BusinessMirror August 09, 2023

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

AN increase in the value of the country’s gold holdings allowed the country’s Gross International Reserves (GIR) to bounce back after posting two consecutive months of decline, according to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The country’s GIR level, based on preliminary data, rose to $99.7 billion as of end-July 2023 from the end-June 2023 level of $99.4 billion.

Based on the data, the value of gold held by the Philippines reached $10.3 billion, the highest since the end-2020 figure of $11.61 billion.

“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the upward valuation adjustments in the value of the BSP gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market,” BSP said.

“[The increase in GIR was also a result of] the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations, net income from the BSP’s investments abroad, and the National Government’s [NG] net foreign currency deposits with the BSP,” it added.

The BSP said the GIR as of endJuly represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

It added that the GIR is also 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.

Short-term debt, BSP said, is based on residual maturity which refers to outstanding external debt with original maturity of one year or less, plus principal payments on medium- and longterm loans of the public and private sectors falling due within the next 12 months.

The level of GIR, as of a particular period, is considered adequate if it provides at least 100-percent cover for the payment of the country’s foreign liabilities, public and private, falling due within the immediate 12-month period.

THE Philippines’s full year export and import growth targets may still be attainable if the country’s external trade performance posts a double-digit growth in the next six months, according to local economists.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the country’s export earnings contracted 9.3 percent in the first semester of 2023 while import receipts declined 8 percent during the period.

The country’s full year target, according to the latest pronouncement from the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), is to grow exports by 1 percent and imports by 2 percent this year.

“Mathematically, both exports and imports need to grow by more than 10 percent for the rest of 2023 to achieve the said targets,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort told the BusinessMirror

In June 2023, exports managed to post a growth of 0.8 percent while imports contracted 15.2 percent during the period. Exports grew 2.4 percent while imports contracted 8.1 percent in May 2023.

Ricafort said this partly reflects the “risk of recession in the United States and softer economic conditions/recovery in China.” However, he said the country’s external trade targets remain attainable.

“United States Federal Reserve Chair [Jerome] Powell already signaled recently that the Fed staff are no longer forecasting [a] US recession,” Ricafort said. “So global trade, including Philippine exports and imports, could pick up.”

De La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas said a double-digit growth in exports and imports would be attainable because of the national government’s public infrastructure program.

Another factor seen boosting the country’s external trade performance is higher household consumption driven by the holiday season. “We are about to enter the ‘ber’ months [when] demand is heightened during those

times. We should expect a kick in trade,” Oplas said.

June performance

PSA said the country’s total external trade in goods amounted to $17.32 billion, which indicates an annual decline of 9.6 percent from its level of $19.17 billion in the same period of the previous year.

In May 2023, its annual decrease was recorded at 4.4 percent, while in June 2022, it expanded at an annual rate of 16.3 percent.

Of the total external trade in June 2023, PSA said 61.3 percent were imported goods, while the rest were exported goods.

The balance of trade in goods

See “Exports,” A2

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE Department of Finance (DOF) said the national government’s interest payments (IP) has been declining since the return of the country’s democracy, allowing the state to bankroll other priority programs.

In a statement, the DOF said the share of interest payments, which account for the bulk of the national government’s debt

service, to the state’s total expenditure was down to an average of 10.1 percent from 2016 to 2022 from an average share of 23.3 percent from 1986 to 2015.

“For 2024, the allocation for interest payments is only 11.6 percent or P670.5 billion of the 2024 budget. This allows us to spend more on socioeconomic programs and projects in our priority sectors such as education and infrastructure,” Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.

The allotted IP for 2024, however, is higher by nearly P60 billion than the P610.665billion amount allocated for this year, based on the 2024 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF).

Diokno reiterated that the principal amortization of debt is not included in the national government’s expense item since it is not classified as an expenditure.

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

NEARLY a million households was given time to arrange their finances after the proposed Estate Tax Amnesty Extension bill lapsed into law as Republic Act (RA) 11956 last Saturday.

According to House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Ma. Jose Clemente “Joey” S. Salceda, RA 11956 will benefit some

920,000 Filipino families who have unsettled estates, many of whom include the 610,054 agrarian reform beneficiaries recently released from debt by the New Agrarian Emancipation law. The latter, RA 11953, is a bill passed by the 19th Congress of the Philippines and signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on July 7 this year. RA 11956 extends the estate tax

See “Estate tax,” A2

June factory output slows on prod’n cuts on 3 items

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

rate of 7.8 percent.

The data showed that slower annual VaPI growth in June 2023 was mainly contributed by the annual drop in manufacture of food products industry division at a contraction of 0.4 percent in June 2023 from 10.8 percent annual increase in the previous month.

“The manufacture of food products contributed 36.8 percent to the downtrend of VaPI for the manufacturing section in June 2023,” the PSA said.

Meanwhile, the net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets and reserve liabilities, increased by $0.3 billion to

$99.7 billion as of end-July 2023 from the end-June 2023 level of $99.4 billion.

BSP’s reserve assets is represented by the GIR while reserve liabilities are short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Data showed the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) posted a 3.4-percent growth in June 2023. This was slower than the 7.7 percent in May 2023 but was an improvement compared to the contraction of 0.04 percent in June 2022.

Based on the data, the manufacture of food products contracted 3.2 percent; fabricated metals, 36.4 percent; and beverages, 7.7 percent in June 2023.

“The slower annual growth of

the VoPI in June 2023 was mainly brought about by the annual declines in the same top three industry divisions that contributed to the slower growth of VaPI during the period,” the PSA said.

The Value of Production Index (VaPI) for manufacturing continued to increase by 3.9 percent annually in June 2023.

This was slower than its annual growth of 9.9 percent in the previous month. In June 2022, the VaPI recorded an annual growth

“Out of the 22 industry divisions for the manufacturing section, manufacture of food products was the industry division with the highest weight in the computation of VaPI,” it added.

With the slowdown in the VoPI, the manufacturing sector’s average capacity utilization rate also slowed to 73.2 percent in June 2023 from 73.4 percent in May 2022.

The average capacity utilization rate of the food manufacturing industry slowed to 71.9, the lowest since December 2022 when the rate was at 71.3.

Meanwhile, all industry divisions reported capacity utiliza -

tion rates of more than 50 percent during the month.

The top three industry divisions in terms of reported capacity utilization rate were manufacture of machinery and equipment except electrical (81.5 percent), manufacture of transport equipment (80.8 percent), and manufacture of rubber and plastic products (80.2 percent).

“The proportion of establishments that operated at full capacity [90 percent to 100 percent] was 26.5 percent of the total number of responding establishments,” PSA said.

“Meanwhile, 36.7 percent operated at 70 to 89 percent capacity, and 36.8 percent operated below 70-percent capacity,” it added.

The data is based on the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries report or the Production Index and Net Sales Index report.

The index monitors the production, net sales, inventories, and capacity utilization of selected manufacturing establishments to provide flash indicators on the performance of the manufacturing sector.

DOF. . .

Furthermore, the DOF said the principal amortization does not result in additional debt since it is “already an existing obligation.”

(BoT-G) is the difference between the value of exports and imports. The BoT-G in June 2023 amounted to $3.92 billion, indicating a trade deficit with an annual decrease of 33.3 percent.

In May 2023, the trade deficit recorded a contraction of 20.1 percent and in June 2022, it posted an annual increase of 76.6 percent.

The country’s top exports were electronic products, with total earnings of $3.94 billion or 58.8 percent of the country’s total exports during the period.

This was followed by other manufactured goods with an export value of $350.27 million or a 5.2-percent share of total exports; and other mineral products, which amounted to $300.81 million or 4.5 percent of the total.

The country’s top export market was the United States with $1.12 billion or a share of 16.7 percent of the country’s total exports in June 2023.

Other top markets were the People’s Republic of China which accounted for $999.19 million or

Estate tax. . .

“The settlement of debt obligations incurred from expenses were already recorded in the past. Therefore, principal amortization only represents the fulfillment of financial responsibilities arising from previously recorded expenses,” he said.

“If any, the responsibility for the debt is just moved from the previous lender to a new lender during the refinancing process. As a result, this does not add to the debt burden,” Secretary Diokno added.

Diokno explained that principal payments are “merely” settlements of liabilities incurred in the utilization of appropriations programmed in prior years.

The national government is set to borrow P2.46 trillion next year with a borrowing mix of 75:25 in favor of domestic sources.

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 recordhigh P5.768-trillion budget for next year. (Related story: https:// businessmirror.com.

ph/2023/08/03/phl-outstandingdebt-seen-rising-to-p15-84trillion/)

The DOF remains optimistic that the improvements on the national government’s tax administration and implementation of key tax reforms would boost the state’s revenue collections and cut the country’s budget deficit.

14.9 percent of total export earnings; Hong Kong, $957.88 million or 14.3 percent; Japan, $945.52 million or 14.1 percent; and Republic of Korea, $335.08 million or 5 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, in terms of imports, the commodity that accounted for the largest amount of import receipts was electronic products, which amounted to $2.11 billion or a share of 19.9 percent to the country’s total imports.

This was followed by mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials at $1.53 billion with a share of 14.4 percent of the total; and transport equipment at $1.23 billion or 11.6 percent.

In terms of sources, the People’s Republic of China was the country’s biggest supplier of imported goods valued at $2.38 billion or 22.4 percent of the country’s total imports in June 2023.

Other major import trading partners for June were Indonesia which cornered $1.04 billion or 9.8 percent of import receipts; Japan, $841.75 million or 7.9 percent; Singapore, $762.33 million or 7.2 percent; and USA, $696.28 million or 6.6 percent. Cai U. Ordinario

amnesty period to June 2025 and the period of deaths up until May 2022. The current estate tax amnesty expired last June 14.

The law also provides for the electronic filing of estate tax amnesty applications and limits the number of documents required for filing. It also shortened the period for issuing the implementing rules and regulations from 60 days to 30 days.

Salceda noted that RA 11956 “has many improvements compared to the previous Estate Tax Amnesty, especially as it makes the administrative requirements for filing much easier to comply with.”

According to the lawmaker, the amnesty is also consistent with the full estate-tax forgiveness envisioned under the New Agrarian Emancipation Act. Salceda also pointed out that RA 11953 is the first law enacted by the Committee on Ways and Means.

“And there is a pipeline of measures that the House has already approved that await Senate approval,” he added.

Salceda believes at least two more “pro-taxpayer laws”—the Ease of Paying Taxes Law and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights—would likely be enacted this year. These laws, he added, would “create the necessary balance between raising revenues for government programs and making the taxpayer experience less burdensome.”

Metro Pacific to list units in 2026 and 2027–MPIC chair Pangilinan

METRO Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) may have to list its units, including its water, tollways and hospitals group in 2026 and 2027 after its delisting from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said during the company’s special stockholders’ meeting it may list its tollways business, under Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. by next year, at the earliest, and its water concession under Maynilad Water Services Inc., the West Zone concessionaire by 2026 or 2027.

“I don’t think there’s any intention to deviate from the course, that MPIC has taken in the past few years or so this will be subject to all the inputs of Mitsui and the Japan Overseas Investment Fund, which is owned by the Japanese government,” Pangilinan said.

“The tollways will also likely to have to be listed, not for legal reasons, but because of funding reasons. In fact, as early as perhaps next year.”

On Tuesday, MPIC shareholders voted to permit the voluntary delisting of MPIC shares from the Philippine Stock Exchange, subject to a successful tender process. Some 77.7 percent of all the shareholders approved the deal while 0.24 percent disapproved.

A delisting tender offer process will be launched on August 9, to acquire shares from minority shareholders at its best and final price of P5.20 per share.

The tender offer is expected to end on or about September 7.

Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co. Ltd., through its affiliate Metro Pacific Holdings Inc., GT Capital Holdings Inc., a consortium including Japan’s Mitsui and Co. Ltd. and MIG Holdings Inc.—led by Pangilinan—seek to delist MPIC and make it a private company.

The price of P5.20 per share represents a premium of 37 percent over the oneyear volume weighted average price (VWAP) of P3.80 per share and a premium of 39 percent over the 3-year VWAP of P3.75 per share.

“We are pleased with the result from the MPIC shareholder meeting which allows the tender offer to begin, the ultimate objective of the vote today.

Since announcing our offer price, we have received favorable feedback from the market, with institutional investors and stock brokerages stating that it is fair and acceptable. Therefore, we look forward to a successful completion of the delisting transaction,” said Christopher H. Young, Executive Director of First Pacific. VG Cabuag

THE reduction in the manufacture of food, fabricated metal, and beverages caused the country’s factory output to slow down in June, according to the latest Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report.

• Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

AFP mulls over another resupply run for troops manning BRP Sierra Madre

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is looking to conduct another resupply mission for its contingent tasked to man the BRP Sierra Madre (LST57) within the next two weeks as the supplies delivered to it over the weekend are not enough.

In a radio interview, AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar said the supplies that have reached military personnel aboard the naval transport is only half the regular load as one of the resupply boats failed to deliver its cargo due the harassment done by the China Coast Guard (CCG) and China Maritime Militia (CMM) vessels.

“I’m not sure, but we need to resupply them within the next two weeks,” he said when asked on how long the supplies will last.

The AFP spokesperson declined to comment further as this is still undergoing planning.

Aguilar said they would take into consideration recent events in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) in doing it.

“We will see how we are going to do it, dahil sa nangyayari ngayon sa [on what happened recently at the] West Philippine Sea,” he added. Also, the AFP spokesperson said their objective is to ensure that troops deployed there have enough food, drinks, and other supplies needed to do their tasks.

Aguilar added that the BRP Sierra Madre remains an active Philippine Navy ship and that it is the responsibility of the AFP to man and to maintain it.

“Therefore we have to make sure that BRP Sierra Madre remains to be livable and provides [a] safe living environment for our troops,” he emphasized.

As it condemns Chinese efforts to harass and impede efforts to resupply Filipino troops in Ayungin Shoal, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTFWPS) earlier said the government would not waver in its efforts to

support military personnel deployed in that area.

The task force was referring to the aggressive, dangerous and unlawful actions conducted by the CCG and CMM against the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Filipino supply ships who were conducting regular rotation and resupply mission in Ayungin Shoal last August 5.

“We will never waver in our determination to resupply our troops stationed in Ayungin Shoal and other Philippine-occupied features,” National Security Council assistant director general Jonathan Malaya said during a joint news conference with the Department of Foreign Affairs Monday.

He also said that the government would not abandon Ayungin Shoal where the BRP Sierra Madre is permanently stationed.

“We provide food, we provide everything, provision, irrespective of what China says, it is our right to bring whatever is necessary to maintain the station and to ensure that our troops are properly provisioned,” Malaya said.

He added that either CCG and the CMM has the right to “block, or impede or otherwise control the movement” of PCG and Filipino supply vessels resupplying troops in Ayungin Shoal or any other Philippine-held features in the WPS.

And while the dangerous action of these Chinese vessels prevented one of the Philippine supply ships from completing its missions, Malaya said one ship was able to reach Ayungin Shoal successfully and deliver much needed supplies to troops there.

“While one Philippine supply boat was blocked by Chinese vessels from reaching the shoal, another Philippine supply boat was able to break the blockade and successfully delivered much needed supplies and provisions to BRP Sierra Madre,” he added.

Rex Anthony Naval

Group laments NEP cut for active transport and PUV modernization

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

THE Move As One Coalition asked the government on Tuesday to “accord pedestrians and cyclists the highest priority in the hierarchy of road users” by providing adequate budget for the development of the active transport sector.

A ccording to Robert Siy Jr., transport economist and co-convenor of the Move As One Coalition, the 2024 proposed national budget should “fulfill” the needs of the 94 percent of Filipinos who do not own private vehicles.

H e said the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) “disregards” this sector, after its allocation was apparently cut.

T his, according to Siy, “will expose pedestrians and cyclists to the risk of injury or death due to a road crash.”

In the 2024 NEP, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and its attached agencies proposed P214.3 billion, more than double versus last year’s budget of P106 billion.

H owever, Siy said the budgets for active transport and PUV modernization—road sector programs that are crucial for filling the immense shortages in transport supply until 2030—“were slashed.”

“We are extremely disappointed at the NEP approved by the President. The UniTeam promised during the campaign that it would incorporate bike lanes into roads if elected.

Despite the budget increase, the bulk of the DOTr budget will be spent mainly on two foreignassisted rail projects; while railways are part of the solution, they will still take many years before daily commuters can benefit from them. The Filipino public grapples with a transport crisis now, and the Coalition has said as much in every possible consultation on the proposed budget,” he said.

Citing the results of a review conducted by the collation, Siy said the budget for active transport infrastructure, such as bike lanes and better pedestrian walkways, was cut to P500 million in the 2024 NEP from a high of

House backs bigger defense fund to protect Philippine sovereignty

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

dez stressed. “We must remember that a strong defense is not merely a tool for confrontation but a means to uphold peace, stability, and the rule of law,” he added.

Romualdez said it is the duty of the entire government to ensure that our nation is adequately equipped to face any challenges that may come our way.

“By prioritizing our defense sector in the budget, we are making a commitment to our people, to our allies, and to the international community that reflects our unwavering resolve to protect our sovereignty and promote regional stability,” Romualdez said.

has increased the budget for the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program (AFPMP) to P50 billion.

“The AFPMP is set to receive another P50 billion in fresh funding in the 2024 national budget,” Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said in a separate statement.

“The P50 billion in programmed new appropriations is all for capital outlay and shall be used exclusively to bankroll the funding requirements of the AFPMP,” Pimentel added.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez issued the statement as the budget briefing for next year’s national budget starts on Thursday.

Under the proposed 2024 budget, Romualdez noted that the allocation for the defense sector is P282.7 billion, or 21.6 percent more compared to the P203.4 billion under the 2023 budget.

On Monday, the lower chamber backed President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s decision to consult military leaders on the illegal use of water cannons by Chinese ships on Philippine Coast Guard and civilian vessels resupplying a platoon of Filipino soldiers stationed in Ayungin Shoal off Palawan.

“Our commitment to safeguarding our territorial integrity

and ensuring the safety of our citizens remains unwavering. As a nation, we must take proactive measures to enhance our defense capabilities and ensure that we have the necessary resources to effectively protect our sovereign rights,” Romualdez said.

According to the President’s budget message, this fund will support the Land, Air, and Naval Forces Defense Programs, totaling P188.5 billion, as well as the UN Peacekeeping Mission, among others, to ensure domestic security.

“This allocation demonstrates our dedication to maintaining a strong and credible defense posture, one that sends a clear message that we will not compromise when it comes to safeguarding our national interests,” Romual -

The Speaker also expressed his support for the diplomatic actions the government is taking in relation to the harassment of PCG and civilian ships on a resupply mission last Saturday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has sent a diplomatic note to Beijing protesting the Ayungin water cannon blast incident.

Romualdez commended the President for his firm stand on the issue of Philippine sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea.

“We support his position that we should continue to assert our sovereignty there and that we should defend every inch of our territory,” he said.

Modernization program

AMID the simmering maritime dispute between Manila and Beijing, the Marcos administration

“We are most exposed to threats coming from the sea, so we definitely favor larger modernization projects for the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Marine Corps in the years ahead,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel’s remarks also came shortly after a China Coast Guard vessel used a water cannon attack to thwart a supply boat from delivering food and other provisions to the Philippine Marine outpost on the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.

Pimentel is the author of a bill that seeks to declare and develop the 37.2-hectare Pag-asa Island, the largest Philippine-occupied landmass in the northeastern section of the disputed Spratly archipelago, as a recreational fishing and tourism destination.

Like Ayungin Shoal, Pag-asa forms part of the Kalayaan Island Group, which also includes the islets of Likas, Parola, Lawak, Kota, Patag, and Panata, Balagtas Reef, and Rizal Shoal.

hazards of the reclamation projects in Manila Bay.

P2 billion in 2022.

H e added that the zero budget for public utility vehicle (PUV) modernization will tip transport workers into even greater poverty.

T his, he said, implies a “complete disregard for the welfare of transport workers who have been demanding a just transition in order to service everyday passengers.”

“When commuters come down from the train station, we walk, bike, or ride a jeep and tricycle. Yet we see no meaningful budget to make these modes more safe and reliable for the 94 percent of Filipinos who do not own private vehicles. The Philippine Development Plan [PDP] 2023-2028 declares that pedestrians and cyclists will be accorded highest priority in the hierarchy of road users,” he said.

H owever, Siy said, the 2024 budget does not reflect this significant transportation policy statement.

F urthermore, the transport economist said the 2024 NEP “disregards” the findings of nine national Social Weather Stations (SWS) surveys from May 2020 to April 2022 that there are four bicycle owners to every car owner in the Philippines.

Siy also cit ed a November 2020 SWS that showed that 87 percent of Filipinos believe that “roads in Philippine cities and municipalities will be better off if public transportation, bicycles, and pedestrians are given priority over private vehicles.”

Members of the Coalition express their grave concern about the decreased budgets for PUV modernization and active transport.

Aside from the lack of budget for active transport and PUV Modernization, service contracting, one of the key programs in improving public transport, also “suffers from zero budget in the 2024 NEP.”

According to Siy, this is a “crucial program” that would enable public transport to remain financially viable while fares are kept affordable for commuters battered by high inflation.

LAWMAKERS on Tuesday filed a resolution urging the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, regarding the status of the Manila Bay reclamation projects due to concerns about national security.

ACT-CIS Reps. Erwin Tulfo, Jocelyn Tulfo and Edvic Yap filed House Resolution No. 1171, echoing the sentiment of Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, who also wants to know who is in charge of keeping an eye on all

these Chinese vessels involved in the reclamation.

In their resolution, the lawmakers said the preservation and security of the nation are of paramount importance, and any activity that may impact our national security requires scrutiny.

“The ongoing and proposed reclamation projects within Manila Bay have raised concerns about potential implications for the National Security of the Philippines,” said the resolution.

“Although the ongoing land

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Monday with Robinsons Malls and SM Supermalls for the casting of votes for the October 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in malls.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia confirmed that 14 malls in total would be operating as polling stations on October 30, 2023.

Some of the malls include:

n SM City Legazpi, Legazpi City, Albay

n SM City Consolacion, Cebu City

n SM City North EDSA, Quezon City

n SM City Manila, Ermita, Manila

n SM City Sucat, Parañaque

n Robinsons Metro East, Pasig

n Robinsons Ermita, Manila

n Robinsons Magnolia, New Manila, Quezon City

n Robinsons Las Piñas, Las Piñas

n Robinsons Galleria, Ortigas Center, Quezon City

The move to tap malls as voting stations is for the convenience of senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and pregnant women, said Garcia.

Polling precincts located near the said commercial establishments will be transferred to the malls.

BSKE was originally set in May 2020, but was later on postponed to December 2022, and moved again to October 2023. Patrick V. Miguel

reclamation may offer potential economic benefits and development opportunities, it also raises concerns about its environmental impact, such as the alteration of coastal processes and the possible effects on water quality and marine biodiversity,” it added.

Recently, the lawmakers said the United States government has expressed concerns over the potential negative long-term and irreversible impacts on the environment and resilience to natural

They added that the United States also raised concerns that the reclamation project had ties to the China Communications Construction Co., which was cited by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for engaging in fraudulent business practices.

“A comprehensive inquiry, in aid of legislation, is essential to assess the current status of Manila Bay reclamation projects, including their compliance with environmental laws, the potential social, economic, and national security consequences,” the resolution read. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

THE leadership of the House of Representatives said on Tuesday that it supports increased budgetary spending for the defense sector under the proposed P5.768 trillion 2024 national budget to strengthen the country’s capacity to safeguard its territorial integrity amid China’s increasingly intrusive actions in Philippine territory.

Erwin Tulfo, two other lawmakers seek probe into Manila Bay reclamation projects

PBBM’s infra devt plan to generate more than 3-M jobs until 2028–DOLE chief

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

Infrawatch pushes passage of bill on regulation of motorcycle taxis

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

of public transportation in the Philippines.

The Department of Labor and e m ployment (DOL e ) on Tuesday finally presented its L e P during the sectoral meeting led by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for approval.

DOL e Secretary Bienvenido e

L aguesma said its L eP is in line with the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan and aims to generate more quality employment, ensuring labor rights as well as social protection for workers.

The L e P, he said, will also help

in promoting inclusive economic growth and reduce poverty rate to a single digit.

Among the key employmentgenerating industries identified in the L eP are tourism, agriculture, business process outsourcing (BPO), and the construction sector.

For public works alone, DPW h Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan said they will require over 3 million skilled and unskilled workers “on a year-to-year” basis as they implement 70,000 big and small contracts, which has a total capital outlay budget of more than P800 billion.

h e said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) also has multiple ongoing infrastructure projects.

“We will be implementing mega projects of the government so all the more that we will need skilled laborers in the force for the public sector infrastructure program,”

Bonoan said in a news briefing in Malacañang on Tuesday.

Last March, the National e c onomic and Development Authority (Neda) Board approved 194 high-impact projects with an estimated worth of P9 trillion.

DPW h is now coordinating with DOL e and the private sector to help fill up the job vacancies with qualified applicants through skills training initiatives.

he said he hopes the additional vacancies will help convince more Filipino workers to remain in the country instead of seeking overseas employment.

“Because of the policy of the infrastructure development program is going to include big ticket projects in the next five years, i think all the more our ‘kababayans’ who are planning to work abroad and seek employment there are going to have an opportunity [to work] in the Philippines,” Bonoan said.

Government urged to increase rice production, halt land use conversion

Rice watchdog Bantay Bigas urged the government on Tuesday to halt land use conversion, which the group singled out as one of the factors that hinders agricultural production.

“The government should not do anything but strengthen our local production by distributing to farmers free land, support services, subsidies, and above all is to stop land use conversion because while food supply security has not

been sustained or achieved due to the liberalization of the agricultural industry in the country, it is still ongoing,” Bantay Bigas spokesperson c athy e s tabillo said in a radio interview.

“This is just one of the basic problems of farmers and also of consumers [amid the recent rice price increase] which has hit P44 to P60 per kilo,” she added.

Right now, Bantay Bigas said it is still pushing for the repeal of

Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication law, saying since its enactment, all the goals and projects of the government have been reversed.

Meanwhile, because of e l Niño and the damages left by typhoon e g ay” and “Falcon,” the government said the country would have to import rice again.

e a rlier, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said, “We will only do this [rice importation] if [local]

supply is not enough.”

The estimated rice production by the end of September or in the first weeks of October will boost the current buffer stock, which is equivalent to 39 days as of August 1, the Department of Agriculture said. i n July, the President said he might seek a supply deal from i n dia, which already banned the exportation of non-basmati white rice. Raadee S. Sausa

Thi N k tank i n frawatch urged c o ngress on Tuesday to “step up efforts to pass a law that will allow and regulate the use of motorcyclesfor-hire or Mc taxis as a public utility,” saying the proposal has been in limbo for the past four years.

Terry Ridon, i n frawatch Ph convenor and former h o use transportation committee member, said the industry under review is now “in a loop” after running for almost half a decade and is still without resolution.

“Much like the endless reruns of our favorite TV shows, the pilot study on motorcycle taxis seems to be on a loop. it ’s high time we change the channel and give the people what they want: a clear, fair, and safe regulatory framework,” he said.

The M c taxi pilot started in 2019, supervised by the M c Taxi Technical Working Group. Three players were allowed to join the program, namely, Angkas, Joyride, and Move i t Ridon noted that the pilot study that the Mc Taxi TWG should have accomplished has “now been delayed by four years, with no clear recommendations being released yet, stalling legislative efforts in the aftermath.”

“This delay has led to a surge in ‘habal-habal’ rides, or motorcycles-for-hire operating outside the pilot study’s scope. it ’s like watching a cliffhanger episode over and over. The people are waiting for a resolution. We must move the plot forward and ensure our riders and passengers aren’t left hanging,” Ridon said.

Motorcycles are common in the Philippines and Ridon believes that they are viable modes of transportation. c iting data from the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Ridon said that as of 2022, there are 19.2 million motorcycles in the Philippines, accounting for 87 percent of all registered motor vehicles.  c u rrently, 16 pending bills in the house of Representatives seek to recognize motorcycles for hire as a legitimate mode

The bills all seek to amend Sections 3 and 7 of Republic Act No. 4136 to include motorcycle-for-hire in the definition of terms and in the classification of vehicles that would require registration with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).

Several proposals also require motorcycles-for-hire operators to provide insurance coverage for drivers and riders to ensure safety.

The proposed Mc Taxi bills also mandate relevant agencies, including the LTO and LTFRB, to release clear and readily enforceable guidelines ensuring passenger and goods safety.

“Motorcycle taxis are the ‘Netflix’ of transportation— affordable, quick, and ondemand. But without proper regulation, we risk turning this convenience into a ‘Game of Thrones’ finale—disappointing and potentially dangerous,” Ridon quipped.

Regulation, he noted, could help mitigate evident risks, citing the latest Road Safety Global Status Report by the World h e alth Organization (W h O), which revealed that almost 30 percent of road accident fatalities are attributed to motorcycles, mopeds, scooters, and e-bikes.

“Given the evident risks associated with motorcycles as a transport method, there’s also a pressing need for governmental intervention. There is no denying that motorcycles can be a risky ride, but with the right rules in place, we can turn this ‘Fast & Furious’ mode of transport into a safe and reliable ‘Drive,’” Ridon explained.

“We need to strike a balance between reality and the highest safety standards. congress should live up to its role of promoting safety and convenience to the riding public by recognizing the role of motorcycle taxis and ensuring they operate within a robust safety framework. it ’s time to roll credits on the pilot study and start the next chapter for the Mc Taxi industry,” Ridon concluded.

Over 3 million jobs in the construction sector are expected to be generated from the infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) until 2028 as part of the government’s new Labor employment Plan (LeP).

NOTICE OF FILING OF APPLICATION/S FOR ALIEN EMPLOYMENT PERMIT/S (AEP/S)

Notice is hereby given that the following companies/employers have filed with this Regional Office application/s for

THI DAT

CORPORATION POGO 1 Building, Covelandia Road, Pulvorista, Kawit, Cavite

incoming calls and customer service inquiries

15 BROER BUILDERS CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION Lot 3, Toclong, Kawit, Cavite

Basic Qualification: Has excellent verbal and written communication abilities

16 CEMEDINE PHILIPPINES CORP. Block 2, Cavite Economic Zone II, Tejero, City of General Trias, Cavite

Job Description: Responsible for overseeing the general operations of warehouse and staff

TAMURA, YUKIO

Factory Manager

Brief Job Description:

Overall management of the factory

SUZUKI, MAYUKO

17 MD DISTRIPARK MANILA, INC.

121 East Science Avenue, Laguna Technopark, Loma, City of Biñan, Laguna

Assistant to the Director

Brief Job Description:

Act as representative of the company in dealing with Japanese clients

MOK JOO KWA

18 SINGTECH INDUSTRIES INC. Blk. 6-16, Amplefield SME, J.P. Rizal Ave., Lima Technology Center, Bugtong Na Pulo, City of Lipa, Batangas

Vice President and Treasurer

Brief Job Description:

Oversee and approve all financial plans or revision plan

Salary Range: Php30,000Php59,999

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in business administration, fluent in Japanese and English

Salary Range: Php90,000Php149,999

Basic Qualification: Can understand and explain the business operation and financial statement budgeting in Japanese language

Salary Range: Php90,000Php149,999

Basic Qualification: With relevant experience

Salary Range: Php30,000Php59,999

Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE Regional Office IV-A located at 3rd and 4th Floors, Andenson Building II, Parian, Calamba City, Laguna, within 30 days after this publication.

Please inform DOLE Regional Office IV-A if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

By authority of the Regional Director:

ATTY. MARION S. SEVILLA, LL.M. Assistant Regional Director

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Wednesday, August 9, 2023 A13

Manufacturers seek price hike on canned meat, sardines, noodles

By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

At least 13 manufacturers are seeking price hikes on basic goods, such as canned sardines, instant noodles, canned meat, among others, amid rise in raw material prices, according to an official of the Department of trade and Industry (Dt I ).

Dt I-Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Undersecretary Ruth B. Castelo revealed that out of the 218 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) Bulletin, manufacturers of 43 SKUs have requested for price adjustments.

t h ese products are canned sardines, condensed milk, evaporated milk, powdered milk, coffee, instant noodles, bottled water, canned meat and toilet soap,” Castelo said in a televised interview on tuesday.

The head of Dt I ’s consumer protection arm said that currently, there are 13 manufacturers who have requested for price increases.

A ccording to Castelo, the proposed price increase ranges from P0.10 to P7.27 or by 1 to 5 percent for food items, while non-food manufacturers are seeking price increase, which ranges from P1.50 to P9.75, or by 6 percent to 10 percent.

The trade official revealed that these manufacturers are asking for price increases on their products because of the rising cost of raw materials such as tamban or the fish that’s being used for canned sardines, the flour in the instant noodles which she said is also imported, the mechanically deboned meat used for canned meat, processed milk which contains ingredients such as skimmed milk, palm oil, buttermilk, and the potassium used in iodized salt.

C astelo noted, however, that the D t I is still verifying the information related to the price increase requests that these manufacturers present to the agency.

“ We have our own mechanism to verify these requests, including the increase in the cost of their packaging materials, transportation costs and their acquisition cost for toll packing,” she said.

It’s worth noting that in May 2023, Castelo said the trade department did not see the need to release an updated SRP bulletin in the near future, as there are only around 20 SKUs that had pending price increase requests that time.

The last time Dt I a llowed incremental increases in the SRP of some SKUs was last February 2023 when the agency approved the price increase requests of manufacturers of bread, sardines, and luncheon meat.

L ast February, Castelo said the Dt I issued an updated SRP bulletin, as the trade department believed some manufacturers were already in a “danger zone” even after the D t I issued an updated SRP bulletin August last year.

PHL tourism promotions get ₧1.3 billion for 2024

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

THE Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), the marketing arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT) has access to some P1.27 billion in funds next year.

According to the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for fiscal year 2024 of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), said amount will be sourced from the Tourism Promotions Fund, set up under Republic Act No. 9353 (Tourism Act of 2009).

The fund is sourced from at least 25 percent of the 50-percent national government’s share from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and at least 25 percent of the national government’s share remitted by international airports and seaports.

Formerly the Philippine Conventions and Visitors Corp., the TPB is a government-owed and -controlled corporation, and headed by a chief operating officer. The government firm is chaired by the Tourism Secretary.

The TPB allocation, along with the funds for the DOT, lift the government’s total budget to attract international tourists and encourage domestic travelers to visit the Philippines to just P1.27 billion, a significant drawback compared to marketing and promotions funds of other countries in Southeast Asia. (See, “Tourism’s a priority, but agencies get P3B less fund,” in the BusinessMirror, August 8, 2023.)

Poor budget utilization rate In a news briefing on Monday, DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman addressed concerns that a number of government agencies, like the DOT, have been allocated lower budgets for FY2024. She attributed the trimmed budgets of these government agencies, which also include the Departments of Information and Communication Technology, Agrarian Reform, and Labor and Employment, to their “low budget utilization rates.”

Pangandaman said these agencies are supposed to submit their respective “catch-up plans” to show how they can speed up the utilization of their budgets for the rest of 2023. “Many of them have already submitted their catch-up plans, because if you notice, the administration is new, there are new senior officers and officials, all of them have a learning curve,” she explained.

According to a Commission on Audit (COA) report on DOT’s financial state last year, nearly 35 percent of the agency’s appropriations of P3.07 billion was “unobligated,” or were not earmarked for specific expenditures, while close to 20 percent of the earmarked funds for projects amounting to P1.6 billion, was “undisbursed.” Moreover, 16.6 percent of the notice of cash allocations for the DOT amounting to P3.62 billion, “was unutilized…[and] reverted to the Bureau of Treasury.” (See, “COA cites DOT-Osec for irregular expenses; questions purhcases by regional offices,” in the BusinessMirror, July 17, 2023.)

Death toll rises to 7 after Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian city’s downtown area

that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals. The Kremlin’s demands include Kyiv recognizing its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Zelenskyy has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow’s forces approached.

Two Russian missiles slammed into the downtown area of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region that is partially occupied by Russia, on Monday evening, local authorities said.

The missiles, which hit within 40 minutes of each other, damaged nine- and five-story buildings, houses, a hotel, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Russian missiles, drones and artillery have repeatedly struck civilian areas in the war. The Kremlin says its forces target only military assets and claim other damage is caused by debris from

Ukrainian air defense weapons. Neither side’s claims can be independently verified.

Meanwhile, an overnight attack on the town of Kruhliakivka, in the Kharkiv region, killed two people and injured nine others, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said five people, including a local official of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, were killed and 31 more were wounded by the strikes. Nineteen policemen, five rescuers and one child were among the wounded, Klymenko said.

The Suspilne news site, however, cited head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration

Serhiy Dobriak as saying that seven people were killed and 27 were wounded. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but “broken and scorched stones” in eastern Ukraine. His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.

The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having “the slightest added value” because Moscow— unlike Kyiv—wasn’t invited.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms

Powerful storm kills 2 people and leaves

1.1 million without power in eastern US

By Ashraf Khalil & Jeffrey Collins

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—At least two people died, thousands of US flights were canceled or delayed, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power Monday as severe storms, including hail and lightning, moved through the eastern US.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater D.C. area, lasting until 9 p.m. A special Weather Service statement warned, “There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.”

The storms’ spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said more than 29.5 million people were under a tornado watch Monday afternoon.

In Anderson, South Carolina, a 15-year-old boy who arrived at his grandparent’s house during the storm was struck and killed when

a tree fell on him as he got out of a car, according to the Anderson County Office of the Coroner.

In Florence, Alabama, police said a 28-year-old man was struck by lightning and died, WAAY-TV reported.

By Monday night, more than 2,600 US flights had been canceled and nearly 7,900 delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Many cancellations were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which was digging out from disruptions caused by Sunday storms.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was rerouting planes around storms heading to the East Coast.

The White House pushed up by 90 minutes President Joe Biden’s departure on a four-day trip that’s taking him to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The White House also canceled a back-toschool cybersecurity event that was to feature first lady Jill Biden, who is a teacher, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and school administrators, educators and education technology providers from around the country.

The Office of Personnel Management announced Monday that all non-emergency employees would have to depart before 3 p.m., when all federal offices closed.

“This does look to be one of the most impactful severe weather events across the Mid-Atlantic that we have had in some time,” National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Strong said in a Facebook live briefing.

The storms were expected to strike major population areas in late afternoon and early evening, prompting federal workers to be sent home early so they wouldn’t be in their cars amid wind, hail and tornadoes.

Strong advised residents: “Have yourself in a strong shelter. Be at home or be at work.”

The storms postponed a Major League Baseball game between the Phillies and the Washington Nationals in Philadelphia, and in Maryland, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning into Tuesday after 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain fell in a short amount of time.

By early evening, more than 1.1 million customers were without power across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,

Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia—all states along the storm system’s path, according to poweroutage.us. The Knoxville Utilities Board tweeted that the damage across its service area in Tennessee was “widespread and extensive” and will likely take several days to repair.

Trees and power lines were toppled in multiple states, falling into roads and some homes, news outlets reported.

A row of utility poles was toppled in Westminster, Maryland, WJLA-TV reported.

In Hockessin, Delaware, at least one residence had the roof ripped off, 6ABC-TV reported.

“We saw the clouds coming and could hear a rumbling in the distance,” said Tom Tomovich, whose home was damaged. “We went into the house and we were on the first floor, and before we could blink an eye the winds just came right through the back of our house.”

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington and AP Airlines Writer David Koenig contributed to this report.

WHO issues global alert about tainted Indian-made cold medicine sold in Iraq

By Zachary R. Mider

THE World Health Organization issued a global alert about a cold medicine made in India and sold in Iraq that was contaminated with toxic chemicals.

A batch of Cold Out syrup made last year “is unsafe and its use, especially in children, may result in serious injury or death,” the WHO said Monday.

The contamination came to light when Bloomberg News purchased a sample of the syrup at a pharmacy in Baghdad in March and arranged a test by an inde -

pendent Connecticut-based lab, Valisure LLC. Bloomberg reported the test results to the WHO as well as to Iraqi and Indian authorities last month.

It’s the sixth warning the WHO has issued in the past year regarding syrup medications tainted with poisonous industrial solvents, and the fifth tied to an Indian manufacturer. Iraqi officials have not reported any illnesses related to Cold Out. The Ministry of Health said last week that the medicine had failed separate tests conducted by Iraqi authorities and that products circulating in the market were being confiscated.

Outbreaks tied to tainted syrup in Indonesia, Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon have killed about 300 children in the past year.

The Cold Out product label identifies the manufacturer as Chennai-based Fourrts (India) Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. A Fourrts vice president, Bala Surendran, told Bloomberg last month that production of the medicine had been subcontracted to another company, Puducherry-based Sharun Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., and that Fourrts had found no contamination in a sample it had on hand. The WHO alert was issued after normal business

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscow’s previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied. He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced Monday it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

It claimed the woman “was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskyy’s visit.”

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskyy’s route, times and visits in the region. She was detained when she tried to pass

He has been one of Ukraine’s unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognizable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. He said Kherson had endured a “tough night” as the Russians “covered the central part of the city with fire.”

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

J im Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

S. Korea begins evacuating thousands of Scouts from its coast as storm nears

By Kim Tong-Hyung The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea—Buses began moving thousands of global Scouts from their campsite on South Korea’s coast to inland venues Tuesday ahead of a tropical storm that is forecast to bring intense rains and strong winds to the peninsula within days.

More than 1,000 vehicles are being used to move 37,000 Scouts—mostly teenagers—from the World Scout Jamboree that opened last week in Buan, a county on South Korea’s southwestern coast. Most will be accommodated in Seoul and the capital’s metropolitan area, where officials have secured university dormitories, government and corporate training centers, and hotels.

Tropical Storm Khanun has meandered around Japan’s southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power and damaging homes.

Early Tuesday morning, the storm was centered 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of Kagoshima, a city on the southwestern tip of Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu. Khanun had winds of 108 kph (67 mph) with gusts to 144 kph (89 mph) and was moving slowly north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

the campsite will not be used for any event after the Scouts leave.

More than 270 police cars and four helicopters were being deployed to escort the buses that began departing the site on 9 a.m., said Lee Sang-min, South Korea’s Minister of the Interior and Safety. The evacuation is expected to take six hours or more.

More than 13,500 scouts will be accommodated at 64 different venues in Gyeonggi province, South Korea’s largest province surrounding Seoul. About 3,100 scouts will stay in Seoul and another 3,200 will be sent to nearby Incheon. Nearly 9,000 scouts will be sent to 25 different venues in the North and South Chungcheong provinces in the country’s central region, Lee said.

“Local governments are checking the sanitation of the accommodation venues and restrooms and are preparing medical measures to ensure that the Scouts would be safe and comfortable after they arrive,” Lee said. “Police will patrol the accommodations while officials from the Korea Food and Drug Administration will carefully check the quality, quantity and safety of meals.”

hours in India, and the companies couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The Cold Out sample was one of 33 Indian-made syrup bottles tested by Valisure as part of a Bloomberg investigation into the global trade in unsafe drugs. The medicines were purchased in pharmacies in six countries and tested for two toxic chemicals, ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol. The Cold Out sample was the only one Bloomberg collected that exceeded the limit of 0.1 percent for either chemical. It had 2.1 percent ethylene glycol and 0.25 percent diethylene glycol.  Bloomberg News

South Korea’s weather agency, which measured the storm at typhoon strength of 126 kph (78 mph), expected it to gain strength slightly before making landfall Thursday morning. It’s expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains to South Korea from Wednesday to Friday.

South Korea’s safety ministry instructed local officials to prepare to shut down coastal areas, hiking trails, river parks, underpass tunnels and other places vulnerable to flooding.

The Jamboree attended by scouts from 158 countries started last Wednesday at the campsite on land reclaimed from the sea, and hundreds of participants already were treated for heat-related ailments during one of South Korea’s hottest summers in years. Concerns had been raised beforehand about having such large numbers of young people in a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat. Organizers said

The announcement about the evacuations came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it called on South Korea to quickly move the Scouts from the storm’s path and provide necessary resources for participants until they return to their home countries.

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site. The British scouts—about 4,500—were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts, numbering about 1,000, were moved to Camp Humphreys, a major US military base 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul.

“This is the first time in more than 100 years of World Scout Jamborees that we have had to face such compounded challenges,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, secretary general of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, who credited South Korea’s government of “mobilizing all available resources” into the relocation effort.

“It’s disappointing that these adverse weather conditions have forced us to shift our plans,” he said.

KYIV, Ukraine—The death toll from Russian missile strikes that hit apartment blocks and other buildings in an eastern Ukrainian city has climbed to seven, with 67 injured, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Tuesday.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, people carry a wounded person from a damaged building after Russian missile strikes in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine on Monday, August 7, 2023. UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE VIA AP

Even frozen Antarctica is being walloped by extreme weather events, scientists find

By Melina Walling The Associated Press

The southernmost continent is not isolated from the extreme weather associated with humancaused climate change, according to a new paper in Frontiers in Environmental Science that tries to make a coherent picture of a place that has been a climate change oddball. Its western end and especially its peninsula have seen dramatic ice sheet melt that threatens massive sea level rises over the next few centuries, while the eastern side has at times gained ice.

One western glacier is melting so fast that scientists have nicknamed it the Doomsday Glacier and there’s an international effort trying to figure out what’s happening to it. And Antarctic sea ice veered from record high to

shocking amounts far lower than ever seen.

What follows if the trend continues, a likely result if humans fail to curb emissions, will be a cascade of consequences from disappearing coastlines to increased global warming hastened by dramatic losses of a major source of sunlight-reflecting ice. That’s something scientists have long been watching and are even more concerned about now.

“A changing Antarctica is bad news for our planet,” said Martin Siegert, a glaciologist, professor of geosciences at University of Exeter and lead author on the paper.

Siegert said he and his team wanted to understand more about the causes of extreme events, and

Former Japanese PM Taro Aso calls for show of strength in Taiwan Strait

By Jon Herskovitz

FORMER Japanese Prime Minister

Taro Aso said a show of strength was needed to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, pushing a hawkish position likely to displease China.

Like-minded countries need to communicate so they can deter anyone from disturbing the peace in the region, Aso, a senior member of the ruling party, said in a speech in Taiwan on Tuesday.

T he comment was likely aimed at China, which sees democratically run Taiwan as part of its territory that must be united, by force if necessary.

Aso has previously said an invasion of Taiwan by China could be seen as an existential threat to Tokyo. His comments have added to a drumbeat of concern from Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party about Beijing’s intentions toward the island of 23 million people.

During a visit to Taiwan in 2021, Aso said Japan and the US would have to defend the island together in the event of a major problem. The comments were criticized

by Beijing as being “extremely wrong and dangerous.”

Taiwan will likely be a focus when current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets President Joe Biden at a summit in the US later this month, along with South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, who has also staked a hawkish position on Taiwan. Biden has also sought the help of Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea to use their strength as major makers of semiconductors to cooperate in establishing supply chains that are less reliant on China.

Japan has sought to avoid alienating China, its biggest trading partner, while maintaining its alliance with the US amid tensions between the world’s two largest economies over topics including the origins of Covid-19, human rights and trade.

Aso has a history of making controversial remarks, including suggesting in 2013 that Japan learn from the Nazis. He later withdrew the comment. In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, he explained Japan’s relatively low death rate from the disease by saying its people were of a different cultural level. With assistance from Sing Yee Ong/Bloomberg

Belarus begins military drills near its border with Poland and Lithuania as tensions rise

TALLINN, Estonia—Belarus began military exercises Monday near its border with Poland and Lithuania, a move coming with tensions already heightened with the two Nato members over Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries moving to Belarus after their shortlived mutiny in Russia.

Both Poland and Lithuania have increased border security since thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russian-allied Belarus under a deal that ended their armed rebellion in late June and allowed them and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to avoid criminal charges.

Leaders of the two Nato nations have said they are braced for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in a sensitive area where both countries border Belarus as well as the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. They commented early in August after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space.

Belarusian authorities denied their helicopters entered Poland.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said the drills that began Monday are based

whether more of those events would happen as a result of burning fossil fuels, so the team synthesized research on a wide range of topics including atmosphere and weather patterns, sea ice, land ice and ice shelves and marine and land biology.

The study found climate change extremes are getting worse in a place that once seemed slightly shielded from global warming’s wildness. The continent “is not a static giant frozen in time,” they said, but instead feels climate change’s wrath and extremes “sporadically and unpredictably.”

Anna Hogg, a co-author on the paper and professor at the University of Leeds, said that their work illustrates complex and connected changes between the ice, ocean and air. “Once you’ve made a big change, it can then be really hard to sort of turn that around,” she said. And it’s a change with links to human activity. “This is indeed a strong signature of climate change,” Helen Fricker, a professor of geophysics with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the study, said in an e-mail. “It’s not good.”

Siegert and Hogg’s team looked at several factors including heat waves, loss of sea ice, collapse of ice shelves and impacts on biodiversity. Siegert described last year’s heat wave in Antarctica, which brought research station thermometers to a whopping 38 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal temperatures.

Hogg said that sea ice is at an all time low, a major cause for concern: In the Antarctic, the July average for sea ice extent fell below previous low set in 2022. And ice shelves, which can be the size of several large buildings, are also under threat as they melt and eventually collapse.

Sea ice and ice shelves work like a cork in a bottle, holding back glaciers that would otherwise rush into the ocean. When they disappear, glaciers flow many times faster. What’s more, the disappearance of large swaths of ice accelerates warming like swapping a white T-shirt for a black one on a hot summer day—replace ice with land or water, and suddenly the earth is absorbing the sun’s rays rather than reflecting them.

The topic of extremes “is with us more frequently and will be with us even more frequently in the future,” said Peter Schlosser, vice president and vice provost

China’s rare Russia rebuke doesn’t mean Xi Jinping is ditching Putin

By Bloomberg News

CHINA last week unleashed some of its strongest criticism against Russia since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Yet any suggestion that Xi Jinping is shifting his view on the war amounts to wishful thinking.

The rare admonition took place on Friday over an incident involving Chinese citizens—including a popular video blogger—who were denied entry from Kazakhstan into Russia at a border checkpoint. Video footage widely circulated on Chinese social media platforms over the weekend showed Russian border officials going through suitcases, with one of the travelers saying he felt like he was being treated as a criminal.

“Russia’s brutal and excessive law-enforcement activities in this incident have seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizens,” the Chinese Embassy in Moscow said in a post on the social media platform WeChat.

Wang Huiyao, founder of the Center for China and Globalization research group based in Beijing.

“China needs to maintain good relations with Russia,” he said. “It doesn’t mean they’re in favor of everything Russia does.”

Xi, who signed up to a “no limits” friendship with Putin shortly before his invasion, has sought to portray China as a neutral broker on Ukraine, releasing a 12-point blueprint for bringing peace that included calls to respect sovereignty, facilitate grain exports and halt all hostilities. While the roadmap has been widely panned by the US and its allies, it has bought Xi credibility among the so-called Global South and won China a seat at Ukraine talks hosted by Saudi Arabia over the weekend.

‘Unpredictability’

on experiences from “the special military operation”—the term Russia uses for its war in Ukraine. It said that includes the “use of drones as well as the close interaction of tank and motorized rifle units with units of other branches of the armed forces.”

The war games were taking place in the Grodno region of Belarus, near the socalled Suwalki Gap—a sparsely populated stretch of land running 96 kilometers (60 miles) along the Polish-Lithuanian border.

It links the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the rest of the Nato alliance and separates Belarus from Kaliningrad, a heavily militarized Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea that has no land connection to Russia.

Military analysts in the West have long viewed the Suwalki Gap as a potential flashpoint area in any confrontation between Russia and Nato. They worry that Russia might try to seize the gap and cut off the three Baltic states from Poland and other Nato nations. AP

Yet while the language was unusually harsh, it hardly signals a broader shift from Beijing. Since Russia’s invasion, China has repeatedly sought to create some space with Moscow on issues such as the use of nuclear weapons and attacks on civilians, even as Xi consistently backs Putin’s reasons for going to war—not least because Beijing sees the US and its allies strengthening ties with Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed the nations are “good partners” in a phone call Monday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to a statement from the ministry in Beijing, which made no mention of the border incident. China would take an “independent” stance on Ukraine, Wang added.

The border incident shows the world that relations between China and Russia are more layered and nuanced than understood by many in the West, according to Henry

CHINA sent a delegation led by veteran diplomat Li Hui to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to join more than 40 countries including the US and European nations—but not Russia. While the discussions brought little in the way of concrete steps to stop the war or reverse Russia’s territorial gains, they showed Xi’s success in countering US efforts to isolate Beijing due to its relationship with Russia.

Still, China has several reasons to be irked with Putin, including his move to end a deal that allowed grain exports through the Black Sea, leading to food supply problems that also impact China. And that’s only part of the problem, according to Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“The main issue remains the unpredictability of the long-term nature of the conflict,” he said. “The war destabilizes the world, and this is bad from Beijing’s perspective as much as they might like the distracting effect it has toward the West’s focus on China.”

China has also made some economic overtures to Ukraine, al -

of the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University not involved with the research. Systems like Antarctica are extreme by nature, but that doesn’t mean they’re not vulnerable, he added— they’re highly susceptible to small changes. “I’m not an alarmist, but what we see is alarming,” said Waleed Abdalati, an environmental researcher at the University of Colorado not involved with the study. He said that extreme events are one thing, but when superimposed on a trend—a trend of global warming that heightens those extreme events—that’s a cause for concern. “We can handle events,” he added, “but we can’t handle a steady increase of those destructive events.”

That’s something climate scientists say we’ll need to prepare for, by continuing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while introducing adaptation measures for sea level rise and extreme weather around the world.

“We’ve been saying this for 30 years,” said Ted Scambos, an ice scientist at the University of Colorado whose paper from 2000 was cited in Siegert and Hogg’s article. “I’m not surprised, I’m disappointed. I wish we were taking action faster.” Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington, D.C.

Beijing is getting from the US and its allies.

though not to a degree that comes anywhere close to its trade ties with Russia.

Last month, China’s deputy commerce minister met with Ukraine’s deputy economy minister in Beijing, pledging to import more products from Ukraine and develop mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation with the country, according to a Chinese readout from the meeting. China’s exports to Ukraine totaled nearly $233 million in June, down from a high of $1.2 billion from January last year.

By contrast, China’s exports to Russia reached a new historical monthly high of 69 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) in June. Its crude imports from Russia rose 8.2 percent month-on-month to a record 10.50 million tons in June, according to customs data.

Military exercises

CHINA and Russia are also deepening military cooperation.

Over the weekend, both countries sent 11 navy patrol ships near Alaska, according to a Wall Street Journal report, the seventh bilateral military exercise between the two nuclear-armed nations this year. It also set a new milestone in cooperation, marking the highest number of joint military exercises in the past two decades between the neighbors, according to data compiled by the US National Defense University and Bloomberg News.

“Moscow and Beijing have tried to put a lid on the slow-boil friction between the two powers in order to focus on areas where their interests converge,” said Theresa Fallon, director of the Brusselsbased Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies.

At the same time, Xi isn’t afraid to hit back at Russia—particularly if its actions could pose a threat to his domestic standing or make him look weak. The border incident showed that many social-media users in China remain skeptical that Russia is worth all the grief

A hashtag on China’s response to the incident saw nearly 50 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, at one point ranking among the top 10 most searched topics. Videos posted by social media accounts run by party-backed outlets such as Beijing Youth Daily primarily focused on the mistreatment of the travelers, echoing parts of the embassy statement that such behavior isn’t in line with China and Russia’s “current friendly situation” and “the trend of increasingly close exchanges between people.”

Online outrage

SOME of the most upvoted comments on Weibo questioned whether the travelers had failed to give a bribe, while others cautioned against having deep diplomatic relations with Moscow.

“It goes without saying that one cannot have a deep friendship with Russia,” said Weibo user “Wall-E_22,” in a post that received almost 1,000 likes.

Russia is looking into the matter to avoid similar issues in the future, Tass reported Saturday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. The incident won’t harm relations between Russia and China, the state news wire said, adding that Western media is using the issue to try and undermine ties between the countries.

While the relationship with Russia is “too important for China to throw Vladimir Putin under the bus,” Xi must also show his people that he will stand up for their interests, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“The strongly worded statement is not a signal to the Russian authorities themselves, but rather a reaction and signal to Chinese domestic online public to say that Xi Jinping’s government and MOFA is vigorous in protecting the rights of Chinese regardless of who the violators are,” Gabuev said, referring to China’s Foreign Ministry. “Be it enemies like the West or friends like Russia.”

EVEN in Antarctica—one of the most remote and desolate places on Earth—scientists say they are finding shattered temperature records and an increase in the size and number of wacky weather events.

Penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica on January 27, 2015. A new study released Tuesday, August 8, 2023, concludes that Antarctica is already being and will continue to be affected by more frequent and severe extreme weather events, a known byproduct of human-caused climate change. AP/NATACHA PISARENKO

With assistance from Kari Lindberg, Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Philip Glamann/Bloomberg

Surging food prices spark global concern

The food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for July reflected the impact of the termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and new trade restrictions on rice. FAO released last Friday its food price index, which track monthly changes in the international prices of globally traded commodities. The index averaged 123.9 points in July, up 1.3 percent from the previous month, but 11.8 percent below the level seen a year ago, or five months after Russia attacked Ukraine.

FAO said the month-on-month increase in the index was driven by a sharp jump in vegetable oil prices, which rose by an average of 12.1 percent from June after seven months of consecutive decline. Also, international sunflower oil prices rebounded by more than 15 percent in July, mainly due to the uncertainties caused by the decision of the Russian Federation to end the Black Sea Grain Initiative. World prices for palm, soy and rapeseed oils also went up on concerns over output prospects in producing countries. (See, “Global food commodity prices up in July–FAO,” in the BusinessMirror, August 7, 2023)

While cereal price index fell slightly as a result of the increase in seasonal supplies of maize from Argentina and Brazil and higherthan-anticipated corn output in the United States, FAO said international wheat prices went up by 1.6 percent in July. For the first time in nine months, wheat prices registered an increase due to uncertainty over exports from Ukraine as well as continued dry conditions in North America.

What’s more concerning is the all rice price index, which rose by nearly 20 percent in July, the highest since September 2011. India’s decision to prohibit the exports of non-parboiled Indica exerted more pressure on rice prices. While the Philippines does not import huge volumes of the staple from India, the ban could make rice from other sources more expensive and cause domestic retail prices to go up. (See, “Rice price hike may dampen momentum to tame inflation,” in the BusinessMirror, August 4, 2023)

These are developments that the Philippines would have to deal with a few weeks before the start of the so-called “ber” months, when consumer prices usually rise because of the spike in demand. The country is well known for having the longest Christmas celebration as it usually starts on September 1. Around this time, Filipinos are usually more sanguine and are more willing to part with their cash, particularly during the last two months of the year, when most employees receive their bonuses and 13th month pay.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous traders usually take advantage of the optimism of consumers during the holidays. And it is possible that they will use international trade developments to justify their decision to significantly raise the prices of goods.

Not so long ago, urban residents had to shell out as much as P700 for a kilogram of red onions. Officials of the Department of Agriculture had vowed that consumers would never see those prices again. (See, “DA: Repeat of ’22 onion price spikes unlikely,” in the BusinessMirror, May 22, 2023) It would do well for government officials to shield consumers from hoarders and profiteers.

Since

Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder

Cinemalaya in a nutshell

Kuwentong Peyups

IFIRST saw the film “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” when it premiered in 2005 at the First Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

Set in the slums of Manila, the coming-of-age comedy-drama film by fellow UP alumnus Auraeus Solito is about a gay teen (Nathan Lopez) who is torn between his love for a young cop (JR Valentin) and his loyalty to his family.

Although it did not win the Best Film award, it became one of the icons of indie films and has been included in various lists of best gay films. It was the Philippines’ official entry to the 79th Academy Awards.

Nineteen years since Maximo was shown, this year’s Cinemalaya will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) instead of the CCP from August 4 to 13, 2023 with the theme “Iluminasyon.”

The so-called “indie films” embody Cinemalaya’s vision: “The creation of new cinematic works by Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity.”

This year’s 10 full-length films include  Ang Duyan ng Magiting by Dustin Celestino; As If It’s True by John Rogers; Bulawan Nga Usa (Golden Deer) by Kenneth De La

Cruz; Gitling by Jopy Arnaldo; Huling Palabas by Ryan Machado; Iti Mapupukaw (The Missing) by Carl Joseph Papa; Maria by Sheryl Rose Andes; Rookie by Samantha Lee; Tether by Gian Arre; and When This is All Over by Kevin Mikhail Mayuga. The short film section also has 10 entries.

The full-length section has only one set of films from 2005 to 2009 called New Breed, with another section added from 2010 to 2014 called Director’s Showcase. It reverted back to one set as the Main Competition since 2016.

The past winning films in New Breed include Pepot Artista (2005), Tulad ng Dati (2006), Tribu (2007), Jay (2008), Last Supper No. 3 (2009), Halaw (2010), Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (2011), Diablo (2012), Transit (2013), and Bwaya (2014).

The winners in the Directors’ showcase include Donor (2010), Bisperas (2011), Posas (2012), Sana Dati (2013) and Kasal (2014).

The winners in the Main competition include Pamilya Ordinaryo (2016), Respeto (2017), Kung Paano Hinihintay ang Dapithapon (2018), John Denver Trending (2019), and The

Baseball Player (2022). There were no winners for two years (2020-2021) due to the pandemic.

Eddie Garcia won Best Actor thrice for ICU Bed#7 (2005), Bwakaw (2012), and ML (2018), while Baron Geisler won twice for Jay (2008) and Donor (2010).

Two actresses won Best Actress twice: Merylle Soriano for Room Boy (2005) and Donor (2010) and Ina Feleo for Endo (2007) and Sanglaan (2009).

Best Actress awards in the New Breed also went to Angel Aquino for Donsol (2006), Mylene Dizon for 100 (2008), Lovi Poe for Mayohan (2010), Eugene Domingo for Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (2011) Ama Quiambao for Diablo (2012), Irma Adlawan for Transit (2013) and Eula Valdez for Dagitab (2014).

The other Best Actors in New Breed include Alchris Galura for Batad (2006), Lou Veloso for Colorum (2009), John Arcilla for Halaw (2010), Edgar Allan Guzman for Ligo na, Lapit na Me (2011), and Dante Rivero for 1st ko si 3rd (2014).

Winners in the Main also include Hasmine Killip for Pamilya Ordinaryo (2016), Angeli Bayani for Bagahe (2017), Ai-Ai Delas Alas for School Service (2018) Ruby Ruiz for Iska (2019) and Max Eigenmann for 12 Weeks (2022) for Best Actresses, and Tommy Abuel for Dagsin (2016), and Tommy Alejandrino for Baseball Player (2022) for Best Actors.

Two persons won the Best Director award twice: Aureus Solito for Pisay (2007) and Busong (2011) and the late Eduardo Roy Jr. for Pamilya Ordinaryo (2011) and Fuccbois (2019).

Roy also directed Quick Change

where transgender Mimi Juareza won as Best Actor in the 2013 New Breed. In the Directors’ showcase, Vilma Santos won Best Actress in Ekstra (2013), while Nora Aunor won the following year for Hustisya (2014). There was no winner for Best Actor in 2013.

In 2012, the best actress award was given in the Director’s showcase to an ensemble—Judy Ann Santos, Iza Calzado, Agot Isidro, and Janice de Belen of Mga Mumunting Lihim The Tribu cast grabbed the best actor award also as an ensemble in New Breed in 2007.

The youngest best actor awardee was 13-year old Noel Comia Jr. for Kiko Boksingero (2017) followed by 15-year old Jansen Magpusao for John Denver Trending (2019).

Only short films competed in 2015, 2020 and 2021. Decades before “indie films” became a trend, I had the opportunity see the works of alternative filmmakers during my college years in the late ’80s and ’90s at UP Diliman.

Some of the films include Lino Brocka’s “Maynila, Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag” and “Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim,” Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala” (1982), Mike de Leon’s “Sister Stella L.,” and Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Karnal” whose daring works portrayed revolt, labor unionism, social ostracism, and class division. Even “pene” films that had grown more pornographic and taboo were also screened. Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0917-5025808 or 0908-8665786.

China deflation threat grows as companies cut prices to survive

By Bloomberg News

WheN China abandoned pandemic restrictions after three years of stringent controls, Nie Xingquan was expecting booming sales for his hand-made leather shoes. Instead, demand has been so poor that he’s had to cut prices 3 percent from a year ago and reduce his profits.

It’s an ominous sign of the deflationary pressure that’s hitting Chinese businesses as the economy weakens, and threatening to undermine Beijing’s stimulus plans if consumers opt to defer spending.

Nie said his Italy Elsina Group Co., which is based in eastern China’s Wenzhou city and caters to domestic retailers and consumers, has seen business tail off since February. Many of his clients are still scarred from the damage Covid did to their cash flow and profits. Some retailers, rather than putting in new orders, are trying to sell all the stock they accumulated while expecting sales to surge.

“Everyone is just hanging there

and doing our best to narrow the profits as much as possible, so that we can still survive,” said Nie.

Instead of rapid price gains predicted by some economists at the beginning of the year, China is experiencing a rare period of falling prices. That’s a clear contrast to the rocketing inflation that followed the reopening of the US and other major economies, and is visible both at the factory gate and retail side.

Producer prices have been contracting on a year-on-year basis since October 2022, largely due to falling prices for commodities like coal and crude oil. Data on Wednesday will likely show consumer prices declined in July, which would be the

first time since late 2020 that both consumer and producer prices register contractions.

Using the gross domestic product deflator—a measure of economywide prices—China is already in deflation. The International Monetary Fund defines deflation as “a sustained decline in an aggregate measure of prices,” such as the consumer price index or the GDP deflator.

Unlike the temporary decline in late 2020 and early 2021, the drop in consumer prices this time around is more cause for concern.

Back then, falling pork prices were the main reason. Now, exports have plunged as consumers in some of China’s biggest markets, including the US and Europe, pull back on spending. A prolonged downturn in China’s property sector has cut prices for rent, furniture and home appliances.

Also, a price war among carmakers triggered by Tesla Inc.’s reductions led other major brands to join in with steep discounts earlier this year.

If prices keep dropping across a broad range of goods for an extended period, consumers could delay their purchases, curbing economic activity further and forcing businesses to keep reducing prices. That, in turn, would cut into revenue and profits, prompting firms to curb investment and jobs—resulting in the kind of economic stagnation that Japan suffered for decades.

To be sure, China isn’t in the same boat. Not all prices are falling, with consumer spending on services remaining fairly strong. Tourism prices surged 7.1 percent in the first six months from a year ago, as hotels rates surged. Costs for services such as recreation and education, and medical care, are also still rising. The problem of low or falling prices is most acute in the consumergoods industries.

“It feels like people are no longer spending much on clothing like they used to,” said Chen Yubing, manager of the Jiayao Textile Co. Ltd., a maker See “China,” A17

Dennis Gorecho

West African leaders will meet Thursday after Niger’s junta defies key deadline and shuts airspace

By Sam Mednick | The Associated Press

NIAMeY, Niger—leaders of West Africa’s regional bloc said Monday that they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after Niger’s military junta defied a deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc.

State television reported the junta’s latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum is not returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country,” and said Niger’s airspace will be closed until further notice.

Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with “an energetic and immediate response.”

The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them. It called on Niger’s population to defend the nation.

The coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendency was Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup also raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

International airlines have started diverting flights around Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

Also Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbors of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

The Associated Press saw several security officers from Burkina Faso at a hotel in Niger’s capital.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger’s coup nearly two weeks ago, when mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and installed Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts believe the coup was triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger’s border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

Nigeria’s Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria’s president, the bloc’s current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

continued from A16

of polyester and nylon fabric based in the eastern province of Zhejiang.  “Competition has become fiercer and many factories are slashing their prices in order to sell, which led to a vicious cycle,” said Chen, whose factory lowered prices by 5 percent this year even though costs have risen by just as much.

The government has been downplaying concerns about deflation, with officials from the People’s Bank

Guinea and neighboring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegal’s government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc’s efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani’s representatives.

The junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries, including Mali, according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center.

US officials say they are still able to communicate with Bazoum and that their most recent contact was Monday.

Two officials said the administration of US President Joe Biden intends to maintain both a diplomatic and military presence in Niger for the foreseeable future.

The administration is still weighing whether the developments amount to a coup, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic discussions. They said there was still time for Niger’s military leaders to reverse course.

If the US determines that a democratically elected government has been toppled by unconstitutional means, federal law requires a cutoff of most American assistance, particularly military aid.

Since the coup, extremists have been ecstatic because they are able to move around more freely without fear of attack, Boubacar Moussa, a former jihadi fighter, told the AP. He had joined a nationwide program that encourages fighters to defect and reintegrate into society. The program’s fate is unclear.

Moussa said he’s received at least 10 phone calls from active jihadis in the Tillaberi region near the Mali border who said there’s been no concern about airstrikes. If there’s a military intervention by ECOWAS, they likely will attack the capital, Niamey, he said.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

“We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed,” Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, rallygoers beheaded a chicken decorated in the colors of former colonizer France.

The junta is exploiting antiFrench sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

of China, National Statistics Bureau and other agencies repeatedly saying there’s no foundation for long-term price declines.

Talking about deflation publicly is also off-bounds for many Chinese analysts. One economist at a local brokerage said he was instructed by regulators not to discuss deflation. He was told to promote the narrative that China’s economy is steadily improving, he said, declining to be identified in order to discuss private information. Another China-based economist said they received guidance from regulators and their com-

Echoing PBBM’s SONA message to smugglers: Your days are numbered

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

MAKE SENSE

BY all indications, the multi-billion peso technical smuggling of palm olein could become the first case that will be filed since PBBM made that bold pronouncement in his recent State of the Nation Address: “Bilang na ang mga araw ng mga smuggler!”

This is because of the quick response of the President to my lettercomplaint last December on the “illegal use of imported palm olein that is hurting our coconut and palm oil industry and depriving the government of VAT and duties.” The President, through Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Assistant Secretary Montano T. Nazario Jr., sent a communication to the Department of Agriculture (DA), particularly to Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban, urging that we meet to discuss the problem in detail. I was furnished a copy of that correspondence.

For five months, I tried my best to set up a meeting with Panganiban through letters and calls to the DA, to no avail. But in fairness, Panganiban informed me that my letters did not reach his office. I couldn’t fathom how this happened; probably there are people who wanted to prevent our meeting from happening. The important thing, anyway, is, we finally got to meet on July 31, and the good Undersecretary also summoned the officials of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the DA unit that has been issuing the VAT exemptions to traders that have been apparently misrepresenting their palm olein importations for the purpose of animal feeds compounding.

I sought clarification from BAI

Let me express my gratitude to the hardworking people at the OP and the PMS, who have been proactively referring my concerns to the proper agencies. They have been a big boost to the President’s campaign against graft and corruption and other illicit acts.

be easily redirected straight to the retail market.

conduct of a thorough probe. The BAI actually admitted that it was only in 2021 when the agency came up with the rules governing the grant of VAT exemptions.

I also met last week with the NBI, and the agents of the bureau’s NCR Division told me that they have already issued subpoenas to the BAI and Bureau of Customs for all the pertinent documents, including the names of the companies involved.

why they are not getting the formula on the manufacture of animal feeds to ascertain if the volume of VAT-free imported palm olein really went to the production of feeds. The answer I got was, this cannot be done because it violates the privacy law.

My immediate reaction was: “My God, they are getting VAT exemption by the billions and yet they have no obligation to declare how they are using their importations based on their formula.”

Absurd really, and clearly there was lack of effort in protecting the public’s interest; that’s the people’s money we are talking about, funds that should have been spent on important government projects. According to the report of House Ways and Means Committee Chair and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the government has already lost some P45 billion in revenues due to technical smuggling of palm oil over a sixyear period.  I also asked how come the BAI’s suspicion was not roused when these traders were bringing in the more expensive palm olein instead of just importing refined bleached deodorized palm oil, if their purpose is solely for feeds compounding. Note that palm olein is derived when palm oil goes through another process of fractionation to make it fit for human consumption. Thus, palm olein can

Also, in 2014, then BIR Commissioner Kim Henares issued Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 55-2014 mandating that for animal feed ingredients to be granted VAT exemption, “there must be a showing that the same is unfit for human consumption or that the ingredient cannot be used for the production of food for human consumption as certified by the Food and Drug Administration [FDA].”

How the VAT-exempt importation of palm olein for animal feeds compounding continued for several years despite this revenue order really astounds and baffles me.

In that meeting, Usec Panganiban made definitive responses to the problem. He will issue an order transferring the authority to grant tax exemptions to palm oil shipments to the PCA. This is commendable since the PCA has the competence to determine if such importations will be detrimental to the industry.

The PCA can also determine what is fit for human consumption or not. Keep in mind that the PCA Charter gives it authority over other vegetable oil industries, not just coconut. I will now meet with the PCA so we can come up with rules that traders will not be able to circumvent.

The BAI, meanwhile, has been directed by Panganiban to submit all the documents necessary for the

The NBI, I’m sure, will also look back at all the importations and see if there were indeed FDA certifications as required by the revenue circular issued by Henares.

The investigation is now grinding and I vow to see this through to the end.

Let me express my gratitude to the hardworking people at the OP and the PMS, who have been proactively referring my concerns to the proper agencies. They have been a big boost to the President’s campaign against graft and corruption and other illicit acts.

Recently, I have also called on the DENR and DOLE to go after the illegal recyclers of used lead acid batteries (ULABs) and lead smelters that have been mushrooming in different parts of the country.

They do not have the necessary permits and licenses while operating shabby lead smelting facilities that are clearly ill-equipped to control risks to the environment and their laborers.

I am sure the OP will also immediately take cognizance of this and direct the DENR, DOLE, NBI, and other concerned agencies to decisively act on the matter.

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza is the chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries and Fight Illicit Trade; a broad-based, multisectoral movement intended to protect consumers, safeguard government revenues and shield legitimate industries from the ill effects of smuggling.

Treasuries offer value while stocks are at risk, investors say

By Edward Harrison

AcleAr majority of investors expect a US recession before 2024 is out, leading them to view the current bull market in stocks as ephemeral and to favor long-term US Treasuries.

That’s the takeaway from the latest Markets Live Pulse survey, which showed that roughly two-thirds of the 410 respondents anticipate a downturn in the world’s biggest economy by the end of next year. A minority of 20 percent of pollees even sees a slump in 2023, at a time when the Federal Reserve’s own staff have ditched their recession forecast altogether.

Survey respondents appear to be looking past the economy’s current resilience and anticipating further damaging ripple effects from the Fed’s 5.25 percentage points of cumulative tightening over the past 16 months. The Fed lifted its benchmark rate to the highest in more than two decades last month and Chair Jerome Powell signaled additional hikes are possible.

The poll results are consistent with pricing in Fed funds futures, which show traders expect the central bank to cut interest rates multiple times in 2024, by more than one percentage point in aggregate,

pany’s public relations department not to discuss deflation publicly.

A big driver of low prices this year is the build-up of inventories over the pandemic, and in the first quarter during a burst of optimism following the end of Covid restrictions. That has since reversed, with businesses cutting prices to reduce their stock.

Vivian Feng is a Shanghai resident who purchases discounted goods, from farm products to Nike Inc.’s tshirts, and sells them to neighbors of her residential community. She said her suppliers have cut prices significantly this year due to high

ostensibly in response to eventual economic weakness.

The upshot is that investors see value in long-term Treasuries, with yields at one point last week threatening to test the multiyear highs touched in October. As they chart their allocation choices for the year ahead, survey respondents seem to be unbowed by last week’s bondmarket slide, which came against the backdrop of the Treasury’s announcement that it will boost issuance, and as Fitch Ratings downgraded US sovereign debt. Treasuries recouped some ground Friday on data showing job growth in July was less than forecast.

Investors are likely betting that the Fed will pivot to rate cuts in 2024, making long-maturity debt attractive despite the more than 1 1/4 percentage points of yield pickup currently available on short-dated bills. Almost 60 percent of Pulse participants say now is a good time to buy Treasury securities with maturities longer than seven years. Of

inventories and soft demand.

“Some well-established apparel brands used to offer products for the group-buy channel at around 40 percent of the original prices in 2021, and they’re now selling at just 10 percent or even less,” said Feng.

Some economists expect consumer inflation to trend lower for a few more months before picking up toward the end of the year as the higher base of comparison with last year fades and domestic demand picks up. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect full-year inflation to reach just 0.8 percent in 2023, the

Survey respondents appear to be looking past the economy’s current resilience and anticipating further damaging ripple effects from the Fed’s 5.25 percentage points of cumulative tightening over the past 16 months. The Fed lifted its benchmark rate to the highest in more than two decades last month and Chair Jerome Powell signaled additional hikes are possible.

note, 59 percent of the responses came in before the Fitch downgrade on August 1.

Still, the survey results signal a problematic backdrop for US stocks, which have roared higher in 2023, pushing the Nasdaq 100 to its best first half in history, thanks in no small part to an artificial intelligence-fueled surge. Market valuations have risen accordingly. The S&P 500 trades at a multiple of roughly 20 times earnings, where Yardeni Research data show that the 20-year average is closer to 16 times.

The biggest chunk of Pulse survey respondents, 47 percent, say the US stock market is a bubble powered by irrational exuberance, and a quarter

slowest pace since 2009.

Low inflation is driving up real, or inflation-adjusted, interest rates in the economy, pushing up businesses’ debt-servicing costs and undermining the central bank’s pledge to spur lending.

While that increases the case for the PBOC to add stimulus to the economy, the central bank is facing several constraints that’s making it cautious, including a weaker yuan and elevated debt levels in the economy.  Central bank officials have hinted at some easing measures, such as re-

view it as being in a bear market rally.

Meanwhile, 28 percent say it’s a bull market that has more room to run.

European investors are more pessimistic than North American peers about US stocks.

Driving home the preponderance of bearish views the survey elicited, more than two-thirds of respondents say the S&P 500 is still mired in an earnings recession that has longer to run. Another survey element underscores the complexity of the macroeconomic risks that investors must account for as they look to the year ahead.

Almost three quarters of poll respondents expect core inflation as measured by the personal consumption expenditures index—the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge—to either remain above 3 percent for the next 12 months, or to dip below that level but then rebound. It’s 4.1 percent now, the lowest since 2021. It’s a view that stands in contrast to both the bullish survey response on long-maturity Treasuries and to market bets on rate cuts kicking in next year. And it suggests that many expect such a severe economic downturn at some point that the Fed will be easing policy even though inflation remains elevated. Hence, the worries about equities. Bloomberg

ducing the amount of cash that banks must hold in reserves. Economists also predict a 10 basis-point policy rate cut in the third quarter.

“The ongoing weakness in China data will continue to dampen consumption, as households will remain cautious about making purchases of big-ticket items given the potential risks of job losses and salary cut,” said Ken Cheung, chief FX strategist at Mizuho Bank Ltd. “The uncertainties surrounding deflation may prompt the PBOC to implement additional monetary easing measures.” With assistance from Daniela Wei and Tom Hancock

Poor access behind low loan uptake in PHL–bank exec

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

B PI Executive Vice President

Ginbee Go told reporters on Tuesday that while Filipinos need loans, few of them are able to go to banks despite the strong push for financial inclusion.

G o said this requires banks like

BPI to work closely with various institutions such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to reduce the requirements for obtaining a loan as well as the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) with regard to the full use of the national ID.

To be more accurate, if you compare the Philippines to other countries, the level of debt in the country is still very low, which means we’re not extending enough

credit to people who need it still.

So part of financial inclusion is to make credit accessible,” Go said.

T his is particularly seen in major purchases such as buying homes.

Based on latest PSA data, among the 9.75 million households who purchased homes, the majority or 85.4 percent used their own resources or interest-free loans from relatives/friends.

L ess than 10 percent of these households obtained financing from the National Housing Authority (NHA), Pagtutulungan sa

Kinabukasan: Ikaw, Bangko, Industriya at Gobyerno (Pag-IBIG), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Development Bank of the

Philippines (DBP), and others.

A n even smaller percentage, at only 5 percent, acquired financing through private banks, foundations, and cooperatives while 4.3 percent acquired loans with interest from private persons to make their big-ticket purchases.

“ We have to continuously make sure that within the banks, we are able to better understand the use of transactional data, to be able to have a better way of assessing the capability of the client over and beyond the usual ITR (income tax return) because some don’t have ITR, including alternative income documents such as making use of payslips, even data such as social media,” Go explained.

Beyond digital EFFORT to better reach customers, especially Generation Z and the Millennials who are considered as digital natives, are under way across the banking industry. Go said traditional banks are also making digital banking a part of their operations.

G o prefers to be “Darwinian” in describing this move being undertaken by Philippine banks. She said those who will survive longer would be those with the ability to

BIR: TIE-UPS WITH BIZ GROUPS TO BOOST BID TO

MEET P2.6-T GOAL

adapt to the changing times.

B PI President and CEO TG Limcaoco alluded to this in his speech during a media launch of the BPI application on Tuesday, saying that BPI became the oldest bank in the Philippines and the whole of Southeast Asia because it is not afraid to innovate.

We’ve seen traditional banks already making the effort to go digital. It’s no longer a question, it’s an imperative. It’s change or die,” Go said. “You know what the Darwin theory of evolution is, it’s not the strongest that survive, it’s the one that can adapt to change.”

G o said, however, that despite this, BPI intends to go beyond digital. Even as the bank continues to evolve, they remain true to their customers who still prefer face-to-face interactions with their branch employees.

S he said many of the bank’s customers still prefer these personal interactions so much that some of their clients and bank employees have created genuine relationships through the years such as being godmothers and godfathers.

It is this ability to gain the trust of clients that, Go said, sets BPI apart and highlights its mission of going beyond digital.

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said its newly inked partnership with various business groups, aimed at setting up a public-private consultative platform, will boost its chances of meeting its P2.639trillion revenue collection target this year.

T he BIR forged a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with about 15 business groups and chambers in the country to strengthen the bureau’s dialogue and engagement with the private sector.

BIR Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. said partnering with the private sector is “critical” in achieving the government’s and the groups’ common objective of attaining the “collective” tax collection target of the state.

We expect this [partnership] will increase the chances of attaining our collection target,” Lumagui told reporters in an interview on Tuesday.

Under the MOA, the BIR has formed a consultative committee with the various business groups to discuss and scrutinize the national government’s tax administration programs and policies.

Lumagui said one benefit of the partnership is that they can

get comments and suggestions from the private sector on how to improve the bureau’s services.

We want to improve our taxpayer service. We can do this through consultation with the private sector because they are the ones we are servicing,” he said. Our issuances [for example] would undergo consultation wherein they can submit their comments. [They can submit suggestions] on our streamlining, on how we can cut down on [the number] of our requirements,” he added.

Lumagui added that under the MOA, the business groups are also tasked to monitor and police their ranks in terms of tax compliance.

“Our petition to them is that they monitor their respective members in terms of their tax compliance and in paying their taxes correctly,” he said.

T he groups include the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Management Association of the Philippines, Tax Management Association of the Philippines, Financial Executive Institute of the Philippines, Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accounts, and Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. among others.  Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Solon: Pass bill setting PHL’s sea lanes under the Unclos

ASENIOR lawmaker on Tuesday called on Congress to pass the proposal establishing the Philippines archipelagic sea lanes as espoused in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and other relevant international conventions following a Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessel’s water cannoning of Philippine vessels last weekend.

I n House Bill (HB) 1095, or the proposed “Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act,” Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte aims to enable the government to designate sea lanes where foreign merchant ships, warships, and aircraft can pass in accordance with Unclos provisions.

But pending the proposed congressional approval of HB 1095 and the fast-track modernization

of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to beef up the country’s external defense against foreign intrusions, Villafuerte is urging the government to press ahead with its planned joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) with the United States and possibly with other allies.

Our NSC (National Security Council) expects the proposed maritime patrols with the US to begin happening before the year is over,” Villafuerte said. “Under the circumstances, it is my hope that such joint sails can start much sooner and possibly include other allied nations that have similarly condemned China’s illegal maneuvers and strive for peace and stability in the crucial international waterway.”

O n Sunday, the US, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the European Union had separately condemned what the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) described as the CCG’s “dangerous and illegal use of water cannons” against Philippines Coast Guard vessels—BRP Malabrigo and BRP Cabra—escorting two military-chartered “indigenous” boats en route to Ayungin Shoal last Aug. 5.

T he “indigenous” boats were to deliver food, water, fuel, and other water supplies to Philippine Marines troops stationed at the grounded BRP Sierra Madre, which serves as the country’s military outpost in Ayungin Shoal.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

THE lack of access to credit remains one of the biggest factors for the low uptake of loans in the Philippines compared to other countries, according to a Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) executive.

35 YEARS SINCE ‘8-8-88’ Burma Solidarity Philippines, Milk Tea Alliance, Friends of Myanmar, and Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition picket the Myanmar embassy in Makati City on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 to honor the memory of the August 8, 1988, student demonstrations in Rangoon. These protests, known as the 8-8-88 movement, bravely stood against the military junta. Military rulers have held power for most of the past 35 years, except for a few years’ respite when free elections brought to power Aung San Suu Kyi. She was, however, rearrested in February 2021 as another military government took over. BERNARD TESTA

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Companies

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

B1

San Miguel income rises to ₧23.3B in H1

By VG Cabuag @villygc

SMC said its performance during the period was also supported by contributions from its new acquisition, Eagle Cement Corp.

Consolidated revenues were down 4 percent to P685.2 billion from the previous year’s P711.41 billion, as declining crude oil prices continued to affect fuel subsidiary Petron Corp. while San Miguel Global Power contended with lower volumes.

“We’re greatly encouraged by the sustained growth we are see-

ing across most of our businesses. While there are challenges, we’re confident in the programs we have put in place to address them,” San Miguel President and CEO Ramon S. Ang said.

“We are also keeping our focus on executing on our projects, implementing our growth strategies, and providing our customers the high-quality service they expect from San Miguel.”

San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc.’s income was flat at P18.8 bil-

Empire East tops off Manila condo tower

lion compared with the previous year’s P18.75 billion.

Petron’s net income fell 20 percent to P6.14 billion from the previous year’s P7.7 billion. Net sales fell 8 percent to P367.03 billion from the previous year’s P398.51 billion.

The Philippine operations posted sales volume growth of 16

percent while Malaysia recorded 7 percent.

San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp.’s off-take volumes for the first semester ended at 10,685 gigawatt hour, 25 percent lower than last year’s level following the termination of its 670-megawatt power supply agreement with Manila Electric Co.

Consolidated net income jumped to P5.9 billion, more than four times higher than last year due partly to the appreciation of the peso this year.

SMC Infrastructure continued to deliver robust results as combined average daily traffic volumes across all its operating

toll roads improved 13 percent to over 998,000 vehicles. As a result, consolidated revenues rose 23 percent to P16.6 billion from P13.42 billion.

Operating income reached P9.02 billion, up 50 percent from last year’s P6.01 billion.

San Miguel’s cement business, composed of Eagle Cement Corp., Northern Cement Corp. and Southern Concrete Industries Inc., registered consolidated revenues of P20.16 billion, tripling from last year’s P6.9 billion. Operating income rose to P3.02 billion, from P398 million the previous year.

PROPERT y developer Empire East Land Holdings Inc.

(EELHI) said on Tuesday that the remaining building of its condominium project in Sta. Mesa, Manila is almost completely sold due to a strong takeup in the housing market.

“Our sales are much better than prepandemic. First, because there’s always pent-up demand after a crisis. Second, [in] the middle-income market, there’s really a void,” EELHI President and CEO Anthony Charlemagne yu told the BusinessMirror in an ambush interview after the topping off ceremony for the Covent Garden North Tower.

He said the previous administrations have not responded to that particular shortage of mid-level residences in so far as the housing market is concerned.

“It’s the private developers that really are meeting that void. So the demand in housing is very strong in the Philippines now.”

At 30-story, Covent Garden North Tower features 485 units ranging from studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and bi-level with balcony and up to threebedroom units.

“Exclusivity is guaranteed in this vertical project since there are only 20 units per floor. Catered to middle-income and affluent markets, their price points range from P3.9 million to P20 million each. Amenity-wise, it has a 22-meter lap pool, kiddie pool, function hall, and gym—all seated on the 5th floor.”

Located along Santol Extension in Sta. Mesa, this two-tower development is transit-oriented as it is near transportation lines like the LRT-2 and the Philippine National Railways, making it accessible to the University Belt and the central business districts of Ortigas and Makati.

Despite the delay in the topping off, which was originally scheduled in March 2021, y u s aid the project is on track for completion and turnover of the North Tower will take place by the first or second quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, the South Tower—the project’s initial phase—is already sold out and ready for occupancy.

“We had some problems during the pandemic because of the lockdown. But now that we’re back, our skilled people are more or less regularly [working] already,” he noted.

Apart from Covent Garden, EELHI is already done with the 8th of the 37 towers of the Empire East Highlands, its largest project so far, which is located at its 22-hectare property in the Pasig-Cainta area.

Considered as one of the biggest developments of any developer in the country,

said the company will start selling its inventory, including that of the upcoming 9th tower.

“We have launched that already and we continue launching one building after the other. So that is going to occupy a lot of our time because of the number of towers.” Roderick L. Abad

Conglomerate San miguel Corp. (SmC) said its income in the first half rose 18 percent to P23.3 billion from the previous year’s P19.8 billion, due to sustained performance improvements across its units.

yu

Photo shows (from left) Elizardo to lentino, vice president of Metro Stonerich; Mark o liver Navarro, project manager of Empire East Land ho ldings Inc. (EELhI); Maximillan Quintos, president of Metro Stonerich; Ibrahim Nuño, chairman of Metro Stonerich; Anthony Charlemagne Yu, president and CEo of EELhI; Jhoanna t. Llaga, first vice president for marketing of EELhI; Arminius M. Madridejos, first vice president for project development of EELhI; and Don t pper Dizon, EELhI’s senior manager during the Covent Garden North tower’s topping-off ceremony in Sta. Mesa, Manila. Photo by NoNoy Lacza

High asking rates mark auction of T-bonds

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) made a partial award on the reissued T-bonds, raising P23.629 billion as the average yield settled above the secondary market benchmark rate and previous week’s level.

“With a remaining term of six years and 2 months, the bond (FXTN 07-68) was awarded at an average rate of 6.468 percent,” a statement from the Treasury read.

The debt paper fetched rates between 6.375 percent and 6.5 percent.

The secondary market benchmark rate for the debt paper with the same maturity

was at 6.457 percent while last week’s auction saw an average yield of 6.337 percent. For the month of August, the Treasury is yet to make a full award of T-bonds.

Furthermore, Tuesday’s auction marked the third straight week that the Treasury settled for a partial award for its T-bonds tender. The tender was 1.4 times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P43.374 billion, according to the Treasury. The national government aims to borrow as much as P225 billion from the local market this month through the ten-

der of government securities. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2023/07/25/government-eyesraising-%E2%82%A7225b-in-augustfrom-gs-sale/)

For T-bonds, the Treasury plans to raise a total of P150 billion across five auctions. Meanwhile, the Treasury targets to raise P75 billion from the auction of short-term Treasury bills (T-bills). The national government has been struggling to raise the target amounts for its auctions as investors’ asking yields continuously increase.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort earlier said that the uptick in yields recently, especially for T-bills, was driven by a surge in global crude oil prices coupled by weaker peso exchange rate against the greenback.

EDITOR’S NOTE

The rotating column of Finex will be published in our August 10, 2023 issue.

THE national government was only able to borrow about three-fifths of its intended P30 billion amount through the tender of Treasury bonds (Tbonds) as investors’ asking rates remained elevated.

MULTI-TASKING

THE controversial celebrity is known to be kind and nice but like many ultra-rich people, she has a tendency to treat her staff as multi-taskers while her actual PA acts like a nanny. For instance, one staff member was hired to do something but ended up also doing her photography for social media posts. Meanwhile, another person ultimately became her sort-of-secretary. She does provide room and board and many other perks but that’s mostly for them to be at her beck and call. This is a behavior that’s quite normal in the celebrity’s social circles. It’s also telling that the celebrity does not have friends who are her equals. All of her friends are people who earn less than her and aren’t as famous. It’s because she has the tendency to treat people as part of her entourage, which is okay for others but not everyone.

APPLE OF THE EYE

IS it true that an actress is the new apple of the eye of a controversial politician? The actress supposedly has a boyfriend and her name has also been linked to one of her former costars. She has also been recently seen cuddling with a young politician who comes from a super powerful family but she is really said to be the controversial and much older politician’s kept woman. He is said to be the sponsor of her new house and is the reason why she can continue to live in style.

MARITAL PROBLEMS

THE TV host-actress is said to be having problems with her husband, who has long had a mistress who he housed somewhere in Quezon City. Now that the husband and his family are no longer fully dependent on her for financial support, the TV host-actress is even more apprehensive that someday, he would leave her for another woman. This is not the first time that the husband has cheated but this is the first that he has paid for her upkeep. For the TV host-actress, this is alarming.

CHEATERS

THE online personality and her husband split recently and one of the reasons cited for the breakup is that the husband cheated. Now, revelations are coming to light that the husband had this habit of being creepy online. He would allegedly DM women on Instagram, even if these women were strangers to him. This is despite the fact that everyone knows that he is married to the online personality. He would also openly date other women while still married, despite knowing that a lot of people are aware of his wife.

Oscarwinning director William Friedkin dead at 87

BY LINDSEY BAH� The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES—William Friedkin, the generation-defining director who brought a visceral realism to 1970s hits The French Connection and The Exorcist and was quickly anointed one of Hollywood’s top directors when he was only in his 30s, has died. He was 87.

Friedkin, who won the best director Oscar for The French Connection, died on Monday in Los Angeles, Marcia Franklin, his executive assistant for 24 years, told The Associated Press on behalf of his family and wife, former studio head Sherry Lansing. His son Cedric Friedkin told the AP he died after a long illness.

“He was role model to me and to [my brother] Jack,” Cedric Friedkin said. “He was a massive inspiration.”

The director cemented his legacy early with The French Connection, which was based on a true story and deals with the efforts of maverick New York City police detective James “Popeye” Doyle to track down Frenchman Fernando Rey, mastermind of a large drug pipeline funneling heroin into the United States.

It contains one of the most thrilling chase scenes ever filmed: Doyle, played by Gene Hackman in an Oscar-winning performance, barely misses making the arrest on a subway train, then hurries to his police car to follow the train as it emerges on an elevated railway. He races underneath, dodging cars, trucks and pedestrians, including a woman pushing a baby

buggy, before abandoning the pursuit. The movie, which was made for only $2 million, became a box office hit when it was released in 1971. It won Academy Awards for best picture, screenplay and film editing, and led critics to hail Friedkin, then just 32, as a leading member of a new generation of filmmakers.

He followed with an even bigger blockbuster, The Exorcist, released in 1973 and based on William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel about a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil.

The harrowing scenes of the girl’s possession and a splendid cast, including Linda Blair as the girl, Ellen Burstyn as her mother and Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller as the priests who try to exorcise the devil, helped make the film a box-office sensation. It was so scary for its era that many viewers fled the theater before it was over and some reported being unable to sleep for days afterward.

The Exorcist received 10 Oscar nominations, including one for Friedkin as director, and won two, for Blatty’s script and for sound.

Born in Chicago on August 29, 1939, Friedkin began working in local TV productions as a teenager. By age 16, he was directing live shows.

“My main influence was dramatic radio when I was a kid,” he said in a 2001 interview. “I remember listening to it in the dark, Everything was left to the imagination. It was just sound. I think of the sounds first and then the images.” ■

Mamma Mia, here goes the ABBA Tribute concert

THIS August, relive the magic of the Swedish pop band ABBA with the original tribute band from London’s west end, live on stage.

From “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia” and “Waterloo,” the two-night concert will showcase chart-topping classics that will make fans dance, jive, and have the time of their lives. Newport World Resorts brings ABBA’s music to life with Mania: The ABBA Tribute concert happening at the

TODAY’S HOROSCOPE By

Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS

DAY: Adelaide Kane, 33; Anna Kendrick, 38; Gillian Anderson, 55; Hoda Kotb, 59.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Take time, sort through information and consider every angle before considering a move this year. A steady pace forward, paying attention to detail and taking a minimalist approach to living and doing things your way will result in less stress and a chance to make healthy decisions. Stand by your word, and don’t make unrealistic promises. Positive change begins with common sense. Your numbers are 7, 18, 21, 28, 33, 35, 42.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Avoid over-the-top behavior. Refrain from signing up for something you cannot afford or doing something that risks injury. Protect against people trying to coerce you into something you don’t need or want. Focus on selfimprovement and personal happiness.

★★★★

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Act, but don’t jeopardize your reputation or position. Offer only what you can deliver, and be prepared to give a play-by-play overview for those who need extra input. How you define yourself and what you offer will make a difference. ★★★

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don’t give away your secrets. Be a good listener and decide what others want from you before you engage in plans that leave you at a disadvantage. Work by yourself to achieve the most with the least amount of interference.

★★★

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Choose who you decide to help with care. Someone will take advantage of you if you let them. Veer toward unusual situations that offer lessons, experience and connections to unique people. Use your skills to make home improvements.

★★★★

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Inconsistency will play a role in how things unfold today. When in doubt, refrain from making a comment or promise. A reserved approach will buy you time, offering the space you need to consider what’s best for you. Make stress relief your priority.

★★

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Pay attention to detail, be open about what you are trying to achieve, and let your intuition guide and connect you to what and who can help you. A medical or financial situation will cause uncertainty if not handled with care. Don’t share personal information.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Protect what you have, and remove what you no longer use or need. Declutter your life and lower your overhead. A definitive attitude will help you refurbish your life and set higher standards. Surround yourself with people who share your concerns. ★★★★★

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Change will lead to opportunity. Consider what you want and must do to position yourself for success. Don’t mince words or give others the impression you are flexible when you are not. It’s up to you to make things happen.

★★★

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Emotions will drag you down and stand between you and what you want to achieve. Be honest with yourself and others, and take the initiative to do for yourself while being considerate of others. Protect your heart from anyone who sends mixed messages. ★★★

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’re on the right track. Speak up, run the show and embrace changes that help you live the life you long for. Don’t give anyone the right or means to dictate your next move. Have no regrets, and be true to yourself. ★★★

Newport Performing Arts Theater on August 25 and 26, 2023, Friday and Saturday at 8PM.

Calling all the dancing queens and kings to Mania: The ABBA Tribute concert. Tickets are still available at all TicketWorld and SM Tickets outlets: P7,800 (platinum), P6,800 (SVIP), P5,500 (VIP), P4,300 (gold), P2,200 (silver), and P1,000 (bronze).

For inquiries, contact JhayR dela Cruz at 0917 818 9847 and Raf Sangco at

0917 807 9387. For more information on Mania: The ABBA Tribute concert, visit www. newportworldresorts.com and follow @newportworldresorts on Facebook and Instagram, and @nwresorts on Twitter. Make the most of your visit and sign up for an Epic Membership or download the Epic Rewards Mobile App for free at the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Pay attention to what’s happening around you. Refuse to let the changes others make or the temptations you encounter throw you a curveball. Let your heart be the judge. With patience as your barometer, you’ll find peace and happiness. ★★★★★

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Hold your cards close to your chest. Don’t allow anyone to use emotional manipulation or temptation to lead you astray. Use your intuition, experience and intelligence to maintain equality and take control.

BIRTHDAY BABY:

You are picky, detailed and expressive. You are over the top and proactive.

‘letter drops’ BY CHAD HAZEN AND JEFF CHEN

The

Crossword • Edited by David Steinberg/Anna Gundlach

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN poses for portraits after interviews for his film Killer Joe in Venice, Italy on September 8, 2011. The French Connection director died on Monday after a long illness. AP

Letting go of unhealthy relationships

THERE will come a time in your life when someone you thought was a friend turns out to be someone who does not have your best interests at heart. They are either pretending to be your friend for clout, competing with you, or are simply using you for their own advantage. It becomes especially painful if you discover that your partner is fooling around behind your back and gaslighting you into believing that you have a happy and healthy relationship. When relationships become unhealthy, you need to let go.

Letting go of people you have invested time and effort can take an emotional toll on you and can even manifest in health problems. I have had my share of heartaches and letting go of close friends, and I know that it can be extremely difficult especially for an overthinker like me. One way I coped was to stop making excuses for their behavior because they know full well what they were doing. As Rihanna’s song goes, “they were only sorry they got caught.”

If it is a continued pattern of behavior even after several confrontations, the best way to go is out the door. You also have to understand that you cannot change someone by loving them harder. Even if they say they will change, remember that words cannot be trusted. You can only know what someone is thinking and feeling through their actions, and actions speak for themselves. If they do not treat you right, find someone who will. At the end of the day, you need to surround yourself with people who will support your growth.

If possible, be clear in explaining why you are letting them go. Let them know how you will end the relationship. Depending on what they have done, it can either be a surgically clean separation, or a gradual disengagement. There are friendships that I ended abruptly because of the gravity of what they did to me, but there are also friendships that end naturally because of differences in location or beliefs. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the departure, you can let them know explicitly or through your actions. Either way, it will depend on what they have done.

Accept the fact that you might have played a part in encouraging unhealthy behavior. One way to do this is by being complicit about their actions and letting them get away with doing what they did. You teach others how to treat you based on your own reactions to their behavior. So, when you ignore the behavior, you are telling the person they can continue with it. But you should also not feel self-pity for allowing

their behavior. Accepting that you played a part helps you learn the lesson so you will not repeat the same mistake in other relationships.

And then there are times when you are the main cause of their behavior. There are people who are passive-aggressive in how they deal with their resentment. And then there are those who will gaslight you into believing everything is okay, when in reality, they have been backstabbing and betraying you all along. The only logical thing to do in this situation is to let them go. Relationships thrive where there is mutual love and respect. If anyone takes who you are against you, the relationship is not worth it especially if you were being true to yourself from the start.

Forgive them for what they did but do not forget the consequences of their actions. Some actions like infidelity and other forms of betrayal will always leave a permanent mark in any relationship and will have long-lasting effects. You need to weigh the pros and cons of maintaining the relationship and act according to what will be beneficial to you in the long run. It might sound selfish, but you need to think in terms of what will be good for your mental and physical well-being. If you find yourself trapped in an unhealthy relationship, you need to start thinking of how to get out of it.

Do not invest all your time and effort on one person. I know we all have a best friend we always go to for advice or someone you just want to hang around. But do not allow everything to revolve around them. In any relationship, you need to have your own experiences and learning so that you can strengthen each other. If all your time revolves around one

your world revolve around only one person will also lessen your support network because once they leave, you might find yourself with only a handful of friends.

Be thankful for what they have brought to your life. Remember that part of growing up is losing people along the way. They say that a broken clock can still be right twice a day. Similarly, some people come to our lives as lessons so try to discover what you need to learn from the relationship. These lessons will be helpful in your future relationships so you can avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Lastly, forgive yourself. Grieve your loss but take steps to move on. Allow yourself to be sad because time and effort spent with them cannot be taken back. But you can take back the peace that they stole from you. You can learn a new hobby or develop a new skill to compensate for the loss. You might surprise yourself that there were a lot of things you missed because a relationship has taken all of your attention. Take this time to enjoy your hobbies, bask in learning a new skill, or in the excitement of meeting new people.

Relationships come and go in our lifetime. Some will show us how to nurture and take care of others, while some will teach us lessons on what to avoid. Relationships become unhealthy when there is no mutual trust and respect. And when you find yourself in this situation, it does not mean you will never find new friends or a new love. You cannot stay in an unhealthy relationship and expect to grow because you cannot have it both ways. You need to let go so you can thrive and be where you need to be. n

A road sign, a receipt, and a book I’m desperately trying to translate

By Jeremiah Cordial

MY hands were drenched in sweat the moment our plane landed in Bangkok.

Thailand greeted me with road signs written in Thai, and I found myself taking more photos of them than the actual city itself. While doing so, I shifted my gaze at the scenery that consisted mainly of cityscapes, ancient temples, and complex yet structured highways.

Navigating the city of Bangkok gave me that particular feeling of being stuck in a loop of constant curiosity and the urge to explore. I felt particularly drawn towards road signs as I was trying to practice my Thai reading skills. To my surprise, I was able to read decently if slowly.

I studied basic Thai three years ago but I read like a first-grader. Setting foot in Thailand was a reverie. I could look anywhere and find something to read. Road signs. Billboards. Posters. Signages. Plate numbers. Heck, even their food packaging. I did worse in speaking.

My hands quivered the first time I tried to speak to the locals.

Later that night, we passed by a fruit vendor who offered us lychee for neung looi and my immediate instinct was to respond, “one hundred?” And I was right.

I reckoned that there was a pattern in communicating with the Thais. Ask a Thai vendor, “how much?” and they will reply in English. But ask them, “thao rai na khrap?” and they will reply in Thai.

A souvenir vendor, believing I was a Thai, asked me in a quick sentence I could not follow.

PBdN cHAmPIONS INcLuSIvE wORkPLAcES fOR PwdS

THE Philippine Business and Disability Network (PBDN), a for-and-by business platform that provides barrier-free workplaces for Persons with Disability (PWDs), recently held their annual conference titled Working Beyond Barriers at SMX Aura. It is estimated that there are over 650 million persons with disabilities in Asia, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Meanwhile, the Philippine Statistics Authority shared that the unemployment rate for PWDs increased to 7 percent in January 2022, highlighting the challenging environment that the PBDN Conference is attempting to address.

With the theme “Towards building a more accessible and equitable society for

For the first time I composed my first sentence without looking into Google Translate and said, “pom mai phut phasa thai, pom phut phasa angrit ” (I don’t speak Thai, I speak English). She switched to English and told me she thought I was Thai. And although she did not give me any discount, I was happy with that little conversation.

REcEIPT IdE ATION IN Chiang Mai, we stayed at a hotel adjacent

to a kindergarten with a sign that said “rong rian,” which means school in Thai. Ours was a “rong raem,” which means hotel. This pattern intrigued me to look for any building that started with “rong,” which indicated a place or a building of a particular function or purpose. Although not a rong, art studios, cafés, and indie book shops were around Chiang Mai. Nobody among us was interested to see the tigers but instead, we were all searching for creative spaces. There was a particular street

where we found these, and I could not help but notice the fact that these spots were embedded within the soul of the city itself. We visited as many sites within the town as we could to find a piece of something we could take home, not as a tourist but as a consumer of their creative works.

During those visits, I collected our receipts seemingly a frequent reminder for me that we paid taxes. But receipts tell stories. They could reveal one’s spending habits, preferences, and consumption patterns, if played creatively in the head.

If I bought a tablet of Imodium, a bottle of coke, and a bunch of bananas, it could mean I’m saving myself from diarrhea. Similarly, if I bought four bags of chips, a few canned drinks, and a Durex, it could mean I was having some Netflix and chilling with someone. I did have my own receipt story I bought five hundredworth (in Thai Baht) of groceries and had the clerk raise her eyebrows for a lot of purchases that night.

cREATIvE SEARcHINg

I SPENT more money for books than for food.

From each local bookshop we visited, I bought one book to take advantage of my access to Thai literature, which I cannot find anywhere in the Philippines. One particular book I grew fond of having was titled A Monkey’s Vision That Came Before. It was written in Thai. I was trying my best to translate its contents and annotate it. I brought it to almost every place we went to so I could try reading it from time to time.

I even carried the book to a beer shop and a bartender was surprised to see me with it. He asked if I could speak Thai and I explained to him that I studied basic communication skills a long time ago, but I was trying to practice it more often then. I asked him if he could take a look at the book and told me that it was written poetically something too advanced for beginners like me. However, he encouraged me to keep on trying before he served me my next glass.

I couldn’t get past page one until now. I was relying heavily on Google Translate by reading the text out loud and seeing if I got the tones right. Most times I got it, but it took a lot of effort and time before I could move past the next sentence which, by the way, didn’t have spaces after each word. Where do words end?

Where do I pause? How do I stop?

In no time, we were back in the Philippines. There were major changes in the way I looked at our towns and how we shaped our own creative spaces. I was after all with a team of creatives coming from a literary forum among Southeast Asian delegates in Bangkok, and searching for inspiration among the towns of Chiang Mai for the rest of our trip.

While we could not make all cities thrive in the same manner, we could strengthen their distinctiveness so integration could be possible. It is a collective effort, if not, a combined individual pursuit, to have such a dream realized. But for the meantime, I would continue to search my way, travel more, create stories, and finish translating that book.

RAMIL DELA CRUz of JP Morgan Chase & Co (from left), Rich An Cruz of IBM, John Nicholls of Paypal, and Grant Javier, executive director of PBDN

PHOTO BY JEREmIAH cORdIAL

Iloilo City aims for data-driven governance

ILOILO City has been selected by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) as one of the highly urbanized target cities for the implementation of the Citizen Satisfaction Index System (CSIS).

The CSIS is a tool to gather relevant data and information on citizens’ needs and to empower local governments to align local policies to be responsive to the needs of the ultimate beneficiaries.

“We are aiming for data-driven governance that will firm up our decisions and policies for the good of our people. We understand the importance of data in all our programs and projects and the help it can give us to better manage the entire city.

I thank the DILG for including us in this endeavor,” Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said during the CSIS orientation organized by the

SM PRIME COMMITS TO NET ZERO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY 2040

SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime), one of the leading integrated property developers in Southeast Asia commits to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040.

SM Prime continues to collaborate with partners to pursue a climate-resilient future and mitigate the phenomenon’s harshest impacts. SM Prime is aware that the window of opportunity to act decisively is of utmost importance. This is why climate action and the transition to a netzero business are at the top of SM Prime’s sustainability agenda.

“We have been working with WWFPhilippines to help us establish our commitment and targets and align with the global commitment which is to achieve net zero by 2050. SM Prime strives to work on achieving net zero emissions, or the point

where our generated greenhouse gas emissions are in balance with our emissions reduction activities. We established our near- and long-term science-based targets for 2030 and 2035 respectively. This is currently being verified by WWF Philippines. We commit to achieving net zero by 2040,” SM Prime President Jeffrey Lim said.

SM Prime has been managing the transition to a low-carbon economy, which is why climate health, resilient design, and disaster risk reduction have played pivotal roles in its construction and design activities over the past decades. SM Prime addresses climate change by 1) expanding its renewable energy portfolio, 2) optimizing energy efficiency, and 3) conserving and protecting natural carbon sinks. Moreover, SM Prime is already implementing a large-scale energy and water conservation program that has

produced outstanding results.

SM Prime achieved its 2022 commitment to sourcing renewable energy for at least 50 percent of its electricity consumption. This development strengthens its commitment to the Department of Energy’s program of moving up the renewable energy supply component of the Philippines to 35 percent by the year 2030. SM Prime continues to support the transition to renewable energy through direct sourcing. Moreover, it has invested in various forms of manufactured, intellectual and social capital to prepare for a carbon-neutral future.

SM Prime remains committed to its role as a catalyst for economic growth, delivering innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities, thereby enriching the quality of life of millions of people.

Enchanted Kingdom celebrates Eldar the Wizard’s Birthday

special day for us as we also commemorate Enchanted Kingdom’s soft opening 28 years ago. Eldar has been an icon of bringing magic to everyone, and we hope to continue bringing magical experiences and memories that last a lifetime,” she added.

The magical celebration was made possible by EK’s sponsors: Australian Own Milk, Dayzinc, Reyes BBQ, Mondelez International, Avea, The Big Chill, Vitamilk, Tiny Buds, Evian Facial Spray, Ovomaltine, Clever Mama, Farlin, Zim, Nurture, Oishi, Royal Crown, Rite N Lite, Jele Beautie Philippines, Ceres, Nissin, Dutchmill, Lucky Me, Spectrum, Jollibee Foods Corporation, SD13 Advertising Corporation, Lock N Lock Philippines, Poten – Cee, URC - Universal Robina, Goya, Tender Juicy, Cherifer, Expressions, and View True Express Digital Imaging.

IN line with the marking of Enchanted Kingdom’s 28th soft opening year, the first and only world class theme park in the Philippines celebrated its beloved character’s birthday month, July 31, 2023. Eldar the Wizard is a home-grown, jolly character of Enchanted Kingdom (EK) known to teach children to uphold virtues of kindness, humility, patience, honesty, diligence, generosity, and love of God and family.

Eldar’s Birthday Bash captivated more than 400 guests with performances by EK characters and talented musicians, magicians, and dancers. Both kids and adults enjoyed the fun activities prepared by EK and its sponsors.

EK’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Cynthia R. Mamon expressed her gratitude to the guests and sponsors for making Eldar’s birthday extra special. “This is indeed a very

Additionally, the event was supported by the following tenant partners: Dairy Queen, Alcatraz, Potato Corner, Shakes Station/Zenzu Milk Tea,Karate Kid, TEHO Apparel, Fortune Bakeshop, DVK Enterprise,Taters, Turks, Famous Belgian Waffle, Subarashi Manju, Po Jang, Lil Orbits, Sweetie Yors, Sigue Trading, Chino Latino, Auntie Anne’s, La Churrera, Angels Corn, Dash Ice Scramble, and Shakey’s.

DILG-Iloilo City and West Visayas State University (WVSU), August 3, 2023 at City Hall Penthouse.

The orientation was attended by City Government department heads and punong barangays who were selected for the study.

Thirty barangays, each with five randomly selected respondents, will take part in the survey on August 20, 21, 27, and 28.

Before the start of the survey, key departments and offices of the City Government were asked to answer the Service Delivery Baseline Data Collection regarding implemented programs, projects, and activities for the last 12 months.

In June this year, DILG Region VI and WVSU, as local resource institute partner, signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the implementation of the program.

Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo eliminates single-use plastic water bottles

PARK Inn by Radisson Iloilo, a prominent player in the hospitality industry, is proud to announce a significant step forward in its commitment to sustainability. With a dedication to preserving the environment, the hotel is taking substantial measures to reduce its ecological footprint and enhance its sustainable practices.

Hotels have long been contributors to plastic pollution due to the widespread use of single-use bottled water. Recognizing this environmental challenge in the tourism industry, Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo is taking a bold step forward by reducing its plastic footprint significantly by removing single-use bottled water from guest rooms.

Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo places itself at the forefront of the eco-conscious movement by eliminating single-use bottled water from its guest rooms and fully implementing reusable carafes as an amenity from July onwards.

Water stations are deployed in strategic areas of the hotel and are equipped with built-in UV filtration systems, guaranteeing all guests access to clean and safe drinking water. This initiative is expected to save thousands of plastic bottles from entering landfills and waterways each year, making a significant positive impact on the environment.

Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo’s sustainability journey continues beyond here. The hotel has pursued various eco-friendly practices, fostering a green environment and supporting the local community.

Komine Launches 2023 Collection at Motoworld, MotoMarket, MotoStyle

WITH the ever-expanding landscape of motorcycle riders across the Philippines, Japanese motorcycle gears and accessories manufacturer Komine is launching its newest 2023 collection of riding jackets, pants, footwear, and accessories to provide safety and premium quality only at authorized dealers Motoworld, MotoMarket, and MotoStyle.

Safety always comes first for riders, no matter their riding styles and preferences. A complete gear of jackets, pants, gloves, bags, and footwear is an investment, and Komine is a go-to brand to deliver this without compromise.

“Komine gears and accessories stand out for several reasons, making it an excellent choice for Filipinos.

First and foremost, Komine is a Japanese brand which prioritizes rider safety as the main highlight. The gear is designed with innovations and high-quality materials to provide maximum protection on the road,

with each item highlighting built-in protectors as the primary feature. Secondly, Komine understands the unique needs of motorcyclists in different climates.

The Philippines, with its tropical weather, requires gear that is not only protective but also breathable and comfortable. With Komine gear, riders would not have to worry about the heat or any such hassle, they’ll get to focus on the road and embrace the thrill.

Lastly, Komine offers sizes with Asian fit, making sure that Filipino riders will get one that’s right for their build,” said Rose Ann Garin, Brand Manager of Komine at MotoMarket.

To celebrate the launch, Komine held an event encouraging some of the most popular riding enthusiasts, influencers, and members of the media to “Gear Up!

Ride with Safety and Innovation” at the newest flagship MotoMarket store in the south located at Eton City Square Sta. Rosa, Laguna on July 26, 2023. The launch highlighted the newest riding collections of innovative

and highly functional gears and accessories made to cater the different needs of motorcyclists, both experienced and newbie riders alike. Jackets and pants are available in different materials and styles which offer comfort and safety to further shield the body from impact and abrasion. For riding gloves, there are leather and mesh options for knuckle protection and Smart Tip feature. Each product highlights the built-in protectors which have CE standard level approval. Riders can also get bags to carry their items during their trips. The latest collection also includes new Komine footwear that fits various riding styles to ensure protection of foot and ankle support no matter the weather.

Komine is a Japanese manufacturing company which was founded in 1947, with over 70 years of experience in bringing safety and innovation in motorcycle gears and accessories. Komine Products are now available at authorized dealers Motoworld

(Facebook: @MotoworldPhilippines, Instagram: @motoworldph), MotoMarket (Facebook and Instagram: @MotoMarketPH), and MotoStyle (Facebook: @MotoStylePH) nationwide, as well as on the Motoworld online store (www.motoworld. com.ph). Motoworld has been the authorized dealer of Komine since 2005, making Komine as one of its pioneer brands. Each Komine product bears a seal of authenticity as proof of its compliance with various international standards, including CE and EN certifications, so buying them at authorized dealers ensures true protection that only real products can bring. Moreover, these stores offer product guidance, reliable after-sales support, and exclusive offers on genuine Komine gear.

So, whether you’re a street, adventure, or retro rider, or you love taking tours on your two wheels, Komine is the brand for you. Get your gears on and ride with safety and innovation!

T he hotel prides itself on sourcing a significant portion of its menu ingredients from local farmers and suppliers. By prioritizing locally grown produce and products, Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo supports the regional economy, reduces its carbon footprint, and ensures guests savor the freshest regional flavors.

Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo has successfully partnered with Crisel Farms, a local organic farm, to tackle food waste circularly. The hotel employs bokashi composting techniques to convert food waste into nutrientrich compost, significantly reducing landfill contributions. Moreover, as part of this circular business model, the hotel repurchases crops from Crisel Farms to use in its outlets, closing the loop on the food supply chain and supporting sustainable farming practices.

“We believe that every step towards sustainability counts, and with these new initiatives, we are reinforcing our commitment to preserving the environment and supporting the local community. By eliminating singleuse bottled water and embracing reusable carafes and water stations with UV filtration, we aim to make a meaningful impact on reducing plastic waste. Furthermore, our partnerships with local farms exemplify our dedication to a circular business approach, where we actively participate in minimizing food waste and promoting sustainable agriculture.” said Ogie Manuel, General Manager of Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo.

Revenge shopping and dining benefiting Retail and leisuRe sectoRs

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

“Brick-and-mortar retail and hotels were some of the most severely affected real estate sectors during the pandemic. Now that travel and mobility restrictions have been lifted, we are seeing the resurgence and ‘unfreezing’ not just of market activity but also development and expansion of players in these sectors,” said Rick Santos, chairman and CEO of Santos Knight Frank in a press statement.

According to Santos, the retail market in Metro Manila grew as shown by the increase in vacancy rates during the third quarter of 2022. The continuous lifting of health restrictions has also boosted the confidence of people and their families to get out of their homes and head to the malls which are the most common destination places.

“The effects of the pandemic are slowly waning as shown by the increase in consumer spending, revenge travel, and modest increases in foot traffic,” Santos said.

Benefiting from the recovery

M A l l operators such as SM, Ayala l a nd, Robinsons and Filinvest are obviously benefiting from the recovery.

“As overall activity improves,

mall operators are not only seeing a complete recovery but also the potential for actual growth in the retail sector. Mall going has been and will always be a part of the way of life of Filipinos. The practice has been deeply ingrained into Filipino culture and has been visibly shown when people gradually flocked the malls when health restrictions allowed it,” Santos said.

“With the evolving consumer behavior, retailers are optimizing their physical store portfolios, while simultaneously improving their online presence to provide a better shopping experience. The future of retail is a harmony between online and in-store shopping,” Santos said.

“On his part, Colliers Philippines director for research Joey Roi Bondoc said the lifting of the last of the Covid-19 restrictions has enabled the retail sector to bounce back brought about by revenge shopping in all malls and removal of all rental concessions which was pervasive during the pandemic.

With the virtual absence of parks and open spaces in the city, Bondoc said the malls have functioned as a one-stop shop for shopping, dining, and recreation, with even government services taking up spaces in

the malls to serve its constituents.

Preparing for the shopping spree

Th E A raneta family-controlled Araneta City’s believes that their latest transformational project, the New Gateway Mall 2, will attract the mall goers with its exciting stores and attractions.

The Araneta management is bullish that the P5-billion expansion of the multi-awarded Gateway Mall

Profriends pioneers free overnight house trial

will be a game changer in bringing modern urban experience in the Metro. Moreover, development will expand Araneta City’s flagship mall to more than 200,000 sq m of additional choices for shopping, dining, entertainment, and leisure spread over the multilevel mall.

The New Gateway Mall 2 introduces a comprehensive array of over 400 brands, offering the latest concepts in fashion, technology,

gaming, entertainment, leisure, health, and wellness. Meanwhile, the Gokongwei-controlled Shopwise International Grocery Shopping recently became one of the exciting mall stores and attractions at the New Gateway Mall 2. The development introduces a comprehensive array of over 400 brands, about 150 restaurants and food outlets, and must-visit attractions like the Quantum Skyview

and Sagrada Familia Church. Bracing for the dining pleasure B ONDOC s aid the mall operators played an important role in enabling their tenants to overcome the challenges of the pandemic. In the case of h a rd Rock Cafe Makati, Ayala Malls was there to assist the Bistro franchise to overcome the challenges brought by the pandemic.

Brian Peck, h a rd Rock Café director for operations, told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview that it had to stop operating temporarily due to strict regulations imposed by the government.

During those tough times, Peck recalled h a rd Rock stopped its operations. Although h a rd Rock was closed during those times, the Ayala Malls management extended a helping hand by giving a discounted rate on their rental.

Peck said 2023 is both a challenging and memorable year for h a rd Rock.It is celebrating its 52nd anniversary, and Peck pointed out there is no secret to longevity. Aside from the support of the team, he said the assistance of the Ayala Malls management gave h a rd Rock a huge lift towards recovery.

Sydney’S W Hotel Will Bring itS UniqUe Brand of lUxUry to Create a MagnetiC neW day-to-nigHt deStination for tHe City

By Roderick L. Abad

SE l l I NG a house is not easy.

It’s a very complex task that requires not only a huge investment, but also a creative way for d evelopers to close the deal with a potential homebuyer.

Traditionally, trimedia advertisement is one way to promote a residential project. With digitalization o n the rise, social media and influencers have also added to the effective channels for sales and marketing s trategies of property companies.

Complementing these are the usual approaches of a live or virtual house tour, and a booth wherein real estate agents usually offer freebies to entice mallgoers to see their short presentation of the model units and featured amenities of the project.

But these aren’t enough to convince them to purchase a house.

M indful of this, real-estate firm Profriends has partnered with local independent ad agency GIGI l to offer the first-ever free overnight house trial in the Philippines. This is a free weekend-long stay in one of the

City Cavite homes. Once booked successfully, the guest can get to participate in various community events, s uch as Zumba sessions, bazaars, and coffee pop-ups, among others pro bono.

After a fun-filled activity at this masterplanned community, they can stay and relax at any of the three model units.

Thea is a 2-storey residence fit for young families and professionals who want to engage in different a ctivities right when they leave their doorstep.

On the other hand, growing fami -

lies looking for the company of caring c o-families can call the townhouse Adelle—also at two floors—as their home.

Meanwhile, 2-storey Alexandra is an ideal abode for growing families to be a part of a healthy community. Interested house hunters can experience first-hand the Profriends O vernight h ou se Trial by booking a stay now at profriendshousetrial. com.

GIGI l is an independent agency that has won various campaigns in marketing effectiveness in the APAC Effies in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

hONG KONG—August 2, 2023—W Sydney announced today that the hotel will open its doors on Thursday October 12, 2023. h a ving already made its mark on Darling h a rbour with its iconic curved architecture, W Sydney will energize the city when it opens, seamlessly blending the luxury liberated W h o tels DNA with Sydney and Australia’s cultural touchstones to create an all-encompassing day-to-night dining and social destination and a sleek retreat.

Every touchpoint at W Sydney has been curated with a sharp design lens, with ultra-modern interiors by Bowler James Brindley. From the moment guests step across the threshold of the alluring copper-clad Welcome, they enter a W immersive world. From daytime encounters in the vivid blue interiors of l i ving Room and nights spent in the raw urban spaces of BTWN, the hotel’s dynamic restaurant, encounters at W Sydney are designed to be extraordinary.

At the apex of Darling h a rbour, and of W Sydney’s bold curves, is the hotel’s remarkable doublelevel bar, 29/30. Set to become one of Sydney’s most sought-after venues, with dress circle views of the harbor looking out across a 30-meter mosaic-inlaid infinity pool, 29/30 is a place to revel at a higher level, enjoying wine, cocktails and a Basque-inspired tapas menu. The bar’s upper tier, on level 30, takes things up a notch, with chic yacht-inspired interiors and

a menu of elevated cocktails and vintage Champagnes by the glass, from Dom Pérignon to Ruinart, and Krug to Armand de Brignac.

Across all of its spaces, W Sydney has collaborated with local artists, designers and creatives to bring the W vision to life. The wardrobe worn by the hotel’s talent has been curated in partnership with celebrity stylist Jess Pecoraro, whose clients include such icons as l o uis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta and Fendi. AustralianUkrainian tattoo artist Stanislava Pinchuk has also designed a tattoo of stars for the hotel’s guestroom corridors and muralist Sophi Oldling has imprinted her conscious, colorful art on the walls of BTWN. Even the driveway has been styled with a fleet of vehicles powered by W’s local automotive partner, Gen -

esis Motors. Says General Manager, Craig Seaward, “W h o tels is a brand that was born in New York, but destined for Sydney. The pulse of the city is so aligned with the W spirit—the sense of originality and curiosity, the unique take on luxury, the bold attitude. Eclectic and unexpected, this new hotel will be a beacon for the harbor, a hub of constantly evolving experiences and exciting spaces that unfold from morning till late and are deeply connected to the life of the city. We can’t wait to share W Sydney with our guests when we open our doors on October 12.” W Sydney is now open for guestroom and event bookings from October 12, 2023. For more information, please visit wsydney.com or

After experiencing a turbulent period during the pandemic, the retail and leisure sectors are back with a vengeance. Moreover, this has also led to the growth of these sectors manifested by the opening of new branches and introduction of new brands.

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tHea

rock Cafe Makati

Pre S ent at the Shopwise international grocery Shopping opening ceremony are (from left) Vincent troy lizo, business director of energizer; Simplicio Umali, president and Ceo of gardenia; aleli arcilla, VP and managing director of Mondelēz international; Cesar romero, independent director of robinsons retail Holdings inc.; edgar allan Caper, chairman and Ceo of Caper group; Margarita fores, president and Ceo of CiBo former Senator Mar roxas; Judy araneta roxas, vice chairman of araneta group; antonio Mardo, SVP for operations, araneta City; rudy ang, independent director of robinsons retail Holdings inc.; ermelo Villaroman, corporate VP of United laboratories; yu Chien lim, general manager of Kimberly-Clark Corporation; Kendrick ngo, general manager of atlas Home inc.

alexandra

adelle

B8 Wednesday, august 9, 2023

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Editor: Jun Lomibao

HANNAH’S RIDE

Hannah Roberts of the US wins her fourth straight title at International Cycling Union world championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday. She has won just about everything possible on a freestyle BMX bike except an Olympic title. AP

NIGERIA AT WORLD CUP: START OF A JOURNEY

BRISBANE, Australia—

Chiamaka Nnadozie’s Nigeria lineup had two chances hit the crossbar in a scoreless draw, and only missed out on the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals after losing a penalty shootout against England.

By taking the European champions right to the wire, the Super Falcons proved, once again, that rankings are less important than respect for rival teams under the tournament’s expanded 32-team format.

I n the group stage, Nigeria held Olympic champion Canada to a 0-0 draw, upset co-host Australia, 3-2, and advanced to the knockout stage after a 0-0 draw with Ireland.

A l ate red card for England forward Lauren James for stomping on Nigeria defender Michelle Alozie took the focus off two tight halves of football on Monday night that could have gone either way.

Organizers bring countries together for PHL hosting of FIBA World Cup

PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) gathered dignitaries and heads of embassies and consulates in the Philippines to promote camaraderie among nations in the FIBA Basketball World Cup that the country is lead hosting starting on August 25.

“ We are grateful to be able to come together to celebrate the upcoming FIBA World Cup 2023,” said Alfredo Panlilio, PLDT and Smart President and CEO and head of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 local organizing committee.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we can host the world’s biggest stage in basketball alongside Japan and Indonesia,” he said.

D ignitaries and special guests representing 25 countries attended

A shleigh Plumptre’s left-foot strike cannoned into the crossbar in the 17th minute and her right-foot shot, moments after the ball rebounded, forced a diving save from England goalkeeper Mary Earps.

Uchenna Kanu’s two second-half

the event hosted by PLDT Enterprise in Makati City.

The FIBA World Cup goes beyond basketball: it is about the heart and capabilities of all participating countries, and our ability to bring honor to our nations,” Panlilio said. “We are eager to showcase our countrymen’s love for the sport and promote Filipino hospitality, while promoting the sportsmanship and culture of the countries that will play here in the Philippines.”

The event also served as an opportunity for the government, represented by Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco and Foreign Affairs Senior Special Assistant Alex Lamadrid, to present the plans of the government to support the global event.

The role of PLDT chairman and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas

Estrada all praises for Team Filipinas

SENATOR Jinggoy Estrada

conveyed his warmest congratulations to the national women’s football team for making history on the global stage—qualify for the first time in the FIFA Women’s World Cup and score a goal and a victory in the world’s biggest football stage.  Their feat is nothing short of spectacular. Who would have thought that the Filipinas could reach the most prestigious football tournament in the world?” Estrada said in his manifestation of support to Senate Resolution 715 Commending the Philippine Women’s National Football Team which with its breakthrough World Cup debut in New Zealand.

Surely, we are known all over for our fighting skills and Filipino boxers are feared all over the world, like our very own legendary ‘Pambansang Kamao’ former Senator Manny Pacquiao,” Estrada said. “We’re also renowned world-wide in bowling and billiards—Paeng Nepomuceno and

Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes,’” he said.

But it was a Filipina—the late Lydia de Vega, Asia’s sprint queen in the 1980s, who put us on the world sports map,” he said. “It was another Filipina, Mr. President [Juan Miguel ‘Migz’ Zubiri] who would bring home our very first Olympic gold—weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz.”

E strada stressed that the Philippines was a longshot to play alongside the world’s best football players.

“

Until there was Team Filipinas,” he said.

The past year was full of remarkable achievements for the Filipinas, according to Estrada. “

They gave the country its first Southeast Asian Games gold medal in football since 1985 by winning in Hanoi,” he said. “The team also bagged the ASEAN Football Federation trophy last July 2022. January of last year, they secured a spot at the FIFA Women’s World Cup following a debut in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup.”

Clarkson holds doctorate

headers went within inches.

Had any of those chances found the back of the net, it’s likely Nigeria would have gone on to win a knockout match for the first time in nine trips to the Women’s World Cup and England would have followed the defending champion US team, No. 2-ranked Germany, Canada and Brazil through the exit.

It’s not the end for Nigeria,”

(SBP) Chairman Emeritus Manuel V. Pangilinan is central to the story of how the Philippines came to host the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

A fter losing the bid against China in 2015, Pangilinan, who was then chairman of SBP, started to form a multi-country consortium to win against competitor countries.

A nd the rest is history.

The FIBA World Cup is an apex event in basketball, and it’s good for Filipinos to see how Gilas can compete with the rest of the world,” Pangilinan said. “It is the sporting event of the year, and we’ve gotten the full support of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, and various government agencies as well as the private business sector.”

Nnadozie, Nigeria’s goalkeeper and inspirational team leader, said as she left the locker room at the 2023 World Cup for the last time. “We go back home, rest and come back stronger.”

Coming to the World Cup we had so many dreams. So sad today, but it’s not the end,” she added. “We’ve been playing tough, tough games. There’s no easy teams. We respect them all. Right now, we have to work harder and come back stronger again.”

Concerns by some critics that the expansion from 24 to 32 teams would lead to blow out scores have eased.

Yes, there were some big margins, but those weren’t restricted to the eight nations on debut—one was England’s 6-1 win over Asian champion China, a World Cup finalist in 1999, and another was 2011 champion Japan pounding another title contender, Spain, 4-0.

Morocco was routed 6-0 by Germany in its debut game at the global tournament but rebounded with wins over South Korea and Colombia to not only advance to the knockout stage. At the expense of the Germans.

Nigeria was ranked 40th in June but the players and coach Randy Waldrum never had any doubts they could mix it with the top teams on the biggest stage for the women’s game. AP

Clarkson brings added confidence to Gilas bid, SBP president Panlilio

By Josef Ramos

JORDAN CLARKSON arrived in the country on Tuesday bringing with him firepower and added confidence for Gilas Pilipinas in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) 2023 World Cup.

“ I’m just excited to be with the team again,” Clarkson, the country’s naturalized player who was the National Basketball Association’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2021, told

Go hails ‘Pusong Pilipino’ spirit of Filipino athletes

SENATOR Christopher “Bong” Go celebrated the unwavering love and dedication embodied by the “pusong Pilipino” spirit of Filipino athletes during the “Konsyerto sa Palasyo” held at Malacañang’s Kalayaan Grounds on August 6.

W ith President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in attendance, the event paid tribute to more than 300 Filipino athletes who have represented the Philippines in various sports disciplines, showing to the world the unmistakable heart of the Filipino.

I n an interview during the event, Go reiterated his commitment to championing the rights and welfare of Filipino athletes.

We thank President Bongbong Marcos for honoring our athletes,” Go said. “The President is aware of the efforts our athletes poured in to the Southeast Asian Games and the other games to come.”

As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, I’m always full

Those are but three of key players that Gilas Pilipinas badly needs to complete a crew with substance for the Fiba Basketball World Cup.

Two more supposed mainstays, wily point guard/dead shot RR Pogoy and man mountain Poy Erram, are also both not yet in tiptop shape?

W hat’s happening?

A ren’t we a bit late for the show?

A re we cramming, by golly?

A nd the tournament is barely 16 days away from blast-off.

But, well, despite the hiccups, we must commend coach Chot Reyes’s Gilas boys. They made a good accounting of themselves in the just-ended pocket tournament in China.

Even with an incomplete lineup, we passed the grade in China—in flying colors yet.

To defeat Iran with a not-so-complete Gilas lineup— twice at that—is something not to sneeze at. Big time.

W ith its well-ceilinged lineup, Iran has always been a mountain too high to scale for us.

support to our athletes,” said Go on his proactive approach in the Senate.

“In fact, during the budget deliberation [for the 2023 national budget], the PSC’s [Philippine Sports Commission] budget is more or less P200 million only,” Go said. “I personally pushed for P1 billion more for the budget for the sake of our athletes.”

G o said that the additional budget was allocated for grassroots development and support to athletes in international competitions.

A mong the honored guests were world boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, gymnastics sensation Carlos Yulo, former national fencer Richard Gomez and the groundbreaking women’s national football team or Filipinas, which made history in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

G o has been vocal on how engaging in sports can lead to a holistic individual and societal development. He continues to advocate for initiatives fostering an

environment that encourages more Filipino athletes to participate in sports and contribute to the nation’s success in international competitions.

“Investing in sports is for the individual growth of our athletes for the development of our society,” he said.

Go authored and co-sponsored the measure that became Republic Act No. 11470, which established the National Academy of Sports (NAS) in 2020.

Th e NAS provides high-quality secondary education with a special sports-oriented curriculum for gifted young Filipinos who wish to enhance their physical and mental sports capacities.

With its main campus at the New Clark City Sports Complex in Capas, Tarlac, NAS commenced its first academic year on September 13, 2021.

G o has proposed Senate Bill No. 423, the Philippine National Games Act of 2022, to institutionalize a comprehensive national grassroots sports program. The initiative aims to discover and nurture athletes who could excel in international sports competitions, bring pride and international goodwill to the country, and address the longstanding challenges of Philippine sports in general.

A nd to get back at Senegal is simply something to be also proud of, the vengeful-laden win finally erasing that 2014 overtime loss to the African nation in the Spain worlds. And our crew was not even top notch.

So, there’s no need to panic.  We will get there—in time to fulfill the nation’s expectations, dreams.

But back to Sotto and Clarkson.

Sotto, the 7-foot-3 National Basketball Association (NBA) prospect, will forever be a question mark in the Fiba campaign beginning August 25 because of—sad to say— priorities that seemed to have brought him more minuses than pluses. His forays in Adelaide, Japan and the NBA farm league sideswiped surefire moments of blending with his Gilas teammates. But, then, that’s all water under the bridge now, so to speak. Move on, kiddo.

C larkson coming in a bit late?

Not at all. His NBA stature is everything. If, say, Sotto and the others have masters degrees in the game, Clarkson holds a doctorate.

an interview upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at dawn Tuesday. “ I think we’ve got a chance to do some things,” said Clarkson, when asked what’s expected of him in the FIBA World Cup that the country is co-hosting starting August 25.

A nd Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio is beaming with confidence—both with Clarkson’s arrival and the improvement Gilas showed during a pocket tournament in Guandong, China.

The team is gaining to have confidence and I’m also starting to have confidence in our ability to perform in the World Cup,” Panlilio told BusinessMirror also on Tuesday.

Gilas wrapped up its Guandong stint a win over Iran, 63-48, for a 3-1 win-loss record on Monday. The team, which went 1-1 with Senegal and 2-0 over Iran, returned to the country on Tuesday afternoon.

The Guangdong experience, according to Panlilio, provides optimism that the country could emerge as the top-ranked Asian team in the World Cup.

“ The highest-ranked Asian team will qualify for the Paris Olympics next year,” he said.

Overall, the team is evolving and they are getting that chemistry. Their defense is good although their offense is not yet there, but with the arrival of Jordan Clarkson, our offense will improve soon,” he said. “I’m very hopeful.”

K ai Sotto, meanwhile, needs to submit his MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test result for him to join the Gilas pool in practice.  “ We must check his health first,” Panlilio said.

W hile Sotto, perhaps, would grope—God forbid—for form if he gets to play, not Clarkson. When dispatched, the NBA’s former Sixth Man awardee will fly with wings flapping mightily—or I’ll be damned.

Ne ver mind Thompson.  He will always be a force to reckon with, no matter what. A tested warrior, Thompson will come battle-ready, his heart brimming with confidence as only a true patriot would.

B asketball mogul Al S. Panlilio sitting on pins and needles?

Umm. The suspense is blowin’ in the wind.

THAT’S IT We must find a coach quick for our gallant Filipinas football team following the sudden departure of Australian Alen Stajcic, who mentored our heroines to historic heights in the Fifa Women’s World Cup in New Zealand just days back. The Asian Games is just around the corner and our Filipinas are raring to return to action. But where is their new coach?

NIGERIA is ranked 40th in June but the players and its coach never had any doubts they could mix it with the top teams on the biggest stage for the women’s game. AP

TOURISM Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco (left) with PLDT chairman and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas chairman emeritus Manuel V. Pangilinan (center) and PLDT and Smart President and CEO and head of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 local organizing committee Alfredo Panlilio lead the event.