BusinessMirror October 03, 2022

NG borrowings plunge 42% to ₧1.378T in 8-mo period

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcala

THE national government’s total borrowings from January to August plunged by 42 percent to P1.378 trillion from P2.387 trillion last year, latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed.

T he total 8-month total borrow ings is 62.64 percent of the P2.2trillion total borrowing target set by the national government this year.

B Tr data showed that the bulk of the amount borrowed by the na tional government as of end-August consisted of gross domestic borrow ings that reached P1.041 trillion, which was 46 percent lower than the P1.93 trillion recorded during

the eight-month period of last year.

T he lion’s share of gross domes tic borrowings during the eightmonth period came from Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds at P850.382 billion, followed by Retail Treasury Bonds at P457.8 billion. There was also a net debt redemption on Trea sury Bills amounting to P267.087 billion as more debts were repaid than borrowed.

Data from the BTr also showed

index...

T he world’s top innovators are Switzerland, Sweden, United States and United Kingdom. South Korea is the top innovator among Asian countries, ranking 6th in the GII.  M eanwhile, the Philippines ranked 5th among 36 lower-middle income group economies.

This year’s GII report stressed that while the global innovation land scape is changing—both within the top 25 leading innovation economies, as well as more gener ally within the overall rankings and the league tables by income group or region, that of the Philippines

that gross foreign borrowings in the January-to-August period rose by more than a fifth to P337.794 bil lion from P458.509 billion recorded in the same period of last year.

O f the total gross foreign bor rowings, program loans and multitranche dollar-denominated global bonds amounted to P136.6 billion and P117.326 billion, respectively.

T he remaining amount was borrowed through a project loan (P55.312 billion) and through the issuance of yen-denominated Sam urai bonds (P28.552 billion).

For August alone, the national government borrowed P133.338 billion, or 13.25 percent over the P117.740 billion recorded amount last year, driven by higher gross domestic borrowings, based on BTr data.

Gross domestic borrowings in August rose by 30.75 percent yearon-year to P132.021 billion while gross foreign borrowings plunged

alongside Vietnam “has halted mo mentarily.”

D espite this, the report noted that the Philippines along with Vietnam and the Islamic Repub lic of Iran are the middle-income economies with the “fastest inno vation catch-up to-date, although Vietnam and the Philippines fell back slightly, underlining the im portance of sustaining innovation

by 92.15 percent on an annual basis to P1.317 billion, BTr data showed.

T he BTr earlier reported that the national government’s outstanding debt as of end-August reached a new record level of P13.02 trillion.

T he national government’s out standing debt was P133.64 billion or a percent higher than the P12.89 trillion debt recorded in July. The national government’s outstanding debt at the end-August of last year was at P11.64 trillion.

“ The P133.64 billion or 1.0 per cent increment from the end-July 2022 level was attributed to the net issuances of domestic securities as well as currency adjustments,” the BTr said in an earlier statement.

At the current level, [national government’s] debt has increased by P1.29 trillion or 11.0 per cent since end-December 2021, of which 68.7 percent was domestic borrowings while 31.3 percent was sourced externally,” it added.

effort over time.”

Moreover, the report said Viet nam and the Philippines have an “increasingly important potential for transforming the global inno vation landscape.”

O ver the past decade, the GII report noted that within the South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania region as a whole, the Philippines is among the countries that have made the “greatest advances,” mov ing up more than 20 ranks.

“ These economies continue to lead in key innovation indicators, too. Vietnam ranks 1st worldwide in High-tech imports, the Philip pines is 2nd in High-tech exports, and Indonesia holds 2nd position worldwide in Entrepreneurship policies and culture,” the report stated.

Factors in decline

ACCORDING to the IPOPHL chief, though, the drop in the Philip pines’s rank in the global innova tion index may be attributed to double-digit decreases in the Edu cation & Tertiary Education subindicators under Human Capital & Research, Knowledge Creation & Knowledge Impact sub-indicators under Knowledge & Technology Outputs, and Creative Goods and Services sub-indicator under Cre ative Outputs.

B arba added that for sub-indi cators related to intellectual prop erty (IP), “the top laggards were Industrial Designs [ID], where we fell 10 spots in ranking, followed by Cultural and Creative Services Exports (-9); Utility Models [UM] [-7]; Patent Families [-7]; Univer sity-Industry R&D Collaboration [-3]; and Trademarks [-3].”

T he IPOPHL head noted that the decline in ID, UM and Trade marks may be “due to the fact that the report based its data on 2020 when IPOPHL saw a decline in ap plication across all types of IP due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

B arba said these drops “cumula tively” represented the biggest de cline in filing activities throughout IPOPHL’s 25 years in office.

We have come a long way in capacitating our 77 ITSOs in us ing patent databases for filling in today’s technology gaps, as well as bringing ITSOs’ inventions and in novations closer toward industry development and commercializa tion,” Barba said.

Meanwhile, Barba said the IP OPHL sees a “bright spot” in IPrelated driving indicators such as National Feature Films which rose by 29 spots, Printing and Other Me dia which climbed up by 17 notches, Mobile App Creation which rose by 5 spots; Patents jumping by 4 spots, and PCT families which rose by 4 spots as well.

law...

R E sources such as solar, wind, hydro and ocean or tidal energy sources are considered kinetic en ergy sources.

T he DOJ noted, however, that the Implementing Rules and Regu lations (IRR) of  Republic Act No. 9513 must be amended to conform to its opinion. “We, however, em phasize that this opinion is sub ject to the following qualifications that the executive construction, as provided in Section 19 of the IRR of RA No. 9513, that solar, wind, hydro and ocean  or tidal energy is subject to the 40 percent foreign equity limitation, would remain, unless amended.”

T he DOJ also noted that the “ap propriation of waters, direct from the source, for power generation” shall continue to be subject to the foreign ownership restriction in the Water Code. Generation plants for the conversion of hydro power are open to foreign ownership.

A ccording to the DOE,  foreign ownership restrictions hamper the flow of investments in the RE sector. This may now be relaxed following the legal opinion that exploration, development, and utilization of inexhaustible RE source are not subject to the 60:40 foreign equity limitation as pro vided under Section 2, Article XII of the Constitution.

“ We express our appreciation to DOJ Secretary Crispin ‘Boy ing’ Remulla and his legal team for this favorable development which will pave the way for the

Think tank...

For emerging economies, labor supply growth is expected to be at 0.3 percent in 10 years before con tracting between 2031 and 2040.

T he think tank’s data showed labor supply in emerging economies only grew 0.8 percent annually be tween 1997 and 2019.

Human capital “IMPROVEMENTS in human capi tal will continue but cannot offset the demographic drag, especially with much already achieved in terms of broadening participation in secondary and tertiary educa tion,” Oxford Economics said.

I n terms of productivity, the think tank said the slowdown in labor supply growth will make the world more reliant on total factor productivity (TFP) growth.

H owever, TFP is still under threat because of the pandemic, soaring energy prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This will im pact negatively on economic growth prospects.

M eanwhile, the slowdown of China’s economy is expected to con tinue and average only 4.5 percent between 2020 and 2030 to just 3 percent in 2031 and 2040.

T he think tank said this will matter for global growth because China accounted for a third of the world’s growth in past 20 years.

Our baseline forecast has this contribution roughly halving by 2050; although China’s size in the world economy means that it doesn’t have to grow as fast as previously to maintain its contri bution to world growth, the extent of the growth slowdown we now forecast offsets this,” Oxford Eco

Peso...

“The Committee on Ways and Means will thus ensure that we exceed our collection targets for this year, we narrow the deficit, we finish at least one tax reform law; we craft at least one new revenuepositive revenue regulation [prob ably on POGOs], and we complete at least one privatization measure with the DOF. That will be the score card I ask you to measure me against this year,” he added.

T he lawmaker assured the

opening of foreign investments in renewable energy development,” said Lotilla.

T he DOE also said that the opinion accelerates the attain ment of President Ferdinand Mar cos Jr.’s programs to develop the country’s indigenous and renew able energy.

R ule 6, Section 19 (B) of the IRR of the RE Law stipulates that “the exploration, development, produc tion and utilization of natural re sources shall be under the full con trol and supervision of the State.”

It further states that “the State may directly undertake such ac tivities, or it may enter co-pro duction, joint venture or co-pro duction sharing agreements with Filipino citizens or corporations or associations at least 60 per cent of whose capital  is owned by Filipinos. Foreign RE developers may also be allowed to undertake RE development through an RE service/operating contract with the government, subject to Article XII, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution.”

“ Private sector investments are central in achieving our renew able energy targets and vision for the Filipino people and this is a welcome development for our for eign investors to invest in renew able energy production here in our country. This will certainly contrib ute to our target share of renewable energy in the power generation mix of 35 percent by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2040,” added Lotilla.

nomics said.

Meanwhile, the UK-based think tank said deglobalization fears are often exaggerated but are not com pletely without basis, given that the number of new free trade deals has already declined and trade restric tions have risen.

T his will matter for global growth given that trade liberal ization has been responsible for a quarter of the world’s economic growth in the 1990s and 2000s.

T his is a threat given that there has also been reduced support for liberalization and a number of bi lateral trade relations have been affected by geopolitics.

Our baseline forecasts show a picture of ‘slowbalization’, with the share of trade in world GDP creep ing slowly higher in much the same way as it has since the GFC,” Oxford Economics said.

M eanwhile, the final risk to growth is the transition to a net zero carbon emissions world. The UK-based think tank said this will lead to significant costs in the form of higher taxes and inflation.

O xford Economics said some of these headwinds can be mitigated by “clever policymaking.” But other solutions, particularly in increas ing productivity, would be through technology.

“ These might include maxi mizing labor force participa tion, encouraging investment [especially in R&D] including by infrastructure spending and corporate sector reforms, boost ing entrepreneurship, removing obstacles to labor market mobil ity and avoiding protectionism,” the think tank said.

House leadership that the commit tee will realize at least P180 billion in new revenues not in the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Funding for 2023.

“ So, no big new tax cuts. What we will do is shore up tax and nontax revenues to expand spending on high-return projects.  That will create more growth that, in turn, will make our debt smaller relative to the size of the overall economy,” he said.

The Nation

PSA: Maternal deaths post highest growth rate in H1

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

DIRECT obstetric deaths post ed the highest growth rate among the causes of death in the first semester of the year, ac cording to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Based on the latest data, some 468 Filipinos were killed by “other direct obstetric deaths” representing a 10.1-percent increase from the 425 posted in the same period last year.

This was followed by tetanus, which posted a growth of 7.1 per cent during the period. These were the only causes of death that posted a growth during the period since all causes of death, including Covid-19, posted declines.

“Since this is the cause of death that has the highest positive in crease among other causes dur ing the indicated period, this is an area of concern as maternal deaths should be at zero,” Popcom Officer In Charge-Executive Director Lolito R. Tacardon told the BusinessMirror “This needs further investigation to identify and implement appropriate governmental response.”

The data also showed single-digit declines were noted in exposure to smoke, fire and flames with a con traction of 2.8 percent as well as viral hepatitis at 8.3 percent.

These were the only causes of death that had single-digit declines. All other causes of death recorded double-digit declines.

Meanwhile, the PSA said a total of 262,945 Filipinos died between January and June 2022, a contrac tion of 30.4 percent compared to the 377,554 who died in the same period of last year.

The top three causes of death in the country from January to June of 2022 were ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and neo plasms. These were also the leading causes of death in the same period in 2021.

Between January and June of 2022, ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death with 48,728 cases or 18.5 percent of the

total deaths in the country.

Cerebrovascular diseases came in second with 27,361 deaths or a 10.4 percent share while Neoplasms, commonly known as “cancer,” were the third leading causes which ac counted for 26,138 recorded cases or 9.9 percent of the total from January to June 2022.

Deaths due to diabetes mellitus recorded 16,970 cases or 6.5 percent share, making it the fourth leading cause of death, while deaths due to hypertensive diseases, which ranked fifth recorded 15,162 cases or 5.8 percent share.

Registered deaths due to Cov id-19 accounted for a total of 11,677 deaths or 4.4 percent of the total registered deaths from January to June 2022.

By classification, Covid-19 with virus identified and Covid-19 virus not identified were both included in the 20 leading causes of death.

Covid-19 with virus identified was the eighth leading cause of death in the country with 8,429 cases or 3.2 percent of the total deaths.

Registered deaths due to Covid-19 with virus not identified accounted for 3,248 or 1.2 percent of the total deaths, making it the 18th leading cause of death.

A mong regions, Calabarzon re corded the highest number of regis tered deaths from January to June 2022 at 39,284 or 14.9 percent of the total deaths in the country.

T he NCR registered 32,093 deaths from January to June 2022, or a -39.2 percent decrease from the 52,804 deaths registered in the same period in 2021.

Quezon City recorded the highest number of registered deaths in the NCR from January to June 2022 at 6,987 or 21.8 percent of the total deaths in the region.

The province of Cavite recorded the highest number of registered deaths among provinces from Janu ary to June 2022 at 9,775 or 3.7 per cent of the total deaths in the country.

This was followed by Bulacan with 9,385 deaths or a share of 3.6 percent of the total and Pangasinan with 8,964 or 3.4 percent share.

PHL moves to cancel visas of 48K illegal POGO workers

in several batches.

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

THE

government has decided to cancel the visa of 48,782 Chinese nationals working in Philippine Offshore Gaming Opera tion (POGO) companies and service providers whose authority to operate have either been cancelled or revoked by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla said it was determined by the Bureau of Immigration through Commissioner Norman G. Tansingco that the cancellation of the visas of these POGO workers would be the most “cost-efficient” and “humani tarian” approach.

Several lawmakers have called for the termination of POGO op erations in the country due to ram pant cases of kidnapping, murder, incidents and other criminalities involving their workers, mostly Chinese nationals.

“The Department is aware of the effects this operation may have on

the economy. However, given the many reports of murder, kidnapping and other criminal activities, the social cost of keeping illegal aliens heavily outweighs the projected ef fect it will have on the affected in dustries. Even so, the Department will be sure to coordinate with the national economic team to counter any negative effects on the country,” Remulla said.

Meanwhile, Tansingco said that upon receipt of the information from Pagcor, the agency immediately started cross-checking the employ ees of POGO companies with whose authority to operate have been re voked to determine who among them are still in the country.

“While this is a laborious task as we have to check each and every re cord, we are confident that this could be completed in a month,” he added.

Tansingco stated that as an effect of the visa cancellation, the aliens will be ordered to leave instead of being deported.

“This is the regular procedure for cancelled visas, and this is ac

tually more economical and faster, as the costs for their departure will be shouldered by the aliens them selves,” he stated.

In visa cancellation, Tansingco said, aliens are given 59 days to de part the country.

However, if these POGO work ers would not voluntarily leave the country, then deportation proceed ings would be initiated against them.

Finalized in batches

THE BI expects the cancellation of visas to be finalized in batches. The agency also warns that those whose visas will be cancelled to depart the country lest they face deportation.

T he agency assured that foreign nationals with valid visas and are complying with Philippine laws would not be affected by the move.

Meanwhile, Remulla said 372 Chinese and other foreign nation als who are already in custody af ter being arrested by either the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) or the Philippine National Police (PNP) are set to be deported

The 372 in BI’s custody were rounded up in separate operations of the NBI and PNP in Pasig and Angeles last September. Tansingco said out of the 372 arrested, 331 are Chinese nationals.

However, 43 of the total number have been physically turned over to the BI, while the rest remain in the physical custody of the arrest ing agency.

Tansingco said the BI’s Board of Commissioners has already issued a Summary Deportation Order for the 372, and are finalizing the arrange ments for their departure.

According to BI’s procedures, de portees must not have a pending case in the Philippines and must possess a valid travel document.

The BI reported that it has coordi nated with the NBI and the Chinese Embassy, requesting the expeditious release of the required documents. After completing the documenta tion, Tansingco said their departure can be scheduled, with the costs to be shouldered by the deportees.

32 turn centenarians in Davao City, to receive mandated cash incentive

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

memorable with programs for the senior citizens, especially those who have mandated cash incentives for reaching their centennial year.

DAVAO

CITY—Thirty-two residents here reached their centennial year this year and would be feted to a special program, which would likewise commemorate three decades of service of the City Social Welfare and Development Of fice (CSWDO).

T he office turned 30 last October 1 after it was devolved to the city government as it disclosed special attention to the elderly, aside from its regular clientele services to dis tressed and disadvantaged sectors.

Marlisa A. Gallo, CSWDO head, said the commemoration would be

Gallo said the office was currently focusing on the implementation of City Ordinance 0727-21 (series of 2021), also known as “An Order Honoring Centenarians in The City of Davao,” and the Annual Financial Assistance for Senior Citizens.

The ordinance entitles centenar ians to P100,000 and a plaque from the city government of Davao. This is given to those who turned 100 starting December 2, 2021.

In 2021, there were also 159,714 elderly aged 65-years-old and above who received the one-time annual subsidy of P1,500. The benefit is

DOLE allots initial ₧455.6M for emergency employment

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) an nounced last Sunday that the agency has initially allocated P455.6 million for the ongoing implementa tion of its emergency employment program in areas that were ravaged by typhoon “Karding” (international name Noru).

I

n a statement, the DOLE said informal sector workers in Cen tral Luzon and Calabarzon would be employed for a minimum pe riod of 10 days to assist in clear ing, cleaning, de-clogging of ca nals, debris segregation, materi als recovery and other activities needed in the rehabilitation of their communities.

Labor Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma vowed continuous support to workers affected by

the typhoon. Laguesma also assured the provi sion of additional funds if the initial allocation will not be sufficient and underscored the program’s enhanced implementation by providing skills training to beneficiaries.

DOLE Central Luzon Regional Director Geraldine M. Panlilio said a total of P365 million has been allocated for the program’s implementation in partnership with the local government units and their respective Public Em ployment Service Offices in the region.

Panlilio said 14,000 beneficia ries are currently engaged under the program, called “Tulong Panghanap buhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Dis placed Workers,” or “Tupad.” About 29,000 others are set to be employed next week.

The DOLE Regional Office has also disbursed salaries of 31,333 Tu

pad beneficiaries in Bulacan, Tarlac and Bataan right after the typhoon’s onslaught last week.

To upgrade the skills of emer gency employment beneficiaries, Panlilio said the DOLE Central Luzon is partnering with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) for the carpentry skills-training of workers in Bulacan, Aurora and Nueva Ecija.

“The beneficiaries will not only work for 10 days, but they will also gain carpentry skills. In this way, they will not only construct their own homes, but they might also be employed by construction companies,” said Panlilio as she highlighted that construction skills are in-demand because of the numerous construction proj ects in the region.

Meanwhile, DOLE Calabarzon Regional Director Exequiel Ronie A.

Guzman said P90.6 million has been allocated initially for the emergency employment of informal sector work ers in the region who were affected by the typhoon.

This will benefit more than 19,800 workers in hard-hit areas of Polilio Island, Burdeos and sev eral other towns of Quezon, Rizal, Laguna, Batangas and Cavite, Guz man said.

The “Tupad” is an institutional ized program implemented espe cially during calamities, typhoons and disasters. It is a communitybased amelioration program that provides emergency employment for displaced, underemployed and seasonal workers for a minimum period of 10 days to a maximum of 30 days, depending on the nature of work to be performed, according to the DOLE. The salary of beneficiaries is based on the prevailing minimum wage in the region.

mandated by Ordinance 0105-19 (series of 2019), also known as “An Ordinance Granting Annual Finan cial Assistance to all qualified senior citizens of Davao City.”

Some 92,772 elderly who were not receiving pensions benefitted from the social pension program, the CSWDO said.

The annual financial assistance to people 65-years-old and above for the year 2022 is expected to be released next month.

“Qualified 60 years old and up declared eligible by virtue of the amendment of Ordinance 0105-19, were being validated and master listed in barangays in order for them to start receiving their P1,500 cash assistance next year,” the office said.

“Since it has been 30 years since the office started providing services to Dabawenyos from birth to death or womb to tomb, it has served 987,101 clients in 2021 in various clientele systems, a 10.49-percent increase from the 893,365 clients served in 2020,” it added.

While the assistance this year was focused on the elderly, the CSWDO said most of those served were vic tims of calamities.

The office has various services and programs for family welfare, women’s welfare, persons with dis ability, elderly persons, emergency, children’s welfare, youth, and early childhood care and development. It also provides residential care servic es at several centers across the city.

US marines to start drills near Chinese ships

T HE Philippine Marine Corps and its counterpart from the United Stateswillbegintodaytheiralmost two weeks of military exercise in selected areas in Luzon under the watchful eye of China, whose navy vessels are loitering within Scarborough Shoal near Zambales.

Bilateral military exercises involv ing Filipino and American troops have been the objects of monitoring by Chi na’s military recently, with the last USPhilippines war games held in Palawan being closely followed by a Chinese ship.

During the search and rescue ex ercises held several weeks ago in the waters of Bataan and which involved the Philippine and US Coast Guards for the first time, a Chinese ship also monitored the training activity.

The interoperability training “Ka mandag,” which will shift to Luzon im mediately after it will be opened at the

Philippine Marine Corps’ headquarters at Fort Bonifacio, will have Marine forc es from the US and Phillipines jointly sharpening their combat skills.

What is unique in this year’s 6th iteration of the Kamandag is that it will be joined for the first time by the Japan Ground Self Defense Force and Republic of Korea Marine Corps.

The United States Armed Forces and its 31st and 11th Marine Expedi tionary Units will join the training in full force, with the USS Tripoli and its air wing making being present.

While all forces are expected to learn in the exercises, especially in the areas of interoperability and combined operations, the Philippines Marines will benefit from its partners as they are advanced in terms of amphibious operations, special operations and ter ritorial defensr capabilities. Rene Acosta

Ensure continuous sardine supply, Zamboanga-fisheries players told

DAVAO CITY—Government and private fisheries stake holders in the Zamboanga Peninsula were asked to ensure the continuous supply of sardines for canning companies and local markets as government also assured under taking logistics and post-maritime harvest interventions to municipal fisheries groups.

T his came out in a Fisheries Man agement Area 4 Management Board (FMA4MB) meeting last Friday in Zamboanga City wherein the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

(BFAR) gathered key stakeholders and players in the sardine industry. The BFAR also held a consultation with similar groups on Wednesday also in the city.

In the two meetings, the FMA4MB “strongly supports the initiatives to provide an avenue in addressing is sues and concerns surrounding the sardine industry, including the issue on the alleged looming shortage of sardine supply for canning.”

“After a thorough consideration of the recommendations that ema nated from the said consultation

dialogue, the board has resolved to adopt the recommendations and pursue the necessary measures to ensure its implementation within a short-term and long-term period,” the FMA4MB’s statement read.

The statement said the board’s ma jor recommendations include ensur ing the continuous supply of sardines without compromising sustainability and provide municipal fishermen with necessary government interventions including, but not limited to postharvest and logistics support.

Other recommendations were:

pilot testing of the “Big BrotherSmall Brother” partnership in the municipality of Sibuco in Zambo anga Del Norte and possibly, include the neighboring municipalities; in vesting in value-adding (canning/ processing) to generate jobs, reduce cost and increase global competitive ness; and, revisiting the provisions of the Fisheries Code, particularly the 15-kilometer delineation of mu nicipal waters.

‘Big Brother-Small Brother’ ON the issue of necessary govern

ment logistics intervention, the man agement board said that this would give fishermen the opportunity “to be part of the value chain and have the capacity to supply the needs of the canning industry based on the required volume and quality supply agreement with the necessary con solidations scheme/strategies.”

A lso, the “Big Brother-Small Brother” scheme would be applied in the municipal fishing industry in the peninsula “in an effort to promote resource sharing by al lowing small to medium commer

cial fishing vessels within the 10.1 kilometers to 15 kilometers of the municipal waters following the legal framework of the amended Fisheries Code.”

“The FMA 4 Management Board, being at the forefront of fisheries governance in the FMA 4 is commit ted to ensuring sustainability of the sardine fishery within its manage ment area while giving importance to wide stakeholders participation and promoting inclusive and equitable progress of the country’s sardine in dustry,” it said. Manuel T. Cayon

Economy

‘Q4 will be crucial for MSMEs’

By Andrea San Juan

PRESIDENTIAL Adviser for En trepreneurship Jose Maria A.

Concepcion III said the fourth quarter of 2022 will be “crucial” for micro, small, and medium enter prises (MSMEs) in the Philippines, noting that mobility should be main tained especially amid the holiday season where consumer spending is expected to be at its peak.

Concepcion, who also heads the Jobs committee of the Private Sec tor Advisory Council (PSAC), empha sized the importance of mobility.

“We need people going out. If people don’t spend, this will affect our economy,” he said in statement issued last Sunday. “How will we at tain the growth target that is needed to maintain our credit rating?”

Concepcion, president and chief executive of listed food and bever age company RFM Corp., also noted that external factors are threaten ing to weaken consumer spending; however, these are beyond govern

ment’s control.

The businessman recalled the events of 2021 when the private sec tor cooperated to impose a “strategic” lockdown, which he said prevented the spread of Covid-19 but ensured mobility during the holiday season.

Concepcion, however, said that this situation cannot be compared to the economic challenges that stem from the US Federal Reserve’s attempt to tame inflation by rais ing interest rates and the conflict in Eastern Europe.

He said that, unlike two years ago, increased vaccination rates helped open up the economy. Now, however, Concepcion said there is nothing that the Philippines can do about global economic headwinds.

“It’s a different situation,” he said. “We are facing strong headwinds, but there are things that can help us sail through and come out with a strong economy by the first quarter.”

Concepcion said money sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) “will continue to buoy the economy,

seeing that already the strong dollar is adding 10 percent to the value of dollar remittances.”

However, he pointed out that MSMEs are still likely to bear the brunt of rising prices of goods and commodities.

“What we can control is our own willingness to keep business active.”

Concepcion said there is a need for continued vigilance against Co vid-19, especially now that students have returned to in-person classes and the rules on wearing a mask outdoors have been relaxed.

To ease the impact of rising pric es, Concepcion is advocating for the postponement of the implementa tion of work-from-home arrange ments to next year “when it is hoped that prices will have stabilized and mobility will not be as critical to economic activity as it will be in the final quarter of 2022.”

“[Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators] POGOs leaving the Philippines will have an effect on our economic activity,” Concepcion

said. “If we push for 100-percent work-from-home in the IT-BPO sector, this will greatly affect the economy, especially now that we are seeing more turbulence due to Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

He said that manufacturers are already doing what they can “to cush ion the blow on consumers.”

“The manufacturers and the large companies are passing on the increases slowly so that consumers do not get shocked by the inflation.”

Concepcion expressed confidence in the monetary authorities’ “ability to come up with policies that will ease the burden of the Filipino consumer.”

“Like in 2021 when everybody stepped up and worked together, Fili pinos must come out and contribute to economic activity,” he said.

The investments that resulted from the President’s US visit will not be felt until months from now,” Concepcion said. “So we have to make sure our economy will be strong enough and ready when these invest ments start flowing in.”

Public still spending on travel despite rising consumer prices

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

Grand lotto jackpot result spurs call for Senate probe

difficult it is to win.

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

SENATE

probers may mount an inquiry into the weekend’s “doubtful” grand lotto jackpot result that Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III found to be “strange and unusual.”

T he Senate Minority Leader confirmed over the weekend he is mulling over the filing of a resolu tion to audit and investigate the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) gaming activities, including the Filipinos’ most fa vorite lotto games, “to ensure their integrity and protect millions of Filipino bettors.”

Pimentel was prompted to press for a full-blown probe after finding as “strange and unusual” the result of the PCSO Grand Lotto draw last Saturday that had 433 bettors winning the P236million jackpot.

The senator, a known mathemat ics expert besides being a Bar top notcher, admitted he found it puz zling that 433 bettors will bet on the same winning number, citing the odds of this happening.

“So, ibig sabihin, ganun kahirap dapat tamaan ’yan and then to say na 433 ang tumama [that means, that’s how hard it is to win, and to say that 433 people got it], there is something suspicious.”

Protect the integrity

IN a television interview last Sun day, PCSO Chief Melquiades A. Robles stood by the lotto results and assured the public there was no anomaly there.

In a radio interview last Sunday, Pimentel said: “Many people were actually surprised…because, statis tically speaking, this is a very rare event. Let us take this opportunity to investigate so that our purpose is to ensure the integrity of our lotto games.”

A Mathematics gold medalist during his school days, Pimentel as serted: “We have to look at the entire system of our lotto games. This is a good chance because many people are asking.”

He will file a resolution to inves tigate the matter, “because this is my concern, these lotto games are authorized by the Republic of the Philippines. Therefore, we need to maintain and protect the integrity of these gambling games that we have authorized.”

DESPITE

the steeper and quicker increase in consumer prices, people are still wiling to spend on travel to reconnect with family and friends.

W hile organizer Philippine Tour Operators Association (Philtoa) could not yet give an initial sales report among their merchants at the just-concluded 33rd Philippine Travel Mart (PTM), Philippines Air Asia Spokesman Steve F. Dailisan told the BusinessMirror last Sun day afternoon.

We are almost about to reach the 3-day target of 2,000 seats sold. Air Asia is looking forward to achieving this before closing time today,” Dai lisan said.

He added that top international routes are Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok and Bali. For the domestic routes, it’s almost the same: Caticlan, Tag bilaran, Cebu, Puerto Princesa and Tacloban, he added.

Prior to the event, Philtoa had been urging would-be visitors to PTM to also visit lesser known desti nations like Zamboanga, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi; Masbate; and Benguet or the Mountain Province.

Held at the SMX Convention Cen ter in Pasay City, the PTM gathered 300 of the most prestigious and re spected brands and institutions in the tourism, hospitality and travel and tours industries in four grand event halls at the convention center.

Desire to reconnect FOR her part, Philtoa Trustee Cecil May R. Kimpo told reporters despite many hotel establishments already raising rates, people are still travel ing to reconnect.

“Surprisingly people still travel. I think there’s still there’s the long ing they want to reconnect with their families and also they want to relax. Maybe it’s also aligned with your mental health concern, because

if you’ve been on lockdown for the past two years, you also want to see the beach, you also want to see the mountains.”

Kimpo also suggested to the pub lic to “plan ahead” for their vacations, so they can get the best travel deals.

“You see there’re a lot of sales now adays especially if you plan ahead, you can really get the best deals from airlines, hotels and resorts—that’s the secret to traveling.”

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has projected the inflation rate for September to settle within a range of 6.6 percent and 7.4 percent, on the increase in electricity rates and con tinued price push of key food items and the weaker peso. Inflation was recorded at 6.3 percent in August from 6.4 percent the previous month, for a year-to-date rate of 4.9 percent.

Philtoa President Fe AblingYu describes this year’s PTM “a

huge success.”

“We have more exhibitors than in 2019,” pre-pandemic, Abling-Yu said. “All our exhibitors, including airline companies very attractive rates that you could only during the three-day event.”

In 2019, the PTM generated an astounding 53,000 in foot traffic and total sales of P60 million.

New destinations

“THE Department of Tourism (DOT) is working on developing new region al tourism circuits that will highlight nature-based tourism, MICE tour ism, food and gastronomy, our heri tage and culture, health and wellness, the arts and more,” Tourism Secre tary Christina Garcia Frasco said at the PTM launch last September 30.

“All these tourism products will get equal promotion, attention and support as we expand ourselves

from the traditional portfolio and go into multi-dimensional tourism,” Frasco added.

With many Asian leisure destina tions now reopening and no longer requiring quarantines or expensive Covid-19 tests, Kimpo said they ex pect more booking traction i.e., lo cal market going out to Thailand, to Taiwan and Japan.

Among local destinations, she cited that people no longer just go to Boracay and Cebu.

“People are exploring new des tinations right now. Even without the flight component, they just want to stay overnight in Tagaytay—it’s very popular among the domestic market—and even Clark,” Kimpo said. “You see a lot of new destina tions even Siargao, because surfing is very popular these days. Bohol is also becoming popular; even Duma guete, because of diving.”

‘Trojan horse’

THE  power deals involves a “straight price” system in which SPPC and SMEC set a fixed price for their electricity as against a “pass-through” method.

“The issue is, does straight pric ing work? We say yes. The lowest generation rates bought by Meralco from February to July 2022 came from PSAs with straight energy prices and renewable energy sources. Meralco itself said in their Sustain ability Report for 2019 that the straight energy price is better and pro-consumer, even issuing a press release proudly reporting lower rates in Feb 2020 because of straight price,”

said Gerry Arances, Power for People (P4P) Convenor.

He alleged that power companies are just using the petition as a “Trojan Horse” for them to allegedly rake in profits at the expense of consumers.

Former senatorial candidate Luke Espiritu and counsel for consumers, claimed that the “change in circum stances” was just an “excuse” raised by SMC.

‘We are entitled, too’ ACEN Corp. has said that its PSA with Meralco should also be tweaked should the ERC decide in favor of the joint plea.

“Whatever the decision will be,

we hope that our regulator as well as Meralco, will treat all suppliers fairly and consistently. We have the same contract and similar sets of cir cumstances, so if there is a change in circumstance in one supplier, the same should apply to others,” said ACEN President Eric Francia in a Viber message.

Phinma Energy Corp., which was renamed to AC Energy Philippines and later to ACEN Corp., won in the competitive auction to supply Meral co 200MW for P4.8849 per kWh for 10 years or until December 25, 2029.

Francia did not state the losses their company has incurred, but based on initial calculations, the

amount is less than SMC’s loss be cause the contract between Phinma and Meralco only involved 200MW.

SPPC is asking the ERC to increase the rate from P4.3 to 8.3/kWh for the 330 MW contracted baseload capac ity from the Sual plant.

SMEC is seeking a rate increase from P4.3 to P5.1/kWh for its 670 MW of contracted baseload capacity from the Ilijan plant.

Overall, the company is looking to recover P5.2 billion in losses for the period January to May 2022. The net rate impact to Meralco, however, as suming that this cost recovery claim is granted by the ERC, is just P0.28/ kWh over a period of six months.

“Katakataka yung result na ’yan. ’Yung 433 ang mananalo, supposed to be...that 433 chances mo diyan is 1-in-how-many millions [That result is amazing. Having 433 people win ning, supposed to be…that chances there is one in how many millions],” said Pimentel.

That means, he added, that is how

Pimentel said he also intends to “seek the opinion of statisticians and mathematicians regarding results of PCSO draws.”

RCBC renames credit card on back of billings growth

YUCHENGCO-LED

Rizal Com mercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and RCBC Bankard Services Corp. rebranded its RCBC Bankard into RCBC Credit Card.

T he rebranded credit card is be ing issued by RCBC and managed by RCBC Bankard Services Corp.

RCBC share price closed on Fri day at P21.35, up by P0.60 from its previous close.

The new name, according to RCBC Bankard First Vice President Ma. An gela C. Mirasol, is a way to strengthen the RCBC’s credit card brand to one that “exemplifies its commitment to stronger financial solutions and lifestyle perks and benefits.”

Mirasol, head of the firm’s mar keting group, added that the credit

cards should be a means to experi ence the lives that customers want to live after years of being hampered by the pandemic.

“If there is one thing that the pandemic has taught us, it is to have a zest for life. For the past two years, everything was at a standstill. But now, we have a chance to jumpstart our lives and live life to the fullest,” Mirasol said.

“ The RCBC Credit Card, to gether with the RCBC Digital app, will help our cardholders to do just that,” she said.

Mirasol said the credit card “em powers our cardholders to gain new experiences with its amazing shop ping, traveling and dining perks.”

Senate panel to weigh POGO gains, risks amid crime spree

continued from a10

At the same time, Gatchalian indicated in the DWIZ interview there will be two committee reports arising from the Senate investigation: Dela Rosa is focused on peace and order, and he (Gatchalian) will follow it up with a separate report  focused on views in “economic benefit or cost” and will also include inputs on the view of the business sector, adding, it was important to give priority to businesses that bring in money “without creating chaos.”

He pointed to the country’s top dollar earner, the business process outsourcing (BPO), which he noted, brings in money but does not bring crime.  “We like businesses like this [BPO] that bring us dollars and jobs, but without the trouble,” he added, in Filipino.

The Senate investigation was triggered by three separate Senate resolutions filed by Gatchalian, Majority Leader Joel Villanueva,

CA upholds Ombudsman’s firing of ex-LTFRB exec

Tugade, however, maintained that the Ombudsman did not commit errors in instituting the administrative case as it was in accordance with Administrative Order No. 07, as amended.

Tugade insisted that the Ombudsman correctly dismissed the petitioner from service since the same is supported by

substantial evidence.

The CA noted that the Ombudsman correctly found substantial evidence that the petitioner solicited and received millions of pesos in exchange for the issuance

a Certificate of Public Convenience from the LTFRB, where he was Executive

Sen. Grace Poe.

THIS

September 30, 2022, photo shows the booth of the ALC Group of Companies, one of the media sponsors of the 33rd Philippine Travel Mart held at SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia, Pasay City. Officials of organizer Philippine Tour Operators Association expressed optimism on the travel and tourism industry. ROY DOMINGO

VG Cabuag

Agriculture/Commodities

DA must prioritize pest management–solon

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

AMID reports of fresh onion shortages in fastfood chains, and the continuing infesta tion of armyworms in onion farms in North Luzon, a vice chairman of the House Committee on Agricul ture and Food called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to prioritize integrated pest management.

A lbay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said the Department of Agriculture (DA’s) integrated pest management is “one of the more successful agriculture programs in the country.”

Integrated pest management will be the new normal in climate

change. As temperatures rise and cli mate conditions change, some pests will breed faster and become more resistant. Agriculturists in North Luzon are already pointing out that pests like armyworms are becoming stronger every season, because of, not despite pesticides,” Salceda said.

So, I am recommending to the DA that we classify integrated pest management as a flagship program of the DA, so that it’s not buried as just one small program under the Ag ricultural Training Institute [ATI].”

A ccording to the lawmaker, inte grated pest management is the use of multiple techniques, including multicropping, biological control, habitat manipulation, modifica

tion of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties to control and prevent infestation.

A mong Salceda’s recommenda tions are to have at least one farm school offering integrated pest management in every province, and to ensure that all municipal agriculturists are trained and can eventually train farmers on inte grated pest management.

Salceda cited research which in dicates that integrated pest manage ment caused farmers to spend less on pesticides and have higher incomes.

There is strong evidence to suggest that the first integrated pest management school in 1994 helped its farmer beneficiaries re

duce pesticide costs.”

‘New normal’

SALCEDA said armyworms have continued to ravage onion farms in provinces such as Pangasinan.

He said last year’s infestation damaged as much as 212 hectares of onion farms, adding that the in festation in 2016 affected as much as 1,000 hectares.

This year’s infestation appears to be growing worse, and could ap proach 2016 levels. That was also one year when onion smuggling got so bad, we passed a law declaring large-scale agri smuggling as eco nomic sabotage,” Salceda said.

This could get bad. And I’m very

Israel wants to help PHL modernize farms, says envoy

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

sorry to say, because of climate change, loss of forests, intensi fied use of pesticides, and loss of genetic diversity in crops, we will get infestations every year. Part of climate change adaptation is not just preparing for disasters. Pest management will be key to ensur ing we have enough food amid cli mate change.”

Salceda said he thinks fighting infestation will be the new normal.

“ In the South, we tend to suffer from viruses on our rice, bananas, and other crops. So, it’s going to be a continuing national challenge. That’s why it needs to be a flag ship program.”

A s a cautionary tale, Salceda cited

the case of Albay’s abaca industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“ In Albay, we know very well how pests can impoverish entire generations. There are records that show us to be the richest province in the early 1900s because of abaca exports. By the 1960s, the abaca sector had already collapsed, in part because of pests. We never recovered from that. Let that be a warning to the onion and garlic sectors in North Luzon, our fruit export sector in Mindanao, and our sugar sector in Visayas,” he said.

Pests will continue to grow stron ger in this changing global climate. We either adapt, or we see entire crop sectors wiped out.”

Govt issues rules to fast-track PECM commercialization

market,” the document read.

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

DAVAO

CITY—Israeli agri culture companies are keen on collaborating with more Filipino planters and firms to expand the output of local farms, according to Israeli Ambassador to the Philip pines Ilan Fluss.

Fluss told the BusinessMirror here on Thursday that Israeli compa nies may establish business or tech nical agreements with individual Filipino farmers or with agriculture businesses. He hopes that this would happen after the Davao Agri-Trade Exposition last Thursday.

Five Israeli companies acquired slots in the exposition area at the SMX Convention Center and shared their experience and expertise in drip irrigation, dripline and irriga tion manufacturing, fertigation, plant breeding and propagation, and research and development works in many crops as well as areas concern ing agriculture.

Fluss said Israel it could share with the Philippines its progress in agri cultural research and technology.

Israel was able to export several agricultural products amounting to $2 billion from a measly 22,072 square kilometers of land area.

T he Philippines, which has a land area of 300,000 square kilo meters, was able to earn $5 billion from agricultural exports, mainly from banana.

W hile Israel is mostly desert with five climatic conditions, Israeli agri cultural companies said the Philip pines has the potential to produce more with its tropical and maritime advantage.

F

luss said he hopes to have di rect engagement with the private

sector, or the Philippine govern ment, or the local governments “to see how we can work together in concrete projects” immediately after the expo.

We are taking a professional, scientific and commercial ap proach to the partnership be cause it’s not just okay, to say, let’s put irrigation.”

We have to understand, analyze the farms and the production areas,

what do we want to achieve, what are the obstacle,” he said. “And we have to consult with the profes sionals, the scientists. We do need careful study.”

He said the more effective way is to engage with the private sector and allow bigger agriculture activities under the private-public partnership (PPP) although this would be deter mined also by the effectiveness and willingness of local governments, “to

Caviteño planters graduate from DAR farm biz school

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

ATOTAL of 37 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from Batas Dao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Inc. General Emilio Aguinaldo Cavite have completed a crash course for farmer-businessmen being offered by the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Farm Business School (FBS).

T he project is aims to maximize food production in the country as it unveiled its intensive training to introduce new farming techniques to the farmers to help them produce more and provide quality farm products, DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said in a statement.

Eu femia V. Alvarez, Chairman of Batas Dao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Inc. and one of the graduates, expressed her gratitude to the DAR family for its assistance and free training provided by the agency.

“ We would like to thank the DAR for their support to the farmers. We really learned and

enjoyed the 25-session journey in the FBS,” she said.

T he 37 members of the organization were able to learn about managing farm records, developing a strategic plan, and how to become successful entrepreneurs.

“Enrich what you have, and share your success and blessings with others. Just like you, we are just intermediaries in providing assistance to our beneficiaries,” said Milagros Isabel A. Cristobal, Undersecretary for Support Services Office (SSO)

James Arthur Dubongco, DARCavite Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, said that this is the 5th FBS site in the province of Cavite, with the course running for almost 3 months.

T he FBS is a DAR program in partnership with other line agencies like the Department of Agriculture, the Local Government Unit, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Agricultural Training Institute.

Farm implements MEANWHILE, DAR recently

turned over P789,000 worth of farm implements to the BusokBaliton Communal Irrigators Association Inc. in Sarangani.

T he group based in Barangay Baliton belongs to the PaBurBaCa agrarian reform community.

T he implements include a collapsible dryer, knapsack sprayers, hand tractor, floating tiller, grass cutter, and heavy-duty weighing scale.

BBCIAI Chairperson Paharlito Bolilo received the farm machinery and equipment on behalf of the farmers’ association.

Bolilo assured that all the farmers would take care of the farm implements and keep it in good condition.

T he farm machines were provided under the Climate Resilient Farm Productivity Support Project-Major Cropbased Block Farm Project, which aims to address food security amidst climate change by providing livelihood support in the form of farm machinery and equipment, farm inputs, and capacity development interventions.

take on responsibilities, such as the PPP to benefit farmers.”

“ It’s about identifying and prop erly selecting the right farmers, right local government, right pri vate sector at the right time and right condition.”

He said engaging the private sec tor help fast-track development “be cause they have the right resources, they are business oriented, and they want to make money.”

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has issued guidelines on the implementation of its protein-enriched copra meal (PECM) project that seeks to provide alterna tive animal feed products to livestock and poultry raisers.

S enior Agriculture Undersecre tary Domingo F. Panganiban signed and issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 37 that outlined the guide lines for the commercialization of PECM nationwide.

The PECM project, according to the document, aims to “commercialize” the use of PECM as a “locally-available feed ingredient that can substitute imported soybean for the benefit of Filipino swine and poultry raisers.”

The project shall focus to jump start and expedite the commercial ization of PECM as an urgent mea sure to cushion the impact of soaring feed raw material prices which had been contributing to the increase in pork and chicken prices for consum ers,” MC 37 read.

T he MC 37 stipulated that the PECM project is part of the DA’s “catchup and mitigation” plans to sustain the country’s food production and “limit importation” of grains and byproducts such as animal feeds amid the current global food crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The global Covid-19 pandemic aggravated by the Russia-Ukraine war has significantly worsened lo gistical movement and restricted the availability and supply of feed ingredients, foremost of which are soybean meal, feed wheat, and corn, which resulted in the spike in prices of these commodities in the global

Moreover, the damage to the loading facilities in the US due to the cyclone has resulted in a shortage in the supply of soybean meal which resulted in the unprecedented spike in prices. TThis precarious situation affecting the feed milling and live stock and poultry sectors has led to the need to look for possible alterna tive protein sources as substitutes for imported soybean meals,” it added.

T he MC37 said the PECM project is a collaborative effort between the DA, Department of Science Technol ogy-Philippine Council for Agricul ture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOSTPCAARRD) and the University of the Philippines-Los Banos and selected farmers cooperative and association.

“ This Project comes as the cul minating chapter of a seven-year aspiration of the DOST-PCAARRD to commercialize the use of PECM as a locally available feed ingredient that can substitute imported soybean for the benefit of Filipino swine and poultry raisers,” the DA said.

DA perceives PECM as a possible lee way to decongest the pressure brought by feed inflation, and thereby cushion the effects of unprecedented feed cost spikes to small, medium to large scale farmers in the future,” it added.

T he DA said PECM can be 30 per cent cheaper than imported soybean meal, making it a “more affordable and cost-saving to animal raisers.”

“ The project, therefore, offers great advantages and benefits to feed manufacturers, animal produc ers, and meat consumers, especially during this time of high food prices brought by rising fuel and feed com modities prices in the local and inter national market,” it said.

Cow’s milk becomes pricier than non-dairy alternatives in UK

THE

cost-of-living crisis has pushed the price of cow’s milk, a staple for households across the United Kingdom, above dairy-free alternatives for some shoppers.

A two-pint bottle of own-brand milk now costs £1.25 ($1.38) on aver age across four of the UK’s main su permarkets, a 36-percent jump since January. The nearest comparable ownbrand alternatives, which come in oneliter bottles, cost £1.05 for soya milk, £1.07 for almond milk and £1.24 for oat milk, according to retail research company Assosia.

Typically, plant-based products such as oat milk have cost more than cow’s milk, with some cafes facing criticism for charging extra for the non-dairy options. Vegan activists and customers suffering from lactose allergies have even complained that the charges are discriminatory.

But now with prices rising for every thing from food to utility bills, milk has been hard-hit with the cost of produc tion climbing to a record high. Other dairy products have suffered notable

price spikes with Lurpak butter requir ing security tags used to stop expensive products from being shoplifted.

T he pricing difference is not the same when branded products are taken into account. An analysis of data from Trolley.co.uk including branded and unbranded products shows milk cost ing £1.71 on average, the same as oat milk and slightly cheaper than soya milk at £1.73 and almond milk at £1.78.

Still, in every analysis cow’s milk has posted the biggest price increase this year. The two most recent editions of Bloomberg’s monthly Breakfast Index also found that milk had the largest rise among fry-up ingredients including eggs, butter, sausages, tea bags, and bread.

In the long term, the average price of non-dairy milk is falling as supermar kets bring out their own-label cheaper versions of big brands like Oatly and Alpro. By contrast, cow’s milk went through that process long ago when grocers started selling it as a lossleader to pull in consumers, said Susie Stannard, consumer insight manager

for the dairy sector at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board which represents farmers.

W hile Stannard still sees cow’s milk as the cheaper option, she says “the prices are getting closer.”

“It is likely that the cost-of-living crisis will accelerate this shift,” she said.

Massive expansion

HIGHER prices on the shelves have al ready led consumers to adapt how they shop, choosing cheaper own-brand products and visiting discount super markets. Now that the cost of milk is creeping up above its traditionally premium competitors, shoppers may switch to non-dairy products based on price, according to Richard Lim, chief executive officer at Retail Economics.

“If the alternatives are at a signifi cantly different price point to dairy products, then it wouldn’t surprise me that people would experiment with other products,” said Lim. “There are so many different alternatives and it’s a new mar ket that’s expanded aggressively over the last five years.”

ISRAELI Ambassador Ilan Fluss paid a courtesy visit to the BusinessMirror team last September 28. The envoy discussed the economic and trade initiatives and projects of Israel here in the Philippines and his vision to build “bridges of innovation” between the two countries. EMM ALQUINTO

The World

Russia withdraws troops after Ukraine encircles eastern city

By Jon Gambrell & Adam Schreck The Associated Press

Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian

By Rebecca Santana & Meg Kinnard The Associated Press

KYIV,

Ukraine—After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled troops out Saturday from an eastern Ukrainian city that it had been using as a frontline hub. It was the latest victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has humiliated and angered the Kremlin.

Russia’s withdrawal from Ly man complicates its internation ally vilified declaration just a day e arlier that it had annexed four regions of Ukraine—an area that includes Lyman. Taking the city paves the way for Ukrainian troops to potentially push further into land that Moscow now illegally claims as its own.

“The Ukrainian flag is already in Lyman, Donetsk region. Fight ing is still going on there. But there i s no trace of any pseudo-referen dum there,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Saturday.

He was referring to “referen dums” that Russia held at gunpoint i n the four regions before annex ing them—Luhansk, Donetsk, Za porizhzhia and Kherson.

T he fighting comes at a piv otal moment in Russian Presi dent Vladimir Putin’s war. Facing U krainian gains on the battle field—which he frames as a USo rchestrated effort to destroy Rus sia—Putin this week heightened t hreats of nuclear force and used his most aggressive, anti-Western rhetoric to date.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have inflicted damage on Ukrainian forces in battling to hold Lyman, but said outnumbered Russian troops were withdrawn to more favorable positions. Ukraini an forces moved into the city, and Z elenskyy’s chief of staff posted photos of a Ukrainian flag being hoisted on the town’s outskirts.

Lyman had been an important link in the Russian front line for ground communications and lo gistics. Located 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, it’s in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two regions that Russia annexed Friday.

Ukrainian forces have retaken vast swaths of territory in a coun teroffensive that started in Sep tember. They have pushed Russian f orces out of the Kharkiv area and moved east across the Oskil River.

Moscow’s withdrawal from Ly man prompted immediate criti cism from some Russian officials. T he leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, blamed the retreat, without evidence, on one Russian general being “covered up for by higher-up leaders in the General Staff.” He called for “more drastic measures.”

Meanwhile, on the Russianannexed Crimean Peninsula, the governor of the city of Sevastopol announced an emergency situa tion at an airfield there. Explo sions and huge billows of smoke c ould be seen by beachgoers in the Russian-held resort. Authorities said a plane rolled off the runway at the Belbek airfield, and said am munition on board had caught fire.

R ussia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in violation of interna tional law.

R ussian bombardment has in tensified in recent days as Mos cow moved swiftly with its latest a nnexation and ordered a mass mobilization at home to bolster its forces. The Russian call-up has proven unpopular at home, prompting tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country.

Zelenskyy and his military have vowed to keep fighting to liberate the regions that Putin claimed to have annexed Friday, and other Russian-occupied areas.

Ukrainian authorities accused Russian forces of targeting two humanitarian convoys in recent days, killing dozens of civilians.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said 24

civilians were killed in an attack this week on a convoy trying to flee the Kupiansk district. He called it “сruelty that can’t be justified.” He said 13 children and a pregnant woman were among the dead.

“The Russians fired at civilians almost at point-blank range,” Syn iehubov wrote on Telegram.

T he Security Service of Ukraine, the secret police force known by the acronym SBU, posted photo graphs of the attacked convoy. A t least one truck appeared to have been blown up, with burned corpses in what remained of its truck bed. Another vehicle at the front of the convoy was torched. Bodies lay on the side of the road or still inside vehicles that were pockmarked with bullet holes.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its rockets destroyed Ukrainian military targets in the area but has not commented on accusations that it targeted fleeing civilians. Russian troops have retreated from much of the Kharkiv region but continue to shell the area.

And a Russian strike in the Za porizhzhia region’s capital killed 3 1 people and wounded 88, Ukrai nian officials said. The British D efense Ministry said the Rus sians “almost certainly” struck a h umanitarian convoy there with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Rus sian-installed officials in Zapor izhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces b ut gave no evidence.

In other developments, in an apparent attempt to secure Mos cow’s hold on the newly annexed t erritory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zapor izhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor M urashov, on Friday, according to the Ukrainian state nuclear com pany Energoatom.

E nergoatom said Russian

troops stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him and took him to an undisclosed location.

Russia did not comment on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Russia told it that “the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to an swer questions.”

T he Vienna-based IAEA said it “has been actively seeking clari fications and hopes for a prompt a nd satisfactory resolution of this matter.”

The power plant has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians continued running it after Russian troops seized the power station, and its last reactor was shut down in Sep tember as a precautionary measure a mid ongoing shelling nearby.

In other fighting reported Sat urday, four people were killed by R ussian shelling Friday in the Donetsk region, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. The Russian army struck the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv twice overnight, once with drones and the second time with missiles, according to the regional governor.

Russia now claims sovereign ty over 15% of Ukraine in what N ATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called “the largest at tempted annexation of European t erritory by force since the Second World War.”

Zelenskyy on Friday formally applied for NATO membership, upping the pressure on Western allies to defend Ukraine.

In Washington, President Joe Biden signed a bill that provides another infusion—more than $12.3 billion—in military and economic aid linked to the war in Ukraine.

F

ORT MYERS, Fla.—Rescuers evacuated stunned survivors on a large barrier island cut off by Hurricane Ian and Florida’s death toll climbed sharply, as hun dreds of thousands of people were s till sweltering without power days after the monster storm rampaged from the state’s southwestern coast up to the Carolinas.

Florida, with nearly four-dozen reported dead, was hit hardest by the Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest to make landfall in the United States. Flooded roadways and washed-out bridges to barrier islands left many people isolated, amid limited cellphone service and a lack of basic amenities such as water, electricity and the Internet.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday that multibillionaire businessman Elon Musk was pro viding some 120 Starlink satel lites to “help bridge some of the c ommunication issues.” Starlink, a satellite-based Internet system created by Musk’s SpaceX, will provide high-speed connectivity.

Florida utilities were working to restore power. As of Saturday night, nearly 1 million homes and businesses were still without elec tricity, down from a peak of 2.67 m illion.

At least 54 people were con firmed dead: 47 in Florida, four in N orth Carolina and three in Cuba.

More than 1,000 people were rescued from flooded areas along Florida’s southwestern coast alone, Daniel Hokanson, a four-star general and head of the National Guard, told The Associated Press while airborne to Florida.

In Washington, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden would travel to Florida on Wednes day. But a brief statement did not r elease any details of the planned visit to the state.

The bridge to Pine Island, the largest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, was destroyed by the storm, leaving it accessible only by boat or air. The volunteer group Medic Corps, which responds to natural disasters worldwide with pilots, paramedics and doctors, went door-to-door asking residents if they wanted to be evacuated.

Some flew out by helicopter, and people described the horror of be ing trapped in their homes as water k ept rising.

“The water just kept pounding the house and we watched, boats, houses — we watched everything just go flying by,” Joe Conforti said, fighting back tears. He said if it

wasn’t for his wife, who suggested they get up on a table to avoid the rising water, he wouldn’t have made it: “I started to lose sensibility, be cause when the water’s at your door a nd it’s splashing on the door and you’re seeing how fast it’s moving, there’s no way you’re going to sur vive that.”

R iver flooding posed a major challenge at times to rescue and supply delivery efforts. The Myak ka River washed over a stretch of I nterstate 75, forcing a trafficsnarling highway closure for a while before officials said later Saturday that it could be reopened.

While swollen rivers have crest ed or are near cresting, the levels a ren’t expected to drop signifi cantly for days, National Weather S ervice meteorologist Tyler Flem ing said.

E lsewhere, South Carolina’s Pawleys Island, a beach commu nity roughly 75 miles (115 kilome ters) up the coast from Charleston, w as also hit hard. Power remained knocked out to at least half the is land Saturday.

E ddie Wilder, who has been com ing to Pawleys Island for more than s ix decades, said it was “insane” to see waves as high as 25 feet (7.6 meters) wash away a landmark pier near his home.

“We watched it hit the pier and saw the pier disappear,” he said. “We watched it crumble and and watched it float by with an Ameri can flag.”

W ilder’s house, located 30 feet (9 meters) above the shoreline, stayed dry inside.

In North Carolina, the storm downed trees and power lines. Two of the four deaths in the state were from storm-related vehicle crashes, and the others involved a man who drowned when his truck plunged into a swamp and another killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in a garage.

At Port Sanibel Marina in Fort Myers, Florida, the storm surge pushed several boats and a dock onshore. Charter captain Ryan Kane said his vessel was so badly damaged that he was unable to use it to help rescue people, and now it will be a long time before he can take clients fishing again.

“There’s a hole in the hull. It took water in the motors. It took water in everything,” he said, adding: “You know, boats are supposed to be in the water, not in parking lots.” Kin nard reported from Pawleys Island, South C arolina; Associated Press contributors include Freida Frisaro in Miami; Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; Gerald Herbert in Pine Island, Florida; Mike Pesoli in Lehigh Acres, Florida; Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia; and Amy Forliti from Minneapolis.

Protesters attack French Embassy in Burkina Faso after power grab

By Sam Mednick & Arsene Kabore The Associated Press

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso—Angry protesters at tacked the French Embassy in Burkina Faso’s capital Saturday after supporters of the West African nation’s new coup leader accused France of har boring the ousted interim president, a charge French authorities vehemently denied.

A group of soldiers appearing on state television late Friday had an nounced that Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sand aogo Damiba had been overthrown less than nine months after he’d mounted a coup himself in Burkina Faso.

While his whereabouts remained unknown late Saturday, a new state ment attributed to Damiba was post ed on the Burkina Faso presidency’s Facebook page directed at the newly declared leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore.

“I call on Captain Traoré and com pany to come to their senses to avoid a fratricidal war that Burkina Faso does not need,” said the statement at tributed to Damiba, who unlike other

ousted West African leaders has yet to tender a resignation.

Earlier Saturday, comments by a junta spokesman had set into motion an outburst of anger in Ouagadougou, the capital.

“Damiba has tried to retreat to the Kamboinsin French military base to prepare a counteroffensive in order to sow divide amongst our defense and security forces,” said Lt. Jean Baptiste Kabre, reading a statement on behalf of the new junta leadership.

Video on social media showed residents with lit torches outside the perimeter of the French embassy and other images showed part of the com pound ablaze.

In Burkina Faso’s second-largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso, angry crowds also vandalized the French institute.

France has denied any role in the events unfolding in its former colony, and warned its citizens to stay at home amid a “confusing” situation in Oua gadougou.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the violence against our diplo matic presence in Burkina Faso,” the

French Foreign Ministry said in a state ment late Saturday. “Any attack on our diplomatic facilities is unacceptable.”

In an earlier statement Saturday, the ministry said that “the camp where the French forces are based has never hosted Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba nor has our embassy.”

Traore, the 34-year-old army cap tain who was named in charge after the Friday evening coup was announced on state television, said in interviews Saturday that he and his men did not seek to harm Damiba.

“If we wanted, we would take him within five minutes of fighting and maybe he would be dead, the presi dent. But we don’t want this catas trophe,” Traore told the Voice of America. “We don’t want to harm him, because we don’t have any personal problem with him. We’re fighting for Burkina Faso.”

He later told Radio Omega: “We have no intention to bring Damiba to justice. We only wish that he would go rest because he is tired, and as for us we are going to continue to do the work.”

As uncertainty prevailed, the in

ternational community widely con demned the ouster of Damiba, who himself overthrew the country’s demo cratically elected president in January.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Saturday that the United States “is deeply concerned by events in Burkina Faso.”

“We call on those responsible to deescalate the situation, prevent harm to citizens and soldiers, and return to a constitutional order,” he said.

The African Union and the West African region bloc known as ECOW AS also sharply criticized the devel opments.

“ECOWAS finds this new power grab inappropriate at a time when progress has been made,” the bloc said, citing Damiba’s recent agreement to return to constitutional order by July 2024.

After taking power in January, Damiba promised to end the Islamic extremist violence that has forced 2 million people to flee their homes in Burkina Faso. But the group of officers led by Traore said Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed.

The new junta leadership said it

would commit “all fighting forces to refocus on the security issue and the restoration of the integrity of our ter ritory.”

But it remains to be seen whether the junta can turn around the crisis. Concerns already were mounting Sat urday that the latest political volatility would further distract the military and allow the jihadis to strengthen their grip on the once-peaceful country.

Still, some in Burkina Faso’s mili tary, Damiba was seen as too cozy with former colonizer France, which main tains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some who support the new coup leader, Traore, have called on Burkina Faso’s government to seek Russian support instead.

“One point of contention that has divided the MPSR (junta), the army and indeed the population for months is the choice of international partners,” said Constantin Gouvy, Burkina Faso researcher at Clingendael, the Neth erlands Institute of International Relations.

“Damiba was leaning toward

France, but we might see the MPSR more actively exploring alternative from now on, with Turkey or Russia for example,” Gouvy added.

In neighboring Mali, the coup leader has invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help with secu rity, a move than has drawn global condemnation and accusations of hu man rights abuses.

Mali also saw a second coup nine months after the August 2020 over throw of its president, when the junta’s leader sidelined his civilian transition counterparts and put himself alone in charge.

Chrysogone Zougmore, president of the Burkina Faso Movement for Hu man Rights, called the latest overthrow “very regrettable,” saying the political instability would not help in the fight against Islamic extremist violence.

“How can we hope to unite people and the army if the latter is charac terized by such serious divisions?” Zougmore said. Mednick reported from Barcelona. Associated Press writers Krista Lar son in Dakar, Senegal and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Peo Ple walk on a destroyed bridge across oskil River during evacuation in the recently liberated town of Kupiansk, Ukraine on Saturday, oc tober

Photo/Evg

The World

China’s $5 trillion rout creates historic gap with Indian stocks

By Abhishek Vishnoi & Shikhar Balwani

The relentless plunge in China’s stocks has burnished the appeal of their biggest emerging-market rival India, spurring a divergence that’s rarely been seen before.

The M s C i i n dia i n dex rallied almost 10% in the just-ended quar ter, compared with a 23% slump for t he M s C i China i n dex. The 33-per centage point outperformance by t he i n dia gauge is the biggest since March 2000.

Beijing’s Covid Zero pursuit, regulatory crackdowns and ten sions with the West have led to a $5 t rillion rout in Chinese stocks since early 2021. And i n dia—long dubbed the “next China”—has be come an attractive alternative with e conomic growth that’s forecast to be the fastest in Asia.

Market veteran Mark Mobius has allocated a higher weight to i n dia than China since the start of this year. Jupiter Asset Manage ment says some of its emergingm arket funds have i n dia as their largest holding. M&G i n vestments (si ngapore) Pte has made a “greater allocation” to i n dia in 2022.

i n dia’s expanding domestic market means the country can weather a looming global recession better than most other emerging markets, money managers say. i n the longer term, China’s decou pling with the U s may also pave

the way for i n dian firms to boost their presence worldwide.

China’s “draconian lockdowns continue to impact these supply chains, so the clamor for an al ternative has been rapidly gaining f avor,” said Nick Payne, a Londonbased investment manager for global emerging-market equities at Jupiter. “ i n dia is the key candi date to fill that role, in an approach t hat’s been dubbed China+1.”

‘Early stages’

The big divergence between the two stock markets started to take place in February 2021 as tighten ing liquidity conditions in China c ontributed to the unwinding of a two-year rally in equities. i n dian stocks, meanwhile, kept hitting record highs thanks to an unprec edented retail investing boom.

T he aggregate market value of firms included in the M s C i China i n dex has dropped by $5.1 trillion since then and the gauge closed Friday at its lowest level since July 2016. The M s C i i n dia i n dex —which reached an all-time high earlier this year —has added about $300 billion.

A long-term correlation be tween the two gauges has been n egative since November, the lon gest stretch on record.  i n vestor positioning has also diverged. Global e M Fund alloca tions to i ndia are at a record high while those to China are recovering modestly from a sharp drop in the past few quarters, according to Cam eron Brandt, director of research at ePF r Global, a Cambridge, Mas sachusetts-based research firm.

“ The increasing allocation of investor capital both to i n dia-only and to Asia ex-China funds hints that this shift is still in its early s tages,” said Vikas Pershad, a fund Manager at M&G i n vestments. s om e of the barriers to investing in China appear to be structural and longer lasting than expected.”

To be sure, months of outper formance have made i ndian stocks the most expensive in Asia on an earnings-based valuation. This has yielded caution from some inves tors, with the r e serve Bank of i n dia’s interest-rate hikes also a factor t hat could weigh on market outlook.

China, on the other hand, has potential for a big upswing once the economy reopens from Co vid restrictions. it s stocks listed in h on g Kong are trading at the cheapest ever by one metric.

s t ill, investors focused on i n dia’s longer-term growth story h old strong convictions. e c ono mists surveyed by Bloomberg ex pect the economy to grow about 7 % in the fiscal year that ends next March, more than twice the pace of China’s in 2022.  Mark Mobius, co-founder of Mo

bius Capital Partners, said i n dia’s large and younger population cou pled with a favorable environment t oward private enterprise means it will be growing faster than China in the coming years.

‘India’s moment’

M A JO r global companies have been taking advantage of the s outh Asian country’s industrial prow ess. Apple i n c., which has long manufactured most of its iPhones in China, began making its new iPhone 14 in i n dia sooner than anticipated following a smooth production rollout. Citigroup i nc is targeting i n dia as one of its top markets to expand globally.

“We think this is really i n dia’s moment. A lot of people are in vested,” said Julia r a iskin, head of Asia Pacific markets at Citi.

With its rising market clout, i n dia’s weight in the M s C i e m erg ing Markets i n dex has increased by almost 7 percentage points in the two years through s e ptember. Meanwhile, that of Chinese and h on g Kong stocks combined has fallen by more than 10 points.

r e gardless of how the Chinese market performs, abrdn Plc.’s Kristy Fong said i n dia’s attractive ness to global investors remains a lon g-term trend.

“As a stock market, i n dia is home to some of the highest qual ity companies in the region, with s ome of the most capable manage ment teams anywhere in Asia,” s he said. “ s e gments where i n dia excels include financial services, consumer goods and services and health care.”

Thousands march in UK cities to protest on cost-of-living crisis

By Giulia Morpurgo

Aseries of protests filled the streets of the largest UK cit ies on s a turday, with people rallying for causes ranging from a cost-of-living crisis and pay rises to protecting the climate.

Across Britain, in cities includ ing London, e d inburgh, s w ansea and Liverpool, protesters gath ered for marches coordinated by t he campaign e n ough is e n ough. They are demanding support to face surging prices, in the form of real pay rises, slashing energy bills and taxes for the wealthy, according to a manifesto on their website.

About 10,000 people took part in the London rally, according to a tweet by the campaign. Joining in was climate group e x tinction r e bellion (X r ), which said it was marching to stand against both cli mate change and the cost-of-living c risis. Activists said they blocked Westminster Bridge.

The protests coincided with the beginning of a strike coordinated by the National Union of r a il, Maritime and Transport Workers ( r M T). The national walkouts, scheduled for Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, will see 40,000 r M T members across the country “effectively shutting down the railway network,” the union said in a statement on its website.

The strikes come after a lack in progress in negotiations be tween the union and the rail n etwork, with the latter failing to address employees’ concerns on the rising costs of living and the threat of mass redundancies, the r M T said.

The protests follow a recent mini-budget from new Prime Min ister Liz Truss’ government, which c apped energy costs but also cut taxes, including scrapping the top rate for the highest earners. The

campaign groups say that’s been a catalyst for protesters as the poli cies are seen as adding to inflation a nd widening inequality.

Truss sticks to guns

Me A NW h i L e , Truss said she in tends to stick to her entire fiscal p lan, even as polls show growing discontent with the UK prime min ister and her Conservative Party.

T he UK needs to change and she’s determined to follow through with her plans for massive tax cuts because she believes they will make the country more successful, Truss said in an interview with the Telegraph that was published late s a turday.

The defiant comments come just as a new poll by the Observer showed three-quarters of UK vot ers, including 71% of those who b acked the Tories in the last elec tion, believe Truss and Chancellor

of t he e x chequer Kwasi Kwarteng have “lost control” of the economy.

Concern over how Truss’s gov ernment will pay for the tax cuts h as driven the pound to a record low and prompted a dramatic inter vention by the Bank of e n gland to prevent a bond market meltdown. The turmoil will loom over the Conservative Party’s annual con ference, which takes place s u nday in Birmingham.

Ahead of the conference, La bour has extended its lead by 14 p ercentage points to 19 points, the Observer said, citing the poll conducted by Opinium. Truss’s rat ings are now lower than those of h er predecessor Boris Johnson at the height of the so-called Party gate scandal, it added.

W hile Truss acknowledged concerns over the plans, she told the Telegraph that if her govern ment hadn’t acted, the UK would

h ave faced a very severe economic slowdown, with companies going out of business and inflation five points higher.

“What i m fundamentally say ing is we do have to change, and t he status quo isn’t an option,” Truss told the newspaper. Argu ments against the changes reflect a declinist mentality, the idea that Britain’s best days are behind us and that all this is about is man aging the distribution between p eople, rather than growing the size of the pie.”

The premier also told the news paper she will lower the threshold fo r companies to qualify as small businesses, allowing more firms to benefit from an exemption to regu lations. s h e will be looking at other areas of reform as well, including planning, childcare and immigra tion, according to the Telegraph.

Gazprom halts gas supplies to Italy in latest energy battle

By Chiara Remondini, Alberto Brambilla & Marton Eder

rU s si A’s state-controlled Gazprom PJ s C s uspended natural gas deliveries to i t aly in an apparent scuffle over regulation in Austria, escalating the energy crisis in e u rope.

The cutoff appeared to target just i t aly, which gets Gazprom’s supplies from a pipeline that passes through Austria. h i gher volumes of r u ssian gas were al located to Vienna-based OMV AG t han recently, said Andreas r i nof ner, a spokesman for OMV, which i mports r u ssian gas to Austria.

Although i t aly has been wean ing itself off r u ssian gas, s a tur day’s development highlights how v ulnerable e ur opean countries are to r u ssian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated moves to choke off energy to the continent. The standoff intensified this week af ter massive leaks erupted in a key p ipeline to e u rope that some na tions blamed on sabotage.

G azprom released a statement saying it had suspended the sup plies to i t aly because the Austrian operator had refused to confirm “transport nominations” after regulatory changes implemented in Austria in late s e ptember.  Austria’s e n ergy Ministry said Gazprom had failed to sign off on contractual changes that reflect technical rule adjustments typi cally made at the start of each gas y ear. Gazprom, like other market participants, had known of the changes for months, Austrian reg ulator e Control said in a tweet.

Disputes over contractual clauses and regulation have accom panied the meltdown in economic t ies between r u ssia and countries to its west, as Putin continues his war against Ukraine. e a rlier this year, r u ssia’s demand for gas de liveries to be paid in ruble contrib uted to soaring prices.

G azprom said it is working to resolve the issue with i t alian buy ers. e n i s p A confirmed the cutoff and said it was reaching out to Gaz

prom. Austria’s government also s aid it was working on the matter at a technical level.

A spokeswoman for pipeline operator Trans Austria Gasleitung Gmb h didn’t respond to an e-mail and calls seeking comment.

Alternative supplies

iTALy once relied on r u ssia for about 40% of its gas imports, but has been aggressively cutting that dependence since the invasion in February. i t aly has now sourced sufficient alternative supplies of gas from North Africa to make up for any shortfalls this winter if r u ssia were to cut off supplies, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg. A boost of expected deliveries from Algeria and e g ypt will be able to cover the remaining supplies that i t aly was still getting from r u ssia, they said.

The cutoff of i t alian gas comes days after underwater eruptions crippled the key Nord s t ream gas pipelines connecting r u ssia with e u rope. U s President Joe Biden earlier echoed the assessment of Western e uropean leaders that the pipelines were sabotaged and add ed that r ussian statements about t he incident shouldn’t be trusted.  i n r esponse, Norway’s armed forces stepped up patrols of the country’s energy facilities and Germany, France and the UK of fered to help protect oil and gas i nstallations in the North s e a. NATO is also using its naval and air capabilities to monitor the Bal tic and North s e as.

With Nord s t ream out of com mission, there is now just one ma jor pipeline bringing natural gas s traight to e u rope. And that route, which passes through Ukraine, is looking increasingly vulnerable. That pipeline has already had part of its supply knocked out by the war, and could turn out to be the next to close as the conflict drags on.

Gazprom s a turday also reduced the daily gas flow levels to Mol dova through the Ukraine and b lamed the reduction on Ukraine.

Australia treasurer says meetings in US to help budget preparation

AU s T r A L i A N Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he expects meetings later this month in Washington with Federal r e serve Chairman Jerome Powell and other financial leaders will help inform decisions in the budget he is due to deliver October 25, s k y News reported.

“ i t ’s a rally valuable opportunity to confer with my counterparts,” Chalmers said in Brisbane in an in terview with s k y News, referring to the G-20 meetings of finance minis ters and central bankers set for Oct. 1 2. “ i ’ ll be meeting with the Chair of the U s Federal r e serve and oth ers from around the world to make s ure our Budget is informed by the most recent, most candid assess ment of what’s going on in the global e conomy.”

Chalmers reiterated his position that the government’s first budget since it won election in May will seek to strengthen Australia’s fiscal position. he a gain signaled a bias to restrain spending even after the Treasury re ported a smaller-than-expected defi cit in the fiscal year ended June 30, a s r u ssia’s war on Ukraine drove up commodity prices and bolstered the nation’s bottom line.

The new government has been buffeted by accelerating inflation that prompted the r e serve Bank of Australia to hike interest rates by 2.25 percentage points since May. it i s expected to add another half a point on Tuesday to those increases.

Chalmers said he was conscious of the need to avoid clashing with that policy stance in crafting a budget that aims

to help households cope with soaring consumer prices but avoid adding to inflationary drivers by overheating the economy.

“We expect our inflation chal lenge to get a bit worse before it gets b etter, but it will get better,” Chalm ers said, adding a key task of the b udget “will be providing that cost of living relief in a way that provides an economic dividend and doesn’t make the job of the independent r e serve Bank that much harder.”

Chalmers also said that the past week’s events in the wake of the UK’s mini-budget stand as a warning about the need to take care to align government and central bank policy.

ev en in the last month or two the global situation has deteriorated dramatically and in many of the ma jor economies that we monitor the c hances of a recession have edged over from possible to probable,” he said.

The UK offers “a cautionary tale about the costs and consequences of getting government policy and central bank policy out of whack.”

J

Br ITI s h protesters gather for marches coordinated by the campaign Enough is Enough. Polls show growing discontent with the UK prime minister and her Conservative Party. Bloom B erg photo

Blowing up the pipeline editorial

WE all have those moments in our lives—a birth, a wedding, death—that are forever etched on our minds. Collectively we have the same experience often delineated by “where were you when...?”

“Where were you when martial law was declared?” “Where were you when the Baguio/Luzon earthquake hit?” Globally, there is always the recollection of the 1969 moon landing or the 9/11 attacks on New York City.

Events such as these range from the personal and direct to the remote and distant. However, we know, maybe not immediately, that something happened that has a possibility of changing the future for everyone. We all knew that 9/11 was different but we did not know sitting here 13,665 kilometers from the World Trade Center buildings how much different the world would be 20 years later.

It set off several destructive wars, led to the formation of oppressive surveillance states in the West, and undoubtedly deteriorated our way of life.

On Monday of last week, a sequence of headlines shook the energy world in a profound way. One observer described it, “While few events can compare to 9/11, what transpired on September 26, 2022 will have enormous implications—both economic and humanitarian—and adds an accelerant to a fire that was already dangerously hot.”

The US blames the Russians. The Russians blames the US. Speculation about the perpetrator is wild and rampant. Could it have been the Ukrainians? Or how about the Chinese? One credible theory backed with some viable data and facts starts with the fact that there were two “explosions” and pipe ruptures in the same general area but that these occurred 17 hours apart.

This experienced oil energy consultant postulates that this was an accident. These pipes had been lying dormant since July and there had been unexplained (or undisclosed) major disruptions in gas flow in December 2021-January 2022, February 2022, and April 2022.

“Under certain circumstances of pressure, temperature, and water presence natural gas/methane will form solid hydrates, particularly when the gas is not flowing, and these ‘plugs’ can continue to grow in the ice-cold environment, eventually exerting enough pressure to catastrophically rupture the pipe.”

Two issues come to mind. If this was an act of sabotage, and that is still the most likely answer, by whichever geopolitical player, we have entered a new phase of modern warfare. Further, how vulnerable are we?

The first Transatlantic telegraph undersea cable was laid in the 1850s from the coast of Ireland to Newfoundland. There are approximately more than 400 active cables worldwide covering 1.3 million kilometers and stretching from Iceland to Isla Navarino on the southern tip of Argentina.

Without these cables—more than 95 percent of international communications are carried over fiber optic cables—global communications would revert back to carrier pigeons. Regardless of what Elon Musk says about his Starlink satellite network, we depend entirely on undersea cables.

While much less common, there are 8,600 miles of active offshore oil and gas pipelines located on the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico, a major oil producing area.

One of the longest pipelines in use is the Langeled Pipeline that extends for 1,200 kilometers from the Ormen Lange field in Norway to the Easington Gas Terminal in England under the North Sea and used to transfer natural gas to England. However, we have major oil/gas undersea pipelines in our neighborhood. The Yacheng 13-1 subsea pipeline runs 780 kilometers from the Yacheng gas field, 100 kilometers south of Hainan Island to Black Point near Hong Kong. The Indonesian owned West Natuna gas pipeline runs 654 kilometers carrying gas to the coast of Singapore.

It is called “critical” infrastructure for a reason. And the more critical it is, often the more vulnerable to attack. That is our world today.

Time to walk our talk

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

has been a buzzword for quite some time now, but for many businesses, the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) framework is relatively recent. the two are related in that ESG features lead to sustainability. ESG features are guideposts that a company’s management group and stakeholders use to make business decisions. the impact of these decisions on the world and environment is what makes them sustainable or not.

‘SuStainaBlE

Sustainability and ESG standards are crucial for today’s businesses and organizations because of the global challenges that our planet is facing. We can be sure that we will be hearing or encountering more of them in the years to come, which makes it obvious that businesses truly need to align with these standards as soon as possible in order to remain relevant, competitive, and cooperative.

Aligning means making investment/business decisions based on

ESG elements or frameworks. In the long run, it is good not just for the planet and its inhabitants, but also for the organizations themselves as more investors, employees, consumers, and stakeholders demand that companies be more responsible and sustainable.

For instance, last year the European Commission adopted a finance package that would require around 50,000 EU companies to report on ESG issues starting in 2023. In the Philippines, the Ayala Group has em-

Sustainability and ESG standards are crucial for today’s businesses and organizations because of the global challenges that our planet is facing. We can be sure that we will be hearing or encountering more of them in the years to come, which makes it obvious that businesses truly need to align with these standards as soon as possible in order to remain relevant, competitive, and cooperative.

barked on a long journey of actualizing its “commitment to sustainability through the ESG metrics.” This is according to the conglomerate’s chairman himself, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.

To work within the ESG framework, an organization needs to have a strategy that focuses on the environmental, social, and governance pillars. Some of the actions that can be taken include: taking measures to decrease pollution and CO2  output, having an inclusive workforce, reducing waste, addressing climate

World economy roiled by simultaneous shocks echoing 2007 anxiety

By Enda Curran | Bloomberg Opinion

change and issues related to biodiversity, human rights, health and safety, corruption, and so on. The scope is much wider, but you get the picture. Every organization chooses the ESG issues that affect them, tries to address these, and reports on them.

On the surface, ESG may look expensive and time-consuming to implement, but as mentioned, it brings rewards to the organization and its people, as well as to the world and its citizens.

n n n HERE ’S an invitation to watch the films that are part of the Spanish Film Festival, which opens on October 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Shangri-La Plaza Red Carpet Cinema in Mandaluyong. There will be screenings at the Institute Cervantes de Manila in Intramuros from October 10-12 and a screening at the UP Film Center in Diliman on October 13. All other screenings will be held in ShangriLa. For the complete list of films and their screening times, please visit the Facebook page of Instituto Cervantes de Manila. The public is invited to watch the free screenings of these exceptional Films in Spanish, with English subtitles.

thE

world economy is showing signs of a rapid downshift as it contends with a series of shocks—some of them self-inflicted by policymakers—increasing the likelihood of another global recession and the danger of major financial disruptions.

“We’re living through a period of elevated risk,” former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told “Wall Street Week” with David Westin on Bloomberg Television, for whom he is a paid contributor. “In the same way that people became anxious in August of 2007, I think this is a moment when there should be increased anxiety.”

At the heart of the strain: The fallout from the most aggressive hiking of interest rates since the 1980s. Having failed to foresee the surge in inflation to multi-decade highs, the Federal Reserve and most peers are now lifting rates at speed in a bid to restore price stability and their own credibility.

Evidence of the impact—and of the blow to consumers’ purchasing power from soaring prices—is mounting quickly. In the past several days, Nike Inc. reported a surging stockpile of unsold product, FedEx Corp. shocked with a warning on delivery volumes and key chipmaker South Korea saw the first drop in semiconductor output in four years as demand retreats. Apple Inc. is

backing off plans to boost output of its new iPhones, Bloomberg reported.

The turn is coming even before the full thrust of monetary tightening is felt. The Fed and many counterparts are pledging to keep going with steep rate hikes as they attempt to rebuild credibility. Quantitative tightening programs, where central banks remove liquidity by shrinking bond portfolios, are also just getting going.

Inflation data showcase the need for, as Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard put it Friday, “avoiding pulling back prematurely” on tightening. She spoke shortly after the Fed’s preferred measure of prices jumped more than forecast. Earlier, data showed euro-zone inflation has punched into double-digits.

Layered on top of continuing reverberations from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the spreading economic gloom is sowing fear in financial markets, creating its own worrying dynamic. A rapidly appreciating dollar, supercharged by the Fed, may help cool US inflation, but it drives it up elsewhere by weakening other currencies—pressuring

Prospects for a second global recession so soon after the 2020 downturn triggered by the pandemic were hardly apparent a year ago. But Europe’s Russianinduced energy crisis, and China’s deepening property slump and continued Covid-Zero approach weren’t part of the consensus outlook.

authorities to restrain their own economies.

“The global economy is in the eye of a new storm,” Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said Friday after lifting rates again.

Prospects for a second global recession so soon after the 2020 downturn triggered by the pandemic were hardly apparent a year ago. But Europe’s Russian-induced energy crisis, and China’s deepening property slump and continued Covid-Zero approach weren’t part of the consensus outlook.

Not all is dark, with US job-market resilience a notable feature. But the plans by Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. for the first reduction in headcount ever illustrate how that may still change.

And Britain’s experience in recent days showcases how investors are in a mood to punish policymakers pursuing approaches deemed unsustain-

able. The Bank of England was forced to intervene in its bond market after the new UK government announced $45 billion of unfunded tax cuts.

“Forecasts of a soft landing for the global economy assume something close to perfect policy execution. The events of the last week demonstrate the reality can be very different,” said Tom Orlik, Bloomberg chief economist. “The opportunity for further fumbles—after the UK’s fiscal fail and market meltdown—is high. And the cost, if they occur, higher.”

“Markets are concerned about fiscal policies becoming even looser despite inflation, or the dollar, getting excessively strong,” said Cui Li, head of macro research at CCB International Securities Ltd.

Nike’s troubles showed how the dollar’s appreciation is causing issues not just for developing nations that issued debt in the US currency—Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Argentina are among those turning to the IMF for help—but also for American multinational companies.

The athletics-wear giant on Thursday downgraded its outlook, citing foreign-exchange effects and higher freight costs, which are a symptom of supply-chain delays and port congestion. That’s besides the need to embrace price markdowns given unsold stock. North American inventories climbed 65 percent in

Continuing saga of the PTA

Joel L. Tan-Torres

DEBIT CREDIT

IThad the noblest of intentions. It was created over 12 years ago to professionalize and train the core of government tax collectors in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Customs, and local government treasurers’ offices.

I am referring to the Philippine Tax Academy (PTA). The PTA was established pursuant to Republic Act 10143, or the Philippine Tax Academy Act, on July 31, 2010. Up to this date, the implementation of the PTA is a continuing saga.

While I was the BIR Commissioner in 2010, I was involved in the conceptualization of the bill for the PTA and in the swift approval of this bill in both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the 14th Congress. It started in the latter part of 2009 when I advocated for the creation of the PTA and spearheaded a group of BIR officials in moving forward with this initiative. I moved for the passage of a law to establish a learning center for the tax collectors of the land. The idea then was to form a training organization that was separate from the tax-collecting agencies which would focus on providing training and learning to the tax-collecting officers. I was able to have this certified as urgent by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Thereafter, the approval of the bill in the two chambers of Congress was expedited and fast-tracked. Principal authors of the law included Congressman Exequiel Javier and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Miguel Zubiri.

But the pace of implementation of the law was slow. The PTA Law was passed in July 2010. It took a long time and insistent proddings by concerned persons to prompt the Department of Finance, which was the lead agency to implement the law, to move forward. The Director of the Senate Tax Study and Research Office, Rechilda Gascon, wrote to the Department of Finance inquiring about the status of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the PTA law in February and April 2013. Representative Bernadette Herrera-Dy urged then President Benigno Aquino to promulgate the IRR to carry out the laudable measure in August 2012. In September 2014, I, as the Chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy, wrote then DOF Undersecretary Othello Carag to follow up with DOF on the drafting of the IRR.

It was only in January 2018 when the DOF created a Technical Working Group (TWG) to implement the PTA Law when it issued Department Personnel Order No.12-2018. The TWG was tasked to draft the IRR in consultation with stakeholders; de-

The finalization of these IRR does not end the PTA journey. There are more action measures to implement so as to have a Philippine Tax Academy that will be able to accomplish its noble objectives of training the tax collectors of the Philippines.

sign the initial PTA courses; recommend program projects and funding sources; coordinate with appropriate government entities to implement the PTA law; and engage the services of experts for its work.

I had the opportunity to engage with the DOF from late 2017 to early 2018 in moving forward with the PTA implementation. As early as December 2017, I was able to touch base with DOF Undersecretary Bayani Agabin, who was leading the PTA implementation during the term of DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez. We had several exchanges of ideas and information on the PTA, including my suggestions for tax academy models and provisions in the IRR that can be considered. In particular, I suggested that the PTA follow the best practices of the National Tax Academy of Japan, which I was able to visit and observe when I was the BIR Commissioner. I also provided inputs to the draft IRR that was furnished in January 2018.

However, despite the many engagements and interest of the various stakeholders for the implementation of the PTA, it was only on January 10, 2019 that the IRR to implement the PTA Law was finally released with its publication in the Manila Standard newspaper.

But the finalization of these IRR does not end the PTA journey. There are more action measures to implement so as to have a Philippine Tax Academy that will be able to accomplish its noble objectives of training the tax collectors of the Philippines.

Joel L. Tan-Torres is the 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 articles from the business and academic community for consideration for publication. Articles not exceeding 700 words can be e-mailed to jltantorres@up.edu.ph.

Opinion

You can’t change you

Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

Leaders should connect to the deepest values of their people.

the three months through August.

Housing markets are also turning, walloped by surging mortgage rates. The US in the past week saw the first decline in home prices in a decade.

“The question is how low growth will go, and for how long it will stay down,” said S&P Global Chief Economist Paul Gruenwald.

Perhaps the biggest X-factor is the potential for financial turmoil as the dollar, which has appreciated almost 14% this year as measured by the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, exerts pressure across markets.

Combine that with rapid increases in borrowing costs, and it spells the potential for trouble. Summers, the ex-Treasury chief, said  “You can never be certain about what the consequences of that will be.”

That has echoes of the summer of 2007, when the impact of the collapsing US housing market first began showing up in the financial system, with the closure of a number

of funds and sudden liquidity shortfalls among banks. Things eventually morphed the following year into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Rising anxiety across global markets can be seen in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch GFSI Market Risk indicator, a measure of future price swings implied by options trading on equities, interest rates, currencies and commodities.

The gauge has jumped to the highest since March 2020, when markets were in full-blown pandemic panic.

Given the need to address inflation, diminished fiscal space in the wake of record spending on the pandemic, and varying priorities across major economies, the potential for joint action to address challenges may be in question.

“The incoherent macro policies within countries and absence of policy coordination across countries are both problematic,” said Cui Li at CCB.

It all makes for a potentially tension-filled gathering of global finance chiefs next week for the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank October 10 to 16 in Washington.

Change

leadership is required to successfully react to opportunities for growth. To a certain extent, changes in the private sector are easier to attain, yet, according to leadership guru Dr. John P. Kotter, 70% of all major change efforts in private organizations fail because of the lack of holistic approach. In his article entitled Leading Change, Dr. Kotter shared his 8-Step Process where organizations can increase their chances of success of changing towards their prescribed direction. This article will share the first two steps.

Most leaders fail to understand the difficulty of persuading their followers to leave their comfort zones behind. After all, who in their right minds will abandon something easy or convenient? Hence, a sense of urgency is the first step in leading change. Urgency is necessary to remove complacency and apathy, both of which can occur or result to employees telling themselves and each other, “Everything is fine.” Kotter posited that there can be some “False Urgency” in the workplace where people appear to be very busy, “working-working-working,” but their actions lead to unproductive results. Similar to a toy rocking horse, it has much movement but it doesn’t go anywhere. The image of busyness in the workplace can eventually result to burnout without achieving company goals. I have witnessed managers spend more time doing PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets than actual activities that contribute to achieving the budgeted target. They seem to fixated on doing day-to-day work when they could be driven by a belief that the world contains opportunities that require audacity to move, and move fast.

I think the best way to succeed at establishing true urgency in people is to “aim for the heart.” Leaders should connect to the deepest values of their people. Hitler did that during the Nazi regime where his master propagandist Goebells presented a “business case” to convince most Germans that Jews are scums of the world. Mahatma Gandhi, in a similar but definitely less manipulative ways, employed communication strategies, particularly the nonverbal ones (garments and gestures) that were very relatable with human

experience. According to Kotter, step 1 should contain a communication strategy that “engages the senses, creates messages that are simple and imaginative, and calls people to aspire.” In the Philippine setting, such communication strategy was employed, by intent or accident that led to the biggest disruption in Philippine politics wherein the people overthrew a sitting government through peaceful means in 1986. As to why the supposed change did not last, step 7 of Kotter’s 8 steps will help explain the lack of a culture change to make such changes stick! The fact remains that true urgency drives people to understand why there is a compelling need to change.

Similarly, on a personal level, some people can be driven to change jobs or diets as soon as they find an urgent need to do so. I know a friend, fit and slim during his student days, who reached a waistline of 44 inches before reaching the age of 40. He continued his lifestyle of being a couch potato and buffet style “all you can eat” dinners until he suffered a stroke. Sensing this imminent danger, he changed his lifestyle drastically. Now, the “new” man in him exercises by walking every day, works less to have less stress, and watches what he eats. On a spiritual level, the Bible tells us about a new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17,“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The word “therefore” tells us that all believers have died with Christ and no longer live for themselves. The “new” is no longer worldly as the old sinful ways were nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ. Just as He was raised up by the Father, believers were raised up to be the “new creation.” But being new does not mean

Hitler did that during the Nazi regime where his master propagandist Goebells presented a “business case” to convince most Germans that Jews are scums of the world. Mahatma Gandhi, in a similar but definitely less manipulative ways, employed communication strategies, particularly the non-verbal ones (garments and gestures) that were very relatable with human experience.

we reach sinless perfection. What my pastor friend told me was that the redeemed believer is being sanctified (made holy) each day, sinning less and being convicted more each time he commits sin. While believers still sin, similar to the new version of my friend who occasionally enjoys “cheat day” buffet dinners, they do so less frequently as they mature towards their vision of being a new person—no longer a slave to sin or addicted to old habits. Such transformation occurs because of the Spirit of God, which lives in him (Romans 8:9). In my case, in the middle of a lifelong struggle to fully be that new creation, I am privileged to be guided by a small group of advisors who has helped me in this spiritual change management.

But in the business world, this small group of people, referred by Kotter in step 2 in change management, is called a Guiding Coalition.

Once the urgency to change is established, there must be a group with enough power and commitment to lead the change. In Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines, the oldest Philippine company that produces desiccated coconut products, mainly for export, appears to make the most significant shift in its business model. Recognizing the playing field in the coconut industry, the leadership of FBCOP has assembled a group to lead the change effort.

With an executive committee composed of experienced leaders from Nestle, Alaska, Del Monte, Dole, to name a few, FBCOP President Ferdinand dela Cruz (“Ferdz”), whose notable exploits in Manila Water and Globe Telecom can serve as good case studies of servant leadership, understood that no single person is capable of singlehandedly devel-

oping the right change vision and anchoring new sustainability initiatives to penetrate the culture of a century-old company like FBCOP. The right Guiding Coalition must not only have the right set of credentials but a shared objective and a mutual respect of each member’s professional background.

Due to market forces, FBCOP will be producing other coconut-based products such as coconut water and virgin coconut oil, on top of its legacy product of desiccated coconuts. Ferdz and his guiding coalition consider even entering the local market, thru joint ventures if circumstances warrant. Ferdz heavily emphasizes the importance of a team-based decision making. In this VUCA world, leaders and managers, acting in concert, are most effective in making productive decisions according to Kotter. Trust is, however, the glue that makes any team function correctly and harmoniously towards the appropriate direction.

When it comes to having that sense of urgency to change from within, people will have different encounters and timings. I had mine a few years back and decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I cannot save myself from sinning, only He can. Similarly, we cannot change ourselves any more than a drowning person can save himself. We need someone else to save us, somebody to help change ourselves—our own guiding coalition so to speak. But it all starts with realizing the urgency to be a new creation by being “in Christ.” So, for those who have yet to experience such compelling need, let’s be part of the Jesus team and put our trust in Him when it comes to managing the change within. Crucial in our decision-making is the reminder that “only God can change the heart, but the preparation comes from man”—the preparation of our hearts to be completely submitted to Him through repentance.

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.

Ukraine now amenable to test West’s weapons

LITO GAGNI

en the fear on the “loss” of weapons destined for Ukraine in the early days of the crisis, the pronouncement from that country’s Defense Ministry inviting the West to pre-test their weaponry is an open invitation for the terrorists to craft new ways of hijacking the new breed of weapons. and this is what is fearful: terrorists and criminal syndicates getting a hold of the weapons that may even include a dirty bomb.

gIv

That is what is worrisome. It is not so much for the loss of weapons as much as the entry of dirty bombs into the current Ukraine crisis with the “open arms” that Ukraine is ensuring for the entry of new weapons. After all, a dirty bomb is not considered a weapon of mass destruction but a weapon of mass disruption, with its effects minimal but its impact huge psychologically. And this may come by with the kind of open invitation made by no less than Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Volodymyr Gavrilov.

Before an audience of weapons manufacturers euphemistically termed defense industry representatives and military acquisitions personnel at the Future Force Capabilities Conference and Exhibition in Austin, Texas on September 21,

Gavrilov made that open invitation. Said he: “If you have any ideas or some pilot projects that need to be tested before mass production, you can send them to us and we will explain what needs to be done.”

Gavrilov expressed confidence that after using the weapons in Ukraine, it will be very easy to sell it, as it comes back as a competitive, “warzone tested” product. And with that, there is that distinct possibility that a dirty bomb may soon be one of those to be tested in the ongoing conflict. This is something that is worrisome with the “careless” handling of the weapons that the West supplied to Kyiv. Remember that this was clearly documented by an American TV channel that interviewed those in charge of delivering the weapons to Kyiv.

As there were “logistical hurdles”

(read: regional warlords, rich merchants and political bigwigs), some of the arms supplied were sidetracked to other outposts with as much as 70 percent being lost in the delivery line much like the disruption in the supply chains for chips and other economic items due to the conflict in Ukraine that resulted in an inflationary uptick unheard of for 40 years in the United States and that is now affecting the economies and currencies of the UK, Germany, EU nations and other countries.

In a way a dirty bomb can be fashioned much like the Molotov cocktails which can be hurled and provide the kind of effect on those that get hit. And its lethal effect can be so designed to provide a varied repertoire of murderous intent. And that is where the open invite for weapons testing at the current conflict is understandably worrisome.

A Molotov cocktail can be made to have, say, just small pebbles that are not lethal, or nails and broken shards of glass that can be deadly at times. And as with Molotov cocktails which are bottles filled with gasoline and with a lighted wick that explode on impact, a dirty bomb can come in handy as a warzone tested weapon. And here the imagination of the Future Force conference attendees will be fired off to such an extent that a dirty bomb can have a far greater impact than just being a weapon of mass disruption.

And that is the danger here. The dirty bombs going to terrorists and criminal syndicates. This is a view that had been shared before by those watching the drama in Ukraine that is now slowly cascading into a war of attrition that warrior Sun Tzu does not want to happen in a conflict. And all because the Kyiv’s defense agency has openly asked those in charge of manufacturing weapons to test their prototypes in Ukraine.

Reports cited that Gavrilov, the deputy defense minister, urged startup companies, including those involved in anti-drone and anti-jamming equipment, (and those that) have already brought new technologies to the Ukrainian battlefield, to test their products there. He cited the advantages for the tests. Once tested, then “they come back with a product that is competitive in the market now because it was tested in a combat zone,” Gavrilov said, without revealing the companies that have worked with Ukraine in this capacity.

His comments were made on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization, which he said is necessary because Russia has been fighting “the entire Western military machine” in Ukraine. In view of this shift in Russia’s tactics, Kiev will require more counter-drone and electronic warfare technologies, armored vehicles, and longrange anti-tank and precision fire weapons, Gavrilov said.

SENATE PANEL TO WEIGH POGO GAINS, RISKS AMID CRIME SPREE

THE Senate opens Monday its investigation into the revenue viability and so cial costs of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) amid a mounting clamor to al together ban the remaining such POGOs in the country.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, whose Ways and Means commit tee is in charge of helping sena tors assess the wisdom of letting POGOs continue despite reports linking some of them to violent crime, said the hearing was set on Monday, 1:30 pm, to give way to earlier budget hearings.

In an interview with DWIZ at the weekend, Gatchalian said of ficials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Department of Fi nance, and even Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno were invited to Monday’s hearing, as well as cor porations “that have conducted analysis” of POGO operations.

Senator Gatchalian said this was because he read reports that even leading real estate consul tants like Leechiu    Properties had earlier flagged the possible impact of banning POGOs on the property sector, which ben efited from multibillion rentals of POGO entities. This, even dur ing the pandemic, when POGO operations were among those hit.

B ut among those invited, Gatchalian indicated he is keen to hear from the National Eco nomic and Development Author ity (Neda ) “kasi ang nakikita lang natin ang kita pero sa kabilang ban da, yung krimen. Ano ba ang epekto

ng krimen sa atin, [because we only see the profits from them, but there’s the other side, the crime, too. What’s the effect of the crime on us], both economic and reputation.”

He recalled that was clear in the earlier hearing presided by Sena tor Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa that confirmed the so-called POGO-re lated crimes’ impact, that was why “we aim to continue whatever its effect on the economy.” He added, partly in Filipino, “let’s look at the benefits and the cost; what’s the effect on our country of having crimes happen here; and what’s the future of POGOs, i.e., where is this industry headed around the world, and in our own territory.”

G atchalian clarified that “what we want is to attract busi ness that is stable and brings good income, not crime...be cause if it brings crime,” it harms the country’s reputation as long as there are criminals operating here with impunity.

Finance chief Diokno earlier stirred a hornet’s nest when he signaled an inclination to push for abandonment of the POGO option as a revenue draw for a country seeking fiscal stability post-pandemic. Diokno said there is a real “reputational risk” for the Philippines in allowing POGOs if the recent spate of crimes— abductions, mostly—linked to POGOs will continue. He noted that even some neighboring coun tries like Cambodia had already decided to ban online gaming.

PHL rice imports breach

top 2021 data

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE country’s rice imports as of September 22 breached the 2.9 million metric ton (MMT), already 5 percent higher than last year’s full-year import volume of 2.771 MMT, latest gov ernment data showed.

Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data indicated that total rice im ports from January 1 to September 22 reached 2.913 MMT.

BPI data showed that Vietnam accounted for 82.11 percent or about 2.392 MMT of the total vol ume of rice imported during the period. The country’s rice imports from Vietnam was 1.35 percent higher than the 2.36 MMT full-year import volume recorded last year.

V ietnam was followed by Myan mar with 203,879.28 MT and Thai land with 150,416.375 MT. Rice imports from Myanmar and Thai land also increased year-on-year by 3.64 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively.

R ice imports from Pakistan, which has benefited from lower tar iff rates, reached 146,055.675 MT, more than five times the 25,286 MT imported volume from the South Asian country last year.

A t least 138 eligible rice import ers brought in rice from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Spain, Tai wan, Thailand and Vietnam from January 1 to September 15. The importers used a total of 3,218 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-IC), according to BPI data.

BPI data showed that NAN Stu Agri Traders led all rice import ers with a total import volume of 146,990.35 MT, followed by Ma nus Dei Resources Ent. Inc. with 142,881.28 MT, and Lucky Buy and Sell with 128,523 MT.

ture and Food Inc. President Danilo V. Fausto earlier said the increase in rice imports may dampen local unmilled rice prices as the market is “overflowing with supply.”

Palay prices being harvested today and next month would be af fected. Farm-gate prices will not go up,” Fausto told the BusinessMirror in an earlier interview.

T he United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) earlier revised upward its total rice import fore cast for the Philippines this year to a record level of 3.4 MMT, from an earlier estimate of 3.2 MMT.

I n its monthly global grain re port, the USDA increased its total rice import forecast for the Philip pines this year by 200,000 MT due to “large purchases from Vietnam.”

T he new import forecast for the Philippines, the world’s secondlargest buyer of rice, is 15.25 per cent higher than the 2.95 MMT of rice it imported last year, based on USDA data.

I f the forecast materializes, this would be the first time in Philip pines history that it would import more than 3 MMT of rice, accord ing to historical USDA data.

T he Philippine Statistics Au thority reported last month that the value of the country’s agricul tural output in the first half con tracted by 0.4 percent, mainly due to the anemic performance of the crops and fisheries subsectors.

Data released by the PSA showed that the value of farm output in Janu ary to June (at constant 2018 prices) reached P853.087 billion, lower than last year’s P856.66 billion.

In terms of volume, the country’s unmilled rice production contract ed by 0.63 percent to 8.743 MMT in January to June, from last year’s 8.799 MMT. Corn output, however, rose by 1.1 percent year-on-year to 3.926 MMT. Palay and corn account for the bulk of the crops subsector’s output.

How will ERC rule on SMC, Meralco power rate-hike bid?

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

CONSUMERS

and power firms keenly

await the decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the joint plea of conglomerate San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) power units and the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) for an increase in their previously approved power rates.

S MC President Ramon Ang had said that it would have no choice but to terminate the power sup ply agreements (PSAs) of South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC) and San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC) with Meralco, should their joint applications be  disapproved. The notices of termination are effec tive starting October 4 if no relief is given.

SPPC and SMEC are administra tors of the Ilijan and Sual plants, respectively. They recently filed a temporary and partial cost re covery relief only for the losses in curred from January to May 2022, in the form of a rate increase on contract capacity under the PSAs

to be amortized over a period of six months.

I n a nutshell, if the ERC grants the temporary relief, electricity prices in Luzon will increase by 30 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh). However, without it and with a ter mination of the PSAs, Meralco has estimated an increase of at least 80 centavos up to P1.30/kW h in the price of electricity over the next three to four months, as it will have to find alternative sources that will most likely be costlier, including the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

The right balance

AS of last week, the ERC has yet

to release a decision. It is expected that the commission will make one today (Oct. 3) or, at the latest, on Tuesday.

“

There is no ruling yet. We will inform the soonest,” said ERC Com missioner Atty. Rexie Digal last Friday.

ERC Chairperson Monalisa Di malanta said that all issues among parties have been raised during the hearings.

This is what the job is all about— finding that fine balance between business and consumer interests.

I think they are not necessarily di vergent, actually, but the challenge is to find that point of convergence which ultimately is the space of sustainable growth for the power industry,” she said via Viber.

‘Change in circumstance’

SAN Miguel’s Ang said the two pow er plants have incurred a combined loss of P15 billion and the company has already absorbed more than P10 billion of the losses that were incurred last year when coal prices surged to $176 per metric ton from $99 per MT.

T he steep increase was trig gered primarily by the RussiaUkraine conflict. At one point,

coal prices breached $400 per MT from the $60-$65 per MT price range that was factored in when the PSA between SPPC and Meralco was sealed. The Sual plant runs on coal.

A lso, SMC cited the unilat eral supply restrictions from the Malampaya gas field that fuels the Ilijan plant. The deration or the ceasing of delivery of available capacity had severely affected the plant’s net generation capacity, forcing it to source for costly re placement fuel from the WESM.

A ng said the current situation is seriously jeopardizing the com pany’s critical operations, projects, and financial obligations. “We know any price increase is unpopu lar, and normally we never ask for one—which is what we did for all of last year, when we absorbed ex panding costs that we do not pass on to consumers.

We are not asking to recover all our losses, neither are we asking for a permanent increase. What we are asking for is just a temporary and equitable relief, to allow the power facilities to survive this difficult pe riod and continue supplying power to Meralco,” Ang explained.

CA upholds Ombudsman’s firing of ex-LTFRB exec

THE Court of Appeals has upheld the Office of the Ombudsman’s decision or dering the dismissal of lawyer Samuel Aloysius M. Jardin as executive director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) after finding him administratively li able for soliciting money from individuals in exchange for the issuance of a certificate of pub lic convenience and  franchise of more than P9 million.

I n a 20-page decision penned by Associate Justice Rex Bernardo L. Pascual, the CA’s Special Eleventh Division denied the petition for review with a plea for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by Jardin, assailing the

December 22, 2020 and March 17, 2021 orders of the Ombudsman. These orders found him guilty of grave misconduct, conduct preju dicial to the best interest of the service, and violations of the Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service (RACCS) and Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Former Transportation Secre tary Arthur Tugade had recom mended that the Office of the Presi dent (OP) institute disciplinary action against Jardin for alleged corrupt acts.

P rior to Jardin’s dismissal, Tugade placed the petitioner under preventive suspension for 90 days starting on April 3, 2019.

I n February 2020, the OP re ferred Tugade’s memorandum to the Ombudsman for investigation and adjudication.

O n March 6, 2020, the Office of the Ombudsman issued an order informing Jardin that an investi gation against him has been initi ated and directing him to submit his counteraffidavit and other con troverting evidence.

O n June 1, 2020 the petitioner submitted to the Ombudsman his response to the charges.

O n December 22, 2020, the Om budsman  found Jardin guilty as charged and ordered his dismissal as LTFRB executive director.

Jardin elevated the case to the CA after his motion for reconsid eration was denied by the Ombuds

man in an order issued on March 17, 2021.

J ardin argued before the CA that the Ombudsman improper ly instituted the administrative proceedings since there was no sworn complaint submitted by Tugade, in violation of the Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman.

T he Ombudsman, Jardin said, erroneously found him guilty of the crimes charged despite the insufficiency and inadmissibility of the evidence presented during the proceedings, and that it com mitted reversible errors in giving due course to the administrative proceedings despite the existence of forum-shopping.

ETERNAL CHAPELS CABUYAO

ANNIVERSARY

Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, was attended by barangay officials of Cabuyao City, officers and staff of Eternal Gardens and Eternal Chapels, and the supportive salesforce members of Eternal Gardens Cabuyao. Shown in photo are (from left) Rose Manimtim, Helen De Leon, Gladys Bautisma, representative from Barangay Marinig; Barangay Casile Chairman Paulino C. De Leon, Barangay Diezmo Chairman Nolasco A. Manimtim, Barangay Poblacion Uno Chairman Raul S. Ramos, Barangay Counselors Baltazar Rodrigez and Michael Juliano, Eternal Gardens Cabuyao Branch Manager Alexander Atienza, President and COO Numeriano B. Rodrin, Barangay Mamatid SK Chairman Raul Lapaz, Jr., Barangay Mamatid Chairman Jervis R. Himpisao, Eternal Gardens Executive Officer Dannica Nicole A. Cabangon, Finance Manager Rose Donor, Assistant PR Manager Ivee Johnson, Eternal Chapels Assistant Vice President for Operations Angelito D. Twaño, and Eternal Gardens MIS Manager Geoffrey C. Coberos.

Meralco to local firms: Join ILP to ensure power supply

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

The Manila electric Co. (Meralco) is encouraging its customers to participate in its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to ensure continuous and reliable electricity service.

At end-September this year, Meralco’s I l P participants have reached 121 with a total deloading capacity of about 582 megawatts (MW) in its franchise area.

“As of September 2022, we have about 582 MW from 121 companies enrolled in the IlP. We continue to call on more participants, and to those who are not yet eligible—to exercise prudence in the usage of electricity,” said Meralco Vice President and head of enterprise and

National Government Ma. Cecilia M. Domingo.

The IlP is the Department of e nergy’s voluntary, demand-side management program that taps on businesses to collectively reduce electricity drawn from the grid when power interruptions are imminent.

Pre-enrolled customers who go temporarily off the grid are entitled to fuel compensation covering the hours when the red alert was raised, in accordance with a formula ap-

proved by the energy Regulatory Commission.

Meralco proactively encourages more businesses to join the demandside management program.

“We recognize the value of our partnership with the IlP participants, which really helped us in ensuring that there will be continuous, stable and reliable electricity service, consistent with our commitment to keep the lights on for our customers,” Meralco Vice President and head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said.

The utility firm said 72 business establishments enrolled under the program have been instrumental in ensuring the continuous supply of electricity in its franchise area when the luzon grid was placed on red alert recently last month.

Meralco immediately activated the IlP and called on enrolled customers to temporarily de-load when

the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) warned that power interruptions were imminent due to insufficient operating reserves last September 12.

Responding to the call were Meralco big-load customers, which used their own back-up power and collectively de-loaded close to 298MW from the grid.

These customers include properties owned by the SM Group, Waltermart, Ayala l and, Belle Corp., and Citystate Centre Condo Corporation.

Through their help, no manual load dropping was implemented, effectively sparing other Meralco customers from experiencing rotating brownouts.

With commercial and industrial segments accounting for a huge part of Meralco’s customer base, cooperation and support of customers with at least 1-MW power demand are crucial to the success of the IlP

ERC releases amended RTWR

The energy Regulatory Commission (eRC) has released the amended Rules for the Setting Transmission Wheeling Rates (RTWR), a direct charge that electricity consumers pay for the use of transmission facilities.

eRC Chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said on Sunday that the amended RTWR seeks to restore balance in transmission regulation.

“The long delay in the reset has not been fair in many respects. Consumers and grid users, on one hand, have become increasingly skeptical of the reasonableness of the rates that continue to be charged,” she said.

The issuance of the rules triggers the rate reset process of the transmission system concessionaire, the

unit files for IPO

INT el Corp. has filed for an initial public offering (IPo) of its self-driving technology business, Mobileye Global Inc., braving the worst market for new US listings since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The company didn’t disclose terms of the planned share sale in its filing Friday with the United States Securities and exchange Commission. Mobileye will continue to be controlled by Intel after the IPo, according to the filing.

Intel expects the IPo to value Mobileye at as much as $30 billion, less than originally hoped, Bloomberg News reported this month.

If the listing goes ahead this year, it would be one of the biggest US offerings of 2022. Currently, only two companies have raised $1 billion or more on New York exchanges since January 1, compared with 45 in 2021. This year, the US share of IPos has shrunk to less then a seventh of the global total from half in 2021. Mobileye would also be following in the tracks of Porsche AG’s market-defying IPo in Frankfurt this week. That €9.4 billion ($9.2 billion) listing is the world’s second biggest this year and the largest since stock markets began their volatility- and inflation-driven downward spiral in

National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The last transmission reset completed by the eRC was for the five-year regulatory period covering 2010-2015.

The amended RTWR sets the rules for the rate reset process for the Fifth Regulatory Period, which covers years 2023 to 2027, as well as the succeeding Regulatory Periods. More importantly, the amended RTWR prescribes the process of review for the Fourth Regulatory Period covering the years 2016 to 2022.

“Investments and new generation capacities have been stalled because, among others, of the uncertainty in funding for transmission projects. Meanwhile, the grid operator has not been able to demonstrate efficiencies, if any,

that it may have obtained in its operations for the past 6 to 7 years that would entitle it to the grant of performance-based incentives,” said Dimalanta.

In the interest of fairness in the review process for the Fourth Regulatory Period, the eRC said all determinations will be based on actual expenditures and actual performance by NGCP during the said period.

The commission will also consider in its determination the expert studies procured by eRC on the components of the reset, including for the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) and the valuation of the Regulatory Asset Base (RAB).

The other salient features of the amended RTWR include the

elimination of over recoveries and double compensations; elimination of the redundant inflationary considerations; enhanced criteria for the performance incentive scheme (PIS), including the ability of NGCP to comply with all the regulatory requirements and to ensure cyber and network security; and clarity on rules on reportorial requirements and penalties for non-compliance.

The transmission wheeling rate is a line item which may be seen in the monthly electric billings of all consumers.

The RTWR is a set of rules that determines how much the national transmission utility, in this case, the NGCP, is allowed to charge for transmission rates to users of the high-voltage system. Lenie Lectura

Nestlé PHL partners with GMA to clean up coastal areas

ETeR NA l Crematory celebrated the Blessing of the new crematory building in eternal Gardens Dagupan City on September 28, 2022, with a Thanksgiving Mass officiated by l i ngayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, D.D. Present during the Blessing were company executives, headed by eternal Crematory Chairman Benjamin V. Ramos. Also in attendance were eternal Crematory Director Jose Antonio V. Rivera, et ernal Gardens Assistant Vice President

for en gineering & Project Development en gr. Niño S. Sayco, and Dagupan Branch Manager Victoria P. Cayabyab, as well as salesforce members of eternal Gardens and accredited funeral owners.

l ocated at the Court of St. John the evangelist, the new crematory building has a total area of 81.2 sqm and houses a modern crematory machine that can efficiently process up to nine bodies within 12 hours of operation.

o ne of the first companies to

offer cremation services in the country, et ernal Crematory was established by the late Ambassador Antonio l Cabangon Chua in 1995.

It offers a practical alternative to traditional burial that still adheres to the teachings and guidelines of the Catholic faith.

eternal Crematory is a member of the A lC Group of Companies, along with its sister companies, eternal Gardens, eternal Chapels, and eternal Plans Inc., under the leadership of its chairman, D. edgard A. Cabangon.

F

slaught of Typhoon Karding (international name Noru) while marking the International Coastal Cleanup Day and its Second Plastic Neutrality Anniversary, Nestlé Philippines has teamed up with GMA Network in cleaning up the shore of l a s Piñas Parañaque

Critical h a bitat & e c otourism

Area ( l P PC h e A ).

A total 1,307 kilograms (kg) of wastes was retrieved by 207 volunteer-employees of both organizations.

Plastic wastes contribute a lot to global pollution, pose a big threat to the health of the oceans that sustain humanity, and endanger the lives of marine species and habitats, as well as the livelihood of the people.

Based on a market study of the World Bank, the Philippines is among the top contributors to global pollution, generating 2.7 million tons of plastic waste annually, with estimated 20 percent ending up in bodies of water and even coastal areas.

Data from the United Nations e n vironment Regional o f fice’s 2019 report showed that every Filipino uses or produces 10 kg of plastic waste a year.

Nestlé Philippines said it has been conducting such an activity since 2020 as part of its commitment to sustainability.

“We have already retrieved 52 million kilos of plastics over the last two years,” Nestlé Philippines Chairman and Chief e x ecutive o f ficer (C e o) Kais Marzouki told reporters on the sidelines of the coastal cleanup drive last September 30.

Nationwide in scope, the company conducted the closed loop cleanup simultaneously with same activities it spearheaded in other parts of the country in collaboration with local communities.

“The Philippines has the fifth longest coastline in the world and it contributes to our economy, it protects us from calamities and crisis, provides us opportunities for economic

us to enjoy and feel protected also,” said Climate Change Commission Secretary Robert e A. Borje.

Similar initiatives were held in Umalag River in Cagayan de o r o, wherein 1,430 kg of liters were collected; l a tag River in l i pa, Batangas, with 547 kg of wastes retrieved; and Taal l a ke in Tanauan, Batangas.

All of the retrieved wastes were then delivered to ecofriendly endpoints by segregating and turning them over to the local government units and proper waste management facilities so they will not end up as marine litters again.

“We’re very proud of this achievement, and we’ll continue [to do this],” Marzouki said, while expressing his gratitude for Nestle’s partnership with GMA. “This partnership makes all the difference because every step counts, but alone we cannot do it all the way. We have to be together.”

Nestlé Philippines and GMA Network have joined forces as Kapuso at Kasambuhay ng Kalikasan to address the plastics crisis in the country.

Together, they aim to inform consumers about pressing environmental challenges, especially the plastic waste problem in the country; educate the public about their responsibility in caring for and preserving the planet via reducing, reusing, and recycling plastics; and encourage them to become more involved in the eco-advocacy.

The broadcasting network’s reach and influence, through the artists of the Sparkle GMA Artist Center (SPARK l e ), help engage more people and forge a powerful movement.

“I’m very happy because we have social [and environment-] conscious artists,” SPARK l e Assistant Vice President Joy Marcelo said of their volunteer-talents who graced the event, namely, Rabiya Mateo, Rain Matienzo, Vanessa Peña and Yasser Marta. “We’re glad that Nestlé partnered with us for this.” Roderick L. Abad

Lingayen-Dagupan ar chbishop Socrates B. Villegas, D.D. officiates the blessing of the new eternal Crematory building in Dagupan as eternal Crematory Chairman Benjamin V. Ramos (right) and Director Jose antonio V. Rivera (left) lead the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Banking&Finance

Perspectives

The journey begins with a new window on cost transparency

BPI seen PHL’s 2nd-largest lender on merger’s fruition

By VG Cabuag @villygc & Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

a statement as expressing “excitement” on the transaction.

full-service commercial banks in the country today.”

IN

the race to leave the global pandemic’s disruptive impact behind and embrace new opportunities for growth, forward-looking enterprises are accelerating their investment in transformational IT capabilities. In today’s hyper-competitive reality, these enterprises recognize that funding rapid digital innovation using diverse investment models can pose significant financial-transparency issues, underutilization of new capacity and ongoing challenges to technology budgets.

To help reduce reliance on legacy technology and capitalize on gamechanging capabilities such as enterprise SaaS (software as a service), distributed cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence and automation, re-engineering the finance and technology-funding process is now critical.

More enterprises are turning to dynamic investment for its ability to forge a new financial connection between IT spending and value, ultimately enabling rapid and continuous change in technology funding and implementation. Enterprises turning to dynamic investment are becoming aligned as never before with their customers, markets, and ever-evolving technology needs.

Cost transparency is the first step to dynamic investment Unfortunately, as leading organizations respond to today’s challenging market dynamics, we are witnessing a growing “digital divide” in which enterprises trail competitors on the need for modern tech funding that enhances agility, efficiency, and competitiveness in today’s digital economy. Organizations on the wrong side of the digital divide are finding it increasingly harder to compete and this widening gap is creating conditions for a “winner-take-all” market.

Slower-moving enterprises are struggling with cost transparency challenges related to identifying and classifying digital-innovation costs, understanding cost drivers, and using the timely collection of cost data to inform and enhance decision making.

A key challenge that we observe is a lack of knowledge concerning the need to establish a modern cost-management framework that is specific to IT and digital capabilities. This typically leads to a number of issues and limitations—including an inability to generate relevant data and timely insights into classifying, measuring and allocating technology costs.

It’s common to see organizations relying on various “shortcuts,” for example, consolidating IT and digital innovation costs into a single line item, and allocating investment using generic drivers such as the ratio of revenue versus costs, or employee headcount and related staffing costs. This generic cost allocation tends to be relatively ambiguous in determining costs and can typically prompt ongoing debate and disagreement regarding the “fairness” or “appropriateness” of IT and digitalinnovation spending. In addition, many organizations still have a number of “shadow” IT activities in which associated costs are not captured or analyzed in a centralized and productive manner. Establishing a dedicated team possessing the skills needed to create an appropriate IT/digital cost-management framework is essential to resolving today’s challenges and delivering both new levels of cost transparency and insights into the value of IT and digital-innovation spending.

Solving today’s costtransparency challenges COST transparency is important to consider enhancing identification and classification of costs while accurately identifying cost drivers and tapping into the power of data-based insights— as a critical enabler to become more agile and responsive to the demands of their markets.

Identification of technology costs: The finance function is a key influencer in developing a dynamicinvestment approach, making it crucial that IT and finance are aligned on how technology costs are identified. To run

at market speed and make quick pivots, enterprises need a real-time view into the specific cost elements of the technology portfolio and the levers available to adjust costs, quality, performance and consumption. Close collaboration that aligns the IT and finance functions to create a new view into the true cost of technology spending—including “shadow” technology costs embedded in initiatives led by other departments—is critical to enhancing cost transparency.

Classification of costs: Aligning IT and finance teams on how technology costs are classified requires IT and finance to collaborate using a common language. The classification “taxonomy” must evolve from outdated approaches in which IT costs are assigned to macro categories with a limited view of financials or project spending. This approach makes it hard to create a comprehensive view of technology costs from both IT and enterprise-wide perspectives. This all leads to new ways of working—with cost data continuously analyzed and refined to provide finance, accounting, IT and the rest of the enterprise with significant new reporting views.

Identifying cost drivers: Cost drivers related to technology spending are traditionally pre-built and based on considerations such as headcount, vendors, applications and infrastructure components, making it hard to change the cost drivers for various analytical purposes. As financial analytics evolve, information will be available based on the cost driver of choice and related to the activities they represent, with easily adaptable views making effective reporting quick and easy.

Timely collection of cost data: Replacing static IT budgeting cycles with a new reliance on timely data unlocks powerful capabilities to anticipate and rapidly address emerging technology needs. Smart decision-making demands that enterprises understand the impact of costs and investments across the entire organization.

While finance is typically the gatekeeper of data and the insights it can offer on costs, true IT cost transparency fosters close collaboration, ongoing dialogue and new alignment between IT spending and the finance function.

Are you ready to begin the dynamic investment journey?

As KPMG professionals stress to clients, the journey to dynamic investment is an incremental process, starting with cost transparency. Today’s CIOs and IT leaders are grappling with an array of challenges that include knowing where to start on this journey. But there is no time to lose—the digital divide is real and growing as today’s larger organizations set the pace for innovation.

At the same time, it’s important to note that more of today’s smaller competitors—while less advanced on the journey to dynamic investment—are recognizing the inevitable need to accelerate investment in game-changing digital capabilities. With their flexibility and inherent ability to move faster, these organizations now have an excellent opportunity to reallocate resources and enhance their capabilities in ways that can generate new value and ultimately increase market share. Dynamic investment can play a critical role in helping these enterprises narrow the prevailing “digital divide” and become truly competitive, market-speed organizations.

Wherever your organization is today in adopting dynamic investment, a variety of services are available from KPMG firms to help assess, design and transform technology cost management and investment practices within your enterprise.

The excerpt was taken from the KPMG Thought Leadership publication: https://home. kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2022/09/the-journey-begins-with-new-window-on-cost-transparency.html.

KPMG Intl. Ltd. is a private English company limited by guarantee. In the Philippines, it has the Philippine partnership R.G. Manabat & Co. as a member firm. For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may send an email to ph-kpmgmla@kpmg.com, send us a message on social media or visit www.home.kpmg/ph.

JGSummit Capital Services Corp.,

a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly-listed JG Summit Holdings Inc. has approved the execution of an agreement between its bank and Bank of the Philippine Islands of the Ayala Corp.

The deal will make BPI as the country’s second-largest lender.

According to the deal, BPI and JG Capital and Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. approved the merger between Robinsons Bank Corp. with BPI; the latter emerging as the surviving entity.

Upon the effectivity of the merger after receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals including the approvals of the Philippine Competition Commission, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commis-

sion, Robinsons Bank shareholders will collectively hold approximately 6 percent of the resulting outstanding capital stock of BPI.

Executives of both parties said they hope to complete the merger before the end of 2023.

The firms’ disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange noted that the merger will unlock various synergies across several products and service platforms, expand the customer and deposit base of both banks through the merged entity.

BPI President and CEO Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco was quoted in

“We believe that this merger exemplifies BPI’s strategic effort to expand its client base, accelerate growth and ultimately increase shareholder value through partnerships with the Gokongwei Group.”

BPI’s share price ended last week at P89.50, down by P0.50 from the previous close.

Robinsons Bank products and services cater to its corporate, commercial and retail clients through its 189 branches and branch-lite units including 14 branches and 14 branchlite units of its subsidiary, Legazpi Savings Bank, 354 ATMs and online and mobile banking channels.

As of end June, Robinsons Bank has total assets of P175.9 billion, including net loans and receivables of P102.4 billion, and total liabilities of P156 billion, including deposits of P139 billion.

Scale game

JG Summit President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei said that “through the years, the Gokongwei Group has built and supported the growth of Robinsons Bank from a small savings bank to become one of the fastest-growing,

“However, we reviewed our strategic options to determine its future and we are cognizant that banking is a scale game and will continue to require additional capital for growth,” said Gokongwei.

He believes that merging Robinsons Bank with BPI “is the best path forward.”

“This will give our customers access to a fuller range of banking products and services as the combined organization will leverage on ecosystems of both the Gokongwei and Ayala Groups,” Gokongwei said.

“The merger will also open more opportunities for our talented employees given that BPI will continue to grow, evolve and adapt to the rapidly changing market environment.”

BPI is one of the oldest banks in the world with a 171-year history and is considered the first bank in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

RBC, meanwhile, is celebrating its 25th anniversary on 27 November 2022. The bank has been recognized as the fastest growing commercial bank in the country for the past three years.

Sticking to China as loan source stirs solon’s logic

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

not far apart.

The DOTr official also said that the “JICA lending ceiling was almost depleted.”

ably, we are 30 years to 40 years behind in terms of infrastructure development compared to our neighbors,” Ejercito said.

SENATOR

Grace L. Poe has questioned the decision of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to pursue renegotiations with China on three major railway projects already withdrawn by the previous administration.

During the hearing of the Senate Finance Subcommittee led by Poe on the proposed 2023 budget of the agency, the senator pointed out that Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) offers a better term with lower interest rate for the loans.

“We don’t understand how the 2-percent interest of China is better compared to the 0.1 percent of Japan,” Poe said.

Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John R. Batan confirmed that the DOTr has written the Department of Finance requesting the resubmission of loan application with China.

The loans are for the Mindanao Railway Project’s Tagum-Davao-Digos segment, the Philippine National Railways Calamba to Bicol line and the Subic-Clark Railway Project.

Batan explained that applying “currency parity conversion,” the interest rates offered by the two countries are allegedly

Poe said the government should explore funding from other countries that are similarly open to investing in the country’s railways.

“We know there’s a cap; but there are other lenders,” Poe emphasized.

The senator said the DOTr came up with completion targets for the railway projects when it has yet to obtain complete funding.

Alam naman natin na walang gagalaw kung walang pera,” said Poe. [We know that nothing will move without money.] “I understand there’s due diligence but we are quite presumptuous.”

Of the DOTr’s proposed budget of P167.12 billion, the rail sector will get P112.85 billion, or over 400-percent increase in allocation compared with its 2022 budget.

At the Finance Subcommittee’s virtual hearing on the proposed 2023 budget of DOTr and its attached agencies, Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” G. Ejercito earlier asked about the status of the ongoing railway projects in the country.

“Among the Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries, the Philippines has the shortest railway route. Prob-

Noting that the total route length of the railway projects is only 148 kilometers, the lawmaker asked about the total route length upon completion of the railway projects of the DOTr.

In reply, Batan told Senators that across all current investment approved railway projects, if completed, the total route length will stretch to 1,209 kilometers.

He added, however, that loan applications on the China-pledged

projects were withdrawn in June last year due to the transition to the new administration and disagreements with China on loan interest rates.

Still, the DOTr official assured members of the committee that the agency’s request for reapplication of loans are currently being processed and reviewed.

Ejercito stressed the importance of the immediate completion of the ongoing railway projects, such as the Mindanao Railway System, as it is not only vital for economic growth but may also be “instrumental to lasting peace” in the region.

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

THE

recent passage of the proposed P5.268-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) showed a “higher level of consensus” in the House of Representatives, a leader of the Lower Chamber said on Sunday.

House Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose M. Dalipe said the budget was approved by the supermajority of lawmakers or 289 votes.

The 2023 GAB—incidentally, the largest in the country’s history—was approved by the House on third and final reading via nominal vote result of 289-3-0 (yes-noabstain) on September 28 during the final session day before the month-long recess, Dalipe was quoted in a statement as saying.

The lawmaker said the interesting aspect of the result is the “no” or negative votes against the GAB that, in this case, was only three.

He said these negative votes came from the minority bloc, specifically from the Makabayan lawmakers who Dalipe said are “traditional oppositionists” to the budget bill.

In the previous 17th and 18th Congresses, the negative votes of members ranges from five to nine, said Dalipe.

The lawmaker said fewer oppositionists

to the GAB show stronger agreement in the Lower Chamber, as even the likes of Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-list Rep. Marcelino C. Libanan and independent minority solon Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel C. Lagman entered affirmative votes on the budget.

‘Tirelessly worked’ IN his speech at the end of the budget process, Speaker Martin G. Romualdez said that a “deep sense of urgency, combined with detailed scrutiny from our colleagues in the minority and the tireless and unceasing cooperation of our fellow civil servants from various agencies in the Executive Department” allowed the chamber “to hammer out in no time the best possible version for the approval on third reading of HB [House Bill] 4488, or the proposed P5.268-trillion national spending plan for 2023.”

The Lower Chamber approved last week the 2023 national budget and created a small committee—composed of Dalipe, Libanan, Elizaldy S. Co and Stella Luz A. Quimbo— to receive and resolve all individual amendments on the 2023 GAB.

Observing the stronger consensus on the budget firsthand, Romualdez, meanwhile, made special mentions to those from the majority, the minority and an independent minority who “tirelessly worked” the past five weeks toward passing the GAB.

OK of ’23 GAB showed ‘high level of consensus’–solon

Explainer

Oath Keepers fOunder stewart rhOdes’s path: frOm Yale tO jail

By Jacques Billeaud & Lindsay Whitehurst

Associated

LONG before he assembled one of the largest far-right anti-government militia groups in US history, before his Oath Keepers stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Stewart Rhodes was a promising Yale Law School graduate.

He secured a clerkship on the Arizona Su preme Court, in part thanks to his unusual life story: a stint as an Army paratrooper cut short by a training accident, followed by mar riage, college and an Ivy League law degree.

The clerkship was one more rung up from a hardscrabble beginning. But rather than fitting in, Rhodes came across as angry and aggrieved.

He railed to colleagues about how the Pa triot Act, which gave the government greater surveillance powers after the September 11 attacks, would erase civil liberties. He referred to Vice President Dick Cheney as a fascist for supporting the Bush administra tion’s use of “enemy combatant” status to indefinitely detain prisoners.

“He saw this titanic struggle between people like him who wanted individual lib erty and the government that would try to take away that liberty,” said Matt Parry, who worked with Rhodes as a clerk for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Mike Ryan.

Rhodes alienated his moderate Republi can boss and eventually left the stepping stone job. Since then he has ordered his life around a thirst for greatness and deep dis trust of government.

He turned to forming a group rooted in anti-government sentiment, and his message resonated. He gained followers as he went down an increasingly extremist path that would lead to armed standoffs, including with federal authorities at Nevada's Bundy Ranch. It culminated last year, prosecutors say, with Rhodes engineering a plot to vio lently stop Democrat Joe Biden from becom ing president.

Rhodes, 57, will be back in court Tues day, but not as a lawyer. He and four others tied to the Oath Keepers are being tried on charges of seditious conspiracy, the most serious criminal allegation leveled by the Justice Department in its far-reaching pros ecution of rioters who attacked the Capitol. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison upon conviction.

Rhodes, Jessica Watkins, Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson and Kelly Meggs are the first Jan. 6 defendants to stand trial under a rarely used, Civil Warera law against attempting to overthrow the government or, in this case, block the transfer of presidential power.

The trial will put a spotlight on the se cretive group Rhodes founded in 2009 that has grown to include thousands of claimed members and loosely organized chapters across the country, according to Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim deputy director of research with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.

For Rhodes, it will be a position at odds with the role of greatness that he has long envisioned for himself, said his estranged wife, Tasha Adams.

“He was going to achieve something amazing," Adams said. "He didn’t know what it was, but he was going to achieve something incredible and earth shattering."

Rhodes was born in Fresno, California. He shuttled between there and Nevada, sometimes living with his mother and oth

er times with grandparents who were migrant farm workers, part of a multicultural extended family that included Mexican and Filipino rela tives. His mother was a minister who had her own radio show in Las Vegas and went by the name Dusty Buckle, Adams said.

Rhodes joined the Army fresh out of high school and served nearly three years before he was honorably discharged in January 1986 af ter breaking his back in a parachuting accident.

He recovered and was working as a valet in Las Vegas when he met Adams in 1991. He was 25, she was 18.

He had a sense of adventure that was attrac tive to a young woman brought up in a middleclass, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints family. A few months after the couple started dating, Rhodes accidentally dropped a gun and shot out his eye. He now wears an eye patch.

Adams’s family had set aside money for her to go to college, but after their wedding Rhodes decided he should be the first to attend school. He told her she would need to quit her job teach ing ballroom and country dancing and instead support them both by working full time as a stripper so he could focus on doing an excel lent job in school, according to Adams. They married, but she found stripping degrading and it clashed with her conservative Mormon upbringing, she said.

“Every night the drive was just so bad. I would just throw up every single night before I went in, it was just so awful,” Adams said. Rhodes would pressure her to go further, increase her exposure or contact with men to make more money, she said. “It was never enough ... I felt like I had given up my soul.”

She quit when she got pregnant with their first child, and the couple moved back in with her family. They worried about her but didn't want to push too far for fear of losing her altogether. By then, Rhodes was the center of her orbit.

Rhodes’s lawyer declined to make him avail able for an interview and Rhodes declined to answer a list of questions sent by The Associ ated Press.

After finishing college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Rhodes went to work in Washington as a staffer for Ron Paul, a liber tarian-leaning Republican congressman, and later attended Yale, with stints in between as an artist and sculptor. Paul did not respond to a request for comment.

Rhodes’s college transcripts earned him en try to several top schools, Adams said. While at Yale, Adams took care of their growing family in a small apartment while he distinguished himself with an award for a paper arguing that the George W. Bush administration’s use of en emy combatant status to hold people suspected of supporting terrorism indefinitely without charge was unconstitutional.

After the Arizona clerkship, the family bounced to Montana and back to Nevada, where he worked on Paul’s presidential campaign in 2008. That's when Rhodes also began to formu late his idea of starting the Oath Keepers. He put a short video and blog post on Blogspot and “it went viral overnight,” Adams said. Rhodes was interviewed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones,

but also more mainstream media figures such as Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly.

He formally launched the Oath Keepers in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2009, where the first shot in the American Revolu tion was fired.

“We know that if a day should come in this country when a full-blown dictatorship would come or tyranny, from the left or from the right, we know that it can only happen if those men, our brothers in arms, go along and comply with unconstitutional, unlawful orders,” Rhodes said in his Lexington speech, which didn't garner any news coverage.

The group’s stated goal was to get past and present members of the military, first respond ers and police officers to honor the promise they made to defend the Constitution against enemies. The Oath Keepers issued a list of orders that its members wouldn’t obey, such as disarm ing citizens, carrying out warrantless searches and detaining Americans as enemy combatants in violation of their right to jury trials.

Rhodes was a compelling speaker and es pecially in the early years framed the group as “just a pro-Constitution group made up of pa triots,” said Sam Jackson, author of the book Oath Keepers about the group.

With that benign-sounding framing and his political connections, Rhodes harnessed the growing power of social media to fuel the Oath Keepers' growth during the presidency of Barack Obama. Membership rolls leaked last year included some 38,000 names, though many people on the list have said they are no longer members or were never active participants. One expert last year estimated membership to be a few thousand.

The internal dialogue was much darker and more violent about what members perceived as imminent threats, especially to the Second Amendment, and the idea that members should be prepared to fight back and recruit their neigh bors to fight back, too.

“Time and time again, Oath Keepers lays the groundwork for individuals to decide for themselves, violent or otherwise criminal ac tivity is warranted,” said Jackson, an assistant

professor at the University at Albany.

A membership fee was a requirement to ac cess the website, where people could join dis cussion forums, read Rhodes’s writing and hear pitches to join militaristic trainings. Members willing to go armed to a standoff numbered in the low dozens, though, said Jason Van Taten hove, a former spokesman for the group.

Showdowns with the government began in 2011 in the small western Arizona desert town of Quartzsite, where local government was in turmoil as officials feuded among themselves, the police chief was accused of misconduct and several police employees had been suspended. A couple years later, Rhodes started calling on members to form “community preparedness teams,” which included military-style training.

The Oath Keepers also showed up at a wa tershed event in anti-government circles: the standoff with federal agents at Nevada's Bundy Ranch in 2014. Later that year, members sta tioned themselves along rooftops in Ferguson, Missouri, armed with AR-15-style weapons, to protect businesses from rioting after a grand jury declined to charge a police officer in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The following year Oath Keepers guarded a southern Oregon gold mine whose mining claim owners were in a dispute with the government. Still, Rhodes was never arrested.

As the Oath Keepers escalated their public profile and confrontations with the govern ment, Rhodes was leaving behind some of those he once championed. Jennifer Esposito hired him as her lawyer after the group's early out ing in Quartzsite, but he missed a hearing in her case because he was at the Bundy Ranch standoff. A judge kicked Rhodes off the case, and no lawyer would represent her.

She has no hard feelings, but Michael Roth, also represented by Rhodes in Quartzsite law suits, is less forgiving. He compared Rhodes’s handling of his case to a doctor walking out of an operating room in the middle of surgery.

“He clearly just used us for publicity to gain membership in the Oath Keepers,” Roth said.

The neglect culminated in a disbarment case eventually brought against Rhodes. He ignored

the allegations, missed a hearing and wasn’t even represented by a lawyer. The commission examining the case in 2015 found his conduct as an attorney wouldn’t normally get someone disbarred, but his refusal to cooperate did.

Meanwhile, on the national stage, Donald Trump's political star was taking off. His griev ances about things such as the “deep state” aligned with the Oath Keeper's anti-govern mental stance. While Rhodes didn't agree with Trump on everything, the group's rhetoric be gan to shift.

“With the election of Trump, now the Oath Keepers have an ally in the White House,” Jackson said.

For much of the the Oath Keepers' history, the federal government was the enemy, but gradually the enemy became left-leaning people in the United States and antifa, or anti-fascist groups, became the primary menace, he said.

Rhodes wanted Oath Keepers to go to Cleve land to provide security for Trump — then set to be the GOP presidential nominee — at the 2016 Republican National Convention, even though no one had asked the group for pro tection, said Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who served on the Oath Keepers’ board for about six years.

“I said, ‘Why are we going — so we can say we protected Trump? We are not going to get anywhere near Trump,’” Mack said. “I said, ‘This was crazy.’ All the other board members voted with me, and Stewart was mad.”

That was a breaking point last straw for Mack.

He wasn’t the only board member to walk away as they saw the direction of the group close up, Van Tatenhove said.

“Once they saw where he was going, they were a lot less comfortable,” he said. But Rhodes always managed to weather the disagreements and hold onto power. “He was always going to be the start and finish of the Oath Keepers.”

A voracious reader and charismatic speaker, Rhodes drew people in and had a talent for mold ing his message to his audience and holding onto power. He warmed to the “alt-right” movement as its profile rose. Van Tatenhove knew he had to leave when in 2017 he overheard a group of Oath Keepers, in a discussion in a grocery store, denying that the Holocaust happened.

In 2018, Rhodes went too far for Jim Arroyo, a former Army Ranger who serves as president of an Oath Keepers chapter in Yavapai County, Arizona. He rejected a push to send group mem bers to the US-Mexico border for an armed op eration to support the US Border Patrol.

Arroyo said that hadn’t been approved by any authority and argued that pointing a gun in the wrong direction along the border could stir an international problem. He refused to go.

“That’s when he pretty much didn’t want anything to do with us,” said Arroyo, who eventually broke away from the national Oath Keepers and hasn’t had contact with Rhodes in over four years.

When Biden won the 2020 election, prosecu tors say, Rhodes started preparing for battle. Rhodes and the Oath Keepers spent weeks plot ting to block the transfer of power, amassing weapons and setting up “quick reaction force” teams with weapons to be on standby outside the nation's capital, prosecutors say.

On January 6, 2021, authorities say, two teams of Oath Keepers stormed the Capitol alongside hundreds of other angry Trump supporters.

Rhodes is not accused of going inside, but he was seen gathered outside the Capitol after the riot with several members who did, pros ecutors have said.

Defense lawyers have accused prosecutors of twisting their clients' words. They have argued that the militia group went to Washington only to provide security at events before the riot for right-wing figures such as Trump confidant Roger Stone and that there was never a plan to attack the Capitol.

The case has dealt a major blow to the Oath Keepers, in part because many people associ ated with it want to be considered respectable in their communities, said Carroll Rivas of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Of the approxi mately 30 Capitol riot defendants affiliated with the Oath Keepers, nine have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the attack, includ ing three who have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

But that doesn't mean the ideas that Rhodes promoted have faded away.

“He came up with a blueprint that is going to be used in the future by people we don’t even know about,” Van Tatenhove said. “I think it’s very important for us to pay attention.”

Stewart r hode S, founder of the citizen militia group known as the oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the white ho use in washington, on June 25, 2017. rhodes formally launched the oath Keepers in Lexington, Massachusetts, on ap ril 19, 2009, where the first shot in the american revolution was fired. AP/Su SA n WA l S h

Me M b er S of the oath Keepers stand on the east Front of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in washington. AP/M A nuel B A lce c en etA

The coronavirus chronicles: is your crisis response updaTed?

PR Matters

By Millie F. Dizon

n Filipinos are keen to Find long-term relationships as the holidays kick in, according to BumBle MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Bumble, the women-first dating and social networking app, has revealed the results of its recently commissioned study on traveling and holi-dating among single adults in the Philip pines. As Filipinos start to plan w hen and where to put up their Christmas trees, Bumble found out that 56% of them have expressed they are looking for a long-term relationship after most pandemic protocols have eased and more establishments are open for faceto-face interactions, with only 5% indicating that they do not want to

CRISIS management is an important part of every PR practi tioner’s life. Wheth er it’s a customer complaint, an accident, an envi ronmental issue, or a matter of national significance, it is some thing that can affect a company’s reputation and has to be dealt with much strategic thinking and grace.

But times have changed, more so with the advent of social media and the pandemic.

“Communicators should re member that many PR crisis te nets are antiques practiced since PR was invented,” says Arthur Solomon, who was a journalist and SVP/senior counsellor at BursonMarsteller.

While a few remain in vogue, “we should have discarded them during the last ice age.”

What are your current crisis management practices? In an ar ticle in prnewsonline, Solomon gives us some tips on Discarding Crisis PR Tenets that Were Effec tive During the Ice Age.

what we believe: a good cri sis response can erase negative reputation

w h y it’s incorrect: “Major crises have no discard-after date,” says Solomon. Despite the

date at all. This is despite almost half (49%) of those surveyed stat ing that they are more anxious to d ate now than as compared to be fore the pandemic.

W ith the holidays getting closer, 2 in 5 Filipinos are looking for some one to spend the holidays with. The s tudy further showed that 27% of people want a date to bring to family gatherings, while 12% would get in a relationship for gifts. “Wala ka pa ring jowa?” (You don’t have a part ner yet?) can be a hurtful remark f or some people—11% of Filipinos expressed their desire to have a partner due to family pressure, with single male Millennials being the most likely demographic (14%) to be susceptible to this trend.

When asked about why they would bring a date to a family gath ering, Filipinos cite family pressure ( 23%)and being the only single attending the gathering (23%) as their top reasons.

“We know that dating in this post-Covid world can feel anxiety

smooth-talking assurances of some crisis communication ex perts, “PR crises have a decades long shelf life.”

He cites companies like BP (think of the oil spill), Wells Fargo, and Boeing, that are still mentioned in articles on how not to respond to a crisis. Closer to home there are flood responses, shipping accidents and tower col lapses that are remembered dur ing disasters.

what we believe: Frequent media statements are a “must” during a pr crisis

why it’s incorrect: In a crisis, sometimes less is really more. Solomon says that executives of BP, Wells Fargo, and Boeing would have been better off saying less than more.

“It appears that their approach es were ‘we’re too big to fail’,” he re calls. “They were wrong. Missing was original thinking and media training. While you should keep media and the public informed when possible, sometimes saying less is the best strategy.”

In this connected world, bring ing up a potential crisis can actu ally draw attention to it.

what we believe: al ways re spond to a negative story.

inducing, as people can feel out of practice and more self-conscious than they felt prior to the pandemic. Looking for love can also be stress ful during the holidays when there a re increased social and cultural pressures. The good news is that Filipinos still love love, with the majority wanting to make connec tions in the coming months. With s o many people open to meeting someone, we are bound to see many Bumble success stories born from this holi-dating season. Apps like Bumble are a great way to get back into the dating scene, and we are excited to empower women in the Philippines to take control of their dating journey and make the first move,” APAC Communications Di rector of Bumble, Lucille McCart s hared.

The holidays aren’t just prime dating season; it’s also the perfect time to travel. 7 in 10 Filipinos are likely to seek a holiday romance while traveling, with men (72%) being slightly more likely than

why it’s incorrect: Some execu tives panic when there is a nega tive story, like a customer com plaint, on the horizon. Others even have a one-statement-fits-all response, which they are eager to release immediately.

The reality is that in this fastpaced world, “many negative sto ries are short-lived,” Solomon ob serves. “They last a day or two, at most. And unless it’s about a highly noteworthy topic, report ers will remove it quickly and seek other stories.”

One exception would be a story with legal implications, in which a prompt response it important.

Solomon’s advice: “wait a bit, perhaps a couple of days before responding. A quick response can mushroom a story with a short shelf-life into a he-said, she said saga with legs.”

what we believe: re leasing bad news on a weekend, holi day or during a major event will limit coverage.

why it’s incorrect: Before the advent of 24/7 news coverage, cable news networks and social media, releasing bad news on a Friday or long weekend was an accepted PR practice.

While it can still work today

women (68%) to do so. Ultimately, most Filipinos fall back on tourist activities (38%), followed by online or apps (35%) to find their holiday romance.

When asked, close to three quar ters (74%) of respondents are open t o and will consider using dating apps while they’re traveling, with more than 1 in 4 polled sharing that they’ve actually used and connected with people via dating apps before.

“Research in neuroscience and psychobiology consistently con firms that we are innately social b eings and that meaningful rela tionships help us thrive. However, d espite our sincere attempts to connect with others, we sometimes make mistakes. Yet because we are wired to connect, we continue to seek healthy and equitable con nections with others. Bumble is c ertainly admirable for providing everyone, especially women, with the means to do so. With their ef forts, more women are empowered t o do something about connect

in limited instances, “all it does is delay the story until the next day’s news cycle.”

what we believe: re spond immediately during a pr crisis.

why it’s incorrect: It’s best to get the facts first. Panicking be fore the facts are clear “often leads to the dissemination of partial news or misinformation.” Solo mon says that while it may be a controversial stance, “it’s best to wait a day or two until the facts are known.

In the meantime, saying that, “we’re gathering information and will hold a press conference as soon as we have information to disclose” is sufficient.

An exception would be when a crisis includes victims, and it is important to issue a message of sympathy promptly.

what we believe: d u ring a pr c risis, a top executive should be the spokesperson.

w hy it’s incorrect: Solomon suggests that the lead spokesper son during a crisis should be the executive who knows most about the situation. For example, a law yer can speak about legal matters. Multiple spokespersons are fine, according to the question asked.

ing and to create their own luck,” s hared Bumble’s relationship ex pert, clinical psychologist Dr. Mar gie Holmes.

F or people who want to join the holi-dating scene and travel with someone special, Bumble is a great platform to connect with new people. What sets Bumble apart is that no matter the type of relationship, women always make the first move.

n

northwell he alth pushes viewers to ask a very important question in gun violence prevention

NEW YORK, USA—Healthcare net work Northwell Healt premiered its latest awareness campaign na tionally, focusing on gun violence p revention. The Movement Com pany, StrawberryFrog, developed a T V spot titled “Ferocious Tiger” for the campaign shown in New York.

The campaign centered upon a simple idea: guns are now the lead

what we believe: have a crisis communication plan on the shelf

why it’s partially incorrect: It’s always good to have a plan that details things like who should immediately be informed of a cri sis, possible spokespersons, and a checklist of first steps.

Other than those do-it-by-thebook ABC’s, “every crisis needs original thinking. Unlike clothes there is no one-size-fits-all crisis program.”

All in all, “too many of us resist change and use playbooks written years ago. Original thinking is too often missing in crisis response communication. We must stay current with news and trends. Do ing so provides up-to-date ideas about responding to crisis.”

PR Matters is a roundtable col umn by members of the local chap ter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations As sociation (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior 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.

ing cause of death for kids, and a sking about unlocked guns in the home could help save lives. North well understands that asking may b e difficult or awkward, but it em phasized that breaking the taboo o f talking about access to unlocked guns is the first step toward gun safety. Northwell believes it’s time to carve out a healthcare lane for this issue because it truly doesn’t kill to ask.

For more than 60 years, mo tor vehicle crashes were the lead ing cause of injury-related death a mong young people. But firearms have taken their place, as “in 2020, firearm-related injuries became the leading cause of death… among children and adolescents.”

Some of the greatest creative efforts have been directed at gun violence, but little has changed. We may all be appalled, shocked, or moved by gun violence preven tion campaigns, but we haven’t been motivated to act or know where to begin.

LifeWave Opens New Philippine Office at Bonifacio Global City

LIFEWAVE, an advanced technology company that aims to improve people’s health and wellness through patented wearable technology, recently opened its newest office at the MDI Corporate Center, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

LifeWave President for Global Sales and Marketing, Lori Burgher came all the way from Canada to grace the opening of the new office. Joining her were Dr. Edward Choo, LiveWave Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific; Dang Gilera, LifeWave Philippines General Manager and Dennis Morales, LifeWave Brand Partner – Senior Presidential Director.

According to Burgher, what makes LifeWave stand out from other companies is that it offers products that enhance people’s health, wellness, beauty and longevity without the use of drugs or pills.

“Wearable wellness. That is what LifeWave offers. LifeWave patches boost cellular activity by using light. This technology was developed by David Schmidt, LifeWave’s Founder and CEO,” Burgher said. She was on a four-country LifeWave APAC business tour (Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan), the said region is headed by Dr. Edward Choo. Schmidt founded LifeWave in 2002 as a research company based on a newly patented technology for enhancing health through a novel form of phototherapy that he had invented.

The United States Navy recognized Schmidt’s innovative work and invited him to join an elite research team developing

mini-subs or midget submarines. Schmidt attempted to help the crew of the mini-sub stay awake without drugs. He investigated natural methods for increasing the body’s energy. Three years of research to the creation of the Energy Enhancer Patch, the first LifeWave prototype; “Stem cells are the foundation of health.

If you have less stem cells, you will get sick. It is your primary source of defense mode. As we grow older, the number of stem cells in our body decreases,” Gilera explained. She added that if a LifeWave X39® patch is placed on your body, it will help grow your own stem cells. What is nice about this product is that you wear it and

you do not drink it. This is not a drug, not a pill and not a pain killer. It is a patented product.

LifeWave was launched in August 2004 and was an immediate success, generating US$17 million in sales in its first year.

Since then, LifeWave has grown into a multinational corporation with offices in the United States, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, and distribution in over 100 countries.

Presently LifeWave has created 12 wellness patches and a skin care line with X39® as its flagship product. For more information about LifeWave, you can visit www.lifewave.com.

Isuzu dealer NMADI organizes 3-day truck expo, CSR activity to celebrate 7th anniversary

THE biggest and most highly anticipated business conference in the country is back in full physical force after two years of doing it virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be held on October 19 to 20 at The Manila Hotel, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) announced yesterday.

Leading this year’s 48th Philippine Business Conference & Expo (PBC&E) is Ferdinand Ferrer, Chairman/CEO of Gruppo EMS Inc, who expressed appreciation to the PCCI leadership for trusting him as the Conference Chairman.

"We are extremely excited to announce that PBC this year will be in full face-toface. We want to send the message across that the business community is serious to get back on track and help the government sustain its growth momentum,” Ferrer said.

The conference carries the theme “The Philippines is ready and open for business,” which highlights the readiness

of Philippine businesses to fully open up and help the economy grow and move towards achieving its 2040 vision of “Matatag, Maginhawa at Panag na Buhay.”

Ferrer said that the conference will look into how the new government will build on various economic reform measures initiated by former President Rodrigo Duterte to strengthen the country’s economic gains, solidify its leadership position in the ASEAN region and make a real difference to the economy and the Filipino people.

Topping the list of confirmed speakers are Secretaries of Finance Benjamin Diokno, Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Atty. Ivan Uy of the Department of Information, Communications, and Technology (DICT) and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, H.E Huang Xillian, among others.

“We are still a few more days before

the actual event but at the moment we are already running out of seats. This is a good problem though. Definitely, we will try to accommodate all local and international attendees, Ferrer added.

One of the highlights of the conference is the presentation of policy recommendations to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. This year’s PBC will feature plenary sessions with local and international speakers and a dialogue with the country’s top economic managers who are expected to share their insights on the socio-economic agenda of the new administration.

The PBC&E is PCCI’s annual business event that serves as a venue for policymakers, business leaders, diplomats, academe, and MSMEs to meet and discuss issues and come up with policy recommendations to help create a business environment that is sustainable and resilient.

Suntrust wins 2 accolades at The Outlook Awards 2022

industry. We are beyond honored that our communities are receiving recognition such as this and we would like to assure our homebuyers that Suntrust will continue building communities with their happiness in mind,” said First Vice President for Sales and Marketing Jerry R. Rubis.

Suntrust has always believed that Filipinos deserve a home they can be proud of. For 25 years, the company has been unstoppable in creating safe, sustainable, and affordable communities across the country. It takes pride in developing horizontal and vertical residential communities that cater to affordable and mid-market segments.

REAL estate developer Suntrust Properties, Inc. (SPI) won two accolades at the prestigious The Outlook 2022: Philippine Real Estate Awards.

The awarding ceremony was held during the gala dinner last September 27, 2022, Tuesday at Shangri-la, The Fort, Manila. Suntrust Sentosa, a 21.8-hectare Modern-Asian community in Calamba, Laguna was hailed as the Best Affordable House in Luzon while its Modern-Asian condominium project in Quezon City, Suntrust Shanata was recognized as Highly Commended in the Best Affordable Condominium Development in Luzon category.

For Suntrust, this recognition is a testament to the company’s commitment to building affordable and quality homes nationwide. Suntrust has been providing quality residences for 25 years to help uplift the lives of Filipino families.

“This is a fitting gift for the company’s 25th year in the

The newly recognized Best Affordable House of the Year, Suntrust Sentosa is a Modern-Asian community in Calamba, Laguna. Inspired by the famous island in Singapore, the 21.8-hectare residential development comprises three residential phases, each showcasing a variety of houses with wide windows that provide more comfort for residents as well as a cost-saving factor. The community also features two replicas of the Merlion and open spaces with family-oriented amenities.

Meanwhile, the Highly Commended Suntrust Shanata is a 12-tower condo development in the friendly neighborhood of Brgy. Talipapa in Novaliches, Quezon City.

SPI is just months away from celebrating the company’s silver anniversary. Along with its subsidiaries, Stateland, Inc. (SLI), Sunrays Property Management Inc. (SPMI), and Suntrust Ecotown Developers, Inc. (SEDI), Suntrust continues to rise above today’s challenges by continuously building affordable and quality homes for every Filipino.

ISUZU Philippines Corporation’s

dealership in Northern Mindanao, NorthMin Auto Dealership, Inc. (NMADI), held a three-day truck expo at Isuzu Cagayan De Oro showroom from September 22 to 24, 2022 to celebrate their 7th anniversary.

Simultaneously, NMADI branches in Butuan, Dipolog and Pagadian also had their own mini expos in their respective showrooms.

With the theme “Driving the Aspirations of the Local SMEs,” the main objective of the NMADI Truck Expo was to showcase Isuzu’s vast truck line-up to reiterate among local micro, small and mid-size enterprises (MSMEs) the immense benefits of choosing Isuzu trucks as responsible partner in their businesses.

During the three-day truck expo, Isuzu TRAVIZ and Isuzu trucks ranging from lightduty to heavy-duty with various custom body applications were exhibited side by side with the modern PUV or public utility vehicle as well as the Isuzu Powertrain Marine Engine.

The Isuzu Cagayan De Oro showroom was also filled with exhibitors from reputable custom body building companies, accredited financing partners and insurance companies that provide a one-stop shop to all MSMEs looking for the perfect vehicle for their business requirements.

To complete the package, NMADI

introduced Isuzu Vehicle Health Report and Fleet Plus Program, an exclusive aftersales support system created for businesses that heavily depend on their truck’s availability and roadworthiness. The program intends to help businesses reduce vehicle maintenance cost to gain more profit. Customers who reserved during the expo received exciting merchandise.

“We don’t only provide durable and reliable trucks complete with extensive aftersales support and fleet program to customers. More importantly, we provide business and transport solutions which help build the nation’s economy.”, said IPC President Noboru Murakami.

Aside from attracting local MSMEs to acquire brand new Isuzu trucks, the NMADI Truck Expo also aimed to reinforce Isuzu Philippines’ commitment to continuously provide excellent business and transport solutions, IPC’s key reason in maintaining the number one truck brand in the Philippines for 22 consecutive years. Supporting businesses with a full package of durable products and comprehensive aftersales service support contributes to the development and advancement of logistics in the country, thus helping the Philippine economy.

To know more about Isuzu Philippines news and products, visit www.isuzuphil.com.

Happy Life‘s Waterless Shampoo getting rave reviews from happy, satisfied customers

“HAPPY

with this product. It makes my dog smell good in between baths!”. “This is the second time I am ordering this product. It effectively removes dirt and smells good. My dog loves it.”

“Very nice. That’s why we are repeat buyers as always. This is something that we have been using to clean his paws after every walk. It’s mild and nice to use.”

These are just some of the positive feedback that Happy Life’s Waterless Shampoo has been receiving. It’s the first product of its kind in the Philippines which is 100 percent natural and pet friendly. It’s an innovative and plant bath alternative to the chemicals that are usually found in shampoos for pets.

The product provides less effort and less time in every bath. It saves 70 percent of bath time every time you use Happy Life Waterless Shampoo. The product is perfect for a quick bath and for those on the go. You can still groom your pets even if you are in a hurry.

What’s nice about the product is that it helps relieve pets that suffer from skin and fur irritations such as but not limited to wounds, bad odor, itchiness, scaling, manage

allergies, dandruff, hotspots, inflammation, ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, redness, viruses, bacteria and fungi.

The Waterless Shampoo is simple to use. First, shake and spray generously and directly on your pet’s fur and skin from head to paws to tail. Then rub, lather and enjoy this special bonding moment with your furbaby. Wipe dry with a clean towel and be amazed by the benefits you provided and the time that you saved.

The Waterless Shampoo is one of the many products developed by Happy Life Organics Inc., a Philippines based company that promotes innovative and eco-friendly solutions for your home, pets and unwanted pests.

Happy Life Organics provides all natural, sustainable eco-friendly solutions to homes across the country. The company promotes a healthier lifestyle based on a plant based organic view and by bringing home and pet product alternatives that are changing and improving lives for the better.

Why don’t you give the Waterless Shampoo a try? For more information about Happy Life’s Waterless Shampoo and their other products, you can visit www.happylifeph.com.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Dennis Morales, LifeWave Brand Partner, Senior Presidential Director; Dr. Edward Choo, LifeWave Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific; Lori Burgher, LifeWave President for Global Sales and Marketing; and Dang Gilera, LifeWave Philippines General Manager

FROM left to right, Melin Young; Cagayan De Oro City Councilor Atty. Ed Cabanlas; NMADI Director Dr. Jerome Young; IPC Sales Assistant Division Head Robert Carlos; IPC Sales Assistant Division Head Yoshiki Kato; Misamis Oriental Vice Governor Jeremy Pelaez; NMADI Chairman and President Betty Cobonpue; IPC President Noboru Murakami; NMADI Director Celeste Cua; Benedict Kua; NMADI Legal Counsel Atty. Lina Ferrer and NMADI Treasurer Kenneth Cobonpue.

GO WITH THE GLOW

THE best-selling Vitamin C range of The Body Shop (www. thebodyshop.com.ph) is getting a glow up. Global Google searches for vitamin C, a superstar ingredient in glowboosting skin care, have soared by 1000 percent since 2020, while searches for “how to get glowing skin” have climbed by 400 percent. Skin care has taken center stage in recent years. In fact, a whopping 73 percent of people have upgraded their skin-care routine since the pandemic. If natural radiance feels like something of a wonder, The Body Shop’s new and improved Vitamin C range will do the heavy lifting. The brand has squeezed even more vitamin C into its best-selling formulas, now with concentrations of up to 10 percent and made with at least 90 percent ingredients of natural origin.

As one of nature’s richest sources of vitamin C, the Amazonian camu camu berry extract is the hero ingredient in some of the new and improved Vitamin C creations. Native to the tropical forests of South America, camu camu berries have long been considered a symbol of good health and strength. Naturally rich in antioxidants, they’re acclaimed in beauty for their potential to help protect skin from free radicals and other oxidizing agents that take a toll on the complexion.

At the same time, celebrated skin-care ingredient bakuchiol also takes the spotlight in one of the brand’s freshly innovated formulas. Known for its complexion-boosting capabilities, it’s said to help improve the appearance of uneven pigmentation and skin texture. It stars in the all-new Glow Revealing Serum, enriched with 10 percent vitamin C— the brand’s highest concentration ever.

Two trusty favorites, the Daily Glow Cleansing Polish and Glow Boosting Moisturiser, also feature in the range, alongside brand-new creations to transform that inner fire into a sizzling natural radiance.

CHANDANALEPA is an Ayurvedic wellness and beauty brand from Sri Lanka that’s known for its fragranced soaps and lotions. Ayurvedic medicine is one of the world’s oldest holistic healing systems.

Ayurveda is based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body and spirit, with the main goal being to promote good health.

My favorite product from Chandanalepa is the Strawberry Herbal Body Lotion, which I used to ask friends to buy from abroad. This lotion has a light texture but is very moisturizing. The fragrance is subtle so you won’t be overwhelmed with the scent of fake strawberries.

I’m happy to have found the Chandanalepa Strawberry Herbal Body Lotion (and other variants) at the newly opened Nova Wellness Store in Ayala Malls TriNoma.

Nova Wellness Store is a health and wellness retail destination that offers products like tea tree oils and eucalyptus soaps from Tea Tree Therapy; organic nuts and dried fruits from Eden, teas from Celestial Seasonings, Himalayan pink salt from Ancient Ocean, premium tuna from Century Tuna (this is different

Style

In a holiday mood

AFTER a retail slump caused by the pandemic, lifestyle behemoth Bench is ready for the holiday shopping binge.

Back with a vengeance, Bench Fashion Week brandished some of its labels such as Cotton On (heavily influenced by the looks and fashions of teenangst drama Euphoria) and Urban Revivo (which will entice the young ladies-who-lunch, Emily in Paris fans, and preppy boys).

Bench also tapped its Bench Design Awards winners to showcase their talents during Day 1 on Friday, September 30. Jenni Contreras, one of the winners in 2017, is unleashing a collaboration with Human while 2019 co-winner Antonina Abad Amoncio unveiled her moody, all-black sexy and severe “Anino” expositions.

Another BDA alumnus, Russel Villafuerte, presented a sustainable, ethical and guilt-free collection for his label StrongVillage. Almost half of the pieces he showed were made from his own clothes, donations and thrift shops, and even his designs that didn’t sell he reworked.

“The clothes are basic stuff that are easy to pair up and source materials for. [Doing this collection] is not really a challenge per se, although the process of upcycling doubles the time than making a [regular collection]. That’s because I aim for zero waste. Di ko lang basta-basta kina-cut ang material, tinatastas ko isa-isa, pina-flatten, pattern it again, etcetera, so mas mahaba ang process.”

On Day 2: October 1, acclaimed young designer Martin Bautista celebrated his 15 glorious years in the business. Modern, understated and romantic, his exuberant collection played with athleisure undertones, slightly exaggerated silhouettes, amplified draping textures “with unusual fabrications that have been his signatures of late.”

Lucy Torres-Gomez, one of the country’s all-time most stylish, collaborated again with Kashieca for a pragmatic collection fit for power moves in Congress or frolicking in exotic Ormoc. In designing the 2022 collection, her mindset was on clothing pieces she loves that she keeps going back to.

Lucy took care of the design aspect. The Kashieca team sent her swatches of the actual fabrics and then she chose the ones she wanted for the 17 looks that went down the runway at The Playground of Bench Tower at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.

“[The new Kashieca collection] is very me. I also veer toward the classics. Like when I buy something, I buy it if I know that I can wear it many, many times. I’m sentimental that way. When I see a dress, I just don’t see it as a dress. I see it as the dress that I wore when I went to dinner with a [loved one]. I remember

moments.”

At city hall or in Congress, Lucy won’t wear any of the sleeveless dresses or those with low necklines from the collection. “If I do wear something like that, I always have a cardigan with me that I would throw over. I’m very mindful of the dress code especially at work,” she assures.

Like Kate Middleton, Lucy doesn’t mind wearing a dress again. “When you buy something, it should be with repeating in mind,” the fashionably astute

Self-assured and self-confident, Lucy straddles showbiz and politics with seeming ease and elegance.

“I realized that through the years, I really just go back to certain things. Like I already know what my personal style is,” muses the captivating Ormoc mayor. “These are like things from my closet that I’m sharing with everyone else now. There’s nothing in the collection that I would not wear.” n

from the ones being sold at most supermarkets), herbal lozenges from Ricola, Manuka honey, Made by Maxine nut butters, fish oil from Carlson, and a wide variety of nut milks (includes Oatly and Rude Health).

I also got the Auromere Neem Plus 5 Ayurvedic Shampoo, which has extracts of neem, aloe vera, and hibiscus flowers. In Ayurveda, aloe vera is recommended as a hair tonic to promote abundant and luxurious hair, neem is used to soothe skin and scalp conditions, and hibiscus supports hair growth. I’ve used this shampoo before and somehow never got the chance to get it again until I saw it at Nova Wellness Store.

Other products I spotted were the Badger Biodegradable Shampoo Bar with Jojoba and Baobab, and natural honeycomb from HoneyLife.

I also bought Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee, which is less expensive here than in other stores, and a bamboo charcoal toothbrush. The next time I visit, I will get some of the canned chilis from Eden and the beauty bars from Chandanalepa (the cinnamon beauty bar seems interesting).

Aside from the TriNoma store, you can shop at Nova Wellness Store on Shopee (shope.ee/2ptPGxVvZj) and Lazada (bit.ly/3e02G0G).

Anyway, with most people now working offline at least twice a week, and with many people finding that their makeup stash is now full of expired products, I have received questions about foundations and what would be okay to use for the office.

My favorite right now is the Shiseido Synchro Skin Radiant Lifting Foundation. I love the texture of this as it’s not too watery but it goes on smoothly. I apply it with a makeup brush followed dabbing with a damp sponge.

On days when it’s not too hot, I don’t set with

a powder but some days I do (Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish). I find that this foundation really stays on even after I sweat. I will not say that it has a skin finish but it can look natural when applied properly. When I say look natural, I mean your skin seems better and healthier because, to be honest,

foundation is meant to be seen. I apply it over the Shiseido Synchro Skin Soft Blurring Primer, by the way, for longevity. This Shiseido primer is a product that I can sometimes use on its own.

The NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation is a product that I have never used but TikTok beauty content creator Kai Javier swears by it. This foundation, a makeup-skin care hybrid, is something I am really curious about. I want to see how it compares to Shiseido Synchro Skin considering that they belong under one company.

For affordable options, my best bet is still the Issy & Company Active Skin Tint, which is more like a tinted balm than a foundation. This has a balm-like finish, blurs pores, and provides very light coverage. I can say that this skin tint, which has SPF 35 UVA/UVB, is one of the best in the market right now in as far as tinted face balms are concerned.

Vice Cosmetics recently released the Blurrfection Skin Tint, which is said to be similar to the Issy & Company one.

If powder is your choice of face base, the Make Up For Ever Matte Velvet Skin Blurring Powder is the best with its natural looking finish that blurs the pores and stay on for hours. I love this powder so much that I frequently check the Make Up For Ever web site if they have discontinued this or not.

For a more affordable option, I want to check out the GRWM Cosmetics Powder Rush Velvet Setting Powder, which comes in eight shades (an amazing feat for a local brand). They have darker shades such as Cinnamon and Mocha.

I’m really very happy at how we now have more choices when it comes to makeup, considering that just five years ago I didn’t have a shade match with any local brand.

politician and mom says. “Sayang naman ang pera. Hindi siguro maganda if ayaw mo na suotin ulit or nagunaw na.”

GLAM TIDINGS Kashieca x Lucy Torres-Gomez, Martin Bautista, Cotton On with Teejay Marquez, Antonina by Antonina Abad Amoncio, Human x Jenni Contreras featuring Sofia Pablo and Allen Ansay, Urban Revivo with Kirk Bondad, and StrongVillage by Russell Villafuerte. PHOTOS BY BENCH LIFESTYLE+CLOTHING PHOTOS CHANDANALEPA Strawberry Herbal Body Lotion and Auromere Neem Plus 5 Ayurvedic Shampoo are Ayurvedic beauty products.

PHOTO BY JULIANA MAXINE VASQUEZ

C range: Daily Glow Cleansing Polish, Glow Boosting Moisturiser, Glow Revealing Serum and Overnight Glow Revealing Mask.

THE Body Shop’s all-new Vitamin C multitasking concealer hits the sweet spot between mid to full coverage. Available in 20 shades for the perfect match, it enhances the appearance of the complexion and spotlights the skin’s radiance in the right places. Dab on with

Up next on Chooks PHL 3x3 agenda: Naturalized player –Mascariñas

By Josef Ramos

CEBU City—Basketball 3x3 won’t stop for Chooks-to-Go and next up on Ronald Mascariñas’s goal is a naturalized player who could carry the country in the company of the event’s world powers.

We’re just about to start [ground work on naturalization], and we have well-entrenched lawyers who could speed up the naturalization process,” Mascariñas said. “I have instructed coach Chico [Lanete] to identify who can be the best naturalization candidate to help the team.”

M ascariñas, president of Chooksto-Go and Bounty Agro Ventures who’s called the godfather of Philippine 3x3, bared the plan during the Chooks-to-Go International Basketball Federation (FIBA) 3x3 World Tour Cebu Masters.

M ascariñas withheld identifying who the candidates for naturalization are but 27-year-old Cameroonian Mike Henry Nzeusseu, who had been in the country for 10 years and played for Lyceum of the Philippines University, could be one of them. He’s an import of the local team.

L anete, who retired from active competition on Saturday, said he’s scouting for more candidates.

“ We need a tall player who can shoot from the outside and is very athletic and strong, who can block shots,” said Lanete, adding Nigerian Henry Iloka is also in the radar.

They’re not yet the candidates but they’re part of the naturalization plan,” Lanete said. “We will start to find the best one once we return to Manila. He must be exclusive only for 3X3 competitions.”

M ascariñas said the Paris 2024 Olympics is one of their goals, but expressed more confidence of a Philippine team playing in the Los Angeles 2028 Games.

We’ll make sure that by then, we already have a naturalized player,” he said.

He added that Chooks-to-Go would do everything to inspire play ers to be part of the 3x3 dream.

It’s a work in progress and we just need to keep doing things to inspire our people, giving our people the inspiration and hope to continue fighting,” Mascariñas added.

“We won’t give up.”

M ascariñas admitted that making the global stage remains a goal, but matching the achievement of Olympic champion Latvia is doable.

“ It’s still a long way to be in that level. Maybe if our players in 2019 are still here, I guess we already achieved some things, but we do not give up despite we’re starting from zero,” he said.

BEAUTIFUL GAME, DEADLY MATCH

MALANG, Indonesia—Panic and a chaotic run for exits after police fired tear gas at an Indonesian soccer match to drive away rioting fans left at least 174 dead, most of whom were trampled upon or suffocated, making it one of the deadliest sports events in the world.

Attention immediately focused on the police use of tear gas, which is banned at soccer stadiums by FIFA. The president of the world soccer body called the deaths at the stadium “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension,” while President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures.

R iots broke out after the game ended Saturday evening with host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city losing to Persebaya of Surabaya 3-2.

Disappointed with their team’s loss, thousands of supporters of Arema, known as “Aremania,” reacted by throwing bottles and other objects at players and soccer officials. Witnesses said fans flooded the Kanjuruhan Stadium pitch and demanded that Arema management explain why, after 23 years of undefeated home matches against rival Persebaya, this one ended in a loss.

The violence spread outside the stadium where at least five police vehicles were toppled and set ablaze. Riot police responded by firing tear gas, including toward the stadium’s stands, causing panic among the crowd.

S ome suffocated  and others were trampled as hundreds of people ran to the exit to avoid the tear gas. In the chaos, 34 died at the stadium, including two officers, and some reports include children among the casualties.

We have already done a

174 dead after fans stampede to frantically exit stadium in Indonesian soccer match

Malixi eyes 3rd LPGT crown at Riviera

preventive action before finally firing the tear gas as [fans] began to attack the police, acting anarchically and burning vehicles,” East Java police chief Nico Afinta said in a news conference early Sunday.

More than 300 were rushed to hospitals but many died on the way and during a treatment, Afinta said.

E ast Java’s Vice Gov. Emil Dardak told Kompas TV the death toll had climbed to 174, while more than 100 injured people are hospitals,

them in critical condition.

Indonesia’s soccer association, known as PSSI, suspended the premier soccer league Liga 1 indefinitely in light of the tragedy and banned Arema from hosting soccer matches for the remainder of the season.

Television reports showed police and rescuers evacuating the injured and carrying the dead to ambulances.

Grieving relatives waited for information about their loved ones at Malang’s Saiful Anwar General Hospital. Others tried to identify the bodies laid at a morgue while medical workers put identification tag on the bodies of the victims.

I deeply regret this tragedy and I hope this is the last soccer tragedy

in this country, don’t let another human tragedy like this happen in the future,” Widodo said in a televised speech. “We must continue to maintain sportsmanship, humanity and a sense of brotherhood of the Indonesian nation.”

He ordered the youth and sports minister, the national police chief and the PSSI chair to conduct a thorough evaluation of the country’s soccer and its security procedure.

Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali also expressed his regrets that “this tragedy happened when we were preparing for soccer game activities, both national and international level.”

I ndonesia is due to host the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup from May 20 to June 11, with 24 participating teams. As the host, the country automatically qualifies for the cup.

“ Unfortunately, this incident has certainly injured our soccer image,” Amali said.

I n a statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed condolences on behalf of the global football community, saying “the football world is in a state of shock.” The statement did not mention the use of tear gas.

Ferli Hidayat, local police chief of Malang, said there were some 42,000 spectators at the game Saturday, all of whom were Arema supporters because the organizer had banned Persebaya fans from entering the stadium in an effort to avoid brawls.

The restriction was imposed after clashes between supporters of the two rival teams in East Java’s Blitar stadium in February 2020 caused 250 million rupiah ($18,000) in damage. Brawls were reported outside the stadium during and after the semifinals of the East Java Governor’s Cup, which ended with Persebaya beating Arema 4-2. AP

MARCIAL FACES PICHARDO IN 6-ROUNDER

Travails

R

IANNE MALIXI will be doubly motivated as she shoots for a third victory in as many stints on the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) this year, armed with a game that must’ve instilled fear on the country’s top pros and fellow amateurs following a dominant triumph in the last Ladies PGT stop at Valley Golf Club.

But more than the confidence, Malixi will be playing on an exacting course so dear to her.

“ Langer is in great shape so far. I have fond memories of this course, so I’m confident playing this course in competitive means,” said Malixi, who edged now Epson Tour campaigner Abby Arevalo on the third extra hole to snare the Philippine National Stroke Play crown in 2020, becoming the

RIANNE MALIXI

youngest winner at 12 of what used to be the Philippine Amateur Golf Championship.

That should make her the player to beat again when the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Riviera Championship is fired off Tuesday at the par-71 Langer layout ready to challenge both the women and men of the tour.

M alixi nipped multi-titled Princess Superal by one in this year’s kickoff leg at Luisita last March after closing out the 2021 LPGT season with a runway victory at Midlands last December. She skipped the next six LPGT events to campaign in the US junior and amateur championships then returned and beat Chihiro Ikeda by 13 strokes at Valley last month.

W hile Ikeda and fellow pros Sunshine Baraquiel, Harmie Constantino, Sarah Ababa, Marvi Monsalve, Martina Miñoza, Pamela Mariano, Lovelynn Guioguio, Kristine Fleetwood and Gretchen Villacencio, among others, have also honed up for this week’s battle to fan their respective title drive and halt the young star’s run, Malixi remains upbeat of her chances in the 54-hole championship put up by ICTSI.

Truthfully, I was surprised he went to CSB.

A fter his junior high school with University of the Philippines (UP) Integrated School, Will went to Mapua where he won a National Collegiate Athletic Association juniors crown. They tried to keep him in Intramuros but he went back to UP. Except he didn’t play much. I remember after his frosh year with the Fighting Maroons, he reached out to his old Mapua coach Randy Alcantara to test the waters. You know, what if he could go back. And he nearly did except he was prevailed upon to stay in Diliman.

A fter another year on the bench, he bolted. Now he is the Main Man for the Blazers and he isn’t wanting for minutes (27 minutes per game). He gets to show what he needs to do if he wants to be either drafted in the Philippine Basketball Association or play abroad. Currently averaging 16.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 blocks per game, Gozum has become a more complete player.

I n contrast, in his last year at UP, Gozum saw action thrice for an average of two minutes and 18 seconds. He did score at all and grabbed only two rebounds.

A couple of his former Mapua teammates likewise sought supposedly greener pastures after senior high.

“ We’re very excited on Eumir’s professional boxing return. We look forward to Eumir moving on to the next chapter of his boxing career and his quest to win a world title,” said Gibbons, president of Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions.

Gibbons said the bout would still be a six-rounder instead of eight after they evaluated Marcial’s last fight over Isiah Hart, a 6-foot-2 American who the Olympian beat via technical knockout last April 9.

“ We just have to take it little by little. If we see he’s ready for longer eight rounds, then we will do it,” Gibbons added. “He will be there as we go through the process.”

M arcial, 26, was knocked down

three times by Hart, but he refused to give up and bombarded his opponent with a flurry of punches to pull off the fourth-round TKO win in Las Vegas.

M arcial returned to the amateur ranks and won gold at the 31st Hanoi Southeast Asian Games last may—his fourth gold in men’s middleweight in the biennial meet since 2015.

M arcial is 2-0 as a pro, while Pichardo has an 8-2-1 win-loss-draw record with two knockouts. He is currently trained by Jorge Capetillo.

They are in the undercard of the main event between former world champion Jerwin Ancajas against International Boxing Federation super flyweight titlist Fernando Daniel Martinez of Argentina. Josef Ramos

Ice skater Frank bags slot to 2023 Calgary junior worlds

SOFIA FRANK wound up 16th among 49 participants in the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix at the Hala Olivia rink in Gdańsk, Poland, to qualify for next year’s Junior World Figure Skating Championships.

Frank, 16, obtained 142.75 points in the short program and free skate to earn the minimum technical requirement score for the world the championships.

It was pretty important because I needed to get my points for the

Junior Worlds, so this is the only competition that I have left for me, my only chance,” the Filipino-Amer ican Frank who’s based in Colorado Springs told BusinessMirror Sunday via internet call.

We wouldn’t be in the Junior World if we didn’t pursue it. I am really happy that I made it,” she said. “All I have to do now is to prepare wisely and try to break into the top 10 there. I really need to work on my components.”

Japan’s Shimada Mao and Chiba

Brian Lacap and Clint Escamis went to the University of the East but did not play together in their one season in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. Both had forgettable one year with University of the East and were clearly not the players we saw with Mapua.

W hether they were not a fit for a different system or they bombed, both are back with the Cardinals. Lacap seems to be his old self (he is leading the team in scoring with 10.2 points per game as opposed to his 0.7 points per game with the Red Warriors) while Escamis will make his playing debut next season.

Warren Bonifacio and Paolo Hernandez are a couple of other homegrown stars who were nearly wooed away. Good for them that they stayed.

It is always tempting to move to the bigger and more moneyed programs. But it doesn’t always work out.

Jerie Pinggoy first comes to mind.

W hen he was in Far Eastern University, he was head and above others when he played. The two years that he sat out owing to the UAAP rule that now bears his name—the Jerie Pinggoy Rule—took something out of his game. Sure he was overweight as well. He did show some flashes of that

Mone finished 1-2 with Mao scoring 217.68 points she highlighted with a triple axel and quad toe loop. Mone had 205.82 points. South Korea’s Kim Chaeyeon bagged the bronze medal a 195.46 score.

S ofia, daughter of former beauty Queen Preciosa Tongko-Frank, used “Jump” by the Pointer Sisters in her short program routine and “Mou lin Rouge” for the free skate in the competition played September 28 to October 1. Josef Ramos

brilliance in his one years playing for the Ateneo Blue Eagles (including two years on Team B). When he transferred to Adamson, he fell out of Franz Pumaren’s rotation.

W hen I think about it, he really should have stayed in FEU.

A nd though the jury is still out, it seems the same fate will befall Mark Nonoy who is not his old explosive self with La Salle. He clearly needs the ball to be effective and seems to be an odd-man out in La Salle’s system. And he isn’t the only former University of Santo Tomas (UST) player who could rue moving.

H igh school star Bismarck Lina also moved when UST imploded as a result of their farming lessons down south. Yes, he did win a title with UP last year, but had he stayed with UST, he would have all the playing time he wants.

There was a time when the best of the NCAA deemed a move to the UAAP as more advantageous. That really is a myth. Now, with international basketball opening up and the PBA no longer the only option, it’s all about showcasing one’s talents in either the UAAP or the NCAA.

A nd right now, we’re in the midst of a Will Gozum revival.

CHOOKS-TO-GO

TOKYO Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Felix Marcial steps atop the ring for his third professional bout on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) against Steve Pichardo in a non-title six-round middleweight clash at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson City, California. I nternational matchmaker Sean Gibbons confirmed to BusinessMirror on Sunday that the 26-year-old Pichardo of Gardena, California, agreed to test Marcial.

EUMIR FELIX MARCIAL’S up for his third pro fight.