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WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2019
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Locsin rules out UNHRC pullout T
BY BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
HE Philippines will not withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or sever ties with Iceland, which initiated the approved resolution calling for an international review of the Philippine government’s war on drugs, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. äPulloutA2
Fake news? No such ‘PCA decision’ on suit vs China
US, PH uphold freedom to sail in disputed sea THE Philippines and the United States on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to uphold freedom of navigation, overflight and other lawful uses of the South China Sea (SCS) or West Philippine Sea (WPS). The Department of Foreign Affairs made the announcement after Manila and Washington concluded their two-day 8th Bilateral Strategic Dialogue (BSD). The discussions between Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and US Secretary of State
äFreedomA8
n n Manny Pacquiao (right) sneaks in a jab against his sparring partner at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday. PHOTO BY WENDELL ALINEA
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O T exactly fake news. But certainly a variation of it. This particular deception has been spread mainly by the Yellows, helped by mercenary academics and uncritical media. äTiglaoA5
RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO
MANILA TIMES FORUM
The military and the Constitution
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HE military, we have been warned, is getting restive, and we had better amend the Constitution if we want to avoid the mayhem of a coup. This was, reportedly, Malacañang’s ominous announcement some weeks back. äAquinoA5
FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO
Thurman needs ‘lucky punch’ to beat Pacquiao BY EDDIE G. ALINEA
What’s inside DUTERTE SIGNS ‘BAWAL BASTOS’ LAW TOWARD A NEW GENERATION OF SEAFARERS
Amb. Carlos SalinasB12
STAGS TRAMPLE ON CARDINALS TO GRAB SHARE OF LEAD
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NewsA2
‘APOCALYPSE NOW’ IS 40. THERE IS AN AMAZING SIDE STORY
Marlen RonquilloA4
‘ANG BABAE SA SEPTIC TANK’ IS COMING EntertainmentD4
LOS ANGELES: One big lucky punch is what American Keith Thurman needs to beat Filipino co-WBA welterweight beltholder Manny Pacquiao in their unification encounter on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. This was how Pacquiao’s sparring partners sized up the fight, where “One Time” promised to retire and crucify the 40-year-old lawmaker. “No way can Thurman beat Manny via other means unless he knocks him out,” AB Lopez, the Filipino’s regular dancing partner from the time he landed here declared. “Yeah, Keith must, indeed, be a strong puncher, quick as advertised. But he
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Jane Wan, vice president of marketing, Philippine Oppo Mobile Technology Inc; Henry Aguda, senior executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer, Union Bank of the Philippines; Blanca Mercado, chief operating officer of The Manila Times; Carlo Ople, vice president of PLDT Smart, digital entrepreneur, telco guy and blogger; and Noel Santiago, chief digital officer and group head for digitalization and channels, Bank of the Philippine Islands pose with Dante Francis ‘Klink’ Ang 2nd, president and chief executive officer of The Manila Times during the Digital Transformation and Innovation Forum held at Conrad Hotel in Pasay City. PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE
Digital transformation to boost PH progress DIGITAL transformation can boost the Philippines’ economic progress, allowing it to emerge as the top powerhouse in the region, a government official said on Tuesday. Allan Silor, assistant secretary for Infostructure Management and Special Concerns at the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), said amid the
increased presence of advanced technologies, organizations and the government have to harness the technologies benefits for economic growth. “This is a key driver in making the Philippines an economic powerhouse in Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” he noted during The Manila Times
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REACH US AT: E-mail: newsdesk@ manilatimes. net Tel. Nos.: 524-5664 to 67 Address: 2/F Sitio Grande, 409 A. Soriano Avenue, Intramuros, Manila 1002
Ex-VP Binay seeks to void Peña’s win DEFEATED congressional bet and former vice president Jejomar Binay has filed an electoral protest against Makati First District Rep. Romulo Peña Jr. before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET). In the 70-page electoral protest,
Binay’s lawyers sought to nullify the proclamation of Peña as a House member by the Makati City Board of Canvassers on May 14. They asked the tribunal to conduct a manual ballot recount in each of the 235 clustered precincts of the city, as
the race was “marred by various manifestations of fraud, anomalies, irregularities and statistical improbabilities.” Peña got 71,035 votes against Binay’s 65,229, or a presumptive margin of 5,806 votes, according to the Certificate of Canvass of Votes. äVoidA8
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PSEi
8,263.57 DOWN 1.22%
P50.90 TO $1
WEDNESDAY JULY 17, 2019
Business Times www.manilatimes.net
SEC MATTERS
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CURRENCY RATE
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ASIAN STOCKS: t Shanghai 0.16% s Singapore 0.36% s Seoul 0.45% t Tokyo 0.69% t Jakarta 0.25% s Hong Kong 0.23% Bangkok (closed)
n Union Bank of the Philippines Chairman Justo Ortiz. PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE
Innovation, reinvention a must – UnionBank chief BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
C
OMPANIES should think ahead, innovate and reinvent in order to ride the digitaltransformation wave brought about by the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) Chairman Justo Ortiz said on Tuesday.
In his keynote speech at The Manila Times Digital Transformation and Innovation Forum in Pasay City,
Ortiz told participants that “[a]s we move into this fourth industrial age, there’s going to be a discontinuity.”
As an example, Ortiz cited a study that showed that the average life of a publicly listed company today would be 35 years, which would eventually go down to 12 by 2027. With this, he said companies succeed
if they have a purpose, innovate and reinvent themselves. According to Ortiz, UnionBank is doing its part by not just being a bank, but also transforming itself as a technology company. “We need to change who we are, and why we do what we do. And we need to redefine ourselves….” the UnionBank chief said. “For [a] mainsteam bank to be able to converge symbiotically with a technology company or a fintech (financial
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PSEi hits 8,200 level, Peso back at P50:$1on policy easing Biz groups to govt: remains in bull market Veto SoT bill THE stock market succumbed to profit-taking on Tuesday, but remained in the bull market territory, with investor sentiment dented anew by renewed tensions between the United States and China. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 1.22 percent or 101.72 points to close at 8,263.57, while the wider All Shares declined by 0.61 percent or 30.97 points to finish at 5,012.99. Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said market players sold off positions after tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated over the latter’s plan to sanction US companies such as General Dynamics, Honeywell and Raytheon following reports that they would sell weapons worth $2.2 billion to Taiwan. China considers the islandnation as a regenade province, and thus, part of its territory. The planned sale coincides with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s
visit to the United States as she prepares to seek support from allied countries. In a separate comment, AAA Southeast Equities Inc. research head Christopher Mangun blamed losses on investors cashing in on gains following Monday’s huge rally. “Today’s (Tuesday) retreat is a healthy pullback after the massive gains that we saw (on Monday)….” Mangun said. “As long as the PSEi stays above 8,150, there should be nothing to worry about.” “With [companies’] secondquarter earnings out soon, we may see it challenge the next resistance at 8,550,” he said. In the US, the Dow Jones rose 0.10 percent, the S&P 500 inched up 0.02 percent, and the Nasdaq gained 0.17 percent. Asian counterparts were mixed, as Tokyo dropped 0.69 percent, Shanghai slipped 0.16 percent, Jakarta decreased 0.35 percent, and Bangkok was down 0.21 percent.
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What’s inside DTI LENDS P3.10B TO MSMES
»BusinessB2
DON’T DISCRIMINATE HIV VICTIMS, IC TELLS HMOS
»BusinessB2
STI NET PROFIT FALLS 43.5% TO P284M
»Corporate NewsB3
RAW SUGAR OUTPUT UP
»BusinessB4
FACEBOOK’S LIBRA PLAN UNDER CONGRESS SCRUTINY Foreign BusinessB5
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THE peso recorded its strongest level yet against the US dollar this year as the expected easing of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) monetary policy and other positive indicators helped the local currency return to P50:$1 on Tuesday. The currency, which opened at P51 against the greenback, gained 10 centavos to close at P50.90, its strongest in nearly 18 months or since its P50.84:$1 finish on Jan. 26, 2018. “Possible easing of local monetary policy by way of a cut in key policy rates as early as the next monetary policy-setting meeting on Aug. 8, 2019, amid [the] continued easing-inflation trend and [a] possible cut in the US Fed (Federal Reserve) funds rate as early as July 31, 2019…recently supported sentiment on the local financial markets, including the peso,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. economist Michael Ricafort said. Earlier, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said an expected interest rate cut in the United States would give the central bank more space to ease its monetary policy settings
n New peso banknotes with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno’s signature. PHOTO FROM THE BANGKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINAS in the third quarter. The BSP started easing its monetary policy settings on May 9, but decided to take a “prudent pause” on June 20 by keeping its overnight borrowing, lending and deposit rates at 4.5 percent, 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Despite the pause, monetary authorities cut their 2019 inflation forecast to 2.7 percent from 2.9
percent, and their 2020 projection to 3 percent from 3.1 percent. “The flurry of recent economic releases, such as OFW (overseas Filipino worker) remittances and low domestic inflation is also driving this strength,” Union Bank of the Philippines chief economist Carlo Asuncion said. The BSP reported on Mon-
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VARIOUS industry groups and business chambers urged the government on Tuesday to veto Senate Bill 1826, or the Security of Tenure (SoT) measure, arguing that there are existing laws already safeguarding workers. In a joint statement, the business groups called the bill “redundant, as there are previously approved laws that already protect workers from endo (end of contract).” The statement was signed by the Makati Business Club, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Foundation for Economic Freedom, IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of, Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc., and Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc.
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PLDT executives’ multi-million paycheck
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ANUEL V. Pangilinan (MVP) is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of PLDT Inc.; Ernesto R. Alberto, executive vice president; Ma. Lourdes C. Rausa-Chan, Anabelle L. Chua, and Menardo G. Jimenez, senior vice presidents, according to PLDT’s definitive information statement (DIS). As PLDT’s top executives, MVP, Chua, Alberto, Jimenez and Rausa-Chan are also the company’s highest paid. As a group, they received compensation of P167 million in 2017; P248 million in 2018; and an estimated P231 million in 2019. The same DIS showed PLDT paid “all other officers and directors as a group unnamed” P507 million in 2017; P581 million in 2018; and projected at P427 million their compensation in 2019. PLDT also said “each of the direc-
tors of the company is entitled to a fee of P250,000 for each meeting of the board attended.” In addition, “the directors who serve in the committees of the board of directors, namely, the audit, governance and nomination, executive compensation, risk and technology strategy committees are each entitled to a fee of P125,000 for each committee meeting attended.” In 2018, PLDT’s general information sheet (GIS) placed “the total annual compensation of directors during the preceding fiscal year” as follows: “total per diem of independent directors and non-executive directors = P36.75 million; total per diem of executive directors
as compensation as executives of PLDT = P89.68 million.” Manpower. In the same GIS, PLDT said that as of April 12, 2019, it had 74 executives. It had 2,359 rank-and-file employees and “total manpower complement of 10,369. Also as of April 12, 2019, PLDT had 1,496 foreigners who owned common shares. It did not detail the number of common shares they owned. It added that of 1,496 stockholders who held PLDT’s common shares, 1,254 were Americans. It classified 242 under “others”. Although it had and still has 150 million voting preferred shares, PLDT
left blank the space allotted for them. It also did not fill the space for “non-voting preferred serial preferred.”’ In 2018, PLDT paid dividends totaling P13,886,595,470 of which P49.275 million for Series IV cumulative convertible redeemable preferred shares; P870 for 10 percent cumulative convertible Series JJ; and P9.75 million for 150 million voting preferred shares. The holders of PLDT’s 216,055,775 common shares were paid P13,827,569,600 A public ownership report (POR) as of June 30, 2019 listed 218,779,886 as PLDT’s issued common shares, of which 2,724,111 were treasury shares, leaving the company with 216,055,775 outstanding common shares. Of 216,055,775 outstanding TEL com-
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