BusinessMirror March 12, 2020

broader look » a4-5

PHL traveL, tourism industry turns LocaL as covid-19 wreaks Havoc

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D.O.F. HOPES CITIRA CAN MAKE IT IN MAY

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ONCEDING that the bill on rationalizing incentives would not be passed before the legislative break, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III is hoping that the measure would have a better chance of being passed once Congress resumes its session.

This, as Congress is set to start its break on March 13. Congress will be on break until May 3.

Asked on the fate of Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira), Dominguez said in a Viber message to reporters on Wednesday: “Postponed, I guess.”

Despite this, he still expressed

Thursday, March 12, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 154

Tax relief not on govt tool kit for virus-hit biz

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE government is not considering any form of tax relief for businesses as the administration aims to cushion the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Unlike what other countries have done or are planning to do, the Philippine government’s tack will not include giving tax relief,

officials said on Wednesday.

“I never mentioned tax relief,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said. “We have asked DOT/

Tieza [Department of Tourism and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority] to creatively use their available funds [+14B] to

“We’re not contemplating that yet, it’s a last resort.... What’s important are easing repayment and more important, for us to be ready with credit lines if they need to borrow.” ­—Dominguez

confidence that the long-pending measure would finally be hurdling Congress after the break.

President Duterte on Tuesday certified the Citira bill as urgent.

With the urgent certification, a bill need not undergo the threeday rule between the second and third reading, with approval on both levels done within the same day.

On Wednesday, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Pia Cayetano said she welcomed Duterte’s certification as urgent of the Senate’s Citira version, but apparently that wasn’t enough.

“This Presidential directive

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@caiordinario

HE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) thinks the government should ease certain regulations to allow firms to manage their costs in light of the disruptions caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

In a statement, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernest M. Pernia said this involves cutting red tape and extend financing options to micro and small enterprises who may already been affected by the virus.

“In consultation with the private sector, the government should ease implementation of some regulations that will allow firms to manage costs and provide financing or loan restructuring to micro and small enterprises whose operations may have already been affected,” said Pernia.

Pernia cited measures that were instituted to remove administrative constraints for the importation of agricultural products under Administrative Order 13, Series of 2019.

These include streamlining procedures and requirements in the accreditation of importers, and minimizing the processing time of applications for importation.

The list also includes providing

PESO exchange rates n

exemptions to already-accredited traders from registration requirements and reducing transaction fees and cargo fees for a limited period. Pernia said relevant government agencies may institute similar measures.

Pernia said the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) may also help businesses lower their cost of production by fast-tracking the review of procedures of certain crucial agencies.

This includes the Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines, to allow the introduction of new and innovative products to the domestic and export markets.

Pernia said the government, in coordination with exporters, can also facilitate the identification of new sources and markets, as well as diversification of its products to manage vulnerabilities.

“In the longer term, emphasis must be placed on developing backward and forward linkages that will encourage production of raw materials and intermediate inputs—as well as onward processing to finished products—in the domestic market, to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers,” Pernia said.

On Tuesday, economists said the worst is yet to come for the country’s external trade performance as See “Neda,” A8

See “Citira,” A2

P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 50 pages |

Overcoming Sinophobia: Rebalancing policy on new ‘Chinese wave’ Rene E. Ofreneo

laborem exercens

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support the tourism industry.”

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez also said there was no formal proposal during the Economic Development Cluster Meeting on Tuesday to give tax breaks.

istory tells us that there had been waves of Chinese immigration in the Philippines—in the pre-Hispanic, Spanish, American and post-war periods. Chinese traders aboard slow-moving junk boats from the coastal provinces of China landed in Manila and other coastal areas of the archipelago to trade with the Filipino natives. A big number of these traders eventually adopted the Philippines as their home country. This explains why Philippine culture today reflects distinctive Chinese influence, especially on the culinary front. Of course, the most visible influence is on the commercial front because the Chinese traders-immigrants, with their entrepreneurial talents, excelled in business.

See “Tax relief,” A2

Continued on A7

Neda: Govt must relax rules to help firms deal with virus-related costs

By Cai U. Ordinario

underscores the urgency to forge a more fair, efficient and accountable tax system—one that should foster a stronger economy amid the many challenges our country is facing.

“The certification also affirms the position earlier taken by our top economic managers, finance experts, and various business organizations fully backing SBN 1357,” Cayetano said in a statement.

The Senate version of Citira, she said, “is a result of the successive discussions our committee conducted with investors to address their concerns.

House OKs lower stake for alien retail investors

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She said the online option is a good alternative to manual payment, especially as the government encourages “social distancing” with the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country, which reached 49 as of March 11.

HE House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading another measure removing barriers to foreign investments, particularly in the local retail sector.

Voting 156 affirmative, 30 negative and three abstentions, members of the chamber endorsed for Senate approval the House Bill 59, which seeks to amend the Retail Trade Liberalization Act of 2000.

The bill opens up the Philippine retail industry, resulting in greater variety of products, more choices of goods for consumers, inflow of new technology and employment of more Filipinos.

The bill allows foreign-owned partnerships, associations and corporations formed and organized under the laws of the Philippines, upon registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Trade and Industry, or in the case of foreign-owned single proprietorships, with the DTI, to engage or invest in the retail trade business with a minimum paid-up capital of the equivalent in Philippine peso of $200,000.

Under RA 8762 or the Retail Trade Liberalization Act of 2000, foreigners are barred from fully owning enterprises with a paid-up capital of less than $2.5 million. This requirement is among the highest in the Asean and has been deemed restrictive by foreign investors.

See “BIR,” A8

See “Retail investors,” A2

An accounting assistant logs into the Bureau of Internal Revenue site in this BusinessMirror file photo. The BIR has urged the public to pay their taxes online to avoid possible exposure to COVID-19. NONIE REYES

BIR prods public to pay tax online to cut virus risks

By Samuel P. Medenilla

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@sam_medenilla

HE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is now using its new online system to beat the tax payment problems caused by the local spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Amid the ongoing payment season for Annual Income Tax

Returns (AITR), BIR Head Executive Assistant Rosario M. Padilla said taxpayers could now access their Offline eBIRForms Package (EFP) in their web site to compute their tax dues.

EFPs-filers could then pay their taxes online through their partner firms, namely, PayMaya, GCash, LBP LinkBiz ATM and debit cards, the DBP Tax Online

Credit/ATM/debit cards.

Good alternative

US 50.5130 n japan 0.4799 n UK 65.1163 n HK 6.5034 n CHINA 7.2620 n singapore 36.2855 n australia 32.7880 n EU 57.0595 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4594

Source: BSP (11 March 2020)

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BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, March 12, 2020

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Govt agencies rush projects for Duterte arrival

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

ORACAY ISLAND, Aklan—When President Duterte arrives in this crown jewel of Philippines tourism, he will find a vertical garden at the Cagban jetty port, a new tarp showing the aerial view of the island behind a large welcome sign, “Boracay” that was installed last year.

He will also likely admire the paved main road and immaculate sidewalks, and if he stays long enough, a well-lit Bulabog Beach.

Most were hastily put and completed for his arrival, according to BusinessMirror sources.

Residents on the island can only laugh weakly. “I woke up this

morning, with a brand spanking new sidewalk, not to mention the massive ditch across work is now covered,” said Sari (not her real name) in a comment on a Facebook post about the government rushing projects.

Business owner Jim also noticed, “In the last year, it never seemed

like there was anyone working on the Bulabog pumping station it.

Today, it’s being painted and the open ditch around it is covered.”

For her part, Gera said, the big tarp with an image of Yapak at the Cagban jetty port is new, while the vertical garden now has “new manila palms, replacing the very dead, but super expensive anahaw which used to be there. There are also flowering plants now.”

She added Bulabog Beach, where water sports are usually held, “was lit up for the first time, two nights ago, while the sidewalk is being rushed to death. The diggings of DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] and Tieza [Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority] were suddenly covered with tarps. Whatever is needed to do in a big island-wide cleanup has been rushed. They can do it in three days pala, but they neglected it for months!” Jim, added wryly, “In the beginning they were

laying bricks/paving for the sidewalks. About three weeks ago they started cementing the sidewalks, then pressed a mold so they looked like bricks! Now it looks the same after being painted.”

He also “saw several speeding cement mixer trucks. All of a sudden, there are so many active trucks and heavy equipment moving around.

Workers day and night, and on weekends.”

Another island resident, Sammy, joked, “Maybe they should announce that the President’s arriving every so often, so the road and drainage project can finally be completed.”

Duterte will visit the island on Thursday, to help the Department of Tourism (DOT) in its campaign to get more locals to travel around the country, instead of going abroad.

The local tourism industry was estimated to have lost close to P40 million in tourism revenues from February to March this year, ow-

Rice inventory grows 10.9% as of February 1–PSA

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HE country’s rice inventory as of February 1 grew 10.9 percent to 2.375 milion metric tons from 2.141 MMT recorded in the same period of last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

However, the volume was 11.2 percent lower than the 2.675 MMT recorded in January, according to PSA’s latest monthly rice and corns stocks inventory report.

“Of this month’s total rice stocks inventory, 44 percent were from households, 35.4 percent from commercial warehouses and 20.6 percent from NFA depositories,” the PSA said in its

Citira. . .

Continued from A1

And what we repeatedly heard from various stakeholders is that we need to pass this measure.”

On February 19, Cayetano delivered her sponsorship speech on Senate Bill 1357 (Citira bill).

Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua had argued that the faster reduction in the corporate income tax rate as lobbied by industry groups could result in a revenue impact of 0.5 percent of GDP or P105 billion on the first year of implementation.

Industry groups are proposing a faster reduction in the CIT rate, wherein the the current 30 percent corporate income tax rate will be trimmed to 25 percent on the first year of implementation of the law to allow the Philippines to compete with the average of 22.5 percent in Asia and 23 percent globally; and that a 1-percent reduction will be implemented yearly thereafter until it reaches 20 percent.

However, Chua explained that they are projecting a P21-billion revenue impact for every 1 percentage point reduction in the corporate income tax rate under Citira.

“As I said, if they want 25 percent [CIT] rate, then that is a 0.5 percent of GDP revenue impact,” he said in a Viber message to the BusinessMirror.

IT-BPO fund

In their consolidated position paper addressed

‘Frisco. . .

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It is not yet clear if the six infected Filipinos are all crew members, or if some are passengers.

According to the Washington Post, the off-loading process is expected to take days. “After that, many of the exposed travelers will be transported through highly populated areas by bus and flown by chartered plane before quarantine.”

American officials said 21 of the 46 people tested on the ship had the coronavirus, indicating that the illness could be spreading on the ship. Nineteen of those who tested positive were part of the crew.

More than 170 of those passengers are US citizens and about 150 were transported by bus Monday to a quarantined facility at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, while 24 were taken via

report released on Wednesday.

PSA data showed that rice stocks held by households reached 1.045 MMT, wihle those kept in commercial and NFA warehouses reached 841,150 MT and 488,680 MT, respectively.

“Relative to their previous year’s level, stocks in the households, commercial warehouses and NFA depositories increased by 1.3 percent, 3.7 percent and 64.2 percent, respectively,” PSA said.

“Compared with their previous month’s record, stocks inventory in all sectors dropped during the period.

Stocks in the households, commer-

to Sen. Cayetano, industry groups said Senate Bill 1357 should also adopt the P5-billion structural adjustment fund to support the information technology and business-process outsourcing industry.

Inserted in the House version of the Citira bill, the fund can be used by firms for trainings to graduate IT-BPO workers from standard voice calls to higher value-added services, they explained.

However, DOF’s Chua said there’s no need for the structural adjustment fund in the Senate bill as this “gives them more incentives than the House bill already.”

He also pointed out that the Senate version also addressed their key concerns. The measure has a longer sunset for firms to continue enjoying their current incentives, keeps the gross income earned system, as well as the onestop shop feature of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

The position paper was crafted by the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines, Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines, and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. The Citira bill was passed by the House of Representatives last year.

The Philippines lost at least $12 billion worth of investments over the past two years due to the prolonged deliberation on the Citira bill, according to Albay Rep. Joey S. Salceda.

“Any investment loss is due to uncertainty due to delay in passage. Once passed, investors will invest even more,” Chua said.

Bernadette D. Nicolas

ambulance.

Some buses were filled and driven to Oakland International Airport for a flight or multiple flights to Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas and or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.

Twenty-six cruise ship passengers were taken to hospitals in six different Bay Area counties for medical needs unrelated to COVID-19. But not all of them required further hospital care and some of them were taken to motels and hotels in Burlingame, San Carlos and in Monterey County.

American health authorities gave their assurance that the hotels where the passengers were taken“are 100 percent secure, 100 percent segregated from the general public.”

“These are secure not only when it comes to security, but from a protocol perspective and processing perspective,” but perhaps some of the most safest sites in the community.”

cial warehouses and NFA depositories were lower by 12.7 percent, 11.6 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively,” PSA added.

In the same report, the PSA said the country’s total corn inventory declined 16.3 percent to a 10-month low of 654,520 MT. “This was lower by 16.3 percent than the previous year’s stock inventory level of 781,520 metric tons and by 19.4 percent than the previous month’s inventory level of 812.01 thousand metric tons,” it said.

The PSA said the bulk of the corn stocks during the reference period of

about 501,420 MT were held by commercial warehouses while the remaining 153,100 were kept in households.

“Compared with previous year’s level, corn stocks in the households increased by 4.9 percent, while stocks in commercial warehouses decreased by 21.1 percent. For the past two years, there were no recorded stocks in NFA depositories,” it said.

“Inventories in the stocks of households and commercial warehouses declined by 27.1 percent and 16.7 percent relative to their respective levels in the previous month,”it added.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Retail investors. . .

The new measure removes the requirement under the Republic Act 8762 for foreign investors acquiring shares of stock of local retailers.

It also deletes the requirement under RA 8762 for public offering of shares of stock by foreign-owned retail enterprises.

The bill also eliminates the required net worth, number of retailing branches, and retailing track record conditions for foreign retailers to engage in retail trade in the Philippines.

It permits only nationals from, or judicial entities formed or incorporated in countries which allow the entry of Filipino retailers, to engage in retail trade in the Philippines.

The bill also reduces the required locally manufactured products carried by foreign retailers, from 30 percent to 10 percent of the aggregate cost of their stock inventory.

Economist and Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said opening the retail trade sector to foreign competition through passage of these amendments will lower prices for Filipino consumers.

However, Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman said passage of the bill will only further inordinately allow foreigners to own and operate retail stores in the Philippines.

“Our economic leaders’ excessive predisposition to attracting foreign investments is grossly unpatriotic, even as the thesis that abandoning the nationality barriers will lead to the rapid entry of foreign capital is purely theoretical,” he said.

In 2000, Lagman said, proponents of the liberalization of the retail trade propagandized that the proposal would enhance competition, increase employment, facilitate transfer of technology and improve the national economy.

“Despite the enactment of RA 8762, or the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, these objectives were never realized,” he added.

“Now comes House Bill 59 which further liberalizes the retail trade by lowering the

Gencos. . .

Continued from A8

The same circular also directs the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to issue relevant rules and regulations necessary to implement the new policy within 60 days

Continued from A1

required minimum capital for foreign retail investors from $2.5 million to $200,000 or approximately only P10 million. Even if an additional 100 foreign retailers will come in, only a minimum of $20 million will be generated in foreign investments. This is a paltry foreign investment which should not warrant the further marginalization of Filipino retailers,” the lawmaker said.

New agency

Also, the House on Wednesday approved on third and final reading House Bill 5832 or an act creating the Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment.

Deputy Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte, one of the principal authors, said the measure creating a new department to address the concerns of this ever-burgeoning sector was approved in line also with a commitment of President Duterte to set up a Cabinet-level office for the exclusive benefit of OFWs. The bill, which was approved by 173 and against by 11 lawmakers, seeks to create a new department that shall be the primary agency tasked to protect the rights and promote the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

It is among the priority pieces of legislation that President Duterte has asked Congress to pass during his fourth State of the Nation Address.

The bill said the department shall be mandated to formulate, plan, coordinate, promote, administer, implement policies, and undertake systematic national development programs for managing and monitoring the overseas or foreign employment of Filipino workers.

The new agency could also regulate the operations of private recruitment and manning agencies and related business entities involved in the employment of Filipinos abroad to uphold the primacy of the welfare and protection of OFWs.

ing to sluggish arrivals because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak.

Manila has imposed a travel ban on China, the second-largest source of tourists for the Philippines, along with Hong Kong and Macau, due to the Covid-19 crisis.

But even for those markets where no travel ban has been imposed, like South Korea, there have been sluggish arrivals as well.

Boracay is one of the major destinations in the country severely hit by the COVID-19 crisis. There were noticeably more Filipinos on the island, and a smattering of Caucasians from Europe. Chinese tourists, who usually came in droves to enjoy the island’s white beach —popular around the world—are absent.

In a recent press briefing, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said Boracay hotels and resorts saw occupancy rates dropping by 40 percent. As of February 28,

Tax relief. . .

Continued from A1

However, Lopez said this may be done as a “last resort.”

Asked if they also plan to give tax breaks to businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak, the trade chief told the BusinessMirror: “ Wala pa sa ngayon, Hindi pa namin iniisip kasi mga last resort na yan. In fact, ang mas importante yung mga ganyan yung maluwag na repayment ang mas importante at kung gusto nila umutang, pwede naman kami magpautang din [None as of now. We’re not contemplating that yet, it’s a last resort. In fact, what’s important are easing repayment and more important, for us to be ready with credit lines if they need to borrow],” he said.

Several countries like Malaysia have announced their respective economic stimulus packages to mitigate COVID-19 impact.

Malaysia is eyeing to defer the monthly income tax installments of their businesses in the tourism sector while hotels will be spared from 6 -percent service tax between March and August this year.

Meanwhile, Thailand will also cut its withholding tax for businesses from 3 percent to 1 percent from April to September, and they will be offered tax deductions on interest rates, as well as on wage expenses. Its revenue department also extended the deadline for payment to ease the taxpayers’ burden amid the outbreak, according to international reports.

Non-fiscal measures

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

At the moment, Lopez said they are banking more on tapping non-fiscal measures as he said it would also be difficult for the government to give tax breaks at this point considering that it will be incurring an increased deficit this year.

Dominguez on Tuesday said the government expects this year’s deficit to widen to 3.6 percent of GDP, breaching the administration’s deficit target of 3.2 percent of GDP for the year. To finance the projected revenue losses which could reach P91 billion if the virus drags until midyear, Dominguez said the government will be increasing its borrowing level. In 2019, the government posted a wider deficit of P660.2 billion or 3.55 percent of GDP as expenditures outpaced revenues.

“Kung wala kang resources at

upon effectivity.

The issuance of this circular comes after the Luzon grid experienced brownouts last year due to thin power reserves.

“A series of red and yellow alert notices were issued by the SO (system operator) in the Luzon grid during the summer period of 2019

wherein the grid had low reserve level due to substantial capacities being derated or on forced outage that lead to the occurrence of rotating power interruption in Metro Manila and some areas in Luzon,” said the DOE. The DOE, in the same circular, also noted that the committed

2020, there are 394 hotels and resorts with 14,289 rooms now accredited with the DOT. She added, construction of road projects by the DPWH “should be finished by April,” while Tieza’s drainage project “is dependent on the road.”

During his visit here, Duterte will meet with the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF), chaired by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and cochaired by Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año, and Romulo Puyat, as well as tourism stakeholders on Thursday. In a news statement, the DOT chief said they will discuss ongoing and future steps to sustain and protect the gains during the island’s rehabilitation.

It will be the first time for Duterte to visit the island since it reopened in October 2018. He had ordered it closed for six months to give way to government’s rehabilitation efforts.

nangungutang ka pa, I mean syempre mabigat din magbigay ng ganon.

E, may Citira na nga tayo, e, na nirarationalize [If you lack resources and need to borrow, then it’s quite a burden to give such relief. Note, we still have Citira which we are rationalizing],” he said. He was referring to the pending bill known as the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act which will gradually reduce the current corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 20 percent by 2029.

If the virus drags on until the middle of the year, he said the Department of Trade and Industry can also persuade malls to lower the leasing rate or at least give discounts on rental fees to help micro, small and medium enterprises amid the outbreak.

“The three big [malls], possibly can look into this, like being less strict when it comes, say, to paying rental,” he said, in a mix of English and Filipino. The trade chief said the DTI in the future will also consider giving regulatory relief to firms like deferred payments on bank loans or lowering of interest and waiving fees, among others.

In a press conference following the EDC meeting late Tuesday, Lopez also revealed the sectors with reports of negative impact from COVID-19, as well as those with no negative impact.

“When you say with negative impact, basically we are talking of sectors or companies with inventories of two to three months but they are starting to experience delayed delivery especially coming from China,” he said.

“Our COVID mechanism is to look for alternative suppliers and that of course, they expect sales to be affected.”

Among the sectors with reports of negative impact are industries like aerospace, tourism, auto and autoparts, bananas, biscuits, carrageenan, electronics, footwear, furniture, iron and steel, pharmaceutical, plastics, processed foods, textiles.

On the other hand, sectors with reports of no negative impact are appliances, chemicals, copper and steel, leather, as well as printing.

Steel sector

Lopez explained that the steel industry was also grouped in the sector with no negative impact since there is still increasing local demand for steel amid lower prices because of the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program. power generation projects and other associated transmission projects, which are expected to augment the thin reserves in Luzon and Visayas, have experienced delays in meeting the target commercial operations.

There were 50 days of yellow alert and 15 days of red alert notices issued by the NGCP last year.

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House approves bill raising road users’ tax on 3rd and final reading

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he House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading House Bill 6136 increasing the rates of the Motor Vehicle Road Users’ Tax (MVRUT).

HB 6138 will now be transmitted to the Senate for its own deliberations.

The measure seeks to optimize the utilization of the MVRUT, while raising additional revenues to help fund government programs for the prevention of deaths and injuries due to road accidents, and to provide assistance to victims of accidents.

It also seeks to help finance the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) of the government.

The MVRUT rate adjustments are as follows: For private and government vehicles, there shall be a 30-percent annual rate increase for passenger cars for three years.

Rates for all other vehicles namely utility vehicles, SUVs, buses, trucks and trailers would be based on per kilogram of gross vehicle weight: 1.40/kg of GVW for first year, 2.50/kg of GVW for second year, 3.40/kg of GVW for third year.

A lower rate is charged for vehicles for hire is pegged at 50 percent of the MVRUT rate for private and government vehicles.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda, principal author and sponsor of the bill, said the measure is expected to yield an additional government revenues of P12.14 billion in 2020, P30.6

billion in 2021, P48.08 billion in 2022, P54.17 billion in 2023 and P60.9 billion in 2024. To ensure that inflation does not erode the value of revenues, an annual increase of 5 percent is imposed by January 1, 2023, through revenue regulations to be issued by the secretary of Finance.

Salceda said that the rich will primarily pay for the tax, saying “55.6 percent of all cars are owned by the top 10 percent of the population, while only 1.7 percent are owned by the bottom 30 percent. This makes this tax extremely progressive. Let’s make the primary road users pay for road use.”

“More important, 50 percent of incremental revenues will finance modernization of public-utility vehicles and government programs to be undertaken for the prevention of death due to road accidents and accident victims’ assistance,” Salceda added.

The bill mandates the improvement of existing drivers’ education programs, training academies and drivers’ license examinations by the Land Transportation Office; and while providing additional motor vehicle inspection centers.

It also mandates the improvement of existing road networks by the Road Management Systems of the Department of Transportation.

The bill establishes emergency care facilities in areas with high incidence of road accidents. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Launch of Filipino-made ASF test kit set next week

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Filipino-made test kit for African swine fever (ASF), which tremendously cuts diagnosis cost and time, could be rolled out as early as next week as it is expected to be approved soon, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said.

BAI OIC-Director Ronnie D. Domingo said a nanobiosensor created by scientists from the Central Luzon State University (CLSU), funded by the BAI, is expected to be approved this week.

The approval of the diagnostic kit falls under the jurisdiction of the BAI, which oversees veterinary and quarantine services of the country.

The nanobiosensor costs only about P300 compared to the P3,000-worth imported ASF test kit and can detect the presence of the fatal hog virus in less than an hour, Domingo said.

“This week it would be approved and then it would be ready for dissemination. The validation of the test kit started two weeks ago, and the results so far are accurate,” Domingo told reporters in an interview on Wednesday.

The test kit, which is also known as a pen-side since it could be facilitated beside hog farms, was pilot tested in Cebu with accurate and efficient results, Domingo said.

The BAI chief said the use of the Filipinomade test kit would improve the government’s early detection of the disease as blood samples from susceptible pigs do not need anymore to be sent to regional or national laboratories.

Domingo added that they plan to distribute the test kits down to the provincial level

to facilitate faster detection of the disease, hence, quicker response from government authorities.

“This will decentralize the testing [for ASF] and would hasten the system. To mitigate the damage of a disease, we should have a early detection, so we can make early response,” he said.

“The previous outbreaks we had were detected late. [With this pen-side kit], we can start depopulation within the same day,” he added.

Domingo said the BAI has allocated P10 million for the reproduction of the test kits and training of veterinarians.

Domingo disclosed that the test kit was part of the BAI’s program to handle transboundary animal diseases (TADs) that started last year. He said the BAI allocated P4 million for the research of the pen-side ASF kit, which lasted for six to 10 months.

Furthermore, Domingo said they are now also finalizing the needed financial resources to kick-start the “Bantay ASF sa Barangay” program, which is in partnership with the Philippine College of Swine Practitioners.

The Bantay ASF program seeks to strengthen disease surveillance down to the barangay level by tapping provincial veterinarians to complement and improve the government’s early detection of outbreaks.

The Philippines has culled over 230,000 pigs to control and contain the spread of ASF in the country. ASF is a fatal disease to hogs with a mortality of up to 100 percent but it is not known to harm humans.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Groups to DOH: Tackle Pinoy vapers’ rights in global confab

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N Asian alliance of tobacco harm reduction advocacy organizations has asked the Department of Health (DOH) to bring up the rights of Filipino smokers who want to switch to safer alternatives during the ninth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 9) of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC), which will be held in November 2020.

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) also asked DOH to question the restrictive policy of WHO that tolerates the use of combustible cigarettes, while discouraging the use of 95 percent less harmful smoke-free Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).

CAPHRA sent separate letters this month to Asian health ministers who will lead the preparation of their countries’ position on ENDS, preparatory to the COP 9 of WHO-FCTC. There are 181 parties to the WHO-FCTC

—a global treaty that seeks “to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.”

The regular sessions of the COP are held every two years and will take place this year in Hague, the Netherlands in November.

WHO asked every signatory country to submit a summary of its position on ENDS preparatory to FCTC-COP 9.

The alliance said tobacco use causes a million deaths per year in the Asia-Pacific region, with smoke as the main culprit. It said, however, that e-cigarettes provide smokers with an option to get away from smoking and could hasten the demise of the cigarette.

“It has been known for decades that tar, and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke, cause the death and disease associated with smoking, and not nicotine,” said CAPHRA.

Thursday, March 12, 2020 A3

PHL ships on foreign routes compliant with IMO rules on emissions, Marina reports

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

@lorenzmarasigan

he Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) bared on Wednesday that Philippine ships plying foreign routes are compliant with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 2020 standard on sulfur emissions.

According to the agency, “all 70 overseas-going ships classed

by Bureau Veritas use compliant fuels,” thus, are within the sulfur content cap imposed by the IMO

at 0.5 percent.

“Meanwhile, classification societies Nippon Kaiji Kyokai and Lloyd’s Register are already finalizing their figures. The

Philippines has 119 overseas ships under its registry,” the Marina said.

Under the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution, all ships are required to limit the fuel content of their fuels to 0.5 percent, a big jump from the 3.5 percent standard. The Philippines ratified this convention in 2018.

For domestic ships, Marina said the implementation of the convention would be “gradual.”

Marina has partnered with the Department of Energy (DOE), shipping companies, oil suppliers, and other concerned entities in the public and private sectors to be fully compliant to the

IMO rule by 2025.

This “gradual” implementation aims to “ease” the impact in costs of the ruling to domestic shipping lines, as well as provide oil suppliers ample time to acquire supplies of compliant fuel.

“The Marina is determined to integrate environmental protection into the practices in the industry to lessen the impact of sulfur emissions to the environment, as well as to human health. Reduced sulfur emissions will improve air quality, especially in coastal communities and, thus, consequently reduce health hazards to populations living in those areas,” the Marina said.

TheBroa PHL travel, touris

Business

A4 Thursday, March 12, 2020 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

local as Covid-1 B

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Special to the BusinessMirror

E Grand Resort is one of the most superb posh accommodations in Bohol. It’s a sanctuary from the stress of urban living, and designed with the luxurious traveler in mind.

The property hugs the coastline of Panglao Island, giving visitors sublime views of Bohol Sea.

From just attracting the local Boholanos and Cebuanos when it opened in 2016, it soon became a favorite playground of Korean and Chinese tourists.

Its well-appointed 189 rooms and 19 villas, a design collaboration of architect Paulo G. Alcazaren and artist Luis G. Nakpil, take inspiration from the cool calm waters of Bohol and the lush greenery around, thus giving guests the most restful stay.

Its villas, meanwhile, suggest lavish romantic interludes inroom, or quiet fun in the swimming pool that meanders around the property.

Its main pool is a joy, especially for families; water features fascinate the children as parents kick back sandals to lounge under the sun, or snack on some of the more delectable finger food and chilled drinks the resort’s kitchen staff have whipped up for the day.

Conde Nast Johansens, a leading reference guide for luxury resorts, spas and venues around the world, has consistently included Be Grand Resort in its Asia’s best list. “We love...the romantic lounge Lune where you can enjoy panoramic views of the sea,” the guide said in its 2019 listing of awarded properties.

These days, however, a noticeable hush has descended on the property, with mostly locals there on brief holidays.

From optimism to pragmatic realism

Grand Benedicto, the eldest among five third-generation siblings who grew up playing in the lumberyard and furniture factory of his family, well-known in Cebu for their enterprises, has been known to take risks in forging new businesses. It was he and his siblings who decided to branch out into the hospitality industry, starting with BE Resorts Mactan in 2008, then BE Grand Resort Bohol.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak has wreaked havoc on the resorts’ main markets, now dampening Benedicto’s enthusiasm.

“We had our best years coming in. January 2020 was one of the best too; the first quarter is always strong,” Benedicto told the BusinessMirror.

But “occupancy and revenue are certainly affected with China and Korea as the two biggest markets,” he said. At the Bohol property, occupancy fell from 90 percent to 30 percent, he said.

Fortunately, the Mactan property is doing a bit better, holding at a 50-percent occupancy rate, according to Benedicto.

“But the fear is, in the coming months. This might not yet be the worst,” he noted; a concern many in his industry have similarly expressed.

Decreasing arrivals

The Depar tment of Tour ism (DOT) has estimated tourism revenue losses amounting to P38.2 million from February to March.

In a news briefing on March 4, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said arrivals in February, based on raw data from the Bureau of Immigration, showed a 41.4-percent decrease in foreign arrivals. January was somewhat bit better, with foreign arrivals growing by 9.8 percent.

The sharp turnaround has indeed caused a lot of anxiety to the DOT, which has targeted foreign visitor arrivals this year to hit 9.2 million and inbound tourism receipts at P661 billion.

Travel bans are currently in place on mainland China, where the virus hatched and quickly spread, as well as on its special administrative territories, Hong Kong and Macau.

At the same briefing, Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) President Jose C. Clemente III said, “In the beginning, the cancellations we were getting were far and few between.”

“Western markets were still holding like the United States, North America and Europe,” Clemente. “But since Covid-19 is now prominent in the [US], in my personal experience [as president of Rajah Tours Philippines], we’re experiencing some cancellations and foregone business.”

He revealed, for instance, that his company had just received a notice of cancellation from a 33-person group from Stanford University who was supposed to arrive this week. The cost of the tour package was P2 million, a sizable amount that his agency now has to refund.

He added, while government has already lifted its ban on travelers from South Korea, “there is also a dip [in arrivals from that market] now.”

“They are voluntarily not traveling even if they’re not from Daegu [the region where Covid-19 cases were confirmed],” Clemente said. “They are embarrassed to travel and be possible carriers.”

Hotels streamline operations, cut jobs

The hotel sector is, of course, the hardest hit among tourism stakeholders.

Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMA) President Christine Ann U. Ibarreta said her 120 members have reported

some P14 million in losses from lower guest arrivals “ for two weeks alone.”

This means for the first quarter of the year, losses have reached at least P84 million for HSMA members in Metro Manila and provinces like Davao, Boracay, Cebu and Bohol. Multiply that with the rest of the DOT-accredited hotels all over the country and the losses easily turn into billions of pesos.

So, the main goal these days is to cut on expenses, according to Ibarreta. Unfortunately, this means, however, letting go of staff or asking their employees to take forced leaves, or implementing shorter work weeks— anywhere from once a week to three days a week.

“In Metro Manila alone, I have even 5-star hotels along the Bay Area that, because of their losses, of course they want to cut down on costs,” Ibarreta said. “So they had to let go of staff.”

These range from 100 employees to 200 employees per hotel who are now out of work. Assuming just 50 hotels for said area, from twostar to five-star hotels, hotel staff that are now jobless run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000.

Ibarreta said many of the first to go were those from housekeeping.

“For example, out of an average 150 housekeeping staff, 20 have remained. These are the regular employees,” she added.

In many hotels, the housekeeping staff are usually contractual employees supplied by a manpower agency. The same is true for the engineering department, Ibarreta noted. Many have been let go as well since not all rooms need repairs every day and they are mostly contractual employees too.

For the staff who remain employed, however, a number of them are asked to go on forced leaves, anywhere from 15 days to 30 days, and most often without pay.

“Only the five-star hotels can afford to pay for forced leaves,” Ibarreta said.

A consistent awardee for excellence by Conde Nast Johansens, BE Grand Resort Bohol is now seeing poorer occupancy levels owing to Covid-19. Photo courtesy BE Grand Resort

‘No one is spared’

According to Benedicto, they haven’t resorted to shorter work weeks for BE Grand Resort Bohol employees just yet.

“We’ve put in place measures [to respond to the] decrease in occupancy. Payroll is one; we’ve cut agency-supplied staff,” he said. “So there is less number of people to pay.”

The contractual staff accounts for a third of the resort’s total employees.

“The organic staff are still on their regular work schedules,” Benedicto added. “And I hope it stays that way. We still have to maintain an operating hotel.”

But the resort has shut down some of its hotel floors “to save on power and water.”

Clemente emphasized during last Wednesday’s news conference that Covid-19 “has not spared any of us in the industry, whether you’re a small company or one of the bigger tour operators or hotels.

In fact, not to exaggerate, we’re bleeding already.

“Some companies have temporarily closed down, especially those that are serving the China market because it’s like a faucet you shut off. So a lot of them have

Quiet times have descended on Boracay Island with its main Chinese and Korean markets now at a virtual standstill. Stella Arnaldo

opted to temporarily close down and they are still making the decision whether to totally give up or reopen as soon as the situation

gets better,” Clemente said. “Of course, pahabaan yan ng pisi [it depends on how long your rope is, or] how far you can go.”

“We’re doing our best to surv ive,” he emphasized. “ We’re pulling out all our stops in pampering our client, give them a

aderLook sm industry turns 19 wreaks havoc

sMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace | Thursday, March 12, 2020

and ranked at the eighth best. The Yapak Beach or Puka Shell Beach was ranked No. 20 in Asia.

Still recovering from the island ’s 6 -month closure, stakehol d e r s on B or a c ay a re t he most sensitive to the impact of Cov id-19.

Barely making it in Boracay

good experience, and make repeat visits to the Philippines.”

Not all is bleak, though.

“There are still tourists coming in; many of them are enjoying the fact that it’s a bit quiet now. And I spoke to someone in El Nido [Resorts] last week, and their guests right now are predominantly European, higher-end markets,” Clemente said. “So they’re okay.”

Tour-guiding remains viable, for now

Fortunately, tour guides seem to be insulated from the Covid-19 crisis. For now.

Erlyn Alunan, who takes groups around the gorgeous heritage sights of Iloilo and on pilgrimages to its popular home-grown restaurants and food stalls, said “local guides are not that affected.”

“We still have tour groups coming from the different parts of the country,” Alunan said. “We still get guiding assignments because families, friends and local groups still do domestic tours.

Not in their usual big groups but in groups of three to five, or five to 10 people.”

“We also would get local government units for their LakbayAral [study tour] and schools

for their educational trips,” she added.

But Alunan disclosed that the situation is different for their province’s travel agencies and tour operators.

“Just yesterday [March 9], during the MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] meeting, they said they have a lot of cancellations and they don’t even have walk-in clients anymore.”

Already anticipating the lower inf lux of tourists from abroad, the DOT, in collaboration with tourism stakeholders groups like TCP, HSMA, the Philippine Hotel Owners Association and the Philippine Tour Operators Association, have started pushing a domestic marketing campaign to get more Filipinos to travel around the country.

“In just a few days, the summer season will start. How many beaches have you not visited in the Philippines? How many provinces remain on your bucket list? Even President Duterte will be going around several tourist destinations starting this month,” Romulo Puyat said in a news briefing last week about the DOT’s mitigation efforts for Covid-19.

Getting locals to travel more

The DOT chief said Duterte’s first stop will be in Boracay Island on March 12, to be followed by Cebu and Bohol. The three destinations have been the hardest hit

by Covid-19, with tourism establishments receiving significantly poor guest arrivals.

Romulo Puyat told reporters that hotels and resorts in Boracay have recorded a 40-percent drop in occupancy while those in Cebu reported a 27-percent dip. Bohol hotels and resorts have seen a 40-percent decrease in occupancy.

According to DOT data, there were 138,737 foreign tourists in Boracay alone in the months of January and February. This represents a substantial 36-percent decrease in arrivals in the same period last year of 216,756.

Domestic travelers, however, saw a 6.3-percent increase to 117,359 arrivals in the first two months of the year, compared to 110,406 arrivals in the same period in 2019.

The so-called “crown jewel” of Philippine tourism, the white beach in Boracay was recognized just this month as among the Best Beaches in Asia by TripAdvisor

In a public Facebook post, restaurateur Nowie Potenciano who with spouse Odette owns and runs the popular Sunny Side Cafe, Spicebird, Supermagic and Coco Mama made a fervent appeal to consider vacationing on Boracay.

“Less than two years after we were shut down, Covid-19 is presenting another tough challenge to all the businesses and workers on the island. Not only are there virtually no Koreans and Chinese [who make up almost 60 percent of tourists] anymore, but even visitors from other countries… have dramatically dropped because of the virus. Travelers are avoiding Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo, which are hubs to getting to Manila.

“The effect has been devastating to everyone on the island,” continued Potenciano. “We’ve been hearing stories of 4-percent and 15-percent occupancy, [staff asked] to come back to half-day duties or being given a schedule for only a week. The desperation is palpable down to the vendors and boatmen who are virtually begging for business among the handful of tourists left.”

Potenciano said even they have had to close one restaurant, “ because we can’t support overheads anymore. Another shop has seen its sales drop by almost 80 percent.”

“Thankfully, we’ve been able to re-assign staff to the remaining restaurants and everyone is still employed,” he said. “But if we have to close one more shop, it’s going to be…difficult.”

He enjoined the public to visit Boracay.

“The beach is absolutely beautiful and is the most empty I’ve ever seen it in almost 20 years of coming to the island,” adding that there were “ridiculously great deals to be had for both airline fares and hotels. Some nice hotels are now going for as low as P3,000 a night.”

Potenciano also emphasized there were zero cases of Covid-19 infections on the island.

Resorts drop room rates, airlines slash airfares

Indeed, many hotels in Boracay have joined the domestic marketing campaign of the DOT, slashing their room rates as much as 50-percent off their published rates, according to TCP’s Clemente.

He said about 40 properties around the country have officially joined the DOT-TCP program, with more expected to participate. The Philippine Tour Operators Association, meanwhile, has packaged tours for interested travelers.

Clemente said even carriers such as Cebu Pacific Air, Air Asia Philippines and Philippine Airlines, have joined the domestic marketing push by offering seat sales, with discounts as high as 80 percent.

But even Clemente acknowledges there are some tourism

establishments that are “hardheaded” and disinclined to cooperate with the DOT’s domestic marketing campaign.

“A number of them continue to impose surcharges even during Holy Week,” he intimated. “Maybe they can survive this [Covid-19],” he said, wryly.

At the luxurious BE Grand Resort, Benedicto has, likewise, dropped the establishment’s rates, beginning February, and to last until May. “Summer comes early, with our P6,500 net per room per night in our resort,” he said. These are the deluxe rooms, “and we are offering it even lower on the second night at 40-percent [less].”

In normal times, he noted, these rooms would have gone for P10,000 each per night.

Benedicto added the resort is also throwing in a 20-percent discount on dining at its Bridge and The Monkeybar outlets, specifically targeted at Boholanos.

Despite the lower room rate and airfares, Clemente admits, the domestic market will hardly make up for the losses in the inbound tourists.

“Of course it will not, because we have lower prices, that’s why we had to do the domestic packages,” he said. “But the objective now is to survive until the situation gets better.”

Containing the pandemic

On March 4, DOT’s Romulo Puyat convened the Tourism Coordinating Council (TCC) in an emergency meeting to discuss what measures were in place to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19 on the tourism sector.

The TCC serves as a coordinating body for national tourism development ef for ts. Its members include the secretaries of other regular line agencies, like the Departments of Transportation, Public Works and Highways, Foreign Affairs, Environment and Natural Res ou rc e s , I nt e r ior a nd L o c a l Gover nment, L abor and Employment and Education. The members also include the heads of the Philippine National Police (PNP), attached agencies of the DOT, the Bureau of Immigration, National Historical Institute, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and Labor chief Silvestre Bello III attended the said meeting.

“We are happy to note that our government is all out in ensuring that the threat of this looming pandemic is contained, at least in the Philippines,” the tourism chief said. “From our end, the DOT has identif ied and is working on strategic approaches to arrest the negative ef fects caused about by this global health scare.”

Romu lo Puyat emphasized that “the DOT ’s new direction is to boost domestic tourism now that inbound arrivals have expectedly decreased and with several temporary travel bans in place.”

She added the health department’s “current data would show that traveling around the country remains safe.”

A s i d e f r o m t he d o m e s t i c

A5

marketing push, the DOT announced the allocation of some P6 billion in funds “that will span international and domestic promotions, infrastructure, and regional tourism development,” she said. This includes P421 million to develop a new campaign for domestic travel, and P467 million “to create engaging content that will resonate with our emerging countries unaffected

by Covid-19.”

R omu lo P uy at adde d , t he DOTr, through the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and the Civil Aeronautics Board, “ have assured us that strict protocols are in place particularly in cleanliness of the airports and in close coordination as well in the sanitation of the airplanes.

Also, the DOLE pledged to provide emergency employment and prov ide livelihood assistance to the affected tourism work force in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. (See, “DOLE eyes P2 billion for virusdisplaced labor,” in the BusinessMirror, March 5, 2020.)

Stakeholders appeal for tax breaks

During the meeting, the TCP also submitted a “wish-list” of government measures to support the financial viability of tourism enterprises.

Among these are: n Waiving of airport terminal fees; n Discounted landing and parking fees for airlines “to keep their costs low and pass on savings to consumers;” n Temporary waiving of visa fees for countries that still need to pay them when their residents head to the Philippines; n Temporary deferment of applicable taxes on designated stakeholders for a predetermined period of time; n Low-interest loans or credit facilities which can be tapped by stakeholders in a “precarious position,” subject to their eligibility; among others.

For businessmen like Benedicto, any sort of tax breaks government can extend would be really helpful.

“We need tax incentives during this period. [Otherwise] I don’t think the industry can recover this year.”

For now, Holy Week is “ looking good ” for the resort. The friendlier rates seem to have done the trick, and those Kenneth Cobonpue-designed lounging chairs by the beach will be filled with couples and families watching the sun dip into the horizon again.

Benedicto added that the resort’s marketing strateg y “ is more targeted to locals,” but t he y a re st i l l cont i nu i ng to promote the resorts in Mactan and Bohol abroad, even though he knows this may not result in immediate bookings.

Similarly, the DOT believes in continuing the promotions of the Philippines abroad.

“In spite of the Covid-19 outbreak, we need to keep the Philippines top of mind in our key markets,” Romulo Puyat said.

“So when they finally make the decision to take their vacations, they will still choose us,” she added.

A6 Thursday, March 12, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Alea iacta est

S

everal of President Duterte’s allies in the Senate have decided to join in the legal challenge to Malacañang’s unilateral abrogation of the Philippines-US Visiting Forces Agreement. This came about following the adoption last week of Resolution 337—with 12 yes votes and seven abstentions—that prompted the chamber to seek the Supreme Court’s guidance on whether it needs to concur with the Chief Executive’s decision to end, not just the VFA but all treaties it voted to ratify.

Senators on Monday formally asked the Supreme Court to “draw the constitutional boundaries” on the roles of the Senate and the Executive branch in the cancellation of international agreements and treaties, after the President’s abrogation of the VFA without getting approval of the Senate. The Executive and Legislative need the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, because it is explicit on requiring Senate ratification for treaties, but is silent on the Senate’s role in terminating these.

In their 56-page petition, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Sens. Panfilo Lacson and Richard Gordon asked the Supreme Court to declare that the withdrawal from or termination of a treaty previously concurred by the Senate should require the concurrence of two-thirds of its members for it to be valid and effective. The petition also asked the high court to issue an order referring the notice of withdrawal of international agreements to the Senate for its concurrence.

In a statement, the Senate President clarified that the senators’ legal option to raise the issue before the Supreme Court was intended “to assert the sense of and the power of the Senate that we know and we think that we have.” Stressing that the Senate must be consulted on vital matters like the termination of international agreements and treaties just as its concurrence is required before the same are ratified, Sotto III said “this role is particularly important to ensure that the power to forge partnerships with our neighbors and allies remains impartial.”

Setting aside concerns that he could lose his alliance with Malacañang because of the Senate action, Sotto III said: “The Senate must do its part in protecting the checks and balances in our government.”

A few hours after the petition was filed, on Monday night, the President said he would not entertain any attempt to save or renegotiate the VFA. As the chief architect of government policy, he minced no words when he said he is beginning to count the 180 days until US troops “pack up and go.”

In a press briefing in Malacañang, the President said: “They cannot compel me. I refuse to be compelled. I have terminated it. Tapos ang problema ko. Wala na akong problema diyan.” (My problems are over. I don’t have any problems with it anymore).

Now the inevitable question: Can you rock the boat without getting thrown off?

In the game of politics, the answer is obvious. And the Senate President apparently does not mind swimming in treacherous waters when he affirmed a standing consensus among senators to “protect the independence of the Senate” even at the risk of “losing political alliances and support.” He said: “I only serve at the pleasure of my colleagues. You can replace me anytime. I have no problem with that.”

Stressing that “personal interests should never outweigh public welfare,” Sotto said he “will always choose to fight for the independence of the Senate.

That is the legacy that I would like to leave this institution when my term comes to an end.”

We have two words for the transcendental decision and action of Sotto, who in the past has been unfairly maligned for his show business background despite his impeccable political pedigree as the grandson and namesake of Cebu’s Vicente Sotto, a great lawmaker: It’s a “class act.”

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Risk reduction James Jimenez

spox

C

OVID-19 is highly survivable. Chinese authorities have reported fatality rates as high as 2.3 percent. Other experts, however, citing the mildness of the disease and the relatively high probability that people recover from it without ever seeking or receiving medical treatment, claim that the fatality rate is probably closer to just a fraction of 1 percent.

Nevertheless, COVID-19 does carry the possibility of death.

People above the age of 80 are at the greatest risk, with the chances of dying dropping as the patient gets younger. Having preexisting medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension, complicates matters, as well. Having said that, men are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, leading some people to chuckle bleakly about International Women’s Month.

So while it is true that there is no need to panic, this doesn’t mean

that we should be unconcerned.

You may not die from COVID-19, but even just contracting the illness will put a person through the wringer. There’s the cost of treatment, for one thing. And with the need to ensure that no one catches the disease from you, there is a very real possibility of income loss, especially in the case of those for whom work-from-home arrangements are unlikely—contractual workers and workers in the retail industries spring to mind.

Fortunately, risk reduction behaviors are effective and simple

enough to adopt. Frequent handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is probably the single most effective preventive measure against COVID-19. And if handwashing isn’t possible, the use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol is recommended. So is covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and taking steps to protect yourself from other people coughing or sneezing. This is what masks are most useful for, although, they aren’t as indispensable as all the panic buying would seem to suggest since coughing or sneezing into your elbow would work just as well.

Everyone should also avoid unnecessary physical contact. If the French can dispense with kissing each other on both cheeks, we can certainly do without all the hand shaking, high-fiving, and fist bumping. Some people have been taking to bumping elbows, but that just looks too silly when you could simply wave or nod hello from a safe-but-still-sociable distance.

People should also seriously think twice about congregating in large groups, simply because the possibility of infection rises as the

number of people in any given location increases. This was the reasoning behind the Commission on Elections’ recent decision to suspend the registration of voters for the rest of March. Last week alone, Comelec offices recorded 74,928 voter registration related transactions.

The week before that, more than 71,000. By any measure, these numbers represent a massive risk of infection. A temporary stop to the list-up reduces the possibility of transmission significantly, both among the thousands nationwide who come to register daily, and between the registrants and the Comelec employees on the other side of the counter.

If by the end of March our health authorities haven’t yet reined in the transmission of COVID-19, or if the dynamics of our collective response to this outbreak haven’t improved, the Comelec will have to decide what further steps need to be taken. For now, however, we have to take some comfort in the fact that, while we may not eradicate the threat of coronavirus infection with the suspension of voter registration, we can at least not contribute to its spread.

Addressing the opportunity gaps among K to 12 graduates

By Harry Collado

T

here are more than 140 countries currently offering what has become the international norm for pre-tertiary education—a kindergarten through grade 12 school education system. That’s because schooling for students in kindergarten through grade 12 is the heart of what most people think of as “education.”

Public K to12 education is seen producing responsible and productive citizens to boost the nation’s standing in science and technology, and its position with respect to its economic competitors.

In the Philippines, the Department of Education’s (DepEd) K to 12 program stems from the Enhanced Basic Education Act, signed into law

by President Benigno Aquino III in 2013. It aims to provide Filipino students with a 12-year education cycle after kindergarten. The rationale then was that the Philippines is the last country in Asia, and one of only three countries worldwide (the other two being Angola and Djibouti), with a 10-year preuniversity cycle. In June 2016, the senior high-school program was implemented nationwide.

The K to 12 program is described to have six salient features: 1) strengthening early childhood education through universal kindergarten, 2) making the curriculum relevant to learners, 3) ensuring integrated and seamless learning, 4) building proficiency through use of mother tongue based multilingual education, 5) provision of career

tracks and 6) nurturing holistically developed Filipinos.

The DepEd’s stated goal of the K to12 program is to see that every graduate is equipped with information, media and technology skills, learning and innovation skills, effective communication skills, and life and career skills. However, the agency explained that these competencies require time to develop and attention needs to be given to the design of a curriculum that will develop these. DepEd also said that part of the success of the K to 12 curriculum hinges on the ability of students to discern their career goals and to obtain the necessary training to prepare them for this. However, it was reported that only a minority of public schools have legitimate guidance counselors and with some schools having only one guidance counselor for thousands of students.

The dearth of guidance counselors in publ ic sc hools was

exacerbated by the lack of licensed guidance counselors, and the low enrollment in guidance and counseling courses. One possible opportunity, however, is the rise in popularity of Psychology and the implementation of the Psychology law that licenses psychologists.

Given these and other hitches, the country’s first batch of K to 12 students finished senior high school in March 2018. The following month, a JobStreet Philippines’s study revealed that only 24 percent of employers in the country were willing to hire K to 12 graduates, as college degree holders are still their priority. The same report also said that 35 percent of employers did not want to hire K to 12 graduates because they are under qualified or do not have sufficient work experience.

Certain quarters said this happened because of the absence of policy coordination, especially in the areas of curriculum development and employment planning. Education officials, they said, must endorse the proposed Government-Industry-Education Council, which must be established at the national, regional and provincial/city levels. Industry in the GIEC should include representatives of the farming sector, small and medium businesses, social enterprises, and other actors involved in investing and growing

the economy of a particular region.

The authors of K to 12 education reform said DepEd should be able to develop a continuous and seamless pathway of learning that enables young people to move from secondary to higher education and vocational training while accumulating skills and work experiences. They said the harmonized “trifocalization” of the education system involving DepEd, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and Commission on Higher Education, provides an opportunity for entrepreneurship, which is very much needed in the farming sector, especially in the country’s underdeveloped regions.

As the country is still in the early years of implementing the K to 12 education system, there will be more hitches and challenges along the way. However, with the K to 12, Filipino students now understand that they have the power to shape their own education and future. Given the dedication of our educators and the support of parents, business leaders and community leaders, we have a good chance to work together to address the opportunity gaps among millions of K to 12 graduates. As an old saying goes, “it takes a whole village to raise a child.”

The author is Principal at Sanchez Mira National High School in Cagayan

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

Outbreak

The indispensable water

BusinessMirror

Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Val A. Villanueva

Businesswise

Alálaong Bagá

N every epoch, maybe noong una, Bubonic Plague, mga gago tao noon, tamang tama lang. Tapos ’yung Spanish Flu, right before the wars. Kawawa yung mga tao pero mas kawawa ’yung sa Middle East. The so-called Roman Empire. You have read the inquisition, kung may birth mark ka you are a witch and you’re burned at stake.”

or the next three Sundays of Lent, Saint John provides the gospel narratives proper to catechumenal initiation and important to the renewal of our baptismal vocation. In our Lenten pilgrimage, we now pause with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well to reflect on Jesus Christ’s irreplaceable role for our salvation (John 4:5-42).

‘I

Huh? Those words are from no less than President Duterte in a rambling speech on Monday where he placed the entire Philippines under public health emergency in response to the speed by which COVID-19 has crept into what he called “this f..king country.” This was hours after health authorities confirmed 10 new cases of COVID-19.

I am not going to dwell much on the value—or lack thereof—of his speech, but would like to point out its absurdity as a definite indication of the country’s ill-preparedness to contain the deadly outbreak. According to the Department of Health (DOH), as of Wednesday this week, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 33. The World Health Organization has announced that globally more than 4,000 people have died from the coronavirus, and over 113,000 cases have been confirmed.

For the country’s current situation, most health experts blame the government’s lackadaisical response to COVID-19 when it first broke out in February. They say that everything the government has done so far is delayed and not well-thought-out.

Afraid to ruffle the feathers of his beloved China, Duterte has initially refused to heed the advice of experts to close the country’s borders with those countries with known COVID-19 contamination. Only when the first death in the country was confirmed did the government finally accede. This, after more than 5,000 tourists from China, majority of whom are from Wuhan, had already freely roamed around the country’s beaches and malls.

Contrast this to what Italy did to contain the virus. The country placed its entire population of 60 million under quarantine in an effort to stem the outbreak that has thus far killed 631 people and affected more than 10,000.

The most telling case in the Philippines is that one of the victims who got infected in a prayer center in Greenhills, Mandaluyong City, has no record of travel to or from any of the countries flagged for COVID-19 contamination. This has raised fears that the virus is now stealthily jumping from one person to another. Health authorities are racing against time to account for all other people with whom this COVID-19 patient has been in contact with within the 14-day incubation period.

The task of contact tracing, already extremely difficult, is made even more taxing because the Department of Health (DOH) is operating on limited wherewithal. In the 2020 national budget of P4.1 trillion, the agency’s proposed P88-billion budget was decreased by P10.6 billion from its 2019 level. Note that aside from COVID-19, the country also faces a polio epidemic, as well as dengue and measles outbreaks that have claimed the lives of more than a thousand people, mostly children.

Worry not, according to the Palace, because the taxes taken from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator will shoulder the cost of combatting COVID-19. This I find appalling because the President seems to be making a pitch to make a hero out of POGO, the operations of which, according to published reports, have spawned money laundering, prostitution and other criminal activities mostly tolerated by different government agencies that have direct supervision on this online gaming operations. And to

Economic growth is expected to fall below the government’s 6.57.5 percent target for 2020 if the fallout from the COVID-19 disease stretches across the tourism and trade sectors until June, according to the National Economic and Development Authority. think that a number of these POGO operators have been accused of tax evasion by the Department of Finance (DOF).

How low can this government go?

As it is, the virus has altered the way we live, and affected the area where it hurts the most: the national economy.

On Monday, P663 billion worth of wealth was cleaned out in the local stock market due to panic selling in relation to COVID-19. This was the local equities’ worst single-day bloodbath since the United States’s epic global financial crisis 12 years ago. Prices dove deeper into bearish territory. With unrelenting dumping of equities across global markets, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shaved off 457.77 points or 6.76 percent to close at 6,312.61.

“Investors went into a selling frenzy, unloading everything they could as fears of a massive COVID-19 outbreak develop. This panic selling may continue till the end of the week,” said Christopher Mangun, head research of AAA equities.

Also, economic growth is expected to fall below the government’s 6.5-7.5 percent target for 2020 if the fallout from the COVID-19 disease stretches across the tourism and trade sectors until June, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Appearing before the Senate economic affairs committee, Neda Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon said “that tourism’s gross domestic product growth could shed 0.5-1 percentage point [ppt] equivalent to P93 billion toP187 billion in foregone gross value added [GVA], such that GDP expansion could slow to 5.5-6.5 percent.”

Inbound tourist arrivals fell by 1.42 million as per Neda’s estimated economic impact of COVID-19. If the outbreak dawdled on until June, it would lead to 30,000 to 60,000 in job losses in the tourism sector alone. Among foreign tourists, the Chinese accounted for about 22 percent of arrivals, Edillon noted, although Neda’s estimates also considered the partial travel bans imposed on other affected areas.

Also, more than 300 workers of 19 tourism-related establishments have lost their jobs since February due to the coronavirus outbreak that has limited air travel, especially from China, one of the country’s biggest tourist markets, the Department of Labor and Employment said on Tuesday.

Philippine Airlines, the country’s largest airline, has shaved off around 300 employees from its administrative and management departments under a business restructuring scheme to “increase revenues and reduce costs.” PAL said the move came after ending 2019 in the red, which has been exacerbated by travel bans and flight revocations to areas affected

by COVID-19.

COVID-19 has thus unmasked how those in power craft their own reality and believe their own truth.

For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com

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With the Samaritan woman and the disciples Water is a precious gift of the Creator for us. Paradise is pictured as watered by a four-pronged stream (Genesis 2:10); the patriarchs and their families traveled from well to well saluting these sources of life-giving water with shouts of joy (Numbers 21:17-18), and the Promised Land correspondingly is a land that “drinks in rain from the heavens” (Deuteronomy 11:11).

Water as a bearer of life is a symbol of salvation and of the messianic gifts (Isaiah 12:3; Ezekiel 47:1). In the meeting between Jesus and a Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob in Sychar, Samaria, this spiritual significance of water surfaced with definitive clarity. The endless need and toiling for water is represented by the woman, while the disciples in a subplot represent the

preoccupation with physical food.

The woman is led step by step to the realization that she needs living water that quenches thirst so that it never reoccurs, a water “gushing up to eternal life.” She discovers that she is spiritually thirsty and does not want to be restricted to the physical level where the only water is the one drawn from the ground. She wants water she can drink anytime and anywhere. Leveling up, Jesus next uncovers for her the fact that no husband or man has really put life into her, making her fruitful: the gods of Babylon the Samaritans brought from the exile were no husbands! She is a woman still looking for a true husband—the marriage imagery now illustrates her need for the true intimacy with God. And that does not depend on which mountain one worships, but on Jesus who alone can say “I am”

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The thirsty seeks water, but here water is seeking the thirsty—to give life, everlasting life. Asked for a drink, the woman who dared to exchange words with Jesus, encountered the awaited Messiah who gave her living water. Tapping into His ultimate identity as the Word of God, Jesus put into her God’s love and life. the truth, the life, and the living water, the Messiah.

Jesus as the living water

The thirsty seeks water, but here water is seeking the thirsty—to give life, everlasting life. Asked for a drink, the woman who dared to exchange words with Jesus, encountered the awaited Messiah who gave her living water. Tapping into His ultimate identity as the Word of God, Jesus put into her God’s love and life. And to the disciples, asking Jesus to eat, was revealed that His food, His life, is to do the will of the Father; for this He came “down from heaven” (John 6:38). But unlike the woman, the disciples were simply astonished and kept silent, without questioning and pursuing further what they do not know yet.

Jesus talked to the woman to invite her to do the will of God who sent Him. And He invited His disciples as well to see, in faith and hope, “the fields ripe for the harvest.” There are

Overcoming Sinophobia: Rebalancing policy on new ‘Chinese wave’ Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo

LABOREM EXERCENS Continued from A1

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uring the Spanish period, the colonial rulers in Intramuros treated the Chinese immigrants in an ambivalent manner, often with disdain. The Chinese skilled workers were welcomed in Spanish palatial homes as cooks, bakers, tailors, carpenters, gardeners, etc. However, most of the Chinese immigrants were housed in the parian areas outside the Intramuros walls, for easy monitoring and policing. There were stories of the Spanish barbaric policy vis-à-vis the bulging parian communities, which were bombarded whenever the population of Chinese immigrants grew threateningly in substantial number. In Europe, this organized massacre of ethnic minority or “ethnic cleansing” is called “pogram,” an ancient practice that is still happening in some parts of the world today.

The last century of Spanish rule (19th century) saw the rise of the Chinese “mestizo” class. They played a central role in shaping the colonial economy and the emerging concept of a Filipino nation. On the economic front, they became the partners of the British trading houses when Spain opened the colony to world commerce. The Chinese mestizo traders were the ones who farmed out throughout the archipelago and managed the exchange of British exports and products of the native Filipinos, mostly agricultural items.

These Chinese mestizo traders popularized the term tienda de sari-sari, the forerunner of today’s sari-sari store. An American scholar, Shirley Jenkins, described 19th-century Philippines as an “Anglo-Chinese colony flying a Spanish flag.”

However, the 19th century, a century of social ferment, was also a turning point for the Chinese mestizo class. In a clear sign of full assimilation in their country of birth, many descendants of Chinese immigrants and the children of mixed marriages called “mestizos” had their names Hispanized.

Moreover, the Chinese mestizos, with access to education and even travel overseas, became involved in the articulation of the concept of the Filipino nation—first, in the struggle of the colonized people for

reform and representation in the Spanish Cortes, and later, in the all-out battle for Philippine nationhood through the Revolution against Spain. These sentiments are fully reflected in the novels of Jose Rizal, a Filipino-Chinese mestizo.

During the American and postwar periods, the Chinese mestizos and new waves of Chinese immigrants, became very much part of Philippine society. As Filipino citizens, they are better referred to as Chinese-Filipinos or “Tsinoys.” They became leaders in the commercial and industrial development of the country, especially during the postwar period (1950s-1960s). Under Spain and America, no significant industry was developed outside of the sugar and tobacco processing industries. But in the 1950s-1960s, the Tsinoys spearheaded the formation of new industries such as the automobile assembly, pharmaceutical, chemical, furniture, textile and so on. On the political front, many Tsinoys became members of Congress. Some even became Presidents, e.g., Sergio Osmeña, Elpidio Quirino, Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino. In short, the “Tsinoys are rooted in Philippine soil” as Teresita Ang See of the Kaisa Heritage Center puts it.

Now fast forward to 2020. Why

The reality is that the policymakers, both in the executive and legislative branches, are in a good position to stop this phenomenon of rising Sinophobia—through the right policy framework that should govern the relations between the two countries. the rising Sinophobia?

The quick answer is that there has been a flood of negative reports, stories and comments on the influx and behavior of the “new wave” of Chinese—workers, managers and investors—who have made the Philippines as their new home or business base. The problem is that many Filipinos are unable to distinguish these “new wave” of Chinese from the Tsinoys. The horror stories associated with the new-wave Chinese have been mounting— prostitution, kidnapping for ransom, brawls, drug peddling, murders, etc. On top of these stories is the shocking behavior of China in the West Philippine Sea, claiming and militarizing a large swath of Philippine sea territory.

In the Senate, Sen. Risa Hontiveros was able to expose a multimillion-peso scandal called pastillas, which ensnared a big number of immigration and government officials into a web of corruption that allowed the entry of tens of thousands of Chinese workers sans strict scrutiny and work permits.

The sequel to this pastillas expose is the inquiry of Sen. Richard Gordon on the questionable entry into the country of millions of dollars handcarried by the new-wave Chinese, not for productive investments, but for obvious money-laundering purposes. Gordon raises the disturbing question: where will this money go if it is not meant for industrial and commercial development of the country?

This is why there is widespread support for the demand by concerned sectors of Philippine society for the closure of the pogos, especially those that lack permits and whose workers are not fully registered with DOLE and the Bureau of Immigration. Officially, the Chinese government does not sanction the operations of these pogos or offshore gambling centers, for

many workers in His Father’s field.

The woman and the other Samaritans who received His words were the first fruits. The woman in particular left her water jar, the physical dimension of life no longer preoccupies her, and became an instrument to draw to Jesus many others, who must however see for themselves and finally find out what they want: for Jesus to stay with them. All the followers of Jesus, nourished by Him, must participate in the mission of salvation; all can receive now the divine life; no more waiting and making do with substitutes.

Alálaong bagá, at the well of Jacob the woman and the other Samaritans encountered Jesus, God’s living water for His people. And they experienced communing with God in and through Jesus, a personal intimacy that remains. Jesus is the indispensable ultimate evangelizer, but He wants His followers to bring others into contact with Him. We have been gifted with our own Jacob’s well for intimacy with God through Jesus: our sacred liturgy is the privileged place and time where we gather because there the living water springs up abundantly filling us with everlasting life, where the Word of God is proclaimed and the Spirit stirs up faith, divine nourishment and communion.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every

Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

their clients are mostly Chinese in the mainland. China does not encourage gambling, which is the reason why there are no pogos in mainland China itself. There are reports that China even pressured its close ally, Cambodia, to close down similar pogo establishments in that country.

So should the government stop the entry of Chinese visitors, workers, tourists and investors?

This should not be the right way to frame the question. According to Dr. Aaron Jed Rabena of the Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, a visiting fellow from Beijing’s China Institute of International Studies, the issue is how to balance the evolving trade, investment and work relations between the two countries in two ways: one, to ensure that the relations are beneficial to the Philippines jobsand investment-wise, and two, to prevent unfavorable outcomes such as the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments.

Rabena has three policy recommendations: first, all illegal activities associated with the new-wave Chinese should be stopped such as the operations of questionable pogos; second, Chinese investors should adhere to Republic Act 8182 on the hiring of local workers (why indeed should some China projects be managed 100 percent by Chinese managers and workers?), and third, there should be stricter regulatory measures and law enforcement in relation to the presence of illegal Chinese workers, exploitative labor conditions in Chinese projects, and criminal activities of the new-wave Chinese.

However, there is a need to add another measure: for the Philippine government to clarify what is the overall framework of development that should govern the relations between the two? Should it be just an open-door policy for the entry of Chinese? No qualifying policy guidelines? Just open sesame or anything goes policy?

The reality is that the policymakers, both in the Executive and Legislative branches, are in a good position to stop this phenomenon of rising Sinophobia—through the right policy framework that should govern the relations between the two countries.

A8 Thursday, March 12, 2020

Gencos must sked plant outages for 3 yrs

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

NERGY Secretary Alfonso Cusi has signed a department circular that requires all power generation companies to submit the schedule of their plant outages for three years.

“All generating companies shall submit three-year planned outage schedules for their power plants to the NGCP [National Grid Corp. of the Philippines] in accordance

with the PGC [Philippine Grid Code],” stated DOE Circular 202002-0004.

In a nutshell, the circular is meant to provide guidelines for the

planned outage schedules of power plants and transmission facilities, and the publication of the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP).

Prior to the issuance of the circular, power generation companies submitted to the NGCP their planned maintenance schedule every year.

The circular also states that NGCP and the Market Operator (MO) will devise a mechanism to come up with an optimal generation and transmission planned outage schedule, which will be the basis of the GOMP.

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Number of yellow alert days tagged by the NGCP in 2019, when reserves were thin. There were a total of 15 days of red alert notices The agency has been saying that no power plant should conduct maintenance activities during summer months when demand for electricity is at its peak. In the circular, only

PHL moves to bring home sailors from ‘Frisco

By Recto Mercene

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@rectomercene

HE government is making arrangements with San Francisco to allow the repatriation of more than 500 Filipino seamen aboard the Grand Princess luxury cruise ship which was eventually allowed to dock in Oakland, California, last Monday.

The more than 3,000 passengers and crew will undergo quarantine because health authorities there feared that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Foreig n A f fa i rs Sec ret a r y Teodoro Locsin Jr., tweeted that they are looking for a runway to

accommodate a big aircraft to ferry the Filipinos back home.

“We just need the US or California state government to give us time to find a landing field that will take a big PAL plane,” he said on his official Twitter account Wednesday morning.

“San Francisco can’t allow us to repatriate from its airport. But we’re making the case for repatriating 529 crew with the nine cruise passengers,” he added.

It was reported that 234 Canadian passengers disembarked from the cruise ship on Monday and were taken to a chartered flight that brought them back to their native country, while two Cana-

dian passengers were transported via ambulance to area hospitals for treatment. Officials said they hope to have another at least 800 passengers off the Grand Princess

by Tuesday evening.

The Grand Princess, with some 3,533 passengers and crew, had been stranded off the coast of San Francisco after coming from a cruise in Mexico. It was not allowed to dock after two people who had been on the ship in its previous voyage contracted the virus. One later died.

The news from abroad said most of the 2,000-plus passengers stuck aboard the Grand Princess were still awaiting their orders to get off the

boat at the Port of Oakland Tuesday while hundreds were processed before beginning a mandated 14-day quarantine.

6 infected Filipinos

The Department of Health said at least six of the Filipinos onboard the luxury cruise ship tested positive for the coronavirus.

Joel Buenaventura, chief health program officer of the DOH’s Migrant Health Unit, confirmed this information during a House of Representatives committee hearing, saying the confirmation came from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

See “‘Frisco,” A2

Neda. . .

Continued from A1

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING EASTERN SECTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN LUZON as of 4:00 pm - March 11, 2020

the latest data may not yet reflect the disruptions caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on global value chains (GVCs).

The country’s export revenues grew 9.7 percent to $5.79 billion in January 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Data also showed import receipts inched up by 1 percent to $9.29 billion in January 2020.

Economists, like former University of the Philippines School of Economics Dean Ramon L. Clarete, said the economy, in general, may be in for a deep dive given the uncertainties of the situation. But for now, the economy is still living on borrowed time.

Clarete explained the country’s external trade performance is facing an uphill battle given the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19.

He said the current crisis is even worse than the Global Economic Crisis of 2008-2009. While the GEC stemmed from the disruption of financial flows, the current slowdown in trade is a health-related crisis. There are cases where factory workers are prevented from coming to work because of health restrictions to contain COVID-19.

Action for Economic Reforms (AER) Coordinator Filomeno Sta. Ana III also said earlier that COVID-19 has caused the breakdown of supply chains, and dampened the confidence of consumers and investors. It will not be addressed by a simple stimulus.

BIR. . .

Continued from A1

“All of these will allow our taxpayers to pay their dues without lining up in banks or to linger with collection agents. We could now pay whenever it will be convenient for you,” Padilla said at a press briefing in Malacañang on Wednesday.

Padilla said they expect the number of online payments of taxes to significantly increase this year after

hydroelectric plants are allowed to conduct maintenance during the peak quarter, added the DOE. After which, the NGCP will submit on the last day of October of each year the GOMP to the Department of Energy for evaluation and approval.

The DOE, in its review of the resulting reserve profile, shall direct the necessary adjustments in the generation and transmission planned outage schedules. NGCP, the MO and the concerned generating companies shall then be informed of any changes in the submitted GOMP.

The first year of the GOMP schedu le sha l l be considered binding, but proposed shutdown schedules may be adjusted in succeeding quarterly revisions.

Any changes are subject to DOE approval.

The second- and third-year schedules will be considered indicative and reference for the mediumterm power supply and demand outlook.

The NGCP is required to post on its web site the approved annual GOMP after securing the green light of the DOE. See “Gencos,” A2

PRIVATE CONSTRUCTION VALUE SHRINKS 8.8% TO P111.6B IN Q4 2019

By Cai U. Ordinario

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@caiordinario

HE value of private construction contracted 8.8 percent in the last quarter of 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Data showed that the value of construction declined to P111.6 billion in the October-to-December period in 2019 from P122.4 billion in same period in 2018.

PSA data showed the construction of residential and nonresidential posted contractions of 9.3 percent and 2 percent.

Residential building constructions accounted for 46.7 percent of total constructions while nonresidential buildings accounted for 46.9 percent.

The value of the construction of residential buildings declined to P52.2 billion in the last quarter of 2019 from the P57.5 billion posted in the last quarter of 2018.

Nonresidential buildings construction declined to P52.3 billion in 2019 from the P53.4 billion value of construction in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

PSA data showed the combined shares of the top 5 regions, in terms of value of construction, amounted to P83 billion or 74.4 percent.

These regions were the National Capital Region (NCR), with the value of total construction reaching P32.2 billion or 28.8 percent of the total, followed by Calabarzon with P19.4 billion or 17.4 percent of the total.

Data also showed the list included Central Visayas with the value of total construction reaching P12 billion or 10.7 percent of the total; Central Luzon, P11.4 billion or 10.2 percent; and Western Visayas, P8 billion or 7.2 percent.

In the last quarter of 2019, the total number of constructions reached 37,256. This shows a 7.7-percent drop from the 40,369 total number of constructions in the same quarter

they made the option available to all taxpayers and due to the growing public concern in Covid-19.

“We now expect we will be having lesser over-the-counter filing and payment,” Padilla said.

Less risk for early filers

As for those who will still opt for traditional manual payment of the taxes, Padilla appealed to them to pay their AITR before its deadline on April 15.

“We remind everybody to pay

of 2018.

By type of construction, residential posted the highest number of 25,869 or 69.4 percent of the total number of constructions. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2018, the number of residential constructions posted a 13.3-percent contraction.

“Majority or 83.5 percent of the total residential constructions were single-type houses.

Construction of residential condominiums posted the least share of 0.1 percent to the total number of residential constructions,” PSA said.

The total number of nonresidential constructions reached 6,289, accounting for 16.9 percent of the total constructions.

This was higher by 14.5 percent than the 5,491 nonresidential constructions recorded during the same period of 2018.

“Among the types of nonresidential constructions, commercial building contributed the highest share of 63.3 percent,” PSA said.

By region

The top 5 regions, in terms of number of constructions, accounted for 65.9 percent of the total number of constructions.

This was led by Calabarzon with a total of 9,808 constructions or 26.3 percent of the total, followed by Central Visayas with 4,880 constructions or 13.1 percent of the total.

The list also includes Central Luzon with a total of 3,677 constructions or 9.9 percent of the total; Ilocos region, 3,335 constructions or 9 percent; and Metro Manila, 2,867 constructions or 7.7 percent.

PSA said the construction statistics were obtained from approved building permits on new constructions and additions, alterations and repairs of existing residential and nonresidential buildings, and other structures which are proposed to be constructed in the different cities/municipalities of the country.

on time, file on time to avoid the inconvenience of congested lines and, of course, to avoid payment of surcharge of 25 percent for late filing and then an interest at 12 percent,” Padilla said.

BIR will start establishing its Tax Filing Assistance Centers at all of its Revenue District Offices (RDO) on March 28. Currently, BIR has no plans to extend the deadline, but it said it is open to do so if the need for it arises in response to the effects of Covid-19.

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Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE NCR Regional Office located at 967 Maligaya St., Malate, Manila, within 30 days after its publication.

Please inform DOLE NCR if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

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SEC may extend annual reports filing on COVID

By VG Cabuag

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@villygc

HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it may extend the filing period for annual reports for affected firms, and to allow remote communication or other alternative modes for firms holding their stockholders’ meeting.

“The disruption, risks and effects of the outbreak of the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, transcend sectors,” SEC Chairman Emilio B. Aquino said.

“In line with the President’s declaration of a state of public health emergency, the SEC will explore and implement all appropriate measures to help contain the spread of

COVID-19 and mitigate its effects,” he said.

According to the plan, the agency will issue a memorandum circular to provide guidelines on the attendance and participation of directors, trustees, stockholders, members and other officers of corporations in regular and special meetings through remote communication, pursuant to

Republic Act 11232, or the Revised Corporation Code.

Upon approval of the guidelines, the SEC will allow corporations to conduct meetings through remote communication or other alternative modes in order to consider and approve the necessary provisions in their bylaws or internal procedures in time for their forthcoming annual stockholders’ or members’ meetings.

The SEC itself admitted that it has been holding meetings through remote communication, allowing for the participation of the directors of its extension offices in Baguio, Tarlac, Legazpi, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

The SEC will also issue a memorandum circular giving all affected companies more time to submit their annual reports, including annual financial statements, for the period

ended December 31, 2019, as well as quarterly reports for the first three months of 2020 for publicly listed companies.

According to the rules, the final day of submission of the annual reports and financial statement should be on April 15, or also the last day for the filing of the financial statement at the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Quarterly reports, on the other hand, should be filed 45 days after the last day of the quarter.

The extension will allow companies affected by travel restrictions, suspension of business operations and other measures implemented to contain the COVID-19 outbreak to gather all information or documents necessary in the preparation and the subsequent audit of their reports.

The SEC encourages corporations to utilize SEC Express Nationwide Submission to submit their annual reports through courier.

Cathay projects ‘substantial’ loss as virus follows protests

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athay Pacific Airways Ltd. expects a “substantial loss” in the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus crimps travel demand, adding to the challenges facing a carrier that’s already been humbled by the political unrest in Hong Kong.

The forecast came as Cathay said its net income tumbled 28 percent to HK$1.69 billion ($218 million) in 2019, slightly better than the average estimate of six analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Profit in the traditionally stronger second half of the year was only HK$344 million as social unrest and US-China trade tension intensified, Hong Kong’s flagship airline said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We were faced with an incredibly challenging environment to operate as the Hong Kong economy slipped into recession,” Chairman Patrick Healy said in the statement. The coronavirus outbreak has exacerbated Cathay’s troubles and put it on course for its first loss in two years. “Travel demand has dropped substantially,” Healy said.

The airline has slashed capacity to mainland China by 90 percent and reduced its entire international network by about 40 percent because of the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 120,000 people and killed more than 4,200 worldwide.

Cathay, which is particularly exposed to the virus because close to half of its revenue comes from Hong Kong and mainland China, has also asked employees to take unpaid leave as it tries to weather the latest crisis.

Cathay shares rose 2.5 percent to HK$10.12 at 3:18 p.m. in Hong Kong. That trimmed their loss

for this year to 12 percent. Cathay said it is likely to continue cutting passenger capacity in May following reductions of about 30 percent in February and 65 percent for March and April in terms of available seat kilometers. It will also reduce flight frequencies. “It is difficult to predict when these conditions will improve,” the company said.

When the virus abates and demand recovers, Cathay could even stand to benefit as competitors collapse or have difficulty returning their services, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts James Teo and Chris Muckensturm. Cathay’s “dominance in Hong Kong was already strengthened by its acquisition of HK Express last year, which should serve it well as the city remains a key Asian financial and trade hub,” they wrote in a note.

Airlines globally have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, with the International Air Transport Association saying it could cost the industry as much as $113 billion in lost revenue this year. British airline Flybe collapsed last week as the epidemic ended prospects for a UK state-backed rescue, while carriers from United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Singapore Airlines Ltd. to Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Qantas Airways Ltd. are slashing flights.

“The situation in 2020 will be much more severe than in 2019” said Luya You, a transport analyst at Bocom International.

Cathay warned about its results before the virus struck as Hong Kong protests led to lower bookings and passengers in the latter part of last year. In addition to the broad drop in tourist num-

bers, Chinese state-run companies told employees to avoid flying with the airline on business or personal trips after Cathay came under fire from Beijing because some of its workers took part in a general strike and demonstrations.

“Inbound traffic was hit hard, particularly on short-haul and Mainland China routes, while outbound traffic also decreased,” Healy said in Wednesday’s statement. “Demand for premium travel was weak and we became increasingly reliant on lower-yielding transit traffic.”

“We expect our passenger business to be under severe pressure this year and that our cargo business will continue to face headwinds,” Healy said.

Cathay said it will continue to bring in new aircraft this year and is maintaining its plan to take delivery of 70 new planes by 2024. Its new subsidiary HK Express reported a post-acquisition loss for 2019 against expectations for a small profit, while Air China Cargo suffered “a significant decline in results as trade tensions escalated.”

“They had a great first half last year and then all of a sudden with the protests the second half was really dismal,” Sobie Aviation analyst and consultant Brendan Sobie said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday. “It’s just gone from bad to worse for Cathay Pacific and they’re in a very challenging position.”

“It’s going to be pretty bad for most of this year probably and will take a while for the Hong Kong market and global market to recover,” Sobie said. Bloomberg News

Govt padlocks 5 more Manila Bay polluters

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

R

ESUMING the campaign against establishments dirtying Manila Bay, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) have padlocked five commercial establishments for violating the Clean Water Act. The DENR and LLDA, together with the local government of Pasay City, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and the Philippine National Police Maritime Group (PNPMG), served the individual cease-anddesist orders (CDOs) on four restaurants and an auto shop located at HK Sun Plaza along Macapagal Boulevard. The operation was led by DENR Undersecretaries Benny D. Antiporda and Jim O. Sampulna, and LLDA General Manager Jaime Medina, with Pasay City Mayor Imelda G. Calixto-Rubiano, Gen. Alfredo Andres of MMDA, and Police Capt. Randy B. Ludovice of PNP-Maritime Group.

They are the Zhi-Brothers Restaurant, Ocean Bay Restaurant, Da Rae Jung Korean

Restaurant, Song Do Won Restaurant and BHP1 Autoworks.

RA 9275 (Clean Water Act) prohibits discharging or depositing any pollutant to water bodies. It also requires businesses to either put up their own sewage treatment plant (STP) or connect to a wastewater treatment facility authorized by the DENR or LLDA. A week before the CDOs were issued, the LLDA discovered during inspection that the sewer lines of the five establishments were not connected to the STP of their lessor, HK Sun Plaza.

HK Sun Plaza, which is owned by the Social Security System Investment Property Department, has built its own STP worth P10 million in compliance with the CDO issued by the LLDA in February 2019 for its illegal wastewater discharge.

According to Medina, five of the 48 establishments at HK Sun Plaza were found to be discharging their wastewater to the storm drainage which empties to Libertad Channel and drains into Manila Bay. Only wastewater that has passed through the STP may be discharged to Libertad Channel.

Meanwhile, Antiporda, DENR Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns, chided the erring establishments for “exceeding what the law has set in terms of the waste they generate.”

He said, “We cannot sacrifice our environment for their business. They cannot violate the law and abuse our environment and natural resources for their own gain.”

Antiporda also slammed the establishments for trying to jeopardize the ongoing rehabilitation of Manila Bay. “No matter how much effort we [make] in cleaning the Manila Bay, nothing will happen if we allow these errant business owners to do what they are doing,” he said.

He reminded business owners of their duty to comply with existing environmental laws and regulations. “We are calling out the attention of business owners, not only around Manila Bay, but all over the country to check on their environmental compliance,” he said, adding that the DENR was willing to provide technical assistance or advice to businesses in complying with environmental rules.

USSC broadens remittance network with Cebuana Lhuillier

By Roderick L. Abad @rodrik_28 Contributor

U

N I V ER S A L Storef ront Ser v ices Cor p. (USSC) has tied up with Cebuana Lhuillier to provide more convenient payout options to Filipinos when it comes to their local remittance.

This partnership allows customers to now claim their monies at USSC’s more than 1,500 outlets and Cebuana Lhuillier’s over 2,500 branches nationwide.

It comes at a more opportune time when 98 percent of remittance service users in the country send out their money to a local recipient, per a recent study of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

For USSC Chief Executive Officer Jose Xavier B. Gonzales, their collaboration will create a positive impact on people who depend on money remittances for their daily needs.

“Through this partnership, we are simply extending our hands to assist and remind them that the country’s most recognized brands in the domestic money transfer business are now closer to them than ever,” he said.

The combined dominance of both the financial solutions pro-

viders will pave the way for better delivery of services to their clientele, added Cebuana Lhuillier Senior Executive Vice President Philippe Andre Lhuillier.

“With both companies working together, Ka-Cebuanas regardless of their location in the Philippines will have access to additional domestic remittance outlets available nationwide through USSC’s network,” he said.

Founded in 1958 as Radio Communications of the Philippines, Inc. or RCPI, USSC is a nonbank financial service store network.

Its Super Padala offers local remittance with one of the lowest sendout fees in the country.

Apart from its world-class cash management system, customers can also enjoy smoother, paperless transactions via USSC’s Panalo Card membership program.

What’s more, the USSC Super Service App enables users to send and receive money in real-time.

Cebuana Lhuillier, which began as Agencia Cebuana in Cebu in 1953, is the Philippines’s leading and biggest microfinancial services provider.

Boasting a robust network of local and international partners, it specializes in pawning, remittance, microinsurance and microsavings.

B2

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Companies BusinessMirror

SEC OKs MerryMart IPO, FDC debt float, Altus listing

T

HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the initial public offering (IPO) of MerryMart Consumer Corp. for a maximum of P1.6 billion, along with the bond offering of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) for as much as P15 billion and the listing of Altus Property Ventures Inc. by way of introduction.

In its March 10 meeting, the Commission En Banc approved the registration statement of MerryMart, led

by DoubleDragon Properties Corp.’s Edgar “Injap” J. Sia II, of 7.59 billion common shares.

The registration statement covers 1.59 billion of primary common shares to be offered and sold by way of initial public offering at a maximum price of P1 each. It will be listed and traded on the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

PNB Capital and Investment Corp. has been picked as the sole issue manager, lead underwriter and sole bookrunner.

MerryMart expects to raise P1.47 billion in net proceeds for capital expenditures and initial working capital for store network expansion at P1.03 billion, in-

vestments in distribution centers at P220.9 million and general corporate purposes at P220.1 million.

MerryMart, formerly Injap Supermart Inc., is an emerging company that operates supermarket and household essentials categories.

It operates three grocery retail formats MerryMart Grocery, a fullsize supermarket; MerryMart Market, a medium-sized specialized grocery; and MerryMart Store, a smallsized household essentials store.

As part of its store network expansion, MerryMart intends to open 12 additional stores by the second quarter of 2020. The company further aims to open its 100 branches by the fourth quarter of 2021.

Of the 100 stores, about 25 stores will be funded from the net proceeds of MerryMart’s initial public offer-

Adidas sees COVID-19 cutting profit by half a billion dollars

A

didas AG said a slump in revenue caused by the coronavirus will cut first-quarter profit in China by about half a billion dollars.

The German sportswear maker forecast revenue in that key market will fall by €800 million to €1 billion ($908 million to $1.1 billion), stripping €400 million to €500 million from profit.

Adidas declined to estimate the full-year impact of the spread of Covid-19, which will be worse because business is already also slowing in Japan and South Korea. Excluding the epidemic, Adidas projected currency-neutral sales would grow 6 percent to 8 percent this year. That’s slightly more aggressive than last year’s forecast around this time, which was 5 percent to 8 percent.

The shoemaker faces tough competition from crosstown rival Puma SE, which last month set a target for a 10-percent increase in revenue this year though conceded that’s a tough goal.

Adidas said sales slumped 80 percent in China last month, but stores and warehouses have gradually reopened and consumer traffic is slowly picking up. To try to prevent a glut of unsold products on the market, Adidas canceled all wholesale shipments to retailers in February, and it may take back a significant amount of stock from its partners, which Adidas will put up for sale in its own stores later this year.

Deals have been popping up in Asia for Adidas products, including buy one-get one free deals in Hong Kong. The Herzogenaurachbased company’s stock has dropped 24 percent this year. Bloomberg News

NEA extends ₧51.6-M calamity loans to 6 co-ops hit by ‘Tisoy’

T

HE National Electrification Administration (NEA) released in February this year an additional P51.596 million in calamity loans to six electric cooperatives (ECs) operating in Mimaropa, Bicol and Eastern Visayas regions.

Latest data from the NEA Accounts Management and Guarantee Department (AMGD) showed that the following ECs availed themselves of the calamity loan: Lubang Electric Cooperative Inc., P450,443; Tablas Island Electric Cooperative Inc., P426,936; Ticao Island Electric Cooperative Inc., P5.982 million; Sorsogon I Electric Cooperative Inc., P18.353 million; Sorsogon II Electric Cooperative, P5.878 mil-

lion; and Northern Samar Electric Cooperative, Inc., P20.506 million.

NEA said this will help the ECs in the rehabilitation of their power distribution facilities damaged by Typhoon “Tisoy” in December last year.

In January 2020, the NEA extended P31.246 million worth of financial assistance to four ECs in Bicol region and Mimaropa for the rehabilitation of their damaged distribution systems due to the typhoon. These were Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative Inc. Masbate Electric Cooperative Inc., Camarines Sur III Electric Cooperative Inc., and Marinduque Electric Cooperative Inc. Lenie Lectura

ing. These will include 10 full-sized grocery stores, one mid-sized and 14 small ones.

Meanwhile, the SEC also approved the FDC’s offering of fixedrate bonds, some P8 billion of which is its primary offer and P7 billion as its oversubscription option. The paper will be offered at face value.

The offer may comprise two series, five-year bonds due 2025 and seven-year bonds due 2027.

T he bonds shall be issued in minimum denominations of P50,000 each, and in integral multiples of P10,000, thereafter. They will be listed and traded in denominations of P10,000 on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.

Filinvest expects to net some P14.8 billion, assuming full exercise of the oversubscription option. It will use the net proceeds primarily to refinance maturing debt obligations in 2020.

The company may redeem in whole the outstanding five-year bonds at 101 percent on the third anniversary of the issue date or at 100.5 percent on the fourth year.

The seven-year bonds, mean-

mutual funds

while, may be redeemed at 101.5 percent on the fourth year, at 101 percent on the fifth year, or at 100.5 percent on the sixth year.

BDO Capital and Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., East West Banking Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp. were picked as joint lead underwriters and bookrunners for the offer.

On the other hand, the agency also approved the listing by way of introduction of Altus Property Ventures, to be listed at the small main board of the PSE. The company plans to distribute up to 100 million common shares of Altus Property as property dividends to the stockholders of Robinsons Land Corp.

The dividend shares, representing 100 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares of Altus Property Ventures, will have an initial listing price of P10.10 per share.

Listing by Way of Introduction is done when the securities of an unlisted issuer are distributed by way of property dividend by a listed issuer to shareholders of that listed issuer. VG Cabuag

March 11, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

March 11, 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 PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG IREMIT MEDCO HLDG MANULIFE NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH VANTAGE

44.65 135 72.1 23.1 9.67 48.1 10.64 27.5 46.35 19 136.1 57 17.6 3.08 1 0.395 750 0.66 150.3 1.1

48 136 72.8 23.15 9.68 48.15 11.88 27.7 49 19.3 137 57.3 17.68 3.36 1.09 0.4 829 0.69 152.9 1.18

48.5 139 72.1 23 9.66 51.7 10.7 27.8 49 19.3 140 57.3 17.74 3.36 1 0.395 750 0.67 150 1.1

48.5 141.8 73.45 23.35 9.98 51.7 10.7 28 49 19.3 143 57.5 18 3.36 1 0.445 750 0.68 153 1.18

48 133.3 71.5 22.7 9.66 47.8 10.62 27 49 19 136.1 56 17.7 3.36 1 0.39 750 0.67 150 1.1

48 136 72.8 23.15 9.68 48.1 10.62 27.5 49 19 136.1 57.3 17.7 3.36 1 0.4 750 0.68 150.3 1.18

200 3929730 2688420 97100 307400 3482100 3100 56500 500 4000 822110 19530 16600 1000 1000 6730000 100 9000 590 18000

9650 545057653 194733026.5 2242805 2981347 169070980 33002 1559055 24500 76090 114294109 1110711 294336 3360 1000 2786850 75000 6050 88692 20450

INDUSTRIAL

AC ENERGY ALSONS CONS ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO MANILA WATER PETRON PETROENERGY PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL SPC POWER AGRINURTURE AXELUM CNTRL AZUCARERA CENTURY FOOD DEL MONTE DNL INDUS EMPERADOR SMC FOODANDBEV ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG GINEBRA JOLLIBEE MACAY HLDG MAXS GROUP PEPSI COLA SHAKEYS PIZZA ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP UNIV ROBINA VITARICH CONCRETE B CEMEX HLDG EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP HOLCIM MEGAWIDE PHINMA TKC METALS VULCAN INDL CROWN ASIA EUROMED MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP CONCEPCION GREENERGY INTEGRATED MICR IONICS PANASONIC SFA SEMICON CIRTEK HLDG

1.8 1.02 26.35 0.14 16.3 58.35 255.8 10.74 3.07 3.26 9.5 23.6 7.92 6.6 2.24 13.24 13.8 3.6 6.01 8.39 66.9 0.58 1.36 35.6 163 6.5 6.18 1.6 7.15 1.28 4.8 120 1.08 56 1.1 8.93 7.25 13.5 11.36 8.82 0.76 0.69 1.78 2.91 3.01 4.4 29 1.05 4.68 1.03 2.82 0.82 5.2

1.84 1.03 26.5 0.2 16.34 59 256 10.76 3.1 3.58 10 23.65 8.27 6.76 2.26 14.76 13.98 4 6.04 8.41 67 0.59 1.37 36.45 166.3 6.79 6.3 1.72 7.19 1.34 4.98 121.3 1.09 69 1.11 9.07 7.3 13.6 11.8 8.9 0.78 0.7 1.89 2.92 3.29 4.5 30.95 1.06 4.69 1.07 5.09 0.86 5.3

1.89 1.03 26.6 0.2 15.92 58.35 254 10.8 3.07 3.76 9.55 23.4 8.19 6.87 2.15 13.04 14 3.5 5.69 8.13 64.7 0.61 1.42 37 159 6 6.23 1.58 7.29 1.38 5 121 1.05 56 1.07 8.86 6.73 13.6 11.94 9.5 0.8 0.78 1.75 2.68 3.29 4.5 29 1.06 4.4 1.1 5.09 0.85 5.36

1.9 1.05 26.85 0.21 16.7 59.5 264.8 10.8 3.11 3.76 10.16 24 8.45 6.87 2.26 14.3 14.2 3.6 6.24 8.42 70 0.61 1.46 37 166.3 6.5 6.7 1.74 7.4 1.38 5 122.9 1.08 56 1.12 9.8 7.2 13.6 12 9.5 0.8 0.78 1.91 2.95 3.29 4.5 29 1.06 4.85 1.14 5.09 0.92 5.55

1.8 1.02 26 0.19 15.92 58.3 254 10.7 3.05 3.25 9.55 23.3 7.9 6.6 2.14 13.04 13.8 3.5 5.69 8.13 64.7 0.57 1.36 37 159 6 6.02 1.58 7.05 1.27 4.75 119.1 1.05 56 1.07 8.86 6.73 13.3 11.38 8.8 0.8 0.69 1.75 2.6 3.01 4.5 29 1.03 4.4 1.01 5.09 0.83 5.2

1.81 1.03 26.5 0.199 16.3 58.35 256 10.76 3.07 3.25 10 23.65 7.9 6.76 2.25 14.3 13.8 3.6 6.01 8.39 67 0.58 1.37 37 166.3 6.5 6.18 1.6 7.15 1.34 4.98 120 1.08 56 1.1 8.93 7.2 13.6 11.8 8.9 0.8 0.7 1.78 2.91 3.1 4.5 29 1.06 4.68 1.01 5.09 0.83 5.2

1932000 458000 1902100 790000 4229600 43030 432120 4512700 2964000 9000 56100 477300 150100 950300 3053000 200 656400 10000 5764600 2500200 94610 1662000 24688000 300 916340 2500 4438200 380000 206800 530000 19900 1657940 6520000 600 7909000 70100 51700 243300 941700 62400 25000 1842000 38000 10461000 8000 684000 200 3935000 686000 265000 3000 765000 833200

3582320 468800 50248055 152550 69135972 2514820.5 110779156 48682582 9155660 30460 561495 11289685 1210594 6423451 6713550 2734 9161816 35500 34643547 20719621 6370017.5 956210 34699070 11100 149809107 15921 28408827 606990 1494222 682640 98265 200310514 7030800 33600 8653800 635030 357405 3286490 11016150 553809 20000 1331480 69600 29556030 24720 3078000 5800 4132240 3203480 282980 15270 659840 4475619

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

-688530 -14806780 21390902 -1217003.5 -62331666 -24921118 -4416410 -2200035 -334454 -3730146 -1638070 6322570 -35500 6377083 -506454 1233654.5 -1090990 42768674 3640 11723465 -336390 -710988 2635 -64939580 283530 -1585920 -417035 -8061712 -393450.0002 -2900 3671850 -126010 35200 -405039

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.61 0.62 0.58 0.62 0.57 0.61 13926000 8372100 631530 8.35 8.51 8.2 8.93 8.2 8.35 3900 32410 ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP 637 640.5 620 648 619 640.5 574130 367004215 88918690 39.35 39.7 40.55 41.45 39.15 39.35 955500 37965545 -22159805 ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL 9.98 10 9.95 10.1 9.83 10 6769300 67199601 7425157 1.99 2 2 2.03 1.98 2 10727000 21,558,880( 20,586,419.9998) AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR 6.1 6.69 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 100 670 0.6 0.63 0.64 0.64 0.58 0.61 123000 73870 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.79 0.8 0.87 0.87 0.79 0.8 1558000 1257570 ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B 0.77 0.8 0.82 0.82 0.8 0.8 400000 323400 6 6.01 6 6.01 5.86 6 1337500 8017146 59630 COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG 5.18 5.2 5.11 5.22 5.11 5.2 10665500 55285232 -24011189 9.01 11.5 11.58 11.6 11.5 11.5 10100 117032 -3480 FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC 0.214 0.215 0.218 0.218 0.215 0.215 120000 26040 622 627.5 620 643 610.5 622 88580 54997575 -7686375 GT CAPITAL 4.08 4.28 4.02 4.08 4.02 4.08 27000 109260 -48959.9998 HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT 62.85 62.95 62 63.2 61.95 62.85 2067460 129477873.5 -24627988.5 0.45 0.455 0.455 0.455 0.45 0.45 330000 150100 LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG 3.71 3.84 3.71 3.84 3.7 3.71 61000 226650 -33380 8.31 8.32 8.21 8.4 8.16 8.31 11089400 92056188 20212217 LT GROUP 0.55 0.59 0.58 0.6 0.55 0.55 71000 40830 MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV 3.48 3.5 3.51 3.57 3.44 3.5 64128000 224190730 -41093380 3.35 3.4 3.2 3.5 3.2 3.3 76000 245560 PACIFICA HLDG PRIME MEDIA 0.9 0.95 1 1 0.95 0.95 11000 10600 0.93 0.95 0.95 0.95 0.95 0.95 24000 22800 SOLID GROUP SYNERGY GRID 145.5 159.8 150 159.8 150 159.8 50 7696 899 900 905 940 890.5 900 946440 856649365 424803200 SM INVESTMENTS 119.5 119.6 120 122.5 119.1 119.5 168400 20200332 -2921269 SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES 0.72 0.74 0.74 0.77 0.72 0.73 498000 368930 141.2 150 141.5 150 141 150 3240 458900 271490 TOP FRONTIER ZEUS HLDG 0.145 0.15 0.158 0.163 0.141 0.152 2430000 371340 -

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 206.92 -20.66% -6.6% -6.14% -17.85%

PROPERTY ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0237 -36.13% -10.06% -8.72% -25.93% ARTHALAND CORP 0.66 0.67 0.66 0.67 0.64 0.66 292000 193020 ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.8815 -29.31% -10.64% -8.54% -21.66% 8 9.15 8.01 8.01 8 8 400 3201 ANCHOR LAND AYALA LAND 38.05 38.2 37.55 38.4 37.25 38.2 20960400 795729205 Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7109 -23.55% n.a. n.a. -20.76% 1.2 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.29 2000 2580 ARANETA PROP BELLE CORP 1.45 1.46 1.45 1.47 1.43 1.46 143000 206240 First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7067 -17.18% n.a. n.a. -16.79% 0.74 0.75 0.74 0.82 0.72 0.75 17700000 13583780 A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT 0.75 0.77 0.76 0.77 0.76 0.77 119000 90450 First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.4184 -18.86% -4.84% -5.83% -17.08% CROWN EQUITIES 0.151 0.17 0.175 0.175 0.17 0.17 2060000 355200 First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,6 0.6923 -19.85% -8.84% n.a.

5.97 6.1 5.92 6.1 5.92 6.1 29000 173836 CEBU HLDG CEB LANDMASTERS 4.35 4.4 4.47 4.47 4.38 4.4 322000 1423950 -18.9% 0.47 0.48 0.47 0.485 0.465 0.47 2520000 1194800 CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY 0.29 0.33 0.295 0.295 0.28 0.28 200000 56150 MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 85.48 -31.8% n.a. n.a. -17.27% 16.74 16.76 16.78 16.9 16.04 16.76 568600 9363600 DOUBLEDRAGON PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 41.4598 -19.13% -5.02% n.a. -19.15% DM WENCESLAO 7.5 8 8 8 7.6 8 399700 3088803 EMPIRE EAST 0.335 0.345 0.34 0.345 0.34 0.345 40000 13650 Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 440.34 -18.13% -5.15% -5.36% -17.35% 1.07 1.08 1.08 1.12 1.05 1.07 12456000 13547880 FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE 0.91 0.97 0.9 0.97 0.9 0.97 45000 41180 Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,8 0.9038 n.a. n.a. n.a. -12.26% 14.14 14.16 14.1 14.22 14.1 14.14 668800 9467260 8990 HLDG Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0608 -18.17% -4.71% -4.58% -17.57% PHIL INFRADEV 0.76 0.8 0.8 0.85 0.75 0.8 1619000 1286630 0.7 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 3000 2250 CITY AND LAND Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 31.1694 -18.46% -3.81% -4.39% -17.75% 3.14 3.2 3.19 3.26 3.11 3.2 25112000 79915910 MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED 0.156 0.157 0.145 0.161 0.145 0.156 4600000 720740 Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.8307 -18.47% n.a. n.a. -18.41% 0.34 0.39 0.325 0.395 0.32 0.34 5290000 2078900 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 2.02 2.05 2.04 2.05 2.03 2.05 358000 728290 Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.2268 -18.46% -4.34% -3.96% -19.08% 20.9 21.05 20.95 21.85 20.15 20.9 3539300 74691710 ROBINSONS LAND Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 705.6 -18.44% -4.39% -4.13% -19.09% PHIL REALTY 0.27 0.275 0.275 0.275 0.275 0.275 200000 55000 1.82 1.9 1.93 1.93 1.81 1.82 53000 100820 ROCKWELL Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6726 -25.89% -7.63% -7.67% -21% 3.01 3.02 3 3.05 3 3.02 32000 96490 SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND 2.22 2.29 2.33 2.33 2.2 2.31 41000 93340 Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.3979 -20.27% -4.72% -4.71% -19.27% 34.8 34.9 36 36.85 34.8 34.8 10847900 384708390 SM PRIME HLDG Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8094 -18.68% -4.57% n.a. -19.12% VISTAMALLS 4.3 4.9 4.07 4.9 4.07 4.9 113000 521210 1.3 1.32 1.33 1.4 1.3 1.3 2872000 3782840 SUNTRUST HOME United Fund, Inc. -a 3.0366 -16.59% -2.19% -2.85% -16.88% VISTA LAND 6.25 6.3 6.57 6.58 6.25 6.3 23604200 148763176 Exchange Traded Fund

SERVICES First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 94.6312 -18.22% -3.79% -3.26% -19.09% ABS CBN 19.2 19.22 20.4 21.3 19.22 19.22 941800 18966443 5.15 5.16 5.12 5.21 5.12 5.15 160600 829178 GMA NETWORK ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9057 -8.95% 0.04% -1.99% -11.93% MANILA BULLETIN 0.41 0.42 0.435 0.435 0.41 0.41 540000 222800 8.21 11.6 11.76 11.76 11.74 11.74 300 3524 MLA BRDCASTING Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.2211 -1.37% 3.83% n.a. -11.43% GLOBE TELECOM 1750 1751 1736 1783 1736 1750 28470 49875770 Balanced Funds 1020 1023 1020 1027 1012 1020 146725 149824200 PLDT APOLLO GLOBAL 0.042 0.046 0.044 0.046 0.044 0.046 3800000 167400 Primarily invested in Peso securities 3.42 3.99 3.99 3.99 3.99 3.99 252000 1005480 DFNN INC 1.16 1.49 1.4 1.49 1.4 1.49 14000 20770 IMPERIAL ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.4773 -13.37% -4.84% -5.46% -5.47% ISLAND INFO 0.087 0.091 0.097 0.097 0.08 0.082 6770000 566010 ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0024 -12.7% -4.18% -3.49% -8.19% 1.42 1.43 1.43 1.49 1.38 1.42 9754000 14054610 ISM COMM NOW CORP 1.52 1.54 1.54 1.68 1.5 1.52 1579000 2464150 First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.3961 -8.47% -1.29% -4.1% -8.95% 0.171 0.175 0.18 0.195 0.175 0.175 2000000 366050 TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 1.92 1.93 2 2.06 1.88 1.93 5480000 10943780 First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,5 0.1947 n.a. n.a. n.a.

2GO GROUP 6.3 6.82 6.25 6.82 6.15 6.82 27800 172802 16.46 17.5 16.3 16.3 16.3 16.3 1100 17930 ASIAN TERMINALS -14.79% CHELSEA 2.97 3 2.95 3.08 2.95 2.97 390000 1175790 NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8331 -3.48% -0.04% -1.21% -6.62% 64.35 64.4 64.25 64.7 64.15 64.4 320510 20,633,136.5( CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER 90.05 90.3 92.2 100 89.95 90.05 3964590 371934004.5 PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.436 -5.12% -1.63% -2.6% -9.32% 11.34 13.1 11.54 13.1 11.5 13.1 8100 93606 LBC EXPRESS 0.85 0.92 0.83 0.89 0.82 0.89 91000 77530 LORENZO SHIPPNG Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.3836 -6.1% -1.75% -2.65% -9.3% MACROASIA 7.1 7.13 7.2 7.57 7 7.1 561300 4016153 -9.47% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.9244 -9.44% -2.3% -2.22% 2.24 2.26 2.07 2.37 2.06 2.24 14152000 31814120 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 2.17 2.24 2.1 2.4 2.1 2.2 227000 510280 Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.3975 -10.75% -1.96% -2.69% -12.07% 6.2 6.25 6.1 6.25 5.76 6.25 20300 120244 PAL HLDG HARBOR STAR 0.83 0.84 0.87 0.87 0.82 0.84 281000 234210 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d,2 0.9228 -6.23% n.a. n.a.

-9.15% 1.35 1.38 1.35 1.35 1.35 1.35 1000 1350 ACESITE HOTEL Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d,2 0.849 -13.27% n.a. n.a. -14.79% 0.032 0.033 0.033 0.035 0.033 0.033 6300000 211300 BOULEVARD HLDG DISCOVERY WORLD 1.61 1.83 1.94 1.94 1.61 1.61 3000 5400 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d,2 0.8344 -14.62% n.a. n.a. -15.99% 0.48 0.51 0.52 0.52 0.48 0.48 116000 58920 WATERFRONT CENTRO ESCOLAR 6.03 6.5 6.71 6.71 6.5 6.5 13100 85191 Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8346 -13.47% -3.35% -4.5% -14.38% 801 830 829 829 829 829 10 8290 FAR EASTERN U STI HLDG 0.485 0.49 0.45 0.5 0.45 0.49 24930000 11726350 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities BERJAYA 2.19 2.25 2.2 2.38 2.2 2.2 33000 73910 Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03906 9.44% 3.62% 2.17% 2.17% 7 7.01 6.7 7.2 6.7 7.01 4855000 34022264 BLOOMBERRY PACIFIC ONLINE 1.84 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 2000 3800 PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -a $0.9768 -0.36% 2.04% -0.2% -5.89% 1.53 1.6 1.64 1.64 1.53 1.53 342000 523830 LEISURE AND RES PH RESORTS GRP 3.51 4.17 3.25 4.17 3.2 4.17 49000 165500 3.9% 2.16% -6.92% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.6402 1.15% 0.365 0.37 0.37 0.38 0.35 0.37 7210000 2668550 PREMIUM LEISURE Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,7 $1.1022 3.81% 2.95% n.a.

-2.36% PHIL RACING 7.8 7.9 7.98 7.98 7.9 7.9 167000 1324660 9.4 9.47 9.35 9.5 9.35 9.47 309900 2930378 ALLHOME Bond Funds 1.48 1.49 1.5 1.5 1.46 1.49 1821000 2679230 METRO RETAIL PUREGOLD 33.25 34 33 34 33 34 3789900 127055375 Primarily invested in Peso securities 54.6 55.75 57 57.55 53.5 54.6 423330 23744986.5 ROBINSONS RTL ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 360.52 4.2% 2.88% 2.33% 0.76% PHIL SEVEN CORP 150 150.5 150 150.7 150 150 71240 10696773 1.45 1.46 1.48 1.54 1.46 1.46 4201000 6206510 SSI GROUP ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9133 2.52% 0.54% -0.41% 0.59% WILCON DEPOT 17.02 17.08 16.96 17.3 16.9 17.02 871600 14871024 APC GROUP 0.37 0.375 0.38 0.38 0.37 0.375 990000 368450 Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.148 5.05% 5.19% 5.15% 1.02% 6 6.3 6 6.1 5.55 6 5500 32596 EASYCALL GOLDEN BRIA 348 370 375 375 370 370 200 74500 Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2505 4.58% 2.51% 2.07% 1.15% 0.227 0.23 0.226 0.248 0.226 0.23 3920000 916910 PRMIERE HORIZON First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.3806 6.42% 2.45% 1.57% 0.91%

MINING & OIL

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.4411 12.31% 3.11% 2.03% 1.56% ATOK 9.52 10.68 9.98 10.7 9.98 10.7 9200 96342 APEX MINING 0.88 0.9 0.95 0.95 0.86 0.88 554000 489260 Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.8189 6.47% 3.3% 1.6% 0.81% 0.0011 0.0013 0.0012 0.0013 0.0011 0.0013 139000000 162200 ABRA MINING Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 0.9866 8.29% 2.18% 0.78% 2.31% ATLAS MINING 2.03 2.26 2 2.02 2 2 80000 160400 0.91 1.1 0.89 0.89 0.89 0.89 9000 8010 BENGUET B Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.121 9.65% 4.76% 2.88% 1.47% COAL ASIA HLDG 0.27 0.275 0.27 0.27 0.27 0.27 290000 78300 2.74 2.75 2.68 2.76 2.68 2.75 1403000 3824870 CENTURY PEAK Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7176 8.65% 4.13% 2.28% 0.97% 6.15 6.39 6.4 6.98 6.15 6.15 25500 165349 DIZON MINES Primarily invested in foreign currency securities FERRONICKEL 0.68 0.69 0.73 0.75 0.69 0.69 10461000 7413920 0.195 0.198 0.192 0.195 0.192 0.195 60000 11550 GEOGRACE ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $472.57 4.55% 2.82% 2.75% 0.93% LEPANTO A 0.08 0.089 0.07 0.088 0.07 0.088 30000 2380 0.08 0.092 0.093 0.093 0.071 0.088 50000 4170 LEPANTO B ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є220.56 2.57% 1.7% 1.19% 0.38% MANILA MINING B 0.0045 0.008 0.0079 0.0079 0.0079 0.0079 1000000 7900 ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2113 4.85% 2.92% 2.41% 0.34% 0.55 0.57 0.58 0.62 0.57 0.57 78000 45680 MARCVENTURES 0.86 0.9 0.87 0.87 0.85 0.85 16000 13850 NIHAO First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 3.6% 1.32% 1.28% 0.39% NICKEL ASIA 2 2.03 2.16 2.16 2 2 1051000 2174280 2.56 2.6 2.57 2.67 2.54 2.55 872000 2231470 PX MINING PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -a $1.129 7.24% 2.2% 0.81% 3.09% SEMIRARA MINING 17.2 17.3 17.36 17.54 17 17.3 998100 17,341,530( 5.86 6.09 6.15 6.33 5.82 6.09 389500 2355232 ACE ENEXOR Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4598 10.73% 4.19% 3.13% 2.33% 0.0085 0.0094 0.0083 0.0084 0.0083 0.0084 2000000 16700 ORNTL PETROL A Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0607959 5.47% 2.28% 1.92% 0.8% ORNTL PETROL B 0.0092 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.0091 0.0091 20000000 191000 0.0078 0.009 0.0072 0.009 0.0072 0.0085 7000000 58200 PHILODRILL Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2369 10.22% 3.61% 2.84% 1.94% PXP ENERGY 5 5.02 5.9 5.9 4.85 5 347000 1759600

Money Market Funds PREFFERED Primarily invested in Peso securities HOUSE PREF A 100 100.5 100 100 100 100 9030 903000 ALCO PREF C 100.1 106.9 100.1 100.1 100.1 100.1 20 2002 ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 126.73 3.88% 3% 2.27% 0.76% 497 504.5 502 504.5 502 504.5 20 10065 AC PREF B2R DD PREF 101.1 102.8 101.1 101.1 101.1 101.1 2000 202200 First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a,3 1.0331 2.89% n.a. n.a.

252 505 502 502 502 502 280 140560 FPH PREF C 0.66% GLO PREF P 502 510 513 513 513 513 20 10260 997 1000 1000 1000 997 998 365 364180 GTCAP PREF A Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a 1.266 6.47% 3.31% 1.81% 0.74% 990 1000 999 1000 999 1000 2300 2299000 GTCAP PREF B MWIDE PREF 100.1 101 100.1 100.1 100.1 100.1 209000 20920900 Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2723 3.62% 2.97% 2.47% 0.61% 1021 1028 1028 1028 1005 1028 8475 8662380 PNX PREF 4 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities PCOR PREF 2B 1010 1035 1010 1010 1010 1010 200 202000 1050 1052 1046 1050 1046 1050 7010 7356460 PCOR PREF 3A Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0409 1.99% n.a. n.a.

0.36% PCOR PREF 3B 1062 1070 1062 1062 1062 1062 50 53100 77.75 77.8 78 78 77.65 77.8 9750 758776 SMC PREF 2C Feeder Fund 75.25 75.9 75.9 75.9 75.9 75.9 110 8349 SMC PREF 2D Primarily invested in foreign currency securities SMC PREF 2E 76 76.35 76 76 76 76 3000 228000 76.4 77.4 76.8 77 76.4 76.4 178600 13675239 SMC PREF 2F ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,4 $0.95 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-4.04% SMC PREF 2G 75.75 76 75.7 76 75.7 76 2710 205180 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 January 3, 2019. 2 - Launch date is January 28, 2019. 3 - Launch date is February 1, 2019. 4 - Launch date is November 15, 2019.

5 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 6 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.).

7 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019. 8 - Launch date is December 09, 2019.

"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.

36850555 47132128.5 -1159085 -2505251 -48290110 10620 530320 23829105 -261384 -71100 -

2400 3742600 2580 -25900 -75000 15960 -2440 -399000 -370644 448370 -5486370 -14140 2250 -5691600 -16320 -335015 39440 -50069930 -10047359 3318115 -35974730 16000 -281239.9997 -11200 69200 -257620.0001 -6250 -62600 5,424,734.5001) 103454370 11500 722383 -63750 13020 -78400 22234321 -1516395 1651610 2038265 -12406804 -51028 -2506110 -7306388 49140 -88000 20000 -8010 276000 -3574050 7680 -162040 7,912,230.0003) -100489 51290 -12068239 -

75.75 76.4 75.75 75.75 75.75 75.75 6700 507525 SMC PREF 2H 75.3 76.9 76.5 76.9 76.5 76.9 4960 380274 SMC PREF 2I

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 17.24 17.4 17.6 17.8 17.24 17.24 412000 7207138 819779.9998 GMA HLDG PDR 4.96 5.1 5.22 5.22 5.09 5.09 6000 30770

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.88 0.94 0.95 0.95 0.8 0.8 23000 21240

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 1.98 2.02 2.14 2.2 1.98 1.98 565000 1162080 KEPWEALTH 6.75 6.76 7.15 7.15 6.6 6.76 54000 366861 0.6 0.61 0.59 0.62 0.59 0.6 1672000 1016890 -61000 XURPAS

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 96.15 97 96.35 98.7 96.15 96.15 158120 15364941 -737980

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Oil rally falters after Saudi Arabia vows to boost production further

O

il’s rebound from its biggest crash in a generation faltered after Saudi Arabia said it would boost its production capacity, while there were also doubts whether the US could deliver sufficient stimulus to support prices.

Brent crude fell 1 percent in London after being up almost 7 percent earlier. Saudi Aramco said on Wednesday it was making maximum efforts to boost its oil production capacity to 13 million barrels a day from 12 million after pledging to supply a record 12.3 million barrels a day next month in a massive increase.

In the US, President Donald J. Trump pitched a payroll tax holiday and relief for the travel and hospitality sectors to combat the virus’s impact, while some Republican senators suggested a bailout for the shale industry.

The Trump administration’s willingness to revive the economy comes after the disintegration of Opec+ and subsequent plunge in oil prices threatened the US shale industry and spurred an indiscriminate sell-off in markets already reeling from the coronavirus. However, investor hopes were tempered when the president didn’t appear at a White House briefing on Tuesday after promising a day earlier he’d hold a news conference to announce major stimulus. “ The market rally based on Trump’s economic stimulus alone is unlikely to be sustainable” given the amount of crude that will soon be hitting the market, said Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.

“Any meaningful rebound will either come from coronavirus fears fading away, or Saudi Arabia and Russia returning to the negotiating table.”

Brent crude for May settlement fell 1 percent to $36.84 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange as of 7:35 a.m. in London after being up as much as 6.7 percent earlier. It jumped 8.3 percent Tuesday following a 24 percent plunge the day before.

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery dropped 1.2 percent to $33.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after swinging between a gain of 5.8 percent and a loss of 2.4 percent. It rallied 10.4 percent in the previous session after collapsing by almost 25 percent on Monday.

Trump spoke with Mohammed bin Salman by phone before the Saudi crown prince escalated the oil-price war on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the call. Russia’s top producer Rosneft PJSC is also planning to ramp up output in April, a person close to the company said. Iraq and Nigeria followed in their wake and said they would increase crude shipments next month.

Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute reported that US inventories increased by 6.41 million barrels last week, according to people familiar with the data, highlighting the lack of demand. That would be the seventh straight weekly expansion if confirmed by Energy Information Administration figures due later on Wednesday.

Expectations for a “major” fiscal stimulus package by the US have underpinned sentiment, Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AxiCorp Ltd., said in a note. But there’s still potential for this to fall through, he said.

Bloomberg News

Afghans set to release 1,500 Taliban; U.S. wants less violence

K

ABUL, Afghanistan—After a series of delays, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree early Wednesday promising to release 1,500 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture to get intra-Afghan negotiations started.

A recent peace deal signed between the United States and the Taliban called for the release of up to 5,000 prisoners ahead of the much sought-after negotiations.

There was no official response from the Taliban, but The Associated Press saw a letter that Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, the head of the Taliban’s Prisoners Commission, sent to the prisoners, their families and Taliban leaders promising there would be no intra-Afghan talks until all the prisoners are released.

The Pashto-language letter was sent last weekend. It says the Taliban would verify that each prisoner released is among those on the list given to an American delegation.

However, the presidential decree went on to say the first round of 1,500 prisoners will be selected based on age, health and the length of their sentences already served. The released prisoners, who will be biometrically identified, will also have to give a written guarantee that they will not return to the battlefield.

The remaining 3,500 prisoners will be released after intra-Afghan negotiations begin and 500 will be released every two weeks providing the Taliban reduce violence on the battlefield, Ghani’s decree said.

However, even if the Taliban agree to start negotiations, Kabul’s political turmoil and relentless bickering between Ghani and his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who has also sworn himself in as Afghanistan’s president, have left Kabul struggling to come up with a united negotiating team.

Ghani’s decree came as the US State Department issued a statement saying that the level of violence is “unacceptable,” and

that while the Taliban have stopped attacks against the US-led coalition forces and in Afghan cities, the violence in the countryside remains too high.

The statement also said Afghanistan’s “presidential electoral crisis”—an apparent reference to the two inaugurations and political chaos—has delayed the establishment of a national negotiating team and the start of intra-Afghan talks, which were to begin on Tuesday in Oslo, Norway.

Despite the political chaos in Kabul and increased violence on the battlefield, the United States has started withdrawing its troops in keeping with the deal it signed on Feb. 29 with the Taliban. In the first phase, Washington will reduce its troops contingent to 8,600, down from the current 13,000.

I f t h e Ta l i b a n a d h e r e t o t h e i r commitments to deny terrorists safe havens in Afghanistan, Washington will withdraw the remainder of its troops over 14 months, according to the agreement.

When it was signed, the US-Taliban deal was touted as Afghanistan’s best chance at finding peace after 40 years of relentless war while offering the United States an exit after nearly 19 years and its longest war.

President Donald J. Trump has expressed increasing frustration with the Afghan government and its security forces’ inability to police and manage their own affairs. But almost from the beginning the unraveling b e g a n a s t h e Ta l i b a n re t u r n e d t o t h e battlefield and Afghanistan’s politicians stepped up their feuding as Washington’s Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad scrambled to find a way out of the impasse.

In the end, both Ghani and Abdullah declared themselves president. The United States and other international players attended Ghani’s ceremony while urging both men to negotiate a single government. AP

Russia passes bill allowing Putin to stay in power past 2024

M

OSCOW—The Russian parliament approved a sweeping constitutional reform in the third and final reading on Wednesday, a move that will allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 12 years after his current term ends in 2024.

The Kremlin-controlled lower house, the State Duma, endorsed a set of amendments to the constitution and a provision resetting the term count for Putin after the revised constitution goes into force by a 383-0 vote with 43 abstentions. A nationwide vote on the proposed amendments is set for April 22.

Kremlin critics condemned the move as a cynical manipulation and called for protests.

Putin, a 67-year-old former KGB officer, has ruled Russia for more than 20 years. After serving for two consecutive four-year terms—a limit outlined in the current version of the constitution—Putin shifted to prime minister’s seat in 2008, with his close ally Dmitry Medvedev becoming a placeholder president.

The length of the presidency was extended to six years under Medvedev, and in 2012 Putin returned to the Kremlin as president. In 2018, he was re-elected for another six years.

The constitutional reform passed by the Duma on Wednesday would allow Putin to run for presidency two more times after 2024. Ahead of the national vote, it will be reviewed by Russia’s Constitutional Court.

The changes redistribute the executive powers of the Russian government in Moscow and further strengthen the power of the presidency, while also banning same-sex marriage and listing “a belief in God” as one of Russia’s traditional values.

The proposal to restart the term clock for the current president was put forward by 83-year-old former Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, now a Duma deputy, during the second reading of the amendments on Tuesday.

Following Tereshkova’s speech, Putin quickly arrived at parliament to address the lawmakers and supported the idea. AP

Thursday, March 12, 2020

B3

US coronavirus cases top 1,000; China reports 24 new infections

U

nited States coronavirus cases climbed past 1,000, according to a Johns Hopkins tally that includes cruise ships, as a top health official said some parts of the country are now beyond containment efforts.

Three Transportation Security Administration agents at Mineta San Jose International Airport in California have tested positive for coronavirus, the agency said. All TSA employees they came in contact with in the past 14 days have been quarantined at home. Santa Clara County, which has reported 45 cases, has banned large gatherings of more than 1,000 people effective midnight on Wednesday.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco is shutting its 90 schools in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo Counties for two weeks starting Thursday after a student tested positive for coronavirus, according to a letter to families from Superintendent of Schools Pamela Lyons. The school buildings will be closed and all classes and student-related activities will be closed through March 25, the letter said.

Meanwhile, China reported only 24 additional cases on March

10, of which 13 came from Hubei province, the country’s National Health Commission said. All the latest 22 deaths were also in Hubei.

China added 19 cases a day earlier.

The nation has 80,778 total confirmed coronavirus infections and the death toll stands at 3,158.

South Korea reported 242 additional infections in the previous 24 hours. The increase took total cases in the country to 7,755, according to a statement from the health ministry.

Regions from Italy to New York amped up containment efforts as the global death toll rose above 4,000. Infections in Italy topped 10,000 as the country attempted a nationwide lockdown.

UK health minister positive

Nadine Dorries, a UK health minister, has become the first British member of parliament to test positive for coronavirus. The Times reported she had fallen ill

on Friday and her diagnosis was confirmed Monday evening. The newspaper said she’d attended a reception in 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday and met hundreds of people in parliament.

Dorries, one of four health ministers for the UK, said in a statement that she had been isolating herself at home since her diagnosis, and that officials were working to trace her contacts.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it will close its headquarters in New York to the general public, suspending all guided tours until further notice. There are no confirmed cases among staff. It follows the decision to reduce the number of staff present in the UN building.

rates in an emergency move and announced measures to help keep cred it f low ing t hrough the economy, saying the coronavirus outbreak will damage economic activity.

The move to cut the benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 0.25 percent comes a week after the Federal Reserve slashed its main rate, and just hours before the UK government announces its budget. The European Central Bank, which holds its policy meeting tomorrow, is expected to join the growing wave of crisis easing with its own measures.

“A lt hou g h t he m a g n it ud e of t he econom ic shoc k f rom Covid -19 is highly uncer tain, activ it y is likely to weaken mater ia l ly in the United K ingdom over t he com ing mont hs,” t he BOE sa id in a st atement.

St. Peter’s Square closed

Tokyo Disney shutdown

UN closes headquarters

St. Peter’s Squ a re a nd Basi l ica a re c losed to tou r ists u nt i l Apr i l 3, accord ing to A gence Fra nce -Presse.

Pope Francis had delivered his weekly blessing via video on Sunday to avoid attracting crowds to the square. Vatican City is home to about 600 people, including the pontiff. The Vatican has also closed its museums until April 3.

Emergency move

The Bank England cut interest

Oriental Land Co. delayed the re-opening of the Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea resorts until at least early April, following a call by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to extend cancellations of large events for another 10 days as Japan battles the spread of coron av i r u s. O r ient a l L a nd , which operates the resorts, had initially planned to keep the parks shut until March 15, having closed them on February 29.

Bloomberg News

Coronavirus compels telecommuting, travel limits for media

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EW YORK—The Washington Post is encouraging its staff to work at home and the Los Angeles Times is restricting air travel, two illustrations of how news organizations compelled to cover the coronavirus outbreak are balancing the need to keep employees safe.

Both of those directives went out in memos to staff members on Tuesday. CNN also said that, as of now, its planned Democratic presidential debate on Sunday between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders is on—though it will take place without a live audience.

Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan said the Post was encouraging, but not mandating, telecommuting for newsroom personnel if their jobs or needs for equipment permitted it. The policy is in place at least through the end of the month.

“It’s a smart thing to do to minimize or eliminate what could go wrong here,” said Cameron Barr, a Post managing editor. The newspaper had preparedness plans in place, and technology allows most employees to stay connected remotely. The newsroom won’t be empty, since some editors and other staff will remain.

Ryan said the newspaper would continue to operate at “full scale” despite the dispersed employees.

For most people, t he new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diag-

This June 22, 2019, file photo shows the exterior of the New York Times building in New York. Media companies are balancing the need to cover the coronavirus outbreak with the need to keep their employees safe. The New York Times told its employees this week that if they want to work remotely they can do so. AP/Julio Cortez

nosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.

The Los Angeles Times said it was suspending air travel for staff members except in cases where it is “absolutely” required for the job, according to a memo sent by Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine on Tuesday. Those who do have to fly will be asked to work from home for two weeks after their flight, he said.

Exceptions will likely include coverage of sports teams or presidential campaign coverage, said a senior editor at the newspaper who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

“We all recognize there are certain stories you can’t cover by phone and we will continue to travel to cover them,” the editor said.

St a f f members h ave been given the option to work from home if they can, subject to t heir manager’s OK , t he Los Angeles Times said.

The New York Times told its employees this week that if they want to work remotely they can do so, “and many have taken us up on the offer,” a spokesman said.

Remote working is not always an option. NBC News, primarily a television news organization, did not mention telecommuting in a coronavirus memo sent to staff on Tuesday. The network said it was stepping up cleaning of its facilities and making more sanitizers available. Bloomberg News said it is requiring its employees

in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Italy to work from home, and recommending that its workers in Seattle, Washington, do the same. Other employees who want to telecommute must make arrangements with their supervisors, a spokesman said.

The Associated Press said it expects its employees to come to work but is dealing with individual concerns on a case-by-case basis.

AP journalists are not expected to go to hospitals or the homes of people infected by coronavirus, a spokesman said.

CNN and WarnerMedia Sports said travel should be done “only if absolutely necessary,” the company said in a memo from Jeff Zucker, head of both organization. Internal meetings should be done by phone or videoconference, if possible, or put off altogether.

“Any employee who has discomfort about traveling anywhere will not be required to do so—regardless of the proposed assignment or event,” Zucker said in his memo.

CBS said it has taken similar steps. It is discouraging large meetings and encouraging staff to do interviews by electronic means like Skype, if at all possible, in areas where there is an outbreak, a representative said.

ESPN, facing weeks of college basketball tournaments across the country, has no hard-and-fast rules because the situation is still fluid but has stressed that it wants its employees to feel comfortable and safe. AP

B4 Thursday, March 12, 2020

Rediscover the wonders of play this summer at Midas Hotel and Casino

SMHCC elevates personalized entertainment and convenience with IPTV Solutions technology

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OING beyond has always been SMHCC’s ideology. The company’s incessant efforts in fostering a culture of excellence is a clear testament of the company’s commitment to its bullish growth and expansion plans. This includes the realization that, in this modern landscape, novelty and technological advancements are keys in elevating our guests’ experience, transporting them into new realms of comfort, enjoyment, and grandiosity.

Among the hotels in the 3-star category, SMHCC is one of the first to introduce the intuitive Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Solutions technology in

its properties, putting it at the forefront of innovative hospitality accommodations and facilities. With the goal of providing each guest a unique and memorable experience in mind, this infrastructure has been integrated to select hotels (Radisson Blu Cebu, Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo, and Park Inn by Radisson North EDSA), and subsequently to its other existing and upcoming properties across the country.

This technological step-up aligns itself with SMHCC’s thrust for sustainable tourism and responsible consumption, allowing each property the ability to make a mark in its aim to operate paperless

transactions, which ultimately benefits the environment.

In its essence, IPTV is beyond what the typical television offers today. With the rise of upgraded internet-tethered screens and entertainment systems, IPTV endeavors to do more than the mainstream “online” TV. Apart from all the functions of a normal unit, IPTV Solutions integrates a holistic guest experience in a sleek, versatile 43inch and 49-inch LG hotel-grade Smart TV screen with high picture quality, a sophisticated design which enhances inroom entertainment and convenience.

Custom-made down to its light speed fiber-cable internet network infrastructure for the casual vacationer and tech-savvy traveler, IPTV Solutions delivers various engaging features such as Quick Menu, hotel information (such as its facilities, dining options, services, and emergency protocols), onscreen radio capabilities, weather predictions and dashboard, and a direct line to the front desk for easy access to guests’ running bills, and a personalized welcome screen to greet guests upon their entrance to the room.

In addition, these televisions are optimized for the specific environment and property, specially designed to give the guest a user-friendly and practical experience.

Guests can also navigate through its basic and easy screen templates, multi-language features, and use media streaming.

Akrotiri brings Greece to the Philippines

Traditional Greek Salad

Pitta platter with handmade dips

By Stephanie Joy Ching | Photos by Nonie Reyes

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RANSPORT yourself to the shores of Greece with traditionally prepared Greek food right in the heart of Makati. Located in 146-B Jupiter, Makati, Akrotiri Greek restobar prides itself in preparing high quality and authentic Greek food in the Philippines.

According to Akrotiri marketing manager Marie Uy, Akrotiri was first conceived as a modern Euroasian fusion restaurant.

“It didn’t click at first, so we had to convert to something else,” she said.

It was then reimagined to be an authentic Greek restaurant in the shareholders’ home peninsula in Greece, hence its name-’Αkρωτήρι’ or ‘peninsula’ in Greek. It opened to the Filipino public in 2019 in Alabang to the rousing approval of vegetarians who were looking for a place that will cater to their dietary preferences.

“Medditeranean cuisine is heavy on herbs and grilled,” said Ms. Uy “So we get plenty of repeat customers who

are vegetarians because there is finally another vegetarian friendly option.”

Other than the approval of the vegetarian community, they also won the approval of the local Greek community for their immaculate attention to detail in honoring their culture’s food.

“We are really pushing for authentic and traditional Greek food,” she stated. “So we invested in Greek consultants and chefs to teach the staff how to prepare the food.”

In order to prepare traditional Greek food, they also need to source genuine Greek ingredients.

Mediteraranean cuisine uses ingredients such as vinegars and feta

cheese, which they directly import from Greece. While produce like vegetables and meats are sourced from local farmers. Some of the dishes, meanwhile, such as their yogurt based tzatziki dip and their pitta bread, is handmade in the restaurant.

“All of the food that you see here is all prepared by us. We create our own when we can’t source it, and we’d rather create our own and serve it to the guests than to have a preprepared meal,” she said.

Other than bringing the flavors of Greece into the Philippines, they also want to “push the music scene in Makati” by having various local acts perform in their spaces. Known acts performing in Akrotiri are the pop rock band Calle Victoria and the indie singer Skarlet. This turns the area from a resto bar to a place where talents of all kinds can find a place to bloom.

With all these in place, Akrotiri certainly is a cultural center where the two different cultures can bond over their shared love of both food and music.

Lunch Buffet for only Php1,500 per person on weekends.

In the afternoon, chill out and satisfy your cravings with the Sunset Lounge’s Merienda Cena Buffet for only Php550 per person and enjoy some mouth-watering snacks while watching your favorite show or news program. Come night time, reward yourself with a delicious buffet dinner at Midas Café or Yanagi for only Php1,500 per person on weekends.

Before heading to your room, let the 2702 Lobby Lounge play up your senses with good music from its nightly entertainment performers, some tasty hors d’oeuvres and a night cap by the bar of the city hotel.

For inquiries or reservations, email info@midashotelandcasino.com or call 7902 0100 local 8108. For table bookings, email restaurant@midashotelandcasino.com or call 7902 0100 local 8198. For more information, visit www.midashotelandcasino.com or the Midas Hotel and Casino Facebook page.

Global-Link to highlight Filipino ingenuity and creativity at Interior & Design Manila 2020

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Chicken Gyros

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UMMER is the perfect time to play outside the house for both the young and the young-at-heart in Manila. For the hardworking ones, playtime is essential as it can boost creativity and relieve the daily stress of life.

This March, Midas Hotel in Roxas Boulevard, Pasay presents its Stay to Play summer promo, where guests can book a Deluxe Room for only Php5,999 or an Executive Room for only Php6,999. Each room package lets you choose between an ice cream from the 2702 Lobby Lounge or a ticket to the Dessert Museum.

Take your taste buds to a food adventure with Midas Buffet Indulgence. Get a filling buffet breakfast with a wide selection of intercontinental and Filipino breakfast choices at Midas Café, one of Manila’s award-winning hotel restaurants. Walk-in guests can enjoy a sumptuous breakfast buffet for only Php950. Then, at lunch time, have a satisfying meal at Midas Café’s

LOBAL-LINK Exhibitions Specialist, Inc., in partnership with the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers (PIID) and the Philippine Institute of Architects (PIA), will be holding the 5th edition of Interior & Design Manila (IDM) at the SMX Convention Center Manila, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City on March 12 to 14, 2020. Show hours are from 9:30 AM until 7:30 PM. The entrance to the exhibit is free for visitors who will register through the event’s website, www. interioranddesignmanila.com.

“Filipino designers have this unique eye that can turn an empty space into an elegant room. The world knows that our designers are creative, but there is still a strong need for something more, we must

empower them,” stated Patrick Lawrence Tan, CEO of Global-Link.

“That’s why we are very fortunate to work with PIID and PIA, two of the biggest and recognized design organizations in the country, in putting together the 5th edition of such a meaningful event, Interior & Design Manila, which is sure to open up countless doors of opportunities for the growth of our country’s design industry.”

In response to this need, the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers through the direction of its current national president IDr. Marcelo Alonzo will conduct a 2-day whole conference and workshop focusing on EMPOWERING INTERIOR DESIGN: Design.

Technology.

Education.

The

BNYP continues to spread its wings

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OR the month of March, Brooklyn New York Pizza (BNYP) continues to spread its wings through their free eight pieces of Buffalo Wings when you purchase one Manhattan Pizza of your choice, one shared pasta of your choice and one bottle of 1.5 Liter of Pepsi.

Order now and surprise your loved ones with BNYP 's special offer.

Brooklyn’s New York Pizza branches are located at Ayala Town Center Alabang – 8850-9999, Ayala Malls Feliz Pasig – 8288-3004, Chino Roces Makati - 8896-9696, Madison Galeries Alabang Hills – 8788-9935, Robinsons Place Ermita - 8405-0505, Robinsons Las Piñas - 8553-3555, Tomas Morato Quezon City - 8405-0505. For more information about Brooklyn’s New York Pizza, check out: FB: http:// Facebook.com/BrooklynPizza IG: http://Instagram.com/ BrooklynsNewYorkPizza

conference and workshop will be a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program where interior designers, architects, and other related professionals can get CDP points and update their records. To get updates on the topics, speakers, and registration fees, please directly contact the PIID secretariat at secretariat@piid.org.ph or (632) 8519 3672.

In addition to PIID’s annual conference and workshop, the Philippine Institute of Architects through the leadership of their national president Ar. Carmelo Casas will also be holding the 2nd day of their 87th Annual National Convention alongside IDM. For exhibit inquiries, contact Global-Link at (632) 8893 7973.

You may also visit Interior & Design Manila’s official website www. interioranddesignmanila.com or email info@interioranddesignmanila. com. Entrance to the exhibit is free for visitors who will register through the event’s website before March 10, while registration fee for walk-in visitors if Php 500.00 per day.

Interior & Design Manila 2020 is held coinciding with the country’s longest running furniture expo, Philippines International Furniture Show.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Thursday, March 12, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Children banned from taking part in Olympic flame-lighting ceremony ORGANIZERS stage a penultimate rehearsal at the site of the Olympic Games of antiquity but the Ceremony has been stripped down to the bare minimum.

VIRUS IMPACT ON SPORTS GROWS

IT’S HAPPENING

By Jake Seiner

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The Associated Press

HE novel coronavirus outbreak, which has already reshaped the professional sports landscape in Europe, prompted new restrictions to restrict fan access in the US on Tuesday, with major decisions looming about baseball’s opening day and college basketball’s NCAA Tournament.

College games will be played without fans in Ohio and California, and given restrictions on large gatherings there and elsewhere, more disruptions to the sports calendar appear inevitable. The NCAA said it would “make decisions in the coming days” about its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments after two conferences banned fans from their championships and another canceled its tournament altogether.

The baseball season begins in just over two weeks and includes games in Seattle, which so far has been hit harder by the virus than any US city. The Mariners are set to host the Texas Rangers on March 26 in the first of seven consecutive home games to start the season.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee plans to ban gatherings and events of more than 250 people in virtually the entire Seattle area, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. The person was not authorized to disclose the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Inslee scheduled a news conference for late Wednesday morning. The Mariners and Major League Baseball had no immediate comment, but the decision would seemingly force MLB to move the games or bar fans from the Mariners’ stadium.

Of the 29 known deaths in the US, 24 have been in the Seattle area, with 19 tied to a single nursing home.

If MLB can’t play in front of fans at a team’s home ballpark, the sport’s first preference likely would be to switch games to the visiting team’s stadium if possible, a person familiar with the deliberations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because no decisions have been made.

Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos said Tuesday he is concerned about traveling to Seattle.

“I know the season starts in Seattle, and we know how Seattle is right now,” Chirinos said. “That’s two-and-a-half weeks from now, so I think we’re going to hear some news when we’re getting close to opening day.”

None of North America’s major sports leagues has postponed games or barred fans in a bid to keep them safe, but there was a flurry of activity as college conferences and schools began making those moves. The Ivy League became the first Division I conference to cancel its basketball tournaments.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom questioned why leagues weren’t moving more aggressively.

“I find it quite curious that the four major organizations—NHL [National Hockey League], MLS [Major League Soccer], MLB and NBA [National Basketball Association]—put out guidelines to protect their athletes but not their fans,” said Newsom, a Democrat, referring to the leagues’ new restrictions on locker room access.

Discussions about next steps have been ongoing for weeks as postponements and fan restrictions have become common elsewhere. Early Wednesday, London-based football club Arsenal announced that its players would be self-isolating because of possible exposure to the virus, forcing the postponement of its Premier League game at Manchester City. It was the first Premier League game called

A FAN has his temperature checked at the entrance of the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy. AP

off because of the virus and the first possible exposure involving players in a major sports league.

Scores of top-tier soccer games in Spain, France and Portugal, as well as some in Germany and a European Championship qualifying match in Slovakia, will be played in empty stadiums in coming days.

The Spanish league said matches in its first and second divisions will be played without fans for at least two weeks. The league said it was “prioritizing the health of fans, players, club employees, journalists, etc., due to the COVID-19 health crisis.”

The French league said soccer matches in its top 2 divisions will be played without fans until April 15 and Portugal announced similar measures. Italy earlier this week said all sports events, including Serie A soccer games and preparatory events for the Tokyo Olympics, were suspended until April 3. The Italian ski team decided not to send competitors to Slovenia for the last World Cup races of the season.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks. Those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Sports and government officials in nearly every corner of the globe have scrambled to address concerns fans could be at risk and to potentially stop the spread of the virus. The fear has spread from Asia—particularly about the Summer Olympics in Tokyo—to Europe and now to North America— Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recommended that fans be kept away from all indoor sporting events. The state is home to

the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, among others; the Blue Jackets said they did not plan to keep fans away from games this week. The state is also hosting a number of high school and collegiate tournaments this month and the first games of the NCAA men’s tournament—the First Four—are scheduled for next week in Dayton. First-round games are also set to be played in Cleveland on March 20 and 22.

The NCAA released a statement three hours after the DeWine’s announcement saying it “continues to assess how COVID-19 impacts the conduct or our tournaments and events.”

“We are consulting with public health officials and our COVID-19 advisory panel, who are leading experts in epidemiology and public health, and will make decisions in the coming days,” the NCAA said.

The Mid-American Conference announced its men’s and women’s tournaments to be played in Cleveland this week would be closed to the general public. n The Big West announced a similar move with its men’s and women’s tournaments, which will be played this week at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Also in Southern California, USC and UCLA said all of its home athletic events will be held without fans at least until April 10, or until further notice. That would include first- and second-round NCAA women’s tournament games likely to be hosted by UCLA. n The NHL was also assessing the impact of a decision

by Santa Clara County health officials in California to ban gatherings of more than 1,000 people in response to the spread of the virus. The San Jose Sharks have games scheduled for March 19, 21 and 29. n The NBA told teams last week to prepare for the possibility of playing games in empty arenas, which Los

Angeles Lakers star LeBron James initially said he wanted no part of and would not play, but said Tuesday he would do whatever the NBA tells teams to do. n In Germany, the Bundesliga said six of nine games this week will be played without fans, including one of Germany’s biggest rivalries, Borussia Dortmund against Schalke. n Champions League soccer matches are also being affected, including next week’s game between Barcelona and Napoli in Spain and Bayern Munich against Chelsea in Germany. Both games will be played without fans, as will Dortmund’s match at Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp said closing stadiums to fans—a measure not yet taken by English soccer authorities—wouldn’t necessarily be the best solution.

“The problem with football games,” Klopp said, “is if you are not in the stadiums, then you go watch it closely together in rooms and I’m not sure which is better in this case, to be honest.” n One of the year’s biggest tennis tournaments, at Indian Wells in California, was canceled. The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, due to start in Paris on May 24. The French tennis federation said it did not anticipate canceling the Open. n In MotoGP, the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas, was postponed until November. n The Noord-Brabant province in the Netherlands called off all professional soccer matches for the rest of this week.

The province includes Eindhoven, where the US is scheduled to play the Dutch national team in an exhibition on March 26. The US Soccer Federation said it is monitoring the situation there and in Cardiff, where the Americans are to play Wales four days later.

NO schoolchildren will take part in the flame-lighting Ceremony in Olympia on Thursday or in the formal handover to Tokyo 2020 scheduled for March 19.

Organizers staged a penultimate rehearsal at the site of the Olympic Games of antiquity but the Ceremony has been stripped down to the bare minimum.

Tuesday’s rehearsal featured the lighting of the flame by high priestess Xanthi Georgiou and the procession and dance performance by the company of priestesses and heralds in the main stadium.

There was also a mimed rehearsal of the presentation of the flame to the first Torchbearer Anna Korakaki. The flame lit will be retained in a safety lamp in case it proves impossible for a lighting by the rays of the sun in Thursday’s Ceremony.

The decision to shorten the Ceremony meant disappointment for Giannis Panagiotopoulos who was to have taken the role of the “Amphithalis Pais.”

This is the small boy who cuts an olive branch during the Ceremony.

In ancient times, the presence of a young boy at a marriage was said to be a positive symbol of fertility.

Dmitra Karanisiou and Tzortzia Spanoudaki were cast as the maidens who accompany the priestesses and were due to release the dove of peace at the conclusion of the Ceremony. They too will miss out as this duty will be performed by a priestess.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee have produced a magnificent program for the event that seems certain to become a sought-after item among Olympic collectors. Only 1,000 numbered copies have been printed but one page is already a sad chronicle of canceled cultural events.

The children of Olympia would normally have provided one of the favorite images by forming the Olympic rings at the start of the Ceremony.

Other youngsters from the Lavreotaki Community Choir were scheduled to sing Olympic, Japanese and Greek anthems as the three flags were raised.

A group of 18 high-school students from Inazawa, a Japanese town twinned with Olympia, were scheduled to carry the flame. A further group of 140 who were to have performed in the handover Ceremony have also stayed at home.

Two students from the Young Champion Ambassador program in Colorado Springs, another city twinned with Olympia have already arrived and are expected to carry the flame in the early stages.

As it stands, the Relay is to visit Tegea where a plaque commemorates the genesis of the Torch Relay idea in the early 30s.

The Relay is also scheduled for Thermopylae, a place where a legendary battle in 480 B.C. has entered folklore as a heroic episode in Greek history. The parallels need no elaboration.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee have emphasized that all arrangements in the next week are still subject to change.

Insidethegames

Spo

Business

C2 Thursday, March 12, 2020

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harles Barkley, one of the most recognizable names in basketball, announced he plans to sell the Olympic gold medal he won at Atlanta 1996 as part of a major sale of memorabilia from his career to help pay for new houses for the disadvantaged in the town he grew up in.

But Barkley revealed he will not be selling the gold medal he won at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona as part of the revered United States “Dream Team” because his daughter asked him not to.

“Because of how sentimental it is for the world,” Barkley, who is now 57 and a television analyst, said during a radio interview in Alabama. “But all of that other stuff, man, is just an eyesore.”

“I don’t think I have to walk around with my gold medal or my MVP [Most Valuable Player] trophy for people to know I’m Charles Barkley, so I’m going to sell all that crap. That just clutters my house,” he said. “I used to keep it at my grandmother’s house, but they all passed away, and I don’t want that stuff crapping up my house.”

Barkley claimed that he has been told by one expert that the MVP trophy he won during the 1993 National Basketball Association season— when, playing for the Phoenix Suns, he averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game as they reached finals—could fetch between $300,000 and $400,000.

He did not reveal how much he had been advised the Olympic gold medal—won by the US when they beat the former Yugoslavia, 95-69, in the final—could fetch.

In 1992, Barkley led the Dream Team in scoring 18 points per game on 71 percent shooting, despite starting just half of the eight games.

A US flag signed by the original Dream Team at Barcelona 1992 is also among the items that Barkley plans to auction. He promised during one interview that all the money he raised from the sale of the items would be used to build new houses in Leeds in Alabama.

Barkley claimed he was the first black baby

BARKLEY’S ’96 OLYMPIC GOLD UP FOR SALE

born in a segregated town hospital in Leeds and was among the first black students at his elementary school.

“We probably got 30 eyesores, as I call them, where houses used to be when I was growing up,” he said during an interview. “Either a rotted-out house or there’s just weeds that have overgrown.”

“So, what I’m trying to do—I want to work with the city of Leeds, I want them to give me the spaces, No.1. I want them to give me the houses, and I’m going to use my own money selling my memorabilia.”

“I want to do something really nice for Leeds. And if I could build 10 to 20 affordable houses—I want to do green housing too [and] if I could sell all that stuff, it would just be a really cool thing for me,” he added.

Earlier this month, an Olympic gold medal won by the US basketball captain Bill Wheatley at Berlin in 1936 was put up for auction.

The medal has been placed with Heritage Auctions’ Winter Platinum Night Sports Auction and it is estimated it could raise as much as $60,000.

In 2015, the gold medal awarded to Wheatley’s teammate Carl Shy was sold at auction for $66,000. Insidethegames

CHARLES BARKLEY, shown here during the medal ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Games, wants to help pay for new houses for the disadvantaged in the town he grew up in.

MLB prefers teams flip sites if virus shuts parks

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EW YORK—If Major League Baseball (MLB) can’t play in front of fans at a team’s home ballpark because of the virus outbreak, the sport’s first preference likely would be to switch games to the visiting team’s stadium if possible, a person familiar with the deliberations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because no decisions have been made.

MLB starts its season on March 26. Among the games on opening day is Texas at Seattle— the Seattle area has been hit hard by the virus, with 24 deaths.

MLB anticipates government officials will decide whether it is safe to play in front of fans in each city. If changes to the schedule are necessary, MLB would make determinations at the point when a ballpark has been ruled out.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee plans to ban gatherings and events of more than 250 people in virtually the entire Seattle area, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. The person was not authorized to disclose the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Inslee scheduled a news conference for late Wednesday morning. The Mariners and MLB had no immediate comment.

“I hope it doesn’t turn into us missing games or pushing scheduled games back,” Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis said.

Baseball’s preference is to play in front of fans and not in empty stadiums, the person familiar with the deliberations said. Players and management don’t like the lack of energy in empty ballparks.

“It wouldn’t be the same. It really wouldn’t,” said Dave Martinez, manager of World Series champion Washington.

Flipping home and road dates is easier to do at the start of the season, when there are many series between teams who face each other later in the year.

The Rangers are scheduled to open Globe Life Field, their new retractable roof ballpark, against the Los Angeles Angels on March 31. Texas General Manager Jon Daniels said Monday there hadn’t been any discussion with MLB or the Mariners about swapping home dates for that opening series between AL West rivals, but said the new ballpark would be ready if it is needed.

Exhibition games against St. Louis are scheduled at the new stadium on March 23 and 24.

Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos said Tuesday he is “a little bit” concerned about traveling to face the Mariners.

“I know the season starts in Seattle, and we know how Seattle is right now,” Chirinos said. AP

Oakland Athletics minor league Manager Scott Steinmann fills out a line-up in the team’s dugout next to a bottle of hand sanitizer before their spring training game against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday in Peoria, Arizona. AP

By Tim Dahlberg

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The Associated Press

HEY canceled racing at Santa Anita for one day this week, which should come as good news to horses scheduled to run on Friday the 13th.

Horses at the venerable Southern California track have had enough bad luck recently.

They’ve been dying at an alarming rate, even for a sport where breakdowns and deaths are part of the price for racing. A total of 23 horses died in racing or training at Santa Anita in a three-month stretch ending March 31 of last year, and nine more have died during the current racing season that began December 27.

A long-awaited report released Tuesday was supposed to tell us why, and it did provide some evidence that horses are being trained too hard and raced too much. But the report mostly raises even more questions about the facility—and the horse racing industry itself.

The bottom line? Horses are still dying, and nobody seems to know for sure what to do about it.

That includes the California Horse Racing Board, which set up a group of industry insiders to study the deaths. Not surprisingly, it largely passed off blame to unknown factors, though the 76-page report made sure to point out there was no evidence of animal welfare violations and that no trainers blamed the track itself for any fatalities.

Still, there were some recommendations to make things safer in the future. The report proposes more education for horse trainers and more research into the kinds of injuries that race horses tend to suffer.

It also includes stricter measures for canceling racing in bad weather and, with rain expected in Southern California this week, that was enough to call off Friday’s action.

“We’re moving to reform racing as best we can over the next year to 18 months,” CHRB Chairman Greg Ferraro said.

That may be true, even though the report itself suggests few real reforms. Among the suggestions is that Santa Anita consider replacing its dirt track with a synthetic surface, but that’s an expensive process and there’s no indication it will be seriously considered by the track owner.

Clippers bounce back with rout of Warriors S

Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers are back in the mood for winning coming off a loss to the Lakers. AP

NETS HOLD OFF LAKERS

Deaths, few solutions at Santa Anita track

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RIDERS and horses walk toward the track for a morning workout ahead of the 2014 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. AP

Animal rights activists have over the years offered their own suggestions, all the way up to closing tracks and banning the sport all together. They say the industry can never be able to police itself and that horses suffer unduly and die because of it.

Those suggestions aren’t likely to gain much traction but it’s true that horse racing is a dangerous sport—especially for the horses.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office did its own investigation into the Santa Anita deaths, releasing a report in December that found no criminal liability and no evidence of animal cruelty among those who handle the horses.

Still, the report looked at the last decade and found that 49 horses died at Santa Anita during the 12-month period ending last June, and that the year was not statistically that unusual.

“Horse racing has inherent risks but is a legally sanctioned sport in California,” District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. “Greater precautions

are needed to enhance safety and protect both horses and their riders.”

Those precautions, at least so far, are a mixed bag. In the wake of last year’s deaths, Santa Anita imposed stronger rules for medicating horses and installed new equipment to catch preexisting conditions that might cause breakdowns.

The CHRB has also been busy, effectively banning most medications on race day and putting limitations on how much jockeys use their whips.

But there’s only so much that can be done to make the sport less dangerous for horses. That’s especially true when there are people in the sport who will go to great lengths to make sure their horses come out on top.

A day before the report was issued, horse racing took a blow from a federal investigation that revealed widespread doping of horses. More than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and drug

AN FRANCISCO—Kawhi Leonard scored 23 points before sitting out the entire fourth quarter along with the rest of the Doc Rivers’s starters, and the Los Angeles Clippers routed the Golden State Warriors, 131107, on Tuesday night.

Paul George and Patrick Beverley scored 15 points apiece as the Clippers had seven players in double figures.

Reggie Jackson added 16 points and JaMychal Green had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Coming off a 112-103 loss to the Lakers on Sunday night that ended a six-game winning streak, the Clippers jumped out to an early double-digit lead and coasted to their third consecutive win over the Warriors.

“You never know when a game’s going to be onesided,” Rivers said. “I just like that we came out with the right approach, a business approach. We didn’t have ball movement the last game and that hasn’t been us.

You could see the tone was set early just by the ball movement.”

Los Angeles led by 28 at the half and went up 8450 early in the third following back-to-back threes from Beverley.

Things went so well for Rivers’s team that Leonard wound up with a three-point play when he flipped a shot up while falling over Golden State’s Ky Bowman.

The Clippers moved a game ahead of Denver for second place in the West.

Dragan Bender matched his career-high of 23 points for Golden State. Andrew Wiggins scored 21 and Marquese Chriss had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The game was played before a noticeably smaller crowd at Chase Center as large pockets of empty seats lined the arena’s upper and lower bowls. Signs were posted near entrances outside the venue, warning visitors who had shown any symptoms of the coronavirus to not enter.

“I was surprised it was that many fans,” Rivers said.

Both teams took steps toward adhering to the National Basketball Association’s temporary rules closing locker room access to reporters in an effort to contain the virus. The Clippers set up a screened off area just outside their locker room for postgame interviews, with chairs set up for the media. The Warriors conducted their interviews in a nearby media room where they normally do.

“It’s all very strange and awkward,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said. “We are just going to do what we are told to do and go from there.”

The win was the 938th of Rivers coaching career, tying him for 11th all-time with Boston Celtics legend and Hall of Famer Red Auerbach. AP

distributors, including two prominent East Coast trainers, were named in a federal indictment charging them with crimes in the probe.

Among those charged was trainer Jason Servis, who was accused of running a widespread scheme to obtain and administer PEDs to horses.

One of Servis’s horses, Maximum Security, appeared to win the Kentucky Derby last year before being disqualified for interference.

The indictment couldn’t have come at a worse time for the troubled horse racing industry, which over the years has proven to be its own worst enemy. Once one of the top spectator sports in the United States, horse racing is barely hanging on in most parts of the country and barely recognized except during the Triple Crown races.

Real reform is needed, from the paddock to the track.

Without it, there might not be a sport left to save.

OS ANGELES—In his second game as Brooklyn’s interim coach, Jacque Vaughn watched his Nets fight and scrap for 47-and-a-half minutes to carve out a two-point lead over the powerhouse Lakers.

Then Vaughn had to watch from the sideline while Anthony Davis launched a last-second 3-pointer that would have undone it all.

“It’s like the joy and pain of basketball,” Vaughn said. “I had the perfect sight line. I see it leave, just watching the flight of it. Looked to see if his feet were behind the line, so I said, ‘This is a 3-ball. We’re either losing this thing, or we’re going to win this thing.”

Davis missed. The Nets’ coaching change remains a hit.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored 23 points and hit the tiebreaking jumper with 28.3 seconds to play, and Brooklyn beat the Lakers, 104-102, Tuesday night for its second straight win since Vaughn surprisingly replaced Kenny Atkinson last week.

Caris LeVert added 22 points as Brooklyn opened its four-game California road trip by beating the Western Conference’s top team.

Davis hit four 3-pointers, but that wide open three at the buzzer would have won it for the Lakers, whose four-game winning streak ended. After back-to-back victories over National Basketball Association (NBA)-leading Milwaukee and the powerhouse Clippers last weekend, the Lakers lost at home for the first time since February 6.

LeBron James had 29 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists for the Lakers, and he flawlessly set up Davis’s final shot by driving the lane and kicking out to his fellow All-Star.

“A great look, a great opportunity to win the game,” James said. “We just missed it. That’s what the game is about.”

Brooklyn had a 97-88 lead with six minutes to play, but the Lakers ratcheted up their defense and cut it to 100-99 on James’s driving lay-up with 1:47 left.

Davis scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half, and he hit a tying 3-pointer with 42.6 seconds left on a setup from James. AP

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Thursday, March 12, 2020

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MAGNO BAGS TICKET TO TOKYO I

RISH MAGNO provided the good news amid the alarming COVID-19 scare that now envelopes the country by earning a ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics following her unanimous decision victory over her foe from Tajikistan in the Asia-Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament on Wednesday in Amman, Jordan.

Magno overwhelmed Sumaiya Qosimova, 5-0, in the box-off for a ticket to Tokyo in the women’s flyweight division, scoring the onesided victory that made her the fourth Filipino to make the Olympics set July 24 to August 9.

Magno, 28, joined fellow boxer Eumir Felix Marcial—who advanced to the gold medal play in the Jordan qualifiers—and pole vaulter EJ Obiena and world champion gymnast on Team Philippines to Tokyo 2020.

She went all out in the box-off after she missed the semifinals—losing to six-time world champion Mary Kom of India in the quarterfinals on Tuesday— where automatic slots to the Olympics were staked.

Carlo Paalam, however, missed his chance at snatching a Tokyo seat in the continental qualifier.

Paalam lost, 4-1, to a taller opponent

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TERRENCE ROMEO fits to a “T” his role at San Miguel Beer.

HE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) canceled games in the Philippine Cup and all other activities beginning on Wednesday as a result of the coronavirus outbreak that has alarmingly creeped into the country.

PBA Comissioner Willie Marcial made the announcement in a press conference on Wednesday morning, a day after the league’s board of governors decided in a special meeting on heeding the Department of Health’s (DOH) declaration of a Code Red Sub-Level 1 status amid the COVID-19 scare.

The PBA is the fourth major domestic league that halted their games.

Collegiate leagues University Athletic Association of the Philippines and National Collegiate Athletic Association announced on Monday that they are halting all events in the program of their current season beginning on Tuesday, as well as the Philippine Superliga, which is staging its Grand Prix.

Also canceled are the Palarong Pambansa in Marikina City, two international cycling races—Le Tour de Filipinas and PruRide— and on a larger scale, the Asean Para Games which are tentatively rescheduled for the last week of May and would no longer be at the New Clark City, which was transformed into a quarantine facility.

The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) also bared that the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2020-Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup 2023 Preliminary Joint Qualifiers have been postponed.

The PBA governors said they will monitor the situation. Last night’s games at the Smart

MAGNO

mARCIAL

with an obvious advantage in reach—world championship bronze medalist Saken Bibossinov of Kazahstan—in the men’s flyweight box-off.

Like Magno, Paalam lost in the quarterfinals to his rival from India.

The 24-year-old Marcial, silver medalist in the world championships in Russia last year, beat India’s Ashish Kumar, 4-1, in the men’s middleweight semifinals and will fight Abilkhan Amankul of Kazakhstan for the gold on Thursday.

The top-seeded Marcial booked his Olympic berth when he beat Mongolia’s Byamba-Erden Otgonbaatar via a third-round referee stoppage in the quarterfinals last Sunday. Paalam—as well as world champion Nesthy Petecio (featherweight),

James Palicte (welterweight) and Ian Clark Bautista (featherweight) and Riza Pasuit (lightweight)—still have a chance to qualify for the Olympics in the world qualifiers in Paris in May. But the competition in the French capital is expected to be tougher with aspirants coming from Africa, Europe and the Americas.

A total of 221 male and female boxers from 35 countries are entered in the Amman qualifiers.

Among the Southeast Asian countries, Thailand sent three qualifiers while Vietnam has one.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

VIRUS SCARE CREEPS INTO PHL SPORTS Araneta Coliseum pit NLEX against NorthPort and TNT against Phoenix.

“Considering the present situation surrounding covid-19 and the Presidential declaration of Public Health Emergency, it is our paramount duty and responsibility to ensure the health and safety of our fans, players, teams, officials and staff,” the league’s statement wrote.

“The league, however, will assess the effects of covid-19 on a day-to-day basis guided by the parameters set by the DOH and the WHO [World Health Organization], and will remain committed to conduct its games and activities in a safe and responsible manner for all its stakeholders,” it added.

The PBA also halted the D-League Aspirants Cup and inaugural 3x3 tournament.

The games in the Fifa International Window were supposed to be played from March 23 and 31, and from June 1 to 9.

The Philippines is supposed to play three matches—against Guam on March 26, China on June 4 and Maldives on June 9.

Fifa has yet to announce a new schedule, while the AFC said it will vigorously monitor the situation and decide if further changes will be made.

The Azkals sits at third spot with seven points on a 2-1-2 won-lost-drawn card in the

COMMISSIONER Willie Marcial says all events in the league are canceled “until further notice.”

Group A of the joint qualifiers.

Philippines Football League champion Kaya FC-Iloilo played Indonesia PSM Makassar to a 1-1 draw in a match played

without fans at the Gelora Bung Karno Madya Stadium in Jakarta on Tuesday night. Ramon Rafael Bonilla and

Ryniel Berlanga

SAN MIGUEL’S ROMEO: MR. QUALITY MINUTES T ERRENCE ROMEO fits perfectly into his new role at San Miguel Beer right in his first season with the Beermen and churned in a performance that merited a special citation in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association Press Corps (PBAPC) Awards Night on Monday at the Novotel Manila at the Araneta City in Cubao.

The fancy guard will be feted as Mr. Quality Minutes by sportswriters regularly covering the PBA beat for providing the scoring punch off the bench for the Beermen.

The task is in stark contrast to Romeo’s role as a starter for his previous teams NorthPort and TnT Katropa.

But the three-time scoring champion embraced the job with open arms and was an instrumental in helping the Beermen win the Philippine Cup and Commissioner’s Cup. He was the Finals MVP in the mid-season conference.

CJ Perez of Columbian Dyip, meanwhile, leads

All-Rookie Team, while the classic do-or-die encounter between NorthPort and NLEX in the Governors Cup quarterfinals was picked the Game of the Season in the affair presented by Cignal TV. Joining the 2019 Rookie of the Year Perez are NorthPort’s Robert Bolick, Rain or Shine’s Javee Mocon, TnT Katropa’s Bobby Ray Parks and Alaska’s Abu Tratter.

The Columbian Dyip guard will also hoist the Scoring Champion trophy.

The Batang Pier-Road Warriors quarterfinals match on November 27, 2019, was hailed as the best game of the previous season.

The match went into triple overtime with No. 8 NorthPort stunning top-seeded NLEX. It was one of the most-watched games last year, registering a high 1.5 million online views that was only surpassed by the 3.5 million views garnered by Game Two of the Governors Cup finals between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco also in the previous season.

SOAR HIGH TATJANA Cherry Tiggo’s Tatjana Bokan uses her height and agility to beat PLDT Home Fibr’s Aiko Urdas and Joyce Sta. Rita

at the net during their Philippine Superliga Grand Prix match on Tuesday night at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan. The Crossovers won, 18-25, 21-25, 25-22, 28-26, 15-12, with Bokan making 30 kills and five aces for 25 points.

Carbonilla grabs 16-under tennis plum in Molave

A NBA DEAL EXTENDED AXA Philippines Chief Customer Officer Amor Balagtas (second

from left) recently flew to Chicago, Illinois, to attend the National Basketball Association All-Star 2020 as a display of AXA’s support toward longtime ally, the National Basketball Association (NBA).

AXA is the official insurance partner of the NBA in the Philippines. With Balagtas are NBA Associate Vice President for Global Business Development Paolo Pastore (from left), NBA Asia Associate Vice President of Global Marketing Partnerships Jim Wong and NBA Canada Global Marketing Partnerships Senior Manager Simon Gordon.

slan Carbonilla wore down top seed Nash Agustines in a grueling duel, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 10-2, to snare the boys’ singles 16-under crown and match Judy Ann Padilla’s two-title feat in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPSPEPP) JNY Cup national age-grouper in Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, over the weekend.

The 14-year-old Carbonilla’s escape win came on the heels of his emphatic 6-0, 6-1 victory over Penshoppe Erquita that saw the rising star from Maranding, Lanao del Norte, drop just two games in four matches in ruling his age bracket in the Group 2 tournament presented by Dunlop.

Padilla, meanwhile, extended her run of impressive finishes by topping the girls’ 14-under and 16-under divisions although she failed to match her three-title romp in Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte, last week after bowing to Christine Gulagula in the semifinals of the premier 18-U play ruled by Sydney Enriquez.

Padilla, who also dominated the Sindangan stop of the country’s longest talent-search put up by Palawan Pawnshop headed by President and CEO Bobby Castro, trampled AJ Acabo, 6-0, 6-3, in the 14-under finals then held off Karyll Baco, 6-1, 6-4, for the 16-under trophy.

Gulagula, however, stopped her in the 18-under semifinals, 0-4, 5-3, 10-3, but

the former fell to top seed Enriquez from Zamboanga del Norte, who fashioned out a 6-2, 6-0 triumph to, likewise, snap a string of failed bids in the premier division of the tournament sanctioned by Unified Tennis Philippines made up of PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson, Toby’s, Dunlop, Slazenger and B-Meg. Other singles winners were Dipolog’s Pete Bandala (10-unisex), Garlandson Ardiente (boys’ 14-under), Pagadian City’s Nilo Ledama (boys’ 18-under), Oroquieta’s Cielo Gonzales (girls’ 12-under), while Enriquez and Baco clinched the 18-U girls’ doubles crown with Ledama and Alexis Acabo snatching the boys’ title.

Tessa Jazmines tessa4347@gmail.com

PART OF THE GAME

Rey and the Samoans

FORTY-ONE years ago, Rey Rodis Sr. was hailed as the country’s youngest international boxing promoter by Sports Weekly magazine, one of the most popular and highly read sports publications of that era.

He was just 22. But he had already promoted international fights in the Philippines and staged them in other countries. He was big in Indonesia, gaining the friendship of the Indon President Suharto despite his youth. One of his fighters, Ellyas Pical, became Indonesia’s first world boxing champion and successfully defended his junior bantamweight crown seven times.

Local-wise, Dodie Boy Peñalosa, the professional Filipino boxer who won the International Boxing Federation (IBF) light flyweight and flyweight titles in the early 80s, was one of his fighters. (Dodie Boy is the trainer of Nonito Donaire these days.) Indonesian fighter Yani Hagler was also in his stable, as was the Bad Boy from Dadiang-as (General Santos City), Rolando Navarette. He is related to another great Filipino fighter, the hard-hitting Rene Barrientos, Super Featherweight champion, who married the niece of his father-in-law, Dr. Antonio Almirante, a prominent dentist, businessman and legendary boxing promoter-manager from Cagayan de Oro City. It was Dr. Almirante who started the boxing talent promotion and management tradition in the family. Rey Sr’s son, Rey Rodis Jr. (nicknamed “Cacoi”) expanded the family business further by putting up a family-owned sports and entertainment production company in Los Angeles that promotes fights and shows in the US, Mexico, Costa Rica and the Philippines.

Rey Sr. had always been a boxing fan, even as a little boy. He would watch fights avidly wherever they happened. His college education at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro, had prepared him to excel in agro industries, where he worked for quite a time. But boxing found him.

He says his life changed in 1975 when Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier came to town for Thrilla in Manila. He so idolized “The Greatest,” whom he thought was the best exponent of the Sweet Science. He watched Ali jog in the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) area to prepare for the fight and jogged along. He got to meet the boxer of boxers who even lifted him up in the air during their encounter. That experience convinced him he would pursue a life path that involved boxing. And so it went.

Today, Rey Sr. is still active in his chosen field, promoting fights and concocting blockbuster matches that rivet the world’s attention toward Ground Zero during fight night. He is still on the lookout for talented boxers, thinks up perfect pairings, when to schedule the fights, where the boxers fight and how to promote them.

But this time he’s come up with a unique attraction, and it’s for Filipino fans. This coming week World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Famer Rikishi and kinsman Reno “Black Pearl” Anoa’I of the wrestling world’s famed Samoan Dynasty are coming to town to look at the future of professional wrestling in this part of the world.

KnokX Pro, the Samoan Dynasty’s group has partnered with Rodis’s RED Boxing International to announce the formation of a new, groundbreaking promotion in the world of professional wrestling– World Wrestling Asia (WWA.) If plans push through, wrestling clinics, anti-bullying talks and a meet and greet with fans (via waves and virtual fist-bumps, in deference to the coronavirus) are part of the agenda.

Long term, KnokX Pro and RED Boxing International—as WWA—aim to foster local talent and reinvent the professional wrestling landscape in Asia.

KnokX Pro, founded by Black Pearl (CEO) and Rikishi (president), has become the premier destination for aspiring professional wrestlers across the globe. RED Boxing International, founded by Rey Sr’s son and third generation promoter, Cacoi, is a promotional and management organization for professional boxers that has now expanded its reach into the world of combat sports.

The Samoan Dynasty is the most storied lineage in the history of Professional Wrestling. Originating with “High Chief” Peter Maivia and The Wild Samoans—Afa and Sika Anoa’i—it has continuously churned out some of the world’s greatest professional wrestlers.

Former WWE Champions The Rock, Roman Reigns and Yokozuna, as well as former World Tag Team Champions The Usos, The Wild Samoans, and The Headshrinkers all belong to the Samoan Dynasty.

Their March visit is only the beginning of bigger things to come. KnokX Pro and RED Boxing International will unveil more happy surprises for fans and aficionados of pro wrestling in August.

TOKYO QUALIFIERS FALL INTO CHAOS D Sports

By James Ellingworth The Associated Press

BusinessMirror

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| Thursday, March 12, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

A SECURITY guard stands at a fence of a construction site with the Olympic rings in the background in Tokyo. AP

Arsenal-City game called off with players in self-isolation L ONDON—Members of Arsenal’s playing squad went into self-isolation in a coronavirus precautionary move, forcing the postponement of the Premier League game at Manchester City later Wednesday.

It is the first game to be called off since the outbreak of the virus in the English top division, which has not played games without fans unlike in other parts of Europe. It was also the first time players in a major sports league had gone into isolation because of possible exposure.

The decision was taken due to the low risk of infection after Arsenal players came into contact with a rival team owner who announced Tuesday that he had contracted COVID-19. They met Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis after the Greek team won at Arsenal in the Europa League on February 27.

“The medical advice we have received puts the risk of them developing COVID-19 at extremely low,” Arsenal said in a statement. “However, we are strictly following the government guidelines which recommend that anyone coming into close contact with someone with the virus should self-isolate at home for 14 days from the last time they had contact.

“As a result, the players are unavailable for tonight’s match against Manchester City and the Premier League has decided the game should be postponed. The players will remain at their homes until the 14-day period expires. Four Arsenal staff, who were sitting close to Mr. Marinakis during the match will also remain at home until the 14 days are complete.”

Arsenal did not say how many players were affected but did not indicate an immediate threat to the next game going ahead on Saturday—more than two weeks after the contact with Marinakis.

“We look forward to the players and staff returning to work on Friday in preparation for our match at Brighton,” Arsenal said.

The Premier League is talking to government officials about contingencies for shutting fans out of stadiums but has yet to announce the need for that, saying City-Arsenal is a one-off postponement.

“All necessary measures are being taken and the Premier League currently has no plans to postpone any other matches,” the league said in a statement.

Since Arsenal players came into contact with Marinakis, Arsenal has played an FA Cup game at Portsmouth and hosted West Ham in the Premier League.

Marinakis, who is also owner of Nottingham Forest, went to the English

second-tier club’s game in London against Millwall on Friday. The club said he was diagnosed on Monday after first showing symptoms on his return to Greece.

Another Premier League club, Wolverhampton, is due to play Olympiakos in the Europa League in an empty stadium in Athens on Thursday night.

UEFA rejected a request from Wolves for the last-16 game to be called off completely, with the English club stressing the “good health of our pack and

the general public” is more important than football.

“Our position is that the trip poses unnecessary risks to our players, staff, supporters and the families of all who travel, at such critical and uncertain times,” Wolves said. “Our concern is also for our opponents, whose players and staff have today been tested, and will now be expected to play their part in an important fixture, under the difficult and challenging circumstances of their owner suffering with the virus.”

ARSENAL players celebrate a goal during their Premier League match against West Ham at the Emirates Stadium in London over the weekend. AP

ÜSSELDORF, Germany—For many athletes and teams who have yet to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, the global virus outbreak is spoiling plans and ruining hopes.

Qualifying events are being canceled or postponed almost daily, and time is running out for athletes to prove they meet the standard.

Rowing was the latest sport to find itself in flux on Tuesday when it canceled two World Cups, the European Olympic and Paralympic qualifying regatta, and the final Paralympic qualifier. All were to be held in Italy from April 10 to May 10. World Rowing said it wants to relocate the qualifiers and was talking with other countries. It hoped to offer good news next week.

For now, the Asia and Oceania qualifying regatta, and the final qualifying regatta are still going ahead on from May 17 to 19 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

On Monday, the International Judo Federation (IJF) canceled all Olympic qualifiers through April 30, including a Grand Slam and two Grand Prix. Another Grand Prix last weekend, in Morocco, was canceled earlier. Judo qualifying ends on May 25.

“It is of paramount importance to keep the judo family safe in these difficult times, and also to ensure fair chances for all athletes engaged in the Olympic qualification,” the IJF said.

Other sports as diverse as weightlifting, swimming and badminton have also been postponed indefinitely or canceled outright.

The African weightlifting championships in Mauritius next month were postponed on Tuesday. The Asian champs set a week later in Uzbekistan were canceled last week.

Because of the virus, the international governing body is allowing lifters yet to qualify, to register for major qualifying competitions out of their region, such as the European, Pan American or even the Oceania champs.

The Badminton World Federation, however, has refused to extend the qualifying period, and noted players from its leading nation, China, have been healthy and passed tests for COVID-19.

Badminton has lost three tournaments alone this month in Europe— in Germany, Portugal, and Poland—with the end of qualifying rapidly approaching on April 26.

One of its biggest events outside of the world championships, the All England Open, is going ahead on Wednesday in Birmingham.

Chinese teams have pulled out of numerous events worldwide, and others like Russia gymnasts teams have cut back their schedules.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach wrote an open letter to athletes last week saying the IOC was working with other sports bodies “to ensure a fair Olympic qualification,” but didn’t say how it might work.

“I want to personally thank you for all this flexibility and solidarity, which is the true Olympic spirit,” he added.

When the virus was still largely confined to China earlier in the year, events were moved—boxing and taekwondo qualifiers to Jordan, basketball to Serbia, triathlon to Spain. Now the little space left in the calendar is vanishing. The Olympics open July 24.

When qualifying events do take place, athletes may compete in unequal conditions. Many countries require quarantine for visitors from areas affected by the virus.

Endurance athletes in particular are feeling the pinch.

Evan Dunfee of Canada is the world championship bronze medalist in the 50-kilometer walk, the longest event on the Olympic athletics program. Athletes need weeks of recovery between races. Rescheduling qualifiers will be of little use, he argues.

If athletes have to race in June, “you’ll be putting all your eggs into the qualifying basket and wouldn’t be able to recover in times for the games,” Dunfee wrote on Twitter on Monday.

The virus is already affected the Tokyo Games. Test events in rugby and shooting have been canceled. Spectators have been barred from the lighting of the Olympic flame at Ancient Olympia on Thursday, and its arrival ceremony in Japan on March 20 has been downsized.

UEFA seeks governments assurance for Euro 2020

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A MAN wears a mask as he sits in the stands ahead of a Serie A match between Parma and Spal was scheduled to be played in Parma, Italy, on Sunday. AP

ONDON—UEFA is asking governments across the continent to ensure the European Championship goes ahead in three months despite the coronavirus outbreak.

Based on advice received from the World Health Organization (WHO), UEFA believes a city can host Euro 2020 games if it has the medical infrastructure to treat COVID-19 patients while still providing the necessary facilities to cope with tens of thousands of fans, a person with knowledge of the planning told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private planning conversations.

UEFA is using 12 stadiums in 12 nations for this unique pan-European tournament, which provides flexibility to give a city additional games if another is prevented from doing so due to the coronavirus. UEFA would remove games from a city if necessary to ensure the 24-team tournament can go ahead, the person said.

Brussels was already stripped of hosting because its stadium wasn’t finished and additional games were placed at Wembley, which has the semifinals and final in north London.

UEFA said reports that European football federations had requested that the 24-team tournament is moved to next year were “completely untrue.”

“UEFA has had no requests to move or cancel the tournament,” the governing body told the AP. Officials from European football’s governing body have been working with the WHO to form a plan to mitigate the risks from the COVID-19 disease across the 12 countries due to stage games.

UEFA has been told by the WHO that it does not expect the virus to

have been contained by the time Euro 2020 opens on June 12 in Rome, the persons with knowledge of the planning said. No sports events are currently taking place in Italy after the country was put in effective lockdown by the government this week.

“UEFA takes the situation linked to the coronavirus very seriously,” the Nyon, Switzerland-based organization said in a statement. “We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with the World Health Organization and national authorities regarding COVID-19 and its development.”

UEFA wants Euro 2020 to take place with fans. But some European club competition games are taking place this week in empty stadiums, including Paris Saint-Germain’s last-16 meeting in the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund on the orders of French authorities.

Decisions have already been made for later this month. Ireland’s Euro 2020 playoff match against Slovakia on March 26 will be played without fans on the instruction of the Slovakian government. Supporters will be barred from the stadium in Nuremberg for Germany’s friendly against Italy on March 31.

Like the IOC with the Tokyo Olympics, UEFA is trying to ensure its flagship event is not derailed by the virus. Cities in Azerbaijan, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Scotland and Spain will also stage games.

The new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms for most people, such as fever and cough, and the vast majority recover. But it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems. AP

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Life

Creator of all

EAR God, Your majesty shines forth in all You have made. In awe we pray: Open our hearts and minds to wonder and praise, oh God. Inspire creative use of technology to make known the beauty and fragility of creation.

Unite nations and peoples in just stewardship of the Earth’s resources. Instill joy and dedication in physicians, surgeons, nurses and therapists. Stop the spread of coronavirus throughout the world. May God show us mercy and kindness, and grant us salvation, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

REELING: MEDIA AND WRITING IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS D4

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

❶ THE Shrine of Remembrance

❷ FLINDERS

Thursday, March 12, 2020

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Street Station

❸ SAINT Patrick’s Cathedral

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COLORFUL street art of Hosier Lane

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THE Royal Exhibition Building

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STATE Library Victoria

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Pied Piper

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❹

❻

Make it Melbourne T

BY BENJAMIN LAYUG

HE last quarter of the year brought me and my family to the Australian city of Melbourne, regularly listed among the world’s greatest cities in which to live. Our home for our weeklong visit was Empire Apartments, right in the middle of the city’s shopping district and, from our 48th floor suite, we had a bird’s eye preview of what this beautiful city had to offer. A short walk from the Empire are cafés, coffee shops, bars and restaurants, as well as the retail meccas Melbourne Central, QV, Bourke Street, Emporium and the Queen Victoria Market. The weather throughout our stay was a cool 12 degrees centigrade.

The hulking beauty of Flinders Street Station, Australia’s first city railway station, was our frequent starting point for touring the city. Completed in 1909, more than 100,000 commuters pass through it each day. With its iconic clocks, it is especially photogenic when Melbourne’s trams amble by. Here, we rode a piece of Australia’s heritage via the City Circle Tram (route number 35) which provides a free and convenient way for tourists and locals to witness Melbourne‘s prominent tourist attractions and major events, while riding on an iconic tram.

On our first day, we decided to visit the Shrine of Remembrance (commonly referred to as The Shrine), one of the largest war memorials in Australia and, from there, walked over to the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne’s most famous patch of green and one of the city’s most impressive

treasures, before capping our day with a visit to the Eureka Skydeck 88, the highest public vantage point in a building in the Southern Hemisphere, at the 297.3-meters (975 feet) high, 91-story Eureka Tower, the second-highest building in Australia.

Our Sunday started with a visit to the Royal Exhibition Building, a World Heritage-listed building which hosted the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880–1881) and the even larger Centennial International Exhibition in 1888, followed by an exploration of the Melbourne Museum, a natural and cultural history museum (the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere).

Parks were again in our itinerary as we strolled the small, triangular Parliament Reserve (where we walked inside the curtains of cascading water of the unusual Coles Fountain), the 24-hectare Carlton Gardens (a network of tree-lined paths, providing formal avenues for highlighting its three fountains and the architecture of the Exhibition building) and Fitzroy Park (a major Victorian era landscaped garden) prior to hearing mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the tallest and, overall, the largest church building in Australia.

On other days, we visited State Library Victoria (Australia’s oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world), strolled through Chinatown (the longest continuous Chinese settlement in the western world), Saint Paul’s Cathedral (the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne), Federation Square (a venue for arts,

culture and public events on the edge of the city’s Central Business District) and the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia’s oldest, largest and most-visited art museum).

Our last day in the city happened to be Melbourne Cup Day, Australia’s best known horse racing event that “stops a nation.” A day off for the general population of Victoria, schools and most businesses were closed. To celebrate the event, people dress up, with many women wearing their best or most colorful hats and dresses, some being driven, on their way to Flemington Racecourse, via horse-drawn carriages.

That day was also our most hectic as we visited the then-closed (it being a public holiday) colonnaded Parliament House (the meeting place of the Parliament of Victoria), experienced a unique encounter with the justice system by being processed and “charged with a crime” at the Watch House, made a 1.5-hour tour of the adjoining Old Melbourne Gaol (a building that once held Victoria’s most notorious criminals and the site of over 130 executions since it opened in 1841) and learned about Australia’s immigration history at the Immigration Museum (housed in the grand Old Customs House building).

Melbourne’s street art scene is one of the most vibrant and important in the world and we capped our tour by visiting Hosier Lane, a sprayed, stenciled alley at the city center. This must-see sight is a veritable gallery serving up an ever-changing feast of Technicolor brilliance. Truly, a colorful climax to any visit to this colorful city. ■

Travel worry-free with add-on from Cebu Pacific VACATION planning is something every traveler looks forward to. From planning the itinerary, mapping out where to go, what to eat, the OOTDs, and what to do, trips are always exciting to think about. These days, travelers book their flights way ahead of time in order to get the best deals on fares, and great value on accommodation and activities.

But low-fare deals usually come with rules. For one thing, these are likely nonrefundable. Airline tickets have a set shelf life, and fares fluctuate depending on variables like purchasing window, demand and supply.

Refundable tickets are risk for an airline, and there’s a cost attached to this. That’s

why nonrefundable fares are often the cheapest tickets.

However, situations such as disapproved vacation leaves, late release of or disapproved visas, political upheavals, or health concerns, such as the coronavirus, are realities travelers face. Therefore, it’s necessary to include a Plan B when planning for trips, to make it easier to reschedule travel plans.

For travelers on Cebu Pacific, that Plan B is having the option to rebook their flights with CEB Flexi. It’s an add-on that enables travelers to rebook their flights up to two times, and up to two hours before departure.

CEB Flexi has to be purchased for a minimal fee at the point of booking the flight—and it

doesn’t matter whether it’s a promotional fare or a yearlong low fare. From the usual fixed P4,600 rebooking fee for a round-trip flight between the Philippines and any Cebu Pacific destination in Asia, for example, travelers simply add-on P1,598 to enable rebooking of their flights, resulting to a 65-percent savings on rebooking fees alone. Travelers need to think about the fare difference, but that can vary depending on the travel date.

Rebooking of flights with CEB Flexi can easily be done through the “Manage Booking” section on www.cebupacificair.com, or on the official mobile app. Now every Juan has the power to move flights at their convenience— no tickets will ever have to go to waste.

D.O.T. RELEASES STATEMENT ON COVID-19 LOCAL TRANSMISSION IN light of recently reported community transmissions of COVID-19, the Department of Tourism (DOT) calls on all tourism industry stakeholders to remain calm, be constantly updated and report suspected cases to local health authorities.

The DOT defers to the Department of Health (DOH) as lead agency of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, for decisions and announcements pertaining to the COVID-19 concern.

Needless to say, the DOT has the safety and well-being of visitors and locals as its utmost priority. As such, it will continue to coordinate and work closely with the IATF, partners from other government agencies and the private sector to mitigate the impact of the disease.

The DOT continuously issues health protocols for airports, hotel establishments and tour operators to cascade guidelines to make sure that precautionary measures are in place in order to contain the spread of the virus in the country.

Among those measures include thermal scanners at the entrance, provision of hand sanitizers and food preparation based on global Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) standards. DOT-accredited hotels are continuously cleaning and sanitizing premises, particularly the common and frequently used areas.

Tourists are directed to visit the DOT’s travel advisory bulletin at www.philippines.travel/safeph in order to know the consolidated efforts of the Philippine tourism industry to contain the spread of the COVID-19 and maintain the safety and well-being of visitors.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat also enjoins the industry to extend any assistance possible to affected tourists in their respective areas.

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Thursday, March 12, 2020

Entertaining BusinessMirror

When wine is sweet

www.businessmirror.com.ph

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Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Jaimie Alexander, 36; Aaron Eckhart, 52; Courtney B. Vance, 60; Liza Minnelli, 74.

FERMENTATION

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Let your imagination wander. You’ll come up with some splendid ideas, but before you get started, source out the costs involved and adjust to fit your budget. You can accomplish a lot if you think matters through, and follow your heart and your intuition.

Be yourself, and incorporate simplicity and practicality into your plans to get good results. Your lucky numbers are 2, 13, 21, 26, 32, 34, 41.

CECILE MAURICIO

cecile.mauricio@gmail.com

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Take your time and make decisions based on facts. It’s OK to think big but, in the end, sticking to what you know you can handle will bring you closer to the achievements you want long term. Don’t let impatience be your demise. ★★★

I

S this wine dry? Yes ma’am, this wine is not sweet, I heard the server say. But I want a dry, sweet wine, the customer shot back.

Overhearing the exchange made me realize how sometimes the word “dry” is still misunderstood. Just like sweet wine.

There are those who turn up their noses at sweet wine, having been led to believe that just the opposite is the only wine worth drinking, or that sweet wine is strictly for those new to wine and not for those with discerning palates. Perhaps, all they’ve encountered are the cheap, cloying sugar bombs (there are plenty out there). Or they haven’t realized that the range of sweet wines covers a broad spectrum—from those with just a whisper of sweetness that is barely there, to those that are super sweet, it’s like sipping liquid prunes or raisins.

Sweet wine is not necessarily dessert wine and made in most regions in the world where wine is made. (We’re talking wines made from grapes here, not those made from other fruits.) The easiest way to make sweet wine is to start with grapes that are naturally sweet in the first place.

Another way is by allowing the grapes to dry out into raisins, either on the vine or by drying them on racks or straw mats in the shade or under the sun.

(Think of the sweetness of the juice from pressed raisins.) Or by leaving the grapes on the vine so late into winter that the grapes freeze. After harvesting, the grapes are then pressed quickly—the frozen water is retained in the press, yielding the concentrated, sweet grape juice.

When climatic conditions are right—sunny afternoons with moist, foggy mornings—grapes left late on the vine are infected by the fungus botrytis cinerea, also called “noble rot,” which sucks out the grapes’ water, thereby intensifying the sugars and flavors of the grapes. Because the fungus does not attack the grape bunches all at the same time, harvesting can require several trips over several days and, sometimes, berry by berry, too. Which is why many of the world’s most exquisite (and most expensive) sweet dessert wines are made with botrytized grapes—like Bordeaux’s Sauternes, the late-harvest Rieslings of Germany or Tokaji Aszu from Hungary.

And then it gets more complicated. Remember that wine is fermented grape juice—the yeasts convert

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Be sympathetic toward others. Not everyone will have the same skills or desires as you.

Looking out for the underdog will prove to be helpful down the road when you need a favor. Planning will pay off. ★★★

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Keep your personal plans a secret. If someone gets wind of what you are up to, he or she will disrupt you. Trust in yourself, and keep your personal life a secret from those you work alongside. ★★★

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You have what it takes to solicit the help and backing you need to get what you want. Partnerships are favored as long as you keep things equal when it comes to the financial aspect of your relationship. ★★★★

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Put greater emphasis on how you look, feel and relate to the people you care about most. Don’t let a disagreement ruin your connection with someone special. Be willing to compromise and to offer incentives that will deter a standoff. ★★★★

the natural sugars in the juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. When the yeasts are stopped from eating up all of the sugars in the grape juice, sweet wine is produced. Slightly sweet wines, or off-dry wines, are produced this way where the goal is not to make intensely sweet dessert wines, but to emphasize the fruitiness of the wine.

Another way of stopping fermentation is by refrigerating the fermenting grape juice, thereby chilling the yeasts into inactivity and then filtering out the yeasts. (A dose of sulfur dioxide gas or powdered sulfur salts also kills the yeasts and stops fermentation.) Or by adding alcohol or brandy to the grape juice, thereby boosting the alcohol in the partially fermenting grape juice, which, likewise, kills the yeasts and stops fermentation. The fermenting wine can also be centrifuged to eliminate the yeasts and stop fermentation. I told you it gets complicated.

So there is also ice wine, or eiswein, made from grapes frozen on the vine, Port from Portugal, vendange tardive (late harvest) wines from Alsace, Recioto della Valpolicella from the Veneto, the

“stickies” of Australia made from Chardonnay or Riesling. There is sparkling Brachetto d’Acqui and Pedro Ximenez sherry you can sip as dessert in itself. There is Vouvray Demi-sec or moelleux from the Loire, slightly fizzy Moscato d’Asti from Piemonte, and the much-maligned White Zinfandel of California.

With its wide range of styles and sweetness levels, sweet wines work marvelously well on the dining table, with savory food (think cheese) or with dessert.

The delicately sweet types make for an excellent apéritif. The idea is not to be turned off or be wary of sweet wines because of the memory of unfortunate encounters with the sugar bombs.

I’ve had well-chilled White Zinfandel with double cheeseburgers and French fries doused with ketchup.

Brilliant. Pedro Ximenez sherry poured over vanilla ice cream is a delicious revelation. Try Moscato d’Asti with crispy okoy or with a warm fruit tart. With most cheeses, sweet wine is a winner. Now is a good time to embrace the sweetness of sweet wines. Just remember to drink them well-chilled. ■

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Get out, participate and discover what others have to offer. Your curiosity will assist you in discovering something that will help you rethink your plans. With a couple adjustments, you can save some cash and get what you want. ★★

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Do something you find enjoyable and educational. Making a change to the way you live should be geared toward cutting your overhead and freeing up cash for vacations or other forms of entertainment that interest you. Romance is encouraged. ★★★★★

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Get involved in something that will bring you in contact with interesting people. A unique relationship will spark your imagination and encourage you to follow your dreams. Explore the possibilities, but don’t take a risk that could lead to injury or insult. ★★★

i j

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You’ll tend to overreact or give in to temptation.

Before heading down a path that isn’t going to amount to much, rethink your options and choose selfimprovement. ★★★ CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Seize the moment and follow through with your plans.

Channel your energy into making more money, cutting your overhead and easing any stress you’ve encountered. Personal gain will be yours if you apply discipline and work hard. ★★★★★

MEMO FROM YELLOW CAB: ‘LET’S PARTY, GRADUATES!’

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Take a moment to consider what’s going on around you. It may be difficult to see clearly if you let someone cloud your vision. Look for facts, not an adaptation of what someone wants you to see. ★★

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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Getting together with old friends or colleagues can be informative as long as you stick to the truth and don’t overdo it. The best results will come from being thoughtful, practical and assertive. ★★★★

CELEBRATE new graduates this March with the “Let’s Party, Graduates!” deal from popular pizza brand Yellow Cab (www. twitter.com/ycpizzaofficial).

Enjoy two 9-inch Classic pizzas in sweet and savory Hawaiian or iconic New York Classic, and one Pasta Tray in sweet and tangy Baked Mac or spiced Mac and Cheese. On offer until April 15 for delivery transactions only, this treat is available for only P1,099.

BIRTHDAY BABY: You are charming, popular and entertaining.

You are intelligent and outgoing.

‘high time’ BY ANNEMARIE BRETHAUER The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Word before “plane” or “projection” 7 Apple variety 11 Where to get a facial 14 Reach by reasoning 15 Big name in beauty 16 Busy place’s buzz 17 Melted the frost from 18 Place to train recruits 20 The Beehive State 21 “No returns” warning 22 Region in Russia 23 Stinky animal 26 Abhor 28 Colorado-to-New Mexico direction 30 P, to Penelope 31 Youngest March girl 34 Groups of three 36 Without a partner 40 Make one’s objection official 43 Last-place finisher, e.g.

44 It has no arms or back 45 Spectre star Seydoux 46 Puppy’s bite 48 Songs for one

50 54 58 59 61 62

Powder type in healthy smoothies Fair-haired person Currency in Iran Dorothy or Lillian of old films Wheel shaft Social activity on the slopes...or a hint to the starts of 18-, 23-, 40- and 54-Across 64 Capital of the Philippines 66 Poor grade 67 Boys’ school where Chariots of Fire was filmed 68 One who marks your words?

69 Trinidad ___ Tobago 70 Tony winner Daly 71 Warm and cozy DOWN 1 Make sense 2 Look after 3 Drug test?

4 Rags’ counterpart 5 Champs-Elysees, e.g.: Abbr.

6 Was in charge of 7 Shoots the breeze 8 Steer clear of

9 10 11 12 13 19 21 24 25 27 29 31 32 33 35 37 38 39 41 42 47 49

More relaxed Kind of farm for children Lamb Chop’s Lewis Mountain lions More than enough Small dome Web sites?

Exclusive group Air of mystery Ankle-deep, say Owl sounds Nothing but (That was some good cud!)

Fabric measures: Abbr.

Not bumpy ___ change (garage job) Colorado-to-Manitoba dir.

H, to Helen Like a slow pace Preppy shirt Dirty mess “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer Twain 50 Hermes rival 51 Become yellow, like a banana

52 53 55 56 57 60 63 64 65

Propelled a rowboat D6 camera brand Flight attendants point them out Dole out Hon Wavy math function Hair salon arrangement Intersected Fuss

Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

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Parentlife BusinessMirror

Thursday, March 12, 2020

FROM left: Meagan’s election poster when she ran for president at her new school in Grade 3; Meagan’s recent Speech Contest of “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr.; Marcus’s latest fencing gold medal at the Paref Southridge Admirals Fencing Competition; and Marcus’s angry face during tummy time.

M2M2: When you dream...

MOMMY NO LIMITS

MAYE YAO CO SAY

mommynolimits@gmail.com

M

EAGAN, your first ambition at four was to become a makeup artist. You watched makeup videos every chance you got. I remember when we were at the Kuala Lumpur Airport, you asked if I could buy you a stippling brush. I had to go to a MAC counter to find out for myself what this brush was. One time, I had a product launch at Rockwell and didn’t have the time to put on my makeup in the salon because my hair was being fixed, so you volunteered to put my makeup on for me.

Later on, you wanted to be a fashion model, designer, then interior designer/entrepreneur. You even designed shoes and got featured in a popular TV show. When you were 11, you suddenly told me that you wanted to be a theoretical physicist and a Fields medalist. I had to look up what this was. Apparently, the Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union.

Even in school, you set your own goals then just tell mom what you need. When you were into basketball, you asked me to find you more lessons outside of school training. When you wanted to do better in math, you did the same. Today, I see how hard you have worked at fencing and finally qualified for the Junior National Team at 13.

I am even more proud when you venture into “unchartered grounds”. On your first year in your new school, you said you wanted to run for class president. Honestly, I felt it was impossible since you were a new student. You lost. Then during the second semester, you still ran—and you actually won. Two years you ago and this year, you joined the declamation contest in school and did not end up in the top 3 both times. Your dad and I were nonetheless amazed by how you worked hard on this despite your daily training in fencing.

Remember that day, when you topped your class for lower school graduation, Mom did not even know you were getting the award. I stood proud not because you got the gold but because I know you worked so hard to get there.

Marcus, ever since you were a baby, you’ve had a mind of your own. During your tummy time, you would make your angry tone if it lasted longer than you wanted. As a toddler, you would sit quietly playing and did not want to get disturbed. In school, you only spoke to one person in toddler school and only one person for three years in the big school. Mom had a hard time “reading” you because you never heeded my suggestions.

One time, Mom was trying to find the times when you spoke more and looked happy. I discovered you liked singing while showering. I enrolled you to voice class and eventually to violin lessons. You religiously went even if you were not playing full songs. I think it took two years before I heard a full piece. When you got asked in school what you wanted to be when you were five during career day, you told me you wanted to be a musician. Then you even got invited by your teacher to do an intermission number at a school program. When you were eight and I asked you if you wanted to stop, you said you wanted to continue it. When we saw you play the longest piece last Christmas, Dad and Mom felt so happy to see you perform something you love with so much ease.

Mom tried hard to follow your pace whether in school or in sports. Whatever grade you got, Mom would ask how you felt about it? If you were okay with it, then Mom was, too. I just always told you to remember the work you put in and the result you got from it. I always said a grade of “C” one worked hard for is more valuable than an “A” you merely winged.

In your athletic pursuits, I introduced you to various sports like swimming, football and basketball when you were in preschool but nothing stuck to you.

This is why I am so amazed at how committed you are to basketball, futsal and fencing today. When you recently got chosen as the fourth grader to speak at the Open House for your school, you said this, “One of my favorite school experiences is when I didn’t get into the basketball varsity because it made me realize that I need to be more determined and work harder. Even this year, I still did not get in the varsity but now I go to the park near my house to practice basketball so hopefully I get in varsity next year. But even if I don’t make it, I still want to get better and will keep on trying.” I was almost in tears when you were delivering this speech. I am proudest because you put the thoughts, “favorite” and “failure,” into one good experience. Remember your number “9” boxes Mom asked you to put your dreams in when you turned nine? Meagan, you wrote, “Model/Fashion Designer” and “Entrepreneur.” Marcus, you wrote, “Actor,” “Musician” and “Business.”

Please remember that I am happy that both of you love to aim for something. Remember that it’s not the dream; it’s the inspiration from that dream. It is the strong will and hard work you are willing to put in.

When you get old, the “I want to be” becomes part of your fond memories, but the values and experience you garnered from the strife will take you to your meaningful purpose.

Whatever you achieve or do not achieve, remember that your authentic success in life is a life you can proudly call your own. ■

STAY COOL THIS SUMMER WITH METRO SIDEWALK SALE

STAY fresh and confident this summer season with new products at up to 50-percent off from Men’s and Ladies’ Wear, to Kids & Toys, Appliance & Electronics, Sports, Home Improvement & Furniture, and Grocery from the Sidewalk Sale from Metro Retail (www.metroretail.com.ph) from March 13 to 15.

With great selections throughout all departments, buyers can shop on discounted goods until they drop, and Metro Rewards Card holders get to double their points.

Special Buys are exclusive deals that enable each buyer to get up to 60-percent off on some featured items with every single receipt purchase worth P1,500 from the Metro Department Store. Among these products are essentials for the home and perfect for outdoorsy people, too.

Metro Supermarket, on the other hand, is throwing a “Members Only Special” which rewards MRC Cardholders and Metro Business Club (MBC) Cardholders with a minimum purchase of P1,500 or P2,500 with different freebies each day during the Sidewalk Sale.

“The Sidewalk Sale is one of Metro Retail’s largest annual sale events nationwide. Part of our commitment is enabling consumers to purchase and save on quality products from food products, apparel, accessories, home and kitchen equipment, travel and sports gear, and many more,” said Pilut Montes, Metro Retail chief marketing officer.

Planting the seeds of environmental awareness THERE’S no refuting the fact that trees are the source of life whose value to Mother Earth cannot be denied.

In the face of environmental degradation and massive deforestation, instilling the importance of trees and properly caring for the environment among the young is best started early.

It’s against this pressing backdrop that Natalia Sali, a social worker with an innate love for the environment, took action.

Together with her family, the “One Child, One Tree” movement was born. Launched under the auspices of the Fostering Education and Environment for Development (FEED) Inc., the Sali Family has been supporting environmental projects in Hagonoy, Bulacan, that educate, encourage and foster awareness on ecological preservation.

Alongside tree-planting for students as its primary activity, the One Child, One Tree movement also organizes and facilitates events related to training and providing expertise in bio-intensive gardening, as well as discussions on environmental protection.

Targeting teachers, volunteers and community residents, the results are relevant exchanges on learnings and the latest developments in the field.

Similarly, the family also seeks partnerships between schools, local government units and agencies, NGOs, and private corporations in order to ensure proper support for, and the continued sustainability of their initiatives.

The results have been very remarkable thus far. From 2017 to present, the One Child, One Tree movement’s series of mangrove reforestation efforts saw the planting of 5,000 mangrove seedlings along the Tibaguin seashore in Hagonoy, Bulacan, as well

REVISITING MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AT NATIONAL WEEK FOR THE GIFTED ANNUAL CONFERENCE MEMBERS of the Sali Family recently conducted tree-planting activities and mangrove reforestation in Tibaguin, Hagonoy, in Bulacan.

as the planting of over 2,000 fruit-bearing and native trees in different elementary schools and forests in the province. They have also planted 1,000 cropped plants and 150 trees in different elementary schools in the same area.

“The initiative is good because kids become aware early on, as they are oriented on the value of planting trees,” said Leonora Robles, a teacher from Sitio Buga Elementary School, a beneficiary of the family’s One Child, One Tree Movement.

No doubt, the selfless and impactful work of the Sali Family for the environment could not be more timely or relevant. In light of the world that we live in, initiatives, such as the One Child, One Tree movement are truly deserving of emulation and praise, and the members of the Sali Family recently conducted tree-planting activities and mangrove reforestation in Tibaguin, Hagonoy, in Bulacan.

Jollibee Family Values Awards has brought recognition to their efforts.

THE Philippine Center for Gifted Education Inc., in partnership with Promil Four, spearheaded the annual National Week for the Gifted Conference, a two-day seminar held at the Hive Hotel and Convention Place in Quezon City. With the aim of promoting discussion and learnings on giftedness, the seminar’s focal point was revisiting multiple intelligences, as discussed by experts and keynote speakers. Photo shows (from left) PCGE advisory board members Dr. Liezel Angeles, Dr. Elizabeth Vivien Magbata, Dr. Melanie Donkor, Prof. Mauricia Borromeo, Mikaela Samson, PCGE President Dr. Leticia Peñano-Ho, Ryan Tumbocon, and PCGE advisory board members Dr. Perry Esguerra, Prof.

Hercules Calanta and Annabelle Sangalan.

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Show BusinessMirror

Thursday, March 12, 2020

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PEARL JAM POSTPONES FIRST LEG OF TOUR OVER VIRUS CONCERNS

LOS ANGELES—Pearl Jam is postponing the North American leg of its Gigaton world tour because of concerns over the new coronavirus, the band announced Monday.

Seventeen US and Canadian performances, beginning on March 18, in Toronto through April 19 in Oakland, California, were indefinitely postponed, according to the band’s web site.

Pearl Jam said it was announcing the postponements “with deep frustration and regret.”

“The levels of risk to our audience and their communities is simply too high for our comfort level,” a band statement said. “Add to that we also have a unique group of passionate fans who travel far and wide. We’ve always been humbled by this and respect their energies and devotion. However in this case, travel is something to avoid.”

New dates will be determined and current tickets will be honored for those dates, the band said.

For now, the European shows from June 23 to July 23 are still scheduled along with two September shows in Asbury Park in New Jersey, and Dana Point in California, according to the band’s web site.

Band members said they were personally being affected by the COVID-19 health fears. The band is from Washington state, where two dozen people have died, most of them at a Seattle-area nursing home.

“As residents of the city of Seattle, we’ve been hit hard and have witnessed firsthand how quickly these disastrous situations can escalate,” the band said.

“Our kids’ schools have closed along with universities and businesses. It’s been brutal.”

Band members also criticized a lack of clarity from the government when it comes to staying safe and going to work, saying they didn’t believe the virus would be controlled in the coming weeks.

“The tour we’ve been busy planning for months is now in jeopardy,” the band said. “We have and will always keep the safety and well-being of our supporters as top priority.” AP

Media and writing in the time of coronavirus REELING

TITO GENOVA VALIENTE

BABYMETAL SET TO PERFORM IN MANILA FOR THE FIRST TIME THE long wait is over for Filipino fans of sensational duo BABYMETAL as the arrival of the world-renowned Japanese act is imminent. For the very first time, the kawaii pop metal band will be performing in Manila at “Pulp Summer Slam XX: Judgement Day” (www.pulpsummerslam.com), sharing the stage with heavy metal legends Iron Maiden on May 16, at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“Please fasten your neckbrace to headbang,” warns members Moametal and Su-Metal as they will take the audience on a galactic odyssey during their latest era as a world-renowned act.

Having just released their brand-new album Metal Galaxy in October, this new era is as exciting as it is unpredictable with the duo carrying all past experiences forward on a continuing journey toward greatness and domination.

With the release of Metal Galaxy, BABYMETAL has been named as the first Asian act to ever top the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart. In an exclusive interview in Pulp Magazine’s latest issue, Su-Metal gushes over this feat: “I was genuinely surprised. This album was a very new challenge for us. We’re very glad and happy to hear that a lot of people are enjoying the album.”

On sharing the stage with Iron Maiden at the Slam, Moametal expresses her excitement: “I always wanted to have the opportunity of being on the same festival lineup as them so I can’t wait for this festival!”

“This is our first time going to the Philippines so we can’t wait to meet our fans there,” adds SuMetal, who certainly looks forward to what’s sure to be an otherworldly first experience for both the band and their loyal, passionate fans in the country.

Catch BABYMETAL along with Iron Maiden, Death Angel, DragonForce and King 810.

Tickets to “Pulp Summer Slam XX: Judgement Day,” happening on May 16 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, are on sale at SM Tickets outlets nationwide and online (www.smtickets.com), as well as via AirAsia RedTix.

titovaliente@yahoo.com

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HERE was déjà vu in the last press conference held March 10. The president, who has made himself scarce for a long time, reappeared. A day before, SWS had declared from the reading of their survey that the leader of this country had received excellent ratings from respondents.

Then, the president started to speak. The tone was tentative; the voice was weak. He was excusing himself early on as it was not his expertise to explain what was happening to the country. For many weeks, as the coronavirus raged in places like Italy and South Korea, we assured ourselves that we would be spared from the virulent strain of viruses plaguing other territories. Soon, the microphone was turned over to Health Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III and the all-too-familiar voice soared with a confidence that critics could not explain. For also, in the past few weeks, the secretary had not been assuring.

Over at the hearing in the Senate, Sen. Nancy Binay continued with her blazingly sincere streaks in asking the right questions. It was the hearing on the policy responses and actions taken by Department of Health functionaries. They were being asked about testing kits and the responses were neither here nor there. The number of kits was not clear. What was clear was that there were only 2,000 testing kits available. Place this against the more than 100 million Filipinos, and the number presented was absurd.

Binay, the impatience not hidden at all, asked

for what DOH could do. One of the officials who was invited to the hearing then talked about the organization looking into their “decision tools.” The next scene was blurred except for Binay erupting and the listeners feeling how this government did not really prepare as the coronavirus started spreading in the country.

Online, a poem was circulating. It bore the title “The Kit.” It came from a transcript of the short talk delivered by the president. A wit transformed the words into stanzas and the mystical/historical references to bubonic plagues and the punishment for witchcraft became the literature for this country facing its own epidemic.

How did we come to all this?

The references to the plagues of medieval times have been threatening to arise ever since people started posting Albert Camus’s The Plague. Listen to what Camus has written: “The evil in the world comes almost always from ignorance, and goodwill can cause as much damage as ill-will if it is not enlightened. People are more often good than bad, though in fact that is not the question. But they are more or less ignorant and this is what one calls vice or virtue, the most appalling vice being the ignorance that thinks it knows everything and which consequently authorizes itself to kill. The murderer’s soul is blind, and there is no true goodness or fine love without the greatest possible degree of clearsightedness.”

The writings on the wall are not anymore writings but diseases on the ground and around.

My siblings heard of the bubonic plague from our father, who would read to us tales from old books.

From him we learned about metaphors and allegories.

He turned the story of rats and diseases into a fascinating account by telling us what became my favorite tale: “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.”

You know the story? The town of Hamelin had been plagued by rats for many years and the elders of the place could not solve it. One day, a Pied Piper offered to lure all the rats from the homes and sewers

into the river and there to drown. This promise, the Pied Piper fulfilled. But the town officials did not fulfil their promise: they did not pay the Pied Piper.

The man left but promised he will come back one day and exact payments from the town. He did come back and when he started playing his instrument, all the little boys of Hamelin followed him. There are many versions. The version told to us by our father had the Pied Piper luring the little boys to follow him as he entered a cave. Once all the boys were there, the door of the cave shut down. The boys were never seen or heard of again.

In one story, a boy with a limp was the only one left in the town. He was not fast enough and so when the door to the cave closed, he was still slowly and painfully limping to its direction. Many literary scholars believe the story is a metaphor about the bubonic plague that had dominion all over Europe hundreds of years ago. The plague happened in the 14th century and caused some 5o million deaths in Europe. It was called the “Black Death.”

The bubonic plague was spread by infected fleas invading small animals like rats and squirrels. It was one of the three plagues, with the other two being the septicemic plague and pneumonic plague. For all the novelty of COVID-19 (coronavirus), it has been with us through histories. Tyrants and monarchies have witnessed these plagues. Traditions and literatures have provided bulletins about them. If there was a Black Death, Edgar Allan Poe wrote about the “Red Death”: “The ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood.”

Less bloody though is my favorite, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” It is with us now. We listen to this Pied Piper that, for some reason, has lured many of us and have kept many of us in the cave. It plays on and on and many listen to the songs, and many are still convinced about the melodies it plays.

What promises have we not fulfilled in the past that the Pied Piper is back with us? ■

‘Kingdom’ Season 2 launches tomorrow on Netflix GREEN, loyalty, survival and truth—tensions reach new heights in Kingdom Season 2 on Netflix.

The series has a sweeping storytelling, looking into the journey of Crown Prince Lee Chang and his group in their return to Hanyang. Ju Ji-hoon, who plays Lee Chang, says, “Season 2 is full of angst,” hinting that unspeakable desperation awaits.

If Season 1 was a story about a plague started by hunger, this season is a story greater in scope and depth, addressing the theme of “blood,” which is played out through bloodline, kinship, revenge, conflict, conspiracy, and the usurping of power.

Writer Kim Eun-hee says that she wanted to portray “people making choices and striving to overcome their difficulties within the confines of their social class and position.”

In building anticipation for the characters, she notes that each of them made the wisest choice they could in the battle against the neverending aggression of the infected, as well as the rampant greed of the Haewon Cho family.

Director Kim Seong-hun, who ended Season 1 with an image that shocked fans, launches Season 2 with an epic action scene in “an unexpected, tsunami-like onslaught

of the undead” that viewers can’t take their eyes off of. The battle of the Unpo wetland that opens Season 2, and the battle scene at the royal palace in Hanyang, are spectacular visual representations of the hero Chang and his determination to fight for what’s right.

Director Park In-je, who joined the production to head episodes 2 through 6, explained his approach to continuing the work of Kim Seonghun by clearly portraying Chang’s maturing process in becoming “a true king—a king by and for the people.”

Kingdom Season 2 launches tomorrow, March 13, on Netflix.

Envoys&Expats

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Thursday, March 12, 2020 E1

Creating momentum to promote people, bilateral exchanges

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By Recto L. Mercene

@rectomercene

HE Federal Republic of Germany is a global leader in industrial and technological prowess.

The European country also boasts of a very high standard of living, and is thus a haven for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) seeking for professionally fulfilling employment.

They started coming years ago to work as health-care workers (such as nurses) and employees in the medical industry.

Filipino seafarers, likewise, man ships from Germany, and form an integral part of the said country’s marine-based sectors.

Speaking of migration and people-to-people linkages, especially in labor relations, 2020 is actually a special year for Germany. Aside from the 30th anniversary of German Reunification on October 3, a

milestone in immigration issues was also recently reached on March 1, as the Skilled Labor Immigration Act will enter into force, consequently promoting the influx of skilled-labor experts into the European state.

With regard to German-Philippine relations, this new law has the potential to become a driving force for even stronger and sustainable relations between both countries.

A mbassador A nke Reiffenstuel shares her thoughts with Envoys&Expats about the everprogressing relations between the peoples of her country and the Philippines, particularly in work opportunities, as more Filipinos consider Germany as a land that will further

their careers and professions.

(Editor’s note: The German envoy is the second of three diplomats lined up for profile features in this section, in celebration of Women’s Month.)

see a growing demand.

Last, but not the least, Filipinos enjoy equal treatment from their German colleagues when it comes to remuneration and social services.

ENVOYS&EXPATS: In terms of migration, why in your opinion is Germany a country of choice for Filipino workers?

REIFFENSTUEL: One paramount reason is because we share the same basic values based on the Christian religion.

Also, in the past years, a considerable number of Filipinos, including OFWs, have come to Germany. With a vibrant Filipino community now existing and growing all over our country, we are proud to say that it is much easier for Filipinos to feel at home there.

People in Germany appreciate not only the friendly character of Filipinos, but also their great professional expertise in health care and in the services sector.

Indeed, these are fields where we

Germany has been actively sourcing manpower from the Philippines, especially nurses.

How is the work force demand being fulfilled?

In Germany, and also in other European countries, we are confronted with a fast-growing demand for skilled labor, particularly in the health-care and services sector. Germany has taken action at an early stage with a well-structured program in the framework of a governmentto-government agreement with the Philippines that comprises a comprehensive package, including language courses, visa formalities and other incentives.

The new Skilled Labor Immigration Act will further improve the framework conditions for Filipino professionals interested

in coming to Germany.

Aside from people exchanges, which areas and sectors are both countries engaged in?

We have a good record of cooperation and joint interests in several areas. For instance, the close cooperation to tackle climate change, enhance the energy sector toward better use of the potential of renewable energies, or to promote peace and stability in the context of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao peace process.

Apart from that, we are working on enhancing cultural and academic linkages. Particularly, in the field of education, we support the K-to-12 reform and have set up initiatives to promote vocational training in that context.

I am confident that the momentum that has been created through these projects, which have just reached completion, will be taken further by our Philippine counterparts, and contribute not only in

improving the local education system, but also to further enhance the close German-Philippine business relations.

There’s a lot to cover about the bilateral relations between the Philippines and Germany. In a nutshell, how has it progressed over the years?

The relations between our two countries are rich and diverse, based on solid ground and a long tradition that comprise a wide spectrum: from the political sphere, trade and economy, climate and energy issues, to science and culture.

The most important, however, is the close partnership and cooperation between the people of our countries. It is great to see the number of visitors from either of our countries going up, and I am confident that the experiences they make will substantially contribute to a better mutual understanding.

Continued on E2

Envoys& BusinessMirror

E2 Thursday, March 12, 2020

Embassy in Berlin fosters closer ties with Hamburg

European Commission issues statement for Intl Women’s Day

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ERLIN—The Philippine Embassy in Berlin, led by Ambassador to Germany Maria Theresa Dizonde Vega, pushed for closer cooperation with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg during her February 17 visit to the northern German city-state.

AMBASSADOR Maria Theresa Dizon-de Vega (left) presents to State Secretary Almut Möller (right) a token from the Philippines. BERLIN PE/DFA

ACCORDING to European Union leaders, it will continue and strengthen its efforts toward gender equality around the world, as part of the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

‘G

DIZON-de Vega (left) with Stella Maris Administrator Monica Döring. BERLIN PE/DFA

THE Philippine flag flies proudly over Hamburg City Hall. BERLIN PE/DFA

Dizon-de Vega met with the Hamburg governments External Relations Chief and State Secretary Almut Möller, as well as International Affairs Director General Corinna Nienstedt at the Hamburg City Hall.

The ambassador conveyed the embassy’s appreciation for the welcoming and inclusive atmosphere provided by the people and government of Hamburg to more than 1,000 Filipinos living in the city-state, as well as to the thousands of Filipino seafarers working on international vessels calling at its port—the second-busiest after Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Möller welcomed the Philippine Embassy’s initiative of meeting with city-state officials and assured the ambassador of the Hamburg government’s support for efforts to

broaden cooperation. She said that as a trading city, Hamburg has always actively sought and will continue to seek external partnerships.

The state secretary expressed particular interest in the fields of innovation and new technology in the Philippines. The Filipino envoy, for her part, appraised Hamburg officials of positive developments in the Philippines, such as the newly enacted start-ups law, the country’s steady rise in the Global Innovation Index, as well as the embassy’s already active engagement with the city-state’s business sector.

Hamburg is home to Germany’s largest port and is considered as the country’s gateway to the world. European aircraft company Airbus also has a manufacturing facility there, which is the primary supplier of

single-aisle passenger aircraft used

by Philippine carriers.

The two sides are also looking into a possible embassy participation in Hamburg’s major cultural events and similar activities. Dizon-de Vega also discussed possible Philippine participation in Hamburg’s gender and diversity programs, as well as in efforts to enhance economic activity.

In addition to government-togovernment ties, the embassy is also working on enhancing its relations with Hamburg’s academic community.

The ambassador and Philippine Studies expert, Prof. Dr. Elsa Clavé of the University of Hamburg’s Institute of Asian and Africa studies, discussed the plan to come up with student prizes for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral theses on the Philippines, a proposed memorandum of understanding on academic exchanges with the University of

the Philippines-Diliman, and an immersion program for Filipino language students to be hosted by academic institutions outside Metro Manila.

The professor also expressed willingness to arrange Filipino film screenings in the university, with films to be provided by the embassy, and to assign resource speakers for post-arrival orientation seminars with new Filipino migrants together with the embassy. She received a copy of Discovering Dayaw, a book

by Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda based on her National Commission for Culture and the Arts television series on Philippine culture. The book will form part of the Philippine collection of the Institute.

Dizon-de Vega also had the opportunity to visit the Archdiocese of Hamburg’s Seafarers’ Mission, better known as Stella MarisHamburg. DFA

ENDER equality is a core principle of the European Union. Yet, it is still not a reality.

In business, politics and society as a whole, we can only reach our full potential if we use all of our talent and diversity. Women face too many hurdles and barriers on their way. In Europe and beyond, women continue to be targets of gender-based violence, stereotypes and hate speeches.

Even if Europe is a good address for women, the numbers are telling: 1 in 3 women in the EU was subject to physical and/or sexual violence. Even though more women graduate from universities, they earn on average 16 percent less than men do. Only 8 percent of CEOs of the EU’s largest companies are women.

This is not what our union stands for. Everyone—regardless of his or her gender— should be able to live free from violence and pursue his or her chosen path in life.

We need a change, and the moment is now. Ahead of the International Women’s Day (March 8), we need to remember: Progress toward equality between women and men is neither inevitable, nor irreversible.

This is [the reason] the commission adopted the EU’s Gender Equality Strategy, setting out concrete actions for the next five years, including on pay transparency.

The strategy is also the EU’s contribution to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—the first universal commitment and action plan to advance equality between women and men—which marks this year the 25th anniversary since its adoption.

The EU will continue to support, promote and protect women’s rights and women empowerment, while tackling gender-based violence—including in fragile, conflict and emergency situations.

Background

DELIVERING on the commitments made by President Ursula von der Leyen—the first female head of state of the European Commission, Vice President Vera Jourová and Commissioner Helena Dalli presented the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025. The actions outlined in there include, among others, legislation to prevent and combat specific forms of gender-based violence, a campaign to combat gender stereotypes; enforcing work-life balance measures, and equal pay measures; as well as pushing for achieving gender-balance in decisionmaking and politics.

As one of the first actions, the commission launched a public consultation on pay transparency, with an aim of tabling binding measures by the end of 2020. The core challenges affecting the EU today, including the climate and digital transformations, have a gender dimension. Thus, the strategy commits to ensure that the commission will include an equality perspective in all EU policy areas.

The strategy also includes external actions to promote gender equality in third-world countries. The EU will continue and strengthen its efforts toward gender equality around the world, as part of the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Building on the current Gender Action Plan (2016-2020), the commission, jointly with the European External Action Service, will present a new action plan on gender equality and women empowerment in external relations by the end of 2020. The launch of the Spotlight Initiative by the European Commission, together with the United Nations, specifically addresses gender-based violence at a global level.”

Creating momentum to promote people, bilateral exchanges Continued from E1

Dr. Jose Rizal can be regarded as the example of par excellence for the friendship among Filipinos and Germans. We are, therefore, currently working on revitalizing these roots in order to create fresh momentum to promote bilateral ties. I hope we can come up with visible results within the next few months.

Of course, there are also challenges, but this is a natural part of a mature and functioning relationship.

Especially on issues we don’t agree upon, there is a need for continued exchange and dialogue.

AMBASSADOR of Germany to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel (second from left, with members of the Cebu business community): The interest to establish, as well as expand trade and business relations with the Philippines is constantly growing.

REIFFENSTUEL, with Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte (center) during the opening of the SPARK! QC Sewing Center.

Please describe the trading climate between both countries.

What commodities and services exhibit brisk exchanges?

Germany is one of the top 10 trading partners of the Philippines, and has the largest share of the European Union-Philippine trade relations. The overall annual volume of bilateral trade has seen a stable €6 billion, or approximately P328 billion over the past few years.

The majority of imported commodities from Germany are electron-

ic goods, airplanes and machinery, while top Philippine export products to our country include electronics/ semiconductors, machinery and gauges/measuring instruments. At the same time, your country is a substantial provider of agriculture products and fish, especially tuna.

The interest to establish, as well as expand trade and business relations is constantly growing, although we have recently seen some hesitation by potential investors to favor the Philippines. I hope

change, being two of the hardest hit by the phenomenon?

Germany is highly engaged in addressing the challenges emerging from climate change. Our government has been a front-runner when it comes to establishing joint projects with partners worldwide.

Around 10 years ago, we launched an international climate initiative under the IKI or Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative that provides substantial project funding to tackle climate change.

that with the consolidation of the framework conditions for business and investors, in particular, with regard to the comprehensive tax reform and clarity of incentives provided, the dynamics will take a positive turn. More so, since the Philippines, with its young and consumer-oriented population, is a promising market for foreign companies.

How are both countries working together to address climate

The Philippines was identified as a central and pilot country in this endeavor. With more than €60 million, or about P3.4 billion provided for around 27 projects, an impressive range and number of joint initiatives have been conducted and are running successfully.

Regarding your stint as ambassador, what were your impressions about the Philippines? Is it your first time in our country?

What would you like to achieve

during your tour-of-duty here?

I gained my very first impressions of the Philippines when I arrived here in August last year. However, after having been posted in India previously, I’ve always wanted to return to Asia.

I have experienced a warmhearted, embracing welcome in this wonderful country. I enjoy the smiles on every face every day, and have felt at-home here from the very first moment.

I regard it a pity that only little is generally known about the Philippines in Germany, and vice versa.

At the same time, this situation provides the opportunity to fill this gap with new initiatives and projects, to learn from each other and to better understand each other’s culture and country and differences.

What are you currently enjoying in your work as an envoy?

It would have to be meeting and talking to Filipinos throughout the country, as I have only just begun to travel out of Metro Manila to other provinces, learning to better understand this wonderful country step by step.

&Expats

envoys.expats.bm@gmail.com |Thursday, March 12, 2020 E3

FILM FEATURES

Instituto Cervantes unveils films, art exhibit

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N celebration of Women’s Month, Instituto Cervantes will be presenting Espacio Femenino: Spanish Female Filmmakers, a film cycle in all Saturdays of the month, which will feature movies by female directors, with the aim of highlighting contributions of women in the industry.

Likewise, to honor Spanish–Filipina artist Betsy Westendorp, the art exhibit Creadoras will feature a painting of hers, together with those of her peers.

Espacio Femenino will open on March 14 with the Spanish documentary film Young & Beautiful (2018) by Marina Lameiro. It is a story of four Spanish young adults who live on their own terms, but upon reaching their 30s, they realize they are still far from being the independent, self-confident and passionate adults they always dreamed to be. W hile society pushes them to abandon “egotistical” aspirations, each has to examine their identity through dialogue.

On March 21, the film cycle will continue with a Galician documentary film, Xiana do Texeiro’s Tódalas mulleres que coñezo (All the Women I Know, 2018), which features everyday experiences of diverse women, reflecting the masculinized and violent streets of today. In three revealing conversations with friends, collaborators and highschool students, the director aims for a discourse about fear, which is not fearsome, and a discourse on violence that is not itself violent.

Short films by Female Directors will be shown on March 28. The selection of films is based on the criterion of an annual contest.

The series consists of three fiction films: Dúctiles, Centrifugado and Don’t Wake Me Up; and one docu-

mentary: Quand j’étais petit.

At 3:30 p.m. of the same day, Espacio Femenino will close with the movie La filla dalgú (2019), a collaboration of 11 filmmakers (Marcel Alcantara Flores, Julia de Paz Solvas, Sara Fantova Barrena, Enric Vilageliu Arnella, Alejandro Marín, Carlos Villafina Peláez, Gerard Vidal Cortes, Celia Giraldo Lozano, Guillem Gallego Bertran, Valentín Moulias and Pol Vidal Rivas). The film features Eli, an upper-class lawyer pregnant in her 30s. On the same day of an oral hearing of a media trial, her father—a renowned lawyer from Barcelona—disappears.

Both events will take place at the Intramuros branch of Instituto Cervantes.

Tribute to painter

APART from female cineastes, female painters will also be on the spotlight in the art exhibit Creadoras: A Tribute to Betsy Westendorp.

Westendorp is a contemporary Spanish–Filipina artist who, together with Fernando Zobel, perhaps best represents the fusion between Spanish and Filipino.

The exhibit will display Westendorp’s painting Passage, a work donated by the artist to Instituto Cervantes in 2018, as well as works by other female painters from the Philippines and Spain: Ivy Avellana-Cosio, Marivic Rufino, Carmen Brías, Eva Baró, Cristina Grisar, Phyllis Zaballero and Vicky Zu-

AMBASSADOR Jorge Moragas Sanchez (from left), National Artist Francisco F. Sionil “Jose,” Filipino-Spanish painter Betsy Westendorp, Instituto Cervantes Director Luis Garcia Montero and painter Cristina Grisar

CENTRIFUGADO

YOUNG & Beautiful

LA filla dalgú

TÓDALAS mulleres que coñezo (All the Women I Know)

biri. They will all give tributes to Westendorp by displaying their masterpieces.

The exhibit will be available for viewing starting March 14 until April 19, 2020.

Filipino who knew best interpreting and valuing the Hispanic legacy in the archipelago.

In this discussion, historian Dr. Ambeth Ocampo will present the historical setting during the important milestones in the life of Joaquin, a National Artist for Literature, while fellow National Artist Francisco “F. Sionil” Jose will focus on his friend as a literary figure and as a person. Anthropologist Fernando Zialcita will talk about the Filipino identity as envisioned by Joaquin, also known by his pseudonym Quijano de Manila.

Zialcita, who obtained his Master of Arts and PhD in Anthropol-

ogy from the University of Hawaii, teaches at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Ateneo de Manila University, and heads the Cultural Heritage Studies Program.

Specializing in heritage and identity, art and its cultural context, including interfaces between the foreign and the indigenous, Zialcita has written various articles on the Spanish influence on the cultural identity of Filipinos.

Former chairman of the then-National Historical Institute, Ocampo is a history professor at the Ateneo de Manila University. He was awarded the Premio Manuel Bernabe by the former Centro Cultural de la Emba-

jada de España en Filipinas and a Premio Quijano de Manila from the Instituto Cervantes Manila.

Jose has received awards both in the Philippines and in other countries. His novels and short stories, which depict class struggles and colonialism, have been translated into 28 languages.

Both engagements are open to the public. Admissions are also free on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information, log on to http:// manila.cervantes.es, visit the Instituto Cervantes Facebook page: InstitutoCervantesManila, send an e-mail to cultmni@cervantes.es or call Instituto Cervantes at (632) 8526 1482.

Talk on Filipino identity

STILL happening this month, Instituto Cervantes is organizing a series of colloquia by Filipino intellectuals about aspects of Filipino identity with Hispanic traces.

The first colloquium in the series on Wednesday, March 18 at 2 p.m. will tackle the view of Filipino identity by writer Nick Joaquin (19172004)—arguably the contemporary

Israel showcases cinematic artistry

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HE Embassy of Israel in Manila, in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, will promote and showcase the cultural and cinematographic features of Israeli films to Filipino audiences through the 15th Israeli Film Festival on March 13 and 14.

Gather family and friends to experience the artistry of Israeli cinema with four critically acclaimed Israeli films on the twoday movie parade at the Cinema 3 of Bonifacio High Street Cinemas in Central Square, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City. All are presented in Hebrew, with English subtitles.

Abulele (Rated PG, March 13, 4 p.m.): Ten-year-old Adam meets Abulele, a huge, friendly, invisible ancient monster. The two become best friends, but when a government special forces unit arrives to capture the latter, Adam will have to put his own past behind him in order to save his friend, learning along the way that “when you really love someone, you’re never really alone.”

Manpower (Rated PG, March 13, 7 p.m.): Meir Cohen is a decorated pol ice of f icer who barely earns a living. His new assignment of deporting African migrant workers from Israel “against their own free will ”

teaches him that foreigners are not the only ones who have no future in his country. Other plotlines intertwine with Meir’s story: an Israeli-Filipino boy fighting for recognition; a taxi driver whose children are migrating to a distant country; and a veteran migrant worker who is forced to decide whether to leave or to hide until trouble passes.

Noam Kaplan’s movie delicately sketches a portrait of four men in crisis. Moving between scathing realism and subtle irony, the film raises questions of belonging and uprooting, exile and emigration, home and family.

Saving Neta (Rated G, March 14, 4 p.m.): Four women with nothing in common find their individual lives profoundly altered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger. A collection of stories spanning the seasons, each episode introduces a woman “on the verge:” a career police officer unable to cope with the stresses of work and her teenage daughter; a lesbian cellist ambivalent about raising a child with her partner; a mother who plans to tell her children she’s getting a divorce; and a businesswoman who goes home for her mother’s funeral and must institutionalize her mentally challenged sister. Impacting each of these fractured lives is Neta, a drifter struggling with

WESTENDORP’S Passage

his own personal crisis.

Laces (Rated G, March 14, 7 p.m.) tells the story of a complicated relationship between an aging father and his son with special needs whom he abandoned while the latter was still a young boy.

Sixty-year-old Reuben’s kidneys are failing, and his son Gadi, 35, wants to donate one of his own to help save his father’s life. However, the transplant committee objects to the procedure claiming that Rueben, acting as Gadi’s sole legal guardian, does not have the right to authorize such an invasive procedure. The son, who recently lost his mother, is afraid of losing his father, as well. He feels he finally has the chance to do something meaningful: to become a man and stand on his own. He is furious with the committee’s decision and sets out to fight for his right to save his father’s life. Through the film’s portrayal of a relationship full of love, rejection and codependency, it manages to shed some light and question the importance of human life, human connection and if life is even possible without either one of them.

Tickets are available via www. sureseats.com and Bonifacio High Street Cinemas at P150 To score free tickets, follow Israel in the Philippines’s Facebook page and #15thIsraeliFilmFest for surprise announcements.

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

E4 Thursday, March 12, 2020

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EMBASSIES, EVENTS, ETC.

SOLAR ‘LOLAS’ Ambassadors, led by Sweden’s Harald Fries (front row, second from left),

and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo-Albert (front row, second from right), lent their support to the Diwata-Women in Resource Development Inc.’s project, “Tanging Tanglaw: Turning IP Grandmothers Into Solar Engineers.” Diwata sent two groups of Aeta women from Bamban, Tarlac and Gala, Zambales, to the Barefoot College in Tilonia, India, to attend a sixmonth training course on solar engineering, specifically on fabricating, installing, repairing and maintaining solar lighting equipment.

OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE Ambassador of Japan Koji Haneda (center) shakes hands with United Nations Population Fund Country Representative Iori Kato after the signing ceremony and exchange of notes on the $1.35-million Japanese official development assistance for the reintegration of former women combatants in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The project, to be implemented by the UNFPA, will assist former female members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces by transforming them into community-level service providers as parasocial workers to provide psychosocial support to the survivors of gender-based violence. PNA/AVITO C. DALAN

QUADRICENTENNIAL PREPARATION Portugal’s Honorary Consul Antonio A.

Rufino (left) and Nonresident Ambassador Rui Carmo recently convened with the National Historical Commission’s Chairman Dr. Rene R. Escalante as they discussed the Iberian country’s participation in the commemoration of the Magellan expedition’s 500th anniversary of the circumnavigation of the world. The multi-masted training ship of the Portuguese Navy, NRP Sagres, traveling the same route Magellan took, will make a port call in Cebu from June 24 to 27, while the Coro de Câmara de Lisboa will visit the archipelago between July 18 and 21.

COVID-19 WATCH

PHL envoy lends support to Bahrain diplomatic briefing on Covid-19

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ANAMA—Ambassador Alfonso A. Ver attended the diplomatic briefing on Covid-19 organized by the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 4.

Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Dr. Shaikha Rana bint Isa bin Daij Al Khalifa briefed ambassadors of the different diplomatic missions accredited to the kingdom on the various efforts that it has so far undertaken to combat and prevent the spread of the epidemic.

These included the imposition of travel bans and restrictions to passengers coming from countries, such as China, Iran, Malay-

sia, South Korea and Thailand. For a time, Bahrain’s Civil Aeronautics Authority had restricted flights to and from Dubai and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Screening of arriving passengers, which included checking of body temperature and nasal swabs, were strictly implemented, leading to the identification of the majority of the confirmed cases. A special quarantine room was designated at the airport, and special-

AMBASSADOR Alfonso A. Ver (first row, fifth from right) and envoys from the different diplomatic missions accredited to the Kingdom of Bahrain attend the diplomatic briefing on the COVID-19 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters. BAHRAINMOFA/DFA

ized hospitals were designated to become isolation centers for those who tested positive of the virus.

To prevent spreading of the virus to children, classes in all levels, including kindergarten, were suspended for two weeks beginning February 26. This became particularly urgent after the identification of the first positive case involving a male citizen school bus driver who recently traveled to Iran.

Bahrain has also canceled the staging of some of its annual exhibitions, including the 16th edition of the Bahrain International Garden Show, originally slated from March 3 to 7. The Ministry of Interior has also issued advisories discouraging the holding of public gatherings, prompting some religious institutions to suspend the holding of services or masses.

Based on statistics published by the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Bahrain, a total of 4,504 individuals have been subjected to testing, with 4,452 negative results and 52 positive cases as of March 4, 12 p.m.

Bahrain continues to encourage its citizens and residents, particularly those who have recently traveled to Iran, to subject themselves to testing and has deployed mobile

BAHRAIN’S Lt. Col. Manaf Al Qatani of the Bahrain Defense Force Hospital-Infectious Disease Consultant (left) and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Dr. Shaikha Rana bint Isa bin Daij Al Khalifa conducted the diplomatic briefing at the MOFA Headquarters. BAHRAIN MOFA/DFA

medical teams to go to homes of those who have scheduled their medical examinations through their dedicated hot line 444 and their newly activated online appointment system for Covid-19 testing.

Ver thanked the Ministry for Bahrain’s comprehensive response and transparency of information on the Covid-19 situa-

tion as he briefed the ministry of the Philippine Embassy’s efforts in cascading all official information to the 53,000-strong Filipino community in Bahrain. He reiterated his request that the Middle East state also intensify its efforts in informing employers and sponsors of overseas Filipino workers. DFA

UAE evacuates Arab nationals from China

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BU DHABI—The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has coordinated the evacuation of Arab nationals from Wuhan City in China.

In a statement from its embassy in Manila, officials said the evacuees will be received at the newly established Emirates Humanitarian City in the UAE, and will undergo medical testing and monitoring to ensure their health and safety.

The move follows the directives of President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to establish a health-care

facility that will provide the individuals hailing from neighboring Arab countries with necessary monitoring and preventative medical care following their evacuation from the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak.

A special aircraft carrying some 215 individuals from Wuhan was equipped with Hepa cabin air filtration systems, medical supplies and equipment necessary to carry out the evacuation procedure, along with medical-response teams and cabin crew trained to carry out the evacuation.

The Emirates Humanitarian City was set up according to the highest of standards to

facilitate high-quality care for individuals admitted, ensuring their privacy and dignity are maintained throughout their stay.

Individuals will undergo a 14-day quarantine period during which they will undertake necessary medical and laboratory tests, as well as be monitored to ensure their health and safety.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, as well as the UAE Embassy in China, have coordinated with the embassies of the countries concerned to organize the evacuation process. This is part of the UAE’s continuous efforts to enhance cooperation with the Chinese government to contain the spread of the virus.