HIGHER revenues and a decline in expenses helped boost the net income of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in the January to July period, making it the highest figure to date. Based on the data, the BSP posted a net income of P95.2 billion in the January to July 2024 period. This represented a 414.59-percent growth from the P18.5 billion recorded in the
same period last year. Prior to this, the highest income recorded since 2011 was P94.6 billion posted in the January to September period in 2022.
Data showed revenues reached P190.6 billion in the January to July period this year, a 57.1-percent growth from the P121.3 billion posted in the same period last year.
Expenses, meanwhile, declined to P125.7 billion in the seven-month period of 2024, which was an 8.3-percent
contraction from the P137.1 billion posted in the same period last year.
The data also showed the BSP recorded a net income/ (loss) before net gain/(Loss) on FX rates fluctuation, income tax expense/(benefit) and capital reserves of P64.9 billion in January to July 2024, a 510.76-percent growth from the loss of P15.8 billion in the same period last year.
The BSP also recorded a net gain on foreign exchange rate fluctuations which amounted to
P30.4 billion in January to July 2024. This was an 11.37-percent contraction from the P34.3 billion posted in the same period last year.
The central bank explained that this includes trading gains/losses, fees, penalties and other operating income, among others.
However, BSP said starting with the end-December 2022 report, data on net trading losses are excluded and instead recorded as part of “Other Expenses.”
BIR CLARIFIES POWER FIRMS’ TAXES PER
By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) clarified certain provisions in Republic Act No. 11976 or the Ease of Paying Taxes Act (EOPT) to ensure tax obligations of the power sectors are aligned with the law.
website on October 21, affecting generation, transmission and distribution companies, as well as electric cooperatives and retail electricity suppliers. The BIR said distribution utilities (DUs), electric cooperatives (ECs) and retail electricity suppliers (RES) cannot claim
the
ENCOURAGING greater competition in the rice trade could lift at least 2.9 million Filipinos out of poverty, according to a new study by local economists.
In a chapter of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) book on competition, economists Karl Robert Jandoc, Geoffrey Ducanes, and Irene Jo Arzadon said the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) raised concerns about rice cartels among mill operators and wholesalers that lead to anticompetitive outcomes.
The removal of rice cartels could greatly increase the purchasing power of Filipinos as greater competition leads to cheaper prices. This increase in
purchasing power could lead to lower poverty incidence and a narrower income inequality nationwide.
“Halving the market share of the collusive group from 30 percent to 15 percent will result in about a 2.7-percentage point decrease in poverty incidence, or about 2.9 million people lifted out of poverty,” the economists said.
“The same drop in market share will also decrease the Gini index by about 1 point which emphasizes that there will also be significant distributional gains of improving efficiency through competition in the short to medium run,” they added.
3 tech giants vow support for Comelec in ’25 polls
By Justine Xyrah Garcia
THREE major technology firms on Monday vowed to support the Commission on Elections in preserving the integrity of the national, local, and parliamentary polls next year.
Together with Comelec’s Task Force Katotohanan, Katapatan, at Katarungan sa Halalan (TFK3H), Meta, Google, and TikTok signed a formal pledge of support in combating the spread of election-related mis- and disinformation.
While the advent of modern technology has paved the way for various advancements—including an easier informationdissemination process—Comelec Chairman George Garcia said that it still poses some risks, particularly for electoral processes.
“The election is different because what is worrisome, as far as the public is concerned…there is the possibility that the results of the election will be influenced because of the use of their platforms,” he added. In their 11-point pledge, the three tech giants committed to support Comelec by allocating resources to monitor elections, developing guidelines for election-related content, providing accurate information to the public, and ensuring transparency in political ads. They also vowed to continue coordination with election stakeholders after the polls and support post-election research to improve future electoral processes. Each platform has outlined specific programs to fulfill these commitments.
According to Meta, its firm— together with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads— will continue strengthening local partnerships and collaborate on election initiatives.
This includes initiatives like enabling public access to authoritative election information, offering training programs for stakeholders, and maintaining clear communication channels with Comelec.
Meanwhile, Google said it will work with fact-checkers and journalists to debunk false claims and promote accurate electionrelated information.
Like Meta, Google also has “strict” community guidelines that will help mitigate the spread of false information across its platforms.
TikTok, on the other hand, will enforce stricter content moderation policies to prevent the sharing of fake authoritative sources or fabricated crisis events, as well as the use of AI-generated content without proper labeling.
The platform also prohibits paid political promotions, and fundraising by politicians as it aims to foster a “positive environment for meaningful dialogue.”
The gray area
WHILE these commitments are a step forward, Chairman Garcia acknowledged the existence of significant gray areas and potential loopholes in their implementation.
One of the biggest challenges Comelec faces is the rise of paid influencers, who appear to be ordinary supporters but are actually endorsing candidates for a fee.
Despite the platforms’ efforts, such as TikTok’s commitment to banning paid political ads, these influencers remain outside the platforms’ direct control.
“The relationship between the influencer and the candidate, that’s not the platform’s call. That should be called by the law. If only the Comelec was more empowered, we’d be able to identify those who are pretending to be mere supporters,” Garcia explained in Filipino.
These endorsements, though subtle, have the power to shape public opinion, and as Garcia pointed out, existing laws don’t cover these covert arrangements.
“But hopefully in the future, there will be a law already that will empower the commission that will properly regulate such kind of devices or means,” he added.
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input value-added tax (VAT) on pass-through charges; only business customers can.
The DUs and ECs shall issue an invoice to the customers, including the sale and transmission of electricity and ancillary services, including the VAT of the Generation Companies (GenCos) and Transmission Companies (TransCo).
The DUs and ECs shall not claim any input tax from these as the customers engaged in business are the proper claimants of input tax. The RES shall also not claim any input tax on the pass-through charges invoiced to the customers.
Moreover, the BIR also made it clear that energy tax, universal charges, feed-in tariff allowance, national and local franchise taxes and real property tax are not subject to output tax or creditable withholding tax on VAT and income.
The 5-percent creditable VAT withheld by the government customers shall be claimed as creditable VAT by DUs and ECs through BIR Form No. 2307.
Meanwhile, the 2-percent income tax withheld by customers engaged in business on the total invoiced amount, including passthrough charges, shall be claimed as creditable withholding tax in the income tax returns of DUs, ECs and RES.
As for the VAT declaration of GenCos and TransCo on its generation and transmission fees, adjustments are made later based on the classification of customers as zero-rated or exempt, reflecting the correct output tax liability.
Further, all payments by DUs, ECs and RES to GenCos and TransCo for generation, transmission and other VATable charges are subject to VAT.
GenCos and TransCo are not liable for remitting outstanding deferred VAT prior to the effectivity of RR Nos. 3-2024 and 7-2024.
However, as part of a transitory procedure, DUs and ECs must remit the deferred VAT to the BIR, using BIR Form No. 0605, and provide GenCos and TransCo with proof of remittance.
The impact could be greater if there is a competitive rice market in place and collusive or uncompetitive practices are eradicated, 5.13 million Filipinos could be lifted from poverty. This means there was a 4.85 percentage-point decrease in the poverty headcount.
It may be noted that this is based on a baseline of 16.71 million poor Filipinos and a gini coefficient of 42.27. The gini coefficient is a measure of inequality where zero means perfect equality and 100 means perfect inequality.
“[The data] shows that moving from a concentrated to a more competitive rice market—with the corresponding price decrease derived from this change—reduces the poverty incidence by 4.85 percentage points and the Gini index by 1.96 points,” the economists said.
These were based on their simulations using the Welfare and Competition (WELCOM) approach that can “examine how changes in market concentration affect distribution.”
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said this highlights the importance of a wellcrafted competition policy. Balisacan said competition paves the way for creating greater economic opportunities, unlocking innovation, and sustaining economic growth.
Balisacan, who is one of the editors of the ADBI book “Designing Competition Policy for Economic Development in Asia and the Pacific,” said competition policy plays a key role of in the Asia and the Pacific.
He said in a recent speech in Tokyo that a sound competition policy can contribute to broader development objectives by boosting productivity and creating a culture of innovation among market incumbents, ultimately benefiting end-consumers.
“Competition policy for economic development entails the application of disruptive competitive pressure on rent-rich incumbents to break their grip on captive markets and thereby enable greater consumer choice. This
Funds…
said Nograles, is that the Philippines may not be able to attend the Arabian Travel Mart, just when TPB’s parent unit, the Department of Tourism (DOT), relaunched its halal program this year. “The Arabian Travel Mart [ATM] is one of the key [travel trade] shows around the world. This year, we were able to generate P430.75 million in sales leads. [Next year] we don’t have a budget,” she said. Asked by Subcommittee Chair Senator Loren Legarda about the reason for the cut, Nograles assumed the Department of Budget and Mangement (DBM) did so, “because Dubai [where the ATM is held yearly] is not part of our 13 key markets. And since our budget was cut, we’ve had to prioritize the shows within our key markets.”
The halal tourism market is projected to expand to US$411 billion by 2032 from $256.51 in 2023 or a compounded annual growth rate of 5.38 percent during the forecast period. The Philippines is considered among the emerging non-Organization of Islamic Countries tourist destinations by halal tourism experts, such that the DOT kicked the halal program into high gear this year. (See, “‘Muslims only’ beach to open in Boracay,” in the BusinessMirror, Sept. 2, 2024.)
Key markets
TPB’s 13 key markets are South Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia. These are markets from which there are “arrivals of 100,000 and above for two consecutive years,” explained Nograles.
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results in more affordable prices, higher product quality, faster adoption of new processes, and the creation of new products as market actors are forced to sink or swim,” the Philippine government’s chief economic planner added.
“From a political economy perspective, a credible competition authority wielding its various enforcement and advocacy tools can function as a countervailing force acting on behalf of consumers, tipping the balance of market power and improving overall economic welfare,” said Balisacan.
Balisacan cited the Philippine case wherein competition policy was integrated into the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028, complementing other policy tools that aim to achieve various development objectives across a range of sectors and industries. Still, the Neda chief mentioned that mainstreaming has come with its implementation and coordination challenges.
Meanwhile, Development Academy of the Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Majah-Leah V. Ravago who provided an overview of the book as co-editor, highlighted and summarized the book’s key sections on the evolution, objectives, and key pillars of competition policy as well as emerging issues and current implementation challenges. Ravago concluded by saying that competition law in Asia needs to be adapted to align with local development priorities and with consideration for its complementarity with industrial policy. She was joined by her co-editor, Professor James Roumasset of the University of Hawaii via recording. Balisacan was the founding chairmann of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), which was established in 2016. The PCC is mandated to promote healthy market competition and economic efficiency, as well as curb anti-competitive behavior to protect consumers. Cai Ordinario
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As such, the TPB has proposed additional funding outside of the NEP2025 amounting to P468.8 million for allocation to its Global Media Campaign (P150 million), a Local Media Campaign (P43.8 million), an Enhanced MICE Plus Program (P50 million), the ATM (P25 million), and P200 million to prepare for the Asean Tourism Forum in 2026.
Palawan recognized anew by T+L “MICE is a big opportunity for us to put budget into,” explained Nograles. “With this [fund], we give incentives to big groups coming into the Philippines, so for instance in a [gathering] of 200…we can host the dinner with cultural entertainment. Ideally it takes P1 million to host [a MICE event],” she said, noting that the GOCC only has P15 million for said program under NEP2025. Meanwhile, the TPB on Monday announced that Palawan snagged the 13th spot in Travel + Leisure’s 2024 World’s Best Islands list and was fifth in the Best Islands in Asia list. “This recognition is a testament to Palawan’s extraordinary beauty and the unwavering dedication of our people to delivering exceptional experiences. We remain committed to preserving and promoting the island’s natural and cultural heritage for generations to come,” said Nograles.
Renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty, Palawan offers tourists a captivating mix of adventure and tranquility. Majestic limestone cliffs, hidden lagoons, and lush rainforests create a picturesque setting for exploration and relaxation. The worldfamous Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, stands
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has always proclaimed tourism among his administration’s key priorities, but the DOT and its attached agencies receive very limited funds, considering that the sector contributed almost 9 percent to the local economic output in 2023. Its budget, at US$62 million, ranks among the lowest in Asean where tourism budgets are between $150 million and $480 million.
QuadCom asks SolGen to start action against foreigners who acquired land
By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
TO protect national security and curb foreign exploita -
tion, the House Quad Committee has submitted crucial documents to the Solicitor General, urging immediate legal action against Chinese accused of illegally acquiring land and operating businesses in the Philippines using fraudulent Filipino citizenship.
The committee, composed of chairmen from the House Committees on Dangerous Drugs, on Public Order and Safety, on Human Rights, and on Public Accounts— Reps. Robert Ace Barbers, Dan Fernandez, Bienvenido Abante Jr., and Joseph Stephen Paduano— called on the SolGen to expedite its review and file civil forfeiture cases in coordination with various government agencies.
At the center of this case is Aedy Tai Yang, a Chinese suspected of falsifying documents to obtain Filipino citizenship, enabling him to bypass foreign ownership restrictions, acquire land, and establish businesses unlawfully.
Among the submitted evidence is a birth certificate issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2004, despite Yang’s claim that he was born in 1983. The Municipal Civil Registry of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, revealed that Yang’s birth records were destroyed in a fire, raising suspicions about the validity of his citizenship.
Further evidence includes certifications from the PSA on Yang’s marriage, tax declarations for properties in his name, and corporate records linked to him, such as those from Empire 999 Realty
Corporation and Sunflare Industrial Supply Corp. These companies are tied to suspicious land acquisitions, with records from the Land Registration Authority (LRA) revealing properties owned by Empire 999’s incorporators.
Empire 999 also owned the warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, where a shabu shipment worth P3.6 billion was seized in 2023.
The committee presented documents showing questionable land deals between Yang and the local government of Mexico, Pampanga, supported by Memorandums of Agreement, Deeds of Sale, and municipal resolutions that bypassed legal processes.
The panel said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) confirmed that some lands sold by Yang were not subjected to the mandatory conversion process, indicating the illegal nature of these deals.
In a letter to Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, the Quad Committee underscored the national security threats posed by these activities and called for swift action.
“These actions are blatant violations of our laws and call for immediate executive intervention,” the committee stated.
Assistant Solicitor Generals Hermes L. Ocampo and Gilbert U. Medrano, along with Senior State Solicitor Neil Lorenzo, accepted the documents from the Quad Committee leaders during a news conference.
The joint committee urged the OSG to work closely with agencies like the LRA, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), PSA,
See “Quad,” A4
Court metes out multiple life terms on Abu Sayyaf Sipadan kidnappers
TBy Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573
HE Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Taguig City has convicted 17 members of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group for kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the abduction of 19 foreign nationals and two Filipinos from a diving resort in Sipadan Island, Malaysia in 2000.
Judge Mariam Bien of Branch 157 of the RTC in Taguig found the 17 bandits guilty of 21 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with ransom and sentenced each of them to suffer reclusion perpetua for each count.
The convicts were also ordered to pay their victims P300,000 as moral, civil and exemplary damages.
“In fine, based on the evidence presented, there is no question that accused and their cohorts were complicit in the joint purpose and design of the kidnapping of the hostages for the purpose of extorting ransom money from them or from the their respective families and government,” the trial court ruled.
On the other hand, the trial court found five other accused, namely Manggona Malili, Abdulkahil Malla, Abdul Mubeen Sakandal, Ahiri Tada and Radzmar Sangkula Jul not guilty of the charges and ordered their immediate release from detention.
Among the 17 convicted are high profile individuals who are
listed in the United Nations Security Council’s Sanctions List, namely: Hilarion del Rosario Santos III (alias Ahmed Islam Santos/ Ahmed Santos) and Redendo Cain Dellosa.
Santos is the founder and leader of the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), while Dellosa is another RSM leader.
The UN Security Council tagged them both in 2008 for their association with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or the Taliban and for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of and recruiting for the Abu Sayyaf Group, Jema’ah Islamiyah and the Rajah Solaiman Movement.”
Also convicted were Alkaiser Baladji, Omar Galo, Muner Jumalla, Najer Ibrahim, Jahid Susukan, ben Mahar Abraham, Said Massud, Hajid Elhano, Jundam Jawad, Akjunib Hashim, Michael Pajiji, Alhadi Aylani, Dhad Suraidi, Julkipli Salih and Saltimar Sali.
Meanwhile, the court dismissed the charges by reason of death against top ASG leaders Galib Andang (alias Commander Robot), Nadjmi Sabdulla (alias Commander Global) and several others.
They were killed during an attempted jailbreak in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City in 2005 also known as the Bicutan Siege.
In convicting the 17 accused, the trial court gave credence to
prosecution witnesses which include Roland Ullah, Ken Fong Yen and Abdul Jawad Bin Sulawat to prove conspiracy among the respondents in committing the crime.
Ullah testified that he was held captive by the accused for three years, from 2000 until he was able to escape in 2003.
He identified some of the accused as among those who helped in detaining the Sipadan hostages.
Yen said he was among those kidnapped from the resort and was held captive for four months and was heavily guarded by the respondents all the time.
Sulawat also said he was with Yen during the kidnapping incident and was held captive for 83 days.
He identified some of the accused as their captors.
The prosecution also presented two former members of the Abu Sayyaf identified as Omar Pael and Julhasre Abtahi as witnesses against the accused.
The two admitted their participation in the Sipadan incident by acting as lookout for the hostages but denied in the actual kidnapping of the 21 victims.
“From the foregoing, it is evident that the kidnappers, the herein accused, acted in concert in kidnapping and detaining the hostages,” the decision read.
“While others took active participation in the taking of the victims, while others detained and guarded their actions, demonstrated a carefully laid out plan
to execute the crimes charged,” it added.
It will be recalled that in April 2000, members of the notorious Abu Sayyaf abducted at gunpoint 21 individuals of different nationalities from a resort in Sipadan Island, Malaysia.
Of the 21, 10 were foreign tourists visiting the remote diving resort consisting of three Germans, two Finnish, two South Africans, one Lebanese, two French, 11 resort workers which include nine Malaysians and two Filipinos.
The victims were taken by boat to Talipao, Sulu, and held captive in the hinterlands of Jolo, Sulu, while ASG extorted ransom money from the hostages’ family and from their governments. The hostages were released over several months after ransom money were paid to the kidnappers.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” C. Remulla commended Senior Deputy State Prosecutor (SDSP) Hazel C. Decena-Valdez for her “perseverance and hard work” which led to the conviction of the notorious terrorists.
“Your devotion, courage and relentless efforts to pursue justice by all means is truly astonishing. Thank you for being a testament that justice will never be denied regardless of who or how strong the enemy may seem. Your resilience has indeed withstood the forces of terror and oppression which serve as an inspiration to us all,” Secretary Remulla told handling prosecutor Decena-Valdez.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Group discovers more leaded paints for sale
TBy Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga
HE EcoWaste Coalition announced its discovery of more paints with high levels of lead, a potent poison that impacts children’s development, damaging the developing brain, the nervous, blood circulatory, immune, and reproductive systems, with an array of adverse effects.
The proliferation of these non-compliant imported paints with high lead content prompted the group to reiterate its appeal
to the authorities, particularly the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to nominate lead chromates, the most common ingredients in leadbased paints, for listing as hazardous chemicals under the Rotterdam Convention.
During the last few weeks, the toxics watchdog group tracked several paint products with lead content above the 90 parts per million (ppm) limit as per DENR Administrative Order 2013-24, or the Chemical Control Order (CCO) banning the use of lead in paints and similar surface coatings.
Among these newly discovered lead-containing paints were Koby Spray Paint with new lids (fresh green, orange red and medium yellow) purchased online, Standard Spray Paint (Gongcheng orange red, Jialing red and orange yellow) obtained from a store in Apalit, Pampanga, and Top Standard Spray Paint (green, orange, bright red, scarlet and yellow) bought from a dealer in Pulilan, Bulacan.
Most recently, the group managed to buy four variants of leadcontaining JMJAFA Spray Paint from retailers in Binangonan,
Rizal, and Tondo, Manila. Insufficiently labeled, this paint brand provided no information about its manufacturer or country of origin. Also, no lead hazard warning was given.
The bright red, VW blue, grass green and medium yellow JMJAFA Spray Paints were verified to contain 177 ppm, 725 ppm, 35,550 ppm and 75,700 ppm of lead, way in excess of the 90 ppm limit. The group used an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) device to verify the presence of lead on the dried paint samples.
Two of the products (grass
Make health insurance package for teachers permanent–legislator
By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie
ALAWMAKER is pushing for the institutionaliza -
tion of a comprehensive health insurance package for public school teachers and providing them an annual P7,000 medical allowance to subsidize the availment of this benefit.
Bicol Saro Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan said his House Bill 10990 aims to make the plan of the Department of Education (DepEd) to provide health maintenance organization (HMO)type coverage for public school teachers a permanent feature of the benefits package provided for all its present and future teaching personnel.
“Our bill also promotes preventive healthcare. With HMO-type
benefits, our usually overworked public school teachers would be able to maintain their well-being and get treatment when necessary without having to worry about mounting medical expenses, long before health concerns become severe or life-threatening,” Yamsuan said.
Close to one million public school teachers in the basic education system stand to benefit from the measure, Yamsuan said.
Under HB 10990, qualified public school teachers shall each receive an annual medical allowance not exceeding P7,000 as subsidy to enable the DepEd to procure a contract with an HMO on their behalf.
Yamsuan said the amount of medical allowance is subject to mandatory review every three years by the DepEd to ensure that
this is sufficient and reflective of current market prices.
Yamsuan lauded Education Secretary Sonny Angara’s initiative to pool the annual P7,000 medical allowance that public school teachers are set to receive beginning 2025 to provide HMO-type benefits for them.
Under Executive Order 64, signed by President Marcos, the government will provide an annual medical allowance of up to P7,000 to eligible government civilian personnel, including the at least 910,434 public school teachers.
The P7,000 medical allowance is a substantial increase from the P500 medical examination allowance that teachers had previously received in 2020.
“The plan of Secretary Angara is a very good one, especially taking into account the limited benefits that our teachers get from PhilHealth. If they
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DAR, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to ensure a comprehensive investigation and legal action.
The committee warned that failing to address these violations could have dire consequences for national security and the economy.
“We trust your office will prioritize this matter and act swiftly to protect the integrity of our nation’s legal and economic
get health insurance coverage through an HMO, they won’t have to be stressed looking for funds to pay for their medical treatment,” he said.
“At present, public school teachers do not have the usual paid sick leave benefits enjoyed by other professionals. Thus, when they fall ill, they are faced with a difficult choice: either report to work despite their condition, potentially worsening their health, or take an unpaid sick leave, which can strain their finances and limit their ability to afford necessary medical care. This is an unjust dilemma no teacher should have to endure,” Yamsuan added.
HB 10990, Yamsuan said, would help carry out his Health, Opportunities, Peace and Education or HOPE agenda for Parañaque’s Seconnd District, where he will run as its congressional representative in next year’s midterm elections.
systems,” the Quad Committee said.
This document submission is part of the Quad Committee’s broader probe into illegal Pogo operations, drug trafficking, land grabbing by Chinese nationals, and extra-judicial killings linked to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. Yang has emerged as a key figure in these investigations, symbolizing the larger issue of foreign nationals exploiting legal loopholes to gain control of land and businesses in the Philippines.
The committee called for decisive measures to prevent further illegal acquisitions and mitigate their detrimental effects.
green and medium yellow) were manufactured on January 13, 2024, and the other two (bright red and VW blue) on April 1, 2024.
To recall, lead-containing decorative and industrial paints were phased out in the Philippines in December 2016 and December 2019, respectively.
The group will submit the samples to a private laboratory for confirmatory analysis.
If the samples flunked the 90 ppm limit, the failed products would be added to the “List of Lead-Containing Paints,” which the group co-released with the International
Pollutants Elimination Network (Ipen) and the Philippine Paint and Coatings Association, Inc. (PPCAI).
The said list currently includes 150 lead-containing spray paints representing 37 brands, mostly imported from China and Thailand. The list can be accessed on the group’s website: https:// www.ecowastecoalition.org/leadspraypaints/
“There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects,” warned the WHO as it pointed out that “lead exposure is preventable,” the group said.
Oil companies cut pump prices
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
AFTER A hefty increase in pump prices last week, oil companies will slash petroleum products starting Tuesday.
In separate announcements, oil companies said Monday the will rollback kerosene prices by P0.85 per liter, diesel by P0.70 per liter, and gasoline by P0.50 per liter. The new pump prices will take effect at 6:00 a.m. on October 22. Oil companies adjust their pump prices every week to reflect movements in the world oil market.
For this week, Department of Energy-Oil Industry Management Bureau (DOE-OIMB) Director Rodela Romero cited deescalating tensions in the Middle East, the potential crude supply surplus in 2025, and the expected oil demand growth slowdown in the coming year as the reasons for the oil price reduction.
Last week, oil companies implemented an increase of P2.60-P2.65 per liter for gasoline, P2.70 per liter for diesel and P2.60 per liter for kerosene. This brough the year-todate, total adjustment of gasoline and diesel at a net increase of P9.05 per liter and P6.75 per liter, respectively. On the other hand, kerosene has a total net decrease of P2.75 per liter.
Jetti, meanwhile, said its stations may already implement soon the mandated 3 percent blend (B3) of coco methyl ester (CME) on diesel products. “We expect the in-tank diesel inventories in our stations to be fully compliant to B3 this week,” the oil firm said.
“For the pricing, it will depend per station if the incremental cost of the additional 1 percent CME in diesel can be added already, without pricing ourselves too high versus competitors,” it added.
Last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it will inspect the import terminals of oil companies to verify their compliance to the higher biodiesel blend. The Biofuels Act of 2006 mandates that all liquid fuels for motors and engines contain locally sourced biofuel components. When Republic Act 9367 was signed into law, the blending of 1 percent (B1) coco-biodiesel or CME in local diesel started. It was last increased to 2 percent (B2) in 2007.
A higher biodiesel blend was supposed to take place in 2020 but was delayed due to the absence of assurances on the sufficiency of biodiesel supply and logistical limitations brought about by the pandemic.
From 2 percent to 3 percent, the CME blend will further increase to 4 percent by October 1, 2025 and to 5 percent by October 1, 2026.
PHL, Italy partner for farm productivity, industrialization
THE Philippines and Italy are set to ink a partnership to boost productivity and agro-industrialization for Filipino farmers.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. recently met with Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida to strengthen agricultural partnerships and affirm the two countries’ commitment to sustainable food systems and trade.
Laurel noted that the Philippines and Italy agreed on a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the goal of improving the country’s productivity to benefit millions of farmers.
“Italy’s agricultural machinery industry is world-class, and the Philippines can greatly benefit from this expertise as we modernize our agricultural sector,” he said. Laurel expressed optimism about expanding exports to include tuna, pineapples, frozen fish, carrageenan, and dessicated coconut.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the Philippine agricultural exports to Italy in 2023 totaled $129 million, led by crude coconut oil.
It noted that the growing Filipino community in Italy, now estimated at 200,000, has increased demand for the country’s food products.
“Small and medium-sized enterprises have formed the Philippine Chamber of Commerce in Italy, promoting Philippine cuisine among Italians.”
Meanwhile, the bilateral meeting also explored increasing agrifood trade and opportunities for skilled Filipino fisherfolk to work in Italy.
Lollobrigida extended Italy’s invitation for skilled fishermen to enhance the European country’s fishing industry while providing valuable opportunities for Filipino workers.
The discussions also talked about the potential collaboration with Federunacoma, Italy’s National Federation of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, particularly in adapting machinery to the Philippines’ unique agricultural landscape.
Laurel then stressed opportunities for Italian firms to contribute through smart agriculture technologies and irrigation systems, aligning with the Philippines’ goals of agro-industrialization and climate-resilient agriculture.
“Our partnership in agriculture reflects the shared vision of our two nations. We look forward to finalizing our agreements and ensuring sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems,” he said. Ada Pelonia
DMW fields more people to aid OFWs in Lebanon
AS it braces for more repatriates from Lebanon this week, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said it will be deploying more personnel to the conflict-hit Middle East country.
In a radio interview on Monday, DMW Secretary Hans J. Cacdac said there are currently 20 personnel manning the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Lebanon.
“We will soon be sending five more to augment the teams on the grounds. That is just the MWO side. This does not include those from the embassy,” he said.
“Our [repatriation efforts] continue. We are confident that within the week, more [OFWs] will be repatriated,” he added.
The DMW chief made the remark with the arrival of 76 OFWs from Lebanon at around midnight on Sunday. He said this is the biggest
Quiboloy independent bet; revokes WPP nomination
By Justine Xyrah Garcia
DOOMSDAY preacher Apollo Quiboloy withdrew his nomination from the Workers and Peasants Party (WPP) and will now pursue his senatorial bid as an independent candidate.
In a letter filed before the Commission on Elections on Monday, Quiboloy formally revoked his acceptance of the WPP’s nomination, which had been issued earlier this month.
His legal counsel, Atty. Mark Tolentino, said the withdrawal stemmed from the former’s desire to avoid any internal conflicts that might arise within the party.
“May nanggulo, may nagpakilala sila daw WPP. Yun pala iba palang partido, Workers Party Philippines, tayo workers and Peasants
Party. Para walang problema, baka may intra party dispute, ayaw naman ma -involve ni pastor, so ni revoke po niya,” Tolentino said in an ambush interview.
While Quiboloy will be campaigning without an official political party affiliation, Tolentino said the embattled religious leader has received invitations from “many political parties” to run as a guest candidate.
“With or without a party, Pastor Quiboloy is prepared to launch his campaign. We are pleased to
confirm that he is included in the partial list of 66 senatorial candidates,” Tolentino stated.
In response to Quiboloy’s decision, WPP President Sonny Matula acknowledged the development but stressed that there are no factions within the party.
“Any suggestion of an intraparty dispute is purely a product of their wild political imagination,” he said. “We cannot allow ourselves to be used or hijacked by Pastor Quiboloy or his advisers as a cover for whatever political schemes they may be pursuing.”
Matula also addressed the confusion surrounding the party’s name, saying that Tolentino may have misunderstood or deliberately misrepresented the situation.
“It seems Quiboloy’s legal counsel is either unaware of the correct name of our party or is intentionally trying to confuse the public. The registered name is Workers and Peasants Party (WPP), which is also known as the Labor Party-Philippines (LPP) or Workers Party-Philippines,” Matula told BusinessMirror
Remains valid COMMISSION on Elections Chairman George Garcia affirmed that Quiboloy’s candidacy remains valid and unaffected by the nomination withdrawal.
“The Comelec law department and en banc will stand firm [in classifying him] as a legitimate candidate. Simply because there is no final and executory decision concerning his case,” Garcia said.
Garcia reiterated that the Comelec’s classification of candidates is based on multiple factors, including the background of the individual, and that party membership does not solely determine candidacy legitimacy.
“Our determination is not solely based on party affiliation. Even if disputes arise, it will not affect the candidacy itself unless a formal petition is filed,” Garcia explained.
Aside from being entangled with intra-factions dispute, Quiboloy is also facing legal charges for qualified trafficking, child abuse, and sexual abuse.
Marcos, VP Sara to grace 50th PBC&E
Anumber of repatriates this month.
Since the government started repatriation in Lebanon in October 2023, Cacdac said they were able to bring home a total of 688 OFWs.
Cacdac said most of the Lebanese employers were cooperative and allowed their OFWs to flee Lebanon amid the escalating conflict between Israeli and Hezbollah forces within the Middle East country.
He said in the few cases wherein the employers prohibited their OFWs to leave, he said Lebanese immigration was able to issue clearance for their repatriation.
Aside from the ongoing flights, Cacdac said they are also ready to repatriate OFWs in Lebanon by sea.
“We already talked to the ship owners. That is prepared already, but I can’t give details,” he said. Samuel P. Medenilla
Red Cross ready to help if ‘Kristine’ unleashes havoc
THE Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is prepared and ready to assist and evacuate people to safety, if needed, after Tropical Cyclone Kristine entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility on October 21.
As of Monday (October 21), PRC’s 102 chapters and over 2 million volunteers nationwide are on standby for deployment; PRC rescue vehicles, food trucks, water tankers, and ambulances are ready to mobilize; a welfare desk was set up in Negros Occidental and more will be established alongside first aid stations and health desks in the coming days.
The PRC also ensures that the blood supply will be sufficient.
“We are always ready for action. Our Operations Center has been monitoring the tropical cyclone since yesterday. Sa ating mga kababayan, maging alerto at handa sa paparating na bagyo. Nandito ang Red Cross para tulungan kayo, pero kailangan n’yo rin tulungan ang inyong mga sarili para sa inyong kaligtasan [To our countrymen, please be alert for
the coming storm. The Red Cross is here to help you, but you must also help yourselves so you will be safe],” said PRC Chairman and CEO Richard Gordon.
The state weather bureau projects Kristine to strengthen into a tropical storm within the next 12 hours and escalate to a severe tropical storm by Wednesday, October 23. It could further intensify into a typhoon by Thursday evening or Friday morning.
The PRC immediately held an emergency meeting in preparation for its response to the affected areas.
“Huwag na nating hintayin na mag -landfall ang bagyo upang maghanda. Ngayon pa lang, mainam na ihanda ang ating Go Bag na naglalaman ng mga damit, gamot, hygiene items, flashlight , maliit na radyo, whistle, a t makakain na tatagal hanggang tatlong araw, at iba pa na makatutulong para sa atin,” added PRC Secretary-General Dr. Gwen Pang.
The public may call the PRC’s 24/7 hotline 143 for rescue and other emergency concerns.
Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco
LL roads lead to the muchanticipated business conference in the country opening today (October 22) with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte expected to grace the ceremonies on different days.
PCCI President Consul Enunina V. Mangio announced that over 1,500 local and foreign delegates are expected to troop to the Marriott Grand Ballroom to take part in the 50th Philippine Business Conference and Expo. This year’s conference banners the theme “Embracing Innovation. Empowering Business. Enriching Lives,” which builds on the PBC as a platform for strengthening the role of private sector in shaping the country’s economic and social landscapes.
It will present and discuss innovative growth strategies that are essential for business to thrive in today’s ever-changing and competitive landscape. “We appreciate and value the time and effort that our President and Vice President have extended to us. We are all excited to listen to them as we remain committed in our resolve to proactively collaborate with the
REINFORCING its commitment to bring quality education to every corner of the Philippines, the Department of Education (DepEd), led by Secretary Sonny Angara, visited Pagasa Island in the Municipality of Kalayaan, West Philippine Sea, marking a historic milestone as the first visit by a DepEd Secretary to the remote island in recent times.
During the visit, Secretary Angara handed over 15 laptops to the teachers of Pag-asa Integrated School, alongside 43 footballs and 109 school bags filled with essential supplies for the students.
“With this technology, we hope to lighten the workload of our teachers and unlock the potential of our learners. President Bongbong Marcos has directed us to harness modern tools to strengthen education and uplift the future
government in pushing for policies that support and promote business competitiveness and growth,” Mangio said. The Vice President is set to open the PBC Expo, deliver a keynote address and present awards to the recipients of various PCCI awards – Legacy, Excellence in Ecology and Economy, Alfredo M. Yao, Injap Sia Outstanding Young Entrepreneur and Tourism.
PBC Chairman Jude Aguilar said that one of the highlights of the conference is the presentation of a set of policy recommendations that he will hand over to President Marcos at the conclusion of the conference. “These recommendations emanated from the various consultations we conducted among our members, local chambers, and industry partners. These were all solicited from the ground which we hope will be acted upon by the President,” Aguilar said, adding that this year’s resolutions are focused on three critical areas: food security, human resources development, and investment generation.
A copy of the resolutions will be released after their submission to the President on the 23rd of October. Apart from Marcos and
Duterte, other renowned speakers include Prof. Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow of the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore; Secretary Frederick D. Go, Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs; Secretary Rex Gatchalian of the Department of Social Welfare and Development; Secretary Renato U. Solidum, Jr. of the Department of Science and Technology; Secretary Sonny Angara of the Department of Education; Engineer Roger V. Navarro, Undersecretary for Operations and Agri-Fishery Mechanization and Rural Credit of the Department of Agriculture; Director Roderick M. Napulan of the Department of Health; Carlos Aboitiz, Chief Corporate Services Officer of AboitizPower; Jose Avelino G. Diaz, President and CEO of Sagittarian Agricultural Philippines, Inc.; Juan Carlos C. Puno, Chief Finance Officer of Globe Telecom; Sam Christopher Lim, Chairman of the Philippine Franchise Association; Dandan Chen, Operations Manager of World Bank-Philippines; Paul Beaumont, Senior Expert & Associate Partner of McKinsey &
of our youth,” Angara said.
In addition to the turnover ceremony, Angara and other key DepEd officials held consultations with teachers, parents, and local
leaders to address challenges in delivering education in the area. Discussions also covered potential solutions to improve the island’s living conditions, including hous -
Company; Samie Lim, PCCI President (2007-2008); Edgardo G. Lacson, PCCI President (2008-2009); George T. Barcelon, PCCI President (2016-2017, 2022-2023) and Ma. Alegria S. Limjoco, PCCI President (2018-2019).
The plenary sessions will be moderated by Rico Hizon, Senior Vice President for Corporate Relations of SM Investments; Ruben J. Pascual, PCCI Secretary-General; Michael G. Tan, President of Asia Brewery; Perry Ferrer, PCCI Executive Vice President and Director for Innovation and Science and Technology; and Atty. Benedicta Du-Baladad, PCCI Director for Taxation, Capital Market and Investment Policy and Promotion.
The PBC&E is an annual PCCI event that serves as a testament to its commitment to nation building and prosperity. It is a platform for sharing of ideas, forging partnerships and creating strategies in pursuit of empowering business and enriching the lives of PCCI stakeholders, community and the country. It is where industry captains, entrepreneurs, innovators, and visionaries meet to create a lasting impact for business and the country.
ing initiatives and transportation services for residents.
The visit was made possible with the support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), whose assistance enabled DepEd’s outreach to this remote community.
“This mission embodies our dedication to ensuring that no Filipino learner is left behind,” Angara added. “The government is committed to developing even the most isolated areas, ensuring access to education, services, and security for all.”
This visit reflects the national government’s ongoing efforts to promote inclusive development and underscores DepEd’s goal to reach every learner—no matter how remote their community— ensuring that quality education is accessible across the archipelago.
Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst
Brief
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LIN, JIANFEI Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst
Brief Job Description: Manage master data, including creation, updates, and deletion. Manage users and user roles. Provide quality assurance of imported data, working with quality assurance analysts if necessary. Process confidential data and information according to guidelines.
LIU, ANBANG Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst
Brief Job Description: Manage master data, including creation, updates, and deletion. Manage users and user roles. Provide quality assurance of imported data, working with quality assurance analysts if necessary. Process confidential data and information according to guidelines.
YANG, XUECONG
Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst
13.
Brief Job Description: Manage master data, including creation, updates, and deletion. Manage users and user roles. Provide quality assurance of imported data, working with quality assurance analysts if necessary. Process confidential data and information according to guidelines.
YE, XIAOYUN Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst
14.
15.
Brief Job Description: Manage master data, including creation, updates, and deletion. Manage users and user roles. Provide quality assurance of imported data, working with quality assurance analysts if necessary. Process confidential data and information according to guidelines.
ZHAO, JING Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst
Brief Job Description: Manage master data, including creation, updates, and deletion. Manage users and user roles. Provide quality assurance of imported data, working with quality assurance analysts if necessary. Process confidential data and information according to guidelines.
16. CHEN, SONGWEI Mandarin Speaking IT Support Specialist
Brief Job Description: Review and solve computer network and hardware problems for the organization.
17. CHENG, XUEBING Mandarin Speaking IT Support Specialist
Brief Job Description: Review and solve
degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with experience in Business Management, Finance, Computer/Software, 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
BusinessMirror
Basic
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Brief
40. VIOSSY PESONA DEWA Indonesian IT Support Specialist
Brief Job Description: Provide
DEXIN INTERNATIONAL IMPORT AND EXPORT CORP. 534, Tomas Mapua St., Barangay 298, Santa Cruz, City Of Manila
41. CAI, YONGLE Chinese Cargo Office Agent
Brief Job Description: Prepare airline and custom documentation. Basic Qualification: Knowledgeable in Chinese documentation.
42. HONG, YUMING Chinese Cargo Office Agent
Brief Job Description: Prepare airline and custom documentation.
43. ZHUANG, HONGHAI Chinese Cargo Office Agent
Brief Job Description: Prepare airline and custom documentation.
Basic Qualification: Knowledgeable in Chinese documentation. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999
Basic Qualification: Knowledgeable in Chinese documentation.
Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999
DITO TELECOMMUNITY CORPORATION 11/f Udenna Tower, Rizal Drive Cor. 4th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig
44. XIAO, WEI Chief Strategic Advisor
Brief Job Description: Advise on insights and recommendations to the CEO and board of directors on strategic initiatives. Basic Qualification: Must have
EASTERN GOLD CORPORATION 503, Nueva St., Barangay 289, Binondo, City Of Manila
45. LONG, SHUNZHOU Marketing And Sales Agent
Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services, implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas.
46. NGUYEN VAN TUAN Marketing And Sales Agent
Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services, implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas.
47. WU, WANYU Marketing And Sales Agent
Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services, implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas.
48. YANG, HAOCHUN Marketing And Sales Agent
Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services, implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas.
Basic Qualification: Able to contribute information,
Basic Qualification: Able to contribute information, ideas, and research to help develop marketing strategies. Able to help detail, design, and implement marketing plans for each product or service being offered.
Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999
Basic Qualification: Able to contribute information, ideas, and research to help develop marketing strategies. Able to help detail, design, and implement marketing plans for each product or service being offered.
Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999
Basic Qualification:
Salary Range:
Brief
BusinessMirror
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Sheraton, Manila Bay Malvar Cor. Adriatico Sts., 076, Barangay 699, Malate, City Of Manila
85. WANG, JUNLIN Mandarin Field Service Coordinator
Brief Job Description: Responsible for coordinating, monitoring and improving field service activities for the organization and for providing support and guidance to service personnel who perform on-site routine services including installation, maintenance and repair on the project site.
86. WANG, JUN Mandarin Operations Manager
Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Operations Manager is responsible for driving business growth within the company. He/she will develop a network of project to attract new clients, dealing with the new market opportunities and oversee growth projects.
87. YAN, JUNBIN Marketing Specialist
Brief Job Description: Responsible for developing and managing all aspects of the company’s marketing strategy.
Basic Qualification: College graduate, with previous work experience in a similar role and with excellent technical and communication skills.
Salary Range: Php
Basic Qualification: Able to conduct market research to find answers about consumer requirements, habits and trends. Able to brainstorm and develop ideas for creative marketing campaigns.
Salary Range: Php 30,000
Tensions escalate as Israel targets Hezbollah’s financial arm in Beirut
By Kareem Chehayeb, Wafaa Shurafa & Samy Magdy
BThe Associated Press
EIRUT—Israel’s military announced Sunday it is now taking aim at the Lebanonbased Hezbollah’s financial arm and will attack a “large number of targets” in Beirut and elsewhere. Explosions began in Beirut’s southern suburbs about an hour later.
Evacuation warnings affected southern Beirut, the eastern Bekaa valley and parts of southern Lebanon. AP video showed strikes near Lebanon’s only airport but it continued to operate.
The strikes will target al-Qard al-Hassan “all over Lebanon,” a senior Israeli intelligence official said. Al-Qard al-Hassan is a Hezbollah unit that’s used to pay operatives of the Iran-backed militant group and help buy arms, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with army regulations.
The registered nonprofit, sanctioned by the US and Saudi Arabia, provides financial services and is also used by ordinary Lebanese. Its name in Arabic means “the benevolent loan,” and Hezbollah has used it to entrench its support among the Shiite population in a country
where state and financial institutions have failed in recent years.
“It’s a big deal,” said David Asher, an expert on illicit financing who has worked at the US Defense and State Departments and is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
“AQAH is a cash-based organization. The cash will be trash” in the event of strikes, he said, adding that it has large accounts with big Lebanese banks.
Al-Qard al-Hassan in a statement called the decision to target it a sign of Israel’s “bankruptcy” and assured customers it had taken “measures” to ensure their funds were safe. A stream of people left the areas surrounding its branches in Beirut.
In one evacuation notice, for the Choueifat area south of Beirut, the Israeli military mislabeled one target, causing confusion and panic. The location was labeled as Grand Cinema ABC Verdun, a theater in an upscale shopping mall in central Beirut more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.
A year of escalating tensions and frequent cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the war in Gaza turned into all-out war last month. Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon early this month.
Israel’s announcement came
BRICS summit: Putin to showcase Russia’s global influence despite Western sanctions
By Dasha Litvinova
The Associated Press
IN the coming days, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be shaking hands with multiple world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian.
They will all be in the Russian city of Kazan on Tuesday for a meeting of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, defying predictions that the war in Ukraine and an international arrest warrant against Putin would turn him into a pariah. The alliance, which aims to counterbalance the Western-led world order, initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but started to rapidly expand this year. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia joined in January; Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia formally applied, and a number of others expressed a desire to be members. Russian officials already see it as a massive success. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said 32 countries confirmed participation, and more than 20 will send heads of state. Putin will hold around 20 bilateral meetings, Ushakov said, and the summit could turn into “the largest foreign policy event ever held” on Russian soil.
Optics and deals for the Kremlin ANALYSTS say the Kremlin wants both the optics of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with its global allies amid continued tensions with the West, as well as the practicality of negotiating deals with them to shore up Russia’s economy and its war effort. For the other participants, it’s a chance to amplify their voices and narratives.
“The beauty of BRICS is that it doesn’t put too many obligations on you,” says Alexander Gabuyev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “There are not that many strings attached, really, to being part of BRICS. And at the same time, there might be interesting opportunities coming your way, including just having more face time with all of these leaders.”
For Putin, the summit is important personally because it shows the failure of Western efforts to isolate him, Gabuyev says. The gathering will demonstrate at home and abroad that “Russia is really an important player that is leading this new group that will end the Western dominance – that’s his personal narrative,” he says. The Kremlin will be able to talk to
a day after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called civilian casualties in Lebanon “far too high” in the Israel-Hezbollah war, and urged Israel to scale back some strikes, especially in and around Beirut.
Lebanese army says 3 soldiers killed in Israeli strike
Israel has increased strikes on southern neighborhoods of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh, a crowded residential area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It is also home to many civilians unaffiliated with the militant group.
In southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicle. There was no immediate comment on that from the Israeli military, which said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past day and continued ground operations there.
Lebanon’s army has largely kept to the sidelines in the war. The military is a respected institution in Lebanon, but isn’t powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend the country from an Israeli invasion.
Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired more than 170 rockets into the country on Sunday. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said
summit in Kazakhstan in July.
Although they will continue to present a united front, experts are watching for subtle signs of Xi distancing himself from Putin over the war.
major players like India and China about expanding trade and bypassing Western sanctions. India is an important market for Russian commodities, while China is where Moscow hopes to get its hands on dual-use and various military-related goods, Gabuyev says. Russia also wants more countries participating in a payment system project that would be an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT, allowing Moscow to trade with its partners without worrying about sanctions.
“The Russian idea is that if you create a platform where there is China, Russia, India and Brazil and Saudi Arabia, many countries that are vital partners for the US, the US will not be ready to go after this platform and sanction it,” Gabuyev said.
Goals for Iran and China
RUSSIA also is expected to sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty with Iran, bolstering the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Tehran.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Iran provided Moscow with hundreds of drones and helped launch their production in Russia. The Iranian drone deliveries, which Moscow and Tehran have denied, have allowed for a constant barrage of long-range drone strikes at Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Iran, in turn, wants sophisticated Russian weapons, like long-range air defense systems and fighter jets to help fend off a possible attack by Israel. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment when asked whether the treaty will include mutual military assistance.
For China, BRICS is among several international organizations – along with the security-focused Shanghai Cooperation Organization – through which it seeks to promote an alternative to the US-led world order.
Xi pushed for enlarging BRICS, and the Kazan summit will consolidate economic, technological and military ties in the expanded bloc, said Willy Lam, a senior China fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. Beijing and Moscow also want to see if a new international trading currency could “challenge so-called dollar hegemony,” Lam said.
The summit will allow Xi and Putin to flaunt their close relationship. The two, who announced a “no-limits” partnership only weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, already have met at least twice this year, in Beijing in May and at a SCO
three people were slightly injured from a fire sparked by a rocket attack on the northern city of Safed.
In the middle is the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, which said Israeli forces on Sunday “deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position” in southern Lebanon. It again resisted Israeli pressure to leave its positions.
Iran supports the Lebanonbased Hezbollah, and the United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents indicating that Israel was moving military assets into place for a military strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on October 1, according to three US officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Medics warn of a catastrophic situation in Gaza ISRAELI strikes on homes in northern Gaza overnight and into Sunday left at least 87 people dead or missing, the territory’s Health Ministry said, as a large-scale operation continued against Hamas militants said to be regrouping.
The ministry said another 40 people were wounded in the strikes on the town of Beit Lahiya, which was among the first targets of Is -
rael’s ground invasion nearly a year ago. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas target.
Among the dead were parents and eight children, according to Raheem Kheder, a medic. He said the strike flattened a multistory building and at least four neighboring houses.
The Israeli military said it used precise munitions against a Hamas target.
The US is urging Israel to press for a cease-fire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. But neither Israel nor Hamas has shown interest in such a deal after negotiations sputtered to a halt in August.
In central Gaza, six people, including a child, were killed when a strike hit a car in Deir al-Balah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital officials said. The bodies were counted by AP journalists.
Doctors Without Borders, the international charity known by its French acronym MSF, called on Israeli forces to immediately stop their attacks on hospitals in northern Gaza after the Health Ministry said Israeli troops had fired on two hospitals over the weekend.
Israel’s military said it was operating near one hospital but hadn’t fired directly at it.
Internet connectivity went
down in northern Gaza late Saturday, making it difficult to gather information about strikes and complicating rescue efforts.
Israel ordered the entire population of the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate to the south in the war’s opening weeks and reiterated those instructions this month. Around 400,000 people are believed to have remained.
On October 7, 2023, Hamasled militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
Magdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Adam Schreck in Jerusalem, Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, and Zeke Miller, Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
“While Putin will want the China-Russia relationship to appear as good as ever, Xi may also want to signal to Western states and others that Beijing officially remains ‘neutral’ in Russia’s war in Ukraine and is not a formal ally of Moscow,” said Eva Seiwert, a foreign policy and security expert with the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.
“This will be crucial for conveying the image of China as a serious and legitimate peacemaker in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
Balancing acts for India and Turkey
AN expected Modi-Putin meeting could see some rebalancing of their ties. Western friends want India to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the war. Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.
New Delhi considers Moscow a timetested partner from the Cold War, cooperating on defense, oil, nuclear energy, and space, despite Russia’s closer ties with India’s main rival, China. Their meeting will be the second in months. Modi visited Russia in July, saw President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine in August and traveled to the US to see President Joe Biden in September.
“India can’t simply abandon Russia because of its deep defense ties, the question of the regional balance of power, and the logic of multi-alignment,” said Raja Mohan, a professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore.
“At the same time, it also builds and develops its relations with the US and the West because that is where the logic of India’s major economic development and technological growth depends on partnership.”
India and Brazil view BRICS primarily through an economic lens to promote a more equitable distribution of power in the international system, while “China and Russia see it more as a geopolitical forum,” said Chietigi Bajpayee, who studies South Asia at the Chatham House in London.
India and Brazil also don’t want to be “pulled into China’s gravitational orbit,” said Theresa Fallon of the Center for Russia, Europe, Asia Studies.
Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press writers Harriet Morris in Tallinn; Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Taiwan; Ashok Sharma in New Delhi; and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
The World
New President Subianto swears in Indonesia’s largest Cabinet since 1966, with 109 members
By Niniek Karmini The Associated Press
JAKARTA,
Indonesia—Newly inaugurated President Prabowo
Subianto swore in Indonesia’s largest Cabinet since 1966 on Monday, with 109 members representing his pledge for a strong government.
He announced the lineup late Sunday and named his Cabinet of ministers, vice ministers and head of national agencies the “Red and White Cabinet,” referring to the colors of Indonesia’s flag.
Subianto became the eighth president of Southeast Asia’s largest economy on Sunday.
to accept his defeat on both occasions, in 2014 and 2019.
But Widodo appointed Subianto as defense chief after his reelection, paving the way for an alliance despite their rival political parties. During the campaign, Subianto ran as the popular outgoing president’s heir, vowing to continue signature policies like the construction of a multibillion-dollar new capital city and limits on exporting raw materials intended to boost domestic industry.
under Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo. She has earned considerable respect in international circles, particularly for her reforms of the chaotic Indonesian taxation system and her role in steering Indonesia through the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Backed by Widodo, Subianto swept to a landslide victory in February’s direct presidential election on promises of policy continuity.
Subianto has said earlier that he needs a strong administration, even though analysts said that his “fat” Cabinet would bloat the bureaucracy.
“I want to create a strong government that would unite our multicultural society and diverse political interests,” Subianto said before inviting more than 100 people for interviews at his residence last week. “It must be a big
The Cabinet of Subianto’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, had 34 ministers and head of government agencies. Subianto’s Cabinet is the largest since 1966 when Indonesia’s first President Sukarno formed a lineup of 132 ministers in an extremely tense political situation after a failed 1965 coup. The so-called Dwikora Cabinet 2 was dismissed a month later.
coalition, and some will say my Cabinet is fat.”
The Cabinet features politicians from a coalition of seven parties who supported his victory in the February election, and figures allied with Widodo’s Cabinet, who were reappointed to continue their jobs under Subianto’s presidency. Analysts said the move was a political reward to Widodo for the latter’s tacit support in the election. Subianto was sworn in with
his new vice president, 37-yearold Surakarta ex-Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka. He chose Raka, who is Widodo’s son, as his running mate, with Widodo favoring Subianto over the candidate of his own former party. The former rivals became tacit allies, even though Indonesian presidents don’t typically endorse candidates. Subianto was a longtime rival of Widodo, who ran against him for the presidency twice and refused
South Korea calls for immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops allegedly in Russia
By Hyung-Jin Kim The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea on Monday demanded the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia as it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia earlier this month to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces. During a meeting with Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev, Vice South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun “condemned in the strongest terms” North Korea’s troop dispatch that he said poses “a grave security threat” to South Korea and the international community, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Kim said that South Korea in collaboration with the international community will mobilize all available means to deal with
an act that threatens its vital national security interests. Zinoviev replied he would relay South Korea’s position to his home government, according to the South Korean statement.
The Russian Embassy quote Zinoviev as saying that the Russian-North Korean cooperation is conducted in accordance with international laws and is not aimed against the security interests of South Korea.
The US and NATO haven’t confirmed that North Korean troops were sent to Russia. But the reports of their presence have already stoked concerns in South Korea
that Russia might provide North Korea with sophisticated technologies that can sharply enhance its nuclear and missile programs in return for the troops.
North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal is a major security threat to South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently took steps to permanently terminate all relations with South Korea and threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. Some observers say South Korea will likely consider supplying weapons to Ukraine if Russian transfers of high-tech nuclear and missile technologies to North Korea are verified.
South Korea has joined US-led sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But it hasn’t directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing a longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.
Russia has earlier denied using North Korean troops in its war with Ukraine. North Korea’s state media hasn’t commented on the matter.
North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia would be its first participation in a major war since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Many experts question how much North Korean troops would help Russia on the battlefield, citing their lack of combat experience.
Cooperation between North Korea and Russia has flourished over the past two years. The US, South Korea and their partners have accused North Korea of supplying conventional arms to Russia in return for economic and military assistance. In June, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked.
The Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
Subianto reappointed nearly half of Widodo’s Cabinet members, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, making her the first person to hold the ministry under three different presidents.
Indrawati, 62, who has served as the executive director of the International Monetary Fund and managing director of the World Bank, is one of Indonesia’s longestserving finance ministers, having held the post for long stretches
“We regularly consulted with each other to discuss strategies for strengthening the Finance Ministry and the state finances to support his programs,” Indrawati told reporters after meeting with Subianto last week. Other ministers from Widodo’s Cabinet include Interior Minister Tito Karnavian, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir. Subianto has announced an ambitious goal of increasing annual economic growth to 8 percent by the end of his five-year term, and embarking on an ambitious spending program, including an increase in defense spending, hikes in civil servants’ salaries, and a program to give 83 million children free meals.
Vietnam elects General Luong Cuong as president amid political turbulence
By Aniruddha Ghosal The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam—Vietnam
elected Luong Cuong, a military general, as its new president on Monday, the fourth official to fill the role in 18 months.
Cuong, 67, was elected by the National Assembly to replace To Lam, who remained president even after he was formally appointed as the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party in August.
The role of the general secretary is the most powerful position in Vietnam while the presidency is largely ceremonial.
Cuong, who has served in the Vietnamese army for over four decades, has been a Politburo member since 2021.
His appointment took place after months of uncharacteristic tumult in Vietnam’s politics and the death of former party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who had dominated the country’s leadership since 2011.
Trong was an ideologue who viewed corruption as the single gravest threat in maintaining the party’s legitimacy and launched a sweeping anti-graft campaign known as the “blazing furnace.”
It singled both business and political elites, including former presidents Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vo Van Thuong and the former head of parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue.
As Vietnam’s top security official at the time, Lam had led
the campaign until May. When he became the new general secretary, he promised to maintain the anti-corruption fight.
The campaign, albeit popular with many Vietnamese citizens, had spooked investors and made the bureaucracy more cautious, slowing down decision-making in the country.
The appointment of Cuong as the new president was a “move to stabilize the system” after the period of turbulence, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.
“Luong Cuong’s appointment represents a deliberate attempt to restore balance between Vietnam’s military and security factions, particularly ahead of the 2026 Party Congress,” he said.
“By ceding the presidency, To Lam shows his commitment to the collective leadership principle, while still retaining the decisive power in the system,” he said.
Vietnam’s leaders are next due to convene a Communist Party Congress in early 2026. Critics said that Cuong’s appointment would expand repression in Vietnam.
Ben Swanton of The 88 Project, a group that advocates for freedom of expression in Vietnam, said that Cuong would be a “reliable deputy” to Lam.
“The installation of Luong Cuong as president is yet another example of the expansion of Vietnam’s police state,” he said.
Japanese police chief apologizes to man exonerated after 58 years on death row
By Mari Yamaguchi
TThe Associated Press
OKYO—A Japanese police chief on Monday apologized in person to Iwao Hakamada for his decades-long suffering that started from an overbearing investigation and wrongful conviction that had kept him on death row until last month, when he was acquitted in a retrial.
The 88-year-old Hakamada, a former boxer, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court, which said police and prosecutors had collabo -
rated to fabricate and plant evidence against him, and forced him to confess with violent, hourslong closed interrogations.
The acquittal was finalized earlier this month when the prosecution waived its right to appeal—though it complained about the ruling— finally ending Hakamada’s nearly 60-year legal battle to prove his innocence.
Shizuoka Prefectural Police chief Takayoshi Tsuda on Monday visited Hakamada at his home and offered an apology in person. As he entered the room where Hakamada, his sis -
ter Hideko Hakamada and their supporter waited, Hakamada silently rose from his sofa to greet him.
“We are sorry to have caused you unspeakable mental distress and burden for as long as 58 years from the time of the arrest until the acquittal was finalized,” Tsuda said, as he stood straight in front of Hakamada and bowed deeply. “We are terribly sorry.” Tsuda promised a “meticulous and appropriate investigation.” Hakamada, who has difficulty carrying out conversation due to his mental condition from the decades
of death row confinement, responded: “What it means to have the authority ... Once you have the power, you’re not supposed to grumble.” Hakamada’s 91-year-old sister, who had stood by her brother through the long process to clear his name and now lives with him, thanked the police chief for visiting them.
“There is no use complaining to him after all these years. He was not involved in the case and he only came here as his duty,” she told reporters afterward. “But I still accepted his visit just because I wanted (my
brother) to have a clear break from his past as a death row inmate.”
He was arrested in August 1966, in the killing of an executive at a miso bean paste company and three of his family members in Hamamatsu, central Japan. He was initially sentenced to death in a 1968 district court ruling but was not executed because of the lengthy appeal and retrial process in Japan.
It took nearly three decades for the Supreme Court to deny his first appeal for a retrial. His second appeal for a retrial, filed by his sister in 2008, was granted in 2014. The
court ordered his release from his death row solitary cell but without removing his conviction, pending the retrial process. Hakamada was the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner and only the fifth death row inmate to be acquitted in a retrial in postwar Japan, where criminal trials take years and retrials are extremely rare. His case and acquittal have triggered calls for more transparency in the investigation, legal change to lower hurdles for a retrial and debate over death penalty in Japan.
NEWLY appointed cabinet ministers stand behind Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto, center, as he announces his cabinet lineup at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday, October 20, 2024. AP/ACHMAD IBRAHIM
IN this photo provided by South Korea Foreign Ministry, South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun, right, meets with Russian Ambassador to South Korea Georgy Zinoviev at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea on Monday, October 21, 2024. SOUTH KOREA FOREIGN MINISTRY VIA AP
The World
Global environmental leaders gather in Colombia to tackle plummeting biodiversity levels at COP16
By Steven Grattan The Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia—Global environmental leaders gather Monday in Cali, Colombia to assess the world’s plummeting biodiversity levels and commitments by countries to protect plants, animals and critical habitats.
The two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, is a follow-up to the 2022 Montreal meetings where 196 countries signed a historic global treaty to protect biodiversity.
The accord includes 23 measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 percent of the planet and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.
In opening remarks on Sunday, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president Susana Muhamad said the conference is an opportunity “to collect the experience that has passed through this planet from all civilizations, from all cultures, from all knowledge... to generate livable, relatively stable conditions for a new society that will
be forged in the light of the crisis.”
A real threat to biodiversity loss
ALL evidence shows dramatic decline in species abundance and distribution, said Linda Krueger, director of biodiversity at The Nature Conservancy.
“A lot of wild species have less room to live, and they’re declining in numbers,” Krueger said. “And we also see rising extinction rates. Things that we haven’t even discovered yet are blinking out.”
The world is experiencing its largest loss of life since the dinosaurs, with around 1 million plant and animal species now threatened with extinction, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. In the Amazon rainforest,
threats to biodiversity include the expansion of the agricultural frontier and road networks, deforestation, forest fires and drought, says Andrew Miller, advocacy director at Amazon Watch, an organization that protects the rainforest.
“You put all of that together and it’s a real threat to biodiversity,” Miller said.
Global wildlife populations have plunged on average by 73 percent in 50 years, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London biennial Living Planet report this month.
The report said Latin America and the Caribbean saw 95 percent
average declines in recorded wildlife populations.
Indigenous communities key to biodiversity protection INDIGENOUS people are on the front lines of protecting biodiversity and fighting against climate change, putting their lives at great risk, said Miller of Amazon Watch.
“A lot of discourse has been given about the voices of local communities … Indigenous peoples really playing a key role,” he said. “So that’s one of the things that we’ll be looking for at COP16.”
Indigenous peoples hold the
Indigenous senator confronts King Charles in Australia’s parliament over land rights
CANBERRA, Australia—An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monarch is no longer needed as the country’s head of state.
Sen. Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.
“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us— our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”
No treaty was ever struck between between British colonizers and Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
Charles spoke quietly with Albanese while security officials stopped Thorpe from approaching.
“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall. Thorpe is renowned for highprofile protest action. When she was affirmed as a senator in 2022, she wasn’t allowed to describe the then-monarch as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
She briefly blocked a police float in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras last year by lying on the street in front of it. Last year, she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after video emerged of her abusing male patrons.
Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, also told the king it was time for his role to end.
“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated
the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British king as Australia’s monarch, noted that even supporters of a republic were honored to attend a reception for the Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.
“People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans,” Dutton quipped.
Australia’s six state government leaders underscored the political divide on the country’s constitutional relationship with Britain by declining invitations to attend the reception. All six would prefer an Australian citizen was Australia’s head of state. They each said they had more pressing engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.
Charles used the start of his speech to thank Canberra Indig -
enous elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the king and queen.
“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.
Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded to have been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.
Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject
during his current three-year term in government. But it is a possibility if his center-left Labor Party is re-elected at elections due by May next year.
Charles was drawn into Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.
The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year requesting a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided upon by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia becomes a republic is...a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.
Earlier Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.
The memorial estimated 4,000 people had turned out to see the couple.
Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary. It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant nation in 2011.
Charles and Camilla rested the day after their arrival late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.
solutions to combat the climate change and biodiversity crises, said Laura Rico, campaign director at Avaaz, a global activism nonprofit.
“They’re who have been taking care of the land, healing the land through their governance systems, their care systems and their ways of life,” she said. “So ... it’s fundamental that the COP recognizes, promotes and encourages the legalization of their territories.”
In Colombia’s capital, Bogota, the head of an Amazon Indigenous organization said the region’s Indigenous people have been preparing for months for COP16.
“This is a great opportunity to make the impact that we need to demonstrate to all the actors that come from other countries the importance of Indigenous peoples for the world,” said José Mendez, secretary of the National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon.
“It’s no secret to anyone that we...are at risk right now,” he said.
“The effects that we are currently experiencing due to climate change, the droughts that the country is experiencing, the Amazon River has never gone through a drought like the current one.… This is causing many species to become extinct.”
Nature can recover
ENVIRONMENT minister Muha -
WBy Steve Peoples & Linley Sanders
The Associated Press
ASHINGTON—Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class, according to a new poll.
A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction.
But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost what had been an advantage on the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.
“Do I trust Trump on the economy? No. I trust that he’ll give tax cuts to his buddies like Elon Musk,” said poll respondent Janice Tosto, a 59-year-old Philadelphia woman and self-described independent.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in September found neither Harris nor Trump had a clear advantage on handling “the economy and jobs.” But this poll asked more specific questions about whether voters trusted Trump or Harris to do a better job handling the cost of housing, jobs and unemployment, taxes on the middle class, the cost of groceries and gas, and tariffs.
The poll found that 46 percent of voters prefer Harris on middle-class taxes, compared to 35 percent for Trump. Harris also has a slight advantage on the cost of housing. Voters are about evenly divided on whether Trump or Harris is better on prices for everyday essentials like groceries and gas, and neither candidate has an edge on jobs and unemployment.
Voters, meanwhile, are slightly more likely to prefer Trump on the issue of tariffs, which were defined in the poll as taxes on imported goods.
Poll respondent Amber Moody, 36, from Halifax, Virginia, said she trusts Trump—and Republicans in general—much more on economic matters.
“It seems to me that in my lifetime, every time a Democrat holds office, the economy
mad told local media this month that one of the conference’s main objectives is to deliver the message that “biodiversity is as important, complementary and indispensable as the energy transition and decarbonization.”
Part of Colombia’s first ever leftist government, Muhamad cautioned last year’s World Economic Forum about the risks of continuing an extractive economy that ignores the social and environmental consequences of natural resource exploitation. Since the 2022 Montreal conference, “progress has been too slow”, says Eva Zabey, executive director of the coalition Business for Nature.
“There’s been some progress,” she said. “But the headline message is the implementation of the global biodiversity framework is too slow and we need to scale and speed up.”
“COP16 comes at an absolutely critical moment for us to move from targets setting to real actions on the ground,” Zabey said.
Although biodiversity declines are grim, some environmentalists believe a reversal is possible.
“We’ve had some very successful species reintroductions and we’ve saved species when we really focus on what is causing their decline,” said The Nature Conservancy’s Krueger. Tuesday,
Most voters think the economy is poor, but split on whether Trump or Harris can fix it–survey
suffers,” she said. “Prices go up, taxes go up and the national debt goes up. While I don’t approve of everything Donald Trump says and does, I do believe he is the better choice.” Voters see Harris more favorably than Trump
Voters’ impressions of Harris and Trump have remained steady over the last month. About half of voters have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Harris, while 46 percent see her unfavorably. Meanwhile, about 4 in 10 voters have a positive view of Trump and about 6 in 10 have an unfavorable view. Trump’s favorability ratings have been remarkably consistent over the last few months, even after two assassination attempts and a felony conviction.
Compared to last month, views of the candidates are stable among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as among men and women. Black voters’ views of Harris are overwhelmingly positive—about threequarters have a favorable view of the Democratic candidate—and their views of Trump are negative, with about 2 in 10 holding a favorable view. Hispanic voters also view Harris more favorably than Trump, although the gap is narrower: About 6 in 10 Hispanic voters have a favorable view of Harris and about 4 in 10 have an favorable view of Trump. The poll also shows a gender gap in views of the candidates heading into the final days of the election.
About half of women voters have a favorable impression of Harris, while only around one-third see Trump favorably. Among men, about half have a favorable view of Harris and a similar share have a positive opinion of Trump. Voters are pessimistic about the economy and the country
Overall, voters remain pessimistic about the state of the economy and the general direction of the country.
About half of voters describe the nation’s economy as very or somewhat poor. Republicans and independents are more likely than Democrats to express that view. There are modest signs of improvement, however, compared to an AP-NORC poll from October 2023, when about 7 in 10 US adults thought the US economy was in bad shape. The number was even worse in October 2022, when close to 8 in 10 Americans described the economy as poor.
AFRO-COLOMBIAN women perform during the opening ceremony of COP16, a United Nations’ biodiversity conference, in Cali, Colombia on Sunday, October 20, 2024. AP/FERNANDO VERGARA
AUSTRALIAN Senator Lidia Thorpe, center, disrupts proceedings as Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Monday, October 21, 2024. LUKAS COCH/POOL PHOTO VIA AP
The recent revelation that the government has allowed unprogrammed appropriations to exceed programmed expenditures in the 2024 budget is deeply concerning. This practice not only disregards prudent fiscal management but also risks exacerbating budget deficits, which could have far-reaching implications for the country’s economic stability. (Read the BusinessMirror story: “Additional unprogrammed appropriations funding swells 2024 budget beyond program,” October 18, 2024).
According to the latest data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the infusion of additional funding for unprogrammed appropriations has pushed the 2024 budget beyond its initial program, with expenditures reaching P5.833 trillion, exceeding the programmed budget of P5.768 trillion. This rapid expenditure rate, faster than in the previous year, raises red flags about the government’s financial discipline and accountability.
This budgetary overreach is a clear dereliction of fiscal responsibility. While the government has the flexibility to allocate additional funds for pressing needs, the scale of these “unprogrammed appropriations” suggests a worrying lack of budgetary discipline. Exceeding the initial P5.768 trillion programmed budget by over P65 billion is neither prudent nor sustainable.
The allocation of significant sums to various sectors and projects, such as infrastructure, social programs, state-run corporations, and debt repayments, highlights the diverse areas where these unprogrammed funds have been disbursed. While some of these allocations serve critical purposes, the overall pattern suggests a lack of adherence to the budget plan and a tendency towards unsustainable spending practices.
This scenario could signify inadequate budget planning and oversight, reflecting poor financial management within the government. Such circumstances may result in inefficiencies and resource mismanagement. Overshooting planned expenses through unplanned allocations can further raise doubts regarding financial transparency and responsibility. It can spark questions about the allocation and utilization of these additional funds. Moreover, it could indicate to investors, creditors, and the public a lack of fiscal discipline in adhering to budgetary commitments, potentially impacting confidence in the nation’s financial governance.
Of particular concern is the allocation of funds for debt repayment, which, while essential, must be managed prudently to avoid further burdening the government’s finances. The disbursement of only 88.3 percent of the budgeted amount for debt payments underscores the challenges in meeting these obligations, pointing to potential liquidity issues and financial strain. Looking ahead to the 2025 budget, which is projected to increase by 10.1 percent to P6.352 trillion, there is a pressing need for the government to reevaluate its fiscal strategies. Sustainable economic growth hinges on sound fiscal management, transparent allocation of resources, and effective oversight to prevent budget overruns and deficits.
It is imperative that the government takes immediate corrective action to address these fiscal imbalances and ensure responsible stewardship of public funds. This includes enhancing budget planning processes, strengthening expenditure controls, and promoting greater transparency in financial reporting to rebuild trust in the government’s fiscal management capabilities. Failure to rectify these unsound fiscal practices risks eroding investor confidence, increasing borrowing costs, and impeding long-term economic development. As such, it is incumbent upon policymakers to prioritize fiscal prudence and accountability to safeguard the country’s financial health and promote sustainable growth for the benefit of all citizens.
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Harris and Trump: On China and PHL
OJohn Mangun
OUTSIDE THE BOX
N Tuesday, November 5, the US will elect its president, choosing between Donald Trump and Kamala harris. As with most political exercises, elections have become a battle between “Good and evil,” character over competence, and feelings without facts. It was not too long ago that policies were the focus rather than personality.
The US election is interesting as Trump was the President from 2017 to 2021 and Harris has been the Vice President since January 2021. Voters therefore can judge in part the performance of the Biden/Harris administration against the previous term of Trump.
Critically important policy decisions regard China after the election.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that the median favorability rating of China was 52 percent unfavorable and 35 percent favorable and with wide disparity. In Thailand, 80 percent Favorable; Australia (85 percent) and Japan (87 percemt) do not like China.
There are many domestic and external factors that influence a nation’s behavior. But you must look at history even if you can never know exactly what motivated the behavior.
For example. China’s PLA aircraft incursions within Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone by year.
T2017: 16 incursions.
2018: Zero.
2019: less than 20.
2021: 972.
2022: 1,738.
2023: 1,703.
The number currently stands at 2,002 for 2024 (as of September 10).
A critical juncture exists for the US’s relationship with China. There is a general agreement that China represents a threat as it narrows the gap across military, diplomatic, and technological domains.
President Trump’s policy was to label China as a “strategic competitor.” Largely upheld by the Biden administration, this indicates a sustained hawkish approach. Both candidates have a consensus on the export of critical technologies and goods, bringing back domestic supply chains, and addressing China’s unfair trade practices.
In the last phase of his presi-
By Jeran Wittenstein & Ryan Vlastelica
here’S a growing divide in the $530 billion semiconductor industry between the companies that are riding the artificial intelligence wave and those that aren’t. And looking at the early returns from this earnings season, that gulf could soon widen into an abyss.
“Without AI, the market would be very sad,” Christophe Fouquet, chief executive of ASML Holding NV, said last week on a conference call after the Dutch chip production equipment maker cut its sales forecast for 2025 due to sluggish demand in everything other than AI.
ASML’s results sparked a new round of worries about the health of the chip industry, which is being hurt by weakness in key businesses like personal computers and automobiles. It also has been caught up in the rising geopolitical tensions between the US and China that could cut off access to the Chinese chip market, which is the biggest in the world.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which includes Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp. among its customers, assuaged some of those fears
after lifting its revenue forecast for 2024. While its growth is being fueled by AI-related drivers, overall chip demand has “stabilized” and is starting to improve, Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei said.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, better known by its symbol SOX, tumbled last week, losing 5.3 percent on Tuesday alone before paring its losses following TSMC’s results on Thursday. To highlight the bifurcation, semiconductor equipment makers like ASML and Lam Research Corp. were among the leading decliners, while several chipmakers, including Marvell Technology Inc., managed to rise.
“We should expect this kind of divergence to continue, since it is completely correct to assume it is all AI,” said Gabelli Funds research
It is probably a good time to flip a coin to predict the election outcome and also to decide which candidate would be better for the Philippines.
dency, Trump floated the concept of decoupling to disentangle the US economy from China’s. In contrast, Kamala Harris advocated for “derisking,” focusing on reducing vulnerabilities.
Perhaps more important to the Philippines is regional security.
Differences remain on how to avoid military conflicts. Trump previously underscored the importance of peace through military might. In 2020, then-Senator Harris advocated for reducing military expenditures. However, last May, she affirmed the necessity of US dominance in air and space for global stability.
The reality is that Trade and Security are intertwined. Trump: “If we’re in a war—and we need tanks, and we need ships, and we need other things that happen to be made of steel—what are we going to do? Go to China and get the steel? We’re fighting China, but ‘Would you mind selling us some steel?’ Think about it.”
This is interesting. “According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Biden administration’s strategy towards China is predicated on the debate over whether China has reached its zenith. If analysts believe China’s growth has stagnated, US policy might be “more relaxed.” Conversely, if China is seen
analyst Ryuta Makino, who sees the separate paths remaining until at least 2025.
Chip creators
THE semiconductor business is often viewed as a barometer for the global economy since chips are vital for a range of products, from data center servers to dishwashers. The companies that provide the equipment used to create these chips are on the industry’s front lines. Before semiconductor companies can begin production, it takes months to build, install and test the machines used to manufacture the chips. As a result, companies like ASML have unusually long-range views of how their customers are feeling. At the moment, they’re flashing a caution signal for everything other than AI. For example, automotive and industrial suppliers are experiencing a demand slump as clients sit on elevated inventories.
In addition, Intel Corp. is cutting costs and delaying new factories as it grapples with falling sales and mounting losses. Samsung Electronics Co. apologized to investors
as continuing to ascend, a more assertive counteraction would be deemed necessary. However, this uncertainty about China’s trajectory has led to a strategic impasse within the Biden administration, causing a “sort of gridlock” in formulating a definitive China policy.”
Will this gridlock continue under a Harris administration? BBC Verify finds, Nominee Harris did not mention China at all in her six rallies since the September 10 debate. Trump has mentioned China 40 times in his rallies since then and in one hour at a town hall forum last week, he brought up China 27 times. Harris has reaffirmed the US commitment to the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty and consistently emphasized the importance of human rights as foundational for the partnership, linking human rights with foreign relations. Trump’s policy in Asia was aimed at countering China’s rise, where the Philippines could be seen as a key ally, focusing on counter-terrorism, enhancing the military, and freedom of navigation. However, Trump will likely push for trade deals or economic arrangements favorable to US businesses.
It is probably a good time to flip a coin to predict the election outcome and also to decide which candidate would be better for the Philippines.
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.
this month after delays in highbandwidth memory chips led to disappointing financial results. And investors will be monitoring Texas Instruments Inc. this week, with its earnings due on Tuesday, since the company’s analog chips are used by a wide range of customers. Taken together, it appears there’s a tough road ahead for equipment makers, many of which saw their stocks hit record highs earlier this year. Some traders aren’t waiting around to see how this plays out and are already dumping the stocks. ASML just suffered its worst week since early September, with its US-listed share price dropping 14 percent. Applied Materials Inc., the biggest US maker of chip equipment, sank 9.1 percent, while KLA and Lam Research each fell more than 12 percent.
“We have been more cautious on other semi equipment names,” CJ Muse, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, wrote in a research note. “But had thought a longer lead time player like ASML would outperform. Clearly we were wrong with this assumption.”
See “ASML,” A13
Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon
Fears of ‘false start’ for Fed leave emerging markets in limbo
By Srinivasan Sivabalan
PrIce action in some of the world’s most risk-sensitive assets is signaling concern that the Federal reserve’s decision to begin lowering interest rates may have been premature—or may not be sustainable.
Since the Fed kicked off its longanticipated loosening cycle on Sept. 18 with a cut of 50 basis points, double the median forecast, emerging-market assets have traded as if borrowing costs in the world’s largest economy will remain high. That’s left developing world assets in limbo, headed for another span of underperformance.
In little over a month, the Fed rate cut has been eclipsed by fresh risks that are keeping global investors shy on the asset class, overshadowing the gains that Fed easing cycles might usually be expected to bring. While the threats have taken different forms—higher Treasury yields, a stronger dollar, greater volatility in currency options—the underlying themes have been just two: the potential return of Donald Trump as US president and China’s inadequate stimulus measures.
That means that once again, traders in emerging markets are positioning defensively for an inflationary US economy and a deflationary Chinese one.
“We remain in a world with two potentially existential threats to EM —China weakness and Trump,” said Paul McNamara, investment director at Gam UK Ltd. in London. “A strong US economy without inflation is good for EM, but persistent inflation will not only postpone further cuts, but weigh on all risk assets into the medium term.”
Though there was an initial boost to emerging markets from the Fed move, it was first interrupted by strong US data that revived fears of resurgent inflation, and later comments by presidential candidate Trump that exacerbated them. The Republican nominee has put tariffs and protectionism at the center of his agenda. If implemented, that’s likely to raise consumer prices in the US and undermine demand for exports from the developing world, according to many economists.
“We’re just weeks away from a US election that might lead to a Trump economic assault on the biggest EM out there, China,” said Charlie Robertson, head of macro strategy at FIM Partners. “It’s close to a coin flip as to who wins the US election, and equally makes it hard to choose a local markets trade to like.”
Disappointed again
HEDGE funds have also been ramping up positions speculating on dollar gains against developing economies vulnerable to higher tariffs. EM stocks, which briefly rebounded from a record low relative to US equities after the Fed decision, are heading back to that dubious honor. Local currencies and local-currency bonds are on course for their worst month since February 2023. Segments of the dollar-bond market, like long-duration and investmentgrade, also continue to trail.
Bond investors have seen their returns stagnate in the month since the Fed decision. Their expectations for the developing world to follow the Fed are now being upended by central-bank caution, as policymakers from Indonesia to Hungary and Turkey decide to pause interest-rate cuts.
“Eventually EM local-currency bonds should benefit from global easing,” said Anders Faergemann, a senior portfolio manager at Pinebridge Investments.
“However, from a total return perspective, the relief rally in the US dollar and domestic delays to monetary-policy easing may have triggered some profit-taking.”
Valuation of shares of stock
AIn little over a month, the Fed rate cut has been eclipsed by fresh risks that are keeping global investors shy on the asset class, overshadowing the gains that Fed easing cycles might usually be expected to bring. While the threats have taken different forms—higher Treasury yields, a stronger dollar, greater volatility in currency options—the underlying themes have been just two: the potential return of Donald Trump as US president and China’s inadequate stimulus measures.
fulvio D. Dawilan
Tax Law for Business
S a rule, net capital gains realized from the sale, barter, exchange, or other disposition of shares of stock in a domestic corporation, except those sold or disposed of through the stock exchange, are subject to the capital gains tax of 15 percent. Unless exemption or special rules are applicable, this rule uniformly applies regardless of whether the shareholder is an individual or corporation, foreign or domestic, citizen or non-citizen.
In arriving at the capital gain, the costs associated with the acquisition of the shares shall be deducted from the selling price. Thus, the two important information in determining the taxable net capital gain are the selling price and the cost—so important that they may give rise to disputes between the taxpayer and the tax authorities if not fully substantiated.
consideration. In other words, net capital gains were computed based on the actual consideration/selling price or the FMV/book value, whichever is higher, less the costs. Hence, the excess of the FMV/book value of the shares over the actual selling price were effectively captured in computing the net capital gain. No other taxes were attached, even if selling prices were lower than the book value.
Still, I believe that this deemed donation should be applied in relation to the qualification provided in the Tax Code—that a sale, exchange, or other transfer of property made in the ordinary course of business will be considered as made for an adequate and full consideration. This means that there is still no donation, despite the inadequacy in price versus the book value, if the sale is done in the ordinary course of business, free from donative intent.
the selling price is indeed inadequate in comparison to the actual value, there is in effect a gift equivalent to the difference.
“Rising geopolitical tensions, uncertainty over China’s efforts to rescue domestic consumption, and event risk leading up to the US presidential election will also spark increased demands for a higher risk premium into year end,” Faergemann said.
Yield curves
STRONG US economic data have not only disrupted Fed monetary-policy bets but are also reshaping emerging-market yield curves. Within the dollar-bond market, investors are favoring short-duration bonds to long-duration bonds—an unlikely preference in an environment where falling rates are a consensus expectation. Bonds with a duration of more than 10 years have handed investors a loss of 3.6% since the Fed cut, while those of less than three years have given marginal gains.
As of Friday, swap traders were penciling in further reductions to their bets on Fed cuts in the remaining two meetings of the year. Citigroup Inc.’s Akshay Singal, global head of short-term interest-rate trading, told Bloomberg TV that the Fed is likely to cut rates by just 25 basis points, or even stay put, over the next few meetings. He said he doubted the Fed would have opted for a 50-basis-point cut in September if it had seen the strong jobs data before the meeting.
“The combination of US Treasury yields above 4 percent and a pickup in economic activity in the US have called into question the idea of the beginning of a Fed cutting cycle,” said Martin Bercetche, a hedge-fund manager at UK-based Frontier Road Ltd. “We might have had a false start last month.”
China factor FOR emerging-market stocks, the turbulence coming from the US economic and political landscape was just one of the problems. The wildest volatility in nine years has meanwhile gripped China as successive stimulus measures initially sparked a sharp equity rally, then ultimately failed to convince investors that they were enough to turn around the economy.
The EM equity benchmark, where China holds the biggest weighting, is once again trailing the S&P 500 Index, belying expectations that it would pull itself out of a seventh successive year of underperformance when the Fed started to cut rates.
The bruises of the past month have forced investors to reassess their exposure, and many are avoiding the sweeping EM-wide bets they’d recommended for the postFed era. Bloomberg
The average yield on EM sovereign dollar bonds has edged higher by 9 basis points since Sept. 18, while the rate on local-currency bonds has also risen 9 basis points, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Between the two groups, the latter is underperforming in dollar returns, with currency declines acting as an additional drag.
For the cost, as long as there are documents to support the subscription or purchase price and other related costs, these should suffice for purposes of deductibility. Hence, it is prudent to preserve the related documents, as these may be needed years later when the shares are disposed. The rule related to selling price is another important matter. For this, the rules had been changing. Prior to 2008, the fair market value (FMV) of the shares was considered to be the selling price of the shares transferred or exchanged. And the book value of the shares was prima facie considered as the FMV. The book value was then used as the selling price in computing the capital gain if it was higher than the actual
This treatment of the excess FMV over the actual selling price and the determination of the FMV changed starting in 2008. The excess of the FMV/book value of the shares over the actual consideration is no longer considered in computing the net capital gain. For purposes of computing the net capital gain, the selling price shall be the total consideration based on the sales document. The FMV of the shares is not considered when computing the net capital gain.
But the FMV is still relevant in the sale of shares. In case the FMV of the shares sold is greater than the selling price, the excess is deemed a gift subject to another type of tax, which is the donor’s tax. In essence, if
And what is considered the FMV of the shares? Prior to the current rule, the FMV of the shares was required to be determined based on the Adjusted Net Asset Method. Under this method, all the assets and liabilities are adjusted to their fair market values. The net of adjusted assets minus the liability values is the indicated value of the equity. Hence, a reference needs to be made to the adjusted (appraised) assets and liabilities of the company that issued the shares.
In 2020, that method of determining the FMV was abandoned. Our existing regulations provide for the basis of the FMV of the shares. For common shares of stock, the book value based on the latest available financial statements duly certified by an independent public accountant prior to the date of sale but not earlier than the immediately preceding taxable year, shall be considered as the prima facie fair market value. For preferred shares of stock, the liquidation value shall be considered as fair market value. The book value need no longer be adjusted to include any appraisal surplus not included in the financial statements to determine the FMV of the shares. Hence, while the role of the FMV of shares in a sale transaction and the method of its determination have been changing, one thing remains clear: it is still relevant. Now, it is determined by simply referring to the book value based on the late audited financial statement. To avoid the possible imposition of donor’s tax on the sale of the shares, the selling price should at least be equal to or higher than the book value of the shares sold. Otherwise, this may attract a donor’s tax. Still, I believe that this deemed donation should be applied in relation to the qualification provided in the Tax Code—that a sale, exchange, or other transfer of property made in the ordinary course of business will be considered as made for an adequate and full consideration. This means that there is still no donation, despite the inadequacy in price versus the book value, if the sale is done in the ordinary course of business, free from donative intent. There could still be deviation from the book value of the shares as the FMV, provided that there are justifications.
The author is a managing partner of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law) (www. bdblaw.com.ph), a member-firm of WTS Global. The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at fulvio.dawilan@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 loc 310.
Israel hones plans to attack Iran after attempt on Netanyahu
By Ethan Bronner
AdAy after a Hezbollah drone penetrated Israel’s air defenses and exploded next to the private home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he held a series of meetings with top security aides to discuss the next attack on Iran.
The planning for such an assault has been underway for three weeks since Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel following Israeli assassinations of leaders of Iransponsored militias.
But Saturday’s precise drone attack on Netanyahu’s coastal home north of Tel Aviv stunned many Israelis. While neither Netanyahu nor his wife were home and no one was injured, he and his ministers said it was another reason retaliation is warranted.
“There is no doubt that another red line has been crossed here,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s Channel 14 on Saturday night. “We must defeat Iran’s ability to pose a threat.”
While Iran awaits Israel’s attack—and has vowed to hit back even harder—it made a point of denying involvement in the Saturday drone assault on Netanyahu’s home in the town of Caesarea.
The retaliation has taken longer than many expected, perhaps be -
After ASML’s results, the analyst said he expects more downside for the stocks.
Investors will get more insight this week when chip equipment maker Lam Research reports on October 23. KLA is due to release results on October 30, followed by Applied Materials on November 14.
AI spending bump
THINGS are very different for the semiconductor companies that will benefit from Big Tech’s continued heavy spending on AI development. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.
cause of coordination between the US and Israel. Washington is urging Israel to avoid hitting either energy or nuclear installations and has sent Israel sophisticated anti-ballistic missile defense weapons for if and when Iran hits back.
An apparently leaked Pentagon document over the weekend detailed some of Israel’s preparations for such an attack. The leak, the authenticity of which wasn’t verified, appeared on the Telegram account of a proIranian group called Middle East Spectator.
On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that while it takes into account what the US advises, Israel makes its own decisions. It’s unclear when a decision will be reached or when retaliation will occur. Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Channel 14, “There is no facility, whether military or civilian, nor any person in Iran that is immune. None of them sleeps well at night.”
Donald Trump, the former US president running in next month’s
pumped more than $50 billion into capital expenditures in the second quarter, with much of that going to computing component makers. And many of these behemoths say they plan to spend even more in coming quarters to expand their AI infrastructures.
Overall AI semiconductor industry sales are expected to jump to $245 billion in 2025 from an estimated $168 billion this year, according to Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management. She advised clients to add to AI-related chipmakers in the wake of ASML’s results.
“We continue to see a strong growth outlook for AI semis, and are closely watching managements’ guidance on future demand in the
election, told a campaign rally that Netanyahu had called him and said that after Israel’s recent assassinations of militia leaders, including on Thursday of Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar, it was in a much better position to fight back against Iran and its proxies.
Netanyahu’s Sunday planning for the attack on Iran, first with close advisers and then with his security cabinet, came at the end of another day of intense military activity both in Lebanon and in Gaza. Hezbollah sent scores of projectiles at Israel’s north.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military said it struck a command center for Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut.
In northern Gaza, health authorities said an Israeli strike overnight in the town of Beit Lahia killed dozens. The Israeli military disputed the toll but said it was pursuing Hamas operatives who’d reconstituted themselves in that area. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the yearlong war triggered when Hamas operatives swarmed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 250.
Some 100 hostages remain in Gaza, perhaps half of them alive, and Israel is offering rewards to Gazans to help return them.
Israel’s killing of Sinwar, the
days and weeks ahead,” she wrote in a research note last week.
The chief beneficiary from all the spending is Nvidia, whose chips dominate the market for AI accelerators. The stock hit a fresh record last week after assurances from Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang that its new Blackwell chip is in full production and seeing strong demand from customers. Nvidia shares are up more than 175 percent in 2024 and within striking distance of overtaking Apple as the world’s most valuable company with a market value of nearly $3.4 trillion. Other companies that should get a lift from the rising tide of AI spending include TSMC, Broadcom Inc., Arm Holdings Plc, Micron Technology Inc. and Advanced Micro
Hamas leader, was viewed by many as a potential turning point, a moment when fighting might yield to negotiation and diplomacy. But in the days since, little has changed and combat has intensified with Hezbollah and Hamas. Both are considered terrorist organizations by the US and other countries.
Meanwhile, Israel expressed dismay that the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, offered condolences for Sinwar and described him as a martyr and “great national leader.” Sinwar was the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and slaughter. Abbas and the Authority are viewed by much of the world as moderate alternatives to Hamas, willing to live in peace with Israel if granted a state, whereas Hamas is openly dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Netanyahu and his government say Abbas and his Authority are, in fact, no less hostile or violent in their view of the Jewish state.
“We aren’t surprised,” Netanyahu’s diplomatic adviser, Ophir Falk, said of the PLO’s statement. “They never condemned the October 7 massacre and they have a long history of praising mass murderers of Jews.” With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron and Dan Williams /Bloomberg
Devices Inc., which is attempting to loosen Nvidia’s grip on the accelerator market.
However, even some of the winners aren’t immune from non-AI weakness. Just look at Broadcom. Its custom chips and networking semiconductors are used in data centers, but its stock price tumbled last month after posting disappointing results from parts of its business not tied to AI.
“There will eventually be a value case to be made for non-AI chipmakers and a point when a strengthening economy means demand flips back,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. “However, it’s a question of timing. AI will remain a focus in the meantime.” Bloomberg
October 22, 2024
Migrant groups push drive vs seafarer claims ‘escrow’
By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
AMIGRANT advocate group
joined calls for stopping the implementation of the controversial “escrow provision” of Republic Act (RA) No. 12021 or the Magna Carta for Seafarers amid concerns it can be replicated for land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) Executive Director Ellene Sana said the escrow for seafarers can become the precedent for the passage of similar legislative measures for other sectors, including land-based OFWs, in Congress if it is left unopposed.
“We should not let go of this problem with the Magna Carta.... As DOLE [Department of Labor and Employment] said, there is no such [provision] in labor laws. If you are a local worker and you have a claim, you don’t have to post a bond for the release [of your claim],” Sana told BusinessMirror in an interview on the sidelines of a forum organized by the FriedrichEbert-Stiftung (FES) and the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP Solair) on Monday.
Under Section 59 of RA 12021, seafarers are mandated to post a bond for their claims, if these are still pending for
judicial review before the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court (SC).
The bond will be reimbursed by the losing manning agency of the shipping firm if the seafarer wins in the case, and will be forfeited if the court decides in favor of the former.
CMA said it will back the plan of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) to challenge the constitutionality of the escrow provision of RA 12021, which it called anti-seafarer.
In a Viber message, FFW President Sonny Matula said they are still preparing the case they will file against RA 12021 before the Supreme Court.
“We may be able to file it by the second week of November,” he said.
Case reviews
CITING the findings of UP Solair Professorial Lecturer Maragtas S.V. Amante, Sana said the escrow provision is not only legally questionable, but may also lead to long delays before seafarers can get their claims.
Amante said it takes an average of more than eight years before claims filed by seafarers before the courts reach and are settled by the High Court.
“This is because the case will go through the [labor] arbiter, [National Labor Relations] Commission, Court of Appeals before it reaches the Supreme Court,” he said in his presenta-
ETERNAL Gardens, in partnership with Eternal Paw Crematory, announced the Eternal Paw Parade on October 31, 2024, at various Eternal Gardens parks. Pet owners are invited to bring their beloved pets, dress them up in creative costumes, and participate in this fun-filled parade. The event offers a unique opportunity for pet owners and their furry companions to bond while celebrating their role as beloved family members.
The Eternal Paw Parade is just one of the many exciting activities prepared by The Eternal Group for park visitors during this year’s Undas. This celebration, traditionally focused on remembering family and loved ones, now extends to include pets, recognizing the important place they hold in our lives.
“We have always believed that pets are more than just companions—they’re family. The Eternal Paw Parade is our way of celebrating that bond while offering families a joyful way to spend time together during Undas,” Eternal Paw President Dannica Nicole A. Cabangon shared.
Adding to this, Jose Antonio Rivera, Vice President for Marketing of Eternal Gardens, emphasized the park’s welcoming atmosphere for pets. “Eternal Gardens parks are pet-friendly.
This initiative underscores our commitment to making our parks a place for all family members—both human and pet alike. Through events like the Eternal Paw Parade, we aim to strengthen that sense of inclusion.” Eternal Gardens prides itself on being a pet-friendly memorial park, offering visitors the opportunity to bring their pets along as they pay tribute to loved ones.
Eternal Paw Crematory was established to complement the full circle of memorial care offered by The Eternal Group and provide dignified, compassionate services for pets. Dedicated to the care and respect of pets, Eternal Paw’s mission is encapsulated in its tagline, “Because your pet deserves eternal love,” ensuring that every pet is honored with the utmost care. Participants will also have the chance to win exciting giveaways from event partners in the pet care industry, adding an extra layer of fun to the event.
For more information on the Eternal Paw Parade and other Undas activities, visit Eternal Gardens and Eternal Paw Crematory’s official Facebook Pages. Eternal Gardens and Eternal Paw Crematory are part of the ALC Group of Companies founded by the late Amb. Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, and is currently chaired by D. Edgard A. Cabangon.
tion at the forum last Monday.
In his partial inventory of the SC decisions on labor cases from 2016 to 2023, Amante noted that 33.2 percent or 174 are seafarer-related and 350 or 66.8 percent are non-seafarer cases.
He also noted 108 or 62.1 percent of seafarer cases in the SC are in favor of the sailors and only 34.5 percent or 60 benefited employers.
The average amount SC monetary awards for seafarers was US$66,886.
Problematic implementation
SUPPORTERS of the escrow provisions argued that the provision of RA 12021 is necessary to prevent “ambulance chasing,” or the act of soliciting, personally or through an agent from seafarers, or their heirs, the pursuit of any claim against their employers for the purpose of recovery of monetary claim.
They also said it is meant to protect manning agencies and shipping firms in case the SC will rule in their favor and the seafarer can no longer return the awarded amount.
Sana slammed the arguments saying there will be no need for the escrow provision of RA 12021 if RA 10706 or the Seafarers Protection Act of 2015 is effectively implemented by the government.
“So if it [RA 10706] is not effective, why should seafarers be the ones to be penalized,” Sana said.
The Department of Migrant Worker (DMW) earlier said the escrow provision will only apply for “excessive claims,” which will be contested by manning agencies or shipping companies.
It said the usual amount of claims will be immediately awarded to seafarers.
Stakeholder consultation
DMW said it hopes the matters will be clarified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 12021, which is expected to be released before the end of the year.
Sana said they hope the government will conduct stakeholder consultations in crafting the IRR especially since RA 12021 has provisions, which they support and will be beneficial for seafarers.
The CMA official said they are particularly looking forward to the Transition Assistance under Section 88 of RA 12021, which provides aid to seafarers, who are not actively engaged, or not working due to expiration of contract or are transitioning between contracts.
The program includes unemployment benefits, training and livelihood programs, as well as entrepreneurship training and financing.
“We hope the IRR will help further reinforce the good provisions of the new law,” Sana said.
RICE ARRIVALS HIT 3.59 MMT AS SHIPMENTS PICK UP IN 3RD QTR
THE country’s rice arrivals reached 3.5 million metric tons (MMT) as shipments picked up in the third quarter of the year.
Data from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed that rice arrivals from January 1 to October 17 reached 3.59 MMT. The country’s actual shipments was 3.61 MMT last year. The shipments began to pick up after slowing in July to 167,407.26 metric tons (MT) following the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 62, which lowered the tariffs to 15 percent, and which took effect in the same month.
Rice shipments in August and September rose to nearly 400,000 metric tons (MT), which was the average arrival from the first semester, based on BPI data. As of mid-October, rice arrivals already reached 294,113.58 MT. Of the volume that arrived in the Philippines, BPI data showed that over 2.84 MMT came from Vietnam, which maintained its status as the country’s top source of imports. Thailand was the second-largest supplier, accounting for 448,963.28 MT.
The Phillippines also purchased rice from other countries such as Pakistan (159,159.48 MT), Myanmar (107,198.75 MT) and India (22,039.04 MT).
India, the world’s largest exporter, recently lifted its ban on non-basmati white rice shipments and set a minimum export price (MEP) of $490 per MT. Government official and industry sources said India easing its export restrictions could affect world and domestic rice prices.
It could also open the country to an alternative source of imported rice, considering its lower quotation on the commodity in contrast with other exporting countries.
“Considering that it is cheaper compared to Vietnam and Thailand, it can be an option for additional rice supply and import diversification,” University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agribusiness (CFA) Executive Director Marie Annette Galvez-Dacul said.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently adjusted upward its estimate of the Philippines’s rice imports in 2025 owing to a smaller crop. In its latest report, the USDA
IPOPHL sets rules on AI-generated creatives
By Ada Pelonia
THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is set to release guidelines on creative works generated with artificial intelligence (AI).
According to IPOPHL Director General Rowel Barba, the agency will begin discussing with various sectors of the copyright industry and the effect of AI on these sectors.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get reviews of those stakeholders, especially the artists, and come up with the guidelines,” Barba told reporters during the 2nd Philippine International Copyright Summit (PICS) press conference in Quezon City on Monday.
Barba also said they would come up with recommendations
which could be integrated with the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) AI roadmap.
The DTI earlier launched the National AI Strategy Roadmap 2.0 (NAISR 2.0) and the Center for AI Research (CAIR) to harness AI’s “transformative potential” in boosting the Philippine economy. (See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2024/07/02/dti-launching-national-ai-strategy-roadmap-cair/)
“It appears that the different government agencies are doing their own, but hopefully we will be able to integrate and consolidate all of those guidelines in one guideline,” Barba said.
Barba explained that the government’s IP regulator requires artists to disclose how much percentage was generated by AI in their application form.
“In the Philippines, it is required that the work should be the work of a natural person,” he said.
“We do not register those made by machines and we also require disclosure how much percentage was made by AI.”
For his part, IPOPHL’s Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights Director Emerson Cuyo said part of the guidelines would be centered on copyright registration.
“What’s for sure right now is that works that are wholly generated by AI did not pass the requirement for copyright protection under our law but for partially generated that’s where the confusion is and that’s where guidance will come into,” Cuyo said.
Meanwhile, Barba said IPOPHL will launch initiatives such as a copyright registration search to
strengthen artists’ claim of ownership and have a convenient way to prove this.
He noted that the search system would offer a user-friendly way for checking copyright registration filed in the IPOPHL.
“This will be updated monthly with future plans to slowly include copyright registrations filed in the National Library of the Philippines. In the long run, we hope to create a truly unified, national copyright registry for the Philippines.”
He added that he agency would also launch its public domain registry which would contain names of Filipino authors whose works have already entered the Philippine Public Domain, “waiting to be revived and transformed into a new masterpiece to tug at the hearts of the public in a different light.”
Editor: Jennifer A. Ng
B1 Tuesday, October 22, 2024
CREC, Levanta to form joint venture for wind projects
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
The wind power unit of Citicore Renewable energy Corp. (CReC) is partnering with Levanta Renewables (Levanta), a leading Southeast Asia-focused renewable energy platform backed by Actis, for the development of its onshore wind projects.
“We are entering the next phase of CREC’s journey to power a brighter future for the Philippines with the start of our first four onshore wind projects, and there is no better partner to take this step with than Levanta. They bring decades of extensive technical and operational experience to this partnership and to our onshore wind industry,” CREC President Oliver Tan said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Monday.
On behalf of Citicore Wind Energy Corp. (CWEC), CREC signed a strategic partnership agreement with Levanta to establish a joint
venture company that will drive the development of CREC’s onshore wind projects.
This strategic partnership pact, signed last October 18, will cover the development, financing, construction, and operations and maintenance of Citicore’s four onshore wind projects located in Luzon and Visayas, all of which secured offtake via the Department of Energy’s Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) in July 2023 and total 375 megawatts.
The partnership is subject to and conditional upon certain customary conditions and is expected to close in the next few months.
“We are delighted to partner with CREC on the development of onshore wind projects in the Philippines. This partnership marks Levanta’s entry into the Philippines wind market, serving as a key step towards its goal of achieving 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of operating capacity across Southeast Asia by 2028.
We intend to leverage our partnership with CREC to pursue more utility scale renewable energy projects in the Philippines,” said Sudhir Nunes, CEO of Levanta.
CREC has a diversified project portfolio comprising of solar, hydro and wind energy, with its wind pipeline targeting three GW of operating generation capacity over the medium and long term to complement its five GW of solar energy in five years, or until 2028.
Last August, CREC reported that its net income in January to June rose to P456.4 million from last year’s P455.2 million as revenues grew by 13 percent.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange, CREC said its revenues hit P2.09 billion on account of a 15-percent growth in electricity sales to P1.73 billion from P1.5 billion last year. The company also recorded a
6-percent improvement in earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation (EBITDA) to P765 million from P723 million.
Electricity sales accounted for 83 percent of CREC’s revenue during the period, with the balance coming from lease income and service fees. Electricity sales is largely composed of revenues from commercial and industrial customers which rose by 11 percent to P1.08 billion from the previous year’s P974.55 million.
The rest of the company’s electricity sales include revenues from the government’s Feed-In-Tariff program which generated P271.82 million and sales through the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market which reached P57.84 million.
“CREC attributes this robust performance to our portfolio of 10 operating solar power facilities with a combined gross operating capacity of 285 megawatts, making us the second largest solar platform in the country. We ensure optimal performance in our plants to augment grid capacity for peak demand requirements,” said Tan.
With the construction of CREC’s first 1,000 MW in full speed, Tan said CREC expects a “more exciting 2025.”
Globe wants more facilities to use RE
GLOBE Telecom Inc. said Monday 20 of its facilities, including its corporate headquarters in Taguig, are powered by renewable energy (RE) supplied by ACEN Renewable Energy Solutions (ACEN RES), the retail electricity supply arm of ACEN Corp.
Globe currently operates a total of 29 RE-powered sites and aims to expand this to nearly 70 within the next two years. By end of this year, ACEN will supply RE to three more of Globe’s facilities. In 2023, the 20 facilities account for approximately 65 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy consumption, including 7.9 million kWh from The Globe Tower alone, all
sourced from RE. This enabled Globe to avoid emitting approximately 42,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the same year. “At Globe, sustainability along with risk management, is a core strategy to building business resilience. In the face of climate change, RE powers both good grid and off-grid, so reducing our carbon footprint and making our network more climateadaptive could only bear value to us. Therefore, the adoption of these technologies clearly demonstrates that business growth and resilience go hand in hand,” said Globe President Ernest Cu. ACEN, the power arm of Ayala Corp., said digitalization and sus-
tainability are at the very core of the Ayala Group.
“We are excited to harness these synergies with Globe,” said ACEN President Eric Francia.
In recognition of its commitment to sustainability, ACEN RES awarded Globe the Powered by Renewable Energy badge for having shifted to 100 percent RE supply. This was unveiled during a ceremony at The Globe Tower.
Globe’s badge serves as a testament to the company’s dedication to sustainability and its active role in promoting RE adoption in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Globe said Monday it has made preparations for the po -
tential impact of Tropical Depression Kristine.
The network facilities of Globe in areas on the path of the storm are ready with generators and batteries to ensure connectivity services despite potential commercial power outages due to the weather system.
Globe’s technical and support personnel have also been prepositioned along with critical supplies in case immediate response is needed in areas that may be affected by the storm.
The telco said it is also ready to deploy Libreng Tawag, Libreng Charging and Libreng WiFi Services in areas where the storm may cause severe power and service outages. Lenie Lectura
Survey: S&P 500 set to grind higher toward 6,000 milestone
ThIS year’s furious rally in US stocks is poised to extend into the final stretch of 2024, even as the United States presidential election looms as a major wild card, according to the latest Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey.
The S&P 500 Index will approach 6,000 by year-end—a record milestone 2.3 percent above Friday’s close—based on the median estimate from 411 questionnaire participants. Three quarters of respondents expect this earnings season to give the benchmark a boost, and the strength of Corporate America’s results are seen as more crucial for the stock market’s performance than who wins the November vote or even the Federal Reserve’s policy path. US stocks face a big earnings hurdle this week, with roughly 20 percent of S&P 500 members scheduled to release results, including heavyweights Tesla Inc. and IBM Corp. About 70 companies in the gauge have reported already, with 76 percent announcing earnings that surpassed estimates, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.
After Tesla, the other so-called Magnificent Seven members report starting later this month. Those technology behemoths—Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.,
AGROC h EMICALS giant Syngenta Group is seeking a $3 billion sustainability-linked loan, in what would be Asia’s largest dollar facility linked to environmental, social and governance-related metrics so far this year.
The Sinochem-owned company has mandated Agriculture Bank of China Ltd., Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp., Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank SA, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and DBS Bank Ltd. on the loan, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is not public. The borrowing is split into three- and five-year tranches, the people added.
Sustainability-linked loans are making a comeback in Asia after volumes dropped last year. Companies in the region keen to boost its decarbonization efforts have raised $46 billion-equivalent of such facilities so far this year, a 28-percent jump from the same period in 2023, Bloomberg-compiled data shows.
Calls to a Singapore-based media representative for Syngenta
Amazon.com Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc.—have driven the brunt of the equities advance since last year. But they trailed last quarter as the Fed cut interest rates for the first time since 2020, supporting sectors like financials and utilities.
Survey takers anticipate the tech giants will take the lead again. A combined 75% expect the Magnificent Seven to either beat or perform in line with the rest of the market this quarter, after the group started October with a 0.9% decline. One reason investors remain bullish is that
the bulk of the S&P 500’s earnings growth still comes from the Magnificent Seven.
“The catch-up in the Magnificent Seven after a lackluster quarter is a compelling trade to look at right now,” said Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital.
The median survey respondent sees the S&P 500 ending the year at 5,977, up from Friday’s close of about 5,865. That would extend the index’s 23 percent gain in 2024, which has taken it to 47 record closing highs, including two last week. The historical median of S&P 500
returns from mid-October to December 31 is roughly 5 percent, according to data from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk going back to 1928. It’s even higher in election years, at about 7 percent.
Earnings first OPTIMISM around US equities from survey-takers comes as the race between Vice President Kamala harris and former President Donald Trump is coming down to the wire, with polling showing the candidates largely neck and neck.
There’s been chatter lately about a supposed revival in trades that are expected to benefit from a victory by Trump, the Republican candidate, including in Bitcoin and shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. however, the biggest chunk of respondents—45 percent—said the strength of earnings matters most for their equity portfolios, compared with 39 percent pointing to the election outcome and 16 percent for the magnitude of Fed easing.
“I know the election brings a lot of emotion depending on whether one’s candidate wins or not, but don’t let that come into your portfolio,” said Brian Spinelli, co-chief investment officer at wealth advisory firm halbert hargrove. Bloomberg News
went unanswered and the company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Proceeds raised will partially refinance a $4.5 billion threeyear sustainability-linked loan from 2022, the people said. The previous financing was among the largest facilities linked to ESG metrics from Asia at that time. The new loan carries an unspecified greenshoe option, said one of the people, which allows the size to increase beyond $3 billion depending on market demand. The three- and five-year tranches pay top-level all-in fees of around 1.05% and 1.20% respectively over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the risk-free benchmark rate for dollar deals, the same person added. Trafigura Group’s Singaporebased unit in September raised a $3.2 billion-equivalent syndicated sustainability-linked loan, but that facility comprised of dollar and offshore yuan tranches, according to a statement. That borrowing, which was increased from an initial size of $2 billionequivalent, drew 38 lenders in total. Bloomberg News
Traders work on the floor of the New York stock e xchange during morning trading on October 8, 2024 in New York City. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/getty iMageS/blooMberg
sweeT corn plants grow in a chamber with controlled humidity, light and temperature at the research and Technology Center, operated by syngenta aG, in enkhuizen, Netherlands, on wednesday, s eptember 29, 2021. PhotograPher: yuriko nakao/blooMberg
Banking&Finance BSP dreams of deepening capital market
By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is echoing Martin Luther King Jr. in saying its officials “have a dream” of deepening the country’s capital market.
In a briefing last Monday, BSP Financial Markets Senior Assistant Governor Edna C. Villa told reporters that deepening the capital markets has been a dream of the central bank. But more effort is now being made to finally turn this into reality.
“We’re putting more effort into making this happen so that at the
end of all of this, we want to be a fuller financial market, not just very bank-centric, allowing those that are lower than AAA to be able to issue in the market, being able to support MSMEs eventually,” Villa said.
“These are the things that we want to happen so that capital can flow where it’s actually needed the most.”
5 factors reshaping the markets
THE investing landscape has changed since the pandemic. Market movements have been affected by economic, political and technological factors in the past four years.
Looking at the historical data, we have seen that uptrends, downtrends and sideways cycle are all part of the market movements, hence, giving us indicators on how we can position our investments effectively and with risk management approach. The following are five aspects that can help us gain an overarching understanding of the market trends.
1. Globalization. Global economies and the different relationships of nations can affect the movement of the stock market. We have seen that geopolitical tensions can somehow trigger some changes in terms of corporate decisions, focus and developments.
On one hand, supply-chains can be disrupted by tensions between specific countries. On the other hand, if better relationships are forged, foreign investors will be confident in allocating more resources in developing countries. In Southeast Asia, countries are developing and are enticing Western investors to add capital and grow businesses with strong growth plans and/ or initiatives.
2. Government. Fiscal and monetary policies in a certain country will affect market trends. Fiscal policy refers to the use of government spending and tax policies to influence economic conditions. During a recession, for example, a government may lower tax rates or increase spending to spur economic activity.
Monetary policy is used by the central bank to control overall money supply and promote economic growth. In the US, the Federal Reserve (Fed) uses three strategies: reserve requirements, discount rate and open market operations.
3. International transactions. The technology of transferring and receiving money has been possible in the past decade because of the advancement of the capabilities of banks and financial institutions. If a country is exporting a lot of goods for example, may it be physical or services, it will bring money continually to their country. The money can be reinvested and stimulate financial markets.
4. Speculations. Consumers, politicians and investors have various perspectives and views of what could happen in the economy in the future and what are their decisions in the present.
Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) Open Market Committee Chairman Paul A. Favila also said these efforts also has the aim of making capital market access to financing second nature for Filipinos. The capital market has the potential to give market players the flexibility to meet their financial needs.
“If the tools are eventually available, then accessing the capital markets becomes second nature. And that’s how we foresee all these activities getting us to where we want to go,” Favila said.
Currently, efforts to deepen the capital markets are trained on the Repo Market and the Interest Rate Swaps (IRS).
National Association of Securities Broker Salesmen Inc. (Nasbi) President Peter Anthony D. Bautista said a
personal finance
A tool called the sentiment indicator was designed to represent how a certain group of people feels about a market or economy. These are market psychology-based indicators that may quantify sentiments in the form of figures. For example, the sentiment indicator can be used by investors to see how pessimistic or optimistic people are about the current economic conditions.
5. Supply and demand. The law of supply and demand combines with economic principles that describe how movements in the price of a resource, commodity, or product affect its stock and the need for such item or service. Supply rises while demand declines as the price increases. If we understand the specific supply and demand in a specific company that we are investing in, we will understand the fundamental aspects of the company if it will grow or not for a particular period of time.
There are a lot of factors that can affect the trends and movements in the financial markets. These factors I shared form just a portion of the many bases that we can use for analysis. May it be an uptrend, downtrend or sideways movement in the market, we need to always have our fundamentals, technical and series of analysis to ensure proper risk management elements are in place and maximize the profitability that we will achieve.
Anchoring all our decisions in our goals, risks appetite and platforms are crucial so we can have a unique understanding of every opportunity that we are taking in. In each investment decision, we should not just decide based on what is famous or what has been cascaded in the different social media platforms but it should be a combination of our principles, skills and knowledge. Make sure to consult a professional first before investing in the financial markets.
The last quarter of 2024 is a good timing to check our portfolio allocation and prepare for 2025 investment opportunities.
Karlo Biglangawa is registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. His views in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the BusinessMirror’s. To learn more about personal-financial planning, attend the 109th RFP program this January 2025 To inquire, e-mail info@rfp.ph or text at 0917-9689774.
repo or repurchase market “involves a purchase or sale of securities with a simultaneous agreement to reverse the transaction at an agreed date and price in the future.”
“This effectively is a ‘collateralized’ cash loan, with securities being used as collateral,” Bautista said.
He added that when using repos, sellers and buyers are able to access a cheaper way to finance inventories and facilitate market making activities that lead to deepening the liquidity in primary and secondary markets.
“(The repo market also) improves bond investor appeal and broadens investor base (as well as create) benefits from inherent value in collateral,” Bautista explained.
The IRS, meanwhile, is a financial derivative that involves “an agree-
ment between two parties to exchange stream of interest payments based on a notional principal in the same currency.”
Al Kasunuran, chairman of the Interest Rate Derivatives Committee of the Money Market Association of the Philippines, believes the IRS will also allow for hedging in the market.
Kasunuran said through an IRS, market players transform the risk profile of assets/liabilities to match views on interest rates while locking in long term funding for borrowings and returns for investors.
He added that those who are able to tap the IRS market have the ability to profit from a rising interest rate environment.
Last year, the BAP relaunched the interbank repo market.
The central bank said it is working with the BAP to expand the market. Currently, the BSP “tags” securities to banks that place cash with it via the reverse repo window. The central bank is now working on shifting from tagging to full delivery of these securities in line with global market practice. This will allow banks to trade these securities, vastly expanding the market. The BSP said aside from deepening liquidity in primary and secondary bond markets, the move would also facilitate price discovery and transparency of bond prices. It will also develop hedging tools for better risk management, and attract local and foreign investors to the Philippine government securities market through the reduction of credit risks and financing costs.
By Reine Juvierre Alberto @reine_alberto
DESPITE the continuous increase of Treasury bill (T-bill) average interest rates, the national government managed to raise P20 billion on Monday’s auction.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) made a full award of P20 billion worth of T-bills from 91-day, 182-day and 364-day debt papers. This was despite average yields for short-term government securities having risen across the board.
The average interest rate for the 91day tenor jerked by 1.9 basis points to 5.463 percent from 5.444 percent in the previous auction on October 14. Yields were as low as 5.398 percent to as high as 5.549 percent.
Meanwhile, investors’ asking yields for the 182-day T-bills inched up by 6.3 basis points (bps) to 5.731 percent from last week’s 5.668 percent. The rate settled between 5.600 percent and 5.780 percent.
For the 364-day tenor debt papers, the interest rate reached 5.686 percent, 6.3-bps higher than the 5.623 percent recorded a week ago. The lowest rate for the tenor settled at 5.650 percent while the highest was at 5.700 percent.
Total bids for the three tenors reached P55.070 billion, higher than last week’s P51.735 billion. The auction was 2.8 times oversubscribed.
Tenders for the 91-day tenor amounted to P17.610 billion, prompting the auction committee to award the full P6.500 billion offer.
The 182-day T-bills recorded P14.720 billion in demands, of which P6.500 billion was fully awarded; while P7 billion was accepted out of the P22.740 billion in offers tendered from the 364-day tenor.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said the T-bill average auction corrected higher for the third straight week after the sharp declines in two previous weeks following the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cut.
“Despite the widely expected -0.25 local policy rate cut effective October 17, 2024, T-bill average auction yields [are] still below the latest local policy rate of 6 percent,” Ricafort said.
The RCBC executive said with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor and Chairman of the Monetary Board
DOF seeks easy access to climate financing Lender
MANILA has asked world leaders to complete the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) before 2025 to help developing countries achieve economic growth while addressing climate impacts.
The NCQG, a key element of the Paris Agreement, aims to establish a new financing framework that scales up financial support for climate actions in developing nations.
Finance Chief of Staff and Undersecretary Maria Luwalhati C. Dorotan Tiuseco underscored the urgency and significance of the NCQG in addressing the evolving needs of developing countries.
“We must realize the urgency and value of the NCQG as a framework that will provide much-needed financial support and mobilization,” Tiuseco was quoted to have said during the 2024 High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on the NCQG on Climate Finance on October 9 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In her intervention, Tiuseco called for simplified access to climate finance, particularly through multilateral development banks, multilateral funds, and bilateral channels. She added the NCQG should be supported significantly by public
SCRAMBLING to meet sin-tax collection goals, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) announced it plans to ramp up actions to curb the illegal trade in vape products. Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. was quoted in a statement the BIR released last Monday as
there are no illicit vape retailer/reseller],” Lumagui said. The BIR chief’s directive comes after
finance, particularly through grants or highly concessional financing.
Tiuseco reportedly proposed a 5-year timeline with a mandatory periodic assessment, beginning in the third year to ensure the NCQG reflects the countrydriven needs.
“We are firm in our stance that climate finance should be new and additional to any ODA that may be provided,” the official of the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
The Climate Labs discussion on NCQG was also co-facilitated by Tiuseco to resolve issues and reach a consensus ahead of COP29.
During the discussion, officials of several developing countries emphasized that the NCQG should fulfill their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
They said the NCQG must also address challenges and integrate qualitative measures, such as the removal of barriers, high cost of capital and high transaction cost for access, among others.
Further, the Parties called for transparency to monitor contributions and ensure that the resources are mobilized to accelerate the countries’ climate goals. Reine Juvierre Alberto
BIR personnel raided simultaneously a total of 408 vape retailers found to be selling unauthorized vape products on October 16. The illegal vape retailers were located in several regions, including major cities such as Manila, Quezon City, Makati, Las Piñas, and provincial areas such as Bulacan, Pangasinan, Benguet and South Cotabato. Other areas where the illicit vape trade proliferated were Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Davao. The BIR has yet to determine the total number of confiscated vape products. Among the violations of vape retailers and resellers were the lack of internal revenue stamps required to be affixed on vape products as well as the failure to register the products with the BIR. Failure to
TBy VG Cabuag @villygc
HE East West Banking Corp.
(PSE: EW) announced last Monday it saw new bookings more than tripled and a “significant upsurge” in monthly billings since the lender relaunched its Visa Platinum credit card.
According to EW, the card’s performance in categories like shopping, dining and travel “far exceeded expectations,” reinforcing its strong alignment with the lifestyle preferences of the bank’s target market.
EW Senior Vice President Mia P. Tamayo said with the evolving needs of the bank’s cardholders, it was clear that their Visa Platinum credit card “had to adapt.”
“Our recent refresh was designed to offer more than just rewards; it delivers a complete experience for cardholders, whether they’re dining, shopping online, or traveling,” said Tamayo, who heads EW’s credit cards business unit.
She considers a recent award from TAB Global Pte. Ltd. as something that “reaffirms that we’re on the right track in serving our market’s discerning needs.” (TAB Group’s platform “The Asian Banker” honored EW with a “Best Cashback Credit Card” award.)
According to EW, it “refreshed” its
register as a manufacturer or importer and neglecting the minimum floor price set by the BIR for vape products are also common violations of the industry. The floor price of 2-milliliter nicotine salt pods is set at P180.67, while a 10-milliliter bottle costs P679.12. Conventional “freebase” or “classic nicotine vape products are priced at P181.72 for a 10-milliliter bottle and P263.73 for a 30-milliliter bottle. Lumagui earlier
Eli M. Remolona, Jr. signaling a less aggressive monetary easing, the decline in local policy interest rate could slow down.
A quarter-point reduction in December and another 100-bps rate cut next year would be possible, according to Remolona.
This October, the Treasury will borrow P145 billion from the domestic debt market, generating P100 billion through T-bills and P45 billion from Treasury bonds (T-bonds).
The government will raise P2.570 trillion this year, following a mix of 75:25, of which P1.923 trillion will be raised domestically while P646.084 billion will come from foreign sources. Government borrowings amounted to P1.933 trillion as of end-August 2024, according to the Treasury.
Visa Platinum credit card “to adapt to the rapidly changing financial landscape, reflecting the bank’s drive to meet the diverse needs of its growing customer base.”
EW President Jacqueline S. Fernandez said they consider the credit card as a “living proof of our excellence in providing top-tier financial products.” According to Fernandez, the credit card only rewards users with a cashback program “but also brings convenience and lifestyle enhancements that our customers deserve.”
The lender “enhanced” the credit card’s rewards program with features like increasing a cashback rate for dining and department store spends from 3 percent to 8.88 percent. It also expanded the categories in which cardholders can earn cashback to include online shopping, food deliveries, travel, fuel and utilities.
With a cashback rate of 8.88 percent on relevant categories and 0.30 percent cashback on all other spends, EW has positioned the credit card in the “premier lifestyle” category.
“This is further reinforced with benefits such as up to P20 million in free travel accident and inconvenience insurance, year-round elite perks and a dedicated concierge service,” the lender added.
Karlo Biglang-awa
Art BusinessMirror
Jose Tence Ruiz to host exhibit walkthrough, book signing at Silverlens
VETERAN visual artist Jose Tence Ruiz is set to interact with the audience in an exhibit walkthrough and book-signing event for his ongoing solo exhibition at Silverlens Manila this Saturday, October 26.
The show, titled The Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic, “combines the social, historical, and personal inquiries of Tence Ruiz as he continues to explore past themes, embark on new questions, and reflect on his place in an increasingly chaotic world.” The exhibit runs until November 16.
Considered a foremost practitioner of the Philippine social realist movement, Tence Ruiz is a painter and political cartoonist whose artistic practice spans over 50 years.
He explores the struggles of the ordinary Filipino against the country’s socio-political cruelties and hypocrisies. In 2015, his large-scale installation, titled Shoal, was exhibited at the 56th Venice Biennale in the Philippine Pavilion: Tie A String Around the World. This marked the Philippines’ return to the prestigious art showcase after a 51-year absence.
In The Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic, Tence Ruiz presents nine new works that “reappropriates religious iconography and Mondrian’s geometric abstractions to produce new visual metaphors for his current thematic preoccupations: disillusionment, genocide, and the death of utopia,” the exhibit note reads. The show’s centerpiece is a large mixed-media installation resembling a living rosary and evoking a perverse litany. Meanwhile, the exhibit’s namesake
painting utilizes Mondrian’s visual language to “symbolize the degradation of utopia and the disillusionment that has haunted the artist in a time of genocide.”
There is a series of self-portraits as well. Four of these were produced between the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in a new installation that illustrates the tragic inertia of life in the digital age.
On October 26, the artist will host a walkthrough of the exhibit at Silverlens Manila. After which, there will be a book-signing session for the artist’s monograph, titled Litanya: 1972- 2022, published in conjunction with his 2023 exhibition at Ateneo Art Gallery. The monograph traces Tence Ruiz’s artistic development from the early 1970s to his latest works in 2022. ■
FREE PUBLIC LECTURE ON PAPER, PRINT, PRESS PROCESSES THIS OCTOBER
HOT Off The Press: The Language of Production, a free public lecture on the importance of paper selection and the pre- and post-press processes, is currently accepting registrants for October 25, 2024.
Designed for creative entrepreneurs, the discussion provides participants with an understanding of the different methodologies in print production to address the various challenges of translating digital to print.
The event is set to walk the attendees through offset and digital printing procedures, requirements and programs necessary to ensure quality results. It will likewise highlight why paper selection is crucial not only in influencing the vibrancy, texture and overall appearance of the design, but also in the perception of the brand.
The talk is part of the MCADTk Program of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) in collaboration with GA Printing, a company with 47 years of expertise in the commercial industry, and Media MAX, a group of young multimedia artists from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of New Media Arts.
Hot Off The Press: The Language of Production will be
facilitated by Mercedes Cruz, the business development manager of GA Printing which is recognized both locally and internationally for its award-winning work and its ISO (International Organization for Standardization) accreditation for Quality Management.
Cruz, who also serves as the secretary for the Philippine Dscoop community for HP Indigo printers, believes that Filipino printers are capable of competing on the global stage and looks forward to the ongoing technological developments.
She earned her undergraduate degree from De La Salle University, completed a graphic design course at the Shillington in New York, and is currently pursuing her Masters in Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University. Hot Off The Press is free and open to the public. It is scheduled for October 25, 1 pm, and will be held on the 8th Floor, Learning Commons of the Benilde Design + Arts Campus. Interested participants may register through forms. gle/4KTZpqgaktZ7SZhJ7.
More information is available at www.facebook.com/ MCADManila.
ONETIME ART ADVISER TO ACTOR LEONARDO DICAPRIO, AMONG OTHERS, PLEADS GUILTY IN $6.5 MILLION FRAUD
NEW YORK—A New York art adviser who once counted actor Leonardo DiCaprio among her wealthy clients pleaded guilty on Thursday to wire fraud, admitting to cheating over a dozen clients out of $6.5 million in the sale of 55 artworks.
Lisa Schiff, 54, of Manhattan, entered the plea in federal court, agreeing that she diverted client money from 2018 to May 2023 to pay personal and business expenses.
While pleading before Judge J. Paul Oetken in Manhattan, Schiff agreed to forfeit $6.4 million. Sentencing was set for January 17, 2025. Although wire fraud carries a potential 20-year prison term, a plea deal with prosecutors recommends a sentencing range of 3 1/2 to 4 1/4 years in prison.
Her lawyer, Randy Zelin, said Schiff “will now work to show the court and the world that she has not only accepted responsibility but she is remorseful. She is humbled. She is prepared to do everything to right the wrongs.”
Schiff defrauded clients of her art advisory business, Schiff Fine Art, by pocketing profits from the sale of their artworks or payments they made to buy art, US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Instead of using client funds as promised, Schiff used the stolen money to fund a lavish lifestyle,” he said.
According to court documents, Schiff ripped off clients by selling artwork belonging to them without telling them or by accepting their money to buy art she didn’t purchase.
To hide the fraud, she lied to clients and sometimes blamed delays in payments she owed to galleries on clients who supposedly had not yet sent their money, although they had, authorities said.
Meanwhile, she lived lavishly and accumulated substantial debts by cheating at least 12 clients, an artist, the estate of another artist and a gallery of at least $6.5 million, they said. AP
TODAY’S HOROSCOPE
By Eugenia Last
GEMINI
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Take note of
respond. Doing
will be telltales of
you
expect when you need help. Sincerity and an honest assessment of your expectations will help you summon the right words to attract like-minded people with something worthwhile to contribute. Networking is favored. ★★★
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): A long shot may tempt you, but before taking a risk, protect against scammers; do your research, work alone if necessary and refuse to buy into someone else’s dream. Abundance comes from hard work. It’s what you are willing to do that counts. Rely on yourself. ★★★
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Participate, network, gather information and set the stage for what you want to pursue. The information and people you connect with will offer alternatives that can make your journey easier. Consider a partnership or investing time and money into raising your qualifications or in learning valuable skills.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Take the plunge, participate and learn something new. Be a good listener, and adapt what you hear and experience by adding a unique flavor to your version. Refrain from wasting your energy on anger or dealing with negativity. Surround yourself with upbeat people who fuel your fire. ★★
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Pay attention; you’ll learn valuable information that will help you further your life goals. Your dedication and desire to get things done correctly and on time will put you in a favorable position when faced with competition. Distance yourself from anyone trying to lure you into a debate. ★★★★
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Take better care of your health, well-being and reputation. Refuse to get swept into someone else’s misfortune or drama. Stick to the truth; it will be brought to your attention if you exaggerate. Look for opportunities that encourage selfimprovement, a better lifestyle and love. ★★★
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Don’t hold back. If you want to connect with someone, make your move. Open communication will offer insight into the possibilities, allowing you to pursue or move on to your next adventure. It’s up to you to make things happen. ★★★
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): An optimistic attitude will draw positive attention. Participate in something you enjoy, and you’ll find a place to let off steam and make new friends. Socializing, fitness and a healthy lifestyle will rejuvenate and encourage you to expand your interests, knowledge and friendships. ★★★
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Protect your health and physical well-being. Pursue a creative project. Whether reinventing yourself or updating your skills, qualifications or appearance, a change will be uplifting and well-received by those close to you. Discipline and hard work will pay off, and success will be yours. ★★★★★
BIRTHDAY BABY: You are optimistic, curious and changeable. You are passionate and creative.
‘themeless tuesday 108’ BY ADRIAN JOHNSON The Universal Crossword • Edited by David Steinberg/Anna Gundlach/Adrian Johnson/Jared Goudsmit/Taylor Johnson
Singer zayn Malik postpones uS tour after the death of his former bandmate Liam payne
ENGLISH singer Zayn Malik on Saturday postponed a planned tour to the US following the death of his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne.
Zayn, as the singer often goes by, said on the social platform X that he made the decision “given the heartbreaking loss experienced this week.”
He said the dates for the US leg of his Stairway to the Sky tour would be rescheduled for January and he would post the new dates within the coming days.
Zayn had gigs scheduled next week in San Francisco and Las Vegas, and the following week in Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York.
“Your tickets will remain valid for the new dates,” Zayn wrote. “Love you all and thank you for your understanding.”
Payne, 31, was found dead on Wednesday after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. His death prompted an outpouring of shock and sadness from friends, collaborators and fellow musicians.
One Direction was the internet’s first boy band with a level of fame comparable to Beatlemania. Band members in their teens had to cope with their sudden fame and then navigate a breakup while trying to build solo careers.
The exact circumstances of Payne’s death remain unclear although Argentine authorities said there were suspicious elements and drugs were possibly involved. The results of toxicology tests are expected in the coming weeks. Payne had acknowledged struggling with alcoholism, saying in a YouTube video posted in July 2023 that he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment. AP
Jane Fonda to receive lifetime achievement award from actors’ guild
ACTOR and humanitarian Jane Fonda is adding the SAG life achievement award to her many accolades.
The 86-year-old will be given the prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in February 2025, the guild said on Thursday.
Fonda said in a statement that she was “deeply honored and humbled” that she was chosen.
“I have been working in this industry for almost the entirety of my life and there’s no honor like the one bestowed on you by your peers,” Fonda said. In her over six decades in the business, Fonda has won two Oscars—for Klute and Coming Home—two BAFTA Awards, an Emmy and seven Golden Globes. With an activist spirit spanning back to her antiwar protests in the 1960s and 1970s, she’s also used her platform to advocate for gender equality, civil rights and environmental issues. Last year, Fonda spent her 85th birthday raising $1 million for a non-profit in Georgia aimed at educating school-aged children to make healthy life decisions.
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called Fonda a “trailblazer.”
“We honor Jane not only for her artistic brilliance but for the profound legacy of activism and empowerment she has created,” Drescher said.
Fonda was born December 21, 1937, in New York City, the first child of the late actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, who died by suicide at 42 when Jane was 12. Her brother, Peter, the Oscar-nominated actor and screenwriter, died in 2019. Fonda reflects on her extraordinary life, family, career, relationships and activism in the 2018 multi-part documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts, which is streaming on MAX.
SAG Life Achievement Award recipients are nominated and voted on by a SAG-AFTRA committee, intended to honor an actor who represents the “finest ideals” of the profession.
The 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will stream live on Netflix on February 23 at 8 pm ET. AP
Show BusinessMirror
Perfect watch for Halloween
TWO original Philippine-produced movies are perfect for the coming Halloween.
First is Outside, a movie that just started to stream on Netflix, starring Sid Lucero, Beauty Gonzales, Aiden Patdu and Marco Masa.
The movie is Netflix Philippines’ first zombie feature, described by its creator and director Carlo Ledesma as a terrifying psychological thriller. Outside was shot entirely in Negros Occidental, capturing the colors and character of the quaint municipality of Ilog, and it also used the historic century old Hacienda Palma’s Balay Daku as a major backdrop.
Lucero is most excited about this movie for many reasons.
“I had to stay in beautiful and enchanting Negros for a month to shoot all our sequences and I enjoyed the experience tremendously. Working with our young and creative filmmaker and his team also got me very excited as we shot in places where our director was originally from. Then there is Beauty who has evolved into a really, really brilliant actor. You guys should see how good she gave life and soul to her character in this movie. I am sure she will be recognized for her performance here. The kids were equally wonderful, too!”
The multi-awarded actor added that another reason that got him excited was the fact that his actress-mom Bing Pimentel has a very special role in the film. “Imagine working with your mom in a zombie movie—how rare and amazing is that!”
People who have seen Outside, which follows a family’s journey back to their family farmhouse during a zombie outbreak, are one in saying that it is one of the better-made local psychological-horror films in recent years.
‘NOKTURNO’ FINALLY SEES THE LIGHT
THE supernatural horror flick Nokturno delves on the many rich narratives that look into our local folklore and features elemental creatures that are still present in the minds of many living in rural areas, especially those from far-flung provinces.
The movie revolves around a perceived curse plaguing a small rustic town where two sisters come from. Nadine Lustre plays the older sister who decides to return after years of living and working overseas upon learning that her sister has fallen to the curse. What happens when she returns to her village is the
GuIDICeLLI as one of the hosts of Miss Bicolandia
core of the movie.
Helmed by Mikhail Red, the film was submitted to the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival but for some perplexing reason did not make the cut. Produced by Red’s Evolve Studios for Studio Viva, the people behind the movie, including Red’s relatives Rae and Nikolas (who form part of his creative core team), believe that there must be a good reason why things do not happen and plans do not materialize.
The latest is that the movie will be released by Amazon Prime Video on Halloween Day, and this piece of news has gotten local horror flick followers excited, especially the fans of the lead actor Lustre.
“I believe in perfect timing. When the movie was first offered to me, I did not think twice and my team said yes immediately. I am a huge fan of horror movies. It’s a reunion with Direk Mik and our collaboration in the past [the movie Deleter] proved to be very smooth and successful. Plus, I am with the iconic Eula Valdes whose range as an actor is just impeccable. [Both Lustre and Valdes have been honored by the prestigious Gawad Urian as Best Lead Actress.] So it was a no-brainer when Nokturno was offered to me,” Lustre recalled.
She added, “Of course I was initially puzzled why it didn’t make it to the filmfest in 2023, but I have long accepted the fact that the movie will be released at the most perfect time, and that time has finally come, and perhaps this is the best way for more people to see the film.” n
Regional TV treats fans in regions to star-studded, fun-filled events
adding fun and good vibes at the the celebration of Calaca Cityhood on the same day were the surprises from TiktoClock hosts Jayson Gainza and Herlene Budol; Shining Inheritance stars paul Salas, Roxie Smith, and Michael Sager; Prinsesa ng City Jail cast members Radson Flores and Will ashley; and Sparkle artists Maey Bautista, Mariane Osabel, and arra San agustin. They all lit the stage and hyped up the crowd in the Kapuso Fiesta at the Calaca Gymnasium. Meanwhile, beauty and splendor were witnessed at the Mutya ng alabel 2024 in alabel, Sarangani province, on September 8 with the special participation of Sparkle artists Kristoffer Martin and Gazini Ganados. The next day was equally momentous as Gazini was joined by fellow Sparkle artist ahron Villena and dazzled the crowd at the crowning ceremony of the Mutya ng Tupi 2024 in Tupi, South Cotabato.
stars Kate Valdez and Michael Sager, arra San agustin, Kristoffer ndrea Torres, brought entertainment like no other in a fun-filled Kapuso Fiesta on September 10 at the Grandstand in Cabarroguis, Quirino, for the celebration of Quirino Day and panagdadapun Festival. lso on September 10, Sparkle artists prince Carlos, Shan anthony Rosaldo thrilled fans through the Kapuso Fiesta at the Municipal Gazebo, Isabela, Negros Occidental, in celebration of the panubli Festival.
The fun continued as balladeer Christian Bautista and ysabel Ortega, alongside Sparkle artists elle Villanueva and yasser Marta, painted smiles on the faces of the fans during the Kasadyaan Festival Night in alabel, Sarangani province. It was a starry night for the candidates of Miss Bicolandia 2024 as Matteo Guidicelli and Sparkle artists Billie Hakenson and Rabiya Mateo hosted the event on September 11 at JMR Coliseum, Naga City. Making the night one of a kind were the endearing performances of Sparkle stars Jon Lucas and John Vic De Guzman.
Fans from South Cotabato surely had a wonderful night as Sparkle artists Rufa Mae Quinto and Luke Conde, and Widows’ War star Rafael Rosell participated at the agten Tufi Festival Night at Tupi Municipal Hall, Municipal of Tupi, South Cotabato, on September 11.
In celebration of pasalamat Festival, TiktoClock host Faith da Silva; Lilet Matias: Attorney-at-Law star ea Guzman; and Sparkle artist Jon Lucas shared the stage to express their gratitude to supporters through a Kapuso Fiesta at Bao Bao plaza, Dao, Capiz last September 14. More surprises were prepared by GMa Regional TV with Sparkle artists Rocco Nacino, arra San agustin and angela alarcon sharing their youthful energy at the 75th Foundation anniversary of alicia, Isabela, on September 21. Capping off the eventful September was the special participation of actor Tom Rodriguez, Pulang Araw ’s Sanya Lopez, Widows’ War ’s Jeric Gonzales, All Out Sundays’ anthony Rosaldo and Hannah precillas, and Sparkle artist prince Clemente at the Hermosa Festival Opening Salvo in zamboanga City on September 28. “GMa is very appreciative of the support of our viewers who have consistently supported the network’s shows and initiatives from the very start. We look forward to sharing more engaging content and connecting you with your favorite artists across the philippines,” says senior vice president and head of GMa Integrated News, Regional TV, and Synergy Oliver Victor B. amoroso. as the Christmas season begins, fans from all over the philippines should brace themselves for more exciting and fun treats and surprises from GMa Regional TV.
FROM left: Beauty Gonzales, Sid Lucero and Nadine Lustre
MaTTeO
2024.
SaNya LOpez at the Hermosa Festival Opening Salvo.
Radenta Takes the Lead in AI Transformation
RADENTA Technologies, one of the country’s premier solutions integrators, is now nearer than ever to reaching its goal of becoming a leader in ubiquitous IT transformations by adapting AI in the workplace.
The company is looking into how AI can help in marketing, sales and other operations. Radenta sees AI as something that empowers rather than replaces employees. There are efforts to see how AI can be integrated into the company’s very own cloud-based human resource platform HEMP or Human Empowerment Equals Happy Employee.
HEMP is a seamless, customized, and scalable touch-of-a-button solution that offers HR and Payroll, Performance Assist, Employee Accounting, StaffHub and Biometrics Security. From here on, the integration of AI in all Radenta solutions and technology implementations will be top of mind. An AI department is now in the works.
As an important step to move forward, Radenta recently invited Liza Adams, AI Advisor and Fractional CMO at GrowthPath Partners based in Denver, Colorado, USA to hold a workshop for its company executives. Adams is a well-established marketing leader with extensive experience in B2B marketing, particularly in the technology sector.
The workshop aimed to provide insights into the global impact of AI and its potential applications in the local context. It proved to be a valuable learning experience for the company’s leadership team.
One of the key takeaways from the workshop was the importance of diverse perspectives in developing AI solutions. The Radenta team, which includes members from various functions and backgrounds, found that their collective insights were crucial in understanding the nuances of AI and its potential applications in their work.
“The workshop highlighted the unique cultural context that influences AI adoption,” said Ana Grace Marcial, Marketing Director at Radenta. “The Filipino values of teamwork and community resonated with our discussions on ethical AI, and we realized that these values could play a significant role in shaping the future of AI in the Philippines.”
In her talk “Applied AI: Elevating Marketing’s Strategic Value and Driving Growth,” Adams discussed how AI-driven market shifts are changing buyer behavior
BRAND Intelligence and Insight Team (BRAIN) with Liza Adams. and expectations. People now lean towards AI-based tools for online search that take away the clutter of the traditional channels. This means no more clicking on blue links, no ads, no pop-ups, no more choosing to accept or decline cookies, no scrolling through SEO copy, and, more importantly, no chance of being retargeted. Gartner, a US technological research and consulting firm, predicts a 25 percent drop in traditional search by 2026 while Insight Partners, a global venture and private equity firm involved in technology, software and internet businesses, forecasts a 15 to 25
Mitsubishi Motors Philippines, Northpoint Alliance Motor Break Ground on New Dealership in Bantay, Ilocos Sur
MITSUBISHI Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC) and its dealer partner, Northpoint Alliance Motor Corporation (NAMCO), recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for NAMCO’s second 3S dealership located in Bantay, Ilocos Sur. NAMCO established
its first dealership in Laoag, Ilocos Norte and is now expanding its reach to serve more customers in Ilocos region. The new dealership, strategically situated in Bantay, will provide customers in Ilocos Sur and nearby areas with easier access to Mitsubishi Motors
vehicles, services, and after-sales care. This expansion reflects both NAMCO’s commitment to continuous growth and Mitsubishi Motors’ dedication to reaching out to more Filipinos.
“With this expansion, we hope to strengthen our ties with the community and contribute to the economic progress of the region.”, said MMPC EVP for Corporate Division Tomoyasu Moriya.
The facility will include a spacious showroom, service bays, and genuine spare parts and accessories shop to meet the needs of Mitsubishi owners in the region. The new dealership is expected to be fully operational by 1st quarter of 2025.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Ilocos Sur Governor Jeremias Singson, Ilocos Sur Vice Governor Ryan Singson, NAMCO President Johanson Chua, and MMPC EVP for Corporate Division Tomoyasu Moriya.
During the ceremony, Chua said, “This new dealership is a testament to our belief in the strength of the Mitsubishi brand and our commitment to providing topnotch service to our patrons.”
As Mitsubishi Motors Philippines and NAMCO continue to grow, they remain committed to bringing quality vehicles and services closer to Filipino families, wherever they are in the country.
Conrad Manila Welcomes Chef Nicolas De Visch as Executive Chef
CONRAD Manila recently appointed
Chef Nicolas De Visch as its new Executive Chef, marking an exciting new chapter in the luxury hotel’s culinary journey. With a career spanning over 30 years in Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, Chef Nicolas now returns to the Philippines to elevate Conrad Manila’s dining offerings with his innovative approach to sustainability, local sourcing, and refined culinary techniques.
“We are excited to welcome Chef Nicolas to our team,” said Fabio Berto, General Manager of Conrad Manila. “His impressive background in Michelin-starred kitchens and his innovative approach to sustainable dining align perfectly with our vision for exceptional culinary experiences. We cannot wait for our guests to taste and experience the remarkable dishes that Chef Nicolas will create, showcasing the finest local ingredients and the rich flavors of the Philippines.”
Chef Nicolas began his culinary journey when he was 17 years old, where he developed deep-seated appreciation for the discipline and artistry of fine dining through various stints in Michelin-starred kitchens.
Mentored by some of the industry’s most celebrated chefs, including a formative experience at the renowned two-Michelinstarred Ecailler du Palais Royal in Brussels, he refined his skills and developed a keen respect for premium ingredients and meticulous craftsmanship. Throughout his career, Chef Nicolas cultivated his signature approach of seamlessly blending timeless techniques with bold, innovative flavors. At Conrad Manila. Chef Nicolas will champion the use of fresh locally sourced ingredients, working closely with local farmers to ensure that every dish is not only a reflection of his global expertise, but also a celebration of the Philippines’ rich cultural heritage.
“I am thrilled to join Conrad Manila and collaborate with a talented team that shares my passion for crafting exceptional dining experiences,” said Chef Nicolas. “By prioritizing local produce and supporting our local community, we not only elevate the flavors on the plate but also contribute to the sustainability of the region. The Philippines has always held a special place in my heart, and returning here feels like coming back to a second family. I look forward to bringing my
culinary philosophy of sustainable fine dining to Conrad Manila”
Guests can anticipate menus that reflect Chef Nicolas’ global expertise, thoughtfully curated using the finest local ingredients and offers a dining experience that is both innovative and deeply rooted in the country’s rich culinary heritage. For more information, please call +632 8833 9999, visit www.conradmanila.com or email conradmanila@conradhotels.com.
percent decrease in web traffic due to AI search. The use of AI, therefore, can no longer be overlooked. McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, says that using AI in sales and marketing could add $1.4 to $2.6 trillion in added business value. A Harvard Business School Study cites that the use of AI results in 12.2 percent more completed tasks at 25.1 percent faster rate with 40 percent higher quality. Adams offers three steps that companies wishing to accelerate AI adoption can follow. Inspire what is possible by a shift in thinking and having a guideline in responsible use of
FOOD SECURITY Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion discussed with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. the Philippines private sector’s regional food security initiative, the ASEAN Food Security Alliance (AFSA). With him was Lionheart Farms President Christian Eyde Moeller, one of the private sector participants in the initiative. Concepcion, who is eyeing AFSA as the Philippines’s legacy project leading up to the country’s ASEAN BAC chairmanship in 2026, is working to attract targeted agriculture investments through the Alliance, where he says efforts will have impact at scale. Concepcion said for AFSA to succeed, there needs to be strong public-private determination and strategic partnerships, tangible actions, and targeted investments so as to overcome structural constraints, thus enhancing agricultural productivity and achieving economic growth in the ASEAN region. This is related to a Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Agrarian Reform and Go Negosyo. The MOA aims to form strategic partnerships with the private sector to provide agrarian reform beneficiaries with agribusiness opportunities, mentorship and sustainable farming models through cluster farming, corporative farming, and land lease agreements.
ALITTLE more than a year after launching its signature A La Bark® menu, The Westin Manila introduces the Pup Club MemBARKship ProgramTM, which provides families and their pets with a variety of benefits and discounts from the hotel and its partner brands.
“The idea of having a dog membership program took off from the success of our A La Bark menu. We created the A La Bark to inspire more bonding moments as fur-parents nurtured their pups with our wellbalanced food selections which were created after our Eat Well program and ideal for all dogs,” says Director of
AI. Develop an AI strategic plan aligned to key business initiatives. Phase execution with AIOps and continue to innovate and learn. “We were thrilled to have Liza share her expertise with us,” said Radenta President Randall Lozano. “Her insights on how AI is shaping industries worldwide were eyeopening, and we are excited to explore how we can leverage AI to drive innovation and growth here in the Philippines.” Explore how AI can transform your business. Ask Radenta how. Call 09190774042, email info@radenta.com or log on to www. radenta.com.
In the photo are, from left, MMPC Senior Manager for Dealer Development Rommel Abad; MMPC Assistant Manager for Parts Sales Jilly Anne Marzan; Ilocos Sur Vice Governor Ryan Singson, Ilocos Sur Governor Jeremias Singson; NAMCO President Johanson Chua; MMPC EVP for Corporate Division Tomoyasu Moriya; MMPC AVP for Dealer Development Kirk Louie Zuniga and MMPC Assistant Manager for Sales Bianca Castrence.
CHEF Nicolas De Visch was recently appointed as Conrad Manila’s Executive Chef.
Immigrants help power America’s economy; will they be all thrown out after the election?
BBy Will Weissert The Associated Press
AKER, Nev.—Few things say America like Janille and Tom Baker’s ranch, with its grazing cattle, scrub brush-dotted desert and snow-capped mountains.
If only they could get American citizens to work on it.
The ranch in remote eastern Nevada produces around 10,000 tons of hay annually, and combines cowboy culture with a dash of Manifest Destiny. Rabbits, gophers and the occasional badger always outnumber humans and the nighttime sky is dark enough to count the stars.
But the Bakers’ business couldn’t survive without an agricultural guest worker program that brings in Mexican immigrants for about nine months a year to help harvest crops in fields where temperatures frequently exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius).
“When people complain that foreign workers are taking their jobs, I roll my eyes,” said Janille Baker, who manages the ranch’s accounting. “In any industry, everybody’s trying to find help. So this anti-immigration stance doesn’t really make sense to me. If everyone needs workers, how are you planning to fill those jobs?” The ranch follows federal rules that require advertising available positions and making them available first to US citizens.
But in the last six years, only two Americans called to inquire about jobs. A third trekked out in person, but left after seeing what the work entailed.
Immigration has become a source of fright and frustration for voters in this presidential election—with possible outcomes that could take the United States down two dramatically different paths. Nowhere are the stakes higher than in Nevada, where 19 percent of residents are foreignborn and around 9 percent of the total workforce doesn’t have US legal status.
The influx of illegal border crossings has strained city and state resources across the nation, even in Democratic strongholds. And yet immigration has fueled job growth in ways that strengthen the economy and improve the federal government’s fiscal health.
So black and white in the candidates’ rhetoric, immigration is actually incredibly complex in reality—a fact that reveals itself every day in Nevada.
Voters say it is among their most important issues in November. How they come down on immigration, choosing former President Donald Trump’s hardline proposals for mass deportations or Vice President Kamala Harris’ calls for a path to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally who have been here for years, will go a long way toward determining the outcome.
Nearly 300 miles or 480 kilometers south of Baker Ranch, neon-saturated Las Vegas had almost 41 million tourists visit last year, and is seeing the issue of immigration play out differently, but with distinct parallels.
“There’s a lot of fear,” said Nancy Valenzuela, a 48-year-old maid who works at the Strat casino. “There are people who don’t have papers. They’re like, ‘They want to throw us all out.’”
Valenzuela plans to vote for Harris. But others can only watch and hope their way of life isn’t turned upside down. “We’re here, propping up the country so the
economy doesn’t crash,” said Haydee Zetino, who scrubs lavish hotel suites at Harrah’s Casino on the famed Las Vegas strip. She is an immigrant from El Salvador with only temporary protected US status and can’t vote.
Absolutes sweep away nuance IF Trump deported all 11 million immigrants without legal status in the US, as he has suggested, the collateral risk could extend to the entire economy. Nevada’s job losses alone might nearly equal what it suffered during the 2008 financial crisis. More than 10 percent of Nevada’s population lives in homes with at least one immigrant in the country illegally, according to estimates from the advocacy group Fwd.us.
“In our wonderful, 24-hour economy, we know that these hotels and casinos could not, should not, would not be able to open every day without immigrants,” said Peter Guzman, president and CEO of the Latin Chamber of Commerce in Nevada.
Trump could also revive pushes he made during his first term to cancel programs that have extended temporary legal status to Zetino and hundreds of thousands of others.
Harris has called for humane treatment at the border, particularly for children and families, and for letting longtime immigrants get citizenship. But she’s also promised to revive a bipartisan package that Trump forced congressional Republicans to squash, which sought to provide $20 billion for immigration enforcement and tightened rules for immigrants seeking US asylum.
Recent Biden administration orders have imposed asylum restrictions when the border is overwhelmed. The vice president recently walked the border with Mexico in Douglas, Arizona, and called for getting tougher than Biden has—despite his administration having seen arrests for illegal border crossings fall sharply in recent months, even approaching levels recorded during Trump’s final year in the White House.
Polling released last month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Trump has an advantage over the vice president on who voters trust to better handle immigration 44 percent vs. 37 percent—a gap Harris’ campaign has sought to narrow by moving harder to the middle on the issue.
Immigrants say a bipartisan push toward getting tougher at the border has clouded the larger issue in ways often too complicated to break down easily along ideological lines.
“I think that our focus is completely directed into the border and not toward the people who are already here and have been here for many, many years,” said Erika Marquez, immigrant justice organizer for the advocacy group Make the Road Nevada, and a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-area effort giving limited protections to immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. The Pew Research Center estimates that 11 million people in the country illegally live in the US. Big states like California, Texas and Florida have larger numbers who potentially could have even more influence on workforces and communities. But all of those states are all solidly red or blue in
presidential races—and aren’t likely to sway the election as toss-up Nevada might.
Clark County, encompassing Las Vegas, is about 75 percent of the state’s population and includes a sizeable number of hospitality industry workers represented by Nevada’s powerful Culinary Union, which has endorsed Harris.
But Trump is hoping to turn out infrequent voters there, and do very well in much of the rest of the state, which tends to be rural and conservative. Washoe County, home to Reno, is a perennial tossup, though. And voters can also choose “None” of the presidential candidates, adding to the Nevada electorate’s famously fickle nature.
Maria Nieto, president of the Young Democrats of Nevada, also got Obama-era protections for immigrants who arrived as children. She said she was always taught while growing up never to talk about her legal status. Now, however, Nieto, is making a point of using her story to motivate people to exercise voting rights she doesn’t have.
“At times, I think that people don’t realize how personal this is,” she said.
The post-Election Day economic consequences might be even more dire.
A group of researchers led by Warwick J. McKibbin, an economics professor at the Australian National University, found that removing workers in the US illegally would sharply reduce labor supply in the mining, agriculture, services, and manufacturing sectors. Deporting even 7.5 million workers might slash Real Gross Domestic Product by 12 percent.
If Nevada lost all of its workers in the country illegally, Labor Department figures suggest the direct job losses would be roughly as large as those from the 2008 financial crisis, which stalled tourism, triggered a wave of housing market foreclosures and cost the state about 9.3 percent of its jobs during the subsequent Great Recession.
And rounding up people in the country illegally may not even count people like Zetino, Marquez, and Nieto, nor the guest workers at Baker Ranch, all of whom are authorized to be in the US.
Zetino, 62, gained temporary protected status since arriving after a major 2001 earthquake in El Salvador, but saw Trump try to remove it during his term.
“These people don’t have any conscience,” she said of mass
deportation supporters. “They believe they can lift up the country, move the economy forward, but they don’t think of those at the bottom.”
‘No issue with people who want to come here legally’
TRUMP has made border security an unofficial anthem of his campaign, constantly decrying an “invasion” of people flooding into the country illegally. At the same time, he’s endorsed more temporary visas for qualified foreigners, saying at a recent town hall with Spanishlanguage Univision, “We want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally, and they have to love our country.”
But the former president also has lately stepped up his attacks on people with temporary protected status, including spreading falsehoods about Haitians legally living in Ohio abducting and eating pets, and threatening to deport them should he win in November.
Trump has further stoked tensions by suggesting that immigrants coming into the US illegally are doing so to expressly take jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans.
Still, some of Trump’s top supporters in Nevada are more careful to make distinctions between immigrants here legally and not. That includes former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who has been endorsed by Trump as he runs for Congress and acknowledged of his state: “We are running out of labor force right now.”
“We have no issue with people who want to come here legally,” Lee said. “We’ll train them and they’ll work, and we see all the joys of America that way.” But he said people in the country illegally, by contrast, have contributed to higher crime rates, including construction sites being burglarized.
Other conservatives are more explicit about the economic damage tougher immigration policies might do, though.
Guzman, of the Latin chamber, has organized forums examining how construction in Las Vegas has been slowed by not being able to find enough workers. He’s pushed for expanding guest worker programs, noting on a call with an advocacy group, “I’m a registered Republican, and we are not all the same on this issue.”
Florisela López Rivera has seen that nuance firsthand and worries about politics overwhelming decency.
A dishwasher at Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, López Rivera is originally
from El Salvador and got temporary protected status after Hurricane Mitch’s devastation in 1998. She recently gained permanent US residency after her wife became a citizen, which means she’s unlikely to face deportation under any circumstances.
López Rivera is a member of the Culinary Workers Union, which represents 60,000, majorityHispanic workers in Las Vegas and Reno. A Harris supporter, López Rivera canvasses for her union to advocate for the vice president, stressing Harris being the daughter of immigrants. She speaks Spanish while knocking on doors and says that she encounters some people who tell her, “I love Trump.” Even then, she tries to engage them rather than simply turning away.
“When we focus on the negative, we lose the human side of things,” López Rivera said.
Bipartisan support for stricter border security
HARRIS’ calls for tightening asylum rules and stepping up enforcement at the border underscore just how much voters backing both parties want a strong hand there.
“Everybody I know, Republican or Democrat, believes border security is important,” said Edgar Flores, a Democratic Nevada state senator and immigration attorney.
“We have real problems with drugs, with gangs, with violence.”
But move even partially toward mass deportations, Flores said, and “you’re going to disturb the most essential industries in Nevada, and that’s going to be replicated around the country.”
Marquez, of Make the Road Nevada, said her organization accepts that there need to be stiffer controls at the border, but added, “I think a lot of people—and Trump himself—have this irrational idea that we are here and we are not good people.”
“We are all working class,” said Marquez, who was born in Leon, Mexico, and immigrated at age 3, when her grandmother paid smugglers to take her and her thenpregnant mother into the United States. “All we want is being able to supply food, shelter and a good education for our children and just to be able to grow as a community.”
A recent Scripps News/Ipsos survey found that 86 percent of Republicans “strongly” or “somewhat support” mass deportations, but so do 25 percent of Democrats. Overall, 54 percent of voters support removing potentially
millions of people from the country, topping the 42 percent who oppose it, while a third of Americans see securing the US-Mexico border as the country’s top immigration priority, the survey found.
‘You can’t get anyone to come do the work’ Back on Baker Ranch, the H-2A visa program brings immigrant workers to the fields. They harvest hay, control weeds and irrigate with wheel lines moved by hand, or fully hand irrigate, building small dams using tarps they drag to different areas so that crops can be better submerged in water.
During Trump’s first term, the H-2A program’s participation rose, but he also proposed a rule just before the end of his term that would have frozen farmworkers’ salaries for two years, loosened requirements for worker housing and restricted the transportation costs they could be reimbursed for. The Biden administration wiped those out, but imposed new rules it says can better protect workers and has seen participation climb even higher.
Tom Baker co-owns the ranch with his brothers, and it began operating in 1954, nearly two decades before the area was electrified. He calls it “hard, hot work” that’s “kind of miserable.”
“These kinds of farms, without immigrants, would become infeasible because you can’t get anyone to come do the work,” said Baker, 54. “The wage isn’t the issue. It’s whether people will come do the job.”
The soil—enriched by hot days and nights that turn cooler because of higher elevations—can make for superior hay, some of which goes to race and polo horse centers like West Palm Beach, Florida, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
The ranch has 26 employees, including five current H-2A immigrant workers. Many of the oldest ranch hands arrived long enough ago to get US legal status through 1980s programs. Some have children who were born in the US and are citizens, even if one or both of their parents are not. The guest workers declined to comment, not wanting to attract undue attention. Still, three generations of immigrant workers at the ranch largely hail from the towns of Apozol and Juchipila in north-central Mexico.
The original arrivals now have grown children. Some of them work at the ranch and have had their own children who are now in high school and work there themselves during the summers. One former employee’s wife had her baby in a ranch vehicle on the way to the hospital, about 80 miles away. Janille Baker, 51, is no fan of Trump, but also has at times become exasperated with Biden administration regulations. Those include small things like immigrant living quarters being required to have screen doors, despite being air conditioned and already equipped with screens on the windows.
“It is a hot potato and each side’s lobbing one at the other. And, in all honesty, both are to blame,” she said of immigration. “There is going to come a point where it has to get taken care of. You can’t just keep using fearmongering and scaring people, and then being critical of the people who do or don’t want to do whatever jobs.”
The Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
HAYDEE ZETINO waits for the bus after working a shift as a maid at Harrah’s hotel-casino along the Las Vegas Strip, Thursday, September 12, 2024, in Las Vegas. Zetino, an immigrant from El Salvador, gained temporary protected status since arriving in the wake of a major earthquake in 2001. AP/JOHN LOCHER
Golden age for France in NBA
B8 Tuesday, OcTOBer 22, 2024
mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
Editor: Jun Lomibao
TBy Josef Ramos
HE big names made it a Barangay Ginebra San Miguel vs TNT Tropang Giga Finals in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup but somewhat lurking in the shadows are two veterans hoping to get a ring in the season ending conference.
“It’s been eight years and it’s been a while,” said the 33-year-old Maverick Ahanmisi the day after Ginebra eliminated San Miguel Beer, 102-99, on Sunday night in Game 6 of their semifinals duel, a victory head coach Tim Cone said was payback for the Gin Kings who were booted out from the Philippine Cup.
“I’m definitely excited to be back in the Finals,” he said.
The Filipino-Nigerian guard was drafted third in the first round by Rain or Shine in 2015 and a year later, helped the Elasto Painters clinch the Commissioner’s Cup title.
He was traded to Alaska in 2019 then to Converge in 2022 before wearing a Gin Kings jersey last season.
“It’s been a long time coming and
MANILA Southwoods’ flagship tournament Chairman’s Charity Cup is bound to deliver an exciting new experience this year with a fresh format to shake things up. The event will take place November 14 to 16 at the Legends and Masters courses in Carmona, Cavite, bringing together the best from the private and public sectors, as well as notable business groups. In a bid to keep the competition dynamic, organizers are introducing a two-person, member-member team format that will follow the aggregate scoring system.
Participants may choose to sign up with a partner or go solo, with the tournament committee stepping in to pair up individuals if needed. With 600 players expected to attend, the tournament is shaping up to be one of the most prestigious golfing events of the year, attracting both seasoned players and newcomers alike. The first two days will feature sequential tee times, while the final day on November 16 will shift to a shotgun start.
I’m glad we made it,” he said. “But the job isn’t done yet.”
Sitting on the TNT come Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series set at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo City will be Rey Nambatac, who, like Ahanmisi, joined the PBA via Rain or Shine in 2017, played their seven years before ending up at TNT via Blackwater all happening this year.
But unlike Ahanmisi, Nambatac, 30, is a Finals first timer.
“I will give all my best in my first championship series,” Nambatac said. “I’m thankful to coach Chot [Reyes] and TNT management for bringing me here.”
The lefty guard from Letran was a major factor in TNT’s 4-1 semifinals victory over Rain or Shine—he averaged 14.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists in the series.
And Nambatac has his 62-year-old mom Susan to thank for his reliance in finally figuring in a championship series.
“My mother encourages me to always give my best and she told me not to give up,” he said.
Justin Brownlee was true to form with 21 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks in Ginebra’s series-clinching win Sunday.
Japeth Aguilar had 20 points, RJ Abarrientos chalked up 16 points and six assists and Scottie Thompson tallied 10 points and 14 rebounds for the Gin Kings in toppling the Beermen, who will have to wait until next season to figure in a 46th Finals appearance for a shot at a 30th title for the San Miguel Corp. franchise.
“We’re really thankful we’re not going into a Game 7,” Cone said.
“We now have time to figure out and watch the TNT-Rain or Shine semifinals game so we can prepare the best game plan.”
TNT is hoping to rule the conference for a second consecutive year and is targeting its 10th PBA title, while
By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press
THE reigning National Basketball Association (NBA) rookie of the year. The reigning NBA defensive player of the year. The No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6 overall picks in this year’s NBA draft. They all have something in common.
They’re French.
It’s not a new concept for France to have players in the NBA—there’s been about four dozen over the years—but this might be the golden era when it comes to the quality of French players in the world’s top basketball league, with stars, rising stars and potential stars scattered everywhere.
San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama is the reigning rookie of the year, Minnesota›s Rudy Gobert is a four-time defensive player of the year and the new influx of French talent is set to start its climb this season with No. 1 draft pick Zaccharie Risacher of the Atlanta Hawks, No. 2 pick Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards and No. 6 pick Tidjane Salaün of the Charlotte Hornets.
“It’s not just France. It’s Spain, it’s Italy, it’s Germany, all these places, Australia,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Some of these kids start when they’re 13, 14, 15 years old, and they go to these clubs. They leave their families, go
THE final leg of this year’s 10-leg Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) kicks off Tuesday at the Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club to set the stage for a furious battle as this year’s previous leg winners chase the elusive second title of the season. Reymon Jaraula enters the
to the clubs. They go to school in the mornings and they play basketball in the afternoon. And they learn individual skills, they learn the team skills, how to play. It’s serious stuff. They love the game like we all do here. They’ve got great coaches and over time, there you go.”
Basketball’s global light has been shining on France for some time—and has been shining particularly brightly of late.
The US swept the men’s and women’s basketball gold medals at the Paris Olympics, beating France in both of those finals and neither win came easily—the American men found themselves in a three-point game until the final moments and the women won gold by a single point over the hosts
Wembanyama—who gets to play two games in France in January when the Spurs and Indiana Pacers head to Paris for matchups—was the unanimous NBA rookie of the year
Gobert tied a record with his fourth defensive player of the year win and the top six picks in the draft were split down the middle with three from the US and three from France, an unprecedented event.
“It’s been great. It’s been great,” Risacher said, in perfect English, of getting used to life in Atlanta. “It’s an adjustment to make, but it’s definitely a great thing to do. I mean, I’m 19 and I have the opportunity to do so much in my life.... I’m super excited, super happy.” The comparisons between Risacher and Wembanyama will be inevitable— both French, both No. 1 picks, in backto-back years no less. It’s something the Hawks have talked about, and it’s something they hope doesn’t hold this year’s top pick back.
“I’ve tried to kind of articulate what I think is the reality of the situation,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “You know, we literally won the lottery.
“What we’ve really tried to impress upon Zack is his work ethic is aligned with getting better,” he added. “And I think he loves to play and that’s come out in some of the games. He knows how to play.”
Among those excited to see how Risacher plays: Wembanyama. But the Spurs star hasn’t offered the Hawks rookie any tips on how to handle what awaits him with the NBA season starting this week.
“I’ll always be here for him, as a fellow future national-team teammate, I hope, and as a friend, of course,” Wembanyama said. “But he’s got his own history to write. And I don’t think he needs any advice. I’m very confident in his mental strength.”
VICTOR WEMBENYAMA and his fellow Frenchmen are dominating the league. AP
International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Negros Occidental Classic brimming with confidence following his dramatic onestroke victory in Binitin last week.
her 2023 triumph at Negros, where she staged a remarkable final-round surge to overcome an eightstroke deficit and secure the title. Also worth watching is Princess Superal, a seasoned champion both on the LPGT and in international competition. The Japan Step Up Tour campaigner, who will tee off at 8:50 a.m., has yet to claim a victory this season despite numerous strong showings—her pedigree includes wins in the LPGT and a historic victory at the Asia Pacific Cup, where she defeated some of the world’s major champions.
Also in the mix are Mikha Fortuna, Marvi Monsalve, Florence Bisera, Gretchen Villacencio, Chihiro Ikeda, threetime leg winner Harmie Constantino and two-time leg champion Sarah Ababa.
Continuing a longstanding tradition, players will compete in an 18-hole round utilizing the Modified Stableford Points system with handicaps.
A key feature to maintain the flow of the game is that players will be required to pick up their ball after a net bogey to avoid delays.
The newly-introduced format promises to heighten the level of competition, while maintaining the fun and camaraderie the event is known for.
For P8,000 per player (inclusive of VAT), participants will enjoy a range of perks, including a Pro Shop gift certificate worth P7,000, breakfast, fairway snacks, golf items, and a coveted awards lunch. Exciting hole-inone prizes and a grand raffle draw also await the lucky winners.
Registration ends Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. and no refunds will be entertained after this date but players will still be eligible for all giveaways and the awards lunch. Completed entry forms must be submitted via email at clubtournament. msgcc@gmail.com or dropped off at the front desk.
of the late golf
Palmer’s daughters calls Donald Trump’s references to her father’s genitalia “a poor choice of approaches” to honoring his memory, adding that she wasn’t upset by the remarks.
“There’s nothing much to
A crucial par-saving putt on the 72nd hole pushed Jaraula to victory past veteran Angelo Que and now, the Bukidnon ace aims to become the only player to win twice this season, a feat that has eluded for his fellow champions.
That quest for a second win has been challenge for previous winners— Jhonnel Ababa, for example, secured a dramatic playoff victory in the seasonopening Apo Classic but struggled to claim another title since.
Similarly, Lloyd Go, fresh off a win at Palos Verdes, has yet to rule two PGT tournaments after honing his skills in Japan.
Other top contenders include Clyde Mondilla, whose commanding victory at Caliraya Springs had many expecting a follow-up win, and Que, the Philippine Masters winner, who came close to forcing a playoff against Jaraula last week before Jaraula’s decisive par save. Young players like Sean Ramos
and Keanu Jahns also face the challenge of proving that their first career wins were no work of a chance, while veteran players such as Tony Lascuna, who foiled Jahns in harsh conditions at Splendido Taal, and Gialon, despite his dominance in Iloilo, seek redemption in this week’s championship presented by Negros Electric and Power Corp. Jaraula, Lascuña and Que are set to tee off at 8:20 a.m. on the first hole, following closely behind the group of Mondilla, Ramos and Jahns. These two pairings promise to deliver some of the most thrilling and highly anticipated matchups as they kick off the action. Ira Alido returns to the same venue where he pulled off a stunning comeback last year, overcoming a fivestroke deficit to edge out Lascuña and Rupert Zaragosa with a clutch birdie putt on the 72nd hole. But Alido has encountered both internal and external challenges, particularly in his pursuit of a second victory. While he has contended in multiple PGT events and sharpened his skills on the Asian Development and Asian Tours, another win has remained just out of reach.
Trump and Arnold Palmer’s genitalia
DANIELLA UY wants to sustain the momentum from her thrilling victory in Murcia last week.
