which were supposedly owned by a “George Erwin Garcia Mojica Garcia.”

The two accounts were Scotiabank and Trust Cayman LTD as well as the Bank of New York Mellon.

Garcia said the deposits were done by

a US Public RelationsJaleo Consulting LLC.

He pointed out the said accounts were new and were not part of the initial 49 offshore accounts, which were revealed by Marcoleta, and later linked to him.

He stressed all of the said accounts, which he supposedly used to accept bribe money, are fake.

Comelec wants to wrap up the probe on the US-related issues before the start of the 2025 polls to keep intact the public trust on the outcome of the electoral process.

During the weekend, former Biliran Representative Glenn Chong accusedSmartmatic International of being behind the attempt to destroy the reputation of Garcia and Comelec so it can once again become the voter machine provider of the election body.

The P18-billionFull Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) contract from Comelec was awardedto the Joint Venture led by the South Korean company,Miru Systems Ltd.This ended Smartmatic’s dominant role in Philippine elections since the country debuted its automated voting system in 2010.

Samuel P. Medenilla

IFC, EU to finance PHL’s ‘green’ transition project

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

& Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

HE International Finance

TCorp. (IFC) and the European Union (EU) will be financing a green transition project in the country worth P308 million.

A statement issued by the IFC last Monday revealed that the project will be financed under the “Green Economy Programme for the Philippines” (GEPP), which is part of the EU’s new “Global Gateway” initiative.

Under the project, the EU and IFC will help mobilize private capital and investment from IFC and European development finance institutions to help address the country’s climate challenges.

“The private sector plays a pivotal role in the collective journey

“Our engagement in the country’s green transformation underscores our dedication to global climate action and sustainable development, which is aligned with the European Green Deal.’

towards a sustainable and prosperous future, and the EU is pleased to partner with IFC to promote green growth in the Philippines,” Luc Véron, EU Ambassador to the Philippines, was quoted in the statement as saying.

“Our engagement in the country’s green transformation underscores our dedication to global

HK hotel firm seeks to expand Marco Polo brand into resorts, eyeing new partners

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

THE Hong Kong-based Wharf Hotels, owner of the Marco Polo brand, is looking to expand into the resort business and forge more partnerships with Filipino investors, as a way to grow its footprint in the Philippines. In an interview with select reporters,  Thomas Salg, President of Wharf Hotels, said, “We now also decided to go into the resort part of hotels, because we know obviously, the Philippines has much more resort opportunities. It’s not a big stretch for us. But we want to bring Marco Polo to Marco Polo resorts and we’re looking at the mixed-use businesses. So we’ve seen that in hotels, where we operate a hotel and operators apartments, residences or branded residences, it gives us a bit more flexibility to adapt to market changes.”

He said these were discussed as possibilities with the different owners of the Marco Polo-managed properties in the country; in Ortigas (Xian Tina Ti Development Corp.), Cebu (Federal Land Inc.), and Davao (Halifax Davao Hotel Inc.). In their recent meeting, Salg said,  “The strategy clearly right now is put the hotels back to that five-star level, where we we used to

be. Build again…because we want to grow in the Philippines.” Once the owners see their hotels rebound and strengthen, he said,  “The owners will recommend [us to] other owners. So let’s not focus on just growing to grow. Let’s make our business stronger.”

Davao hotel to reopen in phases HE did not say if the iconic Marco Polo Davao, closed during the pandemic, will be reopening soon. (See, “Marco Polo Davao closure spooks tourism industry,” in the BusinessMirror, May 11, 2020.)

But Salg confirmed that the property was being renovated. “We want to do a really good job with a new product, even if that means we may only open 150 rooms and two [food and beverage] outlets first. The [reopening] may be done in phases. We also want to check the business environment a little bit more, because really, there are a lot of new competitors.”

Business has yet to revert to prepandemic levels in the case of Marco Polo Cebu, due to the lack of long-haul travelers to the province, even as hotel occupancy is avearging 70 percent. “We are very happy to get our fair market share. I think the [room] rate is not quite yet where we wanted to be, which usually has to do with the demand….So we would need to

see a little bit more incoming business to the Philippines,we need long-haul [travelers] more,” he said. The hotel firm also manages Marco Polo Residences, the condominium properties of Federal Land, adjacent to the Cebu hotel.

Biz travel reputation grows MEANWHILE, after an initial surge in tourism last year, business travel is leveling out with companies going back into “savings mode,” said Salg. But the Philippines, he said, is getting more notice as a business travel destination.

“Pre-Covid, people traveled four times a year to the Philippines to have a face-to-face meeting. We may be back to two times a year,” with meetings now localized or regionalized. He attributed this to the lack of international flights and the cost of airfare. “Tickets right now are way more expensive than they used to be,” he noted.

But he said, “We believe that tourism in the Philippines will pick up; the Philippine government or the Philippine tourists they do in quite some nice campaigns. They are noticed, people are now considering the Philippines as a destination for business travel.”

The 316-room Marco Polo Ortigas Manila, the Philippines’s ‘first sky hotel, recently marked its 10th

‘OSG didn’t prove consultations on EO 62’

By Ada Pelonia @adapelonia

F

ARMER group Samahang Industriya

ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said Monday the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) failed to show that the government conducted consultations on Executive Order (EO) 62. Sinag issued the statement after the OSG asked the SC to dismiss, for lack of merit, the petition filed by farmer groups challenging the constitutionality of EO 62. (See: https:// businessmirror.com.ph/2024/08/05/ govt-to-sc-junk-farmers-suit-vs-eo-ontariff-cuts/)

“The OSG response was not able to refute our argument that EO 62 was hastily issued sans the consultation, investigation, hearings, reports, which are required by the Flexible Clause of Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (RA 10863) to be complied

with before the President can validly make issuance of an Executive Order involving tariff reduction,” Sinag legal counsel Virgie Lacsa Suarez said in a statement.

The petition questioning the legality of EO 62 and seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) was earlier filed by petitioners led by Sinag before the Supreme Court.

“We do not question the authority of the President to issue an Executive Order. But on matters of tarriff, the law sets limitations in his exercise,” she said.

Suarez noted that the Tariff Commission (TC) should have held hearings, with the report submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

“Without the required hearing, the President cannot just issue an EO reducing the tariff. The President’s exercise was made in violation of the law that gives him the power to do so,” Suarez added. In a 62-page comment, the OSG

maintained that the petitioners’ right to due process was not violated, because the government complied with all the necessary notice and hearing requirements under the Flexible Clause.

The respondents in the case are President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, and Tariff Commission

Chairperson Marilou Mendoza.

“Petitioner’s claim of violation of due process is unfounded. Records show that in March 2023, five public hearings were held wherein comments on tariffs on all products, including rice, were invited,” the comment read.

“Petitioners were notified but failed to attend, and their oversight cannot justify nullifying E.O. No. 62 (2024), to the detriment of national economic policies,” it added.

anniversary with a month-long celebration. “The past decade has been a most extraordinary journey for us, and we are immensely grateful to our supportive stakeholders—our hardworking team, reliable public and private partners, and our esteemed patrons—for being with us through the years,” said Resident Manager Olivier Foucke. “It is humbling to have grown with Pasig City and its Ortigas Central Business District community, and we remain committed to our mission to reimagining experiences that captivate every individual.”

climate action and sustainable development, which is aligned with the European Green Deal,” he added.

The project, which will be implemented until 2028, will focus on improving the enabling environment for plastics recycling and waste management.

It will also help catalyze decarbonization-related investments in hard-to-abate sectors, contributing to greening supply chains, and accelerating the energy transition.

“[The] IFC is deeply committed to supporting the Philippines’ private sector in its ambitions to transition to a low-carbon future,” said Jean-Marc Arbogast, IFC’s Country Manager for the Philippines. “Our partnership with the EU is a testament to our collective commitment to fostering resilient, green, and inclusive growth that benefits all Filipinos.”

The IFC explained that the GEPP is funded by a EUR 60 million or P3.67 billion grant from the European Union. It will run from 2023-2028 in collaboration with the national government, local government units (LGUs), and the private sector.

The project will also link European and Filipino entities “to foster a circular economy” and the reduction of plastic waste. It aims to improve energy efficiency, promote renewable energy use and climate change mitigation and adaptation, and to overall generate sustainable and inclusive growth through investments and jobs creation.

The GEPP is implemented by UNDP Philippines, Germany’s development agency (GIZ), Expertise France (EF) with Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group.

MARCO Polo Ortigas recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of promotions. Inset photo, Thomas Salg, President of Wharf Hotels

LUC VÉRON, EU AMBASSADOR TO THE PHILIPPINES

or other relevant fields, must be able to communicate effectively, verbally and written, in both English and required language.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic

4. RUFINO, BERNARDO SW/App/Cloud Tech Support Analyst

Brief Job Description: The position will

non-technical issues reported by the users or systems.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science or other relevant fields, proficient in required language and excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

14.

15. LEE, JUNG WOO Host, Premium Services Brief Job Description: Responsible for player acquisitions, retentions, and reactivations mainly on casino floor.

BRIGHT LUME IT SOLUTIONS INC. Unit 202 Erisha Condominium, 1142 P Ocampo Street, Barangay 757, Santa Ana, City Of Manila

16. BONNEY, SAMUEL Computer And IT System Manager

Brief Job Description: Collaborate with users, vendors, technicians, and managers to understand and assess computing and system needs and requirements and prepare and deliver operational or project progress reports. Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree holder, with experience in business management, product and research development, computer/ software training, marketing/sales, or related field, and fluent in both written and verbal English and Chinese-Mandarin languages.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CHINA COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES PHILIPPINES CORPORATION 21st Floor Menarco Tower, 32nd Street, Bonifacio Global City, Fort

BusinessMirror

LYCOPODIUM (PHILIPPINES) PTY

Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

54. TURIER, HAGAN WILLIAM Technical Consultant - Structural

Brief Job Description: Responsible for providing professional support to the team in preparing project deliverables, compliance with applicable project/study specific requirements and current industry work codes and standards.

55. SAKATA, YUTAKA Senior Project Head

Brief Job Description: Responsible for providing leadership and guidance to a project team for planning, scheduling and organizing work, while ensuring adherence work standards and guidelines.

56. DOAN NGOC HUY Project Management Consultant

Brief Job Description: Responsible for implementing project contingency plans for the successful execution of projects, analyses business-critical data to identify inefficiencies and trends in projects to prevent issues from arising and ensuring that the scope and schedule of projects are achievable within the given time and budget.

Basic Qualification: College graduate, with relevant work experience in the same capacity

ONE WORLD JAPANESE LANGUAGE CENTER INC. Unit 15-a Atherton Place #1 Tomas Morato Ave., Cor. Don A Roces Ave. 4, Laging Handa, Quezon City

57. ZAIZEN, KOSUKE Japanese Language Trainer

Brief Job Description: Producing information, transcribing, formatting, inputting, editing retrieving, copying and transmitting text, data, and graphics from English to Japanese language and Japanese to English language.

Qualification: Thorough, and extensive fluency and proficiency in

PEPSI-COLA PRODUCTS PHILIPPINES, INC.

26th Flr., Filinvest Axis Tower Two Bldg., Northgate Cyberzone, Fcc, Alabang, City Of Muntinlupa

58. KIM, JOONGMIN Chief Corporate Strategy Officer (CCSO)

Brief Job Description: Responsible for leading PCPPI in developing and implementing strategic programs and mapping the business horizon of PCPPI relevant to the industry and beverage landscape.

PREVENTIA HEALTHCARE INC. Unit 1802-1803 18/f Cityland Herrera Tower, 98 V.a. Rufino Cor. Valero Sts., Bel-air, City Of Makati

59. CHATURVEDI, ASHISH International Marketing Director

Brief Job Description: Developing business strategies and promote the entity.

Basic Qualification: Skilled language required: English

RECKITT BENCKISER HEALTHCARE (PHILIPPINES), INC. (RECKITT BENCKISER) 3/f Mead Johnson Bldg.,

Editor: Angel R. Calso •

PM Sheikh Hasina resigns and leaves Bangladesh, ending 15 years in power

By Julhas Alam & Krutika Pathi

The Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh—Bangla-

desh’s Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina resigned on Monday, ending 15 years in power as thousands of protesters defied a military curfew and stormed her official residence.

Shortly after local media showed the embattled leader boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Bangladesh’s military chief Gen. Wakeruz-Zaman announced plans to seek the president’s guidance on forming interim government.

He promised that the military would stand down, and to launch an investigation into the deadly crackdowns that fueled outrage against the government, and asked citizens for time to restore peace.

“Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible,” he said. “I have ordered that no army and police will indulge in any kind of firing.”

“Now, the students’ duty is to stay calm and help us,” he added.

The protests began peacefully in late June, as students sought an end to a quota system for government jobs, but turned violent after clashes between protesters and police and pro-government activists at Dhaka University.

The government’s attempts to

quell the demonstrations with force, curfews and internet shutdowns backfired, prompting further outrage as nearly 300 people were killed and leading to demands for an end to her 15 years in power.

On Sunday, nearly 100 people were killed as the protesters clashed with security officials and the ruling party activists across the country.

Broadband Internet and mobile data services were restored across Bangladesh on Monday, while antigovernment protesters vowed to march to the capital to demand the prime minister’s resignation, defying a military-ordered curfew after a weekend of violence that left about 100 people dead.

The protests began peacefully as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs, but the demonstrations have since morphed into an unprecedented challenge and uprising against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.

The government has attempted to quell the violence with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead and fueling further outrage and calls for Hasina to step down.

At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in clashes in the capital on Sunday, according to the country’s leading Bengalilanguage daily newspaper, Prothom

Alo. Hundreds more were injured in the violence.

Authorities first shut off mobile Internet on Sunday in an attempt to quell the unrest, while the broadband Internet stopped working from late Monday morning. This is the second Internet blackout in the country after the protests turned deadly in July.

On Monday, after three hours of suspension of broadband services, both broadband and mobile Internet returned.

The military-imposed curfew went into effect Sunday night and covered Dhaka and other divisional and district headquarters. The government had earlier imposed a curfew with some exceptions in the capital and elsewhere.

The government also announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts were to be closed indefinitely.

Mobile Internet service was cut off, and Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, were inaccessible on Monday.

Bangladesh has previously shut down Internet services in areas affected by protests, using it as a measure to suppress dissent by opposition parties. Internet watchdog Access Now said it recorded three shutdowns in the country in 2023, all of which overlapped with opposition rallies and were limited in scope to one city or district. That came after six shutdowns in 2022.

Hasina said the protesters who engaged in “sabotage” and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and she said the people should deal with them with iron hands.

The prime minister’s ruling Awami League party said the demand for her resignation showed that the protests

have been taken over by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaate-Islami party.

Hasina’s 15-years dominance over the country is being tested like never before.

The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents, triggering questions over how free and fair the vote was.

Thousands of opposition members were jailed in the lead-up to the polls, which the government defended as democratically held.

Today, she is the longest-serving leader in the history of Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of over 160 million people strategically located between India and Myanmar.

Her political opponents have previously accused her of growing increasingly autocratic and called her a threat to the country’s democracy, and many now say the unrest is a result of her authoritarian streak and hunger for control at all costs.

At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks. The unrest has also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew.

Over the weekend, protesters called for a “non-cooperation” effort, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to their jobs.

The protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota

system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.

As the violence crested, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the veterans’ quota must be cut to 5 percent, with 93 percent of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining 2 percent will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people. The government accepted the decision, but protesters have continued demanding accountability for the violence they blame on the government’s use of force. Hasina’s administration has blamed the opposition parties and their student wings for instigating the violence in which several state-owned establishments were also torched or vandalized.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the main opposition party, repeated a call for the government to step down to stop the chaos. Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and announced a one-point demand for her resignation. Hasina repeated her pledges to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want. The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who has ruled the country for over 15 years. She returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election that was boycotted by her main opponents.

Pathi reported from New Delhi.

US, allies set to defend Israel as Netanyahu says it’s already in ‘multi-front war’ with Iran

By Natalie Melzer & Samy Magdy

The Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel—Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as the United States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and prevent an even more destructive regional conflict.

Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has begun discussions on choosing a new leader.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready for any scenario. Jordan’s foreign minister was making a rare trip to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts—“We want the escalation to end,” Ayman Safadi said—while the Pentagon has moved significant assets to the region.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC.

In Israel, some prepared bomb shel-

BBy Elaine Kurtenbach Ap Business Writer

ters and recalled Iran’s unprecedented direct military assault in April following a suspected Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals. Israel said almost all the drones and ballistic and cruise missiles were intercepted.

A stabbing attack on Sunday near Tel Aviv killed a woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, and two others were wounded. The police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was “neutralized.”

Inside Gaza, the Health Ministry said at least 25 people were killed and 19 others injured when Israel struck two schools in Gaza City. AP video showed at least one child among the dead. Israel’s military, which regularly accuses Palestinian militants of sheltering in civilian areas, said it hit Hamas command centers.

“As you can see, there is no equipment to recover the injured. Rescuers are digging with their hands,” said one man, Yusuf AlMashharawi.

Earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people. One hit a tent camp for thousands of displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including one woman, the Health

Ministry said. The Israeli military said it targeted a Palestinian militant in the strike, which it said caused secondary explosions, “indicating the presence of weaponry in the area.”

The hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza as many others in the territory no longer function. A separate strike on a home near Deir al-Balah killed a girl and her parents, according to the hospital.

Another strike flattened a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight, including three children, their parents and their grandmother, according to the Health Ministry. Another three people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City, according to Civil Defense first responders.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least five projectiles at Israeli communities near the border without causing casualties or damage, the military said. The military later told people in some parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to evacuate.

The Health Ministry also said an Israeli strike on Saturday at a schoolturned-shelter in Gaza City killed at least 16 people. Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas command center.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’

ANGKOK—Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index plunged 12.4 percent on Monday, resuming sell-offs that are shaking world markets as investors fret over the state of the US economy. The Nikkei closed down 4,451.28 points at 31,458.42. The market’s broader TOPIX index fell 12.8 percent as selling picked up in the afternoon. Darkening the outlook for trading on Wall Street, early Monday the future for the S&P 500 was 2.4 percent lower and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.6 percent. A report showing hiring by US employers slowed last month by much more than expected has convulsed financial markets, vanquishing the euphoria that had taken the Nikkei to all-times highs of over 42,000 in recent weeks. The Nikkei 225 dropped 5.8 percent on Friday, making this its worst two-day decline ever. Its worst single-day rout was a plunge of 3,836 points, or 14.9 percent, on Oct. 20, 1987, a day that was dubbed “Black Monday.” This Monday was gloomy enough: at one point, the benchmark sank as much as 13.4 percent. Share prices have fallen in Tokyo since the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday. The Nikkei is now down 3.8 percent from a year ago. One factor driving the BOJ to raise rates was prolonged weakness in the Japanese yen, which has pushed inflation to above the central bank’s

October 7 attack into Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage.

Israel’s massive offensive in response has killed at least 39,580 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Heavy airstrikes and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

The militant group Hezbollah and Israel have continued to trade fire along the Lebanon border since the war began, with the severity growing in recent months. The Lebanese state-run National News Agency said an Israeli strike targeted a house in Beit Lef, and the Lebanese Health Ministry said two people were critically wounded. Hezbollah says it’s aimed at relieving pressure on fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. A growing number of countries, including the US, are encouraging citizens to leave Lebanon after last week’s killing of a senior commander.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press journalist Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah contributed.

MEN run past a shopping center that was set on fire by protesters during a rally against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government demanding justice for the victims killed in the recent countrywide deadly clashes, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Sunday, August 4, 2024. AP/RAJIB

UK Prime Minister Starmer condemns attack on hotel housing asylum seekers as far-right violence spreads

By Pan Pylas

The Associated Press

ONDON—UK Prime Minister

LKeir Starmer strongly condemned an attack Sunday on a hotel housing asylum seekers that saw at least 10 police officers injured, one seriously, describing it as “farright thuggery.”

In a statement from 10 Downing Street on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister vowed that the authorities will “do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice” and that justice will be swift.

Starmer’s statement came as more violence broke out across the country in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded.

“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he said. “This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”

Starmer was speaking after another day of far-right violence, which was particularly acute in the north of England town of Rotherham where police struggled to hold back hundreds of rioters who sought to break into a Holiday Inn Express hotel being used as accommodation for asylumseekers. Before bringing the riot under some sort of control, police officers

with shields had faced a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers. A large bin close to a window of the hotel was also set alight but the small fire was extinguished.

South Yorkshire Police, which is responsible for Rotherham, said at least 10 officers have been injured, including one who was left unconscious.

“The behavior we witnessed has been nothing short of disgusting. While it was a smaller number of those in attendance who chose to commit violence and destruction, those who simply stood on and watched remain absolutely complicit in this,” said Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield. “We have officers working hard, reviewing the considerable online imagery and footage of those involved, and they should expect us to be at their doors very soon.”

Far-right agitators have sought to take advantage of last week’s stabbing attack by tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the UK, in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.

Tensions were also running high Sunday in the northeastern town of Middlesbrough, where some protesters broke free of a police guard. One group walked through a residential area smashing the windows of houses and cars. When asked by a resident why they were breaking windows, one man replied, “Because we’re Eng-

lish.” Hundreds of others squared up to police with shields at the town’s cenotaph, throwing bricks, cans and pots at officers.

Starmer said anyone targeting people for the color of their skin or their faith is far-right.

“People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so

Voices across the globe express concern over growing number of arrests in Venezuela after disputed election

By Fabiola Sánchez The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela—Voices across the globe expressed concern Sunday over the growing number of arrests in Venezuela following last weekend’s disputed elections.

Pope Francis said Venezuela is “living a critical situation” in his traditional Sunday remarks at the Vatican, adding, “I appeal to all parties to seek the truth, to avoid all kinds of violence.”

The remarks came hours after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents. At a rally in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Maduro pledged to detain more people and send them to prison. US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told CBS program “Face the Nation” Sunday that the Biden administration is worried the arrests could spark wider unrest.

“We are concerned about the prospect of instability, should there continue to be these detentions,” Finer said.

And in a statement, the leaders of several European countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy said “the rights of all the Venezuelans, especially the political leaders, should be respected during this process. We strongly condemn any arrests or threats against them.”

Authorities have declared President Nicolás Maduro the victor in last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. The opposition claims to have tally sheets showing it won.

An Associated Press analysis Friday of vote tally sheets released by the opposition coalition indicates that their candidate, Edmundo González, won significantly more votes than the government claimed, casting serious doubt on the official declaration that Maduro won.

Both González, a former diplomat, and opposition leader María Corina Machado— who was barred by the government from running—have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up.

The government arrested hundreds of opposition supporters who took to the streets in the days after the disputed poll.

Machado braved the threats to speak at a massive opposition rally Saturday in Caracas, but was whisked away afterwards on the back of a motorcycle.

“After six days of brutal repression, they thought they were going to silence us, intimidate or paralyze us,” Machado told the rally. “The presence of every one of you here today represents the best of Venezuela.”

A few hours later, Maduro again threatened to arrest González for not showing up

at the electoral council meeting he had been summoned to. The council, like most parts of Venezuela’s government, is completely controlled by Maduro.

“You face serious legal consequences for disobeying the Constitution, the courts and the law,” Maduro said of González.

Maduro also vowed to continue to use a heavy hand against his opponents, saying 2,000 of them have been arrested already.

“This time there will be no pardon, this time there will be Tocorón,” he said, referring to a notorious prison.

On Friday, masked assailants ransacked the opposition’s headquarters on Friday, taking documents and vandalizing the space.

In his long, rambling speech, Maduro issued threats but also called for reconciliation and peace, claiming, “There is room in Venezuela for everyone,” and calling it “the blessed land of opportunity.”

Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into a free fall marked by 130,000% hyperinflation and widespread shortages after Maduro took the helm in 2013. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.

US oil sanctions have only deepened the misery, and the Biden administra-

no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery,” he said.

The violence over the past days, which has seen a library torched, mosques attacked and flares thrown at a statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill, began after false rumors spread online that the suspect in the dance class stabbing attack was an asylum-seeker, fueling anger among far-right supporters.

Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the UK, but the judge in the case ordered Axel Rudakubana, born

tion—which had been easing those restrictions—is now likely to ramp them up again unless Maduro agrees to some sort of transition.

Late Friday, Venezuela’s high court, the Supreme Justice Tribunal, ordered the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council to hand over the precinct vote count sheets in three days. There have been calls from multiple governments, including Maduro’s close regional allies, for Venezuela’s electoral authorities to release the precinct-level tallies, as it has after previous elections.

The AP processed almost 24,000 images of tally sheets, representing the results from 79% of voting machines.

According to the calculations, the González received 6.89 million votes, nearly half a million more than the government says Maduro won. The tabulations also show Maduro received 3.13 million votes from the tally sheets released.

By comparison, the National Electoral Council said Friday that based on 96.87% of tally sheets, Maduro had won 6.4 million votes and Gonzalez had 5.3 million. National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso attributed the delay in filing complete results to attacks on the “technological infrastructure.”

There has been a flurry of diplomatic efforts by Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to convince Maduro to allow an impartial audit of the vote. On Thursday, the governments of the three countries issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data.

Thailand’s progressive Move Forward party might be dissolved, but its former chief remains hopeful

BBy Jerry Harmer & Jintamas Saksornchai

The Associated Press

ANGKOK—The charismatic Thai politician who led his young, progressive party to a stunning general election victory a year ago is urging supporters not to lose hope, even if the party is disbanded by a legal order. Thailand’s Constitutional Court will rule Wednesday on whether the Move Forward Party violated the constitution by proposing to amend a law that forbids defaming the country’s royal family. A petition to the court requested the party’s dissolution and a 10year ban on political activity by its executives, including former chief Pita Limjaroenrat. Move Forward won the most seats in the 2023 election, but was blocked from taking power and now heads the opposition. Pita was denied the prime minister’s job by the military-installed Senate, a power it was given in the constitution adopted in 2017 under a military government. The legal action has drawn widespread criticism as it’s seen as part of a yearslong attack against the country’s progressive movement by conservative forces trying to keep their grip on power. While Pita remains confident of the arguments that the party submitted to the court, he said in an interview with The Associated Press that he understands why people assume the party

would be dissolved.

Pita, however, stands firm that Move Forward will continue to fight to prevent that phenomenon from being normalized in order to achieve a full democracy.

“We’re fighting this not just because of my personal future or my party’s future, but we want to make sure that, if it happens, that Pita becomes the last person. The Move Forward Party becomes the last party that joins the graveyard of political parties,” he said.

Move Forward’s predecessor, the Future Forward party, was dissolved by a Constitutional Court ruling in 2020 for allegedly violating election laws on donations to political parties. Thailand’s courts, especially the Constitu-

tional Court, are considered a bulwark of the royalist establishment, which has used them and nominally independent state agencies such as the Election Commission to issue rulings to cripple or sink political opponents. The dissolution of Future Forward, whose promises of reforms were particularly attractive to the young generation disillusioned by yearslong military rule, further highlighted the struggle between the progressive movement and conservative forces in Thailand. It was one of the triggers for youth-led pro-democracy protests that sprung up across the country in 2020. They openly criticized the monarchy, an institution long considered a linchpin of Thai society and untouchable.

in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder.

Hundreds of people have been arrested in connection with the disorder and many more are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage. However, police have also warned that with widespread security measures in place, with thousands of officers deployed, other crimes may not be investigated fully.

With so many arrests, the courts will face a challenge in processing all the charges at a time when the criminal justice system is overstretched, following years of austerity and the Covid pandemic. In May, the National Audit Office warned that the courts faced a backlog of more than 60,000 cases, while the government said last month that thousands of inmates would have to be released early to ease prison overcrowding.

Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, said extra lawyers have been deployed over the weekend and will work “around the clock” over coming days to ensure justice is served. He said he has directed prosecutors to make immediate charging decisions where key evidence is in place.

“I am determined that we will act swiftly and robustly, giving the courts maximum ability to pass sentences that

reflect what has occurred,” he said.

Many of the demonstrations over the past week were organized online by far-right groups, who mobilize support with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.”

Rallying cries have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, near the scene of the stabbing attack.

Yaxley-Lennon, 41, was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers. He currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the UK last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.

Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform UK, has also been blamed by many for encouraging—indirectly—the anti-immigration sentiment. He has sought to link many of the problems the country faces, such as in health and housing, on the big annual increases in the country’s population.

The Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Angel R. Calso

Carlos Yulo’s amazing journey to double gold at Paris 2024 Olympics

IN a stunning display of skill, determination, and pure talent, Carlos Yulo has etched his name in the annals of Philippine and Olympic history by clinching not just one but two gold medals in a span of only two days at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Yulo’s extraordinary feat of winning the vault finals of men’s artistic gymnastics has not only secured his status as a national hero but has also elevated the Philippines onto the global Olympic stage in a remarkable and unprecedented manner. (Read the BusinessMirror story: “With 2 golds in Paris, Carlos Yulo greatest ever,” August 5, 2024).

Yu lo’s jour ney to double gold began w ith his historic w in on the floor exercise, where he secured the Philippines’ first gold medal of the Summer Games, sending waves of pride and jubilation across the nation. His second gold on the vau lt only solidifies his reputation as a true spor ting icon, not just for the Philippines but also for the entire world to mar vel at.

W hat makes Yu lo’s achievement even more remarkable is the backdrop against which it has unfolded. Representing a countr y known more for its boxing prowess than its gymnastics finesse, Yu lo has defied the odds and showcased the immense talent and potential that exist w ithin the countr y’s spor ting landscape. His back-to-back gold medals not only symbolize personal triumph but also embody the spirit of resilience, dedication, and unwavering passion that define the Filipino people.

Yu lo’s humility and g race in v ictor y, coupled w ith his unique approach to preparation—such as his choice of a plastic container for chalk, which has captured the hear ts of fans worldw ide—underscore his authenticity and cu ltural pride. His words, “I went out there and just poured ever ything I got,” resonate not just as a reflection of his athletic prowess but as a testament to the indomitable spirit that drives him to g reatness.

As the second gold medalist in the Philippines’ centur y-long Olympic histor y, Carlos Yu lo stands as a beacon of hope and inspiration for generations to come. His achievement transcends mere spor ting success; it represents a triumph of the human spirit, a celebration of diversity, and a testament to the power of dreams.

Carlos Yu lo, the “Golden Boy” of the Philippines, has not only rew ritten histor y but has also redefined what it means to dream boldly, work tirelessly, and achieve magnificently. His double gold triumph is not just a v ictor y for him but a triumph for an entire nation—a nation that now stands taller, prouder, and more united than ever before.

In Carlos Yu lo, we see not just a gymnastics champion but also a symbol of boundless potential and endless possibilities. As we celebrate his remarkable achievement, let us also celebrate the spirit of hope, resilience, and unwavering belief that he embodies—a spirit that knows no boundaries and inspires us all to reach for the stars.

to 36. E-mail: news.businessmirror@gmail.com www.news.businessmirror@gmail.com P

USA Inc/China Inc OUTSIDE

John Mangun

ETHE BOX

UGENE KAPLAN wrote a book in 1972, published by the US Department of Commerce: Bureau of International Commerce, titled “Japan: the Government-Business Relationship; A Guide For The American Businessman.”

A s u mma r y stated t h at “T he American business community has come to v iew Japan w it h decidedly mi xed feel ings of admiration and g row ing uneasiness...f rom t he feeling t hat Japan may be play ing t he economic game under a d ifferent set of ru les.”

In his book, Kaplan coined t he ter m ‘Japan Inc’ described as “T he cont i nu o u s i nte r act i on between business and gover nment in Japan. In t he United States, cor porations and gover nment generally each work in t heir separate spheres.”

An investment analyst described t he system t his way. “A primar y feature of Japan, Inc. was t he key role of Japan’s t rade m i n i st r y, whic h g uided Japan’s development in t he postwar years.”

T he concept of a nation being an “Inc.” where business and gover n-

ment works hand-in-hand is not new.

T he f irst mu ltinational cor porations were founded to set up colonial “factories” or por t cities. T he Dutch gover nment went so far as to take over Dutch East Ind ia Company in 1799. Other nations such as Spain and Portugal gave exclusive trad ing rights to t heir par tnership companies.

We can go far t her to say t hat t he cor porate structure of an ‘Inc.’ nation mirrors a moder n mu ltinational cor poration. Black’s Law Dictionar y def ines as “An entity managed f rom one home countr y and derives 25 percent or more of its revenue f rom out-of-home-countr y operations.”

By t h at def i n i t i on t h e r e a r e many national ‘INCs’ w it h t he two most prominent being USA Inc. and China Inc.

T here is considerable talk of China Inc. over tak ing USA Inc. Let’s com-

pare the two ‘companies’ f irst by size. We look at private companies by t he amount of revenues. One way to measure t hat for nations is t he GDP per Capita in Purchasing Power Parity. For 2023 China’s GDP ppp stands at $22,000. For compa ri son, t he United States GDP ppp in 1990 was double t hat at $44,400 and in 2023 was $73,000.

T hat is l i ke comparing Toyota’s automobi le sales (10.8 mi ll ion units) to Su zu k i ’s (3.2 mi ll ion). I am often reminded t hat BRICS is expand ing, and t hat China is t he la rgest t rad ing pa r t of some 120 countries. But the quality of your customers is also impor tant. Et hiopia is a member of BRICS and depends on China for its trade and investment. Only nine percent of Ethiopians have indoor toilets. Just say ing. Yes, China is look ing far into t he economic f uture and t hat is a positive.

Talk i ng about C hi na’s i nvestments ab r oad i s also val i d. B ut “Foreign d irect i nvestment (FDI) outflows was highest in t he United States, reaching US$404 bi ll ion in 2023.” FDI f rom C hi na last yea r amounted to $150 bi ll ion. Also, “For t he 12t h year in a row, t he US was again the number one destination for foreign d irect investment in 2023.” China is the most impor tant trading partner of the European Union. In 2023, the EU and China cross-traded goods wor t h $806 bi llion. But t he US

was t he largest buyer of EU expor ts in 2023 w it h 20 percent of all EU exports. China bought nine percent. EU Inc.

Treasuries surge as traders bet big on a Fed rescue mode

By Michael Mackenzie & Liz Capo McCormick

US economy is on the verge of deteriorating so quickly that the Federal Reserve will need to start easing monetary policy aggressively to head off a recession.

Prev ious worries about t he risk of elevated inflation have v ir tually d isappeared, sw iftly g iv ing way to specu lation

in March 2023

T he advance has been so strong t hat t he pol icy sensitive two-year Treasur y y ield tumbled last week by half a percentage point to less t han 3.9%. It hasn’t been that far below the Fed’s benchmark rate—now around 5. 3% —since t he global f inancial crisis or t he after mat h of t he dot-com crash T he moves extended in Asia trading Monday w it h two-yea r y ields slumping more t han 10 basis points to 3.77 pe rcent as bonds r all ied

across t he cur ve.

“T he market concer n is t hat t he

Fed is lagg ing and t hat we are morphing f rom a soft land ing to a hard landing,” said Tracy Chen, a por tfolio manager at Brandyw ine Global In-

vestment Management. “Treasuries are a good buy here because I do think t he economy w i ll continue to slow.”

Bond traders have repeatedly misjudged where interest rates have been headed since the end of the pandemic, however, at times overshooting in both directions and caught off guard when the economy bucked recession calls or inflation defied expectations. At the end of 2023 bond prices also surged on conviction that the Fed was poised to start easing policy, only to give back those gains when the economy kept exhibiting surprising strength

So t here’s a chance t hat t he latest move is anot her such sw ing too far

“The market is overshooting and getting ahead of itself like we saw late last year,” said Kevin Flanagan, head of fixed income strategy at WisdomTree.

“You need validation from more data.”

But sentiment has shifted shar ply after a string of data showed a softening job market and cool ing in segments of t he economy. On Friday, the Labor Depar tment repor ted that employers created just 114,000 jobs

in Ju ly, far shor t of what economists were forecasting, and t he unemployment rate unexpectedly rose.

After the Fed on Wednesday again held rates steady, t he data fanned worries t hat t he central bank has been too slow to react—just as it was in ra ising interest rates once inflation l ingered well after t he economy reopened f rom t he pandemic. T hat’s been reinforced by t he fact t hat central banks in Canada and Europe have already star ted easing pol icy.

Fears of a slow ing economy and Fed delays h ave cont ributed to a shar p selloff in US stocks last week, w it h sentiment f ur t her dented over t he weekend after Berkshire Hat haway Inc. slashed its stake in Apple Inc. by almost 50% as par t of a massive second-quar ter sell ing spree.

“T here’s been an absolutely enormous move in t he 2-year y ield in t he past 10 days or so. It’s hard to price a so-called safe-haven asset, it’s much harder to price riskier assets - stocks,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strateg ist at Interactive Brokers LLC. “And Warren Buffett’s decision to l ighten up his Apple position doesn’t help things f rom a sentiment perspective.”

Deeper cuts

ECONOMISTS ac ross Wall St reet h ave sta r ted ant ic ipat i ng a more agg ressive pace of Fed easing, w it h those at Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. pred icting half-percentage-point moves

Canada rejects Maduro’s claim of victory in Venezuela

By Brian Platt

CANADA cautiously waded into the Venezuelan election dispute,

the official results released by Nicolas Maduro’s government but stopping short of declaring opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez the rightful winner.

Pri me Mi n i ster Ju st i n Trudeau’s gove r nment, w hic h played an act

Group i n 2019, called for “a peacef u l, negot i ated and Venez uelan-led solut ion” to resolve t he c ri s i s and offe red to work w it h “pa

s

tne

n t he reg ion.” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, in a statement Sunday night, sa id t he data collected by independent obser vers “prov ides c red ible ev idence t hat t he resu lts cla imed by Maduro aut horities of t his election don’t reflect t he w i ll of t he Venezuelan people.” Her statement d idn’t mention Gonzalez by name.

Canada’s stand cont rasts w it h t he more d irect approach of President Joe Biden’s adm i n i st r at ion.

Secretar y of State Antony Bl inken

sa id T hursday t hat Gonzalez clearly won t he most votes in t he Ju ly 28 presidential election and called for a peacef u l transition of power Maduro decla red hi mself t he w i nne r b ut Venez u ela’s r eg i mecontrolled electoral authority, which says he won 52 percent of t he vote, has yet to release deta i led resu lts.

T he opposition has published records f rom about 80% of voting stations

t hat show Gonzalez secured at least 70% suppor t, spark ing nationw ide protests.

T he aut horitarian president has t hreatened to j a i l Gonzalez and banned oppos it ion leade r Ma ri a Corina Machado for fomenting d is-

The argument for a ‘no change’ tax audit

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, in a statement Sunday night, said the data collected by independent observers “provides credible evidence that the results claimed by Maduro authorities of this election don’t reflect the will of the Venezuelan people.” Her statement didn’t mention Gonzalez by name.

sent and alleged electoral meddl ing. Venez uelan voters t ur ned out i n la rge nu mbers and t he Canad i an gover nment “deeply reg rets t h at Venez u elan aut horit ies d i d not respect t hi s i mpressive c iv ic engagement by fa i l i ng to sh a re t he proof of t he resu lts,” Joly sa id. “We reiterate our call on t he Venez uelan aut horit ies to ensure t ranspa rency and publ i sh deta i led resu lts for all poll i ng stat ions.”

Last year, Canada took steps to restore ties w it h Maduro’s social ist gover nment, mark ing a tur naround after it had backed an earl ier push by Donald Trump’s administration to recogni ze for mer Nat ional Assembly President Juan Gua ido as Venezuela’s leader Maduro, whose reg ime has arrested at least 2,000 people since Monday for allegedly tr y ing to destabi l ize t he gover nment, has sa id t he latest international push against him w i ll fa i l. He has repeatedly described Gonzalez as “Gua ido 2.0.” Bloomberg

Grim milestones flash across Asian stocks as risk-off deepens

By Abhishek Vishnoi & Youkyung Lee

Aretal i at ion for

of Hezbolla h and

i

off

i als. T hi s “feels more l i ke a global

quit i es ri sk off i n gene r al and t he prof it tak i ng i s be i ng done i n sector s or geog r aphies t h at h ave done well,” sa i d Vey-Se r n L i ng, manag i ng d irector at Un ion Banca ire Privee. In Japan, t he Topi x and Ni kke i 225 gau ges sl id more t h an 7%

eac h i n ea rly t r ad i ng as i nvestor conf idence c ru mbled on a s ur ge i n t he yen, t i

The flight to safety has intensified after weak US economic data spurred concern that the Federal Reserve may have been behind the curve in cutting rates and will now likely need to ease monetary policy aggressively to head off a recession.

losses for t he two i ndexes to more t h an 20% eac h putt i ng t hem on t r ack for bea r ma rkets. Ta iwan Sem iconductor Manufact uri ng Co., t he la r gest stock on t he MSCI As i a gau ge by ma rket value, lost more t h an 7 pe rcent, d r agg i ng t he Ta iex lowe r w it h it. Sout h Korea’s benc h ma r k Kosp i Index sl id ove r 5% as t he rotat ion away f r om tec h - h eavy ma r kets i ntens i f ied. T he Kospi also took its losses f rom a Ju ly 11 peak to more t h an 10 pe rcent to head for a tec h n ical correct ion, w it h data show i ng t h at fore i gn i nvestor s led Monday’s selloff. A c irc uit breake r h alted t r ad i ng of Topi x f ut ures for about 10 m i nutes, w hi le Korea’s stock bour se also tempor a ri ly h alted sell orde r s for prog r am t r ad i ng i n t he Kospi afte r f ut ures on t he Kospi 200 Index plu nged more t h an 5 pe rcent. “Sent i ment towa rd stocks w i ll l i kely rema i n f r ag i le for now as t he ma rket debate w i ll l i kely rema i n on US soft-land i ng ve r s u s a recess ion, w it h t he next major labor ma rket

Atty. Jomel N. Manaig

ATAX LAW FOR BUSINESS

TAX assessment has always been part and parcel of doing business in the Philippines. Dreaded as it may be for taxpayers, it is an essential and integral procedure to determine whether taxpayers are indeed properly declaring their income and taxes.

Once the tax authorities conclude t heir examination, taxpayers wou ld be conf ronted w it h two choices: eit her to accept t he assessment of t he BIR and pay t he def iciency taxes or to d isag ree w it h t he f ind ings and ex haust all possible remedies to challenge the assessment. W hi le it is true t hat taxpayers are indeed faced w it h t hese two d ifferent choices, a closer look wou ld show t hat bot h of t hese “choices” actually spring f rom t he same source: t he issuance of a def iciency tax assessment.

T h at i s t he reg u la r cour se of t hings. If a Letter of Aut hority is issued, a def iciency tax assessment is bound to follow suit. Only t he amount of supposed deficiency taxes wou ld be deter mined in t he aud it. But shou ld t hat always be t he case?

Shou ld taxpayers always have to face alleged def iciency tax l iabi l ities during tax aud it?

I say it does not need to nor does it have to be t hat way.

A high ly f unctioning tax administration shou ld be able to not only identify t he misdeclarations of taxpayers but also acknowledge when taxpayers have properly and fa it hf u lly per for med t heir civ ic duty. T he issu ance of a Letter of Aut hority

should not automatically mean that a def iciency tax assessment is coming. In ot her jurisd ictions, a tax aud it may conclude to a “no change” tax aud it. “No change” means t hat t he taxpayer was able to substantiate and justify all t he items, f ind ings, and issues initially identif ied by t he revenue off icials. Since ever yt hing is substantiated and justif ied, t here shou ld be no adjustment to t he tax liability of the taxpayer which wou ld ot her w ise resu lt in a def iciency tax assessment. In ot her words, being audited does not automatically result in being assessed for deficiency taxes. Wit h all t he improvements t hat t he BIR is touting, a “no change” tax audit may be one of the more progressive innovations it can adopt. It can even be arg ued t hat it w i ll actually benef it t he BIR in t he long run. Nor mally, tax aud its are seen as ways for the BIR to generate more revenue f rom def iciency taxes owed by supposedly erring taxpayers. Since t he BIR wou ld be spend ing time and resources in tax aud its, it is only but log ical to t hink t hat t here shou ld be a retur n on t hese costs in t he for m of assessed def iciency taxes. Hav ing a “no change” aud it wou ld t hen mean t hat t he BIR wou ld spend on t he au-

In other jurisdictions, a tax audit may conclude to a “no change” tax audit. “No change” means that the taxpayer was able to substantiate and justify all the items, findings, and issues initially identified by the revenue officials. Since everything is substantiated and justified, there should be no adjustment to the tax liability of the taxpayer, which would otherwise result in a deficiency tax assessment. In other words, being audited does not automatically result in being assessed for deficiency taxes.

d it but not get anyt hing in retur n. W hile it may appear to be counterproductive, hav ing a “no change” tax aud it may actually help t he BIR save on costs and make its assessments more eff icient. Hav ing a “no change” tax aud it wou ld allow t he BIR to identify taxpayers t hat are fa it hf u l and trut hf u l in t heir respect ive tax declarations. T hese taxpayers may t hen be categorized as “low-risk” for taxpayer prof i l ing pur poses. Low-risk taxpayers may be g iven less priority when it comes to the selection of taxpayers to be audited. Identify ing and remov ing t he low-risk taxpayers f rom reg u lar and recurring aud its wou ld f ree up t he l imited resources of t he BIR and help it focus on med ium and highrisk taxpayers. In t he long run, it w i ll enable a more accurate risk-based approach, which w i ll y ield a higher retur n since t he subject of t he tax aud its wou ld predominantly target risk ier and actually erring taxpayers. T his is in l ine w it h hav ing a more responsive tax administration t hat leverages on a risk-based approach to max imize t he resu lts even w it h a l imited resource. T he “no change” tax aud it also has t he potential to improve and encour age better tax compl i ance among taxpayers. It is lamentable t hat taxpayers who are ver y much compl iant are oftentimes beg rudg-

North Korea deploys hundreds of new missile launchers at border

By Soo-Hyang Choi

North Korea said it deployed 250 new mobile launchers for ballistic missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes on South Korea and US bases in the country, in one of its biggest displays of its rocket prowess under leader Kim Jong Un.

A comm i ss i on i ng ce r emony

marked w it h cheering crowds and f ireworks was held in P yongyang on Sunday to transfer t he new mobi le launchers to f rontl ine mi l itar y units, t he off icial Korean Central News Agency sa id.

“T he rapidly chang ing global security env ironment and t he ind iscriminate expansion of US-led mi l itar y blocs lead us to t he conclusion t hat we need to more t horough ly and f u lly have our national nuclear capabi l ities and nuclear posture ready,” K im was quoted as say ing by KCNA.

Images released by state med ia ind icate t he launchers are capable of hold ing four missi les each and t he systems appear to be used to f ire off a shor t-range ballistic missile known as Hwasong 11D, weapons exper ts

Israel

Fsa id. T he missi le has been tested at d istances of between about 100 k ilometers to 300 k i lometers (62 mi les to 186 mi les), alt hough it was uncerta in whet her Nor t h Korea has actually produced 1,000 of t he missi les.

T he launchers can be kept hidden and rolled out for quick-fire strikes to send missi les to large par ts of Sout h Korea and US bases t here in a matter of minutes.

T h e deployments u nde r sco r e P yongyang’s t hreats to Sout h Korea t hat are “bot h nuclear and especially convent ional,” Vann Van D iepen, a for mer US gover nment off ic ial, w rote in a May ar ticle for t he 38 Nor t h Prog ram.

T he missi les are also par t of systems t hat Nor t h Korea has put on d isplay in recent mont hs for possible

Images released by state media indicate the launchers are capable of holding four missiles each and the systems appear to be used to fire off a short-range ballistic missile known as Hwasong 11D, weapons experts said. The missile has been tested at distances of between about 100 kilometers to 300 kilometers (62 miles to 186 miles), although it was uncertain whether North Korea has actually produced 1,000 of the missiles.

use by Russia for its war on Uk ra ine, Sout h Korean off icials have sa id. T he US, Sout h Korea and ot hers have accused Nor th Korea of sending massive amounts of ar ti ller y shells as well as its newest fami ly of shor trange ball istic missi les. P yongyang and Moscow have denied the charges.

and Mideast markets slide amid threat of Iranian attack

By Tugce Ozsoy

INANCIAL markets across the Middle East tumbled Monday, as concerns grew that Iran and reg ional militias are preparing an attack on Israel, potentially marking a fresh escalation in the reg ional conflict.

Israel’s equity benchmark, the TA35 Index, sl id as much as 3.1 percent, to trade at t he lowest since Februar y, extend ing last week’s 3 3 percent sl ide—t he biggest weekly loss since last October T he shekel fell as much as 1 percent aga inst t he dollar to trade nearly at a nine-mont h low, whi le its $3 bi ll ion eurobond maturing 2023 was quoted lower T he latest losses were sparked in par t by an Ax ios repor t t hat US Secretar y of State Antony Bl inken had

told his G-7 counter par ts t hat Iran and its ally Hezbolla h cou ld attack as early as Monday. Citing t hree unidentif ied sources briefed on the call, Ax ios sa id Bl inken saw t he attacks star ting in t he next 24 to 48 hours. Markets elsewhere in t he reg ion also fell, w it h t he Saud i Tadaw u l Index and Egypt’s Her mes benchmark shedd ing as much as 3.7 percent and 5.8 percent respect ively. Turkey’s Borsa Istanbu l 100 Index was t he hardest hit, sl id ing more t han 7% at one point. T he losses were compounded by the ongoing global equity rout, sparked by signs t he US economy is slow ing more t han expected. Reg ional stocks pared some falls after Iran said it w i ll punish Israel for t he assassinations of Hezbolla h and Hamas off icials but wants to avoid all out war

T he US is mov ing mi l itar y reinforcement to the region to help Israel, as it braces for the Iranian attack. But it is also pressing Israel to redouble negotiations for a Gaza cease-f ire to prevent t he nearly 10-mont h-long war f rom escalating. Hasna in Mal i k, head of equity strategy research at Tell imer, downplayed t he risk of a global or even reg ion-w ide impact, noting t hat major oil producing and tourism facilities in t he Middle East are d istant f rom t he confl ict zones of Israel and Lebanon. “T here has been an exchange of air attacks with Iran directly, albeit these have been ver y targeted or ver y well telegraphed,” Malik said. “However, a full inter-state

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Q2 growth at 6.3% possible, projects Moody’s Analytics

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

THE Philippine economy may have posted growth faster than 6 percent in the second quarter due to base effects, according to Moody’s Analytics.

In an economic brief on Monday, Moody’s Analytics said they expect the economy to post a growth of 6.3 percent, higher than the 5.7 percent posted in the first quarter.

If it becomes a reality, it would be the highest growth since the 6.4 percent first quarter of 2023. In the second quarter of last year, GDP growth grew only 4.3 percent, the lowest since the 3.8 contraction recorded in the first quarter of 2021.

“The result will be flattered by a low base effect,” Moody’s Analytics said. “Private consumption and investment growth will stay muted as high borrowing costs weigh on budgets.”

Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), household final consumption expenditures slowed to 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024. This was the slowest in 14

years, excluding the pandemic years.

Local economists actually expected Filipinos struggling with high commodity prices to continue cutting back on their spending, limiting the growth of the Philippine economy in the coming quarters.

(See: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2024/05/10/spendingcutbacks-to-continue-sayexperts/).

Apart from “muted” spending by households, Moody’s Analytics also expects a “slower increase in tourist arrivals.” This could also result in a scenario where “service exports lose some of their shine.”

Meanwhile, in a budget hearing session on Monday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan maintained that the economy is still on track to attain the targets set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) in June.

Balisacan said the Philippine economy is expected to expand by 6 to 7 percent in 2024; 6.5 to 7.5 in 2025; and 6.5 to 8 percent in 2026 up to 2028.

The official second-quarter and first-semester economic

PHL ‘overstaying’

in

LMIC

category, says House think tank

HIGHER incomes and not just an increase in job creation in sectors like agriculture will allow the Philippines to stop “overstaying” in the Lower Middle Income Country (LMIC) category, according to the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD).

In the CPBRD brief, the think tank of the House of Representatives agreed with Global Source analyst Diwa Guinigundo who said in 2023 that the country has had a seeming “perpetual engagement in this category.”

The brief found that if the country sees an increase in Services Value-Added per Worker (SVAPW), the probability of the country becoming an Upper Middle Income Country (UMIC) increases by 174.7 percentage points.

“The value-added per worker is being monitored by the PDP in the agriculture, fisheries, and forestry [AFF], industry, and services sectors as a measure of productivity,” the CPBRD brief stated.

“Ensuring that the per-worker value-added expands entails that the growth of economic contributions outpaces increases in the labor force,” it added.

The CPBRD brief stated that, based on another study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), middleincome countries, which include LMIC and UMIC countries, stay in their classification for 14 years and 28 years on average, respectively. However, the latest estimates of the World Bank showed the country has been an LMIC for 37 years. This means, the country has been overstaying in the income category for 11 years or more than a decade.

ThePhilippineshasbeenconsidered a lower middle income country since 1987. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2024/07/04/econ omy-must-grow-6in-2024-toreach-umic-goal/).

“By focusing on the time element, (the ADB study) contends that middle-income countries (LMICs and UMICs) are trapped if they have remained in this bracket longer than historical experience, that is, 14

years in the lower middle-band, and 28 years in the upper middle-income range,” the CPBRD brief stated.

High cost of doing business MEANWHILE, the brief said that apart from the need to address incomes, there are specific challenges that undermine the country’s efforts to reach UMIC status.

One of the major factors is the high cost of business in the country.

The CPBRD noted that, specifically, the “marginal increase” in the cost of business start-up procedures decreases the probability of attaining UMIC status by as much as 34.6 percentage points.

While some progress has been made by the Philippines to bring down this cost to 23.3 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) in 2019 from 29.7 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) in 2010, the country consistently imposes the highest cost, according to the brief.

The CPBRD said Malaysia is a far second at 11.1 percent, while the median for UMICs was only at 9.4 percent for the same period.

Meanwhile, high inflation is also a major factor. The CPBRD said marginal increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or inflation decreases the probability of attaining UMIC status by 8.8 percentage points.

The CPBRD said this is aligned with other studies that cited inflation as detriment to a country’s economic growth and development, particularly its impact on purchasing power.

Based on the data, the CPI reached 125.6 in June 2024, leading to a purchasing power estimate of 0.7962 centavos for every peso. This means Filipinos need to spend P120.38 today for P100 worth of items in 2018. The price to be paid by the poorest Filipinos is also steeper since the CPI for the Bottom 30 percent of the population reached 129.1 in June 2024.

(See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2024/07/06/june-inflation-at3-7-prices-still-hurt-poor/) See “LMIC,” A

performance of the country, Balisacan noted, will be released by the PSA on Thursday.

He added that the country is estimated to surpass the UpperMiddle-Income (UMIC) threshold by 2025.

However, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) chief added a qualifier in his statement at the House of Representatives plenary: “[This is provided] that the economy grows by at least the low end of the country’s growth target and that the average foreign exchange during this period does not exceed P58 to USD 1. Otherwise, reaching the UMIC status could be delayed to 2026.”

Apart from this, Balisacan said risks to the outlook include extreme natural disasters that are worsened by climate change. As such, this may undermine the growth of the agriculture sector.

Risks include potential adjustments in fare, wage, and service utility fees, which have the potential to significantly curb spending.

Balisacan said the possible spread

of other highly infectious animal diseases similar to African Swine Fever (ASF) poses downside risks.

Also, the passage of tax revenueeroding measures could threaten the country’s fiscal stability. He said delays in undertaking reforms could negatively affect the sustainability of long-term economic growth.

The Neda chief also said the weak absorptive capacity of implementing agencies and local government units may also delay the implementation of programs and projects in 2025. Prior experience in 2023, he noted, underscored the importance of preventing underspending and minimizing adverse impact on growth.

Balisacan said the country’s economic success as well as the implementation of the housing program, may also become a threat, particularly in increasing inflationary pressures that could “stall economic gains.”

“It is essential that we complement this growth with corresponding improvements in the labor force and capital accumulation to ensure sustained economic progress,” Balisacan said.

CENTRAL Luzon, the country’s rice granary, recorded the biggest agricultural damage following the onslaught of typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

In its latest bulletin, the DA said the agricultural damage in the region reached P3.04 billion, which affected 93,156 farmers and fisherfolk.

“Region 3 sustained the biggest damage,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa told reporters on Monday.

De Mesa said the production losses in Pampanga hit P589 million, followed by Nueva Ecija at P344 million; while Bulacan and Tarlac reached over P160 million.

The volume of production losses in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Soccsksargen and Caraga regions was pegged at 30,644 metric tons (MT).

Rice bore the brunt of the typhoon at 16,710 MT. Corn and high-value crops also sustained damage at 7,635 MT and 2,486 MT, respectively.

The department showed that of the 56,839 hectares (ha) of

agricultural areas affected by Typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon, 41,444 hectares have a chance of recovery.

Meanwhile, the DA recently reported that local farmers, fishers, and livestock raisers lost P15.30 billion due to El Niño.

In its final El Niño bulletin, the DA said the volume of production losses for agricultural and fishery areas across 15 regions was pegged at 784,344 MT. Palay and corn suffered the brunt of the weather phenomenon as it accounted for most of the damage at 330,717 MT and 327,310 MT, respectively. El Niño also damaged 112,681 MT of high-value crops, 2,320 MT of cassava, and 11,317 MT of aquaculture produce.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that palay production from January to June declined by 5.49 percent to 8.53 million metric tons (MMT) from 9.03 MMT recorded in the same period last year. De Mesa attributed the contraction to the weather phenomenon but maintained that it was within the projected threshold of 10 percent losses from El Niño.

“We’re still hopeful that we’ll meet the 20.44 MMT of palay production this year,” he said, speaking partly in Filipino.

By Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan

The Associated Press

AVIETNAMESE coast guard ship arrived in Manila on Monday for a four-day goodwill visit and joint exercises as the two countries attempt to put aside their own territorial disputes in the face of rising tensions with China over control of key features in the South China Sea.

The Philippines and Vietnam are among the most vocal critics of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters, a key global trade and security route. The neighboring Southeast Asian countries themselves have overlapping claims in the busy sea passage along with Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan and the disputes are regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the US-China regional rivalry.

As the host’s coast guard personnel waved Philippine and Vietnamese

flags and a brass band played under the morning sun at Manila’s harbor, a 2,400-ton Vietnamese coast guard ship with 80 crewmembers docked. Some of its officers saluted from the lower and upper decks of the 90-meter white ship.

During its stay in Manila, the two coast guard forces are expected to hold talks and tour each other’s ships. They will hold joint search and rescue drills along with fire and explosion contingency drills in Manila Bay, on the western coast of northern Philippines facing the South China Sea.

“This is a good template, a good way to de-escalate the situation,” Philippine coast guard spokesperson Rear Admiral Armand Balilo said. “This shows that even rival claimants can have an opportunity to nurture a relationship.”

Col. Hoang Quoc Dat, who headed the Vietnamese coast guard’s delegation, said in a speech that their Manila

port call was a way to strengthen the two countries’ “cooperative relationship for mutual benefit.”

“This will promote and enhance the efficiency of information sharing and the coordination in maritime law enforcement, in accordance with international law,” he said, and added such friendly collaboration contributes to “the preservation and protection of the region’s maritime security and safety.”

In a separate goodwill engagement last month, Vietnamese and Philippine navy forces played volleyball, football and tug-of-war games in the Vietnamoccupied Southwest Cay in the South China Sea’s hotly contested Spratly archipelago, according to Vietnamese and Philippine officials.

In June, Vietnam said it was ready to hold talks with the Philippines to settle their overlapping claims to the undersea continental shelf in the South China Sea, while China

has long claimed much of the entire seaway and vowed to defend its territorial interests at all costs. After a violent June 17 confrontation in the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea between Chinese forces—armed with knives, axe, and improvised spears— and Filipino navy personnel, China and the Philippines reached a temporary agreement last month to prevent further clashes that could spark a major armed conflict in the atoll. A week after the deal was forged, Philippine government personnel transported food and other supplies to Manila’s territorial ship outpost at the shoal, which has been closely guarded by the Chinese coast guard and navy ships, no confrontations were reported. The Philippines, however, has vowed to

with efforts to strengthen its

forces and defense and expand security alliances with Asian

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

TBy Lenie Lectura @llect ura

HE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Monday it will seek legal remedies after a local court issued a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against its competitive selection process (CSP) for its supply requirement of 1,000 megawatts.

PANGILINAN-LED Metro Pa-

cif ic Tollways Cor p. (MP TC) has recently acquired t he gover nment’s 2.61-percent stake in Nlex Cor p. for P2.5 bi ll ion.

MP TC President Rogel io Singson sa id t he sale is “a testament of t he company’s f u ll suppor t to t he gover nment’s effor t to for tify its monetar y chest.”

Singson also reaff ir med t he toll road company’s ded ication to supporting the gover nment’s efforts and its commitment to publ ic ser v ice.

l ine w it h t he principle of sub jud ice, Meralco w i ll ref ra i n f rom commenting on t he merits of t he ongoing legal proceed ings,” Valles added. Valles noted t hat all CSPs for its

supply requirements are done in ac-

cordance w it h ex isting ru les of Depar tment of Energy (DOE) and Energy Reg u lator y Commission (ERC).

“Notably, t he DOE has g ranted a Ce r t i f i cate of Confo r m i ty fo r Meralco to proceed w it h t he CSPs, and neit her t he DOE nor t he ERC has identif ied any irreg u larities in t he Ter ms of Reference (TOR) for t he 1000MW CSPs.

By law, t he DOE and ERC are t he administrative agencies t hat have primar y jurisd iction over CSP or bidd ing processes. Bot h play a crucial role in setting t he reg u lator y f ramework and ensuring t he integ rity of t he compet itive selection process for power supply,” he sa id. In its order issued Aug ust 2, Judge Antonio Ol ivete of Tag uig Reg ional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 267 extended t he TRO duration to 20 days after evaluating aff idav its and swor n testimony g iven by t he petitioner who war ned of t he bidd ings’ d isastrous impact on Malampaya gas and the future of t he countr y’s energy security. “W herefore premises considered,

t his Cour t resolves as it hereby resolves to EXTEND t he prev iously issued 72-HOUR TRO to 20-day TRO enjoining t he Mani la Electric Company, and all ot her persons, agents, indiv iduals, employees and representatives acting under its instructions and aut hority f rom conducting its compet itive bidd ing selection process (CSP), under its current Ter ms of Reference, includ ing t he receipt of bids, the awards and the implementation of any award arising therefrom,” t he order read.

T he 72-hour TRO was issued last Ju ly 31 by Executive Judge By ron San Pedro of Tag uig City RTC-Branch 15-FC.

T he TRO was in response to a petition for injunction f i led by operators of the Malampaya gas project against Meralco’s CSP for 600MW baseload capac ity sc hedu led last Aug u st 2 and t he 400MW mid-merit capacity orig inally schedu led on Aug ust 9. Cour t records, however, showed t hat t he bid submission deadl ine for t he 400MW capacity is schedu led on September 9.

By VG Cabuag

“We recognize t hat we, too, are in publ ic ser v ice under a private entity. Our commitment is to prov ide eff icient, safe, and convenient travel to our motoring publ ic, as well as connect people and transfor m communities,” he sa id in a statement. T he deal was f inal ized in a ceremonial signing last Aug ust 2 w it h off icials f rom toll road g iant led by Singson and MP TC Chief Finance Off icer Christopher Lizo, w it h t he Finance Secretar y Ralph G. Recto and Privatization Management Off ice Chief Maan Doctor Nlex spans about 105 k i lometer

AFTER 48 years since its establ ishment, Eter nal Gardens, g uided by its noble v ision of prov id ing t he best possible end-ofl ife care to its cl ients, has rose into becoming one of t he most trusted memorial park companies in the Philippines.

or 598 lane-kms. and ser v iced an average of 323,791 vehicles per day as of end-2023

Last May, Nlex announced t hat it allotted P12 bi ll ion in capital expend itures t his year to f und expansion projects.

T he f unds w i ll be used to complete Segment 3 and Segment 8.2 of t he Nor t h Lu zon Expressway, accord ing to Nlex Cor p. President Luig i Bautista. A 22.2-k i lomete r st retc h Segment 3 ru ns f rom San Fer nando Pampanga to t he Subic-Clark-Tarlac

Expressway.

Meanwhi le, Segment 8.2 is an 11.5-k i lometer section t hat w i ll l ink Carlos P Garcia Avenue in Di l iman, Quezon City to Segment 8.1 in Noval iches.

Bautista sa id Segment 3 now has an approved deta i led eng ineering design, which covers t he w idening of t he lanes in each d irection.

For 2024, Nlex expects t r aff ic to ri se between 5 pe rcent and 6 pe rcent to 370,000 ve hi cles pe r day f rom 3 50,000 da i ly t r aff ic i n 202 3 Lenie Lectura

The harsh reality of day trading: A caution from a former day trader

DAY trading is the practice of buying and selling financial securities on a set and desired timeframe, such as hourly, daily, or even weekly. Day t rad i ng appeals to u neducated and unsk i lled ord inar y investors si nce “g uru s” offer a d ream of a lav i sh l i festyle, whic h t

g u-

ru s boldly g u a rantee a da i ly prof it of 1 percent. Howeve r u nbeknownst to many, most day t raders lose money as t hese g uru s don’t reveal t he real it ies of day

s

Adve

t i sements and

nd iv iduals pu shi ng it por t ray it as easy and si mple. T hey suggest t h at it may be a prof itable side hu stle, but t he real ity i s sign i f icantly less glamorou s. Here a re some of t he reasons why you shou ld avoid day t rad i ng. Market volatility and unpredictability. T he f inancial markets

a r e plag u ed w i t h irr at i onal i ty, d riven by emot ions suc h as fea r and g reed. Day t r ad i ng exper ts typically teac h tec h n ical i nd icators to g uide t heir t rades. Tec hn ical analys i s, howeve r cannot

g u a rantee prof itable t rades consi stently becau se t hese i nd icators a re not per fect.

If you t hink you can outper for m

t he ma rket, reconsider If neces-

sa r y, g ive it some seriou s t hought.

“You can never pred ict wh at ma rkets w i ll do,” as long-ter m i nvestor

Wa rren Bu ffett rema rked. Lack of time and access to a library of reliable resources. Despite h av i ng a high ly educated and competent team and pools of resources at t heir d isposal, exper ts concede t he re i s no proof anyone can reg u la rly pred ict ma rket

c h anges.

W hen you dec ide to day t rade, you w i ll need to spend a considerable amou nt of t i me conduct i ng resea rc h mon itori ng t he ma rket and analyzi ng va riou s data before plac i ng your t rad i ng orders. Day trad ing demands a substan-

t i al amou nt of t i me, effor t, and foc u s, but t here i s no assurance

t h at you w i ll prof it f rom it on a consi stent basi s. Psychological and emotional stress. Once you sta r t day t radi ng, it w i ll cons u me yo ur l i fe. And i f you h ave ot her jobs or dut ies to per for m, t hi s w i ll be quite d i ff ic u lt. Can you complete your work eff ic iently whi le your m i nd i s elsewhere?

You w i ll always be t hink ing nonstop about your t rades. As you a re always ant ic ipat i ng events i n t he f i nanc i al ma rkets and h av i ng to take i mmed i ate act ion, your m i nd i s never at rest.

T he f i nanc i al ma rket i s

Elevated debt to accelerate economic recovery–Recto

By Reine Juvierre Alberto

FINANCE Secretary Ralph G. Recto told lawmakers last Monday that the country’s elevated debt is nothing to worry about and would help accelerate economic recovery.

t ional d i st ress w i ll occ ur C hron ic st ress can lead to ot her d i seases. Akin to gambling activities. Spec u lat i ng i n t he f i nanc i al ma rkets i s l i ke play i ng i n t he world’s la r gest cas i no. Day t r ade r s a re st i mu lated by t he same feel i ngs t h at casi no pat rons get when t hey play. You w i ll feel euphoric when your t r ansact ions y ield modest prof its but get depressed when you i nc ur losses. T hi s makes it high ly add ict ive. W hi le some of “g uru s” may a rg ue t h at developi ng sk i lls i s necessar y, it’s impor tant to remember t h at day t rad i ng also i nvolves sign i f icant luck. Very costly. T h e only way to beat t h e ma r ket i s to h ave i nfo r mat i on t h at no one else h as. B u t to obta i n t h at excl u s i ve knowledge, yo u ’ll need to pay a hi g h p ri ce fo r access to a la r ge n u mbe r of t ru stwo r t h y so ur ces. Yo u ’ll h ave to pay fo r a r ep u table t r ad i ng platfo r m, s u c h as t h e Bloombe r g te r m i nal, w hi c h costs

$24,000 pe r yea r To develop effect i ve t r ad i ng met hods, you mu st f irst u nderstand how t he ma rkets operate.

Books, sem i na r s, s u bsc ri pt ions and i n-dept h t ra i n i ngs w i ll all cost money. At t he same t i me, whet her you buy or sell, you mu st pay your broker ’s comm i ssion fees as well as taxes i n accordance w it h t heir local tax ru les.

Get-rich-quick scheme. T he majority of t hese t rad i ng g uru s a re merely sell i ng you a d ream.

Some even prov ide referral fees of 3 percent to 5 percent to encourage ot hers to joi n as well. In act u al ity, t he money i s made t hrough selli ng you t heir courses rat her t h an t hrough day t rad i ng.

Berkshire Hat h away generated compou nded yea rly ga i ns of 19.8 percent between 1965 and 2023 If day t rad ing g urus can offer a 1-percent da i ly prof it, a re t hey cla i m i ng to be better t h an t hese veterans? Besides, i f t hey’re so successf u l at day t rad i ng, why do t hey h ave to sell a course?

Wealt h c reat ion shou ld be approached w it h a long-ter m perspect ive. It i s du ll and bori ng. Befo r e yo u ri sk yo ur h a r dear ned

D uri ng del i be r at i ons at t h e Hou se of Representat ives on t he 2025 nat ional budget, Recto expla i ned t h at t h e co u nt r y’s debt mu st be compa red to t he si ze of t he economy to measure its capabi l ity to pay off its debts. Accord ing to t he Depar tment of Finance (DOF), t he ratio between t he countr y’s gover nment debt and its g ross domestic product (GDP), is seen to lower to 58.4 percent and w it hin t he inter nationally accepted t hreshold in 2027.

T he debt-to-GDP rat io is used to evaluate t he countr y’s economic stabi l ity and debt repayment abi l ity. From t he 60.9 percent debt-to-GDP ratio in 2022, as the countr y grappled w ith the Cov id-19 pandemic, it is currently at 60.15 percent. “We are deter mined to continue

Dbi ll ion and 364-day debt papers wor t h P7 bi ll ion. T he average y ields of 91-day T-bi lls increased to 5.828 percent f rom 5.779 percent in t he prev ious auct ion. Bids for t he 91-day T-bi lls ranged f rom 5.800 percent to 5.865 percent. Investors’ average ask ing y ield for t he 182-day T-bi lls also went up to 6.062 percent compa red to last week’s 6.014 percent. T he gover nment security rates settled between 6.019 percent and

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

OLLOWING Carlos Yulo’s victor y and the possibility of additional gold medals by Filipino athletes from the Olympics, the House Committee on Ways and Means last Monday approved a bill providing tax exemptions for donations to national athletes competing in international spor ts competitions. Hou se Comm ittee on Ways and Means Cha ir man Joey Sar te Salceda and Cama rines Sur Rep. Luis Ray F. Vi llaf uer te sa id t he leg islat ion, prev iously introduced in t he 18t h Cong ress as t he Hid i lyn Diaz Law, is now being reintroduced. Salceda and Vi llaf uer te, principal aut hors, sa id t he leg islat ion is also being proposed to honor Yu lo, t he f irst Fi l ipino Olympian to w in two consecut ive gold medals.

T he proposal a ims to exempt not only t he pri zes awarded by brands and companies after an at h lete w ins a gold medal but also t he donat ions made towards at h letes’ tra ining a year before t he compet it ion.

In his sponsorship remarks on t he measure, Salceda emphasi zed t hat “a 12-year-old Yu lo once gave an interv iew where he sa id t hat his d ream was to w in a gold medal for t he Phi l ippines in t he Olympics.”

“It took him more t han a decade to reac h t hat goal in t he g randest manner possible,” Salceda sa id. “W hat t hat teaches us is that the prize is never won

pushing it below 60 percent so we have enough buffer in case anot her crisis hits us. And to be clear, t here is nothing w rong w ith a countr y hav ing debts,” Recto emphasized. T he countr y’s debt-to-GDP ratio is projected at 60.6 percent in 2024, 60.4 percent in 2025, 60.2 percent in 2026 and 56. 3 percent in 2028, accord ing to t he DOF.

Higher debt, growing economy RECTO presented t he gover nment’s outstand i ng debt as of end-Ju ne 2024 amou nt i ng to P15.48 3 t ri ll ion. Long-te r m debts accou nted for 79.8 percent whi le med ium- and shor t-ter m debts made up 16 percent and 4.2 percent of t he total debt, respectively. Domest ic debt const it utes 68. 3 pe rcent w hi le fore i gn borrow i ngs

6.094 percent.

Investors’ average rate for t he 364day T-bi lls fetc hed 6.108 percent w it h a y ield range f rom a low of 6.040 percent to a high of 6.160 percent. T-bi lls’ y ields averaged 6.081 percent in t he Treasur y’s prev ious auct ion on Ju ly 29.

Meanwhi le, investors’ average rate for t he 364-day T-bi lls settled at 6.074 percent. T his is lower t han t he 6.108 percent ask ing y ield in t he last auct ion. T he Treasur y sa id t he auction was 2.4 t imes oversubscribed, attract ing P47. 3 bi ll ion in total tenders.

T he amount tendered per tenor was P12.791 bi ll ion for t he 91-day, P12.110 bi ll ion for t he 182-day and P22. 397 bi ll ion for t he 364-day T-bi lls. “Wit h its decision, t he Committee ra ised t he f u ll prog ram of P20.0 bi ll ion for t he auct ion,” t he Treasur y sa id in a statement. According to R izal Commercial Bank-

on the day of the competition itself, but years before. Hard work, deter mination, and sheer grit through many years of tra ining w in over talent.”

T he committee also approved t he prov i sions of t he bi ll, mak i ng t he exempt ion retroact ive to Januar y 1, 2024. Apa r t f rom exempt ing donat ions one year prior to t he date of compet it ion, Salceda also proposed t hat donat ions t hrough t he Phi l ippine Spor ts Commission (PSC) or t he Phi lippine Olympic Committee (POC) be made exempt f rom donat ions regardless of t ime. Salceda for wa rded an add it ional proposal to exempt donations from tax for t he ent ire tra ining of t he at h lete, prov ided that such donations are made t hrough t he POC or t he PSC.

“At t he proper t ime, t hat can be introduced in t he plenar y. But let me emphasi ze t his once aga in: it is mere tokenism, it is mere publ ic relat ions, to ride t he bandwagon when t he v ictor y has already been ac hieved. W hat we need to incent iv i ze are t he investments being made in t he at h letes who are st i ll work ing on w inning medals for t he countr y,” he added.

Swift plenary action

VILLAFUERTE has called for sw ift plenar y act ion follow ing t he committee’s approval of t he measure.

T he lawmaker is t he aut hor of HB 8226, one of t he bi lls incor porated into t he comm ittee-approved subst it ute bi ll, emphasi zed t he impor tance of

ing Cor p. (RCBC) C hief Economist Mic hael L. R icafor t, most of t he T-bi lls average auct ion y ields were sl ightly higher week-on-week, whic h is also simi la r to t he rise in t he compa rable shor t-ter m PHP BVAL y ields. T he upt ick came a day before t he release of the latest data on inflation, which is expected to pick up la rgely due to t he effects of t he recent Typhoon Carina and w idely expected interest rate cut of t he Bangko Sentral ng Pi l ipinas (BSP) t his coming Aug ust 15, R icafor t sa id. “Some

recogni zing t he pride and honor t hat Olympic medal ists bring to t he countr y. Vi llafer te stressed t he need for sports officials to prioritize developing non-traditional sports like gymnastics to secure more medals in f ut ure internat ional compet it ions.

“If we sharpen our focus on sports disciplines like gymnastics and hire A-1 coaches and trainers from overseas to mentor our promising athletes, I am sure we will be able to produce more medalists like Caloy in international sports events like the Olympic Games,” he added.

Vi llaf uer te’s bi ll seeks to amend Republ ic Act (RA) 10699, or t he “Nat ional At h letes, Coac hes, and Tra iners Benef its and Incent ives Act” of 2015, by adding a section that exempts incent ives and ot her for ms of emoluments received by Olympic medal ists and t heir coaches f rom any and all taxes.

Least Congress can do RA 10699 currently g rants benef its and incent ives to medal ists, including a P10 mi ll ion reward for Olympic gold medal ists, P5 mi ll ion for si lver medal ists, and

LEADERS

organized by BKR

Pacific at the Novotel Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia. The event brought together

from

Rosemarie Gases

Art BusinessMirror

Life never withers in Tia Avila’s maiden solo with MONO8

THAT humans share in common the life cycle of nature serves as the concept of the debut solo show of visual artist Tia Avila with MONO8.

Titled Seedgut, the show follows the artist’s penchant for exploring the parallels between people and plants, marked by birth, growth and inevitable decay. In her milestone presentation, curated by Filipino-Japanese art writer Sayoka Takemura, Avila blurs the lines between her two subjects of comparison.

“Avila presents the pivotal stages of life,” Takemura writes in the exhibit note, “from the beginning as an unborn o fspring to its reproduction and propagation, decay, and lourishing anew. However, unlike the common belief that there is a start and an end to one’s life, SEEDGUT shows that life is a continuum and, perhaps, there is no end to the possibilities of existence. Life is remembered by what grows from it or the way its essence perseveres as a di ferent living.”

Avila conveys the idea of perpetual life with spritely earth colors and assuring imagery. For instance, from the humans that end their journeys and leave no more than outlines of their existence, come petals that are just about to begin theirs. The remains, as Takemura interprets, leave a legacy from which new life takes form.

Alongside Avila’s solo presentation are two other exhibitions. MONO8 also presents an abstract showcase by an all-female ensemble from all over the country, titled In Another Sky, and a two-person

exhibition between artists Lui Gonzales and Ronyel Compra, titled Tactile Mantras.

The former takes cue from the Milagros T. Dumdum poetry collection “Falling on Quiet Waters,” where the forgotten is remembered, reanimated resurrected. This theme of a second lease on life gets visualized by In Another Sky’s diverse cast of female abstractionists who hail from di ferent parts of the nation. The list includes Erika Abe (Cavite), Grace Impas (Cebu), Jheane Borja (Cebu), Julia Borja (Cebu), Kelli Maeshiro (Hawaii), Leahrly Curitana (Aurora), epe Del in (Capiz) and Sam Bumanlag (Manila), who each present a distinct brand of abstraction. Together, the artworks and the exhibition concept invite the viewers to “re lect on the narrative inside Dumdum’s haikus and contemplate the endless possibilities the

sky o fers.”

Meanwhile, Tactile Mantras operates on the idea of mementos as stimuli to both the senses and memory. Lui Gonzales and Ronyel Compra are no strangers to the mechanisms of nostalgia, having explored the concept throughout their art careers.

In the show, Gonzales presents her signature imagery of layered drawings that symbolize the complexity of remembrance. Opposite her is Compra, who makes the return to oil painting from charcoal and natural pigment works. The switch delivers a rich depiction of his textured marks, alluding to the primal and survival instincts of people.

MONO8’s trio of exhibitions, Tactile Mantras, In Another Sky, and Seedgut, is on view until August 25 at the gallery’s space in Greenhills, San Juan City.

Fundacion Sansó exhibits diverse printmaking techniques

TO See the World in a Grain of Sand, an exhibition of various prints by students and artists, opened at the Fundacion Sansó in the City of San Juan.

The showcase, which features an extensive collection of 60 artworks, demonstrates various printmaking methods. ubbercut presents the reverse of a carved image, while monotype highlights impressions of the plate.

Drypoint demonstrates the engraving methodology of the cra t, whereas cyanotype produces a blueprint through the photographic process. Collagraph, on the other hand, exempli ies the versatility of the art where textured plate is inked up and put through a press.

Filipino artist-printmaker Virgilio “Pandy” Aviado in Tirada: 50 Years of Philippine Printmaking 1968-2018 (2020) by the Cultural Center of the Philippines derived the title from a line in Auguries of Innocence by English poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake. Aviado referenced Blake’s

etchings or intaglios, as he looks forward to the next years of Philippine Printmaking.

The initiative was organized by the Fine Arts in Culture-Based Arts Program of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in line with its

mission to mentor and empower the future generation of innovators, trailblazers, and creative leaders with a focus on living traditions and social engagements within the communities.

It is co-presented by Fundacion Sansó, an organization committed to spearheading multi-faceted projects, scholarships, and grants geared toward the development of the cultural sector.

It features students from the Benilde Fine Arts in Culture-Based Arts Program, as well as design foundation enrollees under a course in basic printmaking at the Benilde School of Arts, Culture and Performance.

The group was comprised of Antonio Joaquin Abquilan, Antonette Aquino, Mary Josephine Arnante, Daniel Bantolinao, Waine Allanis Bayson, Ysshi Carla, Dayne Camacho, Andi To-ong, Kamila Chan, Angel Cordova. Also on board were Alyssa Crisostomo, Mae dela Cruz, Reanna delos Reyes, Franz Robert Eros Deocariza and Iana de Villa, Yien

Enage, Lorenzo Miguel Figueroa, Angelo Gabriel Fuentebella, Kuan Gochoco, Jovienne Jorryn Gunay, Janelle Jose, Katherene Laurel and Christine Reyes Lao. Completing the roster were Carmela Marfori, Krysean Aebriana Mateo, Ashbel Mayrina, Jinna Morales, Tin Navarro, Angela Maxine Oblena, Gwen Querijero, ArJoe Santos, Ken Tejero, Eljin Ray Wagan, Ramon Floyd Sua, Antoinette Mikaela Sy, Zab Valenzuela, and Shai Viaña.

Joining in this event were awardwinning visual artists Mars Bugaoan, Benjamin Torrado Cabrera, Noel Farol, Ming Ong-Moya, and Benilde Fine Arts in Culture-Based Arts Program Chairperson Hershey Malinis.

To See the World in a Grain of Sand is free and open to the public. It is available on view from Saturday, August 3, 2024 to Saturday, August 17, 2024, at the Fundacion Sansó at 32 V. Cruz, San Juan, 1500 Metro Manila. More information is available at www.facebook.com/BenildeFineArtsCBA or www.instagram.com/benilde ineartscba.

By Eugenia Last

ARIES (March

what’s available to you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take charge and initiate the changes that will enhance your life. Participate in events or activities that will help you get ahead or introduce you to lifestyle changes that enrich your life and encourage saving.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Take more time to sort through options; if you act hastily, you’ll make a mistake. Channeling your energy into discovering what’s available and possible will help you avoid criticism and personal setbacks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You can talk your way into anything. Promote what you want to achieve, ask for help and set yourself up for advancement. Emotional situations require honesty to help you decide with whom to share your secrets or personal information. Romance is on the rise.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Invest more time in updates, and ensure you have the qualifications and resources needed to help you achieve your goals. Refrain from relying on others to pick up the slack or do the work for you. Hands-on is your best route to getting what you want done on time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Refuse any emotional strain outsiders cast your way. Stay focused on getting things done on time and being responsible and accurate. Pay attention to what others expect of you. Make changes as you go. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Learn from experience and situations that require handson help. Take care of meaningful relationships first to avoid emotional fallout. If you take someone for granted, the outcome will lead to the point of no return. Set priorities, high standards and boundaries.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Trust your judgment regarding your professional reputation. Be accommodating, but only share necessities. Giving compliments and being charming will help you avoid sensitive questions that may compromise your objective.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Gullibility will be your downfall. Don’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Clarity is necessary to avoid being taken advantage of or led astray. Applying minimalism to every aspect of your life will help clear your head.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’ve got what it takes to get things done. Seize the moment and forge ahead with confidence, skill and a smile. Surround yourself with people with something worthwhile to contribute, and don’t hesitate to assume a leadership position.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Protect your possessions and work on meaningful relationships. Set a budget and time limit to ensure success. Aim to ease stress and to free up time to do what makes you happy.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Simplify your life, relationships and goals. Adjust your attitude to ensure better health, emotional wellbeing and personal growth. Steer clear of situations that tempt you to ignore what’s important and give in to poor behavior. Choose your friends wisely.

BIRTHDAY BABY: You are thorough, flexible and original. You are sensitive and accountable.

BY DREW SCHMENNER

ECHOES of Home by Angelo Gabriel Fuentabella

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

With a $97M second weekend, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ sets a new high mark for R-rated films

The Associated Press NEW YORK A ter 10 days in theaters, Deadpool & Wolverine is already the highest-grossing -rated movie ever, not accounting for in lation.

In its second weekend, the Marvel Studios blockbuster starring yan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman continued to steamroll through movie theaters, collecting 7 million according to studio estimates on Sunday. That raised its two-week total to 3 5.6 million, pushing it past the long-reigning top -rated feature, The Passion of the Christ, which held that mark for 20 years with 370 million domestic. Worldwide, the Shawn Levy-directed Deadpool & Wolverine has quickly amassed 824.1 million in ticket sales, a total that already surpasses the global hauls of the irst two Deadpool ilms. The 2016 original grossed 782.6 million worldwide the 2018 sequel collected 734.5 million.

The weekend’s primary challengers both struggled.

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller Trap managed a modest opening of 15.6 million at 3,181 theaters for Warner Bros. The ilm, starring Josh Hartnett as a serial killer hunted by police at a pop concert, didn’t screen for critics before opening day and scored lower in reviews (48 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) than Shyamalan’s ilms typically do. Audiences gave it a “C ” CinemaScore.

With a budget of about 35 million that Shyamalan largely inances himself, Trap didn’t need a huge opening. But it may struggle to break even.

“This is a so t opening for an M. Night Shyamalan suspense crime thriller,” wrote David A. Gross, a ilm consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment. “The writer director’s movies outearn other original thrillers by a wide margin, and that’s true here, but this start is not on the level of recent Shyamalan ilms.”

The live-action Harold and the Purple Crayon, adapted from the classic kids book, also didn’t make much of a mark in theaters. The Sony Pictures release debuted with 6 million. It, too, got dinged by critics (28 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), though audiences (an “A-” CinemaScore) liked it more. Harold and the Purple Crayon, which stars Zachary Levi, cost about 40 million to make.

Twisters, the Universal Pictures disaster ilm, continues to kick up a storm at the box o ice. It held in second place with 22.7 million in its third weekend. Lee Isaac Chung’s sequel to the 1 6 original, starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, has racked up 1 5.6 million domestically. While it has made less of an impression overseas, Twisters is holding particularly well in North American theaters, down just 35 percent from the week prior.

Hollywood closed July with its best month in a year and its irst 1 billion month since July 2023. While comparisons to last year aren’t favorable July was when Barbie and Oppenheimer launched a pair of Walt Disney Co. releases in Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine (the two top ilms of the year) powered a banner month for the movie industry. There will still reminders, though, of harder times in cinemas earlier in the spring and early summer, when a sparse release calendar and a few notable lops put the box o ice at a de icit. On Friday, AMC Theatres, the largest North American chain, posted a 32.8 million loss for the second quarter of 2024. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.

1. Deadpool & Wolverine, 7 million

2.

Happy Heart

ALL seems to be light and bright in the universe of Heart Evangelista.

Amused that she is wearing many hats at this time in her very colorful life, Evangelista said that she is enjoying her many roles and is very pleased with the pace that she is in. Aside from being an actor, her glorious presence in many fashion and lifestyle events around the globe has been documented and talked about, and top-tier international brands seek her out and collaborate with her. She told us that she is irst and foremost a wife to her politician husband Chiz Escudero, who was elected Senate President two months ago. “On top of all the roles that I have is being a wife. I know my priorities,” she remarked. Evangelista also maintains a very good relationship with Escudero’s children Quino and Chesi.

Recently, Evangelista was tasked to head the Senate Spouses Foundation, and she admitted that initially it overwhelmed her. “I cried when I irst learned about it, because it seemed so daunting, and it is a huge responsibility. But when I understood what weight it carried and the many bene iciaries our projects will be able to help and reach, then I slowly grew into my new role, and, yes, the honest truth is that I am very happy that I was given this task, along with the members of the foundation.”

Evangelista quietly auctioned one of her handpainted Herm s bags and donated the amount to the foundation’s funds. During the a termath of typhoon Carina, the foundation distributed food items and relief packs to its chosen bene iciaries, and it also did not forget the a fected families of those who work in the senate and its allied services that rendered their services during the typhoon. The foundation also gave special attention to pet owners and their animals a fected by the lood through animal welfare organizations.

Turning 40 early next year, Evangelista has certainly transitioned into a woman of both beauty and purpose. We’ve known her since she was a giggly teen and saw her bloom, while taking to heart all the priceless lessons when she was getting in and out of

her romantic liaisons.

She learned early on that she did not have to have so many friends in the showbiz jungle, and she kept her inner circle small. But the friends she made, she kept and nurtured and valued. Among those she held dear was the late, great political icon Miriam Defensor-Santiago who always made time for Evangelista. “She is irreplaceable and I will always hold her dear to my heart. If there was an icon for a woman of courage and substance, it was her,” Evangelista once told us.

Just last week, Evangelista renewed her contract with her mother studio, GMA Network, where she has been cuddled and cared for for the last 16 years. “I am certainly happy with GMA and there is no other place I’d like to be at this time of my happy life.”

She looks forward to headline a project with

BROCKA X Bernal, a documentary on the life and work of Philippine National Artists for Film Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal, is set to be screened on August 8 at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay. The film highlights the profound impact of the two legendary directors of Philippine cinema. It provides a comprehensive portrait of the iconic auteurs as street parliamentarians. Their narratives battled political censorship, championed the rights of film workers, and demonstrated the power of artists in initiating social change. The docu examines how the creative geniuses used Manila and its inhabitants as a milieu and character which greatly affected the lives of Filipinos living in the metropolis. It further explores their influences through their major works, which projected critical reflections of the urban experience at the time: Brocka’s Maynila, Sa Kuko ng Liwanag (1975) and

a content that has never been done on Philippine television. “And I’d like to do a ilm that will have some of the best actors of di ferent generations as part of the cast too ” Aside from her pet dogs that continue to give her joy and unconditional love, Evangelista knows that things which really matter are the basic ones. She shared that peace of mind is priceless, and good health is one’s true wealth that relationships should be fostered and people need to make time for the ones they love and care for. She also said that mindset is important and what is in one’s thoughts are o ten manifested as one journeys into the future. “Always be kind. Always have a happy heart,” she always recites these a irmations in her mind.

Heart Evangelista was named “Love” when she was born. She is surely living up to her name. B5

Bernal’s Manila by Night (1980). A highlight is a series of intimate interviews with colleagues-turned-friends who knew them well: actors Gina Alajar, Bembol Roco and Cherie Gil, as well as directors Joey Reyes, Peque Gallaga and Mel Chionglo. Brocka X Bernal premieres will premiere as part of the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival 2024 of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

The piece, which runs for 42 minutes,

was co-directed by screenwriter, director and Carlos Palanca and Gawad CCP Para sa Sining Awardee Clodualdo del Mundo Jr., and award-winning filmmaker and writer Ida Anita del Mundo. The film was produced by the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Center for Campus Art under its director and curator architect Gerry Torres, in conjunction with the exhibition Brocka, Bernal, and the City. Tickets are available through www.sureseats.com.

GMA personalities were recognized at the 40th PMPC Star Awards for Movies held on July 21 at the Henry Lee Theater at Ateneo de Manila University. Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2023 and Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) 2024 big winner Fire ly continued its winning streak with several awards from the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC). Named as the New Movie Actress of the Year was Sparkle artist

FROM left: Dingdong Dantes, Alden Richards, Dustin Yu, Euwenn Mikael and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

Gokongwei Group companies ranked among top rms in naugura ortune out east sia

TWO Gokongwei Group conglomerates landed in the inaugural Fortune Southeast Asia 500 ranking for 2024, a first-time list of the largest companies in the region ranked by revenue for the 2023 fiscal year.

JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (JG Summit) ranked 55th among the 500 largest companies in Southeast Asia with reported revenues of $5,932.2 million. Meanwhile, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. (RRHI) placed 105th with reported revenues of $3,456 million. JG Summit and RRHI were among the elite 38 Philippine companies which made the list from seven Southeast Asian nations.

Fortune’s focus on the region

comes as Southeast Asia gains greater significance in the global economy due to shifting supply chains and the rapid development of the region’s economies. Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 includes top companies from the seven Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, and Cambodia. The new list highlights the growing importance of Southeast Asia in the global economy.

“We are capitalizing on our vast ecosystem, focusing on efficiencies and sustainability in our operations to accelerate our progress in this everchanging business landscape,” shared Lance Y. Gokongwei, president and CEO of JG Summit and head of the Gokongwei Group. “We continue to reshape our future by providing our customers with better choices and creating shared success with our stakeholders,” he added.

JG Summit’s and RRHI’s diverse portfolios span across multiple sectors.

JG Summit operates in various industries including food and beverage through Universal Robina Corporation, real estate through Robinsons Land Corporation, air transportation through Cebu Pacific Air, and petrochemicals through JG Summit Olefins Corporation. Meanwhile, RRHI is one of the Philippines’ largest multiformat

Well-deserved healthcare now closer to General Santos residents

IT started as a Barangay Health Center under the Lagao Regional Health Unit (RHU) in General Santos City. Today, it is known as the Baluan Rural Health Unit and is the 78th community health center refurbished by SM Foundation.

Located in Barangay Baluan, one of the 26 barangays that comprise General Santos City, the RHU also hosts the 205th FTS Wellness Center.

Through the years, the increase in the barangay population’s demands on the health center also grew. To ensure that essential health services will be continuously provided by the local health center, Ordinance No. 32 was enacted in 2015 integrating the Baluan Health Center and the Baluan Community Lying-in. Thus, the integrated facility was established on March 15, 2000 and renamed Baluan Rural Health Unit.

Its coverage area, aside from Baluan, includes Barangays Ligaya and Buayan. Baluan has a projected population of 12,464 while Ligaya and Buayan has 7.030 and

FOUNDEVER™, a global leader in the customer experience (CX) industry, celebrated diversity, equity and inclusion through two events during Pride Month in the Philippines. The first was the Pride March held at the Quezon City Circle, where the company fielded hundreds of Foundever associates to express support for acceptance and respect for the rights and dignity of the LBGTQIA+ community. The second event was their own Pride Summit, a special talk show featuring celebrity drag performer Eva Le Queen, LGBTQIA+ rights activist Jael Gonzales, and Pride at Foundever co-chair and Director of Operations Ethan Sarabia. Sarabia gave the Summit listeners a brief overview of Pride at Foundever, the company’s Employee Resource Group founded in 2021 for the LGBTQIA+ community and allies that integrate the values of diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in all the work sites of Foundever™ in the Philippines.

According to Sarabia, Foundever associates spend most of their time each week in the workplace, so, it is important that they find acceptance, respect and love within that environment. Only then can they work productively and give their best to their customers.

“Today, Foundever practices and policies exist to ensure that LGBTQIA+ rights are protected and that their professional and personal well-being are taken care of,” he said. For his part, Gonzales said that Foundever is not just giving lip service to the LGBTQIA+ community. Rather, it is truly committed to creating a workplace and a culture where members of all genders are accepted and allowed to thrive.

12,079, respectively. Monthly, the estimated number of consultations is 735. The RHU was able to log 658 immunizations from January to May; while 3,194 availed of the family planning services for the same period.

The RHU was previously located beside the barangay hall. In 2023, when a new barangay hall was constructed, the RHU was relocated to the old barangay hall which was more spacious.

Baluan RHU head Dr. Roland Basmillo recounted how their former buildings were not equipped to handle the growing population’s needs. Patients had no proper waiting area, often enduring the sun or rain, or even leaving without receiving care. “The old building was not that sufficient for the services being offered by a health center.”

For its manpower complement, the RHU has 23 staff composed of medical officer, nurses, midwives, medical technologist and other healthcare workers, and administrative officers being paid by the DOH and local government unit; and barangay health

and nutrition workers being paid by the barangay.

Last June, aligned with its advocacy to help community health centers deliver quality healthcare through the improvement of health facilities, SM Foundation turned over a refurbished RHU to Barangay Baluan. SM Foundation renovated the entire RHU building as the old building was no longer adequate to meet increasing demands and as the structure was beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

It is also aligned with SM Foundation’s commitment to help communities in GIDAS (Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas) that are commonly inhabited by IP communities. The barangay is home to members of the B’laan IP community, among other residents and the barangay’s name traces its roots to a B’laan term which refers to a creek.

The refurbished RHU now has an animal bite treatment room, an enhanced TB DOTS program, a laboratory for diagnostic tests, and a pharmacy. A room where minor surgery can be performed was also allocated. This is an important addition to the RHU as Barangay Baluan is accident-prone. Both the animal bite and treatment room and the minor surgical room will help reduce referrals to health facilities outside the barangay.

During the event, SM Foundation launched the first SM DigiKonsulta which aims to help the center hold virtual consultations, create patients’ electronic medical record (EMR), and enroll them to PhilHealth Konsulta. Two laptops were donated to the health center for the digitization of patients’ health records benefitting 31,573 residents of Barangay Baluan

retailers with a robust network of close to 2,400 stores including supermarkets, convenience stores, department stores, DIY stores, and specialty stores and over 2,100 franchised community drugstores under TGP.

The inclusion of the two Gokongwei Group conglomerates in Fortune Southeast Asia 500 is a demonstration of the group’s role in driving economic growth and development in the Philippines and the broader Southeast Asian region.

“The Fortune Southeast Asia 500 shows how fast the region is growing. Southeast Asia is becoming more important in the global economy as many multinational companies move their supply chains here,” said Clay Chandler, Executive Editor, Asia. The Fortune Southeast Asia 500 also highlights leadership trends in the region. About 30 companies are led by female CEOs and chairmen, and 16 leaders in their 30s hold top positions. The 500 companies on the list employ nearly 6 million people. By being on this list, JG Summit and Robinsons Retail join other premier companies recognized under the Fortune 500 franchise, which include the original Fortune 500, the Fortune Global 500, the Fortune Europe 500, and the Fortune China 500.

CHURCH SITE BLESSING AND TOPPING-OFF. Ayala Land recently commemorated the site blessing and topping-off ceremony for the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, located at Evo City, Cavite. As a 200-hectare masterplanned estate, Evo City is primed to be a vibrant hub of innovation and progress in the South, connecting Cavite, Laguna, and Metro Manila through major thoroughfares such as Cavitex and CALAX. Offering a complete mix of urban amenities, the estate integrates residential, commercial, recreational, retail, and institutional components. Following the groundbreaking of its South District and Technohub last March, Evo City maintains its commitment to fostering a community within the estate through the site blessing and topping-off of its church. Upon completion, the church will welcome over 1,000 visitors at a time Held onsite last July 16, 2024 and timed in celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the site blessing was led by Rev. Reynaldo Evangelista. In attendance were members of the Abaya family headed by Plaridel and Consuelo Abaya; members of the local government unit represented by Councilor Armie Aguinaldo; members of the Cavite diocese headed by Rev. Reynaldo Evangelista, and representatives from Alveo Land’s management committee, Jay Teodoro and Glorina de Castro. From L-R: Ms Glorina de Castro, Business Development Group Head, Alveo Land; Mr Jay Teodoro, General Manager for Estates Operations, Alveo

Enchanted Kingdom celebrates Eldar the Wizard’s magical birthday

EAlways be yourself, express freely and love with all your heart.”

Le Queen, who famously won third place at Season 1 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Philippines, and is the founder of Drag Playhouse PH, shared this message: “Practice who and what you want to be. If you want to be an honest person, don’t do it once or twice. Do it every day. If you want to be a superstar, act like one. Let’s live our truest, best expression of ourselves as human beings. Start from the moment you wake up. On top of being LGBTQIA+, practice being the best version of who you are, every day.”

LDAR the Wizard is the iconic character of Enchanted Kingdom, the first and only world class theme park in the Philippines. He is known to teach children to uphold the EK core values of Love of God, Respect, Integrity, Loyalty, and Innovativeness. As Eldar’s dream is to share joy, love, and magic with everyone, EK brings a month-long celebration in honor of the jolly and wise wizard. Eldar the Wizard celebrated his birthday last July 27, 2024 at the Eldar’s Theater. Guests enjoyed special access to surprising gifts, tasty treats, enchanting performances, and so much more. Kids and kids at heart got the chance to learn EK’s core values through fun and EKciting games and activities. To make the event more enchanting, Eldar and the rest of his storybook friends were there for this FUNtastic celebration. Eldar had an EKstra gift for everyone on his birthday. For only P1,200, enjoy one Regular Day Pass to EKsperience unlimited rides and attractions, one Eldar’s Purple Brew drink, and one P100 discount voucher for Eldarbranded merchandise when you book via the EK Online Store until August 31. Walk-in guests will also get to savor one Eldar’s Purple Brew drink!

The Eldar’s Birthday Treat Promo is valid for until August 31. Thinking about

where to use your Php100 discount voucher? Check out Eldar’s Specialty Shoppe!

Eldar’s Specialty Shoppe is EK’s flagship retail store featuring the jolly and wizard. Just last year, it won the highly-coveted International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Brass Ring Excellence Award for the Best Retail Visual Merchandise. There are adorable shirts, playful wizard costumes and hats, handcrafted accessories, Eldar pillows, Eldar keychains, animal plush toys and a variety of memorable items you can take home for guests of all ages.

For more information about Enchanted Kingdom and upcoming events, visit https://www.enchantedkingdom.ph and EK’s official social media accounts @ enchantedkingdom.ph for Facebook and Tiktok, and @ek_philippines for Twitter and Instagram.

Land; Mr Plaridel Abaya, Chairman and President, Kawit Prime Holdings Inc., Mrs. Consuelo Abaya, Kawit Prime Holdings, Inc.; Councilor Armie Aguinaldo of Kawit, Cavite; Rev. Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista; Mr. Andrew Abaya, Treasurer, Kawit Prime Holdings Inc.

THE waiting area of Baluan Regional Health Unit.

As India ages, secret shame emerges: Elders abandoned by their children

By Matt Sedensky Ap National Writer

GARHMUKTESHWAR, India—

They were found in gutters, on streets, in bushes. They were boarded on trains, deserted in hospitals, dumped at temples. They were sent away for being sick or outliving paychecks or simply growing too old.

By the time they reached this home for the aged and unwanted, many were too numb to speak.

Some took months to mouth the truth of how they came to spend their final days in exile.

“They said, ‘Taking care of him is not our cup of tea,’” says Amirchand Sharma, 65, a retired policeman whose sons left him to die near the river after he was badly hurt in an accident. “They said, ‘Throw him away.’”

In its traditions, in its religious tenets and in its laws, India has long cemented the belief that it is a child’s duty to care for his aging parents. But in a land known for revering its elderly, a secret shame has emerged: A burgeoning population of older people abandoned by their own families.

This is a country where grandparents routinely share a roof with children and grandchildren, and where the expectation that the young care for the old is so ingrained in the national ethos that nursing homes are a relative rarity and hiring caregivers is often seen as taboo. But expanding lifespans have brought ballooning caregiving pressure, a wave of urbanization has driven many young far from their home villages and a creeping Western influence has begun eroding the tradition of multigenerational living.

Courtrooms swell with thousands of cases of parents seeking help from their children. Footpaths and alleys are crowded with older people who now call them home. And a cottage industry of nonprofits for the abandoned has sprouted, operating a constantly growing number of shelters that continually fill.

This is one of them.

The Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society, known as SHEOWS, houses about 320 people on 16 acres of land in this small north Indian city. Nearly all of them were abandoned by their families.

One woman spent more than eight years living at a faraway temple where she was deserted by her children. Another tells of a son she loved who forced her out, saying if she didn’t leave, his wife would. A man sitting atop a bed with sheets adorned with teddy bears and smiling anthropomorphic mushrooms was left to die on the street, arriving here so starved that he ate 22 rotis, one after another after another.

Birbati, the lead caregiver in the women’s building, who does not use a surname, says after years of tending to the abandoned, she finds some of them visiting in her dreams.

“Each of them has a story,” she says. “All are sad stories.”

Where growing old is new WEALTHY countries have grappled with aging societies for decades, but the issue is only now beginning to ripple in the developing world, where the idea of growing old is still new for swaths of the population.

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population of people 60

and older will reside outside the world’s wealthiest nations. India is projected to see growth among its old that far outstrips that of the young.

Already, the curses of that demographic shift have begun to emerge alongside its blessings. An Indian born just 70 years ago was forecast to live nearly half as long as one today. But longer lives have often brought with them greater medical need and thrust the next generation into economic binds that force them to balance the needs of their parents with the needs of their own children.

By tradition, Indian parents live with a son, who is responsible for their care, though in practice, the work typically falls to women. That remains the norm, but a growing number of older Indians now have absentee children and inadequate help to keep up with expenses or care. Others feel forced to leave homes where toxic feuds fester.

And, in the very worst cases, parents are ousted from their home by a child in a dispute over money or in a wits-end solution to incontinence they can’t stomach or dementia they can’t handle.

Driven from their homes, these elders end up begging on the streets or, if they’re lucky, in a shelter like this, where separate buildings for men and women overlook a sun-soaked lawn with towering palms and a fountain ringed by rose bushes. Monkeys crisscross the roof of an on-site hospital while inside, in its small physical therapy room, a doctor tries to coax a patient’s arthritic knees to work.

The patient, Rajhu Phooljale, has his black pants rolled up, and around his right ankle, he has tied black thread to ward off evil. He says he is 65, but like many older Indians, isn’t entirely certain of his age. How he ended up here, though, he can’t forget.

Phooljale was working as a cook and living with his wife and two adult sons when he was hit by a motorist and left initially unable to walk and permanently blinded. He could not work. His wife left him.

His sons told him they arranged for surgery in New Delhi, far from their home in the country’s center, and when they arrived at the hospital, they told him to sit while they went off to consult a doctor.

“Wait here,” they said. But they never returned.

For two or three days, Phooljale stayed on the grounds of a hospital in a strange city in a world that, for a man newly blind, had just gone black. He went hungry and thirsty and broke down in tears. A hospital staffer eventually called the police, who in turn alerted SHEOWS, which picked him up.

It has been about two years since then and Phooljale has not heard anything from his sons. He doesn’t even have a photograph of them. He wonders if they think he is dead.

“I nurtured them from the time they were small,” he says. “Isn’t it their duty to take care of me?”

He clutches the side of his head and sobs as he speaks.

Through the window of the therapy room is a hospital ward full of patients with similar stories and, outside, there are two more buildings with hundreds more.

The scene repeats at three other sites run by SHEOWS and the constellation of other organizations’ shelters dotting this vast subcontinent.

Scouring the streets IN New Delhi, about 60 miles and a world away from the dirt roads of Garhmukteshwar, a two-man SHEOWS crew inches an ambulance through the capital’s choked thoroughfares, where cows amble beside clusters of tuk-tuks and vendors pile their carts high with perfectly stacked fruit.

On streets overflowing with humanity, there is no shortage of heartache and, with traffic snarled, the men study the streets’ edges looking for signs of someone old and in need.

They pull over to check on a shoeless man with a torn shirt lying on the side of the road, and another man who is sitting at the riverbank with all his belongings stuffed in two rice bags.

“Do you have a son?” asks the ambulance’s driver, Rinku Semar. “Do you have a daughter?”

Some approached by Semar and his partner, Avanish Kumar, refuse to go with them. Others appear drunk or drugged and are disqualified from being taken to one of SHEOWS’ shelters. As an orange sun descends in a hazy sky, they pick up a man named Atmaram whose jeans and shirt are worn and dirty and who drags a sack with a blanket and his other belongings. Inside the ambulance, flashes of red and blue strobes ricochet and the siren buffets a nearby mosque’s blaring call to prayer.

Atmaram doesn’t use a surname and doesn’t know his age. A few white hairs sprout from his nearly bald head, his left eye is clouded by cataracts and most of his teeth are gone.

The ambulance arrives at SHEOWS’ newest shelter, where seesaws and swings hint at the property’s former life as a school. Atmaram is shown to a shower, where the pool of water beneath him turns brown as a caregiver scrubs his legs with a pink bar of soap. Both men are silent.

The stories of the abandoned are often incomplete, riddled with holes punched by time, their reticence and, sometimes, the fog of dementia. Atmaram is no different and, this night, has no explanation for why he was living on the street. Basic questions, such as whether he has any children,

are unanswered.

Some clues drip out in the days to come: He used to make clay pots. He and his brother shared a home with their respective wives. His wife died, then his brother. Then, his sister-in-law forced him out.

“This house is not yours,” he says she told him.

His shower is done and Atmaram is given fresh clothes and served a hot meal on a metal tray before being shown to a bed in a communal room. The shelter’s staff has repeated this routine many times but none utters what they know to be true: Few who arrive here will ever see their families again.

“They say, ‘He’ll come back one day,’” says Saurabh Bhagat, the 35-year-old leader of SHEOWS, the organization his father founded. “But almost none of them ever come back.”

‘How can children do this?’ THOUGH most who are taken in by SHEOWS come from New Delhi’s streets and spend time in one of the organization’s city shelters, in time most end up here, at its largest site in Garhmukteshwar.

The center’s staffers are a stand-in for absent families and are quick with a caring touch or extra helping of food. And as caregivers’ years here pass, each amasses memories of cases that haunt them.

The old man whose leg was so infested with maggots he spent a month hospitalized. The woman who looked like a skeleton when she was found shivering in the bushes on a winter day that would be her last. A man with dementia often seen crying but unable to say why.

“How can children do this?” the home’s manager, 30-year-old Naved Khan, asks in disbelief. Each who comes here has a different answer, but similarities emerge. Again and again, they tell of being turned away when their needs grew too great, when finances got too tight or when the strife of a packed house was too much to bear. Men outnumber women. Many are in declining health. Dementia and mental illness are common. Most have outlived their spouse, a crucial line of protection.

Shushila Jain, who is about 80, pushes a plastic chair as a makeshift walker and, looking around the room at so many others like her, believes they are living in what Hindus call Kali Yuga, the worst of times, a period marked by conflict and cataclysm. She raised two sons and two daughters and cared for her husband and in-laws and three grandsons, too. But no one reciprocated as her own needs grew.

Left to die alone

NEATLY planted rows of vegetables cut across the Garhmukteshwar property’s midsection, a limp Indian flag comes to life with a breeze and a wall along the perimeter is painted with messages of hope.

“Keep Smiling.” “Love and Respect Old Age People.” “Be Happy & You’ll Fly.” Places like this weren’t supposed to be needed.

Parliament passed the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act in 2007 to ensure grown children and grandchildren provide for their aged relatives.

India’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, which oversees the law, has not released data on the number of claims it has received. One mid-sized state, Kerala, said in 2022 that its dozens of tribunals had processed some 20,000 cases since the law’s passage, a microcosm of the national total.

“I never thought it would come to this,” she says.

Bhagat’s father, Girdhar Prasad Bhagat, started SHEOWS two decades ago when he began seeing India’s cherished traditions flouted and elderly people left in New Delhi’s streets.

He’d heard of people abandoning their parents before, most notably in the northern city of Vrindavan. For hundreds of years, its serpentine maze of temple-lined streets and alleys have drawn widows whose families abandoned them after the death of their husbands left them branded as purveyors of bad luck.

As the elder Bhagat moved through New Delhi’s streets, though, he saw something new.

A problem that was once concentrated in a single place, driven by religious and cultural issues on society’s edges, was now finding a foothold among a broader crosssection of people in a much wider swath of the country.

SHEOWS has taken in 10,000 people since its founding, but there is no reliable tally of India’s total population of abandoned elders. In cities across the country, organizations that care for the abandoned say a simmering decadesold problem has grown far worse in recent years.

SHEOWS opened a second shelter, then a third, then a fourth.

Similar organizations have done the same, some with the backing of billionaire philanthropists like Azim Premji and MacKenzie Scott.

The problem has only continued to grow.

It comes even as India, now the world’s most populous country, has experienced decades of phenomenal growth in which billionaires were made but inequities also deepened.

The backgrounds of many here might be surprising, including academics, businesspeople and professionals. SHEOWS residents are more likely to hail from middle-class families than poor ones.

Still, economics are a major driver of abandonment. Most older people in India do not receive a pension, government assistance or health insurance and families are often looked to for support.

Annapurna Devi Pandey, an anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose research has taken her to homes for the abandoned in her native India, says respect for elders remains ingrained in society, but some must make a difficult choice between caring for their children or their parents.

“The sense of duty,” she says, “becomes kind of an existential issue.”

Surveys show the vast majority of seniors are completely unaware of their rights under the maintenance act. Even if they do know, many are unlikely to take their kin to court.

Bhagat, the leader of SHEOWS, says he’s not aware of a single resident of his shelters who has pursued a case. Many concede their fates and remain protective of the children that have deserted them.

A feeling of acceptance is pervasive here. Those who call this home may have been cast away by their families, but they have been saved from the streets. Comfort comes with the rhythm of reliable meals and afternoon teas and their own quiet prayers. Castes disappear and friendships bloom.

More striking than the gravity of the stories or the weight of the sorrows is the warmth residents exude. Wide smiles spread across weathered faces as hands are pressed together in a sign of welcome or placed on a visitor’s head, gently mussing their hair to extend a blessing.

“It’s not that they don’t miss their families,” Bhagat says, “but I’ve seen a lot of broken people heal over time.”

Most who arrive here end up staying several years. Some have been here since it opened.

Tucked in one corner of the center’s hospital are piles of folders, one for each resident, stashed in cubbies. Each amounts to an individual’s history here, beginning with where they were found. A woman dumped at a Sikh gurdwara. A man lying in the street. A woman left at a police station.

One pile of folders is of those whose son or daughter came back for them, filled out paperwork for their release and pressed a purple thumbprint on it to make it official. But far more files grow fat and tattered until one final insertion is made, a thin strip of grid paper with the flat lines of an EKG.

It is left unsaid when someone arrives here: More than likely, this is the place they will die.

When it happens, caregivers bathe and dress the dead, then take the body to the river, where they rub it in ghee and set it aflame. No family will come to mourn them and no words of remembrance are spoken. A bed is freed and, soon, a new resident arrives.

This is the first in a series of stories from the AP about aging in the de veloping world. Matt Sedensky reported from se ven shelters for abandoned elders in four Indian cities and inter v iewed more than 70 exiles, ad vocates, caregi vers and other experts. He can be reached at msedensky @ ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky.

AVANISH

transporting him to the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society, or SHEOWS, a home for the aged and unwanted, Thursday, April 11, 2024, in New Delhi, India. AP/DAVID GOLDMAN

Yulo top of mind in GOAT debate, says POC’s Bambol

PARIS—A

spectacular and historic way by winning two gold medals.

“It took three generations for Hidilyn [Diaz] to win our first Olympic gold in Tokyo and it took another Olympic cycle to double that achievement,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino on Monday, the morning after Yulo’s amazing Paris weekend where he won the floor exercise on Saturday and the vault on Sunday.

“Answered prayers,” said Tolentino, in an almost hoarse voice as he incessantly cheers every Filipino competing in this Paris Olympics.

“Caloy Yulo is definitely on a different level, with two Olympic gold medals, he will be on top of the conversation as the Philippines’ greatest athlete,” he said. “Mabuhay ka Caloy Yulo! The most bemedalled Pinoy athlete!”

“Caloy is the most bemedaled athlete in Philippine history with 23 gold medals and a total of 38 medals,” said Tolentino, adding Lydia De Vega and Elma Muros-Posadas each won 24 medals in their careers. “We all love them.”

The celebration, Tolentino said, is not over— especially the expectation for more gold medals.

“EJ [Obiena] and Aira [Villegas] and Nesthy [Petecio] are to go on board and the confidence level for them to succed is that high,” Tolentino said. Obiena was to compete in the men’s pole vault final on Monday night while flyweight Villegas and featherweight Petecio, both guaranteed with a bronze each, fight for berths in the boxing finals this week. Jun Lomibao

AYulocomesonce inahundredyears

By Jun Lomibao

PARIS—The King. The Greatest. With two gold medals, Carlos “Caloy” Yulo can be the King and Greatest Filipino athlete at the same time.

“What Caloy did for Philippine sports happened only once in a hundred years,” said an ecstatic Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino. “He will be on top of the conversation as the Philippines’ greatest athlete.”

Paris 2024 marked the 100th year anniversary of Philippines Olympic participation which, interestingly, was also in Paris 1924 with swimmer David Nepomuceno as the country’s sole representative.

Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo broke the gold medal drought with her victory in weightlifting in Tokyo 2020, but missed Paris because the women’s 55 kgs is not in the Olympic program this time.

Yulo was a first-timer in Tokyo and failed to impact. Three years later, he did twice over and he couldn’t forget that July 27 evening in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympic Village when he felt and touched every millimeter of DiazNaranjo’s gold medal, even its lanyard.

“I won’t forget that moment, when I was with Ate Hidilyn at the village and requested her to allow me to feel her gold medal,” Yulo said. “That stuck in my heart and mind and I told myself ‘someday, it will be my turn, someday it will be me with a gold medal.”

Exactly 1,104 days after Diaz-

Naranjo triumphed at the Tokyo Dome, Yulo won the floor exercise for his first gold medal. After another sleepless night, he won his second in vault.

“Prayers answered,” Tolentino said.

“God loves Caloy, Gods loves us all,” said Cynthia Carrion-Norton, president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines.

“I’m very grateful to God, He gave me this one, He made me strong and healthy for these gold medals,” Yulo said. With Yulo’s golds—plus the

PARIS—The campaign for more gold medals start in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday with flyweight Aira Villegas targeting a berth in the gold medal round against Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu. Featherweight Nesthy Petecio will do the same on Wednesday opposite Poland’s Julia Szeremeta with both

bronze medals of Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas which could be gold medals, too, if they win two more times in boxing—the Philippines already overachieved from the Tokyo yield of one gold and the two silvers from Petecio and Carlo Paalam and bronze from Eumir

The Philippines shared 21st place in the medals table—pending the two boxing medals—with Azerbaijan and Serbia, the first time to

Ricky Vargas, president of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, expressed confidence over Villegas, an Olympic first timer, and Petecio, silver medalist in Tokyo, who have impressed in their first three fights.

PARIS—Winning in the Olympics is a collaborative and team effort, said Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Richard Bachmann as he praised Carlos Yulo for winning two individual gymnastics gold medals at the Paris Olympics.

“It was destiny shaped by everyone’s efforts,” Bachmann said. “Thanks to everyone’s support and the nation celebrates these milestones.”

Bachmann has been supporting the Filipino athletes’ campaign from day zero of the Olympics, witnessing the gallant effort of those who exited from the games and those left standing to shoot for gold medals.

“We commend everyone’s involvement in bringing the country back to glory. I am confident that all Filipinos are celebrating this special achievement like never before,” Bachmann said. Bachmann also confirmed that Yulo

will be receiving in cash incentives a total of P20 million under Republic Act 9064 or the Athletes and Coaches Incentive Act that rewards P10 million for an Olympic gold medal. The PSC and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. are already processing the cash incentives that are expected to be awarded to the medalists in a courtesy call with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacanang.

Boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas are assured of a bronze medal each but are still capable of winning golds, while Ernest John “EJ” Obiena competed in men’s pole vault final on Monday night (dawn in Manila).

Yulo’s rare double-gold medal showing, Bachmann said, won’t be possible without the help of Team Yulo—his Filipino coach Aldrin Castaneda, a therapist and gymnastics association president Cynthia Carreon. Jun Lomibao

independent identity. Chinese students and undercover officers living abroad are frequently deployed to disrupt support for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and the traditionally Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang, according to Taiwan’s de-facto ambassador to France, Wu Chih-chung.

World Federation did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the situation.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary and rejects all manifestations of the island’s

China constantly subjects Taiwan to political isolation and military threats, and the island is only allowed to participate in the Olympics and other international competitions under the name Chinese Taipei. It cannot fly its own flag or play its national anthem. Despite that, Taiwanese fans at the match sang the anthem during the medal ceremony, drawing a huge wave of support online and in local media.

It was gold and diamonds for China badminton player Huang Ya Qiong when he and partner Zheng Siwei beat South Korea’s Kim Won-

ho and Jeong Na-eun, 21-8, 21-11, in mixed doubles to cap an unbeaten run in Paris.

Wearing the gold medal hung around her neck, she said yes to a wedding proposal by Li Yuchen, another member of China’s badminton team.

“For me, the proposal is very surprising because I have been preparing for the game,” Huang said through an interpreter. “Today I am an Olympic champion and I got proposed [to], so that’s something I didn’t expect.”

Huang and Zheng, silver medalists at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, went 3-0 in group play to earn the top seed in the quarterfinals. They finished the tournament 6-0 without losing a game in the process.

Zheng said he got engaged three years ago after losing in the final and considers this a better experience for her partner.

“I think it must be happier

“They’re doing very well,” said Vargas, who cheered for the boxing team in the earlier rounds which were played at the Paris North Arena with the medal rounds moving to the famed Roland Garros, home of the French Open in tennis.

“I have realized my dream to be in the Olympics and I now have a medal, but I won’t settle for nothing less than a gold medal,” Villegas told reporters after frustrating Wassila Lkhadiri in a closely fought quarterfinal, 3-2, and her loudly cheering French fans two nights ago.

to those gymnast Carlos Yulo won in floor exercise score, but didn’t throw enough effective punches to bow out of medal contention. The Tacloban City native’s victory on Saturday atoned for the 3-2 loss of Tokyo silver medalist Carlo Paalam in the afternoon to Australia’s Charlie Senior. Cakiroglu reached the semifinal via a 5-0 victory over Finland’s Pihla Kaivo-oja in the other quarterfinal Saturday. Petecio is coming off a masterful victory over China’s Xu Zichun in their quarterfinals duel on Sunday afternoon with the Filipina making the fight look like a clinic.

The other semifinal in Villegas’s division pits China’s Wu Yu of China against Kazakhstan’s Nazym Kyzaibay.

The Villegas will keep Filipinos at home awake—it’s set at 10:18 p.m. or 4:18 a.m. Wednesday in Manila.

Petecio’s semifinal against the Pole, meanwhile, scheduled at 9:46 p.m. Wednesday or 3:46 a.m. Thursday in Manila.

“I believe Nesthy and Aira are in their best elements and both of them have the capability to reach the finals,” Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said.

Villegas’s resilience was put to test against Lkhadiri who kept the French hope afloat the entire bout—yielding the first, 3-2, won the second by the same

for her,” he said. “Last time it was purely for my proposal, but this time is basically double lucky things happening at the same time.”

Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino beat South Korea’s Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jung 21-13, 22-

Displaying savvy and skills that are a vast improvement from her campaign in Tokyo three years ago, Petecio looked all primed up for a potential gold medal showdown with division top seed Lin Yu Ting, one of two boxers at the Paris Olympics embroiled in a global gender issue. Lin, a two-time world champion and Asian Games and Asian titlist, fights Turkeys Yildiz Kahraman Esra in the semifinals on August 7. Jun Lomibao

FOCUS shifts to Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas as they look to secure places in the finals. AP

TOLENTINO

BACHMANN