BusinessMirror November 14, 2022

‘Low-hanging fruits’ in policy reforms to boost FDI flows

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

TO further open up the country to foreign investments, the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means urged the economic team of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to “ramp up efforts for the country to catch up on foreign direct investments” by seizing what he called “low-hanging fruits” in policy reforms.

A lbay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda made the statement in response to August FDI data showing foreign inflows slowing by 19.2 percent year-on-year.

President Marcos is achieving progress in agriculture. This is one of the few times the sector actu ally recorded positive growth. We need to capitalize on our strong Q3 GDP performance. While the decline in FDI is understandable due to global conditions, there are low-hanging fruits we haven’t

Debt service

For the month of September, interest payments grew 25.16 per cent to P59.897 billion from P47.86 billion posted in September 2021.

T he BTr data showed inter est payments made domestically reached P306.21 billion in the January to September period while

picked up yet,” he said.

T he most basic one is the imple menting rules and regulations of the Public Service Act, he added.

“ That would open up telcos and other big sectors to greater foreign investments. I was told last week that it is now for signing. Well, sign it,” Salceda said, pointing out that the statutory deadline for the PSA amendments IRR was last October.

“ I would also urge the economic team along with Secretaries [Jesus Crispin] Remulla and [Raphael]

Lotilla to work out the final draft of amendments to the Renewable Energy Law, to allow full foreign ownership of energy generation. We need major foreign investments in our renewable energy sector,” he added.

A ccording to Salceda, a surplus of renewable energy will reduce power rates in the country.

“And that, in turn, will cure some of the oligopolistic price abuses in the energy market and attract even more foreign investments in vari ous sectors such as manufactur ing,” he said.

S alceda added that “with the DOJ saying that the RE Law IRR can be amended, the legal impedi ments to such a move no longer exist.”

He said he is already talking to European investors in RE, includ ing Norway.

S alceda said the stakeholders he is in talks are prepared to invest as much as $10 billion in RE projects

in the near-term.

SIPP

SALCEDA also urged the release of a more comprehensive list and strategy under the Strategic Invest ment Priorities Plan, the list of key industries eligible for tax incentives under the CREATE Law.

Without a more comprehensive list and strategy, it will be like sell ing the country as an investment destination without a brochure.”

PBBM has been invited by China and the World Economic Forum in January. These are very ripe opportunities to get more in vestments and protect our foreign reserves. We need to have reforms that we can sell the country’s growth story with. And the reforms I’ve cited don’t even need Congress. The economic team already has the tools fully at their disposal,” he said.

W ith this, Salceda urged decisive action without delay on these very low-hanging fruits.

A 5-PEAT FOR BM AT EJAP AWARDS

BusinessMirror earlier earned that distinction for busi ness news coverage overall in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

I n 2015, it was also the Busi ness News Source of the Year.

T he newspaper, which re cently marked its 17th anni versary, bagged the top EJAP awards for having the most number of winners in the indi vidual categories.

L enie Lectura was named En ergy Reporter of the Year; and Bi anca Cuaresma, Banking Reporter of the Year.

Tyrone Jasper Piad won for best in Trade reporting while his article “Village people’s zest won’t let Covid stop the music of business,” was chosen the best in the Business Feature category.

Piad has since moved to the Phil ippine Daily Inquirer.

T he other individual winners

Ayuda...

Q uimbo explained that provid ing assistance to affected sectors is one way for government to boost spending.

are: Miguel Camus of Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), Telecoms Reporter of the Year; Angela Ce lis-Mercurio of Malaya Business Insight, Macroeconomy Reporter of the Year; Doris Dumlao-Aba dilla of PDI, PSE-SEC Reporter of the Year; Elijah Felice Rosales of Philippine Star, Finance Re porter of the Year; Karl Ocampo of PDI, Agriculture and Mining Reporter of the Year; and Jon Viktor Cabuenas of GMA, Online Reporter of the Year.

BusinessMirror was found ed in October 2005 by the late am bassador to Laos, the business man-philanthropist Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, who also set up dozens of enterprises under the ALC Group of Companies.

T he EJAP-Ayala Business Journalism Awards for 2021 was organized by the EJAP and Ayala Land, Inc.

country’s exposure to volatile glob al prices and global supply shocks.

foreign interest payments reached P93.77 billion during the period.

For September, domestic inter est payments reached P47.72 billion while foreign interest payments amounted to P12.18 billion during the period.

Domestic interest payments were

composed mainly of interest pay ments for Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds amounting to P196.687 billion in the January to September period and P24.03 billion in September.

T his was followed by Retail Treasury Bonds of P96.54 billion in the January-September period this year and P22.53 billion in the

month of September.

T he country’s debt service from January to August declined by a fifth on an annual basis to P682.85 billion due to lower amortization payments, preliminary govern ment data showed.

L atest BTr data showed that the national government’s debt service during the 8-month period was P226.475 billion lower than the P909.325 billion total debt pay ment recorded in the same period of last year.

Govt...

O ne-off expenditures such as the direct payments made by foreign lending institutions for the procure ment of Covid-19 vaccines in July last year was another major factor, he added.

T he slowdown, Balisacan ex plained, was minimally tempered by the implementation of the Assis tance to Individuals in Crisis Situa tions (AICS) and the Targeted Cash Transfer Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as well as the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) of the Department of Agriculture.

He added that the release of cash allowance for teachers in preparation for the start of face-to-face classes in August this year and releases for the Free Higher Education Program for various State Universities and Col leges were also among the factors that slowed GFCE.

In short, the ayuda was not suf ficient to offset the base effect due to vaccine procurement last year,” Balisacan told BusinessMirror “Government spending will continue to contribute to economic growth given continued spending for 2021 and 2022 GAA, which contain pro grams that are geared towards eco nomic recovery.”

Not a concern

FOR University of Asia and the Pacific economist Victor A. Abola,  while the Neda expected this slowdown in gov ernment spending, he believes this is not a concern.

A bola said employment and the weaker peso contributed to the in crease in third quarter consumer spending and may have “held poor families from starvation/hunger” during the period.

“ For Q4 (the fourth quarter) and beyond, government spending will provide a boost to keep recovery in tact,” Abola told BusinessMirror

D e La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas thinks that while the government outlook may not be as rosy, she expects state spending to increase in the last quarter.

W ith the year almost over, many government offices may be fasttracking certain projects in order to not lose funding allocated to them for 2022, she said.

L ocal government units (LGUs) may also increase spending in the

“ This enables greater consump tion and well-being, especially when targeted to the most vulner able sectors. We see the relevance of providing immediate assistance to qualified Filipinos through pro grams such as the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations or AICS program of DSWD,” she noted.

Q uimbo reckoned that in the long run, there is a need to improve the productivity of the domestic agricultural sector and invigorate Philippine industry to reduce the

“ Nevertheless, the most imme diate solution is to increase imports to fulfill most urgent domestic needs,” she said.

“ While the peso depreciation has been raised as a concern by some sectors, this can be an opportunity for exporters to boost their sales.

In fact, exports grew by 13.1 per cent in the third quarter. As the economy slowly reopens, we should exploit the existing advantage of the sectors that stand to gain from a weakening peso, such as tourism and export industries,” Quimbo said.

last quarter, spending for Christ mas gifts to constituents, and these goods may only be bought in the last quarter, nearer to the holidays, Oplas added.

I have to see the numbers but intuitively, the last quarter is where people spend the most and that’s the same with the government,” Op las said. She said historical studies “would back that up.”

‘Grave

concern’

FOR Ateneo de Manila University economist Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr., if government spending is expected to slow, this is a “grave concern” since it indicates government resources have dwindled.

L anzona added that this becomes an even greater concern if one con siders the country’s debts and the economy’s recovery. Bureau of the Treasury data showed government debt service payments have con tracted 7.67 percent in the January to September period.

He also thinks lower government expenditures would affect the level of assistance the government can extend to Filipinos, especially at a time when inflation is expected to continue rising.

“ The recovery is going to be af fected especially because the gov ernment intervention in terms of raising productivity will now be lower,” Lanzona told BusinessMir ror . “Poverty and social unrest may increase without these social protections despite the enormous political support that the govern ment has.”

N onetheless, Lanzona agreed with Balisacan that the govern ment’s spending had changed be cause of Covid-19. He said invest ments in transport have contrib uted to increases in gross capital formation given the “dismantling” of lockdowns.

G ross capital formation in the third quarter grew 21.7 percent and averaged 21.1 percent in the first three quarters of 2022. Valuables posted the highest growth under Gross Capital Formation, at 11.2 percent in the third quarter.

Spending on valuables means pur chasing heirloom jewelry, antiques, and other similar luxury items, which are often done by richer Filipinos.

“ These unexplainable post

pandemic changes have been referred to  abroad as ‘discombobulating fac tors’ emerging from the virus. How ever, these effects tend to diminish over time and can reinforce inflation,” Lanzona told this newspaper.

“ Discombobulations are not ex pected to last long especially as in flation pressures mount. Long-term changes may be expected in the labor markets as the conditions for decent work worsen,” he added.

Cut the fat ACTION for Economic Reforms (AER) Coordinator Filomeno Sta. Ana III told BusinessMirror that the 0.8-percent growth in GFCE was disappointing, especially since this is significantly lower than the inflation rate which was at 6.9 per cent in September and 7.7 percent in October.

Sta. Ana said the slowdown in government spending indicates that the administration does not want to increase the deficit further and ac cumulate more debt while it pursues fiscal consolidation.

However, he said, this fiscal con solidation must not mean reducing spending to bail out poor Filipinos from rising commodity prices. The government, he added, must keep providing targeted subsidies to poor households.

Sta. Ana said the administration would do well to “cut the fat and the waste” to give more room for neces sary expenditures. “Cut the budget for controversial items like unac countable intelligence funds, exces sive counter-insurgency funds, and pork barrel. Reallocate the question able funds to health, social protection and agriculture.”

However, he said, budget reallo cation or realignment is not enough. The government must strive to in troduce new revenues “to grow the economy and to ensure adequacy of social protection.”

T hese new revenues can be created by introducing tax measures similar to Sin taxes which are imposed on products that “are price-inelastic, thus their taxation generates sub stantial revenues.”

T his, Sta. Ana explained, is why he does not agree with the adminis tration’s plan to remove value added tax for certain goods or services like utilities. “This will only worsen the situation; it will aggravate the fiscal problem. The bold yet correct ap proach is for the administration to take the bull by the horns.”

U. Ordinario

BusinessMirror Economy

By Andrea San Juan

TRANSPARENCY, especially on rules, is seen as the honey that could perk interest of invest ments from Spain, according to an of ficial of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism (Mincotur) of Spain.

When foreign investors come to me and they ask for help, I focus on three things: First of all transpar ency, [especially in] communication,” said Maria Peña Mateos, CEO of ICEX (the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade under the Mincotur).

Transparency is absolutely im portant for attracting foreign direct investors for enforcing the role of the private sector,” Peña told reporters

at the sidelines of the “PhilippinesSpain Multilateral Partnership” event held in Makati City last week.

Nonetheless, Peña noted that the Philippines’s competitive advantage is in infrastructure and its govern ment’s openness to holding dialogues with international partners.

Private companies can be attract ed by the rules, she said.

The question is to be sure of rules and not to change the rules. So this is the second recommendation,” Peña said at last Tuesday’s event.

T he Trade official of Spain also noted that the Philippine govern ment should “have strong insti tutions to accompany the private sector in the process; because some

times they have new information [and] economic intelligence.”

Going to be good

A TOTAL of 22 private companies and two public institutions from Spain participated in the PhilippinesSpain Multilateral Partnership last week, according to Silvia Torices, Economic and Commercial Repre sentative of Spain in Manila.

Peña said these firms are “very specialized” companies looking to reinforce the links with the Philip pine economy.

These companies focus on the fol lowing areas: transportation and in frastructure; water; clean energy; agro industry; and, tourism. However, like

any other country, she said that Spain is also embarking on digitalization.

T he Trade official said that the European market is welcoming coun tries that would integrate digitaliza tion into the agriculture sector.

Today, the European market is open to countries who are ready to have a sustainable agriculture because our society is demanding traceability [and] sustainable dif ferentiation,” Peña said. “And this is what we’re going to work with com panies, with the authorities here.”

She cited the areas concerned include how to improve the value chain of the agriculture sector “and how it can work both on technology and digitalization and all the sectors

related to agritech, foodtech, food security and so on.”

“ This is going to make a differ ence. And this is going to be good for you and, of course, good for Europe as market destination,” Peña said.

She, however, said Madrid is still on a wait-and-see mode in terms of investment agreements between the Philippines and Spain.

Engaging the EU

PEÑA encourages Manila to continue negotiating for a free trade agree ment (FTA) with the European Union (EU), which Spain is a member of.

To note, the EU is the Philippines’s fifth-largest trading partner in 2020. “Scoping meetings” on an FTA be

tween the Philippines and the EU started in 2013. These include dis cussions on the objectives, key prin ciples and scope of the FTA.

According to the Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippines’s strategic objectives in engaging the EU in an FTA include securing ad ditional duty-free market access beyond those covered under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) scheme and on a permanent basis. Another goal is to provide a conducive framework for attracting greater investments from the EU.

T he Philippines also seeks to be at par with other Asean-member states who are aggressively pursu ing FTAs with the EU.

program

Transparency needed to lure FDIs from Spain, official says Villafuerte

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

ASENIOR lawmaker on Sunday appealed to his colleagues to realign funds in the final version of the 2023 General Appro priations Act (GAA) for the “Libreng Sakay” (free ride) program.

C amarines Sur Rep. LRay F. Villafuerte hoped that during the bi-cameral (bicam) deliberations on the 2023 GAA, both chambers of the 19th Congress could scour for available funds so that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) could continue next year

its Libreng Sakay programs at the Edsa Busway and LRT 2.

Villafuerte, who is also president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said he’s “making an 11th-hour ap peal to the Senate and the House to exert their best effort to look for and realign funds when the bicam delib erations start in December.”

T he fund allocation is in the ab sence of specific outlays for the twin projects in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2023 that the Department of Budget and Man agement (DBM) submitted earlier to Congress, Villafuerte said.

T he NEP, which the DBM sub

mits to lawmakers annually at the start of Congress’ regular legisla tive session, serves as the basis for the GAA, which is submitted for the President’s approval and enactment into law.

Fuel subsidies

VILLAFUERTE said that of the P206.50 billion that the Marcos administration has set aside for subsidies and cash support (“ayu da”) for 2023, only P2.5 billion is earmarked for transportation; and this amount is only for fuel subsi dies for certain stakeholders. He said “Congress must work

on providing 2023 GAA funds to keep the free LRT 2 ride program for students next year, especially now when our schools have started switching to in-person classes from the virtual learning modes at the height of Covid-19.”

During the upcoming bicam de liberations on next year’s budget, the two chambers can winnow out in the 2023 budget plan the items for specific programs or projects whose outlays can be slashed, if not taken out completely, and realign such out lays for essentials like Libreng Sakay for the EDSA Busway and LRT-2 for Metro Manila commuters and stu

dents,” Villafuerte said.

T he lawmaker pointed to the “Key Indicators for Asia and the Pa cific 2022” report of the Asian De velopment Bank (ADB) that said the poorest Filipinos need continued policy intervention and support to escape poverty, especially with the adverse effects of Covid-19 on livelihoods. Villafuerte said such view justifies continuing giving free rides for commuters and stu dents in Metro Manila.

No funding

THE government shells out P10 million to P12 million each day to

bus companies for serving about 300,000 daily passengers.

However, the daily bus ridership reportedly reached a record 404,010 last October 24. This set the highest average monthly record of 351,531 since the “Libreng Sakay” was imple mented in 2020.

For 2022, the government re leased P7 billion to the DOTr for the “Libreng Sakay,” with an extra P1.4-billion given in September to extend its implementation until end-December.

T his project has reportedly pro vided 71 million free rides to com muters as of June.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

The Nation

BusinessMirror

2 Chinese men held on rape charges under custody of BI

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday said it has taken cus tody of two Chinese nationals who were previously arrested for rape charges by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

B I Commissioner Norman G. Tansingco said Chinese nationals Liu Yong, 28, and Sun Laizheng, 35,

were transferred to the custody of the BI upon coordination with the PNP-Pasay City.

Liu and Sun have been in the coun try since 2018 and 2019, respectively.

BI spokesman Dana Krizia San doval clarified that the two were arrested before by the PNP for al leged violation of Article 266 of the Anti-Rape Law.

Sandoval said they were “turnedover to BI upon release” and “rear

rested” by the BI for violation of immigration laws.

The BI, however, has yet to re spond when asked about the status of the rape case filed against them.

The BI said the two foreigners were charged for violating the con ditions and limitations of their stay as non-immigrants, being a public charge, and posing a clear and pres ent danger to public welfare.

“They are a threat to our women

and children and there is no place for these kinds of foreigners in our land,” Tansingco said.

“Rest assured that the BI is in close coordination with other law enforcement agencies in advocating for a safer community for the Filipi nos,” he added.

The two Chinese nationals are currently detained at the agency’s detention center in Taguig pending deportation proceedings.

San Juan goes paperless to help address climate change

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

THE challenges brought about by climate change encouraged the San Juan City Council to contribute in reducing carbon emis sions by going “paperless.”

Instead of just reducing the amount of paper used in exercising its func tions, the Sangguniang Panlungsod of

San Juan City has initiated on elimi nating the use of paper during meet ings as they started using their tablets with apps to view and edit documents.

It was the idea of Vice Mayor Jose Warren P. Villa who acquired the con cepts from a seminar last September.

“This may be a small step but it is a good start which will be followed by more programs and projects for the environment. We, at the San

Juan City Council and the San Juan City Government, are committed to environmental protection and pres ervation,” Villa said.

Through the internet, members of the council can receive and store files in their respective devices to make them readily accessible during their sessions and committee hearings.

They can also edit, make notes and comments and even agree, object

and approve ordinances and resolu tions online.

Mayor Francis M. Zamora ex pressed gratitude to officials and city government personnel ”for leading the way and showing our city hall employees that this can be done.”

“Their brilliant mind and the love for the environment has brought its efficient public service to the next level,” Zamora added.

PNP released P8.5B as Christmas bonuses, cash gifts to personnel

By Glen Jacob Jose

THE Philippine National Police (PNP) has released P8.5 bil lion for the year-end bonus and cash gift of its personnel, its chief Gen. Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr. said last Sunday.

A zurin said the release of a total of P8,502,008,690.81 funds was allocated for the Year-End Bonus (YEB) and Cash Gift FY 2022 for the 226,515 PNP personnel.

The funds are from the regular PNP Appropriations programmed in the agency’s 2022 budget, Azurin was quoted in a statement as saying.

“Hangad ko na gamitin ninyo sa wasto ang mga matatanggap ninyong bonus para sa inyong pamilya, mahal sa buhay at gayundin sa paghahanda para sa nalalapit na pagdiriwang ng kapaskuhan,” he said. [I wish you use properly the bonuses you will receive for your family, loved ones and also in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.]

PNP Finance Service Director Brig. Gen. Bowenn Joey M. Ma sauding said the YEB and Cash Gift 2022, equivalent to one-month base pay and P5,000 respectively, will be released to PNP personnel on No

vember 15 through their Landbank ATM Payroll Accounts.

However, pursuant to Tax Re form Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law (Republic Act 10893) and BIR Regulations 8-2018 and 11-2018, the YEB and other bo nuses, including the mid-year bonus exceeding P90,000 are tax able. Hence, these are subjected to year-end tax adjustments affecting all Police Commissioned Officers (PCOs) and Non-Uniformed Per sonnel (NUP) with Salary Grade 18 Step 1.

Moreover, all affected PNP per sonnel who reached the minimum net take-home pay are also advised to settle thru an over-the-counter pay ment scheme of their unpaid loan or loans for November and December 2022 to avoid incurring penalties and other charges.

Azurin said that the regular monthly withholding tax deduction will resume on pay period of Janu ary 2023.

Meanwhile, as per policy, per sonnel who were administratively charged and were found guilty by the final and executory judgment shall not be entitled to receive the YEB and cash gift.

2022 Miss Earth candidates pledge support for biodiversity conservation 17 Davao City scholars now licensed doctors

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

CANDIDATES for the Miss Earth 2022 competition are adding to the growing voice for the conservation of bio logical diversity.

Miss Earth Foundation Consul tant Catherine Vital said Miss Earth will endeavor to use the platform to educate the public on the impacts of different issues affecting ecological balance, including habitat destruc tion and wildlife trafficking.

“To our delegates, may this event set the tone of your Miss Earth jour ney here in the Philippines,” Vital said. “Let’s join forces to become the voice of the voiceless and the hope of Miss Earth’s fauna.”

The contestants, all 89, were

welcomed with music and dance from “Banda Kawayan,” a group which was originally formed in the 1970s and became popular as they play musical instruments made from bamboo.

The pre-pageant event was or ganized by the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) body that also implements the Asean Heritage Parks Program (AHP), which seeks to protect and conserve biodiversity through the Protected Area system.

The Philippines is host to AHPs, including Mount Makiling in the Province of Laguna, which is host to the ACB’s headquarters in the Philippines.

Organizers of the event gave the contestants basic knowledge about

biodiversity, the global threats they are facing and the need to educate the world about their importance.

Being Asean’s response to biodi versity loss, the ACB has been imple menting communication, education and public awareness (CEPA) activi ties that aim to convey the impor tance of biodiversity.

In 2021, the ACB launched “#WeAreASEANBiodiversity: Our Home, Our Lives, Our Stories” as a regional campaign for biodiver sity. The regional campaign aligns with Asean’s vision of “2025: Forg ing Ahead Together,” in encourag ing key actors to take a more ac tive role in the sustainable use of biological resources.

As the campaign aims to call for each and everyone’s earnest partici pation in promoting the importance

of nature, the ACB collaborated with prominent media personalities and influencers from the region who have volunteered to share their voices to amplify the regional call for an in tegrated and whole-of-community approach in biodiversity protection among wider local, national and re gional audiences.

Thus, the ACB is collaborat ing with Miss Earth Foundation to scale-up its efforts in promot ing nature as an important part of the solution. As a premiere in ternational pageant that aims to promote environmental aware ness through public engagements, environmentally-sound activities, youth oriented learning sessions, fashion shows, tours and mass media promotions, it is envisioned that the partnership between Miss

Earth and the ACB will amplify the collective advocacy of promoting the values of biodiversity to a wide range of audience worldwide.

This year’s Miss Earth theme is “ME loves fauna,” highlighting the importance of conserving the world’s animal species. Hence, this event will set the tone for other pre-pageant ac tivities by raising awareness among the beauty queens on the values of biodiversity or the web of life and the need for immediate action for its conservation and sustainable management.

“To be able to safeguard and conserve our web of life, we need to scale up our efforts in encouraging more people to act for nature and to set things right,” ACB Executive Di rector Theresa Mundita S. Lim said through a video.

Antidote to war is good governance–VP Duterte

DAVAO CITY—Saying that it’s peace’s harvest time for Mindanao after several decades of sowing peace, Vice President Sara Duterte also admonished that the best an tidote to war is good governance.

This was her message to the gathering of a group of peace advocates formed 28 years ago and who gathered on Friday their former and long-standing members for another roundtable discussion.

“In my experience in politics, I have realized that the antidote to war is good governance. And good governance breeds public trust,” she said.

The peace group, Kusog Mindanaw (Mindanao Strength) described her presence “history be ing made” because the Vice President hails from Mindanao and the highest government official to ever grace the roundtable discussion of the group.

“When people see government officials work ing with integrity, professionalism, and dedica tion to public service—they no longer see sense in causes that espouse violence,” Duterte added.

She said the peace in Mindanao would remain to be on top of the Mindanao agenda, and “the Mindanao Agenda is a Philippine Agenda.”

She said Mindanao “continues to hold so much promise; I know this for a fact being a Mindana won myself.”

“Mindanao had been considerably quiet for quite a time now,” she said, adding that after the signing of the peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government in 2014, “there have been no major wars in Mindanao.”

“We have been told that there’s a time for ev erything. I believe it’s ‘peace harvest season’ for us now in Mindanao,” she said.

“The seeds of peace that you have planted all these years, the seeds of peace watered by the blood of Filipino martyrs who fought against each other, the seeds of peace nurtured by your sacrifices and bravery and that undying fire I see in your eyes—they have grown and their flowers now in bloom,” she said.

She said that “after all, as we all know already, it takes many years and many wars and countless lives of armed fighters, soldiers, and civilians— all of them Filipinos—to grow peace, watch it bloom, and celebrate its glory.”

Kaloy Manlupig, chairman of Kusog Min danaw said “today and tomorrow we will col lectively draw a picture of the current state of Mindanao, identify and discuss issues closest to our hearts, and plot the steps forward. I said collectively because all of us here are significant resource persons.” Manuel T. Cayon

PRC helps Negros Occidental towns recover from Odette

THE Philippine Red Cross (PRC) fulfilled its commitment as they helped people return to their communities in Negros Occidental 11 months after Typhoon Odette struck the Philip pines. The PRC said its personnel also distributed more than P4.3-million worth of humanitarian aid.

Last November 11, the PRC, under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon, distrib uted emergency shelter assistance to 384 families in the municipality of Sipalay.

PRC personnel also handed out cash assistance to 130 families in Hinobaan, the organization’s statement read.

T he emergency shelter assistance, worth P9,600

per family, consisted of corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) sheets and shelter tool kits, while the cash assistance was P5,000.00 per family.

T his week’s recovery operations in Negros Oc cidental is part of the assistance package for fami lies severely affected by Typhoon Odette across 11 provinces and cities.

Worth more than P400 million, the assistance program is being implemented in partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Netherlands Red Cross, the German Red Cross, the American Red Cross, the Spanish Red Cross, and the Canadian Red Cross. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

DAVAO CITY—Seventeen scholars of the city govern ment are now licensed phy sicians, only months after another batch of 33 scholars brought honors to the city when they graduated with Latin honors.

Emilio Domingo Jr. of the Davao City’s Educational Benefit System Unit (EBSU) announced that the city government scholars have passed the physician licensure examination held last October.

Domingo said 15 graduated from the Davao Medical School Foundation while two others fin ished their medical course at Bro kenshire College.

“The city government, especially the EBSU, is happy that they passed,” Domingo said. He said this was not the first time “as every year, majority of scholars of EBSU for medical school pass the physician licensure exam.”

Domingo said there were now a total of 40 EBSU scholars who be came physicians.

“Since 2018 we are able to pro duce 57 graduates and now, we have 40 registered physicians,” Domingo said.

The EBSU-Scholarship on Tertia ry Education Program (Step) offers not just educational assistance for medical students but also law school students and those who are in college. In June this year, the city govern ment feted 33 scholars who gradu ated with Latin honors, two of them awarded Summa Cum Laude. They were Joeville Royce A. Barato, a graduate of Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in Social Studies, and Kimberly B. Diapana, a graduate of Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English, both studying at the Holy Cross College of Calinan.

Ten others graduated Magna Cum Laude and 21 Cum Laude.

Becoming EBSU-Step scholars were competitive, with only 317 who passed from out of 2,300 applicants.

Domingo said that 317 applicants were selected based on their grades and economic status.

Meanwhile, more than a hundred applicants were hired during the job fair conducted in Davao City last No vember 8, Public Employment and Services Office (PESO) Head Lilibeth Pantinople said.

A total of 116 were hired on the spot, 106 are for overseas and 10 are local employment, Pantinople said.

Agriculture/Commodities

PHL pork imports seen rising by nearly 20%

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

THE Philippines’s pork imports is expected to rise by nearly 20 percent this year as animal diseases, such as African swine fever, continue to threaten domestic hog population, according to the latest report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In its latest report titled “Food Outlook,” FAO data indicated that the country’s pork imports would reach 394,000 metric tons (MT) this year, 18 percent higher than the estimated 332,000 MT purchased in 2021.

T he Philippines needs to buy pork from abroad as FAO’s projections in dicated that domestic output for this year will not be enough to meet the local pork requirement.

According to FAO, pork produc tion could decline by 4 percent to 1.139 million metric tons (MMT) this year and will fall short of the projected domestic pork requirement of 1.531 MMT.

Asean

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

World meat production in 2022 is forecast to expand, albeit mod erately, with expected production growth slowdowns in the pig and poultry meat sectors, reflecting ani mal disease prevalence and producer margin erosion,” said FAO.

T he Philippines will also continue to import rice and dairy in huge quan tities, according to the report. This year, FAO projected that purchases of imported rice would reach 3.3 MMT. For next year, FAO expects the Phil ippines to reduce its rice imports by around 300,000 MT.

A s for dairy products, the report indicated that the country’s imports this year would reach 2.91 MMT, 13 percent higher than the estimated 2.56 MMT it purchased last year.

“Global trade in dairy products in 2022 is forecast at 85 million tons (in milk equivalents), down by 3.4 percent from 2021, which would represent the first decline in nearly two decades,” the report read.

Imports by the Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico are an

ticipated to increase markedly, partially offsetting the declines expected elsewhere.”

Global food import bill

THE new FAO report also revealed that the world food import bill is estimated to go up to $1.94 trillion in 2022, higher than previously expected.

T he new forecast presented in the report would mark an all-time high and a 10-percent increase over the re cord level of 2021, although the pace

of the increase is expected to slow down in response to higher world food prices and depreciating curren cies against the US dollar. Both weigh on the purchasing power of import ing countries and, subsequently, on the volumes of imported food.

T he bulk of the increase in the bill is accounted for by high-income countries, due mostly to higher world prices, while volumes are also ex pected to rise. Economically vulner able country groups are being more

affected by the higher prices.

For instance, the aggregate food import bill for the group of low-in come countries is expected to remain almost unchanged even though it is predicted to shrink by 10 percent in volume terms, pointing to a growing accessibility issue for these countries.

“ These are alarming signs from a food security perspective, indicating importers are finding it difficult to finance rising international costs, potentially heralding an end of their resilience to higher international prices,” the report from FAO’s Mar kets and Trade Division warned.

T he Food Outlook report, which breaks down food trade patterns by food groups, warned that existing differences are likely to become more pronounced, with high-income coun tries continuing to import across the entire spectrum of food products, while developing regions are increas ingly focused on staple foods.

“In this context, FAO welcomes the approval by the International Monetary Fund of a Food Shock Win

dow—broadly based on FAO’s Food Import Financing Facility proposal —as an important step to ease the burden of soaring food import costs among lower income countries.”

T he Food Outlook also assesses global expenditures on imported agricultural inputs, including fer tilizers. The global input import bill is expected to rise to $424 billion in 2022, up 48 percent from the year before and as much as 112 percent from 2020.

Higher costs for imported energy and fertilizer are behind the foreseen increase. Both are particularly rel evant in import bills, posing strains for the current accounts of lowincome and lower middle-income countries. As a result, some countries may be forced to reduce input applica tions, almost inevitably resulting in lower agricultural productivity and lower domestic food availability.

“Negative repercussions for global agricultural output and food secu rity” are likely to extend into 2023, according to FAO.

must bolster regional food security–Marcos DA: Rice planters to get additional fertilizer assistance in December

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Mar cos Jr. pushed for regional “self-sufficiency” at the 17th East Asia Summit (EAS) held in Cambodia last Sunday to ensure that there will be enough food for people in the Indo-Pacific region amid the global crisis.

I n his intervention during the event, Marcos stressed the im portance of international coop eration to prevent regional food shortage.

It has become glaringly clear that there is a dire need to strength en food security towards self-suf ficiency in our region, to increase adaptability and resilience in the

face of threats to the global supply chain,” Marcos said.

He noted that food security is also linked to climate change as extreme weather events have caused massive damage to agriculture.

“ It is incumbent upon us, for our sake and that of future gen erations, to act decisively and immediately on climate change,” Marcos said.

A mong the international leaders present in the EAS were Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, United States President Joe Biden, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Kate Ard ern, Japanese Prime Minister Fu mio Kishida, India Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, South Korea President Yoon Sukyeol and Aus tralia Prime Minister Anthony

Norman Albanese.

APTERR reform MARCOS , who is also the concur rent agriculture secretary, has also raised the matter at the 40th and 41st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summits and related summits, which were concluded last Sunday, since it is one of his administration’s prior ity agenda.

T his after the pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine have caused global food prices to rise, which did not bode well for the country, as it relies heavily on imports to meet local demand for rice, flour, and other food items.

During the Asean Plus Three Sum mit (China, Japan and South Korea),

Marcos proposed to diversify the Asean Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) to cover other commodities and staples.

T he APTERR is a pool of rice stock pile and funds, which APT members could access during times of adver sity. It currently contains 787,000 metric tons of rice stocks.

APTERR is extremely beneficial to our countries. We are vulner able to many hazards and natural calamities due to topography and geographic location,” Marcos said at the APT event.

A side from the APTERR, the President also pushed for “innova tive solutions” and “enhanced con nectivity to national, regional and global value supply chains” to ensure regional food security.

DAR turns over delivery trucks to planters’ groups

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

TO help farmers transport their products and boost their income, the Depart ment of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said it has recently turned over delivery trucks worth P570,000 to 2 agrarian reform beneficiaries in Nueva Vizcaya.

T he DAR said the trucks were received by the Greeners Multi-pur

pose Cooperative from the munici pality of Bambang, and Villaverde Development Cooperative from the town of Villaverde.

DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said the delivery trucks will help improve the livelihood of the ARBs in the province.

R ustico Turingan, OIC-Provin cial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, said the trucks would be able to save time, effort, and money for the cooperative as it

resolves their issue on the need to rent vehicles to immediately deliver agricultural products to markets and buyers on time.

The trucks were provided through Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty pro gram, a government initiative, which aims to mitigate hunger, ensure food security, and estab lish sustainable agriculture in the country,” he said.

Turingan added that under this

program, ARBOs are also being linked to institutional buyers, government agencies, and other consumers to supply their agri cultural products.

“ We expect that these vehicles would generate more income for the ARBs, in the coming days. We believe that easy access to trans portation means more delivery, and also the time saved in transporting their products can now be spent on enriching their farms.”

AN area the size of Switzerland, made of protected trees.

AS food insecurity and global warming rise, governments, international development partners and industry should invest in sustainable food cold chains to de crease hunger, provide livelihoods to communities, and adapt to climate change, the United Nations said.

L aunched at the 27th Climate Change Conference last Saturday, the Sustainable Food Cold Chains report, from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), finds that food cold chains are critical to meeting the challenge of feeding an additional two billion people by 2050 and harnessing rural communities’ resilience, while avoiding increased greenhouse gas emissions.

T he report was developed in the framework of the UNEP-led Cool Coalition in partnership with FAO, the Ozone Secretariat, UNEP Ozon Action Programme, and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.

“At a time when the international community must act to address the climate and food crises, sustainable

food cold chains can make a massive difference,” said Inger Andersen, Ex ecutive Director of UNEP. “They al low us to reduce food loss, improve food security, slow greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, reduce pov erty and build resilience—all in one fell swoop.”

Food insecurity

THE number of people affected by hunger in the world rose to 828 mil lion in 2021, a year-on-year rise of 46 million.

A lmost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up 112 million from 2019, as the economic impacts of the Covid pan demic drove up inflation. This year, meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine has raised the prices of basic grains threatening food security.

A ll of this comes while an estimat ed 14 percent of all food produced for human consumption is lost before it reaches the consumer. The lack of an effective cold chain to maintain the quality, nutritional value and safety of food is one of the major contribu tors to food loss.

T hat’s the plan being hatched by a group of six companies that includes the world’s largest pulp producer Suzano and Spanish retailbanking giant Santander. More spe cifically, they’re proposing to plant and preserve a total of 4 million hect ares (15,000 square miles) of trees in deforested parts of Brazil, financing the project by selling carbon offset credits on the voluntary market.

T he companies involved—Su zano, Santander, Brazilian bank Itaú, the Netherlands’ Rabobank, Brazilian mining company Vale and Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig —are creating a new company called Bio mas, which will start by identifying areas that have suffered from defor estation, including in the Amazon, the Mata Atlantica rainforest and the savanna area of Cerrado. Each partner will invest Real 20 million ($3.8 million).

B iomas plans to rely on the ex perience of Brazilian companies that already run massive eucalyp tus farms. Suzano and its peers, for example, plant more than a million eucalyptus trees a day, al

though many are later harvested. By 2025, the group expects to start hiring workers and establishing tree nurseries, where seedlings will be planted before moving to the fields. They aim to plant more than 2 billion native trees across 2 million hectares, while investing in the conservation of another 2 mil lion hectares of native forests. The

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

FOLLOWING the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos

Jr., the Department of Agri culture (DA) said it will distribute additional fertilizer assistance next month to support rice farm ers nationwide.

T he DA said in a statement that it is targeting to start the distribution of fertilizer assistance for the dry sea son 2022–2023 by December 2022 after the ongoing distribution of fertilizer discount vouchers funded through fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022 General Appropriations Act is completed.

Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said he directed the DARegional Field Offices to ensure accu rate, efficient, and immediate delivery of the fertilizers that will be dropped off at strategic locations nationwide in coordination with the PITC and concerned local government units.

Panganiban has earlier convened the Regional Executive Directors and Rice Program coordinators of the DA-Regional Field Offices last November 10, 2022 to discuss the program updates, guidelines, con cerns, and ways forward.

T his is in line with the recent meeting of President Marcos with the top officials of DA, Department

of Trade and Industry, and the Phil ippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) regarding the country’s fer tilizer importation requirements to boost local production.

T he PITC was tapped to import the required volume of fertilizer at a lower cost through governmentto-government arrangement. With a P4.1 billion fund, the DA will be able to buy about 2.277 million bags of urea to be given in-kind to farmers. Marcos, who also serves as the DA secretary, is set to sign next week a memorandum of agreement between PITC and DA as a basic requirement for the fertilizer importation plan.

Earlier, the Magsasaka party-list said the plan of the president to im port 150,000 metric tons of fertil izers from China next year will help farmers boost local food production and stabilize domestic food prices amid the spike in fertilizer prices.

According to the latest data from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Author ity (FPA), the average price of urea (prilled) and urea (granular) per 50-kilogram bag as of October 28 reached P2,523.68 and P2,490.35, respectively.

L ast week, Malacañang said the expanded implementation of the fertilizer discount voucher project under the National Rice Program is expected to fast-track efforts to expand rice production.

major climate tipping points, creat ing an urgent need to address the problem. Scientists say that putting a trillion more trees on the planet could dramatically curtail emissions, and several pledges exist to tackle that goal, including a trillion-tree initiative from the World Economic Forum, and the Bonn Challenge, a commitment by multiple countries and companies to plant 350 million hectares of trees by 2030.

work is expected to take 20 years.

Deforestation came up repeatedly in the first week of COP27, as some climate-vulnerable countries de mand restrictions on products that cause it and others seek compensa tion for protecting their own forests.

The Amazon, where deforestation reached a record high in the first half of 2022, is one of the world’s

B ut growing these farms and verifying that they are making a difference in the fight against global warming won’t be easy. Some trees never mature, or even make it into the ground. And largescale initiatives require the right mix of resilient species and proper protections against agroforestry, as well as an equitable choice of locations. Others have tried and failed to sidestep these challenges, in some cases undermining the wider integrity of carbon offsets. One study of the Bonn Challenge, for example, found that most of the pledged area would be used for monoculture forests or agro forestry, rather than restoration.

‘Amid food and climate crises, investing in sustainable food cold chains crucial’

Southeast Asian leaders call for unity amid global tensions

By David Rising & Sopheng Cheang The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia— Cambodian leader Hun Sen called for unity Sunday, telling a gathering including Russia, China and the United States that current global tensions have been taking a toll on everyone.

The prime minister, whose country holds the rotating chair of the Associa tion of Southeast Asian Nations, said at the opening of the East Asia Summit that it was in the world’s common in terest to cooperate to solve differences peacefully.

The comments come as regional ten sions remain high between the United States and China over Taiwan and Bei jing’s growing regional aspirations, and while the Russia invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global supply chains, causing rising energy and food prices far beyond Europe.

Without singling out any nation by name, Hun Sen said he hoped leaders would embrace a “spirit of togetherness in upholding open and inclusive multi lateralism, pragmatism and mutual re spect in addressing the existential and

strategic challenges we all face.”

“Many current challenges and ten sions have been hindering our past hard-earned efforts to promote sustain able development and causing greater hardship to people’s lives,” he said as he opened the meeting, which is run ning in parallel to the Asean group’s main summit.

Participants included US President Joe Biden and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and it comes just a day before the highly anticipated meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Bali.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lav rov was also taking part in the meet ings, which also included the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and others.

On Saturday, Biden promised that

the US would work with Asean, telling leaders of the strategically vital coali tion that “we’re going to build a better future that we all want to see” in the re gion where US rival China is also work ing to expand its influence.

He promised to collaborate to build a region that is “free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure.”

“I look forward to continuing our work together with Asean and with each one of you to deepen peace and prosperity throughout the region to re solve challenges from the South China Sea to Myanmar and to find innovative solutions to shared challenges,” Biden

said, citing climate and health security among areas of collaboration.

Li Keqiang, meantime, told a meet ing of Asean, China, Japan and South Korea that amid a “turbulent” global security situation, “unilateralism and protectionism are surging, economic and financial risks are rising, and global development is confronted with unprec edented challenges.”

As major economies in East Asia, Li said the group needed to “stay commit ted to promoting peace, stability, devel opment and prosperity in the region and beyond, and to improving the people’s wellbeing.” Rising reported from Bangkok

Democrats defy history, keep Senate control in win for Biden

By Steven T. Dennis & Laura Litvan

DEMOCRATS d efied political forecasts and historical trends to keep control of the Senate in a win for President Joe Biden, as voters rejected a handful of candidates backed by former President Donald Trump.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto put the Democrats over the top on Saturday after the AP and networks declared her the winner in a closely fought election in Nevada, following fellow incumbent Mark Kelly’s projected win in Arizona and a victory by John Fetterman in Pennsyl vania that snared a seat previously held b y a retiring Republican.

Pending a likely recount in Cortez Masto’s race, Democrats are now poised to hold 50 seats in the 100-member Senate, allowing them to control the agenda with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. Another race, between incumbent Democrat Ra phael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is headed for a runoff next month after neither candidate was able to grab 50% of the vote on Election Day.

“This election is a victory and vindi cation,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck S chumer told reporters in a hastily con vened news conference in New York. He c redited the outcome to the party’s agen da and its accomplishments, as well as

v oters who rejected extreme candidates backed by Trump.

Control of the House is still undecided but Republicans have an edge with 211 seats won of the 218 needed for a ma jority. Democrats have won 203 seats, a nd several of them—particularly in the West—are still being counted. GOP control of the House would be enough to snuff out any hopes of Biden delivering on a sweeping legislative agenda over the next two years.

Still, by retaining their Senate majori ty, Democrats can act as a bulwark against G OP attempts to roll back Biden’s initia tives from the past two years. They’ll also b e able to stop Republicans from enacting their own tax and regulation initiatives ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Crucially, Democratic Senate control also keeps the path clear to confirm Biden’s picks for federal agencies and the judiciary, including any potential Supreme Court nominations.

Since World War II, the party holding the White House has, on average, lost 26 House seats and four Senate seats.

But unconventional Republican candi dates who had not served in political of fice—and who embraced Trump’s claims o f election fraud in 2020—struggled against Democrats with stronger politi cal pedigrees and superior fundraising. A nd the June Supreme Court decision

overturning abortion rights and the backlash to Trump’s election denialism energized Democratic campaigns weighed down by Biden’s low approval ratings.

Washington could look close to how it did in 2011—a year marked by budget battles and unsettled markets—with a Democratic president, a Republican House and a Democratic Senate.

The House GOP has pledged to use its power to roll back Biden’s domestic spending and a beefed-up IRS while pursuing an increase in border security.

House Republican leader Kevin Mc Carthy, who aims to become speaker, h as said he plans to use the debt limit as leverage to extract spending cuts, as his party did in 2011.  Democrats, though, have the ability to raise the borrowing cap before the new Congress is sworn in if they stay united.

If the House flips to Republican hands, Biden may rely even more on the use of executive actions, as he did in August when he announced a sweeping studentdebt relief plan. That makes the ability to confirm nominees to implement regula tions all the more important.

D emocratic control of the Senate means Biden will avoid the challenge President Barack Obama faced trying to fill Supreme Court vacancies in his last term. At the time, Republicans blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination

Two historic aircraft collide at Dallas Veterans Day show

By Lm Otero & Jill Bleed The Associated Press

DALLAS—two historic military aircraft collided and crashed Saturday during an air show in Dallas, exploding into a ball of flames and sending black smoke billowing into the sky. i t w as not clear how many people were on board.

e mergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas e x ecutive Airport, about 10 miles (16 ki lometers) from the city’s downtown. n e ws footage from the scene showed crumpled wreckage of the planes in a grassy area inside the airport perimeter.

Dallas Fire-Rescue told t he Dallas Morning n ews that there were no reported injuries among people on the ground.

Anthony Montoya saw the two planes collide.

“ i just stood there. i was in complete shock and disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the air show with a friend. “ e v erybody around was gasp ing. e v erybody was bursting into tears. e v erybody was in shock.”

o f ficials would not say how many people were

on board the planes, but h an k c o ates, president of the company that put on the airshow, said one of the planes, a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, typically has a crew of four to five people. t h e other, a P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane, has a single pilot.

n o p aying customers were on the aircraft, said c o ates, of c o mmemorative Air Force, which also owned the planes. t h eir aircraft are flown by highly trained volunteers, often retired pilots, he said.

A team of n at ional tr ansportation Safety Board investigators will arrive at the scene of the crash on Sunday.

Dallas Mayor e r ic Johnson said the nt S B had taken control of the crash scene, with local police and fire providing support.

“ t h e videos are heartbreaking,” Johnson said on twit ter.

t h e planes collided and crashed around 1:20 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. t he collision occurred during the c o m memorative Air Force Wings o v er Dallas show.

Victoria Yeager, the widow of famed Air Force test pilot c h uck Yeager and herself a pilot, was also

at the show. She didn’t see the collision, but did see the burning wreckage.

i t w as pulverized,” said Yeager, 64, who lives in Fort Worth.

“We were just hoping they had all gotten out, but we knew they didn’t,” she said of those on board.

t h e B-17, a cornerstone of US air power during World War ii , is an immense four-engine bomber used in daylight raids against Germany. t h e King cobra, a US fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War ii and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

Several videos posted on social media showed the fighter plane appearing to fly into the bomber, causing them to quickly crash to the ground and setting off a large ball of fire and smoke.

i t w as really horrific to see,” Aubrey Anne Young, 37, of Leander. te xas, who saw the crash. h e r chil dren were inside the hangar with their father when it occurred.

“ i m still trying to make sense of it.”

A woman next to Young can be heard crying

to the court through the end of Obama’s presidency.

That move ultimately led to Trump, a Republican, filling that and two addi tional seats, shifting the high court to t he right and opening the door for it to overturn Roe v. Wade in June.

A Republican majority led by Mitch McConnell could have attempted a simi lar blockade of nominees.

T he Democratic majority will still require bipartisanship to move much legislation.

Biden and McConnell have a track record of reaching accords dating from Biden’s time as vice president from 2009 to early 2017, including in 2012 when the two averted a “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and budget cuts with a last-minute New Year’s Eve deal.

The two may need to work again to defuse a debt limit crisis and avoid a damaging government shutdown. So far, though, McConnell has given little hint of where he might find compromise with Biden, except to say that the White House and a GOP Congress might be able to agree to provide additional military aid to Ukraine.

Other issues that have some bi partisan support include countering C hina, bolstering trade and accelerat ing the permitting of energy projects. B loomberg News

and screaming hysterically on a video that Young uploaded to her Facebook page.

Air show safety—particularly with older military aircraft—has been a concern for years. i n 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, n e vada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. i n 2019, a bomb er crashed in h a rtford, c o nnecticut, killing seven people. t h e nt S B said then that it had investigated 21 accidents since 1982 involving World War ii era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.

Wings o v er Dallas bills itself as “America’s Pre mier World War ii Airshow,” according to a website advertising the event. t he show was scheduled for n o v. 11-13, Veterans Day weekend, and guests were to see more than 40 World War ii era aircraft. i t s Sat urday afternoon schedule of flying demonstrations included the “bomber parade” and “fighter escorts” that featured the B-17 and P-63.

Videos of previous Wings o v er Dallas events depict vintage warplanes flying low, sometimes in close formation, on simulated strafing or bombing runs. t h e videos also show the planes performing aerobatic stunts. Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Bobby Caina Calvan in New York City, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, N.D. contributed to this report.

Biden huddles with Asian allies on North Korea threat and China

By Zeke Miller & Seung Min Kim The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—President Joe Biden is set to meet Sunday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea to coordinate their response to North Korea’s threatening nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as to seek input on managing China’s assertive posture in the Pacific region on the eve of his planned face-to-face with President Xi Jinping.

Biden will hold separate meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The three leaders will then sit down together on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia.

The meetings come as North Korea has fired doz ens of missiles in recent weeks, including an intercon tinental ballistic missile 10 days ago that triggered e vacuation alerts in northern Japan, and as the allies warn of a looming risk of the isolated country con ducting its seventh nuclear test in the coming weeks.

U S National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told re porters on Saturday that Biden aims to use the meet ings to strengthen the three countries’ joint response t o the dangers posed by North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“What we would really like to see is enhanced tri lateral security cooperation where the three countries a re all coming together,” he said. “That’s acutely true with respect to the DPRK because of the common threat and challenge we all face, but it’s also true, more broadly, about our capacity to work together to enhance overall peace and stability in the region.”

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have skyrock eted in recent months as the North continues its w eapons demonstrations and the US and South Korea launched stepped-up joint defense exercises. Earlier this month, the South Korean military said two B-1B bombers trained with four US F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-35 jets during the last day of “Vigilant Storm” joint air force drills. It was the first time since December 2017 that the bombers were de ployed to the Korean Peninsula. The exercise involved a t otal of roughly 240 warplanes, including advanced F-35 fighter jets from both countries.

North Korea responded with its own display of force, flying large numbers of warplanes inside its territory.

The Biden administration has said it has sent re peated requests to negotiate with North Korea without pr econditions on constraining its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but that Kim Jong Un’s government has not responded.

Biden on Monday said he plans to press Xi to use China’s unique sway over North Korea to curtail its aggressive behavior, as part of what is expected to be a wide-ranging bilateral meeting on the margins of the Group of 20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia.

China “has an interest in playing a constructive role in restraining North Korea’s worst tendencies,” Sullivan said Saturday. “Whether they choose to do so or not is, of course, up to them.”

Biden told reporters on Sunday that he’s “always had straightforward discussions” with Xi, and that has prevented either of them from “miscalculations” of their intentions. Their meeting comes weeks after Xi cemented his grip on China’s political system with the conclusion of the Community Party congress in Beijing that gave him a norm-breaking third term as leader.

“His circumstances changed, to state the obvious, at home,” Biden said of Xi.

Monday’s meeting will be the first in-person sitdown between the leaders since Biden was elected to the White House. US officials in the past have expressed frustration that lower-level Chinese officials have proven unable or unwilling to speak for Xi, and are hoping the face-to-face summit will enable progress on areas of mutual concern—and, even more critically, a shared understanding of each others’ limitations.

“I know him well, he knows me,” Biden said. “We’ve just got to figure out where the red lines are and what are the most important things to each of us, going into the next two years.”

Sullivan said Biden would also ask Japan and South Korea’s leaders which issues they want him to talk about with Xi, though it would not be the primary discussion at their trilateral meeting.

“One thing that President Biden certainly wants to do with our closest allies is preview what he in tends to do,” Sullivan said, “and also ask the leaders of (South Korea) and Japan, ‘What would you like me to raise? What do you want me to go in with?’” Kim re ported from Nusa Dua, Indonesia. AP writer Josh Boak contrib uted from Baltimore.

US President Joe Biden speaks during the Asean-US summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Saturday, November 12, 2022. AP Photo/Vincent t h i A n

C A m B odi A S Prime minister Hun Sen, center, speaks during the Asean Australia-New Zealand Trade Area (AANZTA) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, November 13, 2022. AP Photo/ h en G S inith

Ukrainian police, TV broadcasts return to long-occupied city

By Hanna Arhirova The Associated Press

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine—

Ukrainian police officers returned Saturday, along with TV and radio services, to the southern city of Kherson following the withdrawal of Russian troops, part of fast but cautious efforts to make the only regional capital cap tured by Russia livable after months of o ccupation. Yet one official still described the city as “a humanitar ian catastrophe.”

P eople across Ukraine awoke from a night of jubilant celebrat ing after the Kremlin announced its troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnieper River from Kherson. The Ukrainian military said it was overseeing “stabilization measures” around the city to make sure it was safe.

The Russian retreat represented a significant setback for the Krem lin some six weeks after Russian

P resident Vladimir Putin annexed the Kherson region and three other provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine in breach of internation al law and declared them Russian t erritory.

The national police chief of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, said Sat urday on Facebook that about 200 of ficers were at work in the city, setting up checkpoints and docu menting evidence of possible war c rimes. Police teams also were working to identify and neutralize unexploded ordnance and one sap per was wounded Saturday while d emining an administrative build ing, Klymenko said.

U kraine’s communications watchdog said national TV and radio broadcasts had resumed and an adviser to Kherson’s mayor said humanitarian aid and supplies had begun to arrive from the neighbor ing Mykolaiv region.

B ut the adviser, Roman Ho lovnya, described the situation

i n Kherson as “a humanitarian catastrophe.” He said the remain ing residents lacked water, medi cine and food—and key basics like b read went unbaked because a lack of electricity.

“The occupiers and collabora tors did everything possible so t hat those people who remained in the city suffered as much as possible over those days, weeks, months of waiting” for Ukraine’s forces to arrive, Holovnya said. “Water supplies are practically nonexistent.”

The chairman of Khersonoble nergo, the region’s prewar power p rovider, said electricity was being returned “to every settlement in the Kherson region immediately after the liberation.”

Despite the efforts to restore normal civilian life, Russian forces remain close by. The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Sat urday the Russians were fortify ing their battle lines on the river’s

e astern bank after abandoning the capital. About 70% of the Kherson region still remains under Russian control.

President Volodymyr Zelen skyy said in his nightly video ad dress Saturday that Ukrainian fo rces have established control of more than 60 settlements in the Kherson region and “stabili zation measures are also ongoing i n Kherson itself.”

“Everywhere in the liberated territory, our explosives techni cians have a lot of work to do. Al most 2,000 explosive items have a lready been removed,” Zelenskyy said. “Before fleeing from Kherson, the occupiers destroyed all critical infrastructure—communication, water supply, heat, electricity.”

Photos on social media Satur day showed Ukrainian activists r emoving memorial plaques put up by the occupation authorities the Kremlin installed to run the Kher son region. A Telegram post on Yel

low Ribbon, Ukrainian resistance m ovement, showed two people in a park taking down plaques pic turing Soviet-era military figures.

M oscow’s announcement that Russian forces were withdrawing across the Dnieper River, which divides both the Kherson region and Ukraine, followed a steppedup Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south. In the last two months, Ukraine’s military claimed to have reclaimed dozens of towns and villages north of the city of Kherson, and the military said that’s where stabilization ac tivities were taking place.

R ussian state news agency Tass quoted an official in Kherson’s Kremlin-appointed administra tion on Saturday as saying that H enichesk, a city on the Azov Sea 200 kilometers southeast of Kher son, would now serve as the region’s temporary capital.”

Ukrainian media derided the an nouncement, with the Ukrainska

P ravda newspaper saying Russia “had made up a new capital” for the region.

Across much of Ukraine, mo ments of jubilation marked the exit of R ussian forces, since a retreat from Kherson and other areas on the Dnieper’s west bank would ap pear to shatter Russian hopes to p ress an offensive west to Mykolaiv and Odesa to cut off Ukraine’s ac cess to the Black Sea.

I n Odesa, the Black Sea port, residents draped themselves in Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flags, shared Champagne and held up flag-colored cards with the word “Kherson” on them.

But like Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sought to temper the excitement.

“We are winning battles on the ground, but the war continues,” he said from Cambodia, where he was attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

editorial

The greatest economic problem for the govt

The global post-war economic expansion period was losing steam about the same time as Ferdinand Marcos began his first term as president. By the time his second term began in 1969, the world was in a far different economic place with even more dramatic changes coming.

The “Allies” had defeated the “Axis” but the war between the West and the USSR and China continued on the Korean peninsula and in the former French Indochina. From the 1963 “Missile Crisis,” the Cold War was fought on many fronts including economic.

The international banking cabal to gain greater and greater profits turned to the then “Third-World” with the national leaders promising previously unthought of economic prosperity simply by borrowing more money. The Philippines was not an exception.

Former Time magazine correspondent Sandra Burton, noted for her coverage of the Philippines, described the situation in her 1989 book “Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution.” She wrote that Marcos’ first term had been relatively successful, marked by industrialization and infrastructure development. But then Marcos pursued a $50 million spending spree on infrastructure projects.

This rapid spending resulted in a balance of payments crisis, a trip to the International Monetary Fund begging for debt-relief, a devaluation of the peso, and an inflation rate that went from 2 percent in 1969 to 34 percent in 1974. Economic growth was a nominal 9 percent in 1973 but inflation was also nearly 9 percent, making for virtually zero real economic growth.

Granted, the inflation rate was also fueled by crude oil prices, which moved from $3.40 per barrel in 1972 to over $15 in February 1974.

For 30 years, the Philippine economy never came close to reaching its potential and often was justifiably a “Third-World Basket Case.” A nation cannot achieve prosperity when the government drains the economic blood by competing with the private sector—which actually creates jobs and wealth —because of carrying too much debt.

Marc Antony spoke in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was the first president and presidential candidate for that matter who fully understood that it is absolutely vital for a nation’s economy that the government must have its financial house in order. Economic growth numbers, the inflation rate, and employment figures are at best unsustainable and at worst illusionary unless the government has a sound financial foundation.

In 2002, the government budget deficit was 5.3 percent of the nation’s GDP. In 2004 the government debt-to-GDP percentage was 71 percent. By 2007, the budget deficit was 0.1 percent and debt-to-GDP came down to 51 percent.

The administrations of Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte continued policies that further improved government finances with Debt to GDP ratio falling to 40 in 2019. The budget deficit weakened to 3.4 percent in 2019 but that was due in part to a sharp increase in public project spending beginning in 2017.

Unfortunately, the government’s fiscal position was not strong enough to weather the tax revenue killing and necessary debt expansion for government’s social spending storm during the Covid lockdowns. External events made the time needed too short. The Philippines’ debt-to-GDP ratio is now at a 17-year high of 63.7 percent. Fitch Ratings expects the budget deficit to fall to 8.0 percent of GDP in 2022 from 8.6 percent in 2021.

A high budget deficit has always been poisonous for any economy and more so for countries that are restructuring and trying to make an economic development breakthrough to the Upper-Middle-Income level of a GNI (Gross National Income) per capita minimum of $4,096 (PHL is $3,640).

Among Emerging Market Economies (e.g., Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Vietnam), the Philippines has the worst budget deficit to GDP percentage.The government has a critical obligation to balance necessary spending to support economic growth and social protection while absolutely needing to reduce the budget deficit. Otherwise, any economic recovery will stall and be short lived.

Anxious about climate change?

RISING SUN

CliMaTe change is getting more real every day to a greater number of people. it is part of many people’s lived experience and it is certainly on almost everyone’s mind a lot of the time. intense heat, food shortages, flooding and extreme weather events, wildfires, deforestation, and species extinction, just to name a few, are some of the climate-related occurrences that are presently doing real damage to people, their property, livelihood, and way of life.

As discussions on climate change happen at the ongoing COP27 in Egypt, people all over the world cannot help but feel anxious about the state our planet is in and the results of this conference. The young people, most especially, are getting so worried that it is affecting their physical and mental health because, indeed, being in constant fear for the future of this planet could lead to illness. In fact, experts have come

up with a term for it: “eco-anxiety.” It is the “intense concern or worry over global warming and humanity’s inaction.” Climate disasters and headlines carrying worrisome news about the environment contribute to this general form of anxiety.

Related to eco-anxiety is the concept of “ecological or climate grief,” another new term that pertains to climate-related loss and mourning. An article in the International Journal

As discussions on climate change happen at the ongoing COP27 in Egypt, people all over the world cannot help but feel anxious about the state our planet is in and the results of this conference. The young people, most especially, are getting so worried that it is affecting their physical and mental health because, indeed, being in constant fear for the future of this planet could lead to illness.

of Environmental Research and Public Health defined ecological grief as “grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change.” This kind of grief also leads to various psychological effects, however, it should not be considered a disorder because it is a rational response to loss. That’s according to Caroline Hickman, Ph.D., a lecturer

and climate change psychology researcher at the University of Bath in England. Experts warn that climate grief could, however, lead to anxiety. How then do we cope with this grief? And how can we help our youth as they face this difficult period in our planet’s history? The Internet teems with expert advice, but there are a few of the experts’ suggestions that I would like to cite in this short column. For example, connecting with other people who are experiencing the same grief or anxiety could help, experts say. Taking simple steps and making changes are also empowering and helpful for people going through grief or anxiety. And finally, there is such a thing now as “climate-aware” mental health care. I am not sure if there are plenty of climate-focused therapists and counselors practicing in the Philippines today, if there are any at all, but there should be. These are professionals who have received special training in addressing climate-related issues—seek them out if you or a loved one is going through this kind of crisis.

UN climate talks reach halftime with key issues unresolved

By Frank Jordans | The Associated Press

ShaRM el SheiKh, eg ypt—it’s half-way time at the UN climate talks in eg ypt, with negotiators still working on draft agreements before ministers arrive next week to push for a substantial deal to fight climate change.

The two-week meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh started with strong appeals from world leaders for greater efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help poor nations cope with global warming.

Scientists say the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere needs to be halved by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. The 2015 pact set a target of ideally limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but left it up to countries to decide how they want to do so.

Here is a look at the main issues on the table at the COP27 talks:

What about the US and China?

T HE top US negotiator suggested that a planned meeting Monday between US President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping of China on the sideline of the Group of 20 meeting in Bali could also provide an important signal for the climate talks as they go into the home stretch.

With impacts from climate change already felt across the globe, there’s been a push for rich polluters to stump up more cash to help developing countries shift to clean energy and adapt to global warming; increasingly there are also calls

for compensation to pay for climaterelated losses.

China is the biggest polluter by far right now, but the US has the most historical pollution over time.

Keeping cool

A GROUP of major emerging countries that includes oil-and-gas exporting nations has pushed back against explicit references to keeping the target of limiting global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Egypt, which is chairing the talks, convened a three-hour meeting Saturday in which the issue was raised several times.

“1.5 is a substantive issue,” said Wael Aboulmagd, a senior Egyptian negotiator, adding that it was “not just China” which had raised questions about the language used to refer to the target. Still, he was hopeful of finding a way of securing a “maximum possible advance” on reducing emissions by the meeting’s close.

Cutting emissions

N EGOTIATORS are trying to put together a mitigation program that would capture the different measures countries have committed to in order to reduce emissions, including for specific sectors like

energy and transport. Many of these pledges are not formally part of the UN process, meaning they cannot easily be scrutinized at the annual meeting. A draft agreement circulated early Saturday had more than 200 square brackets, meaning large sections were still unresolved.

Some countries want the plan to be valid only for one year, while others say a longer-term roadmap is needed. Expect fireworks in the days ahead.

US-China relations

W HILE all countries are equal at the UN meeting, in practice little gets done without the approval of the world’s two biggest emitters, China and the United States. Beijing canceled formal dialogue on climate following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and relations have been frosty since. US climate envoy John Kerry said Saturday that he had only held informal discussions with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua lately. “I think we’re both waiting to see how things go with the G-20 and hopefully we can return,” he told reporters.

Shunning fossil fuels

L A ST year’s meeting almost collapsed over a demand for the final agreement to state that coal should be phased out. In the end, countries agreed on several loopholes, and there are concerns among climate activists that negotiators from nations that are heavily dependent on fossil fuels might try to roll back previous commitments.

Money matters

R ICH countries have fallen short on a pledge to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 in climate financing for poor nations. This has opened up a rift of distrust that negotiators are hoping to close with fresh pledges. But needs are growing and a new, higher target needs to be set from 2025 onward.

Aminath Shauna, the environment minister of the Maldives, said her island nation conservatively estimates that it will need $8 billion for coastal adaptation. And even that may not be enough, if sea levels rise too much. “It is very disheartening to see that it may be too late for the Maldives, but we still need to address [the issue of finance],” she said.

Compensation

THE subject of climate compensation was once considered taboo, due to concerns from rich countries that they might be on the hook for vast sums. But intense pressure from developing countries forced the issue of “loss and damage” onto the formal agenda at the talks for the first time this year. Whether there will be a deal to promote further technical work or the creation of an actual fund remains to be seen.

John Kerry said the United States is hopeful of getting an agreement “before 2024” but suggested this might not come to pass in Egypt. But he made it clear where the US red line lies for Washington: “The United States and many other countries will not establish some...legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability.” That doesn’t mean money

“UN,” A9

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

Benchmarking with the rest of the world

Telenovela of resigning

Joel L. Tan-Torres

DEBIT CREDIT

RecenT news releases presented the rankings of universities in the Philippines as compared to their counterparts in the rest of the world. These also provided information as to how these colleges and universities fare against each other locally. There are various factors that form the basis for the ratings and rankings. These were released by a number of international quality assessment rating bodies that have been doing this for several years now. Given the global recognition and acceptance of these systems, I can say that these ratings are reputable and present a fair assessment of the quality of the covered educational institutions.

In the past weeks, the 2023 Quacquarelli Symonds Asia University Rankings (QS Asia Rankings) and the 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings (Times Rankings) were released. Sometime in June 2022, the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS World Rankings) were also released.

The QS Asia Rankings covered 760 universities. The Times Rankings included 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making this the largest and most diverse university rankings to date. The QS World Rankings included almost 1,500 institutions from around the world.

The ranking indicators for the QS World and Asian Rankings included 8 and 11 areas, respectively. These included indicators such as academic and employer reputations, the number of staff holding doctoral degrees, and the percentage of international students. The Times Rankings included 13 calibrated performance factors that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.

The top three schools ranked by the Times Rankings were the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Cambridge University. The QS World Ratings had Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge University, and Stanford University as its top ranked institutions. Harvard University, my alma mater for my advanced tax studies, ranked fifth in the 2023 QS World Ratings. The QS Asian Rankings ranked Peking University, the National University of Singapore, and Tsinghua University as the top three schools.

Among the Philippine universities, the University of the Philippines was ranked the highest in the 2023 QS World University Rankings. UP ranked 412th, Ateneo de Manila University (Ateneo) was included in the 651 to 700 top universities, and, the University of Santo Tomas and De La Salle University (La Salle) were both ranked among the 801 to 1,000 group. There were no other Philippine schools included in the top 1,500 list.

In the QS Asian Rankings, the same schools were ranked the highest Philippine universities. The UP was ranked 87th, Ateneo was at 134th place, La Salle was ranked 171st, and

The top three schools ranked by the Times Rankings were the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Cambridge University. The QS World Ratings had Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge University, and Stanford University as its top ranked institutions. Harvard University, my alma mater for my advanced tax studies, ranked fifth in the 2023 QS World Ratings. The QS Asian Rankings ranked Peking University, the National University of Singapore, and Tsinghua University as the top three schools.

UST was 175th. Aside from these four schools, there were 12 other universities in the Philippines that were included in the top 760 schools in the QS Asian Rankings.

In the Times Ranking, Ateneo placed in the 351 to 400 bracket, UP ranked among the 801 to 1,000 top schools, La Salle was in the 1,201 to 1,500 category, and Mapúa University had a 1,501+ ranking. There were no other Philippine universities in the top university rankings.

How do the higher education institutions in the Philippines fare in comparison with the schools in the rest of the world? Per Commission of Higher Education records, the Philippines has about 2,400 higher education institutions. Considering this significant number, it is to be expected that there should have been more universities included in the topranked schools. Does this indicate that there is a proliferation of substandard HEIs in our country? And consequently, sub-standard quality of graduates being churned out from these HEIs? I believe the answers to these are not to our satisfaction.

Joel L. Tan-Torres was the former Dean of the University of the Philippines Virata School of Business. Previously, he was the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy, and partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. and the SyCip Gorres and Velayo & Co. He is a Certified Public Accountant who garnered No. 1 in the CPA Board Examination of May 1979.

This column accepts contributions of articles from the business community for publication. Articles not exceeding 700 words can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

won’t flow, eventually. But it might be branded as aid, tied into existing funds and require contributions from all major emitters if it’s to pass.

More donors

ONE way to raise additional cash and resolve the thorny issue of polluter payment would be for those countries that have seen an economic boom in the past three decades to step up. The focus is chiefly on China, the world’s biggest emitter, but others could be asked to open their purses too.

Side deals

L A ST year’s meeting saw a raft of

agreements signed which weren’t formally part of the talks. Some have also been unveiled in Egypt, though hopes for a series of announcements on Just Transition Partnerships —where developed countries help poorer nations wean themselves off fossil fuels—aren’t likely to bear fruit until after COP27.

Hope till the end

JENNIFER MORGAN, a former head of Greenpeace who recently became Germany’s climate envoy, called the talks this year “challenging.”

“But I can promise you we will be working until the very last second to ensure that we can reach an ambitious and equitable outcome,” she said. “We are reaching for the stars while keeping our feet on the ground.”

Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

AT one point in our lives, we decide whether to bid adieu or to stay the course. In my case, I experienced both—I voluntarily resigned from the Army but stayed put in the Bureau of Immigration until forcibly taken out, the back story of which is worthy of a season of telenovela. When it comes to relationships, I gave up on some personal ones when things became unbearable and irreconcilable, the back-story of which could be a great plot for a blockbuster movie.

But when it comes to work, resignation is one critical and oftentimes ethical decision for individuals, be it in the public service or private sector. In his article, “The Ethics of Resigning,” J. Patrick Dobel wrote, “Getting out or staying in marks a defining moment for a public servant. Such a statement has been exemplified in many an instance in our own turf, as in fact our Department of Justice Secretary (“Boying” Remulla) was recently faced with that all too familiar public challenge to resign, not just once but twice, in recent days. In the more distant past, hardly anyone can forget the oh so many pleas for then Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to step down from his post due to his supposed mishandling of the pandemic. Indubitably, the panorama for one’s decision to quit or stay entails more than just principles, as uniquely staged in the Philippines where the moral drama is ensconced not just in television shows but in the lives of our public officials as well. In the private sector, I resigned on two occasions for two distinct reasons— one was due to health, while the other was due to the work environment. I have seen colleagues from my past and present employees resign largely due to job satisfaction issues. According to a Pew Research Survey in the United States, people in most jobs quit, because of—“dissatisfaction with pay, lack of advancement opportunities and feeling disrespected.” When asked, some of these former coworkers will have their own telenovela to share!

But, for people who resigned from their public posts, a herculean question mark normally hovers around it

due to the fact that the very essence of public service lends a weightier significance. Since there is public interest involved, a heavier burden is naturally imposed on a resigning individual, under the watchful eyes of media to boot! Take the case of DOJ Secretary Remulla. When his son was arrested for possession of kush—a high grade marijuana, calls were made for his immediate resignation from the agency that prosecutes such a type of offense. I heard that he considered giving up his job, but President Marcos Jr. rejected the idea, and continues to discard it. As Secretary Remulla publicly vowed not to interfere in the process that would prosecute his son, not too many were happy, finding his decision to stay as beyond prosaic.

One of these discontented critics is suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag, himself beleaguered by murder accusations for the deaths of hard-hitting broadcaster Percy Lapid and supposed middleman Jun Villamor. In what could be hailed as the Great Telenovela of 2022, General Bantag urged Secretary Remulla to resign, boldly declaring, “Sinungaling ka, SOJ (Secretary of Justice)! Mag-step down ka na, x x x.” Bantag bravely yet belatedly raised issues on Remulla’s credibility and moral ascendancy in his post, and, in a surprising twist of events, accused the DOJ chief himself of being a marijuana user and importer.

Most certainly, such calls for resignation go outside the ambit of what’s ordinary. At stake in these not-so typical cases is one’s integrity, yet the ensuing telenovela is seldom

helpful in one’s decision to resign or to stay. Quoting again writer J. Patrick Dobel, “Often it [resignation] remains the forgotten moral option because of the combined personal costs of leaving and the social pressures to conform.” Resigning may seem to be upright but hardly chosen, especially those in public service.

The appeals for resignation for then Health Secretary Duque III operated like a cannonball hitting nothing but air! While the secretary publicly remained unfazed by the relentless and constant calls to resign, his decision was likewise “bulldozed” by his boss, then President Duterte. Apparently, the personal costs of getting out were far heavier to carry than the pressure to satisfy the “angry mob,” hence his decision was to stay, regardless. Those in the public service resign due to various reasons.

Some, who rarely do it in the Philippines, does so out of delicadeza, others are practically forced out due to negative publicity, more of a character assassination. A significant few resign to evade a palpable accountability, as in the case of former US President Richard Nixon. In the cases of Secretaries Remulla and Duque, the decision to quit or stay can never be an easy one to make, especially since their decision “threaten[s] the fabric of integrity and unravel a life or office,” to borrow the words of J. Patrick Dobel. To give up and resign or to stay and fight it out is indeed life changing.

Thus, whenever we are faced with decision to resign or stay, our thought process ought to be predicated from a higher standpoint. Public pressure, negativity, accusatory statements, and the confluence of moral drama and cinematic effects all pertain to the worldly sphere. If one is not too cautious, he or she will fall into a huge millstone of regret. Making a life changing decision based on worldly factors may haunt the decision maker, physically and mentally. But if the higher standards of God’s perfect Will are used as factors leading to the decision, the chances of danger and distress are nil. Hence, any decision should be arrived at by pursuing the leading of the Holy Spirit. As to how whether such a decision is Spirit-led, my pastor friend told me to always consult the Holy Book.

During his last few days here on

earth, Jesus, while praying in Gethsemane, began to be “distressed and troubled” (Mark 14:34) and his “soul was sorrowful, even to death” (Mark 14:35 ). Our Savior opted to get down on the ground and pray: “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36). Jesus knew the enormous amount of his responsibility and perhaps the thought of quitting must have crossed his mind. Yet he pursued the will of the Heavenly Father to help him with that critical decision to give up or to stay the course. Not his will, but God’s will. He relied not on the pressures of the world but on the strength and faithfulness of his Father. The answer assuredly came down on him as Jesus obediently fulfilled God’s will in that critical moment.

Though not as burdensome as what Jesus encountered in the garden, Secretary Remulla feels practically bamboozled since the calls for resignation stem from, one, his filiation with one accused of a drug offense, and two, an intricate telenovela that involves masterminds and middlemen, persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and persons of interest. Compounded by the mystery in the demise of two individuals that cannot be solved by sheer logic, Secretary Remulla must take more than a worldly stance to make that decision as to resign or stay. With all the ruckus that oftentimes haunt the life of a public servant, and with the participation of many curious spectators wanting an inch of this drama, it is always best to get down on one’s knees and seek God’s wisdom than to take a box of popcorn and be visually enslaved by the commotion. Prayers work, especially in every telenovela of resigning!

A former infantry and intelligence officer in the Army, Siegfred Mison showcased his servant leadership philosophy in organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Malcolm Law Offices, Infogix Inc., University of the East, Bureau of Immigration, and Philippine Airlines. He is a graduate of West Point in New York, Ateneo Law School, and University of Southern California. A corporate lawyer by profession, he is an inspirational teacher and a Spirit-filled writer with a mission.

For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

Trump vs. DeSantis: A simmering rivalry bursts into view

By Steve Peoples & Jill Colvin The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—Donald

Trump and Ron DeSantis have been on a collision course from the start.

Eyeing the Florida governor as his most formidable foe within the Republican Party, the former president has sought to keep DeSantis in his place, often noting the role his endorsement played in lifting the relatively obscure congressman to the leader of one of America’s largest states.

DeSantis, for his part, has long praised Trump and mimicked his style, but has notably declined to put aside his own White House ambitions as the former president prepares to seek his old job again. In the clearest sign of tension, the two held dueling Florida rallies in the final days of this year’s midterm elections.

At his event, Trump unveiled his new derisive nickname for DeSantis, calling him Ron DeSanctimonious.

The simmering rivalry between the Republican Party’s biggest stars enters a new, more volatile phase after the GOP’s underwhelming performance in what was supposed to be a blockbuster election year. DeSantis, who won a commanding reelection, is increasingly viewed as the party’s future, while Trump, whose preferred candidates lost races from Pennsylvania to Arizona, is widely blamed as a drag on the party.

That leaves Trump in perhaps his most vulnerable position since he sparked the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

As he moves forward with plans to announce a third presidential bid on

Tuesday, Trump is turning to a playbook that has served him through decades of personal, financial and political turmoil: zeroing in on his enemies’ perceived weaknesses and hitting them with repeated attacks.

“This is how President Trump fights,” said Michael Caputo, a longtime adviser who worked on Trump’s first campaign.

In the days since Tuesday’s election, Trump has made racist remarks about Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another potential Republican presidential candidate, saying his name sounds Chinese. He’s blasted coverage from Fox News, which, like much of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, has shifted its tone on Trump in recent days. But much of his vitriol is directed at DeSantis, a sign of the threat Trump perceives from the Florida governor.

In a lengthy statement, Trump knocked DeSantis as an “average REPUBLICAN governor with great Public Relations” and voiced fury that DeSantis has not publicly ruled out challenging him.

The approach recalls Trump’s strategy in 2016, when he cleared a field of nearly a dozen rivals with a scorched-earth approach that included insulting his then-rival Ted Cruz’s wife’s appearance and claiming that his father may have played a role in John F. Kennedy’s assassination. (Cruz later became a top ally in Congress.)

His attacks only become more ruthless when he found himself against the wall. After the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump used vulgar language to brag of sexual assault, he responded by inviting the women who

accused his rival Hillary Clinton’s husband, the former president, of rape and unwanted sexual advances to a presidential debate.

“The strategy worked in 2016, no doubt about it. The difference now, and I say this with all respect for Ron DeSantis, he’s never entered the ring with a pugilist like Donald Trump,” said longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, who ran his 2016 primary campaign. “Mike Tyson has an old saying: Everyone had a plan until you get punched in the face.”

The question is whether the insults will land differently when it comes to DeSantis. Among many of Trump’s most loyal backers, DeSantis is seen as a member of the same team. In interviews over the last year at Trump’s rallies and other conservative gatherings, Trump supporters often said they see DeSantis as Trump’s natural successor. Many voiced disbelief that the two men would ever run against each other because they seem so closely aligned.

DeSantis’ allies expect the governor to make a presidential announcement after the state legislative session, which ends in May. Until then, they expect him to focus on governing and avoid engaging directly with Trump, as he has done this week.

Regardless of when a formal presidential campaign is announced, DeSantis’ supporters are encouraging him to take advantage of the interest he’s generating at the moment. Some point to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a cautionary tale, noting he generated widespread attention in 2012 as a potential presidential candidate. He demurred, and by the time he sought

the White House in 2016, the energy had shifted to Trump.

“If you want to run for president, you’ve got to take your shot when it presents itself,” said Matt Caldwell, a vocal DeSantis ally in Florida.

DeSantis won reelection by a nearly 20-point margin, performing well even in many longtime Democratic strongholds. That victory, his supporters say, demonstrates the extent of his political appeal beyond the GOP’s hardcore base, which stands in contrast with Trump. Caldwell noted that DeSantis’ coalition included Latinos and suburban voters, voting blocs that Trump has largely alienated.

“The coalitions he’s built, the bridges he’s built, the voting groups that never touched a Republican before have now embraced Republicans and Republicanism in the form of the DeSantis administration,” said Brian Ballard, a longtime Florida lobbyist who served as DeSantis’ inaugural chairman and also raised millions for Trump. “He is certainly a leader and someone that I think has demonstrated the type of coalition building that we need to win back the White House.”

Above all, Republican strategists say voters are looking for a winner.

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, who has vacillated on Trump over the years, said many of his listeners are ready for DeSantis.

“They love Trump, thank him, wish him well and are ready to part ways,” Erickson said. “Trump voters like Trump because they like winners who fight. That’s exactly how they perceive DeSantis. The only guy between the two who is a loser is Trump.”

SCUTTLE DBM PROCUREMENT SERVICE PERMANENTLY–SOLON

ASENIOR lawmaker is pushing for the passage of a bill permanently closing down the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management.

I n a statement on Sunday, Su rigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimen tel said the Procurement Service is the highly controversial office be hind the P2.4-billion overpriced purchase of second-rate laptops for public school teachers.

L ast year, it also figured promi nently in an investigation by the Senate Blue Ribbon, then chaired by Sen. Richard J. Gordon, into the “outsourcing” of pandemic supplies procurement by the De partment of Health, resulting in over P10 billion in contracts being awarded by PS-DBM to an undercapitalized Pharmally Corp. with no track record in medical supplies transactions.

Public office is public trust. Where an office becomes riddled and corroded with irreparable dis trust, it must be the thrust of the people’s representatives to address it. This bill seeks to abolish the PSDBM office,” said Pimentel.

T he Procurement Service was created and attached to the De partment of Budget and Man agement in 1978 via Letter of Instruction (LOI) No. 755, which established an integrated purchas ing system for the national govern ment and its instrumentalities.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Procurement Ser vice was also embroiled in alleged irregularities in the buying of P42 billion worth of face masks, face

shields, personal protective equip ment, and other medical supplies for the Department of Health.

“ There’s absolutely no need for the Procurement Service, which has become wholly redundant, and which has merely served as a breeding ground for corruption,” Pimentel, House good govern ment and public accountability committee vice chairperson, said.

Under Pimentel’s House Bill 5748, the Procurement Service will be abolished and affected employees will receive separation benefits under the Government Reorganization Law.

I n the bill’s explanatory note, Pimentel said the Government Procurement Reform Law of 2003, or Republic Act No. 9184, had ren dered the Procurement Service to tally irrelevant and unnecessary.

“All government agencies, since 2003, have been empowered to es tablish their own Bids and Awards Committees (BACs) for their respec tive procurements through competi tive bidding,” Pimentel said.

“ The Procurement Service’s shutdown via an act of Congress would also give more meaning to the mandate of the Constitution for the State to take effective mea sures against corruption, and to maintain honesty and integrity in public service,” Pimentel said.

O nce Pimentel’s bill is enacted, all prior year’s and current year’s advances for the purchase of sup plies, materials, and equipment not available in the Procurement Service’s inventory would revert to the National Treasury.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Confidential, intel funds still under scrutiny in budget deliberations

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

Finance committee

SENATE

chairman Juan Edgardo An gara is “open” to the clamor to scrutinize the multibillion-peso confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) for certain  agencies and possi bly realign them to disaster response and other priorities, but stressed that “all senators must be consulted” on the matter.

T his, as two more lawmakers, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and former Senate President Franklin Drilon, weighed in on the issue.

I n an interview with DWIZ at the weekend, Angara also said he is con fident that, at the rate the plenary has been deliberating on individual agency budgets for the 2023 Gen eral Appropriations Bill (GAB), the timeline earlier laid down by the Senate leadership will be met.

A s stated by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier, the November 21 deadline for approving on second and third reading the P5.628-trillion GAB by November 21 can be met.

He noted that the senators have been working nonstop on vetting agency budgets, and pointed out to DWIZ, “last Thursday (November 10), we worked 16 hours.”

R egarding the CIFs, Angara said the agencies whose 2023 CIFs were flagged already had such confidential and intelligence funds earlier, add ing partly in Filipino that for the Of fice of the President, for instance, “it was used in [then President Rodrigo] Duterte’s time” and that, to some ex tent, “it helped boost peace and order.”

W hen DWIZ host Cely Ortega Bueno pointed out that the issue also being raised is the magnitude of such funds, he conceded this but said that “there are limitations” under the law as to how CIF can be used by the agencies.

T he CIFs that drew attention in the 2023 budget bill are those for the Office of the Vice President, the Department of Education and the Office of the Solicitor General.

Koko’s advocacy

SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Koko Pimentel III has been leading the campaign to remove or at least

reduce the CIFs, given the sparse funds left for other socioeconomic priorities and the huge demand for disaster response.

A t the weekend, Pimentel’s pre decessor as Minority leader, former Sen. Franklin M. Drilon, called for a closer scrutiny of the Marcos admin istration’s P9.3 billion intelligence and confidential funds, saying the continued use of the CIFs undermines transparency, a basic principle of good governance.

“I urge Congress to look at this very carefully. The basic rule is trans parency. Hence, each agency should justify why it has to unfollow this rule through the use of the CIFs,” stressed Drilon in a radio interview.

“ Let’s not neglect this. If we don’t pay attention to it, it will grow even larger. That was my experience in my 24 years in the Senate. It is Congress’s duty to examine the budget and set it aright [when needed],” Drilon said, partly in Filipino.

C IFs, according to Drilon, do not undergo the regular auditing by the Commission on Audit as the liqui dation of the billion-peso funds is through a closed envelope system, which means the funds are beyond the scrutiny of the public.

T he former Senate President ex pressed dismay at what appears to be a standard practice in government today where practically every agency in the government is involving itself in intelligence gathering.

D rilon said the funds should go directly to the agencies primarily involved in intelligence gathering operations such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine Na tional Police and the National Intel ligence Coordinating Agency.

In a separate radio interview,  Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa championed the allocation of CIFs for the PNP— which he used to head—and other agen cies in the security cluster. However, he opposed hastily removing the budget for counterinsurgency drives, saying such efforts need to be sustained.

A s for the CIFs in non-security cluster agencies,   dela Rosa said “a consensus” must be forged on this and echoed Angara’s call for more thorough discussions involving all senators.

‘Countries beyond Asia have stake in keeping SCS peace’

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.

As High Contracting Parties to the Treaty, we have a moral and legal obligation to work towards find ing resolutions and not resort to inciting conflicts. That path leads us only to perdition,” Marcos said during the summit.

T he Philippines is among the As sociation of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) countries with existing conflicting territorial claims with China in the South China Sea.

A sean is currently crafting the long-awaited Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, to be based on the United Nations Con vention on the Law of the Sea (Un clos) and the regional bloc’s Decla ration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), to pre vent the escalation of the disputes in the area.

M arcos is calling for the early

completion of the said COC during the 25th Asean-China Summit.

A ny restrictions in the passage of ships in the South China Sea, the President said, will have a signifi cant impact in global trade.

“ The trade which passes through the South China Sea is important not only for Asia, but for the entire world. So it is important that no conflict arise in our region,” Mar cos told reporters in Filipino in an interview after the EAS.

A side from the issue of the South China Sea, Marcos also appealed for the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which caused international supply chain constraints.

T he members of EAS include the 10 Asean countries, along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.

PHL pharma sector targets 60% market share in 10 yrs

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE Philippine Pharmaceu tical Manufacturers As sociation (PPMA) said it is targeting to increase the share of the local pharmaceutical industry to 60 percent in the next 10 years.

H iginio Porte Jr., PPMA presi dent, said the local pharmaceuti cal industry is doubling down on making the industry competitive locally. It is also eyeing to increase its supply to the Department of Health (DOH).

Right now we are expediting the implementation of the phar maceutical roadmap. The objective is from the current 32 percent, in the next 10 years the share of lo cal Pharma industry will rise to 60 percent,” Porte said, partly in Filipino.

“And then from the current 5 percent supply to the DOH to 50 percent in the next 10 years,” the PPMA chief added.

T he pandemic, he said, paved

the way for the Philippines to re alize the need to boost the manu facturing of local pharmaceuticals, noting that the country lost supply amid the pandemic when India, one of the countries the Philippines is importing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) from, stopped exporting as it grappled with a deadly Covid surge. This caused disruptions in supply to Filipino patients.

T he Philippines, he said, imports 68 percent of pharmaceuticals and majority of these come from China, India, and the European countries.

T he imported APIs, Porte noted, include “excipients,” which he de scribed as ingredients that render tablets thicker, thinner or more adhesive.

A s for the contents of pharma ceuticals that are being produced locally, he said, “the only local [used here is sugar, which has been having its own problems] in the past few months.” Alcohol is also local, as well as herbal phar

maceutical material like lagundi, sambong. “But the rest of the synthetics are all imported, we don’t have  local manufacturing of API.”

T he PPMA head said the high production cost of medicines in the Philippines can be attributed to the lack of “economies of scale,” which in turn springs from a rela tively small requirement.

“ But if we have economies of scale like simvastatin, active—if you buy 100 kilos of simvastatin versus 1 ton of simvastatin, the price is just one third. But where will you use the 1 ton if your  mar ket is small?” Porte asked.

H e said that a lot of Filipi nos are taking Statin and Sartan medicines. With this, Porte said the government should source these medicines from the local manufacturers. The head of the local pharmaceutical industry said if there will be economies of scale, the cost of production will be cheaper.

M eanwhile, Porte said the lo cal Pharmaceutical industry is currently building its production capacity.

“ Currently [for the supplies needed]  immediately ng govern ment, we have…like Pascual Labo ratories, our capacity utilization is about 50 percent right now. We can double our production without investing so much in the facility,” he said.

However, Porte said the capac ity is not being “put to use” as the local market cannot level the play ing field with competitors such as China and India.

They have their own APIs, they have full support of the govern ment in terms of manufacturing cost. They are subsidized,” Porte stressed.

S till, Porte hailed the incen tive program in the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentive for Enterprises (CREATE) law which he said provides incentives for lo cal manufacturers.

PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. said countries even beyond Asia have the “moral and legal” obligation to help prevent the eruption of conflict in the South China Sea since it could plunge the world in an economic crisis.

M arcos issued the reminder dur ing his intervention at the 17th East Asia Summit last Sunday in Cam bodia as he appealed for a peaceful resolution of existing territorial

disputes in the said area.  “ Let us be guided by the uni versal principles of peaceful coex istence and friendly cooperation as laid out in the Treaty of Amity

CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY A house festooned with Christmas décor is seen at Merced corner Lanuza Streets in Paco, Manila. The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) projects state spending to continue slowing toward year-end, but economists still see some robust consumption because of the holidays. ROY DOMINGO

LT Group’s income surges

By VG Cabuag @villygc

LT Group Inc. (LTG), the holding firm of most businesses of tycoon Lucio Tan, said it posted an attributable net income of P20.41 billion in January to September, more than double the previous year’s P9.95 billion.

The tobacco business accounted for P12 billion or 59 percent of the total attributable income while Philippine National Bank (PNB) contributed P6.46 billion or 32 percent.

Tanduay Distillers Inc. added P855 million or 4 percent of the total, while Asia Brewery Inc. accounted for P428 million or 2 percent, Eton Properties Philippines Inc. contributed P334 million or 2 percent, while the company’s 30.9-percent stake in Victorias Milling Co. Inc. added P186 million or 1 percent of the total.

LTG’s parent also booked a net other income of P154 million or less than 1 percent of total income.

Publicly-listed PNB’s net income under the pooling method reached P11.49 billion for the three quarters of the year, 53 percent lower

than last year’s P24.44 billion. Last year’s income included a P33.6-billion gain from transferring real estate assets into PNB Holdings Corp.

The tobacco business reported a net income of P12.04 billion for the period, some 10 percent lower than the P13.32 billion reported last year.

Volume of PMFTC Inc., the combined company of Philip Morris Philippines and Tan’s Fortune Tobacco, was 4.5 percent lower year-on-year, and the higher excise taxes that the company had to absorb prior to the price increase also affected profits.

The government continued its efforts against the illicit trade with 231 enforcements for the period compared to 139 last year.

The industry’s volume was estimated at 40 billion sticks for

the three quarters of the year, 3 percent or 1.2 billion sticks lower than last year. This is largely attributed to the industry-wide price increases implemented in the late first quarter to pass on the increase in excise taxes.

Profits of liquor maker Tanduay for the period reached P860 million, 14 percent lower than last year’s P1 billion.

Liquor volume grew 10 percent while bioethanol’s volume was 9 percent higher. The lower profit is largely attributed to higher alcohol and fuel costs.

As of the end of September 2022, Tanduay’s nationwide market share for distilled spirits was at 30.7 percent, up from last year’s 29.9 percent and end-2021’s 26.6 percent. In the Visayas and Mindanao regions where most of Tanduay’s sales are generated, market share was at 69.8 percent and 79.4 percent, respectively, for this year, compared to 69.2 percent and 76.2 percent in September 2021 and 66.9 percent and 74.3 percent by the end of 2021.

Asia Brewery’s net income for the period was P428 million, some 4 percent higher than last year’s P411. The company’s products saw improved volumes, except for packaging, but higher raw material and energy costs tempered profits.

ETERNAL GARDENS ACQUIRES PROPERTIES.

Eternal Gardens completed the acquisition of multiple properties in Brgy. Patag, Opol, Misamis Oriental for the future site of its 12th memorial park by signing a contract with the owners of the properties in a simple ceremony held on October 21, 2022 at Luxe Hotel, Limketkai, Cagayan de Oro City. Present during the contract signing were (from left) Eternal Gardens vice president for Sales and Marketing Jose Antonio V. Rivera, vice president for Finance Marvin C. Timbol, Cagayan de Oro branch manager Amor Leodones, property owners Atty. Rosemil Robles Bañaga and Macario Bañaga; Sharon Tan, Eternal Gardens chairman and chief executive officer D. Edgard A. Cabangon, property owners Ricarido King, Rosalinda King, Roselle King, Marife Mag-Away, Luis Mag-Away, Aris Simene and Joel Simene. In 2014, the company acquired ownership and management of Greenhills Memorial Park in Brgy. Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City making it the company’s first park in Mindanao. Seeing the demand for more memorial parks in Misamis Oriental, the company has decided to develop a memorial park in Opol. This development will bring the excellent memorial care products and services that the prime memorial park developer is known for closer to more Filipinos

in the South. Established in 1976, Eternal Gardens has developed 11 parks located in key cities in the country. It is part of the Eternal Memorial Group along with its sister companies Eternal Chapels, Eternal Crematory Corporation, and Eternal Plans. It belongs to a larger conglomerate, the ALC Group of Companies, founded by the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua and currently headed by its chairman, D. Edgard A. Cabangon.

Banking&Finance

First QR-operated teller device in PHL launched

TECHNOLOGY firm Traxion Tech Inc. announced last Friday of having rolled out its “Cooperation Network,” or “CoopNet,” teller machines (CTMs), “the first-ever cardless teller machine that will work with a QR code.” Traxion Tech said the CTMs would cater to “the underserved and less digitized cooperatives and financial institutions.”

The firm said it believes CoopNet is “poised to be a network solution made specifically for financial entities to connect with banks, Bancnet, e-wallets and remittance centers to facilitate customers’ payment collection and disbursement.” Its QR technology is powered by QRPh, the National QR (quick response) Code standard in the country regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

“CoopNet augments Bancnet services for banks and other financial institutions who could not roll out Bancnet ATMs due to cost, compliance and limited capacity of the smaller banks,” Traxion Tech CEO Ann J. Cuisia was quoted in the statement as saying. “This technology fosters an inclusive system that redefines interoperable payment solutions in the country.”

“The 24/7 ‘easy access’ design of CTMs revolutionizes the traditional automated teller machines [ATMs] that generally use a card to withdraw cash and for other banking transactions, as it operates using QRPh codes generated from the CoopNet Mobile App,” the company said.

“The innovation aims to strengthen the relationships between the Filipinos and other financial institutions that huge commercial banks do not cater to,” Cuisia said. “We are serving not only cooperatives but also thrift banks, rural banks, microfinance and lending institutions.”

By downloading the CoopNet Mobile App, Filipinos may use the CTMs to cash in, cash out, pay bills, buy eload and transfer funds by generating the QRPh code via the application.

For the security of the transactions using the CTM, a one-time pin verification code will be sent to the registered number upon scanning the QR code in the machine. CoopNet also offers cards upon request with the QR code for easy transactions.

“We are rolling out dozens of machines one region at a time until we are present nationwide. Our goal is to touch base with the underserved Filipinos and financial institutions,” Cuisia said.

Perspectives The Future of Procurement

ORGANIZATIONS are facing unprecedented change and disruptions that threaten their future viability. Inflationary pressures, expanding regulatory requirements, pricing fluctuation, an ever-evolving industry landscape due to merger-and-acquisition activity and shifts to outcome-based pricing are all key forces compelling procurement leaders to re-evaluate strategies.

Amid continuous disruption, it’s time for procurement leaders to be the disruptors, bring the function to life, work across siloes and shift its reputation from cost-cutting to customercentric and business-enabling. This can be achieved with a wholesale transformation that engages executives and peers, allowing procurement to take on greater strategic responsibility.

Added to the global picture are rising geopolitical tensions, which are damaging and shifting supply chains, the economic hangover of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as soaring costs driven by broader inflationary pressures.

How can procurement professionals navigate all this whilst also building a digital-first function that can support the wider business in their growth aspirations? Companies should challenge thinking and consider how they can rebuild the function focusing on the entire target operating model spanning the service delivery model (on and offshore), process, people, governance, data and technology layers whilst driving the needs of the entire business, delivering sustainable value and meeting regulatory compliance at the core.

Procurement needs a new perspective that is forward-looking, focused on aiming to maximize third-party relationships, innovation, integration, collaboration and data-driven performance.

The CPO agenda for the future of procurement

LE ADING procurement organizations have developed an agenda to deal with

disruption. They are moving into the future by becoming:

n Category innovators. Use deep supply market insights and predictive analytics to deliver on organizational needs.

n Customer-centric. Become userfriendly by delivering seamless procurement experiences and business compliance.

n Third-party centric. Drive supplier performance and take partner relationships to a new level.

n Sustainable. Integrate within the wider supplier risk and value chain agenda, while driving a social, sustainable agenda.

They are also enabling the future of procurement with:

1. Platforms, insights and analytics. How do you capitalize on data to drive work prioritization and deliver superior procurement experiences?

2. T he workforce of the future. Are your procurement professionals ready to become relationship brokers and data masters?

3. A n agile operating model. How do you restructure procurement to enable flexibility and a stronger connection to other parts of the business?

Where next?

IT’S no longer business as usual for procurement. There are more disruptors at work than ever before–and they’re moving fast and at scale. The key to success is to develop a blueprint for how your procurement team can turn these disruptors into opportunities to grow and gain competitive advantage.

The excerpt was taken from the KPMG Thought Leadership publication: https://home. kpmg/xx/en/home/services/advisory/management-consulting/optimize-your-sector-operations/future-procurement.html.

KPMG Intl. Ltd. is a private English company limited by guarantee and does not provide services to clients. For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may send a message through ph-marketsph@kpmg.com or visit www.home. kpmg/ph.

‘PHL may hit inflation target by ’24 with 75-bps increase’

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe M. Medalla said voting for a 75basis point increase in interest rates on Thursday’s Monetary Board (MB) meeting will increase the country’s likelihood of hitting its inflation target by 2024.

In his message at the “EJAP-Ayala Business Journalism Awards” last Friday, the central bank chief reiterated the importance of monetary policy to temper inflation and support the peso.

Medalla reiterated his position that monetary authorities will vote to match the interest rate hike recently implemented by the US Federal Reserve in the upcoming rate setting of the MB on November 17.

“The BSP’s policy rate hikes will also prevent a significant narrowing of the interest rate differential between the US and the Philippines,” said the BSP governor. “Keeping a comfortable differential between our policy rate and that of the US lends support to the peso.”

Medalla said the BSP implements a flexible exchange rate policy but recognizes that the persistent depreciation of the peso “can dislodge inflation expectations” making it

necessary for monetary authorities to intervene, consistent with its price-stability mandate.

He also assured that the Philippines has ample gross international reserves (GIR) that can allow it to sell dollars and “smoothen foreign exchange market volatility.”

The country’s GIR stands at $94.1 billion as of the end-October. This is equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. (Full story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2022/11/08/gir-inchesup-in-october-but-still-below100-billion/)

The peso, meanwhile, has gained some bearings as Friday’s trade showed it closed at P57.347 to the US dollar, the highest it has traded since September 16 when the peso closed at P57.073 to the greenback.

“The BSP uses three tools to cushion the economy against disruptions

— interest rate adjustment, a flexible exchange rate, and foreign exchange market participation,” the central bank official said. “We use a combination of these tools in a well-calibrated manner to keep the impact of external shocks manageable.”

Meanwhile, Medalla said the BSP is on track to attain its twin goals under its “Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.”

These goals are to increase the volume of financial transactions in the country through digital platforms by half and at least 70 percent of Filipino adults should be financially included through a formal transaction account.

“I am glad to report that we are on track to achieve these twin goals. In 2021, 30 percent of financial transactions were done through electronic channels, while 56 percent of Filipino adults already had formal transaction accounts,” Medalla said.

Higher inflation

IN a recent televised interview, National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G. Edillon said inflation has not yet peaked despite hitting 7.7 percent in October.

Edillon expects that Typhoon Paeng (international name Nalgae) may lead to higher inflation in November. She said, however, that assistance programs were in place especially for the agriculture sector.

These assistance programs are part of the short-term response of the government which covers the agriculture, fishery, and transportation

sectors which have been significantly affected by higher prices.

Edillon said these cash transfers are being provided to help these sectors continue increasing their productivity despite soaring input costs such as fuel and fertilizer.

Kasi ang kailangan talaga natin, iyong sinasabi nga naming robust solution para sa patuloy na paglakas ng ekonomiya natin ay magkaroon po tayo ng mas maraming trabaho,” Edillon said. [Because what we really need— a robust solution for the continued strengthening of our economy—is for us to have more jobs.]

Para magkaroon tayo ng mas maraming trabaho—at saka iyong quality jobs ang tinitingnan namin dito ha—kailangan natin ng mas maraming investments,” she added. [For us to have more jobs—and we’re looking at quality jobs here, huh—we need more investments.]

Expensive food items pushed the country’s inflation to its highest level since the rice price crisis 14 years ago and may continue doing so this month, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

PSA data showed inflation reached 7.7 percent in October, the highest since December 2008 when inflation hit 7.8 percent, which also coincided with the onset of the Global Financial Crisis.

The inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages was recorded at 9.4 percent nationwide and accounted for 80.9 percent of the increase in the country’s inflation print for October. Food inflation alone is pegged at 9.8 percent.

GSIS seeks ‘ultimate’ digital CX

Accounting automation start-up receives investment

ACCOUNTING automation startup Gappify Inc. announced receiving P16.68 million ($283,500) as investment from nonstock, nonprofit corporation Manila Angel Investors Network (Main) Inc.

“We are proud to empower the growing number of accountant departments seeking to use our leading software as a service [SaaS] accounting solutions to modernize their technology stack and improve their operations,” Gappify CEO Jotham Ty was quoted in the statement as saying. “With more organizations focused on prioritizing efficiencies and compliance, Gappify will continue its focus in building new software products that have immediate value for the CFO office.”

Gappify, whose leadership team consists of former accountants and software innovators, “empowers mid-market and enterprise accounting teams with robust accounting automation solutions,” the start-up said.

Its “Accrual Cloud” product “allows

accounting departments to close their books with greater accuracy and completeness, bolster internal controls to strengthen compliance and mitigate financial misstatement risk.”

Ty, a Filipino-American, expressed pride “that this technology came from the Philippines and is being maintained by Filipinos.”

Joaquin “Jack” L. Arambulo, one of Main’s investors, said that Gappify’s unique value proposition lies in its ability to provide their customers with the right level of engagement within their own ecosystem.

Based on the business’ needs, for example, it can automatically send messages to their customer’s active vendor list to confirm specifics around their open transactions early. This ensures a more accurate set of journal entries that leads to a more current and compliant accounting accrual calculation practices.

In addition to Main’s financial investment, the network has also supported

Gappify’s talent acquisition and regulatory requirements.

“Main’s diversified pool of investors engaged in various businesses has helped us find suitable talent and has also provided us with guidance on regulatory compliance in the Philippines,” Ty said.

Tapping Main’s expertise in the local market, Gappify has proactively engaged with its angel investors throughout their start-up journey.

“We continue to appreciate the regular quarterly calls between Jotham and Main investors. That’s one of the things that we saw that Gappify did really well— being transparent and engaging with a lot of things,” Arambulo said.

With the company’s continued success, Gappify has recently opened an office in New York City and is set to open another office in Chicago. Apart from the Philippines, it has outsourced operations in Mexico and Argentina.

Gappify said it also has plans to go through a second round of financing by 2023.

LandBank vows full support to accelerate Pasig City’s digital drive

THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) announced it expressed full support to accelerating the Pasig City Government’s digitalization thrust towards the efficient delivery of responsive public services in the city.

LandBank said President and CEO

Cecilia C. Borromeo met with Pasig City Mayor victor Ma. Regis “ vico” N. Sotto last November 7 to discuss potential partnerships to digitize local processes

and promote contactless payments in public markets and transport.

The principals discussed providing local market vendors with electronic wallets, such as the versatile all-in-one mobile payment application LandBankPay, for more efficient and convenient payment of goods.

“The city can, likewise, consider implementing the Automated Fare Collection System [AFCS] for commuters

using the LandBank prepaid contactless cards for convenient and safe cashless payments in Public Utility vehicles [PU vs], with the LGU willing to provide free rides for Pasigueños.”

LandBank said it currently provides the City Government of Pasig with digital banking facilities designed to improve its operational efficiency. These include the lender’s “Link.BizPortal” that allows residents to pay their real property taxes,

business permits, and other financial obligations to the City Government anytime and anywhere, without the need to physically line up at the city hall.

LandBank said it and the Pasig City LGU have also been working closely for the efficient and convenient distribution of cash assistance to local senior citizens and student scholars. Beneficiaries receive their cash grants in a timely manner from the City Government through

LandBank Cash Cards.

Beneficiaries can withdraw their cash grants for free from 78 Landbank ATMs or via over-the-counter at 11 LandBank branches in Pasig City, as well as from ATMs in 7-Eleven convenience stores near them. The LandBank Cash Cards can also be used to make cashless purchases in groceries, drugstores, and other accepting merchants via pointof-sale terminals.

GO v E RNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo A. ve loso announced last week that the pension fund will automate its key processes and systems via digital platforms to provide the “ultimate customer experience” (CX) for its over 2.5 million members and pensioners.

“Our customer servicing will be technology-driven so that our members and pensioners can access GSIS at their fingertips anytime, anywhere,” ve loso was quoted in a statement as saying.

The GSIS official said that the pension fund’s mobile application will soon include facial recognition when members register or log in. ve loso said they are working closely with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to expand the functionalities of the mobile app. Aside from the facial recognition feature, the mobile app will cover more payment portals, he added.

Through the mobile app called “GSIS Touch,” members may access their records and apply for a loan and monitor their loan status. They may, likewise, apply for life and retirement claims while pensioners may schedule their annual renewal of active status, the GSIS statement read.

ve loso said that starting January next year, GSIS frontline servicing in all offices nationwide will transition to a more streamlined set-up, with GSIS Touch help desks placed in all offices across the country.

The GSIS said the pension fund chief visited branch offices in Sorsogon, Legazpi and Naga to also touch base with employees.

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace

CASHLESS MALLING THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said that the adoption of electronic payments in malls facilitates an inclusive digital payments ecosystem. During the launch of “Cashless Malling at SM” in Pasay City, BSP Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat (in left and right photos) underscored that the digitalization of mall transactions will enable more Filipinos to enjoy the benefits of digital finance. These include the safety, convenience, and speed of electronic payments. BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto E. Tangonan (center photo) highlighted that digital payments encourage unbanked Filipinos to open a bank or electronic wallet account, which enables them to save money and access credit. Photo courtesy oF Bangko sentral ng PiliP nas

Why some people think fascism is the greatest expression of democracy ever invented

By Mark R. Reiff | University of California, Davis The Conversation

Warnings that leaders like Donald Trump hold a dagger at the throat of democracy have evoked a sense of befuddlement among moderates. How can so many republicans—voters, once reasonable-sounding officeholders and the new breed of activists who claim to be superpatriots committed to democracy—be acting like willing enablers of democracy’s destruction?

As a political philosopher, I spend a lot of time studying those who believe in authoritarian, to talitarian and other repressive forms of government, on both the right and the left. Some of these figures don’t technically identify themselves as fascists, but they share important similarities in their ways of thinking.

One of the most articulate thinkers in this group was the early-20th-century philosopher Giovanni Gentile, whom Italian dictator Benito Mussolini called “the philosopher of fascism.” And many fascists, like Gentile, claim they are not opposed to democra cy. On the contrary, they think of themselves as advocating a more pure version of it.

Unity of leader, nation-state and people

The idea that forms the bedrock of fascism is that there is a unity between the leader, the nationstate and the people.

For instance, Mussolini fa mously claimed that “everything is in the state, and nothing human or spiritual exists, much less has value, outside the state.” But this is not an end to be achieved. It is the point from which things begin.

This is how Trump, according

to those around him, can believe “I am the state” and equate what is good for him is by definition also good for the country. For while this view may seem inconsistent with democracy, this is true only if society is viewed as a collection of individuals with conflicting at titudes, preferences and desires.

But fascists have a differ ent view. For example, Othmar Spann, whose thought was high ly influential during the rise of fascism in Austria in the 1920s and 1930s, argued that society is not “the summation of indepen dent individuals,” for this would make society a community only in a “mechanical” and therefore trivial sense.

On the contrary, for Spann and others, society is a group whose members share the same attitudes, beliefs, desires, view of history, religion, language and so on. It is not a collective; it is more like what Spann describes as a “super-indi vidual.” And ordinary individuals are more like cells in a single large biological organism, not compet ing independent organisms impor tant in themselves.

This sort of society could in deed be democratic. Democracy is intended to give effect to the will of the people, but it doesn’t

require that society be diverse and pluralistic. It does not tell us who “the people” are.

Who are the people?

Acc O r DI n G t o fascists, only those who share the correct at tributes can be part of “the peo ple” and therefore true members of society. Others are outsiders, perhaps tolerated as guests if they respect their place and society feels generous. But outsiders have no right to be part of the demo cratic order: Their votes should not count.

This helps explain why Tucker c a rlson claims “our democracy is no longer functioning,” because so many nonwhites have the vote. It also helps explain why c a rlson and others so vigorously promote the “great replacement theory,” the idea that liberals are encour aging immigrants to come to the U.S. with the specific purpose of diluting the political power of “true” Americans.

The importance of seeing the people as an exclusive, privileged group, one that actually includes rather than is represented by the leader, is also at work when Trump denigrates r e publicans who defy him, even in the smallest ways,

as “ r e publicans in n a me Only.” The same is also true when other r e publicans call for these “inhouse” critics to be cast out of the party, for to them any disloyalty is equivalent to defying the will of the people.

How representative democracy is undemocratic

Ir O n I c A l ly, it is all the checks and balances and the endless in termediate levels of representa tive government that fascists view as undemocratic. For all these do is interfere with the ability of the leader to give direct effect to the will of the people as they see it.

h e re is l i byan dictator and Arab nationalist Moammar Gad hafi on this issue in 1975:

“Parliament is a misrepresenta tion of the people, and parliamen tary systems are a false solution to the problem of democracy.…A parliament is…in itself…undemo cratic as democracy means the au thority of the people and not an authority acting on their behalf.”

In other words, to be demo cratic, a state does not need a legislature. All it needs is a leader. How is the leader identified? F O r the fascist, the leader is

certainly not identified through elections. e l ections are simply spectacles meant to announce the leader’s embodiment of the will of the people to the world.

But the leader is supposed to be an extraordinary figure, larger than life. Such a person cannot be selected through something as pedestrian as an election. In stead, the leader’s identity must be gradually and naturally “re vealed,” like the unveiling of re ligious miracle, says n a zi theorist c arl Schmitt.

For Schmitt and others like him, then, these are the true hallmarks of a leader, one who embodies the will of the people: intense feeling expressed by supporters, large ral lies, loyal followers, the consistent ability to demonstrate freedom from the norms that govern or dinary people, and decisiveness.

So when Trump claims “I am your voice” to howls of adoration, as happened at the 2016 r e publi can n a tional c o nvention, this is supposed to be a sign that he is exceptional, part of the unity of nation-state and leader, and that he alone meets the above criteria for leadership. The same was true when Trump announced in 2020 that the nation is broken, saying

“I alone can fix it.” To some, this even suggests he is sent by God.

If people accept the above crite ria for what identifies a true lead er, they can also understand why Trump claims he attracted bigger crowds than President Joe Biden when explaining why he could not have lost the 2020 presidential election. For, as Spann wrote a century earlier, “one should not count votes, but weigh them such that the best, not the majority prevails.”

Besides, why should the mild preference of 51% prevail over the intense preference of the rest? Is not the latter more representative of the will of the people? These questions certainly sound like something Trump might ask, even though they are actually taken from Gadhafi again.

The duty of the individual

In a true fascist democracy, then, everyone is of one mind about ev erything of importance. Accord ingly, everyone intuitively knows what the leader wants them to do.

It is therefore each person’s responsibility, citizen or official, to “work towards the leader” with out needing specific orders. Those who make mistakes will soon learn of it. But those who get it right will be rewarded many times over. So argued n a zi politician Wer ner Willikens. And so, it appears, thought Trump when he demand ed absolute loyalty and obedience from his administration officials.

But most importantly, accord ing to their own words, so thought many of the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, when they tried to prevent the confirmation of Biden’s election. And so Trump signaled when he subsequently promised to pardon the rioters. With that, the harmoniza tion of democracy and fascism is complete.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconver sation.com/why-some-peoplethink-fascism-is-the-greatestexpression-of-democracy-everinvented-188967.

Former President Donald Trump looks out at the audience as he speaks at mar-a-lago on election Day, November 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. AP/Andrew H A r nik

r i oT er s loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the Us Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. AP/Jose Luis M Ag A n A

The coronavirus chronicles:

Pr’s seven deadly sins and how To avoid Them

LET’S face it, no one is per fect. And while mishaps are inevitable in our PR lives, there are disasters that can spell career doom.

Nicole Schuman, a reporter for PRNEWS, reached out to the wider public relations community, and together, they were able to list what they call the seven deadly sins of PR.

Committing one or many of these atrocities could end a ca reer, or at the very least, take it in an undesirable direction. Here, she shares with us 7 PR Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Career from prnewsonline.com.”

PR Matters

By Millie F. Dizon

Lying

W HE THER it comes down to facts about a client provided for article, or the specifics of your accomplish ment as a PR pro, it’s important to stay truthful, says Schuman. Otherwise, you can develop “a reputation for bending the truth that can put you on the wrong side of the PR law.

Vince Gallomo, founder and principal of Sunrise Health Com munications, sees lying as a top PR sin. “Claiming to have done some thing on the client’s behalf but not actually have done it breaches the client’s trust,” he said. After all, transparency and openness are keys to good PR.

Leaking info

“I SHOULD say that leaking infor m ation—even by accident—would be the one that tops the list,” says Meredith L. Eaton, director of North America at Red Larry Yellow Larry. “After all, PR pros are also secret keepers. We are let into the innermost circles of our clients’ businesses and are often the first to know sensitive information so we can help create crisis plans or craft comms for whatever situa tion unfolds.”

That is why sharing confiden tial information with the press does not bode well for those look ing to move up the PR ladder. Af ter all, as they say, “loose lips sink ships.” And loose lips can sink any PR career.

Breaching trust

A S PR pros, we are privy to con fidential information—projects about to be launched, company secrets, even “off the record” re marks our clients or corporate ex ecutives may share with us. And these involve a lot of trust.

With this, we remain vulnerable to ethical mishaps like overstep ping one’s authority and as Anne Green, principal managing part ner, G&5 Business Communica tion puts it, “leveraging any kind of confidential client information for personal gain.”

This, of course, has not only

ethical but also potentially legal implications, and it is “critical to be vigilant on this front and ensure all professionals coming into the field understand what is appropri ate use of client information, and what is not.”

Mistreating reporters

C O MMUNICATORS n eed to re member that journalists and PR pros are on the same team, says Schuman. While this is particu larly relevant for crisis communi cations, it will be good to remem ber that reporters “are just doing their jobs,” adds Andrew Fried man, SVP of Crisis Management at Berlin Rosen.

This means, whether you like a story a reporter is working on, or perhaps passing on, “attacking the reporter is almost always a waste of time and often will make a situ ation worse.”

“Respecting journalism and those who practice it is gener ally in the best interest of your clients,” says Therese Van Ryne, global PR director of Zebra Tech nologies, who adds the impor tance of keeping deadlines “if you want to maintain positive rela tionships with them. The more responsive you are to reporters, the more they will rely on you as a valued resource.”

i g noring the details W E all know little things mean a lot, and Schuman says, “the little

things can add up to big problems, if you don’t remain detail oriented and aware.”

Kim Sample, president of the PR Council, reminds communicators to always edit their work, and as, “spelling errors are unforgivable,” and encourages us to “pay particu lar attention to acronyms because they can be easily transposed. Be sure everyone involved knows what the acronym stands for,” otherwise it can be embarrassing.

Moreover, Sample says it is im portant to “remember to demon strate preference for your client’s brand. Don’t stay at a Marriottbranded hotel if you’re pitching Hilton. Don’t pull out a HP laptop at a Lenovo meeting. Don’t use your AMEX card to pay for a meal with your Visa client.” Sensitivity matters, and so does loyalty.

Lack of transparency

“W H ENEVER dealing with clients or employers, public relations pro fessionals have a responsibility to provide information to both inter nal and external stakeholders,” says Tina McCorkindale, president and CEO for the Institute of Public Relations.

This is “to help them make key decisions that affect people’s lives, even when the information may not reflect the organization positively.” That’s because “failure to be transparent negatively im pacts your reputation as a profes sional and how much people trust

that you have their best interest in mind.

p ic king the wrong spokespeople

S POKESPERSONS a re today an important part of the media re lations landscape—whether it be for political, social, or corporate matters. It is through them that the media get important news as well as how the person or com pany they represent stands on certain issues.

That is why it is important for PR pros to select the right spokes persons that emulate the values of the companies they represent. And it doesn’t just stop with making the right choice, training them on the do’s and don’ts of speaking to the media and tracking their progress in doing so as to represent your brand. Otherwise, as Schuman says, it can have dire consequences.

“Picking the wrong spokespeo ple could interrupt your longevity in the industry,” adds Van Ryne. In sum, “ensuring your spokespeople know the rules of the road and sticks to them benefits PR pros and the companies they represent.”

BO n us: i nf lating numbers

A L ONG w ith lying, falsifying met rics is a huge sin, says Schuman. It’s relatively easy to follow the num bers and see where a PR pro is off.

“One of the worst career moves I’ve seen in PR professionals is inflating media impression num

bers to make their programs or campaigns appear more successful to clients,” says Sabrina Browne, account manager of BCW Global. “Not only does this break client trust, it brings your entire agen cy’s measurement capabilities and credibility into questions.”

To avoid this mistake, Browne advised PR pros to develop perfor mance media strategy that gener ates results for clients beyond im pressions. This approach allows you to leverage real-time data and analytics to deliver stories at scale and drive measurable performance in today’s business landscape.

In the end, “humility, honesty, and trust remain some of the most basic, but essential tenets of ethi cal PR,” says Schuman, who urges us to “keep the list handy if ever you should find yourself ques tioning your actions or those of a colleague.”

PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for se nior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and ques tions to askipraphil@gmail.com.

BDO TrusT cOnTinues 5-year winning sTreak as The asseT ManageMenT cOMpany Of The year

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—BDO Trust and Investments Group (BDO Trust) has won the Asset Management Award for the fifth straight year at The Asset Triple A Sustainable Investing Awards.

BDO Trust continues to demonstrate its leadership in product and service innova tion through constant improve ments on its investment offer ings such as the BDO Pension 360, a new take on corporate pension fund management. Known as an industry first, BDO Pension 360 is a compre hensive corporate retirement plan solution designed to help companies fulfill retirement benefit obligations efficiently while encouraging loyalty from employees and improving their talent recruitment and reten tion outcomes. Another newly

created product is BDO Money Manager, designed to help re tail clients develop a well-diver sified portfolio to reach their long-term investment goals.

Enhancements are also be ing carried out to enable cus tomers to have full mobile ac cess to BDO UITF (Unit Invest ment Trust Funds) and PERA (Personal Equity and Retire ment Account), with BDO Easy Investment Plan (EIP) capabili ties for all UITF products, and a full-service Invest Online functionality for smoother transactions.

These technology-driven

initiatives aim to give cus tomers an easy and accessible investment platform that also supports BDO’s sustainabil ity efforts in reducing carbon footprint. While BDO Invest Online and BDO Mobile Bank ing offer convenience, BDO Trust continues to leverage BDO’s vast network and reach with more than 1,500 branch es nationwide.

“Our clients are at the cen ter of what we do and we con sistently find ways to achieve their business goals. I am truly proud of my diligent and per severing team who continues

to deliver for the past 5 years and enhance customer jour neys,” said Rafael G. Ayuste Jr., the senior vice president and head of BDO Trust.

The Asset Triple A Awards recognize companies that have established a comprehensive platform for investing across various asset classes and ser vicing the needs of institution al, corporate, and retail clients. They have consistently shown exceptional performance and set the tone for innovation and industry practice including ESG (environmental, social, and governance) integration. The

Asset Awards judges use highly stringent criteria which include client feedback, testimonials, and information gathered dur ing the review period. Whenev er possible, The Asset editorial team also conducts confidential teleconferences and meetings with clients.

Apart from The Asset Awards, BDO Trust has re ceived multiple recognitions internationally from vari ous prestigious publications such as Alpha Southeast Asia Awards, Reader’s Digest Asia, World Finance, and Asian Banking & Finance.

PCPPI wins Corporate Excellence Award at APEA 2022 in Malaysia

operational efficiencies while ensuring employee well-being. PCPPI also supports health and safety initiatives in the local communities where it operates. Ong attributed PCPPI’s success to the organization’s initiatives to uphold the ICARE (Integrity and Innovation, Care and Respect, and Excellence and Empowerment) values in how it conducts business and how employees interact and collaborate.

“Despite recent challenges, PCPPI‘s commitment to our values and our vision remains strong,” said Ong. “We extend our appreciation to the Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards for recognizing our contributions to the country’s sustainable growth. These awards motivate us at PCPPI to continue driving business growth without compromise to our commitments to our stakeholders,” he added.

APEA is a regional recognition program spearheaded by non-government organization Enterprise Asia. The annual awards honor organizations and leaders that demonstrate remarkable performance and leadership while remaining true to their social responsibilities.

WeFund Lending Corporation - JuanHand receives prestigious Pathfinders Award from Unionbank

UNIONBANK and WeFund Lending Corp. have worked together for years. This relationship allowed both of the them to bring great services to the people of the Philippines, and continue to grow and develop each year. Through the years, UnionBank and WeFund Lending Corp. have consistently delivered outstanding added value to customer relationships. Just recently, UnionBank awarded WeFund Lending Corporation with its Pathfinder Award, an award given to select UnionBank clients who have shown tremendous business growth through the use of innovative technology and which positively impacts the Filipinos’ quality of life. The UnionBank of the Philippines recognized WeFund Lending Corporation's

JuanHand is a financial platform that promises fast approval of loans and payments

WeFund Lending Corporation welcomes UnionBank's recognition and promises that they will strive to maintain their quality of service. It aims to solve the financial needs of the underserved by giving them access to credit.

PEPSI-COLA Products Philippines, Inc. (PCPPI), the exclusive manufacturer of PepsiCo beverages in the country, was presented the Corporate Excellence Award at the Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards (APEA) 2022 for achieving operational and entrepreneurial excellence. Held last October 20, 2022 in Penang, Malaysia, the APEA ceremony also honored PCPPI President and Chief Executive Officer Frederick D. Ong with the Master Entrepreneur Award. This honor highlights industry trailblazers whose strong entrepreneurial characters inspire up-and-coming leaders.

Since joining PCPPI in 2020, Ong

has led the organization in embracing digitization and organizational transformation. He was instrumental in driving the renewal of PCPPI’s go-tomarket strategy and the strengthening of its distribution network and expansion of PCPPI’s product portfolio.

PCPPI has also demonstrated its resilience and agility in the face of adversity. Even at the height of the global pandemic, PCPPI remained true to its sustainability commitment with clear focus on developing talent, ensuring profitability, and being responsible stewards of the environment. The organization continued to drive

Aside from the most recent accolades from APEA, Ong was recently named among the Top 50 Rising Tigers in the Asia Pacific by the Asia Leaders Awards. PCPPI has also received the 2022 Golden Globe Tigers Awards for Best Change Management Initiative (for Project SWIFT) and Excellence in the Production of Learning Content (for the GREAT Playbook, PCPPI’s guide to the new normal).

PCPPI is the exclusive manufacturer of well-known beverage brands in the Philippines: Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, 7-Up, Mirinda, Mug, Gatorade, Tropicana, Lipton, Sting, Premier, Milkis, and Aquafina.

Planning a party? Conti’s can put big flavor, delight for every kind of festivity for any and all age groups

IT‘S that time of year again—the season for parties. Food plays a big role at most gatherings, but the thought of preparing food for a crowd can be daunting. Fortunately, Conti’s Bakeshop and Restaurant offers readymade party platters. Although all parties have something in common— good food and good company—the kind of food that is served varies, depending on the kind of party. From intimate gatherings to grand events, Conti’s can delight the most discerning tastes with their large food menu that comes in two sizes: Family (good for six to eight people) and Party (good for 12 to15 people).

Fun siesta date with the titas: Filling Appetizer Fest

CONTI’S wide selection of appetizers is sure to please even the pickiest of amigas. The lineup includes sumptuous bites like the Baked New Zealand Mussels and Gambas y Champiñon al Ajillo (shrimps and mushrooms in olive oil), and pica-pica favorites like Chicken Lollies and Calamari.

Kiddie Parties: Convenient Packed Meals

KIDS can be the pickiest eaters. With Conti’s packed meals, you can be assured that your brood will have fresh, wholesome, home-cooked goodness in every bite during mealtime or merienda. They’re big on flavor and small on mess because they’re conveniently packed, making them perfect for fuss-free preps. Choose from a variety of packed meal sets that include yummy favorites like Chicken Barbeque, Shanghai Bites, Lasagna, Chicken Lollies and pastries.

Late afternoon get-together with workout buddies: Bring on the veggies

Don‘t let your holiday eating mess with you and your workout buddies’ hard-earned figure. Conti‘s gives you scrumptious and hearty options

without the guilt. The Vegetable Entrées party trays include Spinach Cannelloni, Mango Royale Salad, Lumpiang Ubod, and Tofu Steak. They are just the right size for sharing for a guilt-free indulgence.

Holiday dinner for your favorite people:

Conti’s all-time favorites

IT’S the most wonderful time of the year and you deserve quality time with your favorite people. And because they deserve only the best, treat them to classic Conti's favorites like Baked Salmon, Roast Beef, Chicken Ala Kiev, and Garlic Sotanghon.

Noche Buena with the fam: Holiday specials

LOOKING for a festive addition to your Christmas table? Conti's has the perfect dish for you. There’s Conti’s Porchetta, Chicken Relleno, a flavorful whole deboned chicken stuffed with their signature relleno meat and served with grilled corn and broccoli. Complete the triple Conti’s Christmas treat with their homemade Ham Roll (also available frozen) that’s cooked in a pineapple brine and glazed to perfection.

A gift for loved ones: Holiday gift sets

MAKE

Celebration rooms

CONTI’S rooms are also available for your special events. The team at Conti’s will assist you with everything else needed to make sure your celebration feels like home. Add to that their friendly service and you have a recipe for a truly memorable event.

To know more about the large food menu and newly-renovated function rooms of Conti’s Bakeshop & Restaurant, visit their website at http://www.contis. ph/ or check out their Facebook (@ contisph) and Instagram (@contis_ph) pages. Other pages bearing our name and images are fake. They do not in any way represent the brand.

Ang Bagong Bayani Assembly‘s ‘500 years of Christianity in the Philippines‘ book launch slated for November 16

ANG Bagong Bayani Assembly (ABBA) of the Knights of Columbus presents “500 years of Christianity in the Philippines,” a coffee table book that documents the birth of Christianity and how it influences the lives of the people and the entire nation.

The milestone project aims to take readers on a wonderful journey that covers history, culture, and the unification of the entire archipelago through Christianity. With an editorial team, headed by Atty. Matias V. Defensor former Quezon City Congressman and Knights of Columbus Faithful Navigator, the book outlines the development of civilization as the metamorphosis of nationhood.

The book opens with the discovery of the Philippines, followed by the early Catholic churches, the influential friars, the rise of Catholic universities, and an essay on the Blessed Virgin Mary titled “Mary: Mother of the Pearl of the Orient Seas,

Marian Spirituality of the Faith of Filipino Catholics,” by Rev. Fr. Alexander Balatbat. The book also includes the history of the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines, by Rene V. Sarmiento.

“Our objective was to present the historical perspective and at the same time capture the rich contribution of Christianity and other European influences to our cultural development. Christianity made our history very colorful, diverse, and fascinating and that fueled the team to embark on a project, that revisits the historical and spiritual milestone of our human development. It is our desire that our dear readers will take pleasure in reading the book and learn about our history, culture, and the unification of our beloved nation, the Philippines, through Christianity,” said Defensor, Published by Ang Bagong Bayani Assembly (ABBA) of the Knights of Columbus, the book will be launched on November 16, 2022 at Club Filipino Greenhills.

PEPSI-COLA Products Philippines, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Frederick D. Ong proudly showing the company’s Corporate Excellence Award and his Master Entrepreneur Award from the Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards 2022.

contribution to the Filipino community and bestowed upon the company one of its prestigious awards.

at lower interest rates.

A VERY MERRY GINGERBREAD CHRISTMAS AT SM MOA. It’s a Very Merry MOA Gingerbread Christmas as the SM Mall of Asia celebrates the season with a magical Gingerbread Village filled with larger-than-life gingerbread houses, peppermint candy canes, and giant frosted sugar cookies of MOA’s Magical Friends. Taking center stage is a dazzling 65-foot Christmas tree with 1,600 color-changing LED lights, shiny red balls and berries, topped with a spectacular multi-pointed Bethlehem star. The tree sits atop a giant two-tiered cake adorned with gingerbread men and gingerbread cookie Christmas trees, bells, and reindeer. At the launch were Pasay City Mayor Imelda Calixto-Rubiano (seated with Santa) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of SM Prime Hans Sy (second from right) and Carol Sy (second from left). They are joined by SM Supermalls president Steven Tan (left) and SM Mall of Asia senior assistant vice president Perkin So (right).

FACE LOTIONS THAT HYDRATE THE SKIN AND OFFER MORE BENEFITS, TOO

FACE lotions, in general, are great for many skin types, as their key goal is to nourish the skin. This is why they are a must in a classic Japanese beauty routine, which is known to deliver mochi-mochi skin—named after the beloved dessert famous for its baby-soft, bouncy, velvety matte texture. Used after cleansing, face lotions primarily soften and hydrate the skin, and some even come with more benefits.

When it comes to face lotions, the Japanese trust the skin-care brand Hada Labo that sells out a bottle every five seconds. It offers two lines in the Philippines: Hada Labo Gokujyun Hydrating Lotion and Hada Labo Shirojyun Premium Whitening Lotion. While both promise hydration as they contain good-for-the-skin and water-retaining hyaluronic acid, each has a specific purpose that can help you fulfill your skin needs.

Gokujyun Hydrating Lotion is the brand’s OG best-selling lotion that’s perfect for daily use, especially if you have dry or normal skin. Its updated version Gokujyun Hydrating Lotion Rich has the power of five types of hyaluronic acid (the previous has four) to introduce high function moisturizing technology to the skin. All deeply hydrate the skin, replenish optimum moisture, create a moisture-locking shield to prevent moisture loss, and enhance absorption of other skincare ingredients. The addition of the world’s first fermented hyaluronic acid in this face lotion significantly improves its barrier function even more.

The line also has Hada Labo Gokujyun Hydrating Light Lotion which has the same formula as the former, just tweaked a bit for oily or combination skin with its light, nongreasy texture.

The cult fave Japanese skin-care brand also offers Hada Labo Shirojyun Premium Whitening Lotion that’ll suit you best if you who have dull, tired skin. Apart from hyaluronic acid, it also contains brightening ingredients to give you that crystal bright glow.This face lotion contains two types of hyaluronic acid that form a layer of barrier on your skin’s surface to prevent moisture loss and enhance the absorption of other skin-care ingredients, all while penetrating deeply into your skin to provide moisture into the inner skin layers.

The Shirojyun Premium Whitening Lotion is infused with vitamins C and E that are known for soothing and relieving discomfort after sun exposure. Vitamin C is also known as popular skin brightening ingredient for effectively fading dark spots, reducing redness and dullness, and evening out the skin tone. Vitamin E, on the other hand, can help protect your skin from discoloration and minimize the appearance of scars, fine lines, and wrinkles.

Whichever face lotion fits your skin, use it twice a day and apply the product the Hada Labo way—by patting it onto the skin using your palm—for best results. More information is available at www. hadalabo. com.ph.

Ralph Lauren draws A-list Hollywood crowd for sumptuous show

BY JOCELYN NOVECK The Associated Press

SAN MARINO, California—Bronx-born Ralph Lauren, a quintessential New Yorker, had never staged a runway show on the West Coast before. So clearly, with his first show in sunny California, he was going to go big—or, well, stay home. Big he went, staging a sumptuous display of his well-honed ethos of casual luxury, with strong Western accents like cowboy hats and boots, against a setting sun at the grand Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, near Los Angeles.

Rivaling his lavish 50th anniversary show in New York’s Central Park in 2018, Thursday’s extravaganza brought in a slew of movie stars—including newlyweds Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck—to watch more than 120 models strut the runway, including some adorable tots in Lauren’s childrenswear who had the fashionable crowd gasping with delight.

“We’re in show business,” the 83-year-old designer said simply in a post-show interview, standing next to the endlessly long, candlelit tables where guests dined post-show on Polo Bar burgers, grilled branzino and other specialties from his restaurant in New York.

Lauren explained that early on, he had felt LA wasn’t his style, but that changed and he finally

decided, “OK let’s do something in LA, but let’s do it great.”

Always a celebrity magnet, Lauren brought out a slice of A-list Hollywood with Lopez and Affleck, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, Sylvester Stallone, John Legend, Diane Keaton, Jessica Chastain, Laura Dern, Chris Pine and James Marsden, to name a few.

The intimate affair for some 200 people began with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres like tuna tartare on a patio overlooking the lush lawns and gardens of the Huntington, which once housed Gilded Age tycoon Henry Huntington. Celebrity guests mingled along with TikTok influencers and Lauren customers.

As the sun sank lower, guests were summoned to the tiled entrance of the museum, where models strutted to a soundtrack of California-themed songs like “California Dreamin.”

There were plenty of cowboy hats, worn-in jeans and boots to begin with, gradually morphing into fancier wear like long, bright skirts and slinky cut-out gowns for the women.

A gasp traveled through the crowd as two small children appeared, each holding one hand of their accompanying adult, dressed in classic Lauren looks of tweed jackets, sweater vests, pinstriped buttondowns and white shorts.

More children followed, including a little boy in bright green trousers who stole the moment by insisting on high-fiving everyone he passed.

Making salon visits hassle-free and truly relaxing

logbook. The salon had to call someone who was on their day off and it turns out this person forgot to list down the appointment, and this made the whole thing stressful and slightly humiliating, not to mention the 20 minutes or so wasted trying to contact someone who knew about the booking.

Well, no such thing happened with BeautyBuddy. I had a relaxing time with senior stylist JR and his assistant Rain. I was so relaxed that I even fell asleep and this, to me, is the point of going to a salon.

services are highlighted to get one look,” said chief executive Officer Victoria Riingen.

Over dinner, Kushton and Kunis chatted with Legend, who said in an interview before the show that Lauren is “obviously an icon in the fashion business and has meant so much to style for such a long time.”

Lopez noted that Lauren had dressed her and Affleck for their recent nuptials. “Ralph did our wedding, so we’ve become quite close,” the pop star said. “And we really love his aesthetic.”

And singer Maggie Rogers noted she had grown up as a fan of the brand. “I have been watching them for the last couple of years and to me they represent such a timeless American style, and I always try and bring that...classic thing to my music,” she said. “So it feels like the perfect match.”

The show’s soundtrack ended with a song that seemed to acknowledge Lauren’s divided feelings, geographically speaking. “Well I’m New York City born and raised,” went the Neil Diamond song “I Am...I Said,” “but nowadays I’m lost between two shores. LA’s fine, but it ain’t home. New York’s home but it ain’t mine no more.”

this report.

seamless, but also to help them understand data about their business and clients in real time,” said BeautyBuddy chief operating officer Pia Trinidad.

BEAUTYBUDDY is not the first online salon booking system I have tried but it is most efficient one so far and this is not to diss similar other platforms. BeautyBuddy went beyond what was expected of them when I made a hair color appointment at Basement Salon in Eastwood Mall last weekend.

I simply made a booking at www.beautybuddy.com. ph and I received an e-mail from them confirming my appointment for hair color at Basement Salon. After that, it was the salon who made reminders via e-mail and SMS.

On the day of my appointment, it was heavy traffic all over Metro Manila so I was very late for my appointment but thanks to Basememt Salon, they entertained my calls to explain why I was late and made adjustments to my booking.

When I got to Basement Salon, the hair color process went smoothly. I say this because I experienced some problems with another booking platform when I booked a haircut and hair color. When I got there, the salon had no idea that I had an appointment and there wasn’t even an entry in their

BeautyBuddy is online booking and discovery platform that helps spas, salons, barbershops, and even clinics digitize their businesses. At www. beautybuddy.com.ph, you can browse through a menu of different styles, services, stylists, and salons and book them in one go. It aims to be an all-in-one portal that helps manage appointment bookings and store customer records. Through the personalized communication feature, BeautyBuddy’s partners can create customized booking reminders to be automatically sent to clients through SMS or e-mail.

BeautyBuddy also has a system that analyzes available data that can remind people when it’s time to go back for a hair appointment or something else.

BeautyBuddy also has a bookable lookbook, an online inspiration board where the platform aggregates its partners’ portfolios.

Customers can search for a celebrity look or a beauty trend and book a salon that offers their chosen style.

“This is our way of putting the spotlight on the salons and their stylists. We want our customers to be loyal to the salon for their craft and not just because of a voucher that is valid for one-time use. Plus, it allows them to upsell because multiple

For businesses, there’s BuddyDash, the platform’s real-time dashboard which displays sales breakdown reports, client information, promotion performance, and all other data that can be useful for BeautyBuddy’s partners. “We understand that if businesses stick to pen and paper, at least 15 percent of profit is lost with workaround costs, 56 percent of revenue is lost from missed opportunities, and 100 percent of data is lost. BeautyBuddy is here not only to make their shift to

digital

Trinidad and Riingen have worked in tech companies, specifically Agoda and Spotify, respectively. They have also experienced firsthand the difficulty of syncing their schedules for selfcare appointments and with BeautyBuddy, they have found a way to bridge the two things they are passionate about—beauty and tech.

Both of them lived in Singapore and they know how important digitalization is.

how important digitalization is.

“The venture capital firms and tech executives— including Iterative VC and XA Network based in Singapore, Magic Fund in the US, along with tech executives from Google, Microsoft, Lazada and Paymongo—which have backed our start-up recognize the need for this platform. We are building a world-class platform,” said Riingen.

building a world-class platform,” said Riingen.

BeautyBuddy’s brand partners include

BeautyBuddy’s brand partners include David’s Salon, Basement Salon, Bench Skin Expert, Studio Fix by Alex Carbonell, I Do Nails, Chai Spa,

David’s Salon, Basement Salon, Bench Skin Expert, Studio Fix by Alex Carbonell, I Do Nails, Chai Spa, Bloom Dermatology, Spray, and Nuyu Spa.

For more information and updates, follow BeautyBuddy on Facebook and @beautybuddycom on Instagram. For salons, nail spas, and other beauty-related businesses who are looking to expand their brand with BeautyBuddy, you get in touch with Victoria Riingen at victoria@ beautybuddy.com.ph.

spas, and other beauty-related their brand with BeautyBuddy, you get

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

WITH a bevy of celebrities in attendance, fashion icon Ralph Lauren unveiled his wellhoned ethos of casual luxury for 2023 at the grand Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in California. PHOTOS BY AP

BEAUTYBUDDY cofounders Pia Trinidad and Victoria Riingen

The show, which featured designs from several Ralph Lauren lines including menswear and childrenswear, finished with the models all returning to gather on the patio, joined by Lauren as he emerged to cheers.

■ The Associated Press journalist Krysta Fauria contributed to

PAALAM SETS TONE FOR PARIS OLYMPICS

By Josef Ramos

CARLO PAALAM can now reboot for his quest of winning gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics after he won the men’s bantamweight gold medal at the Asian Boxing Confederation Elite Men and Women Championships in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday night.

I hope this gold medal will be a good sign that I can win gold in Paris,” Paalam told BusinessMirror as he and the other members of Team Philippines started to pack for home on Sunday. “I will prepare seriously with my coaches.”

Paalam never saw action in an organized competition since he clinched the men’s flyweight silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics August last year but always trained with the national teams.

He was tasked by his coaches to fight as a bantamweight—he added 3

Silat’s Padios wins 1st gold in PSC meet

MARY FRANCINE PADIOS

topped pencak silat’s seni tunggal singles on Sunday to win the first gold medal of the Eighth Women’s Martial Arts Festival at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

P adios, winner of the same event in the Southeast Asian Games, scored 9.587 points to set the competitions rolling in the games organized by the Philippine Sports Commission.

There’s a story behind the gold Padios—a bronze medalist at the Malacca world championships earlier this year—clinched on Sunday.

S he had apprehensions on joining the festival as she mourns her father, who passed away after her successful SEA Games stint last May in Vietnam.

I hesitated at joining this event, but I dreamt of Papa and he reminded me about obligation to the country and my new responsibility in the family,” she said.

C herry Mae Regalado of Philippine Speed Warriors-Aklan, a bronze medalist in the 2018 Asian Games, settled for silver with 9.246 points while Lorraine Verde of Isat U KBD got the bronze with 8.897 points.

S hanta Loise Carlos, meanwhile, topped the -54 kgs of jiu-jitsu beating Gliza Bea Jacinto. Erica Barros bagged bronze.

I n karate, Fatima A-Isha Lim Hamsain joined hands with Baby Angel Lamorte and Christina Colonia to secure gold in team kata.

He didn’t disappoint and on Saturday night, the 24-year-old from Cagayan de Oro City beat top-seeded Makhmud Sab yrkhan of Kazakhstan, 4-1, in the final.

“ I was surprised with the way I moved despite the additional weight,” Paalam said. “I fought strong boxers but I felt good all the time and my endurance was okay.”

Paalam has to revert to flyweight because the bantamweight class is not on the Olympic program. He has enough time to shed weight though.

“ There’s no pressure in reducing weight although I haven’t eaten rice for almost half a month,” he said. “It’s different when I’m competing in flyweight where I really need to reduce so hard. I eat bread, vegetables and fish most of the time.”

I have to check how my body will react if I try returning to flyweight,” said Paalam, who skipped last

MIGUEL TABUENA and Angelo Que hope to buck the rigors of long travel and provide the challenge in a stellar field all primed for a novel knockout format in the ICTSI Villamor Match Play Invitational beginning Tuesday at the Villamor Golf Club in Pasay.

The multi-titled Asian Tour veter ans wrapped up their International Series Egypt stint Sunday and are ex pected to be back late Monday in time for Tuesday’s opening of the Philip pine Golf Tour’s (PGT) season-ending tournament among the top finishers in the just-concluded six-leg PGT and 11-stage Ladies PGT.

A nd in a head-to-head format, emphasis will be on each player’s ability to finish off his rival in the shortest possible route to conserve energy for the grueling battles ahead in pursuit of the top P280,000 purse in the event put up by ICTSI.

W hile the two-time Philippine Open champion Tabuena has nailed one PGT crown in the season-opening leg at Luisita last March before shift ing his campaign abroad, the Japan Tour-based Que, a three-time Asian Tour titlist, has had not much success on the Pilipinas Golf Tournaments

May’s

Paalam convincingly won all his fights in Amman, including a

Tabuena, Que bringing Asian Tour winning acts to ICTSI Match Play

Inc.-organized circuit, ending up tied for fourth at Eagle Ridge-Aoki which he led in the first round. He limped to tied 14th at Riviera but bounced back to place fifth at Pradera Verde.

Despite their limited stints, the pair safely made it to the Top 32 in the Order of Merit rankings with Tabuena placing fifth and Que ending up at No. 18.

Meanwhile, 18 pros warm up for the event in today’s pro-am tourna ment where they will be paired with 54 amateurs from various sectors.

Guido Van der Valk topped the OOM race on a two-title feat, edging Tabuena in sudden death at Splendido Taal then upending Jhonnel Ababa and Tony Lascuña at Pradera Verde.

The Dutch ace has also an unfin ished business at Villamor, having lost to Jerson Balasabas in a playoff in the 2018 ICTSI Philippine Masters.

Lascuña, a four-time OOM winner, is also out to snap a run of frustrating finishes after placing second in the last three PGT events, including a playoff

setback to Juvic Pagunsan at Riviera.

Clyde Mondilla, winner of the revival of the Philippine Masters at the tight military layout in 2017, is also rar ing to end the year on a winning mode after losing to Tabuena in sudden death at Luisita and yielding to Zanieboy Gialon at Caliraya Springs.

That should make the title chase doubly exciting with no player holding a distinct advantage in such kind of a oneon-one format that even the lesser lights could upend their fancied counterparts in any given match-up.

A lso in the fold are Michael Bibat, winner at Eagle Ridge-Aoki, Reymon Jaraula, Ababa, Ira Alido, Joenard Rates, Sean Ramos, Rupert Zara gosa, Lloyd Go, Rico Depilo, Orlan Sumcad, Balasabas, Dino Villanueva, Jay Bayron, Marvin Dumandan, Frankie Miñoza, Anthony Fernando, Gerald Rosales, Keanu Jahns, Albin Engino, Enrico Gallardo, Fidel Concep cion, Richard Sinfuego, Art Arbole, Mars Pucay, Paul Echavez and Dan Cruz.

Alcala, Choo reign in Ironman 70.3 Puerto Princesa

JOHN ALCALA put up a strong finishing kick to capture the men’s overall crown in decisive fashion but Singapore’s Ling Er Choo proved a lot tougher and stronger as she dominated the women’s side of the Ironman (IM) 70.3 Puerto Princesa in Palawan on Sunday.

A lcala came out of the opening swim leg at the Baywalk Park at joint sixth but chased early leaders Fer

Casares, Dutch Eric van den Linden and Satar Salem with a third-best time in bike before pouring it out in the closing run part to rule the 1.9-km swim, 90-km bike and 21-km run in 4:32:20 at the Ramon Mitra Jr. Sports Complex.

Th ird in the IM 70.3 Cebu last August, Alcala turned in a fast 1:29:11 clocking in the final leg that indeed decided the outcome of the grueling race that looked headed to a

scrambling finish until the TRI SND Barracuda spearhead, who timed 34:52 in swim and 2:24:22 in bike, charged home with that scorching run in hot conditions.

Mervin Santiago of Sante Barley TRI team and Jailani Lamama wrested control after the bike stage but both failed to keep in step with the big-striding Alcala with the former ending up second in 4:37:23 with leg times of 34:04 (swim),

CAL BABIES TOP CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

CALIFORNIA Precision SportsAntipolo City carved out 25-19, 25-18, 25-21 win over University of the East (UE)-Manila to bag gold in the women’s division of the Philippine Volleyball Federation Champions League Sunday at the Philsports Arena.

C asiey Dongallo, who was still in Cebu when the CAL Babies won their pool opener against the Lady Warriors, produced 20 kills in the clincher.

I’m very happy because everyone in the team worked hard,” said Dongallo, who scattered nine points in the third set. “Even though I missed the opening match against UE, I felt I was able to bounce back and everyone had the eagerness to win.  And here, we won the championship.”

J elai Gajero had 14 points, including two blocks, while Lhouriz Tuddao also recorded two blocks for an eight-point outing for CPS Antipolo City.

F ifth placers in the Lipa City bubble last year, the CAL Babies were able to complete a 5-0 sweep of the tournament supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Rebisco, PLDT, Philippine Olympic Committee, Cignal HD, One Sports, Cignal Play, F2 Logistics and Amigo Entertainment.

The girls played well all throughout,” said CPS Antipolo City Coach Dr. Obet Vital. “They needed to be done, which is the fundamentals, the mental, the attitude and then the physical. They did well. They hung in there.”

All of the teams they played were much experienced and much

older. They just kept fighting and fighting. I’m very proud that they did well and pull it through in the finals. They were determined to do well,” he added.

Ja Lana paced the Lady Warriors with 14 points while Dara Nieva chipped in eight points.

E arlier, KMS-Quezon secured the bronze medal with a 25-21, 24-26, 2125, 25-19, 15-9 win over Imus City. A bil, whose previous club stint was with BaliPure in last year’s Premier Volleyball League in the Ilocos Norte bubble, was a bundle of joy for the Quezon.

In the dugout, it’s already fun. Inside the court, she rubs her energy to the team. Very light, nothing heavy,” said Coach Onyok Getigan of Abil.

M aking the most out of her stint for the Lady Vikings, Abil has something to prove with her performance.

This year, this is the only team that I only played. Then, I want to showcase my talent that I have.  I want to enjoy also in the tournament,” said Abil, the former UE star who had a match-best four blocks.

Jorelle Singh had 21 points, including two service aces, Julie Catindig had 18 points while Alex Rafael three blocks for a 12-point outing for the AJAA Lady Spikers.   M eanwhile, Ridzuan Muhali and Hero Angeles teamed up for 26 points as Imus City took the bronze in the men’s division following a 25-16, 25-22, 34-32 conquest of PGJC-Navy.

C ignal and North Cotabato battled for the men’s gold late Sunday.

Aguilar, only 5, emerges country’s youngest jiu-jitsu world champion

ALEIA AIELLE AGUILAR

crowned herself as the Phil ippines’s youngest jiu-jitsu world champion after her victory at the recent Abu Dhabi World JiuJitsu Championships in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A guilar—youngest daughter of Alvin Aguilar, considered as the godfather of Philippine mixed martial arts (MMA)—defeated Brazil’s Gabriela Vercosa by verbal submission in the Kids’ 1 -16 kgs category.

W hat made the young Aguilar’s feat more remarkable was the fact that she fought unaccompanied on the mat. Her mother, Maybelline Masuda, was unable to be on her corner in the final.

M asuda said Aleia applied a heavy sprawl and Vercosa was forced to the verbal submission.

A referee decides on a verbal submission in an MMA match when a fighter makes sounds that he or she is in pain, not necessarily a tap.

“ I’m beyond happy that my baby girl is now the Philippines’s youngest world champion,” said Alvin Aguilar, founder of the MMA promotions Universal Reality Combat Championship, or URCC. “We will continue to work hard to bring honor to our country.”

A guilar, training out of DeftacRibeiro Jiu-jitsu Philippines, de feated UAE’s Maria El Halabi, 6-0, in the semifinals.

We are so all proud of Aleia. Even at such young age, she’s already so organized and hardwork ing in everything she does,” Alvin Aguilar said. “From academics to sports, she always excels because of her work hard.”

“ I remember when she was only two years old, she told us ‘I want to be the greatest,” he added.

M asuda said Aleia Aguilar is a born fighter.

She’s born into Jiu-jitsu. I brought her with me to training when she was just three weeks old,” Masuda said. “Every training and competition day, she grew up with jiu-jitsu in her life and it eventually became her dream to compete.”

W ith Aleia and Masuda in Abu Dhabi were her brothers Alonso Lucas and Andreas Lucho Agui lar, coach Lester del Rosario and athletes Fierre Afan, Lord Gabriel Del Rosario, Joaquin Antonio Marte and David Zaldarriaga.

“ I was more nervous watching her compete than I was competing,” said Masuda, the country’s first jiu-jitsu champion. “I couldn’t sleep the night before but we pulled through and she got what we came here for.”

M asuda also won the coun try’s first gold at the Asian Beach Games in 2014.

A lvin Aguilar, who’s been to MMA for the past 30 years, thanked his daughter’s club, training partner Yuri Yson, her coaches especially wrestling coach Choy Tumasis of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines.

2:21:13 (bike) and 1:37:46 (run) and the latter settling for third in 4:39:46, including 31:30 in swim, 2:24:49 in bike and 1:38:57 in run.

B ut the day belonged to Choo, who hardly impressed after emerging fourth in swim (32:58) but lived up to the event’s title after storming ahead with a stirring 2:34:22 clocking in bike then darting home to victory in 1:45:10 in run for a total clocking of 4:57:46.

stamps mark in Palawan.

pounds to his weight—to give way for another flyweight contender, Roger Ladon, in Amman.

CARLO PAALAM beats Makhmud Sabyrkhan of Kazakhstan, 4-1, in the final.

Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi because of a shoulder injury he incurred in Tokyo. “But I have to savor this moment first before thinking about reducing.”

5-0 rout of Seidekmatov Sanzhai of Kyrgyzstan in the semifinals.

Nesthy Petecio, also a silver medalist in Tokyo, settled for bronze in women’s featherweight, the same medal Hergie Bacyadan grabbed in women’s middleweight.

B8

Monday, noveMBer