A TOAST TO WRITERS
The Nick Joaquin Literary Awards, halted by the pandemic, recently came back with a vengeance, drawing some of the country’s finest writers in ceremonies at Winford Hotel in Manila. In first photo, Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon receives, on behalf of businessman Ramon S. Ang, the Patron of Literature plaque and medal for his sustained support for the NJLA and major initiatives of the Philippines Graphic, the oldest newsmagazine in the country. The plaque and medal were handed by publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon. In second photo, Ian Rosales Casocot (second from left)—first prize winner for the short story “Ceferina in Apartment 2G”—is flanked by Dr. Jose “Butch” Dalisay, NJLA 2023 chairman of the board of judges, and co-judges Dr. Susan Lara and Marra PL. Lanot, editor, Philippines Graphic Reader. BERNARD TESTA
By Raadee S. Sausa
obligations from domestic and foreign sources, the Treasury bureau said on Monday.
A s of first quarter, the debt pile is 95 percent of the expected P14.63trillion debt by end-2023, it added.
A ccording to Michael Enriquez, president of Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corp., the increase in government debt was expected by the market as the government continues to spend on infrastructure projects. “ Debt-to-GDP [gross domestic product] continues to be within the expected level announced by the government,” he noted.
R ecently, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno projected a possible 7-percent economic growth
country’s outstanding debt hit a new record-high of P13.86 trillion as of March after posting additional P104.15 billion inin the first quarter of 2023, as the government and the private sector continued to ramp up infrastructure activities in the recovery phase from the pandemic. This ramping up was expected to increase the government’s indebtedness.
Aligned with fiscal plan DOMINI VELASQUEZ, chief economist at China Banking Corp., said that the government debt is still aligned with the fiscal program. Slow and offsetting growth rates in revenues and expenditures have kept the deficit, and consequently resulting debt, in check.
W
By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to
the BusinessMirror
THE recovery of the tourism industry and other sectors have contributed to a steep decline in the number of unemployed during the first quarter of the year, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Report
See “Tourism,” A2 w P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 28 pages |E give the world our best. That is the new country brand being rolled out by the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., starting with a campaign to promote overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).THE new Philippines branding campaign: “We give the world our best” is seen here in a wraparound ad on a London bus. The photo has been circulating among Viber groups. The branding effort was confirmed by the Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications Paul Soriano. IMAGE: CTTO
Continued on A5 See
ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS 2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS n Tuesday, May 9, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 204
ECONOMIC activities such as those in the real estate sector as well as consumer loans led to a double-digit growth in bank lending in March 2023, according to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Data showed bank lending grew 10.1 percent to P10.762 trillion in March 2023 from P9.777 trillion in March 2022.
A total of P9.397 trillion loans were extended to residents for various economic activities while consumer loans amounted to P1.052 trillion.
The sustained growth in credit is supported by sound Philippine banking system conditions. Looking ahead, the BSP will continue to monitor domestic liquidity dynamics to ensure that credit conditions remain in line with its price and financial stability mandates,” BSP said.
B SP data showed the amount of loans extended for real estate activities reached P2.18 trillion, fol -
The new country brand was sighted on a wrap-around ad on a London bus recently, a photo of which has been making the rounds of various Viber groups. The bus ad features FilipinaBritish nurse May Parsons holding
lowed by Wholesale & Retail Trade, Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles with loans amounting to P1.25 trillion; and Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air-conditioning Supply, P1.175 trillion.
I n terms of growth rate, outstanding loans for production activities grew by 8.9 percent in March from 8.7 percent in February.
T his was mainly due to the sustained increase in credit to major industries, specifically electricity, gas, steam, and airconditioning supply (12.5 percent); wholesale and retail trade, and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (10.5 percent); financial and insurance activities (13.1 percent); manufacturing (9.1 percent); and real estate activities (4.2 percent).
up a syringe, with the accompanying text: The nurse who gave the world’s first COVID 19 vaccine. A Filipina. WE GIVE THE WORLD OUR BEST. THE PHILIPPINES.” (Emphasis theirs) T he new country brand was con-
I n terms of the amount of consumer loans, credit card loans reached P570.359 billion, followed by Motor Vehicle Loans which reached P334.408 billion; SalaryBased General Purpose Consumption Loan, P123.825 billion; and other loans, P23.728 billion.
C onsumer loans to residents rose by 21.3 percent in March, the same rate as in the previous month, with the expansion in credit card, motor vehicle and salary-based general purpose consumption loans.
“Outstanding loans to non-residents also increased by 12.6 percent in March from 14.8 percent in the previous month,” BSP added.
Meanwhile, domestic liquidity (M3) grew by 6 percent year-onyear to about P1 6.2 trillion in March 2023, according to the BSP.
T he BSP said this is the same rate of expansion recorded in the previous month. On a month-onmonth seasonally-adjusted basis, M3 increased by about 0.2 percent.
Going forward, the BSP will continue to ensure that domestic
firmed by popular film director and Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications Paul Soriano in a statement sent through Secretary Cheloy Garafil of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO). “The country branding project ‘We Give The World Our Best-The Philippines’ is [an] initiative of OPACC (Office of the Presidential Adviser on Creative
liquidity conditions remain in line with the prevailing stance of monetary policy, in keeping with the BSP’s price and financial stability mandates,” BSP said.
D omestic claims rose by 12.4 percent year-on-year in March from 11.6 percent in the previous month.
C laims on the private sector grew by 9.6 percent in March from 9.9 percent in February due to the sustained expansion in bank lending to non-financial private corporations and households.
Net claims on the central government also increased by 21.4 percent in March from 17.5 percent (revised) in February, owing to the decline in deposits by the National Government with the BSP.
Meanwhile, net foreign assets (NFA) in peso terms decreased by 4.2 percent year-on-year in March, following the 3.1-percent contraction in February.
T he NFA of banks declined mainly on account of higher bills payable. Similarly, the BSP’s NFA position fell by 0.9 percent in March.
Communications) Secretary Paul Soriano to enhance and execute the messaging system of the Executive branch and the Office of the President as part of its mandate. OPACC worked with several respected creative directors to do initial communication materials on what is intended to be a long-term country branding campaign,” he told the BusinessMirror
‘Soft power’ SORIANO added that the country branding project was started in the third quarter of the last year, with the aim of encouraging “foreign investors and employees to value [OFWs]. They are our soft power.
Filipino Workers whose daily actions touch lives changing behaviors and shape the future of nations all over the world through their competence and compassion.” Featured in the bus ad, Parsons, who works for UK’s National Health Service, later received the George Cross, the highest award that the UK government bestows on civilians, from Queen Elizabeth II. She administered the world’s first Covid jab in December 2020 in London.
S oriano said other government agencies which will launch their own versions of the “best” branding include the Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, PCO, Department of Migrant Workers, and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Follow-up inquiries to Soriano such as the budget allocated for the branding effort and its initial rollout went unanswered.
‘Fun’ scrapped IN the past, it was the Board of Investments, which spearheaded the country branding initiative. The last country branding project, “Make it happen in the Philippines” was drafted by the BOI under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, but was never approved before his term ended.
Meanwhile, DOT officials failed to respond to repeated inquiries from this paper about the country branding, and if it will also be used as the tourism slogan itself, replacing the decade-old “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” Developed by advertising firm BBDO Guerrero, the “fun” slogan was approved in 2012 under President Benigno S. Aquino III, and has gone on to reap several major international advertising and tourism awards.
Early on in her appointment to the DOT, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco expressed reservations on the “fun” slogan, saying it felt inappropriate after coming from the pandemic, and that it was better to underscore the heritage and culture of Filipinos. Tourism leaders disagreed, however, and said the “fun” slogan still works and captures what the Philippines is all about. (See, “Tourism leaders to DOT: ‘Let’s keep having fun’,” in the BusinessMirror, August 12, 2022.) What little tourism promotions the DOT has carried out in print ads or through social media have been scrubbed of the “fun” logo, slogan, and other elements.
Data from PSA showed that of the 4.324 million workers who worked without pay in their own familyoperated farm or business, some 2.72 million were women and 1.61 million were men.
T here was an increase of 373,000 women who worked without pay in their own family-operated farm or business in March 2023 from the 2.342 million recorded in March 2022.
A mong the men, the data showed there was also an increase of 51,000 in March 2023 from the 1.558 million recorded in March 2022.
However, there was an improvement compared to February 2023. There was a reduction of 468,000 among the workers who worked without pay in their own familyoperated farm or business in March 2023 compared to the 4.79 million in February 2023.
A mong women, the number of those who worked without pay in their own family-operated farm or business in March 2023 was 209,000 less, compared to the 2.924 million in February 2023.
For men, there was a larger reduction of 259,000 among those who worked without pay in their own family-operated farm or business in March 2023 from the 1.868 million posted in February 2023.
“ In a region where our neighbors are also aggressively competing for investments, we must leverage on these changes to the country’s policy regime by ensuring that we urgently address on-the-ground concerns related to the ease of doing business,” Balisacan said in a bid to improve worker’s welfare.
Investors must not be kept waiting—we must create an enabling regulatory environment that makes it easy for them to set up shop, expand, and generate the high-quality jobs we need,” he added.
MEANWHILE , Neda stressed the quality of employment in the country has reflected significant gains, particularly on a year on year basis.
T he underemployment rate in March 2023 went down to 11.2 percent from 15.8 percent in the same month last year, the lowest underemployment rate reported since April 2005.
E fforts to sustain these gains, Balisacan said, include the government’s pursuit of infrastructure projects through the Infrastructure Flagship Projects or IFPs under the Build-Better-More program.
S ignificant and sustained improvements in human capital will be needed to complement the productivity gains from investments in physical capital, Neda said. Improving the country’s health, nutrition, and education-related outcomes will be key to maintaining the competitiveness of the country’s labor force relative to those of its Southeast Asian neighbors,” Balisacan said. Investments in human capital will ensure that the growing working-age population will be able to maximize the job, market, and technological opportunities made available to it and allow the country to reap the benefits of the demographic dividend,” he added.
E stablishing a dynamic innovation ecosystem that encourages businesses to introduce new products and processes to the market is also expected to create better-paying job opportunities in higher value-added industries and on Advancing Research and Development, Technology, and Innovation.
A lso crucial will be collaboration among government agencies, training institutions, technology providers, and other stakeholders to explore and utilize new technologies toward upskilling and reskilling on digital technology and innovations, as embodied in the Philippine Digital Workforce Competitiveness Act (RA 11927).
Regulatory reforms, strategic investments in human capital, a flourishing innovation ecosystem—these are some of the much-needed elements that will enable us to sustain the gains we see in our labor market as we work towards raising overall welfare and meeting our mediumterm socioeconomic goals,” Balisacan added.
P SA said wage and salary workers continued to contribute the largest share of employed persons with 61.6 percent of the total employed population 15 years old and over in March 2023.
T his was followed by self-employed persons without any paid employee at 27.6 percent and unpaid family workers at 8.9 percent. Employers in their own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share of 1.9 percent.
A mong wage and salary workers, employed persons in private establishments made up 47.5 percent of the total employed, followed by employed in government or government-controlled corporations with 9.2 percent share.
of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-7,523); education (-5,200); other service activities (-4,280) as well as administrative and support service activities (-2,335).
M eanwhile, sectors which registered the highest year-on-year increase of displaced workers are the information and communication sector (+3,413), construction (+2,531), professional, scientific and technical activities (+331), and mining and quarrying (+174).
O verall, BLE said a total of 114,914 workers lost their jobs from January to March, which is lower than the 146,938 year-
on-year. O f those displaced during the first quarter, the bulk or 104,662 were retrenched by 3,706 establishments, while the remaining 10,252 were displaced by the permanent closure of 463 companies. Retrenchment or reduction of workforce was mostly observed in small enterprises (42 percent or 1,573) while there was a higher incidence of permanent closure recorded in micro enterprises (42 percent or 196),” BLE said. T he JDR is based on the regular displacement reports submitted by employers to DOLE.
“ I really hope that we get to the bottom of this issue,” the opposition senator stressed, noting that “from the evidence I have seen so far, it seems to me, a case of ignorance; violation of our laws by government implementors at best; and state-sponsored smuggling at worst.”
A t the same time, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito lamented “lack of improvement” in the sugarcane industry in the Philippines even after the enactment of Republic Act (RA) No. 10659 (Sugarcane Industry Development Law) and RA 10845 (Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Law) in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
A t the same hearing, Ejercito aired disappointment in the gov -
ernment agencies’ dependence on importation option instead of developing the industry in sugarproducing regions, such as the Negros Region. Where are we now? After seven years, had the agency properly implemented the AntiAgricultural Smuggling Law and the Sugar Cane Industry Development Act,” Ejercito said, “ the sugar cane industry in Negros would have been in a better position now.”
T he lawmaker lamented, “It is sad that despite passing the AntiAgricultural Smuggling Law they grew accustomed to importation,” noting that “smuggling might have been eliminated but the problem shifted to importation.”
WARNING that it is not a “silver bullet” solution, Senator Risa Hontiveros cautioned against rushing the privatization of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the country’s main gateway to the world.
T he senator stressed that such an option is “not a silver bullet” that will solve the deteriorating conditions in air terminals, suggesting that the Marcos government should instead focus on “greater accountability and better management” of Philippine airports.
T he Senate deputy minority leader issued the statement after several administration officials and lawmakers aired their support for the privatization of Naia operations in the wake of a recent power outage that disrupted dozens of flights in the nation’s main international gateway. That outage evoked recollections of a more massive outage four months ago that disrupted nearly 300 flights and inconvenienced over 60,000 travelers.
Still, Hontiveros cautioned that while, “tamang reseta ang privatization sa lumalalang problema ng palpak na serbisyo sa ating mga paliparan [privatization seems a right tack to end the worsening problem of bad service at our airports],” an overhaul of systems is necessary before operations can be handed over to private groups.
“ This is an issue of performance and accountability—hindi gaganda ang serbisyo sa Naia kahit pa pribadong
By Marilou Guieb CorrespondentSIX among the Top Ten of the graduating class of the Philippine Military Academy’s (PMA) Madasigon Class of 2023 come from the north and the south.
T hose who made the Top 10 by rank are the following:
1. Cadet 1CL Warren D. Leonor, 22 years old, hails from Lipa City, Batangas and will be joining the Philippine Air Force (PAF). As the top graduate, he will be receiving the Presidential Saber and the PAF Saber, among 13 more awards and plaques, including his cum laude recognition.
2. Cadet 1Cl Edmundo D. Logronio, 23 years old, from Manito, Albay, will be joining the Philippine Army (PA). He will be the recipient of the Vice Presidential Saber; the PA Saber and the Australian Defense Best Overall Performance Award, among others.
3. Cadet 1Cl Nicole B. Sarmiento, 22 years old, will receive the Secretary of National Defense Saber. She is from Butuan City, Agusan del Norte. She will be with the PA.
4 . Cadet 1Cl Zhen Zhen S. Cayton, 23 years old, from Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, was a college undergraduate before entering and excelling at the PMA, graduating in the dean’s list. She will be part of the PAF.
5. Cadet 1Cl Rez Mark C. Cantor, 22 years old, from Bugallon, Pangas-
By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasiganMANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) is conducting an electrical audit of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 at no cost to the government, while the audit of all three terminals will still have to undergo regular procurement.
According to Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) Officerin-Charge Bryan Co, the audit was “offered for free by Meralco,” the scope of which would be “Terminal
sektor ang nagpapatakbo nito, kung wala namang reporma pagdating sa sistema ng pangangasiwa ng Naia at ng iba pang paliparan sa bansa [services won’t improve at Naia, even if the private sector runs it, if the reforms needed for managing Naia or other airports is not in place],” Hontiveros stressed.
A private sector takeover of public utilities like airports does not automatically guarantee better services for the public, as evidenced by the country’s experience with its privately operated water, electricity and rail systems, she added.
In those cases, she said, “High charges and chronic problems from those utilities continue to bedevil our people” despite the privatization.
She noted that at the same time, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that five out of six international airports —Hamad, Tokyo, Incheon, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Istanbul—are “rated best among the world that are publicly owned and operated.”
Hontiveros stressed: “The majority of the best airports in the world remain state owned,” and “there are plenty of good practices in airport operations for us to emulate, if the government is indeed serious about fixing our airports.”
Moreover, Hontiveros added that instead of rushing towards privatization and deregulation, Malacañang and the Department of Transportation and its attached agencies should work toward ensuring clear lines of accountability and responsibility in relation to airport operations.
T he plants that went on forced outage are Calaca 1 (240MW), Binga 1 and 4 (70MW), Masinloc 1 (315MW), and Masinloc 2 (315 MW).
A side from the five power plants, there are three plants that were running below capacity. These are the Sual 1 (580MW), Sual 2 (420MW), and Calaca 2 (180MW).
T he forced outage and limited capacity of the power plants resulted in a deficit of 1,354MW.
T he Department of Energy (DOE) said the Bolo-Masinloc 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line 2 tripped, which led also to the tripping of Masinloc Units 1&2 (618MW). “As the situation emanated from a transmission line, the DOE has therefore instructed the NGCP [National Grid Corporation of the Philippines] to explain the circumstances within 24 hours the circumstances that caused
the outage,” the agency said.
T he NGCP placed the Luzon grid on “red alert” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., and “yellow alert” from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Further, the DOE said the reduced generation supply in Luzon affected export to the Visayas grid, which resulted in the declaration of yellow alert at 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement, while a yellow alert means the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s regulating and contingency requirement.
Five power plants are on forced outage, while three others are running on derated capacities, for a total of 1,354MW unavailable to the grid,” the NGCP said Monday.
Following the declaration of red alert in the Luzon grid, the NGCP declared a suspension of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the Luzon grid. The suspension of the WESM will effectively shield the public from volatile prices that may arise from the unavailability of some power plants.
At 4:12 p.m., Meralco said power was fully restored at 3:45 p.m. The affected areas include Las Piñas, Makati, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Pasig, Quezon City, Taguig, and some parts of Rizal and Cavite.
M eralco said it implemented manual load dropping (MLD) or rotating power interruptions of up to two hours as instructed by the NGCP and as part of its responsibility to manage the system.
We also advised Interruptible Load Program [ILP] participants for possible de-loading from the grid to help ease the situation. We are closely monitoring the situation and are ready to implement additional measures if needed,” Meralco said.
T he ILP is a demand-side management program wherein participants will be asked to temporarily de-load from the grid and use their generator sets when there is supply deficiency and power interruptions are imminent.
T he DOE said it is closely monitoring and coordinating with the
NGCP and the concerned generation companies on the power supply condition. It assured the public that it would exhaust all measures to help prevent the interruptions of power in the Luzon grid.
Meanwhile, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has formed an interim grid management committee (GMC) to monitor, evaluate, review, and make recommendations on grid planning and operations.
T he members will include representatives from the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) and ERC.
B ased on ERC resolution No. 4, the grid-related events affecting the power operation in the country, particularly the recent power crisis in the Panay Island, need proper investigation and timely resolution. “The Commission recognizes the urgency of the situation, and deems it necessary to immediately activate an interim GMC made up of technical experts that are knowledgeable of and with experience in the power sector that will allow them to objectively evaluate and submit proper recommendations on grid operation, planning, and development.”
T he ERC said the PEMC technical committee members are qualified to meet the requirements of the interim GMC.
inan, 22 years old will be joining the Philippine Navy (PN). Graduating cum laude, he will be awarded the PN Saber and the Australian Defense Best Overall Performance Award.
6 . Cadet 1Cl Rojan J. Macario, 21 years old, is from Talon-Talon, Zamboanga City. She is of Tausog and Igorot heritage and will be part of the PA. She is graduating as class salutatorian.
7. Cadet 1Cl Samuel S. Banac, 22 years old, will be part of the PAF. He is from West Fairview, Quezon City. He has a record of finishing his high school with honors.
8. Cadet 1Cl Kimberly Kate R. Lawingan, 22 years old, is from Sadanga, Mt. Province and will be part of the PN. She graduated from senior high school with honors.
9. Cadet 1Cl Rico Jay B. Fernandez, 21 years old is from Molave, Zamboanga del Sur will be joining the PN. He will be receiving the Association of Generals and Flag Officers Inc. Award and the Department of Leadership Award.
10. Cadet 1 Cl. Arla Krish K. Bahingawan, 23 years old, will join the PAF and will be awarded the Department of Humanities Plaque and Chief Justice Award. She is a Tuwali from Kiangan, Ifugao.
C adet 1CL Warren D. Leonor said that a lot of his relatives are part of the PAF and enlisted personnel and thus his early exposure. “As a child I was exposed to the military, especially with my father, who always
3’s electrical systems.” “Other facilities to be covered by a full facility audit, which will be undergoing procurement process,” he said in a Viber message coursed through the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
T he audit started on Friday and is expected to be completed within three weeks. The audit aims to assist MIAA in ensuring the reliability of its power supply and prioritize major components for the system upgrade of its existing electrical facilities.
Once the audit has been completed, the MIAA “will be able to determine
brought me to his camp as a previous instructor in basic military training.
I was inspired watching the cadets develop themselves as future combatants,” he said. There is also his sister with whom he says is a giveand-take inspirational exchange. His sister is about to graduate in December from the PAF. “If she can do it, why can’t I,” he said.
But the strongest motivation is his childhood dream that never wavered. “I always wanted to be part of the Philippine Air Force. Everything about airplanes got my attention. Every airplane passing by our house always amaze me,” he said.
He said he was only about to tell his parents that he would be graduating on top of his class. He said, however, that while it is an exciting thing, he ranked first in his sophomore class and his parents would thus have a hint that he would make it again as a graduate.
C adet 1Cl Rojan J. Macario traces her inspiration to be part of the military service to her parents who are both police officers, nursing graduates and now serving in the health-care department of the police force. Macario says that while her four-year stay at the academy was very challenging, it never occurred to her to quit. “It has taught me to be responsible and to be able to adopt to the uniformed troop,” she said. Her father is an Igorot by ethnicity, but they settled in Zamboanga, her mother’s prov -
the various equipment needed to be upgraded, rehabilitated or purchased to make Naia Terminal 3’s power system reliable and resilient.”
Co said that the MIAA would then determine the timeline as well as the required budget for the procurement of critical components of its electrical facilities, and generator sets, and implement the necessary power systems upgrade at Terminal 3. “ We need to buy or lease additional generators and we are discussing this with stakeholders. That’s the time when we can determine the budget needed,” he said.
ince. But in her younger years, the family would vacation in Baguio where her father lived before. She saw the PMA as a kid and was since inspired to wear the PMA uniform one day. Fascinated by the long grey line parade, she longed to be part of the troop one day and calls it her long-held childhood dream.
Cadet 1 Cl. Arla Krish K. Bahingawan, like his colleague Leonor, will be joining the PAF because it was always her dream to fly an airplane. “I joined the PMA because it would bring me one step closer to my dream of becoming a pilot of the Philippine Air Force,” she said. She said her dream to fly in the skies started when she was in elementary. Her father is with the PA but she chose the PAF as she feels her skills are better suited in this line of service.
Bahingawan, who is from Ifugao, said that Cordillerans like her who joined the PMA had the advantage of being used to the weather and the natural strength and endurance that they acquired due to the mountainous terrain of the region.
Graduation day is tentatively set on May 21 but will be needing confirmation from Malacañang subject to the schedule of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Covid protocols will also be dictated by the Palace but presentation of a complete vaccination record is expected or otherwise an antigen test 24 hours before entry to the academy grounds.
By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3THE Department of Health (DOH) logged a total of 9,465 new Covid-19 cases from May 1 to May 7, higher by 112 percent as compared to the previous week.
A total of 1,920 cases were recorded on May 7 alone.
T he average daily case was pegged at 1,352.
From April 24 to May 7, there were 9 deaths recorded.
O f the 2,097 ICU beds for Covid patients, 346 (16.5 percent)
By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayugaACOALITION of communities, sectors, and advocates for the protection of the Verde Island Passage (VIP) raised alarm over the decision of Oriental Mindoro Governor Humerlito Dolor to lift the fishing ban in some towns upon the recommendation of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
T he group Protect VIP noted that Dolor lifted the ban in Baco, San Teodoro, Puerto Galera, Bongabong, Roxas, Mansalay, and Bulalacao, while allowing fisherfolk from towns where the ban is still in effect like Bansud, Gloria, Pinamalayan and Pola to fish in the waters of other towns.
We understand the urgency of letting our fisherfolk make a living, but we question why the ban is being lifted when MT Princess Empress continues to leak toxic oil into the waters of VIP,”
Gerry Arances, Executive Director of sustainability think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) and CoConvenor of Protect VIP said in a statement.
Is the government saying they can’t help affected fisherfolk anymore and they should fend for themselves? The lifting
are occupied.
ALTHOUGH the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency, infectious disease specialist Dr. Rogent Solantes warned, “The virus is here.”
“ ’Yung [lifting of the] health emergency [doesn’t mean] okay na tayo, hindi po. Nandito pa din ang pandemic ang sabi ng WHO we have to continue ano man ang ginagawa natin [The lifting of the global health emergency on Covid-19 doesn’t
of the ban at this point might cause more harm than any benefit from letting fishermen go out to the sea. Fishermen might suffer from ailments if they encounter spill-affected waters, and we cannot guarantee that the fish they catch have not been affected,” he added.
C EED Oceans, Coastal Communities, and Climate Lead Brent Ivan Andres said that despite the previous announcement from Dolor that the coasts of some towns in the province are benzene-free, it is not a guarantee the waters are safe. Benzene is a toxic substance found in industrial oil leaking from MT Princess Empress.
Benzene is not the only toxic substance to watch out for. There should be measures in identifying and determining Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons [PAHs] and other hydrocarbons, which can be found from the industrial fuel from the tanker. Exposure to PAHs in humans may result in physiological problems that need to be treated immediately, while marine organisms may experience reduced survivability because of the toxicity of PAHs,” said Andres. T he group urged Dolor to divulge the basis for his order to lift the fishing ban to enable fisherfolk to properly assess the risk they might be exposing themselves into.
mean we are already okay, no we are not. The pandemic is still here the WHO said that we to continue what we have been doing],” Solantes said in a radio interview over DZBB. Solantes said that as compared to the situation three years ago, the situation now is totally different here in the country when it comes to Covid-19 response. We all have those mitigating interventions like vaccines, medicines, our doctors can already handle Covid patients well, health facilities are no longer overwhelmed...,” Solantes said in a mix of English and Filipino.
LUZON experienced power interruption on Monday, affecting more than 300,000 customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), after five power plants conked out.
‘Not a silver bullet’: Hontiveros warns vs ‘rush’ to privatize Naia
PMA presents the Top 10 graduates of Class 2023 Lifting of Mindoro fishing ban may be premature, group says
Terminal 3’s electrical audit underway, MIAA says DOH: Covid-19 cases jump 112% in first week of May
THE participation of Philippine Healthcare Information Management Services (HIMS) companies at a trade and investment show and HIMS System (HIMSS) exhibition held last month in the United States resulted in initial sales amounting to $72.9 million, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In a statement issued on Monday, the trade department said the reported initial sales includes closed deals, contracts under negotiation, and potential sales to be nurtured.
Moreover, DTI said the 6th participation of Philippine HIMS companies at the HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition (HIMSS) 2023 has potential direct investment amounting to $13 million.
T he Philippine National Pavilion showcases the country’s capabilities in IT and HIMS services, such as pharma, research and life sciences
(Clinical Trial Management, Pharmacy Support Services, Pharmacovigilance); health IT (EMR/EHR), big data analytics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML); provider & payor centric processes (Medical Coding, Medical Billing, Claims Processing/Management); voice and non-voice support (Clinical Triage, Case Management, remote patient monitoring), DTI noted.
For her part, DTI Undersecretary for Competitiveness Innovation Group, Rafaelita Aldaba, said during a business forum in the US that the HIMS sector is an “excellent representation of the mutually reinforcing relationship between the Philippines and United States.”
“
The HIMS sector continues to embrace automation and digital transformation with a strong focus on innovation. Adopting new technologies like AI [artificial intelligence], the sector has been shifting to higher value services and improving customer experience,” Aldaba noted.
By Lenie Lectura @llecturaOIL firms will carry out a “big-time” fuel pump price rollback on Tuesday.
G asoline prices will be slashed by P2.20 per liter, diesel by P2.70 per liter, and kerosene by P2.55 per liter. This week’s fuel price adjustment is the third consecutive week of oil price rollback.
T he mission held activities such as business fora, networking, B2B, facility visits to health-care facilities and “relevant organizations,” learning sessions covering the States of Texas, New York, and Chicago to promote the Philippine HIMS and met with organizations namely: Geekdom, Tech Port San Antonio, VelocityTX, University of Texas Health, Bellevue Hospital, The Plaza Rehabilitation, Business World Chicago, and Connectory Chicago and various business chambers in Texas, New York, and Chicago.
T his year’s Mission, DTI said, gained the support of industry associations such as the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) and Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP).
According to DTI, this mission was participated by 18 HIMS companies, represented by 35 delegates, who actively showcased their worldclass solutions towards customer and patient excellence namely: ADEC Innovations, Advanced World Solutions Inc., Connext Global Solutions,
Carelon Global Solutions, Dynaquest Technology Services, HYBrain, Inspiro, JBW Managed Services Consulting, Medcode Inc., Medstar, Microsourcing, Pointwest Technologies Corp., Robinsons Land Corp., Office Symmetry, Teleperformance, Trends and Concepts, Visaya KPO, and Viventis Search Asia.
L ast April, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) Director General Tereso O. Panga expressed hope to attract big-ticket investments and strategic industries that will make the Philippines a leading industry player in HIMS and other frontier technologies.
With the phenomenal rise onto post-global Covid-19 pandemic in the demand for health-care information management and remote telehealth services, the Philippine IT industry stands a stronger chance across Asean in attracting HIMS-related FDI [foreign direct investments] into call center and BPO [business process outsourcing] operations,” Panga’s social media post read.
By Henry J. SchumacherCAPITALISM
is
better than critics try to make it. Capitalism has the ability to change, keeping longterm profits in mind, but declaring money (making money) and purpose (keeping purpose high on the agenda) as twins.
A dditionally, investors are forcing companies to think in sustainability. If company managements do not follow, investors will boycott the shares of those organizations.
G iven the quarterly focus on record earnings being expected by investors, the question whether this is sufficient “reason-to-be” is only fair. Companies additionally have to realize that the Home-OfficeWork-Life-Balance-Generation of the Millennials is exactly raising the issue of “purpose” of a company.
tech-touch coupled with humantouch Education—change is the only constant; life-long learning is a must Equality—those who own the data own the future, which requires us to watch Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others with great concern Justice—our sense of justice might be out of date…
Solutions—remember: if you don’t want to be part of the solution, you are part of the problem Truth—some fake news last forever, and social media is making it more dangerous Work—looking at the rapid development of artificial intelligence, will you still have a job when you grow up?
W hile we try to get the message across that sustainable development should be the battle cry of the future, we need to see the future as bringing yet-unforeseen opportunities rather than as unanticipated threats. We need to understand that consumers no longer just buy products but buy experiences. Supply chains of the future will have to address the real-time needs of customers, as captured, and interpreted by the data analytics capabilities.
Last May 2, oil companies implemented a per liter decrease of P1.50 for gasoline, P1.30 for diesel and P1.40 for kerosene. These resulted to a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P4.35/liter and kerosene at P4.95/liter. Gasoline on the other hand, has a net increase of P6.05/liter.
This week’s price adjustment will be implemented at 6 a.m. in all stations of Petron, Shell, Caltex, Total, Unioil, Seaoil, PTT, and Phoenix. Cleanfuel, on the other hand, will implement the new pump prices at 12:01a.m.
Based on the monitoring of the Department of Energy (DOE), oil prices kept on declining, mainly weighed down by concerns of another rate hike by the US Fed and prospects of weaker global economic growth.
B ecause of the fact that the issue of “maximizing profits” versus “fair profit and focus on purpose” is raised regularly now, more and more companies are taking “sustainable development” more seriously. One large multinational company is talking about “inclusive capitalism.”
In this context, I like to encourage everybody to also think about a range of issues, such as:
Big Data—you are being watched whether you like it or not Communities—humans have bodies, in other words we need
I have a big question: if we could protect human rights, grant everybody the right to vote, establish free markets and let individuals, ideas and goods move throughout the world as easily as possible, there will be peace and prosperity for all? My heart says YES; my mind— unfortunately—has a different opinion.
T he consequence: we have to understand that our businesses, communities and our planet deserve a sustainable future, and our hearts and brains have to create an environment that supports equity, sustainability, and expands economic opportunities that will lead to prosperity and peace.
I would appreciate your feedback; contact me at hjschumacher59@gmail.com
‘Big-time’ rollback as gas, diesel prices slashed by more than ₧2
THE country’s agriculture performance for the first semester of 2023 is expected to be “good,” a Monetary Board (MB) member said over the weekend.
“
I don’t think it’s appropriate to see it by quarter because it’s not the planting season, so it’s more appropriate to see it by semester and I think the first semester will be okay of this year
I expected,” MB member Bruce Tolentino said during the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines and San Miguel Corp. (EJAP-SMC) Annual Business Journalism Seminar.
T he main drivers, he said, are the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
“ The RCEP is still doing okay which means it’s putting money and productivity enhancement into the hands of farmers, and as we observe it there have been improvements every semester ever since the RTL was passed,” Tolentino added.
He also said that the first semester usually gets higher productivity than the second semester.
Usually we get the higher impact, higher productivity in the first semester rather than in the second, because in the second usually the typhoons come,” the MB member said.
“And it really also depends on where the El Niño will happen, if it does not hit the rice area then its good, but if hits the rice area it will be a problem,” Tolentino added.
I n 2022, agricultural production shrank by 0.1 percent, marking the third straight year of contraction, as crops and fisheries output declined, data from Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
Data also showed that the fullyear value of production in agriculture and fisheries declined at a slower pace than the 1.7 percent contraction in 2021.
It also missed the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent full-year growth target.
ALEADER of the House of Representatives on Monday asked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Monetary Board (MB) to include water districts and local government unit (LGU)-led water works providers under qualified borrowers under the Agri-Agra law. House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda said the Agri-Agra Law requires that banks extend 25 percent of their total loanable funds to the agriculture, agrarian, fisheries, and rural development sectors.
“ Every year, you have around P2 trillion in loanable funds that should be earmarked towards agriculture and rural development. But banks pay as much as P2 billion in penalties every year, and they would rather do so than lend to these sectors,” Salceda said. Local water districts and LGUrun waterworks are crucial to rural development. Running water is crucial for agriculture and fisheries. It’s the lifeblood of rural communities. So, it goes without saying that it should be part of lending to rural development,” he said.
A s of 2015, Salceda said 113 of 461 water districts are credit worthy.
“But they still find it difficult to borrow from private banks. Meanwhile, banks are looking for creditworthy borrowers so they can comply with the Agri-Agra law better. It’s a match,” he added.
Salceda had written the BSP to request “the consideration…of the following concerns with the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Mandatory Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Financing [AFRD] under Republic Act [RA] No. 11901 or The Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Financing Enhancement Act of 2022.”
“ Under Qualified rural community beneficiaries,’ may we recom-
THE Philippine National PoliceAnti Cybercrime Group (PNPACG) has charged before the Department of Justice (DOJ) at least 12 individuals believed to be involved in trafficking more than 1,000 Filipinos and foreign nationals into the country and then forced them to run various illegal online schemes.
T he justice department said the complaint was filed last Saturday and the accused, mostly Chinese nationals, opted to avail of a preliminary investigation by signing a waiver of any objection against their delivery to the proper judicial authorities under Article 125 of the revised Penal Code.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said those charged also include Indonesian nationals.
T hey will undergo preliminary investigation for human trafficking in relation to violation of Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, serious illegal detention/kidnapping and violation of immigration laws.
T he accused were brought by PNP-ACG to the DOJ for inquest proceedings along with several victim-witnesses.
T he traffickers were assisted by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO)
in Manila during the inquest proceedings where representatives from other concerned government agencies were present.
“We anticipate there [will be] further investigation on other parties who are complicit in the trafficking of the victims but were either not present on the site or have yet to be identified as traffickers,” the DOJ said.
T he filing of the complaint was an offshoot of a recent rescue operation conducted by a composite team from various government agencies by virtue of search warrants covering the premises of Clark Sun Valley Hub Corporation located at the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zones in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
T he operation was led by the PNP ACG, who earlier secured search warrants from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 81 of Malolos City, Bulacan for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act, with the assistance of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), the National Task Force Against Trafficking (NTFAT) and the Clark International Airport Task Force Against Trafficking (CIATFAT).
T he search warrants were implemented in coordination with PNPSpecial Action Force Rapid Deploy-
AS the government embarks on a month-long nationwide children’s vaccination campaign against measles, rubella and polio, Quirino governor and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) president Dax Cua renewed his call to fellow local leaders to step up their efforts against vaccine-preventable diseases.
We have to work in tandem with the national government to vaccinate our kids and avoid another public health crisis,” Cua said. “I renew my call to my fellow local leaders to
“However, to be prudent, the government should fast-track revenuegenerating measures to aptly finance planned expenditures, particularly its infrastructure program, without resorting to large accumulation of debt,” she added.
“ These measures include administrative efforts, digitization among revenue agencies, and planned revenueenhancing legislation such as PIFITA [the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act], tax on singleuse plastic, digital tax, revision of the motor vehicle users charge, and sweet-
do our part. Let’s step up our efforts to convince parents to bring their kids for vaccination,” he added.
T he Department of Health is set to conduct the “Chikiting Ligtas” supplemental immunization campaign across the country from May 1 to 31.
T his, as a report published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that the Philippines has 1 million zero-dose kids, the second highest in East Asia and the Pacific region and the fifth highest worldwide.
T he UNICEF also noted that public perception on vaccines’ im-
ened beverage tax, among others. These will help clip both the deficit and debt of the government,” Velasquez said.
For his part, Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. said that the government debt could still go up, especially if government borrowings are frontloaded again at the early part of 2023 to finance the budget deficit, starting with the scheduled foreign borrowings in the first half of 2023.
“Also partly to hedge government borrowings in view of the still rising trend in global short-term interest
portance for children declined in the Philippines by about 25 percent, which is one of the steepest declines among 55 countries it studied.
B esides stepping up local government units’ (LGU) respective information campaigns, Cua said LGUs should also explore ways that would make vaccination convenient for parents and children.
He added that more efforts should also be exerted to convince families in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) to get their children vaccinated.
continued from a1
rates,” he added.
In February, the government’s total outstanding debt reached P13.75 trillion, higher by 0.4 percent compared to the previous month, the Treasury said.
Out of the total debt stock, 31.3 percent was sourced externally while 68.7 percent were domestic borrowings, it added.
Moreover, domestic debt amounted to P9.44 trillion, higher by 0.6 percent in January, data showed.
Data showed that foreign debt reached P4.31 trillion or 0.1 percent lower than the previous month, records showed.
mend the inclusion of water service providers in rural communities under entities qualified for AFRD financing. This will help clarify that water districts, private water service providers, and other water service entities can access AFRD financing —currently only explicitly extended by the IRR towards a more limited set of water service providers,” he said.
Salceda explained that under the revised IRR of the law, water service providers such as LGUs and local water districts are not explicitly mentioned as qualified beneficiaries.
Salceda added that no clarifying language to this effect has been issued by the BSP, despite the interest of
some local water districts to borrow from banks.
E xpanding borrowing to these providers, Salceda added, will help them improve their distribution systems, fund the shift towards more sustainable sources of water, and expand access to sanitation. They need cheap financing for long-term projects such as safer pipes and new sources of water,” he said.
“ This amendment and relevant clarification will help expand private sector financing towards water and sanitation access in rural communities and in improving the resiliency of the country’s water infrastructure,” Salceda added.
ment Battalion (PNP-SAF), PNP Intelligence Group, PNP Health Service, PNP Regional Civil Security Unit Region 3, the IACAT Operations Center, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Mabalacat Police Station.
A total of 1,090 were rescued including 389 Vietnamese, 171 Filipinos and 143 Indonesians, 40 Nepalese, 25 Malaysians, seven from Myanmar, five Thais and one from Hong Kong.
T he DOJ said preliminary evidence indicated that the victims were recruited as call center agents to entice foreign customers from the United States, Canada, and Europe to invest in cryptocurrency.
The victims, mostly male, were instructed to pretend to be attractive women to lure their victims to invest,” it said.
Remulla said he would be meeting with immigration and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) officials about labor trafficking issues.
I will be meeting with BI people very soon about this. I will be meeting Pagcor about this to ask them about the licenses that we have been giving, we might as well make an inventory of all the licenses and all the people working here based on the licenses…” Remulla said.
By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasiganTHE Land Transportation Office (LTO) has tapped the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for the development of a digital version of driver’s licenses.
A ssistant Secretary Jay Art Tugade, who sits as chief of the LTO, said the digital license card may be used as an “alternative” to the physical cards. It will be integrated into the government’s “super app” that is currently under development.
The advantage of the digital license is that motorists can present it to law enforcement officers during apprehension. It is equivalent to presenting the physical driver’s license,” Tugade explained. “We also appreciate the way the super app functions similarly to a wallet, containing all government IDs, among other things, within your mobile device.”
T he electronic card will be used to replace the Official Receipt (OR) as a temporary driver’s license currently printed
on paper. The public will be able to utilize the digital license for various transactions with the agency, including license and registration renewals as well as online payments.
O Rs are now being used as temporary alternatives to the driver’s license, as the LTO has a shortage of physical cards for printing.
C urrently, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is stepping in to address the issue of card shortage. It is studying ways how to fast track the procurement process for the supply of 5 million cards in 60 days, including entering into a partnership with other government agencies.
T he DOTr has an ongoing competitive bidding for the license cards. The deadline for submission and opening of bids is on May 24.
Tugade noted that existing security features of the physical license cards would be integrated into their digital version. Simplifying and digitalizing more services will ultimately aid the agency in eradicating corruption,” Tugade said.
THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it seized 9,695 units of uncertified vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products and novel tobacco products worth P2,988,473 during DTI’s enforcement operations in the National Capital Region (NCR) from February 9 to April 26,2023.
D uring the said period, the DTI said its enforcement teams visited 390 physical stores to ensure compliance with DTI Administrative Order (DAO) 22-16, series of 2022, the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 11900.
Prior to physical inspection, DTI said it conducted surveillance operations. With this, it said, 121 firms were found compliant while 106 stores were either closed or no longer selling vape products.
However, violations were seen among 163 firms and they were required to submit a written explanation, DTI reported.
Meanwhile, the DTI-Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau (FTEB) Online Monitoring Unit (OMU) has intensified its monitoring with 16,376
monitored online vape stores.
A ccording to DTI, 86 online stores were found compliant, while 16,290 were non-compliant.
“Again, violators were asked to submit an explanation following physical inspection among 18 shops. Online platforms were likewise required to respond to violations of merchants using their platforms,”
DTI noted.
T hrough these efforts, the DTI said there are already 56 formal charges filed against violators of RA 11900 and its IRR. A case was also filed against one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the country, DTI said.
T he DTI-FTEB said it has been conducting routine inspections following the DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual’s directive to tighten watch over violations of Republic Act No. 11900.
T hese include the following violations of firms or shops, instore and online: No signage to inform consumers against use of children and non-smokers; Selling vape products that target children, through flavors or cartoon characters; Selling vape products in locations with children, such as schools and playgrounds; No age confirmation
process against children’s interests; and vape product ads that target children and non-smokers.
Pascual underscored the importance of prioritizing the protection and welfare of Filipino consumers, especially minors in connection with selling vaporized nicotine and nonnicotine products.
“ The DTI remains steadfast in formulating and strictly implementing policies that will ensure that these vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products will not be easily accessible to minors who might be enticed by it. While we aim to protect the interest of businesses, we must also heed to the call of parents and other organizations regarding the effects of these products to minors,” the Trade chief said.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary for DTI-Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Ruth B. Castelo also expressed the consumer arm’s full commitment to implementing trade and industry Laws.
“ The DTI recognizes the fastevolving trend insofar as novel products are concerned. Thus, the CPG, through the DTI- FTEB enforcement teams, is resolute in enforcing RA 11900 and the implementing rules,” Castelo said.
N.G.’s March debt hits record high of ₧13.86T
chirping all day complements that approach.
The Indonesian leader also hoped the high-profile Asean summit would put Labuan Bajo and outlying islands, dotted with white-sand beaches and even a rare pink-sand beach, under the global tourism spotlight.
“This is a very good moment for us to host the Asean summit and showcase Labuan Bajo to the world,” said Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who flew in Sunday with his wife to a red-carpet welcome flanked by military honor guards and dancing villagers with flower-filled headwear.
But there are a few hitches.
are open and the areas are getting better. I hope that Labuan Bajo can be a better tourist town in the future,” he said.
Azril Azahari, chair of an association of Indonesian academic experts on tourism, told the AP that Labuan Bajo was not ready and apparently was chosen to host the summit on short notice. “The hotel facilities and the lodging have become a problem. There is a ship being used for accommodation and it’s not a lodging ship,” he said.
The sunshiny setting is a stark contrast to the seriousness of their agenda.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo picked the far-flung, rustic harbor town of Labuan Bajo as a laidback venue to discuss an agenda rife with contentious issues. These include the continuing bloody civil strife in Myanmar and the escalating territorial conflicts in the South China Sea between fellow leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The 10-nation regional bloc and its member states will meet for three days starting Tuesday, with the growing rivalry between the United States and China as a backdrop.
US President Joe Biden has been reinforcing an arc of alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to better counter China over Taiwan and the longseething territorial conflicts in the strategic South China Sea which involve four Asean members: Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Indonesia, this year’s Asean chair, has also confronted Chinese fishing fleets and coast guard that have strayed into what Jakarta says was its internationally recognized exclusive economic zone in the gasrich Natuna Sea.
Widodo, who’s in his final year on the world stage as he reaches the end of his two-term limit, said Asean aims to collaborate with any country to solve problems through dialogue.
That includes Myanmar where, two years after the military power grab that forced out Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration and sparked a
bloody civil strife, Asean has failed to rein in the violence in its member state. A five-point peace plan by Asean leaders and the top Myanmar general, which calls for an immediate stop to killings and other violence and the start of a national dialogue, has been disregarded by Myanmar’s ruling military.
Asean stopped inviting Myanmar’s military leaders to its semiannual summits and would only allow non-political representatives to attend. Myanmar has protested the move.
In an additional concern involving Myanmar, Indonesian officials said Sunday that 20 of their nationals, who were trafficked into Myanmar and forced to perform cyber scams, had been freed from Myanmar’s Myawaddy township and brought to the Thai border over the weekend. During the summit, Asean leaders planned to express their concern over such human trafficking schemes in a joint statement, a draft copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said her country, as Asean chair, has tackled the Myanmar crisis in a non-adversarial way.
“Colleagues certainly know that in the early stages of its leadership, Indonesia decided to take a nonmegaphone diplomacy approach,” Marsudi said. “The aim is to provide space for the parties to build trust and for the parties to be more open in communicating.”
Widodo’s choice of a seaside venue with stunning sunrises and sunsets and the sound of birds
The far-flung fishing town with only three traffic lights and about 6,000 residents is acutely short of hotels for Asean’s swarm of diplomats, delegates and journalists. Many had to arrange to share rooms.
Unlike the more popular Bali resort island or the bustling concrete jungle of a capital Jakarta, which has hosted international conclaves in upscale hotels and convention centers, Labuan Bajo is a far smaller town that a visitor could cross from end to end with a brisk two-hour walk. There are no public buses, and villagers mostly move around by walking, riding scooters or driving private cars.
A small team of local technicians with hard hats was flown in to lay cables and expand Internet connections at the venues on short notice.
On Sunday, Labuan Bajo’s small airport was jampacked with visitors. Teams of diplomats and journalists arrived to welcome streamers announcing the upbeat summit motto, “Asean Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.”
Outside the airport named after the Komodo dragons, traffic quickly built up under the brutal noontime sun.
When the sun rose Monday morning, workers were still cementing some roadsides around the venues—a day before the summit opening.
Andre Kurniawan, who works at a dive center in Labuan Bajo, said the infrastructure developments would be a boon for Labuan Bajo villagers. “We were isolated from some areas before and now they
Welcoming visitors to her coffee shop ahead of the summit, Suti Ana said even though it wasn’t the best time for Labuan Bajo to host, Asean would boost local businesses. “But we cannot wait, so this is the time,” she said.
Choosing the small port town was not a bad idea, Azril said, if it came with adequate planning and government investments in infrastructure.
Located on the western tip of Flores island in southern Indonesia, Labuan Bajo, aside from its beaches and diving and snorkeling spots, has been better known as the gateway to the Komodo National Park—a UNESCO World Heritage site and the only place in the world where Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards, are found in the wild.
Environmentalists and tourism analysts fear that a wider public interest could put further stress on the already endangered Komodo dragons. Only about 3,300 were known to exist as of 2022.
“If more people come, sooner or later the Komodo dragons cannot breed in peace, this can be a problem,” Azahari said, citing longstanding fears that the Komodos could face extinction without full protection.
Despite the odds, Indonesian officials said they would do everything to successfully and safely host the Asean summit in Labuan Bajo.
“If there’s any commotion along the way, that will be a big stain on the nation’s dignity,” Edistasius Endi, the regent of Labuan Najo’s West Manggarai district, said in a statement.
The Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez and Achmad Ibrahim contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary
Janet Yellen said Sunday that there are “no good options” for the United States to avoid an economic “calamity” if Congress fails to raise the nation’s borrowing limit of $31.381 trillion in the coming weeks. She did not rule out President Joe Biden bypassing lawmakers and acting on his own to try to avert a first-ever federal default.
Her comments added even more urgency to a high-stakes meeting Tuesday between Biden and congressional leaders from both parties. Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads over whether the debt limit should even be the subject of negotiation. GOP lawmakers, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, are demanding spending cuts in return for raising the borrowing limit, while Biden has said the threat of default shouldn’t be used as leverage in budget talks. Yellen, interviewed on ABC’s “This Week,” painted a dire picture of what might happen if the borrowing limit is not increased before the Treasury Department runs out of what it calls “extraordinary measures” to operate under the current cap. That time, she said, is expected to come in early June, perhaps as soon as June 1.
CAIRO—The Arab League agreed Sunday to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension and taking another step toward bringing Syrian President Bashar Assad, a long-time regional pariah, back into the fold.
Some influential league members remain opposed to reinstating Syria, chief among them Qatar, which did not send its foreign minister to Sunday’s gathering. Thirteen out of the league’s 22 member states sent their foreign ministers to the meeting in Cairo.
The decision represented a victory for Damascus, albeit a largely symbolic one. Given that Western sanctions against Assad’s government remain in place, the return to the Arab League is not expected to lead to a quick release of reconstruction funds in the war-battered country.
Syria’s membership in the Arab League was suspended early on during the country’s 2011 uprising against Assad’s rule that was met by a violent crackdown and quickly turned into a civil war. The conflict has killed nearly a half million people since March 2011 and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a televised statement that the decision to return Syria to the organization, which will allow Assad to take part in the group’s upcoming May 19 summit, is part of a gradual process of resolving the conflict.
“This doesn’t mean that the Syria crisis has been resolved, on the contrary,” he said. “But it allows the Arab (states) for the first time in years to communicate with the Syrian government to discuss all the problems.”
Aboul Gheit also said restoring Syria’s membership in the organization does not mean all Arab countries have normalized with Damascus.
“These are sovereign decisions for each state individually,” he said.
Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous claimed Sunday that Syria had been the victim of “misinformation and distortion campaigns launched by our enemies” for 12 years. He said Sunday’s consultations reflected the “prestigious position” Syria holds regionally and internationally.
Opponents of Assad saw the move toward normalization as a betrayal.
“Arab states have put their own cynical realpolitik and diplomatic agendas above basic humanity,” said Laila Kiki, executive director of The Syria Campaign, an international advocacy group. The move, she said, has “cruelly betrayed tens of thousands of victims of the regime’s war crimes and granted Assad a green light to continue committing horrific crimes with impunity.”
Sunday’s decision came days after regional top diplomats met in Jordan to discuss a road map to return Syria to the Arab fold as the conflict continues to de-escalate. The next Arab League summit is to take place May 19 in Saudi Arabia.
The Arab League generally tries to reach agreements by consensus but sometimes opts for simple majorities. Sunday’s session was held behind closed doors, and it was not immediately clear which countries had registered objections.
A spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement published by state media that normalization with Syria should be tied to a political solution to the conflict but that it “always seeks to support what will achieve an Arab consensus and will not be an obstacle to that.”
“Whether it’s defaulting on interest payments that are due on the debt or payments due for Social Security recipients or to Medicare providers, we would simply not have enough cash to meet all of our obligations,” she said. “And it’s widely agreed that financial and economic chaos would ensue.” An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would only allow borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.
Biden’s White House meeting with McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will be the first substantive talks between Biden and McCarthy in months.
House Republicans on April 26 passed a bill that would raise the debt limit but impose significant federal spending cuts. But those cuts are unlikely to win the support of all Republicans in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Biden has said he will only negotiate about government spending once Congress takes the risk of default off the table.
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who left the Democratic Party in December, encouraged Biden and McCarthy to meet each other half way.
“There’s not going to be just a simple
clean debt limit—the votes don’t exist for that,” she told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So the sooner these two guys get in the room and listen to what the other one needs, the more likely they are to solve this challenge and protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”
Yellen was asked on ABC whether Biden could bypass Congress by citing the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that the “validity” of US debt “shall not be questioned.” Yellen did not answer definitively, but said it should not be considered a valid solution.
“We should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis,” she said.
“What to do if Congress fails to meet its responsibility? There are simply no good options,” she added.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., agreed about the risks of invoking the 14th Amendment. He told ABC that the Constitution is “very clear that spending— all those details around spending and money actually has to come through Congress.”
He criticized Biden for not being willing to negotiate on spending cuts, arguing the debt limit exists to force a broader conversation on government outlays. “It’s about not just debt that’s incurred,” the senator said. “But it’s also
raising the limit of what we can continue to be able to add on this.”
The 14th Amendment question was studied by Obama administration lawyers during the 2011 debt limit showdown, which informed Biden’s refusal to negotiate now with Republicans on raising the debt limit. At the time, Justice Department lawyers said they did not believe the president had the unilateral power to issue new debt.
Biden, in an interview with MSNBC on Friday, was asked about the 14th Amendment proposal, saying, “I’ve not gotten there yet.”
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and the committee’s top Democrat, Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the debt limit debate posed a national security threat.
“The Russians and the Chinese would seek to exploit it,” Himes said. “The United States has never really come close defaulting on its debt before. So it’s hard for us to imagine what that might look like.”
Turner argued that Biden would bear the brunt of the responsibility. “I think if the president fails to negotiate with Congress and has continued out-of-control spending that threatens our economy, that it is a national security threat,” he said.
Sunday’s decision also includes a commitment by Arab governments to try to reach a political solution to the conflict, in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254. Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq were asked by the league to follow up on developments.
The league welcomed what it said was the Syrian government’s willingness to cooperate with Arab countries to resolve “humanitarian, security, and political” crises that affected Syria and the region due to the conflict, including refugees, “the threat of terrorism and drug smuggling.”
Many observers had anticipated Syria’s imminent return to the organization. Arab rapprochement with Damascus accelerated after a deadly Feb. 6 earthquake that shattered parts of the war-torn country. One of the countries pushing normalization is Saudi Arabia, which once backed opposition groups trying to overthrow Assad.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Samer Shoukry said before Sunday’s meeting that only an Arab-led “political solution without foreign dictates” can end the ongoing conflict. “The different stages of the Syrian crisis proved that it has no military solution, and that there is no victor nor defeated in this conflict,” he said.
In recent years, as Assad regained control of most of the country with the help of key allies Russia and Iran, neighbors of Syria that hosted large refugee populations took steps towards reopening diplomatic links with Damascus. Meanwhile, two Gulf monarchies, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, reestablished ties.
The Feb. 6 earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria was a catalyst for further normalization across the Arab world. China helped to broker a recent rapprochement between archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, which had backed opposing sides in the Syrian conflict.
Jordan last week hosted regional talks that included envoys from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria. They agreed on a framework, dubbed the “Jordanian initiative,” that would slowly bring Damascus back into the Arab fold. Amman’s top diplomat said the meeting was the “beginning of an Arab-led political path” for a solution to the crisis. The conflict in Sudan is also on the agenda, as Arab states try to stabilize a shaky cease-fire in the ongoing fighting that has killed hundreds of people over the past few weeks.
Chehayeb
LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia—A picturesque tourist destination will host crisis-weary Southeast Asian leaders with sun-splashed tropical islands, turquoise waters brimming with corals and manta rays, seafood feasts, and a hillside savannah crawling with Komodo dragons.
ISTANBUL—As Turkey heads for presidential and parliamentary elections at the weekend that are shaping up to be the strongest challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his 20 years as leader, complaints are growing about the fairness of the vote.
Turkey’s opposition has long said that the country’s elections are played out on an unlevel playing field, claims often backed by international observers.
Media coverage stands out as the most obvious example of where Erdogan enjoys an advantage over his opponents, but factors such as the use of state resources while campaigning and the questionable interpretation of electoral law also feature.
Some 90% of Turkey’s media is in the hands of the government or its backers, according to Reporters Without Borders, ensuring overwhelming airtime for the president. Only a handful of opposition newspapers remain in print, most having transitioned to onlineonly editions.
During April, Erdogan received nearly 33 hours of airtime on the main state-run TV station, according to opposition members of the broadcasting watchdog. His presidential opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, received 32 minutes.
The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, last month launched legal action against broadcaster TRT for failing to screen its campaign video.
“Unfortunately, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation has moved away from being an impartial and objective institution and has turned into the Tayyip Radio and Television Corporation,” CHP lawmaker Tuncay Ozkan said.
The remaining independent media also face increasing restrictions. Last month, broadcasting authority RTUK fined independent channels Fox News, Halk TV and TELE1 over news and commentary deemed a breach of regulations. Ilhan Tasci, an oppositionappointed RTUK member, said in all three cases the stations had been accused of criticizing or questioning ruling-party actions.
In a statement following the last presidential and general elections in 2018, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted that Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) enjoyed “an undue advantage, including in excessive coverage by government-affiliated public and private media outlets.”
The government’s reach has also been extended over social media, where many opposition voices have retreated.
A “disinformation” law introduced in October allows a jail sentence of up to three years for spreading false information “with the sole aim of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the public.”
Sinan Aygul, the only journalist to be prosecuted under the new law, was handed a 10-month prison term in February. He is currently free while appealing the case.
“The real aim is to silence all dissident voices in society,” said Aygul, chair of the journalists association in Bitlis, southeastern Turkey. It is “a law that targets anyone who expresses an opinion. It targets not only individuals but also media organs,” he said.
The ill-defined law creates crimes from “basic journalistic activities,” Aygul said, adding that it could be used during the elections to target groups seeking to protect ballot box security who use social media to highlight abuses.
“If there is going to be fraud in the election, all opposition channels will be silenced by using this law,” he said.
The imposition of a state of emergency over the 11 provinces hit by February’s earthquake has also raised concerns about how the polls will be conducted in the region. A U.N. report published on April 11 said at least 3 million people had relocated from their homes in the quake zone, many of them heading to other parts of Turkey.
However, just 133,000 people from the earthquake region have registered to vote outside their home provinces, the head of the Supreme Election Council said last month. Ahmet Yener added that election officials are overseeing preparations, including polling stations at temporary shelters.
In 2018, a nationwide state of emergency imposed following a 2016 coup attempt was in place until shortly before the election, which the OSCE said restricted the media and freedoms of assembly and expression.
Erdogan has stepped up his public appearances, which are closely followed by most TV channels, and uses these official duties to attack his rivals. Attending a ceremony on the Friday of Eid al-Fitr last month to mark renovations to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, he accused the opposition of “working with terrorist groups.”
The previous evening, the leaders of four political parties allied to the AKP were present for an event to launch the delivery of Black Sea natural gas, despite none holding any government position.
Other large projects that were rolled out ahead of the vote include Turkey’s first nuclear power reactor built by Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy company, and several defense developments.
Critics also point to the bending of election law to allow government ministers to stand as parliamentary candidates while remaining in office, despite legal requirements to the contrary.
The election board, meanwhile, has previously faced criticism for siding with AKP objections during elections.
In the 2019 local polls, the victorious opposition mayoral candidate for Istanbul was forced to face a rerun following AKP complaints of ballot irregularities. Results from district and city council votes, which were collected in the same boxes and favored the AKP, were not questioned.
Adem Sozuer of Istanbul University’s law faculty told the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper that voters had lost confidence in the election authorities. “There is widespread suspicion in a significant part of society that elections will be rigged,” he said.
ISLAMABAD—A UN report on
Monday strongly criticized the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing power in Afghanistan, and called on the country’s rulers to halt such practices.
In the past six months alone, 274 men, 58 women and two boys were publicly flogged in Afghanistan, according to a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.
“Corporal punishment is a violation of the Convention against Torture and must cease,” said Fiona Frazer, the agency’s human rights chief. She also called for an immediate moratorium on executions.
The Taliban foreign ministry said in response that Afghanistan’s laws are determined in accordance with Islamic rules and guidelines, and that an overwhelming majority of Afghans follow those rules.
“In the event of a conflict between international human rights law and Islamic law, the government is obliged to follow the Islamic law,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Taliban began carrying out such punishments shortly after coming to power almost two years ago, despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s.
At the same time, they have gradually tightened restrictions on women, barring them from public spaces, such as parks and gyms, in line with their interpretation of Islamic law. The restrictions have triggered an international uproar, increasing the country’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed—and worsening a humanitarian crisis.
Monday’s report on corporal punishment documents Taliban practices both before and after
By The Associated Press
VICTORY Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, lauds two tenets that are central to the country’s identity: military might and moral rectitude. But the war in Ukraine undermines both this year.
The holiday falling on Tuesday marks the 78th anniversary of Germany’s capitulation in World War II after a relentless Red Army offensive pushed German forces from Stalingrad, deep inside Russia, all the way to Berlin, about 2,200 kilometers (1,300 miles).
The Soviet Union lost at least 20 million people in the war; the suffering and valor that went into the German defeat have been touchstones ever since.
However, many regions have canceled their May 9 observances because of concerns the events could be targets for Ukrainian attacks. Moscow’s famed Red Square military parade will go ahead following Russia’s claim of an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin, whose spires loom next to the parade venue.
For all the fearsome armaments that will growl through the square, Russia’s failure to make gains in Ukraine spoils the image of its army’s indomitability.
After seizing sizable parts of the neighboring country in the opening weeks of the invasion, the Russian campaign saw an abandoned attempt to enter Kyiv, retreats in northern and southern Ukraine, and an inability to take Bakhmut, a small city of questionable value, despite months of exceptionally gruesome fighting.
their return to power in August 2021, when they seized the capital of Kabul as US and Nato forces withdrew after two decades of war.
The first public flogging following the Taliban takeover was reported in October 2021 in the northern Kapisa province, the report said. In that case, a woman and man convicted of adultery were publicly lashed 100 times each in the presence of religious scholars and local Taliban authorities, it said.
In December 2022, Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of murder, the first public execution since they took power the report said.
The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in the western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and top Taliban officials.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the top government spokesman, said the decision to carry out the punishment was “made very carefully,” following approval by three of the
country’s highest courts and the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
There has been a significant increase in the number and regularity of judicial corporal punishment since November when Mujahid repeated comments by the supreme leader about judges and their use of Islamic law in a tweet, the report said.
Since that tweet, UNAMA documented at least 43 instances of public lashings involving 274 men, 58 women and two boys. A majority of punishments were related to convictions of adultery and “running away from home,” the report said. Other purported offenses included theft, homosexuality, consuming alcohol, fraud and drug trafficking.
In a video message, Abdul Malik Haqqani, the Taliban’s appointed deputy chief justice, said last week that the Taliban’s Supreme Court has issued 175 so-called retribution verdicts since taking power, including 79 floggings and 37 stonings.
Such verdicts establish the right of a purported victim, or relative of a victim of a crime to punish or forgive the perpetrator. Haqqani said the Taliban leadership is committed to carrying out such sentences.
After their initial overthrow in the US invasion of 2001, the Taliban continued to carry out corporal punishment and executions in areas under their control while waging an insurgency against the US-backed former Afghan government, the report said.
UNAMA documented at least 182 instances when the Taliban carried out their own sentences during the height of their insurgency between 2010 and August 2021, resulting in 213 deaths and 64 injuries.
Many Muslim-majority countries draw on Islamic law, but the Taliban interpretation is an outlier.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called a Taliban ban on women working an unacceptable violation of Afghan human rights.
On April 5, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers informed the United Nations that Afghan women employed with the UN mission could no longer report for work. Aid agencies have warned that the ban on women working will impact their ability to deliver urgent humanitarian help in Afghanistan.
The Taliban previously banned girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade and women from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan women from working at local and nongovernmental groups—a measure that at the time did not extend to UN offices.
Under the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, public corporal punishment and executions were carried out by officials against individuals convicted of crimes, often in large venues such as sports stadiums and at urban intersections.
President Vladimir Putin, in his speech during the parade, is sure to praise the Red Army’s determination to wipe out Nazism and to repeat his assertion that Russia is taking the moral high ground by fighting an alleged Nazi regime in Ukraine, a country with a Jewish president.
But the missiles that rain down on Ukrainian civilian targets have drawn worldwide condemnation of Russia, while the Western countries that made common cause with Moscow to defeat Nazi Germany send billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Ukraine.
Analysts are divided on whether the May 3 drone incident at the Kremlin was a genuine attack or a “false flag” concocted to justify increasing the ferocity of Russia’s missile barrages in Ukraine. Either explanation risks undermining the sense of security among Russians already rattled by attacks, likely committed by Ukraine or by domestic opponents, that have risen sharply in recent weeks.
Two freight trains derailed this week in bomb explosions in the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine. Notably, the region’s authorities did not blame Ukraine, which could be an attempt to whitewash the Ukrainian capability to carry out sabotage.
But Bryansk authorities claimed in March that two people were shot and killed when alleged Ukrainian saboteurs penetrated the region. The region also has come under sporadic cross-border shelling, including last month, when four people were killed.
Three prominent supporters of the war in Ukraine also were killed or injured
on their home turf elsewhere in Russia.
A car-bombing last week in the Nizhny Novgorod region that officials blamed on Ukraine and the United States severely injured nationalist novelist Zakhar Prilepin and killed his driver.
Last year, Darya Dugina, a commentator with a nationalist TV channel, died in a car bombing outside Moscow, and authorities alleged Ukrainian intelligence was behind the April death in St. Petersburg of prominent pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed when a bomb inside a statuette he was handed at a restaurant party exploded.
Amid the heightened security worries, authorities also canceled one of Victory Day’s most notable observances, the
“Immortal Regiment” processions in which throngs of citizens take to the streets holding portraits of relatives who died or served in World War II. The processions carry an air of genuine emotion, in sharp contrast to the obedient stone-faced soldiers who march across Red Square during the tightly regimented military parades that change little from year to year. Although the processions are moving and impressively large, authorities “thought that the risks were becoming prohibitive,” said Russian analyst Dmitry Oreshkin, now at the Free University in Riga, Latvia. “If some kind of drones fly there, penetrate through the impenetrable border...then why can’t they drop something on this column?”
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives. It shuttered schools, businesses and workplaces and forced millions to stay at home. health authorities limited our social interactions in their effort to contain the spread of the virus. As a consequence, Internet usage has increased all over the world. While online services became an essential lifeline for many Filipinos during the pandemic, more than 30 million citizens still have no Internet access.
The Philippine Digital Economy Report 2020 of the World Bank said the pandemic has accelerated the adoption and use of digital technologies in the country. However, digitalization is largely constrained by the low high-speed broadband penetration, which lags behind neighboring middle-income countries. “The digital divide in the Philippines is large, with nearly 60 percent of households not having access to the Internet,” the report said.
“The relatively poor performance in digital adoption can be traced to a multitude of factors, including the high cost and uneven quality of Internet, limited adoption of digital payments, expensive logistics, and a business environment with low levels of competition,” the report said.
The World Bank said increasing digital penetration in the Philippines requires the following: upgrading the country’s digital infrastructure as Internet connection is a prerequisite to participation in the digital economy; harnessing market opportunities provided by digital payments and online platforms; improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the country’s logistics system; and improving the business environment.
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said in a 2021 paper that “despite the widespread cellphone signal coverage and mobile device ownership, Internet usage in the country remains low owing to poor and expensive Internet connectivity and inadequate digital infrastructure, especially outside the national capital region.” Majority of households that do not have an Internet connection cited high cost and unavailability of Internet service in their area as main barriers to access.
The amendment of the Public Service Act (PSA), which allows up to 100 percent foreign ownership of public services in the country, including telecommunications, has changed the investment landscape. For example, Elon Musk’s SpaceX officially launched its low earth orbit (LEO) satellite Internet service Starlink in the Philippines in February.
As of January 2023, there were 85.16 million Internet users in the Philippines. The country’s Internet penetration rate stood at 73.1 percent of the total population at the start of 2023. Most of the country’s Internet users, however, are complaining about uneven quality of Internet services and the high cost they have to pay amid intermittent Internet problems.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada is asking Congress to pass a law requiring telecommunication companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) to automatically refund subscribers when they experience at least 24 hours of accumulated service interruptions within a month. The senator said Senate Bill 2074, or the proposed Refund for Internet and Telecommunications Service Outages and Disruptions Act, once enacted into law will require public telecommunication entities and ISPs to institute a mechanism that will enable them to automatically refund or adjust the bills of their postpaid and prepaid subscribers whenever there are service disruptions. (Read, “Law on auto refund for ISP, telco for service hitch pushed,” in the BusinessMirror, May 4, 2023).
Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco, chairperson of the House committee on information and communications technology, earlier filed House Bill No. 4659, which also seeks to compel telecommunication firms and ISPs to offer an automatic refund to customers affected by Internet service disruptions.
Bakit tayo magbabayad sa serbisyong hindi naman natin napakinabangan?” Estrada asked, adding that “genuine accessibility can only be achieved if the connection services are regular, reliable, consistent, uninterrupted, and fast to allow continuity of activities and interconnection among different users.”
The high cost and low service quality offered by Internet providers has been exasperating for millions of Filipinos. To our telcos and Internet service providers, here’s an unsolicited advice: Don’t wait for the 19th Congress to pass the proposed automatic refund measure. You can change the resentment or bitterness of your customers who feel being unfairly charged for Internet service outages. Create goodwill by announcing your own rebate or refund program for subscribers who experience Internet service interruptions. You may not be providing ideal Internet services, but if you can make customers feel they are fairly treated, they will do an effective marketing for you through word of mouth or the click of a mouse.
Remember: You have no revenue, no profit, and no business without your customers.
Manny B. Villar
AloW er inflation gives us all the more reason to be optimistic this year. It means consumers get the most bang for their buck and are more confident to spend, which will eventually help the economy grow.
Lower prices induce spending and business activities. Many shopping malls hold bargain sale during offpeak periods to entice shoppers with discounted prices. As a result, sales go up and businesses thrive. The same is true with the economy, where inflation is an important determinant of demand and spending.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that inflation rate softened to 6.6 percent in April. While the rate remains elevated compared with the government’s long-term target range of 2 percent to 4 percent, the latest figure is a big improvement from the 14-year high of 8.7 percent in January.
Inflation has been an exacting issue among economic officials and monetary authorities not only in the Philippines but also in other parts
Inflation has been an exacting issue among economic officials and monetary authorities not only in the Philippines but also in other parts of the globe since last year, when the lifting of mobility restrictions suddenly led to a spike in demand for commodities—including petroleum products.
of the globe since last year, when the lifting of mobility restrictions suddenly led to a spike in demand for commodities—including petroleum products.
The economic recovery-induced demand for commodities, combined with the geopolitical tension in the eastern part of Europe and the logistics nightmare that ensued after the imposition of pandemic-related border controls led to a double-digit inflation rate in both advanced and developing economies.
It was so high in many countries that no less than the US Federal Reserve raised its interest rate from near zero at the height of the pandemic to a range of 5 percent to 5.25 percent to tame consumer prices.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also adjusted the overnight bor-
Sever Al years ago I was in business with a gentleman from hong Kong who told a story of a childhood lesson. When he was six years of age—old enough to think for himself but young enough to still be dependent on his parent—my friend’s father had him sit on the kitchen counter and said “Jump, I will catch you.” They did this several times until the father did not catch the young boy and he fell.
“Never trust anyone completely,” said his father.
The Judeo-Christian bible has some things to say about trust. The book of Psalms has this verse: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” If you believe in an all-powerful deity, that makes sense. But the prophet Micah is much more direct on the subject of trust. Depending on the English translation we read, “Believe not a friend, and trust not in a prince.” “Put no trust
in a friend, have no confidence in a loved one.” “Don’t trust anyone—not your best friend or even your wife!” Trust is defined as a “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.”
Although we often use the two words interchangeably, “Confidence” is moderately more specific with the emphasis on reliability. “The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something.” Although my research may not
rowing rate from 2 percent in 2021 to 6.25 percent effective March 24, 2023. These adjustments are meant to hit the brakes on business activities that induce strong demand and higher prices.
Fortunately in the Philippines, the economy continues to grow despite the elevated inflation and the high interest rates, based on the sustained increase in bank loans and domestic liquidity. This is why many economists believe that the gross domestic product would continue to register growth above 6 percent in 2023.
The inflation downtrend from 8.7 percent in January may give the BSP a reason to break off its monetary tightening cycle, although it may also consider the latest Fed action to maintain the differential in US and local interest rates. A narrower differential, for one, may force investors to abandon the peso in favor of
The Edelman Trust Barometer is a large—32,000 respondents across 28 countries—annual survey gauging trust levels and perceived credibility among the general population towards governments, media, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations. Among Business, Government, and Media, Business is the only majority-trusted institution. Only in China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and UAE is government trusted more than business and even then, business has an average 74 percent trust rating.
be complete, I cannot find a single example of a national leader being judged on “Trust.” There are surveys on “Satisfied with performance” and “Approval,” but it seems that only in the Philippines do we ask the public a question on “trust.”
“How would you rate the overall trustworthiness of the following [national leaders/institutions] over the
the US dollar.
The value of the peso, by the way, also plays a crucial role in stabilizing inflation as it also dictates the cost of imported goods. The local currency has recently stabilized within a range of 55 to 56 per US dollar, an improvement from an all-time low of 59 a dollar registered in October 2022. All these factors are at play to maintain price stability. The government and the BSP are working together to keep prices and foreign exchange rates stable to ensure steady economic growth. When prices fluctuate, business plans are disrupted and companies are discouraged from expanding and hiring more employees.
BMI Research, a member of Fitch Group, expects household spending in the Philippines to grow 5.5 percent in 2023, following an 8.7-percent expansion in 2022. It also predicts annual household spending to rise 5.9 percent until 2027, which is higher than most countries.
It says while inflation will likely remain elevated, nominal income growth will outpace inflation, which translates into real income growth for consumers, providing greater propensity for spending. I am confident the BSP will respond appropriately to inflation risks by carefully studying the inflation
See “Villar,” A11
past 12 months?” (PUBLiCUS Asia).
“We would like to ask you about your trust in certain people in our society” (PulseAsia).
Trust is based on our perception of the past. Confidence is based on if we think we can continue to trust in the future. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”—Warren Buffett.
The Edelman Trust Barometer is a large—32,000 respondents across 28 countries—annual survey gauging trust levels and perceived credibility among the general population towards governments, media, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations. Among Business, Government, and Media, Business is the only majority-trusted institution. Only in China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and UAE is government trusted more than business and even then, business has an average 74 percent trust rating.
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”—Stephen Covey, motivational writer. The
Lower inflation is always a boon to consumers
TAx LAw fOR BuSInESS
IN protesting Real Property Tax (RPT) assessment cases, it has been settled that in order for the protest to prosper, the taxpayer shall first pay the tax under protest. There shall be annotated on the tax receipts the words “paid under protest.” The protest in writing must be filed within 30 days from payment of the tax to the local treasurer, who shall decide the protest within 60 days from receipt. This is clear under the provisions of the Local Government Code of 1991.
In the event that the protest is denied or upon the lapse of the 60day period prescribed for the local treasurer to act on the protest, the taxpayer may appeal its protest to the Local Board of Assessment Appeals (LBAA) of the province or city where the property is located, within 60 days from receipt of the treasurer’s decision on the protest or within 60 days from the lapse of the 60-day period for the local treasurer to act on the protest.
So, pursuant to the provisions of the LGC, it is clear that the taxpayer may appeal to the LBAA the treasurer’s decision on the protest or the treasurer’s inaction on the protest. There is no issue on that.
On the other hand, the LBAA, in turn, shall decide the taxpayer’s appeal within 120 days from the date of receipt of such appeal. The owner of the property or the person having legal interest over the property who is not satisfied with the decision of the LBAA may then appeal to the Central Board of Assessment Appeals (CBAA), within 30 days after receipt of the decision of the LBAA.
Now, the question is, what if the LBAA does not act on the taxpayer’s appeal within the 120-day period?
Can the taxpayer appeal the LBAA’s inaction to the CBAA?
This seems to be an unavailable remedy under the provisions of the Local Government Code. Apparently, under Section 229 of the LGC, it is the decision of the LBAA that is appealable to the CBAA. Unlike the LBAA, which can take jurisdiction over inaction of the local treasurer in RPT assessment cases, CBAA cannot take jurisdiction over inaction of the LBAA, following the provisions of the LGC.
Even the Rules of Procedure of the LBAA and the CBAA likewise provides that the CBAA shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear and decide appeals from the decisions, resolutions and final orders of the LBAA. So, it is the decision, resolution or final order of the LBAA that is appealable to the CBAA. Ergo, if the LBAA does not act on the taxpayer’s appeal, there’s no way for the CBAA to take jurisdiction over the appeal.
The LBAA has to issue its decision, which the taxpayer should appeal to the CBAA. This is actually a predicament of
Mangun.
Continued from A10
Europe are dealing with a banking crisis. The three failed US banks— noted by the press as small- to midsize US banks—this year were bigger than the 25 that collapsed in 2008.
Yet, “US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will tell her Group of Seven counterparts next week that the US banking system remains sound.”
Further, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reassured the public that “the US banking system remains sound and resilient.”
PacWest Bancorp, one of the “small- to mid-size” was trading at $30.00 on February 7, $9.40 on March 13th, and hit a low of $3.50 on May 4, a few hours after Powell’s reassurances. The stock market is where real people invest real money and make real decisions based on their confidence in the future. Bank depositors are the same.
THE PATRIOT
WheTheR it is referred as a toilet, water closet, restroom, a “john,” the loo, a latrine, or a comfort room, such a space in any home or office is essential to one’s living and productivity. Some say one’s toilet is a reflection of one’s personality and priority. After all, a dirty toilet in one’s home likely indicates that cleanliness and discipline are not given much weight on the part of the owner.
many taxpayers protesting RPT assessment cases, as they cannot fully ventilate their appeals before the CBAA due to inaction of the LBAA on their appeals, and in some cases, due to the unavailability of LBAA that should hear RPT appeal cases from the administrative level. The absence of an LBAA as an organized body, or in cases where there is such an established LBAA, its inaction on appeal cases would unjustly delay the resolution of taxpayer’s RPT assessment cases, amounting to deprivation of their right to due process and speedy resolution of their protest cases.
Under the Local Government Code, the LBAA shall be composed of the Registrar of Deeds, as Chairman, the provincial or city prosecutor and the provincial, or city engineer as members, who shall serve as such in an ex-officio capacity without additional compensation. However, in many local government units all over the country, there are cases where there are no officially organized LBAA in their jurisdiction. Even in Metro Manila, I know of a highly urbanized city that has even no officially organized LBAA.
This, I think, is another area in local taxation that has to be revisited. Given the skyrocketing values of real properties all over the country, there will certainly be more RPT issues to come in the days ahead. Taxpayers should be provided with the proper forum for them to fully ventilate their concern involving RPT issues.
The author is a partner of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member-firm of WTS Global.
The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at rodel.unciano@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 local 140.
As of the end of March, JPMorgan Chase estimated $550 billion had been withdrawn from these “smaller” banks. The same event is happening in Europe. British Hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry said in a May 6th interview on Bloomberg Markets that the withdrawals are “entirely justified.” Further, Hendry warned, “a further decline in the M2 money supply (which I wrote about last week), could convince the US government to step in and prevent citizens from taking their capital out of the banking system.” The banking crisis as with each and every economic crisis is first a crisis of confidence. “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”—Abraham Lincoln.
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market
The general public deserves better toilets. I remember the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) putting up public urinals along the sidewalks of Edsa years ago. Despite not being used as much, they didn’t last long enough. I also remember Bert Lina of Air 21 putting up numerous portable toilets during calamity relief operations. He continues to do so. The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) has been working on building more permanent and decent toilets in public schools. More than 10 years ago, it has been reported that there is one toilet bowl for every 151 students in public elementary schools. I’m not sure of the ratio, but I suppose in our airports, the number would be similar if not the same. I pity the female travelers who encounter long queues whenever certain flights arrive or depart within the same period. Long lines have been accepted if not tolerated. As to the amenities in these public toilets, much can still be improved.
There is an equally urgent need to drastically improve the cleanli-
ness/orderliness of public toilets in all our light rail transit and metro rail transit stations. I remember one of my law partners, Vigor Mendoza, personally boarded the trains (MRT and LRT) when he was part of Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board. He discovered that each station had one common issue: dirty toilets. As the very first LRT line began in the eighties, its coaches and facilities are decrepit, if not run down. Needless to say, some government buildings can look great cosmetically from the outside but if the inside, especially toilets, are not maintained, then the impact is the same—the taxpayer/ user feels shortchanged. One lawyer friend, whose hobby is cleaning her bathrooms to the point of insanity, suggested that public officials should be fired if toilets in their buildings are unkempt. People use toilets daily and depend on them largely. To my lawyer friend, there is a science behind scrubbing the toilet bowl and floors and walls. But a presentable toilet does not involve the bowl and sink only—it covers
the entire room appearance and ambience, which can be as basic as having toilet paper! Cleaning must be done regularly regardless of the number of uses and users. Further, septic tank draining should be done at least annually as part of proper upkeep. I wonder if the budgets of government agencies specifically include a provision for an annual septic tank cleaning.
Similar to toilet cleaning, our hearts need regular cleansing from evil, daily, monthly, and annually. On a daily basis, we need to do what we can so that our hearts are pure. The Bible, in several verses, tells us to do so in Isaiah 1:16 —“Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.”
And in 1 John 1:9 —“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Daily confession can help believers cleanse their hearts from evil.
From experience, confession unburdens our hearts and gives us a feeling of renewal. Whenever I pray, thanksgiving and supplication take up most of the “air time,” when confession should be given ample space since it is a godly practice that helps believers to reorient their lives to God. Whenever we confess, we break our natural affinity with the world’s
Victory Day: History matters
ON May 9, Russia celebrates one of its most significant national holidays—Day of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War—an integral part of the Second World War (WWII) of 1939-1945. It began at dawn on June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany, violating the Soviet-German non-invasion pact of 1939, ruthlessly attacked the USSR. The war lasted for almost four years and became the largest full-scale armed conflict in the history of humankind.
In modern Russia, as well as in most of the countries of the former USSR, people’s resistance in the Great Patriotic War is marked as an act of unity and sacrifice for the better future of generations to come. The memory of it is very much alive. Back then, the USSR fought Hitler’s Germany, Axis powers (Italy, Japan) and their proxies. At the cost of unthinkable efforts of the Soviet people, the Nazis were defeated. The Soviet Union lost over 27 million lives (40 percent of all losses in World War II) including 19 million civilians.
The 1943 Tehran conference, the 1945 Yalta and Potsdam Conferences resulted in the establishment of the United Nations organization, shaping the future of Europe and the postwar international order for almost half a century. New arrangements made it possible to resolve complex crises and disputes. Despite differences of opinions and ideological controversies, manifested in the form of the Cold War, the conditions created by the world powers allowed countries to engage in a multilateral dialogue as equals.
Today we are witnessing a deep crisis of this multilateral mecha-
nism. It seems like it is a deliberate destruction of this fragile structure. The US and their allies are trying to replace the international law and the UN Charter with their own concept of a “rules based” order. In view of this year’s Victory Day, we will once again recall some of the facts of the Ukrainian crises, orchestrated in 2014 by the so-called “collective West.” A clear example of the current failure of multilateralism, it is a “masterfully” conducted doublestandard show.
People in the Eastern part of Ukraine refused to accept results of the bloody February 2014 government coup. Kiev began to suppress them. In violation of the Ukrainian constitution, the Russian language, education and generally Russian cultural and religious tradition got under siege. Both Russian media outlets broadcasting in Ukraine and Ukrainian media outlets broadcasting in the Russian language and representing the opposition were banned. Millions of books were thrown out of libraries, some to be burned publicly like the Nazis had done in the past. Russophobia was literally codified, and a war against
broken standards. Daily confession helps believers realign with Christ and walk in the light as He is in the light.
In contrast, Bible studies and retreat sessions can be akin to siphoning septic tanks in the household —they help us get rid of excessive, unnecessary, long overdue “waste and garbage” in our hearts. Typically, spiritual retreats allow believers to look deeper within themselves and thoroughly confess their sins to God, who cleanses them from all unrighteousness. When I went on a four-day spiritual in 2019 (Heal For Life), I was reminded that I stand before God in the grace of Jesus Christ. I felt light and relieved as if tons of my sins were “siphoned” off my system that day!
Just like toilets in houses, our hearts are not visibly seen from the outside, not given much importance as compared to physical looks, but, definitely, require priority as part of essential living. Cleaning “the john” and cleaning our hearts are both essential in our physical and spiritual lives. Whether coincidence or providence, the name “John” in Scripture holds that much prominence and importance as John the Apostle often used the word “love” in his writings.
A former infantry and intelligence officer in the Army, Siegfred Mison showcased his servant leadership philosophy in organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Malcolm Law Offices, Infogix Inc., University of the East, Bureau of Immigration, and Philippine Airlines. He is a graduate of West Point in New York, Ateneo Law School, and University of Southern California. A corporate lawyer by profession, he is an inspirational teacher and a Spirit-filled writer with a mission. For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.
The “collective West” cynically falsifies the history of the WWII, diminishing the role and contribution of the USSR to the Great Victory, provoking the rise of the Russophobia. The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is under the blows of the Kyiv regime. The attempts to seize the property of the UOC are underway.
In parallel, the Kiev regime shamelessly stages torchlight processions under the banners of SS divisions in the center of the capital and other cities. Accomplices of the Nazis from the 14th SS-Volunteer division “Galicia” are glorified as well as armed Nazi formations and their leaders—the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Stepan Bandera) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Roman Shukhevich).
Why do Western countries keep silent? The question is rather rhetorical.
It appears as if Russia is once again under attack, like it was in the 1940s, by the neo-Nazi US-led coalition, created for similar reasons and, this time, using Ukraine as a tool. Since the beginning of the special military operation in February 2022, a rising number of people are able to enjoy the freedom from the martial law imposed by the Kiev regime. They do not have to shout Nazi slogans;
they are free to be proud of their Russian heritage and great history.
The May 9 Victory Day is one of its vital examples. People have the opportunity to honor the memory of their ancestors, which is important to them, without fearing criminal prosecution, insults and threats from Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
This is what denazification, proclaimed as one of the main goals of the special military operation, actually means. It goes along with demilitarization aimed at eliminating security threats coming from the Ukrainian territory and created in fact by Nato countries, as well as ensuring a neutral and nuclear-free status for Ukraine.
It needs to be highlighted that Russia is also fighting an intention of the “collective West” to return to its colonial ways of global domination and live at the expense of others. Together with the BRICS, SCO, EAEU and Asean partners, Russia puts all its efforts to build a system free of neocolonialism.
EMBASSY
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
dynamics. Aside from controlling liquidity and interest rates, however, inflation management should also address issues such as supply, logistics and distribution, which are within the purview of the national government. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has a good grasp of the situation, convened an Inter-agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook to study the different price pressures and take the necessary action. The
committee serves as an advisory body to the Economic Development Group on measures that will keep inflation, particularly on food and energy, within the government’s target range.
Per the National Economic and Development Authority, which chairs the committee, timely and enough importation is a short-term measure being considered to manage food inflation.
While the measure seems unpopular among farmers, it acknowledges the fact that we have a growing population and we need to augment our food supply to feed our people. Among the food com-
modities that we need to import are dairy products, wheat, rice, meat, fruits and vegetables. The committee believes importation is needed to fill the domestic supply shortfall of basic goods.
Of course, we should also support our agriculture sector to boost local production, attain sufficiency and tap the export market. As other countries also have increasing demand for food, we need to make sure that most of our requirements can be obtained locally.
Aside from importation as a short-term solution, the committee presented medium-term measures
to manage food inflation. These include boosting productivity and resiliency of the local agriculture sector and promoting private investment in facilities, transport and logistics systems to bring safe and nutritious food closer to consumers. I hope that inflation will sustain its downtrend in the coming months to give consumers more incentives to spend and in the process support economic expansion that will generate jobs and improve Filipinos’ income.
5/f
A12 Tuesday, May 9, 2023
THE chief prober of the inves -
tigating Senate Blue Ribbon Committee was prompted to suspend a hearing on what has been billed as “state-sponsored smuggling” of sugar after several Cabinet officials did not attend the hearing, with only Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin showing up.
B ersamin explained to the presiding committee chairman, Sen. Francis Tolentino why certain Cabinet officials invited to shed light on the controversy regarding Sugar Order No. 6, could not attend, even as he assured the probe panel, “but the Executive Secretary will always be at your disposal.”
T he Blue Ribbon inquiry was based on a resolution filed by Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros, who earlier had revealed that the sugar imports that were the subject of Sugar Order (SO) No. 6 were actually already in Philippine ports days before the SO 6 was issued.
T he investigation was meant to ascertain also if the SO 6 provisions may be opened to abuse, patronage and cartelization.
A t Monday’s public hearing, Senator Tolentino discussed Senate Resolution No. 497 which aims to tackle the entries of sugar shipments in the Philippine ports ahead of the issuance of SO 6.
Tolentino lamented, however, “I noticed the absence of several invited resource persons, notably members of the Cabinet who should have been here and give us critical information and testimony.”
He also noticed “specifically the absence of National Economic and Development Authority [Neda] Sec. Arsenio Balisacan, former Sugar Regulatory Administration [SRA] administrator David John Alba, Sec. Alfredo E. Pascual of the Department of Trade and Industry, and Usec. Domingo Panganiban of the Department of Agriculture,” Tolentino noted.
He explained, before seeking his panel members’ concurrence in suspending the hearing, that, “we will not be able to dig into its contents [documents] without the persons I mentioned.”
T he chief prober stressed that the personal testimonies of the no-show witnesses are crucial to the ongoing probe.
“ They are vital to the investigation that this committee will be undertaking. It might be difficult for us to continue without them,” he stressed.
B ersamin told senators that Balisacan and Pascual were still overseas on official missions; same with Panganiban. As for Alba, Bersamin noted that the former resigned his SRA post for health reasons, and as far as he knew, would undergo certain procedures. However, he promised to help the committee in getting Alba to appear by June.
Still, Hontiveros lamented the absence of Agriculture Undersecretary Panganiban who, she said, should shed light on the controversial importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar ahead of the issuance of Sugar Order No. 6.
Hontiveros noted that the move was “made without the approval of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, concurrent Department of Agriculture [DA] secretary.”
S he likewise questioned the DA’s selection of three sugar traders for supposedly giving them the “opportunity to control” sugar prices, in possible violation of anti-smuggling laws, and to the detriment of Filipino consumers.
O n Monday, PSA said the number of unemployed Filipinos declined by 461,000 to 2.42 million in March 2023 from the 2.88 million posted in March 2022. On a month-on-month basis, there was a decline of 58,000 from the 2.47 million posted in February 2023.
However, data obtained from the PSA showed there were 4.324 million workers without pay in their own family-operated farm or business in March 2023. This is 424,000 higher than the 3.901
million posted in March 2022. Passing major economic liberalization reforms is a critical first step [to sustainably raise wages and improve worker welfare],” National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said. He also emphasized that the government is addressing persistent issues and constraints to improving labor productivity and high-quality job generation.
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. finally created a new task force placing the government’s disaster response and crisis management operations under the Office of the President (OP). Under his Executive Order (EO) No. 24, the President will select the chairperson and vice chairperson of the Disaster Response and Crisis Management Task Force from its members.
T he members of the task force include the Office of the Executive Secretary, Department of National Defense (DND), Department of the Interior and Local Government
(DILG), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Transportation (DOTr) and Office of Civil Defense (OCD).
T he task force will oversee and coordinate preparation, monitoring and evaluation of disaster risk management (DRRM) plans and programs on disaster preparedness and response.
It will also lead in developing approaches to disaster prevention,
mitigation and response and collaborate with relevant government agencies and local governments for disaster preparedness and delivery of relief aid.
T he new presidential body also has “oversight powers over government agencies with relevant mandates on disaster preparedness and response.”
T his includes the power to convene the members of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) “for declaring and lifting a state of calamity, and approving disbursements from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund.”
Romualdez on Monday rallied fellow lawmakers at the House of Representatives to exert a final concerted push in the remaining four weeks of their session before their sine die adjourment to pass the pending priority measures of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. A ddressing the plenary at the resumption of the session of the House, Romualdez outlined their tasks before the sine die adjournment of the First Regular Session of the 19th Congress on June 2.
“As we face the remainder of the First Regular Session, we have merely four weeks to complete our legislative agenda that has been prescribed by no less than our President in his first SONA plus those that have been identified as priority measures in the Ledac [Legislative Executive Advisory Council],” Romualdez said. Later this afternoon [Monday] I will engage with our party leaders to see how we can make sure that the remainder of these four weeks before we adjourn sine die is used most efficiently and maximized so that we can achieve our goals in making sure that the common legislative agenda, not just of both Houses, but that of the Executive are achieved,” he added.
O n Sunday, Speaker Romualdez bared that President Marcos approved 11 additional bills, including the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) as part of Ledac, bringing to 42 from the original 31 the total number of priority administration measures.
T he task force is also mandated to create Quick Response Groups which can be deployed during or in anticipation of the imminent impact of a disaster.
I n November, Marcos announced he is considering transferring the jurisdiction over NDRRMC from the DND to the OP to address the council’s budget issues.
Currently, the NDRRMC relies on the funding of its member agencies for its operations.
T he transfer is meant to be an alternative to the proposed creation of the Department on Disaster Resilience (DDR) in Congress.
1. Amending the AFP Fixed Term Bill, which was transmitted to the President;
T he bills include:
2. Ease of Paying Taxes,
3. Maharlika Investment Fund,
4. Local Government Unit Income Classification, and
5. Amendment to Universal Health Care Act, which were already sent to the Senate;
6. Bureau of Immigration Modernization and 7. Infrastructure Development Plan/ Build Build BuildProgram, which is now for committee report preparation;
8. Philippine Salt Industry Development Act; 9. Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS), 10. National Employment Action Plan, and 11. Amendment to the AntiAgricultural Smuggling Act, which is under committee/technical working group (TWG) meeting. “ I implore all of you to continue the hard work that has now become the hallmark of the 19th Congress, a most hard-working and diligent Congress we have been. And I believe that we can still do much, much more in the furtherance of the interest of the Filipino people. Thank you for your work, for your service to the nation,” Romualdez said.
B efore this, the Speaker reported to the House plenary the results of the five-day official visit of President Marcos to the United States, which he characterized as “the most productive and the most successful one,” adding that it “has brought Philippine-US relations to its greatest heights in recent years.”
I’m proud to say that we, in conjunction with the Executive, had done our work with our counterparts in Capitol Hill in furthering and in enhancing and in deepening the relationships between the two countries, the Philippines and the United States—long historical allies—particularly during this period of uncertainty, post-Covid and the tensions that affect our region,” he added.
T he Speaker had accompanied Marcos in his various engagements, including those with US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and ranking members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
DESPITE the improvement in employment numbers, the number of unpaid family workers increased in March 2023, according to the preliminary results of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).Samuel P. Medenilla
P600 million last year.
a b oitizPower President e mm anuel r u bio also underscored the critical role of nonrenewable traditional energy sources in attaining energy security, especially during the hot dry season when electricity demand is at its peak.
“[e x isting] thermal plants will continue to have a significant role to play in terms of providing reliable and stable power for the country,” r u bio stated during an earlier television interview.
e n ergy demand has bounced back quite significantly. i n fact, we are seeing record peaks in the last few weeks given the hot weather,” he said, adding that
supply and demand margins currently remain thin as the only new investment for base load capacity was
g n Power Dinginin l t d. Co.’s
(g n Power Dinginin) 1,336-megawatt (MW) power plant in Mariveles, Bataan.” g n Power Dinginin is a partnership between a b oitizPower’s t herma Power i nc. and aC e nergy holdings i nc.
i n support of the country’s aspiration to increase the share of r e in its energy mix, a b oitizPower is expanding its r e portfolio to 4,600MW, resulting in a 50:50 balance between its r e and thermal capacities by 2030. a s of 2023,
a boitizPower has a pipeline of more than 1,000 MW of r e projects, including developing wind and solar farms throughout the country, as well as geothermal.
o n e thing i ’m sure of is that we really need to transition to cleaner technologies. i n base load, today the option is liquified natural gas [l ng] as a transition fuel, and balancing that with renewable energy,” he said. “We’ll have issues with regards to costs or reliability if we just keep on pushing [solely] for variable renewable energy. i t would [also] probably put [the stability of] our grid at risk.”
l ng is considered a cleaner base load capacity that complements r e power generation since l ng - powered turbines are able to quickly ramp up or down the quantity of its generated electricity to complement the inherent variability of certain r e sources.
i n the short- to mid-term, l ng is one of the options, although it still remains to be at a premium,” r u bio said.
t h e power firm is currently conducting a feasible study for its planned 1,200MW l ng plant in Pagbilao, Quezon which is targeted to meet base load requirement by
International Container te rminal Services i nc. ( iC t S i ) saw profits rising by almost a tenth in the first quarter, owing to the strong performance of its operations in various parts of the world.
i n a statement attached to its disclosure to the local bourse, iC t Si reported that its net income attributable to equity holders reached $154.61 million, a 9-percent increase from $142.28 million the year prior. t h is was driven by a higher operating income and lower pandemic-related expenses.
r e venues from port operations rose by 8 percent to $572.25 million from $528.27 million, as it grew its throughput by 9 percent to 3.10 million twenty-foot equivalent units ( t eUs)
from 2.83 million in 2022.
Consolidated cash operating expenses for the quarter reached $163.14 million, a 19-percent increase from $137.11 million, as it had to spend more on equipment, facilities, and government-mandated salary adjustments, among others.
t h is was partially tapered by continuous cost optimization measures implemented, as well as favorable foreign exchange in Pakistan and the Philippines.
Consolidated financing charges and other expenses for the first quarter declined by 6 percent to $40.78 million from $43.50 million.
t hese results have been driven by our diversified portfolio and continued focus on margins, and they have been achieved against a challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop,”
2028 to 2030.
a t the moment, a b oitizPower operates coal plants Pagbilao units 1 and 2 via t herma l u zon i nc. and Pagbilao unit 3 via a joint venture with te aM e nergy called the Pagbilao e nergy Corp.
a l so, a boitizPower is discussing with Japan generation company J e ra Co. i n c. the feasibility of co-firing ammonia on coal plants and hydrogen on l ng facilities to reduce carbon emissions during thermal power generation.
r u bio also expressed optimism over the possibility that small modular reactors (SM r s) will help hasten the country’s transition to a cleaner energy mix.
“ i personally believe that small modular reactors will have a role to play in the Philippine energy setting,” he said, adding that a b oitizPower is in continuous discussion with SM r technology providers, including multinational nu Scale Power Corp. “ i think the timeline will still be around mid-2035 when we can see this to be operating in the Philippines.”
nu clear energy technology is seen as a source of reliable and clean baseload power, considering the weather-independence of its fuel and its zero Co2 emissions.
Prime holdings inc. on Monday said it had a consolidated net income of P9.4 billion in January to March, some 27 percent higher than the P7.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues rose 20 percent to P28.7 billion from P23.9 billion last year.
“We are pleased to report a strong first quarter consolidated financial performance on SM Prime’s business. t his is a testament to the resilience of our businesses, and the hard work and dedication of our employees. Particularly, our recurring businesses have remarkably bounced back after being hit by the mobility restrictions and economic disruptions,” SM Prime President Jeffrey lim said.
t he company’s domestic mall business, which accounts for 54 percent of SM Prime’s consolidated revenues, recorded an 88 percent increase in revenues to P15.4 billion for the period from P8.2 billion last year.
rental income increased 72 percent to P13 billion from P7.6 billion in the same period a year ago due to the increase in tenant sales and foot traffic, as well as the full charging of rental fees that the company has been implementing since the second half of 2022.
t h e company’s local cinema, ticket sales and other revenues rose by 288 percent to P2.5 billion from
SM Prime’s China mall business registered r MB200 million in revenues in the first three months of 2023, almost on a par with last year’s level.
SM Prime’s residential business group, led by SM Development Corp., posted P8.5 billion in revenues, 29 percent lower than last year’s P12 billion.
t he fall in revenue is still partly due to canceled sales due to high inflation, rising domestic interest rates and the lapse of Bayanihan l aw. ho wever, cancellations are beginning to moderate in the first quarter, the company said.
SMDC’s sales take-up during the period reached P35.8 billion, 15 percent higher than last year’s P31.1 billion. t h is translates to a 23-percent increase in unit sales to 7,523 in the first quarter from last year’s 6,110. revenues of SM Prime’s other key businesses, which include offices, hotels and convention centers, reached P3.2 billion, 59 percent higher than the previous year’s P2 billion. SM Prime’s office business segment registered P1.7 billion in revenues, 25 percent higher than last year’s P1.4 billion.
t he company’s hotels and convention centers business segment recorded P1.5 billion in revenues, more than double from last year’s P700 million. VG Cabuag
said iC t Si Chairman and President e n rique K. r a zon Jr.
l o oking ahead, while we remain cautious of continued uncertainty, iC t Si is a strong and agile business differentiated by our strategy in origin and destination gateway terminals as well as an experienced team with a sharp focus on operational discipline, which positions us well for future growth.”
i C t S i has allotted $400 million in capital expenditures for 2023. So far, it has spent $87.69 million in the first quarter, investing in projects, such as the expansion of ports and the acquisition of new equipment for its ports.
t he company operates 33 terminals in 20 countries across six continents and continues to pursue container terminal opportunities around the world.
Metro Pacific i n vestments Corp. (MP i C ) has signed an agreement with Solar Philippines Power Project h o ldings i n c. (SPPP h i ) and listed SP n e w e n ergy Corp. (SP n e C ) which will grant MP i C or its affiliates the option to increase its stake in the solar company.
a c cording to their respective disclosures, MP i C will have the option to invest up to a total of P23.75 billion for 19 billion shares and become the largest shareholder with approximately 42.82 percent of SP n e C
“We have long seen a partnership with MP i C to be the key to unlock the potential of our project pipeline. We are humbled and grateful for this opportunity, and believe that SP n e C n ow has the final ingredients to realize the value of our developments for the benefit of all stakeholders,”
SP n e C and Solar Philippines C e o
l e andro l e viste said.
t h e option agreement signed on May 5 grants MP i C the option to acquire up to 17.4 billion SP n e C s hares, comprising up to 10 billion primary shares for up to P12.5 billion and up to 7.4 billion secondary shares for up to P9.25 billion. t h is is subject to SP n e C ’s increase in authorized capital stock to 50 billion shares from 10 billion shares.
t h is is on top of MP i C ’s earlier completion of the acquisition from Solar Philippines of an initial 1.6 billion SP n e C shares for P2 billion, signed on March 27. With MP i C ’s investment, SP n e C p lans to expedite the acquisition of shares of SPPP h i in various entities and funding of its developments, with the goal of making SP n e C the
largest renewable energy company in the Philippines.
t h e largest of these projects is in n u eva e c ija, where SP n e C is developing what could be a s ia’s largest solar project.
MP i C ’s investment into SP n e C is guided by the vision of the Department of e n ergy that 35 percent of the country’s energy should come from renewable energy by 2030.
o u r thrust of pursuing renewable energy brings the MVP g r oup one step closer to fulfilling our mission of creating long-term value for our stakeholders through responsible and sustainable investments,”
MP i C Chairman and President Manuel V. Pangilinan said during the signing for MP i C ’s initial investment.
SP n e C is an integrated developer, owner, and operator of solar power projects while MP i C is a company with investments in power, toll roads, water, transportation, healthcare and real estate.
Aboitiz Power Corp. (AboitizPower) said Monday the country’s shift to renewable energy (RE) should be “calculated and wellmanaged, as opposed to being urgent and aggressive,” to avoid “potential unintended consequences and standing tradeoffs.”
LOANS extended to Barangay Micro Business Enterprises (BMBEs) contracted 35.6 percent in 2022, according to the latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Based on the report on the Philippine Financial System for the second semester of 2022, the banking system granted a total of P43.3 million retail loans to BMBEs in 2022, lower than the P67.2 million in 2021.
The data showed the loans were extended by 21 banks to 2,870 BMBE borrowers in 2022. The same number of banks extended loans to 3,510 borrowers in 2021.
“With the continued recovery in the economy, the BSP has started to scale back the temporary relief measures introduced during the COVID-19 crisis save for those that incentivize lending to MSMEs, including BMBEs,” the BSP said.
However, BSP said, it extended the relief measures, such as the reduced credit risk weight of loans granted to BMBEs and all micro, small, and medium enterprises, to the end of June 2023 this year.
“The extension of these relief measures will encourage banks to continue to support financing requirements of creditworthy MSMEs, including BMBEs,” BSP assured.
Based on the data for 2022, across banking groups, rural banks (RBs) continued to hold the largest share at 66.3 percent or P28.7 million of the loans to BMBEs.
However, the loans extended by RBs contracted 29.5 percent or P12 million less than the P40.7 million posted in 2021. There were 17 RBs that extended loans to 2,642 borrowers.
Meanwhile, loans extended by cooperative banks (CBs) accounted for 20.8 percent or P9 million of the banking system’s total loans to BMBEs.
Loans extended by CBs to BMBEs contracted 50 percent from the P18 million it extended to these establishments in 2021. There were two CBs that extend-
ed to 89 BMBEs.
The data also showed that P4 million was extended by a thrift bank (TB) to 137 BMBes while a universal and commercial bank (UKB) extended P1.5 million worth of loans to two borrowers.
Loans extended by the TB contracted 21.6 percent while the UKB’s loans fell 57.1 percent compared to their 2021 levels.
“No wholesale loans were granted to BMBEs during the reference period,” the BSP added.
Meanwhile, based on the latest data, credit to MSMEs continued. As of end-December 2022, loans to the MSME sector of the banking system stood at P492.6 billion higher than the P470.1 billion recorded in December 2021.
In terms of new loans, the universal and commercial banks granted a total of P37.7 billion new loans to MSMEs for the month of October 2022, an increase from the P33.6 billion recorded for the same period a year ago.
In addition to providing new credit, banks have also been restructuring loans of their MSME borrowers. As of end-December 2022, total restructured MSME loans stood at P24.8 billion or about 5 percent of the total MSME loans.
BSP said BMBEs credit welfare is safeguarded as banks and other financial institutions that lend to this sector are required to comply with certain conditions.
These conditions include interest on loans to BMBEs should be just and reasonable and the schedule of loan amortization should take into consideration the projected cash flow of the borrowers.
The conditions also include that registered BMBE borrowers shall be exempted from submission of income tax returns as a condition for the grant of loans, considering that they are exempt from income tax on earnings arising from their operations, provided that before grant of the loan, banks shall undertake reasonable measures to determine the borrowers’ capability to pay.
COA Chairman Gamaliel A. Cordoba said he hopes that in leveraging technology to improve audit techniques and procedures, there will be enhanced communication with the audited agencies and bodies with oversight over COA audit reports, especially the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Cordoba outlined the commission’s plan on digitizing its systems along with his 10-point agenda in a recent strategic planning conference attended by 140 COA senior officials.
The Auditor-General said that shifting towards digitalization include developing an easy to implement government accounting system
that is compliant with international standards.
He also plans to digitize government transactions and conducting audits via “e-audit.” This will include collections, in partnership with all government agencies.
In early 2023, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said his administration will ramp up measures this year to digitalize the government to ensure efficient and fast delivery of services to the public.
Cordoba intends to complete COA’s digital transformation within seven years.
The Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 has mandated the promotion of regulatory technology, or “RegTech,” with the use of AI.
The PDP said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) “will continue to promote the use of ‘RegTech’ by supervised entities and adopt supervisory technology as
it digitalizes reportorial requirements and uses [AI] for its supervisory functions.”
The Philippines believes “RegTech” will “help fight cybercrimes and benefit financial sector firms and supervising agencies.”
“To improve regulatory compliance, the private sector can adopt RegTech in pursuing greater digitalization to improve the design and delivery of innovative financial products and services,” the PDP document reads. Its framers believe that “RegTech” will be able to provide “efficient and effective public and private sector solutions to prevent fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing; streamline prudential reporting; conduct effective creditworthiness assessments; and, provide a more efficient, timely and accurate manner of meeting reportorial and compliance requirements, among others.”
THE Social Security System (SSS) announced last Monday the appointment of Commissioner Diana Pardo Aguilar as Acting Member of the Social Security Commission (SSC), representing the Employers’ Group, last April 25.
The SSS statement read that Aguilar will continue to serve as a member of the SSC, the highest governing board of the SSS, from her first appointment in August 2010 and earlier reappointments in September 2013 and November 2016.
“With her continued presence in the SSC, she is able to provide meaningful and relevant context to various initiatives, especially those that have been initiated in previous administrations,” SSS President and CEO Rolando L. Macasaet was quoted in a statement issued nearly three weeks after Aguilar’s date of appointment.
As part of the SSC, Aguilar serves as the chairman of the risk management and investment committee that sets directions in making strategic initiatives and policy reforms that contribute to generating a higher return on investment for the SSS. This includes synchronizing the renewal of accreditations and amending pertinent policy guidelines to enhance transparency in the selection of brokers and governance of investible funds.
Aguilar is also a member of the Audit Committee of the SSC.
The Acting Commissioner holds concurrent directorships in the field of banking, investment and energy, among others. She has been a director
ACLEAR financial goal is the starting point of financial literacy. It determines the types of activities that are undertaken. Part of these activities would be those related to investing. While there are many investment options that are available in the country, there remains to be a lot of room for more Filipinos to invest.
There is no such thing as a perfect investment. There is no such thing as a complete investment. Each investment has its own benefits and considerations. Some types of investment options will be discussed.
Investing in business is one investment option. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and kicking in the country. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, micro, small and medium enterprises comprise about 99.5 percent of business establishments in the Philippines. There are three common ways to invest in a business. The first way is to develop a unique selling proposition and build a business from the ground. The second way is to purchase an existing profitable business. The third way is to get a franchise. Owning a business has benefits. Businesses give owners independence and flexibility in charting their own future. Businesses give owners the ability to convert their passion to profit. The right businesses can deliver sustained profit streams. Businesses offer immense support to the Philippine economy. As more entrepreneurs open businesses, more
Filipinos get employed. As more businesses are established, tax revenues can increase and these can help fund many government projects aimed at making lives better.
However, there are certain considerations. Initial capital or financing must be adequate. Having the right people for the business is critical. Building a business from scratch requires good market research since differentiation must be evident. Buying an existing profitable business requires continuity of legacy in terms of product, price, promo and place. Brand reputation and support of the franchise are essential for survival. As no business is an island, the general performance of the economy makes or breaks a business.
Investing in real estate is one investment option. Real estate has good utilitarian value since it can be used by an individual and the family. Real estate has investment value because of possible price appreciation and rental income. Development plans of both the national government and local government potentially make real estate more vibrant. There are considerations. Good real estate investments depend on the location. The reputation of the developer is a major factor. Financing
must be calculated well.
Investing in the stock market is one investment option. Only a small fraction of Filipinos invests in the stock market. There are two popular ways to invest in the stock market.
The first way is direct investing in stocks. One will need to have a stock broker. The second way is to invest through mutual funds and unit investment trust funds. These funds have professional fund managers who make the investment decisions. The main consideration with stocks and funds would be higher risks due to market volatility.
Investing in government instruments would be additional options.
Pag-IBIG has a regular savings program It also has the voluntary MP2 savings program which earns higher returns than regular savings. The Social Security System has the PESO Fund. Retail Treasury Bonds are starting to become popular options as well. The main benefit of these options would be their characteristic of being government-backed. However, the returns associated with their lower risk levels may not satisfy the appetite of risk-loving investors.
We save to beat temptation but we need to invest to beat inflation. Investing is a necessary activity that helps achieve financial freedom. In choosing the investment to take, one must be cognizant about the goal, time horizon and risk tolerance. The economy is further supported as more Filipinos invest.
ASENIOR lawmaker said only Congress has the power to merge the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), saying a mere executive order (EO) was not enough to amend their respective charters.
Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman said only Congress can grant legislative charters to operationalize government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCS), amend their charters or abolish or merge GOCCs.
Lagman explained that the DBP was created under Republic Act (RA) 2081 of 1958 and that the LBP was established by RA 3844 of 1963.
“They have separate legislative mandates,” he said.
According to Lagman, the projected merger cannot legally be effected by a mere executive order.
“The proposed merger of DBP and LBP necessitates the amendment of their respective charters by the Congress,” he said. “Only the Congress can amend or repeal statutes.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to merge LBP with DBP, with the former as the surviving entity, in a bid to achieve operating efficiencies and cost reductions.
Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno has forecast that the merger would lead to at least P5.3 billion in annual operating cost savings, or no less than P20 billion in the next four years.
LBP, which acts as the official depository of government funds, has 752 branches, 2,810 ATMs and over 10,000 employees. DBP has 147 branches, 836 ATMs and over 3,600 employees.
“Legislative enactment, not executive fiat, is mandatorily required to operationalize the proposed merger of DBP and LBP,” Lagman said.
Both LBP and DBP are covered by RA 7656, which requires GOCCs to declare as dividends and remit to the treasury at least 50 percent of their annual net profits.
and/or senior advisor for Security Bank Corporation since 2010 and is currently the Chairperson of its Trust Committee and SB Capital Investment Corporation. She is also a Director in PXP Energy Corporation.
Moreover, Aguilar serves in various capacities in socio-civic and non-profit organizations such as governor of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines and chairman of its committee on diversity and inclusion. She is also the chairman of the Board of Trustees of La Salle Green Hills Inc. since 2021 and a member of La Salle Philippines Investment Committee since July 2018. Aguilar is also a member of the La Salle Institute’s International Economic Council in Rome.
Aguilar earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Studies from De La Salle University. She graduated with honors from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, USA, with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Major in International Business and Finance.
Aside from Aguilar and Macasaet, the other members of the SSC are Secretary of Finance Benjamin E. Diokno (ex officio chairman); Secretary of Labor and Employment Bienvenido E. Laguesma (ex officio member); and Commissioners Anita Bumpus-Quitain, Jose C. Julio, Manuel L. Argel Jr., Robert Joseph M. De Claro and Eva B. Arcos. Macasaet sits as vice-chairman of the SSC.
THE Commission on Audit (COA) announced its plans on digitally transforming the government’s accounting system and using artificial intelligence (AI) to spot patterns or anomalies in a bid to easily detect fraud.
‘Power to merge DBP, LBP rests in Congress’
POPE Francis meets the journalists during a press conference aboard the airplane directed to Rome, at the end of his pastoral visit to Hungary, on April 30, 2023. AP
ABOARD the Papal Plane—Pope Francis said Sunday that talks were underway to return colonial-era artifacts in the Vatican Museum that were acquired from Indigenous peoples in Canada and voiced a willingness to return other problematic objects in the Vatican’s collection on a case-by-case basis.
“The Seventh Commandment comes to mind: If you steal something you have to give it back,” Francis said during an airborne press conference en route home from Hungary.
Recently, Francis returned to Greece the three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures that had been in the Vatican Museums’ collection for two centuries. The pope said Sunday that the restitution was “the right gesture” and that when such returns were possible, museums should undertake them.
“In the case where you can return things, where it’s necessary to make a gesture, better to do it,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t, if there are no possibilities— political, real or concrete possibilities. But in the cases where you can restitute, please do it. It’s good for everyone, so you don’t get used to putting your hands in someone else’s pockets.”
His comments to The Associated Press were his first on a question that has forced many museums in Europe and North America to rethink their ethnographic and anthropological collections. The restitution debate has gathered steam amid a reckoning for the colonial conquests of Africa, the Americas and Asia and demands for restitution of war loot by the countries and communities of origin.
The Vatican has an extensive collection of artifacts and art made by Indigenous peoples from around the world, much of it sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 exhibition in the Vatican gardens.
THE exhibit will showcase three forms of Japanese art: Bonsai, a miniaturized but realistic representation of nature in the form of a tree; Ikebana a Japanese art flower arrangement; and Suiseki, the Japanese art of stone appreciation which values aspects like stability, longevity and immortality.
By Eugenia Last
DAY: Steve Yzerman, 58; John Corbett, 62; Billy Joel, 74; Candice Bergen, 77.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Use your knowledge and charm to win favors and improve your position. Building a solid base will help you further your beliefs and encourage you to form alliances with people who share your concerns. Make a difference this year by responding to what’s happening around you. Recognize who is on your side and who isn’t, and use connections to further your interests. Your numbers are 5, 18, 22, 26, 30, 38, 43.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Emotional problems will surface if you are too explicit regarding your plans. Take your time, strategize and leave nothing to chance. A passionate approach when dealing with a friend, colleague or relative will help you gain the support you need to forge ahead. ★★
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you believe in fate? Embrace whatever comes your way and search for an appropriate solution. What you discover will change your life and meaningful relationships. Speak from the heart, making what you have to offer crystal clear. ★★★★★
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Get organized, and spend more time and money on learning and developing. Check out investments and look for ways to lower your overhead. Take on what you can handle and do your research. ★★★
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Share your thoughts and feelings with someone you love or want to partner with, and you’ll progress. Your insight and ability to put others at ease will help when trying to drum up support and help from those with something to contribute. ★★★
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): A steady pace and paying attention to detail will help you finish what you start. Don’t let anyone interfere with your schedule. A positive attitude will help you handle a sensitive issue tactfully. ★★★
The Vatican insists the artifacts, including ceremonial masks, wampum belts and feathered headdresses, were gifts. But Indigenous scholars dispute whether Native peoples at the time could have freely offered their handicrafts given the power differentials at play in colonial periods.
Francis, the first-ever Latin American pope, knows the history well. Last year, he traveled to Canada to personally apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses they endured at the hands of Catholic missionaries at residential schools.
In the run-up to the visit, Indigenous groups visited the Vatican’s Anima Mundi museum, saw
GET ready for the grandest bonsai exhibition in Asia, presented by SM Mall of Asia and the Philippine Bonsai Society. The exhibit will open on June 10 at the Music Hall of SM Mall of Asia.
This year’s event is extra special as it features the first-ever joint convention of the Asia Pacific Bonsai and Suiseki Convention (ASPAC) and the Asia-Pacific Bonsai Friendship Federation (ABFF), the regional group of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF), the largest bonsai organization globally. The exhibition also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Philippine Bonsai Society, the country’s oldest and most prestigious garden club.
The exhibit which will be showcased at the Entertainment Mall, Music Hall and at SM By the Bay will feature three forms of Japanese art—Bonsai, a miniaturized but realistic representation of nature in the form of a tree; Ikebana, a Japanese art flower arrangement, and Suiseki, the Japanese art of stone appreciation, which values aspects like stability, longevity and immortality.
The display has attracted presidents and members of bonsai clubs from all over the Asia Pacific, and top
bonsai masters from the region will conduct lectures and demonstrations on bonsai. Additionally, there will be lectures and demos on ikebana and suiseki. A garden bazaar for plant
some of their ancestors’ handiwork, and expressed interest in having greater access to the collection, and the return of some items.
“The restitution of the Indigenous things is underway with Canada—at least we agreed to do it,” Francis said, adding that the Holy See’s experience meeting with the Indigenous groups in Canada had been “very fruitful.”
Indeed, just a few weeks ago in another followup to the Canada apology, the Vatican formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery.” This theory,
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)Gather information and prepare to discuss what’s important to you and who you plan to achieve your dreams alongside. Social events, conventions, travel and educational pursuits will help you connect with people instrumental in achieving your long-term goals.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Don’t overspend or take on more than you can handle. Keeping the peace will be in your best interest. Look for a unique way to present what you have to offer, and you’ll receive helpful feedback. ★★
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Put your energy where it counts, and you’ll gain momentum and generate interest in your plans and progress. You will change how you feel about partnerships and who you want to spend more time working alongside if you invest more time in others.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Be careful not to share sensitive information. Put your energy into how you earn your living and handle your money. Take better care of your health and emotional well-being. Do your best to achieve peace by distancing yourself from manipulative people and situations. ★★★
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Put everything you’ve got into what you enjoy doing most, and you’ll get great results. Focus on relationships, and protect yourself from being coerced into temptation and overindulgence. ★★★
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A friend, relative or peer will oppose you. Be blunt about what you want and go your separate way. Look for any underlying problem that might interfere with your progress. Use your strengths to get ahead, and don’t mix business with pleasure. ★★★
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Added discipline will help you gain ground. Be direct about what you want to do, and implement the changes necessary to point you in the right direction. An event that requires physical strength and a good imagination will put you in the spotlight. ★★★★
enthusiasts will be set up at SM By the Bay, just outside the bonsai exhibit. The biggest display of Japanese art in Asia happens from June 10 to 20 at the SM Mall of Asia.
The
BIRTHDAY BABY:
You are dedicated, energetic and helpful. You are sincere and charitable.
Crossword • Edited by David Steinberg/Anna Gundlach
RELIVE the adventure and romance of one of the most beloved performances in classical ballet as Ballet Manila restages Don Quixote, showcasing the dance company’s strength in classical ballet at its highest standards. The shows will be on May 27, 8 pm, and May 28, 5 pm, at the Aliw Theater in Pasay City.
“The challenges that Ballet Manila has faced these past years have proven our grit and resilience in the face of adversity, which I believe is relatable with Don Quixote’s burning passion, the love for adventure and challenges to prove oneself. It also fills me with so much excitement to showcase our edge in classical ballet once again as a dance company with the return of Don Quixote this year,” said Liza Macuja Elizalde, artistic director of Ballet Manila.
Embodying the Hispanic spirit of Don Quixote’s epic tale is American danseur and rising star of San Francisco Ballet Esteban Hernandez, who will fly into Manila to perform as Basilio, Kitri’s love interest. Hernandez is fast gaining recognition in the international ballet scene. He joined San Francisco Ballet in 2013, was promoted as a soloist in 2017 and principal dancer in 2019.
One of the most notable feats of San Francisco’s rising star was his performance at Gala Despertares in Mexico City, which was produced by Soul Arts Productions, owned by Esteban and his brother, Isaac Hernandez.
He has also received multiple accolades including the Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus for achievements in the performing arts held at Sacramento, California, He is also a recipient of the Jerome Robbins Foundation Award and gold medals at the Youth America Grand Prix and was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Mexico.
The iconic role of Kitri, on the other hand, will be performed by Ballet Manila’s principal dancer, Jasmine Pia Dames, who is also a Gawad Buhay 2015 awardee as Best Featured Female in Classical Ballet for her role in Romeo and Juliet
Interestingly, her twin sister Jessica Pearl portrayed the same role in the modern iteration of the same story directed by Martin Lawrance in February, which is also part of the 25th season performance.
“The role of Kitri has always been one of my favorite ballerina roles. As a mentor and director, it brings me great joy to see Ballet Manila’s future Kitris embody the grace, strength, and passion that this role demands,” said Macuja-Elizalde.
“We see this as an opportunity to showcase the depth of talent in our company,” she adds.
Don Quixote is part of Ballet Manila’s 25th season performance on its 27th year which was kicked off by Martin Lawrance’s very Filipino and contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet in February.
More information about Ballet Manila and its upcoming shows is available at www.balletmanila. com.ph. For tickets, contact www.ticketworld.com.ph or 8891-9999.
Continued from B4
backed by 15th-century “papal bulls,” was used to legitimize the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and forms the basis of some property laws today in the US and Canada.
Francis recalled that looting was a common feature during colonial-era wars and occupations. “They took these decisions to take the good things from the other,” he said. He said going forward, museums “have to make a discernment in each case,” but that where possible, restitution of objects should be made.
“And if tomorrow the Egyptians come and ask for the obelisk, what will we do?” he said chuckling, referring to the great obelisk that stands at the center of Saint Peter’s Square. The Roman Emperor Caligula brought the ancient obelisk to Rome more than 2,000 years ago, and it was moved to the square in the 16th century.
The Vatican Museums are mentioned in the 2020 book The Brutish Museums, which recounts the sacking of the Royal Court of Benin City by British forces in 1897 and the subsequent dispersal in museums and collections around the globe of its famed Benin Bronzes.
In the appendix, the Vatican is listed as one of the museums, galleries or collections that “may” have objects looted from Benin City, in today’s Nigeria, in 1897.
The Vatican Museums hasn’t responded to requests for information. The Nigerian Embassy to the Holy See, asked recently about the claim, said its “contact in the Vatican is currently looking into the issue.” n
THERE are mothers—and there are single mothers. In celebration of Mother’s Day, we single out those who continue to inspire us with their fearless resilience, unrelenting courage, and indomitable spirit.
Raising their children on their own because of circumstances, decision, or fate, these celebrity single mothers are living testimonies of what being bold, brave and beautiful is all about.
ANGEL AQUINO
NOW 50, Angel Aquino still owns one of the most exquisite faces in local show business, but her beauty is certainly beyond the physical. She is well-loved by her peers and coworkers for her professionalism, and for being so simple, effortless and grounded.
Angel became a mother early on in life and after separating from her Baguio-based husband, she became one of the most beautiful single moms in tinseltown. Aquino never stopped working, and as her career strengthened with every project she takes on, her main focus is still her family.
“My daughters are my life, my purpose and my happiness. I may not always be there while they were growing up, but they were aware that they are the reason why I work hard,” she intoned.
Her daughters Iana and Thea have already graduated from university, and both are also passionate about filmmaking. “They can be who they want to be, and I’ll always be their supportive mom as they find their own purpose and happiness in life.”
KRIS AQUINO
HOPEFUL is perhaps the closest adjective we could find in describing Kris Aquino, who has been battling diseases related to autoimmune conditions for many years now.
Aquino, now 52, is currently in the United States with her youngest son James Carlos Aquino Yap Jr., popularly known as Bimby. When Bimby turned 16 recently, Aquino penned a heartfelt message that partly read: “You are the reason I can’t give up, and I continue fighting what at times feels like a losing battle.” Bimby’s older brother Joshua is back in the Philippines for the meantime.
From time to time, Aquino updates her fans and followers about her condition. Recently, she thanked her medical team at the University of California Irvine (UCI) Medical Center in Orange County, sharing that she has many limitations when it comes to medicine and treatments because of her allergies yet her doctors were able to find possible treatments that might help restore her health and make healing possible.
Her resilience and faith keep her strong, and her love for her two children serves as her real strength and anchor especially when times are rough and hope seems dim. We continue to wish Aquino the best, and we send our wishes for her health and healing.
CRISTINE REYES
THE past 20 years in the life of Cristine Reyes have been more than colorful. She got married to part-time actor and martial arts enthusiast Ali Khatibi, had a daughter named Amarah, but the couple eventually separated.
Reyes’s career has been on the upswing but her priority has always been her daughter, now 8 years old. “I am a happy single mom, and I make it a point to just move forward and never look back. Besides, my hands are full with my daughter and my work, and I get to channel all my energies to her, making sure she feels the love and care she needs,” said Reyes, who never closed the door on her ex as far as shared parenting responsibilities is concerned.
Reyes was in the news again very recently after she found a new love, actor Marco Gumabao, who is 6 years younger than her. “Life is beautiful, and as long as we believe that we deserve the best, it always leads us to where we can find our happy place,” she said.
ANNA MARIN
WE are happy that Anna Marin is active again in the acting circuit. For local cinema followers who saw Marilou Abaya’s now classic film Moral in 1982, Marin
played Marites, one of the four lead female characters from Ricky Lee’s amazing script.
While at the peak of her promising career, Marin had a beautiful relationship with Fernando Poe Jr. and decided to settle in the US. They have a son, Ronian, who is now a prized international DJ and a high-end tattoo shop owner. Marin also has another son, Bryan, who is in the food business.
“Being a single mom has its share of joys and challenges, and there is absolutely nothing a mother won’t do for her children just to ensure their happiness and well-being. Living overseas while raising our small family was not easy, but looking back it was all worth it,” she shared.
Now that both her boys are adults, Marin is back doing what she loves best. She just finished her stint in the TV series Iron Heart, and looks forward to doing more work as an actress. She is also happy that she has kept her closed friendships with her showbiz batchmates all these years.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms, with special mention to all the single mothers like Angel, Kris, Cristine and Anna who continue to redefine motherhood in their best ways possible. n
BEING the most expensive and biggest TV production to date of GMA Network, Voltes V: Legacy has definitely faced several challenges before its much-anticipated world premiere on May 8.
LOS ANGELES—kevin Costner and his wife of nearly 19 years, Christine Baumgartner, are divorcing, a representative for the actor said on Tuesday.
“It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage,” Costner’s publicist Arnold Robinson said in a statement.
Costner and Baumgartner, a model and handbag designer, began dating in 1998 before getting married at his Colorado ranch in 2004. They have two sons, ages 14 and 15, and a 12-year-old daughter together.
It was the second marriage for Costner, 68, the Oscar and Emmy winning star of TV’s Yellowstone and films, including Dances With Wolves, The Bodyguard and Bull Durham.
Costner also has four adult children from previous relationships. AP
Directed by Mark Reyes, the country’s biggest series this 2023 is headlined by the network’ young stars Miguel Tanfelix as Steve Armstrong, Ysabel Ortega as Jamie Robinson, Radson Flores as Mark Gordon, Raphael Landicho as Little Jon Armstrong, and Matt Lozano as Big Bert Armstrong. GMA assistant vice president for drama Helen Rose S. Sese highlighted how the show began its production at the height of the pandemic in 2020: “Nag-start kami mag-shoot noong simula ng pandemic, naka-lock in kami. Imagine ’yung threat ng Covid-19 at that time and ’yung gastos ng network na lahat kami naka-lock in. Dagdag pa ’yung mahigpit na protocols na kailangang sundin.”
Sese also revealed that the team had to make significant adjustments such as with the character of Little Jon: “Three years kaming magkakasama. Si Little Jon [Raphael] maliit pa noon. Tatlong beses kaming nagpagawa ng costume niya at isa ’yun sa malaking challenge na pinagdaanan ng production kasi hindi pwedeng mag-shoot noon ang minor.”
Moreover, the GMA executive reminisced the personal sacrifices of the production team just to put up a grand and phenomenal series, like Voltes V: Legacy. But at the end, Sese reiterated that everything has paid off.
Sese expressed her gratitude for the trust of GMA: “We’re very thankful sa network kasi ang dami naming pinagdaanan na additional taping days just to finish this. I’m very thankful
for the support of the network to come up with such a good project.”
The live action series is produced by GMA Network in partnership with Toei Company, Ltd. and Telesuccess Productions Inc. Acclaimed local animators from GMA’s Post Video Graphics and Audio team and Riot Inc. handled the program’s heavy CGI and other visual effects.
Voltes V: Legacy is produced by the award-winning GMA Entertainment Group headed by senior vice president Lilybeth G. Rasonable.
Voltes V: Legacy airs weeknights at 8 pm on GMA, and at 9:40 pm on GTV. Viewers abroad can catch the program via GMA Pinoy TV.
mind, creating a flexible workspace that caters to the diverse needs of modern businesses and t heir employees. With KMC’s community-oriented approach and state-of-the-art facilities, SM North EDSA Tower 1 is poised to become a hub for networking, creativity, and growth.
Hybrid office space allows for the inperson mentoring, meetings, and team communication, valued in particular by increasing numbers of Gen Z employees, but with the seamless flexibility for staff to enjoy the ease and efficiency of a working day at home.
AFTER over two years of living with the global pandemic, various gaps in the local healthcare industry have brought to light the urgent need for continuous training and support for clinical talent in the Philippines.
The World Health Organization’s State of the World’s Nursing 2020 report showed that the Philippines will need 249,843 nurses by 2030, unless greater investment is made to retain them in the Philippine health sector. In 2022, the Philippine government announced that the country lacked around 106,000 nurses for public and private health facilities nationwide.
establishment, Optum has now helped enrich the clinical education of over 1,122 nursing students throughout the country and continues to grow with the support of institutional partners Angeles University, Far Eastern University, and Manila Doctors Hospital. The institution continues to actively look for more interested partners.
KMC, the Philippines’ largest provider of coworking spaces, inaugurated SM North EDSA Tower 1 in Quezon City on Thursday, April 27, 2023, with plans of opening two more sites at Jollibee Tower, Pasig, and Lexmark, Cebu Business Park in May. Each offers state-ofthe-art tech and business facilities and fully equipped social amenities, making hybrid work more achievable and sustainable for Filipino businesses.
SM North EDSA Tower 1 is KMC Solutions’ first new flexible office development in 2023, with 553 seats across 2,449 sqm of floorspace. Located close to transit hubs, pedestrian walkways, shopping malls, and restaurants, the new flexible workspace in Manila offers a truly flexible working environment with hot desks and retractable outlets alongside a pantry, mind and body training room, shower facilities, and an ice cream machine.
Meanwhile, the Jollibee Tower on Emerald Street, Ortigas, will offer 741 seats over 1,869 sqm of floor space, while the 5,590-sqm Lexmark, a PEZA-accredited building, will have 1,215 seats.
KMC’s total footprint now spans across
27 buildings, totaling an impressive 106,442 square meters. These new workspaces are sure t o meet the growing demand for flexible office solutions in the country, and KMC is excited to continue providing topnotch workspaces for businesses of all sizes.
Businesses and individuals renting office space in the KMC Solutions developments can expect flexible workspace designed for human moments. Each office strikes a balance between privacy and openness, with the need for social interaction taking equal precedence alongside business function.
KMC’s latest addition, the SM North EDSA Tower 1, is opening at a time when many employees are seeking to rebuild their social capital, which McKinsey defines as “the presence of networks, relationships, shared norms, and trust,” following the isolation and disruption caused by the pandemic.
As a result, the role of the office is shifting from an individual-focused work environment to a social hub that fosters cooperation and innovative, unscripted collaboration. KMC recognizes this changing dynamic and has designed their space at SM North EDSA Tower 1 with this in
Commenting on the launch, Gian Reyes, VP of Marketing at KMC Solutions, said: “For businesses in the Philippines, the future of work is clear. People work best when they have the flexibility to work how they are programmed to work, not how they are forced to by traditional workplace norms.
“The pandemic has given businesses in the Philippines the opportunity to rethink how they get the most out of their employees. Flexible working from a hybrid office is the future our businesses need.”
“Our new office layouts are sensitive to the changing nature of work, with flexible solutions that allow for truly collaborative, meaningful professional engagement. We cater to individuals that need space to express themselves, employees who work best from the sofa, or people that need the structured surroundings of a more traditional office. Our flexible working philosophy means everyone can find the environment that drives their focus, creativity, and innovation.”
“Hybrid working is emerging as the leading choice in the way we work. Companies that fragment their offices and offer multiple, smaller locations can offer the best of both working worlds and consequently attract and retain the best talent,” he said.
SIKA has completed the acquisition of the MBCC Group after having received all necessary regulatory approvals. With this highly complementary transaction, Sika strengthens its footprint across all regions, reinforces its range of products and services across the entire construction life cycle and drives the sustainable transformation of the construction industry further and faster.
MBCC Group, headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, and formerly owned by an affiliate of Lone Star Funds, is active in the field of construction systems and admixture systems. To close the transaction and to comply with regulatory requirements, Sika sold MBCC Group’s chemical admixtures assets in the UK, the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia,
and New Zealand to the international private equity firm Cinven. The business now acquired by Sika generated sales of CHF 2.1 billion in 2022, employs 6,200 people and operates in over 60 countries and 95 production facilities.
Thomas Hasler, Sika CEO, said, “We are delighted to welcome the MBCC employees to the Sika family. We embark on our exciting journey and will continue to drive Sika’s growth story. Thanks to our extensive experience in integrating companies, we will successfully bring Sika and MBCC together and combine our strengths to create the new reference in the construction chemicals industry. Together we will deliver worldclass performance for our customers and develop innovative, sustainable solutions.”
After the successful closing, Sika’s
sustainable product portfolio will be further enhanced with MBCC’s innovative technologies. Sika will offer a wide and comprehensive range of solutions to enable the sustainable transformation of the construction industry and help customers reduce their carbon footprint.
With this transaction, Sika strengthens its growth platform by broadening its product and solution offerings in four of five core technologies and seven of eight Sika Target Markets. Customers will benefit from an enhanced and more efficient distribution network across all construction markets. Sika expects to generate annual synergies in the range of CHF (Swiss Francs)160 to 180 million by 2026. The combined Group is set to reach sales in excess of CHF 12 billion in 2023.
SAYAW Workshop 2023, a twoweek intensive dance and music workshop to be presented by PWU C-CAMS in collaboration with the Bayanihan Folk Arts Foundation, Inc. is set to begin on May 22, 2023.
The workshop is open to children, teens and adult dance enthusiasts. Workshop participants will learn the dance and music of Bayanihan, the National Dance Company.
For this year’s workshop, a new module for rondalla and music enthusiasts will be introduced.
Schedule of workshop is 9 am to 11 am for children; 9 am to 3 pm for teens as well as for adult participants; and 9 am to 12:00 noon for musicians.
The workshop will run until June 3 with a culminating show at 3 pm at the historic Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
“When you dance, you can enjoy the luxury of being you.” This quote
from renowned novelist and lyricist Paulo Coelho is an inspiration for dance enthusiasts to have fun and spend summer and schoolbreak learning the performing arts with the world-famous Bayanihan.
For inquiries and to enroll, please contact mobile nos. 09225551534 or 09178714429; email: bayanihandance@ gmail.com or follow Bayanihan @ bayanihannationaldanceco.
Along with the increase in demand is the rapidly evolving sphere of digital technology. This is driving changes in the healthcare industry that our local nurses may not be able to keep up with. While there is an existing act set to aid them in their pursuit of further education, the challenge remains that they are often too busy fighting the demands across hospitals in the country.
Republic Act No. 10912, or the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act of 2016 was implemented to ensure the continuous improvement of Filipino professionals to keep them up to date with the latest advancements in their field. The requirements for nurses specifically necessitate their attendance at conferences and lectures outside of their current work or studies with some courses costing up to thousands of pesos to complete the full 15-unit requirement.
Beyond the cost, nurses are faced with the challenge of dedicating time for the learning sessions between fluctuating hospital shifts as well as difficulties in finding transportation to the various seminar venues.
To address this problem among the nurses, the Optum Global Solutions’ Philippines Learning Solutions team initiated the RN Ready program to provide employees with free, self-paced classes to help improve clinical domain knowledge. With the program, nurses are provided support to fulfill the requirements for R.A 10912.
Following its in-house success, Optum has extended the program to participants outside of its talent pool, creating RN Ready Plus. The program aims to provide its partners with additional clinical educational courses and materials that can be used by nurses, nursing graduates, and nursing students to further their knowledge in the field.
In just a little over a year since its
The RN Ready Plus program makes these clinical education resources more accessible, allowing nurses to balance their studies and current workloads without worrying about the financial and logistical constraints that often hinder them from acquiring their CPD. Free, non-exclusive, online courses with on-demand training for its enrollees are provided, eliminating any additional costs one would need not only for enrollment, but also transportation, course materials, and the like, essentially prioritizing the enrollee and their personal development above anything else.
With many globally competitive courses available and more under development, enrollees of the program have access to a wide range of topics from clinical discipline to advance nursing concepts in Mental Health, Nursing Informatics, and International Healthcare Systems. These courses are taught with a centralized learning management system and advanced technology that utilizes digital learning, virtual reality, streaming, and learner tracking.
The RN Ready Plus program is only one of several self-development and employeecentered programs we at Optum have produced in recent years. The nursing profession and healthcare industry offers multiple career growth opportunities and many pathways to leadership, and thus inspire us at Optum to foster a community of professionals always ready to seize new opportunities. Other upcoming initiatives include programs and events designed for healthcare professionals to engage with other industry stakeholders, and other upskilling programs for aspiring/practicing nurses. In keeping up with our commitment to putting our employees at the forefront of our operations and decisions, Optum leads by example by continuously providing new avenues for growth and development among its employees. Beyond the benefits of upskilling our own workforce, Optum sees the value of taking steps such as the RN Ready Plus program to further encourage sustainable change within the local healthcare industry.
PUREGOLD will hold its 15th Tindahan ni Aling Puring SariSari Store Convention 2023 on May 18, 19, and 20 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. This year’s theme “Sari-Saring Saya, Sari-Saring Benta,” celebrates the Tindahan Ni Aling Puring (TNAP) program’s diverse membership of small and medium-scale business owners that include sari-sari store owners, bulk buyers, caterers, operators of karinderyas, canteens, bakeries and online sellers.
Through TNAP, these entrepreneurs enjoy negosyo promotions and discounts when purchasing from Puregold as well as perks and privileges that help them grow and expand their businesses. An example of this is the recently introduced cashback rewards program that gives members the chance to earn cashback points with a lesser purchase requirement.
At the upcoming convention, TNAP members can expect to be treated to valuefor-money deals and instant freebies.
Aside from this, they may also engage with some of the country’s brightest business minds and join the free seminars that will be held at the event. Invited speakers are
Chinkee Tan, author of best-selling books on money and business; Pocholo Gonzales, motivational speaker on leadership and entrepreneurial mindset; and Rose Fres Fausto, writer and lecturer on financial literacy.
Resource persons from TikTok, and Globe will also offer useful tips to Aling Puring members who utilize digital tools in pursuing business transformation.
For Vincent Co, President of Puregold Price Club Inc., such benefits work both ways. “Puregold looks forward to the next 25 years with all the hard-working sari-sari store and business owners who are part of the Aling Puring program,” he said. “We will continue to engage much of our company’s efforts in consistently improving customer experience, whether through our consistent offers of discounts or innovations like the Puregold Mobile and Aling Puring app.” Exciting opportunities for business growth await participants at the Tindahan ni Aling Puring Sari-Sari Store Convention 2023. While Co enjoins all members to attend, an estimated 30,000 Aling Puring members are expected to be at the festive event.
In Powell’s view, the gravitydefying strength of American labor markets—on display again in jobs data published Friday, which showed a bumper increase last month—is smoothing the way for a soft landing, even after five percentage points of interest-rate hikes in little over a year.
“It’s possible that this time is really different,” the Fed chief told reporters last week after raising rates for a tenth straight time.
Still, a labor market that remains too-hot-to-handle means the Fed will have to hold rates higher for longer to quell inflation—the very reason recession risks are so high. And for Powell’s forecast to come true, the US economy will have to overcome three major obstacles, all pointing to a downturn in the second half of this year.
A looming credit crunch. Driven by the combined impact of Fed tightening and bank failures, it will likely hit small businesses and commercial real estate especially hard.
A debt-ceiling deadlock in Washington. Coming to a head right now, the partisan standoff threatens a period of intense financial stress. If the US government does default, the blow to the economy and markets could rival the 2008 crash.
A climate wildcard from El Niño. The weather system is gathering force, threatening extreme conditions around the world that would disrupt commodity supplies, push prices higher, and keep the Fed focused on inflation.
And if this trifecta does tip the economy into a slump, there may not be much that Powell and his colleagues can do about it. Rate cuts are the main recessionfighting tool—but it’s tricky for the Fed to deploy them when it’s still struggling to bring inflation back to target.
The fastest monetary tightening in four decades was always going to come at a price. The Fed has jacked up rates from near-zero to above 5 percent since March last year. In recent history, the number of cases when that kind of policy didn’t lead to recession is precisely zero.
“I don’t believe there is a good example of a ‘soft landing’ in the five or so decades that the Federal Reserve has been mostly in charge of macroeconomic policy, and don’t see why the present situation should be different,” says James Galbraith, an economics professor at the University of Texas who in 1978 worked on the legislation that enshrined the Fed’s full-employment goal.
THE dynamics that lead from higher rates to a shrinking economy are straightforward. As borrowing costs climb and asset prices fall, spending slows and businesses cut jobs. For central banks that rise in unemployment—and the resulting drag on wages—is the mechanism that brings inflation back to target.
Recessions, in other words, are not an accidental side effect of attempts to rein in inflation.
They are the main show. That’s why, even when the Fed was just getting started with rate hikes last year, Bloomberg Economics forecast a downturn in the second half of 2023.
Then came the banking scare.
The wave of failures that began with Silicon Valley Bank was, in some sense, not a surprise. No one knew exactly what would break as the Fed hiked—but everyone suspected that something would.
If Fed officials could choose, though, they would probably not have picked collapsing regional banks as their preferred mechanism for delivering disinflation.
Bank failures amplify the effect of higher interest rates in curbing credit. Even last year, the Senior Loan Officer Survey—the Fed’s preferred barometer—showed lending standards getting tighter, and that trend will only accelerate after SVB. Typically, lending slowdowns follow with a lag after banks turn cautious, one reason to pinpoint the downturn in the second half.
What’s more, stresses in the banking system have a tendency to snowball. Early assurances that SVB was an extreme outlier now look wide off the mark, as contagion has spread. Taken together, bank failures in 2023 already rival those in 2008 in terms of asset size.
At his press conference, Powell called the resolution of First
Republic—taken over by JPMorgan Chase & Co. last week—an “important step toward drawing a line” under the crisis. Volatility in shares of other regional lenders since then suggests the line remains dotted.
IN Washington, meanwhile, the debt-ceiling standoff is escalating toward something that looks more dangerous than past episodes.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a blunt warning to US lawmakers on May 1: her department’s ability to use special accounting maneuvers to stay within the debt limit could be exhausted as early as the start of June. The Treasury has been ducking and weaving to avoid default since hitting the current statutory limit of $31.4 trillion in January.
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are due to hold debt-ceiling talks on May 9, but expectations for a breakthrough are muted. McCarthy has already pushed through a Republican bill that would impose sweeping spending cuts in return for raising the ceiling, something Democrats have rejected.
In a best-case scenario, there’ll be a period of elevated market stress ahead of a deal. In the worst, default would tip the global financial system into the abyss and the
US economy into a deep downturn.
If growth does start to slide, sticky inflation will limit the Fed’s room to respond.
With prices rising much faster than the Fed wants, “it would not be appropriate to cut rates and we won’t cut rates,” Powell told reporters last week. Translation: If recession hits, don’t expect us to ride to the rescue with monetary stimulus.
At 5 percent in March, the headline consumer-price inflation rate has fallen steeply from a peak above 9 percent last summer. But that was the easy part—with unsnarling supply chains and falling energy costs doing the Fed’s job for them. The hardest yards lie ahead.
Bloomberg Economics forecasts that rising wages, and the end of the disinflationary impulse from goods and energy, will leave core inflation stuck around 4 percent the end of this year. And it could be worse.
Enter El Niño
THE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects a 62 percent chance of the extreme weather system developing between May and July, rising to 80 percent by the fall. A strong El Niño, as some models predict, could add to inflation.
In that scenario, storms and floods hit California and the South, hurting food and energy output. Globally, droughts in parts of Asia and heavy rain in South America and Africa hit harvests.
The International Monetary Fund says strong El Niños can add 4 percentage points to commodity-price inflation. Add that to the mix, and the space for Fed rate cuts shrinks from small to nonexistent.
Of course, a soft landing is possible—and some of the signs are favorable. In July 2022, Fed Governor Christopher Waller argued that a shift in the labor market—with vacancies declining but unemployment holding steady— could deliver a disinflation that’s
relatively pain-free. Since then, vacancies have indeed declined while jobless rates remain low. Olivier Blanchard, an economist at the Peterson Institute, took the opposite side in that debate— and says he still thinks higher unemployment is on the cards. But, Blanchard concedes that “if we continue to have a decrease in vacancies and no increase in unemployment for another couple of months, then Waller could turn out to be right.”
‘In for a slog’
OTHER outcomes are possible. One is a “rolling recession” – where one industry after another takes a hit, but the economy as a whole never shrinks. There’s some evidence that’s what is happening, as manufacturing and real estate bottom out ahead of any significant downturn in labor markets.
“My best guess is that economic growth will be sluggish in coming months,” says Karen Dynan, a professor at Harvard. “We are in for a slog.” That might not feel great, but it would mean an outright recession is avoided.
Still, it’s tough to make either soft landing or rolling recession the base case. The latest reading from Bloomberg Economics’ recession probability model suggests that a downturn starting by July is a near certainty. Take that with a grain of salt—if there’s a lesson from the last few years, it’s that not much is certain. But the basic point, that a recession is more likely than not, still stands.
That’s bad news for Powell’s optimistic forecast. Worse, a shallow recession might not even be enough to do the job of bringing inflation back to target. On average, past downturns have only lowered core inflation by a limited amount, and with significant lags.
Put the pieces together, and stagflation—with the economy contracting and inflation still too high—is the likeliest outcome. Bloomberg News
The Associated Press
MORE than five years after his son was gunned down in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, Richard Berger still asks why.
Why Stephen Berger was killed the day after celebrating his 44th birthday. Why the gunman rained bullets over the Las Vegas Strip in 2017, turning a country music festival into a bloodbath. Why the massacre’s death toll didn’t shock US leaders into doing more to prevent that kind of violence from happening again and again.
Why?
“It’s just a hole in our hearts,” Berger said. “We just don’t know, and we just don’t know what to say.”
For the Bergers, the families of the other 59 victims in Vegas—and relatives and friends of countless others slain in mass killings across the country in the years since—the questions loom just as large now as when the crimes happened. Yet the carnage continues.
Over the first four months and six days of this year, 115 people have died in 22 mass killings—an average of one mass killing a week. That includes the bloodshed Saturday at a Dallas-area mall where eight people were fatally shot.
The total represents the highest number of mass-killing deaths this early in the year since at least 2006, an Associated Press data analysis shows, and the deaths were already happening at a record pace before the horror unfolded in Texas.
Experts point to a few contributing factors: a general increase in all types of gun violence in recent years; the proliferation of firearms amid lax gun laws; the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, including the stress of long months in quarantine; a political climate unable or unwilling to change the status quo in meaningful ways; and an increased emphasis on violence in US culture.
Such explanations are little comfort not only to the families ripped apart by the killings but to Americans everywhere who are reeling from the cascading, collective trauma of mass violence.
This year’s killings have happened in different ways, from family and neighborhood disputes to school and workplace shootings to explosions of gunfire in public spaces. They’ve taken place in rural as well as urban settings. Sometimes people knew their killers; sometimes they did not.
The FBI defines the bloodbaths as mass killings when the events involve four or more fatalities within 24 hours, not including the perpetrator. The Associated Press and USA Today have tracked and compiled extensive data on these violent attacks in partnership with Northeastern University.
The Las Vegas shooter’s motive remains unknown, even now. The high-stakes gambler was apparently angry over how the casinos were treating him despite his high-roller status, but the FBI has never uncovered a definitive reason for the slaughter, which ended with more lives lost than in any single mass killing in decades.
Contributing to 2023’s steady drumbeat of death: the grisly murder-suicide in Utah that left five children, their parents and their grandmother dead just days into the new year; the fatal shooting of six people, including three 9-year-old children, at an elementary school in Nashville; backto-back rampages in California at dance studios and mushroom farms; and the mall shooting in Allen, Texas, on Saturday, when authorities say a gunman stepped out of a car and immediately started firing at people.
Yet while these tragic events garner an outsize amount of attention in the news media and the public’s mind, they represent only a tiny fraction of overall gun deaths.
Far more frequent are fatal shootings involving fewer than four people and deaths from domestic violence. And then
there are the suicides, which make up more than half of the 14,000 gun deaths so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which monitors news media and police reports to compile data.
Still, mass killings spark the deepest fear in most people’s hearts.
“People around the country all send their kids to schools—and they worry about if they send their kid to school, are they going to get shot?” said Daniel Webster, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
The fact is, though they are less common than other gun deaths, the mass killings keep happening—20 years after Columbine, 10 years after Sandy Hook, five years after Las Vegas, and less than one year after massacres at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and an elementary
school in Uvalde, Texas.
Which leads back to the same haunting question: Why?
People who study such violence are also perplexed by the sustained pace of the brutality.
“We have plenty of examples of things that seem to be at the breaking point in this country,” said Katherine Schweit, a former FBI executive who created the agency’s active shooter protocol after Sandy Hook. “When I was asked to work on this in 2013, I didn’t ever imagine 10 years later I’d still be working on the same thing.”
It will take years—if it’s even possible—for researchers to pinpoint what’s behind the drastic increase in gun violence. Advocates say there are measures that could perhaps avert such crimes— firearms reform and weapons bans among them—but note there is little appetite on Capitol Hill to implement them.
“I think the United States has a relationship with guns unlike any other country in the world,” said Kelly Drane, research director for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “These events are a consequence of our failure to put in place prevention measures.”
President Joe Biden, an ardent advocate of stronger gun control, is frustrated with Congress’ unwillingness to pass a ban on some semi-automatic rifles in the face of the powerful gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association. The NRA did not return an online request for comment.
Lawmakers did pass what, for them, marked a milestone gun violence bill
that toughens background checks for the youngest buyers, keeps firearms from more domestic violence offenders and helps states use red-flag laws that enable police to ask courts to take deadly weapons away from people who show signs they could turn violent. Biden signed the bill into law last year.
The legislation and other measures have done little to slow the pace of violence or alleviate the nation’s pain, which has been further exacerbated by the pandemic, climate change and the racial reckoning after George Floyd’s murder by police.
“These tragedies compounded one after the other, making it almost too much to bear,” said Roxanne Cohen Silver, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies coping with traumatic life events.
The mass killings, Silver noted, “are just another tragedy on top of all of these other psychological and emotional challenges.”
Stephen Berger ‘s father, Richard, is now 80. He spends his days with his grandchildren—one is a soccer goalie who reminds him of Steve, who had a passion for basketball. Their family awards annual athletic scholarships at Stephen’s high school.
Berger watches the teenagers as they approach the next phase of their young lives, flush with promise and full of life. But his own son is dead, and five years later he’s still left wondering: Why?
The Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
FEDERAL Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reckons the US economy can skirt recession. But the odds are stacked against him—thanks to banking, politics, and even the weather.JEROME POWELL BLOOMBERG IN this September 25, 2018 photo, people look at a display of wooden crosses and a Star of David on display at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history on the Las Vegas Strip in 2017. More than 100 people have been killed in mass shootings thus far in 2023, an average of one mass killing a week. AP/JOHN LOCHER
PHNOM PENH—The women’s badminton team assured the country of at least a bronze medal at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games after beating regional powerhouse Malaysia, 3-0, in the quarterfinals on Monday at the Morodok Techo Badminton Hall. It will be the country’s first badminton medal since Ronel Estanislao and Joper Escueta bagged a men’s doubles bronze at the 2015 Singapore Games.
The PBad Smash Pilipinas women will take on the winner of the clash between Indonesia and Cambodia on Wednesday for a place in the final.
Q uite fittingly, it was returning national team shuttler Bianca Carlos who sent the Philippines to the last four with a huge 21-16, 21-18 win over 18-year-old Siri Nurshuhaini in the second singles match.
M ika De Guzman earlier pulled off a close 24-22, 21-18 decision over Tan Zhing Yi to put Smash Pilipinas on board first before the duo of Thea Pomar and Alyssa Leonardo built a 2-0 advantage in beating Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow, 22-20, 19-21, 24-22, in the lone doubles rubber. Solomon Padiz Jr. and Julius Villabrille, on the other hand, couldn’t contain the comeback from Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry and Nge Joo Jie and absorbed a 21-13, 19-21, 18-21 defeat in the second doubles match.
The loss saw the men’s squad exit the Games in the team event.
L oh Kean Yew, 2021 men’s singles world champion, opened the day with a dominant win for Singapore, 21-14, 21-13, over the Philippines’ Jewel Angelo Albo.
The Filipinos then equalized with a similar clinic with 31st Iran Fajr International Challenge champions Alvin Morada and Christian Bernardo taking care of Jun Liang Andy Kwek and Loh Kean Hean, 2114, 21-15.
Jia Heng Jason Teh then reclaimed the lead for Singapore with a solid 21-11, 21-11 victory past Lance Vargas in the second singles match.
By Jun Lomibao
PHNOM PENH—Carlos
Yulo was true to form in winning the gold medal in men’s individual all-around of artistic gymnastics in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the Marquee Tent of the National Olympic Stadium. Yulo, world champion in floor exercise and vault, earned 84 points to handily beat Vietnam’s Thanh Thung Le (80.450) and
PHNOM PENH—The Philippines takes on Malaysia on Tuesday to kick off its men’s basketball redemption bid in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the Morodok Elephant Hall here.
The Nationals take the floor at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. in Manila) against the Malaysians, a team that poses less threat in Gilas Pilipinas’ campaign to erase the horror of last year’s loss to the Indonesians in the final.
B arangay Ginebra San Miguel import Justin Brownlee leads Gilas as a naturalized player debuting in SEA Games play. He first played in Gilas uniform in Window 6 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers.
A lso in the team are Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) players
PHNOM PENH—Team Sibol swept its three encounters for a 3-1 victory over Vietnam in the League of Legends: Wild Rift event for the country’s first esports gold medal in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the NagaWorld 2 Integrated Resort Theatre on Sunday night. I t was a stunning win for the Filipino esports players, who went winless in Wild Rift in Vietnam last year.
B ehind Chammy Nazzarea, a member of Nigma Galaxy, Sibol got off to a great start with a 3-0 demolition of Singapore in the semifinals.
Christian Standhardinger, Chris Newsome, Arvin Tolentino, Calvin Oftana, CJ Perez, Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser.
Collegiate players Mason Amos, Jerom Lastimosa and Michael Phillips are also in the roster.
Gilas’ bid to reclaim the gold will be a challenging one, with defending champion Indonesia bringing in former PBA import Lester Prosper as one of their naturalized players.
Host Cambodia is also bent on winning another SEA Games gold after ruling the 3x3 event last Monday, with naturalized players Sayeed Pridgett, Brandon Peterson and Darrin Dorsey leading the way. That’s the nature of the competition. We just have to make the best and play the game,” said Philippines coach Chot Reyes following Monday’s practice.
Olympian towed Juancho Miguel Besana, Ivan Cruz, Ace de Leon, Jhon Santillan and Jan Timbang to the team all-around silver medal with 305.25 points.
V ietnam, which also did the trick in Hanoi last year, scored 313 points for the gold, with Malaysia taking the bronze (295.5).
Yulo said the result was worth it considering he and the team only had two weeks to train.
“ I’m happy with the result because I had two weeks to prepare. I was able to do it and I’m so thankful,” Yulo said. “Training in Manila helped a lot because it’s so hot here in Cambodia. Our preparation helped us to get ready 100 percent.”
E arlier in the day at the Kep Beach Resort, Fernando Casares retained the men’s gold but Kim Mangrobang failed to win a fourth straight women’s tiara in triathlon won by a naturalized Cambodian athlete from France.
Casares won gold in 58 mi nutes and 33.5 seconds, beating Indonesia’s
Rashif Yaqin (58:47) in the 750-meter swim, 20-km bike and 5-km run event. Andrew Kim Remolino was third in 59:53 for the bronze.
M angrobang, who topped the women’s duathlon Sunday, clocked 1:07:24 to finish second behind Margot Garabedian (1:05:34.20), who previously raced for his native France and currently ranked 190th in the world.
The Philippines bagged three out of the seven gold medals in aquathlon (3), duathlon (2) and triathlon (2) and two silvers from Remolino in men’s aquathlon and Mangrobang.
W ith temperatures approaching 40s for several days, rains finally fell late afternoon on Monday, delaying the men’s pole vault final where Ernest John “EJ” Obiena was seeking a third straight gold medal.
Athletics officials halted play—as well as those in other outdoor venues in the Cambodian capital—for more than an hour as heavy rains soothed the entire city.
Team Sibol, meanwhile, swept its three encounters for a 3-1 victory over Vietnam in the League of Legends: Wild Rift event for the country’s first esports gold medal, while Ariana Evangelista struck silver in women’s crosscountry eliminator of mountain bike, a cycling discipline that’s hardly—if not at all—played back home.
Evangelista, the country’s No. 1 crosscountry Olympic rider, finished second behind Indonesia’s Darah Latifah and ahead of Thailand’s Warinthorn Phetprephan bagged bronze.
Host Cambodia continued to frolic in its first-time hosting of the biennial games and led the medals race with 34 gold, 28 silver and 31 bronze medals.
Th ailand was a far second with 21-17-27 (gold-silver-broze), followed by Vietnam (18-31-21) and the Philippines (16-23-25). Indonesia also had 16 gold medals but had less silvers and bronzes—14 and 37—to the Philippine haul.
Then, a 3-2 stopping of Vietnam in the upper bracket finals sent the Filipinos, also composed of Aaron Bingay, Justine Chan, Gerald Gelacio, Van Alfonso and Reniel Angara, into the goldmedal match. Vietnam, spearheaded by H ậu “Akeno” H ồ Trung, fought off Cambodia, 3-0, in the lower bracket finals, to reach the gold-medal round against the Filipinos. So far so good. We hope this helps set the tone for our entire SEA Games run,” Philippine Sibol general manager Jab Escutin said. Filipino gamers will next plunge into action in the mixed team event of Crossfire. Josef Ramos
PHNOM PENH—Fernando
Casares kept the men’s title but Kim Mangrobang failed to win a fourth straight women’s gold medal in triathlon on Monday at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
C asares won gold in 58 minutes and 33.5 seconds, beating Indonesia’s Rashif Yaqin (58:47) in the 750-meter swim, 20-km bike and 5-km run event at the Kep Beach Resort.
HNOM PENH—Ariana Evangelista did what she does best to snatch the silver medal in mountain bike’s crosscountry eliminator (XCE) for the country’s second medal in cycling at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
Evangelista is more adept to crosscountry Olympic where she remains unbeatable at home but was perfect for the eliminator for her penchant of bursting into sporadic speed on the saddle. It was her second medal after the mixed team bronze on Sunday in the MTB races staged on the foothills of Kulen Mountain in Siem Reap.
“I am very thankful for this medal, this is a team effort,” Evangelista said. “This won’t be possible without the help
PHNOM PENH—Paolo Wong bucked a shaky first nine holes with a blistering finish to salvage a 70 for joint third place just a stroke behind leaders Khanh Hung
Le of Vietnam and Malcolm Hung of Malaysia at the start of golf competitions in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games Monday.
In women’s play, Rianne Malixi had a double-bogey on No. 6 that marred a wobbly frontside finish to wind up two-over 74 for joint ninth with team-
mate Lois Kaye Go—seven strokes off pacesetting Malaysian Ng Jing Xuen.
Wong struggled trying to figure out the Garden City’s tough layout but when he did, there was no stopping the ace shotmaker from La Trinidad, Benguet.
He birdied the first two holes at the back to negate a frontside 38 then birdied Nos. 14 and 16 to close out with a 32 and in strong contention for the individual gold in men’s play.
Le and Hung matched 69s with the
PHNOM PENH—Philippine
Sports Commission (PSC)
Chairman Richard Bachmann reiterated the agency’s commitment to support elite athletes as far as resources and policies would allow.
“It is really amazing to see their hard work translate into medals,” said
Bachmann, who contunously make the rounds of training venues in his first four months as PSC chairman.
B achmann is in Cambodia
cheering Team Philippines at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games. The Philippine government, through the PSC, is bankrolling the
former gunning down three backside birdies and the latter posting a solid 34 while Thai Jiradech Chaowarat and Anh Minh Nguyen, also of Vietnam, matched Wong’s two-under card output.
R ayhan Latief of Indonesia and Thai Ashita Paimkulvanick shot identical 71s while four matched par 72s and another four, including Filipino Enrique Dimayuga, scoring similar 73s.
W hile Wong banked on a strong finish, Dimayuga squandered a hot birdie-birdie start as he bogeyed Nos.
SEA Games campaign in terms of airfare, early arrival expenses, uniforms, allowances, equipment, supplies, manpower, medical support, among others.
5 and 6 then put to naught another birdie on the 14th with closing backto-back bogeys, ending up with a 73 for a share of 12th in a field of 32.
Jaden Dumdumaya, on the other hand, shot two birdies but fumbled with five bogeys, marred by backto-back mishaps from Nos. 8 and 13, as he signed a 75 to fall to joint 19th while many-time national team
of everyone.”
Indonesia’s Darah Latifah won her second gold medal after the mixed team relay, while Thailand’s Warinthorn Phetprephan bagged bronze.
Ariana was perfect for XCE,” PhilCycling vice president Oscar “Boying” Rodriguez said. “She led after the first lap but missed the gold in the final sprint.”
XCE is an MTB discipline that has little or no following at all back home, thus national team coaches led by Eboy Quinones had to improvise in training with intervals and time trials.
“ We need a lot of technical skills and riders were trained for short bursts of sustained power up a short and very technical climb and then down a steep technical downhill before a final sprint to the finish,” Rodriguez said. Jun Lomibao
spearhead Aidric Chan hobbled at the finish, yielding four straight strokes from No. 13 as he wound up with a 76 for a share of 22nd.
E ager to put up a strong start to fan a medal drive, Malixi did just that with birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 from short range and stood just behind Singapore’s Aloysa Atienza (34) with a backside 35 after dropping a stroke on the 15th.
But she failed to get up and down on the first hole and after a wave of pars, she yielded two strokes on the Garden City Golf course’s signature hole, the tough 439-yard No. 6 with a water hazard on the left side of the fairway and another lake looming large right in front of the green.
A birdie-less frontside led to a 39 and the ICTSI-backed Malixi, who de livered the bronze medal in team play in her SEAG debut in Vietnam last year, tumbled to ninth with Go, who put up a pair of 37s she spiked with an eagle-3 on No. 17 and a birdie on No. 4 against five bogeys. Jun Lomibao
A ndrew Kim Remolino finished third in 59:53 for the bronze— Cebuano’s second medal after the silver in men’s aquathlon last Saturday.
M angrobang, who topped the women’s duathlon race last Sunday, clocked 1:07:24 to finish second behind Cambodian naturalized entry Margot Garabedian, who clocked one hour, five minutes and 34.2 seconds. Garabedian is a former French triathlete currently ranked 190th in the world.
Singapore’s Louisa Marie Middleditch reached completed the podium in 1:07:24.
R aven Alcoseba placed fourth (1:08:49.1), more than three minutes behind the 27-year-old Garabedian. The Philippines bagged three out of the possible seven gold medals in aquathlon (3), duathlon (2) and triathlon (2) and a pair of silvers from Remolino in men’s aquathlon and Mangrobang.
The mixed aquathlon relay team of Erika Burgos, Inaki Lorbes, Kira Ellis and Matthew Hermosa also bagged a gold medal. Josef Ramos