BusinessMirror November 05, 2021 by BusinessMirror

‘No clear signs of 2nd-round effects on prices’ By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

ESPI T E elevated i nf l ation and rising prices in key commodities like oil and meat, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said on Thursday there are no signs of second-round effects on price increases based on their most recent assessment on the country’s inf lation dynamics. Diokno maintained that recent price spikes are “transitory in nature” and are best addressed by non-monetar y gover nment measures to augment the domestic supply. Second-round effects in inf lation are usually indirect price

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increases due to sustained high prices of a key commodity. For example, sustained elevated gas prices could lead to significantly higher transportation costs down the round. T hese second-round effects usually raise the f lag for central banks to start reining in on inf lation through tighter monetary policy actions. Diokno told reporters elevated prices in recent months are largely caused by weather disturbances, higher global oil prices and higher meat prices owing to the African swine fever. The governor cited another possible reason as to why there are no second-round effects yet: the economy is still in the early

stages of recovery and has unused capacity that is mitigating secondround effects. “Given the manageable inf lation outlook, our priority is to maintain the current monetary accommodative policy for as long as needed to ensure sustained economic recovery,” Diokno said. “Nevertheless, the BSP stands ready to respond to second-round effects or more broad-based pressures as the economy recovers fully,” the governor added. Diokno said the BSP’s accommodative policy stance remains guided by the inf lation outlook. BSP projections show that inf lation will eventually decelerate to the midpoint of the government’s 2 to 4 percent target in 2022 and

2023, according to him. The latest inflation print of the country is at 4.8 percent, easing slightly from the 4.9 percent in the previous month. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is set to announce the country’s October inf lation on Friday. “Our manageable inflation outlook provides us with ample room to keep the monetary policy stance sufficiently accommodative to support the ongoing economic recovery,” Diokno said. “Inflation expectations continue to be broadly anchored over the policy horizon, with the abovetarget mean inf lation forecast from analysts for 2021 giving way to lower expected inf lation in the following year,” he added.

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RISING ‘OVEREMPLOYED’ NUMBERS STIR CONCERN n

MARSHALS of the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic inspect public-utility buses on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City for compliance with the 70-percent seating capacity rule. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has approved the Department of Transportation’s recommendation to implement the gradual increase in passenger capacity in public transportation, including road and railway systems, for one month until they reach full capacity. NONOY LACZA

By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

AKING ends meet is forcing many Filipinos to become “overemployed” by working more than 40 hours a week, local economists said on Thursday, as the statistics agency revealed an increase in September jobless data.

The changing landscape of the world of work through hybrid work arrangements may also lead some Filipinos to work longer hours compared to prepandemic times, they noted. T his, despite 4.25 mi l lion Fi l ipi no s con s id e re d u ne m ployed in September—repre -

sent i ng a n i nc rea se of over 300,000 over the 3.88 million unemployed in August 2021. (See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2021/11/04/4-25-millionjobless-in-sept-unemploymentnow-at-new-high-of-8-9/) See “Rising,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 50.5400

PICK ‘LOW-HANGING FRUITS’ TO SPUR JOBS GROWTH, GOVT TOLD By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

S t he S e ptember L abor Force Survey (LFS) shows jobs are beginning to solidify even though ranks of the unemployed increased, the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Thursday recommended that the national government pick the “lowest hanging fruits” to stimulate job growth amid the pandemic. Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, also the cochairman of the House

Economic Recovery Cluster, made a statement as unemployed persons still increased by around 370,000, largely due to seasonal effects in agriculture, which lost around 862,000 jobs. “Overall, the trend from April to the latest LFS shows that the aggregate job situation has begun to solidify. While this is good news for those who were able to find jobs, the unemployment situation remains concerning, as improving vaccination rates appears to have done little See “Pick,” A2

PHL urged to ratify RCEP immediately By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@TyronePiad

HE Philippines was urged to move quicker with its ratification process for the world ’s biggest trade pact as it is set to enter into force by January next year after the majority of the parties recently expressed acceptance of the economic agreement. The country stands to benefit from the ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), to

which it is a signatory, given this economic deal opens up further market access not only to Asean countries but to their free trade agreement (FTA) partners as well, advocates of early ratification said. Otherwise, they warned, the Philippines will not be able to reap the benefits of the trade deal. President Duterte signed the document in September. It is cur rent ly under del iberat ion by the Senate.

n japan 0.4434 n UK 69.1792 n HK 6.4928 n CHINA 7.8892 n singapore 37.5009 n australia 37.6472 n EU 58.7022 n SAUDI arabia 13.4734

See “PHL,” A2

Source: BSP (November 4, 2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, November 5, 2021

POEA temporarily halts medical workers’ deployment; cap reached By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

URSES, nursing aides and nursing assistants will now have to wait until next year to work abroad.

This after the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) temporarily suspended their deployment as the 6,500 deployment cap for health-care workers (HCW ) this year was finally exhausted last month. “ T he processing, issuance of

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to reduce unemployment,” he said.

Ramp up procurement plans

According to Salceda, the government must issue a directive to agencies with high underutilization rates to complete their procurement plans, especially of human resource

ove rse a s e mplo y me nt ce r t i f i cates [OEC] and the deploy ment of new hires for nurses, nursing a ides, a nd nu rsi ng a ssi st a nt s are hereby suspended effective immed i ately,” POE A Ad m in is trator Ber nard P. Ola lia said in an Adv isor y 14 4, Ser ies of 2021,

(HR) personnel. “Public administration and defense; compulsory social security was a job growth driver for September [118,000 jobs] and will remain so if HR procurement can be completed over the course of the next months prior to election ban,” he said. Also, Salceda said the government must reduce the risk of lockdowns and community transmission by considering vaccine mandates for employees and tenants of highly exposed places such as public markets and other community spaces.

issued recent ly. He said the suspension will not affect HCWs who were already issued their OEC prior to the issuance of Advisor y 144. An OEC is a documentary proof a overseas Filipino worker (OFW) must get from POEA before they could work abroad. POEA imposed a 5,000 deployment cap for HCWs in Januar y, to ensure the countr y will have a sufficient pool of workers to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Only HCWs deployed to the United K ingdom as well as those covered b y a gover n ment - to government hiring arrangement were exempted from the policy. The POEA later increased the

The government, he added, should also complete the 2021 infrastructure program by issuing directives to district engineering offices. “Assist growing sectors such as the BPO sector in recruiting employees by directing local public employment and services offices and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to craft agreements and collaborate with such sectors,” he added. “These low-hanging fruits can all be picked by mere executive action,” Salceda said. The lawmaker said the wholesale

cap to 6,500 upon the appeal of HCW groups. In a Viber message, Ola l ia sa id t hey are s t i l l aw a it i n g g u id ance from the InterAgency Task Force for t he M a n a ge me nt of Emerg ing Infect ious D i s e a s e s ( I AT F ) o n whether the 5,000 or 6,500 deployment cap will take effect next year. He said the deployment suspension will remain in effect until I ATF issues the necessar y resolution to address this matter.

and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector grew by 353,000 employed persons, signifying that the increased reopening of the economy is helping make this highly face-to-face sector recover. “A l t h o u g h u n e m ployed persons increased by around 370,000, this is largely due to seasonal effects in agriculture, which lost around 862,000 jobs. At this stage, most rice crops for the season have already been planted and harvest season is still some months away,” he said. “These months are also called tiempo muerto [dead season] in sugar-producing areas; I expect agricultural jobs to have recovered last month and this month, which should be reflected in the next LFS,” he added.

Manufacturing jobs decline

Meanwhile, Salceda said the job decline in manufacturing is mildly concerning. “The sector lost some 343,000 jobs month-onmonth when Christmas season manufacturing should begin to pick up,” he noted, adding: “I expect the recovery in retail trade to eventually pull up manufacturing once stocks begin to be sold out.” Salceda said youth labor force participation rate (LFPR) dropped to 35.8 percent in September 2021 from 37.8 percent in August 2021. “Youth employment rate was down to 82.3 percent in September 2021, from 84.0 percent in August 2021. I attribute this to the resumption of classes, as evidenced by the increase of jobs in the education sector [by 115,000 jobs],” he added. “The prospects in that sector were buoyed by the suspension of the Revenue Regulations imposing regular corporate income tax on proprietary schools, as well as the approval by Congress of House Bill 9913 [an Act Clarifying the Income Taxation of Proprietary Educational Institutions, Amending for the Purpose Section 27 (B) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as Amended],” he said.

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Rising...

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“That is the risk of high unemployment. People are desperate to get employed because they are willing to work even though under compensated or [subjected to] poor work conditions,” De La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas told the BusinessMirror on Thursday. Oplas said it is also possible that due to the lack of jobs available, Filipinos decide to take on several jobs, rendering them “overemployed” since they may be working more than 40 hours a week in several jobs.

Focus on low wages

She said that while this is good for the economy, especially with Filipinos being able to earn even during a pandemic, this underscores the need to improve salaries and wages in the country. In 2016, the World Bank said millions of Filipinos remained poor not because they are jobless, but because they have low incomes. At that time, the growth of Filipinos’ real wages had stayed flat since 2000 despite the average growth of 3.4 percent in labor productivity between 2004 and 2014. “During this pandemic...even those who are employed needed to adjust. [They] received pay cuts, no bonuses etc. just to keep their jobs. I’m expecting that this should improve as we slowly open the economy,” Oplas said. Former Labor Undersecretary Rene Ofreneo told the BusinessMirror that apart from this, the new elementary or high-school graduates may have joined the labor force. Given their lack of years or schooling and work experience, respectively, they may have ended up in jobs that may be labor-intensive but pay little. Ultimately, the increase in mean hours worked is an indication of the quality of jobs, which highlights the country’s underemployment challenges. “The quality

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“We hope that Senate concurs ASAP [as soon as possible] so we can deposit our Instrument of Ratification/Acceptance [IOR/A],” Alegria Limjoco, chair at the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), told the BusinessMirror. “The Philippines needs to be a party ASAP since RCEP agreement will bring more benefits to the country, especially MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises], service providers, and even professionals. It provides access to cheaper raw materials because tariff rates for most of the raw materials and intermediate goods have been liberalized,” the PCCI official added. Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (Seipi) President Danilo Lachica agreed that it will bode well for the Philippines if ratified immediately, noting it can reduce the overall cost of imported materials and exported goods. “The sooner the better,” Lachica told the BusinessMirror. Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., shared this sentiment. He said the Philippines needs to accelerate the ratification of RCEP, “especially if it would help attract more investments, boost exports, and create more employment opportunities as part of the priorities under the economic recovery program from the pandemic.” Management Association of the Philippines national issues committee chairman Rizalina Mantaring said RCEP indeed will allow the local companies to have greater participation in the global value chain. Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) Chairman George Barcelon, meanwhile, offered a different opinion. He said there is no need to hurry the RCEP ratification yet. “We have to address our competitive advantage before opening up our markets,” he said, citing the cost of power, labor and logistics services. He said the existing Asean trade deal, along with the Philippines’s trade agreement with Japan and the European Union, is “already sufficient.”

Target date

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) hopes the ratification will be finalized this month. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the DTI and other government agen-

of their jobs is not ideal, [where they are] forced to work more hours. The economy is not creating good-quality, decent jobs in substantial numbers,” Ofreneo said.

Complex labor market

Ofreneo said the longer working hours may already be a reflection of the shift in the jobs available in the Philippines. He said the labor market, not only in the Philippines, is becoming more complex. Human Resource offices in various firms, he said, are already busy preparing hybrid work plans that will allow employees to work onsite and at home when more workers are allowed to report in their offices. Ofreneo said the digitalization of work, now happening, is affecting the operation of companies and jobs of millions around the world. The changing work environment has also led many workers to quit their jobs due to changes in the workplace. Ofreneo said this is placing more pressure on Human Resource practitioners to find and hire quality employees. “The labor market has become complicated even in the formal employment market. In the informal labor market, eh, di kahig pa din ng kahig [one has to keep eking out little pay],” Ofreneo said.

48-hour work week

Based on the preliminary Labor Force Survey (LFS) results of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), some 8.326 million workers worked more than 48 hours a week. This is the highest since July 2021 when there were 8.991 million Filipinos who worked more than 48 hours a week. Data also showed that some 64.1 percent of these workers said their desire for more earnings is behind their move to work more than 48 hours a week. This is the highest this year, based on PSA data. Other reasons workers cited on why they worked over 48 hours a week include being part of job requirements at 33.4 percent; and being an exceptional week and ambition or passion for the job at 0.9 percent.

cies participated in the deliberations by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. “There will be another Committee hearing and hopefully after this, the RCEP can be presented and passed at the Senate plenary for ratification this November,” he said on Thursday. DTI Assistant Secretary Allan B. Gepty is also looking forward to the immediate Senate concurrence as an FTA is crucial in establishing a “stable and predictable business environment.” Gepty noted that participating in the mega trade deal is also seen as an economic recovery strategy amid the pandemic. As such, Lopez said, the delay in participation will have an adverse impact for the country in terms of economic growth, investments and job generation. “We should not be left behind,” the DTI chief said.

Enter into force

After Australia and New Zealand sent their IOR/A this month, the Asean Secretariat noted that the RCEP has been ratified by six Asean member-states and four Asean FTA partners already. These are more than enough to allow RCEP’s entry into force by January 1, 2022. Other countries that ratified already are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Japan. Apart from the Philippines, four others—Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia and South Korea—have yet to submit their IOR/A. “The expeditious ratification process by signatory States is a true reflection of our strong commitment to a fair and open multilateral trading system for the benefit of the people in the region and the world. The implementation of the RCEP Agreement starting 1 January next year will give tremendous boost to the post Covid-19 economic recovery efforts,” Asean Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi said in a statement. The Asean Secretariat also noted that the preparatory work for RCEP’s entry into force will continue. “The preparatory work undertaken by signatory States aims to lay a solid ground for the full and effective implementation of the Agreement through finalization of the technical and institutional aspects of the Agreement,” it added. The trade agreement was signed by 10 member-states and five Asean FTA partners—Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand—in November last year. The RCEP region accounts for 29 percent or $25.8 trillion of the global gross domestic product, 30 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent ($12.7 trillion) of global trade in goods and services.

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, November 5, 2021 A3

Comelec: BBM case to take at least six weeks to resolve

HE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will fast-track action on a disqualification case filed by various groups against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., but the earliest estimate for a resolution could be sometime in “late December” as the process, if followed, takes at least six weeks. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez made this estimate in

separate interviews on Thursday, when asked about the case

filed by, among others, humanr ights g roups say ing Marcos should be disqualified for allegedly lying in his certificate of candidacy filed last month for the May 2022 elections. Per the complaint, the former senator claimed he had all the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution, but actually failed in one respect—his conviction on a tax evasion case for failure to file income tax returns when he was Ilocos Norte vice governor before their family went into exile with the 1986 Edsa revolt. Several quarters had noted that Marcos Jr. had ran for, and won as senator in 2010; and then

again ran for vice president in 2016, but was not disqualified on both times. Asked by CNN’s The Source host Pinky Webb, “If we were to estimate how long a resolution could be reached?” Jimenez said, “I’m estimating maybe, late December.” In an earlier radio interview, he said the whole process, at best, “will last for not less than six weeks.” The first step is to raffle off the case filed against Marcos to one of two divisions of Comelec, Jimenez said. Then, the parties will be given notice and told to reply, usually giving them five days. Then, a pre-conference is called

for respondent and petitioner to face off. Lawyers then are required to submit their memoranda, after which a case is deemed submitted for resolution. Jimenez said they will “send notices next week.” Asked by CNN PHL’s Webb if Marcos had in fact made any claim in his COC that he was not convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude, Jimenez explained that a candidate is only required to swear in the COC that, “I am legally qualified”—a catchall statement. That attestation implies that the aspirant knows all the qualifications required for the position aspired to—in the

case of a presidential aspirant, he has not been convicted with final judgment of any crime involving moral turpitude. Marcos Jr.’s lawyer Atty. Vic Rodriguez earlier said they had not seen copies of the complaint, but that was apparently because Comelec must first raffle off the cases, before sending notices to parties, explained Jimenez. Rodriguez denounced the “nuisance” complaint as smacking of politicking by parties desperate over the consistently high survey rankings of Marcos Jr., a former senator and son of the late dictator who ruled the Philippines for two decades.

PHL and Spain sign accord on security of ‘classified’ info By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

HE Philippines and Spain have signed an agreement aimed at protecting “classified” defense information as they agreed to cooperate on security and work in other areas of defense. The agreement on the “Protec-

tion of Classified Information in the Field of Defense” was signed by Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana with Spain’s National Intelligence Center, which followed his meeting two days prior with his Spanish counterpart Margarita Robles. Lorenzana is on official visit to Spain where he is expected to also

attend the International Defence Industry Exhibition where he could possibly scout for equipment for the ongoing modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. During his meeting with Robles, the defense secretary and his counterpart agreed to collaborate and even explore other areas in defense, and discussed

matters of mutual concerns and even regional issues. “The two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest, including the importance of strengthening partnerships in the IndoPacific region, fostering multilateral cooperation, and jointly addressing the global issue of climate change,” said Department

of National Defense spokesman Arsenio “Popong” Andolong. “Both delegations reaffirmed their commitment to further enrich defense industry collaboration, increase exchange of students, and explore other areas of defense cooperation,” Andolong added. Andolong said Lorenzana also welcomed the growing defense

relations between the Philippines and European countries, including Spain.

Back at Whitsun Reef

MEANWHILE, Lorenzana said they would check reports that Chinese fishing vessels have returned to the Whitsun Reef within the country’s maritime waters.

Economy BusinessMirror

A4 Friday, November 5, 2021 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

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BOI likely to miss P905-billion investment goal in ’21–Rodolfo By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

ESPITE touting the new corporate tax reform package, the Board of Investment (BOI) may not be able to meet its target investment pledges of P905 billion for the year due to the pandemic. BOI Managing Head Ceferino

Rodolfo said in a news briefing on Thursday that the investment promotion agency (IPA) is only seeing a total investment approval of P600 billion this year. As of last week, the attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry approved P376 billion worth of projects in renewable energy, telecommunications, trans-

portation, agriculture and cement manufacturing, among others. Rodolfo said they are hoping to catch up and approve about P225billion investment applications in the last two months of the year to reach the P600-billion mark. Currently, BOI’s pipeline contains P700 billion worth of investment pledges. Of this amount, P300 billion worth of applications are being vetted after the investors submitted the requirements. As for the original goal, Rodolfo said that the IPA needs more time. “They have positive leads but I don’t think that with two months

[remaining]...all of them will materialize this year. We will need definitely until, at the very least, first quarter of next year to realize,” Rodolfo explained. The mobility restrictions amid the pandemic have stalled the investment applications, the BOI chief said, especially during the surge of Covid-19 Delta variant cases. He said some investors were not able to come to the Philippines to complete their due diligence studies because of the lockdown measures in place. But Rodolfo is upbeat the investments will flow in as mobility

restrictions ease and the economy further reopens. With this, Rodolfo explained that the constraints amid the pandemic have overshadowed the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act, which seeks to attract more investments in the country. Following its enactment, the corporate income tax rate (CIT) rate is reduced to 20 percent from 30 percent for domestic corporations with net taxable income of P5 million and below and total assets of P100 million and below effective July 1, 2020. All other

local firms and resident foreign companies are imposed w it h 25-percent income tax. Export firms may also be granted income tax holiday (ITH) of 4 to 7 years, followed by special CIT or enhanced deductions for 10 years. Domestic enterprises are also granted ITH for 4 to 7 years, which is followed by enhanced deductions for five years. Last year, BOI raked in P1.01 trillion worth of investments, which is 10.9 percent lower than P1.14 trillion in 2019 amid the pandemic. These projects have projected employment of over 55,000.

Easing Boost production of medical Lacson: of curbs to boost diagnostic tools, MSF urges PHL recovery T A N international humanitarian medical nongovernment group urged to ramp up investments for the medical diagnostics market in Asia amid the pandemic to improve health care, especially for low- and middle-income countries. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or commonly known as Doctors Without Borders, said in a recent webinar that the current health crisis has prompted the urgency in boosting the production of medical diagnostic tools. “The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly shown that when supply is scarce, low- and middle-income countries are at the end of the queue. More investments and actions are needed to scale up local research and development, and production capacity of quality diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries,” MSF Access Campaign Diagnostics Advisor Stijn Deborggraeve explained. In the webinar, experts pointed out that most countries depend only on a few global manufacturers for diagnostic tools and tests, stressing the need to diversify the market’s supply chains and localizing them for efficient production.

Berlin Tran, researcher at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, said that health care can be “inclusive” with having local scientists and manufacturers of medical diagnostics tools. However, Tran said, the producers might find it financially challenging to support their research and development as well as commercialization. “A little assistance, such as seed funding or consultation in clinical trial and production, would go a long way. With assistance, these Davids can help beat any pandemic Goliaths,” the researcher said. Ricardo Jose Guerrero, Research Fellow at Ateneo Research Institute of Science and Engineering and engineering lead at Bayan Biomedical Research Group, said that locally developed diagnostics could bode well as they incorporate the “needs and problems of the community into their design.” But he stressed there are many roadblocks to pursuing a local research and development for medical diagnostics. “However, the local R&D [research and development] of diagnostics is challenging and encumbered by slow sourcing of materials, unclear

regulatory guidance, and difficulty in achieving multi-sectoral alignment; challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has only made evident—not created,” he cited. Guerrero stressed the need to establish an “enabling” environment for research and development in local diagnostics. It should support the “initial development and provide a clear pathway to the market and to widespread adoption by our health-care system,” he said. In a recent issue brief, MSF recommended ways to improve local production of diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries, including an “enabling funding and procurement environment.” The group said that the government, donors and development banks must infuse more capital backing the local research and development, manufacturing, capacity building and technology transfer. In addition, regulators and policymakers should develop a “buy local” policy and offer volume guarantees to boost demand for the locally produced medical diagnostics, MSF said. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Unicef cites DepEd’s prompt response to provide basic learning amid Covid By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

HE Department of Educat ion (DepEd) was recognized by the United Nation International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef ), citing the country’s prompt response to provide basic education amid the pandemic in the recently-published Ensuring Equal Access to Education in Future Crises: Findings of the New Remote Learning Readiness Index (RLRI). “In this international recognition, we credit our teachers, parents, partners, learners, and other stakeholders for ensuring that learning opportunities shall be available to all Filipino children and showing the

Bayanihan spirit in the realization of the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan [BE-LCP],” DepEd said in a news statement. Through their united efforts, the DepEd said, they were able to manage to support the education of more than 27 million learners while prioritizing their health and safety. Out of the 67 nations analyzed, the Philippines was one of only four countries that received a five-star rating across all levels of basic education in the RLRI, a new composite indicator to measure countries’ readiness to deliver remote learning in response to school closures. According to the Unicef study, the Philippines, alongside Argentina, Barbados, and Jamaica, had “efficient policy responses sup-

ported by high emergency preparedness and existence of household factors that support remote learning.” “Nonetheless, we also took note of the study’s recommendation in improving the curriculum and addressing learning gaps. The Department, together with our various partners, is continuously developing strategies to solve these familiar issues also encountered by other countries,” DepEd added. With these developments and the upcoming pilot implementation of face-to-face classes, the DepEd also called on their stakeholders to “work with us in maintaining these positive insights from Unicef and furthering our policies and response to school disruptions.”

HE easing of curfew and transportation restrictions will benefit the Philippine economy, which has received quite a beating from the effects of the pandemic, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said Thursday. But while Lacson supported the moves that would enhance business activities and strengthen the economy, he reminded authorities to maintain containment strategies to prevent the virus from spreading. “I support the moves leading to the reopening of the economy, to revive our business activities. But our authorities must sustain the containment strategies in place,” he said at the first Lacon-Sotto media forum. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s about time we opened the economy by lifting curfews and increasing the capacities for passenger buses,” he added. Lacson is running for President under Partido Reporma while Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III is running for Vice President under the Nationalist People’s Coalition. On the other hand, Lacson said it is equally important that the government continue its testing, tracing, treatment and vaccination efforts. He said it is important that local government officials roll out vaccines soonest as some of them have voiced fears that the vaccines they got may expire in one to three months. “It is important to ensure an efficient rollout of the vaccines so we don’t waste them,” Lacson said. Citing data from the National Economic and Development Authority, Lacson said the lockdowns in Metro Manila and elsewhere have caused P20.5 billion in losses per day—with micro, small and medium enterprises hit hardest. Citing data from a study of the ADB Institute, he said micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) accounted for 73 percent of layoffs as of February 2021, while figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed MSMEs—comprising 99.5 percent of all enterprises and 63.2 percent of the labor force—took the first blow last year due to widespread community lockdowns.

Davao City Hall invites Dabawenyos to join family-themed Yuletide festivities at home By Manuel T. Cayon

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The city government is tapping the skills and creativity of Dabawenyos in a family-themed array of contests and festivities in the Yuletide season to encourage residents to stay at home while the Covid-19 pandemic remains a threat. The contests, from Christmas card-making and family portrait to a TikTok-like dance competition and caroling, the Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) has designed the DavaoPaskOnline

Fiesta (DPF) to be done online and to be a family activity. “We want to encourage people to stay at home for Christmas and [stay on side of caution]…because Covid-19 [is still here]. But we want also to have [some] special time with our family and we hope to help the people on how they can celebrate Christmas,” said Generose Tecson, head of the CTOO. The city would start the DPF early to give Dabawenyos “more time to prepare their entries for the online activities. These include Himig ng Paskong Dabawenyos [an online family caroling competition]; Family TikTok

Ngayong Pasko [an online family dance competition]; Christmas Cards of Hope [a family Christmas card-making competition]; and Paskong Litrato ng Pamilyang Dabawenyo [a family Christmas photo contest].” There are also the Pamilyang Dabawenyo Pasko Serye; Himig Davao Pasko Fiesta Online Caroling, Misa De Gallo; Lanang Holiday Weekend Market; Davao Paskonsierto Online ng Smart/ PLDT; Metro Davao Family Film Festival (MDFFF); and Smart/PLDT Torotot Online Festival. Residents who want to join the competitions may visit the

official Facebook page of the DavaoPaskOnline Fiesta (DPF) for more information. The city government’s monthlong Christmas festival offers more than P200,000 worth of cash prizes and other gifts. The DPF was launched with the media on Wednesday. It has the theme, “Buong Pamilya Sama-sama Magsasaya Punong-puno ng Pag-ibig at Pag-asa.” “We started it early this year because we have lined up several activities for all even if its online, we want to go back to the roots in celebrating Christmas, which is the family,” Tecson said.

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‘It’s a sin to tell a lie:’ New law increases penalty for perjury L

By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

YING before the courts is now punishable with stiffer penalties.

This after President Duterte signed last week Republic Act (RA) 11594, which amended the Revised Penal Code to increase the penalty for perjury. Under the new law, a person, who

DILG backs calls to ease face shield rule anew

HE Department of the Interior of Local Government (DILG) on Thursday expressed its support on calls to further relax protocols on the wearing of face shields. In a virtual interview with PTV last Thursday, Interior spokesman Jonathan Malaya said they will be proposing to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to just limit face shield use in hospitals. “When you are in a hospital, since it is a high risk environment, the DILG thinks face shield use is needed,” Malaya explained. Malaya added he is expecting Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to make the recommendation in the next IATF meeting. “At the end of the day...it will be the decision of the IATF,” Malaya said. The IATF first required the mandatory wearing of face shields in public places through its Resolution 88, which was issued last year, to minimize the possible spread of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Last September, President Duterte authorized the easing of the face shield regulation by limiting its wearing in closed and crowded spaces, and if a person will be engaging in an activity, which will close contact with other people. Presidential spokesman Harr y Roque said the face shield policy would be subjected to another review amid the recent downward trend in new Covid-19 infections and increasing number of fully vaccinated individuals nationwide. Samuel P. Medenilla

will knowingly give a false testimony and perjury in solemn affirmation while under oath to a person of authority will be sanctioned with “the penalty of prison mayor in its minimum period to prision mayor in its

medium period.” If the said person, who committed the felony, is a public official or personnel, they could now be fined with a maximum of P1 million and face perpetual absolute disqualification from holding any appointive or elective position in the government. Likewise, RA 11594 also amended Article 814 of the Penal Code containing the provision for Offering False Testimony. The amended article now stipulates

“any person who willfully and knowingly offers in evidence a false witness or testimony shall be punished as guilty of false testimony.” RA 11594 also contained a disclaimer stating if any of its provisions is declared unconstitutional, the declaration will not affect the validity and effectiveness of the other provisions of the new law. The newly signed law will take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

PHL distributor of Covovax expects EUA approval soon By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

FTER Novavax, a US biotechnology firm which received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its Covid-19 vaccine Covovax in Indonesia, the vaccine’s local distributor, Faberco Life Sciences Inc. (Faberco) announced on Thursday that they expect to receive similar approval in the Philippines in the next few weeks. “We welcome this development and look forward to the start of the global rollout of Covovax,” said Faberco founding member and Board Chairman Vinay Panemanglor. Panemanglor said that Covovax has high efficacy and safety levels, adding he is anticipating an EUA approval from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shortly following the Indonesian EUA. “We have completed all submissions and are ready to start shipment as soon

as we get the approval,” the Faberco official added. Novavax Inc. announced on October 31 that applications for approval of the vaccine have now also been submitted to Health Canada and TGA-Australia, in addition to previous submissions to the European Medicines Agency, UKMHRA, India, Philippines, as well as for Emergency Use Listing with the World Health Organization. “We expect regulators in India, the Philippines and elsewhere to make a decision within weeks,” Novavax Chief Executive Stanley Erck. Phase 3 clinical trials for Covovax demonstrated a 93.2-percent efficacy rate on variants of concern and interest, including Delta. Studies also confirmed 90 percent overall vaccine efficacy seven days after the second dose and 100 percent efficacy against severe disease. In another interview, Erck said Covovax is also “ideal for boosting.” This is based on a Phase 2 study in the

US and Australia conducted in August 2021 that demonstrated a booster dose of Covovax given six months after an initial two-dose regimen elicited a 4.6-fold increase in functional antibody titers. Additionally, functional antibodies cross-reactive with the Delta variant were more than six-fold higher than the primary vaccination series. Erck expects that breakthrough Covid infections will soar without boosters, and that Covovax could be a good option for those who had taken other shots. This is subject to approval by the FDA in the country and other regulatory authorities. Faberco Life Sciences Inc. is a privately owned Philippine biopharmaceutical company that was established in 2017 aiming to be a leading provider of affordable, accessible, and quality pharmaceuticalproductsfromreputableinternational manufacturers at the forefront of innovative product platforms, always keeping in mind high-quality standards.

Lawmaker proposes listing of projects exempted from election ban spending By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

HE chairman of the House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation on Thursday proposed that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should be furnished with an advance notice on projects exempted from the ban on election period spending. Rep. Frederick Siao of Iligan City said the Comelec should exempt those select few projects deserving of exemption because of the urgent need to meet deadlines and to address critical public service necessities. “I am quite aware of the election period spending ban that comes with the 2022 elections. Still undisbursed SRA [special risk allowance], compensation, and benefits of health-care frontliners must be among those exempted,” he said.

“The health-care frontliners will not accept election spending ban excuses. Also unacceptable would be excuses covering education funds for scholarships, financial assistance, remote learning, limited face-to-face classes and for classrooms to be reopened fully in the next school year,” he added. Siao also suggested to the agencies to give Comelec the heads up or an advance word on which projects would most certainly fall within the election spending ban period. “For those the spending ban would be unavoidably affect, government agencies should instead maximize the weeks before the spending ban and the months after the ban. If they must work in three shifts to cover a 24/7 cycle, they should so that the jobs get done well, on time, no delays,” he said. “As we count down the last nine weeks of year 2021, I appeal to the various executive agencies to double time or triple time on spending their 2021

and carryover 2020 funds, so that the Filipino people will derive maximum gain from those public funds,” he added. With the gradual reopening of the economy now in November and December, Siao said government agencies now have the chance to do much better than they have in the past 10 months when pandemic curbs were imposed. “Instead of declaring any yet-unspent funds as savings or returning them to the National Treasury, those should be spent on the originally-intended projects, programs, and services. They should not be for later release at this point because there is no more later after the 9 weeks ahead of us,” he said. “Best efforts must be taken to fill the still unfilled or vacant personnel positions budgeted for hiring this year. Please do not delay hiring because that means funds unspent and service not rendered to the people,” the lawmaker added.

DENR chief pushes stronger protection drive for critically endangered tamaraw By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

EPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy A. Cimatu is eyeing stronger protection measures for the critically endangered Philippine tamaraw. Scientifically called Bubalus mindorensis, the tamaraw is the subject of House bill 8299 or the Tamaraw Conservation Management Act, which aims to conserve the remaining population of the rare animal. Endemic to the Island of Mindoro, the Philippine Tamaraw is also called the Mindoro dwarf buffalo. It is smaller than their domesticated cousins, the carabao, but is a sturdy species whose population was nearly wiped out by disease before the 1990s. Today, tamaraw population continues to suffer from habitat loss

A TAMARAW bull (Bubalus mindorensis) crossing a grassy field. Adult bulls are locally called toro and are rightly respected for their size and surprising agility. Taken by Gregg Yan in 2012 at the Mount Iglit-Baco National Park in Occidental Mindoro Province.

and hunting for food. “We hope that the House of Representatives and the Senate will keep this bill in mind in choosing priorities to ensure that one of our country’s biodiversity treasures is conserved and protected,” Cimatu

said in a news statement. The DENR chief said he also “thoroughly supports the proposed crafting of a Department Administrative Order for the Tamaraw Conservation Program while the said bill is not yet to be a law.” Cimatu’s statement came as the country observed the National Tamaraw Month in October under the theme: “Tamaraw atin ito, Ipagmalaki mo bilang Pilipino!” The DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), together with the DENR-Region 4B (Mimaropa), conducted the “Tamaraw Talks” webinar to highlight the conservation and protection efforts and activities implemented by the DENR through the Tamaraw Conservation Program. The activities were conducted with the assistance of various nongovernment organizations in Mindoro that

help in the conservation, protection, and preservation of the remaining population of the Tamaraw in their natural habitat. In his message during the webinar, DENR-BMB Director Datu Tungko M. Saikol enjoined the public “to pursue and enhance our advocacy for tamaraw conservation to allow future generations to appreciate and marvel at one of the country’s treasures and pride.” Authored by Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato, HB 8299 calls for the creation of the Tamaraw Conservation Coordinating Council and the Technical Advisory Group, Tamaraw Conservation Program Office, and the Tamaraw Conservation and Research Center that will be in charge of coordination, research, and pertinent activities to ensure that the program’s objectives are met.

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

China fortifies Beijing as Covid infections continue to increase B

Germany reports record number of new virus cases

hinese authorities are ringfencing Beijing against growing Covid-19 outbreaks now permeating more than half the nation’s provinces, seeking to protect the capital as it gears up to host top political leaders next week and the Winter Olympics in less than 100 days.

The country’s state-owned rail operator said on Wednesday they suspended ticket sales for trains departing from 123 stations in 23 locations that reported coronavirus infections. Previously, Beijing’s municipal government all but barred people visiting the city from areas reporting Covid cases. The escalating restrictions come after the number of infections in the capital rose persistently over the past few days and are now nearing 40. The outbreak, powered by the more infectious Delta variant, has reached 19 out of 31 mainland provinces, the broadest spread in China since the virus emerged in Wuhan in late 2019. While the number of infections may seem low compared to

outbreaks in the rest of the world, China’s tolerance for the virus is much less. It’s meticulously applying a Covid Zero approach, working to eradicate the pathogen wherever possible.

Venues close

Officials in the world’s second largest economy initiate mass testing, contact tracing, and strict lockdowns for each new flare-up, even if it involves a single infection. The rest of the world, including places like the US and UK that are still reporting tens of thousands of cases everyday, has started to lift travel bans and open up. In Beijing, some major museums, cinemas, parks, and libraries have halted operations. While

People stock up on food supplies amid an outbreak, powered by the more infectious Delta variant, that has reached 19 out of 31 mainland provinces. Bloomberg photo

the government hasn’t officially closed public venues, authorities have urged residents to curtail public gatherings and avoid crowded places. While Beijing has seen bigger outbreaks in the past, the latest resurgence comes just days ahead of a major summit for the ruling Communist Party, which will lay the groundwork for extending Xi Jinping’s term as leader. The travel restrictions have also stopped some Beijing residents from returning home. The snafu occurred in part because an electronic system barred them from

booking train or plane tickets since the capital was considered a location where Covid was spreading. The municipal government apologized for the blip, but later asked Beijing residents traveling or overlapping elsewhere with confirmed Covid cases to delay their return. Meanwhile, a teacher’s infection earlier this week prompted city officials to order snap lockdowns of two schools and the suspension of in-class teaching at 16 other educational institutions as they sought to prevent outbreaks among teenagers and young children. Bloomberg News

ERLIN—Germany’s disease control agency on Thursday reported the highest number of new coronavirus infections since the outbreak of the pandemic. The Robert Koch Institute, or RKI, said 33,949 new cases had been registered in the last 24 hours, up from 28,037 daily cases a week ago. The previous record was 33,777 new cases on December 18. The all-time high comes as the country’s federal Health Minister Jens Spahn is set to meet with the 16 state health ministers to discuss how to limit the spread of the virus in the winter as intensive care units in the hospitals are starting to fill up again and infections among children are skyrocketing. On Thursday, the RKI reported 165 deaths, up from 126 a week ago. The overall number of people who have died from a Covid-19 infection in Germany has risen to to 96,192. Senior health officials have repeatedly appealed to German residents who haven’t yet been vaccinated at all to get their shots, t hough Spa hn ac k nowledged Wednesday that many of the holdouts can’t be convinced. Official figures show that about two-thirds of Germany’s population of 83 million has completed its first round of vaccination. Around 16.2 million people age 12 or above

remain unvaccinated—including 3.2 million over-60s. Although officials agreed in August to make booster shots available to over-60s and nursing home residents and staff, only just over 2 million have been administered so far. Germany hasn’t made coronavirus vaccinations obligatory for any professional groups, unlike some of its European counterparts. But regional governments have limited access to some indoor events and facilities to people who have been vaccinated, have recently recovered or been tested, and some are tightening those rules. Pressure has been growing to implement mandatory tests in nursing homes after several outbreaks were reported in senior citizen homes in recent days that have led to more than a dozen residents dying. The head of the association of family doctors, Ulrich Weigeldt, went even further on Thursday demanding mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for all employees working in nursing homes or hospitals. “No u n v a c c i n at e d p e r s o n should have contact with such a vulnerable group, either professionally or as a visitor,” Weigeldt told daily tabloid Bild. “ This applies to senior citizen homes and nursing homes as well as to intensive care units.” AP

EU delegation meets Taiwan president on first official trip China’s advice to stockpile

AIPEI, Taiwan—European Union parliamentarians met with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday as part of the delegation’s first official visit to the self-ruled island, which is also claimed by China. Thirteen lawmakers from the EU committee on foreign interference in democratic processes are visiting Taiwan for three days. They arrived Wednesday and met with Taiwan’s premier Su Tseng-chang. “It is high time for the European Union to step up its cooperation with Taiwan,” said Raphael Glucksmann, the chair of the EU’s foreign interference committee. Last month, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the body to “intensify

In this photo released by the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s premier Su Tseng-chang, center, poses for photos with European Union parliamentarians in Taipei, Taiwan on Wednesday, November 3. Thirteen members of the EU’s committee on foreign interference in democratic processes are visiting Taiwan, after the EU parliament passed a resolution last month calling for the body to “intensify EU-Taiwan political relations.” Executive Yuan via AP

EU-Taiwan political relations.” The non-binding resolution also called for changing the name of the representative office in Tai-

wan to the European Union Office in Taiwan, and to establish a bilateral investment agreement with the island.

The visit comes amid growing support for the democratic island, which China claims as part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary, and rising negative perceptions toward Beijing in Western countries. China has sent an increasing amount of fighter jets toward the island in a prolonged campaign of military harassment since at least last year, when Taiwan began publicly releasing the data. Tsai kept her welcome remarks short, calling the visit “highly significant” and saying Taiwan was willing to share its experience in combating disinformation and that it wants to build a “democratic alliance” against disinformation. AP

Globe bounces back to nearly 2019 carbon pollution levels

L A SG OW, Scot l a nd— T he dramatic drop in c a rbon d iox ide em is sions from the pandemic lockdown has pretty much disappeared in a puff of coal-fired smoke, much of it from China, a new scientific study found. A group of scientists who track heat-trapping gases that cause climate change said the first nine months of this year put emissions a tad under 2019 levels. They estimate that in 2021 the world will have spewed 36.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, compared to 36.7 billion metric tons two years ago. At the height of the pandemic last year, emissions were down to 34.8 billion metric tons, so this year’s jump is 4.9 percent, according to updated calculations by Global Carbon Project. W hile most countries went back to pre-pandemic trends, China’s pollution increase was mostly responsible for worldwide figures bouncing back to 2019 levels rather than dropping significantly below them, said study co-author Corinne LeQuere, a climate scientist at the Univer-

Smoke and steam rise from towers at the coal-fired Urumqi Thermal Power Plant in Urumqi in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on April 21. Global carbon pollution this year has bounced back to almost 2019 levels, after a drop during pandemic lockdowns. A new study by climate scientists at Global Carbon Project finds that the world is on track to put 36.4 billion metric tons of invisible carbon dioxide. AP/Mark Schiefelbein

sity of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. W it h 2020 ’s d r a m at ic a l ly clean air in cities from India to Italy, some people may have hoped the world was on the right track in reducing carbon pollution, but scientists said that wasn’t the case. “It’s not the pandemic that will make us turn the corner,” LeQuere said in an interview at the climate talks in Glasgow, where she and colleagues are presenting

their results. “It’s the decisions that are being taken this week and next week. That’s what’s going to make us turn the corner. The pandemic is not changing the nature of our economy.” If the world is going to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, it has only 11 years left at current emission levels before it is too late, the paper said. The world has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius

(2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s. “What the carbon emissions numbers show is that emissions [correcting for the drop and recovery from Covid-19] have basically flattened now. That’s the good news,” said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn’t part of the report. “The bad news is that’s not enough. We need to start bringing [emissions] down.” Emissions in China were 7 percent higher in 2021 when compared to 2019, the study said. By comparison, India’s emissions were only 3 percent higher. In contrast, the United States, the European Union and the rest of the world polluted less this year than in 2019. LeQuere said China’s jump was mostly from burning coal and natural gas and was part of a massive economic stimulus to recover from the lockdown. In addition, she said, China’s lockdown ended far earlier than the rest of the world, so the country had longer to recover economically and pump more carbon into the air. AP

sparks speculation of war

EIJING—A seemingly innocuous government recommendation for Chinese people to store necessities for an emergency quickly sparked scattered instances of panic-buying and online speculation: Is China going to war with Taiwan? The answer is probably not— most analysts think military hostilities are not imminent—but the posts on social media show the possibility is on people’s minds and drew out a flurry of war-mongering comments. Taiwan is a self-governing island of 24 million people China regards as a renegade province that should come under its rule. Tensions have risen sharply recently, with China sending a growing number of warplanes on sorties near the island and the US selling arms to Taiwan and deepening its ties with the government. Most residents interviewed in Beijing, the Chinese capital, thought war was unlikely but acknowledged the rising tensions. They generally favored bringing Taiwan under Chinese rule by peaceful means, the official position of China’s long-ruling Communist Party. “I don’t feel panic but I think we should be more alert about this than in the past,” said Hu C hu n mei, who wa s t a k i ng a neighborhood walk. War fears or not, there were scattered reports of runs on rice, noodles and cooking oil in some Chinese cities, according to local media. The more immediate worry for some was the possibility of neighborhood lockdowns as a Covid-19 outbreak spreads in several provinces. The government moved quickly to try to tamp down fears with assurances of sufficient supplies. A bright yellow sign in an aisle of a Beijing supermarket asked customers to buy reasonably and not to listen to rumors or stockpile goods.

The online speculation started with a Commerce Ministry notice posted Monday evening about a plan to ensure the supply and stable price of vegetables and other necessities for the winter and spring. A line in it encouraged families to store some necessities for daily life and emergencies. That was enough to set off some hoarding and a discussion on social media that the ministry could be signaling people should stock up for war. China’s state media has covered the rising tensions with Taiwan heavily, including the often-tough words exchanged between China on one side and the US and Taiwan on the other. “It is natural to have aroused some imagination,” social commentator Shi Shusi said. “We should believe the government’s explanations, but the underlying anxiety deserves our thought.” He said the populist views cheerleading for war don’t represent majority opinion but do send a signal or warning to Taiwan. Other developments fueled the war speculation. One person shared a screenshot of a list of recommended emergency equipment for families issued in August by the government in Xiamen, a coastal city near an outlying Taiwanese island. An unverified report—denied Wednesday by a military-affiliated social media account—said veterans were being called back to service to prepare for combat. It’s difficult to gauge how many people inter preted the notice as a possible prelude to war, but the reaction was strong enough to prompt a state media response the next day. The Economic Daily, a government-ow ned newspaper, said people’s imagination shouldn’t run so wild, explaining that the adv ice was meant for people who may find themselves suddenly locked down because of a Covid-19 outbreak. AP

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Real negotiations begin at UN climate conference G

LASGOW, Scotland—The princes, presidents and prime ministers have left, and now the real mask-to-mask climate negotiations start. For the next 10 days, maybe more, the professional diplomats at the crowded United Nations climate conference must convert marching orders left by their heads of government into compromises and agreements. The talks happen in a limited number of meeting rooms in Glasgow, with a Friday, November 12, deadline and a record long agenda listing 104 items that must be settled. The negotiations are restricted by the pandemic but aided by a year and a half of virtual meetings, instant soup brought from Norway and chocolates from Swiss and Australian diplomats. By next week, the deadline pressure is sure to intensify. Meetings will go around the clock. Food and sleep will be put aside, except when someone dozes off in a seat or on a colleague’s shoulder. “We have meals together and spend hours cooped up in conference centers with little sleep and bad food. It is a bit of a mad bonding experience, but it builds trust. And trust is key to compromise,” said Environmental Defense Fund Vice President Kelley Kizzier, who spent 15 years as a European Union negotiator. At least 120 meetings were scheduled for Wednesday, with more likely to be added. But only 25 meeting rooms are available in the sprawling conference complex where half of the structures are temporary, with makeshift roofs and rows of spotless but chilly portable toilets. And those rooms permit a limited number of people inside because of social-distancing rules designed to keep everyone 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) apart. Between meetings, everyone has to get out for 15 minutes of cleaning, something the Scottish

government insists on, said Laura Lopez, the conference administrator for the United Nations Framework Convent ion for C l i m ate Change, which runs the negotiations on a site that is technically UN property. “ The problem is our people aren’t that disciplined,” Lopez said. “They keep talking and won’t leave the room.” The rooms where it happens are often the rooms next to where it happens. “The deals are made very often outside of the room,” said longtime negotiator Yamide Dagnet, now head of negotiations for the World Resources Institute. Countries give their positions at the table, but it is in the hallways, during coffee breaks, snatches of meals and other away time that compromises emerge, she said. That’s why in-person meetings can’t be replaced by virtual ones, said veteran negotiator Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, who chairs one of the two main negotiating groups for the UN. “In the hallway, you meet someone, and that’s where you agree on that comma versus that semicolon, and that’s what’s missing” in virtual meetings, he said. The 18 months of virtual negotiations have brought people closer and made them work together more. But they need to seal the deal in person, said Mpanu Mpanu and Marianne Karlsen, who heads another negotiating group for the UN. “People need to sit eye-to-eye,” Karlsen said. They both credit the pandemic and the months of v irtual meetings for improvements over prev ious meetings. “I really think the pandemic brought an extra deal of flexibility,” Mpanu Mpanu said. In past years, the UN would put beanbag chairs in meeting rooms and offices for catnaps during the final crunch, Lopez said. But the

pandemic killed that this year. Karlsen said one key to survival is having a supply of snacks, chips, chocolate and fruit—as well her personal contribution. “I always bring extra luggage with instant soups,” Karlsen said. The Australians and Swiss finance negotiating teams are well known for bringing chocolate. “A nd there’s no str ings attached,” Mpanu Mpanu said. When talks go late and people get tired, bigger, richer countries that have extra negotiators have a leg up on smaller nations, he said. “If you are not on top of your game, people will take advantage of that,” Mpanu Mpanu said. In t he past, negot iators were of ten joined in the rooms by ob ser vers, of ten f rom nonprof its. But t he t a l k s a re now c losed to t hose g roups a nd to t he med i a. Because of the virus, the UN climate office has tried to offer more remote meeting access. With several poorer island nations unable to send negotiators and room occupancy severely limited by health rules, the remote system is crucial, but it has been filled with glitches. Observers and activists have complained that they can’t get into meetings or watch them online. The United Kingdom’s largestever diplomatic event had the UN apologizing for the video glitches, the lack of disability accessibility for an Israeli cabinet member, and for long, slow security lines. The security lines were slow because 25,000 people have picked up passes. But at any given time, only 10,000 people can be present because of the pandemic, and the lines must be wider and fewer for social distancing, Lopez said. The conference briefly had to stop allowing people in because of the 10,000-person limit. But hardships are just part of the deal with negotiators, Karlsen said: “There is no easy borne children at this process.” AP

Britain’s government: ‘End of coal is in sight’

L A S G O W, S c o t l a n d — Britain’s government has claimed that the “end of coal is in sight” after 18 countries including Poland, Vietnam and Chile committed for the first time to phase out and not build or invest in new coal power. T he statement, issued late Wednesday during the UN climate summit in Glasgow, said more than 40 nations are committing to end all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally, as well as rapidly scale up clean power generation. Participating nations also commit to phasing out coal power in the 2030s for major economies, and the 2040s for smaller economies. Separately, the statement also said that Chile and Singapore have joined a UK-led alliance on phasing out coal that includes over 150 countries and businesses such as HSBC and NatWest bank. UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said it was a “milestone moment in our global efforts to tackle climate change.” But Ed Miliband, the opposition Labour Party’s business spokesman, said there were “glaring gaps” such as a lack of commitment from China and other large emitters to stop increasing coal at home. There was also nothing on the phasing out of oil and gas, he said.

First Movers Coalition

GENEVA—US climate envoy John Kerry, nearly three-dozen large corporations including Apple and Amazon, and the World Economic Forum are launching an alliance to build a market for technologies that generate low levels of carbon dioxide. The First Movers Coalition announced on Wednesday aims to help companies set their purchasing plans in a way that will “create new market demand for low-carbon technologies,” the World Economic Forum said. “Technology has given us the tools to reduce our emissions and build a stronger and more inclusive

economy of the future,” forum President Borge Brende said. “For innovators and investors to play their part in tackling the climate crisis, they need clear market demand.” Brende was on hand for the UN climate conference in Glasgow known as COP26. Among the other companies involved in the coalition are aerospace company Boeing, cement company Holcim, and vehicle makers Volvo and Scania. The World Economic Forum, a think tank best known for hosting an annual gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland, says businesses need to send clearer signals to their suppliers to reach the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. The first phase of the project will focus on emissions-heavy industries like aviation, shipping, steel and trucking. Operators of trucks, planes, cargo vessels and others would, among other things commit to using more sustainable fuels that have lower CO2 emissions.

Kremlin rejects Biden’s criticism of Putin

MOSCOW—The Kremlin has rejected US President Joe Biden’s criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin for not attending the UN climate conference. “His tundra is burning—literally, the tundra is burning. He has serious, serious climate problems, and he is mum on willingness to do anything,” Biden said Tuesday of Putin and the wildfires that scorched Siberia this summer. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow does not agree with Biden’s characterization. He said the Russian delegation at COP26 actively participated in the summit. “Russia’s climate action don’t have the goal of being pegged to an event,” Peskov said. “Of course, we are not belittling the significance of the event in Glasgow, but Russia’s actions are consistent, serious and well-thought-through.” “The tundra indeed is burning,”

Peskov continued. “But let’s not forget that forests are burning in California, and in Turkey, and in other countries. These are the consequences of climate change we’re facing, and Russia, to some extent, is facing more serious challenges.” Moscow is taking “a very responsible stance” when it comes to tackling climate change, the Kremlin spokesman stressed, and has “concrete work plans.” “Most likely, all this was not reported to the president of the US when he spoke about the nonparticipation of Russia,” Peskov concluded.

Kerry: COP26 talks have more energy and focus

GLASGOW, Scotland—US special envoy for climate John Kerry said Wednesday that the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow have more energy and focus than previous rounds of climate negotiations in particular because of the strong presence and support of the private sector. “I think we are going to have the greatest increase in ambition we’ve ever had, we probably do in these first 36 hours, and the real issue is going to be follow-up, working with them,” Kerry told a gathering of mayors from around the globe involved in climate initiatives at a local level. His comments came as Britain called for the world ’s financial industry to channel vast funds towards greener investments to ensure that global efforts to curb global warming succeed.

UK urges world’s financial industry to invest green

GLASGOW, Scotland—Britain has called for the world’s financial industry to channel its vast funds toward greener investments to ensure that efforts to curb global warming succeed. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said that the UK government is providing new funds to help poor countries cope with climate change. But he said that “public investment alone isn’t enough.” AP

Friday, November 5, 2021 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

How the Philippines can safely reopen

ver the past few months, a growing number of countries have made announcements that they are adjusting their pandemic response with the aim of learning to live with Covid-19. Unfortunately, some countries that celebrated their reopening are experiencing new surges of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths associated with the Delta variant. In the United Kingdom, for example, a more transmissible version of the Delta variant was discovered. The new Delta subtype, called AY.4.2, has been under close scrutiny in recent days after evidence indicated that it spread more quickly than the dominant Delta variant. Health authorities in the UK are investigating a growing share of cases from this strain of the Delta variant. For almost a month now, Covid infections in The Netherlands have been rising after most social distancing measures were scrapped in late September. The surge in new cases has forced many hospitals to cut back on regular care again, to make room for urgent Covid cases. A Reuters report said “the Dutch government on Tuesday decided to re-impose measures, including the wearing of face masks, aimed at slowing the latest spike in Covid-19 infections.” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the use of a “corona pass,” showing proof of a Covid-19 vaccination or recent negative coronavirus test, would be broadened as of November 6 to public places including museums, gyms and outdoor terraces. From Bloomberg: “More provinces in China are fighting Covid-19 than at any time since the deadly pathogen first emerged in Wuhan in 2019. The highly infectious Delta variant is hurtling across the country despite the increasingly aggressive measures that local officials have enacted in a bid to thwart it. Local infections have been found in 19 of 31 provinces in the world’s second-largest economy.” Shanghai Disneyland on Sunday tested more than 30,000 people, keeping visitors at the park until nearly midnight, after one infected person was found to have been there. China’s top health expert, Zhong Nanshan, who helped the government quell many outbreaks since the pandemic began, defended China’s Covid Zero approach. “While the restrictions necessary to control the virus are costly, opening up the country and allowing the pathogen to spread would exact an even steeper price,” he told Bloomberg. These are not good developments to hear, especially in countries planning to lift Covid restrictions and reopen borders. In the Philippines, as the daily caseload continues to drop, Metro Manila mayors decided to lift the general curfew in the metropolis starting Thursday, November 4, or 19 months after pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020. Earlier, the OCTA Research Group issued a statement supporting calls by some business leaders for the alert level in the NCR to be lowered from 3 to 2 to allow more establishments to operate. OCTA Research Group member Guido David said the NCR is now under moderate risk in terms of Covid-19 cases after registering a daily attack rate at 5.72 percent. He said this was complemented by the low hospital utilization rate. “Based on our reading of the data, it’s actually safe to reopen our business at this time,” David said, adding that the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the NCR with the implementation of a lower alert level is unlikely (See, Octa backs call to ease NCR to Alert Level 2, in the BusinessMirror, November 2, 2021). Despite the promising Covid-19 data in the NCR, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases decided last week to extend the current Alert Level 3 until November 15, 2021. Businesses and tourism establishments in NCR, however, are hoping this will be downgraded soon. Is the Philippines ready to reopen its borders? President Duterte is in favor of a gradual reopening of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ borders to trade and tourism as rising vaccination levels give Asean governments more confidence in easing restrictions. In a speech during the 16th East Asia Summit held via video conference on October 27, the President said: “It is also time that we open our borders safely to reinvigorate our trade and tourism sectors.” The key word there is “safely,” and the best way to safely reopen our economy is to have at least 70 percent of the population inoculated. Even then, health protocols must still be strictly followed as we gradually increase the passenger capacity of public transportation in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Our reopening success lies in our citizens’ sense of civic duty to help control infections.

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Helping MSMEs during the pandemic Sonny M. Angara

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uring our recent hearing on the 2022 budget of the Department of Trade and Industry, Sec. Mon Lopez noted that 16 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises were closed due to the pandemic—a significant portion coming from the National Capital Region (NCR). With over 60 percent of the country’s employment generated by MSMEs, the DTI says around 300,000 to 500,000 jobs were lost and this figure would be even bigger if the unregistered businesses are taken into consideration. There are around 2 million MSMEs registered with the DTI and an estimated 6 million unregistered businesses, which include those from the informal sector. There appears to be a shift among the small businesses to ecommerce—a natural transition, considering the long period of forced closures in areas under lockdowns and the restrictions imposed on malls and other commercial establishments with regard to foot traffic. Based on the report of the DTI to the Committee on Finance, of which I am chairman, the number of registered MSMEs has gone up to 2 million from just 1.5 million before the pandemic. For e-commerce alone, the DTI sees the number of merchants to reach 750,000 by the end of the year from 500,000 in 2020. The emergence of e-commerce as a grow-

ing platform for entrepreneurs has helped them to survive and even thrive during this pandemic. Consumers cooped up inside their homes have also developed an increased appetite for shopping online as it offers them a convenient and safe way to get their essentials. These developments provide us with some degree of optimism about e-commerce and its positive impact on new entrepreneurs and those coping with the pandemic. However, the fact remains that there are many MSMEs who are struggling to keep their heads above water. The World Economic Forum has noted that what is happening in the Philippines with our MSMEs is

Introduction to Mindanao development

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EAGLE WATCH

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also taking place all over the world. Small and medium sized businesses have closed down permanently since the pandemic. These businesses account for two-thirds of private sector employment in developed countries such as the United States and in the European Union. And in emerging economies, they contribute close to 40 percent of the national income. For most of these MSMEs, accessing credit is difficult. This is where the government has to step in—to provide support to businesses in the red so they can stay afloat and continue paying for the salaries of their employees until the economy in general recovers. Based on the International Monetary Fund’s Financial Access Covid-19 Policy Tracker, the most common government support measures used by 130 countries to help cash-strapped small businesses are financial assistance such as grants (adopted by 77 percent of countries), public guarantees on loans (50 percent), delays in loan repayments (30 percent), tax relief (28 percent), and lower interest rates (24 percent). In our case, the government has made available low-interest loans through our government financial institutions (GFIs), namely the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and the Small Business Corp. (SBCorp) attached to the DTI. Under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Law or Bayanihan 2, we provided a total of P55

S election draws near, let us bring Mindanao development closer to the public limelight. It takes some training to develop a critical eye in finding feasible development paths for such a complex setting as Mindanao. There are general principles in the development process of societies; however, there usually are opposing schools of thought that tend to complicate attempts at shedding light on the topic. Firstly, anyone who wants Mindanao to develop must understand its peoples’ global history. It is global in the sense of minding Mindanao peoples’ interactions with the world from the past to the present. We should drop this bias of interpreting Mindanao only in the context of a post-colonial Philippine nation-state centered in Manila. As a people, we learn from our past, but how do we learn completely if a portion of our history (Mindanao) is absent from our textbooks and schools? The point is not to dwell in the past, but to understand the present to enable us to

prepare for the future of Mindanao and our nation. The multi-ethnic diversity of Mindanao’s places and communities, with their different histories and cultural identities, presupposes the challenge of pursuing development goals in a multicultural society. Mindanao is a place of local communities composed of descendants of Christian settlers, the Moro people or Filipino Muslims, and the indigenous Lumad tribes. There are complexities in using a tri-peoples identification of the Mindanao population. The Filipino Muslims belong to 13 ethno-

linguistic groups, which are referred to as Islamized indigenous peoples. The Christians are mostly descendants of settlers from Luzon and Visayas, but there are also descendants of Christianized indigenous peoples in Mindanao. The Christians dominate the economically thriving urban centers. The Moros mostly populate the western and island provinces. The indigenous Lumad population is dispersed all over the island’s largely rural and hard-to-reach areas. As the world economy expanded in the Twentieth Century, Christian workers and settlers who came to Mindanao, beginning with the American resettlement programs, were inextricably linked to world market demand for wood and timber products, abaca fiber, rubber, mining minerals, and tropical fruits. They were set toward establishing thriving and productive town and city centers, and, consequently, dynamic local economies, with the usual attendant problems of economic growth and development. The internal dynamism of the local economy of Davao was achieved through access and interconnectedness with larger world markets, beginning with abaca plantations. The Lumad and the Moro peoples

billion in capital infusion to the three GFIs and the Philippine Guarantee Corporation for its credit guarantee program. Even though Bayanihan 2 expired on June 30, the credit facilities of the GFIs for MSMEs remain since the funds already became part of their working capital. Credit facilities, particularly the ones provided by SBCorp can go a long way in helping our MSMEs get through the current pandemic. I have suggested to the SBCorp to make it easier for the MSMEs to secure loans by coming up with an express lane for them, where some requirements are cut down. This would make it less intimidating for small entrepreneurs such as fish ball and taho vendors who wouldn’t have financial statements or balance sheets to submit to the banks in order to take out a loan. Government should do its part to help our small businesses during this pandemic. Many MSMEs and startups have become the most dynamic and fastest-growing enterprises. With the right amount of support, we can help grow more of these small businesses not only for our economy to bounce back, but also for them to become the foundation of our country’s move towards industrialization. Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 17 years. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate. E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara

in Mindanao, however, were deep into the defense of their independence and way of life while eking out their livelihood, and, in the process, were unsuccessful in setting up thriving production systems linked to local and larger markets abroad. Moreover, the Moro peoples’ local economies are constrained by local conflicts from within (internal strife) and outside (secession). For the Lumad tribes even in Davao region’s early success in development, there remains marginal agriculture production with peripheral population of indigenous peoples that continued to live in the hard-to-reach uplands. Their concurrence with the transition of the Davao agrarian landscape into prospering plantation areas provides contrast with their sluggish economic transformation and marginal economic lives. The World Bank implicitly espoused that Mindanao’s growth should have been anchored on smallholders’ family farms in agriculture that comprised 60 percent of farms. But instead, Mindanao’s economy in the past was driven by plantation crops, forestry, and mining. Because these were capital-intensive, involved little local processing, and See “Eagle Watch,” A9

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Opinion

‘The future is female’

Who are we online?

BusinessMirror

Manny F. Dooc

Thanks to Nina, her indefatigable team and her partner IFC for their unselfish work. Today, our womanhood may look forward to a more revered place in our society and a better and brighter tomorrow. And as the title of her keynote speech rightfully states: “The Future is Female.” No man should mess with that.

Whereas before the household is their rightful place, women now compete in various fields that were previously the exclusive domains of men. With the opening up of educational opportunities for females, more professions and careers were made available to women. Earlier, they were confined to teaching, nursing, social and hospitality work and the arts, but now women have invaded the men’s world such as medicine, law and even engineering. At present, females outnumber the males in colleges and universities, which only means that they will dominate many professions in the future. In fact, a big number are now enrolled in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) and more often graduate on top of their classes. They can successfully combine professional careers with homemaking. It’s no longer a choice between career and marriage. A confining marriage prevents them from pursuing a satisfying and productive career. Society pays a great price when able and competent women sacrifice their career and give up their promising jobs just to focus on house chores. Marriage should not impede a woman’s personal and professional advancement. Otherwise, this would be unfortunate because success in one’s endeavor has no gender. Nowadays, hardly are there any more glass ceilings that block women from reaching the top. Even in politics, women can aspire for the highest position within the gift of our people. One of the frontrunners in the 2022 presidential election is a woman. This is not surprising since we had already elected two women as our country’s president. The 4th Annual Women Future Conference organized by Stevie Awards is currently being held virtually from November 1 to 5, 2021. The top-level conference exclusively for women “encourages engaging connections, professional and personal development, and mental health and financial wellness through motivational keynotes, educational sessions, and networking.” For the first time, it features powerful speakers from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region, all females representing a diverse mix of CEOs and entrepreneurs, who are widely acknowledged as business achievers and thought leaders in their fields. The sessions highlight the milestones achieved by women in traditionally male-dominated fields such as fintech, banking, e-commerce and insurance. Thus, it was no surprise that Ms. Nina D. Aguas, Executive Chairman of Insular Life, a 110-year old life company and one of the largest in the country, was invited to keynote the opening day of the conference. In a powerful speech, Ms. Aguas, fondly called Nina by her friends and colleagues, sang paean to today’s women who, aside “from caring for the home and looking after their family and even extended relations, are breadwinners taking on more than just one job, they are business and community leaders, doctors, nurses, they are caregivers, nannies, lawyers, teachers, in the armed forces, they are migrant and BPO workers…all contributing to the economic and social advancement of their families, and inspiring their communities to level up.” No question that modern women

are now thrust into more prominent positions entirely different from their traditional roles years ago. Now they find themselves blazing paths not taken by their forebears. They have made their footprints in all corners of the world, and even in outer space where they serve as astronauts. But one area where our women can make a lasting contribution is in promoting their financial wellbeing, their families’ and country’s. This was not lost on Nina who aptly observed that “[I]n the last decade or so, however, women have made remarkable strides, and we should leverage on our market power and social status. The greater the power of women, the greater a country’s economic success.” Nina quoted famous actress Glenn Close who won best actress at the Golden Globe Awards for her movie, The Wife. Glenn Close honored the empowered women in her acceptance speech by saying: “Women, we’re nurturers. That’s what’s expected of us. We have our children, we have our husbands if we are lucky enough, we have our partners or whoever, but we have to follow our personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say ‘I can do that’ and ‘I should be allowed to do that.’” Then Nina added: “And to be able to do that, the first step is to become self-reliant and financially independent.” And just exactly how will the Filipino women achieve financial freedom? The unflappable Nina has a ready answer. Two years ago, Insular Life launched its program for economic inclusion called the InLife Sheroes, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation, to build a generation of financially literate women. It aims to empower women to take control of their economic, social, health and financial well-being by affording them greater participation in wealth creation and better control over their financial resources. Insular Life helps by providing them affordable insurance and health care solutions to serve the women market, their family and their small businesses. After close to three years since its birth, Sheroes has touched the lives of, more or less, 3 million women who are now on their way to establishing independent financial lives. Nina humbly admitted that: “[I]t almost took me a lifetime to find a solid platform where I could be in a stronger place to support and elevate women to better and endless possibilities.” And her tireless efforts did not go in vain. Thanks to Nina, her indefatigable team and her partner IFC for their unselfish work. Today, our womanhood may look forward to a more revered place in our society and a better and brighter tomorrow. And as the title of her keynote speech rightfully states: “The Future is Female.” No man should mess with that.

Tito Genova Valiente

TELLTALES ime is past when women stay at home, tend to their children and keep the house. Those were the halcyon days when the mother was appropriately called a housewife and a homemaker. But over time, there has been a remarkable transformation in the role of women in our family and society. The tremendous social changes driven by growth in education, science and technology have opened up wide opportunities for women and redefined their status in the community. Even before the landmark book, The Feminine Mystique, was published in 1963, there had been a growing voice from throngs of women to expand their limited gender roles.

Friday, November 5, 2021

annotations

ow should I respond to a “Friend Request” on Facebook from a being who does not show his face and instead requires me to trust a person who goes by the identity of a sunset or a loaf of bread? Or to one whose profile is locked?

It was not long ago when friendship was about the bond that formed through years of being with each other. People you did not consider as friends did not mind then; they could be your kin, and, by blood, related or forced to be related to you and with you. Or, they would be acquaintance, an individual given a semblance of significance in your life but whose link to your daily life remained on a given distance. Both of you knew and saw the social limit and that was fine.You were acquainted—that’s all. My definition of friendship— don’t get me wrong—is not limited by time and gravity of contact. There could be an element of serendipity or even synchronicity in how the universe whirls around you. Perhaps, Anais Nin’s words can guide us: “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” Given all the element of accident and chance encounter gleaned in the quote of Nin, the writer-diarist, it still impresses us how friendship could generate a world, or create a space where two individuals meet, even collide in the process of producing a spark, which could be affectively violent. Imagine a person whose identity your own identity will swore by; regard this human being whose existence now lives around your life. That is friendship. Go back to online engagement. Count the friends there within the

ether. Be confounded when the technology commands you not to invite any more friends because there is no more seat for them, no more room where they can share virtual victories with you, no bed for your agreed-upon periodic sensualities. Maybe a command is not the right word; maybe, default is the proper locution for what eventually happens in the Internet. The world we have created online is not our own. The complication is a trait in the guarantee, which never prepares us for the price we have to pay for the ease with which we collect people. The technologies never gave us a pledge. We set the boundaries and we conceive of a field where our idea of friendship is to thrive. The possibilities are beyond imagination. What did Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine say about possibilities in that blustering film, Lion in Winter? Here is her magnificent rant: “For the love of God, can’t we love one another just a little; that’s how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world. [italic mine].” Even that quote is a bit too much, for while from friendships take off possibilities, friendship by itself should not crave for love and friends do not dream of changing the world. Those two elements—love and ambition to change the world—are politics and theology. Then, perhaps, I am being incom-

plete to ascribe to social media any extra-human qualities. Could the Internet be extrasomatic, a term that is defined by Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary as “outside or unrelated to the body”? Andrew Hagan, in his foreword to the book, The Secret Life. Three True Stories, writes: “We were addicted to the ailments of the web long before we understood how the technology would change our lives.” For Hagan, whose one story introduces us to the “ghosting” in the life of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, the web gave us “the tools of fictionmaking to everybody equally, so long as they had access to a computer and a willingness to swim into the Internet’s deep well of otherness.” The web, Hagan says, is “a marketplace of selfhood,” an idea that echoes in the post-modern way the sociologist Erving Goffman’s presentation of self in everyday life. While Goffman is using dramaturgy to articulate how we are a composite of performances, each performance geared to creating a positive view of ourselves, in the new technological regime, each day we sell the self in

an agora seemingly devoid of boundaries and yet limited by “something” not within our consciousness. Hagan talks of invented names on Facebook, “many of them clearly living another life….” The writer who was called by New York Times as “the best essayist of his generation,” tells us how encryption “has made the average user a ghost— an alias, a simulacrum, a reflection.” Then it is I who (and you who share with me the unease) demand much of friendship online, that maybe I should be happy to deal with a man or a woman whose face has been grafted to a profile, which is a rose, or a full garden in bloom, or of human beings who will share with me their pains and joys, their depression and ailments, by way of their dead pet or a lighted candle perpetual amidst the blighted darkness. And maybe, just maybe, there is also truth in friendship, a deadly excitement, part-fiction, part-magic, that anytime can be snuffed out by a “block,” altered by a “snooze,” or killed by an “unfollow.”

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

Facebook to shut down face-recognition system, delete data By Matt O’brien & Barbara Ortutay

AP Technology Writers

ROVIDENCE, R.I.—Facebook said it will shut down its facerecognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others. “This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history,” Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence for Facebook’s new parent company, Meta, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. He said the company was trying to weigh the positive use cases for the technology “against growing societal concerns, especially as regulators have yet to provide clear rules.” The company in the coming weeks will delete “more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates,” he said. Facebook’s about-face follows a busy few weeks. On Thursday it announced its new name Meta for Facebook the company, but not the social network. The change, it said, will help it focus on building technology for what it envisions as the next iteration of the Internet – the “metaverse.” The company is also facing perhaps its biggest public relations crisis to date after leaked documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that it has known about the harms its products cause and often did little or nothing to mitigate them.

Eagle Watch. . . continued from A8

reinvested little profit locally, they had low multiplier effects with few jobs created and did little to reduce poverty. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a small elite group that drove economic and social injustice, enhancing violent conflict in Mindanao. Rapidly developing Mindanao

More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted in to have their faces recognized by the social network’s system. That’s about 640 million people. Facebook introduced facial recognition more than a decade ago but gradually made it easier to opt out of the feature as it faced scrutiny from courts and regulators. Facebook in 2019 stopped automatically recognizing people in photos and suggesting people “tag” them, and instead of making that the default, asked users to choose if they wanted to use its facial recognition feature. Facebook’s decision to shut down its system “is a good example of trying to make product decisions that are good for the user and the company,” said Kristen Martin, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame. She added that the move also demonstrates the power of public and regulatory pressure, since the face recognition system has been the subject of harsh criticism for over a decade. Meta Platforms Inc., Facebook’s parent company, appears to be looking at new forms of identifying people. Pesenti said Tuesday’s announcement involves a “company-wide move away from this kind of broad identification, and toward narrower forms of personal authentication.” “Facial recognition can be particularly valuable when the technology operates privately on a person’s own devices,” he wrote. “This method of on-device facial recognition, requiring no communication of face data with an external server,

is most commonly deployed today in the systems used to unlock smartphones.” Apple uses this kind of technology to power its Face ID system for unlocking iPhones. Researchers and privacy activists have spent years raising questions about the tech industry’s use of facescanning software, citing studies that found it worked unevenly across boundaries of race, gender or age. One concern has been that the technology can incorrectly identify people with darker skin. Another problem with face recognition is that in order to use it, companies have had to create unique faceprints of huge numbers of people – often without their consent and in ways that can be used to fuel systems that track people, said Nathan Wessler of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has fought Facebook and other companies over their use of the technology. “This is a tremendously significant recognition that this technology is inherently dangerous,” he said. Facebook found itself on the other end of the debate last year when it demanded that facial recognition startup ClearviewAI, which works with police, stop harvesting Facebook and Instagram user images to identify the people in them. Concerns also have grown because of increasing awareness of the Chinese government’s extensive video surveillance system, especially as it’s been employed in a region home to one of China’s largely Muslim ethnic minority populations. Facebook’s huge repository of images shared by users helped make it a pow-

erhouse for improvements in computer vision, a branch of artificial intelligence. Now many of those research teams have been refocused on Meta’s ambitions for augmented reality technology, in which the company envisions future users strapping on goggles to experience a blend of virtual and physical worlds. Those technologies, in turn, could pose new concerns about how people’s biometric data is collected and tracked. Facebook didn’t provide clear answers when asked how people could verify that their image data was deleted and what the company would be doing with its underlying face-recognition technology. On the first point, company spokesperson Jason Grosse said in e-mail only that user templates will be “marked for deletion” if their face-recognition settings are on, and that the deletion process should be completed and verified in “coming weeks.” On the second, point, Grosse said that Facebook will be “turning off” components of the system associated with the face-recognition settings. Meta’s newly wary approach to facial recognition follows decisions by other US tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and IBM last year to end or pause their sales of facial recognition software to police, citing concerns about false identifications and amid a broader US reckoning over policing and racial injustice. At least seven US states and nearly two dozen cities have limited government use of the technology amid fears over civil rights violations, racial bias and invasion of privacy.

requires a radical commitment in agricultural modernization through small commercial family farms whose aggregated production feeds into agro-industries serving local and foreign markets. However, there are institutional, human, and capital development requirements for small family farms to increase and modernize production. These are secured land tenure, access to knowledge and technology, farm-to-market roads, farm equipment and inputs, and

access to credit markets. Government must determine the progress of these agriculture development requirements by coordinating widespread access through a combination of state-subsidized procurement of farm inputs and farmers’ private procurement in free markets. The challenge of turning smallholder family farms in Mindanao into viable commercial farms lies in having very few examples of success to emulate, since this was not sys-

tematically pursued before. This is true with Moro farmers and Lumad family farms in their ancestral lands. Dominant in the minds of development planners are plantation-sized farms with economies of scale. This leaves out the 60 percent small family farms currently producing below potential, if not at subsistence level. Mr. Joselito T. Sescon is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics of Ateneo de Manila University.

A10 Friday, November 5, 2021

BSP eyes doubling green bonds investment in 2 yrs T

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) investment in green financing could double in the next two years, its chief said in a virtual press briefing on Thursday. The BSP governor said they remain committed to expanding their reach in sustainable financing in the country, both by increasing awareness and potentially upping their own invest-

ments to so-called “green bonds,” At present, the BSP’s has a total of $550 million worth of investments in the Bank for International Settlements’ green bond fund.

BSP deputy director for the Supervisory Policy and Research Department Rhodora Brazil-De Vera also said there may be a chance for BSP to increase investments in green bonds further as the BSP adopted its strategic allocation to green bonds subject to monetary board approval. “The BSP will continue to look for opportunities on how it can help increase its green bond holdings as part of its championing the sustainability agenda in the financial system,” Brazil-De Vera said. BSP Governor Benjamin Dio-

kno also said the BSP is committed to performing a lead role in promoting the wider adoption of sustainable finance in the country through the “Green Force.” The Green Force is an interagency technical working group for sustainable finance with 18 members, and is cochaired by the Department of Finance and the BSP. “The Green Force recognizes the importance of taking a whole-of-government approach in mitigating environment-related risks, building our resilience against these risks, and accelerating the flow

of finance to sustainable projects,” Diokno said. Just last month, the Green Force launched the “Philippine Sustainable Finance Roadmap” and “Guiding Principles.” The roadmap provides broad plans to further foster the use of sustainable finance in the country and address climate change and other environmental and social risks. The Guiding Principles, meanwhile, aims to serve as reference in identifying activities that address the impact of climate change and contribute to sustainable development.

D.O.H. POSTS LOW COVID CASES FOR 2ND DAY, BUT WARNS VS. BACKSLIDING

OR two consecutive days, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded a low number of Covid-19 cases after posing 1,766 additional infections on Thursday. The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country stood at 2,795,642. There were also 2,591 recoveries

and 239 deaths. However, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, in a forum on Wednesday, reminded the public not be complacent in order to achieve a “merrier, lively, and meaningful Christmas.” que urged the public not to

“put our guard down” and strictly adhere to the minimum public health standards. The DOH said that of the total number of cases, 1.3 percent (37,159) are active, 97.1 percent (2,714,658) have recovered, and 1.57 percent (43,825) have died.

Twenty-two duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 17 are recoveries. Moreover, 214 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation. All laboratories were operational on November 2, 2021 but two labo-

ratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System. Based on data in the last 14 days, the two non-reporting labs contribute, on average, 0.1 percent of samples tested and 0.1 percent of positive individuals.Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

DILG TO SANCTION LGUs THAT FAIL IN JAB GOALS

HE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said it may soon start going after local government units (LGU) which fail to meet their daily vaccination targets. Interior spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said they will be reviewing the performance of LGUs which were given additional supplies of Covid-19 jabs since last month. He said the LGUs were each given a daily vaccination target, which they have to meet, or risk facing sanctions from DILG. “Probably in the next few weeks, the DILG could determine the LGUs, which will need to be issued a show-cause order and be sanctioned for negligence or misconduct,” Malaya said. He said the concerned LGUs will not be given additional Covid-19 jabs until they could exhaust all of their existing vaccine supplies. The Department of Health (DOH) will use the performance assessment of the concerned LGUs to determine how to further ramp up the government’s vaccination drive, according to Malaya. In a related development, Malaya said the investigation of DILG and DOH on at least 100,000 Covid-19 vaccines, which were destroyed by a fire in Pagadian City in Zamboanga Del Sur last Sunday, is still ongoing. He said the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has yet to complete its probe on the cause of the fire. Likewise, he said they were also still checking if there were any lapses on the part of the LGU which accounted for the failure to immediately administer the said vaccine doses in line with existing protocols. “We are still waiting for the result of this investigation and as soon as we have this complete picture, DILG will immediately act on the matter,” Malaya said. Samuel P. Medenilla

Continued on A5

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

24/7 BUSINESS PROCESSING INC. 5th-6th-7th Flr., 81 Newport Bl Newport City, Brgy. 183, Pasay City

HUNG, CHIA-PENG Customer Service Representative (Chinese Accounts) Brief Job Description: Assists clients with all their concerns

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. Preferably 6 months to 1 year customer service experience. Detailoriented and has the ability to multi- task

No.

SUNTORNPAWIT, PATINYA Senior Process Executive 12.

Brief Job Description: Assists clients with all their concerns

LIN, YU-HSIEN Customer Service Representative (Chinese Accounts) Brief Job Description: Assists clients with all their concerns

Brief Job Description: Innovate with the client to drive value to both Accenture and Client

BIDUAYA, JOCKTHEEL KAYIBA Sw/app/cloud Tech Support Analyst 5.

Brief Job Description: Provides language translation support to the transition/ transformation, invoice and all the related documents

13.

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. Preferably 6 months to 1 year customer service experience. Detailoriented and has the ability to multi- task

Basic Qualification: Masters in Business Administration, Statistics, Math, Comp Sci, Economics & Business Sciences

CHEN, SHUAI Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

14.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help customers. Give customer information about product and services

LI, CHAO Chinese Speaking Marketing Consultant 7.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help customers. Give customer information about product and services

15.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for coordinating with other marketing and sales professional, implement innovative campaigns

16.

Brief Job Description: European/Serbian food consultant and chief baker of European/Serbian baked goods.

17.

18.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience. Good in oral communication and written.

TAO, YUAN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 19.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Education and experiences

Brief Job Description: To assist retail group in winning the trust of Samsung for various request, projects and improve agency evaluation.

20.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

11.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor will be strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goal.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

DONG, HONGCHEN Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer Basic Qualification: Special/unique skills in baking and preparation of European and Serbian pastries, baked goods and cuisines; good communication skills and delivery of instruction/able to train bakers

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s/College degree in any field.

21.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

KOU, QIANQIAN Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer 22.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

RAO, DAZENG Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer 23.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

CHINA HARBOUR ENGINEERING COMPANY 5/f Rm 501 Ramon Magsaysay Center, 1680 Roxas Blvd., 076, Bgy. 699, Malate, City Of Manila

LI, PING Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

ZHANG, YONGYIN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

CHEIL INTEGRATED MARKETING PHILIPPINES, INC. 10th Floor Science Hub, Tower 4, Campus Ave. Mckinley Hill Cyberpark, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

10.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

SONG, FUZHOU Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KIM, HYUNGJUN Retail Director

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

QIN, DONGLIANG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

AIAI 888 LUCKY FOOD INC. Xrc Bldg., Shoe Ave., Santo Niño, City Of Marikina

DEBELJAČKI, DANIJELA Food Consultant/chief Baker Instructor

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

HUO, GUIHUA Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

ACSTREAM MANAGEMENT INC. 2204b/2206, 22/f Pbcom Tower, Ayala Avenue, Bel-air, City Of Makati CHEN, YI Mandarin Speaking Marketing Specialist

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

HAN, PENG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience. Good in oral communication and written.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about products and services

FENG, JIACHAO Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 Basic Qualification: College graduate, has a minimum of 4 years experience in Telco procurement or telco procure-to-pay process

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as a Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor, Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and Heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

No.

WANG, YAFEI Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer 24.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

XU, WENCHAO Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer 25.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

WANG, HUARUI Chinese Speaking Program Designer 32.

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

WANG, JUN Chinese Speaking Program Designer 33.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

LIU, HAO Chinese Speaking Program Designer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

LIN, MEIYAN Chinese Speaking Program Designer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

HU, XIONG Chinese Speaking Program Designer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

CAO, NIANHUI Chinese Speaking Program Designer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

ALVIN SIM TZE XING Chinese Speaking Program Designer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION ZHANG, YUQING Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ACE VELOCITY CONSULTANCY INC. 37/f Lkg Tower, 6801 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati

FENG, YIDONG Chinese Speaking Marketing Consultant

Basic Qualification: BA or BS Degree Holder; Minimum 2-year(s) customer service support experience (voice, e-mail, or chat), working with direct consumers preferably in a B2C environment; Native Thai Speaker

CRONYX INC. No. 4th-10th Flr. Yinhope Bldg., Dela Rama Cor. Zoili Hilario St., Seascape Village, Ccp Complex Subd. Zone 10, Barangay 076, District 1, Pasay City

ACCENTURE, INC. 7f, Robinsons Cybergate Tower 1, Pioneer St, City Of Mandaluyong

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. Preferably 6 months to 1 year customer service experience. Detailoriented and has the ability to multi- task

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LHAMU, NIMA Business Excel ADV Associate Manager

Brief Job Description: Service Support Solution includes diagnosis, resolution and reporting of customer issues and questions relating YouTube paid content products. Service is Tier 1 end user support with escalations to Google

A11

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PHILIPPINES, INC. 2nd, 3rd, And 4th Floors, Science Hub Tower 4 Bldg., Mckinley Hill Cyberpark, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KHOO CHONG REN Customer Service Representative (Chinese Accounts)

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Friday, November 5, 2021

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

WEN, LINA Chinese Speaking Program Designer 34.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

XU, JIAN Chinese Speaking Program Designer

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience, good in oral communication and written

35.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

DIGIVIRTUAL TECH CORPORATION 7/f Ba Lepanto Bldg., 8747 Paseo De Roxas, Bel-air, City Of Makati

36.

SUSANTI Bilingual Speaking General Manager Brief Job Description: Develops and implements company growth strategies.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in bilingual languages Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

DYNAMIC STUDIO TECHNOLOGY INC. 5th To 10th/f Platinum Tower Building, Aseana Ave. Cor. Fuentes Street, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque AYI, ERZAMO Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 37.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Assist / Help customers, give customers information about product and services

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

CAI, YUFENG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 38.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

LI, XIANG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 39.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

LI, XIN Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 40.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, November 5, 2021

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION LIU, GUOZHONG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate

41.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

TAT THI NGOC Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 42.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

ZHANG, DAN Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 43.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

ZHANG, JIAOLONG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 44.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

ZHANG, LONG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 45.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give Customers information about product and services

DING, SHEN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 46.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

JIN, YAYU Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 47.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

LI, CHENGYU Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 48.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

MA, SHENGBIN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 49.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

WANG, PENGFU Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 50.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

WANG, PING Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 51.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

WANG, YUEMING Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 52.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

WEI, YULONG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 53.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers; give customers information about product and services

ZHANG, HAIYAN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 54.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ZHANG, ZHEN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 55.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

No.

58.

56.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for overseeing the daily operation of the store.

57.

Brief Job Description: Provides administrative support to ensure efficient operation of office.

FLY ASIAN INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION Eighty One Newport Blvd., Newport City, Va, Brgy. 183, Pasay City

Basic Qualification: *Preferably 6 months experience with the above position. *Can multi-task and keen to details. *Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently.

ZHANG, DONGBO Project Manager 59.

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CHEN, YANGJUN Technical Support Engineer 60.

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

CHENG, JINGQIU Technical Support Engineer 61.

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both Mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

FAN, MIN Technical Support Engineer 62.

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both Mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both Mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LING, XUDONG Technical Support Engineer 63.

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ZENG, XIANMIN Technical Support Engineer 64.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both Mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

ZHANG, YINGHUA Technical Support Engineer 65.

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both Mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both Mandarin and English with the experience in telecommunication network troubleshooting

ZHOU, FEIFEI Technical Support Engineer 66.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in writing, speaking, and reading Mandarin. Willing to work on a shifting schedule

67.

LI, WENXIANG Call Center Agent Mandarin Speaking Brief Job Description: call center agent Mandarin speaking YU, WENLONG Call Center Agent Mandarin Speaking

68.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling inbound calls e-mails and or chat with the goal of ensuring resolutions of customer issues effective communication HU, LIJIANFEI Call Center Agent Mandarin Speaking

69.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling inbound calls, e-mails and or chat with the goal of ensuring resolution of customer issues effective communicator LI, HONGMING Call Center Agent Mandarin Speaking

70.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling inbound calls, e-mails and or chat with the goal of ensuring resolution of customer issues effective communicator

Basic Qualification: Mandarin speaking/know to read & write Chinese

73.

Brief Job Description: Support customer by providing helpful information, answering questions and responding to complaints

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Cantonese and mandarin speaking/Know how to read and write Chinese

TRAN HUU QUY Vietnamese Marketing Consultant 74.

Brief Job Description: Create and manage product in conjunction with marketing strategies to marketing consultant

DASI, RAJA SHEKAR Vice President For Digital Solutions And Innovation 75.

KISHI, KOSUKE Executive Officer 71.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for day-to-day administration, analysis and communications

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: At least college graduate speak and write fluently (Vietnamese & English) Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Brief Job Description: Overseeing digital transformation initiatives of the organization and provide agile solutions and future proofing work/innovation for the company.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and other related courses; 8 to 10 years working experience on IT and/ or project management related positions; Excellent communication, presentation and analytical skills; Ability to work in collaborative manner with business leaders on the projects and initiatives.

LEIGHTON CONTRACTORS (ASIA) LIMITED 12th Floor, Menarco Tower, 32nd St., Bgc, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

HEDLEY, PAUL Project Director 76.

Brief Job Description: Manage, plan, execute, and direct all aspects of the company’s large and complex construction projects.

Basic Qualification: 15-20 years experience in heavy civil engineering and project management of medium to large projects in civil/building and diversified portfolio of projects. Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

LOGICDOSE INC. 19f Marco Polo Ortigas, Sapphire Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

LUONG BICH LIEN IT Support Specialist (Vietnamese Speaking) 77.

Brief Job Description: Installing and use of software for data encryption to protect sensitive information

VAN SIU YEN IT Support Specialist (Vietnamese Speaking) 78.

Brief Job Description: Installing and use of software for data encryption to protect sensitive information

Basic Qualification: Can speak Vietnamese language and knowledgeable in information technology system Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Can speak Vietnamese language and knowledgeable in information technology system Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

MACH 86 TECHNOLOGIES CORP. 5th-13th Flr. Workspace Bldg., 1419 Industry St. Corner Finance St. Mbp Ayala Alabang, Ayalaalabang, City Of Muntinlupa FU, ANCHENG Customer Service Representative 79.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries. HU, ZIQI Customer Service Representative

80.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries. LEE, SAENA Customer Service Representative

81.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries. LI, WEIJUN Customer Service Representative

82.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries. LUO, HUOQUAN Customer Service Representative

83.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries. OUYANG, MIN Customer Service Representative

84.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Expertise in three different Japanese language such as Kanji, Hiragana and Katahana

Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in Mandarin/Fukien and at least college level with related BPO experience

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Cantonese & Mandarin speaking/ know how to read & write Chinese

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LBC EXPRESS, INC. General Aviation Bldg., Domestic Road St., Barangay 191, Pasay City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Cantonese & Mandarin speaking/ know how to read & write Chinese

Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in Mandarin/Fukien and at least college level with related BPO experience.

J-NA ALLOUT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORP. 3/f Lipams Bldg., #48 President Avenue, Bf Homes, City Of Parañaque

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

GULLIVER INTEGRATED OUTSOURCING INC. 21/f Oledan Square Bldg., 6788 Ayala Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Can do multi-tasking across a range of responsibilities. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Support customer by providing helpful information, answering questions and responding to complaints

QIN, JIANJIAN Mandarin Customer Support Representative

GOLDENSKY INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC. Midas Hotel, 2702 Roxas Blvd., Brgy. 076, Pasay City

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Research and identify solutions of software and hardware issues, Ensure all issues are properly logged

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

72.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

LIU, JINGHUI Mandarin Customer Support Representative

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

INVECH TREASURE PROCESSING CORPORATION Ground, 2nd, 3rd And 4th Floor, Eight West Campus Mckinley West, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

No.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

FILFLY CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT INC. #1295 G. Araneta Ave. Cor., N.s. Amoranto, Sto. Domingo 1, Quezon City WANG, MIN Administrative Staff

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

FUTURENET AND TECHNOLOGY CORP. Unit 2104 Robinsons Equitable Tower, Adb Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

FABROS LTD. INCORPORATED (YOYOMARKET) 2nd Floor South Global Forum, 7th Avenue Corner Federacion Drive, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig SHI, BEIBEI Store Supervisor

Brief Job Description: *Studying company profile and operations to understand its marketing needs. * Implementing a marketing strategy according to objectives and budget.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 Months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

LI, CHIA-YING a.k.a. LI, CHIUNG-WEN Marketing Consultant (Mandarin Speaking Clients)

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries. SONG, ZHIWEI Customer Service Representative

85.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries.

WU, ZHOUYONG Customer Service Representative 86.

Brief Job Description: Interacting with customers via email, assists with complaints, orders and other queries.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese dialect (Mandarin, Folkien, Cantonese) Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

MAERSK GLOBAL SERVICE CENTRES (PHILIPPINES) LTD. Levels 5-8 North Wing, Estancia Offices, Capitol Commons Meralco Ave., Oranbo, City Of Pasig 105.

ALARCON DOMINGUEZ, ROY ANTONY Process Expert

87.

Brief Job Description: Assist customers with their issues and inquiries keep close communication with colleagues locally and overseas in order to ensure prompt handling of exceptions or concerns. Read and reply to correspondences of both internal stakeholders and customers within SLA as defined for the specific communication channel. Propose and support initiatives for continuous improvement of the process. Attend to export- and import-specific processes as assigned in the team PARADA PINEDA, ANGELICA MARIA Process Expert

88.

Brief Job Description: Maintain effective and proactive communication by regular participating in conference calls with the clients to enable seamless process flow

GARCIA MENDOZA, MANUEL ENRIQUE Spanish Speaker Collector 89.

Brief Job Description: Manages assigned portfolio through relationship building and the ability to innovatively problem solve.

PARRA MORA, NICOL FERNANDA Spanish Speaker Collector 90.

Brief Job Description: Actively follow up with the payments and assists with the disputes handling process.

Basic Qualification: Monitor payment application and supply relevant updates to the otc team Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Respond to all inquiries in a timely and accurate manner and escalate difficulties as defined in SOPs/IOPs Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: reviews open invoices to identify deliquent accountants Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Monitor credit worthless of customers and ensure feedback is recorded and escalated in a timely manner Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

91.

92.

93.

94.

95.

96.

97.

98.

CHENG, SONGHUA Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service DU, JUAN Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff

106.

Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service LA MINH HANH Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff

107.

Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service LUU THI YEN Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service LY KIM PHUNG Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service SHEN, YONGFEI Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service WANG, XINTAO Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service XU, LONGLONG Chinese Speaking Customer Service Staff Brief Job Description: Provide outstanding and exceptional customer service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

108.

109.

110.

Basic Qualification: Can speak chinese / Mandarin fluently

99.

100.

101.

102.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls

SEO, YOUNGHO Korean Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls

CHEE CHIN YEN Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: open and maintain customer accounts by recording account information

CHEN, SHIQIAO Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: responsible for handling service support calls

103.

CHEW QING YANG Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

104.

FAN, KA CHUN SIMON Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: open and maintain customer accounts by recording account information

112.

113.

114.

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin

MENG, SHA Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

115.

116.

TAN LIH TONG Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: open and maintain customer accounts by recording account information TAN BAN YORK Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

117.

118.

TAN WAN XUAN Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: open and maintain customer accounts by recording account information WANG, JIANJIE Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: responsible for handling service support calls

119.

XIE, FULONG Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: responsible for handling service support calls

120.

YANG, HONGFU Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LOUIS ONG SEN YEE Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls

Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LI, ZHENJIE Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LI, YIMING Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

MEGA-WEB TECHNOLOGIES INC. 6,7,8,9,10,11/f Met Live Bldg., Edsa Cor. Macapagal Blvd., Brgy. 076, Pasay City KIM, SEUNGYUN Korean Customer Service Representative

111.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Can speak Chinese/ Mandarin fluently

LI, XIN Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: Can speak chinese / Mandarin fluently Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LI, GUOBIN Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: Can speak Chinese/ Mandarin fluently Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

HSU, YI-WEI Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: Can speak Chinese/ Mandarin fluently Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

GUO, ZHIGANG Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Can speak Chinese/ Mandarin fluently

GOH YEN NI Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Can speak chinese / Mandarin fluently

FOO FANG YING Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

MARKETROLE ASIA PACIFIC SERVICES, INC. 26/f, 27/f, 28/f The Enterprise Center Tower 1, 6766 Ayala Ave. Cor. Paseo De Roxas, San Lorenzo, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: Can speak Chinese/ Mandarin fluently

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

121.

YU, WANSHUN Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

122.

ZHANG, MENGYANG Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

123.

ZHANG, XIAOJUN Mandarin Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin

HA THANH TRUNG Vietnamese Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

124.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls

Friday, November 5, 2021

A13

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

No.

125.

126.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KOHIYAMA, TOKO Assistant Manager 127.

128.

129.

130.

131.

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

132.

133.

134.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin

135.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

136.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

137.

138.

139.

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

140.

141.

142.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Fill in for Department Manager in times of absence. Make executive decisions, hold meetings and provide accountability

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 4th-11th Flr. Nexgen Tower, C4 Rd. Edsa Ext., Brgy. 076, Pasay City

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

MESCO, INC. Reliance, Cor. Brixton Sts., Kapitolyo, City Of Pasig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin

PHAM THI YEN Vietnamese Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

PHAM DINH QUYNH Vietnamese Speaking Customer Relations Service Provider Brief Job Description: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking , reading and writing in Mandarin

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

143.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CHEN, KAI Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries CHEN, YANLING Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries CHEN, ZHUHUI Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries GUO, QIANG Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries JAKSEN MODIPURA Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LI, XIAOBO Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LIU, LONGXIANG Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries SINT SINT WIN Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires. WAN KYEIN YIN Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries YUAN, JIAXIANG Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries ZHANG, WEIPENG Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries ZHAO, DINGXIAN Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries ZHAO, YINGHUI Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries ZHENG, MINGLI Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries ZHU, JIAN Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries MAY HNIN OO Chinese Customer Specialist Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires. NGUYEN VAN BANG Chinese Customer Specialist

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin

144.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NEO INCORPORATED North Tower Centrum Bldg., Aseana Avenue, Entertainment City, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque

Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires.

AN, XIAOTAO Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 145.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

A14 Friday, November 5, 2021

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION MA, JINXIN Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate

146.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

WEI, JIALI Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 147.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

YOU, XIAOFEI Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 148.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ZHANG, SONGYANG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 149.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ZHONG, HAIBING Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 150.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ZHU, JIAN Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 151.

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

PEREZ, ROBERT RENE Relationship Manager I

Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Responsible for account development, support delivery, and financial ownership to multiple sites and programs within the enterprise structure. Communicates directly with partner leadership regarding account strategy and requests. Submits weekly and monthly summaries to the Leadership Team and Client.

160.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

TOMMY HENDRAWAN Bahasa Indonesian Language- Trade Specialist 161.

Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

162.

YOSEPH ERWIN Bahasa Indonesian Language- Supervisor Trade Specialist Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

152.

Brief Job Description: Coordinate and oversee the technical and engineering activities of the corporation.

Basic Qualification: With master’s degree in engineering and with broad experience in the same field.

FANNY AGUSTINA Bahasa Indonesian Language- Trade Specialist 163.

Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

153.

Brief Job Description: Manage large amounts of incoming calls. Generate sales leads. Identify and assess customers’ needs. Handle customer complaints. Follow communication procedures, guidelines and policies.

164.

SALIM WIJAYA ONG Bahasa Indonesian Language-supervisor Trade Specialist Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

TRAN THI TOAN Customer Service Representative 154.

165.

SUMANTO HARIYAWAN Bahasa Indonesian Language-supervisor Trade Specialist Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

ORLOV DESIGNS INC. 1008, Annapolis Wilshire, Greenhills, City Of San Juan

155.

Brief Job Description: Assisting in sales through accurate grading of diamonds using Loupe & microscope.

NASOONG, ANUCHA Thai Language-trade Specialist Basic Qualification: GCI Certified - Diamond grader

166.

Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

156.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about products or services.

DENG, HUA Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative 157.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about products or services.

LI, TAO Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative 158.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about products or services.

Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling customers question about services or products/ excellent mandarin communication skills.

LUU TIEU LE Vietnamese Language-trade Specialist 167.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling customers question about services or products/ excellent mandarin communication skills. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling customers question about services or products/ excellent mandarin communication skills.

168.

Brief Job Description: Monitor the day-to-day operations within the company, such as market data on a local, regional or national level, through the use of mandarin native language.

RESULTS MANILA, INC. Silver City, Frontera Verde, Ugong, City Of Pasig

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

LI, FANGDONG Mandarin Finance Specialist Brief Job Description: records accounts payable and accounts receivable

SUN, SHIKE General Manager 169.

159.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing and other relevant courses. Must fluently speak and write any of the following language: Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai to cater to foreign markets.

KISHI, MINORU Mechanical Manager 172.

Brief Job Description: Specialist on-shore/off-shore equipment management, dredging & pile driving works used for special equipment and well- experienced in marine works

Brief Job Description: General Managers are tasked with overseeing daily business activities, improving overall business functions.

Basic Qualification: Proficient in both English and Japanese languages, oral and written Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

TRIVES TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION Tower 4 Bayport West, Naia Garden Residence, Naia Road, Tambo, City Of Parañaque CHEW CHUN SIONG Malaysian Customer Support Representative 173.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

CHEN, YAOJUN Mandarin Customer Support Representative 174.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

FU, QIAO Mandarin Customer Support Representative 175.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

LI, MEI Mandarin Customer Support Representative 176.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

MA, YUEWU Mandarin Customer Support Representative 177.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

YANG, LINPENG Mandarin Customer Support Representative 178.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions and responding to complaints.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in MALAY and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in MANDARIN/FUKIEN and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in MANDARIN/FUKIEN and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in MANDARIN/FUKIEN and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in MANDARIN/FUKIEN and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in Mandarin/Fukien and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

UAA KINMING GROUP DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION 28th Floor Menarco Tower, 32nd Street Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig DU, YU Budget Officer 179.

Brief Job Description: Responsible in planning, organizing and monitoring of revenue and expenditure.

CHEN, JUNTAO Technical Supervisor 180.

Brief Job Description: Supervises property managers and supports them in supervision of their staff

Basic Qualification: Two years experience in budgeting, managerial or financial analysis experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With experience in Administration Management. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

VPC CORPORATE SOLUTIONS INCORPORATED 11/f 100 West, Sen Gil Puyat Ave. Cor., Washington St., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ZAPPORT SERVICES, INC. 36/f Burgundy Corporate Tower, 252 Sen. Gil J. Puyat Ave., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati

CHANG, CHIH-YUEH Bilingual Technical Support Specialist 181.

Brief Job Description: Works with customers / employees to identify computer problems and advises them on the solution

HANKLA, NIRAT Thai Speaking Customer Service Officer Basic Qualification: bachelor’s degree in finance , accounting or any related field of study Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

SKYWORTH (PHILIPPINES) CORPORATION U-2202 & 2204 22/f Antel Corporate Centre, 121 Valero St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Bachelor degree in operations management, mandarin speaking

TOYO CONSTRUCTION CO. LTD. 3/f Planters Products Bldg., 109 Esteban St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

SKYLUSTER TECHNOLOGY, INC. 26/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati

PH GLOBAL JET EXPRESS INC. 11th Floor, The Marajo Tower, 26th Street Cor. 4th Avenue Bgc, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig LI, YINHAI Mandarin Operations Supervisor

Brief Job Description: Responsible in managing, coordinating, and completing a specific project for a wastewater treatment plant and coordinate with French headquarters.

Basic Qualification: Min. 15-year related experience in water and wastewater treatment plant EPC projects. Good knowledge of UCD water treatment plant and MBBR Waste water treatment plant. Experience on international EPC projects; Ideally previous work experience in China and/or India (as coordination with India and China Engineering and Procurement platform will be required) Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

PERFECTGUIDE INC. 23/f Tower 6789, 6789 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati

CHEN, YUAN Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative

171.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CHIMANDAS, KARAN Certified Diamond Grader

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

HARY PRASETIO Project Manager

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be a College graduate; Can Prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information; Can contribute to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed; Can Manage large amounts of incoming calls

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

SUEZ INTERNATIONAL PHILIPPINE BRANCH Unit Lz-2 19f Tower 1 Highstreet South Corporate Plaza, 9th Ave. Cor. 26th St., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

OMNIWEALTH ENTERPRISE INC. 17th Flr. Citibank Square Bldg., No. 188 Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Eastwood City Cyberpark, Bagumbayan 3, Quezon City

LU QUOC KIEN Customer Service Representative

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Must be a College graduate; Can Prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information; Can contribute to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed; Can Manage large amounts of incoming calls

Basic Qualification: Minimum 7 years progressive management and leadership of project and implementation teams; Degree in Business or related field of study; Call center, BPO or other direct marketing experience; Understand the business to accomplish goals in a timely, productive and fiscally responsible manner; Be able to grasp concepts and effectively communicate them to staff; Detailed-oriented; Able to work effectively in a constantly changing environment

No.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NIPPON SANSO INGASCO, INC. 2301-06 One Corporate Center, J. Vargas Cor. Meralco Ave., Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig KOBAYASHI, NAOTO Manager For Technical Services And Engineering Division

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

SHANG SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. 11/f Pbcom Tower, Ayala Avenue, Salcedo Village, Bel-air, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

www.businessmirror.com.ph

182.

Brief Job Description: thai written reports on a daily operation of call center activities performing customer oriented telephone activities and various background operation duties

Basic Qualification: Excellent in writing, reading and speaking in bilingual languages Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thai speaking and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 *Date Generated: Nov 4, 2021

In the ad material of Notice of Filing of Application for Alien Employment Permits published on Oct 22, 2021, the position of HAN, JIYOUN under JEJUAIR CO. LTD., should have been read as CUSTOMER SERVICE OFFICER and not as published.

Basic Qualification: Degree holder/proven experience in Managerial Role

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

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

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

STONE ASIA AND SPECIALTY PRODUCTS, INC. 350, J.p. Rizal, Brgy. Namayan, City Of Mandaluyong

GURMAIL SINGH Financial Manager 170.

Brief Job Description: Prepare business activity reports, financial statements and forecasts. Make sure financial legal requirements are met. Developing financial reporting system

Basic Qualification: Fluent in English language both in written and verbal. Must familiar in expert planning and administrative writing and reporting skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Robinsons Retail profit up 13% despite lower sales

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

obinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) on Thursday said its net income in January to September rose 13 percent to P2.7 billion from last year’s P2.39 billion despite a decline in sales during the period. The company said its net sales from January to September fell 0.6 percent to P108.92 billion from last year’s P109.57 billion. For the quarter ending September, the company said it saw a 38-percent jump in attributable net income to P1.04 billion from last year’s P750 million. Net sales for the quarter rose 8 percent to P37.5 billion as against

P34.6 billion last year, despite the two-week enhanced community quarantine in August in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. This was predominantly driven by the double-digit same store sales growth (SSSG) of the drugstore segment and positive SSSG of the department store, convenience store and the appliance business. “The continued improvement in

our third quarter performance is indicative of the pivot as the Philippine economy recovers. With more people getting vaccinated resulting in a drop in Covid-19 cases, quarantine/mobility restrictions are now relaxed,” Robina GokongweiPe, the company’s president and CEO, said. “This further supports our view that we can sustain the growth momentum of the business into the succeeding quarters. While there are still challenges in the overall macro, Robinsons Retail will continue to focus on financial prudence while at the same time drive agility in bringing forward customer-centered innovation in all of our formats and channels. We continue to build on our digital strategy and further enhance our online capabilities to serve and fulfill the needs of our customers in the best possible way.” E-commerce sales continued to

grow, reaching P1.8 billion in the third quarter alone. This was 3.5 times of e-commerce sales last year and already 4.8 percent of total sales for the quarter. Year-to-date results were still dampened by the effects of the pandemic as RRHI’s operating income fell 10.4 percent, the company said. In September, the company announced that it will expand its drugstore business in the country after it opened its 870th drugstore in Cebu. The company said it opened a Rose Pharmacy branch in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, which it regards as a milestone for RRHI’s drugstore business. The company also owns TGP or The Generics Pharmacy, which has over 2,000 franchised stores nationwide. RRHI acquired Rose Pharmacy Inc. in 2020 from Mulgrave Corp. B.V, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd.

Jollibee acquires Taiwan’s Milkshop L

ocal fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) on Thursday said it is joining the milk tea bandwagon in the Philippines as its unit is buying a controlling ownership in the Taiwanese firm that owns the Milksha and Milkshop brand. In its disclosure, Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. said it will purchase shares equivalent to a 51-percent ownership in Milkshop International Co. Ltd. for about $12.8 million (P647 million). One of the co-founders of Milkshop will continue to retain the 49-percent ownership of Milkshop. Completion of this transaction is subject to certain closing conditions,

and the final purchase price will be confirmed after closing, Jollibee said in its disclosure. Milkshop was founded in Tainan City in Taiwan in 2008. It is primarily involved in the development, operations and franchising of specialty tea shops under the trade names Milkshop and Milksha, a popular Taiwanese bubble tea brand. Milkshop produces and uses its milk from its own dairy ranch and their bubble is free from chemical additives, preservatives and caramel color. The brewing process varies for each kind of tea to achieve the expected aroma and flavors. Milkshop has over 250 outlets,

with 231 outlets in Taiwan, four in Hong Kong, two in Melbourne, two in Vancouver and 12 in Singapore. Total systemwide sales for 2019 amounted to approximately $66.5 million. Last year, despite the pandemic, Milkshop generated systemwide sales of $74.7 million. “Milkshop is generating modest net income and positive earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation,” the company said. Bubble tea has been gaining popularity across markets. First introduced in Taiwan in 1987, the bubble tea has since grown into a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide. “This gives JFC the opportunity

to participate in this fast-growing beverage category and together with Milkshop’s Founder, grow the Milksha brand globally,” it said. In June, Jollibee first announced that it will be bringing Milksha to the Philippines, which is one of the largest milk tea markets in Southeast Asia. Jollibee and its subsidiaries, Fresh N’ Famous Foods Inc. and Mang Inasal Philippines Inc. now have the exclusive rights, through a licensing agreement with Milkshop, to sell and market products under the Milksha brand in their stores. Milksha products will soon be sold in Chowking stores. VG Cabuag

8990 income LT Group donates Covid vaccines to Pasig City rises by 63% in Jan-Sept

ass housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. on Thursday said its income in January to September grew 63 percent to P5.4 billion from last year’s P3.3 billion, as sales continued to grow. The company said its revenues rose 57 percent to P15.35 billion from last year’s P9.73 billion. In the third quarter alone, however, 8990’s income rose by merely 10 percent to P5.33 billion, from last year’s P4.82 billion. Its income for the period, meanwhile, was up by just 6 percent to P1.94 billion from the previous P1.82 billion. “We are confident that with our products geared specifically to our core housing market, 8990 will finish 2021 strongly and signal the economy’s recovery for 2022 and beyond,” company president and CEO Anthony Vincent Sotto said. Real estate sales for the third quarter rose 11 percent to P5.33 billion from P4.82 billion last year. This brings its sales for the nine-month period to P15.26 billion, up by 57 percent from last year’s P9.76 billion. “The administration’s efforts toward vaccinating our countrymen against the ongoing pandemic and its dire economic effects over the past one and half years are starting to bear fruit. Our outstanding results, both for the third quarter of 2021 and for the first nine months of the year, definitely show an increase in confidence for the future from our core market of first-time homebuyers and end users,” Sotto said. VG Cabuag

LT Group Inc. (LTG) president Michael G. Tan (2nd from left) hands over the Deed of Donation to Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto (3rd from left) covering 15,000 doses of AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines for persons with disabilities in the city. Also in photo are Asia Brewery, Inc. (ABI) VP Sales Ronald Tan (left) and Dr. Rocky Rivera, ABI SVP Supply Chain and LTG Vaccine Czar (right). Contributed Photo

T Group Inc. (LTG), the holding firm of tycoon Lucio C. Tan, donated 15,000 doses of AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines to the people of Pasig City through Mayor Vico Sotto. In a courtesy call Wednesday, LTG President Michael G. Tan presented the Deed of Donation to Mayor Sotto covering 10,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines administered last August and October and 5,000 doses of Moderna

vaccines for use within the next few weeks. Mayor Sotto expressed gratitude to LTG and Tan, saying all vaccines donated by the group were earmarked for persons with disabilities. “Malaking tulong po ito sa ating mga PWDs,” Mayor Sotto said. Earlier, LTG joined some of the country’s biggest conglomerates in ordering AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines in cooperation with the national government,

business advocacy group Go Negosyo led by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion and the Razon Group’s ICTSI Foundation. The Lucio Tan Group of Companies has close to 40,000 employees and 14,000 third party service providers. Aside from inoculating its executives and staff, LTG’s 20 vaccination sites nationwide were also opened to the families and immediate relatives of its employees.

Friday, November 5, 2021

First Philec to unveil green transformers

opez-led First Philec Inc. is on track to launch its green transformers within the quarter, its president said on Thursday. During a press briefing at the 23rd Conference of the Electricity Power Supply Industry (CEPSI), First Philec President Ariel Ong said the company will provide Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) samples of its green transformers for evaluation. “Yes, it will push through. We are ready to launch it by the fourth quarter. The first recipient will be Meralco. We’re going to give them a few samples for them to evaluate,” he said, when asked when the green transformers will be introduced in the market. Designed to help improve the safety and efficiency of power systems, transformers adjust the voltage levels of power systems as needed. First Philec’s green transformers are made from 100-percent recyclable and biodegradable materials, which will help reduce system losses as well as carbon footprint. Ong noted that there is demand for green transformers in the market, citing interests from customers, such as Meralco and the Aboitiz Group. Ong was one of the speakers during the first day of CEPSI. Other speakers included executives from Meralco, the energy minister of Brunei, and Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi. During his pre-recorded talk, Cusi discussed the Philippine Energy Plan of 2020-2040 and underscored the importance of cooperation among stakeholders as well as innovation

to further improve the energy sector in the country. “We are determined to push our stance of achieving climate justice for countries like the Philippines who have suffered the wrath of climate change. While we address these major challenges, we must be innovative in coming up with ways how our energy plan will effectively result in reliable, affordable, resilient, and sustainable energy services for the Philippine archipelago not only for the present but will serve as a blueprint of our energy future.” CESPI is organized by the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and the Western Pacific (AESIEAP) Philippine Coalition. “Anchored on a 5S Agenda: Sustainable, Socially Inclusive, Smart, Synergized, and Scalable, this year’s Conference highlights how global power utilities are reinventing businesses and incorporating sustainability goals into their operations, while successfully meeting the growing energy demand,” said AESIEAP Secretary General Ronnie L. Aperocho. He added: “It is important for energy companies to have a core purpose in everything they do, but one company alone cannot achieve this goal of having a more sustainable environment. Through this conference, we hope to be able to address the core issues concerning the power industry and underscore the need for all stakeholders to work hand-inhand in fulfilling the world’s green agenda.” Lorenz S. Marasigan

Companies BusinessMirror

Friday, November 5, 2021

Figaro targeting to raise ₧1.7B from maiden offer

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

he Figaro Coffee Group Inc., a pioneer in the local coffee shop industry, has filed its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its proposed initial public offering (IPO). The company is hoping to raise as much as P1.77 billion from its IPO. In the documents it submitted to the SEC, the company, which has diversified to other brands such as Angel’s Pizza and Tien Ma restaurants, said it will sell some 1.26 billion in common shares and an over-allotment option of 126 million shares, for an indicative price of P1.28 apiece. It hopes to sell the shares from December 16 to 22, and list it on the Philippine Stock Exchange by January 2022. “We intend to use the net proceeds from the offer primarily to fund the following projects and plans: store openings and renovations; commissary expansion; debt repayment; IT infrastructure developments; and

potential acquisitions,” the company said. “As part of our growth plans, we plan to have a total of about 150 system-wide stores by the end of 2022 and more than 300 systemwide stores throughout the country by the end of 2029. As part of our store network expansion plan, we consider the viability of potential locations subject to various factors such as market and economic conditions, and results of our operations and performance.” The company said it will expand its company-owned stores for the next three years. For Angel’s Pizza, it will expand to viable locations in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, Pampanga and Batangas, with 35 company-owned stores.

‘Home, enterprise verticals to boost PLDT growth’ By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

LDT Inc. believes its home and enter prise verticals will continue to drive the company’s growth beyond 2021, as it expects to ride on the persisting effects of the pandemic as well as the rising demand for solutions from so-called hyperscalers. Manuel V. Pangilinan, the company’s chairman, said the group expects both business segments to “figure as major revenue growth drivers” for the company in the next three years. “There will be a big push in the coming two to three years,” he said. Alfredo S. Panlilio, the company’s president, said PLDT will be capitalizing on its dominant position for both the home and enterprise segments to see this projected growth. “We will continue to ride on that dominant position,” he said. PLDT’s home broadband business was its fastest growing segment for January to September, w ith total revenues reaching P35.3 billion, a 25-percent increase from the year prior. The growth is attributable to

the steady demand for broadband connectivity in the country, as Filipinos continued to work and study at home. T he enter pr ise bu si ness booked P31.1 billion in revenues, representing a 2-percent increase. The group, however, is banking on the demand from global hyperscalers for data center services. As such, PLDT is investing P5 billion to develop a data center that will dwarf its 10 existing data centers even when they are combined. The amount will be spent within the next three years. PLDT recorded a telco core income of P23.1 billion in January to September, a 10-percent increase from P21 billion the year prior. Its total revenues rose by 8 percent to P143.9 billion from P133.2 billion, while expenses grew at a much faster pace at 14 percent to P113 billion from P99.5 billion. “We’re looking at P30 billion, at least, in core income for the full year of 2021. Capital expenditures are also expected to land at the lower end of the P88 billion to P92 billion guidance,” Pangilinan said.

For Figaro Coffee, it will expand to six locations mostly in Metro Manila including malls, hospitals and mixed-use areas or central business districts and also Metro Manila for Tien Ma’s, with two more branches and TFG Express, with 18 additional branches. “Out of the approximate P501.50 million offer proceeds to fund store openings and renovations, an estimated total of P432 million is allotted for capital expenditures for the planned company-store openings,” Figaro said. The company said it will use some P350.3 million to increase the system-wide capacity commissary operations. The commissary expansion involves the construction of satellite commissaries in key locations throughout the country and the construction of a new commissary, or called Mayon 2 Commissary building to be located in the head office of the subsidiary. These will be rolled out between next year through 2023 to support its system-wide store network expansion and product development activities. “The satellite commissaries are planned to be located in Luzon, one in north Luzon and one in South Luzon, and in the Visayas-Mindanao

region, one in Cebu and one in Davao. Setting up of a satellite commissary is estimated to cost around P24 million,” the company said. “In addition, the construction of the Mayon 2 Commissary building is estimated to cost a total of around P255 million for the expenses of the building construction, various equipment, building fit-out, furniture and fixtures and other pre-operating expenses for this new commissary.” The company has engaged Abacus Capital and Investment Corp., China Bank Capital Corp. and PNB Capital and Investment Corp. as joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters and joint bookrunners for the offer. The Figaro Group is a home-grown diversified food group with over 25 years in the industry. It operates through its one wholly-owned subsidiary, Figaro Coffee Systems Inc., which operates a set of retail restaurants with 90 branches nationwide and international territories that serve a variety of food offerings and services. As of September 17, the company operates 52 Figaro coffee shops, 31 Angel’s Pizza outlets, five Tien Ma’s Taiwanese cuisine restaurants, one TFG Express outlet and one Café Portofino outlet.

mutual funds

November 4, 2021

NAV

One Year Three Year Five Year

per share

Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

228.27

10.64%

-1.6%

-1.87%

0.47%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.6625

51.4%

6.62%

4.1%

26.62%

13.61%

-5.07%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.1881

-4.53%

1.76%

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7526 5.85%

-3.96% n.a.

-7.41%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7882 14.17%

-0.08% n.a.

6.28%

First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a

5.1233

First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

15.99%

1.19%

0.1%

0.7696

11.18%

-0.93%

-3.7%

-2.99% n.a.

-1.97%

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

99.86

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

47.1757

13.16%

0.56%

-0.26%

0.72%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

490.49

10.45%

0.43%

-0.91%

0.32%

Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d

14.09%

3.68%

1.1697

22.25% n.a. n.a.

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.2872

22.39%

2.43%

1.2%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

35.8886

16.08%

0.96%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

0.922

6.6% 10.19%

0.64%

3.22%

12.96% n.a. n.a.

0.99% 1.44%

4.86

14.09%

1.38%

0.47%

811.34

13.9%

1.37%

0.42%

1.21%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7442

15.49%

-2.88%

-2.66%

3.52%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.705

14.09%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

-1.33%

-1.06%

2.24%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.9256 13.45%

1.01%

0.19%

0.86%

United Fund, Inc. -a

0.78%

1.14%

2.52%

1.56%

0.91%

3.4021

14.62%

-0.88%

Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c

109.1074

14.02%

1.44%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$1.1623

8.9%

8.94%

5.74%

-3.38%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.8623

25.07%

16.63%

12.79%

11.33%

Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a

1.6921

9.14%

1.89%

-0.25%

1.41%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.2473

7.24%

1.65%

-0.15%

-1.67%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.6756

9.15%

3.19%

1.42%

1.85%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.1995

7.37% n.a. n.a.

NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

6.44%

3.81%

1.8%

1.9958

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.7241

4.73%

3.41%

0.55%

-1.74%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.6759

4.79%

3.15%

0.51%

-1.56%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0949

6.33%

1.61%

0.5%

0.18%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.6137 8.05%

0.83%

0.01%

1.13%

2.87% n.a. n.a.

-3.76%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9841 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.9301

7.6% n.a. n.a.

-2.01%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.9203

9.04% n.a. n.a.

-1.37%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

0.9325

13.97%

1.35%

0.12%

0.71%

1.46%

5.05%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a

$0.03777

-2.78%

2.97%

1.15%

-3.4%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$1.071

1.79%

5.44%

3.19%

-5.22%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.8323 17.75%

11.86%

8.98%

7.08%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a $1.2233 7.94%

6.61%

4.66%

1.76%

Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

373.04

1.1%

2.99%

2.53%

0.52%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.9268

1.74%

1.31%

0.21%

1.39%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2422

1.13%

3.22%

4.06%

0.83%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2425

-2.43%

-1.97%

1.89%

1.4%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4236 -0.77%

3.08%

1.74%

-1.21%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

-4.37%

5.08%

1.48%

-4.75%

4.4101

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3177

0.43%

3.93%

2.62%

-0.27%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9594

0.07%

4.6%

2.56%

-1.04%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0311

-0.35%

5.64%

2.03%

-1.19%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1917

0.55%

5.1%

3.14%

-0.45%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-0.4%

4.25%

2.42%

-1.36%

1.7312 $488.32

1.79%

3.06%

2.22%

0.89%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є219.83

0.99%

1.04%

0.79%

0.28%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1992

-3.69%

2.28%

1.37%

-6.3%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 -1.52%

1.46%

0.79%

-2.63%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$1.0205

-6.09%

-0.13%

-1.37%

-6.38%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.4899

-0.33%

5.42%

2.14%

-1.97%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a

$0.0624504

1.04%

3.18%

1.95%

0.24%

-0.4%

3.11%

-2.2%

2.56%

0.85%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0563 0.97% n.a. n.a.

0.78%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1527

Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

130.92

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.3125

1.18% 1.52%

2.92% 2.7%

2.54%

1.2%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0598

0.86%

1.52% n.a.

0.59%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d 1.3712

38% n.a. n.a.

21.39%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a,d

$0.98

4.26% n.a. n.a.

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

November 4, 2021

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

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

44.05 126.4 91.4 24.3 9.36 49.8 20.3 57.1 19.8 121.8 91 1.74 4.04 3.32 1.07 0.31 970 0.64 219.4 2,800

45.35 126.5 91.45 24.45 9.38 49.85 20.35 57.55 19.98 121.9 91.95 1.81 4.1 3.53 1.12 0.32 975 0.68 224.8 2,810

44 128 91 24.1 9.32 50 20.35 56.5 19.8 122 92 1.67 4.04 3.53 1.11 0.32 970 0.68 219.6 2,810

44 128.5 91.45 24.45 9.49 50 20.4 57.8 19.8 122.2 92.3 1.82 4.16 3.53 1.11 0.32 970 0.68 219.6 2,810

44 126.4 90.65 24.1 9.3 49.7 20.2 55 19.3 121.5 90 1.59 4.04 3.32 1.07 0.32 970 0.68 219.4 2,810

44 126.4 91.4 24.45 9.38 49.85 20.3 57.6 19.8 121.8 91 1.81 4.04 3.53 1.07 0.32 970 0.68 219.4 2,810

2,800 1,028,170 2,706,370 231,300 73,700 2,281,900 461,900 3,460 157,300 133,130 24,670 13,430,000 49,000 67,000 6,000 80,000 100 50,000 830 30

123,200 130,670,953 246,475,002 5,607,940 690,596 113,692,245 9,356,375 197,261 3,086,850 16,220,192 2,243,079 23,956,500 198,320 236,280 6,490 25,600 97,000 34,000 182,246 84,300

-4,400 -35,589,109 62,687,014.50 -5,775,020 119,380 59,045 -8,872,027 7,360 59,750 -9,600 97,000 -

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 12.2 12.26 12.2 12.26 12.02 12.26 20,464,700 248,888,422 ALSONS CONS 1.14 1.16 1.13 1.17 1.13 1.16 1,012,000 1,176,360 ABOITIZ POWER 33.7 33.95 34 34 33 33.95 2,513,100 84,300,720 BASIC ENERGY 0.66 0.67 0.7 0.7 0.66 0.66 52,598,000 35,216,000 FIRST GEN 30.9 30.95 30.75 31.2 30.75 30.9 352,000 10,887,670 FIRST PHIL HLDG 74.7 74.95 74.7 74.8 74.7 74.7 1,290 96,405.50 MERALCO 292 293 287 293 287 293 229,740 66,868,630 MANILA WATER 25.15 25.5 26 26.5 25.15 25.15 1,162,800 29,969,590 PETRON 3.7 3.71 3.71 3.74 3.67 3.71 3,096,000 11,478,890 PHX PETROLEUM 11 11.2 11.36 11.36 11.06 11.2 36,000 402,710 PILIPINAS SHELL 22.5 22.55 23.15 23.15 22.5 22.55 60,200 1,368,980 SPC POWER 13.66 13.7 13.7 13.7 13.66 13.7 114,100 1,560,316 VIVANT 14.5 16.6 15 15 15 15 1,200 18,000 AGRINURTURE 5 5.05 4.99 5.2 4.94 5.05 121,000 604,820 AXELUM 2.76 2.81 2.8 2.85 2.75 2.81 410,000 1,141,430 CNTRL AZUCARERA 13.74 14 13.74 13.74 13.74 13.74 3,800 52,212 CENTURY FOOD 27.15 28 27.5 28 27.25 28 1,414,600 39,207,655 DEL MONTE 14.68 14.9 14.62 14.9 14.62 14.9 65,800 964,402 DNL INDUS 8.19 8.2 8.42 8.43 8.12 8.19 2,911,300 23,934,212 EMPERADOR 18.22 18.28 18.2 18.3 18 18.28 3,818,400 69,674,720 SMC FOODANDBEV 75.4 75.5 75.7 75.85 75.05 75.5 68,750 5,193,674.50 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.6 0.61 0.62 0.62 0.61 0.61 4,000 2,450 FRUITAS HLDG 1.33 1.34 1.33 1.34 1.32 1.34 5,072,000 6,743,400 GINEBRA 102.1 103.6 104.9 104.9 102 103.6 12,790 1,314,717 JOLLIBEE 237.8 238 232.6 238.6 231.2 238 436,000 102,702,128 LIBERTY FLOUR 28.35 28.75 28 28.75 28 28.35 1,300 36,725 MACAY HLDG 6.31 6.95 6.32 6.32 6.3 6.3 34,500 217,490 MAXS GROUP 7.2 7.28 7.15 7.3 7.1 7.2 68,700 493,194 MG HLDG 0.18 0.185 0.191 0.191 0.18 0.185 2,190,000 396,300 MONDE NISSIN 16.24 16.26 16.2 16.34 16.16 16.26 8,648,200 140,338,836 SHAKEYS PIZZA 8.08 8.13 8.14 8.2 8.08 8.08 20,000 162,204 ROXAS AND CO 0.72 0.73 0.73 0.76 0.72 0.73 2,811,000 2,037,940 RFM CORP 4.51 4.69 4.47 4.69 4.47 4.69 2,000 9,160 SWIFT FOODS 0.115 0.117 0.117 0.117 0.115 0.115 2,420,000 279,740 UNIV ROBINA 131.9 132 134.8 134.8 131.6 132 1,208,210 160,083,319 VITARICH 0.75 0.76 0.77 0.77 0.75 0.76 844,000 637,180 CEMEX HLDG 1.24 1.25 1.24 1.25 1.23 1.25 1,403,000 1,739,000 EAGLE CEMENT 14.28 14.34 14.38 14.38 14.26 14.26 30,900 441,040 EEI CORP 6.62 6.65 6.87 6.87 6.5 6.65 3,598,700 23,758,337 HOLCIM 5.88 5.89 5.88 5.9 5.87 5.88 68,400 402,480 MEGAWIDE 6.01 6.09 6.15 6.15 6 6.01 4,524,300 27,314,205 PHINMA 14.8 14.98 14.98 14.98 14.96 14.98 19,300 289,108 TKC METALS 0.87 0.89 0.87 0.87 0.85 0.87 55,000 47,770 VULCAN INDL 1.13 1.15 1.14 1.14 1.12 1.13 2,370,000 2,680,400 CROWN ASIA 1.65 1.71 1.66 1.68 1.65 1.65 33,000 54,950 EUROMED 1.57 1.61 1.64 1.64 1.56 1.56 14,000 21,990 LMG CORP 3.65 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4,000 15,600 MABUHAY VINYL 3.9 4.18 4 4.13 4 4.1 22,000 89,440 PRYCE CORP 5.5 5.57 5.59 5.59 5.5 5.5 9,900 55,138 CONCEPCION 21.8 22.4 22.1 22.1 22 22 1,500 33,100 GREENERGY 2.44 2.45 2.32 2.48 2.27 2.45 4,649,000 10,921,180 INTEGRATED MICR 8.18 8.3 8.33 8.35 8.15 8.18 613,200 5,041,685 IONICS 0.82 0.83 0.82 0.83 0.82 0.82 522,000 428,370 PANASONIC 5.85 6.04 6.04 6.04 6.04 6.04 2,000 12,080 SFA SEMICON 1.1 1.12 1.12 1.12 1.1 1.1 998,000 1,102,740 CIRTEK HLDG 4.46 4.47 4.56 4.56 4.41 4.46 1,588,000 7,065,090

102,715,300 -12,760 -11,788,030 4,360 5,856,730 -14,194 1,939,874 6,432,670 -1,081,800 -11,760 113,294 -334,650 -38,640.00 -14,302,965 14,700 -17,802,855.00 13,165,412.00 -1,407,675.50 610 -946 17,893,290 18,000 21,051,652 -71,340 -134,695,627 8,250 159,990 28,600 -39,974 -14,421,060 -46,450 1,714,840 -1,161,835 304,120 -17,880

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 1.13 1.14 1.12 1.14 1.1 1.14 9,334,000 10,461,590 ASIABEST GROUP 5.5 5.9 5.8 5.9 5.8 5.9 4,400 25,860 AYALA CORP 870 871 870 872 848 870 67,030 58,173,575 ABOITIZ EQUITY 51 51.05 50.6 51.5 50.5 51 1,402,120 71,415,274 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 10.58 10.6 10.86 10.86 10.58 10.58 3,629,000 38,581,118 AYALA LAND LOG 5.66 5.69 5.8 5.8 5.6 5.66 2,179,200 12,349,436 ANSCOR 7.15 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 100,200 721,440 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.92 0.93 0.93 0.94 0.92 0.92 236,000 219,590 ATN HLDG A 0.495 0.5 0.49 0.53 0.49 0.495 393,000 200,345 ATN HLDG B 0.48 0.53 0.49 0.49 0.49 0.49 250,000 122,500 COSCO CAPITAL 5.29 5.3 5.33 5.34 5.24 5.3 1,996,300 10,579,021 DMCI HLDG 7.83 7.85 7.92 7.92 7.78 7.85 5,468,600 42,837,046 FILINVEST DEV 7.76 8 7.76 7.76 7.76 7.76 1,300 10,088 FJ PRINCE A 2.64 3.01 2.62 2.62 2.62 2.62 1,000 2,620 FORUM PACIFIC 0.29 0.3 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29 200,000 58,000 GT CAPITAL 559 559.5 555 560 552.5 559 40,510 22,585,940 HOUSE OF INV 3.9 3.95 3.97 3.98 3.88 3.9 4,588,000 17,805,300 JG SUMMIT 59.7 59.8 59.65 59.9 59.25 59.7 1,429,650 85,265,923.50 JOLLIVILLE HLDG 5.3 5.6 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.3 9,000 47,700 LODESTAR 0.62 0.63 0.61 0.65 0.61 0.63 837,000 526,260 LOPEZ HLDG 3.12 3.14 3.12 3.14 3.12 3.12 75,000 234,730 LT GROUP 10.28 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.24 10.28 6,264,300 64,732,922 MJC INVESTMENTS 1.1 1.15 1.05 1.15 1.05 1.15 10,000 11,400 METRO PAC INV 3.86 3.89 3.91 3.94 3.86 3.89 10,613,000 41,228,260 PRIME MEDIA 1.55 1.58 1.58 1.58 1.54 1.55 198,000 309,640 SOLID GROUP 1.15 1.2 1.15 1.2 1.15 1.2 175,000 201,300 SM INVESTMENTS 986.5 990 1,002 1,002 976 990 227,140 224,824,855 SAN MIGUEL CORP 117.1 117.3 117.1 117.3 116.8 117.3 110,530 12,941,042 TOP FRONTIER 130 133 133 133 130 130 330 43,440 WELLEX INDUS 0.25 0.26 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 380,000 95,000 ZEUS HLDG 0.177 0.188 0.185 0.19 0.185 0.19 130,000 24,120

7,144,540 -1,770 13,604,025 27,648,596.50 -24,585,688 37,767 24,500 8,824,112 23,457,090 -13,973,300 3,250,551.50 -203,530 3,467,742 -17,922,830 -15,640 63,785,790 4,525,691 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.63 0.66 0.63 0.63 0.63 0.63 313,000 197,190 ANCHOR LAND 6.91 7.49 7.51 7.51 7.51 7.51 200 1,502 AYALA LAND 36.25 36.65 36.4 37.1 36.05 36.65 2,688,100 98,126,545 ARANETA PROP 1.03 1.07 1.03 1.05 1 1.05 32,000 32,720 AREIT RT 47.15 47.25 45 49.5 45 47.15 1,531,500 71,758,415 BELLE CORP 1.37 1.41 1.4 1.41 1.37 1.4 1,420,000 1,950,730 A BROWN 0.84 0.86 0.86 0.86 0.84 0.86 283,000 239,800 CITYLAND DEVT 0.75 0.76 0.74 0.75 0.74 0.74 160,000 119,080 CROWN EQUITIES 0.111 0.115 0.114 0.115 0.111 0.115 1,370,000 153,880 CEBU HLDG 6.3 6.94 6.24 6.98 6.24 6.94 2,600 17,018 CEB LANDMASTERS 2.85 2.86 2.85 2.88 2.84 2.86 877,000 2,503,710 CENTURY PROP 0.45 0.46 0.445 0.46 0.445 0.46 11,250,000 5,089,150 DOUBLEDRAGON 10.14 10.2 10.3 10.3 10.16 10.16 257,300 2,621,812 DDMP RT 1.79 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.78 1.79 6,098,000 10,918,560 DM WENCESLAO 6.97 6.98 6.95 6.98 6.95 6.98 38,800 270,167 EMPIRE EAST 0.275 0.28 0.28 0.28 0.28 0.28 10,000 2,800 EVER GOTESCO 0.335 0.34 0.325 0.34 0.32 0.34 13,120,000 4,309,250 FILINVEST RT 7.39 7.41 7.4 7.42 7.36 7.41 2,330,000 17,258,539 FILINVEST LAND 1.14 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.13 1.14 4,800,000 5,462,290 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.88 0.89 0.88 0.9 0.88 0.88 835,000 735,790 8990 HLDG 10.74 10.8 10.8 10.86 10.5 10.74 225,200 2,398,262 PHIL INFRADEV 1.16 1.18 1.23 1.23 1.15 1.16 1,450,000 1,696,680 CITY AND LAND 0.95 0.97 0.97 0.97 0.95 0.95 337,000 323,870 MEGAWORLD 3.11 3.12 3.15 3.16 3.1 3.11 13,654,000 42,680,530 MRC ALLIED 0.31 0.315 0.32 0.32 0.29 0.31 44,550,000 13,421,850 MREIT RT 18.1 18.12 18.3 18.34 18.1 18.12 1,664,700 30,209,480 PHIL ESTATES 0.495 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.49 0.5 4,464,000 2,201,065 PRIMEX CORP 1.8 1.81 1.73 1.85 1.7 1.81 295,000 534,110 RL COMM RT 7.2 7.21 7.22 7.22 7.11 7.21 4,180,900 30,081,573 ROBINSONS LAND 17.5 17.66 17.5 17.66 17.12 17.66 1,758,100 30,669,628 PHIL REALTY 0.232 0.236 0.239 0.239 0.231 0.233 2,490,000 582,470 ROCKWELL 1.51 1.54 1.51 1.52 1.51 1.51 37,000 55,930 SHANG PROP 2.6 2.62 2.61 2.62 2.6 2.62 327,000 850,600 STA LUCIA LAND 2.85 2.9 2.9 2.9 2.85 2.9 76,000 219,200 SM PRIME HLDG 34.55 34.6 34.75 34.75 34.3 34.55 4,778,200 164,967,525 VISTAMALLS 3.7 3.79 3.86 3.86 3.68 3.79 138,000 511,820 SUNTRUST HOME 1.43 1.46 1.42 1.46 1.41 1.46 305,000 432,670 VISTA LAND 3.7 3.75 3.85 3.87 3.7 3.7 1,484,000 5,561,620 SERVICES ABS CBN 13.8 13.9 14.1 14.1 13.6 13.8 381,200 5,249,402 GMA NETWORK 14.88 14.9 14.6 15.08 14.5 14.9 1,962,600 29,028,896 MANILA BULLETIN 0.4 0.425 0.405 0.405 0.4 0.4 210,000 84,150 GLOBE TELECOM 3,160 3,162 3,156 3,180 3,156 3,160 88,695 280,316,650 PLDT 1,624 1,630 1,650 1,650 1,623 1,624 53,030 86,388,960 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.08 0.081 0.084 0.084 0.078 0.08 506,410,000 41,030,860 CONVERGE 33 33.05 31.6 33.2 31.2 33 9,338,900 303,099,505 DFNN INC 3.16 3.18 3.2 3.38 3.15 3.18 504,000 1,615,260 DITO CME HLDG 6.7 6.71 7 7.02 6.65 6.7 10,094,900 68,168,078 JACKSTONES 1.91 2.04 1.91 1.95 1.9 1.95 52,000 99,000 NOW CORP 1.8 1.82 1.81 1.82 1.8 1.8 1,383,000 2,491,570 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.365 0.375 0.405 0.405 0.365 0.365 33,560,000 12,706,100 PHILWEB 2.2 2.22 2.2 2.25 2.14 2.22 244,000 531,680 2GO GROUP 7.91 8.06 8.08 8.08 7.91 8.06 2,000 16,122 ASIAN TERMINALS 14.2 14.22 14.46 14.46 14.22 14.22 1,700 24,198 CHELSEA 1.94 1.95 1.98 1.98 1.93 1.95 785,000 1,528,280 CEBU AIR 45.5 45.75 46.5 46.6 44.95 45.5 454,600 20,797,810 INTL CONTAINER 177.8 178 179.9 180.1 177.5 178 776,210 138,794,113 LBC EXPRESS 19.12 21.5 21 21 19.02 19.02 2,400 47,156 MACROASIA 5.83 5.85 5.91 5.99 5.7 5.85 4,043,000 23,626,329 METROALLIANCE A 1.5 1.55 1.51 1.55 1.5 1.5 104,000 157,100 HARBOR STAR 1.03 1.06 1.05 1.07 1.03 1.03 171,000 179,420 ACESITE HOTEL 1.47 1.5 1.47 1.5 1.47 1.5 26,000 38,280 DISCOVERY WORLD 2.14 2.18 2.12 2.2 2.12 2.18 132,000 288,110 WATERFRONT 0.495 0.5 0.5 0.51 0.49 0.495 792,000 392,630 FAR EASTERN U 595 598 595 595 595 595 520 309,400 STI HLDG 0.355 0.36 0.355 0.36 0.355 0.36 2,060,000 738,400 BERJAYA 5.41 5.44 5.38 5.45 5.38 5.44 45,900 247,866 BLOOMBERRY 7.06 7.08 7.13 7.24 6.96 7.07 10,002,000 70,880,776 PACIFIC ONLINE 2 2.14 1.99 2.14 1.99 2.14 9,000 18,640 LEISURE AND RES 1.53 1.55 1.58 1.58 1.5 1.55 855,000 1,303,520 MANILA JOCKEY 1.75 1.98 1.75 1.76 1.75 1.75 32,000 56,050 PH RESORTS GRP 0.85 0.87 0.91 0.94 0.85 0.85 6,514,000 5,767,450 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.445 0.455 0.455 0.46 0.445 0.445 10,900,000 4,876,050 ALLDAY 0.74 0.75 1.1 1.1 0.71 0.74 3,558,008,000 3,107,233,870 ALLHOME 9.84 9.85 10.18 10.18 9.75 9.84 1,053,700 10,377,310 METRO RETAIL 1.33 1.34 1.34 1.35 1.33 1.34 565,000 755,620 PUREGOLD 43 43.05 43.45 43.45 42.7 43 559,400 24,036,215 ROBINSONS RTL 63 63.1 63.7 63.7 59.3 63 408,600 25,399,579.50 PHIL SEVEN CORP 90 93 94.1 94.1 90 93.95 190 17,400 SSI GROUP 1.22 1.24 1.22 1.25 1.22 1.24 1,074,000 1,327,220 WILCON DEPOT 30.3 30.8 29.7 30.8 29.35 30.8 2,169,300 65,402,495 APC GROUP 0.24 0.247 0.24 0.248 0.24 0.241 1,120,000 268,980 EASYCALL 4.28 4.5 4.5 4.69 4.2 4.5 25,000 110,600 GOLDEN MV 510 540 520 540 520 540 380 199,750 IPM HLDG 7.06 7.1 7.06 7.1 7.06 7.1 10,000 70,676 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.71 0.72 0.76 0.76 0.7 0.71 30,823,000 22,182,640 SBS PHIL CORP 4.03 4.18 4.03 4.24 4.03 4.24 4,000 16,330 MINING & OIL

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

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ATOK 6.2 6.5 6.35 6.65 6.2 6.65 13,300 82,960 APEX MINING 1.42 1.45 1.45 1.45 1.42 1.42 1,234,000 1,763,350 ATLAS MINING 6.34 6.37 6.4 6.4 6.3 6.37 1,428,400 9,055,936 BENGUET A 6 6.08 6.14 6.14 6 6.08 187,300 1,138,494 BENGUET B 5.7 5.98 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.7 4,700 26,790 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.28 0.29 0.285 0.29 0.275 0.29 200,000 56,250 CENTURY PEAK 2.7 2.78 2.6 2.78 2.6 2.78 7,000 18,560 DIZON MINES 5.11 5.22 5.25 5.3 5.11 5.11 45,000 232,892 FERRONICKEL 2.14 2.16 2.13 2.16 2.11 2.16 4,029,000 8,595,340 GEOGRACE 0.212 0.222 0.214 0.214 0.212 0.212 410,000 87,440 LEPANTO A 0.13 0.132 0.131 0.132 0.13 0.132 3,540,000 460,650 LEPANTO B 0.135 0.143 0.135 0.135 0.134 0.135 830,000 111,920 MANILA MINING A 0.0091 0.0092 0.0092 0.0092 0.0092 0.0092 2,000,000 18,400 MARCVENTURES 0.91 0.92 0.9 0.92 0.9 0.92 240,000 217,760 NIHAO 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.03 1 1.02 30,000 30,540 NICKEL ASIA 5.6 5.61 5.5 5.69 5.39 5.61 4,051,200 22,668,201 OMICO CORP 0.325 0.34 0.33 0.33 0.33 0.33 30,000 9,900 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.79 0.8 0.8 0.81 0.8 0.8 203,000 162,800 PX MINING 5.08 5.17 5.19 5.21 5.06 5.08 805,200 4,134,031 SEMIRARA MINING 24.25 24.35 24 24.45 23.45 24.35 1,946,000 46,664,135 UNITED PARAGON 0.0062 0.0066 0.0064 0.0064 0.0062 0.0062 48,000,000 299,700 ACE ENEXOR 17.14 17.2 17.52 17.52 17.2 17.2 104,900 1,822,106 ORNTL PETROL A 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 34,400,000 344,300 ORNTL PETROL B 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 5,000,000 55,000 PHILODRILL 0.0094 0.0095 0.0096 0.0096 0.0094 0.0094 25,000,000 236,000 PXP ENERGY 6.2 6.28 6.22 6.29 6.2 6.2 235,100 1,459,308 PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 101.1 101.8 101.8 101.8 101.8 101.8 9,050 921,290 ALCO PREF B 101.3 102.6 102.6 102.6 101.1 101.1 150 15,240 AC PREF B2R 520 525 520 524 520 520 28,800 15,016,040 CEB PREF 45 45.1 45.25 45.25 45 45 17,900 807,750 CPG PREF A 102.5 103 103 103 103 103 7,650 787,950 DD PREF 100.8 101 102 102 102 102 1,950 198,900 FGEN PREF G 105.4 105.6 105.4 105.6 105.4 105.6 52,540 5,537,736 JFC PREF A 1,022 1,050 1,020 1,020 1,020 1,020 70 71,400 JFC PREF B 1,045 1,046 1,048 1,048 1,045 1,045 80 83,680 MWIDE PREF 2B 102 102.5 102 102 102 102 1,000 102,000 MWIDE PREF 4 100.1 101 100.1 101 100.1 100.8 7,500 756,650 PNX PREF 3B 105.4 107 105.4 107 105.4 107 2,150 227,290 PNX PREF 4 1,005 1,006 1,006 1,007 1,004 1,006 1,590 1,599,115 PCOR PREF 3A 1,120 1,125 1,120 1,120 1,114 1,120 1,070 1,197,175 PCOR PREF 3B 1,181 1,188 1,188 1,188 1,188 1,188 50 59,400 SMC PREF 2F 79.15 79.3 79.2 79.3 79.1 79.2 33,350 2,641,475 SMC PREF 2H 76 77.1 77.25 77.25 77.1 77.1 120 9,253.50 SMC PREF 2J 77 77.3 77.5 77.5 77 77 1,900 147,050 SMC PREF 2K 76 76.5 76.3 76.5 76.3 76.5 58,900 4,505,550 PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS GMA HLDG PDR 13.7 13.98 13.7 13.9 13.56 13.8 254,200 3,509,940 WARRANTS TECH WARRANT 1.17 1.18 1.25 1.25 1.18 1.18 3,637,000 4,358,260

16,865,520 19,179,395 -5,920 98,090 -348,000 -554,386 187,950 242,550 1,987,386 -2,614,810.00 525,328 12,350 -22,022,700 -105,300 -7,271,832 -12,375 -32,000 777,182 -3,854,112 -25,410 10,440 88,633,035 11,070 1,192,220 145,446,150 -40,980,290 145,940 -76,538,220 -3,200 1,327,254 -95,100 36,000 26,600 8,080 9,750 -6,534,785 9,469,004 -502,855 150,000 -97,200 53,739,920 47,250 -137,010 195,182,710 8,743,688 12,346,430 1,920,043 9,000 -1,182,195 -124,800 -5,400 343,310 13,970 846,280 6,310 18,560 2,474,340 -67,500 1,000 -5,316,730 -117,241 15,137,020 18,900 1,720 229,400 419,205 10,480 116,250 - -3,287,720

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES 0% ALTUS PROP 18 18.54 17.94 18.6 17.72 18.6 27,100 495,026

1 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last July 8, 2021 (formerly, Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc.).

ITALPINAS KEPWEALTH MERRYMART

"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

FIRST METRO ETF

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).

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."

1.78 3.81 3.27

1.84 3.9 3.28

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS 109.2

109.7

1.81 3.88 3.44

1.89 3.88 3.44

1.75 3.88 3.25

1.87 3.88 3.28

448,000 2,000 6,908,000

802,640 7,760 22,815,830

213,600 -17,800 18,830

110 110 109.2 109.2 12,450 1,363,819 170,785

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Banking&Finance

SSS launches programs for delinquent accounts By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

TATE-run Social Security System (SSS) is offering four new pandemic-relief and restructuring programs to offer a reprieve to employers and members with outstanding obligations and penalties. During the launch last Thursday, SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora C. Ignacio said these programs include the following: contribution condonation penalty (CCP); enhanced installment payment (EIP); housing loan restructuring and penalty condonation (HLRPC); and, short-term member loan penalty condonation (SMLPC). “Given the circumstances we face today, we wouldn’t want to add to those who are already encountering hardships but help them get back on their feet,” Ignacio said. “In trying times like these, people need the SSS and social security protection even more,” Ignacio said. She said the SSS “highly” encourages its members and employers “to take this opportunity to regain their good standing with us, avoid further accrual of penalties and enable themselves and their employees to qualify for the benefits and loan programs they need during this pandemic.” Under the CCP, which will be offered for six months starting this month, qualified employers will be able to pay in full or installment overdue social-security contributions without penalties for a period of four to 24 months depending on the total amount of delinquencies. Qualified employers are those with delinquencies in paying socialsecurity contributions and or penalties covering the applicable month starting March 2020 onwards. Meanwhile, the EIP program, which will also start this month, will enable qualified employers to pay their unpaid social-security contributions and/or employeescompensation contributions through installment for a period of nine months to 60 months depending on the total amount of delinquency.

Those who may avail of this program are regular and household employers with unpaid social-security contributions and/or employeescompensation contributions, for at least six applicable months, either cumulative or consecutive, including penalties, as of date of application. These programs are expected to benefit 700,000 employers. Total amount of delinquencies stood at P55 billion, of which 20 percent or P11 billion are penalties that are expected to be condoned, according to SSS Senior Vice President Mario R. Sibucao. In terms of the loans, the SSS said its HLRPC program aims to provide housing loan borrowers the chance to pay their past due housing loans without penalties. Likewise, this shall also provide delinquent borrowers the chance to maintain possession of their collateral properties by paying in full or by restructuring their housing loans. Past due shall mean that the housing loan is delinquent for six months as of the filing of the date of application within the condonation period. For this program, which will start on November 22, 2021 and last until February 21 next year, SSS Senior Vice President Pedro T. Baoy said they are targeting almost 2,000 housing loan borrowers with a cumulative principal of about P350 million. Baoy said they are estimating to condone about P2 billion in penalties. Lastly, the SMLPC program aims to provide member-borrowers with delinquent loans an opportunity to fully settle obligations in an affordable payment term which may either through one-time payment or installment. Upon full payment, unpaid penalties shall also be condoned. The program will be open for applications starting November 15, 2021 to February 14, 2022. Baoy said almost 7 million borrowers are expected to benefit from the program with a cumulative principal of P59 billion. The SSS is also targeting to condone P60 billion in penalties under this program.

Insurer says fintech makes impact from farm to plate

EFORE fresh fruits and vegetables can find their way to our plate, they would have travelled and passed up to seven middlemen from the farms. This sad reality prompted financial technology (fintech) start-up Agrabah Ventures Inc. to develop online platforms that can solve these market access woes. “Farmers and fisherfolk are among the poorest sectors but they are the ones growing our food. We choose to support them through technology to make the value chain more efficient, to have a stable market channel and access to finance,” said Agrabah co-founder and CEO Joselito Ocol Jr., whose involvement in his father’s seafood trading business made him realize the agriculture value chain and the pain points of those in the sector. In 2020, Agrabah was chosen as part of the “Fintech for Impact” initiative of global financial institution ING Bank, N.V. and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). ING and Unicef extended equityfree investments, along with technical and business mentorship for one year, to five early-stage, open-source fintech start-ups in the Philippines building solutions with the potential to offer financial security and opportunity to more people. Named after the Arabian desert kingdom where the fictional character Aladdin lives, Agrabah aims to help producers steadily earn fair profit by connecting

them to large scale buyers, as well as providing microfinance opportunities. The team has been building trading, logistics, and finance platforms that farmers and fisherfolk can use with ease. Agrabah Wharf, for example, allows them to supply directly to institutional buyers or large-scale businesses across the country to increase or stabilize their income. Bicol served as Agrabah’s launchpad due to the region’s huge production of seaweed, which is one of its target commodities. More than 1,400 farmers and fisherfolk have been registered in its system and are issued an ID card with a QR code for use during crop delivery and across points of tracking. For Ocol, the goal, however, is not to entirely remove the middleman from the equation, but “to provide a fair profit share to farmers and fishermen.” He said middlemen still play an important role in the agriculture value chain. “They provide logistics, financing, postharvesting processing, and they take the risk of getting rejects from institutional consumers,” he said. Tools and resources on its marketplace also empower producers for longterm solutions to existing value-chain problems. Farmers and fishermen should be responsible for aggregating the supply, doing the post-harvest processing, and the logistics, Ocol added.

BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Friday, November 5, 2021

‘ADB fund to bail out coal-fired power plants adds to debt load’

By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

ivil society groups raised concerns with the establishment of a fund that may bail out private firms operating coal-fired power plants at the expense of public funds in three Southeast Asian countries.

The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) opposed the creation of the “energy transition mechanism,” or ETM) that was established by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. APMDD Coordinator Lydinyda “Lidy” B. Nacpil said the risk of stranded assets in the coal industry has been growing and the move to build the ETM could be a way out for these firms. “It would also most likely involve loans to Asian governments for the phase-out of coal projects, adding yet again to debt burdens. The nature of the scheme and its opaqueness makes it fertile ground for corruption and encourages the predatory behavior of private corporations to take advantage of the project to secure profits,” Nacpil said. “These are

not acceptable.” The ADB mechanism proposes the closure of coal-fired power plants in Asia within 15 years by buying them out from current operators. It aims to close down 50 percent of coal-fired power plants in the three pilot countries. “Coal plants should and can be closed much earlier than 15 years. The use of coal is the single biggest driver of climate change. It is time to end it to rein in emissions within this decade,” Philippine Movement for Climate Justice Coordinator Ian C. Rivera said. Global investment in coal projects has declined by 75 percent in the last three years, according to reports. However, this has been more than compensated by a 63-percent growth of the coal-fired power sector in Asia, where projects in the pipeline ac-

count for 80 percent of the world’s planned coal-fired power stations. The use of coal in the Asia-Pacific region accounts for about three-quarters of worldwide coal consumption. Rivera said the phase-out of coal should not involve using public funds to bail out private coal companies. “Public funds should not be used to provide guarantees and bailouts to private corporations that insist on investing in coal energy despite warnings about the inevitability of stranded assets and of the harmful impacts of their projects,” Rivera said. In a statement, the ADB said the ETM will employ a transformative, blended-finance approach to retire existing coal-fired power plants on an accelerated schedule and replace them with clean power capacity. The mechanism will comprise two multibillion-dollar funds: one devoted to early retirement or repurposing of coal-fired power plants on an accelerated timeline and the other focused on new clean energy investments in generation, storage and grid upgrades. It is also envisioned that multilateral banks, private institutional investors, philanthropic contributions and long-term investors will provide capital for ETM. The ADB said it will support the national governments to establish enabling policies and business conditions to improve the program’s governance, carbon reduction and

just transition goals. In the two to three year pilot phase, the ADB said the mechanism will raise the financial resources required to accelerate the retirement of five to seven coal plants in Indonesia and the Philippines, while facilitating investment in alternative clean energy options within these countries. During the design of the ETM, the ADB and its partners will form an advisory group with nongovernment organizations and civil society groups to prioritize a just transition to clean energy. Technical assistance will be provided for reskilling and the livelihood development of affected workers and communities. A full scale-up of the mechanism in Indonesia, the Philippines and possibly Viet Nam aims to retire 50 percent of the coal fleet, which is approximately 30 Gigawatts, over the next 10 years to 15 years. This could cut 200 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, the equivalent of taking 61 million cars off the road. As it grows, the ETM has the potential to become the largest carbon reduction program in the world. A pre-feasibility study has been completed and a full feasibility study is underway to finalize the financial structure of the mechanism, identify candidate coal plants for inclusion in the pilot program and design just transition activities.

Pru Life UK allows access to global stock market

IFE insurer Pru Life UK Philippines Inc. launched its PRULink Global Equity Navigator Fund, a diversified fund that provides access to global stock markets using Philippine peso. Pru Life UK Vice President for Investment Marketing Mark Anthony Valino said last Thursday this fund seeks to provide investors with a combination of income and capital growth over the medium to long term. The fund primarily invests in various equities around the world through exchange-traded funds,

direct equities, index futures and derivatives. It may also invest in fixed income securities and money market instruments issued or guaranteed by the US government, its agencies and instrumentalities. Structured as a feeder fund, it also invests in Global Equity Navigator Fund Class D managed by Eastspring Investments. Valino said what sets this fund apart from other global equity funds is the multifactor investment strategy that they use. “[What is] common to equity

funds is to focus only one factor, say it’s blue chips,” he said. “What we are driving at as a source of returns would be actually five. We don’t want our customers to be fully exposed in certain conditions, especially when there is a downward trend, but it’s more of a stable way of investing,” Valino said. He also said this is the perfect time to invest in a fund, especially now that economic conditions have started to improve. “Global Equity Navigator Fund is primarily invested in stocks and as an asset, stocks generally per-

form well under economic recovery because business activities and overall spending actually improve. From a long-term perspective, this is an opportune time actually to build wealth while economic conditions have just started to get better,” he said. New and existing Pru Life UK policyholders may avail of the fund. Starting November 8, 2021, the fund may also be attached to any of the firm’s Philippine-peso denominated investment-linked life insurance products. Bernadette D. Nicolas

Forever changed: The future for associations

HAT do the Black Death (mid-1300s), Spanish Flu (1918-1920) and Covid-19 pandemics have in common, aside from causing the death of millions? They were all universal adverse events that have changed the world forever. Gihan Perera futurist, online presenter, conference speaker and author, opened his webinar presentation entitled “Forever After: The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be!” with this story. Below are my key takeaways on the three levels of what the future holds that Gihan covered (global, digital and personal), which I thought will resonate with associations: Global: 1. “We’re not safe until we’re all safe.” This refers to the varying status of vaccination globally, i.e., high vaccination in high-income countries and low vaccination in low-income countries, which has implications on how long this current pandemic will last.

Association World Octavio Peralta The longer the pandemic lingers, the more challenges associations have to face in terms of member engagement, product and services delivery, revenue generation, work productivity, as well as its own survival. 2. Time zones matter than geographical locations. This relates, for example, to organizing an international association’s work teams that need to collaborate more effectively and efficiently. By being in the same time zone as opposed to a dispersed location, the association will be able to deliver its role better and faster. 3. On change of business and innovation mindset, Gihan quoted Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, an Indian billionaire entrepreneur who said: “For me, a blockbuster drug is

about serving at least one billion patients, not about a billion dollars. It’s about patients first and business will follow.” If you substitute the word “drug” with “service” and “patients” with “members,” this becomes a subtle message to associations on how they need to care for their members first. Digital: 1. Omnichannel retail. This refers to a retailer’s efforts to provide a consistent and coordinated customer experience across all possible distribution channels, using dependable and universal data. For an association, this helps in promoting and delivering its services to members largely driven by technologies and data analytics. 2. Online learning (also known as e-learning). While online learning has been there for quite a while, the pandemic has hastened its transformation. Associations must now offer most of their knowledge resources in digital formats and distribution media.

Personal: 1. Mental health This includes emotional, psychological and social well-being which affect how people think, feel and act and helps determine how they handle stress, relate to others and make healthy decisions. More than ever, associations have to deal with this issue, especially with their stakeholders. 2. “Avocado leader” Someone who has a “soft outside” (people skills) and “hard inside” (business acumen); something that an association can emulate. Two more add-ons: be an active learner and talk to young people. If you have a youngster in the family, Gihan quips, “the future is living with you!”

The column contributor, Octavio ‘Bobby’ Peralta, is founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE). The PCAAE is holding the Associations Summit 9 (AS9) on November 24 and 25, 2021. The two-day virtual event is supported by the Tourism Promotions Board. E-mail inquiries@adfiap.org for more details on AS9.

UK-based finance journal fetes Security Bank as ‘trailblazer’ in innovation

ECURITY Bank Corp. was recently awarded a “trailblazer in product innovation” recognition during the 2021 RBI Asia Trailblazer Awards for its Doctor’s Loan product. Retail Banker International (RBI), a UK-based finance journal, also

gave Security Bank’s loan product a “Highly Commended” citation. The Doctors Loan product, which is a variant of the Bank’s Corporate Salary Loan, was rolled out in May 2020 to the medical community, starting with St. Luke’s Medical Center. Through the loan offering, physi-

cians were able to obtain loans with a three-month, interest-free deferment on payments, a special interest rate and flexible payment terms of up to 60 months with loans being approved within three to five banking days. “The 2021 edition of the awards received over 300 entries from 25

countries across the Asian continent representing the best-in-class consumer finance and retail banking companies,” RBI said. “Among the key takeaways from the awards submissions in 2021 has been the resilience of the regional banking industry and their ability

to develop innovative solutions and deliver new offerings in record times to help combat the financial implications on their customers in response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” it added. Security Bank President and CEO Sanjiv Vohra said they saw the need to “be agile to the needs of the com-

munities they serve.” “We knew we had to provide financial relief to our physicians in times of need. Through our Doctor’s Loan, we are able to help our frontliners secure funding for their child’s tuition, clinic renovations and additional liquidity,” Vohra said. Bianca Cuaresma

Relationships

Friday, November 5, 2021 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

PHOTOS BY STELLA ARNALDO

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Kevin Jonas, 34; Tatum O’Neal, 58; Bryan Adams, 62; Art Garfunkel, 80. Happy Birthday: Maintain balance, integrity and perspective regarding what’s happening. Keep your inner circle close, and listen to both sides of issues and beliefs. How you use the information and utilize your strengths will determine the direction you take. Change is upon you, and finding the path that feels comfortable is the challenge you face. Put your energy where it counts, then proceed. Your numbers are 7, 13, 24, 27, 33, 36, 44.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Approach whoever is available to pitch in and help. Don’t take a risk with your health or let anyone put you in a compromising position. Keep your spending to a minimum and your sights on what you can accomplish. HHH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Expect someone to make a change of plans. Plan to go about your business, and focus on selfimprovement, personal growth, and raising your profile or qualifications. Romance will ease stress and help you put your day in perspective. HHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gather information, find the best way to present what you have to offer and live frugally. An opportunity will require some finagling if you are going to take advantage of an offer. Consider all aspects before you agree. HHH

The beach is back

O I finally made it to Boracay. One cannot underestimate the profound joy of escaping the Covid-confines of Metro Manila, and plunking one’s self on the creamy sand of Boracay, basking under the sun’s vitamin D radiance, while looking out to the endless blue on blue of the ocean. Of course, there was some mild trepidation accompanying this trip. The RT-PCR test, for one, was not just cringe-worthy in terms of execution—I had to spit into a tube continuously until the saliva reached half of it, or about 1.5 inches—but mildly anxietyinducing as I waited for the results. In less than 24 hours, I was cleared to leave for Boracay. (Kudos to the Philippine Red Cross for making Covid-testing more accessible—I took mine in a mall—and affordable for us, and for the quick turnaround.) On the morning of my flight, I double-masked and put on my face shield to make sure I was well protected from the airborne virus. I didn’t wear any

plastic gloves this time, which was how I traveled to and from the island in March 2020, the last time I was there for a work-related trip, just as Covid was making its presence felt in our shores. Fortunately, there was only one person in my row, and the middle seat was empty. I managed to exchange a few pleasantries with the other passenger, a young IT professional who was traveling with a group of friends. This was the third time he had rescheduled their trip, he said, due to the everchanging lockdown measures in Metro Manila. I must admit, I felt a lump in my throat and teared up a little, as I caught a glimpse of the Boracay coastline as the plane started descending. I had to steel myself firmly, lest my fellow passenger might think I was having a nervous breakdown. Upon touchdown, I unwittingly disregarded the flight attendant’s instruction and stood up immediately to get my tote bag in the overhead bin as soon as the plane came to a full stop. After a quick trip via Coast Boracay’s fastcraft, I was finally on solid ground, the white sand crunching beneath my slippers. I yelped in joy. It felt like a huge accomplishment to make it to the beach after a few cancellations. It was a gorgeous sun-kissed day, with a brisk breeze cooling the temperature, then I started peeling everything from my face one by one...the blasted face shield, then my two masks. As I breathed in the salty sweet air of the beach, I was almost overwhelmed at the feeling of...what was it? Freedom. Randy, Coast’s always pleasant and amiable resort manager, told me, “I’ve had guests who literally jump

d up and down on the beach upon arrival I thought it was strange at first, a little cuckoo maybe, but then they told me they’ve been cooped up in their condo for so long. I then understood; it was their real first break since the pandemic. They really couldn’t go anywhere [in Metro Manila].” I told him the same was true for me. There were some moments of sheer anxiety and terror as the Delta variant silently, cruelly, made its way into the population. But for the next two days, I just soaked in the scenery. I laid on the beach, got a bit of a tan from what little UV rays my SPF 30 and 50 sunblocks would allow to touch my skin, and swam. There were a few times I just stood in the middle of the ocean, the super-clear water up to my chest, and just gazed at the horizon, then up at the blue sky with the puffs of white clouds drifting above. I didn’t know how long I stood there, but I just let the waves of pleasure and contentment just wash over me. A few days later, my ahijada Francesca met up with me. The daughter of Big Sis—I hadn’t seen their family in close to two years as the pandemic unraveled. So I cried silently as I tightly hugged her, holding more than a beat too long. I just didn’t want to let go. I had missed her and the entire family so much. From then on, riot ensued...we ate, drank, partied a little, and swam some more. I felt myself slowly healing. nnn IF there was some award for the most number of apps developed during the pandemic, the clear winner

Continued on B5

500 individuals benefit from CDC’s community pantry A total of 500 indigents, including 150 selected senior citizens, from Barangay Margot in Angeles City benefited from Clark Development Corp.’s (CDC) community pantry held at the Barangay Margot covered court recently. The community pantry is a joint project between CDC in partnership with Clark locators as part of their corporate social responsibility projects. CDC’s partner locators—Clark Marriott Hotel, Global Square Plaza Phils. Corp., COEX Inc., DH Philippines Electrical Corp., Metro Clark Waste Management Corp., Clark Resort Travel and Amusement Corp., BW Manufacturing Corp., and Gold Tree Tobacco Manufacturing Corp.—were among those

who contributed to the community pantry. Advantest Philippines Inc., Evertrust Business Solutions Inc., and Outback Five Star Clark Philippines Inc. also took part in the initiative. The donations were assorted grocery items, food packs, fresh vegetables, and face masks which were turned over to the residents during the activity. Meanwhile, CDC Chairman Atty. Edgardo D. Pamintuan graced the activity together with CDC vice president for admin and finance Engr. Mariza O. Mandocdoc and CDC assistant vice president for external affairs Rommel C. Narciso. CDC external affairs assistant manager Ronald Antonio and CDC

public safety division manager Antonio V. Rosario Jr. were also present in the said activity. Also joining the CDC officers are Global Square Plaza Phils. Corp. chairman Shin Duk Young, Clark Marriott general manager Goeran Soelter, and Outback Five Star Clark Phils. Inc. admin manager Maricon Angeles, among others. Barangay Chairman Jose A. Bagang expressed his gratitude to CDC and its partner locators for sharing their blessings and making the activity successful. In July this year, CDC organized its first community pantry held at Barangay Sapang Bato which benefitted a total of 700 residents.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Plan something you’ve never done before. A fun-filled day with people who think like you and enjoy the same things will bring you closer together. Stay within your budget, regardless of what others choose to do. Entertain a prospect someone suggests. HHH

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Do what’s best. Don’t let anger ruin your plans with friends or family. Be open and receptive to what others want and need, and make adjustments that allow everyone to do as they please without feeling guilty. Romance and self-improvement are encouraged. HHHHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Share quirky stories with friends and relatives, and it will give you a different perspective on your life and theirs. Be sure to stick to the script when passing along information. Don’t let a change at home disrupt a meaningful relationship. HHHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Expect the unexpected. Don’t ignore the inevitable; embrace a challenge head-on, and become the mediator. Taking charge will put you in the best position to barter for what you want and feel is best. Leave time for rest, relaxation and romance. HHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’ll instinctually see through what others propose. Use your insight, gather information and keep a poker face until you are ready to present what you have to offer in return. Make change count by ensuring it aligns with your long-term goals. HHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The fewer people who get wind of what you are doing, the better. Put your energy into whatever brings the highest return, and distance yourself from anyone likely to interfere or waste your time. Keep emotions under control. HHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Deal with restrictions swiftly. Refuse to let someone’s position stop you from doing what’s right. A positive change at home will add stability to your life. An unusual offer will encourage you to rethink your next move. Personal improvement is favored. HHHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Speak up before it’s too late. If you don’t want to participate in a joint venture, say so and move on to something you feel comfortable doing. Use mistakes as leverage, and what you wish for will transpire. HH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Talk to someone in an authoritative position, and get the lowdown before you decide to take part in something costly. Do your homework. Feeling comfortable about a partnership or joint venture is a must before you participate. HHHHH Birthday Baby: You are courageous, passionate and dedicated. You are unique and intuitive.

‘alternate spellings’ by colin ernst The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Fateful day for Caesar 5 Feature to consider 10 Cried 14 Word that summons a waiter? 15 Smell from a kitchen 16 Greenish blue 17 Baby’s first word, sometimes 18 “Grande” women 19 Istanbul native 20 Japanese wheat noodle 21 Longtime film critic Roger 22 Word after “masking” or “packing” 23 Houston sch. 24 Some cross highways 26 Baseball great Gehrig 27 Spidey-___ (intuition) 29 Affirmative vote 30 Like a new dollar bill 32 Cover with glitter, say 34 Tequila, e.g., informally 35 Jack who could eat no fat 37 Sporty car 38 -8 40 They have a day in May

3 Prospector’s find 4 44 Baking ___ 48 Card game with a Spanish name 49 Con artist’s reassurance 53 Prefix for “service” 54 Former part of Yugoslavia 56 Like the child who often gets special privileges 58 Certain description in literature... or the clue for 38-Across, 3-Down, 7-Down or 11-Down? 62 Sax player on The Simpsons 63 Flying toys 64 Chemical building block 65 Site with custom jewelry 66 Not all there: Var. 67 Org. that develops rockets DOWN 1 You need these to get results 2 Ancient scroll site 3 X## 4 Nickname within “Constance” 5 Volume knob in a studio 6 Oil-rich peninsula 7 ,D

8 Leave a cocoon 9 Personal style 10 Lightbulb measure 11 =II 12 Reason 13 Start, as a hobby 24 Fruit on a bush 25 One may sell cookies 28 They’re no longer first-years: Abbr. 31 Tools for catching cows 33 Forty winks 34 Drag queen’s neckwear 36 Holier-than-___ 37 Tech news site 39 High-stress med. facilities 40 Brawn 41 Descriptor for a musical wonder 42 Muddy area 45 “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement” 46 1970s dance clubs 47 Reason to carry an inhaler 49 Aunt, in Acapulco 50 Storage structures with shelves 51 Like the shady side of a tree,

perhaps 2 Deer family member 5 55 “Hee-haw!” sound 57 College official with a list 59 What a waiter waits for? 60 GPS guess 61 Letters by a dot, on a video camera

Solution to today’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Friday, November 5, 2021

The beach is back CONTINUED FROM B4 would be the Philippines. In signing up to get tested, Red Cross gives each person a QR code. At the testing site in TriNoma, no one bothered looking at it nor scanning it. Prior to my departure, I registered with S-pass. Again, it gave me a QR code, which no one checked at the departure or arrival airports, nor at any resort, restaurant or store I visited on Boracay. At Naia, travelers are also supposed to register on Traze, another app from the brilliant folks at the Departmentment of Tourism. Again, absolutely no one checked if I had it, and I didn’t see any particular benefit from it. All it did was spew out my QR code, which expired even before I boarded the plane. I also had to upload a copy of my ID and RT-PCR test result to the Boracay government portal. Apart from that, I e-mailed more documents such as proof of my residence, hotel voucher, plane ticket, etc., to the Boracay tourist e-mail address. Thereafter I received a QR code on my health declaration card, which is what guests present at the airport of departure upon checkin, and at the Caticlan airport upon arrival. It’s a tedious process, and even those vaccinated such as myself have to go through with it. Either these QR code initiatives are made mandatory for businesses to operate, or government removes the red tape. Next week, health and wellness activities on my Boracay trip. ■

And so begins the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival

GTV MAKES PRESENCE FELT ONLINE

GMA Network’s second free-to-air channel GTV likewise keeps it good online as it unveils www.gtv.ph, viewers’ go-to source for the hottest updates on everything GTV. Airing a variety of programs produced by GMA News and Public Affairs, Entertainment Group, Regional TV and Synergy, as well as foreign dramas, GTV caters to a broad swatch of viewers. And through its own web site, netizens can access all the latest news about their favorite GTV shows, videos, program schedules, as well as online exclusives. Viewers can also watch or rewatch the latest episodes of My Fantastic Pag-ibig, La Doña, Playful Kiss, and When Duty Calls on the web site anytime and on the go. There are program highlights or bite-sized clips of GTV lifestyle shows where GMA celebrities and personalities share tips and how-to’s about fashion and beauty, travel and food, family and relationships, and other hobbies and interests. Viewers can go on different kinds of adventure with Biyahe ni Drew, Pinas Sarap, Taste Buddies, Farm To Table, Pera Paraan, and the new show Dapat Alam Mo. GTV is available on free-toair TV, GMA Affordabox, GMA Now or other digital TV receivers. More information can be found at www. gtv.ph.

PINAS Sarap host Kara David

T is early autumn in Tokyo, and on October 30 the 34th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) finally opened. Clint Eastwood, we would learn later, would not be able to make it. But Isabelle Huppert, the great French actress, was there to grace the red carpet and be the chair for this year’s jury. Huppert was with another juror, Lorna Tee, on the red carpet, preceded by fellow jurors Aoyama Shinji, Chris Fujiwara and Sebu Hiroko. Aoyama is a filmmaker and a novelist. In 2000, his film Eureka became part of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won for him both the FIPRESCI prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. In 2011, his Tokyo Park won the special Golden Leopard award at the 64th Locarno International Film Festival. Chris Fujiwara is a film critic and programmer. He is the author of books on cinema. I had the honor of working with him as mentor for the Yamagata International Film Criticism Workshop, when it was held during the last pre-pandemic edition of Cinema Rehiyon in the city of Naga, Camarines Sur. Sebu is a composer who studied, outside her academic stint at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, under the French Oscar-winning composer Gabriel Yared. She is known for her work on Arc in 2021 and Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2020. Lorna Tee is a pan-Asian film producer and also a film festival organizer. She navigates Europe and Asia having worked for Focus Films of Hong Kong, Irresistible Films of Hong Kong and Japan, and the Berlinale, among many other engagements. She

manages her own production company Paperheart (Malaysia), which aims to produce films across Asia. Isabelle Huppert has two Best Actress awards from the Cannes Film Festival and two Volpi Cups for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. She has acted in Brillante Mendoza’s film Captive. Mendoza’s film Payback is now in competition in this year’s edition of the TIFF. Legendary already is the orderliness of the TIFF and any international event organized by the Japanese in Japan. The celebrities had to walk up to the end of the carpet, which was at the bottom of a winding staircase. They were to stand there and had to wait for the guide to motion them to go up the stairs. Once they were seen by the hosts, they were then introduced and another guide, hands in white gloves (not a measure against the virus but the most formal sign of welcome) ushered them to a wall. A woman this time carried a tray on which were placed two or three (depending on the number of the production team represented) wireless microphones. These were handed from left to right. No deviation from that order. Due to the pandemic, according to organizers, safety measures and other rules are to be observed during all the physical screenings, Q&A sessions, master classes and the Conversation Series at Asia Lounge, all of which will be held in TIFF’s new venues in the Yurakucho-Hibiya-Ginza area of Tokyo. The former venue was in Roppongi. Some Q&A sessions will be taking place online to accommodate filmmakers who are overseas; many other events will be livestreamed. The festival will be screening 126 films physically, including outdoor screenings. Fifteen titles are competing for the Tokyo Grand Prix in the International Competition, 10 of them world premieres, drawn from 1,533 submissions from 113 countries and regions. Other luminaries who graced the opening ceremonies were: director Yukisada Isao, actress Watanabe Makiko, and Andrijana Cvetkovikj, former Ambassador of the Republic of North Macedonia to Japan, who are serving on the Amazon Prime Video Take One Award Jury; director Ishii Yuya, who is serving on the Asian Future Jury; and three leading

film festival directors: Frédéric Boyer (Artistic Director, Tribeca Film Festival), Christian Jeune (Director, Film Department/Deputy General Delegate, Cannes Film Festival) and Carlo Chatrian (Artistic Director, Berlin International Film Festival). They will be speaking at the World Cinema Conference: The Future of the Film Industry. Inside the Tokyo International Forum, the opening ceremonies began with a live performance by the Women Orchestra Japan playing a medley of songs from beloved films. New TIFF Festival Chairman Ando Hiroyasu, welcoming the audience, shared how the organizers had been “on the edge of our seats until the very last minute, wondering if we would be able to hold the film festival this year. But today, the pandemic has subsided, and we are thrilled to be able to welcome so many people to the opening.” The TIFF also announced its new programming director, Ichiyama Shozo. The Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio appeared via video, with his comments about how in the middle of this pandemic, he would like “to express my gratitude to all of you for your ingenuity and dedication in organizing this new type of film festival, a hybrid of the real and online.” The buzz of course in the evening was about the opening film, Cry Macho, and its filmmaker, Clint Eastwood. The night turned out to be a tribute to the actor who was marking his 50th anniversary as a director, which began in 1971. Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson and Hilary Swank appeared also on-screen to talk about Eastwood’s legacy. Then, a letter from the Eastwood himself appeared on-screen. “Hello Japan,” it began. Eastwood expressed how through this film, he could deliver his interpretation of “true strength.” He ended his speech with this line: “Cry Macho was shot during the pandemic, and I hope it can be one of the films to bring courage and strength to the film industry...” The 34th Tokyo International Film Festival is ongoing until November 8. Brillante Mendoza’s Payback (Resbak) and Gensan Punch, a Philippines/ Japan coventure, are in competition. ■

Enchong Dee remains in fighting form

AFTER more than a dozen year in showbiz marked by successes, Enchong Dee remains in fighting form, still in tip-top shape as an artist to reckon with. A few years ago in a private conversation, he remembered his salad days as a showbiz newcomer with fondness. Like the first time he guested in a morning talk show with his brother AJ. “Enjoy pala sya,” Enchong recalled. “At first I was hesitant to join showbiz but little by little, I learned that showbiz is something I can make a career of. I’ve never looked at my job as a stepping stone to something bigger. Rather, I consider it as a blessing. I’ve reached my goal. Being happy with myself, with my family, and with my life.” And what a career he has. “I’ve never looked at my job as a stepping stone to something bigger. Rather,

I consider it as a blessing,” he said. “It helps me reach my goal which is to be happy. Being happy with myself, with my family, and with my life.” Enchong has starred in numerous TV shows, movies and has had the privilege of endorsing a number of brands. He is now even into vlogging. But what keeps Enchong busy now, besides the final taping days of his prime-time soap Huwag Kang Mangamba, is his stint as the opening salvo of MMK’s 30th anniversary this November. Enchong brings life to the story of Edwin Pranada, a renowned cosmetic tattooist who gives free service to people suffering from alopecia. Through Enchong, we will discover the story of Edwin who grows up finding value in his mother’s praise for his siblings every time they bring food and money to their family. At first, he tries to earn by collecting garbage. But then Edwin gets tired of waiting and resorts to tricking people and selling drugs. He will then see the light and opt for a better life by being a cosmetic tattooist. This episode of MMK which is directed by Jerome Pobocan, airs on November 6. Meanwhile, as part of the 30th anniversary celebration and due to popular demand, MMK will reair the first team-up of Coco Martin and Jodi Sta. Maria the following Saturday. The much talkedabout episode sees Coco play Ramon, who does

underground boxing for a living. But for his wife Mila (Jodi) and his son, he decides to change his job. However, as Ramon tries to find another job, he commits a crime that makes his family hate him. Watch how he will realize his mistakes and be a better father and husband to his family. And then on November 20, Anne Curtis returns to the longest airing drama anthology playing Marrz. Throughout her childhood, Marrz knows that she is not like her sisters. Because her father disapproves of her gender, Marrz goes to Hong Kong to find the freedom and independence she dreams of and help her family. Despite all the judgment from people, Marrz will inspire people to embrace themselves for who they are on November 20. Viewers can also revisit the 2018 Asian Academy Creative Awards Best Single Drama/Telemovie episode starring Angel Locsin and Dimples Romana, titled Kotse-Kotsehan. Watch Samina’s (Angel) point of view on how she found Idai’s (Dimples) son, who is suspected to have been kidnapped, and how she will prove her innocence to regain her freedom on November 27. MMK airs on Kapamilya Channel and A2Z, Kapamilya Online Live on ABS-CBN Entertainment’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, and iWantTFC. For viewers outside of the Philippines, catch it on The Filipino Channel on cable and IPTV.

ENCHONG DEE

B6 Friday, November 5, 2021

J&T Express, Shopee spread happiness with promos and shipping discounts for 11.11 big Christmas sale

Toyota Motor PH continues to take the challenge of protecting the environment

TMP president Atsuhiro Okamoto spearheads the volunteers during the mangrove planting activity

OYOTA Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP) continues its environmental conservation campaign as it recently conducted mangrove planting and coastal cleanup activities on its adopted 10-hectare National Greening Program Plantation in Lian, Batangas. Seventy volunteers composed of TMP, Community Environment and Natural Resources (CENRO)–Calaca, Municipal Environment and Natural Resources (MENRO)–Lian, local government unit (LGU) of Lian and Lian Fisherfolk Association, Inc. planted a total of 20,000 mangrove propagules and were able to collect 50 kilograms of garbage from the coastline.

For TMP, planting mangroves is essential as it improves biodiversity, serves as a barrier against storm surges, provides livelihood for the locals and most of all, captures carbon dioxide ten times more than terrestrial trees. The shoreline of Lian is part of the Verde Island Passage which is the Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity in the World. The mangrove planting and coastal clean-up activities are part of the AllToyota Green Wave Project, a global environmental initiative which started in 2015. Through this project, Toyota aims to plant 11 million trees worldwide to help preserve the environment for

future generations, in line with the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 Challenge no. 6: Establishing a Future Society in Harmony with Nature.TMP, for its part, have planted a total of 36,900 propagules in both coastal and upland areas since the project started. TMP president Atsuhiro Okamoto, who spearheaded the activity, said, “Toyota’s new global vision is producing happiness for all. When we do these activities that bring positive impact to the community, then it makes sense for Toyota to continue our harmony with nature programs. We are sure that a healthy environment brings happiness to all.”

RedDoorz launches #TuloyTuloyLang campaign for safe, affordable stays and new hotel experiences

EDDOORZ launches #TuloyTuloyLang campaign where it highlights the new moments and new experiences for the holiday season that Filipinos can positively look forward to as RedDoorz and Sans Hotels offers hotel stays that are more affordable, accessible, safe, and technologically focused. The budget hotel chain brand invites Filipinos to positively embrace their urge to travel and celebrate new moments together just in time for the holiday season. In a recent roundtable discussion entitled #TuloyTuloyLang: The New Moments & Safe Travels Are Just Ahead, the techenabled hotel management company also showcased its new acquisitions that have allowed the company to expand and open more doors so Filipinos of all ages and across the country for essential, quarantine, or leisure stays. The zoom event highlighted both RedDoorz’s aggressive growth as a company despite the challenges from the pandemic and strength to pivot its

offerings to fit the needs and demands of Filipinos looking forward to safely keep travelling again in the next few months. “It is in our nature to travel, to go out, even just a short distance, to spend some quality time with loved ones and to celebrate new moments and experiences, especially during the holidays. As restrictions start to ease, Filipinos are looking forward to making travels happen again and RedDoorz is ready to provide them hotel stays that are now more accessible, affordable, tech-driven, and still health-conscious. We are even improving the training of our property managers and hotel staff, as well as implementing refresher courses for our partner hotels to keep the RedDoorz standard, and onboarding regional tourism so that our partners can further understand the new trends and demands of local travels,” said Miguel Capistrano III, Country Manager of RedDoorz Philippines. Throughout the pandemic, RedDoorz has demonstrated its agility and resilience. As of this month, the company

has already acquired more than 300 properties and opened hotels located in today’s top leisure destinations across the country including Cebu, Bohol, Boracay, Davao, Palawan, Siargao, and Zambales. Additionally, since launching its lifestyle economy concept brand Sans Hotels earlier this year, RedDoorz has already acquired hotels in Manila, Cebu, and Tagaytay whereby Sans Hotels caters to a younger market who are more eager to go out of their homes and travel safely. “Our direct bookings reached 96% and our occupancy increased an average of 41% this year which reflects that there are good signs for us and the tourism industry. So, with our several hotel offers, we will provide more affordable and accessible hotels to be able to pinch that “urge” of travelling and the need to go out even just a few steps away from their houses. ‘Tuloytuloy lang’ projects brighter days for us, for our partners, and even for every Filipino traveler as there are signs of tourism’s bounce back,” added Capistrano. By The end of 2021, the multi-brand accommodations platform plans to acquire a total of 10 Sans hotels and 61 RedDoorz hotels whereby the company also plans to bring in more hotel brands next year such as the Sunerra Hotels. To date, RedDoorz has also managed to hit over Php 10 million of the overall business value considering the macro situation and that the company has earned them the distinction of being one of the most resilient travel and technology-based companies in Southeast Asia. For more information, visit www. reddoorz.com/en-ph.

HE biggest sale of the year is coming and online shoppers can’t wait to check-out their items from their carts! As the leading delivery service PH Global Jet Express Inc. (J&T Express Philippines) and partner e-commerce giant Shopee teamed up to give the best deals on the biggest double-day sale of the year! Online shoppers may enjoy freeshipping every Monday this November and deals from J&T Express on November 11, 2021 as they enjoy promos from some of the biggest brands in Shopee. Vice President of J&T Express Philippines Zoe Chi said that for the past two years since partnering with Shopee, the November 11 double day sale has been the most awaited shopping event of the holiday season! With Christmas just around the corner, J&T Express ensures that shopping for essentials and gifts alike for friends and family won’t be hampered by the pandemic and will surely arrive in time for Christmas with their premium delivery services. “Filipinos are extremely generous. Most have already prepared their Christmas gift lists as early as now, and Shopee's 11.11 Big Christmas Sale presents the perfect opportunity for everyone to get a head start on their holiday shopping. To bring even more joy to shoppers during these tough times, we are excited to share the holiday spirit by offering discounted vouchers and promos with our e-commerce partner. We look forward to continuously supporting Shopee with their upcoming campaigns,” Chi added. Aside from site-wide free shipping during Shopee’s 11.11 biggest sale of the year, customers can also avail a 10% discount

using J&T Express’ exclusive promo code SHPJT11 with a minimum spend of Php 500.00 and capped at Php 100.00, valid on November 11 only. J&T Express is a proud partner of Shopee in helping entrepreneurs and brands express their online business and provide deliveries to customers. Over the years of working together with Shopee, as one of the official delivery couriers of the e-commerce giant, J&T Express has remained dedicated to providing fast and reliable delivery service among Shopee customers and sellers. J&T Express also offers free pick-up service in Metro Manila, so Filipinos, especially small businesses, can still send essentials to their customers and remain operational despite the restrictions during community quarantine. Customers can choose from scheduling their free pick up online, mobile application, or phone call. To know more about the company’s services, visit https://www.jtexpress.ph/.

CCP reopens with special screenings of select feature and films

WENTY months after it closed down its theatres and other venues, the Cultural Center of the Philippines ushers in the better normal for its patrons and audiences through the special premiere screenings of select feature and documentary films celebrating Filipino excellence. Collectively known as “WAGI: A Celebration of Filipino World-Class Excellence,” all the special screenings will happen at 7pm, at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater). Starting November 5, CCP opens its doors with the “A Thousand Cuts,” a social documentary by filmmaker Ramona Diaz, to celebrate the first Nobel laureate from the Philippines, journalist Maria Ressa. From the same director behind “Imelda" (2014) and “Motherland,” the film looks into the worldwide erosion of democracy, fueled by social media disinformation campaigns. This 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary focuses on the battle for truth and democracy. Filipino pride and excellence in sports takes the spotlight in the special screening

of GMA 7 documentary “Team Pilipinas” on November 26. Produced by broadcast journalist Atom Araullo, the docu film honors the athletes who represented the Philippines and bagged medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Highlighting the Philippines’ best Olympic performance since 1924, it draws attention to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz who is the first Filipino to bring home an Olympic gold medal, boxer Nesthy Petecio who is the first Filipino woman boxer to win an Olympic (silver) medal, boxer Carlo Paalam who won the silver in the men’s flyweight division, and boxer Eumir Marcial who brought home a bronze medal in the men’s middleweight division. On December 9, celebrate world-class acting talent with the Philippine premiere of “On The Job: The Missing 8,” a film that brought the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup) for Best Actor to actor John Arcilla. Directed by Erik Matti, the special screening is co-presented with the Embassy of Italy in Manila. There will be a talkback after the screening. Following the new rulings on the government-imposed lockdowns, the CCP will open with 30 per cent audience capacity. Only audiences who are fully vaccinated will be allowed inside the theaters. They need to present their vaccination card/ID at the entrance, fill up a health declaration form or the Stay Safe app, and present their tickets/ scannable QR Codes on mobile. Visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph. Follow the official CCP social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates.

PRIMEWATER SILANG BOOSTS SERVICE IN SILANG,CAVITE. PrimeWater Silang and joint venture partner, Silang Water District recently inaugurated Sitio Banaba Pumping Station to enhance water service in covered areas at Silang, Cavite. Present during the inauguration were Silang LGU representatives and (from left) PrimeWater Silang Branch Manager Abigail Mojica; PrimeWater General Manager Bonifacio Dela Cruz; and PrimeWater Cavite Operations Head Niel Bautista.

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

Sports BusinessMirror

Friday, November 5, 2021 B7

Vargas: We hope to have fans back in 2nd conference

TOYOTA Tuguegarao’s Jho Maraguinot in action in Santa Ana, Cagayan. BVR PHOTO

By Josef Ramos

RINGING back the fans and safeguarding the health of everyone are top priorities in the importladen second conference of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), league chairman Ricky Vargas said on Thursday. “I hope we can invite our fans in [for the second conference],” said Vargas, TNT Tropang Giga’s governor in the PBA board. “My wish is that there will come a time when we can allow the fans to come and watch the games. “Also my priority is to deliver the games and safeguard the players,” he said. Vargas also thanked Senate Sports Committee Chairman Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go for supporting the PBA’s request to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to hold the games in Metro Manila if the protocols allow. The PBA could hold games in Metro Manila once quarantines are lowered to Alert Level 2 with the fans allowed to watch live in arenas or stadiums at 50 percent capacity. “There’s already a model in the NBA [National Basketball Association], the fans are back,” Vargas said. “But what is important is to follow all health and safety protocols or guidelines of the IATF and DOH [Department of Health].” The PBA board, Vargas said, are faced with several options. “We will discuss the potential venue in our board meeting tomorrow [Friday],” he said. “We must have scenarios for Alert Level 2 or 3 or even 4—that’s why we cannot set aside or remove yet the bubble in our planning.” The PBA successfully held its first bubble October last year in Clark. The league opened its 46th season last July at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City but was forced to transfer the games to Bacolor, Pampanga, last September because of a surge in virus infections in Metro Manila. Vargas also thanked the Department of Foreign Affairs for granting working visas to all 12 imports for the upcoming conference. The second conference would run from November until February, Vargas said.

PSC launches MAKE It Sports short courses

HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will launch MAKE It Sports—a module-based and asynchronous learning opportunity for sports enthusiasts. Registration for the program will start on Friday. MAKE or Modules for Asynchronous Knowledge Enhancement will provide information on different topics in everyday life which touch the boundaries of sports like law, medicine, economics and technology. The project is an offshoot of the National Sports Summit and will invite prominent speakers. “Learning never stops. For some of our athletes, studies gave way to their training, but learning should never stop. We must find a way,” PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez said. MAKE It Sports will feature modules that participants can learn from at their own pace and time and can opt to apply for certification by going through the examinations. The courses will be given exclusively to registered learners for the first three months, after which the courses will be uploaded to the PSC’s website for public access. Ramirez said the topics are practical and can be applied to daily life as it intersects with their sports life. “They can be an athlete, a teacher, a coach, an administrator, but knowledge on the law as it applies to sports is very useful,” said Ramirez, a coach and teacher before he became a PSC commissioner and chairman. The first module will deal with Sports Law and will be discussed by sports law-for-all advocate and Pilipinas Obstacle Sports Federation President Atty. Alberto Agra. Two other modules available this month include Arbitration in Sports and Netball.

BVR gets boost from avid sponsor

HE Beach Volleyball Republic (NVR) received a major boost from XentroMall as one of its sponsors in the recent two-leg bubble tournament in Santa Ana, Cagayan. The successful BVR restart—the first competition since September 2019—saw Creamline pairs Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons and Jude Garcia and Krung Arbasto sweeping the women’s and men’s divisions, respectively. BVR founder Charo Soriano expressed gratitude to XentroMall for its support in the Santa Ana double-

gender tournaments. “It’s such a blessing for companies such as XentroMall to continue supporting beach volleyball as we find new ways to mount tournaments,” said Soriano, beach volleyball commission head of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation. “We’re very grateful to have them, not only as our sponsor, but as our partner.” XentroMall has been supporting BVR in the past. It fielded women’s and men’s teams in the 2019 Puerto Galera leg and also hosted the bubble of the national team at the Dreamwave Hotel in Puerto Galera.

YUKA SASO: I AM PROUD OF MY DUAL HERITAGE

PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino follows Yuka Saso virtually in every hole during the Tokyo Olympics.

UKA SASO sought her fellow Filipinos’ respect on her decision to choose Japanese citizenship when she turns 22 as Philippine Olympic

Committee (POC) President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino thanked her for bringing pride and honor for the country on the golf course. “Thank you for respecting my choice. I am grateful to both my Filipino and Japanese supporters,” Saso, 20, said in a statement on Thursday. “I would not have achieved anything in my career without your support. I look forward to making you proud as I continue with my professional golfing career.” The Philippines lost a gem after reigning US Women’s Open champion Saso announced on Wednesday her decision to choose Japanese citizenship when she turns 22 on June 20, 2023. Japanese laws allow its people with dual citizenship to choose their

nationality when they turn 22. But Saso remained steadfast on her Filipino roots. “I am a Filipina, born in the Philippines to a Japanese father and Filipino mother,” she added in her statement. “I was raised in both Japan and the Philippines. I am immensely proud of my dual heritage and that will never change.” “Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!” she added. “Nihon no minasama kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu! [To everyone in Japan, thank you for your continued support!].” Tolentino thanked Saso for having represented the country in major global competitions with a flourish and expressed belief that despite her decision to embrace Japanese citizenship, “she remains a Filipino by heart.” “Still, she was born here in the Philippines so by heart she represents both,” Tolentino said. “I would like to thank her personally for representing our country for the past years. Her personal business decision will help her develop more as a person and athlete…carrying a Japanese passport for every

Medical Depot five dents San Juan’s armor

EDICAL Depot dealt San Juan its first loss in four matches with a 69-67 victory on Wednesday in the Filbasket Subic Championship at the Subic Gym. Simon Camacho posted a doubledouble of 19 points and 16 rebounds to pace Medical Depot and even its win-loss tally to 2-2. Christian Moralde also helped

with 19 points on top of six rebounds, three assists and two steals as Medical Depot rose from a 54-51 third-quarter deficit en route to the win. Medical Depot’s victory overshadowed the efforts of Alvin Abundo, Adrian Nocum and Arvin Gamboa for the San Juan Knights after the trio combined for 38 points.

Swimmers laud bubble setup in Clark

ILIPINO swimmers commended the successful bubble hosting of Philippine Swimming Inc. (PSI) Swimming National Selection (SNS) Meet at the New Clark City and Clark Freeport Zone. The swimmers thanked the organizers for giving them an opportunity to safely go back to competition after more than a year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), in partnership with the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and PSI, hosted a total of 71 swimmers at the SNS Meet from October 22 to 24 at the New Clark City Aquatics Center in Capas, Tarlac. Bubble participants were billeted at the Hotel Stotsenberg at the Clark Freeport Zone.

It was the first competition held at the New Clark City Aquatics Center since the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019. It was also the first local swimming competition hosted by the PSI THE Aquatics Center at the New Clark City is a world-class facility.

international tournament helps a lot, imagine no visa needed.” The International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), Saso’s principal sponsor in the country, said in a statement that it “respects Yuka’s choice of citizenship.” “Our support for her goes beyond her citizenship preference because of her outstanding talent and achievements,” the ICTSI statement said. “Yuka has truly evolved to become a global icon, and we are proud to be a part of her journey.” ICTSI added: “Her unparalleled dedication and determination are in line with ICTSI’s commitment to excel and break barriers.” Saso was born to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother in San Ildefonso, Bulacan. She won individual and team gold medals at the Jakarta 2018 Asian Games and represented the Philippines at the Tokyo Olympics along with Bianca Pagdanganan and Juvic Pagunsan. She also won twice on the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour.

The Davao Occidental Tigers crushed the FSD Makati-Army, 82-69, for their third win in four outings. Gab Dagangon and Chris Lalata fired 10 points each for the Tigers, who forged a three-way logjam on top with San Juan and AICC Manila. Davao Occidental banked on FSD Makati-Army’s erratic plays, converting 28 points out of the

latters’ 23 turnovers. Jaybren Motol was the lone double-digit scorer for FSD MakatiArmy with 13 points In the nightcap, Burlington EOG Sports edged Mtrans Buracai de Laiya-Batangas City Tanduay, 86-83. John Paul Maguilano drained 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Jeymark Mallari and Jhan Mernal added 11 points as Burlington improved to 2-2. Mtrans-Batangas City fell to 2-2.

since the 2019 National Open, also at the same facility. “To hold a competition during a global pandemic is extremely difficult so I feel very grateful for the opportunity to be able to compete during this time,” swimmer Chloe Daos said. Ianiko Limfilipino said the

meet was able to remind him again “what it feels like to compete.” “I surely missed the rush of the competition. I’m also happy to see so many familiar faces from coaches, swimmers and officials,” Limfilipino said.

Constantino starts putting order with 70 at Aoki Classic

ARMIE CONSTANTINO shouldered herself past amateur Mafy Singson with a scorching finish, shooting a 70 to rally from four down and into a two-stroke lead after 36 holes of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Aoki Classic at Eagle Ridge on Thursday in General Trias, Cavite. Constantino shook off another rollercoaster frontside 37 with three birdies in the last six holes then watched Singson succumb to pressure and yield strokes on Nos. 16 and 18 to move 18 holes away from completing back-to-back feat here after beating absentee Princess Superal by two in the ICTSI Eagle Ridge Challenge last March. “It was a little rough start in the first nine holes but I made it up at the back nine and shot three-under,” said Constantino, whose 143 aggregate gave her a two-shot cushion over Singson, who actually padded her lead with a gutsy 36 after nine holes. But she wavered when the going got tougher, fumbling with four bogeys against a birdie in the last eight holes as she limped with a 75 after she and fellow amateur Laurea Duque upstaged Constantino and the other pros with 70 and 72, respectively, in Wednesday’s opener of the P750,000 event marking the third restart of the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour put up by ICTSI. “My game is okay but I’m not so happy with it,” said Singson, who rued a number of missed putts that led to bogeys in the closing holes. She, however, remained confident of her chances but stressed the need to toughen up in the last 18 holes to at least measure up with Constantino. “I need to play steady and consistent, try to hit more greens and make the putts,” Singson said. Despite her lead, Constantino, who slowed down at Sherwood (third) and Eagle Ridge-Norman (fourth) last July after spiking her pro debut with a victory, also underlined the need for consistency to post another top podium finish again in the bubble tournament organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. “I must play steady and try not to make many mistakes,” she said. Though no lead is safe at Aoki, the rest will need to go low to contend as Sunshine Baraquiel matched par 72 and Chihiro Ikeda carded a 73 to tie Duque, who skied to a 77, at third at 149, six strokes off Constantino. Baraquiel turned in an impressive two-birdie, one-bogey card at the front but bogeyed Nos. 10 and 13 before birdying the par-5 16th to salvage a 35-27 while Ikeda missed seizing solo third with a bogey on the last hole for a 37-36. Duque failed to match her opening 72 with a slew of miscues at the front then holed out with a double-bogey for a 38-39 marred by five bogeys against two birdies. Chanelle Avaricio, runner-up to Superal in the last two events before the circuit took a three-month break, recovered from a disastrous opening 79 with a one-birdie, one-bogey round. But her 72 and a 151 kept her way behind Constantino. Marvi Monsalve also struggled trying to equal her first round 74 as she fumbled with a 77 and slipped to joint sixth with Avaricio while Burberry Zhang, another amateur, carded a 75 for a 152 and Daniella Uy also turned in a three-under card for a 153. HARMIE CONSTANTINO grabs a two-stroke lead on Thursday.

Motoring

B8 Friday, November 5, 2021

BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

Mercedes-Benz unveils the new S-Class Story by Randy S. Peregrino

UTO Nation Group, Inc (ANG), the official importer and distributor of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the Philippines, recently unveiled the seventhgeneration Mercedes-Benz S-Class dubbed “The Benchmark of Luxury Sedans.” With its latest innovations, the new S-Class is more thoughtful to its passengers.

The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class as the “The Benchmark of Luxury Sedans”.

Mercedes-Benz Philippines

where, from the instrument panel, along with the doors, and into the rear. It increasingly boosts a feel-good vibe while on the road and enhances the passenger’s safety by showing visual warnings of any danger.

Climb aboard and be blown away

An interior to inspire.

Mercedes-Benz Philippines

“The new S-Class has undergone the most extensive refinement process in the history of Mercedes-Benz,” said Frankie Ang, chief operating officer at Auto Nation Group, Inc. “The brand did to the new S-Class what it does best—putting the customers in the center. It can now be experienced with all the senses—seeing, feeling, hearing, and smelling – while offering impressive innovations in the areas of driver assistance, protection, and interaction.”

Modern Luxury in its Most Desirable Form

First, the dimensions have grown. It now

has a longer bonnet, shorter overhang, longer wheelbase, flowing C-Pillar, and balanced rear overhang exuding that classical sedan with perfect proportions. The AMG Design line highlights the 21-inch multi-spoke AMG wheels. This new exterior defines the brand’s distinct design philosophy of ‘sensual purity’ in its most modern form. Innovation is written all over the fascia highlighting its innovative Digital Light Headlights with its new three-dot design. These headlights represent unique innovations with more than one million pixels per headlamp that provide optimal lighting for every situation while driving. Those seamless

Providing first-class-like flight experience.

Mercedes-Benz Philippines

door handles are an entirely new development. The doors automatically extend when approaching the car and retract when the doors are locked. The rear end, meantime, has that broad emphasis highlighted by the new two-piece horizontal taillamps, with a 3D-like display, sequential indicator lamps, dual exhaust tips, and a rear diffuser.

An Interior to Inspire

Comfort is an absolute priority in the new S-Class. Those passengers seated at the rear can recline the electric seats, extend the leg rest, and even enjoy a relaxing massage. It provides that flying first-classlike. Notably, the cabin conveys experience in almost all senses of sight, touch, hearing, and smell. The executive seats are enveloped in the finest exclusive Nappa

leather and elegant diamond patterns. The new S-Class brings the Mercedes-Benz User Experience to rear passengers with its high-end rear-seat entertainment system. A fully integrated 11.6-inch touch display with brilliant graphic quality is paired with the crisp and powerful 3D sound quality of the Burmester 3D surround sound system with 15 speakers and a total system output of 710 watts. Thanks to the touch-controlled MBUX rear tablet, Operation is easy with a voice command (say “Hey Mercedes”). Moreover, there is a refrigerated compartment by the center armrest. Highlighted in the dashboard is a 12.3-inch OLED touchscreen also with an MBUX system. Active Ambient Lighting is also providing a serene ambiance to suit passenger’s mood while on the move. Lights strips are every-

One of a kind A

GAIN, I say you’ve got to give it to Ramon S. Ang a.k.a. RSA, the indefatigable San Miguel Corp. top gun bent on endlessly gunning up his own humble pitch on nation building no matter the odds. One of a kind; he truly is. Dismissing his critics as mere detractors, he has pursued his passion to help the country’s insatiable drive for socio-economic-political stability, doing it even at the expense of puncturing his own pocket just to get the job done. Legend has it that he has spent—continues to spend—his hard-earned billions to help finance massive road-building networks in the metropolis such as the skyways and expressways snaking through the neighboring provinces South and North of the National Capital Region. Hasn’t the opening of his Skyway 3 tremendously helped ease traffic at Edsa and other choke points in the Big City?

Alongside these projects are RSA’s state-ofthe-art mass railway transit systems, including his latest babe called the MRT-7 stretching from Quezon City to Bulacan’s San Jose del Monte. Once this 22-kilometer rail network gets completed next year, it would redound to thousands of passengers seeing their daily trip cut from a hellish two-plus hours to a wondrous 45 minutes or thereabouts. Less travel time means more productive hours spent for manufacturing and a vibrant economic activity. “Our work continues non-stop so that we can hit our target operations by end of 2022,” RSA said, whose Skyway 3 opening recently saw an almost instant growth surge in the region and its environs. So far, four sets of trains have been installed at the MRT-7. Two more Hyundai Rotem trains have recently arrived, putting on course the coming of the 36-set chain-cars

Motivation comes from a 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder engine equipped with EQ Boost mild-hybrid system. It generates and transfers 435 horsepower and 520 N-m of maximum torque in all wheels via the 4MATIC All-Wheel Drive system. It is mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission with seamless gear changes controlled by the Direct Select gear lever ergonomically located just by the steering wheel. There are five different driving modes via the Dynamic Select switch. Of course, there is the AIRMATIC air suspension for ultimate ride comfort. Safety-wise, a host of driver assistance systems such as the Active Distance Assist, Active Lane Keeping Assist, Active Brake Assist, Active Parking Assist, and a lot more make for a semi-autonomous driving experience. Further, everything is about minimalism and ease of use. Everything is well positioned and driver-oriented, either at a hand’s reach or with the command of your voice. The new S-Class sets a benchmark in automotive safety with its intelligent rear seat airbag for frontal impacts. The vehicle also provides palpable stress relief and support while helping avoid hazardous situations, for example, through all-around monitoring of the vehicle’s surroundings by the new PRE-SAFE® Impulse system. As for cabin sanitation, there are air filtration, ionization, and fragrance. Passengers can breathe in the clean and fragrant air. To know more, customers may visit the online showroom at www.Mercedes-Benz.ph. from South Korea by the end of 2021. “As always, the mass transport system is the backbone of our mobility solution for the betterment of the living conditions of the Filipino people,” said RSA, who is also the country’s exclusive distributor of BMWs. I couldn’t agree more.

PEE STOP After Tuason Racing’s successful Round 1 of the GITI-Formula V1 action-packed four races in SeptemberOctober, it will stage its Round 2 on December 5 & 6 and December 15 & 22, also at Clark. Vrrrm, Ms Nikki Viola!... My friend, Abel Manliclic, whose love for his Alphard comes in second only to his comely wife Malu, serves the legendary Hainanese Chicken at its finest through his Tiong Bahru joint now in Quezon City at Scout Torillo (tel. nos. 0945-7293908 & 86530765). Cheers, Abel! Burp!...My family’s condolences to the loved ones of Romy Gacad, Agence France’s famed photographer, who recently succumbed to cancer. I couldn’t forget the nights we drank Aussie wine when we covered the 2000 Sydney Olympics with our buddy Ernie Sarmiento. Before his posting in Jakarta, Romy paid me a visit. We killed a bottle of Hennessy. Almost each time we raised our glasses, he’d say his favorite line: “The universe is unfolding!” Rest in peace, Romy.