BusinessMirror April 02, 2024

By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

THE national government posted a P76.7-billion budget deficit in the first two months of the year as expenditures outpaced total revenues, according to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).

Latest data from the Treasury released on Monday said the deficit was 26.56 percent higher than the P60.6 billion posted by the state in the same period last year.

The state’s budget deficit rose by 54.81 percent year-on-year to P164.7 billion in February 2024 from P106.6 billion, according to Treasury’s data.

“The wider budget gap stemmed from the 22.14 percent year-overyear [YoY] increase in expenditures, matched with moderate revenue growth of 5.73 percent,” the Treasury explained.

The state’s total revenues for the January to February period increased by 15.32 percent to P645.8 billion from P560 billion in the previous year, while its expenditures also increased to P722.5 billion from P620.7 billion on an annual basis.

Broken down, 92.36 percent of the national government’s revenue collections for the period were raised through taxes at

P92.36 percent or P595.5 billion, while the remaining 7.64 percent or P49.4 billion came from nontax sources.

For the January to February period, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected a total of P446.4 billion, posting a doubledigit YoY growth of 22.58 percent from P364.2 billion, based on Treasury’s data.

Cumulative collections by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) grew by 7.84 percent year-on-year to P144 billion from P133.5 billion.

Non-tax revenues by the Treasury for the two-month period went down by 3.80 percent to

P23.3 billion from the P24.2 billion recorded last year due to lower interest income on the state’s deposits and Treasury’s investments.

Meanwhile, collection from other offices (other non-tax including privatization proceeds and fees and charges) for the twomonth period also declined YoY by 21.33 percent to P26.1 billion from P33.2 billion.

On the other hand, government expenditures for January to February 2024 also expanded by 16.42 percent to P722.5 billion from P620.7 billion.

BSP’S MARCH OUTLOOK: INFLATION AT 3.4-4.2%

THE recent increase in inflation is expected to continue in March 2024 as rice and meat prices remained elevated, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

In

‘PHL

BPersisting higher US rates to hurt region twice–WB

H“The continuous improvement in the labor market and the easing of inflation will likely boost growth in household incomes. Poverty is expected to continue to decline but extreme climatic events continue to pose risks,” the World Bank said.

The risks to the outlook include “wage pressures from tightness in labor market conditions.”

was based on the poverty line for lower-middle income countries which is pegged at $3.65 per day using 2017 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).

See “PHL,” A2

PHL firms’ confidence reels from competition, shortages

By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

CONFIDENCE of Philippine manufacturing firms is waning due to increased competition, according to S&P’s Purchasing Managers Index.

Philippine Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) score was at 50.9 in March, lower than the 51 recorded in February. Local manufacturers were also plagued by material shortages.

According to Maryam Baluch, Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, the health of the Filipino manufacturing sector revealed some “underlying concerns” as the first quarter came to a close.

US rates...

The World Bank said the country’s economic growth will perform below potential at 5.8 percent in 2024 and 5.9 percent in 2025.

The growth outlook for 2024 was maintained from the bank’s October 2023 report while the 2025 projection is a new forecast by the World Bank.

“Sentiment among manufacturers weakened and was the least optimistic in nearly four years. Firms were concerned that increased market competition would limit growth prospects,” Baluch said.

However, she added that hopes of demand conditions domestically and globally strengthening continued to “buoy confidence levels.”

Meanwhile, the economist explained that the “fresh fall” in produc-

“What has sustained growth in the Philippines like much of the region has been consumption and the recovery in services. And in the Philippines I should also say the good news has been the fact that the government has implemented significant reforms like the Public Services Act, which should begin to pay off in terms of greater foreign investment. [Investment] flows

tion levels contributed to the “somewhat mixed picture,” with companies pointing to material shortages.

“The downturn came despite firms in general recording sustained demand for goods,” the economist said.

However, she noted that if firms are able to “successfully” secure materials and build their stocks, the downturn in output could be “fleeting.”

Baluch explained that the employment picture also improved and firms raised their buying activity further in a bid to account for material shortages.

S&P Global Market Intelligence noted that production “lapsed back” into contraction for the first time since July 2022 amid material shortages.

“Companies raised their employment and buying activity at stronger rates and renewed their efforts

have been less strong than we would have expected,” Mattoo said.

Mattoo also noted that the Asian banks, including those in the Philippines, are well-capitalized. This will ease any pressure caused by financial tightening caused by higher interest rates.

“There are a couple of countries where there is a serious risk, both because of lending and also there is a link between banks and sovereigns, which creates precarious -

to replenish inventories,” it said.

That said, the degree of confidence in the outlook for output over the coming year dropped to a near four-year low, S&P Global Market Intelligence said.

In terms of prices, it said the rate of input cost inflation “softened to the weakest” since October 2020.

“Additionally, charges levied for Filipino manufactured goods fell for the first time in nearly four years,” S&P Global Market Intelligence said.

Looking at the year ahead, however, it noted that manufacturers across the Philippines maintained an “optimistic” outlook for output.

“That said, for the third straight month, confidence levels across the sector slipped. In fact, sentiment was the weakest since April 2020, with firms concerned about growing market competition impacting performance,” it noted.

ness, but the short answer is for the most part at this stage, we are not concerned about serious risk for the financial sector,” Mattoo said.

Nonetheless, Mattoo said, just like other countries in the East Asia and the Pacific region, the Philippines may be “outperforming” advanced countries but “underachieving relative to its own potential.”

Efforts to address this, Mattoo said, includes the need to achieve “greater macro predictability, more micro competition, and in terms of capacity, digital, and education.”

These are crucial, especially in light of risks such as climate shocks which make the Philippines one of the most vulnerable around the world.

Mattoo said the Philippines, a leader in early warning systems, still needs to invest more in infrastructure as well as efforts to boost the resilience of the agriculture sector.

Both public and private economists have already warned that the El Niño phenomenon will make food more expensive. The dry spell especially makes rice prices a concern since apart from being a waterloving crop, it is also the country’s food staple.

Geopolitical shocks

MEANWHILE , apart from climate change, Mattoo said geopolitical shocks could also arise and affect not only prices but economic growth owing to spillovers to economies affected by these tensions.

Mattoo noted that the Philippines already got a glimpse of the impact of conflicts such as those between Ukraine and Russia which led to spikes in oil, animal feeds, and wheat.

The World Bank said regional growth is projected to ease to 4.5 percent in 2024 from 5.1 percent last year. Growth in developing East Asia and Pacific excluding China is projected to pick up to 4.6 percent this year, up from 4.4 percent in 2023.

Growth in China is projected to moderate to 4.5 percent from 5.2 percent in 2023, as high debt, a weak property sector, and trade frictions weigh on the economy.

Among Pacific Island countries, growth is forecast to slow to 3.6 percent in 2024 from 5.6 percent last year as the post-pandemic rebound dissipates. The slowdown partly reflects normalization of growth in Fiji to 3.5 percent in 2024 from 8 percent last year.

The outlook is subject to downside risks, which include a greaterthan-expected slowdown in the global economy, higher-for-longer interest rates in major economies, increased uncertainty around the world about economic policies, and an intensification of geopolitical tensions. Cai U. Ordinario

“Lower prices of fruits, vegetables, and fish along with the peso appreciation could contribute to downward price pressures,” BSP, however, said. “Going forward, the BSP will continue to monitor developments affecting the outlook for inflation and growth in line with its data-dependent approach to monetary policy decision-making.”

The Monetary Board was initially supposed to meet on Thursday, ahead of the announcement of March inflation. However, last week, the BSP announced that the second meeting was moved to April

The Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives are currently debating increasing wages by P100 and P350, respectively.

However, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) does not support the move as it has the potential to be inflationary. (See: https://businessmirror com.ph/2023/02/24/wage-hikesmay-only-fan-inflation/). The Neda also said the delay in the proposed legislation bodes well for March inflation. (See: https://businessmirror .com.ph/2024/03/22/ wage-bills-delay-may-tempermarch-inflation/).

Meanwhile, private economists and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the country still does not have a “tight labor market” like the United States.

De La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas describes a tight labor market as an economic condition where “there are more job openings available compared to people looking for work.” (See: https://businessmirror .com.ph/2024/02/08/ phl-not-a-tight-labor-marketexperts-psa/).

The World Bank report noted that inflation could also increase due to geopolitical tensions, further trade restrictions, and any weakness in agriculture output.

“Persistently high inflation would dampen economic activity by keeping the policy rate higher for longer, erode purchasing power, and threaten to deepen poverty and worsen economic vulnerability,” the MPO said.

“The possibility of higher-thanexpected global inflation, still tight global financing conditions, a further slowdown in growth of China, and escalating geopolitical tensions could cause a sharper-than-expected growth slowdown which would further dampen external demand,” the report also stated.

Meanwhile, the Washingtonbased lender said that in the medium term, the country’s growth outlook is expected to average 5.9 percent between 2024 and 2026 on the back of strong domestic demand.

“The medium-term outlook will be driven by robust private consumption activity, supported by declining inflation, a healthy labor market, and steady remittance inflows,” the MPO stated.

“Medium-term growth will be supported by improving investment activity as public investment remains supportive of growth despite fiscal consolidation,” it added.

The World Bank also expects monetary policy to normalize in

She elaborated that it would be “most likely difficult” to hit the exports target under the PEDP because these were crafted in a situation where there were still no geopolitical tensions, inflation was stable and before China posted a less favorable economic recovery.

The DTI has yet to reply to reporters if it, along with relevant private stakeholders, would recalibrate the targets set in the country’s export development plan, considering the dynamic trading environment.

8, Monday. Earlier, BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr. said inflation in March may have been around 3.9 percent. If the March inflation rate reaches 3.9 percent, this will mark the fourth month that the inflation rate was within the BSP’s 2 to 4 percent target.

Inflation first fell within BSP’s target in December 2023 at 3.9 percent, followed by January 2024 at 2.8 percent, and February 2024 at 3.4 percent. (See: https:// businessmirror .com.ph/2024/03/21/ bsp-inflation-could-have-hit-39-in-march/).

the medium term, which will increase private investment flows in the country.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has raised policy rates by 450 basis points since 2022. In its last meeting in February, the Monetary Policy Board maintained the country’s key policy rate at 6.5 percent.

(See: https:// businessmirror com.ph/2024/02/16/prudentamid-inflation-risk-bsp-keepsrates-again/).

Meanwhile, foreign demand for Philippine exports will strengthen, led by services, while goods exports are expected to rebound gradually along with global growth performance.

The World Bank also said the fiscal deficit is expected to narrow to 3.8 percent of GDP by 2026 on the back of fiscal consolidation led by reduced public spending.

“The passage of several priority tax laws by 2025 is expected to strengthen revenues through the introduction of several new tax policy and administration reforms,” the MPO added.

Last year, Neda said the national government must lift some 14 million Filipinos out of poverty to attain its goal of slashing the country’s poverty incidence rate to a single digit.

In a briefing, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said by 2028, there would be around 130 million Filipinos. A single-digit poverty incidence rate of 9 percent means there should only be around 11 million poor Filipinos by the end of the President’s term. Based on the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), there are 25.24 million poor Filipinos in the first semester of 2023. This was lower than the 26.14 million in the first semester of 2021. (https:// businessmirror .com.ph/2023/12/22/number-of-poor-filipinos-declinedin-1h-of-2023-neda/)

Balisacan is also optimistic that the second-semester poverty data will reflect a reduction in the number of poor Filipinos. The second semester and full-year 2023 poverty data will be released next year.

Historically, Balisacan said the first-semester poverty data is higher than the second-semester poverty numbers. This is also part of what drives his optimism for the second-semester results of the poverty data. (See  https://businessmirror .com.ph/2023/12/23/ phl-on-track-to-achieve-singledigit-poverty-rate-by-2028-neda-chief/).  Cai U. Ordinario

For his part, Pascual said, “We recognize the ongoing challenges in both the domestic and global trading environments and hope to address the binding constraints to Philippine export competitiveness as we continue to implement the PEDP for 2023 to 2028. Each exporter counts, and with cooperation, we can open the door to a future in which Philippine exports have increased their mindshare in the global market, underpinned by global competitiveness and innovation.”

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

BI: Chinese mafia behind fake govt IDs, docs

TBy Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

HE Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced on Monday the arrest of four Chinese nationals believed to be behind the proliferation of fraudulentlyacquired government-issued identification cards and documents.

BI intelligence division Chief Fortunato Manahan, Jr. said the four Chinese nationals identified as—Wang Tao, Li Xiaoming, Guo Zhi Yang, and Lyu Zhiyang—belong to a Chinese mafia headed by Lyu.

They were arrested in Barangay San Pedro in Puerto Princesa City last March 19 during an operation conducted by immigration officers in coordination with the Naval Forces West, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency 4B, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Lyu, who is also known as Ken Garcia Lee, was allegedly the mastermind of the operation and earned notoriety in the local community after being tagged as a mafia leader in Palawan.

He was said to head a local syndicate providing illegally-obtained

government-issued documents to undesirable aliens and trafficking victims.

“The arresting team of the operation have been working on the case for several months and have kept close coordination with intelligence forces and law enforcement agents to ensure the smooth arrest of the subjects,” Manahan said.

It can be recalled that last March, Representative Robert “Ace” Barbers made a statement over his concern on the growing number of arrests and intercep -

tions of foreign nationals holding Philippine documents.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Senator Pia Cayetano has also started its probe into the illegal activities which is now being considered as a national security concern.

The BI last year reported at least 10 cases of arrested fake Filipinos presenting authentic Philippine documents.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) also said it is investigating 17 persons, mostly foreign nationals, who were found to be in

‘Vaccine hesitancy led to pertussis outbreak’

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

THE pertussis outbreak and the resurgence of polio and measles cases in the Philippines are consequences of the “widespread” vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation, according to House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin. Garin, a former Department of Health (DOH) secretary, claimed that vaccine hesitancy was “a legacy” of former DOH chiefs Francisco Duque III and Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial.

“Why is it that only in the Philippines do we have a pertussis outbreak? And why did polio make a comeback? Why, in previous

years, did we witness numerous deaths from measles? This is all due to vaccine hesitancy,” she told reporters during a regular press briefing in Quezon City.

She blamed Duque and Garin for their supposed failure to combat the spread of misinformation regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines during their tenure at the DOH. Garin said the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos should not be blamed for the pertussis outbreak because “it is not his fault.”

“Because now, if you look, there’s no stock in the DOH; communities are in need of vaccines, but our health workers are hesitant to act; even our experts are hesitant, so where do we go?”

“Then the current administration will be held responsible for the failures of previous DOH leaders. I think that is also unfair. So, going back, pertussis kills and vaccination saves lives,” she added.

According to the DOH, from January to March 16 this year, there have been 568 reported cases of pertussis in the Philippines, resulting in 40 deaths.

“It’s disheartening because pertussis is supposed to be a preventable disease. Back when there was no vaccine against Bordetella pertussis, many children died from whooping cough, especially those aged one month to around six years,” the lawmaker said.

She said vaccine hesitancy arose due to the previous admin -

istration’s “mismanagement,” which led to a significant decline in vaccination rates.

“From a 98-percent vaccine coverage, it dropped to around 30 percent to 32 percent. This decline also affected polio, measles, mumps, and rubella coverage.

Thus, pertussis became associated with these declines,” she added.

She said that Dengvaxia issues, during her term as secretary of health, have led to a significant drop in vaccine confidence, leading to measles and polio outbreaks in the Philippines.

Dengvaxia was distributed to around 800,000 public school students during the DOH’s antidengue immunization program in April 2016.

Doctors group asks public to follow health guidelines

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

THE Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) has expressed its full support to the Department of Health’s (DOH) call to undertake enhanced vaccination campaigns nationwide.

PCP said the campaigns will increase vaccination coverage and protect all infants and children against preventable diseases, such as pertussis.

“We urge all stakeholders, healthcare providers, local government units, and community

leaders to collaborate in preventing the spread of pertussis and other vaccine preventable infections including measles, diphtheria, influenza and pneumonia,” the group said. The PCP emphasizes the critical role of vaccination as the most effective method for preventing outbreak. PCP said it highly recommends getting a single Tdap vaccine for infants and children, adolescents, and adults. The group also urged parents and caregivers to be vigilant for symptoms of pertussis—cough, colds, fever—and to seek prompt

medical attention.

Early diagnosis and treatment are key to improving patient outcomes and reducing transmission.

“The PCP is committed to supporting the Philippine government, the DOH and the healthcare community in addressing this outbreak. We encourage everyone to participate in vaccination campaigns and adhere to public health guidelines,” the group said.

The DOH has reported over 500 cases with 40 fatalities, and the declaration of outbreaks in Quezon City, Pasig City, Iloilo City,

and Cavite.

Pertussis, the group noted, is an acute respiratory infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. The infection poses a significant threat particularly to infants and young children who are at risk of severe symptoms and life-threatening complications and outcome.

They added that while teens and adults may experience milder symptoms, there is a risk of severe illness, especially for those with pre-existing health conditions and the unvaccinated elderly population.

Marcos: New PNP chief needs help in fighting emerging security threats

PBy Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

RESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has called on the Philippine National Police (PNP) to rally behind its new chief, Rommel Francisco D. Marbil, in combating “emerging threats” to national security.

During the turnover and retirement ceremony of former PNP chief Gen. Benjamin C. Acorda, Jr. last Monday in Camp Crame, the chief executive vowed to back Marbil’s

initiatives for improving the capacity of PNP in fighting the new security concerns.

“Police General Marbil, you have my full confidence and my full support as you begin to champion a police [force] that is pro-God, pro-country, pro-people, and pro-environment,” Marcos said in his speech during the event.

“Let us work closely with you in addressing emerging threats such as cybercrime, terrorism, and transnational crimes,” he added.

The President urged Marbil to continue the campaign started by Acorda to enhance the standards of PNP, which “yielded tangible results,” citing the result of an OCTA Research survey, which showed PNP as the third highest performing and most trusted among 25 government agencies in the second quarter of 2023.

“The best parting token that we can offer him [Acorda] is the pledge to exceed what he has done during his watch and to continue the good work that he has begun,” Marcos said.

‘Continuing legacy’

MARBIL has committed to build on the reforms of his predecessors in modernizing the PNP to meet the evolving needs of Philippine society.

Under his leadership, Marbil said the PNP will focus on enhancing the quality of leadership, knowledge and professionalism of its ranks of, expand its capability in fighting local and transnational crimes, and strive to increase community satisfaction on its services.

possession of genuine Philippine passports.

During the operation, several Philippines-issued IDs were found and seized from the foreign nationals including their drivers’ licenses, postal IDs, and birth certificates.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco commended the operatives, saying that the suspects are considered big fish, having illegally provided Philippine IDs to foreigners pretending to be Filipinos.

The four Chinese nationals were transferred to the BI’s facility

in Bicutan, Taguig and face charges for misrepresentation and undesirability in violation of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.

Tansingco then renewed his call to local government units to report to the BI cases of foreign nationals conducting illegal activities in their areas, particularly those involved in identity fraud.

“The arrest of Lyu and his gang will definitely hurt the operations of these entities, and hopefully put a stop to the proliferation of fraudulently-acquired documents,” Tansingco stressed.

PRC to strengthen service delivery in Bohol

DURING a turnover ceremony of the newly renovated building of Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Bohol Chapter on March 26, 2024, PRC leaders vowed to strengthen and give its best service delivery to thousands of Boholanos.

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard “Dick” Gordon, PRC Secretary-General Gwen Pang and representatives from the local government units of Bohol, spearheaded the ceremony.

“It is high time we give our countrymen in Bohol the best humanitarian service we can give. We have to ensure that we have a state-of-the-art facility so we can save more lives,” said Pang.

The PRC is recognized to have provided the largest humanitarian aid in Bohol during Typhoon Odette in 2021 and the 7.2-magnitude Bohol earthquake in 2013. Over P200 million worth

“I am therefore committed to ensuring that each and every member of the Philippine National Police, including future recruits, will be supporting in developing and improving and refining their skills that are needed in our line of work and for their career and progression as law enforcers,” Marbil said.

“We need officers, who recognize that it is simply not enough to act decisively, to act relentlessly and fast in the war against crime, but that there must also be accountability and transparency on our end. And more importantly, we will nurture officers to whom the human approach to law enforcement is a given,” he added.

of assistance was provided to families affected by these disasters alone, including provision of 420 full shelters and repair of 3,182 houses.

Pang added: “Each day, the PRC responds to various emergencies. It’s crucial for everyone to know the importance of empowering our communities, households, and schools with vital skills like first aid and disaster preparedness. We cannot save people if we are not there, but with a first aider in every home, immediate action becomes feasible.”

The PRC will recruit more volunteers from different units of society, conduct first-aid training in communities, and facilitate blood donation drives in the forthcoming months.

At present, the PRC has a disaster resilient project in Bohol with focus on nature-based solutions.

Marcos urged the over 230,000 officers and personnel of PNP to support the leadership of Marbil in facing the country’s new challenges.

“With Police General Marbil as our 30th PNP Chief, I enjoin everyone to face the coming days with even greater fervor, determination, and optimism to achieve our goals and aspirations for the nation,” he said.

“Let us remain vigilant in the face of challenges and opportunities, as we strive to build a Bagong Pilipinas [New Philippines] where everyone can thrive and live in peace,” he added.

facilities should not be treated as a burden but an investment.” He, however, stressed the need to avoid the creation of “white elephants,” referring to projects built but not functional due to lack of operational funds.

Furthermore, the Committee aims to reassess the implementation of the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan, a critical component in enhancing the nation’s health facilities.

During the last hearing, Go said that “establishing and upgrading public health

hospitals across the Philippines. He however stressed the need to ensure sustainability and availability of funds for the implementation of such measures if enacted into law. Hence, the upcoming hearing is expected to delve deeper into the positions of concerned local governments, the Department of Health (DOH), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the pending local hospital bills to ensure their commitments for the operations and maintenance of the health facilities.

“Kaya po nandirito ang ating DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways], ang DBM [Department of Budget and Management], ‘pag naipasa rin natin ito, nandiyan na dapat yung funding. Importante rin dito matapos talaga,” said Go. Related to the abovementioned topics, part of the upcoming hearing will also be an Inquiry, in Aid of Legislation on the Lack of Medical Facilities and Health Professionals in Prime Tourist Spots based on a resolution filed by Senate President Migz Zubiri.

The hearing will also tackle Go’s continuing initiatives to bring health services closer

to the people such as the implementation of the Malasakit Centers Act which he principally sponsored and authored that makes medical assistance programs easily accessible; the Regional Specialty Centers Act which he also principally sponsored and is one of the authors to bring specialized medical services to all regions; and the establishment of more Super Health Centers nationwide to provide primary care, medical consultation, and early disease detection in grassroots communities.

“Patuloy nating ilapit ang serbisyo medikal mula sa gobyerno sa mga taong nangangailangan nito lalo na sa mga mahihirap at mga walang ibang malalapitan. Pera naman ng taumbayan ‘yan, ibalik dapat sa kanila sa pamamagitan ng maayos na serbisyong pangkalusugan. Tandaan natin

na ang kalusugan ay katumbas ng buhay ng bawat Pilipino,” he said. Go also disclosed that the hearing will also look into emerging health issues such as pertussis (whooping cough), with calls for DOH to increase public awareness and lay down preventive measures to mitigate the spread of such diseases.

“Tulad ng ating mga natutunan sa pandemya, mahalaga ang pagkakaroon ng sapat na kaalaman, pag-iingat, at pagtutulungan ng bawat isa. Dapat tayong magpatuloy sa pagbabakuna at pagsunod sa mga rekomendasyon ng mga eksperto sa kalusugan,” he said.

Lastly, the welfare of healthcare workers remains a paramount concern of Go, with discussions planned around the disbursement of the HEA which has been long overdue for services rendered by qualified healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Hindi katanggap-tanggap na hanggang ngayon ay marami pa ding mga healthcare workers ang hindi nakakatanggap ng kanilang HEA. Services rendered na po iyan. Maliit na halaga ‘yan kumpara sa serbisyo at sakripisyo ng ating mga frontliners. Dapat ipaliwanag ito ng DOH at DBM sa publiko at aksyunan kaagad!,” Go stressed. Earlier, Go also highlighted concerns about impoverished patients being deterred from seeking necessary hospital care due to fear of high medical costs, underscoring the necessity to address these barriers to ensure access to healthcare for all.

“‘Yun lang po ang pakiusap ko sa inyo, gamitin niyo po ang pera ng gobyerno sa mga mahihirap at dapat po ang mga mahihirap po na kababayan natin ang makikinabang sa mga hospital na ito...Unahin natin ang mga mahihirap, mga helpless at hopeless nating kababayan,” the senator reminded government agencies during last hearing.

PHILIPPINE Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and CEO Richard Gordon, PRC Secretary-General Gwen Pang and representatives from the local government units of Bohol, led the turnover ceremony for the newly renovated building of the Bohol chapter last March 26. PRC PHOTO

Economy

WB warns vs risk of waning productivity, investments

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

THE World Bank said the private sector has lagged in terms of investments that are needed to raise total factor productivity and economic growth in East Asia and the Pacific economies, including the Philippines. World Bank East Asia and Pacific Chief Economist Aaditya Mattoo said this can be observed among the region’s leading firms whose productivity growth has lagged behind global companies.

Mattoo said during an online briefing last Monday that the gap was wide when it comes to digital-intensive sectors. As a result, regional growth has largely been driven by capital accumulation rather than higher productivity.

“While growth in per capita incomes in the East Asia and Pacific region has surpassed most other

developing economies in recent decades, it has been driven by investment rather than productivity growth,” Mattoo said. “Bold policy action to unleash competition, improve infrastructure and reform education could revitalize the region’s economy.”

In a presentation, Mattoo said the danger is that both productivity and investment are now declining in the region. Regional cooperation efforts can help address this challenge, he added.

According to Mattoo, firms confront four key constraints to greater investment—trade regulation; skills; transportation; and telecommunications. He explained these constraints could be addressed through encouraging greater competition, stronger skills and investing in adequate infrastructure.

According to Mattoo, the key is to remove barriers to competition. However, the latter doesn’t

only mean addressing tariff barriers but also non-tariff barriers for both goods and services, he added.

Improving skills means addressing educational needs in primary to secondary levels as well as supporting these with the appropriate digital infrastructure.

“There is underinvestment in regulatory cooperation and infrastructure coordination, you know, regulatory cooperation, for example, on professional qualifications on data privacy laws on cybersecurity, could create an integrated regional market with companies could exploit economies of scale,” Mattoo said.

This kind of regional regulatory cooperation can also benefit East Asia and the Pacific economies in the green energy transition. Mattoo said creating regional green grids can be good for the power needs to boost investments and achieve a smart transition.

“As somebody said, without a

green grid, a smart grid, you will not get without smart transmission. There is no green transition. And that if it were to happen regionally could be a big, big benefit. So I’d say the region must focus more on the regulatory cooperation and infrastructure coordination,” Mattoo said. These recommendations were part of the Special Focus section of the East Asia and Pacific April 2024 Economic Update published on Monday.

The report also stated that since new technologies typically gain traction first among leading firms and cascade later to other businesses, this trend raises concern across the business spectrum. Opening goods and services to greater competition and enhancing human capital—through investments in teachers and in tertiary education—can help increase productivity.

Intellectual Property Office offers perks for ‘green tech’

By Andrea San Juan @andreasanjuan

THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said it will launch next month a green program which will involve waiver of fees for eligible patent, utility models and industrial design applications to encourage inventors and creators to promote green technology.

In his speech during a briefing for the National Intellectual Property Month (NIPM) last Monday, IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said the IPOPHL will “elevate” its efforts to promote green technologies by launching the “Green Technology Incentive” program.

According to Barba, the program will “mainly” involve a waiver of fees and prioritized examination for eligible patent, utility models and industrial design applications.

The IPOPHL chief said they are

in the process of finalizing the guidelines and workflow, which will include waiving the basic application fees for patents.

Ann N. Edillon, IPOPHL’s Director of Bureau of Patents, explained they usually give a waiver for just the filing fees and the first publication. They see this can help startups.

“That’s still a significant help to start-ups and business owners. You can imagine they have a lot of programs or they have a lot of innovative creations or inventions. It’s still very helpful. They can funnel that to, perhaps, fees afterwards,” Edillon said.

She added the fees that could be waived per application could range from as low as P4,000 (about $71.15 at current exchange rates) to as much as P5,000 (nearly $89).

According to Barba, they hope that the GTI program could encourage local inventors to develop green and sustainable technologies in climate change adaptation, alternative energy production,

transportation, agriculture, forestry, emission mitigation, energy conversion, solid waste management and water and wastewater management.

The IPOPHL revealed that the theme for the celebration of the National Intellectual Property Month (NIPM) this year will center on realizing the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2030 Agenda.

The 2024 NIPM theme follows the global theme set by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for World IP Day on April 26, read a statement the IPOPHL issued last Monday. The goal is to highlight IP as a key incentive to innovation and creativity to help realize the SDG 2030 Agenda, it added.

Barba said that developing countries like the Philippines and least-developed ones “bear the brunt of the sluggish pace in realizing the SDGs.”

Citing a 2023 report by the United Nations, the IPOPHL

chief said that 30 percent of 140 measurable targets recorded zero progress while 15 percent that booked developments remain “far from the desired results.”

With this, he urged the intellectual property (IP) community to “step up to the challenge,” prodding IP rights holders and creators to turn to the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, which he said recognizes the key role that the IP system and innovation play in the country’s goals towards “inclusiveness, climateresilience, green energy, modernized agriculture and an overall better standard of living.”

“As the PDP said, we need ‘a more vigorous intellectual property culture’ to advance innovations in various aspects, whether in improving health care services, developing competitive industries, creating knowledge hubs across regions, protecting our culture and adding value to our creative and innovative assets,” Barba said.

Major carriers add more flights as Holy Week travelers surge 12.3%

Continued from A20

“For domestic travel, leisure routes such as Boracay, Palawan, and Siargao were the most popular destinations. For international travel, we have Da Nang, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Taipei and Osaka as our top destinations,” she said. The carrier also had to increase the weekly flight frequencies to a number of local and international destinations due to the high demand.

Stronger

VisMin

routes FOR international, we increased frequencies to popular tourist destinations such as Hong Kong, Seoul [Incheon], Tokyo [Narita], and Shanghai. We added two to four more weekly flights for these routes compared to the previous weeks,” Romero added. The carrier also had to increase weekly flight frequencies its Visayas-Mindanao routes. “From Cebu alone, we added three to eight more weekly flights to Iloilo, Butuan, Davao,

Dumaguete, Tacloban, Bacolod and Pagadian. From Davao, we added four more weekly flights to Zamboanga,” she said.

CEB’s flights from Manila to Cebu likewise experienced an increase, “with flights occurring 110x weekly to 114x—the highest number we recorded during the Holy Week.”

For his part, Steve Dailisan, Head of Communications and Public Affairs of Air Asia Philippines, disclosed that the carrier

“recorded a total of 139,000 seats sold,” for the Holy Week. Their “top booked routes” based on average passenger load factor were Caticlan (Boracay), Cebu, Iloilo, Tagbilaran, and Tacloban. For international destinations, the low-cost carrier’s most popular destinations were Tokyo, Bangkok, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Osaka. He clarified though the carrier doesn’t “increase frequencies for a specific week. It’s usually either Summer or Winter season.”

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Oil firms to raise prices anew

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

OIL firms will implement a mixed price adjustment this week to reflect movements in the world oil market.

In separate advisories, gasoline prices will go up by P0.45 per liter, while diesel and kerosene prices will be reduced by P.60 per liter and P1.05 per liter, respectively.

The oil price adjustments of Petron Corp., Shell Pilipinas Corp., Chevron Philippines Inc. (Caltex), Total (Philippines) Inc., Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc., Seaoil Philippines Inc., PTT Philippines Corp. and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. will take effect at 6:00 a.m. of Tuesday, April 2. The price adjustment of Cleanfuel Autogas Inc., meanwhile, takes effect at 12:01 a.m. the same day. Other oil firms are expected to follow suit.

This is the third straight week of upward price hike for gasoline products.

Oil companies implemented an increase in gasoline, diesel, and kerosene by P2.20, P1.40 and P1.30, per liter, respectively, last week. Except for this week’s price adjustment, the year-to-date adjustment of gasoline, diesel and kerosene stood at a per liter net increase of P7.75, P5.10 and P1.05, respectively.

DOE-Oil Management Bureau Director Rodela I. Romero said this week’s price adjustment was still attributed to international events. These include the attack of Ukraine to the major refineries and depots of Russia and the escalating tensions in the Red Sea, decrease in US crude and gasoline inventory, reduced OPEC exports, and supply and demand outlook issued by International Energy Agency and Energy Information Administration.

Solons eye giving pensions to agrarian-reform grantees

AFTER a law condoning almost P58 billion in debts by more than half-a-million agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB), lawmakers are pushing for a measure benefiting farmers and other agricultural workers by providing pension benefits to them.

CamSur Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. and Bicol Saro Rep. Brian Raymund S. Yamsuan called on their colleagues to pass House Bill (HB) 7963 in the Second Regular Session of Congress. The Congress went on a break last March 20 and will resume session on April 29.

According to Villafuerte, the bill seeks to mandate the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) to establish and administer an Agricultural Pension Fund (APF) that will provide ARBs with pension benefits when they reach the age of retirement.

He explained the bill recognizes that universal access to comprehensive and adequate social protection systems is an important tool to prevent and reduce poverty and inequality.

Dubbed the “Agricultural Pension Fund Act,” HB 7963 has been referred to the Committee on Government Enterprises and Privatization for examination.

The bill designates the PCIC, a government-owned entity under the Department of Agriculture (DA), as the implementing agency. Its responsibilities as outline by HB 7963 include: formulating a pension scheme

for agricultural retirees; managing and investing the APF to ensure its sustainability; establishing eligibility criteria in collaboration with relevant government bodies; and undertaking other tasks necessary for the efficient execution of this proposal.

Within 90 days of the Act’s enforcement, the PCIC Board of Directors, in consultation with the DA Secretary and representatives of recognized farmers and fisherfolk groups, is mandated to promulgate the requisite implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

The bill stipulates that the funding necessary for implementing its provisions shall be incorporated into the annual appropriations of the DA.

According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, there were nearly 9.7 million agricultural workers in 2019, with Bicol accounting for approximately 698,000 of them.

“Our agricultural workers, especially farmers and fishermen, are among the poorest groups in our society and are not covered by any pension program of the government,” Villafuerte said.

They “are an integral part of the country’s development and deserve due recognition for their great contribution to society by providing them with pension benefits to assist them with their basic needs when they reach the age of retirement,” he added.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

NG posts ₧76.7-B budget deficit in Jan-Feb

Continued from A1

Primary expenditures for the same period climbed to P600.5 billion or 11.29 percent from P539.6 billion.

Interest payments rose by half or 50.53 percent for the two-month period to P122 billion from P81.1 billion last year due to reissuances of domestic securities with coupon payments falling within the period.

For February alone, the national government recorded a P116.9- billion primary deficit, reflecting an increase of more than half at 61.70 percent or P44.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the January to February 2024 primary balance remained at a surplus of P45.3 billion, more than twice or 121.57 percent higher than the P20.5 billion recorded in the same period last year.

RCBC expert: Higher revenue ahead

RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said that for the coming months, a further pickup in business and other economic activities would still lead

to higher government tax revenue collections amid intensified tax collection efforts, as well as other priority tax or fiscal reform measures.

Going forward, Ricafort said intensified tax collections on existing tax laws, as a priority, and continued tax reform measures in terms of new taxes and higher tax rates, if deemed necessary, would lead to further improvements in fiscal performance in terms of narrower budget deficits, reduced borrowings, and slower increment in the outstanding national government debt.

“These tax and other fiscal reform measures could lead to narrower/better budget deficits, lower/better budget deficit-to-GDP ratio to below the international threshold of 60 percent, and, in turn, more sustainable fiscal/ debt management over the long-term and for the coming generations,” Ricafort added.

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said the national government could fall short of a budget surplus by the end of the year.

“For me, for as long as we hit our targets, our revenue targets, and our expenditure targets, I don’t expect a surplus by the end of the year,” Recto said.

World Bank: Debt and trade barriers to weigh on Asian economies in 2024

By Elaine Kurtenbach Ap Business Writer

BANGKOK—Asian economies are not doing as well as they could and growth in the region is forecast to slow to 4.5 percent this year from 5.1 percent in 2023, the World Bank said in a report released Monday.

Debt, trade barriers and policy uncertainties are dulling the region’s economic dynamism and governments need to do more to address long-term problems such as weak social safety nets and underinvestment in education, the report says.

Asia’s economies are growing more slowly than before the pandemic, but faster than other parts of the world. And a rebound in global trade—trade in goods and services grew by only 0.2 percent in 2023 but is projected to grow by 2.3 percent this year—and easing financial conditions as central banks cut interest rates will help offset weaker growth in China.

“This report demonstrates the region is outperforming much of the rest of the world, but it’s underachieving its own potential,” Aaditya Mattoo, the World Bank’s chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, said in an online briefing.

“The leading firms in the region

are not playing the … role that they should,” he added.

A key risk is that the US Federal Reserve and other major central banks might keep interest rates higher than before the pandemic. Another comes from the nearly 3,000 trade-distorting measures, such as higher tariffs or subsidies, that were imposed in 2023, the report said.

Most of those policies were set by major industrial economies such as the US, China and India.

China’s ruling Communist Party has set an official target for about 5 percent growth this year, just below the 5.2 percent annual pace of last year. The World Bank is forecasting that growth will slow to 4.5 percent.

“China is aiming to transition to a more balanced growth path but the quest to ignite alternative demand drivers is proving difficult,” the report says.

Mattoo said Beijing still has a way to go in shifting its economy

away from reliance on real estate construction to drive business activity, and just spending more money won’t fix the problem.

“The challenge for China is to choose efficient policies,” he said. “Fiscal stimulus will not fix structural imbalances,” he said. What is needed are stronger social welfare and other programs that will enable households to spend more, boosting demand that will then encourage businesses to invest.

The region could be doing much better with improved productivity and greater efficiency, Mattoo said.

Vietnam, for example, is drawing huge amounts of foreign investment as a favored destination for foreign manufacturers, but its growth rate of about 5 percent is

S. Korean president stands firm as doctors’ protests escalate over medical school plan

By Hyung-Jin Kim Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea’s president vowed Monday not to back down in the face of vehement protests by doctors seeking to derail his plan to drastically increase medical school admissions, as he called their walkouts “an illegal collective action” that poses “a grave threat to our society.”

About 12,000 medical interns and residents in South Korea have been on strike for six weeks, causing hundreds of cancelled surgeries and other treatments at university hospitals. In support of their action, many senior doctors at their teaching schools have also submitted resignations though they haven’t stopped treating patients.

Officials say they want to raise the yearly medical school cap by 2,000 from the current 3,058 to create more doctors to deal with the country’s rapidly aging population. Doctors counter that schools can’t handle such an abrupt increase in students and that it would eventually hurt the country’s medical services. But critics say doctors, one of the bestpaid professions in South Korea, are simply worried that the supply of more doctors would result in lower future incomes. Public surveys show that a majority of South Koreans support the government’s push to create more doctors. But observers say many people are increasingly fed up with the protracted confrontation between the government and doctors, threatening to deal a blow to governing party candidates ahead of next week’s parliamentary elections.

In a nationally televised address, President Yoon Suk Yeol said adding 2,000 medical students is the minimum increase needed to address a shortage of physicians in rural areas, the military and essential but lowpaying professions like pediatrics and emergency departments. Yoon said South Korea’s doctorto-patient ratio—2.1 physicians per 1,000 people—is far below the average of 3.7 in the developed world.

“Increasing the number of doctors is a state project that we can’t further delay,” Yoon said.

Yoon urged the striking doctors to return to work, saying they have a responsibility to protect people’s lives in line with the lo -

US military says it destroyed Houthi drones over Red Sea and in Yemen

By Samy Magdy The Associated Press

CAIRO—The US military said Sunday its forces destroyed one unmanned aerial vehicle in a Houthi rebelheld area of war-ravaged Yemen and another over a crucial shipping route in the Red Sea. It was the latest development in months of tension between the Iran-backed rebels and the US.

The drones, which were destroyed Saturday morning, posed a threat to US and coalition forces and merchant vessels in the region, said the US Central Command.

It said that one drone was destroyed over the Red Sea, while the second was destroyed on the ground as it was prepared to launch.

below its potential.

“To be happy that Vietnam is growing at 5 percent reflects the kind of underachievement we should not be happy about,” Mattoo said in an online briefing.

One key problem highlighted in the report is lagging improvements in productivity, the report said. Leading companies in Asia are far behind the leaders in wealthier nations, especially in technology-related areas.

The report faults governments for imposing restrictions on investment that prevents foreign companies from entering key parts of regional economies, a need to build skills and weak management. Opening to more competition and investing more in education would help, it said.

cal medical law. He also said the government remains open to talks if doctors come up with a unified proposal that adequately explains why adding 2,000 more students is too steep of an increase.

“I can’t tolerate an attempt to carry through their thoughts by force without due logic and grounds,” Yoon said. “The illegal collective action by some doctors has become a grave threat to our society.”

Yoon said the recruitment plan won’t lead to lower earnings for doctors, citing what he called expected increases in national income and demand for medical services in the fast-aging society. He said the average income of South Korean doctors is the highest in the developed world.

Yoon’s speech is expected to draw an angry response from doctors, who have maintained they can have serious talks only when the government drops its increased enrollment plan. They deny opposing the plan over worries about future incomes.

Yoon said the government is taking final administrative steps to suspend the licenses of the strikers but added he doesn’t want to punish the young doctors. This implies that his government is willing to soften punitive measures on the strikers if they return to work soon.

Yoon recently ordered officials to pursue “a flexible measure” to resolve the dispute and seek constructive consultations with doctors at the request of ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon.

The striking junior doctors represent a fraction of the total doctors in South Korea—estimated at 115,000 by Yoon and 140,000 by a doctors’ association. But in some major hospitals, they account for about 30 percent to 40 percent of doctors, assisting qualified doctors and department chiefs during surgeries and other treatments while training.

than two months of US-led airstrikes.

Earlier this month, CENTCOM said its forces also destroyed four unmanned aerial vehicles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. It also said Houthis fired four antiship ballistic missiles toward the Red Sea, but no injuries or damages were reported by US, coalition or commercial ships.

The escalation in the Red Sea and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza impacted the U.N.-led efforts to relaunch political talks to end Yemen’s yearslong conflict, according to the U.N. envoy for Yemen.

“These actions are necessary to protect our forces, ensure freedom of navigation, and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels,” CENTCOM said.

There was no comment from the Houthi rebels, which control much of Yemen’s north and west.

The rebels launched a campaign of drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in November. They have also fired missiles toward Israel, although those have largely fallen short or been intercepted.

The rebels have described their campaign as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The ships targeted by the Houthis, however, largely have had little or no connection to Israel, the US or other nations involved in the war.

The Houthis have kept up their campaign of attacks despite more

Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council in mid-March that he had hoped to reach an agreement on a nationwide ceasefire in Yemen by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began early in March.

He warned that Yemen could be propelled back into war, saying that “the longer the escalatory environment (in the region) continues, the more challenging Yemen’s mediation space will become.”

The war between the Houthis and pro-government forces backed by a coalition of Gulf Arab states has raged since 2014, when the Houthis swept down from the mountains, seized much of northern Yemen and the country’s capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government to flee into exile to Saudi Arabia.

Since then, more than 150,000 people have been killed by the violence and 3 million have been displaced.

Fighting has decreased markedly in Yemen since a truce in April 2022, but there are still hotspots in the country.

2 dead as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

KYIV, Ukraine—A Russian cruise missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Lviv region killed one man, while another died in an attack in the northeast, officials said Sunday.

The attack in Lviv destroyed a building and sparked a fire, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on social media app Telegram. He said that rescue operations were being conducted.

In the Kharkiv region, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said that an air attack killed a 19-year-old man after a missile hit a gas station.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were left without power Sunday after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility, Gov. Oleh Kiper said. Some 170,000 homes suffered power outages as a result of the attack, said Ukraine’s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.

The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down nine of the 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine out of 14 cruise missiles.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest in the northeastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

In a message Sunday to mark the date when some of Ukraine’s Christians celebrate Easter, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the country to persevere.

“There is not a day or night right now when Russian terror does not try to shatter our lives. Last night, we once again saw rockets and Shaheds launched against our people,” he said.

“We defend ourselves, we persevere; our spirit does not give up and knows that death can be averted. Life can win,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter

Sunday according to the Gregorian calendar. The country’s religious majority, Orthodox Christians, follow the Julian calendar, which in 2024 places Easter on May 5.

Many of Ukraine’s Orthodox Christians began marking Christmas in line with the Gregorian calendar on Dec. 25 in 2023, in a move adopted by some of the country’s churches to distance themselves from Russia. However, the dates for Easter and other religious holidays have so far remained unchanged.

Zelenskyy, alongside Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and several ambassadors, spent the day in the town of Bucha in the Kyiv region, commemorating the second anniversary of the area’s liberation from Russian forces.

Bucha’s name has come to evoke savagery by Moscow’s military since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Ukrainian troops who retook the town on March 31, 2022, found the bodies of men, women and children on the streets, in yards and homes, and in mass graves. Some showed signs of torture.

The Ukrainian leader laid a lamp at the town’s Wall of Remembrance, the president’s website said. The monument names the 509 civilians who have so far been identified of those killed during the occupation.

In Russia, meanwhile, 10 Czech-made Vampire rockets landed in the region of Belgorod on Sunday, the Ministry of Defense said. One woman was injured when a fire broke out following the attack, said regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. Another woman was killed as shelling hit villages along the Russian border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed orders heralding the start of the country’s annual spring recruitment season, officially drafting 150,000 conscripts.

Russia’s parliament raised the upper age limit for conscripts from 27 to 30 in July 2023 in a move that appeared to be part of efforts to expand the country’s military during the fighting in Ukraine. All Russian men are obliged to complete the yearlong national service, although many avoid the draft by using deferments granted to students, people with chronic illnesses and others. AP

Israeli military withdraws from Gaza’s largest hospital, leaving destruction and bodies behind

By Wafaa Shurafa & Samy Magdy The Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip—

The Israeli military withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital early Monday after a two-week raid, leaving behind several bodies and a vast swath of destruction, according to Palestinian residents.

The military has described the raid on Shifa Hospital as one of the most successful operations of the nearly six-month war. It says it killed scores of Hamas and other militants, including senior operatives, and that it seized weapons and valuable intelligence. It confirmed forces had withdrawn Monday.

The U.N. health agency said several patients died and dozens were put at risk during the raid, which brought even further destruction to a hospital that had already largely ceased to function. Days of heavy fighting showed that Hamas can still put up resistance even in one of the hardest-hit areas of Gaza.

Mohammed Mahdi, who was among hundreds of Palestinians who returned to the area, described a scene of “total destruction.” He said several buildings had been burned down and that he had counted six bodies in the area, including two in the hospital courtyard.

Video footage circulating online showed heavily damaged and charred buildings, mounds of dirt

that had been churned up by bulldozers and patients on stretchers in darkened corridors.

Another resident, Yahia Abu Auf, said there were still patients, medical workers and displaced people sheltering inside the medical compound after several patients had been taken to the nearby Ahli Hospital. He said army bulldozers had plowed over a makeshift cemetery in Shifa’s courtyard.

“The situation is indescribable,” he said. “The occupation destroyed all sense of life here.”

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and has raided several medical facilities. It says it launched the raid on Shifa after Hamas and other militants had regrouped there.

Health officials in Gaza deny those allegations. Critics accuse the army of recklessly endangering civilians and of decimating a health sector already overwhelmed with war-wounded. Palestinians say Israeli troops forcibly evacuated homes near Shifa Hospital in downtown Gaza City and forced hundreds of residents

In setback to Erdogan, opposition makes huge gains in local election

By Suzan Fraser & Cinar Kiper The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey—Turkey’s main opposition party retained its control over key cities and made huge gains elsewhere in Sunday’s local elections, in a major upset to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had set his sights on retaking control of those urban areas.

With more than 90 percent of ballot boxes counted, incumbent Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was leading by a wide margin in Turkey’s largest city and economic hub, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. Mansur Yavas, the mayor of the capital, Ankara, retained his seat with a stunning 25-point difference over his challenger, the results indicated.

In all, the CHP won the municipalities of 36 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, according to Anadolu, making inroads into many strongholds of Erdogan’s party. It gained 37 percent of the votes nationwide, compared to 36 percent for the president’s party, marking the CHP’s greatest electoral victory since Erdogan came to power two decades ago.

Erdogan acknowledged the electoral setback in a speech delivered from the balcony of the presidential palace, saying his party had suffered “a loss of altitude” across Turkey. The people delivered a “message” that his party will “analyze” by engaging in “courageous” self-criticism, he said.

“Unfortunately, nine months after our victory in the May 28 elections, we could not get the result we wanted in the local election test,” Erdogan added. “We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings.”

He vowed to press ahead with an economic program introduced last year

that aims to combat inflation. The vote was seen as a barometer of Erdogan’s popularity as he sought to win back control of key urban areas he lost to the opposition in elections five years ago. The CHP’s victory in Ankara and Istanbul in 2019 had shattered Erdogan’s aura of invincibility.

The main battleground for the 70-yearold Turkish president was Istanbul, a city of 16 million people where he was born and raised and where he began his political career as mayor in 1994.

The result came as a boost for the opposition, which was left divided and demoralized after a defeat to Erdogan and his ruling Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

“The voters decided to establish a new political order in Turkey,” CHP leader Ozgur Ozel told a crowd of jubilant supporters.

“Today, the voters decided to change the 22-year-old picture in Turkey and open the door to a new political climate in our country.”

A large crowd, meanwhile, gathered outside Ankara City Hall to celebrate Yavas’ victory. “Ankara is proud of you!” supporters chanted.

Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbulbased Edam think tank, said “the surprising outcome” was due to voters wanting to punish the ruling party over the “depth of an economic malaise.” Skyrocketing inflation has left many Turkish households struggling to afford basic goods.

AKP supporters opted to stay away from the ballot stations or voted for other parties, Ulgen said.

“Turnout was relatively low compared to past elections,” he said. “There were cross-party shifts in the vote, which did not happen in the nationals elections because of stronger ideological attachments. This

to march south.

At least 21 patients have died since the raid began, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted late Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.

He said over a hundred patients were still inside the compound, including four children and 28 critical patients. He also said there were no diapers, urine bags or water to clean wounds, and that many patients suffered from infected wounds and dehydration.

The military had previously raided Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, in November, after saying Hamas maintained an elaborate command and control center inside and beneath the compound. It revealed a tunnel running beneath the hospital that led to a few rooms, as well as weapons it said it had confiscated from inside medical buildings, but nothing on the scale of what it had alleged prior to the raid.

The war began on October

time around the economy prevailed over identity.”

Some 61 million people, including more than a million first-time voters, were eligible to cast ballots for all metropolitan municipalities, town and district mayorships as well as neighborhood administrations.

Turnout was around 76 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, compared to 87 percent last year.

Some 594,000 security personnel were on duty across the country to ensure the vote goes smoothly. Nevertheless, one person was killed and 11 others hurt in the city of Diyarbakir where a dispute over the election of a neighborhood administrator turned violent, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. At least six people were also injured in fighting that erupted in the nearby province of Sanliurfa.

“According to the data we have obtained, it seems our citizens’ trust in us, their faith in us has paid off,” Imamoglu said.

Imamoglu won 50.6 percent of the votes in Istanbul, while AKP candidate Murat Kurum, a former urbanization and environment minister, received 40.5 percent, according to Anadolu. Opinion polls had pointed to a close race between the two.

Imamoglu, a popular figure touted as a possible future challenger to Erdogan, ran without the support of some of the parties that helped him to victory in 2019. Both the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party and the nationalist IYI Party fielded their own candidates in the race.

A six-party opposition alliance that was led by CHP disintegrated after it failed to oust Erdogan in last year’s election, unable to capitalize on the economic crisis and the government’s initially poor response to last year’s devastating earthquake that killed more than 53,000 people.

Ulgen said the result has thrust Imamoglu into the role of possible leader of the opposition to challenge Erdogan for the presidency in 2028.

Kiper reported from Bodrum, Turkey.

7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. Israel responded with an air, land and sea offensive that has killed at least 32,782 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and

combatants in its count but says women and children have made up around two-thirds of those killed.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, and blames the civilian death toll on Palestinian militants because they fight in dense residential areas.

The war has displaced most of the territory’s population and driven a third of its residents to the brink of famine. Northern Gaza, where Shifa is located, has suffered vast destruction and has been largely isolated since October, leading to widespread hunger.

Israel said late last year that it had largely dismantled Hamas in northern Gaza and withdrew thousands of troops. But it has battled militants there on a number of occasions since then, and the two weeks of heavy fighting around Shifa highlighted the staying power of the armed groups.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep up the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and all of the hostages are freed. He says Israel will soon

expand ground operations to the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people—more than half of Gaza’s population—have sought refuge.

But he faces mounting pressure from Israelis who blame him for the security failures of Oct. 7 and from some families of the hostages who blame him for the failure to reach a deal despite several weeks of talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. Hamas and other militants are still believed to be holding some 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others, after freeing most of the rest during a cease-fire last November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Tens of thousands of Israelis thronged central Jerusalem on Sunday in the largest anti-government protest since the country went to war in October. Deep divisions over Netanayahu’s leadership long predate the war, which still enjoys strong public support.

Magdy reported from Cairo.

PALESTINIANS carry a wounded person following an Israeli airstrike near the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip on Sunday, March 31, 2024. AP/ABDEL KAREEM HANA

AFFI’s certification program protects franchise investors and boosts industry growth editorial

The Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. has taken a proactive step to combat the prevalent issue of scams in the franchise industry. In response to the rising number of individuals falling victim to fraudulent franchise business models, AFFI has announced the launch of a certification program for brand owners called the Certified Franchise Practitioner (CFP). This initiative aims to educate potential franchisers and franchisees, eliminate scammers, and promote legitimate franchising practices. (Read the BusinessMirror story: “Franchisers see certification tack to protect vs scammers,” April 1, 2024).

The CFP program, set to commence in the third quarter of 2024, offers a comprehensive two-month training curriculum developed and taught by industry experts and academic professionals. Participants who successfully complete the program will be awarded the CFP credential, a mark of credibility that assures potential franchisees of the legitimacy and security of their investment. By displaying the CFP title, brand owners can establish trust with potential investors and differentiate themselves from unscrupulous operators. This certification program is a significant leap forward in addressing the trust deficit that has plagued the franchising sector. The prevalence of scam artists exploiting unsuspecting individuals with promises of high returns at low franchise fees has tarnished the industry’s reputation. AFFI’s proactive approach not only protects aspiring franchisees but also encourages more business owners to consider franchising as a viable expansion strategy.

With the Philippines’ economy being predominantly supported by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), of which a significant portion belongs to the franchising sector, it is crucial to foster an environment of trust and credibility. The CFP program plays a pivotal role in achieving this by equipping franchisers with the necessary knowledge and skills to operate legitimate and profitable franchises.

By targeting their existing 180 members and extending enrollment to nonmembers, AFFI aims to graduate at least 300 CFP recipients this year. This commitment to widespread implementation demonstrates AFFI’s dedication to creating a culture of professionalism and transparency within the franchising community. It is through initiatives like this that the industry can experience sustained growth.

Furthermore, AFFI’s endeavors extend beyond the certification program. Their “Fly High” program, which exposes members to international markets, and their efforts to connect franchisers with available commercial establishments through “AFFI Spaces,” all contribute to the growth and expansion of homegrown MSMEs. These comprehensive strategies will bolster the franchising sector, leading to increased opportunities for both franchisers and franchisees.

The AFFI’s efforts deserve commendation for their commitment to protecting entrepreneurs and potential franchise investors. By launching the CFP program, they are taking a proactive stance against scammers and fostering an environment of trust and credibility. This initiative will undoubtedly contribute to the growth and success of the Philippine franchising industry.

It is crucial that entrepreneurs and potential franchise investors take advantage of the CFP program to safeguard their investments and ensure the long-term viability of their ventures. AFFI’s dedication to promoting legitimate franchising practices will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for industrywide growth.

With a renewed focus on professionalism and transparency, the Philippine franchising sector has the potential to flourish, providing sustainable business opportunities and contributing to the nation’s economic development.

FJohn Mangun

Watch Europe OUTSIDE THE BOX

or all of its glory, the one prize that the roman empire could not win was the conquest and unification of the european continent. rome owned all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Its control extended from the Persian Gulf to Britannia and from Portugal to Armenia.

Both Napoleon in the 19th and Hitler in the 20th did pretty well in terms amount of European territory under control. But neither was able to hold even briefly the UK or Russia. And the reality is that Europeans are not good with “unity” unless you have a gun to their heads as both Napoleon and Hitler did, respectively for 12 years and for six years.

In perspective, the Russia/ Ukraine/Nato war is the 487th military conflict in Europe during the past 2,000 years.

After nearly 50 years of constant war, cold and hot, among the European nations, in 1950 it was proposed to try a different method to achieve unity. Political unity had proven to be impossible as no leader could muster

Aall the forces together. In 1920, John Maynard Keynes proposed a European customs union and in 1923 the Paneuropean Union was founded.

The European Union was formally established with the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 followed by the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. The cornerstone was the euro currency now used by 20 of the 27 EU member states.

The cold, hardworking, and lessCatholic northern Europe of German, Scandinavia, and the Benelux nations always had a problem with the sunny, “lazy” and predominantly Catholic (including the Orthodox Church) southern Europe of Spain, Italy, and Greece. France always seemed to have one foot on both sides.

To participate in the currency,

By Fares Akram & Ethan Bronner

ToP hamas police commander met in mid-March with the heads of a Gaza clan who’d been commandeering aid meant for hungry Palestinians. he told them to stop taking the shipments or they’d be killed. A week later, that commander was killed— by Israeli troops.

The Israelis weren’t acting at the clan’s request. Rather, all three— Hamas, clans and the Israeli military —are engaged in a bloody battle for control of north Gaza and aid distribution, making an already troubled process more dangerous and unreliable. Famine is a threat, and people are beginning to die of hunger, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The dead commander, Fayeq al-Mabhouh, had organized a safe route so that those who’d been desperately making bread from animal feed got wheat flour, according to a senior Hamas official and several others on the ground, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Israeli troops killed several others working with Mabhouh, Gazans say, and the safe route died with them.

Israeli military officials acknowledge killing Mabhouh and colleagues during their operation in Shifa Hospital, along with almost 200 other Hamas operatives, but say it had

nothing to do with aid. “We are at war against Hamas, he was a top Hamas terrorist and therefore was killed,” said Major Nir Dinar, a spokesperson.

International aid groups are also central players in Gaza and in frequent conflict with Israel. UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, is essentially a Palestinian organization that Israel is trying to shut down on charges that it’s too cozy with Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the US and European Union.

A number of governments have stopped funding UNRWA because of those charges, and UNRWA said last week that although it’s best positioned to get aid to those in need, Israel is stopping it from doing so, worsening hunger and suffering. While everywhere in the coastal strip is in need of food, the north is the direst.

A recent UN-backed report said famine is imminent in northern Gaza where 70 percent of the popu-

Europe has weathered its own debt crisis as well as the Global meltdown. But the EU was totally unprepared for losing its relatively cheap supply of Russian energy and the influx of millions of Ukrainians burdening local financial resources. Further, European companies no longer generate sufficient profits to fuel the social model.

members were supposed to meet strict criteria: a budget deficit of less than 3 percent of individual GDP, a debt/GDP ratio of less than 60 percent and low inflation.

This economic union has had mixed success. The Euro Area economy recorded an average real GDP growth rate of 1.4 percent in the decade to 2022, below the 1.8 percent average for Major Economies. Debt/GDP ratio has hit the under-60 percent target only three years this century and now is 90 percent. At least war has been contained. Except, Europe’s 21st century dependence on China for trade, US for security, and Russia and the US for energy “remains a stumbling block.”

While everyone is focused on the US economy—and for Filipinos Europe is off of our radar—it is the

A recent UN-backed report said famine is imminent in northern Gaza where 70 percent of the population is on the brink of starvation. Some two-dozen people, including babies, have died from starvation in the north, the Hamas-run health ministry says. This is why many, including the US, are seeking an immediate cease-fire. Israel says it must finish the destruction of Hamas and that the aid difficulty isn’t its fault.

lation is on the brink of starvation. Some two-dozen people, including babies, have died from starvation in the north, the Hamas-run health ministry says. This is why many, including the US, are seeking an immediate cease-fire. Israel says it must finish the destruction of Hamas and that the aid difficulty isn’t its fault.  Some aid groups have accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon in its war against Hamas, which began on October 7 when Hamas operatives broke into Israel, killing, abusing and abducting hundreds. Israel’s retaliatory war has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas officials who don’t distinguish between civilians and fighters.

EU that looks the most economically vulnerable.

The Fiscal Rules were supposed to be “rules” not guidelines. There is a disaster brewing with the budget deficit compliance as France has a budget deficit of 7 percent and Italy at 5 percent. Greece has a debt-toGDP ratio of 170 percent. But as one German analyst states, these numbers are a symptom, not a cause. The problem is not fiscal policy (the amount of revenue and expenditure) or monetary policy (interest rates, currency exchange, money supply).

The cause is that Europe’s “business model” is unsustainable with not enough economic growth to sustain Europe’s “cradle-to-grave” social economic programs. While the Nordic model has the highest level of social insurance, they are successful because they all keep strict compliance with the “Fiscal Rules” with appropriately low debt-to-GDP and equally contained government budget deficits.

Europe has weathered its own debt crisis as well as the Global meltdown. But the EU was totally unprepared for losing its relatively cheap supply of Russian energy and the influx of millions of Ukrainians burdening local financial resources. Further, European companies no

See “Mangun,” A19

The International Rescue Committee said in a statement: “US-funded humanitarian assistance has been consistently and arbitrarily denied by the Israeli authorities.”

A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in response to queries from Bloomberg, said, “Between March 1 and 15, every fifth humanitarian mission to the north was denied access. This is in addition to delays, impediments and multiple dangers, including live fire. The Israeli authorities have impeded the import of items critically needed to save lives in Gaza, including generators to power medical operations.”

Shimon Freedman, a spokesperson for the Israeli military’s civilian affairs department, denied the accusations, saying Israel has been facilitating aid into northern Gaza but international aid groups haven’t increased the number of trucks, workers or working hours as needed.  He added, “It is absolutely not true that we stop generators from going in. Some have been delivered by our soldiers to hospitals. We prioritize water, food and shelter equipment.” His department issued a rebuttal to the UN-backed report on starvation, saying it “contains multiple factual and methodological flaws, See “Gazans,” A19

South Korea’s tech-led exports continue growth, boosting economy

By Sam Kim

SOUTh Korea’s exports continued to grow last month on the back of strong demand for semiconductors and other technology devices, supporting confidence among policymakers that the economy will see a solid first quarter.

Average daily shipments increased 9.9 percent from a year earlier, according to data released Monday by the trade ministry. Without adjustment for the number of working days, headline exports rose 3.1 percent while overall imports decreased by 12.3 percent. The trade surplus came to $4.3 billion.

South Korea is among the world’s largest exporters of goods, making it a bellwether for global commerce. Its dominance in memory chips and smartphones also makes the nation a barometer for tech demand. The latest figures point to continued recovery in global demand especially in the semiconductor sector.

South Korean exports of chips increased 35.7 percent from a year earlier in March to $11.7 billion, the largest monthly sales total since March 2022, the ministry said. Display exports rose 16.2 percent and computer sales increased 24.5 percent, too, underscoring the momentum that stems from technology demand.

“This year’s exports will be driven by technology,” said Lee JaeYoon, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade. Artificial intelligence and high-performance memory chips are among reasons semiconductor shipments are rising at a fast pace, raising hopes that they may grow enough this year to make up for losses last year, he said.

The growth momentum in exports fueled by the brisk semiconductor sales that has carried into this year is one reason authorities expect the South Korean economy to expand faster in 2024 than last year.

For the first quarter, overall exports amounted to $163.7 billion, an 8.3 percent rise from a year earlier, generating a trade surplus of $9 billion, according to the trade ministry.

“Our forecast is for the economy to expand 0.5 percent quarter on quarter in 1Q24, building on 0.6 percent growth in 4Q23. The trade data suggest there’s a chance growth will top our estimate,” said Bloomberg economist Hyosung Kwon.

Still, the chip recovery will need to be accompanied by a stronger pickup in exports of other products such as automobiles, steel and oil chemicals for authorities to be more certain that the economy will grow more than 2 percent as they estimate.

The latest report showed shipments of automobiles fell 5 percent and those of machinery decreased 10 percent from a year earlier in March, according to the ministry. Oil prod-

Mangun.

Continued from A18

South Korea is among the world’s largest exporters of goods, making it a bellwether for global commerce. Its dominance in memory chips and smartphones also makes the nation a barometer for tech demand. The latest figures point to continued recovery in global demand especially in the semiconductor sector.

ucts rose 3.1 percent.  Steel exports, which fell 7.8percent last month, will likely struggle in particular because of competition from China while demand slackens, Lee at KIET said. While global trade is gradually recovering, plenty of risks to the outlook remain. The Goods Trade Barometer managed by the World Trade Organization reached 100.6 last month, slightly above the trend baseline, indicating weak upward momentum.

“Merchandise trade should continue to recover gradually in the early months of 2024, but any gains could be easily derailed by regional conflicts and geopolitical tensions,” the global organization said last month.

As a nation that has China as its biggest trading partner and the US as its top security ally, South Korea is among the nations most vulnerable to geopolitical clashes that can weigh on international trade momentum.

While US consumer sentiment and spending have remained strong, demand from China has been underwhelming as the world’s secondlargest economy struggles to emerge from its property slump.

Exports to the US rose 11.6 percent from a year earlier in March, to top the value of shipments to China, with automobiles and semiconductors leading the momentum, according to trade ministry data.

South Korea’s total shipments to China edged up 0.4 percent from a year earlier in March to $10.5 billion, rebounding from a decline. That came as China’s manufacturing activity rebounded last month, ending a five-month decline.

Adding to risks this year is a series of elections scheduled across a wide swathe of the world including the US that could result in protectionist policies that damage trade-reliant economies like South Korea’s.

The country itself will hold parliamentary elections later this month, in a vote that could influence the degree to which it re-calibrates its relationship with China in the long run. Bloomberg

to a War Economy” through buying twice as much weapons from European defense producers by 2030 and by issuing a European defense bond.

Opinion

BusinessMirror

VAT zero-rating on purchases by registered enterprises

Tfulvio D. Dawilan

Tax Law for Business

he continuing reform in our tax system saw the enactment of a number of tax legislations aimed at improving our tax system. A number of proposed tax legislations are also in the pipeline, many of which are already in the final stages.

One of these pending legislations is the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (or the CREATE MORE).

Recall that the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE Act or RA No. 11534) became effective in the early part of 2021. It has two important components: (1) the reform in the corporate income tax, and (2) the rationalization of the tax incentive system in the country and the integration of the incentive rules in the Tax Code.

So why is there still a need to CREATE MORE when the necessary legislation had already been CREATEd? Again, recall that during the initial implementation of the tax incentives provisions of CREATE and up to now, there were and in fact there are still confusions or misunderstandings. Somehow, this created uncertainty in achieving the objective of the incentive component of CREATE —whether it is in fact serving the purpose of its enactment. CREATE MORE hopes to clarify and further improve the tax incentive system in the country in order to carry out the true intention of reform.

A number of modifications are being introduced for this purpose. But let me zero in on the VAT incentives. CREATE provided for VAT exemption on importation and VAT zero-rating on local purchases. The law provided one simple condition for the availment—shall only apply to goods and services directly and exclusively used in the registered project or activity by a registered business enterprise. Notwithstanding this

simple requirement, some aspects of the implementation were not aligned with what the law intended to achieve and resulted in uncertainties.

To remedy this, CREATE MORE is proposing a few amendments. One of these relates to the use of the phrase “directly and exclusively used in the registered project or activity” as a condition in limiting the goods and services entitled to the VAT incentive. This is sought to be replaced by the phrase “directly attributable to the registered project or activity.” I’m not sure if this will make any difference. In fact, the Implementing Rules and Regulations and the related revenue issuances had already adopted the phrase “directly attributable” in describing the goods and services that are considered “directly and exclusively” used in registered project or activity. Yet, the same issuances still limit the goods and services entitled to the VAT incentives to those purchases that are necessary in carrying out the registered project or activity. Thus, local purchases for administrative purposes, for example, are being excluded from the coverage of VAT zero-rated transactions.

Perhaps what is more important is the enumeration in the proposed amendments of some of the transactions that can avail of VAT zerorating, which include: janitorial services, security services, financial services, consultancy services, marketing and promotion, and services rendered for administrative operations such as human resources, legal and accounting. I believe that even under the present provisions, the use of the words “directly and exclu-

Perhaps what is more important is the enumeration in the proposed amendments of some of the transactions that can avail of VAT zero-rating, which include: janitorial services, security services, financial services, consultancy services, marketing and promotion, and services rendered for administrative operations such as human resources, legal and accounting. I believe that even under the present provisions, the use of the words “directly and exclusively” should not be interpreted to restrict these types of transactions from the benefit of VAT zero-rating.

sively” should not be interpreted to restrict these types of transactions from the benefit of VAT zero-rating. But yes, if this proposal becomes a law, it should put to rest any doubt as to what should be entitled to VAT zero-rating in so far as purchases of registered enterprises are concerned. Also, to clarify further the VAT zero-rating incentive on local purchases, the proposed amendments specifically provide for the VAT treatment of the transactions of registered business enterprises as applied to a number of scenarios.

First, sale of goods or services to an enterprise whose total sales are exported shall be VAT-exempt. Second, sale of goods or services by a VATregistered seller to registered export enterprises, regardless of location, shall be subject to 0 percent VAT.

Third, sale and delivery of goods to registered enterprises within a separate customs territory shall be subject to 0 percent VAT.

It is not clear who is the seller and the buyer contemplated in first scenario. But it seems that this is misplaced because the subject of the incentive in the paragraph is the VAT zero-rating on local purchases by registered business enterprises. It is not about VAT exemption. If there is a basis for VAT exemption for this type of transaction, that should not

US oil suppliers muscling into Opec+ markets all over the world

By Devika Krishna Kumar

One major beneficiary of sanctions on Russian and Venezuelan oil? US suppliers who’ve muscled their way into markets once dominated by Opec and its allies.

US oil exports have set five new monthly records since Western nations began imposing sanctions on Russia in 2022.

And with trade restrictions on Venezuela set to renew in April, American barrels are beginning to displace sanctioned crude in India, one of the biggest buyers of illicit oil.

The shift underscores the extent to which sanctions have helped American crude capture market share around the world.

producers gain a bigger foothold in overseas markets. Physical oil prices are reflecting that, with WTI in Houston trading near the highest levels since October and sour benchmark Mars not far behind.

“US production is going up and Opec and Russian production is going down—so the US, by definition, is going to have more market share,” said Gary Ross, a veteran oil consultant turned hedge fund manager at Black Gold Investors LLC.

Record production from the US —coming just as Opec and its allies curb their own supply—has also helped American producers gain a bigger foothold in overseas markets. Physical oil prices are reflecting that, with WTI in Houston trading near the highest levels since October and sour benchmark Mars not far behind.

tanker tracking shows. Russian shipments may decline further with Indian oil refiners no longer accepting cargoes from tankers owned by state-run Sovcomflot PJSC, which was recently sanctioned by the US.

be the VAT zero-rating of local purchases by a registered business enterprise. The third scenario reminds us that the “cross border” doctrine is still alive—with the freeport zones and economic zones being treated as foreign territory and sales to locators within the said zones are considered export sales subject to 0 percent VAT. For the registered business enterprises other than those located in economic or freeport zones, the second scenario will apply. Thus, purchases by registered business enterprises from their local suppliers should be zero-rated. Unfortunately, this reflects what had already been indicated in the implementing regulations—the VAT zero-rating applies only to purchases by registered export enterprises, and not to purchases by domestic market enterprises. For the domestic market enterprises, the VAT exemption on importation and zero-rating of local purchases will only apply to those with capital of at least P50 billion.

In summary, the enactment of these proposed amendments will confirm the VAT zero-rating of local purchases of registered enterprises located in economic/freeport zones, under the separate territory concept. This will also confirm the VAT zero-rating of local purchases of other registered export enterprises. Domestic market enterprises may also be entitled to the same incentive, subject to some conditions. But the availment of all of these are still subject to the condition that the purchases entitled to VAT zero-rating shall be limited to those directly attributable (with a more relaxed definition) to the registered activities.

The German car industry is a classic example as it made huge profits —and paid huge taxes—operating in oligopolistic markets with high barriers of entry. Now these entry barriers have collapsed. China went from zero to the world leader in electric cars.

Solution? “European Council President Calls on Europe to Switch

Gazans.

Continued from A18

some of them serious.” The rebuttal adds, “We outright reject any allegations according to which Israel is purposefully starving the civilian population in Gaza.”

Commentator Mike Shedlock wrote: “Instead of fixing Germany’s aging infrastructure, attempting to compete with the US on AI, or competing with China on anything, EC President Charles Michel promotes war as growth.”

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.

In recent days, Gazans in the southern city of Rafah say some prices have dropped dramatically. Frozen chicken, which used to cost 80 shekels ($22) per kilo has fallen to 20 shekels.

While US oil has long been the world’s go-to flex barrel, the disruption of energy flows after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine created new pull for American barrels. Shipments to Europe and Asia surged in the aftermath, transforming the US into one of the world’s largest exporters.

Record production from the US—coming just as Opec and its allies curb their own supply—has also helped American

India—the third-largest crude importer and Moscow’s second largest buyer after China—is the latest market seeing an influx of US oil. American shipments to India are set to jump in March to the highest in nearly a year, according to data from crude tracking firm Kpler.

At the same time, Russian oil imports have fallen by about 800,000 barrels a day since last year’s high point, Bloomberg

While US supplies can’t fully replace Russian crude due to differences in oil quality and voyage times, “there’s definitely a bit of a pivot there towards pulling in more US crude,” said Matt Smith, lead Americas oil analyst at Kpler. Indian refiners have also halted purchases from Venezuela ahead of the expiry of a US sanctions waiver in the middle of next month. Those supplies are now poised to hit the lowest this year.

Even before the latest raft of trade restrictions, the US was fast becoming a key supplier to Asia, where US imports hit an annual record last year, according to the EIA.

And in Europe, which has largely eschewed Russian oil since the war in Ukraine began, US shipments will hit a record 2.2 million barrels a day in March, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

To be sure, not all of the pull from Europe is due to sanctions. Imports into the Netherlands have surged since West Texas Intermediate was included in the dated Brent benchmark last year, ensuring US crude would become a part of the European diet.

The author is a junior 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. longer generate sufficient profits to fuel the social model.

But shipments increased markedly after the imposition of sanctions as European nations sought non-Russian sources of supply. US imports to France jumped nearly 40 percent from 2021 to 2023, while those to Spain rose 134 percent.

“As US production continues to gradually grind higher, every incremental barrel that’s being produced is likely going to be exported,” said Kpler’s Smith. With assistance from Julian Lee /Bloomberg

“The lands are inaccessible, the sea is closed to fishermen and Gaza relies on food that is coming in the form of aid shipments which are slow,” he said, adding that Hamas “has not managed the crisis efficiently.”

Khaled al-Hams, who runs a charity in Gaza, said one of the biggest problems is that farmland is located next to the border with Israel, which has been off-limits since the war.

Shira Efron, a policy adviser at Israel Policy Forum, a liberal USbased group, and former consultant to Israel’s Defense Ministry, said the battle over aid is a proxy for a battle over control. “If you have aid, you have power,” she said, “so there are unintended consequences from the fight to control it.”

She said foreign groups and the UN are right that Israeli inspections of aid trucks are a major bottleneck. “Israel closes the crossings at 4 every day and for Shabbat and holidays,” she said. She added that Israel’s complaints about a lack of trucks and drivers from aid groups are also valid.   Israel says its job is to “facilitate” the aid, not to provide and distribute it—that’s the role of aid organizations. But Efron said international humanitarian law requires the occupying army to get the aid to the people.

“The overall responsibility for aid coming in is on Israel,” she said. Bloomberg

‘ONLY 1% OF PHL ORGS READY VS MODERN CYBER THREATS’

ONLY 1 percent of organizations in the Philippines possess the necessary level of preparedness to effectively counter modern cyber threats, according to Cisco’s 2024 Cybersecurity Readiness Index.

In Cisco’s assessment, only a few organizations in the Philippines were tagged to have a “Mature” level of readiness in cases of cyberattacks and risks, underscoring the urgent need for enhanced cybersecurity measures as Filipino organizations grapple with increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.

Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco, said companies today continue to be targeted with a variety of techniques that range from phishing and ransomware to supply chain and social engineering attacks.

While organizations are building defenses against these attacks, they still struggle to defend against them, slowed down by their own overly complex security postures that are dominated by multiple point solutions.

And yet, despite this reality, 78 percent of organizations still feel moderately confident to very confident in their ability to defend against a cyberattack with their current infrastructure.

“We cannot underestimate the threat posed by our own overconfidence,” said Patel. “Today’s organizations need to prioritize investments in integrated platforms and lean into AI in order to operate at machine scale and finally tip the scales in the favor of defenders.”

Despite the confidence expressed by many, the majority of Filipino companies find themselves at the nascent stages of readiness, with 64 percent classified as either Beginner or Formative in their cybersecurity preparedness.

The report underscored the severity of the cybersecurity landscape in the Philippines. For instance, a significant 67 percent

of respondents anticipate a cybersecurity incident disrupting their business in the next 12 to 24 months, indicating a pervasive sense of vulnerability among organizations.

Moreover, the reliance on multiple cybersecurity point solutions has proven ineffective, with 76 percent of respondents acknowledging that this approach hampers their team’s ability to detect, respond, and recover from incidents.

Alarmingly, 85 percent of companies report employees accessing company platforms from unmanaged devices, adding complexity and heightening security risks.

Additionally, 38 percent of these employees spend a significant portion of their time logged onto company networks from unmanaged devices.

The shortage of cybersecurity talent remains a critical issue, with 91 percent of companies identifying it as a major challenge. Over a third of organizations report having more than 10 unfilled cybersecurity roles, further exacerbating vulnerabilities.

Despite these challenges, there is a growing recognition of the need to bolster cybersecurity defenses. Over half of companies plan to significantly upgrade their IT infrastructure in the next 12 to 24 months, with a notable focus on deploying new solutions and investing in AI-driven technologies.

“The threat landscape today is more complicated than ever and organizations globally including those in the Philippines continue to lag in their cyber resilience. Companies need to adopt a platform approach that will provide a simple, secure, single pane of glass view into their entire architecture to strengthen their security posture and best take advantage of the opportunities that come with emerging technologies,”Cisco Philippines Managing Director Zaza Soriano-Nicart said. Lorenz S. Marasigan

Major carriers add more flights as Holy Week travelers surge 12.3%

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

BORACAY Island, Cebu, Siargao, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taipei were the most popular destinations last Holy Week for most of the country’s major carriers. In some cases, they’ve had to increase flight frequencies due to the strong passenger demand. This developed as some 1.04 million passengers traveled through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) during the eight-day commemoration of Semana Santa, which ended on Easter Sunday.

Data provided by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) showed last week’s passenger volume was 12.3 percent more than the 926,755 who traveled in a similar Holy Week period in 2023, and just 8 percent less than the volume registered during Holy Week 2019.

Of the total number of passengers passing through Naia from March 24 (Palm Sunday) to 31 (Easter Sunday), there was an almost equal number who traveled to domesticdestinations at 521,154 (departures and arrivals) and international destinations at 519,553 (departures and arrivals).

Tour operators said more Filipinos were traveling abroad during Holy Week because it was less expensive for them . (See, “More Pinoys traveling abroad for the Lenten break,” in the BusinessMirror , March 27, 2024.)

Using larger-capacity planes

PIONEERING flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) spokesperson Ma. Cielo Villaluna told the BusinessMirror , “To address the demand for flights, we increased frequencies to popular leisure destinations such as Caticlan [Boracay], Siargao, and Coron from our hubs in Manila and Cebu.” The carrier had to add two roundtrip flights between Manila and Cebu, by four between Manila and Caticlan, and by two between Cebu and Siargao last Holy Week.

Also, she said,  “We added capacity on popular regional citytrip destinations such as Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Taipei by upgrading from narrow to widebody aircraft.”

In the case of the country’s largest carrier, Cebu Pacific spokesperson Carmina Romero shared that the airline’s average load factor “hit 81 percent last week,” an indication that Holy Week is definitely a peak travel period in the country.

PBy Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

HILIPPINE exports of both goods and services amounted to $103.6 billion in 2023, up 4.8 percent from the $98.83 billion in 2022, driven by the ITBPM and Tourism sectors, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Based on the data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s goods exports in 2023 amounted to $55.32 billion while services exports reached $48.29 billion.

Emerging as a powerhouse, the Philippine services exports experienced a “significant” expansion of 17.4 percent as it reached $48.29 billion, from the $41.12 billion recorded in 2022, according to DTI.

“Travel services contributed nearly 70 percent of the incremental services export receipts in 2023, followed by other business services,” the Trade department said, adding that travel services more than doubled its level from last year, reaching $9.1 billion in 2023, from $4.2 billion in 2022.

In relation to this, DTI said the Philippines welcomed more than 5 million international visitors, 91.8 percent of whom were foreigners, while the rest were overseas-based Filipinos.

Apart from Travel services, DTI

said the growth was driven by sectors including telecommunications, computer and information services, and transport services.

According to the data released by the BSP, telecommunications, computer and information services grew by 6.4 percent, reaching $7.1 billion in 2023 while transport services posted a 13.1 percent increase as it amounted to $3.04 billion in the said period.

The Trade department emphasized that services exports continue to be a “significant” contributor to economic growth as it increased its share of gross domestic product (GDP) from 12 percent in 2022 to 13 percent in 2023.

For his part, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual explained that the DTI has been working closely with the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) and its partner associations including the Animation Council of the Philippines (ACPI),

the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), and the Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines (HIMAP), “to deliver interventions responsive to the needs of industry players.”

DTI noted more initiatives conducted in 2023 which led to the growth in services exports such as participating in several European trade fairs supported by the ARISE Plus Philippines Project, to enhance the global presence of the Philippine game development and animation sectors.

The participating companies also benefited from “tailored coaching” initiatives from both local and international experts, said DTI.

Further, the Philippines “strengthened” its position in the global healthcare information management sector through “sustained” engagement in the Americas, including an outbound business matching mission and participation in the HIMSS Global Health Conference.

Moving forward, DTI said it aims to expand the services industry’s reach by capturing new markets and strengthening existing ones, as outlined in the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023-2028.

In contrast, DTI said goods exports faced challenges in 2023. Data from the BSP showed that the country’s goods exports declined by 4.1 percent, reaching $55.32 billion, from the $57.71 billion recorded in 2022.

Electronics exports, the largest commodity exports in the Philippines, also declined by 3.4 percent or by $955 million compared to 2022, according to BSP data cited by DTI.

“This decline highlights the importance of diversifying export portfolios and enhancing competitiveness in key sectors,” DTI said.  Other factors that contributed to the decline in merchandise exports were coconut products, other agro-based items, other mineral products, and petroleum products. Conversely, DTI noted, fruits and vegetables experienced an increase in demand.

Meanwhile, the DTI highlighted that overall contribution  of exports to economic growth was “dampened by weak external demand in the goods sector,” adding that the country’s total exports accounted for 27 percent of the country’s GDP in 2023. The recorded exports receipt of $103.6 billion in 2023 failed to hit the target set in the country’s export development plan which is at $126.8 billion.

However, DTI-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) Director Bianca Pearl R. Sykimte had explained earlier that Philippine exports won’t likely hit the target set under the Plan as the goals failed to take into account the flaring of geopolitical tensions.

Comelec focusing overseas voter ed drive on sites with many Pinoys

TBy Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

HE Commission on Elections said it will focus its overseas voters’ education in countries with large Filipino populations.

“We will be distributing more info materials and conducting more frequent voter ed sorties if there are more Filipinos in the concerned countries,” Comelec spokesperson

John Rex C. Laudiangco said in a Viber message on Monday.

Based on the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), most of the 1.96 million overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in 2022 were in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (23 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (13.7 percent),

The data does not include those who permanently emigrated, but Comelec estimated there are 10 to 15 million Filipinos abroad.

Last week, the poll body said it is planning to intensify its campaign to encourage more Filipinos to avail themselves of overseas voting.

In a post on its Facebook page, it urged Filipinos to register by bringing their Philippine passport to the nearest Philippine embassy/ consulate or in specified registration centers in the Philippines.

“They can register to vote in the 2025 National and Local Elections, update address and other details,

check and reactivate voter registration status,” Comelec said.

It noted more information on overseas voter registration can be accessed at Comelec’s website at  https://comelec.gov. ph/?r=OverseasVoting.  There are currently 1.697 million registered Filipinos abroad. Comelec is optimistic it will reach 3 million by the end of the ongoing voters’ registration in September.

DTI is new tenant of Filinvest Land

By VG Cabuag @villygc & Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

Legacy carrier Philippine airlines Inc. (PaL) said its profits nearly doubled last year due to increased operational activity and a resurgence in passenger traffic, both domestically and internationally.

PAL said Monday its income in 2023 jumped to $379 million (P21.21 billion) from the previous year’s $197million (P11 billion). t he said income was the highest in PAL’s history, excluding any one-off restructuring benefits, the company said.

t he flag carrier operated 105,294 flights in 2023, a 36-percent growth from the 77,533 flights mounted in 2022, or an increase of more than 27,000 flights, it said. t he increase in flight activity enabled PAL to carry 14.7 million passengers last year, a 58 percent increase from 9.3 million passengers in 2022. i express my profound thanks for the support and loyalty of our valued passengers and assure them

Th E power to be generated from the 100-megawatt (MW) Alabat Wind Power Corp. (AWPC) would soon be transmitted to the grid following the signing of an i nterconnection Agreement ( iCA) with the National grid Corporation of the Philippines (Ng CP).

t he iCA, according to Alternergy holdings Corp. (Alternergy), will pave the way for the evacuation of the renewable energy capacity from AWPC through NgCP’s 69 kV hondagua transmission line in Lopez, Quezon.

t he iCA signing is a huge break-

LLRMC made significant strides in rehabilitating the existing LR t 1 system and is making substantial progress on the LR t 1 Cavite Extension Project—Phase 1, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. Lorenz S. Marasigan

through for the Alabat Wind Power Project. We are grateful to NgCP for boosting the project’s ability to meet its commitment to the Department of Energy [DOE] under the green Energy Auction 2 (gEA 2) Program,” said Alternergy President gerry P. Magbanua.

“NgCP has provided the Alabat Wind Power Project with an interconnection scheme that is most efficient and responsive to ensure viability and timely completion.”

Anthony Almeda, NgCP president and CEO, said that as the transmission network provider and system operator, the grid operator

of our unstinting focus on taking care of them when they fly with us. i laud the strategic approach of the PAL management team in navigating industry challenges,” PAL holdings inc. President and COO Lucio C. tan iii said.

“PAL’s corporate transformation continues—we are taking in new aircraft, retrofitting cabins of current aircraft, upgrading airport lounges and introducing more product innovations to address our strategic, financial and operational needs across all areas of our operations. Our focus is set firmly on taking care of our customers. We will work collaboratively with government authorities and our service partners to build up our network and take the nation’s flag carrier to new heights in the coming years,” PAL President and COO Stanley K. Ng said.

t he airline said it recorded a 37 percent increase in passenger rev-

enues to $2.9 billion (P160 billion) from $2.1 billion (P114 billion) in 2022.

total net revenues, including cargo and ancillary revenues, grew by 27 percent to $3.2 billion from $2.6 billion.

total operating expenses rose by 21 percent to $2.7 billion from the previous year’s $2.3 billion mainly due to the 36-percent increase in the number of flights operated.

Fuel remains the largest cost of PAL, representing 31 percent of revenues. Fuel cost increased by 8 percent year-on-year to $1 billion due to the increase in flight activity offset by the decrease in jet fuel prices in 2023 versus 2022.

PAL said it plans to capitalize on the increased resources to strengthen its global and local network, upgrade its aircraft fleet and introduce new and improved products and services in the coming years.

Fi L i NVES t Cyberparks i nc. (FCi), the office business arm of Filinvest Land i nc., has signed a lease agreement with the Department of trade and industry (Dti).

FCi is leasing its entire Filinvest Buendia building to Dti

strives to assist power project developers to bring the needed energy infrastructures that will bring forth socioeconomic benefits to the country and help accelerate the achievement of the energy transition goal of the government.

“Ng CP understands the challenges faced by renewable energy developers. We are pleased to work with Alternergy and AWPC to ensure that the renewable power capacity from the Alabat Wind Power Project will be delivered within its committed timeline.”

t he Alabat Wind Power Project is all set to commence development

phase following the award by the DOE of the Certificate of Confirmation of Commerciality and the completion and signing of the commercial contracts, particularly the wind turbine supply agreement and the balance of plant engineering, procurement and construction contract.

t he Notice to Proceed to construction will be issued soon.

Under the gEA 2, Alternergy is committed to deliver the Alabat Wind Power Project by end-2025. Alternergy aims to develop up to 474MW of additional wind, solar, and run of river hydro projects. Lenie Lectura

CDC posts financial gains in 2023

ThE Clark Development Corp. (CDC) reported a net income of P2.79 billion in 2023, up by 28 percent from P2.19 billion at the close of 2022.

t he state-run corporation said its total assets stood at P13.81 billion, posting a 12-percent growth from the 2022 figure of P12.31 billion.

CDC said the Commission on Audit substantiated the figures and recently issued an unmodified opinion on its financial statements for the said year.

Atty. Agnes VS t Devanadera, CDC President and CEO credited the corporation’s financial gains to “prudent fiscal management, incremental revenue shares arising from tourists’ spending, and locators’ confidence in teamwork between the management and the Board of Directors.”

Devanadera also said the CDC would continuously aim to improve the ease of doing business in the Freeport to retain existing investors and attract more branded businesses.

With its record-breaking performance, the CDC remitted P1.8 billion in cash dividends to the Bureau of the treasury last March 25.

t his is in support of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto’s request for a higher dividend rate and early remittance.”

Recto received the cheque from CDC Chairman Edgardo D. Pamintuan and Devenadera at the office of the Department of Finance (DOF).

t he cash dividend in 2023 rose by 49 percent from the P1.21-billion remittance in the previous year, according to the DOF.

All government-owned and -controlled corporations (g OCCs) are

mandated to declare and remit at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings to the national government pursuant to Republic Act 7656 or the Dividends Law of 1994. g OCCs’ dividends are non-tax revenues that will finance the implementation of infrastructure and other socioeconomic development programs of the national government.

t he CDC said it bagged P44.4 billion in investment commitments in March. t he investments are in the sectors of renewable energy, tourism, semiconductors, electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, green minerals, food and agriculture, and steel, it said.

t he state-run corporation added this will boost employment opportunities in the region, generating over 5,800 employees to its workforce.

t his move is part of Dti’s plan to consolidate its various operating units, aiming to improve efficiency and convenience for both the department and its stakeholders. t he handover of the building is scheduled for next month.

t he lease involves some 10,668.40 square meters of office space.

“Filinvest Land is committed to providing top-tier facilities and services that empower organizations to thrive. t hrough this partnership, we aim to support Dti in its mission to deliver exceptional public service and to contribute to the advancement of our nation’s economic landscape. We are grateful for their trust and confidence in our company,” FLi President and CEO tristan Las Marias said. Filinvest Buendia offers 14 floors of office space. it is located along gil Puyat Avenue.

t he building features practical amenities like a unitized curtain wall glass system and sensor-type toilet fixtures for sustainability. it has five passenger elevators, a variable refrigerant flow air conditioning system for energy efficiency and emergency power supply.

Enhanced security measures, including turnstiles and a visitor management system, ensure a safe environment. it also incorporates an al fresco space on Jupiter Street providing an outdoor ambiance amid the urban landscape.

“Filinvest Buendia provides an optimal environment for our operations, enabling us to enhance our services and better serve the Filipino people,” Dti Assistant Secretary Agaton Uvero said.

Dti’s functional groups, including the Office of the Secretary, Competitiveness and innovation group, Consumer Protection group and the Communications Office, are the ones set to move to Filinvest Buendia. “ t his relocation offers heightened accessibility to Dti’s services, benefiting both businesses and consumers,” FLi said. VG Cabuag

Ni PPON Steel Corp.’s new chief has pledged to press on with the $14.1-billion acquisition of United States Steel Corp., a deal that he says is vital to making the American company more competitive.

Nippon Steel isn’t considering alternative options and is focused on negotiating with the United Steelworkers union to win their support for the purchase, the tokyo-based firm’s newly appointed president, tadashi imai, told a press gathering.

“ t here’s not a company in the US that can domestically produce the high-end, electrical steel sheets for automobiles which we produce at our steel mills in Japan,” imai said, in an interview conducted last week and available for release on Monday, when he formally took over the top job.

t hat technology will be available to US Steel after the acquisition. “We have over 2,000 patents in North America alone—much more than the other American steelmakers,” he said. “ t here’s a lot we can do to

strengthen US Steel.” imai’s remarks come at a delicate time for the deal, whose prospects have been clouded by President Joe Biden’s insistence that US Steel should be “domestically owned and operated.” Biden has aligned himself with the union ahead of the presidential election in the fall, but risks upsetting relations with one of America’s most stalwart allies in the process.

Biden will meet with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a summit in Washington on April 10. US Steel’s shareholders will gather two days after that to discuss the Japanese bid.

Asked whether his company would consider changing the terms of the deal, perhaps by offering to take a lesser stake, imai said it would be a decision for the American firm and isn’t one for Nippon Steel to propose.

t he previous president, Eiji hashimoto, who launched the acquisition, is now chairman of Nippon Steel. Bloomberg News

Photo from www.filinvestland.com

Clark Development Corp.’s 2023 Board of Directors, led by Chairman Edgardo Pamintuan (seated second from left), and President and CEO atty. agnes VST Devanadera (seated second from right). They are flanked by atty. Maricris ang-Carlos (right), and Director Nicolette Henson (left). Standing from left are atty. ana liza Peralta, atty. Ernesto De Vota, atty. Manuel Feliciano, Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. (ret.), Director Jose Philip Panlilio, atty. Bryan Matthew Nepomuceno, and atty. Paul Christian Cervantes. cdc Photo

Banking&Finance

NG raises ₧2B more from auction of T-bills

By Reine Juvierre Alberto

THE national government started its first auction for the second quarter of the year by successfully raising P17 billion from the tender of Treasury bills (T-bills), P2-billion higher than what it calculated in its domestic gross borrowing program.

The Bureau of Treasury (BTr) fully awarded and exceeded its P15 billion programmed auction last Monday of

Thailand’s

Bthree-tenor T-bills after over-thecounter offerings for tax-exempt government-owned and -controlled

corporations (GOCCs) in the past two weeks.

The auction committee raised P5 billion each from the 91-day tenor and 182-day T-bills, and generated P7 billion from the 364-day government securities, according to the Treasury.

The auction was 3.2-times oversubscribed, attracting P47.8 billion in total tenders, which prompted the committee to “double the accepted volume of non-competitive bids for the 364-day T-bills,” the Treasury said. “With its decision, the Committee raised P17.0 billion compared to the P15.0 billion initial program.”

The average auction yields are all lower than the previous auction and prevailing secondary rates.

The average rate for the 91-day Tbills settled at 5.704 percent, versus

the previous tender’s 5.710 percent, with a range of 5.655 percent to 5.750 percent. The 182-day T-bills saw its yield averaging 5.865 percent compared to last auction’s 5.880 percent. The government security rates were between 5.845 percent and 5.885 percent.

Investors’ average rate for the 364-day T-bills, meanwhile, was at 5.965 percent, compared to the previous auction’s 5.965 percent, with a yield range of 5.945 percent to 5.985 percent.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said T-bills average auction yield corrected slightly lower for the fourth straight week similar to the slightly week-on-week declines in some comparable short-term PHP

BVAL yields.

This, Ricafort noted, “after some dovish signals from the (US Federal Reserve) Fed and local monetary authorities over the past two weeks on the possibility of around two local policy rate cuts instead of four [cuts].”

The T-bills average auction yields are usually lower than the comparable PHP BVAL yield, Ricafort said. As of March 27, 2024, PHP BVAL yields for 3 months is at 5.73 percent, the 6-month at 5.92 percent, and the 1-year is at 6.07 percent.

“The latest inflation due on Friday, April 5, 2024, is still expected to be within the BSP target range of 2 to 4 percent and would still support possible local policy rate cuts later this year, especially if the Fed starts cutting rates and would still support

local market sentiment,” added the RCBC executive.

Yields on Treasuries climbed across tenors in Asia following Fed Governor Christopher Waller’s remarks that there is no rush to lower interest rates, according to a Bloomberg News report.

This April, the Treasury aims to raise as much as P75 billion from the sale of T-bills. It is also targeting to raise P195 billion this month from the combined sale of T-bills and Treasury bonds (T-bonds).

Based on state budget documents, the national government aims to borrow, following a 75:25 mix in favor of domestic sources, a total of P1.853 trillion from the domestic market through the sale of government debt papers.

biggest crypto exchange hiring advisers for IPO SECB to scale up ‘green financing’ tack

hiring financial advisers for the listing, he added.

Bitkub had earlier signaled plans to pursue an IPO in Thailand in a 2023 shareholder letter, without specifying a target time frame.

Competition for crypto traders in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy is heating up, with both Binance and Kasikornbank Pcl making moves to grab market share from Bitkub in the past six months.

The number of active crypto trading accounts in Thailand jumped to 238,000 in March, the highest level since September 2022, according to data tracked by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In July last year, Bitkub sold a 9.2 percent stake in Bitkub Online Co., its crypto exchange unit, to Asphere

Innovations Pcl for 600 million baht ($16.5 million). Jirayut said he expects Bitkub Online’s valuation, pegged at about 6 billion baht in the deal, to rise as trading volumes on the platform near levels not seen since the last crypto bull market in 2021. Bitkub Online accounts for roughly 80 percent of Bitkub Capital’s earnings. As Bitcoin’s rally to record highs stokes renewed optimism, Bitkub

is expanding after cutting its headcount by about 6 percent in 2022 and 2023. Jirayut said he aims to boost the size of the workforce to 3,000 people by 2025, up from 2,000 now. SCB X Pcl., a financial company that controls the nation’s largest bank by market value, in 2022 scrapped a 17.85 billion baht plan to acquire a 51 percent stake in Bitkub Online amid increased regulatory scrutiny. Bloomberg News

10 ways to raise capital for your business

HOW do you raise the startup capital for your business?

This question is probably the biggest problem faced by those who want to become an entrepreneur.

Personally, I’ve heard friends say that if only they had enough capital, they would really quit their jobs and put up their own businesses. Admittedly, I was also burdened by this obstacle years ago when I was still working as an employee.

Through the years and several businesses later, I’ve discovered that there are actually many ways to do this. Some are easy and some are not. Some are quite obvious while some takes a little creativity and a bit of due diligence to make it work.

So if you’ve always wished that you had enough funds to start your own business venture, then I hope that these ten ways can help you raise the capital you need to become an entrepreneur.

1. Your own savings. The most obvious way to get your start-up capital is to save money. Be frugal, live below your means, and pay yourself first. The advantage of this method is that if your business fails, then you owe nothing to anybody and you have no financial burdens to worry about.

However, although this may seem ideal to some, it could take a long time before you finally have enough money saved to start. Recommended for those who are not in a hurry to start a business, and those with very low risk tolerance.

2. Liquidate assets. Aside from digging into your savings account, you can also sell some of your assets like what my father’s friend did who

fitz Gerard Villafuerte

sold their old family car to put up a small photocopying center.

Depending on the amount of capital you need, you could simply look around the house, and sell whatever you have such as gadgets, jewelries, and even some of your furniture or appliances.

If you have portfolio investments, you can ask your broker if you can liquidate some of your paper assets or withdraw from your mutual fund or time deposit accounts.

3. Work for extra income. We often look for ways to earn extra income only when we are in financial need. What many people don’t realize is that, finding a second job or working on a sideline is a great way to raise capital for your dream business.

Assuming that your current employment can cover all your financial requirements, then the profits from your extra ventures can all go straight to your start-up fund. Going this route can be time consuming and exhausting but it’s relatively faster than just doing the two previous methods.

4. Take out a personal loan. A personal loan is something you can leverage on, especially if you are employed. Depending on your credit history and employment status, some banks and almost all credit card companies are willing to offer these types of loan without much hassle, and without collateral.

Additionally, these salary loans are available in the Philippines through the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS). Meanwhile, microfinance institutions can also provide non-collateral personal loans to those who can present to them a sound business plan. You can inquire from Philippine government agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Small Business Corp (SBC) and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) about these microfinanciers.

5. Apply for a bank loan. Bank loans are also a viable option to raise capital for your business. Although the interests are much higher than personal loans, the financial strength of banking institutions allows them to provide you with a larger loan amount for your medium scale business ventures. Be ready to give them a good business plan and a collateral for the loan.

Ask your bank if they offer business loans. A brief research shows that some of the SME-friendly banks in the Philippines are Planters Development Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Land Bank of the Philippines.

Here are the initial five methods to finance a business endeavor. I’ll unveil the remaining five approaches next week.

Fitz Villafuerte 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 107th RFP program this May 2024. To inquire, e-mail info@rfp.ph or text at 0917-9689774.

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

SECURITY Bank Corp. (PSE:

SECB) aims to scale up its green financing business through an agreement with the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corp. (IFC).

In a statement, the lender said their partnership with IFC will also help strengthen its institutional framework to support the attainment of its sustainability goals.

Through the partnership, the IFC will also help the bank establish a baseline for climate finance, enhance sustainable finance business development capabilities, and improve its climate risk management system.

“As our understanding of sustainability deepens, we recognize the pivotal role our bank plays in

shaping the direction of the economy for growth and development,” SECB Executive Vice-President John Cary L. Ong was quoted in the statement as saying. “We aspire to lead in this space by transforming the financial sector, supporting sustainable growth across various sectors, and propelling the Philippines toward a more sustainable and climate-resilient path.”

According to the lender, the project is part of IFC’s “30 by 30 Zero” initiative in the Philippines, which aims to help financial institutions to scale-up “climate-friendly” projects.

IFC Country Manager for the Philippines Jean-Marc Arbogast said SECB “has set some ambitious goals as it accelerates its sustainability journey, and we’re excited to be coming onboard as advisors at this critical

Be bold, audacious, Finance chief tells DOF personnel

AHEAD of the Department of Finance’s (DOF)

127th anniversary on April 24, its top official reminded its employees of the agency’s legacy and compelled them to use their hearts in the service of others.

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said on Monday morning that the DOF, for 127 years, has been “funding” the country’s “dreams” and providing solutions to the challenges that Filipinos encounter every day.

“The resilience of the Philippine economy, weathering storms and crises throughout the years, is a result of our careful fiscal and economic policies and prudent management of the nation’s resources,” Recto said.

The DOF was founded in 1897, predating the establishment of the Republic of the Philippines, and was primarily tasked to finance the revolution, education, and health through progressive taxation.

The DOF is tasked to ensure effective and efficient revenue generation, resource mobilization, debt management, and financial market development to provide a solid foundation for the Philippine economy.

Recto cited as examples the public infrastructure projects, such as roads, classrooms, and hospitals, that are fruits of the department’s labor in revenue collection and fiscal planning.

The Finance chief recognized his predecessors and said they were all dedicated to creating an economy that benefits every Filipino and secures the future for the children and generations to come.

To fulfill that goal, Recto said he wants to instill among DOF’s employees having a heart.

Hindi ko sinasabi wala kayong puso—ang nais ko ay sabihin na dapat sabayan ng puso, ng empathy, ang talino [I’m not saying you don’t have a heart. What I meant was the heart [and] empathy, must accompany intellect],” Recto said.

Recto added that they should not allow the DOF to become a “fortress, disconnected from the realities outside, where theoretical exercises overshadow the true challenges on the ground.”

The Finance chief pushed everyone to “fully immerse” themselves in grassroots realities so they could develop policies and deliver services that genuinely meet the needs of the Filipinos.

“So, let’s spice things up this Anniversary month. Let’s break free from conventional thinking, be bolder in our visions, and be more audacious in our programs—all while ensuring empathy remains at the heart of our efforts,” Recto said. Reine Juvierre Alberto

juncture.” Arbogast added that the IFC is committed to helping SECB “see through its green transformation …from defining their climate strategy to helping identify green financing opportunities.”

The bank’s investment banking arm, SB Capital Investment Corp., helped finance ACEN Corp.’s P10 billion Asean Green Fixed Rate Bonds, which won the Renewable Energy Financing Programme-Philippines award at the ESG Business Awards.

In fiscal year 2023, the IFC committed a record $43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises.

GSIS awards housing beneficiaries in Rizal

THE Government Service Insurance System announced last Monday that President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo A. Veloso awarded land titles to five beneficiaries from various GSIS housing programs in Rizal. The pension fund also said it awarded government agencies who supported the GSIS’s mandate of securing the future of government employees during a meeting with the pension fund’s stakeholders in Antipolo. Veloso said the GSIS housing program features 12,335 foreclosed properties nationwide. It aims to help in addressing the country’s housing shortage, with over 2,000 applications approved as of February, he added. In Rizal alone, GSIS offers more than 1,000 residential properties across various locations, according to him.

Awarded land titles were beneficiaries of the Lease with Option to Buy in Bagong Nayon, Antipolo City (two beneficiaries); Amityville Subdivision, Montalban; and Modesta Village, San Mateo (two beneficiaries). The LWOB is one of the housing projects of GSIS. Under the LWOB, GSIS rents out its housing units to interested parties who will be given the priority to purchase it any time during the lease agreement. A total of 13,000 residential properties nationwide of GSIS are available for lease at present, a thousand of which are located in Antipolo.

During the event, the GSIS also recognized government agencies in Rizal for supporting its programs. Among these are the Philippine Statistics Authority, Rizal and Provincial Government of Rizal for being the top two agencies in Rizal with the lowest past due rate in loan accounts. Additionally, the agency awarded the Local Water District of Teresa, Provincial Government of Rizal, The Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Rizal High School and the DepEd Division in Antipolo City High School for achieving the highest collection of compulsory premiums in the province.

On loans, GSIS cited the Vicente Madrigal National High School and the Angono National High School as the top agencies with the highest loan collection in Rizal. The DepEd Division of Rizal, Elementary and High School, City Government of Antipolo, University of Rizal System, Tanay Campus were recognized for having the highest number of employees granted multi-purpose loan, read the statement issued by the GSIS.

The GSIS also awarded two agencies for having the highest number of active members enrolled in the GSIS ecard, the San Mateo Municipal College and Municipal Government of Tanay.

PeRSOnal fInance

The mascot of Bitkub Capital Group holdings Co., at the crypto exchange’s office in Bangkok, Thailand. PhotograPher: andre Malerba/blooMberg

WHILE billed as a group exhibition of painters, Art Anton Gallery’s upcoming presentation serves as a fashion show to its core, the runway cleared for avant-garde, impressionistic interpretations of the Filipiniana.

Visual artists Jane Ebarle, Edgar San Diego and Monie Domer headline the exhibition opening this Friday, April 5, at Art Anton Gallery in S Maison, Pasay City. The show, titled after the Tagalog word for the act of getting ready, “kagayakan”, will run until April 24.

“I wanted to create an exhibit with clothes as the theme, particularly the Filipiniana, but according to the respective styles of the artists,” said Ebarle, who spearheads the exhibit. The artist then tapped noted fashion designer/painter Edgar San Diego,

whom she has known since their college days at the University of Santo Tomas, alongside Monie Domer, a young artist specializing in floral portraits of women.

Ebarle’s vision of a Filipiniana-centric showcase expounded to focus on the dress without the distraction of a wearer. Thus, seen in Kagayakan are bold reimaginations of the Filipiniana, unworn yet fully alive in its own threads.

Ebarle knows her way around fashion as an art subject. Ethnicity and modernism intertwine in her acclaimed woven ethnic pattern series of “Hibla,” wherein she first explored the indigenous designs of tribal groups in northern Luzon, before moving to the ethnic patterns of the Maranao tribe in the southern part of the country.

In Kagayakan, Ebarle’s vibrant lines run with systematic intricacy, weaving to form the country’s national dress with painstaking detail. The piece titled Summer in Cold Season, for instance, engages with a spirited fiesta of blue, orange and green. Her works stand, too, without colors, as The Virgin Concept communicate the vintage appeal of the Filipiniana in melancholic grayscale.

Fashion likewise proves second nature to San Diego, a renowned designer who served as the president of the Fashion Designers Association of the Philippines. During the height of the pandemic, San Diego revisited his love for painting and has

not looked back since. He participates in Kagayakan with elaborate depictions of not only the featured Filipiniana but also its complementing background filled with decidedly Filipino elements.

One of San Diego’s works shows a watermeloninspired dress bearing the fruit on its feet, as it hangs from a grotto. In another, the subject stands on and becomes one with a corn farm, as chickens wander about.

And then there’s Domer, who infuses new blood in the exhibition as the youngest of the featured trio. A College of the Holy Spirit Manila graduate, she portrays the Filipiniana with a modern flare, using her expertise in watercolor and typography.

Domer’s stylized depiction takes inspiration from her signature works on flowers and women. She brings out emotions in the dress by making it its own person, exuding elegance in striking poses.

Following the meaning of the exhibition title, Kagayakan, and the central idea of presenting modelless show pieces, it’s as if the exhibit transports the audience to the moment of getting ready: surrounded by clothes, almost suffocated by choice.

However, suffering proves absent in this instance, with the captivating, animated dresses exchanging gazes with the onlooker. They are alive, even as they float unworn. They are, indeed, enough.

In this fashion show of an art exhibition, it is them who stand in control. ■

Fitting culmination to Ayala Museum’s ‘Splendor’

ON March 21, Ayala Museum celebrated the recently concluded run of its breakthrough Splendor: Juan Luna, Painter as Hero exhibition with Universelle: An Exclusive Concert for its sponsors, partners and collaborators. With the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of maestro Marlon Chen in the house, the show featured classical music by Spanish, French, Italian and Filipino composers predominantly from Juan Luna’s time. Highlights of the night include Satie’s “Trois Gymnopedie

no. 3,” Julio Nakpil’s “Salve Patria,” and the contemporary “A New Satiesfaction” by Stephan Koncz. In attendance were US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson, Makati Mayor Abby Binay, Ayala Foundation chairman Fernando Zóbel de Ayala, and Jaime Ponce de Leon, founder and director of León Gallery. De Leon lent Ayala Museum Splendor ’s centerpiece artwork, Hymen, oh Hyménée! in time for the 125th anniversary of Philippine Independence and Nationhood.

“Twenty-twenty three was a stellar year for Ayala Museum primarily because of [Splendor], setting record-breaking attendance...[and] prompting widespread and timely conversation about heroes, national pride, history and nationhood, from the contentious to the sublime,” said Mariles Gustilo, senior director of Ayala Museum.

Tony Lambino, president of Ayala Foundation, added, “Splendor [brought] to the fore a long-lost masterpiece, catalyzing public discourse on our rich artistic and cultural treasures. Luna’s work is yet another reminder that Filipino talent and creativity are worth global recognition. The legacy of Juan Luna in global excellence is broadly shared today by many young Juans and Marias.” Splendor was an unprecedented single-work exhibition around Luna’s Hymen, which ran for nine months from June 12, 2023 to March 24, 2024, and was co-presented by Ayala Corp., Ayala Land, and InLife, sponsored by BPI and SMEG, and supported by Matimco and Samsung.

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Michael Fassbender, 47; Christopher Meloni, 63; Emmylou Harris, 77; Linda Hunt, 79.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Control, discipline and drive will get you where you want to go this year. Too much spare time will allow outsiders to take advantage of you. Rely on yourself and your efforts to ensure you get the most out of life. Launching your plans will bring more satisfaction than taking orders and giving your all for someone else’s benefit. Use your skills wisely. Your numbers are 4, 12, 17, 26, 33, 39, 45.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Gather facts and determine what’s best for you. Take care of your responsibilities and protect your reputation and position. Expand your options by updating skills and applying for positions that interest you. ★★

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Be open to suggestions but resourceful in determining how the information you receive will unfold. If you take on too much or lack organizational skills, you will fall behind and require clarification. Change looks inviting. ★★★★

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Upgrades are essential to maintaining your position or advancing your pursuits. Don’t expect everyone to offer an accurate point of view. Ask questions, go directly to the source and leave no room for error. ★★★

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Learn all you can and share what you know. Wisdom, clarity and physically displaying what you offer will give you plenty of support. A partnership will help you more than you anticipate if you choose someone whose assets compensate for your weaknesses. ★★★

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You have the skills, knowledge and energy to tap into something that brings you joy. Change what you don’t like, open doors to new beginnings and trust yourself to go in the right direction instead of letting someone else choose for you. ★★★

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Participate in an event that broadens your awareness and teaches you how to do something that interests you. A unique relationship with someone with something to offer will encourage you to pivot in a desirable direction. ★★★★★

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Be a good listener and discover what you can do to make someone’s life easier. A kind gesture can do as much for you as it does for the person you help. Consider what you want and map out a plan that endorses positive change. ★★

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take the plunge, follow your heart and invest in yourself. A change will lift your spirits and point you in a direction that gives you hope for a brighter future. Networking, social activities and sharing thoughts and visions will lead to self-improvement.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):Stick to what you know, and stay within script. Accurate information will help you instill confidence in others that you know what you are doing. Don’t put up with interference or manipulative people. Honesty is the best policy. ★★★

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Use your imagination, and you’ll develop many unique ideas that transform what you have to offer. Reinventing yourself and how you display your talents to be diverse and applicable to a fast-changing global economy will pave the way to exciting prospects. ★★★

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Don’t fold under pressure. Use your ingenuity to discover how to overcome a financial barrier. Expert advice will pique your imagination and motivate you to turn something you enjoy doing into a lucrative side project. ★★★

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Don’t hesitate. It’s up to you to make things happen. Choose to put your energy into addressing how you make and use your money. Set up a savings plan that encourages a debt-free future. Distance yourself from people who encourage you to overspend. ★★★★

BIRTHDAY BABY: You are demonstrative, influential and resourceful. You are diligent and motivated.

Solution to today’s puzzle:

JANE

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PoPular GMa ProGraMs headed for Viu Phl

Top-noTch, beloved programs from GMA are coming to Viu philippines beginning April 1, adding to the growing list of shows from the network available on the streaming platform.

The philippines’ leading broadcast media company and Viu philippines, the leading Asian streamer in the market, expand their partnership by creating a premium catch-up service for GMA series available on Viu to binge-watch.

Starting April 1, Viu subscribers can enjoy these GMA programs: I Left My Heart in Sorsogon, Legal Wives, Artikulo 247(Article 247), I Left My Heart in Sorsogon, Return to Paradise, Nagbabagang Luha (Flames of Love), The Fake Life, Legal Wives, and Nakarehas na Puso (Prisoners of the Past). Fans missing these GMA programs can watch them all over again, anytime, anywhere, for free on any device on Viu. n i lefT MY hearT iN sorsoGoN. A love story designed to sweep hearts away, the romantic drama is the teleserye comeback of heart Evangelista. Joining her are Richard Yap and paolo contis. In the series, fashion designer and socialite celeste (heart) reluctantly returns to her hometown in Sorsogon, where she finds herself face-to-face with her old flame Miko (paolo).

n leGal WiVes Is the idea of a man loving more than just one woman, equally and all at the same time, really possible? This is the ultimate question asked on GMA’s top-rating, groundbreaking family drama series Legal Wives. headlined by Dennis Trillo, who is joined by Alice Dixson, Bianca Umali, and Andrea Torres. Set in Lanao del Sur, Legal Wives is the story of an honorable man from a well-off Maranao family who will equally love three women out of obligation, dedication and compassion.

n arTiKulo 247 (arTiCle 247). how do you move forward and live your life when the ghosts of the past haunt you? Secrets and schemes are unearthed and viewers witness an intense courtroom battle on GMA’s gripping drama Artikulo 24. The show is top-billed by Rhian Ramos, with Benjamin Alves, Kris Bernal and Mark herras.

n reTurN To Paradise The drama series stars Derrick Monasterio and Elle Villanueva, with Eula Valdes. It follows the story of two college students, Red Ramos (Derrick) and Eden Sta. Maria (Elle) stranded on an island after a plane crash. As they survive life in the wild, they fall deeply in love with each other. When the two are rescued, they find out that their parents have an irreconcilable feud that will tear them apart.

n NaGBaBaGaNG luha (flaMes of loVe). Television screens heat up with the rivalry between two sisters in Nagbabagang Luha, starring Glaiza de castro and Rayver cruz, with claire castro and Gina Alajar. The drama series is the TV adaptation of the 1988 blockbuster film Nagbabagang Luha by renowned filmmaker Ishmael Bernal.

n The faKe life What if the life one has turns out to be a lie? This riveting drama series stars Ariel Rivera, Beauty Gonzalez, Sid Lucero, Tetchie Agbayani, with Will Ashley, Shanelle Agustin. After being diagnosed with a rare medical condition, onats realizes that the life he thought he had was a lie. With his world now upside-down, would he be able to find happiness once again?

n NaKarehas Na Puso (PrisoNers of The PasT). Forgiveness and second chances take the spotlight in this drama starring Jean Garcia, Michelle Aldana and Leandro Baldemor. The story follows the loving and hardworking mother Amelia, who, in her extreme desire to escape poverty, makes the wrong decision and sets off a web of consequences and unfortunate events for her family. The series also stars Vaness del Moral, EA Guzman and claire castro. other GMA shows made available on Viu in March were Lolong (Crocodile Whisperer), starring Ruru Madrid; the suspenseful Widows’ Web with carmina Villaroel, Ashley ortega, Vaness del Moral and pauline Mendoza; and First Yaya (The First Nanny), the romantic comedy series starring Gabby concepcion and Sanya Lopez. More information is available at www.gmanetwork.com.

Show BusinessMirror

Editor:

‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ roars to an $80M box office opening

By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press

LoS anGELES—the Godzilla-King Kong combo stomped on expectations as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire roared to an $80 million opening on 3,861 north american screens, according to Sunday studio estimates.

the monster merger from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures starring Rebecca Hall and Brian tyree Henry brought the second-highest opening in what has been a robust year, falling just short of the the $81.5 million debut of Dune: Part Two.

Projections had put the the opening weekend of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which sees the monsters teaming up instead of squaring off, at closer to $50 million.

“it’s a cinematic event, and we’re seeing these iconic characters doing things we’ve never seen them do before,” said Mary Parent, chairman of worldwide production for Legendary. “there’s big swaths of the film that don’t have any dialogue, where we put you with the characters, it’s a very mythic experience.”

Last week’s no. 1 at the box office, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, was second with $15.7 million for a twoweek total of $73.4 million.

Dune: Part Two stayed strong in its fifth week, falling in the third spot with an $11.1 million take and a domestic total of $252.4 million.

the last matchup of the two monsters from Warner Bros. and Legendary, 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, had a much smaller opening weekend of $48.5 million, but for a film slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and released simultaneously on HBo Max, it was a serious success that signaled what was to come for the pairing.

“it was a really big number all things considered,”

Parent said.

the newer film had the second biggest opening of the studios’ broader MonsterVerse franchise. Godzilla brought in $93.2 million in 2014. it was the biggest

earner in the nearly 70-year cinematic history of the creature that originated and spent most of its screen life in Japan. it earned more than $200 million in north america and more than $500 million globally.

Godzilla x Kong comes just four months after the most recent Japanese rendition, the critical favorite and Oscar winner Godzilla Minus One.

But there was clearly no Godzilla glut for audiences, many of whom were willing to pay extra for iMaX and other special formats.

“these are literally two of the biggest movie stars in the world, and you have to see them on the biggest screen possible with the biggest sound possible,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm comScore.

the combination of Godzilla x Kong, Dune: Part Two and Ghostbusters has put the year to date 6 percent behind 2023, while it was 20 percent behind on the eve of the March 1 release of Dune the industry was feeling pretty glum right before Dune: Part 2 opened, but they’ve made up a lot of ground,” said Dergarabedian. the summer is full of titles that are not guaranteed

Bobby Martino remains grateful to ‘Miss Saigon’

BoBBy Martino was one of more than a dozen Filipinos who formed the original premiere cast of Miss Saigon when the musical debuted at London’s West End in 1989.

For four years in London, Martino was the understudy for the roles of the Bangkok bar owner to the Engineer. With Martino were Lea Salonga, Monique Wilson, Cocoy Laurel, isay alvarez, Robert Seña, Miguel Diaz, JonJon Briones, Lyon Roque, and the late Junix inocian, who all raised the Philippine flag during their stint and showed the world the immense musical talent our country has to offer. in 1996, Martino opened the show in Sydney with Cocoy Laurel and the show also featured two new Kims: Joanna ampil and Ma-anne Dionisio. He then moved to the United States where he reprised his role as the Engineer. i was fortunate to have been cast, too, of The King & I in America because they saw me in Miss Saigon. that’s why i say that it is the musical that keeps on giving,” Martino told us recently. now almost 35 years later, Miss Saigon is being staged again in Manila at the theatre at Solaire. Martino and many of the Filipino artists who have graced the Miss Saigon stage made sure they were

megahits but could break big, including ryan Gosling’s The Fall Guy and the next installments of Planet of the Apes, Mad Max, Inside Out and Deadpool that brings cause for optimism as the theatrical movie business seeks to hang on, though it’s highly unlikely it will surpass 2023, which saw Barbie surpass $1 billion globally with its release-date mate Oppenheimer not far behind.

“’Barbenheimer’ is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Dergarabedian said. Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to comScore.

1. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, 80 million

2. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, $15.7 million

3. Dune: Part Two, $11.1 million

4. Kung Fu Panda 4, $10.2. million

5. Immaculate, $3.3 million

6. Arthur the King, $2.4 million

7. Late Night With the Devil, $2.2 million

8. Tillu Square, $1.8 million

9. Crew, $1.5 million

10. Imaginary, $1.4 million. n

present during the special gala night of the musical, through the invitation of GMG Productions, the company responsible for bringing Miss Saigon to the Philippines this time. Spotted were Cocoy Laurel, Robert Seña, Pinky amador, Jenine Desiderio, Jamie Rivera, Jojo Urquico, Para isidro, tanya Manalang, andy alviz, Jun ofracio, Gerald Santos and many more.

“to see Claude Michel Schönberg that night after many years is just priceless. and being inside the same theater with some of the members of the original West End cast, and my fellow artists who were part of the different touring companies including those that were part of the German and

australian productions, was just simply amazing. of course, our local theater actors all came in full force, too.”

Martino added, “this is the show that recruited most of the Filipino artists for many, many years and brought us to the international stage, so there were plenty of emotions—reminiscing, recalling all those years we had to be overseas where we lived our artistic dreams, remembering the characters we gave life to, and so on. it’s really not easy to quiet the brain as i watched the scenes unfold in this latest production.” He shared that he thought of nicolas Hytner, the original director, who after Miss Saigon became the

artistic director for the national theater in London.

“the Hytner training we had became our foundation as each of us traversed our own paths and moved to different parts of the globe to perform after we left the West End.”

now based in Manila, Bobby Martino is extremely proud that many years of his life as a performing artist, he was part of the musical that is Miss Saigon. “i am forever indebted, and i will be forever grateful to Miss Saigon.” Miss Saigon, which stars abigail adriano, Sean Miley Moore, nigel Huckle, Kiara Dario, Lawrence Mossman, Sarah Morrison, Lewis Francis and Louisa Vilinne, runs until May 12.

GoDzILLA (left) and Kong in a scene from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which opened as the no. 1 film in north America. (FRoM left) Bobby Martino then as The Engineer and now (right photo, fourth from left) with claude Michel Schönberg, Jaime Rivera, pinky Amador and Jenine Desiderio.

COLUMBIA HIKE SOCIETY EMPOWERS WOMEN WITH INAUGURAL ADVENTURE TRIP

COLUMBIA Hike Society proudly announced the successful launch of its inaugural adventure trip on March 5 to 6, 2024 at Mt. Batulao. This all-women’s trip also featured a Soulful Journey Workshop led by Stephanie Zubiri. The aim was to honor Women’s Month while marking the launch of Columbia Hike Society Philippines.

Columbia Hike Society is a community-driven initiative aimed at empowering outdoor enthusiasts, fostering connections and promoting culture of adventure. Through curated hiking trips, workshop and events, Columbia Hike Society seeks

to inspire individuals to explore the great outdoors and embrace a life of adventure.

After the hike, The Park, Silang, welcomed the participants to a rejuvenating spa and a two-day glamping experience. Participants were accommodated overnight at The Park, where they experienced various luxurious room options, ranging from glamping tents to rooms featuring exclusive pools and jacuzzis, ensuring a relaxing and enjoyable stay for all.

“We organized this adventure trip with the vision of empowering women and fostering a sense of community,” said Katherine

Quan, Brand Executive at Columbia. “Our aim was to create an inclusive space where women could challenge themselves, connect with nature, and inspire one another.”

The adventure trip attracted notable personalities, including Hannah Pangalinan, Sea Games Gold Medalist Marites Nokyao, athlete Geneive Dinoy, musicians Leanne and Naara, Zsaris, beauty queens Katrina Llegado and Asha Guttierez and influencers Sandy Riccio and Desa Tayting.

As part of the event, Columbia Hike Society partnered with Power Mac Center, offering four Apple Watches to participants who completed the Close the Rings Challenge first. Locally served as the official hydration partner, ensuring participants remained hydrated and energized throughout the two active days.

Columbia Sportswear PH would like to extend their sincere gratitude to their sponsors, including The Park, Silang, Power Mac Center, Locally, Laiya Gourmet Catering, Nalgene, Sea to Summit, and Bee Choo Origin, for their invaluable support.

The primary objective of the adventure trip was to inaugurate Columbia Hike Society as a community space and source of inspiration for the new generation of hikers. This marks the beginning of a series of hikes organized by Columbia Hike Society, with exciting updates and adventures to come.

For more information and updates on future events, follow @columbiasportwearph on Facebook and Instagram.

Foundever™ breaks barriers as it unveils pioneering initiatives empowering employees with disabilities

PH bamboo sunglasses

THIS summer season choose a stylish eyewear that not only provides UV protection but also cares for the environment.

Wodd PH is the country’s leading sustainable bamboo sunglasses. Apart from supporting the livelihood of bamboo farmers, it supports biodiversity because a tree is planted every time a Wodd eyewear is purchased.

The brand was started by entrepreneur and educator Dr. Stephene Roy Condino, also known to his colleagues as Doc Bigs. In an interview with Net 25 morning show “Kada Umaga” with host Pia Guanio, Doc Bigs shared that Wodd was a response to the global “no plastic” environmental campaign.

“My family is from the Visayas and we are susceptible to typhoons. When our house was damaged, my mother asked me to source materials to rebuild our home. That’s when I realized that almost all of the products in the market are made from plastic. And so, I thought, why don’t we as Filipinos, create a product from a sustainable material,” he said.

Wodd offers two types of eyewear: the full bamboo sunglasses that float on water, and the hybrid model made of minimal plastic, for those who may be allergic to bamboo. It’s the perfect accessory for beach lovers, especially for

provinces that ban the use of plastic materials in the beach area.

The bamboo used for the eyewear is sourced from Cebu while the Cat 3 polarized lenses are imported from Japan. Top designer brands also use the Cat 3 polarized lenses but cost five times more than Wodd.

“We started Wodd during the pandemic, and for the past four years, we have been rapidly growing.

We have 240 partner stores which include 5-star resorts and hotels, surf shops, and cafes. We are also in major stores like Kultura and Robinsons,” he said.

The growth is also marked by its sustainability journey. To date, over 1,800 trees have been planted across the country. This year Wodd also renewed its partnership with nature conservation organizations Haribon and Talarak. The treeplanting project is in partnership with Haribon.

“Through these joint initiatives, we envision to strengthen public awareness on the importance of biodiversity and wildlife protection.”

This summer season get up to 10 percent off on all sunglasses from the brand’s partner stores. Wodd is a proud member of the MASA Group of Companies.

The eyewear is also available at MASA’s newlyopen Coastal Grounds Coffee House in Siargao.

in the planning and decision-making process behind policies, programs and practices that affect their lives. This is true whether in the country’s laws or policies governing health, education, transportation, housing and other basic services.

Disability at Foundever resource group is one example of how an employer can address the impairments and barriers that affect its PWD workers. Through this ERG, the PWD associates of Foundever in the Philippines can play an active part in shaping their workplace into an environment where they can thrive as individuals and professionals while maximizing their contribution to business progress and growth.

ABLE AND READY: Foundever™, a global

is a pioneering milestone in fostering inclusivity and diversity in the workplace. The launch of its ERG, Disability at Foundever, creates an ideal workplace for people with disabilities and helps them achieve their full potential.

FOUNDEVER™ , a global leader in the customer experience (CX) industry, launched its new employee resource group (ERG), “Disability at Foundever” in the Philippines. This group’s mission is to provide support, enhance the workplace experience and boost the professional and personal development of employees with disabilities (PWDs). Disability at Foundever is the first ERG for PWDs in Foundever worldwide.

With this new ERG, Foundever in the Philippines is taking a major stride in promoting diversity and inclusion in its workplaces. Almost 4,000 associates joined the pioneering virtual launch in February.

Advocate Jen Mendoza from the Philippine

Business Coalition for Women Empowerment shared her insights in a talk during the launch. She emphasized that the experience of disability has two parts: the impairment (physical, mental or both) and the cultural, social and structural barriers in the environment.

The combination of these two creates a disabling experience for PWDs and prevents them from achieving their potential.

That said, Mendoza advised that both impairments and barriers need to be addressed to support PWDs and make them productive and happy members of society. She added that PWDs need to be involved

The ERG launching also served as the kickoff for the first corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity of Disability at Foundever. Shortly following the launch, the ERG core group and volunteers shared their time with students and faculty of the Philippine National School for the Blind (PNSB) last February 17, 2024.

Disability at Foundever chairperson and VP for APAC Operations Eden Gutierrez led the CSR activity, along with co-leaders Jen Joloc, Jex San Jose and Hiroki Revereza, with the support of 98 volunteer associates.

Before the event, the Disability at Foundever CSR volunteers received training on communicating with and guiding visually impaired people.

At the event, the ERG volunteers shared their time, stories and goodwill with 100 PNSB beneficiaries, who were composed of visually impaired students, teachers and staff. There was also a showcase of talents, where PNSB students performed songs and spoken-word poetry.

waterproofing.

As we all know, water leakage and moisture cannot only lead to building damage and collapse; it can also be a threat to human lives too. That’s why construction professionals always advise on using only superior waterproofing materials.

Look no further. There is Pioneer Pro Water-Tite Powerflex which is highly applicable in a variety of areas, and is available in many hardware stores, and in Pioneer Adhesives e-comm stores.

Pioneer Pro Water-Tite Powerflex is a one-component, flexible, fiber-reinforced polymer emulsion. The polymer base is mixed with cement to produce a flexible waterproofing membrane capable of resisting hydrostatic pressure and bridging hairline cracks. It is good for the bathroom and wet areas, concrete gutters, cistern tanks, firewalls, basements, canopies, roof decks,

colored waterproofing for firewalls and swimming pools, glass tile adhesive, and tile-to-tile adhesion.

And best of all, Pioneer Pro Water-Tite Powerflex is easy to apply by brush or roller both for interior and exterior use. It has good sag resistance and is easy to apply, even on vertical surfaces and provides excellent adhesion on concrete, cement mortars, stone, etc. This revolutionary product seals and protects masonry walls against algae and fungus growth, protects against concrete decay and corrosive salts, and improves water impermeability of concrete by 300 to 400 percent.

Using Pioneer Pro Water-Tite Powerflex is also as easy as 1-2-3. The worker just has to saturate the route area and leave it damp for application of Pioneer Pro Water-Tite Powerflex. Brush on one coat Powerflex Primer (one part Powerflex: two parts water) to the substrate to ensure all pores are sealed off.

Pioneer Adhesives can be reached through its head office at JWS Center, 731 Aurora Blvd, New Manila, Quezon City. Or visit its website at https://www.pioneer-adhesives. com/products/.

In a cycle of extreme weather, drought in southern Africa leaves some 20 million people facing hunger

By Farai Mutsaka & Gerald Imray The Associated Press

MANGWE, Zimbabwe—

Delicately and with intense concentration, Zanyiwe Ncube poured her small share of precious golden cooking oil into a plastic bottle at a food aid distribution site deep in rural Zimbabwe.

“I don’t want to lose a single drop,” she said. Her relief at the handout— paid for by the United States government as her southern African country deals with a severe drought—was tempered when aid workers gently broke the news that this would be their last visit.

Ncube and her 7-month-old son she carried on her back were among 2,000 people who received rations of cooking oil, sorghum, peas and other supplies in the Mangwe district in southwestern Zimbabwe. The food distribution is part of a program funded by American aid agency USAID and rolled out by the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

They’re aiming to help some of the 2.7 million people in rural Zimbabwe threatened with hunger because of the drought that has enveloped large parts of southern Africa since late 2023. It has scorched the crops that tens of millions of people grow themselves and rely on to survive, helped by what should be the rainy season.

They can rely on their crops and

the weather less and less.

The drought in Zimbabwe, neighboring Zambia and Malawi has reached crisis levels. Zambia and Malawi have declared national disasters. Zimbabwe could be on the brink of doing the same. The drought has reached Botswana and Angola to the west, and Mozambique and Madagascar to the east.

A year ago, much of this region was drenched by deadly tropical storms and floods. It is in the midst of a vicious weather cycle: too much rain, then not enough. It’s a story of the climate extremes that scientists say are becoming more frequent and more damaging, especially for the world’s most vulnerable people.

In Mangwe, the young and the old lined up for food, some with donkey carts to carry home whatever they might get, others with wheelbarrows. Those waiting their turn sat on the dusty ground.

Nearby, a goat tried its luck with a nibble on a thorny, scraggly bush.

Ncube, 39, would normally be harvesting her crops now—food for her, her two children and a

niece she also looks after. Maybe there would even be a little extra to sell.

The driest February in Zimbabwe in her lifetime, according to the World Food Programme’s seasonal monitor, put an end to that.

“We have nothing in the fields, not a single grain,” she said. “Everything has been burnt (by the drought).”

The United Nations Children’s Fund says there are “overlapping

crises” of extreme weather in eastern and southern Africa, with both regions lurching between storms and floods and heat and drought in the past year. In southern Africa, an estimated 9 million people, half of them children, need help in Malawi. More than 6 million in Zambia, 3 million of them children, are impacted by the drought, UNICEF said. That’s nearly half of Malawi’s population and 30 percent

The drought in Zimbabwe, neighboring Zambia and Malawi has reached crisis levels. Zambia and Malawi have declared national disasters. Zimbabwe could be on the brink of doing the same. The drought has reached Botswana and Angola to the west, and Mozambique and Madagascar to the east.

of Zambia’s.

“Distressingly, extreme weather is expected to be the norm in eastern and southern Africa in the years to come,” said Eva Kadilli, UNICEF’s regional director.

While human-made climate change has spurred more erratic weather globally, there is something else parching southern Africa this year.

El Niño, the naturally occurring climatic phenomenon that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean every two to seven years, has varied effects on the world’s weather. In southern Africa, it means below-average rainfall, sometimes drought, and is being blamed for the current situation.

The impact is more severe for those in Mangwe, where it’s notoriously arid. People grow the cereal grain sorghum and pearl millet, crops that are drought resistant and offer a chance at harvests, but even they failed to withstand the conditions this year.

Francesca Erdelmann, the World Food Programme’s country director for Zimbabwe, said last year’s harvest was bad, but this season is even worse. “This is not a normal circumstance,” she said.

The first few months of the year are traditionally the “lean months” when households run short as they wait for the new harvest. However, there is little hope for replenishment this year.

Joseph Nleya, a 77-year-old traditional leader in Mangwe, said he doesn’t remember it being this hot, this dry, and this desperate. “Dams have no water, riverbeds are dry and boreholes are few. We were relying on wild fruits, but they have also dried up,” he said.

People are illegally crossing into Botswana to search for food and “hunger is turning otherwise hard-working people into criminals,” he added.

Multiple aid agencies warned last year of the impending disaster.

Since then, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has said that 1 million of the 2.2 million hectares of his country’s staple corn crop have been destroyed. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has appealed for $200 million in humanitarian assistance.

The 2.7 million struggling in rural Zimbabwe is not even the full picture. A nationwide crop assessment is underway and authorities are dreading the results, with the number needing help likely to skyrocket, said the WFP’s Erdelmann.

With this year’s harvest a write-off, millions in Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar won’t be able to feed themselves well into 2025. USAID’s Famine Early Warning System estimated that 20 million people would require food relief in southern Africa in the first few months of 2024.

Many won’t get that help, as aid agencies also have limited resources amid a global hunger crisis and a cut in humanitarian funding by governments.

As the WFP officials made their last visit to Mangwe, Ncube was already calculating how long the food might last her. She said she hoped it would be long enough to avert her greatest fear: that her youngest child would slip into malnutrition even before his first birthday.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

Some of Trump’s allies in Congress already support his 2025 ideas on deportations and Jan. 6 pardons

By Lisa Mascaro AP Congressional Correspondent

ASHINGTON—As

WDonald Trump campaigns on promises of mass deportations and pardons for those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, his ideas are being met with little pushback and some enthusiasm by a new era of Republicans in Congress.

It’s a shift from the first time around when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee encountered early skepticism and, once in a while, the uproar of condemnation.

Rather than being dismissed as campaign bluster or Trump speaking his mind to rouse his most devoted voters, his words are being adopted as party platforms, potentially able to move quickly from rhetoric to reality with a West Wing in waiting and crucial backing from key corners on Capitol Hill.

“We’re going to have to deport some people,” said Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, one of Trump’s biggest supporters, days after campaigning alongside Trump in his home state.

While Democratic President Joe Biden and his allies are sounding alarms about Trump’s proposed agenda for a second term—and his promise that he would be a “dictator” but only on Day one—the Republican Party in Congress is undergoing a massive political realignment toward Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who clashed with Trump at times particularly

over the Capitol riot while also pushing through dozens of his judicial picks, is preparing to step down from his leadership role at the end of the year. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., faces constant threats of his ouster.

Rising in the churn are MAGA-aligned newcomers such as Vance, who wasn’t yet elected during Trump’s presidency, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was elected as Trump lost to Biden in 2020. Both Vance and Greene are considered potential vice presidential picks by Trump.

Greene, who recently filed a motion to potentially force Johnson from the speakership, said it’s too soon to be discussing a secondterm policy agenda or who will fill West Wing positions.

As she campaigns for Trump, she said her priority is just winning the election.

Other Republicans in the House and Senate often simply shrug when asked about Trump’s agenda, pointing to policies they like and others they might support.

Meanwhile, a cast of former Trump White House officials in Washington is pushing out policy papers, drafting executive actions and preparing legislation that would be needed to turn Trump’s ideas into reality. These efforts are separate from Trump’s campaign, whose senior leaders have repeatedly insisted that outside groups do not speak for them, though many group leaders would be in line to serve in a new Trump administration.

If Trump wins, “we are going to have a plan—and the person -

nel—ready to roll,” said Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official who heads the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which is collecting thousands of resumes and training staff for a potential second Trump administration.

Trump himself has suggested having a “very tiny little desk” on the Capitol steps so he can sign documents on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025.

“On Day 1 of President Trump’s new administration, Americans will have a strong leader,” said Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s national press secretary.

Congress pushed back at times during the first Trump administration, a stable of Republicans joining with Democrats to halt some of his proposals.

Republicans and Democrats resisted a White House effort to commandeer funds for a US-

Mexico border wall, leading to the longest government shutdown in history. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who died in 2018, famously gave a thumbsdown to Trump’s effort to repeal the health law known as the Affordable Care Act.

And after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden, 10 Republicans in the House voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection and seven Republican senators voted to convict him.

Many of those lawmakers have since left Congress. One, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, is retiring at the end of his term. Had the Senate convicted Trump, it could have then moved to bar him from holding federal office again.

As a result, there are fewer lawmakers now in Congress willing or able to stand up to Trump or publicly oppose his agenda as

he has effectively commandeered the party apparatus, including the Republican National Committee, as his own.

“Those people are all kind of flushed out,” said Jason Chaffetz, a former GOP representative who is close to Trump allies on and off Capitol Hill.

Trump still falsely argues the 2020 election was stolen and is claiming he should be immune from a four-count federal indictment alleging he defrauded Americans with his effort to overturn the results. He has made Jan. 6 a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign and often refers to those imprisoned for the attack as “hostages.”

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a leader of the effort to challenge the certification of electors on Jan. 6, said he does not agree with the idea of a “blanket pardon” for those convicted in the riot—some 1,300 people have been charged.

But he said he is closely watching the upcoming Supreme Court case contesting that rioters obstructed an official proceeding, which could call into question hundreds of cases, including some of the charges against Trump.

“My view is, let’s see what the Supreme Court says on that,” Hawley said.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, once a staunch Trump critic after their fierce rivalry during the 2016 campaign, said anyone who engaged in violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 should be prosecuted. But Cruz, who also helped challenge the 2020 election that day, was open to pardons for others.

“One of the saddest legacies

of the Biden presidency,” he said, was what he called the “weaponization” of the Justice Department to “persecute” thousands of people who engaged in “peaceful protest.”

Perhaps Trump’s most enduring campaign promise in 2024 is his repeated pledge to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history”—reviving the immigration and border security debates that helped define his presidency. He points to the Eisenhowerera roundup of immigrants as a model, one that goes far behind his 2017 travel ban on migrants from mostly Muslim countries or the family separations at the US-Mexico border.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has been a leader on immigration issues, particularly the 2013 bill that provided a 10-year path to citizenship for immigrants in the US without legal documentation, though it ultimately failed to become law.

But with migrant crossings hitting record highs during Biden’s term, Rubio said, “Whether they’re deported through the hearings that they’re waiting for, they’re deported through some effort to expedite it, something’s going to have to happen.”

“No one’s saying it would be easy, but something’s going to have to happen with all the people that have come here,” he said.

Added Vance: “I think you have to be open to deporting anyone who came to the country illegally.”

JAMES TSHUMA , a farmer in Mangwe district in southwestern Zimbabwe, stands in the middle of his dried up crop field amid a drought in Zimbabwe on March, 22, 2024. A new drought has left millions facing hunger in southern Africa as they experience the effects of extreme weather that scientists say is becoming more frequent and more damaging. AP/TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI

represent their religion.

“It’s truly inspiring to witness these two Muslim athletes competing at the highest level. This tournament serves as a significant moment,

shining a spotlight on the best teams simultaneously with their faith,” said Camara, who founded the nonprofit organization Women And Kids Empowerment (WAKE) in 2017. “It sends a powerful message to girls worldwide, affirming that they belong on the sports field, regardless of economic class, race, culture and more.”

Konate started 31 of 32 games for UC Irvine, averaging 7.5 points and nearly four assists. She moved to the US from France after receiving a scholarship from Idaho State. She transferred to UC Irvine as a junior.

She’d like a chance to play in a hijab at home in France, where she won two medals playing on their youth teams. But currently, the French Federation of Basketball prohibits the wearing of “any

equipment with a religious or political connotation.”

“Being French and hosting the Olympics, it really hurts to not be able to be ourselves,” said Konate, who first started wearing the hijab in 2020. “Hopefully, it changes.”

ANOTHER hardworking and determined weightlifter has risen from Barangay Mampang in Zamboanga City—Rosegie Ramos—who lifted her way to a Paris Olympics slot at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Cup on Monday afternoon in Phuket, Thailand.

Although Group A action still had to be completed later in the day, Ramos, 20, and trained by Mampang pride Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo’s cousin, Allen Diaz, Ramos has lifted enough iron to become the seventh Filipino to qualify for Paris.

And the first to congratulate Ramos was Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who’s in Phuket with his secretary-general Atty. Wharton Chan to cheer Ramos, Diaz-Naranjo and five other Filipino weightlifters hoping to make the Paris grade. Ramos outperformed 10 other weightlifters in her weight class with a total lift of 190 kgs—87 kgs in snatch and 103 kgs in clean and jerk—at the Phuket Rajabhat University in Thailand.

“Congratulations to Rosegie for making it to the Paris Olympics, her determination and hard work have finally paid off, but the competition is not over yet we still have the Olympics,” Tolentino gladly announced in Facebook.

BEissa and Konate have never met, but are aware of each other.

“I just know there’s another woman wearing a hijab,” Eissa said. “I just saw a post about two days ago. I was so happy there are other people.”

Eissa, who turned 18 in February, was a walk-on at NC State. She joined the team after trying out in

NORTH Carolina State’s Jannah Eissa warms up before their second-round college game against Tennessee in Raleigh, North Carolina. AP

September. She didn’t play much this season—appearing in 11 games and hitting one 3-pointer. Earlier this season, a group of young Muslim girls came to her game. They also showed up a few more times to support her. AP

Tolentino said he expected Ramos to finish sixth or at the lowest ninth in the women’s -49 kgs class depending on the completion of Group A action.

The top 10 in the five weight classes in each of the men and women’s division will qualify for the Olympics.

“I’m hoping the other Filipino weightlifters to follow her in Paris—the more the merrier,” Tolentino said.

Already qualified for Paris are boxers Eumir Felix Marcial, Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas, pole vaulter EJ Obiena and gymnasts Carlos Yulo and Aleah Finnegan.

Mexico’s Anna Ferrer Lopez placed second in Group B with 87 kgs in snatch and 100 kgs in clean and jerk for 187 kgs total, while India’s Chanu Saikhom Mirabai had 81 kgs in the snatch but bounced back in clean and jerk with 103 kgs for 184 kgs total to secure third place.

Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas secretary-general Patrick Lee told BusinessMirror over his confidence on Ramos—bronze medalist at the Hanoi 2021 Southeast Asian Games—to make it to Paris.

No one in Group A action have

ROSEGIE RAMOS is the seventh Filipino athletes to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

Iraqi hoops team leaning on high-scoring American

He had never even heard of Hashed before the team made him an offer.

One of three US citizens on the team, Iroegbu considers this assignment to be just like any other— despite the unique security risks and political tensions in his host country.

“I’m a pretty simple guy. I go to practice, and if I’m not practicing,

I’m in my room. I hang out with my teammates, play video games, read books—the same old, same old,” he said during a break from practice. Nearby, a young boy walked through the aisles hawking strong Arabic coffee to the few spectators in attendance.

surpassed Rosegie’s 191kg best lift she pulled off in the Doha World Grand Prix last December that kept her No. 9 in her division.

The Group A and Group B athletes’ lifts will be totaled to determine the final ranking.

Ramos is a two-time Asian juniors gold medalist—Tashkent 2021 and New Delhi 2023.

Lovely Inan, also competing in the -49 kgs class, had a “No Lift’ result also in women’s Group B.

John Febuar Ceniza is set to compete on Tuesday in the men’s +61 kgs category while Diaz-Naranjo and fellow Tokyo Olympian Erleen Ann Ando will compete on Wednesday in Group A of women’s -59 kgs class.

Diaz-Naranjo ranks eighth in her class as she eyes a fifth-straight Olympic appearance.

Two-time SEA Games champion Vanessa Sarno is ranked No. 5 in women’s +71 kgs and will compete on April 7 with Kristel Macrohon.

Antonio Agustin, Nick Jaluag, Christopher Bureros, Diwa Delos Santos and Julius Naranjo are the coaches of the team in Phuket. Josef Ramos

After dethroning Japanese foe, Jerusalem eyes P’Rican’s belt

By Josef Ramos

JERUSALEM

ELVIN

Mdeclared he’ll go for Puerto Rican Oscar Collazo’s World Boxing Organization (WBO) belt hours after the pint-sized Filipino snatched Japanese Yudai Shigeoka’s World Boxing Council (WBC) minimum weight crown on Sunday night in Nagoya.

“He [Collazo] really wants to fight,” was Jerusalem’s online chat to BusinessMirror on Monday morning with a screenshot of Collazo’s congratulatory message “Congrats champ. I’m ready for that unification. You want a rematch, let’s get it.”

Jerusalem dethroned Shigeoka via split decision he highlighted with two knockdowns.

He’s now the only Filipino world pro boxing champion.

“I’m ready anywhere, anytime if we’ll be given a chance even here in Japan, I’ll fight him,” the 30-year-old from Bukidnon said. “I’m hoping to get a full month of preparation in the US if the fight would happen there… not only 10 days.”

“But let’s see, it’s the decision of my manager and promoter,” he added. Jerusalem, who now owns 22 wins against three defeats with 12 knockouts, lost his WBO title to Collazo via seventh-round knockout in Indio, California, in May last year. Jerusalem held the belt for only four months after dethroning Japanese Masataka Taniguchi via first round knockout in January 2023—having ended the country’s six-month drought for a world champion after Mark Magsayo’s split decision defeat to Mexican Rey Vargas in July 2022.

Erstwhile super bantamweight champion Marlon Tapales also lost in a title fight to Naoya Inoue last December 26 in Tokyo.

“WBC is my dream belt and I’m the first Filipino champion once again,” Jerusalem said. “Very happy. My opponent was too confident that’s why I was able to hit him and get some points...but no questions, he’s a good boxer.” Jerusalem and trainer-coach Michael Domingo were back home Monday afternoon and are expected to attend courtesy calls with different government officials.

Fierce battle up as PGT resumes at high-altitude Caliraya Springs

By Aldrin Quinto

AFTER three events and with a different player emerging as champion in each of them, a fierce battle is expected as Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) resumes next week with the Caliraya Springs Championship set 1,200 feet above sea level. The P2 million, 72-hole championship tees off on April 9 with evergreen Tony Lascuña one of the favored players. The 53-year-old Lascuña came up with a strong start to the year by topping the tour prologue—the rich The Country Club (TCC) Invitational—and figuring in the top 10 in the two tournaments that followed. On a tough mountain-top Caliraya Springs course, Lascuña had a walk in the park and went wire to wire in ruling the

event last year. That turned out to be his lone title that season and wound up second in the money list, but the smoothswinging veteran is determined to regain the top spot this year.

“My focus remains unchanged— practice is key,” said Lascuña, who topped the Order of Merit four times. “I believe I can be back on top.”

From a basketball perspective, signing Iroegbu was a no-brainer; he led Qatar’s league in scoring, averaging 27 points per game. Politically, it’s a little more complicated.

The US has had a fraught relationship with Iraq since its invasion in 2003, which was followed by years of occupation. And that was before Iranian-backed forces within the group that owns Hashed attacked US troops in the region Iroegbu, who has been shooting hoops since he was old enough to hold a ball, keeps his focus on basketball and avoids talking about politics.

Last year’s money list topnotcher Jhonnel Ababa also went off to a fine start by ruling the Apo Golf Classic in Davao after a fourth-place finish at TCC.

He enters the Caliraya Championship eager to get his bearings back after ending up in joint 25th at Rancho Palos Verdes.

It was Lloyd Jefferson Go who reigned supreme in the second stop in Davao for his maiden professional title for a big boost ahead of his stint this week in the Abema Tour in Japan.

While the top guns are eager for repeat wins, others look to steal the show.

Heartbreaking results in the last two tournaments should provide fuel for Guido Van der Valk—the Philippines-based Dutchman ended up runner-up twice already this season, including a gut-wrenching playoff loss to Ababa.

The Americans communicate with their Iraqi teammates using basic English, but on the court they mostly rely on hand gestures and the “language of basketball,” said Iroegbu, who played in college for Stony Brook University in New York.

TONY LASCUÑA is one of the favored players in the P2 million, 72-hole championship.

All of Iraq’s teams are state-owned and sponsored by different wings of the government, such as the oil and interior ministries, and they receive partial funding from the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Games are broadcast on a state-run TV channel dedicated to sports.

Hashed is owned by a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed forces that joined in the fight against the Islamic State militant group in 2014 after it seized large sections of Iraq. Two years later, the Iraqi government designated them as an “independent” unit of its army.

At the time, the Hashed militias were allies of convenience with forces from a US-led international coalition fighting the Islamic State. But today, some of the groups have a hostile relationship with the US.

Some of the militias launched multiple drone attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for America’s support of Israel in its war in Gaza.

The attacks came to an abrupt halt in February, however, after a drone strike killed three American soldiers stationed in Jordan near the Syrian border. The US launched retaliatory strikes in Iraq, including one that killed a militia commander in the center of Baghdad. AP

Player Sisi Rondina and Kat Tolentino are expected to soar anew for the Flying Titans

Big-hitting Keanu Jahns will also try to finally take the top spot after finishing tied for 11th at Apo and fourth at Palos Verdes, while also entered in the tournament sponsored by the International Container Terminal Services Inc. are Nilo Salahog, Ira Alido, Sean Ramos, Rupert Zaragosa, Reymon Jaraula, Ryan Monsalve, Kristoffer Arevalo, Jay Bayron and Marvin Dumandan. Organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. and supported by official apparel Kampfortis Golf, the event also features international players such as Min Hyeok Yu, Collin Wheeler, Mingi Kim Koji Inooue, Kei Matsuoka, Gwon Minkook, Toru Nakajima and Ozeki Kakeru.

against the Gracielle Bombita, Audrey Paran and the Hightowers, who are coming off a decisive win over the Strong’ Group Athletics. With 12 playdates remaining in the single-round preliminaries, six teams—including Petro Gazz and Chery Tiggo, with identical 5-2 records, and Cignal (4-2)—are locked in a fierce battle for the semifinals with Akari, Farm Fresh and Galeries Tower still in the hunt despite their 2-4 records. Games are aired live on free-to-air on One Sports, in HD on One Sports+, as well as on the PVL’s official website (pvl.ph) and the Pilipinas Live app.

ISAAC BANKS (left) and Uchenna Iroegbu are American basketball players with the Hashed al-Shaabi-

Iraqi Basketball Super League. AP

GRACIELLE BOMBITA and the Hightowers hope to remain in the hunt for a semifinals berth.