BusinessMirror July 15, 2023

Will South Korea’s KF-21 fighter be an option for the PAF?

By Rex Anthony Naval

In the thinking of KAI, having such—the capability to fly and conduct operations undetected by hostile radar—would be the best bet for PAF to achieve its vision of being “credible, agile and responsive” to modern warfare.

In fact, the South Korean aircraft manufacturer openly pitched for the KF-21 in its presentation during the Air Force Symposium held at the Marriott Hotel, Pasay City, on June 21.

In that presentation, KAI Regional Manager and Chief, Aircraft BD and Sustainment, Kim Sang Eung said the KF-21 can evolve towards the so-called “fifth/sixth generation fighter” class and has an “affordable life cycle cost in its class,” which is an interesting description of the aircraft as the PAF operates only on a given budget for its modernization and acquisition programs.

K im noted also that the KF-21 has a “less problematic export control” and a “customizable aircraft configuration” and could easily accommodate various weapons based on the customers’ preference.

The KAI executive added, as sweetener, that they are “open to construct a long-term partnership with customers.”

This refers to KAI’s willingness to go into joint production technology transfer with potential KF-21 buyers.

K im added that KAI is also offering a “bespoke solution considering customer’s capability and environment.”

The KF-21 is expected to go into full production by 2026 with an initial 40 aircraft to be delivered by 2028.

South Korea is expected to operate a fleet of 120 aircraft by 2032.

Some KF-21 specifications

THE KF-21 is described as “stealthier than any fourth-generation fighter” in service, with South Korea categorizing the aircraft into the 4.5 generation class.

It has a maximum speed of 1,400 miles per hour or around 1,216 knots.

It has a combat range of 620 miles, which is equivalent to 540 nautical miles.

The aircraft is armed with a 20mm rotary autocannon and equipped with 10 hardpoints to carry an assortment of long-, medium-, and short-range missiles and unguided and guided bombs.

The first prototype was completed and unveiled at KAI headquarters in Sacheon Airport in April 2021, with the aircraft having its first flight on July 19, 2022.

The KF-21 is a South Korean fighter aircraft development pro -

gram, with Indonesian involvement, with the goal of producing an advanced multi-role fighter for South Korea and Indonesia.

The program is led by the South Korean government, which has 60 percent of the program’s shares.

Indonesia took a 20-percent stake in the program in 2010, while the remaining 20 are held by private partners including KAI.

Its primary intended users are the Republic of Korea Air Force and the Indonesian Air Force.

The KF-21 is South Korea’s second domestic fighter jet development program, following the FA-50, of which 12 units are now in service with the PAF.

Earlier, the PAF said it is keeping close watch on ongoing developments in the KF-21, which is now undergoing flight testing.

It added that it cannot just close options when there are new systems that may be able to compete with other systems and which may fit into our requirement for defense.

Retrofit FA-50s for now

WHILE waiting for the full development of the KF-21, Kim also suggested that PAF upgrade its existing FA-50PH fleet with more capable versions of the South Koreamade jet aircraft.

Retrofits should make the 12 FA-50PHs in the PAF capable of conducting air-to-ground, air-tosea, and air-to-air missions.

These include equipping these aircraft with an assortment of radar and targeting systems along with a 300-gallon external fuel tank to increase the FA-50PH’s combat range.

K im said these proposals are the “most cost-effective solutions” and will be in line with PAF’s objectives of being a “credible and agile air force adaptable to modern warfare and responsive to national and

regional security developments.”

He also stressed that the PAF looked into the possibility of acquiring “three upgraded FA-50 squadrons at three key points for covering whole Philippine territory and rapid response to threats.”

The KAI executive pointed out that their FA-50 is “the most costefficient solution that customers around the world opt to procure as next-generation multi-role fighter aircraft.”

The “advanced combat capability of the FA-50 provides customers with more choice for flexible operation,” he added.

The FA-50PHs have a top speed of Mach 1.5 or one and a half times the speed of sound, and is capable of being fitted with air-toair missiles, including the AIM-9 “Sidewinder” air-to-air and heatseeking missiles, aside from light automatic cannons and bombs.

A total of 12 FA-50s were acquired from Korea Aerospace Industries for P18.9 billion.

The deliveries commenced in November 2015 and were completed in May 2017.

The FA-50PHs had their baptism of fire during the Battle for Marawi, where it was extensively used in the air role, in the fighting that raged from May to October 2017.

PBBM hails PAF for maintaining PH territorial integrity

MEANWHILE, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. lauded the PAF for upholding the territorial integrity of the Philippines and safeguarding its maritime zones as the service celebrated its 76th founding anniversary on July 3.

“ The achievements exemplify the values that the PAF stands for: integrity, excellence and patriotism. As members of the PAF, you must always uphold these values as the custodians of our skies, en-

trusted with the task of upholding our national interests, protecting our people, and defending our territory,” he said during the anniversary celebrations held at Clark Air Base, Pampanga. Marcos also reminded the Air Force of challenges that will test them to the utmost.

The days ahead will not be easy and will demand every ounce of your strength and resilience. The winds of change signal geopolitical changes around our region and other parts of the world that as yet affect us. The PAF’s maritime air patrol missions are thus essential in upholding our territorial integrity and safeguarding Philippine maritime zones,” he added.

The PAF was established on July 1, 1947, through Executive Order 94.

Th is year’s anniversary carries

the theme: “PAF@76: Accelerating with Excellence Towards A More Capable, Credible and Sustainable Force.”

“Throughout history, the dedication and sacrifice demonstrated by all the personnel has paved the way for the PAF’s growth and success over the last 76 years. We stand today to recognize the outstanding PAF officers, members and units who have shown exemplary dedication to securing our nation and defending our skies,” Marcos said. “ You have contributed in laying the groundwork for the enhancement of our aerial defense capabilities. So, on behalf of the Filipino people, I thank you for your service. May you continue doing your best in all the endeavors that you are given and inspire your fellow airmen and airwomen to do the same,” he added.

WILL South Korea’s KF-21 “Boramae,” which is being developed and marketed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) as an “evolutionary next-generation fighter with affordability,” bring the Philippine Air Force (PAF) to a limited “stealth age”?

Rum seller shows how capitalism thrives in socialist Venezuela

By Patricia Laya & Nicolle Yapur Bloomberg News

B ureaucrats allowed squatters to take over a third of his land with impunity. The Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro administrations oversaw currency declines that left the bolivar all but worthless. The economic disaster they unleashed devastated demand for consumer goods.

A gainst this seemingly impossible backdrop, Ron Santa Teresa has grown into a success story by Venezuelan standards, with annual sales of more than $100 million. And now Vollmer is targeting a major expansion—he aims to boost exports 40 percent this year on the back of his premium 1796 brand, aiming for high-end bars across the globe.

He has a distribution agreement with Bacardi Ltd. to aid his ambitions, but for business to take off, what he says he needs most is a government that fosters a safe en-

vironment for investment.

Th at’s where Vollmer’s other job comes into play—he’s the head of a business group that meets privately with senior administration officials to recommend policies that will bolster the economy. It’s a delicate role to play given hostilities between the two sides over decades of expropriations, devaluations and other unpredictable policies, and one that Vollmer mostly does from behind the scenes.

His oversight of the council, known as Conapri, spurs criticism from those who say Vollmer should instead use his platform to denounce the government and work to replace it. The distiller has plenty of complaints, but he’s careful about airing them. While spouting off to reporters or on social media brings attaboys from like-minded entrepreneurs, he thinks he’s more influential keeping a low profile.

Confronting the regime publicly “leads you nowhere because it leads to rejection,” he said. “If I am constructive in my criticism, and do it directly, it’s received very differently.”

Th at influence is taking on greater importance for Vollmer as he seeks to grow his business, headquartered on a 3,000-hectare (7,500-acre) hacienda that’s been in his family for five generations, since his predecessors emigrated from Germany in the 1800s. Santa Teresa currently gets about 30 percent of sales from exports.

Vollmer plans to grow that with his 1796 spirit, a smoky rum aged as long as 35 years in bourbon oak casks. It can already be found in a few places overseas, where Venezuelan rum is often viewed as a premium product because it comes from one of just two countries in the world to sport a denomination-of-origin classification that provides extra cachet.

For the brand to take off, Vollmer needs operations in Venezuela to run smoothly. That’s a difficult feat in a country still emerging from one of the deepest economic contractions in modern history and a severe bout of hyperinflation. While there’s been somewhat of a revival in the past two years as Maduro eased controls and allowed greater use of the dollar, the rebound has been limited because the oil industry, the country’s main source of revenue, remains dilapidated amid a lack of investment.

E xecutives willing to invest are few and far between after decades of state interference in the economy, a history of expropriations and severe sanctions that make doing business difficult in all sorts of ways.

Sharp pivot

BUT Vollmer has hope. He and other Venezuelan chief executives in Conapri, which also meets with delegates from other countries and international organizations, are learning to navigate and even help shape President Maduro’s sharp pivot toward capitalism, a necessary concession the administration made as part of efforts to revive the economy.

“Although there is greater openness toward the private sector and toward measures that favor investment and job creation,

there is still mistrust and that is not without merit,” Vollmer, 53, said from the porch of his family home on the hacienda. “Existing laws aren’t clear and you have an environment that intimidates investment in a country that is in dire need of it.”

Vollmer, who studied business in the US, took the reins of Santa Teresa from his father in the late 1990s. He’s part of the upper class that Maduro and his predecessor Chávez spent decades vilifying as oligarchs, thieves and looters.

Like many business owners, Vollmer has been on the receiving end of many of the government’s wide-ranging attempts to redistribute wealth. Most dramatically, officials turned a blind eye to squatters that invaded a portion of his hacienda in the early 2000s and have been occupying it ever since.

Issues like this—which make doing business in Venezuela so difficult—is why Vollmer agreed to take over Conapri in 2017. At the time, the organization’s members were discouraged, but Vollmer sought to revive it as a safe space for dialogue between the government and the business community. He steered discussions toward practical issues such as trade financing, tariffs and taxes, seeking to keep politics out of the discussion. And everyone agreed to keep a low profile to avoid scrutiny from committed socialists or avid critics of the regime.

In six years, he’s managed to double the amount of companies participating, reached agreements of technical support with the Latin American Development Bank, and meet ambassadors and institutions from countries all over the world,” said Horacio Velutini, a real-estate entrepreneur and director at Conapri.

Th e group’s influence has grown since US sanctions imposed in 2019 severely limited Maduro’s access to international financing, forcing him to open up some aspects of the economy

to prevent a total collapse. That’s breathed new life into the business community, and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is now a common attendee at industry events after years of largely ignoring corporate interests.

Conapri members are hesitant to point to specific government measures that Conapri influenced, fearful that drawing attention to the group’s accomplishments would ultimately make it harder to work with the government.

A nd many of the hoped-for changes are a long way from reality, leaving business owners operating with unclear rules when it comes to setting prices, luring foreign investment, or taxation.

Stock market

THIS lack of clarity, as well as scarce financing, are among the biggest obstacles facing business owners in Venezuela today, Vollmer says. The distiller, which has 430 employees, has been one of the few companies to use the Caracas stock market for financing, issuing shares twice in 2020 and later selling the first corporate dollar bonds locally for more than two decades.

“ The main function of the private sector should be to create jobs,” Vollmer said. “But to create jobs you need to grow, and for that you need investment.”

W hen discussing the lack of trust between investors and the government, Vollmer likes to recall a story his father told him about tropical birds that had been nesting for years in a nook atop a pillar inside the hacienda. One day, an electrician installing a lamp accidentally knocked down the nest. Vollmer’s father quickly put it back up, but the damage was already done. Trust is easily broken and hard to rebuild, Vollmer says. It took 25 years for the birds to come back.”

VENEZUELA’S socialist government has dogged almost all of Alberto Vollmer’s 25-year career as the head of Ron Santa Teresa, the country’s biggest rum maker.

‘The main function of the private sector should be to create jobs. But to create jobs you need to grow, and for that you need investment.’

–Alberto Vollmer

RUM production at the Ron Santa Teresa distillery in El Consejo, Venezuela. GABY ORAA/BLOOMBERG

• Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

El Niño halts Asia’s best emerging bond rally in PHL

EL NIÑO is already making its mark in the Philippines in more ways than one, helping accelerate a slide in the nation’s bonds that were once Asia’s hottest.

Peso notes handed investors a loss of 1.8 percent so far in July, extending their drop since the start of June to 3.5 percent on a currency-hedged basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s a stark reversal from their stellar performance in the first five months of this year, when the notes were emerging Asia’s top performer.

The plight of Philippine debt underscores the challenges facing the region’s policymakers, who are trying to keep a lid on inflation without tipping their economies into a recession. Central banks also face pressure to keep up with the Federal Reserve’s tightening stance in order to preserve inflows into domestic assets.

In the case of the Philippines, bonds are coming under fire on worries that the central bank may have to start raising interest rates again to counter an expected increase in price pressures. A higher minimum wage for some workers, coupled with costlier transport and food due to El Niño are likely to stoke inflation.

Consumer-price gains eased to 5.4 percent in June after jumping to a 14-year high in January. But they remain above the central bank’s target and are likely to accelerate in the coming months.

Rice prices have surged to the highest level in more than two years and the government warned that nearly a third of Philippine provinces may experience a drought early next year due to El Niño. In

addition, the minimum wage of private sector workers in the capital region will be raised starting July 16, while fares for some railways are set to increase in August.

However, some analysts say peso bonds have fallen far enough to create a buying opportunity.

“There are price risks we are seeing now but these will be temporary,” said Robert Dan Roces, chief economist at Security Bank Corp. in Manila. “The assumption is that inflation will slow to within the target range and the central bank will maintain a rate hold.”

Buying opportunity

THE yield on 10-year government notes is forecast to decline to about 5.8 percent by the end of the year from 6.49 percent on Thursday, according to Security Bank, China Banking Corp. and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has also indicated that rates will remain on hold, allaying investors’ fears.

“It’s a good opportunity to buy as once the yields reverse their upward course, there is potential for significant trading gains,” said Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial in Manila.

Bond bulls also take comfort from the fact that the central bank expects price gains to decelerate to its target range of 2 percent to 4 percent by the fourth quarter.

“Macroeconomic fundamentals point to yields coming off from these highs,” said Domini Velasquez, chief economist at China Banking in Manila. “The medium-term outlook is pretty bullish for bonds.”

Bloomberg News

PAGCOR bares crackdown on China-centric online casinos

THE Philippines’ gaming regulator is tightening controls on online casinos that have attracted Chinese clients and have recently been linked to crimes.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) has placed all existing online casino licensees and service providers under probation and will require them to reapply for permits, the regulator’s chairman Alejandro Tengco said, according to a copy of his July 13 speech in Macau sent to media Friday.

The agency discovered in the past months that several companies were using their licenses “as a cover-up in the conduct of illegal activities, including cryptocurrency investment,” Tengco said. “This became a massive blow to the industry.”

Online casinos found to be engaged in crime have been penalized, and their permits

BSP chief wants lenders to disclose climate assets

before an international audience as new BSP chief.

The central bank will make the banks’ scores public, and will ask lenders to also disclose their assets, Remolona said. “We hope that the disclosure alone will do the trick.”

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona said the monetary authority is working with scientists to develop a metric for banks’ climate-related assets, which will be used to score banks in terms of their role in fighting climate change.

“We look at each kind of loan or asset and what it’s financing, and decide what it’s doing for climate change: is it slowing down or accelerating climate change?” Remolona said in a live-streamed speech at an economic briefing in Canada, one of his first addresses

A number of Philippine banks are already taking steps to help combat climate change, with some, including Bank of the Philippine Islands and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., making timebound commitments to zero out their outstanding coal energy loan portfolio, while looking to bolster renewable energy lending.

Central bank policymakers around the world have recently

spotlighted climate change and energy transition amid volatile energy prices and more frequent extreme weather events. The Philippines, one of the most vulnerable nations to the impact of climate change, has set a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent by the end of the decade from 2020 levels.

In the same speech, Remolona also said the BSP is “determined” to bring inflation back to its 2 percent to 4 percent target range. Headline inflation will likely fall within that goal by the fourth quarter, and “will overshoot on the low side” early next year before settling back to the target range, he added. Bloomberg News

PNP chief to cops: No carrying of long firearms in urban centers, tourism areas

By Manuel T. Cayon

THE martial law era of uniformed personnel—police, military, auxiliaries and paramilitary units—brandishing long firearms in urban center and tourism areas should now be over.

At least, that applies to the Philippine National Police (PNP), whose personnel had long been directed to refrain from conspicuous display of rifles in highly populated cities.

have been revoked, the official said. Further accreditations were also suspended, while existing operators will be subjected to new fees and stringent monitoring, he added.

The Southeast Asian nation has in the past years witnessed an exodus in the oncebooming online gambling industry due to the pandemic and efforts to tax operations. Online casinos have also been linked to suspicious transactions and human trafficking, with the country’s finance chief favoring to shut these businesses.

Still, the gaming regulator is projecting that its gross gaming revenue from online gaming will surge by more than double to P24 billion ($441 million) by yearend, said Tengco, adding that his agency has accredited service providers for electronic bingo, e-billiards and sports betting. Bloomberg News

SC ruling reaffirms validity of Covid-19 measures–DOH

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

THE Department of Health (DOH), reacting to a recent Supreme Court (SC) decision dismissing the consolidated petitions against the constitutionality of Covid-19 measures, on Friday reaffirmed that all policies and regulations implemented at the height of the pandemic were enacted with utmost consideration for the common good. DOH, the lead agency overseeing the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Diseases (IATF), added that they vigorously emphasized the “critical imperative of vaccination and booster doses, as they remain our foremost line of defense against the Covid19 virus.”

In junking the consolidated petitions, the SC unanimously voted that the consolidated petitions violated the doctrine of hierarchy of courts, “as the resolution of the issues raised therein required the determination and adjudication of extremely technical and scientific facts that necessitates the conduct of a full-blown proceeding before a court of first instance.”

The DOH stressed that scientific evidence unequivocally demonstrates that

vaccines, coupled with the meticulous implementation of multiple layers of protection, played an instrumental role in guiding their successful journey towards overcoming the challenges presented by the pandemic.

By building a resilient barrier of immunity, the DOH said, the agency substantially bolstered their collective resilience against the virus, paving the way for a triumphant transition towards a post-pandemic era.

The DOH also expressed “profound gratitude” for the favorable ruling rendered by the High Court concerning the matter at hand.

Together, let us continue to forge ahead, guided by the principles of resilience, love for our country, and an unwavering dedication to the well-being of our kababayans,” the DOH said.

Last year, the petitioners led by former presidential candidate Dr. Jose Montemayor Jr., a group of passengers’ and riders’ advocates, and civic groups argued that the Covid-19 policies implemented by the IATF and other government agencies “trampled” on their right to life and liberty without due process.

“This is especially applied in the tourism areas, where we do not want people, our visitors, to look at it as highly militaristic,” PNP chief Gen. Benjamin C. Acorda Jr. told the BusinessMirror during his recent visit at Camp Alagar in Cagayan de Oro City.

The move comes at time as the Department of Tourism relaunched its global campaign to rev up the country’s tourism industry.

Freer atmosphere

ONLY recently did a British couple mention it again about heavily armed security personnel in a video blog about ten unique things about the Philippines.

The couple said they saw a security man “heavily armed with submachine gun” in Boracay and who appeared to be part of the island’s security. The couple said that while this immediately creates an impression of places of conflict, but they likewise explained this could just be part of the Filipino way of providing security.

The long period of martial law that spanned almost the entire decade of the 1970’s and half of the 1980’s was largely influential in the continuing war zone

mentality among the security forces, where police and the Army would be brandishing rifles even in the cities.

However, Acorda said there was already a policy in the PNP to observe the non-carrying of rifles.

“I should know because I was a director for operations,” he added.

Policy review

“I WILL look into this. I will check on this because we have a policy,” he said.

Acorda said the standing policy was to create “an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, especially in the tourism areas.”

He said this also led to the creation of the tourist police, who do not carry rifles while on duty. Tourist policemen have also their distinctive light blue polo shirt uniform with the words Tourist Police embroidered.

The tourist police are often fielded to secure festival activities and the tourist spots.

“I’ll check on this, because, it maybe that there was a VIP [very important person] and the local

police could be providing the security,” he said.

“What I know is that in the tourism areas, there should be no conspicuous display of long weapons that may be misconstrued as highly militaristic. We will double check on it if maybe there were presence of VIPs,” he said.

Tourism

IN its gov.Ph web site with the slogan Love the Philippines, the Department of Tourism said the Christmas and other holidays in “have delivered further gains for the Philippine tourism industry as it breached its 1.7 million target by year-end with 2.65 million international visitor arrivals as of December 31 last year.”

This translated to P208.96 billion or $3.68 billion in tourism revenue, a whopping 2465.75 percent from the same period compared to the previous year, it added.

Of the total 2.65 million international visitor arrivals last year, 628,445 were returning Filipinos while the bulk of 2.02 million tourists were foreigners

from the country’s top tourist markets. These are the United States (505,089), South Korea (428,014), Australia (137,974), Canada (121,413), the United Kingdom (101,034), Japan (99,557), Singapore (53,448), India (51,542), Malaysia (46,805), and China (39,627).

Tourism Secretary Maria Esperanza Christina Garcia Frasco credited to the Marcos administration the record number of arrivals “in just six months after assuming office” and the tourism receipts as well the jobs generated helped the country’s recovery “amid the setbacks from the unprecedented crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“Moments of great difficulty are also moments of great opportunity. In the past, we have overcome a global pandemic, survived various calamities, and thrived through a host of many other challenges, yet, the Philippine tourism industry has managed to exceed expectations and our tourism partners and frontliners continue to offer the best of Filipino grace and hospitality to the world,” the tourism chief said.

This year, the DOT embarked on a rebranding campaign, changing the slogan “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” to “Love the Philippines,” which was also mentioned in one of the video blog of an Arab travel blogger when he visited the Philippines shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The DOT hoped to ignite interest anew in the Philippines as the world continued to open wider their economies and allowing more of its nationals to embark on traveling like they were doing before the pandemic.

Groups press probe into reported use of ‘dead’ corals in construction of Sorsogon road project

THE Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) is calling on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to investigate the ongoing coastal road project in Gubat town in Sorsogon that allegedly involves the use of extracted corals as construction materials.

“We call on the DENR to look into the ongoing construction of a coastal road project in Sorsogon that involves dead corals. The agency should order its provincial environment office to conduct an inspection of the project site and assess if these corals have been

deliberately extracted elsewhere. It would be unacceptable if coral reefs are being destroyed and uprooted for a dump and fill project,” said Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap.

“Corals are a very fragile underwater ecosystem that could take a year to grow into a couple of centimeters, while a decade to form from a group of larvae. They are vital to marine biodiversity because they serve as habitat to many creatures and ensure bountiful resources to fishing communities,” he added.

Local fishers in Sorsogon have been protesting the coastal road project because it threatens their

fishing livelihood and coastal communities, the group said.

Allan Espallardo, president of Pamalakaya affiliate Save Gubat Bay Movement (SGBM), said the Sorsogon Coastal Road project would “pose serious harm” to the coastal environment, as well as the livelihood of small and subsistence fisherfolk in the town’s at least 13 coastal villages.

“Aside from the possibility that coral reefs are being destroyed for the coastal road project, the project’s impact on the environment and fishery production will surely affect us because of reclamation.  They dump and fill with soil the

coastal waters which is the primary source of our income and livelihood,” Espallardo said.

According to Espallardo, the first to be affected by the project are fishers that harvest md crabs, locally called alimango.

Pamalakaya and SGBM vowed to consult with environmental experts for further assessment of the environmental impacts of the coastal road project.

The Sorsogon Coastal Road is a project of the Department of Public Works and Highways under the Build, Build, Build (BBB) program of the previous Duterte administration. Jonathan L. Mayuga

POLICE Gen. Benjamin Acorda signs the VIP visitors’ logbook during his visit at Camp Alagar, Cagayan de Oro City on Saturday.

THE Philippines’ new central bank head is pushing for lenders’ disclosure of climate-related assets, pledging that the Southeast Asian nation’s banking system will join the global efforts to slow climate change.

PHL eyeing $1-B sukuk bond debut this year–DOF chief

THE Philippines is planning its debut in the Islamic bond market as the country’s government looks to fund its budget deficit, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

The Asian country intends to raise $1 billion in Islamic bonds, also known as sukuk bonds, Diokno said in an interview Thursday on the sidelines of an event in Toronto.

“We want to penetrate the Middle East market,” said Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, adding that

banks don’t have a mandate for the transaction yet. “We’re working on the structure” of the notes, she said.

The volume of outstanding sukuk bonds during the 12 months ended June 30 grew by 10 percent compared to the prior-year period and for the first time exceeded $800 billion, Fitch Ratings said in a report Thursday. While issuance may slow in the third quarter, it is expected to pick up in the final three months of the year, Fitch said.  The government seeks to ease its fiscal burden and bring the budget

IPOPHL lauds BOC-Port of Subic for seizing ₧240 million worth of smuggled fake apparel

shortfall to 3 percent of economic output by the end of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s term in 2028, from around 7 percent last year.

The transaction—potentially consisting of a 5-year and a 10-year tranche—may take place later this year, subject to market conditions, Pangandaman said.

“We are looking at 10 years, but we are also being advised that the sweet spot would be five years,” she said.

The Philippines is among Asia’s fastest-growing economies, beating growth expectations in the first quarter. Gross domestic product in the three months through March rose 6.4 percent from a year earlier, compared to a 6.2 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey in May. The government is targeting gross domestic product growth of 6 percent to 7 percent this year.

On top of the sukuk transaction, the government plans to raise $2 billion by selling US dollar denominated bonds to retail investors, Diokno said. Bloomberg News

By Butch Fernandez

SENATOR Risa Hontiveros reminded

Friday the urgent need to frontload socialized and affordable housing, as well as the agricultural value chain, in line with the expansion of the country’s railway system.

“Hindi lang problema sa transportasyon ang pwedeng matugunan ng railways

THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), acting chair of the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR), lauded its member, the Bureau of Customs (BOC), specifically the BOC-Port of Subic, after it had intercepted P240 million worth of counterfeit wearables.

The goods carried the logos of mainstream brands, such as Adidas, Nike, H&M, Uniqlo, Zara, Cotton-On, Shein and even the homegrown brand Bench. Others were also labeled with the luxury fashion house names, such as Gucci, Lacoste, Louis Vuitton, Armani Exchange and Balenciaga Paris.

The fake wearables, shipped in two container vans originating from Dhaka, Bangladesh, were to be sent to a consigned group called Bonne Volonté Consumer Goods.

“The transaction violates Section 155 of Republic Act 8293 or the Intellectual Property [IP] Code of 1997 in relation to Section 1113,  Paragraph [f], of RA 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act [CMTA] of 2016,” IPOPHL’s IP Rights Enforcement Office (IEO) Supervising Director Christine Pangilinan-Canlapan said.

Sec. 155.2 of the IP Code prohibits anyone from reproducing, counterfeiting, copying or imitating a registered mark or a dominant feature

projects,” the senator said. “Isa rin itong oportunidad para makapagtayo ng mga abot-kayang pabahay at maging tulay sa pagitan ng mga magsasaka at pamilihan sa siyudad,” she said.

The senator issued the statement in the wake of the ceremonial signing of P50billion contract packages for the North-South Commuter Railways (NSCR) project.

The 14.9 kilometers of elevated railways

used on labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles or advertisements intended to be used in commerce or in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of goods or services.

Meanwhile, Section 1113, Paragraph (f), of the CMTA permits the seizure of illegal goods imported or exported and whose shipment is used as an instrument to violate the law.

Pangilinan-Canlapan was accompanied by IEO Chief Marlita I. VallesteroDagsa, Intellectual Property Rights Specialist Ms. Janette J. Payoyo, and Technical Consultant Atty. Rolando L. Somontina Jr. at Customs’ examination of the goods on June 26, 2023.

“We laud the BOC’s Port of Subic for its vigilance and unrelenting efforts to foil counterfeiters and prevent counterfeit goods from pervading our local markets,” Director General Rowel S. Barba said. He expressed gratitude to Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio; Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Group Juvymax R. Uy; Port of Subic District Collector Carmelita M. Talusan; Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman and Administrator Jonathan D. Tan and Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services Director Verne Y. Enciso.

“We hope the Customs’ successful action here serves as a lesson to all the

violators out there: focus your energy on legitimate activities rather than bring harm to society. You are only risking your business to see your capital down the drain, just like what has happened to the makers and traders of these fake shirts,” he added.

Last year, Customs seized P7.7 billion worth of counterfeit goods, making it the second biggest type of smuggled goods forfeited by the agency by estimated market value after illegal drugs.  In 2021, the whole of NCIPR booked a record haul of P24.9 billion worth of counterfeit products. Cigarettes and alcohol made up the bulk, followed by handbags, wallets and footwear products.

The NCIPR is a 15-member body led by the Department of Trade and Industry. It is mandated to craft and implement policies that strengthen the protection and enforcement of IP rights in the country.

Aside from the BOC, its membership is composed of the Department of Justice, Food and Drug Administration, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, Optical Media Board, National Book Development Board, Office of the Special Envoy on Transnational Crime, Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Telecommunications Commission, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Immigration.

value chain–Sen. Hontiveros

and viaducts will be constructed in Blumentritt, Buendia, EDSA, Senate, Bicutan, and Sucat.

Some of these stations will be interconnected with the Metro Manila Subway Station.

Hontiveros suggested the concerned administration officials should “take advantage of the transportation project to broaden the market access of farmers in rural areas, thereby increasing the demand for agricultural products and possibly leading to higher [profit margin] for farmers.”

Moreover, she proposed that railways can connect remote and rural agricultural areas with urban centers and export markets.

“Konektado na ng tren mula Clark hanggang Calamba at sa long haul project hanggang Bicol,” the senator reminded, suggesting, “Dapat samantalahin ito ng gobyerno para sa wakas ay mapadali na para sa mga masasaka ang mai-angkat ang produktosamgapalengkesasiyudad.”

She added: “Hindinakailangangumasapa ng magsasaka sa mga middle men na doble managa ng presyo at bibilhin lang sa kanila ng palugi ang mga produkto. Sana nandoon si Presidente bilang Agriculture Secretary dahilsamgapalibotngitatayongtrennaito pwedengmagkaroonngpatotooangpaulitulit na sinasabi nilang value chain para sa maliliitnamangingisdaatmagsasaka.”

Moreover, Hontiveros urged that the D epartment of Human Settlements and Urban Development’s (DHSUD) socialized and affordable housing programs be given priority over private property developers when allocating the lots surrounding train stations “Huwag sanang hayaan na ag-agawan ng mga property developers angpalibotngmgatrain station. Kailangan nating bigyan ng puwang ang murang pabahayngDHSUD parasamgakababayan natinnahindikayangmagbayadngmataas napresyongmga high rise condominiums,” she added.

At the same time, the senator vowed to support equitable transit-oriented development (eTOD) by the Department of Transportation and DHSUD in the upcoming budget hearings in the Senate. “Parawalang hirap na makapunta sa trabaho, eskwela, ospital, pasyalan at ibang serbisyo publiko ang 10,000 na pamilya na apektado ng construction ng riles at 50 stations mulaClark hanggang Matnog,” she said. “Kung sabay na isasaalang-alang ang transportasyon, pagpapalakas ng value chain, at abot-kayang pabahay, magiging malakingkaluwaganitosamga commuters, manggagawa at mga konsyumer,” said Hontiveros.

Railway expansion must include socialized housing, agri

Time BusinessMirror Our

101-year-old citizens in Laoag get ₧25K additional cash gift

By Nick Tayag

sixty-zen’s WORtH

The little altar that I carry my

By Leilanie Adriano

The new ordinance said that upon reaching 101 years old, a local centenarian will receive at least P25,000 every year from the city government. This will take effect next year, with at least 15 candidates based on the latest survey of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).

Laoag City Councilor Handy Lao, the measure’s sponsor, said in an interview Wednesday that City Ordinance 2023-051 is a tribute to senior citizens who have been developmental partners of the city and contributed to strengthening the family as

an institution.

“I hope this will be of help to our senior citizens to defray expenses for their personal needs and special care,” he said.

Lao said the measure seeks to reaffirm the long-honored Filipino tradition of caring for the elderly and most senior members of the family and community by honoring and granting additional benefits and privileges to centenarians.

Prior to the passage of the measure, during an outreach session held in Barangay 32-B La Paz on July 11, Lao reported that he has discussed

the matter with his colleagues in the Sangguniang Panlungsod as well as with the OSCA, represented by its president Ernesto Tamayo, as well as with the City Social Welfare officer Perlita Cabello and senior citizens focal person Fe Respicio.

Throughout Ilocos Norte, less fortunate senior citizens who

struggle with their personal care currently receive cash incentives under Provincial Ordinance 201810-063, which was approved five years ago. This is apart from the centenarian gift of P100,000 as provided under Republic Act 10868 or the Centenarians Act of 2016. PNA

I’VE noticed that in almost all the new residential houses I have visited, I find something commonly lacking. This is the traditional home altar. Is it because the dwellers (usually young families) have ceased to be Catholics and now hold different religious beliefs?

But even in homes of nominal Catholics, it’s seldom that I spot a home altar. What I see more often is a Santo Niño statuette, sometimes side by side with a happy Buddha ceramic statue somewhere in the living room. “To attract blessings” is the common reason why they’re there.

Perhaps the traditional home altar no longer fits into today’s modern secular lifestyle. Or maybe our millennial and Gen X sons and daughters simply are not religious or they are a-spiritual (not spiritually inclined or oriented.)

In my childhood, there usually was a home altar in every house, even in the most humble nipa hut. In our old house where I grew up, there was a special place for prayers and worship right in our living room.

It was a way of bringing the Church altar into our home. We had a crucifix and small statues of the Blessed Mother and a few saints, with flowers and candles and other elements of a typical Church altar except the tabernacle.

In most days, at six in the evening, we would gather around it and pray the “Angelus.” In the month of October, we would gather in front of it and pray the rosary.

Before going out and upon entering the house, we made sure to bow before it and make the sign of the cross as a way of asking for a blessing or protection or simply greeting the Divine. Somehow, it played an important role in building a foundation for my personal life of faith.

In our house today, we have a small home altar, lighted by two mini bulbs, which stay on all day and all night long. I confess, however, that my family does not gather around it and pray together. But we still regard it as a sacred spot and it still holds a central place in our home.

Altars are not exclusive to Catholic homes. I’ve been to a traditional Chinese household in Binondo. It has a family altar, where the family places “spirit tablets” and the black-and-white photos of their ancestors. It represents the home of deities as well as their ancestors and relatives.

Hindus have small shrines too in their homes where they can worship daily, which they call “Puja.” The shrine will contain at least one image of their gods, such as Lord Ganesh or Lord Krishna.

In Japan, among Shintoists, a miniature shrine called Kamidana (“godshelf”), can be found displayed in their homes and their shops. It usually consists of a small cupboard or shelf on

which are displayed articles of veneration and daily offerings. This is similar to the Santo Niño or Buddha statuettes displayed in many Filipino homes and commercial establishments.

My Christian fundamentalist relatives and friends scoff at these practices. They say the Bible forbids worship of images. Many Protestants refuse to allow the presence of paintings or sculptures in their churches. Their basis is the second of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven ...”

Even Muslims forbid images of the prophet. Pictures—as well as statues— are thought to encourage the worship of idols. No imagery is used in Jewish worship because any imagery is forbidden.

As for me, I have an abiding respect for shrines and altars. They are silent reminders of the spirit in us. They also point to life’s unexplainable mysteries and this helps keep the embers of awe and wonder alive. There are things in our universe we need to pay respect and give reverence to.

However, in my aging years, I have come to believe that the presence of the Divine is not solely within the walls of a church.

The Catholic priest and novelist Andrew Greeley has been pointing out for years—that God can be found lurking in hiding places everywhere. The religious writer Kathy Coffey tells us that the presence of the Holy One can be experienced in the most mundane situations.

This is why aside from the physical altar in our home, I have my personal invisible altar that I bring with me anywhere. It is my “holy of holies,” my “inner sanctum.” It can’t be seen because it is a conjured sacred space in my mind where my inner spirit metaphorically kneels before the Divine in silent prayer, or to say thanks, ask of guidance or just listen with discernment to His whispers.

With this portable “altar” in me, minute spiritual epiphanies and upliftments can transpire anywhere and anytime. It can happen while waiting for my turn at the doctor’s clinic, or inside a commuter train, having coffee after a meal at the food court amidst the din, watching an old film via a streaming platform or even while going through used books in a bargain book shop and encountering inspiring titles.

This inner sanctum helps me avoid getting into practices and activities that would desecrate it in the same way we find it sacrilegious to vandalize a church or ransack the tabernacle. Thus, it also serves as my centering point, a place to go back to whenever I find myself doing things in excess or delving into practices and behavior that may be morally and ethically offensive or reprehensible.

While I still go to church occasionally, it is this portable personal altar that has really helped me find the way to a deeper understanding of faith, a faith that is more alive and more honest.

US FDA approves breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug

By Robert Langreth & Kanoko Matsuyama

EISAI Co.’s breakthrough Alzheimer’s disease drug Leqembi has gained full approval in the US. Yet, testing requirements and side effect warnings that may limit its use sent the company’s shares sliding.

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision marks a milestone, as Leqembi is the first drug shown to slow progression of the mind-robbing disease that afflicts some six million Americans. While the drug developed with Biogen Inc. was granted expedited authorization in January, the traditional approval was expected to spur greater insurance coverage of the medicine that costs $26,500 a year.

It came with unexpected restrictions, however. MRI scans are required to monitor for early signs of side effects and the label includes a stringent black box warning about the danger of swelling and bleeding in the brain called ARIA. Doctors must closely monitor patients and detail their response in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services registry every six months for the first two years.

Eisai’s shares closed 4.7 percent lower in Tokyo as investors assessed the potential impact of the requirements. Biogen’s fell as much as 2.2 percent at the New York market open.

“Leqembi’s approval is a significant milestone,” said Evan Seigerman, a managing director at BMO Capital Markets Corp., in a note. “While enrolling in the CMS registry is unlikely to deter many patients, it could be a rate limiting activity, at least at launch.”

Full approval also allows the companies to avoid the hurdles that plagued their earlier medicine, Aduhelm, which struggled to get insurance coverage and led to scant access for patients, he said. It was eventually abandoned.

Patients with a genetic mutation called APOE4 are at even higher risk of complications, which are usually asymptomatic but in rare cases can become life threatening.  The drug, also called lecanemab, is among the most potent of a new generation of antibodies that help clear amyloid, a toxic protein that slowly builds up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Last fall, it became the first drug to clearly slow the disease in a large trial. Patients who received it declined at a 27 percent slower rate over 18 months than those given a sham treatment.

Eisai says the warning will apply to the entire class of drugs that Leqembi belongs to and is intended to raise awareness about side effects. The genetic tests shouldn’t have a significant impact on the number of people who get treatment, Chief Executive Officer Haruo Naito said.

“We understand that the incidence of ARIA with lecanemab is low,” Naito said at a briefing in Tokyo on Friday.

“The genetic test has already been used in quite a few cases since we won the accelerated approval but we aren’t seeing a fall in usage. It shouldn’t affect patients financially and we don’t expect it to have a significant impact of the number of people receiving the drug.”

Prescribers ready A BOUT 1,200 neurologists are estimated to be ready to prescribe Leqembi

and the number is expected to increase, Eisai said. Health providers at more than 700 infusion centers have been trained to administer it, according to the company.

Eisai did a good job articulating why it thinks the enhanced warnings won’t impede adoption, which boosted shares in the afternoon, said Stephen Barker, an analyst at Jefferies, in a note to clients. The only constraints are the high cost of PET scans and the requirement for regular MRI scans, which are likely to slow the pace of adoption, he said.

Researchers have debated for decades about the degree to which amyloid contributes to Alzheimer’s, as numerous drugs that target the abnormal deposits failed in trials or showed ambiguous results. While far from a cure, Leqembi showed that removing amyloid could have a measurable effect on disease progression over long periods of time.

The Alzheimer’s Association, which pushed heavily for Leqembi’s approval and insurance coverage, called it the first treatment that “changes the underlying course of the disease.” It will help people at early stages maintain their independence for longer, said Joanne Pike, the advocacy group’s chief executive officer.

Scant use

FEW patients have received Leqembi since its accelerated clearance in January because Medicare, the US government’s insurance program for the elderly, ruled against paying for amyloid-lowering drugs that weren’t fully approved based on a documented

clinical benefit. In a statement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed it will now cover the drug.

“With FDA’s decision, CMS will cover this medication broadly while continuing to gather data that will help us understand how the drug works,” CMS Administrator Chiquita BrooksLaSure said.

Doctors must enroll patients in a registry that tracks their outcomes for two years, collect additional evidence about the drug’s risks and benefits, and submit data every six months. While an outside panel of experts recommended full approval of Leqembi in June, some worried about complications for select patients, including those taking anticoagulants.

Leqembi is not simple to use: It’s infused every two weeks by a medical provider. In addition to four MRI scans in the first year, patients need to get a separate test before treatment to confirm they have amyloid in the brain through PET scan or an invasive spinal tap. The drug has only been shown to help patients at the earliest stages of the disease. Eisai has applied for approval of the drug in other markets including China, which has 10 million people 60 or older with dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

It could soon have competition. In May, Eli Lilly & Co. said its Alzheimer’s candidate, donanemab, slowed the disease in a final-stage trial. It has said it plans to complete a filing for full US approval by the end of the second quarter.

The drug is under review for approval in both Europe and Japan. Lilly shares fell as much as 1.1 percent in New York. With assistance from John Tozzi / Bloomberg

Extremely overdue book returned 119 years later

By Steve Leblanc

The Associated Press

BOSTON—On February 14, 1904, someone curious about the emerging possibilities of a key force of nature checked out James Clerk Maxwell’s “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” from the New Bedford Free Public Library.

It would take 119 years and the sharp eyes of a librarian in West Virginia before the scientific text finally found its way back to the Massachusetts library.

The discovery occurred when Stewart Plein, the curator of rare books at West Virginia University Libraries, was sorting through a recent donation of books.

Plein found the treatise and noticed it had been part of the collec-

tion at the New Bedford library and, critically, had not been stamped “Withdrawn,” indicating that while extremely overdue, the book had not been discarded.

Plein contacted Jodi Goodman, the special collections librarian in New Bedford, to alert her to the find.

“This came back in extremely good condition,” New Bedford Public Library Director Olivia Melo said Friday. “Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family.”

The treatise was first published in 1881, two years after Maxwell’s death in 1879, although the cranberry-colored copy now back at the New Bedford library is not considered a rare edition of the work, Melo said. The library occasionally receives

books as much as 10 or 15 years overdue, but nothing anywhere close to a century or more, she said.

The treatise was published at a time when the world was still growing to understand the possibilities of electricity. In 1880, Thomas Edison received a historic patent embodying the principles of his incandescent lamp.

When the book was last in New Bedford, the nation was preparing for its second modern World Series, incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was on track to win another term, Wilbur and Orville Wright had conducted their first airplane flight just a year before and New York City was celebrating its first subway line.

The discovery and return of the book is a testament to the durability of the printed word, especially in a

time of computerization and instant access to unfathomable amounts of information, Melo said.

“The value of the printed book is it’s not digital, it’s not going to disappear. Just holding it, you get the sense of someone having this book 120 years ago and reading it, and here it is in my hands,” she said. “It is still going to be here a hundred years from now. The printed book is always going to be valuable.”

The New Bedford library has a 5-cent-per-day late fee. At that rate, someone returning a book overdue by 119 years would face a hefty fee of more than $2,100. The good news is the library’s late fee limit maxes out at $2.

Another lesson of the find, according to Melo? It’s never too late to return a library book.

LAOAG CITY—Members of the city council here have unanimously approved a measure granting additional cash incentive to senior citizens aged 101 and above.

Laoag City Councilor Handy Lao (left) holds a brainstorming meeting prior to the passage of the measure granting annual cash incentives to senior citizens in the city upon reaching 101 years old. This is apart from the one-time grant of P100,000 under the Centenarian ac t of 2016.

Solon seeks for substantial LGU stake in early childhood learning

the Early Years Act of 2013, or Republic Act 10410, and mandates the ECCD Council to ensure the alignment of the curricula of the K-12 basic education and the ECCD. It also mandates greater responsibilities on LGUs through the local school board on the implementation of ECCD programs.

Editor: Mike Policarpio

program

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and BDO Foundation have partnered to develop a nine-module interactive financial education (fin-ed) online course.

The said module is eyed to be available on mobile devices in early 2024.

whether you are in Luzon, the] Visayas, Mindanao or even abroad,” he stated. “We are excited to see [this project’s impact] on the lives of many Filipinos.”

Despite the established benefits of early childhood education on a child’s development, Gatchalian insisted that the quality of ECCD services is highly dependent on the LGUs’ financial and budget framework, resources, as well as political will.

Considering their role on ECCD programs’ implementation, the senator pressed the need to make local governments more accountable, while building on their capacities in carrying out their mandate.

According to him, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimates that there will be 11.1 million children aged 0 to 4 this

July—4.5 million of whom are aged 3 to 4—that the ECCD system should capture.

Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development revealed, however, that there were only 1,260,707 young children enrolled in child-development centers for School Year 2021-2022.

Gatchalian asked the ECCD Council to submit to the Second Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM II its proposed reforms to improve governance and the operational structure of the National ECCD System.

“If we don’t change the law, [structure and governance, we will

never achieve universal coverage to] produce high-quality childdevelopment teachers and workers, because all of these are in the hands of local government units,” he said.

In March, the solon filed the Basic Education and Early Childhood Education Alignment Act, or Senate Bill 2029, which aims to address challenges hounding the implementation of ECCD programs.

The proposed measure amends

Local governments’ responsibilities will include, among others, the provision of facilities and resources for the ECCD programs’ implementation. They shall also aim to achieve universal coverage for the national ECCD system by identifying and supporting young children, their parents, and their parent-substitutes.

LGUs shall also create plantilla positions for child-development workers and child-development teachers, while promoting their professional development. Gatchalian’s proposed measure also seeks the creation of ECCD divisions in cities and municipalities, which shall be under the mayors’ administrative supervision.

CKS College, Chinese school fortify Manila, Guangzhou ties

PART of the 40-year old sistercity ties between Manila and Guangzhou renewed by their respective mayors Honey Lacuna and Guo Yong-hang, Chiang Kai Shek College (CKSC) has signed a sister-school engagement with Panyu Huanan Country Garden School in Guangzhou City, China.

The agreement included strengthening and expanding fruitful cooperation in education and people-to-people exchanges between the two cities.

CKSC was chosen by the City Government of Manila as its private-school representative due to its excellence in education through offerings of both the national curriculum and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme.

The college is one of only three in the Philippines fully recognized as an IB World School in all programs from preschool to seniorhigh school.

The formal bilateral pact was signed by CKSC president Dr. Judelio Yap with his Guangzhou counterpart Principal You Kuang-yi in rites witnessed by Consul General Marshall Louis Alferez and Vice Consul April Fleur Mejia of the Philippine Embassy in Guangzhou, Administrator Bernie Ang and Councilor Numero Lim of the City of Manila, Binondo Development Committee chair Willord Chua, plus officials from Guangzhou City’s foreign affairs office, city government and education bureau.

According to Dr. Yap, bilateral relations between the two cities and the two schools were strengthened by the agreement, as the two schools have agreed to work together toward mutual cooperation and activities, exchange programs, online and onsite forums, plus seminars that will enrich their students’ educational performance and upgrade their teachers’ quality.

HCT Academy hones Filipino nurses’ global competencies

AMID the constant demand for Filipino nurses here and overseas, local health-care talents s till need upskilling to remain globally competitive while sustaining t heir relevance in the labor market.

As of 2022 there is a dearth of 106,000 nursing staff to fill vacant positions in health-care facilities across the Philippines, according to the Department of Health.

Meanwhile, the “brain drain” of the said professionals has been ongoing, with around 25,000 Filipino n urses having been deployed abroad in the last three years. Of late, countries like Canada, Austria, Saudi A rabia and Germany are still opting to hire Filipino medical workers. Some even offer advanced training courses and scholarships to partnerinstitutions.

With this in mind, the HCT Academy simulation labs (SimLabs), which w ork within the framework of the Joint Commission International— the international gold standard for patient care—allow them to further develop their competencies.

As such, Filipino nurses can now meet global norms and enhance their clinical simulation practice, sans having to leave the country and their families.

Then-known as Healthcare Advantage Institute, the HCT Academy l eads in bridging the industry’s major

theory-practice gap, or the inability to apply acquired knowledge in academics and research work with realw orld medical practice.

This industry-wide challenge is mainly due to the lack of educators in the nursing field, outdated university simulation laboratories, and l imited hands-on experience due to institutional budgetary constraints.

Armed with the latest TH E HCT Academy extends a service that provides nursing students a ccess to high-quality SimLabs that are armed with the latest hospital equipment. Each facility is also operated by a monitoring system that c reates up-to-date medical scenarios for the students to respond to while working with qualified instructors.

“We want to teach nurses the international gold standard in patient c are, as well as the skills in scenariobased SimLab training so that they can be confident in their training and the diagnosis that they give,” said HCT Academy president Armand del Rosario. “When they learn and practice in SimLabs, they don’t have to worry about hurting, injuring or misdiagnosing a patient. They can just practice and practice until they get it.”

The institution seeks to develop well-rounded nurses who are confident, competitive and conscientious.

A s Dr. Venus Solar, HCT Academy’s education director for non-clinical and accreditation noted: “Technology gives you all the opportunity [and all the accessibility. But at the end of the day, this profession and] this career…is still heavily guided by human intervention and ethics. We must keep in mind that we have the duty to keep ethics at the center of the practice, as what we’re doing has an impact on society, people and the environment.”

SimLabs are designed to arm learners with needed skills to improve patient-care delivery. The s tate-of-the-art facilities include an operating room, delivery room, intensive-care unit, neonatal intensive-care unit, wards and private r ooms.

Qualified instructors are handson in helping upskill the members of the country’s top nursing organizations: the Philippine Nurses Association, and the Association of Nursing S ervice Administrators of the Philippines Inc.

In crafting our curriculum, we follow guidelines set by the Technical Committee on Nursing Education, w hich is composed of representatives from the Commission on Higher Education, the Association of Deans of P hilippine Colleges of Nursing Inc. and the PRC [Professional Regulatory Commission],” HCT consultant

D r. Rhoda Reyes said. She added they are given guidance in creating their courses.

Pivoting on technological advancement, the company implemented e-learning modules and tied u p with SimLabs expert Dr. Sharon Decker of Texas Tech University to enhance their curriculum.

Accredited

LEVE LING up, HCT Academy diversifies its laboratories and adds the A merican Heart Association lab for Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support to enhance l earners’ emergency cardiovascularcare skills.

What’s more, it is accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and PRC as a continuing professional development unit’s institute. This means professionals enrolling in HCT Academy c ourses can accumulate credit units to qualify for an award, or increase their professional competence and expertise. These CPD units are especially needed for medical professionals looking to renew their licenses.

B eyond the nursing students or graduates, the academy hopes to also cater to other allied health professionals, public health-response t eams, and even citizens looking to broaden their knowledge in patient care. Roderick L. Abad

The BSP recently said that it has signed a memorandum of agreement with BDO Foundation for the development within this year of a free online personal finance course geared towards increasing Filipinos’ financial literacy.

“This project is in-line with the Central Bank’s thrust to promote broad, convenient, and informed access to high-quality financial services among our kababayans ,” former BSP governor Felipe Medalla said. “We welcome such collaborations that allow us to reach and serve more Filipinos.”

Relatively, BDO Foundation president Mario Deriquito said the online learning course aims “to enhance the financial literacy and financial health of our partners, stakeholders, beneficiaries and the public.”

“[With borderless learning, we will make fin-ed on-demand and accessible to everyone—

According to the BSP, the “Fin-Ed e-Learning Course” would include topics such as financial planning, saving and budgeting, debt and investment management, digitalfinancial literacy, fraud and scam prevention, the Personal Equity and Retirement Account or Pera, and financialconsumer protection.

The Central Bank hopes the course will “expand the coverage and accelerate the implementation of fin-ed programs in the country through free learning and teaching activities that can be accessed anytime, anywhere.”

“The ultimate goal of the initiative is to help cultivate a financially healthy and economically empowered Filipino citizenry that can actively contribute to nation-building,” it said.

The modules would be uploaded to e-learning platforms of the central bank and its fined partners, according to the BSP. Joann Villanueva/PNA

BORN to a poor family, Michel Galos strived in school yet graduated as a top-rank valedictorian. But because of his family’s situation, he was faced with the prospect of not going to college.

Thanks to a scholarship grant from PHINMA Education, Galos got a degree in Secondary Education. Today, he is a learning manager at PHINMA-Cagayan de Oro College—one of the network’s 10 colleges and universities—and working for one that serves over 124,000 students whom he says are exactly like him.

A nother is Mae EstucheOlpoc who is the international operations manager of Horizon Karawang: a school managed by PHINMA Education-Indonesia. She recalled that her family worked hard to survive by selling fish and harvesting salt in the salt beds by the shore in her hometown, as she was shuffled from one family to another when her grandmother could not afford to send them to school anymore.

Estuche-Olpoc noted that underserved students have a lot in common: “Besides the language [barrier, they are just like us: they have dreams and aspirations. They also want to finish their studies and uplift their families’ lives].”

The right people

“WE focus on making sure we are the right people for our students,” says PHINMA Education’s country chief for people Marlon Galvez, who leads almost 3,000 teachers, administrators and support staff across the Philippines.

“A big part of that is meeting them where they are, in order to help them get where they want to be,” Galvez added.

“Each member of the organization must believe in the mission if we want to make a real impact.”

Majority of PHINMA Education’s students come from

households likely to be closer to the poverty line. They are also often the first in their families to go college, but are largely unprepared for it. Commitment to the mission “BEING a member of the PHINMA Education family means commitment to the mission,” said Dr. Jomar Urbano who is the dean of PHINMA Education Laguna Network’s College of Education.

Born to a family of farmers, he received a scholarship at PHINMA-Araullo University, where he would also later obtain his Master’s and Doctorate degrees. “This is why we keep in mind that the mission is always bigger than ourselves.”

Dean Jejomar Quiros of PHINMA Education-National Capital Region (NCR) Network agrees: “It is an honor and privilege to prepare our students not just for fulfilling careers, but also [as engaged citizens who can make others’ lives…] better.”

Quiros is a presidential scholar and graduate of PHINMA University of Pangasinan who has served as dean of the College of Allied Health Sciences in PHINMA-UI before holding the same position in NCR.

All three recently shared their stories at the first PHINMA Educators’ Day.

“We used the term ‘educator,’ as we want to emphasize the different roles we all play in creating a vibrant learning environment for our students,” explained Country ChiefPhilippines Christopher Tan. “And when we say ‘learn,’ we don’t just mean helping them acquire knowledge and skills; we mean, just as important, that we care for each one of them, that we make them feel accepted for who they are, and we urge them to use their skills to serve others. This is what makes a PHINMA educator different.” Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for local government units’ (LGUs) stronger involvement in implementing early childhood-care and development (ECCD) programs.

BSP, BDO Foundation team up for fin-ed e-learning

PHINMA Educators keen on ‘paying it forward’

PRINCIPAL You Kuang-yi (left) and CKSC president Dr. Judelio Yap

GATCHALIAN at a Senate hearing MARK CAYABYAB/OS WIN GATCHALIAN

Tourism Editor: Edwin P. Sallan

FUN, FAITH AND FACES

WHy SorSogoN HAS

So mUCH To oFFEr ToUrISTS

The provincial government of Sorsogon, a rapidly emerging tourism destination in the country, has been in the forefront of a big tourism push with the launch of their new tourism campaign “Beautiful Sorsogon!—Where Beauty is everywhere.” Part of this campaign was to invite least 40 national and local media practitioners and tour operators to take part in a familiarization tour of the province. Apart from its well-known Butanding (Whale Shark) Interaction Tours, the province has much more to offer tourists.

For one, it has lots of history. Want to learn about its history, as well as culture, in a nutshell? Visit the Museo Sorsogon in Sorsogon City. A great example of adaptive reuse, this, 2-storey museum is housed in the former American-era Sorsogon Provincial Jail which was built in 1916. Housing 10 galleries (five on each floor), each in a former prison cell (with the cell doors

now glass paneled), it displays significant historical and cultural artifacts and memorabilia of the province. Another nearby American-era structure is the Provincial Capitol Building, built in 1904. Along the National Highway in Juban, Sorsogon’s version of a Heritage Town, are four well-preserved bahay na bato (“stone houses”) which were once the residences of some

MODERNIZED SEA TRAVEL

of the town’s richest families. One such structure, Casa Feliz, was built in 1898 and has been repurposed as a bed-and-breakfast. Their exteriors typically have exquisite and tall capiz shell or persiana sliding windows, double eaves supported by diagonal brackets, ventanillas (small shuttered windows below the large windows with wooden balustrades),wooden moldings on the walls and calado (lace-like fretwork or latticework).

Another historical site are the ruins of the Astillero de Panlatuan in Pilar. One of three found in the province, astilleros  are Spanish-era shipyards used for construction and repair of the galleons that plied the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade. On August 5, 1898, an uprising of the abused and desperate workers of this  astillero was part of a series of events that resulted in the rapid spread of revolutionary activities in Sorsogon.

Sorsogon prides itself as a bastion of Christian faith. In fact, the first mass in Luzon was first held in 1569 by Augustinian Fr. Alonso Jimenez at the Gibalon Shrine in Magallanes town. Another showcase of its Christian faith is the Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Casiguran. Built in 2017, it has huge statue of the Blessed

Now safer, more convenient and

Story & photos by Marky Ramone Go

Though I may have been too young to fully comprehend the Doña Paz tragedy at the time, subsequent news stories about it left an indelible impression on me. I grew up rationalizing that sea travel is a perilous undertaking—particularly in a country where antiquated vessels are commonplace.

When I reached college and joined our school’s mountaineering club, I experienced my first sea voyage having only previously partaken in brief island-hopping excursions aboard small boats. o u r three-hour ferry ride to o r iental Mindoro consisted of doing almost nothing. I mostly sat the whole t ime, getting up to walk a few meters near the ship’s handrails to gaze out at the ocean and then sitting back again.

It was the same when I went to Romblon from Batangas almost a decade ago where I just lay down on my bunk bed for 8 hours. Since then, I’ve come to regard at sea travel in the Philippines as more of a sacrifice than experiencing the joys of traveling.

Carving a career as a travel journalist, I’ve had the wonderful pleasure of sailing on several foreign cruises aboard some of the world’s most cutting-edge luxury vessels. The experience left me wishing the P hilippines, as an archipelago nation, to

have something similar to that.

Enter 2GO Travels 2 g o Travel, a subsidiary of 2 g o g r oup, has modernized sea travel in the Philippines since its inception in 2012. The company has introduced state-of-the-art vessels that offer spacious sleeping quarters and a range of onboard amenities, allowing both locals and tourists to explore the country’s waters in comfort and style. A passenger ferry arm of parent company 2 g o w hich used to own previous shipping brands like the SuperFerry, SuperCat, and Negros Navigation, 2 g o Travel has quickly become a go-to option for those seeking a premium ferry experience.

My first time traveling on a 2 g o Travel ship was in 2016 on journey to Boracay aboard its St. Ignatius de Loyola ship. I remember enjoying my time on board as there’s a mini bar to chill with a cold beer, a restaurant with a live band performing at night and a Mezzanine to hang out while enjoying the view of the sea—on top of a comfortable Cabin class accommodation I shared with 3 other friends.

On-board the MV Masagana to Iloilo

S INC e m y first experience traveling with 2 g o, I ’ve always planned on embarking another long sea journey but never got to doing s o. That is until last month when I joined

2 g o Travel’s #2 g o Kada Creators Cruise to Iloilo and Bacolod. This time around, I was introduced to one of the two latest vessels of the ferry company, the MV Masagana. Similar to sister ship MV Maligaya, MV Masagana was by built by Mitsubishi h e avy Industries in Japan in 2003.

During our voyage, I shared a Business Class quarters with fellow travel writer and vlogger Azrael Coladilla. In my estimation, the lodging provided ample space, featuring a pair of single beds, a settee, a central t able, and a chest of drawers with a television top and washbasin.

e v en though there aren’t individual restrooms in the cabins, the well-maintained sha red showers and toilets on the same deck make it as convenient as possible to take a freshen-up and answer nature’s call.

2 g o Travel, though advertised as a budget ferry, does not skimp on the amenities o f its vessel. The h o rizon Cafe and Island Fiesta restaurant offer a splendid seascape for diners, while QuickMart caters to grocery requirements. A souvenir shop and the Sea Breeze lounge, complete the chill out vibe. For on-ship entertainment, MV Masagana also boasts a pair of karaoke rooms a ccommodating up to twelve passengers as well as a salon. o n t he upper deck, one can partake in a variety of pastimes, ranging from a serene yoga session to a melodious musical performance, or even a leisurely

Virgin (patterned after the statue of La Naval de Manila) atop a terraced mound that could be reached by a flight of steps. In Barcelona town is the fortress-like, Baroquestyle Church of St. Joseph. Built in 1874, it is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved churches in the Bicol Region. Its 1.5-m. walls were made of hand-hewn anapog patched together by beaten egg whites mixed with lime and tuba (coconut wine). Across the road from the church, built along the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean, is the Barcelona Ruins Park.  Located here are a modern, solar-powered lighthouse and the Spanish-era ruins of a school building (for children of wealthy “illustrados”), at the southeastern tip of the park, and the prominent 2 story “La Presidencia,” at the northwestern tip of the park. The La Presidencia, also built in 1874, originally had an underground tunnel leading to the aforementioned church but it was closed to prevent thieves from accessing religious relics in the church.

For adrenaline junkies and adventure seekers, head out to the town of Bulusan where you can trek three waterfalls (Kambal Busay, Hidden Falls and Hulugan Falls) at Zoe’s Resort & Eco-Adventure Park or go hiking, fishing, boating, stand

up paddleboarding or kayaking at Bulusan Lake within the 3,672-hectare Bulusan Volcano National Park (dubbed as the “Switzerland of the Orient”). Now catering to tourists at the latter is the new P60-million Bulusan Lake Eco-Tourism Center, a road network and a parking area. Tired after a day of adventure? Soak your tired muscles at the hot, therapeutic and crystal-clear waters of Mateo Hot and Cold Spring Resort in Irosin.

For those seeking quieter pursuits, there’s the 3-hectare Balay sa Uma Bee Farm, a combination of a resort, restaurant and bee farm (with an amazing 2,400 colonies of stingless ligwan  and pukyutan  bees).

It has native-style cottages, picnic huts; fishponds; a garden with many plants, trees and flowers; and a nice, mountain-fed cold water swimming area (Batis sa Uma). You can also try out the relaxing firefly watching tour along the Ogod River, a branch of the peaceful, 100 km long Donsol River.

As part of its tourism push, Sorsogon City is undergoing a massive building program. Here, we visited the 2,638-sq-m, state-of-theart Sorsogon Cultural Center for the Arts (with a seating capacity of 515), the second natural cultural center of the Philippines (the first

being the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila), the 4,099sq-m Sorsogon City Convention Center, which can host big events and accommodate 2,500 people, and the soon-to-be-finished, Roman Colosseum-inspired Sorsogon Sports Complex, the largest outdoor sports complex(with a total capacity of 15,000 spectators) in Southern Luzon and the Bicol Region.

The kilometer-long bay walk at Rompeolas, site of the Guinness World Record (the certificate is proudly on display at the aforementioned Museo Sorsogon) setting largest Filipino folk dance (7,539 participants) during the 2019 Kasanggayahan Festival, has a lighthouse, picturesque views of the sea, Mt. Bulusan and the sunset across the bay and restaurants serving lunch, merienda (check out the halo-halo at Splendido de Rompeolas) and dinner.

Part of our familiarization tour included stays at some of the best hotels and resorts the province could offer such as the 15-room Elysia Beach Resort and Vitton & Woodland Beach Resort in Donsol, Recidencia del Hamor in Casiguran, Villa Isabel and Villa Italia in Sorsogon City and the Santorini-inspired Recidencia del Hamor Beach Front in Sta. Magdalena.

sunbathing session.

Departing from Pier 4 of the Manila Port h a rbor on 5 pm, we reached Iloilo around 11 am the next day. Despite the lengthy 18hour sea voyage, I remained remarkably invigorated throughout. I was able to indulge in a restful 8-hour slumber within my cabin, relish in a live musical performance in the lounge, croon a few Blind Melon tunes in the karaoke room, and savor hearty meals in between.

In retrospect, I appreciate how far sea travel has improved in our country with the introduction of these newer marine fleets by 2 g o . I t not only offers more space for a passenger, but it also provides additional comfort, entertainment, and value f or money.

2Go Travel’s Creators Cruise

To promote and spread the word about the wonders of sea travel, 2 g o and the Department of Tourism organized a 3-day sea v oyage event called “Creators Cruise”. 100 content creators from various social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok were chosen to participate along with a f ew other members of the media.

appealing to travelers session,

By traveling to Iloilo and Bacolod City, many of the participating dynamic creators discovered for the first time the joys of sea travel. Bonding over a sundry list of fun activities on board: from partaking in a yoga

Story & photos by Benjamin Locsin Layug

K

A MBAL Busay Falls (at Zoe's Resort & Eco-Tourism Park

K AyAKING at Lake Bulusan

Th E Shrine of Our Lady of the Most holy Rosary in Casiguran

MuSEO Sorsogon, a great example of adaptive reuse

Th E Baroque-style Church of St. Joseph in Barcelona

Th E Lasala-Guarin Ancestral house in Juban

Th E Roman Colosseum-inspired Sorsogon Sports Complex

Filipino retailer highlights brand specializing in merging art and print technology

ASURVEY by The Economist has showed that there is global awakening about loss of natural resources. According to the survey, from 2016-2020, the popularity of Google searches for sustainable products grew 450 percent. In Southeast Asia, the number of nature-loss and biodiversity tweets during the said five-year period grew by 102 percent.

Companies now use less plastic, recycled packaging, sustainable products, organic food, and a number of ways to give consumers options to make healthy and more sustainable choices.

In the Philippines, Kultura is a retailer that consciously promotes more sustainable, meaningfully-crafted and locally-sourced merchandise. Kultura may be known as a stores that offers Filipiniana attire and souvenirs but it’s actually a good source of unique merchandise that are crafted by local artisans.

“Retailers can influence customer purchasing decisions depending on our product offerings, pricing strategies and promotions—from product displays to discounts and loyalty programs. Using this influence for good, Kultura helps consumers adopt greener lifestyles by offering a wide selection of products that are made from natural materials that are biodegradable, upcycled or repurposed, aside from being locally sourced,” said Kultura president Ivy Yap.

Kultura stores are stocked with Green Finds that make it easier for consumers to make sustainable choices. SM Retail, through Kultura, has become a platform for the growth of MSMEs. Millie Monday and Haspe are two Filipino retail brands that you can find at Kultura.

Millie Monday is actually a division of Primex Printers Inc., a highly modern print shop with over 40 years of print excellence and experience. In 2017, Primex evolved from an offset printing service provider into a full-service printer when it expanded into large format printing.

Launched by three siblings as a tribute to their mother, Millie Monday provides artful home accessories for the table or home office. Their offerings include desktop calendars, placemats, tissue holders, and journals.

According to Mariel Ching of Millie Monday, they specialize in merging art and print technology to create functional paper-related products and accessories. “It was borne out of the pandemic as regular printing jobs vanished, and the family had to find ways to diversify our output, and keep our personnel and machines occupied,” she continued.

Millie Monday has expanded its product line to include other non-paper products. Thanks to Kultura, Ching said they have received bulk orders and outright purchases from countries like Singapore and Japan. Millie Monday’s collaborations with established artists have also produced well-received collections.

Ching said they use sustainably sourced paper, and soy-based ink, as well as a Heidelberg offset machine, which was acquired with a proviso that involved planting trees in Africa.

“We are the only Asian printer given the Green Leaf Award by Kodak in 2019. We don’t print on tarp, as it isn’t biodegradable,” said Ching.

Meanwhile, Haspe is the Spanish/Filipino word for wood grain. Baliwag, Bulacan native Eric Gonzales, an architect, designs and creates the wonderful wood-based products and accessories that have caught the eye of shoppers that frequent CITEM, FAME, and ArteFino fairs.

“Our ‘sungka’ and chess board, made of mahogany wood and solihiya [rataan weaving], are among our signature products,” said Gonzales.

As Haspe has no Metro Manila showroom,

Gonzales credits Kultura for its invaluable contribution to brand awareness for the company.

“We started off in 2016 with big traditional furniture pieces. In 2019, we were inspired to make use of the excess wood and design smaller pieces.”

Haspe has since started incorporating rattan, bone inlay, and other locally sourced materials.

Sustainability comes easy to Haspe as the products are a form of upcycling. The wood utilized to create these products are sustainably farmed in Mindoro and come from leftover materials that would otherwise have been thrown away.

While they’ve been involved with Kultura for less

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Pilipinas...

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than a year, both Millie Monday and Haspe credit their engagement with Kultura as godsends, and are pleased to be placed under the umbrella of Green Finds.

“By educating customers about the importance of sustainability and providing easy access to mindfullycrafted merchandise, we aim to promote changes in our customers’ behaviors and move them to lead more eco-conscious lifestyles. We hope our efforts inspire other businesses and lead to the adoption of more eco-friendly practices in the retail industry, and ultimately contribute to a more sustainable future for the country,” said Kultura’s Ivy Yap. ■

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

Online brokerage has a huge growth potential in the Philippines not only because it is one of the fastestgrowing economies in the region but also the strong and increasing adoption of new technology and digital platforms by its young and increasingly digital-savvy population.

Jacques Xiang Li, head of global communications of Singapore-based Tiger Brokers, said the huge remittance of nearly 2 million Filipinos working overseas worth $31.4 billion cash remittances has made the country achieve strong macroeconomic fundamentals.

In 2021 alone, nearly 2 million Filipinos working overseas sent home a record $31.4 billion in cash remittances, enabling many Filipinos to have some spare money hopefully for savings and investments.

Li observed the Philippines is already making significant progress in pushing digital transformation in many areas, and Tiger Brokers is excited to see how technology continues to deliver help to people’s financial happiness.

“The online brokerage sector offers investors an alternative to trade safely and efficiently, helping them best seize opportunities. Most importantly, the mobile internet offers an optimized global investing experience which allows investors to trade no matter where and when,” he said.

“Online brokerage platforms can offer a multitude

Pilipinas Live represents a promising step toward reshaping the sports viewing landscape in the Philippines. By offering a comprehensive range of sporting content, immersive experiences, and exclusive features, it aims to cater to the fervent desires of Filipino sports enthusiasts.

Now, the app just launched, so hopefully they’d be able to update it soon and maybe add even more sports like golf or tennis or some classic PBA games to its library. But for P99 per month, it’s already a good deal, and hopefully once the FIBA World Cup starts next month, access to the app and the streaming quality of the live games won’t change.  To download the app, users can visit Google Play or App Store or access it through www.pilipinaslive.com

of investment products, an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate, a variety of analysis and trading tools, abundant educational materials, a smooth experience, fewer commissions and fees, and an interactive community where investors and experts can exchange ideas,” he added.

He noted that the online brokerage sector in the country and Asean region is still in a fledgling stage, with only a few active players and most people still not having much knowledge about online global investing.

He added local investors are deterred by their lack of a reliable, safe, efficient and innovative platform to go to.

To attract more investors, Li urged regulators to set the rules, better defend investors’ interests, and promote further healthy and orderly growth of this sector in the market.

As a global online brokerage, he said Tiger Brokers is quite keen on listening to stakeholders of the wide public, and getting their feedback, including but not limited to regulators, industry players, investors, journalists and analysts, to name a few, to create an amicable ambiance for interactions. “This is a must-do before we move to improve our products and services to offer the best possible smart and efficient global investing experience, and pave the way for our next actions,” he said.

Before embarking on their expansion plans, he said Tiger Brokers will seek the regulators’ credentials and approval.

Pilipinas Live, go-to streaming app for sports fans?

experiences, and other exclusive features.

According to Jane Jimenez Basas, president and CEO of Cignal TV, Pilipinas Live was created to reshape the landscape of sports viewing. It offers the ultimate digital experience to Filipino sports enthusiasts wherever they may be. “The innovation behind the app’s development and rollout represents our steadfast commitment to providing only the best to the Pinoy sports fan,” she said.

see the devices using your account and manage your subscription plan.  I am curious what the Light Show option is for.

Choosing a game or episode will then bring you up to the next screen where you can “heart” and add it to your Watchlist, and share the link to your social media networks and see other related episodes. However, there is still no way to create an alert or add a game to your calendar.

BEFORE I even heard of Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim or even Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, it was the names Michael Young and David Thirdkill that got me curious about the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). I was about 10 that time and I overheard my classmates talking about a particular dunk he did the previous game.

For many basketball enthusiasts of our generation, the late 1980s to the early 2000s were the true golden years of the PBA. It was during this period that we experienced the formation of our very own “dream team,” (even ahead of the NBA) an exceptional all-pro Philippine national team that won a silver medal in the 1990 Asian Games. Live PBA games were also an unparalleled experience, often witnessing sold-out arenas and creating an electrifying atmosphere, especially during the rare matches held outside Metro Manila.

In an era before the internet became omnipresent, newspaper reports and TV clips served as our main sources of game information. We would meticulously read multiple newspapers and magazines, hungry for basketball analysts’ insights and trivia. We also didn’t have Google then, but we had “The Dean” Quinito Henson who dished out the basketball knowledge and trivia we desperately craved.

And while the PBA might not be as popular now because of all the other sports and entertainment options we have, the Philippines will always be a basketball country. For this reason, Cignal TV just launched Pilipinas Live, a streaming app that could very well be the Netflix for sports fans.

A lot of my friends have posted about it on their websites, so I was quite surprised when I saw that it only had a 2.7 rating on the Play Store.

Why the low ratings—and is it even worth downloading?

LIVE, PILIPINAS

PILIPINAS Live is the newest sports powerhouse app that’s set to revolutionize the way fans consume the most in-demand sporting events. This one-of-a-kind OTT streaming platform promises to give subscribers the complete game experience, letting you enjoy the thrill of live broadcasts, including behind-the-scenes action, sports news and updates, interactive fan

Pilipinas Live will stream this year’s most anticipated basketball event, the FIBA World Cup 2023 which will feature the best teams around the world. Basas said that with Pilipinas Live, you can watch not just all the games that will be played in the Philippines but also all the games in Japan and Indonesia.

Currently, Pilipinas Live is also streaming the 2023 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference. The PVL features 13 teams—including two foreign squads joining in the semifinal round all vying for the midseason crown.

■ APP INTERFACE: Once you open the app, you’ll be asked to enter an email to sign in or create an account. Creating an account is fast and easy and you just have to enter the OTP sent to your account to continue. Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be greeted by the home screen with the Pilipinas Live logo on top and a still nonfunctioning Notification bell icon.

You can then browse through several tabs for different leagues; FIBA, PBA, UAAP, PVL, MPBL,  and Other Leagues. As you may have noticed by now, most of the games you can watch on this app are either basketball or volleyball games. On the Other League tab, however, you can find other channels to watch such as the 32nd Southeast Asian Games as well as The Nationals which features esports competitions.

On the HOME tab you’ll find a carousel for featured games including the PVL Invitational Conference, PBA on Tour, Volleyball Nations Mens League 2023, PBA 3x3 Season 3, MPBL 2023, the ongoing FIBA U19 World Cup 2023, FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2023, and FIBA Draw.

Right below it is a list of the upcoming live games as well as their schedule. Next is the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers followed by Quick Cuts which is a collection of short videos from various games and Full Game Highlights. Going further down, you’ll see Sports Headlines which will direct you to the latest sports news on www.onesports.ph. And lastly are the Original Sports shows Jump Ball, Glory Days, The Bounce, Step Up Season, Hotseat, Sneaker Files, Basketball Science and Basketball Almanac. I think most of these shows were first available on cable TV and aren’t exclusives to the Pilipinas Live App.

At the very bottom of the main screen is another Home shortcut, My Court, Search and Menu. My Court lists all the games you have watched or are watching, games you purchased, and your Watchlist.

■ APP AND DOWNS: So, does it deserve the 2.7 rating? No, but it’s still a bit far off from getting a 5 star.

Going through those reviews, the users who gave the app a low score thought this was a streaming app where they could just watch live games for free—and you know how much Pinoys love free stuff.

I do think the app developers should give a few days trial or maybe just add a free preview of some games for those who spent time creating an account. It can be quite irritating to sign up only to find out that all you can do is browse the app because all the episodes are locked. The P99 monthly subscription is very affordable though especially for avid hoops/ volleyball fans.

Subscribers get to watch the matches commercialfree with extended pre-and post-game coverage since it is not bound to TV time slot constraints.

Another unique feature of the app is multiple screen viewing which lets you watch extraordinary plays from various camera points; I haven’t figured out how to use this though. You can also link up to 10 devices per account and can watch different games simultaneously on two screens.

As with other streaming apps, loading times depend on your internet speed. When outside, I use my Smart 5G mobile data and the matches and shows loaded quite fast and the quality was also good. Do note that this varies depending on your signal. When I switched to my PLDT Fiber connection at home, loading times were almost non-existent and the quality was even better. Trying it on both my laptop and mobile phone, the resolution was considerably lower via browser. I wish they would add an option where you could choose your preferred video quality. One issue that I have is the lazy More Info tab. With all the available games, the developers should’ve included a short description, some highlight trivia why it is worth watching, or the date of the game. As of now it’s just blank and you need to preview it first to know what the game/episode is about.

It’s a small issue, but I’m also not sold on the name “Pilipinas Live,” as sports isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you see the name. Also, for an app called Pilipinas Live, there’s not a lot of “live” games to watch. Given that it all depends on the league’s schedule a “recently LIVE” tab would be great just to know the newest ones available.

Art meets philanthropy: Globe continues to battle hunger

GLOBE has joined ATIN Global and SEE Global Entertainment in introducing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition to the Philippines and Southeast Asia, using the transformative power of art to battle hunger. This initiative brings together the beauty of Michelangelo’s masterpieces with a noble cause—feeding the hungry and providing livelihood programs to uplift lives. It comes at a time when an estimated 13.5 million Filipinos continue to grapple with daily sustenance amid persisting challenges such as unemployment and the high cost of basic goods.

To support the cause, a portion of proceeds from every ticket sold will go to the Hapag Movement, a program spearheaded by Globe that leverages technology and brings together an ecosystem of partners to address hunger and unemployment through supplemental feeding and livelihood programs.

Together with Hapag Movement mobilization partners Ayala Foundation, Caritas Philippines, Tzu Chi Foundation

purgatory in Michelangelo’s paintings, Crisanto pointed out how they are similar to the torment that millions of Filipinos are going through due to hunger.

“When you see hell, when you see purgatory in the Michelangelo paintings, maybe you can imagine what kind of hell people who are going hungry in this country are actually experiencing. And that is why we partnered with ATIN Global and SEE Global because we want to be able to put in the hearts of the people the appreciation of great art, but also to use this exhibition as a way of helping our ,” she said.

The internationally acclaimed exhibition, which has toured over 100 cities around the world, from New York to Shanghai and London to Melbourne, features reprints of 34 of Michelangelo’s most renowned frescoes, including The Last Judgment and Visitors of the exhibition will be transported to the Sistine Chapel through an ingenious multi-sensory experience, with the frescoes complemented by

ambient Renaissance music especially curated by Manila Symphony Orchestra conductor Marlon Chan, and subtle scents reminiscent of the era curated by Sabrina Co, founder of ATIN Inc.

Guests are allowed to photograph these magnificent works of art and enjoy numerous selfie opportunities throughout the exhibit. An Art Room is also open for parents and children to bond over coloring images that will adorn the Art Wall. For food enthusiasts, Caffe Michelangelo is there to offer a unique dining experience with Italian desserts and coffees.

The exhibition is ongoing until September 30 at the Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, Pasig City. Tickets can be purchased online or at the venue, with rates at P500 for students, senior citizens, and persons with disability, P650 for regular visitors on weekdays and P750 on weekends, and P950 for VIP Priority Access.

More information about the exhibit can be found at www.sistinechapelphilippines. com.

FROM left: Yoly Crisanto, Globe Group chief sustainability and corporate communications officer; Sabrina Co, founder and creative director of ATIN Global Inc; Martin Biallas, CEO, SEE Global; Marlon Chen, Manila Symphony Orchestra conductor; and Dr. Christie Monina Nalupta, assistant secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross.

Xi gets serious about boosting private sector as economy slumps

edge internationally, said Willer Chen, an analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia.  China has already removed one major barrier to international business exchanges: Covid controls that closed borders for three years. Members of China’s powerful Politburo met with Musk and Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., in May, signaling that the return of such executives is welcome.

Officials have made a series of high-profile actions designed to telegraph the Chinese government’s backing for private firms, as the nation’s post-pandemic recovery risks being caught in a confidence trap. The Chinese leader has vowed to treat foreign investors better and called for greater opening up in recent weeks.

That mission has seen top officials roll out the red carpet for Elon Musk and other executives, draw a line under a tech crackdown that tanked the world’s biggest IPO, and even visit US-based Bain & Company’s Shanghai office in an apparent end to immediate worries about a probe into consultancies that spooked global investors.

The positive moves in the technology sector spurred a 3.8 percent jump on Thursday in the Hang Seng Tech Index, which is now on track for its best week this year.

China’s outreach comes as the nation’s post-pandemic recovery loses steam. The nation’s property market is showing signs of weakness, exports are shrinking and deflationary risks loom. Without “the lure of a rapidly growing

FAMILY homelessness in the US is on the rise in an alarming sign of how the increasing cost of goods, the ever-tightening housing supply, and the end of most pandemicera benefits are putting pressure on Americans.

Some 72,700 people in families with children were experiencing homelessness in 20 of the largest cities in the nation as of January, a 37.6 percent jump from a year before, according to an analysis of data provided by jurisdictions. In New York, that figure shot up by two thirds, while Chicago, the District of Columbia and Fort Worth, Texas, also saw outsize increases.

The findings—based on data collected from cities that conducted a count of people staying in shelters or on the streets—show a worsening national picture ahead of a government report due at the end of year. The Housing & Urban Development Department (HUD) typically releases a full count that includes point-in-time data from more than 400 jurisdictions in December.

The situation is likely even more grim than the numbers show: so-called point-in-time samples often are a significant undercount, and cities including San Francisco and Seattle— which have dire homeless cri -

World has hottest June on record as ocean temperatures soar–NCEI

THE world just had its hottest June ever for land and sea, with ocean temperatures setting new highs for the third month in a row.

economy,” China’s is finding it difficult to attract Western business, said Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics, a London-based research firm focused on China.

“Deflationary signs add to the impression of a troubled economy, making it harder for Beijing to recruit foreign capital to its efforts to counter US power,” she added.

Perhaps China’s clearest signal of a shift in attitude toward the private sector was the praise heaped this week on tech companies, which have seen billions in market value wiped out due to Xi’s regulatory crackdown.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang called Internet firms the “trailblazers of the era” in a meeting on Wednesday with senior executives from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. Meanwhile, the nation’s top economic planning agency praised major online platforms for supporting the nation’s technological innovation.

These gestures imply authorities now want to help create more jobs, bolster the real economy and drive the country’s competitive

ses—were excluded from the analysis because they only counted the number of people in their shelters this year.

The latest estimates illustrate the worrisome direction family homelessness is headed—all as eviction bans, stimulus payments and enhanced food and child-care programs expire. Families of color also tend to be disproportionately affected, with Black Americans making up half of those experiencing family homelessness, according to HUD.

Richard Cho, a senior adviser at HUD, said that early reports indicate that the number of families with children experiencing homelessness “has been increasing dramatically.” The department is anticipating “some probably really difficult and challenging data” going forward.

“There were many, many, many people that were already just barely making it,” said Kathy Johnson, executive director of Oak City Cares, a nonprofit focused on helping people experiencing homelessness in North Carolina. “And then when inflation hit and the economy changed, those people who were just on the edge teetered over.”

HUD estimates some 161,000 Americans in families with children experienced homelessness in 2022. Though the pandemic

Business delegations from Japan and France have also visited this year, while the chief executive officers of Intel Corp. and Mastercard Inc., as well as senior representatives from Western Digital Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., are in China this week, according to an agenda seen by Bloomberg News.

Xi himself greeted US billionaire Bill Gates in Beijing last month calling him “the first American friend I’ve met in Beijing this year.”

That warm message contrasted with the tougher meetings the Chinese leader and other officials had with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken days later.

The world’s largest economies are locked in a trade war that’s seen both sides impose export controls.

A survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China earlier this year found that the Asian giant is no longer a top three investment priority for a majority of US firms, as geopolitical tensions simmer.

There are some early signs frictions are easing. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her

readings marked the lowest in data going back to 2007, some experts caution that jurisdictions were unable to conduct accurate counts during the health-care crisis. The Department of Education uses a broader definition and also counts those living out of motels or with relatives due to a lack of housing. It said some 1.1 million children were homeless during the pandemic.

To be sure, in many places family homelessness is still below prepandemic levels, and cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago said the arrival of asylum seekers since last year is weighing on the numbers they reported. In New York City, which updates its figures daily, there were about 53,500 people in families with children staying in its shelters as of July 9—roughly 10,000 more than when the city conducted its point-in-time count in January. Smaller cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, also have seen an increase in family homelessness in recent months after showing improvement at the start of the year.

These numbers come as the cost of nearly everything continues to climb. Housing prices were up 7.8 percent nationwide in June from a year ago. Pre-pandemic, research from the Government Accountability Office estimated that a $100 increase in median

meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing last week had put ties on a “surer footing.” Still, Yellen told her counterparts in Beijing that “coercive” and “punitive” actions against US firms in China were a major concern for businesses.

Earlier this year, China conducted a series of raids on consultancy firms relied on by foreign investors. US consultancy Bain & Company said this week it had “warmly” welcomed a visit by top Shanghai officials days before Yellen’s trip. That marked officials’ first known visit to the firm since a wider probe of the industry over national security concerns.

Despite China’s efforts, Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist at Natixis, said private sector “confidence has clearly not been restored.” She identified three main lingering problems: muted domestic demand, tighter national security regulations and the US and European Union stepping up exports controls to China.

“Being present in China is becoming a liability – rather than an asset – as far as global investors’ reactions are concerned,” she added.

Tian Xuan, a Tsinghua University professor, said the government should formulate red lines so companies can operate with confidence in a frontpage article Wednesday in the state-run Securities Times. Distilling what was at stake for Xi’s government, Tian said: “What is the most important problem in the private economy now? It’s the lack of confidence among private entrepreneurs.” Bloomberg News

post-Covid

rent was associated with a 9 percent jump in homelessness.

An increase in the number of homeless families could weigh on the development and well being of American families in years to come. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that homeless children are at higher risk of facing serious health conditions and are more susceptible to substance abuse and violence. Every person experiencing chronic homelessness costs taxpayers almost $36,000 annually, and for every new American who becomes homeless, that means more resources need to be spent.

“Homelessness is not a static event,” said Ellen Bassuk, founder of the National Center on Family Homelessness. “You don’t become homeless, and then you’re not homeless two months later and it’s over. It goes on and on.”

In an effort to avoid some of those vicious cycles, the Biden administration unveiled a plan last year aimed at reducing overall homelessness in the US by one-fourth by 2025 by expanding access to housing vouchers and simplifying the application process for government assistance programs, among other initiatives.

The President’s budget for fiscal year 2024 proposes $10.3 billion for homelessness assistance programs.

Bloomberg News

Combined ground and ocean temperatures across the Earth were 1.89F degrees (1.05C) above the 20th-century average of 59.9F, making this the warmest June in data going back 174 years, the US National Centers for Environmental Information said in a statement. It’s “virtually certain” that this year will rank among the 10 warmest on record, the agency said.

Massive heat waves have endangered lives and taxed energy grids the world over since the start of the year. The blistering weather is

also triggering droughts that have contributed to wildfires, such as those that burned more than 20 million acres (8.1 million hectares) across Canada, sending smoke into the US and Europe.

Elevated ocean temperatures, meanwhile, are created conditions ripe for hurricanes. The world’s oceans produced an above-average nine named storms last month, four of which reached hurricane strength. The global accumulated cyclone energy—a measure of storms’ power—was almost twice the normal value for June.

In addition to global temperatures, Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent on record despite winter being underway there, the agency said. Bloomberg News

India considers banning most rice exports on inflation fears

INDIA , the world’s biggest rice shipper, is considering banning exports of most varieties, a move that may send already lofty global prices higher as the disruptive El Niño weather pattern returns.

The government is discussing a plan to ban exports of all nonBasmati rice, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because of rising domestic prices and authorities want to avoid the risk of more inflation, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public.

If implemented, a ban would affect about 80 percent of India’s rice exports. Such a move may lower domestic prices, but it risks sending global costs even higher. Rice is a staple for about half of the world’s population, with Asia consuming about 90 percent of global supply. Benchmark prices have already soared to a two-year high on fears that the return of El Niño will damage crops.

India accounts for about 40 percent of the global rice trade and has sought to tighten exports of some varieties. Last year, the South Asian nation banned broken rice exports and imposed a 20 percent duty on shipments of white and brown rice after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent prices of food staples like wheat and corn soaring. The country has also restricted wheat and sugar exports.

Representatives for the food, trade and finance ministries didn’t respond to emails or text messages seeking comment. India supplies rice to more than 100 countries, with Benin, China,

Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Togo among its biggest customers.

Shares of Indian rice millers fell on news of the potential ban. KRBL Ltd., the country’s biggest rice company, slumped as much as 3.7 percent before paring losses. Chaman Lal Setia Exports Ltd. declined as much as 1.4 percent, Kohinoor Foods Ltd. dropped 2.9 percent while LT Foods Ltd. tumbled 4.4 percent.

Importers such as Indonesia, China, and the Philippines have been aggressively stockpiling rice this year. El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, according to the World Meteorological Organization, threatening to bring drought to many ricegrowing regions. A potential ban by India will add to worries over supply.

India’s plan comes after its consumer price inflation quickened in June mainly due to higher food prices.

Bloomberg Economics expects inflation to rebound further after the latest surge in tomato prices, a key ingredient in Indian cuisine, and an increase in the government’s support price for monsoon-sown crops. Barclays Bank Plc and Yes Bank have raised their inflation forecasts.

Retail rice prices in Delhi have climbed about 15 percent this year while the average nationwide price has gained 8 percent, according to data from the food ministry. Persistent high food costs could hurt popular sentiment ahead of several state polls later this year and national election in 2024. Bloomberg News

CANNABIS-RELATED trips to the emergency room rose among young people during the pandemic, a study found, underscoring a broad increase in such visits in recent years.

The number of emergency room visits among those younger than 25 was higher from 2020 to 2022 than before the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found. There were some fluctuations by age group and time of year.

The increase was most dramatic for children 10 and younger, who had more than three times as many ER trips last summer compared to the same period in 2019, despite the total number of cases in that age group being relatively small. An average of 72 children were admitted to the emergency rooms per week during the summer of last

year — up from only 21 during the same period three years earlier.

The US Food and Drug Administration has warned that edibles containing the active ingredients from cannabis often resemble other foods and should be kept away from kids.

Those 15 to 24 represented the vast majority of emergency room visits. In that age group, visits peaked in 2021 and then fell somewhat.

Total weed-related ER visits were already increasing before the pandemic, a trend that the researchers noted might be linked to cannabis legalization.

“The specific reasons for these increases are unknown, and potential drivers might differ by age,” they wrote in the report released Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Bloomberg News

CHINESE President Xi Jinping finally appears to be extending an olive branch to private businesses battered in recent years by regulatory crackdowns and the world’s most restrictive Covid-19 policies.

US homelessness rises by 40% in cities like New York and Chicago

There were more ER visits related to cannabis during the pandemic

Continued from A12

on Sunday, where the finance chiefs are expected to focus on support for

Ukraine, the reform of multilateral development banks and the G-7’s push to recalibrate global supply chains.

Boosting support for Ukraine is also on the agenda.

Gandhinagar will be the debut

outing to a G-20 finance chiefs gathering for newly installed World Bank President Ajay Banga. It also offers Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and central bank Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan the

opportunity to attend for the first time since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his post-election economic team.  Finance ministries and central banks not sending their principal

policymakers typically are represented by other senior officials.

For Yellen, the trip offers another chance to deepen ties with India, a location she’s singled out for “friendshoring” supply chains. A senior

Treasury official said the India relationship was one of the three reasons for Yellen’s attendance at Gandhinagar, alongside multilateral development bank reform and debt relief. Bloomberg News

OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot probed by FTC over consumer harms

Biden cautions Prigozhin: ‘I’d be careful what I ate’

UNITED STATES President Joe Biden suggested Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin could be in danger after carrying out an attempted mutiny last month and briefly capturing a Russian military facility.

“If I were he I’d be careful what I ate,” Biden said at a news conference Thursday in Helsinki following a three-nation European trip. “I would keep an eye on my menu.”

The joke was a reference to high-profile instances of Russian security services using nerve agents and polonium to poison and kill political enemies of President Vladimir Putin.

The probe into the Microsoft Corp.-backed start-up marks the first official inquiry into a technology that has the potential to change almost every aspect of people’s lives and has become almost equally fascinating for its potential to run awry. FTC Chair Lina Khan, who testified before Congress Thursday, has raised concerns about AI before, saying enforcers “need to be vigilant early” with transformative tools like artificial intelligence.  Microsoft declined to comment.

In a series of tweets Thursday, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said “of course we will work with the FTC,” and that it is “super important” to the company that its technology is “safe and pro-consumer.” Altman also said OpenAI is “confident” it’s adhering to US laws.

“We protect user privacy and design our systems to learn about the world, not private individuals,” he said.

The Washington Post earlier reported on the FTC’s probe.

The FTC’s investigation opens a potent regulatory salvo at San Francisco-based OpenAI, the leader in generative AI technology whose ChatGPT app has sparked a race among companies across nearly every industry to develop their own competing chatbots.

ChatGPT is built atop a large language model, which is trained on

enormous swaths of text from the internet so that it can generate responses to questions in a way that sounds human-like.

The probe “is a significant development that could have implications for both the company and the broader AI innovation sector,” said Divyansh Kaushik, associate director for emerging technologies and national security at the Federation of American Scientists, a non-partisan think tank in Washington. “It signals that regulators are becoming more proactive in ensuring that AI companies operate ethically and responsibly.”

The rapid rise of the technology in the past eight months since ChatGPT become widely available, has prompted calls for regulation and a pause in training of advanced AI systems, even among the heads of some of the leading companies in the field, such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet Inc.’s DeepMind.

Altman has been an outspoken proponent of regulation. In a May hearing, Altman said Congress should create robust safety standards for advanced AI systems. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong,” Altman said. Twitter owner Elon Musk has also been one of the loudest voices warning about the potential consequences of mainstreaming AI.

A prominent tech ethics group

filed a complaint in March urging the FTC to halt further commercial deployment of the technology that powers ChatGPT. The complaint from the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy, which is led by longtime privacy advocate Marc Rotenberg, called on the FTC to open the investigation and “ensure the establishment of necessary guardrails to protect consumers, businesses, and the commercial marketplace.”

The FTC, which enforces both antitrust and consumer protection laws, is also taking a close look at how competition is developing in the space, Khan has said, to ensure dominant firms aren’t using their power over key inputs like data to discriminate against rivals. The agency is also monitoring how AI tools are being used by scammers and will enforce the law, not just against fraudsters, but also against companies that enable them, she said. In a 20-page letter addressed to OpenAI this week, the FTC

asked the company to provide detailed descriptions of all complaints it had received of its products making “false, misleading, disparaging or harmful” statements about people, according to the Washington Post. The FTC is looking into whether the company engaged in unfair or deceptive practices that caused “reputational harm” to consumers, according to the Post.

The FTC also asked the company to provide records related to a security incident that the company disclosed in March when a bug in its systems allowed some users to see payment-related information, as well as some data from other users’ chat history.

Khan faced a grilling in Congress on Thursday in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, where Republican lawmakers attacked her adherence to ethics laws and aggressive antitrust enforcement, labeled her “bully” and told her leadership was “a disaster.”

Bloomberg News

Cluster munitions arrive in Ukraine

WASHINGTON—Cluster munitions provided by the United States have now arrived in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The munitions—which are bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets—are seen by the US as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines. US leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before President Joe Biden made the final decision last week.

US leaders have said the US will send a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode.

The unexploded rounds, which often litter battlefields and populated civilian areas, cause unintended deaths. US officials said Washington will provide thousands of the rounds, but provided no specific numbers.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of operations for the Joint staff, told reporters on Thursday that “cluster munitions have indeed been delivered to Ukraine at this point.” But it wasn’t clear if Ukrainian troops have used them yet.

Biden described the decision to provide the projectiles as “very difficult,” citing their record of killing civilians. Over 120 countries

across the world—but not the US, Russia or Ukraine—have signed on to an international convention prohibiting the production of cluster munitions and discouraging their use.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have deployed the munitions during

the war, and Ukrainian regional officials have regularly accused Russian forces of using them to target civilians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday thanked Biden for the US military aid, and said shipments

Biden said world leaders at the Nato summit in Vilnius dis -

cussed not knowing where Prigozhin was currently located, and uncertainty around how the mutiny might impact Russian operations in Ukraine and the future of the Wagner Group.

Prigozhin initially moved to Belarus after announcing that he was turning his mercenaries back from a march on Moscow. But the Kremlin this week said Putin held a three-hour meeting with the Wagner Group head and other commanders less than a week after the June 24 uprising.

But Biden did say that the US did not see a heightened risk Putin could use nuclear weapons in the conflict.

“Not only has the West, but China and the rest of the world has said, ‘Don’t go there,’” Biden said. Bloomberg News

Geopolitical wrangling seen shadowingIndia’s G-20 finance meeting next week

THE most important takeaway from next week’s gathering of finance chiefs from the world’s biggest developed and emerging economies won’t be on the official agenda: who’s gaining in the battle for global influence between the US and its allies on one side and China and Russia on the other.

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors convene in Gandhinagar, the capital of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat, in coming days, with key meetings set for July 17 and 18. Policymakers aim for progress on bolstering the resources of multilateral development banks, encouraging greater flows of credit to limit climate change and executing on a global corporate-tax deal that’s proven tough to finish.

Several top officials, including the German and UK finance heads and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, are expected to skip the meeting—which is sandwiched between last month’s global finance summit in Paris and the G-20 leaders’ conclave in September—a move that will lend importance to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s attendance. She’ll be making her third visit to India in nine months, amid a concerted US push to strengthen ties with China’s giant neighbor.

India, the rotating head of the G-20 this year, was unable at the last finance meeting in April to secure either a joint statement or even a chair’s statement of summary, underscoring deep divisions in a group that includes Russia. In February, the chair’s statement had reiterated G-20 language from last year pointing out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had led to a United Nations vote of condemnation.

But things have evolved: Yellen has just re-established high-level economic engagement with China, and Modi recently delivered a historic second address to the US Congress, with a Bastille Day-welcome in Paris looming for him on Friday. Russia, meantime, saw internal dissent on public display last month with the Wagner Group incident.

“Whether China is going to shift” its stance on G-20 statement language with regard to Russia will be key to watch, said John Kirton, director for the G-20 Research Group at the University of Toronto. “Maybe Russia just has less influence in vetoing all of the problematic passages.”

The G-20 members have also been deadlocked on debt relief for developing nations, after conceiving a coordinated plan known as the Common Framework in 2020. While the US and allies have pressed China, by far the largest official creditor to poorer countries, to step up, Beijing has urged multilateral lenders such as the World Bank to participate in taking haircuts.

China, represented by Premier Li Qiang, helped the French hosts make the Paris financial summit a success by participating in a longawaited agreement in principle to restructure Zambia’s debt. No such breakthroughs are anticipated in the coming days, in part thanks to the absence of the highly indebted nations needing relief, but further discussion alone may be a good sign.

Debt relief

WE are still in this world where the Common Framework is not living up to its potential, but it is making progress,” said Stephanie Segal, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Another issue to monitor for progress will be talks to overhaul the World Bank and other large multilateral lenders. Yellen has been among those pressing for those banks to work harder to incentivize private capital flows toward developing nations. She’s also urged them to take a bigger role in combating climate change.

The US estimates that these lenders—as a system—could unlock as much as $200 billion over the next 10 years by implementing change, a senior Treasury official said Thursday.

Divisions have emerged over the extent to which aid to the poorest nations, who qualify for so-called concessional financing, ought to be prioritized, risking diminished credit for lower-middle income economies.

of controversial cluster munitions would help Ukraine’s fight against Russia. The two met during Nato’s summit in Lithuania, where Western nations made fresh pledges of weapons and ammunition to fight Russia’s invasion. AP

The G-20 is also slated to touch base on an initiative to revamp global corporate taxes. While most of the world agreed in 2021 on a two-pillar deal to end a so-called race to the bottom on business levies, getting it finalized has been a challenge.

“It’s a very crowded agenda,” and it’s unlikely there’ll be major developments on any particular front, Segal said.

Ahead of the full G-20, the Group of Seven industrialized nations meets See “G-20,” A11

THE US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has opened an investigation into OpenAI Inc., questioning whether its popular ChatGPT conversational AI bot puts consumers’ reputations and data at risk, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ACTIVISTS and international delegations stand next to cluster bomb units, during a visit to a Lebanese military base at the opening of the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, September 12, 2011. The Biden administration has decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine and is expected to announce on Friday, July 6, 2023, that the Pentagon will send thousands as part of the latest military aid package for the war effort against Russia, according to people familiar with the decision. AP

THE ChatGPT logo on a laptop computer arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Thursday, March 9, 2023. ChatGPT has made writing computer code and cheating on homework easier. Soon, it could make email scams a cinch. That's the warning from Darktrace Plc, the British cybersecurity firm. GABBY JONES/BLOOMBERG

LAUSANNE, Switzerland— Russia and Belarus will not get a formal invitation to the 2024 Paris Olympics when more than 200 national teams receive their traditional invites later this month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Thursday.

It is an IOC tradition exactly one year before a Summer Games or Winter Games opens to invite all the national teams worldwide to the event.

Despite the protocol move, some Russian and Belarusian athletes could still compete in Paris—despite their countries’ war on Ukraine—without their national teams being invited.

The IOC said Thursday that 203 eligible national Olympic committees (NOCs) will be sent their invitations to Paris on July 26.

For the reasons given, this will exclude the NOCs of Russia and Belarus, plus the NOC of Guatemala, which is currently suspended,”  the Olympic body said in a statement.

T he president of the Belarus NOC is Viktor Lukashenko, the son of state leader Alexander Lukashenko. He followed his father in the Olympic post.

T he IOC urged international

JABEUR ON TRACK AT WIMBLEDON

sports bodies last year to block and isolate athletes, officials and host cities from Russia and Belarus within days of the war starting 17 months ago.

T his year, as the next Olympics approach,  the IOC has pushed those sports bodies  to try to let some Russians and Belarusians evaluated as neutral individuals to compete in qualifying events for Paris.

The IOC has consistently said it can choose not to invite Russia and Belarus at all to what is its own event.

“ The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time, at its full discretion, and without being bound by the results of previous Olympic qualification competitions,” it said Thursday.

G uatemala is currently  suspended from the Olympic movement  because of alleged government interference with the independence of the NOC there. AP

IOC won’t give Russia, Belarus formal invites to Paris Games KAI, FINALLY, GETS TO PLAY

KAI SOTTO finally got to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Summer League on Friday and racked up a modest six-point, four-rebound and three-block performance in the Orlando Magic’s 88-71 loss to the Portland Trailblazers Friday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was the 7-foot-3 Sotto’s first game after sitting out the Magic’s first three

SOTTO

games in the Summer League.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio and Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes saw on TV how Sotto fared when coach Dylan Murphy fielded the 21-year-old Sotto.

R eyes wasn’t surprised about Sotto’s Summer League debut and said he looks forward to have him at Gilas practice.

“

I’m not surprised. I’m happy for him and looking forward to having him in practice,” Reyes told BusinessMirror Friday.

Sotto played 14 minutes in his first Summer League stint.  “ We are with him in his journey. I hope he can join us in representing the Philippines in the FIBA World Cup,” Panlilio told BusinessMirror Friday.

A fter committing a three-second defensive violation in the first half, Sotto bounced back in the second half to score his points on 3 of 7 shooting from the field he highlighted with a two-handed dunk.

The Magic, winless in four games, rested its top draft picks Anthony Black and Jett Howard in the game where Dexter Dennis topscored with 16 points.

The Magic play the Boston Celtics on Saturday in their final Summer League game.

Josef Ramos

IMBLEDON, England—There was a time—a year ago; six months ago, even—that Ons Jabeur might not have recovered from the deficit she found herself in during the Wimbledon semifinals. Down a set. Down a break in the second set. So close to being just a game from defeat. he credits a sports psychologist with helping her understand how to deal with those on-court situations, with managing to keep her focus, keep her strokes on-target. Thanks in part to that, and a steadiness down the stretch at Centre Court on Thursday, Jabeur is on her way to a second consecutive final at the All England Club and her third title match in the past five Grand Slam tournaments. ow she wants to win a trophy. The sixth-seeded Jabeur earned the right to play for one again by beating big-hitting Aryna Sabalenka, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3. I’m very proud of myself, because maybe old me would have lost the match today and went back home already. But I’m glad that I kept digging very deep and finding the strength,” said Jabeur, a 28-yearold from Tunisia who already was the only Arab woman and only North African woman to reach a major final.

“I’m learning to transform the bad energy into a good one,” Jabeur said, explaining that she was able to get over

the anger she felt after the first set.

“Some things I have no control over: She can ace any time. She can hit the big serve, even if I have a break point. That’s frustrating a bit. But I’m glad that I’m accepting it and I’m digging deep to just go and win this match— and, hopefully, this tournament.”

To do that, Jabeur will need to get past Marketa Vondrousova, a left-hander from the Czech Republic, on Saturday. Vondrousova became the first unseeded women’s finalist at Wimbledon since Billie Jean King in 1963 by eliminating Elina Svitolina, 6-3, 6-3.

L ike Jabeur, Vondrousova has been to a major final before. Like Jabeur, she’s never won one, having been the runner-up at the 2019 French Open as a teen.

We’re both hungry,” Jabeur said.

So far, Jabeur is 0-2 in Slam finals. She lost to Elena Rybakina at the All England Club last July and to Iga Swiatek at the US Open last September.

Jabeur’s win over No. 2 Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion in January, followed victories against three other major title winners: No. 3 Rybakina, No. 9 Petra Kvitova and Bianca Andreescu.

“ I want to make my path worth it,” Jabeur said.

Thursday’s triumph, which came by collecting 10 of the last 13 games, prevented Sabalenka from replacing Swiatek at No. 1 in the rankings.

I had so many opportunities,” said Sabalenka, a 25-year-old from Belarus who was not allowed to compete at Wimbledon last year because all players from her country and from Russia were banned over the war in Ukraine. “Overall, I didn’t play my best tennis today. It was just, like, a combo of everything. A little bit of nerves, a little bit of luck

for her at some points.”

Jabeur trailed 4-2 in the second set when she began to turn things around. But not before Sabalenka came within a point from leading 5-3 after Jabeur put a forehand into the net and fell onto her back on the grass of Centre Court.

She dusted herself off and broke to take that game and begin the comeback. When she delivered a backhand return winner to force the match to a third set, Jabeur held her right index finger to her ear, then raised it and wagged it as she strutted to the changeover.

Sabalenka’s shots missed the mark repeatedly. She finished with far more unforced errors than Jabeur: The margins were 14-5 in the last set and 45-15 for the match.

I was little bit emotionally down, then she was up,” said Sabalenka, who hit 10 aces but also double-faulted five times.

A break put Jabeur up 4-2 in the third, but there was still some work to be done. Sabalenka, as powerful a ballstriker as there is on tour, erased four match points before Jabeur converted her fifth with a 103 mph ace.

I n the first semifinal, the 43rdranked Vondrousova reeled off seven consecutive games in one stretch against the 76th-ranked Svitolina, who returned from maternity leave just three months ago. After surprisingly beating Swiatek in the quarterfinals, she was trying to become the first woman from Ukraine to make it to the title match at a major tennis tournament.

Svitolina received loud support from thousands in the crowd at the main stadium—Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain was in the Royal Box—as applause and yells echoed off the closed roof. AP

Ubas’s campaign to qualify for Olympics goes all mental at Asian championships

By Josef Ramos

BANGKOK—Southeast Asian

Games long jump king Janry

Ubas took a full day’s off on Friday as his bid to qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics has gone down to mental.

U bas, 29, has to leap 8.27 meters or better in Friday’s final at the Asian Athletics Championships to earn a ticket to Paris.

But he needs to extremely toughen up mentally to push his body beyond its limits—he won the SEA Games men’s long jump gold medal at 7.85 meters but notched a personal best 8.02 meters competing in decathlon in Cambodia.

New Clark City hosts Spartan Stadion anew

MORE than 2,500 obstacle course race (OCR) athletes across Asia Pacific will gather anew at the New Clark City Athletics Stadium in Tarlac on Saturday for this year’s Spartan Stadion race.

T he event features 20 obstacles over a 5-km distance with the competitors facing a grueling yet glorifying test of physical power and mental toughness akin to the fabled Spartan warrior Ethos of ancient Greece.

S ilamie Gutang and Mervin

Guarte are defending their crowns and will be facing tough challenges from Guinness Book of World Records holders for OCR Sandi Abahan and Elias Tabac and Multi Trifecta holder Shen Max of China.

We invite everyone to witness the fastest and fittest athletes in obstacle course racing compete at Spartan Stadion in New Clark City,” Spartan Race Philippines General Manager Dr. Marc Laurenze Celis said. “These athletes will be competing for podium spots, awards

“ The one day rest is big on my part. I used that for my full recovery and prepare a good mindset which is very important for tomorrow’s final,” said Ubas who spent Friday watching long jump videos in his hotel room.

Last-minute withdrawals in the event forced organizers to cancel the qualifiers and directly hold the final where Ubas will be competing against 18 other athletes at the Supachalasai National Stadium in the Thai capital.

India’s Murali Sreeshankar, with a personal best 8.29 meters is the favorite, along with Uzbekistan’s Anvar Anvarov (8.22) and Taiwan’s Lin Yu Tang (8.12).

A lso competing are Japan’s Yuki Hashioka and Shouratou Shiroyama, Hong Kong’s Chan Ming Tai and Ko Ho Long, Taiwan’s Lin Hsing Chia, Tajikistan’s Akhmadiev Ildar, Malaysia’s Anura Andre, Oman’s Salim Saleh, Kyrgyzstan’s Isakov Timur, Bangladesh’s Md Ismail, China’s Zhang Mingkun, Laos’s Xaidavahn Vongsavahn, Macau’s Ho Lam Chon,

Thailand’s Siraphob Bunyuak and Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Trong.  Six-time SEA Games gold medalist Eric Shauwn Cray, meanwhile, topped his heat 2 in the 400-meter hurdles on a cloudy Friday morning to progress to the semifinal set later in the day.  Cray clocked 50.39 seconds followed by Chinese Xie Zhiyu (50.47) and Lebanese Marc Anthony Ibrahim (51.59).

2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Kristina Marie Knott ran in the women’s 100 meters semifinals also late Friday after qualifying from Thursday with an 11.55-second clocking.  Ronne Malipay finished sixth place in the men’s triple jump final on Thursday night with 16.08 meters.

Asian pole vault record holder Ernest John “EJ” Obiena arrived here on Friday with his legendary Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov and physiologist Antonio Guglietta two days ahead of his event. and cash prizes in an Olympic-like level for obstacle course racing.”

A lso in the roster are athletes from universities, military and police personnel and members of the national team which won four gold medals at the Cambodia 32nd Southeast Asian Games.

“

We are once again thrilled to host one of the most coveted obstacle course races in the world,” BCDA

Officer-in-Charge for Investment Promotions and Marketing Michelle S. San Juan-De Vera said. “The intensity and excitement of the highimpact Spartan Stadion is exactly what gave rise to the New Clark City sports facilities—just like the hosting of 30th SEA Games in 2019.”

The first Spartan Stadion race was held June last year also at the New Clark City Athletics Stadium.

Angels shoot for semifinals slot vs Flying Titans

PETRO GAZZ faces another stern test in its chase of the first semifinal seat in Pool B when it faces a Choco Mucho side keen on bouncing back and enhancing its own drive in the Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City Saturday. That guarantees another slam-bang encounter at 6:30 p.m. with the result either clearing up or throwing the semifinals race into a wild finish Tuesday.

A fter yielding in four sets to the Cignal HD Spikers in the June 27 inaugurals of the mid-season conference of the league organized by Sports Vision, the Angels racked up three straight victories, including a gripping 20-25, 25-22, 25-12, 33-35, 15-9 escape over fellow semis contender and erstwhile unbeaten F2 Logistics Cargo Movers last Thursday. W ith the HD Spikers dispatching the Farm Fresh Foxies in three, Petro

Gazz, F2 Logistics and Cignal found themselves locked at 3-1 with Choco Mucho making it a four-way battle for the two berths with a 2-1 slate.

A v ictory by the Angels, however, will net them a spot in the next phase, a carry-over round, making the encounter so crucial for both teams.

But a reversal will put Choco

Mucho in a tie instead with the idle F2 Logistics and Cignal, jeopardizing the Angels’ semis bid in the mid-season conference of the league backed by BingoPlus, ArenaPlus, Mikasa, SMART, Rebisco, Kumu, Asics and SportRadar.

Despite getting stalled by the Angels, the Cargo Movers are tipped to advance with the winless Foton Tornadoes being their last opponent although the latter will be out to play the spoiler’s role at the close of the tight single round elims Tuesday. Ties will be resolved via the

league’s tiebreak system (set ratio). PLDT, meanwhile, expects to rebound from a shutout loss to Pool

A semifinalist Creamline (3-0) as it tangles with winless Gerflor at 12 noon while the Cool Smashers go for a sweep against Akari at 4 p.m. Foton and Farm Fresh kick off hostilities at 9:30 a.m. in a duel of ousted teams.

Focus will thus be on the Petro Gazz-Choco Mucho face-off with Grethcel Soltones and Sisi Rondina bracing for a fiery exchange of attacks and the rest gearing up for another long protracted, grueling duel. Soltones, enjoying top form, came away with a career-best 31-point explosion, including key hits in the decider to anchor the Angels’ triumph over the Cargo Movers in a match marred by a couple of long delays due to successive, controversial challenges in the last two sets.

ASIA’S top pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena arrives in Bangkok on Friday with Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov and physiologist Antonio Guglietta.

ONS JABEUR gets another chance at claiming her first major title at Wimbledon. AP