OFW remittances fall to 9-mo low in June »Story on B1 HH
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Trucks and armored personnel carriers are seen outside the Shenzhen Bay Stadium in Shenzhen, bordering Hong Kong in China’s southern Guangdong province, on August 15. Thousands of Chinese military personnel held drills at the sports stadium, raising the fear of military intervention in Hong Kong. AFP PHOTO
n ‘Global False Witness’?: Its fabrication (top), and as reported by gullible media. SCREENGRAB FROM
BINAY TO DFA, POEA:
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`Secure Filipinos in HK’
‘PH, deadliest country’ report: A colossal fabrication
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EAD o n , and I g u a r antee you’ll be shocked and angry at the sanctimonious European and US NGOs and media’s lies about our country and its President. äTiglaoA5
BY BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
S
EN. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay has called on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) to start taking steps to ensure the safety of Filipinos in Hong Kong, as tension continues to escalate in the special administrative region with the reported deployment of Chinese troops to its border. äFilipinosA2
RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO
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China has power to quell unrest – Chinese envoy
PH SOON AN UPPER-MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRY – DOF
LONDON: China will not “sit by and watch,” and is ready to “quell the unrest swiftly” if the crisis in Hong Kong becomes “uncontrollable,” China’s ambassador to London said on Thursday. “If the situation deteriorates further into unrest uncontrollable by the SAR (Special Administrative Region) government, then the
THE Philippines is on its way to becoming an upper-middle income country in 2020 as the country’s Gross Domestic Product has remained robust despite headwinds in the global economy, the Department of Finance (DoF) said on Thursday. Finance Undersecretary Karl Ken-
äUnrestA8
What’s inside DOLE TO ASK CONGRESS FOR BROADER POWER
Vice President SM Prime Holdings Inc.-VisMin
drick Chua told the Senate Ways and Means committee, headed by Sen. Pilar Juliana “Pia” Cayetano, that with higher growth, the Philippines was well on its way to being an uppermiddle income country. Chua said the Duterte administration
MALACAÑANG and the military on Thursday expressed concern over the recent passage of five Chinese warships in Philippine waters, with the Palace saying it was not a friendly act. Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said the entry of the vessels was a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos). Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said the five Chinese warships were spotted in July and August
äIncomeA8
äIntrusion A2
FOR OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS
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ANOTHER ANTI-POOR EXCRESCENCE, ON GIFTS
MARISSA N. FERNAN
‘Warships’ intrusion not a friendly act’
Officers of the Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center (CGHMC), owned and operated by the Philippine Chinese Charitable Association Inc. (PCCAI), and representatives of the Millicent Productions Inc. and Buhay OFW Foundation headed by Marissa del Mar and daughter Princess Adriano pose after signing a memorandum of agreement that will provide discounts to overseas Filipino workers and their immediate families who seek medical services at the CGHMC. The PCCAI/CGHMC was represented by Chief Executive Officer/President James Dy and his wife Julieta; Chairman of the Board Benito Goyokpin; Chairman Emeritus Florante Dy; Vice Chairman Antonio Tan; Executive Vice President Kelly Sia; Vice Chairman and CGHMC Senior Vice President for Overall Operations Jameson Dy; Special Assistant to the President and Director Robert Yang; PCCAI Directors William Lee, Michael So, Manuel Co and Peter Lim; Filipino-Chinese General Chamber of Commerce Inc. Directors Mariano Ko, Edmund Santos and Ricky Ty; and heads of the different departments of CGHMC.
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Mall maker
MARIAN WANTS ANOTHER BABY
She helped launch a new shopping experience in the South
MCCULLOUGH VOWS TO END SERIES IN GAME 6
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PIMENTEL BACKS RETAILERS
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel 3rd (center) committed to support the Philippine Retailers Association’s (PRA) programs to enhance the competitiveness of the country’s retail sector when he led the ribbon-cutting rites and opening ceremonies of the 26th National Retail Conference and Stores Asia Expo 2019 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City on Thursday with the theme ‘Retail Reimagined.’ Photo shows Pimentel (center) with members of the PRA Board and officers and NRCE 2019 Platinum Sponsors (from left) Globe Telecom Cluster Head of Retail Industry Michael Agustin, PRA Vice Chairman Roberto Claudio, FAPRA and PRA Vice Chairman Lorenzo Formoso, PRA Vice Chairman Mars Chua, PRA Chairman Paul Santos, Binibining Pilipinas Miss Intercontinental 2019 Emma Tiglao, Binibining Pilipinas Miss International 2019 Bea Patricia Magtanong, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and PRA Vice Chairman Ma. Alegria Sibal-Limjoco, Binibining Pilipinas Miss Universe 2019 Gazini Ganados, technology evangelist and former managing director of Zara-Inditex (Spain) Jesus Vega, PRA President and Wilcon Depot Inc. Senior Executive Vice President-Chief Operating Officer Rosemarie Bosch Ong, Binibining Pilipinas Miss Globe 2019 Leren Bautista, Binibining Pilipinas Miss Grand International 2019 Samantha Lo, PCCI honorary Chairman and Treasurer and Philexport President Sergio Ortiz Luis Jr., Simon Burke of Amazon Web Services, PLDT Alpha First Vice President and head Vic Tria, PRA Director Donnie Tantoco 3rd, PRA Chairman Emeritus Dr. Samie Lim, PRA Director Arthur Coronel, and PRA Vice Chairman Jorge Mendiola.
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OFW remittances fall to 9-mo low in June BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
M
ONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) dropped to a nine-month low in June, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed on Thursday. Personal remittances — made up of OFWs’ net compensation; personal
transfers, whether in cash or kind; and capital transfers between households —
reached $2.545 billion in the month, 2.7 percent lower than $2.615 billion a year ago and 12.1 percent lower than $2.896 billion in May. The June amount was the lowest posted since September 2018’s $2.490 billion. The central bank did not cite specific reasons for the decline. The June figure brought the first-half
tally to $16.252 billion, up 2.9 percent from $15.787 billion in the same period in 2018. “Similarly, personal remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts increased by 8.8 percent to $3.5 billion in H1 2019 from $3.2 billion in H1 2018,” BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said in a statement.
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Lopez State agencies’ budget utilization rises in Jan-July Holdings H1 income hits P14.1B LISTED Lopez Holdings Corp. saw its consolidated net income in the first half of 2019 soar to P14.12 billion on the back of the robust performance of its renewable energy (RE) and media units. In a regulatory filing on Thursday, the holding company of the Lopez family said the amount was a 76-percent increase from P8.01 billion in the January-to-June 2018 period. Net income attributable to equity holders doubled to P4.18 billion in the first six months from P2.09 billion a year ago. “The steady performance of the energy group under associate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH), as well as strong recovery of investee ABS-CBN Corp., accounted for the results,” Lopez Holdings said. In a separate disclosure, FPH’s energy unit First Gen Corp. said it nearly doubled its consolidated net income to $233.39 million (P12.14 billion) in the first half from the year-earlier P120.6 million (P6.27 billion), adding that its “clean-fuel platforms all performed notably during the period.” Consolidated revenues from the sale of electricity rose 15 percent to $1.11 billion (P58.1 billion) in the first half from the year-earlier $963 million (P49.6 billion). Revenues from its natural gas portfolio, meanwhile, jumped by 16 percent to $692 million (P36.2 billion) from January to June. First Gen subsidiary Energy Development Corp. posted $49 million (P2.6 billion) in recurring earnings in the first semester — up 53 percent from $33 million (P1.7 billion) a year ago — from its geothermal, wind and solar platform. Its gross revenues reached $374 million (P19.6 billion) in the period, accounting for 34 percent of total consolidated revenues of
äIncome B4
THE budget utilization of government agencies has improved in the first seven months of 2019, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) report-
ed on Thursday. In a statement, the Budget department said agencies used P1.569 trillion of the P1.688 trillion released under the Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA) from January to July. This translates to a utilization ratio of 93
percent, compared with 78 percent in the same period in 2018. NCAs refer to disbursement authorities issued by the DBM to government servicing banks, such as the Development Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines and Philip-
pine Veterans Bank, to cover the cash requirements of agencies’ programs, activities and projects. NCAs are valid up to the last working day of the quarter covered. “A higher NCA utilization rate demonstrates the capacity of line agencies to timely disburse their allocated funds and implement their
äBudget B4
n Pedestrians pass by the Department of Budget and Management building in Manila in this file photo. PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE
Bourse dips on weak foreign leads THE stock market fell on Thursday as investors digested the weak economic data from China and Germany. The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index dropped to as low as 7,624 in intraday trading before closing at 7,828.86, 0.38 percent or 29.79 points lower than Wednesday’s 7,858.65. The wider All Shares dropped by 0.47 percent or 22.57 points to end at 4,746.35. “Local shares opened sharply lower, before finishing just 30 points down as weak economic data from China [and] GDP (gross domestic product) contraction in Germany,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said. China’s economy showed further signs of strain in July, with
industrial output falling to 4.8 percent in the month from 6.3 percent in June — its lowest level in 17 years — while investment and retail sales also slowed. These figures are the latest highlighting how the world’s secondlargest economy is being battered by an escalating trade war with the United States and weak global demand. Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing — which began more than a year ago, when US President Donald Trump publicly accused China of engaging in unfair trade practices — saw the two imposing tit-for-tat tariffs worth billions of dollars on each others’ goods. Negotiations between the two sides to resolve the tensions stalled
in May. Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a truce during a Group of 20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, in late June. American and Chinese trade negotiators met in late July with little progress made. Early this month, Trump announced new tariffs after alleging that China had reneged on its promise to buy US agricultural goods. Beijing suspended these purchases in response, and saw its currency weaken — a move the US government said was deliberate. Meanwhile, Germany’s economy contracted in the second quarter, highlighting its vulnerability to trade tensions and stoking debate on higher government spending. Its shrinkage of 0.1 percent meant the economy lost significant
äForeign B4
B
Insiders’ acquisitions
USINESSMAN Roberto V. Ongpin indirectly owns 1,485,685,983 common shares in Atok-Big Wedge Co. (AB), which is equivalent to 58.38 percent of 2.545 billion outstanding common shares, according to the company’s public ownership report (POR). A general information sheet (GIS) for 2019 named Boerstar Corp. as holder of 1,775,218,804 AB common shares, or 69.75 percent, the reason Mr. Ongpin “indirectly” holds 1,485,685,983 AB common shares, or 58.38 percent. One is an indirect stockholder when he/she owns the principal stockholder, which, in turn, holds common shares in a listed stock. In Atok’s list of top 100 stockholders as of June 30,
2019, Boerstar topped the roster with 1,775,218,804 AB common shares, or 69.75 percent. Mr. Ongpin’s ownership of Boerstar made him an indirect stockholder of Atok. The same is bolstered by the fact that he is identified as the company’s beneficial owner of 1,485,685,983 AB common shares, or 58.38 percent, according to Atok’s definitive information statement (DIS). The same DIS also named Eric
äPerez B4
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