BusinessMirror August 03, 2023

@Raadeeboy

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has posted an initial assessment of agricultural and shery damage from Supertyphoon Egay at P2.89 billion, data showed on August 1. e latest bulletin of DA shows that the damages was based on the assessment from Regional Field O ces (RFOs) in Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Soccsksargen and Caraga. “ e damages and losses in the agricultural and shery sector now

amounts to P2.89 billion a ecting

142,365 farmers and sherfolk, with total volume of production loss at 98,217 metric tons [MT] and 163,722 hectares of agricultural areas,” data shows. “ e a ected commodities include rice worth P1.13 billion, corn worth P998.2 million, highvalue crops worth P235.6 million, livestock and poultry worth P11.9 million, and sheries worth P175.4 million,” the DA data shows. Damage was also incurred in agricultural and shery infrastructure and facilities, and shing paraphernalia.

e 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) indicated that the expected national government’s debt stock by end-2024 is P1.218 trillion higher than the projected P14.623-trillion outstanding debt by the end of this year.

e country’s outstanding debt as of end-June rose by 10.6 percent year-on-year to P14.15 trillion, a new record high for the country, from last year’s P12.791 trillion. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/08/02/phl-end-junedebt-up-10-6-to-record-p14-1-trillion/) e programmed gross borrowings by the state next year is set at P2.46 trillion, P253 billion more than this year’s P2.207-trillion gross borrowing plan. Next year’s borrowing program would still follow a 75:25 mix in favor of domestic sources.

e Marcos Jr. administration would borrow P1.853 trillion next year from the domestic market through the sale of Treasury bills (T-bills) and Treasury bonds (Tbonds). e Bureau of the Treasury will tender P51.050 billion worth of T-bills and P1.802 trillion worth of T-bonds next year.

e remaining P606.850 billion would be secured by the national government from abroad through program loans (P295.845 billion), project loans (P36.005 billion) and bonds and other in ows (P275 billion).

THE leadership of the House of Representatives on Wednesday vowed to approve in a “transparent manner” the proposed P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget before the October congressional break.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez made the assurance during the formal submission of the President’s budget proposal to the lower chamber.

Compared to the current year’s P5.268 trillion in appropriations, the projected budget for the next year is 9.5 percent higher.

“Let me assure everyone that the House of the People understands full well the need to pass

the national budget on time.

e national budget is crucial in maintaining economic stability, sustaining the country’s growth trajectory, and facilitating the seamless implementation of government programs and projects.

As such, it demands the House’s utmost attention and commitment,” Romualdez said.

He said the House would deliberate “in a very transparent manner and get the widest consensus for our spending plan.”

“We will make sure that every centavo of the national budget will be spent wisely and contribute to our goal of reigniting the res of our economic forges,” he said.

e annual budget deliberations

will start with a brie ng from the Development Budget Coordination

Committee (DBCC) on August 10.

Romualdez also expressed condence that with the participation and cooperation of his colleagues and o cials of the DBM and other agencies, the House “will be able to scrutinize, deliberate, and pass the national budget that is free for 2024 before we go on our rst recess in October.”

He said the annual national budget is the blueprint for the government’s spending priorities.

For next year, he said the administration’s priorities would be food security, reduction of transport, logistics, and energy costs, arresting learning losses, health and social protection, improving bureaucratic e ciency, and sound

the first-ever awardee from the private sector, who was recognized for his outstanding leadership and unwavering support to the effective delivery of core Disaster Risk Reduction and Management mandates that served as both bridge and catalyst for all stakeholders. SM SUPERMALLS

THE Philippines’s outstanding debt at the end of 2024 is projected to reach P15.841 trillion as the Marcos Jr. administration is set to borrow more money to bankroll the national government’s record-high P5.768-trillion budget for next year.

ese gures are subject to validation. Additional damage and losses are expected in areas a ected by the continuous rain and strong winds.

rough its RFOs, the Department is assessing the impacts caused by the typhoon in the agriculture and shery sector. e DA’s assistance to a ected farmers and shers are: 111,873 bags of rice seeds, 14,426 bags of corn seeds and 2,582 kilograms of assorted vegetable seeds from the regions a ected by the typhoon (CAR, Regions I, II, III, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, VI, and XIII).

Moreover, a ected farmers and shers will receive drugs and biologics for livestock and poultry; P62,000 worth of tilapia, carp, and cat sh ngerlings to a ected sherfolk from Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).

e agency also has P5.9 million worth of fuel assistance for sherfolks in CAR, Regions I, II, and III; P1.9 million worth of repair and maintenance for damaged motorized boats.

Also lined up are a total of P200 million worth of Survival and Recovery (SURE) Loan Program from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) with loanable amount of up to P25,000 payable in three years at zero interest; and P500 million worth of Quick Response Fund (QRF) for the rehabilitation of a ected areas.

European apparel brand moves out PHL orders, shifts to Vietnam

AMAJOR European apparel brand has pulled out its orders from the Philippines and is transferring the orders to Vietnam because Vietnam has a free trade agreement with the European Union, according to the Confederation of Wearables Exporters of the Philippines (Conwep).

Conwep Executive Director Maritess Jocson-Agoncillo said the resumption of formal negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and the European Union (EU) is “very time-

ly” for the local garments sector because a European brand diverted its orders from the Philippines to Vietnam and Cambodia.

“It’s very timely for us...because there’s a brand that pulled out

from the Philippines. It’s a European brand that pulled out from the Philippines, and is totally importing all his things. is brand totally diverted the Philippine orders to Vietnam and Cambodia,” Jocson-Agoncillo told reporters on the sidelines of the brie ng of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regarding the resumption of the negotiations on the PH-EU FTA.

e Conwep o cial attributed the pullout of orders from the Philippines to the fact that Vietnam has an FTA with Europe and Cambodia, having an “[Everything But Arms] EBA thing.”

Moreover, Jocson-Agoncillo divulged that the diversion of orders from the Philippines to its neighboring countries is a ecting the local garments sector, adding that, “about 4,800 to 6,000 workers are

being e ected” by this issue.

“Because this brand, even if it’s a European brand, we ship it all over the world, since it’s a famous brand. It’s not just for Europe,” Jocson-Agoncillo also noted.

In terms of exports, the Conwep o cial said this might result in an annual loss in exports of around US$200 million to US$300 million.

Meanwhile, the Conwep o cial explained how “uncompetitive” the Philippine garments sector is compared to Vietnam’s, pointing out the “limited market access” being experienced by the local sector.

“Technically, my products still have to pay when they import these, I still have 12 percent. European buyers still have to pay the duties from the Philippines so that’s uncompetitive for me compared to Vietnam, who’s also already competing with me on the cost of doing

business...Vietnam has an FTA,” Jocson-Agoncillo said.

She illustrated, “So a jacket like yours coming from the Philippines compared to Vietnam will enter Europe [with] 12 percent duty...so my market access really has an issue. I’m not fully there even with the GSP, we have restrictions.” For his part, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said at the same brie ng on Tuesday that once the trade deal is implemented, the garments sector is among the local sectors that will bene t from the FTA.

“ e average tari for wearables is 12 percent. So it’s quite high. at’s why we foresee that under an FTA, with a more liberalized rules of origin, one of the sectors which will have a surge...primary sector would be garments and wearables,” Rodolfo said.

PHL OUTSTANDING DEBT SEEN RISING TO P15.84T

Higher revenues

THE Marcos Jr. revenue expects better revenue collection next year is it targeting to earn P4.272 trillion from tax and non-tax measures, which is P71 billion higher

than its previous target of P4.201 trillion for 2024.

e expected revenue collection is also 14.56 percent higher than this year’s P3.729-trillion target.

e 2024 NEP showed that tax revenues next year would rise by 15.15 percent to P4.073 trillion

from this year’s P3.537 trillion.

Meanwhile, non-tax revenues, including privatization, by the national government in 2024, would reach P196 billion, nearly P5 billion higher than this year’s P191.1 billion programmed collections.

Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said the revenue collection target for 2024 already incorporates the anticipated earnings from new tax measures to be passed by the current administration within the year.

e 2024 NEP indicated that the national government is expected to generate the following amount from the various tax measures: P16.999 billion from VAT on Digital Services, P8.493 billion from Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation (PIFITA), P6.535 billion from excise tax on single-use plastics, P365 million from excise tax on pre-mixed alcoholic beverages, P75.743 billion from excise tax on sweetened beverages and junk food, and P12.4

billion from the mining scal regime. e country’s revenue-to-GDP ratio next year is expected to rise to 16.1 percent from this year’s 15.2 percent due to higher collection. Tax revenues as a share of GDP next year is expected to account for 15.3 percent compared with this year’s 14.4 percent.

For next year, the Bureau of Internal Revenue is tasked to collect P3.046 trillion, higher than this year’s goal of P2.639 trillion while the Bureau of Customs is programmed to collect at least P1 trillion from its 2023 target of P874.2billion.

Disbursements

THE national government is expected to disburse P5.629 trillion next year, P401 billion more than this year’s programmed P5.228 trillion.

About P4.18 trillion of the disbursements would go to current operating expenditures while

P1.420 trillion would nance the national government’s capital outlays, based on the budget documents.

e national government’s debt service next year, which is expected to account for 12.1 percent of overall budget, would increase by 14.43 percent to P699.2 billion from this year’s P611 billion. Broken down, P670.5 billion would go to interest payments while P28.7 billion would be for net lending, based on the budget documents.

e national government’s infrastructure program next year is pegged at P1.365 trillion, about 5.1 percent of GDP, which is P73 billion higher than this year’s P1.292 trillion programmed expenditure. e national government’s budget de cit next year is anticipated to fall to P1.356 trillion or about 5.1 percent of GDP. is year’s programmed budget de cit is at P1.499 trillion or about 6.1 percent of GDP.

SPEAKER VOWS ‘TRANSPARENT’ 2024 BUDGET PROCESS

scal management. He said he was informed that the proposed budget also includes funds to support the country’s climate change initiatives, local government empowerment, and the development of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

He said the early presentation of the proposed spending program “provides the House ample time to study, discuss, and deliberate on the ner points of the proposal and formulate a national budget that is responsive to the development needs of the country.”

Quick

HOUSE Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rep. Elizaldy Co has ensured that all the requisite processes are already in place for the House to thoroughly assess the government’s NEP for 2024.

Co said the lower chamber will work overtime to meet the House’s internal deadlines while ensuring that every centavo is allotted precisely where needed.

e appropriations committee is tasked with deliberating on the national budget, aimed at sustaining the country’s economic growth, creating more income and job opportunities, and improving the quality of life of Filipinos through the timely delivery of social services.

Co said his committee will scrutinize the NEP properly in keeping

with its mandate. “By ‘properly,’ I mean making sure that we look at the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing [BESF] with a keen eye,” he said.

“I have clear marching orders from the Speaker: make sure that the budget fully supports the Marcos administration’s 8-point socioeconomic agenda through sound scal management,” Co said.

“ is necessitates the committee checking if the projected revenues and borrowings re ected in the BESF are enough to fund the expenses, and, just as importantly, if they are funding the right projects and initiatives.”

e committee will also be taking into consideration the National Economic and Development Authority’s macroeconomic assumptions, on which the proposed budget is based.

“We’ll take a look at the projected Gross National Product growth rates, treasury bill rates, foreign exchange rates, population growth rates, and other economic indicators,” Co said. “We want to get assurances that these are aligned with the NEP’s slated out ows and in ows.”

e 2024 NEP is pegged at P5.768 trillion, 9.5 percent higher than the current government budget.

In line with the Speaker’s directive, Co said the appropriations committee will begin deliberations on the budget next week.

“ e committee will put its

nose to the grindstone so that the House will be able to approve the budget on third reading before Congress adjourns on September 30,” he said.

Budgetary fat

FOR his part, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said it is opportune to remind Congress members that while the President proposes the national budget, it is the Congress, more particularly the House of Representatives, that disposes of and approves the national budget through the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).

e proposed budget items in the NEP are subject to realignment, modi cation, alteration, reduction, and/or increase, provided the budget ceiling of P5.768 trillion is not exceeded, said Lagman.

“ e GAA is a veritable policy statement on the government’s priority programs and projects. It is incumbent on Congress to rectify in the NEP wayward policies and rescue proposed funds which are waylaid for favored agencies and concerns,” he added.

“ e Congress must also excise any budgetary fat, whether overtly or covertly hidden in the NEP,” he said.

According to Lagman, the congressional power of the purse in the appropriation of public funds must be honored and respected even as legislators acknowledge the President’s power to disburse appropriated funds with dispatch and impartiality.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

ASMALL plane carrying a Filipino trainer pilot and an Indian student is missing in the northeastern Philippines and the search is being hampered by bad weather, civil aviation officials said Wednesday.

The Cessna 152 left from Laoag city in northern Ilocos Norte province around noon Tuesday but failed to land three hours later as expected in Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province, said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which did not immediately identify the two people on the plane.

The search efforts by the Philippine Air Force, Army troops and other government personnel Tuesday were hampered by bad weather.

A Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) helicopter and a private helicopter cut short their search flights Wednesday due to bad weather, the

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE national government

(NG) is hiking its climate change (CC) spending next year by 17 percent to over P540 billion as it plans to strengthen the country’s mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Based on the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the national government is allocating about P543.445 billion for its CC expenditures next year, P78.946 billion higher than this year’s P464.499-billion budget.

“With global temperatures reaching record highs, floods and droughts that displace millions, we have made future-proofing a top priority of this Administration to address climate change,” President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said in his 2024 budget message that was part of the submitted NEP to the Congress on Wednesday.

The 2024 NEP showed that around 68 percent of the proposed CC budget next year or about P355.302 billion would be allocated for adaptation measures and programs while P165.396 billion would be earmarked for mitigation efforts.

The budget document indicated that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) would receive almost 60 percent of the CC allocation next year with a proposed total funding of P308.084 billion.

The DPWH’s budget for CC is higher than the combined CC funding that over 25 other government agencies and units would get next year estimated at P212.614 billion.

civil aviation agency said.

CAAP spokesman Eric Apolonio told The Associated Press the plane received clearance to take off from Laoag, where the weather cleared after a typhoon passed through mountainous northern region last week.

“The plane may have encountered bad weather along the way,” Apolonio said.

The last known position of the plane was northwest of Cagayan province’s Alcala town in a mountainous region where searchers suspect the plane may have crashed, the civil agency said in a statement.

Typhoon “Egay” (international code name: Doksuri) caused damage to homes, flooding and landslides in Cagayan, Ilocos Norte and other northern provinces. It also enhanced seasonal monsoon rains that swamped the capital, Manila, and other regions. AP

SC acquits ex-PEA execs, private contractor of overprice in Macapagal boulevard project

By Joel R. San Juan  @jrsanjuan1573

THE Supreme Court (SC) has acquitted the former board members of the Public Estates Authority (now Philippine Reclamation Authority) and a private contractor of graft charges filed against them in connection with the alleged P532-million overpriced construction of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) in Pasay and Parañaque Cities, which was opened to the public in 2022.

In a 69-page decision penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez, the Court’s Second Division reversed and set aside the September 16, 2015 decision issued by the Sandiganbayan, which found the petitioners Cristina Amposta-Mortel, Theron Victor Lacson, Leo Padilla, Manuel Berifia Jr., Jaime Millan, Bernardo Viray, Raphael Pocholo Zorilla, Daniel Dayan, Frisco Francisco San Juan, Elpidio Damaso, Carmelita D. Chan, and contractor Jesusito Legaspi guilty of violating the provisions of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act  and sentenced them to a maximum of eight years in prison.

The Court even praised the timely completion of the project, saying that this  has benefited the government with “the increase  in value of the land surrounding the area, as well as the public who continue to reap the benefits of having alternate routes that would let them avoid traffic congestion.”

Bulk of the DPWH’s CC funding would go to its flood management program with an allotment of P215.6 billion for the construction of new and rehabilitation of existing flood mitigation structures along major and principal rivers, according to the budget documents.

The NEP showed that the Marcos administration is allocating P2.5 billion next year for the National Green Program that would rehabilitate about 31,992 hectares of forestlands, among others.

The administration is also bankrolling a P1-billion budget to protect the country’s natural habitats and conserve biodiversity and another P2 billion for its Green, Green, Green program that seeks to improve and develop green open spaces, such as parks, and to construct bicycle lanes, racks, among others.

The Manila Bay Rehabilitation project would receive a P1.5 billion budget “to clean all esteros and waterways connected to it,” Marcos said.

The other projects and programs under the CC spending next year are: Clean Air Program (P181 million), Clean Water Program (P198 million), Solid Waste Management Program (P261 million), and Coastal and Marine Resources Management Program (P217 million).

“To climate-proof the Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund amounts to P31 billion to fund the reconstruction, rehabilitation, repair, aid and relief services to communities or areas affected by both natural and man-made activities,” Marcos said.

The Sandiganbayan, in the same ruling, also held the members of the old PEA board and the PEA management civilly liable in the amount of P173.44 million for the supposed irregularities that accompanied the construction of the PDMB project.

It also declared construction firm JD Legaspi civilly liable in the amount of P57.5 million for the construction of the Seaside Drive Extension, which was not part of the original contract for PDMB project.

The Sandiganbayan ruled that the accused violated the simplified bidding rules because they shortlisted bidders not based on the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) masterlist.

It also held that the accused conducted the bidding and recommended the award to JD Legaspi without detailed engineering in violation of  ection 2 of Presidential Decree 1594 and without the required appropriation and actual availability of funds for the total contract price.

Section 2 of PD No. 1594 requires that detailed engineering be carried out before any bidding or contract is awarded for a construction project.

In acquitting the old PEA board members and Legaspi, the SC noted the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) that there was no overpricing in the implementation of the said project.

“Considering that the COA, the constitutionally

9 reservist battalions now being readied for ‘territorial defense’

NINE Ready Reserve Battalions affiliated with the Nueva Ecija-based 7th Infantry Division are now transitioning towards socalled “territorial defense” missions.

This was emphasized by 7th Infantry Division (ID) commander Maj. Gen. Andrew Costelo as the unit celebrated its 35th founding anniversary at Fort Magsaysay, Palayan City, Nueva Ecija on Monday, August 1.

“The 7ID is transitioning to territorial defense. We shall utilize both our regular and reserve forces that have proven to be solid pillars of our country’s defense. We are strengthening their interoperability, enhancing their capability to supplement each other’s strengths,” he added.

Costelo also said this shift to territorial defense is due to the 7ID’s success in counter-insurgency operations.

He also added that reservists from the nine Ready Reserve Infantry Battalions have undergone “personnel leadership enhancement program” as a capacity-building measure for their commanders and senior staff.

THE death toll caused by the combined effects of the southwest monsoon and typhoon “Egay” has reached 27, with the affected families now at 765,024 families, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported in its Wednesday update. Of the reported death toll, only two are confirmed so far and these were reported in Calabarzon and Region 1.

The 25 reported fatalities are still undergoing validation, the NDRRMC, and these deaths can be broken down into 12 for the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), eight for Region 1, three

for Calabarzon, and one each for Region 6, and 11.

The agency said these figures could still change pending validation or confirmation.

Meanwhile, it said that the 765,024 families, which is equivalent to 2,856,962 individuals, are residing in 4,646 barangays in 13 regions of the country.

As of this writing, the NDRRMC said 677 evacuation centers are in operation and these are now assisting 15,604 families, which is equivalent to 57,740 persons.

Meanwhile, another 57,609 families or 231,973 individuals are being aided outside.  Rex Anthony Naval

Costelo said the program would improve their ability to operate in conjunction with the regular force.

He also lauded the participation of Reserve Officer Training Corps commanders in leadership programs and educational and capability enhancement tours where they were able to interact with Army aviators and Army elite units.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., who was the guest of honor and speaker at the 7ID’s 35th anniversary, lauded the unit for being a “showcase unit of the Philippine Army in its engagements with allied and partner nations.”

“As we transition from internal security operations to territorial defense, I commend your aptitude in integrating different assigned forces during peace and conflict. I am happy to see all of the developments, the new establishments and innovations,” he added. Rex Anthony Naval

bound auditor of government funds, declared that no overpricing occurred, such findings should be given considerable weight,” the SC said.

“This further shows that no injury was proven to have been caused to the government; neither any manifest partiality in favor of a party was given. As part of the elements of violation of RA No. 3019, failure to prove these would be tantamount to a failure to prove violation of the law, beyond reasonable doubt,” it added.

The Court also agreed with the contention of the petitioners that they had to rely on the list of contractors provided by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) since the PCAB master list was not yet available then.

“Nowhere from the evidence presented by the prosecution was it shown that JD Legaspi or any of the bidders was unqualified or had no competence to undertake the PDMB project because the PEA relied on the DPWH list,” the Court pointed out.

On the contrary, the SC noted that JD Legaspi, as the winning bidder, was able to perform his part of the contract.

“The circumstances that led to PEA’s action in utilizing the DPWH therefore negates the presence of manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence under Section 3[e] of RA No. 3019,” the SC explained.

Furthermore, the SC said a violation of Section 2 of PD No. 1594, “without clear showing of bad faith, malice, or gross negligence,” cannot be automatically equated to violation of the anti-graft law.

“At the most, the absence of a detailed engineering could affect the budget or cost for which the government must spend for the completion of the project. Overpricing should, however, be proven to have been committed with deliberate corrupt ways before one can be indicted for violation of RA No. 3019,” the SC said.

“In this case, the Special Audit Report of the COA found that there was no overpricing in the portion of the contract awarded to JD Legaspi,” it added.

Likewise, contrary to the findings of the Sandiganbayan, the SC said the  condition for presidential approval on extra works and price adjustments for the PDMB project was met, subject to certain conditions.

The Court also ruled that the construction of the Seaside Drive Extension, even without

presidential approval, can’t be used as basis in holding the petitioners liable for graft without proof of bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.

The SC noted that the Seaside Drive Extension was constructed at a portion of the PDMB in order to have a road that will connect it to the Roxas Boulevard and serve as a link to the other roads going to and from the PDMB.

“With a legal basis for which the actions taken by petitioners were anchored, it cannot be said that their actions were coupled with a clear inclination to favor another or that a conscious wrongdoing, ill will or dishonest purpose was being committed,” the SC pointed out.

As a consequence of the acquittal of the petitioners, the Court also deleted the civil liability imposed by the Sandigabayan against them.

It can be recalled that in 1995 then President Fidel Ramos initiated the Boulevard 2000 Framework Plan to address the problem of flooding in the area, alleviate traffic congestion along Roxas Boulevard, and link the reclamation with circumferential and radial road system of Metro Manila.

The PEA Board in 1998 approved the construction of the road project as well as the P1 billion loan facility in the form of convertible notes to finance the same.

In October 2002, Sulficio Tagud, a former member of the PEA Board filed a complaintaffidavit with the Ombudsman against the officers and members of the 2001-2002 board directors and other accused who were allegedly behind the anomalous contract.

In 2003, the Ombudsman issued a resolution dismissing the plunder charge for insufficiency of evidence, but found probable cause and recommended the filing of an Information for violation of Sec. 3 (e) of Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act).

The Ombudsman alleged that the said public officials gave unwarranted benefits, advantage, and preference to accused Legaspi by bidding out the project and illegally awarding the same to the latter despite the lack of compliance with the mandatory requirements and procedure for bidding, even if no funds are yet available to finance the project.

The Ombudsman also averred that it caused the allowance and payment of several claims of JD Legaspi amounting to an unlawful overprice of more than P532 million.

Cagayan weather hampers search for missing Cessna 152 plane carrying pilot, Indian student

NEP 2024 proposes 17-percent hike in climate-change spending to ₧540B

Death toll, displaced families climb after ‘Egay,’ southwest monsoon rain

DENR bares ECC guidelines for proposed ‘floating solar’ projects in Laguna de Bay A

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

PROPONENTS of floating photovoltaic (FPV) projects targeting Laguna de Bay would go through the proverbial eye of the needle to get their applications for environmental compliance certificates (ECC) approved.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order No. 2023-08 signed by Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga on July 17 outlined the environmental and social considerations on every phase of development of FPV projects, from the pre-construction stage, development or construction stage, operation and maintenance stage, up to the decommissioning stage.

FPV plants or “floating solar” is relatively new in the Philippines. In January, the DENR chief issued an order halting the acceptance and processing of ECC applications for FPVs and offshore wind power projects, noting that some regional offices of the DENR started accepting and processing, or even issuing ECCs.

In crafting the guidelines, the DENR sought the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to come up with measures to ensure that “FPV development adheres to the highest environmental sustainability standards.”

To ensure a holistic approach to environmental management, a programmatic environmental impact assessment shall be conducted for FPV projects in Laguna de Bay.

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) has been mandated as the proponent of the provision and shall secure the programmatic ECC for its initial pre-determined areas for the proposed projects.

The environmental impact statement, meanwhile, should have a thorough discussion on a number of environmental impacts of the projects, including cumulative impact assessment

of the projects within the lake for the existing and proposed projects, analysis of the carrying capacity of the lake, ecosystem accounting and cost-benefit analysis, potential effect on habitats and species due to vegetation clearing for assembly and laydown areas; potential change in water quality, potential leaching of chemicals from the structure component of the FPV systems, occurrence of accidental oil, lubricant, and chemical spills during construction, operations and maintenance phase, and risk to freshwater ecology and aquatic life due to shading and breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Only the Secretary or the Director of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has the authority to approve ECC applications subject to the carrying capacity of the lake.

The guidelines, specifically crafted for floating solar projects for Laguna de Bay, as part of the “Declaration of Policy” highlights the crucial role of renewable energy sources, particularly FPV plants, in achieving a sustainable future and addressing the challenges brought about by climate change in accordance with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

“FPV plants promote sustainable economic growth, while reducing the environmental impact of energy production. These plants contribute to both the green and blue economies by harnessing the benefits of solar energy in a way that is environmentally sustainable, while also creating economic opportunities,” the order said.

To ensure the sustainable development of FPVs and mitigate the environmental risks in the implementation of the project in Laguna de Bay, the order highlighted the importance of establishing a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulatory framework that incorporates careful planning and management.

The order further stated that the

pre-construction stage involves the identification of a suitable location within the Laguna de Bay for the FPV project, an assessment of the entire area, and the conduct of a feasibility study to determine if the proposed site is suitable for the installation of FPV.

The order also requires a baseline study and stakeholder analysis to establish the existing environmental, social, and economic conditions, including land and water use, flora and fauna, and livelihoods of the communities that may be affected.

“The main environmental considerations are water quality and aquatic supported biodiversity. The factors affecting the same are the location, seasonality, size of the water body, percentage covered, and materials used as part of the installation,” the order stated.

Moreover, the potential increased sedimentation due to reduced flow in the area, surface heating, degradation of littoral zone plant growth as a result of reduced sunlight, impact on benthic habitat due to submerged electrical cable and/or installation of mooring systems, and positioning of array systems vis-à-vis flow patterns must be considered in the project planning.

Meanwhile, key social considerations include the potential impact on the livelihood and economic activities of users of the aquatic environment.

The proponents must also consider the availability of the areas for recreation, increase in visual clutter, and proximity to an identified navigational lane and or access lane for public areas to productive fishing areas.

In the conduct of the public scoping as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process, where information and project impact assessment requirements are established to provide the proponent with the scope of work or the terms of reference of the report, must be submitted to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).

The proponent during the public

Education gets lion’s share in 2024 NEP

scoping is also required to work with the DENR, Department of Energy (DOE), and other relevant government agencies to identify the parameters for the EIA as part of the scoping process.

Before actual development or construction, proponents are required to conduct a climate risk assessment to determine the impact of climatic conditions on the construction, foundation, system design, and layout and reliability of the FPV projects.

The proponents are also required to assess the carrying capacities of identified water bodies, particularly rivers, inland lakes, and reservoirs in relation to other existing water uses to consider climate change risks and impacts.

During the construction stage, which includes the site preparation, delivery, and installation of the floaters, PV panels, inverters transformers, electrical cables, and other equipment, anchoring and mooring interconnection to substation and grid, testing and commissioning would have to be conducted to ensure that the project is operational and at par with environmental safeguards and safety standards.

Moreover, the order maintains that occupational health and safety hazards during the development or construction stage should include physical hazards from the use of heavy equipment, cranes, hazardous materials, dust and noise, falling objects, live power lines, and electric and magnetic fields.

Meanwhile, during the operation and maintenance phase of the project, the proponents are required to regular, preventive, corrective, and predictive maintenance and repair of the plant to ensure its safe and efficient operation.

Even after the plant is set for decommissioning, the order strictly requires the removal of the facility and the process involves the restoration of the site to its original state as much as possible, and managing any waste and debris generated during the decommissioning is a must.

NEA affirms ZAMCELCO’s EC rating improvement

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

THE Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (ZAMCELCO) showed improvement in its overall performance in 2022 as it achieved B rating from C in 2021. The electric cooperative (EC) said on Wednesday it received from the National Electrification Administration (NEA) the latest annual assessment conducted on all ECs.

The NEA’s rating system is based on multiple criteria, including institutionalgovernance parameters, financial parameters, technical parameters, level of electrification, and reportorial requirement. ZAMCELCO’s consistent improvements across these domains propelled the cooperative’s ascent to the B rating.

“We’re thankful for this nod from the NEA, which further lets us know that ZAMCELCO is on the right track,” said ZAMCELCO Chief

Management Officer Rommel Agan.

ZAMCELCO’s B rating was a result of the improved quality of electricity distribution in the city since the new management took over in late 2018. Since then, the electric cooperative has witnessed significant enhancements to its services, as reflected in the NEA’s ratings.

From a rating of D in 2018 to C in 2019 and C again in 2021, ZAMCELCO’s progress has been consistently positive, culminating in the

B rating in NEA’s 2022 assessment.

ZAMCELCO, a joint venture between Crown Investment Holdings Inc. and Desco Inc., is currently implementing a P2.5-billion investor-manager contract (IMC).

The IMC is a contractual relationship between a willing electric cooperative and a willing investor-operator for the infusion of risk capital and provision of management expertise by the latter to the former to provide for sustainable electric cooperative recovery

S mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the education sector will retain the highest budgetary priority next year with the biggest allocation amounting to P924.7 billion under the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

In his budget message, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said the 2024 allocation for the education sector, which includes the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), and 116 state universities and colleges (SUCs), is higher than 2023’s P895.2 billion.

For next year, the DepEd will receive P758.6 billion, CHED with P31 billion, Tesda with P15.2 billion, and SUCs with P105 billion.

“With 99.5 percent of our public schools now implementing 5-day inperson classes, this amount will fund significant investments in the education of over 28 million learners nationwide,” the President said.

The allocation for the education sector represents 16 percent of the proposed national budget and reflects a 3.3 percent increase from its P895.2 billion in 2023, owing to higher provision for the Basic Education Facilities (BEF) program, schoolbased feeding programs, and basic education textbooks and materials.

The President said this huge allocation for the education sector is in line with the DepEd’s “Matatag: Bansang Makabata, Batang Makabansa” agenda.

“We shall continue to provide funding for the UAQTE [Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education] program, which will receive a total of P51.1 billion. Of this amount, P26.0 billion is allocated for CHED, P21.7 billion for SUCs, and P3.4 billion for TESDA.

Marcos said P41.0 billion would also be provided for Education Assistance and Subsidies.

Of this amount, he said the DepEd would receive P39.3 billion for its Education Service Contracting, Junior High School and Senior High School (SHS) Voucher Program, and Joint Delivery Voucher Program

based on improved efficiency, lower costs and systems loss reduction.

Despite the rising electricity demand in Zamboanga City, which grew from 539,902,082 kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2018 to 609,425,759 kWh in 2022, ZAMCELCO’s new management has continued to uphold its commitment to superior service.

ZAMCELCO has recorded over 125,000 billed customers.

ZAMCELCO’s management recently announced the cooperative’s “GetSET25 Zamboanga” campaign, seeking to meet rising demand for energy with stable

for SHS Technical Vocational Livelihood Specialization.

CHED’s Student Financial Assistance Program and Tesda’s Private Education Student Financial Assistance Program will receive P1.5 billion and P200 million, respectively.

Improving education facilities is essential for creating a conducive learning environment for all learners, including those in remote and hard-to-reach areas, according to the President.

“A well-equipped and well-designed classroom can foster a positive atmosphere for learning. In line with this and as part of DepEd’s seven focus areas, the BEF program will receive P33.8 billion for the construction of 7,879 new classrooms and technical vocational laboratories; repair and rehabilitation of 10,050 classrooms; procurement of 21,557 sets of school desks, furniture, and fixtures; electrification of 432 classrooms; and construction of 333 priority school health facilities, three mediumrise school buildings, 72 library hubs, 16 Inclusive Learning Resource Centers (ILRCs), and four Community Learning Centers (CLCs). These projects will be implemented in all corners of the country, including in underserved areas. Similarly, the various infrastructure projects of SUCS will receive P3.4 billion,” he said.

In support of our agenda for Education, Marcos said the government would allocate P12 billion for textbooks and other instructional materials.

The DepEd Computerization Program will receive P8.9 billion to procure eLearning cart packages, laptops for teachers and non-teaching personnel, and various ICT equipment for the establishment of the MATATAG Center in 2024.

The Alternative Learning System will receive P632 million to support education, employment, and entrepreneurship programs for out-of-school youth, and the Government Internship Program will receive a budget of P808 million. Similarly, the Special Program for Employment of Students will be allocated P829 million, while the JobStart Philippines Program will receive P205 million. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

electricity and economic rates for its consumers—and committed themselves to a deadline of 2025.

“ We’re giving ourselves a deadline. We have formally committed that by 2025 we will be providing stable electricity in Zamboanga City, with the projects that are in the pipeline. The steady improvements to our services tie back to our vision of being an invaluable partner of the local government to develop Zamboanga City into one of the country’s most economically-competitive cities,” Agan shared, “and of course, to empower the communities we serve.”

Go lauds sustained Malasakit Center ops amid PHL’s rising health-care challenges

SENATOR Christopher Lawrence “Bong”

Go, in an ambush interview over the weekend after assisting flood victims in Davao City, reiterated his support for the continued operation of the Malasakit Centers initiative, a program he initiated five years ago.

The initiative, which aims to streamline medical and financial assistance to Filipinos, has since helped hundreds of thousands of indigent patients across Davao Region, and 7 million Filipinos throughout the country, according to the Department of Health (DOH). “Sa ngayon po,it’s raw data, peromahigit500,000 patients napoangnatulungansabuongDavao Region ng Malasakit Center,” he said.

Go further explained that there are currently five Malasakit Centers operating in the Davao Region and an additional one is set to open soon in Davao Occidental.

This latest expansion will bring the total number of Malasakit Centers to six in the region, further broadening its impact and reach. “Sa ngayon po, ang ating Malasakit Center sa SPMC [Southern Philippines Medical Center] sa Davao City, ang kinecater po niyan, hindi lang taga-Davao City. Buong Mindanao, pwedeng lumapit diyan,” the senator elaborated.

Other Malasakit Centers in the Davao Region are located at the Davao de Oro Provincial Hospital, Davao Del Sur Provincial Hospital,

Davao Oriental Provincial Medical Center and the Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC).

“Sa ating mga kababayan sa Davao Region, mayroon na pong limang Malasakit Center nahandangtumulongsainyo.Higit500,000 na pasyente na ang natulungan sa Davao Region alone. At 7 million patients na ang natulunganpongMalasakit Center sabuong Pilipinas,” he said.

These centers have significantly impacted the Davao Region, with the Malasakit Center in SPMC alone having served approximately 212,000 patients from 2019 to mid-2023.

Meanwhile, according to a recent report, medical assistance to indigent patients of the DOH was provided through the Malasakit

Center in DRMC in Tagum City to 129,432 patients from 2019 until July 2023. Malasakit Centers bring together representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, DOH, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. The one-stop-shop aims to support impoverished patients in reducing their hospital costs to the least possible amount. Go is the principal author and sponsor of Republic Act No. 11463 or the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program. To date, there are already 158 operational centers nationwide.

Conservation advocates hit Mati City LGU order to shut down marine turtle hatchery

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

ENVIRONMENTAL advocates belonging to the Amihan sa Dahican Balud sa Paglaum Inc., a nongovernment organization that operates a marine turtle hatchery in the Dahican beach in Mati, Davao Oriental slammed the decision of the local government to dismantle their facility reportedly to commercialize and take over the ecotourism business for the community.

We’ve been operating our hatchery for more than two decades now to protect and conserve our marine habitat and their nesting ground,” Nicolai Bacalso, board member of Amihan sa Dahican, told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview.

He said they were told to transfer their hatchery to another location, but were surprised when the Office of the Mayor sent men to dismantle their facility despite their stiff opposition to the proposal.

We have conducted three mediation meetings and every time, we registered our opposition to the plan to transfer our hatchery because it is a well known fact that marine turtles return to the place where they were hatched to lay their eggs,” he explained in a mix of Filipino and English.

Dahican Beach is a 7-kilometer stretch of white sand facing the Pacific Ocean. This Boracay-like

beach is slowly gaining popularity among local tourists because of its white sand beach. It is known for watersports activities, which provide jobs and livelihood to the community, including funding for the operation of Amihan Dahican’s marine turtle hatchery.

The beach is also a known nesting ground for marine turtles. At least three of the five known marine turtles nest in the Dahican beach, which the group secures in their hatchery to protect the eggs from various threats and see to it that they hatch and the hatchlings are released safely back into the wild.

I n 2021, Amihan sa Dahican claimed that over 100,000 hatchlings were released by the group in the last three years. In a span of 20 years of its operation, Bacalso said the number could reach 600,000 hatchlings or more.

B acalso is appealing to the

Build Better More gets P1.4-T 2024 budget, 5.3% of GDP

Continued from A14

“ The Convergence and Special Support Program of the DPWH has been allotted P26.6 billion for access roads to tourist destinations, airports, railway stations, sea ports, trades, industries, and economic zones that will be constructed and improved in 2024,” the President’s Budget Message stated.

For land public transport, the government proposed a budget of P6.4 billion in 2024. This program aims to improve and modernize public transport in the country through the funding of several key projects.

T hese include the P1-billion Davao Public Transport Modernization Project which will modernize outdated transport-related services in Davao City; P909-million Edsa Busway Project which aims to support around 600,000 commuters per day; and the P700 million Cebu Bus Rapid Transit Project which will help decongest roads in the city.

T he list includes the financing of the P500 million-worth Active Transport Bike Share System and Safe Pathways Program in Metropolitan Areas which will allow for the construction of bike lanes and proper public transport stops and the P263 million EDSA Greenways Project which aims to address the poor and unsafe walkways around Metro Manila.

For aviation, the national government proposed a P6.1 billion worth budget for 2024. This budget, the administration said, aims to allow the government to modernize and globalize airports nationwide.

To improve air traffic management in airports nationwide, a total of P1.3 billion will go to the new Communications, Navigation and Surveillance/ Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) System Development Project.

“ This will allow air traffic controllers to operate and communicate with aircraft operators using upgraded and modernized technology, especiallywith the almost unmanageable influx of passengers post-pandemic,” the President’s Budget Message read.

T he government will also use its proposed budget for the construction,

rehabilitation, and improvement of the several airports such as the NinoyAquino International Airport which is estimated to cost P1.6 billion; the Kalibo International Airport, P581 million; New Dumaguete Airport Development Project, P500 million; and Laoag International Airport, P500 million.

T he administration also intends to finance the Tacloban Airport which is estimated to cost P500 million; Busuanga Airport, P405 million; New Zamboanga International Airport, P300 million; New Manila Interna -

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to save their hatchery from business interests, adding that a certain family is pushing to commercialize the beach operation and wants their group out of the picture for profit.

It was learned that on Monday, armed with an order from the Office of the Mayor of Mati City, the local government of Mati had sent men to start the dismantling of the hatchery, even when there are still no clear plans for relocation.

The order dated July 17, 2023, was signed by Alan E. Andrada, City Administrator of Mati on behalf of the mayor ordering the dismantling of the hatchery.

The order stated that the operator of the marine turtle hatchery has no permit or documents that warrant their demand as the main facilitator of marine conservation in the area.

The letter addressed to Pedro

G. Plaza, Amihan sa Dahican president, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror stated that a notice to terminate the hatchery operation was issued to the group on March 27, 2023.

“ Be informed that the property leading to your hatchery shall be used as public access, docking areas for fisherfolk to unload and market their produce and for seasonal activities like watersports and the likes,” the order stated.

Anent hereto, you are advised to remove or dismantle the hatchery… or this City LGU will take further action if your group will again, choose to overlook this memorandum,” the order further warned.

As a warning, your organization’s continued, controversial, and defaming claims against the city government will be [met] legally in a proper forum and venue,” the order further stated.

Health top priority in budget, vows PBBM

Continued from A14

tional Airport, P200 million; Bukidnon Airport, P120 million; and the New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environment Protection Projects (NBACSEPP), P97 million.

T he DOTr’s Maritime Infrastructure Program will receive P988 million, which will finance the P625 million for the Maritime Safety Enhancement Project that aims to improve reliability and ensure sustainable maritime transportation safety.

I t will also allocate P134 million for the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project Phase I to improve response capabilities in maritime incidents and enhance the conduct of maritime law enforcement and security operations.

T he Build Better More program also includes projects for digital infrastructure, such as the National Government Data Center Infrastructure, with an allocation of P1.7 billion, and the National Government Portal, with an allocation of P303 million.

In terms of social infrastructure, the government also allocated P5.3 billion for the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) implemented by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

T he government said this includes the P5-billion allocation for social infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges worth P4.2 billion; water supply systems, P569 million; evacuation center, P176 million; fish ports, P35 million; and flood control systems, P10 million.

House clears bills for transition from coal for energy, Pencas

Continued from A14

Under this proposal, Salceda said  the sale of LNG and the local purchases of the sector are VAT-zero-rated, akin to the VAT privileges of the local renewable energy sector.

Salceda said that, “until 2038, when coal shall have been displaced significantly, LNG is a carbon avoidance scheme. It produces less than half the emissions of coal power.”

Expenses for converting a power plant from coal to LNG are also chargeable as a capital expenditure and are therefore subject to a 150 percent deduction pursuant to the CREATE Law, added Salceda.

“The conversion incentive will be crucial for plants like Ilijan, which aim to convert from coal to LNG. That has the highest potential to make more coal plants shift to more emissions-friendly LNG,” he said.

Salceda also pushed for a longer income tax holiday for LNG projects by pushing for their inclusion under Tier III of the CREATE Law.

Salceda also introduced a provision

that allows investors to avail themselves of the special incentives as long as they register within the next four years.

According to the lawmaker, LNG as a source of power generates as much as 50 percent less carbon dioxide than coal.

Accounting system

MEANWHILE, the House, voting 215 affirmative, 0 negative, and 3 abstention, passed HB8443 to establish Pencas, a framework that takes into account the country’s natural capital and its impact on the economy.

The bill seeks to establish a system for the collection, compilation, and development of natural capital accounts in the government as a tool for development planning and programming, policy analysis, and decision-making.

The Pencas will also serve as a comprehensive data framework for the generation of natural capital statistics and account for their progressive integration into macroeconomic indicators.

We acknowledge that solid data is crucial in preserving and developing

our natural capital, and with this proposed legislation, we hope to provide tools and measures that can contribute to the protection, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems,” Speaker Romualdez said.

“ This bill also intends to provide a framework in the generation of natural capital statistics and accounts toward their progressive integration in macroeconomic indicators. That is why the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Interagency Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Statistics (IACENRS), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) shall work hand-in-hand in the implementation of the measure,” Romualdez added.

Under HB 8443, the PSA will have overall responsibility for institutionalizing and implementing Pencas following the System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework.

This refers to a framework that integrates both economic and environ -

mental data to provide a more comprehensive and multipurpose view of the interrelationships among the economy, the environment, and ecosystems, as well as the stocks and changes in stocks of natural assets as they bring benefits to humanity.

Section 9 of the bill also provides participatory mechanisms and citizen remedies wherein any citizen will have the right to information on any account generated under the measure, to have the standing to compel the performance of any of the mandates under the proposed law, and to seek justification from any government agency that may have ignored or neglected Pencas data in their policy or decision-making.

The bill also requires Neda approval before commencing any development projects involving Pencas, which are proposed to be undertaken by the national government, national government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, LGUs, and private investors.

The President said the National Health Workforce Support System will be allocated P18 billion to bolster the healthcare workforce and equip them for deployment in remote and depressed areas to provide promotive and curative services.

Also, a total of P20.0 billion will be provided for the health emergency allowance and Covid-19 compensation package for eligible healthcare and nonhealthcare workers.

The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of our people’s mental health in order to cope with the stresses of life. Under the funding of the DOH, the government will provide P683 million to fund the Mental Health Commodities for 124,246 patients. We have launched convergent programs to address hunger and nutrition-related issues among our

people, especially the young. The Philippine Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Project, jointly led by the DOH and the DSWD, will receive a total of P2.8 billion. This amount will be used to implement a comprehensive package of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions to improve key behaviors and practices that reduce stunting in 235 municipalities,” he said.

T he School-Based Feeding Program has been given an allocation of P11.7 billion to provide hot meals or nutritious food products for 220 days and milk for 55 days to severely wasted and wasted learners from Kinder to Grade 6, added the President.

On Wednesday, the Department of Budget and Management submitted the proposed recordbreaking P5.768 trillion 2024 national expenditure program (NEP) to the House of Representatives. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

DONATION FROM QATAR Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and CEO Dick Gordon (4th from left) receives the water tanker and food truck donated by the people of Qatar from His Excellency Ahmed Saad Al-Homidi (fifth from left), Qatar Ambassador to the Philippines. With the latest donation, the PRC now has 38 food trucks and 28 water tankers, which are part of the standard disaster response fleet and equipment in every PRC regional hub. Also in photo are Jessilou Morigo, PRC Board of Gov Jennifer Ann Munar, PRC Secretary General Dr. Gwen Pang, and PRC Assistant Secretary General for Program and Services Dra. Christie Monina Nalupta (third from right) and Hasan Mehanna Al-Ajmi, Muiz Mudawi, and Rana Ahmed from the Qatar Embassy.

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National govt allots ₧30.9B for rice program

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

In his message for the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said the bulk, or P30.9 billion, of the amount will go to the National Rice Program (NRP).

The implementation of the NRP is expected to help the country achieve food self-sufficiency and make rice more affordable.

Another P10 billion will be

allocated for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), which will be used for seed development, propagation, and promotion; rice credit assistance; and the acquisition of agricultural equipment.

The government is also setting aside P9 billion for the procurement of 473,684 metric tons of palay from farmers for the buffer

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox

DAVA o C I T y—The government is encouraging farmers in Davao de o r o to encourage the youth to join the farm mechanization program initiated by the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Dr. o f ero A. Capariño, assistant director of the DAPhilippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech), said the agency is currently “advocating for youth for mechanization” and has been appealing to the children of farmers to join the program.

“They will be taught on the new farm machines including drone application of fertilizer, how to spray pesticides,” Capariño said. “We hope they will join the program because farming is not difficult as they [think].”

He made the appeal after the PhilMech donated to the province last July 28 facilities worth P7.9 million, including two mechanical grain dryers with biomass and petroleumbased heating systems and one precision rice seeder.

The donation was received by Davao de o r o Governor Dorothy Montejo-Gonzaga in Barangay Pasian, in the municipality of Monkayo.

“Kung may hihingin kami, ito ay alagaan, pakaingatan, mahalin at siguraduhing ang mga libreng makinarya na inyung natanggap ay aabot sa susunod na henerasyon,” Capariño said.

The donation was bankrolled by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

The rice precision seeder represents a ride-on planting device designed to accurately deposit the appropriate seed quantity at precise depths and intervals, leading to a consistent distribution of plants, the DA information office said. “This innovation reduces the need for extensive labor and lowers planting expenses.”

The mechanical drier is expected to significantly aid rice producers in minimizing postharvest losses, especially when faced with adverse weather conditions. These donations were among the series of farm assistance between 2019 and 2022, totaling P189.8 million, the information office said.

It added that another P875,000 was provided by the DA-Agricultural Training Institute 11 for the ProvinceLed Agriculture and Fishery Extension System Capability Development Support. This program aims to strengthen the ability of the local governments to implement crucial agricultural and fishery initiatives.

stocking program of the National Food Authority (NFA).

As part of government efforts to help farmers and fishermen cope with the impact of natural calamities, a budget of P4.5 billion is

being proposed for the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp.

To ensure food security, Marcos said the government is earmarking around P20 billion for programs aimed at increasing the production

of other agricultural commodities.

These include the P5.3 billion for the National Corn Program, P4.3 billion for the National Livestock Program, P1.9 billion for the National High Value Crops Development Program, P1 billion for the Sugarcane Industry Industry Development Program, P6.9 billion for the National Fisheries Program, and P211 million for the Boosting Aquaculture Production Program.

To create “a flexible credit facility” for small farmers and fisheres, Marcos said the government will allot P2.8 billion for the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program.

Under the 2024 NEP, the National Soil Health Program will get P916 million, while agriculturerelated research and development could receive P1.57 billion.

The said initiatives will be augmented by the agriculture infrastructure budget, which includes the P31.2 billion for the National Irrigation Administration so it can provide water to 31,548 hectares of farmland.

The proposed budget next year also contains a P356-million allocation for the Water Supply and Sanitation Program of the Local Water Utilities Administration.

Under the 2024 NEP, the government will construct farm-tomarket roads worth P17.3 billion and P4.9 billion worth of fishingrelated infrastructure.

The Department of Budget and Management submitted the 2024 NEP to the House of Representatives last Wednesday, which it will use as basis for the passage of the 2024 General Appropriations Act.

Marcos asks tobacco farmers to adopt crop diversification

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R.

Marcos Jr. is urging tobacco farmers to practice crop diversification to increase their income and help beef up the country’s food supply.

Marcos issued the statement in his speech, which was read by Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew J. Marcos Manotoc, during the first International Tobacco Agricultural Summit (ITAS) held last Wednesday.

“I urge the Department of Agriculture, and the NTA [National Tobacco Administration]—together

with the academe and the private sector—to explore other crops that can be grown alongside tobacco so it can also contribute to our goal of food security.”

The President said the initiative will help in expanding the role of the tobacco industry as “vibrant catalyst for economic growth” through job creation and tax revenues.

“For many of our people, it is an indispensable bedrock that generates income, livelihood opportunities, and employment, particularly in areas where its

cultivation spans generations and holds pivotal significance in the way of life of communities.”

Marcos lauded the conduct of the ITAS, saying it will help in generating innovations to help the tobacco industry cope with tougher government policies on tobacco products.

Among the said policies are the Sin Tax Law, which imposed higher taxes for tobacco products, and Republic Act 10643, which required the placement of images of the adverse health effects of smoking on tobacco

product packaging.

“May the ideas and best practices that will be shared in this summit be of use to the government in coming up with measures that will promote responsible agricultural practices, ensure jobs and livelihood for our tobacco farmers, and address requirements for food security,” Marcos said.

According to the NTA, there are 43,960 tobacco farmers and 1.56 million workers and “dependents,” who rely on the tobacco industry, nationwide. Samuel P. Medenilla

EU provides more funds to scale up wildlife management program–FAO

THE Food and Agriculture o rganization of the United Nations (FAo) has welcomed €25 million in additional funding from the European Union (EU) to extend and scale up the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme.

Since 2017, the initiative has been working with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to reduce unsustainable wildlife hunting, conserve wildlife, and strengthen people’s livelihoods and food security.

The first phase of the initiative received €45 million from the EU, with co-funding from the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and French Development Agency (AFD). This second phase will run from August to May 2029 and will be part of NaturAfrica, the new EU initiative for biodiversity conservation in Africa.

In this new phase, FA o will continue to lead a consortium of partners, which includes the French Agricultural Research

Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIF o R ) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

“The SWM Programme has a significant contribution to make as we work towards a sustainable and food-secure world for all,” said Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General, FAo The initiative contributes to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as well as to the ‘four betters’ in the new FAo Strategic Framework 2022–2031.”

For example, Semedo said the program is working towards “better nutrition” by promoting safe food across wild and domestic meat value chains, and towards “better environment” by developing innovative approaches to improve practices, build capacities to reduce zoonotic risks and protect ecosystems.

The partnership is working with

national and regional administrations, and over 80 local and indigenous communities, in 16 countries. The initiative is strengthening innovative and collaborative targeted approaches to conserve wild animals, protect ecosystems, and improve the livelihoods of those who depend on these resources.

“Building scalable new models to conserve wildlife and improve food security takes time,” said Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director-General, Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG-INTPA), European Commission.

“We need to further develop the models tested by the SWM Programme and to disseminate and scale up the Programme’s findings, results and approaches to achieve greater impacts. For this reason, the European Union seeks to provide additional funding to continue the SWM Programme until June 2029.”

FAo noted many rural populations around the world continue to

rely on wildlife for food, income and their cultural identity. Wild meat is an important source of protein, fat and micronutrients. However, the increasing demand for wild meat, especially in urban areas, is threatening wildlife populations, ecosystem balance, and food security of indigenous and rural communities in tropical and subtropical regions.

“Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the interdependence between human, animal and ecosystem health, and illustrated the magnitude and diversity of the consequences that the loss or degradation of biodiversity can have around the world.”

The program aims to improve the sustainable and legal use of wild animal populations through participatory management of hunting, fishing and wildlife. It also works on reducing urban consumption of wild meat from unsustainable sources by encouraging healthy and sustainable livestock, poultry and fish farming value chains.

Global rice supply faces new threat as Thailand urges crop curbs

THAILAND has urged farmers to reduce their rice planting to save water following poor rainfall, a move that poses a fresh threat to global supply after India banned some shipments of the grain.

Farmers in the key central region have already planted most of their rice but the government is encouraging a switch to other crops that need less water, according to a statement from Surasri Kidtimonton, the secretary-general of the o f fice of the National Water Resources.

Thailand, the world’s secondbiggest rice exporter, is seeing less rain as the nation braces for a potential drought next year as the El Niño weather pattern leads to drier conditions. Cumulative rainfall so far in the central region is about 40 percent below normal

levels and the move to curb planting of the grain is to help conserve water for household consumption, according to Surasri. Rice prices in Asia surged to the highest in more than three years last month after India— the world’s biggest exporter— banned some of its shipments. The grain is essential to the diets of billions of people and further price gains would burden consumers with additional inflationary pressure.

Thailand’s central region was expected to account for almost 14 percent of total rice-growing area in 2023 and forecast to make up about 19 percent of the main paddy harvest in 2023/24, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Water levels in major reservoirs in the area are at about 51 percent of capacity, said Surasri.

The government previously warned that El Niño could lead to unusually low rainfall, and advised farmers to grow one crop this year instead of the usual two. However, some of the shortage from Thailand should be offset by higher shipments from Vietnam, which

are likely to exceed its target for the year.

Vietnam exported 21 percent more rice in the first six months than a year earlier, with shipments increasing to the Philippines, China and Indonesia, according to the Customs Department. The nation

says an increase in overseas sales won’t affect its food security.

India is by far the world’s biggest rice exporter, accounting for 40 percent of global trade, while Thailand and Vietnam make up 15 percent and around 14 percent, respectively, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Cotton prices

Co T T o N futures gained for a second day in New yo rk as extreme heat is increasingly risking the health of crops in top US grower Texas, raising concerns that world supplies could become tighter than analysts previously expected.

Conditions in Texas have worsened, with only 17 percent of the crop rated as good or excellent as of July 30, the US Department of Agriculture reported Monday. That is even less than the levels

seen at the same period last season, a year when severe drought led to widespread damages. Hot weather across the cotton belt is creating uncertainty about the size of the US crop, said Shawn Wade, director of policy analysis and research at Plains Cotton Growers. “It could be anywhere between 14 million bale to 16 million bale crops. yo u’ve got some pretty high temperatures settling into parts of Louisiana, Mississippi.”

The most-active futures contract climbed as much as 1.3 percent Tuesday to 85.85 cents per pound. Cotton has been on an upward trend since late June, aided by mounting concerns over weather not just in the US but also in India, where El Niño threatens to keep cotton areas dryer than normal. Bloomberg News

Davao de Oro planters urged to inspire kids to take up agriculture

The national government is allocating some P40 billion under its proposed 2024 budget to boost the country’s rice production.

A fArmer in Central Luzon plants rice in this BusinessMirror file photo.

Niger crisis deepens as Europeans leave; coup leaders get support from old juntas

By Sam Mednick The Associated Press

NIAMEY, Niger—A French military transport plane carrying Europeans from Niger arrived in Paris Wednesday, in the first such evacuation flight since mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president nearly a week ago and shut its borders.

France, Italy, and Spain all announced evacuations from Niger for their citizens and other European nationals, concerned that they risked becoming trapped by the coup that won backing Tuesday from three other West African nations also ruled by mutinous soldiers.

About 600 French nationals want to leave, along with 400 people of other nationalities from Belgians to Danish, French officials said. The first flight carried mostly French nationals, and officials hope to finish the evacuation flights by Wednesday.

With Niger’s air space closed, France coordinated the evacuations with the regime that ousted the nation’s leader, but without withdrawing its support for democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, diplomatic officials said.

The ministry cited recent violence that targeted its embassy in Niamey, the capital, as one of the reasons for its decision to offer evacuation flights to its citizens and other Europeans. Spain’s Defense Ministry announced preparations to evacuate more than 70 nationals, and Italy also said it was arranging a flight.

The evacuations come during a deepening crisis sparked by the coup last week against Bazoum. His apparent overthrow is a blow for Western nations that were working with Niger against West African extremists.

In Niamey hotels, Europeans and other nationalities, including some Americans, packed bags. At the airport, hundreds of people lined up for hours waiting to leave on French evacuation flights.

A former French military official who had been training the Nigerien army as a civilian told The Associated Press that he was departing even though his “job is not finished.” Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, he said the military takeover took many people by surprise.

Trump indicted for efforts to overturn 2020 election, block transfer of power

By Eric Tucker & Michael Kunzelman

Associated Press

The

program to bring back jihadis, reintegrate them into society and use their help in counterterrorism efforts. It was spearheaded by Bazoum when he was minister of interior and is intended as an alternative to a military solution to stem violence across the country. The AP cannot verify that Moussa actively fought for JNIM.

If ECOWAS uses force, it could also trigger violence between civilians supporting the coup and those against it, Niger analysts say.

Niger’s prime minister, who was appointed by Bazoum and was out of the country when the coup took place, urged the international community to help roll back the coup in order to defend democracy in West Africa.

WASHINGTON—Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges Tuesday for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol, with the Justice Department acting to hold him accountable for an unprecedented effort to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power and threaten American democracy.

The four-count indictment, the third criminal case against Trump, provided deeper insight into a dark moment that has already been the subject of exhaustive federal investigations and captivating public hearings. It chronicles a months-long campaign of lies about the election results and says that, even when those falsehoods resulted in a chaotic insurrection at the Capitol, Trump sought to exploit the violence by pointing to it as a reason to further delay the counting of votes that sealed his defeat.

Even in a year of rapid-succession legal reckonings for Trump, Tuesday’s indictment, with charges including conspiring to defraud the United States government that he once led, was stunning in its allegations that a former president assaulted the “bedrock function” of democracy. It’s the first time the defeated president, who is the early front-runner for next year’s Republican presidential nomination, is facing legal consequences for his frantic but ultimately failed effort to cling to power.

The West African regional body known as ECOWAS announced travel and economic sanctions against Niger on Sunday and said it could use force if coup leaders don’t reinstate Bazoum within one week.

The UN special envoy for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simão, held out hope that bloodshed could be avoided.

He said during a virtual news conference Tuesday he expects ECOWAS to go ahead with the deployment of troops to Niger if Bazoum isn’t restored to power. But “I believe that other efforts are underway, so I hope the use of force will not be necessary,” if “everybody talks in good faith (and) wants to avoid bloodshed.”

The new junta got backing from the military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

Mali and Burkina Faso said in a joint statement that “any military intervention against Niger will be considered a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali.”

The two countries also denounced ECOWAS’ economic sanctions as “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane” and refused to apply them.

ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger, as well as freezing Nigerien assets held in regional central banks. Niger relies heavily on foreign aid, and sanctions could further impoverish its more than 25 million people.

Mali and Burkina Faso have each undergone two coups since 2020, as soldiers overthrew governments claiming they could do a better job fighting increasing jihadi violence linked to al-Qaeda and

the Islamic State group. ECOWAS has suspended them from the bloc, but never threatened to use force.

Guinea, another country under military rule since 2021, also issued a statement in support of Niger’s junta and urged ECOWAS to “come to its senses.”

The evacuations followed violence Sunday that targeted the French Embassy, with protesters burning down a door and smashing windows before the Nigerien army dispersed them. Thousands of projunta supporters took to Niamey’s streets. Some waved Russian flags along with signs reading “Down with France” and supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling the international community to stay away.

There has been no clear explanation of the references to Russia, but some demonstrators regard it as a symbol of anti-Western feelings. Some may also reflect support for the Russian mercenary group Wagner’s reputation for ruthlessly suppressing militants.

Niger could be following in the same footsteps as Mali and Burkina Faso, both of which saw protesters waving Russian flags after their coups, analysts say.

Niger’s coup could also embolden jihadi violence, some say.

Boubacar Moussa, a former member of an al-Qaeda linked group known as JNIM, said the military overthrow is exactly what the jihadis want because it will distract and weaken the army. “Jihadis are very supportive of this coup that happened in Niger, because it will allow them to become very strong,” he said.

Moussa, who spoke to AP in Niamey, is part of a nationwide

“For the ECOWAS countries, it’s a question of survival. For the international community too, it’s a question of credibility. Niger must remain a democratic state,” Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou said in an interview with The Associated Press in France.

“Niger is a key country in terms of security for the rest of Africa, but also for the rest of the world,” he said.

Observers believe Bazoum is being held at his house in Niamey. The first photos of him since the coup appeared Sunday evening, sitting on a couch smiling beside Chad President Mahamat Deby, who had flown in to try to mediate.

Both the United States and France have sent troops and hundreds of millions of dollars of military and humanitarian aid in recent years to Niger, which was a French colony until 1960. In the capital, many people live in makeshift shelters and scramble daily to make enough money to feed their children. Niger was seen as the last partner working with the West against extremism in a Francophone region where anti-French sentiment opened the way for the Russian private military group Wagner.

The US will consider cutting aid if the coup is successful, the State Department said Monday. Aid is “very much in the balance depending on the outcome of the actions in the country,” said department spokesman Matt Miller. “US assistance hinges on continued democratic governance in Niger.”

Drone attacks in Moscow’s glittering business district leave residents on edge

By Emma Burrows

The Associated Press

THE glittering towers of the Moscow City business district dominate the skyline of the Russian capital. The sleek glass-and-steel buildings—designed to attract investment amid an economic boom in the early 2000s—are a dramatic, modern contrast to the rest of the more than 800-year-old city.

Now they are signs of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power.

The attacks on Sunday and Tuesday aren’t the first to hit Moscow—a drone even struck the Kremlin harmlessly in May. But these latest blasts, which caused no casualties but blew out part of a section of windows on a high-rise building and sent glass cascading to the streets, seemed particularly unsettling.

“It’s very frightening because you wake up at night hearing explosions,” said a woman who identified herself only as Ulfiya as she walked her dog, adding that she lived in a nearby building. Like other Muscovites interviewed by The Associated Press, she did not identify herself further out of fear of retribution or for her personal safety.

Another resident, who gave her name as

Ekaterina, said Tuesday’s blast “sounded like thunder.”

“I think for the first time, I got really scared,” she said. “I don’t understand how people in a war zone can live like this every day and not go mad.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down two Ukrainian drones outside Moscow and had electronically jammed another, sending it crashing into the IQ-Quarter skyscraper that houses government offices like the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade — the same building that was hit Sunday.

A cordon went up around the building and personnel from the fire department and the Russian Investigative Committee were at the scene. Hours later, residents strolled through the district along the Moscow River or sat on benches in the sunshine. By about 1 p.m.

Tuesday, workers were already starting to replace damaged windows.

The business district, a 10-minute subway ride west of the Kremlin, is home to some of Moscow’s flashiest restaurants, offering farreaching views of the capital and a menu of upscale fare like three types of caviar, shellfish from Russia’s Far East and French cuisine.

But there was no escaping the grim news.

While Russian state television has largely

played down the strikes, one channel sandwiched a segment on how Moscow’s air defenses successfully intercepted the drones in between reports highlighting Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in Ukraine that Moscow “is rapidly getting used to a fullfledged war,” without confirming or denying Kyiv’s involvement in the drone attacks that in recent days have struck from the capital to the Crimean Peninsula.

After Sunday’s strike, the Kremlin said security would be ramped up.

Still, the size of the drone that hit the Moscow City district led analysts to question the effectiveness of the capital’s air defenses, suggesting it could have been launched from Ukraine.

“If this is the case, this would be rather embarrassing for Russia’s air defenses. If a drone has been in Russian airspace for hours, air defenses should have picked it up earlier and shot it down earlier,” said Ulrike Franke, an expert in drones and military technology at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

While they haven’t caused much physical damage, bringing the drone campaign to Moscow“blows holes in Russia’s narrative that the war on Ukraine is successful and that it is being prosecuted far away from any consequences for

the Russian people themselves,” said Keir Giles, a Russia expert at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“That is something which is going to be harder and harder for Russia’s propaganda machine to explain away,” he said.

A Muscovite who identified himself to the AP only as Eldar summed up the strikes this way: “We attack them, they attack us. And it’s obvious that they will succeed somewhere, and we will succeed somewhere. We should try to strengthen the defense.”

In Odintsovo, where some of the drones were downed about 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of the capital, some residents discussed the events on their local Telegram channel.

One woman talked about hearing noises that turned out to be a car or improperly closed trash containers, and seeing what she thought were drones but actually were a flock of birds, a plane and a wind-blown plastic bag.

“How is it possible to live like this?” she asked the group.

“Stop creating panic,” one member admonished her.

“If you hear a noise, be happy because it hasn’t hit you,” added another.

Burrows reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” said Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, whose office has spent months investigating Trump. “It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government: the nation’s process of collecting counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

The Trump campaign called the charges “fake” and asked why it took two-and-a-half years to bring them.

Trump was the only person charged in Tuesday’s indictment. But prosecutors obliquely referenced half-dozen co-conspirators, including lawyers inside and outside of government who they said had worked with Trump to undo the election results. They also advanced legally dubious schemes to enlist slates of fake electors in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to falsely claim that Trump had actually won them.

The indictment accuses the defeated president and his allies of trying to “exploit the violence and chaos” by calling lawmakers into the evening on January 6 to delay the certification of Biden’s victory.

It also cites handwritten notes from former Vice President Mike Pence that give gravitas to Trump’s relentless goading to reject the electoral votes. Pence, who is challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, declined overtures from a House panel that investigated the insurrection and sought to avoid testifying before the special counsel. He appeared only after losing a court fight, with prosecutors learning that Trump in one conversation derided him as “too honest” to stop the certification.

Trump is due in court Thursday, the first step in a legal process that will play out in a courthouse situated between the White House he once controlled and the Capitol his supporters once stormed. The case is already being dismissed by the former president and his supporters—and even some of his rivals—as just another politically motivated prosecution.

Yet the case stems from one of the most serious threats to American democracy in modern history.

The indictment centers on the turbulent two months after the November 2020 election in which Trump refused to accept his loss and spread lies that victory was stolen from him. The turmoil resulted in the riot at the Capitol, when Trump loyalists violently broke into the building, attacked police officers and disrupted the congressional counting of electoral votes.

In between the election and the riot, Trump urged local election officials to undo voting results in their states, pressured Pence to halt the certification of electoral votes and falsely claimed that the election had been stolen—a notion repeatedly rejected by judges. Among those lies, prosecutors say, were claims that more than 10,000 dead voters had voted in Georgia along with tens of thousands of double votes in Nevada. Each claim had been rebutted by courts or state or federal officials, the indictment says.

Prosecutors say Trump knew his claims of having won the election were false but he “repeated and widely disseminated them anyway—to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and to erode public faith in the administration of the election.”

The document carefully outlined arguments that Trump has been making to defend his conduct, which he had every right to challenge the results, to use the courts, even to lie about it in the process. But in stark detail, the indictment outlines how the former president instead took criminal steps to reverse the clear verdict voters had rendered.

The indictment had been expected since Trump said in mid-July that the Justice Department had informed him he was a target of its investigation. A bipartisan House committee that spent months investigating the run-up to the Capitol riot also recommended prosecuting Trump on charges, including aiding an insurrection and obstructing an official proceeding.

The indictment includes charges of conspiring to defraud the US, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding and violating a post-Civil War Reconstruction Era civil rights statute that makes it a crime to conspire to violate rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution—in this case, the right to vote.

The mounting criminal cases are unfolding in the heat of the 2024 race. A conviction in this case, or any other, would not prevent Trump from pursuing the White House or serving as president, though Trump as president could theoretically appoint an attorney general to dismiss the charges or potentially try to pardon himself.

In New York, state prosecutors have charged Trump with falsifying business records about a hush money payoff to a porn actor before the 2016 election. The trial is set to begin in March.

In Florida, the Justice Department has brought more than three-dozen felony counts, accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents after leaving the White House and concealing them from investigators. That trial begins in May.

Prosecutors in Georgia are also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse his election loss to Biden there. The district attorney of Fulton County is expected to announce charging decisions within weeks.

Smith’s team has cast a broad net as part of his federal investigation, with his team questioning senior Trump administration officials, including Pence, before a grand jury in Washington. Prosecutors also interviewed election officials in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and other battleground states won by Biden who were pressured by the Trump team to change voting results.

Rudy Giuliani, a Trump lawyer who pursued post-election legal challenges, spoke voluntarily to prosecutors. Giuliani was not named in the indictment, but appears to match the description of one of the co-conspirators. A spokesman for Giuliani said Tuesday night that Trump had a “good-faith basis” for the actions he took.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last year appointed Smith, an international war crimes prosecutor who also led the Justice Department’s public corruption section, as special counsel to investigate efforts to undo the election as well as Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. Although Trump has derided him as “deranged” and called him politically motivated, Smith’s past experience includes overseeing significant prosecutions against high-profile Democrats.

The Justice Department’s investigations began well before Smith’s appointment, proceeding alongside separate criminal probes into the rioters themselves. More than 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the insurrection, including some with seditious conspiracy.

The Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Zeke Miller, Lindsay Whitehurst, Nomaan Merchant, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Jill Colvin in New York, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Nick Riccardi in Denver, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Claudia Lauer in Bensalem, Pa., contributed to this report.

AP journalists John Leicester in Paris, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Cara Anna in Nairobi and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed.

WITH the headquarters of the ruling party burning in the back, supporters of mutinous soldiers demonstrate in Niamey, Niger on Thursday, July 27 2023. Not everyone is hostile to last week’s coup in Niger. Neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali have taken the unusual step of declaring that foreign military intervention in Niger would be a declaration of war against them, too. Both have had coups in recent years. AP/FATAHOULAYE HASSANE MIDOU

Beijing records 29 inches of rain from Saturday to Wednesday, its heaviest rainfall in 140 years

By Andy Wong & Huizhong Wu The Associated Press

The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday. Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have been hit by severe flooding because of the record rainfall, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rain destroyed roads and knocked out power and

even pipes carrying drinking water. It flooded rivers surrounding the capital, leaving cars waterlogged, while lifting others onto bridges meant for pedestrians.

Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei province that borders Beijing’s southwest. On Tuesday night, police there issued a plea on social media for lights to assist with

rescue work.

It’s unknown how many people are trapped in flood-stricken areas in the city and surrounding villages.

On Wednesday, waters in Gu’an

county in Hebei, which borders Zhuozhou, reached as high as halfway up a pole where a surveillance camera was installed.

Gu’an county resident Liu Jiwen, 58, was evacuated from his

village on Tuesday night. “There’s nothing we can do. It’s a natural disaster,” he said.

Two other people were trying to pass through the flooded areas to rescue a relative trapped in a nearby village.

Nearly 850,000 people have been relocated, local authorities in Hebei province said.

On Wednesday, the number of confirmed deaths from the torrential rains around Beijing rose to 21 after the body of a rescuer was recovered. Wang Hong-chun, 41, was with other rescuers in a rubber boat when it flipped over in a rapidly flowing river. Four of her teammates survived.

At least 26 people remain missing from the rains.

The previous record for rainfall was in 1891, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday, when the city received 609 millimeters (24 inches) of rain. The earliest precise measurements

made by machines are from 1883. The record rainfall from Typhoon Doksuri may not be the last. Typhoon Khanun, which was lashing Japan on Wednesday, is expected to head toward China later this week. The powerful storm, with surface winds of up to 180 kph (111 mph), may also hit Taiwan before it reaches China.

Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in nearby cities. The central government is disbursing 44 million yuan ($6.1 million) for disaster relief in affected provinces.

The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise. Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of recordbreaking heat this year.

Wu reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Associated Press news assistant Caroline Chen contributed to this report.

BANGKOK—The Thai political party that won the most seats in May’s general election will not be part of the coalition to form the next government, its former ally said Wednesday, amid strong opposition from conservative lawmakers over its proposed reform of laws surrounding the country’s monarchy.

The progressive Move Forward Party, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, was a surprise winner in the election and had pulled together an eight-party coalition with 312 seats in the 500-member lower house.

Chonlanan Srikaew, the leader of the Pheu Thai party, the

second-biggest party in the coalition, told a news conference Wednesday that other parties and members of the militaryappointed Senate could not accept Move Forward’s proposal to amend the country’s strict laws forbidding defamation of the monarchy.

Pheu Thai will form the government with other parties, Chonlanan said, and nominate real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin for prime minister.

Pita failed last month in his bid to become minister after he won just 13 votes in the 250-member Senate, which was appointed by a previous military government. AP

North Korea calls US human rights envoy

By Kim Tong-Hyung

The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea hurled misogynistic

insults Wednesday at a newly confirmed United States special envoy to monitor the country’s human rights issues and warned of unspecified security consequences if Washington continues to criticize its human rights conditions.

The statement published by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency described Julie Turner as a “wicked woman” who was picked by the Biden administration as a “political housemaid” to launch groundless attacks on the country’s human rights record.

The US Senate confirmed Turner’s appointment July 27. She previously served as the director of East Asia and the Pacific at the State Department.

The statement said the Biden administration’s public criticism of North Korea’s human rights situation highlighted its hostility toward Pyongyang in the face of an intensifying nuclear standoff between the countries. KCNA described Turner’s past criticisms of North Korea’s human rights record as absurd, and said the US “revels in meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and slandering it.”

“Turner should know that she was chosen as a political housemaid and scapegoat for the ‘human rights’ plots to pressure the DPRK, a poor policy set forth by the Biden administration driven into a scrape in the DPRK-

in protest of censure

US nuclear confrontation,” the agency said, using the initials of the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The agency said the continued US criticism on North Korean human rights issues could “backfire on it, spawning severe security issues.”

In defiance of Washington last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted senior delegates from Russia and China at a Pyongyang military parade that showcased his intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland. Analysts say Kim is trying to boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he looks to break away from diplomatic isolation and insert himself into a united front against the United States.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years. The pace of North Korean missile tests and the United States’ combined military exercises with South Korea have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

North Korea is sensitive to any criticism of its top leadership and government, and often issues harsh remarks toward US and South Korean officials in times of animosity. The country’s language tends to be cruder when the targets are women: It called former South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute, and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a “funny lady” who sometimes “looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”

Taiwan detains army officer and collaborators suspected of leaking military secrets to China

By Simina Mistreanu The Associated

Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan has detained an army officer and several collaborators on suspicion of handing military secrets to China.

The defense ministry said Wednesday that a lieutenant colonel surnamed Hsieh and other defendants were suspected of having been recruited by China to leak national defense secrets and other information.

The detentions come as military tensions between China and Taiwan continue to rise. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has run a long-standing campaign to recruit retired Taiwanese military personnel to supply state secrets in exchange for money or gifts.

Hsieh is also suspected of developing a spy organization

of current and retired military personnel tasked with collecting intelligence for China, accord -

ing to the Taipei Times newspaper, which quoted unnamed prosecutors with Taiwan’s High

Prosecutors Office.

The office did not immediately answer e-mailed questions about the case.

“The Ministry of National Defense is saddened and severely condemns the small number of unscrupulous people who violated the duty of defending the country and committed such crimes as betraying the people of the country,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

A retired army major and three other people have also been questioned in the case and released on bail between 20,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($630) and 600,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($19,000), according to the Taipei Times.

Last month, Taiwanese authorities detained five people, including a Chinese yo-yo instructor, on suspicion of spying for China.

Singapore prime minister pushes back as opposition slams scandal response

By Philip J. Heijmans & Faris Mokhtar

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong vowed to protect the integrity of governance, fighting back opposition questions following a series of scandals that have put his party’s reputation to the test.

Lee said in parliament on Wednesday that the government will carry through what needs to be done in accordance with the law even if they may be politically embarrassing and painful to the party.

“I will not flinch or hesitate to do my duty, to keep our system robust and clean,” Lee said in the first parliament session that’s convened since recent scandals broke. He was challenged by Pritam Singh, the leader of the opposition and Secretary-General of the Workers’ Party, who questioned the ruling party’s transparency with information over several events.

“The government has either been slow to clear the air or been less than upfront and forthright with Singaporeans when it had to deal with potentially embarrassing issues,” Singh said, following

the prime minister’s statement.

The PAP has been hit by a series of controversies in recent weeks, sending shockwaves through the country at a time when Lee is seeking to step aside after almost two decades leading the country.

Transport Minister S. Iswaran was arrested in a graft probe, while two lawmakers unexpectedly resigned over an affair.

“Systems are composed of human beings,” Lee said. “In any system, however comprehensive the safeguards, sometimes something will still go wrong.”

When Iswaran was brought in by the anti-graft body and subsequently released on bail last month, the prime minister instructed him to take leave of absence until the investigations were completed. Iswaran’s pay was subsequently cut to S$8,500 ($6,300) per month until further notice, the premier said.

That’s an 82% cut from the lower-end of the base ministerial salary of S$46,750 in Singapore, where political leaders are among the best paid in the world.

Education Minister Chan Chun

Sing, who is also the Ministerin-charge of the Public Service, stressed in parliament the independence of the investigating body that reports directly to the prime minister. Chan laid out the rules for the civil service on accepting gifts and hospitality, designed to maintain incorruptibility and prevent officers from becoming beholden to any person or organization.

Officials have yet to spell out the scope of the corruption investigation, but the parliament queries have asked about the timeline for the probe’s disclosure. Opposition lawmakers are also asking if the government received any requests from the UK related to Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone’s alleged undisclosed assets of $650 million in a Singapore bank.

Alongside Iswaran, property billionaire Ong Beng Seng was also arrested and subsequently released on bail. Iswaran and Ong, 77, would have interacted over the years as a matter of course, with the minister’s roles in trade and transport intersecting with the tycoon known for helping

ZHUZHOU, Hebei—China’s capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days after being deluged with heavy rains from the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri.

RESIDENTS are evacuated by rubber boats through floodwaters in Zhuozhou in northern China’s Hebei province, south of Beijing on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. China’s capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days. Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city that borders Beijing’s southwest. AP/ANDY WONG

Thai reformist party will not be part of coalition to form next government

‘political housemaid’

bring the F1 Grand Prix to Singapore. Bloomberg News

LEE HSIEN LOONG BLOOMBERG

A TAIWANESE soldier holds a Taiwan national flag near a group of soldiers with red markings on their helmets to play the role of an enemy during the annual Han Kuang military exercises simulating an attack on an airfield at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Northern Taiwan, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Taiwan’s defense ministry says Wednesday, August 2, that it has detained an army officer and several collaborators on suspicion of handing military secrets to China. AP/CHIANG YING-YING

Imprison smugglers, economic saboteurs

EconomIc sabotage means destroying the country’s economy through illegal activities, like what the smugglers and hoarders of agricultural products have been doing. Economic sabotage is a serious crime because it cripples the economy and intensifies the problem of poverty.

Sugar smuggling, for example, not only deprives the government of revenues but it also adversely affects domestic sugar prices, to the detriment of our sugar producers. Hoarders of onion, on the other hand, create artificial scarcity in supply, which leads to price increases. The retail price of red onions in Metro Manila on New Year’s Eve made unpleasant headlines when it hit P700 per kilo. It was easily the inflation leader in 2022, and made Philippine onions the most expensive onion on Earth. At that time, onion prices in Singapore was around P85 per kilo; P55 in Vietnam; and P35 in China and in India.

Responding to the call of President Marcos for Congress to pass amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, Quezon 4th District Rep. Keith Micah Tan last Tuesday filed a bill declaring “large-scale” agricultural smuggling, hoarding, cartelization, profiteering, and other acts of market abuse as economic sabotage. He said House Bill 8600 seeks to amend Republic Act 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016. (Read, “House bill declares ‘large-scale’ crop smuggling as act of economic sabotage,” in the BusinessMirror , July 26, 2023).

“RA 10845 was signed into law with the primary objective of protecting Filipino farmers and their families from the rise in agricultural smuggling in the country. Since the law’s passage in 2016, however, even if there have been several reports of seizure of smuggled products, there have been no prosecution of individuals, groups, or corporations. It appears that some people have mastered how to circumvent the law in order not to be punished,” he said.

“The present condition of our farmers and the rising price of agricultural products because of their scarcity reflect the failure of national government agencies to fully implement the law,” Tan said, adding that “RA 10845’s potential to finally end illegal activities that sabotage the country’s economy and the livelihood of farmers had not been fully utilized over the years.”

Tan said the Economist’s 2021 Global Food Security Index (GFSI) reveals that the Philippines ranked 64th out of 113 countries in terms of four dimensions of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilization, and stability.

Based on the records of the Bureau of Customs, he said a total of P1.2 billion worth of smuggled agricultural products have been confiscated in 2022. “The government is losing millions of revenues as a result of smuggling, which is estimated at P250 million per year,” the lawmaker said.

Tan said it is high time to introduce amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 in order to address and hopefully end not only smuggling, but also the issues of hoarding, profiteering, and cartelization of agricultural products.

The proposed legislation will consider as economic sabotage the hoarding, profiteering, and cartel of sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish, and cruciferous vegetables in the amount of P1 million, and rice in the amount of P10 million. To strengthen the enforcement and implementation of the law, an Inter-Agency Council on Economic Intelligence will be created under the proposed measure.

This will be co-chaired by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Bureau of Customs, and will include the Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Competition Commission, National Security Council, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

The bill said the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of twice the fair value of smuggled agricultural products or products subject to hoarding, profiteering, or cartels, and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties, and other charges avoided, shall be imposed on any person who commits any of the acts enumerated under the proposal.

Smugglers and economic saboteurs make the whole country suffer. It’s about time for the government to put its foot down. Let’s put all smugglers and hoarders of agricultural products behind bars for life. Let’s get rid of these deplorable leeches that have shown a callous disregard for the welfare of poor Filipinos.

‘Death of the debt’

John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

ThE headlines last week read: “Bolivia is now using china’s Yuan for trade, challenging global dominance of US Dollar”; and the “Dollar is dying!” Folks raised their glasses in a toast.”

Bolivia—no disrespect intended —is an afterthought on the global economic stage with an economy smaller than Uganda and Myanmar. Bolivia’s total external debt is a bit larger than 10 percent of the Philippines’ external debt. However, while the Philippines holds roughly $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves, Bolivia’s foreign reserves is $300 million, smaller than Moldova and Cameroon.

Bolivia’s foreign reserves cannot cover even one month of its imports, as its reserves equaled only 0.4 months of imports in May 2023. The Philippines Foreign Exchange Reserves equaled 7.9 months of imports in May. To meet its trade obligations, using the yuan may be its only alternative to stay in business.

In January 2019, 45 percent of all global trade was settled in US

dollars. In April 2023, that percentage increased to 59.74 percent. The “de-dollarization” folks seem to be like relatives waiting for their rich uncle to die, and he just keeps living on and on.

Of greater concern than the “Death of the Dollar” should be the potential for the “Death of the Debt.”  Understand that government or sovereign debt is never marked “Paid in Full.” Yesterday’s loan is ‘paid off’ by a new loan tomorrow. However, the total amount of a government’s debt keeps increasing. The only times in history that the US government debt actually decreased was in 1947, 1948, and 1951 under Truman and under Eisenhower in 1956 and 1957.

“The US Treasury Department increased its net borrowing estimate for the July-September quarter to $1 trillion. This amount was exceeded

only during the Covid quarter of Q2 2020.”

Many of the K-Pop style economists use data that is meaningless, such as debt-to-GDP ratio, comparing a country’s public debt to its gross domestic product. A lender to a government does not care how much the total debt is as long as the country can pay the interest on time.

As of March 2023, the Japanese public debt is equal to 263 percent of its GDP, and the percentage of government spending for its debt service is 24 percent. In the US, debt servicing takes up 6.8 percent of the budget, and for the Philippines the percentage for interest payments is 11.6 percent.

Read the article under the headline “PHL debt stock hits fresh record high of P14.15T in June” and see if you can find one word about the cost of paying the debt service.

And here is the kicker for Japan. The Central Bank of Japan holds 52 percent of all Japanese government debt. The US Federal Reserve owns about 20 percent of US government national debt.

So, what’s the debt problem? It is not Sri Lanka, Pakistan, or Argentina as we are constantly told when discussing sovereign debt. Massive amounts of “First World” debt suck money out of the economy especially now that interest rates going up make lending to these govern-

Pinoy diaspora, winning formula

Lourdes

Jennifer

Vittorio

Lorenzo

Lyn

STREET TALK

ThE “Filipinas”, our national women’s football team that competed at the FIFA Women’s Football World cup in new Zealand and made up of players with a mix of Filipino and foreign heritage, may have scored just one goal that won just one game but that was enough to wake up the yearnings of a country for national pride in a global arena, and not just in the world of sports. It also speaks quite a lot of what makes us Filipinos in this age and time.

It is said that wherever you go in the world, you are bound to run into a Filipino. Working in the harshest of conditions—in the oil fields of the Middle East, the Arctic fringes and in the remotest islands in the Pacific, Filipinos overcome hardship and loneliness with the common objective of bringing a better future for themselves and their families. We have the numbers all stacked up. The Philippines remains to be the leading global source of nurses, leading to a real scarcity of medical help locally as new nursing graduates are actively recruited overseas. Dubai Duty-free practically runs on Filipino hands and talent. And on most ships plying the oceans, it would be more ap-

propriate to say—all “Filipino” hands on deck, as most merchant marines manning the global shipping industry are Filipinos. With close to an estimated fourth of our population working overseas, the money they bring in represents close to a third of our country’s annual GNP, which is significantly more than what is produced or manufactured locally. Wanting for a better life, given the scarcity of good jobs at home, has been the main driver for this Pinoy diaspora.

Filipinos working overseas are not just a recent phenomenon. “Manila men” or Filipino escapees from the galleon trade, founded what is perhaps the first Asian-American

settlement, on the outskirts of what is now New Orleans in the United States. “Alaskeros” or what they call the Filipinos then working mostly in the fishing factories in Alaska made adobo beaver and lumpia salmon part of the Alaskan menu. Then you have the Ilokano dialect contributions to the Hawaiian street talk, which presumably began when Filipinos were recruited to work in the pineapple farms when we were still an American colony. As we move on towards a more challenging future, Filipinos will continue to move out of our motherland. The International Labor Organization estimates close to 2 million Filipinos who leave the country to work overseas.

A good number of our overseas brothers and sisters stay, settle in and grow a family in these foreign shores. Unlike other ethnicities, blending and assimilating in their adopted land comes easier. That is why, perhaps, despite their numbers, there had never been really a Filipino town, similar to a Chinatown or a Koreatown. And in such “blended” communities, the resulting generations of Filipino diaspora are born and melded in their own unique way.

There had been harsh and unnecessary criticisms coming from those left behind, against children of these “blended” generation who rise up to the occasion to represent

ments financially attractive. Regardless of the political nonsense, these “First World” governments do not spend the borrowed money productively. They effectively use it to “buy votes.”

The Philippines and similar nations borrowed heavily during the pandemic, in effect to feed citizens who were suffering. The US and the rest borrowed to “stimulate the economy” and give the illusion that “Don’t worry, things will be fine soon. We have it under control.”

The one trillion dollars that the US government will borrow in the next three months will come from the private sector, and that money will not be used to “build factories,” create jobs, or even build infrastructure, which is more government nonsense. It will be used to service the past government debt that also did not “build factories,” create jobs, or build infrastructure.

The “First World” Sovereign Debt Crisis is not about “The Debt.” It is about effective and productive private financial resource allocation, which the majority of the current debt does not provide. The death of this kind of debt will come eventually. And the fallout will be catastrophic. E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.

the motherland. Questions on their right to do so, their intent, and qualification persist. But we tend to forget, no matter what their circumstances or reasons may be, the choice to represent our country was their choice; in the same manner that growing up in a foreign land was not.

We, the ones left behind, need to be more forgiving and understanding. Knowing full well why the move to leave behind the comfort zone of our motherland, and their contributions to what we are right now; embracing and welcoming them should not be a problem. Look at other countries—China, Spain, Japan and others—they are giving preferential entry to foreign citizens with a hint of their heritage. With that move of recognition and gratitude, their own diaspora will guarantee them a steady flow of resources and talent connected and serving their motherlands.

Our overseas brothers and sisters may look and talk different from us, but in their hearts and minds are the same Filipino traits that we have. The Pinoy diaspora that saved us in the worst of times throughout our history will also be our winning formula, if we truly want to make it in the global arena.

The author may be reached at thomas_orbos@ sloan.mit.edu

Thomas M. Orbos

By Samy Magdy | The Associated Press

CAIRO—Ahmed Salah grew anxious when he heard the news that Russia had suspended a crucial wartime grain deal. The bakery owner in Egypt’s capital is concerned it could mean global food prices soar.

“There mightn’t be immediate impact,” the 52-year-old said last week as he oversaw workers baking bread in his shop in Cairo, “but if they didn’t find a solution soonest, things would be very difficult.”

Russia pulled out of the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey to allow Ukraine’s grain to flow during a global food crisis. It helped stabilize food prices that soared last year after Russia invaded Ukraine—two countries that are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food to developing nations.

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, and other lower-income Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon and Pakistan worry about what comes next. Struggling with economic woes that have driven more people into poverty, they fear rising food prices could create even more pain for households, businesses and government bottom lines.

Many have diversified their sources of wheat, the main ingredient for flatbread that is a staple of diets in many Mideast countries, and don’t expect shortages. Pakistan has even seen a bumper crop despite unprecedented flooding last year.

But the end of the grain deal is creating uncertainty about price hikes, a major driver of hunger.

It “is an unnecessary shock for the 345 million acutely food insecure people around the world,” said Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Program.

Russia also has launched attacks on Ukrainian ports and agricultural infrastructure following the collapse of the accord, leading global wheat prices to zigzag. Despite the volatility, the costs are below what they were before Russia invaded Ukraine, and there is enough production to meet worldwide demand, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

But for low-income countries like war-torn Yemen or Lebanon that are big wheat importers, finding suppliers that are farther away will add costs, he said. Plus, their currencies have weakened against the US dollar, which is used to buy grain on world markets.

“It’s one reason why you see food price inflation lingering in a lot of countries—because even though world prices I mentioned are at prewar levels, that’s in dollars. And if you put it in, say, the Egyptian pound, you’ll see that Egypt wheat prices are actually up,” said Glauber, former chief economist at the US Department of Agriculture.

“They’re certainly as high as they were during the high points of 2022,” he said.

That packs pressure on governments, which will have to pay more to keep subsidizing bread at the same level and avoid raising costs for households, he said. With many also seeing their foreign currency reserves dwindle, it could put countries in the Middle East and elsewhere in a more precarious financial situation.

Salah, the bakery owner, fears that if wheat prices spike, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government could respond by hiking prices of bread.

“Such move would have heavy toll on ordinary people,” he said.

El-Sissi and other leaders raised concerns about higher food prices at a summit Russia hosted for African nations last week. He called for reviving the Black Sea deal through a “consensual solution” that takes into

consideration “all parties’ demands and interests and put an end to the continued surge in grain prices.”

Homegrown grain doesn’t meet even half of Egypt’s demand, particularly wheat and corn. It buys over 10 million tons of wheat—mostly from Russia and Ukraine—and that is expected to grow.

Local wheat production is expected to remain at 9.8 million tons, while consumption increases by 2 percent to 20.5 million tons in 2023-2024, according to a USDA report from April.

However, the government said the impact of the end of the grain deal is minimal so far. Supply Minister Ali Moselhi said last week that Egypt has diversified its sources of imported wheat and that its stockpile would cover the country’s needs for five months.

Its wheat purchases from Ukraine have declined by 73.6 percent over the 2021-2022 period as Egypt tapped other sources, the USDA said.

Any increase in wheat prices would further strain Egypt’s economy, which has struggled from decades of mismanagement and outside shocks like the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine. That could force the government to cut nonsubsidy spending and push up inflation, Capital Economics said.

Food costs already are fueling a cost-of-living crisis. Annual inflation hit a record 36.8 percent in June, with food prices skyrocketing by 64.9 percent.

In Lebanon, the grain deal’s collapse could be an additional hurdle as the tiny Mediterranean country relies on Ukraine for at least 90 percent of its wheat, flour millers say.

The agreement helped resolve supply shortages that shocked the market during the onset of the war, causing large breadlines and rationing. Caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam said any negative impact on wheat prices following the deal’s collapse will “certainly” affect prices at home.

The country of some 6 million is in the throes of an economic crisis that has impoverished threequarters of its population. Its main wheat storage silos were destroyed in the Beirut port blast in 2020, so its grain reserves lie entirely in private mills’ storage.

“We currently have two months’ worth of wheat reserves, and we have one month’s worth on the way,” said Wael Shabarek, owner of Shahba Mills. “While I expect some price increase, it won’t be the same as before—as the beginning of the war— when it was a total shock for us.”

However, Lebanon’s economy keeps shrinking, its currency has lost 90 percent of its value since 2019 and the World Food Program says local food prices are among the highest in the world.

Pakistan, meanwhile, is a bright spot. It was a major importer of Ukrainian wheat but this year had the highest domestic production in a decade despite disastrous flooding in 2022. The bumper crop is attributed to providing seed and other aid to farmers.

The government still calls for restoration of the grain deal to ensure global food security and avoid surging prices. Pakistan, whose ailing economy is getting a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout, was hit hard when food prices surged after Russia’s invasion. AP reporters Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.

BusinessMirror

By Josep Borrell Fontelles

On July 17, nearly one year after the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) was signed in Istanbul, Russia decided to not renew the agreement that allows Ukraine to export agricultural goods to global markets. As underlined by the Secretary General of the U n, this initiative has been “a beacon of hope in a world that desperately needs it.”

Before Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, a critical global food supplier, a fifth of the world’s barley came from Ukraine, as well as a sixth of the maize and an eighth of wheat. After Russia invaded Ukraine, attacking grain fields and silos and blocking Ukrainian ports, global food prices spiked to record levels and endangered much needed food supply for many importer countries. The BSGI aimed to re-establish a vital route for agricultural exports from Ukraine and to lower global food prices.

Despite many challenges, it achieved its key purpose. Since August 2022, the export of almost 33 million tons of grains and food from Ukraine to 45 countries played an instrumental role in reducing global food prices by some 25 percent since the record high reached shortly after Russia’s attack. As public trade data shows, over half of the grain, including two thirds of the wheat, went to developing countries.

In addition, the BSGI ensured continued access to grain for the World Food Program. In 2023, Ukraine supplied 80 percent of the wheat

By Mary Clare Jalonick, Brian Slodysko & Meg Kinnard The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—The federal indictment of Donald Trump on Tuesday marks the first time that the former president has been formally held accountable for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. And it adds new details to what was already known about his actions, and those of his key allies, in the weeks leading up to the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection.

The newest charges—Trump’s third criminal indictment this year—include conspiracy to defraud the United States government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, the Congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. It describes how Trump repeatedly told supporters and others that he had won the election, despite knowing that was false, and how he tried to persuade state officials, his own vice president and finally Congress to overturn the legitimate results.

Due to the “dishonesty, fraud and deceit” by Trump and some of his closest allies, the indictment says, his supporters “violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding.”

In the attack, his supporters beat and injured police officers and broke through windows and doors, sending lawmakers running for their lives.

Some takeaways from Tuesday’s indictment:

Trump knew AS Trump schemed to overturn the 2020 election, many of his aides and allies were under no illusion that Trump—a longtime provocateur— had actually won.

Some aides directly refuted conspiracy theories stirred by Trump and his lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Others told him point blank he had lost.

“There is no world, there is no option in which you do not leave the White House [o]n January 20th,” an unnamed deputy White House counsel told Trump, according to the indictment. Another wrote in an email: “I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s— beamed down from the mothership.”

But Trump continued to tell

procured to support humanitarian operations in the most food insecure countries like Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Without the Black Sea route, the WFP has to get its grain elsewhere at higher prices and with a longer lead-time at a time when the world is facing an unprecedented food crisis.

Russia’s decision was taken despite the UN Secretary General’s renewed proposals to work to address its concerns. In order to shift blame, Russia claims that its own agricultural exports were not sufficiently facilitated. This is not borne out by publicly available trade data, which shows that Russia’s agricultural exports are thriving. Russia gained also important benefits from the Memorandum of Understanding with the UN on fertilizer exports, which had been brokered in parallel to the BSGI. The UN has worked relentlessly to clarify regulatory frameworks and engage with the private sector to find dedicated solutions across banking and insurance sectors. These efforts have been conducted in close collaboration with the EU and its partners.

Contrary to the lies spread by

Russia, the EU has indeed ensured that our sanctions have no impact on global food security. There are no sanctions on Russian export of food and fertilizer to third countries and the EU has provided extensive guidance to economic operators, clarifying that these transfers to third countries are permitted. We have also worked with the UN to allow related payments. Despite these well-known and verifiable facts, Russia decided to pull out of the BSGI, using food as a weapon and endangering the global food supply. Hours after withdrawing from the initiative, Russia started also to destroy Ukraine’s grain storage facilities and port infrastructure with daily targeted attacks, not only in the Black Sea itself but also in the Danube. As an immediate reaction, wholesale wheat and maize prices saw their biggest increase since the start of Russia’s war of aggression. The increased food price volatility is likely to persist as long as Russia puts global food supply under deliberate stress, aggravating the global cost-of-living crisis and most acutely for food-insecure people in importdependent countries. This is unacceptable and should be resolutely condemned.

As the world deals with disrupted supplies and higher prices, Russia is now approaching vulnerable countries, notably in Africa, with bilateral offers of limited grain shipments, pretending to solve a problem it created itself. This is a cynical policy of

deliberately using food as a weapon. In response to Russia’s irresponsible actions, the EU is active along three main lines. First, we will continue to support the tireless efforts of the United Nations and Türkiye to resume the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Second, we continue to strengthen our “Solidarity Lanes” as alternative routes for Ukrainian agricultural exports to reach global markets through the EU. These lanes have allowed the export of more than 41 million tons of Ukraine’s agricultural goods so far, and we are increasing this as much as possible to mitigate the consequences of Russia’s termination of the BSGI. Third, we increased our financial support to countries and people most in need, providing €18 billion to address food security until 2024.

We call on the international community and all countries to step up their own assistance in support of global food security. We ask all our partners to urge Russia to return to negotiations as the African Union already did, as well as to refrain from targeting Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure. With a clear and unified voice, we can get Russia to resume its participation to the BSGI. The world has a shared interest in responsible stewardship of global food security. We owe it to the people most in need.

Josep Borrell Fontelles is the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission.

“prolific lies,” the indictment says, about the outcome of the election, even after being warned of his false statements by top government officials—citing thousands of dead voters in Georgia, an overcount in Pennsylvania and tens of thousands of noncitizen voters in Arizona. Those theories had been disputed by state and federal officials and even his own staff.

“These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false,” the indictment states.

At the same time, Trump privately acknowledged his loss. After the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged Trump to not take action on a national security issue, Trump agreed, according to the indictment.

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s too late for us,” Trump said during a January 3 meeting. “We’re going to give that to the next guy.”

All the while, he repeatedly tweeted and encouraged his supporters to come to Washington on January 6.

Pence’s memos

THE indictment includes new details from former Vice President Mike Pence, who had fought efforts to answer questions about his role in presiding over the congressional certification.

Prosecutors cite Pence’s “contemporaneous notes” about his interactions with Trump as the former president tried to convince him to delay or reject the legitimate election results on January 6.

The indictment lists several conversations between Trump and Pence in those weeks, including some that were previously unknown. On December 25, Pence called Trump to wish him a Merry Christmas, prosecutors said. But Trump “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the Vice President reject electoral votes that day.” The vice president pushed back, telling Trump he didn’t have the authority.

In another of the calls, on January 1, Trump told Pence, “You’re too honest,” according to the indictment.

Late night calls

T HE indictment says that Trump “redoubled” his efforts even in the late night hours after his supporters attacked the Capitol. It lays out several attempts by Trump, through

his aides and co-conspirators, to contact multiple senators and at least one House member just before the two chambers reconvened to finally certify Biden’s win.

At 7:01 p.m. that night, the indictment says, as Trump’s allies were making calls, White House counsel Pat Cipollone called Trump to ask him to withdraw any objections and allow the certification. Trump refused, the indictment says.

“As violence ensued, the Defendant and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims,” the indictment says.

Fake electors duped into ‘crazy play’

E A RLY on, Trump’s team orchestrated a scheme to enlist officials in seven states he had lost—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin—to have them submit alternate election certificates saying he had actually won when Congress met to certify the vote on January 6.

The conspirators told most of the local officials that the certificates they were signing saying Trump won the election in their states would only be used if the court cases being waged over the election results showed that outcome.

But prosecutors allege that’s not true.

What started as a legal strategy quickly evolved into a corrupt plan to stop Biden’s count on Jan. 6, the indictment said.

Told by a colleague what was going on, Trump’s deputy campaign manager called it a “crazy play.” They refused to put their names on a statement about it, because none of them could “stand by it.”

The co-conspirators

THE indictment alleges Trump enlisted six people to help him try to overturn the 2020 election. The six people are not explicitly named, but the indictment includes details that make it possible to identify most of them.

As “Co-Conspirator 1” and “CoConspirator 2,” lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman are quoted from their remarks at the “Stop the

Steal” rally prior to the riot urging Pence to throw out the votes of valid electors.

A third lawyer, Sidney Powell, named as “Co-Conspirator 3,” filed a lawsuit in Georgia that amplified false or unsupported claims of election fraud. The indictment quotes Trump as privately conceding Powell’s claims sounded “crazy.”

Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official who championed Trump’s false claims of election fraud, is described as “Co-Conspirator 4.”

“Co-Conspirator 5” is lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who the indictment says “assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

“Co-Conspirator 6” is an unknown political consultant who also assisted with the fake electors plan.

There are no known charges against the listed co-conspirators.

Giuliani aide Ted Goodman said in a statement that “every fact” the former New York City mayor had “establishes the good faith basis President Donald Trump had for the actions he took during the two-month period charged in the indictment.” Eastman lawyer Harvey Silverglate said his client denied any wrongdoing.

Congressional inspiration

MUCH of the evidence in the indictment—including repeated efforts by White House advisers to tell Trump that he lost the election—was first laid out by the Democrat-led House January 6 committee last year.

In its final report issued in December, the committee said it was making several so-called criminal referrals for Trump to the Justice Department, including obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

A criminal referral from Congress is not binding, but it is a formal notification from Congress to the Justice Department that lawmakers believe they have found criminal activity.

The panel’s final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the results and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. AP writers Nomaan Merchant and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Russia must stop using food as a weapon

Mideast countries that are already struggling fear price hikes after Russia exits grain deal

Takeaways from the Trump indictment that alleges a campaign of ‘fraud and deceit’

HEALTH TOP PRIORITY IN BUDGET, VOWS PBBM

FOLLOWING the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said health will continue to be a top priority of his administration with next year’s budget of P306.1 billion, including the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s P101.5 billion.

We will sustain our efforts in strengthening government healthcare services to safeguard the population from future health crises. This involves enhancing our healthcare infrastructure, ensuring adequate medical supplies, and strengthening our healthcare workforce.

By investing in state-of-theart medical facilities, expanding healthcare access, and deploying healthcare professionals, we can provide high-quality care and respond effectively to any future health emergencies,” said the President in his budget message.

A ccording to the President, the government will ensure the continued operations of the DOH hospitals in Metro Manila as well as DOH regional hospitals and other facilities by providing them with P17.6 billion and P49.8 billion, respectively. The Philippine General Hospital, specifically, will receive a total of P5.7 billion.

A s part of efforts to ensure that health facilities remain up-to-date, Marcos said P23.0 billion will be allocated to the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP).

To ensure that everyone, regardless of their background, has

equitable access to healthcare services, including individuals from different socioeconomic classes, ethnicities, and genders, as well as persons with disabilities, the President said the National Health Insurance Program under the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation will be allotted P101.5 billion.

To minimize the risk of another health crisis, Marcos said P4.8 billion will be set aside for the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases to cover the implementation of programs and projects aimed at preventing and curbing the spread of infectious diseases.

O n the other hand, he said P1.7 billion will be provided for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases to procure medical supplies needed for the treatment and control of non-infectious diseases, such as cancer and mental illness.

O n top of the P1.0 billion appropriation for the Cancer Control Program under the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, P1 billion will also be provided for the Cancer Assistance Fund.

We will also allocate P8.3 billion for Family Health, Immunization, Nutrition, and Responsible Parenting to implement programs for immunization (P7.1 billion), family planning and reproductive health (P750 million), oral health (P212 million), and nutrition (P76 million),” he said.

House clears bills for transition from coal for energy, Pencas

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

THE House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed for Senate approval two of the Marcos administration’s priority bills allowing a shift of the country’s power generation from the use of coal to the utilization of natural gas and establishing the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (Pencas).

T his was after lawmakers approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) 8456, or the Philippine Downstream Natural Gas Industry Development Act, and House Bill (HB) 8443 to establish the Pencas.

H B 8456, which was approved by 215 and opposed by three lawmakers, seeks to promote the role of natural gas as a safe, environment-friendly, efficient, and costeffective source of energy.

“ It’s high time that we enforce, implement, and use clean energy to mitigate the effects of climate change. We have to start now to veer away from the conventional but hazardous method of generating power, for the benefit of our future generation,” Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said.

T he bill also provides regulatory policies and promotes the conversion of existing equipment and facilities from using fossil fuels to natural gas.

HB 8456 will compel the Department of Energy to supervise and monitor the development of the PDNGI as well as the regulation of the construction and operation of natural gas pipelines and related facilities for the transmission, distribution, and supply of natural gas.

Build Better More gets ₧1.4-T 2024 budget, 5.3% of GDP

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

T he government has also proposed P40.6 billion for social infrastructure projects such as public school buildings and another P15.3 billion for public hospitals and health centers.

“ This Program, which seeks to continue and expand the Golden Age of Infrastructure of the country, will receive a total of P1.418 trillion. This is equivalent to 5.3 percent of GDP, well within the DBCC (Development Budget Coordination Committee) target of 5 to 6 percent,” the President’s Budget Message read.

T he bulk of the funding (P801.2 billion) will be allocated to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Depart -

ment of Transportation (DOTr), at P176.4 billion.

T he list of projects to be financed will include the 194 high-impact infrastructure flagship projects (IFPs) approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board.

T hese projects include those on public transport, power, health, information technology, water resources, and agriculture. The government noted that 123 of these projects were initiated by the current administration.

T hese projects include the North-South Commuter Railway System and the Metro Manila Subway Project Phase I under the Rail Transport Program; the Land Pub -

lic Transportation Program; and the Aviation and Maritime Infrastructure Programs of the DOTr. These will be complemented by the transportation-related projects of the DPWH.

T he budget of DPWH aims to construct, maintain and rehabilitate roads and bridges nationwide. A total of P148.1 billion will fund the Network Development Program, which will be used to construct 721.656 kilometers of new roads and widen or improve 647.288 kilometers of existing roads.

T he DPWH’s Asset Preservation Program will also receive P115.6 billion to implement preventive maintenance of 1,196.398 kilometers of roads and upgrade of 789.711 kilometers of damaged paved roads.

T he Bridge Program will receive P45.8 billion for the construction of 15,208.83 lineal meters of bridges and maintenance, retrofitting, repair, rehabilitation, as well as the widening of 525 existing bridges.

For the DOTr, the government said this includes the proposed funding for mass transport systems; rail transport; land public

transport; aviation; maritime; tourism and travel; and digital infrastructure projects.

I n terms of mass transport, the government has doubled the budget to P214.3 billion for 2024 from P106 billion in 2023. This is in recognition of the “urgent need” to reduce road congestion.

T he government allocated 76.4 percent of the DOTr budget to rail transport. This includes the development of the North-South Commuter Railway System worth P76.3 billion, which will connect New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac to Calamba, Laguna and the Metro Manila Subway Project Phase I worth P68.4 billion, which will consist of 15 stations from Valenzuela City to Pasay City.

T he list of projects also includes the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project worth P4.7 billion, which aims to add 1 kilometer to the existing railway system; Philippine National Railways South Long Haul Project worth P3.1 billion, which will reconstruct the PNR South Main Line; and the MRT 3 Rehabilitation Project worth P2.9 billion.

T he authors of the bill said environmental risks or health hazards, or emissions from coal use as a result of combustion, include a substantial contribution to acid rain, smog, and haze that result in respiratory illnesses and lung disease among youngsters and old alike.

T hey added that about 65 percent of the country’s power needs are derived from coal use, which is why several lawmakers have been pushing for the approval of such a bill to accelerate investments, where domestic incentives can entice foreign investors, or LNG players, to come in.

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda said the tax provision of the bill seeks to accelerate investments shifting the country’s power supply away from coal generation.

S alceda, a principal author of the measure, said he wrote the tax provisions and key economic portions of the bill, including tax incentives to encourage immediate infrastructure investments in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. This will expedite the shift away from coal. Right now, we rely on coal for 65 percent of our electricity needs. It’s cheap and base-loadable. Renewable energy is slowly getting there. But we need emissions reduction now. LNG is that transitional fuel that reduces emissions while providing baseload power,” Salceda said.

S alceda added that “because we have proven reserves of Natural Gas in the West Philippine Sea, LNG also has the potential to bring us more energy independence.”

₧200-B

social protection programs set–DBM

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE Marcos Jr. administration plans to bankroll almost P200 billion in social protection programs next year that include cash transfers, social pension, and emergency repatriation spending, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

B udget Secretary Amenah F.

Pangandaman said the current administration did not discontinue any cash transfer program for next year.

P angandaman said the government even expanded its cash transfer programs to now include the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) food stamp program.

B ased on the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pili -

pino Program or 4Ps would get P112.8 billion next year to cover education and health grants on top of rice subsidies.

T he budget document indicated that next year’s 4Ps would benefit an estimated 4.4 million households.

T he national government’s Protective Services for Individuals and Families in Difficult Circumstances will receive P20 billion to provide financial assistance to almost 3.9 million individuals and families who are facing challenging circumstances, according to the budget document.

T he national government is earmarking P49.8 billion for its Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program in line with the implementation of Republic Act 11916 that doubled senior citizens’ monthly pension to P1,000.

The 2024 NEP noted that the program’s budget was “almost double”

compared to its funding this year.

T he DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program will receive a budget of P5.6 billion to support 277,128 household beneficiaries, according to the 2024 NEP. The livelihood program supports families through its microenterprise development  track and/or employment facilitation track “to equip them with necessary tools and resources to establish sustainable livelihoods.”

Meanwhile, DSWD’s pilot run and implementation of Philippine Food Strategic Transfer and Alternative Measures Program (Philippine Food STAMP) will receive P1.9 billion next year.

T he administration is also allocating P16.4 billion for the Department of Labor and Employment’s Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program. Of this amount, about P12.9 billion would bankroll DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa

Ating Disadvantaged Workers or TUPAD program while P2.3 billion would go to its Integrated Livelihood Program. Lastly, DOLE’s Adjustment Measures program would receive P407 million.

T he national government is also allocating P9.7 billion for its emergency repatriation program.

P angandaman said the government’s fuel voucher programs would continue next year with a total budget of P3.5 billion allocated to its fuel assistance programs.

Under the 2024 NEP, P1 billion of the fund would go to the Department of Agriculture for distribution to farmers and fisherfolk while P2.5 billion would be lodged to the Department of Transportation for its provision of financial assistance and fuel vouchers to qualified public utility vehicles, taxis, tricycles and fulltime ride-hailing delivery service drivers nationwide.

THE administration proposed a P1.418 trillion budget for various infrastructure projects under the Build Better More Program (BBMP) in 2024 which is equivalent to 5.3 percent of the country’s GDP.

REMEMBERING MLQ, NATIONAL LANGUAGE On August 1, 2023, a commemorative Mass was held at the tomb of President Manuel L. Quezon and his wife Aurora, at Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, as part of events marking the death anniversary of the esteemed Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier and politician. The occasion coincided with the Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa (National Language Month) celebration, where Quezon is a key figure as the "Father of the Filipino Language." He advocated for Tagalog, the native tongue of the people in Northern Luzon, and declared it the foundational element for the national language in 1937. Subsequently, this language was renamed Pilipino in 1959. ROY DOMINGO

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Companies

B1

Thursday, August 3, 2023

Aboitiz, CCEP offer to buy local bottler of Coca-Cola

By VG Cabuag @villygc

A e V said Wednesday that the two companies have entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with t he Coca-Cola Co. ( tCCC), setting out the terms on which A eV and CCep propose to acquire 100 percent ownership in Coca-Cola Beverages philippines Inc. (CCBp), the local bottling unit of the soft drink company.

t he amount of acquisition will be on a debt-free, cash-free basis, consistent with tCCC’s intent to divest its bottling operations, A eV said.

“If completed, the proposed acquisition would build on A eV ’s portfolio diversification strategy to enter the branded consumer goods space and on CCep ’s successful expansion into the Asia-pacific region via its acquisition of Coca-Cola Amatil in 2021,” the company said.

“A eV would be well positioned to support CCBp ’s growth ambition given the synergies that can be generated from A eV ’s other businesses.”

A eV ’s said its proposed acquisi-

tion of CCBp with CCep offers a “great opportunity” to co-acquire an established, well-run business with attractive profitability and growth prospects, the company said.

“ t here is, therefore, no certainty at this stage, that the proposed acquisition of CCBp will be completed, and as such, further updates will be provided in due course,” the company said.

A e V, however, said that assuming the definitive agreements will be agreed on and executed, the potential transaction is expected to close around the end of this year, subject to the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, including clearance from the ph ilippine Competition Commission.

t he philippines is Coca-Cola’s second largest market in Southeast Asia.

t he local bottling company’s operations in the philippines have always been colorful.

San Miguel Brewery Inc. was the

first to bring Coca-Cola products to the country in 1927. In the 1980s, the conglomerate spun off its soft drink business to become t he Coca Cola Bottlers philippines Inc., which became a joint venture between San Miguel Corp. and Atlanta’s t he CocaCola Co.

In 1997, San Miguel entered into a deal with Australia’s Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. in exchange for a-25 percent stake in the Australian company. t he local conglomerate later on sold all of its holdings in Amatil.

In 2001, San Miguel joined forces with t he Coca-Cola Co. to reacquire Coca-Cola Bottlers from the Australian company, with the local conglomerate garnering a 65-percent stake.

In 2007, the US firm bought the entire stake of San Miguel in the local bottling unit and then sold 51 percent of it to Coca-Cola Femsa SA, the world’s second largest bottler of the product, in 2012. It later on sold its stake back to t he Coca-Cola Co.

Ayala Land income up 41% in H1

Property developer Ayala Land Inc. on Wednesday said its income in the first half rose 41 percent to p11.39 billion from the previous year’s p8.08 billion.

revenues for the period rose 24 percent to p66 billion from the previous year’s p53.33 billion.

For the second quarter alone, the company said its net income amounted to p6.9 billion and revenues reached p35.1 billion.

“ o u r notable performance in the first half of 2023 reflects the sustained resilience of the property market and strong consumer activity in the geographic areas where we operate,” company president and Ceo Bernard Vincent o Dy.

“Leveraging the positive momentum of the economy, we will capitalize on market opportunities to enhance our diversified portfolio throughout the rest of the year.”

In the second half, Dy the company will be introducing more projects

and will have more launches.

“We’re also going to be opening new commercial assets in the next six months. So overall, we feel good about the results, and we’re very positive for the second half of the year.”

t he company said it grew its property development revenues by 13 percent year-on-year to p38.7 billion from higher residential project completion, bookings, and sales of commercial and industrial lots and office units.

Anna Ma. Margarita B. Dy, the company’s executive vice president, said the company still saw cancellations, mainly on its office for sale products sold by its unit Alveo.

“I guess [this is due from] the work from home, and the higher vacancies in the office segment, that is something that can be expected. on the other product lines, it’s starting to moderate,” she said.

“

t he revenue impact of cancellation has been 10 percent of our

property development, revenue. obv iously, because the revenue has also increased, then the impact in terms of absolute value has increased. And this quarter [second quarter], we experienced, I guess, a little bit higher cancellations on the office for sale products.”

residential revenues, meanwhile, rose by 14 percent to p31.2 billion, while office-for-sale revenues went up by 44 percent.

revenues from commercial and industrial lots totaled p5.4 billion, flat from last year. property development revenues totaled p21.7 billion in the second quarter, a 27 percent increase from the first quarter of 2023.

residential sales reservations in the first semester of 2023 increased by 18 percent year-on-year to p58.3 billion, as second-quarter sales reached p30.6 billion, 10 percent more than the previous quarter.

Sales were driven by Alveo’s park east pl ace in Bonifacio Global City,

AyalaLand premier’s Ciela in Carmona, Cavite, Arcilo in Nuvali, Laguna, and parklinks South tower in Quezon City, and Avida towers Makati Southpoint.

Commercial leasing revenues improved by 39 percent year-on-year to p20.2 billion due to higher occupancy and rents. Shopping center revenues surged by 49 percent to p10.2 billion, while office leasing revenues increased by 8 percent to p5.8 billion.

Meanwhile, hotel and resort revenues rose by 79 percent to p4.2 billion. Commercial leasing revenues totaled p10.1 billion in the second quarter, similar to the first quarter of 2023.

Capital expenditures reached p 3 8.7 billion, of which 55 percent were spent on residential projects, 11 percent on commercial projects, 15 percent on land acquisition, 14 percent on estate development and 3 percent on other purposes. VG Cabuag

SAN Miguel Corp.’s beer company San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) on Wednesday said its consolidated net income rose 26 percent to p13.5 billion in the first half from the previous year’s p10.65 billion. revenues grew 14 percent to p74.1 billion compared to p65 billion in the same period last year.

SMB said it posted a consolidated operating income of p16.4 billion, up by 12 percent compared to last year’s p14.72 billion.

t h e company attributed the growth to the positive sales performance of both its domestic and international operations, combined with a more favorable business environment. “We continue to see strong demand for our beer products. t hrough solid marketing strategies and a portfolio mix that gives consumers greater choice, we are able to keep our brands relevant and adapt to changing consumer needs and preferences,” San Miguel president and Ceo r amon S. Ang said.

SMB said its domestic beer volumes grew 9 percent, boosted by

new brand campaigns and offtakegenerating programs.

International operations, meanwhile, posted a 16 percent increase in sales volume from its exports business and Hong Kong and t hailand operations.

In its Hong Kong operations, the company said its retail sales have been increasing in the past months on improved labor market conditions and the continued uptick in tourism, supported by the government’s consumption voucher scheme.

“While the company reversed its negative on-premise volume performance from 2022, total domestic volumes for the first six months were on par with last year. t his is because the performance of the lower-priced economy brands in the off-premise channels declined, in line with the contraction of the beer industry’s economy segment,” the company said.

“San Mig Light continued outperforming all our brands, registering double-digit solid growth as of the first half of 2023.” VG Cabuag

CI t ICore renewable energy Corp. (Cr eC) will put up a 10-megawatt (MW) ground mounted solar power plant in pampanga to supply the electricity requirements of pampanga I electric Cooperative (peLCo I).

Under a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA ), C r e C will develop, construct, and operate an embedded 12-hectare solar facility in Barangay e s caler, Magalang, pa mpanga to directly supply the power needs in the franchise area of peL Co I without the need for a grid connection.

After the signing of the MoA last month, Cr eC and peLCo I will then process the necessary documents and clearances from the National electrification Administration (N e A) and the Department of energy, and will seek the approval of the energy r e gulatory Commission prior to commencement. Lenie Lectura

Eter NAL Gardens, one of the leading memorial park developers in the philippines, has acquired a 9-hectare property in Brgy. pacol, Naga City, to establish its 14th memorial park. t he acquisition was formalized in a ceremonial signing recently held in Makati City.

Following the success of the company’s first memorial park in Brgy. Balatas, Naga City, the decision to develop a second park in the Bicol region was motivated by the unwavering trust the community has bestowed upon eternal Gardens. t his new venture stands as a testament to the relationship between the company and the people it has been privileged to serve.

D. edgard A. Cabangon, Chairman, and Ceo of eternal Gardens, expressed his heartfelt appreciation, saying, “ t he establishment of our 14th memorial park in Brgy. pacol, Naga City, is a reflection of the unyielding trust placed in us by the people of Naga. We are deeply inspired by the people’s confidence in the eternal brand of excellence in memorial care. In return, the least

that we can do is to deliver a worldclass memorial park and excellent memorial services for the Nagueños.”

Furthermore, he emphasized that this undertaking is a continuation of the legacy left by his late father, Amb. Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, the visionary founder of eternal Gardens.

t he company was founded in 1976 with a mission to provide the Filipino people with unparalleled memorial care services.

eternal Gardens has carved a distinguished reputation for itself since its inception, developing 13 memorial parks strategically located across key cities in the philippines. As part of the esteemed eternal Memorial Group, alongside sister companies eternal Chapels, eternal Crematory, and eternal pl ans, the company has consistently demonstrated its commitment to upholding the highest standards in the industry.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures inc. (AEV) and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC (CCEP) announced that they will acquire the rights to bottle Coca-Cola products in the Philippines for $1.8 billion.

Regulating co-operative banks eyed by Congress

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

ABILL that will regulate the a ctivities of co-operative banks is now awaiting Senate deliberations and approval.

This was after members of the House of Representatives—voting 206 affirmative and 0 negative— approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) 8265 to promote thrift and savings mobilization for sustainable economic development among co-operatives and their members.

The chamber approved HB 8265 to expand the membership of co-op banks to foreign co-ops, provided that such foreign co-ops may not own more than 40 percent of the total outstanding voting shares of a local co-op bank.

The proposed law provides that at least 15 co-op organizations duly established and registered under the Cooperative Code may register a co-op bank with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), upon compliance with the requirements of and required authorization from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

This bill provides for the establishment, management and regulation of co-op banks under the supervision of the BSP as primary regulator, conformably with the provisions of the General Banking Law of 2000.

The BSP defines a co-op bank as “one organized for the primary purpose of providing a wide range of financial services to cooperatives and their members.”

It shall be organized only by coop organizations that are duly established and registered under the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008, or Republic Act (RA) 9520, reads Ap-

pendix 34 of the BSP’s Manual of Regulations for Banks.

HB 8265 also gives the CDA the task of monitoring co-op banks compliance with co-op laws, rules and regulations.

“We hope that with this proposed law, we will encourage more Filipinos to join co-operatives and form co-op banks so that credit facilities with reliable and reasonable terms will be more available and readily accessible to the public,” Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said.

“The long-term goal of this relevant law is to help co-operatives and Filipinos attain financial independence and achieve their aspirations,” Romualdez added.

HB 8265 also authorizes co-op banks to engage in a wide range of financial services such as extending loans, deposit taking, discounting and rediscounting, correspondent banking, dealing in debt securities, acting as collection agents, dealing in foreign exchange transactions, acting as government depository and conduit banks for government lending programs, and participating in government allocation programs geared towards the promotion of financial inclusion.

The bill also prescribes limitations on the lending authority of a co-op bank by imposing on private borrowings a ceiling of 25 percent of its unimpaired capital and surplus and grant incentives and privileges to registered co-op banks, including exemption from all national and local taxes, fees and charges provided under RA 9520 and related laws, subject to certain conditions, exemption from publication requirements on foreclosed lands and exemption from maximum land holding limits under existing agrarian laws.

Deal reached for funding reforms in MUP pension

SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez announced last Wednesday that a consensus has been reached on how to fund the reforms needed for the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension and make the program more reliable and sustainable in the years to come.

“Our soldiers and uniformed personnel are now assured: their pension plans are now fully funded, not only in 2023 or 2024 but in years to come,” Romualdez said.

The lawmaker said a consensus was reached after a closed-door meeting among members of the government’s economic team and senior House leaders.

After the 3-hour meeting, Romualdez said they “all agreed on a solution that we, believe, will be beneficial to all stakeholders in the MUP pension program.”

The Speaker added that as an offshoot of the meeting, he instructed the formation of an ad hoc committee in the House of Representatives to thresh out other details of the reforms agreed upon by executive officials and House leaders.

The Ad Hoc Committee will be chaired by Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente “Joey” Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. Salceda is credited for the win-win formula agreed upon during the closed-door meeting. Romualdez didn’t elaborate on the formula.

Joining as vice chairmen of the Ad Hoc Committee are the chairmen of the House Committees on Appropriation, on National Defense, and on Public Order and Security.

Romualdez said the Ad Hoc Committee will invite stakeholders in the MUP pension to join its public hearings and consultations to ensure that their concerns are heard and acted upon.

“Public hearings will clarify all issues regarding the MUP,” he said. “We will listen to all voices. We will ensure that with the new MUP pension program, pensioners will con-

₧1.3-T worth of fake receipts issued in past 20 years–BIR

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)

The BIR disclosed that P1.3trillion worth of fake receipts have been issued in the country at least in the past two decades. Based on its estimates, the national government was deprived of at least P370 billion in revenue collections because of the fake receipts, the BIR said.

The BIR explained that it computed the lost revenues from fake

receipts using the combined income tax rate of 25 percent and the 12-percent value added tax (VAT) that the firms evaded by using the unscrupulous scheme.

BIR Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. said he expects that some of the companies that are currently facing charges because of fake transactions would soon initi-

ate settlement with the government.

“It is up to them when they will pay but as far as we are concerned, the cases are there. It is up to them if they will pay but we have a lot of offers already. We are just looking for reasonable offers for payment,” Lumagui said. “But definitely within the year [there will be payments].”

The state tax collector said it arrived at these numbers as it implements its “Run After Fake Transactions,” or “Raft,” program. The BIR said the program is part of its measures in hiking the state’s overall VAT collections, which currently stands at only 40 percent.

The government is losing about P540 billion in uncollected VAT, according to the BIR, which is enough to feed five million families for a year or build 11,000 schools. (Related story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2023/05/31/vat-drivemissing-%E2%82%A7539b-dof/)

The BIR said it is beefing up

its data analytics unit to further strengthen its “Raft” program. It explained that it is capacitating its data analysts who shall serve as “vanguards” against fake transactions.

The unit would be equipped with the necessary tools, both hardware and software, to fight against the criminal syndicates behind the fake transaction scheme, according to the BIR.

The BIR announced last month it filed criminal charges before the Department of Justice against CHG Global Inc., CHK Steel Inc. and Gammon Resources Inc. for alleged use of fake receipts. (See https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/06/22/ bir-sues-firms-allegedly-tradingin-fake-receipts/)

In March of this year, the BIR filed charges against nine individuals running “ghost corporations” that had cost the government billions in tax losses, according to the Department of Finance.

tinue to benefit and the government will help them save money.”

Very responsible

SALCEDA said the reforms guarantee three things: “sure salary increase; sure indexation of pensions; and, sure funding for the pension system.”

He added that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. “has already helped address the problem by being very responsible about any salary increase for the MUP, before a viable pension system is in place.

“And with this reform, his government will solve the pension problem for decades to come,” Salceda said. “This solution also enables a salary increase for the MUP since we can control its fiscal consequences on the pension system.”

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno earlier announced that Marcos has approved decreasing the contributions of the government to the pool of funds for the pension of MUPs, among other reforms to avoid a fiscal collapse.

For this year alone, Diokno said the government would spend more than P120 billion (roughly $2.21 billion at current exchange rates) to fund the pension of those serving under several state institutions.

The latter are: the Armed Forces of the Philippines; the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology; the Bureau of Fire Protection; the Philippine National Police; the Philippine Public Safety College; the Philippine Coast Guard; and, the Bureau of Corrections.

Under the current proposal, the fund will be managed by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). An oversight committee shall be formed composed of the Secretary of Finance, the Secretary of Budget and Management, the Executive Secretary and the President and General Manager of the GSIS as ex-officio member and representatives from the MUP services. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) saw its net income in the first half of the year growing by nearly 3 percent to P20.9 billion driven by stronger loan portfolio and investment returns.

A statement issued by the LBP last Wednesday read that the staterun lender surpassed its net income target for the first six months of the year by 19 percent or by around P3.3 billion.

The latest bottomline of the bank is nearly 60 percent of its P35 billion

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) announced recently that Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. has categorically declared the mandatory nature of the benefits given to senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) for qualified purchases made online or through mobile applications. This is stated in Revenue Regulations 8-2023 issued by the BIR Commissioner.

The RR 8-2023 further stated that the signature of the senior citizen and/or PWD is not required if the qualified purchase was made online or through mobile applications. The Identification Card number of the senior citizen and/or PWD should still be provided, read a statement issued by the

full-year net income target, according to the LBP.

The bank attributed the growth in its net income to the double-digit rate expansion of its earnings from loans and investments, which it disclosed rose by 49.8 percent and 43.5 percent, respectively.

The bank added it has expanded its total assets by 7.14 percent to P3 trillion from the P2.8-trillion recorded in the first half of last year.

“The increase in assets was driven by deposits amounting to P2.7 tril-

BIR last Wednesday. “Online platforms should recognize the mandatory discounts given to Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities.

The BIR has issued RR 8-2023 to this effect. The signature of the senior citizen and/or PWD is not needed if the purchase is made through online means. The senior citizen and/or PWD Identification Card number should still be provided,” Lumagui was quoted in the statement as saying.

RR 8-2023 was issued by the BIR Commissioner “in furtherance of his goal to provide excellent taxpayer service,” the BIR statement read. “This issuance is a step towards making the BIR a service-oriented agency, not merely a goal-oriented one.”

lion, which expanded by 9.2 percent year-on-year,” it said.

The LBP said its capital also expanded by 14.43 percent to P236.3 billion from P206.5 billion last year. It added that its return on equity “remains at a healthy level” of 13.82 percent.

“LBP consistently ranks among the top universal banks in the country in terms of assets, deposits, loans, and capital,” the lender stated. It cited that global credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings Inc. recently upgraded

the Bank’s outlook to “stable” and affirmed its Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at BBB. “We are very much on track in meeting our financial targets for the year, as income from loans and investments continue to expand,” LBP President and CEO Lynette V. Ortiz was quoted in the statement as saying adding they’re “in a prime position to sustain our intensified support to the agriculture sector and other key industries.”

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Strong portfolio, investment returns lift LBP income BIR chief stresses benefits for senior citizens, PWDs

Asset expansion lifts Metrobank’s income to ₧20.9B

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

THE expansion of assets allowed the Metropolitan bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) to book a 34.1-percent increase in its net income in the January to June period in 2023.

In a statement, Metrobank said its net income increased to P20.9 billion. This translated to 12.9 percent return on equity, higher than the 10 percent recorded in the same period last year.

In the second quarter alone, the bank posted a 37.1 percent growth in earnings to P10.4 billion from the same period last year. “Our core businesses continued to grow and benefit from our strong balance sheet,” Metrobank President Fabian S. Dee was quoted in the statement as saying. “As the economy further expands, we see more market opportunities that will keep our

upward momentum and sustain our efforts to better serve our customers.”

Metrobank’s total consolidated assets stood at P2.9 trillion, maintaining its status as the country’s second largest private universal bank. Total equity reached P329.8 billion

“(The growth in net income was) supported by the bank’s asset expansion, higher margins, and healthy fee income growth as it kept its asset quality stable,” Metrobank said in a statement.

The bank’s net interest income grew 27 percent to P50.6 billion, on the back of a 50-basis point increase in net interest margin to 3.9 percent.

Gross loans of the country’s 4th-largest bank in terms of assets climbed 8.6 percent yearon-year, driven by a 7.2 percent rise in commercial loans and 14.1 percent expansion in consumer loans.

In terms of net credit card receivables, Metrobank said this increased by 28.8 percent while auto loans grew by 17.5 percent, sustaining the growth momentum in the consumer segment.

Meanwhile, total deposits grew by 9.3 percent to P2.3 trillion from a year ago, of which low-cost current and savings accounts accounted for 62.2 percent, according to the lender.

Trading and foreign exchange gains stood at P3.1 billion, while fee income rose by 10.2 percent to P8.1 billion.

Cost to income ratio continued to improve, declining to 51.8 percent in the first semester from 53.8 percent in the same period last year. The solid 19.1 percent growth in revenues outpaced the 14.5 percent jump in operating expenses to P33.7 billion, which was mainly driven by higher transaction related taxes and technology related costs.

With this, Metrobank said its pre-provision operating profit increased by 24.4 percent to P31.8 billion.

Metrobank’s non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio further eased to 1.8 percent in the first six months of 2023 from 1.9 percent in the same period last year, reflecting the bank’s prudence in its lending business.

“NPL cover is at a high of 184.4 percent providing a substantial buffer against any risks to the portfolio,” according to the lender.

The bank’s capital ratios are still among the highest in the industry, with capital adequacy ratio at 17.9 percent and common equity tier-1 ratio at 17.1 percent, all well-above the minimum regulatory requirements of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

In addition, liquidity coverage ratio is substantial at 243.4 percent, according to the lender.

said the national government has lost at least P370 billion from fake transactions involving legitimate businesses purchasing fictitious receipts to slash their income taxes and VAT obligations.

This undated photo courtesy of the Bureau of internal Revenue (BiR) shows BiR Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. (left). Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Internal revenue

Health& Fitness

Cost of curing TB to rise in PHL unless gov’t withdraws J&J patent on bedaquiline, says Doctors Without Borders

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

TREATI n G drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patients in the Philippines might become more expensive as cheaper yet qualityassured generic versions of its cure will be restricted in the domestic market.

This concern arose as the expiration of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) 20-year primary patent for DR-TB drug bedaquiline became effective last July 18.

Bedaquiline is a breakthrough medicine used in TB treatment regimens. It is highly recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for being a f ar-improved, shorter, better-tolerated and more effective cure for people affected by DR-TB.

At present, the suggested treatments, containing bedaquiline, are all taken orally for six months, with as high as 89 percent cure rates. This is a big improvement compared to the older treatments that had to be administered for 18 months and included daily painful injections.

“The secondary patent is already granted in the Philippines,” Sinhye Ha, advocacy adviser for Southeast, East Asia and the Pacific at Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), told the BusinessMirror in an email interview.

This island nation is among the 34 of the 49 countries with a high burden of TB, TB-HIV and/or DR-TB, where J&J holds secondary copyright on bedaquiline that forms part of treatment regimens.

“Thus, J&J can enforce their patents already at any time, should the Philippines use generic drugs procured outside GDF [Global Drug Facility],” she added.

The American pharmaceutical company’s deal with the GDF was announced last July 12 to increase the availability of affordable generic bedaquiline to selected low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with a high burden of people living with TB. The list of which is yet to be disclosed.

TB situation

TUBERCULOSIS is an infectious disease that mostly affects the lungs due to a type of bacteria. It’s airborne such that other people can possibly contract it when the

disease carrier coughs, sneezes or spits. n evertheless, those infected but not yet ill with the disease cannot transmit it.

According to the WHO, TB is ranked 13th as the main cause of death worldwide, and the second leading infectious killer after Covid-19 (above HIV and AIDS).

In 2021, around 10.6 million people got sick with TB across the globe, and a total of 1.6 million succumbed to it (including 187,000 with HIV).

The Philippines is now n o. 4 in terms of the number of TB cases globally, and has the fourth largest number of TB fatalities too, based on the WHO 2022 report.  Prevalence-wise, there were 372,367 TB cases recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) in 2022. It is projected that TB incidence and deaths will increase by 130 percent and 170 percent by 2025, respectively.

Fighting the disease

SI n CE time immemorial, the Philippine government has been fighting TB with various initiatives to ease the burden of Filipinos afflicted by this dreaded illness.

One of these initiatives is the WHO-approved standardized and effective cure for TB called DOTS (directly-observed treatment, short-course), which has been implemented here since 1996.

The DOTS program makes sure that patients get the correct medications they need to completely cure their disease and infection. The TB DOTS Clinic, which is usually found in community health centers, caters to diagnosed or suspected TB patients, wherein they are given free medications for at least six months.

“Bedaquiline is the cornerstone of DR-TB management, and to our knowledge, it is part of the free DR-TB regimen available in the Philippines,” shared Christophe Perrin, TB advocacy pharmacist of Doctors Without Borders Access Campaign.

Helping the country’s anti-TB effort, Doctors Without Borders, an international emergency medical humanitarian organization, has been working with the Manila Health Department on a TB screening project in Tondo, Manila. The project is focused on screening—actively looking for cases of TB.  “For those found to have TB, we refer them to the Manila health centers for free treatment,” he said.

From May to December 2022, Doctors

Without Borders screened 3,282, and diagnosed drug-sensitive TB (DS-TB) in 269 people. Working with the Manila health centers, 189 patients started treatment. Four patients were found to have DR-TB. For this year, the disease has so far increased. As of June 2023, the group has already screened 7,637, of which 466 were diagnosed with DS-TB. Again in cooperation with the health centers in the capital city, 211 patients began their medication. So far, four patients have been detected with DR-TB.

Cure comes with a price

COn T I n UOUSLY highly burdened by this health malady, the Philippines will have to continue to pay high prices for bedaquiline, which he noted as the “backbone of DR-TB treatment,” since J&J’s right on it remains in place locally.

Currently, bedaquiline is priced at $1.50 per day for an adult treatment ($272 for a six-month average treatment period). With scale-up and generic competition, however, it would drop, bringing it closer to the estimated target price of $0.50 each day. When procured through GDF, bedaquiline now costs as low as $45 per person per month, still higher than the target generic price at $8 to $17 for every person a month, should generic drug competition be allowed.

Indian generic companies Macleods and Lupin are now ready to start manufacturing generic bedaquiline since India did not grant secondary patents to J&J. Unfortunately, their entry into the Philippine market would no be possible since a generic manufacturer that exports its version of bedaquiline to or from countries where secondary patents on the drug exist could face the risk of legal action from J&J.

“Macleods and Lupin will not risk being taken to court by infringing the J&J secondary patent wherever it is granted, unless J&J gives them a waiver, like the J&J and GDF deal,” Ha pointed out.

Generic versions such as theirs that are of quality as the J&J’s bedaquiline could be three times cheaper for Filipino DR-TB patients.

“Since our TB project [here] is focused on screening and not treatment, Doctors Without Borders operations are not directly affected by the J&J secondary patent. However this would impact the national TB budget, as the country will

have to continue to procure the drug at high prices, unless it procures through GDF to access generic bedaquiline under the deal [with J&J]. The question now: Is the Philippines on the list of this deal?” she warned.

“With funds dedicated to the high prices for bedaquiline, that means less money that the n T P [national Tuberculosis Control Program] can dedicate to other key needed investments in all countries affected by TB, such as outreach campaigns to identify more people affected by DR-TB [only a third are diagnosed and provided a treatment globally], infection control in health facilities, health care worker training, food packages, etc.,” Perrin noted.

Call for patent drop

THE Doctors Without Borders has reiterated its appeal for the US pharmaceutical giant not to enforce any secondary patents for its own version of bedaquiline in any country that suffers the most from TB, as well as withdraw and abandon all of its pending applications for such everywhere in the world.

The nonprofit organization, likewise, called for a commitment from J&J to not sue any generic manufacturer that exports their own versions of bedaquiline to or from TB high-burden countries where its secondary patents on the drug exist. It even asked the company to make this announcement public by the U n TB Summit in n ew York next month.

“J&J has never showed any interest in making a public statement when they have been challenged on their access strategy on bedaquiline,” Ha revealed. “To our knowledge, they have provided no answer to the first letter sent publicly to J&J by the n a tional TB Programme in Belarus.”

Pressed on what the Philippines needs to do in so far as combatting the looming monopoly over the bedaquiline market here is concerned given the J&J patent issue, she advised the careful licensing of drug manufacturers in the country so as to avoid a repeat of such in the future.

n o t only for bedaquiline but for essential health tools, governments should watch that corporations do not get unmerited patents granted. This is an area that often slips past health authorities because it does not fall under their jurisdiction,” she stressed.

Pinoys urged to adopt ‘Pinggang Pinoy’ to fight spread of diabetes

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes Contributor

Instead of gorging on junk foods, the d epa rtment of s cience and te chnology Food and n u trition Research Institute ( d O st- F n RI) urged Filipinos to eat the recommended “Pinggang Pinoy” or “Filipino Plate” as a balanced diet guide to fight the spread of diabetes.

C hona Patalen, d ep artment of s c ience and te chnology Food and n u trition Research Institute ( d O st F n R I) s e nior s c ience Research s p ecialist, warned that if no lifestyle changes were made, the situation might lead to a larger number of people being affected by diabetes.

Patalen also revealed that their data showed that from 1993 to 2021, about 38.6 percent of Philippine adults have become overweight and obese. However, based on the a sia P acific cut-off, the 2021 statistics indicated that as many as 56.8 percent of adults have become overweight.

Borderline cases

In their studies, the d O st F n RI observed that

Editor: Anne Ruth Dela Cruz

Proper pediatric nutrition intervention, family, education vital in the fight against malnutrition

By Rory Visco Contributor

In a paper published in the national Center for Biotechnology Information ( n CBI) of the US n a tional Library of Medicine ( n L M) website, titled “ nutritional Habits and Interventions in Childhood,”

it pointed to the role of diet in helping achieve and maintain a healthy status, which is “especially important in the pediatric age since children need an adequate intake of energy and nutrients for growth and development with respect to their full potential.”

It had been emphasized in the paper why proper eating and lifestyle habits are important to help prevent chronic noncommunicable diseases from affecting a child in the first 1,000 days, and that “optimizing nutrition in infancy and establishing healthy lifestyles from pre-school years help prevent all forms of malnutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases in future life.”

Defining malnutrition

is about US$4.4 billion or 1.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In Philippine peso, it’s about P220 billion a year, and an estimated P4.8 billion budget yearly is needed for key interventions that are focused on nutrition, especially during a child’s first 1,000 days. Dr. Cainap-Endaya also emphasized that she hopes the government can see the value in investing in children’s nutrition intervention because it is estimated that for every P49 investment to address undernutrition, the country can gain a return of P587.

The value of nutrition intervention

SHE lamented that sometimes, the focus is on the medical needs of the patient and neglects the patient’s nutritional needs, and that is when they adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, or at the least work with a clinical dietitian.

Waistline

in 2018 to 2019, about 27.7 percent of the Philippines’ adult population or 17.6 million people are already classified as “pre-diabetes” or “borderline” cases who are susceptible to become diabetic.

t he F n R I developed ‘Pinggang Pinoy’ in collaboration with the World Health Organization [WHO], d e partment of Health [ d O H], and n at ional n u trition Council [ n n C ]. It comprises of half or 50 percent vegetables and fruits, 25 percent carbohydrates of rice or breads, 25 percent protein from ‘ulam’ or viands like fish or meat,” she said during the recent Pandesal Forum at Kamuning Bakery.

Pinggang Pinoy was formally unveiled at the “ s e minar s e ries on Food and n u trition Researches and s c ience and te chnology a c tivities” last July 4, 2023 at the d O st Compound in ta guig City.

Patalen urged Filipinos to get medical check-ups for possible diabetes at local barangay health centers, in order to prevent or for early medical intervention.

Beverage taxation

Controlling the spread of diabetes is not gain -

ing any ground as the taxation of beverages has not stopped the rise of diabetes in the country. s o far, one-third of Filipino adults are pre-diabetic and 36.6 percent of adults are overweight. d r. John Paulo Rivera, e x ecutive d rector of the a sian In stitute of Management ( a I M) a n drew tan to urism Center, said that instead of imposing new taxes on sweetened beverages, which might worsen inflation and add to higher prices for the general populace, the government must seek alternative and better revenue sources for its coffers. He added that the over consumption of refined carbohydrates like white rice can raise blood glucose levels and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

H e urged persons with diabetes to pursue an active lifestyle by engaging in more physical activities and eating a balanced diet as a solution.

Prof. Hercules Callanta of the College of Human Kinetics, University of Philippines (UP) d i liman said Filipinos must pursue regular physical activities and exercise and eating a balanced diet to lessen the danger of getting diabetes.

Callanta added that for men, a waistline of 35.25 inches or 90 centimeters is normal and anything above 36 inches is already considered “overweight”, while for women the ideal waistline is nothing above 31 inches or 80 centimeters. He said WHO recommends 150 to 300 minutes of physical activity every week to maintain good health.

C allanta urged the national government and local government units (LGUs) to promote physical activities and fitness programs, Physical e x ercise (P e ) c lasses in all schools, creation of walkable roads with real sidewalks, creation of good and safe bike lanes and “not fake bike lanes”. F or couch potatoes and gadget addicts, Callanta said they should stop this activity every hour, stand up and do simple physical activities or movements for at least two to four minutes.

t h e 4th week of July is d ia betes a w areness

Week. d ia betes a w areness Week and d ia betes Prevention through Lifestyle Changes were the main topics of the “Pandesal Forum” with media held on July 28, 2023 at the 84-year-old Kamuning Bakery Cafe.

Manila Doctors bolsters social, health-care services with new, renewed partnerships

In its thrust to further provide quality and top-notch medical care and responsive social services to the public, Manila d o ctors Hospital (M d H ), one of the leading tertiary hospitals in the country, continues to ink new and existing partnerships with private and public institutions in the Philippines.

Last May 2023, M d H si gned a Memorandum of a g reement (MO a ) w ith a B s - CB n Foundation ( a F I) for the creation of programs that will seek to protect children’s rights, raise awareness on

child protection and mental wellness, and provide referrals for medical services.

M d H an d a F I will collaborate on the provision of medical support for pediatric patients and the implementation of Bantay Bata 163’s Child s a fe s c hools and Project MI nd in Rafael Palma e lementary s c hool and a m ado V. Hernandez e l ementary s c hool, both beneficiaries of M d H ’s s c hool Health Program. In addition, the partnership will also provide M d H a b olstered dissemination of Bantay Bata’s H e L PLI ne 163,

a child-focused helpline, which gives access to rescue from child abuse, basic social work counseling and free psychological services.

a s part of the strengthened collaboration of M d H with public institutions, the tertiary hospital also signed an expanded MO a with the office of s e nator s h erwin t. G atchalian, through its WI n a c tion Center, July 27, 2023. t h e renewed partnership is expected to boost the hospital’s social services programs and their continuous collaboration for the annual celebration of n a -

t ional te achers Month and the conduct of external medical and surgical missions. t h e partnership with the then 1st d strict Representative of Valenzuela begun in 2014, and has so far served more than 8,000 patients. t h e senator was also an active partner of the hospital for its various social and healthcare campaigns like the a n ti-Violence against Women and Children (VaW C), Cervical Cancer a w areness, a n ti-Human tr afficking, and Mental Wellness for Children with tr auma.

ACCORDI n G to Dr. Racquel Cainap-Andaya, a Fellow of the Philippine Pediatrics Society, Inc. (PPSI) and part of the Consultant Staff of The Medical City South Luzon, during the pediatric nutrition webinar organized by The Medical City South Luzon, malnutrition, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), are “deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients.” She said malnutrition encompasses the whole spectrum of undernutrition (wasting, stunting), micronutrient deficiencies, plus overweight and obesity. Based on the “Levels and trends in child malnutrition” report developed by the WHO together with U n I CEF and the World Bank Group presented by Dr. Cainap-Andaya, she said that latest estimates point that globally, around 148.1 million children under five years old are experiencing stunting, with 52 percent of them found in Asia, while 45 million kids below five years of age are underweight for their height (“wasting”). This can still go high, Dr. CainapAndaya said, if the estimates were done for a whole year. Around 70 percent of those in the “wasting” category live in Asia, and there are 37 million children, still under the same age bracket, who are overweight and obese, with 48 percent of them, again, are in Asia.

Under the Expanded national nutrition Survey: nutritional

Status of Filipino Children done in 2018, 2019 and 2021, and still for children under five years old, stunting declined from 30.3 percent to 26.7 percent, but still high, according to Dr. CainapAndaya. In terms of wasting, it is at 5.5 percent so there’s not much of an improvement, while those who are overweight or obese even increased to 3.9 percent in 2021 compared to 2.9 percent in 2019, though she believes the pandemic may have contributed to this uptick.

Poor nutrition—its effects

DR. Cainap-Endaya emphasized the importance of children eating healthy or getting good nutrition. “The effects of poor nutrition are not found only in children but it can have longterm effects and consequences, and it can result to tragic loss in human and economic potential.”

From an economic standpoint, in 2017, it was estimated that the total cost to the Philippine economy brought about by childhood undernutrition

The pathway in effective pediatric nutritional intervention, she said, starts with screening and assessment, then establish diagnosis, then comes intervention, and there is the constant need to monitor and evaluate the patient. “Sometimes the counseling that the patient or parents receive may not suffice to see effects on the patient so there’s a need for monitoring, and if in monitoring there is no progress, there may be a need to re-evaluate the prescription and intervention and change whatever needs to be changed,” Dr. Cainap-Endaya explained.

One way of ensuring that pediatric patients develop eating healthy eating habits that is easy to follow and definitely tailor-fit for the Filipino, proven formula developed by the Department of Science and Technology-Food n u trition and Research Institute (DOSTF n R I) is the “Pinggang Pinoy.” She described it as a good tool to teach kids or their parents or caregivers how to provide appropriate and diverse diet to children. Dr. Cainap-Endaya also came up with her own meal plan she called “Eat the Rainbow,” composed of a variety of colorful fruits and veggies, to drink water instead of sugary beverages, no “screen time” when eating, eat their protein, choose healthy snacks, and enjoy the meal on schedule and with the family.

“In teaching kids to develop healthy eating habits, it is important that caregivers or parents actually model the same healthy eating habits that they’d like the children to develop, and part of that is to enjoy eating their meals with the family. We’d like to have them feel having the meal in an enjoyable environment.”

Other forms of intervention

DR. Cainap-Endaya said other interventions, especially at home, children should be educated on the value of sleep hygiene because this affects growth and development, personal/oral hygiene, physical activity to achieve balance between activity and nutrient intake, always limit gadget time, which is easier said than done. “What can probably be done is that a companion should be around during screen time.”

She also pointed to the value of updated immunization, patient education, more importantly on the part of the caregiver, who is most of the time the one who needs education on proper nutrition, or if the patient or child is old enough, direct counseling can be done. “Again, this is a multi-disciplinary approach done especially with the dietitian.”

Mayonnaise, World Vision inspire children with reboot of ‘Dear Classmate’

EVERY child dream to be somebody when they grow up. For many, however, the journey to success starts with overcoming the challenges of academic life. This is the powerful message behind the new rendition of Dear Classmate, the iconic song by alternative rock band Mayonnaise produced in collaboration with World Vision.

Together with child-focused humanitarian organization World Vision, the OPM rock quintet, known for their timeless hit “Jopay,” has rewritten and tweaked a few lines of their original 2014 song to deliver a meaningful message that resonates with the audience of today and generations to come, inspiring kids to embrace and value education, and encouraging them to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential.

“We wanted to do this small thing for World Vision because, just like us, they’re striving to make a difference in children’s lives. While ours has been through music, World Vision does it through its many programs,” Mayonnaise frontman and prolific composer Monty Macalino said. “In the same way that we started out as young, hopeful underdogs, we encourage the youth to study hard, prioritize their future, and stay focused on their dreams. Big things will happen for sure!”

As the band celebrates their 20th anniversary, Mayonnaise hopes “Dear Classmate” sends a positive message to millions of their loyal fans, including the present generation, who continue to adore their music.

“Mayonnaise’s 20th anniversary is really a milestone to be celebrated,” says World Vision executive director Rommel V. Fuerte. “Thank you for supporting our mission to achieve hope, joy, and justice for all children. Together with our donors, sponsors, and partners [like Mayonnaise], we will continue to work hard to help ensure that underprivileged children can reach his or her full potential. We pray for the continued success of Mayonnaise and their music.”

“Dear Classmate [World Vision’s Version]” can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and other digital music platforms (wvph.co/MayoWV ). The music video is available for viewing at youtu.be/ recYlLeANSk.

More information is available at www.worldvision. org.ph

For more updates, follow World Vision Philippines’ official social media pages: @worldvisionph on Facebook and Twitter, and @worldvisionphl on Instagram.

Parentlife BusinessMirror

Is ‘Barbie’ really about the messy contradictions of motherhood?

By Aviva Dove-Viebahn Arizona State University

Editor’s note: This article contains plot spoilers for

THE wildly popular Barbie touted for its celebration—and critique—of femininity.

As a mother and a media scholar, I couldn’t help but see Barbie through an even narrower lens: as a film that, at its core, is about mothers and daughters.

The film’s plot centers on a life-size doll, known as “Stereotypical Barbie,” played by Margot Robbie, who begins to malfunction: Her feet go flat, and she can’t stop thinking about death. She leaves her perfect plastic life to embark on a quest to restore the boundary between the real world and Barbieland. Along the way, she learns that the real world is nothing like her girl-power wonderland, where Barbies hold all the positions of power and influence and Kens are just accessories.

But its thematic heart rests in the film’s examination of the tensions around being a mother—a role often taken for granted, even as the cultural fantasies of motherhood clash with the actual sacrifices that moms make.

Motherhood as Mere drudgery?

I WAS immediately struck by the movie’s funny but chilling observations about motherhood.

“Since the beginning of time,” unseen narrator Helen Mirren intones sardonically in the film’s first line, “since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls.” (Cinephiles will immediately recognize this scene and its setting as an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s famous “dawn of man” opening from 2001: A Space Odyssey.) Girls appear on screen, wearing drab, antiquated dresses and playing “house” with their dolls in a primitive setting, expressionless and practically drooping with boredom. The problem with these dolls is that girls “could only ever play at being mothers, which can be fun”—Mirren pauses meaningfully—

“for a while.”

Then, she adds, her tone turning cynical, “Ask your mother.” The appeal of motherhood, Mirren seems to suggest, eventually morphs into unwanted drudgery—a reality underscored moments later when the girls meet their first Barbie, who towers above them, larger than life, inspiring them to smash their mundane baby dolls.

Barbie—a doll of a young, beautiful woman— compels kids to leave the ennui of motherhood behind for the pink plastic sparkle of Barbieland, where all the Barbies live their best lives forever, embodying feminine perfection and possibility.

The framing of motherhood as thankless and undesirable echoes mid-20th-century feminist critiques of child rearing and housework. These roles not only bound women to the home but also forced them to perform repetitive tasks that didn’t reflect their abilities and derailed their ambitions.

the value in ‘Motherwork’

AND yet, not only do many women enjoy being mothers, but motherhood also plays an essential role

Former tech exec sparks

A DECADE ago, Sheryl Sandberg wrote the best-seller Lean In for women navigating the corporate world. Now, the former chief operating officer of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms wants to inspire the next generation of female leaders.

Sandberg’s non-profit, LeanIn.Org, has launched a new leadership program for girls 11- to 15-years-old called Lean In Girls, which aims to teach them lessons on resilience, positive risk-taking and leading boldly. In raising her own family, Sandberg said she noticed that girls lose confidence and their voice “somewhere around middle school,” an observation backed up by data. “These are the 10 years where I became a mother of older kids—as a parent of teenagers, boy do I see those differences,” she said.

The free-of-charge program consists of 15 lessons that are based on social science research, expert input and feedback from girls. The first eight lessons are available globally, along with online facilitator training. The remainder, which tackle more challenging issues, will be delivered in the US and Canada through partner organizations such as Kipp Schools, Girls Inc. and the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas.

Sandberg said the project is part of her effort to

‘Lean In’

in society and life. In Barbie, the mother-daughter relationship between Gloria, played by America Ferrera, and her daughter Sasha, played by Ariana Greenblatt, contains the contradictions of “motherwork.” The term, coined by sociologist Patricia Hill Collins in the mid-1990s, refers less about tedium and oppression than an acknowledgement that mothering can be a radically important labor of love and a source of empowerment in its own right.

Sasha and Gloria’s adventure with Barbie repairs the relationship between mother and daughter. Gloria remembers what it’s like to find joy in motherhood, and Sasha realizes that her mother isn’t just a bland set of values against which to rebel. Gloria is a fully fledged person with a rich inner life who, by her own estimation, is sometimes “weird and dark and crazy,” which Sasha admires.

letting go

THE ending to Barbie rejects the notion that mothers are to blame for their children’s mistakes. Instead, the film offers another perspective through the character of Ruth Handler, Mattel’s founder, who’s played by Rhea Perlman. Handler helps Barbie see what awaits her if she chooses to become human.

“We mothers,” she explains, “stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they’ve come.”

This sentimental and self-effacing message seems at odds with the film’s nuanced portrayal of motherhood through humor and critique. But, throughout, Barbie invites viewers to question even its own structure, tenets and messaging—and presents multiple perspectives on motherhood.

Mothering is hard work and sometimes may even

movement for teenage girls

leadership means and move away from the traditional command-control style that doesn’t typically resonate with girls. She said it will give girls tools to identify and challenge the negative stereotypes and beliefs that hold them back. “Naming it and giving them tools to identify it and push back against it and reframe it can be really powerful,” she said.

Latricia Barksdale, the vice president of Lean In Girls, said the program targets a critical moment in identity formation and development. “They may not know it’s not about them, but actually the world around them,” said Barksdale.

The material also provides additional advice and resources for adults. According to research compiled by the group, only one in five girls aged eight to 17 believe they have the qualities to be a leader and almost half of high school girls think speaking their mind will make them unlikeable.

be thankless labor. It may bore or disappoint. It can be affirming or heartbreaking or both. It involves leading and following, holding on and letting go. Being a mother shouldn’t have to be about sacrifice or about fitting some impossible ideal. Instead, motherhood can highlight the possibilities of living in—and with—the contradictions. the Conversation

Save the children, child rights groups call on support for positive parenting bill

SaVe the Children Philippines, in partnership with Child rights network, Child Fund Philippines, Consuelo Zobel alger Foundation, and parent and child rights advocates, strongly urge the government, legislators, and all Filipino families to unite behind the Positive Parenting bill.

In a 2022 report of the Council of the Welfare of Children (CWC), about 9,000 children suffered from all forms of abuses, including physical and humiliating punishments. rep. natasha Co, chairman of the house Committee on the Welfare of Children and bhW Partylist stressed that Positive Parenting will address the needs of parents on how to shift away from methods that use physical and humiliating punishments in disciplining their children.

“The State will support Filipino parents in practicing a more effective method of discipline, which is, Positive Parenting,” rep. Co said.

Save the Children Philippines pledged full support to the Positive Parenting in all Settings act (hbn 8306) and an act Providing for non-Violent Discipline of Children and appropriating Funds (hbn 1269), as these bills recognize that children have rights that must be respected. The bills also emphasize the use of physical and humiliating punishments do more harm than good to children.

Moreover, Save the Children believes that positive and non-violent parenting approaches are much more effective and have optimal advantage of bringing out the best in children.

In fact, the findings of a recent global report said that the use of corporal punishment as a discipline method contributes to lower academic achievement and school dropout. This also carries the risk of long-term harm to mental and physical health and future prospects of individuals, families and societies.

Two legislators have filed their versions of the bill in their respective chambers. Sen. risa hontiveros authored the Senate bill 2036 subject for interpellation in the Senate. On the other hand, rep. angelica natasha Co authored the house bill 8306 scheduled for hearing at the committee level.

increase the number of women in top career positions, which is still too low. “One of the thoughts we had was maybe we just need to start younger,” she said.

Rachel Thomas, chief executive officer of LeanIn. Org, said the program also aims to redefine what

The launch comes after millions of women left the workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic to care for their families, and disproportionately shouldered those responsibilities compared to men. According to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost three-in-five teenage girls say they feel persistently sad and hopeless. BlooMBerg ne ws

Save the Children Philippines believes that the bill would become a living, moment-defining document if all Filipinos, especially the family which is the smallest unit of our society, would come to realize that our children are the future generation. If they are raised in love, respect, and dignity, we can expect future leaders and servants who will serve the country and the Filipino people in love, respect, and dignity.

SheryL SanDberg former chief operating officer of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms

aMerICa Ferrera (left) as gloria, in Barbie ariana greenblatt, plays gloria’s daughter Sasha. warner Bros.

BSP REMINDS MSME BORROWERS OF NEW LOAN APPLICATION FORM

THE central bank reminds micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that there is now a standard business loan application form (SBLAF) that banks are mandated to provide to make MSME access to credit easier.

The guidelines for the adoption of the SBLAF are provided in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Circular No. 1156, which was issued in September last year.

The SBLAF is designed to streamline the loan application process and to make it borrower-friendly for its target users, which are the MSMEs, according to a BSP official in a presentation on July 18, 2023 at the National MSME Summit 2023 held in Manila.

The application form also supports MSMEs’ access to financial products and services by facilitating transparency, ease of understanding, and efficiency in loan applications and processing.

At the same time, the SBLAF is expected to enable banks and other financial institutions to improve their risk assessment, hasten turnaround time, and facilitate transition to digital loan application platforms.

Moreover, the use of SBLAF among banking entities will support data requirements for improved and consistent credit information services.

Circular 1156 is part of the BSP’s thrust to “promote broad and convenient access to high quality financial services.”

It mandates the adoption of the SBLAF

templates by covered entities. These are the BSP-supervised financial institutions including banks and their subsidiary/affiliate financing and leasing companies; government non-bank financial institutions; and financing/leasing companies with quasi-banking license that are not subsidiaries of banks.

Under the circular, MSME applicants will use the prescribed SBLAF templates when they apply for a loan. The templates have two components: the borrower information sheet and the list of supporting documents.

The applicant-borrower must be a sole proprietorship, partnership, cooperative, or corporation, each classified as an MSME or startup and natural person proposing to do business.

The SBLAF covers loans for use in financing business operations and capital expenditures. Business loans covered encompass both secured and unsecured loans. Borrowers will have to choose between two kinds of SBLAF depending on their type of application. These are Annex A-1 for individual and sole proprietorship and Annex A-2 for cooperative, partnership, and corporation, including one-person corporation

BSP Circular 1156 states that SBLAF templates shall be the sole forms used for covered loan applications and may not be modified by the lending institutions.

The circular also provides that the

SBLAF templates shall be used for new covered loan applications, additional loans, and renewal and restructuring of existing loans.   Banks are also mandated to ensure that the SBLAF templates are accessible in all channels, where the borrowers can submit a loan application.

The SBLAF templates can be made available in printed form and/or electronic form. Electronic signature shall be accepted to authenticate or provide consent in the electronic form.

Access to affordable financing remains a major stumbling block for MSME survival and growth.

Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc., has noted that despite comprising the overwhelming majority of businesses and accounting for the biggest share of total employment, “the Philippine MSME sector is the most ‘under-banked’ sector in the whole of Asia.”

This situation led to the closure of many MSMEs at the height of the pandemic and is behind the slow and precarious recovery of those that have survived the global health crisis. MSMEs often struggle to gain access to formal credit due to their lack of traditional collateral and perception of being high-risk clients, prompting them to turn to usurers for capital.

PDRF receives P55M grant from Aussie govt for emergency communications

THE Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) received on July 28, 2023 a P55 million grant from the Australian Government to implement the Resilient Emergency Communications for Enhanced Disaster Response (REACHED) Project for the climate vulnerable local government units (LGUs) of Butuan, Agusan del Norte; Virac, Catanduanes and Borongan, Samar. At the same time as the project launch, PDRF hosted an operational briefing for the private sector on the effects of Typhoon Egay (international name: Doksuri).

In its briefing, PDRF reported widespread flooding in MIMAROPA, Central Luzon, and Ilocos. Landslides have also been reported in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

PDRF member companies Manila Water and Maynilad are monitoring dams and rivers; McDonald’s Kindness Kitchen and Jollibee Foods Corporation are monitoring stores in affected areas and are on standby to distribute hot meals to evacuation centers; PLDT and Smart are also sending packs of rice and hygiene kits; Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc. dispatched a team to Northern Luzon to distribute relief goods from Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc., One Meralco Foundation, Maynilad, Metro Pacific Investments Foundation, and Makati Medical Center Foundation; Lifeline utilities are mobilizing to restore services in Egay-affected areas in Northern Luzon.

Launched at the PDRF Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Pampanga, Project REACHED is a two-year program that offers a solution to the recurring problem of establishing communications after a major disaster. Project REACHED aims to provide select LGUs with the necessary equipment

and training to ensure access to communications during and after calamities and help coordinate response and recovery operations in affected areas.

The LGUs of Butuan, Virac, and Borongan were selected based on their vulnerability to typhoons, economic revenue, population, resources, and competitive index resilience score.

This project will harness public-private partnerships and will be implemented in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Office of Civil Defense, World Food Programme, Globe Telecom, and PLDT-Smart.

In his remarks, Thanh Le PSM, Counsellor Development of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, noted that “Building long-term disaster and climate resilience has been a key priority for Australia in the Philippines. We recognize that natural disasters and climate change are ‘threat

Toyota is Gilas Pilipinas’ official mobility partner for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023

LEADING mobility company Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) has turned over two units of its 29-seater mini bus, the Toyota Coaster, to the Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team. The vehicles will be used by the team, the management, and coaching staff during Gilas Pilipinas’ stint at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 being co-hosted by the Philippines from August 25 to September 10, 2025. Photo shows Gilas Pilipinas player pool members AJ Edu, Jamie Malonzo, Kiefer Ravena, Dwight Ramos, and

June Mar Fajardo, together with TMP Director and Member of the Board Vince Socco (2nd from left), MediaQuest & Cignal TV President and CEO Jane J. Basas (5th from left), Gilas Pilipinas team manager Butch Antonio of Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (3rd from right), and TMP Vice President for Marketing Services Elvin Luciano (rightmost). Aside from being the official mobility partner of Gilas Pilipinas, TMP is also one of the local event sponsors of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

Foundever ™ on navigating career growth:

FOUNDEVER ™ , a global leader in the customer experience (CX) industry, believes that career growth now goes beyond climbing the traditional corporate ladder; it now also entails having the ability and opportunity to create positive moments not only for oneself but also for teammates and customers.

This new thinking in careers is even more pronounced in the highly competitive business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, according to a leadership development executive of Foundever in the Philippines.

“Whether big or small, these moments will define the trajectory of a person’s career in the BPO industry, regardless whether they’re fresh out of university or a mid-career professional,” Foundever Senior Director for Leadership Development Francis “Taz” Biagan said. “These moments can help you achieve your goals and even advocate for yourself.”

mentors provide guidance, as well as valuable insights and knowledge.

“Your manager can help you set realistic goals and hold you accountable for achieving them, but mentors can also help you look at things from a fresh perspective when work appears to be stagnating,” he said.

Foundever believes that the company’s success is built on the experiences its associates are having within the organization. It invests in its people’s growth via internal talent programs and supports growth initiatives via coaching and mentoring.

Compensation monitoring platform Comparably has recognized Foundever on its annual 100 list of Best Companies for Career Growth for 2023. The list is derived from millions of anonymous employees who rated their career development opportunities in their workplace.

multipliers’ that disproportionately affect the weakest and most vulnerable sectors of society. By investing in resilient emergency communications, we can save countless lives and prevent vulnerable communities from experiencing even more difficulties and hardships.”

“Typhoon Egay’s destructive swath through the northern Philippines is a reminder of how critical telecommunications are during a crisis. Our thanks to the Australian government for their support. May Project REACHED help make life safer for the people of Butuan, Virac, and Borongan—three cities that are frequently hit by storms,” said Rene “Butch” Meily, PDRF President. The investment in Project REACHED is a critical component of Australia’s development assistance in the Philippines that aims to enhance local resilience to natural disasters.

Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino celebrates a night of sliver splendor

ON July 25, 2023, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino celebrated its 25th Anniversary with the theme “Silver Splendor” as guests arrived in anticipation for a night to remember.

The hotel was filled with elegant elements leading to the Pacific Grand Ballroom: a seven-foot centerpiece revealing the 25th anniversary’s exquisite logo and photos showcasing memorable moments over the past quarter of a century; a violinist whose dress trails down the hotel’s iconic staircase; 3D video wall featuring the hotel’s interior and; a group of violinists to welcome guests with a serenade as they walk down the red carpet.

The momentous occasion was graced by the presence of the members from the Waterfront Philippines Inc. namely president, Kenneth T. Gatchalian with his lovely wife Mary Jeanette K. Gatchalian, directors of the board,

Dee Hua T. Gatchalian, Chairman Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr., Chairman Arthur M. Lopez, and Secretary Ruben R. Torres.

The dinner, curated by the property’s culinary masterminds, Chef Tristan Encarnacion, Chef Syl Francis Malenab, Chef Erwin Manes, Chef Low Yuen Kong, and Chef Nobuyuki Imamura took center stage representing their award-winning restaurants - Best of Cebu Grand Slam Winner for Best Dim Sum, Tin Gow, authentic Japanese favorites from Mizu, pasta cooked in a Parmesan wheel from La Gondola, a wide array of dishes prepared by the experts from banquets, and last but certainly not the least, delicious desserts to end the meal from Pastry team.

To celebrate the momentous occasion, the hotel recognized its 25-year service awardees whose hard work and loyalty have greatly contributed to its unwavering

To live out what they believe, Foundever has made sure its employee value proposition (EVP) creates positive, defining moments for everyone. One of its major themes is growth.

According to Taz, while honing your soft skills like communication, people management, and customer service is necessary to help put you up for success, you must be willing to learn new things so you can grow your career both horizontally and vertically.

“BPO is not just voice support. Companies outsource various business processes like bookkeeping, accounting, digital marketing, and data entry. That’s why you should take advantage of the training programs or skill development workshops your office provides,” he said.

Taz added that ensuring the vertical or horizontal growth of its associates is part of the employee value proposition of Foundever. This means apart from giving associates opportunities to develop new skills, the company also provides them internal mobility and job security.

Taz pointed out that having a mentor is a catalyst for an enriching career journey as

success. The property also received testimonials from its valued clients who made Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino their home for the past years.

The celebration will not be complete without the recognition of the hotel’s Top Accounts who have played pivotal roles in the property’s achievements.

Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino representatives: Kenneth T. Gatchalian, Bryan Yves Lasala, Director of Sales, Christine Luague, and Conventions and Events Director, Fila Sofia Ubalde-D’Lonsod awarded their Top Partners for the following categories: Airline, Corporate, Travel Agency, Online Travel Agency, Event Producer, Event Planner, Wedding Planners, and Special Awards on stage. Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino would also like to thank their event organizer: RM Eventsmaker Consultancy

Services and event sponsors: Global Star Motors Corp., Cebu New Life Press, Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., DC Fresh Flower Shop & Supply, Kettle & Shaker, The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Don Revy, and M Lhuillier.

While BPO companies offer some of the most competitive packages, they are not all cut equal, according to Taz. “Anyone looking to have a flourishing BPO career must find a company that has programs and systems in place that are designed to nurture their professional growth,” he said.

“You must also join a team that treats everyone fairly, respectfully and equitably.”

Living by the mantra that the employee experience is the customer experience, Foundever launched My Associate Experience or Foundever (MAX), the company’s business-wide mindset and engagement program for transforming the associate experience via social collaborations. One of the features of the program is the annual employee engagement survey, an undertaking designed to get ideas for improvement from the company’s associates.

Foundever also recently celebrated Pride month. The event aimed to amplify LGBTQIA+ voices by supporting their culture and rights. This year, the summit was focused on the promotion of diversity in the workplace, as well as HIV awareness and allyship.

PROJECT REACHED partners include, from left, Martin Kristensson (World Food Programme); Paul Donato (Globe Telecom); Ronald Miranda (PLDT-Smart); Vincent Rosario (City Government of Butuan); Rupert Ambil (City Government of Borongan); Thanh Le (Australian Embassy); Butch Meily (PDRF); Mayor Sam Laynes (Municipality of Virac); Kelvin Ofrecio (Office of Civil Defense); and Rafael Olivar (Department of Information and Communications Technology

‘All about creating your best moments’

Australia, UNDP boost NCR’s stance in combating disaster, climate threats

Said effort will fall under the

“Strengthening Institutions and Empowering Localities against Disasters and Climate Change (SHIELD)” program. It will support DILG-National Capital Region’s (NCR) new “Upscaling Plans for Resilient Urban Governance (UPSURGE)” project,

which will work with city planning officials in ensuring that their respective comprehensive development plans or CDPs are climate- and disaster-risk informed, as well as aligned with relevant national laws and policies.

“This is our seventh memoran-

dum of understanding [MOU under ‘SHIELD’]...and our shared zeal for building [resilient] constituencies… with the Australian government is stronger than ever,” said Dr. Selva Ramachandran, who is the UNDP resident envoy for the Philippines, during the signing. “Even as all regions display significant [recovery and growth rates], Metro Manila remains the center of economic activity in the country. With natural and historical risks that surround the country’s capital, we stand to lose a great deal of progress if a disaster [renders NCR at] a standstill.”

Assistant Regional Director Lyn Baltazar-Cortez from the DILG-NCR and Portfolio Manager Mei Santos of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines witnessed the signing, along with officials from the DILG Bureau

EU provides €500,000 to ‘Egay’-affected folks

of Local Government Development, as well as SHIELD consortium partners, UN Habitat, National Resilience Council, Philippine Business for Social Progress, and the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society.

Through SHIELD, Australia has provided AU$18 million to help the Philippine government build institutional and community resilience to climate change and natural hazards by helping local governments pursue and invest in resilient development. The program is being implemented in coordination with DILG, Office of Civil Defense, and Department of Science and Technology.

Aside from Metro Manila, SHIELD is being rolled-out in 11 of the country’s most climate- and disaster-vulnerable provinces, as well as in Bangsamoro Region.

NZ, Phil. Football Federation bring Filipinas-Ferns Fifa match to fans

THE New Zealand Embassy and the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) hosted a live viewing event for the highly anticipated FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 match between the Oceanic country and the Philippines on July 25.

More than 500 passionate football fans, enthusiastic spectators, members of the diplomatic corps, student athletes, as well as representatives from various universities, leagues and clubs joined the event. They all gathered to witness the fierce showdown between the New Zealand Football Ferns and Team Filipinas, as the supporters cheered, jumped, and rallied behind their home team who scored its first goal in the tournament.

Team Filipinas emerged victorious in the nail-biting encounter with a 1-0 triumph over the “Ferns.” The result elicited a mix of jubilation and respect from the crowd, which exemplified the spirit of sportsmanship that lies at the heart of the “beautiful game.”

Ambassador Luc Veron of the European Union and Acting Counsel-

lor/Chief Migration Officer Jennifer Bryant of the Australian Embassy graced the occasion, which further

highlighted the event’s importance in strengthening international ties.

Ambassador Peter Kell of New

Zealand warmly congratulated the Team Filipinas members for their exemplary performance: “Football, being a global language, bridged the gap between nations, and the shared passion for the sport transcended borders, [created lasting bonds among] attendees.”

Kell remarked that “we are immensely grateful to have organized this live viewing event with the [PFF and to witness the fervent support for women’s football. The camaraderie and unity of] everyone…are a testament to the power of sports in bringing people together.”

For the embassy, the event was a remarkable platform for fostering unity, camaraderie, and cultural exchange between New Zealanders and Filipinos.

The PFF, meanwhile, expressed its gratitude, as the event showed “the true essence of football and its ability to unite people from different backgrounds. We are grateful for the opportunity to host this event alongside the New Zealand Embassy, and strengthen our ties through our shared love for the sport.”

Reaffirming our pledge to the Kashmiri cause

By Zumar-e-Fatima

Head of Chancery, Embassy of Pakistan

SCREAMS for help by people living in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) have now been echoing around for more than seven decades, and have more often than not found themselves falling on deaf ears of an international community that has increasingly chosen to focus on high politics.

The plight of Kashmiris has not only been ignored, but relegated to the political realm of human rights. To make it worse, on August 5, 2019, the Indian government illegally annexed occupied Jammu and Kashmir through abolition of special statusrelated Articles 35A and 370 of the Indian Constitution. These articles provided people living in IIOJ&K identity and economic rights, and prevented the Indian government from violating the basic principle of self-determination of the same people.

Demographic reengineering (a “softer term” denoting genocide and mass exodus) of Kashmiris by bringing in Hindus from the union itself has become the norm. India has imposed an unprecedented military siege restricting fundamental hu-

man rights of the Kashmiri people. The manifestation of an exclusionary “Hindutva” driven ideology by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is conspicuous in the Indian government’s each and every move.

Every freedom movement that has organically surfaced in IndianOccupied Kashmir has also been made controversial by India through its propaganda machinery as an excuse to not demilitarize the region by increasing its military presence in the Kashmir Valley, of dividing the people of three regions of the Indian-Occupied Kashmir (the Valley of Kashmir, Ladakh and Jammu) on increasingly religio-political lines, so as to make space for state-sponsored oppression, torture and genocide, of building a narrative on the basis of a deceitful and bogus Instrument of Accession (the date and manner of signing of which should reveal India as the first aggressor to any reader), and of labeling any freedom movement as an extremist ideology, has all finally facilitated the Indian government to launch a full-fledged invasion of the disputed region of Kashmir where hundreds of thousands have died, tens of thousands of children have been taken captive or killed, and thousands of women have been raped.

Even with such a regime being present with the backing of an international community, the people of Kashmir have been left to suffer at the hands of Indian fascists governmental policies. India has systematically waged a low-intensity conflict in IIOJ&K, cut it off from the region, and escalated against an unarmed population in an area where the international politicaleconomic calculus dictates silence, except of those handful states who have been willing to stand with Pakistan to defend the rights of the oppressed in IIOJ&K.

It is high time for the United Nations, plus international bodies such as the European Union and Human Rights Watch, to mobilize themselves on the issue and help Kashmiris as India’s unilateral illegal actions involving military siege and curfews in major cities moves into its fifth year. This takes special meaning in the light of EU DisinfoLab latest report: “Indian Chronicles-Subsequent Investigations: Deep dive into a 15-year operation targeting EU and UN to serve Indian interest,” which revealed a vast network of fake media outlets, think-tanks and nongovernment organizations involved in abuse of international organizations.

RESPONDING immediately to the urgent humanitarian needs caused by Supertyphoon “Egay” (international name Doksuri), the Delegation of the European Union (EU) is allocating an initial €500,000 (approximately P30.3 million) in humanitarian funding to support relief efforts in the Philippines.

The funding will provide life-saving assistance that includes emergency shelter and shelter repair, clean water and sanitation to those most affected by the disaster. Such assistance will be provided in Luzon’s most affected areas, with focus on Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Region, and Cordillera Administrative Region.

“[We express our swift and unwavering support to the Filipinos in] the aftermath of Typhoon Doksuri, which resulted in extensive devastation and tragic loss of lives in the Philippines,” said Commissioner for

Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič of the EU. “Without delay, we have [started emergency-relief efforts in close links] with…humanitarian partners to aid those affected during this challenging period. These efforts will complement, and be done in coordination with ongoing national and localrelief efforts.”

According to the delegation, humanitarian partners deployed on the ground assessed needs and provided initial assistance. The funding, it said, will enable them to significantly step-up their assistance to affected populations.

Since 1996, the EU has provided more than €158 million in humanitarian aid and disaster-preparedness funding in the Philippines. Through the grant, the bloc has worked in reducing the impact of natural hazards and strengthening communities’ capacities to prepare for future events.

WeChat blocked me 5 times!

(And my ego is bruised…)

DIPLOMATIC DISPATCH

Malou Talosig-Bartolome

India’s Hindutuva government has staged sham elections with military presence on ground in IIOJ&K and which can never be a substitute for the UN-demanded plebiscite. Not a single one of these elections has been found fair, impartial and free by regional and international observers.

L astly, Indian actions on August 5, 2019 have also been a contravention of the bilateral agreement between Pakistan and India (the Simla Agreement of 1972). In effect, the latter has negated all solutions through peaceful means, and has chosen military invasion and annexation of IIOJ&K. The basic right of self-determination that has been the edifice of the international order designed via the Atlantic Charter must be upheld by the international community at all costs.

Pakistan observes every fifth of August as “Youm e Istehsal” for the rights of its Kashmiri brethren who have been sentenced to live in an open prison by the Indian government that is slowly picking away the Kashmiri identity and removing any signs of movement of self-determination in the region— a right which has been given to the people by the UN and its countless resolutions.

IF your ego is fragile, I’d definitely advise you against downloading WeChat from the Philippines, using a Philippine SIM card…

Last month, my editor-in-chief Chuchay Molina-Fernandez asked if I could join the media delegation to China. I didn’t hesitate, of course, having been to Beijing in 1999 and Shanghai in 2018, as they were all wonderful experiences.

The recent one was the first time a Philippine media delegation visited the said country after the pandemic, so this should be interesting, I thought.

Michael Li, press officer of the Chinese Embassy, created a list of reminders for us, and one of them was to download a WeChat app. “No problem,” I said to myself. “I already have one, and I just needed to reactivate it…”

But on my first attempt with a Globe SIM, I was denied.

“This account has been blocked for violations such as harassment, malicious marketing, or fraud. To continue using this account, tap ‘OK,’ and request to move the restriction,” the WeChat notice said.

Ouch! Harassment? Really? Malicious marketing? Fraud? Me…a journalist?

And so I advised the Chinese Embassy about my status. Unfortunately, the staff member in-charge of media had already reached the limit of the number of verifications she can do for a year, so she couldn’t clear my account anymore.

I tried messaging people I know who are based in China. Of course, it took them a while to respond. They don’t normally open their Facebook Messenger, or other “IMs.” (Facebook, Google, Viber and other messaging apps are blocked in China. People need to use a virtual proxy network (VPN) to be able to access “Western” apps.)

So I posted on “FB” if I have friends who use WeChat. Two responded kindly but when they checked their mobile, they too, had deleted their WeChat app. They said they can reinstall, but I told them it would be of no use, as it only allows those who have used WeChat for at least one year to be able to verify suspended accounts.

And so the Chinese Embassy helped me with one of their contacts, and who was able to verify my number. But I was still denied.

So I tried again using my Smart number. And again, I got denied.

Another contact of the embassy tried to vouch for my number. Denied anew.

“That's it! I’m done! WeChat doesn’t want me. I guess I’m a certified enemy of the state,” I teased Michael. He laughed, and immediately quashed it.

“No! That’s not true, madame,” he assured. “You really need WeChat for communication in China.”

So due to persistent proddings from Michael, I tried again. That instance, I bought another SIM, and created another account. Yet again, denied.

Michael gave me one contact and verified my account. I was able to get in. And so he added me to our Philippine media delegation group chat.

In less than three minutes, WeChat cut the line and repeated the very insulting notification: “This account has been blocked for violations such as harassment, malicious marketing, or fraud…”

With/without WeChat

AND so I flew to Beijing, without a WeChat account. No problem, I thought. I have activated my VPN and my data roaming. On our second day, I realized I was burning so much money with my roaming service, and my VPN—which was reliable in 2018—was unavailable most of the time. I joined the group who went to China Telecom and bought a new SIM. (If you are a foreigner, you need to present your passport to be able to buy one.)

After registration, I tried creating another WeChat account using my China Telecom SIM. It worked! (Chinese nationals I spoke with said it is really easier to register to WeChat using a Chinabased SIM card, and while in China.) It turned out Michael was right. It is really a MUST to use WeChat. People don’t pay using cash anymore. They do it via WeChat Pay (or Alipay), even in department stores and taxis. When we were in very crowded tourist attractions like the Great Wall of China and Terracotta Warriors, it’s likely you can get lost, and it’s convenient to just call via WeChat for coordination. Also, high ranking people we met sometimes no longer use business cards. We just exchanged WeChat QR Codes.

However, when a foreign-affairs official from Shaanxi Province scanned my WeChat QR on the way to Everbright City, my WeChat account was again blocked. I was afraid I would get lost in a crowd that night, so I really stuck with my media-friends and the tour guide who walked ahead of us.

Chinese Foreign Ministry counselor Zhou Li, who was with us during the entire 11-day trip, verified my account. And there’s where I witnessed the tedious verification process for WeChat.

(It also requested for my newly acquainted diplomat-friend’s bank details. I wondered how many Chinese Embassy “contacts” had to endure with me during the three SIM attempts in Manila.

To them: I’m really, really, sorry.)

So, the rest of the trip went on smoothly. On my way home, inside the airport, I knew I wouldn’t be able to use my old mobile phone that I borrowed from my son. So I downloaded WeChat on my other phone, and registered using my China SIM account. Voila! Blocked anew!

“Michael, guess what? I got blocked again!” I whispered to him inside the plane. But he just smiled and shrugged:

“At least, you are coming home!”

Envoy was no exception

A WEEK after our trip, I mentioned to Ambassador Huang Xilian during dinner my WeChat adventure. He said he also experienced the same predicament.

“Yeah, when I came here in Manila and I registered my WeChat, I was blocked too,” Huang said. “You know why? Because there’s so much telecom fraud in the Philippines. So WeChat had to protect the integrity of WeChat users from [such].”

“Oh well,” I told the ambassador. “I think the Philippine government needs to stop the telco fraud, and POGO [Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations] once and for all.” He agreed.

I guess if there is a modern-day Great Wall of China, I would argue it’s WeChat. That, and of course, the West Philippine Sea dispute.

THE Australian government will partner with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in enhancing Metro Manila’s resilience to climate and disaster risks.

AMBASSADOR Peter Kell (third from right) with Acting Counselor/Chief Migration Officer Jennifer Bryant (third from left) and Philippine Football Federation representatives.

Exercise, spin classes, jogging help First Lady Jill Biden find ‘inner strength’

WASHINGTON—Spin classes when she’s on the road. Biking near her Delaware beach home. Jogging on the White House driveway.

Ji ll Biden says exercise helps her find her “inner strength.” She gets out of bed at 5:45 a.m. most mornings to fit exercise into her schedule.

The first lady also takes barre classes and rides a Peloton bike.

E arly morning workouts are when the 72-year-old can focus on herself, she says in the cover story for the upcoming September issue of Women’s Health magazine.

I need to be with myself and find inner strength so I can be strong for everyone else,” Biden says.

The first lady is a longtime runner who finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 1998. But these days she jogs around the White House driveway that circles the South Lawn because of the security presence that would be needed if she were to run on District of Columbia streets, like Bill Clinton did when he was president. Clinton eventually had a jogging track built around the south driveway during his first term, but it was paved over years later.

Biden is often seen leaving SoulCycle studios after workouts in Washington or when she travels around the country or abroad. She and Akshata Murty, the wife of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak went to a class together during her trip to London in May for the coronation of King Charles III.

Sunak met with President Joe Biden at the White House the following month and afterward commented on how much time he and the president had spent together in the preceding months. “I gather our wives have even started to take spin classes together,” Sunak added.

E xercise has been a part of Jill Biden’s life since she was a child who liked to roller skate. She took up ice skating in college and enjoyed swimming while pregnant with daughter Ashley.

She wrote in her memoir that she kept a pair of running shoes by the front door of their house in Wilmington, Delaware, when Ashley was a teenager.

“ Whenever she and I would get into an argument, I’d put on those shoes to go running and calm myself down,” she wrote. “We argued so much, I became a marathon runner.”

A t the White House, the first lady is up early to feed cat  Willow  and dog Commander before she takes the German shepherd outside for a walk. AP

Obiena gears up for Budapest worlds, targets nothing less than gold medal

By Josef Ramos

MAGIC STILL MISSING IN TEAM USA

THE United States is clearly not the dominant team that won the 2019  Women’s World Cup.

The Americans have advanced to the knockout stage at this edition of the tournament, but just barely after a 0-0 draw with Portugal in their final group match.

After the final whistle on Tuesday night, Alex Morgan stood expressionless with her hands on her hips.

It was a look of frustration. If the Americans don’t pick up their play, their run to a third straight World Cup title could soon be over.

With just one win and a pair of draws, the United States fell to second in Group E behind the Netherlands. The Americans now head to Melbourne, Australia, for a Round of 16 match against the top finisher from Group G, which wraps up Wednesday.

T he United States scored just four goals in group play—a sharp contrast to the 18 they scored in the group in 2019. In each of their first six matches four years ago in France, the Americans scored within the opening 12 minutes.

I think there’s things we can do better for sure, things we could do better from the last couple of games. But I’m not going to dwell on it. It is what it is,” veteran Megan Rapinoe said. “We need to play better and we know that. We need to be a little bit more fluid and I think just a little bit more connected offensively.”

Coach ‘Amat’ goes grassroots in search of Olympic fencers

The team has 14 players who are making their first appearance in a World Cup, and for 12 of them, it’s their first big international tournament.

C oach Vlatko Andonovski focused on developing young talent after the United States settled for a disappointing bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

A ndonovski rolled out the same lineup for the first two matches of the group stage against Vietnam and the Netherlands. The starters had never played together before.

R apinoe and Rose Lavelle, who both scored in the 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in the World Cup final four years ago in France, had picked up injuries in the run-up to the tournament and their minutes

FORMER national coach Rolando “Amat” Canlas Jr. believes another Filipino could qualify in Olympic fencing under a continuous program that starts from the grassroots to the elite level. “ There is a need for us to be consistent with our fencing program—start from the grassroots, age group,” Canlas told Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Philippine Sports Commission Conference Hall in Manila.

If we have a solid program for the grassroots, it takes one to two years for kids to get strong in the sport and become members of the national team,” he said. “From there, we have the Southeast Asian [SEA] Games and Asian Games. And, the dream of everyone, the Olympics.”

DE LA SALLE and University of Santo Tomas (UST) forged a highly-anticipated semifinal duel following their contrasting victories in the Shakey’s Super League National Invitationals knockout quarterfinals on Wednesday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City.

T he Lady Spikers hardly broke

FIBA fever

ONLY 22 days to go before the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) World Cup tips off in Manila at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan on August 25.

P reparations by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and everyone involved in the event as organizers, suppliers, partners, sponsors, volunteers are in dead earnest as efforts are being made to make this “the best FIBA World

Cup experience ever.”

Host country Philippines is determined to roll out the red carpet and show off the trademark Filipino hospitality and generosity of spirit to participating teams and the local and foreign media who will cover the games.

Th is is a historic basketball World Cup after all. FIBA has awarded hosting rights of the World Cup to three nations all at once for the first time ever. The Philippines, Japan and Indonesia will have simultaneous WC competitions going on in their respective playing venues, with the Philippines getting the bulk of participating teams at 16, and Japan and Indonesia each having eight teams going through the group stage and second round in their local arenas. The final phase will be played in Manila.

It is significant to note that this is also the first time that FIBA has chosen Asian host countries in succession. China hosted the last FIBA WC in 2019, and in 2023, three Asian nations are going to be the cynosure of all eyes of the basketball world because of the unprecedented move.

This isn’t the first time that the Philippines has had the honor of hosting the FIBA World Cup though. In 1978, the Philippines was also the venue of the global basketball competitions from October 1 to 14. Then still known as the World Basketball Championship, it was the first FIBA World Cup

beats China, 6-1. AP time, but Ana Capeta’s blast hit the post. A loss to the Portuguese would have sent the Americans home after the group stage for the first time at a World Cup or an Olympics.

Following the draw, former US forward Carli Lloyd blasted the team as “uninspiring.”

Disappointing. They don’t look fit. They’re playing as individuals and the tactics are too predictable,” Lloyd said on the Fox Sports postgame show.

A ndonovski was asked afterward about Lloyd’s comments.

ERNEST JOHN “EJ”

OBIENA is in the final two weeks of his preparation for the World Athletics Championships where he intends to go for consistency and stabilization in his jumps.

“ I have to focus on the stabilization of my movements and hoping to be more consistent knowing which pole and height [to target],” Obiena told BusinessMirror from Formia, Italy, on Wednesday.

These are the most important parts of my preparation now,” added Obiena, who trained a few days in Berlin before returning to Formia, his base with legendary Ukranian coach Vitaly Petrov.

Obiena said he’ll be using stiffer poles for the world championships set August 19 to 27.

My goal in the Budapest is very simple—and that’s to win,” said Obiena, who’s coming off a silver medal finish behind American Chris Nilsen in the Monaco Diamond League last July 22. “The competition is near so no more major changes on my part.”

were restricted.

W hen Lavelle was subbed into the group match against the Dutch last Thursday, she gave the team a secondhalf spark and served up the corner kick to Lindsey Horan for the goal that pulled the US into a 1-1 draw.

Hoping to boost the attack, Andonovski changed things up against Portugal, starting Lavelle for midfielder Savannah DeMelo and replacing forward Trinity Rodman with Lynn Williams. Still, the scoring issues persisted.

L avelle picked up her second yellow card in the match against Portugal, meaning she won’t be available to play on Sunday in Melbourne.

Portugal nearly scored in stoppage

“One thing that I want to say is that this team wanted to win this game more than anything else, and they’ve put everything they could in preparation for this tournament and in every game,” Andonovski said. “To question the mentality of this team, to question the willingness to win, to compete, I think it’s insane.”

The United States is also missing Mallory Swanson’s scoring punch and Becky Sauerbrunn’s veteran leadership on the backline. Swanson, the team’s top scorer this year, tore her patella tendon in an exhibition match with Ireland in April. Then Sauerbrunn, the team’s captain, announced in June that she was unable to get over a foot injury in time for the tournament.

The Americans, who have won a record four World Cups, had not needed the third and final groupstage match to clinch a spot in the knockout round since 2007. AP

He specifically mentioned using stiffer UCS poles in Budapest. These poles are described to “provide an even bend with maximum energy return.”

Obiena, 27, retained his Asian championships title in Bangkok last month with a new meet record of 5.91 meters and that Petrov was happy with his result in Monaco where he cleared 5.82 meters to Nilsen’s 5.92m.

Vitaly was happy with my performance in Monaco, but not happy with my height because my pole wasn’t stiffer,” he said. “This is a good problem we have though, so we need to execute more and everything is all good.”

Obiena is expected to face world and Olympic champion and world record holder Armand Duplantis, who finished a disappointing fourth in Monaco, in Budapest.

But his training buddy, Rio de Janeiro Olympics champion Thiago Braz of Brazil, will miss the world championships after he was provisionally suspended for testing positive for the banned ostarine by the Athletics Integrity Unit. Obiena, meanwhile, returned to No. 3 in the World Athletics rankings this week with Nilsen taking over anew at No. 2 behind front-running Duplantis.

It’s really expected to happen because I skipped the Silesia Diamond League in favor of the Asian championships,” he said.   Obiena already qualified for the Paris Olympics for having cleared the qualifying standard of 5.82m last July 2 in Sweden.

COACH Rolando “Amat” Canlas Jr. and his young fencers grace the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum Tuesday.

Walter Torres, now a PSC commissioner, was the last Filipino fencer to see action in the Olympics at the 1992 Barcelona Games. He qualified for the Olympics for winning gold at the Manila SEA Games—but these days, qualifiers

are needed for a fencer to make it to the Summer Games.

C anlas has his Canlas Fencing Club, which only recently organized a successful 1st Burlington InterClub International Challenge held last week at the Alabang Town

DLSU, UST volleybelles in semis

a sweat against Mindanao school Jose Maria College Foundation (JMCF), 25-18, 25-14, 25-19, while the Golden Tigresses needed four sets to fend off Luzon qualifier and National Athletic Association of

Schools, Colleges and Universities

champion Enderun Colleges, 25-13, 25-16, 21-25, 25-14.

De La Salle and UST collide on Friday, barely three months after their semifinals battle in the

to be held in Asia. The Philippines finished in the top eight.

Yugoslavia took home the world basketball crown that year, with Russia (then still known as the Soviet Union) winning silver. Brazil took the bronze, followed by Italy, the US, Canada, Australia and the Philippines. Czechoslovakia and Puerto Rico were ninth and 10th. And China finished in 11th place.

Times have changed since then, of course. 1978 was the last time we finished in the top eight. Our best World Cup record ever still is that 1954 bronze finish in Rio de Janeiro when Caloy Loyzaga led the charge for the national team and was knocked out of the finals by no less than the USA, which had Bill Russell playing on the team.

C aloy “The Big Difference” Loyzaga will be inducted posthumously into the FIBA Hall of Fame at the close of the FIBA World Congress on August 23 at Hotel Sofitel. To date he is still considered to be the best basketball player that the country has ever produced.

Spain lorded it over other countries in the 2019 World Cup held in Beijing, China after beating Argentina in the final. National Basketball Association (NBA) players who played for Spain in that World Cup were Juancho Hernangomez (star of the 2022 movie Hustle), Willy Hernangomez, Ricky Rubio, Rudy Fernandez and Marc Gasol who distinguished himself as the first player after

Center in Muntinlupa City. Four members of the national team led by Noelito Jose, Canlas said, are products of the club. They already competed at last month’s world championships in Italy, a qualifier for Paris.

University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 85 tournament won by the Lady Spikers. A damson University faced University of San Jose-Recoletos and College of Saint Benilde battled University of Perpetual Help in the other quarterfinals matches late Wednesday.

Lamar Odon to win both an NBA championship and a World Cup in the same year.

Spain plays out of Jakarta in this World Cup, but will miss their 2019 rivals, Argentina, who failed to qualify this time around, as the Dominican Republic booted them out of contention. Actually, Spain and Argentina have met in eight World Cup championships already, with Spain having the edge over their Latin rivals, 6-2.

A s for Gilas Pilipinas, the SBP and the FIBA Local Organizing Committee held a Pep Rally for Gilas Pilipinas at the Meralco Building a week ago. Called The Final Stretch, the happy, noisy, spirited affair was a rousing show of support for the national team in their FIBA World Cup adventure. Gilas head coach Coach Chot Reyes thanked everyone for the love and support as SBP Deputy Executive Director Erika Dy enjoined everyone to stay the course and keep on giving their best every day to make the Philippines a FIBA World Cup host to remember.

B ahala kami sa laban, bahala kayo sa hosting,” June Mar Fajardo quipped as he said his piece at the rally. The Philippines intends to establish a new FIBA attendance record beyond the 32,616 spectators set in Toronto in 1994 when FIBA WC opens at the 55 thousand-capacity Philippine Arena on August 25.

PRESIDENT Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden ride their bikes at Gordons Pond in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. AP

THE US’s Megan Rapinoe consoles Portugal’s Jessica Silva following their match in Auckland as England’s fans celebrate in London as their team