BusinessMirror April 25, 2022

‘Close cut Omicron risk’ Dim borders, outlook fuels PHL riceexposure imports surge ByJasper Cai U.Emmanuel OrdinarioY. Arcalas By

CT

@caiordinario @jearcalas

LOSING country’s HE the country’s riceborders imports in is onethe of the immediate firstmost quarter surged by courses of action the governalmost 70 percent year-onmentyear musttotake to preventmetric the lat-tons 985,139.995 est Covid-19 Omicron, (MT) asvariant, importers broughtfrom in more reaching Philippine shores, accordstaple food in anticipation of tighting toerlocal economists. world supply coupled with lower T he new iantoutput. is a threat, domesticvar staple e s p e c i aLatest l l y wBureau it h t he hol idIndustry ay s of Plant coming updata and morerice foreigners (BPI) showed imports durbeinginga llowed to travel to the the January-to-March period Philippines, De La Sa MT lle Univerwere 404,057.065 higher than sit y economist MarMT ia Ella Oplas the 581,082.93 recorded in the told BusinessMirror. same period of last year.

The holidays usually in InMarchalone, aboutbring 414,243.005 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) MT of rice entered the country, based who are eager to spend Christmas

w w

withontheir loved ones,towhile forBPI data released the public. eignersHistorical living in temperate regions BPI data showed that usually want to relax inrice tropical the 985,139.995 MT of imports countries like the Philippines.

This from January to March is the highyear’s of OFWs isimport expected to estinflux first-quarter volume be heavier since of them werethe recorded by many the country since unable to come home of forrice thetrade holidays implementation liberin December 2020. alization (RTL) law in 2019.

“MyAgriculture recommendation is to protectfor Undersecretary the borders.

Do not allow people with Policy, Planning and Research Fera history of travel to countries with min D. Adriano cited two possible positive cases enter,” Oplasrise: said.the reasons fortothe imports’ “Weimporters’ should be more restrictive.

[We expectation of tighter haveglobal to be] staple more protective in terms supply and the proof our measures.” jected lower domestic rice output.

Oplas said that while thisthat will some be Adriano explained a setback to some industries, this wheat-eating countries in Subis a Saharan fair measure that Africaconsidering and Middle East thisare could help prevent placing thedue projected to shift to rice country in another strict lockdown,

n Monday, April 25, 197 Monday, November 29,2022 2021Vol.Vol.1717No.No.52

which, she said, theproblems economyof can no to global supply wheat longer afford. caused by the Ukraine-Russia war.

“It Importers is better that do protective alsowe brought in more preventive measures than rice from abroad to replaceget the exproposed again.

Wein have lot toproduclose,” jected decline localapalay Oplas “We should do as it now so tionsaid. due to lower yield, Filipino that we can open just before Christfarmers reduced fertilizer applicamas.

If itadded gets contained, tion, Adriano. we can open it again.”

The DA, Adriano disclosed, esAteneo Center for Economic timated the second quarter Rerice search and Development (ACERD) output to decline by 800,000 MT Associate Ser Percival as farmersDirector reduce fertilizer applicaK. tion Peña-Reyes saidfertilizer closing prices the amid soaring country’s in recentborders months.would be effective but should still adhere to the Adriano explained that the prostandards set by the World Health jection was made by the DA’s PhilipOrganization (WHO).Institute even pine Rice Research What is needed, Peña-Reyes told before the Ukraine conflict, which this newspaper, is for travel restricimpacted global supply chains. tions to be put in place swiftly and

for government to be proactive in Confluence of events imposing them.

MONETARY Board member V. Previous instances the Bruce J. Tolentino said when the rising country had the opportunity to imrice imports may have been a result pose travel restrictions did preof a confluence of events -- not importvent spread of Covid-19.

That was ers’the consideration for the country’s mainly because the decision not current stock level, tradewas condimade immediately, he said. tions, as well as factors affecting “Kung papatay patay [If we’re domestic consumer demand. slow] and we get caught flat-foot“They all need to make money ed, risky] We were factor too reand[that’s NFA is no longer a major in active instead of proactive before. the determination of market prices.

We should learnneed from The importers tothat,” decidePeñawhat Reyes a delicate kindssaid. and “It’s quality of rice balancing they want act.

We need to push testing and to bring in, and to find the most tracing to be properly informed competitive supplier from various ofrice ourexporting decisions.

Blanket/shotgun countries,” Tolentino approaches could have dire consetold the BusinessMirror. quences See on “Dim the economy.” outlook,” A2 See “Omicron,” A2

P25.00 P25.00 nationwide nationwide || 22 sections sections 20 20 pages pages ||

FIES:INFORMAL SECTOR’S NATL GOVT BORROWINGS FOR 10 IN MOS DIP TOLOWER P2.75T SHARE INCOME n

By By Bernadette D. Nicolas Cai U. Ordinario

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Omicronatrisk Cerberus spurs‘win-win’ revival Subic of quarantine for everyone rules in PHL –Dominguez

@BNicolasBM @caiordinario

HE national HOUGH government’s more gross Filipinos borrowings turned to theas of end-October shrank informal sector to by almost 6 percent cope during the year-on-year pandemic, thetoshare P2.75 trillion. of entrepreneurial activities in overall Latest data from the Bureau of the family income Treasury showed that the governsaw a decline, the ment’s gross borrowings during the 10-month period fell by 5.99and percent Family Income from P2.92 trillion a year ago.

Expenditure Survey With only two months left for (FIES) showed. this year, the latest figure is already

equivalent to 89.6 percent of its P3.07-trillion borrowing program.

Broken down, gross domestic The first semester data of borthe rowings fromFilipino’s Januaryincomes to October FIES showed insettled by at 6P2.23 trillion, downtrilby creased percent to P3.959 5.08 percent from P2.35 trillion lion in 2021 from P3.736 trillion in 2018.

2020. Of this, the bulk or 51.4 in The was bulkraised of the amount was percent from wages and sourced from Fixed Rate Treasury salaries.

Bonds (P1.19 trillion), followed by Another income source, the Philshort-term borrowings from Bangippine Statistics Authority (PSA) ko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP (P540 data showed, are entrepreneurial billion), Retail Bonds/Preactivities withTreasury a share of 17.3 permyo Bonds (P463.3 billion), cent in 2021, a 3.1-percentageRetail point Onshore Dollar Bonds (P80.84 bildecline from the 20.4-percent share lion).

In the same period, there was in 2018. also a net redemption of Treasury “(There was a) widening of the Bills amounting to P43.94 billion. informal sector most especially Netthe debt redemption means during pandemic.

We have seen there were moretodebts repaid compeople starting sell anything unpared the amount borrowed durder thetosun,” De La Salle University ing the period. economist Maria Ella Oplas told Meanwhile, gross foreign borBusinessMirror over the weekend. rowings in the same period also “These are activities (however are) contracted by 9.7 percent to P518.7 not captured in the formal sector.” billion from last P574.4to billion.

Oplas said ityear’s is difficult capThis was raised through global ture data on informal sector income bonds (P146.17 billion), because they do not issueprogram official loans (P139.98 receipts.

This is billion), why theeuro-deBureau nominated (P121.97 billion), of Internal bonds Revenue (BIR) encoura project (P86.41 and ages thoseloan with onlinebillion), businesses yen-denominated samurai bonds to register.

(P24.19 billion).

See “fies,” A2 See “Borrowings,” A2

Samuel P. Medenilla ByByBernadette D. Nicolas

I U

PEOPLE walk past the mural of Gat Andres Bonifacio at Manila City Hall Underpass.

The country will celebrate the 158th birth anniversary of Filipino revolutionary hero Gat Andres Bonifacio on Tuesday, November 30. ROY DOMINGO

“BUYANIHAN PALENGKE‘ Stakeholders of the BuyAnihan Palengke; Food Panda’s Managing Director Daniel Marogy; Susan Ople of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center; OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac; Sevi Cacdac and Leopoldo De Castro, Jr., FoodPanda Director for Finance, show their eco bags full of fresh vegetables sourced directly from Rizal, at the BuyAnihan Palengke reseller day for the benefit of overseas Filipino workers, on Saturday, April 24, 2022 in Pasig City. The initiative encourages local farm producers by linking them directly with markets, at a time when serious supply gaps and soaring prices, compounded by unbridled smuggling, are hurting both farmers and consumers. BERNARD TESTA

OVER 3-M FARMERS LISTED FOR P75-B COCO LEVY FUND PSA: PHL BEHIND IN 52% OF UN’S SDG INDICATORS

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

M T

ORE than 3 million coconut farmers and now regisHE workers country’sareprogress in tered with the government’s reghalf of the Sustainable istry, Development which serves Goals as the(SDG) basis for the number of people to be indicators is behind schedule as covered by the utilization of the of November 2020, according to P75-billion coconut levy fund.of the latest monitoring report thePhilippine PhilippineCoconut StatisticsAuthority Author(PCA) Deputy Administrator Roel ity (PSA).

M.The Rosales about 3.11 million PSAsaid data showed that coconut farmers and farm 52 percent, covering 13worknuers have been registered withbethe merical indicators, were government since it started up-

dating its registry following the enactment of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund law.

Rosales explained that about 500,000 coconut farmers and workers wereAtadded PCA’s hind target. least to 48the percent 2018 list that had about 2.5 million or 12 indicators were ahead of coconut farmers and farm workers. the target.

The PCA’s step conThe longestnext time lagisisto15.3 duct an exclusion-inclusion years for indicator 8.1.1—on prothe cedure growth by making thereal updated annual rate of GDP farmers’ registry the public, providper capita—while shortest is ing everyone the which opportunity to indicator 2.2.s.2, aims to check the veracity of the list, Roincrease the prevalence of exclusales added. sively breastfed children 0 to 5 “Theold. list will be posted in public months spaces where people can easily see

them. This allows everyone to see who are listed in the registry and if farmer doesn’t see his name then he shall coordinate with the PCA immediately,” he explained at a recent dialogue with coconut “On GDP per capita,farmers. we really “On the other hand,increase if people need to significantly would see names on the list for and productivity. In agriculture they think they are not coconut example, productivity of the secfarmers their details incortor shouldorrise so much toare support rect, they can report it to the PCA expansion of manufacturing and for immediate action,” industry to induce shiftshe inadded. labor Thehigh PCAproductivity official noted that to the sector,” the completion of the initial list National Economic and Developof coconut farmers registry would ment Authority (Neda) Officer in be justMercedita in time for the expected Charge A. Sombilla told rollout of coconut levy-funded

programs as President Duterte is expected to sign the industry development plan in early 2022.

Rosales said the PCA will not stop updating its list of coconut farmers and enjoined them to regBusinessMirror. ister inbreastfeeding), order to reap the benefits “(On this may of the decades-long idled be due to the increase in thecoconut numlevy “Wemoms. will not stop at 3.1 ber offund. working Most workmillion.

We hope that more indiing moms pump breastmilk and viduals will register in our coconut freeze these in the office. They farmers registry,” would bring home he thesaid. milk for updating of the Maybe coconut the The baby’s consumption. farmers registry is mandated we should advocate this practice,”by Republic she added.Act (RA) 11524 or the CoconutContinued Industry Trust on A5 Fund Act. See “3-M farmers,” A2

@sam_medenilla @BNicolasBM

NTER NATIONA L equity concerns S-BASED private firm overCerberus the possible spread of the Frontier’s acquisimore infectious Omicron Cotion of the former Hanjin vid-19 variant prompted the govshipyard is expected to further ernment to stimulate thereimpose country’smandatory economic facility-based for all growth as manyquarantine displaced workers arriving passengers the country. in the facility will beinretained and Acting of Presidential spokesperan average additional 300 jobs anson Karlo announced nually will B. be Nograles created, Finance Secon Sunday that the Inter-Agency retary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

Task Force forcalled the Management Dominguez the Cerberus of Emerging Infectious Diseases deal on the former Hanjin shipyard (IATF) suspended the implemena “win-win” for all stakeholders, tation ofbesides its Resolution because, the jobsNo. per 150year A (s.2021), imposing from locatorseffectively and subcontractors, stricter protocols for all inbound it will provide the Philippine Navy travelers. with a naval base “with an ideal harIATF Resolution borTo fornote, its rapidly expanding 150fleet A had allowed fully vaccinated facing the West Philippine Sea.” non-visa travelers from List With the conclusion ofGreen the agreeareas to enter the country withment for the buyout of the shipbuildoutfacilities, the need for facility-based ing Dominguez said the deal quarantine as long as Philippines’s they secure will allow five of the negative Reverse Transcriptionlargest banks to book a profit from Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTtheir written-off loans with Hanjin PCR) test within 72 hours prior Heavy Industries and Construction to their departure.

Philippines (HHIC-Phil). The Subic for countries Bay“Except Metropolitan Authorityclassified (SBMA), as ‘Red,’ the testing quarantine where the shipyard isand located, will get for all inbound internaaprotocols better tenant in Cerberus. tional travelers in all ports of entry “With this development benshall comply with the testing and eficial to all stakeholders, we look quarantine protocols for ‘Yellow’ forward to a robust shipbuilding list countries,” Nograles and ship repair facilitysaid, to citing serve the provision of IATF Resolution not only our military and coast No. 151-A. guard requirements but also the He noted Hong which has requirements of theKong, private sector,” confirmed a case of the Omicron Dominguez said at the reception variant,by will also fall under the Yelhosted Philippine Ambassador lowthe list US countries. to Jose Manuel Romualsuspension of the rules for dezThe to mark the conclusion of the “Green List” countries will be in agreements involving the Cerberus effect from November 28, 2021 to takeover of the shipyard.

December 2021. A2 See15, “Cerberus,” Continued on A2

PESOEXCHANGE EXCHANGERATES RATESnnUSUS50.4600 52.3950 nnJAPAN JAPAN0.4374 0.4080 nnUK UK67.2329 68.3021nnHK HK6.4722 6.6791nnCHINA CHINA7.9013 8.1206 nnSINGAPORE SINGAPORE36.8968 38.3987 nnAUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA36.2807 38.6308 nnEUEU56.5758 56.7857 nnSAUDI SAUDIARABIA ARABIA13.4531 13.9709Source: Source: (April 22,26, 2022) PESO BSPBSP (November 2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, April 25, 2022

Boracay stakeholders seek increase in carrying capacity

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

OURISM stakeholders on Boracay Island have appealed for a new study on the island’s carrying capacity, in the light of infrastructure improvements made by government.

In a letter on April 19, 2022 to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat and Regional Director for Western Visayas Cristine C. Mansiñares, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and IndustryBoracay (PCCI-Boracay) said, “So many improvements have been made to Boracay’s infrastructure.

It may make sense to reconsider the [carrying] capacity recommendations from prior to these significant improvements.”

Since the island’s reopening on October 25, 2018 and in the succeeding years, PCCI-Boracay noted that roads have been widened, the island’s sewerage system has been improved, water quality issues that initially affected Boracay’s environment have been addressed, hotels and other establishments have built their own sewerage treatment plants, and buildings have complied with measures mandated by the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force.

The business group’s appeal comes on the heels of Romulo

Puyat’s recent report, citing the island as having breached its carrying capacity for tourists during the Lenten break. A study commissioned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2018 determined that the island could only accommodate up to 19,215 tourists a day, at any given time. (See, Boracay breaches carrying capacity for tourists on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday — DOT,” in the BusinessMirror, on April 18, 2022.)

“I fought with the mayor,” she disclosed at a press conference on April 20, at the start of the three-day 21st World Tourism and Travel Council Global Summit in Manila. “It’s not about lobbying,” referring to the PCCI-Boracay’s request. “It’s about studies, if indeed, it can be increased.

We will rely on the experts. Even prepandemic, we never breached the 19,000 [carrying capacity].”

Flights not cause of tourist influx

AS this developed, data from the

Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) obtained by the BusinessMirror showed flights to Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay, are still below pre-pandemic levels, and could not have been the cause of the recent breaches in carrying capacity of Boracay Island.

For this year’s summer season, from March to October, the CAB only approved 1,880 flights to Caticlan, compared to 2,720 flights approved in summer 2019.

Bulk of this summer’s approved f lights originate from Manila, at 992, with the Cebu Pacific group (including Cebgo) accounting for the most number at 434, while Philippine Airlines Ex press and A ir phi l Ex press share 217 flights, Philippines Air Asia also has 217, while Airswift Transport has 124.

The data also show 785 approved flights from Cebu to Caticlan, and 103 flights originating from Clark in Pampanga for summer 2022.

A CAB source said, “Pre-pandemic, they had almost double the number of flights approved this season. And yet, Boracay exceeded 6,400 flights per day this month.

That would show that the number of flights is not the direct cause [of exceeding the carrying capacity during the Lenten break].”

Carrying capacity refers to an ecosystem’s ability to support people and other living things without having negative effects.

DILG reiterates capacity cap

MEANWHILE, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has already written to Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores and Malay Mayor Frolibar Bautista to respect the capacity limit for tourists on the island.

At a news briefing in Malacañang, DILG Undersecretary Epimaco V. Densing III added, “If the carrying capacity [is exceeded], whether through negligence or intentional, we will send them a letter to explain, otherwise, they can be held administratively liable for exceeding…the carrying capacity of Boracay Island.”

A tourism official who requested anonymity said there were a lot of visitors to Boracay by land, especially coming from Region 6 composed of mainland Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Capiz, and Negros Occidental.

While he confirmed the breach, Bautista said the island has been without visitors for the past two years, and as such it was “expected” there was going to be an influx of visitors during the long Lenten break. He told ANC in an interview on Tuesday that resorts on the island will be engaged to help monitor the number of visitors island, to ensure there would be no more breaches in the carrying capacity.

There has been no statement so far from Miraflores, whose office controls the issuance of QR codes to tourists.

Cerberus...

Continued from A1

“I congratulate Cerberus, the Department of Defense of the Philippines, the Philippine Navy, the banks, and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority for striking a deal that will benefit each of the partners and, more importantly, will benefit the Filipino people,” he added.

After the US Navy pulled out from Subic Naval Base in the 1990s, the shipyard inside the Subic Free Zone was converted into a commercial shipyard.

In 2006, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Hanjin Heavy Industries started building the shipyard facilities in the Redondo Peninsula. The Hanjin shipyard was for a while listed as one of the Top 10 shipbuilders in the world in terms of overbook; 35,000 workers were employed by Hanjin at its peak in 2016.

However, Hanjin ceased operations in 2019 after defaulting on $1.3 billion in outstanding loans, including $400 million due to Philippine banks, and $900 million in loans from South Korean lenders. It went into court receivership, laid off 10,000 workers, and retained 300 local workers.

According to reports, New York City-based Cerberus Management Capital, a private equity firm specializing in distressed investing, will acquire the debt-laden shipyard for approximately $300 million.

In the same event, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. said “there is no better finale to all the work done to strengthen the ties with the US than to see the ink on the paper of the biggest public-private partnership in the 75-year history of Philippine-US relations,” noting just two months are left for the Duterte administration.

Discussions on the acquisition of the former Hanjin shipyard by Cerberus Frontier began three years ago, according to the Ambassador Romualdez said.

Also at the reception were several key officials of the Philippine government led by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana; representatives from the US Departments of State, of Defense and of Transportation, and the US National Security Council; and Cerberus officials led by Steve Feinberg, the co-founder, and co-CEO of the firm.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Fies...

Continued from A1

University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) economist Cid L. Terosa said entrepreneurial activities as a share of income may have also declined owing to mobility restrictions to curb Covid-19.

He said the restrictions also increased the importance of wages and salaries as a percentage of income of Filipino households. PSA data showed wages and salaries used to only have a share of 49.5 percent in 2018.

The increase in the share of wages and salaries in income rose with the decline in the share of the other sources, according to Terosa. “Hence, wages and salaries became a more important source of income since there were less funds coming from other sources,” Terosa told BusinessMirror.

“Although many lost their jobs, the proportion of wages and salaries in income grew because the other sources of income were more severely restricted during the pandemic. This is exemplified by the decline in the share of entrepreneurial income,” he added.

New businesses

NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Officer in Charge Mercedita A. Sombilla told this newspaper that the share of wages and salaries in the income of Filipino households increased due to the recovery.

Sombilla said in the followup surveys conducted by Neda, businesses were able to slowly recover as mobility restrictions began to ease. She added new businesses linked to pandemic response were also created.

“In the follow-up business surveys that we did when the virus was slowly being contained, new businesses sprouted, especially in areas where we found ourselves deficient e.g. PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) manufacturing, transport service, etc.,” Sombilla said.

FIES data

THE average income of Filipino families from January to June 2021 was estimated at P149,980 —higher by 0.2 percent from the P149,710 in the same period of 2018.

From January to June 2021, the average family expenditure was P113,670, down by 5.9 percent from the P120,750 in the same period of 2018.

PSA said the average income of families in the first income decile to the eighth income decile grew

in the first half of 2021, compared to the same period in 2018.

Based on the average income of families in the lowest income decile groups in the first half of 2021, the average income of those in the first and second income decile both grew by 5.5 percent.

On the other hand, average income of the families in the ninth and tenth income decile declined by 1.5 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, PSA data also showed that across all income decile groups in the first half of 2021, the average family expenditure decreased compared to the the first half of 2018.

In the first half of 2021, the average expenditure of families in the first income decile group was recorded at P47,190, or down by 14 percent from P54,880 in the same 2018 period.

The average expenditure of families in the 10th decile group or the richest Filipino families decreased by 7.2 percent.

The data also showed the income disparity between the richest and poorest Filipinos narrowed in the first semester of 2021.

“With the increase in the average family income among lower income families and decrease in the average family income among higher income families in the first half of 2021, the gap between the upper income decile groups and the bottom income decile groups contracted,” PSA said.

Total income of the upper 10 percent income group was 9.0 times that of the bottom 10 percent income group. This is narrower compared to the first half of 2018, when the disparity was 10.1 times.

As for income disparity between the upper 20 percent and bottom 20 percent income groups in the first half of 2021, the former earned 5.6 times than the latter.

In the first half of 2018, the upper 20 percent income group earned 6.2 times the income of the bottom 20 percent income group.

A lower income disparity was observed in the first half of 2021, implying a more equitable distribution of income. The Gini coefficient was recorded at 0.4414 in the first half of 2021 from 0.4596 in the same period of 2018.

The Gini coefficient is used to measure the income inequality among families. It ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 indicating perfect income equality among families, while a value of 1 indicates absolute income inequality.

Dim outlook...

Continued from A1

“Given the above, currently wheat prices are high, and there is some substitution between wheat and rice, especially in flour and feed. Low-quality rice can also substitute for corn in feed production,” Tolentino added.

Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. President Danilo V. Fausto told the BusinessMirror that rice importers are already stockpiling to ensure sufficient supply amid market uncertainties caused by the Ukraine-Russia war.

“They are perhaps preparing already for the rainy season,” Fausto said.

However, Fausto criticized the nearly 1 million metric ton (MMT) of rice imports in the first quarter alone, arguing that it was against the agreement between the DA and the rice industry to manage imports during harvest season.

Total rice imports could easily reach 3 MMT this year if the rate of volume entering the country continues in the succeeding months, he warned. However, Adriano expects the volume of rice imports to slow down by the second half due to

higher prices in the global market.

January 1 to April 14

BPI data also showed that rice imports from January 1 until April 14 breached the 1-MMT level, having reached 1.043 MMT, with Vietnam accounting for 75 percent (780,772.190 MT) of the total volume.

BPI data also showed rice imports from countries outside Asean, like Pakistan increased during the reference period. Pakistan exported 70,957.5 MT of rice to the Philippines from January 1 to April 14, more than double the 25,286 MT it shipped for the whole year of 2021, based on BPI data.

The top rice importer from January 1 to April 14 was Bestow Industries Inc. at 80,115 MT, followed by Lucky Buy and Sell at 42,497 MT. BPI data also showed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) imported 3,909 MT of rice in the reference period. The volume is 43.25 percent more than the 2,602.912 MT total rice imported by the DSWD for the whole year of 2021, BPI data showed.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

In weekend of big rallies, thousands of Manileños attend UniTeam rally

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HOUSANDS of Manileños poured into the grand rally of the UniTeam Alliance in Manila City last Saturday night in a sustained show of support for the candidacies of presidential frontrunner former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

Organizers led by Atty. Alex Lopez, the mayoral candidate for the City of Manila under Marcos’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), said the thousands of voters jammed the busy Bustillos area in Sampaloc district.

The cheering supporters did not mind that they are from Manila, considered the bailiwick of another presidential candidate, Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso.

The UniTeam camp said the support of voters for Marcos and Duterte is continuously building, as reflected in jampacked rallies, as the country marked its countdown for the May 9 presidential elections.

From Cebu in the Visayas to Laguna and Batangas in Southern Luzon during the past days, Marcos and Duterte have logged mammoth rallies, reporting the attendance of hundreds of thousands of supporters.

At Saturday’s rally in Manila, Mayor Duterte spoke about the importance of city residents to her family.

“Our family has a huge debt of gratitude to all of you, for the love and support you showed us. President Duterte wants you to know his heart brims with gratitude to all of you,” she said, referring to her father

as she spoke partly in Filipino.

“Our family has a promise to the nation, and that includes my vow to do everything in my job to ensure we enjoy a peaceful, progressive life. Manila, I am Sara Duterte asking for your help and support in my bid to become the vice president of this country. Thank you so much for the time and opportunity you gave me,” the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) chairperson further said. For his part, Marcos couldn’t contain his excitement after seeing yet another impressive crowd, this time at the heart of Luzon.

Marcos, however, turned serious as he raised the possibility of cheating in the elections, which many pundits have him winning by a landslide, considering his majority lead in all major pre-election surveys.

“We will no longer allow any cheating in elections. And this time we have our President’s support. He has warned all those planning any fraud in elections that he will go after them. So I suggest you think about that before doing anything,” he said.

He urged the crowd: “Let’s not stop what we have started, this movement for unity, until we are certain of victory.

And this victory is not just about the elections, but the real victory is when the day comes we shall have united the entire Filipino nation—when we shall have brought together the combined talent, perseverance, experience, sacrifice for the country. And when we have done this, then we will feel our lives slowly improving and we can rise again.

Thank you so much!” Marcos said.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, April 25, 2022 A3

OSG asks SC to lift TRO suspending arrest of alleged brains behind Gerry Ortega’s slay

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By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued enjoining the Puerto Princesa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) from implementing an arrest warrant against Mario Joel T. Reyes. Reyes is the former governor of Palawan accused of masterminding the killing of broadcaster Gerry Ortega.

In a 62-page comment filed on April 1, 2022, the Office of the Solicitor General also sought the dismissal of Reyes’s petition for review on certiorari. That petition seeks to reverse and set aside the November 28, 2019, amended decision of the Court of Appeals’ Special Former Eleventh Division. The CA has ordered the Puerto Princesa City RTC, Branch 52, to reinstate the murder case against Reyes and issue a warrant of arrest against the former governor.

The CA’s amended decision reversed and set aside its first decision issued on January 2018, which dismissed the murder case.

The appellate court held that the trial court did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it found probable cause to issue a warrant of arrest against Reyes.

“The CA’s first decision presented a fragmented analysis of the evidence, isolating each piece of evidence and concluding that it alone does not prove probable cause,” the OSG said. “Contrary to the findings in the CA first decision, and as correctly found by the Court of Appeals in the CA amended decision, the circumstances and facts on record support a finding of probable cause against petitioner, for several reasons.”

Reyes has been charged with murder along with his brother, former Coron town mayor Mario Reyes, and 8 others for the death of Ortega.

Ortega, a known critic of Reyes, was gunned down in front of a thrift store in Puerto Princesa City on January 24, 2011.

Fourteen months later, on March 2012, the trial court ordered Reyes’s arrest, despite his move to suspend the murder case and recall the warrant of arrest.

This prompted Reyes to assail the RTC ruling before the appellate court, citing the trial court’s reliance on the “uncorroborated statement” of a witness: his bodyguard Rodolfo “Bumar” Edrad.

Aside from Edrad’s affidavit, the CA cited the sworn statements of Arwin Arandia, who claimed to have been initially hired by Edrad to kill Ortega; and Dennis Aranas and Marlon Recamata who also confessed to being paid to kill Ortega. Recamata was convicted in 2013.

“Respondent People of the Philippines most respectfully prays that this Honorable Court: lift the temporary restraining order enjoining the [RTC], Branch 52, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, from implementing a warrant of arrest against petitioner and from conducting further proceedings in Criminal Case No. 26839,” the OSG through Senior State Solicitor Henry Gerald P. Ysaac Jr. and State Solicitor Dianne Margarette T. delos Reyes-

Gonzales pleaded.

It also urged the SC to “order the immediate re-arrest and detention” of Reyes pending final trial and resolution of the murder charges against him.

In a resolution issued last March 23, 2022, the SC issued a TRO against the implementation of the arrest warrant and from conducting further proceedings in the murder case pending the final resolution of his petition seeking to set aside the CA’s amended decision.

State prosecutors argued there is clear basis for the RTC’s issuance of a warrant of arrest against Reyes, citing the lower court’s finding that there is strong evidence of petitioner’s guilt in the murder of Ortega.

“The RTC’s finding of strong evidence of petitioner’s guilt has, in turn, been affirmed by the Court of Appeals in its decision dated July 9, 2021. With due respect to this Honorable Court, these consistent findings by the RTC and the Court of Appeals superseded and mooted the issue of probable cause,” the OSG said.

The government lawyers asserted that the high bench should order the re-arrest of the petitioner and allow the continuation of the trial proceedings on the ground that the RTC’s issuance of the warrant of arrest against the petitioner is supported by legal and jurisprudential basis, rather than arbitrary and unfounded conclusions.

Economy BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, April 25, 2022 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

‘Shortcut’ programs no solution to crisis–solon

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

F

ORMER House Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano has said Legislative branch should not resort to “shortcut” programs in solving the ongoing economic crisis.

“Usually when it is hard, we take shortcuts; so we do gambling, smuggling, illegal, corruption,” Cayetano said.

Should he make good his comeback to the Senate after the May elections, Cayetano said he will push for legislative measures that will “get the job done” without resorting to such activities.

Cayetano also said there are multiple ways through which the government can generate funds and revenue, including the imposition of a five-percent mandatory saving in all

government agencies in the next five years, which would raise P250 billion to fund direct assistance to Filipino families. The former Speaker has been strongly opposing the granting of 25-year franchises on e-sabong operators, saying what the government earns doesn’t justify the problems spawned by Internet gambling.

Cayetano said he has appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to veto the Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Act, also known as the “vape bill,” saying it represents a “clear and present danger” to the public, particularly the youth.

According to the lawmaker, the government must safeguard the health of the public “over the profit of a few business owners.”

Attributing the current economic crisis to the pandemic-induced lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine con-

flict, the former Speaker said he will file bills in the Senate that will address three aspects of the economy, namely “presyo, trabaho, kita” or “price, jobs, income.”

Noting that 60 percent of all the jobs in the country are generated by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Cayetano said he will also push for the implementation of a loan program for MSMEs with very low interest and one year grace period, payable in five to 10 years.

The congressman had earlier presented his “relief, reform, recovery” plan, which contained his proposed spending policies and programs that span the next five years.

Included in the proposed “comprehensive” plan were “doable” financial assistance programs; reforms in digital infrastructure, agriculture and tourism; and, loans to small businesses.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Agencies to settle issues over CARP-awarded land

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

S

O-CALLED “overlapping issues,” in relation to the parcelization of “collective certificates of land ownership awards,” or CCLOAs, were top of the agenda of a meeting on land and forestry by officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

The move is in relation to the “Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling,” or “Split,” project being implemented by the DAR. A joint guideline spelled out that before processing applications for land titles pursuant to their respective mandates, the DAR and DENR

must notify the NCIP of the specific area to be titled, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Office Luis Meinrado C. Pañgulayan explained.

All lands covered by collective CLOAs within classified timberlands, unclassified public forests, mineral lands, and national parks, shall be parcelized in favor of agrarian reform beneficiaries, Pañgulayan said.

“During the implementation of parcelization and in the issuance of appropriate tenurial instruments, the actual occupants on the lands covered by collective CLOAs shall not be displaced,” he further said.

The NCIP is tasked to certify subject land to the projection of survey plans and issuance of the certification of non-overlap, whether the same affects an alienable and disposable (AD) or ancestral land (AL) involving

“conflict areas” as identified by the agencies concerned pending and/ or overlapping, jurisdictional and/ or operational issues or conflicting claims which are contentious or potentially contentious.

“This is a very good opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with the regional offices of the DAR and our Technical Working Group members to show commitment to the ownership of the government for land administration in the Philippines,” World Bank Senior Environmental Engineer Maya Gabriella Q. Villaluz said.

The “Split” is the largest land-administration project of the World Bank in the world and that they want the best practice of this project shared with other countries.

The event was attended by DAR and World Bank Mission representatives.

Scrapping job permit policy seen to benefit 1M workers

O

NE million private sector employees in Quezon City are expected to benefit from the plan to scrap the local government’s “unnecessary” occupational-permit requirement, mayoral candidate Michael T. Defensor estimates.

Anakalusugan Rep. Defensor explained that the Quezon City government requires all persons to secure the occupational permit, also called the “Individual Mayor’s Permit,” before they can work anywhere in the city.

“Right now, workers in Quezon City are forced to spend around P1,000 every year and endure at least a day without work and without pay just so they can renew their local occupational permit,” Defensor was quoted in a statement his office issued last Sunday.

“They will be spared from the costly hassle once we abolish the permit.”

The lawmaker maintains that the occupational permit “is absolutely unnecessary.” “It is just one of the many ways by which the local government is unfairly charging fees for minor services so that the incumbent mayor can report huge savings and look good,” Defensor added.

Based on his estimates, the city government collects from workers a total of up to P432 million in annual fees out of the occupational permit. Workers can keep the P432 million in their pockets once the permit is discarded,” according to the lawmaker.

The occupational permit fee is P170 each.

But Defensor said workers are compelled to spend much more to comply with the requirements that include a local health certificate, sputum and stool tests, a community tax certificate or cedula, and attending an HIV/ AIDS seminar, among others. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

FAKES FISHED

An unidentified policeman holds a piece of clothing deemed counterfeit after operatives of the Bureau of Customs and the National Bureau of Investigation raided a warehouse in Las Piñas City over the weekend. Alvin Y. Enciso, chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) at the Manila International Container Port, estimates the value of the counterfeit goods, which included perfume and clothing, at P250 million. NONIE REYES

BCDA, CDC host WTTC delegates

T

HE Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and its subsidiary, the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), hosted on April 23 an international delegation of travel industry leaders from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the global body representing the travel and tourism private sector and its industries, in an investment tour of New Clark City and the Clark Freeport Zone.

The investment tour was the final activity for delegates of the 21st World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit held in the Philippines from April 20 to 22, the council’s second major in-person gathering since the

outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

WTTC delegates were given presentations at the new Clark International Airport passenger terminal, and tours of the Clark Freeport Zone and New Clark City, where the closing ceremony was held. The new Clark terminal, an airport finalist in the 2021 Prix Versailles Architecture and Design awards, will open up increased travel, business and mobility north of Metro Manila.

Seeking to showcase developments and attract investments in Clark and New Clark City, the activity was organized by BCDA, CDC, the Department of Tourism (DoT), the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (ieza), and the Luzon International Premiere Airport Development (LIPAD) Corp., BCDA’s operations and maintenance provider for the new Clark terminal.

Clark and New Clark City were the key investment destinations showcased for the summit attendees, whose tour itinerary primarily included top Philippine tourist attractions such as Boracay Island in Aklan and El Nido, Palawan.

The BCDA, CDC and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), an affiliate of the BCDA Group, were among the government agencies that presented investment offerings to the delegates.

Aristotle B. Batuhan, BCDA Officer in Charge President and saidtheWTTCvisitcameat BUS NI ISKO: Parked at the famous Pink Mosque in Municipality of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao CEO, a perfect time as Clark and New is loaded with youth supporters of Aksyon Demokratiko standard bearer Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso Clark City are playing increasand his running mate Dr. Willie Ong have officially rolled out “Bus ni Isko,” a campaign caravan to reach out to ingly critical roles in enabling convince young Filipino voters to “Switch to ISKO the local tourism industry and

the Philippine economy transition to the new normal.

“The BCDA has always believed that the vision for New Clark City as a smart, resilient, sustainable and inclusive metropolis of the future deserves to be on the world stage. What better way to do this than to let international tourism leaders experience in person the excitement that is building here in New Clark City. We at the BCDA are thrilled to host our WTTC guests and show them how far we’ve come in making this vision a reality,” Batuhan said.

Batuhan added, “Opportunities for travel, sports tourism and strategic investing will become even more accessible after New Clark City reopens its doors to the public, and when the new Clark International Airport Terminal begins operations in the coming weeks.” For his part, CDC President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel R. Gaerlan said, “We are delighted to welcome the World Travel and Tourism Council delegates to the Clark Freeport Zone. Their presence provides us with an excellent opportunity to highlight the exciting tourism developments in Clark. At the same time, we hope that their visit to the Freeport will underscore Clark’s potential as a leading business location, with its stable investment climate and world-class facilities and utilities. We look forward to fostering a meaningful partnership with the members of WTTC and usher in more business opportunities and possibilities in Clark.” Delegates were given a rolling tour of sites of interest in Clark, covering hotels, resorts, tourist sites, luxury and recreational facilities, and corporate offices. CDC continues its rise as a prime tourism and commercial hub outside of Metro Manila, with over 1,100 business locators setting up shop in the freeport.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, April 25, 2022 A5

PHL aims to export more farm goods to India

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

M

ANILA wants to strengthen its trade and agricultural cooperation with New Delhi as the Philippines is keen on exporting more products to India.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar and India Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar held a bilateral

meeting recently in Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi.

Dar told Tomar that the Philippines is keen on exporting more products to India “to attain a more balanced trade.” The DA noted that India exported $450-million worth of products to the Philippines last year while the Philippines only exported $50-million worth of goods to the South Asian country.

“The Philippines will benefit greatly from India being the world’s third-ranking rice producer and

exporter, and a leader in the development and commercialization of natural and biological farm inputs,” Dar said in a statement.

Dar said he and Tomar have agreed to renew agricultural cooperation between the Philippines and India through the creation of a joint technical working group (TWG) consisting of experts from both countries.

The joint TWG will be tasked to “scale up existing partnerships and explore new areas of collaboration,

particularly in aquaculture and marine, renewable energy, risk reduction management, and natural and biological farm inputs,” according to the DA. “The Philippines-India technical working group will be formed soonest and then scheduled for a series of meetings in the next two months.”

The DA said India has pledged to support Philippine agriculture through other initiatives such as “ installation of various

science-backed projects including the satellite-based insurance system and soil and water management.”

“The Minister has instructed Indian Council for Agricultural Research Director General Trilochan Mohapatra to extend assistance and oversee that the collaborations will be carried out in partnership with DA’s key technical agencies including the following bureaus: Plant Industry, Animal Industry, Soil and Water Manage-

ment, and Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, among others.”

The DA said Philippine Ambassador to India Ramon Bagatsing Jr., Acting Deputy Chief of Mission John Boitte Santos, Vice Consul Mark Anthony Dizon, DA Assistant Secretary Noel Reyes, Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority Deputy Director Myer Mula, Head Executive Assistant Alexander Arizabal, and Planters Products Inc. President Mat Maderazo joined the bilateral meeting.

DA pressed to lift ban on processed animal protein from Italy Australia wants

F

OOD sec u r it y advoc ac y group Tugon K abuhayan pressed the Department of Agriculture (DA) to lift the ban on Italian porcine processed animal protein (PAP) as the trade restriction could raise fish prices by P2 per kilogram.

The group said the blanket import ban on Italian pork products should be modified to exempt PAP importers, as the raw material “does not pose threats to the local swine industry.”

It said the production of PAP involves high heat treatment, which can inactivate viruses like African swine fever (ASF). In January, the DA temporarily banned the importation of pork products, including PAP, from Italy after the European country confirmed an outbreak of ASF. “PAP is made from food-grade meat including bones, skin and blood and falls under the European Union’s Category 3 meat classification, which means they come from disease-free animals,” the group said.

“To make PAP powder, the mixture of meat and other animal parts is processed at 130 degrees Celsius, almost double the 70 degrees Celsius at which the ASF virus is killed. Dur-

ing the feed manufacturing process, PAP is further ‘cooked’ at temperatures reaching 200 degrees Celsius to make floating fish food.”

The group noted that Italy accounts for about 70 percent of the annual 150,000-metric ton of imported PAP to manufacture fish feeds. The group said the high protein content of PAP “allows for higher feed conversion and reduces water pollution caused by fish.”

“The biggest impact of the ban on imported PAP from Italy is the higher cost of aquaculture feeds.

Every P1.00 of additional feed cost roughly translates to over P2.00 per kilo of fish because a fish farmer needs two kilos of feed for a fish to reach one kilo,” the group said.

“We understand that the swine industry needs to be protected. But a blanket ban on imported PAP from Italy because of a single ASF-infected wild boar isn’t backed by science.

And if there’s no strong scientific basis, why make the aquaculture industry and, consequently, fish consumers suffer?”

Last week, local pork producers expressed opposition to the aquaculture sector’s request to lift the ban on imported porcine

to combat agri pest via new import rules

By Andrea E. San Juan

C TECHNICIANS harvest milkfish from one of the experiment cages in Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department's Igang Marine Station in Guimaras. PHOTO FROM WWW.SEAFDEC.ORG.PH

animal protein.

In a joint position paper, the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., Samahan Industriya ng Agrikultura and Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines said lifting the importation ban from countries with cases of African swine fever (ASF) will certainly “expose the frag-

ile and recovering” swine industry to further threats from contaminated raw materials (Related story: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2022/04/20/hog-raisers-oppose-lifting-of-ban-on-porcineanimal-protein/).

The DA and the Bureau of Animal Industry issued Memorandum Order

No. 06, Series of 2019 which authorized the ban on imports of processed porcine or pork-based meal for use in animal feeds, as well as the suspension of the issuance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance (SPSIC) for these commodities and calls for seizures of such shipments.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Bizmen credit Alvarez with Palawan’s tourism boom If not for the pandemic, perhaps we would have hit his target of 5 million,” said the former president of the Palawan Tourism Council Deborah Q. Tan. With the help of the national government and the private sector, Palawan’s vastly improved air, ground, port, and tourism services—which increased its

competitiveness—was also partly attributed to him.

The province now has several alternate airports aside from Puerto Princesa, the main gateway: in Coron, San Vicente, El Nido, Taytay, Busuanga, Cuyo, and Agutaya, as well as airstrips in every town except Kalayaan (which has a military airport) to accommodate small aircraft.

In his first term alone, 5,580 kilometers of roads were built or repaired. The provincial government purchased 341 brandnew equipment for road building and infrastructure projects.

The two-lane national highway traversing El Nido town in the north to Bataraza town in the south was expanded from 4 to 6 lanes to cut travel time in

PSA: PHL behind in 52% of UN’s SDG indicators continued from a1 To increase per capita GDP, the government should enable the commercialization of agriculture, Sombilla added. This would allow farmers to consolidate and take advantage of economies of scale while more Filipinos are employed.

“Agri should be commercialized-farmers consolidated to take advantage of economies of scale in both market of outputs and purchase of inputs, mechanized run by a manager, move to high value crops, etc.

Farm laborers will find jobs in the expanding manufacturing /industry sector,” she said.

The data showed the country’s per capita GDP at 4.5 percent as of 2019. This is a regression from the 5.4 percent in 2015 and farther away from the 6 percent target by 2030.

For breastfeeding, only 57.9 percent of children 0 to 5 months old have access to breastmilk. This is an improvement from the 48.8 percent baseline in 2015 but is still a long way from the 100 percent target by 2030.

Meanwhile, PSA data showed that another indicator behind target was 1.4.2.p1, with a time lag of 10.3 years.

This indicator focuses on increasing the proportion of families with access to secure tenure. The target by 2030 is 100 percent but the current rate, as of 2019, is 96.4 percent,

which is lower than the 97 percent baseline in 2016.

Another indicator with a long time lag is 1.4.1p5, which seeks to increase the Net Enrollment Rate in elementary to 100 percent by 2030.

It needs 9.6 years to achieve.

PSA data showed the Net Enrollment Rate was at 94 percent as of 2019, lower than the 96.2 percent baseline in 2016.

Most ahead of target: women managers ONE bright spot: per the PSA, the indicator that posted the highest number of years ahead of target in terms of progress was 5.5.2, which aims to increase the proportion of women in managerial positions to 50 percent by 2030. It was 13.5 years ahead of its target; the Philippines has already overshot its target since 53 percent of managerial positions in the country are held by women as of 2020.

The country’s baseline in 2016 was at 46.6 percent, which means it took the country less than 5 years to not only hit, but exceed, the target.

Another indicator the country is ahead of achieving is 3.8.2—to increase the number of people covered by health insurance or a public health system per 1,000 population by 2030. The country is 9 years ahead of the target.

In 2018, some 980.2 per 1,000 population are already covered by health insurance or a public health system. This is higher than the 909 per 1,000 population baseline in 2016.

The country is also ahead of its target in indicator 3.8.s1, which focuses on increasing to 100 percent the percentage of the population covered by social health insurance. The country is 8.9 years ahead of target.

As of 2018, PSA data showed 98 percent of the population covered by social health insurance, higher than the 91 percent baseline in 2016.

July Forum

PSA said data comprising the first round of updating of the 2022 SDG Watch will be used as inputs in crafting the Philippines’ 2022 VNR to be reported in the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July 2022.

The VNR is a country-led initiative, which aims to share best practices, challenges and lessons learned in the implementation and monitoring of the achievement of the SDGs. For 2022, PSA said, the highlights of the Philippine report will focus on these goals: Goal 4: Quality Education; Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 15: Life on Land, and Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals. Cai U. Ordinario

half and make road travel less tedious for tourists. It is a P30billion joint project with the national government, spanning 600 kilometers of the entire mainland Palawan.

“Tourists generally do not want to travel for more than 4 hours.

We needed to expedite their land travel. They want it so when they land at the airport they would be

continued from a12

at their resort within 45 minutes,” Alvarez said. “This is essential for repeat tourism. If traveling around Palawan is such a hassle the tourists will not come back.”

The superhighway also speeds up the movement of agricultural and fishery products from the rural communities across the province. Jonathan L. Mayuga

PHL’s labor productivity low in copyright industries–UN continued from a12 With respect to the digital economy, Unctad said in its report that “it is important to empower creative workers to make the best of new opportunities created by new technologies.”

On overcoming barriers to internationalization, digital technologies particularly internet-based platforms are keys to foreign market access.

Since small and medium sizedenterprises (SMEs) engaged in crafts are utilizing various internet platforms, these entrepreneurs get to look at the wider world, leading to an increased awareness of global issues.

Zhongwei Xing, in his study published in 2018, confirmed that the level of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure and readiness to adopt e-commerce play an important role in boosting export growth, especially for those creatives who are in developing countries.

With this, Unctad noted that “an essential part of the domestic agenda of governments in developing their digital economy should consist of the establishment of legal

frameworks to reduce uncertainties associated with e-commerce.”

Among the legal safeguards mentioned are consumer protection, data privacy protection, e-payments, facilitation of e-commerce, and cybersecurity.

E-transactions law

IN 2021, Unctad observed that many developing countries still do not possess national laws regulating domestic e-transactions and online consumer protection.

In fact, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), in its 2022 National Trade Estimate (NTE) report has expressed concerns about the proposed Internet Transaction Act, which was introduced in June 2020 and is still pending full congressional approval in the Philippines as of March 2022.

The measure aims to promote electronic commerce, consumer protection, and equal treatment of resident and non-resident online platforms, which would require platforms and online businesses selling to customers in the Philippines to register in the country.

ANBERRA will implement this year emergency measures aimed at preventing khapra beetles from entering Australia, according to the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport).

Philexport said the measures will affect the entry of plant products and sea containers into the country.

It said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has “strongly advised” Philippine exporters to work closely with their importers to ensure compliance with the new measure.

Australia will implement on April 28 phases 4 and 5 for other risk plant products and seeds for sowing from all countries.

These will require offshore inspection by a government official of the exporting country (phase 4); and the introduction of phytosanitary certificates for imports of seeds that are used for sowing (phase 5).

Phase 4 refers to revised phytosanitary certificate requirements for imports of other risk plant products, like raw seeds and nuts, green coffee beans, dried fruit, vegetables,herbs and spices.

Under phase 5, such requirements should be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate including additional declaration: “Representative samples were inspected and found free from evidence of any species of Trogoderma (whether live, dead or exuviae) in Australia’s list of Trogoderma species of biosecurity concern.”

Philexport said the last phase (6B) of Australia’s emergency measures to protect against khapra beetle is expected to start in late 2022 which will impose new measures for containers that have held high-risk plant products.

The DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau said non-compliance with these requirements “may result in the re-export of the goods upon arrival in Australia.”

Emergency measures to protect against khapra beetles have been implemented since September 3, 2020.

Due to the changing risk patterns in khapra beetle, the numbering of these phases does not correspond to the order in which they were implemented.

Under phase 1, Australia imposed the ban on high-risk plant products like rice, within unaccompanied personal effects and low value freight; and phase 2 with the ban on highrisk plant products being brought in by international travelers or sent through mail parcels and packages Meanwhile, phase 6A discussed the offshore treatment of containers carrying products apart from high-risk plant products, packed into a container in a country that has khapra beetle and then unpacked in a rural grain growing area in Australia, which should have been implemented on July 12 and December 15, 2021, respectively.

Australia implemented phase 3 on offshore treatment and phytosanitary certificate requirements for commercial imports of high-risk plant products, such as rice on September 30, 2021.

A6

Monday, April 25, 2022

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, April 25, 2022 A7

Sanctions hit Russian economy, although Putin says otherwise

By Ken Sweet & Fatima Hussein The Associated Press

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EW YORK—Nearly two months into the Russian-Ukraine war, the Kremlin has taken extraordinary steps to blunt an economic counteroffensive from the West. While Russia can claim some symbolic victories, the full impact of Western sanctions is starting to be felt in very real ways.

As the West moved to cut off Russia’s access to its foreign reserves, limit imports of key technologies and take other restrictive actions, the K remlin launched some drastic measures to protect the economy. Those included hiking interest rates to as high as 20%, instituting capital controls and forcing Russian business to convert their profits into rubles.

As a result, the value of the ruble has recovered after an initial plunge, and last week the central bank reversed part of its interest rate increase. Russian President Vladimir Putin felt emboldened and proclaimed—evoking World War II imagery—that the country had withstood the West’s “blitz” of sanctions.

“The government wants to paint a picture that things are not as bad as they actually are,” said Michael Alexeev, an economics professor at Indiana University who has studied Russia’s economy in its transition after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A closer look, however, shows that the sanctions are taking a bite out of Russia’s economy: n The country is enduring its worst bout of inflation in two decades. Rosstat, the state’s economic statistics agency, said inf lation last month hit 17.3%, the highest level since 2002. By comparison, the International Monetary Fund expects consumer prices in developing countries to rise 8.7% this year, up from 5.9% last year. n Some Russian companies have been forced to shut down.

Several reports say a tank manufacturer had to stop production due to a lack of parts. US officials point to the closing of Lada auto plants—a brand made by the Russian company Avtovaz and majority-owned by French automaker Renault as a sign of sanctions having an effect. n Moscow’s mayor says the city is looking at 200,000 job losses from foreign companies shutting down operations. More than 300 companies have pulled out, and international supply chains have largely shut down after container company Maersk, UPS, DHL and other transportation firms exited Russia. n Russia is facing a historic default on its bonds, which will likely freeze the country out of the debt markets for years.

Meanwhile, Treasury officials and most economists urge patience, saying that sanctions take months to have their full effect. If Russia can’t get appropriate amounts of capital, parts or supplies over time, that will cause even more factories and businesses to shut down, leading to higher unemployment.

It took nearly an entire year after Russia was sanctioned for seizing Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 for its economic data to show signs of distress, such as higher inflation, a decline in industrial production and a slowdown in economic growth.

“The things that we should be looking for to see if the sanctions are working are, frankly, not easy to see yet,” said David Feldman, a professor of economics at William & Mary in Virginia. “We’ll be looking for the price of goods, the quantity of goods they are producing and the quality of goods. The last being the hardest to see and probably the last to appear.”

Transparency into how sanctions are affecting the Russian economy is limited, largely because of the extraordinary lengths the Kremlin has taken to prop it up.

In addition, its largest sector—oil and gas—is largely unencumbered

Ukraine says it destroyed Russian command post in southern city

K

YIV, Ukraine—The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The Ukrainian military intelligence agency posted a statement saying the command post was hit on Friday and two generals were killed and one was critically wounded.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it came under attack. He said their fate was unknown.

The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

Ukraine’s security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russia’s elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared “liberated” by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate

in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupol’s steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraine’s Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said new evidence is emerging that shows Russian troops killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol and then tried to cover it up. He said Ukraine has intercepted Russian conversations about “ how they are concealing the traces of their crimes.” Satellite images have shown what appear to be mass graves dug in towns to the west and east of Mariupol.

Zelenskyy said the Russians set up “filtration camps” near Mariupol for those trying to leave the city, which has largely been reduced to rubble. He said those who survive these camps are sent to areas under Russian occupation or to Russia itself, often as far as Siberia or the Far East. Many of them, he said, are children.

He said he spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday about the situation in Mariupol and the general course of the war.

Zelenskyy promised to find and punish those responsible for the missile attack on Odesa, which he said killed eight people and wounded 18. AP

due to European, Chinese and Indian reliance on Russian energy.

Benjamin Hilgenstock and Elina Ribakova, economists with the Institute of International Finance, estimated in a report released last month that if the European Union, Britain and the US were to ban Russian oil and natural gas, the Russian economy could contract more than 20% this year. Current projections forecast a 15% contraction.

While the EU has agreed to ban Russian coal by August and is discussing sanctions on oil, there’s been no consensus among its 27 nations so far about halting oil and natural gas. The European Union is far more reliant on Russian supplies than Britain and the US, which have banned or are phasing out Russian oil. In the meantime, Russia gets $850 million a day from Europe for its oil and gas.

The US and its allies have argued that they have tried to tailor sanctions to affect Russia’s ability to wage war and financially hit those in the highest echelons of government, while leaving everyday Russians largely unaffected.

But Russians have noticed a spike in prices. Residents of one Moscow suburb said 19-liter jugs of drinking water they regularly order have become nearly 35% more expensive than before. In supermarkets and stores in their area, the price for 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of sugar has risen 77%; some vegetables cost 30% to 50% more.

Local news sites in different Russian regions in recent weeks have reported that multiple stores are shuttered in malls after Western companies and brands halted operations or pulled out of Russia, including Starbucks, McDonald’s and Apple.

The Kremlin and its allies on social media have repeatedly pointed to the recovery of Russia’s ruble as a sign that Western sanctions aren’t working. The ruble crashed to around 150 to the dollar in the early days of the war but recovered to around 80 to the dollar, about where it was before the invasion. A

gauge of weekly inflation by Rosstat has shown inflation slowing, but that is not surprising after the central bank raised interest rates as quickly as it did.

Russia’s central bank had doubled its benchmark interest rate to support the ruble’s plunging value and stop bank runs. It dropped the rate to 17% from 20% this month and signaled it might lower it further.

This isn’t the first time Russia has thrown its full force behind defending the ruble’s value as a symbol of resistance against the West. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union had an official exchange rate of one ruble equaling about $1.35, whereas the black-market exchange rate was closer to four rubles to the dollar.

The Russian debt crisis of the late 1990s also was caused partially by the Kremlin’s active defense of the currency’s value.

US Treasury officials have dismissed the significance of the ruble’s recovery.

“The Russian economy is really reeling from the sanctions that we put in place,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, adding that the ruble’s value has been artificially inflated by central bank intervention.

If and how Russia wins the economic war will come down to whether the Kremlin can drive division in the West, causing the sanctions to become patchy and less effective. At the same time, Russia will have time to develop alternatives for goods it can no longer access, a concept known as import substitution.

Looking back at the 2014 sanctions, the Congressional Research Service said in January that the impact on Russia was modest only because the US effectively acted alone. This time, there are multiple international actors.

But Alexeev, the Indiana University professor, sees one glaring gap.

“As long as Russia can continue to sell oil and gas, they will muddle through this,” he said.

Ukraine needs nations to follow up on aid to fill $5 billion gap

By Eric Martin & Volodymyr Verbyany

U

kraine wants to make sure gover n ment s t h at of fered a ssi st a nce t h i s wee k du r ing meetings in Washington follow through and turn their promises into real support, one of the nation’s top financial officials said.

Ukraine needs $5 billion to $7 billion a month to fill a budget gap caused

by Russia’s invasion, deputy central bank governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk said in an interview in Washington.

While pledges made at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings will help fill that deficit, the amount that the country can count on going forward is unclear, and translating words into actual funding will require more work, he said.

Nikolaychuk said it hasn’t been clear over the few days the exact amount of all the pledges, since support could come in a variety of forms, including cash meant for governmental expenses, military backing, humanitarian support or aid for refugees in neighboring countries.

“There are a lot of promises, there are a lot of pledges. But in order to transfer them into real financial support, definitely the huge homework should be done by our partners in different countries,” as well as by the international financial institutions and Ukrainian authorities, he said.

Without estimating an amount of pledges so far, he said that they would likely be “enough to cover a few

months. But the longer the war lasts, the bigger will be our needs in order to sustain this combat.”

Fully rebuilding and transforming Ukraine for the future following Russia’s invasion will cost $600 billion, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a World Bank event on Thursday, calling on members of the IMF to donate 10% of their reserves received from the institution to support the effort.

The campaign to get countries to reallocate those assets, known as special drawing rights, or SDRs, for Ukraine is in the early stages, with Ukraine having begun discussions with representatives of other central banks, and some of them have restrictions on their ability to on-lend SDRs, Nikolaychuk said.

He added that f rozen Russian wealth in the US, Canada and the European Union should be used to pay for rebuilding the property destroyed by Russia during the war.

World Bank President David Malpass said Thursday that the priority for financing should be on meeting Ukraine’s needs in a way that minimizes its future debt burden.

In approving a $1.4 billion emergency loan for Ukraine last month, the IMF said that the nation’s debt remains sustainable if there’s a fast end to the war.

“Definitely it’s clear that the war puts a sizable drag on our debt sustainability,” Nikolaychuk said. “The longer the war lasts, the more difficult it is for us to be able to service our debt.”

Bloomberg News

The World BusinessMirror

A8 Monday, April 25, 2022

Shanghai posts record daily deaths in current outbreak

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hanghai reported its highest number of daily Covid-19 deaths in the current outbreak, as China continues to stick to its Covid Zero policy with strict lockdown measures imposed in the city.

The city recorded 39 fatalities for Saturday, bringing its total number of virus-related deaths to 87 since late February, according to a report on Sunday by the Shanghai Health Commission.

The average age of the people who died was 78.7 and all had underlying diseases, according to the report.

Shanghai logged 21,058 new local Covid infections, the vast majority of which were mild or asymptomatic cases, the commission said. The previous day, the city reported 23,370 new local cases and 12 deaths.

The financial center is entering its fourth week of strict lockdown, while people living in the eastern part of the city, and neighborhoods with earlier reported cases, have been confined to their

homes for even longer. Frustration among residents has been building due to a lack of access to food or medical care, poor quality government rations and the location of quarantine centers.

The municipal government said it would adopt nine actions from Friday to achieve the goal of “no communit y spread,” a milestone that’s eluded the city despite weeks of lockdown. The announcement damped people’s expectations that restrictions would be gradually eased amid signs that the outbreak may have peaked.

While the announcement repeated existing lockdown measures, authorities vowed to strictly implement rules, including making sure people don’t leave their homes in restricted areas.

T he gover nment measures have caused mounting frustration among residents. Last week, Chinese online users rallied to outwit government censors with a video documenting weeks of lockdown in Shanghai, which flooded social media.

Meanwhile, Beijing warned of more Covid-19 cases in the days ahead after adding 15 new infections on Saturday in the Chinese capital.

Total cases reached 20 in the last two days, with local authorities vowing to do further testing to prevent the virus’s spread, the city’s health authorities said at a briefing on Saturday.

“It’s been silently spreading for a week,” said Pang Xingu, an official with the city’s health agency. “More cases are expected to be found as we’ll conduct more testing.”

The local government said it would shut a school for a week and roll out testing for students and workers there after a total of 10 students from a middle school tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday.

“The Covid outbreak is complex and stealthy and we are facing new challenges,” city govern-

ment spokesman Xu Hejian said at the briefing late Friday. “The new infections we reported today keep us on high alert and allow no relaxation nor negligence.”

The other cases are in two separate infection chains -- with two positive cases connected to a tour group and another two linked to a home decorator. As a result, tighter Covid-19 testing requirements have been imposed for workers in those sectors.

‘Urgent and serious’

Beijing’s Covid-19 situation is “urgent and serious” following the detection of several clusters in recent days, Cai Qi, the city’s Communist Party chief said in a statement published by the municipal government’s official WeChat account at the same time as the briefing. Such clusters create a “high risk of subsequent and covert spread,” according to the statement.

The Chinese capital, with nearly 22 million residents, has been reporting small coronavirus flareups following the end of the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics around mid March, though daily infections have never exceeded a dozen. Bloomberg News

Japan, S. Korea look to salve ties that festered under Moon

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apan and South Korea look set to try to revive a relationship that has hit new depths in recent years, with President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol offering an olive branch to Tokyo weeks before US President Joe Biden is likely to visit both countries.

Yoon, who takes office on May 10, is sending a group of South Korean lawmakers and policy experts to Japan for a five-day stay from Sunday, after saying he’s looking to reset troubled ties. He has already sent a delegation to the US and will next send envoys to China before his inauguration.

Warming ties between the two US allies would be a welcome development for the Biden administration as it seeks cooperation from Seoul and Tokyo to counter security threats posed by China and North Korea, while securing supply chains for key goods such as semiconductors free from interference from Beijing.

Yoon, a conservative, has signaled he wants to take a hawkish diplomatic course, which would also be in line with some of the security priorities of the conservative government of Japanese Prime Minis-

ter Fumio Kishida. The new leadership in Seoul may offer a chance to inch back relations to something more like normal, with the war in Ukraine providing a reminder to both countries of their reliance on their mutual ally amid growing regional threats.

“Under the Yoon administration, we can see a way forward to restoring ties,” said Yasuyo Sakata, a professor at Kanda University of Foreign Studies in Chiba, Japan, who specializes in East Asian security, adding there will be chances to show that the neighbors “are more on the same wavelength.”

The delegation’s visit to Japan is set for a month before Biden—a staunch advocate of alliances—is expected to arrive in the region and visit both South Korea and Japan. It also comes weeks after North Korea fired off a missile for the first time since 2017 with a range that could hit the US mainland and as it looks set to conduct its first nuclear test in nearly five years.

Ties between Tokyo and Seoul plunged to their worst state in decades under outgoing President Moon Jae-in—a progressive—and former Japanese Prime Minister

IMF says initial loan talks with Sri Lanka ‘fruitful’

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he International Monetary Fund engaged in “fruitful” initial technical discussions with Sri Lanka about the nation’s request for a loan, and welcomed the nation’s decision to talk with its creditors, the institution said.

“The IMF team will support Sri Lanka’s efforts to overcome the current economic crisis by working closely with the authorities on their economic program, and by engaging with all other stakeholders in support of a timely resolution of the crisis,” IMF Sri Lanka mission chief Masahiro Nozaki, said in a statement.

Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other senior members of its management met with a Sri Lankan delegation, led by Finance Minister Ali Sabry and central bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe, during the IMF and World Bank spring meetings this past week.

Sabry told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that Sri Lanka may take nearly three weeks to appoint advisers to guide an overhaul of its debt, a move seen as key to unlock emergency funds needed to ease its worsening economic crisis.

Sri Lanka is seeking as much as $4 billion this year to help ease shortages of food, fuel and medicines as its foreign reserves dry up and it heads for a default on its international debt. The economic decline in recent weeks has spiraled into a domestic crisis, with protests seeking the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa turning deadly on Tuesday when police killed at least one person and wounded several others.

The IMF has said its rapid aid depends on progress on debt restructuring, but the lender has declined to comment on what represents adequate steps toward developing a credible debt plan. Bloomberg News

Shinzo Abe—a conservative—over whether Tokyo had shown proper contrition and sufficiently compensated for its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. That led to strains in security cooperation and frequent bickering between the two countries that host the bulk of US troops in the region.

“Yoon realizes the US is needed for South Korea’s security, and therefore the need to mend ties with another major US ally in the region: Japan,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University in Seoul. “The question is whether to prioritize history or security—and Yoon is likely to prioritize the latter, given his vows during the election campaign and his actions after the victory.”

But there are limits to how close Yoon can get after his two conservative predecessors as president faced backlash at home for being seen as being too accommodating to Japan, which caused sharp falls in support and hampered their policy agendas.

Yoon can’t afford any missteps as he enters office with some of the lowest approval levels for a new South Korean president and faces a parliament where his progressive

opponents hold a supermajority.

Japan would like to see a halt to compensation cases brought over Korean workers conscripted to work in Japanese factories and mines during the colonial period, but any attempts by Yoon to intervene could be seen as threatening the judiciary’s independence and further undermine support for his government.

Yoon’s camp has indicated it may seek a two-track approach with Japan—trying to improve cooperation on security, while pressing Tokyo to show what Seoul sees as greater accountability for widespread harm to millions of Koreans before and during World War II. Kishida was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Yoon on his victory and has repeatedly said since then that good ties with Seoul are “indispensable in realizing a rules-based international order and ensuring peace.” Yet it remains unclear whether Kishida will meet the South Korean delegation this week, or what level of envoy he will send to Yoon’s inauguration—another event that could help set the tone for ties with his new counterpart.

Bloomberg News

Solomons must be ‘really careful’ on China security deal–Australia

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he Solomon Islands should be “really careful” in its security pact with China, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said, warning the Pacific nation could become beholden to the Asian nation.

Joyce said on Australia’s national broadcaster Sunday that while he accepted the Solomon Islands’ pledge that there would not be a permanent Chinese military presence on the territory, “if you invite a totalitarian regime into your country, of course it will have effect on your sovereignty.”

“That is something that is not fiction,” said Joyce, a member of Australia’s national security committee.

“You can go to other countries where the Chinese government are involved and it most definitely affects their sovereignty.”

Australia and its allies have voiced concern at a new security agreement between the Solomon Islands and

China that could lead to a permanent Chinese military presence in the Pacific nation. While no final version of the deal has been made public, an earlier draft leaked on social media in late March would allow Chinese naval vessels a safe harbor in the country, which is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the Australian coast.

Joyce pointed to Tajikistan, Myanmar and a similar deal in Djibouti where at times thousands of Chinese military personnel are stationed, a “great problem” for Australia, he said.

He suggested Australia would join the United States to “respond accordingly” should China set up a de facto permanent military presence or powerprojection capabilities. “ T he United States is in lock step with Australia,” he said. “We know what the Chinese wishes are and we don’t want their wishes to happen.”Bloomberg News

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Ukraine battered again; Zelenskyy says high-level US officials to visit

Ukrainian military medics move an injured Ukrainian serviceman to a hospital in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Saturday, April 23, 2022. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

By David Keyton & Yesica Fisch The Associated Press

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YIV, Ukraine—Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last pocket of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, announced he would meet Sunday in his nation’s capital with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment.

Speaking at a news conference, Zelenskyy gave little detail about logistics of the encounter but said he expected concrete results — “not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.”

It would be the first high-level US trip to Kyiv since the war began Feb. 24. While visiting Poland in March, Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the country’s foreign minister. Zelenskyy’s last face-to-face meeting with a US leader was Feb. 19 with Vice President Kamala Harris.

In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.

A 3-month-old baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa, officials said. Zelenskyy said 18 more were wounded.

“The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you imagine what is happening?” Zelenskyy said.

“They are just bastards. ... I don’t have any other words for it, just bastards.”

The fate of the Ukrainians in the sprawling and besieged seaside steel mill in Mariupol, where Russia says its forces have taken the rest of the city, wasn’t immediately clear. Earlier Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit released a video reportedly taken two days earlier in which women and children holed up underground, some for as long as two months, said they longed to see the sun.

“We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air,” one woman in the video said. “You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, it is already happiness.”

Russia said it took control of several villages elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses. Russian attacks also struck populated areas.

Associated Press journalists observed shelling in residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city; regional Gov. Oleh Sinehubov said three people were killed. In the Luhansk area of the Donbas, Gov. Serhiy Haidai said six people died during the shelling of a village, Gorskoi.

In Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas, the AP witnessed two soldiers arriving at a hospital, one of them mortally wounded.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged Sloviansk apartment, Anna Direnskaya, 70, said, “I want peace.”

One of many native Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, Direnskaya said she wishes Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and that there should be no enmity between them.

“Why is this happening?” she said.

“I don’t know.”

While British officials said Russian forces had not gained significant new ground, Ukrainian officials announced

a nationwide curfew ahead of Easter Sunday, a sign of the war’s disruption and threat to the entire country.

Mariupol has been a key Russian objective and has taken on outsize importance in the war. Completing its capture would give Russia its biggest victory yet, after a nearly two-month siege reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin.

It would deprive Ukrainian of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere and establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014. Russia-backed separatists control parts of the Donbas.

An adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Russian forces resumed airstrikes on the Azovstal plant and were also trying to storm it, in an apparent reversal of tactics. Two days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had given an order not to send troops in but instead to blockade the plant.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with civilians sheltering in its underground tunnels.

Earlier Saturday, the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released the video of about two-dozen women and children. Its contents could not be independently verified. But if authentic, it would be the first video testimony of what life has been like for civilians trapped underground there.

The video shows soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives “haven’t seen neither the sky nor the sun” since they left home Feb. 27.

The regiment’s deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, told the AP the video was shot Thursday. The Azov Regiment has its roots in the Azov Battalion, which was formed by far-right activists in 2014 at the start of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and has elicited criticism for some of its tactics.

More than 100,000 people—down from a prewar population of about 430,000—are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heat. Ukrainian authorities estimate that over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the city.

Yet another attempt to evacuate women, children and older adults from Mariupol failed Saturday. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, said Russian forces did not allow Ukrainian-organized buses to take residents to Zaporizhzhia, a city 227 kilometers (141 miles) to the northwest.

“At 11 o’clock, at least 200 Mariupol residents gathered near the Port City shopping center, waiting for evacuation,” Andryushchenko posted on the Telegram messaging app. “The Russian military drove up to the Mariupol residents and ordered them to disperse, because now there will be shelling.”

At the same time, he said, Russian buses assembled about 200 meters (yards) away. Residents who boarded those were told they were being taken to separatist-occupied territory and not allowed to disembark, Andryushchenko said. His account could not be independently verified.

In the attack on Odesa, Russian troops fired at least six missiles, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister.

(Fisch reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine.

Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Inna Varenytsia in Kviv and Associated Press staff members around the world contributed to this report).

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, April 25, 2022 A9

Mystery liver disease in children Turkey bans Russian aircraft from its skies spurs urgent investigation: WHO T

O

By Jason Gale

ne child has died and more than a dozen have undergone liver transplants as a result of a mysterious outbreak of severe acute hepatitis that’s sickened children in the U.K., the US and 10 other countries, the World Health Organization said.

Health authorities are trying to determine the source of the liver-inflaming disease that’s afflicted at least 169 children, ages 1 month to 16 years, as of April 21, the WHO said in a statement Saturday. Typical causes of viral hepatitis have been excluded.

The United Nations agency was notified on April 5 of 10 cases among previously healthy children across central Scotland with jaundice, diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Three days later, 74 cases had been identified in the UK. As of April 21, the UK had 114 cases followed by 13 in Spain, 12 in Israel, nine in the US and 21 more scattered among Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, France, Romania and Belgium. Many were infected with a strain of adenovirus, a family of viruses that cause a range of illnesses including the common cold.

“It is not yet clear if there has been an increase in hepatitis cases, or an increase in awareness of hepatitis cases that occur at the expected rate but go undetected,” WHO said.

“While adenovirus is a possible hypothesis, investigations are ongoing for the causative agent.”

Seventeen children, or about 10% of cases, have required a liver transplant and at least one death has been reported, the Geneva-based agency said. With more extensive searching, it’s “very likely that more cases will be detected before the cause can be confirmed and more specific control and prevention measures can be implemented,” it said.

Symptoms include liver inflammation, with markedly high liver enzymes, and jaundice, preceded by abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting. The common viruses that cause acute viral hepatitis—hepatitis viruses A, B, C, D and E—haven’t been detected in any of the cases, WHO said.

International travel or links to other countries haven’t revealed any clues yet either. Toxicology and additional microbiological testing is underway in affected countries, which have also initiated enhanced surveillance activities.

Adenovirus was detected in more than 40% of cases. Of virus samples that underwent mo-

lecular testing, 18 were identified as F type 41, WHO said. Nineteen cases were found to have a SARS-CoV-2 and adenovirus co-infection.

“Due to enhanced laboratory testing for adenovirus, this could represent the identification of an existing rare outcome occurring at levels not previously detected that is now being recognized due to increased testing,” the agency said.

More than 50 types of adenoviruses can cause infections in humans, according to the WHO. Usually a cause of self-limited communicable infections, they most commonly cause respiratory illness. Depending on the type, they can also cause other illnesses such as gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis and bladder infection.

Adenovirus type 41, the strain implicated in the liver-disease outbreak, typically causes diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, often accompanied by respiratory symptoms. Even though adenovirus is being investigated as a possible cause of the outbreak, it doesn’t fully explain the severity of the symptoms, WHO said.

“While there have been case reports of hepatitis in immunocompromised children with adenovirus infection, adenovirus type 41 is not known to be a cause of hepatitis in otherwise healthy children,” it said. Bloomberg News

urkey closed its airspace to Russian jets flying to Syria, a shift in policy aimed at increasing the cost of the war in Ukraine for President Vladimir Putin.

Turkey barred the Russian aircraft, including any civilian flights carrying troops, from its skies for the first time since Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

The move adds to external pressure on Moscow to end its conflict in Ukraine, now entering its third month. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Putin of his decision in a phone call, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying by state broadcaster TRT. He didn’t specify when the call took place.

Most Russian flights to Syria pass though Turkish airspace, though the number of troops ferried to the country isn’t publicly disclosed.

The restrictions are unlikely to halt the movement of soldiers and weapons to Syria from Russia, according to a Turkish official familiar with the matter, who said Moscow will likely now divert flights across Iranian airspace.

The key goal rather was to show solidarity with fellow NATO members, many of whom are sending weapons into Ukraine to help support the fight against Russia, the official said, asking not to be identified discussing security matters. Turkey

has already limited access through the Bosporus strait for Russian naval vessels.

It comes before United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres meets Erdogan in Ankara on Monday. Guterres then travels to Russia and Ukraine this week where he will meet Putin and Zelenskiy. Turkey has sought to act as a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow, and has hosted their foreign ministers previously for talks.

Ties between Turkey and Russia are already complicated. They are in opposing camps in conflicts from Syria to North Africa to the Caucasus, often backing sides at war with each other.

The two countries are locked in a bitter dispute in Syria. Thousands of Turkish soldiers are deployed around the rebelheld Idlib province, vulnerable to attacks by government forces backed by Russia.

At the same time, tensions between Turkey and the US have risen over Erdogan’s decision to buy air defense missiles from Russia. Russian tourists make up the bulk of foreign visitors, bringing in much needed hard currency to Turkey’s economy, while Russian companies are building Turkey’s only nuclear power plant.

And the Turkish government has refrained from joining sanctions for fear of retribution. Russia meets around half of Turkey’s demand for natural gas, giving it huge leverage over the government in Ankara. Bloomberg News

A10 Monday, April 25, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

Facebook cowed in EU; acting like king in PHL

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N its latest annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta—parent company of Facebook and Instagram—warned that it may shut down its social media platforms across Europe. This is Meta’s response to European data regulations that prevent the company from transferring, storing and processing Europeans’ data on US-based servers.

European leaders said they are happy to see Meta leave Europe. “After [my account] was hacked, I have lived without Facebook and Twitter for four years and life has been fantastic,” said Robert Habeck, Germany’s minister for economic affairs. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire agreed: “I can confirm that life would be very good without Facebook and that we would live very well without Facebook.”

In a statement issued in Europe, Meta clarified it had no plans to pull Facebook and Instagram from the European Union. “We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organizations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services.”

Meta could previously use a data transfer framework called Privacy Shield as the legal basis to carry out transatlantic data transfers. But in July 2020, the European Court of Justice annulled the treaty due to violations of data protection. The bloc’s highest legal authority said the standard does not adequately protect European citizens’ privacy. As a result, American companies were restricted in sending European user data to the US. “Securing a new arrangement for safe transatlantic data flows is a priority for us and our US partners,” a European Commission spokesperson said.

“Only an arrangement that is fully compliant with the requirements set by the EU court can deliver the stability and legal certainty stakeholders expect on both sides of the Atlantic.”

On April 14, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. posted this on his Facebook account: “In ending insurgency, the Filipinos must unite against armed struggle and against all organizations, aboveground and underground that support the New People’s Army, including the Communist Party members who have infiltrated the Congress through the partylist system.”

Facebook said Esperon’s post violated community standards. It said it was restricting only the specific post and not his entire account because “we understand that mistakes happen.”

In response to the warning, Esperon said in a separate Facebook post: “What’s wrong with this to restrict me? I should know better than you do on matters of national security.”

The Department of the Interior and Local Government denounced Facebook for its warning issued to the country’s top national security official.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said: “The imprudence of FB to warn Secretary Esperon on a national security issue is unthinkable and downright offensive as the social media platform has taken on the role of ‘Big Brother’ with the power to censure the social media posts of the NSA himself on matters of national security.” (Read, “DILG slams FB for flagging NSC chief’s post on national security,” in the BusinessMirror, April 20, 2022).

Malaya said this FB move is alarming, if not dangerous, as it has appointed itself as an omnipotent force that can censure at their discretion the legitimate posts of highly respected Philippine officials.

The Department of National Defense said it stood with Esperon after Facebook flagged a post where he claimed the communist insurgency had infiltrated Congress. “As a major social media platform, Facebook should seriously consider improving its mechanisms to promote the truth instead of curtailing the government’s efforts to spread awareness and inform the public of issues of national interest,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

The Associated Press reported that in the EU, the time of Facebook behaving like it is “too big to care” is coming to an end with the Digital Services Act, which will cement Europe’s reputation as the global leader in efforts to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.

With 91 million Facebook accounts in country, the Philippines ranks fifth among nations with the highest Facebook users. That’s a big market for the social media giant. We need to adopt similar laws that make tech companies more accountable. The Philippine government should be the one asking social media companies to take down content deemed illegal, and not the other way around.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

The joy of reading

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According to UNESCO, books help us to address challenges in our lives and understand our realities; they, too, help fight inequality and misinformation.

Indeed, books are our friends, and not just any friend— Hemingway called them our loyal friends. This wisdom is necessary, most especially during this time in our history.

On April 23, the world celebrated World Book and Copyright Day to promote the importance and benefits of reading, and to protect book creators’ copyrights. The international event is organized yearly by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This year’s theme is “You are a Reader.”

This special day is being celebrated to promote the importance of not just reading but also writing,

Philippines—Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights organizes events to celebrate WBCD. IPOPHL-BCRR’s invitation reads, “Listen to known authors, comic artists and illustrators as they share their everyday lives, experiences, challenges and the importance of copyright.” The event will be streamed live on IPOPHL-BCRR’s Facebook page.

From 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. there will be talks by creative artists Kevin Eric Raymundo (a.k.a. Tarantadong Kalbo), Liza Flores, and Eugene Evasco.

From 3:00 p.m. onwards, speakers will present projects under IPOPHL’s

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

O you find joy in reading? Do you make it a point to devote some time every day for this activity? Sometimes, our days are so full that we can’t even pick up a book and spend a few minutes reading in silence. To resolve to change this and dedicate daily reading time could be one of the ways to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day (WBCD).

People power Thomas M. Orbos

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publishing, and translating. We also pay our respects to famous authors like William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, who both died on this day. Likewise, we recognize the important works of publishers, booksellers, and libraries—three of the major sectors in the publishing industry.

For this year, the local celebration happens online on Monday, the 25th of April, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. The Intellectual Property Office of the

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here is hope in the Filipino. I say this to myself, having witnessed the genuine show of support of many, when I attended the birthday rally of Vice President Leni Robredo last Saturday. It is selfless giving and positive volunteerism that I have not seen in my lifetime.

Everywhere you look around, people were helping one another like the community kitchens that were started by the private sector during the pandemic. Food—homecooked even like hard boiled eggs and baked bread, water, medical services were being provided for free—not by the organizers, but by ordinary citizens who just wanted to do their share and without any needed acknowledgement whatsoever of their deeds.

Street musicians and artists, oblivious of the heat of the sun, performed on their own, making the long walk more than bearable. All smiles. All positive. Driven primarily by young Filipinos, who just recently were deemed apolitical and even apathetic, such a turn of commitment on their part to get a direct handle on their future, made me realize that

life in our country will be okay.

I had been a spectator of our country’s political drama for more than 40 years now and I can say that I have not seen this version of patriotism. Edsa was people power with the direction of that journey emanating from its icons, Tita Cory and Cardinal Sin. Their message for change resonated and people followed. What we are seeing now is similar yet quite different. The campaign of VP Robredo is being shaped by its followers, with first time voters, formerly apolitical families, private citizens who just want to have a say on their future.

In the beginning it was a passionate show of their support for VP Leni. And when they realized that they needed to expand beyond their support groups, they had to go

The campaign of VP Robredo is being shaped by its followers, with first time voters, formerly apolitical families, private citizens who just want to have a say on their future. through political campaigning 101, leading them to do actual house-tohouse visits and now, poll watcher training. The campaign team led by Senator Bam Aquino provided the guidance, but the general efforts and interpretations of such guidance are all volunteers. A very good example of the starfish model of organizations where each arm is connected to a central body but can survive and grow into its own, and even expand into other starfishes. Providential that the political ward leaders readily opted early on for the candidate that carried the traditional preconditions of a political win—pedigree, funds, government backing and those dubious surveys; regardless of the historical truths that belied their candidate.

Had these politicians been in the Leni camp, I believe such organic growth of sincere people’s support would most likely not materialize.

And this was what prompted me to switch to VP Leni. It was me, from another presidential camp, looking into this band of energetic supporters and wondering why this dedication to their cause. Even for them

Copyright Plus Program, specifically the Copyright eBook for freelance writers, Protect Writers’ Works. The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances Guidebook will also be launched in the afternoon.

Aside from tuning in to IPOPHLBCRR’s online event, we may also commemorate this day by carving out a special time for reading, sharing our books or passages from our favorite books with friends and contacts, reading to our children, or donating books to libraries. We can also do our share in helping to motivate children—either our own or the children we know—to develop reading habits. This is essential in their development and may prove to positively affect their success in life.

According to UNESCO, books help us to address challenges in our lives and understand our realities; they, too, help fight inequality and misinformation. Indeed, books are our friends, and not just any friend— Hemingway called them our loyal friends. This wisdom is necessary, most especially during this time in our history.

to learn from their initial mistakes and adapt to do things that were not in their playbook were unexpected.

For them to do this, they must be motivated and inspired. You are prompted to look at their candidate and find out the reason why. She is after all the reason for this spirit of true volunteerism to rise. Learning what she went through, and what she stands and fights for, was no doubt what resonated with her supporters. Put it simply, VP Leni is the embodiment of what people wanted in their government and she became the inspiring rallying point for that change to happen.

Hopefully it is this that will carry her to victory. There is still time and the political leaders, sensitive to how their constituents move, will surely realize this and hopefully support her, regardless of whatever political fallout they may face as a consequence. But whatever is the electoral outcome, this phenomenon we are seeing is victory already. Political people’s movements only last during elections. This one will surely go beyond. And whoever will be in Malacañang, they will have to deal with this genuine people power that has now come alive to make sure that people will have a real voice in our country’s future.

The author maybe reached thru: thomas_orbos@ sloan.mit.edu

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

Our two weeks’ notice

Tax financing a bankrupt state

BusinessMirror

Joel L. Tan-Torres

Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

DEBIT CREDIT

THE PATRIOT

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N the United States, the term “two weeks’ notice” has evolved to mean the resignation letter given in advance by an employee to an employer. While in most States, a two-week notice is not legally required, still employees are encouraged to give their employers enough lead time to allow for “transition and turnover.” Transition is necessary to allow the employer to find a suitable replacement while turnover is desired to provide for a seamless transfer of functions from one person to another. In the Philippines, the equivalent of the “two-week notice” is a 30-day notice for both employer and employee, who are legally mandated to give such notice prior to termination or resignation. In either case, transition and turnover are preferred for the benefit of both the employer and the employee.

With two weeks left in the present campaign period for the candidates to “win” voters to their side, I notice varied types of behavior: some illogically asking fellow candidates to withdraw for the sake of unity against the survey frontrunner; others resorting to tirades that bespeak more of how “lowly” the accuser has become! I see others continue the stubborn path towards defeat while a few trying to survive the laborious walk to the coveted position, stripped of both resources and energy. As we approach the second Monday of May 2022 (May 9 to be exact), I implore everyone to consider submitting a two-week notice for “transition and turnover.” Within the next two weeks, transition from a human to an eternal perspective is necessary to discern what is best for the country, and this should be done using biblical principles in choosing a God-fearing and God-loving candidate. The turnover from human control to God’s control is necessary, as we all need to “resign” and lift up the outcome of this election to Him in surrender. Candidates and their campaign teams can only do so much. Voters and election watchers can only do so much.

But our Almighty God has full and total control of events that will unfold in the next few days. Some Filipinos might think that they can coerce or control the outcome of the elections, not acknowledging the power of Divine Providence.

They are mistaken. No matter how they try to influence the outcome, Father God knows what is best for the Filipinos at this point in our history.

A few hours before his crucifixion, Jesus Christ called on his father—Abba, Aramaic for “father.” By calling God “Father,” Jesus understood that His Father only wants the best for Him and that Jesus vowed submissive obedience as a son does his father. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36). Since the only way to pay the price of sin was

by His own death, burial and resurrection, Jesus “resigned.” As author of many miracles, He could have found a way out of His suffering. He chose not to and deferred in obedience to His Father. We heard it many times, in prayer,—“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.” Similarly, we ought to embrace our country’s future in the next six years by following the example of Jesus and say, “Father, I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Instead of letting fear sink him into despair, Jesus dropped to his knees and prayed, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.” We need to resign, just like how Jesus did or aligned with King Solomon who rationalized—“And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it... What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15). Whether 2022 will be a repeat of 2016 and 1986 where a widow beat a Marcos or 2022 will be a travel back in time and restore a Marcos to Malacañang will ultimately

be dictated by God’s supreme will.

But by resigning, it does not mean that we just do nothing and leave everything in God’s hands. He sees the desires of our hearts and He blesses those who love Him. Candidates should campaign up to the last allowable minute. They should never surrender, except to Him whose Will is supreme over others. Voters should examine the depths of their conscience up to very moment when they will shade the box inside the voting booth.

In my case, I continue to join house-tohouse campaigning, putting up tarps and engaging undecided voters. Still, I allow this “two-week notice” as a starting point to make room for “transition and turnover.” Prayers, needless to say, are just as important as human efforts.

I once asked a pastor friend why God allows corrupt politicians to reign in some parts of the country. I asked why God allows “guns, goons, and gold” to proliferate in our land, which is considered as the country of God-fearing believers.

My pastor friend responded by recounting how God’s chosen people were ruled by tyrants and despots in biblical history. God seemed to allow such painful experience to perhaps teach His people a lesson or perhaps to build their faith stamina or perhaps to reveal His power and love for us. I know that God allows evil at times to reign and this is never without corresponding consequences.

In the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 tells us, “I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom.” Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”

These elections, regardless of the outcome, will somehow be marred with cheating allegations. There will be winners and whiners, both of whom I hope will acknowledge God’s will, sooner rather than later. “Two-week notice” is hereby given for all of us to resign to our faith and believe that God controls the events that will dictate the course of our history. Yet we should live with conviction of God’s wisdom, especially during this crucial election process.

Evil lurks in our midst, so we should be reminded what Ephesians 5:15-16 told us—“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” In our mortal lives, more than ever, we beseech for His intervention as we submit our two-week notice to Our Creator with much anticipation for a smooth “transition and turnover” of our earthly perspectives and human control.

Win or lose, it’s my God I choose!

A former infantry and intelligence officer in the Army, Siegfred Mison showcased his servant leadership philosophy in organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Malcolm Law Offices, Infogix Inc., University of the East, Bureau of Immigration, and Philippine Airlines. He is a graduate of West Point in New York, Ateneo Law School, and University of Southern California. A corporate lawyer by profession, he is an inspirational teacher and a Spirit-filled writer with a mission.

For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

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he taxpayer is now in this stage where he has received for the nth time a Letter of Authority from the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The LOA is one of the much-dreaded documents that a taxpayer can receive from the BIR. This LOA authorizes the BIR to conduct an audit or investigation of the tax liabilities of taxpayers for a stated tax period. For certain “lucky” taxpayers, they can be subjected to several audits covering a single particular period.

This may arise if the BIR pursues the regular tax audit of the annual tax liabilities, and separately, an issue-based value-added tax audit, and also conducts a Letter Notice verification of discrepancies detected by the computerized data matching system of the BIR, on taxpayers for one particular audit period or year.

I know of several taxpayer clients who have been subjected to these concurrent audits. You can just imagine the extreme burden that these taxpayers endure engaging with several sets of BIR examiners.

Taxpayers have to allocate resources of time, manpower,consultant fees, and endure a lot of tension and aggravation when engaging with the BIR tax auditors. This still does not include the resulting deficiency taxes and penalties that taxpayers would have to pay or be assessed with after the conclusion of the audit.

To cushion the adverse impact of tax audits on taxpayers, the BIR has issued several guidelines to govern the conduct of the audit. The more important issuances are Revenue Memorandum Order 19-2015 of the

BIR Audit Program for the regular tax audits; the various issue-based VAT audit guidelines, including RMO 20-2012, 16-2014, and 59-2016; and the Letter Notice Verification, as governed by Revenue Regulations 22-20, which amended previous issuances, RR 12-99, RR 18-2013, and RR 7-2018. While these are intended to provide clarifications and guidelines to both taxpayers and BIR alike, unfortunately, a great number of taxpayers are overwhelmed by the voluminous and sometimes contradictory provisions of all of these BIR documents.

In my role as BIR Commissioner from 2009 to 2010, I was aware of the tensions and problems arising from these audit engagements. I also underscored the impact of the BIR enforcement to foster better voluntary tax compliance and maximize the tax revenues from erring if not evading taxpayers. To address and resolve these, I took into account certain strategies and philosophies.

These include the following: Implement programs and audit approaches that minimize uncer-

A call to invest in nature

By Dr. Selva Ramachandran

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his year’s commemoration of Earth Day comes with an important call to action: to invest in nature for the sustainable future of the generations to come. And what a timely call it is.

Increasing global emissions contribute to extreme weather patterns.

The onslaught of recent typhoons that swept the Philippines clearly demonstrate the worsening climate crisis, greatly affecting those at the fringes of society.

The years 2021 to 2030 was designated by the United Nations as the decade for ecosystem restoration, as well as the deadline for the achievement of the sustainable development goals. The call for protection and revival of the earth’s ecosystems has never been more urgent. Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, address climate change, prevent the collapse of biodiversity, and protect the population against deadly pandemic.

However, the planet and its people are at the tipping point; we find ourselves faced with a critical crossroads, which could spell either survival or peril. Recent global reports such as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have highlighted that we are at a turning point in the earth’s history if nothing is done. The message is clear—we need to change the

way by which we use investments to reverse this trajectory.

We do not need to look far to observe the challenges in restoring the country’s valuable ecosystems. The Philippines has been touted as the 3rd largest contributor of marine plastics. Combined with water pollution, these endanger marine wildlife and fisheries production, affecting the value of tourism, food supply, and human health. Recent studies have shown that microplastics have been discovered in human blood, organs and tissues, posing added huge health risks.

Furthermore, degraded watersheds have resulted in reduced capacities to prevent flooding and landslides, affecting lives and properties, and at the same time reducing water supply during dry months. Mangroves, seagrasses and coral reefs have deteriorated in many parts of the country, and uncontrolled development in the coastal areas have compromised their ability to weaken storm surges and other climate induced hazards, thereby leaving swathes of destruction to communities and livelihoods.

All of these are preventable, if every citizen, stakeholder will do their part in investing in nature. Investing

Monday, April 25, 2022 A11

tainties and discretion on the part of both taxpayers and BIR and maximize transparency of BIR objectives and outcomes desired. The approach to these is not necessarily the issuance of more details and guidelines, but an effective communication to all stakeholders of the win-win outcomes that are sought to be attained.

The mantra of my administration, which is “Making the Public Know,” clearly shows my vision of this.

Maximize the use of technology in the different phases of the audit cycle, including the conduct of tax audit. While more than a decade ago when I was the BIR Commissioner, there was not too much of a buzz on the use of Information, Communication, and Leading-edge technology, I was keen already on promoting the use of the available applications to enhance the tax audit processes.

These included the use of computer-assisted audit techniques, the mandating of the use of computerized accounting systems by the large taxpayers, and the utilization of our version of big data using the third party matching of data compiled under the Reconciliation of Listings for Enforcement initiated by previous commissioners. These programs were able to generate a substantial amount of tax revenues for the coffers of the government.

Presently, the prospects for increased tax revenue generation of ICT are more inevitable, with data analytics, artificial intelligence, more automated processes, the use of existing digital tools, and the implementation of the e-invoicing requirement prescribed by law.

Truly with transformed ICT comes increased tax financing desired by all governments and states.

Focus on big-ticket sectors but with minimal tax collections. I recall instituting programs to maximize

collections from VAT on tollway fee collections; estate taxes of decedents, estates, and their administrators; industries with big tax issues; interrelated groups of companies and conglomerates; and others.

Collaborate with various stakeholders from government agencies, industry and professional associations; and other parties. I aggressively concluded several memoranda of agreements with our “collaborators” to ensure that the BIR and these groups will have an active partnership in promoting tax compliance.

Dwell only on bite-size pieces of BIR-taxpayer engagements. The example of issue-based VAT audits was a model that I reminded my audit heads to always pursue to arrive at faster tax audit conclusions and collections.

Institute the electronic LOA system that enhances management and monitoring of the audit process.

It is quite heartwarming that the fruits and benefits of these initiatives that I pursued when I was the BIR Commissioner are still being experienced today. But I know that more can still be done. Any bankrupt state requires all the tax financing that it may be able to collect at the soonest time possible.

in our future would mean less cost to repair, rebound, and avoid the hefty damages that inaction could inflict upon society. There are a number of ways by which we can show our “investments.”

First, let us invest in behavior and lifestyle modification. Global food waste, for example, is responsible for 6 percent to 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This, in addition to making more food available for those who are in need, is a tradeoff we make if we are not prudent in our consumption.

Everyday decisions, such as minimizing the use of plastics, can mean a lot in turning the tide in our campaign against marine litter. Reducing the volume of our wardrobe and the frequency we buy new clothes is another way we can make a difference. The fashion industry alone is responsible for 2.1 billion metric tons of GHG emissions in 2018 or 4 percent of the global total. This is equivalent to the same quantity of emissions of the entire economies of France, Germany and the UK combined!

Second, let us invest in risk-informed planning and development.

Decisions on location of settlements, industries, city centers; and the way we plan spatial development in cities, greening our infrastructure can mean a lot in preventing lives and saving costs through efficiency gains. Mapping of hazards and exposure of population and assets, and providing alternatives and development controls, zoning regulations

can save the government billions of dollars of losses and damages from powerful typhoons and earthquakes.

Third, let us ensure financing is geared towards sustainability.

This means ensuring that capital is channeled towards investments that either do no harm or result in positive impacts on environment.

There are available tools to guide decision making on this, and metrics to guide us in measuring results.

This entails the active application of environment, social and governance (ESG) principles; aligning with the Sustainable Finance Roadmap; and ensuring each project is evaluated against social and environmental impacts. There are big wins in doing this—the Better Business better World Report of UNDP has estimated that around $82 trillion in investment opportunity and 4.4 million new jobs will be created if directed towards those in support of SDG positive investments.

Lastly, all of these will not happen without an environmentally aware citizenry and supportive leadership. At this crucial time, we enjoin all Filipinos to make their voices heard and advocate for environmental sustainability and sustainability financing as priority agenda for the country’s path for development. The clock is ticking, and every second of inaction may cause us generations lost.

Ambani scraps $3.2-billion deal that set up clash with Bezos

By Suvashree Ghosh Bloomberg Opinion

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illionaire Mukesh Ambani abandoned a plan to buy a teetering Indian retailer amid protracted legal challenges from Amazon.com Inc., potentially ending one episode of the broader clash between the two titans to control the country’s billion-people-plus market.

In a filing Saturday, Reliance

Industries Ltd. said its proposal to acquire certain assets of Mumbaibased Future Group—which ran the nation’s biggest retail grocery chain before the pandemic struck— “cannot be implemented” after its flagship firm Future Retail Ltd. failed to win the approval of its secured creditors for the deal. Reliance didn’t elaborate.

Ever since Reliance announced the plan in August 2020, to purchase

Future’s core units for 247.1 billion rupees ($3.2 billion), the indebted retailer has found itself at the center of a battle between Ambani and Jeff Bezos. Amazon has fiercely contested the takeover by Ambani, arguing in several courts that contractually it had the first right of refusal to buy Future.

Adding Future’s Big Bazaar brand of stores to its assets would have helped Seattle-based Amazon to ex-

pand its brick-and-mortar footprint across the country. Similarly, Ambani was counting on the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units of Future to expand the operations of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.—part of a broader pivot from the group’s main oil refining and petrochemicals businesses.

Reliance’s decision to back out also comes after almost two years of tortuous litigation in various courts

that worsened the financial health of Future Group. With no lifeline in sight to help revive its businesses, the retailer has defaulted on debt repayments forcing some of its lenders to initiate bankruptcy cases against the firm.

The setback to Reliance may be minimal after the group began poaching employees and taking over rental leases of hundreds of stores once run by Future Retail and Future

To be continued Joel L. Tan-Torres is the Dean of the University of the Philippines Virata School of Business. Previously, he was the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy, and partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. and the SyCip Gorres and Velayo & Co. He is a Certified Public Accountant who garnered No. 1 in the CPA Board Examination of May 1979.

This column accepts articles from the business and academic community for consideration for publication. Articles not exceeding 600 words can be e-mailed to jltantorres@up.edu.ph.

Dr. Selva Ramachandran is the UNDP Philippines Resident Representative.

Lifestyle Fashions Ltd. “There will hardly be any impact on Reliance from the cancellation of the deal as they already have taken control of most of the Future stores,” said Kranthi Bathini, a strategist at Mumbai-based WealthMills Securities Pvt. “Also, many employees from Future have migrated to Reliance, and hence they already have what they wanted without taking over Future.”

A12 Monday, April 25, 2022

PHL’s labor productivity low in copyright industries–UN

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By Andrea E. San Juan

ESPITE having the highest share of their labor force employed in the copyright industries pegged at 11 percent, the labor productivity of the Philippines and Mexico in the sector is low, according to a report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

The report titled, “Creative Industry 4.0: Towards A New Globalized Creative Economy” highlighted how industry 4.0 technologies transform creative industries and provide policy options for developing countries to harness these new technological trends for their creative economy.

The report shows a growing demand for governments in developed and developing countries to provide sufficient necessary infrastructure and programs to empower workers to utilize the new

opportunities offered by creative industries 4.0.

On top of that, Unctad said these countries need to have national, regional and international legal frameworks to support small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers in e-commerce, and modern trade governance systems to protect the know-how and creativity of individual artisans and small businesses.

Q ueen sl a nd Un iversit y of Technology’s Creative Economy Director Hasan Bakhshi et al. in

their research paper published in 2013 laid out policy recommendations to foster the Creative Economy.

Bakhshi et al. recommended a wellarticulated education system, fiscal incentives and funding programs, a financial arm for content sectors, a competition regime that values and protects intellectual property, and a “balanced copyright regime.”

Meanwhile, fiscal incentives and funding programs are also necessary to nurture Research and Development (R&D) in the creative industries.

In addition, a financial arm is required to back content sectors which are often perceived as a high-risk segment with better access to venture capital Bakhshi et al. also highlighted the need for a competition regime that protects intellectual property, provides a balanced copyright regime, avoids abuses of dominant positions, and acts swiftly to remedy them.

Finally, University of Melbourne School of Culture and Communication’s cultural policy lecturer Christiaan De Beukelaer teamed up with Linköping University’s Department of Culture Studies associate professor Mar-

tin Fredriksson for a research paper published in 2019. This noted that in the context of low-income developing countries, the issue of a “balanced copyright regime” or the protection of copyrights versus right of access to culture, is a complex matter.

Unctad, in its report, explained: “For, while the use of the ‘cultural exception’ may be an effective means of shielding local creative producers from foreign competition, the ultimate effect on the community may be to hamper citizens’ right of access to culture.”

The above-mentioned policy elements are of the horizontal type which impacts all activities and all consumers in society.

Meanwhile, Unctad emphasized that additional challenges in designing a policy to foster the Creative Industry 4.0 spring from the diversity of creative industries and the business owners’ attitude to new technologies. In fact, the different regions of the world face different challenges and have already applied heterogenous measures to achieve that end.

With this, Unctad pointed out that recommendations on p ol ic y me a s u res ne e d to b e context-specific.

Meanwhile, Marlen Bakalli in his research paper called for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to develop a holistic approach and validate a methodology for the sustainable and inclusive development of micro and small enterprises in the creative sector.

BIZMEN CREDIT ALVAREZ WITH PALAWAN’S TOURISM BOOM

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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OC A L businessmen in Palawan lauded on Sunday outgoing Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez for the tourism boom, which they describe partly as the official’s lasting legacy.

Alvarez served three consecutive terms as governor and chairman of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), an attached agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Bu si ness leaders i n t he province said Alvarez has already made his mark in terms of the big economic improvement and employ ment and livelihood they credit him with making possible in 9 years of public service.

“You have to give it to him. He did what he said he would do. He certainly looked after the welfare of Palaweños like a father would his children,” Jeffrey Armedilla, the president of Palawan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and PCSD representative, said in a news release.

“He may have had zero political experience when he started but as a business owner, he knew how to get things done,” Armedilla noted.

“He knew the priorities of the province and made the difficult decisions that would lead us to progress,” he added.

A former auto industry veteran and proprietor of several profitable businesses, Alvarez was first elected governor in 2013.

Palawan’s GDP was negative (-) 1 percent when he assumed office.

He quickly turned the prov-

ince’s economy around in his first term, driving GDP to 6.2 percent in 2017, and an average of over 7 percent, province-wide, before the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in 2020.

Despite the Covid-19-induced recession, Palawan recorded the highest share of 35.1 percent in the economy of the Mimaropa region (the Southwestern Tagalog provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) in 2020.

“Palawan really changed under his watch and certainly for the better,” Armedilla said.

As governor, Alvarez was cited for maximizing the tourism potential of Palawan, the country’s biggest province in terms of territory and often called its last ecological frontier.

Under Alvarez’s watch, Palawan has been voted the best island in the world in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards 2020 (although the province actually comprises several islands), a title it won three times before in 2013, 2016, and 2017. It also made Condé Nast 2020 and 2021 Readers Choice Best Islands in Asia list.

The businessmen’s citation said Alvarez capitalized on Palawan’s tourism potential and prioritized the implementation of infrastructure projects that directly shore up the local tourism industry.

“Before he took over, Palawan was averaging, maybe about 300,000 tourists a year. In his first term alone, we were already getting close to 2 million tourists a year, and every year the numbers were growing.

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‘Sagip Coron’ movement races vs time to stop reclamation, quarrying

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EOPLE of Palawan’s scenic Coron municipality, with support from environmentalists, are racing against time to stop what they called an illegal reclamation project, while addressing the grave ecological damage that they blamed on the implementation of its first two phases.

The concerned groups mounted at the last Earth Day (April 22) a tree-planting activity to restore parts of a mangrove forest that they said was among the casualties of reclamation, along with precious marine life forms and habitat. One of those involved in the Sagip Coron Movement, Marion Raagas, said the reforestation was suggested by no less than President Duterte when stakeholders raised the matter with him recently.

Also on Earth Day, the residents, including farmers, fishermen and the indigenous community of Tagbanuas, also had a townhall meeting hosted by long-time Coron resident Bob Magallanes.

The group’s March 22 meeting with President Duterte was followed by two events: the formation of a task force, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to assess the situation; and the issuance by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) of a cease and desist order addressed to Palawan’s provincial government to stop the reclamation until conditions set by the PRA for the project are complied with.

The CDO, signed by PRA General Manager and CEO Atty. Janilo E. Rubiato, told the provincial gov-

ernment to “immediately cease and desist from further undertaking reclamation activities until all governmental requirements and conditions have been fully complied with, including but not limited to the conditions of the Notice to Proceed issued by the PRA, foremost of which is the requirement of an Area Clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.”

The PNP and NBI were directed to assist the PRA in enforcing its CDO. The Sagip Coron leaders said the PRA letter, however, smacked of acceptance of a fait accompli— that, despite what they deem the “illegality” of pushing through the reclamation’s second phase—the PRA’s CDO merely allows proponents to proceed with it nonetheless after “curing” their acts instead of penalizing them for their alleged lapses.

Meanwhile, the Sagip Coron movement is finalizing a petition to be signed by 22,222 people, seeking a stop to the project, citing the huge ecological damage to sea grass, marine life forms and mangroves.

They have invited a team of renowned marine biologists to conduct an assessment of the damage, and render a report which they will share with DENR. Leaders of the group claimed their petition-signing efforts, meanwhile, are being “blocked” by former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, whose firm is said to be a contractor of the project’s privatesector proponents.

Lourdes M. Fernandez

OFWs can use Comelec Precinct Finder, too

E

VEN overseas Filipino workers (OFW) will be able to make use of the newly launched precinct finder of the Commission on Elections.

In its Facebook page, the Comelec Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) disclosed registered voters aboard will be able to check their designated embassy and consulate.

Likewise, they could also find out if their voting status is still active and they could still participate in the ongoing 2022 overseas absentee voting (OAV).

Comelec’s Precinct Finder finally went online again last Friday after being suspended since 2016.

The precinct finder can be accessed at https://voterverifier. comelec.gov.ph/voter_precinct.

After opening the link, the user will be asked if they are a local or overseas voter. They will then be asked their name and place of registration.

The web site will then provide the voter’s complete name, place of registration, polling place and voter registration status.

To note, Comelec temporarily stopped the operation of its precinct finder after its web site was defaced in 2016.

It sought the assistance of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to make sure the incident will no longer happen again.

The OAV started last April 10 and will last until May 9, 2022.

Last week, Comelec noted that it was able to register a 30 percent voter turnout in the ongoing activity.

Around 1.7 million voters abroad are eligible to participate in the ongoing OAV. Samuel P. Medenilla

Companies

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Monday, April 25, 2022

B1

Top PHL energy firms keen on tapping offshore wind

By Lenie Lectura

P

@llectura

ower firms are heeding the call of the Department of Energy (DOE) to explore opportunities in the country’s offshore wind industry following last week’s release of the Philippines Offshore Wind Roadmap, which is seen to bring in as much as 40 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind installations by 2050.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) President Ramon Ang said in a text message that the conglomerate’s power business will do its part to help the country develop offshore wind projects. He affirmed that the group has already identified potential sites.

SMC’s power unit, SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMCGP), is adding more renewables into its power portfolio as it veers away from building new coal power facilities, despite new technologies that make them cleaner. Ang said this company direction is in line with all the major sustainability initiatives that the conglomerate has undertaken these past couple of years.

SMCGP plays a pivotal role in serving as one of the biggest power suppliers in the country through its combined installed capacity of 4,697megawatts (MW).

While offshore wind power projects take longer to develop compared to solar power projects, AC Energy Corp. (ACEN) is interested to add more wind power in its portfolio.

“Yes, we’re keen to explore offshore wind opportunities in the country. Developing off shore wind will require long lead time, but hopefully we see the first projects to come

to fruition within the decade,” said ACEN President Eric Francia in an interview.

ACEN has over 3,800 MW of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia. The company’s renewable share of capacity is at 87 percent, among the highest in the region.

It wants to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 5,000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025.

Aboitiz Power Corp. will also pursue wind power projects as these form part of the company’s goal of accelerating its renewable energy aspirations.

In the next 10 years, Aboitiz Power will significantly expand its Cleanergy portfolio, in support of the government’s efforts to promote renewable energy in the country. It plans to build an additional 3,700 MW of renewable energy, growing its existing Cleanergy capacity threefold by 2030.

“While still in the works, I would say we, at Aboitiz Power, intends to actively and aggressively participate in this space,” said company president Emmanuel Rubio in a text message.

He said that gathering of data is crucial to ensure viability of identified sites. “Critical also is to have a full understanding of how these sites can be connected to grid. NGCP [National Grid Corporation of the Philippines] needs to be part of this endeavor to ensure these sites are connected to the grid,” he added.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and World Bank Group (WBG) released last week the roadmap, which stated that the Philippines has a potential to install 21GW of offshore wind power by 2040, making up 21 percent of its electricity supply, under the high growth scenario.

Based on a low-growth scenario, the country has the potential to install 3 GW of offshore wind by 2040, representing 3 percent of the country’s power supply.

The potential offshore wind development sites are in Northwest Luzon, Manila, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Guimaras, among others.

Potential for offshore wind

The WB said these areas would be able to provide all the 20 GW capacity envisioned under the high-growth scenario up to 2040, with the potential to provide as much as 40 GW capacity by 2050.

“The Philippines’s waters have conditions that are well-suited to offshore wind. This abundant, indigenous energy resource offers an opportunity for the Philippines to boost energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase renewable energy supply,” said Ndiame Diop, World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

To achieve these scenarios, the roadmap provides guidance on actions that must be taken by the government--putting in place a longterm plan for offshore wind until 2050 as part of a decarbonized energy mix; establishing offshore wind

development zones through further marine spatial planning; investment in transmission, port and other energy infrastructure upgrades; increasing collaboration with industry and other relevant government agencies; among others.

“The Philippines has a rapidly growing demand for power. It is clear from this roadmap that offshore wind can play a major role in meeting our country’s energy demand indigenously, while also accelerating decarbonization,” said Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi.

The roadmap is one of a series of offshore wind roadmap studies commissioned by the WBG under the joint Energy Sector Management Assistance Program-International Finance Corp. (ESMAPIFC) Offshore Wind Development Program.

The WBG has been working closely with the DOE to prepare this firstof-its-kind roadmap, which aims to tap the country’s 178GW offshore wind potential.

During the launch of the roadmap, Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said the agency has received numerous interests and applications in offshore wind from the private sector.

The DOE, he added, engaged public and private sectors through focus group discussions conducted in the first quarter of 2022, to ensure an efficient and coherent permitting process for our private stakeholders.

“One of the next steps we are taking to build the Philippines’s Offshore Wind Industry is a high-level technical study on a representative offshore wind project that could be delivered before 2030.

It describes all of the main activities that a developer will need to undertake to develop and construct a project and, importantly, how these actions relate to the government’s actions and the roadmap’s recommendations,” said Fuentebella.

Villar Group to list 3 firms on PSE

By VG Cabuag @villygc

T

ycoon Manuel B. Villar Jr. will list at least three firms on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) this year.

These firms are Vista Reit Inc. (VREIT), its real estate investment trust; The Coffee Project Inc., its brand of coffee shops and restaurants; and Siquijor Island Power Corp. (SIPCor), a small power utility.

The founder and chairman of the Villar Group said he is currently awaiting the approval for the P9.13billion initial public offering (IPO) of VREIT, a company sponsored by Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc. VREIT, which has already submit-

ted its papers to the Securities and Exchange Commission, is planning to offer up to 3.33 billion secondary common shares at a maximum offer price of up to P2.50 per offer share, with an overallotment option of up to 333.75 million secondary common shares. Its shares will be listed for trading at the PSE. The company will have an initial portfolio of 10 community shopping malls and two PEZA-registered office buildings with an aggregate gross leasable area of 256,404 square meters.

Next in line will be Villar’s small power utilities group SIPCor which has two small power plants in Siquijor and Camotes islands in the Visayas with an existing capacity of

15-megawatts This will be immediately followed by the Villar’s coffee and restaurant businesses which will be consolidated into The Coffee Project prior to its planned IPO before the end of the year.

Villar said the company is targeting to have 200 The Coffee Project branches by the time its IPO is launched, from about 100 branches.

He said not all the branches will be under The Coffee Project brand as there are new restaurant brands and concepts that will be incorporated into the portfolio before the IPO. “If you look at my restaurants, there are all new and have coffeebased concepts. For example my Bread Basket, it’s also like a coffee

shop. Even my bar is like a coffee bar,” said Villar.

Villar said his coffee and restaurant businesses are very profitable and even have higher price points than Starbucks, a brand being operated locally by the Tantoco family.

Operating cost is also lower than casual dining restaurants since they do not have waiters and customers will have to order and pay at the counter, he said.

Villar said The Coffee Project IPO should raise more than P1 billion.

“I would not be listing if I will raise only P1 billion.”

At the moment, the Villar Group has four PSE-listed companies, mostly in property development and retail.

Regulators penalize DITO, Chinabank for cancelled SRO

R

egulators have penalized DITO CME Holdings Corp., the country’s third telecommunications company led by Davao businessman Dennis Uy, for the cancellation of its P8-billion stock rights offer (SRO) days before its listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in January.

The PSE has also penalized its underwriter, China Bank Capital Corp.

(Chinabank).

The regulator did not expound on the extent of penalty, but the violations are more serious since it involved both the Securities Regulation Code and the disclosure rules of the PSE. The PSE’s table of fines listed was only for structured reports and unstructured disclosures.

DITO angered regulators earlier this year after it deferred the SRO, which allows current shareholders to buy additional common shares of the company, some four days before its

listing date on February 4.

The company deferred the deal even after it received all the necessary regulatory approvals and shareholders have already purchased the stocks. The said cancellation sent shockwaves among the equities trading industry as it has never been done before.

DITO said it had to stop the SRO due “to the less than ideal market conditions and other perceived risks”.

“Even if it does not sell, the underwriter has a firm commitment to pick up those shares,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said earlier.

DITO was offering a total of 1.64 billion common shares, priced at P4.88 per share. The offer price is an 18.4 percent discount from the closing price as of January 13 and was set at the bottom of its indicative price range.

The company’s share price was last traded at P5.07 apiece. VG Cabuag

Spectrum: Solar rooftop to cut Avon’s emissions

A

wholly-owned subsidiary of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has put up a 626.4 kilowatt-peak (kWp) solar rooftop for Avon Philippines’ manufacturing plant in Calamba, Laguna.

The recently completed solar installation has since generated approximately 255,300 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy thereby reducing Avon’s carbon footprint by approximately 160 tons.

The solar rooftop project is expected to generate about 841,100 kWh clean energy on its first full year of operations, translating to 599 tons of carbon footprint reduced or 329,315 trees planted. “As a Meralco company, we are fully committed to make our solutions accessible and affordable to our customers while upholding the highest standards and quality control measures providing our partners with safe and reliable solar solutions. We hope that this will be the first of many solar installations to come for Avon as we push forward to Powering the Good Life,” said Spectrum Chief Operations Officer Patrick Henry T. Panlilio.

Prior to this partnership with Spectrum, Meralco has already been supporting the power requirements of Avon Philippines as an enterprise

customer. The power distributor assisted Avon in its shift as a contestable customer under the Retail Competition and Open Access in 2013, allowing the global cosmetics company to negotiate its electricity rates with its preferred supplier.

Avon joins the roster of international and local companies that engaged Meralco and Spectrum to be part of their sustainability journey.

Spectrum offers tailor-fit solutions for industrial, commercial, and residential customers through an in-depth understanding of energy consumption behaviors and strategic partnerships with world-class technology partners.

The solar rooftop project forms part of Avon Global’s efforts to become a more sustainable company by reducing its environmental impact and improving its operational efficiency. With the benefits expected from its first solar project, Avon intends to replicate this initiative locally and globally.

Avon, which has been operating in the Philippines for 44 years and globally for over 135 years, along with Natura & Co., has embarked on a 2030 Commitment to Life sustainability journey through which it targets to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. Lenie Lectura

Court orders arrest of Yanson siblings T

he Bacolod Regional Trial Court has issued a warrant of arrest against the four Yanson siblings in connection with the qualified theft case filed against them by their mother’s camp.

“No bail recommended and bring him/her/them forthwith before me to be dealt with according to law,” the order said, signed by Judge Ana Celeste P. Bernad.

The Yanson Four are believed to be overseas since the start of the pandemic.

The court required the police officers to use at least one body-worn camera and one alternative recording device, or a minimum of two devices as necessary to capture and record the execution of the warrant of arrest.

In an order dated March 15, the court denied the motion to dismiss the warrant of arrest against the four siblings.

A regional trial court in Bacolod City ordered law enforcers to arrest four Yanson siblings for qualified theft in connection with the theft last

August 2019 of company properties and assets. The Yanson Four tried to take over the control and management of Vallacar Transit Inc., a firm under the Yanson Group, in July 2019.

They also faced warrants of arrest for several crimes, such as nonbailable carnapping in criminal case before Regional Trial Court Bacolod Branch 53 and grave coercion in case being handled by the Metropolitan Trial Court-Bacolod Branch 7.

Records showed that when the management led by their sibling Leo

Rey Yanson and mother Olivia Yanson retook possession of Vallacar Transit’s main office in Bacolod City in August 2019, various office equipment, computers, documents, titles and other important papers were missing.

Upon the investigation of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Negros Occidental, it discovered that these properties were taken by Yanson Four to the compound of Ceres Premium Foods Corp., a company controlled by Emily Yanson. VG Cabuag

COURTESY CALL Members of the Board of Advisors of the Security and Safety Manage-

ment Group (SSMG) of the ALC Group of Companies (ALCGC) paid a courtesy visit to the Police Community Precinct (PCP) 3 of the Manila Police District on April 7, 2022, as part of routine coordination for police assistance on security and safety concerns of ALCGC establishments within the PCP area of jurisdiction. Shown in the photo are (l-r) SSMG Advisors Ferdinand Agripa, Malu Santos, Gen. Emmanuel Carta (Ret. PNP), Police Executive Master Sergeant Carlos Chiu, Police Staff Sergeant (PSSg) Robert Dela Rosa, PSSg Joefrey Magat, SSMG Advisors Col. Matt Montefalcon (Ret. PNP), and Mary Elaine Nachor.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, April 25, 2022

‘War in Europe, Shanghai lockdown may affect ICTSI’

B

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

illionaire Enrique K. Razon Jr. said port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is ready to face the challenges brought about by the lockdown in China and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

“This is similar to what happened during the early stages of the pandemic when we see a lockdown in China, we had accumulated rolling effect in congestion in terminals all over the world.

And in our case in Mexico,” Razon said.

He said the company is facing the same situation with the lockdown in Shanghai port, the world’s biggest seaport.

Razon also said the company is now seeing the impact of the con-

flict in Eastern Europe on trade.

He said new challenges could arise due to the change in the security order in Europe.

“Just as the pandemic seems to be waning so far, new challenges emerge as war clouds engulf Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We seem to be in a global cycle of one crisis after another.

Although the war is mainly a European affair, we can all expect to feel the impact globally in terms of the global economy, stability

and security,” Razon said.

ICTSI will spend $330 million in capital expenditures for the year, mainly to extend its concession and expand in its facilities.

Razon said during the company’s stock holders’ meeting the money will be spent mainly to pay the concession extension upfront fees for the Madagascar International Container Terminal Services Ltd. It will also finance the expansion of its flagship Manila International Container Terminal in the Philippines, Matadi Gateway Terminal IDRC in Congo, Victoria International Container Terminal in Australia and Contecon Manzanillo S.A. de C.V. in Mexico.

“We are confident of the performance of ICTSI going forward, but we are mindful of the challenges we face with these global events,” he added.

mutual funds

April 22, 2022 NAV

Share prices managed to eke out some gains last week but the main index remained at the 6,900-point level as investors decided to cash in on their gains.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 13.69 points to close at 6,998.59 points.

The main index was up for the three straight trading days, but investors decided to sell late in the week still on fears of the speculated 50-basis point increase in the rates of the US Federal Reserve.

Average trading for the week was low at P4.57 billion, with foreign investors taking in almost half of the trades but were net sellers at P814.96 million.

All other sub-indices were mixed with the broader All Shares index falling 4.98 points to close at 3,721.60 points, the Financials index gained 31.92 to 1,685.37, the Industrial index declined 208.69 to 9,245.12, the Holding Firms index dropped 12.44 to 6,558.20, the Property index retreated 8.38 to 3,213.06, the Services index rose 29.98 to 1,957.09 and the Mining and Oil index climbed 442.14 to 12,659.75.

For the week, losers slightly edge gainers 115 to 109 and 25 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers were F & J Prince Holdings Corp. A and B shares, Asiabest Group International Inc., SFA Semicon Philippines Corp., Manila Mining Corp. B, Nickel Asia Corp. and Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. A and B. Top losers, meanwhile, were GMA Network Inc., Prime Media Holdings Inc., CTS Global Equity Group Inc. Concrete Aggregates Corp. B, Pacific Online Systems Corp., Vantage Equities Inc. and Lopez Holdings Corp.

This week

Trading may remain volatile this week as investor sentiment has been tilted to the downside for months due to prevailing market uncertainties.

Broker 2TradeAsia said investors are readying to move their assets to much higher yielding instruments, such as bonds and fixed-income papers when the Fed announces its rate hike by next month.

“Amid convoluted uncertainties on the macro front that may linger over the next few weeks, attention may shift to sector or company-specific stories in line with first quarter earnings releases,” it said.

Large cap firms will report this week its earnings including Manila Electric Co., Wilcon Depot Inc., Aboitiz Power Corp. and AC Energy Corp.

“Continuity of 2021 momentum in earnings terms will be the usual gauge, but there will be heavy emphasis on capital allocation strategies over the next one to two years, given the elevated cost of capital,” it said.

The broker advised to listen to various shareholders meetings and first quarter earnings reports this week for prospects at a granular level.

Stock picks

Broker Regina Capital Development Corp. gave a buy rating on the stock of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) as its price has not moved despite its relatively wider spread over the past few sessions.

“It keeps gravitating toward the P865 support, which has held strong for the past month. Indicators are all supportive of sideways movement still, with a slight downward bias,” it said. “This too-long cooldown should manifest into something within the next few days, but any gains would likely be capped at P900,” it said.

Shares of SMIC closed last week at P869 apiece.

Meanwhile, it gave a buy recommendation when its support price holds for the stock of SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH) as the stock rallied for four straight days last week, pulling back from the P38.20 resistance, which the broker said was a warranted correction.

“We fully expect the support at its 100-day moving average of P36.50 to hold, considering there does not seem to be an overcoming amount of selling pressure,” it said.

“The stock’s technical reading is also indicative of a potential minimal bull run that could occur anytime until the end of the month. There’s an attractive upside potential should one be able to position closer to SMPH’s support. It is currently at the lower band of its sideways trading range between P36 to P40.”

SM Prime closed Friday at P36.05 per share. VG Cabuag

One Year Three Year Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

226.57

9.4%

-4.64%

-2.96%

-2.8%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.5225

17.43%

-1.6%

0.73%

-8.51%

10.43%

-8.35%

-5.53%

-2.94%

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.745 2.56%

-7.28% n.a.

-1.52%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6934 1.87%

-7.06% n.a.

-10.05%

First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a

5.0823

First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

Last week

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

11.61%

-2.26%

-0.69%

-1.94%

0.7591

16.07%

-4.39%

-4.06%

-12.31% n.a.

-8.8%

86.12

-11.74%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

46.5202

9.65%

-3.4%

-1.51%

-3.34%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

486.32

9.18%

-3.4%

-1.71%

-2.87%

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.3641

25.02%

1.5%

1.57%

0.58%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

35.812

12.32%

-2.31%

-0.24%

-2.14%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.9226

11.79%

-3.58% n.a.

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.8213

10.94%

-2.64%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

801.78

10.3%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7258

9.95%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.6322

-2%

-0.83%

-2.81%

-2.76%

-0.9%

-3.22%

-7.72%

-3.75%

-3.56%

10.14%

-5.39%

-2.17%

-3.8%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.9131

9.96%

-3.08%

-1.17%

United Fund, Inc. -a

9.79%

-3.22%

0.04%

-2.42%

3.3542

-3.09%

-3.32%

Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a

1.1782

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

978.26 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

15.32% n.a. n.a.

1.33%

Exchange Traded Fund (shares) First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 108.1724

10.9%

-2.49%

-0.47%

-2.96%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) $0.9798

-22.38%

-2.2%

1.29%

-13.02%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.663

ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

-4.91%

8.76%

8.66%

-9.93%

Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (shares) ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a

1.6204

-0.19%

-1.78%

-1.44%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.2103

2.85%

-1.39%

-0.92%

-3.12%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.649

6.34%

0.35%

0.87%

-1.56%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.2065 NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

1.9786

4.71%

-4.23%

10.19% n.a. n.a.

1.2%

1.17%

-1.89%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.6648

3.75%

0.08%

-0.03%

-2.66%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.421

3.68%

-0.17%

-0.07%

-2.52%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0862

5.25%

-0.74%

-0.22%

-1.66%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.5431 5.51%

-2.54%

-0.75%

-2.85%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

-1.55%

-0.27%

-2.76%

0.9279

11.92%

-1.2%

Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a

0.9427

-1.39%

-1.61% n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a

0.9055

5.35%

-2.89% n.a.

-4.76% -4.13%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a

0.895

6.12%

-3.21% n.a.

-4.17%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a

$0.03432

-9.85%

-1.58%

-0.71%

$0.9887

-13.82%

-0.54%

1.13%

-7.35%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.3504 -6.56%

5.37%

5.8%

-9.41%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,2 $1.0889 -8.13%

1.24%

2%

-9.15%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

-9.54%

Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (shares) 373.39

0.83%

2.41%

2.41%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.888

-1.22%

0.1%

0.15%

0.18%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.238

0.55%

2.4%

3.56%

-0.18%

2.2068

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

-0.24%

-2%

0.75%

1.08%

-1.99%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4156 -0.63%

2.34%

1.78%

-0.43%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.2768

-4.01%

2.08%

1.08%

-2.7%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3176

-0.06%

3.29%

2.8%

-0.11%

3.92

-0.96%

2.92%

2.45%

-1.15%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0126

-1.59%

3.35%

1.85%

-1.52%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1614

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

-0.67%

3.18%

3%

-0.82%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-1.34%

2.41%

2.31%

-0.98%

1.7137

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$483.27

-0.02%

2.12%

2.01%

-1.29%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є214.82

-2.28%

-0.16%

0.38%

-2.36%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.0868

-7.68%

-9.73%

-2.32%

-0.55%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0247 -4.63%

-0.53%

-0.16%

-5%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

-12.69%

-4.49%

-2.96%

-9.81%

$2.2844

-7.98%

0.5%

0.66%

-8.83%

$0.0610884

-2.51%

1.7%

1.41%

-1.93%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $2.836 -9.62%

-1.41%

-0.92%

-11.27%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a

$0.9225

Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (shares) ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

131.64

1.3%

2.46%

2.53%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

1.0613

1.03%

1.73% n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.3218

1.52%

2.31%

2.5%

0.34% 0.34%

0.47%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0625

0.64%

1.26% n.a.

0.18%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a

45.7598 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a 1.3257

8.35% n.a. n.a.

-4.14%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (units) ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a

$0.9018

-9.82% n.a. n.a.

-7.03%

a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

1 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last July 8, 2021 (formerly, Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc.).

2 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last November 25, 2021.

"While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to the correctness of the newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www. pifa.com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

April 22, 2022

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

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

43.8 134.9 12.22 98.65 26.95 7.96 54.75 8.6 18.94 56.8 106.5 82.05 1.94 3.65 2.26 0.83 0.29 204

43.85 135 12.26 99 27.05 7.97 55.4 8.8 19 57.3 106.8 82.5 2.1 3.85 2.6 0.9 0.325 205

43.7 134.7 12.22 100 27 8 55.85 8.79 19.1 57 107.8 83.8 2.09 3.62 2.61 0.85 0.29 205

43.85 137.5 12.36 100 27.2 8 55.85 8.8 19.1 57.3 107.8 83.8 2.09 3.85 2.61 0.85 0.325 205

43.7 134.4 12.22 98 26.95 7.97 54.5 8.7 18.94 56 106.4 82 2.09 3.62 2.61 0.85 0.29 203

43.85 135 12.22 99 27.05 7.97 55.4 8.8 18.94 57.3 106.5 82.05 2.09 3.84 2.61 0.85 0.325 204

2,500 4,466,940 809,600 840,290 98,300 244,300 867,020 3,000 78,300 770 194,480 31,450 50,000 6,000 3,000 1,000 130,000 1,510

109,500 606,957,848 9,924,296 83,263,788 2,656,695 1,948,633 47,842,944.50 26,282 1,487,096 43,755 20,731,077 2,615,796 104,500 22,430 7,830 850 38,050 307,450

INDUSTRIAL

AC ENERGY 8.2 8.25 8.42 8.5 8.15 8.2 8,322,800 69,071,699 ALSONS CONS 1.01 1.03 1.01 1.01 1.01 1.01 10,000 10,100 ABOITIZ POWER 34 34.1 34.95 35.2 34 34 2,005,700 68,832,460 BASIC ENERGY 0.4 0.405 0.4 0.405 0.395 0.405 1,230,000 489,600 FIRST GEN 25.25 25.35 25.15 25.3 25.15 25.3 44,600 1,127,655 FIRST PHIL HLDG 70 70.55 70 70.55 70 70 1,280 89,616.50 MERALCO 340 341 351 355 340 340 379,670 130,502,022 MANILA WATER 19.2 19.5 19.52 19.52 19.16 19.2 303,800 5,851,880 PETRON 3.31 3.32 3.3 3.31 3.26 3.31 481,000 1,581,840 PETROENERGY 4.91 5.05 5.04 5.05 5.04 5.05 59,000 297,680 PHX PETROLEUM 9.91 10.2 10.2 10.2 10.2 10.2 10,000 102,000 SYNERGY GRID 12.7 12.72 12.8 12.8 12.66 12.7 644,900 8,197,940 PILIPINAS SHELL 17.6 17.7 17.74 17.74 17.58 17.6 368,500 6,485,646 SPC POWER 14.32 14.4 14.46 14.48 14.32 14.32 97,600 1,405,930 SOLAR PH 1.71 1.72 1.72 1.76 1.72 1.72 17,583,000 30,520,890 VIVANT 14.22 16.72 16.72 16.72 16.72 16.72 100 1,672 AGRINURTURE 4.5 4.53 4.64 4.64 4.5 4.53 427,000 1,977,520 AXELUM 2.5 2.59 2.49 2.59 2.49 2.59 185,000 475,150 CENTURY FOOD 22.5 22.55 22.65 22.7 22.3 22.5 1,359,600 30,587,915 DEL MONTE 14.3 14.48 14.22 14.48 14.22 14.48 6,300 90,044 DNL INDUS 7.25 7.26 7.35 7.35 7.26 7.26 951,700 6,930,654 EMPERADOR 18.34 18.36 18 18.38 17.98 18.34 2,476,700 45,253,232 SMC FOODANDBEV 62.2 62.8 62.8 62.8 62.2 62.8 19,190 1,197,498.50 FIGARO COFFEE 0.55 0.56 0.55 0.56 0.55 0.55 2,614,000 1,438,050 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.57 127,000 72,270 FRUITAS HLDG 1.1 1.12 1.13 1.13 1.11 1.12 4,401,000 4,921,530 GINEBRA 104.9 108.9 106.8 109 104.6 109 12,270 1,305,661 JOLLIBEE 219.8 220.8 224 224 218.6 219.8 825,920 182,034,416 KEEPERS HLDG 1.3 1.31 1.32 1.32 1.3 1.3 4,996,000 6,498,770 LIBERTY FLOUR 20.95 23.75 24.85 24.85 23.8 23.8 200 4,865 MAXS GROUP 6.18 6.22 6.22 6.22 6.18 6.18 63,400 392,550 MG HLDG 0.131 0.135 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 20,000 2,600 MONDE NISSIN 13.1 13.16 13.4 13.5 13 13.1 3,223,000 42,352,188 SHAKEYS PIZZA 8.45 8.55 8.45 8.5 8.44 8.5 140,700 1,194,100 ROXAS AND CO 0.59 0.61 0.61 0.61 0.61 0.61 276,000 168,360 RFM CORP 4.25 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 2,000 8,600 ROXAS HLDG 1.22 1.25 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22 1,000 1,220 UNIV ROBINA 111.4 112.2 113.9 115 111.3 111.4 1,840,600 206,928,904 VITARICH 0.66 0.67 0.66 0.67 0.66 0.67 156,000 103,920 VICTORIAS 2.9 2.97 2.98 2.98 2.98 2.98 3,000 8,940 CONCRETE A 45.45 47.95 45.35 45.45 45.35 45.45 200 9,080 CEMEX HLDG 0.83 0.84 0.82 0.84 0.82 0.83 479,000 395,680 EAGLE CEMENT 12.92 13.22 13.24 13.24 12.92 12.92 5,600 72,942 EEI CORP 4.73 4.75 4.83 4.83 4.72 4.75 222,000 1,050,700 HOLCIM 5.49 5.5 5.54 5.54 5.49 5.5 130,500 718,330 MEGAWIDE 5.06 5.11 5.08 5.15 5.05 5.11 67,200 341,450 PHINMA 19.72 19.74 19.72 19.72 19.6 19.72 5,001,100 98,621,680 TKC METALS 0.75 0.78 0.78 0.78 0.74 0.74 118,000 89,310 VULCAN INDL 0.98 0.99 1 1 0.99 0.99 2,086,000 2,073,020 CROWN ASIA 1.79 1.83 1.84 1.84 1.83 1.83 11,000 20,220 EUROMED 1.11 1.14 1.12 1.12 1.1 1.11 7,000 7,740 MABUHAY VINYL 4.23 4.41 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 3,000 12,900 PRYCE CORP 5.65 5.66 5.66 5.66 5.66 5.66 1,500 8,490 CONCEPCION 19.18 19.2 19.2 19.2 19.2 19.2 17,400 334,080 GREENERGY 1.55 1.56 1.56 1.59 1.55 1.56 14,606,000 22,786,890 INTEGRATED MICR 7.6 7.62 7.69 7.69 7.6 7.62 112,400 856,083 PANASONIC 6.12 6.32 6.3 6.32 6.11 6.32 5,300 33,180 SFA SEMICON 1.12 1.17 1.17 1.17 1.15 1.17 41,000 47,750 CIRTEK HLDG 3.13 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.11 3.13 188,000 595,800

HOLDING & FRIMS

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.1427

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK

ICTSI had a profit last year of $428.83 million, up 321 percent from $101.85 million in 2020.

Revenues reached $1.87 billion, up 24 percent from the previous year’s $1.5 billion, as the company facilitated the movements of 11.16 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU) cargos last year.

The company said its equity in net loss of joint ventures was “practically reduced to zero” compared to a $12.27-million loss in 2020 mainly due to the company’s share in higher net income in Manila North Harbour Port Inc. and lower net loss at Sociedad Puerto Industrial Aguadulce S.A. in 2021.

Last year, ICTSI recognized additiona l non-recur r ing impairment charges on other nonfinancial assets and charges associated with the prepayment of a $16.74-million loan facility for Victoria Terminal.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FJ PRINCE A FJ PRINCE B GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT KEPPEL HLDG A LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP TOP FRONTIER ZEUS HLDG

1.11 4.8 756 55.8 12.1 9 0.93 0.55 4.88 8.75 6.95 2.43 2.58 515 56.65 7 0.51 2.94 8.81 3.84 1.25 0.85 865 106.5 114 0.17

1.12 4.94 763 56.85 12.38 9.23 0.97 0.56 4.9 8.78 7.14 2.64 3.74 520 57 7.24 0.54 3 8.84 3.86 1.28 0.88 869 107.5 118 0.174

1.12 4.84 783 56 12.2 9 0.96 0.57 4.9 8.7 7.14 2.63 3.74 528 57.45 7.1 0.54 3.03 8.83 3.85 1.28 0.9 866 107 114 0.17

1.13 5 783 56.85 12.38 9 0.96 0.57 4.9 8.82 7.14 2.63 3.74 528 58.05 7.2 0.54 3.04 8.87 3.89 1.28 0.9 869 107.5 118 0.17

1.11 4.84 755.5 55.55 12.08 9 0.96 0.55 4.87 8.65 7.14 2.26 3.74 515 56.6 7 0.54 2.94 8.79 3.83 1.25 0.88 858 106.4 114 0.17

1.12 4.95 756 56.85 12.38 9 0.96 0.56 4.9 8.78 7.14 2.58 3.74 515 57 7 0.54 2.94 8.84 3.86 1.26 0.88 869 107.5 118 0.17

2,172,000 8,000 216,470 853,400 1,107,700 2,000 5,000 3,457,000 889,000 2,382,000 1,000 26,000 2,000 59,610 2,303,460 3,100 1,000 211,000 2,223,500 8,749,000 134,000 177,000 300,700 170,210 600 60,000

2,429,310 39,450 164,740,740 48,139,509.50 13,475,906 18,000 4,800 1,911,800 4,353,220 20,838,345 7,140 63,780 7,480 30,800,065 132,082,022.50 22,180 540 622,930 19,632,550 33,752,140 168,640 156,740 259,837,140 18,290,152 68,800 10,200

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.56 0.58 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 10,000 5,600 ANCHOR LAND 5 5.91 5.01 5.01 5 5 2,000 10,016 AYALA LAND 34.6 34.8 35.3 35.3 34.4 34.8 15,188,300 528,218,410 AYALA LAND LOG 4.71 4.74 4.8 4.8 4.7 4.7 586,000 2,781,320 ARANETA PROP 1.04 1.12 1.12 1.12 1.12 1.12 12,000 13,440 AREIT RT 43.75 43.85 43.65 43.85 43.65 43.85 203,600 8,918,620 A BROWN 0.85 0.87 0.86 0.86 0.85 0.85 27,000 23,000 CITYLAND DEVT 0.71 0.72 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.71 1,000 710 CROWN EQUITIES 0.093 0.094 0.093 0.094 0.093 0.094 270,000 25,220 CEB LANDMASTERS 2.9 2.91 2.83 2.9 2.8 2.9 1,496,000 4,293,020 CENTURY PROP 0.4 0.41 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 20,000 8,000 CITICORE RT 2.6 2.61 2.62 2.62 2.6 2.6 882,000 2,299,590 DOUBLEDRAGON 8.79 8.8 8.84 8.91 8.8 8.8 40,500 357,130 DDMP RT 1.56 1.57 1.56 1.58 1.55 1.57 2,572,000 4,000,000 DM WENCESLAO 6.89 6.9 6.9 6.9 6.9 6.9 20,400 140,760 EVER GOTESCO 0.243 0.249 0.249 0.249 0.243 0.243 870,000 212,480 FILINVEST RT 7.34 7.37 7.35 7.38 7.33 7.37 2,157,500 15,864,180 FILINVEST LAND 1.05 1.06 1.05 1.06 1.05 1.05 9,685,000 10,196,280 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.89 0.91 0.89 0.89 0.89 0.89 1,000 890 8990 HLDG 13.02 13.04 13.66 13.68 13.04 13.04 911,300 12,064,140 GOLDEN MV 613 636.5 613 636.5 613 636.5 430 273,225 PHIL INFRADEV 0.92 0.98 0.92 0.92 0.92 0.92 35,000 32,200 CITY AND LAND 0.84 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85 1,000 850 MEGAWORLD 2.93 2.95 2.97 2.98 2.93 2.95 3,436,000 10,118,710 MRC ALLIED 0.221 0.222 0.222 0.224 0.222 0.222 2,900,000 645,400 MREIT RT 17.72 17.74 17.9 17.9 17.64 17.74 1,239,800 21,985,622 PRIMEX CORP 2.38 2.46 2.37 2.48 2.37 2.46 1,224,000 3,011,820 RL COMM RT 7.42 7.43 7.44 7.45 7.37 7.43 1,720,700 12,775,076 ROBINSONS LAND 19.74 19.96 19.78 19.96 19.72 19.96 457,200 9,072,434 ROCKWELL 1.37 1.43 1.38 1.38 1.37 1.37 55,000 75,410 SHANG PROP 2.51 2.6 2.59 2.61 2.59 2.6 101,000 262,480 STA LUCIA LAND 2.78 2.89 2.87 2.89 2.87 2.89 40,000 115,040 SM PRIME HLDG 36.05 36.25 37.2 37.25 36 36.05 6,273,000 227,243,135 VISTA LAND 2.64 2.65 2.67 2.67 2.62 2.65 494,000 1,310,800

SERVICES ABS CBN 12.8 12.94 12.98 12.98 12.8 12.94 53,700 696,576 GMA NETWORK 14.1 14.14 14.54 14.54 14.04 14.1 2,458,600 34,817,390 GLOBE TELECOM 2,428 2,430 2,514 2,514 2,430 2,430 71,385 175,285,130 PLDT 1,896 1,900 1,904 1,904 1,872 1,900 111,960 212,446,520 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.043 0.044 0.044 0.045 0.043 0.043 154,700,000 6,731,000 CONVERGE 29.8 29.9 30.55 30.55 29.75 29.8 6,825,700 204,548,225 DFNN INC 2.69 2.78 2.75 2.8 2.68 2.8 89,000 240,380 DITO CME HLDG 5.02 5.07 5.1 5.11 5 5.07 3,640,800 18,406,620 NOW CORP 1.26 1.27 1.34 1.34 1.26 1.27 1,017,000 1,309,010 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.315 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.31 0.315 14,420,000 4,549,700 2GO GROUP 7.31 7.55 7.55 7.55 7.55 7.55 300 2,265 ASIAN TERMINALS 13.5 13.64 13.4 13.4 13.4 13.4 1,000 13,400 CHELSEA 1.5 1.52 1.49 1.53 1.48 1.52 328,000 495,040 CEBU AIR 46.2 46.5 46.75 46.75 46 46.2 154,000 7,124,955 INTL CONTAINER 222.2 225 223 226.6 222 225 975,420 218,849,018 MACROASIA 5.37 5.39 5.55 5.56 5.34 5.37 874,500 4,742,694 METROALLIANCE A 0.95 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 1,000 990 METROALLIANCE B 0.96 1.08 1.09 1.09 1.09 1.09 1,000 1,090 PAL HLDG 6.12 6.3 6.3 6.4 6.11 6.12 33,300 208,748 HARBOR STAR 0.65 0.66 0.65 0.66 0.65 0.66 31,000 20,450 DISCOVERY WORLD 1.76 1.93 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 7,000 12,600 WATERFRONT 0.44 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 10,000 4,500 FAR EASTERN U 532 541 540 540 530 530 380 201,500 IPEOPLE 7.44 7.5 7.44 7.7 7.44 7.7 2,300 17,377 STI HLDG 0.35 0.36 0.345 0.36 0.345 0.35 50,000 17,550 BLOOMBERRY 6.29 6.3 6.3 6.33 6.27 6.3 3,953,900 24,848,332 PACIFIC ONLINE 1.57 1.71 1.56 1.56 1.55 1.55 21,000 32,630 LEISURE AND RES 1.24 1.28 1.28 1.28 1.24 1.28 170,000 212,230 PH RESORTS GRP 0.98 1.02 0.99 1.01 0.97 1.01 659,000 649,170 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.45 0.455 0.46 0.46 0.45 0.455 1,490,000 678,400 PHILWEB 2.28 2.29 2.29 2.34 2.27 2.29 157,000 358,330 ALLDAY 0.43 0.435 0.44 0.44 0.43 0.435 3,020,000 1,313,150 ALLHOME 8.29 8.4 8.5 8.5 8.29 8.4 395,100 3,316,504 METRO RETAIL 1.42 1.43 1.4 1.42 1.4 1.42 642,000 909,910 PUREGOLD 36 36.1 36.3 36.95 35.8 36.1 637,800 23,028,170 ROBINSONS RTL 56.25 56.3 56 56.75 55.45 56.3 53,170 2,995,331.50 SSI GROUP 1.15 1.16 1.14 1.16 1.14 1.16 1,126,000 1,300,530 WILCON DEPOT 28.15 28.3 28.45 28.9 28.15 28.3 1,229,500 34,815,700 APC GROUP 0.24 0.244 0.24 0.24 0.24 0.24 40,000 9,600 MEDILINES 0.81 0.82 0.82 0.82 0.81 0.81 242,000 196,070 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.53 0.54 0.53 0.55 0.52 0.53 5,150,000 2,747,540

MINING & OIL ATOK 5.6 5.79 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 95,300 533,700 APEX MINING 1.71 1.72 1.74 1.74 1.71 1.71 862,000 1,480,660 ATLAS MINING 7.18 7.2 7.07 7.32 7.07 7.2 5,278,400 37,720,053 BENGUET A 7.21 7.4 7.42 7.42 7.2 7.4 74,800 551,336 BENGUET B 7.17 7.21 7.38 7.38 7.14 7.21 72,000 522,850 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.25 0.27 0.245 0.27 0.241 0.27 790,000 206,740 DIZON MINES 4.93 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.2 5.2 200 1,040 FERRONICKEL 2.84 2.85 2.88 2.9 2.84 2.84 4,807,000 13,685,920 GEOGRACE 0.182 0.201 0.202 0.202 0.175 0.182 130,000 23,720 LEPANTO A 0.145 0.146 0.148 0.148 0.146 0.146 5,300,000 777,700 LEPANTO B 0.145 0.146 0.146 0.146 0.146 0.146 1,100,000 160,600 MANILA MINING A 0.0099 0.011 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 800,000 8,000 MARCVENTURES 1.71 1.74 1.74 1.76 1.7 1.71 3,771,000 6,537,840 NIHAO 0.97 1.02 1.04 1.04 1.04 1.04 5,000 5,200 NICKEL ASIA 8.35 8.37 8.42 8.47 8.28 8.37 10,465,900 87,757,045 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.96 1 1 1 1 1 38,000 38,000 PX MINING 5.3 5.34 5.35 5.36 5.25 5.34 815,200 4,322,681 SEMIRARA MINING 30.7 30.8 30.8 31.2 30.2 30.8 1,459,800 44,777,360 ACE ENEXOR 16.42 16.88 16.18 16.98 16 16.88 332,900 5,522,630 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 2,800,000 32,000 ORNTL PETROL B 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 100,000 1,200 PHILODRILL 0.0091 0.0093 0.0091 0.0091 0.0091 0.0091 10,000,000 91,000 PXP ENERGY 4.85 4.86 4.84 4.87 4.83 4.86 165,000 799,030

PREFFERED AC PREF B1 505 514.5 514.5 514.5 514.5 514.5 10 5,145 ALCO PREF D 512 513 513 513 513 513 100 51,300 AC PREF B2R 502 509 502 509 502 509 110 55,360 CEB PREF 46.35 46.5 46.3 46.5 46.3 46.5 400 18,580 DD PREF 99.5 99.8 100.8 100.8 100 100 160 16,024 EEI PREF B 108 108.8 108.8 108.8 108 108 4,900 532,400 FGEN PREF G 102.7 105.5 105.5 105.5 105.5 105.5 80 8,440 PNX PREF 4 978 987 980 982 980 982 3,970 3,890,880 PCOR PREF 3A 1,056 1,057 1,056 1,057 1,056 1,057 3,130 3,308,310 SFI PREF 1.47 1.96 1.47 1.47 1.47 1.47 6,000 8,820 SMC PREF 2F 76.35 77.9 76.3 76.3 76.3 76.3 900 68,670

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 12.18 12.5 12.22 12.22 12.16 12.18 45,000 548,700 GMA HLDG PDR 13.2 13.46 13.6 13.6 13.2 13.2 53,000 710,226

WARRANTS TECH WARRANT 0.63 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.63 0.65 51,000 32,610

8,715 37,611,675 656,130 -31,319,522 108,000 -1,573,703 -6,310,976 3,796 -15,062,868 -91,217 264,400 -16,704,142 -19,621,045 -11,850 435,300 -12,600 -47,671,152 -3,473,212 614,600 -390,304 -589,614 -166,400 1,672 -1,872,550.00 7,694,835 -2,962,611 -2,635,640 213,243 8,250 -53,280 927,922 -99,842,782 5,098,520 10,540 -19,865,482 -13,256 -8,600 -131,595,674 -75,250 42,930 3,036 -98,600,000 -120,490 -26,880 -3,880,120 22,800 15,550 2,275,990 -89,169,610 -11,594,331 2,297,482 18,000 244,470 9,312,658 -18,778,835 -44,618,792.50 -602,350 -616,498 1,794,770 35,200 -92,797,375 -102,537 -44,860 -42,221,265.00 -119,730 -1,387,445 -710 -465,510 59,932 -65,590 9,226,853 -3,167,530 -4,246 -2,757,140 2,121,842 394,733 -3,310,274 -6,850 -83,105,510 -320,930 -16,528,520 43,283,385 4,300 -23,104,740 4,036,601.00 29,080 120,100 25,500 954,085 38,361,132 -79,228 1,800 3,600 1,646,869 -5,170 -22,750 -38,840 624,259 -9,832,340.00 -102,693.50 1,049,030 12,710,060 24,300 -82,120 -16,240 -37,870 480,100 -71,710 5,625,670 -21,900 85,000 46,756,515 -93,203.00 -3,264,740 -36,478 48,670 435,200 74,146 -3,250

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ALTUS PROP CTS GLOBAL HAUS TALK ITALPINAS MERRYMART XURPAS

16.3 0.99 1.14 0.9 1.76 0.305

16.5 1 1.15 0.93 1.77 0.315

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF

107

107.5

16.5 1 1.11 0.93 1.78 0.31

16.5 1.01 1.15 0.93 1.78 0.315

16.5 0.99 1.11 0.91 1.76 0.31

16.5 1 1.15 0.93 1.77 0.315

300 21,935,000 386,000 176,000 1,197,000 80,000

4,950 21,939,970 436,620 162,560 2,110,120 25,100

1,000,000 11,100 18,600 -26,450 -

109.2 109.2 107 107 14,160 1,525,278 388,776

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Banking&Finance

PNB bids out N. Harbour property, ICTSI bid wins

T

HE Philippine National Bank (PSE: PNB) successfully bid out a foreclosed property that is strategically located in the Manila Harbour Centre, a statement issued by the lender last April 23 read.

The winner of the competitive bidding is listed port operator, International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), the PNB said. The property is classified under “real and other properties acquired,” or ROPA; more commonly known as acquired properties by the bank.

“We were able to successfully complete the sale of this ROPA through a public sealed bidding process engaging the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC]. The winning bid is 3.68 billion pesos in cash,” PNB President and CEO Jose Arnulfo A. Veloso was quoted in the statement as saying.

“This transaction will monetize another low-revenue-generating foreclosed property, giving the bank additional financial resources that it can use to pursue its strategy and capture opportunities brought about by the recovering economy.”

The bank said it brought PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) International Ltd. in “to ensure an independent, transparent and competitive bidding that would be beneficial to PNB.” Supporting PWC in this transaction were PWC’s member-firm in the Philippines, Isla Lipana & Co. for bid administration and Cabrera & Co. for legal support.

The property is a 32,000-square

meter industrial lot and building within the Manila Harbour Centre Industrial zone in Tondo, Manila, with a minimum bid price of P3.2 billion or P100,000 per square meter.

A public sealed bidding was held on April 19, 2022. This public bidding was open to individuals, sole proprietorships, partnerships or corporations authorized by law to acquire properties in the Philippines.

Last year, PNB executed a property-for-share swap involving the 10-hectare PNB Financial Center along Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City, the PNB Makati Center in the Ayala central business district, as well as the foreclosed eight-hectare property at the corner of Buendia Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati City.

The bank reported approximately P34 billion in its books representing the difference between the fair value of P46.68 billion and the book value of P12.6 billion of the properties exchanged for shares of PNB Holdings Corp. Specifically, the change was reflected in the bank’s income statement in 2021, thereby strengthening its financial position as the transaction generated P10 billion additional capital, after the effects of the property dividends.

PNB’s profit soared to P31.7 billion at end-2021, 12 times higher than the P2.6-billion profit booked in 2020, as a property-for-share swap boosted the bank’s bottom line.

Review ‘anti-aging’ tack in microfinance–solons

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

T

HE Lacson-Sotto tandem will revisit, with the help of the central bank, the rules governing microfinance institutions with a view to scuttling “anti-age discrimination” policies against people whose membership is terminated on reaching 70.

Just because someone is approaching the twilight of his life doesn’t mean he could no longer be as productive as before, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said, after getting feedback from some groups he and running mate, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, met in their weekend sorties.

Lacson, a presidential candidate, decried some policies of financial institutions that were perceived to be rather discriminatory of senior citizens, and vowed to ask regulators, especially the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), to probe this.

Lacson discussed the issue when a 66-year-old woman opened up about her concerns of reaching the age of 70 during which, she said, she would start losing her benefits and other entitlements from a microfinance association where she has been a member of.

She informed senators about this problem when she attended the Lacson-led recent town hall meeting at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City, Rizal last April 22, where Sotto and their senatorial candidates Guillermo Eleazar and Minguita Padilla were also present.

“That is too discriminatory” Lacson said, questioning the policy.

“Why is it that when you get to 70 years old, you are automatically rendered unproductive? Like you are no longer useful?”

“Ina-assume nila pagdating mong 70-anyos baka wala ka nang capacity, wherewithal na magbayad sa inyong microfinance. Mali po ’yon.

Dapat tingnan natin ’yung kakayahan ng tao. Maski 80 years old at productive pa rin dapat huwag nating i-discriminate,” the presidential aspirant added.

[They are assuming that once you are 70 years old, you may no longer have the capacity or where-

withal to pay for your microfinance.

That’s wrong. We should look at the capability of the person. Even if he or she is 80 years old but remains productive, we should not discriminate.]

According to the woman, she is a stockholder at a microfinance outfit that extends loans and other financial services to individuals like her. However, her membership contract stated that once she reaches the age of 70, she can no longer borrow money, but can stay only as a member and a saver.

Lacson said he and Sotto told the woman they would see if they could still do something as incumbent senators to help her situation.

They are looking at the possibility of revisiting laws that govern microfinance institutions under the supervision of the BSP. “Maski ngayong senador pa lang kami bibisitahin po namin ’yang regulasyon na ‘yan o batas na ‘yan kung ito ba’y Central Bank regulation o kung ano man siyang regulasyon [na] dapat i-revisit,” Lacson assured.

[Even if we are only senators now, we will revisit some regulations or laws relevant to that, whether it’s a Central Bank regulation or whatever regulation we need to revisit.]

He assured that under his leadership, he would enforce an anti-age discrimination policy not only in terms of employment opportunities, but in other aspects that could negatively affect the quality of life of the seasoned members of our society.

“Dapat wala tayong dini-discriminate. Mali po ’yang ganyang patakaran. Tingnan natin po ’yung capacity, ’yung productivity, ’yung pagiging may kakayahan nung tao huwag ’yung edad,” Lacson underscored.

[We should not discriminate.

That policy (of denying benefits to senior citizens) is wrong. We should look at the capacity, the productivity, the ability of the person, not his or her age.]

Lacson and Sotto are both 73 years old, but are still of sound mind and body because of their healthy and active lifestyles. The presidential candidate noted that based on his last executive check-up, his doctor told him that his body age is 51 years old or 20 years younger.

BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Monday, April 25, 2022

B3

OFWs must use HDMF no. in paying monthly premiums

O

By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

VERSEAS Filipino workers (OFW) will now be required to provide their Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) membership ID number when using the online registration of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

The new requirement aims to make it more convenient for OFWs to pay their monthly Pag-IBIG premiums using the POEA’s Electronic Payment and Collection System (EPCS).

“The POEA shall now require all OFWs and aspiring OFWs to provide and encode their Pag-IBIG Member ID number [Pag-IBIG MID] in their eRegistration System account,” POEA

and Pag-IBIG said in Joint Advisory 1 (series of 2022).

The Pag-IBIG contribution will now be done during processing of the overseas employment certificate (OEC).

Under the joint issuance, jobseekers must also include their Pag-IBIG MID when applying for overseas employment using the EPCS.

The same requirement will also be imposed for OFWs, who have already been deployed abroad, the next time they log-in to the EPCS. OFWs could get their Pag-IBIG MID through the utilities of the POEA E-registration system and PagIBIG’s online service portal.

The POEA and Pag-IBIG completed their system integration for the new premium collection scheme last February.

“All licensed recruitment agencies, POEA frontline personnel and Philippine Overseas Labor Offices [POLOs] are requested to help disseminate, remind, and assist their OFW-clients regarding this joint advisory,” POEA and Pag-IBIG said.

Both agencies noted that ensuring OFWs are members of Pag-IBIG will be able to provide their clients with more savings and access to shelter.

Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees Chairman and Housing Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario reported last February that the agency achieved its highest-ever net income of P34.73

billion last year, marking the fifth consecutive year that the agency netted an income of over P30 billion.

Last year’s net income was higher by 9.5 percent than P31.71 billion in 2020 and also topped its previous record of P34.37 billion in 2019.

“Our members will directly benefit because we shall again go beyond what is required of us by declaring over 86 percent of our net income as dividends for their savings,” Del Rosario has said.

Under the Pag-IBIG Fund charter, the agency is required to declare at least 70 percent of its annual net income as dividends, which shall be credited proportionately to its members’ savings.

However, Del Rosario said the Pag-IBIG Fund management is recommending to set aside dividends worth P29.86 billion, equivalent to 86.56 percent of its net income as they wanted to give the utmost benefit to their members in the second year of the pandemic. With Bernadette Nicolas

BSP notes tightened loans for commercial real estate

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

T

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that banks are more averse in lending for commercial real estate purposes in the first quarter of the year.

In its quarterly report on the senior loan officers survey (SLOS), the central bank said it has recorded a net tightening of loan standards for commercial real estate loans (CRELs) In January to March this year.

This is the 25th consecutive quarter of net tightening of loan standards for CRELs. It is also consistent with the net tightening credit standards for enterprises during the

period under the diffusion index (DI) approach.

In the DI approach, a positive DI for credit standards indicates that the proportion of respondent banks that have tightened their credit standards exceeds those that eased which results in a so-called “net tightening” of lending standards.

The BSP said respondents identified the following key factors in the tightening of overall credit standards for CRELs: banks’ reduced tolerance for risk, a deterioration of borrowers’ profile, a less favorable economic outlook and stricter financial regulations.

In terms of specific credit standards, the net tightening of overall

loan standards for CRELs was associated with wider loan margins, reduced credit line sizes, stricter collateral requirements and loan covenants, rise in use of interest rate floors and shortened loan maturities.

For the second quarter of 2022, the BSP said while the majority of banks expect unchanged standards for CRELs based on the modal approach, the DI method reflected banks’ expectations of net tighter credit standards for CRELs. DI-based results also revealed a net increase in demand mainly due to customers’ optimistic outlook on the economy and bank’s more attractive financing terms.

In its earlier report, the BSP said

overall Outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks grew at a faster rate of 8.8 percent in February from the 8.4 percent revised rate in January.

Broken down, outstanding loans for production activities went up by 9.7 percent in February from 9.5 percent (revised) in January driven by the increase in credit for real estate activities (16 percent); wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (5.7 percent); information and communication (33.3 percent); financial and insurance activities (13.2 percent); manufacturing (11 percent) and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (0.4 percent).

LandBank, PVAO ink deal Demand for insurance for veterans, pensioners products seen steady

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

T Philippine Veterans Affairs Office Administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto G. Carolina (Ret.) (seated, center) and Land Bank of the Philippines Inc. Senior Vice President Marilou L. Villafranca (seated, second from left), together with representatives from other servicing banks, led the signing of the amended Memorandum of Agreement for the Direct Remittance Pension Servicing System last April 18, 2022, at Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo in Quezon City. Photo courtesy of PVAO

S

TATE-run Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) has strengthened its partnership with the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) to better service Filipino veterans and pensioners in the new normal.

Under the amended Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the Direct Remittance Pension Servicing System (DRPSS), Landbank and PVAO have streamlined procedures for pension account opening and formalized crediting of other PVAO benefits, such as medical and burial assistance, to the LandBank ATM accounts of pensioners.

PVAO Administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto G. Carolina (Ret.) and LandBank North NCR Branches Group Head Senior Vice President Marilou L. Villafranca signed the amended MOA on 18 April 2022 at Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo in Quezon City. They were joined by PVAO Deputy Administrator Assistant Secretary Raul Z. Caballes and Finance Division Chief Ferdinand C. Palor, including representatives from other pension servicing banks.

“LandBank’s renewed partnership with PVAO is centered on providing greater banking convenience to our

customers. We put utmost importance on improving our operational efficiency and adopting more responsive solutions to respond to the evolving needs of pensioners and all our customers, especially in the new normal,” said LandBank President and CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo.

The MOA also provides for the setting-up of a dedicated area for communication materials on veteran-related events to be maintained in every Landbank branch handling PVAO pension accounts.

More than 60,000 Filipino veterans and pensioners who maintain pension accounts with LandBank, including accountholders with the former United Coconut Planters Bank, are benefitting from the bank’s improved branch network and a wide array of products and services.

As of end-March 2022, LandBank has a total of 607 branches and 71 branch-lite units nationwide. Pensioners can also use the bank’s network of 2,802 ATMs all over the country for the convenient and safe withdrawals of their pensions and other benefits.

HE chief executive of AIA Philippines Life and General Insurance Co. Inc. sees continued demand for their insurance products despite rising consumer prices.

CEO Kelvin Ang said people will still see the need for protection regardless of the inflation situation in the country, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic increased the public’s awareness of the necessity of having insurance.

While Ang acknowledged that inflation may also pose a downside risk, he said this will be outweighed by its upside risk in terms of its impact on the insurance density in the country.

Last year, insurance density or the amount spent average amount spent by every Filipino for a year went up to P3,400 from P2,800 in the previous year.

In March this year, inflation averaged 4 percent, even higher than the 3 percent posted in February but slower than the 4.1 percent in March 2021. Average inflation for the first quarter this year reached 3.4 percent, still within the government’s target band of 2 to 4 percent.

According to Ang, lockdowns pose a “bigger risk” than inflation since this is when people lose their source of income.

“I think the needs for house, protection, savings, will continue to be there whether there is inflation or no inflation. In fact, during the inflation, people will say ‘maybe my cover is not enough. I have to increase it.’ so there would be demand for it, but inflation is certainly a problem but the bigger problem is not inflation, but whether we suffer another

lockdown,” Ang told reporters on the sidelines of One AIA Philippines Media roundtable event.

Meanwhile, Ang said they also welcome the entry of the new player in the life insurance industry given that a lot of Filipinos still do not have insurance.

Insurance penetration—the ratio of total premiums generated over gross domestic product—rose to 1.93 percent last year from 1.71 percent in 2020, according to the Insurance Commission. Earlier this month, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said a foreign conglomerate within Southeast Asia is set to enter the Philippine life insurance and non-life insurance market.

“As I’ve said, the insurance penetration in the country is presently [about] two percent. Just a lot of room for everyone because a lot of people don’t have insurance policies still, right? So I think there’s a lot of room for more players. We are welcoming,” Ang said. Ang also attributed the low insurance penetration rate in the country to the “very low” level of financial literacy in the country.

He also pointed out that the Philippines is “not alone” in facing the challenge of financial literacy and insurance penetration as other countries are also experiencing the same.

Nonetheless, he said they are doing their part to improve Filipinos’ financial literacy along with different government agencies, such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Insurance Commission.

“It’s just the level of financial literacy in this country is very low. 75 percent don’t have that knowledge about how do they properly save and invest. So a lot to do there. If you want to improve [the] situation,” he said.

Explainer BusinessMirror

B4 Monday, April 25, 2022

www.businessmirror.com.ph

How cryptocurrencies work

(and how they don’t)

A NO trespassing sign is seen near a coal-fired power plant that also houses a cryptocurrency ”mining” operation that relies on the plant’s energy, on April 20, 2022, in Hardin, Montana. Marathon Digital Holdings has thousands of computers on the site and is planning to relocate to Texas to use power from a wind farm. AP/Matthew Brown

By Thalia Beaty

T

The Associated Press

HE first and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, launched more than a decade ago. Yet for all the relentless buzz, relatively few are well versed in cryptocurrencies or the blockchain, the technology on which they’re built.

Despite the evangelizing by and rising profile of some investors, a 2021 poll by Pew Research Center found that just 16 percent of Americans said they have ever invested in cryptocurrencies. That broadened to 31 percent between the ages of 18 and 29 and to 43 percent of men in that age range.

If you’re not among those percentages, you might view these currencies with skepticism and may have avoided trying to understand the lingo or the technology.

But as cryptocurrencies and related technologies reach into politics, intertwine with the larger economy and impact the environment, everyone could use a sense of what they are, how they work and their pitfalls and potential.

I want to sound smart. Is it “blockchain” or “the blockchain?"

It depends on usage. “Blockchain technology” is acceptable to refer to the computer code that records cryptocurrency transactions (and can be used for other things; stay with us). Standing alone, just call it the blockchain— even though there are actually multiple (don’t worry, we’ll explain below).

What is the relationship between cryptocurrencies and the blockchain?

Blockchains record cryptocur-

rency transactions in encrypted, digital records that live on servers all around the world. Some blockchains allow developers to build in applications and program contracts.

Also of note: Different cryptocurrencies are built on different blockchains. Bitcoin is built on the, well, Bitcoin blockchain; ether is built on the ethereum blockchain. There now are some cryptocurrencies or tokens that are essentially built on top of other cryptocurrencies—but at the most basic level, all cryptoc u r renc ies refer bac k to a blockchain.

Blockchains also can be used to record other types of information—like property records or the origins of a food item.

My head hurts. Is there a simpler way to think about this?

Fundamentally, cryptocurrencies are digital money. The blockchain is a database for recording transactions of said digital money. This digital money isn’t backed by any government or institution.

How are cryptocurrencies made?

Different cr y ptocur rencies have different digital architectures (code) so how they work varies. As an example, let’s use Bitcoin, which is “mined.”

In the physical world, here’s how mining works: A specialized computer processor runs on electricity and produces an astonishing amount of noise and heat. In the digital world, that processor is competing to solve a mathematical puzzle. The computer that solves the puzzle first wins newly minted Bitcoin. This design is part of the open source code created by the anonymous entity that launched Bitcoin in 2009.

Mining has another purpose: In the course of solving the puzzle, the most recent Bitcoin transactions—the sending and receiving of the currency—are recorded on the blockchain. The system design encourages participants to spend resources (in this case money and electricity) to help maintain the record of who owns which Bitcoins.

Those with more computing power are more likely to win—so the design favors well-resourced groups that can put together a lot of these specialized computers and supply them with electricity as cheaply as possible.

As a kind of check, the system is also designed to increase the difficulty of solving the mathematical puzzle as more computers compete to do so. At the same time, the amount of Bitcoin successful miners win decreases automatically at predetermined intervals.

Together that means entities that got into mining quite early made out with more Bitcoin in return for spending fewer resources.

I think i actually got that.

Now what is this about decentralization?

An additional feature of the blockchain’s design is that the record of transactions is held on many computers that together form a global network. These computers—or nodes—constantly check with each other to confirm their records’ accuracy. The replication of these records across the network is part of what prevents

an incorrect or fake transaction from being logged.

Together, the decentralized and open source nature of the blockchain means that no one and no institution can control it. But actors like governments and large corporations still can limit access in certain circumstances. China outlawed cryptocurrency trading in September 2021 because of concerns they could weaken control over the financial system and were facilitating crime. More recently, a major cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, stopped processing purchases made with certain credit cards issued in Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Whoa. So how secure is the blockchain?

Cryptocurrency buffs consider it pretty hard to hack—that’s part of its appeal. Again though, it depends which platform you’re talking about.

The Bitcoin blockchain has not been compromised to date, but the second largest blockchain and cryptocurrency, ethereum, faced a major crisis in 2016 stemming from a software vulnerability.

While the ethereum blockchain itself was not hacked, some $50 million in ether was stolen.

Many cryptocurrency-related services and technologies have been hacked or simply exploited by their designers to deceive and steal from participants.

Cryptocurrency exchanges— where people can trade cryptocurrencies for traditional currencies—have been compromised multiple times, with digital bank robbers clearing out the accounts.

Memorably, in 2018, the CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange died without relaying a crucial passcode, effectively locking customers out of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrencies.

Consumers have few recovery options, whether they’re a victim of a scam or security breach or

have simply forgotten their digital wallet’s password. There is no password reset or insurance in the preprogrammed, decentralized system.

In short, the investments are backed by few protections. US prosecutors do pursue outright criminal behavior, like false advertising or stealing, but if the value of a new cryptocurrency token plummets and does not recover, that money is lost. Even the value of Bitcoin, which some proponents call “digital gold,” is extremely volatile.

A final thought: Cryptocurrencies remain criminals’ payment of choice. Illegal drugs or other barred commodities are often exchanged for cryptocurrency, which can be transferred across distances more easily than cash and can be harder for prosecutors to trace. But for most cryptocurrencies, the record of who owns what is publicly visible, forcing criminals to become savvier in order to effectively launder cryptocurrencies obtained through theft, scams or ransomware attacks.

Where does the “value” of cryptocurrencies come from?

This age-old question—who decides what a buck is worth?—is further complicated with cryptocurrencies. Unlike traditional currencies, no government, central bank or physical asset backs cryptocurrencies.

Their values are based on people’s faith in them, as determined by the market. Backers hope that more and more people will want a digital currency that is relatively free from government oversight—and that, as people sink resources into cryptocurrencies, their value will increase over time.

Also unlike traditional currencies, some cryptocurrencies function both as an investment and a potential unit of exchange.

Some buy it hoping they can eventually sell it for a profit.

Others might use a fraction of a Bitcoin to, say, get a firecracker pork burrito at New Hampshire’s Taco Beyondo.

What about the environmental impacts?

Cryptocurrency mining consumes a great deal of energy. One peer-reviewed study calculated that, as of November 2018, Bitcoin's annual electricity consumption was 45.8 terawatt hours, comparable to Hong Kong’s net electricity consumption in 2019, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

That doesn’t even take into account energ y consumed by other cryptocurrencies. And Bitcoin’s energy consumption has increased annually: The Bitcoin Mining Council estimated the cryptocurrency consumed 220 terawatt hours of energy in 2021.

When judging the environmental impacts of cryptocurrencies, it’s important to consider the electricity's source. Miners want electricity at the lowest cost, which sometimes leads them to polluting energy sources like coal. Other times, they can find the cheapest energy from renewable sources like hydroelectric dams. It really comes down to location. Those variables make it complicated to calculate cryptocurrencies' exact energy consumption and environmental impacts.

Environmental impacts also include the energy used to cool computer processors, which heat up as they work, as well as the electronic waste produced as miners upgrade their equipment and discard older models or broken units.

What’s a nonfungella...A nonfungleable...What’s an nft?

For everyone’s sake, let’s keep this short. Nonfungible tokens are basically any digital item— like an image or video—that has been recorded on the blockchain to show who owns it.

Style

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Monday, April 25, 2022

B5

Revisiting old bath and body favorites PHOTOS BY JULIANA MAXINE VASQUEZ

I

T used to be a joke among my friends that if we’re going to meet for lunch or dinner, it should not be anywhere near any The Body Shop branch. That’s because I had this habit of saying, “I’ll just go to the restroom” and then come back with a shopping bag filled with my favorites from the store.

And here’s one more The Body Shop anecdote about me. They used to have a fragrance called The Spirit of the Moonflower, and it smelled so good (it was my signature scent for a while) and was such a best seller.

However, I got hold of information that it was going to be discontinued so I hoarded several bottles.

When I mean I hoarded, it’s like three years after they discontinued it, I still had stocks left.

There was a time when I would have three or four of different The Body Shop Body Butters open. I loved Shea, Olive, Satsuma and Strawberry, although I would try different scents every now and then.

Last week, I learned that the ShopSM web site was holding a sale on The Body Shower Must-Haves until April 30 only with up to 40-percent off. So, naturally, I had to pick some products.

The new Body Butters, by the way, are now registered by The Vegan Society (a gold standard for vegan certification), made with at least 95 percent ingredients of natural origin, love skin with 96-hour moisture, and come in their most sustainable packaging yet. They come in recyclable packaging made with an aluminium lid and 100 percent recycled plastic tub.

Here are what I picked up during the ShopSM sale. n THE BODY SHOP HAND CREAM (P295). This hand cream is perfect for on-the-go hydration and is the ultimate handbag must-have especially now that we always sanitize so they’re extra prone to dryness!

This light, gel-cream formula absorbs quickly, helping to soften and protect the hands. n THE BODY SHOP HAND SOAP (P200). This soap is enriched with soya oil, certified sustainable palm oil and Community Fair Trade cold-pressed virgin coconut oil from Samoa, Polynesia. n THE BODY SHOP BATH LILY (P225). This body buffing bath lily is made with 100 percent recycled materials and it gently exfoliates your skin while making The

Body Shop’s cleansing gels and creams extra thick and lathery. I remember that for one Christmas, my best friend Gianna used The Body Shop Bath Lilies as Christmas ornaments on her tree. n THE BODY SHOP TEA TREE OIL (P795). I don’t use tea tree oil on my face but as a treatment for scratches and minor skin irritations. Pre-Covid, I used to have a bottle in my bag all the time. n THE BODY SHOP HIMALAYAN CHARCOAL PURIFYING GLOW MASK (P1,295). One jar of this tingly mask is sold every 15 seconds. I use this mask twice a week before showering. It leaves my face smooth. n THE BODY SHOP SHOWER GEL (P1,195). My favorite The Body Shop Shower Gel is Satsuma. Its scent is perfect for the summer.

Use the code HEY@SHOPSM for an additional P150 off for a minimum purchase of P1,500 on all products.

This code is for one-time use only.

Download the ShopSM app today or visit the ShopSM.com site to browse the lowest-priced offers Here are other beauty-related things I’ve been loving lately:

n DEOPROCE GREEN CAVIAR MOISTURIZER. I received the Deoproce Green Caviar Moisturizer as a press gift last year but only started using this recently. I was pleasantly surprised at how it gave me an instant glow or maybe the best way to describe the effect is that is gives the skin a light sheen. It’s perfect for day and night. I believe Deoproce products can be purchased at Watsons. n SKIN BY BYS EXTRA GENTLE MILK JELLY CLEANSER. I use this cleanser with a mild and pleasant smell with my Foreo at night and I’ve been enjoying how it cleans my face without stripping it of moisture. n MAKE UP FOR EVER ULTRA HD CONCEALER. I no longer go out wearing a full face of makeup but thanks to my daughter, I have rediscovered this concealer, which was a favorite pre-Covid. I used to do my daughter’s makeup for work pre-pandemic and this concealer was one of the products I would frequently use for this purpose. What I love about this concealer is that it is self-setting, meaning you don’t need to set it with concealer. It doesn’t crease even if you use it for long hours. n

Binibining Pilipinas 2022 bets

THE Binibining Pilipinas Class of 2022 brings me back to the fabled batch of 2011, won by Shamcey Supsup (later Miss Universe 2011 Third Runner-up). From this legendary batch emerged Dianne Elaine Necio (Top 15—Miss International 2011), First Runner-Up Janine Mari Tugonon (later Miss Universe 2012 First RunnerUp), 2nd Runner-Up Mary Jean Lastimosa (later Miss Universe 2014 Top 10); Best in Swimsuit Queenierich Rehman (later Miss World 2012 Top 15), Best in National Costume Elizabeth Clenci (later Miss Grand International 2017 Second Runner-Up), Glennifer Perido (Miss Tourism International 2014-2015 Second Runner-Up), Top 15 Patricia Marie Tumulak (later a GMA actress-host), and Face of Bb. Pilipinas 2011 Angelia Gabrena Ong (later Miss Earth 2015).

Such an unpredictable coterie of candidates in 2011 is replicated this year, as the fierce #BinibiniSisterhood continues. There are no clear front-runners (unlike in rival pageants Miss Universe Philippines and Miss World Philippines) and anyone can spring a pleasant surprise to snag any of the four titles: Binibining Pilipinas International, Globe, InterContinental, and Grand International.

I found it quite amusing (read: deliciously shady and suspicious) that during the announcement of the Top 40 at the New Frontier Theater, Araneta City in Cubao, the last 12 called seemed to be the favorites to win any of the four crown at stake.

They are Anne de Mesa, Cyrille Payumo, Diana Mackey, Gabrielle Basiano, Chelsea Fernandez, Jasmine Omay, Christine Juliane Opiaza, Mary Justinne Punsalang, Nicole Herlene Budol, Nicole Borromeo, Graciella Lehman and Roberta Angela

Tamondong.

My other personal favorites called earlier are Karen Laurrie Mendoza, Jashmin Lynn Dimaculangan and Maria Francesca Taruc, who were in the Top 13 last year and among the Kagandahang Flores beauty camp bets; and FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano starlet Stacey Gabriel, who is from Aces & Queens.

The two who are causing the most social-media frenzy are Budol, fondly called “Hipon Girl” for her curvaceous body but who is also having an amazing facial transformation; and the beautiful Basiano, the 2021 Binibining Pilipinas First Runner-Up, who was also Miss Friendship International 2019 First Runner-Up. Strong and stunning contenders include Fernandez, who was Miss Bikini Philippines 2020; Omay, Binibining Kanlahi 2022 and Miss Midori Clark 2018; Fil-Kiwi starlet Mackey was Miss Philippines Earth 2015 Top 10; De Mesa was Miss World Philippines 2021 Top 24: Lehmann was Top 13 at Binibining Pilipinas 2021; Borromeo was Miss Millennial Philippines 2019: and Opiaza was Ambassadress of the World-Philippines 2019 and Miss Bikini Philippines 2016.

Binibining Pilipinas International 2021 Hannah Arnold is yet to compete abroad while Samantha Panlilio was curiously unplaced at Miss Grand last year. Remarkably, the 2021 batch produced two reigning international winners: Miss InterContinental Cinderella Faye Elle Obeñita from Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, and The Miss Globe Maureen Ann Montagne from Batangas.

This year, two candidates have already won in global tilts: Cyrille Payumo was Miss Tourism International 2019-2020, while Roberta Tamondong was Miss Eco Teen International 2020. Will they be among the 2022 Filipina flag-bearers?

LEFT photo, clockwise: Karen Laurrie Mendoza (photo by Jai Murcillo), Gabrielle Basiano (Advan Ramirez), Anne de Mesa (Jhom Garcia Facebook), Roberta Tamondong (@rapyuphotos), Stacey Gabriel (@rapyuphotos). Right photo, upper row: Cyrille Payumo, Nicole Budol, Jashmin Lynn Dimaculangan, Diana Mackey and Chelsea Fernandez (all by Jai Murcillo). Lower row: Graciella Lehman (Jai Murcillo), Nicole Borromeo (@hannahsisonshootsandedits), Jasmine Omay (Facebook of Taga Tarlac Ka Kung), Christine Juliane Opiaz (@shotsyjohncarlo) and Maria Francesca Taruc (Jai Murcillo).

New sneakerheads hub GOOD news for sneakerheads, athletes, and athleisure enthusiasts: global lifestyle brand adidas has opened at popular leisure destination Shangri-La Plaza (www.facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficial).

Get this iconic brand’s popular styles like the modern Ultraboost running shoes, considered as one of the most comfortable sneakers in the world; the cool and classic Stan Smith named after the world’s No. 1 tennis player; the Gazelle, which is the brand’s first shoe designed with suede; and the timeless Superstar that features a rubber shell toe and leather upper.

Apart from these footwear faves that are a must in every closet, adidas also offers high-performance activewear for both men and women.

B6 Monday, April 25, 2022

Grab merchant partners take the leap and grow

WTTC bullish on PH travel & tourism industry recovery in the new normal

Philippine Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat (center) together with World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) President and CEO Julia Simpson (left) and WTTC Chair and President & CEO of Carnival Corp. Arnold Donald (right) welcome delegates of the 21st WTTC Global Summit during the opening press conference held at the Marriott Hotel.

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HE World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is bullish on the prospect of Philippines’ tourism industry recovery, projecting a rosy outlook in terms of economic growth and employment generation in the next 10 years.

In the opening press conference of the 21st WTTC Global Summit on April 20, WTTC President and Chief Executive Officer Julia Simpson lauded the leadership of Secretary Berna RomuloPuyat for her continuous efforts to revitalize the tourism industry of the Philippines, which has been steadily recovering in spite of the ongoing global health concern.

“Our expert analysis shows that the travel and tourism economy has turned a corner, and is firmly on the road to recovery. This growth was primarily built on domestic travels and very much pioneered and

led by Secretary Bernadette,” the President and CEO adds.

“Looking ahead, we forecast an average annual growth rate of 6.7 percent over the next 10 years, exceeding the expected country’s overall economy average growth rate of just 5.6 percent,” said Simpson.

“We also forecast employment will grow annually by an average of 3 percent over the next 10 years, generating 2.9 million new jobs, accounting for 21.5 percent of all jobs in the Philippines”, she added.

Meanwhile, Secretary Puyat expressed her gratitude for the WTTC’s positive remarks, especially since the country has been hard at work in revitalizing the local tourism industry.

“In the nearly two years where international travel was put on hold, the Philippines has been busy preparing for the day when our country would be open to the world. We have put in place guidelines that will ensure the safety of our guests, our tourism workforce, and our community,” Puyat shared.

“Ultimately, through this summit, we hope to raise awareness of the full economic and social impact of travel and tourism. We also want to assure everyone, especially our foreign guests, that your safety and well-being is our priority,” the Tourism Secretary emphasized.

Addressing the media and guests at the global summit, Puyat reassured: “We are already seeing signs of recovery, with more and more countries opening up for international travel. Your presence here signifies your commitment to rebuilding a safer, more resilient, and more sustainable tourism industry.”

Considered as one of the most influential Travel & Tourism events worldwide, the WTTC Global Summit is an annual gathering of the entire spectrum of the industry, including airlines and airports, hotels and hospitality groups, tour operators and retail travel agents, online distributors, cruise lines, investment companies, insurance groups, and the technology industry.

In the next two days, of the the sessions shed light on important topics such as the latest travel trends, sustainable investment prospects, meaningful human connections despite contactless interventions, environmental preservation, traveler confidence, seamless international mobility, and inequalities in the travel and tourism industry.

Filinvest Land, Cebu Province commemorate partnership

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ILINVEST Land unveiled a new marker to commemorate its fruitful partnership with the Province of Cebu for the prime office development Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu in Lahug. Province of Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia joined Filinvest Land President and CEO Josephine Gotianun Yap, Chief Strategy Officer Tristan Las Marias, and Filinvest REIT President Maricel Brion Lirio for the unveiling ceremony.

“We were put together at the right time for the right reasons. And this is the right reason, a mutually beneficial partnership with Filinvest that can only mean more revenues for the Province of Cebu, added assets for the province of Cebu and, together with Filinvest, give more opportunities for progress and development of our beloved Province of Cebu,” said Gov. Garcia.

The unveiling ceremony was held at Tower Two of Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu attended by other provincial government officials and key executives of Filinvest Land.

Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu is a 1.2 hectare PEZA-accredited, 4-tower modern office development designed to cater to blue chip companies. It was recently given a Grade A rating by Jones Lang La Salle. Notably, Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu remained operational 24/7 during Typhoon Odette’s onslaught.

“Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu is one of our biggest investments in the province. Through this development, we aim to provide worldclass office spaces to empower global and local businesses to thrive in Cebu. We are ever grateful for the support of our joint venture partner the Province of Cebu led

by Gov. Gwen Garcia,” said Gotianun Yap.

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HE growth of food businesses taking their presence online has been undisputed in the last couple of years, with many consumers now heavily reliant on food deliveries to satisfy their cravings. And when it comes to providing holistic support to its partners, Southeast Asia’s everyday superapp Grab is a platform that has been consistent in extending its support.

From making the transition to digitalization easier to providing the proper tools and resources needed, Grab merchant-partners 24 Chicken, PicaBean Coffee House, and Cafe Mary Grace have shown how Grab’s right combination of training, tools, and upskilling opportunities can open the door for businesses to grow and improve.

“We realized that some of our customers are not capable of visiting our physical store,” shares Mario Tan Jr., PicaBean Coffee House Operations Head, adding that their main reach used to be limited to walk-in customers.

With the opportunity to bring their presence online looking promising, they took the leap with Grab, from which they were immediately able to see how their brand became more accessible to a new and bigger audience simply through the app.

“Grab is our best, first partner,” shares Cafe

PWU Alumna garners 5th place in Pharmacy Licensure Exams

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(caption) The unveiling ceremony was held at Tower Two of Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu sttended by, from left: Filinvest Land Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Tristan Las Marias, Cebu Board Member Glenn Anthony Soco, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, Filinvest Land President and CEO and Filinvest REIT Chairwoman Josephine Gotianun Yap, Filinvest REIT President Maricel Brion Lirio, Cebu Board Member Christopher Baricuatro, and Cebu Board Member Victoria Toribio

“Filinvest has always strived to be the province’s partner in progress. This marker is testament to the strength of the partnership between Filinvest Land and the Province of Cebu,” added Las Marias.

Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu is a joint venture commercial development between Filinvest and the Cebu Provincial Government. The completed towers 1 and 2 have a combined gross leasable area of 48,233 squaremeters of office space and 1,307 squaremeters of retail space. The remaining towers 3 and 4 set for completion in 2023 have a combined gross leasable area of 38,718 squaremeters of office space and 5,471 squaremeters of retail space.

“We are proud to say that through Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu Towers 1 and 2, approximately 29,000 new jobs were created while for the upcoming Towers 3 and 4, we

expect to generate approximately 21,000 new jobs from the office spaces alone. Our retail spaces are expected to add another 1,000 jobs,” said Brion Lirio.

Filinvest REIT Corp. is backed by one of the country’s largest developers, Filinvest Land. Filinvest Land has been a part of Cebu for decades with 14 projects across the province. Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu is part of the developer’s extensive portfolio nationwide with over 250 projects in over 50 key areas nationwide. A steadfast partner of the province, Filinvest Land donated vaccine doses, medical supplies, and equipment to various cities of Cebu province. Filinvest Land also conducted relief operations which included distribution of relief goods and clean potable water for Typhoon Odette victims through its Pusong Filinvest program.

Nurture your kid’s creativity at PMC’s summer art camp

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Grab merchant-partner 24 Chicken has been able to bring its authentic Korean fried chicken to a greater audience.

Mary Grace Marketing Director Chiara DimacaliHugo. “They have the systems and expertise to go about delivery which was such a guiding hand for us when we took this leap of faith. By onboarding with them, our customers are able to get a hold of their Mary Grace fix without stepping out of the house,” she adds.

“With the Grab Merchant Portal, you can access helpful data that will help you improve your business,” shares Tan, noting that the categories of customer reviews and least popular items have been the most helpful and give insight to how their products can be improved.

As for Cafe Mary Grace, Dimacali-Hugo shares that GrabAds helped them easily manage their presence online to keep themselves at the forefront of their customers’ conscience.

“After a year or so of being with Grab, we explored advertising with the platform. After back and forth discussions with our team, we gave GrabAds a shot,” she shares. Dimacali-Hugo then goes on to share how, besides the increased visibility for Mary Grace, employing GrabAds has also allowed the well-loved family business to reach even new audiences with Grab.

24 Chicken Marketing Manager Jefferson Uy also shared about the marketing and financial savings they’ve gained from maximizing Grab’s Merchant Solutions (GMS).

“With GMS, we’re able to get a bigger audience to avail of our promos, and share the cost of this with Grab at the same time resulting in saved marketing costs. Additionally, the pop-up push button ads also get a lot of attention from customers,” says Uy. Through these programs, Dimacali-Hugo, Tan, and Uy, have been able to not only maximize their presence online, but achieve the goals that started their businesses in the first place.

In particular, Dimacali-Hugo notes how onboarding with Grab has enabled Cafe Mary Grace to continue bringing comfort and warmth to their customers—the very goal they’ve always aspired to reach ever since starting out in bazaars in the 1990s.

With tools such as GrabAds, Grab Merchant Solutions, and Grab Merchant Portal, Grab ensures that its merchant-partners are well-supported and provided with the means to reach success in the digital world. To know more about the services and features extended by Grab, check out https:// www.grab.com/ph/merchant/food/.

ROM April 19 to August 30, 2022, premier Apple partner Power Mac Center (PMC) official training arm, PMC Business Systems, Inc. (PBSI), will be offering “Design Trail for Kids” with six special courses covering comics creation, 2D animation, game design using various software, and building trendy filters and 3D effects.

Sessions will be conducted online for kids aged 7 to 15 years old.

“Children have an active imagination, and it’s important to provide them creative outlets while also prioritizing their safety and well-being amid the pandemic. This summer, Power Mac Center goes all out in creating opportunities for kids to explore ideas and enhance their digital creative and coding skills. Should they decide to pursue graphic design, visual communication, or even coding in the future, parents are assured they have a good foundation,” said Maleng Raysag, Training Head, PMC Business Systems Inc. The available courses are as follows: The Art of Comics (7 to 10 years old). Showcase your child’s ideas. Let them create their own comics with doodles, basic lines, shapes, and colors. This course will teach your kids how to maximize their iPad for art.

2D Animation using iPad (7 to 10 years old). Improve your child’s visual communication and digital drawing skills. With this

course, your kids will surely learn how to turn their ideas into a motion picture.

Roblox Game Design (8 to 12 years old). Let your child build and publish their own Roblox game through the Roblox Studio.

Web Game Creation using Scratch (8 to 12 years old). Develop your child’s logical thinking skills through coding. This course will also teach your kids how to create interactive games using Scratch—the world’s largest programming language and online community.

2D Game Design with Stencyl (12 to 15 years old). Allow your kids to dive deeper into 2D game development and coding. This course will also teach your kids how to create computer games with HTML5 and build games for iOS and Android using the Stencyl software.

Building AR Face Filters and 3D effects (12 to 15 years old). Let your kids experience an interesting way of combining the real world with technology and art. This course will also teach young minds how to create customized social media face filters and 3D Portal.

Each online session lasts for 1.5 hours, conducted over four days (Tuesday-Friday). Classes can be availed at PHP 2,500 per student per course, which can be paid via Power Mac Center’s Web Store <https:// powermaccenter.com/product/pbsi-dtl001>. For inquiries, contact PBSI at (632) 8553 6399 and +63 908 885 6277.

HILIPPINE Women’s University alumna Frauline Kathleen Ortiana Galace placed 4th overall in the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Pharmacist Licensure Examinations given this month. She obtained a rating of 90.27 percent.

Out of 1,870 examinees, only 678 passed.

Since 2020, three PWU alumni have been topnotchers in PRC board examinations. In February 2021, PWU’s Philippine School of Social Work alumnus Jefferson Piñon Medrano garnered the seventh place in the Social Worker Licensure Examination with a rating of 81.40 percent. In July 2021, the PWU-School of Nursing, Haydee Soriano Bacani, emerged as the top 1 in the Nurse Licensure Examination with a rating of 89.40 percent.

Aside from Galace, seven other PWU alumni successfully hurdled the pharmacist board exams: Leonardo Isaac A. Almero, Hosanna Joy De Mesa, Omelyn T. Gonzales, Jhanela Jhane G. Malate, Chenry Joie M. Pajarin, Ameerah T. Racman, and Marcelina P. Rillo.

In a memorandum announcing the feat of the PWU alumni, PWU President Marco Alfredo M. Benitez commended the School of Pharmacy, Program Chair Mark Harvey Adamson, the faculty

and staff “whose efforts in teaching, mentoring, and guiding the students have paid off spectacularly.”

The Philippine Women’s University is a 103-year-old university located on Taft Avenue.

MetroMart wins praise for new commitment to sell only cage-free eggs nationwide by 2025

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ETROMART, the country’s largest ecommerce grocery delivery platform, won praise today from U.S.-based global NGO Lever Foundation for its new commitment to source and sell only cage-free eggs nationwide by 2025.

“MetroMart is committed to social responsibility and benefiting the community, including through selling high quality, safe and humane food products,” said Evreem Fortich, Chief Operating Officer at MetroMart and ambassador of the company on the issue. “We’re pleased to share our new policy of selling only cage-free eggs to consumers on our platform by 2025, and we look forward to working closely with our partners to achieve that goal.”

MetroMart’s e-commerce platform connects consumers with local supermarkets and retailers including The Marketplace, Marks & Spencer, Landmark and All Day Supermarket. The company delivers throughout the Manila and Cebu regions, with plans to expand nationally.

Numerous studies have found cage-free eggs are safer and have more vitamins and minerals and a better nutritional profile than caged eggs.

Research by the European Food Safety Authority and others has found that cage-free egg farms

are up to 25 times less likely to be contaminated with key strains of salmonella compared to hens raised in cages. Hens raised in cage-free systems enjoy better bone health, are free to move and express their natural behavior such as foraging, dust-bathing, flying and nesting.

“We applaud MetroMart for its commitment on this important issue, which will benefit the company’s customers by increasing food safety and quality while also improving the welfare of animals in its supply chain,” said Robyn del Rosario, Sustainability Program Manager at Lever Foundation, which worked with MetroMart on its pledge. “With e-commerce leaders like MetroMart rising in popularity and importance during the pandemic, the company’s commitment to socially responsible policies that benefit the community sets a stellar example for other retailers and food brands.”

In recent years a growing list of restaurant, hospitality, retail and packaged foods brands have pledged to use only cage-free eggs in the Philippines, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Marriott, Nestlé, Unilever, and many others. MetroMart is the first retailer in the Philippines and the first online grocery delivery platform in Asia to make the same pledge.

Marketing BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, April 25, 2022 B7

Ideation made simple I

DEAS can come from the most unexpected places and in the most inopportune times—think: brilliant ideas for a campaign popping into your head while you’re in the middle of a shower, soapy and all. But, believe it or not, there can be rhyme and reason for ideation and creative thinking.

You can train yourself to think creatively.

In one of the modules for its Digital Marketing Professional course, Dublin-based Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) presented a five-stage process to enhance your creative thinking and ideation skills: Prepare, Incubate, Illuminate, Verify, Practice.

Stage 1: Prepare

By Abigail Ho-Torres

Stage 2: Incubate

THIS is where you allow your research findings to incubate. Write down exactly what it is you are hoping to achieve. Organize your research findings, curate where necessary, then just let everything marinate and simmer. Go through everything you’ve written, then leave it for a while.

Go back to what you’ve written, and try to frame it another way. Leave it alone. While waiting for your re-angled findings to brew, go do something fun and relaxing. Have a coffee or a chocolate bar. Take a walk or a shower. Read a comic. Listen to a podcast.

Just do something other done additional work on what you’ve written so far.

Stage 3: Illuminate

NOW that you’ve refreshed your mind a bit, it’s time to get those ideas and solutions down on paper. You don’t need to follow any sort of structure here. Just write down your thoughts before they get away from you (like many a brilliant idea that come to you in the shower).

The assumption is, by the time you reach this stage, findings from your research and

Awards: The Mobility Awards awards the 2021 bicycle-friendly cities

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—After having declared the most bikefriendly cities in the country for the 2021 nationwide leg of the Mobility Awards in November 2021, the event organizers visited the mayors of the Top 3 winners—Iloilo, Mandaue, and Naga, respectively—to personally congratulate them and hand over their recognition.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, and Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion all expressed their pride in this achievement and thanks for the recognition, during their respective awarding

ceremonies held on separate occasions from March 25 to April 7, 2022.

“Here in Iloilo, we have noticed that more people are using bicycles as means of transportation because of the bike lanes. We are hopeful that this will promote healthier lifestyles while at the same time will further our efforts to combat climate change. Aside from the existing bike lanes, we are now helping DPWH develop additional bike lanes along the circumferential road, and this will even add more protected bike lanes in Iloilo city,” said Treñas on April 7.

“We know that cycling is not only good for our health in terms of exercise, but in the case of Mandaue where transport is the highest contributor to our greenhouse gas, the introduction of the bike network will help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. And, as the pandemic showed, it was the most con-

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PR Matters

THIS is the research phase. As with any problem-solving activity, you have to know what exactly you are up against if you want to come up with the best possible solution.

For example: You’ve been asked to help address your company’s difficulty in securing government permits for your projects, but you have no idea where to start.

Try breaking down the issue into component parts and explore each part. Reach out to project implementers to find out about their firsthand experiences. Research on relevant frameworks that you can use in your strategy formulation. Benchmark against the experiences, strategies, and tactics of other companies in the same industry. Look into relevant laws and policies regarding permit issuance turnaround times. Deepdive into your own data: average number of days to secure each permit, current and past practices that worked and didn’t work, and so on.

Gather tons of data. Once you believe you have enough data and information to guide ideation, you can already move on to the next phase. the general direction on how to proceed should have swirled around enough in your mind to form any number of possible solutions to your problem.

Stage 4: Verify

THIS is where you go back to your idea and evaluate if it’s the correct approach to addressing your original problem. Does it cover all bases? Will it give you your desired results? Will permit acquisition turnaround times be reduced when you implement this strategy? Will this help contribute to your enterprise objectives?

The whole exercise allows you to look at your idea from different angles. The biggest question it has to answer: will this solve the problem? If, after careful and deliberate assessment, you realize that you’re not exactly on the right track, set that idea aside and work on your next one. Don’t waste too much time holding on to an idea that might do little or nothing to solve your original problem.

Once you’ve arrived on the idea that would address your issue, take time to refine it. Present it in such a way as to be

venient way of moving around when public transport is limited,” said Cortes on March 30.

“Here in Naga City, we have observed that the people who cycle are empowered especially during the pandemic. More people are encouraged to cycle ever since we started our share the road initiatives. We have noticed that there are fewer road incidents compared to the previous years,” said Legacion on March 25.

Simultaneous awarding for the regional winners, meanwhile, was also held where Cebu City and Davao City were named silver awardees. Cebu City Mayor Michael Lopez Rama and Davao C it y Vice Mayor Sebast i a n Duterte received the awards for their respective cities on March 31 and April 7, respectively.

Atty. Carillo, Chairman of SUGBO Bike Lanes Board states that, “We need more cities to prioritize better mobility for

understood by all your stakeholders, with emphasis on those whose approval you need to get your idea off the ground.

Stage 5: Practice

NOW that you’ve completed the whole ideation loop, you already have a feel of the steps involved and how each step works.

The next time you’re faced with a problem or issue, go through the process again. As with any skill, the more you practice, the better you become. This will not just allow you to generate ideas faster, but also train you to discern which ones to discard, and quickly. You’ll be spending less time dwelling on ideas that will likely flop.

By practicing, you can also improve your overall approach to problem solving, which can lead to more effective ideas at the onset and less need to discard ineffective ones.

Creative thinking will then come more naturally for you.

As the Digital Marketing Institute put it: “Anyone can be creative. However, it’s important to remember that creative thinking doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It’s a skill that needs to

people who do not own cars. It is important to emphasize that bicycle and pedestrian lanes are important so that more people can have better access to services.

Arch. Ann Cuizon, Board Member of SUGBO Bike Lanes Board further adds, “There are many benefits in having a bike lane network, it is a good opportunity for us to establish a movement for those who want other options in terms of traveling and going around the city that is actually safer and sustainable. When Cebu City decided to go for this initiative it is really because we wanted to have a balanced mobility in the city where people have multiple options in going around the city.”

“We hope to complete the bicycle lane network and go in the process of evaluating in the years after to see where we can really improve and where we can still expand.”

be consciously applied, honed, and practiced. When practiced successfully, it can reveal effective and innovative solutions to various types of problems, from marketing communications to operational roadblocks, and it can generate new ideas.”

Next week, we will be looking at some common creativity roadblocks so we’ll know how to overcome them.

(To be continued) PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. Ho-Torres is AVP and Head of Advocacy and Marketing of Maynilad Water Services, Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.

Introduced in 2020 by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) along with various partner organizations like The Climate Reality Project Philippines, MNL Moves, 350. org Pilipinas, and Pinay Bike Commuter Community, the Mobility Awards recognizes acts of leadership by Philippine local governments, workplaces, and commercial establishments to promote cycling as a reliable, efficient and sustainable mode of transport among their constituencies, customers, employees, and communities.

Mobility Awards national convenor Celine Tabinga hopes that the successes of the Top 3 cities would inspire other cities and municipalities in the Philippines to put up interconnected bicycle lanes in their respective localities and to give priority to active mobility among their citizens.

“We welcome cities that are

cycling towards a better, healthier, and cleaner future. We challenge cities to move people towards a more progressive future that puts people’s mobility, especially the car-less and the most vulnerable at the center… The winning cities are demonstrating leadership towards a more progressive Iloilo, Mandaue, and Naga. And just like cycling, we challenge them to pedal forward.

For 2022, we call on cities to take the challenge, and be more bikeable and walkable,” she said.

Tabinga, together with Paula Bernasor of the Climate Reality Project, and Golda Hilario, the Urban Transitions Lead of the ICSC, led the awarding for these three cities.

According to the organizers, the 2022 Mobility Awards will include cities in NCR and incorporate pedestrian-friendly measures in the selection criteria. For more information, visit mobilityawards.ph.

Lucio Tan III to continue late father’s grassroots sports advocacy at Tanduay

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UCIO TAN III aims to continue the legacy in grassroots sports development started by his father, the late Lucio “Bong” Tan, with Tanduay’s participation in domestic leagues such as the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL).

Tanduay will be renaming the team and fielding a new Batangas City Embassy Chill team in the MPBL. The team won the Rajah Cup championship in its MPBL debut in 2018.

“Tanduay has always been supportive of sports such as basketball.

The goal is not just to join leagues, but, more importantly, to give players from different communities in the country the chance to fulfill their dreams of making it big in sports,” said Tan, now the president and COO of Tanduay Distillers Inc. The older Tan was a staunch supporter of Philippine sports, particularly basketball. He avidly played the game and would have Tanduay employees participate in various amateur leagues. His sons Lucio III and Kyle Tan shared their father’s passion.

“I can’t be my dad’s son if I don’t care about basketball,” Lucio III said.

“I’m a huge NBA [National Basketball Association] fan. When I was younger, I followed the PBA [Philippine Basketball Association] for a time.”

He also revealed that exercise is one of his biggest passions.

“My biggest passion is exercise, working out at the gym. What attracted me to it is that it’s incredibly systematic—it’s like working on engineering problems, but this time you’re focused on your body,” said Tan, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. “It was something I was able to focus on outside of work.”

For Tan, basketball is like a “universal language.”

“It’s something I can connect with, with my friends, executives and younger people as well. We would be talking about financial statements, and then would be asking if we watched the game yesterday. It’s something that all of us could talk about,” he said.

Gerry Tee, team manager of the Batangas City Embassy Chill and Tanduay Distillery General Manager, reiterated that basketball is a huge

LUCIO TAN III: Tanduay’s goal is to give players the chance to fulfill their dreams of making it big in sports.

part of the Tanduay culture.

“Sports development is already ingrained in the culture of Tanduay.

Not only do we support teams, but we also support our employees who play basketball,” Tee said. “During Mr. Bong Tan’s time, we would participate in many leagues. He wanted his employees to be healthy, so that we could be more productive.”

The MPBL is just one of the many outlets of their goal of furthering Tan’s legacy in grassroots sports development, Tee said.

“It feels great to be back in the MPBL. We’re excited that we’ll be seeing and traveling to different parts of Luzon again and see the fans of the Tanduay team and the fans of the league,” Tee said.

The MPBL took a two-year hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rebuilt Batangas City Embassy Chill is now coached by Cholo Villanueva, who also coaches the revitalized Tanduay Rum Masters in the FilBasket.

He’s also an assistant coach for the University of the East Red Warriors.

Tanduay was impressed with Villanueva’s program when he was with another team at the MPBL. Tee said the team will be composed of the same players who are entered in the Filbasket. They are Levi Hernandez, Cedrick Ablaza, Mark Cruz, Dawn Ochea, Johnrey Villanueva, Jeckster Apinan, Wilson Baltazar, John Amboludta, Ralf Olivares, Joshua Gonzales, Darwin Lunor, Mark Dela Virgen, Jaycee Asuncion, Rudy Lingganay, Jay Manlangit, King Importante and Jong Baloria.

Batangas City Embassy Chill will play Imus Bandera in its first game on Monday at its Batangas City home court.

Altas in play-in contention

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NIVERSITY of Perpetual Help System Dalta kept its hopes alive forthe play-in stage following a 72-69 victory over Lyceum of the Philippines University in the National Collegiate Athletic Association seniors basketball tournament on Sunday at the La Salle Greenhills Gym. Veterans Kim Aurin and Jielo Razon produced key drives down the stretch as the Altas chalked up their third win in eight games.

Aurin, who finished with 22 points and five rebounds, simply wanted to extended his collegiate career and help Perpetual return to the Final Four after missing the bus in 2019.

“I don’t want to let the opportunity go to waste,” Aurin said. “My motivation is my family, my coaches and my players—we don’t want to lose.”

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Monday, April 25, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

KEEPING LEGACY BURNING

By Josef Ramos

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HE Barangay Ginebra San Miguel legacy has rolled on and do-it-all Scottie Thompson wants to keep that legacy burning.

“My goal is to win another championship,” said Thompson, who’s instrumental in each and every Ginebra game and proved his worth when the Gin Kings beat the Meralco Bolts, 10392, in Game 6 on Friday night to retain the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’Cup—their fourth for their collection of the conference trophies.

A leading candidate in the race for Most Valuable Player honors, the 6-oot-1 high leaper from Digos City who’s known for turning garbage into gold in crucial moments of each game, has his sight already fixed on the Philippine Cup, the PBA’s next conference that starts on June 5.

“Winning a championship is more addictive than winning an individual award,” said the 28-yearold Thompson, named the Best Player of the Conference and Finals Most Valuable Player.

Thompson was huge in Ginebra’s 4-2 conquest of Meralco in the bestof-seven championship. He averaged 17.83 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists in six games of the finals that seasawed with Ginebra losing Game 1, 104-91, tying the series in Game 2, 99-93, falling behind again in Game 3, 83-74, posting consecutive wins in Games 4 and 5—95-84, 115-110 and 103-92—before ruling the Governors’ Cup in Game 6 for its 14th crown n the league.

The MVP trophy, Thompson said, is a bonus.

“Let’s see if it happens. If I win it, I’ll be more thankful,” he said.

“There’re a lot of deserving players who could win the MVP.” Picked at No. 5 overall by Ginebra in the 2015 draft, Thompson has six rings to his credit as a Gin King—four in the Governors’ Cup, one Commissioner’s Cup (2018) and one Philippine Cup (2020 bubble).

But Thompson said their recent conquest beats them all.

“This championship is sweeter than the rest because we’ve been through tougher times,” he said.

“It’s now up to coach Tim [Cone], the coaching staff and the management to do what’s best for the team. We’ll just do our best, exert more effort to win the next conference.”

“It’s still ‘never say die’ Ginebra,” he added.

Cone, now the owner of a PBAbest 24 crowns, six of them with Ginebra, is looking forward to the Philippine Cup. “We’re able to win the bubble in Clark [without fans] and that’s nice, but we would like to win the All-Filipino in front of our fans, that’s for sure,” said Cone, who was amazed with the 20,224 attendance in Game 6 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

“That’s one big crowd,” added Cone, whose team limped heading into the Finals with Stanley Pringle, Japeth Aguilar and Jared Dilinger, Ginebra all nursing injuries.

The Gin Kings rose as a No. 6 seed from the eliminations, beating the TNT Tropang Giga twice in the quarterfinals and slaying the NLEX Road Warriors, 3-1, in the semifinals.

Friday’s title victory was also Ginebra’s fourth over Meralco.

Padilla, Gabuat out to sustain run in Sindangan tilt

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Perpetual need to win its final elimination game against Emilio Aguinaldo College on Friday to avoid elimination.

“It’s do or die,” coach Myk Saguiguit said. “We need a good rest and get back to work. EAC will be a tough job.”

The play-in round involves teams that finish from third to sixth place after the single-round eliminations. The top two in the round will join the top two in the eliminations in the Final Four.

Razon added 14 points and five rebounds while Cris Pagaran had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Altas. The rebuilding Pirates will miss the Final Four for the first time since 2016. Omar Larupay produced a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds for Lyceum.

A. JUDYANN PADILLA and Thomas Gabuat set off for a repeat of their two-title haul in Dipolog City as they banner a big field in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPSPEPP) national age group tennis tournament at the Sindangan courts in Zamboanga del Norte that kicked

BIKE VS. CLIMATE CHANGE Bikers and climate advocates gather at the Quezon City Memorial

Circle as part of a coordinated cycling events in nine Asian countries dubbed “Pedal for People and Planet” on Sunday morning. Similar events are held simultaneously in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan to call on governments and corporations to step up their action to save the planet from irreversible climate disaster. NONOY LACZA

A proper send-off IF you went to the wake of the late broadcaster, host and DJ Boyet Sison at the Funeraria Paz in Sucat, Parañaque, while there were some tears, it was actually more of a party.

There was music from a DJ set, standees of Boyet that were as tall as he stood, including one in the toilet that seemed like he was peeking. There was food, a little bit of drink, and well, hobnobbing.

Just the way he would like it or want to go—with a party.

It’s hard to imagine that in planning this, there was a lot of introspection and well, laughs from three people who made sure to give Boyet a proper send-off—his close friend Joanie Mitchell, his lawyer Charlie Cuna and director and confidant, Juno Oebanda.

“He wouldn’t want anyone to be crying,” reasoned Oebanda. “In fact, you should be dancing.”

Cue in Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees and John Travolta.

With Sison’s parents long gone and whatever family he had far away, it was up to his large and extended family of friends to plan for the wake, er, party.

His passing was lamented across the board. In fact, it trended on social media.

“The last few days after he passed,” offered Cuna, who like Sison, is prominent in the world of sports as a sportscaster. “It has been surreal for me, I can’t quite grasp that he is gone. We had some plans. We were supposed to get together for drinks. But the amount of love for him that has been shown on online posts and in private messages sent to me has been overwhelming.

“I’ve enjoyed reading them. They make me smile. Clearly, he touched so many lives and made so many smile. But it has been tough trying to understand what happened. It was just too sudden. He is a tremendous loss for me. We had such a close relationship and I have been reading back our exchanges and shifting from smiling to laughing to shaking my head and almost crying.”

If you went to the wake or the zoom meetings, you were asking if you came from either the music/DJ scene, the broadcast industry or the sports world. That’s the depth and breadth and height of Boyet’s involvement. Although he might bristle at the mention of height.

Just kidding, bud.

“We briefly dated when I was 18 years old,” reminisced

off over the weekend.

The pair topped the 16- and 18-under divisions in their respective sides last week, making them the players to watch in the Group 2 tournament presented by Dunlop, the second of six events making up the northern Mindanao swing of the country’s longestrunning age-grouper which also

stages a slew of Open tournaments.

But AJ Acabo, Marlyn Mesiona, Cielo Gonzales, Christine Gulagula and Bernadette Nervi and the likes of Jalia Elumba, Limiree Caylauad, Cloie Omos and Jane Paculba will be going all out to stop Padilla, from Ozamiz City, in the top two divisions.

Gabuat, on the other hand, will have his hands full in a bid to score a reprise against the likes of top seed Neo Maratas, Vince Serna, Nate Fernandez, Miggy Omos and Marc Fernandez in the boys’ 18-U category.

Maratas also top-bills the 16-under division that includes second seed John Omos, Jan Docor, Pete Bandala, Kevin Gallinero, Mark Barrios, Johnny Caedo III, Joseph Buevvenida, Josh Lim and Gabuat from Sibugay.

Local ace Mesiona and Josh Lim also shoot for back-to-back romps in the 14-under class while a wide open battle looms in the 12-under category of the tournament put up by Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala president and CEO Bobby Castro.

Mitchell who is English and Danish but has lived here for several decades now. “It seemed from the start that we were better off as friends.”

Their closeness, however, left people wondering—are they or are they?

“It was a close friendship that was full of love and respect,” simply described Mitchell.

However, for friends in the know, Boyet and Joanie are “each other’s person.” And she was there to take care of his affairs in the hospital in Boyet’s final days and after.

Since only the family could sign the hospital paperwork, the two looked at each other with Joanie wondering, “So what are we?”

“Common-law-wife,” was the answer in lieu of any proper wedding or ceremony.

That Boyet handed over his ATM to Joanie says something.

While he had many many friends, that close circle was small.

When the global lockdown due to the pandemic began, he would meet up with Oebanda, director Alco Guerrero, musicians Bing Austria, Sancho Sanchez and Nicole Asensio, as well as actor Jamie Wilson to plan for a wide variety of events.

One such prominent event was the “Hinahanap Hanap Kita Manila” that brought many popular recording artists to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Manila by shooting videos at various city landmarks.

Oebanda and Sison were in the midst of a new plan,

DO-IT-ALL Scottie Thompson is locked and loaded for the Philippine Cup.

Albo, De Guzman lead PHL charge

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EWEL ANGELO ALBO and Mikaela Joy De Guzman lead the country’s campaign in the Smart Badminton Asia Championships that start Tuesday at the Muntinlupa City Sports Complex in Tunasan.

Albo, a many-time boys’ under-17 and under-19 champion, stakes his mettle on the big stage alongside Ros Leonard Pedrosa in men’s singles action, while De Guzman and Janelle Anne Andres will be tested in the women’s contest.

“This is my first time to compete in an international tournament and it’s a great opportunity for us,” the 18-yearold Albo told a press conference over the weekend in a Muntinlupa City hotel. “We have to give it our best shot—one set a time—perform well and learn from this tournament.”

De Guzman, the MVP Second Cup champion last February, expressed her excitement over the tournament that gathers 276 participants, several of them worldranked, from 18 Asian countries.

Albo, Pedrosa, De Guzman and Andres need to win twice in the qualifying round on Tuesday to enter the main draw.

The other Philippine entries are Christian Bernardo and Paul John Pantig and Solomon Padiz and Julius Villabrille in men’s doubles, and Thea Marie Pomar and Eleanor Christine Inlayo and Susmita Angelique Ramos and Airah Mae Nicole in women’s doubles.

Alvin Morada and Inlayo will be competing in mixed doubles along with Pomar and Padiz.

Philippine team head coach Rozman Razak, a former Malaysian team athlete, said the championships will give the locals a shot at a potential world ranking.

“We must be very realistic because we are just starting in the world’s badminton scene,” he said. “Our players have no ranking, but the Philippines has a huge potential in this sport, so hopefully they get some world ranking points and compete against top players.” Josef Ramos

when the latter passed away.

It was a distraught Oebanda along with Wilson who related Sison’s passing to me, who is Sison’s oldest friend on this planet (simply owing to the fact that we were next door neighbors and playmates for almost five years).

“I don’t think we should be sad at the wake,” Oebanda told Mitchell during the planning for the wake.

“I agree,” she replied. Mitchell also oversaw Sison’s cremation last Wednesday along with a few people.

“Tito Boyet played the soundtrack of our lives so it is only fitting that we celebrate his life with music. DJs were playing and their own version of Tito Boyet’s sets.

It was a happy and sad thing. Some of them would break down in the middle of the song to cry. This kind of love is rare because Tito Boyet is that rare kind of person.”

“When he goes Up there,” said Mitchell referring to Heaven, “They better be prepared because the life of the party just arrived.”

As for me, going there wasn’t easy. I almost never go to wakes and funerals no matter who it is. It is simply because I cannot deal with death very well. But I could not resist my old friend. So I went and shed a few tears.

But I left happy as I touched that bowtie—which was his signature piece of clothing—on his urn.

As I made my way out, one of the men manning the DJ’s booth asked, “Would you like to dance?”

In my own awkward way, I tried a move that John Travolta made it look so easy in Saturday Night Fever.

I sang, “You should be dancing…. Yeah.”

Bye, Papa B. I’ll see you when I see you.