What is needed, Peña-Reyes told this newspaper, is for travel restric tions to be put in place swiftly and
AHEAD
ernment to reimpose mandatory facility-based quarantine for all arriving passengers in the country.
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“ I will be joined in these meet ings by key private sector rep resentatives who have been and will continue to be our partners in this endeavor. More vibrant PPPs will allow us to achieve the better normal that we all aspire for,” he Amongadded. theCabinet officials to accompany Marcos during his US trip are Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo, Finance Sec retary Benjamin E. Diokno, Pub lic Works Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, Tourism Secretary Ma. Esperanza G. Frasco, Transporta tion Secretary Jaime J. Bautista, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pan gandaman, Energy Secretary Ra phael M. Lotilla, Information and Communications Technology Sec retary Ivan E. Uy, Migrant Work ers Secretary Susan Ople, Socio economic Planning Secretary
“We will scrutinize the budget [at the plenary] and ensure the ju dicious allocation and use of our national budget,” Dalipe added.
P25.00 nationwide 2 sections 20 pages |
In his pre-departure speech at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 Sun day morning, Marcos said the local business leaders accompa nying him will help attract addi tional private sector investors to the“Icountry. willalso participate in busi ness activities to forge more part nerships to advance our national economic and sustainable develop
“The committee approval [of the 2023 national budget will be] tomorrow (Monday) and plenary debates begin on Tuesday 9 am with DBCC [Development Budget Coordination Committee,” Quimbo told BusinessMirror on Sunday.
To note, IATF Resolution 150A had allowed fully vaccinated non-visa travelers from Green List areas to enter the country with out the need for facility-based quarantine as long as they secure negative Reverse TranscriptionPolymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) test within 72 hours prior to their “Exceptdeparture. forcountries classified as ‘Red,’ the testing and quarantine protocols for all inbound interna tional travelers in all ports of entry shall comply with the testing and quarantine protocols for ‘Yellow’ list countries,” Nograles said, citing the provision of IATF Resolution No.
Last week, the LTFRB approved a P1 fare increase for jeepney fares and Modern Public Utility Jeepneys (MPUJs) for the first four kilometers; P2 increase for bus fares for the first five kilometers; P5 increase in the taxi and TNVS flagdown rate, among others.
OVER 3-M FARMERS LISTED FOR P75-B COCO LEVY FUND
M
The economists told Business Mirror that the decision of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to raise fares will be inflationary and could trigger a slew of price increases and calls for wage hikes.
By Samuel Medenilla Jovee
dating its registry following the enactment of the Coconut Farm ers and Industry Trust Fund law.
Rosales explained that about 500,000 coconut farmers and workers were added to the PCA’s 2018 list that had about 2.5 million coconut farmers and farm workers.
for government to be proactive in imposingPreviousthem.instances when the country had the opportunity to im pose travel restrictions did not pre vent the spread of Covid-19. That was mainly because the decision was not made immediately, he said.
T
See “Omicron,” A2
Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
to
Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the govern ment’s gross borrowings during the 10-month period fell by 5.99 percent from P2.92 trillion a year ago. With only two months left for this year, the latest figure is already equivalent to 89.6 percent of its P3.07-trillion borrowing program.
ment in general,” Marcos said.
“It (increase in prices) might be significant. That is why we’ve been saying that part of the limited budget should be used as subsidies targeted to transport and logistics so that we can forestall price increases in other goods and services. Transport and logistics have wide linkages with the rest of the economy,” Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Devel opment (ACERD) Associate Direc tor Ser Percival K. Peña-Reyes told BusinessMirror
The PCA’s next step is to con duct an exclusion-inclusion pro cedure by making the updated farmers’ registry public, provid ing everyone the opportunity to
n Monday, September 19, 2022 Vol. 17 No. 346
coming up and more foreigners being allowed to travel to the Philippines, De La Salle Univer sity economist Maria Ella Oplas toldTheBusinessMirrorholidaysusually bring in Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are eager to spend Christmas
“It is better that we do protective preventive measures than get ex posed again. We have a lot to lose,” Oplas said. “We should do it now so that we can open just before Christ mas. If it gets contained, we can open it again.”Ateneo Center for Economic Re search and Development (ACERD) Associate Director Ser Percival K. Peña-Reyes said closing the country’s borders would be effec tive but should still adhere to the standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Deputy Administrator Roel
w
Net debt redemption means there were more debts repaid com pared to the amount borrowed dur ing the Meanwhile,period. gross foreign bor rowings in the same period also contracted by 9.7 percent to P518.7 billion from last year’s P574.4 billion.
Rosales said the PCA will not stop updating its list of coconut farmers and enjoined them to reg ister in order to reap the benefits of the decades-long idled coconut levy fund. “We will not stop at 3.1 million. We hope that more indi viduals will register in our coconut farmers registry,” he said.
O ensure swift approval of the government’s national spending program for 2023, the House of Representatives will start this week plenary debates on the P5.268-trillion national budget for next Houseyear. Committee on Appro priations Senior Vice Chairperson Stella Luz Quimbo confirmed the
target is to get approval of the 2023 national budget at the committee level on Monday (today).
“On the other hand, if people would see names on the list and they think they are not coconut farmers or their details are incor rect, they can report it to the PCA for immediate action,” he added.
Kung papatay patay [If we’re slow] and we get caught flat-foot ed, [that’s risky] We were too re active instead of proactive before. We should learn from that,” PeñaReyes said. “It’s a delicate balancing act. We need to push testing and tracing to be properly informed of our decisions. Blanket/shotgun approaches could have dire conse quences on the economy.” borders, cut Omicron exposure risk’
The PCA official noted that
The updating of the coconut
EXPERTS: FACE HIGHER INFLATION
programs as President Duterte is expected to sign the industry development plan in early 2022.
P.
P RESIDENT Ferdinand “Bong bong” R. Marcos, Jr. is eyeing to forge more public-private partnerships (PPP) to help in the country’s pandemic recovery dur ing his trip to the United States (US) this week for the 77th Session of the United Nations General As sembly (UNGA).
By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
FILIPINOS
100 DAYS OF HAPPINESS To kickstart the Christmas countdown, SM Supermalls began its 100 Days of Happiness on September 16, aiming create a circle of happiness with 76 participating malls, shoppers, the marginalized communities of women, persons deprived of liberty, artisans, cause-oriented organizations, and select local government units. Through the campaign, SM Supermalls encourages Filipinos to support the advocacies of individuals and organizations that provide opportunities and create livelihood for their communities. For this year, SM partnered with bag designer Zarah Juan, Spark PH, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP), the Association of Foot and Mouth Artists of the Philippines, UNICEF, and the Quezon City LGU for its Vote to Tote initiative, among others. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
He151-A. noted Hong Kong, which has confirmed a case of the Omicron variant, will also fall under the Yel low list countries.
By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
THE P2.75year-on-yearbyend-Octoberborrowingsgrossgovernment’snationalasofshrankalmost6percenttotrillion.
NTERNATIONAL concerns over the possible spread of the
them. This allows everyone to see who are listed in the registry and if farmer doesn’t see his name then he shall coordinate with the PCA im mediately,” he explained at a recent dialogue with coconut farmers.
scrutinize the budget and ensure that it is responsive to the needs of the people and compliant with the spending requirements of the MarcosDalipeadministration.alsoassuredthe public that the national budget and all of its provisions are transparent, above-board and are designed to uplift the lives of the Filipino people. “The House leadership is con fident that the NEP [national
w P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages |n Monday, November 29, 2021 Vol. 17 No.52 NATL GOVT BORROWINGS FOR 10 MOS DIP TO P2.75T of quarantine
By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
Continued on A8
expenditure program] will be adequately reviewed and scruti nized to ensure that the best in terest of our people is protected. We will not allow any manipula tion by any syndicate or by any group to favor certain groups or individuals,” he said.
By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM
‘Close
Arsenio M. Balisacan and Press Secretary Beatrix “Trixie” CruzAngeles.LastFriday, Malacañang an nounced Marcos will be joined by a business delegation to hold an economic briefing in the US to help draw more foreign investments to theThecountry.President will meet with the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation) Busi ness Council for possible business deals.Marcos will be in the US from September 18 to 24 to attend the UNGA together with more than 150 other heads of state. He is scheduled to deliver on Tuesday his speech where he will “outline” his expectations in the UN as well as the role the country will play in strengthening the “in ternational system.”
tation of its Resolution No. 150A (s.2021), effectively imposing stricter protocols for all inbound
NO FISH SHORTAGE Fisherfolk dock their motorized bancas along Coastal Road in Las Piñas City at the weekend. Partly because of high fuel costs, many of them said they have not ventured as far out or as long as they used to do. However, the Association of Fresh Fish Traders of the Philippines said in a statement that there is as yet no shortage of fish supply and there was no need to import more fish. NONIE REYES
“My recommendation is to protect the borders. Do not allow people with a history of travel to countries with positive cases to enter,” Oplas said. “We should be more restrictive. [We have to be] more protective in terms of our Oplasmeasures.”saidthat while this will be a setback to some industries, this is a fair measure considering that this could help prevent placing the country in another strict lockdown,
with their loved ones, while for eigners living in temperate regions usually want to relax in tropical countries like the Philippines. This year’s influx of OFWs is expected to be heavier since many of them were unable to come home for the holidays in December 2020.
son Karlo B. Nograles announced on Sunday that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases
This was raised through global bonds (P146.17 billion), program loans (P139.98 billion), euro-de
which, she said, the economy can no longer afford.
Broken down, gross domestic bor rowings from January to October settled at P2.23 trillion, down by 5.08 percent from P2.35 trillion in 2020. Thebulk of the amount was sourced from Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds (P1.19 trillion), followed by short-term borrowings from Bang ko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP (P540 billion), Retail Treasury Bonds/Pre myo Bonds (P463.3 billion), Retail Onshore Dollar Bonds (P80.84 bil lion). In the same period, there was also a net redemption of Treasury Bills amounting to P43.94 billion.
@sam_medenilla &
ORE than 3 million coconut farmers and workers are now regis tered with the government’s reg istry, which serves as the basis for the number of people to be covered by the utilization of the P75-billion coconut levy fund.
PEOPLE walk past the mural of Gat Andres Bonifacio at Manila City Hall Underpass. The country will celebrate the 158th birth anniversary of Filipino revolutionary hero Gat Andres Bonifacio on Tuesday, November 30. ROY DOMINGO
FILIPINOS should brace for even higher inflation in the coming months as the recent increase in fares and the holiday season will cause commodity prices to soar, according to local economists. EMPLOYERS should pay for the facilities, equipment and supplies necessary for their workers to engage in tele commuting, according to a new issuance of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Labor and Employment Sec retary Bienvenido E. Laguesma on Friday issued Department Order (DO) No. 237, series of 2022, which revised the Imple menting Rules and Regulation (IRR) of Republic Act No. 1165 or otherwise known as the “Telecommuting Act.” Among the new provisions of the updated IRR is its Section 9, which directly stipulates fa cilities, equipment and supplies necessary to implement a tele commuting program in an “al ternative workplace” should be considered as “necessary cost” of the employer. See “DOLE,” A2 Continued on A8 House plenary debates on budget start Sept. 20 Continued on A8 DOLE ISSUES NEW RULES FOR FIRMS WITH TELECOMMUTERS PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 57.0730 n JAPAN 0.3978 n UK 65.4570 n HK 7.2720 n CHINA 8.1566 n SINGAPORE 40.5319 n AUSTRALIA 38.2218 n EU 57.0673 n KOREA 0.0408 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.1931 Source: BSP (September 16, 2022) PBBM off to US for UNGA, PPPs
House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said that the budget panel worked at a record pace to
the advantages of adopting the WFH or Hybrid work “WFH/Hybridarrangement. workisa game-chang er for the Philippines and the sustain ability of the IT-BPM sector, and it will be a contributing factor to our ability to create 1.1 million new direct jobs for Filipinos, generate billions more in annual investment revenues and foreign exchange, and significantly increase our countryside footprint by 2028,” IBPAP President and CEO Jack Madrid said in his post on LinkedIn on Saturday.
New provisions
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in a statement on Saturday that registered firms must signify with PEZA their intention to shift registration to the BOI.Thereafter, PEZA will endorse the request to BOI for the issuance of a Certificate of Registration, which will indicate the remaining incentives.
IT-BPO...
THE said provision was not in cluded in the original version of the IRR contained in DO No. 202, series of 2019.
Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong (SENTRO) SecretaryManggagawaGeneral
THE latest IRR retained its previous provisions such as:
Continued from A12DOLE...Continued from A1
that the telecommuting work and the program for its imple mentations should be “mutu ally agreed upon” by concerned employers and workers.
Period of effectivity
Samuel P. Medenilla
Both groups eventually de cided to let Laguesma decide on the matter.
Josua T. Mata lauded the clari fication under DO 237.
“We believe this would help promote telecommuting,” Mata said. He noted the provision was backed by representatives from labor and opposed by those from employers in the Nation al Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC).
This includes expenses for the acquisition, proper handling, usage, maintenance, repair, and return of the said company as sets.
“We appreciate the fact that policy was thoroughly delib erated in a tripartite manner that we believe is the better way of policy-making,” Mata said.Another new provision contained in the revised IRR is that workers are not con sidered “field personnel” ex cept when their actual hours of work cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
It also reiterated the pro vision that the telecommut ing program should not be less than the minimum labor standards, as well as not di minish or impair their terms or conditions of employment contained in any applicable company policy, practice, in dividual contract, or collective bargaining agreement.
BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.phMonday, September 19, 2022A2 News
As for PEZA, the DTI said, it shall administer the incentives and contin ue monitoring the transferee firms’ compliance. Meanwhile, the IBPAP chief has cited
DOH Officer in Charge Undersec retary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire ex pressed gratitudes to the Unicef and the Australian government.
THE consolidated bill just recently approved by the House Commit tee on Justice on the makeover of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) aims to put up a P1.2-billion Immigration Trust Fund (ITF) to modernize the BI, touch up its pay scales and further pro fessionalize its officers plus rank and file, a senior lawmaker said on Sunday.
By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM
port of the Covid-19 recovery of Fili pinos, including children who have now started going back to school.
Australia’s support through Uni cef Philippines also included: the procurement and delivery of solarpowered vaccine refrigerators; walk-
PHILIPPINE
A sizable number of police person
A total of 2,377 PNP personnel were deployed for election duties during the plebiscite, with 1,116 deployed in 461 polling centers where 814,790 regis tered voters are to cast their votes.
www.businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, September 19, 2022 A3BusinessMirror
security contingent of the military and an augmentation force of 100 police personnel from nearby Lanao del Sur Police Provincial Office.
Villafuerte authored with three other CamSur solons House Bill (HB) 274, one of six bills that the House Com mittee on Justice had consolidated into one measure for this panel’s approval.
The Australian Government also helped train 490 health staff on cold chain management and provided public health messaging to 8 million people in 14 local government units.
Citing field reports from the PRO-Barmm, the PNP chief noted that election paraphernalia was re ceived as scheduled, polling precincts opened on time and there was no plebiscite-related incidents reported.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray mund “LRay” F. Villafuerte Jr. said the consolidated bill on the proposed “Bureau of Immigration Modern ization Act” aims to modernize the BI by expanding its organizational structure, sharpening the competen cies of its personnel through career advancement programs, cutting red tape by improving data gathering
DOH receives initial tranche of 6M pediatric vaccines from Australia Bill seeks ₧1.2-B Immigration Trust Fund to modernize BI
nel was also detailed to provide secu rity to convoys transporting election materials, security at the provincial capitol, municipal hubs, provincial treasurer’s office and 20 mobile check points around the province.
Villafuerte’s HB 274 co-authors are Reps. Miguel Luis R. Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata and Bicol Saro Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII.
The Nation
THE House justice panel chaired by Negros Occidental Rep. Juliet Marie Ferrer managed to expedite the com mittee approval of the consolidated bill on the strength of the chamber’s House Rule 10 Section 48, which al lows the swift passage of measures that were already approved on third and final reading by the chamber in the immediately preceding Congress.
Maguindanao plebiscite ‘generally peaceful’–PNP
municipalities under two separate provincial jurisdictions.
Azurin was kept posted on devel opments in Maguindanao by Brig. Gen. John G. Guyguyon through the PNP Command Center since 1:30 a.m. on Saturday when PNP security forces in Maguindanao led by Colonel Roel R. Sermese began deployment for election duties alongside a detailed
By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie
He also noted that security processes and protocols were organized and anti-Covid protocols and efforts are still enforced and observed.
and analysis and boosting employee morale through a better, more com petitive salary structure.”
By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3
them to be appointed by the President.
in cold rooms; and, personal protec tive equipment and spare kits.
Thisdoses.ispart of the 6 million total pediatric Pfizer vaccine doses to be donated to the Philippine Govern ment by the end of this year in sup
THE Department of Health (DOH) announced last Fri day the arrival of the initial tranche of 6 million pediatric Co vid-19 vaccines from Australia to theToPhilippines.date,the DOH has received 2.28 million doses of pediatric Pfizer vaccines from the Australian Gov ernment, through the support of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef). An additional 720,000 doses will arrive within the same week to com plete 3 million pediatric Pfizer vac cine
National Police chief General Rodolfo S. Azur in Jr. has noted the generally peaceful and orderly culmination of the plebiscite in Maguindanao last Saturday that sought to ratify measures to divide the province’s 36
The Australian Government’s comprehensive package of Covid-19 assistance for the Philippines begins with the delivery of vaccines and ex tends to the last mile to reach the most vulnerable children.
Thestandards.PoliceRegional Office in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) report ed that voting has been concluded in 28 out of the 36 municipalities with an estimated 80 percent voter turn out as of past 4 p.m. on Saturday.
“We are pleased to be playing a role in ensuring all Filipino children can recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. These vaccines are an important part of the Aus tralian Government’s support for children in the Philippines, which extends across the health, education sectors, and protection from abuse and exploitation,” said Richard Sis son, Chargé d’Affaires of the Aus tralian Embassy to the Philippines.
This consolidated bill seeks to em power the bureau to collect immigra tion fees, fines and penalties and to retain a third of all such collections— but not to exceed P1.2 billion—for an ITF to be administered by the proposed three-member Board of Commissioners for the moderniza tion of the agency’s facilities and equipment, payment of employee benefits and further professional ization of its officers and employees, said Villafuerte, who is president of the National Unity Party (NUP).
investigation covert security and implementation of minimum public health
Changing demands
The proposed Board shall be com prised of a Commissioner with the rank of Undersecretary and two dep uty commissioners each with the rank of Assistant Secretary—all three of
“Promoting children’s health and well-being is everyone’s responsibility. Helping children recover from the ef fects of Covid-19 requires a concerted effort from all sectors of society. By strengthening our partnerships and growing our collaboration with one another, we achieve more for children,” said Unicef Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov.
Some 600 other police personnel were deployed for civil disturbance management, quick response team, reactionary standby support force,
Private sector representatives
THE Commission on Audit (COA) has expressed doubts that the operations of the Nay ong Pilipino Foundation (NPF) can continue due to its lack of programs and alternative sources of funds.
An Instagram post showed Biden holding the hand of Vilma with Eliza beth, at the sidelines of the Summit.
Hiring questioned
The 66-year old Filipina suffered severe physical injuries including a fractured pelvis.
Kari was one of the hate crime survivors invited by the White House during the United We Stand Summit hosted by US President Joseph Biden lastKariThursday.was walking towards a church in New York City on March 29 when a stranger knocked her to the ground and kicked her in the face. The attacker, later identified as Brandon Elliot, screamed at her, “You, black Asian, you don’t belong here!” A close circuit video footage of the attack became viral.
Thestatement.approved amendments to the 2022 IRR stemmed from the inter-agency meetings and a public consultation, said the PPP Center.
The Finance chief said the exten sion is applicable until they finalize a resolution addressing the issue.
As of December 31, 2021, the NPF had 46 employees, nine of whom were regular employees, 30 were contractual and seven were job order personnel.
“Its ratification shall ensure that all parties to PPP contracts are ca
Diokno, who is also the FIRB chairman, said in a statement that it is just fair to grant the extension considering that the resolution re lated to the WFH arrangement is set to expire on September 12.
ALTHOUGH the NPF is also an at tached agency of the DOT, it is not chaired by the Tourism Secretary, unlike other government-owned and -controlled corporations under theTheDOT.NPF’s recorded a net loss of P3.54 million, a turnaround from the P10.3 million profit it recorded in 2020.Theaudit agency rendered a “qualified opinion” on the NPF’s financial statements for 2020 and 2021, as it could not determine if these were faithfully represented especially in the Property, Plant and Equipment Account (P19.31 million) and its Financial Liabilities, Trust Liabilities and Other Payables accounts (P14.24 million).
tinue with the WFH arrangement and “because we know that more interaction [would mean] there is more transmission of diseases.”
‘A S a Filipino woman, we have this culture ‘hiya’ mean(ing) shame. We really don’t try to share anything bad that happens to us. We try to cover up.”
Previous COA reports actually proposed the abolition of the NPF due the lack of projects and contin ued depletion of funds. The audit agency even recommended NPF’s merger with the National Parks and
The Philexport chief lamented that lack of access to finance hinders the small merchants from unleash ing their full potential.
Vergeire also said that the WFH scheme benefitted individuals.
Bank lending
“[Studies have shown that work ing from home] have helped indi viduals to be balanced mentally, physically and they have more drive to work,” the health official said. “It will help us not just during Covid but for other diseases as well.”
Development Committee, a unit of the Department of Tourism (DOT), due to duplication of their func tions. (See, “COA proposed aboli tion of Nayong Pilipino Founda tion,” in the BusinessMirror , May 14, 2021.)
Kari recalled that it was her daughter, Elizabeth, who encour
After concerns were raised by the private sector regarding the April 2022 iteration of the 2022 BOT Law IRR, the PPP center said, inter-agen cy technical meetings among the BOT IRR Committee members were conducted to come up with proposed revisions to the rules.
Last year, appeals by the Philip pine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) on behalf of its locators, many of which are companies in the infor mation technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry, have become a bone of contention between the Peza and the FIRB.
He added that banks continue to choose to incur penalties for non-compliance rather than take the risks associated with lending to small businesses.
IN its statement, the PCCI said it has been “championing” for the alterna tive compliance by banks by lending through Microfinance institutions and cooperatives as conduits. The business group said “this will ad dress the issue of bank lending to high-risk creditors such as MSMEs andInfarmers.”addition, the business group said it may also be “worthwhile” to consider adopting the programs of the Small Business Administration of the United States, which it said does not simply provide loans but maintains several services to small businesses including technical assis tance to be able to get loans, guaran tees and contracts. Andrea San Juan
Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the approval of the amend ments to the 2022 Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) is crucial to recovery, as it will “better direct resources in other critical ar eas of Thedevelopment.”Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center said the amendments to the 2022 IRR of the BOT law were approved by the Cabinet-level BOT IRR Committee in a meeting lastBalisacan,Thursday.along with Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, hailed the measure as important to eco nomicTherecovery.National Economic and De velopment Authority (Neda) and the Department of Finance (DOF) serve as Chairman and Co-Chair man, respectively, of the BOT Law IRRTheCommittee.Socio-economic Planning chief emphasized that the amend ments to the IRR will enable the government to leverage PPPs and “better direct resources in other critical areas of development, gov ernance, including social protec tion
Last September 9, the Fiscal In centives Review Board (FIRB) tem
The PCCI official also highlight ed the “Build Better More” (BBM) infrastructure program of the new administration, which Cuyegkeng said should give priority to farm-tomarket roads, irrigation and postharvest facilities to build the value chain from production to the market.
food security committee, called for increasing the budget for the Depart ment of Agriculture (DA). Cuyegkeng noted the DA budget should be com mensurate with the sector’s contri bution to the economy.
Fund troubles RWBCI (Resorts World Bayshore City Inc.), now known as Westside City Re sorts World Inc., has a 25-year lease agreement with NPF for a 5.5-hectare property where an integrated casino resort and hotel will be constructed.
Amendments to of BOT
aged her to come out and seek justice not just for herself but for the Asian community in the US.
2022 revised IRR
law hailed by Neda, DOF COA: Nayong Pilipino can’t survive beyond seven yearsPCCI: Aid to economy’s drivers at ‘critical’ nexus
In a meeting with Rep. Mario Vit torio “Marvey” A. Mariño, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Trade and Industry, the PCCI said it is putting the high est priority on agriculture and MSME development as a way for the country to rebuild a stronger economy.
A4 BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.ph News Monday, September 19, 2022
THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said it is “critical” at this point to take measures to develop the agriculture sector and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as these are drivers of the economy in the“Withcountryside.somany challenges, it is critical at this point that measures are immediately taken to develop our agriculture sector and micro and small enterprises —the drivers of the economy in the rural areas and the countryside,” PCCI President George T. Barcelon said in a state ment issued last Sunday.
The1445.”COA added, “[Expenditures] relative to the implementation of PAPs totaling P7.52 million only represent 14 percent and 7 percent of the total Maintenance and Other Op erating Expenses and Total Current Expenses, respectively. Lastly, there is uncertainty in the ability of NPF to continue its operations in the future considering the absence of alternative sources of revenue, the funds for its operations would be fully depleted within six to seven years.”
By Malou Talosig-Bartolome
CUYEGKENG also called for the amendment to the Agrarian Reform Law to increase landholding size and allow the consolidation of lands by the agrarian reform beneficiaries to enable economies of scale and im prove the sector’s efficiency.
pable to implement their respective contractual obligations while, at the same time, uphold the interests and welfare of Filipinos,” PPP Center said in its
As for agriculture modernization and productivity, Paul Cuyegkeng, chairman of PCCI’s agriculture and
“All those stories (on racism, anti-Asian attacks), we sort of compiled them. Last year, we did a pop-up, an exhibition at the Mu seum of Chinese in America in New York and we exposed those stories, what’s happening to our commu nity,” she Apparentlysaid.because of the collec tive efforts, states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois are already incorporating Asian his tory in school curriculum.
Biden meets Filipina survivor of anti-Asian attack at summit
By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3
porarily extended the WFH arrange ment for the IT-BPM sector.
Stimulating development
four“Asyears.ofDecember 31, 2021, the net balance of the Trust/Investment Fund earmarked for the development of the Parañaque property is only at P754.682 million from P1.232 billion (representing the advance rental paid by RWBCI in 2014), or a decrease of P477.318 million (39 percent). However, subject decrease is not attributed to the purpose for which the Fund was earmarked, but rather on absence of other sources of revenue/funds to finance the opera tions of NPF. Likewise, as empha sized in previous paragraphs, the bulk of expenses of NPF was on Gen eral, Administrative and Support ex penses and only a minimal amount is expended for the PAPs of NPF to attain its mandated purposes.”
SOCIO- ECONOMIC Planning
Finance officials have said last year that using the locator’s gross revenues instead of its workforce as the basis for WFH arrangements’ Peza’s appeal” is “not consistent with the economic strategy of the government to gradu ally and safely reopen the economy.”
The COA urged the NPF manage ment to implement a long-term plan to address its fund depletion, intro duce austerity measures and draw up programs “directly related” to the firm’s mandated purpose.
“Lack of access to finance is a major constraint on why MSMEs continue to struggle. Despite the en actment of the Magna Carta for the MSMEs in 2014 mandating banks to allocate 10 percent of their credit portfolio to small businesses, com pliance to mandatory lending levels has not improved,” Ortiz-Luis said.
According to Balisacan, the con duct of such a public consultation in tended to “address the stakeholders’ concerns on the financial viability and bankability of PPP projects, as well as to clarify ambiguous provi sions that could cause delay in the processing of PPP projects.”
The COA also admonished the NPF for continuing to hire contractual em ployees instead of requiring the latter to apply for regular employment.
“Yes, we agree to this,” Officer-inCharge Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said during a news briefing when asked for her reaction following Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno’s pro nouncement that BPOs could con
He said that financing should be made easily accessible to farmers through a guarantee system backed by warehouse receipts as collateral.
The COA’s report on NPF’s fi nancial standing in 2021 pointed out that the “effective and efficient operations of NPF are doubtful since most of the mandated purpose/ob jectives of NPF were not attained due to insufficient and/or absence of pro grams, activities and projects (PAPs), contrary to Section 1 of Presidential Decree (PD) 37 ‘Creating the Nayong Pilipino Foundation’ and Section 2 of PD
Likewise,measures.”the Finance chief noted that the amended IRR will be “crucial” in the Philippines’ bid to unlock the “many benefits” of PPPs. “This strategy will be the cornerstone of our economic re covery,” Diokno said during the committee hearing.
Vilma Kari, the 66-year-old Filipino-American seen in a video being viciously attacked by a man in Times Square in New York City, recalled how she struggled with the fear of being the voice of victims of anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States.
also underscored the role of MSMEs in stimulating countrywidePhilippinedevelopment.Exporters Confedera tion Inc. (PhilExport) President Ser gio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr. and PCCI Direc tor for MSMEs Apolinar E. Aure are pushing for the amendment to the Magna Carta for MSMEs Act.
DOH supports WFH for BPO workers to curb Covid spread
“Likewise, there were [contractu al] personnel performing functions essential to the NPF that were with out corresponding plantilla posi tions, thus depriving these qualified personnel” of benefits and salaries befitting regular employees.”
THE Department of Health (DOH) supports the work-fromhome (WFH) setup for business process outsourcing (BPO) workers, seeing it as a vital means to control the spread of Covid-19 in the sector.
Kari credited her daughter with founding a nongovernment orga nization with a digital platform
Aside from Kari, the summit gath ered experts and survivors of white supremacy attacks, mass shootings and“Weanti-Semitism.needtosayclearly and force fully, white supremacy, all forms of hate...have no place in America,” Biden said. “As to those who say, we bring this up, we just divide the country— bring it up, we silence it, instead of remaining silenced. For in silence, wounds deepen.”
This would be the third exten sion of the WFH arrangement that government granted to BPO firms enjoying tax perks.
By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
The COA was also unable to verify payables and advances to various customers, supporters and contrac tors totaling P17.25 million, which remained outstanding for more than two years, as there were no support ing documents.
The COA reported that from 2018 to 2021, the “NPF has been with drawing from the funds an aver age of P118.900 million a year.... If NPF would not introduce PAPs that would generate additional sources of funds/revenue and/or introduce im provements on fiscal management, the total remaining Trust Fund of P754.682 million would be depleted after 6.34 years.”
The PPP Center serves as mem ber of and secretariat to the BOT IRR Committee. It stressed that the amendments aim to promote transparency and accountability in delivering infrastructure projects. Moreover, it said the amendments push for “appropriate risk sharing” between the government and the private sector.
PRESIDENT Biden holds the hand of survivor Vilma Kari (center, joined by daughter Ellizabeth), at the “United We Stand” Summit. CREDIT: IMAGE FROM AAPI INSTAGRAM
The audit agency pointed out the continued depletion of funds or resources of the NPF in the past
“My daughter pushed me and said, ‘Mom, no. Your face and your name is already out there. Be a voice,’“ Kari said during the forum.
By Andrea San Juan
Biden was the main guest of honor and speaker at the United We Stand
Summit at the White House. “As President Biden and his ad ministration are calling for an end to hate fueled violence in our coun try, they had asked my mom to join a panel to share her story as a survi vor and her thoughts of how we can overcome hate,” Elizabeth wrote in an Instagram post.
where victims of anti-hate vio lence can share their stories even anonymously, called AAP (IBelong) (https://aapibelong.com). The name was apparently an offshoot from the acronym Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI), and then mixed it with the “I Belong” slogan as op posite to the slur uttered to Kari.
With the committee approval of the amendments to the 2022 IRR of the BOT law, the committee targets to publish the amendments by Sep tember 26, for the measure to be ef fective by October 11,2022.
On September 13, 2022, all stake holders and interested parties were gathered to provide inputs on the proposed amendments to the 2022 IRR of the BOT law.
Prior to the official publication, as agreed during the public consulta tion, a copy of the 2022 IRR showing the changes made shall be posted in the Neda, DOF, and PPP Center websites. It shall be made available by September 19,2022 for informa tion of the general public.
Earlier, Balisacan said they have received several private sector stake holders’ comments expressing their concerns over specific provisions of the IRR. He said the careful review of the rules requires that “we perform a balancing act: encouraging private investment to promote job creation, technological innovation, and prod uct competition while protecting the public interest.”
“Torture was a widespread prac tice in the occupied territory. That’s what the Nazis did. That’s what (the Russians) do,” Zelenskyy said Sat urday in his nightly video address. “We will establish the identity of all those who tortured, who mocked, who brought this atrocity from Rus sia here to Ukrainian soil.”
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But she started feeling uncom fortable about her native country after reading about Russia’s war in Chechnya and its actions in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.Filled with doubts that she “would ever be able to raise the flag of my country, my homeland” again, Simonova made a lifechanging decision. She travelled to Ukraine to join the conflict in the Donbas on the Ukrainian side, first as a volunteer fighter, then a paramedic and ultimately as an enlisted member of the Armed
The hurried retreat of Russian troops this month from parts of a northeast region they occupied early in the war, together with the rare pub lic reservations expressed by key al lies, underscored the challenges that Putin faces on all fronts. Both China and India have maintained strong ties with Russia and had sought to remain neutral on Ukraine.
He said the investment will pay off through the increase in the value of the land around it, through the development of the cities and ports on the lagoon thanks to increased trade, busi ness and tourism.
Xi, in a statement, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also wanted to work together to “inject stability” into world affairs. Modi said he wanted to discuss “how we can move forward on the path of peace,” adding that the biggest con cerns facing the world are the prob lems of food security, fuel security and“Wefertilizers.mustfind some way out and you too must contribute to that,” Modi stressed in a rare public rebuke.
K
The S-300 is designed for striking missiles or aircraft in the sky, not targets on the ground. Analysts say Russia’s use of the missiles suggest they may be running out of some precisionShellingmunitions.ofthenearby city of Chuhuiv later in the day killed an 11-year-old girl, Syniehubov re ported.Inthe southern Zaporizhzhia re gion, a large part of which is occupied by Russian forces, one person was wounded in shelling of the city of Orikhiv, the region’s Ukrainian gov ernor, Oleksandr Starukh, reported on Telegram. He said Russian troops also shelled two villages in the region, destroying several civilian facilities.
Poland opens new sea waterway to cut fromdependenceRussia
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s atomic energy operator, Energoatom, said a convoy of 25 trucks had brought diesel and other critical supplies to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — which was shut down a week ago amid fears that nearby fighting could result in a radiation disaster.
By Jon Gambrell The Associated Press
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that there were more than 440 graves at the location containing the bodies of hundreds of civilian adults and children, as well as soldiers, and that some had been tortured, shot or killed by artillery shelling. He cited evidence of atrocities, such as a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms.
The Ukrainian military and Rus sia did not comment on the two vil lages.Elsewhere, Russian forces contin ued pounding cities and villages with missile strikes and shelling.
Servicemen pay last respect at the coffin of Olga Simonova, 34, a r ussian woman who was killed in the Donetsk region while fighting on Ukraine’s side in the war with her native country, in a crematorium in Kyiv, Ukraine on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. AP Photo/Rom A n hR ytsyn A
YIV, Ukraine—Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted on the battle field and in the halls of global power as Ukrainian troops pushed their counteroffensive Saturday to ad vance farther into Ukraine’s partly recapturedWesternnortheast.officials and analysts said Russian forces were apparently setting up a new defensive line in Ukraine’s northeast after the coun teroffensive punched through the previous one, allowing Kyiv’s soldiers to recapture large swaths of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region that bordersPutin,Russia.atahigh-level summit in Uzbekistan this week, vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite the re cent military setbacks but also faced concerns by India and China over the drawn-out conflict.
Ukrainian forces, in the mean time, were crossing the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region and have placed artillery there, the Washingtonbased Institute for the Study of War said Saturday. The river, which flows south from Russia into Ukraine, had been a natural break in the newly emerged front lines since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive about a week“Russianago. forces are likely too weak to prevent further Ukrainian advanc es along the entire Oskil River,” the
The event was timed to mark 83 years since the Soviet invasion of Poland during World War II and to demonstrate symbolically the end of Moscow’s say on the econ omy and development of a region that borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. The government says the waterway gives Poland full sover eignty in the northeastern region, which needs investment and eco nomic
The leader of Poland’s right wing ruling party, Jaroslaw Kac zynski, told the crowd this is “the start of Poland’s fourth big port (Elblag) and a new impulse for the development of this land” that will cut unemployment, which is among Poland’s highest levels now at Kaczynski7.6%. stressed the con struction of the canal shows that “Poland is a truly independent, sovereign and strong nation that matters. “ AP
After Russian troops retreated from the city of Izium, Ukrainian au thorities discovered a mass gravesite, one of the largest found so far.
The trucks were allowed through Russian checkpoints Friday to deliver spare parts for repairs of damaged power lines, chemicals for the op eration of the plant and additional fuel for backup diesel generators, Energoatom said.
She became a sergeant and was
interest in sports and excelled in both mountain climbing and ka rate. She said she was always proud to compete for Russia.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Saturday that one of the nuclear plant’s four main ex ternal power lines had been repaired.
A Russian missile attack early Saturday started a fire in Kharkiv’s industrial area, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Firefighters extin guished the Syniehubovblaze.said remnants sug gested the Russians fired S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the city.
military and diplomatic pressures mount for Putin
Friends and colleagues said Simonova, who was unmarried and had no children, had recently redeployed from the east to the southern Kherson region, where Ukraine has launched a counter offensive against Russian forces. They said she died on Sept. 13, after her vehicle hit a land mine.
At the same summit a day earlier, Putin acknowledged China’s unspeci fied “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine while thanking President Xi Jinping for Beijing’s “balanced position” on the conflict.
Editor: Angel R. Calso
Just a few days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Simonova spoke to The Associated Press in a trench in the Donbas region, where she had served for years alongside Ukrainian soldiers fighting against Russian-backed separatists.Borninthe Russian city of Che lyabinsk, Simonova had a keen
instituteVideossaid.circulating online indi cated that Ukrainian forces were continuing to retake land in the country’s embattled east, although their veracity could not be indepen dentlyOneverified.showed a Ukrainian soldier walking past a damaged building and then pointing at a colleague hanging the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag over a mobile phone tower. The sol dier identified the seized village as Dibrova, just northeast of the city of Sloviansk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.Another video showed two Ukrai nian soldiers in what appeared to be a bell tower, with one saying they had retaken the village of Shchurove, also northeast of Sloviansk.
“I know that today’s era is not of war,” Indian Prime Minister Nar endra Modi told the Russian leader in televised comments as they met Friday in Uzbekistan. “We discussed this with you on the phone several times, that democracy and dialogue touch the entire world.”
By Inna Varenytsia The Associated Press
The six-reactor plant was cap tured by Russian forces in March but is operated by Ukrainian engi neers. Its last reactor was switched off Sunday after repeated power failures due to shelling put crucial safety systems at risk.
A few thousand people with na tional white-and-red flags gath ered in rain to watch the Zodiak II technical ship pass through the water gates to inaugurate the canal. The national anthem was played and ships sounded theirSmallhorns.ships and yachts are ex pected to be allowed in on Sunday.
Explosions were also reported in Russian-occupied parts of Zapor izhzhia. Russian-installed official Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram that at least five blasts were heard in the city of Melitopol. The city’s Ukrainian mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said they were in a village south of the city, where the Russian troops had relocated some military equipment.
In Russia, one person was killed and two others wounded Saturday by shelling, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod. Gladkov blamed Ukraine. The claim could not be verified. Karl Ritter in Kyiv contributed
to this report
Olga Simonova, 34, was remem bered for her courage and kindness at a funeral in the Ukrainian capi tal on Simonova’sFriday. coffin was draped in the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag, with a cuddly toy lion on top. Her nom de guerre was “Simba,” like the main character in the Disney cartoon “The Lion King.”
The comments cast a shadow over a summit that Putin had hoped would burnish his diplomatic status and show he was not so internation ally
W
Onisolated.thebattlefield, Britain’s De fense Ministry said the new front line likely was between the Oskil River and Svatove, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The Russian military accused Ukraine of renewed artillery shell ing of the power plant. Ukrainian authorities did not immediately ad dress the claim.
given command of both infantry and artillery units.
“She was respected not only as a commander, but as a person,” said Dmytro Karabinovskyi, her former commander and friend.
Forces.“Ihad this internal feeling that I could handle it and that what I was doing was right and necessary, because I can’t turn a blind eye to the situation,” she said. “I just had to buy a one-way ticket. I bought it and I Simonovaleft.” said she never hid her Russian origin from her colleagues and gained their trust by showing her commitment to Ukraine on the battlefield. In 2017 she received Ukrainian citizenship.
Ukraine pays tribute to Russian woman who fought on its side
ARSAW, Poland—Po land’s top leaders cel ebrated the opening Saturday of a new—albeit unfin ished—canal that they say will mean ships no longer must secure Russia’s permission to sail from the Baltic Sea to the ports of the Vistula Lagoon.
Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region also came under Russian fire overnight, according to its governor, Valentyn Reznichenko. “The enemy attacked six times and launched more than 90 deadly projectiles on peace ful cities and villages,” he said.
“Thedevelopment.ideawastohave this wa terway opened and not to have to ask permission anymore from a country that is not friendly and whose authorities do not hesitate to attack and subdue others,” Pol ish President Andrzej Duda said.
KYIV, Ukraine—An honor guard fired a three-gun salute toward cloudy skies as friends and comrades-in-arms gathered in Kyiv to bid farewell to a Russian woman who was killed while fighting on Ukraine’s side in the war with her native country.
It’s been more than 75 years since Winston Churchill declared there was a “special relationship” between the two nations, a notion that leaders on both sides have repeatedly affirmed. Still, there have been bumps along the way.
“She’s signaled that she’s will ing to go to the mattresses on
the Atlantic. Not unlike his fellow septuagenarian Biden, King Charles III faces questions from the public about whether his age will limit his ability to faithfully carry out the duties of the monarch.Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, dis cussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both at tended a summit in Glasgow, Scot land. They also met at Buckingham
This combination of photos shows Us President Joe Biden at the White house on Aug. 24, 2022, in Washington, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss at Westminster hall, in the Palace of Westminster, in London on sept. 12, 2022. The prime minister’s office said Biden and Truss will meet on sept. 18, at 10 Downing street, one of several meetings that the new prime minister plans to hold with world leaders converging on London for Monday’s royal funeral. AP Photo
Truss, who succeeded John son after he was forced to resign in the face of a string of scandals, has lagged in the opinion polls. She also won her election with a smaller margin than her recent prede cessors and is looking for an early win.
US-UK relations enter new chapter as new prime minister, king settle in
The hawkish approach of Prime Minister Liz Truss to Rus sia and China puts her on the same page as Biden. But the rise of Truss, 47, who once called the relationship “special but not exclusive,” could mark a decid edly new chapter in the trans-At lantic partnership on trade and more.Of high concern for Biden officials in the early going of Truss’s premiership is her back ing of legislation that would shred parts of the post-Brexit trading arrangements in North ern Ireland. Analysts say the move could cause deep strain be tween the UK and the European Union, and undermine peace in Northern Ireland. White House press secretary Karine JeanPierre said the move “would not create a conducive environment” for crafting a long-awaited USUK trade deal coveted by Truss and her Conservative Party.
By Aamer Madhani & Darlene Superville The Associated Press
TheOne.two close allies now find themselves in a period of politi cal uncertainty on both sides of
Palace in June 2021 at a recep tion the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Corn wall.Truss finds herself, as Biden does, facing questions about whether she has what it takes to lift a country battered by stubborn inflation borne out of the coronavirus pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unleash ing chaos on the global energy market.Allthe while, Britain — and the rest of Europe — is careful ly watching to see what the up coming US midterm elections will bring for the Democratic American president after he vowed upon taking office that “America is back” to being a full partner in the internation al community after four years of Republican Donald Trump pushing his “America First” worldview.“Itcertainly is a time of change and transformation in the U.K.,” said Barbara A. Per ry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She added, “We don’t know what will happen in our midterms. We don’t know what will happen in 2024.”
But Biden largely kept fo cus on his domestic to-do list in the early going of his presidency— passing tril lions in spending on coronavi rus relief, infrastructure, and more — and put negotiations on trade deals on the back
Truss, a former accountant who was first elected to Parlia ment in 2010, hasn’t had much interaction with Biden. The US president called her earlier this month to congratulate her. Truss, as foreign secretary, ac companied her predecessor, Bo ris Johnson, on a White House visit last year.
LONDON—President Joe Biden arrived in London to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II at a time of transition in US-UK relations, as both a new monarch and a new prime minister are settling in.
this and that’s going to cause a rift not just between the UK and EU, but the UK and the US,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Stud ies in Washington and a former senior State Department official in the Obama administration.
“I think if I were (Truss), I want recognition of the leading role Britain’s played, far more than any other country outside the United States in support ing Ukraine,” said Abrams, who served in senior national se curity and foreign policy roles in the Trump, George W. Bush and Reagan administrations.
ald Reagan forged a close alli ance in the midst of the Cold War, with the prime minister once telling students that the Republican president’s “really good sense of humor” helped their relationship. But there were difficulties too, such as when Thatcher and members of her Cabinet bristled at the Reagan administration’s ini tial neutrality in the Falklands War.The White House wasn’t ex pecting Truss’s announcement in May, when she was foreign secretary, that the government would move forward with legis lation that would rewrite parts of the Northern Ireland Proto col. The agreement was part of the U.K.’s 2020 Brexit with drawal from the EU that was designed to avoid a hard northsouth border with Ireland that might upset Northern Ireland’s fragileNow,peace.inthe first weeks of Truss’s premiership, Biden administration officials are carefully taking the measure of the new British leader. Ana lysts say there is some trepida tion in the administration that undercutting the Northern Ireland protocol could plunge Europe into trade turmoil at a moment when Biden is work ing mightily to keep the West unified in confronting Rus sia over its aggression against Ukraine.“Brexit could once again become the issue — the issue that can make it difficult for all of Europe to work togeth er at a time when it is critical for Europe to work together,” Bergmann said. “If you’re the Biden administration, this is not the time for the two of your closest partners getting intoTofights.”becertain, there were ar eas of friction between Biden and Johnson, who had a warm rapport with former President DonaldBidenTrump.staunchly opposed Brexit as a candidate and had expressed great concern over the future of Northern Ire land. Biden once even derided Johnson as a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump. Johnson worked hard to overcome that impression,
The former prime minister also unsuccessfully pressed Biden starting days into his administration to begin ne gotiations on a new US-U.K. trade deal just as the U.K. re gained control over its nation al trade policy weeks before Biden took office and follow ing the end of a post-Brexit transition period.
“It’s one that’s going to keep the White House up at night.” Biden arrived in London late Saturday and had been set to meet with Truss on Sunday, but the prime minister’s office said Saturday they would skip the weekend hello, opting instead for a meeting in New York at the UN General Assembly on Wednes day, though Truss still planned to gather with other world lead ers converging on London for the royal funeral. The White House confirmed the UN meeting just as the president boarded Air Force
stressing his common ground with Biden on climate change, support for international in stitutions and most notably by making certain Britain was an early and generous member of the US-led alliance providing economic and military assis tance to Ukraine in the after math of the Russian invasion.
burner.Elliot Abrams, chairman of the conservative foreign policy group Vandenberg Coalition, said that Truss needs Biden to make a new US-U.K. trade deal a priority. Queen Elizabeth’s funeral won’t be the setting for tough bilateral conversa tions, but it still marks a mo ment for the two leaders to be gin taking stock of each other.
Tony Blair was derisively branded by the British tabloids as George W. Bush’s “poodle” for backing the 2003 Ameri can-led invasion of Iraq. David Cameron and Barack Obama had a “bromance,” but Obama also had his frustrations with the Brits over defense spending and the UK’s handling of Libya following the 2011 ouster of MuammarMargaretGaddafi.Thatcher and Ron
“And I think I’d want some pos itive economic message to give the British people, which could be that the free trade agree ment negotiations are start ing.” (Madhani reported from Washington).
The World BusinessMirrorMonday, September 19, 2022A6 www.businessmirror.com.ph
Pakistan Pelosi, US lawmakers visit Armenia as cease-fire holds
“I am deeply concerned about the po tential for a second disaster in Pakistan: a wave of disease and death following this catastrophe, linked to climate change, that has severely impacted vital health systems leaving millions vulnerable,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.“Thewater supply is disrupted, forcing people to drink unsafe wa ter,” he said. “But if we act quickly to protect health and deliver essential health services, we can significantly reduce the impact of this impend ingThecrisis.”WHO chief also said that nearly 2,000 health facilities have been fully or partially damaged in Pakistan and urged donors to continue to respond generously so that more lives can be saved.Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for New York on Saturday to attend the first fully in-person gather ing of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly since the coronavirus pan demic. Sharif will appeal for more help from the international community to
tackle the disaster.
After malaria, typhoid fever and skin infections are most commonly seen among the displaced, living for weeks in unhygienic conditions, Baluch told The Associated Press.
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Khalid Mushtaq, heading a team of doctors from the Alkhidmat Founda tion and the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, said they are treating more than 2,000 patients a day and were also providing kits containing a month’s supply of water-purification tablets, soaps and other items.
Y
The southern Sindh and southwest ern Baluchistan provinces have been the worst hit—hundreds of thousands in Sindh live now in makeshift homes and authorities say it will take months to completely drain the water in the province.Nationwide, floods have damaged 1.8 million homes, washed away roads and destroyed nearly 400 bridges, ac cording to the National Disaster Man agement Authority.
On Friday, Pelosi told reporters in Ber lin that the trip “is all about human rights and the respecting the dignity and worth of every Otherperson.”members of the US delegation include Rep. Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Com mittee, and congresswomen Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo.
Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blame for the shelling, with Armenian authori ties accusing Baku of unprovoked ag gression and Azerbaijani officials saying their country was responding to Arme nian
The two ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nago rno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
The unprecedented monsoon rains since mid-June, which many experts link to climate change, and subse quent flooding have killed 1,545 people across Pakistan, inundated millions of acres of land and affected 33 million people. As many as 552 children have also been killed in the floods.
China values UN relationship despite human rights criticism
Imran Baluch, head of a govern ment-run district hospital in Jaffer abad, in the district of Dera Allah Yar in Baluchistan, said that out of 300 people tested daily, nearly 70% are positive for malaria.
the report on Xinjiang, delaying its release for more than a year. In the end, the information did come out—but just minutes before em battled UN human rights chief Mi chelle Bachelet left office.
Like the United States, China feels a certain freedom to ignore U.N. institutions when it wants: The Trump administration pulled the US out of the Human Rights Council in 2018, accusing it of antiIsrael bias. The Biden administra tion jumped back in this year, and has made a priority of defending Israel in the 47-member-state body.
Also like the United States, China leverages its influence to get its way — effectively stymieing an investigation by the U.N.’s World Health Organization into whether China was the birthplace of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin Uni versity in China, said advocating for the U.N.’s role in maintaining the international order doesn’t mean that China agrees with ev ery UN body, citing the Covid-19 origins study and the recent Xin jiang“Whenreport.the UN high commis sioner for human rights issues such a report, in the eyes of China, it is the same as all organizations in the world, no matter official or private, that defames China,” Shi said.
Before his departure, Sharif urged philanthropists and aid agencies to do nate baby food for children, along with blankets, clothes and other food items for the flood victims, saying they were desperately waiting for aid.
tutions, Warner said, and successor Joe Biden has been preoccupied with domestic issues.
On Friday, the representative of the U.N. children’s agency in Paki stan, Abdullah Fadil, said after vis iting Sindh’s flood-hit areas that an estimated 16 million children had been impacted by the floods. He said UNICEF was doing everything it can “to support children and families af fected and protect them from the ongo ing dangers of water-borne diseases.” Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
By Ken Moritsugu & Jamey Keaten The Associated Press
SLAMABAD—The World Health Organization raised the alarm Saturday about a “second disaster” in the wake of the deadly floods in Pakistan this summer, as doctors and medical workers on the ground race to battle outbreaks of waterborne and otherThediseases.floodwaters started receding this week in the worst-hit provinces but many of the displaced—now living in tents and makeshift camps—increas ingly face the threat of gastrointestinal infections, dengue fever and malaria, which are on the rise. The dirty and stagnant waters have become breeding grounds for mosquitos.
Chinese hold the top jobs at three of the UN’s 18 specialized agencies: the Food and Agricul tural Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommuni cations Union, where the United States has put up a candidate to succeed outgoing chief Houlin Zhao. A Chinese official headed the International Civil Aviation Organization until last year.
A cease-fire took effect on Wednesday evening following two days of heavy fight ing that marked the largest outbreak of hostilities in nearly two years.
For China, it’s a matter of pres tige as well as influence, Warner said.“The United States and the Western countries were very much involved in the initial United Na tions,” he said. “China doesn’t want to have that kind of leadership. They’re not talking about liberal values, but they want to make sure that their interests are defended in the U.N. Chinesesystem.”diplomats spearhead ed a joint statement—which it said was backed by 30 countries including Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela—that blasted “disinformation” behind the UN report on Xinjiang and the “erroneous conclusions” drawn in it. And China’s ambassador in Ge neva said Beijing could no longer cooperate with the human rights office—without specifying how.
Thesides.US Embassy said the visit will in clude a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Subsequently, both China and Rus sia vetoed a US-backed resolution in May to impose new sanctions on North Korea.
Sarah Brooks, a China expert at the International Society for Human Rights advocacy group in Geneva, said China could hold up its funding for the office – which lately has come in at $800,000 a year, far less than Western coun tries that give tens of millions.
But China doesn’t want its pique toward the rights office, which falls under UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to spill over to its deepening relationship with other parts of the world body that deal with refugees, climate, the Internet, satellites, world hun ger, atomic weapons, energy and muchChinamore.wields power as one of the five veto-holding members of the Security Council, helping it build relationships with the United States and others who needed Chi na’s support for past resolutions on Iran and North Korea.
Still, Brooks said it would be a “huge blow” if funding from China were to stop, in part because many countries appreciate and support the causes that Beijing helps pay for.
areas
“China sees the U.N. as an im portant forum that it can use to further its strategic interests and goals, and to reform the global or der,” said Helena Legarda from the Mercator Institute for China Stud ies in WhileBerlin.holding up the United Na tions as a model of multilateralism, China rejects criticism or decisions that the ruling Communist Party sees as counter to its interests. Its diplomats struck back at the report published last month by the UN hu man rights office raising concerns about possible “crimes against hu manity” in Xinjiang—vowing to suspend cooperation with the of fice and blasting what it described as a Western plot to undermine China’sChinarise.had pushed hard to block
Ken Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to redefine what human rights are, in part by casting eco nomic development as a key criteri on. China, Roth said, “more than any government in the past, is trying to undermine the UN human rights system”—by pressuring UN offi cials, retaliating against witnesses and trying to bribe governments.
WHO raises alarm on disease in flood-hit of
Pediatrician Sultan Mustafa said he treated some 600 patients at a field clinic established by the Dua Foun dation charity in the Jhuddo area in Sindh, mostly women and children with gastrointestinal infections, sca bies, malaria or dengue.
I
By Zarar Khan The Associated Press
During a six-week war in 2020, Azer baijan reclaimed broad swaths of NagornoKarabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers. AP
EREVAN, Armenia — A US congres sional delegation headed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi arrived Saturday in Armenia, where a cease-fire has held for three days after an outburst of fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan that killed more than 200 troops from both
That influence has diminished somewhat with the overall deterio ration of US-China ties, Shi said.
She noted how China has had its concepts and language worked into U.N. resolutions and used the U.N. system to promote a “Global Development Initiative” proposed by Xi in a video address to last year’s General“ThisAssembly.isareflection of China’s more assertive and ambitious for eign policy under Xi,” Legarda said.
China has stepped into a diplo matic void created by a lack of US leadership, said Daniel Warner, a Geneva-based political analyst.
BEIJING—As world leaders gather in New York at the annual UN General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva.
The concurrent meetings, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, il lustrate China’s divided approach to the United Nations and its grow ing global influence. Beijing looks to the U.N., where it can count on support from countries it has be friended and in many cases assisted financially, as a counterweight to US-led blocs such as the Group of Seven, which have grown increas ingly hostile toward China.
Former President Donald Trump shunned many international insti
“The optics of it are really dam aging,” she said. “You have a coun try that says, ‘Hi, I want to be re sponsible, but I’m so thin-skinned ... I’m still going to lash out at the organization that drafted it.’” Ke aten reported from Geneva. Edith M. Le derer at the United Nations contributed to this report
Chinese diplomats are speaking out and lobbying others at an on going session of the Human Rights Council to thwart a possible call for further scrutiny of what it calls its anti-extremism campaign in Xin jiang, following a UN report on abuses against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups in the western China border region.
“One of their top priorities right now—maybe after Taiwan—is to avoid condemnation by the Human Rights Council,” Roth said. The self-governing island of Taiwan is claimed by China as its sovereign territory, an issue that the Beijing government is vociferous about internationally.
Under Xi, who came to power 10 years ago, China has expanded its UN involvement from primarily international development early on to political, peace and security issues, Legarda said.
Pashinyanattacks. said at least 135 Armenian troops were killed in the fighting. Azer baijan’s Defense Ministry said Friday it had lost 77.
Duringproductivity.hisUStrip, Marcos will also hold bilateral meetings with the country’s “long-standing and impor tant partners” as well as meet with the Filipino community. Angeles said Vice President Sara Z. Duterte will serve as caretaker of the Office of the President, while Marcos is still in the US.
The newly created Office of the Presidential Chief of Staff (OPCOS) will be under the direct supervision of the“ThePresident.OPCOS shall have the pri mary function of supervising and ensuring the efficient and responsive day-to-day operational support to the Presidency to enable the Presi dent to focus on strategic national concerns,” read the A.O. No. 1, which took effect immediately.
Based on the LTFRB decision, jeepney fares for succeeding kilo meters will also increase to P1.8 from the current P1.5 while for MPUJs, the approved increase was P2.2 from the P1.8 per kilo meter rate.
The shift is fueling a movement out of commodities funds as in vestors brace for slower economic growth or a recession. Broad-based commodity exchange-traded funds are set to see cash pulled out for a fifth straight month in September, with almost $17 billion withdrawn since the start of May. “With core inflation very strong this implies that aggressive monetary tightening will be delivered,” said Peter Chat well, head of global macro strategies trading at Mizuho International Plc. “This should reduce demand in the near term, and take most asset prices lower.” Bloomberg News
Depende din sa galaw sa [It also depends on developments in the] US. If US hikes [interest rates], we need to preserve interest differential to keep dollar investments here and prevent further weakening of peso, which feeds into inflation because of our trade deficit [importing oil, food, production inputs, etc.]. Vi cious cycle, as described by Dr. Ang,” Peña-Reyes said.
As stock prices tumbled and bonds were hit with the deepest losses in decades, the surge in consumer prices turned a few corners of the financial markets into profitable refuges ear lier this year. Oil prices rallied. Other commodities did, too. Even rising home prices and rents propped up the real estate sector.
from 1963 to 2019.
For provincial buses, the per ki lometer rate was raised to P1.9 from the current P1.55; for deluxe buses, P2.1 from P1.75; Super Deluxe, P2.35 from P1.95; and luxury, P2.9 from P2.4 per LTFRBkilometer.saidthe rates were ap proved in consultation with the Na tional Economic and Development Authority, the Department of Energy, and other key transport stakeholders.
With Rodriguez’s stepping down as Executive Secretary, he was ap pointed by the President as Presi dential Chief of Staff (PCS), a new position created by Administrative Order No. 1, signed over the weekend by the Chief Executive.
“The first half of the year when energy and food inflation were ris ing faster than core, commodities did great and looked like a great hedge against inflation,” said Niko lai Roussanov, a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who co-authored the study. “But when energy prices started falling, we’ve seen that cor relation reverse and commodities broadly are not doing so well.”
On instructions of House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Dalipe said the House Appropriations Commit tee and the House Committee on Rules have agreed to submit the NEP to the plenary for sponsorship and floor debates starting Tuesday, September 20, to cover the general principles and provisions of the bud getThemeasure.GAB, or the General Appro priations Bill, is the budget measure to be filed by the House just before the plenary debates.
EXPERTS: FILIPINOS FACE HIGHER INFLATION AHEAD
On Wednesday, scheduled for floor deliberations are: State Uni versities and Colleges (NCR, Re gions 1 to Caraga Region, CAR, BARMM); Commission on Higher Education; Climate Change Com mission; Commission on Filipinos Overseas; Games and Amusement Board; Philippine Space Agency; Philippine Sports Commission; Movie and Television Review and Classification Board; Commis sion on the Filipino Language; Film Development Council of the Philippines; Optical Media Board; National Commission for Culture and the Arts; National Historical Commission of the Philippines; National Library of the Philip pines; National Archives of the Philippines; Philippine Racing Commission; Philippine Compe tition Commission; Governance Commission for GOCCs; Budget ary Support to Government Cor porations; Cultural Center of the Philippines; Philippine Center for Economic Development; Develop ment Academy of the Philippines; Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan; Cagayan Economic Zone Authority; Bases Conversion and Development Authority; Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority; Southern Philippines Development Author ity; Zamboanga City Special Eco
“We affirm the country’s commit ment to the ideals of the UN, citing its contributions to peaceful settlement of disputes and of international law and highlighting the importance of the UN in fostering international dialogue and cooperation,” Marcos said.
Romualdez, who will join the visit, noted that the US is also a significant source of investments, the Philip pines’s major trading and economic cooperation partner and ally, and the biggest source of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and Filipino-Americans. The latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) report said remittances from Filipi nos working abroad increased by 2.3 percent year-on-year to reach $3.17 billion in July from $3.17 billion in the same month of 2021. The US remained the biggest source of cash remittances followed by Singapore, and Saudi Arabia.
from hedge-fund firm Man Group Plc and Duke University also found that both stocks and bonds tend to perform poorly during inflationary times while commodities are the one major asset class that reliably outper forms when inflation is high. But the caveat is once headline inflation be gins falling from its peak the return for the asset class has tended to be zero, according to one of the authors.
The draft Special Order, which sought additional functions to what was already provided under A.O. No. 1, was disapproved by President Mar cos based on the recommendation of
Romualdez said the House lead ership is eyeing to finish commit tee and plenary deliberations on the budget proposal before October 1, or before the 19th Congress goes on its first recess that will last up to November 6.
Markets roiled by inflation leave investors with nowhere to hide
Meanwhile, University of the Philippines School of Economics head of research Renato E. Reside Jr. said the spike in transport fares will contribute to the increase in headlineResideinflation.saidoneof the main routes will be to increase core inflation, which is inflation that excludes price increases in volatile food and ener gy prices. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said core inflation continued to increase to 4.6 percent in August from 3.9 percent in July 2022 and 2.8 percent in August 2021.
The proposed P5.268-trillion na tional budget, the highest ever if ap proved by Congress, is P244 billion more than this year’s P5,023.6-tril lion spending program. It represents 22.1 of GDP.
“I expect the US visit to reap a lot of benefits for our country and the more than 4 million Filipinos and Fil ipino-Americans living or working in America,” Speaker Martin Romualdez said in a statement, noting that the US trip follows Marcos’s recent successful trip to Indonesia and Singapore, which yielded some $14 billion in supply and investment pledges from Indonesian and Singaporean businessmen.
Violations Victims’ Memorial Com mission; Commission on Elections; Department of Science and Technol ogy, including Attached Agencies and other Executive Offices such as the Anti-Red Tape Authority and the Mindanao Development Authority.
Other agencies that will face the plenary starting next week onwards are the Department of Trade and In dustry, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Energy, Energy Regulatory Com mission, Office of the Press Secre tary, Department of Information and Communications and Technol ogy, Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Public Works and Highways.
The immediate staff of the PCS will come from abolished agencies such as the Office of the Cabinet Secretary and the Presidential AntiCorruptionRodriguezCommission.willimmediately as sume his new position as PCS. This, in effect, will leave vacant the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES).
www.businessmirror.com.ph The World BusinessMirrorMonday, September 19, 2022A8
The House created three teams— composed of Deputy Majority Lead ers and Assistant Majority Leaders— for the plenary deliberations.
For 2023, the Department of Bud get and Management said revenues are expected to grow by 10 percent year-on-year to P3.632.9 trillion, or 15.3 percent of GDP, while disburse ments will increase by 2.6 percent to P5.085.8 trillion. Deficit, on the other hand, is expected to decline to P1.453.0 trillion, or 6.1 percent of GDP, from this year’s program of P1.650.5 trillion or 7.6 percent of GDP.Bysector, social services will receive the biggest chunk of the P5.268-trillion national budget with P2.071 trillion; followed by economic services with P1.528 trillion; general public services with P807.2 billion; debt burden with P611 billion and
This, despite the pronouncements of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is already the most aggressive Central Bank in terms of hiking interest rates in the region (Full in-hiking-policy-rates/ph/2022/09/15/bsp-most-aggressive-story: https://businessmirror.com.
defense, P250.7 billion.
“Let us not forget that it’s ‘BER season already so we know that as scheduled, demand by the opening of the economy and the coming Christ mas season will pull up prices,” Oplas said. “So that is a double effect. It is increasing because production cost increased and at the same time de mand is pulling it up as well.”
“The PCS will be assisted by a senior deputy chief of staff with the rank of secretary and two deputy chiefs of staff with rank of undersecretary, assistant secretar ies and such number of directorial and other administrative staff as he deems necessary and upon the approval of the President,” read A.O. No. 1.
For investors burned by inflation, a very bad year is starting to look even worse.
Given this, Peña-Reyes and Oplas said it is also expected that the Cen tral Bank will have no choice but to raise interest rates further.
Peña-Reyes said given the holi days and the recent increase in fares, it is possible for the country’s infla tion to average 8 to 9 percent in the last quarter of the year. This means inflation will average around 6 per cent this year.
Wage, interest rate hikes
THE leadership of the House of Repre sentatives is confident that the US visit of President Marcos Jr. be a significant source of investments.
DE La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas told BusinessMir ror that higher fares could lead labor groups to clamor for wage increases. This, unfortunately, is a domino ef fect of the fare hikes.
This proposal would be the first full one-year outlay of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The P5.268-trillion NEP for 2023 is the precursor of the GAB.
The shift in the commodities markets is consistent with what has been seen since the early 1960s, ac cording to Roussanov and his fellow researchers. While commodities re turn 21 percent when energy infla tion rises by one standard deviation, they actually fall 0.1 percent when core inflation sees the same jump.
Oplas stressed that a possible in crease in wages is “cost-push” infla tion that will make goods and ser vices more expensive. This is fuelled by the fact that the country is already in the ‘BER months, which spurs de mand for various commodities.
The gains in the exchange rate of OFW families when remittances flow in time for the holidays may be offset by the increase in consumer prices, according to Oplas.
Dalipe estimated that the floor debates would last until September 28 as the House is determined to approve the measure on or before September 30.
By Denitsa Tsekova
Continued from A1
A new study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Hong Kong found that stocks, bonds, commodities and real estate investment trusts are all exposed to losses when core inflation unexpectedly rises, according to data
nomic Zone Authority; Allocation to Local Government Units and the Metropolitan Manila Devel opment Authority; Department of Justice, including Attached Agen cies; Civil Service Commission Including Career Service Execu tive Board and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development.ForThursday, the budget of these agencies will be tackled: The Judi ciary; Office of the Vice President; Department of Education, including Attached Agencies; Other Executive Offices such as the Dangerous Drugs Board; Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency; Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Department of Health, including Attached/Agen cies/Corporations.Scheduledon Friday are: De partment of Agrarian Reform; Department of Labor and Em ployment, Including Attached Agencies; Department of Migrant Workers; Department of National Defense, including Attached Agen cies and the Office of the Presiden tial Adviser on Peace, Reconcilia tion, and Unity.
But the hiding places are rapidly disappearing. That’sbecause the persistent increase in core inflation—which strips out volatile food and energy prices—is poised to drive the Fed eral Reserve to continue its most ag gressive series of interest rate hikes in decades. And that’s bad new for assets of all stripes.
The plenary debates will start on Tuesday, September 20 to cover the general principles and provisions of the budget measure and at least seven government departments and constitutional bodies namely: Department of Finance, including Attached Agencies/Corporations; National Economic and Develop ment Authority, including Attached Agencies/Corporations; Office of the Ombudsman; Commission on Hu man Rights, including Human Rights
Commodities that are excluded from the computation of core infla tion together account for 29.57 per cent of the weights in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The commodities that had the largest weight were ce reals at 9.35 percent; Meat, fresh, chilled or frozen, 4.82 percent; Elec tricity, 4.55 percent; and Fish, live, fresh, chilled or frozen, 4.17 percent, among“Transportothers. prices excluding en ergy have a weight of more or less 6 to 7 percent in the consumer basket, so fare increases can have a nontrivial effect on inflation. I do not have an estimate of how much this might be though, and the effect also depends on the size of the relative increases in transport fares,” Reside said.
A similar study by researchers
Oplas added that the recent spike in prices is a bane, even for Overseas Filipino Workers families currently benefiting from the weak peso. The peso closed at P57.43 to the dollar last September 16, another all-time low for the local currency.
Signed this week by the President, the Administrative Order provides for the PCS to have the rank and emoluments of a Cabinet secretary.
Speaker Romualdez said the pro posed P5.268-trillion national bud get is envisioned to pave the way for economic recovery in the first year of Marcos administration.
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figures dashed investors’ hopes for a slowdown and cemented expecta tions the Fed on September 21 will raise its key rate by three-quarters of a percentage point for the third straight time.
Continued from A1
House upbeat
The S&P 500 Index tumbled more than 4 percent on Tuesday alone, following the inflation report, and ended the week down nearly 5 per cent. A Bloomberg commodity index has plunged 3 percent since Tuesday. And Treasury yields climbed, push ing US government debt to a loss of more than 11 percent this year, by far the worst since the Bloomberg index starts in 1973. The US dollar has been among the few bright spots, with the currency pulled up by rising interest rates.
The speech, Marcos said, will also focus on “people-centric development” and the government’s thrust in eco nomic recovery, food security and ag ricultural
Continued from A12
He described it as an exceptional fiscal program carefully formulated to provide a continuing “booster shot” to revitalize an economy still reeling from the pandemic.
PBBM off to US for UNGA, PPPs
In his column in BusinessMir ror, Peña-Reyes—citing data from Ateneo de Manila University Depart ment of Economics Chairperson Al vin P. Ang— added that “a 1-percent increase in the price per barrel of oil leads to an increase of about 11 basis points in the overall inflation rate, an increase of about 11 basis points in food inflation rate, an increase of about 10 basis points in utili ties inflation rate, and an increase of about 16 basis points in trans port inflation rate.” ( deflating-inflation/businessmirror.com.ph/2022/09/02/Link: https:// )
For ordinary city buses, the LT FRB said the succeeding kilometer rate will increase to P2.25 from the current P1.85 while the succeeding kilometer rate for aircon buses will be P2.65 from the current rate of P2.2 per kilometer.
House plenary debates on budget start September 20
Peña-Reyes said this is especially the case if inflation rises to 8 percent to 9 percent. This could prompt the Monetary Board to raise interest rates by another 100 basis points.
On Tuesday, the US Labor Depart ment reported that the core con sumer price index rose 6.3 percent in August from a year earlier, the first acceleration since March. The
Such aggressive tightening raises the risk of a sharp slowdown in the economy that would batter corporate profits and demand for commodi ties like oil.
There are names now being con sidered for the position of executive secretary and these names are now under the process of vetting by the Office of the President.
RODRIGUEZ TO HEAD A NEW OFFICE, OPCOS; OES VACANT
Continued from A1
his Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile.
“The whole market and the whole world is navigating from this period of high and rising inflation, that we’ve been in, to a period of still high, but lower inflation,” said Man Group portfolio manager Teun Draaisma. “We’re on the cusp of that change.”
The shift adds to the darkening outlook in global financial markets, which have been hit hard this year as central banks worldwide tight ened monetary policy, marking a sharp break from the easy-money era that helped stocks and bonds rally through the pandemic.
Vertical Oceans’ tanks are roughly the size of a school bus. They aerate and recirculate the water, feed the shrimp and use macro-algae like umibudo to gobble up nitrogen, phos phorus and feces, eliminating the
The Philippine Statistics Author ity reported last month that the value of the country’s agricultural output in the first half contracted by 0.4 percent, mainly due to the anemic performance of the crops and fish
Pork products, lamb drive meat imports growth–BAI Solon wants to auction off sugar import slots
To replace the current system, the lawmaker proposed an auction system, where interested importers make bids for import slots, which will be given to parties who can deliver the highest auction fees for theSalcedagovernment.saidhe believes that auc tion fees could be as much as P27 to P33 per kilo, given the significant price difference between local and world“Weprices.could impose an auction system that could conservatively generate almost P5 billion in ad ditional annual revenues for sugar sector development, just on PBBM’s allowed 150,000 metric tons of im ports,” he said.
screen for smuggling beyond the quantities allowed by the permit, as we can see from the recent sugar warehouse raids.”
Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) data indicated that total meat imports during the 8-month period reached 851,840.294 MT, 56,253.577 MT higher than the 795,586.717 MT recorded a year ago.
BPI data showed that NAN Stu Agri Traders led all rice importers with a total import volume of 141,620 MT followed by Manus Dei Resources Ent. Inc. with 136,881 MT, and Lucky Buy and Sell with 127,483 MT.
By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie
eriesDatasubsectors.released by the PSA showed that the value of farm output in Janu ary to June (at constant 2018 prices) reached P853.087 billion, lower than last year’s P856.66 billion.
Investor appetite for food-related tech companies is surging with venture capitalists plowing more than $39 bil
BPI data showed that Vietnam ac counted for 82.18 percent or about 2.306 MMT of the total volume of rice imported during the period. Vietnam was followed by Myanmar with 202,319.280 metric tons (MT) and Thailand with 140,171.375 MT.
Philippine Chamber of Agricul ture and Food Inc. President Danilo V. Fausto said the increase in rice imports may dampen local unmilled rice prices as the market is “overflow ing with “Palaysupply.”pricesbeing harvested to day and next month would be affect
Risks for systems like the one Vertical Oceans is building are that if either the mechanical or biologi cal system breaks down, things can go awry, said Cyr Couturier, a ma rine biologist and aquaculture sci entist at the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Compa nies can encounter challenges when they attempt to scale up production, although Vertical Oceans’ modular design should allow it to expand in small increments, as long as it can service capital requirements, he said.
need to discharge waste water, accord ing to Diener. The company doesn’t use any chemicals or antibiotics in production and the multispecies en vironment results in a much healthier aquatic ecosystem.
THE country’s meat imports in January to August rose by 7 percent year-on-year to over 850,000 metric tons (MT) due to higher pork purchases from abroad, the latest government data showed.
192,081.773 MT last year.
“The presence of these facilities should also provide a safety net for farmers during periods of oversupply, when drying facilities are overutilized and private traders are not willing to accept wet paddy and/or offer very low buying prices.”
Agriculture/Commodities
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) earlier revised upward its total rice import fore cast for the Philippines this year to a record level of 3.4 MMT, from an earlier estimate of 3.2 MMT.
In filing House Bill (HB) 3958 or the “Post-Harvest Facilities Support Act,” Lee underscored the need to provide warehouses, rice mills, and transport facilities, including crucial equipment such as flatbed dryers and threshers, to increase production.
Rice imports as of Sept. 8 exceed 2021 volume
By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
“With the vision to employ state-of-the-art equipment and well-trained personnel, postharvest facilities especially in regions heav ily producing rice should be able to produce properly-dried paddy and consequently better-quality milled rice,” said Lee.
The new import forecast for the Philippines, the world’s second-
to operate these warehouses and rice mills such as flatbed dryers and threshers, as well as the necessary transport facilities.
While that’s worrying enough, the in dustry has also been linked to global warming. Thirty percent of the de struction of mangroves—a power ful carbon sink—and coastal landuse change in Southeast Asia have been attributed to shrimp farming, according to nonprofit think tank PlanetTrawlingTracker.for wild shrimp, mean while, can impact other marine life and destabilize fragile ecosystems. By the time seafood reaches dinner plates in the United States, Europe or Japan, it’s often traveled thousands of miles from farms in China, Thai land or Brazil—racking up a hefty carbon footprint.
www.businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, September 19, 2022 A9BusinessMirror
largest buyer of rice, is 15.25 per cent higher than the 2.95 MMT of rice it imported last year, based on USDA data.
A
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data indicated that total rice im ports from January 1 to September 8 reached 2.806 MMT, or 1.26 percent higher than the 2.771 MMT of rice imported by the country in 2021.
Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
Meanwhile, the country’s im ports of mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken—a vital raw material for various processed meat products like hot dogs—grew 6.86 percent to 148,378.606 MT from 138,843.952 MT. Imports of chicken MDM accounted for 60 percent of total chicken meat im portBAIvolume.data showed that Brazil was the country’s top chicken meat supplier with 135,799.725 MT fol lowed by the United States with 73,304.198 MT.
The country’s pork imports, which accounted for 54.56 percent of total meat imports, rose by a fifth yearon-year to 464,838.711 MT from last year’s 385,563.34 MT.
The drop in total chicken meat imports was caused by lower pur chases of chicken cuts and chicken leg BAIquarters.data showed that imports of chicken leg quarters fell by 26.72 percent to 61,795.323 MT from last year’s 84,325.956 MT while imports of chicken cuts fell to 28,449.580 MT from 28,567.037 MT.
The country’s beef imports fell by 1.57 percent to 110,124.054 MT from 111,880.244 MT last year, based on BAI data. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
Spain was the country’s top pork supplier during the 8-month pe riod, accounting for 154,540.746 MT, followed by Canada with 86,905.169 MT.
“The current system leaves nothing for domestic farmers, and nothing for the country. An auc tion system will allow anybody willing to pay to import, and will end the dominance of the cartels in sugar imports. It will cut off the snake’s head.”
according to BPI data.
GRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee is pushing for the pas sage of a bill compelling the government to construct and pro vide postharvest facilities to lower postharvest production losses and increase the income of farmers.
In terms of volume, the coun try’s unmilled rice production con tracted by 0.63 percent to 8.743 MMT in January to June, from last year’s 8.799 MMT. Corn out put, however, rose by 1.1 percent year-on-year to 3.926 MMT. Palay and corn account for the bulk of the crops subsector’s output.
Bill seeks to mandate construction of postharvest facilities Shrimp farming is coming to a city near you SHRIMPS during a harvest. PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID DIAZ ARCOS/BLOOMBERG
Republic Act 8435 or the “Agri culture and Fisheries Modernization Act,” defines postharvest activities as those involving threshing, drying, milling, grading, storage and han dling of produce and other activities such as stripping, winnowing, chip ping and Postharvestwashing.facilities for con ducting these activities include drying and milling facilities, fish ports and landings, ice plants and refrigerated storage facilities, pro cessing plants, warehouses, buying stations, and market infrastructure and transportation.
To that end, shrimp farming’s best future might look like a mashup of a data center and your local park ing garage—if Vertical Oceans has anything to do with it. The startup says its algorithms enable shrimp production in autonomous tanks, which it plans to stack near onshore demand centers like Las Vegas or Tokyo, eliminating ocean discharge. The approach produces locally grown food harvested and delivered to your doorstep the same day.
Couturier said he’s seen multiple systems for salmon and shrimp production run into problems over the past decade because engineers
PHOTOFILEBUSINESSMIRROR
A total of 137 eligible rice import ers brought in rice from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam from January 1 to September 8. The importers used a total of 3,155 sanitary and phytos anitary import clearances (SPS-IC),
“This would be around 4.2 per cent of production value in addi tional funds for sugar industry development. That will be close to the kind of support the rice sec tor gets. It will also help protect domestic prices from getting too depressed, as auction fees would be a pass-on cost, like tariffs, while ensuring fair allocation of importedAccordingsupply.”tothe lawmaker, the auction revenues can be used as a “Sugar Farmer Financial Assistance Fund,” which would make outright payments or subsidies to domestic farmers, and help millers innovate and modernize their equipment.
Imports of prime cuts of pork, which currently enjoy a lower tariff rate, accounted for 55 percent of to tal pork imports during the period. In January to August, purchases of imported prime cuts of pork (pork bellies and cuts) expanded by 33.9 percent to 257,187.043 MT from
MT from 260,309.849 MT a year ago. Chicken meat imports accounted for 28.74 percent of total meat imports during the 8-month period.
ed. Farm-gate prices will not go up,” Fausto told the BusinessMirror
“Pro-rata for the cartel, sounds like. That’s what I’m hearing. Because of course there is an incumbency ad vantage for those who have already been allowed to import in the past,” he said.“And those who are allowed to import are able to sell sugar at three to four times the world or Thailand prices. That is an egre gious, highly inequitable arrange ment. It has to go.”
“We’re demonstrating what the future of efficient protein production could look like,” says co-founder and Chief Executive Officer John Diener.
Bloomberg News
When along coastlines, shrimp farms can generate a steady stream of chemicals, feces and antibiotics that are pumped back into the ocean.
“What’s more, an SRA sugar im port permit appears to be a smoke
Figures from the BAI also showed that the country’s chicken meat im ports fell by 6 percent to 244,804.166
BAI data showed that out of the 7 categories of imported meat prod ucts, only pork and lamb meat posted increments on an annual basis.
Earlier this month, the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. filed a petition at the Tariff Com mission to retain the 5 percent tariff rate on MDM of chicken and tur key (Related story: tariff-rate/).tending-validity-of-lower-mdm-poultry-group-amenable-to-exnessmirror.com.ph/2022/09/12/https://busi
Thestatement.solonwas referring to the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s practice of allocating import slots for each Sugar Import Order supposedly on a “pro-rata basis.”
A VICE chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food wants the national government to “end the sugar car tel among licensed importers” by instituting an auction system for sugar import slots, whenever a new Sugar Order authorizing importa tion is Albayissued.Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda made the remarks during the 31st North Luzon Area Business Confer ence (NLABC) last September 17, where he was tapped to be the key note speaker on the topic of agricul tural
lion into the sector in 2021, double the amount they financed the year before, according to research group Pitchbook Data Inc. Although more than half of that funding went to digital grocers and online marketplaces, aquaculture is poised to become a larger part of the supplyVenturechain.capital firms Khosla Ven tures and SOSV invested a combined $4 million during Vertical Oceans’ seed round mid last year.
In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry, in consultation with the DA, the DAR, and farmer cooperatives, shall provide the equipment and machinery required
THE Philippines’s rice imports as of September 8 breached the 2.8-million metric ton (MMT) mark and surpassed last year’s vol ume of 2.771 MMT, the latest gov ernment data showed.
“Whatmodernization.keepsthe sugar import cartel alive is their special privi lege to import and be allocated slots every Sugar Order. It’s an old boys’ club, basically, and it’s killing Philippine food industries,” he said in a
In its monthly global grain report, the USDA increased its total rice im port forecast for the Philippines this year by 200,000 MT due to “large purchases from Vietnam.”
productivity through post-harvest facilities provided by the govern ment,” Lee said.
Under HB 3958, the Department of Public Works and Highways, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and farmer cooperatives shall construct ware houses and rice mills in every rice producing municipality and city in the Philippines: Provided, that in the initial phase of the program, every district with at least one riceproducing municipality shall be the beneficiary of at least one warehouse and rice mill.
Vertical Oceans is the latest com pany aiming to develop more sus tainable onshore aquaculture models for core food sources. Land-based production of salmon, for instance, can offer ecological benefits when the fish are raised in saltwater pens because it removes the animals from natural marine habitats, eliminating the risk they can pass on viruses and parasites to wild species.
The country’s imports of pork of fal, a raw material used by processed meat manufacturers, rose by 14.82 percent to 143,560.405 MT from last year’s 125,034.837 MT.
If the forecast materializes, this would be the first time in the Philip pines’s history that it would import more than 3 MMT of rice, according to historical USDA data.
“During our consultation among farmers and agricultural workers, one of the solutions we gathered is closing the domestic supplyand-demand gap and increasing
SHRIMP are one of the most popular seafood globally, but farmed production of the crus taceans can have a devastating im pact on local habitats—and in some cases the climate. A Singapore-based startup now says it has a new plan et-friendly solution for growing the food without the sea.
While Salceda admitted that “there seems to be a real structural sugar deficit...a very privileged few get to corner the profits.”
didn’t understand how the organ isms would interact with the facili ties they “Biologicalbuilt.systems are often un predictable over the longer term,” Couturier said in an e-mail.
Europe is facing an unprecedented energy—electricity—crisis. But appar ently that is a good thing.
Luis Eduardo Aute: Canciones de Amor y Vida
Deutsche Welle (DW) is a state-owned broadcaster funded by the German government, the same government that ridiculed President Trump when he warned in 2018 of German dependence on Russian energy. German regula tions now require that public buildings generally no longer be heated, and the temperature in offices will be a maximum of 19 degrees. Britain alone suf fers more than 28,000 excess winter deaths a year with about 200,000 in all of Europe each
The household electrification level in the Philippines stands at 94.94 per cent as of June 2021.
For her supporters, what matters is her conservative, “God, homeland and family” platform, not her sex.
I urge you to listen to Aute’s music, which can be found on YouTube, Spotify, and many other online spaces. It won’t be sur prising if non-Spanish speaking listeners will still fall in love with the lyrics and music even if they are just hearing the words sung in Aute’s rich, captivating voice.
“You ooze hate and you don’t represent me,’’ read one protesting woman’sMeloni,placard.whohas a young child with her male companion, decries what she calls LGBTQ “lobbies,” scoffs at the concept of gender fluid ity and supports Italy’s ban on adop tion by single “Traditional”people.families for her are the bedrock of society.
raped her,” Gargano said. Meloni has derided most of the migrants—overwhelmingly men— who sail toward Italy’s shores on smugglers’ boats as freeloaders who don’t deserve refugee status.
His songs are like poems set to music, and that is one of the many things that sets him apart from other musicians. Ad ditionally, he is a celebrated visual artist, sculptor, filmmaker, and poet, having done several remarkable projects that mash up the genres of literature, visual painting, cinema, and music. His creativity and genius are celebrated in many countries, especially in spain and other European nations. in the philippines where he was born, his name—Luis Eduardo Aute—often does not ring a bell.
By Frances D’emilio | The Associated Press
Popular singer-actress Bituin Escalante renders one of Aute’s first hits, Rosas en el mar, released in 1966. Mark Anthony Carpio, choir master of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, performs La belleza. Toma Cayabyab, a member of the Ateneo Chamber Singers and the Villancico
should opinion polls prove on the mark, Giorgia Meloni and the far-right Brothers of italy party she co-founded less than a decade ago will triumph in the september 25 election. Meloni might then be asked by italy’s president to try to form a viable coalition gov ernment with right-wing allies.
sense she is a woman, but it would be going backward in terms of the conservative women’s culture,” said Donati, 84, a Tuscan native who lives in DonatiRome.said that if she could speak to the politician, she would say: “What battle did you wage for women, what did you do? Nothing.”
The video concert is interspersed with excerpts from a recorded inter view with Aute himself. In it he talks about his early years in the Philip pines, his second home, and even speaks a few lines of Tagalog, noting that he was losing his proficiency be cause there was no one to converse with where he was. For someone who was so popular all over Europe, Aute exuded a humble aura. The recorded concert will soon be available on the social media spaces of Instituto Cer vantes de Manila.
ROME—if
italy elects the nation’s first female premier, will its women be delighted or dismayed?
“I am a woman, so saying that you’re not a woman if you say the things I say, frankly, makes me laugh.”According to pollsters, Meloni attracts slightly more male than fe maleAsvoters.ayoung woman, Sen. Emma Bonino, leader of the tiny +Europe party, which is allied in the campaign with Meloni’s rival, Democratic Par ty chief Enrico Letta, pushed to make divorce and abortion legal.
Kill the lights, not the bugs editorial ExcEpt
13 at the Manila branch of Instituto Cervantes. September 13 marks the 79th birth anniversary of Aute, who passed on in April of 2020.
No mention was made on how many corals or sea turtles inhabit Germa ny. Further, “One [unnamed/named/cited] study suggests that an estimated 100 billion nocturnal insects die in Germany as a result of artificial lighting.”
whether she will uphold Italy’s law legalizing abortion through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy or later if a woman’s health or life is endangered. She insists she’ll respect the law, but wants it implemented in a way to provide help for women who decide to give birth. “She’ll be shrewd—no big debate, simply ‘we won’t apply’” the law, Bonino said.
See “Prospect,” A11 BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business GroupAdvertisingChairmanChiefCreativeAssociateEditorPublisherinChiefEditorNewsEditorSeniorEditorsOnlineEditorDirectorPhotographeroftheBoardPresidentSalesManagerCirculationManager T. Anthony C. Cabangon Lourdes M. Fernandez Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug Lorenzo M. Lomibao Jr., Gerard S. Ramos Lyn B. Resurreccion, Dennis D. Estopace Angel R. Calso Ruben M. Cruz Jr. Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes D. Edgard A. Cabangon Benjamin V. Ramos Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines. Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025. (Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807. (Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news.businessmirror@gmail.com www.news.businessmirror@gmail.com Printed by brown madonna Press, Inc.–Sun Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Since 2005 ✝ MEMBER OF
It has been estimated that 83 percent of the world’s people live under lightpolluted skies. But that is the price to pay for the highest general standard of living in human history.
Several political rivals have cited a shortage of physicians willing to perform abortions in some parts of Italy, including the Marche re gion, governed by Meloni’s party. Under the 1978 law, personnel in Italy’s public health system can declare themselves “conscientious objectors” to avoid performing the procedure.AtMeloni’s first campaign ral ly last month in Ancona, a city in Marche, about 1,000 wildly cheer ing supporters far outnumbered the couple of dozen protesters, most of them women, on a side street.
I urge you to listen to Aute’s music, which can be found on YouTube, Spo tify, and many other online spaces. It won’t be surprising if non-Spanish speaking listeners will still fall in love with the lyrics and music even if they are just hearing the words sung in Aute’s rich, captivating voice.
Meloni, 45, is the only main party leader who didn’t join Premier Mario Draghi’s pandemic national unity government in 2021. After populist forces, including two of Meloni’s campaign allies, yanked support for Draghi in July, the former European Central Bank chief’s coalition col lapsed, prompting an early election.
Brothers of Italy has roots in a neo-fascist movement that hailed the legacy of Benito Mussolini, who bestowed prizes on women who had many children. The party took around 4 percent of votes in the last election, in 2018, but according to some pollsters it could win nearly 25 percent in this one.
But electric lights glowing at night have more to do with economic activity and quality of life than population. Those nations with scant electric lights are some of the poorest on earth.
In 1990, around 70 percent of the world had access to electricity; this in creased to 87 percent in 2016 with about 13 percent of the world without elec tricity. But that number is distorted as at least 50 percent of the population in 38 of the 49 sub-Saharan countries live without electricity, including 94.7 percent of those in Liberia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Si erra Leone and Malawi.
In 1882, Thomas Edison opened his first power plant providing electricity for several hundred lights in New York City. However, it was only in 1930 that 70 percent of US households were electrified. The number of UK wired homes increased from 6 percent in 1919 to 70 percent by 1939.
DW—Septemberyear.
A night view of Egypt from the Nile delta and Cairo up the river to the an cient city of Thebes is a snake with an enormous head and a long wavy body while the rest of the Sahara is dark.
pines-Diliman, composer, singer, conductor, and an actress who is cur rently taking her Masters of Music at the Northwestern State University of Louisiana, renders her version of Aute’s Sin tu latido. The concert also features Spanish singer Rosa Leon’s rendition of Mirandonos los dos, a song released by Aute in 1980.
Prospect of far-right female premier divides Italian women
For many female voters, it’s a question of gender versus agenda.
Some worry that Meloni, who exalts motherhood, might seek to erode women’s rights, including abortion access.
If Meloni does become Italy’s first female premier, it would be “a rupture [with the past] in the
1, 2022: “German cities are turning off some lights at night, which not only saves money and electricity but benefits human health, the climate, and biodiversity. Other species struggle to adapt to the use of ar tificial light at night. Corals, for example, don’t reproduce as usual and newly hatched turtles have been found walking inland, where they die.”
Oria Gargano, whose BeFree or ganization in Rome helps women who have suffered domestic violence, noted with dismay that a Brothers of Italy politician has pushed for cem eteries where aborted fetuses can be buried, and to post the names of women who aborted even without theirRecently,permission.Meloni angered women by retweeting a video of a woman be ing raped in a street—“for the simple fact that it was an immigrant who
“I challenge anyone to say that that would not mean breaking the glass ceiling,’’ the Italian news agency ANSA quoted her as saying when she came to the Monza track for a For mula 1 race.
The most striking examples are the nations of North and South Korea. North Korea—an energy exporter to China—produces 537 kWh per capita annually. South Korea generates 9,810 kWh per capita or 18 times as much. A night photograph shows the South flooded with light while the North has a small splash around Pyongyang.
for those that inhabit remote parts of the planet, everything we do, everything we have and everything we are is a result of electricity and artifi cial light. And it is a new invention.
Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II
During this election campaign, Meloni has been pressed to say
Meloni has generally refrained from pitching for women’s votes sim ply because she is a woman. But she has snapped back at contentions that it wouldn’t be a victory for women if she becomes premier.
Meloni has generally refrained from pitching for women’s votes simply because she is a woman. But she has snapped back at contentions that it wouldn’t be a victory for women if she becomes premier.
Her conservative views are offputting to some women, including Alice Riboli, who at 18 can vote for the first time.
www.news.businessmirror@gmail.comMonday, September 19, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso Opinion BusinessMirrorA10
Vocal Ensemble, and leader of his own jazz sextet, Debonair District, sings another famous composition by Aute, Libertad. Julius Sinoy, who was a Tenor for the University of the Phil ippines Concert Chorus (UPCC) from 2013 to 2016, offers his rendition of Aute’s piece Dos o tres segundos de ternura. James Barbecho, a passion ate musician and performer, covers Siento que te estoy perdiendo, a song made popular by Aute in 1981. Shiela Ferrer, a Filipino soprano who has performed as a soloist in both local and international productions, cov ers Slowly, a popular theme released by Aute in 1992. Finally, Ella Castro, a graduate of BM-Music Education from the University of the Philip
Licia Donati, as a young Com munist activist in the 1960s, fought for the legalization of divorce, which came in 1970. She also mobilized so Italian courts would recognize that wives have the same right to justice as husbands in a country where, until 1981, laws sanctioned leniency for men who murdered women to pre serve “family honor.”
RISING SUN
It’s one of the reasons why Insti tuto Cervantes de Manila decided to pay a posthumous tribute to Aute, in cooperation with the Spanish Embassy in the Philippines and the Intramuros Administration. They gathered some of the country’s note worthy musicians to record original music by Aute and came up with a video concert—“Con tu latido: Filipi nas canta a Luis Eduardo Aute. A trib ute”—that was shown on September
You might have seen on the Internet the satellite pictures of the world at night showing man-made luminousness. These are stunning for the story they tell. The Eastern seaboard of the US, Europe, and Japan are brightly lit, while the interiors of Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America remain dark. Part of this is because of the sparse population in these areas.
Electricity was momentous. But the ability to have available artificial light 24 hours a day changed the world. Factories and agriculture could oper ate around the clock for the first time in the 5,000 years of recorded history.
While it’s true that nocturnal insects suffer high mortality rates from Artificial Lighting At Night DW published an almost identical article on January 14, 2021. However, no call to action was made then to cut the lights when the German people still had energy to keep them from freez ing in their homes.
What makes Queen Elizabeth extraordinary is her longevity, among others. Her secret to long life, perhaps influenced by the Queen Mother, can be found in one of the commandments, the only one with a promise of a reward for its obser vance. In the Bible, the fifth com mandment tells us, “Honor your fa ther and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). This commandment was reiterated by the apostle Paul when he said “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” (Ephe sians 6:2-3). In sum, this promise equates honoring our parents leads to a long and prosperous life.
Honor appears to be the key to longevity. Respect comes with honor as much as obedience does. Queen Elizabeth II dutifully obeyed her parents, as I am try ing my best to dutifully obey my parents. To honor our father and mother may change as we grow into adulthood, but the principle always endures.
Combating emerging scams and fraud in the Philippines
Living the lifelong learning experience
W HILE it’s important to provide customers with the convenience of instant transfers, banks need to engender trust in these systems. To protect real-time payments requires analytics that look for changes in customer behavior such as using accounts or devices outside of their usual habits, as well as the usual anomalies such as the time of day or frequency of transfer. The use of tar geted profiling of customer behavior to spot scams yields some impressive results with 50 percent more scam transactions detected.
continued from A10
I continue to observe the lifelong learning practices and performance evaluation systems in the govern ment sector. Aside from what I have shared, there are still many more notable undertakings in this area that show the good directions in the government service.
“It would be better to see a woman in politics hold a role of that kind [like premier], but perhaps not her. Maybe someone with ideas a little more open, more current,’’ said Ri
this type of fraud. By regularly com municating with customers, banks can provide useful advice on fraud prevention and practical checks that individuals can follow to protect themselves. It is also crucial that banks encourage customers to keep their contact information updated so that they receive timely fraud alerts.
Part two
We can read in Judges 14:1-4 how Samson pursued the desires of his eyes and disobeyed the better judg ment of his father and mother. De manding that he marry a daughter of a Philistine, Samson’s actions were in clear violation of the spirit of God’s law and a grievous insult against his parents who had raised him in accord with God’s instruc tions. Because of his disobedience, Samson bore the consequences of his sin. Judges 16:21 records what happened to Samson at the end of his life—those lustful eyes were gouged out and he became a grinder in the prison house, until the Phi listines put him to death.
been conned. Fraudsters also swiftly launder it through multiple accounts, making it difficult to trace.
theme—they just want a govern ment with staying power. Since 2018, Italy has had three different ruling, oft-squabbling coalitions, from across the political spectrum.
“I think I don’t care if the right or the left wins,” said Caterina Ba zzani, 52, a financial consultant from Agrate Brianza in northern Italy. “I
By CK Leo
ng Pilipinas, the top fraud threats reported last year are phishing, card-not-present fraud, and identity theft, which could lead to account takeovers and unauthorized trans actions. As new digital payment sys tems such as PESONet and InstaPay are introduced, new fraud threats such as Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud will also emerge. In the case of APP fraud, even authentication checks have limited efficacy when fraudsters manipulate consumers or individuals at a busi ness to transfer money to a bank account controlled by the fraudster.
A former infantry and intelligence officer in the Army, Siegfred Mison showcased his servant leadership philosophy in organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Malcolm Law Of fices, Infogix Inc., University of the East, Bureau of Immigration, and Philippine Airlines. He is a gradu ate of West Point in New York, Ateneo Law School, and University of Southern California. A corporate lawyer by profession, he is an inspirational teacher and a Spirit-filled writer with a mission.
want a government, voted for by Ital ians, that will last five years and ac complish its program.”As for Meloni, “some people say she should get into office because she’s a woman, but I’m not thinking that way. It’s enough for me that she is capable. Man or woman, it’s the same to me.” Sabrina Sergi contributed to this report.
to verify payments because of conve nience. But this first-generation veri fication method can be easily com promised with scams such as “SIM swap” where a fraudster gains access to your SMS one-time-passwords by tricking your phone company into activating a SIM that they control.
She
They came to participate in a lifelong learning exercise. Some were brimming with confidence that they would do well in the competency examinations. A greater number were un easy since they had not taken part in such tests since they took their employee admission examination decades ago. But all were there last September 10, 2022, as these Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) aspi rants for promotion to the position of the Revenue District Officers (RDO) took competency examination to test their mettle in han dling these leadership posts. Prior to the exam date, some of the BIR examinees realized the value of lifelong learning as they had to catch up with their tax update lessons to prepare for the test that might be the “make or break” factor for them to be promoted to more senior positions in the BIR.
Joel L. Tan-Torres is the Dean of the University of the Philippines Virata School of Business. Previ ously, he was the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy, and partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. and the SyCip Gorres and Velayo & Co. He is a Certified Public Accountant who garnered No. 1 in the CPA Board Examination of MayThis1979.column accepts articles from the business and academic community for consideration for publication. Articles not exceeding 700 words can be e-mailed to jltantorres@up.edu.ph.
Joel L. Tan-Torres
When I was the BIR Commis sioner in 2010, I effectively used a key performance indicator sys tem in assessing performance of employees, where such factors are specified and given weights. This approach, as defined in Revenue Memorandum Order No. (RMO) 23-2020, stipulated that several categories would determine the performance rating of key BIR of
Using AI to stop fraud
The many and varied ways finan cial scams are executed means that multi-layered security safeguards are necessary to protect customers, businesses, and banks.
tively combat fraud. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning-driven analytic technologies include sophisticated behavioral biometrics capabilities and scam detection scores that can help spot and prevent fraud. By ana lyzing customer and contextual data from a range of sources and behav ioral biometrics, these technologies can significantly improve detection accuracy, identify types of fraud tak ing place and inform decision-mak ing in real-time to stop fraud quickly.
As the volume and value of digital transactions in the Philippines is ex pected to continue increasing, it dem onstrates the emerging threats that scams pose and the need for banks to up their banking security game and adopt real-time fraud prevention.
fice. The factors prescribed then included tax collections, gover nance, customer relation and tax administration improvement. I also initiated an “Assistant Chief” Challenge system in RMO 12-2010 that provided another measure for all Assistant Chiefs to show their capacity to undertake projects that contribute to the tax administra tion efforts of the BIR. The suc cessful implementation of these projects would reflect on the per formance evaluation of the Assis tant Chiefs.
Indeed, Elizabeth II honored her father by continuing his reign and legacy, and devoted her entire life to service and performance of her call ing. Queen Elizabeth II honored her father by sacrificially assuming the Queenship and promising to devote her life “whether long or short” in the service of the commonwealth realm which she called the “impe rial family” to which they all belong. As a young wife and mother, the demands of her royal duties could have easily weighed her down. But she never considered abdicating—
The complexity of such scams is that victims are deceived into authorizing these payments themselves, which makes it particularly difficult to de tect and What’sprevent.concerning is that not all customers may be aware of the risks involved in new banking ser vices like real-time payments. As money is transferred near instantly, to a peer or to a merchant, it means that victims don’t have a window of time where they can try to reverse a payment once they realize they have
her widespread respect.
Aside from honoring parents, the longevity of Queen Elizabeth II may also be attributed to another Biblical doctrine found in Proverbs 3:2, which says, “My child, never for get the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying.” For the most part of her life, amid the challeng ing controversies that hounded her reign (death, near-death expe riences, and divorces in the royal family), she kept her poise and did what every good believer could do—spread goodness and kindness. Having encountered 15 prime min isters during her reign, the Queen never interfered with nor weighed in on political matters. As a consti tutional monarch, the Queen visited as many countries, which no British representative has done, especially countries like Kuwait, Bahrain, Sau di Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, which earned
The next steps for this lifelong learning exercise is just beginning for the management of the BIR. After conducting the examina tions, the markings of the tests should be started and completed immediately. Those who took the examinations should not be further burdened with a long wait for the release of the results and its out comes. The policies on how these test results will impact the key performance measures for promo tion and assignment of the RDOI aspirants should be clearly spelled out and consistently applied. This approach will guide BIR manage ment in formulating an objective system for coming up with employ ee performance decisions and avoid pressures brought about by the “padrino” and “palakasan” pracrtice. This will also instill among the BIR employees the mindset that good performance (such as the results of the written examinations) is para mount in the administration of BIR Commissioner Lilia Guillermo.
For example, sophisticated digital identity and authentication solutions to create a stronger level of security across products and channels. In the Philippines, text message (62 per cent) remains customers’ top choice
roots to as far back as the Biblical times, especially in the life of Sam son, and continues to be veritable even at this modern age. A man of great physical strength, Samson enjoyed the Lord’s favor. But he was especially prone to the carnal fail ure that normally embraced a man of unbridled lust and deficiency in self-discipline, coupled with a lack of respect for his parents.
T
CK
For banks that have different solu tions for transaction monitoring and fraud, it is important to remove these silos and overlapping functionality and work collaboratively. Integrated solutions can move more quickly to spot suspicious transactions across different lines of business, accounts, channels and devices.
Another key recommendation is to reduce information silos. Effec tive fraud prevention depends on having a single view of the customer, their transactions, and behaviors.
It is becoming increasingly clear that siloed, on-premise, single-focus solutions are a significant loophole exploited by criminals. They test ev erything from how authentication checks are made across products and channels to what types of activities and amounts trigger verification checks.Anintegrated, enterprise-wide fraud platform enables banks to de sign and adapt rules dynamically to emerging fraud types and execute machine learning models based on targeted profiling of customer be havior to determine what’s a scam and what’s normal banking activity.
While scams that trick customers into sending money are currently an area for concern, other types of fraud where criminals use people’s card de tails or takeover their accounts also have a significant impact.
Top fraud threats in PHL ACCORDING to the Bangko Sentral
the exact opposite of her uncle, King Edward III, who so easily gave up the singular privilege and calling to be king, choosing love for a person in stead of serving the country through the crown. Even at her feeble state when she could have chosen to pass on the throne to her son Charles (now King), Elizabeth II never did, and held on to perform her sworn duties till her last breath.
Prospect . . .
For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.
Monday, September 19, 2022 Opinion A11BusinessMirrorwww.news.businessmirror@gmail.com
Consumer education is another important tool that banks can leverage to make customers more aware of this type of fraud. By regularly communicating with customers, banks can provide useful advice on fraud preven tion and practical checks that individuals can follow to protect themselves.
boli, from Aosta, northern Italy. But other women back Meloni’s agenda.Lavinia Mercante, 25, from Rome, said she backs her “as a poli tician, not as a woman.” Mercante wants to see the political right come to power.Stillothers are indifferent to fe male empowerment as a campaign
THE PATRIOT
DEBIT CREDIT
Beyond these analytics, com munication with customers at the right time is also essential. We know scammers rely on creating a sense of urgency so the ability to dynamically add a “break” into the transaction gives the customer thinking time and a way to back out of making the payment.Consumer education is another important tool that banks can lever age to make customers more aware of
Ultimately, this is a win-win as banks in the Philippines can improve operational efficiency, reduce losses due to fraud, and achieve higher lev els of customer satisfaction.
To be continued.
Leo is FICO’s leader for fraud, security and financial crime in Asia Pacific
Closer to home, I need not look far when it comes to longevity and a satisfying life. I look up to my fa ther who recently became a nonage narian on September 4. He proudly shares that he has never taken any maintenance medicines and just follows a simple diet of “everything in moderation” and a considerable amount of vitamin supplements. He occasionally drinks wine and meat but he really prefers fish and vegetables! He pursues a balanced lifestyle spending time in the farm and the fairways. Both physically nourished and spiritually grounded, my father enjoys the prospect of long life, which also contains an impli cation of prosperity. I too aspire to have that gradual development of understanding and wisdom gar nered from both of my parents (my mom is healthy at 85 except for her bad knees), which themselves help to produce long life and prosperity. Honor appears to be the key to longevity. Respect comes with honor as much as obedience does. Queen Elizabeth II dutifully obeyed as I am trying my best to dutifully obey my parents. To honor our father and mother may change as we grow into adulthood, but the principle always endures. As an adult, we may no longer owe our parents sheer obedi ence, but we should always give them honor thru many ways, principal of which is giving them our time and attention especially during their latterQuiteyears.interestingly, dishonoring our parents equates to the exact opposite of longevity—death and disaster. This principle traces its
he Philippines is expecting digital banking to grow signif icantly in the next few years. As the second-most populous country in Southeast Asia with young and digitally en gaged people, the Philippines has huge potential for digital bank ing adoption.
How to tackle scams
died at the age of 96, after serving her country for 70 years as the Queen since her ascendancy to the throne in 1952—the longest reign in British monarchy. Much has been written about Queen elizabeth II, especially how she selflessly accepted the royal responsibility at a young age of 25. As a Princess, elizabeth was influ enced greatly by her mother, who instilled in her a devout Christian faith. Sometime in 1940, as a 14-year-old princess, she inspired the youth whose parents were affected by World War II with a soothing radio broadcast—“that in the end, all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace.”
Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.
Not that we are condescending in stating this, far from it even, but the evidence for longevity and early death is cemented in his tory, authenticated by the Holy Scriptures, and exhibited in the lives of mortal men, like Queen Elizabeth II and Samson. There is a positive consequence in hon oring parents— long life ; and also negative effects in dishonoring them— disaster and early death We can choose which one to take. Queen Elizabeth II already led the way for us, and she will be most remembered for that choice.
W ITH the sophistication of scams evolving rapidly, banks need to stra tegically innovate with cutting-edge scam detection analytics to effec
The longevity secret of Queen Elizabeth II
As customers transition to other channels like third-party messag ing and banking apps for payment verification, banks need to consider multiple factors of authentication for a layered approach to security. This includes using the tools avail able to them, such as biometric au thentication, which consumers are increasingly familiar with such as fingerprint and facial recognition.
Research shows that the country is well on its way to boosting digital banking participation and digital financial transactions as part of the government’s plans to transform the financial sector and improve finan cial inclusion in the country. Cur rently, 1 in 2 Filipinos are already using mobile banking services and the number of consumers having a digital-only bank account is expect ed to double by 2026, reaching 36 percent of the country’s population. While the convenience afford ed by digital banking has seen its popularity grow among consumers, especially post-pandemic, so too has its appeal for criminals. Scam mers are attracted to the increase in money flows, growth in some in experienced users and finding new ways to con consumers online where money is transacted. Banking fraud losses in the Philippines hit P1 billion last year as digital fraud and scams rose alongside the increase in digital transactions.
On Thursday, on the second day of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC)’s briefing on the 2023 National Ex penditure Program in the Senate, the FIRB said it has decided to al low IT-BPM or commonly known as business process outsourcing (BPO) firms to transfer their registration to the BOI in order for them to con tinue enjoying their incentives. The FIRB is a Cabinet-level interagency body with the authority to grant
According to a DOF statement on Friday, Finance Secretary and FIRB Chairperson Benjamin E. Diokno had said at the FIRB Board meeting on Wednesday that the decision es tablishes a more permanent solution to the issue, allowing the RBEs to continue accessing fiscal incentives without violating Section 309 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended by the CREATE law.
“It is great news that the FIRB will be facilitating a smooth trans fer of the registration of IT-BPM en terprises from PEZA to BOI,” IBPAP President and CEO Jack Madrid said in a post on LinkedIn, a professional networking platform, on Saturday.
“The provision specifically states that to be entitled to incen tives, the conduct of registered projects or activities must be within
A12 Monday, September 19, 2022
The Department of Finance (DOF), which cochairs the FIRB, explained that during the transfer, there will be no diminution in the incentives of these firms.
too,”becomeeveryfamilytoserviceslicessentiallymandsbewithExecutiveinofanddentimmediately.asfrommorestemmedso-calledhisRodriguezexpenses. saidonSaturdaydecisiontoresignasthe“littlepresident”fromhisdesiretobeinvolvedwithhisfamily.“IhaveaskedpermissionthePresidenttostepdownexecutivesecretaryeffectiveIthankthePresiforhiscontinuingtrusthissincereunderstandingmydecision,”Rodriguezsaidastatement.RodriguezsaidtheworkofanSecretaryis“a24/7jobmyriadtopicsexpectedtoattendedtoeverydaythatdeasenseofurgencywhichrequiresalmostallpubservants’timetoensurethataremetanddelivered.”“Equallyvaluable,however,iswitnessfirsthandyouryounggrowandevolveintohowparentwouldwishthemtoandtheymostneedmehesaid.
Further, FIRB has decided to ex tend the 70-30 WFH arrangement for the IT-BPM sector until Decem ber 31,2022. This, the DOF said, is pursuant to Presidential Procla mation No. 57 which extends the declared state of calamity through the country until year-end. Diokno said the extension will al low the “seamless” transfer of RBEs in the IT-BPM sector to the BOI.
THE
IT-BPO firms hail FIRB move to let perks remain under WFH
HE long-time lawyer of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos
The move is seen as a win-win solution to the months-long stand off on FIRB restrictions on IT-BPM firms extending their employees’ work-from-home set-up. With the transfer from PEZA to BOI, these firms can continue accessing fiscal incentives without violating Sec tion 309 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended by the CREATE law.
RODRIGUEZ TO HEAD A NEW OFFICE, OPCOS; OES VACANT
For his part, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said, “The pro cedure for transfer of registration from PEZA to BOI will be seamless —to be carried out expeditiously.” Pascual co-chairs the FIRB and is chairman of both PEZA and BOI. Recognizing the IT-BPM sec tor’s contributions to generating jobs and foreign exchange revenues for the country, the Trade chief stressed, “From the beginning our priority has been to secure a solu tion for the sector’s WFH setup, which has become the new normal post-pandemic.”
As PCS, Rodriguez will have the “rank and emoluments of a Cabinet Secretary.”
tax incentives to registered busi ness enterprises (RBEs).
the geographical boundaries of the ecozone or free port administered by the concerned investment pro motion agency [IPA],” read the DOF statement. TheBOI is the only IPA not af fected by the boundary constraints or zone limits, hence, the transfer from PEZA to BOI.
“The OPCOS will also super vise and coordinate closely with the PMS [Presidential Manage ment Staff] as the primary gov ernment agency directly respon sible for providing substantive staff assistance in the Presidential exercise of the overall manage ment of the development process,” Angeles said in a statement.
“this will not involve physically relocating their operations or giv ing up the incentives that they are currentlyMadridenjoying.” stressedthat FIRB’s de cision is a “wonderful outcome” to IBPAP’s staunch advocacy for workfrom-home or hybrid work setup.
As for the transfer of their reg istration, Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko said, it would not require any physical transfer of these firms. Tionko also noted that under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE), firms registered under the BOI and PEZA will enjoy the same
By Andrea E. San Juan
Press Secretary Beatrix “Trix ie” Cruz-Angeles said the OPCOS will be responsible for “the ef ficient and responsive day-today operational support of the Presidency” such as security monitoring and coordinating with presidential advisers.
Jr., Victor D. Rodriguez, is now the head of a new government office which was created after he resigned as Executive Secretary during the weekend.
T
Continued on A8 See “IT-BPO,” A2
from the ranks of government personnel from abolished agen cies such as the Office of the Cabi net Secretary and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission. Marcos has been abolishing unnecessary government of fices to reduce bureaucracy and unnecessary
The IBPAP chief, however, said
Marcos issued Administra tive Order (AO) No. 1, which created the Office of Presidential Chief of Staff (OPCOS), and then appointed Rodriguez to become the first-ever Presidential Chief of Staff (PCS) to lead it.
The staff of the OPCOS come
Theincentives. onlydifference is that those firms registered under the PEZA will be required to operate onsite, which Tionko said is an important feature of PEZA rules.
IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) has hailed the decision of the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) to transfer registration of IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) enterprises from Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to the Board of Investments (BOI).
Premiere REIT files for IPO
The offer shares will be sold by PAVI subsidiaries S.I. Power Corp. and Camotes Island Power Genera tion Corp. The company is targeting to list in November.
In addition to venturing into the best-performing asset classes in the traditional energy sector
emergence of e-commerce sites.
BusinessMirrorEditor: Jennifer A. Ng Companies B1Monday, September 19, 2022
Premiere REIT’s current prop erty portfolio consists of land, land rights, key power plant assets and other ancillary infrastructure that are being leased to and utilized by the sponsors for their power gen eration operations. Key metrics of properties include a weighted aver age lease expiry of 9.24 years and a total generating capacity of 21.27 megawatts.Thecompany said iy aims to be among the leading diversified pow er and infrastructure REITs in the Philippines in terms of portfolio, profitability, growth, sustainability and dividend yield.
By VG Cabuag @villygc
Real estate revenues for the first half fell 20 percent to P8.8 billion from last year’s P11.11 billion, but rental income rebounded at P4.93
Based on its plan, Premiere REIT will offer up to 1.4 billion secondary common shares at a maximum offer
Vista Land reported last month that its income grew 11 percent to P4.2 billion in January to June, from last year’s P3.84 billion.
billion, a threefold increase from last year’s P1.63 billion.
Gross revenues came in at
For the second quarter alone, the company’s net income grew 10 per cent to P1.91 billion from last year’s P1.73 billion, while revenues came in flat at P7.3 billion.
Filipinos will still flock to malls, despite rise of online shopping–SM Retail
Premiere REIT is a power and in frastructure real estate investment trust (REIT) sponsored by Prime Asset Ventures Inc. (PAVI), Paolo Villar’s holding firm.
M Retail said the brick and mor tar spaces, particularly shopping malls, will always be the go-to community spaces in the Philippines for domestic shoppers, despite the
Dhinno S. Tiu, SM department store’s executive vice president for operations and sales support, said the Filipino consumer today is evolving but
In contrast, shopping in the Philip pines has become an integral part of
P7.97 billion for the six-month period, or just half of last year’s P16.12 billion.
still focused on value shopping par ticularly during the pandemic. They are also getting more comfortable with technology as the pandemic pushed digital alternatives in consideration of
providing social and missionary electrification in underserved ar eas, the company plans to engage in greener, renewable and sustain able energy as part of ensuring different asset classes with con tinues capital appreciation and socialChinaaccountability.BankCapital Corp. has been tapped as sole issue manager and underwriter for the deal.
Premiere island Power reiT Corp., a firm led by manuel Paolo Villar, has filed for a P3.2-billion initial public offering (iPO) with the Securities and exchange Commission.
Manuel Paolo Villar is the eldest son of Manuel B. Villar, and is also the president and CEO of Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc.
S
safety, he said. “Despite ecommerce, brick and mortar spaces will always have a compelling value and relevance for the Filipino shopper,” Tiu said. Elsewhere around the world, espe
cially in Western countries, shopping malls were affected when the pan demic struck.
the everyday Filipino lifestyle. Crowds have returned to malls, with SM’s foot traffic in its retail spaces rose by more than double over pre-pandemic levels year-to-date. VG Cabuag
price of P2 per share, with an overallotment option of up to 210 million secondary common shares.
NGCP issued show cause orders over AS procurement
sTOck picks
in October 2021.
Puregold shares closed last week at P31.35 apiece, robinsons retail at P62 and D&L at
On Saturday, the commission said it issued the orders, through eRC Case Nos. 129, 130 and 131 SC, last Friday. NGCP, according to the eRC, must explain why it should not be penalized for not complying with the policies issued by the DOe
“Starting September 16, 2022, mergers and acquisitions that reach a Size of Party (SoP) of P6.1 billion and a Size of Transaction (SoT) of P2.5 billion will have to be notified to the PCC for mandatory merger review,” the competition watchdog said in statement issued on Friday.
The PCC said that under the two-year effectivity of the thresholds under Bayanihan 2, it received notifications of nine transactions, six of which were approved, and three withdrawn.
The benchmark Philippine Stock exchange index fell 57.23 points to close at 6,548.77 points.The main index was up on Monday, but went down for four straight sessions. Trading volume was lackluster for most of the week, except on Friday when buying activity surged to P14.9 billion. average trading value for the week reached P6.81 billion, with foreign investors cornering 60 percent of the trades and were net buyers at P1.12
he Philippine Competi tion Commission (PCC) said it will begin imple menting the thresholds provi sionally set for compulsory notifi cation of mergers and acquisitions on September 16.
“If mergers and acquisitions meet the thresholds for compul sory notification, these transac tions will be subject to review by the PCC before they can be con summated.”Theparty size refers to the aggregate value of assets or rev enues in the Philippines of the ultimate parent entity of one of the parties to a transaction, while the transaction size refers to the value of assets or revenues of the acquired entity and the entities it controls, said the country’s com petition watchdog.
This week
however, the general mood is still expected to be bearish as investors price in another possible 75 basis point rate hike by the Fed to combat their still elevated inflation,” said Tantiangco.“Investors are also expected to watch out for the BSP who may also act aggressively amid the demand side risks to our country’s inflation, and the weakening of our local cur rency which also poses upside risks to the rise of our general price level. a 75 basis point rate hike by the Fed which puts more depreciation pressure on the Peso may lead to a 50 basis point rate increase by the BSP.”
“The fixed income market is quickly pricing-in the inflation story and the protracted inflation up to 2023 can push the Fed hike benchmark rates above 4 percent,” broker 2Tradeasia said.
The AS CSP from interested gridconnected merchant plants and In dependent Power Producers (IPPs) was already put off early this year due to “several issues” raised by the prospective bidders.
Share prices may fall further this week as the US Federal reserve is expected to raise its rates by another 75 basis points during its meeting on September 20 and 21.
For the week, losers edged gainers 143 to 73 and 30 shares were unchanged.
Meanwhile, Japhet Louis Tantiangco, Philstocks Financials Inc. research manager, said the market may see episodes of bargain hunting as it lies at attractive levels.
The NGCP has yet to comment on the AccordingSCOs. to the latest bid bulle tin posted by NGCP, the bid submis sion deadline for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao AS CSP is on September 19, 20, and 21, respectively. Bids will be opened on September 20 for Luzon, 21 for Visayas, and 22 for Mindanao.Bidswill be evaluated from Sep tember 23 to 30. NGCP will issue notice of award on the week of Oc tober 17 to 21.
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
GIVeN the uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, BDO Securities said investors should con sider quality names in consumer, banks, property and conglomerates, or sectors which it expects to still benefit from positive reopening dynamics and offer healthy earnings growth at reasonable valuations.
“It is very likely that the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] will mirror this hawkishness, albeit gentler, for fear of a hard landing. The materially higher yields in debt securities takes some shine away from equities especially at a time when some sectors, by their nature, will take some ePS [earnings per share] erosion from higher cost of debt.”
advised to place bets on ayala Land Inc. and Megaworld Corp. for the property sector, while alliance Global Group Inc., SM Investments Corp. and GT Capital holding Inc. are strong bets among the conglomerates. ayala Land closed Friday at P28.55, Megaworld at P2.28, aGI at P9.42, SMIC at P871 and GT Capital at P507 per share. VG Cabuag
The energy Regulatory Com mission (eRC) has issued show cause orders (SCOs) to the Na tional Grid Corporation of the Philip pines (NGCP) for failure to comply with the directives of the Department of energy (DOe) in the procurement of ancillary services (AS).
Top losers were Keppel Philippines holdings Inc. a, Manila Broadcasting Co., abaCore Capital holdings Inc., Bogo-Medellin Milling Co. Inc., Monde Nissin Corp., Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corp. and Lodestar Investment holdings Corp.
“Parties seeking confirmation that they are not subject to com pulsory notification under the previous P50 billion thresholds must submit definitive agree ments signed before September 16 with their Letter of Non-Coverage [LNC] to the PCC’s Mergers and Acquisitions Office,” said PCC.
with which the NGCP failed to com ply. These are Section 4.2 requiring NGCP to seek approval from the DOe on its Ancillary Service Agreement Procurement Plan; Sections 7.4 and 7.5 mandating NGCP to seek the approval of the DOe on the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Ancillary Service Competitive Selection Pro cess (AS CSP); and Sections 7.1 and 7.11 requiring NGCP to complete the AS CSP within six months from the effectivity of the circular.
L AsT week
The PCC said these thresholds will remain effective until the ap proval of the commission en banc of new thresholds for compulsory notification.Thecompetition watchdog said it calculated the thresholds to be “provisionally” set by updating
Share prices fell slightly last week as the local bourse tracked Wall Street’s performance following the release of US inflation data, which missed the consensus target.
NGCP needs qualified AS pro viders that can supply starting this year’s grid requirements for regu lating reserves, or 4 percent of the hourly system demand; contingency reserves, the most heavily loaded generating unit on-line and its sched uled reserve; dispatchable reserves, the second most heavily loaded gen erating unit on-line and its scheduled reserve; reactive power support; and black start service.
The latest bid bulletin was ap proved by the Third Party Bids and Awards Committee last August 25.
Top gainers were MrC allied Inc., Forum Pacific Inc., Leisure and resorts World Corp., Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp., asiabest Group International Inc., Premiere horizon alli ance Corp. and Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. B.
During this period, the competi tion watchdog said it also processed 55 LNCs for transactions that did not breach the Bayanihan two-pre scribed thresholds, involved inter nal restructuring or consolidation of ownership without change in control, and referred to the acqui sition of lands. Andrea San Juan
As system operator, the NGCP is responsible for determining, acquir ing and dispatching the needed AS levels in order to maintain power quality and the reliability and secu rity of the grid.
“Several of these names are also trading at deep discounts or below book value and are good value recovery plays, in our view,” the broker said.
The PCC noted that it had to calculate provisional thresholds since the two-year temporary thresholds of P50 billion for party size and transaction size under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) were set to ex pire on September 15, 2022.
The local market’s support is seen at 6,400 points and resistance at 6,600 points.
The eRC cited three sections of DOe Department Circular No. 202110-0031 entitled, “Prescribing the Policy for the Transparent and ef ficient Procurement of Ancillary Services by the System Operator”,
billion.Other sub-indices ended in the red with the exception of the Services index that gained 18.06 points to close at 1,695.09 points.
T
BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.phMonday, September 19, 2022B2 Companies per shAre re TurN re T ALFMurNGrOw Th FuND iNc. -A 209.02 -5.51% -7.01% -5.75% -10.33% ATr AM ALphA Opp O r TuN TY FuND iNc. -A 1.3847 -9.69% -4.4% -3.42% -16.79% qui cL Mbs shAre cApiTAL equiTY iNV es TMeNT FuND cO rp. A 0.7021 -4.86% -10.3% -6.95% -7.19% Firs T Me TrO cONsuMer FuND iNc -A ,4 0.6797 -11.78% -7.73% N A -11.83% qui Firs T Me TrO sAV e AND Le ArN phiLippiNe iNDex FuND iNc. -A ,3 0.7057 -4.6% N A N A -9.91% qui pAM equiTY iNDex FuND iNc. -A 43.3651 -4.23% -6.25% -4.26% -9.9% phiLAM sTr ATeG ic GrOw Th FuND iNc. -A 446.12 -6.22% -6.58% -4.67% -10.9% equi phiLequiTY FuND iNc. -A 33.09 -4.22% -5.29% -3.21% -9.58% phiLequiTY M sci phiLippiNe iNDex FuND iNc. -A 0.8528 -3.28% -6.46% N A -9.41% equi phiLippiNe sTO ck iNDex FuND cO rp. -A 750.01 -3.58% -5.64% -3.67% -9.47% sOLD iVO sTr ATeG ic GrOw Th FuND iNc. A 0.6775 -3.7% -9.92% -6.17% -9.98% qui suN LiFe prOsperiTY phiLippiNe sTO ck iNDex FuND iNc. A 0.8536 -3.87% -5.94% -3.92% p-9.62% riMAriLY iNV es TeD iN pes O securiTies (uNiT s) phiLequiTY ALphA O Ne FuND iNc. -A 1.0305 -5.59% N A N A -11.37% e xchANG e Tr ADeD FuND (shAres) Firs T Me TrO phiL equiTY e xchANG e Tr ADeD FuND iNc. -A ,c 101.1047 -3.23% -5.47% -3.32% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (sh $0.8671 Ares) suN LiFe prOsperiTY wO rLD VOYAG er FuND iNc. A $1.4486 -21.12% 3.59% 3.85% -21.54% bALANceD FuNDs ies (sh res) ATr AM DYNAMic ALLO c ATi ON FuND iNc. -A 1.528 -8.78% -2.92% -3.36% -9.69% ATr AM phiLippiNe bALANceD FuND iNc. A 2.1064 -4.58% -3.13% -2.62% -7.67% O F.O. u . D ic Fu c. - 0.1945 0% -6.94% phiLAM FuND iNc. A 14.9643 -9.14% -4.37% -2.76% -11.17% suN LiFe prOsperiTY DYNAMic FuND iNc. -A 0.8774 -2.2% -4.06% -2.39% -8.05% pri ri es D pes O securi ies (u s) 2028, suN LiFe prOsperiTY Achie V er FuND 2038, iNc. -A 0.8406 -6.96% -6.19% N A -11% suN LiFe prOsperiTY Achie V er FuND iNc. -A N A ies (sh res) cO cOLiFe D OLLAr FuND buiLDer, iNc. A $0.8783 $0.03343 suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr ADVANTAG e FuND iNc. -A $3.9095 -18.72% 1.15% 2.12% -18.59% suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr weLL spriNG FuND iNc. A ,2 $1.001 -17.28% -2.29% -0.62% -16.49% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN pes O securiTies (shAres) ALFM pes O bOND FuND iNc. A 375.4 0.59% 2% 2.26% 0.29% cO cOLiFe FixeD iNcOMe FuND iNc. -A 3.2302 -0.32% 1.58% 3.06% -0.43% ekk LesiA MuTuAL FuND iNc. -A 2.1727 -4.03% -0.5% 0.54% -3.5% phiLAM bOND FuND iNc. A 4.1841 -6.59% -0.94% 0.41% -4.81% phiLAM M ANAG eD iNcOMe FuND iNc. -A 1.3185 -0.07% 2.13% 2.72% -0.05% sOLDequiVObOND FuND iNc. -A 1.0134 -2.42% 2.17% 1.69% -1.44% suN LiFe OF cANADA prOsperiTY bOND FuND iNc. A 3.1384 -2.52% 1.28% 2.6% -1.54% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (sh $481.81 Ares) ALFM eurO bOND FuND iNc. -A Є210.27 -4.73% -1.52% -0.18% -4.43% ATr AM TOTAL re TurN D OLLAr bOND FuND iNc. -b $1.0674 -11.77% -3.75% -1.2% -11.34% pAMi G LO bAL bOND FuND iNc -b $0.8959 -14.81% -6.53% -3.73% -12.41% phiLAM D OLLAr bOND FuND iNc. A $2.2135 -12.72% -2.83% -0.33% -11.66% equi suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr AbuNDANce FuND iNc. -A $2.746 -14.49% -4.5% -1.97% -14.09% MONe Y M Arke T FuNDs ALFM MONe Y M Arke T FuND iNc. -A 132.67 1.52% 2.13% 2.53% 1.13% Firs T Me TrO sAV e AND Le ArN MONe Y M Arke T FuND iNc. -A 1.0668 1.11% 1.44% N A suN LiFe prOsperiTY pes O sTAr Ter FuND iNc. -A ,1 1.3309 1.63% 2.01% 2.45% 1.16% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (shAres) suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr sTAr Ter FuND iNc. A $1.0662 0.72% 1.09% N A 0.53% FeeDer FuNDs ies (u s) ALFM G LO bAL MuLTi-Asse T iNcOMe FuND iNc. -A 45.0329 N A N A N A N A suN LiFe prOsperiTY wO rLD equiTY iNDex FeeDer FuND iNc. A 1.2676 -4.61% N A N A priMAriLY NV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (uNiT $0.8112 s) (NAVpu). 8, 2021 c.). pifa. M u T u AL F u ND s september 16, 2022
For the consumer sector, the broker said investors can look at Puregold Price Club Inc., robinsons retail holdings Inc. and D&L Industries Inc.
the 2020 thresholds based on the country’s nominal gross domestic product growth in the past two years, reflecting the contraction of the economy by 8.09 percent in 2020 and subsequent growth of 8.13 percent in 2021.
The power plants of interested bidders must be directly connected to an NGCP-owned facility with a dedicated connection while embed ded generators must have expressed consent from host distribution util ity that it can dispatch anytime when required for ancillary services provision.
P7.53.Italso
While the eRC noted that NGCP has already issued the TOR and the schedule for the conduct of AS CSP, the latter has yet to comply with the said provisions in existing poli cies adopted by the DOe pursuant to its mandate as a policy-making authority.Theissuance of the eRC’s SCOs is consistent with the mandate of the agency to enforce the implementing rules and regulations of the electric Power Industry Reform Act, includ ing those formulated and adopted by the TheDOeeRC directed NGCP to file within 15 days their verified expla nation as to why no administrative penalty should be imposed upon it on the possible violations cited. The submission shall also include necessary proof that will support all the allegations in its verified explanation.Ancillaryservices are necessary to support the transmission of ca pacity and energy from resources to loads, while maintaining reliable operation of the grid in accordance with good utility practice and exist ing rules. Meanwhile, the AS CSP is the process whereby ancillary service providers are awarded AS contracts through transparent and competi tive bidding in accordance with the rules and regulations set by govern ment regulators.
PCC sets thresholds for review of M&As
s TO ck -MA rke T O u TLOO k
The broader all Shares index lost 32.06 to 3,474.41, the Financials index dropped 15.79 to 1,590.84, the Industrial index plunged 343.74 to 9,485.15, the holding Firms index was down 1.66 to 6,364.03, the Property index shed 16.93 to 2,918.01 and the Mining and Oil index declined 344.58 to 11,277.51.
“If mergers and acquisitions meet the thresholds for compul sory notification, these transac tions will be subject to review by the PCC before they can be con summated.”Theparty size refers to the aggregate value of assets or rev enues in the Philippines of the ultimate parent entity of one of the parties to a transaction, while the transaction size refers to the value of assets or revenues of the acquired entity and the entities it controls, said the country’s com petition watchdog.
with which the NGCP failed to com ply. These are Section 4.2 requiring NGCP to seek approval from the DOe on its Ancillary Service Agreement Procurement Plan; Sections 7.4 and 7.5 mandating NGCP to seek the approval of the DOe on the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Ancillary Service Competitive Selection Pro cess (AS CSP); and Sections 7.1 and 7.11 requiring NGCP to complete the AS CSP within six months from the effectivity of the circular.
“It is very likely that the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] will mirror this hawkishness, albeit gentler, for fear of a hard landing. The materially higher yields in debt securities takes some shine away from equities especially at a time when some sectors, by their nature, will take some ePS [earnings per share] erosion from higher cost of debt.”
The energy Regulatory Com mission (eRC) has issued show cause orders (SCOs) to the Na tional Grid Corporation of the Philip pines (NGCP) for failure to comply with the directives of the Department of energy (DOe) in the procurement of ancillary services (AS).
Share prices may fall further this week as the US Federal reserve is expected to raise its rates by another 75 basis points during its meeting on September 20 and 21.
Meanwhile, Japhet Louis Tantiangco, Philstocks Financials Inc. research manager, said the market may see episodes of bargain hunting as it lies at attractive levels.
however, the general mood is still expected to be bearish as investors price in another possible 75 basis point rate hike by the Fed to combat their still elevated inflation,” said Tantiangco.“Investors are also expected to watch out for the BSP who may also act aggressively amid the demand side risks to our country’s inflation, and the weakening of our local cur rency which also poses upside risks to the rise of our general price level. a 75 basis point rate hike by the Fed which puts more depreciation pressure on the Peso may lead to a 50 basis point rate increase by the BSP.”
The local market’s support is seen at 6,400 points and resistance at 6,600 points.
The PCC said that under the two-year effectivity of the thresholds under Bayanihan 2, it received notifications of nine transactions, six of which were approved, and three withdrawn.
in October 2021.
P7.53.Italso
he Philippine Competi tion Commission (PCC) said it will begin imple menting the thresholds provi sionally set for compulsory notifi cation of mergers and acquisitions on September 16.
During this period, the competi tion watchdog said it also processed 55 LNCs for transactions that did not breach the Bayanihan two-pre scribed thresholds, involved inter nal restructuring or consolidation of ownership without change in control, and referred to the acqui sition of lands. Andrea San Juan
BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.phMonday, September 19, 2022B2 Companies per shAre re TurN re T ALFMurNGrOw Th FuND iNc. -A 209.02 -5.51% -7.01% -5.75% -10.33% ATr AM ALphA Opp O r TuN TY FuND iNc. -A 1.3847 -9.69% -4.4% -3.42% -16.79% qui cL Mbs shAre cApiTAL equiTY iNV es TMeNT FuND cO rp. A 0.7021 -4.86% -10.3% -6.95% -7.19% Firs T Me TrO cONsuMer FuND iNc -A ,4 0.6797 -11.78% -7.73% N A -11.83% qui Firs T Me TrO sAV e AND Le ArN phiLippiNe iNDex FuND iNc. -A ,3 0.7057 -4.6% N A N A -9.91% qui pAM equiTY iNDex FuND iNc. -A 43.3651 -4.23% -6.25% -4.26% -9.9% phiLAM sTr ATeG ic GrOw Th FuND iNc. -A 446.12 -6.22% -6.58% -4.67% -10.9% equi phiLequiTY FuND iNc. -A 33.09 -4.22% -5.29% -3.21% -9.58% phiLequiTY M sci phiLippiNe iNDex FuND iNc. -A 0.8528 -3.28% -6.46% N A -9.41% equi phiLippiNe sTO ck iNDex FuND cO rp. -A 750.01 -3.58% -5.64% -3.67% -9.47% sOLD iVO sTr ATeG ic GrOw Th FuND iNc. A 0.6775 -3.7% -9.92% -6.17% -9.98% qui suN LiFe prOsperiTY phiLippiNe sTO ck iNDex FuND iNc. A 0.8536 -3.87% -5.94% -3.92% p-9.62% riMAriLY iNV es TeD iN pes O securiTies (uNiT s) phiLequiTY ALphA O Ne FuND iNc. -A 1.0305 -5.59% N A N A -11.37% e xchANG e Tr ADeD FuND (shAres) Firs T Me TrO phiL equiTY e xchANG e Tr ADeD FuND iNc. -A ,c 101.1047 -3.23% -5.47% -3.32% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (sh $0.8671 Ares) suN LiFe prOsperiTY wO rLD VOYAG er FuND iNc. A $1.4486 -21.12% 3.59% 3.85% -21.54% bALANceD FuNDs ies (sh res) ATr AM DYNAMic ALLO c ATi ON FuND iNc. -A 1.528 -8.78% -2.92% -3.36% -9.69% ATr AM phiLippiNe bALANceD FuND iNc. A 2.1064 -4.58% -3.13% -2.62% -7.67% O F.O. u . D ic Fu c. - 0.1945 0% -6.94% phiLAM FuND iNc. A 14.9643 -9.14% -4.37% -2.76% -11.17% suN LiFe prOsperiTY DYNAMic FuND iNc. -A 0.8774 -2.2% -4.06% -2.39% -8.05% pri ri es D pes O securi ies (u s) 2028, suN LiFe prOsperiTY Achie V er FuND 2038, iNc. -A 0.8406 -6.96% -6.19% N A -11% suN LiFe prOsperiTY Achie V er FuND iNc. -A N A ies (sh res) cO cOLiFe D OLLAr FuND buiLDer, iNc. A $0.8783 $0.03343 suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr ADVANTAG e FuND iNc. -A $3.9095 -18.72% 1.15% 2.12% -18.59% suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr weLL spriNG FuND iNc. A ,2 $1.001 -17.28% -2.29% -0.62% -16.49% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN pes O securiTies (shAres) ALFM pes O bOND FuND iNc. A 375.4 0.59% 2% 2.26% 0.29% cO cOLiFe FixeD iNcOMe FuND iNc. -A 3.2302 -0.32% 1.58% 3.06% -0.43% ekk LesiA MuTuAL FuND iNc. -A 2.1727 -4.03% -0.5% 0.54% -3.5% phiLAM bOND FuND iNc. A 4.1841 -6.59% -0.94% 0.41% -4.81% phiLAM M ANAG eD iNcOMe FuND iNc. -A 1.3185 -0.07% 2.13% 2.72% -0.05% sOLDequiVObOND FuND iNc. -A 1.0134 -2.42% 2.17% 1.69% -1.44% suN LiFe OF cANADA prOsperiTY bOND FuND iNc. A 3.1384 -2.52% 1.28% 2.6% -1.54% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (sh $481.81 Ares) ALFM eurO bOND FuND iNc. -A Є210.27 -4.73% -1.52% -0.18% -4.43% ATr AM TOTAL re TurN D OLLAr bOND FuND iNc. -b $1.0674 -11.77% -3.75% -1.2% -11.34% pAMi G LO bAL bOND FuND iNc -b $0.8959 -14.81% -6.53% -3.73% -12.41% phiLAM D OLLAr bOND FuND iNc. A $2.2135 -12.72% -2.83% -0.33% -11.66% equi suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr AbuNDANce FuND iNc. -A $2.746 -14.49% -4.5% -1.97% -14.09% MONe Y M Arke T FuNDs ALFM MONe Y M Arke T FuND iNc. -A 132.67 1.52% 2.13% 2.53% 1.13% Firs T Me TrO sAV e AND Le ArN MONe Y M Arke T FuND iNc. -A 1.0668 1.11% 1.44% N A suN LiFe prOsperiTY pes O sTAr Ter FuND iNc. -A ,1 1.3309 1.63% 2.01% 2.45% 1.16% priMAriLY iNV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (shAres) suN LiFe prOsperiTY D OLLAr sTAr Ter FuND iNc. A $1.0662 0.72% 1.09% N A 0.53% FeeDer FuNDs ies (u s) ALFM G LO bAL MuLTi-Asse T iNcOMe FuND iNc. -A 45.0329 N A N A N A N A suN LiFe prOsperiTY wO rLD equiTY iNDex FeeDer FuND iNc. A 1.2676 -4.61% N A N A priMAriLY NV es TeD iN FO reiGN curreNc Y securiTies (uNiT $0.8112 s) (NAVpu). 8, 2021 c.). pifa. M u T u AL F u ND s september 16, 2022
The latest bid bulletin was ap proved by the Third Party Bids and Awards Committee last August 25.
The AS CSP from interested gridconnected merchant plants and In dependent Power Producers (IPPs) was already put off early this year due to “several issues” raised by the prospective bidders.
s TO ck -MA rke T O u TLOO k
The power plants of interested bidders must be directly connected to an NGCP-owned facility with a dedicated connection while embed ded generators must have expressed consent from host distribution util ity that it can dispatch anytime when required for ancillary services provision.
“Starting September 16, 2022, mergers and acquisitions that reach a Size of Party (SoP) of P6.1 billion and a Size of Transaction (SoT) of P2.5 billion will have to be notified to the PCC for mandatory merger review,” the competition watchdog said in statement issued on Friday.
The benchmark Philippine Stock exchange index fell 57.23 points to close at 6,548.77 points.The main index was up on Monday, but went down for four straight sessions. Trading volume was lackluster for most of the week, except on Friday when buying activity surged to P14.9 billion. average trading value for the week reached P6.81 billion, with foreign investors cornering 60 percent of the trades and were net buyers at P1.12
Share prices fell slightly last week as the local bourse tracked Wall Street’s performance following the release of US inflation data, which missed the consensus target.
Puregold shares closed last week at P31.35 apiece, robinsons retail at P62 and D&L at
Top losers were Keppel Philippines holdings Inc. a, Manila Broadcasting Co., abaCore Capital holdings Inc., Bogo-Medellin Milling Co. Inc., Monde Nissin Corp., Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corp. and Lodestar Investment holdings Corp.
For the week, losers edged gainers 143 to 73 and 30 shares were unchanged.
Top gainers were MrC allied Inc., Forum Pacific Inc., Leisure and resorts World Corp., Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp., asiabest Group International Inc., Premiere horizon alli ance Corp. and Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. B.
This week
sTOck picks
The PCC said these thresholds will remain effective until the ap proval of the commission en banc of new thresholds for compulsory notification.Thecompetition watchdog said it calculated the thresholds to be “provisionally” set by updating
As system operator, the NGCP is responsible for determining, acquir ing and dispatching the needed AS levels in order to maintain power quality and the reliability and secu rity of the grid.
“The fixed income market is quickly pricing-in the inflation story and the protracted inflation up to 2023 can push the Fed hike benchmark rates above 4 percent,” broker 2Tradeasia said.
“Several of these names are also trading at deep discounts or below book value and are good value recovery plays, in our view,” the broker said.
billion.Other sub-indices ended in the red with the exception of the Services index that gained 18.06 points to close at 1,695.09 points.
T
the 2020 thresholds based on the country’s nominal gross domestic product growth in the past two years, reflecting the contraction of the economy by 8.09 percent in 2020 and subsequent growth of 8.13 percent in 2021.
L AsT week
The PCC noted that it had to calculate provisional thresholds since the two-year temporary thresholds of P50 billion for party size and transaction size under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) were set to ex pire on September 15, 2022.
“Parties seeking confirmation that they are not subject to com pulsory notification under the previous P50 billion thresholds must submit definitive agree ments signed before September 16 with their Letter of Non-Coverage [LNC] to the PCC’s Mergers and Acquisitions Office,” said PCC.
While the eRC noted that NGCP has already issued the TOR and the schedule for the conduct of AS CSP, the latter has yet to comply with the said provisions in existing poli cies adopted by the DOe pursuant to its mandate as a policy-making authority.Theissuance of the eRC’s SCOs is consistent with the mandate of the agency to enforce the implementing rules and regulations of the electric Power Industry Reform Act, includ ing those formulated and adopted by the TheDOeeRC directed NGCP to file within 15 days their verified expla nation as to why no administrative penalty should be imposed upon it on the possible violations cited. The submission shall also include necessary proof that will support all the allegations in its verified explanation.Ancillaryservices are necessary to support the transmission of ca pacity and energy from resources to loads, while maintaining reliable operation of the grid in accordance with good utility practice and exist ing rules. Meanwhile, the AS CSP is the process whereby ancillary service providers are awarded AS contracts through transparent and competi tive bidding in accordance with the rules and regulations set by govern ment regulators.
PCC sets thresholds for review of M&As
The eRC cited three sections of DOe Department Circular No. 202110-0031 entitled, “Prescribing the Policy for the Transparent and ef ficient Procurement of Ancillary Services by the System Operator”,
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
The broader all Shares index lost 32.06 to 3,474.41, the Financials index dropped 15.79 to 1,590.84, the Industrial index plunged 343.74 to 9,485.15, the holding Firms index was down 1.66 to 6,364.03, the Property index shed 16.93 to 2,918.01 and the Mining and Oil index declined 344.58 to 11,277.51.
GIVeN the uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, BDO Securities said investors should con sider quality names in consumer, banks, property and conglomerates, or sectors which it expects to still benefit from positive reopening dynamics and offer healthy earnings growth at reasonable valuations.
NGCP issued show-cause orders over AS procurement
On Saturday, the commission said it issued the orders, through eRC Case Nos. 129, 130 and 131 SC, last Friday. NGCP, according to the eRC, must explain why it should not be penalized for not complying with the policies issued by the DOe
The NGCP has yet to comment on the AccordingSCOs. to the latest bid bulle tin posted by NGCP, the bid submis sion deadline for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao AS CSP is on September 19, 20, and 21, respectively. Bids will be opened on September 20 for Luzon, 21 for Visayas, and 22 for Mindanao.Bidswill be evaluated from Sep tember 23 to 30. NGCP will issue notice of award on the week of Oc tober 17 to 21.
NGCP needs qualified AS pro viders that can supply starting this year’s grid requirements for regu lating reserves, or 4 percent of the hourly system demand; contingency reserves, the most heavily loaded generating unit on-line and its sched uled reserve; dispatchable reserves, the second most heavily loaded gen erating unit on-line and its scheduled reserve; reactive power support; and black start service.
For the consumer sector, the broker said investors can look at Puregold Price Club Inc., robinsons retail holdings Inc. and D&L Industries Inc.
advised to place bets on ayala Land Inc. and Megaworld Corp. for the property sector, while alliance Global Group Inc., SM Investments Corp. and GT Capital holding Inc. are strong bets among the conglomerates. ayala Land closed Friday at P28.55, Megaworld at P2.28, aGI at P9.42, SMIC at P871 and GT Capital at P507 per share. VG Cabuag
“Usecompany.thecredit card directly and get those protections,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s the worst of both worlds.”
But if you're looking to build your credit score, and you’re able to make payments on time, a credit card is a better choice. The same goes if you want strong legal pro tections from fraud, and clear, cen tralized reporting of loans.
R ETAI l ERS accept the backend fees of buy now, pay later services because the products increase cart sizes. When shoppers are given the option to pay off purchases in in stallments, they're more likely to buy more goods in one go.
The services generally don't charge you more than you would have paid up front, meaning there's technically no interest, so long as you make the payments on time.
Hicks points to the rising num ber of delinquent payments as a sign that buy now, pay later could already be contributing to un manageable debt for consumers. A July report from the Fitch ratings agency found delinquencies on the apps increased sharply in the 12 months that ended March 31, to as high as 4.1% for Afterpay, while credit card delinquencies held rela tively steady at 1.4%.
l auren Saunders, associate di rector at the National Consumer l aw Center, advises borrowers to avoid linking a credit card to buy now, pay later apps whenever possible. If you do, you lose the protections you get from using the credit card while also opening yourself to owing interest to the card
Who should use buy now, pay later?
How does buy now, pay later work?
That means more companies may let you buy more items, even if you can’t afford them, because the lenders don’t know how many loans you have set up with other companies.Payments you make on time aren’t reported to credit rating agencies, but missed payments are.
When Apple recently announced it will be creating its own buy now, pay later service, Josiah Herndon, 23, joked on Twitter about “pay ing off 6 carts of [things] I can’t afford with Apple, Klarna, After
reporting of buy now, pay later pur chases, those debts won't necessar ily appear on your credit profile with major credit rating agencies.
“Right now, buy now, pay later can’t generally help you build cred it, but it can hurt,” said Saunders.
Companies like Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, and Paypal all offer the service, with Apple due to enter the market later this year.
B4 www.businessmirror.com.phBusinessMirrorMonday, September 19, 2022
That means you could find it more difficult to settle disputes with merchants, return items, or get your money back in cases of fraud. Companies can offer pro tections, but they don't have to.
NEW
pay, PayPal Pay in 4, Shop Pay in 4, &Herndon,Affirm.” who works in in surance in Indianapolis, said he started using the services because it was taking a long time for him to be approved for a credit card, since his age meant he didn’t have an extensive credit history. He’s since used them to pay for highend clothes, shoes, and other lux ury goods. Herndon said he lines the payment schedules up with his paychecks so he doesn’t miss installments, and called the option “very convenient."
“The increasing popularity of this is going to be interesting to see over these different economic waves,” Hicks said. “The immedi ate fallout is what’s happening now.”
B ECAUSE there's no centralized
BRAN dEd as “interest-free loans,” buy now, pay later services require you to download an app, link a bank account or debit or credit card, and sign up to pay in weekly or monthly installments. Some companies, such as Klarna and Afterpay, do soft credit checks, which aren't reported to credit bureaus, before approving borrowers. Most are approved in minutes. Scheduled payments are then automatically deducted from your account or charged to your card.
“Because of inflation, people may think, ‘I’m going to have to get what I need and pay for it later in these installments,’” she said. “But are you still going to be able to afford the things you’re afford ing now six months from now?”
By Cora Lewis | The Associated Press
YORK—Since the start of the pandemic, the option to “buy now, pay later” has skyrocketed in popularity, especially among young and low-income consumers who may not have ready access to traditional credit.
Why do retailers offer buy now, pay later?
you owe. These can run as high as $34 plus interest. If you miss mul tiple payments, you may be shut out from using the service in the future, and the delinquency could hurt your credit score.
A 65-inc H television is shown at a warehouse, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Lone Tree, colo. Buy now, pay later loans allow users to pay for items such as new sneak ers, electronics or luxury goods in installments. AP/DAvi D Z A lubowski BA ske TBALL sneakers are seen at a game, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in chicago. Buy now, pay later loans allow users to pay for items such as new sneakers, electronics or luxury goods in installments. AP/Ch A rles r ex Arbog A st
I N the US, buy now, pay later ser vices are not currently covered by the Truth in l ending Act, which regulates credit cards and other types of loans (those paid back in more than four installments).
Are my purchases protected?
A S the cost of living increases, some shoppers have started breaking up payments on essen tials, rather than just big-ticket items like electronics or designer clothes. A poll by Morning Con sult released this week found 15% of buy now, pay later customers are using the service for routine purchases, such as groceries and gas, sounding alarm bells among financial advisors.
How will economic instability affect buy now, pay later?
What to knoW about ‘buy noW, pay later’
I F you have the ability to make all payments on time, buy now, pay later loans are a relatively healthy, interest-free form of consumer
What are the other risks?
Explainer
But if you pay late, you may be subject to a flat fee or a fee calcu lated as a percentage of the total
credit.“If[the loans] work as promised, and if people can avoid late fees and don’t have trouble managing their finances, they have a place,” said Saunders, of the National Consumer l aw Center.
Elyse Hicks, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive nonprofit, said people may not consider seri ously enough whether they'll still be able to afford payments down the road.
If you shop online for clothes or furniture, sneakers or concert tickets, you’ve seen the option at checkout to break the cost into smaller installments over time.
But with economic instability rising, so are delinquencies. Here's what you should know:
If you're uncertain whether you'll be able to make payments on time, consider whether the fees charged by buy now, pay later companies will add up to higher charges than the penalties and interest a credit card company or other lender would charge.
PR in the hospitality industry: Creating precious memories
BusinessMirror Marketing Monday, September 19, 2022 B5www.businessmirror.com.ph
and Culture, the Vero Vox Council will advise on new initiatives and gauge the success of those already in place.“Oneof our goals at Vero is to pro vide a great professional experience for our team members. Our Shadow Board offers not only a safe space for diverse viewpoints to be heard, but also an excellent development opportunity for board members to influence executive decisions on the direction of Vero,” said People and Culture Manager Supreeyaporn Sihawong. “We respect and value the opinions and ideas of our younger team members, and this board is a way for us to demonstrate our com mitment to them.”
CREATING buzz and visibility for a hotel has limitless opportu nities. There are many amazing stories to tell about award-win ning restaurants, astounding cu linary creations, luxurious room amenities, a stunning lobby, and cutting-edge health and wellness facilities. Not to forget the other facets that define a hotel’s soul: its community involvements and rel evant advocacies, and the impec cable service by the well-trained and dedicated staff.
from the Thailand office include Tuchachakorn Phataprasert, Ac count Executive; Muthita Kaenmee, Digital Account Manager; Sitala Sangkaew, Digital Creative Direc tor; Jatupon Nasaree, Senior Digital Account Manager; and Thanomsak Kriengphan, Senior Digital Account Executive. From the Myanmar office, there is Su Yamin Phone, IMC Ac count Manager; Khine Zar (Skylar) Thwe, Operations Director; and Htoo Htet (Jack) Aung, Senior Account Executive. Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh, Media and Influencer Specialist, and Pham Hoai Anh, Regional Strategic Manager hail from the Vietnam of fice. Claudia Graciela Pusung, Ac count Executive is based in Indo
21st century sustainability goals TOUCHING on hotel PR at this time without citing the global sustainability movement would be an oversight, as countries rise to the call for action to attain the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations. Forbes Travel Guide, considered the world authority in luxury travel, lists sustain ability as one of four top luxury trends. Booking.com in its 2021 Sustainability Report says that 73 percent of those surveyed say travelers are more likely to choose an accommodation if it has imple
fundamental.
mouth, the friendships and pref erences of the movers and shak ers, and even fond thoughts of the server who through the years remembered their favorite drink, etc. There’s the adage that is apt in hospitality business: “Custom ers may forget what you said but they will never forget what you made them feel.”
FREEPIK.COMRAWPIXELS
Vero spearheads inclusiVity initiatiVes with the Vox council, a shadow board of diVerse team members
I have immersed myself in hotel PR long enough to see that while the practice of PR in any industry requires cultivating meaningful relationships with media and the target audience, this skill is paramount in the hospitality industry. Public Rela tions entails relationship build ing, which takes time to develop. Fortunately, with hotel being an experiential business, develop ing and strengthening contacts with media and customers take place here on a regular basis. There is almost no excuse for failure in this aspect, because the very nature of the hotel’s culture provides a natural environment for it. It could only fail if this ba sic PR craft is wrongly exercised.
The Vero Vox Council (VVC) will work closely with senior decisionmakers in creating policy and in novation, reviewing Vero’s internal processes, designing training and development programs, and spear heading diversity and inclusion ini tiatives. It will also advise on business strategies, taking a deeper dive into client sourcing, growth, and thought leadership.TheVero Vox Council aims for proportional representation, with factors such as location, gender iden tity, and age group influencing the selection of board members in order to better involve minority voices at a decision-making level. “At Vero, we work with clients
Creating visibility for the ho tel to influence customer or guest behavior supports Marketing, which, in a hotel structure, shares the responsibility for overseeing owned media such as the social media platforms for promo an nouncements, website updates, email campaigns, in-house post ers and Besidesnewsletters.mediarelations, the
PR Matters is devoting a spe cial column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your ques tions or comments to askipraphil@ gmail.com.
Carly Smith of BlueSky PR in UK says that it is an art: uch as flexibility amid constant change, mentoring, strategic thinking, honesty and accountability are at the very core of our roles. And while machines can now assist with measurement, reporting and even content creation, the real value we offer our clients comes from a level of emotional intelli gence that is impossible to repli cate with machines.”
By Charisse Garcia Chuidian
building on the hotel’s social presence
MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Vero, an award-winning Southeast Asia-fo cused PR and digital marketing con sultancy, announced the formation of the Vero Vox Council, a shadow board that will inform decisionmaking on strategic policies at Vero.
PR Matters
I
Capitalizing on the nostalgia, the hotel repurposed a tree of memories onsite at a central space, where guests would hang cards on its branches, expressing their af fection and regard for a brand that they looked forward to welcoming back after a few years.
The Asean Tourism Forum also focuses on this initiative, recog nizing establishments that imple ment eco-friendly practices with the Asean Green Hotel Award. In the Philippines, among the re cipients of the 2022-2024 award are the three hotels at the luxury integrated resort City of Dreams Manila, namely, Nüwa Manila, Nobu Hotel Manila, and Hyatt Regency City of Dreams Manila.
other PR touchpoints are the use of advertorials, promoting posi tive reviews, media monitoring to capture hits and published materials, supporting high-pro file events targeted to a desired market, engaging in marketing partnerships that are considered to be a perfect fit, or sponsoring a community project that is aligned with the hotel’s vision.
Flexibilitywill. in the day-to-day world of the hospitality industry cannot be underscored. To man age the unexpected and, in the process, help overcome stress is another skill to master. As has been said, “flexibility is the key to dwelling with life’s ambiguities.”
I tend to agree with Carly be cause it is perhaps in the hospi tality industry where PR can be regarded more as an art, where intangible traits such as agility, flexibility, and creativity are put into practice most often, where passion is a way of life, and em pathy and humility come into play at the most critical times.
from a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds, so it’s essential that we understand and prioritize diverse perspectives. To provide clients with the best work possible, we need to listen to our Gen Z team members as much, if not more than those who are older and more expe rienced. We believe that a shadow board with a high Gen Z membership is a great way to make sure that our business remains at the forefront of creativity and innovation,” shared VP of Culture and Brand Vu-Quan Nguyen-Masse.Vero’sVoxCouncil consists of 12 members, with proportional repre sentation from each of their five of fices around the region. Members
In this brick-and-mortar in dustry, precious memories are built within its walls and relived over time. The hotel is a silent witness to a business partner ship being clinched, the grandeur of a wedding reception followed by years of happy anniversaries, a young couple’s giddy feeling on their first date, the enduring taste of the ribeye that melts in the
on 38 years of mean ingful experiences, the hotel thoughtfully phased out its clo sure. It brought down the curtain on the restaurants not in one fell swoop, but ‘gently’ allowed guests to reconnect and experience—for one last time—the “Best of the Best MOments” (a play of words on the hotel’s name) in each of the restaurants they loved.
While writing compelling sto ries about the hotel is a fundamen tal task, it is just as vital for the PR person to be astute in identify ing the right media to target one’s desired audience. Building an ef fective media database of sources that reach the target audience is
nesia, and Mark Anthony Ybanez, Digital Account Manager is in the Philippines.TheVero Vox Council will meet regularly to design solutions around culture and wellness, operations and management, and business growth for the agency’s team of more than 200 PR, creative, digital, and in fluencer marketing professionals, 75 percent of whom are under 30 yearsVero’sold. culture campaigns have recently included unlimited leave, extended parental leave, internal training, hybrid work, and spe cialized onsite office spaces which make up a region-wide Super Cam pus. Alongside Vero’s VP of Brand
Industry practitioners would generally say it is both.
When Mandarin Oriental, Ma nila closed its doors in 2014, the profusion of nostalgia and recol lections that surfaced was over whelming, not only from its loyal guests but also from the media that had written pages and ex toled its sterling qualities through theBuildingyears.
Embarking on an internal PR campaign in collaboration with Human Resources is another in teraction essential in the business, and working with a proactive HR that has the pulse of the staff is an Asadvantage.thedigital world expands, influencer marketing becomes in creasingly important. Maintain ing relations with digital and print media food reviewers and target ing brand advocates that address the desired niche market, unfold discoveries, and create among their followers an increased desire to explore the hotel is necessary.
mented sustainable practices, and 61 percent say the pandemic has made them want to travel more sustainably in the future.
More than ever, being agile and proactive is imperative amid this platform’s spontaneity, and spot ting and reposting a nice compli ment on Twitter or in an IG Story, will help build reputation in the same way that quickly address ing a complaint posted on Trip Advisor
S PR an art or science?
flexibility, and keeping in step with the times IN this age when the media has expanded far beyond the tradi tional print, radio and television, the hotel PR practitioner needs to be in step with and embrace digi tal media, regarded by customers as a vital partner in seeking in formation and making informed decisions.Understanding the number of Facebook clicks, Instagram and TikTok likes, producing YouTube videos, can make a difference in one’s earned or owned media mix.
building trust
PR’s storytelling in the hotel in dustry, as in any business, is to build trust and develop a positive reputation for the business and brand experience. It is inherent in the nature of hotel business to connect people and be creative and nimble, just as it needs to be resilient in unpredictable times, turning challenges into opportu nities for positive change to help create trust. It takes skill and an art that bears on PR to accomplish a masterstroke.
PR Matters is a roundtable col umn by members of the local chap ter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations As sociation (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior communica tions professionals around the world. Charisse Garcia Chuidian is the Vice President for Public Relations of City of Dreams Manila.
The resort under the sustain ability banner “Above and Beyond” of its owner Melco Resorts, with the overall goal to be carbonneutral and zero-waste by 2030 throughout all its properties in Asia and Europe, is blazing the trail in the Philippines with ini tiatives such as renewable energy; energy efficiency; zero waste ini tiatives; reduction in water con sumption; support for sustain able gardening or organic urban farming; installing an onsite water filtration plant to elimi nate single-use plastic; a dynamic CSR commitment among its col leagues; and the first integrated resort in the country to install PV solar panels. It is inspiring that more hotels have strategized to also move in this direction—re inventing amenities, introducing eco-friendly services and food sourcing, among them.
Dr. Reymark Calma congratulated mWell for the event which allowed him to feel the true spirit of volunteerism while fellow volunteer, Dr. Mark Calban said, “It was such an inspiring experience serving the medical needs of patients not only from Metro Manila but from different provinces.” Expressing her appreciation for the support she received, Dr. Mae Doctolero, said, “The responsive tech team and operations support made everything so easy.”
DESPITE hectic schedules, doctors and mental health experts from all over the country willingly donated their time and expertise to provide free consultation via the mWell app.
PRESENT during the turnover were, from left to right, Knowledge Channel Resource Mobilization Officer, Liberty Reyes; Security Bank La Union Branch Business Manager Hazel Casuga; Department of Education Region I Director, Dr. Tolentino Aquino; Security Bank Foundation Program Manager, Louie Boy De Real; and Makeroscope Inventor, Jeremy De Leon.
Bank Foundation, Inc. (SBFI), the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of Security Bank Corporation, augmented its support for the Department of Education (DepEd) by equipping schools in the Ilocos region with much-needed learning resources for school year 2022-2023.
Featured local brands include Harito’s Food Products, Raymar’s Peanuts, Switsis, Piñana Gourmet, Cocoplus, Mama Mia’s, Romalyn’s Ube Halaya, MCA Mushroom, Vegetari, Yollie’s Alamang, Daisy’s Kropek, Kitchen Angels, Dairy Deluxe, Sano, Zennie’s, Amazing Foods, Likhaya, Brics Turmeric, Calle Arco, Nature’s Dew, Rolyolikha at iba pa, Leny Handy Crafts, and Let Eat Go Coffee.
Also present were homegrown OTOPreneurs, the MSMEs enrolled under the One Town, One Product Next Generation (OTOP Next Gen) Program. Their products underwent product development through OTOP Next Gen to help them level-up their products, widen their market reach, and prepare them to penetrate the international market.
The Makeroscopes, invented by Filipino engineer Jeremy De Leon, are keychain microscopes attached to mobile device front cameras to enable the viewing of microscopic samples up to x265 zoom. Each set comes with sample slides of animal and plant cells. The schools that received the keychain microscopes were Dagupan City National High School, Ilocos Norte National High School, and Ilocos Sur National High School.
The beneficiaries are Ayusan-Paoa Elementary School (Vigan City, Ilocos Sur) Balatong Integrated School (Laoag City, Ilocos Norte), Dagupan City National High School (Dagupan City, Pangasinan), Ilocos Norte National High School (Laoag City, Ilocos Norte) Ilocos Sur National High School (Vigan City, Ilocos Sur), Lingsat Integrated School (San Fernando City, La Union), San Fernando North Central School (San Fernando City, La Union), and Vigan Central School (Vigan City, Ilocos Sur).
and EVA (Employee Virtual Assistant) bots, and the Globe Lab, which provides COVID-19 testing, to name a few.
SBFI donated eight Knowledge Channel Portable Media Libraries (PMLs) and 306 Makeroscopes (keychain microscope sets) to eight SBFI Classrooms Project beneficiary schools in Ilocos Region which were received by DepEd Region I Director Dr. Tolentino
Security Bank Foundation donates learning resources to schools in the Ilocos region
The two-day advocacy event was helmed by hundreds of family doctors and specialists from Metro Manila, Cagayan De Oro, Davao, and Zamboanga who donated their time to provide consultation via the mWell app, while mental health advocates from MindNation and Makati Medical Center Wellness Center gave on-call services for free mental health counselling.
mWell unites hundreds of doctors, mental health experts, health-conscious Filipinos on National mWellness Day
The learning resources will allow students to learn offsite if there are limited classrooms.
Monday, September 19, 2022B6
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Globe hailed as great employer at 2022 Stevie® Awards; bags 13 awards
At the same time, mWell provided free consultations to residents of Barangay Lumutan, a remote community in General Nakar, Quezon through mWell OnTheGo, a portable digital clinic. The mWell OnTheGo bag was filled with a tablet and a phone preloaded with the mWell PH app containing a health pass code for free online consultation. Foldable solar panels, battery, and Smart pocket wifi were also donated to enable the residents to consult anytime.
digital solutions platform Globe reaped 13 accolades at the 2022 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers and the Stevie® International Business Awards in recognition of its unwavering dedication to keeping employees enabled and empowered amid the pandemic.
The company also hauled seven Bronze awards, including Achievement in Human Resources for various HR initiatives in the face of new ways of working. Also recognized were Globe officers behind many contributions to the #AlagangGlobe brand of caring for people including Ato Jiao, who was recognized as Chief HR Officer, and Nico Bambao as the Most Valuable HR Professional of the Year and Thought Leader of the Year. Anna Manlapit and Avery Banta were likewise recognized as HR Executives of the Year.
OME visit Enchanted Kingdom’s DTI OTOP (Department of Industry’s One Town, One Product) Hub on your next visit to the country’s first and only world class theme park! Enchanted Kingdom, together with DTI Laguna, held the Grand Opening of the EK DTI OTOP Hub at the Jungle Outpost Zone last September 15. The hub will showcase famous delicacies from Laguna as part of the efforts of Enchanted Kingdom and to promote local entrepreneurs and their products.
Patients expressed their gratitude for the free consultation. They found the doctors to be very kind and approachable. “The consultation flow is good and clear,” said one of the patients while another wrote, “This is the best teleconsultation I have experienced.” An mWell user who had a consultation with a dermatologist gave this feedback: “My doctor is amazing. She was on time and provided me with all the support.” A mom whose daughter had fever was so thankful that they were able to consult a pediatrician for free. She said: “This is a big help for mothers like me. It is easy to use and the doctors are very kind. Buti na lang may mWell app!”
The Knowledge Channel PMLs are
A record number of patients, including
It bagged two Gold awards – Employer of the Year and Company of the Year (Telecommunications) – for engagement initiatives under the Alagang Globe program. Alagang Globe was recognized for its lifeenabling innovations such as the DUDE (Digital Usher for Disasters and Emergencies)
celebrities, Metro Manila-based journalists and regional influencers were able to consult for free. After the consultation, they also received free e-prescription, medical certificates, lab referrals and vouchers.
Globe’s Human Resources team was also named HR Team of the Year for strengthening its employee care programs and digitizing empathy by creating bots and innovative products that cater to the holistic needs of the workforce.
The guests also were given a chance to ride “Agila the EKsperience,” the first flying theatre in the Philippines, which takes one on a thrilling journey across the Philippines’ majestic mountains, breathtaking beaches and incredible islands, right in the comfort of one’s own seat. Enchanted Kingdom continues to take pride in the beauty of the Philippines, its destinations, products and people and this collaboration with DTI is just one of many testaments to this.
SECURITY
To learn more about Globe, visit www. globe.com.ph.
external hard drives containing over 1,500 Knowledge Channel-developed video lessons, e-games, and e-session guides aligned with the DepEd K-12 curriculum.
“The innovative ways the organization drives its message during the COVID-19 pandemic is indeed remarkable. When an organization fosters a culture where employee feedback is essential, it is ascertained that this is the right way of doing service,” one of the Stevie judges said.
In attendance during this special occasion were Cesar Mario O. Mamon, Enchanted Kingdom Chairman and President, Dr. Cynthia R. Mamon, COO and the rest of their Execom, Santa Rosa, Laguna Mayor Arlene B. Arcillas, DTI 4A OIC-Regional
While the food products are sold in the Jungle Outpost Zone (beside the Jungle Log Jam ride), locally handcrafted bags and accessories, coffee and tea gift packs can also be found at the Pugad Shop (beside Agila the Eksperience Ride) at the Cultural Village zone.
National mWellness Day, mounted for the 2nd time since its inception in 2021, achieved a milestone in its mission to bring quality healthcare to more Filipinos nationwide in the new normal by providing free online consultation to hundreds of patients from all over the country through the mWell PH app.
OFFICIALS and guests take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony.
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“All of these awards demonstrate Globe’s dedication to serving its employees despite lockdowns, spiking COVID-19 cases, and strict health protocols through innovations that exemplify our Alagang Globe Program. It also reinforces our commitment to uphold a culture of care and compassion and further substantiate our purpose of treating people right to create a Globe of Good,” said Jiao.
LEADING
mWell partners, including the country’s top insurance companies – PhilCare and Generali –gave their full support for the advocacy along with Makati Medical Center Foundation, MPIC Foundation, Unilab, MedExpress, 24 Alkaline-C and PiCur antioxidant.
OTOP Philippines Hub is a retail store or space where OTOP offerings can be found. DTI and LGUs with private partners and associations/cooperatives embarked on transforming pasalubong centers and souvenir shops all over the country as a market access platform for mainstream consumers and buyers. OTOP is a priority stimulus program where products rooted in local culture, resources and competitive advantage are determined, curated, developed, supported and marketed.
Enchanted Kingdom, DTI open One Town, One Product Hub
Director Marissa C. Argente, DTI Laguna OIC-Provincial Director Cesar German Gerpacio, Mr. Peter Jaynul V. Uckung, OIC, LTCATO, along with the other Provincial Directors from CALABARZON.
The Stevie Awards For Great Employers and Stevie International Business Awards recognize the world’s best companies to work for, including their HR teams, professionals and programs that greatly contribute to creating a workplace that fosters employee engagement and development.
ETRO Pacific Investments Corporation’s mWell, the Philippines’ fastest-growing health app, made history last August 27 to 28 by gathering hundreds of doctors, medical specialists, and mental health experts to give free online consultation and sound medical advice to patients and health-conscious Filipinos from all over the country.
Globe also received three Silver awards for Achievement in Internal Communications, Most Innovative Deployment of Human Resources Technologies, and Most Valuable CorporateAnotherResponse.Silverfor Internal Communications Professional of the Year was bestowed on Mika Ostonal, Globe’s Employee Programs and Communications Head, for her dedication to keep employees safe and informed even while working apart.
“WhileAquino.atfirst we were worried as to how to jump start classes given our region’s situation, we are thankful that Security Bank Foundation’s donation allows for learning to continue within or outside the four walls of the classroom,” Dr. Aquino said.
Students can also enrich their knowledge through the home videos and experiment at home with the portability of keychain microscopes.
President Juan Miguel Zubiri is ecstatic over the inclusion of arnis in the program of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia in May next year.
But Tolentino, also Tagaytay City mayor and president of PhilCycling chief, lamented that Cambodia has moved heaven and earth to benefit from its hosting of the events—the biggest in SEA GamesCambodia,history. he said, imposed a rule that as host, it could field a 100 percent participation in combat sports or martial arts, while limiting the other countries to vie in 70 percent of the events staked in the“Thatsport.benefits the host best, while putting at risk our chances for the medals,” Tolentino said.
Volleyball is no alien to Eala, who, in 2002 before his stint as PBA commissioner, was lead organizer of the country’s hosting of a leg of the then International Volleyball Federation Grand Prix, the forerunner of the Volleyball Nations League.
NAvArro cAN’t plAy iN KorEA ArELLANO University’s Darrel Menina makes an outlet pass against Letran’s Louie Sangalang. COURTESY RUDY ESPERAS
“We of course thank and appreciate the efforts of the Philippine Olympic Committee under the leadership of former Congressman and now Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham ‘Bambol’Tolentino for the inclusion of arnis in the 32nd SEA Games, as well as the support of the Philippine Sports Commission under the new leadership of Chairman Noli Eala.” Commission (PSC) agreed to focus on a strong and far-reaching nationwide grassroots program for volleyball.
How has it hurt the league?
me preface my column by saying that grew up a fan of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). I served them by working as editor-in-chief of one of its official publications and by also working as the official writer for a couple of teams. Furthermore, I also got to work for the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (PBA) for a number of years.
Navarro played for the national youth
“Noli” Eala (second from left) receives a commemorative ball from Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) President ramon “Tats” Suzara and Secretary General Don Caringal (left). With them are PSC Commissioner Olivia “Bong” Coo.
PSC Commissioner Olivia “Bong” Coo was also present in the meeting and supported the move.“Chairman Noli’s vision at the PSC is to support the grassroots program, so he called on all national sports associations [NSAs] and the local government units [LGUs} to support his mission,” Suzara said.
remaining.AfterDoromal
If you are referring to the young stars coming out of college going abroad, let me ask you this? Is playing abroad for everyone? Didn’t some of them not fare well abroad that they came home?
”He really wants to have an effective program aimed at discovering new talents,” Suzara said. “And we have our Champions League which focuses on LGUs. So the PSC will support that direction.”
Cade Flores finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, Axel Doromal had 14 points and five rebounds and Wilmar Oftana chipped in 13 points, five rebounds and four blocks for the Chiefs.
ARELLANO
The agreement was forged recently when PNVF President Ramon “Tats” Suzara and Secretary General Don Caringal paid newly-appointed PSC Chairman Jose Emmanuel “Noli” Eala a courtesy visit at the sports agency’s offices inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
President Rep. Abraham “Bambol”Tolentino announced over the weekend that Cambodia would be hosting 608 events in 49 sports in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games that it is hosting for the first time from May 5 to 16 next year.
TOLENTINO: EXPECT TOUGH FIGHT IN CAMBODIA SEAG
Do you ever care for players who are cut by their clubs? And what is the average playing career of a PBA player? Five-six years? You cannot fault players for wanting bigger paydays for
Filipino-Japanese Junna Tsukii is the current World Games champion and a former gold and three-time SEA Games bronze medalist in the event.
And... you cannot even curb poaching in the PBA then you have the gall to tell other leagues to stay
He also noted that two sports Cambodia and its neighbor Vietnam are strong at readily catch
When players were going to the ABL, no one made a fuss because they were deemed not up to league standards. But ABL teams did a good job of bringing in Filipinos, even those born overseas to their respective teams. What did we do? We poached them.
University defeated defending champion Letran, 72-69, in the National Collegiate Athletic Association seniors basketball tournament Sunday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
The Knights made a last-gasp rally behind King Caralipio, Mark Sangalang and Fran Yu and cut their deficit to 69-71 with 17.2 seconds
P
Oh, they were offered contracts at the end of their terms with their teams. So what is the difference between the B.League and the other Asian leagues offering the same?
“After carefully reviewing the positions of the KBA and the SBP [Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas], Fiba issued its decision on September
The SBP hinged its concern on Navarro’s existing and legally-binding contract with NorthPort which obliges him to “play for the national team, attend activities, practices and social and business functions; and with his undeniable agreement, be assigned only and no other team or ballclub than his (Philippine Basketball Association) drafting team, the NorthPort Batang Pier.”
So why come up with reactive rules to hurt players? Banning them? That is insidious.
Cambodia has exercised its privilege as host to the hilt by including two indigenous sports—Kun Bokator, a martial art practices by ancient Khmer military, and Ouk Chatrang, also a Khmer chess game. They offer 21 and six gold medals, respectively.
If the MPBL were run much better, they would give the PBA even bigger fits and in the same manner that the defunct MBA ever did.
“Our athletes should focus harder and train more to get to the podium,” said Tolentino, as he stressed the country’s back is against the wall to retain its fourth-place overall finish at the 31st Vietnam SEA Games last TolentinoMay.said that Cambodia also initially excluded the 50 kgs class in women’s kumite of karate, but was prevailed upon to reconsider.
THE Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) and Philippine Sports
PSC, PNVF AGREE TO PUSH VOLLEYBALLGRASSROOTSPROGRAM CHIEFS SLAY REIGNING CHAMPS Zubiri optimisic about arnis in 2023 SEA Games program zUBIrI BLEachErs’ BrEw rick OLivarEs bleachersbrew@gmail.com
PHILIPPINE Jose Emmanuel
We have a surplus of players. We have so much that there aren’t enough teams to give them a job. So they go to other leagues such as the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), VisMin Cup and others. Some even previously plied their trade abroad with the Asean Basketball League (ABL).
Suzara also said that Eala’s administration would also heavily support the national team program and reminded the PNVF to embrace the sports’ stakeholders with special mention to the Premier Volleyball League.
championships programs have eight for the men and six for the “Gymnasticswomen.alone means several potential golds our world champion Caloy [Carlos Yulo] won’t have a shot at,” Tolentino said.
Joshua Abastillas also played big for Arellano University with 10 points, eight he made in the payoff period to as the Chiefs rose from a 13-point hole.
With that out of the way, I would like to point out that their visit—if you can call it that—to the Japan B.League offices in Tokyo was wrong and maybe even in poor taste.
And how is the player movement hurting the national team? Do all the PBA teams release
Players are only obliged to suit up for official Fiba windows. The PBA wants its cake, pasta and pizza, and everything else around. In a world made smaller by globalization, they want to reap its benefits while remaining insular. What you have is an opportunity to reinvent yourself, PBA. Move forwards and not backwards. Hopefully, before the league hits its 50th birthday, it is given the
Also conspicuous, Tolentino added, were the mere four gold medals—two for each gender—in artistic gymnastics, which, in the Olympic and world
THAT’S IN Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei stops the ball from crossing the goal line during the second half his team’s Major League Soccer match against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Whitecaps won, 2-1. AP
If you want to even seriously stop poaching in the PBA, then why don’t you just give each team a cap then let them pay their players what they want. That way, the smaller clubs can hold on to their players instead of being poached by big clubs. Now, will they even do that?
That’sReally?like going to this guy who seems to be winning the heart of this girl and asking if the playing field can be leveled so he has a chance at the latter. Walang bilib sa sariling abilidad.
HILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC)
Members of the national team emerged as overall champions in the recent World Arnis Championships hosted by the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation in Cebu last July 2022.
Suzara offered the PNVF’s annual Champions League that would also focus on LGUbased teams as well as the inclusion of the sport in one of the PSC’s flagship programs, the Batang Pinoy.
The funny thing there is—the PBA reacts to things. It is never proactive. For a league that is close to turning 50, you can’t even say it is progressive. Can’t you have some foresight?
Tolentino was the most vocal among members of the SEA Games Federation meetings who’re against
Together with Shane Menina, who had a season-high 10 assists, Abastillas presided over the Chiefs’ fightback from a 42-55 deficit. They led, 69-60, heading into the final two minutes.
Navarro signed up with the Samsung Thunders in the KBA despite his existing contract with the NorthPort in the Philippine Basketball Association as a result of him being picked by the Batang Pier in a special Gilas draft.
Now, the PBA is fast approaching its 50th year and do wish it well for its next decades.
draftee William Navarro can’t pursue a professional career in the Korean Basketball Association (KBA) based on an opinion rendered by the International Basketball Federation or Fiba.
“The SBP does not intend to unduly prevent players from furthering their careers with other teams here or overseas. But it is a fundamental and ethical practice for players to honor their
PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee President rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino expects an uphill campaign in Cambodia.
Eala, Suzara said, has also in his goal the establishment of a training center for beach volleyball, while assuring that the volleyball (indoor) team will have the PSC’s PhilSports Arena in Pasig City at its disposal.
Coach Cholo Martin said he will give the Chiefs a much-deserved two-day break after finishing the first full week of the season with a 3-1 won-lost record for second place.
team under Jamike Jarin in the Fiba Asia U-18 Championship in Doha 2014 and at San Beda and Ateneo under coach Tab Baldwin.
attention—Vietnamese martial art Vovinam with 30 events and Fin Swimming with 24 events. Tolentino, also the PhilCycling president, said the POC will again “dissect” the events before finalizing the country’s entry by numbers but emphasized a potential full participation in terms of the number of sports.“Wehave time to analyze Ouk Chatrang and see if our athletes can perform well in the sport,” said Tolentino, who once served a four-year term as secretary general of the International Chess Federation or Fide and held the same position for the National Chess Federation of the Philippines for 16Theyears.fast-rising Teqball, a variation of football that is played on a curved table that resembles table tennis, is a demonstration sport in Cambodia. The Philippines hosted the most number of sports at 56 but with 530 events in 2019, while Vietnam had a 40-sport,526-event Games last May. Brunei owns the record-low program of 22 sports and 233 events in 1999.
TIME TO CHANGE, PBA
Instead of creating an atmosphere where players can play internationally then come back (like the Women’s National Basketball Association), you ban them.
Let us start with the immediate “concerns” or “comments.”
“We have long been promoting arnis on the international stage, and working for it to be included as a regular sport in the SEA Games slate,”he said. “And with the spectacular arnis tournament in the 30th [Philippines] SEA Games, I think our Southeast Asian neighbors had a great chance to gain a deeper respect for and appreciation of the sport.
“But asked them to study a game plan that I have for them,”he added.
Sangalang had 19 points and 16 rebounds) and Caralipio finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds for double-double efforts for the Knights, who saw their 14-game win streak dating back to November 2019
His parents are Filipinos but was born in Greece where he saw action for the junior team of the Greek professional team Panathinaikos.
“We, in the Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation [PEKAF] are very proud and very excited that we are finally seeing arnis on a SEA Games stage beyond our shores,”said Zubiri, who also heads PEKAF as its chairman and president.
Gstopped.ILASPilipinas
However, not every Filipino laborer finds a career abroad, many come home. It is not for everyone. Even the Japan B.League.
Weaway.have 12 teams in a league with no parity and it’s run by blocs and with their own satellite teams. Players have no representation.
SENATE
Sports BusinessMirror B7 | Monday, SepteMBer 19, 2022 Editor:sports@businessmirror.com.phmirror_sports@yahoo.com.phJunLomibao
“The inclusion of Arnis in the upcoming SEA Games is not just about having a chance to score more medals,” Zubiri said. “It is also a really significant move that gives us a platform to showcase arnis as part of our culture.”
The Philippines had a 14-gold medal haul in the 2019 SEA Games, along with four silvers and two bronze medals. Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar sent athletes to the arnis competitions.
the particular rule, but the Cambodians, he said, took the cue from the 2017 Games in Kuala Lumpur when Malaysia imposed a similar regulation.
LET
The Battle of Champions winners will then be drafted for the national team to Cambodia.
Can you think of our own government banning workers who went abroad from seeking employment here? Can you think of our government going abroad to foreign countries and asking them not to poach our workers? They cannot because they cannot even provide jobs for everyone.
In my opinion, and having watched and seen the PBA from within and from the outside, they do a better job of hurting themselves more than anyone else.
Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman
They reached out for mutual understanding, respect and improved relations and cited that Filipinos playing in Japan has hurt the PBA and the national team training and development?
The PEKAF will be conducting qualifiers in the National Capital Region, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in November and December. The winners will then vie against current members of the national team in the PEKAF National Battle of Champions in early 2023.
By the same token, when a nurse or a laborer leaves for abroad, why do they do so—for a better life, better opportunity, or a desire to just move abroad. It stands to reason that if it were better here, then people would not leave.
By Josef Ramos
He added: “And it establishes arnis as an indispensable part of the Southeast Asian martial arts movement. So really thank the Cambodia National Olympic Committee and the SEA Games Federation for recognizing the importance of arnis, and carving out a space for it in their sporting program.”
“I’m a kind coach, if they tell me ‘let’s take a break, coach, then rest they will,” Martin said. “We’ll do some shooting, so shooting it will be.”
went 1-of-2 from the foul line, Letran tried to turn things around, but Kurt Reyson’s three-pointer rimmed out.
12, 2022, not to allow Mr. Navarro to join the Samsung Thunders,” a SBP statement on Sunday said.
Besides 2019, arnis was also played in the 2005 SEA Games that the Philippines also hosted.
Her fashion influences include Guo Pei, Thakoon, Ashi Studio and Carolina Herrera. She deeply admires newly minted National Artist Salvacion Lim Higgins, which is why she also studied at the Slim’s Fashion and Arts School, where her idols Albert Andrada and Ezra Santos also honed their skills.
The PSDI collaborates with the Queen of Hearts Foundation Inc., led by its chairman Mitzie Go Gil, to organize the one-day affair, which will be held on October 15 at the Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
“These days, I love to do Filipino things. For the country. It’s like paying back for what this country gave to me, for this nationality. Because for three decades, I was always going abroad, I didn’t have clients here. I was totally alienated in my own land,” Sali
“Whenshares.I came back, I was like gathering the shattered pieces, like starting all over again. Thank God after I did the wedding gown of Korina Sanchez in 2009, projects came pouring in. So I decided to stay. I was interviewed many times about why I came back when I was enjoying a fat salary overseas. I told them that there’s no place like home—and there’s no banana cue abroad.” n
Of course, the highlight of the event is The Philippine Cultural Heritage Show: An Evening of Cultural Exchange
‘Perla
USA-BOUND Sophia World,GigiHeartsGoAndrada,Manimbo,ThereseAlbertMitzieGilofQueenofFoundation,AlcantaraofPH1andAmirSali.
The proceeds of the glamorous gala will benefit Meals on Wheels in Jersey City; Kisame Para sa Bahay ni San Jose, an appeal by Fr. Elmer Villamore for the roofing of St. Joseph the Husband of Mary Church in Bangad, Cabanatuan City; and the tree nurturing and waste management projects of Fr. Benigno P. Beltran, SVD, the CEO of Veritas Social Empowerment Inc.
Meanwhile, the “Prince of Beads” Amir Sali, will offer hints and whispers of Filipiniana in his opulent pieces. There will be touches of abel and handwoven local fabrics but most of the materials he will use for his 20 elaborate gowns were purchased abroad.
The neophyte in the trio is Sophia Therese Manimbo, who professes an innate love for Philippine weaves. “I’ll be presenting modern Filipiniana readyto-wear in inabel and inaul malong collage patchwork embroidery. I will also showcase my Spring/Summer 2023 collection called ‘Pandanggo.’ It’s a very colorful, vibrant collection inspired by Philippine dances and festivities, also using our signature patchworks,” she says. “I source my materials all over the Philippines. But because I’m a second-generation designer, we already have our suppliers from Mindanao and Ilocos, and piña from Aklan and Lumban. For the
“I am friends with Mitzie Gil. They really wanted something different for the show because most of the designs are from Luzon designers. When they discovered that I’m from Mindanao, they wanted me to participate. But I’m known to have intricate lines and I’m not good at doing Filipiniana but when they told me that I could do just hints of it, I decided to participate,” says Amir Sali.
and Fashion Elegance, to be directed by Nilo Agustin presenting the collections of outstanding designers Albert Andrada, Sophia Therese Manimbo and Amir Sali. An intimate sendoff for the fashion designers was held at the Grand Hyatt in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, on Saturday. Andrada, who opened the doors to Filipino designers on the Miss Universe stage when he designed the evening gown of Pia Wurtzbach on her way to her unforgettable triumph in 2015, hardly needs any introduction. As such, luxury and sophistication are expected in his blockbuster collection.
CULTURAL spectacle in the US East Coast will showcase the world-class artistry of Filipinos. Designed to entice Filipino communities in New York and New Jersey and their friends, the event is part of the launch of “Inclusivity in Diversity,” the advocacy program of the Partnerships for Sustainable Development Inc. (PSDI), whose mission is to bring global awareness, deep understanding and great appreciation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
PHOTO BY JUN MUGA del Mar de Oriente’
With the theme “The Philippines: Perla del Mar de Oriente [Pearl of the Orient Seas],” the event’s activities include the global search for ambassadors of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, an exhibit and sale of indigenous products, and a camaraderie night.
Though he was born in Jolo, Sulu, grew up in Dumaguete and studied college in Cebu, Sali practiced his fashion craft in Saudi Arabia. In between his years designing for the royal family, he was given a scholarship to study haute couture and embellishments at the École Lesage in Paris.
B8 Style Monday, September 19, 2022 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos www.businessmirror.com.phBusinessMirror
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‘Pandanggo’ collection, there’ll be around 10 to 12 pieces. For the RTW, there’ll be around 15 to 30 pieces,” Sophia shares.