BusinessMirror April 08, 2022 by BusinessMirror

PHL eyeing importation of 350K MT of sugar By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE Philippines is mulling over importing 350,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar to plug the shortfall in domestic supply and arrest skyrocketing prices of the sweetener. A draft Sugar Regulatory Administration (SR A) Sugar Order (SO) obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the agency plans to open an importation program of 250,000 MT refined sugar and 100,000 MT raw sugar. The 350,000-MT sugar import proposal was based on concerns that the country will have tight

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supply toward the end of the current crop year 2021-2022— which in turn could worsen the unabated increase in prices of the sweetener that have already reached new record-highs. The draft SO also cited the manifestation made by industrial sugar users during a March 1 House Committee on Agriculture and Food hearing, that their sugar stocks would already be depleted by May 27. Based on the SR A’s projections, the country would have a raw sugar balance of a measly 27,337.97 MT and refined sugar stocks of only 36,576.05 MT by August 31, the end of the current

crop year. The country 's average ending raw and refined sugar balance in the past decade is at least 150,000 MT, respectively. T he proje c te d lowe r e nd ing stock balance is caused by a reduced estimated raw sugar output in the current crop year which is only at 1.982 MMT, the lowest in more than a decade. Total raw sugar supply for crop year 2021-2022 is estimated at 2.212 MMT while total demand is pegged at 2.185 MMT. (Related story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2022/03/10/phl-maysee-lowest-sugar-output-in-adecade/) Based on the draft document,

the SRA reported that sugar milling has been “slowly winding down,” with some mills having problems sourcing sugarcane whi le some plantations have already finished harvesting for the season. “There is a lull/gap in the production of sugar between the end of the milling/refining season and the start of the next season wherein a comfortable volume of stock balance is needed to cover demand until production for the next season,” read the draft document, which is now being deliberated by the SR A board. See “PHL,” A2

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PHL FACTORY OUTPUT SURGES 84.3% IN FEB www.businessmirror.com.ph www.businessmirror.com.ph www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sunday, December 2021 Vol.17 17No. No.5858 Friday,December April 8, 2022 Vol. 17Vol. No. 182 Sunday, 5,5,2021

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Biz, mobility curbs lifting boosts Feb labor data

By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

HE country’s factory output surged as the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products skyrocketed in February, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

By Samuel P. Medenilla

‘DIGITAL DIASPORA’

Based on the latest Production Index and Net Sales Index or the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI), the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) grew 84.3 percent in February. The PSA data showed the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products was the major contributing factor to this growth with a 748.9-percent growth rate. “The surge in VoPI was brought about by the positive growth rates of 19 industry divisions,” the PSA said in a statement on Tuesday. However, the remaining three industry divisions recorded decreases, led by manufacture of electrical equipment with a contraction of 28.8-percent annual rate.

ASING of movement and business restrictions kept the unemployment rate at bay in February—at 6.4 percent, the same rate in January 2022, and slower than the 8.8 percent posted in February 2021—according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Reporting the highlights of the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS), National Statistician and Civil Registry General Dennis S. Mapa said the unemployment figure of February was equivalent to 3.13 million jobless workers. ‘LAGING HANDA’ Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Health Service Command show their equipment and public education materials at 1st AFP Health Expo at Camp Meanwhile, the employment Colonel Victoriano K. Luna in Quezon City on Thursday, April 7, 2022. The Expo was held to showcase the military’s capability and readiness in emergency situations. NONOY LACZA rate improved to 63.8 percent in the same period compared to the 60.5 percent last January. Mapa said the figure indicated 2.46 million additional workers were employed during the said period. However, when compared to January 2022 in absolute terms, By Bernadette D. Nicolas Based on BIR Commisjected by the BIR to be coland Gaming Corporation the total number of unemployed @BNicolasBM sioner Caesar Dulay’s relected last year. (Pagcor) Chairman and Filipinos increased by 220,000. port to Finance Secretary In March 2021, BIR Chief Executive Officer On a year-on-year basis, there HE Bureau of InCarlos G. Dominguez III, De put y Com m i ssioner (CEO) Andrea Domingo was a decline of 1.06 million unt e r n a l R e v e nu e the bureau collected a total Arnel SD. Guballa told said in September last year showsofofproducts, products, withhosts hostsand and become morebillion discernemployed Filipinos. ( B I R ) consumers oconsumers n l y c o l -become of P3.91 from Pogos senators that Pogo collecthat more than half or 32 of shows with more discernguests providing moreof details and ing andconnected, connected, we areseeing seeing Theproviding total number Filipinos lected less than P4and billion as of December last year. tions for that year would the original 60 Pogos in the guests more details and ing we are giving testimonies, Zalora said. incredible innovations happening giving testimonies, Zalora said. incredible innovations happening without jobs reached 3.13 million in taxes from Philippine This was a significant only reach P3.92 billion country have already left wouldalso alsohelp help brands inthe retailsector sector thatfrom completely ItItwould brands inininthe retail that completely in February 2022, higher than Offshore Gaming Operadrop its Pogo color 45.37 percent lower and most have transferred novate on flexible salespromopromoreimagine the shopping shopping experinovate flexible sales the 2.93on million in January 2022 tions (Pogos)reimagine last year,the lection inexperi2020 at P7.18 than its actual collection to other jurisdictions. tions, such giving discounts, ence,” GunjanSoni, Soni, chiefexecutive executive tions, such asasgiving discounts, ence,” Gunjan chief but lower than the 4.19 million plunging by 45.5 percent billion, but this was well of P7.18 billion last year. and offering easier and attracofficer of the Zalora Group, told an and offering easier and attracofficer of the Zalora Group, told an in February 2021. from its take in 2020. within the amount proPhilippine Amusement See “BIR,” A2 tivepayment paymentoptions optionssuch suchasasthe the onlinepresentation presentationofofits itsTrender Trender tive online buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) opReport2021. 2021. buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) opReport See “Biz,” A2 tion,which, which,ititsaid, said,emerged emergedasas Shedescribed describedthe the“shoppers “shoppersofof tion, She themost mostpopular popularoption optionamong among tomorrow”asas“digital “digitaland anddiverse diverse the tomorrow” Asian shoppers. across Southeast Asia.” Asian shoppers. across Southeast Asia.” n japan 0.4151 n UK 67.1615 n HK 6.5564 n CHINA 8.0811 n singapore 37.7810 n australia 38.5857 n EU 56.0107 n SAUDI arabia 13.6997 Source: BSP (April 7, 2022) Indonesia, for for example, example, “It’s a a digital digital diaspora,” diaspora,” she she InIn Indonesia, “It’s Google saw saw a a “10x “10x increase increase inin said,citing citingGoogle Googletrend trendmonitormonitorGoogle said, searchesfor fore-wallet e-walletservices servicesand and ingthat thatshows shows40 40million millionnew newInInsearches ing 15xrise riseininBNPL BNPLservices servicesininthe the ternetusers userscame cameonline onlineinin2021, 2021, 15x ternet lastfive fiveyears. years.Other Otherappealing appealing “bringingthe theinternet internetpenetration penetration last “bringing payment options options like like monthly 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BANG OLAND | DREAMSTIME.COM BANG OLAND | DREAMSTIME.COM

The Value of Production Index (VaPI) further increased with an annual growth rate 92.4 percent in February 2022. This is faster than the VaPI growth rate of 21.8 percent in January 2022 and contraction of 47 percent in February 2021. Of the 22 industry divisions, PSA said 19 had ByManuel Manuel Cayon of reported positive growth, led by manufacture By T.T.Cayon coke and refined petroleum products which posted a three-digit annual growth of 874.9 percent. The PSA said the three industry divisions showed downturns in February 2022, with manufacture of electrical equipment registering a contraction of 26.2 percent.

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BIR’S POGO COLLECTIONS Onlineshopping shoppingplatform platform notes behavioralDOWN shift45.5% TO P3.91B Online notes behavioral shift amongconsumers, consumers,brand brandmakers makersamid amidCovid Covid among

VaPI up 92.4%

@sam_medenilla

News

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A2 Friday, April 8, 2022

Factory... Continued from A1

Capacity utilization rate

Meanwhile, the country’s average capacity utilization rate for manufacturing also increased to 69 percent from 68.3 percent in the previous month. PSA said almost all the industry divisions reported capacity utilization rates of more than 50 percent except for manufacture of wood, bamboo, cane, rattan articles, and related products at 48.7 percent. Among these, the top 3 industry divisions were manufacture of furniture at 84.1 percent; manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products, 80.5 percent; and manufacture of electrical equipment, 76.8 percent. The MISSI is a report that monitors the production, net sales, inventories, and capacity utilization of selected manufacturing establishments to provide flash indicators on the performance of the manufacturing sector.

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More Pinoys see incomes rising in 2022 with pandemic recovery By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

ORE Filipinos expect their income to increase in the next 12 months, with many citing recovery from the economic effects of the pandemic as their main reason for optimism this year, a recent survey revealed. TransUnion polled 1,078 adults in the Philippines in February this year to measure changing consumer attitudes and behavior based on the dynamics of income, debt and identity theft. The survey, called Q1 2022 Consumer Pulse Study of TransUnion, showed that 75 percent of surveyed Filipinos expected their household income to increase. About 36 percent of the respondents said their household income has already increased in the last three months. The company conducted the study from

February 8 to 23, 2022 with respondents from Gen Z (born 1995-2004), Millennials (born 1980-1994), Gen X (born 1965-1979), and Baby Boomers (born 1944-1964). “The survey results reflect the lessons Filipinos learned following the Covid-19 pandemic,” TransUnion said in its report. In particular, 51 percent of respondents said in the last three months they saved more in an emergency fund, 45 percent cut back on expenses for dining out, travel, and entertainment, and 28

NGCP: All set for polls power supply contingency

percent added to or expanded digital services like wireless and Internet. Over the next three months, consumers expect their spending on the following to increase: medical care/services (44 percent), retail shopping (37 percent), and retirement funds and investing (35 percent). Also, the survey showed that while all generations believe that it is important to have access to credit and lending products to achieve their financial goals, it is the younger Filipinos—or the Gen Z —who view credit as an “essential” part of their everyday lives. Nearly half of the respondents (46 percent) who are planning to apply for credit in the next year are Gen Z.

Continued from A12

NGCP’s own contingency plans are in place to monitor and immediately address any grid disturbance. With the help of Comelec and in coordination with AFP and PNP, NGCP has been conducting clearing operations on overgrown vegetation along critical transmission lines across the country. NGCP sought the assistance of these agencies especially for hard to reach areas and areas with security concerns. Maintenance works and construction activities inside substations and within 300 meters of energized power

Biz...

Continued from A1

Underemployment down

Likewise, PSA also observed a slight improvement in the quality of jobs as underemployment declined to 14 percent from 14.9 percent. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua attributed the better

“From optimism about improved household incomes to anticipated increased spending in key areas, Filipinos are increasingly bullish about our recover y from the global pandemic,” TransUnion Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Pia Arellano said. “By conducting this study quarterly and making the results public, TransUnion Philippines harnesses information and insights to provide a comprehensive understanding of the changing attitudes and situation in the country. This can help better inform consumers, businesses, policy-makers and other stakeholder decisions as the Philippines moves toward economic growth,” Arellano added.

lines will be suspended from May 2 to 6, while activities which require power interruptions will be suspended from April 24 to May 8, except in emergency cases. Corrective works, which may cause major grid disturbance, line inspection, and clearing are targeted to be completed before April 30. NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders and Vice Chairman of the Board Henry Sy Jr. and Co-Vice Chairman Robert Coyiuto Jr. Lenie Lectura

economic indicators in the latest LFS to the declaration of Alert Level 2 in the National Capital Region and other parts of the country in February, which allowed more businesses to expand their operations. “This allowed more Filipinos to rejoin the labor force. We aim to shift the entire country to alert level 1 to enable even more Filipinos to find work,” Chua said .

PHL... Continued from A1

Latest SRA data showed the average wholesale price of 50-kilogram bag raw sugar as of April 1 is now at P2,266.15 while wholesale price of refined sugar has reached an unprecedented P3,084.23 per 50-kilogram bag. SRA data also showed that the average retail price of raw sugar is now at P51.43 per kilogram while refined sugar is at P68.14 per kilogram.

Import provisions

The SRA consulted industry stakeholders, including both sugar planters and millers, last March 8 about the country’s current and projected sugar supply situation. Under the draft SO, the 100,000 MT raw sugar import allocation could be sold directly for consumption or for tolling to refined sugar. Eligible participants for the raw sugar import program include industrial consumers and registered traders. The draft SO said 100,000 MT of the 250,000 MT proposed refined sugar importation shall be standard grade refined sugar while the remaining 150,000 MT refined sugar shall be premium grade or bottlers’ grade refined sugar. The eligible participants for the proposed refined sugar import program are industrial users— confectionaries, biscuits, bread, candies, milk, juice, and food and beverage manufacturers, and registered traders. “All raw sugar and refined sugar imported under this order must arrive in the Philippines no later than August 31,” the draft document read. Under the draft, half of the raw sugar import allocation must arrive no sooner than May 15 with the remaining half arriving no sooner than July 1 and no later than August 31. For the imported refined sugar, 50 percent of the importers’ approved allocation shall arrive no sooner than April 29 with the remaining half arriving no sooner than June and no later than August 31.

Stakeholder reactions

Sen. Imee R. Marcos slammed the proposed 350,000-MT sugar importation and urged Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar not to sign the SO formalizing the importation. Marcos said in a Facebook post: “We are calling on Agriculture Secretary William Dar not to sign the latest sugar import proposal of 350,000 metric tons which was approved by SRA chief Hermenegildo Serafica.” United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed) Manuel Lamata said the sugar planters are aware of the proposed 350,000-MT import program. Lamata said Unifed is preparing legal options, including another temporary restraining order should the SRA board clear the import program. “If this will be signed by Sec. Dar, our sugar federation is consulting with our lawyers on bringing the Secretary and SRA chief Serafica to court. If our lawyers say [file a case in the Ombudsman], then so be it,” he told the BusinessMirror. The BusinessMirror sought SRA Administrator Hermenegildo R. Serafica’s comments, but he has not responded as of press time. In an interview, SRA board member Roland Beltran said the SO is still being deliberated by the board. However, Beltran, who represents the milling sector, said he has already manifested his concerns with the proposed import program.

Locsin, Drilon join Bello in bucking DMW chief’s order Continued from A12

BIR...

Continued from A1

She did not elaborate on the reason behind the exodus of Pogos in the country, but Pagcor earlier warned that more Pogos will exit the country due to stringent tax rules from the BIR and the impact of movement restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic. For Dominguez, China’s crackdown on online gambling is behind the exodus. Nonetheless, Dominguez said last year that they expect a total of P76.2 billion in revenues from the full implementation of the law taxing Pogos this year until 2023. As of January 31 this year, the BIR earlier said there are 40 Pogo licensees and 168 Pogo service providers registered with the BIR. Under the Pogo tax law signed by President Duterte in September last year, gaming tax revenues collected from Pogos shall be allocated to the

following purposes: Universal Health Care Law (60 percent); Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) of the Department of Health (20 percent); and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (20 percent). Meanwhile, the BIR also reported that it collected P2.95 billion in back taxes from 523 firms it shut down for various tax code violations under its Oplan Kandado program. Moreover, it also collected an additional P122.4 million in penalties for registrationrelated violations and inspected 120,220 establishments nationwide last year. Under its Run After Tax Evaders Program, the BIR also filed 137 cases before the Department of Justice involving aggregate tax liabilities of P4.4 billion and 17 cases before the Court of Tax Appeals with total estimated liabilities of P1.4 billion in 2021. For this year, the BIR aims to collect P2.438 trillion in revenues, even higher than its 2020 full-year target of P2.081 trillion.

“Both parties should heed the order of Executive Secretary Medialdea to remain calm,” De Vera said, adding that Mama-o should just “listen to the legal, legislative and constitutional luminaries” with regard to the status of his position. Drilon said Mama-o has an erroneous interpretation of Republic Act 11641 or the law creating the Department of Migrant Workers. “His actions are not befitting of a secretary. His issuances have no basis and only disrupt what should have been a smooth transition. Clearly, he is putting his personal interest above the needs of the industry that the law seeks to protect. The President should immediately fire him,” Drilon said on Thursday. “Being a former labor secretary, I am very much concerned about what is happening in the industry and its stakeholders—the labor sector, OFWs and migrant workers. They are the ones caught in the crossfire because of Mr. Mama-o’s actions. His actions are detrimental to the very sector that RA 11641 seeks to protect,” Drilon emphasized. Drilon warned that Mama-o can be held liable for usurpation of authority if he continues to exercise the functions of the DMW even if the department is yet to be constituted. Section 23 of RA 11641 clearly states that the department shall not be constituted without an appropriation in the 2023 General Appropriations Act, an effective implementing rules and regulations, and a staffing pattern. The language of the law is mandatory and admits no other interpretation, said Drilon, who had proposed the amendment in Section 23 to signal the clear “legislative intent.”

The Nation BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, April 8, 2022 A3

2 Turkish-made ATAK choppers, C-295 plane enter military service

By Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

HE two Turkish-made T-129 ATAK helicopters and the C-295 medium lift aircraft acquired by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) have officially entered the service following their formal acceptance and christening on Wednesday.

Officials led by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, according to PAF spokesman Col. Maynard Mariano, have officially added the choppers and the aircraft to the assets of PAF following their formal acceptance, turnover and blessing. “For us, these new aircraft will not just beef up our capabilities, but in deep retrospect, carry the hopes and aspirations of what we want as

an air force, to become a more agile and dependable organization,” said PAF chief Lt. Gen. Connor Anthony Canlas during the ceremony. Mariano said Spanish Ambassador Jorge Moragas Sanchez and Turkish Ambassador Dr. Ismail Demir also attended the turnover and blessing. The two T-129 helicopters, which were delivered on March 9, were acquired by the Philippines from the

PHILIPPINE Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Connor Anthony Canlas (right) and Lt. Gen. Erickson Gloria pour champagne into one of the ATAK helicopters during the acceptance and blessing ceremonies on Wednesday. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE

Turkish Aerospace Industries under the military’s modernization program. The Air Force has ordered six units of T-129s. Military Public Affairs Office chief Col. Jorry Baclor said the ATAK helicopter had been designed for “advanced attack and reconnaissance missions.” “The units will complement the several surface strike systems of the Air Force and will support the numerous missions of the military,” he said. Baclor said that the C-295 form part of the first batch of deliveries from Spain’s Airbus Defense and Space where three C-295s have been ordered under the Air Force’s Medium Lift Aircraft Acquisition Project. “It will be utilized to transport personnel and equipment as well as support disaster relief and humanitarian assistance operations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” Baclor said of the first delivered C-295.

Court dismisses judge for ‘lapses’ in handling cases related to drugs By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court has ordered the dismissal from the service of a trial court judge after he was found guilty of 17 counts of gross ignorance of the law for issuing rulings that paved the way for the release of the accused in 17 drugrelated cases. Aside from the dismissal from the service, the Court also directed the forfeiture of retirement benefits except leave credits, and with prejudice to re-employment in any branch or instrumentality of the government of Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Occidental Mindoro, Branch 45 Presiding Judge Jose Jacinto. The Court also held Jacinto is liable for gross misconduct for the unauthorized transfer from a national penitentiary to another jail of a prisoner for a period of more than eight months.

“For issuing orders in contravention with RA 9165 in 17 cases, the Court holds respondent judge liable for multiple counts of gross ignorance of law. Indeed, these various instances where respondent judge distorted the provisions of RA 9165 in handling the custody of detainees may well have been the subject of different administrative complaints, meriting separate penalties,” the Court said. T he ad ministrat ive case against Jacinto stemmed from an anonymous complaint accusing him of committing irregularities in the disposition of illegal drug cases, prompting the Office of the Court Administrator to launch an investigation. In the said 17 criminal cases involving violations of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, respondent Judge issued orders transferring the custody of the accused either to rehabilitation

centers or to the Provincial Parole and Probation Office (PPPO). The judge insisted that such orders were valid under Sections 54 and 57 of RA 9165 and were consistent with the State policy to provide an effective mechanism for drug dependents’ reintegration to the society. He explained that he merely acted on the motions of the accused, and that the prosecution was given opportunity to comment thereon. Jacinto contended that some of the accused in those cases were rightfully transferred to the PPPO despite its different mandate, claiming that it is more experienced in after-care programs for drug dependents. He also denied acquitting several accused in illegal drug cases, maintaining that his decisions speak for themselves. In its report and recommendation submitted to the Court, the OCA held that the judge’s orders transferring the custody of several accused to ei-

PHL can be a global offshore wind-power juggernaut–BBM

S energy experts all agree on the need to ramp up the push for renewable energy (RE), presidential frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. vowed that a Marcos administration would give priority to regulatory and policy reforms enabling the country to realize its potential as a major offshore wind power producer globally. Wind power, along with other RE sources, can help the country lower its electricity rate over the long term and become a competitive destination for foreign investments in a post-pandemic environment, the UniTeam presidential bet stressed. “We have the potential to be a major wind power producer in the world. Our unique topography is very suitable for building offshore wind farms and we should take advantage of it to produce cheap electricity,” Marcos said. “We need to be competitive in a postpandemic global economy and having low electricity rates is crucial in drawing in more foreign direct investments as we pursue aggressive growth targets,” Marcos added. According to 2019 data, the Philippines ranks third among Asia countries with the most expensive power rates at P10 per kWh, after Japan and Singapore. Marcos is also hoping for the completion of the offshore wind power road map being developed by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the World Bank Group, which is expected to be ready within the month. The offshore wind power road map will ensure that adequate rules and regulations are in place to guide

the government in working with all industry stakeholders. “It would be good to have the road map completed at the soonest possible time since it will provide us with the policy framework to fast-track the deployment of wind farms in the country,” Marcos said. According to the World Bank Group, the Philippines has approximately 170 gigawatts (GW) of untapped offshore wind potential. To date, the DOE has awarded five wind energy service contracts with a combined capacity of 1.85 GW for offshore wind projects; Guimaras Strait (100 MW), Aparri Bay (100 MW), Guimaras Strait II (600 MW), Frontera Bay (450 MW), and San Miguel Bay (600 MW) which are all expected to be completed in 2031. The DOE has also received nine additional letters of intent for offshore projects with a total capacity of 12 GW. “Low electricity rates and a steady supply of it are important considerations for would-be investors. As such, we are pushing for the wider use of renewable energy sources as we veer away from our reliance on imported oil,” Marcos stressed. A Norwegian consulting firm predicts that offshore wind’s contribution to the energy mix of nations will increase to 40 percent of total wind energy production from 29 GW in 2019 to 1,748 by 2050. The firm also expects that technological breakthroughs in floating offshore wind, another subsector, would widen its adoption, as such would redound to reduced costs and increased production.

ther rehabilitation centers or to the parole and probation office were actually contrary to Sections 54 and 57 of RA 9165. The OCA noted Jacinto had already been subject of previous administrative cases where he was held liable for gross ignorance of the law and conduct unbecoming of a public official; thus, his dismissal from the service is warranted. In upholding the OCA’s findings, the Court noted that based on Section 54 and 57 of RA 9165, the process for voluntary submission to treatment or rehabilitation should commence through an application to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), who shall then endorse the application to the trial court. Afterwards, the court shall order the examination of the applicant for drug dependency. Should the examination confirm that the applicant is drug dependent, the court shall order treatment and

rehabilitation for a period from six months to one year. The DDB shall then assess whether further confinement is necessary. After the drug dependent is discharged from the voluntary submission program, he may then apply for an exemption from criminal liability under Section 55, in relation to Section 15 of RA 9165. Otherwise, he may then be charged and shall be placed under probation in lieu of imprisonment and or fine, without prejudice to the decision in any pending case filed in court. The Court noted that the orders issued by Jacinto committing some of the accused to rehabilitation lacked the required endorsement of the DDB and examination conducted by a Department of Healthaccredited physician. Furthermore, the SC noted that those transferred to the custody of the PPPO did not appear to have un-

dergone voluntary rehabilitation. The Court also pointed out that there is nothing in the law, which sanctions transfer of custody or detention of those accused of illegal drug offenses to the PPPO. “RA 9165 is neither novel nor highly technical for respondent Judge to be oblivious of its provisions. In fact, he invoked Sections 54 and 57 thereof to justify his orders,” the SC said. “Nonetheless, despite the clear directive of the law, respondent Judge ignored the proper procedure stated therein. Respondent Judge’s persistent disregard of the applicable statutory provisions despite his knowledge thereof, clearly reflect his bad faith and his predisposition to take the law into his own hands,” it added. The SC said Jacinto’s actions have unduly diminished the public’s confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

A4 Friday, April 8, 2022 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

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Golden Rice hurdles NSIC varietal registration By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

OLDEN Rice has moved a step forward toward full commer-

cialization in the country after it successfully hurdled varietal registration with the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC). Philippine Rice Research Institute

Healthier Rice project leader Dr. Reynante Ordonio said Golden Rice has been successfully registered with the NSIC on Thursday, April 7. “Meaning, this [variety] is now

fully recognized by the Bureau of Plant Industry. If ever farmers plant this variety, they can now apply for crop insurance. They are now of the same level as other [rice] varieties,”

Ordonio said in a virtual roundtable discussion organized by the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service in Manila, US Embassy Dhaka and Farming Future Bangladesh. Ordonio said the Golden Rice would now have to pass the seed certification by the National Seed Quality Control Services (NSQCS) to be able to kick-start the pilot deployment of the genetically modified crop in seven provinces nationwide. Ordonio explained they are targeting the pilot deployment of the Golden Rice in provinces with “high incidence of malnutrition and stunting,” which includes Quirino and Catanduanes in Luzon, Samar and Antique in Visayas, Lanao del Norte, Agusan del Sur and Maguindanao in Mindanao. He added that a total of 9 hectares would be covered by the pilot deployment. However, Ordonio said there would be no pilot deployment sans the seed certification by the NSQCS. “Before we go to the actual deployment, the next phase is seed certification, which is under the purview of the NSQCS. There would be no commercial selling yet [of Golden Rice]. It would be the PhilRice that will produce the nucleus seeds,” he said. “[The timetable] would depend on the NSQCS if it will allow us to have the certification so that the planting can be done by the wet season. Hopefully, by the wet season we can proceed with the planting,” he added. The final varietal name approved by NSIC for Golden Rice is NSIC 2022 Rc G70GR2E with a

nickname of Malusog 1. In July of last year, Golden Rice was approved for commercial planting after the government issued the biosafety permit for commercial propagation for the crop. The biosafety permit said the Golden Rice has undergone “satisfactory biosafety assessment” pursuant to the Joint Department Circular (JDC) 1, Series of 2016 issued by the Departments of Science, Agriculture, Environment, Health, and the Interior and Local Government. The Philippines became the first country to issue a commercialization permit for Golden Rice. PhilRice has earlier explained that the Golden Rice followed the standard process of rice breeding that usually takes 10 to 12 years before a new variety reaches the consumers. Proponents of the Golden Rice emphasize that the genetically modified crop is one of the measures to combat vitamin A deficiency in the country. The approval for commercialization of Golden Rice last year met numerous opposition from various industry groups, such as Greenpeace Philippines and Rice Watch Action Network Inc. The groups argued that there was a lack of transparency regarding risk assessment results of golden rice. (Related story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2021/07/26/group-urges-da-to-stop-commercial-propagation-of-vitamin-a-rich-rice/ and https://businessmirror.com. ph/2021/07/29/groups-sustainopposition-to-local-propagationof-golden-rice-variety/)

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DAIRY FARMERS APPEAL DEPED ORDER ON SCHOOL-BASED FEEDING PROGRAM By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

ILIPINO dairy farmers stand to lose P240 million in income opportunities since they could be eased out in the government’s milk feeding program this year due to Department of Education’s (DepEd) recent policy shifts, an industry group said. The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) wrote to Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones seeking “reconsideration” of the department’s policy concerning the 2022 School-based Feeding Program (SBFP). PCAFI President Danilo V. Fausto said the latest policy of DepEd of implementing the SBFP from April to June will “diminish and minimize the participation of the local dairy farmers” in the feeding program. “We also learned that the DepEd had asked the National Dairy Authority [NDA] and the Philippine Carabao Center [PCC] for a certification allowing the sourcing of milk from commercial processors for the SBFP under 2022 GAA. We strongly deplore and object to this sudden and unilateral program implementation schedule for the 2022 GAA [General Appropriations Act],” he said. “The schedule will effectively and unfairly prevent the local farmers, cooperatives and local milk processing plants from supplying the milk requirements of the SBFP under the 2022 GAA. This is totally unacceptable considering

that RA 11037 states unequivocally that as far as practicable, milk for the SBFP shall be sourced from local farmers and processors,” he added. Fausto, who is also a director of the Dairy Confederation of the Philippines, explained that local dairy farmers, processors and cooperatives have been part of the SBFP since 2019. “They cannot possibly be expected to supply the GAA 2022 milk in the sudden and unilateral imposition of an April 2022 to June 2022 period within which to supply milk because the 2021 GAA is still ongoing and the milk is still being produced and delivered by them,” he said. Due to the policy shifts, Fausto explained that the local dairy industry stands to lose around P240 million in lost income opportunities and sales, with multinational commercial milk processors benefiting the most. “We reiterate that local dairy farmers, cooperatives, and local milk processing plants are capable of supplying the SBFP’s milk needs. With regards to supply, the whole local dairy industry is ready to commit or even exceed its 2021 deliveries,” he said. “We have supplied 20 days of milk feeding for GAA 2019, 50 days for GAA 2020 and currently GAA 2021 for 33 days. More so, for the program under the GAA 2022, which has a feeding program of only 16 days,” he added. Fausto said they are appealing to DepEd to reconsider its 2022 SBFP plan and allow local dairy farmers to serve and participate in the 16day program.

Friday, April 8, 2022 A5

Solons laud move on PUV drivers’ ‘ayuda’ distribution, but how about the farmers? By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

AWMAKERS on Thursday said the financial assistance to public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and the fuel subsidy for the agriculture sector should not be considered as election campaign spending. House Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez welcomed the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow the distribution of P6,500 financial assistance to PUV drivers. But Rodriguez said the poll body should also exempt from the public spending ban the fuel subsidy for farmers to aid them from skyrocketing prices of farm inputs. “I believe that the fuel ayuda for the agriculture sector [should likewise be] exempted from the Comelec. It is in the same situation as the PUV drivers sector,” the House leader said. Comelec Commissioner George M. Garcia said the Comelec en banc has yet to approve the request of DA to have its P500-million fuel voucher program. Garcia said the Comelec en banc is expected to tackle DA’s petition during its meeting next week. Also, House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate asked the election body to also fast-track the go signal for aid distribution to the agricul-

tural and other sectors hit by the rampant increases in oil prices. “This ayuda is long overdue and people expect the poll body to act with dispatch and not to repeat the callous dilly-dallying of the DBM [Department of Budget and Management], DOTr [Department of Transportation] and DILG [Department of the Interior and Local Government],” he said. “For as long as the Duterte administration has not called for a special session of Congress to suspend the excise tax on oil, Comelec should exempt from the election ban aid to be given to the agricultural and transport sector as well as the poorest Filipinos. These should not be considered as election campaign spending but these should still be monitored strictly as these may be used for partisan purposes,” added Zarate. The Department of Agriculture (DA) has already appealed to the Comelec to exempt its fertilizer and fuel subsidy programs from the election-spending ban. Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said the DA’s programs affected by the public spending ban include the fuel subsidy for corn farmers and fishermen; fertilizer subsidy for rice, corn, and cassava farmers; cash assistance to rice farmers and even the procurement of farm machinery by the Philip-

pine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization. Dar said that they received a notice from the Comelec to stop the distribution of their fuel subsidy program, which has been in implementation for two weeks. He added that they have not distributed a substantial amount of the P500million subsidy since the Comelec has stopped its operations. Moreover, Rodriguez, who represents Cagayan de Oro’s second district, said the release of these funds should be devoid of politics. “It is a government agency that is giving the money to PUV drivers. The LTFRB should not allow any politician to meddle or be associated with the distribution. The process should be devoid of politics,” he said. According to LTFRB data, as of April 5 when the distribution was stopped, only 110,200 out of the over 377,000 intended beneficiaries have received their ayuda. Rodriguez said many drivers in Cagayan de Oro City and Northern Mindanao still have to be given their financial assistance. “The Comelec should not wait for more increases in the pump prices of diesel, gasoline and other oil products before approving LTFRB’s application for an exemption from the spending ban,” he said. He said the funds are intended

to help those in the public transportation sector cope with difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. These difficulties have been aggravated by soaring fuel prices brought about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he added. He said such spikes would effectively decrease the value of the financial assistance that PUV drivers would receive. For his part, House Transportation Committee Chairman Edgar Mary Sarmiento said the Comelec’s decision provides great relief for the tens of thousands of PUV drivers and operators nationwide who bore the brunt of the series of fuel price increases. He added that this would also ensure the full utilization of the P2.5-billion fuel subsidy which was allotted by Congress through the General Appropriations Act (GAA 2022) and another P2.5 billion sourced from the excise tax for petroleum products. The government has partially distributed the subsidy targeting 377,000 drivers and operators at P6,500 each. The distribution however was halted on March 25 pending Comelec’s position on LTFRB’s request for exemption from the prevailing ban on cash disbursement during the election period.

BusinessMirror

Friday, April 8, 2022

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

ACCENTURE, INC. 7f, Robinsons Cybergate Tower 1, Pioneer St, City Of Mandaluyong

KUNDU, ANANDA Service Delivery Ops Lead Senior Manager 1.

Brief Job Description: Assign all work assignments, commit the team to work, manage the quality of the work and drive the people management activities within the team.

Basic Qualification: Degree of difficulty of an assignment or the level of problem-solving assessment and resolution required, as measured by degree of problem-solving, strategic vs. routine focus, and stakeholder interactions (e.g. Executives, Supervisor, etc.) Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

MAKANDAR, YASAR RAMJAN Tech Writing & Translation Sr Analyst Brief Job Description: Act as software detectives. GABRIELA ELLIS SUMAMPOUW Transaction Processing Associate

Brief Job Description: Attend to all queries from Indonesian customers and vendors on a daily basis within the agreed deadlines.

Basic Qualification: Experience in Java Enterprise edition

No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

15.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

LIAO, MENGMENG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 16.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 Basic Qualification: Can speak and write in bahasa language.

NGUYEN THI CHINH Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 17.

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

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

ACE VELOCITY CONSULTANCY INC. 37/f Lkg Tower, 6801 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati TAN YANG WAH Chinese Speaking Solutions Consultant 4.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

TANG, QIAO Chinese Speaking Solutions Consultant 5.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

ZHUO, KAIYONG Chinese Speaking Solutions Consultant 6.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

WANG, KE Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 18.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ZHONG, XINZHAN Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 19.

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints, and promotions

LIANG, YUNNA Marketing And Sales Agent 20.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor Degree

Brief Job Description: Pilot flight crew

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

BIGCAT SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. 18/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Avenue Cor. Rufino Street, Salcedo Vill., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Brief Job Description: Develop robust financial policy and procedures.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree, finance accountancy, banking or equivalent.

LI, TZU-LIN a.k.a. LI, WAN-LING Technical Support 10.

Brief Job Description: Installing and configuring computer systems, diagnosing hardware and software faults and solving technical and applications problem.

21.

11.

Brief Job Description: Plan supervise and manage administrative, financial and employee’s support

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English both verbal and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CY TECHLABS INC. L2-l5 14th Floor Pse Tower, 5th Avenue Corner 28th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig KO, YI-NING Finance Manager 12.

Brief Job Description: Monitor the day-to-day financial operations within the company, such as payroll, invoicing and other transactions HUANG, YI-CHIN Product Manager

13.

Brief Job Description: Define the product vision, strategy, design, implementation, and innovation to deliver value to the consumer and business

Basic Qualification: Preferably have vast knowledge and experience in related field Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

ZENG, YILANG Account Manager 22.

14.

Brief Job Description: Manages the day hotel operations in keeping with all corporate and brand standard

Brief Job Description: Responsible for managing and growing key customers of fiberhome in the phil. FU, XUYANG Marketing Manager

23.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for managing and growing key customers of fiberhome in the phil. SUN, WEI Project Manager

24.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for managing and growing key customers of fiberhome in the phil. WU, BINGHUA Project Manager

25.

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

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

31.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for managing technical issues on materials and equipment being used.

LUO, JI Account Manager 26.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for managing and growing key customers of the company

33.

34.

28.

LUU PHU TOAN Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service

Brief Job Description: Overseas Workplace repair Installations and any other work that could harm Employees safety ,Check all the Employees are acting in Adherence with rules and regulations DING, YALIN Purchasing Coordinator

35.

Brief Job Description: Design and maintain all vendors reports and evaluate all issue and assist to prepare all data coordinate with supervisor and provide support to all products research programs

ZHAI, XILING Purchasing Coordinator 36.

Brief Job Description: Coordinate with superior and provide support to all products research program and assist to obtain all required approvals and maintain all spreadsheets purchase activities.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English language both verbal and written.

KALIA, VINAL DILIP Senior Director Of Operations 37.

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

Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

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

Basic Qualification: Bilingual - can speak two languages in a nativelevel; At least two years of relevant experience; Bachelor’s degree in any field Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English language both in written and verbal. Must be familiar in expert planning and administrative writing and reporting skills. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English language both in written and verbal must familiar in expert planning and administrative writing and reporting skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in English Language both in Written and Verbal With Working knowledge in Construction Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English language both in written and verbal, must familiar in expert planning and administrative writing and reporting skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English language both in written and verbal. Must familiar in expert planning and administrative writing and reporting skills. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Offer solutions utilizing persuasive with themes and effective project management strategies, develop a deep understanding of taskus portfolio of service and solutions.

Basic Qualification: Can call themselves a veteran global operations manager, is able to fly locally and globally (as soon as it’s safe to do so) Can lead, can communicate, and can revolutionize tech solutions. Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English both verbal and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Must be able to read, write and translate in Mandarin: in both simplified and traditional

LIZARDBEAR TASKING INC. 17th To 20th Floors, Twenty Four Seven Mckinley Building, 24th Street And Seventh Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

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

27.

Brief Job Description: Customer Service

Brief Job Description: Interacting about the various products of the company with the customers and applying them with commercial enterprise-specific examples organizing the company and clients HUANG, LIANGYAN Mandarin Speaking Safety Officer

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

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

LE THI KIM NGAN Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description: Performing administrative tasks such as preparing invoices, estimates, scheduling meeting, responsible for assisting to manage and monitoring sites safety and control of materials.

YANG, DINGXING Equipment Installation Specialist

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English language both verbal and written.

Brief Job Description: Assist management on any regular and irregular evaluation process. Respond to and resolve employee relations issues expressed by team members; create and maintain high quality work environment so team members are motivated to perform at their highest level. Address disciplinary problems according to company policy which includes but is not limited to: tardiness, bad work ethic, extensive private conversations, and personal browsing on the Internet. Assist manager with daily operation tasks specified by management. Ensure employees have appropriate training and other resources to perform their jobs. Respond to and resolve employee relations issues expressed by team members. Direction and resolution. Providing feedback to management about possible improvements for the department.

SU, RONGFANG Assistant Project Supervisor

Basic Qualification: Can contributes information, ideas, and research to help develop marketing strategies; can help to detail, design, and implement marketing plans for each product or service being offered.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English language both verbal and written.

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

JIANGSU DIBANG CONSTRUCTION PHILIPPINES CORPORATION Unit 2106-a West Tower, Psec Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

32.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin and English language both verbal and written.

Brief Job Description: Develops and implements financial management strategies: budgeting, forecasting, sales revenue, cash flow, and treasury analysis

Basic Qualification: Must be able to read, write and translate in mandarin Chinese in both simplified and traditional

BEH LIAN CHYOU Operations Team Leader

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

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

INNOCONEXION TECHNOLOGIES OPC 29/f Pacific Star Bldg., Sen. Gil Puyat Cor. Makati Aves., Bel-air, City Of Makati

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

FLYING DRAGON NETWORK PHILIPPINES INC. Ri Rance Ii Bldg., Block 2 Lot 3 Aseana City, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

30.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

Brief Job Description: Devise and develop the overall brand marketing plans and strategies for the Philippine market and lead the entire marketing and branding assessment in all regional centers and leading mall stores. ZHANG, QINGSHAN Mandarin Regional Sales Manager

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

Basic Qualification: Preferably have vast knowledge and experience in related field

Basic Qualification: College degree or diploma

29.

FLARENEO PRIME TECHNOLOGY INC. 1815 High St., South Corporate Plaza Tower 1, 9th Ave. Cor. 26th St., Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

DELUXE HOTELS AND RECREATION INC. U-b 9/f Necc Bldg., Newport Ci Newport Blvd. Vab, Barangay 183, Pasay City LUCAS, JONATHAN JAMES General Manager

YU, JIAXIANG Mandarin Operations Manager

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

HEBE BEAUTY COSMETICS INC. 903 Picadilly Star Bldg., 4th Ave. Cor. 27th St., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

FIBERHOME PHILS., INC. U-19d 19/f Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Degree in computer science or information technology. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services and implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas

No.

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

CHINA WATER RESOURCES BEIFANG INVESTIGATION DESIGN AND RESEARCH CO., LTD PHILIPPINES BRANCH 3/f Salcedo One Center, 170 Salcedo St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati CHEN, ZHIYONG Resident Agent

Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services and implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas

LUI EU JIN Marketing And Sales Agent

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

BRENPRO INC. 6f & 7f Nexus Center, 1010 Metropolitan Ave. & Kamagong St., San Antonio, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

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

HSIEH, HSIANG-LIN a.k.a. SHAWN HSIEH Limited First Officer - A320

IVANA CHANDRA Bahasa Indonesian Language - Marketing Officer

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

Basic Qualification: 21 Years Old and Above, Fluent in Korean Language

ASTRO AIR INTERNATIONAL, INC. (PAN PACIFIC AIRLINES) Unit 1401 & 1411 Aseana 3 Bldg., Macapagal Cor. Aseana Ave. Aseana City, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

EASTERN GOLD CORPORATION 503, Nueva St., Barangay 289, Binondo, City Of Manila

ASIAN TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, INC. 11/f Tower 2, Double Dragon, Macapagal Blvd., Barangay 76, Pasay City PARK, SAE BYEOK Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

DYNAMIC STUDIO TECHNOLOGY INC. 5th To 10th/f Platinum Tower Building, Aseana Ave. Cor. Fuentes Street, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque HAN, JING Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate

www.businessmirror.com.ph

VEERA, APARNA VINESH Vice President Of Strategic Account Alignment 38.

Brief Job Description: Offer solutions utilizing persuasive with themes and effective project management strategies, develop a deep understanding of taskus portfolio of service and solutions.

Basic Qualification: College graduate (of any relevant field); With at least seven (7) years of work experience in a senior leadership role in a business process outsourcing (BPO) company supporting multiple geographies. Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

MINDSCAPE CREATIVES INC. Unit 19-o, Burgundy Corporate Tower, 252 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati CHANG, CHIEN-PING Mandarin Operation Specialist 39.

Brief Job Description: Committed to Improving Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency

Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION WAN, DENGQIANG Mandarin Operations Specialist

40.

Brief Job Description: Committed to Improving Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 4th-11th Flr. Nexgen Tower, C4 Rd. Edsa Ext., Barangay 76, Pasay City

41.

42.

CAI, YIKAI Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires CHEN, ZHI Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires CHO YIN SHAN Chinese Customer Service

43.

44.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries FANG, JIAHAO Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires HNIN NU NU NAING Chinese Customer Service

45.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries HOANG VAN NGHIA Chinese Customer Service

46.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. KIKI LIANTO Chinese Customer Service

47.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries LAI YU SUAN Chinese Customer Service

48.

49.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries LI, WEIJIN Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires MOE MOE AYE Chinese Customer Service

50.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries MOE YAN MIN Chinese Customer Service

51.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries NANG EI EI MYO Chinese Customer Service

52.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. NG YING YUN Chinese Customer Service

53.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries NGUYEN THI THUY Chinese Customer Service

54.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming Calls and Customer Service Inquiries ONG WEI KANG Chinese Customer Service

55.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. SAI AUNG MYO OO Chinese Customer Service

56.

57.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. SAI PHON KHAM Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires SOE TUN Chinese Customer Service

58.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. TAN CHING CHONG Chinese Customer Service

59.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. THAI KHANH LINH Chinese Customer Service

60.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. TO THI QUYNH TRAM Chinese Customer Service

61.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. TRENH GIA QUYEN Chinese Customer Service

62.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. VENDON LEE JIANN LEONG Chinese Customer Service

63.

64.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries. ZHAO, WEIHAO Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires

No.

CHEN, BO Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 65.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

CHEN, WENHAO Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 66.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language

67.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language.

68.

69.

70.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

LIN, XIAOKUN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 71.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

LI, LE Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

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

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

LI, CHENGWEN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

JIANG, YONGYANG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

CHEN, YONGXIN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

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

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

LIU, NING Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 72.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language

REN, JING Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 73.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

WANG, JINGXI Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 74.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language

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

75.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language.

76.

77.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

78.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

No.

LEE CHIA SIANG Multilingual Jr Executive Assistant Brief Job Description: Executive assistant

79.

80.

BENNY Indonesian Language Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Knowledgeable in computer skills including common business applicants TOMMY STEVEN Indonesian Language Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Knowledgeable in computer skills including common business applicants

81.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for leading PCPPI in the development and implementation of strategic programs

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

82.

Brief Job Description: Serves as the initial point of contact postdeployment and provides global support end user requests and issues related to the Digital products; basic troubleshooting

Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Japanese and English (both spoken and written) preferably Japanese Native Speakers Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

SKY DRAGON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES CORP. 2f-5f, Unit 710 Shaw Blvd., Global Link Center, Wack-wack Greenhills, City Of Mandaluyong

83.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in mandarin, both oral and written.

YANG, HYUNJIN Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer relations service provider.

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

SOLIDLEISURE SOLUTIONS INC. Unit 2602-d & 2603-a West Tower, Psec Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin.

FAN, TAO Mandarin Team Leader 84.

Brief Job Description: Maintain and drive program knowledge for self and team.

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

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

TELUS INTERNATIONAL PHILIPPINES, INC. Units 23/f, 31st/f - 37th/f Discovery Centre, Adb Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

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

85.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

PARK (SPOUSE OF KIM), JUNG-YOUN Korean Operations Csr Ii

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Provides expedient and accurate customer service to Korean speaking clients and customers

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

86.

Brief Job Description: Design, lead, implement, in charge of the technical direction of Futsal programs

WEBSTER, JONATHAN VINCENT Director, Multinational Corporates And International Subsidiaries Banking 87.

Brief Job Description: In line with the group’s growth strategy, identifies various opportunities for business growth. develops and builds close working relationships with the existing client base to maximize return returns on current business and steadily grow share of client wallet

WNS GLOBAL SERVICES PHILIPPINES, INC. 9/f 1880 Bldg., Eastwood City Cyberpark, Bagumbayan, Quezon City JAGGI, KUNAL General Manager Operations 88.

FEBRUAHIKMA CAHYA PRADANTA Indonesian-speaking Customer Service Officer 89.

90.

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

Basic Qualification: Must be an appointed member of the board Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

PROBE CX PHILIPPINES INC. 24th Flr. Mdc 100 Bldg., J. Garcia C5 Road Cor. Eastwood Ave., Bagumbayan, Quezon City

Brief Job Description: Indonesian written reports on a daily operation of call center activities performing customer oriented telephone activities and various background operation duties. RIKKY SAPUTRA Indonesian-speaking Customer Service Officer

91.

Brief Job Description: Indonesian written reports on a daily operation of call center activities performing customer oriented telephone activities and various background operation duties. SOKANTHAD, YAOWANARD Thai-speaking Customer Service Officer

92.

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Brief Job Description: Thai written reports on a daily operation of call center activities performing customer oriented telephone activities and various background operation duties.

Basic Qualification: Indonesian speaking and written. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thai speaking and written. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ZX-PRO TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION 16/f Robinsons Cybergate 3, Pioneer, Barangka Ilaya, City Of Mandaluyong

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently

Brief Job Description: Indonesian written reports on a daily operation of call center activities performing customer oriented telephone activities and various background operation duties. HERMANTO Indonesian-speaking Customer Service Officer

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

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the Management of and Coordination among Members of the Operations Team

Basic Qualification: Vast Knowledge and Experience in Operating Contact center Process

ZAPPORT SERVICES, INC. 36/f Burgundy Corporate Tower, 252 Sen. Gil J. Puyat Ave., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin, both oral and written

Basic Qualification: Significant experience in a similar role, either at associate director or director level; a strong track record building and developing long term relationships including at key decision maker level for all clients; excellent relationship management and stakeholder management skills, both internal and external, effectively managing a broad portfolio of clients across a range of industries Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION LIMITED - PHILIPPINE BRANCH 3058 Hsbc Center, 5th Ave. West, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: At least A level in Futsal coaching license given by a FIFA recognized member association

HERMANS, VICTOR JACOBUS Futsal Technical Director

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

Basic Qualification: Skilled in Korean language

THE HENRY V. MORAN FOUNDATION, INC. 101 Connecticut, Cor. Missouri St., Greenhills, City Of San Juan

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written.

PEPSI-COLA PRODUCTS PHILIPPINES, INC. 26th Flr., Filinvest Axis Tower Two Bldg., Northgate Cyberzone, Fcc, Alabang, City Of Muntinlupa

AHN, JIN PYO Chief Corporate Strategy Officer

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION MITSUDA, KATE Japanese Bilingual - Digital Support Representative

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

OPTIMUS SYSTEM SOLUTIONS INC. 8/f Alphaland Makati Tower 3, 7232 Ayala Ave. Extn. Cor. Malugay St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

ONWARD WORLDWIDE MANAGEMENT & CONSULTANCY SERVICES CORP. 5/f Greensun Bldg., 2285 Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Magallanes, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

ZHU, XINTIAN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

ZHANG, HENGCHANG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services.

YANG, CHAOQIANG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NEO INCORPORATED North Tower Centrum Bldg., Aseana Avenue, Entertainment City, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Friday, April 8, 2022

BEZOBRAZOVA, DARIA Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 93.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 *Date Generated: Apr 7, 2022

In the ad material of Notice of Filing of Application for Alien Employment Permits published on April 6, 2022, the position, should have been read as JR. OPERATIONS ANALYST, GLOBAL MEETING SERVICES -VIETNAMESE SPEAKER and not as published. In the ad material of Notice of Filing of Application for Alien Employment Permits published on April 6, 2022, the position, should have been read as MANDARIN EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION SPECIALIST and not as published. Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE National Capital Region located at DOLE-NCR Building, 967 Maligaya St., Malate Manila, within 30 days after this publication. Please inform DOLE National Capital Region if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Friday, April 8, 2022

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Ukraine girds for renewed Russian offensive across the Donbas region By Adam Schreck The Associated Press

YIV, Ukraine—Ukraine braced for a climactic battle for control of the besieged country’s industrial east after Russian forces withdrew from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their offensive across the Donbas region, where authori-

ties urged people to evacuate before time runs out. The mayor of the southern port city of Mariupol said Wednesday that more than 5,000 civilians had been killed there. Meanwhile, in areas north of the capital, Ukrainian officials gathered evidence of Russian atrocities amid signs Moscow’s troops killed people indiscriminately before retreating over the past several days.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the Russian military is building up its forces for a new offensive in the east, where the Kremlin has said its goal is to “liberate” the Donbas, Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland. Ukraine, too, was preparing for battle, he said. “We will fight and we will not retreat,”

he said. “We will seek all possible options to defend ourselves until Russia begins to seriously seek peace. This is our land. This is our future. And we won’t give them up.” Ukrainian authorities urged people living in the Donbas to evacuate immediately. “Later, people will come under fire,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, “and we won’t be able to do anything to help them.” A US defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said Russia had completed pulling out all of its estimated 24,000 or more troops from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas in the north, sending them into Belarus or Russia to resupply and reorganize, probably to return to fight in the east. But a Western official, also speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence estimates, said it will take Russia’s battle-damaged forces as much as a month to regroup for a major push on eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US and its Western allies have moved to impose new sanctions against the Kremlin over killings they labeled as war crimes. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said that of the more than 5,000 civilians killed during weeks of Russian bombardment and street fighting, 210 were children. Russian forces bombed hospitals, including one where 50 people burned to death, he said. Boichenko said more than 90 percent of the city’s infrastructure was destroyed. The attacks on the strategic city on the Sea of Azov have cut off food, water, fuel and medicine and pulverized homes and businesses. British defense officials said 160,000 people remained trapped in the city, which had a prewar population of 430,000. A humanitarian relief convoy accompanied by the Red Cross has been trying for days without success to get into the city. Capturing Mariupol would allow Russia to secure a continuous land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. In the north, Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of least 410 civilians have been found in towns around Kyiv, victims of what Zelenskyy has portrayed as a Russian campaign of murder, rape, dismemberment and torture. Some victims

had apparently been shot at close range. Some were found with their hands bound. In his address Wednesday night, Zelenskyy accused Russia of interfering with an international investigation into possible war crimes by removing corpses and trying to hide other evidence in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv. “We have information that the Russian troops have changed tactics and are trying to remove the dead people, the dead Ukrainians, from the streets and cellars of territory they occupied,” he said. “This is only an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more.” Switching from Ukrainian to Russian, Zelenskyy urged ordinary Russians “to somehow confront the Russian repressive machine” instead of being “equated with the Nazis for the rest of your life.” He called on Russians to demand an end to the war, “if you have even a little shame about what the Russian military is doing in Ukraine.” In reaction to the alleged atrocities outside Kyiv, the US announced sanctions against Putin’s two adult daughters and said it is toughening penalties against Russian banks. Britain banned investment in Russia and pledged to end its dependence on Russian coal and oil by the end of the year. The US Senate planned to take up legislation Thursday to end normal trade relations with Russia and to codify President Joe Biden’s executive action banning imports of Russian oil. The trade suspension would allow Biden to enact higher tariffs on certain Russian imports. The European Union is also expected to take additional punitive measures, including an embargo on coal. The Kremlin has insisted its troops have committed no war crimes and alleged the images out of Bucha were staged by the Ukrainians. More bodies were yet to be collected in Bucha. The Associated Press saw two in a house in a silent neighborhood. From time to time there was the muffled boom of workers clearing the town of mines and other unexploded ordnance. Workers at a cemetery began to load more than 60 bodies into a grocery shipping truck for transport to a facility for further investigation. Police said they found at least

20 bodies in the Makariv area west of Kyiv. In the village of Andriivka, residents said the Russians arrived in early March and took locals’ phones. Some people were detained, then released. Others met unknown fates. Some described sheltering for weeks in cellars normally used for storing vegetables. “First we were scared, now we are hysterical,” said Valentyna Klymenko, 64. She said she, her husband and two neighbors weathered the siege by sleeping on stacks of potatoes covered with a mattress and blankets. “We didn’t cry at first. Now we are crying.” To the north of the village, in the town of Borodyanka, rescue workers searched through the rubble of apartment blocks, looking for bodies. Thwarted in their efforts to swiftly take the capital, increasing numbers of Putin’s troops, along with mercenaries, have been reported moving into the Donbas. Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas since 2014. Ahead of its Feb. 24 invasion, Moscow recognized the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as independent states. The United States and the United Kingdom boycotted an informal meeting Wednesday of the UN Security Council called by Russia to press its baseless claims that the US has biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine. The meeting was the latest of several moves by Russia that have led Western countries to accuse Moscow of using the UN as a platform for disinformation to divert attention from the war. Russia’s allegations have previously been debunked. Ukraine does own and operate a network of biological labs that have received funding and research support from the US and are not a secret. The labs are part of a program that aims to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks, whether natural or manufactured. The US efforts date to work in the 1990s to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s program for weapons of mass destruction.

Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Cara Anna in Bucha, Ukraine, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Ukraine asks Nato for more weapons in war against Russia

RU S SE L S — U k r a i ne on Thursday appealed to Nato for more weapons in its fight against Russia to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha, and urged Germany to slash red tape so that more supplies can get in. Nato, as an organization, refuses to send troops to Ukraine or police any no-f ly zone to prevent Ru ssi a f rom complete ly overwhelming its neighbor. But individual member countries are supplying anti-aircraft and antitank weapons, as well as equipment and medical supplies. For Ukraine, this is simply not enough. “My agenda is very simple. It only has three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons, and weapons,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in Brussels, as Nato foreign ministers gathered to discuss ways to shore up support for Kyiv. “We know how to fight. We know how to win. But without sustainable and sufficient supplies requested by Ukraine, these wins

will be accompanied by enormous sacrifices,” Kuleba said. “The more weapons we get and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved.” Germany was widely criticized earlier this year for its refusal to provide only non-lethal supplies, as Ukrainian cities buckled under Russia’s air and ground offensive. But once President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade, Berlin changed tack, sending arms and ramping up defense spending. But Kuleba said that Germany can do more, and go faster. “While Berlin has time, Kyiv doesn’t,” he said. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that her country is “ looking closely with our partners at how we can support Ukraine in the future more intensively, and more coordinated because they have a right of self defense and we will support this.” Some of the countries sending weapons are making a distinction about what kind of support they can provide. Ukraine, they argue, should only receive arms that can

be used for defensive purposes and not warplanes or tanks that might allow the country to really fight back, rather than hold out. Nato’s great fear is that the 30 nations might be dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. But Nato Secretar y-General Jens Stoltenberg rejected the rhetorical arguments over what support to provide the war-torn country. “Ukraine is fighting a defensive war, so this distinction between offensive and defensive weapons doesn’t actually have any real meaning,” he said. Stoltenberg said that he has “urged allies to provide further support of many different types of systems, both light weapons but also heavier weapons.” Despite the allegations of Russia war crimes and warnings that more atrocities might come, it appears unlikely, at least for now, that the world ’s biggest security alliance will agree as an organization to arm Ukraine and help end Europe’s biggest land war since 1945. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Friday, April 8, 2022

Shunned oil piling up off China as Covid-19 outbreak worsens

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Bloomberg photo

Pelosi to visit Taiwan in first such trip for 25 years–FNN

Nited States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to visit Taiwan, according to media reports, a landmark display of American support that triggered a diplomatic protest from Beijing. Pelosi will arrive in Taipei on Sunday following a visit to Japan, according to reports Thursday in both Taiwan and Japan, including by Fuji News Network, which cited people it did not identify. It would be the first visit by a serving US house speaker since Newt Gingrich traveled to Taiwan in 1997. Pelosi ’s office declined to say whether she was traveling to Taipei when contacted by Bloomberg News, citing longstanding security protocols. Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou declined to comment when asked about a potential visit at a press briefing, saying the government will release statement “at the right time.” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen would welcome the show of diplomatic support at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concern that China may follow through on its oft-repeated threat to take control of the democratic island by military force. It would represent the latest in a series of visits by senior US officials to Taiwan in recent years and the most high-profile under the presidency of Joe Biden. Tsai met a bipartisan group led by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen in Taipei in February. That was followed a day later by the arrival of former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on a private trip.

In 2020, two senior officials from the administration of former President Donald Trump—Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Undersecretary of State Keith Krach—led delegations to Taiwan. Azar was the highest-ranking sitting US administration official to visit Taipei since Washington switched official ties to Beijing in 1979. Beijing lodged a protest w ith Washington over reports of Pelosi ’s planned v isit, Chinese Foreign Ministr y spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular briefing Thursday in Beijing. “If she does visit, China will take strong measures and the consequences will be borne by the US,” Zhao said, without giving details on what those steps would entail. China has steadily increased its military pressure on Taiwan, more than doubling its military forays into Taiwan’s air-defense identification zone to around 950 last year, according to Defense Ministry data compiled by Bloomberg. Chinese military aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait two days in a row following Krach’s visit. Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed China’s commitment to a peaceful resolution over Taiwan, saying that the dispute over the democratically ruled island was “not comparable at all” to Ukraine. Still, he reiterated Beijing’s stance that Taiwan was an “inalienable” part of China and warned that any US efforts to condone “separatists” would lead to “unbearable consequences.”

Bloomberg News

Suspected Chinese hackers collect intelligence from India’s power grid

uspected state-sponsored Chinese hackers have targeted the power sector in India in recent months as part of an apparent cyber-espionage campaign, the threat intelligence firm Recorded Future Inc. said in a report published Wednesday. The hackers focused on at least seven “load dispatch” centers in northern India that are responsible for carrying out real-time operations for grid control and electricity dispersal in the areas they are located, near the disputed IndiaChina border in Ladakh, the report said. One of the load dispatch centers previously was the target of another hacking group, RedEcho, which Recorded Future has said shares “strong overlaps” with a hacking group that the US has tied to the Chinese government. “The prolonged targeting of Indian power grid assets by Chinese state-linked groups offers limited economic espionage or traditional intelligence gathering opportunities,” the Recorded Future report states. “We believe this is instead likely intended to enable information gathering surrounding critical infrastructure and/or pre-positioning for future activity.” In addition, the hackers compromised an Indian national emergency

response system and a subsidiary of a multinational logistics company, according to the report. The hacking group, dubbed TAG38, has used a kind of malicious software called ShadowPad, which was previously associated with China’s People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security, according to Recorded Future. Researchers didn’t identify the victims by name. Jon at h a n Cond ra, a sen ior manager at Recorded Future, said the method the attackers used to make the intrusions—using compromised Internet of things devices and cameras—was unusual. The devices used to launch the intrusions were based in South Korea and Taiwan, he said. C h i n e s e Fo r e i g n M i n i s t r y spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular briefing Thursday in Beijing that his country cracked down on all manner of hacking. “We will never encourage, support or condone such activities,” he said. He said Recorded Future, “if it really cares about cybersecurity, should pay more attention to the attacks launched by the US against Chinese companies and institutions.” Indian authorities didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg News

ankers carrying 22 million barrels of Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil are piling up off China, according to Kpler, as the country battles a virus outbreak that’s sapping demand and causing logistics problems. China has been one of the only buyers of sanctioned Iranian and Venezuelan oil over the last few years. The world’s largest crude importer is also still taking Russian supplies that are being largely shunned since the invasion of Ukraine. The trade in the discounted oil is now being disrupted by the country’s worsening virus outbreak, with waiting times to unload ships increasing. Kpler estimates that daily oil demand will drop by at least 450,000 barrels in April, mainly due to falling consumption of gasoline and jet fuel, according to Jane Xie, a senior oil analyst at the data and analytics firm in Singapore. “The ongoing lockdowns in China are definitely having a massive impact on the country’s mobility and consequent oil demand,” she said. “There are also logistical bottlenecks.” China’s independent refiners are typically key buyers of these grades, in part due to cheap pricing and the close proximity to Russia’s eastern ports, but they’ve been hit hard by

the huge market fluctuations following the Covid resurgence. Shrinking refining margins have forced them to cut operating rates and even re-sell some cargoes of crude. The current logjam compares with around 10 million barrels of oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela that were sitting off the Chinese coast at the start of the year, according to Kpler. China’s apparent oil demand averaged around 13.7 million barrels a day in January and February before the current virus outbreak, Bloomberg calculations based on official data show. Average waiting times for ships at Chinese ports have risen to 5.85 days now from 4.46 days in the week starting March 28, it said. For suezmax vessels, which can hold up to 1 million barrels of crude, they have surged to 15 days from 4.46 days last week. Another analytics company, Vortexa Ltd., said there are around 16 million barrels of Iranian and Venezuelan crude in tankers waiting off China. Some 1 million barrels of oil

India to boost arms output, fearing shortfall from Russia

EW DELHI—India on Thursday said it would ramp up its production of military equipment, including helicopters, tank engines, missiles and airborne early warning systems, to offset any potential shortfall from its main supplier Russia. India depends on Russia for nearly 60 percent of its defense equipment, and the war in Ukraine has added to doubts about future supplies. Defense Ministry officials say India, with the world’s second-largest army, fourthlargest air force and seventh-largest navy, can’t sustain itself through imports. “Our objective is to develop India as a defense manufacturing hub,” Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Thursday while releasing a list of military equipment that will be produced domestically and no longer imported. The ministry’s website said military orders worth 2,100 billion rupees ($28 billion) are likely to be placed with domestic state-run and private defense manufacturers in the next five years. Former Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda said that during a visit to India last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin the two sides decided to shift some manufacturing to India to meet its requirements. Imports of helicopters, corvettes, tank engines, missiles and airborne early warning systems will eventually be halted. “The requirements of the Russian military itself, with the kind of losses that it is suffering, may mean some of those spares that we need will probably get diverted,” said Hooda, a retired Indian army general. To meet its short-term requirements India may consider purchases from former Soviet republics and Warsaw pact countries, the ministry officials said. Bulgaria, Poland, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine could help India with spare supplies for Russian fighter aircraft Sukhois and MiG-29s and with upgrading tanks and armored vehicles as they have similar Soviet-origin platforms and spares, said a ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to talk to reporters. External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told his British counterpart Liz Truss during her visit to India last week that there is now an emphasis on “made in India” and that “the more collaborative we are, the possibilities of working together are more.” The two sides discussed ways to strengthen Indo-British defense ties, apparently to reduce India’s strategic dependence on Russia. India’s Defense Ministry has so far identified a “positive indigenization list”

of more than 300 items with a timeline for banning imports to help local manufacturers meet the requirements of the armed forces in the coming years. India’s air force has more than 410 Soviet and Russian fighters with a mix of imported and license-built platforms, including Su30s, MiG-21s and MiG 29s. All require Russian spares and components. India also has Russian submarines, tanks, helicopters, submarines, frigates and missiles. Sanctions on Moscow could jeopardize India’s recent $375 million BrahMos cruise missile export order from the Philippines. Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia, which formed a joint venture with India’s government-run Defense Research and Development Organization to design, upgrade and manufacture BrahMos, is responsible for providing the missile system’s engines and seekers. Rahul Bedi, a defense analyst, said India is awaiting deliveries of Russian missile systems, frigates, an Akula-class nuclearpowered submarine and assault rifles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is pushing for greater selfreliance, but India lacks a strong industrial base for military equipment. The process of shifting manufacturing of spare parts to India has begun, but Hooda said it was unclear if it could quickly make up for any shortfalls of supplies. “I would say if you really want to see significant progress it will take at least five years,” he said. India’s Defense Ministry has also signed nearly 60 offset contracts worth over $13 billion by 2027 for purchases of fighter aircraft and weapons from the United States, France, Russia and Israel. The deals require 30-50 percent of the contract value to be returned to India as offsets or re-investments. An offset involves an obligation by a foreign supplier to buy a certain amount of goods from the importing country as part of the contract. India’s government wants part of that money to benefit its defense industry or to allow the country to gain in terms of technology. It involves setting up joint ventures with Indian companies to manufacture defense equipment. The government announced in the 2022-2023 budget that 68 percent of all capital defense procurement would be for indigenous manufacturers. Meanwhile, bilateral defense trade with the US increased from near zero in 2008 to $15 billion in 2019. Major Indian purchases from the United States included long-range maritime patrol aircraft, C-130 transport aircraft, missiles and drones. AP

a day was sent from the Russian Far East to Asia in March, with China taking around 70 percent, according to Emma Li, an analyst at Vortexa. There are 10 aframax-sized vessels—which can carry about 100,000

tons of oil each—from Russia’s Far East that are showing China as their destination in the first half of this month, Li said. These cargoes were likely to be purchased before the invasion of Ukraine, she said. Bloomberg News

A10 Friday, April 8, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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How to make sanctions on Russia ineffective

S a manufacturing titan, China has become the top trading partner of 128 countries. The United States, despite its much touted trade war with the Asian giant, imported products worth $450.4 billion from China in 2020 against exports of $164.9 billion, which resulted in a trade deficit of $285.5 billion. Imports of the European Union from China grew 35 percent in the last decade. In 2020, the EU’s total imports were worth around $463 billion against exports to China valued at $245 billion. No wonder the EU has a ballooning trade deficit with China, much like the US. From the Associated Press: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Russians of gruesome atrocities in Ukraine and told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that those responsible should immediately be brought up on war crimes charges in front of a tribunal like the one established at Nuremberg after World War II. Over the past few days, grisly images of what appeared to be intentional killings of civilians carried out by Russian forces in Bucha and other towns before they withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv have caused a global outcry and led Western nations to expel scores of Moscow’s diplomats and propose further sanctions, including a ban on coal imports from Russia.” From Bloomberg: The European Union’s foreign policy chief described a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “deaf dialog,” casting doubt on how much cooperation the Asian nation will offer to end the war in Ukraine. “China wanted to set aside our difference on Ukraine,” said Josep Borrell, who accompanied European leaders in talks with Xi last week. “They didn’t want to talk about Ukraine. They didn’t want to talk about human rights and other issues, and instead focused on the positive things.” Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday that “the European side made clear that this compartmentalization is not feasible, not acceptable.” He said the EU urged China to “use its influence with Russia to reach an immediate cease-fire and to support humanitarian corridors,” and added that any attempt to help Moscow evade sanctions would have “serious consequences.” From Bloomberg: “China’s top liquefied natural gas importers are cautiously looking to purchase additional Russian shipments that have been shunned by the market in a bid to take advantage of cheap prices. State-owned companies including Sinopec and PetroChina are in discussions with suppliers to buy spot cargoes from Russia at a deep discount, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some importers are considering using Russian firms to participate in LNG purchase tenders on their behalf to hide their procurement plans from overseas governments, the people said. Most LNG importers around the world won’t buy Russian cargoes out of fear of future sanctions or damage to reputation, as the war in Ukraine drags on and the European Union ratchets up pressure against Moscow. Chinese firms are emerging as some of the only companies willing to take on that risk.” China has already demonstrated its willingness to work with nations that have been sanctioned by the West. Warnings seem hollow, as China has no cost in openly violating, for example, UN and US sanctions on Iran and North Korea. The US and its allies can cripple Russia with severe sanctions, but only if they can prevent Chinese backfilling. But it would be crazy for the US and the EU to just cut Chinese trade off. That’s why China can take advantage of the Russian sanctions and throw a lifeline to Putin. The US and EU are now forced into the painful recognition that Russia’s economy is still being propped up by Beijing. In other words, the more money they put into Chinese pockets, the more ammunition gets loaded into Russian guns. Since 2005

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A four-day workweek in the post-pandemic era Sonny M. Angara

Better Days

S our economy continues to reopen in the face of dwindling Covid-19 cases, the country is now faced with very high fuel prices due to global supply issues caused by the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. This has led to even higher food, utilities, and transport costs—with inflation hitting a six-month high in March. These developments pose significant challenges to ongoing efforts at reviving our ailing economy. More importantly, they add to the heavy burden many Filipinos are still carrying on account of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

This is why Socioeconomic Secretary Karl Chua recently suggested that the country should implement a four-day workweek to “alleviate costs on related expenses, such as fuel and transport costs.” He explained that under such a setup employees would still render 40 hours of work per week by working 10 hours per day instead of the current 8-hour shift. The proposal was backed by the Department of Energy (DOE), which even suggested that work-from-home setups should be extended. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), which noted that the country’s Labor Code does not provide the minimum number of working days in one week, expressed interest in this scheme but stressed that the decision—in the

case of private companies and establishments—ultimately remains with the management. On the other hand, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) floated the suggestion that employees be allowed to work from home on the fifth day instead of compressing the working hours. It should be noted that the Philippines has adopted such a setup before— back in 1990 and 2008. More recently, many progressive countries around the world—such as Scotland, Spain, Iceland, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—have already considered, piloted, experimented with, or adopted a compressed workweek. Those who argue for a four-day workweek cite increased productivity and better work-life balance for employees. Alex

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here at home that have expressed their reservations. For instance, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) argued that while the proposal may be possible as a temporary setup, it may not achieve the desired goal of cutting costs. ECOP President Sergio OrtizLuis Jr. commented to the media that a four-day workweek might be abused and could impact the well-being of the workers. The Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP) also said that the setup might result in delays in their shipments especially for those in the apparel, garments, and textile sectors to potentially impact their $1.5 billion export target in 2022. Clearly, there are merits to both arguments for or against the Neda proposal. But while Malacañang has yet to formally announce its decision in the matter, some across the government—such as the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Court of Tax Appeals, the Sandiganbayan, and Iloilo province—have already adopted the shortened schedule. Be that as it may, what appears to be critical is that there is enough policy flexibility for workers and employers alike to arrive upon mutually beneficial work arrangements—where people can still be productive, without burdening them too much with additional costs.

Senator Sonny Angara has been in public service for 15 years—9 years as Representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and 6 as Senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 250 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate. E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara

Traffic as an indication of economic recovery?

✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Publisher

Pang of the 4 Day Week Global Team, a not-for-profit community advocating for this kind of scheme, stated that companies that implemented this setup found that they were just as productive when compared to the normal five-day work schedule . In fact, some companies experienced higher revenues and profits simply because a four-day workweek was cheaper to implement. In addition, he argued that this setup helped improve the retention rates of many companies and attracted more workers. An often-cited case in support of this scheme is the experience of Microsoft Japan in 2019, when it tested a four-day workweek. Apparently, the experiment resulted in a 40-percent increase in productivity, and reduced electricity consumption and paper printing. At the time, the idea was considered on the fringe. But interestingly, in June 2021, the Japanese government issued its annual economic policy guidelines that included plans to encourage employers to adopt fourday workweeks. This isn’t to say, however, that there aren’t any downsides to the compressed schedule. For example, in a 2018 study of a New Zealand company that adopted the four-day workweek, some employees noted that “the urgency and pressure [of the new setup] was causing heightened stress levels.” Some have also highlighted several concerns with adopting the setup, particularly from companies dealing directly with clients who expect a full five-day work schedule. While it appears the idea has gained currency across the world, there are those

hilippine economic managers have recommended the nationwide shift to Alert Level 1 amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The economic team has suggested some measures to alleviate the impact. Among these measures are opening all schools for faceto-face classes to increase domestic economic activity and raising the fuel subsidy program for public utility vehicle drivers. Given its delicate fiscal position, the government will employ targeted subsidies to forestall a chain reaction of increased public transport and freight costs, which could lead to generally higher domestic prices of a wide range of products and trigger higher wage demands. Indeed, the main priority is to stimulate aggregate demand to prevent stagflation, which is the unfortunate combination of high unemployment (stagnation) and high inflation. Hopefully, the induced economic growth will outpace debt growth and inflation. And with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, people are now seeing heavier traffic in Metro Manila. So, does heavier traffic necessarily mean that the economy is doing well? It is helpful to cite a 2011 study done by Matthias Sweet, a researcher at the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics at McMaster University. Sweet explains the convoluted relation-

ship between traffic congestion and economic growth with an analogy from the film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: “We all know that it is pretty ugly out there when you are stuck in gridlock, but we have reasons to believe that there might be parts of congestion that are all three of those. Congestion may be good in that it is an indicator of active and vibrant urban places. However, congestion might be bad because it means that access is impeded, freight deliveries are not able to happen on time, and people are hating life.” The results of Sweet’s study, which are a bit counter-intuitive, suggest that higher levels of congestion are initially

associated with faster economic growth. However, above a certain threshold, congestion starts to become a drag on growth. Specifically, congestion seems to slow job growth when it gets to be worse than about 35 to 37 hours of delay per commuter per year (or about four-anda-half minutes per one-way trip, relative to free-flowing traffic). Apparently, in some cities, congestion is more good than bad; in others, it is more bad than good. For uncongested cities, a little more congestion might actually be good for their economies because the cost of alleviating congestion is sometimes higher than the cost of the congestion itself. A city that has only a bit of traffic would be wasting taxpayer money on paving new lanes of highway. Until congestion reaches a certain tipping point, it is economically inefficient to spend resources to fix it. Paving new unnecessary highways might do more harm than good to the economy. Above that four-and-a-half-minute threshold, however, something else happens: Commuters’ quality of life starts to decline. If one must spend a miserable hour or two five days a week just to get to work, that person will either require higher wages or look for another job. If congestion makes it harder to match the right workers to the best jobs, that would be economically inefficient, too. Interestingly, in a 2014 report, the Japan International Cooperation Agency found that the Philippines suffered P2.4 billion in daily losses (P0.876 trillion in a year) due to Metro Manila traffic. The report then projected P3.5 billion in daily losses by 2017 (P1.278 trillion in a

year). By comparison, real gross domestic product grew by 6.35 percent (P0.841 trillion) from 2013 to 2014, and by 6.93 percent (P1.113 trillion) from 2016 to 2017. Sadly, the estimated losses due to traffic outweighed income growth. Thankfully, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is proposing changes in work arrangements to ease heavy traffic while Covid-19 restrictions are being relaxed. Before the pandemic, working onsite was strictly required, but having gone through lockdowns, people now realize that economic activity can continue through flexible work arrangements, such as working from home. Under the new normal, less traffic does not necessarily imply less productivity. Flexible work arrangements could even unleash greater productivity and generate savings from less exposure to traffic. As for Build, Build, Build, which aims to create more efficient public transport systems and spread economic development more widely across regions and sectors, this program should continue. Nevertheless, there is a need to rethink what exactly should be built under the new normal. Planners should consider having more open spaces and better infrastructure for pedestrians, joggers, and bikers, who appear to have grown in number recently, since people would like to avoid crowded commuting stations. Indeed, less traffic and a cleaner environment would be the natural consequences of such careful urban planning.

Dr. Ser Percival K. Peña-Reyes is the Associate Director of the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development.

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Friday, April 8, 2022 A11

Ending pandemic and the poetic of attention Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

he pandemic is ending. There is no official announcement about the termination of virus. In other parts, the return to normalcy is attributed to the vaccine. In our country, politics solved the long isolation, the consequence of the contagion.

Politics had always been there in the lockdown. Politics through this government was the cause for the unhampered spread of the virus. Think back to the time when our borders remained open even as other nations were scrambling to barricade theirs. Or when health officials dismiss the virulence of the infection backed by inefficiency and bureaucracy. What would be the sign that the pandemic was easing up? This was the question we did ask; otherwise, we were all sitting it out. A year or one year more. There was no deadline to death. There was life threatened by the view of the cure nowhere in sight. Then the news broke out about the vaccine. Poverty in our livelihood and leadership placed us as mendicants begging for the supply, wishing wealthier worlds would be kinder. Time to look back at what we as human beings had become. We were

kind to strangers. We told others to be kind to each other. With no one spared, we finally learned the tough lesson that there was only one world for us, that for the cure to take place, everyone should be healed. We closely observed the little things around us—the plants, the animals, the air we breathe and the wind that made us wonder what chills they brought to our surroundings. The stars mattered not in terms of romance but in matters of solitude and the ease of being alone. The clouds and the moon were mascots of our day-to-day experience of a threatened life. The most ordinary plants became our succor. Many took care of the blooms and potted shrubs. This obsession turned into commerce and the hobby became a fascination, a label for an interest that would have escaped even the most acute documentarian in the periods before the

affliction. We observed the aged in apartments and prayed that in their age they were not immunocompromised. We prayed for the already sick in faraway homes. We looked at children and hoped for the best, that they were not showing symptoms but were innocent bearers of this new plague. Then we counted days, as in count them especially when our homes were marked with the red letters of contamination. Villages were separated according to the number of the infected. As patients began to recover, it was easier to understand why the frontliners cheered and cried as recovered persons streamed out of hospitals. As for us, we learned to value such sentiment and wept over this illness that can be stopped. And yet there were numerous deaths. To mourn was to belabor an act that had no place among those left behind. Rushed into cremation, the loved ones were assigned to statistics. Only those in the inner bereaved circle knew the grief; the rest of the world soldiered on, as if to stop and to be sorrowful would only allow weakness and weakness in whatever form provided a home for the virus. There were vicious responses as well from people who wanted to exclude nurses and health workers from coming home. They were seen as the most exposed to the virus and thus were bringing with them dangers and hazard. Writers thought of metaphors and

war was a favored notion: we were at war and at the end of this protracted battle, we would be counting the dead. How many did you lose? Who did you lose? Unlike the war dead though, there could be no tombs for the numerous victims, only a memorial in our collective memory for those who did not make it. The truth that we refuse to see is the truth that our pandemic dead were not martyrs to a cause but the cause for us to feel we have been martyred at the shrine to an arrogant science. A week from now, the Roman

Protecting our one planet It’s the economy, stupid! through One Health By Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim

oday is an auspicious day to commemorate World Health Day, as the number of cases and severity of Covid-19 have been reduced to manageable levels, thanks to global efforts, especially in vaccine rollouts. However, we are not in the clear yet and emerging variants and infectious diseases compel us to turn to longer-term strategies for building resilience. The theme Our Planet, Our Health particularly resonates with the Asean. As a region endowed with abundant and unique biodiversity that is crucial to our socio-economic development, the Asean is at the same time vulnerable to new and emerging diseases. Studies indicate that biodiversity loss appears to be associated with the increasing occurrence of zoonotic diseases. Historically, the region has suffered from outbreaks such as the Nipah virus in 1998, the SARs virus in 2003 and the highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza in 1997. Implicated in these outbreaks are bat species, wild birds, and pangolins known to be natural reservoirs of these viruses. The Southeast Asian region is known to be rich in this wildlife that, if protected and maintained in healthy populations, can keep zoonotic diseases in check. The Covid-19 crisis surfaced the reliance of public health and well-being on healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity. In response to Covid-19, Asean leaders have underscored the significance of cross-sectoral cooperation in recovering and building resilience. The Asean Comprehensive Recovery Framework articulates broad strategies and identifies measures for recovery in line with sectoral and regional priorities. It enjoins communities and various sectors to collaborate in key areas including ecosystem-based approaches to increase resilience against future pandemics. The pandemic likewise brought to the fore the need to integrate nature and biodiversity into health plans and programs and a holistic approach to achieving better outcomes for human, animal, and environmental health. Across the region, Asean member states have been implementing species-specific conservation actions, promoting urban biodiversity to build resilience and enhancing synergies—steps that contribute to achieving an integrated approach to address public health issues. Policies and mechanisms for implementing wildlife laws are also in place to help

address the illegal and unsustainable use of wildlife at the local, national, and international levels. Some of the Asean member states’ initiatives include the wildlife disease surveillance program of Malaysia that monitors wildlife diseases through their One Health framework. The links between the human, domestic animal, and wildlife health sectors are coordinated through the InterMinisterial Committee on the Control of Zoonotic Diseases. Similarly, the Philippine Interagency Committee on Zoonoses recognizes the importance of strong coordination between the animal-human-health and environment sectors to prevent and control zoonotic diseases at the national and local levels. In Vietnam, the Vietnam One Health Partnership for Zoonoses (OHP) was established even before the Covid-19 pandemic, enhancing their capacity and preparedness against zoonotic diseases. Meanwhile, in Singapore, information dissemination is among the priority of the One Health Protocol to ensure that medical practitioners, stakeholders, and the public can make informed decisions and participate in prevention and control. The One Health approach is now being welcomed as it opens more potential for the Asean—a biodiverse region—to exemplify leadership in underscoring nature’s central role in bouncing back better and building resilience to reduce risks of future pandemics. As the regional center of excellence, the Asean Center for Biodiversity (ACB) stands to continually support the Asean member states in advocating for an integrated approach toward recovery. With the help of our dialogue and development partners, we contribute to the efforts of the countries in ensuring that biodiversity, including wildlife species and critical ecosystems, is effectively managed to achieve long-term benefits for the health of the people and the planet. The road toward full recovery will be long and arduous. We draw strength and inspiration from this year’s Asean Summit theme ASEAN ACT: Addressing Challenges Together under the Chairship of Cambodia, which also reflects our symbiotic relationship with nature. We are only strong as we are together, thus we must continue to forge robust linkages to ensure the health of our people and our planet.

The author is the Executive Director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity.

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

F there is one saving grace of the present administration, I think that even the fiercest of the President’s critics will grudgingly admit that it’s the economic performance that will define the Duterte legacy. It’s not the much vaunted drug war, which has spawned too much violence and extrajudicial killings nor the government’s costly and yet anemic response to the pandemic, which has buried us in debt.

Yes, to borrow former President Bill Clinton’s election campaign slogan to unseat President George H. W. Bush from power, “it’s the economy stupid!” It’s a phrase coined by Clinton’s political strategist, James Carville, in 1992 to highlight the economic recession gripping the US that election year. If the economy was the curse of Bush that led to his political downfall, it’s the bright spot of the Duterte regime. And much of the credit goes to Duterte’s economic Ateam led by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III with the able support mainly of former Budget Secretary and now BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno, Neda Secretary Karl Chua, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez and the heads of other allied departments and agencies. The overall economic structure of any country is shaped by the supply of money, the tax system and the level of government expenditures. When the government controls the amount of money in circulation to raise or lower the interest rates, it engages in monetary policy. When the government changes the levels of taxation and government expenditures, we call the combined action as fiscal policy. Our economic team is the architect of our monetary and fiscal policies. They can shake and shape the country’s economy with their pronouncements and policies. Both monetary and fiscal policies can be used to expand or contract the economy. For instance, lowering taxes gives workers more spending money, which they can use to purchase more goods and services. This eventually results in having more people employed in consumer industries and attracts capitalists to invest in more plants and factories. More

government spending as in financing the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program creates work in both the public and private sectors. It provides construction jobs to private contractors who end up investing in machineries and plants. When the interest rates are lowered, more people can afford to borrow money to purchase homes and cars. It stimulates the housing and motor vehicle sectors, which again produces employment and investments. It encourages more businesses to open since the cost of borrowing has gone down. Dominguez, who has been in private business and on top of his game for decades, has a deep grasp of the ramifications of both the monetary and fiscal policies as instruments for economic growth, and the results of his solid work with the support of the bright and the brightest staff he could muster—like Diokno and Chua—have saved the Philippines from economic disaster amidst the health crisis. On April 5, 2022, he led his economic team in presenting an economic briefing at the PICC, which was attended by leaders in the government and business sectors. In a well-received paper fully supported by data entitled: “The Ship of State Has Been Masterfully Steered,” Dominguez listed the major achievements of the current administration in expanding our economy. At the outset, he emphasized that “many reform measures that languished for decades on the shelves of Congress were finally enacted into law.” Among others, he cited RA 11032, or The Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, which promotes efficient and enhanced delivery of government services. It aims to prevent

Catholics will have their processions back for the Holy Week. The political among us have celebrated their voices already in rallies that made social distancing a forgotten edict. It will not take long before that term goes back into the dictionary of social sciences where it will have nothing to do with health practice but class distinction. Prayers will not cease long after we have thrown away our masks. But we shall always remember the months we paid attention to the words of our prayers, to the pauses between the Hail Mary and Glory Be. The last

Our robust revenue growth has enabled us to sustain the funding of our ambitious “Build, Build, Build Program,” which will be an enduring legacy of the Duterte administration. graft and corruption and reduce red tape. The government also enacted the Philippine Identification System Act (RA 11055), which provides the basis for the government’s issuance of the national ID to its citizens. This will help us achieve e-governance and greater financial inclusion among our people. He claims, and the facts bear him out, that “the Duterte administration decisively passed and implemented the most comprehensive tax reform program ever in this country.” The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act reduced the personal tax burden for most taxpayers. In effect, the TRAIN has given out a 14th-month benefit to our wage earners. It also imposes excise taxes on sweetened beverages where the government coffers are enriched by almost P104 million a day. The TRAIN, together with the other tax packages under the tax reform program of the government, has raised a little over half a trillion pesos in additional revenues during the first four years of its implementation. Our economic managers pursued and implemented the Real Estate Investment Trust Act (REIT), which had been lying dormant for several years. Now, just barely two years since it was launched, the REIT proved to be a powerful financial instrument that has enlivened the property sector and encouraged the small investors to participate in the market. RA 11203, otherwise known as the “Rice Tariffication Law” was approved in 2019. This law opened up the rice market and lowered the price of the commodity. Since the law was implemented, the government has earned a total of P46.6 billion in rice import tariffs. This amount directly benefits our rice farmers who get credit access, high-quality seeds, fertilizers, education and training and farm mechanization assistance. This does away with the annual P11 billion annual tax subsidies given by the government to the National Food Authority. Under the present administration, the government has collected an aver-

two years taught us to listen to ourselves because that was where the hopes and faiths resided, where our bodies sourced their conviction to go on breathing, to commune with the force or wellspring or make a final plea to the Divine. Stéphane Durand, in his postscript, which he titles ‘A Poetic of Attention,’ to the wondrous intellection of Vinciane Despret’s book, Living as a Bird, writes how the naturalists in the said book “open doors for us, expanding our imaginations, multiplying perspectives and the opportunities to enrich the world.” Durand continues: “But this poetic of attention is also a matter of politics, for if this biology is indeed a science of wonder, it is also a lesson in how to live. Through it we can glimpse hitherto unimagined ways of living together, of cohabiting, of spending time with each other and sharing spaces and stories with neither exclusion nor conflict.” What is the lesson of the isolation, its ending and the pandemic that subjugated the world? It is the lesson of being attentive to the people that inhabit this world, of looking at their smallest gesture, of listening to the everyday buzz, and learning from the unsaid. With this less-thanfantastic Earth, there is only Heaven above that can wait and the vastness that is not for us to read. E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

age of P68.7 billion annually from the various GOCCs, which is more than twice the average annual collection of the previous government. Overall, our tax collection efficiency has improved to 16.1 percent of GDP in 2019 from 15.1 percent in 2015, our highest achievement in over two decades. Our robust revenue growth has enabled us to sustain the funding of our ambitious “Build, Build, Build Program,” which will be an enduring legacy of the Duterte administration. Our infrastructure spending of over 5% of our GDP has more than doubled the expenditures incurred by the last four administrations. One project worth mentioning is the construction of the Metro Manila Subway Project. This flagship project will be a dream-come-true, which we shall experience in our lifetime. This is being made possible through a concessionary loan granted by Japan which, together with many other wealthy nations, has kept its faith and trust in the Philippines as a worthy borrower. Ever modest about his work and achievement, Secretary Dominguez placed it on record and stressed in his speech that “the success of the tax reform measures cannot be attributed exclusively to the current efforts. This is the logical continuation of the decades of reforms arduously passed by the previous administrations.” It’s wonderful how much you can accomplish if you give due credit to others. Secretary Dominguez has declined awards and recognitions that highly credible award-giving institutions around the world have proposed to him. He is strict and demanding. He does not suffer fools gladly, and unforgiving in dealing with incompetent subordinates. Presiding over our economy during a period of turbulence—the pandemic years— we are fortunate that our economy did not suffer a meltdown. And we are more than fortunate that we have an economic manager at the command room that fully understands our financial system and knows exactly which lever to push or pull. The Duterte presidency will be over in 85 days but the Filipinos, to borrow the opening lines of his economic briefing, will look back at this time as the moment when the country made the turn towards more inclusive growth and prosperity.

A12 Friday, April 8, 2022

PHL ‘could be losing ₧26B’ to illicit tobacco trade yearly T

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Philippines is estimated to be losing P26 billion in revenues per year due to the illicit tobacco trade, House Ways and Means Committee Technical Working Group chair Rep. Jericho “Koko” Nograles said—an estimate that was about eight times more than official estimates averaging over P3 billion. This amount could have f unded a huge portion of the full-year budget of some departments or finance the construction of 10,000 school buildings, among others, said the lawmaker from Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) party-list. Nograles based his own estimate of annual revenue losses from smuggled tobacco products on Euromonitor International’s findings that 13 percent of Philippine cigarettes are illegal. Moreover, Euromonitor said six of 10 cigarettes sold in retail in some areas in Mindanao are illegal. “If P180 billion of excise

taxes were collected by BIR in 2021, that means there is a shortfall of P26 billion there at 13 percent,” Nograles said in a webinar, speaking partly in Filipino. He attributed the abundance of illicit tobacco trade to unemployment and decreased income, criminal groups’ exploiting public demand for cheaper goods, and higher taxes leading to higher prices that lead to greater criminal opportunities. On top of these, he said there was a limited supply of tobacco products due to Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns, and lack of capacity to enforce

regulations given the sudden and significant growth in online purchases. He held the P26 billion against the budgets of Department of Justice “which is P45 billion per year, Department of Labor and Employment which is only P37 billion per year, National Irrigation Administration...P31 billion per year, 10,000 school buildings at P30 billion per year.”

Official estimates

HOWEVER, the lawmaker’s estimate of revenue losses from the illicit tobacco trade is much higher than the estimates of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) based on their actual apprehensions in recent years. In the same webinar, BIR Head Revenue Executive Assistant Atty. Beverly S. Milo of the Large Taxpayers Service reported that they estimated a total of P3.74 billion in revenue losses due to illicit trade from 2018 to 2021. For its part, Customs Ass i s t a nt C om m i s s ione r of

t he Post - C lea ra nce Aud it Group and spokesman Atty. V i ncent Ph i l ip M a ron i l l a said foregone excise taxes bec au se of i l l ic it tobacco products amounted to P2.98 billion from 2019 to 2022. During the period, the BOC seized an estimated P8.08 billion worth of illicit tobacco products. Nonetheless, Milo and Maronilla conceded that the lawmaker’s estimate of revenue loss in the illicit tobacco trade is more accurate. “So we can actually say that the data as presented by the honorable chair here is considered as more reasonable because what we are presenting are the results of activities that have been conducted by the BIR. And from that activities, we can say that we have some limitations because of lack of personnel, and also during that two years pandemic, we were not able to really operate on massive implementation because we cannot go into some areas and we know there are lots of limitations,” Milo said.

What to do?

TO combat illicit trade, Nograles urged the National Tax Administration to be more involved in the fight against illicit trade by ensuring the registration of manufacturers and importers and participating in the audit with the BIR and the BOC. He also said the Department of the Interior and Local Government should also direct local government units as well as the National Police Commission to be more vigilant against illicit trade. Moreover, he recommended that the Department of Trade and Industry educate retailers on the consequences of purchasing and re-selling illegal products; the Department of Finance to ensure the streamlining of BIR and BOC regulations, and better freezone governance and enforcement for the Philippine Economic Zone Authority so that investors will feel more secure. Maronilla also agreed with Nograles’s recommendations, saying these are good first steps to take to address the problem.

GENERATION CHARGE MAY HIKE APRIL POWER RATES–MERALCO By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

OWER rates are likely to go up this month due to higher generation charge, an official of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said Thursday. “There could be an upward adjustment in the April bills due to higher generation charge, consistent with what the DOE [Department of Energy] and ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] expected,” said Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez. The utility firm will soon announce final rate adjustments as it has yet to receive final billings from its power suppliers. Initially, Meralco observed that WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) prices were higher “due to continued tight supply conditions, as peak demand in Luzon rose by more than 1,500 from the February to March supply months. Sustained high WESM prices led to the secondary price cap being imposed for 4.5 percent of the March trading intervals,” he said. Adding pressure to the costs is the persisting Malampaya gas supply restriction that forced the gas plants to shift to more expensive liquid fuel. The impact of the higher international coal prices and peso depreciation is also expected to weigh on the generation charge. Aside from these factors, Fernandez said the April generation charge will factor in the first amortization of generation costs whose collection was deferred in March. This is equivalent to an add-on of around 6 centavos per kilowatt-hour in the generation charge. “The generation charge is a pass-through cost, and as far as Meralco’s own cost is concerned, the distribution charge has not moved since its reduction in July 2015,” he added.

Locsin, Drilon join Bello in NGCP: All bucking DMW chief’s order set for polls By Malou Talosig-Bartolome @maloutalosig

OREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. has joined other Cabinet members in opposing the controversial order of the transition secretary for the newly minted Department of Migrant Workers, mandating the hasty transfer of workers and funds, and throwing the OFW sector in turmoil. The shakeup caused by the order of Secretary Abdullah Mamao, which has been stopped by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, has put him directly against Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, one of the departments to be affected by the new law. Bello has said that Mama-o cannot simply order the transfer of funds and staff during this election season, as the DMW was given by law two years for the transition. On Thursday, Locsin also chided the order to transfer of OFW funds to “alleged officials of a non-existent office.” Locsin insisted the Assistance to Nationals Fund and the Legal Assistance Fund allocated by Congress to the DFA this year should remain with the DFA. “The new department is for the next administration to set up. We a re not t ra nsfer r i ng funds to alleged officials of a non-existent office. While we are responsible for OFW concerns, we retain the funds Drilon set aside for DFA to continue its consistently honest service to OFWs,” Locsin tweeted. This, as Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said Mamao cannot transfer employees and officers from the agencies to be absorbed to the new department because of the election ban. His actions are contrary to law, stressed Drilon, a former executive secretary, labor secretary and justice secretary. “He is a king without a kingdom. He has no department to lead,” said Drilon, referring to Mama-o.

Transition

power supply contingency

IN a separate statement, the DFA said the DMW is currently undergoing its two-year transition period, and is “yet to publish its Implementing Rules and Regulations.” However, Susan Ople, head of the nongovernment organization Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, said the new DMW secretary signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the DMW Act “and had it published without the approval and knowledge of the other members of the Transition Committee. “None of the Transition Committee members knew about the contents of the IRR to be signed and that it was to be signed on that day,” Ople said in her BusinessMirror column on Thursday (April 7, 2022). “Even the leaders of the recruitment industry and civil society organizations that belong to the Overseas Landbased Tripartite Consultative Council were not invited to the IRR signing.” The DFA said that while they support the efforts of the DMW to become “ ful ly operationa l post-haste so that it may fulfill its vital mandate,” they believe that all the agencies that will be subsumed under it are “still under the control and supervision of their respective parent agencies until such time as the legal requisites have been fulfilled for the DMW to be deemed fully constituted.” Ople said “overseas employment sector is in a state of shock.” Raul de Vera, labor and management consu lt a nt, wa r ned that the turf war between Mamao and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III “threatens to disrupt operations” of the POEA as the DMW Secretar y has issued a memorandum to POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia to “cease and desist from exercising any and all powers and functions as administrator of the POEA.”

N preparation for securing power transmission operations and facilities for the May 9 elections, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said it would activate its command center from May 8 to 10. The grid operator will issue advisories on the power situation every four hours, which may vary depending on the situation on the ground. Despite the declaration of May 9 as a special non-working day, NGCP’s critical units, particularly System Operations (SO) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M), will remain fully staffed and operational. Line crews, engineers, pilots, maintenance and testing, and other technical personnel are also strategically positioned in substations to respond to line trippings, if any. Administrative and other support teams will also remain on duty. NGCP’s overall command center is already currently activated with personnel on duty from 8am to 5pm everyday, including holidays, monitoring grid disturbances and the overall power situation. Personnel manning the Regional and Area Control Centers, critical substations, and the quick-response team will be on 24-hour shifts, with twice the number of personnel on duty. “Our Integrated Disaster Action Plan (IDAP) prescribes these and other measures to ensure the readiness of all power transmission facilities to be affected by emergencies during important national events. With its security and contingency preparations set, NGCP can ensure reliable power transmission services before, during, and after the election date,” said the company. As early as February, NGCP’s Power Task Force Elections (PTFE), a special team formed to ensure the security and reliability of the transmission network across the country during the elections, had set out with preparatory activities.

Continued on A2

Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Friday, April 8, 2022

CLI income grows 42% last year to ₧2.6B on brisk sales

This undated photo courtesy of Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) shows an aerial view of The East Village at DGT, Davao Global Township’s (DGT) first residential community, that the company kicked off in the first quarter of the year. CLI said units sold out in four days after the launch. Cebu Landmasters Inc.

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

EGIONAL property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. said its income last year grew 42 percent to P2.61 billion from the previous year’s P1.84 billion on the brisk sale of its residential and hotel projects located in the Visayas and Mindanao islands. The company’s income was also 30-percent higher than the P2.01 billion profits it recorded in 2019, or before lockdowns were imposed and the economy reeled into recession. The shares of CLI inched up five centavos to close at P3.01 at the end of the trading last Thursday. Revenues grew 35 percent to P11.16 billion from the previous year’s P8.29 billion and also

higher than the P8.55 billion it had in 2019. “The company’s 2021 performance exceeded its targets for the year and puts us in a position to pick up from where we left off preCovid,” CLI chairman and CEO Jose R. Soberano III said. The listed firm said its reservation sales grew 16 percent to P16.52 billion from the previous year’s P14.24 billion, on rising housing

demand, particularly in the economic and mid-income segments, in the Visayas and Mindanao island-groups. CLI’s 10 residentialproject launches generated P18 billion in sales value, as the company had more projects outside of Cebu. The company’s economic housing brand Casa Mira generated the highest sales performance, taking 41 percent of total sales in 2021, followed by high-end projects at 31 percent and mid-market developments at 27 percent. By the end of 2021, construction was in full-swing across all project sites in 16 key cities and catch-up measures had been put in place to compensate for delays caused by quarantine restrictions, the company said. The company is currently building the Masters Tower Cebu, which will generate 10,500 square meters of gross leasable area and also incorporates Sofitel Cebu’s 195 rooms and Abaca Resort Mactan, which will have 125 rooms.

CLI has one operating hotel with seven other brands under different stages of construction. This will deliver a total of 1,775 keys to CLI’s growing hospitality portfolio by 2025. At the moment, its rental income are still minimal at just P74.3 million as the company awaits the completion of construction of its stable of resorts and hotels. CLI said acquired 41 hectares in 2021, spending some P10 billion, bringing the total landbank to over 100 hectares worth P12 billion. Another 70 hectares are in the last stages of negotiations.

DOE clears projects for impact study By Lenie Lectura @llectura

HE Department of Energy (DOE) has cleared 10 power projects for the conduct of system impact study (SIS). These projects could inject some 2,000 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity if pursued and approved. These include the following: the 62.567 MWpeak (MWp) solar of Greencore Power Solutions 2 Inc.; 600-MW wind power of Quezon Wind Energy Corp.; 2.1-MW hydro power of AT Dinum Co.; 9.4-MW hydro power of Alimit Hydro Corp.; and, 113.21MWDC solar power of Sapang Balen Solar Sustainable Energy Corp..

Other projects are: 600-MWDC solar power of Apolaki Two Inc.; 200-MW battery energy storage project of 3 Barracuda Energy Corp.; 30-MW hydro power of Pan Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corp.; 218MW hydro of Angat Hydropower Corp.; and, the 220-MW hydro power of Pan Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corp. The DOE approved in March their applications for the conduct of SIS. The list was uploaded on the DOE website Thursday afternoon. These projects have been issued with certificates of endorsement to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines for clearance to undertake SIS. According to the Energy Regulatory Com-

mission, SIS is an assessment conducted by the Transmission Network Provider or System Operator in addition to the Grid Impact Studies (GIS) prepared by it in accordance with the Philippine Grid Code. This study is necessary in order to determine the adequacy of the grid and its capability to accommodate a request for power delivery service; and the costs, if any, that may be incurred in order to provide power delivery service to a transmission customer. The GIS is a set of technical studies, which are used to assess the possible effects of a proposed expansion, reinforcement, or modification of the grid or a user development and to evaluate significant incidents.

PLDT deploys 1st commercial SRv6 network By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

LDT Inc. said on Thursday it has successfully deployed the country’s first commercial Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) network. SRv6 allows the telco to use advanced features like network slicing to make its network “more scalable, agile, and reliable.” It also enables the company to “efficiently” deliver 5G, home broadband, and enterprise services. “The rollout of SRv6 is part of PLDT’s transformation journey to make our net-

work future-ready. This initiative is crucial as we support the country’s digital pivot in the New Normal and elevate the internet experience of our fixed, wireless and enterprise customers nationwide,” said Mario G. Tamayo, Head of Technology at PLDT and Smart. SRv6 is initially available in “selected portions” of Metro Manila. Meinardo Opiana, Head of Transport Network Planning and Engineering at PLDT and Smart, said these improvements makes the telco’s network “better-positioned to enable future network capabilities.” “Aside from delivering high-bandwidth

and low latency services, these enhancements will further strengthen the automated operation of the existing SDN or Software Defined Network, and allow the network to support the efficiency and scalability needed by 5G, home broadband, cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) for individual, home, and enterprise customers,” Opiana said. The deployment of SRv6 is part of the telco’s 2021 network investments, which in total amounted to P89 billion. This year, PLDT is expected to spend between P76 billion to P80 billion in capital expenditures this year.

Diesel power plant awarded to 1590 EC

IVANT Corp.-subsidiary 1590 Energy Corp. (1590 EC) now owns a 225-megawatt (MW) diesel power plant located in the Municipality of Bauang, La Union. The Provincial Government of La Union (PGLU) issued last April 6 the notice of award to 1590 EC for the ownership of the power facility, which 1590 EC has been operating and maintaining since 2010 under a lease contract with the provincial government. In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Vivant Corp. said “the Notice of Award was issued by the PGLU in favor of 1590 EC in the Second Round of the Public Auction Sale, after receiving the highest bid from 1590 EC on April 1, 2022, the Bid Submission Date, and a successful conduct of post-qualification evaluation by the PGLU.” “We welcome this opportunity to solidify our commitment to be a partner in the continued development of both the Province of La Union and the Municipality of Bauang,” 1590 EC Chairman Emil Andre M. Garcia said. “We will invest further into BDPP to continue providing stable and reliable power to the grid.” The Bauang Diesel Power Plant (BDPP) is the largest bunker-fired power plant in terms of generating capacity. The plant has helped address the supply needs of the Luzon grid since the start of its commercial operations in 1995. “While diesel-fired plants use fossil fuel technology, the speed at

which they can be fired up supports the expansion of renewable energy in the total energy mix by providing fast-reacting ancillary power to support renewable energy expansion,” 1590 EC President Mark D. Habana said. 1590 EC said that aside from contributing to local government revenues, the firm has helped improve everyday living in the communities surrounding the plant and in nearby municipalities. In partnership with Vivant Foundation, 1590 EC has contributed to uplifting public education in Bauang through the construction of classrooms and science laboratories, according to the company. The company said it also provided immediate relief assistance following natural calamities and support for the implementation of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. 1590 EC is a majority-owned subsidiary of Vivant Energy Corp. (Vivant Energy), which is in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vivant Corp. Vivant Energy is holding the Vivant group’s investment portfolio in power generation and supply assets. Vivant saw its income from operations in 2019 decrease by roughly 9.5 percent to about P932.43 million from P1.03 billion in 2018, the annual financial report it submitted to the PSE showed. The firm, nonetheless, saw its cash and cash equivalents increase roughly 5.47 percent to P2.3 billion in 2019 from P2.19 billion the previous year. Lenie Lectura

Companies BusinessMirror

Friday, April 8, 2022

Filinvest income drops 28% in ‘21 on static sales volume

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

ILINVEST Development Corp. (FDC), the holding firm of the Gotianun group, said its attributable income last year fell 28 percent to P6.1 billion from the previous year’s P8.46 billion as its businesses still faced a varying degree of disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Its 2021 income was just half of its profits in 2019 at P11.97 billion. The company said its revenues and other income were lower by 13 percent as the growth posted by the residential and power businesses were offset by the contraction of the banking and commercial leasing units. Last year, the company had revenues of P60.71 billion, a 19-percent drop from the previous P74.84 billion in 2019. “Our financial results in 2021 were mixed across our businesses resulting from the varying degrees of economic impact caused by the Covid-19 disruptions. We saw higher reservation sales in the residential business, particularly the affordable horizontal segment. However, volumes have not returned to prepandemic levels for most of the businesses by the end of 2021,” FDC President and CEO Josephine Gotianun-Yap said. EastWest Bank delivered a net income contribution to the group of P4.3 billion, equivalent to 40 percent of the company’s bottom line, followed by the property business, composed of the real estate and hospitality segments, which delivered a combined P4.2 billion or 39 percent of total. The power subsidiary contributed P2.1 billion in net income or 19 percent of total, while the balance of 2 percent came from other businesses. EastWest Bank’s net-income contribution of P4.3 billion was 32-percent lower than the P6.4 billion last year, mainly due to lower loan revenues and trading gains. On a standalone basis, the bank’s total revenues and other income declined by 22 percent to P28.8 billion. FDC’s real estate business, composed of listed subsidiary listed firm Filinvest Land Inc. and Filinvest Alabang Inc., contributed P4.9 billion in net income to the group in 2021, lower by 18 percent from the previous year of P6 billion. The company said the drop was a

result of a high-base effect when Filinvest Alabang recognized in 2020 an income of P2.4 billion for the joint development of a prime property in Filinvest City in Alabang. Revenues from the residential segment rose by 14 percent to P12 billion driven by the high reservation sales of the affordable and middle-income housing projects and construction progress. Rental revenues reached P5.9 billion. The power subsidiary, FDC Utilities Inc. registered a net income of P2.1 billion in 2021, a 6 percent improvement from the previous year, on the back of revenues that grew by 12 percent to P9.4 billion. Its 405-megawatt coal plant located in Misamis Oriental in Mindanao services a diverse customer base composed of 14 mostly distribution cooperatives and two industrial customers. FDCUI also has solar energy solutions through a 60:40 joint venture with Engie Services. FDC Water Utilities Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of FDCUI, secured last year a 25-year 80 million liters per day bulk water supply project with Metro Cebu Water District for the provision of desalinated potable water to Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City and Talisay City. Upon signing of the contract with the government, the company will immediately commence with the construction of the desalination facilities utilizing seawater to be processed by means of the High Recovery Seawater Desalination Technology of its technical partner, Hitachi Ltd., Japan. Revenues of hotel operations under Filinvest Hospitality Corp. reached P1.2 billion, flat from the previous year, on the back of higher average occupancy rates across the six hotels and resorts under the Filinvest group’s portfolio. The company has a portfolio of six managed properties has approximately 1,800 rooms under the Crimson and Quest brands.

Tencent to shut down game streaming site

ENCENT Holdings Ltd. announced it will shut down its game streaming service, more than a year after Beijing blocked its effort to create China’s equivalent of Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch through a merger. The streaming platform, called Penguin Esports, will terminate all services on June 7, after having already suspended new user registrations and in-app purchases, Tencent said in a statement last Thursday. The company cited a shift in business strategy for the shutdown and said it will compensate users by giving away digital coupons in games like League of Legends, which is operated by Tencent-owned Riot Games Inc. In 2020, Tencent proposed combining investees Huya Inc. and DouYu International Holdings Ltd.–China’s two biggest Tw itc h-l i ke ser v ices–but t he countr y’s antitr ust watchdog rejected the deal after Beijing stepped up scrutiny of big tech. Penguin Esports would have been folded into the newly combined

company as part of the transaction, which was valued at about $6 billion at the time. Tencent had earlier channeled more resources into Penguin Esports, which featured Tencent properties like League of Legends and Clash Royale. Chinese media reported last month that the company had stopped renewing contracts with streamers on the site. China’s game-streaming industry was expected to grow into a multibillion-dollar business, but newer formats of online entertainment offered by the likes of Bilibili Inc. and ByteDance Ltd.’s Douyin have lured away users and advertising money. DouYu’s sales plunged last year while Huya grew just 4 percent. Beijing’s regulators haven’t approved a single gaming title by Tencent or any other game developer since July, which was followed by the government putting in place stricter controls on playing time for minors. Tencent’s domestic gaming sales grew 1 percent for the December quarter. Bloomberg News

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

April 7, 2022

Net Foreign Bid Ask Open High Low Close Volume Value Trade (Peso) Stocks Buy (Sell) FINANCIALs

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK COMMERCE BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL IREMIT PHIL STOCK EXCH

196,650 575,477,005 11,656,090 190,051,102.50 1,497,140 5,556,266 176,413,063.50 1,023,660 1,665 54,682 38,118,902 19,549,446 189,210 111,000 9,020 714,504

196,650 115,724,064 8,926,812 346,735.50 -1,312,172 -92,776,783 39,942 -2,611,873 -268,746 -99,300 105,048

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 8.35 8.45 8.64 8.65 8.35 8.35 13,117,100 111,070,177 ALSONS CONS 1.01 1.03 1.01 1.01 1.01 1.01 38,000 38,380 ABOITIZ POWER 35.4 35.5 36.7 36.85 35.5 35.5 2,074,800 74,120,220 BASIC ENERGY 0.41 0.42 0.43 0.43 0.41 0.41 1,220,000 507,700 FIRST GEN 25.85 25.9 26 26.2 25.9 25.9 210,000 5,448,555 70.05 70.4 70.05 70.4 70 70.4 2,030 142,263 FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO 370 372.6 372.8 373.2 367 372.6 324,790 120,876,646 19.3 19.32 20.1 20.4 19.32 19.32 1,217,300 23,917,945 MANILA WATER 3.26 3.3 3.33 3.34 3.25 3.26 1,206,000 3,954,730 PETRON PETROENERGY 4.85 4.9 4.53 4.98 4.53 4.9 716,000 3,518,680 PHX PETROLEUM 10.28 10.48 10.22 10.48 10.22 10.48 13,000 134,058 SYNERGY GRID 12.18 12.3 12.3 12.46 12.16 12.3 1,791,000 22,012,076 PILIPINAS SHELL 18.04 18.14 18.22 18.22 18 18.04 308,000 5,552,890 14.4 14.48 14.5 14.5 14.3 14.4 62,400 900,950 SPC POWER 1.79 1.8 1.87 1.88 1.8 1.8 65,956,000 119,799,040 SOLAR PH 4.92 4.97 4.9 5.17 4.84 4.97 1,451,000 7,252,020 AGRINURTURE 2.48 2.54 2.47 2.54 2.47 2.54 99,000 248,040 AXELUM CENTURY FOOD 23.3 23.5 23.9 23.9 22.85 23.3 6,621,700 155,049,115 DEL MONTE 14.22 14.58 14.18 14.6 14.18 14.58 28,600 406,218 DNL INDUS 7.46 7.55 7.61 7.75 7.5 7.5 19,972,100 153,577,502 EMPERADOR 14.04 14.08 14.3 14.3 14.04 14.08 1,687,400 23,821,152 SMC FOODANDBEV 61.5 62.9 62.2 62.9 61.5 62.9 39,810 2,494,656 0.6 0.61 0.61 0.62 0.6 0.6 2,523,000 1,532,410 FIGARO COFFEE ALLIANCE SELECT 0.57 0.58 0.58 0.61 0.58 0.58 391,000 227,520 FRUITAS HLDG 1.11 1.12 1.11 1.13 1.11 1.12 1,012,000 1,130,590 220 223.8 231.4 231.4 220 220 496,560 111,238,984 JOLLIBEE KEEPERS HLDG 1.19 1.2 1.2 1.22 1.19 1.2 3,226,000 3,886,140 MAXS GROUP 6.02 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.02 6.02 118,000 720,781 MG HLDG 0.137 0.142 0.137 0.137 0.137 0.137 20,000 2,740 MONDE NISSIN 12.92 12.98 13.18 13.2 12.92 12.92 4,848,000 63,259,678 7.6 7.98 7.77 7.8 7.6 7.6 306,300 2,348,850 SHAKEYS PIZZA 0.57 0.58 0.57 0.58 0.57 0.58 870,000 504,590 ROXAS AND CO 4.36 4.38 4.39 4.39 4.38 4.38 9,000 39,470 RFM CORP 1.16 1.18 1.16 1.16 1.16 1.16 18,000 20,880 ROXAS HLDG UNIV ROBINA 117 117.7 121.9 122 116.4 117 1,721,180 202,848,384 VITARICH 0.62 0.63 0.63 0.63 0.61 0.63 97,000 60,190 CONCRETE A 48 48.9 48 48 48 48 3,200 153,600 CEMEX HLDG 0.86 0.87 0.87 0.87 0.85 0.86 1,457,000 1,255,340 13 13.2 13 13 12.96 13 12,300 159,664 EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP 5.06 5.07 5.24 5.25 5.07 5.07 340,700 1,750,688 5.6 5.63 5.63 5.7 5.62 5.63 25,500 143,510 HOLCIM 5.11 5.12 5.24 5.24 5.12 5.12 117,800 611,719 MEGAWIDE PHINMA 19.44 19.48 19.44 19.46 19.44 19.46 203,000 3,946,380 VULCAN INDL 0.93 0.95 0.94 0.95 0.93 0.93 2,195,000 2,054,710 CROWN ASIA 1.79 1.84 1.84 1.84 1.8 1.8 20,000 36,250 EUROMED 1.1 1.12 1.13 1.13 1.1 1.1 23,000 25,660 LMG CORP 3.78 4.25 4 4 3.8 3.9 3,000 11,700 4.3 4.41 4.41 4.41 4.41 4.41 2,000 8,820 MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP 5.66 5.72 5.72 5.72 5.66 5.66 130,000 736,584 1.6 1.61 1.62 1.65 1.58 1.61 13,569,000 21,888,160 GREENERGY 7.72 7.75 7.83 7.83 7.72 7.72 350,200 2,712,498 INTEGRATED MICR IONICS 0.69 0.71 0.69 0.71 0.69 0.71 12,000 8,500 PANASONIC 6.01 6.3 6.28 6.28 6.01 6.01 22,200 137,970 SFA SEMICON 1.06 1.08 1.1 1.1 1.08 1.08 69,000 74,620 CIRTEK HLDG 3.21 3.24 3.3 3.3 3.21 3.21 274,000 889,500

13,666,432 -7,928,765 -3,178,145 43,006,570 -9,037,465.00 -753,100 347,220 -922,592 -3,891,526.00 -14,320 676,000 -1,418,770 -620,525 -119,547,808 -779,552 -278,960.50 -1,120 -36,842,816 -97,810 -438,751 -19,929,282 -2,347,304 352,060.00 -21,950 -62,448,577 -181,810 -1,154,889 -15,196 -30,290 468,082 -3,218,560 54,000 -

HOLDING & FRIMS

ABACORE CAPITAL AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP

43.7 130 12.2 96.5 26.55 8.24 54.05 19.02 55.8 19.52 106.5 84.05 2 3.71 0.83 200

1.02 770 56.5 12 9 0.92 0.58 0.59 4.93 9.13 6.93 508 3.6 56.8 0.52 3.1 8.98 0.32 3.72 1.44 0.88 869 106.4

44.7 131.5 12.22 98 26.8 8.25 55.15 19.18 57.3 20.05 108.4 85 2.08 3.8 0.9 204

1.03 783.5 56.7 12.06 9.18 0.95 0.59 0.61 4.94 9.16 7.18 510 3.79 57.4 0.55 3.2 9.02 0.37 3.74 1.45 0.9 870 108.5

43.7 133.4 12.2 98.4 26.9 8.3 56.6 19.18 55.5 19.44 110 91.25 2.08 3.9 0.82 204.8

1.03 799 58.5 12.22 9.2 0.95 0.6 0.59 4.94 9.25 6.92 520.5 3.6 59.3 0.55 3.04 9.09 0.32 3.8 1.45 0.93 878.5 109

43.7 133.4 12.2 98.95 26.95 8.3 56.7 19.2 55.5 20.05 110 91.5 2.08 3.9 0.82 204.8

1.04 813 58.9 12.32 9.2 0.95 0.6 0.59 4.99 9.27 6.93 524.5 3.6 59.3 0.55 3.2 9.09 0.32 3.8 1.46 0.93 887 109

43.7 130 12.14 96.5 26.8 8.24 54.05 19.02 55.5 19.44 106.5 83 2.07 3.8 0.82 200

1.01 770 56 12 9 0.95 0.58 0.59 4.94 9.13 6.9 506 3.6 56.5 0.55 3 8.98 0.32 3.71 1.45 0.9 865.5 106

43.7 130 12.2 96.5 26.8 8.25 54.05 19.02 55.5 20.05 106.5 84.05 2.08 3.8 0.82 200

1.03 770 56.5 12 9 0.95 0.59 0.59 4.94 9.13 6.93 508 3.6 56.8 0.55 3.2 8.98 0.32 3.74 1.45 0.9 870 108.5

4,500 4,370,870 957,500 1,950,820 55,700 671,800 3,219,470 53,600 30 2,800 353,240 227,470 91,000 29,000 11,000 3,540

5,378,000 238,400 1,654,910 1,784,800 100,200 2,000 1,945,000 92,000 196,000 7,983,100 69,000 305,090 58,000 2,638,480 1,000 270,000 2,154,600 250,000 14,095,000 179,000 53,000 501,380 170,000

5,490,270 186,239,385 93,896,417 21,511,692 901,860 1,900 1,129,940 54,280 970,550 73,315,504 477,051 155,818,450 208,800 150,426,474.50 550 840,950 19,402,927 80,000 52,735,370 259,570 48,120 436,504,725 18,359,420

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.55 0.58 0.58 0.58 0.58 0.58 20,000 11,600 AYALA LAND 34.2 34.6 34.8 35 34.2 34.2 8,240,900 284,683,575 AYALA LAND LOG 4.81 4.82 4.92 4.92 4.8 4.81 765,000 3,693,820 ARANETA PROP 1.03 1.12 1.04 1.14 1.04 1.1 11,000 11,720 AREIT RT 44.9 44.95 45.7 46 44.5 44.95 713,100 32,214,370 0.89 0.92 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 10,000 9,000 A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT 0.7 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.71 16,000 11,360 CROWN EQUITIES 0.091 0.093 0.091 0.093 0.091 0.093 850,000 78,550 CEB LANDMASTERS 3 3.01 2.97 3.06 2.97 3.01 3,007,000 9,095,950 CENTURY PROP 0.4 0.405 0.405 0.405 0.4 0.4 410,000 164,500 CITICORE RT 2.57 2.58 2.6 2.62 2.57 2.58 3,711,000 9,606,250 DOUBLEDRAGON 8.76 8.78 8.89 8.91 8.78 8.78 439,700 3,884,452 DDMP RT 1.57 1.58 1.58 1.59 1.56 1.56 1,402,000 2,208,920 6.8 6.85 6.89 6.89 6.8 6.8 30,200 206,735 DM WENCESLAO EMPIRE EAST 0.228 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.23 240,000 55,200 EVER GOTESCO 0.255 0.26 0.25 0.26 0.25 0.26 400,000 101,750 FILINVEST RT 7.3 7.36 7.2 7.37 7.2 7.3 1,942,100 14,171,852 FILINVEST LAND 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.06 1.04 1.05 2,523,000 2,644,190 8990 HLDG 13.26 13.64 13.5 13.68 13.3 13.64 371,100 5,037,488 PHIL INFRADEV 0.9 0.98 0.97 0.98 0.9 0.98 360,000 342,390 CITY AND LAND 0.85 0.87 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85 55,000 46,750 MEGAWORLD 2.93 2.94 3 3.01 2.94 2.94 52,900,000 156,525,390 0.24 0.244 0.24 0.246 0.24 0.241 3,040,000 732,410 MRC ALLIED MREIT RT 17.8 17.98 17.9 17.98 17.72 17.98 4,606,100 82,165,084 0.405 0.415 0.405 0.405 0.405 0.405 90,000 36,450 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 2.36 2.39 2.3 2.46 2.3 2.36 1,965,000 4,713,460 RL COMM RT 7.28 7.3 7.42 7.42 7.2 7.3 2,084,500 15,172,541 ROBINSONS LAND 19.76 19.8 20.3 20.35 19.68 19.8 4,262,400 84,556,767 PHIL REALTY 0.211 0.233 0.234 0.235 0.233 0.234 160,000 37,420 ROCKWELL 1.43 1.44 1.44 1.44 1.39 1.43 41,000 57,970 2.52 2.59 2.6 2.6 2.59 2.59 6,000 15,550 SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND 2.82 2.9 2.98 2.98 2.75 2.9 15,000 43,050 SM PRIME HLDG 36.3 37 37.35 37.8 36.3 36.3 7,016,300 258,648,850 0.56 0.62 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 10,000 5,600 SOC RESOURCES VISTAMALLS 3.35 3.37 3.35 3.35 3.35 3.35 5,000 16,750 SUNTRUST HOME 1 1.04 1.06 1.06 1.06 1.06 1,000 1,060 VISTA LAND 2.7 2.73 2.88 2.88 2.7 2.7 3,523,000 9,747,670 SERVICES ABS CBN 12.94 12.96 13.28 13.36 12.9 12.94 976,000 12,666,224 GMA NETWORK 15.92 15.94 16.12 16.12 15.9 15.92 1,659,400 26,536,526 MLA BRDCASTING 9 9.87 9.01 9.01 9 9 1,200 10,807 GLOBE TELECOM 2,354 2,410 2,430 2,476 2,354 2,354 71,050 170,932,630 PLDT 1,795 1,799 1,826 1,839 1,795 1,795 112,540 203,374,780 0.043 0.044 0.045 0.046 0.043 0.043 405,400,000 18,043,300 APOLLO GLOBAL 27.85 28.35 28.85 28.95 27.85 27.85 13,967,200 398,614,935 CONVERGE 2.53 2.63 2.62 2.69 2.53 2.63 721,000 1,872,010 DFNN INC DITO CME HLDG 5.07 5.1 5.22 5.22 5.07 5.07 5,504,300 28,225,283 NOW CORP 1.29 1.3 1.19 1.32 1.18 1.29 6,205,000 7,946,330 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.33 0.335 0.335 0.34 0.33 0.33 1,940,000 649,900 2GO GROUP 7.35 7.49 7.49 7.49 7.49 7.49 14,000 104,860 ASIAN TERMINALS 13.34 13.76 13.78 13.78 13.34 13.34 9,300 127,714 1.55 1.57 1.55 1.57 1.53 1.53 84,000 130,690 CHELSEA CEBU AIR 47 47.85 47.9 48.15 47 47 978,000 46,502,075 218 219.2 222 225.6 218 218 1,186,960 259,976,108 INTL CONTAINER 22.1 22.65 22.1 22.1 22.1 22.1 200 4,420 LBC EXPRESS MACROASIA 5.5 5.51 5.65 5.65 5.47 5.51 1,345,500 7,470,586 METROALLIANCE A 0.96 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.96 0.99 102,000 98,850 PAL HLDG 6.17 6.2 6.4 6.4 6.16 6.17 63,300 395,788 HARBOR STAR 0.72 0.73 0.72 0.73 0.72 0.73 17,000 12,310 ACESITE HOTEL 1.55 1.8 1.68 1.68 1.68 1.68 5,000 8,400 0.435 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.435 0.435 110,000 47,900 WATERFRONT CENTRO ESCOLAR 6.54 6.85 6.86 6.86 6.86 6.86 200 1,372 IPEOPLE 7.23 7.24 7.24 7.24 6.71 7.23 400 2,842 0.355 0.365 0.365 0.365 0.36 0.36 50,000 18,150 STI HLDG BELLE CORP 1.25 1.32 1.26 1.27 1.25 1.25 213,000 268,500 BLOOMBERRY 6.1 6.13 6.22 6.35 6.09 6.1 3,602,600 22,239,891 LEISURE AND RES 1.24 1.28 1.25 1.29 1.24 1.24 397,000 498,330 PH RESORTS GRP 0.96 0.98 1.01 1.01 0.96 0.98 796,000 774,080 0.45 0.455 0.46 0.46 0.45 0.45 310,000 140,950 PREMIUM LEISURE 5 5.46 5 5 5 5 100,000 500,000 PHIL RACING PHILWEB 2.26 2.3 2.28 2.3 2.27 2.27 862,000 1,967,230 0.45 0.455 0.465 0.465 0.45 0.45 21,760,000 9,893,950 ALLDAY BERJAYA 5.53 5.69 5.59 5.69 5.53 5.53 70,400 393,570 ALLHOME 7.8 7.88 7.85 7.88 7.69 7.8 1,831,500 14,298,629 METRO RETAIL 1.34 1.36 1.37 1.37 1.35 1.35 93,000 125,610 PUREGOLD 36.9 37.05 37.6 37.7 36.8 37.05 2,239,500 83,493,105 56 56.3 57.45 57.45 55 56.3 336,380 18,996,416 ROBINSONS RTL 66.95 67.2 66.9 66.9 66.9 66.9 250 16,725 PHIL SEVEN CORP SSI GROUP 1.1 1.12 1.1 1.12 1.1 1.1 2,284,000 2,530,200 24.95 25 26 26.1 24.95 25 1,925,200 48,821,820 WILCON DEPOT 6.5 6.7 6.6 6.6 6.5 6.5 6,700 43,750 IPM HLDG MEDILINES 0.85 0.88 0.9 0.9 0.85 0.85 1,119,000 961,280 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.54 0.55 0.55 0.55 0.54 0.54 2,312,000 1,256,610 SBS PHIL CORP 3.76 3.93 3.9 3.9 3.8 3.8 6,000 23,020 MINING & OIL ATOK 5.68 5.93 5.94 5.94 5.93 5.93 9,900 58,746 APEX MINING 1.65 1.66 1.67 1.68 1.64 1.66 1,213,000 2,013,140 ATLAS MINING 6.86 6.88 7.16 7.18 6.83 6.86 921,800 6,463,395 BENGUET A 7.38 7.48 7.6 7.6 7.22 7.5 99,800 737,941 7.3 7.48 7.6 7.6 7.18 7.3 231,500 1,691,140 BENGUET B 4.9 5.06 5.07 5.07 5.07 5.07 100 507 DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL 2.92 2.93 2.97 3.02 2.9 2.92 5,885,000 17,438,040 0.148 0.15 0.15 0.153 0.147 0.147 1,860,000 276,730 LEPANTO A LEPANTO B 0.149 0.153 0.15 0.151 0.15 0.15 2,120,000 318,690 MANILA MINING A 0.01 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.01 0.011 70,200,000 702,200 MARCVENTURES 1.52 1.55 1.6 1.6 1.51 1.52 5,813,000 8,908,080 NIHAO 0.97 1 0.97 1 0.97 1 14,000 13,970 7.55 7.64 7.78 7.88 7.45 7.55 9,531,300 72,209,256 NICKEL ASIA 0.94 0.96 0.97 0.97 0.94 0.94 282,000 266,220 ORNTL PENINSULA 5.27 5.29 5.4 5.4 5.26 5.29 1,706,900 9,061,372 PX MINING 31 31.05 31.8 31.95 30.9 31 3,633,100 113,900,910 SEMIRARA MINING UNITED PARAGON 0.006 0.0061 0.0062 0.0062 0.0061 0.0061 9,000,000 55,000 ACE ENEXOR 16.2 16.5 16.86 16.86 16.5 16.5 80,400 1,337,786 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.011 0.011 5,700,000 67,000 ORNTL PETROL B 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 100,000 1,100 PHILODRILL 0.0092 0.0093 0.0093 0.0094 0.0093 0.0094 2,000,000 18,700 5.52 5.57 5.54 5.63 5.46 5.57 105,000 582,584 PXP ENERGY PREFFERED HOUSE PREF B 99.2 101 101 101 101 101 10 1,010 HOUSE PREF A 99.9 101 101 101 101 101 10 1,010 AC PREF B1 503 515 503.5 503.5 503 503 1,600 805,100 BRN PREF A 102.5 105 105 105 105 105 500 52,500 CEB PREF 46.65 47 46.6 47.4 46.6 47 16,300 766,140 102 104 104 104 104 104 20 2,080 EEI PREF A EEI PREF B 106.1 109.5 109.5 109.5 109 109.5 4,050 442,975 PNX PREF 3B 100.7 101 101 101 101 101 8,120 820,120 PNX PREF 4 973.5 980 975.5 980 975 980 410 399,805 PCOR PREF 3B 1,082 1,094 1,095 1,095 1,095 1,095 5 5,475 SMC PREF 2F 76.4 77.9 77.95 77.95 77.95 77.95 130 10,133.50 SMC PREF 2H 75.3 75.45 75.5 75.5 75.45 75.45 3,120 235,503 SMC PREF 2J 75.1 75.25 75.25 75.25 75.25 75.25 250 18,812.50 54.4 55 55 55 54.5 54.5 3,750 205,975 TECH PREF B2D PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 12.22 12.3 12.48 12.48 12.2 12.22 4,198,800 51,316,236 GMA HLDG PDR 14.78 14.88 14.8 14.8 14.76 14.78 53,800 795,446 WARRANTS TECH WARRANT 0.62 0.67 0.68 0.68 0.65 0.68 12,000 7,890

4,018,960 -67,934,710 -27,343,808.50 283,106 676,800 -325,100 3,743,151 -75,814,240 -208,800 -12,720,569 234,850 -4,994,519 -1,956,890 9,000 -147,920,125 -8,975,813 -109,954,250.00 -271,690.00 8,244,090 997,150.00 -984,380 237,941 -17,780 -3,321,361 -1,070,750 -66,480 -30,530 -17,839,340 -37,693,678.00 -9,560 -6,701,138 -34,999,194 -2,350 -79,163,115 -2,426,450 -15,141,600 -87,044,260 12,700 44,277,745 -823,776 -158,660 985,110 -21,426,580 -16,477 8,662 -671 0 -224,400 -4,585,583 67,900 4,600 -1,167,020.00 825,300 -254,818 50,557,380 -210,589 1,322,520 -29,206,400 24,910 -30,780 -188,114 -750 1,237,120 -18,060 250,030 10,375,643 12,220 1,398,660 3,570,800 -142,282 50,350 -51,191,436 -

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP HAUS TALK ITALPINAS KEPWEALTH MERRYMART XURPAS

16.24 1.12 0.91 2.6 1.78 0.315

16.68 1.13 0.92 3 1.79 0.325

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF

107.6

109.5

16.24 1.13 0.94 2.75 1.83 0.325

16.24 1.14 0.95 2.75 1.83 0.325

16.24 1.12 0.91 2.75 1.79 0.315

16.24 1.13 0.91 2.75 1.79 0.315

1,000 464,000 130,000 14,000 1,210,000 630,000

16,240 520,520 120,870 38,500 2,169,190 199,550

-114,330 16,000

109.5 109.5 107.6 107.6 32,490 3,520,124 1,789,341

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Govt merits bigger take in E-sabong revenues’

HE revenue scheme being implemented for online cockfighting should have government earning more than e-sabong operators and not the other way around, former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said. Citing recent Senate hearings on e-sabong, Cayetano said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) stands to earn only P7.6 billion a year while e-sabong operators can earn around P36 billion. Under the current setup, the operator only pays the government P12,500 per cockfight and keeps the rest of the earnings, he noted. The lawmaker said contracts for online gambling are not ordinary contracts that cannot be amended. Cayetano said this is in stark contrast to the way the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) operates lotto, in which it gives the operator, Berjaya Philippines, Inc., a fixed amount of P5.8 billion for a lease period of five years for its technical know-how and software to operate the lottery. The licensees and agents who accept the bets, however, deal not with Berjaya but directly with PCSO, which earns 20 percent from ticket sales. An additional 20 percent tax on ticket sales goes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). “If the government says it needs funds, this is the model. Before the pandemic, lotto earned P18 billion a year. In five years, [it should earn] P90 billion, but it pays Berjaya only P5.8 billion,” Cayetano said. Despite running an eco-friendly campaign that uses no printed materials and no motorcades, Cayetano, meanwhile, maintained his high ranking in the latest survey on senatorial preferences by Pulse Asia. Should he win in the May 2022 elections, Cayetano vowed to continue to express opposition against the online gambling. Lawmakers are calling for the suspension of esabong following the disappearance of “sabungeros.” Released on Wednesday, April 6, the March 2022 survey results showed Cayetano ranking second to fifth among all senatorial candidates. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Consuelo Padilla appointed DBP board member

TATE-OWNED Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) announced on Thursday that it has appointed Consuelo Padilla as a new member of its Board of Directors. Padilla chairs the Landbank Countryside Development Foundation, and is a Director of PTFC Baesa Redevelopment Corporation, Padilla De Los Reyes Inc., Seltoh Inc., and Tohsel Inc. She is currently Treasurer of the Foundation for Development Through Education. She was previously a Presidential Assistant at the Office of the President, as well as a Consultant for solid waste at the Department of Tourism. She also held key positions in the Treasury offices of Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), and was the Philippine Representative to OBU Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia. Padilla earned her Master in Business Management from the Asian Institute of Management, and earned her AB Literature in English and BSC Accounting degree from Assumption College.

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Friday, April 8, 2022

Over 100 rural banks now folded into PhilPASSPlus, says Diokno

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

ANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno announced on Thursday that they have successfully onboarded more than a hundred rural banks into the country’s real-time gross settlement system as of end-February this year.

The governor said the number of rural banks participating in the new generation Philippine

Payment and Settlement System (PhilPaSSPlus) increased by 21.7 percent to 101 as of end-February

this year from 83 in 2020. The current level of participating rural banks in the settlement system represents more than 26 percent of all rural banks in the country, and more than half of total PhilPaSSPlus membership. Diokno said the onboarding of more rural banks in the system will allow for greater financial access, especially for rural segments of society. “By becoming PhilPaSSPlus participants, rural banks can offer digital payment services, particularly InstaPay and PESONet, which both settle through this platform,” Diokno said. “These enhanced services are ex-

pected to further improve the capacity of RBs to onboard more unbanked Filipinos who will be able to benefit from digitalization. This provides broad support to the BSP’s thrust of promoting financial inclusion,” the governor added. PhilPaSSPlus is a real-time gross settlement system that is owned and operated by the BSP. It processes and settles interbank payment transactions of banks through their demand deposit accounts. The new system, which started its live run on July 26, 2021, can accommodate a growing number of settlements between financial institutions; has rigid controls to support transaction security in fund

transfers; and has enhanced system availability. PhilPaSSPlus also has broader access channels; enables integration with other payment systems locally and abroad; and allows for transparent, low cost and quick exchange of richer payment information for business and regulatory purposes. The volume of transactions through PhilPaSSPlus grew by 15.1 percent from 2019 to end-February 2022 while the value rose by 104.2 percent during the same period. “Moving forward, we will continue to intensify our efforts to onboard more participants, including small financial institutions in the countryside,” the governor said.

QLO rolls out latest offering: Cash advance to employees with urgent financial needs By Roderick Abad @rodrik_28 Contributor

UICK Loans Online (QLO) keeps on giving employees of partner-companies fast and easy ways to borrow money by launching the QLO Cash Advance. This offering lends employees a fraction, ranging from P3,000 to P8,000, of their monthly salary without interest and payable within a short-term period through stipend deduction. QLO is a loan facility under MRACC Credit Corp. This new venture, launched by MFT Group of Companies, has provided employees immediate access to hassle-free salary loans to address urgent finan-

cial needs. QLO Cash Advance has a onetime processing fee only, for as low as P500, which will be deducted from the proceeds to be received by the borrower. Employees of partner-firms who enrol in the system may apply for it through QLO’s portal or mobile app. Because of accessibility of this product, there is no need for cumbersome paperwork and inconveniences such as lost files are avoided. This kind of system, likewise, allows both the companies and their employees to track their finances and loans easily. “We continue to produce different loan offerings to provide our clients with flexibility and the

Lonely at the top

FIRST heard the phrase “it’s lonely at the top” decades back when I took up a university leadership course. I learned then that many executives shared the sentiment that more than half of CEOs experience feelings of loneliness in their careers. I started experiencing this myself when I became the CEO of an international association in the early 2000s. It kept creeping back as I took on leadership roles in various associations and membership organizations up until today. Here are some of the situations, past and present, when I felt alone and isolated: 1. New board, new agenda, new adjustment: Changes in board composition bring about new governance dynamics and new ways of doing things. So, as CEO, I needed to adjust and cope with the change, albeit by my lonesome, being the person in between the board and the secretariat staff and members. 2. External crisis, new problem-solving: An external crisis such as an economic downturn affects the work and resources of an association. In this instance, I have to deal with the issue myself, finding solutions to mitigate its impact on the association’s continuity and sustainability. 3. New major project, added work: Embarking on a new initiative for the benefit of members usually gets broad support from everyone until implementation time when support trickles, leaving me no choice but to singularly “kickstart and keep it rolling” until support catches up on them. 4. The pandemic, new kind of stress: Work from home and virtual meetings are just a couple of disruptive effects the pandemic brought about on my wellbeing. Working long hours in different time zones, including weekends, took a toll on me, physically and mentally. Frustration on delays in work outcomes, which could have

Association World Octavio Peralta been accomplished easily in an inperson office setting, added to the stress. I understand that, as CEO, I have no peers within the organization, hence this feeling of being alone without someone at your level to talk to. Being lonely at the top for me also means having less time to connect and relate with work colleagues, especially during the pandemic. But more isolating is the fact that most of the time, I needed to do the job myself to get things done. So, what did I do to alleviate this feeling of isolation? For one, I built a support system of peers and friends whom I have known and worked with in the past and who serve as my sounding board as well as crutches in times of loneliness. They provide both practical and emotional support and the “go-to” group when times are tough. The other thing I did was to keep myself visible in both traditional and social media by regularly writing and posting articles about association management and governance. This connects me with like-minded people whom I have never met before and now part of my “virtual circle” of friends who have been generous in sharing ideas and insights on topics of mutual interest. So, while it is true that it can be lonely at the top, it is also true that you can do something about it, with a little help from your friends! Octavio Peralta is currently the executive director of the Global Compact Network Philippines and founder and volunteer CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives, the “association of associations.” Email: bobby@pcaae.org

peace of mind that in case of emergency, there is a fast and easy way to get credit without the hassle of too much paperwork,” MRACC Vice President Mary Ruth A. Oquendo. “QLO Cash Advance is our special effort to make small loans available to employees who need it. Loans of small amounts should not have to go through tedious processes so we are very happy with this new offering,”

she added. Workers can avail themselves of this even if they have an adverse credit record with another financial institution. QLO bases its decision on employees’ good standing in the company. “This salary loan offering can be a great benefit for all the qualified and hardworking employees in your company. Even employees with un-

settled obligations outside the company may be deemed qualified by companies since the prior condition is not performance or work-related,” Oquendo said. Following its kickoff last April 5, QLO continues to work with existing partner-companies and constantly grows its list of allies which seeks to give their employees increased financial flexibility.

Friday, April 8, 2022 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

Relationships BusinessMirror

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Today’s Horoscope

PHOTO BY STEPHEN BAKER ON UNSPLASH

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Taylor Kitsch, 41; Sung Kang, 50; Patricia Arquette, 54; Robin Wright, 56. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Visualize change before heading in a new direction. Have patience, and wait to see what others plan to do before you barrel ahead on your own. Keeping the peace and maintaining a standard of living will determine how this year unfolds. Recognize your finer qualities, and hone your skills in preparation to help you reach your long-term goals. Your numbers are 7, 18, 25, 29, 34, 38, 41.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Be brief but to the point. Give no one reason to doubt you or question what you plan to do next. Work toward maintaining a stable environment using intelligence and well-thought-out plans that encourage better health and living conditions. HH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Touch base with someone making changes or doing something that interests you. Find out all you can, and consider how you can follow suit. Follow your heart when it comes to meaningful relationships. Share your intentions and feelings. HHHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): A responsible attitude will divert trouble. Getting involved with anyone who is unrealistic will be taxing. Refuse to let your emotions lead you down a rabbit hole. Don’t believe everything you hear or follow someone for the wrong reason. HHH

Ready for takeoff

EVENGE travel and the ensuing recovery of many local carriers are encouraging maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies like Dornier Technology to expand their business not just in the Philippines but overseas as well. Headquartered at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, Dornier Tech was established in 2008, then as a division of the highly successful Southeast Asian Airlines (Seair), co-founded by Iren Dornier, grandson of the legendary German plane designer Claude Dornier, and his longtime friend and fellow aviator Nikos Gitsis. Now the company is among the country’s leading aircraft and aircraft systems MROs geared toward the growing needs of local and foreign carriers. I sat with Gitsis recently to talk about the challenges helming the company, having been recently appointed its CEO.

“When we started Dornier Tech, it mainly serviced the needs of Seair’s aircraft, which were mediumsized passenger turboprops such as the Let410 and Dornier 328, and some random light maintenance work of third parties. After Seair, our anchor customer, was sold to Cebu Pacific in 2014, we began the long and arduous diversification into third-party service work and now stands as the only independent MRO in the country. We have become a key player to support the maintenance and repair requirements of almost all the local operators today,” he stresses. Gitsis brings a fresh perspective to the company, coming from his years of experience across different sectors in the aviation industry. “My focus will be to grow the MRO business here in the Philippines by expanding our customer base to include operators from around the region.” The Covid-19 pandemic gave Dornier Tech the opportunity to further develop its base maintenance capabilities in its hangar at the Clark International Airport. Base maintenance refers to work on aircraft that is brought to the hangar. “It’s usually scheduled maintenance jobs that require more in-depth work and inspections, and can take from a couple of days to weeks as opposed to line maintenance, which is done immediately on the ramp where the plane is located,” he explains. The pandemic and ensuing lockdowns made airlines realize the advantage of having a domestically-based MRO that could support their

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Primp and pamper. Ease stress, and focus on looking and feeling your best. Don’t get into conversations with anyone looking for a fight. Concentrate on personal change, growth and a healthy lifestyle. Make romance a priority. HHH

requirements, “which became a lifeline for our company in the past two years,” says Gitsis. He expresses optimism over the company’s prospects, especially with the recent surge in travel, and the seeming rebound of many airlines riding the wave of tourism recovery. “The business over the past three years has been advancing with strong double-digit growth. With the comeback of aviation, we expect 2022-2024 to show strong demand for both base and line maintenance, as well as training. And I believe Dornier Technology can continue its impressive growth profile for the foreseeable future.” Its location in Clark gives the company a unique advantage of offering cost-competitive, one-stop maintenance solutions to its clients. “Because we are inside Clark’s special economic zone, we enjoy the benefits of being in the tax-free zone, making import and export of aircraft parts and components easy for our clients through the zone’s expedited process,” Gitsis explains. “By keeping our costs as low as possible, we are able to be very competitive with our pricing, lower by 10 to 20 percent on the average, against regionally-based MROs.” Another advantage, he adds, is the company’s 200plus, highly-skilled and highly-motivated workforce. “Filipinos make up a large and very experienced pool of talent we draw from, when they want to come

Continued on B5

BAFTA awardee filmmaker to mentor young content creators in online workshop AWARD-WINNING British filmmaker, writer and director Craig Lines will share his decades-worth of experience in a full online Certificate Program in Film Making for Content Creators, slated on April 22 and 29 and May 6 and 13, from 12 noon to 6 pm. To commence the four-session course, Lines will guide participants based on the following: What do you want to achieve or promote? What is the subject? Who is the target market? Also an introduction to filmmaking, students will be immersed in the language of camerawork, its background and diverse genres, plus how its tools and techniques can be

utilized in conceptualizing and creating videos and materials that are entertaining, informative and educational. The course may also serve as a starting point to those who wish to equip themselves with the necessary skillsets to create a feature film. The module will provide attendees with the understanding of the whole content creation process, from writing the script from scratch, preparing the workflow and equipment, to shooting and post-production editing. Lines has worked as producer and director for the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) in London, where he assisted in

the guidelines and training for the next generation of industry professionals. His catalogue of works includes entertainment, documentaries and short films, and encompasses his expertise as editor, audio engineer and musician. The program is hosted by the School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPaCE) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB). It is one of the latest offerings of the institution to elevate the skills and talents of young professionals and creatives in the fields of design and arts. More information is available with bit.ly/3jctJVw.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Trust and believe in your skills, and move forward with promise, enthusiasm and positive results. Fine-tuning what you already have in place will be more effective than changing direction. Show loyalty where it belongs, and improve your relationships. HHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Don’t turn down help or guidance from someone with more experience. Turn a partnership into an opportunity to encourage you to use your skills and knowledge uniquely. Something good will transpire if you make a romantic gesture. HHHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Be careful how you handle situations at home and at work. Someone will take what you say or do the wrong way, leaving you in a vulnerable position. Concentrate more on self-improvement and less on trying to change someone. HH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Live and learn. Let experience be your guide to a better life and happy relationships. Share with likeminded people, and you’ll come up with a plan that will benefit everyone. Don’t make domestic changes without approval. Romance is favored. HHHHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Follow the money. Avoid joint ventures or shared expenses. Protect your health, wealth and meaningful relationships. Conversations can resolve issues, but there will be an emotional cost involved. Don’t take a risk or act in haste. Get your facts straight. HHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Keep your thoughts to yourself. Collect information, find out where everyone stands and look for alternative solutions within the guidelines of any rules or regulations you face. Doing what’s right will ease stress. Don’t let your emotions cost you. HHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Use your intelligence to counter any attempt someone makes to take advantage of you. Keep socialization and entertainment to a minimum. Something may tempt you, but the emotional and physical cost is risky. Focus on self-improvement and good health. HHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Stick close to home, and make changes that will lower your overhead and add to your comfort and convenience. Let go of things you no longer need. Donate to someone who can put what you have to good use. Romance is encouraged. HHHHH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are flirtatious, emotional and relentless. You are insightful and sympathetic.

‘providers’ BY OLIVIA ALDRIDGE AND ROSS TRUDEAU The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Clears (of) 5 Track event 9 Fourth month 14 It’s a sign! 15 Apiece 16 Reeves of John Wick 17 Person who might teach consonantvowel combinations 20 According to 21 See 23-Across 22 Go out with 23 With 21-Across, climb without a rope 25 Pieces of lower-leg jewelry 28 Person who guides expectant and new mothers 32 Nail polish brand 33 Paving goop 34 Report on 38 Amanda Gorman, e.g. 40 Kisses on the streets of London? 43 Word sung twice after “Que” 44 Eventually become 46 Iron in a vein? 47 Digital mapping tech 48 Person working with relief pitchers

53 Country where Nadia Comaneci was born 56 “So, next...” 57 Bonobo, e.g. 58 Ballet skirt 61 Former NPR host Cornish 64 FedEx, for one...and what the starred clues’ answers all offer, in a way 68 Pleasant smell 69 Barely makes (out) 70 TV anchor’s audition tape 71 Kept going (and going) 72 “Judge not, ___ ye be judged” 73 Flight board stats DOWN 1 Stoic Brooklyn Nine-Nine detective 2 Mischievous ones 3 Like Oreos at a state fair 4 Snide looks 5 “Didn’t love it” 6 Has some nom noms 7 Reverberation 8 It can be laid down but not picked up 9 Letters before a pseudonym 10 Liveliness

11 12 13 18 19 24 26 27 28 29 30 31 35 36 37 39 41 42 45 49 50 51 52 53

Salary increase Alaska, on some US maps Instruments with bent necks People of Canada Rice-A-___ Some first responders Chain that sells buckets Some sun signs “Uh-uh” Atop McKellen of Cats Sag Eating regimen that forgoes animal products The Little Mermaid prince Overly hasty Low-end brass instrument? Test for aspiring profs Dispatched “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt,” e.g. Lo-cal Wreath plant Burn on the outside Body of work Two-way device?

54 55 59 60 62 63 65 66 67

Browser that’s also a performance Fruit salad fruit, often Kiddo Baking soda has many Placed a cold pack on Sources of electricity in a current? “To me...,” in a tweet Touring band’s vehicle Superlative suffix

Solution to today’s puzzle:

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Show BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Friday, April 8, 2022

‘Morbius’? More like moribund. This is just batty RATINGS GAME

THE celebrity said goodbye to the network abruptly and it’s unclear what the root of this sudden departure was. But according to sources, both parties had been considering a termination of the relationship for a while because of various reasons, one of which was ratings. So in the end, both parties got what they wanted. One party got the better ratings they’ve always wanted for the time slot, while the other party got much needed rest due to health concerns. It’s funny because everyone was afraid the ratings would dip after the celebrity left but what actually happened was the new show is rating very well. Perhaps the public is ready for a change and wants to see something new.

By Mark Kennedy The Associated Press

HE latest hero from Marvel is hard to explain. He’s a man and yet also a bat. No, not Batman. Let me try again: He’s a daywalking vampire, but, no, not that cool cat Blade. This guy is good but also very bad. Look, he’s clearly got an identity crisis and his film is equally in trouble. Morbius is a forgettable, often laughable, entry in Sony’s attempt to fill its own Spider-Man-adjacent cinematic universe, a poorly edited, derivative time suck—pun intended. It wastes the considerable talents of Jared Leto, who is often left here looking like the snarling lead singer of a death metal band. So confused is the film’s execution that it more closely resembles a horror movie than a superhero flick. Leto stars as Dr. Michael Morbius, a frail, brilliant and wealthy biochemist with a rare blood disease whose desperate search for a cure leads to a serum that makes him strong but also turns him into a vampire with a thirst for blood. After a hit of serum, he goes from needing crutches to swinging midair on pipes like an Olympic athlete. “I don’t know what I’m capable of,” he says. One downside: He has to chug blood bags, so there’s that. He also seems to be able to turn into a bat and fly but why he hasn’t flapped his way out of this film is unfathomable. The filmmakers—director Daniel Espinosa, hobbled by a meandering script from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless—simply do not know what to do with this creature once they’ve given us his backstory. They throw in a rivalry with his best friend (Matt Smith) and a love interest (Adria Arjona) hoping to reach something Shakespearian, but they’re treading water. Instead of a seamless, tight visual style, we are given jiggly camerawork and a buffet of previous films—The Matrix, American Psycho, The Usual Suspects and An American Werewolf in London. Typical Marvel

POLITICIAN’S PAST

JARED LETO stars in the title character, a frail, brilliant and wealthy biochemist with a rare blood disease whose desperate search for a cure leads to a serum that makes him strong but also turns him into a vampire with a thirst for blood.

SOCMED WIFE violence is unleashed, including so much muscle that our hero smashes though New York City concrete streets to the subway system below. What’s astonishing is that despite a whole movie, we know very little about Morbius. He is so principled that he turns down a Nobel Prize but perfectly OK slaughtering henchmen. He makes delicate origami animals for sick kids and, despite having oodles of cash from inventing artificial blood, wears a cheap Casio watch. At one point, Morbius loses focus as the main guy when Smith’s rival character hijacks the film entirely. The special effects team work overtime to give Leto, unfortunately wearing a messy manbun throughout the film, a sort of bat-ness—his pupils cloud and his ear hairs vibrate like he’s using sonar. His skin will suddenly stretch over bone and he snarls a lot, too. For some reason, whenever he leaps, he is enveloped by a viscous cloud. He can also slo-mo

and duck bullets and the action sequences build to moments when everything is suddenly stylistically still and quiet, like inside a hurricane’s eye. “It’s a curse,” Leto declares at one point and you wonder if maybe he’s talking about the role and its place in his career. But he’ll be fine. He just has to ignore moments like when Morbius is chained to a desk in a police department’s interview room and says: “I’m starting to get hungry and you don’t want to see me when I’m hungry.” There will be a lot of debate over where Morbius sits in the Marvel canon. There are clues that he has a future fighting Spider-Man but maybe the best thing for our vampire anti-hero is just to ignore him or swat at him like a wayward bat. Morbius, a Sony Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language.” Running time: 104 minutes. One star out of four. n

Ready for takeoff Continued from B4 home or retire. But also, we have been recruiting locally from the well-established airlines here for some of our lead positions in the company. All of these, coupled with new entrants from the schools and other smaller companies in Cebu, Manila and Angeles City provide for a good mix. These younger professionals are motivated to grow into their careers, and are led by senior managers and repatriated Filipinos who come from international aviation leaders such as Singapore Airlines, Qatar, Emirates, etc.” Dornier Technology is certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines as an approved maintenance organization, as well as by civil aviation authorities of South Korea and Indonesia. Outside of Clark, where it does base maintenance, the company also has line maintenance stations in airports in Manila, Cebu, Kalibo, Bohol, Davao, and Puerto Princesa. Over the years, Dornier Technology has built a solid reputation among its clients. After 14 years in the MRO business, the company has been able to service carriers with domestic and regional routes. These include Airmark, Air Busan, Air Seoul, AirSWIFT, Alpha Aviation Group (Philippines), Alphaland Aviation Inc., Cebu Pacific, Hongkong Airlines, Jeju Air, Lanmei Airlines, Myanmar Airways International, Pan Pacific Airlines, Air Asia Group, and Royal Airways. “We are positioning our company as the Center of Excellence for Base Maintenance of Turboprop [ATR and DASH8] and Narrow Body [A320 and B737] aircraft,” Gitsis underscores. “At the same time, we are expanding our shop capabilities to provide total aircraft maintenance solutions to our clients. We believe that our best asset is our people. Thus, we are investing in the innovation of our technical training, and we are glad to offer these services to our clients and partners.” n

THOSE who closely follow showbusiness happenings know that a certain male politician was the ex of an actor decades ago. This was when the politician was still young. The politician is now married with kids and he used to date a high-profile personality. Rumor has it that he dated the personality only to deflect rumors about his sexuality and to gain access to the showbiz world. At that time, the politician had a liking for handsome young actors and one of them became his boyfriend for a couple of years. The politician also went on dates with some male celebrities and there are reports that he was a generous lover. All the rumors stopped when he got married. Now, he does seem to be a devoted husband and dad, and his family seems to be happy.

THE businessman is very high profile on social media because the nature of his business requires it of him and his family. He and and his wife are always shown shopping for luxury goods because it’s part of their marketing strategy. Well, it appears that she actually isn’t his wife but his mistress. His real wife, who is very low profile, has decided to turn a blind eye to the businessman’s infidelity as long as she gets her fair share of the profits from his business. Meanwhile, the mistress has the limelight and some of the businessman’s huge fortune, not knowing that she could have more if she wanted to as the man is so enamored of her.

UNTOUCHED

RECENT videos of the actress seem to indicate that she is having treatments related to fertility. But how true is the rumor that they’re marks from weight reduction procedures. The actress stands firm in her assertion that her beauty is all natural and she’s not had any surgical procedures done to improve her appearance. Those who have known the actress for a while know that isn’t the truth as she’s had extensive work done and that includes liposuction.

Covid-19 temporarily stops Daniel Craig’s return to Broadway FROM left: Boy Abunda, JM de Guzman, Rep. Alfred delos Santos, Donnalyn Bartolome and Piolo Pascual.

BOY ABUNDA’S REMINDER ON ELECTION DAY: #50 IS FABULOUS TALK show host Boy Abunda is happily out and about these days, eager to support a cause he had long wanted to pursue on a larger scale. The pride of Borongan, Eastern Samar— where he was born and raised—Boy has always been dependable in helping his beloved hometown and neighboring communities in any way he can toward development. But of course, he could only do so much on his own. Back in 2019, a party list by the name of Ang Probinsyano caught Boy’s attention for advocating comprehensive development in rural areas, especially the most far-flung locations across the country. Quietly, he kept checking on the work this party-list achieved in the last three years, wanting to make sure that Ang Probinsyano stood up to its name. He wasn’t disappointed, with proof the party-list determinedly braved the pandemic to bring health essentials to the most isolated communities, all the while continuing to author bills in Congress to raise the quality and accessibility of every Filipino to education; provide more infrastructure and social services to better the lives of rural dwellers; and even opportunities toward financial aid for farmers, fisherfolk, local artisans and other small businesses with the goal of self-sufficiency. A probinsyano through and through, Boy had no qualms in accepting the party-list’s request to step in as an

adviser and valuable volunteer in bringing more attention to the often ignored sectors of society. “Nung nakilala ko na finally si Rep. Alfred delos Santos, ang first nominee ng Ang Probinsyano, na-recognize ko agad ang pagkakamukha ng aming mga pangarap para sa ating mga probinsya. Kaya sabi ko sa kanya, ‘Apid, I’m impressed with what Ang Probinsyano has done for our fellow promdis around the country in so short a time, and with the pandemic complicating everything. So here I am—ready and willing to help Ang Probinsyano carry on its promise toward better provinces across the country, ergo, a better Philippines. “Relentless in campaigning for the Ang Probinsyano Party-list (APPL), Boy is grateful to see that many other celebrities—who like him have embraced the provincial life over the pandemic—have also volunteered to help spread the word about choosing #50 Ang Probinsyano on election day. “Kasama na namin si Piolo [Pascual] na ang laging sabi naman ay ‘Huwag nang mag-50-50 sa party-list dahil #50 is it!,’” Kuya Boy chuckled. “Siyempre nandyan din si JM de Guzman, isang napakabait na bata at napakagaling na aktor, at ang bagong bagong volunteer ng grupo na social-media sensation, si Donnalyn Bartolome. “Sila ang mga ka-50 namin ni Piolo kahit iba-iba kami ng edad, kasi pare-pareho naman ang aming pagmamahal sa para ating mga probinsya,” Boy concluded.

NEW YORK—Could it be the curse of the Scottish play? Daniel Craig’s return to Broadway in a new version of Macbeth has been temporarily halted after the actor contracted Covid-19. Wednesday’s matinee and evening performances were canceled when the James Bond actor tested positive. In a tweet late Saturday night, the show said all performances were canceled through Thursday “due to the detection of a limited number of positive Covid test results within the company.” Craig stars in a revival of Williams Shakespeare’s tragedy, with Ruth Negga making her Broadway debut playing Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is playing the Longacre Theatre, with an opening set for April 28. Tony Award-winner Sam Gold is directing. According to folklore, Macbeth was cursed from the beginning, when a coven of witches objected to Shakespeare using real incantations and put a curse on the play. Other productions have been plagued with accidents. Craig was last on Broadway in a 2013 revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal opposite his wife, Rachel Weisz, and directed by Mike Nichols. Craig also starred opposite Hugh Jackman in 2009’s A Steady Rain. Gold directed Craig in a 2016 off-Broadway production of Othello alongside David Oyelowo. Other high-profile shows on Broadway have had to cancel shows due to their lead actor’s contracting the virus, including both The Music Man leads, Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. AP

B6 Friday, April 8, 2022

Petron supports the country’s biggest motoring event

Great Place to Work reveals Top 25 Best Workplaces in the Philippines for 2022

THE country's Best Workplaces for 2022

REAT Place to Work®, the global authority in workplace culture and the gold standard of recognition as well as the data scientist behind the annual Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, released its list of the 25 Best Workplaces™ in the Philippines for 2022. This year’s list features more companies than in 2020 and 2021. The 2022 rankings represent the workplace experiences of over 130,000 employees in the Philippines. “We are delighted that more companies are getting certified as great places to work. This shows that more Philippine companies and their leaders are committed to building hightrust workplace cultures. We believe that many others will join as they get inspired by the Great Place to Work®CertifiedTM companies who are leading the way in putting their people first and enjoying the many benefits of doing so,” said Antoinette Talosig, Managing Partner, Great Place to Work® Philippines and Principal Consultant, Great Place to Work® ASEAN

For over 30 years, business leaders, research institutions, and the public worldwide have relied on the Great Place to Work Trust Model© as the definitive standard of what it means to be a great workplace. The Trust Model serves as the foundation of the Trust Index© Employee Survey, which analyzes participating employees’ experiences through five dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. “As confirmed by numerous studies, satisfied workers result in greater productivity. And greater productivity means faster growth for our industries and heightened recovery for the economy. It is my sincere hope that more business groups will follow the lead of the top 25 best workplaces in the Philippines,” said Ramon Lopez, Secretary for the Department of Trade and Industry. “We look forward to the day when every sector of our economy would soon be populated by great workplaces, where leaders empower their workforce to reach their

full human potential as part of their organization.” “For the past two years, we have weathered numerous challenges in the country, chief of which is the COVID-19 pandemic. What we see in 2022 is that more companies will commit themselves to be Great Place to Work®-CertifiedTM to create a supportive work environment for their employees,” Talosig added. “In 2022, we know what’s important—we must take care of each other in terms of physical, mental, and financial health. We need to be concerned about each working person, not only as individuals but also in terms of their family and community. It’s up to the leaders to ensure that we treat people in a respectful, caring, honest, fair, and equitable way. So they know we care about them, not just as an employee, but also as a person,” said Michael C. Bush, global CEO, Great Place to Work. For more information, visit https:// www.greatplacetowork.com.ph/.

Binangonan Rural Bank signs MoU with Alibaba Cloud and Ant Group its own E-Money digital app

SIGNING THE AGREEMENT FOR THE LAUNCH OF BRB’S E-PON DIGITAL APP ARE, FROM LEFT: Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, Philippine Country Manager Allen Guo and e-pon President Alfonso Huang.

HE Philippines’ first rural bank to launch an E-Money Issuer (EMI) operations, the Binangonan Rural Bank (BRB) continues to innovate and lead the digital banking sector with the planned launch of its own E-Money digital app dubbed “e-pon”. To bring Filipinos to the next level of digital banking, BRB partners with the global leading cloud service provider Alibaba Cloud and financial technology solution provider Ant Group for the upcoming e-pon digital banking app that will bring further convenience to the way Filipinos avail of BRB’s digitaldriven products and services. E-pon digital app, supported by Alibaba Cloud’s Infrastructure-as-aService (IaaS) system, will allow users to enjoy a digital lifestyle in a safe and convenient way, and meet their daily needs such as deposit, withdrawal, and fund transfer faster. Payments will be easier with the app

to serve as mobile payment gateway for merchants, as well as offer payment tie-ups with different businesses and government entities. It will also provide easy access to other financial services such as loans and investments. User can also look forward to e-pon’s seamless, cashless transactions that will make shopping safer and more enjoyable. “We are confident that the favorable prospects in the digital financial sector will continue in the near future and result in significant growth most especially for our E-Money products and services. Through our planned digital app, we are making sure that we will be able to take advantage of these growth opportunities, while improving further the access of Filipinos to financial services, online banking services, and lifestyle services,” said Huang. Allen Guo, Country Manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence,

said Alibaba Cloud is proud to be BRB’s partner in bringing more innovative and reliable digital financial services to Filipinos. “We are glad to have this opportunity to be part of the progress of digital banking in the Philippines through our exciting partnership with BRB. Digital banking, E-money in particular, is not just a trend – it’s the future. We are looking forward to the introduction of BRB’s e-pon app that will bolster financial inclusivity in the country while bringing seamless and convenient digital experiences to local consumers,” said Guo. As the leading public cloud service provider in Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud has a solid track record in providing reliable, robust and secure cloud computing services to its customers all over the world. Alibaba Cloud is also one of the members of the FinTech Alliance of the Philippines, offering its expertise in cloud technology to provide appropriate solutions to address issues and challenges in the sector. Another key contributor to the partnership is Ant Group, which support BRB with its Electronic and Mobile-Platform solutions to enable the delivery of seamless financial services. BRB is the first Rural Bank in the Philippines to launch E-Money Issuer (EMI) operations in 2022, after it became one of the few financial institutions granted the coveted EMI license by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2017. BRB Digital offers E-Money digital services such as: issuance of cash cards, cash in/loading of cash cards, cash out from cash cards, Instapay/Inter Bank Fund Transfer transactions on cash cards, Bills payment using cash cards, and E-load using cash cards.

NDUSTRY leader Petron Corporation further strengthens its support for the upcoming Manila International Auto Show (MIAS) as car lovers and motoring enthusiasts can once again enjoy the excitement of the country’s biggest motoring event. The brand will highlight its “Petron Panalo ang Pilipino” theme to emphasize its solidarity with our countrymen and our shared aspiration to rise up and recover from the challenges of the past two years. MIAS is back after a 2-year hiatus. Its last on-ground event was held in 2019 and a virtual auto show was held in 2020. Billed as the Manila International Auto Show co-presented by Petron, the muchloved auto show returns to the World Trade Center on April 7-10, with Petron as the exclusive fuel and lubricant sponsor. MIAS visitors will be welcomed by a Petron booth with a rally-car display in the lobby. Inside the main hall, they can visit the Petron service station setup, and participate in games and other activities. In addition, the Petron-MIAS Custom and Car Classic Competition will showcase over 50 cars from different eras vying for the coveted Best of Show award. These cars trust only Petron Blaze 100, the only 100-octane and Euro 6 gasoline in the country. As the country’s leading oil company, Petron takes pride in being the biggest oil player and only remaining refiner in the country with the local capability to

formulate world-class products to meet the diverse fuel needs of Filipino motorists. Unlike other industry players, Petron— as a Philippine-based company—has the management flexibility and technical competence to create quality products that meet the needs of our countrymen, from motorcycle riders to tricycle and jeepney drivers, as well as everyday motorists and owners of high-performance vehicles. Having served the fuel needs of the country for almost 90 years, only Petron has a deep understanding of the unique driving conditions on Philippine roads. Its R&D team is constantly striving to create diverse products that will deliver optimum efficiency for every type of vehicle. For more information about the MIAS and how to purchase tickets to the event online, visit manilaautoshow.com

Manila Water shortlisted in the 2022 Global Water Awards

HILIPPINE-BASED multinational utility Manila Water Company (MWC) has been shortlisted for the prestigious Water Company of the Year prize by the 2022 Global Water Awards, the winner of which will be announced during the Global Water Summit scheduled on May 17, 2022 in Madrid, Spain (https://globalwaterawards.com). This was disclosed during the 6th installment of the Upsilon Sigma Phi Climate Action Network (UpsilonCAN) webinar series entitled “The Manila Water Sustainability Story” held on April 4. The event took place in observance of World Water Day 2022, and was co-presented by Upsilon Sigma Phi North America, Inc. and the UP Circle of Entrepreneurs. According to guest speaker and Manila Water Company (MWC) Chief Operating Officer Melvin John M. Tan, “I’m happy to announce that Manila Water is one of only four water utilities nominated for the award. We are proud to be a Filipino multinational company that is gaining global recognition for the country.” Tan, who was spent over two decades with MWC, is concurrently President of Wawa JV Co, Inc. and Market Sector Lead of MWC’s parent company

Prime Infra, the core infrastructure arm of the Razon group. MWC is ranked amongst the best water operator in the world by Global Water Intelligence, and it received the Best Sustainability Award by Asset Asian Awards in 2020 for its US$ 500 million sustainability bond issuance. Tan noted that in the 25 years since MWC took over management and operations of its franchise area in 1997, water availability has increased from 26% to 100% in its Central Distribution System; it has reduced nonrevenue water from 63 percent to 13 percent; and it now serves 7.3 million consumers, compared to only 3.1 million when it began. MWC is also known to have pioneered sustainability practices in the Philippines: it was the first domestic company to publish sustainability reports in 2005; the first to communicate climate change policies in 2007; and the first to publish sustainability reports in accordance with GRI Standards in 2010. It is poised to publicize its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies later this year. Outside of the Philippines, MWC has business operations in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Kitchen by CBTL offers new dining experience

ITH its mastery over coffee, tea, and pastries over the years, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has expanded with gourmet dishes offering with Kitchen by CBTL. The Kitchen at SM Megamall is the company’s 2nd open-kitchen concept restaurant which opened to the public in March 2022. This new concept restaurant was pioneered last October 2020 in the midst of the pandemic but despite that, CBTL have gained a number of loyal patrons who can attest to the credibility of their dishes. Born and brewed in South California since 1963, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is a leading global roaster and retailer of specialty coffees and teas. The company sources the finest ingredients and flavors from around the world and hand blends coffee and tea for the freshest flavors. The brand started the frozen coffee drink craze in 1987 and is also the first to offer cold brew tea. CBTL currently has more than 1,200 retail locations across the globe, and has

been in the Philippines since 2003. Find out why more and more Pinoys would want to dine and hang out at the Kitchen with its top dishes. Explore different cuisine styles as well with its allrounder menu. Start off your day with their ‘Chorizo and Egg Skillet’ - the perfect breakfast dish of Spanish chorizo, onions, sunny side up eggs, and garlic rice. If you’d like something sweet and delightful, you can go for their soft and light pancakes with whipped cream and your choice of topping - caramelized banana or blueberries. If you’re up for something fresh and healthy, check out ‘California Cobb' that's made with romaine lettuce, topped with grilled chicken breast, eggs, corn, tomatoes, mozzarella, & avocado. Tossed in homemade ranch dressing. Or you may opt for ‘Shrimp & Pomelo’, a delicious combination of romaine lettuce, cilantro, and mint leaves. Topped with poached shrimp, pomelo, roasted peanuts, & desiccated coconuts. It’s even made more refreshing because it’s tossed in coconut lime dressing. Fall in love with ‘Steak Chimichurri’ with tender slices of juicy steak, served with chipotle rice and a basket of fries. Or try the ultimate crowd favorite, the ‘CBTL Burger’ is guaranteed to satisfy! It’s a double patty Angus burger with cheddar cheese, & caramelized onions. Served with a side of fries. Visit coffeebean.com.ph, facebook.com/ coffeebeanphilippines, instagram.com/cbtlph, and tiktok.com/@thecoffeebeanph

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

TIGER WOODS wipes his brow on the 15th hole during a practice round for the Masters on Wednesday. AP

Blue Eagles foil Red Warriors’ gallant stand

NIVERSITY of the East (UE) put up a gallant stand as the Red Warriors were in a position to break into the win column at the expense of undefeated three-time defending champion Ateneo. But the expected prevailed and the Blue Eagles slammed the Red Warriors with a 94-72 rout in Season 84 University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball action on Thursday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. “We have problems and they manifested themselves at times during games,” Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin said. “In the fourth quarter, we did a better job defending their three-point shooting.” The Blue Eagles got a scare when the Red Warriors closed in at 53-51 on Nico Paranada’s three-pointer midway the third quarter. But they were all false hopes as Gian Mamuyac erupted with 10 of his 21 points—he also had nine rebounds—to deny UE’s upset bid. Mamuyac had 10 points in a 14-0 blast that gave Ateneo a 12-point cushion, 65-53, approaching the end of the third quarter. Ateneo unleashed another 11 straight points for an insurmountable 84-62 lead that shattered all of UE’s dream of toppling a big one with still six minutes to go in the final period. Ange Kouame had 21 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks and Dave Ildefonso and SJ Belangel chalked up 12 points each for Ateneo. The Blue Eagles stretched their winning streak to 6-0 this season and 32-0 since October 2018. The Red Warriors? They’re languishing in the cellar with 0-6. Also on Thursday, Zavier Lucero nailed the decisive basket to lift University of the Philippines (UP) past De La Salle, 61-59, and send the Fighting Maroons to solo second place with a 5-1 card. Lucero, a six-foot-seven scorer coming out of California State Maritime Academy, had a hulking performance of 21 points—11 in the pivotal fourth quarter and the go-ahead basket with 1:49 left—for UP which dealt De La Salle its second loss in six games. National University routed University of Santo Tomas (UST), 8251, to improve to 3-3. Josef Ramos

UGUSTA, Georgia— Tiger Woods’s 91st competitive round at the Masters will start like all the rest. At around 10:34 a.m. on Thursday, the five-time champion will stick his tee into the ground at Tea Olive, the name of the first hole at Augusta National, take a couple of practice swings and continue a familiar walk that began over a quarter-century ago. It’s what happens when Woods sticks his driver back into his bag that will determine whether his surgically rebuilt right leg—or the rest of the 46-year-old Hall of Famer for that matter—is ready for a test unlike any

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other he’s faced in his career. The five-mile or so walk between the Georgia pines at Augusta National is 11,000-plus steps of up and down and up again. It requires hitting shots from uneven lies. Of digging into the pine straw when required. Of trying to peak over bunkers that can run so deep—as it does on the par-3 fourth hole—you need to jump if you’re going to see the flag. No one other than Jack Nicklaus has navigated the sprawling course as well as Woods. No active player is as well-versed in the contours of every inch of perfectly manicured Bermuda grass. That’s why Woods wasn’t complaining when he said on

SUPERAL GRABS 3-SHOT LEAD

RINCESS SUPERAL used a near-impeccable iron game at the back to fire a threeunder 69 on Thursday and drive a wedge between her and her pursuers heading to the final round of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Hallow Ridge Ladies Challenge in San Pedro, Laguna. Superal thwarted Chanelle Avaricio and amateur Lois Kaye Go’s challenge with a fine display of iron play and putting touch in the last nine holes of the Filipinas Golf Hallow Ridge, setting up birdies chances inside six feet which she made to break off a crowded leaderboard and seize a threestroke lead at twounder 142. Avaricio, who matched Superal’s opening 73 to share opening day honors Wednesday, fell by one with a frontside 37 then hit two birdies against a bogey at the back to

save a 72 although she dropped three strokes behind at 145. Go, just a shot off the joint leaders after 18 holes, reeled from a double-bogey mishap on the second hole but worked her way back into contention after a bogey on No. 5 with two birdies. She salvaged a 73 and remained at third at 147. With the rest failing to mount a rally in moving day in the 54-hole championship organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc., Superal will practically have two rivals to shun to nail another victory after winning two in an abbreviated campaign on the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour last year. “It will be a question of ball positioning,” said Superal, who snapped a one-birdie, onebogey game at the front with birdies on No. 10 from six feet, on No. 13 from eight feet, and on the 18th from four feet on a tough side-hill, downhill spot. “Hopefully, I make more putts tomorrow (Friday).”

Avaricio failed to cash in on her local knowledge of the up-and-down layout but flashed resiliency after each stumble, birdying No. 7 after a bogey on the par five No. 6 for the second straight day, matching Superal’s birdie on the 10th after yielding a stroke on No. 8 and draining another birdie on the 17th after yielding a shot on No. 14. “I struggled with my ball positioning, especially on the greens. I put myself mostly on the bad sides,” said Avaricio, seeking to nail a second LPGT crown after dominating the Riviera-Couples leg by seven last November. “It’s all about executing the shots,” said the former Alabama State U standout. “If the putts drop, then that’s it.” Go, priming up for the 31st Southeast Asian Games next month, had hoped to launch a big charge early but got stymied by a doublebogey miscue on the tough second hole. She dropped another stroke on the fifth but recovered to birdie the par-5 ninth then gained another stroke on No. 11 and rescued a couple of pars to stay in the hunt.

PRINCESS SUPERAL breaks what started as a crowded leaderboard as Lois Kaye Go tries to do catch up. NONIE REYES

Bolts see big Gin Kings fightback in Game Two By Josef Ramos

ERALCO expects a dangerous Barangay Ginebra San Miguel squad when the Bolts gun for a 2-0 Finals series lead in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. Meralco coach Norman Black, however, stressed that winning their 6 p.m. encounter won’t be an easy task as he expects the Gin Kings to come out smoking with the necessary adjustments. And Ginebra import Justine Brownlee is tops on his list of priorities on defense. “The challenge is to slow down Justine Brownlee again in Game 2,” Black said after Meralco’s 104-91 victory in the opener on Wednesday

night at the Araneta Coliseum. Brownlee was held to 7 of 20 shooting but still scored 27 points with six rebounds and five assists in Game 1. “I thought Justin [Brownlee] played pretty well in Game 1. He might not be at the percentage that he’s been shooting lately, but he’s still an offensive threat,” Black said. “I’m sure he will improve so we must be ready to play defense again.” Brownlee, who helped Ginebra win the Governors’ Cup in 2016, 2017 and 2019, knows that the Bolts are motivated in their fourth championship showdown with the Gin Kings. “Meralco is definitely motivated to get that first win and they deserved that win,” Brownlee said. “They have been a great defensive team ever since. We expect them to come out.” “I just have to get a good look, keep

Ladon, four others target finals berths in Thailand Open EIGNING Southeast Asian Games flyweight champion Rogen Ladon guns for at least a silver medal with four other Filipinos in the Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament on Friday at the posh Angsana Laguna Phuket Resort Hotel in Phuket, Thailand. Ladon takes on hometown bet Thanarat Saengphet to open the semifinals hostilities at 1 p.m. (2

Tuesday “walking is the hard part.” He’s merely stating a fact. And he’s hardly the only one who knows how physically draining competing in the Masters can be. Two-time US Open champion Curtis Strange used to leave the tournament with shin splints. And Strange didn’t have to do it while working with a leg crammed with rods and plates metal detectors shudder when they see you coming around the corner. “You know, 72 holes is a long road, and it’s going to be a tough challenge and a challenge that I’m up for,” Woods said. At least in theory. He hasn’t played 18 holes at Augusta National

p.m. in Manila). Also seeking podium finishes are Ian Clark Bautista (men’s featherweight), Riza Pasuit (women’s lightweight), Aira Villegas (women’s flyweight) and Hergie Bacyadan (women’s middleweight) face separate opponents. Ladon, an Asian Games and Asian Championships silver medalist, drew a bye to the quarterfinals where he overwhelmed Po-Wei Tu of Chinese Taipei, 5-0, on Wednesday.

He now goes up against the 2021 AIBA World Championships bronze medalist Saengphet who narrowly beat world title holder Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan via a 3-2 split decision. Ladon, 28, is not taking the much younger Saengphet, 19, lightly even though he already caught a glimpse of the Thai’s potential as the two were sparring partners in the pre-tournament training camp held in Muak Lek District

shooting and be aggressive next game. We moved on and made adjustments for the next game,” Brownlee added. Allein Maliksi sparked the Bolts’ offense in the first half by scoring 15 of his 22-point total in the period, before import Tony Bishop took charge in the second half by firing 14 of 20 points that went with his 12 rebounds. Cliff Hodge sank nine of his 17 points in the payoff period. “I feel like they are going to give it their all, battle as hard as they can,” Hodge said. “So the next game is big. We have to match their energy, weather the storm, be super aggressive and have that energy.” Despite being ahead in the series, Black downplayed league history which says that 60 out of 88 teams which won the first game of a best-ofseven series won the crown.

just outside Bangkok. “Fifty-fifty, I can’t say because I’m facing a hometown bet,” said Ladon, the pride of Bago, Negros Occidental. “But I’ll give it my best shot.” Bautista fought all the way from the preliminaries to the semis where he meets Nguyen Van Duong of Vietnam, a silver medalist in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. The SEA Games bronze medalist Bautista first demolished Cheng Wei Lee of Chinese Taipei, 5-0, then outclassed Alex Mukuka of New Zealand, 4-0, in the quarterfinals.

Editor: Jun Lomibao | Friday, April 8, 2022 B7

on consecutive days since shredding his leg in a car accident in February 2021 that led doctors to consider amputation. Now he›s asking the same leg that anchored 15 major championships and a Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour record-tying 82 victories to hold up for four rounds in the span of 81 or so hours. That doesn’t even include the warm-up or recovery, routines that require far more time than they did when he fist-pumped his way to his first green jacket 25 years ago. It’s asking a lot. Yes, it’s just walking. Only it’s no ordinary walk. And it’s no ordinary week. For Woods or anyone else. “I think most of the stress that we have is probably more mental than physical,” said world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who at 25 was born less than a year before Woods captured his first Masters title. The stress is no longer between Woods’s ears, but underneath his feet. The elevation changes are nearly constant from your opening shot. Down the hill to the first fairway, then back up toward the green. Down a hill again at No. 2. Rolling terrain on No. 3. An

elevated tee at No. 4. Uphill nearly all the way at No. 7. Ditto No. 8. A climb to the turn at No. 9. The back nine is a jumble. The 10th fairway could double as a ski slope. Another trek down the 11th into Amen Corner. The 12th and 13th offer a bit of a respite. Mounds and a slanted fairway on the 14th, where a flat lie is basically a myth. A gentle downhill to the 15th green. The 16th provides a respite, before the 17th tee begins one last climb back to the clubhouse. Woods admits his mobility is so limited he ditched Nike cleats for FootJoys because it provided more comfort. He’s hoping the jolt of adrenaline fueled by the first capacity crowd to come to Augusta since his titanic victory in 2019 will help him get by. Still, golf is golf. Throw in the crucible that is the Masters and Woods knows adversity is unavoidable. He stressed he wouldn’t come back just to be a field filler. That’s simply not his way. He’s not going to ask his leg to simply help him get around, but to stand on the 18th green late Sunday afternoon and have Hideki Matsuyama drape a sixth green jacket over his shoulders. AP

Cool Smashers seek PVL Open championship against Angels

REAMLINE tries to finish off Petro Gazz in Game 2 of the best-of-three series and run away with the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Open Conference title on Friday. The match will be played this time at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City at 6 p.m. with Cool Smashers head coach Sherwin Meneses feeling less pressure after they took Game 1, 2516, 23-25, 25-12, 32-30, at the packed Mall of Asia Arena late Wednesday. “We’re thankful that we got Game 1, Meneses said. “Winning the first game’s a big deal because the pressure is now on the other side.” Back in the same spot as they were last year, Meneses guaranteed a different ending this time. “What happened last year was a lesson to us,” he said, referring to the PVL’s first year as a pro league in the Iloilo Norte bubble where they beat the Chery Tiggo Crossovers in Game 1, but lost the next two in the best-ofthree finals. One thing going for the Cool Smashers as they set out for the clincher—and a rare sweep of the championship—is that Petro Gazz top hitter Grethcel Soltones remains a doubtful starter after the former San Sebastian star sustained an injury while trying to help anchor the Angels’ fightback in the fourth set. “It’s a different game on Friday. We’ll have a new rotation, we are one player down but somebody must step up,” Petro Gazz coach Jerry Yee said. “The team is mature enough to fight. If they give us a break, we’ll cash in on it.” The presentation of individual awards will precede the 3 p.m. match for third place where Choco Mucho seeks to also finish off Cignal HD in their best-of-three series. Choco Mucho won their series opener, 25-17, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22, also Wednesday. To force a deciding game, the Angels will have a lot of adjusting to do primarily on offense and coverage after the Cool Smashers hammered 76 attack points from 190 attempts in Game 1 with Alyssa Valdez and Tots Carlos at the forefront of the assault with 24 and 23 kills, respectively.

BICYCLE FRIENDLY CITY

Mayor Jerry Treñas receives for Iloilo City the Gold Award for the Most Bike-Friendly City in the Philippines during the Mobility Awards 2021 last year. Iloilo has been dubbed as the “Bike Capital of the Philippines.”

The team’s 1-2 scoring threat finished with 26 points apiece with Jema Galanza adding 17 points and Pangs Panaga chipping in 13 points. Setter Jia de Guzman is expected to raise her game a notch higher to keep Creamline’s dreaded offense going while counterpart Chie Saet expects to put up more of the same that she dished out the first time out to keep the Petro Gazz hitters in sync and in attack mode all game. Petro Gazz actually produced more blocks, 12-10, but converted just 41 kills in 170 tries with MJ Phillips topscoring with 13 points, Soltones pumping 11 before moving out in pain and Jonah Sabete adding nine kills for 11 points. Myla Pablo struggled for just seven points, Remy Palma settled for six points, Aiza Pontillas groped for five hits and Nicole Tiamzon, subbing for the injured Soltones, finished with two points. But they are expected to step up in a match they couldn’t afford to lose, thus ensuring a more explosive performance for the Angels, who foiled the Cool Smashers’ backto-back title bid in the 2019 Reinforced Conference. Creamline, however, got back at Petro Gazz in the succeeding Open conference, which the Cool Smashers retained, only to yield it to the Choco Mucho side in a bubble setup last year. But with the Crossovers’ bubble pricked in the absence of Jaja Santiago, the Cool Smashers are now a win away from becoming the second team to win a championship in the Sports Visionorganized league’s pro era. Creamline, meanwhile, also sparkled in their backrow stand in Game One, coming through with 89 excellent digs, 58 more than Petro Gazz, with Kyle Atienza producing 25 and Galanza adding 18 on top helping the team in attacks. But stats won’t matter for a Petro Gazz side in a do-or-die hole while expect Creamline to pile up the numbers that would embellish their impending date with history.

B8 Friday, April 8, 2022

Motoring BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

Toyota brings in the all-new Raize T Story by Randy S. Peregrino

OYOTA Motor Philippines (TMP) has entered the subcompact SUV competition with the recent introduction of the all-new Raize. The leading auto distributor is proud to bring one of its most awaited vehicles of the year. The all-new Raize (pronounced as "Raise" or "Race") is a versatile SUV that provides utility and fun for everyday use and leisure activities.

The all-new Toyota Raize subcompact SUV. Spacious cabin with premium trims.

Toyota Motor Philippines

Toyota saw how the past couple of years redefined many things, from how people interact with one another, how to work and play, and most importantly, how to reach. These challenges have somehow influenced many people to discover how to step up from the usual—to find a way to take things up a notch to meet the necessary adjustments in this "new normal." TMP saw this opportunity things even further. According to Toyota, its newest contender to the growing subcompact SUV roster in the market is ready for adventures. Moreover, to play into everyone's ambitions for the future, be successful in business and life, and the day-to-day 'game' of achieving that. The company also claims that Raize is the perfect platform to help anyone get to the next level.

This newest small SUV comes in four variants with an affordable starting price of P746,000. More so, the top-of-the-line variant sports a 1.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. Following Toyota's new global architecture innovations in developing new vehicles, including its platform and powertrain unit, the all-new Raize was developed to realize outstanding levels of driving performance, safety, and peace of mind.

Sharp-looking and spacious

Exterior-wise, the brand's modern design cue for its SUV lineup is evident. From those sharp profiles all over, particularly to the pronounced front grille. The 1.0 Turbo CVT and 1.2 G CVT variants highlight split-type LED headlamps with a line guide, while the 1.2 E

Toyota Motor Philippines

CVT and 1.2 E MT variants sport halogen headlamps. Daytime Running Lights (DRL) are available to all variants. Accessing the vehicle is a game-changer for an entry-level SUV. Depending on the variant, drivers can enjoy a keyless entry with either push-start or rotary type ignition system. The all-new Raize's design is for those who want to experience an SUV to carry-on luggage but are also looking for a vehicle that's compact and easy to drive. It's time to raise your game with Toyota Raize this year. Interior-wise, this five-seater compact SUV is surprisingly roomy for its size. Its cargo space can carry anything from the essential to the recreational. Leather and silver ornament (1.0 Turbo CVT and 1.2 G CVT &) or a urethane and silver ornament (1.2. E CVT and 1.0 E MT) steering wheel are some of the premium elements found inside. Interestingly, there is an illuminated entry system for all variants. As for the vehicle's connectivity functions,

the Raize can easily connect drivers to the essential mobility apps via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. These functions, among others, run on an eight-inch or nine-inch Display Audio with up to a six-speaker system (for the Turbo and G variant). Gadget charging is also not an issue as the model has two USB charging ports and a 12-volt accessory outlet.

Boosted three-pot

One of Raize's selling points is the top spec's 1.0-liter three-cylinder, in-line, 12-valve DOHC with VVT-i turbocharged engine. The motor generates 96 hp and a hefty 140 N-m of maximum torque to propel the small light frame. On the other hand, the different variants run on a 1.2-liter Dual VVT-i naturally aspirated engine. As for safety features, the all-new Raize comes with technologies that help keep potentially dangerous situations at bay and create a safer driving environment for everyone while supporting their daily journey. Vehicle

2022 MG HS SUV HITS TOWN

ITH the arrival last month of the 2022 MG HS SUV, it becomes the newest MG model to join MG Philippines’ growing stable of global, British heritage MG vehicles. The new MG HS SUV comes equipped with MG Philippines’ host of standard aftersales complements, including a five-year or 100,000-km warranty, MG roadside assistance, and a readily available technical support. Chino Subido wrote: “With the HS, and every global MG model, MG Philippines demonstrates a convergence of cultures through the following: MG’s rich UK lineage, born of innovation; the entrepreneurial spirit and technological and advanced manufacturing acumen of Shanghai-based SAIC Motor; and, of course, the warmth of Filipino service, embodied by local group The Covenant Car Company, Inc., which is the official distributor of MG in the Philippines.” Chino said the HS is powered by a 1.5 inline-4 DOHC turbocharged petrol engine that is mated to a smooth-shifting seven-speed Twin-Clutch Sportronic Transmission and produces 169PS and 250N-m of torque. It is also equipped with modern driver aids such as a Blind Spot Detection System, Tire Pressure Monitoring System, EPS 3-mode Adjustable Steering, push start-stop functionality, an electronic parking brake with autohold, and a proprietary “Sport Mode” that allows

for crisper steering and throttle response. Chino continued: “Our vehicle has won the 2021 Compact SUV of the Year, OneShift by Carousell COTY Awards (Singapore), 2021 SUV of the Year, SGCarMart COTY Awards (Singapore), and the 2020 Car of the Year and Best Subcompact Crossover, COTY Awards (Middle East). “Reservations started pouring in last March from our 39 dealerships nationwide. “The MG HS Alpha 1.5T comes at P1,258,888 and the MG HS Trophy 1.5T is at P1,308,888—good until April 30. “Visit MG Philippines and MGmotor.com. ph for more information.” And from Alberto B. Arcilla, the lawyerpresident and CEO of MG Philippines, this: “Our mission at MG Philippines is, and has always been, to offer superior quality products; and to serve the evolving mobility needs of the Philippine motoring public. The new MG HS is the embodiment of the high standards in design, quality, technology, safety, and value that we at MG Philippines perpetually aim to uphold as a brand. The launch of the MG HS this first quarter of 2022 is likewise significant because this model headlines the arrival of other modern, global, MG vehicles that we intend to launch and reveal later on throughout the year. We, at MG Philippines, are primed for a very eventful 2022 and begin so with the HS—the vehicle that invites all to aim

Stability Control & Hill Start Assist and as Back Sonars are standard. The 1.0 Turbo CVT variant comes with Blind Spot Monitor and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert functions, additional front side and curtain airbags, and front clearance sonars. Both the Turbo CVT and G CVT variants come with a rear camera.

Pricing and colors

The top-spec 1.0 Turbo CVT retails at P1.031 million (P1.036 million for the White Pearl color) while the 1.2 G CVT is at P906,000. The 1.2 E CVT, meantime, retails at P816,000 while the base model 1.2 E MT is at P746,000. The All-New Toyota Raize comes in Twotone colors exclusive for the Turbo CVT variant (White Pearl SE/ Black, Turquoise Mica Metallic/Black, and Yellow SE/Black). There is also a red finish exclusive for the 1.2G grade. Of course, the classic Gray Metallic and Silver Metallic shades are also available. Reservations are now accepted. higher and make the elevated choice when considering a new car purchase.” Ride on, Albert.

SEAOIL winners

TWO delivery riders and a working student are building their dreams as grand prize winners of SEAOIL’s Lifetime Free Gas (LFG) promo this year. They are Luzon’s Jomar Alluag, Visayas’ Jason Deposoy and Mindanao’s Jenreel Alger. Alluag, 34, became a Grab delivery rider when he lost his job during the pandemic. He uses the PriceLOCQ app when he gasses up at SEAOIL in Tandang Sora, Q.C. Deposoy, 38, is a FoodPanda rider making up to 20 to 30 deliveries each day across Dumaguete City. With his lifetime fuel bonus, he said he’d persevere in seeing his daughter finish her education degree. Alger, 21, a working student in Lanao del Norte, drives a car for land trips to Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. A third year BS Criminology student, Alger is bent on finishing college, and next get a regular job to support his family. SEAOIL’s fifth year of LFG promo has been its biggest yet, with three more winning a oneyear supply of free gas, four winners receiving motorcycle fuel packages, and 75 others nationwide stashing away P3,000-worth of gas vouchers each.

PEE STOP Sherwin Chualim, TMP’s First VP for vehicle sales operations, has announced that Toyota PR & communications senior specialist Nadinne Capistrano is now the new Lexus brand & communications senior specialist. Cherry Lyn Bolanos is Toyota’s VP for brand & planning cluster while Elvin “The Big E” Luciano will remain as assistant VP to head the marketing services department. Sunshine Cabrera is PR & communications team manager and Jaemy Mejia is PR & communications group head. Cheers & mabuhay kayo!