OFW remittances hit 5-month high in May ÂťStory on B1 ++
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•• 6 SECTIONS PAGES • VOL. 120 NO. 273 32
TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2019
Trusted since 1898 HOUSE ‘HOSTAGES’
LIKE FOULED-OUT P L AYE R I N S P O R TS
No escaping expulsion for termed-out senators
Two men hold guns against their ‘hostages’ during the hostage-taking exercise held at the Batasan Hills complex, Quezon City in preparation for President Rodrigo Duterte’s 4th State of the Nation Address on July 22.
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Stinking shakedown in Binangonan?
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IN MY LINE RESIOF SIGHT DENT Digon g pays tribute to his predecessor and outgoing Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo calling her a political icon and the embodiment of a strong political will.
RAMON T. TULFO
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UNHRC pullout up to Duterte – Palace BY RALPH VILLANUEVA
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HE decision on whether or not the Philippines would pull out of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or cut ties with Iceland would be made by President Rodrigo Duterte, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said on Monday. ÂłPulloutA2
Duterte to appoint more military men IMPRESSED with the integrity and competence of soldiers, President Rodrigo Duterte said he was inclined to appoint more military men to the gov-
ERNMENT IN HIS LAST THREE YEARS IN OFkCE $UTERTE EXPRESSED DISMAY OVER THE In a recent interview in MalacaĂąang sluggish work of some civilian workTHAT WAS ORGANIZED TO PREVIEW HIS NEXT ers in the bureaucracy, which he said State of the Nation Address on July ÂłMilitaryA8
PH, US START COUNTERTERROR DRILLS
4(% Philippines and the United States on Monday started their joint military EXERCISES ON COUNTERTERRORISM AND INteroperability.
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What’s inside COMELEC SEARCHING FOR NEW POLL TECHNOLOGY NewsA2
Go’s bill gives more benefits for solo parents
DJOKOVIC WINS 5TH WIMBY IN LONGEST EVER FINAL
SEN. Christopher Lawrence “Bong� Go wants to provide ADDITIONAL BENEkTS AND PRIVILEGES TO SOME MILLION SOLO parents to help them ease the burden of single-handedly raising their children. 4HE SENATOR kLED 3ENATE "ILL 3" WHICH AIMS TO AMEND 2EPUBLIC !CT 2! OR THE g3OLO 0ARENTS 7ELFARE !CT OF u (E SAID DULY RECOGNIZED FOSTER PARENTS WOULD BENEkT FROM THE MEASURE 'O LAMENTED THAT THE BENEkTS AND PRIVILEGES GRANTED BY
HOW STRONG REALLY IS XI JINPING?
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Countdown starts for Pacquiao-Thurman fight NEW PCSO GENERAL MANAGER Philippine Charity Sweepstakes THE EDDYS 2019, STAR-STUDDED AND FULL OF SURPRISES
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Office General Manager Royina Marzan Garma accepts the agency’s flag from Chairman and Interim General Manager Anselmo Simeon Pinili during the turn over ceremony at the PCSO Office in Mandaluyong City on July 15, 2019. Garma replaced Alexander Balutan. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
BY EDDIE G. ALINEA LOS ANGELES: The long wait for WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao to trade punches with co-titleholder Keith Thurman begins on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila), a day after he and his team arrive in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Filipino eight-division champ and the unbeaten “One Time� Thurman will clash on Saturday (Sunday in
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PSEi 8,365.29 UP 2.74%
P51.00 TO $1
TUESDAY JULY 16, 2019 ASIAN STOCKS: V S h a n g h a i 0 . 4 0 %
What’s inside SM PRIME NET PROFIT REACHES P19.3B IN H1
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PLDT TO REMAIN DOMINANT DESPITE COMPETITION Corporate NewsB2
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INCREASED COST OF 2 PH INFRA PROJECTS OKAYED
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WHAT’S YOUR WHY? – MANAGING FOR SOCIETY
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Business Times
BEYOND BUZZWORDS
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W Seoul 0.20%
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V Jakarta 0.70%
V Hong Kong 0.29%
W B a n g ko k 0 . 2 1 %
OFW remittances hit 5-month high in May BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
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ONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) rose to a fivemonth high in May, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed on Monday.
Personal remittances — made up of OFWs’ net compensation; personal transfers, whether in cash or kind; and capital transfers between households — reached $2.896 billion in the month, 5.5 percent higher than $2.746 billion a year ago and 6.7 percent higher than $2.713 billion in April. The May amount was the high-
est posted since December 2018’s $3.157 billion. In a comment, Security Bank Corp. Assistant Vice President and chief economist Robert Dan Roces attributed the higher remittances to seasonality. “Part of the cause of higher remittances in May could be seasonal, as the remitter provides
It’s still an analog world PSEi enters bull market, hits 8,300 T ROUGH HE digital transformation of the entire world over the past decade or so has been remarkable, and in countries like the Philippines, close to astonishing. Digital technology has literally reshaped human existence – our work, the basic routine of our daily existence, the ways in which we exchange and perceive information, our relationships with other people, and even our principles have been fundamentally altered, and in a time span that amounts to no more than a blink of an eye on a historical scale. That is perhaps why it is so jarring when what we consider even the simplest of activities is interrupted or made unnecessarily DIFkCULT BY LIMITATIONS IN TECHNICAL
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or human capabilities. For all the optimism about the opportunities created by the Philippines’ digital transformation, that sort of thing happens every day here, and is a continual reminder that the country is still very far from completing the real world transformation it needs in order to truly reap the BENEkTS OF THE DIGITAL ONE A frustrating incident that I witnessed over the weekend
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AFTER a series of slumps last YEAR THE STOCK MARKET OFkCIALLY entered the bull market territory on Monday as investors took heart from promises of interest-rate cuts AND THE STRONG kRST HALF kNANCIAL performance of Sy-led SM Prime Holdings Inc. The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) surged by 2.74 percent or 223.47 points to close at 8,365.29. The figure is a 22.2-percent increase from its lowest close of 6,843.83 on Nov. 13, 2018. It is also the highest in 16 months, or since it hit 8,419.57 on March 13, 2018. The wider All Shares, meanwhile, climbed by 2.007 percent or 99.26 points to end at 5,043.96.
Philstocks Financial Inc. research associate Japhet Louis Tantiangco attributed the optimism to renewed hopes of more rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated earlier this month that the US central bank would lower borrowing costs as early as this month amid the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing that was weighing on the global economy. Meanwhile, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno has said the central bank’s policymaking Monetary Board was likely to cut interest rates in the second half of the year before reducing banks’ reserve
requirement ratio further. Tantiangco also pointed to the strong May remittance data released by the Bangko Sentral on Monday, helping both the peso and the stock market, and to the boost from property giant SM Prime after it reported that its net income jumped to P19.30 billion in April to June from P16.62 billion in the same period last year. “To sustain the bull run, we have to hold ground above the 8,148.70, which is exactly 20 percent above the bear-market low recorded last year,� Tantiangco said. Regional markets were mixed, as Tokyo rose 0.20 percent, Shanghai grew 0.40 percent, Hong
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cash for tuition on top of food, clothing and other provisions for his or her family prior to the start of the school year in June,� Roces explained. “We see this as a positive development, since higher remittances also increase domestic consumption on imported and other taxable
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‘No illegal Chinese workers in ecozones’ THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) on Monday denied a Laguna province-based publication’s claim that there are illegal Chinese workers in its economic zones. In a statement on Monday, PEZA Director General Charito Plaza described as “unfairâ€? the article written by Ray Junia in the Laguna Opinyon advocacy paper of the Opinyon Media Advocacies group that alleged there were such workers in the province’s BiĂąan City. “Certainly, there’s no illegal influx
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