BusinessMirror January 03, 2022

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are eager to spend Christmas

this could help prevent placing the country in another strict lockdown,

this newspaper, is for travel restrictions to be put in place swiftly and

quences on the economy.”

See “Omicron,” A2

GOVT COLLECTS P17.9-B NATL GOVT BORROWINGS

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Monday, January 3,29,2022 17 17 No.No.52 87

Monday, November 2021Vol.Vol.

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P25.00 P25.00 nationwide nationwide || 22 sections sections 18 20 pages pages ||

DUTIES ON RICE IMPORTS FOR 10 MOS DIP TO P2.75T T T

By Cai U. Ordinario

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@caiordinario

Senate urged Omicron risk to ratify PHL spurs revival of quarantine membership rules in PHL in RCEP

@BNicolasBM

HE national government was HE national able to collect P17.9 billion in government’s duties from rice imports from gross January 1 to December 10, 2021, borrowings as of according the Department of end-Octobertoshrank by almost(DOF).

6 percent Finance

T I

By Samuel P. Medenilla

year-on-year to P2.75 trillion.

In a report to the DOF, Bureau

HE government’s failure @sam_medenilla to ratify its membership

in the Regional CompreNTER NATIONA L concerns hensive Economic Partnership over the possible spread of the (RCEP), which takes effect this more infectious Omicron Comonth, will cause the Philipvid-19 variant prompted the govpines to forego 2 percent of GDP ernment to reimpose mandatory growth annually, according to facility-based quarantine for all local economists. arriving passengers in the country.

The Foundation for Economic Acting Presidential spokesperFreedom (FEF) urged the Philipson Karlo B. Nograles announced pine Senate to ratify the country’s on Sunday that the Inter-Agency membership in RCEP, now deemed Task Force for the Management as the largest free trade deal in the of Emerging Infectious Diseases world.

(IATF) suspended the implemen The FEF said the boost in the tation of its Resolution No. 150country’s economic growth from A (s.2021), effectively imposing being a part of the RCEP will go stricter protocols for all inbound a long way in terms of the Philiptravelers. pines’s recovery from the pandemic.

To note, IATF Resolution 150 “Analyses of RCEP suggest that A had allowed fully vaccinated the agreement’s immediate value non-visa travelers from Green List lies not in the incremental tariff areas to enter the country withreductions, which may take up to out the need for facility-based 20 years to implement, but in the quarantine as long as they secure promise of seamless production negative Reverse Transcriptionnetworks among the members Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTwho will be tied to common stanPCR) test within 72 hours prior dards, disciplines on intellectual to their departure. property, rules of origin, customs “Except for countries classified processes, e-commerce, and comas ‘Red,’ the testing and quarantine petition policy. protocols for all inbound interna Wit hin t his f ra mework of tional travelers in all ports of entry stable and predictable rules, the shall comply with the testing and Philippines could aspire to bequarantine protocols for ‘Yellow’ come a regional manufacturing list countries,” Nograles said, citing and services hub, thereby creatthe provision of IATF Resolution ing much needed domestic jobs,” No. 151-A. FEF Vice-chairman Romeo BerHe noted Hong Kong, which has nardo said in a statement. confirmed a case of the Omicron FEF said the economic gains variant, will also fall under the Yelfrom joining the pact will be huge low list countries. for the Philippines: it will have free The suspension of the rules for trade access to the Asean market “Green List” countries will be in plus China, Japan, South Korea, effect from November 28, 2021 to Australia and New Zealand.

December 15, 2021.

of rice imports totaled 2.797 million

of Customs (BOC) Commissioner MT, higher than the 2.266 million Rey Leonardo Guerrero said this MT during the same period last year.

Latest data from the Bureau of the represented a 21.9-percent increase Guerrero said that as a result of Treasury showed that the governfrom P14.72 billion during the same the continuous decline of the price ment’s gross borrowings during the period in 2020. of rice in the world market since 10-month period fell by 5.99 percent Guerrero said revenues from rice May 2021, the average value of rice from P2.92 trillion a year ago. imports during this period came per MT dropped by 1.7 percent to With only two months left for from shipments worth a combined P18,532 per MT for the period Januthis year, the latest figure is already amount of P51.37 billion. ary 1 to December 10 compared to equivalent to 89.6 percent of its “For the monitoring of rice imthe P18,854 per MT recorded durP3.07-trillion borrowing program. ports, the table shows that for the ing the same period last year.

Broken down, gross domestic borperiod December 1 to 10, 2021, Import duties collected from rice rowings from January to October volume of rice imports grew by imports beginning March 5, 2019 settled at P2.23 trillion, down by 487.9 percent, while revenue also go to the annual P10-billion Rice 5.08 percent from P2.35 trillion increased by 475.8 percent. CuCompetitiveness Enhancement in 2020. mulatively, it grew by 23.4 percent Fund (RCEF) as provided under The bulk of the amount was in volume and 21.9 percent in revRepublic No.mural 11203 orAndres the Rice PEOPLE walk Act past the of Gat Bonifacio at Manila City Hall Underpass. sourced from Fixed Rate Treasury enue,” Guerrero said during a recent Tariffication Law (RTL).

The country will celebrate the 158th birth anniversary of Filipino revolutionary Bonds (P1.19 trillion), followed by Department of Finance (DOF) exec The RCEFBonifacio is usedon toTuesday, finance pro- 30. ROY DOMINGO hero Gat Andres November short-term borrowings from Bangutive committee (Execom) meeting. grams that will sharpen the comko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP (P540 Rice import volumes in the petitiveness of palay growers by way billion), Retail Treasury Bonds/Prefirst 10 days of December last year of providing them easy access to fermyo Bonds (P463.3 billion), Retail reached 118,656 metric tons (MT) tilizer, farm machinery and equipOnshore Dollar Bonds (P80.84 bilfrom 20,181 MT recorded during ment, high-yield seeds and cheap lion). In the same period, there was the same period in 2020. credit; and offering skills training also a net redemption of Treasury

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas dating its registry following the them. This allows everyone to see programs as President Duterte For the period of January 1 to programs on farm mechanization Bills amounting to P43.94 billion. @jearcalas enactment of the Coconut Farmwho are listed in the registry and if is expected to sign the industry December 10 last year, the volume and modern farming techniques.

Net debt redemption means

ers and Industry Trust Fund law. farmer doesn’t see his name then he development plan in early 2022. there were more debts repaid comORE than 3 million Rosales explained that about shall coordinate with the PCA imRosales said the PCA will not pared to the amount borrowed durcoconut farmers and 500,000 coconut farmers and mediately,” he explained at a recent stop updating its list of coconut ing the period. workers are now regisworkers were added to the PCA’s dialogue with coconut farmers. farmers and enjoined them to reg Meanwhile, gross foreign bortered with the government’s reg2018 list that had about 2.5 million “On the other hand, if people ister in order to reap the benefits rowings in the same period also istry, which serves as the basis coconut farmers and farm workers. would see names on the list and of the decades-long idled coconut contracted by 9.7 percent to P518.7 for the number of people to be The PCA’s next step is to conthey think they are not coconut levy fund. “We will not stop at 3.1 billion from last year’s P574.4 billion. covered by the utilization of the duct an exclusion-inclusion profarmers or their details are incormillion. We hope that more indi This was raised through global P75-billion coconut levy fund. cedure by making the updated rect, they can report it to the PCA viduals will register in our coconut bonds (P146.17 billion), program Philippine Coconut Authority farmers’ registry public, providfor immediate action,” he added. farmers registry,” he said. loans (P139.98 billion), euro-de(PCA) Deputy Administrator Roel ing everyone the opportunity to The PCA official noted that The updating of the coconut nominated bonds (P121.97 billion), M. Rosales said about 3.11 million check the veracity of the list, Rothe completion of the initial list farmers registry is mandated by A HEALTH worker wearing protective equipment is seen at the Manila Covid Facility at the Rizal Park in Ermita, Manila. The hospital bed occupancy for

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad pected to be at the forefront of a project loan (P86.41 billion), and coconut farmers and farm worksales added. of coconut farmers registry would Republic Act (RA) 11524 or the Covid-19 in the National Capital Region has increased to 41 percent compared to the previous week, the OCTA Research group reported on Sunday. The @Tyronepiad this development. “Asia Pacific yen-denominated samurai bonds ers have been registered with the “The list will be posted in public be just in time for the expected Coconut Industry Trust Fund Act.

has always been at the front Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday logged 4,600 additional Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 2,851,931; (P24.19 billion). government since it started upSee “3-M farmers,” A2 spaces where people can easily see rollout of coconut levy-funded See “Senate,” A2 IGITAL adoption has end of so many of the digital and active cases at 21,418.NONIE REYES See “Borrowings,” A2 Continued on A2 been the primary trend adoption areas. We’re seeing it for businesses since the play itself out,” Meta APAC Vice pandemic restricted mobility n President US 50.4600Dan n Neary JAPANsaid.

0.4374 n UK 67.2329 n HK 6.4722 n CHINA 7.9013 n SINGAPORE 36.8968 n AUSTRALIA 36.2807 n EU 56.5758 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4531 Source: BSP (November 26, 2021) nearly two years ago. The on In fact, Neary said the metaline marketplaces have seen verse is ripe for business oppormore frequent buyers now as tunities in the region, especially consumers protect themselves for MSMEs. Metaverse refers CONSUMER group is askform consumers that retail prices For utilities, Dimagiba wants to strengthen the National Price Cofrom Covid-19 exposure, thus to virtual spaces where people ing the next set of legislaare reasonable and ensure that reorganize the Energy Regulatory ordinating Council. supporting the growing digital from different parts of the world tors to prioritize measures businesses generate fair profits.

Commission and appoint members The group asked to repeal the economy. can meet and explore. that will enhance consumer pro “At the moment, the consumwith qualified experience in the value-added tax on liquified pe This trend has not only been “We believe that the metatection and will better regulate ers are at the complete mercy of field. “This will stop the appointtroleum gas (LPG), kerosene and observed among big corporaverse will be the single biggest prices of key commodities such as the companies in terms of pricment of members with political diesel. Dimagiba also stressed the tions but with micro, small and opportunity for modern busifuel and oil. es,” he said. “This will place the and corporate affiliation with the need to suspend the collection of medium enterprises (MSMEs) ness since the creation of the Laban Konsyumer Inc. (LKI) retail business of fuel products private energy sector,” he said. excise taxes for the same products as well, turning to digital platInternet,” he claimed. “This is President Victor io Ma r io A . similar to the electricity and LKI seeks to install qualified when the year-to-date increases in forms to cater to customers. the next evolution of digital Dimagiba, in a recent statement, water utilities.” consumer representatives in regutheir retail prices are beyond 150 According to a study by Meta platforms.” cited several initiatives the 19th LKI wants the government to latory agencies that can monitor percent of the excise taxes imposed (formerly known as Facebook),

Congress should focus on to better assess the oil deregulation law and consumer protection and welfare. on them.

88 percent of the surveyed small New trends serve the consuming public moving shift towards a regulated indus The group wants the 19th Con Lastly, Dimagiba suggested to and medium-sized businesses WITH further reach of digital forward. try while ensuring a stable supply. gress to pass the revised Consum“transform the Philippine Comclaimed they are using digital platforms, Meta is seeing new For one, he said the officials need This, as the consumer group asked er Act. This, as it urged them to petition Commission into a quasitools for operations. trends that will define the onto pass the measure seeking to unthe future officials to transfer the establish the proposed National judicial entity to hear all disputes The Philippines and the rest line space next year. bundle prices of fuel products for enforcement and police powers to Consumer Coordinating Council on anti-competitive practices and of the Asia Pacific region are exSee “Digital economy,” A2 accountability and transparency. an independent entity from the oil of the Philippines with four memabuse of dominant position.”

See “Consumer bills,” A2 Doing so, Dimagiba said, can inregulators. bers from the consumer sector and

OVER 3-M FARMERS LISTED FOR P75-B COCO LEVY FUND

FAST-GROWINGM DIGITAL ECONOMY SEES NEW TRENDS FOR 2022

D

PESO EXCHANGE RATES

Key consumer bills for 19th Congress listed

A

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.7740

n JAPAN 0.4413 n UK 68.5347 n HK 6.5101 n CHINA 7.9669 n SINGAPORE 37.5547 n AUSTRALIA 36.8061 n EU 57.5117 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5260

Source: BSP (December 31, 2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, January 3, 2022

Hotel, restos revenues to be hurt by NCR return to AL3

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

LERT Level 3 is certainly going to hurt again many hotels and restaurants just starting to recover from the recent Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions, although industry leaders said they understood the necessity of government’s decision.

need to change the region’s alert level status. The group, he added, “support(s) the IATF change of alert level to 3. We hope the public can take this opportunity to get vaxxed or boosted as soon as possible to help protect our families and communities from any potential surge.”

Malacañang announced over the weekend the reimposition of Alert Level 3 in the National Capital Region from January 3 to 15, as Covid-19 cases suddenly spiked with families and friends having gathered over the holidays.

In a Viber message to the BusinessMirror, Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) Executive Director Benito C. Bengzon Jr. said, “The return to Alert Level 3 will affect the operational capacity of hotels, particularly for restaurants and social events, which will affect revenue streams.”

He added, “Meantime, PHOA will continue to strictly abide by the guidelines set by authorities under Alert Level 3. It is important for all to follow minimum public health standards so we can help control the [Covid] situation.”

Under Alert Level 3, venues for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE), parties and

AS this developed, Berjaya Makati Hotel issued a public apology on its Facebook page for its lapses that allowed one of its guests, Gwyneth Ann Chua, to skip her quarantine and go Kampai, a bar and restaurant in Poblacion, Makati to party with friends, just a day after arriving from the US. Without naming Chua, hotel management said it “sincerely apologizes for failing to stop the guest from jumping her quarantine. This was the only incident of its kind in the nearly two years that we have served as a quarantine hotel, and we will make sure that it is the last….”

It added that the establishment is “fully cooperating with all government agencies that are conducting their own investigations.”

In a letter on December 29, 2021 to May Ramos, head of the Tourism Frontline Services of the Department of Tourism-National Capital Region, Den Sabayo, Berjaya As-

A

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

Imports...

Continued from A10

other social gatherings, as well as restaurants are allowed to operate at a maximum of 30 percent of the venue’s indoor capacity for fully vaccinated individuals and 50 percent of it’s outdoor capacity, as provided in the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF’s) Alert Level System guidelines as of November 18, 2021.

For his part, Eric Teng, president of RestoPH, said it was “hard to say” how much the industry or his members would lose in terms of potential revenues from the dining restrictions under Alert Level 3. “Fortunately, our industry had a good a November and December. We don’t believe the current problem will be a long-term one. We expect things like this (changes in alert level status) will occur every now and then.”

In fact, the surge in Covid cases was expected by RestoPH because of the family gatherings, thus the “The imported frozen small pelagic fish under the CNI 11,015 MT shall be immediately disposed and distributed to Visayas and

Bar staff found Covid-positive

Mindanao only specifically to the victims of typhoon Odette,” Dar said in the SO. Under the guidelines, the SPS-ICs

sistant Front Office Manager, said Chua “had her quarantine with us since Dec. 22 and declared positive on Dec. 27th. Just as how we treat all other quarantine guests, we ensure that they follow strict protocols and advise us whatever the result of their swab test. Said result was coordinated with BOQ (Bureau of Quarantine) opcen and followed up for extraction. Only today they were able to pull her out from Berjaya.”

Also on its Facebook page, Kampai confirmed on December 31, without naming Chua, that she “visited their bar on Dec. 23 from 10 p.m. and stayed until about 1 a.m. the following day.” They added, they “absolutely had no idea that she came from abroad” and was supposed to be under mandatory quarantine.

The bar management said, “A number of our patrons and staff contracted the virus and are now in quarantine because of the situation,” although they failed to provide evidence that these guests and employees were actually infected by Chua. Kampai said they are temporarily closed while staff was still undergoing testing and self-isolation for a week. They said said they provided information and CCTV footage to authorities investigating the Chua case.

for the 11,015 MT import volume will automatically expire on January 31.

Only importers of “good standing” may be allowed to participate in the latest round of small pelagic fish importation.

The import volume will be “apportioned equally and directly distributed among importers” who will meet the requirements under the SO. Transfer of allocation will not be allowed, according to the order. The order mandates the importer to have the imported frozen small pelagic fish arrive in the Philippines within 30 days from the date of SPS-ICs but not later than January 31, 2022 and dispose “of the same within twenty (20) days upon arrival.”

The importer, added the order, “must have logistical advantage in the area of distribution including cold storage facility and distribution channels for the imported fish and fishery products.”

A bill of lading will be required for the issuance of the SPS-IC and an eligible importer must have used at least 70 percent of their volume in the previous round of importation.

Furthermore, importers must not have filed with importation-related cases by the government and they are willing to sell the imported small pelagic fish at the wholesale price of P75 per kilogram.

“From the Custom Clearing House, the importer shall directly unload and trade the imported products at the PFDA [Philippine Fisheries Development Authority] Fish Ports or PFDA designated trading areas,” the SO read.

“The importer shall source-out supply from respectable sources and not engaged in IUU [illegal, unreported and unregulated] Fishing,” it added.

Latest damage report released

by DA showed the damage to the fisheries sector from Odette has reached P3 billion, accounting for 33.5 percent of the total estimated agricultural losses of P9 billion.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

DTI...

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Digital economy...

One of them is virtual and augmented reality (AR), Neary shared.

Historically, he said this technology is just for the gaming industry, but the Meta official said it is being used now in virtual workspace and other immersive features already.

“We now have more than 600,000 creators that have published more than 2.5 million effects on our platform. Also, we have 700 million people that are using AR effects across Facebook apps and devices every single month,” he shared.

Business messaging, which refers to responding to customer queries, is also key moving forward for businesses. Meta observed that 500 million people are reaching out to businesses in any given day via messaging features across all its platforms.

Its study shows that the majority or two-thirds of the adults want to be able to connect with the businesses in the same way they reach out to their friends via messaging apps.

“Nobody wants anymore to spend their lifetime on hold,” Neary said, noting it impacts customer service as well.

Another trend is Mega Sales Days, which are characterized by the monthly offering of discounts.

He explained this has become “very big cultural and entertainment moments and it’s critical that businesses are able to participate in this.”

Neary also expects businesses to team up with creators in promoting their brands in the digital space.

“It’s a trend that we and others are building quite heavily for, but it is also existing. It has a lot of traction in terms of how businesses are using them,” he explained.

Lastly, the Meta official cited

videos as a trend for next year, expecting it to drive engagement on social media platforms for businesses. He said companies can utilize them to tell their stories.

Establishing a norm

THE trends projected by Meta are parallel with the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) forecast that digital will be “normal” even after the pandemic.

“Although the pandemic has caused global economic downturn and disruption, it has also been an impetus for enterprises to pursue digital transformation all over the world,” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

As such, the trade official said consumers expect “greater convenience and control over transactions” moving forward.

On the part of businesses, Lopez said they are keen on establishing high-technology and interconnected value chains amid the growing number of startups.

The Philippines’s economy may reach P5 trillion by 2030—equivalent to 27 percent of the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) last year, according to a study by global strategy and economic advisory firm AlphaBeta.

Bulk or P3.5 trillion of these digital opportunities are driven by technologies that aid the public amid the pandemic. These include facilitation of customer interactions, transactions and marketing through digital platforms; implementation of hybrid work arrangements as part of a business continuity plan; and digitalization of supply chains amid the prolonged global delays.

Consumer bills..

For 2022

THIS week, LKI will start participating in the questionnaire workshop for the Fair Digital Finance Accelerator (FDFA) network, which seeks to produce a training module for digital payment economy.

“The FDFA shall accelerate the implementation of consumer-centric policy by the financial regulators which is directed towards ensuring consumers a safe, secure and sustainable digital economy,” Dimagiba explained.

He added that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines will also collaborate with LKI on consumer education in the digital economy.

LKI will continue advocating for the following measures: Timbangan ng Bayan, Sim Card Registration and the bills relating to Internet Transaction and Financial Consumer Protection.

Senate...

Continued from A1

Continued from A1

“On power rates, we shall continue to oppose increases of the Feed in Tariff, the Feed in Tariff Allowance, the universal charges on missionary routes, the proposed capital expenditures of the generation companies, the transmission company as well as the private distribution utilities,” the group vowed.

The private sector group also seeks to have laboratory tests for construction materials like plywood and cement to ensure product quality and standards.

“We shall represent the country in regional and international cooperation dialogues and forums like the Asean, the Consumers International and the Asean Consumer Association Network that showcase the country’s best practices in consumer protection,” Dimagiba said.

Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Continued from A1

This is expected to bring in investors who can set up factories in order to gain access to the markets of the RCEP member countries. With its large, young English-speaking pool of workers, FEF believes the country stands to attract investments and generate employment.

Moreover, RCEP will simplify customs and trade procedures among member countries, facilitating trade and economic exchange.

The Philippines risks losing out of being part of global supply chains if it chooses to delay or decline membership in RCEP. “In order to further maximize membership in the free trade bloc and attract investors, the Philip-

pines will be committed to improve infrastructure, cut bureaucratic red tape, improve the ease of doing business, and invest in labor training and education. Consumers and workers will also benefit from membership in the trading bloc,” the FEF said.

RCEP is a free trade agreement among 10 Asean Nations plus major economies consisting of Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

The Philippines has yet to ratify its membership even if its Asean neighbors Brunei, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, New Zealand, China, and South Korea have formally joined the pact. Cai U. Ordinario

gros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Guimaras and Iloilo.

The program has an initial funding of P8 million readily available for distribution.

This is part of the estimated P150-million allocation for 2,000 beneficiaries per province affected by typhoon Odette. Each beneficiary will receive about

P8,000 to P10,000, which makes the funding about P20 million per province.

Lopez, meanwhile, said that the Small Business Corporation also earmarked a P500-million lending facility for the affected MSMEs. The zero-interest loan offering has no collateral requirement.

Continued from A10

Aid to entrepreneurs

THE DTI said it recently started the distribution of livelihood kits to 1,036 identified beneficiaries.

These are micro, small and medium (MSMEs) enterprises coming from the provinces of Siargao, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte, Bohol, Cebu, Southern Leyte, Ne-

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Marawi rehab completion eyed; more victims to have new homes

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

H

UNDREDS of families in Marawi City are expected to move into their permanent homes this year as the government moves to complete the rehabilitation in 2022 of the city, victim of a terrorist siege four years ago.

The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) expects the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the war-torn Muslim city will be 95 percent by the end of the President’s term in June.

Nearly 5,000 transitory shelters have been completed and more than 700 permanent shelters finished, with nearly 900 more under way, ready to accommodate Marawi City’s internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“I am certain that we can finish at least 95 percent of all major infra projects by June 2022, and I can assure everyone that the few remaining projects will surely be completed because they are already funded and for implementation by the concerned agencies,” DHSUD Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said.

“We expect that by January (2022), hundreds or even a thousand can already start the construction or repair of their houses,” he added.

On the first week of December last year, the overall completion rate was pegged at about 85 percent complete with dozens of major projects already turned over and now being used, while many others are in the final stages of completion.

“I can say that 2021 has been a fruitful year for TFBM (Task Force Bangon Marawi), Marawi City local government and especially to our Maranaw brothers and sisters who are now enjoying the initial fruits of the ongoing rehabilitation,” del Rosario said.

DHSUD also said the TFBM

agreed with the Marawi LGU to expedite the release of building permits to about 1,500 applicants and allow them to rebuild their homes.

The agency noted that authorities have established mechanisms to address issues on lot ownership to avoid disputes.

Del Rosario and Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra also agreed to create several teams to conduct simultaneous final assessment and inspection of the subject structures in Sectors 4 to 7 to allow the IDPs to start rebuilding their homes.

DHSUD said the TFBM has allowed the return of IDPs from Sectors 1 to 3—composed of three barangays out of the 24 situated inside MAA or the ground zero. Residents from Sectors 4 to 7 are expected to return home soon.

Meanwhile, the Local Water Utilities Administration led the ground breaking ceremony early December for the 5-million liter a day bulk water treatment plant that will supply potable water to the Most Affected Area (MAA). The project is expected to be completed by May 2022.

DHSUD said efforts to rehabilitate and reconstruct Marawi City faced numerous challenges, especially in 2021.

It cited the almost daily heavy downpours and the Covid-19 pandemic that hampered rehabilitation efforts. Despite this, DHSUD said the TFBM held its ground and anchored its efforts to the Master Development Plan in carrying out construction works.

Throughout his regular monthly visits this year, del Rosario, along with TFBM Field Office Manager Assistant Secretary Felix Castro Jr., Gandamra, representatives from the LGU and partner agencies, ensured that all ongoing projects are of high standard and within the timeline.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, January 3, 2022 A3

3-day work suspension in SC ordered amid Covid cases spike

T

By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court on Sunday ordered a three-day work suspension starting today (January 3) after noting a spike in the number of its personnel being tested positive for Covid-19 during antigen tests.

In Memorandum Order 2-2022, Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo noted that the report of more SC employees being tested positive on antigen testing from December 27, 2021 up to January 2, 2022 came from the Court’s Medical and Dental Services (MDS).

Gesmundo noted that contract

tracing revealed that those tested positive were in close physical contact with other Court employees, which necessitated the three-day work suspension from January 3 to January 5. Such suspension will give way for the conduct of a massive testing of its personnel and the disinfection of the entire Court premises, it

was explained.

However, concerned personnel of the Office of the Bar Chair and Office of the Bar Confidant who are involved in the 2020/2021 bar examinations, Office of the Administrative Service (OAS-SC), and Receiving Section of the Judicial Records Office who are involved in the e-filing are still required to report-on-site.

Booster jabs push through

GESMUNDO also said the scheduled booster vaccination set on January 3 and the Court En Banc session scheduled on Tuesday would proceed.

“The OAS-SC shall ensure that the conduct of vaccination shall be done in strict observance of maximum health and safety protocols,” he added.

The court, meanwhile, also announced that the modified working

arrangement stated under Memorandum Order 1-2022 will take effect on January 6 and that everyone would be required to present his or her negative antigen result slip when entering the Court premises on said date.

On Friday, the government reported the detection of 10 more cases of the more transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the country.

Also on that day, Malacañang Palace announced reimposition of the stricter alert level 3 in the National Capital Region (NCR), which accounted for over half of the fresh daily infections reported in recent days.

Experts had expressed fears of a surge in cases towards mid-January, given the frenzied shopping and partying in the holidays, with many people seen giving up health protocols during reunions.

Suspect in New Year’s Makati shooting that killed 3 yields

By Rene P. Acosta @reneacostaBM

T

HE suspect in the killing of three people and wounding of four others in Makati City on New Year’s Day has surrendered, the Philippine National Police said on Sunday.

Roderick Perez, 41, a safety and emergency medical officer, yielded at the Comembo Sub-Station of the Makati City Police Station hours after the incident.

“This is a major breakthrough in the case. The PNP is going to get the account from the suspect while preparing the possible charges against

him,” PNP chief General Dionardo Carlos said.

Initial investigation showed the victims were celebrating New Year with a drinking session along Magnolia Sreet, Barangay, Rizal, Makati City when Perez passed by on board his motor scooter with his 12-yearold daughter.

The suspect and the group of victims had a minor altercation regarding the latter occupying the narrow street.

Perez went home with his daughter, only to return to the scene armed with a .45 caliber pistol and fired successively at the victims, identified as Raymund Libaton, 52; Petronio

Del Rosario, 50; and Francis Lloyd Libaton, 21, who all died.

Four others, Maria Elago, 57; Ian Jayson Biandio, 26; Janet Libaton, 52; and Lester Magcanas, 28, are being treated in hospital.

The incident happened as the PNP noted zero deaths related to the New Year festivities. It was, however, investigating four alleged stray bullet incidents in Ilocos region, Calabarzon, Northern Mindanao and Cordillera on New Year’s eve.

Despite these incidents, Carlos noted a significant drop in the number of stray bullet incidents in New Year 2022 compared with previous years.

The PNP is building up cases

against arrested gun holders involved in 17 incidents of illegal discharge of firearms.

Carlos also commended local PNP units backed by LGU force multipliers for the strict enforcement of local Executive Orders on firecracker prohibition that significantly resulted in lower firecracker-related injuries this year.

Police records show 88 individuals were injured due to firecrackers from December 16-30, 2021.

The crackdown on illegal sale and use of firecrackers also resulted in the arrest of 31 individuals with the confiscation of their products worth more than P1.5 million.

Gatchalian prods NEA to ensure linemen’s safety Sara extends ban on non-vital face-to-face gatherings to Sept

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EN. Sherwin Gatchalian, citing risks facing electrical linemen deployed to restore power supply amid bad weather, prodded the National Electrification Administration (NEA) over the weekend to ensure their logistical needs are provided to expedite repair and rehabilitation works in the devastated areas.

The senator noted the “selflessness and tireless efforts of electrical linemen and crew members who often do not receive the recognition they deserve for the services they perform working around the clock and mostly in dangerous conditions repairing damaged poles to restore power lines.”

Gatchalian pointed out that behind every electric utility is a team of people who have signed up to ”embrace the challenge of a job that would entail them to work 21 to 32 meters from the ground, ready to re-

spond to outages caused by natural and man-made calamities.

“They (linemen) deserve the recognition for providing the much-needed customer service,” the senator stressed in a statement over the weekend.

Gatchalian said heroic efforts like that of Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative (Noreco) lineman Ronald Gallarde ought to be “acknowledged and honored as his service caused his life.”

Gallarde, a resident of Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, was electrocuted last December 25 as his team was working to reconnect an electric post toppled by typhoon Odette in Barangay Tugas.

Gatchalian said the linemen’s “steadfast commitment to serving their customers, even in the face of the continuing Coronavirus pandemic, merits a commendation as it

does not only reflect their dedication to their work but sacrifices as well.”

The Senate Energy Committee chairman added that “incidents like these once again display the Filipinos’ resiliency and indomitable spirit amid challenges.”

He recalled that as of December 29, at least 859 line workers and 150 boom trucks have been deployed to Regions VI, VII, VIII, X, and Caraga, as per the Task Force Kapatid (TFK) inventory report. TFK was formed to help members whose power distribution lines were battered by typhoons.

Moreover, the Department of Energy (DOE) added that a 56-man team from the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) was sent to Cebu last December 21 along with 11 boom trucks and mechanized equipment to assist the Visayan Electric Co. (VECO) in the power restoration of downed distribution lines. Butch Fernandez

Eastmincom dismantles 8 guerrilla fronts, neutralizes 2,000 NPA rebels in 2021

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HE Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) dismantled eight guerilla fronts of the New People’s Army (NPA) and has neutralized at least 2,000 rebels and their supporters in 2021.

In a yearend report, the Eastmincom under Lt. Gen. Greg Almerol said the guerilla fronts (GF) were dismantled as it sustained its campaign against the communist group in its area of operations.

The rebel fronts were identified as GF 4A, GF 88, GF North, GF South, GF 68A, GF 55, GF 89, GF Malayag and the Regional Guerrilla Unit Pulang Bagani Command.

In his New Year’s message, the Armed Forces Chief of Staff

General Andres Centino earlier urged soldiers to carry into 2022 the momentum of the operations against the rebels.

He also asked them to focus on their two most urgent tasks of ending the local armed conflict by June this year and ensuring the conduct of fair, secure and peaceful” national elections.

Aside from the dismantling of the eight guerilla fronts, the Eastmincom said its forces have killed 70 rebels and captured or arrested 147. They also worked for the surrender of another 630 rebels. Likewise, at least 1,224 individuals withdrew their support from the rebels.

Of the killed rebels, 22 are

key leaders, including Jorge “K a Oris” Madlos, commander of the National Operations Command of the NPA and the spokesman of the National Democratic Front (NDF)Mindanao.

The Eastmincom said it recovered 690 firearms and 97 anti-personnel mines and discovered 192 rebel camps and harboring areas.

“All of these accomplishments, however, would not be possible without the strong support from our stakeholders who are as determined as we are in ending the local communist armed conflict in Eastern Mindanao and the entire Philippines,” Almerol said. Rene Acosta

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

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AVAO CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has upheld and extended the prohibition among local and national governments to organize all non-essential face-toface events as Covid-19 infections showed a spike in cases this week, largely blamed on sudden loosening of restrictions during the holidays.

Mayor Sara signed Executive Order (EO) 69 series of 2021, which extended the prohibition to as far as September this year.

The non-essential face-to-face events prohibited under the new EO cover all events planned by the barangays, local and national government offices, including governmentowned and -controlled corporations.

The order prohibits all events

such as inauguration, anniversary, thanksgiving, ribbon-cutting, blessing, turnover, groundbreaking activity, launching a program, salo-salo, birthday, press conferences, oathtaking program, photo opportunity, retirement honors, welcome honors, testimonial program, summer outing, team building and all other similar activities.

All face-to-face non-emergency essential government activities including training and seminars are also suspended until September 12, 2022, and only allowed via online platforms.

Offices, however, may apply for exemption from the coverage of this section through a letter addressed to the City Mayor's Office and must include a comprehensive plan on how to execute their non-emergency essential activity without creating a mass gathering situation.

“There is a need to continue implementing existing protocols specifically to prevent mass gatherings following the emergence of new Covid-19 variants, particularly the Delta and Omicron variants,” she said in her EO. The ban, according to her, has been extended until the end of the state of calamity in the country slated to end on September 12, 2022, as stated in the Presidential Proclamation 1218 series of 2021.

The Order, however, exempts all disaster and emergency activities including the distribution of financial, food, and non-food items. The EO said the distribution of food and non-food items that are not related to a disaster or emergency event should be distributed house to house in the form of contactless delivery by the organizer or in a distribution system where no mass gathering is conducted.

IBP seeks protection for court officers after latest Cavite killing

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HE Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on Sunday condemned the killing of Assistant City Prosecutor Edilbert Mendoza in front of his house in Barangay Cabuco, Cavite last December 31.

In a statement, the IBP branded Mendoza’s murder by still unidentified gunman as “treacherous and cold-blooded” and it called on the government and other stakeholders to come up with a collective effort to protect members of the judiciary.

“The IBP once again calls for a nationwide effort to protect our lawyers and judges. We cannot ignore the disturbing and increasing frequency of lawyer killings. We will not stand idly by

and watch as many more of our brethren are attacked and murdered,” IBP national president Burt Estrada said.

The IBP said Mendoza is the 66th lawyer killed in President Duterte’s administration.

The IBP vowed to assist in, and monitor the investigation and prosecution of the victim’s case.

It added that the organization will coordinate with the Supreme Court, Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to address the increasing attacks on the members of the judiciary.

At the same time, the IBP called on PNP and other law enforcement

agencies to immediately implement measures to improve the security of lawyers, judges and prosecutors and to expeditiously resolve its investigations on these killings in order to hold accountable their perpetrators.

Earlier, the DOJ directed the NBI to conduct an investigation and case build-up in connection with Mendoza’s killing.

“The tragic death of ACP Mendoza clearly demonstrates the risk to life that our prosecutors face in the performance of their duties. I have directed the NBI to immediately join in the manhunt and apprehension of the perpetrators of this treacherous crime,” DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.

Joel R. San Juan

A4 Monday, January 3, 2022 • Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

Govt must fight harder for OFW social protection coverage–state think tank

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

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HE government needs to be “more aggressive” in fighting for social protection coverage of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to ensure that they receive benefits while working abroad, according to the government’s think tank.

In a study titled Analyzing Filipino Migrant Workers’ Access to Social Protection, a research team led

by Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Research Fellow Aubrey D. Tabuga found that health insurance, overtime pay, paid sick leave, and work accident compensation are less common among OFWs. They found that only a third or 39 percent of OFWs are paid for sick leaves; 45 percent are compensated for work-related accidents; and only 53 percent of OFWs have health insurance or medical allowance benefits.

“Government agencies mandated to promote the welfare of migrant

workers must carry out more aggressive steps towards the inclusion of OFWs in social insurance,” the researchers said.

“This shows the urgency of effective mechanisms for dialogue with host country governments to ensure that OFWs obtain the adequate workers’ benefits while working abroad,” they also said.

The researchers found that based on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) 2018 National Migration Survey, only an average of 35.3 percent of OFWs have health and pension benefits; and 37.8 percent do not have health and social insurance.

Some 14.9 percent have social insurance but do not have health insurance; while 12 percent have health insurance but do not have social insurance.

Further, the majority or 64.6 percent of 15 to 19 and 46.1 percent of 45 to 49 year olds who are staying in their first country abroad are living there without health and social insurance.

Not OWWA members

THE researchers also found that less than half of OFWs are also members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on their first international migration experience.

They noted that OWWA members and their families are provided with multiple and wide-ranging benefits from health and education to reintegration.

However, OWWA membership was relatively low. The researchers said during the first international migration experience, nearly half or 49 percent of working international migrants are non-OWWA members.

“Even though OWWA membership is mandatory, this is not as widespread as expected. Many OFWs may have bypassed this requirement perhaps when they first went out of the country not as workers,” the researchers said.

Data showed, the researchers said, Filipinos abroad who did not enter their host countries with a work visa/permit, OWWA membership

is significantly low.

Of those with student visas, only 16.7 percent are OWWA members; tourist visa, 23.7 percent; and the rest did not need a visa with only 10.9 percent having OWWA membership.

In terms of employment, less than half of those working in managerial positions, skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery sector, elementary occupation, and armed forces occupation are OWWA members.

The President recently signed the law creating the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) that will merge all the government agencies engaged in OFW concerns.

This will turn the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) into the DMW along with specialized offices of the DFA, DOLE, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.

Under the law, OWWA, meanwhile, will no longer be an attached agency of the DOLE but of the DMW.

DOTr orders strict DENR stops 144 illegal mining ops in ’21 protocols in all transport modes as Covid spikes A

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

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HE Department of Transportation (DOTr) has ordered the implementation of “strict health protocols” in all transport modes given the recent spike in Covid-19 cases over the holidays, its chief said.

Enforcers from the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and train marshals were ordered to implement “proper physical distancing” inside public transport vehicles and terminals, according to Transporation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade.

“The safety of commuters is paramount. We must make sure that health protocols are strictly implemented in all public transport vehicles and in all transport facilities,” he said.

The government recently announced that the National Capital Region will be placed under Alert Level 3 starting today, January 3 until January 15 due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases over the last week. On Friday, the Department of Health also detected 10 more cases of the more infectious Omicron variant, even as new infections rose and the positivity rate doubled.

“I am ordering all transport sectors to strictly enforce the health and safety protocols in order to help prevent the spread of Covid-19,” Tugade said. Under Alert Level 3, intrazonal and interzonal movement are still allowed, however, reasonable restrictions may be imposed by local government units.

Transporation Assistant Secretary Goddes Hope O. Libiran noted that the operational capacity of transport vehicles will remain the same, pending a discussion slated for today, Monday.

MID the pandemic, the government stopped 144 illegal mining operations in 2021, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported.

DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu credited the “enhanced performance” of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) which led to the closure of the illegal mining operations in accordance with Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

Cimatu issued the statement as the agency mandated to manage the country’s natural wealth came under heavy attack with the lifting of openpit mining method, a reversal of an environmental policy put in place in 2017 by the late and former DENR Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez.

According to Cimatu, the number of cease-and-desist orders issued in 2021 is up 240 percent from the original annual target of 59 stop orders of the government.

However, a total of 4,526 mining permits and contracts, which include ore transport permit and declaration of mining project feasibility, were issued last year.

The DENR chief said the “enhanced performance” of the MGB hews to the Duterte administration’s policy to address mining issues and concerns.

“With the unwavering support from the President, we were able to

achieve this significant accomplishment for the year despite the challenges that the pandemic has brought to the mining sector,” Cimatu said in a statement.

The accomplishments of the DENR-MGB, Cimatu added, are a manifestation of the strengthened responsible mining campaign of the department.

“In our heightened campaign for responsible mining in the country, we are proud of our milestone in cracking down on illegal and irresponsible use of our mining resources and areas beyond the target we have set,” Cimatu said.

“On the other hand, the increase in the issuance of mining permits/ contracts will compel mining companies and entities to abide by environmental laws, policies, and regulations, thus, making our mining sector more responsible,” he added.

The DENR-MGB reported that a total of P407.6 million were contributed by the mining industry from the Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) to help cushion the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Around P380 million was allocated for the procurement of personal protective equipment and medical supplies and goods for the social amelioration of communities.

The fund served almost 300,000 front liners/individuals and 1.1 million household beneficiaries.

The realignment of the annual SDMP fund and safety and health programs also aided in the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines for host and neighboring communities and mining employees and workers.

Meanwhile, the DENR-MGB has also finalized action on 164 mining applications under the “Use It or Lose It” policy by virtue of the DENR Administrative Order 2012-07 or The Implementing Rules and Regulations of Executive Order 79.

The Mines Adjudication Board of the DENR-MGB has also deliberated on 21 complaints/cases/conflicts, while 23 charges were filed with the Provincial/City Prosecutor’s Offices as part of the anti-illegal mining campaign in 2021.

On geohazard assessment, the DENR-MGB continued its identification and mapping of geohazards for critical land areas where the updating of 1:10,000 scale maps and vulnerability and risk assessment benefited around 81 local government units (LGUs).

Karst subsidence assessments were also conducted in 19 LGUs nationwide.

On coastal vulnerability assessment and impact of climate change, the DENR-MGB has monitored 31 coastal municipal and city governments, topping the target 20 LGUs for the year.

Meanwhile, 52 cities and municipalities were assessed on their groundwater resource.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Solon, BBM list benefits of a separate OFW agency

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HE signing into law of a new Department of Migrant Workers will put illegal recruiters and fixers “out of business,” its main sponsor said, while a presidential aspirant said it was a fitting “love letter” to show appreciation to millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) whose remittances shored up the economy for over four decades.

However, according to Partido Federal standard bearer Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., creation of the stand-alone department—to harmonize all efforts at protecting and promoting the well-being of migrants—should not preclude giving priority to local job creation.

Marcos said the country should continue improving local jobs creation since it cannot prevent foreign employers from hiring Filipinos whose skills are on a par with the best of the world.

He cited the contribution of OFWs to the Philippine economy through their remittances. The money they sent to their families has allowed the country to prosper even during global crises.

“Our OFWs have contributed significantly and consistently in keeping our economy afloat, even through global crises, when the country continued to thrive even in supposed desperate times,” Marcos said.

Goodbye, fixers

SEN. Joel Villanueva, meanwhile, said illegal recruiters and fixers preying on hapless overseas Filipino workers seeking employment abroad are now put on notice once the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) is established.

Villanueva, principal sponsor and author of Republic Act 11461, said it has been crafted to eliminate the “nooks and crannies” where fixers and illegal recruiters thrive to victimize hapless Filipinos seeking to provide a decent living to their families.

Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, noted that with DMW, “there is only one entry and exit point for all transactions so as to expedite the processing of OFWs.” This was made possible because the new law brings together all “agencies under one house in order to fast-track services and streamline all processes,” Villanueva said.

For one, he said would-be OFWs from the provinces need not go to Metro Manila to process their travel papers or seek assistance as there will be fully operational regional offices for the DMW serving as one-stop shop centers for workers headed overseas.

RA 11461 also “provides clear parameters for ethical recruitment, which is the lawful hiring of workers in fair and transparent manner that respects and protects their dignity and human rights to protect our OFWs from abuses and exploitation,”

Villanueva explained. This makes the Philippines among the first signatories to the UN Global Compact on Migration to include an express provision on ethical recruitment.

Ethical recruitment covers the accreditation of foreign principals and employers, as well as the licensing and regulation of their counterpart recruitment agencies in the country to eliminate cases of contract violation and substitution, among the many kinds of abuse suffered

by OFWs. The proposed department would also create a blacklist of persons and agencies involved in human trafficking to stamp out illegal recruiters out of business.

Data from the labor department showed that the government only managed to secure two illegal recruitment convictions each in 2019 and 2020 despite the hundreds of cases endorsed to the justice department for prosecution.

Villanueva also cited the situation in the Middle East, where the numerous cases of rape and sexual abuse reached 240 in 2020 alone; while 4,302 maltreatment cases of OFWs were posted, and contract violation and substitution cases reached 21,265 cases.

Long overdue–BBM

MEANWHILE, Marcos Jr. hailed as a great success in legislation the passage of a bill creating a department that focuses on all concerns of our Overseas Filipino Workers “After four decades of overseas employment, our modern-day heroes will now have their own home in the bureaucracy,” he added.

The problems hounding OFWs have been there for many years, he noted, adding that the newly signed law brings with it a renewed hope that these issues will now be addressed appropriately.

Marcos also urged the government to ensure that a fully functioning DMW would be ready early this year for the expected increase in deployment of migrant workers abroad amid the tapering threat of Covid-19.

“This new department serves as President Duterte’s institutional love letter to OFWs around the world and their families here at home,” Marcos Jr. said.

The new law turns the existing Philippine Overseas Employment Administration into the Department of Migrant Workers. Its task will now be to oversee all policies aimed at protecting the welfare of OFWs. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration would be an attached agency of the new department.

According to the 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos released by the Philippine Statistics Authority there are an estimated 2.2 million Filipinos abroad.

Natl greening program tops 2020 record by 176 percent–DENR

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HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has established a total of 83,169 hectares of new plantations, exceeding by 176 percent the 47,299 hectares established in 2020 under the Enhanced National Greening Program or ENGP. DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said the ENGP accomplishment in 2021 “mirrors how the DENR has kept its momentum,” noting that the gains “overcame the roadblocks thrown by the pandemic.”

Around 60.4 million seedlings were planted in 2021, exceeding by 170 percent the 37.2 million seedlings planted in 2020.

“The year 2021 has been a productive year as the DENR kept its momentum through the pandemic and further sustained its gains on many fronts like the rehabilitation and protection of the country’s forest

resources,” Cimatu said.

The latest figures bring to 2.16 million hectares the areas planted under the ENGP, or a total of 1.81 billion seedlings planted since 2011.

Moreover, reports submitted to the NGP Office by the DENRForest Management Bureau (FMB) show that 54,895 ENGP-related jobs have been created between January and August this year.

This benefited 9,916 individuals hired as forest extension officers and technical workers. They were tasked to provide technical assistance to NGP partners and beneficiaries in NGP plantation development activities—nursery management, seedling production, and enhancement planting in graduated-NGP areas experiencing tree seedling mortalities, which is unavoidable in tree plantation establishment.

A “dramatic” increase in the number of families covered by the program was recorded in 2021, following the adoption of the family

approach strategy as ordered by Cimatu in 2020 to award ENGPcontracts to forestry-resource dependent families.

A total of 17,696 families have been part of the program from January to May 2021 alone, surpassing by 118 percent the 14,885 ENGP beneficiary-families in 2020.

Under the scheme, an ENGP-family contractor—classified either as a single-family or extended family to include grandchildren and in-laws— enters into an agreement binding family members to undertake any of the four modes of activity, namely, tree plantation development; agroforestry plantation development; rehabilitation of protection forest zone using endemic timber and nontimber species indigenous to the area; and rehabilitation of mangrove and beach forests.

Each ENGP beneficiary-family can be granted one to 10 hectares for a period of three years.

In total, around 5.7 million ENGPrelated jobs have so far been created

The year 2021 has been a productive year as the DENR kept its momentum through the pandemic and further sustained its gains on many fronts like the rehabilitation and protection of the country’s forest resources.

BM

DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu with 816,383 hired individuals.

Initially a six-year project, the DENR-led National Greening Program (NGP) was implemented by virtue of Executive Order (EO) 26 issued in 2011 to plant some 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares of land.

Its implementation was extended to 2028 with the issuance of EO 193 in November 2015 and was renamed “Enhanced National Greening Program” or ENGP.

In 2021, the DENR also made progress in its Intensified Forest Protection and Anti-Illegal Logging program with the filing of 449 cases for violation of Presidential Decree No. 705 or the Revised Philippine Forestry Code.

At least 2.18 million board feet of undocumented forest products have been seized, including 706 vehicles and other pieces of equipment used in illegal logging activities.

Jonathan L. Mayuga

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, January 3, 2022 A5

PHL to roll out in 2022 revised biotech setup to fast-track approvals

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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HE Philippines may start implementing in 2022 its revised biotechnology procedures that seek to streamline bureaucratic processes and fast-track the approval of food technologies beneficial to the public.

The chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Biosafety Committee, Vivencio R. Mamaril, said the government has completed the amendments to the current Joint Department Circular (JDC) 1 series of 2016 or the rules and regulations governing management of biotechnology products in the country, including approval and importation.

Mamaril explained that the

amendments were completed last year, with the new JDC being circulated already among Cabinet secretaries who are signatories to the document. They expect the new JDC to be implemented within the first quarter of this year, he added.

The salient features of the new JDC include the reorganization of the top-level committee that would review biotechnology applications and streamlining of certain steps in the approval process.

He told the BusinessMirror one key feature of the new JDC “is first, proponents will only have to apply for a biosafety permit once. There is no need for renewal anymore, unlike before wherein the biosafety permit expires after five years.”

Second, he added, “the regulatory

procedures have been shortened and streamlined. Before, it was tedious since the application underwent numerous layers of bureaucracy.”

Under the new JDC, Mamaril explained that applications will go through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), which will determine if the application has complete documentary requirements. The application will then be forwarded to the Joint Assessment Group (JAG) that will evaluate the application and make recommendations to the BPI head.

The JAG will be composed of representatives from the DA, Department of Health, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The JAG will be chaired by the DA biosafety committee head.

Other government agencies like the

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will help and coordinate on certain steps required in the approval process, such as for field trials.

In the past, applications go through the BPI for documentary completion, and are then scrutinized by various regulatory agencies individually before being evaluated by the biosafety committee for the final recommendation to the BPI chief.

“The new JDC is being circulated already for the signing of the secretaries. If I am not mistaken, it should be completed before the end of last year so that it will be published and observe due diligence [this year],” Mamaril said.

“Applications under the new JDC will now take 200 days or less than year compared to before wherein the

average processing time is about 300 days, with some applications reaching 500 days,” he added. ����������������������������� Mamaril guaranteed stakeholders that public consultation remains a key part of the approval process of biotechnology products. He pointed out that the public consultation for biotechnology products seeking regulatory approval will be conducted prior to the JAG's assessment.

Mamaril noted that proponents and applicants will also save money under the new regulatory rules since the government has waived STRP fees. The STRP is the assessment of third-party experts or panels on applications that is required in every step of the application, costing proponents at least P100,000.

“This is a manifestation of a regula-

tory impact assessment. We saw that regulators are taking so much time to come up with a decision. Delayed decision is a regulatory cost,” he said.

“The new procedures are also issued to ensure food safety and security of the country,” he added.

A Global Agricultural Information Network (Gain) report noted that approval and renewal of biotechnology products under the current rules are “lengthy.” The Gain report added that the Philippines's new JDC is “expected to be finalized by 2022.”

“The agencies involved in the JDC 1 are reviewing how to modernize and streamline the regulatory framework, making note to comply with the Ease of Doing Business law.

The revised JDC may be finalized by early 2022,” the report read.

A6

Monday, January 3, 2022

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Year brings more canceled Omicron’s New Year’s cocktail: New flights for travelers: FlightAware Sorrow, fear and hope for 2022 F

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By John Leicester And Nick Perry Associated Press

ARIS—Sorrow for the dead and dying, fear of more infections to come and hopes for an end to the coronavirus pandemic were— again—the bittersweet cocktail with which the world said good riddance to 2021 and ushered in 2022.

New Year’s Eve, which used to be celebrated globally with a freespirited wildness, felt instead like a case of deja vu, with the fast-spreading Omicron variant again filling hospitals.

“We just need enjoyment,” said Karen Page, 53, who was among the fed-up revelers venturing out in London. “We have just been in so long.”

The mostly muted New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world ushered in the fourth calendar year framed by the global pandemic. More than 285 million people have been infected by the coronavirus worldwide since late 2019 and more than 5 million have died.

In Paris, officials canceled the fireworks amid surging infections and reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing outdoors, an obligation followed by the majority of people who milled about on the Champs-Elysées as the final hours of 2021 ticked away.

In Berlin, police urged people not to gather near the Brandenburg Gate, where a concert was staged without a live audience.

In Madrid, authorities allowed only 7,000 people into the city’s Puerta del Sol downtown square, a venue traditionally hosting some 20,000 revelers.

In the United States, officials took a mixed approach to the year-end revelry: nixing the audience at a countdown concert in Los Angeles, scaling it back in New York yet going full speed ahead in Las Vegas, where thousands turned up for a fireworks show on the Strip that was threatened by gusty winds but went off as scheduled.

President Joe Biden noted the losses and uncertainty caused by the pandemic but said: “We’re persevering. We’re recovering.”

“Back to work. Back to school.

Back to joy,” Biden said in a video posted on Twitter. “That’s how we made it through this year.

And how we’ll embrace the next.

Together.”

In New York, officials allowed just 15,000 people — vaccinated and masked — inside the perimeter around Times Square, a sliver of the 1 million that typically squeeze in to watch the famed ball drop. Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, defending the event, said people need to see that New York is open for business.

Yet by Thursday, rapper LL Cool J had dropped out of the New York telecast after a positive Covid-19 test and restaurant owners battered by staffing shortages and Omicron cancel-

ations throughout the holiday season struggled to stay open.

“I’m really scared for our industry,” said New York restaurateur David Rabin, who watched reservations and party bookings disappear this month. “No one made any money in December.

The fact they may have a good night tonight, it has no impact.”

Airlines also struggled as the year came to a close, canceling thousands of flights after the virus struck flight crews and other personnel and amid bad weather.

The pandemic game-changer of 2021—vaccinations—continued apace. Pakistan said it had fully vaccinated 70 million of its 220 million people this year and Britain said it met its goal of offering a vaccine booster shot to all adults by Friday.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin mourned the dead, praised Russians for their strength in difficult times and soberly warned that the pandemic “isn’t retreating yet.” Russia’s virus task force has reported 308,860 Covid-19 deaths but its state statistics agency says the death toll has been more than double that.

“I would like to express words of sincere support to all those who lost their dear ones,” Putin said in a televised address broadcast just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones.

Elsewhere, the venue that many chose for New Year’s celebrations was the same place they became overly familiar with during lockdowns: their homes.

Pope Francis also canceled his New Year’s Eve tradition of visiting the life-sized manger set up in St. Peter’s Square, again to avoid a crowd. In an unusual move for Francis, the 85-year-old pontiff donned a surgical mask for a Vespers service of prayer and hymns Friday evening as he sat in an armchair. But he also delivered a homily standing and unmasked.

“A sense of being lost has grown in the world during the pandemic,’’ Francis told the faithful in St. Peter’s Basilica.

France, Britain, Portugal and Australia were among countries that set new records for Covid-19 infections as 2021 gave way to 2022.

In London, the normal fireworks display, which would have attracted tens of thousands of people to the city center and the banks of the Thames, was replaced by a light and drones show broadcast on television. Location details about the spectacle were kept secret in advance to avoid crowds gathering.

People celebrate the New Year’s Eve on the Champs Elysees Avenue, in Paris on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.

AP Photo/Thibault Camus

“The last two years have been so difficult for so many people, so many have suffered and there is a point when we need to start coming together finally,” said Mira Lluk, 22, a special needs teacher.

Fr a nc e ’s u np re c e d e nt e d 232,200 new cases Friday marked its third day running above the 200,000 mark. The UK was close behind, with 189,846 new cases, also a record. In London, officials said as many as 1 in 15 people were infected with the virus in the week before Christmas.

Hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients in the U.K. rose 68% in the last week, to the highest levels since February.

In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach welcomed a small crowd of a few thousand for 16 minutes of fireworks. Rio’s New Year’s bash usually brings more than 2 million people to Copacabana beach. In 2020 there was no celebration due to the pandemic.

This year there was music on loudspeakers, but no live concerts like in previous editions.

Yet boisterous New Year’s Eve celebrations kicked off in the Serbian capital of Belgrade where, unlike elsewhere in Europe, mass gatherings were allowed despite fears of the Omicron variant.

One medical expert predicted that Serbia will see thousands of new Covid-19 infections after the holidays.

At Expo 2020, the sprawling world’s fair outside Dubai, 26-year-old tourist Lujain Orfi prepared to throw caution to the wind on New Year’s Eve— her first time ever outside Saudi Arabia, where she lives in the holy city of Medina.

“If you don’t celebrate, life will pass you by,” she said. “I’m healthy and took two [vaccine] doses. We just have to enjoy.”

Australia went ahead with its celebrations despite reporting a record 32,000 new cases. Thousands of fireworks lit up the sky over Sydney’s Harbor Bridge and Opera House at midnight. Yet the crowds were far smaller than in pre-pandemic years.

In Japan, writer Naoki Matsuzawa said he would spend the next few days cooking and delivering food to the elderly because some stores would be closed. He said vaccinations had made people less anxious about the pandemic, despite the new variant.

“A numbness has set in, and we are no longer overly afraid,” said Matsuzawa, who lives in

Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.

“Some of us are starting to take for granted that it won’t happen to me.”

South Korean authorities closed many beaches and other tourist attractions along the east coast, which usually swarm with people hoping to catch the year’s first sunrise.

In India, millions of people rang in the New Year from their homes, with nighttime curfews and other restrictions taking the fizz out of celebrations in New Delhi, Mumbai and other large cities.

In m a i n l a nd C h i na, t he Shanghai government canceled an annual light show along the Huangpu River that usually draws hundreds of thousands of spectators. There were no plans for public festivities in Beijing, where popular temples have been closed or had limited access since mid-December.

In the Philippines, a powerful typhoon two weeks ago wiped out basic necessities for tens of thousands of people ahead of New Year’s Eve. More than 400 were killed by Typhoon Rai and at least 82 remain missing.

Leahmer Singson, a 17-yearold mother, lost her home to a fire last month, and then the typhoon blew away her temporary wooden shack in Cebu City. She will welcome the New Year with her husband, who works in a glass and aluminum factory, and her 1-year-old baby in a ramshackle tent in a clearing where hundreds of other families erected small tents from debris, rice sacks and tarpaulins.

Asked what she wants for the New Year, Singson had a simple wish: “I hope we won’t get sick.”

Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press reporters Daniel Cole in Marseille; Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow; Frances D’Emilio in Rome; Sylvia Hui in London; Darko Vojinovic in Belgrade, Serbia; Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo; Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Ashok Sharma in New Delhi; Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia; Hau Dinh in Hanoi, Vietnam; Zen Soo in Hong Kong; Tassanee Vejpongsa in Bangkok; Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; and AP researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.

Morrison checks for Covid symptoms as virus clouds Australia’s summer

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ustralia Prime Minister Scott Morrison is monitoring for Covid-19 symptoms after a positive case was detected in his Sydney residence and as the resurgent virus upends the country’s holiday season.

The New South Wales health department advised Morrison to be on alert after a potentially infectious person attended a press conference at Kirribilli House on Wednesday, according to a government spokesman. Under the state’s recently revised Co-

vid guidelines, he doesn’t need to self-isolate.

“Residents and staff members are acting in accordance with the instructions from NSW Health,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement. “The Prime Minister was not required to isolate or get tested, and continues to monitor for symptoms.”

Australians across the country are being forced to monitor themselves, self-isolate or stand in long queues for Covid-19 tests after virus numbers surged over the Christmas period. New South

Wales, the most populous state, reported 18,278 new infections on Sunday, down from the previous day’s record. At the same time, hospitalizations in the state are slowly but steadily climbing and reached a new high of 1,066 on Sunday.

While Australians still continued to enjoy New Year celebrations, including Sydney’s spectacular fireworks show, the start of 2022 was a more muted affair than usual. Many events were canceled, or drew far smaller crowds than in pre-

vious years, as people avoid busy locations or cancel their holiday plans entirely. Still, the arrival of warm weather has seen Sydney beaches packed in the past few days, even as the city center remains deserted.

Despite the recent surge in cases, authorities expect the pressure on hospitals will be manageable with more than 91% of Australians double vaccinated and Omicron now the dominant variant, which appears to be less severe than other strains.

Bloomberg News

or air travelers, the New Year picked up where the old one left off—with lots of frustration.

By late Saturday afternoon on the East Coast, more than 2,600 US flights and nearly 4,600 worldwide had been canceled, according to tracking service FlightAware.

That is the highest single-day US toll yet since just before Christmas, when airlines began blaming staffing shortages on increasing Covid-19 infections among crews. More than 12,000 US flights have been canceled since December 24.

Saturday’s disruptions weren’t just due to the virus, however. Wintry weather made Chicago—where forecasts called for 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow—the worst place in the country for travelers.

More than 800 flights were scrubbed at O’Hare Airport and more than 250 at Midway Airport.

Southwest Airlines suspended operations at both Chicago airports because of the forecast, according to an airline spokeswoman. She said Southwest knows from years of operating at Midway that high winds and blowing snow make it hard to get planes back in the air quickly.

Southwest canceled more than 450 flights nationwide, or 13% of its schedule. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines scrubbed more than 200 flights each, and United Airlines canceled more than 150.

SkyWest, a regional carrier that operates flights under the names American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express, grounded 480 flights, one-fourth of its schedule. A spokesperson blamed weather in Chicago, Denver and Detroit and Covid-19 illnesses.

Among international carriers, China Eastern scrubbed more than 500 flights, or about one-fourth of its total, and Air

China canceled more than 200 flights, one-fifth of its schedule, according to FlightAware.

Sunday, when many travelers plan to return home from holiday trips, is shaping up to be difficult, too. More than 1,900 flights, including more than 1,000 in the US, had been canceled by late Saturday. A winter storm with heavy snow is expected to march toward the Northeast as a new storm hits the Pacific Northwest, according to the National Weather Service.

Airlines say they are taking steps to reduce cancellations. United is offering to pay pilots triple or more of their usual wages for picking up open flights through most of January. Spirit Airlines reached a deal with the Association of Flight Attendants for double pay for cabin crews through Tuesday, said a union spokeswoman.

When winter weather hit the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, A laska Airlines urged customers to delay any “non-essential” trips that were planned through this weekend. With full flights over the New Year’s holiday, the airline said it wasn’t sure it could rebook stranded passengers for at least three days.

Airlines hope that extra pay and reduced schedules get them through the holiday crush and into the heart of January, when travel demand usually drops off. The seasonal decline could be sharper than normal this year because most business travelers are still grounded.

Travelers who stuck to the roads instead of the skies faced challenges, too.

Transportation officials in the Midwest warned motorists that a mix of rain and snow could make roads slippery and reduce visibility, leading to hazardous driving conditions. AP

Pope on new year: Pandemic is hard, but focus on the good

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ATICAN CITY— In his New Year’s wishes to the world, Pope Francis encouraged people Saturday to focus on the good which unites them and decried violence against women while acknowledging that the coronavirus pandemic has left many scared and struggling amid economic inequality.

“We are still living in uncertain and difficult times due to the pandemic,” Francis said. “Many are frightened about the future and burdened by social problems, personal problems, dangers stemming from the ecological crisis, injustices and by global economic imbalances.”

Thousands of Rome residents and tourists, wearing face masks as protection against the spread of the coronavirus, gathered in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny, mild day to hear Francis lay out his recipe for world peace, cheering his appearance.

Peace, the pope said, “demands concrete actions. It is built by being attentive to the least, by promoting justice, with the courage to forgive, thus extinguishing the fire of hatred.”

Francis also championed embracing a positive attitude, “one that always sees, in the Church as well as in society, not the evil which divides us, but the good that unites us.”

Earlier Saturday, in his homily during a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis publicly ushered in 2022 by praising the skills that women bring to promoting peace in the world, and he equated violence against women to an offense against God. The Roman Catholic Church marks Jan. 1 as a day dedicated to world peace, and the basilica ceremony a paid tribute to the Virgin Mary’s special place in the faith as the mother of Jesus.

Mothers “know how to overcome obstacles and disagreements, and to instill peace,” Francis said. “In this way, they transform problems into opportunities for rebirth and growth. They can do this because they know how to ‘keep,’ to hold together the various threads of life,” the pontiff said. “We need such people, capable of weaving the threads of communion in place of the barbed wire of conf lict and division.”

He called for efforts to protect women.

Pope Francis delivers his homily as he celebrates a Mass for the solemnity of St. Mary at the beginning of the New Year, in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

“How muc h v iolence is d i rec ted against women! Enough! To hurt a woman is to insult God, who from a woman took on our humanity,” the pope said, referring to the Christian belief that Jesus was the Son of God. He said women, including mothers, “look at the world not to exploit it but so that it can have life. Women who, seeing with the heart, can combine dreams and aspirations with concrete reality, without drifting into abstraction and sterile pragmatism.”

While pledging during his papacy to give women greater roles in the church, Francis has also made clear that the priesthood is reserved for men.

Except for the pope and members of a chorus made up of boys and adults, participants in the Mass wore face masks as part of Covid-19 precautions.

Francis, who is 85 and vaccinated against the coronavirus, wore a surgical mask during a New Year’s Eve prayer service, which a Vatican cardinal presided over at the basilica. It was a rare departure from his shunning of masks during public ceremonies throughout the two-year pandemic.

In a tweet early Saturday morning, Francis elaborated on his hope and strategy for peace.

“All can work together to build a more peaceful world, starting from the hearts of individuals and relationships in the family, then within society and with the environment, and all the way up to relationships between peoples and nations,” Francis tweeted. AP

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New York breaks daily Covid record with 85,476 new cases

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ew York state shattered its record for new Covid-19 infections, reporting 85,476 cases on Saturday as the Omicron variant continues its lightning spread.

That number compares with a daily average of just below 6,700 new cases on Dec. 1, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg. The tally on Saturday was almost 9,000 higher than the day before.

New York City had by far the state’s highest rates of infection, with a seven-day average of 419 cases per 100,000 people.

Hospitalizations also continued to surge on Saturday, up 532 patients to 8,451. The percentage of positive tests declined slightly, to 22.24%.

Another 88 people died.

Eric Adams declared New York City “open and alive” despite a recordbreaking viral surge, in his first address as the city’s 110th mayor.

“I take this important office at a time of great challenges for our city,” Adams said Saturday in an inaugural speech at City Hall. He said he’d been sworn earlier in at Times Square because he “wanted New Yorkers and the world to be reminded of two things.”

“First that despite Covid-19 and its persistence, New York is not closed,” he said. “It’s still open and alive, because New York is more resilient than the pandemic.”

Key developments: China’s Xi’an adds more cases despite lockdown

China’s ongoing outbreak driven by the Delta strain in the western city of Xi’an showed little signs of easing despite a strict lockdown of 13 million people.

The city reported more than 170 cases on Saturday and over 120 on Sunday with many of the new infections involving people who are not close contacts of previously infected people. That indicates spread in the community is still not yet fully accounted for.

Such hidden chains of transmission has led to the harshest restr ictions since the lockdow n of Wuhan in early 2020 and indicates the challenge authorities face in stamping out the outbreak, a goal China has arduously sought t hroughout under t he so -ca l led Covid Zero strateg y.

Germany reports 12,515 new Covid cases

Germany recorded 12,515 new cases, less than half the 26,392 of the day before, according to the country’s public health authority RKI.

Reported new deaths associated with the virus rose by 46, bringing the total to 112,155.

Neighbor i ng Sout h Au st ra l i a state reported 2,298 new cases on Sunday.

UK develops plans to help businesses from absences: FT

Vietnam asks China to reopen border gates, VnExpress says

The UK government will develop contingency plans to help companies and supply chains avoid disruptions from staff absences due to Covid-19, the Financial Times reported, citing the Cabinet Office.

T he go ve r n me nt h a s ide nt ified a range of staff-support measures, including former teachers for schools and volunteers in the public sector, the newspaper said.

It has asked pr ivate businesses to test the plans against a worstcase scenario of as much as 25% in workforce absences, according to the report.

UK Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay will lead regular meetings to monitor the impact of the Omicron variant on workforces and company operations, the FT reported.

Cases dip from record in Australia’s Victoria State

Cases in Australia’s second-most populous state fell to 7,172, down from a record a day earlier, as Omicron continues to be the dominant strain in Victoria.

There were 472 Covid-19 cases hospitalized with 52 of them in intensive care units, the state’s chief health officer said in an e-mailed statement. Victoria said 94.5% of people over the age of 12 have had a least one dose of vaccine while 92.9% have received two shots.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade urged China’s Guangxi region to reopen its border gates with the Southeast Asian country and extend customs clearance hours to ease supply-chain snarls, VnExpress news web site reported.

The measures have disrupted bilateral trade development, leading to significant losses for businesses in both countries, trade officials told their Guangxi counterparts Friday, according to VnExpress. Thousands of Vietnamese trucks have been stranded at the border for more than a month. Vietnam also wants Guangxi to lift its suspension of Vietnamese dragon fruit imports, the news website said.

Guangxi trade officials agreed to increase the duration of customs clearance and pass along other proposals to higher authorities, according to VnExpress.

Scotland brings forward shots for teenagers

Scotland is accelerating the second dose for people in the 12-to-15 age bracket to take advantage of additional capacity.

Unbooked shots will be available from Monday while those who have an appointment can bring it forward, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said in a statement. Bloomberg News

January 6 committee prepares to go public as findings mount

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ASHINGTON—They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.

Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.

In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.

But the nine lawmakers—seven Democrats and two Republicans—are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.

Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.

“The full picture is coming to light, despite President Trump’s ongoing efforts to hide the picture,” said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chairwoman and one of its two Republican members.

“I don’t think there’s any area of this broader history in which we aren’t learning new things,” she said.

While the fundamental facts of Jan. 6 are known, the committee says the extraordinary trove of material they have collected—35,000 pages of records so far, including texts, e-mails and phone records from people close to Trump—is fleshing out critical details of the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries, which played out on live television.

They hope to fill in the blanks about the preparations before the attack, the financing behind the Jan. 6 rally that preceded it and the extensive White House campaign to overturn the 2020 election. They are also investigating

Members of the House of Representatives gather in the chamber to vote on creation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, at the Capitol in Washington, on June 30, 2021. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

what Trump himself was doing as his supporters fought their way into the Capitol.

True accountability may be fleeting. Congressional investigations are not criminal cases and lawmakers cannot dole out punishments. Even as the committee works, Trump and his allies continue to push lies about election fraud while working to place similarly minded officials at all levels of state and local government.

“I think that the challenge that we face is that the attacks on our democracy are continuing — they didn’t come to an end on Jan. 6,” said another panel member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Still, the lawmakers hope they can present the public with a thorough accounting that captures what could have been “an even more serious and deeper constitutional crisis,” as Cheney put it.

“I think this is one of the single most important congressional investigations in history,” Cheney said.

The committee is up against the clock. Republicans could disband the investigation if they win the House majority in the November 2022 elections. The committee’s final report is expected before then, with a possible interim report coming in the spring or summer.

In the hearings, which could start in the coming weeks, the committee wants to “bring the people who conducted the elections to Washington and tell their story,” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Their testimony, he said, will further debunk Trump’s claims of election fraud.

The committee has interviewed several election officials in battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, about Trump’s pressure campaign. In some cases, staff have traveled to those states to gather more information.

The panel also is focusing on the preparations for the Jan. 6 rally near the White House where Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell”—and how the rioters may have planned to block the electoral count if they had been able to get their hands on the electoral ballots.

They need to amplify to the public, Thompson said, “that it was an organized effort to change the outcome of the election by bringing people to Washington...and ultimately if all else failed, weaponize the people who came by sending them to the Capitol.”

About 90% of the witnesses called by the committee have cooperated, Thompson said, despite the defiance of high-profile Trump allies such as Steve

Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Lawmakers said they have been effective at gathering information from other sources in part because they share a unity of purpose rarely seen in a congressional investigation.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a close Trump ally, decided not to appoint any GOP members to the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his picks last summer.

Pelosi, who created the select committee after Republican senators rejected an evenly bipartisan outside commission, subsequently appointed Republicans Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Trump critics who shared the Democrats’ desire to investigate the attack.

“I think you can see that Kevin made an epic mistake,” Kinzinger said. “I think part of the reason we’ve gone so fast and have been so effective so far is because we’ve decided and we have the ability to do this as a nonpartisan investigation.”

Kinzinger said the investigation would be “a very different scene” if Republicans allied with Trump were participating and able to obstruct some of their work.

“I think in five or 10 years, when school kids learn about Jan. 6, they’re going to get the accurate story,” Kinzinger said. “And I think that’s going to be dependent on what we do here.”

Democrats say having two Republicans working with them has been an asset, especially as they try to reach conservative audiences who may still believe Trump’s falsehoods about a stolen election.

“They bring to the table perspectives and ability to translate a little bit what is being reflected in conservative media, or how this might be viewed through a conservative lens,” says Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. “And that’s been really helpful.”

There is “no division, no hostility, no partisan bickering—it’s like, let’s just get this job done,” said California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, another member and a veteran of congressional investigations going back to the Watergate investigation of President Richard Nixon when she was a staffer on the House Judiciary Committee. AP

Monday, January 3, 2022

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Officials: Nearly 1,000 buildings, homes destroyed in Colorado fire

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UPER IOR , Colorado— A Colorado official says nearly 1,000 homes and ot her str uctures were destroyed, hundreds more were damaged, and three people are missing after a wildfire charred numerous neighborhoods in a suburban area at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle also said Saturday that investigators are still trying to find the cause of the windwhipped blaze that erupted Thursday and blackened entire neighborhoods in the area located between Denver and Boulder.

Pelle said utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out. He said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at “one particular location.” He declined to give details.

A sheriff ’s official who declined to provide his name confirmed that one property was under investigation in Boulder County’s Marshall Mesa area, a region of open grassland about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) west of the hard-hit town of Superior. A National Guard Humvee blocked access to the property, which was only one of several under investigation, the official said.

The totals given by Pelle include destroyed barns, outbuildings and other structures, but the vast majority were homes, Boulder County spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said late Saturday.

Officials had previously estimated that at least 500 homes—and possibly 1,000— were destroyed in the fire, which by Friday was no longer a threat. Residents have slowly started returning to see the scale of the devastation.

Authorities had said earlier no one was missing. But Churchill said that was due to confusion inherent when agencies are scrambling to manage an emergency.

Pelle said officials were organizing cadaver teams to search for the missing in the Superior area and in unincorporated Boulder County. The task is complicated by debris from destroyed str uctures covered by 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow dumped by a storm overnight, he said.

At least 991 homes and other buildings were destroyed, Pelle said: 553 in Louisville, 332 in Superior and 106 in unincorporated parts of the county. Pelle cautioned that the tally was not final.

At least seven people were injured in the wildfire that erupted in and around Louisville and Superior, neighboring towns about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000. It burned at least 9.4 square miles (24 square kilometers).

The snow and temperatures in the single digits cast an eerie scene amid still-smoldering remains of homes. Despite the shocking change in weather, the smell of smoke still permeated empty streets blocked off by National Guard troops in Humvees.

The conditions compounded the misery of residents who started off the new year trying to salvage what remained of their homes.

Utility crews struggled to restore electricity and gas service to homes that survived, and dozens of people lined up to get donated space heaters, bottled water and blankets at Red Cross shelters. Xcel Energy urged other residents to use fireplaces and wood stoves to stay warm and keep their pipes at home from freezing.

Families filled a long line of cars waiting to pick up space heaters and bottled water at a Salvation Army distribution center at the YMCA in Lafayette, just north of Superior.

Monarch High School se-

niors Noah Sarasin and his twin brother Gavin had been volunteering at that location for two days, directing traffic and distributing donations.

“We have a house, no heat but we still have a house,” Noah Sarasin said. “I just want to make sure that everyone else has heat on this very cold day.”

Hilary and Patrick Wallace picked up two heaters, then ordered two hot chocolate mochas at a nearby cafe. The Superior couple couldn’t find a hotel and were contemplating hiking 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) back to their home; their neighborhood was still blocked off to traffic. The family slept in one room on New Year’s Eve. Both teared up when a man entered the shop and joked aloud that he’d lost his coffee mugs—and everything else— in the fire. The man was in good spirits, laughing at the irony of the situation.

“I have a space heater and a house to put it in. I don’t even know what to say to them,” Hilary said, wiping away a tear.

Superior resident Jeff Markley arrived in his truck to pick up a heater. He said he felt lucky to be “ just displaced” since his home is intact.

“We’re making do, staying with friends, and upbeat for the new year. Gotta be better than this last one,” Markley said.

Not everyone felt as positive.

“It’s bittersweet because we have our house, but our friends don’t. A nd ou r neighbors don’t,” said Louisville resident Judy Givens as she picked up a heater with her husband. “We thought 2022 might be better.

And then we had omicron. And now we have this, and it’s not starting out very well.”

Dozens trudged through the snow to determine the condition of their homes and take belongings.

Viliam Klein bent over in grief when he saw the ruins of his 100-year-old home in Superior for the first time Saturday. Smoke rose through the snow-covered ashes; a few neighbors walked past, carrying what they could from their own destroyed homes.

“At this point I’m just honestly overwhelmed and I can’t feel much anymore,” Klein said.

He sifted pieces of ash with his hands; wisps of smoke rose from his glove-covered palms.

He surveyed what remained of the neighborhood.

“You know the kids’ playground is just down the street over there. And I can buy new books. I can buy new furniture. But it’s really hard to build back a community and friends and a social network like that,” Klein said. “”I’m sad for my kids that they’re gonna lose all this. I’m sad for everybody else’s kids.”

Donna O’Brien bundled up with her son Robert to make the 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) trek to check on their home. “I think we’re still in kind of shock,” she said. “This is our neighborhood and it happens everywhere else, but it’s not supposed to happen where you live.”

The wildfire broke out unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry fall and amid a winter nearly devoid of snow until the overnight snowfall. High winds pushed flames that fed on bone-dry grasses and vegetation on farmland and open spaces interspersed with suburban subdivisions.

S c ie nt i s t s s ay c l i m at e change is making weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

Ninety percent of Boulder County is in severe or extreme drought, and it hadn’t seen substantial rainfall since midsummer. Denver set a record for consecutive days without snow before it got a small storm on Dec. 10, its last snowfall before the wildfires broke out.

“It didn’t snow all winter of 2021. No wonder this all went up like kindling,” Klein said. AP

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Monday, January 3, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Xi Jinping’s woman problem

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hilippine 2021 population growth lowest in 7 decades—The Philippines’ population for 2021 increased by a mere 0.3 percent. The Commission on Population and Development said the annual “natural increase” was the lowest since the period 1946 and 1947.”

If “Global Warming”—and its illegitimate sibling “Climate Change”— is the doomsday topic of the 21st century, “Overpopulation” dominated the front-page hysteria of 50 years ago.

Both had origins long ago. “Overpopulation: We’re All Gonna Die” started with Thomas Malthus in his 1798 book An Essay on the Principle of Population. “Global Warming: We’re All Gonna Die” became popular after climate scientist James Hansen used it in his 1988 testimony in the US Senate.

While both topics warrant discussion, both “Malthusianism” and “Global Warmingism” transformed to a total doom-and-gloom scenario that did not happen on schedule.

The validity of the death and destruction fears from overpopulation and global warming is subject to debate. However, both concepts have moved public policy over many decades, for better and worse. Nowhere can the overpopulation concern be seen more clearly—and particularly the “better and worse” part—than in China.

Prior to the mid-1960s the Chinese government mostly encouraged families to have as many children as possible, as Mao Zedong believed population growth empowered the country.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Chen Yun—one of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party—was the second-most powerful person after Deng Xiaoping. In the late spring of 1979, Chen Yun became the first senior leader to propose the one-child policy. A one-child limit was imposed in 1980 by a group of politicians including Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun. Fast forward 40 years and looking back we find that the global population growth rate peaked in 1968-1969, as it did also in China. Philippine population growth peaked in 1952-1953.

Demographic experts have warned for many years that China was facing a severe age crunch. But equally as serious is the gender disparity caused by the one-child policy, which became the “one-male child” policy.

China has approximately 40 million males who will never find a spouse. Never has a nation had to deal with the social consequences of this multigenerational gender imbalance. Is China’s aggressive military moves against Taiwan a desperate gambit by a Communist elite facing domestic social instability from millions of men who can never marry?

One commentator—Daniel Greenfield—frames the problem as, “While the focus has been on too many Chinese men, it’s the too few women whom the regime is starting to fear. Women are now in the driver’s seat, with the bride’s family demanding tens of thousands from prospective grooms.”

Further, there is a growing number of professional women who are not interested in getting married. Many of those who do are getting divorced, leading to a 30-day cooling off period after there were more divorces than marriages recorded in 2019.”

The birth rate has hit a 43-year low. “The country’s rising middle class is westernized, individualistic rather than collectivist, intent on having fun instead of sacrificing and laboring in the cause of Communism. The labor force is shrinking, the marriage and birth rates are falling, and the Xi regime can’t figure out how to turn back the clock and preserve its power. The falling marriage and birth rates are the obvious symptom of China’s new social feminism.” Xi now has a “woman” problem.

How to begin 2022 Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

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S the holidays end, we could find ourselves reeling from all the celebrations that the pandemic situation has so far allowed us. It makes sense, therefore, to find within this new month some solo time for introspection. Self-improvement experts and life coaches often suggest a short period for some self-review and strategizing. Examine what worked and what didn’t for you in 2021, and then plan the New Year based on these.

It is the best time to review our personal and business finances. According to a recent study, the most common financial goals that people set at the beginning of the year include paying off debts, saving for emergencies and retirement, and budgeting better. We might draw up our own list as well, but experts caution that for these to stick, we

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All About Social Security

G

etting a Social Security (SS) Number is one of the most important requirements in applying for a job especially for those who will be employed in private corporations. When you transfer to a new workplace, employers also ask for your SS number as one of the conditions for employment for SSS membership and coverage.

Lourdes M. Fernandez Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug

tion steps.” If we find that some of our 2021 resolutions were not met, maybe the best thing to do is not to set new goals for 2022, but rather to find new ways to reach the same goal.

And if there are unfinished tasks being carried over from last year, use January to finish them. It’s not a good feeling to leave some things hanging or undone. To complete the projects that we started, we need to plan properly and act consciously. It could also be that we have just lost sight of our vision, so the thing to do is to remind ourselves of the goal and the desired outcome. This usu-

Online SS Number Application

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

must focus on our motivations and intentions. As we list down our goals, financial or otherwise, we have to be clear about why we want to do them in the first place.

There is always wisdom in the advice of great thinkers. Confucius, for instance, said, “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals; adjust the ac-

In the first week of this first month, I suppose some springcleaning would be in order.

Declutter, tidy up both digitally and physically, so that our living and working areas are clean and clear, ready for the projects and activities we have lined up for ourselves this year.

The SS number is a 10-digit series of numbers that serves as a reference to access your records with SSS. No two or more persons share the same SS number which is truly unique for everyone. This is also a lifetime number and must always be used in all transactions especially in applying for benefit claims such as Sickness, Maternity, Disability, Unemployment, Retirement, Funeral, and Death, as well as loan privileges.

Back in the early 1980s to year 2000, the earlier process in applying for SS Number required applicants to go to the SSS branch personally to present and submit their birth certificates or in its absence, their baptismal certificates to establish their identities and personal information. But with system and program enhancements through the years when SSS has implemented online transactions, SS Number applications can now also be done online effective September 2015. Effective December 2020, Online Application for SS Number with option for

uploading of supporting documents was implemented.

To apply for an SS Number online, here are the step-by-step procedures for reference: 1. Go to the SSS’ official web site www.sss.gov.ph.

2. Click on the “Apply for an SS Number Online.” This will lead you to the next screen that says “No SS Number Yet? Apply Online!” and click “here.”

3. Read the Step-by-Step Guide, then click “Start”.

4. Encode the needed information in the Registrant Record Verification.

5. After encoding, click “Submit” to finish Phase 1 of the Registration. You will then be instructed to check your e-mail containing the link of Phase 2 of the Registration. Click or paste the link on your browser’s address bar to proceed with your SS Number Application. You may also check your Spam or Junk folder if the e-mail notification is not in your inbox. You only have five working days to complete your appli-

Issuance of SS Number does not automatically qualify one for coverage or eligibility for benefits. One must be duly reported first for SSS coverage. Once you become an SSS member, you become a member for life. The contributions that you remit become savings for the future that will serve as basis for the granting of social security benefits and loans in times of contingencies.

Even during such time that the member fails to remit contributions, the SSS benefits and loan privileges can still be availed of, as long as the member meets the qualifying conditions for entitlement thereto. cation before it expires. Once the link expires, you need to submit a new application online.

6. Upon opening the link, encode the needed details in the fields provided.

7. Review the details provided, then click “Submit.”

A message will pop up on the screen asking you to confirm if the provided information is true and correct. Remember, once submitted, you can no longer go back and update the encoded information.

8. Select the type of document to be submitted.

You may choose the Option A, if you will be uploading the copy of your Birth Certificate. Or you may choose Option B, if in the absence of Birth Certificate, you will be uploading any

ally revives the initial inspiration.

Finally, everyone has to learn to work smart, instead of hard, this year.

That involves focusing on tasks that give the biggest long-term impact, rather than on the minor items on our to-do list. Work management experts also say it’s advisable to tackle the three most important goals for the day in the morning. Eat your frog first, as they say. Another advice would be to work in 90-minute blocks for optimal focus and maximum productivity. Anything longer than that may affect concentration.

I hope that these tips would somehow help us have a more successful year this 2022. In the first week of this first month, I suppose some spring-cleaning would be in order.

Declutter, tidy up both digitally and physically, so that our living and working areas are clean and clear, ready for the projects and activities we have lined up for ourselves this year. Happy New Year to everyone!

May we all have a productive, successful, and blessed 2022!

of the following documents: n Baptismal Certificate; n Driver’s License; n Passport; n Professional Regulation Commission card; or n Seaman’s Book (Seaman’s Identification and Record Book).

For option C, “Click to View All” link to display the secondary documents.

After successfully uploading the documents, you may print or download the Registration Information which includes data such as the Transaction Number, SS Number, Name of Applicant, and Date of Birth.

You will receive an e-mail containing the confirmation of the SS Number Online Application as well as an e-mail containing the password set-up of the My.SSS account then enter the last six digits of your CRN/ SS Number. Just enter your preferred password, then click “Submit.” This will enable the member to access his/ her My.SSS account.

For those who have successfully uploaded the supporting documents, they will receive an e-mail informing them that their documents have been processed and approved as well as the status of their SS Number, either tagged as “SSS Web/Mobile App— With Submitted Document(s)” or a rejection e-mail stating the reason why the submitted documents uploaded have been rejected.

Those who did not upload or submit documents online will get tagged as “Application through the Web— No Documentary Requirements Submitted” until the required documents are submitted through the See “SSS,” A9

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Time to audit the corporate risk and insurance program

Omicron: Back to the Covid drill Thomas M. Orbos

STREET TALK

By Reynaldo A. de Dios

I

T is a good and common practice for business enterprises to start the year with a new budget and it is not unusual that premium expenses are not given the importance they deserve. By taking time out to review and audit all insurance policies purchased by the business enterprise, it is possible to effect savings as well as to improve the policy terms and conditions.

A simple questionnaire would be able to guide businessmen in reviewing their insurance programs to ensure that their business will be adequately protected in the New Year.

Hereunder is the questionnaire: Will your present insurance coverages be sufficient to enable the business enterprise to repair, rebuild or replace property in case of a loss? In other words, have values of assets been updated and sums insured been correspondingly adjusted? Please note that the average clause of a fire policy requires the full value of an asset be insured, otherwise, in case of loss, the policy would be liable only for the sum insured divided by the actual value of the asset that are confirmed by an authorized appraisal firm.

Does the insurance policy include Business Interruption insurance?

Have the fire insurance policies on properties been extended to include cover against loss by earthquake, volcanic eruptions, typhoon and flood?

Does the business firm carry adequate Third Party Liability limits in the case of its products, premises and vehicles? Has the company obtained insurance to cover hospitalization and medical expenses in the event of disability by illness or accident?

In addition to a life insurance program designed for the benefit of the family, have you also provided

SSS. . .

continued from A8

My.SSS account or to any SSS Branch.

Application of SSS loans and benefits (subject to qualifying conditions) shall be allowed only for SS Numbers tagged as “Application thru SSS Web/Mobile App—With Approved Supporting Documents” status.

For members submitting online requests for data amendment considered as simple corrections, they may submit or upload complete supporting documents such as: 1. Original or certified true copy issued by the City or Municipal Registrar or Philippine Statistics Authority/National Statistics Office: n Birth Certificate n Marriage Contract/Marriage Certificate 2. All ID cards and/or documents issued by foreign government must have English translation.

3. Make sure to completely upload all pages of the document.

4. Ensure to upload the pages where your name, photo, and signature are shown in the passport.

5. Make sure that the document being uploaded is clear and readable, colored, and must be in PDF and JPEG format with 2 Megabytes maximum file size.

While insurance may indemnify the business enterprise for losses, what is more important is to restore its capability of getting back to business as soon as possible. Thus, a Business Continuity Management Plan should also be the primary concern of its top management. separate insurance policies to cover outstanding loans and mortgages?

Have you reviewed your insurance program with a licensed and qualified insurance agent or broker?

Are the insurance policies and inventory list plus vital documents such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, stock certificates, and property titles kept in a safe place or a safety deposit box?

Have you made a will and is it up to date?

While insurance may indemnify the business enterprise for losses, what is more important is to restore its capability of getting back to business as soon as possible. Thus, a Business Continuity Management Plan should also be the primary concern of its top management.

The author is a risk management consultant and Editor of Insurance Philippines magazine.

Issuance of SS Number does not automatically qualify one for coverage or eligibility for benefits. One must be duly reported first for SSS coverage. Once you become an SSS member, you become a member for life. The contributions that you remit become savings for the future that will serve as basis for the granting of social security benefits and loans in times of contingencies. Even during such time that the member fails to remit contributions, the SSS benefits and loan privileges can still be availed of, as long as the member meets the qualifying conditions for entitlement thereto. If, for some reason, you forgot your SS Number, do not secure another one as having multiple SS Numbers will only cause delays in the processing of benefit claims and loan applications. If a member has more than one SS Number, the member should visit any SSS branch for the cancellation of the other SS Number and request for the consolidation of all contributions under the retained number. The retained SS Number should be used in all transactions with SSS. Have a prosperous New Year!

Aurora C. Ignacio is SSS president and chief executive officer.

We welcome your questions and insights on the topics that we discuss. E-mail mediaaffairs@sss. gov.ph for topics that you might want us to discuss.

Monday, January 3, 2022

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he global spread of the Omicron variant is real, and it has already reached our shores. Though our number of daily Covid infections, be it Delta or Omicron, are way below the 100,000 plus daily upticks in other countries, we still need to be very conscious and cautious, lest we find ourselves in that predicament.

Unlike the rich countries, we are at a disadvantage because our health systems are not as robust, equipped and prepared. Key measures must then be taken by the government to protect the citizenry. On our part, we need to follow health protocols to protect ourselves and our families from the virus. This is not an easy task, especially for pandemic-weary citizens, an economy only barely about to rise again, and a government that has already channeled most of its resources to fighting Covid the past two years. But, indeed, we must continue fighting. We, as private citizens, need not depend or wait for the government to sound the alarm. And as we see ourselves in this New Year, let us take these conscious steps to ensure a better fighting chance against this more

virulent Covid strain.

1. Let’s take this seriously. Let us admit it, we are all guilty of celebrating the holidays with our family members and friends, believing that we were nearing the end of the tunnel. But, unfortunately, it is not so. Setting aside the guilt, we need to go back to the protocols we have mastered and exercise them again.

The much-publicized irresponsible superspreader incident by an uncaring individual in Poblacion, Makati may have earned the ire of many people, but in a way we all contributed to the environment of laxity, especially with the Christmas spirit that allowed some of us to drop their guard. Yes, prosecute those at fault—the persons and institutions involved, but let us all review where we are right now and

take out whatever short-lived laxities we indulged in and begin once more to be zealous in this fight. We know the drill: Social distancing, use face mask, and wash our hands.

We have no choice.

2. Test, test, test. One global Covid mitigation practice that we in the Philippines have to follow is mass testing for infections. Covid tests taken in other countries number in the hundreds of thousands to a million per day while here our total does not even reach 50,000 tests per day or less than 1 percent of total population. This is one reason why our numbers pale in comparison with that of other countries. Mandatory testing when needed must be done by the public as well as the private sector. Any group gathering, including political sorties, that we frequently see nowadays given that it is an election year, must require testing for all participants. Companies that require their employees to go back to their offices should at the very least require this. Malls and other commercial establishments, if they want to remain open, will need to do mass testing.

3. Vaccines work. Get vaccinated, regardless of what brand of Covid vaccine is available. This is not the time to be selective, and certainly not the time to delay getting vaccinated.

And even with vaccinations, the same cautious preventive protocols must still be followed. For the members of

Bloomberg Opinion

U

S natural gas is in for another wild year as the insularity that once shielded North American energy consumers from overseas turmoil disintegrates.

Benchmark American gas futures climbed almost 45 percent in 2021 for the strongest annual performance in half a decade after a deadly freeze that crippled output was followed by summer heatwaves that lifted demand and hindered efforts

to stow away supplies for winter.

As 2022 dawns, traders, explorers and utility operators are facing the prospect of continued volatility amid rising competition from buyers as far away as Poland and the Netherlands who are dealing with a crisis so acute that factories have shut down and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is warning there’s a “clear risk of running out of gas.”

Overseas buyers purchased 13% of US gas production in December, a seven-fold increase from five years earlier when most of the infrastructure required to ship the fuel out of the country didn’t yet exist.

our families who still are not eligible for vaccinations, let’s think of them before we venture out. Yes, we are vaccinated, but we also read about breakthrough infections suffered by people that had boosters. Vaccinated individuals will indeed have a level of protection, but they may still become carriers themselves.

For all of us who have survived the first waves of Covid, we may think that it would be illogical for us to commit the mistakes that will get us infected simply because now we know what to do to prevent it. In truth, however, mistakes happen in this time when we get too familiar with the environment, or we believe in a certain amount of luck or invincibility or are just too tired of this cloistered way of life. It is necessary to go back to those early times when Covid hit us and made us all paranoid.

That extra amount of precaution will not hurt but will only do us good. We are thankful for a wonderful Christmas break, but let us do everything we can to make sure that we will still be around to celebrate another Christmas season.

Thomas “Tim” Orbos is currently a transport policy advisor for an international organization and worked in government on transport and urban development matters. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University and the MIT Sloan School of Management. He can be reached via e-mail—tmo45@ georgetown.edu /thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu

US and Russia face deep differences ahead of Ukraine talks

By Aamer Madhani | Associated Press

W

ILMINGTON, Del.—After tough talk between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin over the Russian troop buildup on the Ukraine border, both sides insist they are hopeful that a pathway to easing tensions could open during diplomatic talks set for January.

But with less than two weeks to go before senior US and Russian officials are to meet in Geneva, the chasm is deep and the prospect of finding an exit to the crisis faces no shortage of complications.

Biden on Friday told reporters that he advised Putin when they spoke by phone a day earlier that the upcoming talks could only work if the Russian leader “deescalated, not escalated, the situation” in the days ahead. The US president said he also sought to make plain to Putin that the US and allies stood ready to hit Russia with punishing sanctions if the Russians further invade Ukraine.

“I made it clear to President Putin that if he makes any more moves into Ukraine we will have severe sanctions,” Biden said. “We will increase our presence in Europe with Nato allies.”

Meanwhile, Biden’s national security team on Friday turned their attention to preparation for the Geneva talks, set for January 9 and 10, to discuss Russia’s massing of some 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine.

The Geneva talks, which are to be led on the US side by senior State Department officials, are slated to be followed by Russia-Nato Council talks and a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Biden is scheduled to speak by phone Sunday with Ukrainian Presi-

dent Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two leaders plan to review preparations for the upcoming diplomatic engagements, according to the White House.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday debriefed Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the Biden-Putin call and discussed preparations for the upcoming talks.

“The two weeks ahead are going to be tough,” said Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland who was a top adviser on Eastern Europe to Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. “The Biden administration has done a pretty credible job of outlining, framing up the negotiations. But the toughest test is yet to come because Putin will continue to engage in threats and brinksmanship to see how determined we are.”

While Biden reiterated that he stood ready to exact sanctions that would reverberate throughout Russia, Kremlin officials doubled down on their warning to Biden about making a “colossal mistake” that could have enormous ramifications for an already fraught US-Russian relationship.

A top Putin aide on Friday reinforced that Russia stands by its demands for written security guarantees. Moscow wants it codified that any future expansion of Nato must

exclude Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and demands that the alliance remove offensive weaponry from countries in the Russian neighborhood.

“We will not allow our initiatives to be drowned in endless discussions,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the state RIA-Novosti news agency. “If no constructive answer comes in a reasonable time and the West continues its aggressive course, Russia will have to take all necessary measures to maintain a strategic balance and remove unacceptable threats to our security.”

The Biden administration and Nato allies have made clear that the Russian demands are non-starters.

The seemingly unrealistic rhetoric has made some in Washington question how effective talks can be.

Following the Biden-Putin call, a group of 24 former US national security officials and Russia experts — a group that includes several officials who served in the Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton’s administrations—released a statement calling on Biden to immediately, and publicly, lay out the penalties Russia would face if Putin were to move forward with military action.

The signatories of the statement included several former US ambassadors, including Fried, Russia envoys Michael McFaul and Alexander Vershbow, and Ukraine envoys Steven Pifer and John Herbst.

“We believe the United States should, in closest consultation with its Nato allies and with Ukraine, take immediate steps to affect the Kremlin’s cost-benefit calculations before the Russian leadership opts for further military escalation,” the group wrote. “Such a response would include a package of major

US natural gas faces wild 2022 as foreign crises exert pull

By Gerson Freitas Jr. Sergio Chapa & Natalia Kniazhevich

A9

Prior to the advent of the American gas-export business, the US-Canada market was a provincial sphere where prices were dictated by cold snaps in places like Pittsburgh and Chicago, and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. But those days are long gone as brokers in Seoul and Rotterdam shell out record amounts to entice tankers laden with US gas to sail their way.

“We continue to expect more price volatility to be present in these markets relative to recent history, albeit at a more diminished level once exiting the peak demand season of winter weather,” said Nata-

sha Kaneva, head of commodities research and strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “This is particularly true in the US, where price volatility has long been absent.”

Volatility in New York-traded gas futures surged to the highest in almost three years in early December as late-autumn concerns that the US was on the verge of its own supply crunch collapsed on the back of milder-than-normal weather and prices tumbled more than 40 percent from an October peak. Prices also have recently been falling in Europe as the arrival of American cargoes eased fears of an immediate short-

age, although buyers in continental Europe still are paying six times as much as US rivals.

Anxiety hasn’t completely evaporated given that the coldest months of winter in the northern hemisphere are still ahead. As recently as December 30, almost 50 tankers carrying American LNG were steering for Europe, with destinations as varied as Gibraltar, Turkey, Croatia and Poland, according to data compiled

by Bloomberg. That was a stunning 77 percent increase from just a week earlier.

2021 “was a banner year’’ for gas, said Paul Phillips, senior strategist

and painful sanctions that would be applied immediately if Russia assaults Ukraine. Ideally, the outline of these sanctions would be communicated now to Moscow, so that the Kremlin has a clear understanding of the magnitude of the economic hit it will face.”

The Russians for their part continue to make the case that they are facing an existential threat with Ukraine.

Lavrov on Friday noted an increase in weapons supplies to Ukraine and the growing number and scope of joint military drills conducted by Western powers with Ukraine, charging that “the Kyiv regime naturally perceives this support as a carte blanche for the use of force.”

He added that Russia will protect its citizens living in eastern Ukraine.

“As for residents of Donbas, where hundreds of thousands of our citizens live, Russia will take all necessary measures to protect them,” he said. “An adequate response will be given to any possible military provocations by Kyiv against Donbas.”

Russia supports a separatist rebellion in the eastern Donbas region that has killed more than 14,000 people since it began in 2014. In recent years, Russia has offered citizenship to those living in the region.

Simon Miles, a diplomatic and international historian of the Cold War at Duke University, said it would be a mistake for the White House to let “Russia unilaterally set the tempo of what is about to unfold.”

“Whatever the US can do to keep the Russians on their back foot, as opposed to letting the Kremlin set the agenda, is going to be important to securing a favorable resolution,” Miles said. Associated Press writer Vladimir IsachenkovinMoscowcontributedtothisreport.

at Uplift Energy Strategy in Denver.

Despite expectations for continued volatility, last year “will be hard to beat.”

Climate-change concerns are prompting some observers to warn about the potential for increasing summer volatility. “We have definitely seen a warming pattern,’’ said Dennis Kissler, a trader at Bok Financial Securities. “The mid summer months have potential to be very volatile if summer is warmer than normal.”

“We continue to expect more price volatility,” said JPMorgan’s Natasha Kaneva.

A10 Monday, January 3, 2022

DTI raps 69 retailers selling at overprice in typhoon areas T

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad

HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) found 69 retailers in typhoon-affected regions that are selling overpriced construction and hardware supplies despite the imposition of a price freeze to help the areas recover from the impact of the recent calamity in Visayas and Mindanao.

In a statement over the weekend, the Trade department reported it has issued show-cause orders and letters of inquiry to the business owners, which included those in Surigao del Norte. It also confiscated the overpriced items.

This is in line with the price monitoring operations of the DTI, which covered overpriced consumer goods such as power generator sets, construction materials and fuel products. Earlier, he said there are reports of overpricing of bottled water and generator sets in Cebu and Negros Occidental.

“We reiterate our strong warning against the profiteers. Our DTI regional teams and the Consumer Protection Group (CPG), in collaboration with the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG),

have been relentless in this drive to catch profiteers and hoarders who are taking advantage of our countrymen who are already suffering from the damages caused by typhoon Odette,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

“We will not hesitate to apprehend violators,” he stressed.

Those found guilty of such practice can be fined P300,000 and imprisoned for one year.

In a recent public address before the 2021 ended, Lopez said the department was looking into the compliance of 100 establishments with the price freeze in areas which are currently under the State of Calamity.

The 60-day price freeze covers basic necessities and prime commodities, Lopez said.

According to Republic Act 7581

or Price Act, basic necessities include rice; corn; bread; fresh, dried and canned fish and other marine products, fresh pork, beef and poultry meal; fresh eggs; fresh and processed milk; fresh vegetables; root crops; coffee; sugar; cooking oil; salt; laundry soap; detergents; firewood; charcoal; candles; and drugs classified as essential by the Department of Health.

Meanwhile, prime commodities

refer to fresh fruits; flour; dried processed and canned pork; beef and poultry meat; dairy products not falling under basic necessities; noodles; onions; garlic; vinegar; fish sauce; soy sauce; toilet soap; fertilizer; pesticides; herbicides; poultry; swine and cattle feeds; veterinary products for poultry, swine and cattle; paper; and school supplies, among others.

See “DTI,” A2

A TEAM from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) makes the rounds of typhoon-hit areas in Mindanao in a bid to protect profiteers from worsening the misery of victims. It later issued violation notices to erring retailers as it intensified its price monitoring operations to apprehend price freeze violators in typhoon-affected regions. PHOTO COURTESY OF DTI

PHL OKAYS IMPORTS OF 11K MT OF FISH FOR ODETTE-HIT AREAS

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HE Philippines has allowed the importation of 11,015 metric tons (MT) of small pelagic fishes to augment fish supply in Typhoon Odette-hit areas to prevent possible price spikes due to shortage.

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar signed and issued last December 30 the certificate of necessity (CNI) to import 11,015 MT of frozen small pelagic for wet markets “for the benefit of the consuming public.”

The volume was the unused portion of the approved 51,246 MT of small pelagic fish imports out of the earlier approved CNI of 60,000 MT of frozen small pelagic fishes for wet markets in August 2021.

Dar noted that several sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-ICs) covering a volume of 2,441 MT were not used by importers and were surrendered to the government, leaving a total unused volume of 11,015 MT. Dar explained that he issued a new CNI for the remaining volume to augment fish supply in areas affected by Typhoon Odette. Under existing rules and regulations, the agriculture secretary must issue a CNI prior

to allow any fish importation for wet market consumption.

Under fisheries administrative order (FAO) 259, the agriculture secretary may issue a CNI for wet market consumption during closed fishing season and during occurrence of calamities.

“There is still a necessity to import the remaining volume of 11,015 metric tons of frozen small pelagic fish for wet markets in order to augment the shortage in the supply of fish especially in areas affected by the typhoon Odette,” Dar said in the CNI he signed last December 30.

“In order to ensure national food security taking into consideration public welfare, the importation of 11,015 MT of frozen small pelagic fish for wet markets is hereby certified as necessary which shall be distributed to the Visayas and Mindanao only,” Dar added.

In a separate Special Order (SO) 984, which Dar also issued last December 30, the government outlined the guidelines for the 11,015-MT frozen small pelagic fishes importation. The SO pointed out that the volume should be sold in Visayas and Mindanao areas only.

See “Imports” A2

Companies

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Monday, January 3, 2022

B1

PSE sees local small investor participation livelier in 2022

T

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

HE Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. said it expects activity in its local small investors (LSI) program to be more brisk this year.

“The active participation of local retail investors will likely continue to next year especially as we expect the upcoming IPOs [initial public offering] to attract new investors,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon Monzon said. “While this is a much welcome development, we also hope to see the gradual return of foreign funds to the Philippine stock market.”

The market saw a surge in retail investor participation from 27 percent in 2020 and 18 percent in 2019 to 31 percent last year. According to the current rule, each IPO must set aside at least 10 percent of the entire offer to LSIs. The PSE saw a surge in participation from retail investors last November during the offer process of the Villar-led AllDay Marts Inc., which operates the AllDay Supermarket.

Despite the recent interest, the PSE still seeks to change its current ruling on LSIs as its study showed

that in the IPOs conducted over the last two years, the total LSI take-up, in terms of value, was only 14.45 percent of the 10 percent LSI allocation.

The PSE defines an LSI as an investor who is willing to subscribe to a minimum board lot and whose subscription doesn’t exceed P100,000 ($1,955.78 at January 1 exchange rates).

“In IPOs where the offer size is big and a significant number of investors is required for a full take- up of the LSI tranche, a large portion of the LSI shares may end up being unsubscribed and taken up by the underwriter, if the underwriter is not able to immediately place the unsubscribed shares to other investors during the offer period,” a PSE document reads.

“Aside from the financial impact on the underwriter, such a situation may also have an adverse effect on the stock because the disposition by the underwriter of a large number of offer shares post-IPO may cause the

In this photo courtesy of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Inc. shows (from left, by row) PSE Finance Division Head Roberto Jose R. Jimenez and Securities Clearing Corp. of the Philippines COO Renee D. Rubio; PSE Technology Division Head Philip A. Driz, PSE COO Roel A. Refran, PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon and PSE Capital Markets Division Head Mark Frederick V. Visda; PSE Market Operations Division Head Roel M. Villanueva. The PSE officials gathered for the last trading of 2021. Photo courtesy of the Philippine Stock Exchange Inc.

stock price to decline. On the other hand, retention by the underwriter of a big block of IPO shares may negatively impact the liquidity of the stock,” it said.

The PSE is proposing to adjust the LSI allocation to not less than 5 percent but not more than 10 percent of the entire offer, depending on the size of the IPO. The “claw back” mechanism, which allows an additional 5-percent increase to the initial allocation for the LSI tranche when the total LSI demand is five times or more than the initial allocation will be retained.

The PSE is also proposing to increase the maximum subscription amount of LSI of P100,000, subject to the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission, for offer sizes beyond P5 billion.

The PSE, meanwhile, has set a

new record for capital raised in the stock market at P234.48 billion in 2021, breaking the previous high of P228.33 billion in 2012, on the back of the biggest IPO to-date and four real estate investment trust listings.

For the year, the PSE had eight IPOs, 11 follow-on offerings, four stock rights offerings and seven private placements.

“We are pleased that more companies chose to raise funds through the PSE,” Monzon said. “Their confidence in the stock market made it possible for us to achieve this record capital raising number.”

The PSE will open 2022 with the back-to-back IPO of a small property developer Haus Talk Inc. and restaurant operator Figaro Coffee Group Inc. The PSE is also hosting its first-ever 2-day Investment Expo on January 29.

e-Commerce firm seen as driver

S

“The question does arise: will the growth of online shopping continue to boom? We at Etaily say that, yes, online shopping will still expand and accelerate far more than it did before the shutdowns and social distancing.”

The availability of many shopping options is among the factors that can drive this growth. According to the Euromonitor study, 71 percent of Filipinos feel they have greater access to foreign brands today than five years ago.

Alongside the e-commerce expansion, per Etaily studies, are various trends like the move towards omnichannel, and the integration of offline and online channels.

“This megatrend of connectivity is the central driving force for online retailing. It would be a mistake to think that the growth of eCommerce will cause the so-called demise of brick-and-mortar retail. In fact, through this kind of dynamic, the new technologies will even bring stationary retail back to its original

strengths,” the founder explained.

The top executive bared, however, two challenges businesses who want to transition into eCommerce will face. He categorized them as the differentiation and hygiene factors, respectively.

As regards the former, retailers must adopt unique and trending platforms to stand out from the competition. For the latter, they should have the needed systems such as order management and content management systems to link seamlessly with vital channels like Lazada and Shopee and, at the same time, they must be able to sustainably break down data silos so as to extract information from operational data while uncovering optimization potential for the whole organization.

One aspect that makes this digital shift quick and efficient, Friedhoff said, is that “the technology to do so does exist. In Etaily, we have developed these systems to provide a simple and user-friendly omnichannel presence.” Roderick L. Abad

INGAPORE-headquartered e-commerce platform “Etaily” was cited in a report as among Philippine companies shaping the top eight global “megatrends” that indicate major transformations in consumer values and behavior.

The company, which neither has a privacy policy nor terms and conditions on its website, was cited in the 2021 edition of the study as “a solutions provider that is differently positioned to help Filipino retailers gain their full digital potential even—or especially—during the pandemic.”

“Etaily’s expansion is expected to drive the growth and development of e-Commerce among local businesses, giving them the chance to create an omnichannel experience and expand their customer base in the face of growing competition from international e-commerce giants,” the report said.

Etaily Founder Alexander Friedhoff expressed his appreciation that the study has recognized their contribution in empowering local retailers

to build and grow their brand in the e-commerce space.

“Our partners are in the sweet spot, as the Philippines is the fastest-growing market in the region.

The entire industry is looking into a bright future. By 2025, the overall internet economy will likely reach $40 billion in value. We are grateful that Euromonitor selected Etaily as one of the companies that are part of that incredible growth,” he said.

The growth of e-commerce in the country could be attributed to the buying public’s increasing preference to patronize local brands and products.

Based on the report, 39 percent of Filipinos choose to purchase local products while another 40 percent are more interested in shopping in local stores. These figures are higher than the global average of 28 percent.

“The growth of e-Commerce is here to stay. It is wonderful to see shoppers start heading back to stores in droves, and the malls becoming more occupied,” Friedhoff noted.

UK builds plans to help firms hit by staff absence

Late order flurry vaults Airbus past Boeing Co.

T

HE UK government will develop contingency plans to help companies and supply chains avoid disruptions from staff absences due to Covid-19, the Financial Times reported, citing the Cabinet Office.

The government has identified a range of staff-support measures, including former teachers for schools and volunteers in the public sector, the newspaper said. It has asked private businesses to test the plans against a worst-case scenario of as much as 25 percent in workforce absences, according to the report.

UK Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay will lead regular meetings to monitor the impact of the omicron variant on workforces and company operations, the FT reported. Bloomberg News

A

year-end order bonanza for Airbus SE has swept away the lead built up by Boeing Co. and put the European planemaker in position to claim bragging rights for 2021.

Boeing amassed an order advantage in early 2021 fueled by pent-up demand for its 737 Max as the singleaisle workhorse came off a two-year grounding. Through October, its lead stood at 428 aircraft, based on figures reported by the two planemakers.

But Airbus cashed in during the last two months of the year, notching major wins at the Dubai Airshow in November and snatching narrowbody accounts at Qantas Airways Ltd and Air France-KLM in midDecember.

In the final week of the year, the European planemaker landed 40 firm orders from leasing firm Avia-

tion Capital Group, while a tentative deal reached with US giant Air Lease Corp. in Dubai was expanded to 116 jetliners and has now been finalized, according to an Airbus spokesman.

With those added in, Airbus edged Boeing by 58 planes, based on a Bloomberg calculation of announced orders. Airbus may also be able to claim victory on a net basis.

Through November, Boeing had reported 457 net orders for 2021, with Airbus trailing at 368.

But the European manufacturer’s December haul pushed its annual total to some 664 jets before netting out any cancellations that haven’t been disclosed. That compares with 476 for Boeing, which notched a December freighter deal with UPS. The final tally won’t be known until both companies report official figures in early January.

It’s entirely possible that Airbus will disclose a slew of cancellations and fall short of catching Chicagobased Boeing on a net basis. With Covid-19 continuing to roil airline finances, both manufacturers have endured clawbacks that shaved hundreds of orders off their books.

The contract wins will nonetheless reassure executives at Toulouse, France-based Airbus that the planemaker has bolstered its case with suppliers for a planned production increase.

Airbus has already cemented an unassailable lead in annual output.

Through November, it had delivered 518 aircraft toward an annual goal of 600 for the year. Boeing had handed over 302 jets, as a pickup in 737 Max deliveries was offset by production problems on its larger 787 Dreamliners. Bloomberg News

Chicago new site for Jollibee store T

HE “langhap sarap” would waft through downtown Chicago as Jollibee Foods Corp.

(JFC) said its expansion in the United States continues with the opening of a new branch in this most populous city of the state of Illinois.

The new store opening will mark the brand’s 57th store in the US and its third location in Illinois. Located at 116 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, the store is steps away from some of Chicago’s iconic areas such as the Millennium Park and The Bean.

“The iconic Michigan Avenue is a bustling international shopping and dining destination that attracts swarms of locals and tourists yearround. We are excited to make Jollibee more accessible to our loyal fans who live in the area and to introduce our menu and warm, friendly service to the residents and tourists of Chicago,” Maribeth D. dela Cruz, Honeybee Foods Corp. business group head, said.

The new store offers Jollibee’s signature dishes including fried chicken, spaghetti, peach mango pie and new favorites such as chicken sandwich, according to dela Cruz.

Other than the dine-in option, customers can also enjoy their favorite Jollibee menu items to-go or through the firm’s new ordering app, its website and via the DoorDash delivery platform.

Jollibee shares finished the year at P216.40 apiece, down P6.60 from

the previous close. It reached a 52week high at P259.80 and a low of P163.30 per share.

JFC will also open the company’s flagship brand this year by establishing its first stores in Scotland, the United Kingdom and in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, while opening its 150th store in Vietnam early next year.

“We’re excited to bring the brand to more countries around the globe,” JFC CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong said.

“Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we continue to open more Jollibee stores and are glad to see the community’s support wherever we open,” Tanmantiong added. “We look forward to bringing the joy of eating to more and more people in different parts of the world, sustaining our growth momentum as we enter 2022.”

JFC’s entry into Scotland comes at the heels of its successful opening in Wales.

Meanwhile, Jollibee Kuala Lumpur will be located at Sunway Pyramid, a popular destination mall among locals and tourists. Together with its joint venture partner, the firm plans to grow to 120 stores in Malaysia within the next ten years.

In Vietnam, the brand is set to open its 150th store in a popular location, the company has said.

Vietnam is home to the largest Jollibee store network outside the Philippines. VG Cabuag

Aboitiz raises ₧15M for Odette relief ops

T

HE Aboitiz group said it was able to raise close to P15 million, almost P600,000 of which were donated through its crowdfunding platform “Kinder,” as aid to the victims of typhoon Odette in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The company said most of the funds were used for the distribution of relief goods, including food packs, rice and water and other in-kind donations to the affected communities in Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Misamis Oriental, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, Agusan and Bukidnon. The amount also covers the deployment of over 500 linemen, initially to Cebu to help restore power in the area.

“Providing immediate needs to the communities has been our priority in our relief efforts through our initiative. The foundation will continue to provide relief and support rebuilding efforts true to our promise of advancing business and communities,” Aboitiz Foundation Inc. President and COO Maribeth L. Marasigan said.

Close to 40,000 relief goods, hygiene kits and shelter repair kits were given for distribution to the said areas. Meanwhile, more than 300 linemen from Visayan Electric

and 200 more from volunteer distribution units including Davao Light and Power Company, Cotabato Light and Power Company and Subic Enerzone were deployed and are working 24 hours a day to swiftly restore power in Cebu.

In Bukidnon, close to 800 families in the barangays of Guihean, Guilang-guilang, Santiago, Maluko, Dalirig and Lingion from the Municipalities of Impasugung and Manolo Fortich received food packs, according to the company.

With the assistance of members of the Army Reserve Command (ARESCOM), Army Reserve Caraga 15th RCDG and Hinatuan Surigao Sur Reservists, 3,000 food packs and drinking water reached typhoon victims in the municipalities of Dinagat, San Jose, Claver, Siargao and Surigao in Surigao del Sur. Members from the 402nd Army Brigade, 4th Field Artillery Battalion and 2nd Scout Rangers Brigade also helped during 2-day relief operations.

Meanwhile, Pilmico organized a feeding program for at least 300 children in Barangay Pooc Occidental in Tubigon, Bohol, while 6,000 relief packs and bread donations were sent to six other VisMin areas. VG Cabuag

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, January 3, 2022

Psalm-Meralco accord seen to boost consumers savings

T

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE “Contract for the Supply of Electric Energy,” or CSEE, between the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.

(Psalm) will result in savings to consumers of about P76.79 million.

In an application filed by Meralco and Psalm before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Meralco told the agency that the delivered rate of the Psalm CSEE of P6.4216 per kilowatt hour (kWh) is lower by about P0.4224 per kWh than the effective cost of P6.8440 per kWh if the equivalent capacity under the CSEE will be sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm).

“In fact, by sourcing the capacity through the Psalm-Meralco CSEE, Meralco’s average blended generation rate will be reduced by about P0.0026 per kWh, resulting in savings of about P76.79 million,” the 22-page application stated. Meralco and state-run Psalm are seeking approval from the ERC for their 90-megawatt (MW) CSEE, which was earlier cleared by the Department of Energy (DOE) last

September 2021 for exemption from the competitive selection process (CSP) requirement, which directs all distribution utilities to contract supply via competitive bidding.

The power that will be sourced by Meralco from Psalm up to July 25, 2022 will come from the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant.

Meralco and Psalm agreed to immediately implement the CSEE starting September 29, 2021, However, the CSEE still needs to be approved by the ERC. “The grant of provisional authority and/or interim relief shall confirm the proper implementation of the Psalm-Meralco CSEE, which ultimately redounds to the benefit of Meralco’s customers who stand to be exposed to the volatile prices of the Wesm,” they said in their filing.

The ERC may exercise its discretion by granting provisional authority prior to a final decision. “Wherefore, premises considered, applicants respectfully pray that the Honorable Commission, after hearing on the

merits, render a decision approving the Psalm-Merlaco CSEE executed on September 28, 2021, and the terms and conditions thereunder, including the price. It is likewise prayed that a provisional authority and/or interim relief be issued confirming the authority of the parties to implement the subject CSEE in the Luzon grid,” their application stated.

Meralco said it was anticipating a peaking capacity deficit of 260MW, of which 90MW is secured through the CSEE, from September 2021 to July 25, 2022.

The reasons for the deficit include persistent Malampaya gas restrictions, the recently concluded maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya gas facility, and anticipated thinning electricity operating margins leading up to the May 2022 elections.

The need for Meralco to source additional peaking capacity through bilateral power supply contracts is also necessary in order to mitigate exposure to the Wesm of its customers.

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK Last week

SHARE prices fell last week, the last for 2021, as the benchmark index remained at the 7,100-point level after investors chose to lock-in on their gains in reaction to the government’s announcement Metro Manila would be placed to Alert Level 3 again starting in January.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 59.23 points to close at 7,122.63 points during the three-and-a-half days of trading.

On the last trading day of the year, the PSEi closed at 7,122.63 points, down by 211.93 points, wiping out the gains for the week.

For 2021, the PSEi dipped by 0.2 percent down by 17.08 points from the previous year’s close.

The index reached a high for 2021 at 7,441.67 and a low of 6,164.89.

The average trading for the week was valued at P4.8 billion, lower than the year-to-date average of P7.38 billion.

Daily average value turnover for the year for the total market was at P9 billion, up by 22 percent from last year’s P7.35 billion average.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the year by P2.32 billion, narrower than last year’s P128.57 billion net foreign selling. Foreign investors only accounted for 36 percent of the trading value turnover for the year, while the rest were done by their local counterpart.

Most of the sub-indices ended higher for the week, though many were down year-on-year.

The broader All Shares index was down 4.14 points to close at 3,818.12 points. The Financials index rose 2.62 to 1,606.17. The Industrial index gained 18.26 to 10,404.09. The Holding Firms index fell 166.23 to 6,807.27. The Property index added 27.76 to 3,219.68. The Services index increased 6.67 to 1,986.37. And the Mining and Oil index soared 378.28 to 9,602.70.

For the week, gainers edged losers 118 to 95 and 38 shares were unchanged.

The top gainers were: ATN Holdings Inc. B shares; Philippine Racing Club Inc.; Manila Mining Corp. A; LBC Express Holdings Inc.; Jolliville Holdings Corp.; Apex Mining Co. Inc. and AgriNurture Inc. Top losers, on the other hand, were Metro Alliance Holdings and Equities Corp. B; Concrete Aggregates Corp. A; Anchor Land Holdings Inc.; Altus Property Ventures Inc.; Concrete Aggregates Corp. B; iPeople Inc. and Italpinas Development Corp.

This week

TRADING is expected to be volatile this week, the first for a new year, as Metro Manila will be under a stricter status at Alert Level 3 as increasing cases of Covid-19 infection has started to spook investors during the last trading day of 2021.

“In the latter part of the year, fears have fueled on the highly transmissible omicron variant which is still a key risk next year. As we enter 2022, we anticipate the May Presidential elections, more IPOs [initial public offering] and steady recovery backed by an effective Covid-19 pandemic response,” Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital and Investment Corp.. said.

Broker 2TradeAsia said corporates are seen to continue their capital expenditures this year and no major earnings drag is seen, for now.

“This should not make 2022 any less forgiving of a trading year than 2021, only without the base effect advantage, but with better start of the year fundamentals such as on the number of vaccinated people and higher gross domestic product,” it said.

Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco, senior research analyst at Philstocks Financials Inc., said the main risk to the growth is still Covid-19. The omicron variant is already in the country, which will dampen market sentiment.

Other risks include the US Federal Reserve raising its policy rates, which could trigger outflow of funds from emerging market to the US, he said.

Tantiangco sees support for the main index at 7,000 points to 7100 points, and resistance at 7,300 If the economy recovers, it could reach 7,300 then the next resistance is 7,500. If that fails to hold, however, the main index could fall to 6,600, Tantiangco added.

Stock picks

BROKER Abacus Securities Corp. advised to wait for further development before taking their positions on the stock of Megawide Construction Corp. due to the various issues that it faces.

“While most of the improvement in earnings estimates for 2022 can be attributable to the strong recovery of its construction arm, we believe the ongoing anti-dummy case and the uncertainties regarding SUN’s (Suntrust Home Developers Inc.) casino project where MWIDE is a contractor would continue to provide an overhang on the stock,” the broker said.

“The omicron variant of Covid-19 might also further delay the recovery of its airport segment as many flights have been cancelled,” Abacus Securities said.

Megawide shares closed last week at P5.18 apiece.

Meanwhile, the broker placed a buy rating on the stock of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. as its earnings estimates for this year was slightly up but its share price was still down 8 percent.

“We believe this presents a buying opportunity, as we expect its tollway arm to drive growth by next year. Management was also quoted in the news saying that they expect tollway revenues to double once the pipeline projects become operational. With Meralco’s pivot towards renewable energy, MPI long-term growth should remain intact,” Abacus Securities said.

Metro Pacific’s shares closed Friday at P3.90 apiece. VG Cabuag

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Cebu Pacific mounts Odette-relief efforts

L

without the coordination between the DOH, Office of Civil Defense, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation Inc. and CEB. With this, we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the support that these agencies have provided to ensure the speedy arrival of the different DOH teams to the areas affected by typhoon Odette,” DOH Health Emergency Management Bureau Director Arnel Z. Rivera was quoted in the statement as saying.

The airline operator said it also made sure it took care of its own people who are based in areas devastated by the typhoon.

“More than 1,600 Cebu Pacific employees across its 16 stations that were affected by Odette needed assistance.

Relief goods and emergency cash were provided to them, while other CEB employess in Manila also extended helping hands to assist in operations at the Cebu and Manila Airports.”

Apart from the free transport of essential cargo during this time, CEB said it has also mounted 12 sweeper flights to bring home stranded passengers from Siargao and Puerto Princesa. To date, it has already safely flown more than 500 individuals from Siargao to Manila.

ISTED company Cebu Air Inc. (CEB), which is an airline company that operates under the trade name “Cebu Pacific Air,” announced continuing “various relief efforts for people and communities that were affected by the recent Super Typhoon Odette, transporting since December 18, 2021, various essential goods and volunteers free-of-charge, to destinations including Cebu, Bohol, Siargao and Surigao.”

“To further drive help to those devastated by the typhoon, CEB has partnered with both national and local governments and private entities, such as Philippine Red Cross, Unicef, World Vision Philippines and Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation Inc.,” the company’s statement said.

CEB said last December 29, it flew 32 medical workers from Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital and Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium, mobilized by the Department of Health (DOH) Health Emergency Management Bureau (HEMB), free-of-charge to Siargao and Dinagat Island, where they provided free medical assistance to the victims of the natural disaster.

“This would have not been possible

mutual funds

December 31, 2021

NAV

One Year Three Year Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

233.09

2.59%

-2.59%

-0.59%

2.59%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.6642

26.75%

4.92%

4.74%

26.75%

3.35%

-6.04%

-3.41%

3.35%

-5.66% n.a.

-6.93%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.2378

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7565 -6.93% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7709 3.95%

-2.07% n.a.

3.95%

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

-0.58%

1.10%

4.89%

0.89%

5.1827

4.89%

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

0.7833

-2.17%

-2.48%

-6.67% n.a.

-7.3%

2.75%

-0.75%

1.18%

2.75%

2.41%

-0.92%

0.42%

2.41%

5.96% n.a. n.a.

5.96%

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

94.43

-7.3%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

48.1274

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

500.69

Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d

1.1627

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.3563

16.1%

2.65%

3.13%

16.1%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

36.5951

5.25%

-0.03%

1.89%

5.25%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.9414

3.11% n.a. n.a.

3.11%

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.9608

3.54%

3.54%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

0.01%

1.80%

828.5

3.36%

0%

1.79%

3.35%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7526

4.69%

-4.35%

-1.48%

4.69%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.7755

4.18%

-2.38%

0.16%

4.18%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.9445 2.92%

-0.34%

1.53%

2.92%

United Fund, Inc. -a

-0.61%

2.12%

3.58%

0.22%

2.27%

3.4373

3.58%

0.89%

Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c

111.4765

3.65%

3.65%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities $1.1265

-6.35%

6.63%

6.13%

-6.35%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.8464

ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

10.38%

18.66%

12.26%

10.38%

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

1.692

1.4%

0.82%

0.31%

1.4%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.2815

-0.17%

1.08%

0.58%

-0.17%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.691

2.44%

1.9%

2.15%

2.44%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.209 NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

5.5% n.a. n.a.

2.0167

2.52%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.7651

-0.66%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.8456

-0.56%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.1214

1.45%

0.83%

1.27%

1.45%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.6471 2.07%

-0.04%

0.88%

2.07%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9898

-3.21% n.a. n.a.

-3.21%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.9445

-0.5% n.a. n.a.

-0.5%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.9339

0.09% n.a. n.a.

0.09%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

7.49%

7.49%

0.9542

3.05%

2.62%

2.52%

2.18%

1.41%

-0.66%

1.93%

1.35%

-0.56%

1.16%

1.26%

5.5%

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

$0.03794

-2.97%

2.43%

1.68%

-2.97%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$1.0671

-5.57%

5.31%

3.88%

-5.57%

6.41%

13.22%

9.07%

6.41%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,2 $1.1986 1.28%

7.27%

4.75%

1.28%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.8021

Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

374.3

0.86%

2.91%

2.56%

0.86%

1.8847

-0.82%

0.46%

0.91%

-0.82%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.244

0.89%

2.91%

3.87%

0.89%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2515

-2.04%

1.88%

1.59%

-2.04%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.426

-1.11%

3.23%

1.92%

-1.11%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

-5.06%

3.89%

1.67%

-5.06%

4.3956

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3191

-0.17%

3.73%

2.82%

-0.17%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9658

-0.88%

4.08%

2.70%

-0.88%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0282

-1.47%

4.88%

2.21%

-1.47%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1874

-0.58%

4.84%

3.47%

-0.58%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-1.39%

3.97%

2.81%

-1.39%

1.7306

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

$489.57

1.15%

2.97%

2.52%

1.15%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є220.01

0.36%

1.14%

0.98%

0.36%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2039

-5.93%

2.26%

1.88%

-5.93%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.026 -2.26%

1.59%

1.03%

-2.26%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$1.0228

-6.17%

-0.44%

-0.50%

-6.17%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.5057

-1.35%

4.9%

3.04%

-1.35%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0622922 - 0.01%

3%

2.01%

-0.01%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1962 -0.85%

3.63%

1.97%

-0.85%

2.56%

1.06%

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

131.19

1.06%

2.77%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0577 0.92% n.a. n.a.

0.92%

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.3156

1.44%

1.44%

2.57%

2.53%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0606

0.66%

1.45% n.a.

0.66%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d 1.3829

22.42% n.a. n.a.

22.42%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a,d

$0.97

-1.02% n.a. n.a.

-1.02%

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

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

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

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

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Banking&Finance

LandBank opens 2 more hubs in Luzon provinces

L

AND Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) capped 2021 with the inauguration of its two “agri-hubs” located in Candaba, Pampanga and Echague, Isabela, “as part of the bank’s commitment to bring financial services closer to more” farmers and fishermen in the country’s top rice-producing provinces.

The state-run lender said its Candaba Agri-Hub is expected to provide banking, lending and agrarian services to local development players, including 22,011 farmers from Candaba’s 33 barangays including the adjacent towns of San Luis, Santa Ana, and Arayat.

As part of the bank’s continuing thrust of expanding touchpoints in key strategic areas nationwide, the newest Agri-Hub will also complement seven existing LandBank branches and 50 automated teller machines (ATMs) in Pampanga, the lender said.

Candaba Mayor Rene E. Maglanque, Vice Mayor Michael Dan V. Sagum and LandBank Central Luzon Branches Group Head, Senior Vice President Sylvia C. Lim led the inauguration of the Candaba AgriHub last December 28, 2021.

“I know that the construction and opening of LandBank Candaba Agri-Hub will attract more investors to our Municipality because we now have a credible bank. We are now one step closer to the realization of our development plans because of LandBank,” Maglanque was quoted in a statement as saying.

Located at the LGU Government Center, Candaba-Santa Ana Road, Pasig, Candaba, Pampanga, the Candaba Agri-Hub is the seventh to open nationwide.

Meanwhile, the Echague AgriHub is the first in the province of Isabela and eighth in the country, located at Echague-Poblacion Road, San Fabian, Echague, Isabela.

Initially opened on December 29, 2020, the LandBank Echague AgriHub provides financial and technical services, with a stronger focus on supporting more than 4,000 farmers and fisherfolk in the Municipality of Echague and other nearby municipalities, the Landbank said.

Aside from agriculture stakeholders, the Echague Agri-Hub also services various national and local government offices, private establishments, as well as micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the area.

The LandBank Echague Agri-Hub was officially inaugurated on December 29, 2021 led by LandBank North Luzon Branches Group Head, Senior Vice President Ma. Belma T. Turla with support from local Sangguniang Bayan Members.

LandBank said its agri-hubs offer banking services such as account opening, withdrawals, and check encashments; lending services such as the processing of loan applications; and agrarian services such as processing of Agrarian Reform (AR) bonds and handling of agrarianrelated concerns from landowners, bondholders, and agrarian reform beneficiaries.

The newly-opened “touchpoints” raise the total Agri-hubs in the country to eight, with the six other situated in the following areas: Calabanga, Camarines Sur; Barotac Viejo, Iloilo; Sual, Pangasinan; Echague, Isabela; Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur; and, Rizal, Nueva Ecija.

LandBank said it has grown its physical network to 412 branches and 71 branch-lite units as of end2021—the only bank with presence in all 81 provinces in the country.

The lender said it continues to expand its physical “touchpoints” to better serve the banking needs of customers across the country, especially in unbanked and underserved areas.

Bitcoin ends 2021 bang with December whimper

B

ITCOIN ended a banner year with a rocky finish.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value closed out December with a 19-percent drop, its largest monthly loss since May. That was also its worst December since 2013.

And its 60-percent advance in 2021 marked its smallest gain for an up year since 2015, when it climbed 36 percent. On Friday, the coin fell as much as 3.5 percent before rebounding somewhat to trade at about $46,300 as of 5 p.m. in New York.

That Bitcoin had a breakout year, though, is now settled debate after the token and the wider crypto world spent 2021 pushing further into the mainstream and capturing more attention from finance professionals and the public at large. Those watching Bitcoin’s daily gyrations say all of it is par for the course—the coin is famous for its volatility and this year proved just as choppy as any other.

“We’re seeing a little more volatility,” Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank, said in an interview. “It’s a speculative asset.”

Bitcoin started 2021 with a bang, quickly notching new highs as more investors—especially big-name Wall Street institutions—became interested in it as a speculative asset or as a hedge against rising prices. Other positive developments, including the launch of the first US exchangetraded fund tracking Bitcoin futures, also helped propel it higher over the year. Globally, more than $20 billion was invested in crypto exchangetraded products through November, a record, according to ETFGI, a research and consultancy firm. Assets increased roughly 550 percent year to date, up from $3.1 billion at the end of last year, the firm said in a report.

“W hat lifted Bitcoin above $20,000 was this excitement factor that, ‘Oh my God, it’s not just a bunch of kids. It’s real. Institutions are going

to make strategic allocations in Bitcoin because it’s a limited supply, it’s only going to go higher,’” said Michael Purves, chief executive and founder of Tallbacken Capital Advisors. “The next stage of this sort of awkward adolescence of Bitcoin is going to require something more than that.”

Bitcoin has had a rough time since hitting an all-time high of near $69,000 in early November. Partly, analysts say, it’s being buffeted by concerns over greater regulatory scrutiny around the world. But it’s also losing dominance to other lesser-known upstarts that have gained in popularity as the crypto ecosystem expanded this year. Among the biggest cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin posted the best return, adding roughly 1,300 percent in 2021.

Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co., says Bitcoin’s year-end volatility might be a result of investors jettisoning nonwinning trades.

“Institutional investors like to pump up their large holdings at the end of the year and scale back [or in some cases, dump] their losers,” he wrote in a note this week. “Well, guess what? A lot of institutional players were late to the game on Bitcoin and other cryptos this year.”

Bitcoin’s gains for the year remain impressive, and it isn’t faring as poorly as it has during past drawdowns. Its 30 percent drop from its high is not as drastic as other swoons it’s experienced. The average decline from a record sits at around 46 percent, according Bespoke Investment Group.

Bitcoin’s mid-year pullback was even worse, with the coin down more than 50 percent at its low.

Looking ahead, many investors— in classic “crypto-to-the-moon” fashion—are expecting prices to recover and eventually reach new highs. The wild swings in the market suggest it could go either way. Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Monday, January 3, 2022

B3

Bank-hacking victims urged to file complaints with BSP

A

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

lawmaker on Sunday said depositors who lost money due to computer hacking should file formal complaints with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Rep. Michael T. Defensor of Anakalusugan said in a statement that victims should seek assistance if they are not satisfied with the way their cases were resolved by their banks.

“The BSP has an administrative mechanism in place to provide remedy to aggrieved depositors who feel that they’ve been treated unfairly by their banks,” Defensor said.

He urged disgruntled bank cli-

ents to email the BSP’s Consumer Assistance Desk at consumeraffairs@ bsp.gov.ph.

Defensor, meanwhile, dismissed the blanket liability disclaimers in the terms and conditions governing bank accounts as adhesion contracts “that cannot be enforced when depositors lose money under conditions where they are not at fault.”

“If you are a blameless depositor and you lose money because the

bank’s computer system got hacked and illegal transfers were made out of your account, then the bank has no choice but to reimburse your losses,” Defensor said.

“Certain provisions of bank adhesion contracts, such as sweeping liability denials, may be voided or disregarded by regulators and the courts, if it is found that innocent depositors lost money because of security breaches in the bank’s computer system,” the lawmaker explained.

Response

DEFENSOR was responding to the controversy surrounding BDO Unibank Inc.’s alleged insertion of an all-encompassing liability disclaimer in its terms and conditions after hackers stole funds from hundreds of depositors.

The disavowal states that the bank “shall not be liable for any

looses arising from improper or fraudulent access to online banking accounts.”

BDO, the country’s largest bank by assets, in a statement, has categorically denied updating its terms and conditions with the disclaimer, saying the clause has been there “for a long time.”

BDO has also clarified that there were no changes made to their terms and conditions after the cybercrime incident that affected hundreds of their clients earlier this month.

Weeks ago, BDO has been the target of a cybercrime incident wherein cash were transferred unknowingly from BDO account holders to a certain “Mark Nagoyo,” who has several accounts in the UnionBank of the Philippines Inc. BDO said they are currently processing the reimbursement of close to 700 clients affected by the recent online fraudulent transactions.

Sun Life extends grace period for Odette-hit areas

S

UN Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. announced it is extending its grace period to 91 days for clients residing in areas affected by Typhoon Odette.

The extension will be applied to policies and plans with due dates falling from November 16, 2021, to January 16, 2022.

It will specifically cover the following areas: Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan and Romblon in Mimaropa; Albay and Masbate in Region V; Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental in Region VI; Bohol, Cebu, Siquijor and Negros Oriental in Region VII; Eastern Samar, Leyte, Western Samar and Southern Leyte in Region VIII; Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur in Region IX; Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Misamis

Oriental in Region X; Davao de Oro and Davao del Sur in Region XI; and Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur in Caraga.

Traditional life insurance policies and pre-need plans covered by this notice will not lapse if premiums or installments are paid within the given grace period extension. Meanwhile, for VUL policies, the extension will take effect when the total fund value becomes negative anytime from November 16, 2021 to January 16, 2022.

“This gesture is our simple way of being there for our clients as they strive to recover from the impact of the typhoon,” Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. and Sun Life Financial Plans Inc. President Alex Narciso was quoted in a statement as saying. “As their partner for life,

Alex Narciso, president of Sun Life of Canada (PH) Inc. CREDIT: Sun Life of Canada (PH) Inc.

we stand ready to assist them so they will remain on track in their financial journey despite the challenges.”

Residents of the aforementioned areas who will receive a payment reminder or a lapsed notice are advised

to disregard those and instead refer to the extended grace period above.

Meanwhile, the insurer said its philanthropic arm has, likewise, extended assistance to those affected by the typhoon. Food aid has been provided to over 7,000 families in Surigao, Cebu and Bohol through several organizations, the firm said.

According to Narciso, who also serves as president of Sun Life Foundation Inc., the company will continue to explore ways that it can assist those in need.

“Our promise of a brighter future extends to the greater community,” he was quoted in the statement as saying. “Through the Sun Life Foundation, we look forward to launching more sustainable initiatives that will bring holistic health closer to more Filipinos especially amid these trying times.”

Perspectives Cyber security considerations for 2022

K

PMG has identified eight key cyber security considerations for 2022.

Expanding the strategic security conversation

THE last two years have redefined how we live, govern and conduct business. Securing and protecting critical assets, systems and, most importantly, sensitive proprietary and customer data is no longer exclusively an issue for security and information technology (IT) professionals. Rather, handling and mitigating risk to help the strategic viability and operational sustainability of the entire organization is a shared responsibility that starts with the business.

Achieving the x-factor: Critical talent and skillsets

PERHAPS the biggest change we’ve seen, in terms of the security team’s relationship with the rest of the organization—certainly in the age of Covid, but even going back several years before the onset of the pandemic—is an increased need for speed-to-market, albeit with an acknowledgment of the risks involved.

Adapting security for the cloud

WHILE digital transformation propels cloud adoption and usage forward, it also puts institutions and businesses at greater cyber risk.

Lack of cloud security skills means the business of protecting the organization operates at a distinct trust deficit. Cloud may be everywhere, but so are hackers and other criminal actors.

Placing identity at the heart of zero trust

WITH tens of millions of employees working at their kitchen tables and in their home offices, and billions of consumers purchasing goods on their phones from anywhere and everywhere, protecting mission-critical and other sensitive data within a complex ecosystem of suppliers and partners has never been more essential. In an environment where cybercriminals are often just a click away, organizations should adopt a zero-trust mindset and architecture, with identity and access management at the heart of it.

Exploiting security automation

COMPANIES are successfully automating the security function and freeing up resources by applying automation to routine, repetitive tasks.

Work that was previously performed by highly trained professionals, such as vulnerability scanning, log analysis and compliance is being standardized and automatically executed. This can boost the analyst’s productivity, speed up incident detection and reaction times and can provide an opportunity for scalability. Automating lower-level threats and routine transactions augments the security operations center by enabling it to prioritize tasks more effectively and respond more quickly to threats that require human intervention.

Protecting the privacy frontier

AT many companies, cyber security and data privacy are seen as different disciplines that often operate

in silos. In an environment where so much sensitive data is captured and utilized, the review of third parties, new systems and new applications requires a multidisciplinary approach to privacy risk management—one that includes both privacy and security from the design phase through to organizational change management.

Securing beyond the boundaries

MOST organizations are no longer the single, monolithic entities many customers have long believed them to be. They’re deeply operationally dependent on a robust supply chain, as well as a myriad of traditional and non-traditional partners that often have direct access to business systems and data. Although regulatory standards and mutually agreed-upon security frameworks can help minimize the impact of third-party cyber threats, there are situations where the participants in these complex ecosystem structures—cloud providers, SaaS companies, Internet of Things (IoT) device manufacturers, etc.—may not have clear obligations for establishing adequate controls to protect their partners’ data, leaving the entire network vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Reframing the cyber resilience conversation

WHEN CEOs are asked how they approach the possibility of a cyberattack, most say, “There is a plan” and “It’s high on the board’s agenda.”

Experience from the last few months suggests the more pertinent questions are: How prepared are you as a

business to face a four- to six-week outage as a result of a cyberattack?

How would it impact customer service? What would it mean for your call and distribution centers? Would you be able to cover the next payroll?

Could you pay suppliers? How might an outage impact the company’s regulatory and legal requirements?

Resilience demands an assessment of the key operational processes of the business and a strategy for protecting them.

Going forward, the hyperconnected smart society will likely face increased cyber risks on multiple global fronts via numerous evolving threat vectors. Clearly, the technological advances powering business, communications and entertainment bring with them new perils. In this report, we’ve explored such timely topics as the evolving security team, automating the security function, data privacy and securing the ecosystem. Now, we take a look at several emerging cyber security challenges.

While none of these topics are new, we believe they’ll soon become major areas of focus for cyber professionals across virtually every industrial sector.

The excerpt was taken from the KPMG Thought Leadership publication “Cyber security considerations for 2022.” © 2022 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG global organization of independent member-firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private English company limited by guarantee. All rights reserved.

For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may send a message via social media or visit www.home.kpmg/ph.

B4 Monday, January 3, 2022

Explainer BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Conspiracy theories paint fraudulent

reality of Jan. 6 riot

By David Klepper The Associated Press

M

illions of Americans watched the events in Washington last January 6 unfold on live television.

Police officers testified to the violence and mayhem. Criminal proceedings in open court detailed what happened.

Yet the hoaxes, conspiracy theories and attempts to rewrite history persist, muddying the public’s understanding of what actually occurred during the most sustained attack on the seat of American democracy since the War of 1812.

By excusing former President Donald Trump of responsibility, minimizing the mob’s violence and casting the rioters as martyrs, falsehoods about the insurrection aim to deflect blame for January 6 while sustaining Trump’s unfounded claims about the free and fair election in 2020 that he lost.

Spread by politicians, broadcast by cable news pundits and amplified by social media, the falsehoods are a stark reminder of how many Americans may no longer trust their own institutions or their own eyes.

Several different conspiracy theories have emerged in the year since the insurrection, according to an analysis of online content by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs on behalf of The Associated Press.

Unfounded claims that the rioters were members of antifa went viral first, only to be overtaken by a baseless claim blaming FBI operatives. Other theories say the rioters were peaceful and were framed for crimes that never happened.

Conspiracy theories have long lurked in the background of American history, said Dustin Carnahan, a Michigan State University professor who studies political misinformation. But they can become dangerous when they lead people to distrust democracy or to excuse or embrace violence.

“If we’re no longer operating from the same foundation of facts, then it’s going to be a lot harder to have conversations as a country,” Carnahan said. “It will fuel more divisions in our country, and I think that ultimately is the legacy of the misinformation we’re seeing right now.”

An examination of some of the top falsehoods about the Capitol riot and the people who have spread them:

CLAIM: THE RIOTERS WEREN’T TRUMP SUPPORTERS In fact, many of those who came to the Capitol on January 6 have said—proudly, publicly, repeatedly—that they did so to help the then-president.

Different versions of the claim suggest they were FBI operatives or members of the anti-fascist movement antifa.

“Earlier today, the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement,” Laura Ingraham said on her Fox News show the night of January 6, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “They were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”

The next day, Ingraham acknowledged the inaccuracy when she tweeted a link to a story debunking the claim.

Another Fox host, Tucker Carlson, has spread the idea that the FBI orchestrated the riot. He cites as evidence the indictments of some January 6 suspects that mention unindicted co-conspirators, a common legal term that merely refers to

RIOTERS on the West Front at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington. AP/John Minchillo

suspects who haven’t been charged, and not evidence of undercover agents or informants.

Yet Carlson claimed on his show that “in potentially every single case, they were FBI operatives.”

Carlson is a “main driver” of the idea that January 6 was perpetrated by agents of the government, according to Zignal’s report. It found the claim spiked in October when Carlson released a documentary series about the insurrection.

Members of Congress, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., have helped spread the theories.

“Some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters, they were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa,” Gaetz said.

Spokespeople for Carlson and Gaetz say they stand by their claims. In truth, the rioters are just who they said they were.

One was a recently elected state lawmaker from West Virginia, a Republican Trump supporter named Derrick Evans who resigned following his arrest. Evans streamed video of himself illegally entering the Capitol.

“They’re making an announcement now saying if Pence betrays us you better get your mind right because we’re storming the building,” Evans said on the video. “The door is cracked!…We’re in, we’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!” Vice President Mike Pence was in the building to preside over the Senate’s certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory. Pence went ahead despite Trump’s pleas to get Pence to block the transfer of power.

During testimony before Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray was asked whether there was any reason to believe the insurrection was organized by “fake Trump protesters.”

“We have not seen evidence of that,” said Wray, who was appointed by Trump.

CLAIM: THE RIOTERS WEREN’T VIOLENT DOZENS of police officers were severely injured.

One Capitol Police officer who was attacked and assaulted with bear spray suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes.

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” The assault stopped only when he said he had children.

He later learned he had suffered a heart attack. Fanone resigned from the department in December 2021.

my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming actually,” Trump said on Fox News in December.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Trump bears some responsibility for the Capitol breach, according to a survey last year by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

CLAIM: ASHLI BABBITT WAS KILLED BY AN OFFICER WORKING FOR DEMOCRATS

A VENDOR sells items near the rally with President Donald Trump near the White House, January 6, 2021, in Washington. AP/Jose Luis Magana

Rioters broke into the Senate chamber minutes after senators had fled under armed protection. They rifled through desks and looked for lawmakers, yelling, “Where are they?” In House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, staffers hid under desks while rioters called out the name of the California Democrat.

That’s not how some Republican politicians have described the insurrection.

Appearing on Ingraham’s show in May, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he condemned the Capitol breach as well as the violence, but said it was wrong to term it an insurrection.

“By and large it was a peaceful protest, except for there were a number of people, basically agitators, that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol,” Johnson said.

Johnson has since said that he doesn’t want the violent actions of a few to be used to impugn all.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, after watching video footage of rioters walking through the Capitol, said it resembled a “normal tourist visit.”

Other video evidence from Jan. 6 showed Clyde, R-Ga., helping barricade the House doors in an attempt to keep the rioters out.

Trump called the insurrection a display of “ spirit and faith and love.”

Rioters also broke windows and doors, stole items from offices and caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage. Outside the Capitol someone set up a gallows with a noose.

“The notion that this was somehow a tour-

ist event is disgraceful and despicable,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in May. “And, you know, I won’t be part of whitewashing what happened on Jan. 6. Nobody should be part of it. And people ought to be held accountable.”

CLAIM: TRUMP DID NOT ENCOURAGE THE RIOTERS TRUMP may now want to minimize his involvement, but he spent months sounding a steady drumbeat of conspiracy theory and grievance, urging his followers to fight to somehow return him to power.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. “Be there, will be wild!”

Immediately before the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump spoke for more than an hour, telling his supporters they had been “cheated” and “defrauded” in the “rigged” election by a “criminal enterprise” that included lawmakers who were now meeting in the Capitol.

At one point, Trump did urge his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voice heard.” The rest of his speech was filled with hostile rhetoric.

“We fight. We fight like hell,” he told those who would later break into the Capitol. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Now, Trump says he had nothing to do with the riot.

“I wasn’t involved in that, and if you look at

BABBITT died after being shot in the shoulder by a lieutenant in the Capitol Police force as she and others pressed to enter the Speaker’s Lobby outside the House chamber.

Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was unarmed. An investigation cleared the officer of wrongdoing.

The Capitol Police Department protects all members of Congress, as well as employees, the public and Capitol facilities. The officer wasn’t assigned to any particular lawmaker.

Trump falsely claimed the officer was the head of security “for a certain high official, a Democrat,” and was being shielded from accountability. He also misstated where Babbitt was shot.

“Who is the person that shot...an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head?” Trump asked on Fox News.

CLAIM: THE JAN. 6 SUSPECTS ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS AND ARE BEING MISTREATED NO, they are not, despite some assertions from members of Congress.

“J6 defendants are political prisoners of war,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted in November. She said she had visited some suspects in jail who complained about the food, medical care and “re-education” they were receiving in custody.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said the Justice Department was “harassing peaceful patriots” by investigating their involvement in the insurrection.

While it’s true some of the suspects have complained about their time in jail, it’s wrong to argue they’re being held as political prisoners. Authorities have said the suspects in custody are being given the same access to food and medical care as any other inmate.

One of the most notorious rioters, Jacob Chansley, known as the QAnon Shaman, was given organic food in his jail cell after he complained about the food options.

Style

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Monday, January 3, 2022

B5

The gift of knowledge Very Peri declared 2022

Color of the Year VERY PERI (PANTONE 17-3938), created as a symbol of global zeitgeist, has been declared as the Color of the Year. It encompasses a lively periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone, blending the faithfulness and constancy of blue and the energy and excitement of red.

Twenty twenty-two marks the first time a Pantone Color of the Year has been customcreated. Considered as the happiest and warmest of all blue tones, the new shade radiates a presence that inspires creativity as the world welcomes a transformative chapter.

The Pantone Color Institute is the specialist unit that highlights the seasonal runway colors, forecasts global trends, and advises for product and brand visual identity. The organization believes that the up-to-the-minute tint exhibits the fusion of modern life and how color trends encompass both the digital and the physical landscapes.

The selection process for the Pantone Color of the Year undergoes meticulous trend analysis spearheaded by the institution’s team of experts.

Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman noted that Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision as the world welcomes an unprecedented change. “It displays spritely, joyous attitude, and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expressions,” she expounded.

“Creating a new color for the first time in the history of our educational color program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place,” Pantone Color Institute Vice President Laurie Pressman added. “As society continues to recognize color as a critical form of communication, a way to express and affect ideas and emotions, and engage and connect, the complexity of this new red violet infused blue hue highlights the expansive possibilities that lay before us.”

Fashion designer and industry expert Ionica Abraham Lim, an educator at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, explained that both the 2022 fashion trends and color of the year exude an optimistic mood that represents diverse emotions.

“We are redesigning the future based on the changes that we are experiencing this pandemic,” she started. “Very Peri creates new ideas and opportunities for trends and it illuminates how fashion is evolving into a more inventive industry.”

Very Peri’s charming blue and red blend also establishes a message of credibility.

The shade sees usage in apparel, fashion accessories, furniture, home interiors and even in beauty products for the eyes, nails and hair.

ESSENTIAL fashion reads and the giftgivers: Philippine Costume by J. Moreno (Pitoy Moreno); Santo Niño: The Holy Child Devotion in the Philippines by Abe Florendo (Ben Farrales); Pinoy Dressing: Weaving Culture into Fashion by Barge Ramos; Fashion: The Century of the Designer 1900-1999

by Charlotte Seeling (Auggie Cordero); PradaSphere (Lesley Mobo); Front Row: Anna Wintour - What Lies Beneath the Chic Interior of Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief by Jerry Oppenheimer (Anthony Nocom); Fashionable Filipinas by Gino Gonzales and Mark Lewis Higgins (Ben Chan); Fashion Today

by Colin McDowell (Toots Tolentino); Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (Michael Cinco).

H

ERE’S a humble-brag to start a Happy New Year. Over the years, fashion provocateurs have graciously gifted me with coffee-table, hardcover and biographical books. The volumes allow me to have a grasp on the history of fashion and the fascinating people that make it thrive.

With gratitude, the following are my generous sponsors and their gifts: “Philippine Costume” by J. Moreno (1995).

In my first visit to his shop in Malate in 2001, the “Fashion Czar of Asia” Jose “Pitoy” Moreno gifted me with this book with a note: “Share with us our pride and joy in making this book on Filipino Costume our national heritage.” Published by his J.Moreno Foundation, Moreno dedicated the tome to the First Ladies of the country. “Costume is culture manifested in clothing. Filipino dress traditions sum up, in every stitch and seam, the elements of local culture, past and present,” he writes in the intro.

“Santo Niño: The Holy Child Devotion in the Philippines” by Abe Florendo (2001). I made frequent visits to the atelier of Mang Ben Farrales, and in one of those, he gifted me with this book. With photography by George Tapan, it also showcases the clothing finery of the Child Jesus.

“Simplicity, forthrightness, the capacity to live fully in the present, a sense of wonder and awe.

These are the qualities that I cultivate ceaselessly in my pursuit of beauty in my fashion designs and in my commitment to spread the devotion to the Infant Jesus through the Congregacion del Santisimo Nombre del Niño Jesus,” writes the Dean of Filipino Designers.

“Pinoy Dressing: Weaving Culture into Fashion” by Barge Ramos (2007). With illustrations by Loretto, the book compiled Barge’s columns in Malaya Living under editor Winnie Velasquez. “Pinoy dressing is an attempt to continue and integrate weaving culture into contemporary design ideas, in the hope of preserving past values and enriching them with new ideas for contemporary applications,” writes my insatiable insider source of local fashion lore. “In exploring the old and realizing the new, we rethread the very fabric of our lives.”

“Fashionable Filipinas: An Evolution of the Philippine National Dress in Photographs 1860-1960” by Gino Gonzales and Mark Lewis Higgins (2015). This is an essential reference guide on the terno. In the publisher’s note, lifestyle bigwig Ben Chan writes: “In support of fashion education, this book is dedicated to future generations of Filipinos who take interest in this aspect of our history and who discover from it both inspiration and a clearer sense of themselves.”

“Fashion: The Century of the Designer 19001999” by Charlotte Seeling (2000). I got this when I met the reclusive genius Auggie Cordero when he decided to make a “comeback” in 2005. This informative book follows the evolution of fashion

from the beginning of the 20th century to its end.

I can only hope that a similar volume will be made on Pinoy talents, “a decade-by-decade account of all the prevailing fashion for the period and its most influential designers.”

“Fashion Today” by Colin McDowell (2000). I got this as a Christmas gift in 2006 from publicist Toots Tolentino, who has bequeathed me with many useful books. What makes this special is that in 2013 I met the author, and asked him to autograph the heavy book, when he gave a talk during Design Week Philippines. This informative, highly illustrated survey of modern fashion explains “why designers have become as important as the clothes they make.”

“Front Row: Anna Wintour - What Lies Beneath the Chic Interior of Vogue’s Editor-inChief” by Jerry Oppenheimer (2005). I “inherited” hundreds of magazines from menswear master Anthony Nocom. He is also generous in giving me books. This catty book asks, “How did Wintour, who quit school over the length of her hemline, and with no real writing or communication skills, rise to the pinnacle of the fashion magazine world?”

“Pradasphere” (2015). At the launch of a fashion school in Manila, London-based designer Lesley Mobo gave this book to media attendees. It is about Prada’s 2014 exhibit at Harrods. Miuccia Prada explains that the giant book “demonstrates the way we think about our work, and all of the different forces that shape that thinking: our origins, the things we have made, the creative input of our collaborators, the insights drawn from parallel disciplines such as art, film and architecture, and the fundamental influence of traditional craftsmanship and materials mixed with contemporary manufacturing and technology.”

“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” by Andrew Bolton (2011). A companion to the exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the book celebrates the career of the extraordinary designer: “It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic.” The Brit is an inspiration to universal designer Michael Cinco, who gifted me this book and Valentino: Themes and Variations.

Here’s a new Filipino beauty brand worth checking out

PHOTO BY JULIANA MAXINE C. VASQUEZ

ONE of the biggest changes brought about by the pandemic when it comes to the buying habits of beauty enthusiasts is that most of us are now more open to buying products made in the Philippines. Thanks to brands like Colourette Cosmetics, Happy Skin, BLK Cosmetics, GRWM, and Issy & Co., we now know that for a product to be of good quality, it does not need to be conceptualized and/or made abroad.

Habitude is a new skin-care brand perfect for those who don’t really exert a lot of effort when it comes to their beauty regimen but still want to be covered when it comes to caring for their skin. For now, the line includes three products that “skinimalists” will find no difficulty in using individually but which can also be incorporated in an already extensive beauty routine.

It is easy for someone like me to assume that every woman has a skincare routine. That’s actually not true. Some women don’t have the time or the inclina-

tion, while others are intimidated by the array of products out there.

Founded by PR lady Romina Nañagas, her sister Noelle Hui and their tita Edna Dolores and former magazine editor Nikki Santiago Rivera, Habitude not only champions all kinds of beauty but also Filipino craftsmanship. Dolores has decades of experience under her belt, thanks to her own Vista Pharma.

Romina has handled a lot of beauty brands while Nikki had worked for one of the country’s most prominent titles.

The idea for Habitude was planted in Romina’s mind after Noelle pointed out that Lucas Papaw Ointment, which is made from fermented papaya, is one of the most popular products of Australia.

“We don’t have our own cult favorite type of product, despite being a tropical country that’s rich in a lot of potent and sought-after plant ingredients, including papaya,” said Noelle.

“Habitude is for anyone who wants skin-care products that perform well and have good local ingredients,” said Romina.

The striking tropical prints on Habitude’s packaging were created by awardwinning graphic artist Raxenne Maniquiz. All products are housed in recyclable materials and the tube is certified 100% compostable.

First in the line-up is Hardworking Miracle Water (P849/100ml), a toner and hydrator formulated with clarifying and anti-aging botanicals including Galactomyces and micronutrient-rich rice ferment filtrate (Oryza sativa). If you’re familiar with fermented toners and essences (we won’t name other brands here but there are a lot of options in the market), you know that they are a must if you want nourished and glowy skin. Lactic acid, a popular ingredient in skin-care products, is made from fermented milk. I use Miracle Water in the morning instead of a cleanser before I apply a serum and sunscreen. I actually have not used it as a

micellar water but you can use it to remove non-waterproof makeup. For mascara and other water-resistant makeup, it’s better to use an oil-based remover. For me, this is the star product in the line right now.

The second product in the Habitude line is Seriously Revitalizing Serum (P949/30ml), which has high concentrations of plant mucin, 2% hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, powerful antioxidants and heritage botanicals. This can be used after the Miracle Water or any other toner or essence. If you want a skincare routine with just three steps, you can skip the toner or essence and apply this serum day and night after cleansing.

The product I was most excited about was the Go-Getter Moisture + Sun Stick (P550/25g), a facial moisturizer and sunscreen in one handy stick. Months before Habitude’s launch, Romina gave me a spoiler that the line would include this stick, which contains 20% Zinc oxide, skin-loving emollients and antioxidant botanicals such as Carrot Seed Oil, Tomato Leaf Extract and Aloe Vera to nourish and illuminate skin and protect against UV damage. The Sun Stick was also the first product I tried. I’m more than halfway through mine, which I’ve had for about a month so that tells you how much I love it.

The Habitude products are all fragranced so if you’re very particular about that, you might want to check out reviews before purchasing. I’ve used all three products without any problems. My favorite is the Miracle Water but my most used one is the Sun Stick.

Nikki said there was a need to mask the smell of the natural ingredients with fragrance. Scents used for the Habitude products have met the standards of the International Fragrance Regulatory Association. This means the scents and the products are tested to make sure they are hypoallergenic and safe to use.

Habitude is available on www.habitude.ph.

B6 Monday, January 3, 2022

CSC opens 2022 search for public service exemplars

MPower’s energy solutions win gold in the Zuellig Sustainability Awards

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UELLIG Pharma’s steadfast commitment to holistic sustainability remains resolute as the company concluded its 2021 Supplier Sustainability Awards last December 1, 2021.

In line with its transformative journey to sustainability, Zuellig Pharma, Asia’s leading health care services provider, celebrates its meaningful partnerships with global suppliers by recognizing noble contributions towards sustainability.

Zuellig Pharma Corporation is present in 14 countries across the Asia Pacific region each with individual vendor nominations. The 14 international nominees were evaluated based on four sustainability pillars (Impact, Innovation, Insights, and Initiative) and MPower bested all other international nominees. Following MPower are silver and bronze awardees Sodexo (India) and Agility Logistics (Thailand), respectively.

Since MPower’s inception in 2013, it has been committed to delivering stable and reliable energy as well as best-in-class energy solutions and to driving flagship Corporate Social Responsibility programs in line with Meralco’s sustainability agenda. The Kinder Classroom Project, which has built and inaugurated 9 classrooms with audio-visual learning materials, has benefitted more than 2,500 students, enabling more conducive learning spaces for the Filipino youth during their formative years. This multi-awarded program garnered 7 awards and has been recognized by the Department of Education and various local government units for its efforts to uphold quality Filipino education. Prior to this, MPower, together with its partners

also conducted school electrification programs in off grid locations by way of donating and installing solar panels in selected schools. In addition, in the last two years, MPower reached Php 1M in donations for 12 school beneficiaries in Luzon and the Visayas for its BackTo-School Donation Drive to support modular learning during the pandemic.

To help counter the effects of climate change and to help realize decarbonization goals, CommuniTrees, an annual tree planting program with MPower’s partners, is on track to plant 8,000 seedlings across Luzon by the end of 2021 to mark MPower’s eight fruitful years in the business.

This is in support of Meralco’s thrust of building a sustainable and greener future by nurturing the environment and by giving back to the communities it serves.

MPower was also privileged to present its projects to a global audience through a paper on Corporate Social Responsibility Opportunities for the Philippine Competitive Retail Electricity Market during the Conference on Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI) held in Malaysia in September 2018.

Meralco President and CEO, Atty.

Ray C. Espinosa said, “We are deeply honored to be this year’s Zuellig Supplier Sustainability Gold awardee.

Sustainability truly is at the core of our strategy and operations as a Company, and we, in Meralco, are committed not only to keep the lights on, but also to power the good life for all. MPower SVP and Head, Mr. Roberto Almazora voiced out the same saying, “We, at MPower, have always pursued our business endeavors with sustainability embedded at our core and to be recognized for our efforts is both humbling and reassuring that we are navigating towards the right direction.”

In recent years, MPower has also significantly ramped up its clean energy transition in support of the government's sustainability and decarbonization efforts by sourcing from renewable energy (RE) power plants. “We are one with the government to achieve its 50% RE energy mix aspiration by 2040. As a responsible retailer, the only way to do this is to contract from clean and greenfield plants, to encourage new RE investments, and to shift away from old and unsustainable energy sources.” said Almazora. Learn more at www.mpower. com.ph.

MVP Group supports Typhoon Odette affected areas through Gabay sa Pagbangon Concert

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HE Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP) Group of Companies continues to augment its support for the communities affected

by Typhoon Odette amid the holiday season. Beyond the initiatives that its companies mobilized throughout the past week, the group organized “Gabay sa Pagbangon”, an online concert for the benefit of the calamity-stricken areas in Visayas and Mindanao, which streamed live free on December 29 via the Gabay Advocacies, Gabay Guro, and DepEd Facebook pages.

Spearheaded by Metro Pacific Investments Foundation (MPIF), PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF), and the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), and with the support of the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB), “Gabay sa Pagbangon” brought together a premiere roster of local talents, performing for the purpose of generating more aid and assistance for the affected communities.

Hosted by Pops Fernandez and with the special participation of Derek Ramsey, Iza Calzado, and Dominic Roque, the performance lineup included artists who have have supported Gabay Guro for over 15 years in their own personal capacity.

The Concert is the group’s secondary effort towards drumming up more financial and in-kind help.

“You cannot have donor fatigue during times like this, because they just need help,” said Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan in an interview. “Whatever we can do – from the smallest to the biggest of help that we can render will be greatly appreciated by our people.”

MPIC President and CEO Jose Ma.

K. Lim expressed his thanks to those who have made the event possible. “We will only be able to rise above any devastation if we help one another. We are thankful for everyone who made this collaboration happen, as this initiative is in line with our purpose of uplifting the lives of Filipinos.”

Reaching Out for Purpose

IN collaboration with the Department of Education (DepEd), a significant amount of the proceeds was earmarked for the benefit of affected teachers and learners in the ravaged areas. For several years, the group has helped many disaster-stricken areas to normalize their situation, developing efforts that aim to uplift the level of resilience in these communities.

Through Gabay Guro, the MVP Group’s flagship advocacy program, classrooms were built to withstand more than 250 kph winds as part of the group’s sustainability and climate resilience initiatives. Schools built in Leyte, Bohol, Capiz after Typhoon Yolanda and the big earthquake survived the wrath of Odette.

Calling Out for Healing

BEYOND providing relief support, the concert aimed to reiterate the importance of climate

change awareness and spark urgency towards climate action, environmental responsibility, and the development of sustainable initiatives with respect to climate resilience. Odette serves as a devastating reminder that the time to act is now.

Super typhoons such as these are a stark example of what the country and the rest of the world will continue to experience if the continuous neglect for the environment persists. Through Gabay Kalikasan, the group aims to become catalysts for a cleaner, greener, and more resilient planet for every Filipino. With the support of ACB, the “Gabay sa Pagbangon” benefit concert is only one of the MVP Group’s trumpeting initiatives to reach out to more Filipinos and encourage positive change.

“Our group has always been at the forefront of environmental protection because we believe that it is our collective responsibility to heed the call for climate action and take care of our environment and natural ecosystems in light of our importance to our planet’s health” said MPIC Chief Finance, Risk and Sustainability Officer Chaye A. Cabal-Revilla. “This is why, for years now, we have been actively pursuing environmental protection programs such as reforestation, urban biodiversity, mangroves preservation, marine protection, and wetlands conservation.”

In line with the MVP Gabay Advocacies for a Sustainable Philippines, Gabay Komunidad focuses on building a more resilient and disaster-prepared country. Guided by this advocacy, the entire group is taking significant strides towards providing as much assistance to the victims as possible, as soon as possible.

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HE Civil Service Commission (CSC) has opened the 2022 Search for Outstanding Government Workers, which aims to recognize deserving public servants who excel in their respective fields or who serve as models of exemplary behavior.

As part of the government’s rewards and incentives mechanism under the Honor Awards Program (HAP), the annual Search aims to motivate and inspire state employees to improve the quality of their performance and instill deeper involvement in public service.

All government workers in the career and non-career service including appointive barangay officials may be nominated. Employees who are under job order or contract of service are excluded from the coverage of the program.

Posthumous nomination is also accepted for public servants who died in the line of duty or in the pursuit of their official duties and responsibilities. The nomination must be made within 12 months from the time of death.

There are three award categories: the Presidential Lingkod Bayan (PLB) Award and the CSC Pagasa Award for outstanding work performance, and the Outstanding Public Officials and Employees or the Dangal ng Bayan (DNB) Award for exemplary behavior.

Previous awardees under the annual Search include former Philippine National Police Chief Guillermo Eleazar, and Dr. Raul V. Destura, known as the scientist behind the GenAmplify COVID-19 rRTPCR Detection Kit or the locally-developed COVID-19 test kit. Both were PLB awardees for 2021 and 2019, respectively.

Receiving the DNB Award in 2021 was Philippine General Hospital’s Dr. Jose

Jonas del Rosario, a pediatric cardiologist who pioneered in the country a procedure called cardiac catheterization—a minimally invasive, less risky, and less expensive alternative to open-heart surgery.

CSC Pagasa group awardee for 2021, “Jobscouts: Pathfinders of Employment Opportunities” of the City Government of Tagum, Davao del Norte, was recognized for guiding and assisting jobseekers through its Career Employability Skills and Assessment Test, career and employment coaching, and Barangay Education and Employment Desk. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, the group was able to place 81.79% of applicants in 2020.

Deadline of submission of nominations is on 31 March 2022. Nominations must be submitted to the CSC Regional or Field Offices. Guidelines and other pertinent information are available at www.csc.gov.ph.

Interested parties may contact the HAP Secretariat at telephone number (02) 8932-0381, Contact Center ng Bayan SMS 0908-8816565, or via email at: email@contactcenterngbayan.gov.ph or hapsecretariat@csc.gov.ph.

After a challenging year, RIMOWA’s new campaign celebrates the power of resilience

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IMOWA honors the remarkable capacity to withstand and flourish in even the most unprecedented of circumstances. Titled “Resilience is a Gift,” the new campaign features a series of vignettes that showcase RIMOWA’s aluminum pieces as hardy companions built to withstand a lifetime of movement.

Showcased in three individual films, RIMOWA’s new campaign pays tribute to the formidable power of resilience as an essential tool in navigating life’s twists and turns. Directed by Elena Petitti Di Roreto, the campaign follows the journeys of a musician with the Original Cabin, a skater with the Classic Cabin, and an

art curator with the Personal Aluminum Cross-Body Bag. Featuring Di Roreto’s signature attention to details, light, and compositions, the films capture the ability of RIMOWA’s exceptionally engineered pieces to support the demands and ambitions of purposeful lives – wherever they may be headed.

Since RIMOWA first revealed an aluminum suitcase in 1937, the ultralightweight and resilient material has become synonymous with the German Maison. To this day, 80% of the production of an aluminum suitcase is by hand, with an average of 200 components and around 100 steps to assemble each one.

Norwegian Center aids OdettePH victims

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AST December 21, The Norwegian Training Center’s (NTC) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm, spearheaded by the Managing Director, Capt. Jo Even Tomren pursued immediate action to reach families severely affected by super typhoon Odette in Cebu. Help was extended through the distribution of different supplies such as boxes of water bottles, ready-to-eat meals, blankets, and mosquito nets.

In addition, the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (NSA) family is providing

financial assistance through a partnership with Philippine Red Cross which will help address those who were affected by typhoon Odette.

NTC was established by the Norwegian Shipowners Association in 1990, as they duly recognized the capability of Filipino seafarers to be trained and classified as world-class and globally competitive in the shipping industry. With this genuine thrust, NTC is one of the world’s leading simulator training and competence assessment center for seafarers from all over the world.

Marketing BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, January 3, 2022 B7

The coronavirus chronicles: Read your way to more serenity in 2022 T

By Millie F. Dizon

1. ‘The Sweet Spot’ by Paul Bloom

No pain, no gain? In this book, psychologist Paul Bloom explores how suffering can make life more meaningful. “Why do people listen to sad songs, eat incredibly spicy food, skydive, run marathons, watch horror movies, engage in sexual practices that involve pain, or seek out physical violence?” he asks.

Greater Good says “it will help us understand a great deal of otherwise puzzling human behavior, perhaps even your own.”

And perhaps it can help us find our sweet spot, the point where something will be most effective or beneficial.

2. ‘Four Thousand Weeks’

by Oliver Burkeman

The book has one essential question at its heart: “What if we pay attention to the limited time we have on the planet and lived our lives accordingly?”

What makes it special is that

Campaign Spotlight: TBWA\ SMP spreads sustainable holiday cheer with Nissan LEAF Orchestra

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—TBWA\ SMP ushered in the holiday season with the “Nissan LEAF Orchestra,” a unique musical collaboration promoting sustainability and preservation through the lens of Philippine cultural heritage.

Launched on Nissan Philippines’ Facebook page and YouTube channel via an online film, the playlist features the talents of Filipino performers using leaves as their instruments. Fittingly for the season, the tracks include Christmas standards such as “Deck the Halls” and “Silent Night,” as led by father-son leaf

musicians Roman and Reynaldo Paquibot.

While the number of instruments that can be plucked off a plant and played are admittedly, few and far between, so too are the people versed in its art. According to Roman—who started playing when he was 14—when performed properly, leaf music is comparable to conventional instruments such as the trumpet or saxophone.

Unfortunately, since being pioneered by National Artist for Music and Literature Levi Celerio— the Guinness World Record-holder who performed everywhere, from the Cultural Center of the Philippines to the Merv Griffin Show—the number of active leaf musicians is dwindling.

Roman’s son, Reynaldo, says there is a need to promote this art, as, “There aren’t many of us left these days, and there’s nobody else who can teach [leaf music]. I’m excited for this chance

recognize when you and others are being wronged – and to stand up for social justice,” explains Greater Good.

Though the book is aimed primarily at women, “it is instructive to men too,” says that site.

11. ‘The End of Bias’

by Jessica Nordell

In this book, journalist Jessica Nordel “offers hope for change, providing examples of interventions that have successfully reduced bias individually and institutionally.” This is something a lot of business leaders looking for better options might benefit from reading.

Spoiler alert: Workplace diversity programs are usually not the answer.

12. ‘The Social Instinct’

by Nichola Raihani

WWW.freepik.com

PR Matters

HE New Year brings with it great hope for a better time, a better world. A year of Covid, crazy weather, and an incredibly unpredictable business environment has brought about great anxiety, burnout, and even trauma for many in 2021.

What can we do to make 2022 less stressful and more serene?

Apparently, there’s not much we can do about external factors, says Jessica Stillman in an article in Inc.com. But our attitude in facing challenges can make a lot of difference.

Despite the odds, she says, “you can fortify your optimism with the latest insights from the field of positive psychology, a branch of psychology that looks at ways to bring out the best in human beings, helping us connect, achieve, and generally flourish in our lives.”

Reading your way to serenity and optimism can help, she says in her article “13 Books to Read for a Happier, More Productive, and Less Stressed 2022.” For this, she turns to UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, one of the leading research centers in the space, which rounds up the best positive psychology books of the past 12 months.

Its latest list is just out, and Stillman says, “it’s full of great reads filled with useful tools and insights to help you meet the challenges of 2022 with greater equanimity and wisdom.”

Stillman says that Burkeman just doesn’t offer just the usual time management advice, “but wrestles directly with mortality and our need to maximize the joy and satisfaction we get from our limited time on earth.”

3. ‘Unwinding Anxiety’

by Judson Brewer

Looking forward to a more serene 2022 after a year of all-out anxiety? This book can help.

While there are a million and one tips about what to do when you feel anxious, Greater Good says Brewer’s book “shows how anxiety exists inside the habits of our everyday lives...before we cultivate new, calmer habits, we have to examine the old ones, observe how they’re hurting us, but also understand what we’ve been getting out of them that makes our brains cling to them.” In short, anxiety can be habit-forming and we have to ask ourselves how we came to this point.

4. ‘Trauma’ by Paul Conti

Talking trauma may be traumatic, but Stillman says that Greater Good insists this book “provides a confident, accessible overview of the research into the causes and treatment of trauma, brought to life by stories of its author, psychiatrist Paul Conti

to share our art and our music.”

Through their music, the leaf players hope to drive awareness for conservation, while promoting their art and its cultural significance. It is an undertaking that the younger Paquibot is proud to take on: “It’s important to me that our music can be heard in other places, other countries, as well as the Philippines.”

The elder Paquibot concurs with the sentiment, adding, “It is my wish that more trees will be planted to bring life back to the forest. This is our future and our life.”

The campaign is the latest output of TBWA\SMP’s ongoing mandate of “Creativity For Humanity”, blending creativity with human-centric insight to help launch Nissan’s 100% electrical offering, the Nissan LEAF. “As a client, Nissan has always been committed to sustainability beyond our roads, and this campaign is an extension of that vi-

and his patients.”

5. ‘Think Again’ by Adam Grant

It’s truly all in the mind, and Greater Good says that “reading this book is like a blueprint for becoming a more thoughtful person.”

“In Think Again, organizational psychologist Adam Grant presents fascinating research on what helps people remain flexible in their thinking and sway others toward becoming more open minded,” it adds.

6. ‘Keep Sharp’ by Sanjay Gupta

In this book, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta discusses fighting cognitive decline as you age.

He makes Greater Good’s list by giving us “five main take-home messages culled from neuroscience research. We need to move our bodies regularly [even mild exercise helps], get solid sleep, eat well, connect with others, and find meaning in life.”

7. ‘Saving Us’ by Katharine Hayhoe

Climate change, especially with the recent devastation caused by super typhoon Odette, is a top cause of anxiety for most of us. In this book however, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe argues that we shouldn’t be paralyzed by fear

sion,” says TBWA\SMP Managing Director Portia Catuira. “This holiday season, we are proud to present a musical performance that reminds us to listen to nature.”

The Nissan LEAF Orchestra was shot in the weeks before Typhoon Odette struck Bohol, and has since launched efforts to help affected families and communities. For more information on the Nissan LEAF Orchestra and the Nissan LEAF, please visit www. nissan.ph/vehicles/new/leaf.

Campaign Spotlight: Primera Light just made things lighter with Salamat, Pri– our newest inuman anthem

MANILA, PHILIPPINE—In these trying times, it’s been tough to find reasons to smile. The world has changed so much these past two years, and most of us found their plates full just by trying to find ways to cope with the new normal.

However, we often forget that

in the face of dire climate news.

Instead, “by focusing on how we can successfully encourage everyone to take climate change seriously, and do their part, she offers hope for avoiding disaster through collective action,” notes Greater Good.

8. ‘Chatter’ by Ethan Kross

The way it is, there is so much noise and external issues like climate change and aging that can depress us. But so can internal processes and habits in what is called the inner game.

In his book, psychologist Ethan Kross offers advice “on how to calm the negative or bullying voices in your head and cultivate a calmer, kinder, and more helpful perspective in our lives.”

9. ‘The Burnout Epidemic’

by Jennifer Moss

This book digs into the true causes of burnout to help individuals and organizations find better fixes than just more yoga and a few additional vacation days.

10. ‘Fierce Self-Compassion’

by Kristin Neff

We’d all like to be gentle with ourselves. And in this thought provoking book, psychologist Kristin Neff argues self-compassion “can give you the courage to

while trials abound, there are still more things to be grateful for. From just merely being alive, having the opportunity to write this article, or you finding the time to read it! (thank you!) Every single day is worth celebrating, and that’s exactly what Ginebra San Miguel Inc.’s Primera Light Brandy reminded us with their newest campaign.

Primera Light is the brandy product of Ginebra San Miguel Inc. that aims to remind every kumpare or Pri through “Salamats, Pri”—a catchy, feel-good, and down-to-earth anthem—to always look on the bright side and celebrate all the little big wins in our lives.

Whether it’s a much-needed barkada reunion (thanks to the lifted liquor ban!), a fresh new haircut, your first time to register as a voter, or just simply being alive and healthy, we all deserve to take a break, open a bottle of Primera Light and say…

While people can be nasty and selfish, all is not lost. In the end, “our cooperative nature tends to win out.”

Evolutionary biologist Nichola Raihani makes the case in her book. “Humans survived because of their ability to interact and work with people outside their immediate family groups, organizing around shared needs,” she says.

13. ‘High Conflict’

by Amanda Ripley

Exhausted at in-fighting everywhere from the news to family gatherings? Then, this book might be for you, says Stillman.

In it, Ripley explains the difference between productive and destructive conf lict, digs into the origins of least constructive impulses, and thankfully offers “ways to avoid or extricate yourself from this all-consuming usversus-them mentality.”

“I believe we could use a little less high conflict in 2022,” she adds.

PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the UK based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations.

Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.

Salamats, Pri! The musical production was performed live on set by Primera Light ambassadors, Matteo Guidicelli and A lbert Nicolas, along with their mga bagong Pri, Japeth Aguilar, L.A. Tenorio, Ashley Rivera, and a whole ensemble of characters, each one celebrating a unique slice of life that we ought to be thankful for.

At launch day, social media was filled with nostalgia. Some audiences shared how it reminded them of their favorite moments with their friends and family, while some were even moved to tears.

But for IdeasXMachina Group of Hakuhodo along with the team in Ginebra San Miguel, Primera Light’s mission has only just begun. Salamats, Pri is an invitation for all Filipinos, heck for all people, to sing their own pasasalamats, share hope and gratitude, and uplift a nation in need of positivity.

Sports

OBIENA SHINES IN ’21

BusinessMirror

B8

| Monday, January 3, 2022

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

PARIS IN MY MIND –HIDILYN

By Josef Ramos

A

NEW year and a new goal—or goals—that extend beyond 2022 for Hidilyn Diaz.

Diaz, who won for the country its first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo last year, confirmed her new mission to the BusinessMirror on Sunday—win a second gold in Paris 2024.

“I’m confirming my commitment to compete in the Paris Olympics in 2024 together with Team HD,” said the 30-year-old Diaz, who nursed a slight fever although she and fiancé Julius Naranjo tested negative for Covid-19.

And to publicly declare her Paris mission, Diaz posed on social media over the New Year weekend with a replica of the Eiffel Tower which she held with her right hand.

She won the women’s 55 kgs gold medal in Tokyo but the event will no longer be in the Paris program, so she set her sight on the -59 kgs class in 2024.

But Diaz stressed that on her way to Paris, she would be defending her 55 kgs titles in the Hanoi 31st Southeast Asian Games in May and Hangzhou 19th Asian Games in September.

“The SEA Games and Asian

Games are on my program but the ultimate goal is Paris,” said the pride of Barangay Mampang in Zamboanga City. “But to get to Paris, I need to go through six Olympic qualifications.”

“It’s going to be a new challenge for me, the 59 kgs class, and it’s not going to be easy because my opponents there are stronger than me the last time,” she said. “I want to level up with this new weight class so I have to give my full commitment and prepare seriously for this.”

Diaz stressed that her goal is nothing less than another Olympic gold medal.

“It’s not just going to be like that,” Diaz said, noting her hunger for another gold. “I love what I am doing and doing my best. In my first two years before Tokyo, I was in the top six or beyond.”

She added: “If I won gold in Tokyo, why not in Paris? If there’s a will, I know I can surely do it, especially now.”

Diaz will be training in Tagaytay City before returning to Malacca in Malaysia in February.

During the Christmas break, Diaz went to Cebu and helped the victims of supertyphoon Odette, then went to Zamboanga City to see her parents, friends and relatives

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HIDILYN DIAZ declared her new mission—Paris 2024. before spending New Year in her condominium unit in Eastwood City.

Despite the hectic schedules, Diaz and Naranjo consistently

and wait for their decision,” Marcial told BusinessMirror on Sunday, hoping Quezon City and Pasay City (MOA Arena) would allow them to continue with the import-laden Governors’ Cup. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases declared an Alert Level 3 restriction starting January 3 to 15 on New Year’s eve.

More than 10,000 fans watched the games live since the PBA returned to the Big Dome last December 15 to 26. The Manila Clasico between Magnolia and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Christmas Day lured 4,843 fans.

The league also released its schedule from January 5 to 30 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum

National stroke play am tourney set at Legends

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HE country’s top amateurs return to competitive action with the holding of the National Stroke Play Amateur Championship kicking off on Tuesday at the Legends course of the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club in Carmona, Cavite.

A 116-player field—92 men and 24 women—has been assembled for the 72-hole event marking the resumption of the National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) tournament calendar stalled the past two years by the Covid-19 crisis.

“It’s going to be a busy schedule for our amateurs barring any more possible

serious disruptions from the still existent pandemic as we have lined up events all year-round,” Bones Floro, secretary general of the NGAP, said.

Although several of the men’s entries have played in the recent Fil-Am Invitational, the Baguio City tournament offered limited slots for the championship class and next week’s competition will feature a full-sized field now to include entries from all over the country.

Despite the handicap limit of 8 and below for the men and 12 and below for the ladies, the available slots were snapped up quick and

The Brewskies 2021 WELCOME to the 15th annual Brewskies where at the end of every calendar year, we hand out award for dubious achievements in sports, controversial and infamous moments and personalities.

Let’s hand them out shall we?

THE FAMILY FEUD AWARD

THE Patafa, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, and EJ Obiena. One that degenerated into a social media war that the latter clearly won. Then the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) declared Juico as persona non

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ORLD Athletics named Olympic pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena as among its best performers in 2021, raking the Asian men’s record holder at No. 3 in the event’s outstanding list.

Obiena, 26, leapt to a season best 5.93 meters to reset the Asian standard and tied American Sam Kendricks and Russian Timur Morgunov—who posted the same numbers—at No. 3.

As expected, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and world record holder Armand “Mondo” Duplantis of Sweden was No. 1 with a season best 6.10 meters, followed by American Christopher Nilsen with 5.97 meters.

Constantino runs away with OOM trophy in ’21 T

train wherever they are but at the moment, the couple is shunning going out in the open as a health precaution.

Alert Level 3 puts PBA Govs Cup with fans in venues in jeopardy HE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) stares at a potential return to strict health protocols and without fans in the stands as Metro Manila and neighboring areas were put under Alert Level 3 following an alarming spike in Covid-19 infections during the holidays.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial is keeping his finger cross and is hinging all league options to a decision from the local government unit, particularly Quezon City where 16 games were already staged with fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I will talk with the LGUs and the GAB [Games and Amusements Board] by Monday

OBIENA

Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie (5.92) was sixth, Rio de Janeiro Olympics winner, Brazilian Thiago Braz da Silva of Brazil (5.87), and American KC Lightfoot (5.87) tied for seventh place and Pole Piotr Lisek (5.82), Australian Kurtis Marschall (5.82) and another Frenchman Valentin Lavillenie (5.82) were tied for ninth spot.

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino congratulated Obiena for the World Athletics recognition.

“We would like to congratulate Obiena despite the controversy.

He finally recovered from what happened,” Tolentino said. “Despite the controversies, he proves himself as a world-class athlete with a great future.

Obiena remained embroiled in a rift with his mother association, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, whose president, Philip Ella Juico, was declared persona non grata by the POC. Josef Ramos

and MOA Arena but under Alert Level 3, Marcial said anything can happen now.

“There could be no fans in the venues or LGUs would allow us to have 30 percent… it depends, so that’s why we have to wait for them,” Marcial said. “If they will not allow us, how can we hold the games?”

San Miguel Beer, Blackwater and NorthPort, meanwhile, will be changing their imports in the ongoing Governors’ Cup. San Miguel Beer will replace Brandon Brown with former Ginebra import Orlando Johnson, Blackwater’s Shawn Glover will take over Jaylen Bond and NorthPort sent home Cameron Forte due to a knee injury and is still looking for a replacement. Josef Ramos the NGAP even had to request for additional slots from the host club just so more players will be accommodated.

Both men’s and women’s play will be for 72 holes. There shall be a cut-off after 36 holes, top 50 and ties for men and top 20 and ties for ladies. Ironically, the same event was the last staged by the NGAP before it was halted first due to the eruption of Taal Volcano in January 2020 then the coronavirus crisis wiped out all tournaments for the next 23 months.

The event is part of the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour and is also sponsored by Huawei, MVP Sports Foundation and Manila Southwoods.

WO victories to mark a maiden Ladies Philippine Golf Tour campaign proved enough to net Harmie Constantino the Order of Merit (OOM) trophy but it was her two failed title cracks that should make her tougher and stronger when the pro circuit resumes in 2022.

In a season filled with uncertainties due to pandemic, the organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. still put up eight tournaments that produced six winners with three others ending their chase for the elusive crown and a 14-year-old prodigy closing out the year with a near-impeccable display of shot-making on her way to posting a landslide win that nearly shattered the Tour record.

But the challenging season belonged to Constantino, who highlighted her pro debut with a shock two-shot victory over multititled Princess Superal at Eagle Ridge-Aoki last March before play was abruptly suspended due to health concerns.

“I didn’t even have the OOM in mind when I was playing. I just came out there and played,” said Constantino, who earned P609,750 on two wins to top the OOM derby.

“I had few opportunities where I came up short. But it only showed that there’s still a lot more to learn,” she added, referring to her runner-up efforts at Riviera-Couples and Midlands.

Superal did redeem herself by edging Chanelle Avaricio by one at Sherwood Hills when the circuit resumed last July then repeated over the latter by winning the Eagle Ridge-

grata; something Patafa president he will challenge.

POC president Abraham Tolentino said they are not removing Juico but they do not recognize him. Huh? This whole row could have been resolved in days. I have no idea why it was played out this far. Even worse, this saga isn’t over.

It didn’t help that Hamilton paid the price for not changing tires at that time which Verstappen did.

People were praying that no crashes decide the title.

They just didn’t expect that crash to come from another driver that still ultimately affected the outcome.

Sad isn’t it?

THE RET-CON OF THE YEAR AWARD

THE MISSED SHOT OF THE YEAR AWARD

A RET-CON is when a new piece of information surfaces and changes the interpretation of previous events. This is usually found in television, film or comic book stories, and yet, it found its way into the world of professional tennis where Chinese star Peng Shuai went missing for 18 days after accusing a senior Chinese communist party member of sexual assault. The entire sports world was in uproar and pressured China into confirming Shuai’s safety.

She later appeared and said her post was misinterpreted.

Does anyone believe that?

THE SPIRIT OF MUNICH ’72 INTERVENTION AWARD

TO Formula 1 Race Director Michael Masi whose controversial decision to break with convention to allow lapped cars to overtake the safety car (after a car crash earlier) handed an opportunity to Dutch driver Max Verstappen to beat Lewis Hamilton who was on course to break Michael Schumacher’s seven consecutive Driver of the Year titles.

Norman leg by three.

Another wave of Covid-19 cases forced the Tour to take another break, this time a long three-month hiatus.

And while Superal opted to shift her focus on the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Japan Tour which however got stymied by health issues, Constantino made sure to stay in shape and she underscored this by holding off amateur Mafy Singson by one when the circuit marked another restart back at Eagle Ridge-Aoki.

But no one dominated the next four tournaments as Sunshine Baraquiel, a lady pilot who said she had soon realized her heart was in golf and not in flying, reigned in wicked conditions at Highlands— Avaricio snapped a couple of bridesmaid finishes with a sevenstroke romp at Riviera-Couples; and Daniella Uy made it three-in-row for first-time winners following a fiveshot roll to victory at Riviera-Langer.

But as Constantino primed herself up for a plausible three-title romp to close out the season at Midlands, and Baraquiel, Avaricio and Uy eyed a follow-up to their breakthrough wins, Rianne Malixi came in to foil their bids—in nearrecord-breaking fashion.

Coming into the event in top form following a series of stints abroad, Malixi led from the get-go in blustery conditions, pacing Baraquiel by three despite a 73 after 18 holes then all but wrapping up the championship after pulling away by nine over Uy with a 70 in the second round.

Though she missed her target of snatching a pro crown four times, Singson’s sweep of the last four low amateur honors spoke well of her vast potentials to emerge a star in the years to come.

Avaricio finished second in the OOM race with P539,000 in winnings while Uy pocketed P489,750 for third followed by Baraquiel with P474, 150 while Marvi Monsalve ended up fifth with P413,550 as Chihiro Ikeda, who skipped the last leg for an early holiday break in Davao, dropped to sixth with P412,500.

HARMIE CONSTANTINO should be tougher and stronger when the pro circuit resumes in 2022.

WE all know about “the Shot.” You know game winning shots that make a career or a name. Michael Jordan has had so many. Kobe Bryant too.

How about the missed shot of Ben Simmons during last year’s National Basketball Association play-offs when he passed up a clear dunk for a pass to a Philadelphia 76ers teammate Matisse Thybulle who split his free throws. While there was a little over three minutes left in the game and still time to do something, they lost that Game 7 to the Atlanta Hawks.

Simmons was pilloried by his teammates and coach, fans, and analysts. They could forgive the passed up dunk, but Simmons did not play well at all. I would even say his teammate Joel Embiid responded by demanding a trade.

Except there were no takers. He returned eventually to Philadelphia but was tossed out for not wanting to practice and going through the motions.

What people forget is even if mired in a bad series, Simmons did what he could. He assisted Tobias Harris on a lay-up to make it. 93-89, still Atlanta. He stole the ball in

the next possession but only split his free throws, 93-90.

Embiid turned the ball over for the eighth time in the match then later missed a trey as Philly lost, 103-96… at home. In spite of that, it would be hard to criticize Embiid as he played with a knee injury. Simmons was a lightning rod for criticism.

People have since weighed on Simmons but all this could have been handled much better. Today, the Sixers— without Simmons are second in the Atlantic Division with a pedestrian 19-16 record that is good for sixth spot in the Eastern Conference. Without Simmons in uniform.

THE TURN AROUND AWARD

GOES to the 12 top European football clubs that tried to form their own super league in place of the current Champions League but beat a hasty retreat after unprecedented anger from fans, media, and FIFA and UEFA. They clearly forgot what Mohandas Ghandi once said about the world having enough for man’s need but not enough for man’s greed.

BAD SPORT AWARD

THIS one goes to Jordanian Prince Ali bin al-Hussein who asked the Asian Football Confederation for a gender verification check on Iran’s Zohreh Koudaei after his side lost in a 4-2 penalty shootout to Iran. It would have been a stretch to blame this on Ben Simmons.