BusinessMirror May 12, 2020

NG budget deficit in Q1 down 18% as spending dips

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

T

HE national government recorded a narrower budget deficit in the first quarter of the year at P74 billion, down by 17.97 percent from last year’s P90.2 billion as government spending fell below target, latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.

The cumulative deficit of P74 billion also lagged behind the P332.9-billion program by 77.76 percent.

Relative to GDP, the Q1 2020 deficit stood at 1.65 percent, declining from last year’s 2.04 percent deficit-to-GDP ratio.

Government expenditures as of endMarch only reached P849.2 billion, falling 14.48 percent short of the 993-billion program for the period due to the delays in program implementation with the enhanced community quarantine and lower-

MECHANICAL engineers headed by businessman and Rosita Soliman Foundation Director Jojo Soliman rush to produce surgical masks at their warehouse in Tondo, Manila, where around 200,000 masks are made per day to be delivered to medical stores in the country. ROY DOMINGO

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than-programmed interest payments and net lending.

Nonetheless, government spending for the first quarter of the year still exceeded last year’s P778 billion.

On the other hand, revenues for the first three months reached P775.2 billion, surging 12.72 percent from P687.7 billion posted in the same period in 2019. The government also exceeded its P660.1-billion revenue target for the period by 17.43 percent.

A budget deficit occurs when expenditures exceed revenues.

For March alone, the national government incurred a wider budget deficit for this year at P59.5 billion, reflecting a 1.83-percent increase from 2019’s P58.4 billion.

“The higher fiscal gap is due to the larger nominal increase in government spending compared to revenue growth,” the Treasury said in a statement on Monday.

Of the P775.2-billion revenues as of end-March, 80 percent or P620.8 billion came from tax revenues, while 20 percent or P154.4 billion came from nontax revenues.

Nontax collections for the period more than doubled from last year due to the early remittance of dividends from governmentowned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) in line with the implementation of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act. Revenues collected by the Bureau of the Treasury skyrocketed to P111.2 billion, three times higher compared to its achievement in the first quarter last year. To date, the Treasury has already breached its fullyear target of P82.3 billion, mainly on account of higher dividend remittances and interest on advances to GOCCs which have both exceeded full-year targets by P63.4 billion and P7.4 billion, respectively.

See “Deficit,” A2

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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BANK SECTOR TO BOOK P557-B BAD LOANS IN ’20 www.businessmirror.com.ph

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PCCI PLEA TO BANKS: GIVE FIRMS 1-YEAR REPRIEVE ON LOANS

METROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority Chairman Danilo Lim (left), Interior Secretary Eduardo Año (right) and Rosita Soliman Foundation Director Jojo Soliman (center) inspect the misting equipment donated by the foundation that will be used for disinfecting the streets in the fight against coronavirus. Año himself contracted the coronavirus in March. ROY DOMINGO

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By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

HE Philippine banking industry may need to beef up protection against credit losses because nonperforming loans (NPLs) are seen rising to as much as over half a trillion pesos this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

BSP Managing Director Lyn I. Javier, during the digital meeting of the Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries on Monday, said that bad loans could reach P556.6 billion this year due to the coronavirus disease 2019

(Covid-19) pandemic slowing down economic activities.

This is equivalent to 5 percent in NPL ratio—portion of NPL to total loans—which is more than double of what the banking sector has been dealing with in recent years.

It was still better, however, compared to 8.6 percent during the Asian financial crisis.

As of February this year, gross NPL ratio stood at 1.74 percent.

The said figure has been below 2 percent for, at least, the last four years, according to BSP data.

Gross NPL, meanwhile, reached P172.38 billion in February. Last year, it was at P156.53 billion.

Javier added that the banking sector might not be able to recover 50 percent to 80 percent of the bad loans.

This translates to losses of around P278.3 billion to P445.28 billion.

Still, the Central Bank has yet to conduct a base-line survey to further evaluate the actual impact of the pandemic.

“As we highlighted earlier, the NPL increases over time, so we may

be able to capture the initial impact for the next six months. But we are expecting a progression on the level of NPL through the time,” she said.

Still, Javier gave assurances that banks are well-capitalized to shield the impact of the pandemic, noting that the industry’s risk-based capital adequacy ratio was at 15.4 percent in solo basis as of end-2019.

“The buffers appear sufficient to cover the initial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on banks’ liquidity, asset quality and solvency,” she added. Loan loss reserves of the banking system stood at P181.14 billion as of end-February.

BAP estimates

MEANWHILE, the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) See “Loans,” A2

Save lives, livelihoods first, lofty goals can wait–Diokno

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DIOKNO

HE Philippines’s goal of achieving an A-rating by 2022 can wait, as the country’s political and economic leaders should all be focusing on one thing: saving lives, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno.

In a statement to reporters on Monday, Diokno said that amid the crisis brought about by the coronavi-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.4580

rus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, the Philippines should be focused on preparing for a “new economy”—one that should be better, safer and more technologically ready.

“The political leadership and the economic managers should focus on saving lives, saving livelihoods and saving jobs. The lofty goals of getting A-rating by 2022 and achieving upper

middle-income status this year can wait,” Diokno said.

Fitch Ratings—one of the Philippines’s first beacons of hope to achieve its first A rating—earlier decided to revise its outlook of the country from “positive” to “stable” amid the crisis. A positive outlook means the country is pending for an assessment for upgrade See “Diokno,” A2

WHAT used to be a busy central business district of Makati is now almost empty and still uncertain as to when its buildings will be filled with workers again, as experts debate on the lifting or extension of the enhanced community quarantine on May 15, 2020. NONIE REYES

By Elijah Felice Rosales

T

HE country’s largest business group on Monday appealed to banks to extend for at least one year the deadline payment for loans availed of by firms to help them survive the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) asked banks and nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) for a one-year extension of loan maturities that are due between March 16 and December 31. PCCI President Benedicto V. Yujuico argued that this will help firms survive the lockdown that kept operations suspended for roughly two months now.

For instance, members of the PCCI reported they are suffering from deteriorating cash positions and diminishing ability to avoid massive layoffs on the prolonged implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon.

“The ECQ has brought substantially all businesses to a sudden and unexpected stop,” Yujuico added in a statement. “Many are now facing economic distress, forcing them to resort to drastic cost-cutting, layoffs and pay cuts.”

“Even as the government slowly relaxes the quarantine measures, we expect that the effects of the crisis will continue to be felt and that businesses will continue to struggle through the end of 2020,” he said.

As such, PCCI is asking banks and NBFIs to extend the payment deadline for loans availed of by micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as those by corporations. This is to allow them to preserve their liquidity and be able to pay for operating expenses.

Yujuico explained that creditor willingness to restructure loans maturing this year will go a long way toward firms preserving their labor force and averting permanent closure; otherwise, “many businesses will likely be forced to shut down.”

The PCCI listed the transportation; automotive; arts and entertainment; hospitality; real estate; mining; manufacturing; construction; financial and insurance; professional and scientific; and the administrative and support service industries as most affected by the ECQ. Their operations are severed by lockdown regulations on public transport and mass gatherings, Yujuico said.

“The PCCI expressed hope that its proposal will be considered to mitigate the potentially fatal effects that Covid-19 is having on many business enterprises,” the PCCI chief said.

n JAPAN 0.4730 n UK 62.6184 n HK 6.5095 n CHINA 7.1320 n SINGAPORE 35.7250 n AUSTRALIA 32.9037 n EU 54.6662 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4376

Source: BSP (May 11, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, May 12, 2020

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PHL opens G2G rice importation round with Asean states, India

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

HE country has initiated its 300,000-metric ton (MT) government-to-government (G2G) rice importation after state-run Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) sent a formal communication to trade partners to participate in the bidding.

its neighbors cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We welcome the decision by Vietnam to resume its rice export policy and taking into account the difficulties faced by various stakeholders during this crisis,” Dar said.

Citing a letter of Vietnam’s Trade Minister Tan Tuan Anh to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Dar said Vietnam will resume the shipment of 400,000 MT of rice that were contracted in April to the Philippines.

“Indeed, Vietnam is making a valuable contribution in strengthening Asean cooperation and internal unity. We need to keep the regional market open for trade and ensure the sustainability of the supply chain among Asean member-states, especially for food and other essential goods,” Dar said.

“This means that Vietnamese rice exporters will commence

the fulfillment of their contracts with Philippine importers, and consider future supply deals under an existing bilateral trade agreement,” Dar added.

The Philippines has imported over 700,000 MT of rice from January to April, with private traders and corporations cornering bulk of the volume, latest Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed.

About 139 eligible rice importers—of which 86 are private traders, corporations and firms— brought in 728,979.07 MT of rice during the four-month period, latest BPI data analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed.

The rice imports were sourced from Cambodia, India, Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam, BPI data showed.

The 86 private traders imported about 60 percent or 442,998.38 MT of the total volume, with Sodatrade

Corp. leading the list with a total volume imported of 34,759.5 MT. The rest, or 285,981 MT of rice, was imported by cooperatives and associations, mostly led by farmers, BPI data showed.

Only a little over a quarter was imported by all eligible importers out of the 2.702 MMT approved volume by the government. Due to this, around 1.973 MMT of rice is still expected to arrive this year, BPI data indicated.

Vietnam accounted for 86.76 percent or about 632,482.85 MT of the total imports from January to April, BPI data showed.

The DA has been urging the private sector to continuously apply for SPS-IC and bring in rice shipments to ensure that the country has sufficient stockpile during and beyond the enhanced community quarantine amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Monday, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said the PITC “has officially opened” the G2G importation, which seeks to boost domestic supplies during the lean months, or when harvest is minimal.

The PITC, the country’s trading firm, is an attached agency of the De-

partment of Trade and Industry.

“The PITC has already sent communications to Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, India and Cambodia,” Dar said.

The government also welcomed Vietnam’s recent decision to resume its rice exports to keep food supply stable in the Asean region and help

Deficit…

Villar prods govt: Ease quarantine rules in low-risk sites

Continued from A1

Income from other sources, including privatization proceeds and fees and charges, was up 5.60 percent with actual collections amounting to P19.6 billion.

As for tax revenues, the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) collection was flat at P468.8 billion as of end-March from P468.2 billion in the same period in 2019 due to the imposition of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine in mid-March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, BIR’s first-quarter 2020 collection was still higher than its P454-billion target for the period.

For its part, the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) Q1 tax take increased to P145.3 billion from P141.9 billion in 2019. This, despite BOC’s collections dropping to P44.6 billion in March from P49.3 billion in the same month in 2019.

In terms of government spending, operating expenditures comprised the bulk at P729.3 billion as of end-March, climbing by 8.82 percent from P670.2 billion in 2019. This is also below the P854.2-billion program for the period.

Interest payments for the first quarter of the year also went up to P119.9 billion from P107.8 billion in 2019.

For March, interest payments also grew by 17.96 percent year-on-year to P43.1 billion from P36.6 billion in the same month in 2019 owing to coupon payments for five-year retail treasury bonds issued in 2019, and the timing of the payment for 25-year fixed rate Treasury Bonds which were paid on April 1, 2019 (instead of March 30), due to an official holiday.

As of end-March, the government’s cumulative primary balance remained in surplus at P45.9 billion and was more than double the P17.5 billion recorded a year ago.

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ITING findings that the prolonged enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is taking a heavy toll on the economy, Sen. Cynthia Villar on Monday joined a clamor for the Duterte administration to start easing lockdown measures in “low-risk areas” of Metro Manila.

This, as reports said at least 10 of 17 Metro Manila mayors were inclined to back a final, two-week extension of the enhanced community quarantine in their jurisdictions.

In a statement, the lawmaker asserted that “the prospect for the reopening of the economy and easing of quarantine measures is bright now that we have big quarantine facilities and improved testing capacities.”

Backing a gradual downgrade option, Villar cited “the growing support for the proposal to place parts of Metro Manila under general community quarantine after May 15.”

The senator suggested that the Metro Manila Council and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases “consider the lifting of enhanced community quarantine especially in localities identified as low and moderate risk in terms of number of Covid-19 cases.”

In a statement, Villar affirmed that “I agree that we should start

Caloocan (14.5), Navotas (14.9), Malabon (15), Valenzuela (17.1), Marikina (28.1), Las Piñas (32.6), Muntinlupa (32.9), Taguig (33.2) and Pateros (33.8).

Villar added that “by now, places where Covid-19 cases are concentrated are already identified by the local government. Strict quarantine measures will continue to be implemented here while quarantine measures can be eased in low-risk areas.” Butch Fernandez

Gas prices up P2 a liter A PHILIPPINE Army soldier guards Welfareville Compound in Barangay Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City, which was placed on a weeklong “total lockdown” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the area, reported to have the highest case in the city. ROY DOMINGO

re-opening the economy and begin the implementation of new normal measures in Metro Manila areas that have been successful in keeping their Covid-19 cases under control.”

She voiced concerns that the “prolonged ECQ is already taking its toll on the economy and employment situation in the country, and causing distress among workers and their families.”

Villar added: “We all know that the government cannot provide assistance to everybody affected by

this public health emergency. We should now start reopening the economy with health protocols such as the use of face masks and the practice of social distancing strictly implemented.”

The senator suggested earlier the return of workers in labor-intensive sectors such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture after noting that as of May 8, 2020, Metro Manila areas posted the lowest number of cases per 100,000 population, including:

OIL firms are implementing a huge price increase on their petroleum products effective Tuesday morning.

Gasoline prices will go up by P2 per liter, diesel by P1.90 per liter and kerosene

by P1.25 per liter.

The upward price adjustment will be implemented by Seaoil Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum, PetroGazz, PTT Philippines, Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell at 6 am of May 12. Other oil firms are expected to follow suit.

The price adjustment reflects movements in the world market. Aside from an uptick in imported petroleum products, there is also an additional 10-percent duty on imported crude and finished petroleum products.

Last week, gasoline prices went up

by P0.75 per liter. Diesel and kerosene prices, meanwhile, went down by P0.10 per liter and P0.60 per liter, respectively.

Lenie Lectura

SC raffles off ABS-CBN petition, House sends NTC ‘show-cause’ Continued from A8

It said the CDO is tantamount to curtailment of freedom of speech guaranteed under the Constitution.

ABS-CBN argued that the NTC should have allowed the company to continue operating pending Congress’s resolution of its application to renew its franchise.

It said NTC had previously allowed other companies to continue to operate pending renewal of franchise, thus, violated the company’s right to equal protection of the law.

“There is no reason why the same practice should not be applied to ABS-CBN,” the petition read.

The network accused NTC of violating its right to due process when it issued the CDO without notice and hearing.

It also argued that the NTC is bound to heed the legal opinion issued by the DOJ, that it is entitled to a PA pending Congress’s action on its application for the renewal of its franchise.

The NTC issued the CDO despite the assurance made by NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba

at the March 10, 2020, House Committee on Legislative Franchises hearing, that the agency will issue a PA to ABS-CBN.

Show-cause order

ALSO on Monday, the Legislative Franchises panel issued a showcause order against NTC for issuing its CDO against ABS-CBN. In a May 5 letter, Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez ordered NTC Commissioner Cordoba, Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios, Deputy Commissioner Delilah Deles, Leal Branch Head Ela Blanca Lopez to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for directing ABS-CBN to cease its broadcast operations.

“You are ordered to explain within 72 hours from receipt of this order why you should not be cited in contempt or proceeded against for issuing an order to ABS-CBN Corporation to immediately cease and desist from operating its radio and television stations after having assured the House of Representatives, during the hearing of the Committee on Legislative Franchises on 10 March 2020,”

Alvarez said.

According to Alvarez, the NTC vowed to let the ABS-CBN continue its operations until Congress has finally disposed of the franchise renewal bills, consistent with precedents and practice and the position of the Department of Justice, as well as the clear directive of the House of Representatives that ABS-CBN should be allowed to continue to operate until such time that Congress has decided on its application.

Last week, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano assured the public that the lower chamber will do its job on the matter of the network’s franchise.

According to Cayetano, the NTC order “unnecessarily complicates the issue, it does not change the fact that the exclusive constitutional authority to grant, deny, extend, revoke, or modify broadcast franchises—including having the primary jurisdiction to make an initial determination whether an application for a legislative franchise should be granted or denied—still resides in Congress, and Congress alone.”

Dead on arrival

However, Rep. Edcel C. Lagman said the ill-fated franchise of ABS-CBN was dead on arrival at the NTC. “It was the leadership of the House of Representatives which deprived ABS-CBN of its authority to operate by inordinately stalling the network’s franchise renewal and allowing it to expire,” he said.

“Even the Supreme Court will have difficulty in finding legal anchorage for issuing a temporary restraining order against NTC since the law is clear under RA 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act that: ‘No person shall commence or conduct the business of being a public telecommunications entity without first obtaining a franchise,’” he said.

According to Lagman, any alleged issuances by NTC of provisional authority to operate to those with expired franchises cannot be invoked as a precedent in violation of the law.

“Only Congress, more particularly the House of Representatives where private bills like legislative franchises emanate, can resurrect ABS-CBN’s operations by forth-

with granting the network a renewed 25-year franchise,” he said.

For his part, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez defended Cayetano from critics blaming him for the franchise’s non-renewal.

Rodriguez said Cayetano sent the letter “because we had no time to tackle the bills seeking the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise before the Lenten adjournment in March.”

“But it turned out we could not rely on the NTC, which is part of the executive branch. In case of conflict between the executive and legislative branches, it is but natural for NTC to follow its executive bosses,” he said.

“So now we have to do our job.

Let us consider my proposed joint resolution of Congress giving a provisional franchise to ABS-CBN up to June 30, 2022, when the life of the present 18th Congress expires. We should also consider my bill granting the network a new 25year franchise,” he said.

“The solution really is to give it a franchise, whether it is provisional up to 2022 or for 25 years,” Rodriguez added.

With a report by Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Loans…

Continued from A1

also shared its estimates of NPLs in the draft of House Bill (HB) 6622 or “The Philippine Financial Industry Resiliency Act.” The group noted that NPLs may increase to approximately P240 billion to P300 billion in the coming months. BAP said that 50 percent to 80 percent, or P120 billion to P240 billion, is expected to be written off.

BAP President Cezar P. Consing, in the same meeting, lamented that borrowers’ liquidity is currently being tested by the pandemic, thus the anticipation of an increase in bad loans.

“The ability to pay is really hampered here. And that is why we expect NPLs to go up,” Consing said. “I think the objective of the banks is try to work with each of the clients because if it is a liquidity issue, that is where we could be helpful.”

And it is only expected to get worse, he said, as NPLs are seen to only peak by end of 2021, according to BAP’s initial surveys.

With this, BAP expressed its support for HB 6622, which pushes for the enactment of the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) law. It is aimed at helping financial institutions manage debt levels by selling off non-performing assets (NPAs)—NPLs and real and other properties acquired in settlement of loans—to asset management companies.

Javier said that transferring these assets will eliminate costs to manage NPAs, boost liquidity and free up some bank capital.

“The enactment of the FIST law will assist the financial system perform its role of efficiently mobilizing savings and investments for the country’s economic recovery as well as its sustained growth and development,” she added.

Diokno…

Continued from A1

in the next 12 to 18 months. A stable outlook means no revision is expected in the policy horizon.

The governor also called for “employment-creating programs” as part of the country’s road to a new economy.

“As the government moves into the next phase of the road to the New Economy, it should focus on a quick-disbursing, employment-creating program.

It needs a supplemental budget, the size of which can be decided upon by the President with the recommendation of his economic managers. I estimate that a 1-percent increase in the deficit would amount to P200 billion of ‘new’ spending; a 2-percent increase would amount to P400 billion,” Diokno said.

Diokno was the administration’s budget secretary prior to his appointment as the BSP governor in March 2019.

Emergency employment

SOME of this “new” money, Diokno explained, can be used for “emergency employment” aimed at creating 2 million new jobs.

“The 2 million jobs will be allocated to 42,045 barangays, to be distributed based on the number of inhabitants per barangay and the level of unemployment per province or city. The nature of the job will be determined by the barangay chief. The workers may do green projects (like cleaning of rivers, tree planting, etc.), public works projects (like road maintenance, fortifying sea walls, social housing) or health projects (like contact tracing, maintenance work in Covid-19 facilities, etc.),” Diokno said.

Under Diokno’s proposal, workers will be paid 10 percent lower than the minimum wage rate in the region and will work for 8 hours, 5 days a week, for 7 months in June to December 2020.

While the government has moved to provide cash grants to millions of families in the country, Diokno said the impact of this fiscal stimulus to the economy is limited.

“The emergency employment is quick-disbursing and will have a high multiplier effect. It is propoor and egalitarian. It gives the ordinary worker a greater sense of self-respect since he works for the food on his table. By helping himself, the worker helps his fellow men and society,” Diokno said.

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Govt adopts T3 formula to limit Covid-19 cases in Cebu province

By Ashley Manabat

‘Difficult task:’ PHL struggles to test 7K returning jobless seafarers for virus

By Recto Mercene

Correspondent

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L A R K FR EEPORT— National Action Plan Against Covid-19 (NAPAC) deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon has assured that the government is committed to build more quarantine facilities and increase the laboratory testing capacity for Covid-19 patients in the province of Cebu.

Dizon met with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella and Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes over the weekend (May 9, 2020), to discuss the national government’s efforts in containing the spread of Covid-19.

“We know there are cases in this area, there are over a thousand cases. While this is a big number, what we want to tell the people of Cebu is that we can beat this thing together,” he said.

Dizon highlighted the government’s strategy to “test, trace and treat” to fight Covid-19.

For Cebu, he said, the goal is to increase the present lab capacity of roughly 1,000 tests per day to 3,500. “ The national government, under the leadership of President Duterte, Secretary Charlie Galvez, and the entire leadership of the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases] led

by Secretary [Francisco] Duque [III], has instituted a very simple but we feel effective way to fight Covid-19, and this is simply explained in three words: test, trace, and treat or T3.

We are very happy that this system is already in place in Cebu, and the national government will put all of its efforts to even strengthen and augment the things that the officials here in Cebu have already done,” Dizon said.

Secretary Mark A. Villar of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has also committed to build more isolation facilities in Cebu.

“This virus can be controlled if we are ready with the infrastructure to control it. And the national government has committed all-out support for the province of Cebu to achieve this,” Dizon said.

He also delivered PCR test kits to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center Sub-National Laboratory, as well as rapid diagnostic test kits and personal protective equipment to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas.

Dizon also met with Bohol Governor Arthur Yap to discuss plans to increase testing capacity and expand isolation facilities in the province. He brought a team from the Department of Health (DOH) and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to Bohol to inspect and start the accreditation process for laboratory facilities.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, May 12, 2020 A3

@rectomercene

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HE Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) are facing the difficult task of conducting mass testing for some 7,000 Filipino seafarers on board 18 cruise ships that have been anchored off Manila Bay for two weeks.

Together with the Department of Health (DOH), the PCG and BOQ have adopted the Covid-19 “gold standard” testing for all Filipinos aboard the cruise ships.

The mass testing of about 7,000 Filipino crew members is expected to be over this week

and the crew members can leave the ship to wait for the results on land. It is hoped that the lockdown would be lifted on May 15, although some LGUs are amenable to a phased lifting.

Seafarers who tested negative of Covid-19 will be given their certificates of completion so they can return to their homes immediately on available ships, or planes.

Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., has pointed out earlier that the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has agreed that the seafaers, who have spent weeks quarantined in their cabin while on the way here, should be

allowed to disembark upon arrival so they can head for home.

Aware of the numbers of Filipino seafarers waiting their turn at being tested after spending the last two weeks in Manila Bay, Locsin tweeted: “Keeping them out there in the bay is a real totally avoidable… There is no other word for it.”

“Why should we allow 400 to 800 Filipinos or even 3,000 to return home every day? Because…they have the constitutional, absolute & total right to come home that no power can suspend, slow down, or in any way restrict. Govt has only one power: to bring them home…,” the DFA chief added.

Aside from the 18 ships filling

up Manila Bay, more are expected within two weeks bringing with them more jobless Filipino seafarers to join the ranks of more than 24,000 unemployed overseas Filipinos brought home by the DFA. Prior to Covid-19, around 400,000 Filipino seafarers man the global maritime fleet, records show.

Those ships are the Majestic Princess, Explorer Dream, Celebrity Solstice, Voyager of the Seas, Costa Serena, Carnival Panorama, Pacific Dawn, Queen Elizabeth, Explorer, Pacific Dawn, Costa Neo Romantica, Ruby Princess, Sun Princess, Carnival Splendor, Sun Princess, Sea Princess, MS Eurodam and the Ovation of the Seas.

A 19th cruise ship, the Coral Princess raised its anchor on Monday and left for the United States after disembarking its load of Covid-free Filipino crew at Pier 15 last week.

More cruise ships are expected this week and the coming weeks from Europe, the Magsaysay manning agency said.

In another development, two foreign cruise ships members took their own lives in Europe while their ships were at port waiting for disembarkation for charter flights.

A woman crew member went overboard the ship while a male crew was found lifeless in his cabin.

NCRPO chief places DENR takes custody of young hawk-eagle, or QCPD headquarters ‘lawin’ birds, recovered from Batangas woods under lockdown

By Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

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HE Quezon City Police District (QCPD) has been placed on a three-day lockdown after 14 of its personnel were tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

The lockdown was ordered by National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas following the results of the “target testing” on QCPD personnel held from April 25 to 29.

According to Sinas, the four-day target testing was conducted on 219 personnel out of the 1,563 population located inside Camp Karingal, the headquarters of the QCPD. Out of the 219 tested, the results for 115 were already released wherein 14 personnel are found positive for Covid-19 infection.

“One of the 14 positively tested patients is a member of JTF-NCR [Joint Task Force-National Capital Region] while the remaining 13 are elements of QCPD, nine of whom are police commissioned officers and four are police noncommissioned officers,” Sinas said.

“Further probe disclosed that 10 of the patients are presently assigned in the District Headquarters in Camp Karingal, Quezon City. The three other patients are assigned in QCPD Police Community Precincts,” he added.

The NCRPO director said that those who tested positive were previously tasked in the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in quarantine control points.

As such, the lockdown, which began on Sunday, was imposed as a preventive measure in order to ensure that the virus will not thrive and infect more frontliners.

Sinas said that during the lockdown, the QCPD will initiate intensive contact tracing of those who have been in close contact with the 13 positive patients who were already placed in the NCRPO Special Care Facility (SCF).

He also ordered for the evaluation and monitoring of those who were in direct contact with them and to have them isolated in the SCF. Meantime, QCPD Director Brig. Gen. Ronnie Montejo is temporarily holding his office at Kamuning Police Station 10 in Quezon City.

“Our most important resource against this battle is our human resource. Hence, we opt to implement all possible measures to ensure their safety and guarantee that they are in their optimum health condition as they go to the frontline to face the unseen deadly virus,” Sinas said.

“We pledge all the necessary support that we can provide to alleviate the impact of this crisis to QCPD,” he added.

THE hawk-eagles hours before turn over to the DENR.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTIAN ATIENZA

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

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HE pair of Philippine hawk-eagles voluntarily turned over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) by a 22-year-old male student from Mabini, Batangas, are now in safe hands.

DENR wildlife law enforcer Rogelio Demelletes Jr. said the Philippine predatory birds were safely transported from Mabini, Batangas, to the DENR Wildlife Rescue Center in Quezon City on Sunday afternoon.

He said they could have fallen into the wrong hands had it not been to the wise decision of Christian Atienza, who rescued them from the wild.

Demelletes led the DENR team that picked up the hawk-eagle from Atienza, who for a while, kept the juvenile eagles safe in his home in Sitio Sto. Tomas, Mabini, Batangas. Atienza rescued the pair of hawk-eagles, then locally called lawin, while he was picking firewood in the forest. The birds were still too young to fly, then, and could not possibly survive on their own without the parents.

According to Demelletes, several exotic animal collectors have been targeting the Philippine hawk-eagle pair, offering Atienza

huge amount of money in exchange for the rare species, which he posted through his Facebook account to seek help.

“There were a number of interested buyers to the point that some are already threatening the boy. But he decided to turn them over to authorities instead of handing them over to illegal wildlife traders,” Demelletes said.

Because of the lockdown in Luzon and some other areas in Visayas and Mindanao, Demelletes said threatened animal wildlife are surfacing in cities, making them vulnerable to captivity.

“Because of the lockdown, wild animals are thinking it is now safe to go out into the open in urban areas, that’s why sometimes, they get caught. We’ve been receiving reports of sightings of rare species being held in captivity, too,” he revealed.

According to Demelletes, the DENR is zeroing in on a group of Batangueño who uses an exclusive FB page to promote the exotic pet trade, selling or offering to buy exotic animals.

“This group is openly transacting business, perhaps thinking that they can do it because of the lockdown. We’ll get them somehow,” he vowed.

Illegal wildlife trade has become ram-

pant because of Internet technology and the proliferation of social-media platforms where they can create a secret page, or group.

Demelletes said the DENR is constantly on the lookout for such illegal transactions.

On a positive note, he said through social media, the DENR is also receiving information about the illegal wildlife trade happening in various parts of the country. Social media has also become a channel for wildlife rescuers and authorities to bring in threatened animals to safety.

Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon, concurrent director of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) credited the successful operations to rescue threatened wildlife to the increased awareness of the general public about the importance of protecting and conserving the country’s rich biodiversity.

The DENR, he said, is scheduling the turnover of the two rescued Philippine eagles from Zamboanga City and Palimbang, North Cotabato to the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City. The Center is being run and managed by the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), the DENR’s conservation partner for the iconic eagle and other birds of prey.

Cops told to observe cyber etiquette, DepEd chief says she would soon disallow schools from being used as quarantine areas harness ‘positive side’ of social media

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco | Correspondent

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HILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Archie Gamboa encouraged policemen on Monday to harness the “positive side” of social media and observe cyber etiquette when using social-media platforms.

“In accordance with PNP policy on social networking sites, all personnel must observe proper decorum in all public engagements, including socialmedia platforms, chat groups and private sites,” Gamboa ordered.

The PNP chief said policemen should use the social media as a tool to establish a proactive information and awareness activities, as well as build a harmonious relationship with the community in this “time of pandemic.”

“Social media is an excellent public information and collaboration Internet tool as we are facing crisis today, operating within PNP regulations and established policies can mean a successful social-media campaign, public relation and also police operations,” he said.

Gamboa added that comments of policemen on issues not relating to the PNP should be treated as “unauthorized.”

“Comments and opinions of individual personnel, associations and sectoral groups on matters that are not related to the organization’s activities are hereby disowned by the PNP as unofficial and unauthorized,” he said. Rene Acosta

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DUCATION Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones on Monday said that the Department of Education (DepEd) would eventually disallow local government units (LGUs) from utilizing schools as quarantine areas for suspected cases of Covid-19 to ensure the safety of students with the projected opening of classes on August 24, 2020.

Briones said that this early, LGUs should look for facilities deal for the use of Covid-19 patients like the World Trade Center in Pasay, the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) and The Philippine Arena in Bulacan, among others, in their respective areas.

She noted that some schools were used as “parking space for PUMs [persons under monitoring] and PUIs [persons under investigation]” and “we need to prepare the schools already.”

“The matter of utilization of schools as quarantine, or isolation areas has been discussed in the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases].”

—Briones

“Although face-to-face is not yet allowed on school opening, there will be teachers, or school personnel, who will go to school,” she said.

The DepEd has allowed over 600 schools

across the country to be used as quarantine facilities.

Earlier, DepEd has released its set of guidelines for LGUs planning to tap public schools as special quarantine areas for Covid-19 cases.

In a memorandum the DepEd chief advised LGUs to initiate proper coordination with the agency for such purpose.

“The matter of utilization of schools as quarantine, or isolation areas has been discussed in the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases,” Briones said in the memorandum.

“The agreement was that any decision concerning public schools should be made in consultation with DepEd, and in cooperation with DepEd officials on the ground and in compliance with the Department of Health [DOH] guidelines, with due consideration to specific conditions,” it read.

A4 Tuesday, May 12, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Poultry raisers urge DA to halt chicken imports

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE United Broiler Raisers Association (Ubra) is urging the Department of Agriculture (DA) to suspend the importation of poultry meat and poultry products to ease local glut and avert the possible collapse of the poultry industry.

The imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) led to the closure of hotel, restaurant and institutional (HRI) buyers, which accounts for 30 percent of local broiler output, worsened the current glut situation.

The average farm-gate price of broiler has been playing between the range of P50 per kilogram to P65 per kilogram, nowhere near the P70 per kg to P75 per kg costto-produce level.

Inciong warned that if the glut persists then poultry industry players would continue to endure losses, which, he pointed out, could force breeders to halt output that may paralyze the whole industry’s production capacity.

He explained that the government’s projected production surplus

of 253 days by year-end may not materialize if breeders stop producing day-old chicks for broiler raisers, which is a bigger food security problem for the country.

“In order to preserve the remaining production potential for 2020, the importation of poultry meat and poultry products must cease as soon as possible so that the industry, especially those at the breeder stage of the value chain, can hold on until times are less volatile,” he said in his letter dated May 8.

“This will help assure food security for our people and a viable livelihood for industry stakeholders,” he added.

Latest National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) data showed that the country’s total dressed

chicken inventory in accredited cold storages as of April 20 stood at 71,864.86 metric tons, about 35,442.73 MT of which are locally produced.

Ubra said it estimates current frozen dressed chicken inventory at about 80,000 MT to 90,000 MT since government data only account volume in NMIS-accredited coldstorage facilities.

In a separate interview, Inciong told the BusinessMirror explained they are asking for the suspension of the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC), which is a required document for traders to import meat products.

“This request is not unprecedented in this Covid-19 impacted world. Poultry raisers in Europe

have asked for similar relief to ‘prevent’ an oversupply crisis,” Inciong said.

“These are countries which heavily subsidize their agricultural sectors. In our case, the crisis is already at hand. It is also beyond cavil that our sector has long been neglected through several administrations,” he added.

Based on estimates of Ubra, local raisers are now spending at least P122.5 million per month to store their produce in cold-storages since they cannot unload them due to loss of market and client.

“The last [Agriculture Secretary] to do that [suspend SPS-ICs] was Secretary [Edgardo] Angara. He saved the industry, especially the small and medium enterprises,” Inciong said.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar, Ubra President Elias Jose Inciong said the “oversupply of broilers in the market” has “gravely damaged the poultry industry.”

The glut in local production,

caused by a confluence of events such as higher output, closure of markets, and high import inventory, has pulled down farm-gate prices below profitable levels for small and medium growers.

DPWH issues construction site protocols

Finance chief: Let’s go slow on giving away fiscal incentives

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

W

ITH the looming resumption of construction projects nationwide, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has finally released guidelines to ensure safety of construction workers amid the raging novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

On Monday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced DPWH finally completed the protocols that should be complied with by the construction sector to be able to resume their operations in areas under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and general community quarantine (GCQ).

These include ensuring social distancing will be followed in worksites by conducting break times in a staggered manner and banning gatherings, alcoholic drinks, and/ or merry-making.

“Clustered and staggered deployment of employees within the construction site shall be observed,” Roque stressed.

The guidelines also minimized the movement of workers outside the worksite by requiring contractors, subcontractors, and concessionaires to provide sleeping quarters, adequate food and drinking water within, or near the worksite.

“Number of personnel running errands [outside the construction site] shall be limited, properly disinfected, and closely monitored for symptoms within 14 days upon reentry [in the worksite],” Roque said.

Meanwhile, nonessential personnel will not be allowed entry in worksites.

To ensure this is followed, DPWH required the strict logging of all personnel entering the site to ensure they are free from Covid-19.

Designated personnel will also check if the workers within a worksite are following safety and hygiene protocols such as wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE), regular hand washing and disinfecting their equipment and work area.

“Proper waste disposal shall be provided for infectious waste such as PPEs and other waste products coming from outside and the construction premises,” Roque said.

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

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INANCE Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the government is willing to take some revenue erosion that may result from the government giving away fiscal incentives under the proposed Philippine Financial Industry Resiliency Act. While Dominguez on Monday expressed his full support to the measure, which, he said, would allow the banks to clear debts, he also asked for more time for the department to determine how much would

be the revenue impact from giving away fiscal incentives.

“Quite frankly, we are for the swift passage of this legislation primarily because we want to clear the debts as soon as the bad debts, which we expect to start coming in, as soon as they start hitting the books of the banks we should already have a piece of legislation to allow the banks to clear the debts,” he told lawmakers in a virtual meeting of the House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries.

Moreover, the finance chief said he also wants to talk to officials of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Bankers’

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@llectura

HE National Electrification Administration (NEA) has directed all electric cooperatives (ECs) to prepare and implement contingency measures to avert possible impacts of Tropical Depression Ambo on power distribution facilities.

The NEA-Disaster Risk Reduc-

aims to help financial institution in their bad debt resolution and management of non-performing assets (NPAs) in order to cushion the adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic on their financial operations.

The bill also aims to encourage financial institutions to sell NPAs to asset management companies created as Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Corps. that specialize in the resolution of distressed assets. It also encourages the private sector, government financial institutions and government-owned or -controlled corporations to incorpo-

rate and invest in FISTCs and help in the rehabilitation of distressed businesses and contribute to economic growth. The FISTCs are also envisioned to bring in new money to find new uses for non-performing loans and real and other properties acquired in settlement of loans and receivables, rehabilitate failed businesses and increase lending.

The measure will also extend support to financial institutions, as well as FISTCs in disposing of their NPAs by granting tax exemptions and reduced registration and transfer fees on certain transactions involving NPAs.

Govt allots ₧300M for ARBs Managing companies through the pandemic affected by contagion–DAR

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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HE Duterte administration has allotted at least P300 million to help agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) to cope with the economic impact of coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

In a news statement, DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones said it is currently extending help and support through a project called “The PaSSOver: ARBOld Move to Heal as One Deliverance of our ARBs from the Covid 19 Pandemic.”

The P300-million budget will be sourced out from the reprogrammed and realigned budget of the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Sustainability Program (ARBDSP) and unobligated allotment from the different units of the DAR Support Services Office (SSO).

Castriciones said the project was created in response to the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or Republic Act 11469, where President Duterte directed all government agencies to provide, protect and promote the welfare of the people in these times of the pandemic.

“This project intends to provide immediate and essential support services to men and women agrarian reform beneficiaries to mitigate the impact of the enhanced community quarantine [ECQ] measures due to the pandemic and to address the demands affecting the agricultural sector even after the ECQ has been lifted or upon the start of the ‘new

normal,’” Castriciones said.

As of April 24, 2020, a total of 629 quarantine accreditation passes have been distributed to ARBs and agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs).

The ARBOs will also be provided with farm inputs such as seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides, and farm tools to enable them to resume planting crops for continuous food supply.

The project covers 7,000 hectares nationwide with 90,839 individual ARBs to benefit from the project.

ARB identification cards (ARB IDs) are also being issued and distributed under the ARBOld Move. DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Emily Padilla said the IDs are being given to identify ARBs to facilitate their access to the government’s social amelioration programs (SAPs).

As of April 24, a total of 77,119 ARB IDs have been distributed by the DAR. The project will also extend its support to 1,200 women ARBs nationwide by providing them with livelihood activities, especially in food production, such as egg and poultry production, hog fattening, and similar activities based on their preferences and capabilities to ensure they have food on their tables and products to sell.

Priority assistance will also be given to women with special circumstances such as single parents, widows, senior citizens, head of households, persons with disabilities, and groups of indigenous peoples, who undertake farming activities but lost their source of income because of the ECQ.

Prepare for Tropical Depression Ambo, NEA tells power co-ops

By Lenie Lectura

Association of the Philippines to determine the scale of revenue erosion.

“While we are 100 percent supportive of this and we are willing to provide fiscal incentives for this, please give us time to do the estimates because right now we don’t really know how much of the loans are going to turn bad and how much of these are covered by assets that will qualify under these loans,” he said.

House Bill 6622, introduced by committee Chairman Quirino First District Rep. Junie E. Cua, seeks the enactment of the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer law which

tion and Management Department (DRRMD) issued an advisory requiring the 121 ECs to activate their respective Emergency Response Organizations.

NEA also urged ECs to continuously monitor weather updates from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

They were also advised to report

all significant outages.

In the next 24 hours, the tropical depression is expected to bring scattered light to moderate with isolated heavy rains during thunderstorms over Mindanao.

Pagasa advised residents in these areas to continue monitoring for updates, especially the local rainfall, or thunderstorm advisories and heavy rainfall warnings.

By Henry J. Schumacher

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E have been navigating our companies through the Covid-19 pandemic for more than a month.

The whole enterprise, management and staff, are trying to find their footing through crisis meetings, initially in the office and later online. Looking at the bad news hitting us every morning, we may have to talk about crisis management because confronting something like Covid-19 is a crisis without a clearly defined end, or any easy-to-follow response plans.

We have a rough sense of the concerns that the coronavirus puts in front of us: employee health issues, supply chain instability, financial liquidity, possible facility closures, and so forth. We all understand that solutions have to be developed: new ways to communicate with clients, tools to monitor suppliers, controls on expenditures, and to survive—to name a few only.

Tying issues and solutions together in the right way to keep the enterprise sustainable amid prolonged uncertainty and volatility is a hard part. One of the most important resources the C-suite will need during crisis management is accurate, reliable data from the work force about what’s really happening in the business, outside the business, what competitors are doing, what new business opportunities are showing up, etc.

A strong, real-time internal reporting system can provide that intelligence. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve seen that pattern emerging already in your reporting system: more questions about operations after the lockdown is lifted, or complaints about insufficient protective equipment on the factory floor, or concerns

about how to interact with customers, or issues regarding working from home.

Each organization will need to find its own answers to those issues, but an effective internal reporting system is the mechanism by which those issues can be brought to management’s attention. It must receive real-time internal reports, and then analyze and distill all that data into the most urgent priorities management must take.

As companies improvise new methods to keep going during coronavirus, they’ll need to understand the new risks that come along with those substitutes. Better risk assessments will be crucial in months following a crisis. Covid-19, for example, has forced companies to discard so many of their standard, well-understood business operations.

For example, work from home policies can reduce employees’ exposure to Covid-19, but they also introduce other risks the company will need to address—everything from data security, to fraudulent transactions, to data privacy breaches, to cybercrime.

As we develop response plans for Covid-19 on a daily basis, we will need to implement those ideas as policy— and to measure how well those new policies actually work.

Policy management won’t be easy, because businesses will need to strike the right balance between a coordinated, enterprise-wide response, and flexibility, so that each operating unit can respond to the conditions and regulations it faces continuously. Executives on the crisis management team will need to know what policies are in place across the enterprise, and which ones will or won’t cause additional headaches.

For example, the company might want to implement a requirement to collect health data from employees; how can that be done quickly, and how will the company need to interact with data privacy rules?

Companies are improvising new ways to do business and govern risk. They’re also doing this with many employees working from home or managers in one location and employees in another. This is a tremendous challenge for employee training. We at EITSC have just developed new customized training methods, incorporating the needs of companies!

Most likely, the HR team will take the lead on training needs during this crisis. New training materials relevant to whatever new policies the company is deploying need to be developed and you’ll need to assure those materials get delivered, likely through computerbased learning. HR managers may be interested to look at our training needs analysis.

Covid-19 is testing personal leadership skills like never before. Covid-19 is putting all best practices to the test. But the fact remains that corporate ethics and integrity are not for sale! Leading employees is going to be more challenging, with so much change, volatility, and risk swirling around us. But it is also exciting!!

Enjoy “crisis management,” or “chaos management”; uncertainty is the name of the game.

I would appreciate your feedback; contact me at Schumacher@eitsc.com

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Japan to limit foreign stakes in listed firms J

apan detailed an array of companies that will be subject to new rules restricting foreign investment, moving to protect industries it says are core to national security from the influence of foreign state interference.

The Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act requires some foreign investors to report in advance when they plan to buy a more than 1 percent stake in the designated firms, versus a previous threshold of 10 percent. The steps add restrictions to investments in more than half the listed companies in the country, though a series of blanket exemptions apply for registered investors, including most financial and asset management firms.

The list announced on Friday groups companies into one of three categories: n Those exempt from the restrictions entirely; n A group of around 500 companies operating in so-called core industries including nuclear power and defense; and n A broader group of more than 1,500 companies in non-core industries including broadcasting and transport, subject to less stringent rules.

The law came into force on Friday with full implementation set to begin on June 7 after a 30-day transition period. Blue chips such as Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. are part of the group operating in core sectors, while the likes of Nintendo Co. and Fanuc Corp. make the broader, “non-core” list.

Japan has said the legislation is necessary to protect national security and likened it to the recent legislation in the US, while critics have contended the moves will limit activist investing and foreign influence at a time when Japan has been trying to promote its equity markets.

Broad exemptions

“This is in line with what the governments around the world are doing,” said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First

Partners. “This is largely to prevent predatory and opportunistic acquisitions at a time when companies are weakened due to the one-off effects of Covid-19.”

A number of companies whose relevance to national security was less obvious also made the lists, from Tokyo Disneyland operator Oriental Land Co. to used golf store chain Golf Do Co. Some current and recent targets of activist investors also appeared, including concert venue operator Tokyo Dome Corp. which has been eyed by Oasis Management Co., and Shibaura Machine Co., formerly known as Toshiba Machine, a target of controversial activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami.

The legislation includes a large number of exemptions, meaning the rules don’t apply to the likes of banks, asset managers, hedge funds and high-frequency traders registered with the Financial Services Agency. The exemptions were added after strong criticism from the financial industry and some members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party to early drafts of the bill.

The steps are most likely to target foreign state - owned enterprises, with Chinese investment in the country a particular source of concern. Japan has said sovereign wealth funds that “pose no risk to national security” can also get an exemption, provided investment decisions are made without government interference.

The legislation also gives a framework for Japan to quickly protect industries of national concern, with Fujifilm Holdings Corp., the maker of potential coronavirus treatment Avigan, already on the core list. Two more companies involved in the production of the drug, which Japan has been promoting internationally as a virus treatment despite its efficacy still being unclear, will also be added, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Monday.

Some 1,698 companies in industries not directly related to national security are entirely exempt from the reporting requirements, including firms in retailing, food, and finance.

Bloomberg News

Oil heads lower after weekly gain while investors weigh recovery

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OUSTON—Trump administration officials spoke optimistically about a relatively quick rebound from the coronavirus on Sunday as life within the White House reflected the stark challenges still posed by the pandemic, with Vice President Mike Pence “self-isolating” after one of his aides tested positive.

A balancing act was playing out the world over, with leaders starting to loosen lockdowns that have left millions unemployed while also warning of the threat of a second wave of infections.

Treasur y Secretar y Steven Mnuchin predicted the American economy would rebound in the second half of this year from unemployment rates that rival the Great Depression. Another 3.2 million US workers applied for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million.

“I think you’re going to see a bounce-back from a low standpoint,” said Mnuchin, speaking on “Fox News Sunday.”

But the director of the University of Washington institute that created a White House-endorsed coronavirus model said the moves by states to re-open businesses “will translate into more cases and deaths in 10 days from now.”

Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said states where cases and deaths are going up more than expected include Illinois, Arizona, Florida and California.

A reminder of the continued threat, Pence’s move came after three members of the White House’s coronavirus task force placed themselves in quarantine after coming into contact with the aide. An administration official said Pence was voluntarily keeping his distance from other people and has repeatedly tested negative for Covid-19 since his exposure.

He plans to be at the White House on Monday.

Families, meanwhile, marked Mother’s Day in a time of social distancing. For many, it was their first without loved ones lost in the

pandemic. Others sent good wishes from a safe distance or through phone and video calls.

The virus has caused particular suffering for the elderly, with more than 26,000 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the United States, according to an Associated Press tally.

At a senior center in Smyrna, Georgia, 73-year-old Mary Washington spoke to her daughter Courtney Crosby and grandchild Sydney Crosby through a window.

In Germany, which was also celebrating mothers, officials made an exception to allow children who live outside the country to enter for a Mother’s Day visit. Germany’s restrictions currently forbid entry except for “compelling reasons,” such as work.

In Grafton, West Virginia, where the tradition of Mother’s Day began 112 years ago, the brick building now known as the International Mother’s Day Shrine held its first online-only audience. Anna Jarvis first held a memorial service for her mother and all mothers on the second Sunday of May in 1908.

“Sheltered safely at home with the family together would be viewed by Anna Jarvis as exactly the way she wanted Mother’s Day to be observed,” said Marvin Gelhausen, chairman of the shrine’s board of trustees, in an address on YouTube.

Matilda Cuomo, the mother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, called into her son’s daily briefing so he and his three daughters could wish her a happy Mother’s Day. “I am so blessed as many mothers today are,” she said.

The governor announced two policy reversals a day after an Associated Press report in which resi-

revolution kicked off at the beginning of the last decade.

Oil is still down about 60 percent this year after global demand collapsed following lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions are slowly being eased in some places around the world, offering some hope that fuel consumption may rebound as people travel again, but low prices are still having an impact.

Qatar Petroleum reduced its official selling prices for April sales by 51 percent, the official Qatar News Agency reported, setting both of its main grades at the lowest in more than 20 years. In the US, EOG Resources Inc. is cutting about a quarter of its output for May in one of the biggest shale retrenchments to date.

“There are definite signs of the oversupply situation easing,” said Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. “Today’s move looks like a slight break from overall uptrend.” Bloomberg News

Iran missile strikes own ship, kills one sailor, hurts others

HK uses virus rules to stop protests even as bars fill up

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EHRAN, Iran—An Iranian missile fired during a training exercise in the Gulf of Oman struck a support vessel near its target, killing at least one sailor and wounding 15 others, Iranian media repor ted on Monday, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the US. The friendly fire incident happened on Sunday near the port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman, state TV said.

Th e m i s s i l e s t ru c k t h e Ko n a ra k , a Hendijan-class support ship, taking part in the exercise.

State television described the missile strike as an accident, saying the Konarak had remained too close to the target. The Konarak had been putting targets out in the water for other ships to fire upon, it said.

A local hospital admitted 12 sailors and treated another three with slight wounds, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Iranian media said the Konarak had been overhauled in 2018 and was able to launch sea and anti-ship missiles. The Dutch-made, 47-meter (155-foot) vessel was in service since 1988 and had capacity of 40 tons.

It usually carries a crew of 20 sailors. AP

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A5

World leaders balance optimism with threat of second virus wave

il dropped after posting its first backto-back weekly gain since February as investors weighed nascent signs of a recovery in demand against a huge global glut and the risk of resurgence in virus cases.

Futures fell 1.7 percent in New York after rising 25 percent last week. While death rates have been easing in many countries, there’s concern the global economy may be vulnerable to a second wave of infections. China put a city near North Korea in lockdown over the weekend, while the White House has been hit with a case even as President Donald J. Trump encourages Americans to return to work.

However, the market is showing some signs it’s starting to rebalance. China’s oil stockpiles have shrunk in recent weeks after swelling to a record, while hedge funds increased their bullish bets on West Texas Intermediate crude. US output cuts are accelerating with active drill rigs falling to a level not seen since before the shale

ong Kong’s central bar district returned to relative normalcy this weekend, with crowds of revelers taking advantage of eased social distancing rules even as fresh pro-democracy protests flared across the city.

While police largely left the packed bars alone, when it came to the activists, they aggressively enforced a coronavirus-related restriction on gatherings of more than eight people, with local media repor ting the arrest and pepper-spraying of protesters.

Officers on Sunday restrained a large group of journalists and made a number of arrests at a protest in the dense Mong Kok neighborhood on the Kowloon side of the city’s harbor.

P ro - d e m o c r a c y l a w m a ke r s s a i d i t was increasingly clear that the police have a double standard when it comes to enforcing the ban on large gatherings, and are using the remaining distancing restrictions to try and prevent the return of anti-government demonstrations while largely allowing other groups to gather with impunity. The Hong Kong Police Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

“It’s quite blatant that the police are selectively exercising their powers to use the ban of gatherings of eight people to suppress protests rather than to promote social distancing,” said opposition politician Fernando Cheung. “Many large congregations in front of bars or in shopping areas were tolerated, while congregations rel ate d to pro te s ts a re qu i ckly b ei ng declared illegal and people are ticketed

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

or arrested. Such selective practice of law enforcement will only further anger Hong Kongers.”

The tumultuous weekend, which followed scuffles between lawmakers in the city’s Legislative Council on Friday, u n d e r s co re d h ow d e e p d i v i s i o n s a n d political instability remain key concerns for Hong Kong going into a key election for the body in September. It could also fuel protesters’ concerns that social distancing measures enacted to contain Covid-19 will be used to keep them from gathering over the summer, after rallies all but disappeared amid the pandemic.

The government is attempting to get the city back to normal amid a deep recession fueled by months of violent protests and the virus pandemic. Authorities were successful in deploying early distancing measures and containing the virus’s spread, and most restaurants remained open even as cities around the world shut down. On Friday, they eased a ban on gatherings—with groups of eight people now allowed, up from four previously.

Despite leader Carrie Lam’s successes in containing the outbreak, the arrests in recent weeks of prominent pro-democracy figures has raised the ire of resurgent protesters. Beijing’s two main agencies overseeing Hong Kong have also argued for a greater role overseeing the city, while Lam and other pro-establishment politicians push for a controversial national security legislation and a law that would make it illegal to disrespect China’s national

anthem—moves that would likely spark more unrest.

“B eijing continues to blame Hong Kongers for the political instability and e c o n o m i c d a m a g e ,” p r o m i n e n t p r o d e m o c r a c y c a m p a i g n e r J o s h u a Wo n g tweeted on Monday. “But China’s unrelenting assault on Hong Kong’s freedom and legal autonomy guarantees that the resistance will continue.”

Weekend rallies

Hu n dreds o f p ro te s te r s g at h e re d i n various locations over the weekend, with the largest on Sunday in Mong Kok. Some tried to light garbage bins on fire but were quickly dispersed by police, according to the South China Morning Post .

Dozens of demonstrators appeared in malls across Hong Kong, including the Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Taikoo Shing and Sha Tin districts, chanting anti-government slogans and singing protest songs. The police warned them that they were in violation of rules against group gatherings put in place to fight the coronavirus.

Radio Television Hong Kong reported police arrested at least 10 people and fired pepper balls—projectiles that contain irritants that are used to disperse crowds.

A 12-year- old girl and a 13-year- old student reporter were among those taken away, the report said. On Sunday, police appealed to all protesters in a statement to stop gathering and leave immediately, or they would take enforcement actions “resolutely.” Bloomberg News

In this photo issued by 10 Downing Street on May 10, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers an address on lifting the country’s lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Johnson announced a modest easing of the country’s coronavirus lockdown and outlined his government’s road map for further lifting restrictions in the coming months.

Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street via AP

dents’ relatives, watchdog groups and politicians from both parties alleged he was not doing enough to counter the surge of deaths in nursing homes, where about 5,300 residents have died. Nursing home staff in New York will now have to undergo Covid-19 tests twice a week and facilities will no longer be required to take in hospital patients who were infected.

The US has seen 1.3 million infections and nearly 80,000 deaths, the most in the world by far, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, 4 million people have been reported infected and more than 280,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the country’s coronavirus lockdown but urged citizens not to surrender the progress already made.

Those in the construction or manufacturing industries or other jobs that can’t be done at home “should be actively encouraged to go to work” this week, he said. Johnson, who has taken a tougher line after falling ill himself with what he called “this devilish illness,” set a goal of June 1 to begin re-opening schools and shops if the UK can control new infections and the transmission rate of each infected person.

“We will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity,” he said. “We’re going to be driven by the science, the data, and

public health.”

Germany, which managed to push new infections below 1,000 daily before deciding to loosen restrictions, has seen regional spikes in cases linked to slaughterhouses and nursing homes.

France is letting some younger students go back to school on Monday after almost two months out. Attendance won’t be compulsory right away. Residents of some Spanish regions will be able to enjoy limited seating at bars, restaurants and other public places on Monday, but Madrid and Barcelona, the country’s largest cities, will remain shut down.

China, where the virus was first detected, reported 14 new cases on Sunday, its first double-digit rise in 10 days. Eleven of 12 domestic infections were in the northeastern province of Jilin, prompting authorities to raise the threat level in one of its counties, Shulan, to high risk, just days after downgrading all regions to low risk.

Authorities said the Shulan outbreak originated with a 45-year-old woman who had no recent travel or exposure history but spread it to her husband, three sisters and other relatives.

South Korea reported 34 more cases as new infections linked to nightclubs threaten its hard-won gains against the virus. It was the first time that South Korea’s daily infections were above 30 in about a month. AP

Semiconductor companies consider new plants in US

N

EW YORK—Intel and a Taiwanese company are talking to the Trump administration about building new semiconductor plants in the United States amid concern about relying on suppliers in Asia for chips used in a wide variety of electronics.

A spokesman for Intel, the biggest American chip maker, said on Sunday that the company is in discussions with the Defense Depar tment about improving domestic technology sources. Spokesman William Moss said Santa Clara, California-based Intel is well-positioned to work with the government “to operate a US-owned commercial foundry.”

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is open to building a plant outside of Taiwan and has talked with the Commerce Department, a spokeswoman said.

“We are actively evaluating all the suitable locations, including in the US, but there is no concrete plan yet,” said the TSMC spokeswoman, Nina Kao. The discussions were first reported by The Wall Street Journal , which said TSMC is also talking with Apple Inc., one of its biggest customers, about building a plant in the US. The newspaper said the coronavirus

pandemic has heightened worries about global supply chains, and that US officials are particularly concerned about the growing reliance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that is claimed by China.

Intel CEO Bob Swan said in a letter last month to two Pentagon officials that strengthening US produc tion “is more important than ever, given the uncertainty c re a t e d b y t h e c u r re n t g e o p o l i t i c a l environment.” He said it would be in the best interests of the United States and Intel to explore how the company could build a plant.

Concern about relying so heavily on chips from Taiwan, South Korea and China started even before the coronavirus outbreak.

The Pentagon and the Government Accountability Office issued reports on the matter last year. The GAO said that when US companies shift operations overseas it can mean lower prices for components and technology used in weapons systems.

However, having global sources “can also make it harder for (the Pentagon) to get what it needs if, for example, other countries cut off US access to critical supplies,” the GAO said in a report last September. AP

A6 Tuesday, May 12, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Making ABS-CBN even more popular

O

ne wonders why people think banning something is the only way to stop it. Take the liquor ban, implemented by a number cities when lockdown measures were imposed.

The liquor ban did not stop the availability of contraband liquor in these areas. It only encouraged citizens to violate quarantine by going out to other cities, like Makati, where liquor is being sold legally.

Banning something does not stop people from consuming it. It just opens the door to other markets, including the black market. It also helps make the banned item even more popular. For example, banning books helped turn them into bestsellers; banning movies, into blockbusters. Ban a video or a story on the Internet and more people will look for it.

When the Chinese government clamped down on Chinese social-media users who were providing information about the Wuhan coronavirus, it only led to resentment, which made people posting the information more popular.

Psychologists have a professional term for this—reactance or psychological reactance, which is “an unpleasant motivational arousal that occurs when persons, rules or regulations threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms” or “when a person feels that someone or something is taking away their choices or limiting the range of alternatives” (from the book Understanding Psychological Reactance).

According to the reactance theory, depriving someone of something only increases resistance to this deprivation and can have the opposite effect.

Call it what you want, but for all intents and purposes, stopping the regular broadcast operations of ABS-CBN is a ban, because no other network or broadcasting company’s license suffered a similar fate—and such a ban has caused similar unintended consequences.

Sure, there’s a chilling effect on media freedom, but forcing the network to go off the air also seems to have made it more popular, as millions of Filipinos are now accessing ABS-CBN programs and content through Facebook, YouTube and other social media and digital platforms not covered by the National Telecommunications Commission order. Stopping ABS-CBN is an example of psychological reactance at work, as it made many Filipinos significantly more motivated to access it.

The closure has also provoked quite a backlash across the globe; it was featured by the likes of The New York Times, Washington Post, British Broadcasting Corp., CNN, Al Jazeera and other international media. The move was criticized in particular for having been implemented during a global health crisis when the country’s main sources of information should always be accessible.

It has certainly made many people more sympathetic to ABS-CBN, if not at least more interested in the issues surrounding the closure, whether they agree with it or not, something that could work to the network’s advantage, especially now that it is more accessible in the current and always-evolving digital platforms.

Let’s face it, television is no longer the king of Philippine households, as more than a few studies and surveys have shown that Filipinos now spend more time surfing the Internet than watching TV. Technological developments like high-speed Internet and increasing ownership of connected devices, such as smartphones and tablets are revolutionizing digital media usage in Southeast Asia, surpassing time spent on traditional media like television, radio and print, according to a Nielsen Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report.

This is why TV stations like ABS-CBN have gone multimedia (even before the network was closed), along with their advertisers, who have increasingly found it more cost-effective to reach audiences through the Internet and social media.

Perhaps, in a few years, when Internet penetration would equal that of TV, massive advertising campaigns would be done online, and most people would be instantly getting their information online too, where the message is not controlled and the lines are open for interaction. Perhaps this is already happening.

Perhaps in the near future, the Internet with all its tools and accessibility, would educate and empower voters as well as would-be politicians, and usher in a new politics altogether, one where patronage does not rule and the people truly have a voice.

If more people surf the Internet to view an “outlawed” TV station’s programs, this could make old-style politics obsolete. If this development can make government and media work better for the people, then all’s well that ends well.

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John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

his lovely story has been told countless times to illustrate how “we look at things in the light of eternity and our perspective and values totally change.”

“A wealthy woman pushed aside her diamond rings and jewelry, instead grabbing three small oranges.

She quickly found her way to the lifeboat as Death boarded the Titanic. Worthless things had become priceless. And in a moment she preferred three small oranges to a crate of diamonds.”

Another story is not told. A woman in the stateroom next door grabs all of her jewelry, one small orange, and on the way to her lifeboat notices in the cabin next door a box filled with expensive bracelets and necklaces, which she also takes.

Two hours later, both women have been rescued and are on board the RMS Carpathia. The first woman is sitting on the deck eating her oranges. The second woman marches to the ship’s bridge demanding a quiet and discreet conversation with the Captain.

A few minutes later the Carpathia’s radio operator sent a telegram to her husband telling of her safety. He also made reservations for a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where she would arrive three days later and contacted her broker to sell her bonds in International Mercantile Marine Co., the owner of the Titanic. She stays in the Captain’s quarters and upon arrival in New York, the Captain makes a secretive trip to an office at 47th Street and Fifth Avenue in the “Diamond Merchant District.”

The next six to 12 months will see some generous opportunities unfold for those companies and individuals that possess two characteristics. They must be cash rich and have a predatory attitude.

The first is self-explanatory. The second means that they are willing—as all lions know—to take

Two conditions will become more apparent and obvious as the next weeks unfold. The first is that companies that depend on constant cash flow for survival and have heavy debt will close.

Already, stories are being told.

One gentleman is shopping two of eight franchise locations of a large and popular restaurant chain. He must sell two in order to be able to keep the other six.

And he is a distressed and anxious seller. Someone will come to “eat that zebra.” down and eat the weaker zebra at the end of the herd.

Two conditions will become more apparent and obvious as the next weeks unfold. The first is that companies that depend on constant cash flow for survival and have heavy debt will close. Already, stories are being told. One gentleman is shopping two of eight franchise locations of a large and popular restaurant chain. He must sell two in order to be able to keep the other six. And he is a distressed and anxious seller. Someone will come to “eat that zebra.”

The shopping mall business will be a minefield. On one hand, the owners are not going to go out

To rage against the dying of the light!

By Atty. R.A. Salalima

T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Senior Editors

Creative Director Chief Photographer

Covid-19 and the feasting lions

First of two parts

O

N May 5, 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission issued its cease and desist order of the same date directing ABS-CBN to cease and desist from its broadcasting operations, a necessary public service, effective on the evening of May 5th, a sorrowful Tuesday. The CDO, however, issued with precipitate haste, is Void Ab Initio or from the very beginning. This NTC order, because void, is of no legal effect or consequence. The CDO simply does not have the force of law.

Assuming arguendo that the CDO is correct based on substantive law, the CDO is illegal and void because it was issued without ABS-CBN being heard on the legal issue thereon related to its Congressional Franchise in violation of that company’s constitutional right to procedural due process of law. According to the Deputy Commisioner-spokesman of the NTC, the CDO was issued because of a legal issue raised in regard ABS-CBN Congressional Franchise, particularly its expiration on May 5th. Thus, the following questions: Prior to the issuance of the CDO on May 5, ABS-CBN was operating based on a Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) or authorization from the NTC. Was there a Petition or Complaint filed with the NTC questioning the continued

operation of ABS-CBN predicated on the expiry of its franchise? If the Petition was dated and filed on May 5th with the NTC, then the CDO also dated May 5, 2020 was clearly issued with precipitate haste and thus void given the interval between the filing of the Petition and the issuance of the CDO—both on May 5, 2020. If the Petition was filed before May 5th, or prior the expiration of the ABSCBN’s franchise on May 5th, then the Petition is premature in law and thus there was no cause of action versus ABS-CBN as yet as at the filing date of the Petition, if any. In consequence, the CDO is likewise void ab initio. The Petition dated prior to May 5, 2020, if any, because premature, should have been dismissed outright. Was a copy of this Petition, if any, served on ABS-

CBN for this public service company to reply thereto and be heard thereon?

Was there a Show Cause Order issued by the NTC to ABS-CBN and was there a hearing on this Show Cause Order attended by the real parties-ininterest involved before the issuance of the CDO? Obviously, the answers to all the above searching questions are all NO given that the whole world, ABS-CBN included, was caught by surprise by the sudden appearance of the CDO dated May 5, 2020 ordering the ABS-CBN to stop and desist from its operation effective May 5th also. In the process of denying ABS-CBN procedural due process with supersonic speed, the NTC, in issuing its void CDO likewise seriously violated its own 2006 Rules of Practice and Procedure, particularly Section 4 (Part III, Rule 10) thereof re: Issuance of Show Cause Order and Prior Hearing before Issuance of a Cease and Desist Order.

Judicial Knowledge is different from and not judicial notice in Remedial or Procedural Law. On the former, every judge, even in quasijudicial cases before the NTC, must decide a case based not on what he personally knows but based on issues (of fact and/or law) raised and presented in evidence in a hearing or process where both substantive and procedural due process are

of business and can weather the storm. However, there will be many businesses that do close, leaving vacant storefronts. Rental income is important but more important is that if your favorite salon, food outlet, or clothing store closes at the nearest mall, you will go to some other mall. Mall operators cannot afford a reduction in foot traffic or other tenants will demand more rent decrease.

There will be no increase (best case) in disposable income for economic groups below upper-middle class for the next two years. Projections are that compensation paid to the call center and related employees could be as much as 30 percent lower by the end of the year. That will not improve for some time.

Again with cash and “predator” instinct to chase opportunities, companies have two choices. They can adopt and expand their businesses to serve the wealthier economic groups. Or they can find ways and products to better serve the lower economic groups, which will now have less income. The future will be bright but only for the smart, wise and strong lions.

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

observed punctiliously. As stated, due process is both substantive (law and fact-based) and procedural (right to be informed of and to be heard on charges made and fair trial thereon).

Without procedural due process, all decisions of courts and quasi-judicial bodies, though arguably consistent with substantive statutory laws, are void ab initio. (See Ang Tibay v. CIR [1940]). They are of no force and effect in law. This is true of the NTC’s CDO in question.

Government franchises or licences to operate public service

May ABS-CBN continue its operations after the expiration of its Congressional Franchise but while its application for extension thereof (timely filed and pending with the House of Representatives in 2016 yet) is being heard or yet to be heard and has yet to be resolved? This is the crucial legal issue of the moment.

The answer: Yes, as a matter of legal right and in the interest of justice and due process…all of which are at the heart of our Constitution, which has primacy over the statutory laws of the land.

To begin with, any franchise to operate public service like telecommunications or broadcasting or any See “Salalima,” A7

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The ‘Wild West’ of Covid-19 antibody tests needs a sheriff

By Lionel Laurent Bloomberg Opinion

A

S with many other things, the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the blockbuster fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, whose start-up Theranos Inc. went from darling to dumpster fire in a matter of months after the Wall Street Journal exposed huge flaws in the company’s promise its blood-test kits could detect an array of illnesses from a single “finger-prick” of blood. (Holmes has denied the charges.)

Ironically, the pandemic may be recreating a similar environment to the one that cultivated Theranos in the first place, as whistleblower Tyler Shultz, a former employee at the now-defunct start-up, warned on May 2. Pointing to a combination of large-scale health needs, the potential for lucrative financial gain and corner cutting by regulators, he concluded that Theranos would be “thriving” in this pandemic. And when it comes to Covid-19 antibody tests, he has a point.

A deluge of new rapid test kits has offered a seductive vision: A single finger-prick of blood is all it might take to see if you’ve been infected with the novel coronavirus in the past and generated antibodies that protect against future reinfection (though this is a topic of debate).

This is a potentially huge market.

Governments have spent millions on test kits, part of efforts to track the spread of Covid-19 as they start to ease draconian lockdowns. And individuals are desperate to know whether they’ve already had the disease. If a consensus emerges that antibodies do confer a degree of immunity, it could be the golden ticket to freedom from social distancing and home isolation. Companies are even selling tests direct to the consumer, not just to health-care professionals.

The problem is many of these antibody tests simply aren’t good enough. In the UK, a study of nine unidentified commercially available tests found them all to be “unsuitable for testing individuals.” The devices scored especially poorly on their ability to avoid false negatives, called sensitivity, with a range of 55percent to 70 percent accuracy. Specificity, or the ability to avoid false positives, fared better at 95 percent to 100 percent. After ordering millions of test kits from China, the UK government is trying to get its money back.

The rush to market in a pandemic is bad enough, but regulators have also been slow to wake up to the real risk of fraud. The US Food and Drug

Salalima. . .

Continued from A6

business license is a privilege granted by the State. This I grant. But once granted and the franchisee infuses investments or resources into the franchise to make it operational, like capital expenses for the network infrastructure and operating expenses for the salaries and wages of the workers and employees, the franchise (or its application for extension seasonably filed) becomes a vested constitutional property right which cannot simply be taken away, revoked or set aside without due process of law. Bases: (1) Section 1, Article III (Bill of Rights) of our Constitution: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied equal protection of the law.” Moreover, the right to property is the right to acquire, hold, enjoy, possess and manage property, as well as to devote the same to legitimate use. (2) Fact is, in Shauf vs Court of Appeals (1990), the Supreme Court even ruled that the right to earn a living is part of one’s right to life itself. Our Constitution is a Freedom Constitution. The Bill of Rights was intentionally enshrined

Administration in March allowed the sale of unauthorized antibody tests under certain conditions, only to tighten the rules last week: “We unfortunately see unscrupulous actors marketing fraudulent test kits and using the pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of Americans’ anxiety.” And while several European countries have issued consumer warnings, it’s still possible to take tests that haven’t undergone regulatory authorization in countries such as France. Only Belgium has banned rapid testing kits.

Obviously, it would be wrong to imagine that every actor in this market is unscrupulous and that potential Theranoses are everywhere. And accuracy isn’t an impossible dream.

Laboratory sample tests known as ELISAs (for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays) have been shown to have high specificity and high sensitivity, though they must be administered by trained medical staff and can’t be used at home. Roche Holding AG, meanwhile, is preparing to roll out a lab test in the UK with what it says is a specificity above 99.8 percent and sensitivity of 100 percent (when conducted 14 days after a confirmed infection).

But in general, too much burden is being placed on the consumer to trust and make sense of technical information. A test promoting a figure of 95 percent accuracy may sound reliable, but in a population of 1 million people where 15 percent have been infected, it actually works out to 42,500 false positives and 7,500 false negatives, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Errors might keep people cooped up at home and unable to work, or start a new epidemic chain.

This is a “Wild West” market that’s crying out for sheriffs. Cracking down on poor-quality tests is an obvious first step. The next should be to ramp up independent oversight of all tests coming to market, ideally worldwide.

Rather than rely on manufacturers’ own data, or have national regulators separately test different kits, organizations like the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control or the World Health Organization look well placed to pool resources and save time while setting much-needed standards, Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, Thorolfur Gudnason, tells me.

Theranos sold a product that was too good to be true. We don’t know yet if Covid-19 will produce a similar scandal, but this is a market that’s overdue a cleanup. When a whistleblower reaches for his whistle a second time, it’s worth paying attention.

in our Constitution for a purpose; it has primacy over statutory laws and the latter cannot rise over and prevail against the former. The Bill of Rights has primacy too over the powers of government which functions only on delegated powers entrusted to it by the sovereign people. (3) See also the Preamble of our Constitution which speaks of “a regime of truth, justice, xxx equality.” And justice is all about basic fairness and due process; (4) see also the Supreme Court rulings in Ang Tibay v. CIR (1990) and (5) Globe Telecom v. NTC, et al. (2004), all about basic substantive and procedural due process of law.

ABS-CBN’s constitutional right to operate in the interim gains more importance because its operations are clothed with public interest as it is engaged in public service, and this right is intertwined intimately with the expanded digital freedom of expression (Section 4, Bill of Rights) and Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”

To be concluded

Tuesday, May 12, 2020 A7

The demise of an institution is the worst kind of death Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

D

uring my childhood in our quaint little town, the first movie house, Illusion Theater, opened in the early 1950s.

Its facade was brightened by neon lights, the first ever in our place. On opening night, people from all over the province trooped to our town to watch the lights show and the inaugural movie, Siete Infantes de Lara, directed by Manuel Conde. We had three families cramped in our living room and kitchen floor that stayed with us that weekend to watch the dancing lights and the showing of the first commercial movie in our town.

Some actors in the film travelled from Manila and made personal appearances at the theater’s lobby to greet their fans. No doubt, it was the biggest event of the year for us.

At that time, moviegoers could stay inside the theater for as long as they wanted, and enter the movie house at anytime. There was intermission time of 15 minutes to allow the audience to answer the call of nature and buy snacks from the only shop operating inside, whose concessionaire was our neighbor and my baptismal godmother. On Saturdays and Sundays when I had no classes, I would get free pass to the theater by helping my ninang carry her wares and bring them inside the movie house before the first showing. I would watch the film for free and did my small business every intermission time. With an empty sack, I would walk between the rows of seats to collect the empty Coca-Cola

bottles and redeem their deposits of 3 cents, which many customers did not bother to collect. During SRO showings, I could earn P4, which was the equivalent of the minimum wage at that time. Aside from entertainment, the theater provided means of livelihood to our enterprising townsfolk. Outside the theater, several vendors sell peanuts, ice cream, boiled banana and corn. The theater building had commercial stalls that sold various items. The theater also served as the social and cultural center, which hosted significant events like vaudeville, zarzuelas, and stage shows featuring prominent stage players, actors, singers and famous personalities.

As part of its advertisement and promotion, Illusion set up its sound system so that the public outside could clearly hear the dialogues of the characters in the movie. Normally, on Friday evenings, a huge

crowd would gather in front. It was the age before television and one could “watch” the movie by following the sound track. I could still hear Efren Reyes cross swords with Johnny Montero in the thriller Espadang Umaangil, and the crowd outside would jump excitedly when they hear Reyes’ horse neighing as the lead character rescued the oppressed villagers. To announce the showing of a new movie, heavily made-up players, wearing the costumes of the characters they portrayed, would parade around town led by a band. They would stop at a junction and do some reenactment of their roles to the great delight of the townspeople. I would follow them around and rush home to tell my parents of the great scenes I saw.

As I look back and reminisce, Illusion Theater was the only game in town in our community. Its only competition was the free movies at the town plaza sponsored by famous consumer brands like Zamba, Purico, Colgate and Cortal. But these free movies seldom came and generally took place only during town fiestas and holidays, and you have to bring your own stool. Illusion provided entertainment and means of livelihood to the townspeople. As people gather outside, they exchange views, news and information, as there was no local or national paper in circulation, and no local radio station at that time.

My life revolved around the theater. I could watch movies for free and make money on the side for my baon to school and for other school expenses. I became an authority on movies, which was a cause of envy

Online in the time of corona Atty. Lino Ernie M. Guevara

Tax law for business

I

N his 1985 opus, “Love in the Time of Cholera”, Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez wrote that the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera. Today, during and post-quarantine era, the symptoms of life all point to that new normal in this time of corona.

As we gear up to get back to “normalcy,” whether for work or personal routines, we should adapt and do a paradigm shift for the new ways of doing the old. Foremost would be that online transactions may be surging in this time of social distancing when avoiding crowds and contactless dealings reign supreme.

It was projected for the Philippines to post a tremendous growth in e-commerce.

There are 73 million Internet and social media users in the country according to Datareportal.com. The Philippines’ eGDP, i.e., derived proportion of the sum of online transactions to the country’s GDP, stands at 11 percent but aimed to reach 25 percent (Digitalfilipino.com). Google and Temasek’s e-Conomy SEA 2019 Report showed that the Philippines’s Internet economy was valued at approximately $7 billion in 2019, growing from a mere $2 billion in 2015. But the real excitement about the Philippines is that it is still a relatively untapped market by regional and global players, especially for fintech companies involving digital payments, pegged by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) at only 12 percent (from a measly 1 percent in 2013), thus, having room a plenty for explosive growth.

Twenty-nineteen also saw the passage of laws for innovation and startups targeting tech companies and micro small and medium enterprises. Republic Act (RA) 11293 (“Philippine Innovation Act”) adopts innovation (i.e., creating new ideas for improved policies, products or processes), as vital component of our development policies to promote the growth of MSMEs as part of the local and global supply chain. An Innovation Fund is to be set-up with an initial revolving fund of P1 billion. Its IRR was just signed early this year. Second was the “Innovative Startup Act” (RA 11337) providing incentives for the establishment of innovative new businesses, specifically for start-ups and start-up enablers, including accelerators, incubators, investors,

organizers and other support organizations. There will be a Startup Grant and Venture Fund to supplement the grant fund and match investments by selected investors. A Startup Special Economic Zone will be established to grant incentives and start-up visas to be issued for the owner, employee and investor. All these could very well stimulate further the interest of, and growth by, start-ups, including fintech companies.

With possible exponential growth in the digital economy (or what I call “e-Conomy”), we should examine our existing legal and taxation framework on online taxation. Both Department of Finance and Bureau of Internal Revenue declared the intent to capture those untaxed online transactions for additional revenue.

Currently, what we have is still the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (RA 8792) giving legal effect, validity and enforceability to electronic data and messages as well as electronic signature.

During the quarantine, this was heavily relied upon by government agencies such as Securities and Exchange Commission and BSP in accepting online submissions and e-signatures. Its IRR provided that rule interpretation should give due regard to the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce as its international origin and the generally accepted principles of international law and convention on electronic commerce. We also enacted a law governing cybercrime offenses.

For online taxation, the BIR issued seven years ago Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 55-2013 subjecting to tax business transactions such as online shopping or retailing, online intermediary service, online advertisement and online auction. Like any other brick-andmortar businesses, these online entities are required to be BIR-registered, obtain and issue invoices and receipts, and pay income and withholding taxes and valueadded taxes or percentage tax, among

others. Amid the popularity of transport hailing apps in traffic-burdened Manila, RMC 70-2015 was then issued requiring transport network companies (TNCs) and their partners (i.e., car owner or driver) to register with the BIR, secure and issue official receipts and be subject to income and business taxes. If the TNC or its partner is a holder of Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) issued by Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for a franchise to operate, it will be treated as a common carrier with its gross receipts subject to 3 percent common carriers tax. If a non-holder but having merely an LTFRB accreditation, it is regarded as a land transportation service contractor subject to 12 percent value-added tax (VAT) or 3 percent percentage tax, depending on its registration or annual gross receipts.

Both RMCs specified the requirement that existing tax laws and issuances on the tax treatment of purchases and sale of goods or services shall be equally applied with no distinction on whether or not the marketing channel is the Internet or the typical physical medium. But we know that digital taxation is not that simple, here or abroad, even in developed countries.

From the time the above laws and circulars were issued, revolutionary changes in technology ensued affecting online transactions and, thus, not covered by said RMCs. Common now are movie and video streaming and virtual gaming, apps downloading, hosting, storage or cloud computing, using search engines, e-wallets, high frequency trading or block chain technology and videotelephony, among others. Our laws and regulations should be updated or new ones enacted to cover these new technologies and transactions. Secondly, the application of the RMCs was premised on the registration of said businesses similar to those having physical operations. But as we know, online transactions buck physical geography or territoriality, involving parties in more than one taxing jurisdictions even. Anent to these cross-border transactions is the critical issue of applying in digital realm the old traditional framework of permanent establishment (PE) or physical presence under the tax treaties before income tax attaches. Other countries, in taking the unilateral approach, imposed instead taxes based on consumption by end-users or value creation in that jurisdiction, but the same are not without controversies and resistance. Some of our Asean neighbors already tried imposing indirect taxes such as Singapore’s Goods and Services Tax on sales of

among my barkadas. I could mesmerize them with the dialogues of the Lo’ Waist Gang characters and the tragic ending of the Gabi ng Lagim victims.

But good old days do not last forever. In the summer of 1963, a big fire razed our town, gutting down the entire commercial block where the movie house stood. The once crowded and busy section of our town was reduced to ashes and debris. There was total darkness in the area where the dazzling lights used to attract crowds. The commercial stalls were gone, and the throng of people that frequented the place had vanished. It was the bleakest summer of my youth.

The demise of an institution is the worst kind of death. The loss of Illusion Theater erased the fond and happy memories of my youth. Although new and bigger movie houses followed, I had outgrown my fascination for movies. And as far as I’m concerned, there was only one movie house—Illusion Theater. Every time I go home for a visit, I could still see its grandeur and its dancing lights.

I think it was Lincolm who once said that we should preserve our institutions, which have made us the freest, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe. nnn

I thought I was watching “PO3 Ricardo Dalisay” of the top-rated Ang Probinsyano when the actor who plays his character has said: “Kung lahat tayo mananahimik, aabusuhin tayo n’yan.” He must have been inspired by the late Ed Murrow, the dean of American broadcast journalism, who said, “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”

foreign digital companies and Malaysia’s Sales and Services Tax on digital services, while Indonesia followed suit with VAT on intangible goods and services sold through electronic platforms and also required foreign sellers and e-commerce providers to appoint a representative in the country.

The OECD, on the other hand, under Pillar One proposes a unified approach, giving countries the right to tax profits of international businesses regardless of whether they have a base in the country or not. As already endorsed by some countries early this year, it may be the basis for a consensus-based solution on digital taxation, which we can also evaluate if we can adopt. Its Pillar Two refers to proposal to counter profit-shifting by multinationals which are subject to low or zero taxation by imposing a global minimum tax. We should note all these developments, gauge them and get a good mix of what would work best in our jurisdiction, especially in the area of implementation and monitoring. It is time to review our basic rules on source and situs of income, PE expansion and royalties, among others, on how they can encompass digital transactions. Thus, amendments to our tax laws and regulations or even passage of new bills may be timely to cover and map out more defined legal bases, parameters and scope for online taxation. News had it that Congress wishes to “amend” the Citira Bill given the recent developments due to the pandemic, so other inclusions and issues may still be looked at.

It is well to consider all the global technological advances and regulatory approaches in digital taxation and contextualize them against our own rules.

We are all for the government to capture equitably the e-commerce taxes rightly due, cognizant of the updated and generally accepted international taxation framework. But the bigger challenge is striking that balance, of taxing without impeding the development of a sunrise sector promising to be a driver of economic growth and potential revenue source, especially in the time of corona.

The author is a Special Counsel of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices, 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 ernie.guevara@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-201 local 160.

A8 Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Wilt, drought, virus seen to slash PHL banana exports 40% in ’20

F

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

By Samuel P. Medenilla

@jearcalas

ILIPINO exporters expect banana shipments to drop by as much as 40 percent in terms of volume this year as output is drastically reduced by Fusarium wilt and climate change, with the aggravating impact of Covid-19 on trade.

Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) Executive Director Stephen A. Antig said the 40 percent reduction is a worst-case scenario, considering the extent of damage to plantations by Fusarium wilt or Panama disease, coupled by the drought experienced in Mindanao.

Antig estimates that 20 percent of the country’s area planted to bananas have been damaged by Panama disease. As of March, he said, the disease has already affected about 30,000 hectares to 40,000 hectares of banana plantations in Mindanao.

Worse, Antig said the unfavorable weather conditions, particularly the drought in Mindanao, is adversely affecting local banana

OWWA needs P2.5B more for repatriates

production.

He explained that the lack of rainfall—it should have started already, he noted—would impact small and medium growers without access to irrigation facilities. “[The 40 percent reduction] is possible. And I hope it is already the worst-case scenario,” Antig told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview.

The country’s banana shipments in 2019 reached a record-high 4.4 million metric tons (MMT), which was valued at nearly $2 billion, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.

Antig said a best-case scenario would be a 20 percent to 23 percent reduction in export volume, which he noted was “not bad,” given all fac-

T

302 OFW repatriates from the MS Azura cruise ship fill out forms at the Naia Terminal 2, retrofitted to comply with physical distancing measures. They will undergo mandatory Covid-19 rapid testing. Naia is allowing all inbound international chartered and commercial flights to land after suspending all flights on May 3 due to the coronavirus pandemic. NONIE REYES

tors affecting the industry today.

Nonetheless, Antig said they hope the Philippines could maintain its stature as the world’s secondbiggest producer of bananas despite

the foreseen reduction in output.

He explained that other bananaexporting countries, particularly Ecuador and other Latin American nations, also face trade challenges due to Covid-19.

First-quarter figures

TROPICAL DEPRESSION "AMBO" 385 KM EAST OF HINATUAN, SURIGAO DEL SUR as of 4:00 am - May 11, 2020

@sam_medenilla

PHILIPPINE banana exports in the first quarter grew 10.71 percent to 1.18 MMT from 1.066 MMT, PSA data obtained and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed.

PSA data also showed that value of total exports during the period grew 1.73 percent to $489.154 million from $480.805 million.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) claimed that the value of banana exports in the first quarter grew on the back of the “increase in buying prices” by Chinese importers.

However, preliminary PSA data showed that banana exports to China, the country’s top market, fell 22 percent to $129.354 million as volume declined 20 percent to 312,008.608 MT. Antig said banana exports in the first quarter managed to grow due to higher shipments to Japan and Middle East. Antig added that exports to China declined due to erratic prices in the spot market coupled by the temporary shutdown of the market due to Covid-19.

PSA data showed exports to Japan grew 27 percent to nearly

400,000 MT. In terms of value, banana shipments to Japan rose 25.3 percent to almost $200 million. Japan overtook China as the top buyer of Philippine bananas during the quarter.

Total banana export volume to the Middle East during the threemonth period grew 66 percent to 276,794.294 MT while value rose 26.8 percent to $77.617 million, PSA data showed.

Economist Pablito M. Villegas said the increase in overall exports in the first quarter was “insignificant” considering that total shipments grew 80 percent during the January-to-March period of 2019 against the 2018 period.

“Expect full-year banana exports to decline due to drought and impact of Panama disease,” Villegas told the BusinessMirror.

Antig said Japan could become the country’s top export market this year if prices in China remain too volatile due to fierce competition with Ecuador.

Antig explained that spot market prices for bananas bound to China reach as high as P540 per box due to the logistics problem encountered by other fruit suppliers to China.

Antig added that spot market prices are now declining to as low as P200 per box as other export countries, like Ecuador, resume banana shipments to China.

HE Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said it will need an additional P2.5 billion as it braces for the arrival in the next few weeks of another 45,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) affected by the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis.

OWWA administrator Hans J. Cacdac said they will use the additional budget from Congress or the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide for the food, accommodation, and transport needs of the arriving OFWs. “Actually, based from the letter signed by [Labor] Secretary [Silvestre] Bello [we] requested P2.5 billion [from DBM]. We are praying really hard this will be approved,” Cacdac said during an online press briefing on Monday.

He said this will allow them to keep intact the P19.6 billion under OWWA’s trust funds, which they intend to use in the post-lockdown scenario—the expected long-term displacement of the bulk of repatriated OFWs, who are mostly crew of cruise ships.

Currently, out of the 26,000 OFWs assisted by OWWA, at least 20,000, Cacdac said, were seafarers.

Around the world, scores of cruise ships were stranded when Covid-19 started to panic governments with its deadly spread, imposing lockdowns and denying vessels berthing rights, especially in cases where infections had been reported among some passengers. Tens of thousands of OFWs work in these cruise ships and many have been stranded at sea for weeks. They have been the subject of frenzied repatriation by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), noting their plight.

Cacdac said that 25,000 of the 45,000 OFWs expected to arrive this month up to June are also sea-based.

“They are probably asking themselves what they will do in the Philippines if cruise ship operations are expected to resume next year,” Cacdac said.

Cacdac bared plans to use the OWWA fund to provide reintegration, livelihood, re-skilling and retooling for the Covidaffected Filipino seafarers.

The OWWA chief said they already spent P381,273,938 to provide aid for 26,737 OFWs as of May 10, 2020.

Of this, P180 million came from the fund given by Congress, and the remaining P200 million came from the OWWA fund.

The bulk or P311,741,570 of the overall expenses was used to pay for the accommodations of the OFWs when they arrived here, as they needed to be placed on quarantine while awaiting for lockdowns to be eased so they could return to their home provinces.

The other P59,795,225 was used for food and the remaining P9,737,143 for the transportation services of the affected OFWs.

SC raffles off ABS-CBN petition, House sends NTC ‘show-cause’

By Joel R. San Juan

T

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court has raffled out the petition filed by embattled television giant ABS-CBN Corp. seeking to nullify the cease and desist order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) following the expiration of its franchise last May 5.

SC Spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka confirmed that the petition had been raffled off but declined to give further details.

“The results of the raffle is confidential pursuant to the internal rules of the Supreme Court,” Hosaka said.

Hosaka also has no information on whether the Court will have

an en banc session on Tuesday, although a Court source said the justices have scheduled the case for deliberations on May 19.

The source said “nobody has read the petition yet,” thus, setting the case for deliberation on May 19 is intended “to give time to ponente and others to read the petition.”

“I do not know if the en banc will be meeting tomorrow,” Hosaka said.

Meanwhile, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal expressed confidence that ABS-CBN would get a favorable action from the SC. He noted that his reading of the petition clearly showed very grave abuse of discretion committed by the NTC in issuing the CDO and the extreme urgency of stopping its implementation.

“This CDO issued by the NTC

simply runs counter to the very fundamental dictates of social justice and even encourages poverty at the worst possible time in modern history. More so if we consider the fact that Duterte called upon his allies in Congress ‘to vote as they please’ on the controversial ABS-CBN franchise bill,” Macalintal said.

Macalintal also praised SC magistrates for conducting sessions online to fulfill its duty, specifically to ensure the rule of law even in times of crisis.

In its 50-page petition for certiorari and prohibition with urgent application for the issuance of a TRO and/or a writ of preliminary injunction, the network said the CDO should be set aside as it violates the right of the public to information.

Continued on A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

B1

SMC’s $2.15-billion cement deal with Holcim crumbles

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By VG Cabuag

@villygc

an Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) bid to acquire Swiss cement firm Holcim Philippines Inc. for $2.15 billion crumbled after the conglomerate said on Monday it is withdrawing its offer as it failed to secure the approval of the local antitrust body.

SMC unit First Stronghold Cement Industries Inc. is withdrawing its offer to buy some 5.53 billion shares of Holcim, or about 85.73 percent, after the time allotted to consummate the deal has lapsed on May 10.

The company said it failed to secure the required approval from the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), which earlier said the deal will remove the only competitor in the local cement market, creating a "merger-to-monopoly" situation.

San Miguel is also withdrawing the tender offer of the Holcim

shares held by its minority shareholders which it made on September 23, 2019.

In total, the conglomerate was supposed to buy the 60.55 percent Holcim holdings of Union Cement Holdings Corp., the 18.11 percent ownership of Holderfin B.V. and the 7.08 percent of Cemco Holdings Inc. Holcim currently operates 8 cement facilities in the Philippines, 4 of which are integrated plants while the remainder comprises grinding facilities and bulk terminals.

The PCC said in its second review

that the deal will eliminate competition in the grey cement market in northwest Luzon, composed of the provinces of La Union, Benguet and Pangasinan.

The commission also said the deal will remove the only competitor in that market, creating a merger-tomonopoly situation and Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc.’s market power enable it to increase prices, reduce output and lower the quality of its products. Top Frontier majority owns San Miguel.

In Central Luzon, Northeast Luzon and Metro Manila, the deal eliminates an entity which is an important source of competitive constraint, it said.

Top Frontier and Northern Cement Corp. were reported to have coordinated marketing strategies and exerted influence on the board of directors of each other, the PCC said.

The PCC included in its review Northern Cement Corp., a company led by Eduardo “Danding” M. Cojuangco Jr., and Eagle Cement Corp.

Cojuangco is the CEO of San Miguel, while Eagle Cement is chaired by Ramon S. Ang, the conglomerate's president and COO.

San Miguel is also majority owned

by Top Frontier, which also owns 30 percent of Northern Cement.

“The pattern of voting in both stockholders’ and board of directors meetings show alignment of interests or decision-making between Lucky Star Holdings Inc. and Top Frontier. The close personal relationship between Mr. Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. of Lucky Star and Mr. Ramon S. Ang of Top Frontier indicates that the incentives of both shareholders of NCC are more aligned than would otherwise be the case,” the PCC said in its decision.

“Despite its minority shareholding, Top Frontier had access to sensitive corporate information of NCC by reason of its directorates, among others,” it said.

The PCC said Ang’s occupancy of key positions in Top Frontier (president, director) and Eagle (president, controlling stockholder) indicate that he owes fiduciary duties to both.

"Therefore, insofar as the cement industry is concerned, it is difficult to conceive that he can serve the interests of Top Frontier at the expense of Eagle, of which he owns a majority of the shares.”

‘NTC order vs ABS-CBN invalid’

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

T

he cease and desist order (CDO) against broadcasting giant ABS-CBN Corp. is invalid from the start, according to the first chief of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), as it was issued without procedural due process of law.

Rodolfo A. Salalima, a lawyer and a former ICT secretary, said the order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is “void from the very beginning” given that it was issued with “precipitate haste” and did not follow the procedures required by the Constitution.

“In the process of denying ABS-CBN procedural due process with supersonic speed, the NTC, in issuing its void CDO likewise seriously violated its own 2006 Rules of Practice and Procedure, particularly Section 4 [Part III, Rule 10] thereof re: Issuance of Show Cause Order and Prior Hearing before Issuance of a Cease and Desist Order,” he said. Salalima, who was the chief legal counsel of Globe Telecom Inc., explained that without

due process, all decisions of course and quasi-judicial bodies are void from the start even though the decisions are consistent with statutory laws.

He did not dismiss the fact that ABS-CBN’s franchise has already lapsed. He said, however, that the company could continue to operate as “a matter of legal right and in the interest of justice and due process,” which are enshrined in the Constitution.

“To begin with, any franchise to operate public service like telecommunications or broadcasting or any business license is a privilege granted by the State. This I grant. But once granted and the franchisee infuses investments or resources into the franchise to make it operational, like capital expenses for the network infrastructure and operating expenses for the salaries and wages of the workers and employees, the franchise—or its application for extension seasonably filed—becomes a vested constitutional property right which cannot simply be taken away, revoked or set aside without due process of law,” he said.

Salalima added that the constitutional right of

New facility for Covid-19 patients rises in Muntinlupa

T

he Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has completed the ninth health-care facility that will serve coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients through its partnership with property giant Filinvest Development Corp.

Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said the new facility at the Filinvest Tent in Alabang, Muntinlupa, will help augment the government’s efforts to flatten the curve. It has a capacity of 108 beds and will be managed by the Office of Civil Defense and the Bureau of Fire Protection.

Filinvest sponsored the construction materials for the redesign and transformation of the events facility into a healthcare center. EEI Corp. pitched in by providing manpower for the construction of the quarantine facility, while the Villar Group of Companies provided the hospital beds.

Villar said the place was chosen for its accessibility to major thoroughfares in the south with its major entry and exit points only a few minutes travel from Makati through SLEX/Skyway.

“Just like the eight previously completed mega quarantine facilities, Filinvest Tent ‘We Heal as One Center’ will be fullyair-conditioned and complete with necessary facilities,” he said.

The 8 other quarantine facilities are: PICC-Forum; World Trade Center; Ninoy Aquino Stadium; Rizal Memorial Coliseum; ASEAN Convention Center, Clark, Pampanga; National Government Administrative Center, New Clark City, Capas, Tarlac; Philippine Sports Complex (ULTRA), Pasig City; and Philippine Arena—3 Big Tents, Ciudad de Victoria, Bocaue, Bulacan.

The government is converting spaces both owned by the state and private sector to build makeshift healthcare facilities to accommodate the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the country. As of this writing, there are almost 11,000 people inflicted with the disease in the Philippines, over 700 deaths, and more than 1,900 recoveries. Lorenz S. Marasigan

ABS-CBN to operate in the interim is further buttressed by the fact that public interest is at stake, given that it provides public service.

Despite schooling the NTC on its own rules, Salalima said the regulator is not the only one at fault.

“The ultimate responsibility and fault lie on Congress, particularly the leadership of the House of Representatives, constitutionally vested with the exclusive plenary jurisdiction and power to hear and grant applications for franchises or extensions thereof, for temporizing on ABS-CBN’s application for the extension of its franchise seasonably filed in 2016 yet,” he said.

Congress, he suggest, may provide a temporary relief in the form of a provisional franchise to remedy its inaction.

“For Congressional non-action, public service and freedom of expression were thus sacrificed via a void legal technicality,” said Salalima.

Uy not interested

ABS-CBN went off air on May 5, after the NTC, whose

leadership was threatened with a graft case by no less than the Office of the Solicitor General, ordered it to stop its broadcast following the expiration of its Congressional franchise.

The Lopez-led network has been using other platforms to continue its operations, but is losing P35 million per day while it is off air.

The company has been seeking an extension of its franchise since 2014. President Duterte had branded the network as an enemy for supposedly being “biased” against him.

There were also talks that several close aides and businessmen are interested in buying the network, including Davao-based billionaire Dennis A. Uy, who helped bankroll Duterte’s presidential campaign in 2016.

However, Uy denied the allegations on Sunday evening.

“Let me be clear once and for all and say that we in Udenna Corp. have no intention to acquire ABS-CBN. Being in the business of broadcasting is not part of our corporate direction,” he said.

Lockdown slashes Wilcon Q1 income W ilcon Depot Inc., a retailer of hardware supplies, said its income in the first quarter fell 6 percent to P328 million, from the previous year's P484 million, as most of its stores were closed due the lockdown in major Philippine cities.

“Wilcon Depot was not spared from closure when the enhanced community quarantine [ECQ] was imposed by the Philippine government over Luzon on March 17. Under the ECQ, our line of business was excluded from the 'essentials' category.

We closed all our 44 branches, which accounted for 84 percent of our net sales in 2020 pre-ECQ,” said company President and CEO Lorraine Belo-Cincochan said.

The company reported that net sales fell 2.5 percent to P5.59 billion, from last year’s P5.73 billion.

“It was unfortunate that we had to close because we were doing so well pre-ECQ but of course the wellbeing and health of everyone are paramount,” said Belo-Cincochan.

Wilcon said the main factor that pushed net income downward was the 20-percent year-on-year increase in operating expenses to P1.43 billion due to the hike in lease and manpower-related expenses.

The company said it adopted the new accounting standard for leases or PFRS 16 in 2019 on a staggered basis. It adopted the new accounting rule with term balances of less than one year only upon renewal.

Majority of the leases were renewed and converted to PFRS 16 standard on June 1, 2019. Total actual rent due for the first quarter totaled P284 million, while lease-

related expenses recognized under rent, depreciation and amortization and interest expense amounted to P390 million.

Wilcon also adjusted across-theboard of the salaries of all employees effective April 1, 2019, while the hiring and promotion of personnel for its new branches drove upward its operating costs.

The company said its store network expansion target for the year will be cut down to maximum of 6, from the original 8 to 9. These stores were already in various stages of construction when the ECQ was announced.

“We should be able to hit our 65-store target by the first half of 2021. The long-term target of 100 stores remain unchanged. Our earlier announced guidance of mid-teens growth for both the topline and the bottomline is now highly unlikely,” said Belo-Cincochan.

“What we are expecting though is a relatively faster recovery when mobility restrictions are lifted with pent-up demand from unfinished construction projects and new demand from the renovation, repair and maintenance market given the wear-and-tear of homes and household items during ECQ and new sanitation and health standards of the new normal,” she added.

The company said it remains bank debt-free with cash and placements totaling P3.93 billion at the close of the quarter. Its inventory level inched up to P9.63 billion from the 2019 year-end balance of P9.51 billion.

The fresh imports it had ordered, the company also said, started arriving in mid-March. VG Cabuag

DPWH, Villar Group build mobile rooms

Philippine Red Cross gets face masks from NGCP shareholder

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

T

HE State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), through State Grid International Development Co. Ltd., a shareholder of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), has donated 500,000 surgical masks to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).

“During these challenging times, it is important that friends [China and Philippines] fight together to stop the spread Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019],” said SGCC Philippine Office Chief Representative Shan Shewu.

Last May 8, the SGCC Philippine team together with its partners at NGCP delivered on its commitment and turned over 500,000 surgical face masks shipped from manufacturers in China to the PRC National Headquarters. The PRC will be distributing these PPEs to its frontliners, including blood and rapid testing facilities staff, ambulance crew, hotline volunteers, and other staff in the health services sectors to combat the spread of Covid-19.

PRC Secretary-General Elizabeth S. Zavalla accepted the donation of the SGCC on behalf of PRC. “On behalf of the Philippine Red Cross, I would like to thank SGCC for this timely donation. These masks will be given to facili-

ties which are in need of PPEs and will also be used by our PRC frontliners especially now that we have our own Covid-19 testing centers,” said Zavalla.

Also present in the turnover site are Economic and Commercial Counsellor Jiang Jianjun of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Philippines, PRC officers as well as officers of SGCC Philippine office and NGCP. NGCP earlier also committed to a donation of P1 billion in food packages and medical equipment.

“NGCP will continue to look for opportunities to support the government in battling this pandemic. We recognize that the only way to defeat this global health threat is through our collective efforts. Distribution of grocery items and medical equipment in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are ongoing,” said NGCP President and CEO Anthony Almeda.

SGCC is the largest public utility firm in the world with operations in countries such as Brazil, Portugal, Australia, Italy, Greece and Oman. Their first investment outside China was in the Philippines through NGCP in 2008.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy, Jr. and Robert Coyiuto, Jr. partnering with SGCC.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO.

S

hipping containers purposebuilt by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Villar Group of Companies into mobile rooms have already been deployed at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Complex, Pasay City.

Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said the high cube containers converted into mobile rooms can be used as additional isolation health facilities for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients, or these may also function as alternative living quarters to temporarily house medical doctors and staff on duty at hospitals or at mega quarantine facilities operating at PICC, World Trade Center and Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

These rooms can provide some relief to hospital workers who are tirelessly serving as frontliners against Covid-19, the DPWH chief added.

“Ten 20-foot long shipping containers are at the CCP complex undergoing final refurbishing works by the DPWH National Capital Region

headed by Director Ador Canlas,” Villar noted.

“The 10 units of shipping containers can accommodate a total of 40 individuals,” he added.

Based on the design plans prepared by the DPWH Task Force to Facilitate Augmentation of Local/ National Health Facility headed by Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain, a 20-footer container can be divided into four fully-airconditioned rooms for sleeping with separate toilet and bath, and aluminum window frame for proper ventilation.

“More than providing facilities for sleeping, medical personnel need not travel from hospitals and/or health facilities to their residences putting at risk the health and safety of their respective families due to their regular exposure to Covid-19 patients,” said Villar.

“The location of CCP is very strategic. It is close to quarantine facilities as well as level 2 and level 3 hospitals.

This will serve as prototype for accommodation rooms for heath care workers as well as PUIs and PUMs,” he added.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

May 8, 2020

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

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

47.05 97 57 19.7 7.61 36.75 22.8 42.6 16.98 100.5 54 15.4 2.53 0.9 0.31 0.59 167.7 1580

48 97.05 57.7 19.72 7.64 36.95 22.85 42.8 17 100.6 54.6 15.8 2.62 0.95 0.325 0.6 168.8 1642

48 98 59.65 19.8 7.74 37.2 23.15 42.7 16.6 101.7 54.5 15.8 2.62 0.95 0.33 0.6 168.9 1600

48 98.75 59.65 19.8 7.74 37.2 23.15 43.5 16.98 102.9 54.5 15.8 2.62 0.95 0.33 0.6 168.9 1600

48 97 56.75 19.7 7.6 36.55 22.75 42.7 16.6 100.5 53.65 15.8 2.53 0.95 0.33 0.58 168.8 1580

48 97 57 19.72 7.62 36.75 22.85 42.7 16.98 100.6 54 15.8 2.53 0.95 0.33 0.6 168.8 1600

100 1294450 6199560 91100 238200 2722400 83500 2900 55300 316450 7370 2700 80000 3000 10000 1658000 510 485

4800 125853801 357256374 1796392 1817606 100347955 1906360 124540 922398 31946268 396937 42660 203570 2850 3300 973510 86117 772900

INDUSTRIAL

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

2.32 26.5 0.162 18.38 57.4 252 12.68 3.06 2.45 11.16 18.7 8.15 7.9 2.86 75.1 12.22 14.5 4 5.15 7.82 58.85 0.53 1.34 30 136 6.21 6.16 1.9 6.47 1.68 0.111 122.8 0.82 2.22 1.08 8.51 5.24 11.2 5.92 8.26 0.79 0.66 1.66 2.49 23.6 1.27 5.32 1.17 4.01 1.24 7.66

2.33 26.55 0.169 18.48 57.45 253 12.7 3.07 2.5 11.36 18.72 8.2 7.97 2.87 90 13.18 14.58 4.1 5.19 7.83 59 0.54 1.35 31.3 136.7 6.8 6.21 1.91 6.48 1.69 0.114 123 0.83 2.46 1.09 8.59 5.25 11.3 6 8.48 0.82 0.69 1.76 2.5 24.5 1.28 5.41 1.19 4.94 1.25 7.69

2.27 26.2 0.17 18.6 57.5 254 11.96 3.11 2.48 10.8 18.66 7.89 7.82 2.84 75.1 11.16 14.5 3.97 5 7.85 58.95 0.55 1.39 31.35 138.5 6.2 6.36 1.9 6.5 1.66 0.116 124.4 0.84 2.22 1.08 8.7 5.24 11.3 6.17 8.48 0.78 0.66 1.75 2.65 23.4 1.27 5.3 1.14 4.02 1.2 8.35

2.36 26.7 0.17 18.8 57.5 256.6 12.78 3.15 2.51 11.36 18.82 8.3 8.35 2.89 75.1 13 14.66 4 5.19 7.86 59 0.55 1.4 31.35 139.5 6.8 6.36 1.91 6.5 1.69 0.116 126 0.85 2.22 1.09 8.7 5.34 11.3 6.17 8.48 0.83 0.7 1.76 2.68 23.4 1.3 5.43 1.2 4.02 1.26 8.47

2.27 26 0.161 18.32 57.4 252 11.74 3.05 2.48 10.54 18.66 7.89 7.8 2.79 75.1 11.16 14.32 3.97 4.97 7.81 58 0.53 1.35 30 135.2 6.2 6.15 1.9 6.38 1.61 0.111 120.1 0.82 2.22 1.07 8.51 5.22 11.12 5.92 8.48 0.78 0.64 1.75 2.38 23.3 1.23 5.26 1.13 4.02 1.17 7.55

2.33 26.5 0.169 18.48 57.4 252 12.7 3.07 2.51 11.36 18.72 8.2 7.97 2.87 75.1 13 14.5 4 5.19 7.83 59 0.53 1.35 31.3 136 6.8 6.15 1.91 6.47 1.69 0.111 123 0.82 2.22 1.09 8.59 5.25 11.3 5.92 8.48 0.82 0.66 1.76 2.49 23.4 1.28 5.32 1.19 4.02 1.24 7.66

10364000 1641100 460000 204400 3120 243500 16426200 1552000 54000 470700 431000 1041800 961500 1557000 80 1300 2303400 46000 971000 1117600 192150 1039000 8525000 7900 626350 200 355500 930000 751400 8699000 1290000 1560650 3696000 10000 1877000 60000 394700 1049300 1182900 100 635000 1047000 15000 1904000 1900 1997000 257000 343000 1000 2171000 6587000

-37696295.5 -131500523 -969908 -232955 -35789470 -180210 -742500 -14683901 (97,101 950 -

24061740 43279905 75170 3762644 179131 61605100 203710222 4795820 134960 5288538 8072196 8455668 7821107 4406210 6008 15742 33409574 183900 4926640 8751084 11320273.5 551970 11667630 238895 85801443 1300 2208991 1767980 4856496 14455430 147930 191249139 3100160 22200 2029760 514564 2073124 11,789,446( 7052834 848 497840 705030 26380 4799410 44370 2541800 1359232 401920 4020 2651450 51450245

-332330.0001 -11159990 -2468046 -57400 -30385738 51586100 -855920 -2731090 -32750 -248341 845490 -7819350 -15950 -2528640 -8613000 7831841.5 -428580 -18659608 -144194 -1323820 483097 -250500 -114527969 -113850 52199.9998 -520444 5,713,006.0003) -4774885 21730 3770 -48346 40200 -31350 -1162336

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.55 0.56 0.55 0.56 0.54 0.55 1377000 751580 ASIABEST GROUP 7.8 7.82 7.78 7.94 7.5 7.81 11100 86992 701.5 704 659 709 651 704 1087160 756943260 AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY 38.3 38.75 38.65 39.4 38 38.3 697000 26711815 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 6.22 6.27 6.24 6.3 6.2 6.27 3348700 20921932 1.91 1.92 1.85 1.91 1.82 1.91 1855000 3474960 AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR 6.01 6.08 6.07 6.08 6 6.08 14200 86114 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.51 0.53 0.5 0.54 0.5 0.53 7000 3680 0.51 0.53 0.53 0.54 0.51 0.51 995000 520000 ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B 0.55 0.57 0.55 0.57 0.55 0.55 537000 296060 COSCO CAPITAL 5.05 5.08 4.95 5.08 4.9 5.08 610000 3034310 4.14 4.15 4.15 4.19 4.12 4.15 3274000 13586550 DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV 8.17 8.25 8.17 8.17 8.17 8.17 600 4902 FJ PRINCE A 3.07 3.85 2.93 2.93 2.93 2.93 3000 8790 0.159 0.194 0.192 0.192 0.192 0.192 10000 1920 FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL 412.2 415.6 420.4 424 408 412.2 168710 70081614 HOUSE OF INV 3.6 3.69 3.69 3.69 3.6 3.6 39000 140640 49.05 49.3 49.6 49.65 48.95 49.25 1506200 74029995 JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG 5.31 5.59 6.68 6.75 5.28 5.6 69700 424210 LODESTAR 0.52 0.54 0.51 0.55 0.51 0.53 69000 35980 2.75 2.76 2.69 2.79 2.56 2.76 4935000 13239690 LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP 7.52 7.56 7.6 7.7 7.52 7.56 288600 2182785 MABUHAY HLDG 0.455 0.48 0.465 0.465 0.455 0.455 50000 23050 2.85 2.86 2.75 2.9 2.75 2.86 81825000 232787690 METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA 0.83 0.84 0.83 0.83 0.81 0.83 146000 119310 0.98 0.99 0.98 0.99 0.98 0.99 10000 9810 SOLID GROUP SYNERGY GRID 158 162 161 162 161 162 90 14550 SM INVESTMENTS 803.5 804 828 838 802 804 499150 406917385 96.3 96.5 96.65 96.65 96.1 96.5 111310 10729159.5 SAN MIGUEL CORP 0.67 0.68 0.7 0.7 0.68 0.68 27000 18380 SOC RESOURCES TOP FRONTIER 135.1 138 138 138 136 138 6690 911470 0.178 0.19 0.176 0.176 0.176 0.176 10000 1760 WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG 0.146 0.155 0.146 0.155 0.143 0.155 320000 46520

-53800 140450080 -23418580 -3980256 16740 -557520 -2482170 -32635722 -43380 -17277315 -2215130 -679510 24639000 -83620415 -2191673.5 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP AYALA LAND ARANETA PROP BELLE CORP A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT CEBU HLDG CEB LANDMASTERS CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY DOUBLEDRAGON DM WENCESLAO EMPIRE EAST FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE 8990 HLDG PHIL INFRADEV MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND SM PRIME HLDG VISTAMALLS SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND

0.56 32.65 1.03 1.34 0.56 0.74 5.5 4.06 0.35 0.28 16.02 6.99 0.29 0.94 0.79 10.3 0.8 2.58 0.159 0.3 1.48 14.88 2.7 1.92 30.85 3.83 1.22 3.92

0.57 32.8 1.08 1.38 0.57 0.75 5.9 4.14 0.355 0.29 16.06 7 0.295 0.95 0.8 10.4 0.81 2.59 0.16 0.31 1.49 14.9 2.83 1.93 31 3.9 1.23 3.95

0.57 33.6 1.01 1.34 0.57 0.72 5.9 4.06 0.35 0.28 16 6.99 0.29 0.96 0.85 10.5 0.8 2.64 0.162 0.3 1.48 15.04 2.84 1.93 31 3.83 1.27 3.94

0.57 33.65 1.05 1.36 0.58 0.75 5.9 4.15 0.35 0.28 16.1 7.1 0.29 0.96 0.85 10.5 0.8 2.66 0.162 0.3 1.49 15.38 2.84 1.93 31.3 3.92 1.29 3.95

0.56 32.65 1.01 1.32 0.56 0.72 5.9 4.06 0.345 0.28 16 6.8 0.29 0.94 0.8 10.4 0.78 2.57 0.157 0.3 1.48 14.9 2.7 1.92 30.5 3.83 1.21 3.89

0.56 32.65 1.04 1.35 0.57 0.75 5.9 4.14 0.35 0.28 16.06 6.99 0.29 0.94 0.8 10.4 0.8 2.59 0.16 0.3 1.49 14.9 2.79 1.93 31 3.83 1.23 3.92

100000 11277100 131000 84000 302000 23000 300 303000 780000 10000 90400 85200 30000 3499000 1036000 20500 365000 16177000 1090000 230000 9000 1990600 185000 50000 9641700 61000 1232000 1243000

56380 371107855 135910 111990 171930 17160 1770 1246450 272800 2800 1448874 586904 8700 3313370 832300 213420 288920 42005760 172890 69000 13330 30117662 500740 96440 298350190 235950 1522600 4865960

-2945435 5350 -1180 -265600 -627620 -6883 -754120 -8825980 401178 17800070 -3232270

SERVICES GMA NETWORK 5.15 5.17 5.4 5.45 5.1 5.17 5200100 27138886 MANILA BULLETIN 0.365 0.38 0.375 0.375 0.365 0.365 360000 133700 15.4 17.4 19 19 15 17.4 12100 210312 MLA BRDCASTING GLOBE TELECOM 2148 2150 2202 2240 2150 2150 103990 225710480 PLDT 1207 1214 1243 1250 1207 1207 204550 249557620 0.039 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.039 0.04 2800000 111200 APOLLO GLOBAL DFNN INC 2.76 3.03 3.07 3.07 3.07 3.07 1000 3070 DITO CME HLDG 2.1 2.11 2.2 2.2 2.05 2.1 37810000 80073990 1.2 1.43 1.12 1.26 1.12 1.25 52000 64480 IMPERIAL ISLAND INFO 0.081 0.083 0.081 0.081 0.081 0.081 30000 2430 NOW CORP 1.83 1.84 1.89 1.89 1.82 1.84 1825000 3359660 0.185 0.19 0.185 0.189 0.185 0.185 1700000 315150 TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 2.46 2.5 2.49 2.58 2.41 2.5 2545000 6335210 2GO GROUP 9.82 9.86 10.32 10.58 9.54 9.82 258500 2539405 13.1 16.78 17.38 17.38 17.38 17.38 100 1738 ASIAN TERMINALS CHELSEA 3.2 3.25 3.24 3.27 3.19 3.2 630000 2019930 CEBU AIR 44.5 44.65 46.8 47 44.5 44.5 404800 18294580 82.8 83 83.5 84.95 81.8 83 4263570 354821326 INTL CONTAINER LBC EXPRESS 13.32 13.98 13.98 13.98 13.98 13.98 5300 74094 MACROASIA 4.36 4.37 4.32 4.41 4.32 4.37 3884000 16966120 2.41 2.43 2.55 2.59 2.4 2.41 1804000 4400770 METROALLIANCE A PAL HLDG 6.9 6.95 7.2 7.2 6.95 6.95 8800 61610 HARBOR STAR 0.87 0.88 0.9 0.9 0.87 0.87 493000 436180 1.16 1.19 1.19 1.19 1.19 1.19 14000 16660 ACESITE HOTEL BOULEVARD HLDG 0.026 0.027 0.027 0.027 0.026 0.027 700000 18600 GRAND PLAZA 9.54 12.4 9.11 12.44 9.11 12.42 2000 20613 0.4 0.405 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 900000 360000 WATERFRONT CENTRO ESCOLAR 6.04 6.29 6.04 6.04 6.04 6.04 400 2416 0.34 0.345 0.35 0.35 0.34 0.345 1380000 475650 STI HLDG 2.16 2.2 2.16 2.27 2.16 2.2 74000 163430 BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY 5.27 5.28 5.18 5.34 5.17 5.28 15018600 78654098 1.95 2 1.96 2.01 1.95 2 33000 64560 PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES 1.47 1.51 1.47 1.51 1.47 1.51 346000 516980 MANILA JOCKEY 2.05 2.19 2.06 2.06 2.06 2.06 14000 28840 2.84 2.9 2.98 2.98 2.81 2.9 55000 159080 PH RESORTS GRP PREMIUM LEISURE 0.305 0.31 0.315 0.315 0.305 0.31 630000 195750 ALLHOME 6 6.03 6 6.03 6 6 345600 2075954 1.79 1.8 1.8 1.84 1.75 1.8 3475000 6202190 METRO RETAIL 47.7 47.8 46.45 47.9 46.05 47.8 7338300 343925115 PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL 66.45 66.6 67 67 66.45 66.45 174620 11649514 126 128 129.8 129.8 126 126 240 30541 PHIL SEVEN CORP 1.19 1.2 1.21 1.25 1.17 1.19 3497000 4178880 SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT 15.86 15.88 15.4 16.6 15.4 15.86 2654100 41722524 0.3 0.305 0.31 0.31 0.3 0.3 390000 120200 APC GROUP EASYCALL 7.66 7.79 7.71 8.45 7.61 7.66 311700 2525519 GOLDEN BRIA 309.2 311.8 312 312 311.8 311.8 110 34310 2.1 2.14 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 9000 18900 PAXYS PRMIERE HORIZON 0.22 0.224 0.233 0.233 0.22 0.22 9450000 2124730 SBS PHIL CORP 5.9 5.98 5.9 5.98 5.9 5.98 4500 26558

-114690990 16090225 -2169260 9100 73010 188978 -159500 -14260935 -136912569.5 -6332550 700 -16600 -75900 -398248 1510 898025 -606540 44139540 -6138241.5 -25382 -428230 14999712 107520 -

MINING & OIL

ATOK 9.51 10.66 10.68 10.68 10.66 10.66 100000 1066800 0.9 0.91 0.9 0.93 0.89 0.9 1132000 1017190 APEX MINING ABRA MINING 0.001 0.0011 0.0011 0.0011 0.001 0.0011 61000000 63100 ATLAS MINING 1.76 1.88 1.9 1.9 1.85 1.88 4000 7500 0.193 0.199 0.193 0.199 0.193 0.199 150000 29010 COAL ASIA HLDG CENTURY PEAK 2.69 2.74 2.73 2.73 2.73 2.73 70000 191100 191100 DIZON MINES 7.02 7.15 7.01 7.16 7.01 7.15 1200 8441 0.83 0.84 0.84 0.85 0.82 0.83 3155000 2625710 -428210 FERRONICKEL GEOGRACE 0.2 0.205 0.201 0.205 0.201 0.205 20000 4060 -2050 LEPANTO A 0.079 0.08 0.079 0.08 0.079 0.079 2830000 223590 0.082 0.085 0.083 0.085 0.083 0.083 910000 75550 LEPANTO B MANILA MINING A 0.0064 0.0065 0.0065 0.0065 0.0065 0.0065 1000000 6500 MARCVENTURES 0.55 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 1000 560 0.99 1.04 0.98 1.06 0.98 0.99 159000 160830 NIHAO NICKEL ASIA 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.57 1.52 1.54 5074000 7788610 -1871740 OMICO CORP 0.35 0.44 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 20000 8000 2.3 2.34 2.29 2.34 2.29 2.34 14000 32590 PX MINING SEMIRARA MINING 11.76 11.8 11.98 11.98 11.58 11.8 783700 9203540 -1313088 UNITED PARAGON 0.004 0.0044 0.0041 0.0041 0.0041 0.0041 2000000 8200 6.6 6.77 6.54 6.84 6.54 6.77 270500 1826663 ACE ENEXOR PXP ENERGY 4.2 4.22 4.22 4.3 4.16 4.2 730000 3067160 -527050

PREFFERED ALCO PREF B 99.8 100 100 100 100 100 50 5000 99.1 100 99.1 99.5 99.1 99.5 12010 1194991 991 DD PREF FPH PREF C 496 600 495 505 495 505 1170 590410 GTCAP PREF B 980 998.5 998.5 998.5 980 980 650 639775 1000 1010 997 1000 997 1000 1960 1959970 -800000 PNX PREF 4 PCOR PREF 2B 1000 1029 1029 1029 1029 1029 5 5145 PCOR PREF 3A 1015 1016 1016 1016 1016 1016 50 50800 76.6 77.3 77.3 77.3 76.5 76.5 1110 85253 SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2D 74.7 75 75.1 75.1 75.1 75.1 10 751 SMC PREF 2E 75 75.1 75 75 75 75 50 3750 3750 75.75 75.9 75.9 75.9 75.9 75.9 1000 75900 SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2I 75 76.95 75 75 75 75 160100 12007500

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS GMA HLDG PDR 4.97 5.05 5 5.1 4.91 4.97 112600 562498 74620

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.73 0.75 0.79 0.79 0.72 0.79 24000 18610

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 1.93 1.94 2.05 2.08 1.9 1.93 8106000 15888310 118650 7.2 7.35 7.44 7.44 7.13 7.2 67000 480950 KEPWEALTH XURPAS 0.63 0.64 0.63 0.64 0.61 0.63 2254000 1401470

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 86 86.05 87 87 85.95 86.05 13020 1122319.5 860.5

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Taal eruption, pandemic slash Ayala Land Q1 income by 41%

P

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

roperty developer Ayala Land Inc. on Monday said its income in the January-to-March period fell 41 percent to P4.32 billion, from last year’s P7.32 billion, on lower revenue generation.

The company said the twin effects of the Taal Volcano eruption in January and the lockdown in key cities of the country starting mid-March caused revenues in the first quarter to fall by 28 percent to P28.4 billion, from last year's P39.68 billion.

Revenues from property development declined 38 percent to P17.2 billion, mainly due to lower project bookings and the impact of the Taal Volcano eruption in January this year on the sales of its projects in southern Luzon. This was aggravated further by lower incremental completion as construction activities were interrupted by the enhanced community quarantine.

“Our development business was particularly hit hard during the

quarter as we saw buyers opting to defer purchases during this period.

Our leasing assets were also significantly affected in the latter part of the quarter due to the ECQ [enhanced community quarantine],” said company President and CEO Bernard Vincent O. Dy. “Given the continuing market uncertainty, we quickly made adjustments in our plans to ensure the long-term sustainability of the business,” Dy added.

The company said it will pursue plans for its real estate investment trust (REIT) offering, but the timing of which will depend on market conditions. It keeps its REIT application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) updated

and active.

Its unit AREIT Inc. was the first to file its application for an REIT offering at the SEC earlier this year, following the release of the revised implementing rules and regulations of the Republic Act 9856, or the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 2009, last January 20.

Most of the company’s revenue sources registered declines. Residential revenues dropped by 39 percent to P13.8 billion while office for sale revenues slid 68 percent to P962 million, as earthquakes in Davao in the fourth quarter last year also affected the sales of its projects in the province.

Revenues from the sale of commercial and industrial lots grew by 8 percent to P2.5 billion, mainly from existing developments, such as Arca South, Seagrove and Laguna Technopark. Sales reservations registered at P24.7 billion, 27 percent lower during the period, the company said.

Commercial leasing revenues, meanwhile, fell 5 percent to P8.7 billion as sustained office leasing mitigated limited mall operations and the closure of resorts brought about by the lockdown.

Shopping center revenues

dropped 9 percent to P4.6 billion while revenues from hotels and resorts was 17 percent lower to P1.6 billion. Office leasing revenues, meanwhile, managed to grow by 15 percent to P2.5 billion through the sustained operations of business process outsourcing firms and headquarter buildings.

The company said it was able to launch four projects valued at P5 billion during the three-month period.

These were Avida Greendale Settings at Alviera in Pampanga, Amaia Steps The Junction Place Aria in Quezon City, Scapes Cabuyao Series 3 Area 2 in Laguna and Bellavita Alaminos 2 in Laguna.

The company earlier said it is putting on hold all of its launches for the year, but it has sufficient projects in its inventory since it launched P159 billion worth of developments last year alone.

Capital expenditures (capex) reached P21.6 billion in the period, mainly for residential developments and commercial leasing assets. The full year capex estimate has been reduced to P69.8 billion from the previously planned P110 billion.

The company said it has P23 billion in cash and unutilized credit lines of P25 billion from the banks.

USSC disburses aid to CAR workers U

NIVERSAL Storefront Services Corp. (USSC) said it has disbursed 92 percent, or P51.19 million, of the monetary support of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to employees in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

The cash aid was given to DOLE employees in CAR who were affected by the work stoppage due to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ)—a measure to contain the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The money was distributed to a total of 10,238 families in the region.

USSC was appointed the exclusive remittance center for CAR as part of the agency’s Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) that provides for a one-time financial assistance of P5,000 to workers of private firms affected by the lockdown.

“During these trying times, being a 100-percent Filipino-owned corporation, USSC remains committed to its promise of delivering quality service with the best value,” said Jose Xavier B. Gonzales, CEO of USSC. The nonbank financial service store network offers a quick turnaround time and can execute the sendouts within 24 hours upon receiving the funds

from DOLE. For safe and secure transactions, USSC sends out a personalized short messaging system or SMS, notifying the recipient that the money is ready to be claimed. Status reports are generated daily to guard against remittance issues.

“I would like to commend USSC for their excellent customer service. I was so happy to receive the USSC Super Padala text message that the funds from DOLE are available and immediately proceeded to the nearest USSC branch,” said Arsenio P. Baylon Jr., a beneficiary from Baguio City.

“They were very accommodating and quick to assist me resolve some issues with regards my personal details and in a short period of time I was able to claim the much-needed funds,” he added.

As an added convenience, the claimants may get their remittances at any of USSC’s 1,500 outlets or its partner firm Cebuana Lhuillier’s 2,500 branches nationwide.

USSC’s Super Padala service has one of the lowest sendout fees in the country. Its Panalo Card membership program, on the other hand, offers smoother, paperless transactions. Meanwhile, the Super Service App allows customers to send and receive money in real-time even at home. Roderick L. Abad

Asahi Group withdraws earnings forecast as virus hits beer demand

A

sahi Group Holdings Ltd. withdrew its earnings outlook for the current fiscal year, hit by the impact of economic shutdowns due to the coronavirus in the Japanese beermaker’s overseas business and the domestic market.

The brewer of “Super Dry” beer said measures taken to prevent the coronavirus’s spread has created too much uncertainty to quantify a business impact, but it aimed to release its new forecast by the end of the second quarter and would keep its annual dividend.

Asahi joins a string of global companies, including Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, that have pulled financial guidances due to uncertainty from the global pandemic.

“We think people will eat out and travel more as Japan’s state of emergency is slated to end at the end of May and restrictions ease in Europe,” said CEO Akiyoshi Koji in a conference call to announce the results. “But we need to think about how the second wave and continued social distancing will impact business.”

Koji has been expanding Tokyobased Asahi’s global footprint via deals, spending more than $20 billion in recent

years buying brewing operations and brands in Europe and Australia as it seeks to reduce its dependence on a fiercely competitive and dwindling beer market in Japan. Most recently, Asahi purchased Australia’s Carlton & United Breweries from AB InBev for $11 billion, a deal that is expected to close next month.

That expanded presence, especially in Europe, dealt a blow to Asahi as the region became one of the hardest hit areas by the coronavirus, resulting in social restrictions that dented demand for alcohol and beer. For the three months ending in March, operating profit fell 72 percent in the company’s overseas business. Overall, the company’s sales were down 4.7 percent and operating profit decreased 44 percent for the quarter.

Koji said the company is still committed to its strategy of making its flagship Super Dry a global premium brand, and that it did not foresee issues with cash flow or financing in the current environment. Chief Financial Officer Atsushi Katsuki expressed confidence in the company’s cash on hand and financing, and said there was no need to take on a committed credit line. Bloomberg News

mutual funds

May 11, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 186.01 -28.07% -11.81% -7.86% -26.15% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 0.9736 -38.88% -14.08% -8.75% -29.55% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.5139 -37.58% -16.29% -10.59% -31.65% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6479 -29.87% n.a. n.a. -27.78% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6624 -22.83% n.a. n.a. -22.01% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.0475 -24.92% -8.9% -7.14% -24.04% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.627 -27.23% -12.89% n.a.

-26.55% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 75.57 -38.89% n.a. n.a. -26.87% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 37.0965 -27.6% -10.52% n.a. -27.66% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 400.43 -25.07% -9.7% -6.88% -24.84% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8585 n.a. n.a. n.a. -16.66% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 0.9557 -26.51% -9.62% -6.16% -25.74% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 28.0113 -26.66% -9.11% -6.03% -26.09% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7397 -27.48% n.a. n.a. -27.35% -27.67% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 3.7782 -27.21% -10.01% -5.95% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

631.6 -27.1% -10% -6.14% -27.57% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.5866 -36.04% -13.35% -9.84% -31.1% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 2.9839 -30.07% -10.67% -6.98% -29.11% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7249 -27.23% -10.15% -6.11% -27.57% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.728 -25.72% -7.75% -4.85% -25.33% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 84.6954 -26.99% -9.53% -5.32% -27.58% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.8862 -11.18% -2.6% -3.54% -13.83% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.2544 -1.87% 3.24% n.a.

-9.02% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.4996 -11.84% -5.44% -4.93% -4.04% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 1.9612 -14.13% -5.87% -3.64% -10.08% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.3291 -10.92% -3.29% -4.54% -11.49% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.184 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-19.47% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.7854 -6.5% -1.95% -1.59% -9.05% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.3216 -8.91% -3.74% -3.06% -12.34% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 14.8399 -9.96% -3.9% -3.17% -12.5% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.8364 -13.5% -4.93% -2.9% -13.61% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.128 -18.14% -5.87% -4.19% -19.04% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.8968 -9.6% n.a. n.a.

-11.71% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.7909 -19.99% n.a. n.a. -20.62% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.7665 -22.25% n.a. n.a. -22.83% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.7763 -20.79% -6.77% -5.6% -20.36% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03796 4.46% 2.27% 1.36% -0.71% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $0.922 -5.68% -0.94% -1.92% -11.17% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.6068 -2.33% 2.33% 1.82% -7.77% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.0619 -2.01% 0.97% n.a.

-5.93% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 362.83 4.17% 2.99% 2.45% 1.41% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9306 2.3% 1.01% -0.17% 1.5% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.171 4.71% 5.14% 5.12% 1.76% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2766 5.2% 2.83% 2.23% 2.32% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4223 6.68% 3.05% 1.84% 2.68% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.5094 10.95% 3.62% 2.26% 3.12% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.2821 6.82% 3.76% 2.03% 2.02% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.8746 7.17% 3.64% 1.94% 2.28% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0201 10.58% 3.36% 1.56% 5.79% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1189 7.53% 4.54% 2.78% 1.4% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

1.7254 7.23% 4.06% 2.34% 1.43% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $468.64 3% 2.32% 2.44% 0.09% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є214.1 -0.9% 0.52% 0.67% -2.56% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1937 2.08% 2.2% 2.02% -1.12% 1.06% 0.96% -0.39% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0257 1.58% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0543 -1.09% -0.38% -0.63% -3.73% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.3978 5.6% 2.82% 2.41% -0.25% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0596382 2.32% 1.5% 1.44% -1.12% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1569 5.42% 2.19% 1.95% -0.58% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 127.42 3.77% 3.09% 2.34% 1.3% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0377 2.7% n.a. n.a.

1.11% 3.33% 3% 2.54% 1.09% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2784 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0417 1.64% n.a. n.a.

0.43% Feeder Fund Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.9 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-9.09% a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

1 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 2 - Launch date is November 15, 2019. 3 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019.

4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019.

6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund).

"While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to the correctness of the newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www. pifa. com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

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Banking&Finance

GSIS loans hit ₧4.1-B; borrowers at 60,000

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tate pension-fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) announced it has released a total of P4.1 billion in short-term loans to some 60,000 government workers and pensioners nationwide.

Broken down, the GSIS said on May 11 it was able to disburse P3.48 billion to 25,198 members and pensioners nationwide from March 27 to April 30. The fund manager also granted P664 million in emergency loans, which it opened on April 13, to around 33,000 borrowers. That meant an average of around 1,941 applications were approved every day for 17 days.

GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Macasaet said in a statement on Monday they expect more would apply for emergency loans after the agency eased its loan eligibility rules.

“Under the enhanced program, we now allow members who have indefault loan accounts, with arrears of more than six months, to renew their emergency loan,” Macasaet explained. “We have also reduced the paid premium requirement from six months to only three months.”

However, Macasaet warned of

delays in the processing of the loans “since this is the first time for GSIS to offer the emergency loan on a national scale.”

Considering that systems enhancements are still in progress, members and pensioners whose emergency loans were renewed and granted from April 13 to 30 may renew their loans starting May 11, 2020.

To avail of the Enhanced Covid-19 Emergency Loan, GSIS members and pensioners must e-mail only two requirements to the GSIS: duly-accomplished emergency loan application form, which is downloadable from the GSIS website, and photo of the borrower holding their GSIS Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) card or temporary eCard. If their UMID or eCard has been lost, the photo of the borrower holding his or her two valid IDs and a clear photo of the two valid IDs must be submitted.

Pensioners may only apply via e-mail.

Once the loan is approved, the proceeds will be directly credited to the UMID card or temporary eCard account of the borrower.

Bernadette D. Nicolas

Financial literacy students graduate via self-video

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wenty-nine students of a financial literacy study program funded by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Phils.)

Inc. (Manulife Philippines) created self-videos as they finished the course during the lockdown imposed on Luzon.

“Because of the ECQ [enhanced community quarantine], we asked the kids to film their final presentations and send them to us digitally,” Manulife Philippines Senior Vice President Melissa Angela L. Henson was quoted in a statement as saying.

“We were happy with how they applied their lessons on earning, saving, and investing for their family and their future.”

According to Henson, the students graduated from its year-long financial literacy program, which teaches public school students the basics of saving, budgeting and investing.

The students were from Mandaluyong Addition Hills and Nueve de Febrero elementary schools in Mandaluyong City and Pembo elementary school in Makati City.

According to Henson the program enhances the financial literacy awareness of students as they have been able to develop their financial management, learned how to manage a budget, set aside savings, and even explore different financial products that will help them fulfill

their goals in life.

“At the end of the program, students were tasked to apply the lessons they learned by creating a financial plan for their family,” Henson said.

Manulife Philippines said this financial literacy program also served as a volunteerism program for its employees who served as mentors to the students during the weekly lessons.

The program was created in partnership with a non-profit organization that promotes volunteerism and sustainability. The group identified the partner schools and ensured that the financial literacy curriculum adheres to the requirements of the Department of Education.

“We have been receiving positive feedback from the parents that the program really helped strengthen their family ties, as preparing for monthly expenses has become an open discussion with every family member,” the statement quoted Far Eastern University Inc. Senior Vice President Gianna R. Montinola in the statement. “As we face these challenging times, working together as a family has become more essential.”

Since the program’s launch in 2018, it has provided financial literacy courses to a total of 100 student graduate beneficiaries in four schools in Metro Manila.

Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 12, 2020 B3

BTr saw ‘overflowing demand’ for short-term govt securities

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

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@BNicolasBM

onday’s auction of Treasury bills (T-bills) reflects the continuous allure of government securities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) upsized again the volume of T-bills it awarded to P22 billion from its P20billion initial offering.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters on Monday

the Treasury decided to go for the full award as “average bids [fell] below secondary levels.” Rates were also lower than the previous auction.

De Leon said they also opened

the tap facility window for an additional P10 billion offering for 364-day T-bills.

The 91-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 2.269 percent, a 21-basis point decrease from 2.479 percent average rate in the previous auction.

Tenders for this tenor amounted to P22.322 billion, way above the P5billion offering.

The BTr also saw “overflowing demand” after total bids for the 182-day T-bills reached a total of P87.2 billion, more than four times the initial offering. This prompted the auction committee to raise the accepted non-competitive bids for the short-term debt papers to P4 billion.

The average rate for the 182-day T-bills was capped at 2.374 percent, dropping by 25.1 basis points from 2.625 percent previously. Bids reached P27.321 billion, more than five times the initial P5-billion offering.

For the 364-day T-bills, the average rate posted was 2.761 percent, lower by 18.4 basis points from previous auction’s 2.945 percent. Investors’ strong appetite for longer tenors was evident as tenders reached P37.544 billion, more than thrice the P10 billion offer.

For the whole month of May, the Treasury is aiming to borrow P170 billion from the local debt market.

Zest-O banking arm’s earnings up 57% in Q1

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hilippine Business Bank (PBB), the banking arm of the Zest-O Group of Companies, registered double-digit earnings growth in the first quarter despite doubling provisions for credit loss as the economy was battered with risks from financial stress caused by natural and health disasters beginning January.

In a disclosure on Monday, the Yao-owned bank reported that its net profits grew by 57.1 percent to P394.4 million as core income more than doubled to P693.6 million in the first three months.

Net earnings, without tax and provision, could have increased by

63.7 percent to P695.9 million.

“The start of 2020 has been challenging given the Taal Volcano eruption and the global Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic,” PBB President and CEO Rolando R. Avante said in the disclosure.

“The bank showed good year over year growth in core income and net income.”

Shares in PBB rose by 21 centavos, or 2.39 percent, to settle at P9 each amid the 0.82-percent growth for the benchmark index on Monday.

PBB’s loans and receivables grew by 11.5 percent to P85.6 billion while total assets climbed by 16.9 percent to P110.6 billion in the first quarter.

Total deposits spiked 14.5 percent to P90.1 billion for the period.

Total equity, meanwhile, rose 14.9 percent to P13.1 billion, translating to book-value per share of P19.32.

Net interest margin, return on average assets and return on average equity stood at 5.21 percent, 1.40 percent and 12.17 percent, respectively, as of end-March.

Avante said the bank is prepared to deal with challenges brought about by disruptions amid the pandemic.

He added the bank is undertaking an extensive review of its balance sheet “to ensure that we have a complete view and thorough understanding of the operations of our clients.”

“We are working hand in hand with our customers to determine the type of support they need,” Avante said.

The bank said provisioning levels are also being evaluated.

Last year, PBB’s net profits soared 46.4 percent to P1.26 billion from P858 million in 2018. It also raised P3 billion through the issuance of three-year corporate notes in 2019.

The merger of PBB and Insular Savers Bank, the former being the surviving entity, secured a greenlight from the Securities and Exchange Commission in June last year. The merged operations began a month after the approval. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Rout of China’s bonds worsens amid concerns on surge in issuance

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sell-off in China’s sovereign notes worsened Monday, with the benchmark 10-year yield surging to its highest level since March, amid concerns that investors may switch to local-government bonds for better returns.

The yield on sovereign notes due in a decade jumped as much as seven basis points to 2.68 percent.

Sales this month of local government bonds are expected to climb to a record high of more than $141 billion. The supply has raised concerns that commercial banks, the largest holders of sovereign notes, may shift some funds to debt sold by regional authorities for their higher returns.

“The sell-off on long-end sovereign notes has become very crowded today” amid the supply worries, said Xing Zhaopeng, an economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Shanghai.

“The 10-year yield will rise to

THIS file photo, vehicles travel along a section of the third Ring Road in Beijing, China. China’s economy is staging a comeback as quickening inflation boosts factory profits, while stricter capital controls and a stabilizing currency help stem outflows. Bloomberg

as high as 2.8 percent within the coming 10 sessions and then stabi-

lize. That will be a good opportunity for investors to buy the debt as the

central bank will continue to ease.”

China’s 10-year sovereign yield has climbed 13 basis points the past four sessions following a holiday break, and the country’s government bonds are Asia’s second-worst performer for May behind Indonesia.

Risk appetite is also creeping back, further pressuring the fixed-income market, amid some better-thanexpected economic data and signs the coronavirus outbreak is easing in China.

But longer term, Beijing’s loosening monetary policy could support sovereign bonds. On Sunday, the People’s Bank of China said in a report that it would resort to “more powerful” policies to aid economic growth.

The 10-year yield fell 56 basis points in the first three months of this year, the biggest quarterly decline since the end of 2008. Currently at 2.64 percent, the yield is 16 basis points above the 18-year closing low set in April. Bloomberg News

Lawmaker pushes bill to help banks vs NPAs expected to rise after lockdown

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

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he House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries approved on Monday the proposed Philippine Financial Industry Resiliency Act, which aims to help banks and other financial institutions from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the committee’s virtual meeting, Quirino Rep. Junie E. Cua said House Bill (HB) 6622 aims to help financial institutions address bad debts and manage non-performing assets (NPAs). Both are expected to cushion the adverse impact of the pandemic on banks’ operations.

Cua, the panel chairman, said the immediate passage of HB 6622 is one of the priorities of the lower chamber.

Cua said most financial Institutions are facing a period of delayed loan collections and are at risk of re-

cording higher NPAs across all borrower segments.

NPAs consist of non-performing loans (NPLs) and real and other properties acquired (Ropa) for settlement of loans and receivables.

According to Cua, NPAs prevent banks and financial institutions from effectively performing their crucial role of financial intermediation.

“They result in the financial intermediaries incurring heavy costs in the management and administration of NPAs that are best left to asset management companies,” Cua explained. “Moreover, much of the financial intermediaries’ liquidity is tied up in NPAs; high NPA ratios adversely affect investor and depositor confidence, ultimately hampering the efficient conduct of financial intermediation.”

Citing a simulation by the Bankers Association of the Philippines, Cua

echoed a potential increase in NPLs from an estimated 5 percent today to 20 percent or more in a matter of months.

“This would translate into approximately P240 [billion] to P300 billion of NPLs, of which between 50 percent to 80 percent, or P120 [billion] to P240 billion, may have to be written off,” he said. “Similar substantial increase is also expected for Ropas.”

In order to respond to the looming increase in NPAs, Cua said the government must enact measures to help banks and other financial institutions offload their NPAs, induce economic activity, and improve the liquidity of the financial system to propel economic growth through the passage of the HB 6622.

Cua also noted that the bill uses an internationally-accepted mechanism known as the special purpose entity or vehicle.

He said this proposed law introduces several innovations to cater to the financial institutions’ needs.

The bill encourages financial Institutions to sell NPAs to asset management companies that specialize in the resolution of distressed assets.

Also, the measure encourages the private sector, government financial institutions, and governmentowned-or-controlled-corporations to incorporate and invest in a financial institutions strategic-transfer corporation (FISTC) and help in the rehabilitation of distressed businesses with the end view of contributing to economic growth.

The bill said application for the establishment and registration of an FISCT shall be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not beyond 18 months beginning from the date of the effectivity of this proposal or its implementing rules and regulations.

Cua said the FISTC should bring in new money to find new uses for NPLs and Ropas, rehabilitate failed businesses and increase lending.

The measure also extends support to financial institutions, as well as FISTCs, in disposing of their NPAs by granting tax exemptions and reduced registration and transfer fees on certain transactions involving NPAs. Cua said the bill affords financial institutions an avenue calculated to strengthen their balance sheets. It also ensures that the performance of their role as mobilizers of savings and investments for the country’s growth and development is not weighed down by the heavy costs of maintaining and servicing NPAs. According to Cua, the Covid-19 pandemic has been plaguing the global community posing a serious downside risk to the economy.

With this, he said the government should extend support to banks and other financial institutions, which are the mobilizers of savings and investments for the country’s growth and development.

“These financial institutions are main components of the financial system and their continued financial health is critical to the maintenance of financial stability. It is essential, therefore, that banks and other financial institutions are able to maintain their financial health,” he said.

He said the implementation of various measures like travel restrictions, enhanced community quarantine, and cessation of operations of all private establishments in a bid to contain the virus have caused widespread shutdown of business activities, triggered an economic downturn and dramatically impacted the financial sector.

B4

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Misty Copeland leads dancers in virtual ballet for charity Trailblazing ballerina Misty Copeland

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By Brooke Lefferts The Associated Press

EW YORK—A ballerina in Australia floats across the dining room floor in a hijab.

Another leaps in the air on a rooftop in the Philippines, while still another showcases her intricate footwork in her backyard in the United States.

Wearing tutus or tank tops, bowing to kitchen stoves or trees blowing in the wind, 32 dancers from 14 countries strapped on their toe shoes to perform a dance for a virtual audience to benefit the struggling dance community.

“It really felt like an opportunity to bring the dance world together and to really bring our forces together.

And I felt like we could have more impact that way,” said Misty Copeland, who is the first dancer featured in the video and came up with the initiative with her former colleague, Joseph Phillips.

“Swans for Relief “ is designed to raise funds for dancers all over the world who have lost their jobs after ballet performances, like most public events, were shut down due to social distancing requirements to stem the spread of Covid-19.

“Once you’re let go of a company, it’s really difficult to find work again within that company or another company. So...I started reaching out to my friends,” she told The Associated Press in a Zoom interview Tuesday from her New York City home. “And it was just incredible that everyone I was reaching out to, I was just shocked that it was like: ‘Yes! I’m in!’”

Copeland partnered with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), with seed funding provided by K Period Media, to launch the program.

A $500,000 goal has been set to help ballet dancers maintain their living expenses, since so many ballet companies and venues are closed.

The 32 ballerinas in the compilation video represent companies from all over the globe, including China, Russia, Europe, Cuba, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Canada, and the United States. The video, released Wednesday, shows each dancer at home performing the iconic steps from “Dying Swan,” set to “Le Cygne [The Swan],” performed by cellist Wade Davis.

Having a diverse group for the video was a top priority for Copeland, a trailblazer who is the first black female principal dancer at her company, American Ballet Theatre.

“I think that’s something that I’ve been fighting for my entire career, is to truly show the representation

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

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CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Emily VanCamp, 34; Domhnall Gleeson, 37; Tony Hawk, 52; Ving Rhames, 61.

Happy Birthday: Don’t sit back when you should be moving forward. Embrace change, and you’ll have better control over the outcome. Gather information, and learn as you move into unfamiliar territory. Expand your mind, and be part of the solution. How you conduct your life will influence the way others view you. Stand tall, and do what’s right. Be a leader, not a follower. Your lucky numbers are 1, 8, 21, 29, 32, 37, 44.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t take anything or anyone for granted. Size up your situation, and consider the best way to navigate your way through life. Listen carefully, and do your best to accommodate when necessary. HH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Check into what’s available, and head in that direction.

Times are changing, and it’s essential to keep up. Jump in and participate. Use your wisdom and experience, and offer hands-on help. HHHHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Pump it up and get moving. Discipline, coupled with a fitness routine, will get you in tip-top shape. The physical changes you make will boost your morale and give you the drive you need to pursue your goals. HHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Take hold of situations that can affect you financially, contractually or medically. A change may not be welcome, but it will be right for you. Be receptive to suggestions, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. HHH

e of what the world looks like within the ballet community,” she said. “You’ll see the diversity within this film. But it was also important for me to not just go for the biggest ballet stars, but to look within these companies and see talent, see up-and-coming talent and see diversity.”

For Copeland, the video also represents an opportunity for the ballet world to rethink how it interacts with fans.

“We’ve needed this reset, to kind of step back and reassess how we do things, especially for an art form that doesn’t really rely on media as much,” Copeland said. “It’s about time that we learn how to exist in this virtual world for the ballet community. So I do think there’s some positives in there and maybe just figuring out, you know, new ways of bringing theater to people so that it reaches more people.”

She added: “There are more ways than just stepping into a theater, that may be a bit scary for people, you know, for some time to come.” n

History channel working on doc series with Bill Clinton NEW YORK—The History channel says former President Bill Clinton will help shape and be a part of an upcoming documentary series on the American presidency.

During an announcement of programming plans on Thursday, the network said the series will “explore the history of the American presidency and the struggle for a more perfect union.”

It is being produced internally by the History channel and is expected to air in early 2021.

History says it has signed with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to make presidential miniseries on Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Goodwin’s signing comes after Washington,’ released earlier this year, became the mostwatched miniseries on cable over the past three years.

The Roosevelt project is being made by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, History said. AP

Get A chance to be part of TFC Middle East and Europe’s ‘Ililigtas Ka Niya’ music video AMERICAN poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said: “Music is the universal language of mankind.” In these trying times, it is hope, faith, unity and love that we want to resound everywhere in the world, which TFC hopes to spread by creating a music video of the song “Ililigtas Ka Niya” featuring residents from the Middle East and Europe.

The “Ililigtas Ka Niya” song was an initiative by Star Music, with music and lyrics written by Jonathan Manalo, and performed by ABS-CBN artists Angeline Quinto, Ebe Dancel, Erik Santos, Gary Valenciano, Iñigo Pascual, Janella Salvador, Jason Dy, Jaya, Jayda Avanzado, Jay R, Jed Madela, Jessa Zaragoza, Jeremy G, Jona, Juris, KZ, Kyla, Lani Misalucha, Lea Salonga, Marlo Mortel, Martin Nievera, Moira dela Torre, Morissette Amon, Ogie Alcasid, Piolo Pascual, Regine Velasquez, Toni Gonzaga, Yeng Constantino, Zephanie, and Zsa Zsa Padilla.

With the song’s inspiring message, TFC Middle East and

Europe—in line with TFC’s “Kapamilya Virtual Hugs” initiative which aims to uplift the spirit of the overseas Filipinos and frontliners around the world—launched the creation of another “IliligtasKa Niya” music video, this time with the Filipinos in the Middle East and Europe lending their voices to the song to inspire hope and faith as the world faces the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is open to those who are of legal age and are residents of the Middle East or Europe during the duration of the campaign. Get the chance to be part of the music video by simply recording a video of you or your family and friends while singing the song “Ililigtas Ka Niya”, which can be seen on Star Music’s YouTube channel (youtu.be/1YnBxnr5kTY).

Submit entries via e-mail to tfc.kworld@gmail.com or via Facebook Messenger of either K World, TFC Middle East, or TFC Europe pages. The guidelines and the terms and conditions are available on these online platforms. The deadline for submission of entries is on May 22, 11:59 pm (GST/GMT).

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Put more thought into how you look, how much you spend and how you deal with debt. You may desire change, but for now, you are best to observe. Refrain from making a rash decision and trusting someone you shouldn’t. HHH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Temptation is apparent. Consider every angle of a situation before you take part. A cautious approach will help you avoid an argument with someone who doesn’t play fair. Explore possibilities that don’t require working alongside others. Do your own thing. HHHHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Distance yourself from anyone who is asking for too much or is involved in something that isn’t in your best interest. Personal improvement, growth and surrounding yourself with those who bring out the best in you are favored. HH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Keep a close watch over your possessions, personal papers and passwords. Look for an opportunity or investment that will encourage financial growth and greater security. Stay alert, be observant and concentrate on better health and a more sophisticated look. HHHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A steady pace, a reserved attitude and putting in the time required to get things done will help you reach your objective. Don’t meddle or let anything distract you. Look at facts, be honest with yourself and make positive adjustments. HHH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Don’t rely on others. Being industrious will pay off and impress everyone around you. A change at home will encourage better relationships with neighbors, friends and family. HHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Delegate more time to the things that will benefit you personally. Physical fitness, a healthier lifestyle and a meaningful relationship will bring the highest returns. Romance and home improvements are favored. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Get involved in something that matters to you. Volunteering your time and using your skills to help someone in need will change the way you do things moving forward. HHHH Birthday Baby: You are responsible, confident and inventive.

You are dynamic and proactive.

‘directionless’ by kathy wienberg The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Peach ___ (dessert) 6 Thyroid or thymus 11 Contains 14 Square footages 15 Indian currency 16 The Addams Family cousin 17 Radio network focused on a marsh bird?

19 Federal purchasing org.

20 What a contact contacts 21 “If I may interrupt...”

22 Like a stegosaurus 25 Ramshackle building 28 Almost undetectable 29 Reject 31 ___ of the valley 32 Windows forerunner 33 Not too difficult, as a crossword 36 Request 37 Boggy green space?

39 Word after “grab” or “granola” 40 The Caribbean’s ___ Islands 42 Browns, on scoreboards

3 Already cut, as wood 4 44 Get millions of likes, say 46 Toe woes 47 “I want to be alone!”

49 Many a CNBC employee 51 Bar on a party bus?

52 On fire 54 Hoppy beer, briefly 55 Have need for a map, and a hint to the starred answers 60 Movie critic Reed 61 Embellish 62 Protruding navel 63 Wily 64 It’s tubular 65 Table tennis, for one DOWN 1 Put a ding in, say 2 Historic time 3 Floral necklace 4 Glass doors may lead to one 5 Arrange in groups 6 Junior’s junior 7 Pear-shaped instrument

8 Queen’s home 9 Recent: Prefix 10 Where Daniel encountered lions 11 Penthouse burglary?

12 Perplexed 13 Notary’s implement 18 Uno + due 21 “___ boy!”

22 Insurer with a duck in its logo 23 Wife of Mikhail Gorbachev 24 Whitish Samsung phone?

26 Agassi who married Steffi Graf 27 Seized 30 Humane org.

32 Durable pants fabric 34 Croquet venues 35 ___ & Young 37 Most-liked thing, informally 38 Without any assistance 41 Transport 43 Goes into hiding 45 Think logically 46 Small parts in films 47 Bears’ retreats

48 Kick out 50 Bert Bobbsey’s twin 53 Plant with spores 55 Swimming unit 56 Homage in verse 57 Intl. commerce group 58 ___ of mystery 59 On the other hand Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Home BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

B5

New love for pretty, old-fashioned Grandmother’s Gardens Adhesives brand takes care of its people amid crisis

PRESENTLY, the entire Luzon, along with other cities and provinces in the country, is under enhanced community quarantine because of the Covid-19. Many businesses and families have been seriously affected because of this pandemic.

In the thick of the global crisis, Pioneer Adhesives Inc. (PAI) continues to stand strong for and with its employees, who received a message of support from their chairman and CEO, John Spakowski II: salary continuance without charging against the earned leaves for the year 2020, advance crediting of salaries even before ECQ was announced, and during the quarantine period, financial assistance in terms of advance disbursement of half of the 13th month pay, deferral of company loan deduction, i.e. company salary loan and HMO amortization.

According to Spakowski, “Management takes to heart one of Pioneer’s core corporate values, which is ‘Warm the Heart’ or malasakit.” He added: “As the nation pulls itself together in fighting Covid-19, Pioneer is doing its best to take care of its family.”

The pandemic has not stopped Pioneer in giving service to the community as well. They are continuously working with partner suppliers to provide adhesives and sealants used for producing aerosol boxes. Hospitals need these to protect their frontliners from positive and suspected cases of Covid-19. Aerosol boxes are used to reduce the risk of contamination when physicians perform endotracheal intubations while facilitating chest ventilations, and to obtain swab specimen for testing. They are also donating Thermochests (styrofoam coolers) to hospitals, which are used as containers when transporting specimen samples for testing for Covid-19.

Presently, the total donation value has reached P335,000 worth of Pioneer Mighty Bond, Pioneer Mighty Seal, Cyno, and Thermochest. These will be used to make 3,000 aerosol boxes care of different partner suppliers.

They are coordinating additional efforts with partners to see how Pioneer can provide more assistance to the community.

Pioneer continues to donate to aid more partner suppliers.

THIS assortment of primroses, photographed March 19, 2019, is an old-fashioned mix planted in the sunny corner of a Langley, Washington, garden.

Grandmother’s Gardens lend memories and charm to any style home—modern or vintage. AP

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By Dean Fosdick The Associated Press

to start heirloom plants from seed.

These gardens also call for more maintenance.

“With so many more distractions and choices for our time than our grandmothers had, most gardeners now strive for simpler gardens,” Perry said. “[But] as gardeners add more flowers back into beds for pollinators, or combine flowers with edible herbs and vegetables, they are beginning to recreate gardens with a few traits similar to what their grandmothers may have grown.”

And with today’s coronavirus lockdowns, many people are looking to spend more time on garden projects.

Grandmother’s Gardens, with their more relaxed aesthetics, were popular landscape fixtures from the end of the Civil War until the early 1920s.

“They differed from gardens abroad, such as English gardens, in that they were most often the work of one person, usually a woman, instead of a team of gardeners, usually men,” Perry said.

Many of the old standards like nasturtiums, English primroses, bachelor’s buttons, sweet peas, gladiolus, hollyhocks, lilacs, foxgloves and columbines—flowers many of us remember from childhood—had become as unfashionable as typewriters, videotapes or fur wardrobes. But every

VEN before the coronavirus crisis sparked renewed interest in vegetable gardens and victory gardens, there’s been a movement toward more traditional gardening aesthetics. For example, there are what’s known as Grandmother’s Gardens. These old-fashioned, naturalistic flowerbeds rich in color have much to recommend them in contemporary settings too, said Leonard Perry, horticulture professor emeritus with the University of Vermont.

“Often appearing haphazard or growing at random, these gardens actually were designed as paintings with an eye for composition using color, shape and texture,” he said.

Grandmother’s Gardens are the dated offshoots of American cottage gardens, which contain a diversity of plants, including vegetables and flowers for cutting.

Recreating them means designing landscapes rich in hardy perennials, annuals and Native American plants, Perry said. And with their abundance of oldfashioned flowers, Grandmother’s Gardens are not the easiest sites to manage. It takes thought to plant the right combinations of historic flowers, and effort

fashion provokes a reaction, which leads to new movements that rediscover traditional materials, and that includes plants, said Scott Kunst, founder and former owner of Old House Gardens in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Slowly but surely, gardeners turned away from the brightly colored exotic annuals of the Victorian era in favor of flowers that had a long history in Western gardens, especially perennials such as peonies and iris, self-sowing annuals such as larkspur and poppies, and bulbs that would return and multiply year after year such as daffodils and snowdrops,” Kunst said.

They were planted in artlessly informal mixes that harkened back to the humble days of England’s “cottages,” the homes of poor rural folk, and America’s colonial days, Kunst said in an e-mail.

“Grandmother’s Gardens also emphasized an appreciation for plants as plants, not just blobs of color, and as offering gardeners a connection with the real world, which I think is an important part of gardening for many of us today,” Kunst said.

“Hardscaping and backyard kitchens do little to connect us with nature, but working with plants does, which is something I learned from my grandmother,” he said. n

❶ Wash and

dry vegetables thoroughly with this Gondol Vega Salad Spinner.

❷

Prepare hearty meals with this bake dish known for its oven-to-table convenience.

❸ Juice up to ❶

❷

❸

Healthy home-works for the ECQ era WITH most of us homebound these days, it’s the best time to start good health habits by preparing nutritious meals for the family, and creating a wellness-based lifestyle whose benefits we will enjoy beyond the quarantine. It’s also the best time to rediscover the simple joys life and of doing things together.

SM Home, the one-stop shop for all of your home essentials, shares with us some healthy home-works from UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in maintaining a healthy lifestyle: 1. Prepare a Weekly Meal Plan and make a list of items you need before you go to the store for your routine grocery run. Create the list from the meal plan and include back-up ingredients on your list in case your first choice is out of stock. Limit the list on buying the essentials.

2. Stock up on nutrition-packed food, such as whole grains, breads and fresh fruits and vegetables; and staples like sauces, milk, eggs, spices and condiments.

Fresh products should be consumed first. Frozen fruits and vegetables as well as canned vegetables and fruits are good alternatives as these have a longer shelf life.

3. Build up a stock of healthy snacks for your

children—yogurt, nuts, cheese, chopped or dried fruits, boiled eggs and more. Stock them up in stackable glass containers to seal freshness and label them.

4. Continue to practice Food Hygiene and Safety.

Wash fruits and vegetables under running water and dry it with a vegetable spinner. Use separate chopping boards for meat and seafood as you prepare the meal.

And don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after preparing your meal.

5. Drink water regularly and stay hydrated by drinking six to eight glasses a day to boost your immune system.

6. Make cooking and eating together a family habit. Kids can help wash and sort the ingredients and set the table before the meal. This creates a healthy routine and fun bonding with the whole family. Also practice mindful eating and stay away from processed food.

Enjoy healthy home-works and memorable meals together with home essentials from SM Home.

These are available at the www.smhome.com.ph and shoppers can now place their order online through the thesmtore.com and ShopSM app.

Make your kitchen workspace clutter-free and maximize the area by putting commonly used utensils within your reach.

Stay home and create a new dining experience in the living room with your favorite family dish.

boost your immune system with this handy Oster Mason Jar Blender.

B6 Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Adapting to the new normal: Fintech is bedrock of digital services as PH fights pandemic

Dentsu Jayme Syfu welcomes Louie Sotto as new Chief Creative Officer

Louie in Cannes with Agency Veteran Rei Inamoto

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WARD-WINNING multinational agency Dentsu Jayme Syfu promotes Louie Sotto to Chief Creative Officer.

This key appointment for 2020 is aligned with its mission of strengthening core capabilities and further bolstering business confidence through solid, competent leadership.

This strategic advancement also ensures that the agency will be well-equipped to handle the emerging requirements of its clients, amid challenges that currently beset the industry environment during this volatile COVID-19 period.

Sotto’s career started in Ace Saatchi & Saatchi as a copywriter, after which he moved to BBDO Guerrero for a year. He then joined DM9 Jayme Syfu as one of the 9 founding members of the company back in 2005. In his 19 years of experience, he has created businessbuilding and globally awarded campaigns for Smart Communications, P&G, Unilever, Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Cignal, and Jollibee.

His works for the Gabriela International

Women’s Group, Mini Cooper, Smart, Department of Tourism, The Pro-Life Foundation, Pharex Pharmaceuticals, and Love Yourself Foundation have been recognized with major distinctions from The Cannes Festivals, D&AD, The One Show, The London International Advertising Awards, Spikes Asia, Adfest, AWARD, New York Festivals and numerous local shows.

Sotto’s work has also been globally acclaimed and recognized at award shows spanning a wide range of disciplines. His Smart “Accepted” film that showed how a father asked his son to add him in Facebook, and in the process “accepting” the latter’s sexuality was hailed as one of the bravest pieces in 2017.

He takes over the role from Merlee Jayme, who has been at the helm since the agency was acquired in 2016 by international advertising and public relations company Dentsu, currently the largest advertising agency and fifth largest advertising network in the world in terms of worldwide revenues.

Jayme retains her post—dubbed “Chairmom” of Dentsu Jayme Syfu, as well as ASPAC/DOJO, where she will continue to oversee work and manage the group’s total creative line of business. Together, Sotto and Jayme will steer the agency to further improve and maintain its winning culture.

“Louie Sotto’s creative expertise, supported by his passionate and experienced teams, will definitely deliver the best results for our clients’ businesses, even in an unpredictable period brought about by the global pandemic,” says Merlee Jayme. “His insightful thinking and brave ideas will surely continue to shape great results.”

Supporting Sotto in his new role are Managing Partners Alex Syfu and Ronald Barreiro, who continue to drive the deepening of business growth, client trust, and creative excellence.

Alex Syfu, Managing Partner and Sotto's team lead, attests "With more than a decade working together with him, I am confident that he will help sustain the agency’s excellent reputation. He is one of the few leaders I have worked with who puts the same weight on strategy and creativity."

Managing Partner Ronald Barreiro further adds, "Time and again, Louie Sotto has proven himself to be a beacon for the agency. Though he is filling-in big shoes, I am confident he will do justice to the legacy he helped build over the years."

Dentsu Jayme Syfu is behind some of the Philippines’ best advertising works, and was previously recognized in the world’s top award shows including the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Smart TXTbks in 2013—a project which enabled access to content by converting old SIM cards into 'textbooks' which students can access, even offline, using even feature phones.

Visit the group’s website via https:// dentsujaymesyfu.com/ to learn more.

SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) pays tribute to the hospitality workforce and ably primes its properties through the SustainablySafe program

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HE pandemic has changed the way Filipinos deal with everyday life. Today, services are now delivered through digital platforms, and adjusting to this new reality may come in with some form of learning curves.

Now, Filipinos are advised to leverage digital technologies and smartphone apps in conducting day-to-day activities to reduce their risks of contracting COVID-19 outside their homes. For most, working from home has become the new normal, and social interaction is now being done through social networking sites and messaging apps.

Some Filipinos also have turned to online marketplaces for their groceries, medicines, and other supplies, and some have also maximized the use of food delivery apps and ordering services to minimize their time outside of their homes.

Suddenly, many parts of the Philippines have become powered by the digital realm, and payments are now being coursed through digital finance. Today, more and more Filipinos are embracing digital finance, seeing the value that it brings versus conventional cash.

GCash, the leading mobile wallet in the Philippines, alone saw app installations grow by 2x during the community quarantine, while registrations rose by 2.5x, and app referrals increased by another 2x.

“In a world where digital is the new normal, financial technology should be considered the bedrock of digital services. Through digital finance, people have the power to pay for goods and services without the need for physical cash.

Aside from the convenience, it is also less risky than cash handling, more efficient than physical payments, and is also very transparent,” GCash Chief Technology and Operations Officer Pebbles Sy said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been promoting the use of digital payments for almost a decade now, adopting several key policies and programs like the National Retail Payments System, and the creation of automated clearing houses for more seamless transactions.

This huge push for digital finance has given birth to a new working target of migrating cash transactions to non-cash. Now, the

government aims to increase the share of cashless transactions to 30 percent of the total transaction from the original target of 20 percent.

GCash has been supportive of this shared goal, and has made it easier for Filipinos to adapt into the new normal. Aside from the easier know-your-customer (KYC) process, GCash also offers Filipinos a convenient and very affordable way to transact with merchants both online and offline. Likewise, GCash users may use their digital wallets to pay for bills and government dues, as well as transfer money to almost anyone with a bank or non-bank account.

"We want our customers to be able to use GCash to its full potential. The app has multiple features that would help ease the burden of the average Filipino, from paying their utilities to sending money to their relatives in the provinces. Contactless payments are preferred by many merchants, especially during this time where long lines crowd banks and other shops," Sy said.

With GCash, a simple tap and click would suffice in accomplishing everyday tasks, making financial services more accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Through contactless payments, Filipinos are able to reduce exposure, preventing the spread of the virus from the exchange of money and the use of cards.

Partnering with over 70,000 merchants nationwide, going cashless is an option GCash easily offers, with over 20 million users availing of services like QR code payments, bills payments, and even credit services.

"During this difficult period, GCash stays true to its mission of staying connected. Our services are important, now more than ever, as the Filipino looks for ways to minimize exposure to the virus," Sy said.

Another service GCash has put in place during this crisis is the ability to help, offering a quick and easy way to donate to frontline workers and other marginalized sectors.

"We've also made it easier for the Filipino to help those who are most affected by this global health crisis. Truly, this day and age is now powered by the digital arena, and we all have to learn and adapt to it, as long as this new normal persists,” Sy said.

SMC, AFP complete construction of 10 quarantine facilities nationwide

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HE novel coronavirus or COVID-19 has posed incredible and unrelenting challenges for our country. More significantly, unprecedented obstacles are being faced by essential key workers, including not only the dedicated frontline staff at retail, hospitality, and service workforces, but also those at the helm of healthcare institutions.

Amidst this health crisis, we as a community hope and yearn for support, unity, and positivity. SM Hotels and Conventions Corp.’s (SMHCC) properties not only heed this call, but have taken decisive steps to show appreciation for the brave men and women at the forefront of our battle against this pandemic.

Conrad Manila joined forces with a partner hotel to deliver 500 packed meals to the frontliners of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Conrad Manila also recognized its skeletal workforce for their continuous ardor during the hotel’s ECQ Recognition Day. To help them assimilate to the new normal, Park Inn by Radisson Clark offered free haircuts for their team members, Vitamin C, face masks, and merienda as a token of their deep appreciation for their consistent hard work.

Park Inn by Radisson Davao has placed emphasis on maintaining a physically active lifestyle during the ECQ by conducting various sports events indoors. Personalized thank you letters from the Park Inn by Radisson Davao General Manager were also given to each member of the hotel’s skeletal workforce, showing the appreciation deeply felt not only by the management, but also by every other employee.

Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo continued to put significance in social responsibility through this year’s Earth Hour event.

Celebrating with a video dedication, the hotel turned off the lights for our environment. In line with their community support efforts, the hotel also contributed shower caps to a local hospital, delivered 200 packed meals to 6 hospitals, and 500 food packs to Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO), border patrols, and other frontline personnel. The hotel likewise joined and supports the Iloilo MICE Alliance's frontliners-tofrontliners donation program.

In a genuine expression of Park Inn by Radisson North EDSA’s pride toward its frontliners, an Employee Appreciation Board was launched, where everyone can write down positive, hopeful messages to help uplift each other.

Additionally, the hotel was able to donate 1,000 pieces of disposable shower caps to the Lung Center of the Philippines.

Radisson Blu Cebu launched wellness and recreational programs to engage hotel employees currently staying inhouse. Furthermore, each employee has been empowered by embodying the hotel’s “YES I CAN” spirit. One way they are able to do this is through PAGPAKABANA, a customized term they use in reference to their scheduled Clean-Up Drive

happening every weekend.

Over at SMHCC’s convention center arm, the SMX spirit remains high and hopeful, with some of the employees contributing to their communities by helping to provide frontliners with food and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). Notably, they helped raise funds through donations to purchase 30,000 pieces of PPEs, including masks, gloves, and protective suits.

“For SMHCC, hospitality surpasses the confines of the walls of a hotel. Exceptional service has never just been limited to the corners of a convention center,” Ms. Peggy E. Angeles, SMHCC’s Executive Vice President, said. “We have always believed in the nation’s undying spirit. Our vision and mission are deeply founded upon the unique brand of Filipino hospitality, resilience, and passion. Certainly, we take pride in the fact that our properties have imbibed this to the very core of their service culture. This is why we have confidence in our united healing, both as a community and as one of the Philippines’ foremost hotel and convention companies.”

In each of its properties, SMHCC goes above and beyond, more so in these trying times. On top of the best practices we have continuously performed, additional proactive and precautionary actions crucial to the safety and security of each guest and staff have been implemented. These points, along with prospective innovations and applications in operations, encompass and comprise the goals of SMHCC’s SustainablySafe initiative, the ultimate goal of which is to provide guests with the utmost safety and quality of experience.

Temperature reading and hand sanitation at the entrance; Disinfection of reception desks before attending to each guest; Staff wears masks, gloves, face shields, and other PPEs at all times when on-duty; Fill -up of health and travel history

forms upon check-in or registration; Sanitation of room keys and disinfection of hotel vehicles before the use of each guest; Periodic disinfection and deep cleaning of high traffic (like lobbies, facilities, function rooms, and food outlets) and touch areas (like handles and handrails, elevator panes, remote controls, light switches, and toilet fixtures); Laundry is cleaned

by DOH-accredited providers, where linen is processed at 83°C to kill microbial life that causes disease or the fermentation of bacteria; Conducting 24-hour continuous fresh air intake in all guest rooms and corridors to ensure the best possible air ventilation to deter contamination and transmission; Tableware are sanitized through dishwashing machines as opposed to the typical practice using sinks to avoid contact and ensure complete cleanliness; Firm execution of social distancing amongst staff, who will also assist, enable, and ensure that guests are able to practice social distancing in all areas of the property.

Undoubtedly, strategic measures to ensure business continuity have been put in place. Clearly, SMHCC’s properties will be more than equipped to bounce back after the lifting of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).

These activities and efforts have so far just been the beginning. SMHCC incessantly pursues the highest standards of excellence and adheres to stringent protocols that meet international standards. The company is geared towards institutionalizing industry best practices as the world redefines and adapts to the new normal. Moreover, the company continues to reach out through actionable programs as its properties stand confident and strong as a haven of hope and comfort for their guests amid the crises. With an unmatched passion, SMHCC seeks to assure each staff, guest, and member of the community that in each step we take toward recovery, growth, and change, we do so together.

San Miguel Corporation has recently completed the construction of 10 emergency quarantine facilities in several Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) camps nationwide. Each with a 15-bed capacity, these quarantine facilities will accommodate individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 with mild or no symptoms. This collaboration with the AFP will also reduce the strain on health facilities that cater to other medical cases in these areas.

S

AN Miguel Corporation (SMC) completed construction of 10 emergency quarantine facilities it was building together with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) around military camps nationwide, to accommodate Covid-19 patients with mild to no symptoms, and ease the strain on local hospitals.

The quarantine facilities, which have 15 beds each for a combined capacity of 150 beds, can help reduce strain on existing health facilities in areas where they are located, given the increasing number of patients needing medical treatment.

“We thank the Armed Forces of the Philippines for allowing us to build these isolation areas beside their military hospitals. This collaboration will help the government save more lives, including the lives of our military personnel who are one of our front liners during this pandemic,” SMC president and COO Ramon S. Ang said.

These facilities with the respective completion dates are as follows: WESTMINCOM Hospital in Zamboanga (April 22), NOLCOM Hospital in Tarlac (April 23), EASTMINCOM Hospital in Davao City (April 23), SOLCOM Hospital in Lucena City (April 24), PHILFLEET in Cavite City (April 28), Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City (April 29), CENTCOM Hospital in Cebu City (May 1), Joint Task Force-NCR in Camp Aguinaldo (May 1), CJVAB Hospital in Pasay City (May 6), and WESCOM Hospital in Palawan (May 6).

Ang said it is important to have these facilities ready should the need to isolate more Persons Under Investigation (PUI) arise. He also said SMC is looking to build more such facilities in more areas.

“Our hospitals cannot afford to exceed their capacity as many patients, including those who are treated for other illnesses, will be needing these health facilities. These isolation areas will also help ensure that the transmission of the disease can be better controlled and lessen the risk on other patients who are vulnerable,” he added.

Earlier, SMC turned over five sets of testing machines and test kits to the Department of Health for delivery to various government centers in the country. These RT-PCR machines and high-throughput automated RNA extraction systems allow for an additional 11,000 tests per day.

The company also donated testing kits equivalent to an additional 20,000 tests.

DoH distributed two sets of equipment to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) while the rest were sent to San Lazaro Hospital, Vicente Sotto Medical Center in Cebu, and Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao. The company also donated over 54,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to over 100 hospitals nationwide and the Office of Civil Defense.

SMC also donated an additional 10,000 locally-sourced and produced PPEs from local garment manufacturers to the Philippine General Hospital.

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

Sports BusinessMirror

BLUEPRINT FOR SPORTS’ RETURN?

A WORKER wipes down areas of the octagon between bouts at a UFC 249 on Saturday. AP

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

By Mark Long

The Associated Press

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ACKSONVILLE, Florida—UFC President Dana White wanted a major fight card weeks ago. He was confident his team could pull it off whether it took place on a tribal land, on a private island or in any of the 10 states offering to host it.

Coronavirus testing. Fan-free arena. Social distancing.

Self-isolation. White looked at all those unprecedented details that seemed too complex and too risky to some outsiders as merely extra challenges.

“I knew we could do this,” he said following UFC 249 on Saturday night. “I knew we could figure it out. Even with all the hurdles that we had early on, this has been fun. It’s been challenging and it’s been fun.

“I know that sounds a little demented to say I’ve had fun going through this. It’s been challenging and I’ve enjoyed the whole game of it, if you will.”

White and the UFC look like the big winners following their rousing show at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, an event that could serve as a blueprint for other sports leagues around the country and the world as they start to resume during a global pandemic.

The National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and NASCAR, all of them had to have an eye on how the UFC approached and handled the first major human-centric sporting event in the US since the new coronavirus shuttered much of the country nearly two months ago. The UFC created a 25-page document to address health and safety protocols, which included disinfecting the octagon between bouts and mandating tests and masks for nearly everyone in attendance.

The spotlight only intensified when one fighter, Jacaré Souza, and two of his cornermen tested positive for Covid-19 a day before the stacked card.

Souza was pulled from the fight and removed from

B7

the hotel where hundreds of UFC employees are staying this week. The UFC’s medical team continues to provide assistance and is helping with necessary treatment, White said.

The UFC has two more fight nights scheduled this week in Jacksonville, beginning Wednesday, and plans to administer more than 1,000 more coronavirus tests for everyone scheduled to take part.

“However it was handled this week, this was our first week,” White said. “It will only get better. And we can share what we learned here doing three events with other sports leagues who are reaching out to us and asking.

“A lot can be learned by what we’re doing here. Not just for professional sports but for sending people back to work and lot of other things in life.”

White said he never considered postponing UFC 249 following Souza’s positive test and got support from the Florida Athletic Commission, the governor and local authorities.

The show went on and, by most accounts, got rave reviews.

About the only negative was the empty arena, where punches, kicks, grunts, steps, trash talk, corner coaching and TV commentary echoed off metal beams and vacant seats.

“It was weird,” White conceded. “There’s so many things that you love about live sports, whether you’re home, in a bar or there live. One of the big, key components to live sports are the group of people that you’re with and the energy that you get when cool things happen.

“Tonight was an amazing event, but that was definitely missing tonight, these moments.... It’s all part of what makes this so great.”

Finding a way to recreate those missing moments could be the next challenge, one White surely would welcome as long as the show goes on.

“We’re still figuring this whole thing out,” he said. “This was the first one. It was a success. Wednesday will be better.

Saturday will be better than that.”

If games resume, athletes ‘need to know when to peak’

M Long wait for Tokyo Olympic souvenir market to pick up

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OKYO—These are lonely times for thousands of souvenirs in dozens of Tokyo 2020 Olympic stores, which are drawing few customers with the postponed games more than a year away and facing an unclear future.

And they’re worrying moments for Tokyo organizers, who hope to generate $100 million by selling 5,500 “licensed” products including official Olympic chopsticks, Olympic umbrellas, and large stuffed mascots that can go for almost $200.

The pandemic and the uncertainty have emptied Olympic stores of customers. And one large question looms to increase the anxiety: Can the postponed games really take place?

Organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori has said if they can’t go ahead on July 23, 2021, they’ll be canceled— not postponed again.

Strangely, a cancellation might stimulate souvenir sales, driving demand for memorabilia from the 2020 Olympics that didn’t take place—not once, but twice—because of the pandemic. Conversely, pent-up demand might also spur sales if the games are finally held.

Olympics have been canceled in war years—1916, 1940, and 1944—but never for a virus.

“If there are no Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the value of the already created 2020 merchandise will increase, and increase even more rapidly if the existing product is removed from retail,” David Carter, who teaches sports business at the University of Southern California, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “The bottom line question being who will capture this official/unofficial revenue?”

“Many will view 2020 Tokyo merchandise as a novelty product representing all that 2020 stood for globally—a global conversation piece for those around the world,” Carter added.

Organizers and the International Olympic Committee

By Tim Reynolds

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The Associated Press

J ARMSTRONG might have played a role in the Chicago Bulls getting their 1996, 1997 and 1998 titles—even though he wasn’t on those teams.

Armstrong was the person who, at a breakfast chat over pancakes in Chicago, nudged Michael Jordan to stop by the Bulls’ practice facility one morning late in the 1994-95 season to go see his old teammates. Before long, Jordan ended his retirement—the Bulls won three more titles in Jordan’s second stint with the franchise.

Jordan’s first retirement in 1993, the murder of his father James, his stint in minor league baseball and—after a gentle push by Armstrong, who takes no credit for Jordan’s return—his comeback were among the themes in the latest installments of the ESPN and Netflix documentary The Last Dance, a 10-part series that showed episodes seven and eight on Sunday night.

“I’ve never thought about it, to be honest with you,” Armstrong, the longtime National Basketball Association (NBA) guard and three-time NBA champion with the Bulls who is now a California-based sports agent, told The Associated Press. “I just wanted to be a good friend and I just saw something in him. When you see someone who

(IOC) maintain the games will be held, though many scientists and health experts argue they shouldn’t go forward without a vaccine.

If they do go ahead, will athletes be quarantined first, and will fans be allowed to attend? What about packing 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries and territories into the Athletes Village on Tokyo Bay? How will athletes train safely? And how will they travel the globe to qualifying events?

If there are no fans at the Olympics, what happens to projected income from ticket and merchandise sales, expected together to produce income of about $1 billion for

local organizers. Will fans who’ve already bought tickets— organizers say 7.8 million tickets were available—get refunds?

Tokyo organizers say almost 90 licensed souvenir shops were open around Japan at the end of April. It’s unclear if all will continue to operate until the Olympics open in 14-anda-half months with online sales sure to remain.

“Provided sales remain adequate, it may be best to remain open—or at least partially open—until a resolution is more in focus,” Carter said. “After all, that is still important revenue to be generated given the collective uncertainty.” AP

DOLLS of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic mascots, Miraitowa and Someity, are on display at a Tokyo 2020 official shop in the Shinjuku district. AP

AKING it safe for America’s professional sports teams to start playing games is one thing.

Making sure athletes are in game shape is

another.

The coronavirus pandemic brought sports to a halt, but stay-at-home orders are starting to be eased and a handful of National Basketball Association (NBA) teams are opening practice facilities.

For players, the difference between merely working out and playing games will be a significant jump and experts say things shouldn’t be rushed. With athletes unable to simulate game or even practice activity at home, they will need time before resuming competition.

“Whatever the amount of time is, just know that players will have the input and say so because we’re the ones that’s playing, and that comes first,” said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, president of the National Basketball Players Association. “We don’t ever want to put guys in a situation where their injury risk is high.

It varies from player to player. But it’s at least got to be three to four weeks.”

Charlotte Hornets Coach James Borrego said players could be at different points based on their access to equipment.

“There’s veterans out there that may have a court in their home, in their facility and they’re probably a little bit more ready to go than others,” he said. “I think we’re talking weeks. This isn’t something where after one week these guys are ready to go.”

National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman has said on multiple occasions he believes a two- to threeweek training camp would be needed before the season resumes. Many hockey teams have had trainers send athome workout routines to players, but few if any have been on the ice in months.

“As much as I could mentally be in game mode, your body’s not ready for it if you don’t get a full offseason of training and if you don’t get to play a long training camp with like seven exhibition games,” Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “If you only get a week training camp with a couple exhibition games, you’re going to ruin your body.”

Edmonton Oilers forward Alex Chiasson said it is on the athlete to be ready.

“That’s going to be on us,” he said. “We’re professional athletes. We’ve got to make sure we prepare. It’s not easy, but it is what

BREAKFAST IN ’95 KEY TO MJ’S RETURN TO BULLS really loves something...he loved it. He didn’t like it. He loved it. That’s who he was. And out of respect to the game of basketball, I wanted to be a good friend.”

Sensing the time was right, Armstrong suggested Jordan to go to practice with him that day under the auspices of just seeing the guys. Then Jordan went back for another practice.

Then another. Before long, Jordan’s baseball days were done.

He was back.

“I just got him, he got me, and we got each other and you did what was needed,” said Armstrong, who helped the Bulls win titles in 1991, 1992 and 1993. “I didn’t need to tell anyone or talk about it or anything. That’s just what happened. I was just happy for him because I know what the game of basketball meant to him and meant to his life.

He kept basketball in a sacred space and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Jordan retired in October 1993, not long after the murder of his father and with the Bulls having just won their third consecutive title.

The first season of Jordan’s hiatus became Armstrong’s best season, in terms of numbers. He set career-highs in

points (14.8) and minutes (33.8) per game, started all 82 regular-season games for the first time, plus was a starter in what became his only All-Star appearance. He was a fan favorite, finishing third in All-Star voting that year behind only Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.

Armstrong didn’t replace Jordan in the Bulls’ lineup— he played point guard, while Pete Myers became the answer to the ‘who took Jordan’s starting shooting guard spot?’ trivia question—but he did assume a much bigger role, and did so with Jordan encouraging him with occasional phone calls.

And when Armstrong was named the All-Star starter, Jordan was the first person to call him with congratulations.

“He was so happy for me,” Armstrong said. “I wasn’t playing to be an All-Star, but when he called, it meant the world to me then and it means the world to me now. I know what it means to have a friend and I always tried to be a good friend.”

Unwittingly, Armstrong may have been a friend again in the 1998 playoffs—when he was with Charlotte, playing against Jordan and the Bulls in what would become their last title run. Armstrong hit what became a game-winning shot in Game 2 of that series for Charlotte in Chicago, and

Jordan didn’t like seeing his former teammate celebrating.

He took it as a slight, and he always turned slights into fuel.

“I felt like BJ should know better,” Jordan says early in Episode 8. “If you’re going to high-five and talk trash, now I have a bone to pick with you. I’m supposed to kill this guy. I’m supposed to dominate this guy. And from that point, I did.”

The Bulls didn’t lose again in that series. Armstrong— who got plenty of defensive attention from Jordan over those next three games—has no regrets.

“Whenever you start a series, you’ve got to let the other person know you’re there for a fight,” Armstrong said. “Michael knew exactly what was happening. I knew exactly what was happening. I don’t know if anyone else did.... He didn’t guard the point guards. He went there.”

The final two episodes of the documentary series will debut May 17.

THE Bulls’ Scottie Pippen (left) and BJ Armstrong walk up court during a break in action in the third quarter of their semifinal playoff game against the New York Knicks in May 1994. AP

it is, and we’ve got to deal with the situation as best as we can.”

While basketball and hockey were nearing their playoffs, baseball was in spring training when things were shut down. It created a particular wrinkle for pitchers, who tend to train methodically toward full games.

Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzore said he expects another period that resembles spring training before games are played.

“The most important part of any spring training is preparation for your pitchers, especially your starting pitchers,” Rizzore said. “Whenever you have to expedite a spring training, that’s probably the most impactful decision that you have to make: How to ramp them up.”

Baltimore Orioles GM Mike Elias agreed.

“When baseball does come back, you have to worry about guys going a very small number of innings,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ve come up with a solution to that.... The public health guidelines makes it tough to do it without a training staff and coaches. Some of the pitchers are throwing into nets in their backyards and hitters are hitting off the tee.”

Tampa Bay catcher Mike Zunino said the pitchers were his biggest concern.

“The biggest worry is injuries,” he said. “It’s one of those things, I think guys are staying in shape, they’re throwing now. Hopefully a few weeks is enough. I think we’ll have to be smart as the season opens to keep guys fresh.”

Dr. Mike Reinold, senior medical adviser for the Chicago White Sox, said the challenge for pitchers has been how to at least maintain what they gained from their previous spring training progression.

“It will take around three weeks to get a starting pitcher likely ramped up to five innings, but that assumes that they have done the work to maintain themselves and are ready to even start that progression,” he said.

Reinold said preparing is complicated because there is no return date set: “They need to know when to peak.” AP

Sports BusinessMirror

B8 Tuesday, May 12, 2020

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

Vincent Juico @VJuico Instagram vpjp_j vince.juico@gmail.com

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS

PSL-PVL unity

GIN KINGS IN ACTION Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Head Coach Tim Cone, Governor Alfrancis Chua and the Gin Kings do their share during the pandemic by helping pack medical equipment recently at the San Miguel Corp. headquarters in Mandaluyong City. The equipment are for distribution to frontliners.

PARA GAMES

Fighting Maroons cheer up frontliners with ‘Zoomustahan’

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HE University of the Philippines Men’s Basketball Team (UPMBT) expressed gratitude and appreciation for local frontliners in their own unique way—cheer the heroes with “Zoomustahan.”

Fighting Maroons Noah Webb, Kobe Paras, Ricci Rivero, James Spencer, David Murrell, Joe Gomez de Liaño, Jboy Gob, CJ Catapusan, Brix Ramos, Matt Santiago, Ethan Kirkness, Sam Dowd and Malik Diouf and Head Coach Bo Perasol hopped on a Zoom call with medical and health-care workers from the UP Philippine General Hospital (UP PGH) and the UP National Institutes of Health (UP NIH) on Friday for a virtual chat called Zoomustahan.

UP coaches Ricky Dandan, Rodney Santos, Moriah Gingrich, Chappy Callanta, Mark Dandan and Kenneth Raval joined the call.

PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, Dr. Edgar Eufemio, Dr. Anthony Geronimo Cordero, Dr. Louricha Opina-Tan, former Fighting Maroon Dr. Czarlo Dela Victoria and interns and nurses on the PGH side received the call.

NIH health workers and laboratory personnel led by UP Manila Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology science research specialist Stessi Geganzo also chatted with the team.

Paras got the ball rolling by telling the group how much their sacrifices and bravery are appreciated. “While we are here sitting in our homes, comfortable, you are out there risking your lives for us so I want to say thank you,” Paras said.

Rivero told the frontliners that they are “really grateful for everything you are doing for our country and our fellow Filipinos. Sobrang saludo po kami sa inyo. We are doing this Zoomustahan with you para naman po makapag share kami ng konting good vibes sa inyo kahit for a few minutes lang.”

Perasol thanked PGH doctors for their support through the years.

“This virtual visit is the least the team could do to give back to you. UP-PGH has been part of our team from the start. Whatever small part we could play now—by saying thank you, by praying for you, or whatever help we could extend to you with our presence—just let us know so we could be part of it,” Perasol said.

The frontliners thanked the Fighting Maroons for taking time and effort to do the Zoomustahan.

“This is really a treat for us—to see faces that are not sick,” Dr. Legaspi said. “We are getting all the support that you’re giving us and you keep us inspired to move on. It’s really amazing how the whole UP community stood up to the challenge and are helping us get through this. We’re looking forward to your first game.”

UP Manila Chancellor Dr. Carmencita David-Padilla also extended her greetings and appreciation for the Fighting Maroons’ gesture.

“Maraming-maraming salamat, UP Men’s Basketball Team. Malaking-malaking bagay ’to and salamat sa support sa mga nasa frontlines,” she said.

ASEAN Para Sports Federation President Osoth Bhavilai announces the official cancellation of the Games.

By Ramon Rafael Bonilla

T

HE Asean Para Sports Federation (APSF) has officially canceled the 10th Asean Para Games the Philippines was supposed to host this year.

APSF President Osoth Bhavilai said in a letter dated May 8, 2020, and addressed to all National Paralympic Committee heads that the cancellation was brought about by the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) decision to channel the funding for the Games to the Philippines’s campaign against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In light of the decision of the PSC...regretfully I would like to state that the 10th Asean Para Games would be canceled officially,” Bhavilai said in the letter. “Nevertheless, we APSF would like to thank the Philippines for all efforts taken prior to the games for the preparation. We appreciate why such

CANCELED

decision need to be made.”

The PSC was compelled to scrap all major sports events that the agency is supposed to fund the rest of the year and the Asean Para Games was tops on the list with a P400 million price tag. Also canceled were the PSC flagship programs Philippine National Games and the Batang Pinoy.

Mike Barredo, the chairman of the Philippine Paralympic Committee, earlier stated that the health and safety of the athletes could not be sacrificed and accepted the fate of the Asean Para Games which were supposed to be played last December after the 30th Southeast Asian Games but were postponed thrice and were set for October 3 to 9 this year.

The PSC Board made the drastic decision during its virtual meeting last May 3.

Bhavilai, a major general in Thailand’s military who has been the APSF president since 2016, specifically stated the Philippines’s predicament as a major reason for the

cancellation but declined to comment on the biennial Games’ fate considering that holding the 10th edition in 2021 would overlap with next year’s staging which Vietnam is hosting parallel to the 31st SEA Games.

“The APSF would now be taking further steps to hold a virtual APSF Board of Governors Meeting soon to facilitate discussion on the cancellation and the necessary steps moving forward,” he said in the same letter.

The Philippines was supposed to host at least 18 sports for the 10th Asean Para Games, that were already imperiled as early as March when Malacañang sought the Athletes’ Village at the New Clark City, the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City and the Rizal Memorial Coliseum and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila as quarantine centers.

The Para Games were to be staged in the same venues used for the 30th SEA Games in Clark, Subic and Metro Manila.

PSC holds mental health ‘webinar’

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HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is making sure national coaches are in their right state of mind by conducting a “webinar” or online seminar dubbed “Keeping Mental Health In-Check: How to Deal Better with the Pandemic” organized by the PSC’s Sports Psychology department.

The seminar aimed to educate national team coaches on how they could cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and stress brought by the health crisis. The psychologists

also gave the coaches pointers on how to coordinate and communicate with their athletes, who are prone to trauma during the pandemic.

“This is the best platform for the PSC to make sure that our national team coaches and athletes are mentally healthy during these challenging days,” PSC Chairman William Ramirez said.

Ramirez said that there are so many life lessons to ponder during the crisis.

“I worry about our athletes and coaches so I have been really pushing our medical team to actively monitor and assist them through the means that are available to us in this ECQ [enhanced community quarantine],” he said.

The first of a series of webinars was co-anchored

by Dr. Cely D. Magpantay and Dr. Rodel Canlas of the PSC-Medical Scientific Athletes Services Sports Psychology Unit anchored the first of a series of seminar last Friday.

It was live-streamed on Facebook. The PSC’s campaign is supported by partners Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., Milo and Pocari Sweat.

CONGRESS RATIFIES BICAM REPORT ON NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SPORTS

SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian says the academy—whose main campus would be the New Clark City Sports Complex in Capas, Tarlac—would institutionalize mechanisms, fundamentals and government support to instill excellence among Filipino athletes.

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By Butch Fernandez

EN. Sherwin Gatchalian expects a significant boost in development of sports that would produce world-class Filipino athletes following the ratification by Congress of a bicameral committee report on a bill to establish the National Academy of Sports (NAS) expected to be signed into law by President Duterte.

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, headed the bicameral conference which reconciled differences in both chambers’ proposals to establish a sports academy that will institutionalize an educational system within the framework of a national sustainable sports program.

As provided in the remedial legislation, the NAS is tasked to implement a “quality and enhanced secondary education program”

with a special curriculum on sports as provided in the program geared towards early recognition and development of talented students, especially those who have shown potential to excel in sports.

“Through the National Academy of Sports, we are institutionalizing mechanisms, fundamentals, and government support to instill excellence among our athletes, who are a source of both national pride and unity for our country. We want to support aspiring athletes at the earliest possible opportunities so we would look for those who have the potential and train them in world-class facilities,” said Gatchalian, adding that “we are also giving importance to how these aspiring athletes can achieve academic excellence while preparing them for stellar performances in the world stage.”

In a statement, Gatchalian also credited the bill’s coauthors and cosponsors, including Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Christopher Go, and Pilar Cayetano for pushing early approval of the remedial legislation.

Among others, the bill provides for the establishment of the academy’s main campus at the existing New Clark City Sports Complex in Capas, Tarlac, which will be constructed by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA). This will give the students priority access to facilities at the New Clark City Sports Complex. The proposal also mandates the organization of future nationally-funded regional high schools for sports.

The NAS will be attached to the Department of Education (DepEd), in close coordination with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). The incumbent Secretary will be the Chairperson of the academy’s Board of Trustees. An Executive Director, as appointed by the DepEd Secretary, will head the NAS and will be responsible for the academy’s administration and operation. The bill gives preference to an Executive Director who hails from the field of sports.

BEFORE the outbreak, there were talks between the Philippine Superliga (PSL) and the Premiere Volleyball League (PVL) on a possible merger. In philstar.com article written by Rick Olivares on September 25, 2019, “The two leagues will be competing in a national tournament beginning July 2020 in both a reinforced and all-Filipino conference that will follow each league’s respective competitions.”

Also from the same article, “Both leagues have agreed in principle to work towards this,” bared Joey Guillermo, who will oversee the competition as tournament director. “It will be a national tournament for volleyball to determine the best club in the land.”

In a succeeding article the day after, Mr. Olivares writes, “Both leagues will come together after their respective import-backed and all-Filipino tournaments in a battle royale to determine who will be the national champion.”

Olivares adds, “It will pique the interest of fans, sponsors, media and well...everyone. Where will this lead to? A unified league?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Even if the PVL and PSL don’t unify, it is fine. Think of this as the Philippine version of the American Major League Baseball (MLB) where you have the National League and the American League. Teams have their few crossover matches during the season, but the excitement is when the best of each moves up to the world series. It is in that vein for this national tournament between the PVL and the PSL. In the National Basketball Association (NBA), you have two conferences, one league champion, same with the National Football League (NFL), MLB, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer.

If and when this happens, expect teams from both leagues to look to strengthen their lineups with Filipino-foreign players and standout graduates from colleges and universities in the provinces.

Seven months later, in a Tiebreaker Times article written by Ohmer Bautista last April 19, “We are working towards a common goal of hopefully unifying volleyball and merge the PSL and PVL,” disclosed PSL President Dr. Ian Laurel. “We have been on a series of meetings since December last year, to January and February.

Unfortunately, we were halted by the Covid-19 virus.”

He also mentioned, “I cannot say at what percent we are towards our goal kasi there are still things that we need to settle like the officiating, the tournament format, among others. So I cannot say na talagang on the go na.

All-Filipino tayo kasi it’s difficult na may import kasi we’re not yet sure if the countries where the imports will be from have their own travel restrictions or travel ban,” Laurel said.

Nothing has been set in stone, a lot of things need to be discussed.

According to the same article, PVL President Ricky Palou proposes, “PSL wants all the teams involved. I met with the team owners before all of this last January. The feeling of the team owners ng PVL ay eight teams ay masyadong mahaba ang tournament,” Palou stressed. “They are looking at a shorter tournament.“ The PSL wants all eight of their teams to compete, the PVL wants a shorter tournament where four teams from each league will compete. The fact that both sides want to see a merger come to fruition is already a great sign for Philippine women’s volleyball.

Sports columnist Bill Velasco is cautious about the possible merger, “In any organization, your basic question is what’s their agenda is. I honestly don’t believe mergers work. One group always subsumes the other. This maintains singularity of vision, direction and purpose. The history of the NBA is a good example. It started as a supposed merger, then decades later, absorbed the ABA. Also, in the Philippine setting, there is a lot of selfaggrandizement. Many sports officials see themselves as gatekeepers, not stewards and innovators. They think there is “ME” in “TEAM.” If people can put their personal ambitions aside, only then can mergers work.

In a merger, you’ll have the best competing against the best. If it’s an import reinforced merger league then expect the quality of play to get better. In a merged league, there’s less challenges getting sponsors and advertisers.

Both leagues have a huge following and if the merger doesn’t work out, then maybe the two leagues can synchronize their schedules. We can follow the format wherein you have a “PSL conference” and a “PVL conference.” PSL teams play each other twice, same with PVL then you have what you call “inter league play” wherein you play the other team from the other conference once.

The top teams from each conference play each other in a series or a winner-take-all game to decide who is the best volleyball club in the country.

Synchronized schedules mean better availability of players for the national team. Longer time for the national team to train and bond without having to worry about the availability of players.

According to an April 24 Philstar.com article by Dante Navarro, “Putting up a 16-team field is feasible. We can divide it into four groups with the top two advancing to the next round and so forth,” PSL Chairman Philip Ella Juico said.

However Mr. Palou of the PVL says, “The PVL owners feel a fullpacked roster of 16 teams would be too long. They are looking at a shorter tournament, featuring the top four teams of both leagues based on their respective rankings,” Palou said.

“Players of both leagues have actually kicked off the ‘unification’ effort by pooling their efforts and resources recently for a couple of fundraisers to help the medical workers and other front-liners fighting the pandemic as well as workers of both camps affected by the Luzon-wide lockdown, which is now on its second month.”

The players want it, the fans want it, it’s just a matter of finding a common ground through constant communication, discussion and negotiation.

Whatever the format is, as long as both leagues work together and make it easier for our players to train and play to compete for the country, it’s a win-win for everyone and a big shot in the arm for Philippine women’s volleyball.