BusinessMirror October 15, 2020

NG’s ’21 fallback: Borrow anew from BSP

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HE Philippine government may borrow more from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) next year.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez floated this possibility on Wednesday although he said they would like to first tap the commercial market for borrowings.

“Well, as I said, we’ll keep that in reserve, our first option is to go back into the commercial market; but you know, if the economy doesn’t perform as we expect, we will go back to them,” Dominguez said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg. The Department of Finance (DOF) shared the link to the video posted on Bloomberg’s website.

Despite this, the country’s finance chief said he is also not concerned that

this move may crowd out private borrowers in the country.

“Well absolutely not. Actually, our administration has injected a lot of liquidity into the market by reducing the reserve requirements of banks,” he said.

Early this month, the Monetary Board approved the national government’s request for a new tranche of provisional advances amounting to P540 billion, pursuant to Section 89 of Republic Act 7653, as amended.

This, after the Bureau of the Treasury fully settled the previous P300 billion on September 29.

In March the Monetary Board authorized the BSP to purchase government securities from the Bureau of the Treasury under a repurchase agreement in the

DOMINGUEZ: “ We are seeing a very strong recovery as we ease up the economy.” AP

amount of P300 billion with a maximum repayment period of six months. The fund generated from the agreement shall Continued on A2

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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Thursday, October 15, 2020 Vol. 16 No. 7

PHL ON BORROWERS’ TOP 3 LIST IN REGION PRE-COVID—REPORT

By Cai U. Ordinario

HE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) remains optimistic about the country’s economic prospects even if the general community quarantine (GCQ) remains imposed in Metro Manila until the end of the year.

Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) accounts for a third of the country’s economic performance. Together with Calabarzon and Central Luzon, these three regions account for 60 percent of the country’s GDP. Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua told the BusinessMirror that GDP, particularly in the last quarter of the year, will depend on third-quarter performance and the availability of public transport, among others.

“If GCQ is still [imposed in Metro Manila] but public transport is more open and percentage of business capacity increased, as per DTI [Department of Trade and

Industry] guidelines, then prospects will be better,” Chua said.

Chua said the economy’s performance in the October to December period will also be influenced by the third quarter. The data, he said, will be released in November.

Nonetheless, based on the level of quarantine imposed in the July to September period, Chua sees third-quarter economic performance to be an improvement over the second quarter.

In the first semester of 2020, the country’s GDP contracted 9 percent on the back of a 0.7-percent and 16.5-percent decline in the first and second quarters, respectively.

“The key is to get the bud-

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ENVIRONMENT Secretary Roy Cimatu and Supreme Court Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta inspect the Manila Bay white-sand project and the solar-powered sewage treatment plant in Manila on Wednesday. The Chief Justice hailed the progress of the cleanup in compliance with the SC’s continuing mandamus. Story on A12. NONIE REYES

get 2021 passed on time [as well as] pass the CREATE [Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises], FIST [Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer], and GUIDE [Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery],” Chua said.

Chua said fourth-quarter economic performance can also improve if the economy is further

opened, following the recommendations outlined by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Tuesday.

These recommendations include pursuing the Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat and Recover (PDITR) protocols to manage Covid-19 cases, as well as improve hospital care capacity to keep critical care below 70 percent.

See “Recovery,” A2

Use of public funds for 13th month eyed

By Bernadette D. Nicolas & Samuel P. Medenilla

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HE government is now considering using public funds to pay for the 13thmonth pay of workers employed by distressed small and medium enterprises.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced on Wednesday it may ask the Department of Finance (DOF) for

funding to subsidize distressed companies for 13th-month payment as recommended by employers.

“This will be studied in the order [on the matter] which I will issue,” Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said in a radio interview.

Finance Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III said they have yet to determine the feasibility of DOLE’s proposal.

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“I have asked Secretary Bello for the details of his proposal so we can determine if we have the budget for it,” Dominguez told reporters in a Viber message.

In an online media briefing, Labor Undersecretary Benjo M. Benavidez said the current draft Department Order for the 13thmonth pay will include the criteria to determine if a company is “distressed” and will qualify for the See “13th Month,” A2

By Cai U. Ordinario

VEN before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Philippines was already listed as one of the major borrowers in the East Asia and the Pacific region, according to the International Debt Statistics 2021 report.

The report (excluding China) listed the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand as the region’s major borrowers with an average increase of 5 percent to 6 percent in their external debt stock between 2015 and 2019.

The total external debt of the 120 low- and middle-income countries rose by 5.4 percent in 2019 to $8.1 trillion, equivalent to 26 percent of their gross national income (GNI), according to the report, released by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

“External debt stock rose 6.4 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, excluding China, with the major borrowers [Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand] all recording an increase of 5 to 6 percent,” the report stated.

Based on the report, the Philippines’s total external debt stock breached the $80-billion level for the first time last year to $83.661 billion, a 5.9-percent increase from 2018.

Prior to 2019, the country’s total external debt stock reached $78.997 billion in 2018; $73.414 billion in 2017; $74.739 billion in 2016; and $76.266 billion in 2015.

The World Bank Debt Data Team recently said almost a third of low- and middle-income countries had external debt-to-GNI ratios of above 60 percent by the end of 2019, compared with 23 percent in 2010.

In 9 percent of countries, the ratio exceeded 100 percent, the team said. This is one-third more than the share of countries with a comparable ratio in 2010.

“Country-specific indicators vary widely, but a number of low- and middle-income countries have seen a marked increase in the ratio of external debt stocks to GNI. This ratio has increased over the past decade in many lowand middle-income countries,” the World Bank Debt Data Team said in a blog.

DBCC projection

EARLIER, the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said it expects the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to increase to 53.91 percent of GDP—a level it hasn’t seen in over a decade—from a record low of 39.6 percent of GDP last year.

For 2021 and 2022, this is seen to surge to 58.1 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively. Debt-to-GDP ratio is used to gauge the country’s ability to pay its debts.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) recently reported debt payments between January and August rose by 49.35 percent year-on-year to P760.65 billion, from P509.295 billion in the same period last year, as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic.

The amount paid by the government for the eight-month period is also nearing the total amount that it paid for the whole year of 2019 at P842.449 billion.

This, as the state’s debt payments for the month of August this year jumped by almost five times to P152.396 billion from P31.581 billion in the same month in 2019.

LABOR Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III ROY DOMINGO

n JAPAN 0.4604 n UK 62.8363 n HK 6.2653 n CHINA 7.1988 n SINGAPORE 35.7161 n AUSTRALIA 34.7612 n EU 57.0339 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.9452

Source: BSP (October 14, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, October 15, 2020

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Hotels offering staycations can’t offer quarantine space

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By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo Special to the BusinessMirror

NLY 10 star-rated hotels have been accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to offer staycations.

These are: Grand Hyatt, Makati Shangri-La Hotel, Okada Manila, Shangri-La at the Fort, Nobu Hotel-City of Dreams, Joy Nostalg Hotel & Suites Manila, Edsa Shangri-La Manila, Solaire Resort, Hyatt Regency-City of Dreams, and Nuwa-City of Dreams.

In a news briefing on Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt, which she inspected, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat stressed that hotels being used as quarantine facilities cannot offer staycations at the same time. “If they really insist [on offering staycations], then maybe they can come up with their infectious disease doctors to say it’s safe [to host staycationers alongside quarantining guests]. But so far, the

medical experts in the IATF [InterAgency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases] say it’s not safe to mix [both types of guests], so that’s why we’re sticking to that.”

The Department of Tourism (DOT) recently released Administrative Order 2020-006-A, detailing staycation guidelines for accommodation establishments in general community quarantine (GCQ) areas. Under such guidelines, accredited staycation hotels may also operate their restaurants and other food and beverage outlets, excluding bars; gyms; and swimming pools.

(See, “‘Staycations’ now allowed under GCQ, but rapid testing required,” in the BusinessMirror.)

Alfred V. Ty, chairman of Federal Land Inc. which owns Grand Hyatt in Taguig, said, “The hotel was fortunate enough to participate during the early days of ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] because of the BPO industry, that they had to stay in a place near their workplace. But after GCQ was implemented, it has not really seen a single soul. So it’s been very difficult for the business, but nevertheless, we understand the dangers of this virus. And so we are implementing all possible measures to ensure the safety of the guests, but do not forget that the safety of our associates is equally important.”

According to hotel general manager Gottfried Bogensperger, they had “not laid off a single person in the whole six, seven months.

We were able to maintain our workforce.”

Either staycation or quarantine

THE Philippine Hotel Owners Association Inc. (PHOA) and some members of the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association Inc. had proposed to allow staycations even for properties

being used as temporary quarantine facilities for returning overseas Filipinos and contract workers, by using separate wings or floors for quarantining guests and staycationers.

In a letter to PHOA President Arthur Lopez dated October 2, 2020, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror, DOT Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Revenue Generation Arturo P. Boncato Jr. said, “Although the separation of different classes of guests by floor appears to be an adequate measure, the IATF-EID, together with health experts, deem it safer to prevent any opportunity for interaction our comingling of guests, which are not completely avoidable especially in common areas of accommodation establishments.”

The DOT recently issued a warning to two hotels for violating health and sanitation guidelines by allowing the co-mingling of newly arrived guests with quarantined guests, and allowing quarantine guests to leave the premises to eat out.

(See, “DOT chief cracks whip on hotels violating health, safety protocols,” in the BusinessMirror, August 5, 2020.)

Boncato also clarified that staycationers are allowed to check into staycation hotels within their province, and not residential zones or the barangay where they live, as expressed in Section 8 of DOT’s staycation guidelines.

He also underscored that hotels can operate up to 100-percent occupancy “as long as the workforce operational capacity and other restrictions on guests under the Omnibus Guidelines are observed.” Under GCQ, for instance, accommodation establishments are allowed up to 50 percent of operations, i.e., they are allowed to deploy as much as 50 percent of their workers, even as 100 percent of their guest rooms are open for occupancy.

To entice guests, Grand Hyatt will be rolling out special staycation packages that include free antigen testing, according to GM Bogensperger. Without the antigen test, the hotel charges about P10,000 per night and up, depending on the guest room size and class.

13th month…

Continued from A1

subsidy, as well as on the proposed exemption or deferment of the payment of the said benefit mandated under Presidential Decree 851.

He said among the considerations for such determination is whether the company already lost 50 percent of its revenue for three consecutive quarters.

“But this is still not final and still under study,” Benavidez quickly added.

The labor official also noted that a company must apply to DOLE before availing of any government intervention related to the payment of 13th-month pay.

“What we want is if a company would claim to be distressed, they could first prove this [to DOLE],” Benavidez said.

Continued from A12

Zubiri pointed out that SBN 1844 reiterates the power of the President given by the Constitution to remove or suspend any government official or employee as provided under the measure.

The remedial legislation, he added, is also expected to “ease the already heavy burden of the businesses that were heavily hit and continuously being beaten by the gargantuan effects of the pandemic.”

Zubiri assured that “this is a good accompanying measure to the ease of doing business. I think a lot of good will come out of this and I believe that with this, the President will be emboldened to remove more people for their ineptitude and incompetence.”

House version

THE leadership of the House of Representatives on Wednesday said it is now drafting its version of a similar bill granting Duterte “anti-red tape powers” to further expedite the issuance and processing of permits, licenses and certification in the country.

Majority Leader Martin Romualdez made a statement after Duterte certified as urgent the Senate Bill 1844.

“We are readying a proposed law that would authorize the President to act expeditiously on the processing and issuance of national and local permits, licenses and certifications,” said Romualdez.

“House leaders under the leadership of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco are in full agreement with the Chief Executive to fast-track the approval of all pending measures related to the antired tape and anti-corruption campaign of the government,” he added.

Earlier, the House created a highpowered committee to address red tape in the government, which affects the ease of doing business in the country.

The House Special Committee on Red Tape was formed following the Congress leaders’ meeting with Duterte to discuss measures to fight corruption and red tape in government.

The committee said the special panel is expected to focus on issues involving paying taxes, ease of doing business, procurement, public services, delivery and trade.

“We will also discuss what are the other pressing complaints from the public that the House may need to address through the exercise of our legislative function,” Romualdez added.

Butch Fernandez, Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

PHL meat imports up 5% in Jan-Sept: BAI Continued from A12

Recovery…

Continued from A1

The list also includes opening a number of safe public transport facilities while following minimum health standards and strictly implementing the 7 Commandments for public transport.

The 7 Commandments are wearing face masks and face shields; no talking and eating; providing adequate ventilation; proper disinfection of facilities; preventing symptomatic passengers from using the public transport system; and implementing physical distancing.

Other recommendations include efforts to allow more businesses to open such as increasing business capacity to around 70 to 100 percent and allowing seniors and younger Filipinos to go out.

Senate OKs bill allowing fast-tracking of permits

PEDESTRIANS wearing protective masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus rush with their umbrellas as Tropical Depression Ofel brings heavy rains in Morayta, Manila. Ofel continues to move westward toward Marinduque and Romblon, according to the weather bureau. BERNARD TESTA

NG’s ’21 fallback: Borrow anew from BSP Continued from A1

be used to support the national government’s programs to counter the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Borrowing program

THE government has set a P3-trillion borrowing program for this year, as well as another P3 trillion

for next year.

In the same interview, Dominguez said he also sees no need yet for a third pandemic relief measure.

“At the moment, no. We are seeing a very strong recovery as we ease up the economy,” he said.

Last month, President Duterte signed into law the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act (Bayanihan 2), the country’s second stimulus package amounting to P165 billion.

As for the airlines, Dominguez, who had once served as president of flag carrier Philippine Airlines, reiterated that government has been in talks with them since March, and he told them that they are prepared to help them, but the government is “not going to lead the way.”

Dominguez said he expects the private banks to chip in, although he assured them the government will be there for them when the entire financial package is ready.

No taxes, asset sale–yet

ON revenue measures, he also said they are also “not seriously considering any taxes” amid the pandemic and they are “not desperate yet” to sell assets.

“Taxing citizens when their incomes are down is not a good idea,” he said. “As to selling assets, we are not desperate yet, and besides, I tell you, most of our assets are in real estate and mining operations and, quite frankly, the real-estate market is uncertain yet at this point in time, although it has been holding quite well.”

This comes just almost a week after Dominguez said he already asked the Privatization Management Office (PMO) to push for the privatization of the Nonoc and Basay mines, among other mining assets of the government, in order to raise revenues.

Nonetheless, Dominguez also

said in the same interview that he shared the view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that economic recovery would take longer than expected.

“This recovery is going to be longer than expected and there will be a lot of ups and downs so we want to make sure that we have enough ammo in our war chest,” he said.

On Tuesday, the IMF said it sees a much worse economic contraction for the Philippines at 8.3 percent this year, a further downgrade from its previous projection of a contraction of 3.6 percent.

The IMF’s forecast is lower than the economic team’s forecast of a 5.5-percent GDP contraction for the Philippines this year. However, this is within BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno’s projection of an economic contraction of 7 percent to 9 percent. Bernadette D. Nicolas

Netherlands was the top meat import source of the Philippines, accounting for 17.5 percent of the total volume in the nine-month period or about 112,514.002 MT, based on BAI data.

Bulk of the meat imports from the Netherlands or about 93,733,934 MT were chicken meat products, mostly MDM, based on BAI data.

The European country was followed by Brazil at 107,450.458 MT, with more than half of imports being chicken meat products, mostly MDM, the BAI data showed.

The country’s nine-month meat imports from the United States reached 103,154.276 MT, with more than half being chicken meat products, especially chicken leg quarters, per government data.

DOTr moves to implement new PUV seating rules Continued from A12

“The DOTr recognizes the role of motorcycle taxis in transporting our commuters to their destinations.

This will be a big help in augmenting the capacity of our public transportation systems. That is why, as long as there is a Congress resolution, which will be basis to allow the operation of motorcycle taxis, we will fully support this,” he said.

Tugade added that he has also ordered the transport regulator to hasten the approvals of shuttle services. Lorenz S. Marasigan

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, October 15, 2020 A3

Council OKs draft IRR for Anti-Terrorism law

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

HE Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) has approved the draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020.

This developed as Sen. Panfilo Lacson revealed he is looking at a potential “test case” for the recently enacted Anti-Terror law involving an arrested Indonesian woman suspected to be a suicide bomber linked to an Abu Sayaff Group plot to carry out a terrorist attack.

Lacson noted the case of sus-

pected Indonesian suicide bomber, identified as Nana Isirani, looms as an initial test case for the newly signed Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020, “particularly its provision penalizing inchoate offenses,” referring to the aborted bomb attack.

The senator pointed out, however, that “the bombs and other

items seized from Nana Isirani, also known as Rezky Fantasya Rullie or Cici, “indicated she was preparing to take part in a terrorist attack.”

Dissemination

JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the IRR was drafted by the technical working group led by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“We will disseminate copies to Congress and to law enforcement agencies as required under the law, and will publish the IRR online and in a newspaper of general circulation in the next few days,” Guevarra said.

The IRR will take effect upon publication and registration with the Office of the National Administrative Register (ONAR).

He said the IRR does not carry any specific provision pertaining to social-media regulation.

Petitions

THE Movement Against Tyranny (MAT), meanwhile, called on the Executive branch not to preempt the Supreme Court’s action on the 37 petitions filed before it seeking to declare the ATA of 2020 unconstitutional.

“The fact that there are 37 petitions in the SC against the Anti -Terrorism law should make authorities think twice about coming out with an IRR. With so many questionable dangerous provisions, authorities should exercise extraordinary prudence in implementing this controversial law,” the group said.

The group stressed that there are fears that the law will be used to clamp down on freedom of speech and expression, with Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Gilbert Gapay admitting

that they want the IRR to contain provisions ostensibly to regulate social media.

Records showed Rullie was nabbed with two other women believed to be wives of Abu Sayyaf members in Jolo, Sulu, last October 10 after the arresting authorities confiscated items including an improvised explosive device disguised as a vest, container pipes, and a ninevolt battery.

Lacson said “this is one example of an inchoate offense made punishable under the new Anti-Terrorism law,” noting that “by including inchoate offenses as punishable acts under the new measure, we are criminalizing the foregoing acts of the arrested suspects, which include planning, preparation and facilitation of terrorism and possession of objects with knowledge or intent that these

are to be used in the preparation for the commission of terrorism.”

Speaking before the Philippine Army Multi-Sector Advisory Board Summit, the senator clarified that one of the new features in the Anti-Terrorism law, or Republic Act 11479, is the penalizing of “inchoate offenses,” or preparatory acts that are deemed criminal even without the actual harm being done, provided that the harm that would have occurred is one the law tries to prevent, such as terrorism.

“This new feature aims to prevent terrorism even before the actual commission of the violent terrorist act by making planning, preparing, and facilitating acts of terrorism as independent criminal acts already punishable by reclusion perpetua without the benefit of parole,” he said.

BI chief: Only 3.5M incoming travelers from January to Sept Senate ratifies committee

By Recto Mercene @rectomercene

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HERE is a significant lower turnout of arriving international passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) and other airports and seaports in the country due to the pandemic.

This is the obvious finding of the Bureau of Immigration (BI), as it recorded a total of 3.5 million passengers that landed at the premier gateway from January to September 2020.

This pales in contrast to the almost 13 million that arrived in the same period last year.

BI commissioner Jaime Morente said their figures starts with a strong 1.7 million arrival in January, then suddenly drops to less than 500,000 in March, and slumps to a mere 25,000 in April 2020.

The sudden drop in arrivals can be attributed to the spread of Covid-19, which prompted the Philippines, as well as other countries to impose travel restrictions, or even

“We are optimistic and expect the numbers to pick up in 2021, hopefully when we see an end to this pandemic.”­ —Morente

travel ban since March this year, Morente said.

In a May 2020 report by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), travel and tourism are among the most affected sectors of Covid-19, and projections show a decline of 58 percent to 78 percent in international tourist arrivals worldwide for this year.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, international travel increases the chance of getting and spreading Covid-19. Hence, the Philippine government imposed travel restrictions to slow down the spread of the virus.

As early as January, before the declaration of Covid-19 as

a pandemic, the BI suspended the issuance of the Visa Upon Arrival facility, which slowed down the arrival of Chinese tour groups.

In February, the national government issued a travel ban on foreigners coming from China and its special administrative regions, which it eventually expanded to include all foreign tourists.

Currently, only Filipinos, their spouse and minor children are allowed to enter the country holding tourist visas. Restrictions likewise allow foreign children with special needs of Filipinos, foreign parent of minor Filipinos, and foreign parent of Filipino children with special needs to enter the country.

Those who are eligible to enter are required to secure an entry visa from Philippine embassies or consulates prior to their arrival.

Apart from these categories, accredited foreign government and international organization officials and their dependents, foreign airline crewmembers, foreign seafarers with 9(c)

House leadership under Velasco begins reassignments of key committee posts

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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HE new leadership of the House of Representatives has implemented a reshuffle among its officials committee posts following the controversial speakership row.

The lower chamber elected Oriental Mindoro Rep. Salvador Leachon as senior deputy speaker, replacing Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, who was appointed as new chairman of the House Committee on Accounts.

Duterte had replaced Cavite Rep. Abraham Tolentino.

Also, 1-Pacman Rep. Michael Romero was reelected as deputy speaker, while Camarines Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte has been removed as deputy speaker.

Quezon 4th District Rep. Angelina Helen Tan regained also her chairmanship of the House Committee on Health.

Tan and Romero were removed by former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano last week in the thick of the speakership tussle.

Ilocos Sur Rep. Kristine SingsonMeehan was elected as new vice chairman of the accounts committee.

The jurisdiction of the accounts committee covers all matters directly and principally relating to the internal budget of the House, including budget preparation, submission and approval, disbursements, accounting, and financial operations.

House Committee on Appropria-

tions chairman Eric Yap said he will remain as chairman of his committee even after the passage of the P4.5trillion national budget for 2021.

Yap’s committee covers directly and principally matters relating to the expenditures of the national government, including payment of public indebtedness, creation or abolition and classification of positions in government, and the determination of salaries, allowances and benefits of government personnel.

Meanwhile, other casualties of the speakership row who were expected to be reappointed but yet to be restored to their posts as of afternoon of Wednesday were AAMBIS-OWA Party-list Rep. Sharon Garin and Valenzuela City Rep. Eric Martinez.

Garin was removed by Cayetano as chairman of Committee on Economic Affairs and Martinez was removed as chairman of the Committee on Youth and Sports Development, because they sided with Velasco in last week’s initial tussle.

Camp ‘jumpers’ defended

MEANWHILE, San Jose del Monte City Rep. Florida Robes, who remained as chairman of the House Committee on People’s Participation, defended lawmakers who jumped from the Cayetano camp to side with new Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

Robes said as lawmakers, they only respected the 15-21 term-sharing agremeent between Cayetano and Velasco, which was forged by President Duterte last year.

“We just voted in accordance with the term-sharing agreement,” she said, referring to the date when Cayetano should have resigned (October 14) under the Duterte-brokered agreement. Cayetano simply “offered to resign” last September 30, and some of the lawmakers who voted “no” to the motion explained that they simply wanted him to stick to the timeline in the 2019 agreement.

Robes, meanwhile, also reiterated that they can have sessions as long as there is a quorum.

“Under the Constitution and the House Rules, the House of Representatives can have a session as long as there is a quorum. The quorum is majority of the Members. Since 186 members were present [when they elected Velasco] or more than half of the current 299 Members of the House, there was a quorum and the session was valid,” she added.

Assuming there was a deviation from the House Rules during the election of Velasco, Robes also said Congress is separate branch of the government that can make its own rules.

“The Supreme Court has already spoken on a similar issue. In the case of Baguilat vs. Alvarez, the Supreme Court said that the House can always deviate from its own rules provided that the deviation is approved by the Majority. The election of Cong.

Velasco as Speaker was approved by the majority of Members of the House. Therefore, it was a valid election,” she said.

visas, and foreigners with longterm visas are also allowed but they would have to undergo quarantine requirements.

“We used to see a spike in figures during holidays, like Holy Week, All Souls’ Day, and Christmas but we’ve seen very low numbers this year,” he stated.

In 2019, the BI recorded more than 16 million arrivals the entire year, which was higher than the 15.1 million recorded in 2018.

“We are optimistic and expect the numbers to pick up in 2021, hopefully when we see an end to this pandemic,” Morente said.

His statement is aligned with UNWTO’s projection that international travel may start recovering next year.

“We are ready to implement any changes in the travel restrictions imposed by the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases],” said Morente. “We trust their wisdom, and our men are on standby to serve international travelers in our airports and seaports,” he added.

report on organic farming

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HE Senate on Tuesday ratified the committee report on the bill that would pave the way for cheaper certification for organic produce and more accessible to Filipino farmers.

The ratification comes after the bicameral conference committee has reconciled the disagreeing provisions on Senate Bill 1318 and House Bill 6878, that seek to amend Republic Act 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010.

“This bill, once enacted into law, will provide for a more affordable system of organic certification, which will allow small farmers to benefit from producing organic products,” Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, said.

The measure would create a participatory guarantee system (PGS), a locally focused quality assurance system which is developed and practiced by people actually engaged in organic agriculture.

Villar noted that under the existing law aspiring organic farmers must secure certification from

a third-party certifier to be able to label and market their produce as organic in the market.

However, the third-party certification has been burdensome to some farmers as the cost could go up to more than P100,000 per crop per year, Villar said.

“The exorbitant cost prevents small farmers from practicing organic farming and also makes organic products expensive for many Filipinos,” she added.

In contrast, PGS certification would only cost farmers P600 to P2,000 to secure organic certification. The PGS system is now widely adhered to and accepted by international organic movements like the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement, Villar said.

“Aside from environmental protection, increased farmer profitability is also a great motivation to promote and develop the organic industry. It promotes the use of natural and farm-based resources and inputs like organic fertilizer, which would yield to less input cost on the part of the farmers,” Villar said.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Subic expressway operator halts bridge work after fatal mishap

WORK is halted at the Jadjad Bridge worksite where one end of a steel girder collapsed from a concrete column and crashed onto the ground.

By Henry Empeño

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Correspondent

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Northern Luzon Expressway (Nlex) Corp. has temporarily suspended the construction of a major portion of the P1.6-billion Subic Freeport Expressway (SFex) expansion project following a worksite accident on Tuesday that killed two workers and injured three others.

In a news statement issued on Wednesday, the tollway operator said that work at the Jadjad Bridge will be stopped in the meantime to give way to a thorough investigation of the fatal accident and to put more safety measures in place.

“While this is an isolated incident, to further ensure the safety of the remaining workers, we are temporarily suspending construction works at

the Jadjad Bridge site until further safety and preventive measures are in place, and to prevent the recurrence of similar unfortunate events,” the statement read.

Investigators from the police office in Hermosa, Bataan, which has jurisdiction over the case, said the accident occurred at about 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday when an 18-meter long steel girder collapsed and fell off a column for some yet undetermined reason.

Photos from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) showed that one end of the steel framework, which is part of the superstructure of the bridge under construction, had crashed onto the ground below while another end still rested atop a concrete column.

Police identified the fatalities as Vivencio Pamisa and Marvin Tajores, and those injured as Joel Pitel, John

Ray Salatan, and Peter Pahilan, all employees of the project contractor Sta. Clara International Corp. who were then working below the bridge under construction.

Pamisa, 57 years old and resident of Cagayan de Oro City, and Tajores, 41, of Masinloc, Zambales, who were both scaffold workers, were reportedly pinned to death when the steel structure crashed.

Their bodies were retrieved hours later in a joint operation by the Nlex Corp. emergency responders and the SBMA Fire Department’s Rescue Team.

According to the Nlex Corp., initial investigation indicated that, “despite all safety precautions and procedures being in place, a steel girder collapsed for a yet undetermined cause.”

“Further investigation on the cause of the accident is still being thoroughly conducted,” it added.

The Nlex Corp. also assured the families of the affected workers that “assistance will be provided at this unfortunate time.”

The construction of another twolane span alongside the existing Jadjad Bridge is one of the major components of the P1.6-billion SFex Capacity Expansion Project, which was launched in July last year to further ease motoring in and out of this growing business and leisure hub.

The road widening works entailed the construction of additional lanes to convert the 8.8-kilometer road into a four-lane highway, boring through the mountainside to create another two-lane tunnel beside the existing one, and construction of new bridge spans alongside the Jadjad and Argonaut bridges.

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Back to zero? Pandemic tests efficacy of measures vs proliferation of plastics Continued from A9

He noted that Europe has the highest collection rate of plastic for recycling with 29.7 percent, followed

by China (22.8 percent) and then the United States (9.5 percent).

“Moreover, the low recycling rate has also been facing several challenges before it can be a force to reckon with in the waste management program of the government,” Benosa said. “In short, it is inutile unless it is going to be assisted by various sectors.”

He further explained that even though single-use plastic products and packaging are labelled “recyclable,” “these materials are often not recyclable due to their size, color, layers, thinness and improper disposal.”

“Companies usually produce lighter weight plastic or multi-layer packaging (e.g., sachets), which are hard to recycle or simply non-recyclable at all,” Benosa said.

Packaging, production

FOR Mondelez Philippines, however,

it believes it’s doing well in waste management.

According to Rada, his company has eliminated 60,000 tons of unnecessary plastic from its packaging. He added the manufacturer of goods under the “Cadbury” and “Chips Ahoy!” brands is “committed” to turn all its packaging materials to be recycle-ready by 2025.

“This is a global commitment. To support further the commitment, we are working with government, industry non-government organizations to develop an infrastructure and ensure there is greater harmonization in recycling these materials properly collected and properly recycled,” Rada said.

“This is a shared problem; Filipinos have this backyard mentality,” he added. “All components have to work in sync to make sure it would work.”

On the local front, Mondelez is working closely with the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability (Parms) whose members are competing in the industry “that bonded together for a single cause,” Rada said.

Parms is also a member of the Ellen McArthur Foundation, an organization that aims to promote plastic waste reduction and recycling plastic in the world.

Last February, Parms released a declaration of commitment–Zero Waste to Nature: Ambition 2030–by global and local manufacturers, together with plastic producers, recyclers and other members of the waste value chain, to initiate and support efforts to reduce and collect waste.

Liabilities for all

CONSTANTINO believes that, following the hierarchy in waste management principles, government, private sector and the general public should all work together toward waste avoidance.

“Addressing plastic pollution requires both upstream (pre-consumption) and downstream measures (consumption and post consumption),” Constantino said.

“It is important to focus on both the reduction of the production and the consumption of unnecessary

plastic, and also on managing plastic products and packaging, ensuring that materials are used as long as possible in our society,” she added.

Constantino noted that addressing issues on recycling requires the private sector to design their product packaging in a more environmentfriendly and sustainable way– including developing eco-designs and making them more recyclable.

“Producers and consumer brands need to be accountable for the negative impacts of their packaging to the environment,” Constantino said. “The government, on the other hand, should have a uniform approach in implementing national regulations and [that] responsibilities are dispersed among all government levels.”

W W F advoc ates for t he adoption of the EPR scheme that holds manufacturers and brand owners accountable for the end-of-life impacts of their plastic products and packaging and encourages eco-design, she explained.

“We see this as a mechanism to both reduce unnecessary plastics in the product packaging, strengthen sorting and collection and increase the recycling rate in the country.”

Engaging LGUs

ACCORDING to Benosa, it is in the best interest of government to promote and implement a zero-waste policy.

Indeed, the coalition advocates for banning problematic products and packaging, e.g.

SUPs, and implementing a zerowaste approach or strategy.

“Shifting to zero waste does not only give additional savings and/or revenue for model LGUs [local government units], but it also creates green jobs (through recycling) for community folks,” Benosa told the BusinessMirror.

He cited the LGU of General Mariano Alvarez (GMA), Cavite, as one such zero-waste model.

EcoWaste said its collaboration with the LGU has increased its waste diversion rates by 58 percent.

“However, the municipality is finding it hard to raise this number due to SUPs and packaging that cannot be recycled in any way so they all end up in stocked in their material recovery facility (MRF),” Benosa said.

SUPs policy

ACCORDING to Benosa, GMA in Cavite is not the only LGU at the forefront of that battle.

He added that hundreds of LGUs have been enacting ordinances banning or regulating the distribution and use of different varieties SUPs within their jurisdiction. He cited Los Baños, Laguna, one of the first municipalities to pass such ordinance back in 2008, which has been in full implementation up until today.

“LGUs with a plastic ordinance face the same battle as GMA, Cavite, since there is still no national policy in place banning the production and distribution of disposable plastics,” Benosa said. “Because of this, corporations and industries are still continuously given a pass to produce and distribute their problematic products and packaging.”

Developing a law

BENOSA thinks that, “in the most ideal scenario, proper implementation of waste management laws will not be completely successful if there is no law banning and/or regulating the production of the non-environmentally acceptable products (NEAP) and/or material, which is long overdue and should have been prepared a year after RA [Republic Act] 9003 was enacted.”

“Just like the plastic ban and regulation laws in other countries, the one that should be passed in the Philippines must be comprehensive; covering the most problematic products and packaging in the country,” he said.

Citing a waste and brand audit done in 2018, Benosa said the top 10 problematic materials in the Philippines are as follows: polyst y rene (s t y rofo a m); p ol y e t hy l e ne terephthalate (PET bottles); single-layer plastic film; multilayer plastic bonded materials; high density polyethylene; poly propylene plastic; and, polyvinyl chloride. “ We need to change the systems and status quo in the country so we can fight plastic pollution; and that entails no longer giving a free pass to the billion-dollar corporations that benefit from this system of consumerism and throw-away culture,” Benosa said. “This is why we are pushing for a national bill that would seek to reduce waste by banning the production of such harmful products and packaging.”

Effective recycling

FOR EcoWaste Coalition member-organization of the Mother Earth Foundation Philippines (MEF), the country has still a lot to be done as waste management and recycling are concerned.

“For effective recycling, collection of the clean recyclables is very important,” MEF Chairman Sonia S. Mendoza told the BusinessMirror.

Mendoza said in response to questions sent via email, for communities implementing RA 9003, “this is not a problem because segregated collection is imposed.”

“The general practice, however, is mixed-waste collection and this result in dirty and contaminated recyclables; [thus, reducing] the value of the recyclables,” she explained.

According to Mendoza, a big help in waste management are the paleros–technically, “cleaner,” in Spanish but refers to garbage collectors locally.

“While the paleros in the garbage trucks get the recyclables, the big help from the informal-waste pickers add to the volume of recyclables when they scavenge in the dumpsites or landfills,” she said.

Mendoza said the MEF strictly implements RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, in all their project sites.

She said recyclables are usually collected from households but sometimes households sell them directly to the junkshops.

Before sel l ing , household s clean the recyclables to ensure they are not contaminated with food waste, as source segregation is mandated under R A 9003.

Various approach

BEC AUSE t he MEF doesn’t have a recycling center, the plastic recyclables are sold by the junkshops to the factories that manufactured these and are down-cycled to products of lower standards, such as colored basins, pails, chairs, bottles, etc.

Under the MEF program, bottles are re-used or melted and made into bottles again.

Except for glass bottles, the plastic waste doesn’t undergo proper recycling, Mendoza said.

She emphasized that the Philippines must also put up recycling centers just like China, Thailand and India to boost recycling in the country.

Mendoza believes implementing RA 9003 will increase recycling even during the pandemic.

As the biggest generator of solid waste, Mendoza urged households to do their part in recycling and segregation. Most of the recyclables are categorized now under infectious or hazardous waste and are disposed of in the landfills.

“Using reusables such as masks, cutleries, cups, plates, will reduce the volume of disposables,” she said, citing a scientist’s statement that reusables are safe to use during the pandemic.

She said the MEF is encouraging the public to pursue composting as this is a form of cycling.

“Food waste is turned into compost and used as soil enhancers,” Mendoza said.

To address the problem of organic waste and food waste, Mendoza said people should use the anaerobic digestion of biogas production, a form of wasteto-energy method that doesn’t require burning the waste.

“The energy produced can be used as fuel and power (electricity),” she said.

Trash burning

THE MEF doesn’t believe incinerators are the solution to the country’s garbage problem, according to Mendoza.

“Incinerators will not reduce the need for landfills [and, on the contrary, requires that] we have to build more landfills because the ash from the incinerators needs to be disposed of in hazardous waste landfills,” Mendoza said. The latter, she said, are more expensive than an ordinary landfill.

“For every four tons of garbage that are incinerated, one ton of toxic ash is produced,” she explained.

The MEF is urging all LGUs to order schools under their purview to collect papers, keep these clean and sell these to the paper industry for recycling.

“We import paper and collecting them after use will be a big boost to paper recycling,” she said.

However, there is a caveat, according to Benosa.

“Even in t he best ava i lable rec yc l i ng tec h nolog y, the maximum recycling level would only be between 36 percent and 53 percent,” he told the BusinessMirror. “And even if we reach the maximum 53 percent, the projections for overall increase in plastic production mean the amount of non-recycled plastic polluting the environment would still double.”

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Thursday, October 15, 2020 A5

DA sees record-high 8% hike in palay harvest in ’20 to 20.341 MMT

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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HE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday said the country’s total palay harvest this year could increase by 8 percent to a record-high of 20.341 million metric tons (MMT) on the back of better yield and favorable planting conditions.

In a news statement, the DA said second semester palay output is projected to reach 11.954 MMT, which is 13.4 percent more than the 10.545 MMT output in the Julyto-December period of last year.

The country’s palay output in the first half grew by 1.4 percent to 8.387 MMT from last year’s 8.269 MMT, the DA added.

In a recent virtual Senate hearing, Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel T. Cayanan said the projected full-year output would be met, barring weather disturbances such as typhoons and possible impact of La Niña.

If the full-year palay output is met, this would bring the country’s rice self-sufficiency level from 87 percent to about 93 percent to 94 percent, Cayanan said.

Following higher local production, the DA said it will now encourage Filipino rice farmers to shift from planting low-quality rice varieties to high-quality ones that are preferred by consumers to be able to earn more.

“We need to adapt to the changes brought about by the rice tariffication law, one of which is consumers’ preference for quality rice. This is now an integral part of the overall transformation of the country’s rice industry,” said Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar. “That is why for the succeeding cropping seasons, we are not just after attaining production targets but also producing quality rice for Filipino consumers that will provide higher income for farmers,” he added.

Dar made the pronouncement during a recent virtual meeting with leaders of farmers’ groups, rice millers and traders, from major rice-producing provinces, the DA said.

Citing a Bulacan-based miller, the DA said the low quality of palay harvest worsened the current anemic market demand since consumers prefer high-quality rice.

The DA quoted a Nueva Ecija-based miller that “if farmers want to command good prices, they should plant better quality rice seeds and what the consumers want.”

Citing a trader from Isabela, the DA said consumers now prefer rice varieties that are “long-grain, and taste and smell better when cooked.” The DA added that the rice should possess the “4M” characteristics: maganda, mura, mabango at malambot.

“An informal survey done by the rice industry groups showed that 40 percent of consumers prefer rice with said attributes,” it said.

“Millers and traders are thus one in saying that farmers should now plant varieties that have good milling and eating qualities, and preferred by consumers,” it added.

The DA said the rice traders and millers volunteered to help the DA in promoting recommended rice varieties that farmers should plant in the succeeding seasons.

Dar committed that he would meet with seed producers “to discuss the preferred rice varieties of consumers, and the desired levels of productivity that will provide farmers more income.”

“We have to make seed producers, farmers and other stakeholders understand that our overall strategy now is inclusive marketoriented development,” he said.

“Kung ano demand ng market, kung ano ang pangangailangan ng consuming public iyon ang dapat i-produce ng ating mga magsasaka. We need to adapt to changes brought about by the new regime,” he added.

Furthermore, Dar said the DA will hold dialogue with farmers, seed producers, traders, millers, and other stakeholders “to determine current industry trends, demand of the domestic retail market and institutional buyers, customers’ needs and wants, and needed policy shifts or reforms and government interventions.”

CARP land distribution nearing 5-million hectare mark–DAR

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

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INCE the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in 1988, the government has transferred more than 4.9 million hectares, benefiting around 2.8 million landless farmers, an official of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

At the launching of the “R adyo Agraryo,” DAR’s Radio Program last October 12, DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations David Erro reported that as of June 2020, a total of 4,924,000 hectares of agricultural lands have been distributed to 2,894,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Since 1972 up to the present, or from the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos, the government has distributed a total of 5,441,000 hectares to qualified beneficiaries. “We already have distributed 90 percent of those numbers and the DAR is on its way to distribute the remaining to 523,000 hectares,” he said.

Under the program, the ARBs received an average of 1.5 hectares of land to till.

Meanwhile, Legal Affairs Office Undersecretary Luis Pañgulayan said that the DAR has Agrarian Justice Delivery

program to resolve various legal issues in the implementation of CARP. “The farmers are our clients and we provide them with free legal assistance in the course of agrarian disputes,” Pañgulayan said.

Pañgulayan recalled that in 2017, the DAR had a pending of around 80,000 agrarian legal cases.

“However, through DAR Secretary John Castriciones’s zero backlog campaign, the department in three years, has reduced these cases to around 6,500 cases,” he said.

He assured that with the secretary’s leadership and the help of 760 competent DAR lawyers across the country, the remaining agrarian cases would be resolved before the year ends.

Aside from land distribution and agrarian justice delivery, the radio program mentioned, in passing, that the DAR also provides support services to ARBs to help them improve their lands and their economic status.

The DAR “Radyo Agraryo” radio program will be aired every Monday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. hosted by Public Assistance and Media Relations Service Director Cleon Lester Chavez and Veritas 846 regular Anchor Norman Dequia.

DOTr eyes launch of newly completed Clark Intl Airport terminal in Jan 2021

By Ashley Manabat | Correspondent

C

L AR K INTER NATIONA L A IRPORT—The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has announced on Tuesday the completion of the new passenger terminal building of this airport.

The airport expansion project for the Clark International Airport (IATA Code: CRK) under the aegis of the Duterte administration’s Build, Build, Build infrastructure buildup program has been completed by end September, ahead of its original October target date, the DOTr said in a news statement posted in its official Facebook page.

It was completed despite the current challenges brought by the Covid-19 pan-

demic. The DOTr, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and GMR Megawide ensured the accelerated construction works at CRK, and made a huge headway while still observing strict health and safety protocols to protect workers and other project stakeholders.

The new terminal building is slated to commence operations by January next year as directed by Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade.

“Once operational, it is projected that CRK’s current operational capacity will get a boost, and the airport’s passenger volume will be tripled from the current 4.2 million to 12.2 million annually,” the DOTr statement added.

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace

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Thursday, October 15, 2020

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Plastic sheets on a traditional Jeepney bus separate passengers as part of health measures to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in metropolitan Manila, Philippines on Friday, July 3, 2020. The government is allowing some routes for Jeepneys to be opened to help public transportation as the government slowly eases the coronavirus lockdown. AP/Aaron Favila

Back to zero? Pandemic tests efficacy of measures vs proliferation of plastics

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By Rizal Raoul Reyes, Contributor & Dennis Estopace, Editor

ERO is both the easiest and most difficult goal, especially in waste management; just ask Jovito L. Benosa, Zero Waste Program Officer of nonprofit EcoWaste Coalition.

Benosa’s and his coalition’s work are cut out for them with the proliferation of plastic and its use, especially after government imposed lockdown measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Plastic products have been used to divide passengers from drivers and cashiers from buyers, as well as in packaging food delivered to people who stayed at home. Why, even your favorite pharmacist, with face mask and shield on, hides behind two layers of plastic sheets while serving you.

Kristoffer Eduard M. Rada of

Mondelez Philippines Inc., country manager for corporate and government affairs, told the BusinessMirror that “in the era of the pandemic, plastic has become a source of protection for the people living below the poverty line.”

Rada spoke two years after the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a report in 2018 that said the Philippines generates 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste annually. That means the country is the thirdhighest polluter in the world.

Although it ranks better than

its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of collection, garbage is not properly disposed of, the report said.

The report added that 74 percent of the Philippine waste that ends up in the ocean has already been collected.

Plastic myths

ACCORDING to Benosa, “there are myriads of misconceptions and myths surrounding plastic and plastic products.”

“Among these are that plastic is propoor, safer and that there are no accessible alternatives to plastic products and packaging,” he said in response to questions sent via e-mail. “However, experiences from developed countries and countless scientific studies have debunked all of these.”

Benosa pointed to a survey by the Social Weather Stations Inc. (SWS) and commissioned by the Global Alliance Against Incineration (GAIA) to further prove that plastic is anti-poor.

The survey, which asked people

on their stands on banning singleuse plastics (SUPs), revealed that 71 percent of the Filipinos are for totally banning SUP products and packaging.

“Topping the list of materials that should be regulated or used less nationally is sando bags (71 percent), followed by plastic straws and stirrers (66 percent), plastic labo bags (65 percent), styrofoam or polystyrene food containers (64 percent), sachets (60 percent), tetra pack or doy pack for juices (59 percent), plastic drinking cups (56 percent), cutlery such as plastic spoons and forks (54 percent), plastic bottles for juice (49 percent), and plastic bottles for water (41 percent).”

(The survey results are found here: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2020/01/21/7-out-of-10filipinos-favor-a-national-singleuse-plastics-ban-survey-reveals/)

EPR scheme

ACCORDING to several studies, the weakest link in waste management in the country is recycling.

Czarina Constantino, national

lead for the “no plastics for nature” initiative of WWF Philippines, said the Philippines has a plastics recycling rate of 9 percent, citing the WWF’s commissioned study on the extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme assessment of plastic packaging wastes in the Philippines.

The same study, according to her, showed a 35-percent plastic waste leakage from the 2,150 thousand tons of our annual plastics consumption.

The study, Constantino added, showed that high-value recyclable packaging is already separated from household waste to a limited extent, and transferred to recycling systems. For low-value plastics (e.g. sachets, composites), these are mostly disposed of and collected together with other residual waste, she told the BusinessMirror.

According to Constantino, who is also Plastic Smart Cities Project Manager, the issues related to recycling include the archipelagic structure of the Philippines, little

to no recycling infrastructure, lack of a reliable waste management database, non-recyclability of most plastics and lack of a system for extracting and recycling high value plastics.

One of many

BENOSA said while recycling is an integral part of municipal solid waste management, there are many ideas that should be un-learned.

“One of the many misconceptions propagated by industries– notably plastic, is that recycling is the primary solution to our plastic problem,” he said. “We have to face the fact that recycling cannot compensate for the environmental and health hazards posed by the production of plastic.”

Benosa noted that even countries with institutionalized EPR and good solid waste management systems are not able to collect and upcycle all of the wastes that are produced.

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A10 Thursday, October 15, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

Helping small businesses survive the pandemic

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he country’s micro, small and medium enterprises are the backbone of the Philippine economy. Among all business enterprises in the country, 99 percent are MSMEs that employ a third of the country’s labor force. According to the Department of Trade and Industry, MSMEs generated a total of 4.9 million jobs in 2017 versus 2.9 million for large corporations.

On top of creating jobs for the country’s growing labor force, MSMEs help stimulate economic development in rural areas. They also serve as partners of large corporations by supplying raw materials and providing services. Thus, a strong MSME sector is an indication of a bullish economy.

From the Wall Street Journal: “Small businesses have been at the losing end of the US economy for decades, but nothing has diminished their stature like the Covid-19 crisis. Thousands of small firms have been driven out of business while their larger counterparts have largely survived and, in some cases, even flourished. The danger is that as a result US economic power will reside in fewer hands, diminishing the innovation and entrepreneurship that have helped drive the country’s success.”

From the Washington Post: “The coronavirus pandemic is emerging as an existential threat to the nation’s small businesses—despite Congress approving a historic $700 billion to support them—with the potential to further diminish the place of small companies in the American economy. The White House and Congress have made saving small businesses a linchpin of the financial rescue, even passing a second stimulus for them late last month. But already, economists project that more than 100,000 small businesses have shut permanently since the pandemic escalated in March, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University and the University of Chicago.”

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to flatten economies all over the world, our MSMEs are also closing shops and giving up hope. As of this writing, about 27 million Filipinos are out of work, most of them are employees of MSMEs. Although these MSMEs have been calling for government support seven months since the start of the lockdown, no meaningful action has been taken to help them sustain their operations.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda recognized the need to help our MSMEs, which is why he is pushing for small businesses to have bank financing access by making credit standards fairer and more inclusive. In filing House Bill 7863, Salceda said alternative credit scoring mechanisms must be introduced to ensure that MSME borrowers with no previous borrowing history or conventional proof of financial capacity can gain access to bank financing.

“The problem with formal credit scoring is that it excludes those without prior borrowing history, or those without the usual assets or sales to show for.

That means farmers, small businesses, and small borrowers have to resort to onerous options such as payday loans that impose interest rates of up to 20 percent a month,” Salceda said, adding that “MSMEs make loan sharks live.

Because banks do not have alternative ways of measuring their paying capacity, they do not get access to bank financing.”

Salceda’s bill, also known as Fair and Inclusive Credit Information and Scoring Act, mandates a credit inclusiveness study to determine whether conventional credit scoring techniques exclude specific segments of Philippine society. It seeks to grant the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas clear regulatory oversight of credit scoring methods.

Salceda said the bill responds to the urgent need to translate more financial system liquidity into credit in the real economy, which could help the country recover from the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We hope that Congress will approve this measure, and the President will sign it into law. MSMEs need all the help they can get to survive the adverse effects of the pandemic. Let’s give them a chance to grow by opening credit facilities for them. As Salceda said, “by allowing more people to access loans at fairer and more inclusive terms, this bill will help spur more productive economic activity in the most vulnerable segments of society.”

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Responsible voters want to know James Jimenez

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arlier this week, the House of Representatives was convulsed by the Speakership question, leaving the fate of the country’s 2021 budget—which includes the budget for the Comelec’s preparations for the 2022 National and Local Elections—hanging in the balance. It was a teaching moment, especially for the approximately 4 million new people expected to join the ranks of the enfranchised.

It bears remembering always that elected officials are the people’s representatives to government—it’s right there in the job title: Representative. And as representatives of the people, Congressmen are reasonably expected to act in the best interests of the people; and no, not just of those who installed them in office through their votes, but in the best interests of everyone, both within and outside their respective legislative districts, regardless of political allegiance.

This notion of elected officials as public servants, working to ad-

vance the interests of the people rather than their own, is central to a republican government such as ours; and this is the lens through which responsible voters—people who exercise their right of suffrage in a principled way—must view the situation that unfolded right before their very eyes.

A responsible voter paying attention to the moves and counter-moves so meticulously detailed in the daily news would, therefore, be expected to ask: how was this struggle over who gets to be “leader,” in my best interest as a constituent? Better yet,

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T is unfortunate but it is time to “go there.”

Back when I was climbing up the mountain of life rather than sliding down the other side, there were two great truths. The first was that over population was a fact and that soon nature would take its course through famines and such. The human population would be reduced to a manageable level for “Mother Gaia” to survive even if we did not.

The other truth going into the 1970s was the world was moving into a cooling period that might signal a new Ice Age. Today, that idea is dismissed to the extent that “Well, the very few scientists that thought that were ‘unscientific.’”

On January 11, 1970, the Washington Post reported that “Colder Winters Herald Dawn of New Ice Age.” Whenever scientists from that period are quoted on the possibility of global cooling, it is followed by “but many other scientists doubted these conclusions.”

That may all be true but the fact

is that the global cooling prediction was pushed by the press and media as anthropogenic global warming and climate change is today. In 2019, the New York Times ran a scholarly piece titled “Before Global Warming, Humans Caused Global Cooling; Study Finds”. All bases covered; it’s your fault either way.

The Democracy Index is compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit that measures the state of democracy in 167 countries. Authoritarian regimes are nations where political pluralism is nonexistent or severely limited. Elections (if they take place)

A responsible voter ought to find the answers to those questions far more interesting than any campaign slogan or promise. But those weren’t the questions being asked, were they? No. People have been misled—whether inadvertently or otherwise—into seeing all of this as just another episode of in-fighting; a contest between two individuals to see who has more influence and thus, more power. And so, people tend to be concerned only with who comes out on top. And sure, everyone loves a prizefight. ask: is it so important to be this titular leader that one would be justified in risking something as essential as the nation’s budget, just on the chance that someone else were to get the “honor”?

A responsible voter ought to find the answers to those questions far more interesting than any campaign slogan or promise. But those weren’t the questions being asked, were they? No. People have been misled—whether inadvertently or otherwise—into seeing all of this as

are not fair and free, the media is often state-owned or controlled by groups associated with the ruling regime, the judiciary is not independent, and censorship and suppression of governmental criticism are commonplace.

Thirty countries are full-authoritarian with another 30 almost there.

Fifty-four nations including South Korea, Japan, United States, Taiwan, Italy, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, and the Philippines are considered “flawed.”

One of the benchmarks for a really good authoritarian government is mass conformity to an official narrative like Animal Farm’s “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Not only must the government push the idea but supporters must make sure that there is no deviation from the narrative. Think the “Cold War” or the “War on Terror.” Facts cannot be allowed to challenge the narrative.

Nazism and Stalinism are the classic examples, but the phenomenon is better observed in cults and in “cult-thinking.”

Only unquestioning conformity to the cult’s ideology can save its members. The atmosphere of paranoia the official narrative generates keeps the cult members (or the soci-

just another episode of in-fighting; a contest between two individuals to see who has more influence and thus, more power. And so, people tend to be concerned only with who comes out on top. And sure, everyone loves a prizefight.

But a democracy isn’t supposed to be a prizefight. Proving to be better at political maneuvering isn’t a victory of the people, but a personal triumph. And to put service to the people on hold while that personal triumph is pursued, hardly seems to be what elected representatives are meant to be doing. Who the victor eventually turned out to be might matter a great deal personally to the individuals in the struggle, but as representatives of Filipinos, shouldn’t it have mattered more whether the interests of the sovereign people were being looked after?

And once the dust fully settles from this, will the House emerge united in purpose, if not in politics, and therefore able to work well for the good of the people? Or will the infighting simply transform into some chronic malaise that would result in either less work being done or in too many corners being cut simply to get anything moving?

Responsible voters want to know.

ety) compliant. Logic and consistency of the narrative does not matter.

The initiation into the “Covidian Cult” began in January, when the medical authorities and corporate media turned on the Fear with projections of many millions of deaths.

Eight months later The Head of the Health Emergencies Program at the WHO has confirmed an Infection Fatality Ratio of 0.14 percent—approximately the same as the seasonal flu—primarily because of the higher IFR in the 70 age cohort.

American playwright C. J. Hopkins puts it this way: “The “science” argument is officially over. An increasing number of doctors and medical experts are breaking ranks and explaining how the current mass hysteria over “cases” (which now include perfectly healthy people) is essentially meaningless propaganda. And then there is the existence of Sweden and other countries that are not playing ball with the official Covid-19 narrative, which makes a mockery of the ongoing hysteria.”

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Ramon Ang’s ‘Midas touch’

What is God’s, do not give to Caesar Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Val A. Villanueva

Businesswise

R

amon See Ang, president and chief executive officer of Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc., the largest shareholder of San Miguel Corp., doesn’t just dream; he plans. And when he does, he’ll make sure his plan comes to fruition.

In the early 2000s—in our late dinners at the penthouse of Manila Diamond Hotel with my dear friend and mentor, the late Max Soliven (former Philippine Star columnist and Editorial Board Chairman) and sometimes with the late Ambassador and former San Miguel PresidentChairman Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco—Ang, who is also current San Miguel president and chief operating officer, would regale us with his ambitious goal of diversifying the flagship company outside of its core businesses. His dedication and passion for nurturing San Miguel to become a world-class conglomerate was unquestionable. One of his plans was to build an airport worthy of world praise.

Max, who passed away in November 2006, didn’t live long enough to see the fruits of Ang’s vision. Nonetheless, Max proclaimed in one of our sessions that “everything Ramon touches would turn into gold.” True enough, publicly listed San Miguel has been transformed into a multinational corporate behemoth.

It is now the country’s largest corporation in terms of revenue, employing more than 24,000 in over 100 major companies throughout the Asia-Pacific region. In 2008, it began its foray outside of its core businesses: oil refining and marketing (Petron Corp.); infrastructure (Skyway projects); properties (Wedgewoods in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and Makati Diamond Residences in Metro Manila), and power generation (Ilijan, Sual, San Roque power plants), among many others.

Despite its diversification, San Miguel hasn’t lost its focus on its flagship product. San Miguel Beer is still one of the top-selling brands whose market extends to Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia. Its products are exported to 60 markets around the world.

With Ang’s business pedigree, I have no doubt that his latest airport venture, as Max had predicted, would haul countless golds.

Surviving the government’s exasperating bureaucratic rigmarole, San Miguel finally received the greenlight to start its long-delayed airport project. On October 12, the Senate voted 22-0, to grant San Miguel Aerocity Incorporated a franchise to construct and operate the planned P736-billion New Manila International Airport in Bulacan. It is now up for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature. Once Duterte signs it— finally turning the act of Congress into law—the 10-year construction immediately commences.

The Bulacan airport will create up to a million jobs with 450,000 workers given livelihoods during its construction alone. Because it will be done under the government’s PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) initiative, the government spends nothing. San Miguel puts up the funding, builds the airport, gets paid by operating it for 50 years, and turns over the project to the government.

I’m not sure if this project, which is being undertaken under the PPP scheme, signals the Duterte administration’s change of heart regarding the program that it views with derision. Nonetheless, I believe that it is a step in the right direction.

During its early years, the Duterte administration has scoffed at the protracted execution and lulls in PPP projects. Since the program commenced in the third quarter of 2010 during President Benigno S. Aquino III’s administration, only four of the 56 PPPs that were initiated had been completed as of end-2016. The delays were caused by funding, right-of-way acquisition, and contract changes.

But what really triggered Duterte’s

aversion to PPPs is his infatuation with China’s money. In his visit to Beijing, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to 13 “mutually beneficial deals” involving transportation and infrastructure projects. Since then, the government has shifted to Official Development Assistance for infrastructure projects, and less PPPs. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III reasoned that avoiding the PPP route on certain infrastructure projects would fasttrack completion and save on costs.

The BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Ratings, noted then that with the Philippines’ friendlier ties with China, the Duterte administration had taken a “government-centered investment approach,” in blunt contrast to former President Benigno Aquino III’s reliance on PPPs to finance big-ticket infra projects.

But has China delivered? So far, the only visible signs of Chinese money are the Chico River Dam project, which has yet to take off, and the expensive retrofitting of a bridge in Makati City. Instead, what China has given us are multitudes of Mainlanders engaged in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, which China itself deems illegal, and the 3rd telco with espionage-related suspicion. Chinese bureaucracy also stifles China’s pledged financial assistance to the Philippines.

With public spending on infrastructure expected to breach the P1-trillion-mark in the years after the pandemic to support the Duterte administration’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program, the Philippines could do well in entering into more PPP projects.

The 2,500-hectare Bulacan airport project, which excludes a city complex to be built on a 2,500-hectare site along Manila Bay in Bulakan town, is expected to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia). With 4 runways, 8 taxiways, and 3 passenger terminals, it is projected to serve some 100 million travellers yearly.

To say that the Philippines urgently needs a state-of-the-art airport is an understatement. The Naia is currently on life-support system, practically on its deathbed. Plans to revive it through the concerted effort of the country’s biggest corporations are still up in the air, even though pre-pandemic traffic at the Naia was already at saturation point.

Just imagine the positive economic impact the San Miguel project can have not only on the province of Bulacan, but most especially the entire country. Airports are a great economic stimulant. We’ve seen how they drive economic development worldwide.

Dr. John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay, who collaborated on their recent book Aerotropolis-The Way We Live Next, are two of the most preeminent scholars, authors and experts on airports, urbanization, and the economic impact of airports.

Kasarda and Lindsay have documented that Class A office space in, and around new airports often exceeds that of comparable space in the metropolitan cities they support, and retail-shopping space returns revenues per square meter of floor space up to six times that of comparable malls in the nearby cities.

Airports produce jobs, inflate the tax base, and excite the economy.

The country’s leaders should realize that the times have evolved, and the economy has been altered. The sooner they understand the sociodemographics and effects of urbanization, the better they could respond to the needs of the times.

For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com

Thursday, October 15, 2020 A11

Alálaong Bagá

I

N confrontation with his critics, Jesus answers the trap-question: “Is it lawful to pay census tax to Caesar or not?” (Matthew 22:1521). For those really searching for the truth, honesty is needed to find the interconnection and balance between the spiritual and social realms.

A deceiving question The question was put to Jesus with the intention of tripping Him. Two opposite camps united to catch Him in a dilemma and so neutralize Him. The followers of Herod were a faction in the Jewish society favorable to the Roman imperial power, while the Pharisees were intransigent against the usurpation of power in the land by the Romans. Jesus would be lost whether he answers their question in the affirmative or in the negative.

To say “yes” is to oppose the popular sentiment against the tax as represented by the Pharisees; it is to side with the detested local collaborators of the Romans, thus confirming his known friendly attitude toward tax collectors. To say “no” is to invite the denunciation by Herod’s partisans and to be in conflict with the

Roman authorities. The enemies of Jesus thought they have Him pinned down without escape by the horns of their dilemma.

Apart from the hypocrisy and malice of the critics of Jesus, the question about taxes was a matter of conscience for many. Does the law of God allow us to make practical compromises with detestable forces, or does it order us to refuse obedience to them? Without going as far as armed rebellion, is civil disobedience here an open option for believers?

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s

His enemies’ deceitful cleverness overlooked Jesus’ wisdom. Their readiness in producing the tax coin that Jesus asked for indicated their use of it and their own acceptance of the advantages of the financial

arrangements by the foreign power.

Holding up the coin, Jesus questioned them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” To their reply “Caesar’s,” Jesus followed up: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” Those benefiting from the law and order maintained by the Romans using the Roman coin should repay the Roman Caesar in kind. But Jesus raised the matter to another level when he further pointed out that neither to be neglected is giving “to God what belongs to God.” They talked about tax in relation to God’s law, they should be concerned no less about repaying God with the good deeds they owe Him. But the trickery and self-deception on the issue go on. Some people today have twisted Jesus’ words as stating a law of compromise between duties to God and duties to temporal power, confining the sovereign power of God and Caesar’s temporal power to their respective domains, as in an absolute separation of Church (or religion) and state. There are those who want the total autonomy of political power, finding intolerable any interference of religious faith or any accountability on the grounds of Christian morality and principles. This would be the stand of politicians and business people and individuals as well who abhor being challenged regarding the morality of their actuations,

More debts, less development Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo

LABOREM EXERCENS

I

N the name of “debt relief” for the poor developing countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have been packaging debt rescheduling programs which, ironically, can lead to the accumulation of more debts by the “beneficiary” countries.

This happened to the Philippines and a number of Latin American countries in the “lost decades” of the 1980s and 1990s. “New debts” to roll over old loans and to cover shortfalls in national budgets emptied by automatic debt service allocations.

These were arranged by the IMF, World Bank and the so-called “Paris Club,” the troika that negotiated on behalf of the multilateral, bilateral and private lenders.

The “new debts” were not cheap.

They were served with expensive conditionalities: recognition of all past debts (including odious debts which financed non-productive projects such as the Bataan nuclear power plant), belt-tightening austerity programs (e.g., new taxes, “wage restraint” and reduced social spending), and “structural adjustmentprogram” (SAP) to open up the economy to foreign imports and investments.

Dr. Manuel Montes, a Filipino development economist based in the United States, described the behavior of the IMF and World Bank as a new form of colonialism. Dr. Montes cited how Niall Ferguson, a Harvard-Stanford extoller of the positive impact of colonialism, gushed on the virtues of this new colonialism as follows: “In August 1982, Mexico declared it would no longer be able to service its debt. An entire continent teetered on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. Yet the days had gone when investors could confidently expect their governments to send a gunboat when a foreign government misbehaved. Now the role of financial policing had to be played by two unarmed bankers, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Their new watchword became ‘conditionality’: no reforms, no money. Their preferred mechanism was the structural adjustment program.

And the policies the debtor countries had to adopt became known as the Washington Consensus, a wish-list of 10 economic policies that would have gladdened the heart of a British imperial administrator a hundred

years before.” (Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, Penguin Press, 2008).

It is now 2020 and many developing countries are teetering on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and no thanks to the pre-Covid efforts of the multilateral, bilateral and private lenders to push new debts sans a sustainable development program for the borrowing countries. Borrowing to “finance development,” a term popularized by the World Bank in the 1970s, can only be sustainable if it is backed up by a coherent program of growth and sustainable development for the borrowers. Thus, to the usual argument of the IMF and World Bank that more exports and higher economic growth can finance debts, Dr. Montes raises immediately the following: “How soon will debt, which has to be paid back in dollars generate either more export earnings or savings in imports? Will the trade reforms included in the program reduce the government’s ability to collect tariffs and taxes [and fees from public enterprises] to raise the money to pay back the debt without reducing social expenditures or public investment?”

In this regard, the Philippine experience with the IMF-WB’s export promotion program via the SAP in the 1980s quickly comes to mind. Despite the SAP’s outwardlooking framework, the country’s export industries failed to grow and match those developed by its Asian neighbors. In fact, the country’s trade deficits kept growing each year since. After Philippine membership in the WTO was ratified by the Senate in 1994, these deficits became much bigger. The Philippines was also transformed into a net agricultural importing country. In short, the SAP decades of the 1980s-2000s were decades of de-industrialization and de-agricultural development.

And yet, the Philippines man-

aged to survive the SAP’s painful conditionalities and to even post respectable GDP growth indices in the last two decades. The explanation?

The Philippines became dependent on the remittances of the overseas Filipino workers, who numbered around 50,000 in 1975 to over 10 million today.

Surprisingly, the IMF, World Bank and their neo-liberal economic partners in government have not issued any mea culpa on the failure of SAP to deliver the promises of strong industrial development, agricultural modernization and trade surpluses.

These were promises made four decades ago!

This is why Dr. Montes, in a recent webinar with the Freedom from Debt Coalition, warned against the false promises being made by the multilateral, bilateral and private lenders to the developing countries.

He said that haphazard external borrowing, usually packaged as the means to contain the pandemic, can lead to economic development disaster.

Yes, fiscal spending is needed to minimize deaths, disabilities, hunger, economic dislocations, enterprise bankruptcies and job losses that are associated with the harsh health impact of Covid-19, but resorting to costly borrowing, especially from international lenders, can cause what he calls as a “global development catastrophe.” The lenders’ business is primarily a “hunt for yield” that can be realized in the shortest time possible.

The attention of the creditors is focused on business operations that provide quick returns such as speculative investments on stocks, bonds, currencies, land, future prices of goods, etc. This is the underlying reason for the “financialization” of the economy. Many of the big banks and private fund holders are less concerned with investments on physical industrial or agricultural undertakings because these entail more operational costs, more people to manage and long uncertain wait for returns on investments.

In this context, the global creditors treat lending to Covid-stricken developing countries as another opportunity to make money out of money. The fact that a big number of the borrowing countries, especially the least developed ones, are sinking deeper and deeper in debt is of secondary importance to them.

Their mission is to work in concert with the IMF and World Bank in generating fiscal funds needed by borrowing countries.

and for whom religion and faith should have nothing to do with their politics or activities. Paradoxically, this is so when politics or business or one’s personal life becomes a religion, or an ideology, or an absolutization that demands total submission and total control: It is Caesar playing God, or something passing and temporal in a delusion of being everlasting.

Alálaong bagá, the Church or our Christian faith does begrudge Caesar what is Caesar’s. But we are sure that we must give to God what is God’s.

We are all bound to our duties to God our Father, always and everywhere.

He alone can demand that we give back everything to Him; to God alone do we owe everything. Our duties to Caesar or any earthly authority are in the light of our fundamental principle: “For the Lord’s sake.” As St. Peter wrote, “Be subject to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king… or to the governor… Give honor to all, love the community, fear God” (1 Peter 2:13– 14.17). St. Augustine later noted that if Caesar can look only for his image on the coin we use, God looks for His image in our very soul, in our deeds of love and fidelity.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

And despite their protestations that they are different from their “SAP parents” of the 1980s- 1990s, the IMF-WB team still maintain the old lending rules, e.g., austerity for the borrowers (as what happened in the case of Greece) and policy conditionalities in support of SAP-style trade and investment liberalization programs. These rules have been complemented by new programs aimed at further protecting and enriching the lenders.

Dr. Montes points out that most of the “debt restructuring” programs generally involves accumulation of more debts through “debt swaps,” e.g., debt for longer term with higher interest and debt in exchange for “policy reforms”, which can mean more trade liberalization or relaxation of rules protecting nature or the environment. There is also the Chinese-style “debt for patrimony,” which is reflected in the loan agreements related to the Chinese-funded Kaliwa and Chico River projects. And most of the debt restructuring programs cover or protect the financial exposures of the financial vultures, the speculative private equity funds.

The whole point is that the new debts and debt restructuring programs being lined up by the multilateral, bilateral and private creditors can indeed “lay the conditions for an oncoming Development Catastrophe,” to borrow the words of Dr. Montes. New debts purportedly to contain the global pandemic and assist the debt-ridden developing countries can pave the way for a new form of debt bondage similar to what happened to the Philippines and a number of Latin American countries during the terrible SAP decades of the 1980s-1990s.

Clearly, to survive these trying Covid times, the developing world needs financial resources. But borrowing in a haphazard way under an unjust and unequal financial order can indeed lead to a development catastrophe.

In sum, addressing the global pandemic should go hand in hand with a program of building a new global financial architecture, one that is just and fair to all. In building this new financial architecture, world leaders and governments should be guided by the message of Pope Francis, in EvangeliiGaudium:—“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problem.”

A12 Thursday, October 15, 2020

CJ Peralta pleased by bay cleanup, mum on dolomite T

Senate OKs bill allowing fast-tracking of permits

C

By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HIEF Justice Diosdado Peralta said on Tuesday he was impressed with the results of the ongoing efforts by various government agencies to rehabilitate the waters of Manila Bay.

Peralta, who chairs the Manila Bay Advisory Committee (MBAC), made the observation after meeting with Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and other agencies on the ongoing Manila Bay rehabilitation project.

The meeting, which was initiated by Peralta, was held at the Diamond Hotel in Manila and attended

by MBAC members: SC Associate Justices Rodil Zalameda, Mario Lopez, Edgardo de los Santos and Ricardo Rosario, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez and other government stakeholders.

Following the meeting, Peralta and the government officials inspected the bay area, including the part covered with dolomite sand.

Peralta said the meeting was part of the quarterly assessment being undertaken by the MBAC with regard to the bay rehabilita-

tion project which is covered by a continuing mandamus issued by the Court in 2011.

“We came here to observe and determine how far they have gone with the observation, obedience to the continuing mandamus.” Peralta said. Peralta told reporters that based on the report submitted to the MBAC and based on his observation, the water coming out from the wastewater treatment is now clean.

“But what we can say about Manila Bay, it’s already clean. All the waters that go to the bay from the esteros are already clean. So in other words, the purpose of the continuing mandamus is having clean water; and if you will ask me if I am satisfied, I am satisfied because the waters are clean,” Peralta said.

He added that he and his fellow

justices were impressed with the DENR’s presentation about their rehabilitation works in Manila Bay during their meeting.

In its report, DENR discussed the cleanup being undertaken by the relevant agencies.

Dolomite issue

THE DENR, meanwhile, defended the use of dolomite on Manila Bay, insisting that it is not hazardous to health. It said dolomite has been used by several resorts here and abroad to add aesthetics to their surroundings.

However, Peralta refused to answer queries about the environmental impact of the dumping of the controversial dolomite sand on a portion of Manila Bay. He noted that a petition seeking to cite the DENR in contempt for dumping dolomite sand in Manila Bay is still pending before the SC, and he would be violating the rule on sub judice if he comments on the matter.

Peralta said he was also assigned as the justice-in-charge of the petition, which will be deliberated on November 3.

However, the chief magistrate asked the DENR to submit scientific studies and findings as to the effects of dolomite to people.

T he petition was f i led by Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party, which sought to intervene in the mandamus case on the rehabilitation of the Manila Bay. The petitioner wants to hold the DENR accountable for violating the Court’s ruling when it dumped dolomite sand on Manila Bay, citing some claims such is hazardous to health and the environment.

Peralta earlier reconstituted MBAC which the Supreme Court created in 2008 to ensure compliance by involved parties to its decision mandating concerned government agencies to rehabilitate the waters of Manila Bay so that it would be fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of recreation.

The Chief Justice said the MBAC’s main function is to maintain the mandate of the continuing mandamus and to enable the Court to verify the reports of the government agencies tasked to clean up the Manila Bay. It can be recalled that in its 2011 resolution penned by then Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., the SC gave the DENR and several agencies until June 30 to come up with concrete and strategic steps to implement its December 2008 decision to rehabilitate the waters of Manila Bay.

It also gave the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) until December 31, 2015, to demolish illegal structures and dwellings along river banks and waterways connected to Manila Bay. The SC gave the Department of Public Works and Highways and the local government units (LGUs) in Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Bataan not later than December 31, 2012, to remove illegal settlers near river banks.

To ensure compliance with its 2008 decision, the SC issued a continuing mandamus—an order that compels the agencies of the government to perform acts which the laws specifically require them to do or to comply as duties emanating from the nature and mandate of their offices.

Other government agencies enjoined to participate in the Manila Bay cleanup were MMDA, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of the Interior and Local Government, affected LGUs, the Philippine National Police-Maritime Group, and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

Earlier, President Duterte approved a seven-year plan to clean up Manila Bay, at a cost of about P47 billion.

DOTr moves to implement new PUV seating rules

T

HE Department of Transportation (DOTr) has ordered transport stakeholders to implement a one-seat apart rule in all public utility vehicles to increase the industry’s capacity even as the country continues to struggle with its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aside from increasing the capacity per vehicle, the transport department is also accelerating the implementation of service contracting for buses and jeepneys, as well as the deployment of more units in new and common routes.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said this is part of his group’s contribution to helping the economy reopen, and is included in the agency’s operation plan add routes and public utility vehicles, increase speed and capacity, and reduce travel time (Oplan Air), which serves as the standard for the sector’s initiatives for the economic recovery.

He ordered the “immediate adoption of the one-seat apart rule to increase the present capacity in public utility vehicles, and gradually increase capacity, or allow sitting together—provided that plastic barriers are placed in between passengers, or that UV lights are used.”

Tugade likewise directed the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to open more routes and authorize more vehicles.

He also noted that his group will fully support the return of motorcycle taxis, however, a congressional resolution must be passed before his group can implement this initiative.

Continued on A2

SALES personnel manning retail booths wait for holiday shoppers to arrive at the SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City. The retail industry is one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, but hopes are high the sector, one of the economy’s main jobs driver, can recover as quarantines ease with the approaching Christmas holidays. BERNARD TESTA

HE Senate unanimously passed on third reading Wednesday remedial legislation empowering President Duterte, in times of national emergency, to fast-track release of national and local permits, licenses and certifications.

Voting 23-0, senators endorsed early enactment of Senate Bill 1844 that Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri filed to complement the Duterte administration’s Bayanihan 2 provisions extending the President’s authority beyond the current pandemic “and any national emergency that the country might face in the future.”

Joining Zubiri as coauthors of SB 1844 were Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Zubiri envisions that the enabling legislation, once enacted into law, will “authorize the President, during the time of national emergency, to suspend the requirements for national and local permits, licenses and certifications, and to streamline and expedite the process for the issuance of the same.”

Zubiri was a main author of the anti-red tape law passed earlier, and when Duterte recently lamented that existing legislation might not be enough to keep red tape from stifling recovery of businesses badly hit by the pandemic, he offered to sponsor a measure complementing the provisions in Bayanihan 2.

“While this may be a small step, it surely can create a significant impact on all enterprises,” Zubiri said, noting that SB 1844 shall cover all agencies of the Executive branch, including departments, bureaus, offices, commissions, boards, councils; government instrumentalities, governmentowned and -controlled corporations and local government units.

Under the measure, the President shall have the authority to accelerate and streamline regulatory processes and procedures for new and pending applications and renewals of permits, licenses, clearances, certifications or authorizations, including fixing or shortening the periods provided for under existing laws, regulations, issuances and ordinances.

Moreover, Zubiri said the legislation authorizes the President to suspend or waive the requirements in securing such permits, licenses, clearances, certifications or authorizations.

It further provides that the President, in consultation with or upon recommendation of affected government agencies, may prescribe to be permanent the streamlined regulatory processes and procedures, and the suspension or waiver of the requirements in securing permits, licenses, clearances, and certifications or authorizations.

Continued on A2

PHL meat imports up 5% in Jan-Sept: BAI

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

T

@jearcalas

HE country’s meat imports from January to September rose by 5 percent to 644,156.689 metric tons (MT) as traders and processors bought more chicken meat and beef products, Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) data showed.

Latest BAI data showed meat

imports in the nine-month period at 31,054.143 MT higher than the 613,102.546 MT recorded in the same period of last year.

BAI data indicated that overall meat imports grew on the back of double-digit growth rates in chicken meat and beef imports that offset the 34-percent decline in pork purchased from abroad.

Chicken meat imports during the reference period expanded by

32 percent to 302,741.099 MT from last year’s 229,188.304 MT, based on BAI data.

BAI data showed that bulk of the chicken meat imports or about 69 percent were mechanically deboned meat (MDM), a raw material used by meat processors to produce products like hot dogs and siomai.

BAI showed that chicken MDM imports rose by almost 35 percent to 208,208.645 MT from last year’s

154,494.081 MT. BAI data also showed that imports of chicken cuts rose by 80 percent to 31,784.818 MT while purchase of chicken leg quarters from abroad grew by 10 percent to 54,503.404 MT. Beef imports expanded by 44 percent to 146,999.049 MT from 101,961.050 MT recorded in the same period of last year, BAI data also showed.

Bulk of the beef imports were combined cuts and choice cuts which accounted for two-thirds of the total volume or about 110,142.773 MT, based on BAI data.

BAI data showed that the country’s pork imports declined by 34 percent to 168,140.707 MT from 254,889.810 MT as tight global supply pushed higher the international prices of the meat product.

Continued on A2

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sales of imported vehicles still anemic in Q3–AVID

S

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

ales of imported cars as of the third quarter declined over 45 percent as the automotive industry has yet to recover from the months of dealership closures due to the quarantine.

The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors Inc. (AVID) on Wednesday reported sales from January to September fell by 45.6 percent to 34,977 units, from 64,274 units during the same stretch last year.

On the upside, the third quarter sales of 15,471 units were a threefold jump from the 4,955 units sold during the prior quarter.

AVID President Maria Fe PerezAgudo attributed the quarter-onquarter recovery to rapid digital transformation, best value promotion and stringent health and safety protocols employed in automotive facilities nationwide.

“We had to restore consumer confidence quickly and decisively so the auto industry could get back on track and bounce back strong,” Agudo said

in a statement.

“We aim to sustain this momentum till the last quarter of the year as we continue to reinvent ourselves, innovate and capture our customer’s imagination. This will put us in a great position as we start afresh in 2021,” she added.

The passenger cars segment grew by 260 percent on a quarterly basis with 5,622 units sold in the third quarter as against the 1,561 units sold in the April-to-June period.

Demand for sedans was steady as consumers prefer safe and affordable personal mobility.

Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari), the top contributor of passenger cars, reported a total of 6,244 units since the beginning of 2020, followed by Suzuki Philippines with 4,069 units and Ford Group Philippines Inc. (FGPI) with 825 units sold.

In the light commercial vehicle segment, AVID recorded a 192-percent growth with 9,763

units sold, from 3,349 units sold the previous quarter. FGPI leads this segment with 8,539 units sold, while Suzuki holds second place with 6,422 units and Hari in third with 5,879 units sold since the start of the year.

In the commercial vehicles bracket, AVID recorded 91-percent growth in the third quarter with 86 units sold. The group is banking on the gradual reopening of the economy and resumption of government projects to stimulate demand for commercial vehicles.

“There will never be a return to business as usual,” Agudo said. “We are redefining the industry’s new normal, call it a better normal.”

“Even if the customer journey has radically changed, one thing remains constant for us: the commitment to give our customers the premium value, care, and attention that they deserve, in and beyond pandemic times,” she added.

Heineken to set up office in PHL

By VG Cabuag @villygc

A

sia Brewery Inc., the beverage unit of LT Group Inc., on Wednesday said it is changing the structure of its partnership with the owners of the Heineken and Tiger beer brands.

In its disclosure, the beverage company, which contributes a mere 1 percent to the revenues of the holding firm of tycoon Lucio Tan, said Heineken International BV will establish its own local sales and marketing office in Manila to sell the two beer brands.

Heineken, meanwhile, will engage Asia Brewery to brew its beer

BDO leasing unit sells assets anew

B

DO Leasing and Finance Inc. (BDOLF) sold a portion of its assets again as the bank seeks to restructure business and finance its debts.

In a disclosure on Wednesday, the listed bank said BDO Unibank Inc. and BDO Finance Corp. acquired 10 percent of its assets.

“The cash proceeds will be used to retire BDOLF's existing obligations,” the bank said.

In July, BDOLF announced the sale of its loan receivables and investment in securities for additional liquidity. Cash proceeds from the transaction will be used to fund borrowings and settle existing liabilities.

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) cleared the shares acquisition by an investor group in BDOLF in August. The purchases of Victor Y. Lim, Jr., Vittorio S. Lim and Luis N. Yu, Jr. are not seen affecting the competition, the regulator said.

PCC said there were no horizontal overlaps between the parties' business activities. No vertical relationships between the parties are also seen after the transaction, it added.

In January, BDO Unibank said it was selling its 88.54-percent stake in BDOLF to third party investors as it restructures its leasing business.

Yu is acquiring 33-percent ownership while the Lims are buying a total of 37-percent stake. The remaining 18.54 percent is for third party buyers.

The value of the transaction is equivalent to the sellers' pro-rata share in the net asset value of the company as of closing date, estimated at P5.451 billion, and premium of P500 million.

BDOLF in July said that its stockholders approved the amendment of the company's corporate name to United Platinum Holdings Corp. as it seeks to change the nature of business to a holding firm from leasing and financing. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

brands locally and distribute these in the country.

At the moment, AB Heineken Philippines Inc., the joint venture firm between Asia Brewery and Heineken, is already in charge of the brewing, distributing and marketing of the brands in the country.

The company said it will complete the process by the end of the year.

“The immediate priority for Asia Brewery and Heineken is to ensure a smooth transition for the employees of AB Heineken Philippines and continuity for its customers and suppliers,” the company said in a statement.

“The Philippines continues to present a good long-term business

opportunity for Heineken and both Asia Brewery and Heineken remain committed to continue offering Heineken and Tiger beer to consumers in the country,” it said.

Asia Brewery created its joint venture with Heineken in May 2016 under the corporate name Broncobrew Inc. and then changed it to its current name in July.

It owned 50 percent of the joint venture company and recognized a total investment of P1.84 billion, representing half of the net assets of the company.

Asia Brewery income in the first half plunged 84 percent to P40 million from last year's P244 million, primarily due to lower

volumes across its products as the lockdown affected sales in sari-sari and convenience stores as well as in supermarkets.

Revenues of the beverage segment were lower at P6.7 billion for the period down 17 percent from last year's P8.1 billion on account of lower sales volume from bottled water, energy drinks and packaging business. Overall gross profit margin declined to 26.4 percent from 28.1 percent last year as a result of the unfavorable sales mix.

Operating expenses fell by 13 percent to P1.1 billion in 2020 from P1.3 billion in 2019 on account of lower advertising and promotional expenses.

Laus Group champions Pampanga craftsmen via holiday installation

S

an Fernando, Pampanga—Pampanga-based conglomerate, Laus Group of Cos. (LGC) leads in spreading the holiday cheer as they adorn and light up the Laus Group Complex Event Centre Boulevard in San Fernando to signal the start of the Christmas season.

Illuminating the bustling business district of San Fernando, the facade of the LausGroup’s headquarters symbolizes optimism and hope among its communities amid these unfamiliar times.

The LausGroup main office, together with their displays in their dealership showrooms, invites families, friends, and neighborhoods to come together in the Christmas Capital of the Philippines with renewed hope for the country in the coming of the holidays.

As LGC marks the first year of its operations under a new generation of leaders, the company ushers in a new design to embody the innovation and creativity of the young Laus management. This year, the LausGroup seeks to better promote its local culture by putting up its Tree of Hope together with various decorations along the boulevard, which aims to showcase the abilities of the Kapampangan craftsmen. Thus, the company has sourced all decorations for its Christmas displays from within the region in order to support the livelihood of Kapampangan designers and carpenters, who were affected by the nationwide lockdown. “The LausGroup’s advocacy has always been to promote unity in our region, either through our commitment to develop the countryside or through

Contributed Photo

simple gestures of hope. This is what we want to promote with our festivities this year. In our own simple way, we want the people of San Fernando to know that despite their struggles and uncertainties, their countrymen and their community will always be there for them,” said Lisset Laus-Velasco, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Laus Group of Companies. According to LausGroup, the Tree of Hope and decorations along LGC Boulevard symbolize the culmination of months of service that its employees have offered towards its communities in the region. Employees and customers of the Laus Group of Companies are also encouraged to write down their messages and wishes for the upcoming holidays and hang these on the Christmas trees in various LausGroup dealership rooms come Christmas day.

“Our employees have been the key to our continued growth and success throughout the past couple of months.

As a company, we aim to provide them the tools to succeed, but at the same

time, we never forget the hard work and sacrifices they put in for their customers and community. With these decorations, we wanted to turn our workplace into a space where anyone can spread this gratefulness and optimism,” said Paul Laus, President of the Laus Group of Companies. The holiday decorations serve as an addition to several upgrades that the LausGroup has applied on its operations, such as the renovation of its premier Mitsubishi Carworld Pampanga showroom, and mounting of new LEDs on the walls of their Mini Showroom within the Laus Group Complex to entertain their customers as they visit the dealership establishments.

The LausGroup Lights-on has been open for public viewing every day since September 19 and will remain open for the rest of the holiday season. Residents and visitors of San Fernando may view the company’s holiday displays at the Laus Group Complex Event Centre Boulevard and by visiting any of its San Fernando car dealerships.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

B1

Jollibee Chickenjoy lands in US best fried chicken list

Photo from jollibeeusa.com

J

ollibee Food Corp.’s Chickenjoy has landed fourth in the best fast-food fried chicken list released by United Statesbased online magazine Redbookmag.com in celebration of National Fried Chicken Day in the US. Chickenjoy beat its other competitors that included some established fast-food giants in the US such as McDonald’s and KFC according to Redbook magazine article titled “The Best Fast-Food Fried Chicken, Ranked.”

“We couldn’t be happier of this recognition, as it goes to show that our Chickenjoy is truly world-class. We see customers continuing to come in droves to our stores because of their love for Chickenjoy. This is also why Jollibee North America continues to do well and is outperforming the QSR (quick service restaurant) industry with positive systemwide sales growth despite the pandemic. We are grateful to our customers and will always be happy to serve them the best Chickenjoy that they deserve,” Jol l ibee President for Nor t h America Rowel Vijandre.

“Jollibee is the Filipino fried chicken chain that’s about to take over the United States. If you’re skeptical, check out this recent New York Times story heralding the chain’s first Manhattan location earlier this year. ‘The pleasures of Chickenjoy, as it’s called, are immediate: The sheath of skin is as craggy as a thunderhead, crannies and crunch multiplying.’

Chickenjoy is served in bone-in pieces buckets, or you can opt for Chicken Dippers, which are the boneless tenders,” the online magazine said.

“Every order of chicken is accompanied by a side of their signature gravy for dipping. They also boast a selection of Filipino side dishes unrivaled by any competitor on this list. Chickenjoy with a side of the famed Jolly Spaghetti?

Or, how about Fiesta Noodles (Jollibee’s take on pancit palabok, a classic Filipino shrimp and noodle dish). Still hungry? Grab a Peach Mango Pie or Halo-Halo for dessert. Yes, all of this is available, and actually good, at a fast food chain,” it added.

Previously, publications such as Foodbeast, Yahoo Singapore, and South China Morning Post have all touted it as the best fried chicken. Jollibee was also named as among the top international food chains by publications like Thrillist and The Daily Meal. It has likewise earned the praise of the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who called the brand the “wackiest, jolliest place on earth.”

Jollibee has 45 stores in the US and will open more branches in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Texas, Nevada, California, and Hawaii.

It also has 10 stores in Canada with plans of expanding to more branches in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec this 2020. VG Cabuag

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Thursday, October 15, 2020

IEMOP sees La Niña cutting Luzon’s power consumption

L

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

a Niña could dampen electricity demand in Luzon throughout the year, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).

“Given the La Niña, there is a downtrend. If this persists, then the trend will continue,” said IEMOP manager for pricing valuation and analysis John Paul Grayda in a virtual news briefing on Wednesday.

Data presented by the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) showed that peak demand during the first 12 days of October this year declined by 5.4 percent to 10,303 megawatts

(MW). IEMOP compared this to October 2019 level of 10,811MW. This resulted in market prices in WESM for the first half of October to decline to P2.19 per kilowatt hour (kWh).

“The main reason is because we have a cooler weather, with more thunderstorms. We are still placed in GCQ [general community quarantine] that’s why the numbers aren’t that high yet,” said Grayda.

Luzon peak demand in September reached 10,563 MW, higher than the10,260 MW recorded during the similar period last year. The same month also recorded an increase in effective spot settlement price to P3.88 per kWh last month from P2.18 per kWh in September last year. This was largely attributable to the occurrence of price spikes as generator outages affected the supply levels.

“We are not only looking at demand as driver. There are times that demand is low but the sudden power outages and emergency tripping incidents could also result in WESM price spikes. But if we see La Niña as the only driver then this downward trend could continue in the next months,” added Grayda.

Meanwhile, IEMOP said it has successfully completed its preparations for the Enhanced WESM

Design and Operations last September 30.

“With the completion of the critical performance testing and finetuning activities, the New Market Management System and the Central Registration and Settlement System are now ready for commercial use,” the company said.

This, it added, completes the preparations of IEMOP for the Go-Live, which also included the achievement of the reliability standard for the market systems, software audit certification for the new market systems, deployment of enhancements, continuous availability of the market interfaces, conduct of trainings, and the implementation of the parallel operations program.

“While we endeavor to have the Go-Live on December 26, this is still subject to the approval of the Department of Energy,” added IEMOP.

Ang receives highest honor at Asia CEO Awards

F

or his visionary leadership, significant and long-term contributions to the country, and unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang was given the prestigious Lifetime Contributor Award for the private sector at the 2020 Asia CEO Awards, touted to be the largest business awards in the country and Asia in recent times.

Under Ang’s leadership, SMC, one of the country’s largest and most diversified conglomerates, has emerged as the country’s top and most consistent private sector partner against the pandemic.

With its considerable resources, and with the help of employees, volunteers, and its partner non-profit organizations and charitable institutions, SMC initiated numerous projects to help disadvantaged sectors and communities, medical front liners, local governments, and even the national government, better cope with the impacts of Covid-19.

Its total Covid-19 response has reached P13.187 billion. This includes the largest-ever food donation drive in the country, massive donations of disinfectant alcohol from its reconfigured liquor plants; life-saving medical equipment and supplies such as RT-PCR machines and test kits, which have raised the

the country is still in the midst of the worst crisis the world and current generations have seen.

Ang related that he had been asked many times why the company spends and gives away so much to help with the pandemic, even as it remains aggressive to expand and invest, when business and the economy are down.

“To us, the answer is simple. This crisis is

unprecedented. So our response should also be unprecedented. Because what other bigger purpose is there than to help save lives?

What other goal is more worthwhile than helping our country and… making it better?

What kind of Filipinos would we be if we do not show malasakit towards each other in this time of great need?” he said.

Ang

Philippines’ overall testing capacity.

The award-giving body first cited Ang's contributions to the country, through his achievements leading SMC. “His success in business is not only found in the Philippines but also globally. His company is instrumental in the various crucial infrastructure projects that (will) help our country not just recover but also leads us to soar even higher in terms of creating jobs, stimulating economic activities,” the Board of Judges said.

For his part, RSA said: “To be given the same Lifetime Contributor award that was given to titans such as former President Fidel Ramos and the late SM Chairman Henry Sy Sr., is a distinction I will always be grateful for.”

“That it’s given at this very difficult and challenging time in our country’s history makes it even more meaningful,” he said, adding that

mutual funds

October 14, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

October 14, 2020

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

BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK PHILTRUST RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG IREMIT MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH VANTAGE

87.55 66.15 21.6 9.06 40.55 16.74 23.8 51.05 96 17 92.35 54.45 27 3.23 1.13 0.31 0.58 155 1

87.6 66.5 21.7 9.09 40.9 17.48 23.85 51.7 99.9 17.1 92.7 54.8 27.2 3.35 1.16 0.315 0.59 156.8 1.06

87.8 64.85 21.75 9.11 40.1 17.48 24 51 96 17.3 90.9 54.5 26.5 3.24 1.11 0.305 0.59 156.8 1

87.95 66.5 21.75 9.14 40.9 17.48 25.1 51.7 99.9 17.3 93.15 54.5 27.5 3.37 1.15 0.32 0.59 156.8 1

87.2 64.8 21.6 9.01 39.95 17.48 23.8 51 96 17 90.9 54.4 26.3 3.23 1.11 0.305 0.59 156.7 1

87.6 66.5 21.6 9.06 40.9 17.48 23.85 51.7 96 17.1 92.35 54.45 27.2 3.23 1.13 0.315 0.59 156.8 1

1448580 3143920 44900 296900 4922800 100 1565900 630 600 44500 428700 20140 7200 72000 37000 1020000 52000 450 3000

126844978 207444816 972745 2687565 199284570 1748 37687260 32250.5 57639 760780 39554303.5 1096745.5 192805 238620 41230 320400 30680 70558 3000

INDUSTRIAL

AC ENERGY ALSONS CONS ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO MANILA WATER PETRON PETROENERGY PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL SPC POWER VIVANT AGRINURTURE AXELUM CNTRL AZUCARERA CENTURY FOOD DEL MONTE DNL INDUS EMPERADOR SMC FOODANDBEV ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG GINEBRA JOLLIBEE MACAY HLDG MAXS GROUP SHAKEYS PIZZA ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP ROXAS HLDG SWIFT FOODS UNIV ROBINA VITARICH VICTORIAS CONCRETE A CONCRETE B CEMEX HLDG DAVINCI CAPITAL EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP HOLCIM MEGAWIDE PHINMA TKC METALS VULCAN INDL EUROMED MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP GREENERGY INTEGRATED MICR IONICS PANASONIC SFA SEMICON CIRTEK HLDG

3.35 1.23 26.4 0.16 24.35 60 283.8 13.76 3 3.06 11 15.98 10.46 13 7.58 2.71 11.56 17.58 4.69 5.34 9.86 65.8 0.62 1.16 45.45 146.6 7.58 4.98 5.8 1.21 4.95 1.72 0.105 133.8 0.77 2.25 50.8 51.2 1.63 4.5 14.9 7.26 5.45 7.01 8.01 0.69 0.71 1.82 4.2 4.06 2.43 5.53 0.96 4.66 1.4 5.16

3.36 1.26 26.45 0.162 24.4 60.8 284 13.86 3.01 3.18 11.1 16 10.48 14.18 7.6 2.72 12 17.6 4.72 5.38 9.87 67 0.64 1.18 46 146.7 7.99 4.99 5.84 1.22 4.97 1.75 0.111 134 0.78 2.3 51 53.9 1.64 4.6 14.98 7.27 5.5 7.1 8.34 0.71 0.72 1.84 4.3 4.16 2.44 5.55 0.97 5.27 1.41 5.2

3.35 1.25 26.35 0.163 23.95 60.1 283.8 14.08 3.01 3.06 10.96 15.52 10.3 13 7.61 2.7 11.56 17.76 4.62 5.48 9.79 66 0.63 1.18 45.45 145.1 7.52 4.86 5.75 1.22 4.95 1.78 0.104 133.8 0.79 2.25 50 51.1 1.64 4.15 14.9 7.44 5.6 6.95 8.46 0.71 0.72 1.84 4.33 4.06 2.4 5.7 0.97 5.4 1.4 5.28

3.42 1.26 26.6 0.163 24.5 60.1 283.8 14.08 3.02 3.15 11.18 16 10.48 13 8 2.71 11.56 17.76 4.73 5.48 9.87 67 0.63 1.18 46 146.9 7.99 5 5.85 1.23 4.95 1.78 0.105 135 0.8 2.25 51 53.95 1.67 4.83 14.98 7.46 5.71 7.01 8.46 0.71 0.73 1.85 4.36 4.06 2.48 5.7 0.98 5.4 1.45 5.34

3.27 1.24 26.25 0.159 23.7 59.95 281.2 13.74 3 3.06 10.96 15.4 10.3 13 7.54 2.65 11.56 17.34 4.62 5.26 9.79 65 0.62 1.15 45.45 145.1 7.52 4.86 5.71 1.19 4.95 1.72 0.104 133.5 0.77 2.25 50 51.05 1.61 4.15 14.6 7.22 5.41 6.9 8.46 0.69 0.71 1.8 4.3 4.06 2.4 5.47 0.95 4.8 1.39 5.16

3.35 1.24 26.45 0.162 24.35 60 283.8 13.76 3.01 3.15 11.12 16 10.48 13 7.6 2.71 11.56 17.6 4.69 5.34 9.86 67 0.63 1.18 46 146.7 7.99 4.99 5.8 1.21 4.95 1.72 0.105 133.8 0.77 2.25 51 53.95 1.63 4.6 14.98 7.26 5.45 7.01 8.46 0.69 0.72 1.82 4.3 4.06 2.44 5.53 0.96 5.27 1.41 5.16

20162000 1215000 462300 190000 2110400 135410 223330 1970900 494000 35000 80000 288400 297300 100 304000 1527000 100 4610500 58000 7397700 209300 266020 571000 7170000 14700 880800 800 359000 54500 7645000 15000 43000 280000 952620 1667000 14000 2240 1460 19371000 260000 33100 609700 2363400 644100 200 19000 838000 197000 6000 9000 6776000 152400 564000 4400 536000 2155800

67731060 1514100 12226485 30480 50651830 8126437 63290532 27232104 1483890 109350 887982 4556294 3092294 1300 2322188 4110850 1156 81129178 272040 39382242 2062280 17734635.5 357570 8341950 673285 129134356 6063 1783940 314634 9253790 74250 75150 29370 127455127 1301160 31500 112712 74612 31834720 1171480 488764 4447092 13105246 4468174 1692 13130 602810 359370 25920 36540 16551170 845537 542110 21987 755190 11270582

17029720 -1427040 -3298420 7594360 -5113444.5 12971056 -15252404 -585990 -304780 1322288 405980 -914523 -135500 -5044690 -51480 -13649911 -253898 -1141966.5 8120 -512865 1079159 -48760 91212 -3267130 69300 -62588704 4680 -828750 -17808 1165718 -2271430 6950 4059.9999 129280 -151853 482230

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.46 0.465 0.46 0.47 0.46 0.46 4810000 2222000 7.22 7.42 7.58 7.58 7.23 7.42 21400 156085 ASIABEST GROUP 697 699 700 703.5 693 699 177940 124231985 AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY 44.95 45 44.4 44.95 43.8 44.95 2741100 122471005 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 7.3 7.34 7.25 7.46 7.24 7.3 6466200 47348599 AYALA LAND LOG 2.49 2.5 2.52 2.56 2.46 2.49 2265000 5626840 0.55 0.56 0.54 0.56 0.54 0.56 205000 111570 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.67 0.68 0.67 0.68 0.66 0.67 3303000 2207920 ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B 0.68 0.69 0.66 0.68 0.66 0.68 121000 81860 COSCO CAPITAL 5.13 5.15 5.13 5.17 5.11 5.13 2431900 12514893 DMCI HLDG 4.19 4.2 4.24 4.24 4.18 4.2 5869000 24664230 8.6 8.75 8.75 8.75 8.75 8.75 1400 12250 FILINVEST DEV 403.8 404 404 406 402 404 282930 114181582 GT CAPITAL 3.15 3.23 3.16 3.16 3.16 3.16 5000 15800 HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT 61.15 61.3 61.3 62 60.75 61.3 661770 40521258 LODESTAR 0.6 0.63 0.63 0.64 0.6 0.62 99000 61290 2.6 2.61 2.6 2.64 2.54 2.6 1240000 3189920 LOPEZ HLDG 9.9 9.98 9.21 10.26 9.21 9.9 10782400 107093932 LT GROUP 0.49 0.51 0.5 0.52 0.5 0.51 70000 35700 MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV 3.95 3.96 3.81 3.96 3.8 3.95 57333000 224979800 PACIFICA HLDG 3 3.1 3 3 3 3 3000 9000 0.79 0.82 0.8 0.82 0.79 0.82 70000 56350 PRIME MEDIA 151 155 151 151 151 151 10 1510 SYNERGY GRID 864 888 884 890 864 864 213680 186488670 SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP 99.85 99.9 100 100 99.9 99.9 111570 11151961 SEAFRONT RES 1.82 1.99 1.82 1.82 1.82 1.82 4000 7280 122 124.5 124.5 124.5 124.5 124.5 100 12450 TOP FRONTIER 0.137 0.139 0.139 0.139 0.136 0.137 580000 79570 ZEUS HLDG

-332650 -37376750 -6036970 7668603 1617340 -0 -218947 -15722550 -13674744 -4972467.5 -908500 44752569 -87006410 32400 -87456650 -4702173 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.57 0.58 0.59 0.59 0.57 0.58 311000 181000 29.5 29.8 29.35 29.8 29 29.8 7857700 231433785 AYALA LAND 0.95 0.98 0.97 0.98 0.97 0.98 18000 17540 ARANETA PROP AREIT RT 25.65 25.7 25.7 25.75 25.55 25.7 657700 16893370 BELLE CORP 1.37 1.38 1.37 1.38 1.37 1.37 134000 184400 A BROWN 0.77 0.79 0.79 0.79 0.78 0.79 1736000 1366480 0.79 0.82 0.78 0.83 0.78 0.82 131000 106610 CITYLAND DEVT 0.128 0.131 0.13 0.132 0.128 0.131 1170000 151280 CROWN EQUITIES CEB LANDMASTERS 4.71 4.76 4.79 4.8 4.75 4.76 258000 1232750 0.36 0.365 0.36 0.365 0.36 0.365 3180000 1147250 CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY 0.34 0.345 0.34 0.355 0.33 0.34 4490000 1531500 13.98 14 14 14 13.96 14 262600 3674732 DOUBLEDRAGON 5.38 5.39 5.4 5.42 5.24 5.39 90900 490241 DM WENCESLAO 0.26 0.265 0.26 0.26 0.26 0.26 80000 20800 EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO 0.085 0.09 0.085 0.09 0.085 0.085 1100000 96950 0.94 0.95 0.93 0.95 0.93 0.95 11493000 10841210 FILINVEST LAND 0.75 0.76 0.76 0.76 0.76 0.76 58000 44080 GLOBAL ESTATE 6.4 6.49 6.59 6.59 6.17 6.5 73200 463156 8990 HLDG 1.38 1.4 1.35 1.41 1.35 1.38 2805000 3882410 PHIL INFRADEV CITY AND LAND 0.68 0.71 0.69 0.69 0.69 0.69 60000 41400 2.94 2.95 2.93 2.97 2.93 2.95 6944000 20442120 MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED 0.38 0.385 0.38 0.41 0.365 0.385 558750000 217050300 0.32 0.33 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.32 60000 19200 PHIL ESTATES 1.16 1.18 1.17 1.18 1.16 1.16 109000 127530 PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND 14.26 14.28 14.64 14.64 14.26 14.26 1890300 27113612 PHIL REALTY 0.211 0.226 0.211 0.211 0.21 0.211 120000 25230 1.46 1.52 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 57000 85500 ROCKWELL 2.67 2.69 2.69 2.69 2.69 2.69 16000 43040 SHANG PROP 1.9 1.95 1.95 1.95 1.94 1.94 1055000 2056720 STA LUCIA LAND 29.9 29.95 29.9 29.95 29.5 29.95 5032300 150476775 SM PRIME HLDG VISTAMALLS 3.86 3.88 3.81 3.9 3.81 3.86 178000 685290 SUNTRUST HOME 1.17 1.18 1.17 1.2 1.17 1.18 778000 921420 3.26 3.27 3.26 3.28 3.22 3.26 764000 2484160 VISTA LAND

-93342360 -6110015 -113160 10950 -1766012 -432820 -224875 -1059240 308100 1012532 -43040 -2361250 -57270 -201319.9996

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 194.69 -22.99% -12.38% -4.93% -22.69% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0797 -28.66% -12.88% -2.9% -21.87% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.6342 -32.61% -16.42% -6.8% -28.38% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6686 -28.92% -12.78% n.a. -25.55% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6781 -21.03% n.a. n.a. -20.16% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.1788 -22.27% -10.66% -5% -21.57% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6512 -24.51% -12.44% n.a.

-23.71% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

85.05 -26.31% n.a. n.a.

-17.61% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 39.0333 -24.4% -11.09% -3.81% -23.88% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 419.19 -21.88% -10.43% -4% -21.32% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8981 n.a. n.a. n.a. -12.81% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 0.997 -23.04% -10.47% -3.5% -22.53% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 29.1935 -23.52% -10.19% -3.16% -22.97% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7692 -24.96% n.a. n.a. -24.45% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 3.9868 -24.03% -10.6% -3.09% -23.68%

SERVICES ABS CBN 12.26 12.3 13.1 13.1 11.84 12.26 1533300 18793456 Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

666.57 -23.92% -10.53% -3.18% -23.56% 4.96 4.97 4.94 4.98 4.93 4.97 283000 1401780 GMA NETWORK Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6075 -32.5% -14.09% -6.98% -28.65% 0.395 0.4 0.39 0.4 0.39 0.4 480000 189050 MANILA BULLETIN MLA BRDCASTING 10.34 10.9 10.9 10.9 10.9 10.9 100 1090 Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0671 -27.79% -12.05% -4.63% -27.13% 2008 2010 2002 2044 1996 2010 83645 167869250 GLOBE TELECOM Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7634 -24.15% -10.81% -3.29% -23.72% PLDT 1290 1298 1297 1309 1290 1290 197700 255962130 0.055 0.056 0.056 0.057 0.054 0.056 70800000 3927680 APOLLO GLOBAL United Fund, Inc. -a 2.7991 -24.27% -9.64% -2.92% -23.38% 2.87 3.03 3.03 3.03 3.03 3.03 3000 9090 DFNN INC Exchange Traded Fund DITO CME HLDG 6.21 6.22 5.96 6.25 5.85 6.21 51206800 311375842 IMPERIAL 1.38 1.45 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 8000 11200 First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 89.4137 -23.88% -10.27% -2.44% 0.079 0.082 0.082 0.082 0.082 0.082 230000 18860 ISLAND INFO -23.55% 1.53 1.56 1.53 1.56 1.53 1.56 32000 49590 JACKSTONES 5.21 5.22 4.79 5.21 4.77 5.21 52513000 263248780 NOW CORP Primarily invested in foreign currency securities 0.236 0.238 0.224 0.239 0.224 0.238 12460000 2932040 TRANSPACIFIC BR ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b $1.094 15.4% 0.38% 3.74% 6.38% PHILWEB 2.48 2.5 2.5 2.65 2.46 2.48 3182000 8027950 2GO GROUP 8.38 8.49 8.6 8.6 8.35 8.38 15800 132918 Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.576 23.76% 8.94% n.a.

14.31% 15.66 16.14 16.2 16.2 16.2 16.2 500 8100 ASIAN TERMINALS Balanced Funds 5.51 5.52 5.33 5.55 5.3 5.51 5122400 27825783 CHELSEA 37 37.6 36.75 37.85 36.75 37 307800 11393500 CEBU AIR Primarily invested in Peso securities INTL CONTAINER 116.9 117 119 119 116.4 116.9 1339500 156695791 ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5524 -3.18% -5.58% -2.68% -0.67% LBC EXPRESS 14.02 14.54 14.58 14.58 14 14.54 1400 19832 0.87 0.95 0.86 0.94 0.86 0.9 390000 339400 LORENZO SHIPPNG ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0316 -10.32% -5.85% -1.4% -6.85% 4.51 4.52 4.6 4.6 4.47 4.52 1062000 4807880 MACROASIA First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.382 -9.73% -4.55% -2.84% -9.48% 1.89 1.93 1.98 1.99 1.89 1.93 1380000 2665550 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 2.02 2.09 2.06 2.15 2.01 2.09 22000 46060 First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1806 -22.32% n.a. n.a.

5.75 5.8 5.85 5.85 5.75 5.75 11800 68435 PAL HLDG -20.96% HARBOR STAR 1.25 1.27 1.26 1.31 1.22 1.25 9371000 11867790 0.026 0.027 0.026 0.026 0.025 0.026 12500000 324500 BOULEVARD HLDG NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8286 -6.51% -2.42% 0.23% -6.78% 1.43 1.69 1.5 1.5 1.38 1.38 91000 129180 DISCOVERY WORLD PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4399 -8.82% -4.17% -1.05% -9.22% 0.415 0.42 0.42 0.43 0.405 0.42 2880000 1196250 WATERFRONT FAR EASTERN U 492.8 500 500 500 500 500 20 10000 Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.3822 -9.06% -4.3% -1.11% -9.31% 6.97 7.57 7.57 7.57 7.57 7.57 1000 7570 IPEOPLE Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a -11.2% -5.25% -1.25% -10.44% 1.9006 0.315 0.32 0.315 0.32 0.31 0.315 2010000 630350 STI HLDG 3.18 3.21 3.27 3.39 3.11 3.21 3831000 12362180 BERJAYA Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2343 -16.39% -6.47% -2.38% -16.29% 7.39 7.4 7.45 7.55 7.31 7.39 7900100 58306764 BLOOMBERRY Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9298 -8.38% n.a. n.a.

-8.46% PACIFIC ONLINE 1.89 1.91 1.93 1.93 1.81 1.89 118000 216600 LEISURE AND RES 1.43 1.45 1.45 1.46 1.43 1.43 356000 513730 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8218 -17.99% n.a. n.a. -17.52% PH RESORTS GRP 2.67 2.73 2.9 2.9 2.66 2.73 196000 541600 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.7984 -20.08% n.a. n.a. -19.61% 0.32 0.325 0.325 0.33 0.32 0.32 15580000 5060600 PREMIUM LEISURE 7.1 7.89 7.11 7.89 7.05 7.89 16100 113661 PHIL RACING Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.791 -19.42% -7.69% -3.34% -18.86% ALLHOME 6.08 6.09 6 6.2 6 6.08 2796600 17066084 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities METRO RETAIL 1.36 1.37 1.36 1.37 1.36 1.36 311000 424930 44.85 44.9 46 46.85 44.75 44.9 3081400 139694275 PUREGOLD Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03911 1.66% 2.68% 2.11% 2.38% 66.65 67 66.3 67 66.2 67 61180 4093243.5 ROBINSONS RTL PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $1.0684 9.4% 3.11% 5.57% 1.11% 113 113.8 114 114.8 112.8 113 51320 5800558 PHIL SEVEN CORP 1.16 1.17 1.15 1.19 1.13 1.17 15049000 17,598,230( SSI GROUP Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.2722 14.79% 6.39% 6.47% 9.24% WILCON DEPOT 15.34 15.42 15.44 15.46 15.34 15.34 2901900 44636346 Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1817 7.11% 3.33% n.a.

4.7% APC GROUP 0.29 0.295 0.3 0.3 0.295 0.295 610000 180850 7.12 7.24 7.18 7.26 7.02 7.24 73900 533331 EASYCALL Bond Funds 290 328 300 328 291 328 8100 2651292 GOLDEN BRIA Primarily invested in Peso securities 0.29 0.295 0.249 0.295 0.249 0.29 150130000 42149900 PRMIERE HORIZON SBS PHIL CORP 4.09 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.05 4.2 103000 424200 ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 368.53 3.82% 3.07% 2.61% 2.96% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.9522 1.75% 0.78% 0.29% 2.64%

MINING & OIL APEX MINING 1.54 1.55 1.5 1.55 1.47 1.55 9522000 14307420 Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.2039 3.73% 4.75% 4.99% 2.76% 0.0009 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.0009 0.001 1291000000 1175500 ABRA MINING Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2926 3.7% 2.61% 2.18% 3.11% ATLAS MINING 3.82 3.96 3.81 4 3.8 3.9 308000 1186710 BENGUET A 2.77 2.78 2.82 2.85 2.7 2.78 141000 388580 First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.45 4.88% 3.39% 2% 3.85% 2.68 2.85 2.7 2.85 2.68 2.68 42000 113370 BENGUET B 7.57% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.6356 4.23% 2.69% 6.01% 0.25 0.255 0.244 0.25 0.244 0.25 680000 169530 COAL ASIA HLDG 2.5 2.54 2.48 2.54 2.48 2.54 107000 271420 CENTURY PEAK Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.312 5.7% 4.35% 2.47% 4.4% DIZON MINES 7.35 7.4 7.58 7.58 7.35 7.4 16900 125105 Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9564 5.59% 4.23% 2.3% 4.44% 1.24 1.25 1.25 1.27 1.22 1.24 5278000 6526800 FERRONICKEL GEOGRACE 0.224 0.227 0.227 0.227 0.223 0.226 80000 18030 Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0378 9.08% 3.6% 1.98% 7.62% 0.142 0.144 0.146 0.146 0.139 0.142 20780000 2946850 LEPANTO A Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.183 4.99% 4.67% 2.88% 3.49% 0.144 0.145 0.146 0.146 0.144 0.144 820000 118790 LEPANTO B 0.0098 0.0099 0.0097 0.0099 0.0094 0.0099 42800000 414720 MANILA MINING A Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

1.7449 4.03% 4.02% 2.32% 2.57% MANILA MINING B 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 400000 4000 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities 0.93 0.94 0.94 0.95 0.92 0.94 2164000 2024260 MARCVENTURES 2.31 2.33 2.28 2.33 2.26 2.32 424000 975660 NIHAO ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $480.16 3.07% 2.58% 2.79% 2.52% 3.56 3.57 3.46 3.61 3.46 3.56 7639000 27031240 NICKEL ASIA ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є217.59 -1.21% 0.78% 1.2% -1% 0.345 0.355 0.33 0.36 0.33 0.355 24900000 8221000 OMICO CORP ORNTL PENINSULA 0.59 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.58 0.6 121000 71660 2.99% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2433 3.27% 3.15% 2.56% 4.65 4.67 4.65 4.7 4.54 4.65 1997000 9205210 PX MINING First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0265 2.32% 1.96% 1.66% 2.71% SEMIRARA MINING 10.8 10.82 10.76 10.98 10.3 10.8 4018700 42553812 0.0048 0.0051 0.0049 0.0052 0.0048 0.0052 16000000 78800 UNITED PARAGON PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0892 -1.07% 0.28% 0.17% -0.4% 5.9 6.08 5.91 6.09 5.85 6.08 31600 187949 ACE ENEXOR Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.5112 4.1% 3.82% 3.4% 4.48% ORNTL PETROL A 0.0084 0.0086 0.0085 0.0085 0.0085 0.0085 15000000 127500 0.0079 0.008 0.008 0.008 0.008 0.008 21000000 168000 PHILODRILL Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0617805 2.5% 2.46% 2.18% 2.46% 5.15 5.17 5.12 5.24 5.11 5.15 487700 2513048 PXP ENERGY Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2075 1.12% 2.04% 2.5% 1.02%

PREFFERED Money Market Funds HOUSE PREF A 100 101 100 100 100 100 220 22000 Primarily invested in Peso securities 510 515 515 515 515 515 1000 515000 AC PREF B2R 101.1 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 1000 101500 DD PREF ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 129.25 3.49% 3.32% 2.53% 2.72% MWIDE PREF 101.5 101.6 101.6 101.6 101.5 101.5 20800 2111201 First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0457 2.15% n.a. n.a.

1.89% 99.05 101.4 99.8 99.9 99.8 99.9 9720 970606 PNX PREF 3A 101.1 102 102 102 102 102 1700 173400 PNX PREF 3B Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2916 2.79% 3.02% 2.62% 2.1% 985.5 995 995.5 995.5 995 995 3720 3702810 PNX PREF 4 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities 1030 1040 1045 1045 1044 1044 50 52230 PCOR PREF 2B PCOR PREF 3A 1051 1057 1057 1057 1057 1057 280 295960 Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0501 1.6% n.a. n.a.

1.14% 1076 1085 1085 1085 1085 1085 110 119350 PCOR PREF 3B Feeder Funds 77.9 77.95 78 78 77.9 78 38700 3018093 SMC PREF 2C 75.7 76.75 76 76 75.6 75.6 33000 2496800 SMC PREF 2E Primarily invested in Peso securities 77.3 77.9 77.9 77.9 77.9 77.9 1050 81795 SMC PREF 2F Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.0541 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

76.05 76.5 76 76 76 76 15910 1209160 SMC PREF 2G SMC PREF 2H 76.1 76.9 76.2 76.2 76.2 76.2 12780 973836 Primarily invested in foreign currency securities

ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.95 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-4.04% PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 11.22 11.3 12 12 10.9 11.28 26100 294036

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

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

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

6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund). 7 - Launch date is July 6, 2020.

"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."

-67304643 28993733.5 -565195 -675377 94367125 -15241450 16229987 -365366 -2240 47040 -

-45144420 -144073005 9090 15104388 -785640 -277740 -3775985 -44872071 -523900 -8190 -4150 -135450 -471348 -51470 -126460 -39610 -298550 1023354 -30582395 -217159.5 -37650 6,477,859.9997) -23199238 8850 -433422 98000 -4200 517870 15000 -380400 -27000 254000 -335660 286860 -46400 3232620 -4867500 652600 -18278040 -608 47456 14280 -99550 19475 -

-110210 4.81 4.91 4.76 4.76 4.75 4.75 15000 71280 GMA HLDG PDR

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.7 0.73 0.73 0.73 0.68 0.73 39000 27440

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 10.52 10.56 10.26 10.66 9.71 10.52 1954600 20220275 -5193214 2.59 2.6 2.54 2.63 2.42 2.59 4657000 11842910 110320 ITALPINAS 5.07 5.18 4.87 5.3 4.86 5.18 122000 618260 KEPWEALTH MAKATI FINANCE 2.31 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 17000 40800 3.19 3.2 3.15 3.23 3.11 3.19 33854000 107823740 17193880 MERRYMART

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 89.5 89.85 89.95 89.95 89.3 89.8 8450 757668.5 112892

Editor: Anne Ruth Dela Cruz

Health&Fitness BusinessMirror

Don’t forget cancer patients, health officials reminded

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

A

mid t he onsl aught of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s health-care system is again being tested, this time on the treatment of cancer patients.

In a recent webinar, Dr. Madeleine Valera, a former Department of Health Undersecretary said the statistics are alarming as more than 141,000 Filipinos were diagnosed with cancer in 2018, with lung cancer and breast cancer being the top cancer sites. Moreover, over 60 percent or 86,337 of those diagnosed died. This means that 236 Filipinos die from cancer daily.

“There are 11 new cases diagnosed daily while seven adults and eight children die every day,” Valera said.

“Definitely, the current pandemic has put our health system to a test. Notwithstanding Covid-19, it should be evaluating and assessing our capacity to deliver the services every Filipino deserves,” she added.

Continued treatment She stressed that treatment for non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes must be continued during the pandemic to ensure Filipinos remain healthy. Failure to give them treatment would worsen their health condition, she added.

Valera said the country also needs to step up in terms of cancer preparedness. According to a 2020 report from the World Cancer Initiative, the Philippines placed 10th out of 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region in cancer care preparedness. Moreover, it showed the Philippines falling well below average in the realms of policy and planning, cancer care delivery and health systems and governance. “With the Covid-19 causing a big challenge, our health system needs to step up,” she said, Nevertheless, Valera said the Philippines is at par with the low-income countries in Asia-Pacific in terms of cancer care. However, she said the passage of the National Integral Cancer Control Act, now known as the NICCA Law recognizes innovative technologies such as immunotherapy for treating cancer.

“We maybe number 10 but we have the NICCA Law. This will address the government’s effort with regards to cancer prevention and control. We have to fully close the gaps in assessing the treatment so we can help Filipinos with regards to cancer. If we have innovative treatment options such as immunotheraphy, this will enable Filipinos to enjoy more life years,and additional health gains from five to 10 folds,” Valera explained.

“There’s hope for cancer patients in the country. If they have this subsidized treatment as an option in cancer care, then we would take a big burden off from one’s shoulders for the family,” she added.

Better perspective Valera pointed out the NICCA and the passage of the Universal Health Care Act will put the country’s health system in a better perspective. This means more integrated services and more financing assistance

both by the local and national governments. She commended the passage of the NICCA as this aims to provide quality health care and financial risk protection to the cancer patients.

“If implemented in the right way, it will give better support to cancer patients especially in the underserved throughout the cancer patient’s journey in diagnosis, treatment care and palliative care ensuring the journey would not be emotionally and financially burdensome,” Valera underscored.

“It would be great if NICCA would be implemented soon as the implementing rules and regulations are available, it would also be important if it has the budget to implement the needed programs,” Valera added.

Cancer fund Valera hopes that Congress will allot a budget for NICCA so the program can start assisting in treating the cancer patients.

Under NICCA, all types of cancer will be covered for assistance whether the patient is young or old. Even cancer caregivers are entitled to benefits under the NICCA. I n t h e s a m e w e b i n a r, Dr.Gerardo Cornelio, director of the Cancer Institute, St. Luke’s Medical Center BGC said tthere will be a rise in the number of cancer patients from 2030 to 2050 as the ageing population will dramatically increase in numbers. With an ageing population, expect the rise of chronic diseases such as cancer.

However, Cornelio said the emergence of innovative treatments has revolutionized the treatment of cancer, making it more tolerable to patients.

“Compared to traditional treatments such chemotherapy, immunotherapy gives a longer survival period and improves the quality of lives of patients,” Cornelio emphasized.

Access is the key Unfortunately, many still cannot access cancer treatment and because of this, Cornelio said there was a need for different stakeholders to collaborate.

“We need to work together and hope and pray together that this would be available to the cancer patients in the future,” he said.

Meanwhile. Sen. Nancy Binay urged the DOH to fast track the implementation of the NICCA law, noting that it has been a year since the implementing rules and regulations of NICCA have been approved.

Binay, who is one of the authors of the law, also expressed her disappointment at the agency after the Senate hearing on the proposed 2021 budget of DOH revealed that there is no specific item in their budget for the Cancer Assistance Fund.

“Why is there no item in the DOH budget for the Cancer Assistance Fund which is already part of the law?” Binay asked during the hearing. “Perhaps we can put a small amount so that the Cancer Assistance Fund will not be zero.”

According to the DOH, they have already proposed a P535 million budget for the Cancer Assistance Fund but it is still waiting for the approval of the Department of Budget and Management.

Thursday, October 15, 2020 B3

DOH calls for unified response to improve mental health care

A

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

t least 3.6 million Filipinos suffer from one kind of mental, neurological and substance use disorder.

This was the finding of a Special Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO)—Philippines conducted in the early part of 2020.

WHO noted that mental and behavioral disorders account for about 14 percent of the global burden of disease and as many as 450 million people suffer from these illnesses.

With the pandemic having a considerable impact on globa l mental health, the Department of Health (DOH) called for a unified response to improve mental health care in the country in observance of this year’s World Mental Health Day. Moreover, the pandemic has further impacted mental health in groups such as older adults, health-care providers, and people with underlying health conditions.

“There is less than one mental health worker for every 100,000 Filipinos, and many are currently unable to gain access to services,” said Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III.

others are worried about keeping their families safe. There are many reasons why we need to take extra care now when it comes to mental health,” said Duque.

“We hope that by raising more awareness on the urgency of this issue, we can inspire more commitment towards helping those in need,” he furthered.

Serious matter

Critical to society

Duque added that mental health is a serious matter and cannot be left unattended.

He stressed that there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to taking better care of one’s mental health, and added that a concerted effort at all levels was required in order to help people with these conditions.

T h i s yea r ’s t heme “ Ment a l Health for All: Unifying Voices for Greater Investment and Access,” seeks to drive the conversation on some of the challenges that the mental health-care system faces, such as negative perceptions and limited funding commitment.

While support for mental health has gained momentum in the Philippines, Duque noted that a stronger push is needed to address the issue given the effects of the pandemic.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has evoked overwhelming reactions and emotions from people. Many have had their livelihoods affected,

The United Nations policy brief on Covid-19 and the need for action on mental health states that good mental health is critical to the functioning of society at the best of times.

According to Duque, improving service delivery capability and ensuring greater access both need substantial investment in terms of infrastructure, manpower, and resources.

The health secretary further noted that while the mandates provided by the Mental Health Act and the Universal Health Care Law help give the country enough leverage to ensure that mental health services will be given paramount importance, there is an urgent need for more assistance.

“Mental health is a human right, it’s time that mental health be made available for all. Quality, accessible primary health care is the foundation for universal health coverage and is urgently required as the world grapples with the current

health emergency,” said Duque.

He stressed, “We need to make mental health a reality for all—for everyone, everywhere.”

Activities For this year’s observance of National Mental Health Week, various activities to promote more awareness and understanding of mental health, such as webinars and daily mental cleanse challenges, are being conducted across the Philippines as part of a collaborative effort between the government, private sector, civil society, and various other stakeholders and partners.

“Unifying the voices of all stakeholders and advocates is needed so that everyone can share in investing time and effort for mental health,” said Duque. “ The WHO will also launch its Quality Rights online platform, which provides comprehensive information on the rights of persons with mental health issues, so that the public can take greater care.

“At a time that the world collectively endured the most challenging year by far, addressing mental health concerns has become more vital and pressing. Forging partnerships and uniting our voices to call on more stakeholders and policymakers to increase investment in mental health is our best chance at dealing with this task at hand,” the health chief concluded.

Regaining consumer confidence key to boosting local economy

O

pening the economy and protecting the health of the people is possible.

This was emphasized by National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. as he pointed out that the government would continue to ensure the safety of the public as the economy of the country reopens.

“We emphasize from time to time that we cannot let our guard down,” Galvez said during the recent launch of “Ingat Angat Tayong Lahat.”

He stressed that establishments should ensure the safety of their workers and their clients with stringent protocols which would help sustain the economic recovery and gains.

As the Philippines continues to battle the impact of Covid-19, brands and companies across various industries have banded together to help restart the economy while ensuring consumers’ health and safety

Resilience

The group launched the “Ingat Angat Tayong Lahat” campaign, which sends a message of resilience, hope and inspiration to boost businesses to continually increase their operations while ensuring strict safety standards. The campaign also encourages Filipinos to once again enjoy activities outside the confines of their homes.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon M. Lopez praised the initiative and stressed the importance for businesses to unite in order to win back the confidence of consumers and get the economy back on its feet.

“At this point in managing the Covid-19 pandemic, balancing health and the economy is our main priority. This is why we are pushing for the gradual and safe reopening of the economy. In line with the spirit of the campaign, we can only move forward by supporting and keeping one another safe while protecting lives and livelihoods,” Lopez said.

The trade chief also stressed the importance of strictly following minimum health protocols despite the eased restrictions in the “New Normal” to avoid transmission of the virus while restimulating demand and consumer spending.

Private sector support

The Ingat Angat Tayong Lahat campaign is part of the private sector’s support for Taskforce T3 (Test, Trace, Treat), the multi-sector initiative put together in April 2020 to work closely with the Department of Health (DOH), the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19, and the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to manage the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.

With the reopening of the economy, the

group realized the importance of rebuilding consumer confidence with health and safety still a priority.

For his part, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and CEO of Ayala Corp. and a founding partner of TaskForce T3, underscored the importance of continued public-private sector cooperation.

“The private sector has found a new front where we can be supportive of the fight against Covid, and that is in restoring the confidence of our citizens so that we can all resume our lives and livelihoods so long as we strictly follow the minimum health standards recommended by health experts,” he said.

Margot Torres, managing director for McDonald’s Philippines and Ingat Angat Tayong Lahat communications advocacy co-lead, expressed her faith in the Filipinos’ resilience and optimism.

Mindset transformation

“Ingat Angat Tayong Lahat aims to transform the mindset of consumers. We are breaking through the helplessness many felt at the height of the pandemic and helping lead Filipinos to empowered vigilance and continued safety during this period,” Torres said.

The campaign has already obtained the support of the biggest corporations and brands in the country, including Aboitiz Equity Ventures,

Alliance Global Group (Megaworld, Resorts World, Emperador), Jollibee Foods Corp., McDonald’s Philippines, Goldilocks, BDO, BPI, Metrobank, Paymaya, Alaska, Champion, Century Pacific Food Inc., Coca Cola Philippines, Oishi LIwayway Marketing Corp., PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble Philippines, RFM Corp., Unilever, Petron/San Miguel Corp., Shell, Ayala Malls, Filinvest Development Corp., Robinsons Malls, SM Supermalls, Globe Telecom, Smart Communications, Angkas and Food Panda.

The Ingat Angat media partners include CNN Philippines, GMA, Kapamilya Channel, KBP (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas), Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, Solar Entertainment Corp., TV5, Tiger 22, Facebook, Lazada, Shopee, Viber , Phar Partnerships; and LED OOH and Transit Outdoor partners Activations Advertising Inc. (AAI), Dooh. ph, Globaltronics, Krazy Media Ads Solution, Luneta Advertising, Nyxsys Philippines, Out of Home Advertising Association of the Philippines (OHAAP), Steel Art, Summit Outdoor Media and United Neon (UN).

Agency partners include Bookt, Cobena, EON, HIT Productions, Nuworks, Omnicom Media Group, Pabrika, PSRC, Slingshot, Synergy, TBWA/Santiago Mangada Puno, and Viva Entertainment, Inc., while the press launch event partners include Savoy Hotel Manila and Mercato Centrale. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Lockdown caused Filipinos to delay their health concerns

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

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UE to concerns about getting infected by the Covid-19 disease, health and social distancing protocols have forced patients to forego their check-ups with their physicians since the implementation of community quarantine in March of this year, revealed a study.

In a recent survey conducted by a team of researchers from Zuellig Pharma, more than half of the 660 polled doctors (54 percent) who attended a series of telemedicine webinars said they have lessened their visits to their clinics with 35 percent of them reluctant to see patients face-to-face.

Eight percent of the medical practitioners surveyed indicated that they have no new patients at all. Fifteen percent of them estimated the number of their new patients

has gone down by a quarter, 40 percent said it has decreased by half, and 37 percent have experienced a decline of 75 percent or more.

According to Kidit Afable, Zuellig Pharma Corp. Vice President for Strategy and Innovation, such outcomes show that there is an urgent need for alternatives to face-to-face medical consultations, with people, even doctors themselves, worried about the spread of the virus. “This means many people are putting off seeing a doctor to the detriment of their health,” he said.

The research also bared that medical professionals have already begun adopting telemedicine, as 44 percent of them included this as part of their practice. At present, 62 percent use at least one telemedicine application (app). Of the total number, more than half (57 percent) are on a single app, 40 percent on two to three apps, and 3 percent on four apps or more.

Slow adoption rate

However, the adoption rate of telemedicine among patients has been slow with 66 percent of doctors saying that only some do such online consultations with them. A third (34 percent) of physicians answered that at least half of their patients use telemedicine with them.

“Doctors and patients still have concerns about using telemedicine applications, because of data security, fees and payment options, interconnectivity to pharmacies and laboratories, patient records keeping and user friendliness, among other factors,” said Afable.

With these concerns, Zuellig Pharma launched in late July its very own virtual care network called eZConsult.

“When we were creating eZConsult, we had to include doctors and patients in the development team to deliver a solution that allows simple, secure and safe access to healthcare. We tapped on an extensive panel

of health-care professionals across different specialties including retail pharmacy partners, laboratories, and fintech companies, who provided advice, support and services on the platform,” he said.

Telemedicine and telehealth services are clearly defined in House Bill 7422, or “The Philippine E-Health and Telemedicine Development Act of 2020,” filed by Albay Representative Joey Salceda as an approach to extend health-care services through information and communications technology to patients at a distance from health-care providers.

The measure further establishes the components of electronic health systems and sets basic sector standards and mechanisms for interoperability with traditional and other ways of health-care service delivery, by defining standards of eHealth systems and services, and promoting synergies between different modes.

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Thursday, October 15, 2020 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

Parentlife BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Active learning at home has introduced its newest Playbox—a one-of-a-kind toy that is designed to enhance their kids’ playtime.

Recognizing its important role in the learning and development of kids, especially today when they have to constantly stay indoors, the Huggies Playbox is intended to make playtime more secure, entertaining and engaging for them. This is particularly crucial in the toddlerhood stage when kids begin to explore, learn and connect with the world around them.

The Playbox is bundled with your favorite Huggies Dry Pants that is specially designed for active babies.

With its ability to absorb up to 7 cups of weewee, easy “palit� all-around comfort fit, and anti-kulob breathable cover, babies are kept dry and comfortable so parents can be assured of uninterrupted playtime throughout the day.

Inside every box of diapers will be a carton with either a basketball or a soccer design that, when assembled, transform into either a basketball ring or a soccer goal post that can be safely played with and enjoyed by parents and their little ones. Each also includes an instructional guide, making the Playboy easy to properly set up so parents and their toddlers have memorable bonding moments at home. “The Huggies Playbox affirms our promise to continue supporting moms as they go through the challenging yet fulfilling journey of motherhood, now more so than ever in these unique circumstances that we find ourselves in,� said Brian Duruin, head of marketing, Kimberly-Clark Philippines Inc. “Every pair of Huggies Dry Pants offers the perfect combination of comfort and security with its soft materials and best leakage protection that can keep up with all of a toddler’s movements. In turn, the Huggies Playbox provides an entertaining and engaging toy parent and child can easily use. Together, parents can watch and enjoy seeing their kids move more freely and have a one-of-a-kind playful experience at home.�

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SAN MIGUEL FOODS ROLLS OUT FIRST VEGETARIAN LINE

MEAT-FREE meals can seem daunting at first, but for those choosing to explore or adopt more plant-based food options, San Miguel Foods has just launched an innovative new line of delicious, easy-to-prepare vegetarian food. Veega is the company’s first vegetarian line. It offers a wide range of high-fiber, plant-based, protein offerings that can be used in a wide variety of meals, including well-loved Filipino dishes.

The brand comes in five variants: meat-free balls, burger patties, sausages, giniling, and nuggets. They are already fully-cooked and seasoned. Produced locally

by San Miguel Foods, Veega makes use of wheat, soy, mushroom and egg, with no added preservatives.

San Miguel Foods spent three years studying and developing the perfect formula for these plant-based proteins to fit the Filipino palate.

The company has always endeavored to provide customers with a wide array of food choices so that home cooks can cook with ease, whether it’s tried-and-true recipes, or new discoveries the whole family can enjoy.

Chefs from San Miguel Foods Culinary Center prepared one of their favorite dishes to mark Veega’s launch: Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie (www.homefoodie. com). The creamy mashed sweet potatoes and Magnolia Quickmelt Cheese paired well with Veega’s meat-free giniling and resulted in a hearty meal perfect for dinner time. Whether you are a long-time vegetarian or are just looking to incorporate more plant-based meals in your diet, there is something for every homemaker in Veega’s line of meat-free products.

AST April 16 and April 29, I shared setting time blocks to promote active learning at home. These time blocks can be implemented more easily by setting up your own DIY learning corners at home that would usually include: â– Learning Time Corner: storage boxes/crates sorted by type of learning materials â– Table for Creative Learning and Writing â– Chore Time/Pretend Play Corner: theme play like kitchen, cleaning and other safe pretend play toys â– Active Time Corner: pool which you can fill up with play balls; the corner can also be used for lessmess art time or sports tools.

Sports tools are harder to put up due to space constraints, so I usually recommend easy packaway play equipment like inflatables. I am so glad the diaper brand Huggies has now given us great alternatives.

Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies brand is committed to be the trusted parenthood partner, especially in these uncertain times that have impacted parents’ lives in more ways than one. For instance, the cancellation of classes and the transition to online learning has placed an even bigger responsibility on parents to be both parent and teacher as they constantly search for ways to keep their kids entertained and educated while at home.

To support them and their little ones, Huggies

â– More information is available at www.huggies.com.ph.

OUT-OF-HOSPITAL SERVICES FOR PATIENTS’ WELLNESS WITH the current safety protocols in place, many people have become hesitant about visiting hospitals, which may lead some to postpone crucial medical tests, consultations or vaccinations for other conditions. Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed, www. makatimed.net.ph), a top hospital in the Philippines, is responding to patient needs with a lineup of safe alternatives for a new and healthy normal. ■Offsite Covid-19 testing and house call services: Get swabbed and be tested from the safety of your home. MakatiMed now conducts offsite Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) testing for Covid-19 and regular blood routine procedures. Results can be viewed and accessed on the MakatiMed web site. ■Drive-thru RT-PCR and blood extraction: The center offers these laboratory services for people in need of blood extraction for certain medical tests.

Patients have a choice to have it done via a drive-thru service from the safety of their own private vehicle or from the comfort of their homes. Patients must set an appointment at least two days before their preferred schedule. ■Online consultations: Patients who want to schedule a consultation with their existing MakatiMed doctors can now do it online through TeleMD. Appointments can be set via their doctor’s secretary or through MakatiMed On-Call.  ■Online counseling for diabetes and weight wellness: To ensure that patients with diabetes have convenient access to experts in helping them manage their illness, weight, and overall wellness, the center has also introduced an online counseling service.

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Ncuti Gatwa, 28; Vanessa Marcil, 52; Emeril Lagasse, 61; Sarah Ferguson, 61.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Stand your ground and make a statement. Remain calm, and use intelligence to make your point to help get your way. It’s time to position yourself for the future and to put the past behind you.

Don’t dwell on what you cannot change. What you want will be granted if you focus on what’s important to you and strive to achieve peace and tranquility. Your numbers are 3, 14, 20, 23, 31, 37, 43.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Pick up the pace. Don’t let anyone mess with you. Remain focused on your objective. You will overcome any obstacle that stands in your way. The best is yet to come, so hang on and take one step at a time. ★★★

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’ll face a challenge if you can’t come to terms with what’s happening around you. Take a step back and look at every angle before you make a decision that has lasting effects. Be smart, and set strategic plans in motion. ★★★

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You’ve got what it takes to make a difference. Don’t waste time on the impossible; focus on what you can do, and don’t look back. Walk away from risky situations and people who try to lead you astray. ★★★★★

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Emotions will dictate how well you do. Buck up, and refuse to let trivial matters get to you. Back away if someone doesn’t see things your way. Getting into a dispute will not be worth your time, effort or the trouble it will cause. ★★

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Do something energetic. Self-improvement projects will bring the best results. Do your own thing, and let others do as they please. Concentrate more on you and less on outside influences. Anger will lead to setbacks, not gains. ★★★★

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Say what’s on your mind, but don’t force your will on others.

Kind gestures, truth and understanding will win support. Use your imagination, and you will come up with a plan that will catch on and set the trend.

Romance is favored. ★★★

While the center continues to encourage everyone to stay at home to help contain the spread of Covid-19, it assures patients that its diagnostic and wellness centers are in full operation and continue to be safe for patients and visitors for face-to-face appointments.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Listen to your heart, and take a passionate approach to achieve your goal. Refuse to let anyone stand between you and what you want. Look for innovative ways to deal with negativity, and you will surpass expectations. ★★★

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Choose a unique lifestyle that accommodates the changes you want to implement.

Remembering what has made you happy in the past will encourage you to start planning to backtrack where you left off. Personal and spiritual growth are favored. ★★★

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You can help others without jeopardizing your health, finances or reputation. Make it clear what you are willing to do, and refuse to let anyone talk you into ramping up your contribution. ★★★★

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Let go of situations that consume you. Anger isn’t going to help you accomplish what you set out to do.

Concentrate on the changes you want to make, and work alongside the people willing to help you make your dreams come true. ★★

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Look over contracts and agreements. Update documents, and be sure to handle your finances with care. Moderation will be necessary to avoid money troubles. Refuse to let someone interfere with or control you. Verify the information you receive before you agree to anything. ★★★★★

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): How you help others will lead to unexpected rewards. A change to how you handle a legal, financial or health issue will lead to positive results. A partnership will allow you to expand your ideas and plans. ★★★ MAKATIMED now conducts drive-thru laboratory services for people in need of blood extraction for certain medical tests.

BIRTHDAY BABY: You are proactive, ambitious and persuasive.

You are charismatic and mysterious.

‘geez!’ BY MARK MCCLAIN The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Is suitable 5 Artistic production 9 “We hold ___ truths...�

14 Thief’s booty 15 Rabbit relative 16 Red Sea land 17 Sicilian volcano 18 Outfit with camo?

19 Worked at, as a trade 20 Husbands-to-be in line at the courthouse?

23 Neglected aquarium’s accumulation 24 “___ Sam� (“Green Eggs and Ham� opening) 25 Jane’s role in Glee 28 Crops harvested early in the year?

33 Apt cry from a grumpy shepherd?

36 ___ and downs 37 Worshipped objects 38 Proportionately 41 Nation east of Italy’s “bootheel�

43 Disclose 44 Put to work 45 Pig farm enclosure 46 Baseball accessory that will last a

lifetime? ___ Tome and Principe Pioneering ISP Popular smart speaker Superficial attraction touted in a casino ad?

62 Cautionary tale 64 Doe, for instance 65 Opposed to 66 Grown-up 67 Rae who stars in The Lovebirds 68 Carded 69 Broadway awards 70 Crafter’s online outlet 71 Seldom spotted DOWN 1 Left the coop 2 Small bits 3 Gin go-with 4 Current condition 5 Give the cold shoulder to 6 Install in a gallery 7 Roots 8 Cloth for wiping 9 Key error?

10 Position of leadership 51 52 53 56

11 Sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide 12 “Now do you believe me?�

13 Z, for the alphabet 21 Little rascal 22 Texter’s “I’m shocked!�

26 Dark 27 Writing-intensive test type 29 Primitive road feature 30 Hoppy brew 31 Part of an anatomical cage 32 Oral health advocacy org.

33 4.0 GPA wrecker 34 Hockey game venue 35 Cookout holder?

39 Lichtenstein of pop art 40 “Reprieve� vocalist DiFranco 41 Visual communication syst.

42 Zodiac feline 44 Most foul, like a mood 47 Snatch 48 Hawn in Snatched 49 Relax, with “out�

50 Filled and coated pastry 54 Civic maker 55 Brand name that anagrams to “store�

57 Supporter 58 Team that shares a city with the Yankees 59 Loch of note 60 ___ area (uncertainty) 61 Slaw, say, for BBQ 62 Element in most diet plans 63 Major stir Solution to Monday’s puzzle:

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Show BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Thursday, October 15, 2020

Forgotten Filipinos; forgotten documentaries IN A HURRY

PEOPLE are wondering why this celebrity was so quick to go back to work even in a pandemic. He did not even wait for his former network to get back on its feet before he started looking for opportunities. He is reportedly deep in debt as a result of bad decisions, including an extravagant lifestyle. He and his wife bought a big house and went on many trips. It was all for her because she wanted it. Those who don’t like the celebrity’s wife are now cackling at their situation. It will be recalled that he and his wife got together under sketchy circumstances and they hurt some people along the way. While it’s never right to tell people, “I told you so,” we hope the celebrity and his wife have learned their lesson.

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HE first Philippine festival of documentaries from the earliest works to the most current, Daang Dokyu is back.

With it are more memories. Viewing them is always bittersweet.

More bitter than sweet is a documentary about the Filipino workers, which is titled Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers. According to sources, there were more than a hundred thousand Filipinos who left the Philippines at the turn of the century. Many of them went to Hawaii and worked in pineapple plantations; still many went farther to the US mainland, finding jobs in canneries in Alaska and Washington down to plantations in California. The first major waves took place in the 1920s and 1930s.

Subjected to the harshest conditions, these Filipinos were exploited to the fullest by American companies. Most of them could not read and write; only a handful spoke English. They traveled following the season of planting. The racism present then (still present now) did not allow them to marry local American girls. In fact, anti-miscegenation was enforced for these workers: they were not allowed to intermarry. During weekends, they went to dance halls in the town to fulfill their need for socialization and maybe paid for sex.

The manongs grew old single. A Filipino growing up in a camp remembers how these sad old men gifted him with a brand-new car upon his graduation from high school. They expected him to make something out of his person. For this young man, the manongs lived through the younger generation.

At the core of this documentary is the story of Larry Itliong, a farm labor organizer, and a band of Filipino farm workers. They initiated one of the longest labor strikes in the history of labor movement in the US. In the famous Delano Grape Strike of 1965, the group founded the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

In the retelling of the history of labor movement, the Mexicans who joined forces with the Filipinos were given more prominence. Where the Filipinos played a pivotal role, the movement became more popular as a result of Mexican leadership strongly attributed to Cesar Chavez’s.

After a massive march, the growers relented.

But when the Filipinos went back to the camp to continue working in the farm, they realized they had been duped. The Filipinos got the worse part of the agreement.

The Delano Strike made Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta into two of the well-known historical figures and Mexican-American civil rights activists to Californians and Americans across the nation.

Much as Chavez and Huerta deserve their place in the narrative of labor strikes, the documentary reminds us how erasures have been committed in the historical storytelling.

Who among us remembers names like Itliong and Andy Imutan? Who has encountered Philip Vera Cruz and Pete Velasco in any tale about the migrant Filipinos in the United States? Do not smirk but these individuals have as much weight as Sebastian Elcano, Pigafetta and Magellan if we only consider the world from the Filipino perspective.

HER APPEARANCE

THE press release was that the actress did not renew her contract because she wanted to explore her options while the network said it was because they had no projects to offer her. It’s sad because the actress’ projects have rated well in the past. The truth, according to sources, is that the network wants the actress to rest for a while and take care of herself and that’s putting it kindly. They are very concerned about her weight and appearance. Actually, the sources said they are willing to offer her new contract as long as she is healthy and well. They don’t want her in this state. The actress has long been obsessed with not eating and working out to keep her weight down considering that the cameras make it look like you’ve gained 10 lbs.

LEFT OUT

Here we are spending funds to commemorate the anniversary of the circumnavigation of the world as if we had contributed ships and compasses to the Eurocentric endeavor and forgetting this significant aspect of our diaspora, when Filipinos spoke English for the American capitalists to understand and to their fellow Filipinos Tagalog so that their brothers would best understand the issues.

What has the National Historical Commission of the Philippines done to commemorate the Delano Grape Strike of 1965? I know what I can do: each time I hear the song “Dahil Sa Iyo,” I would remember and pray for the manongs who marched humming the love song as White American growers and policemen threatened them with subordination and beat them.

If only for the memories, we have to thank again Daang Dokyu for this endeavor. There is an urgency in the curating of any and all documentaries about the Philippines. Only the documentary as a form that relies on truth as art rather than art as truth can help us recover those little histories, those tales we dismiss as anecdotal, and make us gradually, effectively whole again.

Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm

Workers is written and directed by Marissa Aroy.

Nominated for the Emmys, the documentary is produced and photographed by Niall Mckay, with editing by Nick August-Perna.

■■■ ATTENTION, filmmakers, film students and teachers: Daang Dokyu is offering talks on Philippine documentaries for free. These sessions will be done via its Facebook and YouTube Channel.

One session will have Prof. Nick Deocampo talking about “Historya ng Dokyupelikula,” which is slated on October 21 at 4 pm. Deocampo will speak on the beginnings and movement of documentary filmmaking in the Philippines “through two World Wars, and from revolution to revolution.”

Deocampo is both a filmmaker and film historian.

He presently teaches as associate professor at the UP Film Institute in the University of the PhilippinesDiliman. As a filmmaker, Deocampo is noted for Oliver, one of his prizewinning works. Done in 1983, the documentary is about a female impersonator whose performance in gay bars support his family.

The film will be streamed by Daang Dokyu from October 16 to 22. ■

WHO is the female celebrity who is not included in the return of a popular TV show? If you look at the show’s promo materials (which are from old pictures), you’ll see that the celebrity’s images have been replaced by those of a more popular actress. Rumor has it that the celebrity was replaced because of her political views and those of her husband’s. During the time that the show was in a limbo and the jobs of many people in peril, the celebrity did not manifest any support. Her husband was even worse as he made statements that were totally not sympathetic. Now that the show is back, the celebrity is out. It’s doubtful if they will ever ask her to return.

HAPPILY RETIRED

SO why did this bigwig retire from all his posts in the company? It’s not that he is sick or has personal problems. He knows the powers-that-be don’t like him and will continue to harass the companies that he heads as long as he remains there. So he did the best thing by retiring. The truth is that before all the ruckus and controversy, the bigwig was already semiretired and had left the management of the companies to professionals. It was the powers-that-be who were obsessed with him and the alleged politicking that he did. It’s no secret that the bigwig had wanted to retire even when he wasn’t of retirement age yet. He has been the target for years when the truth is he isn’t guilty of anything that he’s been accused of.

Globe opens world to Amazon Prime Video titles AFTER a long day of working from home, everyone deserves to unwind and relax.

Does a movie night with the family sound good? With Amazon Prime Video, any night can be movie night because there’s always something new to watch with its selection of critically acclaimed films and unique series. Globe Postpaid subscribers old and new can now enjoy all the amazing titles and features of Amazon Prime Video for up to three months. From critically acclaimed and award-winning Amazon Originals to kids’ content, it’s a guarantee that you will not run out of anything to watch.

Looking for something light and insightful to binge on? Start with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an award-winning period comedy-drama that tells the story of Miriam “Midge” Maisel whose perfect life as a wife and mother in the Upper West Side

takes a sudden turn when she discovers an unknown talent in stand-up comedy and decides to conquer the city’s comedy industry.

Carnival Row, on the other hand, paints a Victorian fantasy world filled with mythological immigrant creatures. Feared by humans, they are forbidden to live, love or fly with freedom. But even in darkness, hope lives, as a human detective and a faerie rekindle a dangerous affair.

You can stream these Amazon Originals and your other favorite content across three devices at any time, including TV, 4K, and smart devices. Movie buffs will also surely love Amazon Prime Video’s exclusive X-ray functionality that gives viewers instant access to cast photos, bios, filmographies and soundtrack info related to the shows and movies while you watch right on the screen.

New customers who will subscribe to any Globe at Home plan will get three months access to Amazon Prime Video, while those who avail themselves Globe ThePlan will get six months access. To activate your Amazon Prime Video access from Globe, all you have to do is text APV to 8080 and click on the activation link that will be sent via SMS. Then log-in to your Amazon account or create one, then tap the “Active” button to finish subscribing to Amazon Prime Video.

Once done, you can now start watching the movies and shows everyone is talking about.

Once the access expires, you can still avail yourselves a 30-day subscription to Amazon Prime Video worth P300 by texting APV300 to 8080. The Amazon Prime Video app is available for download on the App Store and Play Store. More information is available at www.globe.com.ph.

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B6 Thursday, October 15, 2020

FDA: Antigen testing kits still viable for use Tagaytay’s Taal Vista Hotel marks 81st anniversary with special offerings

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AAL Vista Lodge first opened its doors to welcome and serve its guests. In its eighty-one years of heartwarming hospitality and excellence, the lodge has evolved, adapted to changing markets, and overcame industry and nationwide challenges. Today, Taal Vista Hotel is undeniably one of the landmark hotels of Tagaytay relentlessly striving to reach new heights in redefining guest experience and service, even in the midst of a health crisis.

Anniversary Promo

AS a way of saying thank you to the hotel’s loyal patrons, Taal Vista Hotel proudly offers its 81st Anniversary promo for the entire month of October. Guests can avail of this promo that starts at Php5,281

and experience an overnight stay with breakfast for two. It also includes a Filipino Afternoon Tea Set for two, and a complimentary safety kit consisting of facial mask, hand sanitizer and wipes.

Enjoy quiet relaxation and the impressive beauty of Taal Lake with the assurance that you are in a safe haven with the hotel’s SustainablySafe program.

Food Hall

FOR the safety of their dining guests, Taal Vista Hotel has repurposed its buffet setting and introduces its Food Hall, offering a medley of food stations that offer fresh local and international dishes.

Available on Saturdays for lunch and dinner, and on Sundays for lunch only at Php999 per person.

Chillin’ at the Ridge

TAAL Vista Hotel guests who simply want to have some fun and drive a short distance to shake off the blues and fatigues of their days can come and unwind at the hotel.

With the awe-inspiring Taal Lake as the backdrop of their perfect, chill stay, they can enjoy their favorite cocktail drinks with the two-for-one Bacardi cocktails promo for only Php220 for Mojito and Php200 for Cuba Libre.

The hotel’s tagline, “Here, For Always,” continues to live on as it enters its 81st year, and beyond. As Tagaytay’s highlyreputable flagship hotel, Taal Vista Hotel looks forward to welcoming guests with Filipino hospitality at heart, stunning views, and authentic food and beverage offerings for many years to come.

Absolute salutes motherhood, distributes Mommy Welfare Bags to new moms

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O, what's it like being a new mom?’

When a mother is asked this question, you might hear short replies such as “It's great!” or “It’s something else!” Meanwhile, there are probably a dozen words and thoughts coursing through a mother’s mind - scattered emotions going on at any given moment for someone who has just brought a new life into the world. She has finally reached the end of her pregnancy journey and is just at the beginning of a new chapter.

Being a new mom is challenging at the best of times, but doing it during a pandemic presents a whole new set of challenges- especially when you’re separated from your parents, relatives and friends. For many women, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that is suddenly nowhere near what they expected.

While new moms are anxious about how their children will be affected by this experience, Absolute Distilled Drinking Water recognized the tremendous impact that mothers have and the extraordinary measures they take to create normalcy for their families at a time of uncertainty during the sixth-year celebration of Absolute’s Mommy Welfare Month.

Giving importance to hygiene and clean drinking water for infants and moms, Absolute remains committed to supporting the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) Program

at Fabella Hospital while reaching out to other key hospitals such as Philippine General Hospital, East Ave Medical Center, and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (Cebu), through the distribution of Mommy Welfare Bags containing Absolute Water, hygiene kits such as soap, shampoo, cologne, feminine wash, diapers, and cleaning products.

In a special Facebook Live episode participated by the mom experts of Absolute’s Mom Care Series for Absolute Welfare Month Campaign 2020, an informative session took place about the things they learned about their babies, themselves and the ways their ideas of motherhood can change and evolve once the baby arrives.

One of the guests on Mom Care Series was Doc Gellina Maala, a Licensed Pediatrician and a mommy blogger from Millennial Moms PH gave tips and advice focusing on Infant Care. While a new mom might feel overwhelmed during the baby's first few weeks while feeding and diapering, Doc Gela’s tricks can help even the most nervous first-time parents feel confident about caring for a newborn in no time. It indeed takes a village to raise a child but she doesn’t have to do it alone. She can ask help from her husband, her parents, her in-laws, and of course, her pedia.

Lactation and Breastfeeding was also a

topic discussed by Mommy Abigail Yabot, a lactation expert who gave expertapproved breastfeeding advice that every mom needs. It's no easy feat to nourish another human being and support their nutrition through breastfeeding, but since breastmilk is 90% water, one way to make sure a mom gets proper milk supply is through enough hydration with a recommended water intake of three (3) liters a day. Eventually, breastfeeding improves once a new mom learns to take better care of her body.

A relatable mommy concern was tackled by Mommy Rochelle Rivera - she discussed losing baby weight and living a healthy lifestyle. It took nine months to gain the weight, definitely slimming down will pose a challenge. Mommy Michelle reminded new moms that they have created a human being into the world, so being gentle with themselves first and foremost is very important.

As moms, we try as much as possible to accomplish our tasks and duties, all these while going experiencing exhaustion because of nursing and segmented sleep. One of the speakers, Mommy Charisse Villegas shares her advice on how to achieve proper worklife balance. Transitioning into (working) parenthood isn't always easy, but she shared some valuable lessons she learned along the way. One of which is devoting time to pursue a hobby to be a happier person and a happier mom.

While any amount of words can never do new motherhood justice, Absolute’s Mommy Welfare Month’s goal is to try to help new moms appreciate the wonder of it all. It’s times like these that highlight how powerful and all-encompassing a mom’s love isall it takes is the support of one mother to another as they tiptoe along this thrilling, yet challenging journey.

Absolute Distilled Drinking Water will continue to find ways to connect and salute any mother from the past, present, or future. So when they are asked "What's it like to be a new mom?” they can simply state that it’s challenging but it’s downright amazing.

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HE Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines (FDA) clarified that it has not revoked the approval of Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests. “Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests, such as the ones provided by Abbott and SD Biosensor, have been extensively researched, and are widely used and accepted even by the WHO,” noted FDA Director General Dr. Eric Domingo.

“In fact, SD Biosensor is the first Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Test approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for its Emergency Use Listing (EUL).”

Some private companies expressed concern after DOH Usec Rosario Vergeire mentioned a study conducted by the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM), wherein SD Biosensor allegedly did not meet the 80% sensitivity standard of the WHO for diagnostic performance.

According to the Health Undersecretary, SD Biosensor “only posted 71% sensitivity.”

The FDA chief sought to put these numbers in the right context. “The WHO would not approve SD Biosensor in their EUL if the test did not pass their strict standards and guidelines. They approved it based on several validation tests done in different centers. In the Philippines the 71.43% sensitivity estimate of the RITM (with a 95% confidence interval of 55.42 - 84.28) is not significantly different from their 80% requirement,” Domingo explained. “It is also important to note that the use of antigen tests is recommended for settings where Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) are unavailable, or where prolonged turnaround time makes RT-PCR impractical.”

FDA Director General Dr. Eric Domingo

Apart from its wide use across Singapore, Japan, Korean, Malaysia, and the European Union, SD Biosensor’s Standard Q COVID-19 Ag Test is likewise being used in India, Honduras, Colombia, West Africa, and many other Low-to-Middle Income Countries (LMIC) because it is part of a global partnership to make test kits readily available for poorer countries. This initiative was executed through the efforts of the WHO, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Unitaid, Africa Center for Disease Control, Abbott Pharmaceuticals, SD Biosensor and many other private and government entities.

“At present, RT-PCR techniques are still the gold standard for COVID-19 testing,” Domingo said. “On the other hand, Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests may play an important role when used correctly, because they can be done quicker and with considerably less cost. Both can be complementary in the fight against COVID-19,” he concluded.

AMIE: A safe co-work space with reliable connectivity

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OOKING for a safe space, with reliable internet, to work or attend virtual meetings outside your homes? Come to AMIE (Ayala Malls Internet Exchange) located at Market! Market! 3rd Floor beside Dental City. This available space inside the mall serves a secondary purpose to its community as a co-working space serving reliable internet connection for its users.

AMIE is an initiative project of Ayala Malls, in partnership with Globe, that aims to provide a convenient and productive space to students, teachers, professors and career professionals and finish day-today tasks outside their homes.

Bring your laptops or tablets with you and book a seat for an hour for only P50. Teachers and students get a 20% off at PhP40/hour. Plugs are available for each table for you to stay connected.

AMIE welcomes teachers, career professionals,

freelancers, and students aged 21 years old and up.

To book a seat, simply present your valid ID with birthdate (students need to present their school ID too) to our AMIE officers.

Face masks and face shields must be worn at all times.

Eating is allowed in this area. Please keep the area tidy and don't forget to Clean As You Go. You can also have your snacks delivered to you via ANA (Ayala Malls Neighborhood Assistant).

Proper social distancing must be observed at all times.

Please use headphones or earphones as consideration to others in the co-working space.

A disinfection station is available within the area for your use.

Follow Market! Market! on Facebook to get updates on their latest campaigns, online events, and exclusive promos. Happy co-working!

Villar stresses value of wetland park as bird sanctuary

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EN. Cynthia Villar stressed anew the importance of wetlands in providing wildlife habitats, including as sanctuary of migratory birds.

On the occasion of the World Migratory Bird Day, Villar said the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park (LPWP) located South of Manila Bay, has served as resting and feeding grounds for migratory birds coming from Japan, China, and Siberia.

“Wetlands have a unique characteristic and serve a lot of functions that is why these areas are protected and preserved,” Villar said.

Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, authored Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas Act or E-NIPAS Act, which lists the Las PinasParanaque Wetland Park as a protected area.

The park is a 175- hectare nature reserve providing sanctuary to 82 species of wild bird including Philippine ducks, Chinese egret, and the Black-winged stilts.

It has 36 hectares of mangrove forest, the thickest and most diverse among the remaining mangrove areas in Manila Bay. There are at present 11 mangrove species growing in the area. It is the spawning ground of fishes in Manila Bay supporting the livelihood of 300,000 fisherfolk in Manila Bay. The Ramsar Convention recognizes Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park’s global importance to biodiversity that it declared the park as a Wetland of International

Importance along with six other sites in the Philippines, namely; 1.the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park in Palawan; 2. the Tubbataha Reefs National Marine Park in Sulu; 3. the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Agusan del Sur; 4. the Naujan Lake National Park in Oriental Mindoro; 5. the Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary in Cebu; and 6. the Negros Occidental Coastal Wetlands Conservation Area in Negros Occidental.

Villar also underscored the urgency of preserving the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park in the face of plans to reclaim Manila Bay. “There are reclamation projects that plan to build on the buffer zones of the park. We are vigorously opposing this because buffer zones should not be touched in order to preserve the landscape where the wetland now thrives,” Villar said.

The senator has expressed her opposition to the plan of Bacoor and Paranaque local governments to reclaim 320 hectares and 287 hectares, respectively, in portions of Manila Bay which are delineated as buffer zones of Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park.

The World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated twice this year—May 9 and October 10. With the theme “Birds Connect Our World,” this year’s celebration aims to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of ecosystems that support the natural movements of migratory birds.

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

B7 Thursday, October 15, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Israel inaugurates honorary consulate in Davao

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By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief @awimailbox

AVAO CITY—The State of Israel opened its honorary consulate here on October 6, in a meaningful ceremony which recalled the open-door policy by former Philippine president Manuel L. Quezon that allowed the hosting of Jewish refugees in World War II. It was the same historic event that had been recalled in speeches during the installation of the consulate in this city, and of Honorary Consul Jorge Narciso Marquez.

Following Rabbi Eliyahu Azaria’s blessing rite, Ambassador Rafael Harpaz affirmed that his country would forever cherish this singular act of an Asian country, which he said was further galvanized by the support of the Philippines, courtesy of the late president Manuel A. Roxas, as the lone Asian country which supported in the 1947 United Nations General Assembly the recognition of the

creation of the Israeli state.

The ambassador also recalled that Israel had been returning the favor to Filipinos. During the devastation of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan) in 2013, the state sent “the biggest amount of assistance” in the form of two medical and rescue ships, medical doctors, relief personnel and 100 tons of medical items. (The envoy would later mention about the birth of babies in Eastern Visayas named “Israel.”)

Harpaz said the honorary consulate would have jurisdiction over the entire Mindanao region to heighten

tion, had also provided medical supplies and equipment to the Bunawan District Lying-in, Malabog Birthing Home, and Toril Health Center in Davao City. The donated items aim to assist in the upgrading of the said facilities and address the needs of the health centers.

Officials send greetings

OFFICIAL unveiling of the plaque at the honorary consulate in Davao City, with Honorary Consul Jorge Narciso Marquez (second from right). EMBASSY OF ISRAEL

business and other opportunities, especially in agriculture and tourism.

As he read Marquez’s appointment in Hebrew and English, the Israeli diplomat described the consul general as a symbol of “the best of humankind,” and that no other person is more fit for the position: An amazing family man, and an exemplar of the Filipinos.

Biblical reference

IN his acceptance of the assignment, Marquez regards it as a “privilege” to represent the nation of Israel, and to assist in establishing harmonious relationships between the two nations.

He likewise noted a Biblical refer-

ence to the address of the consulate general and the chapter of Book of Psalms of the same number.

As one of the first foreign contingents to assist the Philippines in dealing with the pandemic, Israel had donated medical and construction materials to the Davao City Health Office, including personal protective equipment, doppler monitors, computers and air conditioners. It has also provided training to local professionals, including a yearly sponsorship of study travel to about 600 Filipinos.

Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, Mashav, with Marquez prior to his installa-

IN his speech, Yoray Ofek, president of the Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, believes in the honorary consulate’s potential to amplify the partnership between the two countries. Jewish Association of the Philippines President Salito Malca also extended his group’s warm felicitations for the opening.

For Mindanao and Davao, Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio sees the consulate serving as a gateway to boost beneficial projects by both countries, as well as increase the bilateral and exchanges of Davaoeños and Israelis even further. The local chief executive recalled in her keynote that she accompanied the president two years ago to Israel that paved the stronger diplomatic ties between the two peoples and governments.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Foreign

Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. confirmed the relations between the Philippines and Israel continued to be vibrant in the areas of defense, agriculture, labor, and tourism. He cited the waived the visa requirement for Filipinos traveling to Israel, usually for pilgrimage and work.

Mindanaoan Senators Emmanuel D. Pacquiao, Christopher Lawrence T. Go and Ronald M. de la Rosa also sent their greetings via video.

In his recorded congratulatory message on the installation, President Duterte considers the opening of the consulate as “another significant landmark in the long history of the bilateral relations between Israel and the Philippines.

The Chief Executive, the event’s guest of honor, deemed the development will “further cement the mutual trust, goodwill, and friendship between our countries,” and that “the strong Israeli presence will contribute to Mindanao’s rise by opening new opportunities, investments, employment, and people-to-people exchanges.”

The honorary consulate was the latest addition to the current consulate general offices of Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and China.

With a report from Mike Policarpio

Australia’s biz links to support PHL’s Covid-19 recovery SFA receives Russian, BUSINESS ENVOY

Steven J. Robinson AO Ambassador of Australia to the Philippines

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S friend and long-standing partner to the Philippines, Australia is calling for partnerships with inclusive businesses to create both development impacts and sustainable commercial returns, while supporting the Philippines’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has resulted in significant economic impact in countries across the world. In the Indo-Pacific, the economic impacts from travel, trade and social restrictions have been severe. Businesses and households have seen their sources of income disappear overnight, with demand for tourism falling, including disruption to agriculture, manufacturing, and services sectors dramatically reducing revenue and business survival rates across the board.

As both our countries respond to and recover from Covid-19, the role of business

in adapting and building back better to support green recovery and more sustainable, resilient economies have become even more important. The private sector is an essential source of finance, insights and ideas to tackle the challenges of the pandemic. That is why engagement with the private sector is an important part of the Australian developmentcooperation program in the Philippines.

The Business Partnerships Platform (BPP) supports partnerships between the Australian government and businesses. It encourages the private sector to develop new initiatives, or scale those existing, that advance sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific region and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

Thinking creatively

DESPITE the health crisis, more Australian companies in the Philippines are directly

supporting Covid-19 recovery efforts. For example, the Australian digital mentalhealth provider Virtual Psychologist has been offering the country’s first text-based psychology services for corporates and individuals to help meet high demand of mental health services brought about by unprecedented levels of change, stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic.

Through our development cooperation program, Australia’s SaferKidsPH is collaborating with local and international business community such as the Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce or ANZCHAM, Globe Telecom, PLDT-Smart, Facebook and Twitter in creating a safer online environment for children, which aims to protect them against online (and offline) abuse and exploitation.

Australia’s partnership with Philippine Business for Education through A Future that Works program is supporting industries upskilling Philippine work force to best match local and global industry needs to address the effects of digitalization. On the other hand, our country’s Investing in Women is working with the Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc. to support the growth of women’s small and medium enterprises at this critical time to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 through gender-lens investments that generate not only financial returns, but also economic and social benefits to women.

PHL’s Asean SOM leader heads talks on post-Asean Community Vision 2025

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MBASSADOR Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, the Philippines’s Asean Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) leader, led the country’s delegation to a series of meetings to prepare for next month’s 37th Asean Summit and Related Summits.

Buensuceso said that senior officials from all Asean member-states discussed preparations for next month’s Leaders’ meetings, including those related to regional community building efforts, pandemic recovery initiatives, regional and international issues, as well as TimorLeste’s membership application to the bloc during the Asean SOM, Asean Joint Consultative Meeting (JCM), and the meeting of the Asean Coordinating Council Working Group on Timor-Leste.

“The Philippines congratulated Vietnam for pushing Asean deliverables this year, despite [challenges brought by the coronavirus disease 2019] Covid-19,” the Philippine ambassador said. “We also supported key Asean efforts, such as the establishment of the Covid-19 Asean Response Fund, and an Asean Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies for Public Health Emergencies.”

She added that “looking forward, we discussed the development of a post-Asean Community Vision 2025 and various initiatives with Asean’s dialogue partners.”

At the SOM, pending applications to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, or the TAC, were also tackled.

On the region’s pandemic response, the Asean Secretariat briefed the meeting on the progress of initiatives by the Asean Coordinating Council Working Group on Public Health Emergencies, or ACCWG-PHE, particularly on the Covid-19 Asean Response Fund to facilitate the channeling of financial resources, including those from external partners.

At the JCM attended by Asean SOM leaders and representatives from the Asean Economic Officials’ Meeting, Senior Officials’ Committee for the Asean Socio-Cultural Community Council and the Committee of Permanent Representatives to Asean, the meeting discussed the bloc’s 2020 priorities in community building efforts, the strengthening of regional identity, and the streamlining of Asean-led mechanisms.

Regarding the application for Asean membership of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, or East Timor, the meeting discussed progress reports and ongoing assessment programs to determine the said country’s readiness to join Asean.

Asean member-states also agreed on Timor-Leste’s continued participation in various capacity building activities, including its attendance in selected Asean meetings.

Buensuceso emphasized that the Philippines supports capacity building initiatives for Timor-Leste and proposed training programs for the latter’s diplomats and other government officials on Asean diplomacy, conference management and the English language. DFA

Accepting applications

WHILE business solutions like these provide dividends for a more resilient future, we need more bold and creative ideas that can contribute to Covid-19 economic recovery in the Philippines.

The BPP can cofinance with businesses which support Filipino economic recovery in skills development, cyber security and digitalization of services—including mental health services. Businesses can apply individually or in a consortium. Interested parties should refer to the BPP web site thebpp.com.au for application guidelines, which provides all the relevant information on eligibility criteria and the process for submitting concept notes. I encourage you to contact applications@thebpp.com.au with any questions or for support.

Deadline for BPP applications is November 4. Successful partnerships will benefit from access to Australia’s networks and expertise, as well as matched funding.

We look forward to working with successful applicants, as business capabilities and innovative ideas can help us to build back better, create livelihood opportunities and enhance gender equality—all of which support green economic recovery and the future of the Philippines.

(Steven J. Robinson AO is the Ambassador of Australia to the Philippines. Follow him on Twitter: @AusAmbPH).

Locsin discusses with China FM Wang potential ‘fast lane’ for exchanges, services

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PON the invitation of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SFA) Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. undertook an official visit to the People’s Republic of China from October 9 to 11.

On October 10, the two foreign ministers held a bilateral meeting to take stock of priority political and economic two-way cooperation initiatives.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, both sides reaffirmed the continuing vitality of relations despite the constraints imposed by the pandemic, and pledged to forge ahead with sustained policy dialogues, as well as economic and infrastructure cooperation projects. Wang affirmed China’s commitment of support to the Philippine government’s infrastructure drive under the “Build, Build, Build” program.

The two also engaged in a candid and in-depth exchange on regional security concerns, as well as issues of mutual interest in the context of Asean-China ties in which the Philippines acts as China coordinator, as well as in wider multilateral fora.

At the meeting’s close, Locsin and Wang confirmed the prospective establishment of a “fast lane for urgently needed personnel exchanges” between the Philippines and China to facilitate—with due safeguards—the movement of essential official exchanges and travel by personnel in crucial industries such as business and trade, infrastructure, logistics, production, as well as technical services.

Joining the SFA were Madame Ma. Lourdes B. Locsin, Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs Meynardo L.B. Montealegre, Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana, Chief of Presidential Protocol and Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs Robert E.A. Borje, Philippine Embassy-Beijing Minister Raphael S.C. Hermoso, Special Assistant Shiena Escoto-Tesorero, Embassy Third Secretary and Vice Consul Jet C. Olfato, as well as Asian and Pacific Affairs Principal Assistant Emilio O. Lopue Jr. The state councilor received the SFA and his entourage in Tengchong City, in the southern province of Yunnan. DFA

Chilean envoys

SECRETARY Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. (left) welcomes Ambassador of Chile Claudio Alberto Rojas Rachel. DFA-OSCR NILO K. PALAYA

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ECRETARY of Foreign Affairs (SFA) Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. recently received the Republic of Chile’s Ambassadordesignate to the Philippines Claudio Alberto Rojas Rachel, who succeeded Ambassador José Miguel Capdevila Villarroel.

Locsin and Rojas evaluated the state of Philippine-Chilean relations, including preparations to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between the two countries in 2021, as well as the local hosting of the sixth Philippine-Chile bilateral consultations to be held also in the same year.

Both officials reaffirmed their commitments to further boost cooperation in key areas including trade and investment, disasterrisk management, agriculture and people-to-people relations.

The diplomats also took the opportunity to discuss important regional and multilateral developments at the United Nations, Asean, Apec and the Pacific Alliance, on various issues such as human rights, and also development cooperation.

The SFA and the Chilean envoy expressed optimism in their shared desire to deepen overall ties as well as intensify two-way cooperation, including expanding economic opportunities between the Philippines and Chile.

Undersecretary Brigido D. Dulay, Assistant Secretary Maria Lumen B. Isleta and Special Assistant Therese R. Cantada joined the secretary for the meeting.

Russian diplomat bids farewell

LOCSIN and Ambassador Igor A. Khovaev DFA-OSCR NILO K. PALAYA

A FEW days prior, Igor Anatolyevich Khovaev, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Philippines, paid a farewell call on Locsin at the Department of Foreign Affairs headquarters.

The SFA expressed his appreciation to Khovaev for his contribution to the enhancement of Philippines-Russia relations.

During the ambassador’s tenure, the Philippines witnessed a reinvigoration of bilateral ties with Russia, as the former sought to deepen ties with nontraditional partners.

Along with increasing bilateral engagements and peopleto-people partnerships, several agreements were signed between the Philippines and Russia in the areas of trade and economy, science and technology, nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, space sciences, nuclear medicine, basic research, legal and judicial cooperation, defense cooperation, and culture.

Joining the call were Mesdames Ma. Lourdes B. Locsin and Maria Ilina. Madame Locsin thanked Madame Ilina for the latter’s active involvement in various social and charitable activities, as well as diplomats’ spouses’ initiatives. The latter expressed her gratitude for the warmth and hospitality accorded to them during their stay, including the generous support they received for the activities initiated by the Russian Embassy.

Khovaev ends this month his five-year tour of duty as Russia’s top diplomat in the country. DFA

B8 Thursday, October 15, 2020 | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao

OBIENA TAKES A BREAK E

By Annie Abad

RNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA gets a much-needed break from the rigors of competition turned even more tedious by health and safety protocols during Covid-19 pandemic now that the European summer is over and competitions are back into hibernation.

“We do unstructured training now because the season’s over,” Obiena said during a light online chat with BusinessMirror from his room at the World Pole Vault Centre in Formia, Italy.

“We do cross training for much of the rest of the year,” added Obiena, one of four Filipinos who are already qualified for the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021—the others are world champion gymnast Carlos Yulo and boxers Eumir Felix Marcial and Irish Magno.

But Obiena said he and his world renowned coach, Vitaly Petrov, are fine-tuning

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EAD Coach Raoul Cesar “Nash” Racela and his Blackwater Elite are in for another tough assignment when they clash with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Thursday in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup restart at the Angeles University Foundation Gym. The Elite, coming off a stunning 96-89 victory over the heavily favored Northport Batang Pier last Monday, battle the Gin Kings at 6:45 p.m.

Despite the rousing start, Racela insisted it’s still a long way to go inside the Clark bubble.

Besides, hr Gin Kings—even without 7-foot Greg Slaughter—also made a statement with their 102-92 crushing of the NLEX Road Warriors last Sunday behind a well-balanced offense led

by Aljon Mariano’s 20 points.

his skills, particularly on how he attacks the runway and post take off.

“The program continues. We need to work on both the runway and after takeoff, but most especially on the take off, that’s where some of my problems lie,” he said.

According to Obiena, a pole vaulter consumes more than 20 poles in training and competition.

Obiena has been away from home since December, when he displayed his world-class form to Filipino fans by winning gold in the 30th Southeast Asian Games the country hosted.

The 24-year-old former University of Santo Tomas star also told BusinessMirror he was relieved after he got a new 10-year Philippine passport.

“A little worry gone,” he said.

Like all other athletes locked down abroad, Obiena said he longs for home.

“As much as I want to go home, I couldn’t

because of Covid-19 restrictions,” he said.

“And I still have responsibilities here for the Filipino people.”

Despite being away most of the time, he said there are times that he gets homesick. And he misses his mom Jeanette the most.

“EJ missed several Christmas Days already since 2014 [when he started training abroad]. But he knows his responsibility, and he has a dream,” Jeanette Obiena said. “He’s one fine son who wants to make fun most of the time. If he’s not having fun, that means he’s got an injury somewhere.”

EJ is the eldest child of Jeanette and former pole vaulter himself, Emerson. They have a 22-year-old daughter, Emily Jean.

“I am really thankful because despite the pandemic, EJ is getting all these blessings from his competitions,” Jeanette Obiena added.

He earned his ticket to Tokyo in the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in Doha where he set a personal best and Philippine record

of 5.81 meters.

Obiena saw action in seven competitions during the season.

He won gold at the World Athletics Continental Tour Ostrava Golden Spike at the Czech Republic, silver at the Finest Pole Vaulter event in Formia and Trivenetto Meeting in Trieste both in Italy and bronze at the Monaco and Rome Diamond League and Poznan Athletics Grand Prix in Poland.

He settled for fifth place at the Golden Roof at Inssbruck and World Athletics Continental Tour also in Poland.

Racela, Elite stake mettle against Cone, Ginebra Kings “I would say the Gin Kings are one of the teams who haven’t lost their chemistry and cohesion because they have been together for a long time,” Racela said. “So even during the pandemic and the absence of games for seven months, they still know their game and all they just need is to focus on their conditioning.”

Even without Slaughter, the presence of 6-foot-9 Japeth Aguilar, 6-foot-7 Joe Devance and 6-foot-8 Prince Caperal make the Gin Kings formidable foe, according to Racela.

After Ginebra, Blackwater will be colliding with NLEX on Saturday.

Ginebra Head Coach Tim Cone, on the other

hand, views the Elite as dangerous opponent.

Don Trollano, Shej Roi Sumang and Mac Belo combined for 50 points in their first assignment in the restart.

“Blackwater looks in great shape and they were really prepared in their last game as they knocked out the fancied Northport team,” Cone said. “We think they will be a very formidable opponent.”

“We’re hoping a couple extra days of practice will get Japeth and LA [Tenorio] a little closer to full strength and allow them to contribute more this time around,” he said.

“Right now, there is a such a level playing field because you don’t know who the best

ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA strikes a pose in a sunny day in Italy.

teams are. It’s less about talent than it is about being in shape and prepared,” Cone added.

Phoenix Super LPG (1-0 win-loss) tries to secure back-to-back wins as it meets Northport (0-1) at 4 p.m.

The Fuel Masters, Elite and Gin Kings are all hoping to tie early leader TNT Tropang Giga (2-0) at the top of the standings. Josef Ramos

PSC set to host financial literacy athletes’ webinar

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HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will conduct a two-day financial literacy online seminar and workshop exclusively for national athletes and coaches on October 29 and 30 with renowned Registered Financial Planner (RFP) and journalist Salve Duplito.

“We believe this financial literacy webinar is very timely in this time of Covid-19 pandemic. We want to encourage all our national athletes, coaches and our employees to start their journey to financial wellness while they are young.” PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez said.

“I have seen so many former athletes squander away winnings and end up in a sorry state in their old age,” Ramirez added. “It pains me to see our athletes get into that situation.”

Duplito is one of the prime movers of financial literacy in the country. She co-anchored ANC’s “On the Money” and now actively continues to teach different sectors of society in her Youtube channel.

In partnership with the PSC, Joshua Munzon aims to impart her skills and expertise to provide the national team members with a solid understanding of the basics of financial management and create an awareness of good stewardship of money.

“We teach them the values of discipline and dedication in sports. These are the same values they can apply on how they handle their finances. I really wish that they all exit from being athletes with a comfortable life,” Ramirez said. The PSC also conducted a free financial literacy seminar for Team Philippines, with Duplito also teaching.

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HE Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) is shocked and perplexed at published statements attributed to boxer Eumir Felix Marcial VARGAS putting Abap in a bad light following his trip to the USA for a professional fight.

“I don’t understand what Eumir is complaining about. Despite our pleas for him to start fighting as a professional after the Olympics, he decided to embark on a pro career at this stage.

We wanted to help him in the transition but he refused our offers to assist him in that process,” Abap President Ricky Vargas said.

Vargas and ABAP secretary-general Ed Picson had originally tried to help in negotiations with promoters who offered Marcial juicy professional contracts with the end in view of synergizing the switch to professional boxing.

Picson said Eumir wanted to have a professional contract because he said he “wanted to help his family financially.”

“Mr. Vargas and I talked with him several times during the lockdown telling him we would propose to promoters that they sign

President’s Cup lifts national 3x3 team members’ morale for OQT

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OR Joshua Munzon, the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3X3 will boost their morale and skills heading into the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in May next year in Graz, Austria.

The national 3x3 team members, like everybody else in the world of sports, were sidelined for seven months because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“For now, I just want to focus on this first conference of the Chooks-to-Go 3x3 league. I think this league is the step in the right direction of preparing ourselves for the OQT and we could build momentum from here,” Munzon told BusinessMirror through a private message.

Munzon, a graduate of California State Los Angeles in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II, is part of the national 3X3 squad also composed of fellow Chooks-to-Go player Alvin Pasaol and Philippine Basketball Association stars CJ Perez of Terrafirma and Mo Tautuaa of San Miguel Beer.

Seven squads already entered the Inspire Sports Academy bubble in Calamba, Laguna, on Wednesday, including Munzon and Pasaol of Family’s Brand Sardines-Zamboanga City Chooks, for the inaugural season-opening

President’s Cup tournament powered by TM. Also inside the so-called Calambubble were Uling Roasters-Butuan City, Bacolod Master Sardines, Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards, Palayan City Capitals, Porac-Big Boss Cement Green Gorillas and Pasig-Sta. Lucia Realtors.

“It’s all systems go for us,” Commissioner Eric Altamirano told an online press conference on Wednesday. “We can’t wait for all our teams to be there and start playing.”

A preseason tournament for the 12 teams is set on October 19 at the bubble which is a satellite campus of National University.

The first leg will then kick off on October 21 followed by three more legs every other day in the tournament that has Gatorade as its official hydration partner.

Finally, P1 million will be up for grabs in the Grand Finals of the International Basketball Federation 3x3-endorsed tournament on October 30.

The players had to go through another round of tests before entering the state-ofthe-art complex. They will undergo a two-day quarantine inside their rooms before being allowed to train. Josef Ramos

PLAYERS start entering the Inspire Sports Academy bubble in Calamba, Laguna, on Tuesday.

VARGAS TO MARCIAL: WHAT’S YOUR BEEF? him up and pay him his multi-milliion peso signing bonus but allow him to fight in the Olympics first, before engaging in his first pro fight”, Picson said.

“We reached out MARCIAL to one of the serious promoters- American & Hallof Fame awardee Shelly Finkel, and he readily agreed. Even Sen. Manny Pacquiao, who eventually signed him, issued statements saying he believed Marcial should focus on the Olympics,”he added.

But Marcial said he had another team negotiating his professional contract.

The Abap secgen also said they gave Marcial all the support possible.

Picson said Abap sent him training equipment he requested for after the lockdown was lifted. They also sent him a pocket wi-fi to help him attend the daily online training sessions but he did not attend a single one.

With regards incentives for his performance in the Olympic qualifiers, it it true that neither Marcial nor the other Olympic qualifier, Irish Magno, have been given their Abap incentives for qualifying to the Olympics.

Vargas said they always give incentives to their boxers, even for the smallest of

tournaments, although it is not mandatory.

“Amateurs are supposed to compete for flag and country. Just ask athletes from other sports and other countries. But Abap always gives. Then again, these are challenging times, so we are still sourcing funds for that. I hope he will be patient.

We will give him money. We even wrote PSC to upgrade his & Magno’s allowances after they qualified”, the Abap president clarified.

As to his desire to have national coaches accompany him to his training in the US for a professional fight, Picson said it was Marcial himself who informed him the PSC had told him [Marcial] that they would allow the coaches to go but will not pay them allowances.

“Which makes perfect sense,” according to Picson, “since these coaches are being paid

by PSC to work with the National Team for amateur boxing, not for the pros. And how would the other boxers feel, if they were denied the services of two of our best coaches because they had to attend to one professional boxer?”

Still, Picson said he informed Marcial that Australian coaching consultant Don Abnett was offering to train him daily at Marcial’s residence in Cavite weeks before he left for the US. “I told Eumir of Don’s offer, and informed him Abap would shoulder Abnett’s transportation expenses in commuting from Malate [where Abnett lives], to his place in Cavite and back. He agreed.”