BusinessMirror October 07, 2019.pdf by BusinessMirror

NO CRACKDOWN ON OFW–RUSSIA TO PHL P

RESIDENT Duterte said the government is now ironing out a bilateral agreement, which will allow thousands of overstaying Filipinos to legalize their stay in Russia. During his recently concluded state visit to Russia that netted 10 agreements between the Philippine and Russian government and business groups, Duterte announced he instructed Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III to include the matter of overstaying Filipinos in the country’s ongoing labor bilateral talks with Russia. He urged undocumented OFWs in Russia to avail themselves of the program once it is implemented, to comply with Russian laws. “Follow the procedure since we are now working—sort of an agreement for you to

President Duterte delivers his speech during his meeting with the Filipino community at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNH) in Moscow on October 5, 2019. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

have an easier [processing]—you’d be allowed to stay,” Duterte said in his speech during his meeting with the Filipino community in Moscow on Saturday.

No crackdown Duterte also said the Russian government committed not to conduct any crackdown on the OFWs. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is currently working on a new pact to deploy more OFWs to Russia and ensure the labor welfare of those already working there. The accord was supposed to be signed during Duterte’s visit to Russia last week. In a SMS, Bello told the BusinessMirror that the signing did not push through as it still needs to go through more bilateral talks.

During his meeting with the Filipino community in Moscow, Duterte said “The Russian government made an assurance that it will not carry out a crackdown on illegal immigrants considering the hardships being experienced by Filipinos back home.” Duterte disclosed a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin where he said he raised the labor issue of Filipinos in Russia and told the Filipino community in Moscow that Putin “recognized the need for a legal framework” to cover the labor relations between the two countries. He told the Filipino community the DOLE is currently crafting a bilateral labor agreement with Russia to address the concerns of undocumented Filipinos staying in the country.

See “No crackdown,” A2

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Monday, October 7, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 362

China sweetens joint energy exploration deal By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla & Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox

Mindanao Bureau Chief

HINA has expanded its offer in its proposed oil and gas exploration deal with the country in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), according to President Duterte.

Aside from giving Philippines a bigger share in the resources, Duterte said the Chinese government said it is now willing to shoulder additional expenses in the deal. “Now there is something new [in the negotiation]—China is

“Now there is something new [in the negotiation]—China is proposing 60-40 [resource sharing], where 60 [percent] will be our [share]. They will also provide for the equipment and the [operation] of the rig.”—Duterte

proposing 60-40 [resource sharing], where 60 [percent] will be our [share]. They will also provide for the equipment and the [operation] of the rig,” Duterte disclosed during a forum in Russia on Saturday. Last August, government of-

ficials said the proposed accord is still going through “intense negotiations” to iron our the details of its provisions, which should be acceptable to both parties. This despite China’s refusal to recognize the Philippines’s territo-

rial claims in the WPS. The Philippines is scrambling to find a new source of oil and gas as the Malampaya gas field near Palawan is expected to be exhausted by 2027.

Energy talks

While in Russia, Duterte also talked with some Russian companies for See “Energy exploration,” A2

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WITH PEST AT DOORSTEP, BANANA GROWER TADECO FACES BIOSECURITY RISK By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

HE Tagum Agricultural Development Co. Inc. (Tadeco), one of the country’s largest banana exporters, has warned against a move by local government officials to dismantle crucial quarantine measures in its jointventure plantation. It said such could hasten the spread of the dreaded fusarium wilt and will endanger the banana production and exports of the company. Tadeco Assistant Vice President for Human Resources Zeaus Vadil told the BusinessM irror that there are Fusarium wilt-infected banana farms just across the street of the firm’s plantation within the Bureau of Correction’s property (BuCor). Under a joint-venture agreement with BuCor, Tadeco manages 5,308 hectares of banana planta-

Students’ AR project seen luring visitors to Intramuros By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

ORE tourists are visiting the walled city of Intramuros, one of the major destinations in Metro Manila being promoted by the Department of Tourism (DOT). According to data provided by the Intramuros Administration, tourist arrivals in the historic city increased by 13.4 percent to 2.12 million in the first half of the year. It also exceeds the IA’s 1.92-million target for the period by 10.42 percent. The data showed bulk of the visitors were in April at 1.17 million due to the Holy Week activities. This was 6.75 percent higher than the 1.1 million that arrived in March during the Holy Week program. Of the total arrivals in the six

PESO exchange rates n

By Lenie Lectura

Tech window to the past

See “Intramuros,” A2

See “Banana,” A4

SMC readies docs for $3-B elevated Edsa hi-way

months to June 2019, foreign tourists in the gated areas of Fort Santiago, Casa Manila, and Baluarte San Diego accounted for 245,500. Most of the foreign tourists came from China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, France, India, Indonesia, Germany, Taiwan and Malaysia. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat told the BusinessMirror that they hoped to increase these arrivals further with an augmented-reality (AR) project the DOT is undertaking with students of iACADEMY, a school that specializes in Computing, Business and Design. “At certain sites in Intramuros, you can hold up your phone, and the image will show what the site used to look before it was restored,” she said, demonstrating the concept with her phone.

tion inside the Davao Prison and Penal Farm reservation. Recently, the provincial government of Davao del Norte lead by Gov. Edwin Jubahib planned to demolish three biosecurity facilities of Tadeco’s plantation along El Canto road. The demolition, according to Vadil, is being pushed by the provincial government as part of supposed road clearing operations following the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) 60-day order to local government units (LGUs) to reclaim public roads. The order, which stemmed from President Duterte’s pronouncement in his 4th State of the Nation Address, tasked LGUs to get rid of all obstructions on public roads. “Fusarium wilt is just within our backyard,” Vadil said in a phone interview on Sunday.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with iAcademy COO Raquel P. Wong, for the school’s students to produce augmented reality apps and videos to help in promoting the Philippine destinations, like Intramuros.

@llectura

ONGLOMERATESanMiguel Corp.’s (SMC) proposal to build an elevated expressway along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) may cost around $3 billion, its president said last week. “Siguro, ’yung Edsa from Macapagal to Balintawak, baka abutin ng $3 billion or a little more, give or take. Gagawin namin ’yan para ma-solve lang yung traffic ng Edsa [The stretch from Edsa-Macapagal Boulevard to Balintawak will probably require $3 billion. We will do it just to solve the traffic on Edsa],” said Ramon Ang in a chance interview last week. See “SMC,” A2

US 51.9500 n japan 0.4860 n UK 64.0595 n HK 6.6255 n CHINA 7.2938 n singapore 37.6258 n australia 35.0195 n EU 56.9788 n SAUDI arabia 13.8500 Source: BSP (4 October 2019 )

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, October 7, 2019

PCCI urges govt: Speed up mobility with good rules, infra

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

HE country’s largest business network is demanding that the government harmonize traffic rules and expedite the rollout of infrastructure projects to improve the flow of trade and movement of people within the nation’s capital.

In a draft resolution, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) called on the Departments of Transportation (DOTr) and of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), as well as local government units in Metro Manila and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), to harmonize traffic policies in the capital region. It also asked the government “to rationalize the imposition of LGU fees on inter-urban freight.” The PCCI is also asking lawmakers to legislate the traffic crisis bill, saying it will provide a comprehensive and integrated land-based traffic management in Metro Manila. Under Senate Bill 213, or the Special Emergency Powers Act, the President will be granted by Con-

Ninja cops. . . Continued from A12

The 13 policemen are charged for violation of Sections 27(misappropriation), 21 (planting of evidence) and 32 (custody and disposition of evidence) which were all dismissed and are the subject of the automatic review. Senators who conducted hearings on the controversial issue claimed that the cases filed were too weak. Instead of dismissal from the service, they were able to get the penalty reduced to a one-rank demotion. During the Senate inquiry on the

No crackdown. . . “Secretary Bello is working on an agreement na kayong nandito staying, overstaying or have had problems, will be covered with an understanding,” he said. The President has advised undocumented Filipinos to spend time to renew their passports and reapply for legal status in Russia to legitimize their stay. There are about 10,000 Filipinos in Russia. “Ang aking prayer lang is just abide by the laws of Russia. Sumunod lang kayo sa batas at wala tayong problema. So kayo lahat dito 10,000, wala tayong record ng kalokohan o ano [My prayer is for you to just abide by the laws of Russia. Follow their rules and we would have no problem. All of you here, 10,000, we have no record of misdemeanor or whatever],” he said. Philippine Ambassador to Russia Carlos Sorreta said in an earlier interview that “there’s a huge potential in Russia’s labor market that the Philippines can tap”. Many Filipinos in Russia are into childcare and household work, but he said the Philippines could expand it to include skilled workers and professionals for Russia’s oil industry, mining, and construction. In the Philippines, the continued illegal recruitment of Filipino workers bound for Russia, as well as the use of fake documents by Filipinos, may hamper or delay the crafting of a labor pact with Russia, Sorreta said. Duterte said he thanked Putin for securing the welfare of the Filipinos in Russia. He cited the Russians’ help to the Philippine government in retaking Marawi City in 2017 from control of Islamic State-linked terrorists, saying the arms supplied by Russia gave the Philippine military crucial support during the fight to liberate the city.

10 accords

Meanwhile, the Philippines entered into 10 agreements with government and business groups. These are: ■ Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on

gress emergency powers to resolve the traffic situation in Metro Manila. Authored by Sen. Francis N. Tolentino, the bill allows the President through the transportation secretary as traffic chief to enter into negotiated contracts for the construction, repair, restoration, rehabilitation or maintenance of priority projects. It suspends the Local Government Code’s requiring prior consultation with LGUs on traffic-related projects and the National Building Code mandating building permits, clearances and certifications. The bill also suspends the need for environmental clearance certificate and tree-cutting permit for the implementation of priority projects. The Labor Code require-

ment for clearances and permits for the hiring of foreigners with regard to foreign technicians and experts working in traffic-related projects is suspended as well by the bill. Tolentino said this measure should address the traffic crisis in Metro Manila that costs it P3.5 billion a day, per a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). However, the proposal to grant the President emergency powers is facing rough sailing in the Senate, where Sen. Grace Poe, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Services, believes existing laws and policies can resolve the traffic mess in Metro Manila, making emergency powers unnecessary.

Complete projects

Meanwhile, the PCCI is asking the DOTr to accelerate completion of the North Integrated Transport Exchange in Bulacan to help reduce traffic in Metro Manila and as a follow-through to the implementation of the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange. It is also lobbying the DOTr and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) to consider proposals to upgrade the facilities and interconnection of the three terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International A ir port

issue last week, senators noted the many inconsistencies in the account of the raid targetting Lee, forcing them to hold Baloyo in contempt and order his detention.

Probe goes on in recess

SENATE probers vowed to work overtime —lawmakers went on their scheduled October 5 to November 3 congressional recess—to pursue the ongoing inquiry into the multimillion illegal drug trade, amid initial findings linking law enforcement officers to known drug syndicates in and out of the prisons system. “We will call hearings even during the recess,” Sen. Richard Gordon, chief prober,

said on Sunday, indicating they intend to look deeper into other allegations implicating some officers of the Philippine National Police said to be assigned at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). “Tuloy-tuloy ang trabaho [The work goes on],” he said over the weekend, allaying concerns by whistleblowers over delaying tactics. “Don’t lose hope; if there is a case, bring it to the Senate,” Gordon said. Confirming the continuation of the Blue Ribbon probe during the recess, the senator indicated they expect that “those cited in contempt, including Baloyo will speak out and tell the truth.” He was referring to Police Major Baloyo, who remained in detention over the

Continued from A1

information exchange and collaboration on business development aimed at promoting trade and investment between the Philippines and Russia, members of Russia-Asean Business Council, and Philippine companies; ■ Memorandum of Intent (MOI) on exchange of information on investment environment and opportunities; attract and support foreign investments in both the Philippines and Russia; encourage interested local companies in setting up or expanding their businesses; and organize business missions, workshops, other bilateral investments promotion activities; ■ MOI to jointly explore the prospects of cooperation in the construction of nuclear power plants in the Philippines; ■ MOU, between Century Pacific Food Inc. and Magnit Food Retail Chain, where the former would supply tuna and sardine products to serve the Russian market; ■ MOU, where Century Pacific Food Inc. would supply tuna and sardine products to Dalimo to serve the Russian market; ■ MOU, where Century Pacific Food Inc. would supply tuna and sardine products to LLC Dalpromryba to serve the Russian market; ■ MOU, where Century Pacific Agricultural Ventures Inc., would supply coconut milk products to Panasia Impex Co. Ltd. to serve the Russian market; ■ Distributorship Agreement, which appointed Lifetruck International Inc. as the exclusive sole distributor for the distribution, promotion, and sale of Sturmanskie watches in Philippines; ■ Distributorship Agreement, which appointed Lifetruck International Inc. as the exclusive sole distributor for the distribution, promotion, and sale of Kamaz vehicles in Philippines; and ■ Memorandum of Agreement to promote, distribute, and sell IPP-NLS technologies, particularly Metatron Micro MRI Systems and its variations in the Philippines. Manuel T. Cayon and Samuel P. Medenilla

SMC. . .

(Naia). The PCCI said the option of putting up a third runway in the country’s premier gateway must be studied, too. “This will increase airline and airport efficiencies, enhance passenger comfort and experience, and elevate Naia to become a viable transit hub for the Asean region,” the resolution read.

Enforce JAO

The PCCI also wants the joint administrative order, regulating the application of shipping fees imposed by freight carriers, enforced. The order is seen to reduce logistics cost in the Philippines—the highest among Southeast Asian manufacturing rivals Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, according to a study by the World Bank and the Department of Trade and Industry. Philippine firms reportedly spend 27.16 percent of their sales on logistics services, higher than those in Indonesia (21.4 percent), Vietnam (16.3 percent) and Thailand (11.11 percent). These policy recommendations are among the 38 resolutions the PCCI drafted and will submit to the government for its consideration. The resolutions will be finalized by the end of the 45th Philippine Business Conference on October 16 and 17 at the Manila Hotel.

weekend until he testifies anew before the ongoing Senate inquiry to purge himself of what lawmakers deemed contumacious conduct. Gordon added that Senate probers are also placing National Police Chief Albayalde on a lifestyle check amid allegations he had interceded for men in his command who were implicated in alleged recycling of illegal drugs netted in a 2013 raid in Pampanga. Baloyo’s report on the raid was pointedly described as “full of lies” by the officer tasked to investigate then the anomalous buy-bust, former police general Manuel Gaerlan, who testified at the latest Blue Ribbon hearing.

Continued from A1

SMC will tap a foreign contractor, particularly the one that built Jakarta’s 38-kilometer elevated expressway. Ang said he is already in talks with the contractor. “This is the project in Jakarta, a 38-km elevated highway of steel. The contrtactor of that project, I spoke to them,” Ang said in a mix of English and Filipino, while showing a picture of the project. He said partial documents about the proposed project have been submitted to the government, but were told certain documents and financial studies are lacking. “I think the

idea is beautiful and [Transportation] Secretary [Arthur] Tugade likes it. Give us one to two weeks because we need to submit financial documents,” said Ang. Ang’s proposal is to build a 10-lane, five-by-five expressway to ease traffic along Edsa where 385,000 vehicles traverse the 23-km stretch. Ang’s group is also involved in an ongoing road project, the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3. The 18.68-kilometer toll road from Buendia, Makati City to Balintawak, Quezon City, is scheduled for completion by early 2020.

Energy exploration. . . possible oil and gas exploration in the WPS. “There are a lot of things there we discussed about energy. We will come out with a final report [about it] after the Cabinet meeting. I need to hear everybody in the Cabinet,” Duterte said. Yet another energy-related matter to be discussed in the Cabinet meeting, expected to be held on October 11, is the government’s talks with Russian officials on nuclear power plants. Among the 10 pacts signed by Philippine and Russian officials last week, is the memorandum of intent (MOI) on intention to jointly explore the prospects of cooperation in the construction of nuclear power

Continued from A1

plants in the Philippines. The signatories to the MOI are “Alfonso Cusi, secretary of Department of Energy; and Evgeny Pakermanov, Rusatom Overseas.” Pakermanov is president of Raos JSC, an energy company with expertise in nuclear power. “I have to talk with the Cabinet first,” he said, before he would make a final statement about it. He said he would also talk with the DOJ “if something would come up in that agreement that would require the consent of Congress.” He said the agreement remained “part of the proposals yet”. “We have to talk to people, including those who would be affected by that project,” he added.

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GOVT EYES OPTIONS TO CUT 9-MO CLOSURE OF HALF OF LRT 2 LINE Continued from A12

Half of the 14 train sets of the LRT 2 were trapped in the Santolan depot. This means that at most the train will be operating at half of its capacity of roughly 250,000 passengers daily. On normal days, it serves roughly 240,000 per day via nine train sets. “We can still serve the 240,000 passengers per day,” Cabrera noted, acknowledging that bulk of the passengers of the LRT 2 coming from the east start from Santolan Station. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has also issued special permits to eight bus companies to ply the Santolan-Cubao

Intramuros. . . Continued from A1

Visitors to Intramuros only have to download the app that will be created by the students for the purpose. The collaboration with iACADEMY, as per the memorandum of understanding signed with the DOT, is for the students to also produce “cutting-edge promotional materials” to help boost the country’s tourism efforts. In a speech before the students on Friday, Romulo Puyat said: “Today, you are joining a growing roster of organizations, corporations, and individuals who believe in this country, and that a better future for our nation and its people can be realized through a better tourism industry. At absolutely no cost to the government, our partners in the private sector are helping us realize our goal of a more sustainable tourism industry, where everyone—and I mean everyone—can reap its benefits. Pooling our efforts, we fulfill the ideals of our traditional ‘Bayanihan’ spirit. As we work together in pursuit of a common goal, everyone carries a share of the load—whether we succeed or fail is all in our hands.” iAcademy is an affiliate of STI, a pioneer in computer education in the country. It is owned by the Tanco Group, which also has interests in shipping, property, energy and financial services. iACADEMY is known to be the pioneer or first to offer the following college programs in the Philippines—Game Development, Cloud Computing, Data Science, and Animation. It offers senior high school and undergraduate degree programs. Meanwhile, of the arrivals in Intramuros, the DOT chief said in a news statement: “The government, through the

Mental health. . . We want to know if what we were thinking of at the time we made the curriculum is still applicable in the 21st century.”

Suicides

Briones then underscored what she described as “a very crucial challenge that we are facing in the 21st century...the matter of mental health,” and disputed claims of some critics that the lessons plans are ill-equipped and cause mental health problems, stressing, “you as MAs and PhDs know that our lesson plans do not lead to suicide!” Mental health, she said, is a global phenomenon, and the Philippines “still fortunate that we are not yet in the list of countries with the highest rate of deaths due to mental health.” The United States has that distinction now, and. While suicide was in the past associated with Japan, “Japan is a very low .9 percent, US 12 percent for every 100,000 population,” Briones said. A basic matter to remember, she added, is that today’s “learners are different from the learners that we were during our time. Learners in high school, even elementary, those born from 1995 onward, Gen Z are young people full of anxiety, fear, because they know so much. They know about Brazil, Indonesia, even the bedroom of many people that we know. Plus interpersonal relations, this is enough to give them anxiety… It’s a very different generation that we are nurturing. As one of our awardees said, it takes a lot of dedication, it takes a lot of attention to take care of our learners.” Today’s learners, “especially in high school, belong to Gen Z, are wired, and very adept in communication. They know what is happening and they know about what will happen to their future…. Only this week two very young people took their lives, with very bright futures, supportive families, nonetheless they took their own lives, because they see no hope in the world that we their elders have created,” rued Briones.

route as an alternative mode of transportation for those affected by the line’s partial closure. A total of 89 bus units will be deployed on the route. The regulatory body also lifted the number coding for public utility vehicles (PUVs) that ply the same route, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will field its own buses to help ferry passengers to the nearest eastern line station. “These will help, but we also acknowledge that they are not the fastest modes of transportation due to the traffic congestion on the road,”Cabrera said, appealing for the understanding of the public. Intramuros Administration, has been working double time in transforming Intramuros into a “sustainable creative urban heritage district,” since the area is considered a thriving tourism community, where culture, creativity and innovation, and sustainability converge.” Romulo Puyat added, “The efforts we poured in Intramuros for the past year, such as safeguarding its cultural heritage, improving access and mobility in the area, and fostering creativity and innovation for socioeconomic growth, are pivotal to the increase in tourist arrivals.” The visitor arrivals in Intramuros enabled IA to achieve 70.84 percent of its revenue target for 2019, and it is projected to exceed the actual revenues generated in 2018 of P78.61 million. “Alongside the preservation of cultural heritage, our goal for Intramuros is to ensure the livability and inclusive development of the community through effective sustainability programs, primarily the livelihood of the residents. We also want Filipinos to know that the Walled City is an open venue for all kinds of cultural exchange for people to experience the revitalized Intramuros,”said IA Administrator lawyer Guiller Asido for his part. He invited the public to join the activities lined up for October, which include: Sorok Uni Foundation Benefit Film Showing in partnership with Sorok Uni Foundation (October 12, 16 and 18); Jumpstart: The Pre-SDG Bayanihan Summit in partnership with 2030 Youth Force in the Philippines October12); Investigative Intramuros 2 in partnership with Bambike and Mystery Manila (October19, 20, 25, 26, 30 and 31); Open House: Museums and Galleries Month Celebration in partnership with Bambike and Mystery Manila (October27); and the WSK Festival 2019 (October 27).

Continued from A12

“Therefore, I urge you as you teach, watch your learners, notice their behavior, we have DepEd orders, memos on bullying, nutrition, health but we need to pay more attention to mental health…it is a very serious challenge to all,” the DepEd chief concluded. At the October 3 event at the launch of the ninth year of its Values Advocacy Program, Fortune Life Insurance Company conferred the Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Award for outstanding performance to eight teachers, including three honorable mention and five school officials. The awarding ceremony of “Gintong Parangal Para sa Guro,” now on its 8th year, highlights the acknowledgement of teachers, division supervisors and principals who worked assiduously in promoting the program’s advocacies. This year’s awardees are Cecilia S. Custodio, Ph.D., Ernesto P. Dizon, Ph.D., both of Bulacan; Markson B. Mejia of Sorsogon City; Ronaldo C. Reyes of Tabaco City and Joenary D. Silao of South Cotabato. Honorable mention awardees for this category are Guillermo J. Flores, Ph.D., of Bulacan; John Patrick G. Lazaro of Eastern Samar and Gabriel T. Vargas II of Malabon City. Gintong Parangal Para sa Pamumuno, now on its 3rd year, was awarded to higher school officials from different schools division and district offices. The awardees for this category are Jenilyn Rose B. Corpuz, Ph.D., CESO VI of Manila; Melody P. Cruz, Ph.D., of Pasay City; Bianito A. Dagatan, Ph.D., CESO V of Cebu City; Imelda Sabornido, Ph.D., of Bayugan City; and Felix Romy A. Triambulo, Ph.D., CESO VI of Zamboanga City. Winners received cash prizes, certificates and trophies awarded by Briones together with Fortune Life President and CEO D. Arnold A. Cabangon, Fortune Life EVP and General Manager Evelyn T. Carada and MaryLindbert International President and CEO Erlinda Legaspi.

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The Nation BusinessMirror

It’s giving back to the tribes for Davao City’s first doctors By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The first batch of physicians under the city government scholarship pledged to return the generosity by serving the Lumad, or tribal, communities here. At least two recent passers of the physician licensure examination in September were of tribal origin, too. They assured the city government they would work here on its communities “in return for that extreme generosity.” “I come from the Bagobo tribe, and the biggest thing that I could contribute to the government is to help the tribe,” Jeannie Marie Salmasan, recipient of a medical scholarship program under the Davao City Government’s Educational Benefits System Unit (EBSU), said. “I used to work in Paquibao and I promised myself and the people that should I make it, I will serve the community.” Salmasan added: “It would be a wonderful opportunity to serve the people of Paquibato District.” Paquibato District, a vast hinterland region some 70 kilometers north of downtown, is home to many of the six tribal groups here. As a Lumad, she said serving the tribal communities was a personal mission, the city information office said, quoting Salmasan. “I don’t think I would be able to take medicine had it not been for the grant,” Salmasan said. “My parents could not afford to send me to a medical school.” She said that EBSU has financially assisted her for her

entire medical education. Like Salmasan, another recent passer was Jenny Adtoon, a Subanen Lumad, who said she would not be able to finish her last two years in medical school if it were not for the scholarship grant. “I want to serve the government and the people of Davao,” Adtoon said. “Had it not been for the opportunity given to me, it would have been more difficult for me to finish medicine. Adtoon is also the mother of a nine-month-old son. She recalled how she struggled through her medical studies because of the expensive school fees. “The people knows how difficult it was for me. But the same difficulty made me strong,” she said. She expressed gratitude for the opportunity given to her by the City Government of Davao. Salmasan and Adtoon were the first recipients of the medical scholarship grant offered by the local government of Davao. “Now that they are professional doctors after passing the, they want to give back,” the city information office added. Another passer, Irvin Paul Parada, said he was also grateful for being a scholarship grantee. The scholarship covered tuition and annual cash allowance of P20,000 for books and other school needs. Since 2016, the local government unit of Davao has been supporting 50 medicine students. Currently, there are 1,904 EBSU scholars taking different courses in different colleges and universities in Davao City.

Armed Forces creates task force on kidnap of Brit, Filipino spouse By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

HE military has created a task force to run after gunmen who have abducted a Briton and his Filipino wife in Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur, as soldiers scours the province and its adjoining areas in search of the victims. Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) commander Lt. Gen. Cirilito E. Sobejana

ministrative issuance of free patents to those who have been in actual occupation of residential public lands for a period of 10 years. “Congress simplified the process of titling of residential lands, set a shorter period of possession for applicants to comply and at the same time, imposed upon the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] a period of 120 days to process applications,” he added. “The law is an instant success and thousands of citizens filed free patent applications, with the DENR processing record breaking numbers in its first years of implementation with more than 382,529 titles issued to date.” However, the lawmaker said government data on public land titling show that only 5,174 titles were confirmed by the courts in the last 10 years, saying court titling has steadily declined, with only around 140 titles issued in 2017. “The steady decline in court-issued titles was due to the court’s recent strict and literal interpretation on land laws,” Salceda said. “Although the court recognizes the countrywide phenomenon of untitled lands and the problem of informal settlement, the court puts the burden in Congress to improve land tenure in the country.” Moreover, the lawmaker said R A 9176 t h at a l lows t it l i ng through judicial and administrative legalization of titles is about to expire on December 31, 2020, which means that titling will come to a grinding halt. For the judicial confirmation of imperfect title, HB 4945 cited quali-

created the Joint Task Force Hyrons led by Army First Infantry Division commander Major Gen. Roberto Ancan to hunt the kidnappers and possibly rescue Allan Hyrons, 70, and his wife, Wilma. Westmincom Spokesman Major Arvin Encinas said operations are being conducted in areas where security forces believed the victims were taken. He did not identify any particular group behind the kidnapping, but said there are local kidnap-

for-ransom or lawless groups that operates in Zamboanga del Sur. Military info said the British national and his wife were snatched by armed men at around 6:50 p.m. upon arriving at the resort that the couple own in the village of Alindahaw in Tukuran. Encinas said the Hyron couple owns a couple of businesses in Zamboanga del Sur. An initial report by the police said two of the gunmen checked

HE school-based feeding program (SBFP) of the Department of Education (DepEd) is getting a budget of P5.97 billion in 2020, a lawmaker said on Sunday. Rep. Michael T. Defensor of Anakalusugan Party-list said the budget for next year’s feeding program is P1 billion, or 20 percent higher than this year’s P4.97 billion. “We are all for the bigger allocation, so that the program can target and cover a greater number of underfed school children,” Defensor said in a statement. Under the SBFP, Defensor said undernourished children from kindergarten to Grade 6 are given deworming tablets and fed at least one fortified meal plus doses of micronutrients in the form of pills, capsules or syrups, for at least 120 days in a school year.

fied persons who may file at any time, in the proper regional trial court an application for registration of title to land, not exceeding 12 hectares, whether personally or through their duly authorized representatives. Among others, those who have acquired ownership of land in any other manner provided for by law are qualified to undertake this, according to the proposed bill. Also for administrative legalization (free patent), the bill said any natural-born citizen of the Philippines who is not the owner of more than 12 hectares and who, for at least 30 years prior to the filing of the application, has continuously occupied and cultivated, either by himself or through his predecessors-in-interest a tract or tracts of alienable and disposable agricultural public lands subject to disposition and who shall have paid the real-estate tax thereon shall be entitled to have a free patent issued to him for such tract or tracts of such land not to exceed 12 hectares. The bill said all applications shall be filed at any time after the effectivity of this proposal before the DENR’s Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) or region. The proposed bill mandates the Cenro to process the application within 100 days and 120 days to include compliance with the required notices and other legal requirements, and forward recommendations to the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office. The bill said the Penro has five days to approve or disapprove the patent. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

The SBFP targets mostly “wasted and severely wasted” school children, or those deemed too skinny for their age. “Right now, many school children from poverty-stricken families, even here in Metro Manila, continue to suffer from short-term hunger,” Defensor said. Short-term hunger is “a condition experienced by children who do not eat breakfast and walk long distances to reach school,” Defensor said.

Guidelines

DEFENSOR added he expects the SBFP would help ease starvation among school children from indigent households. “Our sense is, the DepEd is getting better in executing the SBFP, especially after the adoption a new set of guidelines two years ago,”

Defensor said. Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones issued the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the SBFP for the School Years 2017-2022 on August 7, 2017. The SBFP is one of the three national feeding programs for undernourished children institutionalized by Republic Act 11037, or the Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act, which President Duterte signed into law in June 2018. The two others are the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Supplemental Feeding Program for Children in Public Day Care Centers and the Department of Agriculture’s Milk Feeding Program.

Incentive

MEANWHILE, House Committee on Basic Education and Culture Chair-

@sam_medenilla

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has issued an advisory warning the public against unscrupulous individuals, who are using its emergency aid program to illegally collect money.

In an advisory, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III emphasized that the DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program (DILP) and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) program services are free. Bello said he issued the clarification after receiving reports that

some scammers are collecting money from potential beneficiaries of the two programs. “All DOLE Regional Offices are instructed to use only to use the attached forms that bear the phrase ‘This form is not for sale’ in the implementation of the DILP and Tupad,” the labor chief said.

man Roman Romulo said qualified public-school teachers are set to receive their P1,000 World Teachers’ Day Incentive Benefit (WTDIB). “The sum of P800 million meant to pay for the WTDIB of qualified public school teachers is provided for and fully funded in this year’s General Appropriations Act,” Romulo said. The DepEd has already issued the guidelines for the payment of the incentive benefit, Romulo said. “The P800 million is for this year. Next year, another P900 million has been earmarked to pay for the WTDIB in the proposed 2020 national budget that the House recently approved,” Romulo said. According to Romulo, the bigger allocation anticipates that a greater number of teachers, to include new hires, would be entitled to receive the incentive benefit in 2020. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Court clears lawmaker linked to Napoles scam By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has finally cleared Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio M. Umali of administrative liability over his alleged mishandling of his pork barrel fund amounting to P15 million during his stint as a member of the House of Representatives in 2005. In its October 4 decision, the CA held that Umali was still covered by the 1959 condonation doctrine since the abandonment of the doctrine by the Supreme Court in its 2015 decision was to be applied prospectively. Under the condonation doctrine, an elected public official cannot be removed for administrative misconduct committed during a previous term with his or her reelection to office by the same electorate. It can be recalled that Umali was found administratively liable by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) for diverting substantial funds from the PDAF and the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program funds to Masaganing Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. and the Samahan ng mga Manininda ng Prutas sa Gabi Inc. to implement his livelihood projects. The two firms reported that the funds were used to procure agricultural implements. Investigation revealed no real purchases as all the liquid fertilizers were supposedly sourced from Nutrigrowth Philippines, a company owned by pork-barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. The Ombudsman ordered Uma-

li’s dismissal from service and perpetual disqualification from holding public office in 2016, which it affirmed a year after. Umali, who won the 2019 gubernatorial elections in Nueva Ecija, elevated the OMB’s ruling before the CA when he was prevented from assuming his post as governor. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) had earlier issued a regional advisory, which mandates that local elective officials who were dismissed from the service should serve the imposed penalty even after the said officials were proclaimed to have won in the May 2019 elections. However, the CA issued last month a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Ombudsman and the DILG from preventing him to assume his post. In resolving Umali’s petition, the CA held: “The assailed decision of the Ombudsman dated 14 November 2016 and order dated 29 September 2017, although supported by substantial evidence, may not be implemented and are accordingly set aside. The administrative misconduct committed by petitioner Aurelio M. Umali is deemed condoned.” But the CA explained “that criminal prosecutions concerning the same set of facts surrounding an administrative case are not barred or prejudiced by any disposition in the administrative case.” In affirming the condonation of Umali’s administrative liability, the CA pointed out the acts complained of were committed in 2005. “The alleged act of condona-

DOLE emphasizes emergency aid program services are free By Samuel P. Medenilla

in at the resort on the eve of the couple’s abduction. The Hyrons just emerged from a van that took them to their resort when two men forcibly took them and brought them to other gunmen who were waiting at the other side of the beach. The kidnappers reportedly split in two groups before escaping with their victims using two motorized boats, one of which had reportedly headed toward the direction of Lanao del Norte.

DepEd’s school feeding tack gets ₧5.97B budget support

Efficient titling of land sought by Salceda bill HE chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means is pushing for the passage of a measure seeking to improve the efficiency of land titling in the country. Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda said his House Bill 4945 aims to improve confirmation of imperfect titles by adopting the processes introduced under Republic Act (RA) 10023 (Residential Free Patent Act) to the Agricultural Free Patent under Section 44 of Commonwealth Act (CA) 141 (Public Land Act). The bill also aims to integrate and liberalize court confirmation of imperfect titles under the provisions of Presidential Decree 1529 or Property Registration Decree and CA 141, and remove the time period for application on both free patent and confirmation of imperfect title that is about to expire on December 31, 2020. “Property rights are important to the country’s growth and development,” Salceda said in his explanatory note. “Unclear and unenforceable rights to property could lead to underinvestment, undervalued properties, land grabbing, fake titling and lack of access to credit. Land title is a clear proof of ownership and is important to protection of one’s property rights.” In the Philippines, he said title to land can be obtained through either administrative mode or judicial mode. Salceda said that under the Residential Free Patent Act, Congress in 2010 liberalized the titling process in residential lands by allowing ad-

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, October 7, 2019 A3

Bello vowed to go after the people behind the illegal collection for violating the Revised Penal Code. Bello urged the public to personally report such fraudulent act to the nearest DOLE Regional, provincial and/or field offices, or by calling DOLE Hotline 1349. In a related development, Bu-

reau of Local and Employment director Dominique R. Tutay said they have yet to start helping displaced workers of the recently gutted Pasay-based entertainment park Star City. “We still have to complete their profiling first before we could start the program,” Tutay told the Busi-

tion, that is, the petitioner’s [Umali’s] election as provincial governor, happened in 2007. In fact, the petitioner was reelected in 2010 and 2013.” “All of these material dates preceded [Jejomar Erwin S.] Binay [the case which abandoned prospectively the condonation doctrine in 2015]. There can be no doubt therefore that the circumstances of the petitioner’s case transpired prior to Binay,” the CA said. “The acts complained of and the date of filing of the complaint against the petitioner were prior to the promulgation of Binay in 2015. The alleged act of condonation, that is, his election as governor in 2007 and his reelection in 2010 and 2013, also preceded Binay,” it added. The CA noted that during the periods material to the instant case, the Aguinaldo doctrine (condonation doctrine) “would still be good law.” “While the May 2019 election cannot be considered as the act of condonation, it evidences, nonetheless, the proclivity of the body politic of the Third District of Nueva Ecija to put their trust on the petitioner. The petitioner was elected not once, but four times from the time when he committed the acts complained of in 2005,” the CA said. “The Court is thus precluded from imposing the penalty for the administrative liability of the petitioner. This covers not just the principal penalty of removal from public service but includes the accessory penalties as well, such as the perpetual disqualification to hold public office,” it ruled.

nessMirror in a SMS. The DOLE has allocated P5.5 million for the Tupad program of the initially 500 identified displaced Star City employees. Tutay said they could still adjust the amount for the program depending on the number of workers they will be able to profile.

A4 Monday, October 7, 2019 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Hike Citira aid for displaced workers—group By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

& Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

HE country’s largest labor group on Sunday demanded the allocation of more government funds for workers who may be displaced by the passage of a bill that mandates the rationalization of fiscal incentives. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the proposed P500-million government aid for workers that may lose their jobs due to the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira) is “too small.” “The P500 million yearly budget for Citira-displaced workers is highly insufficient compared with the dayto-day expenses amid rising cost of living created by the TRAIN [Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion] law,” said TUCP President Raymond

Mendoza in a statement. Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said the amount will be used for the skills training of the affected workers. Salceda said last month that the money is not needed as the passage of Citira will not result in job losses. A business group estimated over 700,000 workers will be retrenched if the Citira bill is enacted as it will remove fiscal incentives in economic zones in exchange for lower corporate income taxes (CIT). Government officials are mum on the possible displacement of workers following the passage of the bill, but they said the measure will generate 1.5 million in “net employment.” The TUCP criticized the administration for its “cavalier response” to the issue, which could affect the employment of thousands of workers. “Our white-collared [Department of] Finance people are again deliberately playing dice on the lives of

workers and their families by dangling an annual budget provisions for displaced workers and by sugarcoating Citira with a million jobs it will supposedly create,” Mendoza said. He called on the government to conduct more public consultations, which should include labor groups, before the measure is approved by Congress. Mendoza said issues that should be clarified during the consultations are the budget that should be allocated for workers that may be displaced by Citira as well as the number of companies and workers that may be affected by the measure. The TUCP said the administration should come up with a “genuine transition program” for the affected workers.

‘Wider income gap’

THE Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said the Citira bill, formerly known as the Trabaho (Tax Reform

for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities) bill, will worsen inequality in the country. FDC said the government is giving businesses a tax gift in the form of the reduction in corporate income taxes. This is “regressive taxation” which punishes the poor who pays more due to the value-added tax (VAT) law and the TRAIN law. This will increase inequality in the Philippines where the country’s Gini coefficient is already at 0.4439 as of 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality where zero indicates perfect equality and 1, perfect inequality. “As it is, the top 50 corporate families have wealth equivalent to .0000021 percent of the aggregate wealth of the 23 million families. The Philippines is clearly one of the most unequal societies of the world. With Citira, inequality will deepen further,” FDC Executive

Director Zeena Bello Manglinong said in a statement. Manglinong said the Department of Finance’s own data showed that the country loses P300 billion annually from foregone corporate income taxes. FDC said Citira provisions on the reduction of CIT are “unnecessary and archaic, quick-fix scheme such as tax competition.” It added that the claim of the government that the country’s CIT is the highest in the region is “inaccurate.” “FDC research also shows that some claims of the government are not exactly accurate. Vietnam’s CIT is at 20 percent, but what is often failed to be mentioned is that this is merely a floor rate. Vietnam’s CIT rate goes as high as 32 percent to 50 percent, especially for oil, mining and gas companies,” the group said. However, FDC said it agreed with the Citira provision of removing

perpetual incentives to companies. While fiscal incentives should not be forever and must be “performance-bound and time-bound” as well as “efficient,” the group said Citira’s “foreign direct investmentsfinanced development paradigm” remains “dangerous” to the economy. This, FDC said, must be replaced by one that is based on “high valueadded, technology-enabled manufacturing and services sectors.” “The Freedom from Debt Coalition believes that the way forward is an industrial policy that purposely builds up the capacity of domestic firms to develop and compete,” FDC said. “This must also mean that our method of taxation must also follow suit. We cannot pretend that technocrats in government have the sole solution to issues plaguing our country. It is time that we step forward with an alternative,” it added.

Gatchalian to DOTr: Revisit public-utility vehicle modernization program By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

OVERNMENT regulators in the Department of Transportation (DOTr) must “go back to the drawing board” and revisit its public utility vehicle modernization program (PUVMP) as transport groups are lukewarm to it, according to Sena-

tor Sherwin T. Gatchalian. Presiding over the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the DOTr’s proposed P147-billion budget for 2020, Gatchalian grilled DOTr officials to justify funding for programs billed to “modernize and rationalize” the present public transport system launched last 2015. The senator zeroed in on the “slow rollout of the program since its incep-

tion,” noting the program’s dismal 4 percent disbursement rate. Gatchalian cited the negative “common feedback” reaching his office on the difficulty of complying with document requirements to get financing with interest rates also deemed to be “too high.” “The common feedback that we are getting is that it is too difficult to

comply with the documents required apart from too high interest rates,” the senator pointed out. (“Ang feedback nakukuha ko ay napakahirap daw magcomply sa mga dokumento pagdating sa isyu ng financing,” he said. “The interest rates set by banks are too high and the technology required, the cashless payment, it is difficult,” Gatchalian added. He said this only means that “we really have to revisit this program.” “On top of revisiting the strategy itself,” he added, “we also have to revisit the program itself. There are many bottlenecks [in the implementation of the program] that is why the take up is really slow.” This developed as DOTr Undersecretary Mark Richmund M. de Leon told senators during a hearing that the department is eyeing to replace half of the PUJs in the country in the next three years, which are old and dilapidated.

Data from the DOTr shows that public-utility buses (PUBs) and publicutility jeepneys (PUJs) serve 67 percent of demand but use 28 percent of road space. There are 234,739 PUJs nationwide, of which 90 percent are at least 15 years old. At the same time, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said the agency has put in place subsidies to encourage PUJ operators to replace their old jeepneys with modern and environmental-friendly vehicles. Tugade estimated that the cheapest units valued at around P900,000 will have an amortization of P500 per day. The larger nits valued at P1.6 million, will have an amortization of P1,000 per day. The DOTr reported that at least 575 units had been provided with loans amounting to P1 billion, while P2.4 billion are now in the pipeline for application for 1,238 units. At present, there are already 2,595 units operat-

Banana. . . continued from a1 “From the highway to the back of the El Canto road, once you cross that entire deep, you will see all affected banana farms, [all the] banana trees [have been cut down]. It is just a stone’s throw from our farm, it is just across the street,” he added.

Held in abeyance

MINDANAO Development Authority (MinDA) Chairman Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror that Jubahib has agreed to hold in abeyance the demolition, scheduled on October 7, until the two officials meet this week. “I talked to Gov. Jubahib and I asked him to defer the demolition until such time we meet to resolve the problem,” Piñol said. “I am scheduled to meet him on Wednesday in his office. I will try to resolve the problem by getting the parties—provincial government and Tadeco—to a meeting,” Piñol added. Sought for comment, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar told the BusinessMirror that he “has yet to appreciate the developments” concerning Tadeco. “No comments yet,” Dar said via SMS.

TRO sought

VADIL said they are hoping that a regional trial court would grant their petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO).

Tadeco had argued that DILG’s Memorandum Circular 2019-121 doesn’t cover farm roads, which is the classification of the El Canto road. Vadil added that the road itself is owned by the BuCor. “BuCor actually wrote to the governor...and showed proof that the road is not publicly owned. There is no whatever instrument of transferring of right over the property,” he said. Vadil added that they wrote to Dar and Piñol last week to seek their interventions in the issue.

lion boxes (around 400,000 metric tons) of bananas annually, which are all shipped abroad. Based on BusinessMirror’s computations, Tadeco alone accounts for at least 11 percent of the country’s total cavendish exports, which reached 3.4 million MT last year. Vadil noted that some farms in Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte, are suffering from the devastation of Fusarium wilt, with some plantations already shut down.

No banana, no export

THE establishment of biosecurity facilities, Vadil stressed, are mandated by existing government rules and regulations to prevent the spread of Fusarium wilt. The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Special Quarantine Administrative Order 01-2012 declared the province of Davao del Norte as infected with Fusarium wilt and placed under quarantine. Under that order, banana plantations are obliged to implement quarantine and border control measures such as checkpoints and installation of wheel and foot baths. In fact, Vadil noted that they could face penalties if their biosecurity facilities are removed, since the implementation of such were mandated not only by the BPI order but also by a provincial ordinance.

SHOULD their biosecurity measures, such as foot and tire baths, be removed for “road clearing,” Tadeco would be at risk of being infected by Panama disease, Vadil said. And, if their farm gets hit by the dreaded fungi, then their total banana output could be wiped-out, effectively losing some of their market shares abroad, he added. “We could really lose our production once we get hit by Panama disease. It spreads in a matter of minutes, plus it is soil-borne. Once we get hit by the disease, there’s no stopping anymore,” he said. “Well, no bananas, no export,” he added. Vadil said the firm manages about 6,000 hectares of banana plantation yielding around 28 million to 30 mil-

Infra. . . continued from a12 Inadequate infrastructure, Susantono said, also limits the access of businesses to finance and financial services, and blocks efforts to remove excessive and unnecessary regulations in product, labor and financial markets. “Poor infrastructure connectivity hinders a country’s competitiveness

ing in 320 routes while over 130,000 members consolidated themselves into 952 cooperatives. DeLeonalsotoldthesenatorsthatthe adoptionofnewerPUJshadbeensuccessfulinTaguig,towhichthelawmakerfrom Valenzuela replied: “Taguig is not the whole Philippines. We need to determine how many jeepneys are needed. That is a more scientific and methodical way.” “The senators support this program. You have our support. All we need is to understand the strategy of replacing the PUVs on the basis of root cause analysis,” Gatchalian added. The DOTr was tasked to provide the Senate the results of its root cause analysis in one month. “I want this before we hear this in plenary. We are giving you approximately almost one month. Before we hear it in plenary, I want you to submit this, because the amount we are talking about is a huge amount,” he said.

globally. Limited access to finance and financial services also creates a problem for most firms, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises,” Susantono said. Countries in the region, including the Philippines, Susantono said, could benefit greatly from becoming part of GVCs. These are “networks

Mandated by government

of production across different countries that share different stages of the production process through trade.” Susantono quoted the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as saying about 70 percent of international trade involves GVCs.

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‘Chicharon’ maker Lapid’s eyes AAA slaughter house by 2021

HICHARON manufacturer RL Foods Corp. (RLFC) said it plans to put up a AAA slaughter house by 2021 in partnership with Charoen Pokphand Foods Philippines Corp. (CP Foods) to meet the growing demand for meat products here and abroad. RL Foods President and Owner Rey Lapid said they plan to establish a billion-peso AAA slaughter house in Luzon to be able to cut hogs according to specifications of clients. RL Foods, for its R. Lapid’s chicharon, is a contract-grower of CP Foods with at least 10,000 pigs in its herd, Lapid added. “My partner has a plan to build a [Triple A] slaughter house here. [With that] they would be able to cut any specifics or any part of pigs,” Lapid told reporters in a recent interview. “They told me it’s about a billion. They are looking also for a good partner, [the project] is still being planned,” Lapid added. Lapid said they will meet with the Department of Agriculture (DA) to discuss CP Foods’ proposal. “[CP Foods] are also expecting support from the government. I’m expecting [it to be completed] by 2021. I’m sure it’s going to move forward,” he added. Slaughterhouses in the country are categorized as “A,” “AA” and “AAA.” “A” slaughterhouses are those allowed to cater within city or municipality where they are located, while pork from “AA” slaughterhouses is suitable for domestic consumption. “AAA” slaughterhouses are those

with facilities and operational procedures appropriate for the domestic and international markets.

ASF-free

Lapid said he has not observed any decline or slowdown in sales for his chicharon products amid the African swine fever (ASF) scare in the country. Lapid pointed out that demand for his products, both locally and internationally, is even growing. “Maraming addict sa chicharon [a lot of people eat chicharon]. Consumption is even increasing like in supermarkets and especially in S&R, it’s really increasing,” he said. “I am even at a shortage right now. My problem is that [raw materials] are too expensive,” he added. RL Foods imports about 150 metric tons (MT) of raw materials, such as pork rind, from England, France and Spain, which are all free from ASF. In separate statement, RL Foods assured its consumers that its products, chicharon and barbeque, are “processed from raw materials that are free from” ASF. “In partnership with accredited meat importers governed by the National Meat Inspection Service, we assure that only raw materials of safest and optimum quality from ASF-free countries are used for the production of our chicharon and barbeque products which undergo intensive screening and clearances,” the firm said in a statement posted on its web site. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

THRIVING INDUSTRY Thousands of native ducks troop to their cage in San Andres, Santiago City in Isabela province where they will be fed by their caretaker. The salted egg industry is one of the booming enterprises in the city. CEASAR M. PERANTE

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, October 7, 2019 A5

Rice farmers in 23 provinces to plant other crops–PRIR By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

total of 23 provinces will shift from planting rice to other crops and hog raising based on the draft of an industry road map crafted by the government which details its strategies for boosting the competitiveness of the rice sector. The Philippine Rice Industry Roadmap, which the government is currently finalizing, indicated that the 23 provinces are more competitive in producing other agricultural products. The crafting of the PRIR was mandated by the rice trade liberalization law, which took effect on March 5. Under the draft PRIR, the government will prioritize public investments, particularly the roll out of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), in 57 out of the 80 rice-

producing provinces in the country. The draft blueprint will still undergo further contextual analysis before it is submitted to the chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The latest draft was based on previous consultations with rice industry stakeholders, which was started during the time of former Agriculture Chief Emmanuel F. Piñol. Using a set of criteria, the DA identified “high-priority” provinces that would benefit from government programs that aim to make production

in their localities more competitive. The criteria covered yield, area harvested, cost of production, and percentage of irrigated area harvested, according to the draft blue print. These high-priority provinces, according to the road map, “have medium to high yield” (above 3 metric tons per hectare) and their palay production costs are less than P16.94 per kilogram, the break-even farm-gate price under the new rice trade regime. “The remaining 23 provinces, which are not included in the priority for rice, will be the focus of support for transitioning rice players in these provinces to other crops and industries that are mainly produced in their localities,” read the draft road map, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror. Under the road map, the 23 nonpriority rice provinces would be transitioned to various commodities and industries, such as abaca, banana, cassava, cattle, coconut, high value vegetables, livestock, poultry and rubber. The 23 non-priority rice provinces that would undergo transition are: Catanduanes (abaca), Abra (ba-

nana), Apayao and Tawi-Tawi (cassava), Batanes, Guimaras, Sulu (banana), Eastern Samar (coconut) and Benguet (high-value vegetables). Rizal, Marinduque, Romblon, Camarines Norte, Siquijor, Northern Samar, Camiguin, Surigao del Norte, and Dinagat Islands, Cebu and Batangas will shift to hog rearing and poultry-raising. Farmers in Mountain Province will be encouraged to plant potatoes and high-value vegetables. Those in Zamboanga del Norte will be asked to go into poultry-raising, while Basilan planters will cultivate rubber. The PRIR is seen as a crucial instrument that will help farmers transition to a liberalized trade regime. Under the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law, the road map shall guide the government’s programs, particularly those funded by the RCEF, for the rice industry. The law mandates that rice tariff collections exceeding P10 billion could be used for “productivity-enhancement programs for rice farmers seeking to diversify production toward other crops.”

Local MSMEs to participate in China’s import expo in Nov

hilippine micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will return to China’s premiere import expo where they will showcase the country’s top food products in November, according to the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem). Citem, an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said the second edition of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) will open its doors to around 3,000 companies from over 150 countries and regions at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China. Of the seven categories under CIIE’s business exhibition, the Philippines will be exhibiting as part of the Food and Agricultural products sector. The participation,

organized by the DTI, is now composed of more than 30 exhibitors set to showcase a wide range of topnotch products and services aimed at China’s fast-growing health and wellness market. Participating firms from the Philippines’s food and beverage sectors will be exhibiting under the FoodPhilippines banner. Citem noted that the Philippine delegation in the expo is mostly made up of MSMEs. This, the agency said, is in line with the government’s push to further strengthen small businesses. “CIIE serves as a perfect example of China’s efforts to further open its market to foreign trade, as well as a new trading platform that promotes the advancement of the overall global economy,” said

Trade Undersecretary Abdulgani Macatoman in a statement. “It provides great opportunities for our MSMEs to grow their businesses beyond their local operations and capture more sectors of China’s developing market as the Philippines continues to strengthen its bilateral relations with China,” Macatoman added. DTI-Citem, together with its partner agencies, will focus on a smaller MSME and business delegation as they continue to develop this year’s participants for export competitiveness in both the Chinese and global markets. T he p a r t i c i p at io n o f t he MSMEs was organized by the DTI-Citem in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, the Export Marketing Bureau and

the Philippine Trade and Investment Centers in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Exporters from the food and agricultural sectors interested in joining this year’s CIIE are encouraged to contact Citem. Currently one of the largest and fast-developing economies in the world, thanks to its large population, China continues its initiatives for economic openness, globalization and international cooperation through the CIIE. Citing a report by Euromonitor, Citem noted that China’s projected economic growth for 2019 through 2021 puts it ahead of the United States in the global economy leader board, further augmenting the befits of potential export deals with the country.

European vineyards, cheesemakers react to blow from US tariffs

panish winemaker Baron de Ley SA has made the United States a priority for exports as it seeks out new markets to help cushion the blow of Brexit—only to face the threat of tariffs. “This news has fallen on us like a dead weight—the US is a young market for us but increasingly important,” said Eduardo Santos-Ruiz, chairman of the vineyard headquartered in a 16th century monastery in the wine-growing region of La Rioja. Baron de Ley relies on export markets for 50 percent of its revenue and last year appointed a new US distributor to help boost sales. Cheeses from France, Italy and the Netherlands, wines, Scotch whisky and Greek canned peaches are just some of the European exports whose prices are set to rise in the US after the Trump administration announced new tariffs on billions of dollars of European Union products starting October 18. The World Trade Organization gave President Donald J. Trump’s administration the go-ahead to impose tariffs on as much as $7.5 billion ($8.2 billion) of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus. The news hit European producers already struggling with other challenges, including the United Kingdom’s potential exit without a deal from the EU. Spain’s Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned the US ambassador in Madrid Duke Buchan III to complain about the tariffs. “It is possible that the US decision could spark EU retaliatory measures,

but we think that neither the EU nor the US should engage in a trade war that would weaken both sides,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio said in a letter to Italian companies. “What is at stake is the success of our companies, the benefits for all the countries of the world that want to buy from them and the economy of our country.” Here are some European reactions to the news of potential US tariffs: France: “By taxing non-fizzy wine, cheese and French pork with additional duty of 25 percent, it is affecting a market worth more than €1 billion,” the French farmers’ lobby FNSEA said in a statement. “But the overall repercussions are much more significant and impact the whole single market, with potentially devastating indirect consequences.” Italy: Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Italy would work at EU level to avert US tariffs. “The US is definitely the most important market for wine globally and if tariffs are confirmed they could create very significant damage,” said Roberto Giannelli, a wine producer in Tuscany’s Montalcino region and owner of the San Filippo Montalcino winery. Spain: Spain’s government estimates the tariffs will affect €1 billion worth of agricultural and food exports to the US, Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said. The US represents 10 percent of exports from Spain’s Rioja wine region, generating €62 million of sales, according to Iñigo Torres, manager of Grupo Rioja, an association grouping

Cheese on display at a sales counter in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, southern-western France. Bloomberg

most of the region’s wineries. “Tariffs are supposed to be enforced very soon, so we didn’t have the time to speed up shipping to avert them,” said Torres. “We want to have the best transatlantic relations, in this case with the US,” Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said. “But I also have to say that my responsibility is to defend, in this case, the agricultural sector from any type of tariff blow that we might see in the coming weeks.” Greece: Producers of canned peaches will suffer from the tariffs, dealing a blow to growers who had been counting on boosting shipments to the US because of its trade dispute with China. Greece has exported about $50 million of canned fruit to the US annually for the last seven or eight years. “It’s a domino for both farmers and manufacturers,” said Kostas Apostolou, head of the Greek

Canners Association. Portugal: “We’re worried because it will affect exports of cheese to the US,” said Maria Candida Marramaque, director of Anil, an association that represents the dairy industry in Portugal. Portugal exports about €3 million of cheese to the US every year, representing about 1 percent of its dairy exports. The Netherlands: About half of Dutch cheese exports to the US will be affected by US import duties on EU goods, according to the ministry of foreign trade. The Netherlands exported €80 million of cheese to the US in 2018. Import duty of 25 percent will affect about €39 million of those exports from October 18. Germany: “It’s unacceptable for me that our farmers are being dragged into a fight about aircraft subsidies and are being made the main victims,” Agriculture

Minister Julia Kloeckner was cited as saying by Top Agrar web site. Ireland: “Any new trade tariff is an unwelcome barrier to doing business and will have a significant cost impact on our business,” said Ornua Co-operative Ltd., the maker of Kerrygold. The United Kingdom: “The UK government is clear that resorting to tariffs is not in the interests of the UK, EU or US,” Britain’s Department for International Trade said in a statement. “The tariff will undoubtedly damage the Scotch Whisky sector,” the Scotch

Whisky Association said in a statement. “The US is our largest and most valuable single market, and over £1 billion of Scotch Whisky was exported there last year. The tariff will put our competitiveness and Scotch Whisky’s market share at risk.” European Union: “We deeply regret that the agricultural sector is once again paying the bill for a political decision on trade that has nothing to do with agriculture,” Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of Copa-Cogeca, the main European farm-lobby group, said in a statement. Bloomberg News

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A8 Monday, October 7, 2019

Editor: Angel R. Calso

kills tariff loophole in latest Emerging-market yield hunt will Trump blow to renewable-energy industry trump trade wars for now–survey T

he hunt for yield is still on in emerging markets. And, as that plays out, expect Asia to outperform.

Those are the main findings of Bloomberg’s quarterly survey of 54 global investors, strategists and traders on their outlook for developing-nation assets. The trade dispute between the United States and China remains a key concern. But looser monetary policy among major central banks will still push investors toward riskier assets over the rest of the year, according to the survey. Stocks and bonds in Asia have

the brightest prospects, while the Brazilian real and Russian ruble were the top picks for currencies. Argentina was the least-favored nation for all asset classes. “The direction of global growth is pointing downward and that’s a negative for risk assets,” said Satoru Matsumoto, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Asset Management One Co., which oversees about $500 billion. “But we all have to find higher yields somewhere.”

Survey results

Emerging-market assets have just come through what was their worst quarter in 2019, as investors fretted over trade wars and the rising risk of a global recession. MSCI Inc.’s index of currencies is poised for a second yearly loss, while a measure of stocks is holding on to a 2.9 percent gain for the year. With central banks turning more dovish and inflation in emerging markets slowing, a Bloomberg Barclays index of local-currency bonds is still keeping a year-to-date gain of 4 percent. After the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates for a second time this year in mid-September, the focus began shifting to the trade war as the main focus for emerging-market watchers. The imposition of tariffs has hit growth in emerging

markets, prompting authorities into action to contain the fallout. The World Trade Organization cut its global trade-growth forecast for 2019 to the weakest level in a decade, while the International Monetary Fund expects a more significant economic slowdown than it did three months ago. Asia kept its top positions for currencies and stocks, and overtook Latin America for bonds. Europe, Middle East and Africa remained the leastfavored region across all asset classes. The Brazilian real’s become the EM currency most likely to outperform, while Asian high-yielder Indonesia remained the top pick for bonds. For equities, China kept the No. 1 ranking for the third straight quarter, while India overtook Brazil as the second-most favored stock market. Bloomberg News

he Trump administration dealt a fresh blow to renewable-energy developers on Friday by stripping away an exemption the industry was counting on to weather the president’s tariffs on imported panels. The US Trade Representative said on Friday it was eliminating a loophole granted about four months ago for bifacial solar panels, which generate electricity on both sides. They’ll now be subject to the duties Trump announced on imported equipment in early 2018, currently at 2 percent. The change takes effect on October 28. The exclusion had been a reprieve for the solar industry, which lost thousands of jobs and put projects on ice as a result of the tariffs. Some panel manufacturers had already begun shifting supply chains to produce more bifacial panels. Stripping the exemption represents a setback to developers building big US solar projects. American panel makers First Solar Inc. and SunPower Corp. will meanwhile regain an edge on foreign competitors.

“The solar tariffs are back,” Tara Narayanan, an analyst at BloombergNEF, said in an interview on Friday. “US solar developers cannot buy products with lower costs and higher output as they briefly thought they could.” First Solar, the largest US solar panel maker, and SunPower both gained in after-markets trading late Friday. “The withdraw of tariff exemption for bifacial will cool down its popularity in the US a little, but not stop the rise of the technology, which introduces improved economics even without tariff exemption,” said Xiaoting Wang, a solar analyst. Developers that have used bifacial panels and stand to take a hit from ending the exclusion include Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. and Swinerton Inc. While bifacial panels accounted for just 3 percent of the solar market last year, BloombergNEF had projected a swift ramp-up in production as manufacturers tried to insulate themselves from US tariffs. Bloomberg News

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Australia rejects US govt request for extradition of Iranian student

USTRALIA has rejected a United States extradition request for an Iranian student who had been accused of conspiring to smuggle electronic military devices to his homeland. “I considered that, in all the circumstances of this particular case, Mr. Dehbashi Kivi should not ultimately be extradited to the United States,” Atty.-General Christian Porter said in a statement on Saturday, the same day Iran released two Australian students accused of spying in that country. Porter’s office declined to comment on whether there had been a prisoner swap between the nations. “While it is likely that because of Mr. Kivi’s nationality some will speculate regarding this matter, consistent with prior practice I do not intend to comment further on the particular details of this case, particularly when any such response from me may diminish our government’s capacity to deal with future matters of this type in Australia’s best interests,” he said. The Brisbane Times reported in May that Kivi had appeared in a local court after lawyers for the US government applied for his extradition for allegedly conspiring to export “defense articles designated under the US munitions list” for the Iranian government. On Saturday, Iranian news service FARS reported that Kivi had been released and returned to Iran after being detained in Australia since September 2018. Porter’s office declined to confirm that or give details on why he rejected the US extradition request. Australians Mark Firkin and Jolie King thanked their government for securing their release on Saturday. They had been posting their journey through South Asia

and the Middle East when they were detained by Iranian authorities for allegedly using a drone to take footage of a military site. Negotiations are continuing to secure the freedom of a third Australian detained in Iran, Melbournebased university lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told reporters in Sydney on Saturday. “She has been detained for some considerable time and has faced the Iranian legal system and has been convicted and sentenced,” she said, adding that Australia doesn’t accept the charges against her. Iran’s often competing intelligence agencies have a long record of targeting Iranians with dual nationality as well as foreign nationals, detaining them on vague security charges and then using them to gain leverage in negotiations with Western countries, often over financial and political disputes. Australia announced in August it would join a US-led coalition to protect ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz as tensions between Iran and the West escalated. In a travel advisory for Iran, Australia warns of a risk of foreigners being arbitrarily detained or arrested in the nation. Iran’s history of detaining foreign nationals has been condemned by human rights groups as akin to hostage-taking, and there’s evidence its use has increased as Iranian authorities fight back against a US-led economic offensive. American sanctions are steadily collapsing the 2015 nuclear deal which ended the Islamic Republic’s isolation. European efforts led by France to save the accord are foundering, while the tit for tat seizing by UK and Iranian forces of oil tankers sparked a diplomatic storm between the two. Bloomberg News

N. Korea decries breakdown of talks US says were ‘good’

ELSINKI—North Korea’s chief negotiator said that nuclear talks with the United States had broken down, but Washington maintained the two sides had “good discussions” in Sweden that it intends to build on in two weeks. The North Korean negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, said the talks in Stockholm on Saturday had “not fulfilled our expectations and broke down. I am very displeased about it.” Speaking outside the North Korean Embassy, he said that negotiations broke down “entirely because the US has not discarded its old stance and attitude” and came to a negotiating table with an “empty hand.” Saturday’s talks were the first between the US and North Korea since the February breakdown of the second summit between President Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. The two leaders held a brief, impromptu meeting at the Korean border in late June and agreed to restart diplomacy. North Korea has since resumed missile and other weapons tests, including the first test of an underwater-launched missile in three years that fell inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone Wednesday. State Department Spokesman Morgan Ortagus said Kim’s comments did “not reflect the content or the spirit” of the “good discussions” that took place over 8 1/2 hours, adding that the US accepted an invitation from Sweden to return to Stockholm in two weeks to continue discussions. Kim, the North Korean negotiator, said North Korea proposed a suspension of talks until December. The Vietnam summit fell apart because Trump rejected Kim Jong Un’s calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for dismantling his main nuclear complex, a partial disarmament step. North Korea has since demanded the US come up

with mutually acceptable proposals to salvage the nuclear diplomacy by the end of this year. During the Stockholm meeting, Kim Myong Gil said North Korea made it clear that the two countries can discuss next denuclearization steps by North Korea if the US “sincerely responds” to the previous North Korean measures including the suspension of nuclear and longrange missile tests and closing its underground nuclear testing site. He called the North Korean stance “practical and reasonable.” Kim repeated North Korea’s previous statement that the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will only be possible when “all hurdles endangering our safety and obstructing our development are removed clearly and undoubtedly.” He said whether North Korea will lift its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests is completely up to the US. North Korea has said it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with a US military threat. Before entering nuclear disarmament negotiations early last year, North Korea had argued it won’t abandon its nuclear program unless the US withdraw its 28,500 troops from South Korea, end its military drills with South Korea and take other steps that guarantee North Korea’s security. In a statement, Ortagus said the US delegation “previewed a number of new initiatives that would allow us to make progress in each of the four pillars” of a joint statement issued after Trump and Kim’s first summit in Singapore. “The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula through the course of a single Saturday,” Ortagus said. The DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name. AP

Monday, October 7, 2019 A9

Tens of thousands protest as bid to block Hong Kong mask ban fails

PROTESTERS carrying umbrellas march past a pedestrian bridge displaying vandalized photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping and communist party flags in Hong Kong on Sunday, October 6, 2019. A group of prodemocracy Hong Kong legislators filed a legal challenge against the government’s use of a colonial-era emergency law to criminalize the wearing of masks at rallies to quell anti-government demonstrations, which diminished in intensity but didn’t stop. AP PHOTO/VINCENT YU

ONG KONG—Shouting “Wearing mask is not a crime,” tens of thousands of protesters braved the rain on Sunday to march in central Hong Kong as a court rejected a second legal attempt to block a mask ban aimed at quashing violence during four months of prodemocracy rallies. The ban took force on Saturday, triggering more clashes and destruction over the last two days in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. A teen protester was shot in the thigh on Friday night after an off-duty police officer fired his pistol in self-defense. Lawmaker Dennis Kwok said the High Court refused to grant an injunction on the mask ban, but it agreed to hear later this month an application by 24 legislators against Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s use of emergency

powers to impose the measure by circumventing the legislature. The embattled leader has said the ban on masks, which allows radical protesters to conceal their identity, was needed to stop widespread violence that “semi-paralyzed” the city. It is also the biggest challenge for Chinese President Xi Jinping since the former British colonial returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Many malls, shops and the entire MTR network of subways and trains shut Saturday following the overnight rampage. About half of the city’s 94 subway stations reopened on Sunday but many malls, especially in the Causeway Bay shopping district, remained shuttered as thousands of protesters marched with umbrellas and most of them wearing masks in defiance. Critics fear the use of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance that

gives Lam broad powers to implement any measures she deems necessary in an emergency would pave the way for more draconian regulations. The law was enacted by British colonial rulers in 1922 to quell a seamen’s strike and last used in 1967 to crush riots. Lam has not ruled out further measures if violence continues. “This emergency law is so ancient and draconian. Carrie Lam is using it as some sort of weapon of mass destruction to nuke Hong Kong,” said legislator Claudia Mo. Even though the court rejected the legal challenge, Kwok and Mo welcomed the decision to expedite the hearing. The court didn’t give any dates but indicated it would be at the end of this month. “This is a constitutional case. The court has acknowledged there is controversy involving the use of

the emergency law,” Mo said. Lam has said she will seek the backing of the legislature when it resumes October 16. Mo called it a sham because only Lam has the power to repeal the mask ban under the emergency law. Many protesters who wore masks said Sunday the ban curtailed their freedom of expression. The ban applies to both illegal and police-approved gatherings, and carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine. “Carrie Lam is not the god of Hong Kong. She can’t do anything she likes,” said retiree Patricia Anyeung, who marched with her sister, Rebecca. Both wore masks. She said she has marched for months and won’t be cowed. “They can’t arrest us all. There are thousands of us,” she said. “There is no going back, we are at the point of no return.” Patricia Anyeung, who described herself as a wealthy retiree with a United Kingdom passport, said she may leave if Hong Kong’s freedom is extinguished. Some protesters spray painted the word “resist” along a pavement. Many peaceful demonstrators say violence has become a means to an end, the only way for young masked protesters to force the government to bend to clamors for full democracy and other demands. But the shooting of the teen Friday night—the second victim of gunfire since the protests began in early June—stoked fears of more bloody confrontations. An 18-year-old protester was also shot at close range by a riot police officer on Tuesday. He has been charged with rioting and assaulting police while the younger teen has been arrested. The protest movement that started in June over a now abandoned bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited for trial in mainland China has snowballed into an anti-China movement as protesters demand for more democratic rights including direct elections for the city’s leader and police accountability. AP

Impeachment inquiry dirt rattles State Department

ASHINGTON—The State Department has been deeply shaken by the rapidly escalating impeachment inquiry, as revelations that President Donald J. Trump enlisted diplomats to dig up dirt on a political rival threaten to tarnish its reputation as a nonpartisan arm of United States foreign policy, former senior officials say. A department where morale was already low under a president who, at times, has seemed hostile to its mission is now reeling from days of disclosures that place it at the center of an escalating political scandal, according to former diplomats who fear that the turmoil will damage American foreign policy objectives around the world. “This has just been a devastating three years for the Department of State,” said Heather Conley, a senior policy adviser at the State Department under President George H. W. Bush. “You can just feel there is a sense of disbelief. They don’t know who will be subpoenaed next.” The first blow was the release of a rough transcript of the July 25, call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump pressed for an investigation of the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic rival. In the call, Trump also disparaged the former US ambassador to Ukraine, who was removed from her job in May amid a campaign coordinated by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Thursday saw the release of text messages between Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker and two senior diplomats as they scrambled to accommodate Giuliani’s campaign to leverage American support for Ukraine in a search for potential political dirt. “This is only the latest in a large number of very damaging things that have been done to the State Department,” said Thomas Pickering, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and Russia under Bush. “It represents a new

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks during a joint news conference with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, following their meeting in Athens on Saturday, October 5, 2019. Pompeo is in Greece on the last leg of a four-nation European tour that has been overshadowed by the impeachment inquiry in Washington. AP PHOTO/THANASSIS STAVRAKIS

low in basically ignoring and indeed punishing the people who have made a professional commitment to the country and Constitution.” With Washington in tumult over the escalating impeachment inquiry, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Europe, where he mostly tried to ignore the furor back home. But he weighed in Saturday while in Greece, calling the inquiry “clearly political” and saying the actions of the State Department were aimed solely at improving relations with the new government of Ukraine. “We know exactly what we were doing there. We were trying to create a situation where there wouldn’t be a corrupt government.” Earlier in the week, Pompeo had acknowledged for the first time that he had been on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy. “I’m on almost every phone call with the president with every world leader. The president has every right to have these set of conversations,” Pompeo said Saturday. House Democrats launched the impeachment

probe over the Ukraine matter after a government whistle-blower disclosed Trump’s call with Zelenskiy and the push to have a foreign government interfere in US elections by digging up dirt on Biden. Trump has sought, without evidence, to implicate Biden and his son Hunter in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son. Trump has had a tense relationship with the State Department since he took office, repeatedly proposing to slash its budget, leaving key posts unfulfilled and choosing political appointees over career foreign service officers for ambassadorships to a greater degree than other recent presidents have. His ouster of US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a respected career officer, and his dismissal of her as “bad news” in the call left many diplomats dismayed. “This is a work force that already feels besieged and undercut and in a perpetual defensive crouch,” said Derek Chollet, a former senior policy adviser in the Defense Department and State Department. “The lack of a vigorous defense of her is a signal that they are very vulnerable here. It just confirms their worst fears.” Conley, now a program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the State Department had settled down a bit under Pompeo following the chaotic early part of the administration under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But now, she said, diplomats are conflicted and confused because everything has happened outside normal channels, with no regard for longheld processes. AP

A10 Monday, October 7, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

The news story you do not want to see

hile it may be an oversimplification, it is valid to say that behind every financial crisis is a bad bank. The “Mississippi Bubble” collapse in 1721 was a land speculation and development scheme in the French colonies in North America through the Compagnie du Mississippi. But it was the Banque Générale Privée that held the bubble money.

Global financial services firm Lehman Brothers triggered the 2007 debt crisis when its investments in bad mortgages failed, but it was the global banks that provided Lehman with the money to make those bad loans. The Greek Financial Crisis in the aftermath of 2007 was not all because of external factors. In 2010, it was discovered that “investment” bank Goldman Sachs had arranged financial transactions using derivatives that helped cover up the fact that the government was bankrupt. The last thing you ever want to read is something like this: “India’s PMC Bank created over 21,000 fake accounts to hide bad loans.” “Former chairman of PMC Bank, arrested by Mumbai Police.” “Lessons from the Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank scam.” “The Punjab Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, in India, has been caught cooking the books and misreporting nonperforming loans of Mumbai-based real-estate developer Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd. [HDIL].” PMC Bank is a relatively minor Indian bank founded in 1989 with 130 branches. But do not use the word “minor” to the 900,000 depositors that suddenly could not withdraw their money in the past two weeks. HDIL was a large legitimate property developer primarily in slum redevelopment. However, one major project went bad and this exposed the fact that HDIL and its subsidiaries were the recipients of 44 loans from PMC. The bank was overexposed to HDIL, and HDIL had overborrowed to increase its yet-to-be revenue generating land bank. While the situation is small enough not to ripple through the Indian banking sector, it is greatly disturbing. As one commentator wrote, “Politician-banker nexus, poor corporate governance, and slackness on the part of watchdogs are some of the pressing issues the banking sector must address.” In other words, the pattern of corruption—and there is no better word for it—that has caused other banking-financial crises has not changed. While there have been some important bank failures in the past, the Philippines has been spared major structural problems in the past two decades. The failures have been solved either by a merger or acquisition by a large financially stable bank or through depositor protection through the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. A bank failure of major magnitude is extremely not likely to happen in the Philippines. This is because of two reasons. The five largest banks are: Banco de Oro, Metrobank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Philippine National Bank and LandBank. The first four are publicly listed and controlled by family interests. While not public, LandBank may be state-owned but operates almost as a “family” bank under the Department of Finance, with the DOF secretary as its chairman and other key cabinet secretaries sitting on LandBank’s board. There is tight control of all these banks. The banking industry regulator—Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas—has always maintained a tight relationship with the banks. The banks know that the BSP will not tolerate any foolishness, but the BSP is always working for a cooperative rather than adversarial relationship. Since 2005

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The 30th SEA Games and its purpose Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

ext month, the Philippines will host the actual games or sports to be played under the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, or the 30th SEA Games. Specifically, this regional sporting event will happen from November 30 to December 11. As far as the country is concerned, this is the fourth time that the nation is playing host to this multisport activity. This year, the competitions will happen in different main venues: Metro Manila, Clark, Subic/Olongapo and Tagaytay. The 11 members of the Southeast Asian Games Federation are joining the 2019 SEA Games: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam. A total of 56 sports are going to be played, which makes this year’s SEA Games the biggest in terms of the number of sports included. The country is setting aside at

least P7.5 billion for this event, with P6 billion coming from the government. The rest of the money comes from sponsorship agreements facilitated by the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc). The administration even built a huge, world-class sports complex in New Clark City, which houses the state-of-the-art Aquatics Center and Athletics Stadium, plus the Athletes’ Village where the athletes

Hazing as a heinous crime

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innie and Toti Castillo, parents of Horacio “Atio” Castillo, a 22-year-old freshman law student who died after incurring injuries from hazing-related violence, still recall the opening statement made by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, then-chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, in the Senate Hearing on September 25, 2017. “I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Atio Castillo. By all accounts, Atio was an exceptionally kind young man who pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer with passion of diligence. Unfortunately, this promising young life was cut short before he could even finish his first semester of law school. He will never have the opportunity to proudly show his parents his final exam scores in Constitutional law or Persons and Family Relations. He will never graduate from law school or take the bar. He will never take the lawyer’s oath or sign his name on the Roll of Attorneys. These dreams are forever gone, buried beneath the soil alongside Atio’s bruised and blackened body. Perhaps, in death, Atio

may still make a groundbreaking impact on the law after. “As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said: The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. “It is my sincere hope that the crushing tragedy experienced by Atio and his family will spark real change serving as the catalyst for the passage of legal reforms that will stamp out the sick evil of hazing, once and for all. Atio’s legacy to the law will endure if we can ensure that his death will truly be the last.” This tragic hazing incident that resulted in the death of Atio two years ago on September 16, 2017, in the hands of his fraternity, UST’s Aegis Juris fraternity, led to the passage of Republic Act 11053 or the AntiHazing law of 2018. RA 11053 man-

and other SEA Games personalities will be billeted. One would wonder why the country, with its seemingly endless list of problems and other priorities, would spend this amount of money to host a regional sporting event. Hosting the 30th SEA Games is a task that was previously declined by the original would-be host Brunei because of lack of funding. Well, according to Phisgoc, the country is making this investment to establish the country’s reputation as a premier sports destination. Last October 3, the Philippines received the SEA Games Flame from 2017 host Malaysia in a handover ceremony at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. The lantern carrying the flame will be brought to the Philippines to kickoff various torch run activities in Davao, Cebu and Clark. The official torch for this year’s SEA Games symbolizes unity, sportsmanship, athletic superiority and artistic achievements. One of the Philippines’s esteemed sculptors, Daniel de la Cruz, designed the torch and the medals for the

SEA Games. His torch design shows the national symbols, including the sampaguita, our national flower. It stands for purity, simplicity, humility and strength. I am sure there are many Filipinos who are excited to watch some of the events and offer support to our very own athletes. Tickets for the different events are going to be available for sports fans across Southeast Asia. SM Tickets is the official ticketing outlet, which means that you can buy from their web site and from any of their actual ticket centers nationwide starting October 15. The opening ceremony, to be held at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, happens on November 30. Tickets to this event starts at P1,000. As the main hub of the 2019 SEA Games, Clark is the venue for several sporting events. New Clark City in Clark, Pampanga, offers the newly built Athletics Stadium and Aquatics Center as the venue for the centerpiece sports athletics and swimming. However, Metro Manila will still be hosting most of the sporting events, including basketball, volleyball and weightlifting.

dated an outright ban on all forms of hazing and regulated other forms of initiation rites of fraternities, sororities and other organizations. Under Section 2 of RA 11053, hazing, initiation, organizations and schools are defined as follows: “[a] Hazing refers to any act that results in physical or psychological suffering, harm, or injury inflicted on a recruit, neophyte, applicant, or member as part of an initiation rite or practice made as a prerequisite for admission or a requirement for continuing membership in a fraternity, sorority, or organization, including, but not limited to, paddling, whipping, beating, branding, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is, likely, to adversely affect the physical and psychological health of such recruit, neophyte, applicant, or member. This shall also include any activity, intentionally made or, otherwise, by one person alone or acting with others, that tends to humiliate or embarrass, degrade, abuse, or endanger, by requiring a recruit, neophyte, applicant, or member to do menial, silly or foolish tasks. “[b] Initiation or initiation rites refer to ceremonies, practices, rituals, or other acts, whether formal or informal, that a person must perform or take part in order to be

accepted into a fraternity, sorority, or organization as a full-fledged member. It includes ceremonies, practices, rituals, and other acts in all stages of membership in fraternity, sorority or organization. “[c] Organization refers to an organized body of people which includes, but is not limited to, any club association, group, fraternity and sorority. This terms shall include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Military Academy, the Philippine National Police Academy, and other similar unformed service learning institutions. “[d] Schools refer to colleges, universities and all other educational institutions.” Penalties imposed for violation of RA 11053 include the penalty of reclusion perpetua and a fine of P1 million to P3 million (Section 14). Despite this new Anti-Hazing law, violators remain undeterred and blatantly disregard the law with impunity in the guise of brotherhood and strengthening fraternal bonds. The recent death of Darwin Dormitorio, a 20-yearold Philippine Military Academy plebe and other similar hazing incidents have prompted the filing of Senate Bill 1091 by Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri and House Bill 4922 by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. See “Kapunan,” A11

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The tyranny of numbers Resignation venerated Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

Thomas M. Orbos

THE PATRIOT

STREET TALK

N his book, The Tyranny of Metrics, US historian and sociologist Jerry Muller talks about the dangers of today’s society wherein the preferred path of success is rooted in quantifying human performance, and then reaping rewards based on numbers. Originating sometime during the 1970s, data-based executive decisionmaking became the management tool often turned to even by government managers. However, the zeal to measure achievements and to secure better scorecards has its danger. This happens when managers are being fixated on the numbers themselves and not on the spirit of why the need for measurement was essential in the first place.

There are so many examples of this in the Philippine context. There is the nagging question on the K to 12 program adding a few more years of learning, which may sound good but not necessarily guaranteeing faculty and course quality, therefore resulting in less prepared students for college. Another case is the heralded speed of automated elections but negating questions on the integrity of the votes counted. How about the low unemployment rates but we don’t hear much on underemployment? Or the huge number of overseas Filipino workers bringing in the needed dollars but ignoring the social impact on their families and society in general? Reaching the numbers targeted may do justice to the success of the program, but it does not assure that the spirit of the program is achieved. This, I would like to point out, may be the danger when some of our government transport, traffic and urban planning officers throw the numbers to reinforce the validity of the program they are implementing. Take the case of the current requirement to clear the streets of roadblocks. We are told of the target reached, the numbers of cars towed and illegal vendors taken out, but we are not certain if processes were followed or even if the underlying causes of such violations were valid enough to cause further review. Or this enforcer mentioning their target number of general travel speed if the yellow lanes are strictly enforced; then castigating complaining public commuters as undisciplined while their buses had been lining up for hours. Need we not dwell on the fact that these commuters might lose their jobs because they may come in late for that day? How about the news that several of our

cities landed in the cities with the cleanest air in Southeast Asia? Was it mentioned that we lack enough air-monitoring devices to come out with an accurate measurement? Even the discourse on whether last week’s transport strike was successful or not; the discussion always dwelled on the numbers as the basis of its success or failure. Not the reasons why and not the trouble it may cause. Scorecards do matter, don’t get me wrong. Especially if we are told about forward-looking data like the number of travel time to be reduced if the BRT and the rails are completed or the increase in passenger arrivals when the new airports are fully realized. Or the reduction of traffic incidents if we have a full complement of CCTVs and traffic signaling systems. Even the target reduction of carbon emissions when the jeepney modernization program is finally implemented. Generally, we as human beings need to be measured, believe in such measurements and gauge our successes accordingly. But some of our government officials may need to remind themselves that every number thrown out is a story. And for government to be truly efficient, not to mention true to its mandate of public service, they may need to have that extra effort to listen and validate that story before they even begin to state those numbers. A story that may tell them if they are in the right direction or if the numbers they are targeting or the measurements being used may be alienating the very people they are supposed to serve. Such is the reality that government needs to be aware of. Such is the tyranny of metrics. Thomas “Tim” Orbos can be reached via e-mail thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu.

Kapunan. . .

continued from A10

These bills seek to “recognize hazing as a heinous crime, amending for the purpose RA 7659, as amended, otherwise known as the Death Penalty law.” Under RA 7659, heinous crimes include treason, piracy in general and mutiny on the high seas in Philippine waters, qualified piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, murder, infanticide, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons, destructive arson, rape, plunder, and importation, distribution, manufacturing and possession of illegal drugs. These crimes are considered heinous under RA 7659 “for being grievous, odius and hateful offenses and which by reason of their inherent or manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity are repugnant and outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized and ordered society.” After the abolition of the death penalty by RA 9436 in 2006 under then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, heinous crimes became punishable by Reclusion Perpetua (20 years to 40 years). With the ongoing controversy on whether heinous crimes should be excluded from the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law, the recent deaths from hazing should be considered. A culture of impunity cannot be awarded with pardon, parole or commutation of sentence. One more death from hazing is one death too many!

Conclusion

iven the resignations of its top brass, a new set of leaders in the Philippine Military Academy has been given the inglorious task of “fixing” the issue of hazing. However, can there be any solution to such an imperfect system in the PMA? Every time an untoward incident happens in any organization, who is ultimately responsible? Command responsibility is often used in the military organizations and in international law to hold leaders accountable for the actions of their subordinates. In the Philippine setting, Section 1 of Executive Order (EO) 226 (February 1995) signed by then-President Fidel V. Ramos, provides that any government official of any other law enforcement agency shall be held accountable for “Neglect of Duty” under the doctrine of “command responsibility” if he has knowledge of a crime or offense by his subordinates and, despite such knowledge, the official did not take preventive or corrective action either before, during, or immediately

after its commission. The knowledge element of command responsibility has been a point of contention. In law, constructive knowledge occurs when a person is deemed to have a set of facts that he would have discovered had he made the usual and proper inquiries. If we were to apply the stricter “should have known” standard to ensure greater accountability of superiors for the actions of their subordinates, then the responsibility in the case of a death of any person in the Corps of Cadets of the Armed Forces of the Philippines can theoretically extend to the highest leader of the military organization —the commander in chief.

One year after Joel L. Tan-Torres

DEBIT CREDIT Part Three

epublic Act 9298 (Accountancy Law) was passed in 2004. This most recent piece of legislation that provides for the qualification of certified public accountants (CPA) and rules on the practice of accountancy in the Philippines is now more than 15 years old. The environment where the accountancy profession and its many stakeholders engage in has undergone so many changes over the years. The onset of developments in the areas of globalization, governance and digitalization necessitate revisions in the framework of the accountancy profession in the Philippines. Sometime in April 2016, the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy, with me as chairman, engaged the accountants of the land in consultations to elicit recommendations for the revision of the Accountancy Law. After more than three months of discussions and dialogues with the various

accountancy stakeholders, the BOA was able to compile a detailed list of the suggestions on updating the Accountancy Law to make it responsive to the needs of the times. These suggestions dwelled on several areas, including structural, practice of accountancy, the CPA qualification process and others. For

I’m not eating samgyeopsal anymore

By Jose Lorenzo Lim

ver since I discovered samgyeopsal, I became an instant fan. Samgyeopsal is basically pork belly meat that is cooked on a grill and is originally from Korea. It was one of the most interesting developments in South Korean culture during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 that gave the pork belly the spotlight in South Korean barbeque. Pork belly is a cheaper alternative to beef and, thus, South Koreans ate more at pork belly joints than beef barbeque restaurants. The samgyeopsal craze is now in the Philippines. Samgyeopsal joints in the country are popping up like mushrooms. For around P300 to P500, one can enjoy an unlimited pork or meat assortment that you cook through the grill on your table. There are also a lot of side dishes that waiters place on your table, like sweet potatoes, kimchi, japchae, fish cakes and even steamed egg. Honestly, I don’t eat the side dishes and just have the waiter put them back so they don’t get thrown away. I wonder if other people do the same. This also got me thinking about how some upper- to middle-class Filipinos could spend so much on food and even possibly have unlimited amounts

of this at their disposal, while there is an ongoing crisis in Philippine agriculture. Around the country, we still have food wastage through plate waste. The latest 2015 survey of FNRI (Food and Nutrition Research Institute) showed that a Filipino household has an average food plate waste of 62 grams or 4 tablespoons per day. Cereals and cereal products were highest at 46 grams; fish, meat and poultry is at 8 grams; vegetables at 5 grams; and fruits at 1 gram, among others. Additionally, the 2018 Global Food Security Index places the country 70th among 113 countries in terms of food security. Food security is measured by the GFSI in terms of affordability, availability,

and quality and safety. The GFSI placed the Philippines in the lower rankings since we lack research and development in agriculture. The agriculture sector is really in a dismal state. One indicator is looking at the sector’s gross domestic product growth. In the second quarter of 2019, the agriculture sector had a 0.6-percent growth rate with the fishing subsector contributing to this, while crops like palay and corn had a negative growth of 5.5 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively. Moreover, by looking at the proposed 2020 budget, the agriculture sector only garnered a 1.6 percent share in the total budget compared to infrastructure with 16.6 percent and defense with 9.1 percent. I guess improving the agriculture sector’s productivity is really not on the agenda. The irony in eating at a samgyeopsal joint while we’re having an agricultural crisis isn’t just what bothers me about these places. There’s also an environmental aspect. For one, you’re using charcoal to cook your food and where does the vacuum expel the gases produced from charcoal? Literally, outside. Charcoal emits around 4.9

Monday, October 7, 2019 A11

In the same vein, a president and/or chief executive officer of a private corporation can be held technically accountable for the actions of his subordinates had he exerted enough diligence to know what he ought to know. After all, these leaders were chosen not only to lead but to be responsible. Since corporate governance rules require a certain level of stewardship from corporate officers, command responsibility can also arguably extend to the private sector even without a law or executive order as specific as EO 226. In the United States, the SarbanesOxley Act was legislated in 2002 to penalize gross neglect of duty tantamount to fraudulent conduct. SOX imposed hefty penalties to officers, in relation to command responsibility, ostensibly to protect shareholders from irregular practices. However, EO 226 and SOX are different as the former squarely addressed negligence by public servants in law enforcement agencies while the latter addressed failure to disclose information by corporate officers, particularly regarding financial transactions. In a different realm, regardless of these legislations, we simply have to accept the imperfections around us. No matter how much effort is made to eliminate misconduct, as

in the case of hazing in PMA, any system is broken. But being broken or imperfect is not a bad proposition. In her book Wabi Sabi, author Beth Kempton says that everything is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. We must embrace and acknowledge that everything, including ourselves, is a work in progress. Acceptance of such imperfection is not passive but active, says Kempton. She says, “when we learn to surrender to difficulty, accepting that it will come and it will go, life shifts from a battle to a dance.” Courageously resigning in the midst of criticisms, as in the case of Generals Evangelista and Bacarro, is part of accepting life’s imperfections. Their resignations may be taken negatively by their contemporaries in the uniformed service. But when leaders leave their organization a little better than they found it, they should be venerated. I am confident that both gentlemen will bounce back after their “responsible resignations.” Leaders who stumble and fall should find solace in the Bible—“weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalms 30:5). And mornings always come in His perfect time.

the structural reforms, one suggestion pertains to the separation of the accountancy profession regulation function and the CPA qualification process with the creation of separate agencies for a more effective handling of each broad mandates currently administered solely by the BOA. There is also a suggestion to include all graduates of Commission of Higher Education accredited courses (such as Bachelor of Science in Internal Audit, BS Accounting Information System, BS Management Accounting and Masters in Accountancy) to qualify to take the CPA licensure exams . Currently, only graduates of the BS Accountancy course are qualified to take the CPA examinations. There is a recommendation on the outsourcing of the preparation of the questions for the CPA examination to assist the BOA on its function. The mandate on setting the threshold for CPAs to conduct external audit of financial reports is also recommended to be the sole mandate of the accountancy regulator. With accountancy becoming more and more global, there is a suggestion on the relaxation of the rules on the practice of accountancy by foreign accountants in the

Philippines. To assist in the governance of government procurement, there is a suggestion for the mandatory inclusion of independent CPs providing oversight in the public bidding and procurement process. Incorporating these recommendations, an updated charter or the law for accountants will go a long way toward uplifting the accountancy profession and its many stakeholders in the Philippines. The process for the revision has long started several years ago. Will there be a momentum in the next few years to finally pass a new Accountancy Law that will govern the Philippine accounting community?

Around the country, we still have food wastage through plate waste. The latest 2015 survey of FNRI showed that a Filipino household has an average food plate waste of 62 grams or 4 tablespoons per day. Cereals and cereal products were highest at 46 grams; fish, meat and poultry is at 8 grams; vegetables at 5 grams; and fruits at 1 gram, among others. kilograms of carbon dioxide for an hour of grilling compared to a gas grill that emits only about 2.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Now imagine how many tables per hour emit 4.9 kg of carbon dioxide in just one samgyeopsal joint. Second, is the disposal of oil produced from these grills. The fat from meat goes under the charcoal grill and is collected to be “properly” disposed later. Normally, these establishments should have proper grease or oil disposal procedures. But if they just pour this down the drain or into the sewerage system, it’s an environmental disaster waiting to

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

To be continued Joel L. Tan-Torres is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA Board Examinations. He is presently a partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue from 2009 to 2010 and the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy from 2014 to August 2018. This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com

happen. Business establishments have a problem with proper waste disposal even with guidelines and laws in place. One way to know if they dispose of their grease or oil improperly is if the sewers around the establishment smell horrible. Looking back at the impact of eating meat amid an agriculture and environmental crisis, I hate to say it, but I may have to apologize to the titas of IBON for making fun of them for eating organic vegetables. They have always said that eating organic vegetables is healthier and better for the environment plus it supports our local farmers. But organic food does not come cheap since farmers do not own the land they till, lack capital and have no genuine government support. That’s why there is a need to support our farmers through agrarian reform and long-term efforts of rural development.

Jose Lorenzo Lim is a researcher at IBON Foundation. His research topics include Build, Build, Build; the oil industry and social services. Prior to IBON, he served as editor in chief of the UPLB Perspective for the academic year 20162017. When not in the office, Lim enjoys writing with his fountain pens and trying out new ink.

A12 Monday, October 7, 2019

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DOJ to reopen ‘ninja cops’ case; Senate probe goes on

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573 & Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

HE Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to reopen the controversial 2013 anti-drug operation in Pampanga in which so-called ninja cops allowed suspected drug lord Johnson Lee to get away in exchange for keeping 160 kilos of shabu and P50 million.

This was confirmed by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra in a text message to reporters. He said recent developments would

call for a reopening of the case involving 13 alleged “ninja cops,” suspected to be led by Major Rodney Baloyo.

”In the light of new evidence unfolding, and in the interest of justice, the DOJ will reopen the case of Baloyo et al. and will create a new panel of state prosecutors to conduct the reinvestigation.” —Guevarra

Senators ordered Baloyo detained at the New Bilibid Prison for contempt after he gave misleading answers in the course of the Senate hearing into various scams at the prisons systems, which later morphed into the revelations about ninja cops who recycle seized illegal drugs. “In the light of new evidence

unfolding, and in the interest of justice, the DOJ will reopen the case of Baloyo et al. and will create a new panel of state prosecutors to conduct the reinvestigation,” Guevarra said. The DOJ chief said he would announce soon the members of the panel. He said both sides will be given “ample opportunity to present additional evidence” during the reinvestigation. T he pa nel, t he DOJ c h ief said, “shall try to resolve the case in a month’s time considering that the automatic review of the case has been pending since 2017.” See “Ninja cops,” A2

Phl among infra-challenged countries–Adb By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

OOR infrastructure continues to hinder the Philippines from maximizing its manufacturing potential, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In an Asian Development Blog, ADB Vice President Bambang Sus-

antono said improving infrastructure facilities will help boost investments and allow the country to increase its participation in global value chains (GVCs). Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed the country’s manufacturing output contracted 9.3 percent in August 2019, the ninth consecutive month of decline.

“The region’s economies need to undertake important structural reforms to enhance the business environment. Investing in quality infrastructure, facilitating access to finance, boosting labor quality, and promoting innovation are all important policy areas to make the economies more efficient, productive, and competitive,” Susantono said.

Susantono cited data from the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017– 2018 showing the Philippines among the infrastructure-challenged countries. The list includes Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia and Vietnam. See “Infra,” A4

GOVT EYES OPTIONS TO CUT 9-MO CLOSURE OF HALF OF LRT 2 LINE By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

HE government is exhausting all possibilities to shorten the nine-month closure of a critical portion of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2, including the procurement of necessary parts and equipment from neighboring countries or the repurposing of newly-acquired hardware supposedly for the train system’s extension. Hernando B. Cabrera, the spokesman for the LRT Administration (LRTA), said his group is looking at the possibility of tapping other train operators outside the Philippines for the possible procurement of parts to replace those that were razed by the fire on Thursday. “We are looking at the possibility of procuring existing parts of other train operators and manufacturers in nearby countries. This may be much more expensive than our initial route, but the stress and hardship that this causes to our passengers is immeasurable,” he said in a phone interview on Sunday. Thursday saw the rectifier-transformer of the train line being razed by fire. Authorities have indicated that no foul play or act of terrorism

was involved in the incident. The rectifier-transformer was found between the Katipunan and Anonas stations. Cabrera said the government plans to reallocate some P430 million for the replacement and restoration of the damaged equipment. It may take roughly nine months to complete that, as some parts will be procured from the United Kingdom, Japan and France. These parts, which are not off the shelf, also have to be customized and commissioned into the LRT 2 system, so “a minimum” of nine months is required. Aside from these two routes, the government may also study the possibility of using a newlyprocured equipment for the LRT 2’s Masinag extension and repurpose it for now to quickly fix the line and resume its full operations. “We are now doing some calculations, but that is also a possibility,” Cabrera replied, when asked if the government intends to repurpose the equipment Cabrera said his office hopes to partially open the train line on Monday (October 7), pending the complete restoration of the communications system of the railway system. Partial operations will be between the Cubao and Recto stations. Continued on A2

Youth’s mental health, a crucial challenge for educators–Briones LOW PRESSURE AREA 50 KM EAST OF TUGUEGARAO CITY, CAGAYAN as of 4:00 am - October 6, 2019

The five top awardees in the “Para sa Guro” category pose with their trophies (from left): Ronaldo C. Reyes, Dr. Cecilia S. Custodio, Joenary D. Silao, Markson B. Mejia and Dr. Ernesto P. Dizon. Behind them, flanking Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones, are (from left) Rep. Roman Romulo, Fortune Life President and CEO D. Arnold A. Cabangon, Briones, ALC Group of Companies Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon, MaryLindbert International President and CEO Erlinda Legaspi, and Fortune Life EVP and General Manager Evelyn T. Carada. NONOY LACZA

DUCATION Secretary Leonor M. Briones has reminded teachers that mental health among students is a “crucial challenge” that they need to address. Keynoting the launch of the ninth year of the Values Advocacy Program of Fortune Life Insurance Co. recently, Briones advised teachers to be alert to signs of mental health problems among their learners. The Values Advocacy Program is a project of Fortune Life promoting the values of hard work and discipline among public school pupils in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) and advocacy organization Marylindbert International. Its centerpiece is a textbook entitled, The Value of Hard Work and Discipline, featuring lessons based on the life of Fortune Life Founder Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, who rose from poverty by dint of sheer hard work. In her extemporaneous speech, Briones cited Fortune Life “for reminding us constantly of the impor-

tance of hard work and discipline” at a time when “some of our learners think the easiest way to get rich is through the STL [small town lottery or lotto] stations,” among others . “Teaching discipline and hard work is more and more difficult and therefore we have to work harder because the temptation to fall into the trap of get-rich-quick schemes, going into debt, gambling and even stealing your classmates’ clothes, shoes, books is quite a very tempting option. Thank you for reminding us of the traditional good old values of hard work and discipline,” she said, addressing Fortune Life officials. For all the modernization in learning systems, Briones said no one should “forget that at the end of the day what we really need is hard work and discipline….The only difference is that when you are learning chemistry, trigonometry, math and even reading, it is so much more fun now because we are devising more fun ways of learning. Learning need not be too painful if we work at it. We are also having

fun and it’s fascinating.” The DepEd chief cited, meanwhile, how “in the past three years we have made successful inroads in the matter of access. You are all aware that our enrolment rates are rising at more than 1 million new learners every year. Our dropout rate is going down. The access issues we faced before have been resolved thanks to the help of Congress [represented by Rep. Roman Romulo who is present] by providing the resources. All of you are aware that we are now moving from access because we have reached 27.8-million learners…. From access, now our concern is quality.” She added that the review of the K to 12 program curriculum is under way. “When we started in 2016 we had already implemented by law the senior high-school curriculum which took five years to complete. Now we are reviewing to see if what has been envisioned has been achieved, where innovations must still be added. See “Mental health,” A2

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SEC relaxing some contentious items in REIT implementing rules By VG Cabuag @villygc

HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is relaxing some of the contentious issues on its proposed amendments to the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Act of 2009. The proposed amendments will relax the minimum public ownership requirement, require the reinvestment in the Philippines of proceeds realized from the sale of REIT shares or other securities, enhance controls over related party transactions and impose administrative sanctions for violation of the applicable laws, rules and regulations. “ T he proposed amendments align with our mandate to promote the development of the capital market toward the democratization of wealth and broadening of participation in the ownership of enterprises,” SEC Chairman Emilio B. Aquino said in a statement.

“ With the proposed amendments, we hope to develop a viable REIT market that will unlock a deep source of funding for more infrastructure projects in the country along with a lucrative investment opportunity for Filipinos. Under the draft amendment, which will undergo public comment, the SEC adjusted the minimum public ownership requirement to the level prescribed by the REIT Act of one-third of the outstanding capital stock. T he c u r rent IR R , wh ic h i s frowned upon by companies, requires that public shareholders own at least 40 percent of the outstand-

ing capital stock of a REIT in its first year of listing. The REIT shall have raised its public float to 67 percent by the third year. The REIT Act provides that a REIT must have at least 1,000 public shareholders each owning at least 50 shares of any class of shares and, in aggregate, at least one-third of the outstanding capital stock. The draft amendment now requires the creation of a related party transactions committee. Majority of the committee members must be independent directors who shall vote unanimously in approving related party transactions. The REIT will also have to comply with SEC Memorandum Circular 10, Series of 2019, which provides the Rules on Material Related Party Transactions for publicly listed companies. Moreover, the SEC will require entities intending to serve as REIT fund managers to secure a license from the agency. To ensure equal opportunities in the market, the SEC will impose the same minimum paid-up capital requirement of P10 million to domestic and foreign corporations. Currently, foreign corporations are required to have a higher paidup capital of at least P100 million.

The SEC also seeks to relax the three-year track record requirement of a REIT fund manager by considering its experience in property management in the real-estate industry or in the development of real-estate industry. A fund manager will be deemed compliant with the requirement if its chief executive officer, who shall be a resident of the Philippines, and a majority but not less than two of its full-time professional employees have a track record in financial management, as well as in the realestate industry for at least three years prior to their employment. Under the current rules, a fund manager must have a three-year track record in fund management, corporate finance or other financerelated functions. At least two responsible officers must also have at least five years of track record in fund management. The SEC has also adjusted to three years the required track record of the responsible officers of a REIT property manager. The responsible officers are currently required to have five years of experience in property portfolio management. The amendment will be open for public comment through October 18.

Megaworld to open first hotel in its Mactan development

EGAWORLD Corp. said it is opening next month its first hotel development inside its 30-hectare Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. T he 18 - s t o r y S av o y Hot e l Mactan will offer 547 rooms and suites, targeting mostly business travelers and families because of its accessibility to the beach and resorts around Mactan, as well as the new Mactan-Cebu International Airport. “Savoy Hotel Mactan is just 15 minutes away from the airport, which makes it a choice for business travelers. Its location also allows one to experience the beach and the township at the same time, where restaurants, cafés, super-

market, spa, and other retail shops are just within easy reach,” Raymundo Melendres, managing director of Megaworld Hotels, said. Savoy Hotel Mactan’s interiors are designed by Hirsch Bedner Associates, the same firm that designed Marina Bay Sands and Fullerton Hotel in Singapore, as well as Shangri-La Dubai and St. Regis Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The hotel also has a wide range of function and meeting rooms. “Savoy Hotel Mactan caters to smart travelers who appreciate the harmony between work and leisure, where they can discover and experience the hospitality of passionate Filipino hoteliers,”

Grace Bartolome, general manager of Savoy Hotel Mactan said. To be operated by Megaworld Hotels, Savoy Hotel Mactan will offer complimentary shuttle services to and from the Mactan Newtown Beach. Transport services will also be offered to guests traveling to and from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. It will offer introductory rates of P3,288 to P5,888 per night, inclusive of buffet breakfast for two, depending on the room category when it opens next month. Megaworld has spent P1.7 billion to build the hotel, which is one of the many hotels that it plans to put up inside The Mactan Newtown.

Savoy Hotel Mactan is the third hotel under the Savoy Hotel brand, which is not of the international brand of hotel of the same name. It is a homegrown hotel chain established by Megaworld. Other Savoy Hotels have already opened in Boracay Newcoast and in Newport City, Pasay City. To date, Megaworld Hotels has already opened other four homegrown brands aside from Savoy: Richmonde Hotels, Belmont Hotel, Twin Lakes Hotel and Hotel Lucky Chinatown, with around 3,200 hotel rooms. In the next five years, the company will also open new homegrown hotel brands in Parañaque, Bacolod, Iloilo, Boracay and Laguna. VG Cabuag

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PSALM to rebid Malaya thermal power plant By Lenie Lectura @llectura

HE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) will rebid the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya thermal power plant in Pililla, Rizal next month. “PSALM Privatization, Bids and Awards Committee invites interested parties to participate and bid for the privatization of the 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant and the land underlying the plant on an ‘as is, where is’ basis,” said the state firm in a published bid invite. PSALM has set on November 22, the deadline for the submission of bid proposals. All bids must be submitted at 12 noon. “A two-envelope bidding system will be adopted. Interested parties must post a bid security worth P310 million in the form of irrevocable letter of credit,” it said. Interested bidders have until November 6 to submit their letters of interest to PSALM and pay a participation fee of P150,000. Only those that submit an LOI shall be allowed to participate in the privatization activities. PSALM said due diligence starts October 7, until two days before the bid submission deadline. A prebid conference is scheduled on October 24 at 2 p.m. at the PSALM office. Last September 18, PSALM declared the auction a failure because only one bidder participated. Under PSALM’s Bidding Procedures, there shall be a failure of bidding if only one bid is received. AC Energy Inc. was the lone bidder. “While it is unfortunate that the bidding failed, PSALM remains very much committed to privatize the Malaya Power Plant this year. Failure of the first round of bidding will not deter us from trying

PHL is Asean’s second-worst country, world’s 6th-worst, in over-the-top voice apps use—OpenSignal research By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

PCCI’s Oct. 16-17 conference to focus on enabling business in digital economy By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

HE country’s largest business network is gathering over 1,000 local and international firms for its annual conference to discuss the future of the private sector under a digital economy. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) will be holding the 45th Philippine Business Conference (PBC) from October 16 and 17 in Manila Hotel. The conference, themed “Enabling Business in a Digital Economy,” will assess the dynamics of a digitally fueled economy and how it impacts on

people’s growth and business sustainability. The PCCI expects over 1,000 delegates— business officials, industry leaders, policymakers, diplomats, international chambers, among others—in the two-day event that will be capped by a meeting with President Duterte. The PCCI will also sign a memorandum of understanding with the Departments of Agriculture, and of Trade and Industry for the Aspire Project. Aspire, or Agribusiness support for Promotion and Investment in Regional Expositions, harmonizes efforts from both the public and private sector to improve the market access of small farmers.

These efforts include educating farmers about the demand, standards and delivery preferences of buyers; sharing market knowledge; organizing trade fairs; holding seminars on negotiation skills; and preparing them for business matching and investment forums.

Impact of ‘FIRE’

PBC Chairman William S. Co wants the delegates to see how the fourth industrial revolution, or the age of the digitization, will impact the Philippines and the global setting. As much as the digital economy promises to bring opportunities, Co said it also poses risks and uncertainties to growth and sustainability.

PCCI President Maria Alegria Sibal Limjoco added the digitization of the economy is inevitable, and businesses should learn how to cope with the changes it will bring about. “Business is really going digital and [it is] inevitable. That is why we are having this discussion and we invited renowned local and international experts in the field of digital economy and technology innovation to share their thoughts, experiences, and tips on how business can survive and thrive in a dynamically changing environment,” Limjoco said. Continued on B2

again, and again, until we are able to successfully dispose of this asset,” said PSALM President Irene Joy Garcia. At the start of the bidding process in 2018, there were 11 companies that submitted to PSALM their letters of intent to participate in the bidding and purchased the bidding documents. After the prequalification process, four bidders were declared as qualified to bid: AC Energy Inc., FGEN Reliable Energy Holdings Inc., DM Wenceslao and Associates Inc., and DMCI Power Corp. Only AC Energy formally submitted a bid prior to the bid submission deadline at 12 noon. In a letter of DM Wenceslao and Associates Inc., PSALM was informed of its decision to withdraw from the bidding supposedly “due to current market conditions and uncertainty of supply of fuel.” FGEN Reliable Energy Holdings Inc. and DMCI Power Corp. did not indicate why they did not submit a bid. Early this year, PSALM engaged a third-party consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers Philippines, to conduct a valuation of the Malaya plant, structures and underlying land. The result of PwC’s valuation was among the factors considered by the PSALM Board in setting the reserve bid price. The Malaya plant consists of a 300MW unit with a once-through type boiler and a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler. It serves as a “must-run” unit which means it is designated to run when supply is tight in the Luzon grid. PSALM was supposed to bid out the facility in March 2017, but it was put on hold after the Energy Department decided to include in the bidding the option to convert the plant into a facility running on liquefied natural gas. The plan did not push through.

ESPITE “improved” mobile data speeds and coverage, the Philippines ranked as the sixth-worst country to use over-the-top (OTT) voice apps in the world and is the second-worst in the Asean and Asian regions, according to a study conducted by research firm OpenSignal. It ranked “very poor” in terms of overall voice app experience with a score of 62.9 points. This means that most users are dissatisfied with the quality of their Viber, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger calls due to impairments, distortions, clicking sounds, or outright silence during calls, which require users to repeat their messages to be understood. The Philippines found itself at the bottom of the 80-country list along with Ghana, Cambodia, Kenya, Libya and Uzbekistan. Topping the list are European countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland and Hungary. In Asia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan emerged as the voice app experience leaders. This, according to OpenSignal, shows the disparity between “more mature

countries, fast-growing ones and developing countries.” The experience in using voice apps over 3G and 4G are not entirely different. OpenSignal ranked 3G voice app experience as unintelligible, as it scored a lamentable 53.5 points. This means that nearly all users are dissatisfied due to frequent long pauses, frequent repetition for comprehension and conversation overlaps. In terms of 4G voice app experience, the Philippines scored 67.4 points, which gave it a poor rating. This corresponds to dissatisfaction due to impairments that cause lowered communication perception. OpenSignal analyzed 57 billion instances from over 23 million users in 80 countries from June to August to come up with this report. This new report was released a few weeks after OpenSignal claimed that mobile Internet experience in the Philippines improved in August with Smart posting an average download speed 9.4 Mbps, while competitor Globe was at 6.5 Mbps. Based on the BusinessMirror’s computations, this means that the Philippines has an average download speed of 7.95 Mbps in August, or almost 10 Mbps lower than the global average of 17.6 Mbps, as per the March data of OpenSignal.

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PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

October 4, 2019

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

ASIA UNITED 55 57.9 55 57.9 55 57.9 1,600 91,000 BDO UNIBANK 142.2 143.5 138 143.5 138 143.5 1,086,710 154,266,871 BANK PH ISLANDS 92.5 93 89.5 93.05 89.5 93 2,426,180 225,096,038.5 CHINABANK 24.9 25 24.9 25.05 24.9 24.9 561,500 13,988,125 EAST WEST BANK 11.82 11.88 11.9 11.9 11.8 11.82 351,300 4,156,926 METROBANK 67.75 68 66 68.05 65.95 68 3,430,640 228,240,688.5 PB BANK 12.8 12.96 12.8 12.8 12.8 12.8 1,300 16,640 PHIL NATL BANK 43.5 43.55 43.45 43.8 43.25 43.5 122,800 5,334,905 PSBANK 57.5 57.95 58.45 58.45 57.5 57.95 740 43,019.5 PHILTRUST 110.2 140 140 140 140 140 3,400 476,000 RCBC 26.5 26.95 27 27 26.2 26.5 5,300 140,520 SECURITY BANK 196 197.9 190.3 198 190.3 197.9 190,100 37,458,341 UNION BANK 59 59.05 59.15 59.15 59 59.05 15,120 892,723 BDO LEASING 1.88 2 1.88 2 1.88 2 2,000 3,880 COL FINANCIAL 18.2 18.6 18.66 18.66 18.6 18.6 600 11,166 FERRONOUX HLDG 4.65 4.72 4.76 4.83 4.6 4.65 634,000 2,960,290 IREMIT 1.21 1.28 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22 2,000 2,440 MEDCO HLDG 0.4 0.405 0.405 0.405 0.4 0.405 310,000 125,200 NTL REINSURANCE 0.91 0.92 0.92 0.92 0.92 0.92 26,000 23,920 PHIL STOCK EXCH 178 178.9 178.8 178.9 178 178.9 370 66,168 INDUSTRIAL ALSONS CONS 1.29 1.3 1.29 1.3 1.29 1.3 60,000 77,980 ABOITIZ POWER 36.65 37.1 37 37.6 36.5 36.65 1,729,000 63,719,705 BASIC ENERGY 0.241 0.246 0.245 0.246 0.241 0.246 530,000 128,590 FIRST GEN 24.1 24.4 24 24.6 24 24.4 912,100 22,127,730 FIRST PHIL HLDG 78.4 78.5 78.5 78.75 78.3 78.5 64,990 5,100,844.5 MERALCO 364.8 367 360 367 359 367 46,500 16,975,262 MANILA WATER 19.8 20.4 19.7 20 19.66 19.8 2,594,000 51,336,864 PETRON 5.01 5.02 5.05 5.1 5 5.02 404,100 2,033,540 ( PHINMA ENERGY 2.16 2.18 2.18 2.25 2.15 2.16 13,251,000 29,089,660 PHX PETROLEUM 10.9 11 10.84 11 10.84 11 16,900 185,284 PILIPINAS SHELL 32.65 32.7 32.55 32.85 32.35 32.7 282,800 9,246,050(2, SPC POWER 7.33 7.38 7.32 7.4 7.3 7.33 25,700 188,707 AGRINURTURE 15.5 15.8 15.9 15.9 15.48 15.8 161,000 2,536,000 CNTRL AZUCARERA 18.02 18.66 18.78 19.1 18.04 18.66 70,900 1,311,420 CENTURY FOOD 14.64 14.7 14.5 14.64 14.22 14.64 62,200 904,396 DNL INDUS 8.64 8.65 8.64 8.66 8.63 8.64 520,900 4,502,458 EMPERADOR 7.03 7.04 7.04 7.3 7 7.04 8,402,300 60,252,379 SMC FOODANDBEV 89.7 90 89.9 90.95 89.45 90 81,270 7,315,573.5 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.67 0.68 0.66 0.68 0.66 0.68 210,000 140,190 GINEBRA 46 47.95 45.65 48.5 45.65 47.95 22,100 1,047,390 JOLLIBEE 220.2 220.4 220 222 219 220.2 600,610 132,201,654 MAXS GROUP 13.02 13.28 12.8 13.36 12.8 13.02 29,700 384,740 PEPSI COLA 1.66 1.68 1.64 1.7 1.61 1.68 6,569,000 10,921,670 SHAKEYS PIZZA 11.3 11.58 11.26 11.58 11.2 11.4 147,000 1,664,888 ROXAS AND CO 1.83 1.85 1.87 1.87 1.81 1.83 1,119,000 2,038,460 RFM CORP 5.05 5.1 5.1 5.1 5.1 5.1 1,000 5,100 ROXAS HLDG 2.31 2.37 2.3 2.3 2.28 2.28 10,000 22,960 SWIFT FOODS 0.123 0.127 0.122 0.122 0.122 0.122 10,000 1,220 UNIV ROBINA 156.8 157.7 154.8 157.7 153.9 157.7 1,328,140 208,007,788 VITARICH 1.21 1.22 1.2 1.22 1.2 1.21 3,890,000 4,712,800 CONCRETE A 67 69 64.5 75 64.5 69 5,640 404,559.5 CONCRETE B 72.1 76.6 72 77 72 72.1 2,730 201,379 CEMEX HLDG 2.4 2.41 2.34 2.45 2.34 2.4 792,000 1,903,280 DAVINCI CAPITAL 5.8 6.15 6 6 6 6 30,000 180,000 EAGLE CEMENT 15.12 15.3 15.22 15.5 15.12 15.28 17,400 266,684 EEI CORP 10.28 10.3 10.32 10.32 10.24 10.3 431,100 4,439,742 HOLCIM 14.26 14.4 14.48 14.48 14.24 14.4 411,100 5,930,162 MEGAWIDE 18.36 18.38 18.1 18.68 18.1 18.36 954,400 17,685,330 PHINMA 9.61 9.9 10 10.1 9.6 9.9 36,900 362,970 TKC METALS 1.03 1.06 1.07 1.07 1.03 1.04 221,000 230,100 VULCAN INDL 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.07 1.02 1.03 3,894,000 4,077,340 CROWN ASIA 2.05 2.07 2.06 2.06 2.06 2.06 10,000 20,600 LMG CHEMICALS 5.37 5.47 5.4 5.48 5.36 5.47 53,000 286,432 PRYCE CORP 5.3 5.32 5.32 5.33 5.3 5.3 48,300 256,398 CONCEPCION 30.55 31.75 30.75 31.75 30.5 31.75 8,800 270,425 GREENERGY 2.42 2.43 2.43 2.44 2.35 2.43 6,976,000 16,710,230 INTEGRATED MICR 7.79 7.87 7.72 7.8 7.72 7.79 62,600 487,410 IONICS 1.48 1.49 1.5 1.53 1.49 1.49 98,000 146,380 SFA SEMICON 1 1.03 1 1.01 1 1 59,000 59,300 CIRTEK HLDG 8.52 8.59 8.7 8.74 8.45 8.59 191,500 1,635,400

HOLDING & FRIMS

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PACIFICA PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP SYNERGY GRID SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES SEAFRONT RES TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

0.83 12.98 840 52.55 11.2 3.43 0.7 1.14 1.16 6.47 8.44 13.2 0.216 831 5.65 70 0.49 4.35 13.68 0.58 4.85 0.038 1.29 1.27 408 980 164 0.85 2.44 222.8 0.222 0.231

0.84 13.16 840.5 54.5 11.28 3.45 0.72 1.15 1.17 6.5 8.45 13.4 0.228 840 5.66 70.4 0.51 4.36 13.7 0.6 4.91 0.039 1.35 1.3 440 990 165 0.86 2.57 223.2 0.225 0.244

0.87 13.34 853 51.05 10.64 3.36 0.72 1.14 1.16 6.5 8.4 13.4 0.217 830 5.64 69 0.51 4.35 13.88 0.58 4.72 0.038 1.29 1.27 408 973 163 0.87 2.45 222.8 0.23 0.231

0.88 13.6 866 54.5 11.4 3.45 0.72 1.17 1.16 6.5 8.45 13.4 0.229 840.5 5.66 70.9 0.51 4.36 13.98 0.6 4.91 0.039 1.29 1.27 440 990 167 0.87 2.45 223 0.23 0.231

0.84 12.98 839.5 51.05 10.46 3.36 0.7 1.12 1.15 6.43 8.32 13.4 0.217 826 5.64 69 0.49 4.34 13.7 0.58 4.7 0.038 1.28 1.26 408 973 163 0.85 2.44 222.8 0.221 0.231

0.84 13.22 840 54.5 11.28 3.43 0.72 1.15 1.15 6.5 8.44 13.4 0.229 840 5.66 70 0.51 4.35 13.7 0.6 4.91 0.038 1.29 1.27 440 990 164 0.86 2.44 223 0.222 0.231

30,347,000 11,100 499,180 693,730 23,908,100 930,000 345,000 1,081,000 2,000 254,000 5,487,700 500 50,000 19,090 143,700 855,930 501,000 50,000 1,293,600 592,000 15,116,000 3,200,000 99,000 24,000 110 203,420 382,480 7,000 5,000 130 390,000 340,000

25,783,560 145,654 421,516,560 37,420,125.5 262,957,892 3,170,170 244,460 1,226,530 2,310 1,647,725 46,194,162 6,700 10,970 15,885,585 812,290 59,943,276 247,890 217,480 17,864,348 348,100 72,799,220 121,700 127,540 30,340 45,200 200,393,075 62,804,011 6,000 12,240 28,974 86,720 78,540

38,422,780 (3,616,084) (492,565) (1,907,682) (144,736,197) 787,269.9997 624,649 (751,706.5) (19,320) 10,725 (36,648,485) (9,729,825) (4,721,722.5) 1,008,730 (28,011,648) 673,542.0001) (22,870) 133,365.0003) 215,064 725,334 (2,026,753) (16,038,813) (3,877,853.5) 17,420 713,030 56,170,100 (5,224) 592,370 (229,002) 44,886,557 257,660 (295,310) 114,126 (4,053,830) (5,057,780) (6,974,348) 1,040 (222,800) 6,359,950 (195,631) (22,679) (2,695,320) (239,060,520) 4,081,710 (130,717,188) 123,500 (946,729) (23,172,800) (10,780,350) (780,080) (22,396,638) (139,180) 8,240,152 217,700 (14,548,340) (109,673,280) (52,396,869) (0) 4,600 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.83 0.84 0.85 0.87 0.83 0.84 2,248,000 1,904,060 (110,880) AYALA LAND 46.2 46.25 45.65 46.35 45.3 46.2 4,536,400 208,922,565 (69,365,910) ARANETA PROP 1.84 1.85 1.85 1.85 1.85 1.85 23,000 42,550 BELLE CORP 2.04 2.06 2.08 2.08 2.03 2.06 386,000 793,270 (302,200) A BROWN 0.82 0.83 0.84 0.85 0.82 0.82 1,774,000 1,464,890 82,000 CITYLAND DEVT 0.82 0.87 0.81 0.87 0.81 0.87 3,000 2,550 CROWN EQUITIES 0.21 0.213 0.21 0.216 0.21 0.216 30,000 6,420 CEBU HLDG 6.08 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.3 84,200 530,460 530,460 CEB LANDMASTERS 4.69 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.64 4.7 171,000 802,560 (525,880) CENTURY PROP 0.53 0.54 0.54 0.54 0.53 0.54 15,479,000 8,330,150 (880,800) CYBER BAY 0.38 0.4 0.38 0.4 0.38 0.4 410,000 159,600 DOUBLEDRAGON 20.5 20.55 19.8 20.5 19.8 20.5 205,900 4,193,707 3 ,243,949.0003 DM WENCESLAO 9.9 9.91 9.74 9.91 9.74 9.9 836,100 8,276,564 8,081,599 EVER GOTESCO 0.121 0.136 0.121 0.121 0.121 0.121 50,000 6,050 FILINVEST LAND 1.49 1.5 1.53 1.54 1.49 1.5 32,211,000 48,437,390 (35,126,880) GLOBAL ESTATE 1.15 1.18 1.16 1.18 1.14 1.18 783,000 900,890 8990 HLDG 15.04 15.06 15.08 15.08 15.04 15.04 37,500 564,308 (37,620) PHIL INFRADEV 1.34 1.35 1.35 1.37 1.34 1.35 1,075,000 1,460,060 (57,120) CITY AND LAND 0.73 0.76 0.73 0.73 0.73 0.73 53,000 38,690 MEGAWORLD 4.49 4.5 4.4 4.52 4.4 4.5 55,122,000 247,151,280 (152,520,080) MRC ALLIED 0.295 0.3 0.3 0.305 0.3 0.3 6,250,000 1,875,900 72,000 PRIMEX CORP 2.01 2.03 2.04 2.04 2.01 2.03 51,000 102,810 ROBINSONS LAND 24.1 24.4 23.95 24.6 23.95 24.4 2,665,400 64,761,115 (11,223,160) PHIL REALTY 0.365 0.375 0.37 0.375 0.365 0.375 520,000 190,550 ROCKWELL 2.25 2.31 2.27 2.28 2.23 2.25 61,000 138,350 SHANG PROP 3.2 3.29 3.22 3.28 3.22 3.28 2,000 6,500 3,220 STA LUCIA LAND 2.57 2.58 2.57 2.59 2.55 2.58 1,310,000 3,365,060 SM PRIME HLDG 37.35 37.75 37 37.75 36.35 37.75 6,688,400 250,071,700 67,854,510 VISTAMALLS 5.8 5.81 5.79 5.82 5.7 5.8 13,800 79,047 SUNTRUST HOME 0.88 0.89 0.89 0.91 0.88 0.88 368,000 324,590 VISTA LAND 7.66 7.69 7.7 7.7 7.64 7.69 2,445,300 18,798,605 (1,499,560) SERVICES ABS CBN 17.8 18.24 18.1 18.36 18 18 84,100 1,526,278 GMA NETWORK 5.16 5.17 5.2 5.2 5.16 5.16 171,500 885,362 MANILA BULLETIN 0.435 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.43 0.43 250,000 109,000 MLA BRDCASTING 13.02 14.26 14.26 14.26 13.02 14.26 700 9,362 GLOBE TELECOM 1,773 1,783 1770 1,783 1,765 1,783 31,875 56,554,155 (25,363,680) PLDT 1,098 1,100 1098 1,107 1,092 1,098 53,790 59,042,780 (43,654,230) APOLLO GLOBAL 0.044 0.046 0.043 0.046 0.043 0.046 3,600,000 156,500 (90,300) ISLAND INFO 0.108 0.11 0.109 0.109 0.107 0.109 150,000 16,270 ISM COMM 5 5.01 5.01 5.1 4.94 5 2,824,800 14,156,284 1,704,558 NOW CORP 2.78 2.79 2.8 2.86 2.65 2.79 2,958,000 8,242,990 145,450 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.32 0.325 0.32 0.34 0.315 0.325 6,390,000 2,104,550 PHILWEB 2.95 3.01 3 3.05 2.95 2.95 414,000 1,242,130 (15,690) 2GO GROUP 10 10.18 10.02 10.1 10.02 10.1 4,500 45,202 CHELSEA 6.77 6.78 6.94 6.99 6.67 6.77 530,400 3,633,767 (319,205) CEBU AIR 91.1 91.5 92.3 92.3 91.1 91.1 24,310 2,226,578.5 845,417 INTL CONTAINER 120.9 121 121.3 121.8 118.1 121 2,630,380 317,845,834 (257,660,254) LBC EXPRESS 13.54 13.8 13.52 13.54 13.52 13.54 3,200 43,318 MACROASIA 18.58 18.8 18.8 18.86 18.54 18.84 86,200 1,619,806 (159,136) METROALLIANCE A 1.12 1.15 1.14 1.14 1.12 1.13 61,000 68,800 PAL HLDG 7.83 8.25 8 8.25 7.9 8.25 4,600 36,820 HARBOR STAR 1.52 1.55 1.57 1.58 1.52 1.55 290,000 449,280 (37,200) ACESITE HOTEL 1.6 1.64 1.7 1.7 1.6 1.64 288,000 465,370 BOULEVARD HLDG 0.053 0.054 0.053 0.054 0.052 0.054 4,270,000 226,200 (106,000) WATERFRONT 0.67 0.68 0.67 0.67 0.66 0.67 708,000 471,470 CENTRO ESCOLAR 6.98 7.19 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 1,200 8,640 IPEOPLE 8 8.12 8.2 8.29 8.12 8.12 13,200 107,672 STI HLDG 0.66 0.68 0.67 0.68 0.66 0.68 682,000 455,060 (17,000) BERJAYA 2.28 2.35 2.3 2.35 2.28 2.35 18,000 41,660 BLOOMBERRY 10.92 10.94 10.8 11 10.72 10.92 2,665,800 29,104,776 2,614,048 PACIFIC ONLINE 2.83 2.9 2.9 2.9 2.83 2.9 13,000 37,630 LEISURE AND RES 3.01 3.03 3.04 3.04 3.01 3.01 78,000 235,020 9,030 MANILA JOCKEY 3.4 3.49 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 2,000 6,800 PH RESORTS GRP 4.78 4.99 4.79 4.79 4.79 4.79 9,000 43,110 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.71 0.68 0.7 1,954,000 1,350,020 METRO RETAIL 2.38 2.39 2.34 2.39 2.33 2.38 385,000 903,270 (53,990) PUREGOLD 38.4 38.5 38 38.5 38 38.4 871,700 33,374,345 (5,076,050) ROBINSONS RTL 75.75 76 76.5 76.5 75.95 76 1,191,020 90,517,129.5 ( 24,473,030.5) PHIL SEVEN CORP 135.7 141 140 141 140 140 50,490 7,068,640 161,000 SSI GROUP 2.61 2.62 2.59 2.68 2.58 2.62 721,000 1,901,550 (449,010) WILCON DEPOT 16.8 16.94 16.74 16.94 16.74 16.94 1,710,800 28,885,278 22 ,495,929.9999 APC GROUP 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.59 0.56 0.57 8,821,000 5,073,650 (0) EASYCALL 9.19 9.29 9.21 9.24 9.12 9.19 13,200 121,101 GOLDEN BRIA 428 440 429 435 428 435 960 415,430 (104,400) IPM HLDG 3.55 3.89 3.5 3.89 3.5 3.89 3,000 11,280 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.51 0.52 0.52 0.54 0.51 0.51 4,704,000 2,431,130 (130,350) SBS PHIL CORP 9.01 9.29 8.25 9.29 8.25 9.29 12,100 105,664 MINING & OIL ATOK 11.32 11.9 11.76 11.9 11.76 11.9 2,000 23,648 APEX MINING 1.13 1.14 1.13 1.17 1.13 1.14 419,000 477,350 11,450 BENGUET B 1.13 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.15 18,000 20,700 20,699.9999 CENTURY PEAK 2.59 2.63 2.6 2.62 2.6 2.62 776,000 2,026,200 DIZON MINES 7.53 7.88 7.61 7.9 7.55 7.9 3,700 28,207 FERRONICKEL 1.65 1.66 1.57 1.67 1.57 1.66 13,741,000 22,659,120 GEOGRACE 0.218 0.225 0.224 0.233 0.217 0.226 2,170,000 479,920 LEPANTO A 0.107 0.109 0.108 0.108 0.107 0.107 1,600,000 172,730 MARCVENTURES 1.1 1.15 1.1 1.15 1.1 1.15 75,000 82,800 59,400 NIHAO 1.07 1.12 1.1 1.14 1.08 1.13 157,000 173,210 NICKEL ASIA 4.06 4.07 3.76 4.16 3.76 4.07 12,940,000 52,094,680 1,383,080 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.86 0.9 0.88 0.9 0.88 0.9 50,000 44,220 PX MINING 3.51 3.53 3.53 3.53 3.5 3.51 1,688,000 5,918,180 (98,840) SEMIRARA MINING 21.8 21.85 22.3 22.3 21.7 21.85 389,300 8,507,765 (817,115) UNITED PARAGON 0.0061 0.0067 0 0.0061 0.0061 0.0061 0.0061 1,000,000 6,100 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 400,000 4,800 PHINMA PETRO 8.2 8.42 8.14 8.59 8.12 8.42 833,400 7,016,011 (417,652) PXP ENERGY 11.52 11.56 11.3 11.64 11.28 11.52 330,400 3,798,866 (73,882) PREFFERED AC PREF B1 501 511 511 511 511 511 10 5,110 SMC FB PREF 2 995 997 995 995 995 995 40 39,800 FGEN PREF G 108 110 108 110 108 110 10,600 1,161,533 LR PREF 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 35,000 35,000 PNX PREF 3A 100.3 101 101 101 101 101 10 1,010 PNX PREF 3B 107 108 108 108 108 108 90 9,720 PCOR PREF 3A 1,013 1,046 1020 1,020 1,013 1,013 350 355,610 PCOR PREF 3B 1,062 1,080 1062 1,062 1,062 1,062 50 53,100 SMC PREF 2C 77.8 77.9 77.9 77.95 77.8 77.8 43,480 3,385,781.5 (521,930) SMC PREF 2D 74.95 75.3 75.3 75.3 75.3 75.3 100 7,530 SMC PREF 2E 75 75.6 75 75 75 75 26,900 2,017,500 SMC PREF 2G 75.35 76 75.35 75.35 75.35 75.35 40,600 3,059,210 SMC PREF 2H 75.5 76 75.9 75.9 75.5 75.5 5,000 377,540 SMC PREF 2I 76.2 76.6 76.6 76.6 76.5 76.5 10,100 773,555 (320,188) PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS

ABS HLDG PDR GMA HLDG PDR

17.34 5.08

17.88 5.13

17.5 5.08

17.88 5.13

17.4 5.08

17.88 5.13

2,300 600

40,268 3,053

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

1.53

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ITALPINAS 6.3 KEPWEALTH 9.55 XURPAS 0.89

1.65

1.53

10,000

15,300

6.41 9.56 0.9

6.25 9.7 0.9

6.45 9.8 0.91

6.2 9.52 0.9

6.41 9.55 0.9

276,700 130,900 1,111,000

1,746,576 1,261,213 1,001,520

64,861 (50,540) -

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

115.7

3,528 -

115.8

114.2

115.7

114

115.7

10,060

1,158,417

38,966

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Shell’s integrated energy system the first oil refinery with industrial-scale solar farm By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

ILIPINAS Shell Petroleum Corp. (Pilipinas Shell) is building an integrated energy system in Tabangao, Batangas, to power the electricity requirements of its 110,000 barrel per day refinery. The energy system is composed of solar energy, natural gas and battery energy storage system. Once completed, Pilipinas Shell’s Tabangao Refinery in Batangas will earn the distinction of being the first oil refinery with an industrial-scale solar farm in the Philippines and one of the largest battery storage projects in Southeast Asia. The integrated energy system is expected to produce approximately 2,400 megawatt hours of power

annually, enough energy to power more than 850 homes, or roughly the size of a small barangay. This will improve the energy efficiency of Pilipinas Shell’s Tabangao Refinery while enabling the export of its excess—and cleaner—natural gas-generated power to the Luzon grid. It also expects to offset some 8,760 tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to planting more than half a million trees. Aside from the solar farm, Pilipi-

PCCI’s Oct. 16-17 conference to focus on enabling business in digital economy Continued from B1

Among the issues that will be tackled in the conference are the future of business in the fourth industrial revolution, and the future of jobs and the need to upskill the labor force. Over the last four decades, the PBC has

served as a platform for PCCI members and partners both from the government and the private sector to talk about issues affecting businesses here. At the end of the conference, it is expected the PCCI will come up with policy recommendations to improve the business environment in the Philippines.

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK Last week

SHARE prices plunged last week, partly as a result of a weak market overseas as the main index dipped as low as 7,500-level. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 114.62 points to end the week at 7,704.60. The main index was down almost all week long, hitting as low as 7,545.55 on Wednesday, but it pared its losses on Friday when the market surged more than 2 percent. “Needless to say, the market needed this good end to the week after trading in the red the past couple of days. The PSEi surged...likely on the back of a rebound from US markets last night [Thursday], and a better-than-expected September inflation print of 0.9 percent,” Gabriel Jose Perez of Papa Securities Inc. said. Volume of trade was low, only averaging at P5.18 billion for the week, with value of trade on some days only reaching more than P4 billion. Among the subindices, only the Financials index eked out gains of a mere 2.04 points to close at 1,805.59, while the rest shed points. The broader All Shares index fell 53.21 to 4,675.60, the Industrial index declined 79.46 to 10,477.26, the Holding Firms index plunged 171.86 to 7,551.58, the Property index shed 57.72 to 4,010.90, the Services index 33.38 to 1,510.64, and the Mining and Oil index was down 125.33 to 8,843.07. Losers edged gainers 156 to 56, while 37 shares were unchanged. Top gainers were F and J Prince Holdings Corp. A, Vitarich Corp., Philippine Trust Co., Grand Plaza Hotel Corp., Vantage Equities Inc. and Asia United Bank Corp. Top losers, on the other hand, were Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corp., iPeople Inc., Manila Mining Corp. B, Filipino Fund Inc., Ferronoux Holdings Inc. and APC Group Inc.

This week

Share prices may pick up as some investors may return to the market following the backto-back-to-back listing of two firms during the week. “Most of the focus will be on the two IPOs [initial public offering] so trading may pick up for next week,” Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital and Development Corp., said. Coconut manufacturer Axelum Resources Inc. will list on Monday, while Villar’s All Home Corp. will go public on Thursday. “Support is 7,520 and resistance is 7,800. Despite a perceived slowdown in US economy, market assumes Fed will be making another rate cut when they meet.” Any more hints that they will do so “may push the market further up, barring any sudden negative external macroeconomic shocks,” Limlingan said. “Movement next week for the PSEi should still be highly likely influenced by US market movement. Support remains at May’s low of 7,475,” Papa Securities’ Perez said.

Stock picks

Broker Regina Capital advised to buy when its support price of P115 to P110 holds for the shares of port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI). “Luckily, the breakdown of ICT, after breaking the 126,00-level price floor, already found bottom, at P115,” it said. “The stock will likely enter a consolidation phase, between this new support and a resistance of P122.50, as ICT is trying to prove the resilience of this price floor,” the broker added. ICTSI shares closed on Friday at P121 apiece. Meanwhile, the broker advised to cut loss on the stock of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) after breaching a two-month strong support at P4.80. “This is after the brief consolidation of MPI above 4.90 failed to regain momentum. The drop saw MPI’s breach of its 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages in a swift, and now adjusts the nearest support to as low as P4.58,” the broker said. It gave a target price on the stock at P4.645. MPIC’s shares closed last week at P4.91. VG Cabuag

nas Shell will also install a 3 megawatt-hour battery-energy storage system (BESS) at its manufacturing site in Tabangao, Batangas City. Work on the solar farm is expected to start next month, while installation of the battery system is scheduled in the second quarter of 2020. Cesar Romero, Pilipinas Shell’s president and chairman of Shell companies in the Philippines, said the integrated solution is the result of collaboration between Pilipinas Shell and Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDS) New Energies business, to showcase Shell’s aspiration to thrive in the energy transition and, at the same time, demonstrate opportunities to unlock value between conventional and new energy systems. Upon its full completion, the integrated energy system of the Batangas Refinery will effectively

Mutual Funds

showcase Pilipinas Shell’s commitment to and leadership in the energy transition through the use of cleaner energy technologies in the oil and gas industry. “Pilipinas Shell takes a broad perspective on the energy transition and will deliver commercially viable energy solutions to our own sites. This started in our retail business, where there are currently 39 Shell retail stations in the Philippines already fitted out with solar panels and energy efficient equipment,” said Romero. The use of cleaner energies to power the requirements of its Batangas Refinery is Pilipinas Shell’s contribution to the overall ambition of RDS to play a part and contribute to the global effort to tackle climate change as it provides energy to meet the world needs.

October 4, 2019

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 244.16 -0.34% -2.99% -1.33% -3.19% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.5044 9.57% 2.35% 0.59% 4.41% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.7932 -0.46% -4.05% -2.33% -2.81% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.9123 3.92% n.a. n.a. 1.25% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.8218 2% n.a. n.a. 0.13% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 5.188 2.13% -1.31% -0.74% -1.62% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,6 0.8299 2.27% -5.47% n.a. -0.81% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 115.49 -0.32% n.a. n.a. -0.58% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 49.6894 4.13% -1.01% n.a. 0.95% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 518.27 4.58% -1.86% -0.97% 0.69% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.2487 2.04% -1.15% 0.35% -0.42% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 36.8225 3.32% -0.18% 0.28% 0.52% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,3 0.9835 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 5.0464 5.17% -0.31% 0.97% 1.77% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 842.44 5.2% -0.42% 0.9% 1.69% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.8749 6.02% -1.19% n.a. 1.73% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 4.0908 3.55% -0.63% 0.18% 0.79% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.968 4.8% -0.47% n.a. 1.44% United Fund, Inc. -a 3.563 5.22% 1.13% 1.45% 1.78% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c,2 112.9716 5.49% 0.34% 1.93% 2.01% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b $0.9346 -6.73% 0.84% -1.32% 0.59% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.2559 -3.41% 6.32% n.a. 13.64% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5859 -2.35% -4.16% -3.57% -3.95% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.2256 2.47% -2.01% -0.63% 0.74% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.5786 3.96% -0.48% -1.84% 1.4% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,8 0.2244 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Grepalife Balanced Fund Corporation -a 1.3178 2.08% n.a. n.a. 1.04% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.9275 6.64% 0.41% 0.76% 4.58% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.7001 7.85% -0.92% -0.13% 4.84% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 16.5954 7.65% -0.82% -0.2% 4.32% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 2.0948 3.44% -0.45% 0.75% 1.24% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.7782 5.28% -0.23% 0.28% 3.48% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d,4 0.9901 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d,4 0.9708 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d,4 0.9671 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.9543 4.45% -0.79% -0.41% 3.54% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03861 10.38% 2.37% 2.46% 9.38% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -a $0.9746 0.22% 1.26% -0.37% 6.67% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.6952 0.45% 4.72% 3.01% 11.68% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a $1.1038 2.92% 2.98% n.a. 9.29% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 354.58 3.82% 2.27% 2.27% 3.23% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.9174 3.31% 0.1% -0.05% 3.13% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.0869 5.09% 5.3% 5.25% 3.72% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2117 4.34% 1.41% 2.03% 3.87% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.3387 5.61% 1.54% 1.58% 6.06% Grepalife Fixed Income Fund Corp. -a P 1.6088 2.08% -1.03% 0.22% 2.84% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.3083 12.72% 0.92% 1.76% 9.91% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.7415 7.95% 1.49% 1.57% 6.38% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 0.9526 8.16% 0% n.a. 6.89% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.0319 9.84% 2.46% 2.61% 9.62% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.6808 9.71% 1.92% 2.21% 9.15% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $465.57 4.48% 1.87% 2.89% 3.83% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є220.34 3.31% 1.28% 1.51% 3.61% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2 7.02% 2.11% 2.57% 6.6% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 4.44% 1.05% 1.62% 4.44% Grepalife Dollar Bond Fund Corp. -a $1.7162 0.97% -1.88% 0.55% 1.54% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -a $1.1028 7.05% -0.14% -0.93% 6.42% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4167 11.47% 1.84% 3.65% 11.33% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0602155 5.89% 1.97% 2.11% 5.64% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1803 9.92% 1.21% 3.15% 10.73% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 124.79 4.15% 2.67% 2.09% 3.23% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a,5 1.0234 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a 1.2412 5.88% 2.36% 1.48% 5.02% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2557 3.88% 2.8% 2.2% 2.99% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0332 2.21% n.a. n.a. 1.7% a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU). 1 - Adjusted due to cash dividend issuance last January 29, 2018. 2 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last June 5, 2018. 3 - Launch date is January 3, 2019. 4 - Launch date is January 28, 2019. 5 - Launch date is February 1, 2019. 6 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 7 - Launch date is August 1, 2019. 8 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. "While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to the correctness of the newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www. pifa.com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

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Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

DOF promises to help other agencies for TradeNet rollout

HE Department of Finance (DOF) together with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will work closely with the Department of Agriculture (DA) on the full rollout of TradeNet. The DOF explained that TradeNet is a platform that seeks to modernize and make the processing of import and export permits faster by allowing traders to apply for accreditation and permit online. According to Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, the DA has issued a memorandum order instructing its personnel to coordinate with the DOF and DICT on integrating the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) certificates in TradeNet. The DA is a key component of TradeNet as it is among regulatory bodies that process permits for imports and exports, particularly of agricultural products, such as rice,

which is now freely imported under the rice tariffication law subject to the compliance by traders of SPS requirements. According to Beltran, the DA has created project teams for integrating SPS in TradeNet and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Single Window, or ASW. He added these teams will work with the DOF and DICT in developing TradeNet modules for the ASW exchange. The ASW is a regional initiative that aims to speed up cargo clearances and promote economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of border documents among the 10 Asean member-states. The online portal will also stream the application for the electronic Certificates of Origin from members of the Asean after the Bureau of Customs released a MO that provides the guidelines for the submission and processing of all e-Cos through TradeNet.gov.ph. Jove Moya

Perspectives

Keeping pace with the speed of change

HY Quality must adapt to trends from consumerism to eroding margins. The Quality function has already undertaken massive transformation efforts in the last few years, in response to a more stringent regulatory environment, new delivery mechanisms and increased supply chain complexity. The need for further change will only be amplified by emerging trends, such as digitalization, new business models and disruptive competitors. Of particular importance is the technological progression that is allowing personalized medicine, e.g., new modalities like gene therapy and drugs for rare diseases, which will require organizations to adapt their approach to quality and support a decentralized supply chain. Below are a number of significant changes occurring in the industry ecosystem that will make it necessary to adapt current Quality functions to become fit for purpose: 1. New patient-centric business models Life Sciences organizations are instituting a wide variety of new business models, e.g., beyond the pill services and solutions that are driven by new technologies and patient-centricity; outcomes-based care models in response to payer scrutiny of prices and value; and a greater focus on niche patient pools through the provision of specialty and rare disease drugs, as well as personalized medicine and combination therapies. By 2030, leading Life Sciences organizations are likely to explore and introduce many additional innovative business models. As companies define their roles in this new paradigm, the Quality function will need to expand its scope to ensure the quality of consumer-focused products and solutions across an increasingly stratified patient and end-user landscape. 2. Fragmented supply chains As most Life Sciences organizations operate on a global scale, they are subject to the unique geopolitical developments and legal parameters of different regions. In recent years, supply chain complexity has increased through the growing use of contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), as well as centralized and outsourced back-office processes. As manufacturing continues to expand into a variety of locations throughout the world, supply chains will be further fragmented, thus expanding the scope that Quality must oversee. This will be challenging without localized quality expertise and practices, including a focus on ensuring that local third parties

abide by the same quality standards as the organization. Finally, the shift from batch manufacturing to continuous manufacturing is likely to further accelerate with biologics and personalized medicine—creating an impetus for quality to keep pace. 3. Disruptive technologies Disruptive digital technologies have game-changing potential for Life Sciences companies. For example, artificial intelligence can be used in real-time release testing to dramatically reduce lead times and costs. Advanced data and analytics (D&A) will have the same impact on research and development (R&D) timelines and costs. Technologies with significant untapped potential, like blockchain, are likely to have a major impact on assurance functions. In order to take advantage of the efficiency, accuracy, and customercentricity promised by these innovative technologies, associated quality will need to undergo strict assurance and control. 4. Continuously evolving regulatory requirements The regulatory landscape is moving away from the three dominant bodies—the Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, and the Pharmaceutical and Food Safety Bureau in Japan—toward an increasingly country-specific approach. This shift is creating a fragmented regulatory landscape, even while directives like the European Medical Device Regulation (EUMDR) seek to harmonize global regulations. Ultimately, companies will need to balance local and global approaches to quality. 5. Eroding margins There is more pricing scrutiny in Life Sciences than ever before due to patent expiry of blockbuster drugs, greater focus on specialty drugs, new entrants in the Asia-Pacific region, and increased adoption of generics and biosimilars. As companies adjust their pricing strategies to reflect a lower return on investment or ROI (in some cases as low as 1 percent to 2 percent), they must also evaluate the cost of Quality. To achieve this, they must evolve Quality from a cost center to a value-adding entity and distribute ownership of quality across all functions. The excerpt was taken from the KPMG article titled “Quality 2030: Quality Inside.”

© 2019 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative, a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the Philippines. For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www.kpmg.com.ph.

Monday, October 7, 2019 B3

Below 1% inflation opens doors for more rate cuts

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

HE fall in price pressures in September has opened doors for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to cut rates for the fourth time before the year ends, opined economists of financial institutions.

One of them is Sin Beng Ong who was quoted in of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s research note as forecasting another 25 basis point rate cut in the BSP’s December meeting. “Amid ongoing growth concerns and weaker inflation momentum, we continue to look for further monetary easing at the December 12 monetary board meeting, bringing the policy rate to 3.75 percent by end-2019,” Ong, JPMorgan’s chief economist for Southeast Asia, said.

“As capital spending recovers, GDP [gross domestic product] growth should rebound to a 5.6 percent quarter on quarter, leaving overall 2019 growth at 5.5 percent. However, this still implies an undershooting of the government’s official GDP target range of 6 percent to 7 percent,” the economist added in the the American financial services firm’s latest research note on the Philippine economy. This view is shared by ING Bank

NV Manila economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa. “Inflation will likely revert target once base effects fade. Price pressures appear to be benign as food prices are expected to be more stable given new legislation and government’s openness to importing food stuffs,” Mapa said. “With this environment, the BSP is afforded scope to ease policy rates further should other data points warrant it; but for the most part the price objective remains well in hand,” he added. For Security Bank Corp. Chief Economist Robert Dan J. Roces, recent geopolitical events, such as a worsening US-China trade war, a slump in local investments that affects growth, and instability in the US markets does give scope for the BSP to consider further cuts should the situation warrant it. “As we have posited before, any further cuts this year, if at all, will be as a form of insurance cuts to nudge growth in 2020,” Roces said.

However, he warned of potential implications should the BSP continue to cut its rates this year. “The below-target inflation rate gives the BSP more room to continue its easing cycle. However, [the] BSP has widely expected this downward trajectory citing base effects and better supply side conditions,” the economist said. “This expectation from the BSP supports our view that the Central Bank might have reached the end of its projected easing cycle for the year,” Roces added. “We think that further cuts might affect real interest rates if not managed since inflation is expected to normalize next year.” The Philippine Statistics Authority announced that inflation fell to 0.9 percent in September as most major commodity groups registered either lower or negative inflation rates during the period. The BSP monetary board will be having their next monetary policy meeting on November 14 and December 12 for this year.

SEC extends credit report fee for financial institutions

S a way of introducing the large-scale use of credit reports to financial institutions, or FIs, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) En Banc on September 27, granted the request of the Credit Information Corp. (CIC) for an introductory price of P10 until March 31, 2020. The P10 per credit report introductory price for FIs is inclusive of value-added tax, the CIC said in a statement issued on October 4. Lenders or CIC’s Submitting Entities may access basic credit data from the CIC provided they meet the minimum standards of compliance by having at least six months’ continuous submission, the government-owned and-controlled corporation said. CIC’s SEs are the following: credit card issuers; universal and commercial banks; thrift banks; rural banks; cooperatives and cooperative banks; savings and loan associations; private lending institutions; private leasing and financing companies; microfinance institutions (MFIs); GOCC; and insurance companies. The CIC said these lenders or SEs may access basic credit data from the CIC provided they also complete all necessary documentation, including the execution of the memorandum of agreement (MOA), all of which establish a commitment to pay for the services derived from the CIC. Under the law, access to the CIC data is not mandatory and is subject to the terms and conditions as specified by the corporation. Should a submitting institution fall out of

compliance, the corporation will suspend its access.

Lowering investment risks

CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose P. Garchitorena was quoted in a statement as saying “the Philippines may be considered a mature market when it comes to assessing borrowers.” “However, it may also be considered immature when it comes to using comprehensive credit data of borrowers in the lending and risk management process,” Garchitorena added. “This is the very reason why the CIC was created by law in 2008.” Asked about the CIC’s value proposition, Garchitorena said, “even at the full price of P55, with our comprehensive gathering of credit information from the full range of lenders—from commercial banks to MFIs and coops—we believe that our product is worth the money.” “The 10-peso introductory price for FIs is a way to lower any investment risk in using the CIC data, which some information users may consider a new entrant into the credit information delivery business,” he added. The CIC said it now has close to 9 million unique borrowers in its database and over 45 million contracts making it arguably the largest gathering of credit data in the Philippines.

Benefiting MSMEs

GARCHITORENA was also quoted in the statement as explaining how having so much data can improve credit access to new-to-credit individuals, and micro, small and

medium enterprises (MSMEs). “The general notion is that if you have no previous credit, then you are an unacceptable risk. With large amounts of data from the CIC, the corporation’s accredited Credit Bureaus can help lenders develop lending and risk management model from a statistical perspective,” he said. “People with previous credit exposures can get credit scores using their credit histories. People with no credit history, meanwhile, can be compared to a statistically significant group of individuals with similar traits and characteristics. This removes the binary nature of credit history versus no credit history,” Garchitorena explained. “With the CIC data, even individuals with no actual credit history can have some type of data-driven basis for being assessed for creditworthiness.” He emphasized “this is a significant step for people who are unbanked or have unrecorded exposures from dealing with other sources of credit.”

Challenges, ways forward

The CIC said its credit report contains consolidated positive and negative credit data and other relevant information including detailed financial contracts and credit-card records. These are already available online to qualified FIs, the firm said. “Online reports and scores— which shall soon be available for individuals through CIC’s Accredited Bureaus—will not only help the CIC

comply with the Anti-Red Tape Act requirements, but will also allow it to deliver its services to a larger number of Filipinos anywhere in the country,” the firm added. Garchitorena said that the biggest challenge for the CIC is online security and a robust know-your-client process: “Establishing a firm security regime is one big part of being online, that the CIC will not rush despite our desire to accelerate the availability of our services.” He was also quoted as encouraging all SEs to get onboard to access data and take advantage of the introductory price: “In the end, the goal of the CIC is to enable lenders to lend more to the latter’s existing clients, open up the market to those new to credit, and allow more transparency between the borrowers and lenders to avoid risky lending and over-indebtedness.” The country’s sole public credit registry started rolling-out paid access phase since July, thus making aggregated credit data available to data contributors. Beginning April 1, 2020, the commercial value of the CIC credit report for FIs shall already be set to P55, the firm said. The CIC was created by Republic Act 9510, otherwise known as the Credit Information System Act. Its primary mandate is to establish a comprehensive and centralized credit information system for the collection and dissemination of fair and accurate information relevant to, or arising from, credit and credit-related activities of all entities participating in the ecosystem.

SSS taps microfinance groups to cover self-employed Pinoys

HE state-run Social Security System (SSS) said it has tapped co-operatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to promote its programs for self-employed workers in the informal sector. According to the pension fund manager, more than 50 co-operatives and associations nationwide joined its fourth multi-sectoral forum. In a statement, SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora C. Ignacio said that the multi-sectoral event is an opportunity to look for potential partners in bringing social security protection to informal sector workers from far-flung areas. “SSS conducts this kind of forum to further reach out to one of the most vulnerable sectors of our economy,” Ignacio said. “We believe that the informal sector, like any other private working Filipino, should be protected from the hazards of the sudden loss of income due to sickness, disability, death or retirement.”

Aside from the organized groups, national government agencies, namely Securities and Exchange CommissionMicrofinance Institutions (SEC-MFI) and attached agencies under the Department of Agriculture like Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) were also represented. “It is unfortunate that our farmers and fisherfolks, who feed 104.9 million Filipinos, are the most vulnerable workers in the economy due to the rapidly changing climate, and various pests and diseases which greatly affect their productivity and income,” SSS Executive Vice President for Branch Operations Sector Judy Frances A. See said during the event on behalf of PCEO Ignacio. “That is why we also invited our colleagues from the government sector to let them know that SSS is here to help them in times of financial contingencies through SSS membership.” The event held last September 30

was attended by about 100 representatives from cooperatives, organizations, local government units (LGUs) and national government agencies, the SSS statement said. The SSS said its Partner Accreditation (PA) program started in 2012 wherein cooperatives and MFIs are tapped by the pension fund manager to provide various services for their own members who are also SSS members. Servicing partner agents are tasked to receive members’ applications, such as SSS registration, salary loans and funeral benefits, while collecting partner agents are authorized to collect SSS contributions, loan amortizations and other miscellaneous payments, the SSS said. As of August, the SSS said it has accredited 54 PAs nationwide, nine of which are from the National Capital Region (NCR), 27 from Luzon, 11 from Visayas and seven from Mindanao.

From January to August this year, 50 SSS-accredited servicing PAs facilitated 2,250 transactions, while 48 accredited collecting PAs collected P63.61 million worth of contributions and loan amortizations, according to the SSS. The NCR event is already the fourth multi-sectoral forum conducted by SSS since 2017. There will be three more events until year-end, which will be held in Cauayan in Isabela, Calamba in Laguna, and Tacloban in Leyte, the SSS statement said.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

B4 Monday, October 7, 2019

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Conservation innovation works wonders for Masungi Georeserve but threats remain President Duterte was asked to extend the momentum from the rehabilitation of Boracay and Manila Bay to Masungi and other areas

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

he award-winning Masungi Georeserve, a privately managed conservation area in Baras, Rizal, continues to receive global recognition for its innovative, sustainable conservation and ecotourism practice. Located 45 kilometers east of Metro Manila, the Masungi Georeserve is home to 60 million years old limestones and over 400 documented species of flora and fauna. The nature park boasts of unique attractions, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations for nature lovers in Luzon. The 10-kilometer limestone spine and its unique biodiversity, once threatened by destructive human activities, is protected by the Masungi Georeserve Foundation and the community within the 3,000 hectare total land area. The park’s management, now sustainably financed by tourism income, makes it a model for conservation and ecotourism. Howe ver, des pite re api ng awards and global recognition, the georeserve continues to face serious threats.

Grassroots conservation project

Innovative conservation measures that include partnerships with nearby communities made the Masungi Georeserve project story a success. In the 1990s, it was already suffering from illegal logging activities. The area, fortunately, became part of a joint-venture development of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Blue Star Construction and Development Corp. for housing alongside the preservation of the area’s natural characteristics and limestones. Rampant land speculation and lack of government assistance, however, caused the project a major setback—with massive delays despite the project proponent’s full financing and sustainably developing the area. Together with experts and stakeholders, Blue Star continued to lead and invest in research and protection of the rock formations and the restoration of denuded land. After 20 years of restoration, the Masungi Georeserve Foundation was born to “fortify conservation, education and geotourism initiatives for Masungi.”

Low-volume trail experiences

In December 2015, the foundation opened low-volume trail experiences to the public to raise awareness on

Masungi’s importance and finance the substantial operational costs of managing and maintaining the area. Conservation experts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) have recognized Masungi Georeserve’s model as an innovative solution to persistent conservation challenges—such as lack of funding, poor and short-sighted management capacity, and balancing protection and sustainable development. The late environmentalist and former DENR Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez, recognizing the accomplishment of the people behind the Masungi Georeserve, ordered the expansion of conservation efforts to some 2,700 hectares of denuded land around the original site in 2017 “so that more communities will benefit from increased reforestation and geotourism activities.”

Unique attractions

Besides offering visitors time to commune with nature, the Masungi Georeserve offers unique tourism experience. The “Sapot” (cobweb) is not for the faint-hearted. It is a metallic platform with wooden steps, which allows visitors to walk on a suspended weblike net above the karst. From the Sapot, visitors get a 360-degree view of the Sierra Madre and the Laguna de Bay. The limestone formations in the park are connected by hanging bridges, rope courses and ecotrails developed by the Masungi Georeserve and Blue Star. Another popular attraction in the park is the Duyan. A giant rope tied together to form a giant hammock spanning a few hundred feet.

Awards and recognition

Just last month, the Masungi Georeserve was chosen as one of the finalists for the United Nations World Tourism Organization Awards during the UNWTO’s 23rd General Assembly in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, last month. It was the third in a string of

Masungi Georeserve visitors took time out for a souvenir photo at the famous “Duyan.” Masungi Georeserve Foundation

international awards and global recognition obtained by the georeserve just in a span of one year. It received a special commendation at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UN-CBD) 14th Conference of the Parties in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, in October 2018. Afterward, it became a global finalist for Destination Stewardship Award at the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards in Seville, Spain, in April 2019. The UNWTO is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. T he U N W TO Awa rds—t he flagship awards for the global tourism sector—aim to recognize the work of organizations and individuals around the world that positively impact and inspire the industry through innovation and knowledge. “We are very happy to be recognized alongside established and esteemed organizations despite our project being very young and localized. It’s a feat to be recognized by the world’s authority in the promotion of sustainable tourism and in front of hundreds of ministers from all over the globe,” Ann Dumaliang, trustee of Masungi Georeserve Foundation, said.

Under constant threat

Amid the awards and global recognition, Masungi Georeserve is under constant threats of quarrying, illegal logging, treasure-hunting and land trafficking—despite policies and laws that should have protected them long ago, its parks managers said. “As an example, a businesswoman from Metro Manila was able to unlawfully claim owner-

ship and possession of at least 100 hectares [within] the project site. This particular section of our area is already titled and she has no legal basis to be there,” Dumaliang said. According to Dumaliang, an absentee claimant or buyer of land in Masungi are adversely affecting conservation efforts, starting with reforestation activities. “Sadly, it seems as though every hectare of the forest has an absentee claimant or buyer. So how can genuine reforestation efforts like ours flourish?” she asked. She said it is a challenging sociopolitical context for conservation as corruption, red tape and conflicts of interest abound.

Need for political will

“But political will from the current administration is necessary to make an impact- and innovationbased conservation projects like Masungi thrive,” she said. She urged “President Duterte to extend the momentum from the rehabilitation of Boracay and Manila Bay to Masungi and other conserved areas.” D u m a l i a n g h i g h l i g ht e d a study which revealed that the Philippines is the most vulnerable country when it comes to climate change. “If Masungi’s forests are not fully rehabilitated, then the tragedies experienced [during Typhoon Ondoy, or international code name Ketsana] will definitely happen again. To this end, Masungi’s team of park rangers and volunteers have planted and nurtured more than 47,000 native trees since 2017,” she said. According to Dumaliang, more than 100 local residents and volunteers have been instrumental in

the foundation’s daily conservation and geotourism work. “The UNWTO acclaim reinforces our determination to always win the good fight and to continue doing the successful work we’ve done. If international institutions are already placing so much value and gratitude on a Filipino conservation project, such as Masungi, the question is, why shouldn’t we?” she said.

Government support needed

Dumaliang told the BusinessMirror through e-mail that there’s a need for government support in breaking down the barriers for reforestation and conservation “so that the private sector and civil society contributions may thrive.” “We know that many groups are interested to help in this urgent endeavor, but because there are so many challenges on the ground, they are discouraged from doing so,” she said, citing anew an absentee claimant for over 100 hectares of land, which they have to fight out to be able to start work in the area. She added that in protected areas as well, almost every hectare has already been sold, when these should be protected by law and by government officials. “That is what we believe is the No. 1 barrier for true conservation work in the Philippines. If you cannot solve the land trafficking happening, how else do you protect what exists on it?

Policy gap

According to Dumaliang, the Philippines may be lagging behind in terms of policy for innovation in conservation. “I think our policy is still behind the innovations possible to push conservation. In Costa Rica,

25 percent of their land is already protected through both public and private-sector efforts,” she said. According to her, legislation incentives to private landowners and managers put perpetual conservation easements or trusts on ecologically rich areas “Some incentives include tax reductions, training and national government assistance against what they call ‘organized squatter invasions’ which has already happened at Masungi in 2016,” she lamented. She said South Africa also has strong policies that link conser vation, ecotourism and livelihood, allowing the private sector to seamlessly work with indigenous communities. Moreover, Dumaliang said that grassroots conservation workers should be supported with security along with forest rangers and conservationists on the ground. “We need to be more progressive with our policies, executive actions, and solutions the way other countr ies have a lready successfully done,” she added. She said the DENR should see itself as a catalyst for sustainable development and not just a regulator. “We feel that sometimes, the government interferes instead of lifting the work that we and other conservation groups do. It might be because of aversion to new ways of doing things or causing friction with those with conflicting interests. But we have already shown results. Our model should be enabled, not hindered. There is so much that can be done for our biodiversity and we hope that the government will embrace and support innovation in doing so,” Dumaliang explained.

Manila Water joins intl coastal cleanup drive

anila Water employees and volunteers joined the recent cleanup activity in Baseco Beach, Tondo, Manila, as part of the 34th International Coastal Cleanup Drive celebration last month. Jeric Sevilla Jr., Manila Water Corporate Strategic Affairs Group head, said the company’s participation is part of its overall thrust on environmental advocacy. “Manila Water wholeheartedly supports advocacies regarding cleaning and reviving rivers, coastal, beaches and waterways to create

not only awareness on the need to protect the environment but, more important, to gather collaboration and collective action among stakeholders,” Sevilla explained. Besides taking part in this cleanup activity, Manila Water also provided water tankers for the volunteers and donated cleaning materials to the project. The activity was spearheaded by the city government of Manila through the Department of Public Services Office along with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Other cleanup and tree-planting activities were also being held simultaneously in Barangays Tumana and San Joaquin in Marikina City, and Kasiglahan Village in San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal. The former was led by Housing Project Development Office head and Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office for the sixth anniversary of YES to Green Program of the provincial government of Rizal and International Coastal Cleanup Drive. Manila Water employees also volunteered in tree planting and waterways cleanup activities

in Barangay Prinza in Teresa, Rizal, as well as in Maytunas Creek, also in Mandaluyong and in provincial government of Rizal. This program is also in line with Manila Water’s advocacy program called “Toka Toka,” the first and only movement in the Philippines on used water management. Toka Toka listed four shares in activities, which included proper disposal of garbage, availment of desludging services, connecting to Manila Water’s sewer network and supporting Manila Water’s community-based sanitation projects.

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, October 7, 2019

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Ensuring the viability of the wood sector in PHL

ood is undoubtedly one of the most versatile materials available to man. It serves many vital functions, from construction to interior design, and it has a direct role in the advancement of human civilization. Man-made structures made of timber can be traced back as far as 10,000 years during the Stone Age. But besides dwelling places, tools and weapons were also fashioned out of wood. Another important use of wood is for crafting vehicles like canoes and wagons. The historical evidence of a long and storied relationship between humans and wood is strong, and proves that wood has propelled humanity to greater heights. Today, wood remains a relevant building material, used in almost every facet of construction. From erecting a solid foundation that ensures structural integrity, to using wooden furniture and decoration to spruce up the home, wood plays a vital role in the lives of every Filipino. According to the Forest Management Bureau, the country needs 6 million cubic meters of wood annually. Although the local wood sector continues to strive toward meeting the local demand, they face many roadblocks. One of the main problems they face is public perception. Cutting trees has negative implications perpetuated by illegal logging, which has led to serious deforestation in many areas around the country. However, if done sustainably, cutting down trees can help the environment. By removing mature trees that run the risk of dying and releasing the carbon it has stored in its body during its lifetime, we can limit the emission of greenhouse gases. Animals who also call the forests their home can benefit from properly managed forests as it improves their habitat while ensuring that forests remain viable for a longer time. Another hurdle is the lack of legislation that promotes the welfare of the wood sector. This is why the Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) is advocating for the passage of several bills, including the National Land Use Act, the Forest Limits Act, and the Sustainable Forest Management Act. “We believe that with the enactment of these proposed laws, we can make the Philippines a global superpower in terms of wood production,” PWPA Chairman Charlie Liu said. “We are confident that with common sense legislation in place we can bring inclusive development to many places in the country.” The discussion about increasing the production of wood while protecting the environment is one of the main topics at the Philippine Wood Expo 2019 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza on October 21 and 22. The event, organized by the PWPA, promises to be a great opportunity for suppliers and manufacturers of wood products, as well as wood enthusiasts to showcase their innovative technologies to attendees coming from various countries. The Philippine Wood Expo 2019 aims to expand the reach of businesses in the wood sector by providing them with the opportunity to interface with other industry players.

Restoring forests to help repair climate

One tree at a time

ADRE DE DIOS, Peru— Destruction of the forests can be swift. Regrowth is much, much slower.

A reforestation assistant measures a newly planted tree in a field damaged during illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru, on March 29. Since the project began three years ago, the team has planted more than 42 hectares with native seedlings, the largest reforestation effort in the Peruvian Amazon to date. AP/Rodrigo Abd

But around the world, people are putting shovels to ground to help it happen. They labor amid spectacular recent losses—the Amazon jungle and the Congo basin ablaze, smoke from Indonesian rainforests wafting over Malaysia and Singapore, fires set mostly to make way for cattle pastures and farm fields. Between 2014 and 2018, a new report says, an area the size of the United Kingdom was stripped of forest each year. Rebuilding woodland is slow and often difficult work. And it requires patience: It can take several decades or longer for forests to regrow as viable habitats, and to absorb the same amount of carbon lost when trees are cut and burned. And yet, there is urgency to that work—forests are one of the planet’s first lines of defense against climate change, absorbing as much as a quarter of man-made carbon emissions each year. Through photosynthesis, trees and other plants use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to produce chemical energy to fuel their growth; oxygen is released as a byproduct. As forests have shrunk, however, so has an already overloaded Earth’s capacity to cope with carbon emissions. Successful reforestation programs take into account native plant species. They are managed by groups with a sustained commitment to monitoring forests, not just one-off tree-planting events. And usually, they economically benefit the people who live nearby—for instance, by creating jobs, or reducing erosion that damages homes or crops. The impact could be great: A recent study in the journal Science projected that if 0.9 billion hectares (2.2 billion acres) of new trees were planted—around 500 billion saplings—they could absorb 205

gigatons (220 gigatons) of carbon once they reached maturity. The Swiss researchers estimated this would be equivalent to about two-thirds of man-made carbon emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Other scientists dispute those calculations, while some fear the theoretical promise of tree planting as an easy solution to climate changes could distract people from the range and scope of the responses needed. But all agree that trees matter. And in many places around the world, people are working to revive them: n In a region of southeastern Peru called Madre de Dios, forestry researcher Jhon Farfan inspects lands where the forest has already been lost to illegal gold mining. A fter cutting and bur ning centuries-old trees, miners used diesel pumps to suck up deep layers of the Earth, then pushed the soil through filters to separate out gold particles. To turn gold dust into nuggets, they stirred in mercury, which binds the gold together but also poisons the land. Left behind are patches of desert-like land—dry, sandy, stripped of topsoil and ringed by trunks of dead trees. Last December, Farfan and other scientists with the Perubased nonprofit Cincia planted more than 6,000 saplings of various species native to this part of the Amazon, including the giant shihuahuaco, and tested different fertilizers. Since the project began three years ago, the team has planted more than 42 hectares (115 acres) with native seedlings, the largest reforestation effort in the Peruvian Amazon to date. n After miners left West Virginia’s Cheat Mountain in the 1980s,

MIGRATORY BIRDS Egrets find a floating bamboo fish cage in Magat River in Cordon, Isabela, to take a rest from a long flight from cold countries up north. Local tourists enjoy bird watching during the last quarter of the year. Ceasar M. Perante

there was an effort to green the coal mining sites to comply with US law. The companies used heavy machinery to push upturned soil back into place, compacting the mountainside with bulldozers. The result was soil so packed in that rainwater couldn’t seep down, and tree roots couldn’t expand. Companies planted “desperation species”—grasses with shallow roots or nonnative trees that could endure, but wouldn’t reach their full height or restore the forest as it had been. On Cheat Mountain and at other former mining sites across Appalachia, more than a million acres of former forests are in similar arrested development. Now Michael French, director of operations for the Kentuckybased nonprofit Green Forests Work, and his colleagues are collaborating with the US Forest Service to restore native Appalachian forests and the rare species they support—by first tearing down other trees. Green Forests Work has reforested around 800 acres within the Monongahela, and it is taking a similar approach to other former mining sites across Appalachia, having reforested around 4,500 total acres since 2009. n Maria Coelho da Fonseca Machado Moraes, nicknamed Dona Graça, runs a tree nursery that grows seedlings of species native to Brazil’s lesser-known ju ng le —t he At l a nt ic coa st a l rainforest. She collaborates with a nonprofit group called Save the Golden Lion Tamarin, which works to protect and restore the forest habitat of the endangered namesake monkey. “The Atlantic rainforest is one of the planet’s most threatened biomes, more than 90 percent of it was deforested,” said Luis Paulo Ferraz, the nonprofit’s executive secretary. “What is left is very fragmented.” As she nears 50, Dona Graça says she is furious at what has happened to the forest, which was whittled down to allow for the urban expansion of Rio de Janeiro and other cities. And so, between feeding her chickens and raking the leaves, she grows seedlings of rare species. She mixes limestone and clay, places it in plastic nursery bags and plants seeds in them. She irrigates them with water and cow urine. Loca l replanting ef for ts— which aim to reconnect fragmented parcels of forest—often use the seedlings from Dona Graça’s nursery. She does this, she said, for posterity. “In the future when I pass away...that memory I tried to leave for the people is: It’s worth it to plant, to build,” she said. AP

India, Asean exchange practices in applying City Biodiversity Index

epresentatives from India and Asean shared experiences and best practices in applying the City Biodiversity Index to promote biodiversity in their respective cities in a workshop in Singapore last week. Also referred to as the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity, the City Biodiversity Index is a self-assessment tool for cities to evaluate and monitor the progress of their biodiversity conservation efforts against their respective baselines. The index gives scores to cities based on 23 indicators, which gauge native biodiversity, ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, and the governance and management of biodiversity. “This activity is timely, with the recognition of the need for naturebased solutions to deal with the impacts of climate change,” said Dr. Leong Chee Chiew, deputy chief executive officer of the National Parks Board of Singapore (NParks) at the opening of the workshop. NParks hosted the workshop in partnership with the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) of India. The workshop, dubbed “ACBNBA Cooperation: Capacity-Building Towards Implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing, the City Biodiversity Index and the Strategic Plan on Biodiversity,” was part of a series

of capacity-enhancing activities under the auspices of the AseanIndia Cooperation and financed by the Asean-India Green Fund. Dr. Vinod Bahari Mathur, newly appointed chairman of India’s NBA, welcomed the participants from nine Asean member-states and seven cities in India. In his speech, Mathur praised Singapore’s efforts to establish green spaces saying, “What Singapore has done is something the world should see and learn from.” A ccord i ng to st ud ies pre sented dur ing the workshop, cities with a large amount of tree cover are usually 3 degrees Celsius cooler than cities that don’t have many trees. Likew ise, cit y residents exposed to greener y are generally hea lt hier and have a ca lmer disposition to dea l w ith dayto-day cha l lenges. The effort to develop the City Biodiversity Index was a collaboration of NParks, the United Nations and an international UN task force of experts on cities and biodiversity. It was adopted at the 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010. Around 30 countries all over the world have already applied the City Biodiversity Index, Dr. Lena Chan, senior director for International Biodiversity Cooperation of NParks, said.

Solution to climate emergency: Conserve biodiversity

aribon Foundation stood in solidarity with millions of people across the planet at the recent Global Climate Strike to demand immediate and concrete actions from every individual, especially the decision-makers, to provide solutions to the worsening climate emergency. As the words of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg resoundingly urges, all sectors should “act as if our house is on fire.” Climate change is not an issue separate from biodiversity loss, as one inevitably affects the other. For instance, the destruction, degradation and loss of forests over the past decades have dramatically increased the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thereby amplifying the greenhouse gas effect. This phenomenon has led to increased global temperature and heat waves. Significant amount of carbon is conserved in natural forests (up to 250 MgC/ha) and can be emitted to the atmosphere as carbon-dioxide gas through deforestation, said Dr. Rodel Lasco and his research team in 2008. Illegal, uncontrolled use and blasting of marine habitats—such as mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs—have also resulted in the massive decline of fish catch and degraded ecosystem services. These benefits from ecosystems include carbon sequestration or the ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide, and protection from floods and storm surges. In other words, efforts toward climate-change adaptation and mitigation, and the protection and conservation of biodiversity must be looked at interdependently. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report stated that “conserving natural terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and restoring degraded ecosystems [including their genetic and species diversity] is essential for the overall goals of both the Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD] and the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change.” In 2017, the Philippines has committed to the Paris Agreement in aiming to increase the ability

of countries to respond to the impacts of climate change, and to the CBD since 1993 with the goal to conserve biological diversity, promote sustainable use of biodiversity components, and equitable sharing of benefits from using its resources. Ecosystem services from biodiversity are key to eliminating greenhouse gases and protecting communities from disastrous climate-change impacts, such as flash floods and fatal storm surges. Moreover, engineering innovative and renewable sources of human subsistence will also help sustain ecosystems and biodiversity for future generations. Despite existing policies and localization efforts, the country must expedite effective implementation of concrete environmental solutions to meet the bar. Our commitments in international agreements demand double the time for our institutions to operationalize and fund conservation programs. “We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction,” Thunberg said. Our ecosystems and biodiversity are greatly vulnerable to climate change, making our efforts to conserve and protect the environment and everything that lives in it more relevant than ever. Ecosystem services are our strongest hope to effectively curb the devastating effects of climate change. Our constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology is founded on our basic human needs such as air, water, food, shelter and clothing—all generously provided by ecosystems. Haribon Foundation has taken up the challenge to promote a healthier Philippine biodiversity for over four decades. Among its ridge-toreef milestones on forest restoration, marine conservation, and species protection, the group upholds the 29-year-old proposed Sustainable Forest Management Act, or the Forest Resources Bill, together with its partners. According to the foundation, the proposed law is undoubtedly the overarching policy solution for forest ecosystem as it spotlights forest protection and reforestation as the forefront solutions to respond to the climate-wchange issue and the conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity.

B6 Monday, October 7, 2019

Sharp PH marks its 9 Millionth washing machine production

HARP Philippines Corporation (SPC), one of the global leaders in home electronic, recently celebrated another milestone. SPC’s top executives led by Mr. Kazuo Kito President and General Manager and Emmanuel Valencia Executive Vice President of sales together with their employees celebrate as they marked their 9 millionth washing machine production last September 27, 2019. In line with their celebration Sharp donated washing machine units to (9) Orphanage and Evacuation Center in (9) Barangays in Muntinlupa.

The event also graced by Local officials of Muntinlupa headed by Vice Mayor Artemio Simundac. SPC has constantly evolved despite the ever-changing demands and unpredictable market competition. With continuous efforts, they develop products which perfectly suits both the needs and wants of consumers. In fact, they started locally-made washing machines that sold since 1987. Sharp has released a variety of Washing Machine products fit for everyone’s different needs. From Washer, Dryer and Twin-Tub to Fully-Automatic. SPC continuously strive to

develop Japan Technology products that can surely make every consumer’s life more convenient and comfortable. Sharp is very positive in committing their No.1 position in Washing Machine by expanding their locally made product line. Before the year ends they going to release (6) New Models of Local Fully Automatic Washing Machine under Ultrawash Series, this is the answer to the improve lifestyle of the Filipinos. Promotion and giveaways also will be expected this coming season. Truly, SPC continues to provide quality home electronics products to Filipinos. During a ceremony held on April 2, 2019 at the Marco Polo Hotel, Reader’s Digest Asia’s Trusted Brand 2019 Awards recognized Sharp with the Ultimate Seal of Consumer Approval as one of the Most Trusted Brands for Household Products for the Washing Machine Category. The Reader’s Digest Asia Trusted Brands has established a solid reputation as the premier consumer-based survey in Asia, providing a credible and reliable reference for consumers throughout the region. With that said, Sharp Philippines is truly honored to receive this recognition and remains genuinely thankful to everyone who trusted their brand and voted in this category.

Sun Life ceo named Plia President

UN Life Philippines CEO & Country Head Benedict Sison has been named the new president of the Philippine Life Insurance Association (PLIA). Sison succeeds Troo President and CEO Hanz Loozekoot, who will be taking on a regional position as Ageas’ Chief Business Development Officer in Asia. Sison has been with Sun Life since 2010,

handling the overall financial leadership initially for its Philippine businesses, then later for Sun Life Asia and its subsidiaries in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, and India. After a three-year stint in Hong Kong, Sison returned to Sun Life’s Philippine office in 2015, this time expanding in scope to include strategy, actuarial, and digital transformation, among others. PLIA General Manager George Mina expressed confidence that Sison will help steer the life insurance industry toward greater sustainability and development. “With his excellent track record and passion for the industry’s mission, Benedict will surely be an asset to our organization,” he said. Meanwhile, Sison thanked PLIA for the opportunity to contribute to the industry. “It’s an exciting time to be in the insurance business. With the increasing financial literacy of Filipinos and with digitalization paving the way for more opportunities, there are many exciting possibilities we can pursue,” he said. “I look forward to working hand in hand with PLIA member companies and other stakeholders to reinforce our industry’s purpose.” PLIA is the association of life insurance companies in the Philippines. Currently with 30 member-companies, it aims to promote the growth of the life insurance industry in the Philippines so it may contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country.

Enjoy your next budget barkada trip at Princesa Garden Island Resort and Spa

RINCESA Garden Island Resort and Spa provides the perfect luxury vacation package, complete with lavish accommodation, exciting activities, sumptuous food, and a scenic backdrop. What's more is that all these are accessible even to young professionals who are conscious about their hard-earned money. Princesa Garden Island offers a sprawling fourhectare paradise that is only 10 to 15 minutes away from the city airport. Upon arriving at the resort, you will immediately get a glimpse of the island's beauty while being greeted by the captivating coconutshaded gardens. The entire resort features a remarkable use of organic and recycled materials, including corals, rocks, and bamboo, as well as the Palaweno wood carvings that give the resort a uniquely local atmosphere. Focused on sustainability, Princesa Garden Island highlights environmentally-friendly solutions such as the use of its own water treatment and desalination facility. They also utilize solar energy with the roofs decorated with several solar panels for sustainable electricity. Even the 1,640-square meter pool in the Princesa Garden Island

Resort and Spa is chlorine-free and uses nothing but natural sea salt water. Princesa Garden Island Resort and Spa also takes pride in its Hari Ballroom, which is perfect for big special occasions given its 600-seat capacity. Its Reyna Function Hall features state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment and can accommodate a maximum of 200 people. The resort also has a chapel which is perfect for weddings, or simply for guests looking for peace and spirituality during their vacation. If you are craving for Filipino and international cuisine, visit the open-theater kitchen of Rice, the resort’s all day dining cafe. Meanwhile, lovers of Italian cuisine can dine at Tomato and Basil Cuisina Italiana, an al fresco specialty restaurant where wood-fired baked pizza and other Italian dishes are served with a glass of Italian wine. Princesa Garden Island Resort and Spa also offers in-resort activities to keep the whole gang. You can go on active jogs, walks, bikes, and even stop by the resort’s gym in the morning. The group can also bond over nonmotorized water sports, hang out in the entertainment center, or have a fun game of jumbo chess. Cap the adventure-filled day by stopping by the Hilot Spa, which promises a blissful retreat to soothe the mind and body. Housed in a modern minimalist casita that exudes rustic simplicity, this wellness haven provides pampering like no other. It has eight rooms that feature its own shower and pocket garden, and a couple of rooms with jacuzzi. Get to know more about Princesa Garden Island Resort and Spa, located in Puerto Princesa, City, Palawan. You may log on to: https://www. princesagardenisland.com/ or email us at: reservation@ princesagardenisland.com.

Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Manila Galleria takes part in giving for good month

AST September, Crowne Plaza Manila and Holiday Inn Manila Galleria’s management and associates held a tree planting activity at La Mesa Ecopark as part of their contribution to the Giving for Good Month of Intercontinental Hotels Group. Headed by Executive Assistant Manager Ms. Gibeth Gloria, over 25 representatives from various departments participated in the said activity including Mr. Dominic Dorol and Ms. Fely Reamillo, hotels’ Director of Sales & Marketing and Director of Human Resources respectively. Doing this kind of activity is said to help reduce greenhouse gases that leads to climate change.

Celebrated in September and participated by IHG hotels all over the globe, Giving for Good Month aims to make a change in the society by spearheading environmental initiatives, health and fitness activities or volunteering for a cause. For Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria inquiries, call (02) 633 – 7222 or email cpgm.reservations@ihg.com. For Holiday Inn Manila Galleria inquiries, call 6337111 or email higm.resevations@ihg.com. Like them on Facebook: www.facebook. com/crowneplazamanilagalleria and www. facebook.com/himanila and follow them on Instagram: @crowneplazamanilagalleria and @holidayinnmanilagalleria.

A WORLD RECORD. A WIN FOR QATAR. Both Dalilah Muhammad and Mutaz Essa Barshim—they call him “The Qatari Falcon”—will head into the Tokyo Games next year as reigning world champions. AP

By Eddie Pells

The Associated Press

Sports BusinessMirror

| Monday, October 7, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Steven Gardiner says he is hopeful his world championship victory could bring a little happiness to the Bahamas. AP

OHA, Qatar—The message American hurdler Dalilah Muhammad kept telling herself when her career was running into roadblocks: Why not me? The message Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim kept receiving from an adoring home crowd yearning to celebrate a champion: We love you! On a thrill-filled night at the track and field world championships Friday, Muhammad answered her own question—again—by setting her second world record in 10 weeks, while Barshim loved everyone back by becoming a repeat world champion, winning this one on home turf. “I’ve won a lot of gold medals, but this one is home,” Barshim said. “It feels different. I just felt love.” The late-blooming, 29-year-old Muhammad smoothed her way through the 400-meter hurdles in 52.16 to break, by .04 seconds, the world record she had set at US national championships in July. Both she and Barshim—they call him “The Qatari Falcon”—will head into the Tokyo Games next year as reigning world champions. Muhammad will also go in as the defending Olympic champ—and almost certainly as the world record holder, too. “I didn’t even know who won the race,” Muhammad said. “I was looking to see who won, and then I noticed, when they said ‘world record,’ that I had broken it.” Simply winning the race has become more difficult because of the rapid rise of Sydney McLaughlin, the 20-year-old phenom who juggles, rides a unicycle and seems destined to win a gold medal one day. McLaughlin also finished second to Muhammad at nationals—but that one was by .68 seconds. This one was by .07, and her time of 52.23 would have been the world record had she run it 10 weeks ago. “We came

into this season knowing who the main opponent was going to be,” said McLaughlin’s coach, Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes. “It’s not a surprise. Dalilah has experience over Syd, so all I wanted her to do was get some experience. And run her best. And she’s surpassed that.” How close did Muhammad come to missing out on this? Shortly after graduating from Southern California in 2012, she went to Olympic trials and completely flopped. Out in the first round, she had neither a spot at the London Games nor a sponsor. Things changed: She won nationals in 2013, then a silver medal at worlds. Then they changed again: She faltered in 2015 and watched those world championships from home. ”I had an epiphany one day, ‘Why not me?’” Muhammad said. Now, she has an Olympic title and a world championship. She barely broke stride in clearing the 10 hurdles. It was, she said, much closer to the perfect race that she decidedly did not think she had run at national championships in the rain, in Des Moines, Iowa. And yet, this race still came down to a lean at the line against an opponent who’s only getting better. “Next year’s going to be amazing,” Hayes said. Close as the race was, though, the men’s steeplechase was even closer. Conseslus Kipruto and Lamecha Grima rambled over barriers and through the water over 3,000 meters, and as they approached the finish, there was nothing separating them. With fans in the jampacked crowd screaming, they sprawled as they reached the line. A photo finish showed Kipruto had crossed in eight minutes, 1.35 seconds. That was onehundredth of a second faster than Grima. “I was praying, ‘Let me be faster than him,’” Kipruto said. “I waited. I prayed. I saw the screen and saw it said ‘Conseslus.’ It was my name. I was definitely happy.” In the men’s 400 meters,

Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won gold over Anthony Zambrano of Colombia and American Fred Kerley. Finishing 1-2 in the discus were Cubans Yaime Perez and Denia Caballero, who ran to the stands to share hugs with their small group of fans. But no win brought more joy throughout the stadium than Barshim’s. He brought the fans out of their seats every time he cleared a height, and not long after it was over, he was sharing a hug with the ruling emir of his country, talking about how Qatar’s first gold medal of these championships was won. Much has been made about the heat and poor attendance, the efficacy of airconditioned stadiums and the legitimacy of the bid process that brought not only these championships, but the 2022 World Cup, to a country that’s striving to raise its profile beyond that of a mere oil supplier. For one night, at least, Barshim’s victory set all that aside. Qatar looked like a sports country, and nothing could ruin that—not even the fact that the sound system malfunctioned at the end of the evening, thus postponing Barshim’s medal ceremony to Saturday night. “I did it for them,” Barshim said of his fans and countrymen. “They’re the champions tonight.” So is Muhammad. She’ll get her gold medal Saturday, as well, but for her, there was one last bit of business to take care of before leaving the track Friday night. While the other seven hurdlers were writhing on the ground after crossing the finish line, Muhammad took a few deep breaths, then straightened up and headed over to the time clock near the finish line to have her picture taken. It’s what world record holders do. “I don’t think you ever get used to it,” Muhammad said. “But if I want to stay competitive in this event, I have no choice.”

Gardiner snatches gold for Bahamas

OHA, Qatar—A month after Hurricane Dorian destroyed houses and livelihoods, Steven Gardiner said he was hopeful his world championship victory could bring a little happiness to the Bahamas. Gardiner’s family home on the Abaco Islands was one of many damaged in the September 1 hurricane. His win in the 400 meters on Friday prompted a stream of messages from his family and friends still rebuilding their lives there. “Hurricane Dorian was very devastating for my family and my island. I just wanted to go out there and do my best,” he said. “My friends and my family, I got messages from all over. They just want me to go out there and perform but I wanted to do a little bit more. I had to fight and I was able to bring home a medal for my country.”

It looked as if the Bahamas’ chance for gold had gone when favorite Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who said she’s donated $25,000 to hurricane-hit churches, was beaten into silver Thursday in the women’s 400 despite setting a North American record. Gardiner missed Miller-Uibo’s race by falling asleep early Thursday, but watched it on replay at 5 a.m. Both he and MillerUibo live in the United States, so they missed the hurricane, but family members were devastated. Gardiner stepped up to bring the Bahamas gold, smashing his personal best to win in 43.48 seconds, more than half a second clear of Colombian Anthony Zambrano. After taking the win, he took off his shoes, wrapped himself in the Bahamian flag and lay down for a moment of contemplation amid the mayhem. AP

Crowd packs worlds stadium to see ‘Qatari Falcon’ prevail

OHA, Qatar—Even when it all seemed to finally go right for the Qataris and their hometown hero, there was still a hitch. High jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim—”The Qatari Falcon”—had the hopes of a nation and a screaming, standing-room-only crowd in Khalifa Stadium behind him Friday night. The fans gasped at every jump and roared each time he cleared the bar. After delivering a gold medal—to go along with his 2017 world championship and his silver from the Rio Olympics—Barshim stood in silence on the podium, waiting to hear his name and the Qatari anthem. But the sound system broke down just when it was needed most. There was a smattering of confused applause as Barshim and his fellow medalists departed without their medals. They will be back for another try at the medal ceremony Saturday. A perfect incentive for the crowds to return,

especially if free tickets are being handed out again. “They came because they believed,” Barshim said. “I am happy about that because tomorrow is better because I am tired and I need everyone there to sing the national anthem.” The nation’s emir—the spectator who ultimately bankrolled this first track and field world championships in the Middle East—was there to savor Barshim’s crowning moment. Since winning a disputed bid for the 2022 World Cup nine years ago, Qatar has taken criticism for luring sports events to this desert nation despite the difficulty of attracting fans, the oppressive heat and the need to build new stadiums with air conditioning. Sports is a key part of the image-building movement to bolster the tiny nation’s reputation as something more than a gas producer and an importer of foreign labor. Barshim’s gold medal was one of the rare celebrations of a homegrown athlete on the world stage. Qatari 400-meter hurdles bronze medalist Abderrahman Samba was born in

Saudi Arabia, and many other national athletes have moved to Qatar. But Barshim was born here. Every jump was cheered uproariously, none more so than clearing 2.37 meters for a world-leading height this year that sealed gold. Russians Mikhail Akimenko and Ilya Ivanyuk both failed all three attempts at that height. “There was a lot of pressure, but I need pressure to jump,” Barshim said, “to push myself to the maximum. I am really happy I got to do it at home.” Barshim quit after the Russians failed. This was a night for defending a world title not for chasing the world record of 2.45. There were celebrations, particularly with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “I felt the love from the crowd, from the emir himself to everyone,” Barshim said. “He was really happy and proud.” After a week of global headlines about poor attendances, fans filling the seats should be a tonic for the nation. AP

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OHA, Qatar—The stopwatch is only one way to measure the gains athletes are making at the world championships this year. About 200 runners volunteered to swallow red-and-white capsules that contain data transmitters. It’s part of an International Alliance of Athletics Federations (IAAF) research project on the effects of heat and body-core temperatures. They couldn’t have picked a better time or place—in Doha, where the temperatures reach 100 degrees (38 Celsius) every day, and less than a year removed from the Olympics in Tokyo, where conditions are expected to be every bit as stifling. Most of the volunteers for this study come from endurance events, such as the marathon, 10,000 meters and race walks. The marathon and race walks are being held outside the airconditioned stadium. Temperatures have been around 90o (32 C) with humidity above 70 percent each night. About 25 percent to 40 percent of the athletes dropped out of the women’s marathon and 50k race walks. There are around 20 runners taking part in the study for the men’s marathon Saturday. “We’re learning a lot from these elite athletes with this technology,” said Dr. Paolo Emilio Adami, the health and science department medical manager for the track federation. This is how it works: About two hours before they start, runners in the study are asked to swallow a capsule—the size of a typical antibiotic—that contains a transmitter and battery. The capsule works its way into the intestines by race time (that’s the goal, anyway) and the medical staff takes it from there, with equipment set up to sync with the transmitter after an athlete finishes. The transmitters record body-core temperatures. In addition, there are thermal cameras set along the course that calculate heat emission through high-definition pictures (it’s not recorded through the transmitter). And the participating athletes are weighed before and after the race to assist in gauging hydration levels. American marathoner Roberta Groner of Montclair, New Jersey, raised her hand to take part in the project. No surprise, given her background is in nursing. “I’ll do anything for research,” Groner said.

Shortly after finishing the midnight women’s marathon on Day 1 of worlds, and still drenched from the race, Groner was escorted over to a station, where the medical staff hung a transmitter around her neck to download the information. “It’s good data for the sport and for myself to find out how I did throughout the competition,” Groner said. She’s eager to see what the results yield after her sixth-place finish. It could offer some useful training tips going forward and with the Olympics on the horizon. For the project, IAAF partnered with Aspetar, an orthopedic and sports medicine clinic in Doha. It’s similar to the heat research cycling conducted during its 2016 world championships in Doha. Adami stresses the data is only being conducted for research purposes and can’t be used to impact an athlete during the competition since it’s not real-time. The IAAF medical team focuses on body-core temperature. If that number runs too high, it could be an indication of such things as heat stroke. “Our body is the most perfect machine that exists,” Adami said. “We are learning with this technology device and interpreting the messages that we normally feel and that we would not be paying enough attention to.” All athletes competing at worlds have been urged to fill out a survey, where the researchers asked questions involving hydration and acclimation plans to brace for the Doha heat. Distance runners can use all the information they can get with Tokyo less than a year away. They’ll be running in extreme heat, as well as sunshine. Unlike these marathons, which are starting at midnight, next year’s marathons will go off at 6 a.m. “That will be a massive difference,” Adami said. Some of the teams that reached out to participate in the project include Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, Australia and Kenya. There have been individual athletes from France, Britain and the US who wanted in on the research, too. “Based on this data, ideally, they should be able to tailor the needs to each athlete,” Adami said. As for how the device is dispelled—well, nature simply runs its course. AP

HEAT EXPERIMENT AT DOHA WORLDS

Dr. Paolo Emilio Adami explains the use of a heat measuring sensor at the World Athletics Championships in Doha. AP

Simone Biles has expressed frustration over the new grading system. AP

Gymnastics body: Risk affect Biles dismount grade S

TUTTGART, Germany —The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said recently that risk played a role in how it graded Simone Biles’s new beam dismount, a decision which has frustrated the US gymnast. Biles first landed her double-double dismount—two flips and two twists—at the US nationals in August. If she can land it at the world championships, it will bear her name in the sport’s Code of Points.

Biles has expressed frustration that the dismount was given an “H’’ difficulty value. That’s one value higher than any other women’s beam element in the Code, but some observers argued the extra difficulty was enough to deserve an even higher rating. Biles described the decision with an expletive on Twitter on Tuesday. The FIG’s women’s technical committee says its decision took into account an “added

JOHNSON

MAGIC SHIFTS FOCUS TO FAMILY, COMMUNITY

agic Johnson might actually miss the Los Angeles Lakers if he wasn’t always checking up on them. Johnson quit as the team’s president of basketball operations at the end of the last season, leaving him out of a gym, but not out of the loop, as Los Angeles opened a training camp. “I’m working like I’m still there, anyway,” Johnson said, laughing. “I talk to them all the time. It’s crazy how I’m still with them without being there physically.” Without the daily grind of management to restrain him, Johnson has spent the months without basketball traveling with his family, tending to his thriving business interests and

giving time to his church. He’s still advising— Johnson recently consulted with his bishop at West Angeles Church of God in Christ on the sale of some its properties. The deal will help the church build its family life center for its nearly 20,000 weekly attendees. The West Angeles Church also paid the mortgage on its cathedral with the sale and was able to establish a financial reserve. Johnson and his family have been members of the church led by Bishop Charles E. Blake for years. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment itself that an African-American pastor, a bishop can say to us as a community and congregation that, ‘we own our church.’ I think what you’ll see is

risk in landing...including a potential landing on the neck.” The FIG sometimes lowers the value of risky elements to make safer ones more attractive by comparison. “Reinforcing, there are many examples in the Code where decisions have been made to protect the gymnasts and preserve the direction of the discipline,” the FIG said. USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Friday it “respectfully disagrees” with the

FIG ruling. “The safety of athletes is always a top priority for us and the sport in general, however we believe the skill should be given the value that it merits,” it said. “Simone is an amazing gymnast who continues to develop and challenge the norm with creative and technical ability and skill, and we applaud and support her efforts.” AP

that others will follow,” Johnson said. “From that sale, we’re able to build our family life center. So many community services will be established because of the family life center. When he asked me to help out, I was very willing to do that and to advise him and the other members that he chose to make sure they were making the right decisions and moves.” Johnson’s wife, Cookie, joined the church about 20 years ago and the basketball Hall of Famer soon followed her and found a deeper connection with his faith. Blake and Johnson have teamed on various projects to help improve inner cities, launched programs designed to strengthen black families and spearheaded relief efforts in cities hit by hurricanes or other natural disasters. “I wanted to get more involved with my church and working with Bishop Blake,” Johnson told The Associated Press. “When you think about his spiritual vision and plan, as well as what he had in mind in terms of his business plan for the Crenshaw corridor, it’s in line with what I’ve been doing in my business. I share his vision and want to just work with him and for him to see how we can improve the community.” Johnson recently toured a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, that boasts a greenhouse

designed to boost wellness initiatives. “It’s really amazing what the hospital is doing for the community,” Johnson said. “That’s what I’m all about. I’ve been around the country doing the same thing and that’s what God has called me to do. I just want to go out and bless other people.” He stunned the Lakers when he abruptly quit in April, not even telling owner Jeanie Buss or general manager Rob Pelinka before he announced his decision to reporters at the regular-season finale. Johnson, who had been investigated four times by the NBA for tampering, fought off tears as he explained his decision was made in part because he wanted “to go back to having fun.” “I’m going to be there every game,” Johnson said. “I’m not a guy who goes backward in terms of saying, ‘yeah, I miss it.’ I love the Lakers. I miss the interaction with Jeanie every day. I miss being at the practices.” But without his break from the National Basketball Association, Johnson said he wouldn’t be able to spend weeks in Europe with his wife to celebrate both of their 60th birthdays. He also has ownership stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles FC and attended a baseball playoff game on Thursday. AP

From orphan in China to playing with pros at Pebble Beach

ayli Lucas is headed to Pebble Beach to play in a Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour Champions event, a dream week for a 17-year-old girl from Tennessee who knew nothing about golf until a friend from church invited her out for a lesson at The First Tee. She liked how the club felt in her hands. Like so many others brought to golf, she found that the greatest appeal was the individual test to get better. “I’m goal-oriented,” she said. “I wanted to prove to myself how far I can go on my own.” How far she can go? It’s how far Kayli already has come that makes her appearance in the Pure Insurance Championship so amazing.

Her mother calls the trip to Pebble Beach a “once-in-a-lifetime deal.” Kayli was among 78 participants from The First Tee chapters around the country who were selected to compete alongside PGA Tour Champions players like Bernhard Langer and Mark O’Meara, Vijay Singh and Davis Love III. But then, everything about Kayli is once in a lifetime. For starters, she doesn’t know exactly where she was born, or even when. She was an infant when she was found outside an equipment factory in Nanjing, China, and taken in as an orphan. That’s about the time Lisa Lucas showed up as part of a 20-month process to adopt a baby girl.

The orphanage sent her a picture, and Lucas could see in the baby’s eyes something was not quite right. No matter. She wanted her. When they arrived in Nanjing and switched the girl out of her clothes, her entire body was covered with scabies, which had led to a staph infection. Lucas said the baby was rushed to a hospital. “They said two weeks longer and I would not have had my child,” Lucas said. “She’s a miracle all the way around. She was about nine months when we got her and from lack of human touch, she could barely hold her head up. Two weeks before we left, she was sitting up on her own.” Her muscles were underdeveloped. She had a bald spot on the back of her head through elementary school.

Kayli knows her story now. Her mother waited until she was old enough to understand that she was born in China and was very sick, that they have no idea about her birth parents, and never will. The orphanage had a rough idea of Kayli’s age when they found her, so Lucas chose October 14 as her birthdate for the official record. “I’m not brought up in an Asian-oriented household. I don’t necessarily think about it,” Kayli said. “I don’t think I fully understood it until five years ago. I never Googled the city where I was found, or born, until a school project. We had to do an autobiography.” Hers, no doubt, was different from her classmates. Lucas remarried and moved to Gallatin, about

Qatar migrants live for cricket

OHA, Qatar—The most-played sport in Qatar is nowhere near the country’s glitzy, air-conditioned stadiums. Cricket is king among the migrant workers who make up most of the energy-rich emirate’s population, and Friday is game day. At dozens of grass-free pitches in the shadow of construction sites where many migrants work, laborers from all over South Asia gather to play on their one free day of the week. The stadium hosting the world track and field championship, and the arenas for the 2022 soccer World Cup, are at best distant lights on the horizon. On a patch of rocky ground near luxury hotels and a private school, Rakim’s team of Bangladeshis and Nepalis faces a team that has borrowed a work bus to drive in from the suburbs. The wicket is smooth concrete, poured in secret at night years ago by construction workers. The bats are imported, costly, prized possessions. The ball was made for tennis and is tightly wrapped in red tape to add weight. They play early in the morning and just before sunset to avoid the hottest part of the day, when temperatures climb well above 100 degrees (38 Celsius). Most of the players work grueling

have opportunities,” Rakim added. Amid cries from the players in Bengali of “shabash,” or “well done,” 19-year-old Somundra watches the game. He arrived last year from Nepal, where cricket is far behind soccer in popularity, to work as an office “tea boy” in Qatar. The rocky ground, strewn with construction trash, rules out soccer for migrant workers who risk financial hardship if they get injured, so he’s learning cricket by watching the games. Qatar could be the birthplace of a future Nepali international team, jokes Rakim. Learning the game means batting, bowling and fielding. When team numbers vary and attendance is uncertain, everyone’s an all-rounder. A few hundred meters away, a group of Sri Lankans play a friendly contest, more of a training session for an upcoming match in one of the several tournaments migrants organize. The team’s star is a construction surveyor with experience of district-level club cricket back home. Beyond that, there’s another game. A few streets away, yet more. In the country pitching itself as soccer’s World Cup host, cricket has taken root first. AP

hours in the heat six days a week. Friday, the Muslim day of prayer and rest, is their only chance to play, says Rakim, a Bangladeshi electrician who didn’t give a family name. They watch games on TV from back home, where many have families they rarely see. “We cannot go to the national team. We can only enjoy this game, and we are happy,” he said. “Today we have a holiday, so we can play.” Events like the World Cup or world track championships may as well be in another world. “Those who have good opportunities go to the stadium, but we are normal people. We don’t 30 miles northeast of Nashville. She wanted her daughter to be more active, whether that was gymnastics or something else. Her friend invited her to The First Tee, and Kayli asked her stepfather, Greg Borchers, to at least show how her how to swing a club before her first lesson. She was hooked. Josh McCade, the executive director of The First Tee of Tennessee, could tell she was different. Sure, he heard enough conversations over the years to piece together Kayli’s story. What he saw was someone who made the most of opportunities, and golf was no different. “She had this eagerness to learn the game of golf,” McCade said. “That was something you could tell. After class, she’d be hitting balls on the range, putting and chipping on her own. You can separate kids from who’s there because they want to be there. She has a great spirit about herself.” AP

Kayli Lucas poses on the 18th green at the Trump National in Los Angeles, where she is part of an elite group of juniors from The First Tee to spend a day with Nick Faldo. AP

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SANTO TOMAS WIELDS BROOM

PHL WATER POLO SQUAD STORMS PAST ZIMBABWE

HE water polo national team put on a clinic as it routed Zimbabwe, 16-2, in a tune up match as the two teams prepare for the 2019 Fina Water Polo Challengers’ Cup on Sunday at the OCBC Aquatic Center in Singapore. Banking on an intact roster and experience of playing together, the Filipinos were precise in executing plays and solid in defense in a first taste of action after arriving Saturday morning. Philippine Team Coach Rey Galang said that even with a convincing win, it’s no guarantee that things will be the same when they face Zimbabwe again on Wednesday at both are bracketed in Group A of the 10-nation tournament. “Of course, it’s a friendly game, but the good thing about that is we can see that our players are ready, they are focused and prepared,” said Galang, who has been the national coach since 1995. The Philippines will open its campaign against Ireland on Tuesday, Malaysia on Thursday and Singapore on Friday. In Group B are Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Austria, India and Hong Kong. The top teams from each group will battle for the title on Sunday. Former national team member Dale Evangelista, now a coach, said that this type of international tournaments is important in the development of athletes since the team is preparing for the 30th Southeast Asian Games the country is hosting on November 30 to December 11. “The experience they’ve gained playing together as a unit, and then second the experience of playing in international tournaments, these are two important things in the development of our team,” Evangelista said. Evangelista credited the support of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) headed by its chairman Butch Ramirez and the Philippine Swimming Inc. (PSI) led by its President Lani Velasco for making the international tournaments possible. The members of the national team are team captain Tani Gomez, Roy Cañete, Mark Valdez, Matthew Yu, Mico Anota, Macgyver Reyes, Adan Gonzales, Paolo Serrano, Abnel Amiladjid, Rey Salonga, Romark Belo, Mummar Alamara and Fil-Am recruit Vince Sicat of Santa Clara University. The 21-year-old Sicat played three years for the Broncos—a Division 1 school in the US NCAA—and has recently finished his studies. This Fina tournament is his third with the national team.

Water Defenders dent favored foes’ armor in Open tilt

aliPure put up a big fight worthy of a spot in postseason play of the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference by stunning playoff contender Air Force, 25-23, 12-25, 27-29, 25-23, 15-11, at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan on Sunday. Grazielle Bombita uncorked a 26-hit game, combining with Miracle Mendoza and Sattriani Espiritu in a big BaliPure charge early in the decider as the Water Defenders warded off the Jet Spikers’ late rally to clinch the thrilling victory. Their fourth win against 10 defeats hardly mattered in BaliPure’s botched campaign in the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision but Coach Rommel Abella credited his wards’ gutsy stand that hampered Air Force’s own semifinal drive. “I’m proud of our players. Despite falling 1-2 set behind, they hung tough and held on in the fourth then they came up with a solid start in the decider,” Abella said. “They relaxed toward the end but recovered in time.” Air Force stayed at sixth at 5-7 but remained in the thick of the fight for at least a playoff for the last semis

NATIONAL University’s Chami Diputado loses the ball against De La Salle’s Kurt Lojera. NONIE REYES

NIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) swept the men’s and women’s crowns in beach volleyball as De La Salle made National University (NU) eat dust in men’s basketball in University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 82 action on Sunday. The Tigresses beat the Lady Spikers 21-14, 20-22, 15-12, in the Finals opener then completed the sweep with a 28-26, 21-18 victory in Game Two to emerge as queens once more. UST claimed its seventh women’s championship and the first in the post-Sisi Rondina era. Rancel Varga and Jaron Requinton completed a 10-0 campaign, also sweeping Far Eastern University’s Jude Garcia and Doy Barrica in the men’s championship round. The Tiger Spikers won their second straight crown, dominating the Tamaraws with an easy 21-11, 21-11 win in Game One before closing out with a 21-15, 21-19 victory. Babylove Barbon, who had to fill a huge void left by Rondina to cement the Tigresses’ dynasty, was named the MVP. “We are very happy with our achievement because we were able to defend the crown,” Barbon said. No doubt, Barbon and Gen Eslapor’s connection worked wonders for the Tigresses, who extended their winning run to 29 games dating back to 2016. Roma Mae Doromal and Ponggay Gaston powered Ateneo to a third place-place finish in the women’s contest. Doromal took the Rookie of the Year honors. Varga, on the other hand, took the men’s MVP trophy for UST, which annexed a league-best fifth crown. National University’s James Natividad and James Buytrago outlasted Adamson University’s Leo Miranda and

Asean SPORTS MINISTERS GATHER IN MANILA S ports Ministers from 10 Asean member-countries and Japan gather in Manila on Monday for the Fifth Asean Ministerial Meeting on Sports (AMMS-5). The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is hosting the five-day event that is spearheaded by the Asean Secretariat on Education, Youth and RAMIREZ Sports. “This is another chance to connect with our neighbors and together strengthen the foothold of sports in the everyday lives of our people,” said

seat with Motolite and BanKo-Perlas tied at third at 7-5 and PacificTown Army just behind at fifth at 6-6 with a number of games still left in the double round elims of the tournament backed by Mikasa, Asics and KFC. Bombita, who also fired 27 points in their similar five-set escape over Chef’s Classics last September 28, spiked her game with 17 excellent digs while Menchie Tubiera backed her up with 19 markers. Espiritu finished with 12 points for BaliPure, which also nipped Air Force in five in their first round clash last August 21. After outlasting the veteran Jet Spikers in the fourth, the Water Defenders took command, 13-4, behind the troika of Bombita, Mendoza and Espiritu. But Air Force, behind Javen Sabas and Joy Cases, countered with six straight hits and kept their pressing their bid to pull within three at endgame. But Sabas fumbled with a service error and Bombita capped the Water Defenders’ comeback with a clever drop shot to clinch the win. Vira Guillema put BaliPure’s offense in motion with 24 excellent sets, while Glyka Medina anchored the team’s defense with 21 excellent digs.

Ramos leads Cangolf Am Open field

By Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Jesus Valdez, 22-20, 15-21, 15-9, to claim third place. Buytrago earned the top rookie award in the men’s side. Justine Baltazar was a dominant force as he towed De La Salle to the lopsided 85-61 win over NU. Going head-to-head against his former junior team, the 6-foot-7 center scattered 25 points and grabbed 25 rebounds—both careerhighs—to shoulder the load for the Green Archers who led all the way. Andrei Caracut contributed 16 points and six rebounds, while Filipino-American Jamie Malonzo added a 12-5 sheet as the Taftbased squad notched its fourth win in eight games. “Its a good win for us. We wanted good momentum heading to Sunday’s game,” De La Salle Coach Gian Nazario said as they face the league-leading Ateneo next week. “We prepare more with what we want to do, not who we are playing against,” added Nazario, whose wards target a Final Four spot in the tight race in the second round. De La Salle leaned on Baltazar, Caracut and Malonzo to chalk up a 26-9 start. There was an anxious moment, however, when Encho Serrano twisted his ankle after an awkward landing when he scored his eighth point with 13.7 seconds left in the third quarter. Dave Ildefonso scored 11 points for the Bulldogs, who fell to a 1-7 record. In women’s basketball, FEU blew away University of the Philippines by 30 points, 76-46, for its third straight win also at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday. Valerie Mamaril led the Lady Tamaraws with 21 points, three steals and two assists, while Clare Castro got her way down low with 16 points and seven rebounds to help their side improve to a 6-2 record. Judy Abat corralled nine points, nine rebounds and four assists, and Choy Bahuyan had eight points, seven boards and two assists in the game the FEU coaching staff used to boost the morale of the second stringers. The Lady Tamaraws used a 22-point second quarter to run to dominate the Lady Maroons, 35-18, at halftime. The lead swelled to as high as 33 points several times in the payoff period. Lulu Ordoveza led the still-winless UP side (0-8) with 12 points and six rebounds. It was the Fighting Maroons’ 38th straight loss in the league. Jona Lebico had herself 10 points and nine boards, while Pat Pesquera nabbed a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds for UP.

ean Ramos sets out not only for back-to-back title drive in the Canlubang Amateur Open Championship but also to toughen up for the 30th Southeast Asian Games in December as he leads the stellar cast vying in the 19th staging of the event unfolding on Wednesday at Cangolf’s North and South courses in Laguna. Ramos bested John Hay’s Paolo Wong by three to rule last year’s edition of the annual tournament with the Camp Aguinaldo bet all primed up for a repeat in the three-day tournament which also serves as part of his buildup for the upcoming biennial games at Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac. Ramos clinched a berth in the national team by placing third in the grueling qualifier put up by the National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) last June, joining the likes of Aidric Chan and Carl Corpus, with Luis Castro nailing the fourth and alternate slot following his victory in the Indonesian Amateur Open last August. Out to foil Ramos’s bid in the event backed by NGAP and hole-in-one sponsor The Turf Co. and Texas Eagle, are Elee Bisera, who took the low amateur honors in the just concluded ICTSI Apo Golf Invitational in Davao, and fellow Luisita members Danilo Cruz and Jhondie Quibol, Southwoods’ Paqo Barron, David Guangco and Jung Jae Hyung, Lloyd Labrador and Ronel Tagaan of Apo Golf and Alabang’s Miguel Ilas. Organizers are expecting a huge field of 150 players, including Nicole Abelar, Laurea Duque of Alabang, Flor Pastor of Fernando Air Base, Summit Point’s Kim Myo Sook, Riviera’s Min Seo Kwon, Dayun Kang and Tae Yon Kwon, and club bet Jona Magcalayo.

PSC Chairman William Ramirez, also the chairman of the AMMS-5 for the 2019-2020 term. The sports chief hopes to further the country’s agenda in prioritizing “sports for all” with the members of the Asean. Attending the meetings are Sar Sokha (Cambodia), Phouvanh Vongsouthi (Lao PDR), Tan Wei Ming (Singapore), Ahmad Shapawi Bin Ismail (Malaysia), Aminuddin Ihsan Pehn Dato HJ Abidin (Brunei Darussalam), Mya Than Htike

(Myanmar), Kumekawa Hirokazu (Japan) Le Thi Hoang Yen (Vietnam) and Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn (Thailand). Pressing areas of discussion include the implementation of the regional projects and activities based on the Asean Work Plan on Sports for 2016-2020, Asean bid for the Fifa World Cup, establishment of the eSports SEA Foundation, and the discussion of the decisions from the previous AMMS and SOMS meetings among others. The previous edition was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

Activities and conversations start with the SOMS-9 on Monday, while Ramirez leads proceedings on Tuesday with a Japan Meeting on Women and Sports as priority. The second Asean Plus Japan SOMS will be held in the afternoon. The Second Asean Plus Japan Ministerial Meeting on Sports is scheduled on Wednesday. Delegates from Unesco, Searado, Fifa, UN Women, Asean Chess Federation, Asean Para Sports Federation, Asean Football Federation and Right to Play Thailand Foundation are also participating in the meetings.

SEAG DUATHLON TOP BETS

After winning the recent Everly Putrajaya Trifactor International Duathlon in Malaysia, members of the Standard Insurance Women’s Duathlon Team led by Asia’s duathlon queen Monica Torres and veteran Jelsie Sabado, will represent the country in the 30th Southeast Asian Games in December in Subic. Torres and Sabado aim for a 1-2 finish in the women’s individual race. Duathlon will be included for the first time in SEA Games. The women’s team are training under Triathlon Association of the Philippines’s coaching program

itch Robins and Manami Iijima of Guam gear up for a tougher, more challenging outing in pursuit of a second straight championship in the Black Arrow Express 5150 Triathlon which gets going October 27, in Subic Bay. Robins put on a strong finish to outlast fellow Aussie Sam Betten and end the latter’s domination of the 5150 races here, snatching the men’s pro crown in searing heat last year. The duo slugged it out on practically even terms in the swim and bike legs but Robins poured it all-out in the last of the two-loop closing run event to get back at Betten and secure his second Philippine championship after winning in 2013 as a first-time Philippine visitor.

Rick Olivares bleachersbrew@gmail.com

Bleachers’ Brew

The worm turns The worm turns for everyone. In local parlance, “weather weather lang ‘yan.” Former Manchester United football Ryan Giggs sounded the clarion call for his team in 2011. After overtaking Liverpool for the most number of English top flight titles in 2013, with 20, they have not won since. Liverpool, the top dog prior to the Premier League’s founding with 18 titles, hasn’t won since 1989-90, their 18th. They have become a really good club since current manager Jurgen Klopp arrived three-and-a-half years ago winning the UEFA Champions League and Super Cup in succession. Manchester City is still seeded to win it all, but Liverpool has a chance of ending their first division drought. Across the oceans, the New York Yankees are the undisputed kings of Major League Baseball with 27 World Series championships. But since 2004, New York has won two while their rival, the Boston Red Sox, have four. There are a lot of others as well. The sports landscape is littered with these examples. Boxer Mike Tyson was fearsome. Many, myself included, thought he would break Rocky Marciano’s undefeated record. He won 37 straight then lost to James Buster Douglas. He won another eight straight then suffered back-to-back losses to Evander Holyfield and he was never the same after. His last 10 matches saw him win five, have two declared as no contests, and lost three of his last four. He went from being, perhaps, the best of all time as one of the greats. In Philippine college basketball, for the longest time, the Ateneo Blue Eagles were the undisputed kings winning 14 National Collegiate Athletic Association crowns and three in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (1987, 1988 and 2002). Beginning 1989-90, their arch rival, the De La Salle Green Archers ascended to the throne bagging a total of nine titles while finishing first runners-up on a number of occasions. However, since the 2004, they have won only three while Ateneo has won seven titles. So, why doesn’t this work for other teams? Why are there perennial winners and perennial losers? The winners know how to tinker, rebuild, and well, to keep it going. It isn’t the money. It sure helps, but the road to glory is littered with moneyed teams who cannot figure out what is wrong and they keep repeating the same mistakes. For teams like the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, they have gotten better over the past few years. They have to be consistent and to make serious inroads to where they want to be. Ditto with the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers. Over at the NCAA, with San Beda still undefeated, I know the others cannot wait for next year when the foreign players are finally disallowed. So much for the worm turning. They had to make a rule change to effect this. Sometimes, I wonder if some tempt fate. One player, a current star for his college team, oft takes massive shots at his coach behind his back. It is surprising considering he has been given the ball as the team’s scoring leader. Instead of being grateful, he has chosen to take shots behind the coach’s back. And this player has long taken shots at his coaches, high school included. To be honest, I am shocked. Ingrate, is the word that comes to my mind. And there’s this coach that tasted a lot of success early in his career but now struggles to win even a game. Things change. Sometimes in a heartbeat. And that is the challenge for many a people. That is why you get up every day, too, because tomorrow is another day, another opportunity. After all, the worm turns. For everyone.

Robins, Iijima seek Black Arrow 5150 repeat But the 31-year-old Port Macquarie native is expecting a strong challenge from the rest of the bidders, who will be coming into the Olympic distance race all primed up for the 1.5K swim40K bike-10K run event sponsored by Black Arrow Express and organized by Sunrise Events Inc., now part of the Ironman Group. Iijima, on the other hand, hopes to flaunt her swim skills the way she did in dominating the women’s side last year where she built a big three-minute cushion over former Subic 5150

champion Dimity Lee Duke, also from Down Under, in the opening leg before coasting to her biggest victory thus far in the country. But like Robins, Iijima is bracing for a big fightback from Duke and a host of others vowing to go all-out for a shot at the top $10,000 purse in the event designed for the pros bracing for bigger battles, as well as for triathletes who love to do short-distance but challenging races on a world-class race course long considered as the country’s triathlon capital.

APO CHAMP Tony Lascuña (right) receives the glass trophy from Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. Executive Director Narlene Soriano after fashioning out a wire-to-wire triumph in the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Apo Golf Invitational at the Apo Golf and Country Club last Saturday, completing a triumphant two-week campaign in Taiwan and Davao.

Adesanya floors middleweight champion Whittaker at UFC 243 M ELBOURNE, Australia—Charismatic fighter Israel Adesanya dethroned UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker with a stunning knockout in the second round of their highly anticipated 185-pound unification bout which headlined UFC 243 at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium on Sunday. New Zealand-based, Nigerian-born Adesanya landed a booming right

hook which floored Whittaker in the final seconds of the first round. The interim middleweight champion then ended the fight in the second of the five-round contest with a left hook. Adesanya was interim champion before claiming the title against Whittaker on Sunday and improving his UFC record to 7-0. “He threw everything we expected,” Adesanya

said. “We had everything planned for plan A to Z. He caught me with a nice one, but I returned. I eat it, but give it back two times.” “I can take it and give it back. I’m tough and smart.” The attendance of 57,127 set a new world record for UFC, surpassing the 56,214 at the same venue in 2015. “I was in the nose bleeds, and now I’ve made his nose bleed,” Adesanya said immediately after the fight in reference to that 2015 event where he was a

spectator in the upper reaches in the stadium, while Whittaker was a rising UFC star on the card at that event. The New Zealand-born Australian won his fight that night. It was 28-year-old Whittaker’s first fight since June 2018 in Chicago. He was scheduled to fight in February but withdrew due to emergency bowel surgery. Whittaker’s UFC world-title defense was the first by an Australian. AP

Sports BusinessMirror

THE US’s Lilly King starts in the women’s 50 meters, breaststroke final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, last July. AP

| Monday, October 7, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

SWIMMING GOES PRO

HE International Swimming League (ISL) debuted over the weekend, with some of the sport’s biggest names competing for cash prizes in a team format that culminates in a splashy Finale in Las Vegas. Four of the league’s eight teams will swim on Saturday and Sunday in Indianapolis, the first of six meets in the United States and Europe leading to the season finale in December. Americans Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel and Natalie Coughlin, along with Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström, Chad le Clos of South Africa, Ariarne Titmus of Australia, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary are among those on teams competing this weekend. Unlike at the Olympics and world championships, there are no heats. Racing is spread over a two-hour session in a 25-meter pool featuring four swimmers per final. Swimmers will compete in the usual Olympic distances. Coaches can bring in reserves or make other lineup changes during two 10-minute breaks. Anyone swimming slower than listed times in an event can lose points. American Lilly King welcomes a format that makes the sport more exciting and accessible to viewers and young swimmers. “If I was a little kid and I walked into a swim meet and saw a giant light show going on and only four swimmers I had to keep track of and a Jumbotron, I’d be like, ‘That looks like the NBA [National Basketball Association], that looks like the NFL [National Football League], that looks like professional sports,’” she said. Swimmers will race for team points, with relays worth double. Skins sprints feature three heats, with eight swimmers reduced to four and then a head-to-head of the fastest two. Points earned in skins are worth triple. The top 4 finishers in each race are eligible for prize money beyond what they receive from team revenue. The ISL has committed to a 50-50 split of revenue with the teams and swimmers, who receive base salaries, as well. “Obviously, we want to see more money,” King said. “You have some of the all-time greats in this room who aren’t even making the starting salary of a Double-A MLB [Major League Baseball] player. It’s cool to see the money is going up for the people who deserve it.” Sjöström, the 26-year-old Swedish sprint star, believes the pay-for-play model is overdue in a sport that typically gets its biggest exposure only in Olympic years. “I see like a much longer career in my swimming, so that’s very exciting,” she said. Other ISL stops are in Italy, Texas, Hungary, Washington, D.C., and London. The top 2 teams from the US and Europe after the six regular-season meets advance to the finals on December 20 and 21. The ISL has deals to show the meets on live television in Australia, Europe and Latin America, with livestreaming in the US and Canada. On Friday, Fina (International Swimming Federation) announced its rival Champions Swim Series will stage two meets in China in January, one less than it offered for the first time this year. The sport’s world governing body awards $10,000 for first place, $8,000 for second, $6,000 for third and $5,000 for fourth in four-swimmer finals. Fina also pays appearance fees to invited athletes, who have their travel, hotel and meals covered. King is one of several swimmers who competed in the Fina series and is now swimming in the ISL. “They’re fairly similar other than the fact that ISL is more team-based,” she said. “We will compete with other teams and if the best swimmer is not on the best team then they won’t get to compete in finals. It makes it more head-to-head and a little more like college swimming in my mind.” Both Fina and the ISL offer entertainment in addition to the competition. “It’s important to the innovation in sports,” swimmer Nicholas Santos of Brazil said. “If you check into the NBA, for example, it’s a big show and I would like to have swimming for the future like the NBA. It should be amazing.” AP

TRIPLE G! TRIPLE G!

Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin held on to regain one of his old middleweight titles, edging Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a unanimous decision to take the International Boxing Federation championship at Madison Square Garden.

SLIPPERY BALL

New Zealand’s Shannon Frizell (left) and Namibia’s JC Greyling compete for the ball during their Rugby World Cup Pool B game at the Tokyo Stadium in Japan on Sunday. AP

By Brian Mahoney The Associated Press

EW YORK—Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin is a champion again, though just barely. The powerhouse who used to look invincible looked beaten up by the end of Saturday night. Golovkin held on to regain one of his old middleweight titles, edging Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a unanimous decision to take the International Boxing Federation(IBF) championship at Madison Square Garden. Golovkin knocked down Derevyanchenko in the first round, opened a cut near his right eye in the second, and then held on from there in a fight where the longtime 160-pound ruler absorbed plenty of the type of punishing shots he used to deliver. “This was a tough fight,” Golovkin said. “I need a little bit more. I need to still get stronger in my camp. Just more serious. I need to work hard. I need a little bit more focus.” But the 37-year-old

did just enough to win 115-112 on two cards and 114113 on the other, claiming the belt that was vacated by Canelo Alvarez, who handed Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) his only loss. The Associated Press scored it 115-112 for Golovkin. Derevyanchenko (13-2) fell just short in his second attempt to win the middleweight title, having lost by split decision to Danny Jacobs last year, also at Madison Square Garden. Many of the same fans who cheered Golovkin wildly before the fight and chanted “Triple G! Triple G!” when it looked as if he needed a boost in the 10th as Derevyanchenko rained combinations to his head booed the decision. Golovkin was credited with a 243-230 advantage in punches by Compubox, which said Derevyanchenko landed the most punches in any of the 25 Golovkin fights it had tracked. “Right now it’s bad day for me. It’s a huge day for Sergiy, his team,” Golovkin said. “This is huge experience for me.

Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin: This was a tough fight! AP

Right now, I know what I need exactly.” It was Golovkin’s second straight win after he had a draw and a loss in his two fights with Alvarez, close bouts in which many people thought he won at least one of them. But plenty more thought he could have lost this one, after Derevyanchenko rallied strongly from a bad start to the fight. Golovkin wants a third fight with Alvarez but he would have to be much sharper if he gets it—or if he has a rematch with Derevyanchenko—than he was Saturday. He was frequently beaten to the punch by Derevyanchenko, who ignored the cut and Golovkin’s vaunted power to nearly pull off the upset. “The cut really changed the fight. I couldn’t see at times,” Derevyanchenko said. “And he was targeting the eye. But no excuses, it is what it is, I was trying my best.” Golovkin started cautiously, seemingly willing to just establish his jab in the first round, before suddenly unleashing a flurry of punches that sent Derevyanchenko to the canvas. Then he had another good round in the second, when the cut opened that would be frequently checked by doctors between rounds. Derevyanchenko got himself into the fight with a good third but took some more punishment in doing it, then kept up the good work in the next couple rounds while wiping away the blood around his eye that was staining Golovkin’s white shorts. Golovkin landed some hard shots late in the sixth to slow the Ukrainian’s momentum a bit. Golovkin then seemed to get the better of a great exchange at the end of the seventh as the area under his left eye swelled. Derevyanchenko landed a good three-punch combination in the eighth and Golovkin just shook his head, then landed one of his patented body punches later in the round to slow down the Ukrainian, but only temporarily. Derevyanchenko resumed the pressure again in a back-and-fourth ninth round but didn’t have enough for the finish, losing the 12th on all three cards. Golovkin defended the middleweight title 20 times, tied for the record, during his lengthy reign. He first vacated the IBF belt when he wouldn’t agree to face mandatory challenger Derevyanchenko when the original date for the second match against Alvarez had to be scrapped in May 2018, after the Mexican failed a drug test. Golovkin then left without any belts after falling to Alvarez when it was rescheduled. He’s got one again, but plenty of work to do if he’s going to keep it long. “I lost a little bit of focus. Sergiy was ready, I really respect him,” Golovkin said. “He showed me such a big heart. I told him, ‘Sergiy, this is best fight for me. It’s a huge experience.’”

God of glory and splendor

EAR God, in Christ You have reconciled all creation to Yourself. We praise You and pray: Let Your light shine in us, oh God. Clothe elected officials with humility, honesty and compassion to become good servant leaders. Inspire leaders of nations to engage in dialogue that leads to peace and respect. Give us courage to address injustice and to speak on behalf of the poor. May God send us help in time of need and sustain our faith by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

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AND THEN SOME: GOOD HABITS TO ADD TO YOUR BEAUTY ROUTINE D4

Monday, October 7, 2019

CARY SANTIAGO FASHIONCOVERAGE.WORDPRESS.COM

CHITO VIJANDRE BRUCE CASANOVA

DENNIS LUSTICO

EZRA SANTOS BRUCE CASANOVA

FURNE ONE HENRY ANIMA II

JESUS LLOREN ALEX VAN HAGEN

JOEY SAMSON

LESLEY MOBO ALEX VAN HAGEN

MICHAEL CINCO BRUCE CASANOVA

RAJO LAUREL BRUCE CASANOVA

Red Charity Gala 2019: 10 most outstanding designers

T is daunting to gather the biggest names in Philippine fashion but this didn’t deter socialite-philanthropists Tessa Prieto-Valdes and Kaye Tinga. For the 11th staging of their high-profile Red Charity Gala, they asked the featured designers from the last 10 years to showcase capsule collections. Entitled “The First Ten,” the fund-raising fashion show is for the benefit of the Philippine Red Cross and the Assumption High School 81 Foundation, and will be held on October 12, 6 pm, at the Shangri-La the Fort. Since its inception in 2009 up to 2016, Ariel Lozada was the director of the glittering gala. From 2017 to

the present, Robby Carmona took over the helm. I have witnessed each spectacular presentation. But what impact has this ultra-exclusive event on the featured designers? The designers speak out: ■ DENNIS LUSTICO, 2009. For one, the Red Charity Gala is a dream come true for every Filipino designer. From the time it started, it has become the biggest charity event in the country, and is the best venue to showcase a designer’s collection. In most cases, to be the featured designer in the gala means your time has come, or this particular designer is “ripe” and is deserving to have a solo show. And it is in this essence people will regard the designer in a more mature way. That he’s entering a new level of professionalism as he is entrusted with the responsibility to be the highlight of one of the most anticipated nights of the year. But as we are not exempt from the adage “You are only good as your last show,” the immediate effect can be measured on how good or bad your collection (is received). The bottom line is that a designer makes an impression every day but he is given a chance to move by leaps and bounds, and it only happens on the night of the Red Charity Gala. ■ FURNE ONE, 2010. The gala has introduced me to

Go for a white-hot wardrobe update LITTLE white dresses are here to stay, and it’s time for us to get on board with American retail brand Forever 21’s collection of all things white and wonderful— dresses, bottoms, and tops, in relaxed silhouettes and dainty details (www.facebook.com/Forever21PH). Look cool and crisp for any and every moment with the white-on-white wardrobe trend. An easy yet stylish base for pairing and layering, adding whites to your wardrobe make a breeze dressing for school or work, or for just about anywhere a breeze. Find the perfect white dress from maxis to minis in stylish necklines and silhouettes. Lace and crochet trims make for a sweet daytime ensemble while the itty-bitty white dress finally gives the ubiquitous “LBD” some well-deserved rest. Instantly look partyready in form-hugging minis with stylish button closures and cheeky cutouts. This is a whitewash that certainly deserves applause.

a lot of new friendships and potential clients, and has forged partnerships that has lasted till this day. But it has made more of an impact on me as an individual. To be in a position where you are able to help others and share your blessings to those in need is much more fulfilling. ■ MICHAEL CINCO, 2011. My Red Charity Gala feature was both an honor and a blessing. It was an honor to have joined its roster of distinguished designers who have each showcased their collection at the gala. And, indeed, it is a blessing, as it has opened doors for me in the local market, and I was able to contribute in my own small way to a charitable cause ■ CARY SANTIAGO, 2012. To be asked to do this gala means that you have “arrived” as a designer. ■ EZRA SANTOS, 2013. What influenced me most to be part of this great prestigious event is the art of giving. Giving back to our country through this charity event is of great significance, where we are able to raise money for this charitable institution to help those who are in need. And that is a blessings, for my business and my career. ■ JESUS LLOREN, 2014. My Red Charity Gala show led to an exhibition of the same collection at the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines). This, I consider a

great impact and a milestone in my career. ■ LESLEY MOBO, 2015. Doing the gala is a great thing because we get to support such a great cause. Designers like me can get creative with a collection specifically designed for the event. It got even more exciting now with the Red Charity Fashion Fund. It is such a unique platform not just to showcase creativity but also to support young and upcoming fashion innovators of the future. ■ CHITO VIJANDRE, 2016. It was quite extraordinary doing fashion again, reconnecting with peers as well as collaborating with young creative talents for a most worthy cause. It is a high point in my career that I certainly will never forget. ■ JOEY SAMSON, 2017. Being a featured designer of the Red Charity Gala was a great honor. It has provided me the opportunity to showcase my artistry on a different stage and scale. I will forever be grateful to the organizers of this cause for the chance they have given me. ■ RAJO LAUREL, 2018. It’s sort of like nakakataba ng puso at the same time it’s very gratifying and fulfilling. I’m just filled with gratitude that I’m able to celebrate 25 years of my career with the 10 years of the Red Charity Gala. ■

Style

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Monday, October 7, 2019

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Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Horoscope

ZALORAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S Paulo Campos (from left); Gottfried Bogensperger of Grand Hyatt; Saga Eventsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Robby Carmona; Globe Telecom CEO Ernest Cu; Globe 0917 Lifesyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leah de Guzman; and Globe Telecom Senior Vice President for Retail Joe Caliro

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Shawn Ashmore, 40; Toni Braxton, 52; Simon Cowell, 60; Joy Behar, 77. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Be innovative, and explore new possibilities. The choices you make will set the stage for whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to come. Make a point to deal with unfinished business that is weighing on your mind and causing you emotional stress. Make changes at home that are conducive to how you see your life unfolding. If you want something, make it happen. Your lucky numbers are 7, 13, 19, 26, 38, 40, 43.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Look before you leap. Not everyone will have your best interest in mind when making suggestions. Stick to the person who has always given you good advice for verification that you are doing whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best for you. Romance is featured. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

StyleFest elevates Filipino talent to new heights BY PAULINE JOY M. GUTIERREZ

OMEGROWN fashion brands are on the rise worldwide, opening up a lot of opportunities for local designers who lack high start-up capital. However, despite this shift in consumer preference (i.e., local labels winning out against global brand competitors), the potential for visibility in an already saturated retail scene poses a problem for those seeking to reach new markets. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s StyleFest, a fashion exposition by Globe Telecomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apparel brand 0917 Lifestyle and Saga Events, aims to help these designer-entrepreneurs to adapt to the evolving demands of the industry and present their brands to a global audience to potentially end up going global themselves through the Designer Mentorship Program (DMP). â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want to teach participants about creative direction and business know-how in order to succeed, using digital platform opportunities and the help of retail industry experts who can assist and mentor aspiring designers with their design skills and how to go to market through the DMP,â&#x20AC;? explained Leah De Guzman, head of 0917 Lifestyle. The event kicked off earlier in June with the search for participants. From this pool, eight finalists were selected: La Coca, Neil Anthonie, Adrian Sahagun, Bessie Besana, Justine Llarena, Bea Guerrero, Einar

Nicdao and Austeen Soriano, who are all currently being trained on branding and marketing by the style council, an esteemed group of fashion experts and mentors that include fashion icon Inno Sotto, contemporary designer Carl Jan Cruz, fashion stylist Sidney Yap, Zalora founder and CEO Paulo Campos, and 0917 Lifestyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s de Guzman. The eight finalists will present their line on the runway on November 5 at Grand Hyatt Manila in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Two winners will be chosen to collaborate with 0917 Lifestyle and Zalora, respectively, and will have their very own collections released in both Globeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online and physical stores and on www.zalora.com.ph. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Globe Telecom, through 0917 Lifestyle, has always been supportive in the development of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fashion industryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;its new blood, the awe-inspiring ideas and the bold designs that keep it alive. StyleFest is our way to give our young designers a venue to express their creativity,â&#x20AC;? de Guzman said. Aside from the DMP, StyleFest offers an array of activities that include trend talks, runway shows and shopping parties during the span of the threeday event. Guest can gain insights and inspiration from the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success stories through â&#x20AC;&#x153;Designers on Spotlight,â&#x20AC;? a forum that will highlight important aspects of fashion and digital business. The first

part, dubbed â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rootsâ&#x20AC;?, will focus on support for local artisans and in promoting the use of culturally rich clothing, such as jusi and tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;nalak featuring designers Paloma Zobel, Chris Nick and Mark Bumgarner on November 4. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This year we hope to create a lot of the products from Filipino indigenous materials, and also add a theme of function and technology to the designs that they will create,â&#x20AC;? said Globe CEO Ernest Cu. Beyond clothing, Boom Sason will talk about promoting and championing body confidence through the way she designs her line on November 5, while Bang Pineda takes the limelight on November 6. The fashion event will also have its unique â&#x20AC;&#x153;see now buy nowâ&#x20AC;? aspect after each runway show, wherein selected items from existing collections of the five designers will also be available for purchase by the audience. Finally, trend forecasting and consulting company Fashion Snoops will share its fashion forecasts that will shape the consumer market and provide fashion industry movers the knowledge of how to strategize and make a campaign work on November 6. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What we do here surpasses fashion and trends. More than creating designs, getting online reach or selling a brand, StyleFest empowers culture, craftsmanship and opportunity,â&#x20AC;? said Saga Events Founder and Fashion Director Robby Carmona. â&#x2013;

Lacoste 12.12 premium watch for women BLACK Lacoste 12.12 (left) and Blue Lacoste 12.12

LACOSTE is enhancing its Lacoste.12.12 collection with a new model for women: the Lacoste 12.12 Premium watch. Inspired by iconic polo shirt, which is discreetly engraved on the back of the case, this new watch will delight women with its timeless elegance. Adorned with a polished bezel that reveals the luster of its bright dial, its round case is available in stainless steel for the black and white versions, in blue IP plated steel for the monochrome version, and in goldpink IP plated steel for the burgundy version. Understated by nature, this new model dispenses decorative ďŹ&#x201A;ourishes in favor of a minimalist

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your unpredictable nature will be based on emotional encounters with people who question your choices. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let ego get in the way. If someone makes a valid suggestion, take heed; it will save you from making a costly mistake. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Take a moment to gather your thoughts and put a plan in place. Once you have your mind set on something, it will be easy for you to lay the foundation for what you want to happen. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Look for a different way to broaden your perspective regarding a personal or professional matter. Diversity will make a difference if you are willing to think outside the box and try something new. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make a snap decision. Look at the possible outcome before you take action. Do the legwork, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll discover something that will help you get what you want. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let emotions stand between you and making the right choice. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Keeping up will be in your best interest. Listen, learn and be willing to adjust to whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s changing around you. Make your efforts guide you toward what brings you the most joy. Strive for personal growth. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If something is not right, do whatever it takes to make an adjustment. Stand up and be willing to enter into a debate if it will help you move forward. Learn as you go, and you will come out ahead. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Make changes for the right reason. Being forced to be responsible for your actions will come into play should you make a move based on emotions instead of common sense. Personal growth should be where you direct your energy. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Be swift, smart and spontaneous. Stay ahead of the competition. Evaluate who is being honest, and you will be able to make a judgment call that turns your situation into a game changer. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lose sight of your needs or your objective. Romance is heightened. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Show some compassion when dealing with people, and it will be a lot easier to persuade others to do and see things your way. Your vision and being able to articulate how it will benefit everyone is something you do masterfully. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

aesthetic. Mounted on a leather band embossed in a petit piquĂŠ pattern matching its dial and fastened with a clasp, this new creation with a clean design is distinguished by its ďŹ ne hands, applied hour markers and a gold crocodile at 3 oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock. At once classic and contemporary, the Lacoste 12.12 Premium watch for women is endowed with a seductive power evident through its feminine aesthetic, which quite simply gives your wrist greater appeal and lets you monitor the time with sophistication. Lacoste watches are available at Lacoste Watch kiosks at SM Megamall, SM Mall of Asia and SM City North Edsa.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Count your cash, rummage through your possessions, consider what you can part with and put it up for sale to continue to minimalize your life. The relief you will feel after letting go of what is no longer needed will be energizing. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Look for an unusual solution if someone presents a problem. Showing your ability to work around obstacles will encourage others to rely on you more, as well as give you greater freedom to do as you please. Avoid joint ventures. â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026;â&#x2DC;&#x2026; BIRTHDAY BABY: You are sensitive, unpredictable and imaginative. You are outgoing and inquisitive.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;playing doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; BY EVAN KALISH The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Kick out 6 Made difficult to find 9 Smallest prime 12 Maker of the Maxima and Murano 14 Kwik-E-Mart proprietor 15 â&#x20AC;&#x153;___ your own business!â&#x20AC;? 16 Kind of skate 17 Rock, Paper, Scissors 19 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yes, captain!â&#x20AC;? 20 Lamb mothers 22 Certain musical inability 23 Place for dirty laundry 26 Add-on 27 Grocery ___ 28 Prom night extravagances 30 Protrude 31 â&#x20AC;&#x153;But that was ages ___!â&#x20AC;? 34 Jose Andres, for one 39 Aykroyd of The Blues Brothers 40 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Watch where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going, mister!â&#x20AC;? 41 Occupied, as a lavatory 42 Wheel of Fortune turn 44 Construct

46 50 52 53 54

Centerpieces at yuletide dinners Pull from the ground Agitate Wager Convincing, algorithmically generated video ... and a hint to the word concealed in 17-, 23-, 34- and 46-Across 56 Inventor Tesla 58 Often-dedicated poems 59 Maker of the Sedona and Sportage 60 Whine 61 Playful bite 62 Finale 63 Like Athenians and Spartans DOWN 1 Big computer of the 1940s 2 What LPs are made of 3 Land between Great Britain and Ireland 4 Long-running forensic series 5 Best-selling author Coates 6 Unforgiving 7 Big Wall Street event

8 9 10 11 13 15 18 21 24 25 28 29 30 31 32 33 35 36 37 38 42 43 44 45

Pest that might live in a pillow Need for a game of Pictionary Washington Mysticsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; org. Stench Handrail feature Impressionist Edouard Movers and shakers at a club? Subj. for a new immigrant, perhaps Classic film set in cyberspace HS reunion attendee Hallucinogenic tabs Hoppy beer, for short ___ Lenoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Garage Notably better than the alternatives Hydrogen, e.g. Hydrogenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s atomic number Asian mushroom Egg layers White German wine 1/36 of a yard Fills up a cart, say Univ. teacher Mopey musical genre â&#x20AC;&#x153;When it ___, it poursâ&#x20AC;?

46 47 48 49 50 51 55 57

Weirdo Escalator part Chaotic brawl Stem for corn Thick Japanese noodle Mani-___ (â&#x20AC;&#x153;me dayâ&#x20AC;? treatment) Relatives Aperitif with white wine

Solution to Fridayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s puzzle:

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Monday, October 7, 2019

Prince Harry to sue 2 UK tabloids over alleged phone hacking LONDON—Prince Harry is suing The Sun and the Daily Mirror, two of Britain’s most popular tabloid newspapers, over alleged phone hacking. Buckingham Palace confirmed on Saturday that claims regarding “illegal interception of voicemail messages” were filed on Harry’s behalf. The palace declined to say more or provide details “given the particulars of the claims are not yet public.” News Group Newspapers, which owns The Sun and the now defunct News of the World, acknowledged the prince’s High Court action while Reach, which owns the Mirror, said it was “aware that proceedings have been issued” but hasn’t yet received notice of them. The cases escalate Harry’s fight with the British tabloids. It comes days after his American wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, sued the Mail on Sunday for alleged copyright infringement, misuse of private information and violating the UK’s data protection law after the paper published a letter she wrote to her father. Harry then lambasted British tabloids after Meghan filed her lawsuit on Tuesday, saying in a statement that his wife’s lawsuit, which was months in the making, was a response to a “ruthless campaign” to smear her by creating “lie after lie at her expense” during her maternity leave. The prince accused the British media of hounding Meghan the way it did his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash while trying to elude paparazzi. British tabloid newspapers have paid millions of dollars to settle claims that their employees had hacked the phone voicemails of celebrities, politicians and others in the public eye. The prince’s lawsuits likely date back years. News of the World was shut down in 2011, at the height of the hacking scandal and when its former editors later went on trial, a court heard evidence that indicated Harry along with his old brother, Prince William, were targets of the paper’s illicit interception of phone messages. A transcript of one of the messages read at the trial came from a 2006 recording of William pretending to be Harry’s girlfriend at the time, revealing the extent of media intrusion into their lives. Harry and William have long had a strained relationship with the press. They grew up in the spotlight and were young boys when their parents’ acrimonious divorce received wallto-wall coverage. AP

Pinoy films shot overseas to open film festivals

FILIPINO film directed by Veronica Velasco that was shot in Greenland, an autonomous region within Denmark, has been chosen to open the fifth edition of the Danish Film Festival on October 9. Aga Muhlach and Alice Dixson play interesting characters whose paths cross in the film Nuuk, which also happens to be the capital of Greenland. The film also delves on important mental-health issues related to one’s environment, and how love and loneliness can affect the many decision we make in our lives. Dixson plays a newly widowed immigrant who gets left behind by their only son, and she seeks refuge

in drugs and alcohol. For his part, Muhlach essays the role of a middle-aged man who lives a lonely solitary life in a cold, far-away country. The barren, snowy Greenland landscape serves as the backdrop of this psychological thriller. A special screening of Nuuk was held recently and was graced by the Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Grete Sillasen. “I hope many will come and watch the films we will showcase in the festival. I am happy that the film Nuuk will open the festival, one which truly bears testimony to cultural diplomacy through film in a globalized world.” Velasco shared that there is a small Filipino community in Greenland that supported their principal photography phase. “We met the Filipino immigrants in Nuuk and listened to their anecdotes and stories, and most of these were inspiring. The cold climate in Nuuk and the life there is a big challenge, but the resilience of those who live there keeps the flame for a dignified existence burning.” The festival will also feature the films of Jonas Elmer, Bill August, Milad Alami, Jesper Nielsen, Annika Berg and Jannik Hastrup, and will run until October 13 at the Shangri-La Red Carpet Cinema. Meanwhile, Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s Untrue

will be the opening film of the Seventh QCinema International Film Festival, scheduled from October 13 to 22 in Quezon City. Produced by Viva Films, the movie was shot in Tbilisi, Georgia, early this year. From reliable sources, Untrue was supposed to be the comeback film of Claudine Barretto but plans vanished into thin air when Barretto asked for release from the Viva camp during the early stages of preproduction. A few names also surfaced for the role Barretto’s supposed leading man, among them Ian Veneracion and Piolo Pascual. The film is about two lonely Filipinos living in Georgia who find solace and companionship in each other, until a strange apparition begins to haunt their newfound relationship. Cristine Reyes takes on the role of a bruised and beaten wife who seeks the help of Georgian police against her husband, played by Xian Lim. It’s a “he said, she said” kind of narrative where complicated emotions are released after the past catches up with the present. Untrue is also scheduled to have its international premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Southeast Asia section on October 12. Hurrah for these two brave and bold female Filipino filmmakers. ■

Comedian Andy Dick pleads not guilty to groping driver ARRA SAN AGUSTIN and Juancho Trivino star in Madrasta.

GMA PREMIERES ‘FIERCE’ NEW AFTERNOON DRAMA

BEGINNING today, October 7, what is being hyped as “the fiercest rivalry” in afternoon dramas ensues between the wife and the present love as they vie for a spot in the life of one man in GMA’s new afternoon series Madrasta. The original soap introduces Arra San Agustin as Audrey, an optimistic nurse and a responsible daughter who tries her luck abroad but gets swindled instead by an illegal recruiter. This unfortunate turn of event steers her into the life of a man whose children she will nurture as her own. Arra, who takes on her first title role, reveals that she has poured her heart and soul in embodying her character as a madrasta. “Challenging siya pero sobrang nai-enjoy ko. It’s something new. Ito ’yung nag-push sa ’kin para mas lalo pa akong lumabas sa comfort zone ko. I like how it feels—it’s oddly unsettling kasi siyempre panibagong experience pero masaya siya kasi may bago, hindi nagiging dull ’yung naiexperience ko. May mga bago akong gustong i-explore,” she said. Also in the cast are Manilyn Reynes, the doting mother of Audrey who is against her daughter’s relationship with a married man; Thea Tolentino as the cunning wife of Sean who only uses the latter to satisfy her lavish lifestyle; Juancho Trivino as Sean, a cosmetic surgeon and loyal husband; and Gladys Reyes as the strict but caring mother of Sean who at first, suspects Audrey’s true intentions for helping her son. Also in prominent roles are Almira Muhlach, Phytos Ramirez, Kelvin Miranda, Divine and Faye Lorenzo. Madrasta also highlights the special participation of Isabelle de Leon as Judy, the two-faced friend of Audrey who stole George from her; Ahron Villena as Gian, Katherine’s one great love and the reason for her decision to leave Sean; and Anjo Damiles as George, Audrey’s ex-boyfriend who cheated on her. This original series, created by the GMA Drama group headed by SVP for Entertainment Group Lilybeth G. Rasonable, is directed by Monti Parungao. It airs weekdays after Prima Donnas. Viewers from across the globe can also catch GMA shows via the network’s international channels GMA Pinoy TV, GMA Life TV and GMA News TV International. More information is available at www.gmapinoytv.com.

LOS ANGELES—Comedian Andy Dick has pleaded not guilty to groping a driver from a ride-hailing service. Dick entered the plea on Friday in Los Angeles to one count of misdemeanor sexual battery. Prosecutors allege he groped a driver 18 months ago in West Hollywood.

His representative declined comment. Dick, a 53-year-old native of Charleston, South Carolina, who starred in the 1990s sitcom NewsRadio, has been a popular and sometimes problematic guest on radio and TV shows, known for his erratic, over-the-top behavior.

He has been arrested and sued over several other groping accusations through the years, including a 2010 incident involving a bouncer and patron at a West Virginia bar. Criminal charges were dismissed after Dick completed a pretrial diversion program. AP

THE films Nuuk (right) and Untrue are among the exciting new Filipino films that were filmed overseas.

Monday, October 7, 2019

Style

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Good habits to add to your beauty routine I

T was Helena Rubinstein who said there were no ugly people, just lazy ones. Do I believe this? Absolutely! Beauty is subjective, but having good and healthy skin and hair, and looking clean and neat are what define beauty for me. You can have a face that’s not conventionally pretty but I wouldn’t care as long as you are well-groomed and take care of yourself. In order to achieve this, one has to have good beauty habits, which may include double cleansing at night, drinking more water and applying hand lotion after washing one’s hands. Here are some beauty habits I have adapted lately. They may work for me but not necessarily for all people. 1. NOT SHAMPOOING EVERY DAY IS SOMETHING I ADAPTED AFTER I BEGAN THE SUNETICS TREATMENT FOR HAIR LOSS. I realized that it was the best thing to do after each treatment. Many hairstylists believe that shampooing everyday can lead to dry brittle hair, as it strips the scalp of its natural oils. Of course, I shower twice a day but I only wash my hair every other day. I don’t use dry shampoo because I am allergic to it, so I just leave my hair be and this has worked for me for the last two-and-a-half years. I don’t know how it happened but my hair is thicker and looks better than it has in decades. Someone once pointed out to me that I don’t have the hair of an old person. That’s thanks to my colorist Harry of Kami Salon and not shampooing everyday. 2. USE A FOUNDATION WITH SKIN-FRIENDLY INGREDIENTS. OK, here’s a true story. I managed to snag a bottle of Reboot Foundation from Make Up For Ever long before it launched. With it, I also received a Buffing Brush 112 from the brand. I was told to use the brush with the foundation. I used Reboot the day after I received it and, to be honest, I didn’t like it at all and

just put it aside. One day, I saw my friend Nikki Tiu at an event and she looked lovely. I asked what foundation she had on and she said it was Reboot. Nikki is a beauty blogger whose opinions matter to me, so I gave Reboot another chance. I have been wearing it almost everyday for two weeks now and I love how its light to medium coverage works for me. Reboot claims to give tired-looking skin a boost and it really does. Reboot smooths, evens out, hydrates, firms and brightens. I tried using another new foundation in between Reboot and I got a few bumps and pimples. My skin is quite sensitive and Reboot works well with my sensitive skin. This is available for around P2,700 at Make Up For Ever stores. 3. USE A SUPER SERUM LIKE ESTÉE LAUDER ADVANCED REPAIR INTENSE RESET CONCENTRATE TWICE A WEEK. Estée Lauder claims that this concentrate “rescues and resets the look of skin fast. Immerses skin in sustained, 24-hour moisture with 15X concentrated hyaluronic acid in a multimolecular weight complex.” This is meant to be used over the Advanced Night Repair serum twice a week, although some women do use it every day. It claims to soothe the redness caused by irritation in one hour, it fortifies the skin’s strength and helps improve texture and look. What I love about Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Line is that everything can be used by those with acne-prone skin. 4. USE A DEODORANT WITHOUT ALUMINUM. I use a deodorant, one without antiperspirant. Yes, there are days when my deodorant lets me down but I much prefer that than having itchy underarms. I’m very sorry for oversharing but using natural deodorants has been a life-changing experience. I love what it does for my skin. I am very partial toward Lafe’s Deodorant Spray in Aloe, which I buy from Healthy Options. 5. USE A CHEMICAL EXFOLIATOR. I would rather die that exfoliate my skin physically (with those face scrubs) but I do exfoliate chemically with using an AHA (alpha hydroxy acid) or BHA (beta hydroxy acid). Salicylic acid is a form of BHA while lactic and glycolic acids are forms of AHA. I prefer salicylic more than other acids. Glycolic acids make me break out. Chemical exfoliants help the skin shed dead cells. Exfoliants, over time, help minimize the appearance of wrinkles, help improve dull/uneven skin tone, smooth rough and bumpy skin, and unclog pores. I alternate between The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2 percent Solution and Stridex Soft Touch Pads. ■

Best facial forever DIY scrubs and moisturizers aren’t enough to keep the skin healthy and clean. A basic facial will clean those greasy pores and exfoliate any dead skin cells lying on the top of your skin. To avoid dry, dull and brittle skin, Diana Stalder should be part of one’s skin-care regimen. Here’s a list of beauty tips that can prove to be very helpful: ■ CLEANSER. People need to have their skin cleansed twice a day at a minimum.

■ TONER. Soap alone can’t remove the dirt stuck inside the pores which causes blackheads and whiteheads. Use a toner after cleansing, as this will help remove skin impurities. ■ MOISTURIZER. Dry and dull skin affects the skin’s aging; moisturizers can help skin relax. Applying moisturizers on your face before bed time can help in cell regeneration. ■ DAY CREAM. Sunscreen is an important factor that is sometimes neglected. Putting on sunscreen 30 minutes before going out and reapplying every two hours is the right way to prevent your skin from sun damage and pigmentation. Skin is exposed to pollution, car exhaust, cigarette smoke and other pollutants on a daily basis that can damage the skin. Cleansing, toning, moisturizing and the use of sunscreen are important. Diana Stalder provides services that will help skin be clean and refreshed. With branches in Gateway Mall and SM Megamall, Diana Stalder offers a free skin analysis to clients to check on their skin condition before any treatment or product purchase. This would help in determining skin moisture, level of pigmentation, elasticity and the appropriate sunscreen SPF needed.

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Monday, October 7, 2019 E1

Use your travel time productively I ’m writing this article on a flight to Raleigh-Durham; I began it last week on a train from New York City, and added a few paragraphs a couple of days later on a flight to San Francisco.

Stay ing productive on the road—while navigating unfamiliar destinations, schlepping heavy luggage, and dealing with not-infrequent delays and inconveniences—can be a Herculean challenge. Here’s how to accomplish more while in transit. You can engage in professional development by listening to podcasts. Many airport rituals are short and staccato—five minutes in line to check a bag, 10 minutes to

get through security, five minutes walking to the gate and 10 minutes standing in line to board. If you have access to an airport lounge (where it’s quieter), you can also use the time to make a series of short phone calls. Productivity expert David Allen, whom I profile in my book Stand Out, recommends keeping a “to call” list so that you can cluster the phone calls you need to make and bang them out in a row. Though Internet access is becom-

Will We Realize Blockchain’s Promise of Decentralization? By Hanna Halaburda & Christoph Mueller-Bloch

ince its inception, blockchain has promised to make “trusted third parties” redundant. In practice, though, whether blockchain is actually decentralized depends on what is governed and how this governance is enacted. As more businesses explore blockchain, this distinction becomes increasingly important. There are many expected benefits from decentralization that may elude us if it fails in practice. Blockchain is commonly defined as a distributed ledger shared by multiple parties who can add transactions to it. Bitcoin, the first blockchain implementation, has succeeded in allowing for digital payments without having to rely on any trusted third party acting in the user’s best interest. Such decentralization is expected to bring cost savings and empowerment. If it fails to materialize, we return to the problems of power and trust. We can understand this contradiction by identifying the four different ways Bitcoin, as a prototypical example of blockchain, is governed.

n Governing new transactions:

Users unwilling to pay high transaction fees may choose to either not transact at all, or have to wait longer to get their transactions validated.

n Governing consensus: New transactions need to be validated to become part of the blockchain. Consensus mechanisms allow for decentralizing these validations, a crucial element in any argument that the Bitcoin system

could replace banks. In practice, however, achieving consensus is more centralized than was envisioned.

Governing updates:

Once the blockchain is operating, updates to the protocol may be needed or desirable. In Bitcoin, it is envisioned that anyone can develop and suggest protocol updates. In practice, these changes are typically proposed by only a handful of developers and the discussions are highly centralized.

n Governing the design: Before the blockchain starts operating, the protocol needs to be designed. In practice, protocol development is typically highly centralized and coordinated. Despite how they were envisioned, governance of blockchain technologies is often more centralized in practice, since decision-making power is usually costly to acquire and exercise. Expertise, reputation, time or money can all be required to gain decisionmaking power. The higher these costs are, the fewer are the people who want to participate, which contributes to centralization. Managers need to carefully consider two things. First, that decentralized governance is not a necessary feature of blockchain; it needs to be enacted. Second, that the benefits of decentralized governance may not always be worth the associated costs. Hanna Halaburda is an associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business. Christoph Mueller-Bloch is a doctoral candidate at the IT University of Copenhagen.

ing more common on flights, it’s still not a given. Even when Wi-fi is offered, it can be slow or patchy. That’s why I generally focus on writing projects that don’t require use of the Internet. I’ll download all the necessary information and supporting materials beforehand, and then go offline to complete projects like writing articles (including this one), edits to book chapters, client reports or interview questions I’ve committed to answer. Travel has become a standard part of many professionals’ work life. Each year, US business travelers make about 488 million trips— around 1.3 million per day. With that much travel, we can’t afford to write off days in transit; using that time wisely is essential to getting our jobs done.

Didesign021 | Dreamstime.com

By Dorie Clark

Dorie Clark is a marketing strategist and professional speaker who teaches at Duke University.

Monetizing a business ecosystem By Peter Williamson & Arnoud de Meyer

or e compa n ies a re starting to recognize that developing a vibrant ecosystem of partners across industries is essential for accelerating innovation and withstanding disruption. Partners can share new technologies and knowledge, open up new routes to market and help create new business models. But it isn’t enough to get an ecosystem up and running; you also need a way to sustainably monetize it. In our work analyzing company ecosystems, we’ve found that a firm needs to do three things if it

wants a sustainable profit stream from the ecosystems it has created. First, it must identify a “keystone contribution,” some element or activity it can uniquely own and control that is essential for the ecosystem to create value for customers. Second, an ecosystem leader needs to establish an efficient “tollgate” to collect revenues when partners use its keystone contribution. The tolls may take the form of: license fees, royalties or commissions on transactions within the ecosystem; a share in the revenues of the products and services that partners supply; or the profits on value-added products or ser-

vices created using the data and knowledge from the ecosystem. Of course, the toll for any single type of transaction, activity or partnership can be only so high. Leaders must also diversify their revenue sources. That means designing multiple tollgates at different points in the ecosystem. Another useful strategy we’ve observed is to vary the charges between participants, subsidizing some and demanding a higher share of the value created from others. Third, leaders need to find a way to leverage the ecosystem to innovate and find ways to renew the keystone contributions. This means establishing reliable and

ethical channels to accumulate data on the activities of partners and customers, and processes for innovating on insights gleaned. While some learning needs to remain proprietary, some can be shared with partners to help make the ecosystem more productive. By focusing on these three priorities, companies can establish sustainable profit streams, ensuring their ecosystems work for them. Peter Williamson is a professor at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Arnoud De Meyer is a professor at Singapore Management University.

For returning professionals, there’s power in the cohort By Carol Fishman Cohen

ndr e a Cher m ay eff wishes she’d kept a diary during the fall of 2013. That was when Chermayeff, a Harvard Business School graduate who’d left the work force for 15 years to stay home with her four children, was a member of the inaugural class of JPMorgan’s ReEntry Program, one of a number of return-to-work programs offered by Wall Street firms and other professional employers. “I wish I’d documented how petrified I was,” she recalls. “I felt that I wouldn’t match up, somebody would figure it out, and it would be—game over.” While she didn’t put those fears in writing in a diary, she was able

to share them with her ReEntry colleagues, which was invaluable. “To be able to express these fears with nine other women in the same situation was comforting,” Chermayeff says. “It was my safe zone.” In recent years, major financial services companies like Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have piloted reentry internship programs for professionals returning to work after a career break. They joined Goldman Sachs, which has offered such a program since 2008, and many others. It is well-documented that cohorts can strengthen a work or school experience. However, in the case of the reentering professional, the cohort adds the critical

additional function of providing emotional support from peers during a transition that is, otherwise, isolating and can involve dramatic professional transformation. Taking a cue from internship prog rams for younger demo graphics, companies admit the reentering professionals as a class with a single start date, and establish the cohort immediately. The cohort is used as a mechanism for efficiently and economically delivering onboarding programming, and provides opportunities to grow together and bond. The cohort can be formed and remain strong even if participants are in different locations and from diverse circumstances. Return Path, a New York-based

data solutions company, launched its program with an all-female group of returning technology professionals, some of whom have been on career break for up to 20 years. “We decided it was better to have everyone based in one location,” says Cathy Hawley, senior director of people development. “These women are joining separate teams that are overwhelmingly younger and primarily male, so it is helpful for them to meet as a group at regular intervals.” Program “conversion rates”— meaning how many participants become permanent employees— range from over 50 percent to over 90 percent. Carol Fishman Cohen is chairman and cofounder of iRelaunch.

Education BusinessMirror

E2 Monday, October 7, 2019

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

BARMM looks to Asean neighbors for best practices in education By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox

Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is looking at its Southeast Asian neighbors for the best applicable model of an educational system. At least three of these countries—Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia—belong to the same regional grouping as Mindanao. BARMM Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal said he was looking at these three countries “for inspiration and expertise in education” when he spoke during the “35th Asean Council of Teachers + 1 Convention” held in Brunei on September 28. Iqbal earlier sent a team to Indonesia in June this year, in a program supported by Australia through the Pathways Program. He said the BARMM was interested with Indonesia’s educational system, “which provides integrated education services to all of its people regardless of backgrounds.” “We learned a lot from that learning trip to Indonesia and we hope to gain more insights from our neighboring countries,” he said.

Like Indonesia, Iqbal said BARMM would also provide its constituents equal opportunities. “The Bangsamoro government shall develop an educational framework relevant and responsive to the needs, ideals and aspirations of the Bangsamoro people,” he said. He assured the education system in the Bangsamoro shall be accessible to all Moro, Christian and tribal students. “We’ve seen this educational system worked in Indonesia,” Iqbal added. Iqbal said his Ministry of Basic Higher and Technical Education was assigned to draft and submit the Bangsamoro Education Code to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority. The code shall govern the education system in the Bangsamoro area and set the strategic direction for the implementation of a balanced educational structure and standard in

Iain Cox (from left), British Embassy head of Political and Economic section; Chevening Scholars Mel Fatric Rhai Yan; James Earn Esperida; and Gizelle Camua, Pru Life UK assistant vice president and head of Corporate Affairs

Pru Life UK grants Chevening scholarship to finlit advocate

BARMM Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal

the Bangsamoro, he added. Iqbal also thanked the government and people of Brunei for their continued support to the peace process by sending a contingent to the International Monitoring Team. He also appealed for more investments in the BARMM. “This will help your brothers and sisters come to their knees after almost 50 years of struggle for self-determination,” Iqbal appealed.

PHL wins in robotics contest in China

The Team Creotec Philippines proudly show their medals for winning second place and the country’s flag at the World Adolescent Robot Contest’s MakeX category in China.

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes @brownindio

eam Creotec Philippines won second prize in the recently concluded World Adolescent Robot Contest under the MakeX category held in China. Thess Bermudez, director of Creotec, said it was an impressive accomplishment for the team that saw 27 countries participating in the competition. “ We were able to beat countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Peru, Paraguay, Colombia, among others. This is a statement that the Philippines is not behind in technology learning, specifically on robotics, given the right training and tools,” she said in a recent e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror. By joining the international competition, Bermudez said the students were able to improve their competence level in programming and mechanical design, not to mention

the experience gained through their engagements with the teams from other countries. “The team performed beyond our expectations, considering that this is their first time to join in a complex robotics programming competition,” she said. Cris Tingcang, the team’s coach, said the runner-up finish proved that Filipino students could compete with other countries, such as China, Croatia and the others, in robotics. “The competition was a great opportunity for students to learn technical skills like programming, robotics assembly, electronics and mechanical design. They learned how to design, assemble and program a robot from scratch on their own to solve the missions of the competition,” he said. Since the competition required the students a high level of strategic skills and tactics, Tingcang said students learned the value of developing strategies and life skills of communicating with people whom they just met and, at the

Benilde announces appointment of new SDG dean

e La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) recently announced the appointment of Dr. Gary Ador Dionisio as the dean of the School of Diplomacy and Governance (SDG) effective this Academic Year 2019-2020. A Benildean educator since 2003, Dionisio has served as the chairman for Consular and Diplomatic Affairs Program for six years. An industry expert and academician on public administration and governance, and international organizations and economy for the past 16 years, he has significantly contributed to the establishment of the SDG with former Dean George Binay. He has, likewise, spearheaded the formation of the college’s two newest programs—Bach-

elor of Arts in Diplomacy and International Affairs, and Bachelor of Arts in Governance in Public Affairs—which were submitted to the Commission on Higher Education in 2015. He has collaborated with various agencies and has taken part in introducing the partnership between SDG and premier institutions, such as University of Gadjah Mada in Indonesia, and Osgood Center for International Studies and Creative Learning, both in the United States. Dionisio garnered his Master of Arts in Political Science from the De La Salle University and obtained his doctorate degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance.

same time, addressed problems that they could encounter during the match. Tingcang added that students were able to practice problem-solving, analytical skills, logical thinking and socializing. “The experience they had opened other opportunities that they can grab in science, technology, engineering, arts and math [STEAM],” he said. Since the competition adopted an advanced platform in nature, Tingcang said it was very challenging for the team because they were not familiar with the platform and the tasks were complex. “Due to these reasons, we are very glad with our performance because it exceeded what we projected. We were able to compete at a higher level with the stronger teams in the competition,” he said. Creotec provides learning content in the fields of math and robotics for the K to 12 curriculum to strengthen students’ competencies in the field of STEAM. Its learning programs support the objective of the Department of Education in upgrading the curricular offerings at the K to 12 level through the integration of technology tools with emphasis on problem-solving and logic formulation. At the same time, Bermudez said there is an immense need to promote awareness on the importance of robotics to prepare the country for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, Creotec is currently active in promoting a national robotics competition on October 18 and 19, to be participated in by students from its partner schools and from public schools. “We have conducted training sessions for public-school teachers to encourage them to be part of the national competition. The winners of the national competition get a chance to represent the country in the end of November for the World MakeX Competition in China,” Bermudez told the BusinessMirror. She said Creotec is faced with the challenge of creating awareness on the importance of including and implementing robotics in the curriculum as a tool for strengthening the students’ problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. She said the approach fits the learning style of the Gen Z, who have varied learning styles. Moreover, she said it is also important for the school administration and academic community to provide support to this initiative.

ru Life UK, through its community investment arm Prudence Foundation, partnered with the British government to grant the Chevening Scholarship to financial literacy (finlit) educator and two-time Cha-Ching awardee James Earn Esperida. Chevening is a global scholarship program that offers future leaders an opportunity to achieve a one year postgraduate degree in one of their partner universities in the UK. Esperida will pursue a master’s degree in International Development and Education at the Newcastle University. He plans to use it to introduce a research-based project that will strengthen the partnership of international organizations, national government and private institutions to improve the quality of education in the Philippines. “This is a fulfilling moment as a teacher to be recognized for my work and dedication in financial literacy,” Esperida said. “Being a Chevening scholar will help boost my leadership, networking skills and students’ learning experience.”

Money-smart kids

In 2015, Esperida looked for a company that aligns with his advocacy of raising financially literate schoolchildren in Camarines Sur. Happily, he learned about the Cha-Ching program and was able to successfully accredit Pagatpat Elementary School as the first and only beneficiary in the province. A year after integrating the program in the school’s curriculum, he supplemented it with students and parents’ conferences, moneysmart camps, fairs and school-wide contests. To boost students’ financial literacy, their faculty expanded their partnerships with community stakeholders, local government unit,

educational institutions and other private organizations. These efforts earned Esperida the Cha-Ching’s Most Distinguished and Outstanding Financial Literacy Educator awards. “I believe that financial literacy should not only be taught, but modeled. This is why I am making it a part of my life. I demonstrate the four fundamental financial skills of earn, save, spend, and donate for my students, parents, teachers, and the community to emulate,” Esperida added.

Shared advocacy

With his success in the program, Esperida started his own financial education project— KUWARTA (Kumita, Wais na paggasta, Responsableng pag-ipon at Taos-pusong pagtulong), inspired by Cha-Ching. To boost his project, he developed a financial learning resource as output of his postgraduate research. “Pru Life UK is proud that Cha-Ching has inspired James in furthering our shared advocacy in financial literacy among the youth,” said Allan Tumbaga, Pru Life UK senior vice president and chief customer marketing officer. “As part of we do education, we continue to promote education and financial literacy by giving a larger platform to advocates like James, who’s been a determined educator for years.” Esperida is one of the two Chevening grantees who are co-funded by Pru Life UK. The second scholar is Mel Fatric Rhai Yan, an education advocate and a senior program officer at Ramon Aboitiz Foundation. Pru Life UK is the first life insurer in the Philippines to partner with Chevening. As a consistent partner, Prudence Foundation has supported 126 students from Asia since 1997. This year, its scholars are part of 28 grantees from the Philippines.

School-plus-home gardening brought to Busuanga Island

ORON, Palawan—Busuanga Island can significantly benefit from school-plushome gardens. This was the consensus of a consultation with the local government, schools, and tourism sector convened here recently by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños. The consultation-workshop was conducted to gauge the interest and willingness of potential partners and the community to participate in the School-Plus-Home Gardens Project (S+HGP). The S+HGP was piloted in six schools in the province of Laguna, where harvests from the school gardens provided fresh vegetables for the school-based feeding program. The model also extended the gardeningfeeding linkage to the establishment of food gardens in the schoolchildren’s homes. More than just establishing home gardens, the parents developed a greater sense of responsibility to ensure good nutrition for their children, while also saving on food expenses. Moreover, S+HGP has garnered local and international awards for its emphasis on the multi-functionality of school gardens as learning laboratories for educating pupils, teachers and parents about sustainability concepts and interconnections of food and nutrition, organic agriculture, edible landscaping, climate change and solid waste management. Represented in the consultation were the Coron Municipal Agriculture Office, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office, local grade schools from the inland and coastal districts, and the tourism sector. According to the locals, both municipalities on the island are food insecure. They added that agriculture is not a strong sector in the island primarily due to the poor quality of its soil. Though rich in seafoods, they said both Coron and Busuanga import most of their fruits and veg-

etables from neighboring areas. Consequently, they pay high prices for these produce, which adversely affect the nutrition of poor families. The island residents pointed out that importation also increases the prices of food in restaurants, an integral part of the booming tourism industry on the island. It was reported during the consultation that for every peso earned from tourism in Coron, P0.80 leave the municipality due to the importation of produce. Searca Program Head for Research and Development Pedcris Orencio said the consultation also indicated the support that could be extended to the S+HGP by various stakeholders. Orencio said government agencies, through their local offices, could provide technical assistance on organic vegetable production and provide inputs—such as garden tools, seeds, other planting materials and organic fertilizers. He added that the schools were, likewise, supportive of the initiative as this would support the Gulayan sa Paaralan Project of the Department of Education. It would also be an avenue to involve, encourage, and educate parents and families on vegetable growing and nutrition. The consultation also indicated that the tourism sector could provide training venues, food, accommodation and local transportation to the training teams. Under particular conditions, members of the sector could allow parcels of land adjacent to schools and owned by members of the sector to be used as S+HGP demonstration areas. The tourism sector could also be a consumer/ market of produce in excess of the needs of the schools, Orencio reported. More important, the locals consulted said the tourism sector can support the upscaling of S+HGP by encouraging industry players to adopt a school for S+HGP and showcase the adopted S+HGP to guests/tourists and engage these tourists in local initiatives.

Marketing BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, October 7, 2019 E3

Experiential marketing and how to do it right Part 1

By Millie F. Dizon

ear PR Matters, Being in the marketing field, my colleagues and I are often urged to make our programs more experiential, especially when addressing millennials. Everyone talks about experiential marketing, but since this is a relatively new concept, we want to understand what it really means and the best way we can do it well. Will it be possible to enlighten us on this? This will be especially helpful to us. Sincerely, Bernie S. Dear Bernie, Your inquiry is very timely, as experiential marketing is a new concept aimed to reach out to the younger market, especially millennials, who value experiences. But you are right in saying that sometimes what it truly is often escapes those asked to do such programs. Experiential marketing is a growing trend which involves marketing a product or service through experiences that engage customers and create an emotional attachment to the product or service. That is why it is also called engagement marketing, on-ground marketing or participation marketing. What makes it so intriguing is that brands like Google, Lavazza Coffee, and Red Bull have invested heavily in experiential marketing, achieving massive returns in the process. We will give examples of this in next week’s column. In a marketingprofs.com article, The How and Why of Experiential Marketing: 7 Tips to Do It Right, John Millard says that “the premise of experiential marketing is giving marketers a chance to be truly creative in their approach and engage their audiences like never before,” there is a downside. As in the case of the recent Frye Festival catastrophe, it can go wrong and have a detrimental impact of the people and brands involved. So, “whether you’re organizing an immersive pop-up event, on-site virtual reality installation, or a full theatrical performance or live event,” Millard shares with us “a few things that should be kept top of mind to make it mean more, and ultimately deliver the numbers you’re looking for.”

Experiences make people happy. “People love to be

entertained,” says Millard. And more than that, “65 percent of consumers say that they are far more influenced by positive and memorable experiences than traditional advertising and marketing gimmicks.” This is especially true for millennials, “72 percent of whom would prefer to spend their money on experiences and [for whom] Instagram content is king.” A well-targeted, enticing experiential campaign that they will associate with your brand will prove to be invaluable.

Focus on people and relationships. Experiential

marketing can create a sense of brand loyalty among as its target audience. Millard cites Disney’s “immersive and often theatrical marketing initiatives that have people feeling loyal to the company from cradle to

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brands that are able to provide excitement, entertainment and memorable experiences ultimately get the customer’s respect, and sales. That’s why “each experience should apply the 3 E’s—engage, entertain, and educate—for the highest impact on relationship building and on ROI.” All in all, “if you keep these things in mind and you’re willing to be bold and to dive into experiential marketing head-on, the sky’s the limit.” And we are going to give some examples of best practices in experiential marketing in next week’s column.

grave, spanning multiple generations with their appeal.” “When customers experience something truly memorable and personalized, they begin to develop a much deeper relationship with brands, embracing them for their shared values” says Millard. “Customers that become more experience-focused are the ones succeeding in the new landscape.

Don’t try to save time, invest in it. Gone are the days

when marketers are tied down to 30-second time slots in the broadcast media. “Marketing,” says Millard, “is no longer about saving time to deliver great customer service; it’s about time well-spent.” With this, “customers are willing to dedicate time to experiences that brands are offering, especially when those experiences are designed around their needs and interests.” He urges brands “to recognize this opportunity,” and “be grateful for the time consumers are willing to put into their hands, and invest in a captivating experience that will make the time spent worth it—for both sides.”

Enhance, never interrupt.

Authentically integrating your company or brand into an experience in a way that doesn’t interrupt the audience is one of the challenges of experiential marketing. That is why “it’s a good practice to find event-specific opportunities to eliminate pinch points and invest in tactics that deliver true value to the people interacting with your brand,” says Millard. “The experience you provide always needs to add value to the consumer’s journey.”

Human connection is key.

As in all forms of marketing, the messenger is often just as important as the message in experiential marketing. That is why “casting and training authentic ambassadors for your brand engagement is the difference between a good idea and great experience,” says Millard. These ambassadors “can set the tone for the relationship between consumer and brand,” making it imperative to cast ambassadors with an authentic passion for your product and industry. Millard further urges us to “train them as an extension of your brand, and give them the tools to make each interaction mean more.”

Solve, not sell. “No one wants to be sold to,” says Millard. “But most customers are open to education on how products can solve a problem or satisfy a need, especially if it’s a pain point their experiencing themselves.

That is why “experts that focus on the needs of each consumer and can tailor information to the individual can achieve a level of unmatched credibility.”

Bring the joy.

Millard says that

PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdombased International Public Relations Association (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 questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.

Perspective BusinessMirror

E4 Monday, October 7, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Trump, Ukraine and a whistleblower

Ever since 1796, Congress has struggled to keep presidents in check By Jennifer Selin | University of Missouri-Columbia

THE CONVERSATION

EORGE WASHINGTON, hero of the American Revolution and the country’s first president, in 1796 withheld documents the House of Representatives had requested from him regarding treaty negotiations with France.

HOUSE Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California reads a statement announcing a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 24, 2019. AP/ANDREW HARNIK

Washington thought that giving the House papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power would be to establish a dangerous precedent. Washington’s reluctance to hand over these documents has echoed through time, in conflicts between Congress and Presidents Monroe, Jefferson, Adams all the way to Presidents Coolidge, Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan, among others. For the most part, members of Congress still must rely on the president and his administration for information in the areas of foreign relations and intelligence. In the latest version of that longrunning tension between Congress and the president over power, Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on September 26. The testimony is part of a chain of events that began in mid-August of 2019 when an anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, who is tasked by Congress to identify problems in the national intelligence agencies. The complaint related to reports that President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family. The developing conflict between Trump and Congress has involved, among other aspects, a struggle over who can have access to crucial documents. The Intelligence Committee

will no doubt use Maguire’s testimony as a preliminary step in the formal impeachment inquiry announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, last Tuesday. Questions about the degree to which the legislative and executive branches of the US government should share power have arisen throughout the nation’s history. While a simple view of the American Constitution revolves around the idea that the federal government is divided into three coequal branches, this understanding is incomplete. The Founders struggled with problems related to the separation of powers. The text of the Constitution, combined with subsequent legal analysis, shows tension between a desire to separate the branches and the need to integrate the federal government’s core functions. Foreign relations and national security issues like those underlying the Ukraine conflict only exacerbate this tension.

President’s broad authority

PELOSI’S announcement relied heavily on references to the US Constitution. At one point, she said, “Our republic endures because of the wisdom of our Constitution enshrined in three coequal branches of government serving as checks and balances on each other.” Yet, what exactly does the Constitution say about the relationship among these three branches?

A WHITE House-released rough transcript of Trump’s July 25, 2019, telephone conversation with Ukraine’s newly elected president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, released September 25, 2019. AP/WAYNE PARTLOW

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to address the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 24, 2019. AP/MARY ALTAFFER

What’s old is new again

REP. Al Green, D-Texas, joins impeachment activists with a youth-led group, By The People, to call for Congress to remove Trump from office, outside the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 23, 2019. Green, joined by Alex Meltzer, 9, of Boston, has pressed for Trump’s impeachment three times. AP/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

While the current battle between Trump and congressional Democrats is newsworthy, it is not entirely new. The fight for information over the president’s negotiations with foreign powers is an inevitable consequence of the US constitutional system. Over time, the Constitution’s language has been interpreted to grant the president broad authority in the conduct of foreign affairs. Many recognize presidential power is greatest when the president directs foreign policy. The president’s broad power is partly by design. Imagine if the president had to publicly broadcast his strategy and build a legislative coalition every single time he communicated with a foreign leader. And part of the president’s power is a result of the accumulation of laws granting policy authority to the executive branch over time. Regardless, there is no question that the Founders intended for members of Congress to exercise oversight of presidential conduct in foreign policy. In fact, Congress first established a congressional committee to request executive branch documents relating to foreign relations in 1792. Yet then, as now, lawmakers struggled to obtain the requested information.

Oversight system’s weaknesses

BECAUSE voters in contemporary politics reward or punish the president for issues that arise in foreign relations, presidents have a reason to control the narrative when it comes to national security. Congress often has little incentive—or ability—to do much about it. There is waning congressional interest in oversight of foreign policy. Reelection concerns encourage members of Congress to focus their energies on domestic affairs and constituent service. When legislators do get involved in foreign policy, they are often in a reactive position. Because of the president’s constitutional freedom to initiate contact with foreign powers, the president has an advantage over Congress. Furthermore, the nature of the oversight system can hinder legislators’ responses to presidential action. It takes time and resources to coordinate a response, not to mention agreement among a majority of members of Congress.

SO what makes the crisis involving Trump, Ukraine and the whistleblower different from other foreign policy power struggles between Congress and the executive branch? Perhaps this is a Trump issue, not a foreign policy issue. More constituents are pressuring their Democratic congressmen to pursue impeachment than ever before. This straightforward conflict may provide a clear story for Democrats to tell. Yet, despite providing a written record of the call between Trump and Ukraine’s leader, the president and his administration still control much of the information about the events. And Congress has limited time and resources to force the executive branch to relinquish this information, particularly if Congress wishes to do so before the 2020 election. While Congress can appeal to the courts to compel disclosure of documents it needs in its investigation of the Ukraine affair, it is unclear whether the courts would do so. Separation of powers issues and what is called the political question doctrine—which says some disputes are too political in nature for the judiciary—makes courts reluctant to interfere in political fights between Congress and the president, particularly about national security. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Republican support for Trump appears intact, making coordination across the chambers of Congress quite difficult. While the current battle between Trump and congressional Democrats is newsworthy, it is not entirely new. The fight for information over the president’s negotiations with foreign powers is an inevitable consequence of the US constitutional system. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation. com/trump-ukraine-and-a-whistleblower-ever-since-1796-congresshas-struggled-to-keep-presidents-incheck-124146.