BusinessMirror July 24, 2020 by BusinessMirror

Diokno: No need to sell assets to buy vaccines

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor assured legislators on Thursday that the Philippines “is in a good position” dollarwise, and will not need to sell government assets to procure vaccines for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the future. Talking as a guest resource person in the House of Representatives’ recent webinar on economic affairs, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno expressed confidence that the Philippines still has enough dollar reserves to manage the economic challenges brought by the pandemic—including the procurement of a potential vaccine for Filipinos in the future. “So when we hear our President talk that he will sell government assets should there be a vaccine so that every single Filipino can have a vaccine… [you’re saying] we’re in a good place? That we have enough reserves that we don’t need to do that?” Nueva Ecija 3rd District Representative Rosanna Vergara asked. “Hindi po natin kailangan magbenta ng assets

COMBINED forces of the Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Fire Protection conduct a simulation exercise at the corner of Ortigas and Edsa in preparation for President Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday. NONOY LACZA

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DIOKNO: “You know whenever there is a crisis, we run out of dollars to service our debt and our peso depreciates. Ibang-iba po ngayon, ang dami po nating dollars.” para maka-avail nun.... We are not in that mode,” Diokno said. Diokno pointed to the country’s high gross international reserves (GIR) as a key source of confidence in the local economy’s ability to withstand further Covid-19 pressures. “I know this because in the past, I have seen many crises in my life: Marcos’s final years, the Asian financial crisis, the global financial crisis. You know whenever there is a crisis, we run out of dollars to service our debt and our peso depreciates. Ibangiba po ngayon, ang dami po nating [It’s so different

this time, we have so much] dollars,” Diokno said. Earlier this month, the BSP reported another all-time-high level of GIR to $93.29 billion in June after seeing a $30.5-million increase from its May level. The country’s GIR is the level of foreignexchange holdings the Central Bank has during a given period. The GIR is a crucial component of the economy as it is often used to manage the country’s foreign-exchange rate against excess volatility. Diokno also told the legislators that the BSP is forecasting a continued rise in the country’s GIR despite the gloomy global economy. He said they project the country’s dollar reserves to hit around $95 billion to $97 billion by year-end. At its current level, the country’s dollar reserves can cover 8.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also about 7.3 times the country’s shortterm external debt based on original maturity and 4.8 times based on residual maturity.

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Friday, July 24, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 288

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FOR ’21 ON COVID EXPENSE

THE Rizal Provincial Police Office in Cainta, Rizal, implements strict social-distancing measures for motorcycle riders, especially those riding in tandem, as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) modifies its “no backride” protocol, allowing couples to ride in tandem provided they can show proof of domestic partnership, wear face masks and helmets, and ride with a nonpermeable barrier between them. BERNARD TESTA

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

HE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is eyeing a much higher national budget of P4.506 trillion for next year as it sees government spending continue to rise amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Budget Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Rolando U. Toledo said on Thursday this amount is up by nearly 10 percent from this year’s P4.1-trillion budget and is equivalent to 21.4 percent of GDP. This is also 3.94 percent higher than what was earlier approved by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) in May this year. However, this was 2.89 percent lower than the P4.64-trillion initial spending

plan also greenlighted by DBCC in December last year. “The budget ceiling has been increased from P4.335 trillion to P4.506 trillion to provide sufficient budget support for programs, activities and projects that will address the Covid-19 pandemic such as the procurement of PPEs [personal protective equipment] and Covid-19 vaccine, basic education programs of the DepEd See “Budget,” A2

PHL borrowings from ADB seen highest in ’20 By Elijah Felice Rosales

HE Philippines will record its largest ever borrowing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) this year at $4.2 billion, as the government scrambles to source funds for its response programs amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a news briefing on Thursday, ADB Country Director Kelly Bird said the Philippines is set to

post its highest annual loan total in 2020 at more than $4 billion. This is a 68-percent increase from the $2.5 billion the country borrowed from last year. “For this year, we expect to reach $4.2 billion, and that will be the largest ever for the Philippines. Last year was at $2.5 billion. We will go back down to $3 billion in subsequent years with focus on infrastructure,” Bird explained. Broken down, the largest loan

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.3390

the Philippines obtained was the $1.5-billion Covid-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program approved in April. The fund is being used to bankroll the government’s efforts toward containing the spread of the virus. The second-largest programs are the $500-million Expanded Social Assistance Project and the $500-million Disaster Resilience Improvement Program. In August the ADB is set to

give the green light for the Philippine loan for Competitive and Inclusive Agriculture Development Program; Inclusive Finance Development Program; and the Health Systems Enhancement to Address and Limit Covid-19. They amount to $400 million, $300 million and $125 million, respectively. The Health Systems Enhancement loan will finance the purchase of medical facilities and equipment See “ADB,” A2

EASE QUARANTINE FURTHER, FACTORY OWNERS TELL GOVT

VER a hundred manufacturing companies have prodded the government to further ease quarantine restrictions on all main economic centers in the country while strictly observing health and safety protocols, following a standstill in economic activity that stretched more than three months. This, despite the rising number of cases in the country, which breached 72,000 as of Wednesday. In a letter to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI)—the umbrella organization of over 100 manufacturing companies—backed the call of Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III to loosen quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and Calabarzon as soon as possible while implementing the necessary health precautions, adding that this will help sustain economic recovery. “The federation is supporting the call of Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that the country’s main economic centers like Metro Manila, Calabarzon and other urban areas should move to looser quarantine restrictions as soon as possible to reopen the economy, with the precaution that those factories and barangays with Covid-19 cases be dealt with more strictly,” said the FPI letter, a copy of which was sent to Dominguez’s office. Metro Manila and the provinces of Laguna, Cavite and Rizal remain under general community quarantine (GCQ), while Batangas Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4606 n UK 62.8283 n HK 6.3648 n CHINA 7.0496 n SINGAPORE 35.6470 n AUSTRALIA 35.2083 n EU 57.1050 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.1599

Source: BSP (July 23, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, July 24, 2020

ADB…

Continued from A1

needed in the fight against Covid-19 in 17 state hospitals. In November the Philippines will also secure $130 million for the construction of the Edsa Greenways Project. The project will develop pedestrian infrastructure in the train stations in Balintawak, Cubao, Guadalupe and Taft Avenue. According to Bird, it has yet to be seen if Manila will be the largest borrower of the ADB this year, but two things are for sure: first, that the country has one of the highest loans in 2020 and second, that the multilateral institution’s total lending will enlarge in volumes. “The ADB has established the Covid pandemic response facility which has a funding of $20 billion. The Philippines borrowed $1.5 billion from that. We really won’t know yet until the end of the year if the Philippines has the largest borrowing, though. Certainly, ADB’s overall lending has increased for this year,” Bird said. For next year, the country is projected to borrow $4.11 billion, a hefty chunk of which will go to the funding of the South Commuter Railway Project at $1.75 billion. Aside from the $4.11-billion loan for 2021, there is also a standby borrowing of $1 billion for the proposed Bataan-Cavite Bridge Project. Last year the country’s total loans reached $10.2 billion, a 23.32-percent increase from the $8.27 billion it posted in 2018. This makes the Philippines the seventhlargest borrower of the ADB and the third largest in Southeast Asia.

DFA honors field envoys for work in pandemic Continued from A8 Also given recognition were 15 Outstanding Employees, 11 Assistance-toNationals (ATN) awardees and five Best Organizations, namely the Office of Asia and Pacific Affairs, Office of Consular Affairs, Office of Policy Planning and Coordination, Office of Treaties and Legal Affairs, and the Philippine Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, as well as some 790 Loyalty awardees. The DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMWA), which led the DFA’s repatriation efforts for overseas Filipinos, and the DFA Covid-19 Mega Swabbing Center team, who volunteered for the mass bar encoding of test results of over 25,000 repatriated OFWs at the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Mega Swabbing Center at the Mall of Asia Arena from May 12 to June 9, 2020, were also recognized for their selfless and dedicated service. The DFA, for the first time, also recognized 19 personnel who have made significant achievements outside their official DFA work, such as in the fields of culture and the arts, sports and athletics, social and community advocacies. Among the recipients were Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Administration J. Eduardo Malaya (law, history), Philippine Ambassador to Bangladesh Vicente Vivencio Bandillo (Cebuano literature), Maritime and Ocean Affairs Office Executive Director Emmanuel Fernandez (non-fiction), Technical Cooperation Council of the Philippines Chair-Alternate Head Jose Maria Carino (arts), First Secretary and Consul Catherine Rose Torres of the Philippine Embassy in Germany (literature), Consul General in Agana Guam Marciano De Borja (history) and Ms. Anna Gabriella Guinto (sports). The program featured musical performances by personnel from the Consular Office in Tacloban, young officers belonging to FSO Batch XXVIII, and an ensemble by officers based in Copenhagen, Geneva and Brunei, respectively. “The Organizing Committee included into the program some musical performances and a literary reading, to lift up our spirits at this most difficult of times. It also affirms that at DFA we have talented, well-rounded personalities,” said Undersecretary Malaya, who led the preparation for the anniversary program.

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NCR isolation sites swamped by Budget… surge in Covid asymptomatics Continued from A1

By Samuel P. Medenilla

HE surge in the number of asymptomatic novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients in Metro Manila has overwhelmed the capacity of isolation facilities in the region.

Covid-19 testing czar Vivencio “Vince” Dizon said the six We Heal As One centers in the National Capital Region (NCR), which have a total of 3,000 bed capacity, have all run out of spaces to accommodate the large number of asymptomatic Covid-19 patients. He said this prompted them to seek the assistance of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to tap some hotels to become additional isolation facilities. “As of today [July 23], we were able to get almost 2,000 hotel rooms to be occupied by those who are asymptomatic and staying in LGUs [local government units]

in Metro Manila,” Dizon said during his interview with Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. Dizon attributed the spike to the number of Covid-positive cases in NCR after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) expanded the list of categories, which could be covered by the expanded targeted testing for suspected infected individuals.

Pooled testing

IN NCR, he said they are confident they will be able to test 14 million people using “pooled” testing. Under the said scheme, Dizon

said the samples of 20 individuals will be pooled in a single reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kit. If the test result on the pooled specimen comes out negative, all of those whose samples were placed in the test kit will automatically be declared negative for Covid-19. If the test comes out positive, he said they will continue to conduct more tests but dividing the 20 individuals into groups until they could isolate who among them are infected. The pooled testing measure, now being used in several Western countries where it had greatly brought down costs, was adopted by the government to efficiently use its limited number of test kits.

Oplan Kalinga

DIZON said the recent intensified implementation of Oplan Kalinga, wherein a health representative and local government officials will conduct house visits to find asymptomatic Covid patients, also contributed to the higher occupancy of their isolation facilities. The scheme initially drew concern from some groups, who

claimed it could be used by the government to detain critics. Roque, however, said their public information campaign to allay the said concern was effective based on the increasing number of asymptomatic patients who are voluntarily getting tested and going to isolation facilities. The intensified enforcement of Oplan Kalinga earlier this month aims to reach out to asymptomatic patients exercising home quarantine without any separate bathrooms or bedrooms. This raised their chances of infecting other people living in the same home. Roque pinned the blame on the Department of Health’s (DOH) failure to clarify the strict terms for asymptomatic Covid-patients on home quarantine, especially the need for separate bathrooms and bedrooms. “We are rectifying it now, we have fully intensified our testing. You heard Testing Czar Vince Dizon, we might be able to test every single person in Metro Manila,” Roque said. “We just need to increase our isolation centers [to accommodate them],” he added.

SENATE PROBERS NIX BID TO MOVE KEY FIGURE IN GCTA MESS

WO Senate committees conducting a joint inquiry into the alleged Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) racket—fraudulently cutting the prison time of inmates—have rejected a request to transfer custody of detained key witness Police Superintendent Rodney Raymundo Juico Baloyo IV from the New Bilibid Prison to the San Fernando City District Jail in Pampanga. The Senate chief prober, Sen. Richard Gordon, confirmed the investigating committees’ collective decision to endorse Baloyo’s continued detention at the Bilibid Prison. Gordon pointed out that Baloyo committed an offense that

has been verified by the committee, “almost the whole Senate, which placed him in contempt for being very evasive and changing his answers frequently.” “He [Baloyo] has been trying to get out of Muntinlupa and the committee is not disposed, as far as I know, to release him,” Gordon said, adding that “if it would be up to the determination of this Congress, that will be where we are headed—he will not be released. At the moment, this is the collective decision.” The senator recalled that Baloyo was cited for contempt during a joint investigation of the Committees on Justice and Human Rights and the Blue Ribbon on the anomalous implementa-

tion of Republic Act (RA) 10592 or the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law, which subsequently covered anomalous practices inside the Bilibid Prison and the so-called “Ninja Cops” linked to a lucrative racket to resell or recycle illegal drugs seized in their operations. Gordon added that Baloyo, who was under investigation for a raid he led in Mexico, Pampanga, when former Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde was the provincial director, was “very evasive and kept changing his answers during the hearing.” Responding to a letter from the NBP’s Reception and Diagnostic Center dated July 13, Gordon noted that video confer-

encing is now allowed for court proceedings, which means Baloyo could attend via video conferencing. “The court can allow video conferencing, the lawyers can ask the questions through video conferencing, stenographic notes can be taken. Besides, what will Baloyo say; if he refused to reply to our questions, what more the court? The main basis is he is under contempt and confined to Muntinlupa. If Baloyo is transferred [to Pampanga], it will be hard for us to bring him back here.” Gordon said that in order “to avoid that,” he consulted Senate President Vicente Sotto III who agreed that video conferencing will do. Butch Fernandez

[Department of Education] to ensure learning continuity, and programs that support ICT requirements for network connectivity and digital technology, among others,” Toledo said in a message to BusinessMirror. Budget Secretary and DBCC chairman Wendel E. Avisado said in an interview with DZMM Teleradyo that the economic team has yet to approve the new amount for the proposed 2021 budget. Finance Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa Habitan told the BusinessMirror the increase in the proposed 2021 budget also resulted from the Economic Development Cluster meeting when implementing agencies were asked which of their infrastructure projects can be accelerated per their work plan. “The idea is for ensuring that whatever budget is approved for 2021 will assist economic recovery the most,” Habitan said. In May, the DBCC also approved via ad referendum a P1.1310-trillion public infrastructure program, which is equivalent to 5.3 percent of GDP, in a bid to push the completion of a number of flagship projects for 2021 and 2022. From the reduced 4.6 percent of GDP this year due to reallocation of the budget to health and social amelioration programs, this upward push of the infrastructure program is expected to create some 140,000 to 220,000 additional jobs through direct and indirect employment. Aside from improving the health sector to address the pandemic, the government’s budget priorities for next year include ensuring food security, enabling a digital government and economy, and helping communities adjust to the “new normal.” While the DBCC expects the Philippine economy to contract by as much as 3.4 percent this year, it is also projecting the country’s economy to recover next year and post a GDP growth of 8 to 9 percent. Economic managers are also expecting to gradually bring down the country’s budget deficit next year to P1.429 trillion or 6.6 percent of GDP from P1.613 trillion or 8.4 percent of GDP this year. They also expect the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio next year to rise to 51.5 percent from 49.8 percent this year. A budget deficit occurs when expenditures exceed revenues, while debt-to-GDP ratio is used to measure a country’s ability to pay its debts.

Ease quarantine further, factory owners tell govt Continued from A1

and Quezon are under modified GCQ until July 31. Represented by its chairman Jesus Arranza, FPI said the lockdowns “affected 75 percent of the economy, shrank gross domestic product by 0.2 percent in the first quarter and its extension starting April resulted in a 15-year-high unemployment rate.” “FPI fully agrees with Secretary Dominguez that there are already signs of economic recovery when the quarantine restrictions were relaxed starting this June 2020 as import volumes improve, reflecting rising economic activity. Hence, there is a need now to further loosen the quarantine restrictions in all main economic centers,” the FPI said in its letter. Moreover, it also recommend-

ed that the IATF-EID should start allowing the use of road-worthy public utility jeepneys (PUJs) as these are “much safer than airconditioned versions in reducing the viral load during transport, with a caveat that both the drivers and passengers wear masks, in addition to [following] other health safety measures.” This, FPI said, “is very critical because the ordinary workers could not report for work since this [mode of] transportation is not available particularly in the economic centers.” Aside from this, the alliance also requested that government ease movement restrictions in the countryside to help revive the agriculture and forestry enterprises, “which are hardly affected by Covid-19 due to the open space and low viral loads.”

REPRESENTED by its chairman Jesus Arranza, FPI said the lockdowns “affected 75 percent of the economy, shrank gross domestic product by 0.2 percent in the first quarter and its extension starting April resulted in a 15-year-high unemployment rate.”

More often than not, the FPI said these enterprises supply the companies in the economic centers, it added. To promote the preferential use of Filipino labor, domestic materials and locally produced goods not only among consumers, but also in the state’s procurement of supplies and materials as part of the country’s economic stimulus plan, it also urged the government to strictly implement Commonwealth Act 138 and Administrative Order (AO) 227. “The local manufacturers have regularly paid their taxes and duties to the government; thus, it is about right to give them also the necessary reciprocity by patronizing and procuring their products and materials with the money that they contributed in the first place to the State,” the FPI said.

“Verily, this is now the time not only for our citizens, but for the government as well, to be patriotic—by patronizing locally made products and boost our economy,” it added. The FPI, which includes the country’s leading manufacturing firms, counts as members the producers of various commodities such as agricultural and food products (rice, flour, sugar, ice cream, confectionery, beverages and wines, broilers, hogs, coconut and palm oil, oleo chemicals, seeds and feeds); petroleum and petrochemical products; steel, cement, and other construction materials; packaging and paper products, textiles and garments; firearms; cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles; rubber; spare parts; medicine; fertilizers; tobacco and cigarettes; and power and energy, among others. Bernadette D. Nicolas

Taiwan extends visa-free entry for PHL for one year

AIWAN’S Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced a one-year extension of its trial visa-free privilege for four countries including the Philippines. The decision was reached after the MOFA convened a meeting with other related government agencies on visa measures for nationals from New Southbound Policy partner countries—the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei—and Russia. The agencies participating in the

meeting, having evaluated the status and outcomes of the measures so far, jointly made these decisions: 1. From August 1, 2020, trial visa-free entry for nationals from Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei and Russia will be extended for one year until July 31, 2021. 2. The Project for Simplifying Visa Regulations for High-end Group Tourists from Southeast Asian Countries will continue for another year, lasting until December 31, 2021.

3. From August 1, 2020, those applying for conditional visa-free entry who hold visas for Japan or South Korea must present a record of entry into one of these countries. In line with epidemic prevention measures taken by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), MOFA has announced entry regulations for foreign nationals during the epidemic. These adjustments to visa measures for nationals from New Southbound Policy

partner countries and Russia are based on previously existing policies and do not take precedence over temporary border control measures put in place in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether restrictions on foreign nationals (other than the exempted groups listed above) coming to Taiwan for tourism purposes will be relaxed depends on the CECC’s assessment of the worldwide development of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Taipei’s announcement.

Since the visa measures were first implemented, the number of visitors from related countries has risen steadily. According to statistics from Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency, the number of nationals from Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei and Russia visiting Taiwan under these measures in 2019 increased by 34.49, 100.37, 41.32 and 407.55 percent respectively, indicating that the measures have had a considerable effect in attracting foreign travelers.

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Radio station soon to rise on Pagasa Island–DND chief By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

HE government intends to build and activate a radio broadcast station in Pagasa as it sustains the development of the island following the construction of a beaching ramp and a sheltered port there last month. The radio station was among the facilities and structures that the Duterte administration is considering for the island, which is the seat of government of the Municipality of Kalayaan, according to Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana during a virtual preSona briefing on Wednesday. The municipality, located off the island of Palawan, is being disputed by China, which has attempted to block, or even delay, the construction of the newly built infrastructures by swarming the waters of Pagasa with Chinese maritime militia vessels. L orenzana sa id t hat aside from the radio station, the government will repair the Rancudo Airfield in the island and construct other facilities in order

to make Pagasa more habitable for its around 300 residents. The defense chief said the Duterte administration had managed to deal with the issue of territorial dispute with China and the other claimants by way of a constructive dialogue, which resulted in the improvement of the situation in the West Philippine Sea. The territorial squabble and China’s aggressive activities in the region that it dispute has prompted the military to speed up its modernization program by acquiring modern assets and equipment, although the defense chief said that some of the money earmarked for the military acquisition has been reprogrammed to finance government efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19. At least P9.4 billion in modernization money, Lorenzana said, had been returned to the Department of Budget and Management to help fund the government’s response to the pandemic. Lorenzana said the assets, or equipment, for which the money has been allotted would still be acquired, only that their acquisitions would have to be moved back.

Lawmaker moves for the opening of classes either in Sept or Oct

OLLOWING the enactment of the Republic Act 11480 that lengthened the school calendar from 200 days to not more than 220 days, a party-list lawmaker has asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to move the opening of classes to either in September, or October. With President Duterte’s signing of the new law, Rep. Ronnie Ong said, the government now has the option to move the opening of classes when the country’s educational system has been primed and ready to conduct virtual classes under DepEd’s socalled blended learning proposal. The opening of classes, Ong said, can be readjusted to September, or October, rather than August 24, when the country’s educational institutions have been prepared to conduct classes. Ong, one of the authors of RA 11480, said the law provides President Duterte more latitude to readjust the opening of classes in times of national emergency.

He said RA 11480 has amended RA 7797, which requires that opening of classes should be between the first Mondays of June to the last day of August. Through RA 11480, Ong said the DepEd is no longer bound to push for the opening of classes as prescribed by RA 7797. RA 11480 covers all grade schools and high schools, including foreign and international schools. It will take effect upon publication in the Official Gazette, or in a newspaper of general circulation. “With this new law, we now have a leeway to prepare more and equip better both our learners and teachers. No more legal impediment for DepEd to postpone the opening of classes. Let’s use this time instead to make sure no learner, wherever they are, whoever they are, is left behind. DepEd should properly re-tool all their teachers and their system to adapt to the new normal of blended learning,” he added. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Government restores restriction on non-essential foreign travel By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

HE government once again su s pe nde d “non- esse n tial” outbound travel for Filipinos due to lack of insurance providers, which will cover their health and travel expenses if they get stranded, or infected abroad, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) made the decision after only one insurance company offered such a package.

suspected infected individuals.

Pooled testing

IN NCR, he said they are confident they will be able to test 14 million people using “pooled” testing. Under the said scheme, Dizon said the samples of 20 individuals will be pooled in a single reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) test kit. Dizon explained if the result of the said test will come out negative, all of those whose samples were placed in the test kit will be automatically declared negative for Covid-19. If the test comes out positive, he said, they will continue conduct more tests but dividing the 20 individuals to groups until they could isolate, who among them are infected. The measure was adopted by the government to efficiently use its limited number of test kits.

Oplan Kalinga

DIZON said the recent intensified implementation of Oplan Kalinga, wherein health representative and local government official will conduct house visits to find asymptomatic Covid patients, also contributed to the higher occupancy

“Non-essential travel will remain suspended until we find more insurance providers,” Roque said during an online press briefing on Thursday. He said they are now coordinating with the Insurance Commission to address the matter. The Palace official, however, noted those who already have confirmed booking as of July 20, 2020 will still be allowed to go abroad. On July 6, 2020, the IATF issued Resolution 52, Series of 2020 for nonessential outbound travel. A mon g t he re qu i re me nt s for non-essential travelers to be allowed to go abroad is an adequate

travel and health insurance to cover rebooking accommodation expenses if stranded and hospitalization in case of infection.

Expanded list

IN a related development, the IATF issued the new guidelines for expanding the list of Filipinos, who can travel abroad for “essential purposes.” These include overseas Filipino workers (OFW); students enrolled abroad or accepted in exchange visitor program; permanent residents of foreign jurisdiction; and foreign nationals. In its Resolution 57, Series of

2020, the IATF also included Filipinos bound for abroad because of their business, or those which have medical emergency, and humanitarian reason in the essential category. IATF said these individuals can go abroad “subject to presentation of sufficient supporting documents, including the execution of Declaration acknowledging the risks involved in traveling.” Upon their return, the said travelers will be required to follow the Guidelines of Returning Overseas Filipinos of the National Task Force for Covid-19 (NTF), which includes mandatory testing.

Petitions to scrap ATA just keep on piling up before SC IUCN includes PHL’s long-tailed macaque on ‘vulnerable’ list M By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

HE Nicobar long-tailed macaque, and all its 10 known subspecies that include the Philippine long-tailed macaque, scientifically called Macaca fascicularis philippensis, is now listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The conservation status was upgraded from earlier assessments in 1996 and 2000 wherein the species was listed under lower risk/near threatened categories. According to the latest assessment by Eudey, A., Kumar, A., Singh, M. & Boonratana, R., the current decreasing population trend of the species’ conservation status changes to vulnerable. The latest listing of the Nicobar longtailed macaque by the IUCN prompted the group Action for Primates to call the attention of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The group is urging the DENR to take the new assessment into consideration refuse any application for permits to capture wild long-tailed macaques in the Philippines. According to the IUCN assessment, it is thought that the long-tailed macaque has suffered a drastic decline in numbers (over 30 percent) throughout its range in the last 36 to 39 years.

Jonathan L. Mayuga

Metro Manila running out of space for asymptomatic Covid patients HE surge in the number of asymptomatic Covid-19 patients in Metro Manila has overwhelmed the capacity of isolation facilities in the region. Covid-19 testing “czar” Vivencio “Vince” Dizon said the six We Heal as One centers in the National Capital Region (NCR), which have a total of 3,000 bed capacity, have all run out of space to accommodate the large number of asymptomatic Covid-19 patients. He said this prompted them to seek the assistance of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to tap some hotels to become additional isolation facilities. “As of today [July 23], we were able to get almost 2,000 hotel rooms to be occupied by those who are asymptomatic and staying in LGU [local government units] in Metro Manila,” Dizon said during his interview with Presidential spokesman Harry Roque. Dizon attributed the spike to the number of Covid-positive cases in NCR after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) expanded the list of categories, which could be covered by the expanded targeted testing for

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, July 24, 2020 A3

of their isolation facilities. The scheme initially drew concern from some groups, who claimed it could be used by the government to detain critics. Roque, however, said their public information campaign to allay the said concern was effective based from the increasing number of asymptomatic patients who are voluntarily getting tested and going to isolation facilities. The intensified enforcement of Oplan Kalinga earlier this month aims to reach out to asymptomatic patients exercising home quarantine without any separate bathroom, or bedrooms. This raised their chances of infecting other people living in the same home. Roque blamed the statements of the Department of Health (DOH) for asymptomatic Covid patients to practice home quarantine, without clarifying the need for separate bathrooms and bed rooms, contributed to the surge of infections in NCR. “We are rectifying it now, we have fully intensified our testing. You heard testing czar Vince Dizon, we might be able to test every single person in Metro Manila,” Roque said.

Samuel P. Medenilla

ORE petitions were filed before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, questioning the constitutionality of Republic Act 11479, or the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020. The 12th group of petitioners were led by 1986 Constitutional Commission members Dr. Florangel Rosario-Braid and Prof. Edumundo Garcia. T he pet it ioners asked t he High Tribunal to issue a temporary restraining order, or a preliminary injunction, or both, until the magistrates decides on the main plea, which is to declare the entire law, or some of its provisions unconstitutional for violating the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. They also asked the Court to set the case for oral argument and after due proceedings and issue the TRO, injunction, and temporary protection orders permanent. The other co-petitioners include lawmakers Rep. Kit Belmonte, Senators Leila de Lima and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, former Senators Sergio Osmeña III and Wigberto “Bobby” Tañada, and former Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada and former Akbayan party-list Rep. Etta Rosales; journalists Ceres Doyo, Lilibeth Frondoso, Chay Hofileña, Rachel Khan, Jo-Ann Maglipon, John Nery, Beatrice Puente (Philippine Collegian editor-in-chief), Maria Ressa, and Maritess DanguilanVitug; former Senate Secretary Lutgardo Barbo and law professor Chel Diokno. They argued that the definition of terrorism under the law is “vague and overbroad” which may be used as “a weapon against constitutionally protected speech and speechrelated conduct.” The ATA’s definition of terrorism, according to the petitioners, encompasses speech and conduct protected by the Constitution including non-violent assemblies like the 1986 People Power. “Calling on the people to ex-

ercise this fundamental right is speech that is clearly protected by the Constitution. And yet, it would fall under acts that would constitute inciting to terrorism as defined in the ATA,” the petitioners said. “In the same vein, calling on the people to peaceably assemble to support a call for the President to step down, or for Congress to remove him because he is physically or mentally unfit to govern, is protected speech that would also be swept into the definition of inciting to terrorism,” they added. Named respondents are Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, Interior Secretar y Eduardo Año, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio Honasan II, Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Mel Georgie Racela, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, the Anti-Terrorism Council, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency. Since President Duterte signed the ATA last July 3, a total of 15 petitions have been filed before the SC seeking to declare ATA as unconstitutional. Also on Wednesday, several journalists led by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) filed the 13th petitions against the ATA. The group also questioned the vague definition of the crime of terrorism, which they claimed is violative of the freedom of speech and expression. They claimed that ATA violates the right to liberty without due process of law and the doctrine of separation of powers. On the other hand, youth groups such as the Kabataang Tagapagtanggol ng Karapatan, Youth for Human Rights and Democracy, Youth Act Now Against Tyranny, Millennials PH, Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan, Good Gov PH, Youth Strike 4 Climate Philippines, Liberal Youth of the Philippines, Aksyon Kabataan, La Salle Debate Society, DLSU University

Student Government, Sanggunian ng mga Mag-Aaral ng Paaralang Loyola ng Ateneo de Manila, UP Diliman University Student Council, University of Santo Tomas Central Student Council and Student Council Alliance filed the 14th petition questioning the constitutionality of ATA. “ Thus, the Youth Petitioners submit that the Anti-Terror Law may validly be challenged on its face because, if applied, the law is poised to infringe upon acts which fall under the exercise of freedom of expression—activities which are otherwise const it ut ion a l ly protec ted ,” t he petitioners said in a 47-page petition. The youth petitioners are being represented by lawyer Dino de Leon. The 15th group of petitioners against ATA are composed of Muslim human rights lawyers ’ Algamar Latih, Bantuas Lucman, Musa Malayang and Dalomilang Parahiman. They claimed that while the ATA is laudable, it has provisions that “undermine the safety and interest of the people that it seeks to protect from terrorism.” “The vague provisions would victimize innocent people; they will be at the mercy of the preconceived notion of the law enforcers interpreting the provisions of R A 11479. Ordinary people would not have sufficient guidance from the law on what specific acts are prohibited,” they stressed. The petition, according to the petitioners, is being filed to shield the Bangsamoro people from possible abuses and injustices in the enforcement of RA 11479. “We want nothing more but peace for our native land. To attain that, the laws against terrorism should stand the scrutiny of constitutionality so that innocent people are protected; so that terrorism is effectively suppressed; so that terrorists are punished; and so that justice and rule of law prevailed,” the petitioners said in a 79-page petition. SC spokesman Brian Hosaka said there are already 16 petitions questioning the constitutionality of ATA. He said a certain Jose Ferrer filed a petiton vs ATA earlier.

BuCor: Only 260 of 29,000 inmates afflicted with virus

HE Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) on Wednesday said only 260 out of the 29,000 inmates nationwide have tested positive for the virus. BuCor spokesman Gabriel Chaclag, however, said there were also 90 infected BuCor personnel. “So you see, only a small portion of the general population have tested positive,” Chaclag said during an online interview in PTV 4.

Chaclag issued the statement amid growing concerns over the safety of persons deprived of liberty (PDL) in prison facilities following the death of 21 inmates. Of these fatalities, nine high-profile prisoners, including Jaybee Sebastian. Sebastian was supposed to testify in the drug case against Sen. Leila M. de Lima. Some lawmakers suggested the deaths of Sebastian and the other

high-profile prisoners may be a “body-switching” ploy, an allegation belied by Chaclag by stating they have the necessary documentation to prove the death of the nine high-profile inmates. “We are ready to explain and present the evidence and documents proving that all of the procedures, which should have been done for the nine high-profile inmates,” Chaclag said. Samuel P. Medenilla

A4 Friday, July 24, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Private investments in tourism sector average 19% from 2010 to 2019—PSA By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

RIVATE sector investments in the tourism sector grew by 3.6 percent to P569.1 billion in 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In a webinar to present the latest Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts, PSA assistant national statistician Vivian R. Ilarina said the Tourism Gross Capital Formation for 2019 represented 10.7 percent of total private sector investment for that year. From 2010 to 2019, private sector investment in the tourism sector grew by an average of 19.3 percent. On the other hand, government investment like in tourism infrastructure, or the Tourism Collective Consumption, expanded by 23.5 percent to P94.1 billion in 2019, or

an average of 4.6 percent from 2012 to 2019. All data presented were in current prices. Ilarina explained, “Like other countries, they started first with current prices and we are developing and looking at what are exactly the prices in terms of tourism activities, tourism services, and products. So we are moving towards that and hopefully by next year 2021, we can also present to you the estimated both at current prices and constant prices.” The Philippines has been a hotbed of tourism investments, especially in the hotel and accommodations sector with its consistent growth in foreign tourism arrivals and an even larger increase in domestic travelers. Data provided by real-estate services provider Santos Knight Frank showed that prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, there were 7,078 hotel rooms in the pipeline from 2020

to 2023. (See, “Changes in hotel ownership, branding seen postCovid,” in the BusinessMirror, June 29, 2020.) In 2019, foreign tourist arrivals rose by 15.24 percent to 8.26 million, generating P482.15 billion in inbound receipts. The Department of Tourism (DOT), in a separate presentation at the webinar, showed that 59.34 percent of the foreign visitors were here for holiday/leisure, 3.43 percent were on business trips, and 1.68 percent visited friends and relatives. According to the DOT’s Visitors Sample Survey for 2019, what the foreign tourists liked most about the Philippines was the Filipinos’ warm hospitality (46.35 percent), beautiful sceneries (30.04 percent), good food (8.45 percent), “everything” (6.33 percent), and that they are able to see loved ones (5.73 percent). The DOT also reported that Cebu

topped its 10 most visited places last year, followed by Rizal, Davao del Sur (including Davao City), Aklan (including Boracay), Batangas, Zambales (including the Subic Bay Freeport and Olongapo), Palawan (including Puerto Princesa), Albay (including Legazpi), Benguet (including Baguio), and Davao de Oro (Compostela Valley). The most visited places data surprised Tourism Congress of the Philippines President Jose C. Clemente III, who said, “those were not exactly the places we were thinking of, or had on top of mind.” By DOT’s count, there were 13,336 accommodation establishments nationwide, with a total of 289,168 rooms. The agency did not say if these were the ones it accredited, or the total pie of such establishments. At current prices, tourism was valued at P2.5 trillion in 2019, up

10.8 percent from 2018, according to the PSA. The sector also contributed 1.32 percentage points to the 6.9-percent growth in the economy, as expressed in gross domestic product, last year. It only came in second to wholesale and retail trade, which contributed 1.6 percentage points to the GDP growth. By PSA’s reckoning, inbound tourism expenditure, with a 9.9 percent share, ranked second among the country’s biggest export items last year, coming second to semiconductors with a 21-percent share. “It’s good to know that tourism is one of the bigger contributors to the Philippine economy,” said Clemente. “I think this is something that we have been feeling for the past few years. Were it not for this unfortunate situation we are in right now [i.e., Covid-19], the contribution of tourism would have been much larger than last year,” he added.

Palay, corn yield No primate laborers in PHL, coconut farmers’ group says improve in Q2 amid Covid-19 A By VG Cabuag

HE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the country’s second quarter palay output could rise by 7 percent to 4.12 million metric tons from last year’s 3.85 MMT on the back of expanded hectarage. Historical PSA data showed that this could be the highest palay production for the April-to-June period ever. “The probable palay production for April-June 1, 2020 based on standing crop as of June 2020 [updated] may reach 4.12 million metric tons, or 0.13 percent higher than the initial estimate as of April 1, 2020 of 4.11 million metric tons,” it said in its latest forecast report published on Thursday. “The updated April-June 2020 estimated palay production indicates a possible uptrend of 6.85 percent in the period April-June 2020, from previous year’s output of 3.85 million metric tons,” it added. The PSA said harvest area during the second quarter may increase by 4.46 percent to 956,143 hectares from 915,320 hectares recorded in the Aprilto-June period of last year. “Yield per hectare may rise to 4.31 metric tons, from 4.21 metric tons in the previous year,” PSA said. “About 832,220 hectares, or 87.04 percent, of the updated standing crop have been har vested,” PSA added. Likewise, the PSA estimated that corn production in the second quarter could expand by 16.12 percent to 1.37 MMT from 1.17 MMT last year. “Cor n production for Apr il-June 2020, based on standing crop as of June 1, 2020 [updated], may reach 1.37 mil lion metr ic tons, higher by 0.90 percent than the estimated cor n production as of Apr il 1, 2020 of 1.35 mil lion metr ic tons,” PSA added. PSA said corn harvest area may rise to 393,770 hectares, from 377,040 hectares while yield per hectare may increase to 3.46 metric tons from the 3.11 metric tons in the previous year. “About 292,680 hectares or 74.33 percent of the updated standing crop has been harvested,” it said. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@ villygc

LOCAL umbrella organization of coconut farmers said they do not use monkeys to harvest coconuts, after a video that has gone viral elicited negative reaction from consumers, animal rights activists and other cause-oriented groups overseas. “The use of monkey labor in harvesting coconuts in the Philippines was never a practice in its long history of coconut farming,” United Coconut Association of the Philippines (UCAP) said in a news statement. “Production of 15 billion coconuts annually are manually harvested by farmers and farm workers,” UCAP said. Animal rights group PETA or People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, documented

the said practice and showed pig-tailed macaques in Thailand working like “coconutpicking machines.” After seeing the video, the UK Prime Minister’s fiancée, Carrie Symonds, a conservationist, recently called on all supermarkets to boycott the products. Experts say that a trained monkey can collect up to 1,000 coconuts per day, while an experienced human coconut picker can only get up to 80 on a good day. “Philippine coconut farmers do not use monkeys in harvesting coconuts for local use, exports, or even tourism purposes,” said Retired Maj. Gen. Rhoderick Parayno of the Philippine Coconut Authority’s Office of the Administrator. There are about 3.6 hectares of land planted with coconut trees in the Philippines and some 3.5 million Filipinos are engaged in coconut farming.

Jaen, Nueva Ecija now free of bird flu–DA By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE Department of Agriculture (DA) has declared Jaen, Nueva Ecija bird flu free with zero recorded new incidents of the H5N6 highly pathogenic avian influenza in the past quarter. The DA, through Bureau of Animal Industry Officer-in-Charge Director Ronnie D. Domingo, who is also the country’s chief veterinary officer, notified the World Organization for Animal Health, formerly known as Office International des Epizooties, or OIE, that the bird flu incident in a quail farm in Jaen, Nueva Ecija has been officially resolved. The DA explained that it has not recorded any cases of bird-flu in Nueva Ecija town in the past 90 days following a series of cleaning and disinfection procedures in the affected farm. “We commend the strong partnership among the quail farm owner, provincial and municipal officials and veterinarians, and our DA Central Luzon Regional Field Office [RFO 3] and BAI team for successfully solving the AI A[H5N6] incidence in Jaen, Nueva Ecija,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said. The country’s report to the OIE indicated that the bird flu outbreak in the quail farm has been resolved and has been free from the virus on July 14. However, the report noted that the source of the outbreak or origin of infection remains “unknown or inconclusive” to date, but remarked that there are “presence of wild birds near the area.” Wild birds and migratory birds are considered vectors, or carriers, of bird flu virus. Nonetheless, the Philippine report to the OIE said it will still apply traceability to determine the cause of the outbreak. “There are no new outbreaks in this report,” the country’s notification dated July 15 read. “The event is resolved. No more reports will be submitted,” it added. The bird flu outbreak in the Nueva Ecija-based quail farm started last March 6 and the outbreak was confirmed on March 13. This was the country’s first confirmed AI, or bird flu outbreak, since the 2017 Central Luzon outbreaks, which resulted in the culling of over 200,000 chicken layers and quails. The H5N6 HPAI strain that hit the lone quail farm in Barangay Ulanin-Pitak is the same strain that struck hundreds of quail and layer farms in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija in 2017. The H5N6 HPAI strain is known to be transmissible to humans but at a “very slim chance,” according to the government’s top veterinarians. Government veterinarians emphasized that the H5N6 HPAI strain that has hit the Philippines is “nonfatal” and not known to be transmissible to humans compared to China’s H5N6 strain. There has been no reported human infections of H5N6 virus in the country ever since the 2017 Central Luzon outbreak. To date, only China has a confirmed human infection with the H5N6 HPAI virus, which according to a World Health Organization report dated March 6, has resulted in seven deaths.

The local arm of PETA, the international animal rights group which documented the now viral video, also echoed their support for the Philippine coconut farmers and industry. “Other coconut-growing regions—including the Philippines, India, Brazil, Colombia and Hawaii—harvest coconuts for export using humane methods such as tractor-mounted hydraulic elevators, willing human tree-climbers, rope or platform systems, or ladders. Thailand can easily implement these humane methods, too,” the group said. UCAP said the Philippines offers itself as an alternative, “ethically sourced supplier of coconut products of the highest standards.” Earnings of Philippine-harvested coconuts reach up to $2 billion, making the country the No. 1 source of coconuts worldwide.

Robust financial position to help Eagle Cement soar above Covid-19 ‘storm’

AGLE Cement Corp. (Eagle) strengthened its balance sheet in the first quarter of 2020, improving it from the end2019 level to provide the publiclylisted cement manufacturer the financial muscle to ride-out the adverse impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. “Our strong financial position will allow us to weather this health crisis battering the economy without giving up major components of our expansion plans, which will secure our future growth,” said Eagle President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Ang. Eagle ended the first quarter with total assets growing by 2 percent to P49.9 billion from P49.1 billion in end-2019 while total liabilities declined to P11.4 billion from P11.7 billion. Its stockholders’ equity rose by 3 percent to P38.5 billion. The company’s current gearing gives it flexibility to continue pursuing investment plans moving forward, with debt-to-equity ratio at 0.30x and financial debt to equity ratio registering at 0.18x. This is still well below Eagle’s loan covenant requirements. The decline in Eagle’s net profit to P1.2 billion from P1.6 billion in the year-earlier period reflected the impact of the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ ) in Luzon due to Covid-19 pandemic, which offset its robust performance at the start of the year. Prior to the lockdown, the company’s sales trend has showed that Eagle would have outperformed last year’s first quarter results. In 2019, the company delivered double-digit growth across the board, with net sales and net income growing by 20 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

According to Ang, while spending for noncritical projects and activities will be trimmed in view of the economic slowdown, expansion-related capital expenditures will continue. Eagle has earmarked P1.5-billion capital expenditure for the construction of its fifth cement mill in its manufacturing plant in San Ildefonso, Bulacan. The new mill will add 1.5 million metric tons of cement output, pushing Eagle’s annual cement capacity to 8.6 million metric tons by the end of the year.

Operations in the new normal

ANG added there are good signs construction activity will rebound in the second half of 2020 as community quarantines imposed to control the spread of Covid-19 have eased. “In line with the government’s call to prioritize critical infrastructure projects that will help restart the economy, we have ramped up our production since we resumed commercial operations last month. Eagle is fully prepared to supply the steadily increasing demand for cement as more and more construction projects both in the public and private sectors open up,” said Ang. Furthermore, to achieve its goal of becoming the country’s leading building supplier, Eagle is taking steps toward digital transformation. The firm has engaged an international provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that is tailored fit for its cement manufacturing business. T he new ER P system w i l l enhance customer experience through an online customer portal, which provides features such as booking, tracking and arrival of orders.

Solon pushes retail price cap on computers By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

S the Department of Education is pushing for the conduct of virtual classes, the vice chairman of the House Committee on Good Government on Thursday urged the government to put a cap on prices of computer. Cavite Rep. Abraham Tolentino said the sudden spike in prices of laptops and desktops was apparently triggered by government’s decision to put on hold face-to-face classes in most parts of the country. “Prices of computers and mobile phones have become quite restrictive. Dropout rate will soar unless government swiftly acts on the problem,” he warned. According to Tolentino, computers and other communication gadgets have become basic tools of learning and are necessary for educating the youth as the Covid-19 pandemic continue to threaten the public. Meanwhile, he asked the local government units to closely monitor the prices of computer gadgets and set up desks to assist the public, including teachers, in choosing the right equipment for students. “Computers sales have soared, so did the prices,” said Tolentino as he aired the suspicion that basic and lower priced laptops and desktops have fast disappeared in the market. Tolentino also asked the government to look into several complaints against the rising prices of computers and other communications gadget. He said a number of parents and students have started complaining that laptops with Core 1.3 processors that used to sell from P20,000 to P24,000 prior to the pandemic period, now cost P28,000 to P34,000. “Unless government intercedes in behalf of parents and students, the state will be reneging on its duty to protect and promote the right of all citizens, particularly the youth, to quality education,” said Tolentino, also the chairman of the House Committee on Accounts. He said the cost of computers and other communications gadgets will rise further as the need for learning via Internet becomes more necessary in the country’s educational system under the Covid-19 pandemic condition.

Ecop urges govt not to require rapid testing every two weeks By Kris Crismundo Philippine News Agency

USINESS owners, particularly small-scale businesses, cannot afford to provide rapid testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) among their employees every two weeks, amid the challenging business environment due to the pandemic. The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) issued a statement on Wednesday following Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire’s interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, urging businesses to randomly test their employees every 14 days using rapid test kits (RTKs). Vergeire said RTKs only detect the presence of antibodies that only appear between the fifth and seventh day of illness. “The Employers Confederation of the Philippines expresses its deep concern over the statement of the Department of Health [DOH] urging business owners to conduct random Covid-19 testing for their employees through rapid tests every two weeks,” the group said.

The World Editor: Angel R. Calso

Friday, July 24, 2020

US labs buckle amid testing surge as world virus cases top 15 million

ASHINGTON—Laboratories across the US are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are undercutting the pandemic response. With the US tally of confirmed infections at nearly 4 million on Wednesday and new cases surging, the bottlenecks are creating problems for workers kept off the job while awaiting results, nursing homes struggling to keep the virus out and for the labs themselves as they deal with a crushing workload. Some labs are taking weeks to return Covid-19 results, exacerbating fears that people without symptoms could be spreading the virus if they don’t isolate while they wait. “There’s been this obsession with, ‘How many tests are we doing per day?’” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The question is how many tests are being done with results coming back within a day, where the individual tested is promptly isolated and their contacts are promptly warned.” Frieden and other public health experts have called on states to publicly report testing turnaround times, calling it an essential metric to measure progress against the virus. The testing lags in the US come as the number of people confirmed to be infected worldwide passed a staggering 15 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US leads the world in cases as well as deaths, which have exceeded 142,000. New York, once by far the US leader in infections, has been surpassed by California, though that is partly due to robust testing in a state with more than twice the population of New York. Guidelines issued by the CDC recommend that states lifting virus restrictions have a testing turnaround time of less than four days. The agency recently issued new recommendations against retesting most Covid-19 patients to confirm they have recovered. “It’s clogging up the system,” Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant health secretary, told reporters last week. Zachrey Warner knows it all too well. The 30-year-old waiter from Columbus, Ohio, was sent home from work on July 5 with a high fever a few days after he began feeling ill. He went for a test five days later at the request of his employer. Almost two weeks and one missed pay period later, he finally got his answer Wednesday: negative. Though Warner said most symptoms—including fever, diarrhea, chest tightness and body aches—stopped a few days after he was tested, he wasn’t allowed to return to work without the result. It was “frustrating that I’ve missed so much work due to testing taking forever,” Warner said. “It is what it is...[but] I’m glad I’m negative and happy to be able to get back to work this week.” Beyond the economic hurt the testing lags can cause, they pose major health risks, too. In Florida, which reported 9,785 new cases and a rise in the death toll to nearly 5,500, nursing homes have been under an order to test all employees every two weeks. But long delays for results have some questioning the point. Jay Solomon, CEO of Aviva in Sarasota, a senior community with a nursing home and assisted living facility, said results were taking up to 10 days to come back. “It’s almost like, what are we accomplishing in that time?” Solomon said. “If that person is not quarantined in that 7-10 days, are they spreading without realizing it?” Test results that come back after two or three days are nearly worthless, many health experts say, because by then the window for tracing the person’s contacts to prevent additional infections has essentially closed. “The turnaround times, particularly across the South are too long,” Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force said on Fox. Birx said the US had shorter turnaround times in April, May and early June, but that “this surge and this degree of cases is so widespread compared to previously,” she said. Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University said it’s reasonable to tell people awaiting test results to isolate for 24 hours, but the delays have been unacceptable. “Imagine you tell a parent with young children to self-isolate for 10 days or more without knowing they actually have Covid? I mean, that’s ridiculous. That’s actually absurd,” Wen said. US officials have recently called for ramping up screening to include seemingly healthy Americans who may be unknowingly spreading the disease in their communities. But Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s largest testing chains, said it can’t keep up with demand and most patients will face waits of a week or longer for results. Quest has urged health care providers to cut down on tests from lowpriority individuals, such as those without symptoms or any contact with someone who has tested positive. As testing has expanded, so have mask orders and other measures aimed at keeping infections down. Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota and Oregon became the latest to announce statewide mandatory mask orders on Wednesday. The US is testing over 700,000 people per day, up from less than 100,000 in March. Trump administration officials point out that roughly half of US tests are performed on rapid systems that give results in about 15 minutes or in hospitals, which typically process tests in about 24 hours. But last month, that still left some 9 million tests going through laboratories, which have been plagued by limited chemicals, machines and kits to develop Covid-19 tests. There is no scientific consensus on the rate of testing needed to control the virus in the US, but experts have recommended for months that the US test at least 1 million to 3 million people daily. Health experts assembled by the Rockefeller Foundation said last week that the US should scale up to testing 30 million Americans per week by the fall, when school reopenings and flu season are expected to further exacerbate the virus’s spread. The group acknowledged that will not be possible with the lab-based testing system. The National Institutes of Health has set up a “shark tank” competition to quickly identify promising rapid tests and has received more than 600 applications. The goal is to have new testing options in mass production by the fall. Until then, the backbone of US testing remains at several hundred labs with high-capacity machines capable of processing thousands of samples per day. Many say they could be processing far more tests if not for global shortages of testing chemicals and other materials. Dr. Bobbi Pritt of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says the hospital’s machines are running at just 20 percent capacity. Lab technicians run seven different Covid-19 testing formats, switching back and forth depending on the availability of supplies. At Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, lab workers lobby testing manufacturers on a weekly basis to provide more kits, chemicals and other materials. “There’s no planning ahead, we just do as many as we can and cross our fingers that we’ll get more,” said Dr. Colleen Kraft, who heads the hospital’s testing lab. AP

Friday, July 24, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

We need to make our own future

E have this idea that change usually happens rapidly. The truth is that most fundamental changes in the world we live in take a long time to come. It only seems quick because one day we wake up and see the results as a front-page headline. The other “myth” we believe is that trends go on forever. In 1894 there was the great “New York City Horse Manure Crisis.” A population of 100,000 horses produced 2.5 million pounds of horse manure per day, which had to be swept up and disposed. Four years later in 1898 the first international urban-planning conference convened in New York and was abandoned after three days, instead of the scheduled 10, because none of the delegates could see any solution to the growing crisis posed by urban horses and their output. By 1912, cars outnumbered horses in New York City. John D. Hertz started the Yellow Cab Company in 1915. The era of the horse-drawn streetcar ended in July 1917. In less than 20 years, life had completely changed for New Yorkers. Likewise, changes that we expect to happen in a hurry do not occur. On February 16 1980, the German Federal Ministry of the Environment hosted a symposium in Berlin, called Energiewende—Atomausstieg und Klimaschutz (Energy Transition: Nuclear Phase-Out and Climate Protection). Its present form dates back to at least 2002. This was to change Germany from fossil fuel and nuclear power generation to renewables. Today, almost 80 percent of the primary energy demand is met with oil, gas and coal. Subsidies for “renewable energy” make up about 20 percent of the average German’s electricity bill. While other nations have had other successes and technological improvements are impressive, in the next 20 years the world will still be dependent on fossil fuel and the more cost-effective and cleaner nuclear power. Solar and the much less efficient wind power generation have an important role to play in specific applications. But to say that the grid can depend on these sources anytime soon is a fantasy. Meanwhile, the Philippines continues to build obsolete power plants waiting for some sort of energy “magic bullet.” We read stories headlined with “Newsroom Job Cuts Up 170 percent Through June, Worst on Record” and “Newsroom employment continues to slump. From 2018 through June, more than 28,000 employees at US newspapers have been laid off.” But the reality is that newspapers have been “dying” for 100 years. Now as back then the reason is the “Digital Age.” Today it is the Internet. The first radio news program was broadcast on August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan. By 1934, 60 percent of US households had radios. More than 90 percent of the country’s newspaper subscribers owned radios and the national radio audience numbered some 50 million in a US population of 134 million. At its convention in New York in 1931, the American Newspaper Publishers Association “took steps to combat such competition and protect the interests of newspapers.” The Canadian Press news association and the Canadian Daily Newspapers Association appointed a committee to make a study of radio in its relation to newspapers. Newspapers survived radio by adapting such practice as not printing two or three editions a day. They will survive the Internet. We cannot just expect government to successfully lead us into the future. It needs encouragement and often a strong push from the people. Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

Better health care first Sonny M. Angara

Better Days

he Philippines currently has the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia. Indonesia may have registered the highest total number of cases overall, but their 37,083 active cases as of July 22 makes them only second in the region to our 45,646.

With our numbers climbing, too many of our hospitals are reaching the limit of their capacities. A week or so ago, Makati Medical Center, the two St. Luke’s Medical Centers in Quezon City and BGC, the Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital and some other hospitals declared that they were nearing or were at the limits of their capacity to handle Covid-19 patients. This week, more hospitals joined the list, such as Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center, Antipolo City Medical Hospital, and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. Clearly, we need to improve the capacity of our health-care system before we can even begin to rebuild

our embattled economy. Ronald U. Mendoza, dean of the Ateneo School of Government, pointed out in a May 2020 The Diplomat article that while the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the weaknesses of our health care and social protection systems, it can also be an opportunity to strengthen and improve them through innovations and reforms. In another paper, “Covid-19: Navigating Inclusive Recovery towards the New Normal,” Mendoza uses the term “building back better” as an anchor for his points about health care, the economy, and the new normal. One aspect is about more effective test, trace, and treat programs, and building up the health-care system

False crusade

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rothers and sisters, after the people heard the words of President Duterte recently, the insistence of Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque that the President was being neutral in the issue of ABS-CBN’s legislative franchise renewal unraveled. In a recent speech in front of the soldiers in Jolo, the President admitted that he was very happy because he victoriously dismantled the oligarchy in the Philippines without declaring martial law. The name of the TV station wasn’t included in the official transcript of his speech, but an unedited audio clip, according to the news, showed that he mentioned ABS-CBN several times. Even if this wasn’t mentioned in the official audio and video clip released by the Palace, it’s easy to think that the family who owns ABS-CBN is what he was attributing to. In the same speech, President Duterte also said that he wanted to make his “helpful friends” richer. They would, as he said, be the ones to

discuss “many big-time businesses.” If cronyism—or the giving of favors to friends by people in high government positions—is your interpretation of the President’s words, you are again mistaken, according to his spokesperson. Apparently, the goal of the President is to make his friends richer because our country benefits from them. What do you think of this, brothers and sisters? Although President Duterte keeps on expressing his disgust against the oligarchs, and his crusade is to dismantle their interests, it is difficult to think that the administration is truly serious. Four years have passed since the President assumed office and we still haven’t seen any deep changes in our economy to say that the country’s

We need to close some huge gaps in our health care responses to the pandemic. We may have well-organized economic stimulus plans, but if we do not have an effective foundation based on our health care strategies, then we are hobbled from the very beginning. to handle surges of cases. Another aspect of “build back better” is how an organized strategy for easing quarantine measures and restructuring business operations, in conjunction with health care guidelines and assistance from government, can lessen the economic impact of minimized or nonexistent business operations during the quarantine period. Some of the measures we have filed and are working on deal with how we can “build back better.” For instance, in the Bayanihan to Recover As One Bill (SB 1564), which is awaiting final reading at the Senate, streamlined accreditation of PCR testing kits and the facilitation of prompt testing on suspected and probable Covid-19 cases have been included. The measure will also enable the hiring of medical technologists and other personnel to augment our

In the latest Forbes Billionaires List, it was revealed that the 14 richest Filipinos have a combined wealth amounting to $30 billion or over P1.5 trillion—25,000 times larger than the gross regional domestic product of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2018. Some of these billionaires are known “supporters” of the President, especially during his campaign. These billionaires have control over many businesses in our country for the longest time. Can they be dismantled by our “fierce” President especially if these billionaires are “helpful”? interests are prioritized and many Filipinos are truly benefitting from wealthy individuals and families. In the latest Forbes Billionaires List, it was revealed that the 14 richest Filipinos have a combined wealth amounting to $30 billion or over P1.5 trillion—25,000 times larger than the gross regional domestic product of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2018. Some of these billionaires are known “supporters” of the President, especially during his campaign. These billion-

testing centers. Another new bill we have filed is the Crushing Covid Bill (SB 1535), a counterpart to the version filed by Rep. Janette Loreto-Garin and which passed at the House in June. The measure aims to establish PCR testing protocols for Filipino workers with co-morbidities such as diabetes, and persons entering Philippine territory. Philhealth will shoulder the cost for the tests. Finally, we have the eHealth System and Services Bill (SB 1472), which will establish policies and a legal framework for telemedicine, e-prescriptions, and other similar eHealth services throughout the country to make it easier for people to practice social distancing. I mentioned in an upcoming episode of Open Bar, the podcast series of the IBP Eastern and Western Visayas Region, that while we have exhibited significant improvements in our response to the pandemic, such as with our testing capabilities, there are still many areas where we should need to do better. For example, testing and contact tracing should be done in real time. The sooner we can contact people and tell them to isolate, the more we can limit the spread of Covid-19. See “Angara,” A7

aires have control over many businesses in our country for the longest time. Can they be dismantled by our “fierce” President especially if these billionaires are “helpful”? The Catholic social teaching recognizes the important role of businesses, trade, and private property in the economic sector. But these aren’t enough for us to achieve what the common good intends. The government must also cooperate in finding the right balance in order for the wealth that must be shared by all won’t fall into the hands of a few. But if our leaders only play around the business sector for their own interests, the people will lose. There will be no common good. Brothers and sisters, it is not our goal to stop the freedom of the people to aim for a fruitful life, but let us not be manipulated by the people pretending to be heroes for the people and receive favors from those swimming in wealth. We are reminded in the book of Matthew 7:15, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

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Opinion

Restoring confidence

A competition of ‘madnesses’

BusinessMirror

Alvin Ang

Addressing Covid-19 over the short term should be decisive, coordinated, clear and sustainable. Hence, the Sona should be unpacking how we are to co-exist with the virus in the next two years and not on a bi-monthly basis. This requires government to focus all its energies and resources on this fight and not be distracted by ill-timed so-called reforms. This can be started by having a clear vision on how the coexisting with the virus will work. As we have ramped up our testing capacities, people are perplexed why the number of Covid-19 positives keep on increasing. This clearly points to unclear and confusing messaging on how we are to proceed in the economy. The efforts of the Presidential spokesperson to have a daily presscon is a good venue but is not reassuring enough to bring confidence to both consumers and business. What is needed to assure our people is a unified, standard and clear guidelines and protocols for testing, tracing, isolating and treating Covid-19 positives. The appointment of point persons to these different components will still need a single concrete step by step process when translated to the ordinary people needing to go to work and businesses needing to operate. The Department of the Interior and Local Government should be focusing its attention on how to model this to local governments. A national campaign that is unified, standard and persistent should be initiated along this line, this includes the process of helping stranded individuals and returning workers. In addition, resources have been released by the Department of Budget and Management. More than 90 percent of the 2020 budget has been made available including realignments to help fight Covid-19 and help the economy. However, we are again facing the perennial absorptive capacity challenges that have been preventing us in maximizing growth in the past. The bottlenecks are most likely administrative and capacities in nature and are to be addressed the soonest. Our people cannot wait. Some 8 million people have lost jobs as of April and this probably has gone higher in the last two months. The Department of Trade and Industry secretary has recently announced that 26 percent of firms have closed and about 50 percent are partially operating. The balance are fully operational.

Angara. . .

continued from A6

Thankfully, new anti-Covid Czars have been designated to help BCDA President and CEO Vivencio “Vince” Dizon run the “T3” (trace, treat, and test) program—namely, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong as the chief for contact tracing; Public Works Secretary Mark Villar for building and upgrading government facilities as quarantine centers; and Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega to monitor treatment and hospital capacities nationwide. May their drive and experience be

The implementers can also shift tactics from a stick approach to a carrot approach. As one of my graduate students suggested, why not incentivize those LGUs without any Covid case for the last three months. Of course, there is a lot needed to make it worthwhile, but it is a start in the way we need to change our approach in dealing with this virus. Of those operating, the income is down by 90 percent. There is no confidence for consumers to go out. Clearly, businesses need to be assisted in the coming months so that they do not close permanently, adding more unemployed people. Government has lined up loans for these firms, but anecdotes have shown that businesses do not have the appetite for loans as sales will not be enough to tide them over. Hence, the better strategy is to subsidize the operations of firms at least in the next six months. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also has released about P1.7 trillion to the economy, making it liquid. But if firms will not borrow then the liquidity will not have significant impact. Considering that banks have good loan loss provisions and the non-performing loans ratio remains low, BSP might want to consider extending further the deferment of loan payments of operating firms and mortgages of households till the end of the year. All told, these are telling us that the biggest issue that we are facing is the lack of confidence. When people are unsure, uncertain and unclear or confused with various information, they will not have the confidence to move in this delicate environment. Addressing the situation as to co-exist with the virus with the proper guidance and direction in specific situations should help people and businesses navigate the way in a careful yet productive manner. The implementers can also shift tactics from a stick approach to a carrot approach. As one of my graduate students suggested, why not incentivize those LGUs without any Covid case for the last three months. Of course, there is a lot needed to make it worthwhile, but it is a start in the way we need to change our approach in dealing with this virus. part of our arsenal in fighting this pandemic. We need to close some huge gaps in our health care responses to the pandemic. We may have well-organized economic stimulus plans, but if we do not have an effective foundation based on our health care strategies, then we are hobbled from the very beginning. Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 15 years—nine years as representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and six as senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He recently won another term in the Senate. E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @sonnyangara.

Tito Genova Valiente

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N Monday, July 27, President Duterte will make his Fifth State of the Nation Address. This Sona should be focused on one thing—addressing the impact of Covid-19 to the country in the next two years. We said this because the gains in the sociopolitical and economic landscape in the last four years have been basically pushed back by the rampaging impact of the virus. For instance, it is unlikely that we will be able to achieve the 14 percent poverty rate target by 2022, which was so close to being overtaken by 2021 as the 2018 levels have already reached 16 percent. The gross domestic product targets will have to be set aside as growth in the coming years will likely be subdued as the economic impacts of the lockdowns roll to the different sectors. The goal of this next two years should be to protect the capacities and resources of our people and firms so that they can fully participate in the economy during and after the pandemic.

Friday, July 24, 2020

‘W

hy do you call it the Age of Madness?” Fareed Zakaria in his CNN program called “GPS” is asking Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of the most prominent French intellectuals at present. Lévy has a new book titled The Virus in the Age of Madness.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, who is also a philosopher and filmmaker, repeats the question in what could be his answer—“because we are living in the age of Madness.” He explains it quickly by pointing to the madman that is Trump. In a language that is familiar to those who read philosophical musings, the thinker points to how the US president refuses to wear a mask even as he puts a mask to cover reality, the reality of the pandemic. That is one end of the extreme. The other end, Lévy stresses, involves those who “over-react,” those who would renounce their civil rights and civil liberties in exchange for a guarantee of safety. This tendency Lévy says is “also mad.” The session asks the prime question: “What has Covid-19 done to humanity? Lévy admits one of the effects of the virus is the widespread selfishness of humanity. Those who do not want to wear mask are not seeing the deaths around them. They do not care. On the other hand, there are many who take advantage of the panic brought about the virus. On this side of the globe, it has been written how there are governments using the pandemic to oppress people. Lévy says we are surrounded by “a competition of madnesses.” The French public intellectual has articulated it well by way of an international platform but if he had only travelled southeast to where the Philippines is, he would have generated more insights about “madnesses.” The daily occurrences in this country ever since the lockdown only make sense if we accept one thing: we are surrounded by different forms of madness. The lucid intervals, if there are any, are in people despairing for solutions.

The Department of Health constructs statistical tests out of numbers that do not add up. What would philosophers say about incidence of cases where the reports eschew any respectable notion of making a mistake by classifying some numbers as “delayed” and others as “fresh?” This is pandemic and not a report on arrivals and departures and fruit supply. On April 28, 2020, Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote a short essay, After the Coronavirus, Who Do We Want to Be? It is a lovely essay demonstrating how keenly a philosopher can make use of historical data: The time was 412 BCE; the place, Perinthus, in Thrace; the moment when the Greek language invented, if not the thing itself, then at least its name (epi demos, literally “on the people,” the first calamity that, in contrast to the biblical idea of a “scourge” afflicting the “firstborn,” falls on an entire people without distinction as to age, status, or moral purity). If economics creates social classes and inequality, the virus cuts across classes and affords us the truest form of equality on earth. To the Secretary of Education, Leonor Briones, is ascribed these words of wisdom: we will all die. See, even educators have easy access to madness. Is this assuring—this fact of the virus not recognizing religion? During the close of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, it was a tradition to paint or draw the “cross” on house posts, beams, and doors. This was done with the strong belief that the Cross, the Sign of the Cross, would halt a cholera, a plague, or any other pestilence. Not anymore, the word “epidemic” signals the secularization of the disease, if we are to follow this French intellectual. No cross can drive away the virus.

Covid-19—Covid-14 for other madwomen—is particularly virulent in that even the ultimate site of the Cross, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, has been stopped by it. And yet, Bernard-Henri Lévy tells us nothing has changed really in how societies defend themselves against a new virus. He cites Hippocrates in his account of the “Cough of Perinthus,” which has a list of preventive measures similar to what our epidemiologists might recommend. He instructs us to go back to Boccaccio’s The Decameron, where the great chronicler explains that to deal with “mortal pestilence” is to “shut oneself up” in isolation; to stop “visiting family members”; to ensure that “citizens avoid each other and themselves.” If civilizations have been destroyed by plagues, are we creating a new civilization? Is there a method in this madness? Lévy calls any hope for recovery an illusion of a post-virus world that is back to normal. He stresses how “Philosophers of medicine have refuted this trope of seeing a disease as an attack that tests a healthy body and then, once the attack is fought off, restores it

President Duterte’s last bid for greatness Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

nce more, the country is preparing for the annual ritual more popularly known for its abbreviation, State of the Nation Address, which is the President’s yearly address delivered to the joint session of Congress. The Constitution mandates the President to give this speech at the Plenary Hall of the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City every 4th Monday of July each year. While critics of the government may not accord the Sona the significance that it deserves, this political exercise is critical as it is a vehicle for the head of state to report his accomplishments in office during the preceding year and present his plans and programs of government for the coming year and his remaining years in Malacañang.

In a democracy, it is to the public’s interest to know what the government has done in the past and what is in store ahead. Some may not like the President but it’s of paramount importance to know his message. Constructive participation in government, whether for or against, is only possible if the citizens are well informed. It behooves them to listen first before they shoot the messenger. During the First Philippine Republic, President Emilio F. Aguinaldo’s role was to preside over the opening of Malolos Congress in 1899. He did not deliver a Sona because the Malolos Constitution did not require him to give one. The first Sona was made by President Manuel L. Quezon shortly after the inauguration of the Commonwealth of the Philippines on June 16, 1936

at the Legislative Building in Manila. The 1935 Constitution required the President of the Philippines to provide an annual report to Congress, to wit: “The President shall from time to time give to the Congress information on the state of the Nation, and recommend to its consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” I think this was the first time that a reference to a “state of the Nation” was used in the Constitution of our country. During the 2nd Philippine Republic under the Japanese puppet government, President Jose P. Laurel gave his message before a special session of the National Assembly headed by Speaker Benigno S. Aquino, Sr. but this was not considered a Sona since the puppet Constitution did not provide for it. Both Presidents

Fighting this pandemic, more than any other demons, real or otherwise, will take the full measure of the President. At present, what will define his presidency is not the “Cha-Cha,” the oligarchy, “tokhang” or ABS-CBN but how he will address the current scourge, which has been lethal to the health of the Filipinos and the Philippine economy. It will be his last bid for greatness, which he cannot afford to fail.

Sergio Osmeña Sr. and Manuel A. Roxas delivered their Sona during the last years of the Commonweath Government. Roxas gave his own Sona on the 3rd Philippine Republic after the war in front of the First Congress in 1947. The tradition of delivering the Sona every opening of Congress has continued to this day although the date and venue have varied. In 1986, President Corazon Aquino did not deliver the Sona after the Edsa Revolution but she gave her first Sona after Congress was reestablished in 1987. What we will miss most in this year’s Sona is the absence of ostentatious display of fashion and extravagance by the members of Congress and the VIP guests who will strut their pompous attire in a la redcarpet fashion show in the halls of the Batasan. As in the past years, they will flaunt their glamorous outfits and their glamorous figures bedecked with precious jewelry and priceless stones. At least, the pandemic has spared us of this wanton

to its former integrity.” Lévy refers to Georges Canguilhem, another French thinker who, years back showed us “that a body, be it biological or social, always comes out damaged, marked, and transformed by the passage of a new virus.” Unfortunately for us, the philosophical thinking with its armory of detachment and intellect can come across as uncaring. And that, even if the Philosopher disagrees, is madness. As with the latest tip on how to clean our facemask with gasoline. As with another madman’s earlier discovery of disinfectant as the ultimate cure when ingested. Postscript. As a filmmaker, Bernard-Henri Lévy did in 2016 a documentary film on the search for aspects of true Islam. This was Peshmerga, which was chosen by Cannes as a special screening to its official selection. Back in 1997, he directed a romance film, Day and Night, which was considered by some critics as the worst film of that year, along with Batman and Robin. Don’t you think that was madness, too?

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

exhibition of pomp and profligacy. On Monday, July 27, 2020, President Duterte will have his penultimate opportunity to present to our people his program of government particularly in dealing with Covid-19, which has wrecked our lives and devastated our economy. Actually, it’s his final chance to demonstrate his true mettle as a duly elected leader of his country with a resounding plurality of votes over his next closest opponent. The President’s 6th and last Sona in July 2021 will span the 2022 elections and politics and keeping the party in power will be the overarching message. After four long years of running our government, the President has reached the point where he has to place all his marbles on the table and bet on the future of this country. At stake is the Duterte legacy and how history will judge his presidency. Posterity has been unkind to the residents of Malacañang and historians have been unforgiving and cruel to former holders of the presidency. Two-thirds of President Duterte’s term is over but it is not yet too late to make up and regain our people’s trust. What he does within the next 12 months will make or unmake the Duterte presidency. Fighting this pandemic, more than any other demons, real or otherwise, will take the full measure of the President. At present, what will define his presidency is not the “Cha-Cha,” the oligarchy, “tokhang” or ABS-CBN but how he will address the current scourge, which has been lethal to the health of the Filipinos and the Philippine economy. It will be his last bid for greatness, which he cannot afford to fail.

A8 Friday, July 24, 2020

BSP’s Diokno ready to endorse ARISE as multiyear fiscal plan

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

S the 18th Congress is set to resume its session on Monday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor also said he is willing to endorse the proposed economic stimulus bill.

Governor Benjamin Diokno said he is ready to endorse the proposed Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (ARISE) if the lower chamber will convert it as multiyear fiscal plan. “I think the ARISE bill should be seen as multiyear fiscal plan to address the pandemic...if you will do it in a multiyear fiscal plan then I will endorse it,” said Diokno when asked by Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo on why the proposed ARISE is not included in the priority bills of the Central Bank. Quimbo is one of the principal authors of the ARISE bill. “If you put and pass it that

way [multiyear plan], I think that would be very helpful. Once that is passed, the Executive Department is obliged to allocate fund [for the stimulus] and then it will reflect on the budget,” he said. Last June 4, the House endorsed for Senate approval the proposed P1.3-trillion ARISE. But the economic managers said the spending plan under ARISE or House Bill 6815 bill was “not fundable.” With this, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda has said both houses of Congress and the economic managers are reaching a compromise to roll out the much-needed additional stimulus package in three tranches

with the last tranche to be inserted under the 2021 national budget. Salceda said the House will adopt the Senate’s P140-billion counterpart bill to the House’s ARISE. If ever, this version will be the second stimulus package as Congress deemed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act as the first stimulus package. This second stimulus is expected to be implemented up to September of this year. Meanwhile, the House leadership is now considering the Executive Department’s “openness” to a third tranche of economic stimulus by July, according to Salceda. He said this recovery measure can include around P280 billion. The target implementation of this third stimulus is the fourth quarter. Salceda said they also recommended the inclusion of around P280 billion in the 2021 national budget. Meanwhile, Diokno also asked Congress to prioritize the passage of several priority bills of the BSP. These include amendment to RA 1405 and 6426, which laws pertaining to secrecy of bank deposits, amendment to RA 9510 or the Credit Information System

Act, amendment to RA 10000 or the Agri-Agra Law, Financial Consumer Protection Bill, Financial Institution Strategic Transfer Bill

and Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) bill.

WORST TIME TO BE NEW GRAD, Q2 JOBLESS RATE SEEN AT 22% By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

HE Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said it is the worst time to be a new graduate, as it projects unemployment rate in Luzon to peak at 22 percent in the second quarter on job losses due to the health crisis. ADB Country Director Kelly Bird said job figures indicate a recovery over the next months with the economy now slowly reopening. However, given the cycle of lockdowns in the second quarter, the ADB expects the unemployment rate in Luzon to hit 22 percent in June. “ADB projections are for unemployment in Luzon to peak at 22 percent in June 2020 and then to steadily fall as workers returned to work after the [quarantine], and economy begins to gradually recover,” Bird said in an e-mail to the BusinessMirror. “We expect unemployment to fall to 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2021 and toward 5 percent to 6 percent in 2022 as the economic growth momentum accelerates.” he added. The April Labor Force Survey reported unemployment rate rose to 17.7 percent, from 5.1 percent during the same period

last year, as millions of Filipinos lost their income source to the pandemic. At least 5 million workers were left jobless by the health crisis, swelling the number of unemployed to a total of 7.25 million. The job losses were expected given that nearly all business establishments, especially in Luzon, were closed during the quarantine. Given the job situation, Bird said “it is the worst time to be a new graduate” in the Philippines, as there are fewer work opportunities right now, with business plans stalled by the pandemic. On the other hand, the ADB country director explained the Philippines is likely to take a Ushaped recovery starting in the third and fourth quarters. This is why the ADB is keeping its growth forecast of 6.5 percent next year. He said the crucial part now for the government is to make sure consumer spending will bounce back. To do this, workers should be secured in their work for the next six to 12 months for them to have the purchasing power for their basic needs and essentials. Further, the fiscal response and stimulus packages must be secured to ensure stable macroeconomic fundamentals, Bird said.

DFA honors field envoys for work in pandemic

COR E S of DFA of f icers and personnel were recognized for exemplary service during the commemoration on Thursday of the 122nd founding anniversary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), which coincided with the birthday of Apolinario Mabini, the first Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The honorees were led by seven senior career diplomats who were conferred the Felipe Agoncillo Lifetime Service Award in view of their substantial contribution to the advancement of Philippine interests in the global community. They are Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Lourdes Yparraguirre, former Permanent Representative to Asean Elizabeth Buensuceso, Assistant Secretary for Maritime Affairs Generoso Calonge, Consul General in Shanghai Wilfredo Cuyugan, Consul General in Manado Oscar Orcine, former Ambassador to Jordan Olivia Palala and Ambassador to Hungary Maria Fe Pangilinan. “I salute the men and women of the DFA who have given more than was asked of them. While the pandemic is a misfortune for all, we take solace in the fact that we have colleagues whose achievements we fittingly celebrate on the same day as Mabini’s birthday. We are glad that it is with them we stand our ground to face this pandemic; others wou ld have buc k led to t heir knees,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. said in his message. The program was a blended face-to-face and virtual event that brought together DFA personnel from the Home Office, the different consular offices and the Foreign Service Posts from different time zones around the world. It was livestreamed on YouTube. Continued on A2

RTB sales mark another record, breach ₧310.8B of first round By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

N less than a week since the start of the public offer period, the Bureau of the Treasury has already notched another “recordhigh” sale of Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs), surpassing the P310.8 billion it raised from the first RTB it issued this year. While National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon shared this development about the ongoing sale of five-year RTBs to reporters late Wednesday, she declined to give the breakdown of how much was raised in terms of new money and through the exchange offer. “Let it grow muna [first],” De Leon said in a message. The public offer period for the 24th tranche of RTBs (RTB 24), dubbed Progreso Bonds, runs until August 7. However, the Treasury may opt to cut short the offer period earlier than scheduled. The issuance of Progreso bonds also comes at a time that the government is aiming to raise more funds for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite achieving another “record-high” sale, de Leon said they still “need more time” for overseas

Filipinos and more people to get onboard with the Bonds.PH mobile application. On Tuesday, De Leon said they have already raised more than P250 billion in new money, exceeding its accomplishments from its RTB issuance for the year in February. To recall, the Treasury raised a total of P310.8 billion from the 23rd tranche of RTB offered in a one-week offer period early this year. Of this, P250 billion in new money was raised while P60.8 billion was raised through switch tender offer. Despite the economic fallout due to the pandemic, the Treasury last week raised P192.707 billion from its rate-setting auction of RTB 24, more than six times the initial P30billion offer. The Progreso Bonds was set with an annual fixed interest rate of 2.625 percent, payable every quarter, with a maturity date on August 12, 2025. T he issuance of new RTBs due 2025 also comes with an exchange offer for RTB 10-01, RTB 10-02, FXTN 05-73, and/or FXTN 07-57. This allows investors with these maturing specific bonds to shift to RTB 24 at no extra cost.

The total outstanding amount of bonds eligible for the switch is about P321 billion. RTBs are generally considered low risk for investors as these allow them to earn on a fixed interest based on prevailing market rates. For minimum denominations of P5,000, the general investing public is given the chance to take advantage of the issuance during the offer period. To ensure wider participation of individual investors, they may also order and purchase the new RTBs through online channels, including through the newly launched Bonds. PH mobile app. This app can accept an investment of as low as P5,000 and offers a wide array of electronic payment channels such as Instapay, PESONet, GCash and PayMaya. Investors may also purchase the RTB 24 from any of the 25 selling agents, which include the Development Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines, BDO Capital and Investment Corp., BPI-Capital Corp., China Banking Corp., First Metro Investment Corp., Philippine National Bank, RCBC, Security Bank Corp. and Union Bank of the Philippines.

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Ayala unit announces offer price for first REIT in PHL

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

REIT Inc., the pioneering realestate investment trust (REIT) in the country sponsored by Ayala Land Inc., has priced its initial public offering at P27 per share, or at the midrange of its pricing. Brokers have earlier set a price band for the said offering between P25 to P29.50. With the said price, the company can raise some P12.33 billion in fresh capital and will become the

country's first REIT company to be listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) more than a decade after the signing into law of the REIT Act in 2009. AREIT intends to use the net

proceeds from the primary offer to fund the intended acquisition of Teleperformance Cebu from ALO Prime Realty Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ayala Land. Net proceeds from the secondary offer, meanwhile, shall be reinvested by Ayala Land in real-estate projects located in the Philippines within a period of one year. Ayala Land is a subsidiary of conglomerate Ayala Corp. AREIT is selling 49 percent of the company, or about 456.88 million common shares, of which some 47.86 million are new shares, 409.01 million secondary shares and 45.68 million shares as its over-allotment option. Some 70 percent of the shares

will be for institutional buyers both here and abroad and 30 percent will be for local buyers including small investors offer period runs from July 27 to August 3. It will be listed at the PSE on August 13. Ayala Land will remain as majority shareholder of AREIT, holding a 51-percent interest. BPI Capital Corp. is the sole global coordinator and joint bookrunner for the IPO while UBS AG Singapore Branch is the sole international bookrunner for the international tranche of the IPO. BPI Capital, PNB Capital and Investment Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. are assigned as joint lead underwriters for the domestic tranche.

Govt cuts common towers permit process By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

arious government agencies have signed a joint memorandum circular that will streamline requirements and reduce procedural delays in securing permits, licenses, clearances, certificates, and other requirements for common towers. The new policy was signed by officials from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Anti-Red Tape Authority, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Public

Works and Highways, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), the Department of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. The policy essentially shortens the timeline of securing permits to 16 days, from 200 days. It also removes five prerequisites for the construction of passive telecommunications tower infrastructure, such those that are required by both the local and national governments. It will not require telco tower

companies and mobile network operators to secure a certificate of use, which can be secured from the Office of the Building Official. Caap has also agreed to remove the height clearance permit for infrastructure that are below 50 meters, but firms are required to secure an undertaking from a licensed geodetic engineer. “The signing of the guidelines is a significant step in addressing the nation’s connectivity needs that have become more immediate because of the pandemic. The deployment of common towers, particularly in unserved and underserved areas, will improve not

only internet condition, but also socio-economic welfare through ICT,” DICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II said. He added that this complements the Shared Passive Telecommunications Tower Infrastructure Policy, otherwise known as the Common Tower Policy. “In these trying times, our country is calling on us, as those in government service, to render full assistance and cooperation, and mobilize the necessary resources to undertake critical, urgent, and appropriate measures to curtail and eliminate the threat of Covid-19.”

‘2 firms keen Tourism leads Subic Bay Freeport revival on PSALM properties’ By Henry Empeño Correspondent

wo power firms have expressed interest to bid for the real-estate properties of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM). The state firm said FG Bukidnon Power Corp. (FGBPC) and Therma Marine Inc. (TMI) participated in the pre-bid conference last July 21. FGBPC and TMI are wholly-owned subsidiaries of First Gen Corp. and Aboitiz Power Corp., respectively. PSALM is selling its Agusan, Maco, Nasipit and Puerto Azul real estate assets to augment funds to settle the state firm’s assumed financial obligations. The sale of these assets could reach almost P40 million. The minimum bid price for the 10,596-square meter Agusan Property is set at P23,841,000.00. The Maco Property with an indicative area of 1,595 square meters has a minimum bid price of P3,209,140.00. The Nasipit Property has an indicative area of 3,395 square meters with a minimum bid price of P4,414,000.00. Lastly, the two condominium units in Puerto Azul Complex, namely, Unit B5-B and B5-C, each with a gross floor area of 247.22 sq. meters, will be sold separately. Unit B5-B minimum bid price is set at P4,119,700.00 while Unit B5-C includes one No-par Value Proprietary Share under Class A Stock Certificate No. 109, with a minimum bid price of P3,757,800.00. The bidding is on an "as-is, where-is" basis, and upfront full payment is required. PSALM said the pre-bid conference is an opportunity for prospective bidders to clarify issues and concerns they may have on the terms of the sale. The bid submission is set on August 6. Only parties who paid the participation fee will be allowed to participate in the sale of the aforementioned real estate assets. PSALM announced the other day that it is also selling its property in Paco, Manila for P513,439,000.00. The auction for the 20,975-square meter property will take place on September 10. The property, which is composed of eight lots, used to be the site of the former Manila Thermal Power Plant in Isla de Provisor, Paco, Manila. Lenie Lectura

ubic Bay Freeport—Tourism is breathing life back into this free port, as businesses make the painful transition to the “new normal” after a long hiatus since March, when the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was imposed in Luzon to stop the spread of Covid-19. Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said restaurants and food outlets are leading the way in rejuvenating the tourism scene here by opening their doors to the public, first with essential delivery service to clients, and lately with the muchawaited dine-in convenience. The SBMA Business and Investment Group said it has allowed 44 restaurants and food outlets to offer dine-in services at 30 percent of their capacity since Subic shifted to a more relaxed general community quarantine (GCQ) in June 1, and then to 50 percent when restrictions were further eased under modified GCQ a month after. “It’s a painful struggle bringing businesses back to life, especially when we know that Covid-19 has not really gone away, but the economy should reopen lest we find ourselves in a more unsustainable position,” Eisma said on Wednesday. She said restaurants and other dine-in food outlets here are now allowed to open up to 75 percent of their capacity since Tuesday under Department of Trade and Industry Memorandum Circular 20-39, but the SBMA insists on safety protocols like social distancing, disinfection, thermal scans, as well as wearing of mask among patrons. “These are things that may be inconvenient, but which businesses and other stakeholders here have to abide with. We have to adopt certain

A guard at the Harbor Point Ayala Mall tells mall goers to practice social distancing. Henry Empeño

measures to protect ourselves and our community, and to continue living. That’s the new normal in Subic,” Eisma added. Establishments appear to be taking the transition well, despite the marked difference between the number of customers before and during the pandemic. And working up to attract more customers now meant setting up foot baths, thermal scanners, and alcohol dispensers for the public. S&R Pizza Manager Dennis Marasigan recalled that when the company first opened its outlet under GCQ, it was only for take-outs and deliveries, with only 30 percent of their workforce able to work. “When the Subic Bay Freeport shifted to MGCQ, we started accepting dine-in customers, but we have to implement stricter safety protocols to ensure that they will have a safer dine-in experience,” he added. Right now, Marasigan said, tables at the S&R outlet at the Harbor Point Ayala Mall here have X markings to tell customers where not to sit. And while customers can enjoy eating in groups, they still can’t be seated face-to-face. The safety protocols are observed even in restaurants with al fresco dining areas like Rali’s Restaurant and Magic Lagoon Bistro, which provide customers the reassuring

advantage of not having the “3 C’s” where Covid-19 is said to spread more easily: confined space, crowded place, and close-contact setting. At Rali’s, registration for contacttracing, which is required in all dinein establishments in Subic, is also done digitally to further ensure customer protection, said owner-chef Rubelh Peralta. Placing orders, as well as paying, can also be done online here. Xtremely Expresso, a popular homegrown café with both indoor and outdoor setting, is another Subic attraction that has regained its customers with the extension of dine-in hours up to 11 p.m. However, while restaurants, retail shops, and hotels are getting back on track, Subic’s theme parks like the iconic Zoobic Safari are still awaiting advisory to reopen their doors to the public. Zoobic Chief Operating Officer May Gamir said the popular animal theme park here recently introduced a “buy-one, take-one” promo for admission tickets with no expiry to raise funds needed in feeding the animals and maintaining the park. Each ticket will admit two people for the price of one and valid for any day in the future when the theme park reopens after quarantine and the “new normal” begins.

Friday, July 24, 2020

SM workers undergo tests for Covid-19

Contributed Photo

he SM group on Thursday said it has done repeated rounds of rapid testing and RT-PCR testing for their employees and agency workers, covering more than 140,000 individuals across its supermarkets, retail stores, malls, residential and property companies. The group said it conducts tests for Covid-19 regularly to assure the continuous delivery of its services to customers and to protect its workforce. Even prior to easing of the enhanced community quarantine in May, SM said took the initiative to conduct Covid-19 antibody rapid testing for its employees and agency frontliners, including janitors and security guards. Beyond testing, SM said it undertook additional measures to protect the safety of its work force including the provision of face masks and

face shields for employees, information campaign on safety and social distancing, strict observation of testing and quarantine protocols, temperature checks of people in all points of entrance and exit and safe distancing in office areas, including layout changes and placing of screen dividers. The SM group donated over P30 million worth of RT-PCR test kits, equivalent to over 20,000 tests, to major testing centers like the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health laboratory and directly to local government units of cities around Metro Manila, as well as in Baguio. The SM Foundation, meanwhile, has donated over P300-million worth of personal protective equipment, medical equipment and facilities to meet the needs of some 150 hospitals and health facilities nationwide. VG Cabuag

SSS benefits accessible via PayMaya

inancial technology player PayMaya has enabled members of the Social Security System (SSS) to receive their claim proceeds through their PayMaya e-wallets. SSS members need only to link their PayMaya accounts through the member portal. With this, SSS funeral and unemployment benefits, among others, may be coursed through the member’s PayMaya account. Soon, members may also receive their calamity, salary, and other loan proceeds via PayMaya. “SSS has been one of the leading government agencies aggressively

implementing digitalization of their services, and we’re glad to enable them with our end-to-end digital platforms so that their members can conveniently and safely transact with them wherever they are,” PayMaya CEO Orlando B. Vea said. Aurora Cruz-Ignacio, president of SSS, said this is part of her group’s efforts to migrate to a “checkless” disbursement process and completely electronic way to distribute funds and other proceeds to their members. She added that this is in response to the growing need to go digital and practice physical distancing given the current public health situation. Lorenz S. Marasigan

Companies BusinessMirror

Friday, July 24, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

July 23, 2020

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FIRST ABACUS FERRONOUX HLDG MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

45 92 69.45 19.94 7.31 35.85 8.1 19.92 47.05 16.6 97.5 52.1 0.69 20.3 0.45 2.33 0.275 0.59 158 1751

45.4 92.7 69.5 20 7.32 36.05 8.98 20 47.95 16.7 100 52.9 0.81 20.6 0.5 2.47 0.28 0.6 160 1790

44.85 92.5 69.7 20.05 7.32 35.7 8.14 20.05 47.1 17.1 99 52.5 0.77 20.6 0.48 2.42 0.27 0.61 158 1750

45.4 92.9 70.45 20.05 7.38 36.05 8.14 20.1 47.1 17.1 100 53 0.82 20.9 0.5 2.47 0.28 0.61 160 1750

44.85 90.5 69.2 19.9 7.25 35.3 8 19.82 47.05 16.7 96.5 52.1 0.76 20 0.48 2.4 0.27 0.6 158 1750

45.4 92 69.45 20 7.32 36.05 8 20 47.05 16.7 100 52.9 0.82 20.6 0.5 2.47 0.275 0.6 160 1750

30700 2094950 1712700 89100 342400 2509900 46800 1061900 1300 129700 585580 11440 139000 91800 60000 93000 720000 3000 210 505

1387245 192463365 118947052 1782886 2491349 89486710 374428 21174325 61185 2173646 57245722 601843 107350 1868860 29600 223990 195550 1810 33400 883750

681000 31620161 -12672767 -219776 874940 8395480 -14014 -22812787 149527 -1320840 875000

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 2.23 2.24 2.33 2.33 2.19 2.24 8584000 19194530 ALSONS CONS 1.16 1.18 1.2 1.2 1.14 1.17 179000 207080 26.45 26.5 26.8 26.8 25.85 26.5 330700 8755915 ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY 0.152 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 40000 6400 23.9 23.95 23.6 23.9 23.45 23.9 523500 12403905 FIRST GEN 59 59.5 60 61 58.5 59 96710 5713605 FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO 258.2 259 261.2 261.8 258.2 258.2 195870 50871020 12.94 12.96 13.36 13.36 12.8 12.94 2686300 34775338 MANILA WATER PETRON 3.1 3.11 3.1 3.11 3.1 3.11 2280000 7070630 PETROENERGY 3.4 3.41 3.42 3.42 3.3 3.4 95000 321010 11.16 11.38 11.2 11.38 11.08 11.38 61500 698210 PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL 17.98 18 18.28 18.28 17.98 18 508900 9167560 7.9 7.95 8.01 8.05 7.9 7.95 380400 3018755 SPC POWER 7.75 7.87 9 9.73 7.4 7.75 2873700 24007370 AGRINURTURE AXELUM 2.12 2.15 2.24 2.24 2.02 2.15 3005000 6367470 11.02 11.48 11.12 11.12 11.02 11.02 1300 14396 CNTRL AZUCARERA CENTURY FOOD 14.48 14.5 14.68 14.68 14.5 14.5 1992000 28890810 DEL MONTE 4.02 4.15 4.1 4.1 4 4 13000 53100 4.73 4.75 4.84 4.85 4.73 4.73 856000 4057730 DNL INDUS EMPERADOR 9.09 9.1 9.16 9.25 9 9.1 3807300 34640189 64 64.45 63.7 65 63.6 64 266000 17041501 SMC FOODANDBEV 0.63 0.64 0.62 0.64 0.59 0.64 1739000 1099920 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.19 1.2 1.2 1.25 1.17 1.2 12792000 15557830 31.3 31.95 30.55 31.3 30.4 31.3 6700 204755 GINEBRA JOLLIBEE 126.6 126.8 130 130 125 126.6 1364330 172593360 6.32 7.08 7.09 7.09 7.06 7.06 1300 9187 MACAY HLDG MAXS GROUP 4.9 4.92 5.05 5.05 4.9 4.9 516500 2546881 MG HLDG 0.124 0.134 0.125 0.134 0.123 0.134 1070000 132620 6 6.02 6.14 6.14 6 6 886300 5341569 SHAKEYS PIZZA ROXAS AND CO 1.23 1.26 1.29 1.29 1.22 1.25 7180000 8918820 RFM CORP 4.08 4.16 4.03 4.03 4.03 4.03 4000 16120 1.47 1.52 1.52 1.53 1.48 1.48 20000 30250 ROXAS HLDG SWIFT FOODS 0.105 0.107 0.11 0.11 0.107 0.107 40000 4370 119.7 120.2 122.1 122.2 118.5 119.7 2190270 261687473 UNIV ROBINA 0.81 0.82 0.82 0.83 0.8 0.82 5459000 4440180 VITARICH CONCRETE A 53 55.55 54.2 55.6 52.2 53 4040 218178 0.9 0.92 0.94 0.94 0.9 0.9 11114000 10082170 CEMEX HLDG EAGLE CEMENT 9.8 9.81 9.97 9.97 9.01 9.8 451400 4387966 EEI CORP 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.01 5.07 393300 1980663 4.95 4.96 5.32 5.45 4.9 4.96 4432800 22115232 HOLCIM MEGAWIDE 7 7.07 7.19 7.26 6.7 7 6422500 44684668 0.67 0.68 0.68 0.68 0.68 0.68 54000 36720 TKC METALS VULCAN INDL 0.78 0.8 0.8 0.82 0.79 0.8 619000 493220 CROWN ASIA 1.9 1.96 1.96 1.96 1.96 1.96 25000 49000 1.78 1.83 1.94 1.95 1.75 1.83 629000 1140630 EUROMED MABUHAY VINYL 3.8 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.8 3.9 3000 11600 PRYCE CORP 4.04 4.1 4.23 4.23 4.02 4.05 2554000 10703680 18.5 19.16 18.74 18.74 18.5 18.5 1400 26056 CONCEPCION GREENERGY 1.75 1.76 1.8 1.84 1.73 1.76 11396000 20128100 4.85 4.9 5.04 5.04 4.8 4.85 351300 1718495 INTEGRATED MICR IONICS 0.96 0.98 0.98 1 0.96 0.96 261000 251020 PANASONIC 4.61 4.83 4.72 5.48 4.36 4.88 36000 174770 1.29 1.3 1.26 1.32 1.22 1.3 2718000 3472950 SFA SEMICON CIRTEK HLDG 5.78 5.8 6.26 6.27 5.71 5.8 3138100 18472942

3015060 -5920 -3711150 3541970 -4962432 -28044360 -738530 -1113340 -726574 -2134131 42295 -3122640 -26051518 -36700 -2407490 -11862358 8045777 -6300 -462510 2900 -35049669 -204995 1496983 5606580 -3300 -92064050 -59940 193580 -79637 -1630814 2787190 -39200 9000 -0 -539720 791158.0002 -2800 91451

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.465 0.47 0.465 0.475 0.465 0.465 2720000 1268000 -98050 ASIABEST GROUP 7.68 7.93 8.24 8.39 7.65 7.91 13600 109480 748 750 748 755 731 750 90100 67085675 5379440 AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY 49.4 49.45 49.85 49.85 48.05 49.45 493600 24323030 18810 5.82 5.83 5.95 5.95 5.75 5.82 5566800 32455572 -10825410 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 1.61 1.62 1.66 1.66 1.61 1.61 465000 751090 -110160 AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR 6.06 6.24 6.24 6.24 6.24 6.24 200 1248 0.47 0.495 0.51 0.51 0.46 0.465 140000 65740 4140 ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A 0.58 0.59 0.6 0.61 0.58 0.58 6227000 3667170 ATN HLDG B 0.57 0.62 0.65 0.65 0.6 0.62 546000 344840 185200 5.08 5.09 5.17 5.17 5.03 5.08 3919100 19920854 2045249 COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG 3.48 3.49 3.7 3.7 3.42 3.49 11852000 41539070 -13102990 8.22 9.11 8.11 9 8.11 9 36100 323195 -15300 FILINVEST DEV 438 438.2 441.8 441.8 434.8 438 138060 60399386 29049616 GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV 3.28 3.29 3.3 3.3 3.29 3.29 22000 72390 -72390 65.95 66 66.4 66.6 65.4 66 1290780 85,075,282.5( 29,139,029.0003) JG SUMMIT LODESTAR 0.58 0.59 0.61 0.62 0.58 0.59 2125000 1257930 LOPEZ HLDG 2.41 2.44 2.45 2.45 2.41 2.41 2165000 5239420 -400510 7.41 7.69 7.99 7.99 7.4 7.41 2073600 15728082 -2491462 LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG 0.415 0.49 0.55 0.55 0.5 0.5 30000 15700 -5200 1.68 2.22 1.71 1.71 1.68 1.68 34000 57840 MJC INVESTMENTS METRO PAC INV 3.19 3.21 3.32 3.35 3.14 3.19 29905000 95681610 -42431480 PACIFICA HLDG 2.92 3.07 2.91 3.07 2.89 3.07 12000 35080 0.74 0.78 0.77 0.79 0.72 0.78 364000 270230 770 PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP 1 1.03 1.03 1.03 1 1 48000 49120 SM INVESTMENTS 900 905 916.5 925 875.5 900 419490 376141205 -156923315 98.2 98.5 99.85 99.85 97.85 98.2 246480 24230689 6565579.5 SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES 0.66 0.68 0.67 0.68 0.66 0.68 43000 28530 0.198 0.199 0.198 0.198 0.19 0.198 1240000 245360 WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG 0.14 0.149 0.15 0.15 0.14 0.14 180000 26000 PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.53 0.5 0.51 4774000 2435160 -3470 AYALA LAND 33.1 33.8 33.05 33.8 31.8 33.8 6315000 207,030,135( 21,940,735.0002) 0.99 1.02 1 1.02 0.99 1.02 45000 44860 ARANETA PROP BELLE CORP 1.35 1.37 1.36 1.37 1.35 1.35 2566000 3489480 -78590 0.72 0.73 0.75 0.75 0.73 0.73 510000 374460 21060 A BROWN 0.75 0.77 0.75 0.75 0.74 0.75 66000 49020 CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES 0.119 0.12 0.122 0.122 0.118 0.119 7790000 932320 5.92 6.09 5.8 6.1 5.8 6.1 500 2960 -1220 CEBU HLDG CEB LANDMASTERS 4.87 4.9 4.94 4.95 4.85 4.9 1234000 6034960 -1348160 CENTURY PROP 0.36 0.37 0.365 0.375 0.35 0.365 7130000 2605200 16.12 16.5 16.32 16.5 16.1 16.5 285800 4676592 -683416 DOUBLEDRAGON DM WENCESLAO 6.08 6.1 6.25 6.25 6.1 6.1 2471500 15098584 1349940 0.25 0.255 0.27 0.275 0.247 0.25 2930000 742110 15000 EMPIRE EAST 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.97 0.95 0.96 11934000 11439850 1879310 FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE 0.79 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.79 0.79 1514000 1209010 8.76 8.9 8.76 8.9 8.76 8.9 6000 53330 -48950 8990 HLDG PHIL INFRADEV 0.83 0.84 0.85 0.86 0.83 0.83 1132000 951270 -168000 KEPPEL PROP 2.7 3.1 3.12 3.12 3.1 3.1 33000 102750 0.71 0.75 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.71 3000 2130 CITY AND LAND MEGAWORLD 3.13 3.14 3.19 3.2 3 3.14 23094000 71666350 -15200540 0.186 0.188 0.19 0.19 0.177 0.188 23320000 4241250 -59870 MRC ALLIED 0.29 0.32 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29 970000 281300 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 1.32 1.38 1.39 1.39 1.39 1.39 500000 695000 15.9 15.94 15.94 15.94 15.52 15.9 910100 14395466 -4624064 ROBINSONS LAND PHIL REALTY 0.231 0.247 0.242 0.249 0.23 0.249 640000 150480 ROCKWELL 1.55 1.57 1.58 1.58 1.55 1.55 30000 46590 2.65 2.71 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.65 6000 15900 SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND 1.81 1.85 1.81 1.81 1.8 1.8 2000 3610 30.5 30.55 31.15 31.15 29.95 30.5 9664200 293003870 -36204225 SM PRIME HLDG VISTAMALLS 3.64 3.72 3.86 3.86 3.61 3.64 174000 644350 SUNTRUST HOME 1.18 1.19 1.19 1.19 1.13 1.18 1038000 1199890 -2380 3.55 3.58 3.65 3.65 3.51 3.58 875000 3114190 440520 VISTA LAND SERVICES ABS CBN - 10.36 10.36 10.36 10.36 10.36 1849000 19155640 GMA NETWORK 5.55 5.56 5.81 5.85 5.51 5.55 2263700 12637913 0.385 0.39 0.395 0.395 0.385 0.39 1480000 572750 MANILA BULLETIN MLA BRDCASTING 12.02 12.04 12.8 12.8 12.04 12.04 13300 160444 2106 2116 2120 2120 2030 2116 47400 99479840 GLOBE TELECOM 1330 1332 1345 1349 1300 1330 102875 136496900 PLDT APOLLO GLOBAL 0.049 0.05 0.051 0.051 0.049 0.05 6260000 308740 3.2 3.26 3.9 4.28 3.01 3.26 1746000 6613360 DFNN INC DITO CME HLDG 2.69 2.7 2.85 2.9 2.61 2.7 55130000 150124370 IMPERIAL 1.31 1.38 1.38 1.38 1.38 1.38 60000 82800 0.07 0.072 0.071 0.072 0.069 0.072 2800000 196040 ISLAND INFO JACKSTONES 1.62 1.67 1.8 1.8 1.58 1.62 317000 534010 1.96 1.97 2.05 2.07 1.85 1.96 9205000 17953020 NOW CORP 0.176 0.177 0.182 0.182 0.175 0.176 5340000 943340 TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 1.88 1.89 2.03 2.07 1.85 1.88 1139000 2176730 9.03 9.04 9.08 9.37 9 9.03 36000 325244 2GO GROUP ASIAN TERMINALS 15.32 16.72 16.74 16.74 16.72 16.72 289700 4849566 CHELSEA 3.38 3.45 3.65 3.65 3.2 3.45 1450000 4914720 38.6 38.7 40.45 40.45 38 38.6 152600 5849830 CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER 98 98.1 98.2 98.5 93 98 1920890 184341376.5 12.2 13.14 13.1 13.16 13.1 13.14 2900 38146 LBC EXPRESS MACROASIA 5.11 5.12 5.3 5.3 5 5.12 6142300 31428246 METROALLIANCE A 1.69 1.7 1.79 1.79 1.61 1.7 1096000 1807400 6.12 6.2 6.3 6.3 6.1 6.11 12700 79043 PAL HLDG HARBOR STAR 0.78 0.79 0.81 0.81 0.78 0.78 309000 243030 1.18 1.3 1.18 1.18 1.18 1.18 2000 2360 ACESITE HOTEL BOULEVARD HLDG 0.026 0.027 0.029 0.03 0.026 0.026 78900000 2162400 WATERFRONT 0.375 0.38 0.375 0.375 0.37 0.375 1400000 520250 565 679.5 600 600 600 600 10 6000 FAR EASTERN U STI HLDG 0.295 0.3 0.305 0.305 0.295 0.295 7330000 2181550 BERJAYA 2.16 2.2 2.19 2.24 2.13 2.2 193000 425170 6.99 7 7.1 7.1 6.93 7 5653700 39668479 BLOOMBERRY PACIFIC ONLINE 2.12 2.13 2.05 2.22 2.02 2.13 309000 656530 1.24 1.27 1.27 1.28 1.24 1.24 806000 1015260 LEISURE AND RES 2.22 2.44 2.22 2.22 2.22 2.22 50000 111000 MANILA JOCKEY PH RESORTS GRP 2.2 2.36 2.41 2.59 2.18 2.36 242000 600500 0.3 0.305 0.31 0.315 0.3 0.305 10900000 3309100 PREMIUM LEISURE ALLHOME 6.9 7 7.05 7.05 6.7 7 1269700 8694132 METRO RETAIL 1.45 1.46 1.53 1.53 1.4 1.45 1598000 2293290 47.7 48 47.8 48.05 46.9 48 1019400 48397020 PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL 61.6 61.65 62.1 62.6 61.5 61.65 968140 59864013.5 126.5 127 127 127 126.5 126.5 400 50700 PHIL SEVEN CORP 1.1 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.09 1.12 2843000 3147850 SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT 15.22 15.24 15.44 15.44 15.1 15.24 1268300 19375320 0.32 0.33 0.315 0.335 0.31 0.33 1360000 429750 APC GROUP EASYCALL 6.41 6.6 6.71 6.8 6.4 6.6 132900 865148 GOLDEN BRIA 288.4 299.8 299.8 300 280.4 300 270 79592 4.2 4.97 5.3 5.3 3.75 4.2 13900 55683 IPM HLDG PRMIERE HORIZON 0.209 0.21 0.219 0.219 0.208 0.21 6850000 1457160 4.51 4.89 4.51 4.52 4.51 4.51 21000 94750 SBS PHIL CORP

-24514620 -12641850 40630 1497820 375950 7600 230870 -554850 -104993441.5 -4815958 7943 150100 -28953465 -128000 3000 3570201 2880 -18350210 -22686752.5 41810 -469730 -284696 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 7.73 8 8.15 8.15 7.73 8 28000 227657 1.46 1.47 1.46 1.51 1.38 1.46 29600000 43018620 -168720 APEX MINING ABRA MINING 0.0008 0.0009 0.0009 0.0009 0.0007 0.0009 529000000 427100 2.53 2.56 2.69 2.69 2.51 2.53 994000 2547900 -129500 ATLAS MINING 1.83 1.89 1.9 1.98 1.81 1.89 199000 379130 BENGUET A BENGUET B 1.81 1.91 1.93 1.93 1.8 1.92 69000 131790 -3860 0.203 0.209 0.196 0.217 0.196 0.203 3540000 729510 24120 COAL ASIA HLDG CENTURY PEAK 2.64 2.69 2.69 2.69 2.69 2.69 33000 88770 DIZON MINES 7.37 7.5 7.38 7.51 7.27 7.5 182800 1337405 1.01 1.03 1.04 1.05 0.97 1.01 12074000 12079080 210490 FERRONICKEL GEOGRACE 0.222 0.226 0.228 0.228 0.223 0.225 160000 35870 0.121 0.124 0.125 0.129 0.117 0.124 34210000 4202080 LEPANTO A LEPANTO B 0.121 0.125 0.124 0.128 0.12 0.121 19380000 2384120 -691390 MANILA MINING A 0.0088 0.0089 0.009 0.0094 0.0086 0.0089 71000000 644700 0.0087 0.0094 0.0087 0.0087 0.0087 0.0087 7000000 60900 MANILA MINING B MARCVENTURES 0.78 0.79 0.71 0.79 0.7 0.79 4220000 3152050 NIHAO 1.31 1.33 1.34 1.34 1.27 1.33 1391000 1782650 -9100 2.13 2.15 2.2 2.2 2.06 2.15 20517000 43694220 1018960 NICKEL ASIA OMICO CORP 0.38 0.42 0.4 0.4 0.39 0.4 130000 51000 0.59 0.6 0.57 0.61 0.52 0.6 4213000 2379230 ORNTL PENINSULA PX MINING 2.98 2.99 2.97 3.09 2.92 2.99 21403000 64359890 -14181060 SEMIRARA MINING 9.45 9.46 9.51 9.84 9.41 9.46 7608400 73198458 7690786 0.005 0.0051 0.005 0.0055 0.0048 0.005 213000000 1088300 UNITED PARAGON ACE ENEXOR 5.8 5.95 5.81 5.88 5.8 5.88 11700 67921 1176 ORNTL PETROL A 0.0082 0.0084 0.0083 0.0085 0.0082 0.0085 26000000 213800 0.0078 0.008 0.0078 0.0079 0.0078 0.0079 21000000 165800 PHILODRILL PXP ENERGY 5.75 5.77 6 6 5.69 5.77 1414300 8189824 495536 PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 100.3 102 102 102 102 102 6890 702780 AC PREF B1 505 519 519 519 515 515 1100 566900 512 525 512 518 512 518 810 418980 AC PREF B2R DD PREF 101.2 102 101.2 101.2 101 101 10790 1089890 106.2 108 107.9 108 107.9 108 24520 2648060 FGEN PREF G GLO PREF P 510 518.5 520 520 520 520 400 208000 MWIDE PREF 101 101.5 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4 300 30420 1015 1025 1015 1015 1015 1015 295 299425 PNX PREF 4 PCOR PREF 3A 1050 1055 1055 1059 1050 1050 7350 7771410 PCOR PREF 3B 1099 1100 1100 1100 1100 1100 140 154000 78.3 78.55 78.2 78.5 78.2 78.5 113800 8931200 SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2D 75.3 75.55 75.5 75.5 75.3 75.3 6800 513040 75.5 77 76.2 76.2 75.5 75.5 1000 75850 SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2H 76.9 77.1 76.8 76.8 76.8 76.8 21400 1643520 PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR - 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 30400 276640 -64610 GMA HLDG PDR 5.35 5.4 5.41 5.41 5.35 5.35 60600 326598 -33957 WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.65 0.69 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.65 19000 12350 9100 SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 13.72 13.9 15.4 15.4 13.72 13.72 910700 12938870 -415494 ITALPINAS 1.72 1.73 1.79 1.81 1.6 1.72 4439000 7534440 123900 5.55 5.6 6.09 6.09 5 5.6 113500 620196 KEPWEALTH MERRYMART 2.18 2.19 2.35 2.36 2.1 2.19 42309000 93882720 537940 0.56 0.57 0.57 0.57 0.56 0.57 1837000 1037020 144100 XURPAS EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF 91.05 92.6 92.6 92.6 90.25 91.05 25760 2348446 403210

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ACR ‘cautiously optimistic’ on performance this year By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

lcantara-led Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) is optimistic that its business will perform better this year, mainly due to the full operation of its coal power plant, which has been the company’s key revenue and income driver since last year. “For the rest of the year, we are cautiously optimistic on the financial performance of the company,” said ACR Deputy Chief Finance Officer Philip Edward Sagun during the company’s virtual annual stockholders’ meeting. In particular, he said the company expects higher revenues and profit margins from the full operations of Sarangani Energy Corporation Unit 2 (SEC2). Last year, ACR’s 210 MW Sarangani Energy Corp.’s (SEC) baseload coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani began operating at full capacity when the plant’s second 105 MW section came online. SEC currently provides power to key areas in Mindanao includ-

ing Sarangani Province, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, Samal, Tagum, Kidapawan, and Butuan. The $570-million SEC plant is the single largest investment in Sarangani Province and the entire Region 12. Apart from this, Sagun said the company continues to realize incremental revenues from ancillary services. “We will also reap the benefits of lower operating costs, as we maintain cost-efficiency measures. We have initiated to become more competitive and further improve profit margins,” he added. In 2019, ACR posted a consolidated full-year net income of P938

million, from P563 million in 2018. ACR’s 2019 net earnings attributable to the parent rose to P148 million, from P94 million in 2018. Full-year revenues for 2019 were at P6.8 billion, from P6.66 billion the previous year. For 2020, ACR reported revenues of P2.21 billion in the first quarter, from P1.22 billion in the same period last year. Net earnings in the first quarter rose to P310 million, from P104 million in the same period in 2019. The company’s net earnings attributable to the parent also climbed to P55 million, from P6 million in the first quarter of 2019. The company’s various power projects remain on-track to begin commercial operations as scheduled due to the quick recovery of Mindanao from the Covid-19 pandemic. ACR’S projects in the pipeline are the P4.5-billion 14.5 MW Siguil Hydro run of river hydroelectric power plant in Maasim, Sarangani Province and the 105 MW San Ramon Power Inc. (SRPI) baseload coal-fired power plant in Zamboanga City. Construction for the Siguil Hydro plant—ACR’s first foray into renewable energy—is currently in fullswing and the plant will be ready to start operating in 2022 as scheduled to provide power to Sarangani Province, General Santos City and key municipalities of South Cotabato.

The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the SRPI plant will be signed within the third quarter with construction expected to begin in early 2021. The P16-billion SRPI plant is slated to start operating in 2023 as scheduled to deliver baseload power to Zamboanga City and nearby areas. For the long-term, the company will focus on renewables with seven more of run of fiver hydroelectric plants in various stages of development. The next two hydro facilities in the pipeline are the 22MW Siayan hydro plant in Zamboanga del Norte and the 42MW Bago hydro plant in Negros Occidental. Despite the pandemic, ACR Executive Vice President Tirso G. Santillan Jr. said the power plants continue to provide power to its customers serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces in Mindanao. The company, which is Mindanao’s first private-sector power generator, has a portfolio of four power facilities with an aggregate capacity of 468 MW. Apart from power generation, ACR is also engaged in property development. The company is in partnership with Ayala Land Inc. in the development of Azuela Cove, a 26-hectare mixed-use township project in Davao City.

Villar Group launches own telco unit By VG Cabuag @villygc

he Villar Group has launched its own telecommunications company through Prime Asset Ventures Inc. (PAVI), a company led by Manuel Paolo A. Villar, as it takes over the operations of an existing player. In a statement, the Villar’s telco—named Streamtech Systems Technologies Inc.—will take over the internet systems operations of Planet Cable Inc., a multi-system operator offering cable TV services, cable internet and digital video broadcast. Planet Cable’s operations in Luzon in Regions 1, 3, Metro Manila and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Iloilo and Davao will soon be under Streamtech, the company said. Paolo Villar is the son of former politician now businessman Manuel B. Villar Jr. “We have high hopes of providing internet services to the farthest reach possible, also in line with our commitment to provide high quality services to Filipinos across the country. We are very confident that we can greatly boost the internet experience of our existing and future customers,” Villar, the founder of PAVI, said. Streamtech initially offers services, such as fixed broadband for residential and small and medium enterprises, direct internet access and

connectivity for enterprises. Some of its major clients include mostly the Villar-owned firms, such as Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc., which operates housing brands Brittany, Crown Asia, Camella Homes, Communities Philippines, and Vista Residences; and essential-services brands Prime Water, S.I. Power Corp., Kratos RES, E-Prime Business Solutions and Crystal Clear. The company said the new telco has established strong peering with tier 1 global internet upstream providers, especially those in the Asia-Pacific and United States routes. Having its international point of presence has allowed Streamtech to expand capacity to multiple gigabit connectivity, it said. “Localized content and peering add to its network strength, making it easier to deliver good connections using a fully meshed metro ethernet supporting fiber reach. Moreover, it has secured a direct partnership with one of the leading international telco equipment manufacturers, with the latter being the technology partner for its network equipment as well as its fiber to the home access technology,” Streamtech said. The company said it will provide valueadded products and services to its clients, such as the Digiclass e-learning bundles, ZPacks vlogging and gaming bundles and Extendifi wifi extenders.

AC Energy, Axia Power ink deal for Rizal plant

C Energy Philippines Inc. (ACEPH) signed a shareholders’ deal that paves the way for the development of a 150-megawatt (MW) diesel power plant in Pililla, Rizal. ACEPH and its wholly-owned subsidiary, ACE Endevor Inc. (Endevor), signed a shareholders’ agreement with Axia Power Holdings Philippines Corp. (Axia), a subsidiary of Marubeni Corporation, for the development, construction and operation of a diesel power plant, otherwise known as the Ingrid Project. Undertheagreement,Axiawillacquire50percent of the shares and 50 percent of the economic rights in ACEPH subsidiary Ingrid Power Holdings Inc. (Ingrid), the special purpose vehicle of the Ingrid Project. ACEPHwillhold50percentofsharesand45percent of the economic rights, with Endevor having a 5-percent share of the economic rights in the Ingrid Project. The plant, which will supply peaking and reserve power to the Luzon grid, is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2021.

Ingrid and Endevor were acquired by ACEPH in exchange for ACEPH shares. As of January this year, ACEPH has infused P570 million into Ingrid to fund the project. The joint venture is subject to the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission. ACEnergypresidentEricFranciahadsaidit“makes sense” to put up a diesel plant to cater to ancillary servicestoaugmentrenewableenergy(RE)technologies. He said diesel-run power plants are used to provide ancillary services, such as backup power, load following, system frequency, and voltage regulation. These are akin to standby power plants if say, a wind power facility does not provide too much wind or if it rains in an area where a solar power farm is located. “We believe the country will need more peaking and reserve ancillary capacity especially in world where you need RE. This is in line with thinking if RPS [Renewable Portfolio Standards] succeeds then you will need ancillary for that,” Francia said. Lenie Lectura

mutual funds

July 23, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 199.1 -27.33% -10.12% -5.76% -20.94% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0255 -38.79% -13.86% -6.53% -25.8% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.6798 -36.76% -14.85% -8.28% -27.14% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6815 -31.24% n.a. n.a. -24.11% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6591 -27.26% n.a. n.a. -22.39% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.2728 -24.41% -8.82% -5.55% -19.81% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6731 -26.1% -11.42% n.a. -21.15% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 80.19 -34.46% n.a. n.a. -22.31% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 40.0069 -26.37% -8.6% -4.8% -21.99% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 428.95 -24.17% -7.92% -5.04% -19.49% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8746 n.a. n.a. n.a. -15.1% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0123 -26.4% -8.39% -4.67% -21.34% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 29.8 -26.08% -7.9% -4.38% -21.37% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7901 -27.31% n.a. n.a. -22.39% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.0756 -26.09% -8.05% -4.18% -21.98% 682.35 -25.9% -8.02% -4.37% -21.75% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6162 -35.82% -12.12% -8.45% -27.63% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.1516 -30.03% -9.54% -5.57% -25.12% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7824 -26.04% -8.2% -4.35% -21.82% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.8544 -25.95% -7.06% -3.91% -21.87% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 91.6049 -25.69% -7.54% -3.55% -21.67% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b $1.0408 4.51% 0.46% 0.87% 1.21% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.4677 10.95% 7.4% n.a. 6.46% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5651 -12.9% -4.17% -3.63% 0.15% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0588 -13.19% -4.64% -2.11% -5.61% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.4143 -11.37% -3.17% -3.3% -8.25% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1853 n.a. n.a. n.a. -18.91% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.842 -6.79% -1.19% -0.56% -6.1% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4966 -8.91% -2.3% -1.68% -7.72% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.5719 -9.76% -2.61% -1.87% -8.19% 1.9204 -12.72% -3.72% -1.68% -9.5% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.281 -17.79% -4.79% -3.05% -15.08% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9455 -9.54% n.a. n.a. -6.91% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8461 -19.26% n.a. n.a. -15.08% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8207 -21.43% n.a. n.a. -17.37% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8081 -21.17% -5.83% -4.28% -17.1% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03905 4.08% 2.89% 1.95% 2.23% 0.99% 1.26% 1.7% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $1.0292 2.32% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.0459 6.45% 5.19% 4.15% 3.46% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1455 3.15% 2.76% n.a. 1.49% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 367.19 4.46% 3.2% 2.6% 2.58% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9452 2.2% 1.04% -0.05% 2.27% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.196 4.42% 5.07% 5.07% 2.5% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.3047 4.84% 3.13% 2.37% 3.66% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.452 5.53% 3.46% 1.99% 3.94% 10.98% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.6604 4.55% 2.77% 6.57% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.3026 6.72% 4.22% 2.32% 3.65% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9645 7.55% 4.4% 2.32% 4.65% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0388 10.28% 3.85% 1.92% 7.73% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.18 6.56% 4.88% 2.93% 3.39% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7456 5.38% 4.22% 2.36% 2.62% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $476.31 3.55% 2.55% 2.77% 1.7% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є216.23 -1.02% 0.74% 1.04% -1.62% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.234 4.04% 3.1% 2.74% 2.22% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0263 2.33% 1.84% 1.51% 1.94% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0809 -0.61% 0.11% 0.5% -1.16% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4852 5.56% 3.66% 3.33% 3.4% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0608708 2.51% 2.06% 1.89% 0.95% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2252 4.4% 2.24% 2.65% 1.57% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 128.5 3.7% 3.26% 2.46% 2.12% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0427 2.56% n.a. n.a. 1.6% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2851 3% 3.04% 2.59% 1.59% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0461 1.62% n.a. n.a. 0.75% Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.021 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.95 n.a. n.a. n.a. -4.04% a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU). 1 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 2 - Launch date is November 15, 2019. 3 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019. 4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019. 6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund). 7 - Launch date is July 6, 2020. "While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to the correctness of the newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www.

pifa.com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

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Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

BDO Leasing sells assets for additional liquidity

DO Leasing and Finance Inc. reported the sale of its loan receivables and investments in securities for additional liquidity. In a disclosure on Thursday, the listed bank said that it complied with its Material Related Party Transaction Reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “including the sale of its receivables in the ordinary course of business and sale of investments in securities.” BDO Leasing said that the cash proceeds from the transaction will be used to fund borrowings and settle existing liabilities. “The company’s sale of the abovementioned assets is geared at improving its net interest margins and addressing liquidity gaps,” the bank added. BDO Leasing booked in the first half of the year net earnings amounting to P81 million, a turnaround from P29-million loss last year for the same period. The lender said that

the boost in profits was supported by its measures addressing margin compression. Gross revenues reached P1.3 billion in the first semester as lease and loan receivables slipped by 23 percent. Total expenses plunged by 25 percent to P1.2 billion due to lower borrowings and interest and financing charges, which slid 53 percent on the back of eased policy rates. This week, the bank reported its stockholders approved the amendment of the company’s corporate name to United Platinum Holdings Corp. as it seeks to change the nature of business to a holding firm from leasing and financing. Its parent firm BDO Unibank Inc. said in January it entered into an agreement to sell a controlling stake in BDO Leasing to a third party as the former restructures its leasing business. It is yet to be approved by regulatory authorities. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Association governance before, during, and after Covid-19

t’s been a while since I’ve written on association governance, the other half of PCAAE’s advocacy, which is association management. The last was on April 16, 2020, on “Association Leadership in a Pandemic,” which chronicled what the Board and management of associations around the world have done to help members and the communities they serve meet the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. So when good friend John Peacock, CEO of Associations Forum and one of Australia’s most experienced advisors to associations and charities, volunteered to speak on association governance in our monthly webinar, I immediately grabbed the opportunity, with the aim to write about it as well. “Is there a change in the way associations are governed during Covid-19, prior or perhaps even after it?” This was the question posed by John to the attendees at the opening of the webinar. The short answer was, “no, governance principles have been there and will still be there regardless of the pandemic.” This was, of course, premised on good governance essentials and the role of the Board in this regard. So what are these association governance essentials? First is the Board’s faithful adherence to its fiduciary responsibility. A British law defines a “fiduciary” as “someone who has undertaken to act for and on behalf of another in a particular matter in circumstances, which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence.” Since the Board is elected by association members, it represents them and is trusted by them. As such, the Board must act honestly, in good faith and to the best of their ability in the interest of the association. Second is the Board’s knowledge of the content and spirit of the association’s constitution—the articles of incorporation and its bylaws. It is of critical importance that the Board reads and understands the provisions of the constitution. Other key documents to know are the statement of purpose, strategic plan, budget, list of Board members and office

Association World Octavio Peralta bearers, staff organizational chart, annual report, audited financial report and minutes of Board meetings, committee meetings, and general meetings. Third is the Board’s capacity to transform itself from a management posture to a real governance role by its ability to raise funds and generate enough revenues to hire an association professional, e.g., a CEO who will manage the day-to-day operations of the organization and execute the plans and aspirations of the Board. This governance leadership team of the Board and a CEO-led management staff is an ideal setup for an association wanting continuity of mission and financial sustainability. As a concluding message, John gave the following advice: n Set governance practices before problems occur. n Work under the most suitable legislation. n Keep constitutions relevant, clear and current. n Have a plan that is updated, as needed. n Understand the difference between governance and management. n Develop best practice processes for induction, training, plans, agenda and minutes. n Be vigilant and manage risk. By doing so the association can achieve to deliver its mission and help its members. The column contributor, Octavio “Bobby” Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific and the Founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives. PCAAE is holding the Associations Summit 8 on November 25 and 26, 2020 at the Philippine International Convention Center which is expected to draw over 200 association professionals here and abroad. The two-day event is supported by Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board, and the PICC. E-mail inquiries@adfiap.org for more details on AS8.

Friday, July 24, 2020 B3

Microfinancing loans seen to increase amid lockdown

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@Tyronepiad

icrofinance loans, which are seen to get a boost from the recent cut on reserve requirement ratio (RRR), may continue to pick up this year as many enterprises seek funding for capital requirements. The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), agricultural sector and other community-based businesses are likely to borrow to finance their investments, working capital needs and expansion plans, RCBC Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort told the BusinessMirror. “Some of the proceeds may also be used for bridge financing especially for acquisitions and other business investments/expenditures,” he said. Bridge loans are used to cover shortterm expenses until a long-term funding is secured.

The latest RRR cut is expected to encourage borrowings from the MSME sector, Ricafort added. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced this week that it reduced the RRR for thrift, rural and cooperative banks by 100 basis points (bp) effective July 31. This is seen to release P10 billion of fresh liquidity into the economy. The Central Bank earlier approved to slash the reserve requirements of universal/commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions with quasi-banking

functions by 200 bp as well. The reserve requirement is the part of the total deposit balance that banks secure in the BSP’s vaults as reserves. Reducing it means banks have more available funds for borrowings. “The move was in the right direction as BSP continues to funnel more funds to the vulnerable sectors and aid in the recovery,” ING Bank Manila Economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said. “Demand may be another issue, however, but at least monetary authorities continue to help make credit more available by allowing up to P10 billion in funds more accessible.” Mapa added that the services sector is likely to avail additional loans given that it is one of the hardest hit industries.

Further cut

Ricafort said that it was possible for BSP to further trim the reserve requirement for the thrift and rural banks to encourage more lending activities for the MSME sector, especially those not covered by the bigger banks.

The borrowings would “help alleviate any financial strains largely brought about by the Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] lockdowns/ pandemic,” he said. “The sharp decline in economic activities that may need greater support in terms of further easing of monetary policy would still warrant further cut/s in banks’ RRR, that would further increase banks’ lending activities and also further lower borrowing costs,” he added. To recall, the Monetary Board has authorized a total cut of 400 bp on banks’ RRR this year. Mapa, meanwhile, offered a different opinion, saying that the current ratio is already down to 2 percent. “BSP may want to keep that in place as a prudential measure to ensure survivability for banks in case of periods of stress withdrawals,” he explained. According to data from the BSP, the Philippine banking system provided P579.1-billion worth of loans to MSMEs last year, which is slightly higher compared to P574.8 billion in 2018.

Standard Chartered Bank donates anew to hospitals

he fight against Covid-19 is far from over as the country’s cases are projected to surge to more than 80,000 by end of July, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) said. “Collective support and action from public and private sectors are critical to help meet urgent healthcare needs and social protection in the face of increased demands and limited government resources,” the bank said in a statement. The oldest international bank in the country said it continues to donate personal protective equipment (PPE) sets to hospitals and city health offices in Luzon and Cebu City. Recently the bank, in partnership with non-profit Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), distributed to hospitals in Manila, Mandaluyong, Parañaque, Quezon City, Makati, Antipolo and Batangas. SCB Head of Corporate Af-

Photo shows Standard Chartered Bank Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing Head Mai Sangalang (second from left) together with other bank officers during the delivery of personal protective equipment sets to San Martin de Porres Charity Hospital in San Juan City. SMPCH Assistant Medical Director Araceli Luna received the bank-donated PPEs.

fairs, Brand and Marketing Mai Sangalang led in the delivery and

distribution this week. The bank officers went to San Juan Medical

Center (SJMC) and the San Martin de Porres Charity Hospital (SMPCH) last Wednesday and PPE donations were received by SJMC Medical Director Dr. Joseph M. Acosta and SMPCH Assistant Medical Director Dr. Araceli Luna. “We strongly believe that helping the government’s capacity to respond to Covid-19 will save more lives and will reinforce the country’s public health response,” Sangalang was quoted in the statement as saying. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, SCB launched a $50-million global fund aid to support immediate relief efforts and long-term economic recovery of impacted communities across the bank’s network. The bank said it was cited last month by Leathwaite, a human capital specialist based in the UK, for leading in the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recession-shocked savers rein in rates with $20T hoard

he economic shock from the coronavirus caused companies, consumers and investors to hoard cash like almost never before. Many experts expect that urge to save to stick around for the long haul. And that should create strong demand for the safest fixed-income products, a force that could lend a hand to the Federal Reserve when it comes to suppressing yields as the government ramps up its supply of bonds to pay for economic stimulus measures. Deposits at US commercial banks have surged by 18 percent this year to a record $15.6 trillion, according to Fed data. The flood of cash into money-market mutual funds has subsided, but at $4.6 trillion the total is still nearly $1 trillion larger than before the pandemic, Investment Company Institute data show. Anthony Crescenzi, a portfolio manager at Pacific Investment Management Co., is among those saying that uncertainty about the economy will keep cash accounts bloated. “The high savings rate exists in part

due to the caution that households are taking with respect to expenditures, a factor that is likely to persist for some time,” said Crescenzi. “The presence of a substantial amount of savings deposits on bank balance sheets is likely to impart downward pressure on market interest rates.” The effect won’t just be limited to money-market rates, according to Crescenzi. Since banks also hold significant investments in longer-dated assets such as Treasury notes and bonds and agency mortgage-backed securities, the deposit glut should create demand— and hence low yields—for those assets as well. Commercial banks occupy an increasingly crucial niche for fixed-income purchases. The global surge in sovereign debt to finance stimulus programs is testing even the voracious appetite of the world’s central bankers, with about $1 trillion coming to market in the months ahead that still lacks buyers. One key variable will be the personal

savings rate in the US, which shot up to 32.2 percent in April—the highest in Commerce Department records dating back to 1959—as the economic shutdown reduced or eliminated many outlets for spending. The rate slipped back to 23.2 percent in May, but many analysts and investors expect it to stay elevated above last year’s average of about 8 percent. Danielle DiMartino Booth, author of “Fed Up: An Insider’s Take on Why the Federal Reserve Is Bad for America” and founder of the Quill Intelligence research firm, likens this year to the Great Depression, a slump which was followed by an era of austerity and increased savings. While that may provide a financial cushion and a sense of security for savers, it very well could be a headwind to the rebound in the world’s largest consumer economy as a higher baseline savings rate is created. “A lot of people are going to reexamine how they view money,” said Booth. “You are going to have a marked shift upward permanently in the pro-

pensity and the desire to save, which is not something we are used to in an economy that is normally about 70 percent consumption.” The long-lasting psychological scars of this crisis mean that the savings rate should likely stabilize at about 15 percent, or double its historic average, according to Peter Yi, director of shortduration fixed income and head of credit research at Northern Trust Asset Management. Yi watched the assets in his own firm’s money-market mutual funds surge by 50 percent last quarter to $183 billion. The reluctance to spend applies to corporations as well as individuals. “Companies are really afraid of what this downturn can mean and are drawing down their bank credit lines and trying to strengthen their liquidity profile during this extremely uncertain operating environment,”said Yi.“People overall are still concerned, with some investors simply saying they need to get on the sidelines until the dust settles.”

Bloomberg News

RCBC gets Transport Deal of the Year 2020 Award for funding Skyway Stage 3

sset Publishing and Research Ltd. awarded Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) the Transport Deal of the Year Award in the Hong Kong-based media firm’s Asset Triple A Asia Infrastructure Awards 2020, for funding one of the country’s biggest infrastructure

projects, the Skyway Stage 3 project. RCBC, together with RCBC Capital as the Co-Lead Arranger along with seven other local lenders, participated in the P41.2-billion infrastructure project via corporate notes facility through Atlantic Aurum Investments Philippines Corp., the holding company, RCBC

said in a statement. The Skyway Stage 3 is approximately a 17.93-kilometer elevated roadway from Buendia Avenue in Makati City to North Luzon Expressway and will connect to the existing Skyway Stage 1 and Skyway Stage 2, interconnecting southern and northern areas of

Metro Manila. According to RCBC, the project is seen to help decongest traffic in Metro Manila and stimulate the growth of trade in industry in Luzon. The bank said the end-toend operation of Skyway Stage 3 is expected to commence by the end of this year.

I n 2019, RC BC a nd RC BC Capital also bagged a number of awards from the Asset under Asia Infrastructure Best Deals by Country category for transactions on some of the country’s major infrastructure projects. These projects include the P19billion project finance facility

for the construction of the Cebu Cordova Link Expressway; the P24.2-billion Project Finance Facility of MPCALA Holdings Inc. for the construction of the CALAx toll road project; and, the BIM Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company’s 300-megawatt Solar Energy Project in Vietnam.

Relationships BusinessMirror

Friday, July 24, 2020

A crisis of confidence

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Today’s Horoscope By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Elisabeth Moss, 38; Anna Paquin, 38; Jennifer Lopez, 51; Kristin Chenoweth, 52. Happy Birthday: Expect the unexpected, and be prepared to make decisions based on the changes taking place around you. Having alternative plans in place will ensure that you will not face compromise due to financial restructuring in your field of work or market vulnerability playing havoc with investments. Take an active role in the handling of your health, career and personal life. Your numbers are 4, 10, 18, 29, 32, 41, 47.

O let me just confess right now: I went to a restaurant a few weeks back to have a Korean barbecue meal with a couple of friends, who love not only eating but also “exchanging notes,” ahem, about people and things. It was a Saturday, and we all thought there would be less people because office workers would be staying home. We had taken advantage of the government’s policy to reopen of restaurants (at 30 percent dining capacity then, but at 50 percent capacity now) to get together amid Covid-19. A Zoom meeting just can’t provide the same level of satisfaction as physical social interactions. And with Internet connections constantly dropping, one needs to constantly reconnect and wait for everyone to get back online again—a major drawback when a hot topic is being discussed. The restaurant we dined at has been quite popular even pre-Covid-19 because of its reasonably priced cuisine, and not surprisingly it was almost full that day. Yes, we had to seat about one to two seats apart from each other at our table, but I noticed that most tables in the establishment were full. It did offer a measure of contact-less payment. No cash was exchanged, and our host paid for our meal with her credit card. But there was no taking of health history whatsoever, not even my temperature. (I am guessing this could be because the mall security itself does this already for all tenants and guests.) The same was true for the cafe we went to after lunch to have coffee and cake. No health declaration form needed to be filled up, no temperature taken, but people queued at a respectable physical distance before entering. Diners choose where to sit, and if you just happen to be at a table where the next table is occupied, a flimsy screen is used to separate your table from theirs. At our table, we consciously chose to sit diagonally from each other to keep our social distance. It was, of course, a joy to get see the ladies again despite straining our vocal cords to talk because we were seated so far apart from each other. (And I had to constantly look behind my back and around to check that no one was listening in to our conversation which could, uhmmm, incriminate us in any court of law.) We finally separated four hours later but, as is our usual, continued gabbing via private messaging. The next day, the Department of Health reported the highest single-day rise in Covid-19 infections in

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Act on facts, not assumptions. You’ll tend to take things the wrong way or exaggerate what’s happening. Pay attention to personal growth and self-improvement. Don’t try to change others. HHH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): It’s up to you to follow through. You have plenty of good ideas, but if you wait for someone to do things for you, you’ll be disappointed. Do everything in your power to present and promote what you have to offer. HHHHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Spend less time worrying about what others think or do and more time honing your skills and working toward your goals. A physical change will make someone take notice and encourage an unexpected opportunity. HH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A unique change at home or to the way you live will help you relax once the dust has settled. Don’t be afraid to shake things up a bit if the result will bring you peace of mind and happiness. HHHH

e the country. I told the ladies that...ooops! The next time we see each other might be in January. Sure, we always wear our masks everywhere we go, but with that many being infected, it was going to be extra risky to meet up again. A few days later, my ahijada who works in the building next to said mall where my gal pals and I had dined, said her building had been undergoing disinfection because there had been a number of Covid-positive cases there. What’s worse, the owners of the building, a prominent business clan, had not made any public announcements about having Covid-infected employees and their disinfection of the building. I now wonder if the disinfection included the mall because, of course, office workers in the office building often go there on their lunch breaks, for shopping, or dinner after work. The mall even had an upcoming food and produce event. But I suppose being a listed company, the owners preferred to keep things on the down low so as not to scare their shareholders away and drive down company shares. There’s no saying when Covid will leave our midst. There have been constant reports of vaccines being tested, but none have yet panned out for commercial use. Meanwhile, all our sacrifices to stay home more than four months have come to naught, as people in

power still can’t seem to effectively manage Covid’s impact. The authorities have opened the economy but have limited public transport. Worse, they choose the pandemic period to again experiment on managing traffic along Edsa. They have reopened malls but it is not yet apparent when people will actually be going back to do more than shop for groceries. I noticed even at a P390 sale price on a T-shirt at a popular Japanese-branded apparel shop, most of its branches have remained empty. Along with the health crisis, we are dealing with a crisis of confidence. Authorities have to do more to get us, the public, to start spending again to lift the economy. However, the future seems so uncertain, we can’t even trust their policies. They have so far passed an Anti-Terror Law, closed down ABS-CBN, and are now relying on chismosas to point to Covid-cases in their neighborhood. Lawmakers have yet to attend to pending bills designed to stimulate the economy. The only sensible thing authorities have said so far is for everyone to wash our hands often with soap and water, and to wear face masks or shields when leaving our homes. Then we are told to clean our mask by spraying alcohol on it or washing it with gasoline. I mean, whatever.... n

Critical survival: Gawad Urian in October 2020 Continued from B5 content of the awarding ceremonies despite the present limitations we face. Definitely, we will still have the specific reasons why a film or filmmaker wins in a particular category. We will retain the practice of a critic or two writing about the films nominated for Best Picture. Those reviews will appear in the new web site the group is launching soon. Between now and the next meeting, our thoughts about the Awards Night (or Day!) will keep us busy in the lockdown. There is a good news in these months of isolation.

A short film, Here, Here, is going to compete and have its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Locarno, as part of the Pardi di domani Competition. Locarno has been described as the summer capital of auteur cinema. Here, Here, one of the 43 films selected from more than 2,200 entries, is directed by Joanne Cesario. Quiet but thickened by tension, Here, Here consistently, if not insidiously, builds up the theme of loss on characters who speak past each other, on the absence of persons in empty chairs, in the very simple act of looking for a plant, or something that is not there. Lights are to dark spaces and we

are left to wonder what the two voices are not able to see, or what the search is all about. The waiting is broken by an old record, whose defects play lines repeated over and over, as overheard the vow of not forgetting nags those who care to listen to sweetly, bitterly surrender to some memories. All this in the muted issues of mining and degradation of surroundings. The short film is produced by Alyssa Suico, herself an up-and-coming filmmaker. The film was one of the entries to the 2019 QC International Film Festival. The festival will run from August 5 to 15, with a mix of online and physical screenings. n

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Don’t let the changes others undertake spook you into acting in haste. Time is on your side, and if you mix your Leo charm with a little finesse, you will come out on top. A physical change will fetch compliments. HHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Patience will serve you well when dealing with sensitive matters. Keep your emotions out of the workplace and away from unfamiliar people. Your best reaction is observation, consideration and evaluation. HHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Uncertainty will leave you at odds regarding what to do next. Don’t confront a situation before you have all the facts. Preparation will make it easier to avoid unnecessary anger and distress. Remain calm and be informative, and you’ll gain respect. HHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Pay it forward. What you give, you will get back twofold. How you express your thoughts will lead to an unexpected opportunity that will change your life. Don’t hold back when you have so much to offer. HHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t be fooled into thinking you are something you are not. Refuse to let someone entice you with flattery or persuade you to get involved in something questionable. Nurture relationships with people who are good influences and care about you. HH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Get the facts before voicing your opinion. If you act in haste, you will end up in an argument. If change is something you want, go about it the right way. Be upfront; make your position clear before you make a move. HHHHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Fond memories will remind you of something you used to enjoy doing. Research the possibility of incorporating something similar into your routine. A physical or creative outlet will boost your morale. It’s time to follow your heart, not someone else’s wishes. HHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Take better care of your emotional and physical wellbeing. Don’t feel you have to please everyone all the time. Taking time out to do something you enjoy is warranted. Learn from mistakes, and fuel your happiness for change. HHH Birthday Baby: You are adaptable, charismatic and disciplined. You are opportunistic and playful.

‘up and down’ by peter silzer The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Vivacious 5 One may be topped with numbers or figures 9 Celestial strings 13 Plant life 15 Has bills to pay 16 Lotion additive 17 Open house features, at times? 19 Hippie homes 20 Like holiday hires 21 Underdog’s victory 22 U-turn from WNW 23 Many a major paper 25 Fire remnant 28 NYC winter time 30 Part of NIMBY 31 “___ the season...” 34 Urban pollution (letters 1 to 2 +...) 36 America the Beautiful expanse 38 Needing to be done ASAP 40 Canine, e.g. (...2 to 5) 42 She lived in Eden (1 to 2 +...) 44 Market section 45 Barely manage 47 Last word in many books (...1 to 2)

9 Itchy cat’s woe (1 to 2 +...) 4 50 Marina del ___ 51 Do one better than 53 “You don’t say!” 55 Cash dispenser (...1 to 2) 56 Put Ajax to work 58 Dads 60 Mower’s path 63 People who make the news? 68 Dobrev or Simone 69 Like some houses, and a hint to the starred stacked answers’ indicated letters 70 Against 71 Mathematician Turing 72 Porcupine’s point 73 ___ pressure 74 Smartphone message 75 Like a snail DOWN 1 Fizzling sound 2 French fashion magazine 3 Hotel unit 4 Cliche 5 Pepsi-___ 6 Emmy or Tony

7 From Nairobi, say 8 Start to smile? 9 Upbeat Pharrell Williams hit 10 “Poor me!” 11 Took the bus 12 Exterminator’s target 14 Stood up 18 It should be free in a democracy 21 Prefix for “sound” 24 Poker pot promise 25 Star-shaped flower 26 Harmful factory output 27 Malarkey 29 ___ time (golf reservation) 31 Inventor Nikola 32 Fjord, e.g. 33 Water vapor 35 Classic Pontiac 37 Often-wide st. 39 Animated internet pic 41 Rabbit residence 43 Part of ESL: Abbr. 46 Also 48 Train terminal 52 Lavender color 54 Nobles above viscounts

6 Part of a flight 5 57 Take a break 59 What this puzzle’s central black squares resemble 60 ___, Crackle and Pop 61 Liquid that may be dry 62 Feed the kitty, in poker 64 Beer serving 65 The dark side 66 City northwest of Las Vegas 67 Large quantity 69 Opposite of 14-Down Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

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‘NEW NORMAL: THE SURVIVAL GUIDE’ LAUNCHED NOW on weeknights on GMA News TV are the network’s award-winning public affairs programs under its “New Normal: The Survival Guide” block, which was conceptualized with the “new normal” in mind. From life hacks, money tips and family bonding ideas, to inspirational stories and burning issues that need discussion, “New Normal: The Survival Guide” aims to help Filipinos navigate the new way of living. This latest GMA Public Affairs offering is bannered by six of GMA News TV’s award-winning and veteran hosts: Winnie Monsod, Kara David, Susan Enriquez, Rovilson Fernandez, Tonipet Gaba and Drew Arellano, who will feature a different aspect of coping with the new normal every night. Ushering in the week is Prof. Winnie Monsod, who hosts Newsmakers every Monday. Here she tackles the most controversial issues, discussing them with the biggest newsmakers via online video conference. “In the new normal, it is even more important that we have the proper information,” explains Prof. Winnie. “Not false information, but information which is based on data. And this is what I’m trying to do in this show. We talk to the experts, the ones who know the subjects better.” Viewers are also treated to the less serious side of Prof. Winnie where she uses technology in coping with the new normal and in exploring other things that used to be unfamiliar to senior citizens like her—including gamely trying out the TikTok craze. Meanwhile, Kara David carries on with the good vibes every Tuesday night with Bright Side, in which she shares light stories and viral content that aim to inspire and provide them more reasons to look at the brighter side of life. Helping viewers manage their finances better is Susan Enriquez in Pera Paraan, airing every Wednesday night. The show offers practical tips on handling household finances, earning additional income, and succeeding in a work-fromhome environment. The show also features small businesses that successfully pivoted after enhanced community quarantine began. Susan herself is thrifty and practical when it comes to money matters. Every Thursday, Tonipet Gaba and Rovilson Fernandez join forces in Home Work to give viewers life hacks in the time of “new normal.” Young people and gimikeros who are home 24/7 for the first time in their lives will be able to relate to Home Work where Tonipet and Rovilson dish out tips on how to survive quarantine life and navigate the household. “Rovilson and I have been living independently. We are excited to share tips on how to survive this whole quarantine situation while we navigate our own homes without professional help,” says Tonipet. “It’s bound to be very exciting and funny.” Friday nights are bound to be extra fun for parents because of Family Time. Drew Arellano showcases his side as a dad and family man and opens up to viewers his journey as a parent amid the new normal. “With the help of experts, we will be giving helpful tips on parenting because I’m also a new parent,” reveals Drew. “Family Time will show how to build strong relationship, to create a safe and happy home. We will also show home activities—simple and fun activities, as well as explore home schooling.” “New Normal: The Survival Guide” is GMA Public Affairs’ response to the new normal. Born in the age of social distancing, New Normal will capitalize on technology and user-generated content, welcoming viewers into a virtual home but giving them the same quality of TV programs GMA Public Affairs is known for. The block begins at 8:30 pm after the 24 Oras simulcast on GMA News TV.

KARA DAVID, Tonipet Gaba and Rovilson Fernandez

Friday, July 24, 2020

Critical survival: Gawad Urian in October 2020 W

ITHOUT the virus, we would have given out already the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino’s annual Gawad Urian, the most sought-after award for any film practitioner. But things have stopped since March 15 of this year. That was the day the lockdown of Manila and, later, the entire Luzon was declared. Individually, we were sending messages to each other as we grappled with other things more critical. Yes, even for film critics, there are things more important than reviews. And that is a critique of society from which springs cinema and other hyperrealities about ourselves and the nation. The lockdown was a misnomer: only citizens and communities were isolated from each other. Government functionaries were physically meeting; officials were converging to decide on policies that had nothing to do with health. Press freedom was one of the main targets in these months. Film criticism, of course, thrives only when people become audiences free to choose the films they want to watch; filmmakers have the liberty to move around, introspect, examine and make sense of the world gone mad or beautiful; and critics can go to town literally to guide audiences through feature films, short films, documentaries or any other forms beyond classification. Art is at the center of this freedom; around it are communities and artists pushing boundaries and challenging conventions if only to articulate, for example, lies disguised as monumental if not aberrant concepts of nationalism. Or subvert that dumb value of resilience if only to keep the citizens docile. On my part as an individual, I realized those four months were a prison. While the lockdown failed in arresting the surge of infection, those days labeled as enhanced, general and modified quarantines had triumphed in keeping me away from my own community. I was writing—and thinking—in isolation. I had to nudge myself from spiraling down to writing bittersweet epistolary to lost lovers and youth, or developing a diary of a man pretending to be a madman if only to powder-puff the inanities of imaginations with a bit of relevance. Depression, with due respect to those who have gone through it, can be an instrument of a hack writer. It calls attention to yourself and removes the attention from the writing, which has by then become the real depressing product. It is without exaggeration that I felt good seeing the other Manunuris again last Sunday, July 19. We did not go immediately to films. We were not eager to rush to the discussions. Each mention of a process in review was interrupted with personal questions. How are you? What have you been doing? I cannot really write well. I am able to do research. Oh, the time has given me lots of spaces to write about many things. To be candid, we thought of not having the Gawad Urian this year. The feeling was justifiable. We know how we discuss the films—the process is timeconsuming and we know it worked well only in faceto-face interaction. In the end, we felt it was our duty

to ourselves and to the industry that we should have the recognition in whatever form. If the arts could survive, criticism should survive. We met for the first time after the lockdown via Google Meet. For the first time, our meeting did not begin with a dinner. Gary Devilles, our present chair, had the long list of 122 films released this year. It was from this list that we were to create our first short list, which ended to be still long following the standard of Manunuri. After deliberations, we had 26 films. These 26 films are now technically filed “For Consideration” for nominations. We made sure we had hard copies of the screeners of the said films, or links at least to soft copies. Many of us had seen these films but for those who may have missed some, then we are all given a month to view or review these films. After the full-length, we had to list down the documentaries and short films. As of now, we are

gathering the other documentaries and short films that are not in our chairman’s spreadsheet. These two categories have become important for us for two reasons related to those forms. Documentaries have assumed new forms and approaches, with the so-called creative documentary blurring the line between a documentary and a feature film. Short films are treasures of independent filmmaking; in terms of sheer number, judging them can be exhausting but fun. The next online meeting in August shall be our Nominations Night. With the Gawad Urian slated the middle of October, we will have the entire September to think about our choices when we vote days before the handing of trophies. How we will give the trophies has to be decided yet. Even as I write this, all of us in the Manunuri are already thinking of how we can retain the salient

remain silent over the issue. And on Harry Roque’s statement about moving on, she retorted: “To move on is to disregard the suffering of others.” In the meantime, Angel was one of the first celebrities to defend ABS-CBN, as early as when known President Duterte supporter and Pagcor official Jimmy Bondoc wished for the “demise” the network in a Facebook post. Angel posted: “The network might not be perfect but for you to be happy about thousands of people losing their jobs is pure evil. Maybe you’re just having a bad day. I will pray for you.” That started a heated social media exchange between the two. Since then, Angel has been unabashedly vocal for the renewal of the franchise of ABS-CBN, claiming it touches on a lot of issues including job loss, press freedom and many more. In the recent big noise barrage organized by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the actress didn’t mince words as she encouraged—no, demanded—her fellow celebrities to speak up. “’Yung mga kasamahan kong artista na hindi pa rin nagsasalita, ano tatahimik na lang kayo? Wala na kayong network. Ano magpapa-cute

na lang kayo sa Instagram?” I met Angel and Jennylyn more than 10 years ago, when both were barely taking off in terms of their career, on the set of some youth-oriented show I swear I couldn’t remember the title. But what I remember is that the first time I laid my eyes on Angel, and then eventually Jennylyn, I was drawn to their beauty that for a fleeting moment I thought I had become a lesbian. I also remembered how they were nice to me, even respectful. And how when we would talk, they would often be very excited of all the possibilities that showbiz could offer not only in terms of fame but because it was their way to help their respective families. Time flies so fast. Now, Angel and Jennylyn are among the biggest actresses. I was right in predicting that showbiz would be kind to them. I was also right to be struck by their physical beauty because time has been kind to them. It’s like they haven’t aged a day. But I was wrong in thinking they had meek personalities. Angel and Jennylyn are two celebrities who use their voices to make a stand. They are fierce, strong women that I hope I can be when I grow up.

CONTINUED ON B4

Angel & Jennylyn’s surprising sisterhood A FEW years ago, Angel Locsin and Jennylyn Mercado couldn’t even breathe the same air. The two ingenues, who were supposed to be good friends since they used to share the same home network and even talent agent (Becky Aguila), had a “feud” over Luis Manzano. In case you’ve forgotten, Angel dated Luis and then he met and fell in love with Jennylyn, and then Luis ran back to Angel’s arms. The two would release pointed statements at each other to the press during that time. It was like the feud of the century. Then, Luis and Angel unceremoniously broke up and the friendship of the two actresses slowly mended. First, they followed each other on Instagram and then Jennylyn was even spotted attending Angel’s birthday party. But now, the closure of ABS-CBN has brought the two actresses together. Both are vocal about the shutdown of the network and even against some government personalities. They have released fiery posts on social media, earning the ire of some and the admiration of many, including this writer. On the day that the franchise of ABS-CBN was denied, Jennylyn posted this message on Instagram:

“Sa mga taong tuwang-tuwa sa mga pangyayari, huwag niyo sana danasin ang lumuha din at mawalan. Hindi ba tinuruan tayo ng ating mga magulang na maging makatao sa kapwa? Rejoicing [over] other people’s sorrow is not only wrong but [also] inhumane.” She further argued to those insisting that the “law is the law:” “If you say that, then everyone should be held at the same standard, huwag muna tayo mag mañanita. Ang importante ngayon ang mga taong nawalan ng trabaho lalo na at pandemya.” She didn’t stop there. Jennylyn even had follow-up posts for her bashers, saying she cannot

Sports BusinessMirror

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao

Friday, July 24, 2020 B7

ONE YEAR TO GO TO TOKYO, AGAIN T

Ramirez

PSC donates 500 laptops for govt’s fight vs Covid-19

A MAN wearing a mask walks in front of a countdown calendar showing 365 day to start Tokyo Olympics on Thursday in Tokyo. AP

HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) donated more than 500 laptop computers to various government offices—specifically the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases—as the fight against the Covid-19 relentlessly continues. The Office of the President-Presidential Management Staff (PMS), through Assistant Secretary Joseph Encabo, will receive 300 laptop units and while the Covid-19 Technical Working Group of IATF Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon will get 100 units. Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-Asa Program (BP2) will also receive several units. PSC Chief of Staff and National Training Director Marc Velasco said that the sports agency’s board readily approved the request for the donations. “These were the same laptop units used during the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games last year. They will be put to good use with these donations,” Velasco said. In a letter addressed to PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez, Encabo, who heads the Hatid-Tulong Initiative, also sought volunteers from the PSC. They will assist the PMS in processing the return of stranded individuals back to their provinces. “This will help fast-track our actions on the concerns of the LSIs [locally stranded individuals],” Encabo said in his letter. The Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC) will also host the transportation services of the program on July 25 and 26.

Juico seeks resumption of PSL action

HILIPPINE Superliga (PSL) Chairman Dr. Philip Ella Juico— invoking a positive mix of sports and science—is pushing for the league’s return amid the juico existing quarantine wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Juico, a former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission, said the PSL is prepared to hold a tournament the moment it gets the green light from the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. The PSL, Juico said, stayed in touch with the Department of Health, PSC, Games and Amusements Board, official television coveror TV5 and its stakeholders to guarantee a smooth transition from the lull that has extended to five months. “We are hoping that normality would come very soon,” Juico said. The former Agrarian Reform Secretary also disclosed that the PSL would likely hold a beach volleyball tournament in a tightly contained environment. “It’s our responsibility to the public to keep them entertained with top-class sports actions. The Philippines, aside from being a basketball country, is also a volleyball nation. We have not turned our backs on the PSL fans. We’ll be here for them,” Juico said. PSL team

owners welcomed the idea of a four-day beach volleyball tournament. Juico said all participants, league staff and crew will be required to undergo tests to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved in the league. “We may hold the tournament maybe in Subic, where there are hotels that could accommodate our athletes, officials and staff,” Juico said.

AUSTRIA: SMC, RSA BRING BRIGHT FUTURE TO SARIAYA MULTI-TITLED San Miguel Beer Head Coach Leo Austria thanks San Miguel Corp. COO Ramon S. Ang for putting into reality Sariaya folks’ dreams.

AN MIGUEL Beer Head Coach Leo Austria has all the reasons to be extremely thankful to San Miguel Corp. big boss Ramon S. Ang, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic when almost everything grounded to a halt because of strict quarantine protocols. While everyone was locked down at home, Ang and SMC relentlessly pursued investment efforts in Austria’s hometown of Sariaya in Quezon. Austria, who won all eight of his Philippine Basketball Association titles with the Beermen, hasn’t gone home to Sariaya since the enhanced community quarantine in March. In between breaks in the league before the pandemic, he visits his birthplace to reconnect with relatives and friends. Through Ang, SMC’s COO, Austria said Sariaya will soon host a modern, state-of-theart integrated agro-industrial complex that include a brewery, grains terminal and feedmill, a ready-to-eat food manufacturing plant, a fuel tank farm,and port facilities. “Boss RSA is amazing. Other companies in the country are reluctant in investing in Sariaya, but not him, he is relentless about my hometown,” Austria said. “In these difficult times, many are suffering, but I’m extremely glad about the Boss, he’s all-out

in supporting the people.” Austria was born and raised in Sariaya, where he learned to play basketball, bringing his act to the defunct Philippine Amateur Basketball League and the PBA as a player and coach. “My townmates feared that because of the pandemic, SMC’s projects in Sariaya will be stalled,” he said. “But I assured them, not RSA, not SMC, they know how to keep their word and how to take care of people.” Austria told his townmates about how SMC, under Ang, led Covid-19 response efforts in the private sector. SMC’s support in the fight against the virus breached P13.112 billion as of June 25. Broken down, this support covers P500 million for PCR testing machines, testing kits, personal protective equipment and other medical donations; P511.1 million food donations, including canned products, poultry, fresh meats, bread, flour biscuits, milk, coffee and rice; and P97.1 million worth of free ethyl alcohol donated to hospitals and critical health facilities. SMC also recently established its own Covid-19 testing laboratory called Better World Edsa to provide regular tests to the conglomerate’s 70,000 employees and thirdparty providers.

He also pointed out that the company has provided housing for informal settlers at Sariaya’s coastline, long considered a hazard zone. SMC, in partnership with the local government of Sariaya, built a sustainable housing project in Barangay Castanas. Homes were given free to qualified residents. The housing development, called San Miguel-Christian Gayeta Homes, consists of 450 houses on a 5.4-hectare land. A total of 86 families have relocated and more are about to move into the 300 completed units—the remaining 150 units are under construction. SMC also assured education and business opportunities are available to the new residents. It established a skills and livelihood training center inside the village and in partnership with the Technical Education Skills Development and Authority (Tesda)-Quezon Provincial Office, Quezon National Agricultural School and Fadz Construction Inc., the giant company offered programs in food and beverage services, organic farming, driving, electrical installation and maintenance, shielded metal arc welding and housekeeping to residents. SMC also partnered with the Archdiocese of Lucena and the Quezon Provincial Government for the construction of a Fisherman’s Hall. The facility, located near the river channel leading to Sariaya Bay, will securely house the fishermen’s boats, engines and other fishing implements. “San Miguel’s investment support is what Sariaya needs to boost its economy and generate jobs for my townmates,” Austria said. “As a young man, I needed to leave Sariaya for Manila in search for a bright future. Now, that bright future is no longer in the big city, it was brought to Sariaya through RSA and SMC,” he added.

Baseball opens with masks, empty parks, social justice

PENING day, at last. A baseball season that was on the brink before it ever began because of the virus outbreak is set to start Thursday night when excitable Max Scherzer and the World Series champion Washington Nationals host prized ace Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees. When it does get under way—the DC

forecast calls for thunderstorms, the latest rocky inning in this what-can-go-wrong game—it’ll mark the most bizarre year in the history of Major League Baseball. A 60-game season, stars opting out. Ballparks without fans, players wearing masks. Piped-in sound effects, cardboard cutouts for spectators. Spray-painted ads on the mound, pitchers with personal rosin bags.

And a rack of strange rules. DHs in the National League, well, OK. An automatic runner on second to start the 10th inning? C’mon, now. “Gosh, it’s going to be fun,” Cole said. “It’s going to have fake crowd noise, and going to be 2020 coronavirus baseball.” Plus, a poignant reminder of the world we live in. A Black Lives Matter stencil can be put on mounds throughout the majors during the opening weekend. And still there’s a team that doesn’t know where it’s going to play—barred from Toronto because of health concerns, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays had hoped to roost in Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Buffalo or somewhere else. “This is 2020 baseball,” Scherzer said. AP

SAN DIEGO Padres center fielder Trent Grisham makes a diving catch on a ball hit by the Los Angeles Angels’ Jason Castro during the third inning of their preseason game on Wednesday in Anaheim, California. AP

By Stephen Wade The Associated Press

OKYO—The Tokyo Olympics have hit the one-year-to-go mark—again. But few are in a mood to celebrate. Tokyo observed the original date a year ago. That was before the Covid-19 pandemic postponed the Olympics and pushed back the opening to July 23, 2021. Fireworks cascaded over Tokyo Bay back then, and local celebrities unveiled the medals in a highly choreographed show. There’s none of that this time. Organizers produced a 15-minute, no-fans event on Thursday inside the new national stadium—screening a video to promote next year’s opening. They also teased the presence of the Olympic flame, which arrived in Japan in March and had been hidden away ever since. The low-key event on a rainy day captures the local mood. A poll a few days ago from Japanese news agency Kyodo repeated the results of recent surveys: Japanese are skeptical the games should go ahead, and doubtful they will. The poll showed 23.9 percent favored holding the Olympics, 36.4 percent said the Olympics should be postponed again, and 33.7 percent said it should be canceled. Organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have ruled out another postponement. The Tokyo Games would be canceled this time if they can’t be held. “I don’t think that people have a sense of anticipation in a happy way to celebrate a oneyear-to-go event,“ Yoshiro Mori, the president of the organizing committee, said last week. In an interview Wednesday with Japanese broadcaster NHK, Mori was blunt. He was asked: “If this kind of situation [with Covid-19] continues, is it possible to hold the games?” “If current situation continues, we couldn’t,” he replied, though he said he was optimistic about a vaccine and confident the pandemic would recede. Tokyo is staking its hopes on “simplification.” Organizers have come up with roughly “200 items” that may be simplified, downsized, or cut out. The rigor is driven by soaring costs and the risk of the Olympics becoming a petri dish. Estimates in Japan suggest the postponement will cost $2 billion to $6 billion. The IOC and organizers acknowledge the “massive costs” but say it’s too early to give a number. This is on top of the $12.6 billion that Japan says it’s officially spending on the Olympics. However, a national auditor says the real cost is twice that much. All but $5.6 billion is public money. CEO Toshiro Muto has said the 206 national Olympic committees, dozens of sports federations, sponsors, broadcasters, media, and hospitality providers, have been asked to find ways to reduce the size of their delegations arriving in Tokyo.

Muto said organizers are “reexamining service levels and requirements in every possible area.” IOC President Thomas Bach has said “nothing is taboo” as billions in costs pile up. There is one untouchable: the quota of 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympians will not be cut, and competition schedules and the 42 venues will remain the same. That opens the way for TV broadcasts to go ahead, the lifeblood of the IOC. The IOC had income of $5.7 billion over the last four-year Olympic cycle, and 73 percent was from selling broadcast rights. Another 18 percent was from top sponsors. Billions in television revenue will be lost if the games aren’t held next year, imperiling the IOC’s finances. Getting the Olympics on television and other platforms is a priority, along with keeping the athletes safe offcamera. The American network NBC, the biggest single source of income for the IOC, pays an average of about $1.2 billion for each Olympics. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics follow Tokyo by only six months. A cancellation could put Beijing at risk, turning the spotlight on China’s human rights record in Hong Kong, and the treatment of its Uighur population. Beijing was awarded the games in 2015. For Tokyo, there are more questions than answers. Will there be fans? If so, will they be fans from aboard, or only Japanese? Will athletes face quarantines, and will there be a vaccine? Should young athletes be a priority for a scarce vaccine, and will all agree to be vaccinated? How will athletes be safe in the crowded Athletes Village? How about staffing levels for officials, coaches, and tens of thousands who work behind the scenes? Tokyo had planned to use at least 80,000 unpaid volunteers. “We need to prepare for all the scenarios that may be necessary,” said IOC Vice President John Coates, who oversees preparations for Tokyo. ”We don’t know what’s going to be necessary. We don’t know what the state of Covid-19 is going to be next year. But we need to be preparing for it now.” Some scientists are skeptical. Others say it’s possible. Kentaro Iwata, a Japanese professor of infectious disease, has said: “To be honest with you, I don’t think the Olympics is likely to be held next year. Dr. Ali Khan. an epidemiologist and dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska, suggested the games can be pulled off. “First, Japan needs to commit to ramp up its containment efforts and get to zero cases like New Zealand,” Khan wrote. “Next they need to develop a set of tiered operating levels based on global transmission to handle athletes, supporting staff, press, vendors, and fans. Expect national quarantine of players and others before arriving in Tokyo, and then retesting afterward.”

Pandemic Basketball begins in Walt Disney World bubble

AKE BUENA VISTA, Florida—Michael Baiamonte was not at Walt Disney World on Wednesday. The public address announcer for the Miami Heat wasn’t in the building for the team’s season-restart scrimmage debut. His voice was. The sound of him bellowing one of his signature phrases—“stand up and make some noise”—bounced through the arena Wednesday night during a third-quarter stoppage in play, a bit of a peculiar thing because there were no fans there to actually coax into rising from their chairs. Welcome to Pandemic Basketball. The National Basketball Association (NBA) rolled out what game operations in a bubble will look like, with the first four of 33 scrimmages being played. The scrimmages—exhibitions, some call them—will continue through July 28, two days before the restart of the regular season in the form of seeding games that will determine who has what seed for the playoffs. “The games are the games,” Los Angeles Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “Once you get in between the lines, you can make a case, that’s probably as comfortable as the players will ever be or as normal as everything will ever be. Because once they get between the lines, it’s a basketball game.” Rivers and the Clippers were the NBA’s first winners of a game played during a pandemic, after downing Orlando 99-90 in an arena that

held about 200 people—players, team staffs and NBA employees included. Denver beat Washington, 89-82; New Orleans eased past Brooklyn, 99-68; and in the finale Miami topped Sacramento, 104-98. “I told Doc, I thought it was much more comfortable than I thought it would be,” Magic coach Steve Clifford said. “I think that the teams that can adapt to playing in an unique, kind of different environment without all the fans, whoever can get the right mindset and concentrate on just playing will have a big advantage.” There were some new twists. Ballboys were setting up chairs for teams during timeouts because ones in the bench area must not be moved, and every player had an orange Gatorade cart just for him marked at his assigned seat. And while some players participated in handshakes, some people on the court declined—when Magic guard Michael Carter-Williams offered a fist-bump greeting to referee Jacyn Goble, no reciprocal offer came. “For me, it’s just basketball,” New Orleans guard E’Twaun Moore said. “It’s kind of easy to play that. It’s like playing your whole life, playing outside, playing in gyms with nobody there, open gym. So it was just fun to go out there and just hoop and have fun.” Part of the setup here calls for the designated home teams, like the Heat were Wednesday, to get comforts of home. So they wore white uniforms, had their Heat logo on the video boards, listened to “Seven Nation Army” coming through the speakers as they would at home, and even got to hear Baiamonte. At the end, “The Heat Is On”—another after-win treat at home—played as they walked off, too. “The production felt like a big event,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I thought it was terrific. I really did.” AP

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Henry Ford Awards Best Motoring Section 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 2011 Hall of Fame

B8 Friday, July 24, 2020

Editor: Tet Andolong

TPLEx to jump-start growth amid pandemic

HE enormous economic impact brought on by the opening last week of the TPLEx ( TarlacPangasinan-La Union Expressway) is so immense it almost goes beyond description.

But suffice it to say that with this new modern-day road network, courtesy—again—of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), the public’s general welfare is going to be served to the hilt. With travel time from Tarlac to La Union cut from three hours to almost an hour only, motorists both rich and poor will reap the benefits of comfortable riding from A to Z. Other benefits

include slashed fuel costs, plus wear and tear saving vehicles from early demise. But did you know that the 89-plus km TPLEx was almost aborted? Thanks to Ramon S. Ang (RSA), the SMC president, who in 2008 bought one-third of the fundstarved company that originally proposed the project in 2007. With RSA at the helm, the dream road progressed steadily until its final

completion almost a dozen years later on July 15. “Today is a historic day as we formally open the last section of TPLEx all the way from Tarlac to Rosario, La Union,” said Ang in his inaugural speech in front of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Transportion Secretary Art Tugade and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. The expressway has 10 interchanges and 11 toll plazas, with exit/entry points located in strategic towns of Tarlac and Pangasinan before ending in Rosario, the first town of La Union. “Faster transport of goods, increased tourism, more livelihood and better incomes: All of these will help jump-start our economic recovery from this pandemic. TPLEx will help deliver growth to the regions for generations to come.” An elated Ed Pamintuan, the former jolly mayor of Angeles City in Pampanga, said: “With the much reduced travel time going up North because of TPLEx, Baguio is now almost within spitting distance from our city. Yahooo!” Notice RSA’s direct reference to the Covid-19 plague as he linked TPLEx’s crucial role in helping revive the economy in that part of the country.

Always, RSA puts his heart to the downtrodden who usually bear the brunt of any calamity. This was made more evident anew when he recently appeared in Rico Hizon’s The Exchange on CNN. Said RSA: “We should convince all the Filipino businessmen to start investing and start working. If they are all going to hide in their homes [during the pandemic], the investors or the financiers will all be okay but their employees will lose their jobs.” Does RSA need to do that on rooftops?

Toyota’s new brother

THE Toyota Hiace has a new brother in the Cargo Variant. But instead of loading customers, it transports cargoes. With its seatless option, this Hiace further services industries. After Toyota Motor Philippines introduced in 2019 the full model change of the Hiace with the addition of Super Grandia Elite, and GL Tourer, it recognized the need to transport cargo as well as people. “The Hiace Cargo caters to customers who have requirements to transport load in a safe and secure way,” said Sherwin ChuaLim, TMP’s first vice president for vehicle sales operations. “Its arrival

is timely as it helps transfer goods during this pandemic. The Philippines is the largest Hiace market outside Japan.” As of May 2020, the Hiace utility van, pegged at P1,101,000 held a 66-percent market share.

BMW 318i Sport

WHO said we would have to slow it down because of Covid-19? Don’t tell that to SMC Asia Car Distributors Corp. The country’s official importer and distributor of BMW has just officially announced the arrival of the BMW 318i Sport, a new variant of the 3 Series. “The modern presence of a true icon,” said Spencer Yu, the affable SMC Asia Car president. On the car’s salient features, here is Spencer’s able lieutenant, Enrico Antonio D. Ylanan: “The BMW 318i Sport enjoys the same precisely drawn lines, and strikingly contoured surfaces typical in the BMW 3 Series lineup. “The front fascia features the BMW kidney grille and instantly recognizable full-LED headlights with extended contents. Both the LED front fog lights and the Air Curtains are integrated into the outer air intakes. The side profile is shaped by a pair of character

lines and a side skirt contour together with 18-inch V-spoke style 780 Bicolour light alloy wheels. “Sport seats for the driver and front passenger feature Sensatec upholstery, and a Sport steering wheel in leather is standard. “The BMW 318i Sport features BMW Live Cockpit, a combination of an 8.8-inch touchscreen display and an analogue instrument cluster with a horizontal 5.7-inch display. “Powering the BMW 318i Sport is 2.0-liter BMW TwinPower Turbo 4-cylinder gasoline engine paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission with Steptronic. This powertrain generates 156 hp and 250 N-m of torque. “The BMW 318i Sport is priced at Php 3,190,000 and comes with a five-year or 200,000-kilometer manufacturer’s warranty. For more details, call +63917-839-23-63.”

PEE STOP The

New Vios will be digitally launched on July 25 amid Toyota’s high hopes of maintaining market leadership for the model. Cheers!... Birthday greetings to Danny Isla (July 21), the former Lexus Manila president now based in New Zealand, and Sol F. Juvida (July 23), Malaya Sol’s beloved NaySoly. Malaya Sol herself also celebrated on July 21. Mabuhay!

JAC Motors brings in the all-new S4

The uncompromising all-new S4. JAC Motors Philippines Story by Randy S. Peregrino

RIESENBURG Auto Corp. (TAC), the official distributor of JAC Passenger and Light Commercial Vehicles in the Philippines, brought in its entry to the hotly contested compact SUV segment—the all-new S4. Presented in a recent online launch event themed “JAC S4. Don’t Compromise,” the new SUV boasts elements of Stylish, Safe, Smart, and Superior. Notably, this new SUV brings its German quality to the table from none other than Volkswagen by utilizing its VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie) quality system. Upfront, the individualized splendid wing grille radiates with angular and straight-line

designs. Other striking design elements are the double-waist line, sharp-eyed headlights, trendy ridge -type LED taillights, bowlooking broad tail line, two-color sports wheel hubs, and suspended roof and shark fin window line. All these make the vehicle keen, recognizable, and eye-catching. Noteworthy is the dark bottom panels matching the dark roofline. The multi-spoke two-toned 17-inch allow wheels wrapped in 215/50 series tires are standard. Inside is where the Smar t element emanates. Highlighting the cabin design is the button-less and knob-less Intuitive Touch Control Panel (for the AC control and other functions) dashboard. Moreover, there’s the head up standard10.25-inch Multi-Media

touchscreen with smartphone connectivity. It also controls various smart features such as cornering lamps, vehicle positioning lighting, to name a few. The JAC S4 also got rid of the usual cluster gauges for the tachometer and speedometer and placed an interactive 10.25-inch LED Instrument Panel (Ultimate variant). This smart animated feature provides three different views. More so, there are Smart Entry and Push Start System for that added convenience. Motivation comes from a 1.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine with i-VVT Technology. It is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox (base model) and CVT. The output is rated at 147 hp and 210 N-m of maximum torque. The rugged titanium body, meantime, is capable of withstanding pressures up to four times its total weight. Aside from dual front air bags, there are front side air bags and side curtains. Other safety features aside from ABS and EBD are Front Collision Warning, Blind Spot Monitoring, Electronic Stability Control, Hill-Start Assist, Brake Override System, and Lane Departure Warning, among others. Another noteworthy feature is the electric tailgate operated via remote key or under the bumper sensor. Available in four variants, the base model Luxury 6MT is affordable at P878,000. The Luxury CVT is valued at P928,000, while the mid-variant Intelligent CVT is priced at P998,000. As for the top-spec Ultimate CVT, with all its long list of advanced features, it can be owned for P1.098 million.

The first electrified vehicle in Maserati’s history

HE spark of electrification ignites Maserati’s future: with the new Ghibli Hybrid, the Trident Brand enters the world of electrification. The new Ghibli Hybrid represents one of the most ambitious projects for Maserati, which after the announcement of the new engine for the MC20 super sports car now sets the seal on another step forward toward the brand’s new era. The choice to introduce the hybrid technology on the Ghibli sedan is no coincidence: this model, with over 100,000 units produced since its launch in 2013, perfectly embodies the Modena-based manufacturer’s DNA. In fact, the challenge facing Maserati was to enter the world of electrification without altering the brand’s core philosophy and values. The result? The creation of the best possible hybrid. What’s more, Ghibli Hybrid will retain the unmistakable sound that has always distinguished every Maserati. The arrival of the new Ghibli Hybrid thus expands the Maserati range, which is now even more competitive and responsive to the demands of the market.

Design

Intuitive, modern, and packed with advanced features.

Ghibli Hybrid is immediately recognizable, thanks in part to the new design of both ex terior and interior. The common denominator of the restyling, developed by the Centro Stile Maserati, is the blue color, chosen to identify all cars with hybrid technology and the new world they represent. On the ex terior, the blue color characterizes the three iconic side air ducts, the brake calipers and the thunderbolt in the oval that encloses the Trident on the rear pillar. The same blue color reappears inside the car, in particular on the embroidered seams of the seats. The new Ghibli Hybrid also introduces new stylistic contents, starting from the new front grille, with bars redesigned to represent a tuning fork,

a musical device that emits a sound of extreme purity, and which also evokes the Trident symbol itself. There are significant changes at the rear of the car, where the light clusters have been completely restyled, with a boomerang-like profile inspired by the 3200 GT and the Alfieri concept car.

Mild hybrid

In perfect harmony with its DNA, Maserati has chosen a hybrid solution focused primarily on improving performance, while also reducing fuel consumption and cutting emissions. The hybrid technology exploits kinetic energy the car accumulates when in motion, recovering it and transforming it into electricity during deceleration and braking, and storing it in a battery. The innovative powertrain, the outcome of in-depth engineering development work by the technicians and engineers of the Maserati Innovation Lab in Modena, combines an internal combustion engine (4 cylinders, turbo, displacement of 2.0 l) with a 48 volt alternator and an additional elec tric supercharger (e -B ooster), supported by a battery. This solution is unique in its segment, and is the first in a new generation of powertrains, with the perfect trade-off between performance, efficiency and driving pleasure. The battery is mounted in the rear of the car, with benefits in terms of improved

weight distribution. This version weighs about 80 kg less than the Diesel. Thanks to maximum power output of 330 hp and torque of 450 N-m delivered from just 1,500 rpm, the new Ghibli Hybrid’s performance data are very impressive: top speed of 255 km/h and acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds. Ghibli Hybrid occupants will still revel in the unmistakable sound that characterizes all Maserati models, thanks to the optimized exhaust, which includes specially designed resonators. The Maserati Intelligent Assistant multimedia system is latest-generation, based on digital inputs from Android Automotive, software that delivers an innovative User Experience fully customizable to the driver’s personal preferences. The multimedia system’s HD screen, with new graphics, more user-friendly and without surrounds, is increased in size from 8”4 to 10”1. A new instrument panel with digital devices and new graphics is also introduced.

Electrification the Maserati way

The new Ghibli Hybrid represents the first step in a plan that will lead to the electrification of all new Maserati models. The brand’s first all-electric cars will be the new GranTurismo and GranCabrio, scheduled for 2021.