BusinessMirror June 23, 2020

Close gaps in rice import tags, BOC told

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

T

HE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) has urged the Bureau of Customs to review its rice import assessment system to prevent importers from misclassifying the tariff lines of their shipments to avoid higher reference prices.

According to the FFF, the BOC uses over 10 different classification codes for the same type of rice imports, which, it pointed out, could be utilized by unscrupulous importers to evade higher customs’ reference prices.

“Eighty percent of rice imports in 2020 were placed under a tariff heading for ‘broken rice’ which includes a subheading for rice ‘of a kind used for animal feed’. Others were classified as ‘brown rice’, even if they were actually white and well-

LUGGAGE from returning overseas Filipino workers from the Middle East are seen at a baggage carousel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants the Philippines to bring home the remains of hundreds of OFWs who died there. The Departments of Labor and of Foreign Affairs are racing to do just that. Story on page A8. NONIE REYES

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milled,” FFF National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said in a statement on Monday.

“It is possible that some imports were being misclassified under tariff lines that had lower reference prices so as to conceal attempts to undervalue FOB prices,” Montemayor added.

The FFF also explained that a “significant” volume of imports did not indicate any rice grade, thus, making it impossible to determine their proper tariff classification and corresponding customs’ reference price.

The customs’ reference price serves as a basis for the prevailing price of an imported good so it could determine if there are undervaluation or other trade-related issues.

“This makes it easier for a Customs examiner to accept whatever price the importer declares and/ or to arbitrarily place the imports

under any classification code,” Montemayor said.

The FFF recommended that the BOC sit down with the Department of Agriculture (DA), the National Food Authority (NFA) and privatesector representatives to come up with an “accurate and realistic” classification and valuation system for rice imports.

The farmers’ group also urged the DA to tighten further its screening of rice imports and blacklist unscrupulous players that have undervalued their shipments since the rice industry was deregulated in March 2019.

The FFF has repeatedly raised the issue of undervaluation before the BOC and the DA following the enactment of the rice trade liberalization law in 2019, paving the way for the easier importation of rice.

It recently claimed that undervaluation of rice imports continues

with at least P890 million in lost tariff revenues from over 766,000 metric tons of staple imported from January to April.

The undervaluation, the FFF explained, could be seen in the free on board (FOB) price of rice and the freight and insurance costs of the shipments.

The FFF noted that the extent of undervaluation of imports can be gauged by the results of the recent bidding conducted by the Philippine International Trading Corporation for 300,000 metric tons of rice.

“Myanmar quoted an FOB price of $405 per metric ton, which is 41 percent or $118 higher per ton than the declared price of imports from Myanmar from January to April 2020 for the same type of rice. Vietnam’s bid to PITC was $455 per ton, while the average declared FOB price of its exports to the Philippines was only $302 per ton,” Montemayor said.

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TRADITIONAL paper tickets and cashless transactions, coupled with safety protocols such as limited seating and the mandatory wearing of face masks, make up the new normal in public transportation as buses (left) and modern jeepneys (right) return to the streets. NONIE REYES/ROY DOMINGO

D

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

IGITALLY improved tax administration reforms ensure the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) ability to reckon with the “new normal” way of contactless transactions, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said on Monday.

The reforms have already paid off, Dominguez said, as the country’s tax effort has significantly improved from 13 percent of GDP in 2015 to 14.5 percent of GDP in 2019.

“The BIR has improved internal processes, raised efficiency levels, and delivered much convenience to our clients—the taxpayers. The men and women of the BIR deserve to be congratulated for all that has been achieved so far. I am

confident that more improvements are in store because the bureau has also demonstrated the ambition and commitment that are key to any successful digitalization reform,” Dominguez said in his message delivered via Zoom during the bureau’s awarding ceremony for the winners of its 1st Hack-A-Tax Innovation challenge.

By the time the Covid-19 pandemic struck the country this year, he said the country was already in

a very good fiscal position.

Through the use of the electronic tax filing option, BIR not only helped improve its collection performance, but it was also able to do away with the long queues and large crowds jamming its offices during the annual tax payment deadlines.

Dominguez noted that tax payments collected through electronic channels amounted to P1.8 trillion in 2019, representing 84 percent of the total BIR collections for the year. Payments collected through additional electronic channels targeted for small businesses and individual taxpayers amounted to P1.2 billion in 2019, representing a 94-percent increase from the previous year.

While the government expects lower revenue collections this year because of the economic devastation wrought by Covid-19 and the lockdowns it caused, the country’s finance chief said the Philippines can count on its strong

macroeconomic fundamentals and increased use of digital technologies for a quick return to the path of high growth once the global health crisis is over.

“The taxes that BIR collects are critical to fueling our economic recovery. These will help fund our massive infrastructure investments that will create jobs for our people and increase spending on education and health care to improve the competitiveness of our workforce,” he added.

Led by BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay, the bureau launched the 1st Hack-A-Tax Innovation competition in October 2019 among members of the information technology and software development community—including students, start-ups and young developers—to come up with front-end applications that will facilitate digital taxpayer transactions with the bureau.

The challenge for the competitors was to simplify and streamline See “BIR,” A2

Dar says fertilizer bid strictly followed the law T

HE Department of Agriculture (DA) has remained firm that its emergency procurement for fertilizer followed the law to the letter and pointed out that its purchase caused retail prices of the farm input to go down.

This was the answer of the DA amid allegations that its negotiated procurement for its fertilizer project for rice farmers is overpriced compared to prevailing retail prices of urea.

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar explained that they were able to procure over 1.8 million bags of fertilizer at a cheaper price compared to national aver-

age retail prices and below their set approved budget for the contract (ABC).

The DA has set a P1,000 per bag ABC for the procurement of 5.691 million 50-kilogram bags of urea, while the winning bids ranged from P900 to P990 per bag.

The DA explained that both the ABC and the winning bids were lower than the prevailing national average retail price of urea fertilizer during the time of procurement.

Citing data from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, the DA said urea fertilizer cost P1,035.60 for April 27 to May 1; P1,037.53 for May 4 to 8; and P1,040.68 for

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.1520

May 11 to 15.

Dar argued that they have followed provisions and rules stipulated by the procurement law in undertaking the purchase that was initiated when the country was under a state of emergency due to Covid-19 by virtue of Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

Under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, a procuring entity could undertake a negotiated procurement based on certain conditions such as “emergency cases.”

The law defines negotiated procurement as a method of procurement of goods, infrastructure projects and consult-

ing services, whereby the procuring entity “directly negotiates a contract with a technically, legally and financially capable supplier, contractor or consultant.”

Dar explained that some of the bidders for the first round of bidding were disqualified for lack of capacity to fulfill the contract.

“Other bidders were disqualified because they were not able to show that they have the legal, financial and technical capacity to deliver the goods, execute the works and perform the services to address the emergency procurement of urea fertilizers,” he said in a recent interview with reporters.

SANS ECONOMIC HUBS, SIMPLE ‘BALIK’ PLAN WON’T WORK–EXPERTS

By Cai U. Ordinario

C

REATING economic hubs nationwide would be a better use for the government’s resources than to ferry Metro Manila-based Filipinos to their home provinces under the Balik Probinsiya, Bagong Pagasa (BP2) program, according to local economists.

Ateneo de Manila UniverMENDOZA: “These types of programs sity School of Government Dean tend to be a waste of public-sector Ronald Mendoza said the governresources and merely become ‘ningas cogon’—they eventually collapse due ment can invest in areas outside to the sheer size of the challenge and of Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Metro-Cebu, Metro-Iloilo and lack of significant impact.”

Metro-Davao to spread growth and development in the countryside.

Mendoza said there are fast-emerging cities like Vigan City which could benefit from sustained investments that could lead to greater job creation outside of Metro Manila and other new growth engines.

“It is probably more effective (and lasting) incentive for reverse migration to encourage the growth of new economic growth engines,” Mendoza told the BusinessMirror in an email.

Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development Director Alvin P. Ang earlier told the BusinessMirror that developing agriculture can help the country recover from this crisis and chart a better development path.

He said the country already has the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma) of 1997, which aims to create the Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZ)— areas for production and agro-processing, among others.

Continued on A2

See “Fertilizer,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4697 n UK 61.9829 n HK 6.4711 n CHINA 7.0933 n SINGAPORE 35.8844 n AUSTRALIA 34.2037 n EU 56.0850 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.3739

Source: BSP (June 22, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, June 23, 2020

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Oil firms raise prices this week, carry out additional 10% tariff

O

By Lenie Lectura

IL firms are raising pump prices this week, but regulators noted that prices remain low despite this, and even as more petroleum players are beginning to implement the temporary additional oil import duty from where government will draw in the response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell, PTT Philippines, Total Philippines and Petro Gazz said Monday after-

noon that gasoline prices will go up

by P1.05 per liter, diesel by P0.85 per liter and kerosene by P0.30 per liter.

PHL races to bring home from KSA bodies of OFWs Continued from A8

He said, so far “there are around 3,000 overseas Filipinos in Africa and the Middle East that have been infected, 373 in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, 492, and Europe 305.”

Committed to bring them home

ASKED about the challenges of repatriating thousands of Filipinos rendered jobless by the pandemic, Locsin said his policy has been to bring home as many OFWs as possible. He said he could feel how it is to be left jobless and waiting in a foreign land.

So far, as of Sunday, the DFA was able to repatriate more than 51,000 overseas Filipinos.

Of those rendered jobless by the pandemic, estimates vary from 50,000 to 100,000 land-based and sea-based OF who are waiting for any mode of transport

to bring them back to the Philippines.

“The challenges in repatriating OFWs is this: my order is to bring them home as fast as possible. At the same time, there’s the other side: the reception here. I’ve been told we’re bringing in so many, so fast,” he said.

Locsin admits he was cautioned by colleagues in the inter-agency task force (IATF) “to moderate your enthusiasm” in airlifting OFs because of the limited capacity of the various agencies to subject the returnees to testing.

That was the reason the IATF ordered the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) to limit arrivals to 400 OFWs per day, since the medical authorities doing the testing on Terminal 1 have very limited capability.

“There are also lockdowns in the country of origin and in the Philippines,” the DFA chief pointed out.

Japan, S. Korea top leisure destinations of Filipinos Continued from A8

According to PSA data, the largest bulk of Filipinos’ spending in 2019 went to accommodations at P99.73 billion, or 29.2 percent of total outbound tourism expenditure. This was followed by P61.36 billion on shopping (18 percent), and P57.8 billion on food and beverage (16.9 percent).

Tuaño expressed optimism that outbound travel would see some recovery by 2023. “We should see the Philippine government allowing Filipinos to travel abroad before the year ends. I guess this is an important start. Soon after, we would see a few Filipinos traveling to countries

which have opened up their borders to us.

This will gradually grow back, and hopefully in two to three years, we can see figures close to 2019 levels. The recovery period might be shortened if a vaccine becomes available.”

Over the weekend, the PSA released newly adjusted tourism data with the change in their base period to 2018 from 2000. It reported the tourism sector’s contribution to the economy rose to 12.7 percent in 2019, from 12.3 percent the previous year. (See, “Pinoys’ local trips spending spells 22% of household bills,” in the BusinessMirror, June 22, 2020.)

Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

The price adjustment will take effect at 6 a.m. of Tuesday, June 23.

Other oil firms are expected to follow suit.

Pilipinas Shell and Petron have informed the Department of Energy (DOE) that many of their service stations are already implementing the additional 10-percent tax on crude and petroleum products.

Shell provided a list of its 647 stations that are already collecting the additional taxes from motorists. Petron also submitted a list of its more than 1,000 service stations implementing the same fuel tax adjustment.

Caltex, on the other hand, said most of its service stations will implement the additional fuel tax next month.

Under government directives,

the additional tax should be reflected in price adjustments only after oil companies have exhausted existing inventories that have been purchased prior to the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 113. Projections based on their inventory reports indicated that the added costs might be included beginning the third week of June.

The government expects to generate a total of P6.78 billion from May to December this year from the additional oil import tariffs.

President Duterte signed EO 113 last month, temporarily imposing an additional 10-percent import tax on petroleum products to help augment government funding in the fight against Covid-19.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G.

Cusi said on Wednesday that he has directed the DOE-Oil Industry Management Bureau (OIMB) to ensure the proper implementation of the additional 10-percent tax on crude and petroleum products.

“Upon the release of EO 113, our Oil Industry Management Bureau immediately met with industry stakeholders to discuss the way forward, including their strict compliance with the EO’s guidelines,” Cusi said.

The DOE noted that even with the additional P1.50-P1.60/ liter tariff range, prices of petroleum products continue to remain low. The cumulative rollbacks from January 2020 to date stand at P6.72/liter for gasoline, P9.99/ liter for diesel, and P13.69/liter for kerosene.

LOCAL GOVTS, AUSTRALIA BACK DEPED BID TO OFFER REMOTE LEARNING MODES

A

TOTAL of 62 local government officials have expressed their support and commitment to the Department of Education (DepEd) in offering education opportunities to learners amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

As of 3 p.m. of June 22, a total of 38 mayors, nine governors and 15 congressmen have pledged their support to DepEd’s initiatives. They included seven nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and one ambassador.

For his part, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Steven J. Robinson commended the DepEd’s “extraordinary efforts” as it prepares for new ways to deliver remote learning across the country which, he said, the embassy is happy to be part of.

The Australian government’s earlier support program for the DepEd had won for it in 2019 major recognition as “Embassy of the Year” in the

Anvil-awarded initiative, “Mission PHL: The BusinessMirror Envoys and Expats Award.”

In a statement, DepEd said they are highly indebted to their partners and leaders who are with them in ensuring the safety of our learners, teachers, and parents in these difficult times.

“With their overwhelming support, more than 10 million learners nationwide have registered remotely in the first two weeks of the enrollment period and we expect more to enroll in the next few days,” the DepEd said.

The outpouring of support, the DepEd said, only inspires them more to be prepared for the challenges of this extraordinary school year.

“We have been engaging with private partners in preparing and updating various learning delivery modes that will be offered once classes start. We are working closely with our LGUs in the proper deploy-

ment of learning resources.

Along this line, we are also setting up policies and guidelines to further protect the safety and health of our learners and teachers.”

It added: “Often it is said that it takes a village to raise a child, but together we have proven that it will take an entire nation to raise our children during this pandemic. Leaping past these challenges will indeed require a united response from all of us.”

The DepEd reiterated that the “Bayanihan spirit” of the Filipino nation burns bright even in the most difficult time and the agency is privileged to witness this as “we hand-inhand bring forth hope through quality education.”

“With a nation coming together, education will truly prosper as we brave into the future where our children can continue nurturing their potentials,” the DepEd concluded.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Sans economic hubs, simple ‘Balik’ plan won’t work–experts Continued from A1

Given that this has been legislated already, the SAFDZ is a good first step toward realizing this new development path that will revive the economy and ensure the country’s food security, Ang said.

Action for Economic Reforms (AER) coordinator Filomeno Sta. Ana III told the BusinessMirror this is why the private sector must be included in any effort to spread development in the countryside.

He said it was only logical for people to move from rural areas to cities to work. This much has been the backbone of progress and modernization through millennia.

Sta. Ana said the government needs to modernize agriculture as well as enable investments and infrastructure in poorer regions.

Without this, any reverse migration program is bound to fail.

“Moving people to provinces without private investments spurring development will fail. Besides, we have to accept that some areas will remain an economic backwater, thus compelling locals to look for jobs elsewhere,” he explained.

Federation of Economic Freedom (FEF) President Calixto V. Chikiamco told the BusinessMirror that industries, particularly

agriculture, fishing, mining and forestry, must thrive before these kinds of programs exist.

Still, challenges that face these industries are not easy to overcome. Chikiamco said among the challenges are restrictions due to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), as well as what he deems an overreach and overregulation in forestry by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Further, Chikiamco said the ban imposed on new mining permits continues to be a major challenge for mining to thrive nationwide.

These are on top of the lack of infrastructure and high logistics costs that prevent rural goods from being shipped to more urban markets.

“To further incentivize people to remain in the provinces, good schools where families can send their children for a good education without sending them to Manila must be present,” Chikiamco said.

“Balik Probinsya will fail, as had some previous back-to-the-provinces [initiatives] failed.”

Mendoza said the Duterte administration is not the first to come up with a reverse migration

program. Other administrations introduced incentives for relocation and threw in subsidized housing and other financial benefits to sweeten the deal.

However, he said these mostly failed because these were “shallow, temporary and largely unsustainable” benefits that can support reverse migration in the country.

“These types of programs tend to be a waste of public-sector resources and merely become ‘ningas cogon’—they eventually collapse due to the sheer size of the challenge and lack of significant impact,” Mendoza said.

Confusion

NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Acting Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua, who serves as the vice chairman of the BP2 Council, said the decisions made regarding the BP2 were a collective decision, including the timing.

Soon after launching, local government units (LGUs) expressed their dismay at the BP2, blaming the program for the increase of Covid-19 cases in their locales.

BP2 Council and National Housing Authority (NHA) General

Manager Marcelino Escalada said there has been confusion between the BP2 and the Hatid Probinsya programs.

However, last week, Escalada said the BP2 Council decided to suspend the program to prioritize the Hatid Probinsiya program of the government. The latter program aims to ferry locally stranded individuals (LSIs), or those caught by the Covid-forced lockdowns in Metro Manila, back to their provinces.

Neda Assistant Secretary for Regional Development Mercedita A. Sombilla said the government will be releasing a primer on the BP2 program to clarify the differences between BP2 and Hatid Probinsiya.

Sombilla also stressed that the BP2 was designed to help boost the local economies in the countryside.

This will help strengthen LGUs nationwide.

“That is what the program is all about—to strengthen the LGUs. The first batch and the two or three subsequent ones were selected because they are supposed to have the least need of government support in terms of housing, job placements,” Sombilla said.

Escalada said once stranded

Filipinos in Metro Manila are brought back to their provinces, the government can already resume the BP2. This is expected to happen in a month’s time.

Previously, Escalada reported that the government has received 79,746 applications. This includes 79,648 online applications and 98 on-site applications done via barangays.

Of the total, 43,750 were traveling alone and 35,996 were traveling together with their families.

The top destination in terms of province is Leyte, accounting for 12.51 percent of applications.

This was followed by Samar with 5.51 percent; Negros Occidental, 4.54 percent; Northern Samar, 3.63 percent; Camarines Sur, 3.03 percent.

The provinces in the top 10 included Eastern Samar with 2.99 percent followed by Zamboanga del Norte, 2.92 percent; Bohol, 2.82 percent; Southern Leyte, 2.78 percent; and Pangasinan, 2.78 percent.

Based on the data, applicants chose to go back to the provinces for employment; farming; and retailing. However, around 17.24 percent of them were still undecided.

Fertilizer…

Continued from A1

Dar said the contract requires prospective suppliers to deliver and distribute the urea fertilizers to the different municipalities covered by the rice resiliency project (RRP), the DA’s flagship program to boost domestic rice supply amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, he said the allegations thrown at DA failed to consider that the ABC includes the cost of fertilizer, transportation costs, incidental services and applicable taxes.

‘It’s overpriced’–groups

GROUPS like the Samahan ng Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) had claimed that the DA’s fertilizer procurement is overpriced as prevailing retail price of urea fertilizer in the market today is only about P850 to P880 per bag, which is P50 to P140 lower than the winning bids.

La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp. bagged the contract for the supply of urea fertilizer in three regions: Region 4-A (97,615 bags at P990 per bag); Region 6 (694,904 bags at P995 per bag) and Region 3 (911,073 bags at P995 per bag). On the other hand, Atlas Fertilizer was awarded the contract for the delivery of 107,498 bags of fertilizer to Region 7 after bidding P900 per bag.

Agriculture Undersecretary Waldo R. Carpio said the law doesn’t limit or stipulate a minimum number of bidders for a procurement to push through.

“Basta may nag-bid at nag-qualify sa [As long as there’s a bidder and this met the] specifications, we are bound to uphold what is in the law,” Carpio said.

“Kung isa lang ang nag-bid, as long as nag-comply siya kailangan natin ibigay sa kanya [If there’s only one bidder, as long as it complied, we have to award it],” Carpio added.

Carpio said DA is guided by the data from FPA and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in setting the ABC for the procurement; hence, they will not change the ABC for the bidding of the remaining lots.

The DA divided the procurement into 16 lots, with 4 of the lots having winning bidders who have been already awarded with contracts and have started delivering the fertilizer.

Dar argued that the retail prices of urea fertilizer declined after the DA undertook the procurement, which is the goal of the centralizing bidding.

“We started the bidding in April and that is the time that retail prices also started to go down. That’s the outcome of the process, retail prices declined,” he explained. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

BIR…

Continued from A1

frontline services, including taxpayer registration, filing, payment and customer service processes, that cater to micro and small enterprises, including self-employed individuals and professionals.

The BIR received over 170 proposals for the competition.

“The BIR is fully committed to innovate and elevate the taxpayer experience and automate to allow “anytime-and-anywhere” tax services for taxpayers by 2022.

The expansion of electronic and digital platforms for tax filing payments increases taxpayer compliance, fosters transparency, and promotes the shift to digital transactions as we continue to adapt government services to the new normal,” Dulay said.

Dominguez said the Hack-A-Tax challenge is “emblematic of the bureau’s achievements in digital transformation and of how it seeks to continue to innovate to improve both tax administration and the taxpayer experience.”

He also congratulated the participants and winners of the Hack-A-Tax competition and thanked the BIR’s privatesector partners in this initiative, namely, PayMaya, led by its founder and CEO Orlando Vea; and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Philippines represented by Mission Director Lawrence Hardy II.

The top three winners of the competition, which were selected from a roster of 12 top finalists, were ChatGenie, grand prize; eConnect, 1st runner-up; and Third Channel, 2nd runner-up.

The winners received the following: P300,000 for the grand prize, P200,000 for the 1st runner up, and P100,000 for the 2nd runner up.

ChatGenie also won P50,000 as recipient of the PayMaya Special Award.

In addition, the winners can potentially be admitted to partner start-up incubator programs or receive seed funding from venture-capital partners.

Hack-A-Tax is also co-organized with the Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon) along with several private-sector partners including Microsoft Philippines, Oracle Philippines, Amazon Web Services, Google Philippines, Talino Venture Labs, PayMaya Philippines Inc., Union Bank of the Philippines, and Golden Arches Development Corp. (McDonald’s Philippines). It is also supported by the Tax Management Association of the Philippines, Center for Strategic Reforms Philippines, and the Ateneo de Manila University.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

House probes SAP distribution delay

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

T

HE House of Representatives on Monday directed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to immediately review and assess the causes of delay in the implementation of Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

During the joint hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and House Committee on Public Accountability, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said shortcomings in the implementation of SAP were topped by the adoption of a “complicated” 30-step SAP process from the selection of qualified beneficiaries to the actual release of funds to the chosen recipients.

According to Cayetano, the 30step SAP process has caused delays and led the DSWD to “miss distribution deadlines twice” and eventually defer the payout of the second tranche due for the month of May. The House Speaker said the DSWD prescribed a lengthy and complicated procedure requiring a total of 30 steps and five layers of approval with an estimated completion time of three weeks.

The steps included obtaining certifications from barangays that the applicant-residents were in need of assistance; validation of the Special Amelioration Card (SAC) forms by the barangays, as well as by city or municipal social welfare officers and by the mayors; review by cities, or municipalities, of completeness and correctness of data for submission to the DSWD central office; another review of submitted documents by designated DSWD personnel; and coordination by local government units (LGU), following their receipt of SAP funds, with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and request of assistance from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police.

Besides the long bureaucratic pro-

cess, Cayetano also raised the issues on slow and inadequate aid, alleged corruption, DSWD’s insensitive to vulnerable sectors, duplication of beneficiaries and confusion among local governments and barangays.

Cayetano also said there has been a failure in communication with the DSWD regional directors as some LGUs have complained that they were not open to suggestions from local officials.

During the hearing, DSWD Undersecretary Danilo Pamonag admitted that the agency has encountered challenges in implementing the first tranche of SAP such as emergence of wait-listed beneficiaries caused by prioritization, mobility constraint to geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, exposure of SAP implementers to health risks and presence of security threats.

Pamonag also noted stringent validation process of LGUs in determining eligible beneficiaries. “[We] experienced mobility constraints due to geographical difficulties and lack of sea and air transportation support in the distribution of SAP,” he said.

Pamonag said SAP implementers are also facing risk of contracting Covid-19, saying observance of the 14-day quarantine caused delay in SAP distribution.

He added security threats posed by the presence of rebel forces and Muslim clan wars led to payout postponement and some government forces were ambushed, or harassed by rebel forces. “ Threats and intimidations against SAP implementers by disgruntled individuals hindered t he d istr ibution of subsidy,” Pamonag added.

But he said 1,560 out of 1,634 LGUs have already completed their payouts to low-income families.

For the second tranche of SAP, Pamonag said the DSWD has started the payout last June 11 with 4Ps beneficiaries and waitlisted families in the Cordillera

Administrative Region.

The investigation was conducted by the chamber after Cayetano, Deputy Speakers Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Raneo Abu, Dan Fernandez and Neptali Gonzales II; accounts committee Chairman Abraham Tolentino; Metro Manila development committee Chairman Manuel Luis Lopez; Deputy Majority Leader Cristal Bagatsing and health committee Vice Chairman Ruth Mariano Hernandez have filed House Resolution 973 to look into the undue delay in SAP distribution.

The lawmakers also said the requirement of SAC were “too long, tedious and intimidating” for the intended beneficiaries to accomplish.

They said it is also “arbitrary,” basing its “restrictive” master list of target recipients from the 2015 national consensus, which caused discrepancies between government data and those of local government units that were realistically based on the latest figures of community residents.

The lawmakers also said the DSWD also failed to “coordinate closely” with LGU officials on project implementation.

Moreover, Cayetano said, the House wants to hear from the DSWD “what their plans are, if, God forbids, a lockdown is imposed again, if they can distribute aid efficiently.”

“But that was the intention in giving the SAC forms house-tohouse, isn’t it? So, all of these issues have to be ventilated in the inquiry for the purpose of coming up with a better system,” he said.

He recalled that before Congress approved the Bayanihan Law last March 23, agencies promised to distribute the first tranche of P100 billion “in 10 days.”

“But what happened? The distribution for April was finished in May. They told us that P200 billion was needed to help 18 million poor and near-poor families: P100 billion for April and P100 billion for May,” Cayetano said.

Judges slam ‘abusive attacks, criticisms’ against judiciary after Ressa conviction

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

T

HE Philippine Judges Association (PJA) on Monday denounced “abusive attacks and criticisms” being thrown against the judiciary following the conviction for cyber liber of social news network Rappler executive editor Maria Ressa and a former news researcher.

In a news statement, the PJA, through its President Judge Felix Reyes of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Marikina City, said some of these criticisms even portrayed that the “rule of law in the country is broken and democracy is under threat.”

The PJA is the lone association of regional trial court judges recognized by the Supreme Court.

Judge Reyes said judges were compelled to speak out as the attacks against the judiciary were “vicious” and may lead to the public losing trust and confidence in the country’s judicial system.

“Abusive criticisms are unfounded innuendoes hurled against courts and judges erode the public’s trust and confidence on the very institution tasked to protect the people’s rights,” Judge Reyes added.

The PJA president also reminded the public that the main role of the judiciary in a functioning democracy is to settle controversies on the basis of facts and laws.

Facts, according to Judge Reyes, are established by evidence and the law is applied based on the facts established.

Judge Reyes reminded the losing party in a case before the trial court that there are still remedies under the law.

The PJA said the adherence to the judicial system “makes people rely upon courts with substantial certainty.”

Judge Reyes added that this would

also encourage the resolution of disputes in the courtroom rather than on the streets.

He said “personal attacks, criticisms laden with political threats, those that misrepresent and distort the nature and context of judicial decisions, those that are misleading, or without factual, or legal basis, and those that blame the judges for the ills of society, damage the integrity of the judiciary and threaten the doctrine of judicial independence.”

“These attacks do a grave disservice to the principle of an independent judiciary and mislead the public as the role of judges in a constitutional democracy, shaking the very foundation of our democratic government,” the PJA head added.

In a news statement following Ressa’s conviction last June 15, Rappler said “the decision marks not the rule of law, but the rule of law twisted to suit the interests of those in power who connive to satisfy their mutually beneficial personal and political agenda.”

Vice President Leni Robredo also joined critics of the decision, saying that it would send a “chilling” effect on the freedoms enjoyed by the ordinary citizen.

In convicting, Ressa and and her co-accused, Reynaldo Santos Jr., Manila RTC Branch 46 Presiding Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa took into consideration the failure of the defense to present Ressa and Santos to refute the charge against them despite the court’s earlier ruling that the evidence for the prosecution is competent and sufficient to sustain their indictment for violation of Section 4 (c) (4) of Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Judge Montesa indicated that it was a big blow to their case since Ressa and Santos are in the best position to tes-

tify that the article was published with good motives and justifiable ends.

The trial court sentenced both of them from six months up to six years of imprisonment.

They were also ordered to pay complainant-businessman Wilfredo Keng the amount of P400,000 as moral and exemplary damages.

The cyber libel case is just one of the many cases filed against Ressa and Rappler after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked its business registration due to violation of the constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership of mass media.

Ressa and other officials of Rappler are also indicted for tax evasion worth a total of P108 million, as well as for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law. Ressa has denied all the charges and accused the Duterte administration of political persecution due to Rappler’s critical reporting on the government’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.

In the same ruling, the judge reminded media men that while the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and of the press, such freedom is burdened with responsibility to “recognize the duty to air the other side and the duty to correct substantive errors promptly.”

“The right to free speech and freedom of the press cannot and should not be used as a shield against accountability. If a person is found violating this law in accordance with the parameters it provides, then he or she is penalized and will be held accountable,” the ruling read.

She added that the case does not involve the government, or any of its officials, as complainant to warrant accusation of political persecution but merely a case filed by a private individual against an online news organizations for malicious and defamatory imputations upon his person.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, June 23, 2020 A3

Philippines told to upgrade alternative learning system

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

DUCATION experts from the World Bank (WB) have underscored the urgency to upgrade the country’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) to transform the country’s basic education system amid the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

In a blog, WB Education specialist Takiko Igarashi, Senior Economist Pablo Acosta, and consultant Nicholas Tenazas said the ALS need a “comprehensive upgrade” that will allow it to obtain more resources and maximize the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT).

To date, the experts said, ALS teachers are shelling out their own money to support their needs as well as that of their students. Lessons are also conducted face-to-face in simple structures made by light materials, or even under the tree shade.

“This agenda is more important than ever, as Covid-19 disrupts the Philippines’s basic education system.

The first priority must be to provide

continuing learning opportunities for students and prevent them from dropping out of school,” the authors said.

The WB experts said operational funds for ALS only covered 60 percent of the cost. This often prompts teachers to close the gap using their own resources.

They added that apart from the lack of facilities, many ALS teachers also need to be given continuous professional development to ensure that students are receiving quality education.

However, the experts said, the Department of Education (DepEd) is aware of the challenges and has developed an ALS 2.0 road map with the WB in 2019.

“A stronger ALS can give those who leave the formal school system an extremely important second chance. We hope the lessons learned from our studies will improve the ALS for the Philippines and also help other developing countries that face similar challenges,” the experts said.

The experts explained that ALS is an education system supporting people who, for various reasons, have not received a minimum-desired level of formal education.

A primary component of ALS is the Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) Program, which allows learners to earn official certificates equivalent to regular school diplomas after passing a national exam.

In the last three years, the DepEd reported that on average, 130,000 learners passed the exam annually, a big jump from 58,000 passing per year between 2005 and 2015.

Their previous study found that thosewhopassedearnedapproximately P7,400 ($148)—or roughly 50 percent more monthly, compared with the average among high-school dropouts.

They were twice as likely to have full-time formal employment compared to those who did not pass the A&E, and 60 percent of ALS learners who passed the A&E secondary-level exam enrolled later in further education and training.

A4 Tuesday, June 23, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Deployment of sea-based, OFW rehires dips 53% in Jan to May period

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

HE deployment of sea-based and rehired overseas Filipino workers (OFW) also took a major hit this year due to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

This pulled down the total deployment figures from January to May of this year to just 460,264, or about 53 percent lower compared to the 973,740 deployed OFWs in the same period in 2019.

According to latest deployment data of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the number of Filipino seafarers, who were able to sail in international waters in the first five months, fell by a whopping 62.56 percent to

80,687 from 215,482 last year.

Rehires or OFWs who have pending employment contracts abroad were also deterred by the Covid-19 crisis as their numbers significantly fell.

Only 308,587 rehires left the country from January to May, or about half of the 618,710 from last year.

On Sunday, POEA already reported new hires suffered a significant blow during the same period

falling from 174,348 of last year to 70,990 this year.

Most of the reduction in the deployment figures happened on April and May after President Duterte placed the entire country under a state of national emergency because of the Covid-19, limiting travel of Filipinos.

In both months, at least 40 destination countries of OFWs also imposed their own entry restrictions.

These include Israel, Kingdom

of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Canada, Panama and Italy.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and migration experts have projected the low deployment figures for OFWs will continue this year as many countries still continue to contain Covid-19 incidents in their jurisdictions.

No large-scale collusion to commit graft in PhilHealth, Morales assures

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

P

HILHEALTH President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo C. Morales on Monday admitted there could be some bureaucratic “inefficiencies” within the state health insurer agency but belied allegations of large-scale collusion to commit graft.

PhilHealth, he said, processes a huge volume of claims that could go as high 50,000 on a daily basis.

He, however, stressed no organized group from within exists to defraud the agency.

“So sa laki ng number, volume ng transactions na ’yan, may mga inefficiencies but I can assure you that there is no group of people colluding with each other to defraud PhilHealth in the scale reported.

Wala. Meron tayong mga inefficiencies, meron tayong mali ang pagpasok ng dokumento, mali ang pag-fill up ng form but walang syndicate, or group of people, colluding to defraud the corporation at that scale,” Morales said in a Laging Handa briefing.

Morales came on the heels of Presidential spokesman Harry Roque’s “disappointment” over the lack of PhilHealth personnel who were held accountable for alleged irregular activities in the agency, referring to the WellMed dialysis scam wherein PhilHealth was made to pay millions in benefits to nonexistent patients.

Roque, who was a private lawyer at that time, was the legal counsel of two whistle-blowers of the said scam. He has also since alleged that the scam happened

with the alleged help of PhilHealth officials.

Roque started issuing statements related to PhilHealth after Morales said they might run out of funds if they will continue to implement the Universal Healthcare law next year because of the Covid-19 crisis.

Roque insisted that PhilHealth is experiencing fund woes because of the irregularities, which are still happening in the government-owned and -controlled corporation.

Responding to Roque’s remark that he will recommend that President Duterte invite Morales so they could discuss how they could address issues in PhilHealth, Morales said he thinks “it is premature to go to the President without a solution.”

The PhilHealth chief also reit-

erated the Commission on Audit’s confirmation that it cannot find P154 billion losses in any of the 2013-2017 audited financial statements of the state health insurer.

Despite this, Morales said he believes there is no issue between him and Roque, adding that they are maybe at a “different frequency but pointing at the same direction.”

“So, it is just expected that people will scrutinize the corporation. But we are ready for this. We are ready to answer all allegations and we have provided information, data to the agencies, to the National Bureau of Investigation, the Presidential Anti-Graft and Corruption Commission, the Commission on Audit and we continue to cooperate with them so open kami sa lahat ng

nagtatanong,” he said.

To resolve PhilHealth’s inefficiencies, Morales said they are working on an integrated, harmonized information system, noting that they are mov ing toward automation with a P2.5billion budget for information technology this year.

“There’s no health-care system in the world na hindi fraud free. Walang fraud-free kasi hindi natin maaalis ’yung person to person transaction between the physician and the patient but pwede nating i-reduce ’yan if we have a perfectly integrated and harmonized information system but ’yung information system is not going to happen overnight. It will take some time before that would

come into effect but ’yun lamang ang nakikita naming solution para sa mga inefficiencies at sa mga imperfections dito sa sistema natin,” he said.

He also assured the public that PhilHealth still has funds for this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, noting it can still continue the same level of services.

“Yes, we started the year with a reserve of P130 billion. Ang estimate namin na price tag sa Covid is about P40 billion. So far ang nabayaran namin until April this year is about P52.5 billion. Yes we have money. We will be fine for the year, for the year 2020 and then maybe until the middle of next year so there’s nothing to worry about,” he said.

Silver lining: Some companies are doing the right thing their only line of defense against the virus. It’s worth noting that many companies have done their part by donating their goods, or services, to help health-care workers. Some companies have switched their production to making masks, or PPEs. 3. Supporting local communities Some organizations are providing relief to the areas their employees and communities have been most impacted, like providing food and health assistance, recycling programs, community cleanups, blood drives, etc.

4. Taking care of employees While the unemployment rate has continued to spike, some employers have taken steps to protect their employees from both a financial and health standpoint.

5. Keeping services going On the consumer side of things, telecommunications companies are doing their part to help customers who may have fallen on hard financial times. The same goes for power and water suppliers.

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By Henry J. Schumacher

IMES of crisis have a way of shining a light on an organization’s true colors.

Although fear, change, and health concerns have experienced all-time highs and lows over the past few months, there have more recently been moments where humanity comes together, and for a split second, it feels like things are going to be okay.

Let’s talk about one of the silver linings of the current global pandemic: Companies that are doing the right thing.

The good (read: heartwarming) news is that quite many companies are stepping up to help during this time of need.

This is particularly special to us in the Integrity Initiative, not only because it is our mission (empowering organizations to do the right thing) but also because this is truly the standard that organizations should be held to. Now more than ever, ethics matter. How your organization navigates Covid-19 matters.

I have seen a good number of companies in the Philippines who have been and still are contributing to the greater good during the pandemic (again: silver lining) so I will focus on some inspiring ways that organizations are doing the right thing: 1. Pivoting to hand sanitizer As the pandemic emerged, consumers began clearing shelves of hand sanitizers quickly causing shortages. A handful of unexpected heroes have helped by pivoting factories to produce the much-needed solution and donating it to health-care workers who needed supplies the most.

2. Making masks Maskshavebecomeanothercriticaliteminshortsupply.

While the debate over who should wear masks went on for weeks, medical workers and hospitals ran critically low on

6. Designing ventilators According to the latest numbers, 10 percent of patients infected by Covid-19 will require respiratory support machines. Companies across many industries have answered the global call for ventilators, and while these companies are not expected to profit from this pivot, it does help secure the employment for their staff at a time when many would otherwise have to shut down production.

7. Making substantial donations Another way organizations are helping during this time is financially, by making generous donations to Covid-19 relief efforts.

8. Keeping classroom learning With the shelter in place and lockdown orders in place, not only has work shifted online (where possible) but schools and education have been severely interrupted as they transition to a new virtual learning format. To help ease these transitions, a few companies have stepped up to the plate.

9. Working on a solution While making a medical breakthrough has obvious financial benefits, this does not diminish the value that it would provide worldwide. The good news is biotech companies globally are responding faster than ever to emerging health threats with 21 companies currently working on a vaccine or treatment. Organizations in the Philippines have joined the hunt for solutions.

How is your organization doing the right thing?

THANKS go to each and every company doing something to help through the crisis. It has been very uplifting to see organizations of all sizes leap to humanity’s aid.

We need silver linings these days. Keep them coming. If your companies have contributed along the silver linings shown above or beyond, let me know so that I can publish it—contact me at schumacher@eitsc.com

Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

Reusable cups, bags safe to use during Covid-19–Greenpeace

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eusable products are safe to use even during the coronavirus pandemic as long as basic hygiene practices are employed, according to Greenpeace USA Inc. Single-use plastic is not inherently safer than reusable products as the virus can remain infectious on both surfaces for varying time, Greenpeace said in a statement endorsed by over 100 health experts around the globe. Either reusable or disposable, they can be cleaned with widely used household disinfectants, such as soap and detergent, it said.

Concern over virus transmission has spurred consumption of single-use plastic products globally, including personal protective gear, medical equipment and delivery packaging. The resurgence in the use of disposable materials will have negative impact on the environment and undermine

years-long global efforts to curb plastic pollution, according to Greenpeace.

“It’s been shocking to witness the plastic industry take advantage of the pandemic to promote throwaway plastics,” Graham Forbes, Greenpeace USA global project leader, said. “It is crucial for businesses and governments to know that as they reopen, reusable systems can be deployed safely to protect both our environment and workers and customers.”

The pandemic has renewed commitment to hygiene, which has helped drive sales of plastic like polystyrene as consumers relegate environmental priorities in an effort to stay clear of the virus. About 15 million tons of polystyrene are produced globally every year, which is used in cars and hospital ventilators as well as takeaway coffee cups and food packaging. Bloomberg News

Temperature hits 100 F degrees in Arctic Russia

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OSCOW—A Siberian town with the world’s w idest temperat u re range has recorded a new high amid a heat wave that is contributing to severe forest fires.

T he temperat u re i n Verkhoya nsk h it 38 deg rees Celsius (10 0.4°F) on Sat urd ay, accord ing to Pogod a i K l imat, a website t hat compi les Russia n meteorolog ica l d at a.

The town is located above the Arctic Circle in the Sakha Republic, about 4,660 kilometers (2,900 miles) northeast of Moscow.

The town of about 1,300 residents is recognized by the Guinness World Records for the most extreme temperature range, with a low of minus-68 °C (minus-90°F) and a previous high of 37.2° C (98.96 F).

Much of Siberia this year has had unseasonably high temperatures, leading to sizable wildfires.

In the Sakha Republic, more t ha n 275,0 0 0 hect a res (680,0 0 0 acres) a re bu r ning , accord ing to Av i a lesok hra na, t he gover nment agenc y t hat monitors forest f ires. AP

South Korea urges North not to send leaflets amid tensions

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EOUL , South Korea— South Korea on Monday urged North Korea to scrap a plan to launch propaganda leaf lets across the border, after the North said it’s ready to f loat 12 million leaf lets in what would be the largest such psychological campaign against its southern rival.

Animosities on the Korean Peninsula rose sharply last week, after North Korea destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office on its territory in anger over South Korean civilian leaf leting against it. North Korea said it will f ly propaganda leaf lets and take other steps to nullify 2018 deals to ease tensions at the border.

Yoh Sangkey, a spokesman at Seoul ’s Unification Ministry, told reporters that North Korea must suspend its plan to send anti-Seoul leaf lets that “are not helpful to South-North (Korea) relations at all.”

Earlier Monday, North Korea said it had manufactured 12 m i l l ion propaga nd a lea f lets to be f loated toward South Korea aboard 3,000 balloons and other unspecified deliver y equipment.

“Our plan of distributing the leaf lets against the enemy is an eruption of the unquenchable anger of all the people and the whole society,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. “The time for retaliatory punishment is drawing near.”

Some obser vers say ongoing weather conditions aren’t favorable for North Korea to f ly propaganda balloons to South Korea so that it may use drones to launch them. T hey say this could trig ger clashes between

the Koreas because South Korea must respond to incoming drones to its territor y.

South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong- doo told lawmakers on Monday that his military respond to potential North Korean leafleting depends on what delivery equipment the North would use.

A South Korean activist recently said he would also drop about a million leaf lets over the border around T hursday, the 70th anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War. South Korean officials have said they’ l l ban civ i lian activ ists from launching balloons toward North Korea.

Experts say North Korea is likely using the South Korean civilian leaf leting as a chance to boost its internal unity and apply more pressures on Seoul and Washington amid stalled nuclear diplomacy.

In 2018, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to halt any hostile acts against each other along their border, including psychological warfare such as leafleting and propaganda broadcasts. But their agreement didn’t clearly say whether civilian leaf leting would also be banned, and South Korean activists subsequently kept launching huge balloons c a r r y i ng le a f let s c r it ic a l of North Korea’s nuclear program and human rights record.

North Korea recently released photos showing cigarette butts littered on leaflets with the image of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which it said would fly south. A message in the leaflets said Moon “ruined North-South [Korean] agreements.” AP

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

A5

WHO reports largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases

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ENEVA—The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours.

The UN health agency said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the US next at 36,617.

India has over 15,400 cases.

Experts said rising case counts can reflect multiple factors, including more widespread testing as well as broader infection.

O vera l l i n t he pa ndem ic , WHO reported 8,708,008 cases—183,020 in the last 24 hours— with 461,715 deaths worldwide, with a daily increase of 4,743.

More than two-thirds of those new deaths were reported in the Americas.

In Spain, officials ended a national state of emergency after three months of lockdown, allowing its 47 million residents to freely travel around the country for the first time since March 14.

The country also dropped a 14-day quarantine for visitors from Britain and the 26 European countries that allow visa-free travel.

But there was only a trickle of travelers at Madrid-Barajas Airport, which on a normal June day would be bustling.

“This freedom that we now have, not having to justify our journey to see our family and friends, this was something that we were really looking forward to,” Pedro Delgado, 23, said after arriving from Spain’s Canary Islands.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged people to take maximum precautions: “The virus can return and it can hit us again in a second wave, and we have to do whatever we can to avoid that at all cost.”

At a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said Saturday the US has tested 25 million people, but the “bad part” is that it found more cases.

“When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please’.”

W hite House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on CNN that Trump was being “tongue-incheek” and made the comment in a “light mood.”

Democratic rival Joe Biden’s campaign accused Trump of “putting politics ahead of the safety and economic well-being of the American people.”

The US has the world’s highest number of reported infections, over 2.2 million, and the highest death toll, at about 120,000, according to Johns Hopkins. Health officials say robust testing is vital for tracking outbreaks and keeping the virus in check.

In England, lockdown restrictions prevented druids, pagans and partygoers on Sunday from watching the sun rise at the ancient circle of Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. English Heritage, which runs the site, livestreamed it instead. A few people gathered outside the fence.

“You can’t cancel the sunrise,” druid A rthur Pendragon told the BBC. The number of confirmed virus cases is still growing rapidly not only in the US but in Brazil, South Africa and other countries, especially in Latin America.

Brazil’s Health Ministry said the total number of cases had risen by more than 50,000 in a day.

President Jair Bolsonaro has been downplaying the risks even as his country has seen nearly 50,000 fatalities, the second-highest death toll in the world.

South Africa reported a one-day high of almost 5,000 new cases

on Saturday and 46 deaths. Despite the increase, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a further loosening of one of the world’s strictest lockdow ns. Casinos, beauty salons and sit-down restaurant service will reopen.

In the United States, the virus appears to be spreading across the West and South. Arizona reported over 3,100 new infections, just short of Friday’s record, and 26 deaths. Nevada also reported a new high of 445 cases.

In Europe, a single meatpacking plant in Germany has had over 1,000 cases, so the regional government issued a quarantine for all 6,500 workers, managers and family members.

In Asia, China and South Korea reported new coronavirus cases on Sunday in outbreaks that threatened to set back their recoveries.

Chinese authorities recorded 25 new confirmed cases—22 in Beijing. In the past week, Beijing tightened travel controls by requiring anyone who wants to leave the Chinese capital, a city of 20 million people, to show proof they tested negative for the virus.

In South Korea, nearly 200 infections have been traced to employees at a door-to-door sales company in Seoul, and at least 70 other infections are tied to a table tennis club there. But South Korean officials are reluctant to enforce stronger social distancing to avoid hurting the economy. AP

Second wave of Covid-19 cases? Experts say we’re still in the 1st

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hat’s all this talk about a “second wave” of US coronavirus cases? In The Wall Street Journal last week, Vice President Mike Pence wrote in a piece headlined “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave’” that the nation is winning the fight against the virus.

Many public health experts, however, suggest it’s no time to celebrate. About 120,000 Americans have died from the new virus and daily counts of new cases in the US are the highest they’ve been in more than a month, driven by alarming recent increases in the South and West.

But there is at least one point of agreement: “Second wave” is probably the wrong term to describe what’s happening.

“When you have 20,000plus infections per day, how can you talk about a second wave?” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. “We’re in the first wave. Let’s get out of the first wave before you have a second wave.”

Clearly there was an initial infection peak in April as cases exploded in New York City.

After schools and businesses were closed across the country, the rate of new cases dropped somewhat.

But “it’s more of a plateau, or a mesa,” not the trough after a wave, said Caitlin Rivers, a disease researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security.

Scientists generally agree the nation is still in its first wave of coronavirus infections, albeit one that’s

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020 file photo, a fence outside Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery is adorned with tributes to victims of Covid-19 in New York. The memorial is part of the Naming the Lost project which attempts to humanize the victims who are often just listed as statistics. The wall features banners that say, “Naming the Lost” in six languages—English, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Hebrew and Bengali. Some worry a large new wave of coronavirus might occur in the fall or winter of 2020—after schools reopen, the weather turns colder and less humid, and people huddle inside more. AP/Mark Lennihan

dipping in some parts of the country while rising in others.

“This virus is spreading around the United States and hitting different places with different intensity at different times,” said Dr. Richard Besser, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who was acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when a pandemic flu hit the US in 2009.

Dr. Arnold Monto, a University of Michigan flu expert, echoed that sentiment.

“What I would call this is continued transmission with flare-ups,” he said.

Flu seasons sometimes feature a second wave of

infections. But in those cases, the second wave is a distinct new surge in cases from a strain of flu that is different than the strain that caused earlier illnesses.

That’s not the case in the coronavirus epidemic.

Monto doesn’t think “second wave” really describes what’s happening now, calling it “totally semantics.”

“Second waves are basically in the eye of the beholder,” he said.

But Besser said semantics matter, because saying a first wave has passed may give people a false sense that the worst is over.

Some worry a large wave of coronavirus might occur this

fall or winter—after schools reopen, the weather turns colder and less humid, and people huddle inside more.

That would follow seasonal patterns seen with flu and other respiratory viruses.

And such a fall wave could be very bad, given that there’s no vaccine or experts think most Americans haven’t had the virus.

But the new coronavirus so far has been spreading more episodically and sporadically than flu, and it may not follow the same playbook.

“It’s very difficult to make a prediction,” Rivers said.

“We don’t know the degree to which this virus is seasonal, if at all.” AP

A6 Tuesday, June 23, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Bicycle-friendly

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T took a pandemic for the government to seriously promote bicycle riding for everyday transport and consider ways to ensure the safety and convenience of bicycle riders. Better late than never.

The Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) have started constructing protected bicycle lanes along Edsa, which they hope to finish this week.

MMDA Spokesman Celine Pialago said the bicycle lanes would be 1.2 meters wide.

The Move as One transport coalition said the bicycle lanes must be made wider. “A lane width of only one meter is dangerous for cyclists. The Netherlands Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic requires a bicycle lane width of 2 meters, while the Indonesian Public Works standards stipulate a minimum bicycle lane width of 1.5-1.75 meters,” it said. “Incorporating bicycles in the same road space can move 3-4 times more people than the same space used by cars. Edsa would achieve much higher people throughput.”

While Metro Manila has a long way to go before it could become as bicyclefriendly as Amsterdam or Copenhagen, the MMDA, at least, is on the right track.

Bicycle riding has become the most convenient way to get around cities amid various quarantine measures in the absence of adequate public transportation, but it is not exactly the safest, because our cities are not bicycle-friendly.

We hope the local government units in Metro Manila, as well as those in other urban centers around the country, would follow the MMDA’s lead and also build bicycle-friendly infrastructure in and around their jurisdictions, which include bicycle lanes, routes and trails, and even safe bicycle parking spaces, showers and changing facilities for cyclists. They could even work together to link the bicycle lanes and routes and integrate these for longer commutes across cities.

Bicycle lanes are not new, of course. Many of our cities have them already.

But having a sign that says “bicycle lane” with lines along the roads or streets doesn’t quite cut it. What we need is a complete, continuous, protected and interconnected network of roads or tracks exclusive for bicycles, so that when a cyclist-commuter wants to go to work from Quezon City to Makati, for instance, he or she won’t be in any danger of getting run over or sideswiped by a car, bus or jeepney.

For instance, Marikina has 50 kilometers of bicycle paths that are built along its major thoroughfares that run parallel with its rivers and creeks, and that go in and around its subdivisions. It even has an office called the Marikina Bicycleway’s Office to look after cyclists’ needs.

In 1999, Marikina got a $1.3-million grant from the World Bank to promote bicycle-riding as an alternative means of transport. The mayor of the city then, Bayani Fernando, used the money along with local counterpart funds to build a bicycle network for the city.

It’s not just the bicycle paths that are laudable but also the policies that went along with it to increase the number of bicycle users compared to road users in the city. Among such policies were various clinics to teach young and old alike how to ride a bicycle safely, bicycle lending programs and even a bicycle loan for city government employees.

Fernando would later be appointed MMDA chairman. He said he hoped to replicate the same bicycle infrastructure in his city for the entire Metro Manila, but that didn’t happen. While the pandemic has shut down public transportation and taken many private vehicles off roads—visibly clearing the air in our cities and simultaneously making bicycles the ideal commuting tool—what would happen when most cars, buses and jeepneys are back on our roads?

The government must ensure that the bicycle-friendliness of the metropolis and various cities around the country is here to stay. Of course, significantly improving the safety of mass transportation should still be the DOTr’s priority during this pandemic. But having a comprehensive bicycle road network is complementary to this goal, and it is not that expensive to do, especially considering the billions in taxes and debts that are spent on new roads for motor vehicles.

We should not waste our clean-air gains, one of the few silver linings during this pandemic. Providing the right environment for bicycle riding can encourage more people of all ages to ride bicycles to go to school or work, or just for recreation and errands. This will not only save millions of pesos in fuel costs but also lead to healthier, pollution-free and more livable cities.

Since 2005

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It’s time to revisit our Covid-19 strategy Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur

T

he recent spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines should prompt our health authorities to reassess their strategy in battling the pandemic. Learning from the experiences of other countries like China, for one, will intelligently guide us in significantly containing the virus outbreak and reopening the economy at the same time, with lesser risks.

The nation has to pause from its current but widespread restrictive quarantine measures. Covid-19 cases are increasing in recent days despite these lockdown measures.

Our health authorities, thus, must pinpoint where the great number of cases are coming from, instead of extending the quarantine period even in areas where Covid-19 cases have sharply slowed.

Perhaps, we should conduct a “surgical operation” in monitoring Covid-19 cases. Covid-19 will be here for much longer but we can effectively contain it through different tactics.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, for example, can isolate a village or barangay that has reported a spike in Covid-19 cases and impose strict quarantine measures on the subject area. The strict measures should be implemented only in the isolated case. They should not be imposed on a general and wider area, like Metro

Manila or a region. Shutting down a wider area or an entire region will lead to an economic collapse, such as what we saw in March, April and May. China’s experience in handling the second wave of the outbreak, meanwhile, will provide us a better input in handling the outbreak.

The Covid-19 infection reemerged in Beijing at the Xinfadi wholesale food market. The Chinese government immediately responded by closing down the market and sealing off dozens of communities around the area to contain the spread. Chinese authorities swiftly conducted mass testing and told residents to avoid nonessential travel.

China merely isolated the new virus epicenter and avoided a restrictive, widespread lockdown of the whole of Beijing.

The chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the new outbreak had been “brought under

Follow the red dot John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

I

F you are in a particularly evil mood and wish to torment another living creature, you can do this. Get a cat, a laser pointer, and a wall. Some assembly required. Plus you get the added exhilaration of manipulating the cat in a way known only to the gods of Olympus. Finally, you are able to show your superiority over the lesser beasts of the field.

Once you have mastered the art of moving the red dot up the wall and across the floor, you may grow tired of cats. You might want to move up the food chain to the most noble of beasts: humans.

People like to hear or read uncomplicated things. Understand that while the tool might be different, manipulating people is not that much different from cats. The cat does not have any comprehension of how the pointer works and is only interested

in the red dot. With people, the laser pointer is replaced with a word or two. That is particularly true about anything involving money.

Everyone can understand what “Low, Low Payments” means. When it comes to debt amortization, “low, low” is incredibly good and obviously should be taken advantage of at all times. What could possibly go wrong with having a new television set or especially a shiny brand new car? After all, it’s “low, low payments” time.

control” after swift measures and effective contract tracing.

We can do the same here in the Philippines by identifying cluster areas with spikes in Covid-19 cases.

Our Department of Health data should guide us in conducting surgical lockdowns. Cebu City, it seems, is now the new epicenter of the virus.

Cebu City, as of June 18, had the most number of coronavirus cases with 3,216, followed by Quezon City (2,800), Manila (1,776), Makati City (814) and Caloocan City (802). Cebu City also registered the most number of new coronavirus cases in the past 14 days with 855, followed by Cebu province (253), Manila (222), Quezon City (215) and Caloocan City (96).

By isolating communities and reviewing the response of the local government to Covid-19, we can pinpoint the problem, effectively stop the spread of the virus and go ahead in reopening the economy.

Italy is doing the same. It has monitored a high number of new cases of Covid-19 in some regions, with Lazio, the region that includes the capital Rome, topping the new outbreak. The Italian government noted the re-emergence of the virus but immediately placed the situation under control.

The Philippines has fared better than Italy in handling the spread of the virus but this does not mean we should lower our guard. The virus will stay with us and in the rest of the world unless a vaccine is discovered soon to neutralize it.

We are now much prepared to prevent the spread of the coronavi-

rus. Our increased testing capacity, the completion of more isolation and quarantine facilities and the declining mortality rate among infected Filipinos are solid proof that the government is making significant progress in containing Covid-19, while allowing the economy to reopen gradually.

The government and the Department of Public Works and Highways during the almost 11-week enhanced community quarantine period teamed up with the private sector in building temporary health facilities called “We Heal as One” centers.

These facilities are designed to augment medical centers, so that only the most serious cases are treated in emergency rooms and intensive care units of hospitals. I must say that these preparations have prevented our hospitals from being overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases.

While cases continue to increase, we should note an emerging positive trend. The number of recoveries from coronavirus now far exceeds the number of deaths. The Department of Health reported 268 recoveries and only five deaths on June 17. At the rate the trend is going, we can soon expect recoveries to also outnumber new virus cases.

I’d like to be optimistic. We can win this battle as long as we adapt to the emerging Covid-19 numbers. We have to be flexible and find a formula for containing the virus spread and moving the economy forward as well.

For the past few years, it has been said over and over that Americans just do not have any savings to speak of. The political agenda narrative has been that this is from the fact that the Trump administration economy is so terrible. Excerpt from Forbes.com on January 6, 2016 before Trump took office: “63 percent Of Americans Don’t Have Enough Savings to Cover a $500 Emergency,” “Around 25 percent of US adults say they have no emergency savings at all.”

In 2012 the US household debt to GDP was 80 percent and it has fallen now to 75 percent, which is a reasonable change. But the savings rate has been constant at about 7.5 percent.

But do not think that the household debt is for buying food and toys for the kids. In 2012, 80 million had an automobile loan; in 2019 that number had risen to 116 million. The average balance due on car loans is $32,480 at an average interest rate of 8 percent.

So now that the brown stuff hit the fan, “A new survey [June 3, 2020] finds that Americans regret their lack of emergency funds to with-

stand the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. The Bank Rate survey found that 23 percent of Americans rate that as their biggest regret.”

And you thought your cat was not very smart for following the red dot.

The younger generations may be incredibly “woke” but not when it comes to money. “Not enough emergency savings was the top financial regret for millennials (24 percent) and Generation X (25 percent).”

But you have to give all these “rich” Americans praise for knowing what the problem is. “When it comes to getting finances in order while moving forward, the top financial priority was paying down debt followed by saving more for emergencies.”

Did your cat even hit his head falling off the wall and decided chasing the red dot was not such a great idea? He is smarter than the average American consumer.

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail. com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stockmarket information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

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No tax on condo dues–GPP advances next?

‘Our democracy will die without press freedom’ Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

Atty. Irwin C. Nidea Jr.

Tax law for business

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F you are living in a condominium or in a village that collects condominium or association dues, and value-added tax (VAT) is imposed on your bill, it is time to inform your homeowner’s association to stop this practice and file a claim for refund with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). The homeowner’s association must also try to recover the erroneously paid income tax.

The Supreme Court recently ruled in the First E-Bank Condominium case (GR 215801), that condominium association dues, fees, and other charges are not subject to income tax, VAT, and withholding tax. It held that RMC 65-2012, which was issued by the BIR to collect these taxes, is invalid.

The SC decision made the following important points: 1. A condominium corporation is not engaged in trade or business. A condominium corporation is not designed to engage in activities that generate income or profit. Under the Condominium Act, the corporate purpose of a condominium is limited to holding the common areas, management of the project, and such other necessary, incidental, or convenient purposes. It is allowed under the same Act to collect association dues, fees, and other charges purely for the benefit of the condominium owners. It is necessary to effectively oversee, maintain, or even improve the common areas of the condominium as well as its governance.

2. Association dues, fees, and other charges do not constitute profit or gain. The expenditures incurred by the condominium corporation on behalf of the condominium owners are not intended to generate revenue nor equate to the cost of doing business. The association dues, fees, and other charges are collected purely for the benefit of the condominium owners and are incidental to condominium corporation’s responsibility to oversee, maintain, or even improve the common areas of the condominium as well as its governance.

3. Association dues, fees, and other charges do not arise from performance of trade or business. When a condominium corporation manages, maintains, and preserves the common areas of the building, it only does so for the benefit of the condominium owners. It cannot be said to be engaged in trade or business. In collecting such fees, the condominium corporation is not selling its service to the condominium owners nor are the condominium owners buying goods and/or services from the condominium corporation when the dues are paid. Hence, there is no economic or commercial activity to speak of.

4. If there is no income tax, withholding tax cannot be collected. Only income, be it active or passive, earned by a payor-corporation can be subject to withholding tax.

For almost a decade, the BIR has been imposing an invalid tax. What can you do to recover your erroneous

payments? You can file a claim for refund. But the Tax Code provides that a taxpayer must file a claim for refund within two years from the erroneous payment, regardless of any supervening event. In other words, the condominium or village associations can only recover from the BIR, up to two years of the illegally collected VAT and income tax on the association dues. So, illegally collected payments that were made before that are lost.

If the SC invalidated the imposition of tax on condominium dues, it may also strike down issuances that are of similar nature. One of them is tax on deposits and cash advances received from a client by a general professional partnership (GPP), like accounting firms and law firms under RMC 89-2012 and RMC 16-2013.

These circulars provide that when a GPP or other taxpayer receives a deposit or advance from a client, it must issue an Official Receipt (OR).

The deposit or cash advance must be recorded as income and shall be subject to VAT. The client who made the cash advance or deposit may deduct the same as an expense, provided an OR was issued in the client’s name.

Although a GPP is engaged in business, unlike a condominium association, cash advances or deposits made by a GPP’s client is not an income of a GPP as association dues are not income of a condominium association.

They do not constitute profit or gain.

Deposits are usually used to pay for necessary expenses, like filing and registration fees. GPPs also pay in advance the necessary expenses in behalf of client, like transportation expense of its personnel in processing documents. They secure reimbursement from clients to recover these out of pocket expenses later on.

Following the SC ruling on condominium dues, it can be argued that RMC 89-2012 and RMC 16-2013 must be invalidated next. But until these issuances are questioned and declared void by the SC, GPPs have no choice but to continue recording deposits and advances as income and impose VAT on them, to its detriment, but of course to the benefit of the government.

The author is a senior partner of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a memberfirm of WTS Global.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at irwin.c.nideajr@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 local 330.

R

ecent court decisions seem to debunk the generally held view that the judiciary is the bulwark of individual liberty.

Gone was the time when the courts served as the most independent institution to protect the rights of the individual. Once considered as the bastion of freedom, the courts were seen by our people as the safe harbor that secure them from any assault of their liberties.

Now, the general public hardly regards the judges as the ever-vigilant sentinels of the people’s rights. Undaunted and uncompromising, the men in robes are expected to dispense justice without fear or favor and act independently at all times, beholden to no one even from the authority that appointed them to the bench. Judges should not pay obeisance to the ruling power, which only bolsters the fear of many that the rule of law is becoming a mirage in this country. It’s sad to note that in the international Rule of Law Index in 2020, our country’s rule of law score has steadily declined during the recent years. We need incorruptible, morally upright and impartial judges to uphold the rule of law in our country. As aptly observed by one legal scholar, “(A) judicial system is corrupt if truth is denied the right to be a witness.” The scale of justice should be balanced and should not tilt on the side of one party to the case. A judge should not check which side of the bread is buttered and render judgment that will curry favor from

those in power. The eyes of lady justice are covered so that she can decide the case without looking at future promotion or juicy position. We need bold and independent judges imbued with integrity and libertarian ideals if we want to restore the court’s primordial role as the vanguard of justice. nnn

The freedom of expression is among the most valued and cherished rights granted to an individual. It is readily available and can be wielded handily by any person regardless of his political belief and economic condition. History is replete with incidents where the tongue or pen had been the sharpest sword that exposed a despot or toppled a corrupt regime. No wonder, the freedom of expression is the first to be curtailed by the tyrants if they want to preserve their oppressive rule. The freedom of expression is anathema to an authoritarian regime. In his recent testimony before Congress investigating the alleged violations of ABS-CBN of its franchise, former

Bloomberg Opinion

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mpty supermarket shelves in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic have put grow-your-own back on the world’s agenda, and nowhere more so than in China, where ensuring food supplies for its huge population has been a political priority for decades. Simply diversifying imports may not satisfy hawkish voices. Emphasizing domestic production, though, will extract a heavy toll for a country with a fifth of the globe’s people, but roughly a

10th of arable land and less than 6 percent of water resources.

For a nation scarred by famine, it’s hard to overstate the importance of food security. That was true long before 1994, when US environmental pioneer Lester Brown drew international attention to the potential consequences of scarcities by asking who would feed China when it boomed.

Officials fear inflation as a potential cause of social and political instability—not without reason, given that rising prices helped provoke the Tiananmen Square protests. Agricultural imports, of course, have a

The freedom of expression is among the most valued and cherished rights granted to an individual. It is readily available and can be wielded handily by any person regardless of his political belief and economic condition. History is replete with incidents where the tongue or pen had been the sharpest sword that exposed a despot or toppled a corrupt regime.

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile admitted that one of the first actions of the Marcos regime was to clamp down ABS-CBN and the free press to ensure that there would be no ubiquitous press to question Martial Law. More than the courts, the fearless press has proved equal to its mandate of shielding our fundamental freedom. The press is healthy when there is no prior restraint on the expression and dissemination of news and ideas. Despite intimidation and repression, we still have intrepid newsmen and journalists who continue independent reporting. Rappler and ABS-CBN are two media organizations that have remained true and faithful to their profession. In reporting news, there is no substitute for facts. Factual coverage is the best antidote against fake news and massive disinformation.

With the proposed Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020, we need a more robust press to ensure truthful account of the events happening around us.

Our democracy will die without press freedom.

Article III, Section 4 of the Constitution provides: “No law shall be

We should not aim to return to normal

By Armida Alisjahbana & Inger Andersen

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he world before Covid-19 looks very attractive right now.

In light of the disease, mass unemployment and social distancing, a return to pre-pandemic normality seems appealing. Yet we should remember what normal was.

Normal was obtaining 85 percent of our energy from fossil fuels and losing 7 million people a year to air pollution.

Normal was careening toward a global temperature rise of over 3.5 C by the end of the century, with island nations facing obliteration.

Normal was 1 in 8 species threatened with extinction, continued squeezing of wild spaces into smaller and smaller corners, and the rampant illegal trade in wildlife.

Normal contributed to causing this pandemic.

We should also remember that Covid-19’s effects on health, jobs and economies are simply an acute version of what climate change is predicted to bring—and in places already has. Unless we aspire to a better normal with recovery, we are treating the symptom, not the disease. We must build back better than before.

Many governments are preparing stimulus and relief packages to support Covid-19 recovery. Trillions of dollars will be ushered into the economy across Asia and the Pacific.

These stimulus measures should help us achieve a better normal—a green-

er, more equitable normal. How? A recent survey of 230 economists in 53 countries suggests that green, climate-friendly stimulus measures are the best options for an economic rebound, offering the highest economic multipliers in the short- and long-terms.

Even before the pandemic, the UN determined that climate action could trigger $26 trillion in economic benefits by 2030, create more than 65 million new jobs and avoid 700,000 premature deaths from air pollution.

Governments have no shortage of options when it comes to directing a green, equitable stimulus package.

They can offer support to the construction industry to develop energy efficient and zero-energy buildings.

This is a high employment sector, and investments can be quickly implemented.

It may be tempting to scale up funds for infrastructure like roads, but that funding can go to improved and greener public transport systems to service more people. More public transit capacity will reduce the load on roads and reduce air pollution and emissions. The lockdown has shown it’s possible to lean more heavily on

China faces a rice bowl dilemma after Covid-19

By Clara Ferreira Marques

Tuesday, June 23, 2020 A7

tendency to become tangled in diplomatic spats.

The answer was historically a simple one: self-sufficiency, particularly in grains like wheat, rice and corn.

The idea has been hard to shake, even if the exact meaning of the phrase has softened over the years. Then came the 2020 pandemic, pressing everyone to fret about messy distribution chains. Officials freshened up plans and, projecting an image of self-reliance, Premier Li Keqiang told China’s parliament last month that it was imperative to ensure food supply, while rewarding grain-producing

counties and boosting the minimum purchase price for rice.

That doesn’t mean the country can simply set the clock back to 1996, when China outlined a strict grain self-sufficiency policy—or that it plans to. In part, what China is doing now is a regular rebalancing of the official position, says Thomas David DuBois at Beijing Normal University, who hosts the China Eats podcast.

For one, a back-to-the-future move would be nigh impossible. China has become a member of the World Trade Organization. Households eat

passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”

This sounds absolute but this is not the case. Every right must be exercised with due regards to the rights of others and subject to the limitations of the law. This is the reason why slander and libel are punished.

Likewise, obscene and contemptuous language is proscribed. The test for limitations on freedom of expression is “the clear and present danger rule.” The classic illustration of such a test is when someone shouts “Fire!” inside a crowded theater. Moreover, the Philippines is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Article 19 of which provides: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontier…”

It was John Stuart Mill in his writing “On Liberty” published in 1859 who first espoused the view that the true test of truth is its acceptance in the marketplace of ideas. This “marketplace of ideas” has become a powerful metaphor to advance the cause of freedom of expression and has been invoked in leading court decisions in many jurisdictions involving the issue of free expression.

Mill claimed that there should be free flow of ideas and their competition with one another is the best way to separate facts from falsehoods. If we live on falsehoods and fake news, we will remain forever in bondage. Only light can overcome darkness, and only truth shall set us free.

IT to decentralize business operations, reducing time lost and carbon produced in commutes and travel.

Governments should now consider incentives to companies that invest in IT solutions for their operations.

Many industries will be looking for bailouts to bounce back. There is no time like the present for governments to include terms that will require companies to work toward climate neutrality. Airlines supported by governments should be asked to make stronger commitments and take bolder action to reduce emissions, which will be needed anyway for the industry to guarantee longterm sustainability and employment for the millions who rely on it. The example is being set by those governments who have made their support dependent on energy efficiency targets and shifting short haul flights to rail.

Bailouts to the auto industry can be directed to investments in e-vehicle and battery production, and efficiency technology. Where bailouts should not happen is in the fossil fuel sector. Developing Asian countries account for nearly one-third of global fossil fuel subsidies. The Covid-19 recovery period is the right time to end these subsidies, and ensure there are no new investments in coal. The savings to governments can support investments in areas like public health and renewable energy. This is one answer to the question of where stimulus money will come from.

Across Asia and the Pacific, governments have scarce financial resources to apply toward recovery measures at the scale needed. This underlines that existing resources must be deployed to policies with the highest economic multipliers. It also implies that finding additional revenue will be a priority.

Putting a price on carbon emissions and reforming subsidies for agriculture and fossil fuels can be especially effective with oil prices at record lows, when the social impact of removing subsidies will be lessened. Measures like feebates— which impose a fee on high-carbon vehicles and give a rebate to lowcarbon cars—to incentivize greener transport and energy efficiency improvements provide more options for increasing revenue.

Green bonds can also finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Outside China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, green bonds are scarce in the region. Now is the time to capitalize on a proven idea to support a sustainable and resilient recovery from Covid-19.

Covid-19 is a message from nature. So is the ongoing climate crisis. Normal isn’t working. We need to build back better.

larger portions and tuck into more protein, increasing demand for grain to feed livestock. Imports of produce have climbed. While China has rice and wheat, it relies on overseas markets like the US, Brazil and Argentina for soybeans. It has also sought to increase meat imports after African swine fever hit pork production last year. Agricultural purchases have been key to a trade truce with Washington.

Certainly, the cost of past domestic ambitions has already been extortionate. In environmental terms, the damage has meant

fertilizers used at four times the global rate, degraded soil and scarce water. Then there’s the financial blow: According to the World Bank, input subsidies rose sevenfold between 2006 and 2010. By that final year, government support for producers amounted to 17 percent of gross farm receipts. This rising bill, along with other changes, including growing international clout, accounts for Beijing’s more balanced approach after late 2013, when policy began to lean toward imports, sustainability, investing abroad and modernizing at home.

Armida Alisjahbana is the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Inger Andersen is the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme.

A8 Tuesday, June 23, 2020

‘We Heal as One’ QC dorms ready end-June

PHL races to bring home from KSA bodies of OFWs

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HE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Task Force for Augmentation of Health Facilities is fast-tracking the construction of dormitories for hospital workers who are on the front lines of caring for Covid-19 patients.

Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said, “The ongoing construction of six dormitories each with 16 rooms and occupancy of two persons per room for a total capacity of 192 will be completed at the end of June 2020,” Villar noted.

“The living quarters are intended for hospital workers primarily from Quezon City-based hospitals such as National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center, East Avenue Medical Cen-

ter, Veterans Memorial Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and V. Luna General Hospital,” he added.

Amid the global pandemic, one of the biggest needs health-care providers have is space for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to rest between shifts.

“Quezon City is extremely grateful to have been chosen by the DPWH through the kindness and generosity of Secretary Mark Villar to be the recipient of the dormitories for health workers project. QC has the most number of hospitals among all the cities in the country and it is our duty and responsibility to look after our health workers as best as we can, so that they can be well enough to look after our needs during this health crisis,” Mayor Joy Belmonte noted.

INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (ITCZ) AFFECTING MINDANAO as of 4:00 am - June 22, 2020

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla & Recto Mercene @rectomercene

HE Philippines is chartering a cargo plane to bring home the bodies of hundreds of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who perished in Saudi Arabia, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.

“We’re getting a cargo flight to bring home bodies of about 200 OFWs from Saudi Arabia,” Locsin said during an interview Monday on ANC’s Headstart.

The 200-plus figure that Locsin provided is the same one cited at the weekend by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and excludes 52 OFWs who died from Covid-19. Their remains will not be repatriated and they will be buried in Saudi Arabia.

Later on Monday, however, Manila’s ambassador to the kingdom said the number of OFW Covid

deaths was actually at 107; and the total of OFW remains being processed by the embassy in Riyadh is at 353.

The Philippines is being pressured

by Saudi Arabia to bring home the OFW bodies following the 72-hour deadline given by King Salman. The Kingdom’s ultimatum was prompted by the pressures it also faces from its overflowing morgues, as bodies piled up in the past weeks owing to lockdowns at airports both in Saudi Arabia and the home countries of foreign workers.

In his TV interview on Monday, Locsin eased the fears of relatives in the Philippines that the Kingdom would cremate the bodies if these are not brought home to the country sooner.

“I’ve met the [Saudi Arabia] ambassador who assured me there’s nothing to fear that they will dispose of the bodies,” Locsin said, quoting the Saudi ambassador as saying: “No we don’t do that, there is no cremation.”

Muslim practices strictly forbid the cremation of the body as it is written in the Koran, but also require speedy burial.

Meanwhile, in an online press

briefing on Monday, Ambassador for KSA Adnan Alonto said there are now 107 OFWs who are among the Covid-19 fatalities in KSA, and the total of the deceased that they must process is 353. During the weekend, the DOLE said the figure of OFW Covid deaths was only at 52.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will provide benefits to the deceased OFWs’ families.

Roque said the OFWs who died from Covid-19 will no longer be repatriated since they will be buried in KSA instead.

As for the 246 other OFWs who died from natural causes, Alonto said the Philippine government is now processing their repatriation since the Saudi government gave them 72 hours to do so.

He said the Saudi government made the decision because its morgues and hospitals are suffering from overcapacity as KSA also deals with its own Covid-19 crisis.

Alonto explained the number of OFWs’ remains in KSA piled up because of the lockdown implemented by the Saudi government in the last three months, reducing the number of available flights to and from the Middle East country.

DOLE earlier said it is now coordinating with the OWWA to charter flights to repatriate the OFWs’ bodies.

When asked if it is true that there are two countries in the Middle East with the highest number of infections among overseas Filipino (OFs), Locsin said he is not allowed to name any country in particular but could generalize that it is in Africa and the Middle East.

Japan, S. Korea top leisure destinations of Filipinos

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EFORE the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Filipinos had been increasing their spending on holidays and vacations abroad, with an expectedly widening amount of extra funds for leisure and entertainment brought by an expanding economy.

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak this year, outbound tourism expenditure had been rising and reached an all-time high of P341.56 billion (current prices) in 2019, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed. This represented a 2.6-percent growth which, however, was a slowdown from the 8.4-percent rise in 2018, and 42 percent in 2015. The latter was the largest increase in outbound tourism expenses recorded over a 19-year history.

Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) President Ritchie Tuaño said he is unable to explain the slowdown in growth last year, because his members’ have recorded more outbound travels.

“But it could be that people were more conservative in their spending abroad to be able to make two or more trips in a year,” he told the BusinessMirror.

He ruled out the possibility of the slowdown being foreign exchangerelated since the Philippine peso averaged P51.80 to the US dollar in 2019, compared to 2018, when the peso averaged P52.66. “If the peso gained strength over the dollar, the more people would spend [on their trips abroad],” he said.

Travel agencies usually quote vacation packages abroad in US dollars.

As per PTAA, the Filipinos’s top leisure destinations were Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Turkey.

“Japan has been the top destination for the past five to six years, and the demand has been sustained, if not increasing. There are many who make return trips to Japan,” said Tuaño.

He added, Japan and South Korea “are the closest countries that have four seasons. While China also has the same, Filipinos are more interested with Japan and Korea because of the people, culture, food and shopping. Also, Filipino travelers feel safer in these two countries.”

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NCR wage board defers pay hike talk indefinitely on Covid crisis

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INIMUM-WAGE earners in Metro Manila may have to wait until after the Covid-19 crisis before they can get a pay hike.

This after members of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) unanimously decided to indefinitely defer their stakeholder consultations and public hearing for the pending wage petition filed

by Unity for Wage Increase Now (U-WIN) on November 25, 2019.

U-WIN, which includes several labor groups, including Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), is seeking to increase the minimum-wage rate in NCR by P213.

RTWPB-NCR Sarah S. Mirasol said they decided to postpone the possible wage increase as most companies struggle to cope with the business disruptions caused by the community quarantine that the government imposed to contain Covid-19 in March.

“There are some establishments, which have yet to open even up to now,” Mirasol told BusinessMirror in a phone interview.

The RTWPB-NCR secretariat said it only informed representatives of U-WIN via e-mail of the postponement on May 21, 2020.

Job preservation

THE labor official disclosed the measure aims to prioritize job preservation since the RTWPB-NCR is concerned that increasing minimum wages in NCR this time could trigger mass displacements.

She noted the RTWPB-NCR will

continue to monitor the socioeconomic situation in the jurisdiction to decide when they could resume tackling a possible wage hike.

Among the factors which they will consider, Mirasol said, is the unemployment rate in NCR as well as the state of national emergency in the country.

Currently, the existing minimum-wage rate in NCR, which ranges from P500 to P537, is the highest nationwide.

‘Unfair’ development

KMU Secretary-General Jerome Adonis called the development “unfair” for workers, many of whom, he pointed out were unable to work for three months because of the community quarantine in NCR. “This is an additional burden for workers and their families at a time of the pandemic. It is unfair since this [wage hike] should have been the assistance of workers, who are now suffering [because of Covid-19],” Adonis said.

He, however, disclosed that they understand that some companies, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises, may be unable to afford the pay hike.

“That is why we are proposing these micro, small and medium enterprises should be given aid by the government so that they adapt [to the Covid crisis] so they will not have to resort to laying off and cutting wages of their workers,” Adonis told BusinessMirror in a phone inter-

view.

Although KMU considers the P213-wage petition nonnegotiable, he admitted other members of UWIN may consider lowering the amount because of the crisis.

“I will raise this issue during our next meeting,” Adonis said.

Fluid situation

FOR his part, Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) Chairman Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. supported the Metro Manila wage board decision amid the “fluid” business situation, which left many firms on the brink of closure.

“How can companies afford it when they are now reducing [their workers]. Some even have employees, who cannot even go back to work or cannot even up their operations,” Ortiz-Luis said.

Instead of the additional pay, he said companies are now preoccupied with how to retain their workers.

The deferment of any pay hike should continue until such time that majority of workers will be allowed to return to work, he said, adding, “I don’t think this will happen in a week or two.”

Last, he said also another reason for the postponement is the existing restrictions, which will prevent RTWPB-NCR from holding onsite of wage-related consultations and hearings. He noted such complicated and sensitive process cannot be done effectively via online conference.

Samuel P. Medenilla

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

FDC may tap dollar bond market to fund 2020 capex

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By VG Cabuag

@villygc

otianun family-led Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) on Monday said it is tapping the offshore debt market via foreign currency denominated long-term bonds to finance part of its capital expenditures (capex) for the year.

FDC President L. Josephine Gotianun-Yap said it is reviving its bond offer with the easing of the lockdown measures in many parts of the country.

“We are evaluating both peso or US dollar-denominated bonds given the attractive rates,” Yap said.

The company has earlier set its capex for the year at P25.7 billion.

The FDC chief said the compa-

ny’s business segments have been on an expansion and diversification mode and it needs to keep on investing to continue growing.

“Your company is especially keen to raising equity, not only to support the expansion of its subsidiaries but also to unlock its untapped value and share this to the public,” Yap said during the company's online stockholders’

meeting. “Currently, public ownership in FDC is at 10.8 percent.

Providing liquidity and marketability in FDC’s shares will no doubt redound to the benefit of all its stakeholders. We are awaiting the right timing for such an offering.” Last year, the company's leasing, power and sugar interests contributed close to half of FDC’s bottom line. Yap said the steady stream of income from these three segments, coupled with contributions from EastWest Bank, puts FDC in a solid position to address the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our disciplined and strategic approach to financial management has prepared us for this current global health and economic crisis.

The resilience of our management teams and experience surviving several global and local crises have provided us some invaluable insights."

In mid-March, just before the

imposition of the lockdown, FDC was in the middle of floating pesodominated bonds worth P8 billion.

Due to the elevated economic uncertainty, the company decided to defer the bond offering to a later date.

FDC bucked the pandemic trend and reported an 8-percent growth in attributable net income to P3 billion in the first quarter, thanks to the strong performance of EastWest Bank.

The company is building its third leg in the stable power generation business. The 405-megawatt circulating f luidized bed (CFB) plant of FDC Utilities Inc. is in Mindanao where growth has been highest in recent years.

While Philippine power demand rose by 5.3 percent in 2019, Mindanao outpaced the other regions by registering a growth of 8.6 percent against Luzon's and Visayas’ 4.2 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively, the company said.

Grocery delivery boom fuels Pushkart.ph growth

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n-demand grocery shopping platform Pushkart.ph has seen its order volumes ballooning by 900 percent for the first five months of 2020, a record high, as demand for digital grocery runs continue to increase, a company official said on Monday.

Pushkart.ph President and CEO Michael Lim said the growth has also driven the Filipino start-up to craft an expansion plan outside its current scope, which is at present, limited to Metro Manila.

“We have served thousands of Filipinos during the onset of the quarantine period, and we continue to see the demand rising further. Pushkart.ph is positioned for growth, and we want to continue

on riding that momentum by introducing our services beyond Metro Manila,” he said.

Lim noted that his group is now “in deep talks” with more supermarket chains for strategic partnerships for its expansion. Pushkart.ph allows users to buy groceries through their mobile phones.

The group’s current partners include Fisher Retail Inc., the operator of Fisher Supermarket, and Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., the operator of Metro Supermarket. It serves both the northern and southern corridors of Metro Manila through two hubs in Taguig and Quezon City.

“Pushkart.ph has seen tremendous growth in both demand and fulfilled orders. We see this as an

opportunity for us to expand our reach and empower more Filipinos to do their groceries at the comfort and safety of their homes. We are open to partnering with more supermarket chains and potential investors to provide more Filipino homes with the best online grocery shopping services in the market,” Lim said.

He added that through the expansion, the group would be able to help generate more jobs, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have hired people who lost jobs because of the national health situation. They include tricycle drivers, jeepney drivers, and mall staff, who now work for Pushkart.ph as shoppers and riders.”

Araneta City resumes mall foodcourts, select transport operations on June 22

Photo from www.aranetacity.com

A

raneta City, Quezon City’s ultimate entertainment and transportation hub, gears up for the resumption of operations in its mall foodcourts and select transportation terminals starting Monday, June 22.

The reopening comes three weeks after the implementation of the general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila, which revives public operations at the City of Firsts.

For the mall foodcourts, Araneta City has placed measures to ensure proper physical distancing at the Food Express (Gateway Mall), Food Gallery (Ali Mall), and Food Plaza (Farmers Plaza). Markings are placed on tables to ensure limited seating capacity. Tables are arranged to ensure distance from each other.

Floor markings are provided to guide customers in queues, and safety reminders are installed in key areas of the foodcourts. Each stall also has alcohol dispensers ready for the customers.

Meanwhile, the UV Express and Beep Jeep in Araneta City will also reopen for select routes. Operational starting June 22 are UV Express trips to and from Antipolo, Cogeo/Padilla, Marikina, Montalban, Novaliches, and Deparo; and Beep Jeep trips going to Fairview, Rosario (Pasig), and Roces-Pantranco.

Floor markings and safety reminders are placed in the terminals to remind the riding public of social distancing and other health protocols. The UV Express hub is located beside Farmers Plaza along General Roxas Avenue, while

the Beep Jeep terminal is at the Araneta City Bus Station.

“As we welcome back the public for their various daily activities, we are making sure that we put safety first here in the City of Firsts. We continue to implement precautionary measures that comply with the directives of health experts and the government,” according to Antonio T. Mardo, Senior Vice President for Operations of Araneta City.

Pushkart.ph was first introduced its service in 2017 with the goal of providing a digital platform for Filipinos to do their groceries in a “fast, convenient, and safe” manner. It has its own pool of shoppers and delivery personnel that provide same-day and scheduled deliveries of groceries.

“We provide the experience of having a trained and friendly ondemand personal shopper. This saves our users time and money from going to and queuing up at grocery stores. Our service ensures their safety from the virus, as our service features limited human interaction and we want to bring that to more cities and provinces soon,” Lim said. Lorenz S. Marasigan

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

B1

House panel must decide on ABS-CBN franchise bill—solon

BusinessMirror file photo

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

A

lawmaker on Monday urged the House Committee on Legislative Franchises to decide now on a measure granting ABS-CBN Corp. a new franchise.

During the Samahang Plaridel virtual forum, Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza said the hearings on the franchise of the ABS-CBN is one of the longest hearings conducted by the legislative franchises panel.

“This is a case to me of wasting official congressional time and the nation's time and people’s patience that is now bordering on exasperation,” Atienza said.

According to Atienza, the committee has conducted only up to 4 hearings on other franchises.

“We conducted 7 hearings already but there was still no proof [against ABS-CBN]. [After] we take 8 or maybe 9 hearings. It's time to call a spade, we should put this on vote. You [Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano] cannot pass the ball to anyone, You are holding the ball, Speaker. Shoot it now whether it comes in or not, at least you have done your job,” said Atienza.

“The top decision maker of Congress is the Speaker. If he says [Legislative Franchises] Chairman [Franz]

Alvarez resolve the issue now, chairman Alvarez is going to take action I'm sure of that 100 percent. Last February, I spoke on the floor and I really called them out. Speaker Cayetano, Chairman Alvarez, do the people justice.”

For his part, Cayetano said the Committee on Legislative Franchises and the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability were conducting the hearings well, saying “it’s the facts that are generated, because there are many sides to the issue.”

“I guess it's a hazard of the trade.

It's a highly charged political issue,” Cayetano added.

During the previous joint hearings of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises and Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, lawmakers raised legal issues against the company and ABS-CBN Chairman Emeritus Gabby Lopez III. The National Telecommunications Commission has ordered ABSCBN to stop the operation of its television and radio stations since the broadcast firm no longer has a franchise. ABS-CBN Convergence’s franchise expired last March 17, while ABS-CBN Corp.’s franchise ended on May 4.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

June 22, 2020

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

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

45.65 99 71.2 21.35 8.32 38 9 17.82 21 48.1 95.85 17.22 103 55 0.71 17.3 2.5 0.95 0.29 0.56 159 1700 0.98

46.95 99.3 73 21.4 8.33 38.65 9.3 18.18 21.05 48.95 109.5 17.6 104.1 55.1 0.77 17.5 2.53 0.99 0.295 0.59 162 1760 1.07

45.65 98.55 72.3 20.5 8.4 39 9.3 17.64 21.25 48.2 110 17.12 102.3 53 0.71 17.3 2.46 0.95 0.28 0.59 157 1701 0.98

46.95 99.35 73 21.45 8.63 39.3 9.3 17.64 21.25 49 110 17.6 104.1 55.9 0.74 17.4 2.52 0.99 0.29 0.59 162 1701 0.98

45.65 96.3 70.5 20.5 8.16 37.6 9.3 17.64 20.85 48.2 96 16.52 101.3 53 0.69 17.2 2.4 0.95 0.275 0.56 157 1701 0.98

46.95 99 73 21.35 8.33 38.65 9.3 17.64 21 49 109.6 17.6 104.1 55 0.71 17.3 2.52 0.95 0.29 0.59 162 1701 0.98

8200 3414730 2122150 1068300 4497600 3632700 2200 100 894700 1100 40 500400 526070 78100 147000 333500 61000 120000 340000 286000 3400 5 577000

382480 335741019.5 -144017480 152231714.5 -3851995.5 22124770 -1065595 37,472,854( 13,792,391.0003) 138468725 -32389340 20460 -20460 1764 18790325 -14837495 53820 4116 8395250 -1097302 54092685 -2834604 4250760 -1324185 105590 5737046 148790 114040 95900 161260 539790 8505 8505 565460 -

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 2.24 2.25 2.29 2.29 2.23 2.24 4350000 9777170 390090 ALSONS CONS 1.31 1.32 1.36 1.37 1.24 1.32 11688000 15284530 1220500 27.55 28.4 27.8 28.4 27.5 28.4 592600 16649925 -8633060 ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY 0.159 0.162 0.158 0.162 0.158 0.162 1680000 265540 FIRST GEN 20.65 20.9 20.5 20.9 20.5 20.9 702300 14562365 -6444725 59 59.4 57 59 56 59 8460 496116 54442 FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO 275 278.4 270 278.4 270 278.4 242430 66801528 1067766 MANILA WATER 12.24 12.26 12.2 12.48 12.2 12.24 2101000 25847698 -4599742 3.09 3.12 3.09 3.15 3.09 3.09 1143000 3563340 -21950 PETRON PETROENERGY 2.77 2.99 2.99 2.99 2.7 2.99 31000 86950 PHX PETROLEUM 11.3 11.5 11 11.5 11 11.5 304700 3466048 -340600 18.46 18.48 18.6 18.66 18.46 18.48 242100 4485928 -1745794 PILIPINAS SHELL SPC POWER 8.01 8.05 8.08 8.08 7.95 8.05 62400 499714 -93381 AGRINURTURE 7.44 7.45 7.2 7.54 7.2 7.44 342700 2543118 250727 2.68 2.7 2.78 2.85 2.67 2.7 1764000 4872620 -92810 AXELUM CNTRL AZUCARERA 12.24 12.78 12.24 12.5 12.24 12.5 2000 24974 CENTURY FOOD 14.94 14.96 15.1 15.1 14.96 14.96 1055800 15801952 37336 4.2 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.38 4.38 2000 8880 DEL MONTE DNL INDUS 4.97 5 4.92 5.05 4.92 4.97 2845000 14142610 -2900170 EMPERADOR 7.98 8 7.86 8.09 7.86 8 47096100 376,328,190( 375,521,478.0002) 68 68.1 67 68.65 66.2 68 54230 3642951 -36753.5 SMC FOODANDBEV ALLIANCE SELECT 0.56 0.58 0.6 0.6 0.55 0.57 1076000 608060 FRUITAS HLDG 1.28 1.29 1.29 1.31 1.27 1.29 4516000 5809060 125480 31.6 31.8 31.6 32.55 31.55 31.6 100800 3196485 1201795 GINEBRA JOLLIBEE 149.1 149.3 151 151 147.9 149.1 824750 123008815 15669530 MACAY HLDG 6.44 6.81 6.4 6.81 6.4 6.44 19600 125801 -681 5.9 5.94 5.9 6.01 5.87 5.9 1194300 7060339 39286 MAXS GROUP MG HLDG 0.133 0.139 0.139 0.139 0.139 0.139 370000 51430 -6950 SHAKEYS PIZZA 6.03 6.14 6.21 6.21 6.02 6.03 643700 3956424 100631 1.73 1.74 1.8 1.85 1.74 1.74 2156000 3889230 41170 ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP 4.4 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 6000 27000 -4500 ROXAS HLDG 1.61 1.65 1.61 1.61 1.61 1.61 10000 16100 0.107 0.11 0.108 0.108 0.108 0.108 460000 49680 -32400 SWIFT FOODS UNIV ROBINA 132.2 132.5 130 133.5 130 132.5 851810 112759914 -42825425 VITARICH 0.85 0.86 0.88 0.9 0.85 0.85 16041000 13960740 1740 2.28 2.45 2.45 2.45 2.45 2.45 2000 4900 VICTORIAS CEMEX HLDG 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.13 1.11 1.12 5022000 5612910 -294779.9999 DAVINCI CAPITAL 4.04 4.49 4.02 4.02 4.02 4.02 4000 16080 10.04 10.16 9.96 10.36 9.96 10.16 68100 686632 EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP 4.99 5 5.08 5.08 4.99 5 3649100 18257058 38046 HOLCIM 6.51 6.52 6.87 6.88 6.2 6.52 8238100 53878969 1159871 6.93 6.97 7.14 7.18 6.9 6.93 3261500 22809248 363375 MEGAWIDE TKC METALS 0.72 0.75 0.73 0.75 0.72 0.75 63000 45650 VULCAN INDL 0.79 0.8 0.79 0.81 0.78 0.79 1203000 962400 118 140 110.6 115 110.6 115 60 6856 CHEMPHIL CROWN ASIA 1.95 2 1.95 2 1.95 2 1050000 2079980 1979980 EUROMED 2.25 2.28 2.3 2.3 2.23 2.25 559000 1258810 66500 3.6 3.66 3.6 3.6 3.5 3.5 7000 24800 MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP 4.1 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 2000 8400 CONCEPCION 20.45 20.75 21 21 20.5 20.5 10600 220135 -183110 1.85 1.86 1.73 1.85 1.73 1.85 21339000 38531000 -2119110 GREENERGY INTEGRATED MICR 5.55 5.6 5.9 5.94 5.5 5.55 359800 2033169 271752 IONICS 1.1 1.11 1.14 1.14 1.09 1.1 641000 705380 1.38 1.39 1.42 1.44 1.35 1.38 2037000 2822870 7100 SFA SEMICON CIRTEK HLDG 8.71 8.72 8.99 9.19 8.52 8.71 9301400 82254313 1010387

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.49 0.495 0.5 0.51 0.485 0.49 3840000 1893315 ASIABEST GROUP 9.01 9.23 9.59 9.59 9 9.01 30200 272682 796 800 805 805 788 800 187100 149389255 AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY 48.3 49.5 49.9 49.9 48 49.5 765290 37460825 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 6.97 6.99 7 7.05 6.94 6.97 37622800 263354709 1.75 1.76 1.74 1.77 1.71 1.76 749000 1309650 AYALA LAND LOG ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.5 0.51 0.5 0.51 0.5 0.5 125000 63160 ATN HLDG A 0.56 0.57 0.57 0.57 0.55 0.56 592000 332150 4.81 5.25 5.36 5.37 4.81 4.81 619100 3059826 COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG 4.32 4.33 4.32 4.4 4.26 4.33 72191000 310092710 FILINVEST DEV 8.09 8.1 8.97 8.97 8.1 8.1 17085900 138570465 0.185 0.19 0.19 0.195 0.185 0.185 350000 66300 FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL 469 470 476 476 465 469 211550 99500552 HOUSE OF INV 3.39 3.4 3.3 3.39 3.3 3.39 5000 16680 61.05 61.5 63.5 63.5 61.05 61.5 1381020 85317123.5 JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG 4.9 5.45 4.95 5.45 4.87 4.9 19000 93106 KEPPEL HLDG A 5.05 5.5 5.5 5.5 5 5.05 37200 189325 0.61 0.63 0.61 0.65 0.6 0.61 14161000 9065940 LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG 2.65 2.67 2.65 2.65 2.63 2.65 682000 1798520 LT GROUP 8.57 8.6 8.77 8.77 8.55 8.6 1013300 8739575 0.495 0.5 0.465 0.51 0.465 0.495 167000 79980 MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV 3.7 3.71 3.79 3.79 3.62 3.7 63176000 233792380 PACIFICA HLDG 2.88 3.2 2.88 2.9 2.88 2.88 9000 25940 0.82 0.83 0.82 0.83 0.82 0.82 76000 62470 PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP 0.93 0.94 0.95 0.95 0.93 0.93 903000 849020 SYNERGY GRID 150 158 157 158 157 158 210 33040 930 960 945.5 960 921.5 960 188850 178927780 SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP 99.9 101.9 101.3 102 99.4 101.9 276930 27853577 SOC RESOURCES 0.63 0.65 0.63 0.65 0.63 0.65 70000 44620 1.8 1.99 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 5000 9000 SEAFRONT RES TOP FRONTIER 125 137.5 125 137.5 125 137.5 630 80020 WELLEX INDUS 0.185 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.19 410000 77900 0.141 0.145 0.143 0.146 0.14 0.145 790000 112470 ZEUS HLDG

-286835 900 39802625 -9039348.5 -30183115 5190 26500 -1992729 -42880120 -637750 30242156 -45138038.5 -56360 -711680 -4258916 -27505350 -12609105 -2081536 13750 14000

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.54 0.55 0.56 0.56 0.54 0.55 1759000 968140 ANCHOR LAND 8.52 8.88 8.51 8.88 8.51 8.88 500 4329 36.35 36.9 36.3 36.9 35.8 36.9 7277000 265665760 AYALA LAND ARANETA PROP 1.01 1.05 1.05 1.05 1.05 1.05 52000 54600 BELLE CORP 1.41 1.43 1.42 1.42 1.41 1.41 735000 1038530 0.67 0.7 0.63 0.72 0.63 0.7 7299000 4947530 A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT 0.74 0.76 0.76 0.76 0.74 0.74 7000 5240 CROWN EQUITIES 0.124 0.127 0.127 0.127 0.123 0.124 40000 5010 6.12 6.2 6 6.2 6 6.2 31200 193190 CEBU HLDG CEB LANDMASTERS 4 4.08 4.05 4.09 4 4.08 1802000 7315040 CENTURY PROP 0.38 0.385 0.38 0.385 0.38 0.385 800000 306200 0.265 0.275 0.275 0.275 0.26 0.275 200000 54100 CYBER BAY DOUBLEDRAGON 17.28 17.3 17 17.3 16.64 17.3 984200 16846066 DM WENCESLAO 6.31 6.4 6.38 6.4 6.3 6.4 108900 690545 0.265 0.27 0.27 0.275 0.27 0.27 380000 102700 EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO 0.1 0.105 0.109 0.109 0.1 0.105 3150000 329500 FILINVEST LAND 0.99 1 1.01 1.02 0.99 1 43550000 43655470 0.91 0.92 0.85 0.95 0.85 0.91 1869000 1667060 GLOBAL ESTATE 8990 HLDG 9.9 10.08 10.08 10.08 10.08 10.08 500 5040 PHIL INFRADEV 0.87 0.89 0.88 0.9 0.86 0.87 1290000 1138060 0.69 0.74 0.7 0.7 0.69 0.69 15000 10370 CITY AND LAND MEGAWORLD 3.2 3.21 3.25 3.27 3.16 3.2 18050000 57871250 MRC ALLIED 0.154 0.156 0.164 0.167 0.154 0.154 38230000 6138860 0.29 0.31 0.31 0.31 0.295 0.295 600000 178500 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 1.41 1.45 1.45 1.45 1.41 1.45 15000 21430 ROBINSONS LAND 17.8 18 18.24 18.24 17.64 18 3181500 57246032 0.232 0.246 0.237 0.247 0.231 0.247 290000 67650 PHIL REALTY ROCKWELL 1.53 1.59 1.6 1.6 1.52 1.52 111000 175620 SHANG PROP 2.7 2.72 2.71 2.71 2.7 2.7 34000 91870 1.82 1.9 1.87 1.87 1.8 1.83 30000 54670 STA LUCIA LAND SM PRIME HLDG 32 32.2 31.7 32.2 31.2 32.2 3773400 120845355 VISTAMALLS 3.73 3.75 3.72 3.8 3.72 3.75 58000 218120 1.26 1.27 1.32 1.32 1.26 1.26 1600000 2038090 SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND 3.96 3.98 3.9 3.98 3.9 3.96 890000 3517990

1100 20921275.0004 -139140 110820 2960 -3720 -3520210 3850 3449634 1275 -59270 -31198260 890 -19359580 -73760 -42313330 12240 -16260 3109445 -391010

SERVICES ABS CBN GMA NETWORK MANILA BULLETIN MLA BRDCASTING GLOBE TELECOM PLDT APOLLO GLOBAL DFNN INC DITO CME HLDG IMPERIAL ISLAND INFO NOW CORP TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 2GO GROUP CHELSEA CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER LBC EXPRESS LORENZO SHIPPNG MACROASIA METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B PAL HLDG HARBOR STAR ACESITE HOTEL BOULEVARD HLDG DISCOVERY WORLD WATERFRONT CENTRO ESCOLAR IPEOPLE STI HLDG BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES MANILA JOCKEY PH RESORTS GRP PREMIUM LEISURE ALLHOME METRO RETAIL PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL PHIL SEVEN CORP SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT APC GROUP EASYCALL GOLDEN BRIA PAXYS PRMIERE HORIZON SBS PHIL CORP

15.02 4.85 0.385 13.2 2130 1252 0.05 2.93 3.73 1.22 0.077 2.02 0.184 2.3 10.02 4.13 42 99.6 13.32 0.77 6.25 2.64 2.4 6.6 0.83 1.25 0.025 1.63 0.385 6.3 6.86 0.3 2.09 7.47 1.9 1.54 2.7 2.68 0.325 7.55 1.65 44.8 65.2 127 1.17 15.2 0.33 7.3 290 2.08 0.217 5.01

15.06 4.88 0.4 14.1 2154 1253 0.051 3 3.74 1.4 0.079 2.03 0.185 2.32 10.08 4.14 42.1 100 13.5 0.84 6.27 2.65 2.5 6.7 0.85 1.34 0.026 1.75 0.39 6.36 8.8 0.305 2.12 7.6 2 1.55 2.75 2.85 0.33 7.56 1.66 45 65.65 128 1.18 15.22 0.34 7.54 300 2.28 0.218 5.02

15.16 4.92 0.385 13.04 2156 1225 0.052 3.01 3.3 1.23 0.078 2.09 0.185 2.31 10.24 3.86 42 98.6 13.4 0.79 6.33 2.45 2.35 6.75 0.87 1.17 0.026 1.63 0.385 6.36 8 0.315 2.16 7.71 2.06 1.56 2.71 2.5 0.335 7.14 1.67 45.5 65.65 128 1.18 15.2 0.34 7.31 301 2.12 0.212 5.02

15.18 4.92 0.405 13.04 2182 1256 0.052 3.01 3.88 1.23 0.079 2.1 0.189 2.4 10.38 4.29 42.7 100 13.5 0.84 6.35 2.66 2.5 6.75 0.87 1.35 0.027 1.63 0.4 6.36 8.84 0.32 2.16 7.75 2.06 1.57 2.71 2.91 0.335 7.55 1.7 46.1 66.8 128 1.2 15.5 0.345 7.6 301 2.12 0.218 5.02

14.98 4.83 0.38 13.04 2130 1208 0.05 3.01 3.29 1.22 0.077 2.02 0.183 2.22 9.9 3.83 41.3 98.5 13.3 0.79 6 2.45 2.3 6.6 0.83 1.17 0.025 1.63 0.385 6.36 8 0.3 2.08 7.31 1.88 1.54 2.7 2.4 0.325 6.8 1.63 44.75 65 127 1.16 15.18 0.335 7.22 290 2.12 0.209 5

15 4.85 0.385 13.04 2130 1252 0.051 3.01 3.73 1.22 0.077 2.02 0.184 2.32 10.02 4.13 42 100 13.5 0.84 6.27 2.65 2.5 6.7 0.83 1.33 0.026 1.63 0.39 6.36 8.84 0.3 2.12 7.6 2.01 1.55 2.7 2.85 0.33 7.55 1.66 44.8 65.65 127 1.18 15.22 0.335 7.54 290 2.12 0.217 5.01

563200 573000 580000 500 59650 132070 17530000 12000 127679000 13000 660000 3761000 780000 2025000 146100 4764000 402400 1441750 4100 22000 7752900 5016000 21000 17400 312000 216000 36100000 1000 490000 700 1000 7100000 108000 1410300 77000 260000 156000 609000 10650000 6413300 9790000 528000 449180 200 1620000 1681600 150000 35200 520 3000 2130000 5200

8481276 2786880 227200 6520 128383120 163745960 884710 36120 456372650 15890 51350 7728130 145380 4651580 1463081 19422200 16803780 143766816.5 54992 17880 48093548 12899420 50200 116152 261900 276670 908900 1630 190600 4452 8420 2163900 226310 10651966 153150 403520 421230 1643440 3475550 46667690 16194690 23777630 29333345.5 25506 1907400 25643386 50850 259938 155816 6360 456790 26052

-51479840 17534820 21070 -99440 -29450 11779.9998 -32000 20500 -6359445 17001808 -2620348 -902800 -3214859 -22200 19734849 2004780 -9957470 -23078356 -367810.0001 -16599232 -22740 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 9.8 10.16 10.16 10.16 9.8 10.16 8200 81196 1.11 1.12 1.05 1.12 1.05 1.11 9243000 10166540 -448100 APEX MINING ABRA MINING 0.0009 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.0009 0.001 16000000 15500 ATLAS MINING 1.92 1.94 1.95 1.96 1.92 1.92 30000 58450 1 1.16 1.16 1.2 1.16 1.16 21000 24400 BENGUET A COAL ASIA HLDG 0.191 0.195 0.191 0.195 0.191 0.191 290000 55630 CENTURY PEAK 2.67 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 4000 10800 7.4 7.75 7.64 7.78 7.39 7.75 1055500 8097847 DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL 0.87 0.9 0.89 0.9 0.87 0.87 3673000 3229140 -1151200 GEOGRACE 0.219 0.225 0.23 0.23 0.219 0.224 700000 154880 0.081 0.082 0.082 0.084 0.081 0.081 7650000 626830 LEPANTO A LEPANTO B 0.081 0.085 0.086 0.086 0.085 0.085 330000 28220 MANILA MINING A 0.0064 0.0065 0.0064 0.0064 0.0064 0.0064 1000000 6400 0.58 0.59 0.57 0.59 0.56 0.59 98000 56750 MARCVENTURES NIHAO 1.24 1.26 1.25 1.29 1.21 1.24 296000 366390 NICKEL ASIA 1.8 1.81 1.82 1.89 1.74 1.8 10454000 18881640 109580 0.37 0.38 0.38 0.38 0.38 0.38 810000 307800 -304000 OMICO CORP ORNTL PENINSULA 0.495 0.52 0.5 0.53 0.49 0.52 135000 68020 PX MINING 2.32 2.36 2.39 2.41 2.3 2.32 4506000 10375250 1480 12.88 13 13 13.02 12.9 13 572200 7420812 -2419754 SEMIRARA MINING UNITED PARAGON 0.0038 0.0039 0.0038 0.0038 0.0038 0.0038 3000000 11400 ACE ENEXOR 6.48 6.52 6.51 6.57 6.25 6.48 160400 1016469 16300 0.0082 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 0.0082 0.0082 15000000 123300 ORNTL PETROL A PXP ENERGY 5.44 5.45 5.07 5.55 5.07 5.44 6466000 34531870 -7790

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 98 99 98 98 98 98 1840 180320 503 504 504 504 502.5 502.5 1330 668870 AC PREF B2R DD PREF 101 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 9800 994700 FGEN PREF G 106.6 110 108 110 106.5 110 214280 23503750 510 520 510 510 510 510 100 51000 GLO PREF P GTCAP PREF B 1011 1020 1011 1011 1011 1011 100 101100 MWIDE PREF 100.1 100.3 100.4 100.4 100.1 100.1 60560 6071192 -6015000 100 100.5 100 100 100 100 3330 333000 PNX PREF 3A PNX PREF 4 1001 1019 1000 1000 1000 1000 60 60000 PCOR PREF 2B 1005 1035 1030 1030 1030 1030 5 5150 1050 1070 1060 1070 1060 1070 105 111350 PCOR PREF 3B SMC PREF 2C 76.9 77 77 77 76.85 77 72260 5563800 SMC PREF 2D 75 75.9 75.05 75.05 75 75 5000 375050 77 78 78 78 78 78 90650 7070700 -1560000 SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G 76 76.45 76 76 76 76 10000 760000 SMC PREF 2H 76.25 76.4 76 76.25 76 76.25 13440 1023827.5 78 78.45 78.45 78.45 78 78 84870 6619873.5 SMC PREF 2I

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 14.2 14.48 14.1 14.48 14.1 14.3 51900 732760 -648600 4.61 4.82 4.74 4.85 4.7 4.82 166000 799060 105850 GMA HLDG PDR

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.73 0.74 0.7 0.73 0.7 0.73 218000 156070

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 2.06 2.07 1.88 2.06 1.85 2.06 12788000 25355940 33020 6.56 6.67 6.48 6.95 6.35 6.56 165200 1089880 KEPWEALTH MERRYMART 3.6 3.62 3.02 3.6 2.98 3.6 212977000 686295800 9470640 XURPAS 0.58 0.59 0.59 0.6 0.58 0.58 796000 466660

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 96 96.75 95.75 96.3 95 96 10970 1048241 -71013

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PH Resorts seeks to raise funds via follow-on offering

T

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

he board of PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc., the gaming and hospitality arm of Davao businessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp., has approved the company’s follow-on offering of up to P1.12 billion.

In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said it will issue a total of 450 million common shares, some 150 million of which will be its over-allotment option. These will come from the unsubscribed portion of the com-

pany’s authorized capital stock, the company said.

It priced the offer between P1 and P2.50 per share.

“These offer shares shall be subject to compliance with existing laws and the rules and regulations

and approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange,” the company said.

The company is raising funds for the construction of its gambling assets in Cebu and Pampanga.

It earlier shelved its downsized P12-billion stock offering following the conclusion of its roadshow and marketing efforts “after its recent investment initiatives and careful consideration of its business strategies,” the company said in its previous disclosure.

The firm had planned to sell up to 1.79 billion common shares at P3.65 to P5.84 apiece, adjusted from its initial maximum offer price of P9.00 per share.

Proceeds of the sale was intend-

ed to fund the design, construction, and development of the first phases of the company’s two integrated casino resorts, the Emerald in Mactan, Cebu, and Clark Resort in Pampanga.

A portion will finance the expansion of the Donatela Hotel in Panglao, Bohol, and the rest will go to general corporate purposes.

The company earlier has obtained an advance of $42.5 million from Emerald Development Holdings Ltd., an offshore entity whollyowned by Udenna.

“This advance represents a significant step in realizing the completion of the Emerald Bay Resort and Casino,” company President and CEO Raymundo Martin M. Escalona said.

‘Take advantage of low property prices’

By Roderick L. Abad @rodrik_28 Contributor

W

HILE it’s too early to confirm that now is the right time to buy a piece of property, the chief of one of the largest affordable housing developers in Southern Luzon said investors must consider buying properties being offered at a bargain.

“If he/she finds that property investment fit to his/her needs and liking, and has a stable job and enough money to spare, then buying now would be very much recommended and would perhaps be the right choice even during the pandemic,” P.A. Properties President Jonathan G. Lu told the BusinessMirror.

With or without crisis, Lu said investment in real estate is always a good option. Any downturn in property prices is just temporary and will automatically rebound once the economy recovers.

“That is why for those who have already prepared for property investments even before the health crisis started, taking advantage of this situation now will be very beneficial to them.”

Just like in the stock market, investing in real estate is “a waiting game” which, according to him, applies the same principle of “buy low, sell high.”

If an investor is liquid enough at this point, Lu said he or she can already begin looking for properties offered at a bargain and close the sale.

“Then, he/she would just have to sit on it for some time and wait for the upturn and right timing to sell or develop it.”

The ensuing health emergency may have opened an opportunity for some individual investors, but generally it has affected the entire real estate industry.

Lu cited, for instance, that demand for housing is expected to soften and weaken due to loss of jobs here and abroad.

“In fact, property owners are seen to offer discounts and promotions now due to the lack of buying impulse from the market.”

The president of P.A. Properties predicts that prices in the real estate sector will go down, particularly for the “Ready for Occupancy” units of the residential segment in order to motivate buyers to purchase.

This in turn will increase businesses’ liquidity and avoid carrying costs of inventories.

“We also anticipate sales to be declining which can affect profits. That is why for the remaining months of the year 2020, the challenge for real estate companies is to keep the business afloat by effectively reducing costs.”

‘Pinoys turn to GCredit for loans during crisis’

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

F

INANCIAL technology player GCash has disbursed P5 billion in loans through GCredit, its digital credit facility, providing over 550,000 Filipinos access to credit lines since it was first introduced two years ago.

Martha Sazon, the company’s president, said her group saw a huge increase in the usage of GCredit, especially when the community quarantines were imposed in different parts of the country.

To further scale the service, Sazon said her group has partnered with CIMB Bank Philippines, expanding its current strategic partnership with the digital bank.

“We are happy to announce that with the full support of CIMB Bank Philippines, we can scale up GCredit to reach more customers who are in need of micro loans. This helps accelerate our vision of providing finance for all, which we at GCash have been pushing for the last decade,” she said.

GCredit is a digital credit facility available in the GCash app. It works like a flexible loan or credit card.

“We at CIMB Bank Philippines are happy to strengthen our strategic alliance with GCash, the number one mobile wallet in the country.

We believe that through our partnership, we will be able to further reach more Filipinos to help them save, gain access to credit, and manage their finances with us,” CIMB Bank Philippines CEO Vijay Manoharan said.

As this developed, GCash also saw transactions ballooning by 700 percent year-on-year, driven by bank cash-in and online payments, during the month of May. “The pandemic has forced all of us to adopt digital solutions such as GCash to protect us from contracting the virus. The steady uptrend on transactions using GCash shows that Filipinos are now being more dependent on digital solutions and they prefer to use the GCash platform to pay for these services,” Sazon said.

mutual funds

June 22, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 206.37 -22.71% -9.07% -5.22% -18.07% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0356 -36.68% -13.59% -6.19% -25.07% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.8062 -32.08% -13.45% -7.55% -23.71% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7196 -24.45% n.a. n.a. -19.79% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6844 -22.76% n.a. n.a. -19.42% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.4243 -19.88% -7.34% -4.83% -16.97% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.7013 -21.11% -9.75% n.a.

-17.84% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 78.8 -35.04% n.a. n.a. -23.74% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 41.6176 -21.35% -7.29% -4.05% -18.84% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 442.17 -19.75% -6.75% -4.51% -17.01% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.9086 n.a. n.a. n.a. -11.79% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0444 -22.08% -7.13% -4.02% -18.84% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 30.8378 -21.59% -6.56% -3.66% -18.63% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8207 -22.65% n.a. n.a. -19.39% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.2414 -20.99% -6.78% -3.34% -18.8% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 709.56 -20.84% -6.75% -3.54% -18.64% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6495 -30.49% -10.44% -7.5% -23.71% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.2665 -25.51% -8.14% -4.85% -22.39% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8149 -20.88% -6.89% -3.47% -18.58% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.9766 -21.33% -5.57% -2.84% -18.52% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 95.2801 -20.6% -6.25% -2.7% -18.53% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9585 -2.67% -0.72% -1.76% -6.8% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.3726 6.08% 5.73% n.a.

-0.44% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5635 -10.74% -4.3% -3.68% 0.04% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0936 -10.22% -4.06% -1.79% -4.01% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.4476 -8.47% -2.4% -3.07% -6.99% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1893 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-17.16% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8552 -4.7% -0.93% -0.47% -5.5% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.5082 -7% -2.05% -1.67% -7.41% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.6591 -7.69% -2.3% -1.81% -7.67% -8.11% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.9535 -9.61% -3.12% -1.36% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.3365 -14.6% -4.09% -2.69% -13.65% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.95 -7.29% n.a. n.a.

-6.47% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8644 -15.53% n.a. n.a. -13.25% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8449 -17.17% n.a. n.a. -14.93% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8193 -18.32% -5.24% -4.02% -15.95% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03836 2.29% 2.23% 1.6% 0.34% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $0.9801 -0.03% 0.21% -0.22% -5.57% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.854 3.13% 3.98% 3.23% -1.45% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1092 0.95% 1.95% n.a.

-1.74% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 364.96 4.33% 3.06% 2.51% 2% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.939 2.47% 0.84% -0.04% 1.95% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1844 4.53% 5.08% 5.08% 2.19% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2783 4.37% 2.65% 2.2% 2.4% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4302 5.22% 3.12% 1.8% 3.01% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.5407 9.01% 3.67% 2.24% 3.84% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.2876 6.19% 3.85% 2.1% 2.46% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9136 6.36% 3.87% 2.08% 3.31% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0225 8.74% 3.29% 1.61% 6.04% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1567 6.93% 4.56% 2.84% 2.63% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7327 5.59% 3.88% 2.32% 1.86% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $473.25 3.3% 2.42% 2.68% 1.07% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є215.37 -0.85% 0.55% 0.96% -1.98% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.214 2.79% 2.7% 2.43% 0.56% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 0.78% 1.32% 1.2% 0.39% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0681 -1.66% -0.39% -0.05% -2.47% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4354 3.62% 2.94% 2.96% 1.31% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0604953 2.68% 1.89% 1.81% 0.3% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1676 2.69% 1.73% 2.31% -0.24% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 127.99 3.76% 3.17% 2.4% 1.76% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0404 2.58% n.a. n.a.

1.37% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2824 3.17% 3.03% 2.57% 1.41% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0445 1.65% n.a. n.a.

0.7% Feeder Fund Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.94 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-5.05%

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).

"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."

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Investors still seeking safe haven; T-bills auction still oversubscribed

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

T

he Bureau of the Treasury fully awarded P20 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills) on Monday despite all tenors fetching slightly higher rates than the previous auction.

But National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters following the auction that the “rates [were] aligned with inflation as investors look for signal from the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas].”

“Rates [are] slightly higher than previous auction but lower than secondary levels,” De Leon added.

Monday’s auction was oversubscribed by more than thrice the P20 billion offering, with total tenders reaching P68.9 billion.

The 91-day T-bills capped a higher

average rate of 2.068 percent, up by 3.3 basis points from the previous average rate of 2.035 percent. Tenders for the 91-day T-bills amounted to P15.904 billion, three times the P5 billion-offering.

The 182-day T-bills posted an average rate of 2.159 percent, 5.8 basis points higher than the 2.101 percent average rate in the previous auction. The tenor attracted total bids of P11.685 billion, twice the P5 billion-offering.

Lastly, the 364-day T-bills recorded an average rate of 2.408 percent, climbing by 5.8 basis points from 2.350 percent previously. Tenders for the tenor was four times as much as the P10 billion-offering, with bids amounting to P41.283 billion.

For this month, the Treasury programmed to borrow P170 billion from the local debt market.

The financial lifeline for the Covid pandemic

A

S everyone is globally experiencing firsthand, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed and affected our financial, professional and social environments.

One of the disturbing factors is that most of the items that affect our economic well-being are often beyond anyone’s control. As such, this resulted in a shift of attention to one of the most critical financial lifelines and regarded to be one of the best kinds of insurance: the emergency fund.

The fund was founded in response to a serious, unexpected and often dangerous situation that requires immediate financial action. The current Covid-19 pandemic situation undoubtedly fits the justification of the fund and highlights the need to cushion the negative impact it brings when taken lightly or for granted.

Three of the most critical questions about the emergency fund that requires special attention during these trying times are: What is the purpose of your emergency fund; When can you use it; and, Up to what extent can one use the fund?

Detailed below are the answers to the questions to help cross the state of being in a conundrum.

1. The whole purpose of the emergency fund is to get you through financial hardships.

In the context of the current pandemic situation, these hardships mean job loss, pay cut, decline on demand on the product or services offered and other activities that impact the inflow of money.

When the usual source of income is disturbed, the said fund should be activated to meet your needs, which includes essential expenses, specifically basic utilities (e.g., power, water, etc.), food, transportation, gasoline and housing (rent or mortgages).

It is paramount to keep in mind that the emergency fund is focused on actual financial emergencies, regardless of whether it is a frivolous expenditure. In a nutshell, it is essentially a cash reserve or a buffer that one can use when things are going south financially.

2. Emergency funds are supposed to be used for actual financial emergencies such as salary replacement due to unemployment and other items to support your basic needs such as utilities, rent, and food.

Still, extra layers of consideration and control should be in place before tapping into your lifebelt or lifebuoy, and that is to check on financial tools that are at your disposal.

For example, in the case of retrenchment due to the economic

Earl Pagatpat

personal finance and social pressure the pandemic brings, you need to be aware of your entitlement to separation pay and ensure to claim it. You must also be mindful of the cash aids provided by the government both at the national and Local Government Unit (LGU) levels.

The goal is to exhaust all relief options before using the emergency fund as this should be the last line of defense before opting for a more desperate option of getting yourself into debt.

3. The fund has a rule of thumb that the size should cover at least 3-months to 6- months’ worth of expenses and can go as high as one year, depending on factors like age and lifestyle.

Generally, the fund should be utilized in two elements.

The first one is strictly following the duration of your fund, which is assumed to have been developed based on the monthly living expenses, and the other is to recalibrate the budget based on the kind of situation you are facing.

For example, transportation expense would generally be part of the emergency fund to aid you in going to work or in finding other sources of income, but the current pandemic situation where it strictly requires everyone to stay home or at least get some free or discounted transportation services gives you some room or the opportunity to save up instead of using it for nonessentials.

Or this could be an add-on to other needs that require special attention such as face masks and vitamins. Hence, the extent should be on an as-needed-basis with stringent controls to follow the budget created.

The situation is far from normalizing, and the last thing you would want to happen is to end up in a tragedy of errors and end up losing everything you have worked hard.

The situation spells as a perfect time to look into it and modify your financial security, including the objective where it is no longer just hinged to achieve peace of mind, but also to be resilient against what lies ahead in your financial journey.

Earl Pagatpat is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. To learn more about personal financial planning, attend the 83rd RFP program this June 2020. To inquire, e-mail info@rfp.ph or text <name><e-mail><RFP> at 0917-9689774.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020 B3

Banking industry sees uptick in capitalization

T

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@Tyronepiad

he banking sector booked an increase in its capital accounts recently due to higher investments delivering more trading gains.

According to recent data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the industry’s capitalization reached P2.35 trillion in April, which is 2.08 percent higher than P2.35 trillion a month ago and 8.9 percent more than P2.16 trillion the year earlier.

RCBC Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort attributed this to the P52 billion month-on-month increase in total investments.

“This may reflect [an] increase in total Investments amid hefty gains in the local financial markets, especially trading gains in the

fixed income market/bonds locally as well as in the US [United States] and in other developed markets,” Ricafort said.

Total investments reached P4.18 trillion in April, according to BSP preliminary data. These include financial assets and equity investment in subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures amounting to P3.92 trillion and P261.36 billion, respectively.

UnionBank Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, meanwhile, said that it was “clear that banks have been responding to the [pub-

BPI aims to raise ₧3B from Covid-19 bonds

T

he Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said it eyes to raise at least P3 billion from its Covid Action Response (Care) bond offering, which is aimed at funding micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

In a disclosure on Monday, the Zobel de Ayala-led bank announced that each Care bond carries a tenor of 1.75 years and an interest rate of 3.05 percent per annum.

The offer period is from June 22 to July 17, 2020.

The issue and listing date of the bonds are set on August 7. BPI and the offering’s joint lead arrangers may change the schedule if needed, the bank said.

The bank tapped BPI Capital Corp. and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. (HSBC) as the joint lead arrangers of the transaction. BPI Capital is the sole selling agent while HSBC is serving as participating selling agent.

The said offering is the first of its kind in the country. The bonds will be issued as the third tranche of BPI’s P100-billion bond program.

Proceeds from the transaction will be allocated to finance and refinance eligible MSMEs under BPI’s Sustainable Funding Framework, which it launched earlier this month.

The said framework covers the issuance of green, social or sustainable bonds or loans. It is part of its

Green Finance Framework—which was launched in June last year to fund environmental initiatives— and underscores the inclusion of projects that address social issues.

“MSMEs have been significantly affected by the global pandemic and BPI recognizes that these enterprises, which account for a significant percentage of the country’s employment, are crucial to the growth and recovery of our economy,” the listed bank said. MSMEs comprise 63 percent of the total employment and 99.5 percent of total enterprises in the Philippines.

In the first quarter, BPI saw its net earnings decline by 5 percent to P6.39 billion on the back of higher allowance for bad debts. The bank hiked its buffer for potential loan losses to P4.32 billion in the first three months, which is more than double the amount it booked for the comparable period.

Revenues in the first three months, however, climbed by 10.9 percent to P25.26 billion while net interest income surged 13 percent to P18.14 billion. Net interest margin stood at 3.63 percent—higher by 24 basis points from 3.39 percent yearon-year—as of end-March.

BPI shares climbed by 0.55 percent, or 40 centavos, to end at P73 each amid the 0.51-percent hike for the benchmark index on Monday.

Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

lic health] crisis and have increased and adjusted their capital funding.”

“Furthermore, well-capitalized banks can serve as a source of strength for the economy in good times and bad,” Asuncion added.

He explained that research suggests that capital hike is associated with increase in loan growth and better capitalized banks expand lending more quickly.

However, he noted that demand for loans are currently low as government imposed stern measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

In April, the total loan portfolio of the banking system reached P10.73 trillion, which is slightly lower compared to P10.87 trillion a month ago.

With businesses scaling down operations, Ricafort said that demand for loans declined as well as trimming of capital expenditures.

“However, relaxation of the lockdown since the second half of May 2020 with some businesses allowed

to gradually re-start/re-open could lead to some pick-up in economic activities as well as some pick up in loan demand,” he added.

Asset growth

The banking sector’s total assets also grew in April, reaching P18.66 trillion from P18.41 trillion a month ago.

Ricafort explained this was driven by the 1.8-percent monthon-month increase in total deposits amounting to P14.17 trillion in April.

“Many businesses, households, and other institutions mostly adopted a more conservative stance by increasing their cash positions and deposits,” he said.

This was to “better weather the unprecedented lockdown of the local economy as a matter of prudence,” Ricafort said.

The banking industry is holding cash amounting to P2.97 trillion as of end-April.

3-in-1 Covid-19 cover launched

by Insular Life, HMO subsidiary

T

he Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd. (InLife) and its HMO subsidiary InLife Health Care (IHC) Inc. announced they launched a product that combines term life insurance, hospital income and health care solution.

“Called ‘Total ProtectER,’ it is a timely insurance package with three main benefits: six-month term life insurance, daily hospital income for six-months and a onetime emergency care health plan,” the 110-year-old insurer said in a statement.

“While it is true that the government continues to foot hospital bills of Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] patients through PhilHealth, there is a limit to these benefits,” InLife Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Distribution Officer Raoul Antonio E. Littaua was quoted in the statement as saying.

“Therefore, if you are a breadwinner, self-employed, a freelancer, or someone who just started to work, it is advisable to get ‘Total ProtectER’ as a safety precaution because Covid-19 is covered under the term insurance and hospital income benefit of this product.”

For the emergency care element, although pandemic diseases such as Covid-19 are not coverable under standard insurance policies, IHC has taken this on under an ex-gratia basis at least until

August 31, 2020.

“I hope our kababayans will take advantage of this opportunity while it is still available,” Littaua added.

“This is a good way to take charge of one’s health needs at a time like this.”

InLife said Total ProtectER provides life insurance benefits of P500,000 upon death due to natural or accidental causes, a P3,000daily hospitalization income for up to 15 days if confinement is at least four days due to accidental injury or sickness (up to 15 days per hospital confinement, and a maximum of 90 days total hospitalization) within the six-month coverage period, and a one-time coverage of up to P100,000 on outpatient and inpatient care for emergency cases due to accidents, viral and bacterial illnesses, and specific conditions.

The emergency care benefit is valid for one year or up until it is used, whichever comes first, InLife said. Since no medical exams are required – just a health declaration – to purchase the product, customers may get it directly from IHC’s online store, the insurer added.

The company said there are two “Total ProtectER” premium rates to choose from: P11,750 or P12,450, with the latter including emergency care in Metro Manila’s top 6 hospitals. It is for individuals aged 18 to 64 years old.

Former HSBC head of mortgages backs first PHL mortgage broker

F

ormer HSBC Head of Mortgages Steve Martinelli has backed Nook, the Philippines’ first mortgage broking firm. Martinelli joins other top banking executives along with Australian entrepreneur Chris Elder as the group capitalizes on the growing yet underserved markets of South East Asia.

As an emerging market, the Philippines has one of the highest gross domestic product growth rates in the region and strong residential real estate loans growth, which makes it the ideal location for the firm to expand from, a statement said. The fintech has already tapped some of the biggest banks in the country for its lending panel as it moves fast to capture market share and change the way the country applies for home loans.

According to a survey done by New Perspective Media Group in 2019, property assets remain the top investment choice for most Filipinos who are still considering property as an investment in the country, specifically in locations such as Metro Manila, and outer areas such as Cavite and Laguna.

Commenting on the board appointment, Nook Founder and Chief Execu-

tive Officer, Chris Elder, stated: “Having Steve join the firm is a big win for Nook.

His distinguished career and seasoned experience will help to accelerate Nook’s growth, as well as secure future investment capital.”

A 25-year veteran of the mortgage lending industry, Martinelli was also a former executive at Aussie Home Loans where he served as GM for Distribution and Operations. Aussie Home Loans, Australia’s largest mortgage broking firm where Steve served was part of the senior team during its fast growth years. He was also a Foundation Director for General Motors’ financial ‘startup’ GMAC-RFC and was COO and Head of New Zealand for Bluestone Asset Management.

Nook is streamlining the home loan process in a country that has traditionally been very manual in its loan application process. It’s a throwback to a previous era in countries like Australia.

“For board members like me, Nook is an opportunity to bring lessons learned during the growth years of mortgage broking in Australia as it became established as the number one way to apply for a home loan in the country,” Martinelli

Martinelli was quoted in the statement as saying.

“It’s like a ‘do over’ for us, which is a great boost to Nook as it looks set to replicate history and establish mortgage broking in the Philippines.”

Demonstrating the market’s need for alternative housing loan services, Nook saw a large spike in new housing loan applications and inquiries during the pandemic lockdown period. Nook offered one of the very few ways people could still move ahead with a housing loan in the Philippines during the community quarantine, showing how technology can truly be transformative and enabling for consumers.

Using Nook, a potential borrower can find a suitable housing loan and receive assistance throughout the application process—all done virtually and for free, the company said. While the Covid-19 pandemic has damaged large parts of economies around the world, the pandemic has actually been ideal timing for Nook as the country quickly moves to adopt technology and looks for easier and safer ways to complete daily life. Although the firm is looking to establish more offline channels through corporate partnerships, the shift to digital in the country has definitely been a boost to the company.

For Nook, the backing of more experienced executives strengthens its future growth plans. The company states that it has grown tremendously since its launch at the beginning of the year, a testament to the conveniences of the home loan service it brings.

“We realized that there is indeed a sizeable number of Filipinos who would pursue their dreams of buying a home if the process were quicker, easier and more simple,” Martinelli said. “This is the problem that Nook solves.”

B4

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Art

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

z

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Melissa Rauch, 40; Jason Mraz, 43; Frances McDormand, 63; Randy Jackson, 64.

Happy Birthday: Turn this year into one of opportunity, positive change and having a new lease on life. Consider what’s taken place and how you can spin things to favor what you have to offer. You have plenty to gain if you are forthright and eager to please. Use your attributes diversely, and you will gain acceptance and the success you desire. Your lucky numbers are 2, 13, 23, 29, 33, 35, 47.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may want to think twice before you say something you can’t take back. Don’t let the moon play havoc with your life. Lock away your emotions and any harsh words you might have for someone. HH

❶ ❶ All The Luck

You Need (XXXX)

by Wawi Navarroza for Silverlens’ recent online-only exhibition, titled, Anticipating the Day.

❷ 56 Days by

Corinne de San Jose for one of Silverlens’ upcoming, byappointment shows that are opening on Thursday, June 25.

❷

‘Time to rebalance’: Gallerists discuss pandemic’s impact on how art would be marketed, sold region. The talk was moderated by Jefferson Jong, director of Art Agenda.

‘D

O we really want to go back to the way things were?”

The founder and director of Makatibased contemporary art gallery Silverlens, Isa Lorenzo, posed the question in an online panel discussion last week, titled “How will galleries market and sell artworks?”

“There were a lot of a lot of things that were going on which were just so time-consuming and energy-sucking, but it really wasn’t about the art.

Now is the time to reach new civility, a deeper respect, deeper appreciation for the artists and what they do, and that, I think, will weed out all the people who are speculating and really bring forth the true collectors and real audiences,” she said.

“This is a time to rebalance.”

The group discussion was part of the first edition of “PIVOT | The Southeast Asian Art World Beyond Covid-19”, a five-day online conference that ran from June 15 to 19, organized by Southeast Asian art news site Art & Market.

PIVOT featured topics about the altered art landscape as governments across the region begin to ease restrictions cautiously. The talks, which can be viewed on www.artandmarket.net/pivot, included a range of discussions, from the evolution of art collecting agendas to the new approach of artists to their practices.

Together with Lorenzo as panel speakers on the pandemic’s impact on galleries were Richard Koh, founder and director of Richard Koh Fine Art, a contemporary art gallery with spaces in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore; as well as Ursula Sullivan, codirector of Sullivan+Strumpf, an Australian gallery that presents the work of established and emerging contemporary artists in the Asia-Pacific

DIGITAL MIGRATION Shifting into the online realm has been vital for Sullivan+Strumpf, particularly in the remote management of its spaces in Sydney and Singapore, and in market engagement, according to Sullivan.

“All of a sudden, I had to be this digital guru, which I’m not,” said the gallery director, whose Sydney space is temporarily open by appointment only, while the Singapore gallery remains closed by government order until further notice.

Another aspect of Sullivan+Strumpf’s digital migration is the launch of “New Digital Strategy.”

Introduced in place of the lack of access to physical space are online exhibition viewing rooms, short films and artist podcast interviews and Spotify playlists. Sullivan said that feedback has been positive thus far. So much, in fact, that some guests told her that the new strategy is better than coming to the gallery, as the new layers of this art experience open up another headspace for them.

“We couldn’t have done this a year ago because the technology, attitude, etc., were not there, but now they’re here, and now we can embrace them and work at this other level that we’ve never done before,” Sullivan said. “This new level offers a lot more to the collectors, to the artists, to the galleries.

It’s been very democratizing.”

Unlike Sullivan+Strumpf as relative newcomer to the digital realm, however, Silverlens has been doing social media since 2013. They have also tried to migrate digitally as early as five years ago, but never really followed through.

“Because there was no need,” Lorenzo said.

“Everyone still came to the gallery or called us, so it was a very much a face-to-face relationship.”

As it did with most things, the pandemic changed that dynamic, and Silverlens was forced to refocus on their online platforms. Lorenzo noted that, to her surprise, the gallery’s viewership “has grown quite considerably” and they are still selling “without doing anything.”

“As what Ursula said, people are bored. They want something to do, something to look at. They’re tired of the news,” Lorenzo said. “So what do we do? We remember all the stuff we needed to do, how to make

this whole thing meaningful, and took it from the point of view of the artists.”

Silverlens launched the #AtHomeWith series, where they asked their artists what it’s like to be in lockdown. The artists responded by photographing their studios and themselves, as well as writing their own text and telling their own stories. The project morphed into the gallery’s recent online-only group exhibition, titled Anticipating the Day, which ran from June 2 to 20.

The show, according to Lorenzo, yielded the highest click rate in the gallery’s social media history, and produced the most inquiries for a show.

Jong, the panel moderator, noted that the exhibition’s success may have been a “combination of cabin fever and the presentation of what is not usually shown before: the life of the artist.”

“Whereas previously, you see the finally product, the artwork,” he said, “there is a shift now that you focus on the life of the artist.”

CLICK-AND-ADD-TO-CART PHASE? Establishing an online presence may be the way to go for galleries moving forward, but some consumers still prefer to see the artwork in person before making a purchase.

One example is Koh, who, aside from running the Richard Koh Fine Art galleries, is a buyer and collector for himself and others. He said his group didn’t even send a PDF or e-catalog to a single client in the past months, citing that as a collector himself, he receives so many online materials that he doesn’t even look at it anymore.

“What we did for our gallery artists was more of a visibility thing,” Koh said. “It was more on awareness, but nothing about selling anything.”

He explained that “buying art is not going to eBay or Amazon,” in the sense that art is not just a product.

“If you’re buying to decorate a house or put on a wall, that’s fine, right? But when it comes to the bigger numbers, the more serious works, you do need to experience it, unless you’re really, really familiar with the artist’s practice,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re at a click-and-add-to-cart kind of phase,” Sullivan added.

“Not yet,” replied Kho. Sullivan continued, “And I don’t really want to go there.” n

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Look for new ways to improve your surroundings. You’ll want to spend more time at home if you feel comfortable and entertained. An emotional matter will surface. Play your cards right, and someone will give you something special. HHHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Concentrate on mastering whatever you set out to do. Learn from experience, and you will gain insight into the way things work. It’s up to you to take advantage of an opportunity. Don’t wait for things to come to you; seize the moment. HHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A financial, contractual or medical gain is within reach.

Do your best to take advantage of whatever comes your way. Use what you know and do well to push you to the next level. HHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Keep what you are thinking and doing a secret. Concentrate on making a positive change to the way you look and live or to your professional goals. The more time spent doing and the less spent talking about your intentions, the better. HHH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Be methodical regarding partnerships, donations or any other help you offer. Don’t let others take advantage of you or pressure you into something you don’t want to do. An open mind with a practical attitude will lead to positive change. HHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Refuse to let anyone push you around. Take your responsibilities seriously, and finish what you start. It’s best to work alone if you want to avoid stress.

Use persuasive charm to convince others to do their own thing. Personal growth is featured. HHHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Refuse to let the changes going on around you stop you in your tracks. Look beyond what others are doing, and channel your energy into something you enjoy doing. You will outsmart anyone who tries to interfere with your plans. HH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Look at the way you’ve been living and the temptations that have been difficult to resist. It’s time to shake things up and start anew. Begin with self-improvement and getting along better with the people who love and care about you. HHHHH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Put more effort into your domestic life. Make adjustments at home that will add to your comfort and create a space that you find inspiring. Discuss your plans with whoever you live with or might be affected by the changes you implement. HHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Let your emotions push you to take over. Address sensitive issues openly to put them behind you. It’s time to make personal gains that will bring you closer to the life you want to live. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Touch base with people you haven’t seen in a long time. Set up a virtual reunion to see what everyone’s doing.

The information you gather will help you make decisions about the way you proceed with your life. HHHHH Birthday Baby: You are creative, ambitious and productive.

You are sensitive and kind.

‘uppercase and lowercase’ by paul coulter The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Oranges’ white parts 6 “Later!”

10 NYSE banner events 14 Often-sauteed vegetable 15 Sch. near Santa Monica 16 Like many old recordings 17 (b)arber’s obstacle?

19 12-point type 20 Texter’s “then again” 21 Pollen holders 22 San Francisco NFLer, informally 23 Sports channel that shows college games 25 NY minutes, in the winter 26 Water balloon sound 29 (W)eak part of Achilles?

34 Got ready to play, as a CD track 36 Blows it 37 Soft & ___ 38 Subject with many projects 39 Title for Santa’s wife 41 Madam’s counterpart 42 Cheerios grain 43 Say mean things about 44 Uninteresting sort

6 Examine closely 4 48 (p)low puller?

50 Fast finisher?

51 “Told ya!”

52 Saint ___ Girl beer 55 Tablelands 57 It becomes another sports venue if its last letter is changed to “g” 58 Pipe problem 62 Sonata, e.g.

63 (S)inger/instrumentalist John who co-founded the Velvet Underground?

65 Charades player, essentially 66 Long, long time 67 Hardly ruddy 68 Breezed through 69 Numero uno 70 Districts DOWN 1 Sport with mallets 2 Still contending 3 Jackson 5 guitarist 4 Volatile type 5 Celebrity Jeopardy! show, briefly 6 Sandwich type with ham and roasted pork

7 Straight Outta Compton role 8 “Poor me!”

9 Crew stick 10 Mischievous 11 Highlighted with a comment?

12 First cousin ___ removed 13 Fly high 18 Sixth sense, for short 22 Outdated format for current events 24 Trips 26 A lot 27 Jewish festival also called “Feast of Lots” 28 “Hypothetically...”

30 Apr. addressee 31 Film crew member 32 Clear, as a whiteboard 33 Carafe size, perhaps 35 Play thing?

40 Full show letters 45 Runs out 47 Vehicle on a track 49 Rented 53 Adolescent anxiety 54 Island strings, briefly 55 NYC cultural center

56 Colossal 57 Anger 59 Alleviate 60 Opposite of baja 61 Custodian’s collection 63 Pipette’s place 64 Health resort

Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Show BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Jason Mraz to give earnings from new album to social justice N

EW YORK—Jason Mraz has a new album coming out and he wants everyone to buy it and love it. But he’s not going to make a penny on it.

The two-time Grammy-winner has promised to donate all earnings from sales and streams of his reggae album Look for the Good—including his $250,000 advance—to groups working for racial equality and justice.

“This is bigger than me,” Mraz tells The Associated Press from his ranch in Southern California. “Now the CD itself has a purpose. The record itself actually can go out and serve.”

Sales will fund Black Lives Matter, San Diego Young Artists Music Academy, RISE San Diego, Grassroots Law Project, Center on Policy Initiatives and Equal Justice Initiative.

“For me, this is my cardboard sign up at the march.

This is me putting my body and my music and my name on the line to say ‘I stand with this movement and I want to help move this down the field toward a more equal and just world,’” Mraz said.

Look for the Good was released on Friday, which also is Juneteenth, a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. Mraz vows to make donations to progressive groups annually on Juneteenth.

“I’ve made plenty of quiet donations and that’s great. But I also want to inspire other leaders in business and other leaders in music to do the same,” he said.

The 12-track album was recorded last summer but finds itself quite prescient, with uplifting messages of togetherness and unity. “Something about reggae says, ‘You’re welcome here’ or ‘This is for everybody,’” Mraz said.

The album includes the song “You Do You,” a collaboration with actress Tiffany Haddish, who raps the line “We gonna march until our voices get heard.”

On another song, Mraz sings: “We were born to love not hate/We can decide our fate.”

The roots of the album go back to the year Donald Trump won the White House and took on more importance with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

“For me, it started with the 2016 election and feeling like such a shift and a loss of power and a rise of a sort of ugliness that still exists in the US,” he said.

“Twenty-twenty is election year, so that’s really what prompted us to be like, ‘Hey, 2020 is going to be an engaged year. There’s going to be debate.

Things are going to happen. Who knows what. But what we need is to be prepared with some positive music,” Mraz said.

To make the album, Mraz teamed up with producer Michael Goldwasser, founder of indie reggae label Easy Star Records who has also done remixes for Kelly Clarkson and Janelle Monae. Mraz’s music has often dipped into reggae, but Goldwasser said a whole album showing off various sides of the music made sense.

“The things that Jason wants to sing about often make sense as reggae. Jason is all about making a better world and calling out social issues and how we can improve upon them,” Goldwasser said.

“I think of reggae as message music,” Goldwasser added. “Jason—whether he even intends this or not— can be a great conduit for other people to discover

Dave Franco, director/cowriter of The Rental, poses at an advance screening of the film at Vineland Drive-In recently in California. AP

Hollywood evolves during pandemic with drive-in premiere

By Mark Kennedy The Associated Press

By Ryan Pearson The Associated Press

important and great music but also important messages.”

Mraz is best known for his 2008 hit “I’m Yours,” which got to No. 6 in 2008. His other hits include “Lucky” with Colbie Caillat, “I Won’t Give Up” and “The Remedy [I Won’t Worry].”

He currently lives in a rural avocado ranch in Oceanside with his wife, Christina Carano. “We have a little room to breathe, and we have food growing in the trees,” he said.

The new album has several nods to beloved TV

icon Mister Rogers. Mraz is such a fan that he bought an autograph of the children’s TV host on eBay just to have “his energy in my space.”

The cover of the album is also a call to be better.

It includes a shinny surface, asking the audience to reflect. “Look in the mirror and look for the good,” he said.

“I’ve been very blessed. I’ve had a lot of great albums. I’ve had a lot of success. I’m in a privileged position where I can do this and I can help. So it feels good. Feels like the right thing to do.” n

Ai-Ai embarks on new journey with GMA Artist Center IT’S the same entertaining spirit Ai-Ai de las Alas continues to display to her loyal fans and supporters—but this time with brand new partners. Expect more fun from the multi-talented actress, TV host and performer, touted as the Comedy Concert Queen, as she signs with GMA Artist Center.

“Nag-decide ako to join GMA Artist Center kasi it’s time I pay back. Since 1990, taga-GMA na ako talaga, sila ang nagbigay sa akin ng chance na makilala noong struggling artist pa ako, noong ako ay bago pa sa industriya. Dahil ngayon ay 30th anniversary ko and sumabay din ako sa 70th anniversary ng GMA para terno!”

Present in the contract-signing ceremony held at the 17th floor executive lounge of GMA were Senior Vice President for Entertainment Group Lilybeth G. Rasonable, Senior Assistant Vice President for Alternative Productions Gigi Santiago-Lara, GMA Artist Center Assistant Vice President for Talent Imaging and Marketing Simoun Ferrer, and Senior Talent Manager Daryl Zamora.

According to Ai-Ai, she still has a lot to bring to the table. Ai-Ai invites her fans to watch out for her upcoming projects, “Napaka-daming ganap. Mayroon akong soap, The Clash Season 3, at mayroon din akong outof-the-country shows na hindi natuloy pero matutuloy na after Covid-19.”

Moreover, she hopes this new partnership will open more doors for her. A few of the fellow GMA artists she looks forward to working with in the future are Alden Richards, Rocco Nacino, EA Guzman and Sanya Lopez, among others.

Senior Vice President for Entertainment Group Lilybeth G. Rasonable has nothing but praise for the GMA artist: “Siyempre masaya, there are so many reasons to celebrate, especially with all these things happening around us. She still has The Clash, alam naman natin na talagang nilu-look forward ng audience ’yung pag-judge niya because she always comes up with the funniest, very constructive comments, and ’yung mga outfits niya. Aside from that, of course, she can do drama, we know that she has won several awards. Maraming pwede gawin si Ai-Ai, kahit online.”

B5

LOS ANGELES—Dave Franco says the drive-in premiere for his directorial debut was “perfect” but admittedly “a little weird.”

The 35-year-old actor found himself at the center of Hollywood’s evolving response to the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday as he premiered his directorial debut The Rental to more than 1,300 people at the Vineland drive-in theater in Southern California.

Joined by stars including wife Alison Brie, Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand, he took off his mask to pose for photographers in the center of a massive parking lot, then answered questions via Zoom from his car after the film ended. It beat a traditional, more buttoned-up red carpet event, Franco said.

“It didn’t feel like there was a spotlight on me or the cast. It felt more like this communal experience where everyone was just excited to get out of their homes and, you know, let loose with a group of fellow movie lovers. It was perfect,” he said in an interview Friday.

Franco says Brie calmed him down about the shortcomings of an outdoor screening: patchy audio over the FM radio and ambient light drowning out darker sections of his horror thriller The Rental.

“Trust me, it is not what I do. I am a crazy perfectionist. I annoy everyone around me because I won’t stop until it’s perfect. And so it was hard for me to let go, but it was nice having Alison next to me—she forced me to let go,” he said.

His movie is set to be released via video-ondemand and at drive-ins and traditional theaters on July 24. But the nation’s largest theater chains have been adjusting their reopening plans regularly in response to health officials. Franco says that like many in Hollywood, he’s tracking Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, scheduled for release July 31.

“Obviously that’s the giant movie that everyone’s focused on and that all the theaters are really trying to open in time for that film. So we’ve just been kind of stepping back and monitoring.... If they’re not opening for Tenet, they ain’t opening for us.... I’m happy to creep behind Christopher Nolan all day.”

Franco is hoping to hold another premiere event closer to the film’s release—maybe even in a traditional theater. There’s something about the big screen. “Just seeing how many people are flocking to drive-ins around the country, it just proves that the moviegoing experience is so special,” Franco said.

“There’s a lot of talk about the future of film being mainly digital. But I think right now we’re really seeing how much people love going to the movies.”

OPM covers make it to ‘The Pop Stage’ semifinals

Three more talented individuals are a step closer to their dreams after securing their spot in the Top 12 of “The Pop Stage,” the biggest online talent competition in the country created and hosted by singer-actor Matteo Guidicelli with the support of Popeyes Philippines in partnership with Viva Artists Agency.

In the show’s sixth episode, another batch of contestants showed more of what they got during the second elimination round. Guidicelli was joined by singer Jed Madela and G-Force dancer Ritz Beltran to judge the performances and reveal the partial scores of the contestants.

Their performances were judged based on creativity and originality, performance quality, and entertainment value, and three performers with the highest scores will move on to the semifinal round of the competition.

In the second elimination round, six contestants battled it out with new performance videos, including Life Viktourya Cruz who sang her cover of “Titibo-tibo” by Moira de la Torre; Precious Dime with her rendition of the OPM classic “Nosi Balasi” by Sampaguita;” El-John Zian Macalatan who danced to the tune of “Abakada” by Gloc 9; Jehramae Trangia who sang Sarah Geronimo’s hit song “Kilometro;” Justine Mabunga who performed “Bituing Marikit” by Nicanor Abelardo; and CJ Villavicencio who did a song cover of “Ride Home” by Ben&Ben. El-John Zian and CJ were revealed to be the top 2 acts of the second elimination round and will join spoken word poet Martin Naling, singers Sarah Mae Guno and Luigi D’Avola in the Top 12. Another contestant will also be joining them but will be revealed in the next episode of the show.

The top winner of “The Pop Stage”will receive a cash prize worth P1 million and a one-year contract with Viva Artists Agency. More information is available on the official “The Pop Stage” page on Facebook.

B6 Tuesday, June 23, 2020

No 154 B PhilHealth loss, COA reports

Toyota PH partners with DOH in fight against COVID-19, donates 30 Vios units to public hospitals

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N its letter dated June 10, 2020 to PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo C. Morales, the Commission on Audit confirmed that it did not find losses of Php 154 B in any of its audited financial statements of the state Agency in the past 5 years.

The COA report was in response to a request made by PCEO Morales, shortly after assuming the presidency of PhilHealth, for a special audit of the alleged losses featured in a three-part news series by a broadsheet in 2019.

The COA letter stated that this was in “reference to your letter dated February 5, 2020 seeking the assistance of the Commission on Audit (COA) in clarifying the allegation that PhilHealth sustained losses amounting to 154 billion pesos over six years…” in relation to “… media reports alleging/claiming that PhilHealth has been operating on a loss due to overpayments/ fraud; particularly the second of a three-part news article series authored by Mr. Jovic Yee published by the Philippine Daily

Inquirer on June 7, 2019 that stated “PhilHealth had lost a total of 154 billion pesos since 2013”.”

The COA confirmed that, “As culled from the audited financial statements (FS) of PhilHealth for five (5) years… nowhere can be found nor can be derived the purported losses in an aggregate amount of 154 billion pesos.”, adding that “… the alleged losses… did not appear on the published COA Annual Audit Reports on PhilHealth”.

The said COA letter validated Morales’ statements that from Day 1 of his presidency, he has been trying to uncover any alleged 154B loss in PhilHealth’s finances but could not find any.

Bonifacio High Street welcomes back visitors with safety and convenience as its priority

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OH Central Office – Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP) signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Health (DOH) in support of the Philippine government’s efforts to address the mobility needs of healthcare workers at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TMP announced that it is donating a total of thirty (30) Vios units to various public hospitals in Metro Manila and Laguna.

DOH hosted the event at its Central Office in Sta. Cruz, Manila with Secretary Francisco Duque III heading the ceremony. Showing strong support to the government, Toyota officials in attendance were Chairman Alfred V. Ty, Vice Chairman David Go, and President Atsuhiro Okamoto. The event was also graced by Japan Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda who continuously promotes strong ties between the Japanese business community, the Philippine government and the Filipino society at-large.

In his short message during the simple

ceremony, TMP president Okamoto commended healthcare workers for their sacrifice and hard work, saying, “Toyota salutes all healthcare workers in the country - the brave heroes who continue to work relentlessly to care for the sick and preserve life… Please accept Toyota’s humble contribution of providing mobility services through our proudly Philippinemade and ever dependable Toyota Vios.”

Culminating the simple event was the actual turnover of one (1) Vios unit each to Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, and San Lorenzo Ruiz Women’s Hospital. TMP will complete the turnover of units to identified public hospitals by July 2020.

Toyota strongly believes that providing mobility to healthcare frontliners will help in the country’s current battle with the pandemic.

TMP Chairman Alfred V. Ty remarked, “I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the Philippine government for its strong leadership during this difficult

time. And, of course, I send our utmost appreciation to all our front liners for their outstanding dedication and selflessness.”

He further assured Toyota’s role in assisting the country at this time, saying, “As a strong partner for nation building, we are committed to heed the call of Filipinos as they begin to rebuild their lives. We need to help them get back to work every day. We have to make sure that we can take them to the hospital when they need care.

We must ensure that essential workers can transport themselves to their work places to care for our loved ones. When we can once again move freely, we will be there to bring families and friends together.”

On top of the vehicle donation, TMP, in partnership with Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), currently provides ten (10) connected and sanitized shuttles to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) health workers. All shuttles are in compliance to the “new normal” guidelines to ensure that healthcare workers are wellprotected.

Bring Novotel Manila's brand of hospitality in your homes

Crispy Chicken Burger

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RANETA City’s first Novotel brand just whipped out home signature selections from their award-winning dining outlets, Food Exchange Manila, Sabor Bar de Vinos, Gourmet Bar and Indulge Gelato allowing you and the family to enjoy the Novotel Manila Araneta City’s brand of hospitality in your homes and private spaces.

As it is Novotel’s promise to stay by its

loyal patrons’ side during these times, the hotel has made its Take Me Out by Novotel Manila menu available daily from 11AM to 7PM. The offer has three diverse menu categories to choose from: Ready-to-Eat which serves freshly cooked dishes and ready to consume. Ready-to-Cook serves raw vacuum-packed frozen marinated meals like chicken inasal and pork belly while

Ready-to-Reheat serves cooked vacuumpacked frozen local all-time favourites such as sisig, adobo, and caldereta. Pair these dishes with a satisfying spread of dessert and gelato flavors from Indulge Gelato bread shop boulangerie. Patrons can also unwind at home with Sabor Bar De Vinos’ wine selection.

These dishes are prepared in line with internationally prescribed sanitation and meticulous hygiene standards. All orders are prepared only upon confirmation, to ensure the meals’ freshness, in line with the program’s moving philosophies – freshly prepared, and responsibly sourced. The hotel uses sugar cane containers instead of plastic material and it gets its organic produce from its own sustainable garden El Dorado farm located in San Mateo, Rizal. The Hotel also follows an online, contact-less payment policies, accepting credit and debit cards.

Orders are available starting June 15, 2020. To check out full menu and to place orders, visit Novotel Manila Araneta City’s official Facebook page, or through our delivery concierge at (632) 899079999 and 09498865591 or email H7090@accor.com. Upon order confirmation, orders are available for pickup at the secondary lobby at the Hotel's Ground Floor.

Jollibee’s “Send A Meal”service makes bulk purchase of food for frontliners and affected communities more accessible and convenient

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HILE the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about challenges and difficulties on a global scale, it has also given way for people to foster heroism especially to those who serve the front lines. Individuals and organizations continue to exhibit compassion by giving out food and other essentials to front liners and other affected communities.

To help individuals and groups in

their food distribution efforts, Jollibee introduced the “Send A Meal: Bulk Order Service”. This initiative offers a systematic and easy way for benefactors to order select Jollibee meals in bulk, conveniently pay for them, and have them picked up or delivered straight to their intended recipients.

The Jollibee products interested parties may choose from are: Jollibee - Share A Meal Bulk Order

Products: 1-pc. Chickenjoy, 1-pc.

Burgersteak, Jolly Spaghetti, Yumburger Payments can be made through online transfer or bank deposits.

Delivery fees will also be waived for orders worth PHP 3,000 and above per recipient.

Those who want to avail of this special service can email their bulk orders and inquiriestosendameal@ jollibee.com.phfor Jollibee meals.

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ELCOME to the new normal – a way of life where we put health and safety at the center of all that we do. In keeping with this new way of living, Bonifacio High Street (BHS) ensures safe and hassle-free shopping and dining experiences that cater to the needs of the BGC community.

As BHS opens its doors for you, we ensure that stringent sanitation standards are in place together with safety protocols for its patrons. Moreover, social distancing measures are being strictly implemented within the mall’s premises, all of which are designed to facilitate ease of movement while guaranteeing convenience for mallgoers.

BGC also introduced a number of initiatives that aim to make people’s shopping and dining experience more convenient and hassle-free.

Among these is High Street Curbside, which allows customers to easily contact their favorite stores, place orders and settle payments in advance, and schedule pick-ups at designated areas by simply driving-by without having to get out of their cars.

For those who need personalized assistance, another option is to avail of BGC’s High Street Shopper. Done in partnership with the MyKuya app, this allows anyone to book the services of a personal shopper for a specified period of time who can assist with a variety of errands within BGC – from buying food items, shopping for goods, or even paying for bills.

Once the tasks are completed, customers can choose to have the items delivered to their homes or to pick these up from the designated drive-by or pick-up areas in Bonifacio High Street.

Food is always in high demand, which is why BHS has launched Takeaway Street -- an initiative where all transactions are made safely at the store front. You just simply order, pay, and wait for your purchases at the designated waiting areas which are guaranteed to be safe and organized for the convenience of their citizens and delivery partners.

BHS has also partnered with Grab Food to offer

discounts to all those who will order from select BHS restaurants and merchants. Enjoy free delivery and P100 off your Grab Food orders for a minimum spend of P800 from participating Bonifacio High Street restaurants from June 15 to July 15, 2020.

With safety as number one priority, fully automated and highly accurate thermal imaging scanners have been installed in different mall entrances.These scanners are non-contact and have the ability to measure multiple mall-goers’ temperature at the same time. As an added security feature, these cameras can also help detect shoplifters and pickpockets through facial recognition once they have been registered in the system.

For more details and updates, check out Bonifacio High Street’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/BoniHighStreet/!

Maynilad to build RT-PCR testing for Covid-19 infection

Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez (left) and DLSMC President and CEO Raul C. Pagdanganan (right) hold up the Memorandum of Agreement for the construction and installation of the RT-PCR Testing Center during the e-signing ceremony.

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FACILITY for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing, the gold standard in testing for COVID-19 infection, will soon rise on the premises of De Los Santos Medical Center (DLSMC) along E. Rodriguez Sr. Boulevard, Quezon City. The center is expected to help boost the testing capacity of the country, which only has about 30 licensed RT-PCR laboratories to date.

The construction and installation of the testing center was made possible through a Php 15-M donation by Maynilad Water Services, Inc., the water and sewerage concessionaire for the west zone of Metro Manila.

Both Maynilad and DLSMC are companies under Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), with DLSMC as one of 16 hospitals under Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc. Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito

S. Fernandez said, ”We are happy with the decision we made. From our own experience, DLSMC has been very efficient and flexible in servicing the needs of Maynilad. This laboratory will be a testament to our partnership and is also our small contribution to our country and to the MPIC group in its quest for doubling the testing capacity in the country.”

Meanwhile, DLSMC President and CEO Raul C. Pagdanganan said, “The MayniladDLSMC RT-PCR Testing Center will make a big impact not only on our hospital but also on patients who will need testing especially during the most difficult time for humanity yet – the COVID-19 pandemic. This testing center is proof that Maynilad and DLSMC have a very good working relationship that will pave the way to making a big change in the lives of the patients and in the healthcare industry.”

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Tuesday, June 23, 2020 B7

FROOME STICKING WITH INEOS? C

HRIS FROOME told his Ineos teammates that he’s staying put and will ride the Tour de France with them this summer, according to Dylan van Baarle.

Froome is out of contract at the end of the year and is weighing up a move away from Ineos, with Cyclingnews revealing the possibility of a rare mid-season switch to avoid a leadership battle with Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas.

Israel Start-Up Nation have shown interest in signing the four-time Tour de France champion and a report in Tuttobici this week suggested he was close to agreeing a three-year deal starting in August.

Speaking to Dutch newspaper AD, Van Baarle, who is currently on a training camp with

Froome and others on Ineos’s Tour de France long list, revealed Froome had told them he wouldn’t be leaving.

“Of course we’ve talked about it, because it’s in the news all the time. But, as far as I know, he’s staying and wants to ride the Tour with Ineos,” Van Baarle said. “In the end, I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes with him either, but that’s what he says to us, so I assume he’ll be there.”

Van Baarle did not refer to Froome saying anything about his plans for 2021 and beyond—only the idea that he might terminate his contract early and line up against his old teammates at the Tour in late August.

“That would be strange,” Van Baarle said. “And

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HILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino vowed to fully wield his powers as a member of the House of Representatives to help the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) get back its funds that were realigned during this Covid-19 pandemic.

“As a member of the House of Representative, I will try to give back the

amount that was taken from the PSC’s National Sports Development Fund [NSDF],” Tolentino told Monday’s forum organized by the POC in celebration of Olympic Day. Under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act signed into law last March 24, the Department of Budget and Management realigned the PSC’s P1.3 billion budget—P596 million from general appropriations and another P773 million from the NSDF—for the campaign to fight and survive the pandemic.

It didn’t help that the Philippine Games and Amusement Corp.’s remittance to the PSC dwindled drastically from an average of P150 million a month before the pandemic to a measly P9 million in May. Because of the lockdown, casino

REP. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino would bring the Philippine Sports Commission’s plight to Congress.

PSA Forum on NCAA

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T’S the turn of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to discuss its next steps moving forward in the webcast edition of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum on Tuesday.

NCAA Management Committee Chairman Fr. Vic Calvo of host Letran and predecessor Peter Cayco of Arellano University lead the panel of guests in the 10 a.m. weekly session.

The country’s oldest collegiate league earlier announced that only four events will comprise a shortened Season 96 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Letran’s hosting of the 2020-2021 athletic year coincides with the school’s celebration of its 400th year anniversary.

The weekly Forum is powered by Smart and presented by San Miguel Corp., Go For Gold, Amelie Hotel, Braska Restaurant and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

The session will be shown live via the PSA Facebook page fb.com/ PhilippineSportswritersAssociation and also on Radyo Pilipinas 2 facebook page.

High schools push ahead for fall football amid pandemic

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USTIN, Texas—High schools across the country are trying to figure out how and when students might return to classrooms this fall. Many are also making sure their star quarterbacks and other athletes will be in shape when they do.

While states have been easing the economic and social lockdowns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, some are now letting high-school athletes return for summer workouts before teachers have even figured out how they are going to hold classroom instruction.

In places like Texas and Florida, where the “Friday Night Lights” culture of high-school football runs deep, strength and conditioning sessions are bringing thousands of athletes to school for workouts, even while those states are seeing record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations since Memorial Day. Some schools have already been sent scrambling when a player tests positive.

At football powerhouse Arlington-Martin High School near Dallas, about 600 athletes

aiming to make history, he sits no higher on the hierarchy than Bernal and Thomas, the winners of the past two Tours. All three have been “encouraged” to prepare to lead the line, with a decision to be taken further down the line.

Bernal recently commented that he would not, if at full strength, sacrifice his own chances for his teammates. Cyclingnews

I don’t think it will happen that he will go early.”

Froome joined Team Ineos—then Team Sky—when it was launched in 2010 and has gone on to win seven Grand Tours for the British team.

However, his future was thrown into doubt last June when he suffered career-threatening injuries at the Critérium du Dauphiné and was forced to miss the Tour, won by 22-year-old Bernal.

Froome hadn’t signed a new contract at that point and so found himself working his way back to full health and fitness, trying to prove he was still capable of winning a record-equaling fifth Tour title.

Froome raced the UAE Tour in February but the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed his racing progress, although he claims to be back to full strength.

While Froome has won four Tours and is

TOLENTINO TO HELP CASH-STRAPPED PSC

By Ramon Rafael Bonilla

DID Chris Froome’s negotiations with other teams bog down?

operations were shuttered, leaving the Pagcor with no revenue.

Tolentino said he would insist on including a provision in the Bayanihan to Recover As One Bill that would allow the PSC’s realigned budget to be reverted back to the sports agency’s coffers.

The second version of the law that was deemed necessary during the pandemic would extend President Duterte’s emergency powers to September 30.

Tolentino is a second-term congressman for Cavite’s Eighth District. He chairs the House Committee on Accounts, cochairs Good Government and Public Accountability and Legislative Franchises and is a member for the Majority of the Games and Amusements committee.

The POC said he felt extreme compassion over the fate of the Filipino athletes, especially

those who have qualified and are working to quality for the postponed Tokyo Olympics.

With a very limited budget, the PSC had no choice but to shelve all its programs for the year and only recently announced that the monthly allowances of national athletes and coaches would be cut in half.

“We are discussing with the PSC the continuation of training,” said Tolentino, also the president of the cycling federation. “The training of our athletes is lagging behind, but this is a health issue.”

The PSC also vowed to continuously support Filipino athletes despite having to scrape the bottom of its coffers.

Four Filipinos have so far qualified for the Tokyo Games set from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

They are pole vaulter EJ Obiena, gymnast Carlos Yulo and boxers Eumir Felix Marcial and Irish Magno.

Young baseball players get memento filled with stadium dirt

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OKYO—Japanese high-school baseball players, heartbroken because their annual tournament was canceled due to the pandemic, are getting a consolation prize: a spoonful of dirt.

It’s not just any soil—it’s from Koshien Stadium. Which means it holds special meaning to all who love the game in this baseball-mad country.

Every year, more than 3,000 teams go through competitive regional playoffs to advance to the finals at Koshien in Nishinomiya city, central Japan—the prized stage that’s seen the likes of major

leaguers Ichiro, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Matsui.

And every year, after a team loses, the players, many weeping uncontrollably, scrape the dirt near the dugout to take home as a memento.

On a recent afternoon, it was the members of the professional club, the Hanshin Tigers, who were digging with their hands to collect dirt from Koshien, their home stadium.

The dirt will be put in transparent balls hanging from key chains and sent to some 50,000 high-school baseball players.

Akashi Commercial High School players collect dirt of the grounds after being defeated by Riseisha High School during a semifinal game at the National High School Baseball Championship at the Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Japan, in August last year. AP

attended the first day of summer conditioning programs June 8. That many kids, following state social distancing guidelines, were spread out over four athletic fields.

“It’s 13 weeks since we’ve had an organized workout with our teams,” coach Bob Wager said. “I think kids were excited to get out of the house.”

Eight days later, those same fields were empty when the school suspended workouts after a student tested positive and Wager and his staff began the work of tracing all of the athletes and get everyone to quarantine. Wager’s program was one of several Texas schools or districts to suspend workouts shortly after they started.

Still, dozens of states have been welcoming back high-school athletes for strength and conditioning programs, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

And it’s not just football. Other sports such as volleyball and basketball, baseball and soccer can participate as well. Marching bands, too. Iowa became the first state to resume competitive high school sports when baseball and softball teams began play June 15. AP

Each ball has the words: “2020 102nd Koshien,” for the 102nd tournament, and pictures of a ball, bats and the stadium. They are to be delivered in August, when the tournament had been scheduled to start.

Hibiki Kawamato, a centerfielder and slugger at Iwamichisuikan High School in Shimane Prefecture, western Japan, was thrilled. The Tigers are his favorite team, and he plans to put the key chain proudly on his bag.

The game means so much to him. “When I get a hit when the team really needs it, I get praised by everyone,” he said. “I’m going to play baseball till I die.”

Akihiko Tanimoto, a social studies teacher who works with the team, said the players were still working out hard, and the cancellation served as a lesson to not quit in the face of hardships.

“Koshien was our goal, but it is not the purpose of why we play high-school baseball, which is about not giving up until it’s over,” he said in a telephone interview.

The school has made it to the Koshien summer tournament 10 times.

How the custom of bringing home Koshien dirt originated is unclear. But it’s a tradition that dates back decades.

The winning team also gathers the dirt, but only after the final award ceremony, which is witnessed by fans from all over Japan. They fill Koshien’s stands and cheer raucously, in much the same way American fans follow the NCAA basketball tournament.

The dirt is replenished regularly, to make sure there is enough.

The idea of the key chain originated from Tigers players, who understood the disappointment of having the Koshien dream shattered. Many played in the tournament as youngsters.

“We all pondered what we could do for them, and I think it holds special meaning that we did this for them together as a team,” said outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, who took part in the Koshien tournament while at PL Gakuen high school.

“I want them all to stay optimistic,” said Fukudome, formerly of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. AP

Vincent Juico @VJuico Instagram vpjp_j, vince.juico@gmail.com

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS

The beautiful game IF basketball never existed, I think I’d be a football fanatic.

There’s a saying that I disagree with: “Football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.”

Now, with all due respect to rugby players and fans, I like American football better than rugby but I disagree with football being played by hooligans. It’s a beautiful game played by gentlemen, that’s what it is.

I started seriously watching the sport in the 1994 World Cup in the US. Since that time, the sport and its superstars and great players have evolved. After the ’94 World Cup, I started watching the Dutch League and Italia Serie A then it was onto La Liga and the English Premier League (EPL).

I’m a Chelsea supporter in the EPL and a Barca fan in La Liga. I’m a bit partial though to Liverpool because of Mo Salah and the work he does for the community over in Liverpool.

I’m a die hard Chelsea guy because when my wife and I went on our honeymoon, there were two things in my bucket list—a visit to both Chelsea and Arsenal, the Chelsea Blues and the Arsenal Gunners.

The people at Chelsea were very friendly and accommodating and the staff at Arsenal, well, were not so friendly.

I’m also a bit partial to the French League’s PSG (Paris Saint Germain) because of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and 17-year-old wunderkind prodigy, young Dutch international Xavi Simons. The kid makes €1 million a year and has a million followers on Instagram. Mbappe is only 21 and he, too, does a lot of work for his community and favorite charity. Chelsea has Christian Pulisic, arguably the US’s best football player right now.

These countries are starting them young.

Gone are the days when football players were tall and skinny. Now, they’re built almost like boxers and MMA fighters, skinny but muscular and tough to battle for position on a set piece.

Football specific training and workouts allow these guys to bulk up without compromising and sacrificing speed, quickness, agility and lateral movement.

Height wasn’t a factor before, now it is. Add to that athleticism to jump and leap high to score headers and bicycle kicks which Cristiano Ronaldo makes with ease. I remember Erwin van der Saar, the Netherland’s and Ajax’s 6-foot-6 former goal keeper with long arms.

I wonder if there’s a statistic in football for GAA or goals allowed average, a statistic they have for ice hockey goal keepers in the National Hockey League.

Last but not the least, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the last guy you want to talk about when the subject of humility comes up. Such a humble guy, I’m being sarcastic of course but he can back it up. One of his many highlights was when he singlehandedly brought LA Galaxy back into the game against Los Angeles FC scoring a hat trick in the process.

I just love football and I hope the game continues to evolve for the better—but its beauty stays the same.

F1 star Hamilton plans to set up commission to increase diversity

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WITH social distancing in mind, bead football Coach Bob Wager (right) and linebacker Morice Blackwell greet each other with elbow taps during the strength and conditioning camp at Arlington Martin High School recently in Arlington, Texas. AP

ONDON—Six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton is to set up a commission to increase diversity in motorsport.

The Mercedes driver said the aim of the Hamilton Commission would be to make the sport “become as diverse as the complex and multicultural world we live in.”

Writing in British newspaper The Sunday Times, Hamilton said it would be a research partnership dedicated to exploring how motorsport can be used as a vehicle to “engage more young people from Black backgrounds with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and, ultimately, employ them on our teams or in other engineering sectors.”

“I’ve been fighting the stigma of racism throughout my racing career—from kids throwing

things at me while karting, to being taunted by fans in black face at a 2007 grand prix, one of my first Formula One races,” he wrote.

“I’m used to being one of very few people of color on my teams and, more than that, I’m used to the idea that no one will speak up for me when I face racism, because no one personally feels or understands my experience.”

Hamilton, who is the only Black world champion in F1, has spoken widely about racism after saying he was left feeling “so much anger, sadness and disbelief” following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

He wrote in the paper that the “institutional barriers that have kept F1 highly exclusive persist,” adding that the thousands of people employed in motorsport need to be more representative of society. AP

Sports

CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS FUTURE WINTER OLYMPICS

BusinessMirror

B8

| Tuesday, June 23, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

A CLIMATE report says more than half of Winter Olympic hosts will not be able to stage Games by 2050.

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ORE than half of Winter Olympic host cities will not be able to stage the Games again in 30 years, a new report on climate change warned.

Playing Against the Clock: Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and The Case for Rapid Change, written by academic and author David Goldblatt, claims that 10 out of 19 Winter Olympic hosts will not be reliable winter sport destinations by 2050.

By 2080, the number of suitable former hosts will drop to just six, the report written for the Rapid Transition Alliance said.

“Climate change is, of course, not uniform, but one almost universal consequence of our current course is that average temperatures will rise everywhere, and in mountainous regions, home to most winter sports, that will mean less snow, falling less often, and melting more quickly,” the report said.

“The organizers of the 2010 Vancouver

Winter Games wrote that ‘the warmest weather on record challenged our ability to prepare fields of play for athletes in the venues at Cypress Mountains.’

“Sochi 2014 was warmer still,” the report added. “Many competitors complained about the lack of snow, and the slow, wet, heavy snow that was available was difficult to maneuver on.”

The report furthered: “These poor course conditions meant that most medal winners came from amongst the first 10 athletes to start in each competition, who had the huge advantage of racing on drier snow that was quickly degraded for those that followed them.

“In Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding events there was, compared to the 2010 Games, a 5 percent drop in athletes actually finishing their event, and a 9 percent increase in competitor injuries. Sochi is unlikely to hold another Winter Games.”

According to predictions made by

researchers at the University of Waterloo, it is just one of many former hosts that are unlikely, for climatological reasons, to be able to do so.

The report added that the Winter Olympics are the “longest standing and perhaps most important trigger for the sports world’s engagement with the environment.”

“Since their inception in 1924, the Games have invariably served as an opportunity to advertise winter sports facilities in fragile mountain ecosystems, as well as build the transport and tourism infrastructure that delivers the paying public,” it read.

“As early as 1932, the proposed bobsleigh run for the Lake Placid Games, which required the cutting down of numerous trees, was successfully opposed by local residents.

“Nonetheless, it took till the early 1990s, and more environmental controversy around the 1992 Albertville Games, for the International Olympic Committee [IOC] to really take the issue seriously.”

Suggestions in the report included excluding sports federations which are not carbon zero by 2030 from the Olympic Games.

After 2030, any global sports events or tours that are not carbon zero should be canceled or postponed, the report adds, while national federations which do not make significant progress should be excluded by their sport.

“We are in extra time already. The Paris Agreements and the UN Sport for Climate Action Framework think we still have 30 years on the clock and we can just leave the team to sort it out by 2050, but as the Intergovernmental Panel on

ESPYS focus on honors, pandemic, racial justice

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O red carpet, no nattily dressed athletes, no house band or monologue poking fun at the past year’s top athletes and moments.

This was a different version of The ESPYS. The focus of Sunday night’s show on ESPN was hope and inspiration in the time of coronavirus.

NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, along with soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Women’s National Basketball Association star Sue Bird, hosted the pre-produced show remotely from their respective homes in Seattle. Each wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts to open the show, and touched on the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, all of whom were killed by police.

Rapinoe and Bird urged their fellow white athletes to “don’t just listen. Help.”

“This is the time

we’ve got to have their backs,” Rapinoe said of Black athletes. Later in the show, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Olympic gold-medal skier Lindsey Vonn were among those calling on white athletes to listen, learn and act.

Wilson, who is Black, added, “Our country’s work is not anywhere close to being done.”

Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for sparking a national conversation about mental health. Two years ago, he wrote an online essay detailing his struggles with mental health, including having a panic attack during a game. As a result, other athletes and fans began sharing details of their own mental health challenges and sharing resources on how to get help.

Love created the Kevin Love Fund and has continued speaking out. During the Covid-19 crisis, he’s shared tips on how to cope with

the stress and isolation caused by the pandemic.

At home, Love opened a box with the trophy inside, proclaiming, “It’s nice and shiny.”

“In light of all that’s going on in our country today, I accept this award as both an honor and a challenge,” he said, looking into the camera. “A challenge to not only continue on my path, but to push beyond it and stay vocal even when silence feels safer.”

Minnesota Twins outfielder Nelson Cruz received the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award in a videotaped piece introduced by the late boxer’s daughter, Laila. Cruz has helped his hometown of Las Matas de Santa Cruz in the Dominican Republic build a police station, a medical clinic and acquire a fire truck and firefighting gear, as

Kevin Love receives the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. AP

SIMPSON TRIUMPHS ON FATHER’S DAY H Dressed in his Sunday yellow shirt—his late father’s favorite color—Webb Simpson emerges from a crowd of contenders with five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine to win the RBC Heritage and set the tournament scoring record. AP

ILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina— Nothing can top the first time Webb Simpson won on Father’s Day, a US Open title eight years ago at Olympic Club and hearing his father’s laughter on the phone to share the joy.

Harbour Town was special in its own right.

Dressed in his Sunday yellow shirt—his late father’s favorite color—Simpson emerged from a crowd of contenders with five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine for a seven-under 64 to win the RBC Heritage by one shot over Abraham Ancer and set the tournament scoring record.

“Crazy day,” Simpson said.

A three-hour storm delay nearly kept it from finishing. Nine players were still in the mix with an hour to go. Simpson was two shots behind and had only two birdies on his card when he dropped in a 10-footer at No. 12 and off he went.

“I think it’s a good thing that guys were making birdies because they kind of forced me

to be a little more aggressive and know that pars weren’t going to cut it,” said Simpson, who finished at 22-under 264 to break by two shots the tournament record Brian Gay set in 2009.

Father’s Day has been the final round of the US Open every year since 1976, but it was moved to September in this most unusual year because of the Covid-19 pandemic that shut down golf for three months. The RBC Heritage filled the spot on the schedule and Simpson, now a father of five, became a winner for the second time this year.

“I won The Players on Mother’s Day after my dad passed away, and that was really special.

That was an emotional win,” Simpson said. “US Open on Father’s Day, I’ll never forget calling my dad after on the way to the press conference, and when he picked up the phone, he just was laughing. That’s kind of what he did when he was happy, he would just laugh. So I’m going to miss that laugh today for sure.

Climate Change has argued, we really only have a decade or so to pull this game out of the hat,” it added.

“So the time is now and the world of sport needs to begin massive and immediate carbon reductions.”

In March, the IOC ruled that all host cities of the Winter Olympic Games from 2030 will have to be “climate positive.”

Specific elements relating to carbon emissions will be added to the Host City Contract and each Organizing Committee will be “required to go beyond the current obligation of reducing and compensating carbon emissions directly related to their operations.”

This includes “minimizing and compensating their direct, as well as indirect, carbon emissions.”

Implementing “lasting zero-carbon solutions for the Olympic Games and beyond” will also be among the mandatory requirements for host cities. Insidethegames well as an ambulance.

Cruz cried and put his head in his hands before composing himself and saying, “From the bottom of my heart, my family, my foundation and my hometown, thank you.”

Snoop Dogg rapped a tribute to NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, tracing his life from high school to a career with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in January.

Taquarius “TQ” Wair, who as a four-year-old survived a house fire in 2005 that killed his sixyear-old sister, was honored with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. Wair was burned all over his body and given just a 20 percent chance to live. He lost fingers on his left hand. Wair began playing football at age seven and is now playing at a junior college in Minnesota, with a goal of playing at a four-year school and in the NFL. AP “But I thought a lot about him,” he said. “This morning I thought about him, and when I was on the golf course, I thought about him.... He loved golf. He would have loved watching today.”

It was quite a show.

Simpson, Ancer, Joaquin Niemann and Tyrrell Hatton were tied at 20 under at one point late in the round. It was a matter of who blinked first.

Ancer, who hit every green in regulation, pushed Simpson to the end in his bid to win his first PGA Tour title. He holed a birdie putt from 10 feet on the 17th to get within one, but his approach to the 18th was 40 feet away and his putt to force a playoff came up short. Ancer closed with a 65.

“That’s just golf. You’ve just got to keep trying,” Ancer said. “I’m not going to change anything or work on anything. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, and I think that will eventually happen.”

Colonial winner Daniel Berger also stayed in the mix by chipping in for birdie on the 17th and closing with a 65. Hatton, whose last tournament was his victory in the Arnold Palmer

Ryu

Ryu donates prize to virus relief funds

I

NCHEON, South Korea—Two-time major champion So Yeon Ryu closed with an evenpar 72 to win the Korea Women’s Open on Sunday in her first tournament in four months because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ryu won for the first time since the Japan Women’s Open in 2018, and it was her first victory on the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) since 2015.

Upon winning, Ryu offered her entire prize money of just over $200,000 for coronavirus relief funds.

Ryu and Hyo Joo Kim, another regular on the LPGA Tour, matched pars on the entire back nine of Bears Best Cheongna Golf Club. Kim shot 70 to finish one shot behind.

Sei Young Kim, who won $1.5 million for her victory at the LPGA Tour’s finale last November in Florida, led by one going to the back nine until she was slowed by three bogeys. She had to settle for a 70 and tied for fourth.

Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, shot 72 and finished sixth.

Several LPGA Tour players from Korea have been playing their home circuit since it returned five weeks ago. The LPGA Tour is not scheduled to resume until July 31 at Inverness in Ohio. AP Invitational, was leading until a poor tee shot led to bogey on the 13th, and bogeys were hard to recover from on this day. He shot 66 and tied for third.

Simpson, who won the Phoenix Open in February, moved to No. 5 in the world. He also moved to the top of the FedEx Cup. Dylan Frittelli had the low score of a tournament filled with them, a 62 that put him in the lead before the final groups even teed off. Justin Thomas had a 63 and tied him. Both knew it wasn’t going to hold up, especially after returning from a storm delay to still conditions and even softer conditions.

But it led to a revolving door of challengers, and even Brooks Koepka got in the mix.

Koepka hit driver on the 331-yard ninth hole that hit on the slope above the bunker and settled 3 feet for his eagle. He birdied the next two to get within one of the lead, but his hopes ended with a 5-foot birdie putt he missed on the par-five 15th. He closed with a 65 and finished seventh, his best result since the Tour Championship. AP

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