BusinessMirror April 22, 2019

DEPT. OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

2018 BANTOG DATA MEDIA AWARDS CHAMPION

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

www.businessmirror.com.ph

n Monday, April 22, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 194

NG’s Q1 budget gap down 41% to ₧90.2B T

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

HE national government recorded a budget deficit of P90.245 billion for the first quarter of 2019, as expenditures outpaced revenues, but the gap was much lower than last year’s, according to data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters in a text message that based on BTr’s report to the Department of Finance (DOF), the deficit of P90.245 billion for the first quarter is lower by 41

percent than the P152.171 billion posted in the same period for 2018.

This was also pointed out to be lower by 52 percent than the government’s programmed deficit for the quarter of P188.353 billion.

“For the period, revenues reached P687.7 billion, an increase of 11 percent, with BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue] and BOC [Bureau of Customs] collections improving by 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

“For the period, revenues reached P687.7 billion, an increase of 11 percent, with BIR and BOC collections improving by 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Nontax [revenues] rose by 18 percent with higher dividends from remittances from BSP and PDIC totaling P8.6 billion.”—Dominguez

Nontax [revenues] rose by 18 percent with higher dividends from remittances from BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] and PDIC [Philippine Deposit Insurance Cor p.] totaling P8.6 billion,” Dominguez said in the text message, quoting National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon.

Continued on A2

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CHINA WRESTS JAPAN’S 30-YR RECORD AS TOP BUYER OF PHL BANANAS

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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HINA has dethroned Japan as the top buyer of Philippine bananas as Filipino growers take advantage of Beijing’s growing economy and population. However, planters are seeking production support to maintain their stronghold in the new top market amid stiff competition from South American producers.

Government and International Trade Centre (Intracen) data crunched by the BusinessMirror showed that China became the country’s No. 1 market for bananas in 2018, claiming the spot that Japan had held for over 30 years.

The Philippines’s banana shipments to China in 2018 expanded wby 70 percent to 1.273 million metric tons (MMT) from the 748,511 MT recorded volume in 2017, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.

Total exports to China last year was 16.56 percent higher than the 1.092 MMT shipped to Japan, according to PSA data. Nonetheless,

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.7240

As reported by China, Japan

THE volume of Philippine bananas imported by China as reported to Intracen reached 1.016 MMT, 39 percent higher than the 730,017 MT in 2017.

The figure disclosed by China remained higher than the volume of Philippine bananas that Japan imported and reported to Intracen. Intracen data showed Japan imported 838,690 MT of Philippine bananas.

Despite the discrepancies between the PSA and Intracen data, one thing is clear: China is the country’s newest top buyer of homegrown bananas.

Sheer size

IN the view of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), the driver of the expanding banana shipments to China is a nobrainer: the sheer size of its population and economy.

See “Bananas,” A2

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The amount of tax delinquencies pending in the books of the BIR, as earlier reported by DOF Undersecretary Mark Dennis Y.C. Joven

See “Tax amnesty,” A12

the country’s banana exports to Japan rose by 32.12 percent from 826,526 MT in 2017.

PHL, China investors attending Boao gab

₧80B

on April 24 to accept applications.

However, the first step actually for those who want to avail, to get their delinquency verification forms, so even if it is not yet the 24th they can start getting their delinquency verification form from the district they are registered because that document will show

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR

P25.00 nationwide | 5 sections 30 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

BIR to start accepting applications for tax amnesty on April 24

HE Bureau of Inter na l Revenue (BIR) will start accepting tax amnesty applications on April 24 under the legislated program that gives taxpayers a year for its availment and providing them a clean slate once accomplished.

BIR Spokesman Marissa O. Cabreros told reporters the forms are ready and downloadable through the BIR web site for taxpayers.

The first step for those who wish to apply for amnesty on their delinquencies would be securing a delinquency verification form.

“Everything is ready, it’s downloadable in the system, everything is attached as well in the RR [revenue regulation], so we are ready

2017 EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

POPE AT EASTER Pope Francis waves to the crowd at Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday morning before delivering the traditional Easter message.

He expressed sorrow over the Sunday bombing of churches in Sri Lanka. Hours earlier, at the Easter vigil, the Pope encouraged people to stop being “cynical, negative and despondent.” Stories in “The World,” page B3. Related story on the Holy Stairs in Rome, on page A12. STEPHANIE TUMAMPOS

OME 300 businessmen from China and the Philippines will explore the possibility of investing in the two countries during the two-day Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Manila, the leadership of the House of Representatives announced on Sunday.

The event on Monday and Tuesday, spearheaded by Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, seeks to bring together some of the country’s business leaders and their Chinese counterparts.

According to Arroyo, the event with a theme “Concerted Action for Common Development in the New Era” will also foster closer ties and See “Boao gab,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4618 n UK 67.4998 n HK 6.5953 n CHINA 7.7053 n SINGAPORE 38.1952 n AUSTRALIA 37.1120 n EU 58.3550 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.7923

Source: BSP (17 April 2019 )

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, April 22, 2019

₧1.2B of funding for building green, open spaces released

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released more than P1.2 billion for building better open spaces under its “Green, Green, Green” program.

In its quarterly report, the budget department said the fund was released to 68 recipient cities for their respective projects as of March 29, 2019.

Around 25,000 individuals residing within a 10-minute walk from each public open space project and around 66,000 daily visi-

tors are expected to benefit from this development.

A local budget circular is set to be released, which will provide the guidelines on the implementation of the Local Government Support Fund-Assistance to Cities for the FY 2019 Budget. The Office of the Secretary-Technical

145

Number of Philippine cities, which the government wants to make more livable and sustainable through the DBM’s “Green, Green, Green” program—with public open spaces such as esplanades, parks, arboretum or botanical gardens; and bike lanes, walkways and green infrastructure Review Unit (TRU), the office in charge of providing technical assistance on the planning

and implementation of the program, also held a roundtable in February to enhance the draft guidelines.

The TRU got inputs from experts in public open space planning, design, project implementation and project maintenance.

Last year, the DBM launched the Green, Green, Green program, which aims to make the Philippines’s 145 cities more livable and sustainable through the development of public open spaces by creating esplanades, parks, arboretum or botanical gardens, and building bike lanes, walkways and green infrastructure.

A total amount of P2.5 billion was earmarked for the program in 2018.

Lorenzana rejects JPE’s ‘use-nukes-to-defend-WPS’ bid

By Rene Acosta

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@reneacostaBM

EFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Sunday that technological know-how and existing laws prevent the country from developing and pursuing a nuclear strike capability.

The defense chief issued the statement in response to the suggestion of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile that the country should

consider developing its nuclear defense capability in order to defend the West Philippine Sea. Enrile, a former defense minister during the Marcos years, said going nuclear for the military is the only way the country can fend off China in the territory that Beijing disputes.

However, Lorenzana said this would not be feasible given the constraints posed by the Filipinos’ lack of training in handling nuclear material.

“Develop our own nuclear weapons to enforce the Arbitral ruling?

Very unlikely for several reasons.

First, we are not technically and technologically capable,” he said.

“Second, we are a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, “ he added.

The defense secretary said that even the country’s laws do not allow Filipinos to develop and acquire nuclear weapons, much more for defense purposes.

“Our Constitution states that

NG’s Q1 budget gap down 41% to P90.2B Continued from A1

Broken down, expenditures for the threemonth period amounted to P777.990 billion, or an uptick of 1 percent compared to last year’s P771.964 billion, but shrank by 11 percent compared to the programmed expenditures for the period of P876.298 billion.

The government reported revenues of P687.745 billion for the period, which is higher by 11 percent compared to last year’s P619.793 billion, but lower by 0.03 percent from the programmed P687.945 billion.

“First-quarter expenditures were up only by 1 percent from last year with 8-percent contraction in March. Disbursements amounted to P778 billion or P98.3 billion lower than our internal program. Interest payment savings amounted to P7.3 billion. Cumulative deficit for quarter was P90.2 billion, P61.9 billion lower than last year,” de Leon added.

The BTr noted that it used its internal estimates in terms of the program figures cited, as the official monthly fiscal program for this year is still pending at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

“Looks like we didn’t spend a bit over P1 billion a day versus program,” Dominguez said.

The government has been operating under the 2018 reenacted budget since January this year,

Bangsamoro. . .

Continued from A12

operational funds of the BARMM, which replaced ARMM. According to Angara, “this is in fulfilment of the promise to give the Bangsamoro government full fiscal autonomy to achieve economic self-sufficiency and genuine development.”

Angara added: “With this spending package, we pin our hopes on the leaders of the new autonomous political entity to change the lives of our Mindanaoan brothers and sisters who equally deserve opportunities to be employed, educated and cared for by the government.”

At the same time, the reelectionist senator acknowledged the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) as the “realization of the long peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front [that] was overwhelmingly ratified by the Bangsamoro people during a two-part plebiscite held early this year.”

President Duterte formed in February the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Author-

as the two chambers of Congress got embroiled in a standoff in the passage of the budget bill.

For the month of March alone, the government reported a deficit of P58.409 billion, which is lower by 47 percent from the March 2018 level of P110.818 billion.

Expenditures for the month outpaced revenues with P287.327 billion and P228.918 billion, respectively.

Disbursements of the government for the month showed an 8-percent contraction compared to last year’s P313.053 billion, while revenues posted an increase of 13 percent compared to the P202.360-billion revenues recorded in March 2018.

Drag on growth

DOMINGUEZ further pointed out that the underspending of about P98.3 billion for the period “will definitely be a drag on growth.”

Last month, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), during its 175th meeting, scaled down the gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for the year to 6 to 7 percent, from the previous 7 to 8 percent.

It was also reported last month that the government incurred a budget deficit for February this year amounting to P76.4 billion, which is higher by 48 percent from last year’s P51.7-billion deficit. ity to serve as the interim government in the BARMM during the transition period that will last until the first election takes place in 2022.

Angara said population in the region in 2015 stood at 3.78 million, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, which noted that one in two persons in the region was poor, or about 53.7 percent of its population.

The senator said the solution “should ultimately rest on giving the Bangsamoro people [the chance] to make their own choices—the political and fiscal autonomy to no longer consult with imperial Manila or the central government on matters that are essentially Bangsamoro matter.”

Under the BOL, revenue sources for the Bangsamoro include taxes, fees, charges and annual block grant, and revenue shares from exploration of natural resources, among others.

Angara said the law provides that 75 percent of national taxes and fees collected in the region will go to the Bangsamoro government, while 25 percent will go to the national government. The 75-percent share shall “accrue” to the Bangsamoro government for the first 10 years.

Butch Fernandez

we denounce war as an instrument of national policy. Nuclear weapon is not a defensive weapon but an offensive one,” Lorenzana said.

While he welcomed Enrile’s suggestion, the defense chief said it would not be the best way to deal with the territorial issue.

“We appreciate Senator Enrile’s patriotic duty to suggest how to protect what is legally ours, but developing a nuclear weapon is not the way to proceed,” he said.

Boao gab. . .

Continued from A1

create goodwill between the Philippines and China, building on the momentum for cooperation created by President Rodrigo Duterte and President Xi Jinping during the latter’s State Visit last November.

Arroyo, who extended the invitation to the BFA to hold the conference in Manila, is a member of the Board of the BFA. The conference is expected to convene approximately 300 participants. Among them will be 100 business leaders from China, 100 business leaders from the Philippines and 100 executives from the Chinese enterprises in the Philippines.

Arroyo, in a statement, said senior officials of the Philippine government and business chambers are also expected to address and interact with the audience.

The event will be attended by President Duterte, who will deliver the Keynote Speech, as well as BFA Secretary-General Li Badong. Members of the Cabinet and several Chinese officials are also taking part in the event at the Shangri-La in BGC, Taguig.

It aims to help the visiting Chinese entrepreneurs better understand the business environment and related policies of the Philippines, introducing BFA to the Philippine government and business community and implementing the important consensus reached by top leaders of the two countries, and strengthening the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative with the development strategies of the Philippines and Asean.

The BFA and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc (FFCCII) will cosponsor the conference, with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) and the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines as supporting partners.

The BFA, often referred to as the Davos of Asia, has become a high-end platform for dialog among leaders of national governments, industrial and business circles, and academic circles of countries in Asia and other continents about the important issues in Asia and even the whole world.

China a partner—GMA

EARLIER, Arroyo said the China is a partner and not a threat to the Philippines amid issues on the disputed islands in the West Philippines Sea. She said China through the years has proven wrong the negative notions of its policies toward reform, and has been opening up as it has become the country’s No. 1 partner in the development.

Arroyo added that China has also been a major market for Filipino-Chinese businessmen as they have been investing in China .

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PACC forging MOU with anti-corruption agency in Beijing

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HE P resident i a l A nt iCorruption Commission (PACC) is set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its Chinese counterpart, the National Commission for Supervision, this week.

This will happen on the sidelines of China’s second Belt and Road Initiative Forum from April 24 to 27, to be attended by leaders from 60 countries, including President Duterte.

PACC Chairman Dante LA.Jimenez and PACC Executive Director Eduardo V. Bringas will be joining the President to Beijing. This is the second year that the President will be attending the forum.

Malacañang earlier said that matters of mutual concern, including trade and investments and security, will be discussed during the bilateral meeting between Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Philippine exports to China grew by 8.5 percent to $8.7 billion in 2018, from $8.02 billion in 2017, making China the Philippines’s fourth-largest export market.

On top of trade, China is also the country’s top source of foreign investments with around $962.61 million in approved investments in 2018, according to the Board of Investments.

President Duterte has been criticized for seeking warmer relations with Beijing even though it pointedly ignores the favorable ruling Manila obtained from the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016, where the Philippines denounced China’s “excessive claims” in the South China Sea. In a related development, PACC

Bananas. . .

Continued from A1

“You can never go wrong with 1.3 billion people. China’s economy is growing by leaps and bounds over the years,” PBGEA Executive Director Stephen A. Antig told the BusinessMirror.

“We knew that it’s only a matter of time that China would overtake Japan as our top market due to its growing economy,” Antig added.

This growing economy, Antig explained, allowed the Chinese to have higher purchasing power, hence, the capacity to buy more bananas and even better-quality ones as they have started to move away from “Class B” produce.

Antig noted that the warming ties between Manila and Beijing also contributed to higher shipments as the Asian giant opened up its market further for Philippine bananas.

“Definitely, the friendship being extended by the Philippines to China helped us, especially [since] Manila is saying...let’s not talk about ideologies, let’s talk about economics and business,” he said. Based on PSA data, this is the first time that China became the top buyer of Philippine bananas since 1991.

Space

TO University of Asia and the Pacific Center for Food and Agri-Business Executive Director Rolando T. Dy, Beijing’s fast-expanding middle class and low per-capita consumption accounted for the growth in banana exports to China.

Furthermore, infrastructure in China has been improving, hence, resulting in better inland logistics to Central China, Dy added.

China’s present banana consumption patterns are quite the opposite of what is being observed in the Japanese market, according to Dy.

S. Korea. . .

Continued from A12

Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. said the government has to expedite its efforts to forge bilateral and multilateral FTAs with trading partners. The lack of FTAs, he argued, puts exporters on the short end of the stick, as their products are not provided with preferential rates when entering foreign ports.

In an interview on Sunday, Ortiz-Luis said Manila only has two legitimate trade deals at present: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) FreeTrade Area and the bilateral PhilippinesJapan Economic Partnership Agreement.

“That would be great,”he said, referring to the planned FTA with South Korea, “because we are very much delayed in having trade agreements.

The only one we have—aside from the [trade

said over the weekend that it backs the appeal made by President Duterte for the New People’s Army (NPA) to go after corrupt government officials, not government troops.

“We agree with the President’s position that the public, whose interests and welfare the NPA claims it protects, should wage war against corruption in all levels of government. In fact, the NPA should put itself at the forefront of this campaign if it is really fighting for the people’s cause,” Jimenez said.

The President made the remark during a campaign rally in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, on April 16.

Moreover, PACC also urged the voting public to be discerning in choosing local politicians in the elections next month.

In keeping with the President’s corruption-free standard for government officials, PACC is campaigning against officials with pending cases.

“The war against corrupt officials must extend as far as voting them for public office.

Do not vote for politicians or candidates with pending cases with the Ombudsman or at the Sandiganbayan,”Jimenez said.

The PACC is going around the various regions in the country to promote the President’s anti-corruption drive in the countryside.

“Corruption breeds poverty, crime, illegal drugs and worst, of all, rebellion,” Jimenez added.

The PACC was created to help the President get rid of corruption in the Executive Branch, including government-owned and -controlled agencies. Bernadette D. Nicolas

Dy pointed out that Japan’s per-capita banana consumption seems to have reached a plateau at about 8 kilograms. This, coupled with the aging population, accounted for the slower growth in Japanese banana imports.

“Japanese consumers are [also] getting older, and family size is getting smaller with late and fewer marriages,” he told the BusinessMirror.

He also noted that stiff competition with other exporters, particularly Latin American countries that have eaten into the Philippines’s market share in Japan, is also a factor.

Support

ANTIG urged the government to help banana planters, especially small growers, reduce their cost of production (COP) to ensure that the price of the homegrown yellow fruit remains competitive against other exporting countries. This, Antig noted, would fortify the Philippines’s position in China as its top supplier of bananas.

“One of the reasons our traditional markets have started to buy from other producers is that they have a price advantage,” he said.

“And logically, if you are a consumer, you would purchase cheaper ones if the qualities are just the same as that of the expensive ones,” he added.

Philippine bananas remain competitive against Ecuadorian bananas in China mainly because Philippine bananas enjoy a taste advantage, since the Chinese deem these to be much sweeter, Antig said.

“But that is until when? It would be sooner or later that the basis of the competition would be the price,” he said. “They are saying our bananas are much sweeter, I don’t know how true is that.”

The country’s total banana shipments in 2018 expanded by nearly 18 percent to 3.388 MMT from 2.872 MMT, becoming the second-top exporter of the yellow fruit in the world. deal with] the Asean—is [with] Japan.”

Further, he said a bilateral FTA could mean more investments and collaboration on technology and innovation, especially considering that South Korea is a huge importer of Philippine electronic products.

According to PSA data, Seoul last year bought $1.23 billion of electronics from Manila. Its shipments of electronic manufactures made up nearly half of its total imports from the Philippines.

Even Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez is eyeing more cooperation on the development of products of the future, such as electric vehicles, under an FTA with South Korea.

Lopez said the two parties will begin official negotiations upon the completion of respective domestic procedures, which will include government consultations with local stakeholders.

Both parties agreed to conclude talks and sign the FTA in November in time for the commemorative summit between the Asean and South Korea.

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Comelec to voters: Finalize your picks

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ESS than a month before the next midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said voters should already be finalizing the list of candidates they will support.

Comelec Commissioner Luie Tito F. Guia issued the reminder to ensure voters will commit lesser mistakes in casting their votes on the actual election on May 13.

“This is so when you get there, you will just shade away,” Guia told reporters in an interview.

He noted the list should be preferably on a piece of paper rather than in their mobile phones, since the use of the latter will not be allowed in voting centers.

Guia stressed the importance of correctly shading their chosen candidates in the ballots, since any mistake in the process could invalidate their votes.

“It’s an optical scanning technology. So any mark or shade that are inside the space, where the voter should be putting their shade to vote for the candidates, could be read by the machine if it reaches the threshold,” Guia said.

Comelec Spokesman James B. Jimenez earlier issued a similar appeal to voters to start assessing who candidates they will vote for.

Rather than still focusing on possible campaign violations, he noted the people should already be in the process of selecting candidates based on their specific set of criteria.

In the end, he noted that the goal of an election is to elect the right candidates rather than disqualify the erring ones. Samuel P. Medenilla

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, April 22, 2019 A3

DOLE to continue limiting entry of foreign workers

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

ESPITE constraints in its 2019 budget, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) vows to continue pushing for policy reforms limiting the entry of foreign workers in the country.

In an interview, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the DOLE is preparing a contingency plan in case they will still be required to retake the responsibility of issuing Special Work Permits (SWP) from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) without the corresponding increase in their 2019 funds.

Bello added that they plan to tap the additional 5,000 labor inspectors committed by the Department of Finance (DOF) to augment the

personnel of DOLE regional offices to cater to SWP applicants.

“Our plan aside from making them [labor inspectors], we will also train them on the work of immigration agent,” Bello said.

Pending recruitment

THE labor department earlier said the DOF will be supporting DOLE’s bid to get additional labor inspectors to help ensure foreign workers applying for SWP will be paying taxes.

An SWP is a document issued by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to foreigners who will be working in the country for less than six months.

DOLE Financial and Management Service (FMS) Director Warren M. Miclat said they will first wait for the Notice of Staffing Compensation Action (Nosca) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) before they could begin hiring additional labor inspectors.

“It will only take effect once DBM issues the necessary Nosca,” Miclat told the BusinessMirror in an interview. “It will contain the number of plantilla and salary grade level for the new positions.”

Bello said they are targeting to hire an additional 500 labor inspectors within the year.

The DOLE currently has around 800 labor inspectors, who are assigned to regularly inspect over 900,000 firms nationwide.

Vetoed provision

BELLO issued his latest pronounce-

ment after Sen. Joel Villanueva expressed his dismay last week over President Duterte’s veto of the special provision in the 2019 budget that ruled DOLE as the sole authority in granting SWPs. Villanueva blamed the surge of foreign workers in the country for BI’s “irresponsible issuance” of SWPs. DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) assured that ongoing efforts to close gaps in the country’s permit issuance for foreign workers will not be affected by the veto.

“The heads of [the] DOLE, DOJ [Department of Justice] and the BI have meeting of the mind through the joint guidelines that will be issued soon. We are the final stretch of consultation before the signing of the new guidelines,” BLE Director Dominique R. Tutay told the BusinessMirror in a text message.

Bello said the new “harmonized” policies for permit issuance for foreigners are expected to be approved within the month.

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USTOMS examiners and xray screeners went into panic when an outbound package was found to contain images of three hand grenades.

The explosives were found at the export warehouse near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) before Holy Week.

Naia Customs District Collector Mimel M. Talusan said customs agents slowly brought out the grenades from the carton box for thorough inspection.

The package was sent by a certain Peter Lhung of Heinen Import and Export Corp. of Angeles City addressed to (Budk) On the Edge Brands Worldwide Inc. 475 HWY 319 South Moultrie, Georgia, US. The content was declared as “Philippine handicraft” made of resin weighing some 1.40 kilograms wrapped with transparent plastic.

When examined, Talusan said the grenades were all replicas of Stielhan dragnet, Mills bomb and an M67 grenade that was made of resin “but looks real enough.”

Talusan said that the package was confiscated because it was not declared as replicas of grenades, and it is not allowed inside the aircraft for security reasons. Recto Mercene

STPs needed sans proper sewer connection—DENR

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MMDA vows to nab buses violating new rules on Edsa

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent

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TARTING on April 22, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will apprehend provincial buses that will load and unload passengers along Edsa and major roads in the metropolis.

MMDA General Manager Jose Arturo S. Garcia Jr. explained this is an existing rule the agency will strictly implement after the Holy Week.

“Provincial buses are not allowed to load and unload passengers along Edsa and other major roads in Metro Manila,” Garcia said.

Instead, provincial buses must only use their respective terminals in picking up and dropping off passengers, since they travel “point to point” or directly from the terminal to the drop-off point, he added.

Violators will be fined P500 for illegal loading and unloading.

“It’s about time we enforce discipline to restore order on the road.”

Meanwhile, Garcia said the dry run for the closure of bus terminals along Edsa will push through this week.

GRENADES CAUSE PANIC AT AIRPORT

CATCHING HOPE

A fisherman along the Gumaca shoreline readies a fish trap, hoping to have a good catch for the day. Supply woes were being blamed for the increase in fish prices during the Holy Week. BERNARD TESTA

During the dry run, the MMDA will oblige operators of bus terminals to use terminals the government established such as Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange and facilities in Santa Rosa, Laguna and Valenzuela City.

In line with the government’s plan to remove all bus terminals along Edsa by

June, Garcia said they are set to coordinate with the local government units of Pasay City and Quezon City, which have jurisdiction over the locations of the terminals.

“We will write all concerned local government units for the eventual closure of the terminals along Edsa,” Garcia said.

Earlier, the Metro Manila Council has issued a regulation, prohibiting or revoking the business permits of all public- utility bus terminals and operators and other public-utility vehicle terminals along Edsa.

The agency is targeting to close all 47 bus terminals along Edsa by June.

O prevent the further pollution of Manila Bay’s waters, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is now requiring all establishments within the Manila Bay to connect to existing sewer lines or, at least, put up their own sewerage-treatment plants (STPs) to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act of 2004.

Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu recently issued Memorandum Circular 2019-01, which aims to ensure proper treatment of wastewater before they are released into the environment. Only about 15 percent of establishments within Manila Bay are connected to proper sewer lines.

The direct discharge of untreated wastewater falls out to Manila Bay. Along with uncollected garbage that find their way into waterways, this untreated wastewater has caused coliform bacteria levels to spike in the past few decades.

Cimatu, who chairs the interagency Manila Bay Task Force, is currently taking the lead in rehabilitating the heavily polluted water body.

The circular covers all government facilities, subdivisions, condominiums, commercial centers, hotels, sports and recreational facilities, hospitals, marketplaces, public buildings, industrial complex and other similar establishments.

According to him, the Manila Bay region covered by the circular encompasses the entire bay coastline of 190 kilometers and the total drainage area of about 17,540 square kilometers across Region 3, Region 4A and the National Capital Region.

Cimatu said the circular was pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act 9275 or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 and President Duterte’s Administrative Order 16, titled “Expediting the Rehabilitation and Restoration of the Coastal and Marine Ecosystem of the Manila Bay and creating the Manila Bay Task Force.”

The DENR targets to restore the quality of waters of Manila Bay to Class SB level to make them fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of contact recreation.

The rehabilitation of Manila Bay is the subject of a continuing Supreme Court mandamus issued in 2008, which ordered 13 government agencies to rehabilitate and clean up Manila Bay, and may restore it to its pristine state.

Prior to the start of the rehabilitation on January 27, fecal coliform level in Manila Bay was at 330 million most probable number. The standard set for swimming is at 100 mpn per 100 milliliters. Jonathan L. Mayuga

A4 Monday, April 22, 2019 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

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Tourists from Europe spending more in PHL

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

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ISITORS from South Korea were the biggest tourism spenders in the country in the first two months of the year, latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) show.

In January and February, the Philippine economy earned $507.83 million (P26.41 billion) from South Korean tourists, an increase of 18.2 percent from its earnings from the market in the same period last year. This, despite their tepid arrivals, which was up only 1.72 percent during the same period. (See, “DOT: January and February 2019 visitor arrivals up 6 percent,” in the BusinessMirror, April 11, 2019.) Visitor receipts from South Korea accounted for 29 percent of the total tourism receipts amounting to some $1.75 billion (P91 billion) in the first two months of 2019.

Visitors from the People’s Republic of China were the second-biggest spenders in the first two months of the year at $320.51 million (P16.67 billion), accounting for 18 percent of the Philippines’s total tourism receipts for the period. However, the spending of Chinese tourists was up by only 0.59 percent in spite of the 19-percent increase in their arrivals during the period.

The third biggest tourism spenders in the Philippines were visitors from the United States, who injected $263.10 million (P13.68 billion) into the economy, up 28.5 percent from the same period in

2018. Visitor receipts from said market accounted for 15 percent of the total tourism receipts in the reference period.

In terms of growth rates, however, tourists from Europe have been increasing their holiday spending in the Philippines. Visitors from France, for one, saw a 79.32-percent surge in spending to $27.92 million (P1.45 billion), while those from Germany spent $28.18 million (P1.47 billion) during the two-month period in review, or 76.23-percent more than their spending in January and February 2018. Tourists from the United Kingdom also recorded a significant increase in spending in the Philippines at 45.31 percent to $42.17 million (P2.19 billion).

All three countries were among the DOT’s top 10 list of big spenders in the local tourism sector.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Tourism Congress of the Philippines President Jose C. Clemente III said the rise in expenditures from European tourists is due to their increasing arrivals.

“More Europeans are coming to the Philippines, which is a trend we

noticed as early as last year. The good news is that, all things being equal, Europe will continue to be an increasing source of arrivals especially from Scandinavia and even the������������������������������ Benelux���������������������� [Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg] region.”

Another reason, he underscored, is that many European tourists “are looking for premium destinations and establishments. [They] come to the Philippines looking for high-end destinations, experiences, as well as accommodations.

Inevitably, they’re injecting more money into the economy as they look to pamper themselves and are willing to pay to do so.”

Visitor arrivals from Europe reached 736,421 in 2018, an increase of 9.03 percent from 2017.

The European market accounted for 10.44 percent of the 7.06 million foreign visitors in the Philippines last year. Only the UK though made it to the top 10 source markets of tourists for the Philippines in 2018, largely due to the direct flights between London and Manila.

The DOT has always heavily promoted the Philippines in Eu-

rope as the tourists there spend more and stay longer, compared to travelers from other regions.

Meanwhile, tourists from Japan were the fourth biggest spenders in the country, accounting for $97.24 million (P5.06 billion) or a 5.56-percent share of total visitor receipts in the first two months of the year.

However, the Japanese spent 32.57 percent less than what they spent in the same period in 2018.

Visitors from Canada were the fifth biggest tourism spenders at $63.35 million (P3.29 billion), a 24.33-percent increase from their spending in January and February 2018. Visitor receipts from Canada accounted for 3.62 percent of total receipts in the first two months of 2019.

The other large tourism spenders were visitors from Taiwan at $55.14 million (P2.87 billion); Australia at $53.59 million (P2.79 billion); India at $27 million (P1.4 billion); and Malaysia at $20.04 million (P1.04 billion).

Under the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) of 20162022, the DOT is aiming for P564

billion ($10.84 billion) in visitor receipts for 2019, up 39 percent from the P406.7 billion generated in 2018. Last year’s visitor receipts were much lower though than the P473-billion target for the year under the NTDP, and 9.34 percent less than the earnings generated in 2017. This could be attributed to the substantial loss in revenue from the six-month closure of Boracay Island, the second top tourist drawer for the Philippines.

Data from the DOT also show each tourist who visited in January and February 2019 spent an estimated $1,231.03 (P64,013.56), or 4.74 percent more than the per capita expenditure of tourists in the same period in 2018.

However, in terms of daily spend, tourists in the first two months of the year, averaged about $124.29 (P6,463.08), some 2.19 percent lower than their average daily expenditure in the same period in 2018.

Tourists stayed longer in the first two months of 2019, averaging 9.87 nights, compared to average of 9.25 nights in the same period last year.

‘Spike in domestic sugar price due to profiteering’

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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EMBERS of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SR A) board lambasted wholesalers and retailers for purportedly manipulating the price of sugar despite the increase in local output

and the boost in stocks from the remaining volume of imports.

In a joint statement on Sunday, SRA board member Roland Beltran, who represents the millers, and Emilio Yulo, representing the sugar planters, said they received reports from their constituents that the retail price of sugar has breached the

P60-per-kilogram (kg) level.

The reports received by the SRA board members pertain to prices in Metro Manila markets, which have remained above P60 per kg since the first week of April, SRA data showed.

The SRA board members said the prevailing high prices in Metro Manila market is “artificial,” indi-

cating that some sectors are earning large profits “at the expense of the sugar industry.”

“We have been directing our eyes on the traders but I think we should now set our eyes on the wholesalers and the retailers because if indeed there is a problem in the supply chain, it is definitely not coming from the producers and the millers,” Yulo said.

Beltran said it is “impossible” for sugar prices to breach the P60-perkg level as the mill-gate prices of sugar have been hovering around P1,450 to P1,500 per 50-kg bag.

“Our warehouses are filled to the brim with sugar, thus any hike in sugar prices is artificial and being manipulated,” he said. “When retail prices of sugar goes beyond P60 per kilo, that should reflect in the existing mill gate price.”

The SRA board members also chided the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for “not doing its job to monitor retail prices.”

“We have not been remiss in reminding the Department of Trade and Industry to do their job and monitor retail prices of sugar because at the end of the day, it will be the producers who will be at the receiving end of this problem,” Yulo said.

The two SRA board members

SUGAR products are on display at a Metro Manila supermarket in this file photo.

urged the DTI to look into the high prices of sugar as it would hurt both the consumers and producers while traders are earning huge profits.

“This has become a consumer issue and there is obvious profiteering. [DTI] do your job and take a closer look at who are manipulating the market,” they said.

Latest SRA data showed that as of April 5, the wholesale price of refined sugar in Metro Manila is about P2,214 per kg, which is equivalent to P44.28 per kilogram. However, retail prices of refined sugar in Metro Manila remains above the P60-per-kg level amid rising production.

The country’s sugar output as of end-March has reached 1.822 million metric tons, nearly 15 percent over the 1.584 MMT recorded in the previous

year, SRA data showed.

Earlier this month, SRA Administrator Hermenegildo R. Serafica said the increase in sugar prices is unfounded as the country’s inventory of the sweetener is at an “all-time high.”

“There have been very little withdrawals in the mills such that all of their warehouses are full and most of them are already preparing additional spaces for storage.

Some have rented additional warehouses while some have repurposed their other buildings such as basketball courts to hold sugar,” he said in a statement.

“Those who are spreading rumors of sugar prices increasing are trying to manipulate the market so they can increase their profits at the expense of the consumers and producers,” Serafica added.

Experts: Multilateral cooperation still ‘best option’ to finance global goals

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

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NTERNATIONAL cooperation and multilateralism are still the “best routes” for countries to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to experts from two United Nations agencies.

In a blog, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division, Chief for Financing for Development Tientip Subhanij and Associate Economic Affairs Officer Zenathan Hasannudin said efforts to increase official development assistance (ODA) and South-South cooperation must be undertaken to finance the SDGs. Subhanij and Hasannudin said financing the SDGs would require an additional investment of $1.5 trillion for Asia-Pacific developing countries, out of the combined GDP of approximately $30 trillion.

“2019 is a critical year for the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, and financing the SDGs presents a compelling call to action. With 11 years to go, we are at an important juncture to urgently reform the global financial system and to change the

mindset of all those involved toward longer-term and sustainable goals,” the Unescap experts said.

These are needed despite efforts to implement tax reforms. The Unescap authors said countries, including the Philippines, have introduced tax reforms that enabled them to create fiscal space for SDG-related projects.

These reforms were implemented between 2012 and 2017 in countries like Maldives which increased its tax revenue by 70 percent, while other countries saw a significant increase in taxes, such as the Philippines, Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, Samoa, Tonga and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Ambassador Salim Baddoura, who presides over the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad) governing body, said multilateralism is the “safest route to finance development efforts.”

Baddoura expressed concerns that external debts could cause countries to incur “unsustainable debt burdens” that would not help its efforts in meeting the SDGs. He said that unless the international community recommits to multilateralism, the world won’t overcome the “chronic underfunding” of the SDGs. Unctad said the external debt of

developing countries has risen at an average annual rate of 8.5 percent.

By the end of 2017, the number of low-income developing countries that were “over-indebted” or at risk hit 31, compared to 13 in 2013.

“If these trends continue, many countries will face unsustainable debt burdens that could jeopardize development goals as governments spend more on debt service and less on infrastructure, health and education,” Baddoura said in a statement.

A recent Unescap blog indicated that Asia Pacific countries, including the Philippines, only needs to invest less than $1 per day per person to meet the SDGs by 2030.

The UN agency said this is equivalent to only 5 percent of GDP from 2018 to 2030, or an additional of $1.5 trillion every year until 2030.

In 2018, the Philippines’s GDP was estimated at P9.21 trillion at constant prices, or P17.43 trillion in current prices.

Given a population of around 107.58 million, according to the population clock of the Commission on Population and Development, the BusinessMirror estimates this would translate to about P11.72 per day per Filipino using constant prices or P22.19 per day at current prices.

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, April 22, 2019

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Despite rise of digital banking, BSP data show more bank branches set up

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By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

OCAL banks continued to expand their physical network in the first quarter of 2019 despite the increasing prominence of digital banking in the industry.

Perspectives

Does banking’s future outweigh its past?

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N the surface, at least, it’s a conundrum. How do banks face profound industry changes driven by rapidly evolving customer expectations, emerging technology and new digital challengers when millions of dollars are invested in inflexible, though robust, legacy systems that served them in the past but are not fit for future needs? Given the dominant market share of incumbent banks and the relatively small inroads made by digital challengers, how quickly do traditional banks need do move? Should changes be piecemeal, transformational or totally greenfield?

To companies in the banking industry, the story is a familiar one.

Customers with connectivity at their fingertips are demanding cheaper, faster and better banking experiences.

A plethora of challenger banks and new market entrants are emerging to meet these demands—armed with innovative technologies and unencumbered by the legacy infrastructure that restricts traditional financial institutions.

Yet, traditional banks still have the lion’s share of the business, enviably strong brands, large customer bases and high visibility. In the face of this many banks are investing heavily to drive innovation, enhance agility and become more customer centric.

For the majority, these investments comprise patchwork upgrades to legacy systems and incremental change.

Organizations are reluctant, indeed, to walk completely from these systems owing to substantial investments in them, concerns for reliability, and the simple fact that these systems have been so central to past successes.

Other financial institutions are taking different paths to reposition themselves.

One thing is clear. Traditional banks cannot afford to apply patchwork upgrades to their legacy systems. Nor can they assume that system upgrades, even bold and ambitious ones, will translate to a sustainable competitive advantage over the long term. While the pace of technology change in financial services has been more gradual than in other industries, in part due to regulatory restrictions on new market entrants in many jurisdictions, the ability of companies to rapidly adapt will only become more critical over time.

The degree of industry change is such that banks need to think more radically about what they want to be-

come and how they want to get there if they expect to thrive.

What will the banking industry look like in 2030? Business models, just like the industry as a whole, will be transformed by technology. New models will emerge in the years ahead putting a halt to the band-aid approach to legacy systems. Banks will look to new architecture that is digital to the core, and, more choose to build and migrate to new systems.

Under pressure: Digital banks making inroads

CHALLENGER banks—such as Starling Bank, Atom Bank and Tandem—have existed in the UK for a number of years.

Fidor and N26 were the first of the European digital banks.

The model is now emerging in other parts of the world. Indeed, there are approximately 100 challenger banks worldwide, including: n SolarisBank and N26 in Germany; n MyBank, WeBank and Kakao in Asia; n Nubank in Brazil; n Chime in the US; and n 86400, Volt and Xinja in Australia.

In March 2019, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced that banking licenses had been granted to no less than three digital banks in the territory. These entities are expected to go live later this year.

Though still dwarfed by their traditional counterparts, digital banks are growing fast, leveraging their adaptability, customer-focus and ability to make data-driven decisions. While they might not, as yet, have customer bases to rival traditional players, they are starting to make inroads.

Traditional financial institutions should not overlook the growth potential of new digital challengers who could, over time, win share of market segments, in particular the growing cohort millennials.

The excerpt was taken from the KPMG article series, entitled “The future is open: Reshaping the banking experience.”

R.G. Manabat & Co., is a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG network of independent memberfirms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the Philippines. For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www.kpmg.com.ph.

Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that local lenders put up a total of 471 branches in a year’s time, bringing the total bank branches in the country to 12,417 from the 11,936 branches seen in the same quarter last year.

The increase in bank branches was seen across all bank categories, with universal and commercial banks posting the largest number of new branches during the period.

Universal and commercial bank branches grew from 6,527 in endMarch 2018 to 6,659 in the same period this year.

Thrift banks, meanwhile, grew from a network of 2,453 to 2,666 in end-March 2019.

Rural banks grew from 2,956 to 3,092 branches during the period.

Banks have recently started investing heavily in their digital platform, with some banks moving as far as digitizing most of their transactions that are usually catered by a traditional branch.

The most recent case is Malaysian banking giant CIMB, which formally launched its presence in the Philippines via a single all-digital and mobile-first bank.

“Consumers of today and tomorrow need innovative financial solutions that are relevant to their needs, as well as help them get ahead and advance their financial well-being, but they don’t necessarily need a physical bank,” CIMB Philippines CEO Vijay Manoharan said.

Contrary to this, however, local banks are still expanding physically—particularly in the countryside.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, data from the BSP showed that 68 bank branch opening applications were given the necessary approval to set up shop.

In particular, four of these were universal and commercial banks while 41 were thrift banks and 23 were rural banks. Most of these were so-called branch-lite units.

The BSP defines a branch-lite unit as an office or place of business of a bank that performs limited or simpler banking activities.

Since these units are limited in the services they are offering, they are also subject to proportionate regulatory framework, which means less strict rules and more flexibility to execute financial strategies and innovations.

Raids against illegal cigarette factories, crackdown on fake BIR stamps go on

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

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HE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will be filing tax evasion cases against individuals or companies found to be manufacturing counterfeit cigarettes containing fake internal revenue tax stamps, as part of the campaign against the proliferation of illegal cigarettes in the market.

BIR Revenue Officer Remedios C. Advincula Jr., who heads the BIR strike team, told reporters that a tax evasion case will be filed on April 25 at the Department of Justice (DOJ), arising from the raid on a warehouse in

Bugallon, Pangasinan, that was illegally operating a cigarette factory. “[The filing will be on the] 25th.

That’s big, actually the basis [for the case is the] fake internal revenue stamps,” Advincula said.

A joint team from the BIR and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided an establishment in Barangay Portic in Bugallon town and found it to be illegally operating a cigarette factory in November 2018.

At least P2 billion worth of cigarettes packed and imprinted with unregistered tax stamps and fake brand labels were seized in the raid. Authorities subsequently discovered that the factory secured a barangay permit

to operate as a piggery.

Advincula said more tax evasion cases will be filed by the BIR in the coming days.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel S.D. Guballa said the strike team is verifying the identities of individuals or companies involved in the manufacturing of counterfeit cigarettes and fake tax stamps, and raids continue to be conducted by its strike team.

“All these raids being conducted, first we confiscate all these illegal materials and illegal machines, then after that we file the corresponding criminal cases because we are building up the evidence, we cannot immediately file the criminal case.

When we have built a case, that’s the time we file it,” Guballa explained.

Last month Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III directed the BIR to coordinate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in filing charges against local government executives who failed to check the presence of illicit tobacco trade activities in their communities.

In December 2018, the finance chief asked the DILG to investigate and file charges against the local officials and employees responsible for issuing a barangay permit to the illicit cigarettes factory that was disguised as a piggery in Bugallon, Pangasinan.

Maybank terminates collaboration pact with debt-laden Hyflux and Tuaspring

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ALAYAN Banking Bhd. ended a collaboration a g re e me nt w it h Tuaspring and Hyflux Ltd., the latest in the fallout from the failure of the debt-laden Singapore water and power company.

The termination of the agreement is expected to have a material impact on the group’s financial performance, Hyflux said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange.

Maybank also stated its intention to appoint receivers and managers over the assets of Tuaspring, save for its desalination plant and shared infrastructure, according to Hyflux.

Hy f lu x and Tuaspr ing had agreed to the execution of a binding agreement with a successful bidder or investor for the full settlement and discharge of Maybank’s total liabilities, the company said in the statement dated April 18. There was no execution

LIGHT trails from passing traffic illuminate a road at the Malayan Banking Bhd. (Maybank) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. GOH SENG CHONG/BLOOMBERG

of a pact by the deadline, constituting a breach that is “incapable of remedy” under the agreement,

entitling Maybank to terminate it, Hyflux said.

The Tuaspring desalination and

power plant is Hyflux’s key asset and one that’s used as collateral for a loan from Maybank. The company, previously lauded as one of the most successful corporate stories in Singapore, is now saddled with S$2.8 billion ($2.1 billion) of unsecured claims and default notices.

The Public Utilities Board, the national water agency, has said it issued a notice to Tuaspring on April 17 to terminate a waterpurchase agreement and take over its desalination plant in a moved aimed at safeguarding Singapore’s water security.

Hyflux said it has received notices to PUB and the Energy Market Authority of Singapore issued

by Maybank.

“These notices are in respect of an enforcement event and acceleration of the maturity of all amounts owing under the Tuaspring financing documents,” the company said. Bloomberg News

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Monday, April 22, 2019 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

A BusinessMirr

SAVOY HOTEL BORACAY

Celebrating Two Years of Colorful Experiences B

ORACAY Island is one of the favourite tourist destinations of local and foreign travellers.

One can say that nothing beats a perfect getaway in this beautiful island. Filipinos and foreign travellers are captivated with Boracay’s pristine clear blue waters, powdery white sand and amazing sunset. If you’re looking for a perfect getaway with unparalleled fun and pure relaxation, Savoy Hotel Boracay is the perfect place for you.

Nestled in the heart of Boracay Newcoast, it features four-star facilities with its 559 well-appointed rooms with a view of the ocean, pool or golf course. A 295-metre white sand beach for a private feel and relaxing ambiance awaits you at the Newcoast Beach, a good 10-minute walk to Cove 2 would indeed fill your perfect getaway.

More than the sun, sand and sea, Savoy Hotel Boracay offers complete facilities that will surely

make your stay memorable. Its 559 rooms can accommodate guests at any given time as well as its various facilities for meetings, socials and events. Its chic rooms offers you a chance to relax with its view of the outdoors through your own balcony, a perfect spot to cool down after a day in the sun. Whether its chilling or having a great time, Savoy Hotel Boracay got you covered!

We also have the first and only concert pool arena in the Philippines.

The party pool that can hold up to 350 guests for any party, event or entertainment needs.

Celebrating its two years, Savoy Hotel Boracay continues to make colourful experiences for their guests. As Marie Jehan Balbanero, Area Head of Marketing and Communications says, “We make sure that our guests will have a memorable, fun and colorful experience. We have opened our Lila Spa with complete spa facilities for massage and facial care treatments. The Vienne Lobby Lounge has been converted to a full-day dining to cater to our guests. We also opened recently the souvenir shop called Fiesta, and introduced new outdoor sports activities for our guests such as Zumba, Taichi, aqua aerobics, circuit training and beach volleyball. Other activities like poolside movie nights, yoga, biking and sunset watching are also part of what they can enjoy in the hotel. We also have daily kids’ activities such as coloring, pizza making, face painting and beads craft for all the kids to enjoy.”

Savoy Hotel Boracay’s hip and vibrant vibe with its airy lobby, cool interiors, and bright colors will surely make your stay lively and colorful. Our tagline, Color Your Experience, is our inspiration as it captures a total package of how we emotionally connect to our guests in the most unique,

personalized and experiential way. As Adie Gallares, Area General Manager says, “our goal is to excite our guests’ five senses to create a long and lasting emotional bond that will last them a lifetime and even more. Gallares shares that, “most of all, it’s the heartfelt service that we have that creates colorful experiences for our guests. We want to make sure that their experiences are truly memorable.”

If a different Boracay escape is what you’re looking for, then treat yourself to a well-deserved vacation and let Savoy Hotel Boracay color your experience!

As we promote responsible green environment for sustainable tourism, we operate solar shuttles and e-carts in shuttling our guests. We use eco-friendly materials in our operating supplies, including paper straws, paper cups, and boxes for take-away. In addition, we do regular weekly beach clean-ups as our own little way of caring for our environment.

Savoy Hotel Boracay Newcoast is located at Newcoast Drive, Boracay Newcoast, Brgy. Yapak, Boracay Island, 5608, Malay, Aklan. To find out more about our promos and offerings, visit our website at www. savoyhotelboracay.com.ph or call us at +63 2 720-1860 for inquiries.

Like us on facebook at www.fb.com/ SavoyHotelBoracay and follow us in Instagram at savoyboracay.

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, April 22, 2019

“ “

ror Special Feature

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Agriculture/Commodities

Monday, April 22, 2019 • Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

BusinessMirror

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Coco-oil exports seen declining by 5%

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

HILIPPINE coconut-oil (CNO) exports in marketing year (MY) 2019-2020 may fall by 5 percent to 950,000 metric tons (MT) due to the persistent global vegetable oil glut and the anticipated drop in copra output.

The Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report, which was prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) in Manila said CNO exports may decline by 50,000 MT from the esti-

mated 1 million metric tons in MY 2018-2019.

The report attributed the decline to expected “downward cyclical period” of output by coconut trees which would pull down CNO production in MY 2019-2020 to 1.66 MMT from 1.71 MMT.

“For MY 19/20, CNO output is expected to contract further to 1.66 million tons, consistent with the projected decrease in copra production during the year,” the report, which was published recently, read.

The coconut oil marketing year for the USDA runs from October until September next year.

The GAIN report projected that the countr y’s CNO consumption would remain f lat at 710,000 MT f rom M Y 2018 2019 until the next marketing year due to “subdued CNO prices as a result of a global vegetable oil glut.”

Copra output in MY 20192020 could also decline by nearly 5 percent to 2.5 MMT, from 2.63 MMT in the current MY as coconut trees “are likely on the verge of stress after two years of heavy nut bearing and will produce less copra as a result,”

according to the report.

“Tree stress will become more pronounced in MY 19/20, with copra output forecast to decline by 130,000 tons to 2.5 million tons,” it read.

Also, the report estimated that the country’s copra meal output in MY 2019-2020 would decline by 30,000 MT to 870,000 MT, from 900,000 MT, due to the drop in copra supply.

“Copra meal consumption [inclusive of losses] in MY 19/20 is forecast to decline 40,000 MT to 520,000 MT on decreased copra output and crush as a result of coconut trees’ downward cyclical period,” it added.

However, the GAIN report estimated that the country’s copra meal exports would remain flat at 350,000 MT in MY 2019-2020 as coconut trees “likely take a ‘rest’ after consecutive years of heavy nut bearing.”

In the same report, the USDAFAS in Manila projected that the country’s soybean meal (SBM) imports in MY 2019-2020 would reach a new record high of 3.15 MMT, from 2.95 MMT in the previous marketing year.

The report said the 6.78-percent increase in SBM imports is “driven by strong feed demand from the domestic hog and poultry industries.”

“US soybean meal will continue to dominate the market, with less competition from Argentina and Brazil,” it added.

In 2018, the US exported 2.16 MMT of SBM to the Philippines, which accounted for 84 percent of the country’s total volume of imports. It was followed by Argentina (360,000 MT) and Brazil (50,000 MT). “ T he Un ited St ates is e xpected to maintain its dominance of the market, enhanced

Sardine canners in Zamboanga piling up losses due to brownouts

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A MBOA NGA CIT Y—T he ongoing power supply problem in the country’s sardine capital continues to take its toll on the production of one of the staple food of every ordinary Filipino household.

Unscheduled brownouts running up to three hours each time has cut down production of sardines by as much as 30 percent, according to industry sources.

An owner of one of the biggest canning plants here said their group of companies is also running low on supply of tin cans as a result of the lingering power supply problem.

Electricity in this far end of the Zamboanga Peninsula has been erratic ever since Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) ceased supplying power to Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) on February 4 after the cooperative failed to pay its bill since October 2018.

According to WMPC, the electric cooperative has refused to pay its bill amounting to P467 million forcing it to shut down operations after Crown Desco took over the management of the cooperative.

While Crown Desco formally took over only in January this year, it has refused to honor overdue accounts of the cooperative despite repeated demands from WMPC. In spite of the efforts exerted by local government officials to re-

solve the impasse, Zamcelco, with Crown Desco at the helm of management, has remained adamant in paying its obligation due to alleged overcharging by the WMPC. Sardine canning plants, including tin can manufacturers and storage plants have been using backup generator sets to continue operating, according to an industry source who requested that his name be withheld.

He said this has resulted to an increase in their fuel consumption.

“We are incurring up to P4 million in fuel costs every month to run in full capacity,” the said source revealed.

The same source said that their group of companies, which includes one other canning plant and a storage facility, needs at least 4 megawatts of power supply.

“Without ample power supply, we will have to run our diesel generators which consume about 3,600 liters a day,” he explained.

The source added that their electricity bill runs up to P10 million a month even without the power supply problem.

He declined to quantify their losses as a result of the recurring power interruptions but said the problem has resulted into increase in the prices of sardines in the local market because of declining supply.

Zamboanga has 11 sardine canning plants making it the country’s sardine capital.

According to industry sources, the combined capacities of these canning plants could reach 1.5 million boxes a month.

“That is equivalent to 150 million cans of sardines a month,” the source said adding that the canning industry is worth more than P1.5 billion a year.

That excludes ancillary products and businesses.

He said they are torn between slowing down production, which means drop in productivity, and absorbing more costs due to higher fuel consumption.

The sardine canning plants and other industrial companies along the coastal village of Talisayan alone needs at least 50 megawatts combined.

The franchise area of Zam-

celco has a peak demand of 120 megawatts but is only getting a peak supply of 80 to 90 megawatts resulting into power interruptions since WMPC shut down its 105-MW bunker fuel-fired plant due to inadequate supply of bunker fuel.

WMPC has an existing and live contract with Zamcelco for 50-megawatt power supply. PNA

LIFELINE Farmer Willy Estrada inspects high grade Virginia leaf tobacco at his curing barn

in Ilocos Sur, one of the top tobacco producers in the Philippines. Despite the adverse impact of higher excise on tobacco products, Mang Willy continues to plant the crop for a living. LAILA AUSTRIA

Wild bee species critical to pollination on the decline–study

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ONCOR D, Ne w H a mp shire—More than a dozen wild bee species critical to pollinating everything from blueberries to apples in New England are on the decline, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of New Hampshire wanted to understand if the documented declines hitting honeybees and bumblebees were also taking a toll on the lesser studied bee species in New Hampshire.

So they examined 119 species in the state from a museum collection at the college dating back 125 years. Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Insect and Conservation Diversity this month, Sandra Rehan and Minna Mathiasson concluded 14 species found across New England were on the decline by as much as 90 percent. Several of them are leafcutter and mining bees, which, unlike honeybees, nest in the ground.

“We know that wild bees are greatly at risk and not doing well worldwide,” Rehan, assistant pro-

THIS 2018 photo provided by the University of New Hampshire shows a ground nesting bee pollinating a flower in New Hampshire. The species is one of 14 declining wild bee species identified in a study published in April 2019 by researchers at the university. UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE/MOLLY JACOBSON VIA AP

fessor of biological sciences and the senior author on the study, said in a prepared statement. “This status assessment of wild bees shines a light on the exact species in decline,

beside the well-documented bumble bees. Because these species are major players in crop pollination, it raises concerns about compromising the production of key crops and

the food supply in general.”

Bees have been on the decline for more than a decade across the globe, and scientists have blamed a range of factors including insecticides called neonicotinoids, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. Bees are critical pollinators, and about a third of the human diet comes from plants that are pollinated by insects.

Greg Burtt, who owns Burtt’s Apple Orchard in Cabot, Vermont, said he relies heavily on wild pollinators to produce crops. The 9,000tree orchard covers 10 acres and has been around for a decade.

“Making sure that pollinators in the area are healthy and doing well is definitely something we’re concerned about,” Burtt said.

Jeff Lozier, a bee expert from the University of Alabama who did not take part in the research, called the study “interesting” and said the findings are a critical step in expanding research into lesser known species of bees. He did, however, caution that researchers

studied only bees in New Hampshire and depended upon bees in a museum that were not collected “for the purpose of large scale population surveys.”

“The most important use of the data in my view is in providing a baseline set of hypotheses for groups of species that are potentially declining or stable across a much greater set of species than is usually examined, which can then be investigated in more detail to determine why they may be changing,” Lozier said in an email interview. “This study doesn’t really determine the why quite yet, but gives us a reference point for further study.”

Rehan said she hopes the study will inspire other researchers to take a closer look at these rarely studied bee species, including understanding why they are declining. While the museum collection couldn’t pinpoint whether possible causes such as urban development or pesticides are behind a drop in their numbers, it did hint a one possible cause: climate change. AP

by less competition from Argentina and Brazil [due to low bean prices and hoarding],” the report read.

Since last year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been struggling to address the plunging farm-gate prices of copra caused by the glut in vegetable oil.

A g r icu lture Secretar y Emmanuel F. Piñol said the surge in palm oil imports over the past two years has also contributed to the glut in the domestic vegetable oil supply.

The DA has recommended various measures to ease the glut and stabilize the farm-gate price of copra, including the increase in the coco methyl ester content in biodiesel to 5 percent.

The government is also studying the possibility of reimposing the quantitative restriction or slap a high tariff on palm oil to counter the surge in imports.

Average price of 4 fertilizer grades up in March–PSA

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HE average dealer prices of four fertilizer grades in all regions recorded year-on-year increases in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in its latest report.

In its monthly report, titled “Updates on Fertilizer Prices,” the PSA said the average dealers’ price of urea rose by 16.28 percent to P1,154.63 per sack in March, from P992.92 a year ago.

Compared to its price in February, urea was higher by 0.23 percent than the P1,151.94/sack recorded in February.

“Compared with the previous month’s levels, the average dealers’ prices of urea in March went up in eight regions. The highest price of P1,393.33/ sack was still recorded in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM] while the lowest at P1,031/ sack remained in Ilocos region,” the report read.

“Measured from a year ago level, [urea] prices in all regions were higher in [March],” it added.

On an annual basis, the PSA said the average monthly dealers’ price of complete at P1,148.39/sack was higher by 4.22 percent than the P1,101.91/ sack recorded a year ago. The March average, however, was only slightly higher than the P1,146.93/sack recorded in February.

“On a monthly basis, price increases were noted in eight regions. The highest price of P1,433.33/sack remained in ARMM, while the lowest at P1,036.80/ sack was still registered in Soccsksargen. Prices in all regions exhibited positive annual rates during the month,” the report read.

As for ammosul, the PSA said the monthly dealers’ price at the national level averaged P631.60/sack in March.

This was lower by 0.03 percent from the February level of P631.79/sack. On an annual basis, however, it was higher by 7.8 percent.

“Measured from a month ago level, six regions recorded lower prices in March2019.ThelowestpriceofP552.80/ sack was recorded in Davao region. The highest price of P956.60/sack was still noted in ARMM,” the report read.

“Relative to the same month in the previous year, all regions except Calabarzon, registered higher prices during the month,” it added.

The PSA also reported that the monthly dealers’ price of ammophos at P991.84/sack was 8.17 percent higher than the March 2018 level of P916.95/ sack. Compared to the February level of P986.19/sack, the increase was only 0.57 percent.

“On a monthly basis, higher prices were posted in all regions except Northern Mindanao and Caraga in March 2019,” the report read.

The PSA said the highest price of P1,264/sack was still observed in ARMM while the lowest price of P928/ sack was noted in Ilocos region. Measured from a year ago level, all regions exhibited higher prices during the period, according to the report.

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Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Monday, April 22, 2019

Subic Freeport gets Zamboanga City electric ‘hotter’ as summer co-op’s new investors begin vacation destination fixing rotational brownouts

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE new investors of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative Inc. (Zamcelco) has laid down action plans to provide continuous and stable power supply to consumers following a dispute with a power supplier that resulted in rotational brownouts.

A BOY patiently waits for an adult companion before wading into the wave pool at the Moonbay Marina Water Park during the launch of the “Revo Festival,” one of the many tourism events held at the Subic Bay Freeport on Easter Sunday.

By Henry Empeño Correspondent

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UBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Freeport has become a hotter summer vacation spot with the arrival of more visitors here for the observance of the Holy Week and Easter Sunday, two important events in the Christian calendar.

According to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), all the 45 hotels and lodging houses in the free port were either fully booked or nearing full capacity as early as April 15, or Holy Monday, and became completely jam-packed for Maundy Thursday until Easter Sunday.

These include all the biggest hotels here in both the Central Business District, as well as those in the Cubi and Naval Magazine areas.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the Subic Bay Freeport has become a favorite spot for religious reflection and meditation because of its relative quiet and its peaceful atmosphere.

She said that the SBMA, in partnership with various stakeholder groups, has prepared a weeklong religious program, as well as some cultural presentations for the Holy Week.

Subic’s Holy Week program started with the reenactment of the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem and the blessing of palms, locally known as palaspas, on Palm Sunday, April 14.

This was followed by the pabasa, the chanting of the early 16th-century epic poem “Pasyón,” on Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. A religious procession ensued on Holy Wednesday followed by a Eucharistic Celebration and ceremonial “Washing of the

Feet” on Maundy Thursday. Praying the Stations of the Cross, which reenacted Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, was held on Good Friday.

The religious observance here ended with the Easter Sunday procession or salubong that started at 4 a.m., followed by an Easter egg hunt at the grounds of the San Roque Chapel.

However, it was observed that a mixture of religious rites, summer festivities and relaxing natural environment served as an inimitable formula for Subic’s growing drawing power.

Jenny Angeles, CEO of GamaGen Media Services, said they were expecting thousands of attendees, mostly millennials, for the daylong festival that kicked off with a fun run at the Moonbay Marina Water Park here.

“It’s also the secular side of Subic that helps draw visitors here. After the solemnity of the Holy Week, people are ready for some fun, and Subic has plenty of fun to offer,” Angeles said. Her firm launched the “Revo Festival” last Sunday, which included an Easter egg-painting activity for special children conducted by a Subic art group and a musical concert that featured two music bands in the country.

Angeles said the event, which was organized by GamaGen in cooperation with the SBMA, aims to further promote Subic as Central Luzon’s “Event Capital.”

Subic, which is the first freeport zone to be established in the Philippines, has become a major tourism destination on top of being a progressive industrial and commercial center.

ComVal gets ₧1.2 billion in investments at confab

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HE province of Compostela Valley netted P1.2 billion worth of investments, surpassing its P500-million target, in the De Oro Business and Investment Conference held in March at a resort in Mabini town.

Dubbed De Oro Biz Icon, the conference in March gathered 150 delegates headed by China Consul General Li Lin, Austria Honorary Consul Peter Faistauer and acting Indonesian Consul General Endah Rachmi Yuliarti, as well as local business players.

Following the plenary session where Compostela Valley Gov. Jayvee Tyrone Uy presented the business and investments opportunities in the province, an investment matching session grouped into real estate, public infrastructure, agribusiness and tourism clusters was conducted.

The investment matching successfully matched 10 proponents and

16 investors for 14 projects, including a P20-million commitment by SL Agritech Corp. for the rice processing expansion facilities proposed by the Mawab Cooperative.

Uy said that the pledges generated were made possible because the province had investment project proposals readily available for matching with prospective investors. He added that they have compiled over 40 proposals for the “De Oro Biz Icon,” and the province will use and update these for investment promotion initiatives in the future.

The first of its kind for Compostela Valley, the business conference was held in conjunction with the province’s 21st foundation day when 11 municipalities were separated in 1998 from its mother province, Davao del Norte.

It will be rebranded Davao de Oro to reflect its Davaoeño heritage and its gold-mining industry. Bernard Supetran

In just four months, Crown Investments Holdings Inc. and Desco Inc. installed brand new 5.855 electric-distribution meters; brought in two transformers of 10 megavolt amperes and 20 MVA to replace overloaded transformers in the Cabatangan and Ayala substations ; and fired up 22 megawatts (MW) of generator sets (gensets) as emergency power to address voltage issues.

Zamcelco awarded last year an investor-manager contract (IMC)

Lawmakers want Bulacan city as human resource capital

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S several relocation projects of the national government are located in San Jose del Monte (SJDM), Bulacan, the House of Representatives has endorsed for Senate approval a measure declaring the city as human-resource capital.

Under House Bill (HB) 8830, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in coordination with the city government of SJDM, will formulate policies and implement plans and programs for the enhancement of the city’s human resources, such as the establishment of training centers, the delivery of skills and livelihood training programs, and the promotion of quality technical-vocational education.

HB 8830, principally authored by Rep. Florida Robes of the Lone District of SJDM City, said these plans and programs aim to develop and utilize the manpower resources from the city, promote their employment and accelerate their economic and social growth.

According to Robes, the city houses at least 40 relocation projects by the national government through the National Housing Authority (NHA), as well as more than 150 residential subdivisions.

However, Robes said most of the beneficiaries of the housing project are forced to sell their properties because there are no employment and income opportunities available to them.

“As such, they revert back to squatting, or worse, sell their houses at a lower price. And the problem continues,” Robes said.

If the bill is approved, she said it will entice investments on human resource and companies will consider establishing their businesses in the city.

“As a human-resource capital, the city will also become a haven to training institutes that will enhance the capabilities of the residents of San Jose del Monte City as well as from neighboring towns,” Robes added. “As such, its approval is deemed a response to the call to alleviate poverty by tapping human resource as a means to improve the country.” Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

to Crown Investments and Desco to take over the former’s operations.

The joint venture submitted a bid worth P2.5 billion and formally took over Zamcelco on January 9.

“Of the 18,000 meters needed to be replaced, over 5,000 were installed already. We brought in two new transformers for immediate replacement. And to address emergency power supply, we fired up 22 MW of gensets,”said Joseph Omar Castillo, a lawyer and a rep-

resentative of the joint venture.

Moreover, Castillo said the joint venture would bring in another genset with a capacity of 18 MW. Castillo said generator sets are cheaper if managed efficiently.

Of the P2.5-billion capital infusion into the debt-saddled Zamcelco, P1.2 billion was utilized to settle debts to power suppliers, including the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM). The remaining P1.3 billion was reserved for working capital requirements.

“When we entered Zamcelco, we paid P1.2 billion worth of existing debts as of June 30, 2018. Just to pay the suppliers, we tapped restricted funds such as capex [capital expenditure], retirement fund,” Castillo said. So, that’s how we try to make ends meet.”

The joint venture has also filed for regulatory approval of the 2019 to 2020 capex worth P670 million. If and when approved, the amount will be allotted for replacement of key facilities and rehabilitation of substations.

A9

“The IMC has a model to help save distribution utilities like Zamcelco.

IMC is the most appropriate way to help Zamcelco without changing the provider. When we entered, we did a technical audit to find out the capital needed,” Castillo said.

“The first priority would be to settle debts owed to power suppliers.

We learned that four substations needed rehab, transformers that needed to be replaced immediately.

There were also 18,000 defective meters or no meters at all versus 120,000 customers,” he added.

The joint venture conducted financial and technical audit, including a review of all power-supply contracts, and checked them against invoices before paying their obligations.

Since 2013, Zamcelco had been debt-ridden, suffering from poor facilities that were mainly caused by civil strife, mismanagement, among others. At end-2018, Zamcelco’s debts ballooned to P2.1 billion, while system loss surged to 23 percent. There had been 52 incidents of brownouts a day due to equipment failures.

A10 Monday, April 22, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

Ban plastic bags?

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URING the construction of The Enterprise Center in Makati City—completed in 1999— former San Miguel Corp. Chairman Andres Soriano III had this to say about the project at one of the company’s annual shareholder meetings.

To comply with Makati City law, the building had some 1,400 underground parking spaces. Mr. Soriano said that according to the building feasibility study, it would take three hours for the 1,400 cars to physically exit the garage. He suggested that it would have been better to reduce the number of spaces and instead use the construction cost to contribute to a better citywide mass transit system.

Obviously, both parking and mass transit are necessary. But how do we balance both needs?

Plastic bags are a scourge-creating litter, clogging drains and waterways, and causing a host of environmental problems. No one would disagree. Towns and resort areas all over the Philippines have banned their use.

There is no question that those places that have banned plastic bags in particular have seen a significant reduction in this terrible waste problem. Globally, there is a move to ban plastic bags.

However, there’s an unintended hypocrisy to the issue. Replacing a plastic straw with paper to be used in a 24-ounce plastic cup is just one example. Further, as in the case of the parking spaces at The Enterprise Center, there are some unintended offsets to eliminating plastic bags.

University of Sydney (Australia) Assistant Professor Dr. Rebecca Taylor is an expert on the topic, having a degree in agricultural and resource economics. Her doctorate dissertation was titled, “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Lessons from Disposable Carryout Bag Regulations.” Dr. Taylor has written several papers on the subject.

While an advocate of more “environmentally friendly” practices, she also has examined in detail the results of banning plastic bags.

Her most recent studies found the following results. In California, Taylor found these bag bans did what they were supposed to: People in the cities with the bans used fewer plastic bags, which led to about 40 million fewer pounds of plastic trash per year. But people who used to reuse their shopping bags for other purposes still needed bags. “What I found was that sales of garbage bags actually skyrocketed after plastic grocery bags were banned. This was particularly the case for small, 4-gallon bags, which saw a 120percent increase in sales after bans went into effect.”

Other studies found similar results. A 2011 study by the UK government found a person would have to reuse a cotton tote bag 131 times before it would become better for climate change than using a plastic grocery bag once. The Danish government recently did a study that took into account environmental impacts beyond simply greenhouse-gas emissions, including water use, damage to ecosystems and air pollution. These factors make cloth bags even worse. They estimate you would have to use an organic cotton bag 20,000 times more than a plastic grocery bag to make using it better for the environment.

Banning plastic bags is not a bad solution. But ultimately, taking care of the environment (or not) is a personal choice we all have to make.

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Planet or plastic?

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

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HIS is a question that we need to start asking ourselves every day. It is also the theme of this year’s Earth Day Run organized by National Geographic. Held on April 14, the event was meant to “raise awareness about plastic pollution and help reduce the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world’s oceans.”

While the event has passed, it is only fitting for all of us to keep this question in mind, especially today as we celebrate Earth Day. People the world over are pledging to lead a plastic-free lifestyle or to at least reduce their use of singleuse plastic. It is time to review our own practices and habits and see if we can contribute something to this global campaign. People in Asia are especially encouraged to make the pledge because, according to data, “Asia is responsible for more plastic waste leakage than the rest of the

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world combined.” To be more specific, five Asian countries are the sources of 55 percent to 60 percent of the 9 million tons of plastic that end up in the oceans. This is according to Ocean Conservancy.

The plastic that ends up in our oceans is said to remain there for 450 years, or even longer. This poses a grave danger to millions of marine animals that may become entangled

I

WAS asked to guest in a religious radio program shown this Holy Week to talk about Pope Francis’s Laudato Si— Encyclical on the Environment. I was going to decline, but the “penitent” in me said yes—time to atone for my sins by reading up on the landmark pronouncement of the well-loved “activist” Pope Francis. Laudato Si has been hailed as a worldwide wake-up call to help humanity understand the destruction that man is rendering to his environment and his fellow man.

The encyclical is a lengthy document, has six chapters and is said to consist of 42,000 words. Laudato Si (which means “praise be to you”) is Pope Francis’s Encyclical on the Environment, or more formally—“On Care for Our Common Home.”

While Pope Francis addresses the environment directly, he expounds unexpectedly on the many philosophical, theological and cultural causes that threaten the relationship of man to nature and man to each other in various circumstances.

I urge everyone to read Diocesan Priest’s “Summary of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment” content from FOCUS by Kevin Cottes. Hereunder are selected pronouncements from Pope Francis on burning issues: n On the effects of the market on the environment “Once more, we need to reject a magical conception of the market,

which would suggest that problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals. Is it realistic to hope that those who are obsessed with maximizing profits will stop to reflect on the environmental damage that they will leave behind for future generations?

Where profits alone count, there can be no thinking about the rhythms of nature, its phases of decay and regeneration, or the complexity of ecosystems which may be gravely upset by human intervention.” n On the false belief in technology “There is a tendency to believe that every increase in power means

“Asia is responsible for more plastic waste leakage than the rest of the world combined.”

To be more specific, five Asian countries are the sources of 55 percent to 60 percent of the 9 million tons of plastic that end up in the oceans.

This is according to Ocean Conservancy. in the waste, suffocated by it, or that may ingest the plastic, which may lead to their eventual death. According to experts, this problem is getting worse. That is why everyone must do their part to help and contribute to the rehabilitation of the planet’s marine ecosystems.

Still in relation to the celebration of Earth Day this year, the annual environmental summer concert Earth Day Jam will be on April 26 at Tomas Morato in Quezon City. The event this year is focused on another significant theme—wildlife species protection. The concert, which is now

‘an increase of “progress” itself,’ an advance in ‘security, usefulness, welfare and vigor; …an assimilation of new values into the stream of culture,’ as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such. The fact is that ‘contemporary man has not been trained to use power well,’ because our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience. Each age tends to have only a meager awareness of its own limitations. It is possible that we do not grasp the gravity of the challenges now before us.” n On global warming “A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades, this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon. Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it.” n On the environment and the poor “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless

on its 19th year, will feature performances by ABRA, Autotelic, Chicosci, Gracenote, Itchy Worms, Kjwan, Mayonnaise, Moonstar88, Noel Cabangon, Nyoy Volante, PI Jazzfest, Rouge, Sandwich, Tanya Markova, The Joyrides, and the Earth Day Jam Foundation Founder and Chairman herself, Ms. Lou Bonnevie.

Finally, allow me to share National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth Day socialmedia campaign. The space agency is inviting social-media users on Instagram, Twitter, and the Nasa Earth Facebook event page to post close-up photos of their favorite natural features on our planet.

Add the hashtag #PictureEarth, explain where the photo was taken, and upload it today, April 22. The photos will be showcased in videos and composite images that Nasa will share on social media after Earth Day. Let us celebrate our planet, cherish it, protect it and love it. We only have one home. Happy Earth Day, everyone!

we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: ‘Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest.’” n On the right balance with the respect of the environment and humanity “This situation has led to a constant schizophrenia, wherein a technocracy which sees no intrinsic value in lesser beings coexists with the other extreme, which sees no special value in human beings. But one cannot rescind from humanity.

There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself. There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology.” n On consumerism “When people become self-centered and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears.” n On what we individually can do to help the environment “Education in environmental responsibility can encourage ways of acting which directly and significantly affect the world around us, See “Kapunan,” A11

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Reduce revenue losses due to smuggling, monitor oil imports Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

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MUGGLING is costing the Philippine government up to P200 billion in foregone revenues every year, 20 percent of which, or about P40 billion, is lost to oil smuggling.

As a nation that depends on other countries for most of its oil requirements, the Philippines needs to closely monitor its oil importations and tighten its campaign against oil smuggling.

This becomes even more important in light of the continued rise in the prices of oil and petroleum products.

From shipside smuggling where oil from big overseas vessels are siphoned to smaller vessels at high seas, to undervaluation and/or underdeclaration, oil smuggling is happening almost everywhere in the country, especially inside freeports and economic zones where illegal importation of large volumes of oil are reportedly being done.

Perhaps, this could be the reason there are gasoline stations that sell petroleum products at significantly, if not substantially, lower prices than what the other gas stations offer. The huge disparity in the prices of petroleum products among the country’s gasoline stations and retailers should serve as a red flag for the Department of Energy (DOE).

The DOE should pay closer attention to importers and provide data such as its list of accredited oil importers and their corresponding volumes of oil importations. This would complete the picture of the country’s total oil importations in general, and oil importers, in particular, vis-àvis the amount of import fuel taxes collected. The numbers will tell the real story.

Moreover, the Department of Finance, through the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue, should also monitor the product sources of oil importers to validate if they paid the right taxes.

The quality of such importations should also be checked and verified to determine compliance with existing national standards. The smuggling of cheaper but lower quality standard products is not only unfairly competing with locally refined fuels that pay proper taxes, but it also short-changes consumers, as well.

And the country’s importations of palm oil should also be checked by the government amid reports of diversion of palm oil importation into the production of biodiesel fuel.

The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which increased taxes on oil importations by as much 30 percent, will definitely increase government losses to smuggling, given the same volume of importation. And government losses could even be higher if the volume of smuggled goods will also increase.

Kapunan. . .

continued from A10

such as avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or carpooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights or any number of other practices.” n On water as a fundamental right “One particularly serious problem is the quality of water available to the poor…. Yet, access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt toward the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are

There are gasoline stations that sell petroleum products at significantly lower prices than what the other gas stations offer.

The huge disparity in the prices of petroleum products among the country’s gasoline stations should serve as a red flag for the Department of Energy.

The TRAIN law is not the main cause for inflation but the unabated increase of fuel prices in the world market, which adversely affects the cost of manufacturing in the Philippines.

This should be a clear signal for the BOC to enhance its anti-smuggling campaign. While raising the import taxes on oil will increase the government’s revenue collection, it can only be negated if we cannot stop or minimize smuggling.

Meanwhile, the Duterte administration hopes that its joint venture agreement with SGS Philippines and Switzerland-based Sicpa SA for the rollout of the fuel marking program beginning this year could help abate oil smuggling. However, the government should closely monitor its implementation, if only to provide a level playing field for all oil industry players.

The cost of fuel marking is based on volume. But I’m afraid that under this scheme, the service provider for fuel marking will focus on the big players, as this would mean more income for less work. Moreover, it could also create opportunities for some small players to engage in shady deals.

The Federation of Philippine Industries has been known for its fight against smuggling and substandard products. And with our reinforced organization and broadened membership, we have organized the Anti-Crime Council of the Philippines, which I chair, and Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa as its president. ACCP will run after all forms of illicit trade, and smuggling is one of them.

We are willing to help the government as we are doing it now. And we will help because it is our duty to protect the manufacturing industry and the country, as well. denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity.” n On social-media’s effects on our culture “When media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously….

True wisdom, as the fruit of selfexamination, dialogue and generous encounter between person, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution.” n On overpopulation “Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate. At times, developing countries face forms of international pressure, which make economic assistance contingent on certain policies of

Comeback for the ages Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

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HE golfing world was ecstatic after a great player made a comeback for the ages. But nobody was happier than a gambler from Wisconsin who got richer by $1.19 million by betting on professional golfer Tiger Woods to win the US Masters golf tournament in 2019. Numerous gambling web sites also reported huge losses after Woods accomplished the improbable if not seemingly the impossible. Owing to his background and his meteoric rise to stardom, Tiger simply captivated the lives of many golfers during his prime.

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, once wrote that the beauty, as well as difficulty of the game of golf requires the complicated combination of four things: physics, geometry, geography and psychology. Tiger mastered that before and lost it. I keep telling friends that golf is 90-percent mental and 10-percent physical. To shoot a good score, you do not have to be the tallest, strongest or most flexible athlete. It helps to be fit but the mind must be free of distractions. Thus, whenever a golfer is distracted, his game deteriorates.

Case in point: Tiger Woods, after his marital infidelities and run-ins with the law.

But all are now in the past. Tiger’s mastery of the mental game was resurrected on that Sunday in Augusta National as he won the US Masters at age 43. Many sports writers and commentators already counted him out due to his age, nagging injuries and domestic troubles. He could no longer hit the ball longer than anyone else

the way he used to when he dominated the sport in his prime. Like many golfers my age, I too was a Tiger fan growing up but admittedly was skeptical in Tiger’s attempt in returning to competitive golf.

Friedman correctly summed it up: “It’s hard for nongolfers to appreciate the scope of Tiger’s physical and psychological achievement, after he went through four back surgeries and the global tabloid exposure of his industrial-scale marital cheating.”

There were simply too many who doubted that such a comeback can happen on one magical Sunday in sports history. To have at least four marquee players, who all had a chance of winning the prestigious tournament, to hit their tee shots, in unbelievable fashion, into the water and taking a penalty stroke in the critical hole number 12 adds color to that miraculous Sunday.

It is quite fitting, however, that the greatest ever “comeback for the ages” also happened, or at least, is

Monday, April 22, 2019 A11

celebrated on a Sunday. Believers around the world commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. When Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was buried, His disciples felt abandoned. As He died on the cross, fear, hopelessness and despair prevailed over the minds of all of His followers. The one person who they can count on to perform miracles was no longer with them.

These men of “little faith” forgot what Jesus had promised—resurrection, and subsequently, eternal life.

Similar to how Tiger Woods let his legions of fans down, there may be moments where we sometimes feel that God has let us down. Difficulties and trials can cause us to doubt Him. Similar to some Tiger fans that lost confidence in his playing abilities, there are some believers who lose their faith whenever things get rough.

But we should always remember His promise. In the Bible, Hebrews 13:5 tells us, “God had said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”’

One famous golfer once said that golf mirrors life. Each round of golf is one amazing journey full of ups and downs. Golf, like life, always has unlucky bounces, fortunate mishits, “wish I can take back” decisions, and, of course, the dreaded out of bounds plays and water hazards. In the words of Friedman, golf (or life) is “a journey of discovery about yourself and your playing partners. And, if you love the game, it’s an everlasting journey in search of self-improvement.” We might fail at times and fail others in the process. These failures serve as opportunities for us to strive to become better versions of ourselves.

Just ask Tiger.

To me, one major takeaway from Tiger’s impressive victory did not come from the golf course. It came

Great opportunities and challenges

As indicated in the MC, the guidelines can help “PLCs assess and manage nonfinancial performance across Economic, Environmental, and Social (EES) aspects of the organization, and enable them to measure and monitor their contributions toward achieving universal targets of sustainability, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the national programs, such as the “AmBisyon Natin 2040.” The sustainability report

framework prescribed in Annex A of the Guidelines provides the template for disclosing the nonfinancial information on these EES areas to the various stakeholders of the PLCs. Together with the financial reports and statements that companies have long been preparing, the sustainability report can provide greater disclosure and transparency on “how businesses impact the economy, environment and society, and the way corporations respond

to sustainability challenges.”

The MC builds upon four of the globally accepted frameworks that companies use to report on sustainability and nonfinancial information. These are the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Standards, the International Integrated Reporting Council’s Integrated Reporting Framework, the Sustainability Accounting Standard Board’s Sustainability Accounting Standards, and the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure of the International Finance Corp. Information on these global frameworks are available on the Internet. It is also worthwhile to note that in 2018, the International Federation of Accountants has constituted an Extended External Reporting Task Force to study the various impact and issues on the EERs, including the sustainability reports. The IFAC, through its International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, has published a consultation paper to elicit feedback in the first phase of the project. This paper is available on its web site: http://www.ifac.org/publications-resources/consultation-paper-extended-

‘reproductive health’…. To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues.” n On transgender issues “Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek ‘to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.’” n On abortion “Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature

is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? ‘If personal and social sensitivity toward the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.’” n On genetically modified food “This, then, is the correct framework for any reflection concerning human intervention on plants and animals, which, at present, includes genetic manipulation by biotechnology for the sake of exploiting the potential present in material reality.

The respect owed by faith to reason calls for close attention to what the biological sciences, through research

uninfluenced by economic interests, can teach us about biological structures, their possibilities and their mutations. Any legitimate intervention will act on nature only in order ‘to favor its development in its own line, that of creation, as intended

by God.’” n On the problem of modern day politics “That is why, in the absence of pressure from the public and from civic institutions, political authorities will always be reluctant to intervene, and all the more when urgent needs must be met. To take up these responsibilities and the costs they entail, politicians will inevitably clash with the mindset of short-term gain and results, which dominates present-day economics and politics.

But if they are courageous, they will attest to their God-given dignity and leave behind a testimony of selfless responsibility.”

Joel L. Tan-Torres

DEBIT CREDIT Part Two

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HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released on February 15, 2019, its Memorandum Circular (MC) 4-2019 on the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for publicly listed companies (PLCs). These guidelines provide earning and learning opportunities for all Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). The guidelines can be accessed in this link http://www.sec. gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2019MCNo4-1.pdf.

from that Wisconsin gambler who placed his trust on Tiger. This gambler held on to Tiger’s promise of a comeback. To the tune of an $85,000 bet, this gambler was perhaps convinced that Tiger will make a comeback. We, too, should have faith in the comeback of Our Father. In the Bible, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 tells us, “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Similar to trusting our parents, we must always remember that our parents will always keep their promise.

Our Father God did; Jesus did. His Resurrection, or in the case of Tiger, his comeback in golf, was doubted by many and believed by a few. We oftentimes get impatient when uncertainties set in. We must keep the faith and always remain faithful to Him. After all, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:14 “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

Author Chad Mansbridge, in his book He Qualifies You, succinctly puts it in this wise: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ...Now it is God who makes us all stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Stay calm. A comeback is inevitable. Happy Resurrection Day to everyone.

For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

external-reporting-assurance. Inputs on the paper from all stakeholders, including our CPAs, can be submitted by June 21, 2019.

Our CPAs have traditionally been involved in the preparation of the financial reports of entities. With the emergence of the need for other forms of reports for enterprises, CPAs can step up to be more involved in these developments. It is also good to note that there are currently only 58 of the 270 PLCs in the Philippines that are publishing sustainability reports. Definitely, the opportunities abound for the CPAs to service the sustainability reporting requirements of the PLCs.

On hope in this situation “Yet, all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to His grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity, which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us.”

Laudato Si presents challenges both to the believer and nonbeliever.

But as Pope Francis preaches, man has the freedom to choose, and we can choose again what is good.

All is not lost!

To be continued Joel L. Tan-Torres is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA Board Examinations. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue from 2009 to 2010 and the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy from 2014 to August 2018. He is a partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

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2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, April 22, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Computer-aided 2020 census interviews eyed

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

HE recent signing into law of the 2019 national budget could enable the government to conduct the Computer Aided Personal Interview (Capi) for the 2020 Census of Population next year, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Neda Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon told the BusinessMirror that given the time needed to purchase tablets, at best, the Capi can be done in selected regions.

“The PSA [Philippine Statistics Authority] can use Capi in selected regions but hopes tablets can be procured in time so Capi can be done nationwide,” Edillon told the BusinessMirror.

90,000 Tablets planned for procurement for data collection for the 2020 census

Using the Capi is not a first for PSA but the first for a nationwide Census of Population and Housing. The preparatory activities for the use of the Capi, such as the geotagging of households, have already been undertaken.

Geotagging was already part of the activities during the Labor Force Survey (LFS) and the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2017) which were done using Capi.

Earlier the PSA said the national government may suspend the conduct of the country’s Census of Population and Housing next year due to the delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget.

In an interview, PSA Officer in Charge Rosalinda Bautista told the BusinessMirror that even if the Census of Population and Housing will be conducted in 2020, many of the activities to prepare for the once a decade census are slated for 2019.

This means the proposed P6.73billion budget of the PSA already takes into consideration a part of the 2020 census. Foremost of these activities is the procurement of around 90,000 tablets to be used for data collection.

Based on the proposed 2019 budget, the PSA intends to spend P1.31 billion to conduct the preparatory works for the 2020 census.

However, Bautista said that if the 2018 budget of the PSA is used, the agency will fall short of P1.205 billion since only P95 million can be allocated for census preparation.

Bautista said that in order to enable the PSA to conduct Census preparations under a reenacted budget, several periodic surveys may not be under ta ken. But this thought, she said, is simply unimaginable.

She e x pl a i ned t h at t ablet procurement will be done via a le a se a g re e me nt wh ic h i s less costly for the government.

Ho we ve r, pro c u r i n g a rou nd 90,000 tablets is still costly and time-consuming , consider ing that no single supplier can provide 90,000 tablets to the PSA. Apart from this, the PSA, by law, is mandated to employ teachers to conduct the survey. This means the census has to be conducted during summer vacation when public teachers are not busy attending to their classes.

The public school teachers will be “paid an honorarium as may be determined by the National Census Coordinating Board but in not case not less than P250 and shall receive service credits equivalent to the number of days rendered in census work,” according to the law.

PHL wants S. Korea to drop tariff, P30-B funding At Holy Week, pilgrims nontariff measures on farm items in 2019 budget retrace Jesus’ steps

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

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@alyasjah

HE Philippines will demand that South Korea eliminate both tariff and nontariff measures on agricultural products, particularly banana when they face each other in negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA).

Senen M. Perlada, director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau, said the Philippines will push for the elimination of tariffs on farm exports under the proposed bilateral FTA with South Korea. The two countries last week agreed to negotiate a trade deal to improve economic relations and expand trade and investment activities.

“Among other export interests, we would like South Korea to fur-

ther open their market for Philippine agricultural products,” Perlada told the BusinessMirror.

“In particular, we would like to make the bilaterals a venue to manifest our strong interest for South Korea to lower—if not eliminate— tariffs on banana exports, mango exports, processed fruit products, such as mango purees, and other fruit purees. Also, the nontariff measures on these products and other agricultural products [must be removed],” he added.

Manila has been prodding Seoul to reduce its import duty on Philippine banana to 5 percent from 30 percent, but to no avail.

Last year merchandise trade bet ween the Philippines and South Korea went up 7.11 percent to $13.7 billion, from $12.79 billion in 2017, according to figures from the Philippine Statistics Au-

EASTERLIES AFFECTING SOUTHERN LUZON, VISAYAS AND MINDANAO AS OF 4:00 AM - APRIL 21, 2019

thority (PSA). However, exports to the East Asian country fell 41.33 percent to $2.54 billion, from $4.33 billion.

This was coupled with a 31.91-percent jump in imports from South Korea to $11.16 billion, from $8.46 billion, resulting in a larger trade deficit on the Philippine side.

In spite of lower receipts, Manila last year exported 420,344 metric tons of bananas, amounting to $203.69 million, to Seoul, PSA data reported. This was better than the 2017 banana shipments of 379,144 MT, valued at $176.55 million, to South Korea.

South Korea has been a consistent top export destination for Philippine goods, and last year ranked eighth behind the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Singapore, Germany and Thailand.

See “S. Korea,” A2

assured for Bangsamoro

on the Holy Stairs

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EN. Juan Edgardo Angara has assured the inclusion of a P30-billion allocation in the P3.7-trillion national budget of 2019 for the Bangsamoro region. This will serve as “seed funding” for development projects and rehabilitation of areas ravaged by conflict in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

In a statement over the weekend, Angara said the early enactment into law of the annual money measure setting aside multibillion development funding for the strifetorn ARMM should speed up recovery efforts in the region.

T he senator c lar if ied that under the law, the BARMM government will be given a 5-percent annual block grant from the national government, to be automatically appropriated in the national budget. In the first year following the effectivity of the Bangsamoro law, the block grant should be 5 percent of the net national internal revenue tax collection and the net collection of the Bureau of Customs in the last three fiscal years.

The said immediate implementation and completion of crucial projects in conflict-hit areas need to be fast-tracked to enable residents and traders in affected areas to benefits from the already delayed government projects.

Angara recalled that the P30billion funding was initially allocated for the previous Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but would now be transferred as 2019 See “Bangsamoro,” A2

Tax amnesty. . .

Continued from A1

how much their delinquency is, and that will be the basis to apply the tax amnesty rate,” Cabreros explained.

The tax amnesty on delinquencies will only be offered until April 23, 2020, or one year from the effectivity of the RR. Cabreros said the projected tax collection from the tax amnesty is still being computed, but the agency hopes many taxpayers would avail themselves of the amnesty.

“We are hoping that a lot of our delinquent taxpayers will avail because it would give them a clean slate, and at the same time our floating receivables, so to speak, will be converted to collection, so it’s a clean slate [also] on our part,” she added.

PILGRIMS climb up the 28 steps of Scala Sancta on their knees, retracing Jesus’ short but fateful trip to face then governor Pilate, who allowed the mob to crucify Him despite finding Him guiltless. STEPHANIE TUMAMPOS

By Stephanie Tumampos

OME—The Scala Sancta or Holy Stairs in Rome was reopened after 300 years for only 60 days starting April 11, and it has become one of the most important stops for pilgrims this Holy Week.

The marble staircase, enclosed in wood before, was the one Jesus climbed to reach His way to Pontius Pilate, who had initially tried to evade passing judgment on Jesus because he could find no crime that Jesus committed. However, under pressure from the high priests and the mob that demanded crucifixion—and who wanted a thief and murderer freed instead—Pilate passed on Jesus’ judgment right after, while washing his hands off the latter’s fate.

To reach the top, one must climb by kneeling on the 28 steps. Along

the way, medieval crosses mark at least three spots on the steps where Jesus’ blood is believed to have fallen.

The Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs, as it is fully known, is just across the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and, according to Catholic Travel Guide, is under the custody of The Passionist Fathers.

Credit for bringing over to Rome the steps in front of the Governor’s Palace in Jerusalem is given to Helena, the Emperor Constantine’s mother.

Catholic Travel Guide said she had “made it her personal quest to retrieve as many articles that were touched by Jesus from the area of Judea.”

Though “their authenticity cannot be 100 percent confirmed, the marble at Scala Sancta “is of the same type found in Jerusalem and archaeologists have confirmed that the marble steps are missing from the ancient site in Jerusalem,” added the Catholic Travel Guide.

DOF Undersecretar y Mark Dennis Y.C. Joven earlier pointed out that an estimated P80 billion worth of tax delinquencies is pending in the books of the BIR. Earlier in the month, the BIR issued RR 04-2019 in line with the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act 11213 or the Tax Amnesty Act of 2019, specifically on the provision on the processing of tax amnesty applications on tax delinquencies.

The RR states that all persons with internal revenue tax liabilities, whether natural or juridical, covering taxable year 2017 and prior years, may avail themselves of the tax amnesty on delinquencies within one year from the effectivity of the RR. Cabreros added that the RR on estate tax amnesty is being eyed for publication and implementation in May 2019.

“Most probably, yes [May]. Just like what we said, if we can finish it earlier, we won’t max out [the deadline of] June 3. Tax on delinquency was first because that’s easier and straightforward; tax amnesty on estate is more complicated in the sense that there are many implications, it involves several transfers of property, so it’s more on completeness of the reporting and proper valuation,” she said.

The original proposal on amnesties under Pack age 1B of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program of the Department of Finance (DOF) includes these measures: an estate tax amnesty estimated to generate P6.28 billion; general tax amnesty with P13.63 billion, tax amnesty on delinquencies with P27.16 billion; lifting of the bank secrecy law for criminal cases as well as the automatic exchange of information, with P16.6 billion. Rea Cu

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Correspondent

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday April 22, 2019

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29 NGCP projects named ‘energy projects of national significance’

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

WENTY-NINE projects of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) worth P90.29 billion have been declared “Energy Projects of National Significance” (EPNS).

T hese projects include the Hermosa-San Jose 500-kiloVolt transmission line, Western Luzon 500-kV Backbone, Pagbilao-Tayabas 500-kV transmission line, San Jose-Quezon 230-kV transmission line, Bataan 230-kV grid reinforcement, Ambuklao-Binga-San Manuel 230-kV transmission line, Pinili 230-kV substation, Tuguegarao-Magapit 230-kV transmission line, Navotas-Doña Imelda 230-kV transmission line, Taguig-Taytay 230kV transmission line, San Manuel-Nagsaag 230kV transmission line, Calaca-Dasmariñas 230-kV transmission line and the San Simon 230-kV substation.

Among the projects crucial for the development of the grid are the Hermosa-San Jose 500-kV transmission line, which will add a new 500-kV corridor for new and old bulk generation capacities in the Bataan and Zambales areas, while the San ManuelNagsaag 230-kV transmission line aims to improve the transmission corridor of central Luzon. The Navotas(Manila)-Doña Imelda 230-kV transmission line, which includes the construction of a new Navotas 230-kV substation, will help secure the integrity of the grid serving Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.

Meanwhile, the Pagbilao 500kV substation and the PagbilaoTayabas 500 -kV transmission line project is intended to cater to around 3,370 megawatts (MW) of additional power from incoming power plants in the Quezon province, such as the San Buenaventura Coal, AOE coal-fired power plant and the Pagbilao CCGT power plant.

In May 2018, NGCP was also issued an EPNS for its MindanaoVisayas Interconnection Project, which will see the realization of one Philippine grid in 2020. The MVIP was the first project to be declared an EPNS. An EPNS under Executive Order (EEO) 30 will be given expedited issuance of all regulatory and documentary requirements from local and national government agencies.

This includes the action of application of permits and requirements within 30 days, and the immediate and automatic approval of all applications within five working days if no action of the said agency has been made after 30 days.

“The issuance of EPNS by the EICC is critical for the on-time completion of these projects.

This will enable us to expedite our plans and programs, and efficiently cater to the needs of our stakeholders to provide a more resilient power grid,” the NGCP said.

The Energy Investment Coordinating Council (EICC), which is led by the Department of Energy (DOE), declares an energy project as included in the EPNS list.

The EICC will spearhead and coordinate national government efforts to harmonize, integrate and streamline regulatory processes, requirements and forms relevant to the development of energy investments in the country, primarily with regards to EPNS under EO 30.

“We continually appeal to our stakeholders to help us ensure the smooth and on-time implementation of our projects, as these are for the benefit of our communities across the country,” the NGCP said.

The NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned corporation in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, and is led by majority shareholders Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.

PayMaya: More Pinoys see value of going cashless

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ILIPINOS now see “greater value in going cashless” when paying for their travel needs, a ranking official of PayMaya Philippines Inc. said on Sunday.

Paolo Azzola, the company’s COO, said the travel market “continued to be a fast-growing use case for consumers,” with payments for tickets and accommodations carving a huge slice from the pie in the first quarter of 2019.

He did not state absolute figures, but noted “PayMaya Business recorded a significant increase in the first quarter in terms of the number and amount of credit, debit, and prepaid-card transactions it processed as the acquirer of top online commerce sites that offer travel services.”

Agoda, an online accommodations booking

platform, and flag carrier Philippine Airlines took the top 2 spots in PayMaya’s list.

Aside from their virtual accounts, PayMaya users also use their physical cards when they travel overseas, Azzola said.

“With the fusion of convenience and great deals we are confident to see continuous growth in travel-related transactions as we aggressively widen opportunities for consumers by giving them the means to make purchases with PayMaya, the best travel card out there today,” Azzola added.

To help encourage even more travel transactions through its platform, PayMaya is offering its users a one-of-a-kind travel experience through its “Tara!” travel promo, where account holders can get a chance to win a curated travel package with three companions. Lorenz S. Marasigan

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Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, April 22, 2019

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

April 17, 2019

Net Foreign Stocks Bid Ask Open High Low Close Volume Value Trade (Peso) Buy (Sell) FINANCIALS ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE BDO LEASING COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG MEDCO HLDG MANULIFE NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

58.6 131.7 82.95 26.5 11.6 77.65 13.56 21.5 50.8 58.5 26 178.8 61.55 1.29 2.2 18.92 4.5 0.45 820 0.96 181.5 1810

58.65 132 83 26.8 11.62 78 13.66 21.95 50.95 58.65 26.3 180 61.85 1.37 2.22 19 4.63 0.47 822 0.97 183.5 1840

58.6 130 81.8 26.85 11.56 77.05 13.56 21.95 50.75 58.5 26.05 176.2 60.8 1.38 2.22 18.86 4.64 0.465 822 0.94 181.6 1810

58.65 133.1 83 26.85 11.72 78 13.56 21.95 51.9 58.5 26.3 180 61.85 1.38 2.22 19.02 4.68 0.475 822 0.97 183.5 1810

58.6 130 81.5 26.5 11.54 77 13.56 21.95 50.75 58.5 26.05 176.2 60.7 1.28 2.2 18.86 4.5 0.465 820 0.93 181.5 1810

58.65 132 83 26.5 11.6 78 13.56 21.95 50.95 58.5 26.3 180 61.5 1.28 2.22 19 4.52 0.47 820 0.97 183.5 1810

10270 1400290 1154150 324100 132700 899930 100 100 491180 830 7000 104080 810 26000 117000 50900 68000 390000 240 392000 1370 50

601872 184655750 95218420.5 8616400 1541498 69733993 1356 2195 25159762.5 48555 182805 18652814 49410 33500 259700 964810 309800 182450 196840 377820 248985 90500

591910 -7376376 19757437 -7683935 -117886 -34923613.5 -8559601 -156550 7359186 -11611 -13520 -0 -

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

1.4 35.9 0.242 22.2 80.35 377 23.7 6.54 4.4 1.53 11.78 45.6 7.05 13 16.3 14.88 15.76 5.5 11.24 7.36 111.1 0.94 29.25 304 10.3 14.78 0.191 1.25 12.78 1.65 4.58 2.14 151.9 1.45 2.51 1.88 5.25 15.76 9.49 11.34 21.3 9.04 1.01 1.16 1.96 3.52 5.19 46 2.89 12.66 1.82 6.05 1.33 28.8

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PACIFICA PRIME ORION PRIME MEDIA SYNERGY GRID SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

0.56 18.8 900 54.85 14.96 6.45 0.77 1.39 1.41 7.6 11.84 14.98 0.234 860.5 6.8 61.3 0.495 5.18 15.44 0.56 4.47 0.038 2.92 1.11 440.2 927.5 175.3 0.96 265 0.237 0.33

1.42 35.95 0.247 22.3 80.95 379 23.95 6.57 4.55 1.54 12 45.9 7.1 17 16.4 15.9 16.1 6 11.3 7.38 113.8 0.95 29.85 304.2 10.68 14.8 0.2 1.26 12.8 1.7 4.79 2.18 152 1.46 2.6 1.89 5.5 15.9 9.53 11.36 21.4 9.33 1.04 1.19 1.97 3.71 5.5 46.5 2.9 12.78 1.83 6.35 1.35 28.95

1.39 36 0.247 22.15 80.1 378 23.5 6.47 4.55 1.51 11.8 46.85 7.01 17 16.48 15.9 15.76 5.8 11.6 7.32 112 1 29.5 306 10.26 15.26 0.195 1.25 12.9 1.65 4.8 2.18 152.5 1.5 2.55 1.86 5.25 15.92 9.43 11.18 21.05 9.05 1 1.17 1.94 3.75 5.19 46.3 2.89 12.58 1.81 6.3 1.34 29

1.42 36.55 0.248 22.5 81.05 379 23.95 6.59 4.55 1.55 12.06 46.85 7.14 17 16.48 16.2 16.1 5.9 11.64 7.38 113.8 1.01 29.85 307.8 10.68 15.26 0.2 1.26 12.9 1.7 4.8 2.18 153 1.51 2.6 1.91 5.25 15.92 9.54 11.4 21.4 9.05 1.06 1.19 1.96 3.78 5.2 46.3 2.9 12.78 1.82 6.35 1.35 29

1.39 35.85 0.242 22.15 80 375.2 23.5 6.45 4.5 1.48 11.74 45.45 6.94 17 16.12 15.9 15.76 5.5 11.22 7.32 110.8 0.94 29.5 303 10.26 14.78 0.191 1.23 12.7 1.65 4.79 2.18 151.6 1.44 2.55 1.85 5.25 15.86 9.43 11.18 21.05 9.04 0.98 1.15 1.94 3.51 5.19 45.25 2.82 12.44 1.79 6 1.31 28.8

1.42 35.95 0.248 22.3 80.35 379 23.95 6.54 4.55 1.54 12 45.6 7.1 17 16.4 15.9 16.1 5.5 11.24 7.38 113.8 0.95 29.85 304 10.68 14.78 0.2 1.25 12.8 1.7 4.79 2.18 152 1.46 2.6 1.88 5.25 15.9 9.53 11.34 21.3 9.04 1.04 1.18 1.96 3.73 5.19 46 2.9 12.66 1.82 6.35 1.35 28.8

24000 661000 960000 594300 68400 132640 259200 1748400 24000 22635000 110100 119000 77900 100 330500 18400 517300 36600 930400 6300 106840 7369000 3200 700640 1600 496100 370000 1025000 125000 2000 112000 17000 620650 7769000 28000 8551000 100 5100 444200 802400 5382000 7300 838000 440000 51000 120000 122100 211600 5596000 517200 123000 27700 287000 38500

33550 23,779,005( 10,910,500.0003) 236200 123810 13257790 5504130 5480154 -958475.9997 50093486 -27540984 6162450 1433300 11433833 -863043 108470 34490450 2363530 1311904 -66312 5442250 -488010 547549 28240 1700 -1700 5443622 107478 294118 8167456 7937506 205400 10573714 -5954788 46372 12034801 4032312 7045390 1780 95120 213308476 -28132198 16458 7365702 3383966 73160 1279420 445780 1599352 -1472116 3350 537590 -470410 37060 94469447 -5695203 11377130 -229150 72500 16120220 -6581830 525 81052 36570 4213743 1915815 9102712 -2239658 114175980 72523980 66001 3615.9999 868750 513670 -4680 99760 9800 437440 -78290 634419 -633900 9780850 156400 16039790 -1968640 6506976 -365920 223250 173514 384830 1113535 -213315

HOLDING & FRIMS 0.57 19.1 906 55 14.98 6.51 0.79 1.4 1.43 7.61 12 15 0.24 862 6.86 61.35 0.51 5.19 15.52 0.58 4.48 0.04 2.96 1.14 470 930 175.9 0.97 269 0.243 0.335

0.56 18.54 902.5 56.7 14.8 6.5 0.78 1.39 1.41 7.62 11.94 14.72 0.242 859 6.86 62.95 0.52 5.25 15.5 0.58 4.47 0.038 2.95 1.11 499 940 174.9 0.96 263 0.236 0.33

0.57 19.84 915 56.7 15.12 6.5 0.79 1.42 1.43 7.62 12 15 0.242 869.5 6.99 63.4 0.52 5.34 15.6 0.58 4.5 0.039 2.96 1.11 499 943 175.9 0.98 269 0.243 0.34

0.55 18.5 900 54.5 14.68 6.5 0.78 1.39 1.41 7.49 11.8 14.58 0.24 859 6.8 61.35 0.495 5.19 15.22 0.58 4.43 0.038 2.9 1.11 435 925 173.9 0.94 262 0.236 0.33

0.57 19 900 55 14.98 6.5 0.79 1.4 1.43 7.6 12 14.98 0.24 862 6.8 61.35 0.51 5.19 15.44 0.58 4.48 0.039 2.92 1.11 440.2 930 175.9 0.97 269 0.243 0.33

3132000 65300 230520 560080 21679400 60000 105000 1410000 161000 535000 3280800 660000 20000 169260 44200 934700 632000 670600 301700 28000 33651000 5400000 495000 15000 750 91000 180320 1022000 720 460000 12640000

1761590 1217078 208425710 31099097 324031372 390000 82680 1990900 227160 4055976 39168646 9856252 4820 145874840 303852 57743895 316145 3530469 4650080 16240 150285250 209300 1445060 16650 334378 84783605 31651898 969660 191940 110410 4220700

-90720 283082 -64381640 -5826429.5 -122741992 316550 124080 1616729 -16720424 -3675422 -57651595 145680 -25831760.5 -77787 -2624406 -46049870 2940 95700 -45326330 -10370858 1920 -10752 -18960 -

PROPERTY

ARTHALAND CORP 0.78 0.79 0.84 0.84 0.76 0.78 1977000 1552800 ANCHOR LAND 11.1 11.44 11.2 11.2 11.1 11.1 10100 112670 AYALA LAND 47 47.05 46.95 47.2 46.8 47 19386600 910792380 69471075 ARANETA PROP 1.87 1.95 1.99 1.99 1.87 1.95 52000 98540 BELLE CORP 2.46 2.49 2.42 2.5 2.4 2.49 824000 2022440 892690 A BROWN 0.76 0.78 0.78 0.78 0.75 0.78 452000 345150 CITYLAND DEVT 0.88 0.92 0.91 0.93 0.91 0.92 59000 54170 CROWN EQUITIES 0.24 0.244 0.241 0.244 0.24 0.24 3080000 739450 -297600 CEBU HLDG 6.38 6.5 6.32 6.5 6.32 6.5 22300 141615 CEB LANDMASTERS 4.25 4.26 4.25 4.3 4.23 4.26 118000 503000 -17030 CENTURY PROP 0.5 0.51 0.5 0.51 0.495 0.51 3759000 1878940 -1000 CYBER BAY 0.385 0.41 0.385 0.385 0.385 0.385 70000 26950 DOUBLEDRAGON 24.85 25 24.7 25.5 24.3 24.85 1930600 48114045 -5547490 DM WENCESLAO 11.04 11.06 11.08 11.1 11 11.06 293300 3244670 1085002 EMPIRE EAST 0.5 0.51 0.51 0.51 0.495 0.51 2338000 1168815 100000 FILINVEST LAND 1.51 1.52 1.53 1.53 1.51 1.51 3854000 5843240 -886480 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.35 1.36 1.36 1.36 1.33 1.35 478000 641340 -100490 8990 HLDG 13.16 13.2 13.16 13.28 13.16 13.2 1899900 25031680 -22440 PHIL INFRADEV 1.92 1.93 1.93 1.93 1.86 1.92 3814000 7224020 KEPPEL PROP 3.83 4.86 4.86 4.86 4.86 4.86 20000 97200 CITY AND LAND 0.83 0.85 0.81 0.85 0.81 0.85 6000 5060 MEGAWORLD 5.68 5.69 5.78 5.8 5.65 5.69 15329700 88100073 -14467487 MRC ALLIED 0.35 0.355 0.33 0.35 0.33 0.35 25150000 8534550 -2804100 PHIL ESTATES 0.5 0.51 0.51 0.51 0.49 0.51 60000 29740 PRIMEX CORP 2.45 2.47 2.44 2.47 2.4 2.45 1041000 2528200 -246000 ROBINSONS LAND 24 24.3 23.35 24.3 23.1 24.3 3088700 72436575 21876580 PHIL REALTY 0.415 0.435 0.42 0.42 0.415 0.415 210000 87850 ROCKWELL 1.99 2 2 2 1.99 2 183000 365330 -176000 SHANG PROP 3.01 3.05 3.05 3.06 2.99 3.06 147000 447050 STA LUCIA LAND 1.63 1.66 1.67 1.67 1.65 1.66 126000 209050 -29880 SM PRIME HLDG 39.55 39.6 39.9 39.9 39.55 39.6 2935300 116334405 -12308125 STARMALLS 6.96 6.97 6.95 6.98 6.9 6.96 50700 351902 VISTA LAND 7.23 7.24 7.24 7.24 7.22 7.23 11342900 82017650 -15785299

SERVICES ABS CBN 19.46 19.48 19.5 19.6 19.36 19.48 56600 1101112 GMA NETWORK 5.28 5.29 5.27 5.3 5.25 5.29 149700 790976 MANILA BULLETIN 0.59 0.6 0.58 0.6 0.58 0.6 507000 299380 GLOBE TELECOM 1863 1865 1866 1905 1865 1865 15535 29118670 -8487420 PLDT 1221 1224 1195 1227 1192 1224 203475 245951440 76740650 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.04 0.041 0.039 0.04 0.039 0.04 11200000 446800 ISLAND INFO 0.126 0.128 0.126 0.128 0.125 0.128 2570000 322020 -14080 ISM COMM 4.95 4.97 4.88 5 4.88 4.95 978000 4857700 -111170 JACKSTONES 2.98 3.05 2.99 2.99 2.98 2.98 5000 14920 NOW CORP 2.44 2.45 2.36 2.75 2.36 2.44 8305000 21137280 -360290 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.38 0.385 0.375 0.385 0.375 0.38 3540000 1345300 49400 PHILWEB 2.87 2.89 2.87 2.89 2.8 2.87 429000 1224500 2GO GROUP 12.3 12.8 12.3 12.82 12.3 12.3 22500 284198 CHELSEA 5.16 5.18 5.14 5.2 5.14 5.16 282500 1456500 CEBU AIR 82.7 83 81.7 83 81.6 83 183620 15005493 1765181.4999 INTL CONTAINER 128.8 129 125.8 130 125.8 129 3741570 480387067 57144701 LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.82 0.84 0.83 0.86 0.8 0.84 795000 652250 MACROASIA 21.65 21.7 21.55 21.8 21.5 21.7 612800 13307260 168870 METROALLIANCE A 1.68 1.78 1.68 1.78 1.68 1.78 4000 6820 PAL HLDG 10 10.06 10.02 10.1 9.8 10.06 21100 209989 HARBOR STAR 2.84 2.85 2.83 2.9 2.82 2.85 621000 1768320 -34320 BOULEVARD HLDG 0.073 0.074 0.073 0.075 0.073 0.073 26200000 1925290 WATERFRONT 0.71 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.7 0.72 1051000 742990 IPEOPLE 11.12 11.76 11.78 11.78 11.74 11.76 600 7052 STI HLDG 0.67 0.68 0.68 0.69 0.67 0.67 428000 291240 -46570 BERJAYA 2.39 2.41 2.25 2.4 2.25 2.4 451000 1055860 321760 BLOOMBERRY 12.42 12.6 12.36 12.62 12.06 12.6 18421900 223650566 143065696 PACIFIC ONLINE 4.25 4.37 4.43 4.43 4.24 4.38 87000 370170 8490 LEISURE AND RES 3.64 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.69 961000 3495920 362720 PH RESORTS GRP 4.5 4.56 4.6 4.6 4.5 4.58 6000 27280 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.8 0.81 0.8 0.82 0.8 0.81 2242000 1801210 -51030 TRAVELLERS 5.63 5.68 5.6 5.68 5.6 5.68 132700 747067 1277.0001 METRO RETAIL 3.41 3.42 3.48 3.48 3.4 3.41 2160000 7374770 -497180 PUREGOLD 44.35 44.4 44 44.55 44 44.4 1825500 80919500 -15372270 ROBINSONS RTL 78.4 78.9 79 79 78 78.9 120620 9512422.5 -122704 PHIL SEVEN CORP 118.8 119.8 118.8 119.8 118.8 119.8 250 29748 28560 SSI GROUP 2.67 2.68 2.64 2.7 2.63 2.68 6722000 17988350 -4377650 WILCON DEPOT 16.12 16.14 16.22 16.26 16.12 16.14 1560500 25294960 5202110 APC GROUP 0.42 0.43 0.42 0.43 0.42 0.43 120000 51200 EASYCALL 10.2 10.4 10.54 10.54 10.14 10.4 28900 299046 GOLDEN BRIA 393.8 400 399.8 400 393.6 400 1670 667008 IPM HLDG 7.04 7.06 7.05 7.06 7.05 7.05 16000 112830 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.99 1 0.98 1.02 0.97 1 23256000 23280740 -2436410 SBS PHIL CORP 8.95 9 9.02 9.02 8.95 9 20200 181951 -53218

MINING & OIL ATOK 11 11.98 12.02 12.02 11 11 6100 68546 APEX MINING 1.29 1.31 1.31 1.33 1.29 1.29 644000 836970 -340620 ABRA MINING 0.0019 0.002 0.0019 0.002 0.0019 0.0019 268000000 514200 BENGUET A 1.28 1.39 1.28 1.42 1.27 1.42 18000 23140 BENGUET B 1.2 1.55 1.59 1.59 1.59 1.59 1000 1590 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.29 0.3 0.29 0.295 0.29 0.29 200000 58150 CENTURY PEAK 2.7 2.72 2.72 2.72 2.7 2.7 783000 2117140 8160 DIZON MINES 8.1 8.19 8.19 8.19 7.98 8.18 1400 11409 FERRONICKEL 1.52 1.53 1.52 1.53 1.52 1.53 448000 681000 632320 GEOGRACE 0.25 0.255 0.255 0.255 0.249 0.255 430000 107710 LEPANTO A 0.115 0.118 0.118 0.118 0.115 0.118 1410000 163900 MANILA MINING A 0.0082 0.0086 0.0082 0.0082 0.0082 0.0082 1000000 8200 MARCVENTURES 1.08 1.1 1.07 1.09 1.07 1.08 39000 42060 NIHAO 1.01 1.05 1.03 1.05 1.03 1.04 18000 18660 5150 NICKEL ASIA 2.44 2.47 2.45 2.47 2.43 2.44 283000 691250 -124590 OMICO CORP 0.57 0.61 0.58 0.58 0.58 0.58 7000 4060 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.9 0.92 0.89 0.92 0.89 0.91 472000 423860 PX MINING 3.11 3.12 3.08 3.14 3.08 3.12 332000 1032260 -3130 SEMIRARA MINING 24.3 24.35 24.5 24.5 24.1 24.3 1432800 34777795 22848145 ORNTL PETROL A 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 9300000 111600 PHILODRILL 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 10000000 110000 PHINMA PETRO 3.1 3.15 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.1 12000 37200 PXP ENERGY 7 7.09 7.25 7.25 6.9 7 1484000 10438650 -248839

PREFFERED

HOUSE PREF A 94.95 95 94.95 94.95 94.95 94.95 310 29434.5 DD PREF 96.1 98.5 98 98 98 98 3340 327320 GLO PREF P 480 494.8 494 494 494 494 500 247000 GTCAP PREF B 950 959 950 950 950 950 1060 1007000 LR PREF 1 1.01 1 1 0.98 1 191000 190970 MWIDE PREF 100.1 103 102.5 103 102.5 103 5780 594468 PNX PREF 3A 100.2 100.9 100.9 100.9 100.9 100.9 9900 998910 SMC PREF 2B 74.8 75.7 75 75 74.75 74.75 6750 504858 43442 SMC PREF 2C 75.8 76 76 76 76 76 15930 1210680 SMC PREF 2D 72 73 73 73 73 73 390 28470 SMC PREF 2F 74.1 74.75 74.65 74.75 74.5 74.75 33890 2529921 SMC PREF 2G 73.55 74.45 73.75 73.75 73.55 73.55 1200 88270 3687.5 SMC PREF 2H 71.8 73.6 72.3 72.3 71.5 71.5 13400 963474 SMC PREF 2I 61.2 - 61.2 61.2 61.2 61.2 14100 862920 -

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR GMA HLDG PDR

18.74 5.12

19.7 5.29

18.8 5.13

18.8 5.3

18.7 5.12

18.7 5.3

12000 12000

225400 62700

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

1.89

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 4.95 XURPAS 1.21

1.92

1.88

1.93

1.88

1.92

69000

130490

-

4.96 1.22

4.98 1.19

5 1.24

4.9 1.19

4.96 1.21

328000 3500000

1627840 4247290

49800 -11070

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

117.6

-225400 -

117.8

117.7

117.8

117.5

117.6

11290

1328498

267179

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Razon to spend up to ₧20B to develop Wawa Dam

B

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

ILLIONAIRE Enrique K. Razon Jr. said he will spend between P15 billion and P20 billion to develop a water-supply facility in the abandoned Wawa Dam, a facility built during the American era in the eastern part of Metro Manila.

“If you look at one thing, what’s going to be short in the future unless something has been done? It’s water. When was Angat Dam built?

Obviously, the population is growing.

Metro Manila will double its size by 2040; you need water. It’s the one thing the Metro needs the most. So it doesn’t take a lot of thinking to know it’s a business you should get into,” Razon said.

Razon, who owns most of the country’s profitable ports and an integrated resort and gambling facility

in Entertainment City, said his company Prime Infra, through a partnership with San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders and Developers Group, will develop a water-supply facility of over 500 million liters per day at the Wawa catchment area traversing the municipality of Rodriguez (Montalban) and Antipolo, both in Rizal province.

The bulk-water project will supply water in Metro Manila by 2022.

He said it will cost about P15 per cubic meter to purify water from a reservoir as against P80 to P90

Survey: Co-living spaces cut CO2 emission in cities

M

ETRO Manila can benefit from more co-living buildings, or those dormitory-type condominium units that sprouted in the city centers, as these reduce the daily number of vehicles on the road, a survey conducted in partnership with Tangere Marketing Survey and MyTown showed.

The result of the survey showed young professionals living in MyTown have managed to curb more than 875 metric tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, up from 451 metric tons during last year’s Earth Day.

This is equivalent to the CO2 absorbed by around 1,000 acres of forest land for a year, or almost 14,000 tree seedlings planted for 10 years, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s web site said.

In a report to the Philippine Climate Change Commissioner, the Philippine Climate Change Assessment Working Group noted in late 2018 that transportation is the second-highest contributor of total greenhouse gases in the Philippines, with 35 percent of total emissions. VG Cabuag

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK LAST WEEK

SHARE prices fell last week as most investors stayed on the sidelines for the holiday break.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 45.67 points to close at 7,835.15 points. It was only a three-day work week, with average daily trading for the week at P5.76 billion.

“Local investors took money off the table for the holidays and because the market was not giving any indication that it can go higher. We saw a big drop at the beginning of the week, as the PSEi was down more than 1 percent. In the following days, it slightly recovered to close above support at 7,800,” said Christopher Mangun, research head at Eagle Equities Inc. Foreign investors were net buyers at P608.57 million.

All other subindices ended mixed.

The broader All Shares index fell 26.47 points to 4,836.68 points; the Financials index was up 8.46 to 1,741.7; the Industrial index was down 144.5 to 11,612.93; the Holding Firms index declined 169.4 to 7,494.89; the Property index rose 45.98 to 4,180.35; the Services index gained 3.01 to 1,607.61; and the Mining and Oil index added 65.54 to 7,734.42.

Losers edged gainers 115 to 92, and 30 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers were Benguet Corp. A and B shares, United Paragon Mining Corp., Double Dragon Properties Corp., Suntrust Home Developers Inc. and SSI Group Inc. Top losers were Synergy Grid and Development Philippines Inc., Vitarich Corp., AtokBig Wedge Co. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc., Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. and Philippine National Bank.

THIS WEEK

SHARE prices may continue to go down this week as investors were not as excited even if the 2019 budget was signed last week.

“As the weeks go by, the market looks weaker and weaker. The continuous inflow of foreign money has kept it from going into free fall,” Mangun said.

“However, there is the concern of higher oil prices which will translate into more expensive goods and potentially higher inflation. Investors are still not convinced it is time to get back in the market.”

2TradeAsia said with the 2019 budget signed into law, investors may trace sequels to project approvals and deployment of cash for infrastructure based projects.

“The market might soon price in possibilities for fiscal tax receipts to surprise on the plus side, boost available state funding in the process,” it said.

Support for the main index is seen at 7,750 and resistance at 7,950 points.

STOCK PICKS

BROKER Regina Capital and Development Corp. advised to take profit on the stock of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) after its share price failed to breach the P133.50 upper limit.

“At this point, all indicators have shown overbought signals. But despite the anticipated profit taking that will ensue, a weak interim support is slowly forming around P131.20, which might break the fall earlier. Nevertheless, the stock remains on the upper end and locking-in gains remains the prudent option,” it said.

Shares of ICTSI closed on Wednesday at P129 per share.

Meanwhile, the broker gave the same recommendation on the stock of Universal Robina Corp. (URC) after its stock price might have found its upper limit at P159.75.

“However, URC is still establishing some support around P157.30 but might be deemed weak enough, so expect the P156.06 level as the next stable price floor in case of further sell down,” it said.

URC shares closed last week at P152 apiece. VG Cabuag

per cubic meter for the desalination plant. “The water resources are not going down; we’re not building enough reservoirs to keep the water,” Razon said, adding there’s no other water resource that supplies the Metro Manila after Angat Dam. “But you add Wawa Dam; you add Kaliwa Dam. It’ll be 30 years to 40 years before you need to desalinate,” he said. Prime Infra recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Manila Water Co. to cooperate in the possible development of the Wawa Bulk Water Supply Project. The agreement formalizes the formation of a technical team that will conduct a technical study, of which shall be reviewed and approved by regulator Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, the company said.

Wawa Dam can add about 500 million liters per day of new water source. Prime Water said it will accelerate water availability by delivering 80 MLD by 2021.

Guillaume Lucci, Prime Infra president and COO, said he is optimistic the project will get going considering government’s

support to fast-track this needed new water source for Metro Manila and Rizal province.

“The proximity and water source quality of the Wawa catchment area will allow us to deliver first water no later than 2022. Because of the scale and life cycle cost of large dams, the public can be assured we will deliver it in a cost-effective manner,” he said.

Water experts have long-cited Wawa as the best potential watersupply source for Metro Manila. It was built during the colonial American occupation of the country in early 1900s, and was for a time, the only water source for Metro Manila.

Wawa Dam was abandoned in the late 1960s when Angat Dam became operational. For years, the area has become a cheap recreational spot for local tourists.

“Compared to Laguna Lake and other similar water-supply options, it does not require an expensive treatment technology like reverse osmosis. At its capacity, it can serve more than 500,000 households in the MWSS franchise area,” the company said.

briefs

MAKATI RTC ISSUES WARRANT VS. SYCIP SCION

THE Regional Trial Court in Makati City has issued an arrest warrant against the son of the late business tycoon Washington Sycip and several others in connection with an estafa complaint lodged against them by their former business partners.

The arrest warrants were issued by Presiding Judge Honorio E. Guanlao Jr. of Makati RTC’s Branch 57 on April 11.

Ordered arrested were officers of Alliance International Inc. (Alliance), a canning firm led by Chairman of the Board George Sycip, and board of directors Jonathan Y. Dee, Alvin Y. Dee, Joanna Y. Dee-Laurel, Teresita S. Ladanga, Grace S. Dogillo and Arak Ratborihan. The court ordered them to post a bail bond of P120,000 each for their temporary liberty. Joel R. San Juan

MUTUAL FUNDS

April 17, 2019

NAV ONE YEAR THREE YEAR FIVE YEAR Y-T-D

PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 260.91 -2.77% 0.53% 1.34% 3.44% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 1.5922 -0.63% 8.22% 3.12% 10.51% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 4.0784 -4.26% 0.78% 0.23% 4.49% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP. -A 0.933 -0.48% N.A. N.A. 4.77% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. -A 0.8627 N.A. N.A. N.A. 5.12% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC. -A 5.4447 -0.89% 0.57% 1.08% 3.29% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. -A 127.1 8.46% N.A. N.A. 9.14% ONE WEALTHY NATION FUND, INC. -A 0.8677 -3.4% -4.55% N.A. 4.24% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC. -A 51.5504 -0.53% 1.35% N.A. 4.77% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 538.52 -0.78% 0.36% 1.01% 4.62% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC. -A 1.3037 0.39% 2.04% 3.99% 3.96% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC. -A 38.3973 0.09% 2.87% 3.34% 4.82% PHILEQUITY MSCI PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,3 1.0286 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC. -A 5.2193 -0.17% 2.31% 3.37% 5.25% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP. -A 871.16 -0.05% 1.99% 3.3% 5.15% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 0.9221 1.98% 1.18% N.A. 7.07% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC. -A 4.2738 0.94% 2.31% 2.36% 5.29% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC. -A 1.0018 - 0.53% 1.99% N.A. 4.98% UNITED FUND, INC. -A 3.703 2.32% 4.22% 3.44% 5.77% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC. -A,C,2 116.548 0.36% 3.04% 4.38% 5.24% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC. -B

$1.0399 -6.35% 6.89% 1.62% 11.93% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC. -A $1.2922 1.23% N.A. N.A. 16.93% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC. -A 1.7091 -1.96% -0.8% -1.37% 3.51% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 2.3027 -1.61% 0.81% 0.81% 4.23% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC. -A 2.6226 -0.19% -0.88% -1.29% 3.1% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION -A 1.3469 -2.38% N.A. N.A. 3.27% NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC. -A 1.9082 1.12% 0.89% 1.37% 3.53% PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC. -A 3.6517 -0.87% -0.47% 0.44% 3.47% PHILAM FUND, INC. -A 16.4906 0.11% -0.3% 0.5% 3.66% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC. -A 2.1319 0.2% 1.28% 2.18% 2.88% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 3.8187 1.05% 1.04% 1.52% 4.58% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2028, INC. -A,D,4 0.989 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2038, INC. -A,D,4 0.9881 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2048, INC. -A,D,4 0.9861 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC. -A 0.9614 0.1% 0.59% N.A. 4.31% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC. -A $0.036 2.16% 0.34% 1.55% 2.13% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC. -A $1.0024 -5.56% 3.85% -0.12% 7.07% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC. -A $3.718 1.12% 6.22% 3.23% 12.38% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC. -A $1.092 0.06% N.A. N.A. 8.12% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 347.66 2.86% 2.13% 2.11% 1.25% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC. -A ,1 1.8821 0.68% -0.18% -0.23% 1.23% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 3.0148 5.35% 5.23% 5.3% 1.48% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC. -A 2.1577 2.36% 1.29% 1.81% 1.28% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC. -A 2.2535 1.72% 0.32% 0.9% 2% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP. -A

P 1.6027 0.21% -0.34% 0.3% 2.45% PHILAM BOND FUND, INC. -A 4.0201 1.59% -0.59% 0.75% 2.56% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 3.5964 2.85% 1.38% 1.16% 2.25% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. -A 0.9172 1.08% -0.68% N.A. 2.76% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC. -A 2.8769 3.76% 1.69% 1.76% 4.01% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC. -A

1.5952 3.26% 0.89% 1.27% 3.59% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $453.89 2.44% 1.73% 2.84% 1.25% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. -A Є215.88 1.23% 1.39% 1.58% 1.52% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -B $1.1662 4.29% 1.52% 2.28% 3.59% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $0.0252 1.61% 0.67% N.A. 1.61% GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP. -A $1.7125 -0.9% -1.44% 0.88% 1.32% MAA PRIVILEGE DOLLAR FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. MAA PRIVILEGE EURO FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. ЄN.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. PAMI GLOBAL BOND FUND, INC -A $1.0595 1.47% -0.83% -2.4% 2.11% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $2.2525 3.15% 0.2% 2.74% 3.74% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC. -A $0.0581013 2.46% 1.13% 1.78% 1.97% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC. -A $2.965 0.88% -0.38% 2.02% 3.23% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 122.37 3.42% 2.18% 1.77% 1.27% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A,5 1.0079 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 1.1956 2.72% 1.15% 0.76% 1.16% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 1.2339 3.26% 2.49% 1.85% 1.22% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC. -A $1.0233 2.06% N.A. N.A. 0.73%

* - NAVPS AS OF THE PREVIOUS BANKING DAY ** - NAVPS AS OF TWO BANKING DAYS AGO *** - LISTED IN THE PSE.

**** - RE-CLASSIFIED INTO A BALANCED FUND STARTING JANUARY 1, 2017 (FORMERLY GREPALIFE BOND FUND CORP.).

***** - LAUNCH DATE IS NOVEMBER 6, 2017 ****** - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 08, 2018 ******** - RENAMING OF THE FUND WAS APPROVED BY THE SEC LAST APRIL 13, 2018.

********* - BECAME A MEMBER SINCE APRIL 20, 2018. ******* - ADJUSTED DUE TO CASH DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JANUARY 29, 2018

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Pope during Easter vigil: Reject the ‘glitter of wealth’

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ATICAN CITY—At an Easter vigil in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis on Saturday encouraged people to resist cynicism or pursuing the “glitter of wealth,” and to avoid seeking life’s meaning in “things that pass away.”

“Do not bury hope!” Francis exclaimed, after noting that when things go badly, “we lose heart and come to believe that death is stronger than life.”

“We become cynical, negative and despondent,” Francis added.

For Christians, Easter is a day of joy and hope, as they mark their belief that Jesus triumphed over death by resurrection following crucifixion.

“Sin seduces; it promises things easy and quick, prosperity and success, but leaves behind only solitude and death,” the pope said. “Sin is looking for life among the dead, for the meaning of life in things that pass away.”

Encouraging the faithful, Francis said: “Why not prefer Jesus, the true light, to the glitter of wealth, career, pride and pleasure?”

At the start of the ceremony on Easter’s eve, Francis, dressed in white robes, slowly carried a lit candle up the aisle of a darkened Saint Peter’s

Basilica. At the chant in Latin for “light of Christ,” the basilica’s lights were suddenly switched on in a dramatic tradition.

Arrayed before the steps of the altar was a row of cardinals, wearing ivory robes. Behind them in the pews sat diplomats with their spouses and thousands of rank-andfile Catholics, tourists and pilgrims among them.

Among those in the basilica were eight adults who were baptized by the pope during the Mass. The Vatican said these new faithful are from Italy, Albania, Ecuador, Indonesia and Peru. From a shell-shaped silver dish, Francis poured holy water over the bowed heads of the three men and five women, after they walked up to him, one by one, and listened to him calling their first names.

On Sunday, Francis celebrated Easter Mass in late morning in Saint Peter’s Square and gave a speech from the basilica balcony. Known by its Latin name “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and to the world), the speech is an occasion to reflect on the world’s war-ravaged and other tense spots while paying tribute to Catholics’ practicing their faith sometimes in the face of persecution or other difficulties. AP

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Monday, April 22, 2019 B3

Explosions kill 129, wound 500 in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

SRI Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around Saint Anthony’s Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday, April 21. A Sri Lanka hospital spokesman says several blasts on Easter Sunday have killed dozens of people. AP

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OLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lanka’s state-run newspaper has reported that 129 people have died in a series of Easter Sunday blasts targeting three churches and three hotels. Daily News says more than 500 others have been hospitalized with injuries caused by the blasts.

POPE Francis holds a candle as he presides over a solemn Easter vigil ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, April 20. AP

The blasts caused fatalities among worshippers and hotel guests, a security official said.

Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to the official,

who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

Saint Anthony’s Shrine and the three hotels where the blasts took place are in Colombo, and are frequented by foreign tourists.

National Hospital Spokesman Dr. Samindi Samarakoon told The Associated Press that 30 died while the wounded were being treated in the capital Colombo’s main hospital.

Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.

Local TV showed damage at the

Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.

Other blasts were reported at Saint Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. Saint Sebastian’s appealed for help on its Facebook page.

The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at Saint Sebastian’s, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews, local TV footage showed.

Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas. AP

Former Marine arrested in North China wants heavier penalties on counterfeit vaccine makers Korea embassy attack in Madrid C

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ASHINGTON—A man suspected of involvement in a mysterious dissident group’s February raid on North Korea’s Embassy in Madrid was arrested in Los Angeles

by US authorities.

Christopher Ahn, a former US Marine, was arrested and charged on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The specific charges against Ahn were not immediately clear.

The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Separately, on Thursday, federal agents raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, a leader of the Free Joseon group, the person said. Hong was not arrested.

Free Joseon, also known as the Cheollima Civil Defense group, styles itself as a government-inexile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea.

The group said it consists of North Korean defectors living in countries around the world, but that it has not worked with or contacted defectors “living under tight security” in South Korea.

Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for the group, said in a statement that he was “dismayed that the US Department of Justice has decided to execute warrants against US persons that derive from criminal complaints filed by the North Korean regime.”

“The last US citizen who fell into the custody of the Kim regime returned home maimed from torture and did not survive,” Wolosky said, referring to college student Otto Warmbier’s 2017 death.

“We have received no assurances from the US government about the safety and security of the US nationals it is now targeting,” he added.

A Spanish police investigator in the case told The Associated Press in Madrid on Saturday that Ahn was identified by the Spanish police at a later stage of its investigation into the February 22 raid and that an international arrest warrant was

also issued against him.

That’s in addition to warrants issued for the other suspects named last month in Spanish court documents.

The investigator, who spoke under condition of anonymity given the sensitivities of the case, said that because of judicial secrecy, he couldn’t confirm how many arrest warrants had been issued by Spanish authorities beyond the two initially confirmed.

A Spanish judge said an investigation uncovered evidence that “a criminal organization” shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents.

Cheollima said on its web site that it was responding to an urgent situation at the embassy and was invited onto the property, and that “no one was gagged or beaten.”

The group said there were “no other governments involved with or aware of our activity until after the event.”

The Spanish court report said the intruders urged North Korea’s only accredited diplomat in Spain, So Yun Sok, to defect.

In March 2017, the group said it had arranged the escape of Kim Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who was assassinated at a Malaysian airport earlier that year.

The Cheollima web site said the group shared “certain information of enormous potential value” from the raid with the FBI, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality.

According to the Spanish court report, Hong flew to the United States on February 23, got in touch with the FBI and offered to share material and videos. The report didn’t say what type of information the items contained or whether the FBI accepted the offer.

The FBI said its standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations. AP

HINA is intensifying its crackdown on makers of ineffective vaccines by introducing heavier penalties and more stringent regulations.

Companies guilty of making or selling counterfeit vaccines can be fined between 15 to 30 times the value of the products involved, China News Service reported, citing the second draft of a new vaccine management law. That compares with a proposed five to 10 times the value of the goods in the first draft in November. The penalty will be capped at 30 million yuan

($4.5 million) for goods valued below a million yuan.

China is trying to restore faith in the country’s drug industry after consumers were left feeling outraged and panicked last summer by disclosures about Changsheng Bio-technology Co. and a second company selling ineffective vaccines. Changsheng was found to have produced and sold low-quality vaccines for infants and to have fabricated production and inspection data on a rabies vaccine.

Protesters picketed government offices and worried parents traveled to Hong Kong for foreign-made vaccines. The government later slapped a 9.1-billion-yuan penalty on Changsheng.

Under the latest proposed draft, drug companies will also bear larger legal responsibilities if they fail to show they have the necessary permits or certificates, or maintain relevant data records. The draft also includes provisions to encourage and support the research, development and innovation of vaccines. Bloomberg News

Police: ‘New breed’ of terrorists in Northern Ireland

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ONDON—Police in Northern Ireland arrested two teenagers on Saturday in connection with the fatal shooting of a young journalist during rioting in the city of Londonderry and warned of a “new breed” of terrorists threatening the peace.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. The men have not been identified or charged.

Authorities believe one man pulled the trigger during the chaotic rioting that began on Thursday night but had organizational support.

Lyra McKee, 29, a rising star of investigative journalism, was shot and killed, police say probably by a stray bullet aimed at police, during the rioting. Police said the New IRA dissident group was most likely responsible and called it a “terrorist act.”

The use of a firearm apparently aimed at police marks a dangerous escalation in sporadic violence that continues to plague Northern Ireland 21 years after the Good Friday peace agreement was signed. The New IRA group rejects the peace agreement.

Chief detective Jason Murphy warned on Saturday that the situation on the ground has become more dangerous, even though com-

munity attitudes have changed since the peace agreement and the use of violence is viewed as abhorrent by the vast majority.

“What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks, and that for me is a very worrying situation,” he said.

The riot followed a pattern familiar to those who lived through the worst years of violence in Northern Ireland. Police arrived in the city’s Creggan neighborhood to search for weapons and dissidents. They were barraged with gasoline bombs and other flying objects, then someone wearing a black mask appeared, fired some shots and fled.

No police were struck by the bullets, but McKee—who had been trying to film the riot on her phone—was hit. The journalist was rushed to a nearby hospital in a police car but still died.

Police on Friday night released closed-circuit TV footage showing the man suspected of firing the shots that killed McKee and appealed for help from the public in identifying him. The killing was condemned by all the major political parties, as well as the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland.

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the killing was “a reminder of how fragile peace still is in Northern Ireland” and called for work to preserve

the Good Friday peace agreement.

Some politicians believe uncertainty over Britain’s impending departure from the EU and the possible reintroduction of a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are stoking tensions in the region.

The victim was mourned by friends and the wider community. She rose to prominence in 2014 with a moving blog post—“Letter to my 14 year old self”—describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. She also had recently signed a contract to write two books.

Shortly before her death, McKee tweeted a photo of the rioting with the words: “Derry tonight. Absolute madness.”

Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil on Friday that McKee’s amazing potential had been snuffed out. Canning said the senseless murder “has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with.”

Catholic priest Joseph Gormley, who administered the last rites to McKee, told the BBC that the rioting was “clearly orchestrated” by a “small group of people who want to play political games with our lives.”

He said he and other community leaders had tried to talk to the dissidents without success. AP

Green Monday BusinessMirror

B4 Monday, April 22, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Pace of Bering Sea changes startles scientists

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NCHORAGE, Alaska—The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska’s northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms.

Frigid north winds blow down from the Arctic Ocean, freeze saltwater and push sea ice south. The ice normally prevents waves from forming and locks onto beaches, walling off villages.

But not this year.

In February, southwest winds brought warm air and turned thin sea ice into “snow cone ice” that melted or blew off. When a storm pounded Norton Sound, water on February 12 surged up the Yukon River and into Kotlik, flooding low-lying homes. Lifelong resident Philomena Keyes, 37, awoke to knee-deep water outside her house.

“This is the first I experienced in my life, a flood that happened in the winter, in February,” Keyes said in a phone interview.

Winter stor m surge f looding is the latest indication that something’s off-kilter around the Bering Strait, the gateway from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean.

Rapid, profound changes tied to high atmospheric temperatures, a direct result of climate change, may be reordering the region’s physical makeup. Ocean researchers are asking themselves if they’re witnessing the transformation of an ecosystem.

The Bering Sea last winter saw record-low sea ice. Climate models predicted less ice, but not this soon, said Seth Danielson, a physical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“The projections were saying we would’ve hit situations similar to what we saw last year, but

not for another 40 or 50 years,” Danielson said.

Walruses and seals use sea ice to rest and give birth. Villagers use sea ice to hunt them. Sea ice is the primary habitat of polar bears.

Algae that clings to the bottom of sea ice blooms in spring, dies and sinks, sending an infusion of food to clams, snails and sea worms on the ocean floor—the prey of gray whales, walruses and bearded seals.

Sea ice also affects commercially valuable fish. Sea ice historically has created a Bering Sea “cold pool,” an east-west barrier of extremely cold, salty water at the bottom of the wide, shallow continental shelf. The wall of cold water historically has concentrated Pacific cod and walleye pollock in the southeastern Bering Sea. “It tends to extend from the Russian side to the northwest,” said Lyle Britt, a fisheries biologist for the National Oceanic and At mospher ic Ad m i n ist rat ion (NOAA). “It kind of comes down almost like a little hockey stick shape...through the center of the southeast Bering Sea.” However, when Britt and other NOA A researchers last year conducted annual fish and ocean condition surveys, they got a big surprise: For the first time in 37 years, they found no cold pool.

Researchers found high concentrations of Pacific cod and walleye pollock in the northern Bering Sea. But the species that was supposed to be there, Arctic cod, was hardly found.

Jessie Royer passes icebergs in open water on Norton Sound as she approaches Nome, Alaska, in the Iditarod trail sled dog race on March 13. Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP

More than half the fish landed in US waters come from the North Pacific, and most are caught in the Bering Sea. Chad See, executive director of the Freezer Longline Coalition, a trade association of vessels that target Pacific cod using baited lines, said members caught their quota last year but had to travel farther north.

“Does that mean that the stock is declining, is suffering because of the warming temperatures? Or is it that they’ve moved north and it’s still a vibrant fishery?” See said.

It’s too soon to conclude that atmosphere and ocean changes are due simply to climate change,

said NOAA physical oceanographer Phyllis Stabeno, who has studied the Bering Sea for more than 30 years.

The southern Bering Sea since 2000 has undergone multiyear stanzas of low and extensive ice, she said.

W hen sea ice in November began for ming as usua l, she e x pected a bounce-bac k t his w inter. Instead, war m w inds in Februar y mostly cleared the northern Bering Sea of sea ice through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea. “We’re in winter,” she said.

“This is all supposed to be frozen.”

Formation of the cold pool is

Does that mean that the stock is declining, is suffering because of the warming temperatures? Or is it that they’ve moved north and it’s still a vibrant fishery?”—See

again in doubt. It could return in the future, but temperatures are trending upward with the rate of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere.

Scientists say figuring out the ocean physics is far less of a challenge than projecting the biological ramifications.

“We sort of opened up this whole Pandora’s box of not really knowing how the ecosystem as a whole is going to adjust to that,” Danielson said.

T he US Fish a nd W i ld l i fe Service, and the National Park Service early last summer detected trouble. Resident called with reports of emaciated and dead seabirds.

Common murres, which can use up fat reserves and starve after three days without eating, fly hundreds miles to find fish schools or krill but were washing up dead on shore.

Forktail storm petrels, fulmars, shearwaters, kittiwakes, auklets and puffins also died.

No one can say why. Seabird

experts wonder whether the presence of more pollock and Pacific cod, which have voracious appetites and are far more efficient hunters of forage fish than seabirds, was a factor.

Dean Stockwell, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a specialty in phytoplankton, said the ocean changes have the potential to affect plant life at the bottom of the food web but it’s too soon to know.

O f i m m e d i at e c o n c e r n i s w he t he r w a r me r w at e r w i l l allow harmful algae containing toxins to stay viable long e nou g h for s he l l f i s h to e at them and pass toxins to marine mammals and people. Toxins are being carried to the Arctic, Stockwell said. “ T he question w it h globa l warming types of things is, ‘Can it get a foothold? Can they do damage?’” he said.

Seabird experts wonder if toxins played a role in recent seabird deaths by affecting their ability to forage.

No one has connected the dots, said Britt, the NOA A fisheries biologist.

“At the moment, nobody’s sitting with in-hand a comprehensive research study that covers the birds and the mammals, and the fish and the zooplankton all in one synthesized report,” he said, adding that it will take researchers more time to figure out what’s going on.

Meantime, Kot lik resident Keyes is researching c limate change effects in her coastal village of 650 as project coordinator for a team working under a Bureau of Indian Affairs program.

The absence of sea ice since mid-February meant taking land routes to visit nearby villages, she said. And seal hunters this spring found bearded seals to harvest but not near the village.

Like the cod fishermen, “They had to go farther north,” Keyes said. AP

Merkel puts on tarnished climate crown as she opens Baltic wind park

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Pope Francis greets Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg (center) during his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican. AP/Gregorio Borgia

Greta takes climate-change campaign to Vatican, meets pope

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ATICAN CITY—Swedish teenage e n v i ro n m e n t a l a c t i v i s t G re t a Thunberg has brought her climatechange campaign to the Vatican, where she met with Pope Francis and carried a sign saying “Join the climate strike.”

Thunberg arrived late for Francis’s general audience on Wednesday and took her seat in the VIP section in Saint Peter’s Square. Francis went up to her at the end of the audience, where Thunberg showed off her sign.

She is in Rome to headline on Friday’s “school strike,” the growing worldwide yo u t h m ove m e nt s h e s p e a r h e a d e d demanding faster action against climate change. Thunberg will also address the Italian parliament.

In Francis, Thunberg has found a kindred spirit. The Jesuit pope has made fighting climate change and caring for God’s creation a pillar of his papacy.

EU warned: It’s time to panic

I n B r u s s e l s, t h e Swe d i s h te e n a g e environmental activist says time is running out to halt climate change and she’s urging European politicians “to panic.”

Thunberg told EU lawmakers earlier: “I want you to act as if the house is on fire.”

She said that “if our house was falling apart you wouldn’t hold three emergency Brexit summits, and no emergency summit regarding the breakdown of the climate and environment.”

During a speech met with a standing ovation, Thunberg fought back tears as she warned about rapid species extinctions, soil erosion, deforestation and the pollution of oceans.

In a reference to the international funding effort launched to rebuild the fireravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, she urged the lawmakers to use “cathedral thinking” to tackle climate change. AP

ngela Merkel will leave Brexit worries by the shoreline as she cuts the opening ribbon on a giant wind farm out in the Baltic Sea, a move that will do little to gloss over her tarnished reputation as Germany’s climate chancellor.

The Arkona wind park, a joint venture of utility E.ON SE and Norway’s oil and gas giant Equinor ASA, is in her constituency. Built in just three months off the coast of Ruegen Island, the 60-turbine site can generate enough power for 400,000 homes and is the largest wind farm in the Baltic. It’s a home turf celebration for Merkel, who usually can’t find the time to open new green projects.

The German leader last year turned down invitations to open Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA’s turbine factory in Cuxhaven on the North Sea and Iberdrola SA’s Wikinger Baltic offshore park, also in her backyard. Yet, climate woes are stacking up in Merkel’s last two years as chancellor.

Cutting the ribbon for the Arkona park “underlines just how important it is for us to expand renewable energy,” Merkel said in her weekly podcast. Her government is doubling down on cutting emissions after resolving this year to exit coal power, she

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a toy windmill during the launching of an offshore wind park in the Baltic Sea near Ruegen Island in Sassnitz-Mukran, Germany.

Bernd Wuestneck/dpa via AP

said. “It’s clear we’re facing enormous efforts ahead.”

Emissions have barely dropped since Merkel took office in 2005, even with clean power now generating about 40 percent of electricity. Subsidies paid by power consumers to support wind, solar and biomass have made the nation’s electricity bills the highest in the EU-28 after Denmark.

Germany is the bloc’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter.

As temperatures soared last summer to a national record, polls showed climate returned to voters’ biggest worries. The

Rhine, Europe’s busiest river artery, sank to near-record lows, disrupting oil and coal transport. Withered corn and wheat fields forced Germany to import grains for the first time in 24 years.

That’s all while Germany let its climate goals slip and Merkel’s government blocks ambitious transport emission cuts at European level, moves that have scotched her claims to being the “climate chancellor,” according to Claudia Kemfert who follows energy policy at the DIW research institute in Berlin.

“Germany has gone from being a climate pioneer to a laggard,” Kemfert said.

Merkel, an eastern German protegé of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, was the nation’s environment minister from 1994 to 1998, a tenure marked by revived protests against nuclear energy.

The experience may have stiffened her resolve to wind down nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima catastrophe in 2011 and let clean power subsidies run virtually unchecked this decade. Her administration seeks a 65-percent share for green power in the nation’s energy mix by 2030.

Merkel and her newly appointed “climate Cabinet” of ministers may be faced with the biggest policy decision since Fukushima, giving a further clue to an intensified focus on cutting emissions.

Germany must mull over how to put a price on carbon output in sectors outside the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, including the “sleeping giant” of emissions from buildings and from transportation, she said in her podcast.

“By the end of the year we’ll need to decide whether we approach CO2 [carbon dioxide] sector by sector or focus on a price mechanism across the board,” she said. Bloomberg News

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, April 22, 2019

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

B5

PHL Eagle: Ultimate survivor Story by Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

the roles played by individuals in protecting, conserving and saving it from extinction.

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ith only about 400 pairs left in the wild, the iconic Philippine eagle, scientifically named Pithecophaga jefferyi, one of the largest and most powerful eagles in the world, is on the brink of extinction.

Despite threats posed by hunting and habitat loss, every pair of this giant raptor struggles to survive in dwindling forests.

With the ever-increasing human popu lation, which adds pressure on wildlife habitats, is there a chance for this rare bird of prey to survive and defy natural extinction?

Defying extinction

Wor ld-r enow ned w ildlife cinematographer Neil Rettig said there is a chance for the Philippine eagle to survive.

But its natural habitats, or what’s left of it, must be seriously protected, expand the forest cover through massive reforestation activities, and more importantly, educate the people and inspire communities to help protect the country’s iconic bird.

“There are several different, very necessary steps to save the Philippine eagle. No. 1 is to protect all the remaining primary forest.…

Protect it seriously, guard it. No. 2, encourage replanting of trees so that biodiversity could grow.

Three, family planning for the country may be good. That is the way it is all around the world. Even in the United States. Then control poaching, educate and inspire the people, then maybe, the eagle has a chance,” Rettig, a six-time Emmy award winner, told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

Actually, Rettig was surprised that the Philippine Eagle continues to exist in fragmented forests.

He noted the rehabilitation of degraded forest and the declaration of ban on logging that helped protect and conserve the country’s biological diversity are “encouraging,” as they are needed for species like the Philippine eagle to survive.

From the time of his first visit to the Philippines in the late 1970s, Rettig said efforts to save the Philippine eagle from extinction, citing the works of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), have somehow paid off and bought it more time.

Fighting alongside eagles

A private nonstock, nonprofit organization, the PEF works toward giving the Philippine Eagle a fighting chance to survive and thrive in its natural territory.

Since the 1990s, the organization has embarked on a successful captive-breeding program. A Philippine eagle named “Pag-asa,” meaning hope, was hatched on January 15, 1992. A male eagle, it was the first Philippine eagle to be bred and hatched in captivity. To date, there are 28 Philippine eagles successfully bred and hatched in captivity.

The PEF maintains a rescue and rehabilitation center, the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City, where it is also conducting scientific research and breeding of the eagle.

Besides rescue, PEF also works with communities to protect the the eagle’s natural habitat and the forests, and mitigate the problem of deforestation and continuous degradation of the environment.

According to Dennis Salvador, executive director of PEF, the PEF remains critically endangered. He said that one way to save it from extinction is to increase the awareness about the eagle and to protect its habitats for its population to rebound.

“They [Philippine eagle] continue to be shot in the wild. That is the problem. We need policymakers to address the issue of law enforcement and, hopefully, help change the behavior of the people,” he said.

According to Salvador, it is important for communities to protect the forest against destructive activities, including illegal mining, quarrying and logging.

He said the PEF continues to work with communities around known nesting sites of the Philippine Eagle, through various capacity-building and livelihood training, to lessen their dependence on the forest, and more importantly, become partners in conservation.

“They must be able to protect the forest, the watershed, on our behalf,” he said.

Highly vulnerable

The Philippine eagle is highly vulnerable. Among the threats to its existence are shooting, hunting and deforestation, which threaten their dwindling population even within so-called Protected Areas, or areas that are set aside for conservation.

A pair of the Philippine eagle

Flashback: Marcos era

A pair of Philippine eagles watch over their newly hatched chick on top of their nest. Philippine Eagle Foundation/Cornell Lab of Ornithology

needs at least a radius of 7 kilometers of healthy forest to survive and, eventually, to reproduce.

Each pair exists for life. It is seldom that a single parenteagle hatches an egg and raises a chick on its own, although the PEF recently documented one such unique case.

Reproduction of the eagle, as observed by scientists, happen every two years at the minimum, during which a female lays an egg. Incubation by both female and male parents is needed for it to hatch.

Both parents need to hunt for food to feed the chick until it is fully grown. It takes at least six months for a fledgling eagle to finally leave its nest and fend for itself in territories outside that of its parents.

Rapid population growth

R ett ig reca l led t hat in t he 1970s, the Philippines was starting to experience rapid population growth. The growth and development occurring all over the country, he said, also saw the rapid rate of deforestation.

Rettig, who came “up close and personal ” anew with the Philippine eagle in the six-month filming of the “Bird of Prey” in 2013 and 2014 explored anew the

vanishing world of the Philippine eagle in the mountainous regions of Mindanao.

Somewhere in Mount Sinaka, in the Arakan Valley of North Cotabato, Rettig and his crew documented a family of Philippine eagles and witnessed to their struggle to survive.

Protected bird

It was in 1977 when then a youthful Rettig first came to the Philippines, on Mount Apo, to film the life of the rarest bird in the world.

Retig who became the first person to document the bird, revealed its plight to the world and convinced the Philippine government to act and avert what could be the extinction of a national treasure.

He was able to convince former President Ferdinand E. Marcos to protect the monkey-eating eagle. In 1978, Marcos issued a presidential proclamation naming it the Philippine eagle.

On July 4, 1995, then-President Fidel V. Ramos, under Proclamation 615, declared it as the national bird.

Besides the two presidential proclamations, it was declared that shooting and hunting of the bird of prey is prohibited under Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and

They [Philippine eagle] continue to be shot in the wild. That is the problem. We need policy-makers to address the issue of law enforcement and, hopefully, help change the behavior of the people.”—Salvador

Globe Rewards customers donate P1.6M for 16,000 trees in Bukidnon

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t was a cause worth every peso and point.

Less than a month ago, Globe Telecom encouraged all its mobile customers to donate their 2018 expiring rewards points to help restore the Philippines’s primary rainforest cover via Hineleban Foundation as part of the company’s rainforestation advocacy. For every 100-point donation, (1 point is equal to P1), Globe Rewards users were able to fund one tree for planting and even give it a name.

The response was unbelievable. In just 13 days, the rewards points donated by Globe customers reached 1,600,300 points, or P1.6 million, enough to plant 16,003 trees covering 16 hectares of denuded forest areas in Bukidnon.

So far, it was the highest donation amount raised in the shortest number of days since Globe Rewards opened up use of rewards points for donation. Globe Rewards is the

baseline loyalty program of Globe Postpaid, Prepaid and TM. Customers can earn points and enjoy exclusive offers by simply being loyal with Globe.

“We are happy to see our customers becoming par t of our environmental sustainability efforts, because we all need to be aware that everything is interconnected.

For instance, if we bring back our rainforests, then we increase our ground water storage or aquifers, and in turn avoid a water crisis. The task is undoubtedly massive but we believe that these simple and small ways can go a long way in helping reach this objective,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe chief sustainability officer and senior vice president for Corporate Communications.

Hineleban is a sacred Binukid term literally meaning “Mother Tree of the rainforest that sustains the cycle of all life.” The term

was adopted by Hineleban Foundation, a nonstock, nonprofit organization based in Bukidnon, Mindanao. Its vision is to ensure the nation’s water, food and human security by reforesting the mountain ranges of Mindanao, home to the country’s last watersheds, and are inhabited by indigenous people (IP) and Bangsamoro communities.

Globe and Hineleban Foundation’s partnership began in December 2016 where they entered into a Sacred Customar y Compact with the IPs, as well as a Peace and Development role with the Bangsamoro people to identify steps to fulfil the dream of rainforestation.

They are currently reforesting 300 hectares of denuded primary rainforests, a fraction of the 44,000 hectares surveyed and targeted by the foundation in Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur. The program is structured into five

phases over a five-year period, lasting until December 2021.

The reforestation process begins with the planting of calliandra to quell acidic cogonal grass. This is followed by the planting of tree species that are ideal for agroforestry, including Brazilian fire trees and Caribbean pine trees.

Intercropping then becomes the objective, with 600 indigenous tree species per hectare planted to secure the area as a permanent watershed. Some of the species grown are almon, bagtikan, mayapis, apitong, red lauan, palosapis, white lauan, olayan, katii and nato.

Hineleban Foundation’s reforestation methodology is internationally recognized, having received the Grand Prize Award for best project in the forestry sector from the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and the French Development Agency in 2015.

Protection Act, also known as the Wildlife Act. Before the law was enacted, the Philippine eagle was first protected by Presidential Administrative Order 235 on August 25, 1970.

On the other hand, Republic Act 6147 was enacted on November 9, 1970, and clarified by General Administrative Order 1, Series of 1971, on May 10, 1974.

The law not only protects the eagle, it also provides for government funding to enforce its preservation and study its biology.

Award-winning documentary

Already in his 60s when he accepted the challenge of filming the Philippine eagle once again, Rettig, together with his wife, Laura Johnson and his crew, st ayed on t he mou nt a i ns of Arakan Valley for six months between November 2013 and May 2014 to capture in film the struggles of a family of Philippine eagles—from the time of the incubation of an egg, up to it’s hatching, to raising the young chick until it grows its feathers and wings, and eventually f lies from its nest to find its own territor y.

After the filming on site, it took Rettig and his team more than two years to come up with the Emmy Award-winning documentary, which was finally premiered in the The Philippines at a cinema in Makati on April 3. It is also scheduled to be shown in other locations.

Produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in partnership with the PEF, the Bird of Prey gives a flashback on the grim scenario under martial law and highlights the endeavors of institutions and

In the documentary, veteran journalist Marites Vitug said forest destruction during the Marcos era was done with impunity.

“No one was watching, so they destroyed the forest with impunity,” Vitug said.

Howie Severino, another veteran journalist, said: “There were organizations working to conserve the forests, but there are powerful people they are up against. They are gaining ground, but time was not on their side.”

“We don’t have the luxury of space in the Philippines,” Severino added, as he discussed the issue of the ever-increasing population that added stress on the environment.

The late Elias Balut Sr., a resident of Apayao, said commercial logging companies back then destroyed Apayao’s forest, cut their trees and destroyed the rivers.

“We are at the losing end at the end of the day,” he added.

Pat Dugan, a forester, said during those times, the government was so corrupt that one just had to bribe the inspector to get away.

National treasure

The Philippine eagle, considered a national treasure, is one of its kind of species in the world.

Actually, scientists have declared in a peer-reviewed paper that it is a prehistoric animal that existed long before the humans have first walked on Earth. Thus, losing the eagle means a loss for humanity, and it is the duty and responsibility of the Filipinos to protect them and prevent their extinction.

The late biologist Perry Ong, in the documentary, said: “The Philippine eagle could be found only in the Philippines, but it’s the property of the world.”

Ong, a trustee of PEF, led a team that studied the genetics of Philippine eagle from Luzon, Samar and Mindanao, and found out that these populations are genetically similar.

Pedro Walpole, executive director of the Environmental Science for Social Change, said for his part: “You might dismiss it as silly, but the value of the Philippine eagle is immeasurable.”

Awareness, attitude and hope

“If you are looking for an A for awareness, I am looking for an A for attitude, and that is something that sticks in your gut,” he added.

Jayson Ibanez, PEF director for research and conservation, said that to save the Philippine eagle, everybody should move forward.

For the Philippine eagle, as well as other threatened species, hope springs eternal.

“There are no hopeless cases, but only people losing hope,” he said.

Endangered whale experiencing mini-baby boom off New England

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n endangered species of whale is experiencing a mini-baby boom in New England waters, researchers on Cape Cod have said.

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest species of whale on the planet, numbering only about 411.

But the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said its aerial survey team spotted two mom and calf pairs in Cape Cod Bay a day earlier.

That brings the number seen in New England waters alone this year to three.

That’s big news because the whale’s population has been falling, and no calves were seen last year. In all, seven right whale calves have been seen so far this year.

The whales give birth off Georgia and Florida in the winter and travel to feeding grounds off New England in the early spring, including the Gulf of Maine, a body of water that touches Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Canada.

Cape Cod Bay is par t of the Gulf of Maine and is a critically important feeding ground. The animals often feed close to shore, providing watchers on land “unbeatable views of one of the rarest of marine mammals,” the Center for Coastal Studies said in a statement.

It’s illegal to get within 1,500 feet (457 meters) of the animals without a federal research permit, so boaters are discouraged from attempting to get close to the whales. AP

B6 Monday, April 22, 2019

CALTEX TAKES LOYALTY PROGRAMS A NOTCH HIGHER

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ISING prices of basic goods have consumers’ pockets hurting. Filipinos work hard for their money and are always looking for ways to bring more to the table.

Caltex, marketed by Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), has long understood the value of giving more to the motorists who fuel up with them with the various rewards programs that they have rolled out through the years. Now they are giving their customers even more reasons to keep coming back with their latest rewards program in partnership with MVP Rewards and Loyalty Solutions Inc. The MVP Rewards is exclusive to customers of PLDT, SMART, Sun, TNT, Cignal and Bayad Center.

Everyday expenses can be rewarding because you earn points when you pay your bills or load up and so much more. Just by being a member, enjoy exclusive deals, discounts and privileges. “We have designed the MVP Rewards program with one audience in mind, [and that’s] our customers. We have taken what’s best across industries and put it in one powerful program leveraging on the PLDT group that has the unique ability to provide this level of convergence owing to the breadth of our combined services,” said Senior Vice President Juan Victor Hernandez, director of MVP Rewards and Loyalty

METROBANK TAPPED AS ONE OF PAG-IBIG’S FUND MANAGERS

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ETROPOLITAN Bank and Trust Co. (MTBC) is chosen as one of the local equity fund managers (LEFM) of the Home Development Mut ua l Fund (PagIBIG Fund).

According to Pag-IBIG Fund Chief E x e c ut ive O f f ice r (C E O) A c m ad R izaldy Moti, the Pag-IBIG Fund will invest a total of P5 billion in local equities, broken down into five P1-billion lots. “. . . I n 2 0 1 8 o u r t o t a l a s s e t s breac hed t he P50 0 -bi l l ion m a rk for the first time. We owe it to the 14 -million Pag-IBIG Fund members who trust [in] us... Thus, we are t ap p i n g Me t rob a n k ’s e x p e r t i s e , sound policies and effective fundmanagement strategies to manage part of our equity fund to help us s u st a i n t he f u nd ’s g ro w t h t h at will redound to the benefit of our members,” Moti said.

The Metrobank, along with four other LEFMs who participated in the bid, secured one of the five lots.

“We are privileged to work with Pag-IBIG Fund in their first foray to the stock market,” said Metrobank S e n ior V ice P reside nt a nd he ad of tr ust bank ing group Dondi Santillan.

“Our over six decades of banking and investment experience, along with our award-winning fund managers, ensures that the investment is in good hands,” he continued.

The Pag-IBIG Fund remains as one of the strongest government institutions today with P533.72 billion in total assets as of December 2018.

I n p h o t o a r e P a g - I B IG F u n d of f icers: (f rom lef t) Mar i lene C .

Acosta, deputy CEO, home lending operations cluster; A lexander Hi l a r io G. A g u i l a r, deput y CEO,

member ser vices cluster; Reynaldo M. Ma laya, officer in charge, financial ser vices sector and vice president of the fund management group; lawyer Robert John S. Cosico, officer in charge, support ser vices c lu ster a nd c h ief leg a l cou n se l ; Moti; Leandro Antonio G. Santillan, head of trust banking group, MBTC; Ma. Jizzelle Lee M. Beltran, head, trust sales and marketing division, MBTC; and Mitzi A. Robles, head of trust sales south Metro Manila department, MBTC.

Solutions Inc., and head of enterprise business for PLDT and Smart.

Already starting since April 15, MVP Rewards members can earn cashback when they fuel up at Caltex stations nationwide. Customers can get P1 cashback equivalent for every 5 liters of platinum with Techron, silver with Techron or diesel with TechronD of fuel purchase. All they need to do is to present their MVP Rewards card powered by PayMaya when they pay, to earn their cashback.

“Caltex is always aiming to be the best value fuel in the market, and coming up with different and exciting ways to give back to our loyal customers is one of the many ways we achieve this goal,” said Louie Zhang, CPI country chairman. “We take a very holistic approach when it comes to our rewards program, too, covering food, groceries and with the addition of MVP Rewards cashback.”

Fuel up and get cashback today with Caltex and MVP Rewards. Not yet an MVP Rewards member? Simply visit www.mvprewards.ph/signup to create your rewards profile and enroll your PLDT, Smart, Sun, TNT and Cignal accounts to start enjoying points, rebates, raffles and so much more.

You can also visit the nearest PLDT and Smart store, or Bayad Center to sign up and get your rewards card.

PHILIPPINE-ISLAMIC HOUSING AGREEMENT SIGNED

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HE National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) sealed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) to jointly explore housing-financing methods to promote homeownership to their respective countries.

The MOC was inked by Cagamas President and Chief Executive Officer Datuk Chung Chee Leong, and NHMFC President Dr. Felixberto U. Bustos Jr. Datuk Chung said, “The MOC marks an important milestone in the collaboration between Cagamas and NHMFC. Cagamas welcomes this initiative, which aims to enhance the strategic cooperation between Malaysia and Philippines including, among others, research and knowledge sharing related to housing finance. This initiative is in line with both institutions’ mandate to develop the secondary mortgage-finance market.”

The MOC enables the wealth of domestic experience in housing finance, mortgage and financial instruments to be mutually exchanged between Malaysia and Philippines. This is expected to enhance the stability of housing and mortgage markets, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), as well as other funding instruments to leverage private capital to the housing market. A central feature includes identifying and attracting private and public capital investment.

Cagamas is the second-largest issuer of debt instruments after the government of Malaysia and

the largest issuer of AAA corporate bonds and sukuk in the market. Since incorporation in 1986, Cagamas has cumulatively issued circa 319.1 billion ringgit ($96 billion) worth of corporate bonds and sukuk. “...This MOC espouses our aim to create a Shari’ahcompliant pool of assets through Islamic housing finance,” Bustos said at the event.

With the corporation’s impending issuance of sukuk bonds, he requested assistance from Cagamas in initially creating the Shari’ah council, structuring of the asset for the sukuk issuance, and assistance in terms of marketing the sukuk issuance and, later, in strengthening the NHMFC work force through knowledge sharing, trainings and marketing partnership.

At present, NHMFC has identified five projects that are potential for sukuk issuance.

Bustos (seated, left) and Datuk Chung (seated, right) sealed an MOC to jointly explore housing-finance methods to promote homeownership in both countries.

This momentous event was witnessed by (standing, from left) Luisa Favila, Vice President Rosabella C. Jose, Executive Vice President Livia Alicia R. Ramos; Cagamas Berhad Assistant Vice President Sekaram Chandra Kumar, Senior Vice President Leong See Meng and Vice President Mandeep Singh Sandhu.

INVEST IN PEOPLE, CREATE RURAL WORK TO GAIN GLOBAL TALENT—SITEL EXEC

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E believe that investing in people and bringing global contact-center career opportunities to the rural countryside has allowed us to develop incredible Filipino talent outside of Metro Manila,” this has what Haidee Enriquez, Sitel Philippines general manager, emphasized in her talk at the recently concluded Asia BMP Summit 2019. She shared the opportunities of countryside development and why it remains a key pillar in Sitel’s growth strategy. “In investing in rural expansions and developing greenfield locations, we not only grow our business but also provide more Filipinos outside of Manila with employment and learning opportunities. Through our people programs, like Sitel Academy, we nurture and grow rural talent creating a robust and passionate work force,” she added.

Enriquez joined IT-BPM business leaders for the summit—aptly titled “Baby We’re Back!”—to highlight latest industry developments and innovations. “There was some fear a year ago as to whether the industry would continue to grow,” explained Richard Mills, chief executive officer, Chalre Associates. “But we still see tremendous growth and potential, so we must continue promoting our capabilities. This summit brings experts in the field together to share growth stories, best practices and innovations.”

“Participation in events like these is a good way to share what we are doing not just

to boost the industry, but to help the overall community as well,” Enriquez shared. “I believe highlighting our commitment to invest in growing our countryside locations and nurturing the communities is a good way to share insights with other summit participants and enjoin them to follow suit.”

RIGHT TO EXIST Sports BusinessMirror

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| Monday, April 22, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

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By Eric Olson The Associated Press

INCOLN, Nebraska—Noor Ahmed outwardly lives her Muslim faith, and even growing up in a state as diverse as California she says she encountered hostility on the street, in school and on the golf course.

One of the top junior golfers in Northern California coming out of high school, Ahmed was a starter in her first year at Nebraska and the No. 2 player most of this spring.

She is believed to be the only golfer at the college level or higher who competes in a hijab, the headscarf worn in adherence to the Muslim faith.

Arriving in Lincoln two years ago, Ahmed sensed hesitancy from teammates mostly from small Midwestern towns and unaccustomed to seeing a woman in a hijab. She didn’t feel embraced until an unfortunate yet unifying event roiled the campus midway through her freshman year.

A video surfaced of a student claiming to be the “most active white nationalist in the Nebraska area,” disparaging minorities and advocating violence. The student, it turned out, was in the same biology lecture class as Ahmed.

Teammates offered to walk with her across campus, and one who would become her best friend, Kate Smith, invited Ahmed to stay with her. She didn’t accept but was heartened by the gesture.

“That,” Smith said, “was when she realized how much each and every one of us care for her on the team, that it wasn’t just like, ‘Hey you’re our teammate.’ No, it’s ‘We want you to be safe, we want you to feel at home here.’”

Having grown up in the post-9/11 era, Ahmed, like many Muslims in the United States, has been a target for bullying and verbal abuse. She began wearing the hijab in middle school.

On the course, in an airport or even walking across campus she can feel the long stares and notices the glances.

She said she has never been physically threatened—“that I know of”—and that most of the face-to-face insults came before she arrived at Nebraska.

Much of the venom spewed at her now comes on social media. She has been the subject of several media profiles, and each sparks another round of hateful messages. She acknowledges she reads but doesn’t respond to messages and that an athletic department

sports psychologist has helped her learn how to deal with them.

“I’ve been called every racial slur in the book,” she said.

“I’ve been told explicitly that people who look like me don’t play golf, we don’t have a right to exist in America, you should go home. It would definitely faze me a little bit, but it never deterred me. I’m really stubborn, so I’m going to prove you wrong, just wait. When people think they’re dragging me down, it kind of fuels the fire in me that I’m going to be a better golfer, I’m going to be a better student, I’m going to keep climbing up the ladder.”

The daughter of Egyptian immigrants is from a close-knit family in Folsom, California, and she steeled herself for the cultural adjustment she would have to make at Nebraska.

She dealt with loneliness and anxiety, especially her freshman year. She had difficulty finding a support network.

There is a small Muslim community on campus, but she didn’t immerse herself in it. The demands on athletes are great, and they are largely segregated, eating and studying in facilities separate from those used by regular students.

Nebraska Coach Robin Krapfl said she was initially concerned about how teammates would react to Ahmed.

Krapfl remembered meeting with her golfers and telling them about her.

“I could tell by a couple of the looks and maybe even a comment or two that they weren’t 100 percent comfortable with that,” Krapfl said. “A lot of our girls come from small-town communities that are very limited in their ethnicity. It’s just the fear of the unknown. They had just never been exposed to being around someone from the Muslim faith.”

Krapfl said she saw a golfer or two roll their eyes, another shook her head. “I overheard, ‘Why would Coach bring someone like that on the team?’“ “Luckily when she got here people could see her for who she was and the quality of person she was,” Krapfl said. “It took a while. It really did. You’ve got to get to know somebody, who they really are and not just what they look like.”

Smith said she sometimes cringes when she and Ahmed are in a group and the conversation turns to politics, immigration or even fashion, like when someone innocently or ignorantly tells Ahmed that she would look good in a short dress or a certain hairstyle.

“She can never wear a short dress, so why would

you want to depict her as that?” Smith said. “You have to respect her beliefs and why she’s doing it. Also, I think a lot of things are connected to women’s beauty standards and how people don’t think she can look beautiful when she’s covered. I think she’s a really beautiful girl no matter how much skin she’s showing.”

For all the challenges Ahmed faced, there have been positives. Some people have complimented her for living her faith as she sees fit, a Muslim teen who golfs in a hijab and lives in the United Kingdom wrote to say she draws inspiration from her, and a player for another college team approached her at an event to tell her she recently converted to Islam and just wanted to say hi.

“I remember going and crying and, wow, I’m not alone out here,” she said.

Ahmed said she’s naturally shy and a bit uncomfortable with the attention, but she hopes Muslim girls coming up behind her are watching.

“I grew up never seeing anyone like me,” she said.

“Honestly, I didn’t realize how much grief I was carrying, having never seen an image of myself or someone who looked like me in popular American culture. It’s a big deal.

“Why are basketball and football so heavily African American? If I were black and I saw people who looked like me competing in that sport, that’s probably the sport I would choose. I think it’s really important when we’re talking about trying to make golf and other sports and other areas in American culture diverse, how important it is to see someone who looks like you and how it will fuel other people’s interest.”

Ahmed started playing golf at eight, and her parents encouraged her to take the sport to the highest level possible. Wearing the hijab has never interfered with her game and she has never considered not wearing it on the course.

“I think Muslim women who choose to observe it or choose not to observe it have the right to exist in any space they want to be in,” she said, “and I would feel like I would be sending a message that the hijab doesn’t exist in this place or it shouldn’t, and I don’t feel comfortable with that.”

NOOR AHMED is believed to be the only golfer at the college level or higher who competes in a hijab. AP

Players boycotting social media on racism become target of abuse

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ANCHESTER, England—Footballers in England boycotting social media in a protest against racism were targeted with abuse about the 24-hour campaign.

Talks with the social-media companies are now being urgently sought by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), which coordinated the “Enough” campaign to demand a crackdown on racism by the platforms.

There was silence on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram from many players starting on Friday for 24 hours.

“Yesterday, some members received racist abuse on their #Enough posts. When these incidents were reported, the response from social networks was— again—unacceptable,” the PFA said in a statement to The Associated Press. “In the coming days, we will be inviting players to report any racist abuse they have received to us. We will collate it and share it with social platforms to demonstrate the impact of their lack of action.”

Social-media companies did not appear to respond on their networks to the players’ concerns despite widespread coverage and support from Fifa for the boycott.

“We will be requesting meetings with each of the social platforms as a matter of priority,” the PFA said. “Meetings with the Football Association and the government are planned for next month. This is a first step in a larger

player-led campaign to tackle racism and demand meaningful change.”

The boycott was led by Tottenham defender Danny Rose, who was targeted with monkey noises while playing for England in Montenegro last month, and Manchester United defender Chris Smalling, who called for more stringent regulation of posts on social media.

The Philadelphia Flyers, meanwhile, covered a statue of singer Kate Smith outside their arena, following the New York Yankees in cutting ties and looking into allegations of racism against the 1930s star with a popular recording of “God Bless America.”

Flyers officials said on Friday that they also plan to remove Smith’s “God Bless America” recording from their

BARCELONA’S Luis Suarez (left) competes against Manchester United’s Chris Smalling during their Champions League quarterfinal match as a partially covered statue of singer Kate Smith is seen near the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. AP

library. They say several other songs performed by Smith “contain offensive lyrics that do not reflect our values as an organization.”

The New York Daily News reported the Yankees suspending their use of Smith’s recording during the seventh-inning stretch amid conflicting claims about several of her songs, including a 1939 song “That’s Why the Darkies Were Born.” The tune originated in

the 1931 Broadway revue George White’s Scandals, and was considered satire at the time. Smith’s likeness also appears in a 1939 ad that heavily uses the mammy caricature, one of the most well-known racist depictions of black women.

Smith died in 1986.

Smith’s connection with the Flyers started in 1969 when a team executive ordered her version of “God Bless

America” to be played instead of “The Star Spangled Banner.” That led to her performing the song several times before games in the 1970s.

The Yankees have used her recording of “God Bless America” and sometimes live singers during the seventh inning since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

They have used her version twice this season and have mostly played an organ version. AP

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120-strong Team Philippines competing in Arafura Games

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HE Philippines will field a lean 120-member delegation to the Arafura Games that returns next month after an eight-year hiatus.

The Filipino bets, who are competing through the auspices of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), are among 15,000 athletes and coaches who are competing in the 10-day multisport event that VELASCO kicks off on Friday.

Marc Edward Velasco, PSC’s national training director and delegation’s deputy chef de mission, said that the agency is fielding bets in 10 of 17 sports in the games program—including para athletics.

“PSC Chairman William Ramirez’s instruction is to send a strong team, to select the best among our players in the developmental level,” Velasco said.

Team Philippines is composed of winners in the Philippine National Games, Batang Pinoy and Palarong Pambansa. They hail from

Davao City, which is fielding 70, and Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Davao del Norte, General Santos and Palawan are also on the team.

“The delegates were rigorously selected, and that they are part of the PSC’s ‘sports pyramid’ where athletes at the grassroots level are provided opportunities to compete on the global stage,” Velasco said.

“Although the Arafura Games are a friendly competition, the level is high given the number and skills of the competitors they will be facing. It is a good exposure.”

The team flies to Darwin on Wednesday on board a chartered Philippine Airlines flight.

The Filipino-Australian Association of the Northern Territories led by Raul Daet, as well as the Philippine Consulate headed by Consul John Rivas, have pledged to support Team Philippines. The Arafura Games was last held in 2011 but was suspended because of a global health scare.

Japanese favored in SuBIT

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SIAN Games gold medalist Jumpei Furuya of Japan banners a large field of foreign hopefuls vying for qualifying points in the NTT Asian Triathlon Confederation Subic Bay International Triathlon (SuBIT) Asian Cup set on April 27 and 28.

Furuya, world No. 43 and champion of last January’s NTT ASTC Asian Cup in Rayong (Thailand) will be backstopped by 13 other Japanese triathletes.

Poised to crowd Furuya are six triathletes from China and a large 33-strong delegation from Hong Kong who are spread over in the Elite, Junior and Super Sprint Distance categories.

Supported by Philippine Sports Commission, NTT, Philippine Olympic

Committee, Standard Insurance, Asian Centre for Insulation Philippines and Pocari Sweat, SuBIT lured over a hundred foreign entries.

Chinese Taipei entered 18, Korea 16, Macao 10, Singapore nine, Syria six and Thailand four with two bets each from Australia and Palestine and one from Canada vying in the 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bike and 10-kilometer run Elite competition.

Triathlon Association of the Philippines President Tom Carrasco said John Chicano will lead the Philippine campaign along with Kim Remolino and Filipino-Spanish Fer Caseres in the men and Claire Adorna, Asia Games veteran Kim Kilgroe and fast rising JC Abad in the women’s side.

Arum, Crawford draw large boos in ESPN pay-per-view fight in NY

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EW YORK—Terence Crawford knocked Amir Khan down just a few punches into their fight.

The punch that finally ended it was below the belt.

Crawford retained his welterweight title by technical knockout on Saturday night when Khan wasn’t able to continue after being hit with a low blow in the sixth round.

Crawford threw a left hand that hit Khan on his right hip, and Khan retreated toward his corner in pain. After taking a couple minutes trying to shake off the pain, his corner told the referee that Khan couldn’t continue.

“I could tell I was breaking him down. It was just a matter of time,” Crawford said.

It was a strange, unsatisfying ending to Top Rank’s first ESPN pay-per-view card, drawing loud boos from the crowd of 14,091 at Madison Square

Garden. The finish left Crawford and promoter Bob Arum with plenty of time to lobby for the fight they want next.

“The fight I want next is Errol Spence,” Crawford said. “Whenever he is ready, he can come and get it.”

Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs) had knocked Khan down in the first round, but the final couple rounds had been competitive, with both fighters throwing hard shots from close range.

Referee David Fields didn’t appear to see the final one that hit Khan (33-5) low. Khan could have taken five minutes trying to recover, but his trainer, Virgil Hunter, made the decision before then that Khan was finished.

“I didn’t want to send him back out there when he didn’t have his legs,” Hunter said.

Crawford was ahead 49-45 on two judges’ cards and 50-44 on the other.

THE Nets’ Jared Dudley (left) and the 76ers’ Jimmy Butler (23) get into a shoving match during the second half of Game Four of their playoff series on Saturday. AP

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EW YORK—Jared Dudley didn’t like the way Joel Embiid has been delivering fouls.

Jimmy Butler didn’t like the way Dudley tried to show it.

They both ended up getting ejected on Saturday after their reactions led to a scuffle.

Butler and Dudley were thrown out in the third quarter of the Philadelphia 76ers’ 112-108 victory over the Brooklyn Nets after pushing and shoving that spilled into the stands.

Dudley reacted to Embiid’s hard foul on Jarrett Allen, bumping the 76ers’ All-Star center.

Butler then shoved Dudley from behind to start the scrum.

Dudley had been inserted into the starting lineup in Game Four and was agitating the 76ers with his defense and his talking to Ben Simmons.

“I don’t be paying attention to him too much,” Butler said. “I just don’t think you should run up on anybody like that.”

“Especially because the foul was actually all ball,” Embiid interjected.

That’s not the way the referees saw it, with crew chief Ed Malloy saying they ruled it a flagrant 1 after a video review because of Embiid’s windup and unnecessary contact.

Dudley and the Nets had already been angered

by Embiid, who elbowed Allen in Game Two and was given a flagrant 1 that the Nets thought should have been a 2, which means an automatic ejection. They were further upset when he laughed “I was disappointed the corner stopped the fight in that manner, but Virgil is a great coach, and he was looking out for his fighter,” Crawford said. “I know he didn’t want to go out like that.”

Crawford started fast in the second defense of his WBO version of the 147-pound belt, throwing a short right hand to the head followed by a left that sent Khan to the canvas. He hurt Khan again late in the round and had no trouble controlling the early part of the fight.

They both threw hard shots in the fourth, and Khan landed some of them in his best moments of the fight. But Crawford hit him with a pair of good lefts in the fifth and was scoring again in the sixth when his final punch accidentally drifted low.

Arum said he thought Khan could have continued.

“He had five minutes to recover,” Arum said. AP

Pujols passes Ruth on RBI list, but Mariners slip past Angels

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NAHEIM, California—Albert Pujols was humbled after he caught and passed Babe Ruth for fifth place on baseball’s career RBI (runs batted in) chart.

Yet even the Los Angeles Angels slugger’s 636th homer was no match for the Seattle Mariners’ latest power display.

Pujols passed Ruth with an early RBI double and a late solo homer, but the Mariners added four more homers to their major league-leading total in a 6-5 victory over the Angels on Saturday night.

Pujols tied Ruth when he drove in Andrelton Simmons in the third inning, and passed the Babe by hitting the third homer of his 19th big league season in the ninth. Pujols has 1,993 RBIs, surpassing Ruth’s total from the portion of his career after RBIs became an official statistic in 1920.

“It’s pretty special,” Pujols said. “You’re talking about—if

not the best, then one of the best— hitters to ever play this game.... It would have been even sweeter if we would have come out with a win, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

The Angels couldn’t follow up Pujols’s one-out homer off Anthony Swarzak, who finished off his third save and Los Angeles’ sixth consecutive defeat after the Mariners’ power hitters staked them to an early lead.

Mitch Haniger and Daniel Vogelbach homered in the first inning off Trevor Cahill (1-2) before Edwin Encarnacion and Domingo Santana connected later, giving the Mariners 53 homers already this season. AP ALBERT PUJOLS is humbled by his accomplishment. AP

JOHN RIEL CASIMERO is now a three-division world champion.

IT’S PHYSICAL IN BROOKLYN

afterward while apologizing during his postgame news conference.

“Yeah, for sure I send a message,” Dudley said. “When you have a guy giving flagrant fouls, I mean Joel Embiid is second in the league in flagrant fouls. So for that elbow he had before just to have a flagrant 1, no fine, no nothing, laughing in the media, if you think that a team that I play on is going to have [to accept] that, that’s another thing coming, especially on this young team.”

Simmons and Dudley—who had exchanged words earlier—along with Malloy all went tumbling into the front row as referees rushed in to intervene. Dudley and Butler were both given technical fouls—with Embiid saying he planned to pay Butler’s fine.

“Dudley and Butler were ejected for their role as escalators, from taking a situation that was

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rebounds, and Milwaukee beat Detroit, 119-103, to take a 3-0 series lead.

The Bucks can finish off the Eastern Conference series on Monday night in Detroit. They overcame 27 points, seven rebounds and six assists from Blake Griffin in his return from a right-knee injury. He missed the first two games of the series after sitting out four of the final six in the regular season.

Brook Lopez and Eric Bledsoe each scored 19 points for Milwaukee. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 14 points and 10 rebounds, struggling with foul trouble.

James Harden overcame a horrible shooting performance and scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Houston past Utah, 104-101, for a commanding 3-0 lead in their firstround playoff series.

Game Four is on Monday night in Utah. AP

CARIÑO LEADS CAMPAIGN IN ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

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By Jun Lomibao

HORVOQ, Uzbekistan—Daniel Ven Cariño and six other young Filipino riders are vying in the 2019 Asian Road Cycling Championships in Uzbekistan with the hope of making the podium like Rustom Lim in 2011 in Thailand or Rex Luis Krogg last year in Myanmar.

Cariño, 21 the Mangaldan (Pangasinan) pride named Best Young Rider of the 2018 Le Tour de Filipinas, is competing in two two events—the 40-kilometer Men Under-23 individual time trial (ITT) set on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. in Manila).

Also on Wednesday at 1 p.m., 18-year-old Marc Ryan Lago, of Taguig City, starts his own challenge in the 30-km Men Junior ITT hoping to kick off the campaign of the team sent here

by PhilCycling President Abraham Tolentino and Secretary-General Atty. Billy Sumagui.

The team’s campaign is bankrolled by Go For Gold, one of five PhilCycling stakeholders that include Standard Insurance headed by Judes Echauz.

Coached by Ednalyn Hualda, also the team manager of continental team Go For Gold, Lago,

CASIMERO KNOCKS OUT MEXICAN

OHN RIEL CASIMERO is back on the throne after outclassing Mexican Ricardo Espinoza via a 12th-round knockout to claim the vacant interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight world championship on Sunday at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

The 30-year-old pride of Ormoc City floored Espinoza once in the sixth round, then mustered all his energy to score the technical knockout victory.

Casimero is now a certified threetime champion after holding the International Boxing Federation light flyweight and flyweight belts before fighting as a bantamweight.

More importantly, he joined the ranks of icon Manny Pacquiao, Jerwin Ancajas, Nonito Donaire Jr. and Vic Saludar as reigning Filipino world champions.

under control and escalating it to a heightened altercation,” Malloy said.

Malloy said referees also looked at the roles of Simmons and the Nets’ D’Angelo Russell during their lengthy video review but determined they were acting as peacemakers who did not escalate the situation.

Nikola Jokic had 29 points and 12 rebounds, Jamal Murray added 24 points and Denver beat San Antonio, 107-104, rebounding from a flat performance tie the series at two games apiece.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 24 points and nine rebounds for San Antonio. DeMar DeRozan added 19 points before he was ejected with five minutes remaining after arguing with an official over an offensive foul.

Game Five is on Tuesday night in Denver.

Khris Middleton had 20 points and nine

Casimero was the obvious dominant fighter with his hefty combos and excellent defense that neutralized Espinoza, known to be packed with a knockout power.

The knockdown came in the sixth round as the Filipino uncorked a thunderous left hook to the Mexican,

Efren Reyes Jr. (18) and Ean Cajucom (17) will race in the 105.6-km Men Junior individual road race that starts and ends at Gazalkent.

Filipinos are no pushovers in the Asian championships. Krogg clinched a silver medal last year in Nyaw Pi Taw, and Lim bagged a bronze eight years ago in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Cariño will again head the Under 23 squad in the individual road race that covers 148.40 km also in an out-and-back course in Gazalkent with the Filipino riders contending not only against crack teams from Asia but also against the mountain courses and cold and biting temperature that breaks 14 degrees Centigrade at its lowest.

Ismael Gorospe Jr., Joshua Mari Bonifacio and Jerico Lucero complete the Under 23 roster hailed by the Philippine Sports Commission, headed by Chairman William Ramirez, as the potential future of Philippine cycling.

PhilCycling will also submit its bid to host the Asian BMC Championships for 2020 during the Asian Cycling Confederation Congress that will be held on Friday at the International Hotel Tashkent. A new International Cycling Union-regulation BMX track is nearing completion in Tagaytay for the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

who fortunately was able to beat the count and was saved by the bell.

In the 12th, Casimero rocked Espinoza with another left hook for a knockdown. Wobbled by the barrage of blows, Espinoza was no longer in his elements, prompting the referee to stop the bout at 34 seconds.

Casimero improved to 27 wins against four losses, while Espinoza fell to 23-3. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

DANIEL VEN CARIÑO brings his young act to the high-level Asian stage.

Perez wows in March, bags award for rookies

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ESPITE missing the quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup, CJ Perez still found a way to stamp his class for Columbian Dyip in the season-opening tournament.

Perez averaged 17.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists to emerge as the PBA Press Corps March

Rookie of the Year, a stretch that saw the Dyip very much in contention of making the playoffs only to tumble in the end after a close 101-98 loss to TnT Katropa in their final game of the eliminations.

The Dyip went 1-3 won-lost during the month.

It was the second monthly citation received by the 25-year-old top rookie pick of 2018 after initially being

picked as the first recipient of the honor for January.

Perez edged out NorthPort’s Robert Bolick in a close vote, 8-6, to earn the citation. Alaska’s Jesper Ayaay (5.4 points and 4.3 rebounds) likewise got a single vote for the citation.

The Batang Pier did make the playoffs following a late push in the eliminations,

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PAGUNSAN, QUE EYE TCC RECORD

Corpus banners PHL Amateur match play cast

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ARL CORPUS hopes to snap a string of mediocre finishes as he shoots for back-toback title feat in the Philippine Amateur Open Match Play Championship unfolding on Monday at the Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac.

Corpus charged back late to turn back Aniceto Mandanas and snare the crown at the Orchard last year, but the 17-year-old shotmaker faces tall odds in his bid for a repeat in the five-day championship sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation.

For one, Corpus has struggled in the first four tournaments in this year’s PLDT Group National Amateur Tour, finishing 10th in the PHL Amateur Open Stroke Play at Riviera, sharing sixth place in the W Express RVF Cup in Canlubang, ending up tied for fourth in the Philippine Junior Amateur Open at Sherwood, and bowing out in the first round of of the MVPSF Visayas Regional Match Play Championship at Cebu Country Club two weeks ago.

But the former Ateneo stalwart is all geared up for another shot at the PHL Am Match Play crown, although he wound need to come up with a strong start in the stroke play eliminations to gain the needed momentum for the knockout matches beginning on Wednesday.

The top 16 in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions after the 36-hole eliminations will advance to the match play phase of the event organized and conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines and backed by the PLDT Group, Cignal and Metro Pacific.

Out to foil his bid are Kristoffer Arevalo, Tim Avramidis, Leandro Bagtas, siblings Aldo and Paqo Barro, Perry Bucay, Dylan Castillo, Zachary Castro, Dan Cruz, Jeffrey Gabe, Joaquin Gomez and David Guangko.

Young guns Josh Jorge and Sean Ramos are also tipped to contend for the crown along with Luigi Guerrero, Elmer Jayloni, Ricardo Manotoc, Masaichi Otake, Don Petil, Roberto Poblete, Gilbert Purcia, Jacob Rolida and Paolo Wong.

JUVIC PAGUNSAN (left) hopes to snap a two-tournament slump while Angelo Que tries to rebound from a missed cut abroad.

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UVIC PAGUNSAN hopes to snap a twotournament slump while Angelo Que tries to rebound from a missed cut abroad as they resume their chase for a record fourth crown in The Country Club (TCC) Invitational, which unwraps on Tuesday in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

The smooth-swinging Pagunsan lost momentum after dominating the Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) Asia Riviera leg last month, missing the cut in the Solaire Philippine Open the following week and ending up tied at 22nd in the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Luisita Championship last weekend.

The power-hitting Que, on the other hand, finished joint third in the Philippine Open but failed to advance in the Token Homemate Cup of the Japan Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour last Friday, his abbreviated stint giving him

more time to figure out his game in time for the TCC Invitational also known as the Don Pocholo Razon Memorial Cup. Pagunsan and Que share the most number of titles at three apiece in what has long been regarded as one of the country’s major championships for its prize fund (P5 million) and stellar cast (featuring the top 30 of the 2018 PGT Order of Merit ranking) with the demanding Tom Weiskoph-designed layout providing a fitting challenge for the best of the best.

But the rest are also coming into the event brimming with confidence and armed with games honed by stints in the last two big-time tournaments, guaranteeing four days of battle of shotmaking, iron play, short game, putting and wits at one of the country’s toughest courses.

Micah Shin, for one, sets out for a rare backto-back feat after the young Korean-American

stunned fancied and 2017 champion Miguel Tabuena in last year’s finale to become the first non-Filipino winner of the event put up by ICTSI Chairman Ricky Razon to honor the memory of his father and ICTSI founder Don Pocholo.

Former champions Tony Lascuña and Frankie Miñoza are also in the fold with the former out to end a long title spell and duplicate his romp in 2004 and the latter hoping to redisplay the vintage form he dished out in ruling the event in 2013.

Clyde Mondilla and Jobim Carlos also aim for a big finish in the 72-hole championship organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. with the former seeking to make it two-inrow at TCC after topping the PHL Open and the latter hoping to bounce back from so-so stints due to hand injury.

Though Tabuena is out to heal a back injury, the field remains as talent-laden as ever with PGT leg winners Jhonnel Ababa, Korean Kim Joo Hyung, Dutch Guido van der Valk, Jerson Balasabas, Jay Bayron, Aussie Tim Stewart, Justin Quiban, Joenard Rates, Elmer Salvador, James Ryan Lam and Albin Engino, along with American Lexus Keoninh, Peter Stojanovski of Macedonia, Michael Bibat, Reymon Jaraula, Zanieboy Gialon, Arnold Villacencio, Nico Salahog, Rene Menor, Keanu Jahns, Mhark Fernando and Anthony Fernando.

Meanwhile, the select field tests the TCC layout one last time in Monday’s novel pro-am where two pros team up with two officials and guests of the event’s chief backers.

PAL INTERCLUB GOLF REAPS MAJOR ECONOMIC BENEFITS THE 72nd Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub reportedly pumps in more than P36 million into the local economy of host city Cebu in February. Shown in photo are (from left) PAL Area ManagerMindanao Sales Victor Suarez, PAL President and COO Jaime J. Bautista, Alta Vista General Manager and journalist Nimrod Quiñones, and PAL SAVP Metro Manila and Luzon Sales Genaro “Bong” Velasquez.

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HE Philippine Airlines Interclub Golf Tournament—or PAL Interclub—is acknowledged as the longest-running amateur team golf championship in the Philippines.

The 72nd edition held in Cebu this February and March 2019 assembled a record 101 teams for the Seniors Tournament, breaching the 100-mark for the first time, and 77 teams for the Men’s Regular Tournament.

A total of 60 “International” teams— whose players hail from faraway countries— represented more than half of the teams at the Seniors Tournament, indicating the global lure of the PAL Interclub. The roster for both Seniors and Men’s tournaments included teams and golfers from San Francisco, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Riyadh, Guam, Sydney, Honolulu, New York, Hong Kong, Guam, Melbourne, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Auckland, Haneda and Toronto.

ECONOMIC DIVIDENDS FOR THE COUNTRY WITH its huge following, the PAL Interclub has helped to boost the local economy in the Philippine cities that serve as tournament venues—Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Clark. More than a thousand participants converge yearly in the designated host city, engaging in various tourism activities before, during and after the tournament.

This is what we now call “sports tourism,” as local and foreign players and their families pour welcome

revenues into the coffers of the local governments, the host communities and their respective tourism and entertainment sectors. Golfers, traveling with families and friends, help support the livelihood of Filipino workers and businesses at hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, resorts, golf courses, tour organizers, car rentals, souvenir stands, event venues, airports and more.

Cebu-based blogger Nimrod Quiñones, who is currently general manager of Alta Vista Golf and Country Club, estimates that more than P36 million was pumped into the local economy during the recent 72nd PAL Interclub in Cebu.

“Sports is one of the best ways to bring people together, and when people gather, it means money will be spent,” said Quiñones.

As Quiñones explains: “There are 101 teams of eight players each playing in the Seniors’ division, starting from the three-day practice rounds onto the four-day tournament proper. Let us round it off to 800 players plus probably 400 more people traveling with them,” Quiñones said. “Let us not include the cost of their airline tickets, and just have a conservative estimate that each of the 1,200 people gathered for the event will spend P30,000 for the week. That alone is already P36 million spent at the golf courses, hotels, restaurants, department stores, on transportation, bars, medicine and many more.”

“The Men’s tournament follows after [for another week after the Seniors competition].

although Bolick, selected No. 3 overall in the last draft, struggled a bit during the month that saw him submitting averages of 6.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

NorthPort went 2-3 in that same span.

Javee Mocon of Rain or Shine actually submitted even better numbers by averaging 10.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

Picked No. 5 overall, Mocon was the top rookie pick for the month of February.

Although not part of the voting, Perez

nonetheless capped the month by emerging as the Most Valuable Player of the Rookies/ Sophomores versus Juniors during the All-Star week in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

The former Lyceum star willed his team to a come-from-behind 141-140 win over the Juniors as he finished with 32 points on 6-of-12 shooting from three-point range, while scoring 18 in the fourth quarter to highlight the comeback.

Starting also with practice rounds and the tournament proper, you have another 800 players and another 400 companions with them for another 1,200 people,” he added.

Quiñones’s Alta Vista Golf and Country Club was one of the venues of the 72nd PAL Interclub, along with Club Filipino de Cebu, Mactan Island Golf Club and Cebu Country Club (home base for the team that clinched the Men’s Regular tournament championship in March).

LIVELIHOOD BOOST EYEING these economic benefits from sports tourism, local governments look forward to hosting the PAL Interclub.

“Whenever we’re told the PAL Interclub is coming to Bacolod, it creates so much anticipation. Every time PAL comes here for the Interclub, it is fiesta time in Bacolod,” Bacolod City Mayor Bing Leonardia said.

Bacolod City was the triumphant venue for the

DYIP’S CJ Perez continues to flaunt his skills.

71st Interclub in 2018.

“The PAL Interclub always has a positive impact on Davao—from the food industry, to hotels, to caddies, everyone benefits from the arrival of golfers in Davao. Activities are abuzz not just at the golf courses but throughout the city. The city comes alive, much like a two-week festival,”Tomas Iñigo, the new general manager of Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club in Davao, said.

The golfers are not the only contributors, according to Quiñones.

“How about the hundreds of other people, who come to the venue for related activities, like media who cover the event, the tournament organizing staff, the caddies, waiters, staff, etc.,” Quinones said. “Income earned by the locals [is] in turn spent at the grocery stores and other businesses, which allows the effect to trickle and benefit more people.”

Then there is the repeat market that promises future business opportunities.

“We fly in golfers from all around the world, and many of them fall in love with the Philippines and treasure their adventures in the PAL Interclub host city or province,” said PAL’s Bong Velasquez, PAL Interclub executive committee chairman.

“They come back to visit, and would then bring their families and friends, eager to share the experience with their loved ones. We believe that the PAL Interclub is thus a special opportunity for the Philippines to win the approval of more and more tourist visitors, a long-term tourism driver that goes well beyond the world of golfing and competitive sport,” Velasquez added.

Contending with fully booked hotels and restaurants, as well as entertainment venues, some communities have their hands full in catering to PAL Interclub business and thus resort to importing workers from adjacent communities.

When the Interclub goes to Bacolod, caddies from nearby Iloilo hop on the ferry to

ensure golfers get ably assisted at the courses. In Cebu, souvenir makers and hawkers from as far as Danao, Talisay, Naga or Carcar flock to Metro Cebu to offer their wares during the Interclub.

That’s the magnitude of the economic ripple of the PAL Interclub to these host cities; one side of the Interclub legacy that local communities appreciate. It is thus no surprise that the Philippine Sport Tourism Awards nominated the PAL Interclub for the International Event of the Year, as well as Event Sponsorship of the Year awards in 2018, while awarding the 2018 Airline of the Year top honors to host carrier Philippine Airlines.

FOR PLAYERS: HONOR, GLORY AND FELLOWSHIP FROM the start, the PAL Interclub has been about gathering golf aficionados from across the country and overseas for an annual reunion, where they could renew old friendships and gain new ones. Participants return year after year, not merely to win the championship—though that is a principal goal—but to bask in the warmth of fellowship and tradition.

The PAL Interclub’s stature derives from two factors: the high level of competition—it is a showcase for the country’s best golfing talent— and the strong team spirit and fellowship among its players.

Many golfers who reach the age of 55 after years of playing at the Men’s Regular refuse to abandon their cherished annual reunion and choose to continue coming back as Seniors golfers.

Come back they do, through the last seven decades, not merely for the trophies and raffle prizes of PAL tickets and other goodies, but for the bragging rights and the unbeatable spotlight.

There are no grand prizes at the PAL Interclub.

There is only the knowledge and honor that one has competed with some of the best amateur golfers in the land. This, plus the remarkable camaraderie among its players and its hallowed history of over 70 years, have imbued the PAL Interclub with a unique character and made it an enduring institution in the annals of Philippine golf.

Jarata snatches 3 tennis crowns

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A UNION’S Alexi Jarata pulled off a rare three-title feat while brother Marc and local bet Kriz Lim scored two victories each as they shared top honors in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP) Pangasinan national age group tennis tournament at the Urdaneta Tennis Club recently.

Alexi, 12, dropped just three games in three

matches to dominate her age bracket, whipping Jamille Castillo, 6-0, 6-1, in the finals, then crushing Anna Bajet via the same scoreline for the 14-under crown in the Group 2 tournament presented by Dunlop.

The rising star from Agoo also overpowered top seed Franchezca Malaki, 4-1, 4-0, in the semis, then thwarted Adriana Cabahug, 6-4, 7-5, to snare the 16-under diadem and run away with

RICK OLIVARES bleachersbrew@ gmail.com

BLEACHERS’ BREW

Josh’s move.

CHANGES. With that Instagram post, Joshua Lazaro signified his intention to move from San Beda in Antipolo to Ateneo de Manila High School.

For much of the past school year, Lazaro has been recruited and pitched to by different schools, to move for his senior high school.

He resisted any pondering of a move until the season was over. He wanted to give the Red Cubs’ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) campaign his undivided attention. And even when the season was done, he insisted on finishing his studies and graduating from junior high before anything else.

His family readily gave him the space so as not to influence or pressure his decision. Then came the Instagram post that showed Lazaro inside the Ateneo campus with only one word: “changes.”

The move from the familiar to the unfamiliar is always frightening.

After 10 years in San Beda (he moved then for fourth grade), he is going to the only other school that he considered moving to if he decided to leave Antipolo. It was a difficult decision. Joshua thought of his teachers, classmates, coaches and teammates who have meant so much to him. There was much thinking, as well as tears.

But at the end, he went with what he believes is the best move for him at this stage of his young life.

What does a 16-year old know? Life is still pretty much a mystery that will unspool its answers when you least expect it. The decision was his entirely, and yet, his family made him listen to everyone who invited Joshua to move to their school (there were several University Athletic Association of the Philippines [UAAP] and NCAA schools that pitched to him).

Yet, Lazaro, through the guidance of his family, has made it acutely aware that it will be filled with challenges.

There have only been two previous major adjustments that Joshua has made—the first was enrolling in San Beda for Grade 4, and when he joined the basketball team.

And the reason for playing basketball wasn’t even a sports thing—it was to socialize and to find a way to communicate with others. Lazaro is the quiet, shy and introspective sort. With his being involved in a team game, he found himself and the confidence to be a part of a whole.

Through the game, he found a resolve. He hardly has any plays called for himself. He usually cleans up the glass, puts back the ball or finds an open teammate for a pass and a bucket. His unselfish play has been vital and not gone unnoticed. In fact, he’s been a part of the last three Batang Gilas squads.

There are other challenges in the move to Ateneo.

The academic standards are very rigorous and demanding. That is a given, and while Joshua has been a good student in San Beda, you couple that with the pressure cooker that is the UAAP and joining a Blue Eagles team that is pretty much gutted from its title team of two seasons ago. The premature departure of center Kai Sotto, who still has a few years left, to pursue his American and European adventure that he hopes will one day land him a spot on a National Basketball Association roster, is more telling because now, Lazaro is the tallest player on the squad. Now, 6-foot-4 Joshua isn’t a center as he is a four-spot player.

It stands to reason he will play out of position if there is no one to plug that doughnut hole in the middle that has been vacated by Sotto and Geo Chiu.

Speaking of the two, last season, there were three Batang Gilas players on the Ateneo roster—point guard Forthsky Padrigao, as well as Sotto and Chiu. Only Padrigao is left.

Bantam-sized point guard Ian Espinosa is still around. Other than those two, there are no other players with significant contributions to the Blue Eagles’ finals stint.

There are no illusions that Ateneo will compete for the UAAP juniors crown let alone make the Final Four (one can hope though). You can be sure the adversity quotient will rise significantly.

And yet the Lazaros understand that. If moving to San Beda was to help him socialize and as a bonus, learn and find himself in the game of basketball; moving to Ateneo is to prepare for college and beyond. They have told Joshua that he will learn more fending for himself in Ateneo. And we aren’t just talking about hoops.

For the first time in his life, he will stay in the Ateneo dorm of Cervini. Previously, he always went home after basketball practice and school. This time, because of practicality, he will have to stay, and that in itself is an adjustment.

So, the adjustment isn’t only for Josh but the entire family. “We’re all in this together,” they collectively enthuse.

It is heartwarming to see a family throw their full support in their son’s pursuit of a dream.

And that is for the best because change is always challenging.

the Most Valuable Player plum.

Marc also lived up to his top billing in the 14- and 16-under divisions, coming away with a pair of 6-0, 6-1 romps over Prince Lim and Ivan Manila, while Kriz Lim scored a shutout win over Lexious Cruz in the 10-under unisex finals then survived brother Prince, 6-3, 0-6, 13-11, for the 12-under diadem.

“While the Jaratas and Lims keep shining in this side of the circuit, new faces continue to emerge in the PPS-PEPP’s countrywide talent search that has been going on for years,” Palawan Pawnshop President and CEO Bobby Castro said.

Sports

RONALDO KEYS JUVENTUS’ 8TH STRAIGHT SERIE A TITLE

BusinessMirror

C4

| Monday, April 22, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

R

OME—Cristiano Ronaldo played a key role in the winning goal, and Juventus beat Fiorentina, 2-1, on Saturday to clinch a recordextending eighth straight Serie A title.

It’s the first time in Europe’s five major leagues—Italy, England, Spain, Germany and France—that a club has won eight straight titles.

And it was a big relief for Juventus following its elimination by Ajax in the Champions League on Tuesday, after failing to clinch last weekend with a surprise loss at Spal.

“It was upsetting and negative on Tuesday,” Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci said. “Today we turned our anger toward the pitch and transformed it into positive energy to achieve this goal.”

Juventus needed only a point but quickly fell behind when Nikola Milenkovic took advantage of confusion inside the Bianconeri area to score for Fiorentina six minutes in.

However, Alex Sandro headed in from a corner for the equalizer and Ronaldo’s cross from a sharp angle was then redirected in by Fiorentina defender German Pezzella either side of halftime.

Ronaldo, who joined Juventus for this season from Real Madrid, became the first player to win the English Premier League (with Manchester United), the Spanish league (with Madrid) and Serie A. “It was a very good first season, and I adapted well. We won the scudetto and the Italian Super Cup, which is certainly not easy to achieve,” Ronaldo said. “You can’t win all the time. We felt that we could do more... but only one side can win the Champions League.

“Next year is a new page, the fans all want it and so do we,” Ronaldo said of the Champions League, adding that he’s “1,000-percent” certain he will stay with Juventus for next season.

After the final whistle, Juventus players celebrated by forming a circle and jumping up and down clapping their hands. Then they drank champagne and some players invited their children out to take part in the festivities.

Juventus moved 20 points ahead of second-place Napoli, which has six games left.

It was Juventus’ 35th title overall. However, the jumbo screens inside Allianz Stadium flashed No. 37 to include the 2005 and 2006 titles that were stripped in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal.

The only other club in the top 5 European leagues that had won seven straight was Lyon in France from 2002-2008.

The Juventus women’s team also clinched the Italian title on Saturday, with a 3-0 win at Hellas Verona in the final round of the season. It’s the second consecutive title for the women’s squad.

The men’s team had to come from behind, as Milenkovic’s goal was the earliest Juventus has conceded all season.

Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was lying on the ground in apparent pain following contact near the post when the ball bounced toward Milenkovic, who smashed it into the roof of the net.

Szczesny had his hand treated and had to stay attentive as Fiorentina kept on threatening with counterattacks.

Federico Chiesa, a reported transfer target for Juventus, hit the post from the edge of the area in the 34th.

Three minutes later, Sandro put Juventus in front. Since Sandro’s Serie A debut in 2015, the left back has been directly involved in 23 goals (10 goals and 13 assists)—more than any other defender in the Italian league.

Still, there were more moments of concern for Juventus as Chiesa hit the crossbar two minutes before the break.

Order was restored in the second half as Ronaldo aimed his cross toward Federico Bernardeschi and Pezzella turned it into his own net as he attempted to intercept the pass.

Szczesny preserved the advantage with a difficult save on Bryan Dabo in the 90th.

“Congratulations to Juve,” Fiorentina Coach Vincenzo Montella said. “They definitely didn’t win the league today. They earned it over the entire season.”

AC Milan’s hold on a Champions League spot, meanwhile, was in jeopardy following a 1-1 draw at Parma.

Samu Castillejo headed in for Milan midway through the second half before center back Bruno Alves curled in a spectacular free kick to equalize three minutes from time.

Milan remained in fourth place—the last Champions League spot—but was only one point ahead of Roma, which drew 1-1 at third-place Inter Milan.

Lazio may have fallen out of contention for the Champions League with a 2-1 loss at home to already relegated Chievo Verona.

Lazio was left with 10 men when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was sent off with a straight red in the first half. After being fouled by Mariusz Stepinski, Milinkovic-Savic reacted by kicking the opponent.

Emanuel Vignato and Perparim Hetemaj scored early in the second half for Chievo before Felipe Caicedo pulled one back for Lazio.

Lazio dropped to eighth, four points behind Milan.

At the San Siro, Stephan El Shaarawy opened for Roma before Ivan Perisic’s equalizer. AP

CRISTIANO RONALDO becomes the first player to win the English Premier League (with Manchester United), Spanish league (with Madrid) and Serie A. AP

NADAL STUNNED IN MONTE CARLO FABIO FOGNINI has beaten Rafael Nadal twice before on clay, and also once at the US Open in five sets, but this is arguably the most impressive. AP

M

By Jerome Pugmire The Associated Press

ONACO—Fabio Fognini ended Rafael Nadal’s winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters, stunning the defending champion, 6-4, 6-2, on Saturday to reach the final for the first time and hand Nadal his first defeat here since a loss to Novak Djokovic in the 2015 semifinals.

Fognini had beaten Nadal twice before on clay, and also once at the US Open in five sets, but this was arguably the most impressive.

“I have the game to play against him,” the 13thseeded Fognini said. “I had nothing to lose.”

He wasn’t concerned if Nadal was out of form.

“That’s not the question that I have to answer,” Fognini said. “I just say that I played an incredible match.”

Still, the secondranked Nadal called it “one of my worst matches in 14 years,” and the 32-year-old Spaniard said it was “difficult to find an explanation” for capitulating

on his favored clay-court surface.

Yet the defeat could have been even more humiliating for Nadal, who had not lost a set here by 6-0 since the 2005 final—which he went on to win for the first of his record 11 titles.

Fognini came so close to drubbing him in the second set. He served for the match at 5-0 and 40-0, but Nadal saved three match points, broke back and held.

“I was lucky to win the two games,” said Nadal, who had not even lost a set here since conceding one in the second round against Britain’s Kyle Edmund in 2017.

Serving again for the match at 5-2, Fognini hit a superb forehand down the line on his fourth match point. He next plays unseeded Serb Dusan Lajovic in their first-ever meeting, and one few would have predicted.

Least of all Fognini.

He trailed by a set and 4-1 down during his first-round match against Andrey Rublev.

“If you told me at the beginning of the week, ‘See you on Sunday [for the final],’ I would laugh in your face,” Fognini said.

The 48th-ranked Lajovic staged an impressive comeback of his own, meanwhile, rallying from 5-1 down to beat 10th-seeded Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-1.

That match was a suitable appetizer to the higher drama which followed.

Nadal had dropped his first three service games on Friday in his quarterfinal against Guido Pella, and the early signs were not good this time.

His first game against Fognini lasted 12 minutes, with Nadal saving four break points before conceding the first of six breaks of serve in the match.

In his quarterfinal and semifinal combined, Nadal conceded 23 breakpoint chances.

But whether Fognini, who previously lost 11 times to Nadal overall, could capitalize seemed uncertain.

The 31-year-old Italian can lose his temper on court, and it got the

Former Olympic champion Kiprop banned 4 years for positive test

ASBEL KIPROP denies the doping charges and alleges he may have been framed. AP

F

better of him during the fourth game.

With heavy winds swirling around the court, Fognini’s towel flew off his seat and landed on the clay during the first point. He complained to the umpire, perhaps to get the point replayed, and then angrily put the offending towel into his drinks box.

Nadal broke him to love to lead 3-1, and Fognini got a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“The chair umpire made a bad call,” Fognini said. “He gave me a warning for nothing.”

Fognini irate, Nadal serving for a 4-1 lead—another comfortable Nadal route to the final looked on.

But Fognini broke back to 3-2 and then broke Nadal to love in the ninth game with some momentous shot-making.

Momentum was on Fognini’s side, not to mention some luck.

Serving for the set at 5-4 and 30-30, his shot hit the net and turned into a perfect drop shot.

Fognini raised both arms in apology, and then superbly put away a volley at full stretch on the next point to clinch the set.

He hit a delightful two-handed, backhand cross-court winner to break at the start of the second set.

Nadal is usually the undisputed crowd favorite on the French Riviera, but shouts of “Fabio, Fabio, Fabio” rang out at the Monte Carlo Country Club.

Many Italian fans likely made the short trip along the coast from nearby San Remo—where Fognini grew up.

“It’s a big opportunity to them to come here and watch me play,” Fognini said. “I don’t know how many are coming tomorrow.”

Still, he should have most of the support against Lajovic, who earlier won 10 straight games to lead 4-0 in the second set before Medvedev finally again held serve.

It could have been an all-Serb semifinal, but Medvedev knocked out the top-ranked Djokovic in Friday’s quarterfinals.

There have only been three winners here since 2005: Nadal, Djokovic (2013 and ‘15) and Stan Wawrinka (‘14).

A new name will be on the trophy on Sunday.

ORMER Olympic and three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya was banned for four years on Saturday for testing positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO after his claim that urine samples might have been tampered with by disreputable doping control officers was rejected.

The 2008 Olympic 1,500-meter champion failed an out-of-competition test in his home country in November 2017. His backup “B’’ sample also tested positive for EPO. But his case was complicated when it was revealed he was given advance notice of the visit

by Kenyan anti-doping officers—a breach of testing protocol. Out-of-competition tests are meant to be sprung on athletes by surprise to ensure they have no time to flush any banned substances out of their systems.

Kiprop also conceded he paid money to one of the anti-doping officers following the test. He denied the doping charges and alleged he may have been framed.

The 29-year-old Kiprop, who won three straight world titles from 2011-2015, said his samples could have been tampered with when he left them unattended for a short time while he got his cell phone to make a money transfer to the anti-doping official.

In a separate defense, he also said the elevated levels of EPO in his system might have been “natural EPO” caused by intense training at high altitude in Kenya. Another defense Kiprop used was that medication he took a week before the test might have caused the positive result.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which handles doping cases for the IAAF, rejected all of Kiprop’s explanations and banned him from competition until February 2022. His results from November 27, 2017, to February 3, 2018, were disqualified. The ban was backdated to start from February 2018.

“There is no justice in the world,” Kiprop said on Saturday in response to his ban. “Not every prisoner in jail is guilty. I will consult my lawyer to see if I will appeal at CAS [the Court of Arbitration for Sport], but no matter the outcome I will be back stronger.”

But Kiprop’s denials throughout the case and a history of speaking out against doping could not outweigh the scientific evidence against him, the AIU disciplinary panel wrote in its decision.

“There is, alas, in doping as in all fields of human activity a first time for everything and denial, the record shows, is the currency of the guilty and the innocent alike,” the panel wrote.

The AIU said the advance notice of the test and the $30 that Kiprop paid to the anti-doping officer—apparently for miscellaneous expenses like refreshments and gas for his car—was clearly improper but couldn’t have affected the test findings.

His case cast further doubt on the strength of the anti-doping program in Kenya, the distancerunning powerhouse that has had its reputation badly eroded by dozens of drug cases in recent years.

Kiprop was awarded the gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after race winner Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain failed a doping test and had his medal stripped. AP

P

Easter has come

RAISE God in the Holy Temple; praise the Lord in the mighty firmament. Praise God for powerful deeds; for boundless grandeur, praise God. Oh praise the Lord with sound of trumpet; give praise with lute and harp. Praise God with timbrel and dance; give praise with strings and pipes. Oh praise God with resounding cymbals; give praise with clashing of cymbals. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord, (Psalm 150).

Alleluia! Easter has come!

GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

SAMANTHA LEWIS

Life BusinessMirror

SIRENE SUTTON

SABINA GONZALEZ

On a ‘Claire’ day BEN CHAN with JC Buendia PHOTOGRAPHED

BY RYAN ONG

TOTA PULCHRA MISS CHARLIZE

@misscharlize

I

F fashion designer JC Buendia were given the chance to travel through time, he would love to be transported to 18th century Europe.

“I’m fascinated by the use of candle chandeliers, of traveling into the woods, of picking berries. I would love to see Versailles and Rome during that time,” he said. “I’m fascinated with how garments were layered. I love how they made a yard of satin ribbon so precious, tying it on their necks.”

Of particular interest to Buendia was the era’s “sack-back gown” or the”’robe à la française.” Such was his fascination for this hallmark of the elegant woman during the reign of the French King Louis XV, that he made abbreviated versions of it as his opening piece for his special collection shown at Bench Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019.

Worn by supermodel/beauty queen Izza Gonzales Agana, Buendia created a yellow gazar gown with a detail that simulates a cape, but sans appliqués on the bodice, scalloped ruffled sleeves or cumbersome petticoats that illustrated the rococo aesthetic of the sack-back.

His clean, uncluttered and crisp collection is inspired by the dynamic fictional character Claire Fraser. She’s the heroine of the Starz TV series Outlander, based on the historical time-travel book series by American author Diana Gabaldon.

Played by the Irish model/actress Catriona Balfe, Claire is a World War II nurse married to Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies). While on a visit to Scotland in 1945, she is transported back to 1743, where she meets and falls in love with a handsome Highland warrior, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).

“Perhaps I saw myself in Claire. She was quiet, brave, passionate about her work. I loved it that she would collect plants and herbs in the forest for medicine. And she loves with all her heart,” Buendia said of his muse. The time-jumping series, now on its fourth season, sets Claire in 1700s Scotland and Paris, 1940s and 1960s Boston, and the Caribbean and North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. “Claire is beautiful with a model-like figure. I liked all her looks but she was hauntingly beautiful in Scotland and such a delight to see in Paris,” Buendia said, as he deftly distilled the extensive wardrobe created for Claire by costume designers Nina Ayres and Terry Dresbach.

For Sabina Gonzalez, Buendia created a strapless little black dress in gazar, which is popular among his young clients. He fused it in the collection by adding a beaded yellow collar.

“Samantha Lewis wears the most romantic look, a ruffle collared organdy blouse tied with a stiff black ribbon. It is paired with a ballgown skirt with pockets,” he shared. “I wanted to use the ruffle detail in a singular sweep/swoosh of fabric, thus Sirene Sutton’s strapless ruffle blouse in organdy, paired with pants.”

For the finale, Ria Bolivar wore a gown inspired by the petticoat’s pattern: a strapless A-line gown with a single tier.

Buendia’s ensembles were mostly in black and white. But his splashy use of yellow was refreshingly defiant. In politics, the color identified with the political Aquino family, to which Buendia is particularly close.

Political activism by fashion designers (Katharine Hamnett’s slogan shirts, Viktor & Rolf’s statement gowns, Stella McCartney’s eco advocacy) aren’t as embraced in our country. So, where does Buendia’s remarkable fearlessness stem from?

“My father had martial law trauma. He started working with ABS-CBN in the late 1960s. Armed soldiers drove them out of the network compound when martial law was declared. A story I would hear again and again on the dinner table,” he explained.

“Fast forward to 1983, I was a Fine Arts student in UST [University of Sto. Tomas], awakened by the death of Ninoy Aquino. I graduated in 1986, a year of hope for most Filipinos. Some would say Edsa failed, I say the people failed Edsa. People became comfortable with their lives, they forgot the marginalized.”

But there’s still a good percentage of progressive thinkers, young game-changers, Buendia assured: “I commend people in theater for coming up with heart-tugging musicals that inspire us to do better as a people, as humans. I admire the young entrepreneurs, most especially those who went into sustainable agriculture. And I believe fashion can do the same, in a most beautiful way.”

“Ben Chan is a game-changer,” Buendia continued. “Prior to TernoCon [the terno-making mentorship program and competition co-organized

by Bench], I was already invited to do Bench Fashion Week SS 2019. I said yes, because I wanted to explore the possibilities of ready-to-wear.

Hopefully, there will be a collaboration soon, like what I did with Kashieca before.”

In closing, does Claire remind you of any clients you are currently dressing?

“I still have to find my real-life Claire,” Buendia said. But have you found your real-life Jack Randall and Jamie Fraser, simultaneously?

“One always hopes for a Jamie Fraser.” ■

RIA BOLIVAR

ALL ACCESS: EYEING THAT ELUSIVE GOLD D3

Monday, April 22, 2019

IZZA GONZALES AGANA

D1

D2

Style

BusinessMirror

Monday, April 22, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

z

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Amber Heard, 33; Sherri Shepherd, 52; Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 53; Jack Nicholson, 82.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Excitement, adventure and change will drive you this year. The greater the challenge, the bigger the opportunity. Aim high, keep your eye on what’s important to you and make the moves that will bring you joy. A boost to your financial situation looks promising but will require proper handling. Romance will give you a new lease on life.

Your lucky numbers are 2, 14, 20, 24, 31, 36, 47.

a ❶ ❶ AMERICAN

cosmetic brand Benefit’s unbeatable make-up marvels and fun-loving packaging have become the stuff of legend.

❷

THE Saem, a Korean skincare brand

❸

SOUTH Korean skincare and cosmetics brand The Face Shop believes there is natural beauty in everyone.

SOUTH Korean actress and gugudan girlband member Kim Se-Jeong wears the Crocs Serena Sandal.

BUSINESS WIRE

❷

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Look at what you have, what you can do without and where best to invest. Try something new, or use your skills differently to encourage personal growth. Romance is highlighted, and a physical improvement will boost your confidence. ★★★★★

❸

Beauty around the world celebrated S

M Megamall recently celebrated Women’s Month with a “Beauty Around the World Party” at SM Megamall’s Mega Fashion Hall.

The occasion highlighted favorite local and global beauty and skincare brands in one place.

These included the home-grown makeup brand Happy Skin; Korean cosmetics and skincare brands The Saem, The Face Shop, and Nature Republic; plus, the iconic Japanese personal care brand Shiseido.

Well-known American cosmetics brands MAC Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder, Clinique, and Benefit; as well as European brands Inglot and Make Up For Ever also showcased their beauty products and offered great deals and discounts.

Beauty experts Cristalle Belo-Pitt, Belo Medical Group managing director; Gay Lao Chen, MAC Cosmetic Philippines brand manager; and Rissa Mananquil-Trillo, Happy Skin co-founder, gave a short talk about their beauty routine and their respective brands.

The girl bosses also shared tips and tricks on how to take care of the skin and how to look good with or without makeup. ■

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Consider how best to utilize your talents. Take care of redtape issues before you start something new.

Being aware of pitfalls that may occur will help prevent falling behind schedule. ★★★

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Put more energy into doing your best and helping those who are truly in need. The satisfaction you get from sharing your time and making someone happy will result in an unexpected opportunity as well as praise from someone you love. ★★★

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Look at the possibilities, and start heading Do whatever it takes to stay on top of your responsibilities, even if someone is interfering or playing mind games with you. Doing your best will result in an unexpected change and the support of someone you least expect. ★★★

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Information will make the difference between success and failure. Listen, and you will gain insight into future trends. Business trips, meetings and networking functions will encourage you to get involved in something that will raise your profile. ★★★★★

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A change in the way things are done will set you on a new path. Don’t get flustered or upset with what transpires. Use your skills to assimilate to what’s happening; you will outmaneuver any competition you encounter. ★★

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A business trip that also includes some downtime will bring you closer to the people who can influence your future. A chance to do something nice for someone you love will improve your relationship. ★★★★

BEAUTY EXPERTS MAC Cosmetic Philippines Brand Manager Gay Lao Chen (from left), Belo Medical Group Managing Director Cristalle Belo-Pitt, SM Supermalls Chief Operating Officer Steven Tan and Happy Skin Cofounder Rissa Mananquil Trillo.

CROCS MAKES A STATEMENT WITH THIRD YEAR OF ‘COME AS YOU ARE’ CAMPAIGN NIWOT, Colorado—Crocs Inc., a global leader in innovative casual footwear for women, men and children, launched recently the third year of its “Come As You Are” marketing campaign. Global brand ambassadors, including award-winning actress, singer-songwriter and director Zooey Deschanel, along with British actress Natalie Dormer will encourage consumers to declare that being yourself, being comfortable and looking stylish are not mutually exclusive.

For the campaign’s official launch, Crocs has released a

video that highlights just how easy it is to be comfortable in your own shoes.

“As we enter our third year of ‘Come As You Are,’ we are evolving not only our message and cast but the entire look and feel of our marketing campaign,” said Terence Reilly, Crocs chief marketing officer. “Crocs is making a bold declaration that you can have both style and comfort no matter who you are or where your life takes you.”

Deschanel and Dormer are joined by Chinese actress, dancer and model Gina Jin, South Korean actress and gugudan girl-band member Kim Se-Jeong, and Japanese actress and model Suzu Hirose for the year-long campaign. “Because comfort comes in many shapes and sizes, our global brand

ambassadors will wear and talk about some of our most popular styles in settings that are relevant to their interests and personalities,” Reilly said. Crocs’ most popular products and collections will be showcased throughout the campaign, including LiteRide, Crocband Platform, Crocs Serena, Swiftwater and, of course, the iconic Classic Clog.

“Come As You Are” will be seen through various digital, social and in-store marketing materials with a specific focus on the United States, Germany, China, Japan and South Korea. In addition, Crocs will be on the lookout for a 2019 Crocs Fan Ambassador who can show consumers how they embrace “Come As You Are” and wear Crocs to pursue their passions. BUSINESS WIRE

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Don’t let anyone tempt you into something you know isn’t going to help you reach your goal. Joint ventures will be riddled with poor judgment and disillusionment. ★★★

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Truth and loyalty matter. Don’t make excuses for someone else’s behavior. Clear vision and being upfront regarding the way you feel will help you avoid being taken for granted. Overreacting, indulgent behavior and deception should be overruled. ★★★

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you choose to help someone, set boundaries and make it clear that you expect him or her to contribute as well. A joint effort will be far more affective as well as keep your friendship intact. ★★★

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Make changes at home or to the way you live, handle your finances or take care of your health. Putting together a daily routine and sticking to it will ease stress and lead to success. ★★★★

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Tread carefully when dealing with friends, relatives and colleagues. If someone asks for too much, set the record straight and offer only what you feel is fair. Too much of anything will leave you at a loss or feeling used. ★★ BIRTHDAY BABY: You are productive, patient and open-minded.

You are unpredictable and entertaining.

‘present and past’ BY VICTOR FLEMING The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Gloomy 5 Caused damage 11 “I ___ only kidding” 14 Estimator’s phrase 15 Baltimore bird 16 Late start?

17 Glimpse woodcutting facilities?

19 French diarist Anais 20 Firstborn 21 Leave unobserved 23 “Well, I guess so” 25 California wine county 26 Jukebox favorite 29 Long stretch 32 Paramount Network, formerly 33 The third one is shocking 34 Silence breakers’ movement 36 ___ on (had too much of) 39 Sharp turn 40 Ladybug’s snack 41 Make a mistake 42 Racetrack statistic 44 Fancy leather

45 Diva’s forte 46 Slangy road reversal 48 Apt lead-in to “fix” 49 “Need anything?” reply 50 Japanese Winter Olympics site 53 “Take a Chance on Me” quartet 55 I condition?

58 Like good bonds 62 Play about Capote 63 Abide weariness?

65 Vietnamese New Year 66 Wonton noodles’ dry relative 67 Tangelo variety 68 ___/no question 69 With all judges present 70 Swamp growth DOWN 1 Capsule contents 2 Retired Dodger Hershiser 3 Like a loaner, typically 4 Perfume ingredient 5 Practical book genre 6 The long ___ of the law 7 Social reformer Jacob

8 9 10 11 12 13 18 22 24 26 27 28 30 31 34 35 37 38 43 45 47 49 50 51

Defoe’s ___ Flanders Clothing designer Perry Totalitarian ruler Get amazing prizes?

Just like me Crime and Punishment heroine Tennis great Arthur ___ Domini Maintain Petite pasta Given the ax, with “off” Really like baseball shelters?

None of the above “Beats me!”

More, in Havana Some Wordsworth words Cleveland Indian “Dagnabbit!”

The King and I locale No pro Pave the way for Vowel-shaped beam Meshlike Concur

52 54 56 57 59 60 61 64

Tie ___ (carouse) Bucker at a rodeo Maya Angelou’s foot Word after “rest” or “residential” Borderline Pineapple brand In the center of Organizer’s container

Solution to Thursday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

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Elton John biopic ‘Rocketman’ to premiere at Cannes NEW YORK—The Elton John biopic Rocketman will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Rocketman will screen on May 16 at the French Riviera festival, two weeks before it’s to be released in the United States. Paramount Pictures on Tuesday confirmed the premiere, which Variety first reported.

The film stars Taron Egerton as the British singer and pianist. It’s directed by Dexter Fletcher, who stepped in to helm the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody after Bryan Singer was fired.

Rocketman is more of a musical-biopic hybrid. John is himself a producer on the movie.

The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14 to 25. Its full slate is to be announced on Thursday. As previously announced, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die will open the festival. AP

CLARA BENIN PERFORMS AT THE SHANG CATCH the summer wave at Shangri-La Plaza as indie phenomenon Clara Benin brings the beats to match the season on April 27, 7 pm, at the Grand Atrium of Shangri-La Plaza (www.facebook.com/ shangrilaplazao��icial) in Mandaluyong.

A talented singer-songwriter, Clara is known for her soothing acoustic guitar music.

The unique combination of indie, folk, and acoustic alternative influences can be heard in her 2015 debut album, Human Eyes. After coming back with singles in 2017, she also represented the Philippines in Music Matters, Asia’s premier independent music festival, and One Voice: The Best of Asean Performing Arts in Singapore.

With her sweet intimate voice, ambient harmonies, and heartfelt lyrics, Clara is one of the most exciting young talents in the local music scene. She performs her hits, including “Parallel Universe” and “Tila” at the popular leisure destination.

Eyeing that elusive gold ALL ACCESS RICKY GALLARDO

rickygallardoTFI@gmail.com

A

CTOR Xyruz Cruz is one of the best bets of the Philippine Karatedo national team in international competitions. He just brought home a bronze medal from the Men’s Senior Kumite (75 Kg division) at the 8th South East Asian Karatedo Federation Championships held in Bangkok, Thailand, last week.

“The gold medal was within reach against my Vietnamese competitor but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Despite the minor injury I sustained, I gave it my all. And the bronze medal was also a hard fought one with the Thai delegate, and I’m just glad that I was able to bring home something for the country.”

Cruz almost became a world champion last year when he competed in Spain for the highly touted World Karatedo Championships. He was up against the world No. 1 seed from Ukraine, and Cruz almost scored an upset, making the coaches, mentors and athletes from around the world take a second look at this good-looking competitor form the Philippines.

Born Sharief Mahmud Asif to a Filipina from Jolo and a Jordanian father, Cruz took his first dip into martial arts at the tender age of 7, when he took part in a summer karate class in Zamaboanga City where he grew up.

“You can say I was magnetized by karate right away and I knew, even early on, that it was the kind of sports activity that I could excel at. I’ve been training for almost 18 years now. For fun, I also like other sports such as football, basketball, even sepak takraw.

But it is karate which I always make time for even when show business beckoned,” he explained.

Cruz flew to Manila as part of his prize for winning a contest in Zamboanga City, and as fate would have it, he met a few people who opened doors for him in show business.

“The lure of show business was such a strong one that I did not resist. I guess I am the kind of person who is always open to explore possibilities. Maybe it also comes with age: while you are young and able, you try out things and gain new experiences,” he shared. Perhaps the biggest door that opened for Cruz was courtesy of the late director Maryo J. de los Reyes, who saw the potential of this young Mindanao-born athlete in the entertainment business. “Direk Maryo suggested that I take on a screen name, so I followed his advise knowing that he has decades of experience and expertise in this business. That’s why Xyruz Cruz was born.”

Cruz was part of the roster of mostly actors managed by the late television and film director before de los Reyes passed away last year. He was given very good regular roles in GMA shows like Parekoy, Sherlock Jr., Magkano Ba ang Pag-iBig? and Someone to Watch Over Me. “The training I got was priceless. I also tried out acting for theater, which requires a very different kind of discipline. It’s quite apt to say that I was bitten

FRENCH TYCOONS SHOW COMPETITIVE STREAK OVER NOTRE DAME AID

BY THOMAS ADAMSON The Associated Press PARIS—Two of France’s richest men, long locked in a very public rivalry, are once again pitted against each other— this time over flashy and competing donations to rebuild Notre Dame.

Billionaire luxury tycoons—Bernard Arnault, 70, and Francois Pinault, 82—are among France’s fiercest business competitors and patrons.

On Tuesday, their rivalry reached dramatic heights when it was announced Pinault, his son and their company Artemis would immediately donate €100 million ($113 million) to help finance renovations to Notre Dame after it was seriously damaged in an inferno during building works.

Hours later, Arnault shot back with an announcement that he, his family and his luxury company LVMH would pledge double that amount—€200 million ($226 million)—for the restoration of the church that was immortalized in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame—an eternal story of obsession and jealousy.

The famed rivalry of Arnault and Pinault, whose names rhyme, goes back decades.

“They’re like competing boys, but the stakes run into the billions,” said Long Nguyen, fashion editor at Flaunt magazine.

Arnault is France’s—and Europe’s—richest man and CEO of the world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH, the owner of iconic fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Pinault founded the world’s second-biggest, Kering, formerly PPR, that acquired rival brand Saint Laurent in a face-off.

“The Notre Dame donations are the latest in a long line...

They run competing fashion houses and both like the center

Monday, April 22, 2019

stage,” he added.

Both men also possess a sizeable art collection—and a desire to show it off in competing museums.

Pinault’s son Francois-Henri married actress Salma Hayek and is often in the society pages, while Arnault’s son Antoine fathered children to supermodel Natalia Vodianova.

The two were reportedly on friendly business terms until the late 1990s. Some commentators have linked the souring of the pair’s relations to a bidding battle over the ownership of Italian fashion house Gucci, which eventually went to Pinault’s Kering group.

Then, the battling turned to art.

Arnault opened the Louis Vuitton Foundation, designed by architect Frank Gehry, in 2014 to showcase his vast personal art trove in Paris’s far western suburbs. Some critics have branded it a vanity project, with French media claiming that the glimmering building’s final price tag came in at close to $900 million.

Meanwhile Pinault, who with his son is estimated to represent France’s sixth fortune, is following hot on Arnault’s heels and is set to open his multimillion-dollar contemporary art museum, the Collection Pinault-Paris, next spring.

Since 2001, Pinault has gradually been ceding control of his business interests to his eldest son Francois-Henri, 56, to concentrate on his art collecting. The museum, designed by another big-name architect, Tadao Ando, will display the octogenarian tycoon’s personal contemporary art collection.

The web site highlights its prime central location “in the very heart of Paris” in the city’s former stock exchange.

The Bettencourt Meyers family, which owns cosmetics giant L’Oreal, and Total also each pledged €100 million to go toward the restoration over the 850-year-old cathedral.

by the acting bug and it’s something that I can do until I grow very old,” he volunteered.

Cruz also had his taste of acting for independent films. He was launched as a film actor in Bamboo Flowers, shot in scenic Bohol and also directed by de los Reyes. “I’d like to set my sights on doing more films.

There are many local independent film festivals, and more and more brilliant writers and filmmakers are being discovered through these, so I’d also wish to land a few good roles. My ultimate wish as an actor is to be able to be part of a film that would compete in foreign film festivals.”

At the moment, Cruz balances his schedules between training for karate, his acting projects, his fitness activities and the new karate school which he founded. “It’s my way of giving back. I love kids and I think that for athletes to shine, we should start training them young,” he said, adding, “Summer classes are one way of introducing martial arts and sports to the kids, just like how karate was introduced to me when I was still a little boy.”

For Cruz, athletics and acting both require discipline, commitment, and determination. “You have to be passionate in everything that you do in order to succeed. And you’ve got to have patience and the will to go beyond your goals.”

The world championship gold medal might still be elusive for now but Cruz remains undaunted. There are many international competitions lined up, and he trains regularly very seriously. He knows deep in his heart that some day soon, he would take home the gold for our country.

As for his other passion, he wishes that he will be able to work on films that will quench his thirst as an actor. We will surely be cheering for Xyruz Cruz in both arenas. ■

ACTORATHLETE Xyruz Cruz

D3

D4 Monday, April 22, 2019

Style

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LAUREEN UY (center), shown with Nat Ho (left) and Paul Foster advises choosing a color palette when you travel and working around that scheme.

PHOTO: @LAUREEN ON INSTAGRAM

Laureen Uy reveals her style and beauty travel secrets AND THEN SOME DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

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AUREEN UY is known as a style blogger. She is, in fact, one of the pioneers in fashion and style blogging in the country long before anyone had coined the term “influencer.”

We caught up with her in Singapore for the launch of No Sleep, No FOMO, a show which showcases the most popular Asian celebrities and social-media influencers taking on various challenges while staying awake in different countries for 60 hours straight.

No Sleep, No FOMO is an original production from Viu, a leading pan-regional OTT video service from PCCW Media Group.

A new element gave fans the power to cocreate segments through social media.

Through “Viu Engage,” fans were able to follow the hashtags #ViuNoSleepNoFomo and #ViuEngage and influence the course of celebrities’ adventures through interactions on social-media platforms in real time.

The hosts include Paul Foster (from Singapore), who was joined by Laureen Uy (from the Philippines), Alexander Lee Eusebio, Kevin Woo, Eric Nam, special guest Kim Jong

Kook (from South Korea), Hana Tam (from Hong Kong), Taya Rogers (from Thailand), Benjamin Kheng and Nat Ho (also from Singapore).

So how does one still look stylish and cameraready in the face of this challenge?

“For the show, I pretty much didn’t change. I only wore one jacket and would just change my shirt and sweater. But when traveling, I always say stick with a color palette. For example, you can choose a brown palette and work with beiges and other brown shades,” said Laureen.

From there, Laureen said it is easier to manage one’s wardrobe because you already have key pieces and just need to accessorize.

We also asked her for some beauty tips when traveling.

“Drinking water is very important. Water hydrates your skin. Also, when I’m traveling I don’t bring a lot of makeup. I’m more into skin care,” said Laureen.

Laureen’s dream destination is Cappadocia in Turkey where she wants to watch the sunrise and ride in a hot air balloon.

We also got to talk to Korean host and variety show star Kim Jong Jook.

We asked him about his top travel essentials that he brought with him on the No Sleep, No FOMO trip.

“Workout gear, protein shake, cap [for when I can’t do my hair] and phone, of course. I can’t travel without it.”

Kim Jong Kook said his favorite traveling companion is his mother, as he is always busy with work and being with her on trips is their bonding experience.

For more information about the show, go to bit.ly/2DgnMCs. ■

AVON REDEFINES WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A GENTLEMAN THERE was a time when strength and stoicism were seen as the ultimate male ideals. Society created the archetype of a strong, suave man who never loses his composure. But while there’s nothing wrong with that image of a dashing gent, it just doesn’t paint a full picture of what a modern gentleman is.

Times have changed, but the popular notion of what’s considered manly does not seem to have kept up. “There’s more to men than just being strong, masculine, and suave,” says Tisha Rodriguez, Avon Philippines head of Marketing.

“Avon believes that men can also be graceful and

emotional, and still be considered manly.”

As a company built to empower others, Avon is celebrating the many unsung facets of a modern gentleman with its latest campaign, called Gentleman Up. The campaign is a call for all men to come forward and embrace the traits that society has set aside in favor of traditional gender connotations.

“We’re not trying to discount the popular idea of what a gentleman is. Instead, we’re expanding it to show a more inclusive picture of the modern gentleman,” adds Tisha Rodriguez.

New Avon endorsers—Tanner Mata and Enchong Dee—join brand ambassador Daniel Matsunaga to send Avon’s message of acceptance, inclusivity, and diversity. The three led a group of modern gentlemen in the latest fashion show of Men’s Club by Avon, a line of intimate apparel for men.

The brand’s message of diversity mirrors the diverse range of men’s undergarments, which range from basics and printed cotton briefs to underwear with innovative fabrics (bit.ly/2KNexQr).

True to Avon’s message of inclusivity, the all-male fashion show featured for the first time ever a lineup dominated by non-models.

The three headliners launched the campaign with theater actor Ian Ignacio, chef Gerick Manalo, photographer Ari Simangan, singer Joshua Bulot, blogger Chuck Aquino, and nurse Clint Karklins.

Men’s Club by Avon is available through Avon Representatives, or online via www.avonshop.ph.

BusinessMirror

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Monday, April 22, 2019 E1

The mistake companies make when they use data to plan diversity efforts

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By Katie Wullert, Shannon Gilmartin & Caroline Simard

N working with companies seeking to improve diversity and inclusion, we have found small numbers can be a big sticking point. With such limited data, many companies revert to broad categories (e.g., “all women”) as they structure diversity initiatives. In fact, articles on people analytics advise practitioners to “beware of small numbers” because it’s hard to determine what they mean.

Taking this logic too far, however, can have highly damaging effects. Our research identifies four key steps companies can take to ensure they don’t fall victim to the faulty logic of small numbers.

Be willing to make claims based on small numbers. When you have small

numbers, each loss, each hire and each promotion matters. Small numbers can create uncertainty, but they don’t mean you can’t do analysis or take action. Instead of dismissing such trends, examine them and what they might mean about the organizational environment.

Dig deeper. Descriptive work shows the ways in which organizational outcomes are patterned by race, gender and other characteristics. In order to understand what these patterns mean and where they come from, the next step is to dig deeper. Small numbers are the perfect opportunity for gathering interview-based data. In order to make interview data most useful, its collection should be thoughtful, systematic and flexible.

Engage managers as allies. Organizations can help managers act as allies by creating an environment where crucial and often difficult conversations can take place. This starts with educating managers about intersectionality. Employees do not experience organizations based on their race or gender separately; they live their lives at the intersection of these characteristics.

Don’t settle for small numbers.

Analyzing existing conditions and cultivating support is a big part of implementing inclusive diversity efforts, but the most important step for any organization is to increase small numbers. Take an honest look at your organization’s hiring, retention, advancement and cultural practices.

When you understand where the problems are, you can start to fix them.

To create lasting change, organizations should be willing to analyze small numbers, gather detailed interview data on employee experiences, engage managers as allies for change and hold themselves accountable to making small numbers grow.

Katie Wullert is a doctoral candidate at Stanford University. Shannon Gilmartin is a senior research scholar at the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab and an adjunct professor at Stanford University. Caroline Simard is senior research director at the Center for the Advancement of Women’s Leadership at Stanford University.

HOW YOUNGER SALESPEOPLE CAN WIN OVER OLDER CUSTOMERS

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By David Priemer

S companies build out their sales organizations, I find that more and more are putting younger team members—millennials—in charge of connecting with buyers at earlier stages of the sales cycle.

That helps explain why, as I train and advise sales teams, many report a rising intergenerational challenge.

I call it experience asymme-

try. These young salespeople find themselves pitching older decisionmakers who have much more experience than they do. Often, the

potential buyers are wary, skeptical that the inexperienced representative can offer them ways to improve how they do their jobs or run their businesses.

I’m able to train people on how to handle these situations partly because of my own experience.

Early in my career, I was a sales engineer for a high-growth software company. Our products were designed to help keep track of employees’ work hours and schedules.

I was 25 years old. Many potential clients I was pitching had worked in the industry, and even at their company, for decades.

There are three key steps to

overcoming experience asymmetry. They are the steps I teach and recommend to this day:

Know their pain points

NOTHING helps prospects realize “this person can actually help me” better than a seller who comes equipped with well-articulated points that speak to the problems they’re facing.

Invoke the credibility of others

THE customer generally doesn’t care what you think, and those phrases only serve as reminders of your relative lack of experience. Instead, continuously put the focus on what experts have to say.

Present arguments with conviction

HOW you pitch is every bit as important as what you say.

When facing experience asymmetry, keep in mind that it’s largely about respect. As with all things in sales, it’s important to listen more than you speak, ask lots of questions and let the customer know that you’re learning from them. The more you do that, the more they’ll trust you to deliver value.

David Priemer is founder of Cerebral Selling and adjunct lecturer in sales leadership at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.

HOW DEPARTING LEADERS CAN PASS ALONG THEIR WISDOM How companies should prepare their forecasts

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By Hal Gregersen

ARLIER this spring I had the chance to witness two of the “farewell talks” that Ed Catmull gave to the people of Pixar.

Catmull shared—over and over again—what he believed the whole company should be thinking about as it looks ahead.

Catmull has always been unusually reflective about the challenges of leading creative organizations, and generous in sharing the practices he finds effective. In his farewell talks, he showed the same level of thoughtfulness. He decided to:

n Make the sessions inclusive.

Catmull talked to everyone, including hundreds of people who had never sat in meetings focused on high-level strategic issues. As a result, his parting act was immensely unifying.

n Keep it intimate. With so many people to connect with, Catmull made the sensible decision to do many talks.

Each talk, therefore, was intimate enough to create a conversational atmosphere. n Pose questions rather than offer answers. Catmull didn’t want

to proclaim solutions. He wanted to prompt his colleagues to think creatively about big strategic issues. He put vital questions on the table, “even if they couldn’t be readily answered.”

n Create the space for people to air their own thoughts. Appro-

priately, Catmull left plenty of time at the end of his comments for his colleagues to speak up and pose questions of their own.

n Display undiminished curiosity. Catmull ended each talk with a

© 2019 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. (Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)

complete digression into territory he personally found fascinating.

So, why were these conversations valuable to the company? First, Catmull provided Pixar employees with his well-informed perspective on the challenges ahead. Second, he gave them a launching point and maybe even the framework for future conversations, among themselves, about how Pixar will continue to thrive. And third, the sessions honored how important this transition point was.

Sometimes a creative act by one leader can put a new question on the table for others. Ed Catmull’s farewell talks did just that. The question is: How will you share your hard-earned wisdom at the end of a long career?

Hal Gregersen is executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

By C. Fritz Foley & Mark Khavkin

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ENIOR management teams tend to focus on achieving results that will show up on their most current income statements. We have found that particularly strong management teams actually spend less time obsessing over the current income statement and more time focusing on a different report: the forecast. There are several reasons for this.

To start with, the forecast is a vital tool for value creation. The forecast also provides a scorecard to evaluate if strategy is appropriate and effective, and directs attention away from short-term results toward longer-term strategic objectives. Furthermore, the forecast guides actions by providing inputs needed to execute operational initiatives. Not all forecasts are built alike, however. We find that a great forecast has five attributes:

First, it includes projections of operating results and resource needs for the next three to five years.

Second, it reflects the firm’s industry context. It should be consistent with estimates of the size of the firm’s total addressable market and insights about how that market is evolving.

Third, the firm’s strategic choices should form the basis for assumptions about how it will grow and what resources it will require.

Fourth, projected growth rates and margins should reflect the competitive dynamics the firm faces.

And finally, employees throughout the organization should have a sense of the steps they will need to take to meet the strategy’s financial targets given the industry context and competitive dynamics.

Instead of emphasizing the development of a single base-case forecast, it is often more informative to consider a range of possible outcomes. This pro-

cess captures a more complete picture of the opportunities and risks a firm faces and generates a lively discussion of what considerations should and should not be included in the base case.

Importantly, great forecasts do not have to prove to be correct to be worth the trouble of constructing them. By forcing management teams to detail the risks they face and to consider the resources needed to pursue opportunities that might emerge, the forecasting process helps those teams develop a playbook for situations that may arise.

Leaders who focus on forecasts and integrate the finance function into their decision-making stand the greatest chance of creating value for investors.

C. Fritz Foley is a professor and senior associate dean for strategic financial planning at Harvard Business School. Mark Khavkin is the chief financial officer of Pantheon Platform.

E2 Monday, April 22, 2019 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Education BusinessMirror

Unenrolled preschoolers face inequalities early in life

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ANY young children not enrolled in preschool are at risk of facing deep inequalities from early in life, Unicef’s first-ever global report on early childhood education reported.

Among others, it highlights a lack of investment in preprimary education by many governments worldwide. Also, children enrolled in at least one year of preprimary education are more likely to develop the critical skills they need to succeed in school.

The report, entitled “A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education,” revealed that children with access to preschool are also less likely to repeat grades or drop out of school.

Hence, they are more able to contribute to peaceful and prosperous societies and economies when they reach adulthood.

“Students who attended preschool before starting kindergarten continued to demonstrate higher performance in literacy, mathematics, and social and emotional development in elementary school,” said Julia Rees, Unicef representative, citing Unicef Philippines’s ongoing longitudinal study on early childhood care and development, which echoes findings from the global report.

Across the globe, children with preprimary education are more than twice as likely to be on track in early literacy and numeracy skills than those missing out on

early learning.

In countries where more children attend preprimary programs, significantly more children complete primary school and attain minimum competencies in both reading and math by the time they finish primary school.

“This suggests that the positive relationship between preschool and cognitive performance can be observed for at least the first two years of schooling,” Rees added.

Only 20 percent of three- to four-year-old Filipino children were enrolled in preschool in 2009.

Parents believed their children were too young to go to school, and that centers were too far from their homes. Enrollment percentage has since doubled to 42 percent in 2013. While this is a significant improvement, enrollment needs to increase to ensure that every Filipino child gets an early start in education.

Meanwhile, the rate of enrollment in kindergarten for all children increased to 79 percent in 2014, compared to 57 percent in 2010. The rise is likely due to the implementation of the Universal Kindergarten Act of 2012 mandating compulsory and free kindergarten education. The rise in

enrollment may also be attributed to the increase in public-sector spending on education.

Globally, the report noted that household wealth, mothers’ education level and geographical location are among the key determinants for preprimary attendance.

However, poverty is the single largest determining factor.

Disasters and conflict can also impact preprimary aged children. In Mindanao, 57 percent of three- to four-year-old and 22 percent of five-year-old children were not enrolled in preschool and kindergarten in 2017, respectively. Preprimary education helps young children affected by crises overcome trauma by giving them a structure, a safe place to learn and play, and an outlet to express their emotions.

Unicef has been supporting the government and non-state actors to fill in the supply-side gaps and has been aiming to reach children in conflict-affected areas, disaster-prone areas, and remote and disadvantaged areas. Programs, such as the Tahderiyyah for Muslim children, Supervised Neighborhood Play and Kindergarten Catch-up Education are in place.

In 2017, an average of 6.6 percent of domestic education budgets globally are dedicated to preprimary education, with nearly 40 percent of countries allocating less than 2 percent of their education budgets to this subsector.

The lack of worldwide investment in preprimary education negatively impacts quality of services, including a significant lack of trained preprimary teachers. Together, low and lower middle-income countries are home

to more than 60 percent of the world’s preprimary-age children, but scarcely 32 percent of all preprimary teachers.

In fact, only 422,000 preprimary teachers currently teach in low-income countries. With expanding populations, assuming an ideal pupil-teacher ratio of 20 to 1, the world will need 9.3 million new preprimary teachers to meet the universal target for preprimary education by 2030.

In the Philippines, the passage of the Early Years Act of 2013 and the Universal Kindergarten Law in 2012 mandates the government to strengthen the system for providing early childhood care and development services, including early learning for zero to four years old and providing kindergarten services for all fiveyear-old children and to appropriate funds thereof.

Unicef continues to advocate to the Philippine government to allocate more funding to implement the Early Years Act and Universal Kindergarten Law. These will help increase access to quality early childhood education, especially by disadvantaged and marginalized children. Unicef believes every Filipino child has the right to quality and accessible education, especially in the early years of life.

“Unicef promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere,” Rees said.

PLDT-Smart turn over learning tools in Quezon province

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HE PLDT Employees Credit Cooperative (Pecci) recently turned over a School-ina-Bag to the Pamampangin Elementary School in Lopez, Quezon. This was in partnership with PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications (Smart). The School-in-a-Bag benefited over 290 students and 12 teachers of the school.

“Our partnership with Smart, through the School-in-a-Bag, is our way of going beyond work and doing what we can to provide betterquality education to underserved communities. In Pecci, we believe that technology is an enabler that allows every generation to embrace and adapt in the digital age,” said

Pecci Director and Social Community Development Oversight Committee Head Miguel Dawis.

School-in-a-Bag is a portable digital classroom designed to facilitate basic education even in far-flung and underserved areas without access to electricity.

School-in-a-Bag utilizes technology coupled with innovative, 21stcentury teaching pedagogy and K to 12 content to enable learning.

Each digital learning package contains a projector, DVD player, pocket Wi-fi, solar panels, an LED TV, a teacher’s laptop and student tablets preloaded with Learn Smart literacy apps with the Dynamic Learning Program module, teacher

training courses, and regular monitoring and evaluation from Smart.

Aside from the School-in-aBag, Pecci also nominated Pamampangin Elementary School to be the recipients of the PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF)’s PLDT Sack of Joy bags. These were distributed to 150 students. PSF also distributed over 180 PLDT Sack of Joy bags to the students of Guihay Elementary School in Lopez, Quezon. The PLDT Sack of Joy bag includes school supplies, such as PLDT-Smart Foundation Composition notebook, pencil, ballpen, a Crayola set, ruler, pencil sharpener, paste and eraser.

Through PSF, Pecci also distributed 120 PLDT Sack of Joy bags to

the children of Lubid ng Buhay in Gumaca, Quezon.

“PSF believes in the power of education in transforming the lives of the youth of today. Through the PLDT Sack of Joy, may the sparks of hope ignite within every student who receive this simple blessing.

May this inspire them to work harder in making their dreams happen,” PSF President Esther Santos said.

“Thank you to Pecci and PSF for their generosity. This blessing is a reminder for us to teach our students well and shape them to be the future leaders of this country,” Pamampangin Elementary School Principal Jonas Christian V. Merjudio said.

Telus PHL, CCA offer coffee barista, latte art workshop to employees

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OUNG people these days pursue professions that value their passions and continuous learning as essential ingredients to their overall growth and development.

Telus International Philippines (TIP), a company that actively champions their team members’ careers, provides an avenue to fuel this thirst for knowledge and pursuit of passions: the Telus International University (TIU).

TIP has instituted various programs and initiatives to continuously train and educate team members while allowing them to discover themselves within the company. These include degree courses, linguistic programs (including Japanese, French and Mandarin, among others) and short courses on a variety of interests, such as fashion design, performing arts, information technology and culinary arts.

Apart from providing professional development training necessary for team members to move up the career ladder, TIU provides learning experiences that can be beneficial for their careers both inside and outside TIP. TIU gives team members the opportunity to complete their education through subsidized tuition and classes taught on site. It also serves as a platform for team

WORKSHOP participants from Telus Philippines learn how to properly grind coffee beans with Chef Zaldy Mangaliag of CCA.

members to pursue their own interests through partnerships with various learning institutions. Supplementing these are other services that ensure completion of courses signed up for, including special discounts and flexible payment terms, shuttle services for select campus classes, guidance counseling and exclusive access to TIP libraries. TIP has even opened up TIU short courses to team members’ families and friends.

“We put a premium value on work-life integration at Telus International Philippines.

The caring culture that we foster and cultivate helps us become better in what we do, and an important part of that is creating a work environment that is conducive to continuous learning,” TIP Manager for Learning and Development Frederick Estacio said. “We always look for various and equal opportunities for our team members to maximize their potential

both personally and professionally.”

One of the most popular short courses that telus International University offers is a coffee barista course, in partnership with the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA), Manila.

With the coffee culture firmly embedded in the Philippines, many Filipinos have taken interest in coffee making, which has become not only valuable skill but also a competitive craft.

“Coffee has become an important element to jump-start our day, or for most of us working in the BPO industry, our nights too,” Estacio said. “Knowing the craft behind brewing good coffee not just elevates the coffee-drinking experience for our team members, but even presents a possible livelihood opportunity for team members who are looking for entrepreneurial pursuits.”Aside from the coffee barista course, TIU and CCA offers the other culinary courses to TIP team members, including basic and advanced cooking and baking tracks, as well as baking and pastry arts. At the moment, all of these short courses are held at CCA Kitchen, Farmers Market in Cubao. CCA also offers fundamentals in culinary arts and baking arts course in all of their campuses.

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Online education gives graduates advantage in modern workplace

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HE integration of technology-driven practices in the modern workplace has shone a light on a mismatch between what many companies need from employees and the work habits of many in the work force. Recent technological innovations call for personnel who are digitally adept and can thrive in an increasingly digital environment. Thus, employers these days often face the prospect of spending considerable resources to up-skill recruits and capacitate them for the workplace.

The country’s pioneer in online education bridges this gap between the need for digital competence much valued in new hires and the actual ability of new graduates to work in the digital workplace. While offering the same academic content as traditional brick-and-mortar universities, AMA University Online Education’s approach to the teaching process allows students to experience technology in different formats.

“Our approach to education allows students to develop the needed digital skills and competence often lacking in today’s demanding and competitive workplace,” said Dr. Amable “Miguel” C. Aguiluz IX, AMA Education System vice chairman and CEO. AMA OEd is the first and only online education that offers full degree programs in the Philippines.

Students who enroll in online courses are required to participate in interactive online activities, such as communicating through e-mail, instant message, holding discussion sessions and completing online assignments. Also, AMA OEd’s corporate partnerships ensure their graduates have firsthand knowledge and experience of how it is to work in the modern workplace.

This type of learning environment has the potential of transitioning graduates more easily into the workplace. For their employers, this means less time and resources devoted to training and up-skilling of new employees, harnessing instead

their productivity from day one.

The modern workplace is also characterized by flexible shared spaces, where employers encourage their employees to have a work-life balance by allowing them to work remotely at specific times. Online education is taken and completed on the online landscape, and its students have become accustomed to effectively completing courses and tasks from home. Employees with an online education are able to carry over this behavior of remotely working and effectively multitasking to the workplace.

Aside from a change in communication methods and work setting, behavior within the workplace is also shifting to a more collaborative approach. Traditional workplaces are built on the concept of competition, where the most plaudits go to those who successfully climb the corporate ladder. Modern workplaces, on the other hand, emphasize collaboration, with employees working together to achieve the best results. Online education exposes its students to educators and fellow students from a wide range of fields and locations, allowing them to develop a stronger affinity for collaboration.

With the Philippine government recently enacting the Telecommuting Act (Republic Act 11165), more corporations and businesses are expected to embrace this change alongside other modern practices to improve company performance. Employers will want graduates who possess all the necessary skills to excel in their respective departments, and employers will choose graduates who may be trusted to contribute to the company’s goals wherever they are.

“At AMA, we take pride not only in teaching the youth but also in educating the workforce needed by today’s economy,” Dr. Aguiluz IX said.

“We hope to see more of our youth more capably take on the modern workplace, fully realizing their potential in the digital age.”

All roads lead to 110th PDA annual convention May 13-17 at SMX-MOA

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LL roads lead to the biggest dental event in the country with the holding of the Philippine Dental Association’s (PDA) 110th Annual Convention and Scientific Meeting from May 13 to 17, 2019, at the SMX Convention Center, Seashell Drive, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.

The event, which will feature top-notch and seasoned international and local lecturers, is expected to draw around 12,000 delegates composed of local and foreign dental practitioners, dental hygienists, dental technologists, deans and members of academe.

Dr. Stephen B. Almonte, PDA president-elect and general chairman of the 110th PDA Annual Convention and Scientific Meeting, said the congress theme is “Collaboration Towards Dynamic Professionalism.”

The heart of the convention, the five-day scientific sessions—organized by the specialty affiliates of the PDA—will feature over 100 topics.

Other highlights of the convention are the opening ceremonies, welcome reception, PDA President’s Night, House of Delegates’ Meeting, E-posters presentation, Student Congress and Election of new sets of PDA Officers.

A permanent fixture in the convention are the trade exhibits where there are more than 500 exhibitors showcasing the latest in the science and technology of dentistry and addressing the dental professionals’ requirements.

The convention will feature for the very first time an online registration and evaluation system. This will enable all delegates to have a quick access to their profile and to monitor their CPD points through their mobile phones or computer. All these are part of the organizing committee’s effort to make the PDA more environment-friendly by going paperless.

For more information about the convention, please call: (02)8904609 or e-mail: 110thpda@ gmail.com.

Business Guide to Set Up an Internal Audit System

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HEN do you know it’s time to set an internal audit function for your business? Having an internal auditor is essential as soon as you start delegating key functions to other people such as finance, cash disbursements and receipts, procurement of inventories, maintenance and even marketing. Someone must review if the work is done right and complies with policies and procedures to ensure that no cheating, fraud or abuse is happening in your organization.

To help businesses prevent fraud, the Center for Global Best Practices will host a two-day program entitled “Best Practices on How to Set Up an Internal Audit System” to be held on Wednesday and Thursday, May 29 and 30, 2019, at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City. This program is CPD-accredited. Accountants attending this program will earn points. While external auditors play a big role in business, they rely only on the truthfulness of the financial statement provided to them. When you want to prevent fraud, this is where the value of an internal auditor becomes necessary and relevant. It is the internal auditor who can police your operations and check if there are irregularities that are happening. This provides you the need to have a well-functioning and effective internal audit system that can truly help you improve your risk management and cost control processes including monitoring and detecting fraud; and provide recommendations for more sound corporate governance practices and very effective and efficient operations.

This two-day special program is to help those for profit and nonprofit organizations, private and public institutions in their capacity to build, set up and maintain an internal audit department. You can start with a person or a team of two to handle this function if you are a start-up or an SME, or a group handling internal audit activity for bigger organizations.

This program will feature Mary Jane O. Rosales, CPA, CIA, CCSA, CRMA, a senior partner of Domingo, Rosales and Associates. She has over 14 years in internal audit and risk management experiences and 22 years in accounting/controllership experiences including her stint with Petron Corp.’s Controllers Department, Internal Audit Department and Refinery Finance Division and various engagements in private and publicly listed companies and government agencies and local government units, after early retirement from Petron. She graduated with a BSBA degree major in Accounting from the University of the Philippines. She became president of the Institute of Internal Auditors Philippines in 2008, serving as director of the board since 2003. She is a Distinguished Toastmaster, the highest norm given

by Toastmasters International.

Registration is open to the general public. Public officials and government employees attending this training program will earn points for career advancement and are exempted from the P2,000 limit set by COA based on Department of Budget and Management Circular 563 issued on April 22, 2016. Interested participants are encouraged to avail themselves of the early registration savings and group discounts for three or more registrants.

Seats are limited; preregistration is required.

For details and a complete list of seminars including “Best Practices in Corporate Housekeeping,” “Best Practices on How to Conduct Strategic Planning and Prepare Strategic Action Plans,” “Best Practices in Strategy Execution,” “How to Really Read Financial Statements,” “ Best Practices in Implementing Effective Business Controls,” and many more, you may check our web site at www. cgbp.org or call Manila lines (+632)842-7148/59 and (+632)556-8968/69, Cebu lines: (+ 63 32) 512-3106/07 or Legazpi Line: (+6352) 736-0148.

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Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Monday, April 22, 2019 E3

How can I excel in a PR writing test?

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in time, it is important to know how words and visuals go together.

EAR PR Matters, As a new graduate, I wish to pursue a public relations career and have applied in several companies, including PR agencies.

The responses have been favorable so far, but have observed that when in the final stages, I have been asked to take a writing test. While I have written several pieces for our school paper, I must admit I am not quite that confident about the test.

Can you give me some tips on how I can prepare for this?

PR Matters

Dear Angelica, First of all, I would like to thank you for your letter and congratulate you on your graduation. My colleagues and I are happy that you are planning to pursue public relations as a career and wish you all the luck as you take your first steps. Nothing, of course, is easy, but you will find it a very exciting and fulfilling career.

For better or for worse, writing is an essential skill for most public-relations practitioners. The words we use are our tools, tools that unlock a world of ideas and possibilities as we promote our brand. And that may spell the difference between so-so and excellent communications.

And whether we like it, a writing test is one way that companies can determine an applicant’s writing ability and potentials to get ahead.

“Writing tests are a very important part of the interview process for us,” said Dawn Miller, CEO of Miller PR, a bicoastal firm which represents digital and entertainment brands. “Typically, we ask the applicant to prepare a press release, a pitch, a bio, or company boilerplate, depending on the candidate and the skills required for the position we’re looking to fill.”

And in PR News article “Getting the Job: Five tips for Acing the Dreaded PR Writing Test,” Andrew Hindes, a seasoned PR copywriter and the president on The In-House Writer, said that “it’s not just recent college grads whose writing chops are being evaluated.”

He cites Amy Bermar, president of Corporate Ink, a Boston-based agency specializing in technology clients, who started using writing tests for every single hire at every level 15 years ago.

BREAKING NEWS: WPP NAMED WORLD’S MOST EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY FOR THE EIGHTH SUCCESSIVE YEAR

NEW York and London, April 18, 2019—WPP (NYSE: WPP) has been ranked as the most effective marketing communications company in the world in the 2019 Effie Index. The award, which WPP has won for the last eight years, is the industry’s benchmark for effectiveness in terms of demonstrable results for clients. The Index rankings reflect companies’ cumulative success in 46 national, regional and multinational Effie Awards competitions, based on 3,753 finalists and winning entries during 2018.

The case studies put forward by every brand and company featured in the Effie Index are subject to rigorous evaluation by expert industry judges, who examine and debate each case’s strategic communications challenges and objectives, the idea, how the idea was brought to life through creative, and the results it delivered.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “Our job is to produce transformative ideas and—most important—transformative results for our clients. The Effies are a litmus test of our ability to do that and I’m delighted WPP continues to top the rankings for effectiveness in our industry. The credit goes to our outstanding agencies and people who every day turn their talent and

creativity into tangible business success for organizations around the world.”

Traci Alford, CEO of Effie Worldwide, said: “The Effie Index is the most comprehensive global ranking of marketing effectiveness.

The rankings are also reflective of the teams behind the work, determined by a jury of industry peers. WPP has retained its title as Most Effective Holding Group for the eighth consecutive year, which is a testament to the people and collaboration behind their winning work. My sincere congratulations to the entire team on their continued success.”

CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT: BENCH’S ONLINE FILM ‘SMELLS LIKE A GIRL’ UP FOR WEBBY

NEW YORK—The 23rd Annual Webby Awards are almost upon us, and one of the finalists in the Audience Choice category is none other than online film, Smells Like a Girl, for iconic Philippine lifestyle brand Bench.

Currently, the film stands at second place with 23 percent of the votes, and fans from all over the world are invited to let their voices be heard by voting for the film here.

Directed by Chris Martinez and starring Marco Gumabao, Smells Like a Girl is a touching story of acceptance between a closeted son and his traditionally macho father.

Originally released in February last year, the film quickly went viral, achieving 3 million hits in 24 hours.

Smells Like a Girl is the latest addition to Bench’s successful slate of ongoing digital initiatives with advertising agency TBWA\ Santiago Mangada Puno, a partnership that also produced last year’s Webby Award-winning,

WWW.FREEPIK.COM

Sincerely, Angelica M.

By Millie F. Dizon

That’s when they unhappily discovered that “someone senior enough to know how to write actually didn’t write very well at all.”

So, whether you’re just entering the job market or a seasoned pro considering a career move, Hindes shares with us five tips to help navigate the dreaded PR writing test:

n Yes, spelling counts. And so do

grammar, punctuation and proofreading. “We are looking to see if a potential candidate is able to express himself or herself clearly, concisely, and without errors,” said Alan Amnan, CEO of mPRm, a Los Angeles agency specializing in media and entertainment clients.

Hindes said mPRm requires interviewees for entry-level and junior positions to bring a mock press release announcing their hiring by the agency.

Senior execs may be asked to write a client release or a new business proposal.

Amnan recommends that before turning in their work, “candidates double check mistakes by printing it out on paper and reading it out aloud to themselves—and then have someone proof read it as well.”

n Know your formats. Ryan Croy, partner and director, Brands Division of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations, recommends that candidates spend time reading up on PR fundamentals Feels featuring Mikey Bustos.

“It is a feel-good film,” says Martinez, of the film’s theme of LGBT acceptance. “Maybe that’s also the reason why a lot of viewers tagged a lot of people and shared the video among their families and friends...It’s heart-tugging, and it’s a feeling you want people close to you to experience too.”

Voting for the 23rd annual Webbys Audience Choice Award is open until April 18th.

CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT: DDB BUILDS EPIC GRAVEYARD TO MOURN ‘GAME OF THRONES’ DEATHS

TO commemorate the highly anticipated eighth and final season of Game of Thrones (GoT), DDB Sydney and the exclusive Australian broadcaster Foxtel have built a 2000 square meter graveyard that pays tribute to the bloodshed and more than a hundred thousand individual deaths over the past seven seasons.

This final resting place, situated inside Centennial Park in Sydney from April 12 to 14, was designed

by DDB Sydney and built in a collaborative effort from Revolver/ Will O’Rourke and The Glue Society.

The ‘Grave of Thrones’ is designed as a place for GoT fans to reflect on the deaths of the show’s most iconic faces, as the show prepares to reach its epic conclusion. It features more than thirty gravestones, including two grand family mausoleums housing the deceased members of House Stark and House Baratheon and the headstones of some of Game of Thrones’ most infamous characters, including Joffrey Lannister, Ramsay Bolton, Khal Drogo, Tywin Lannister, Littlefinger and Olenna Tyrell.

and familiarizing themselves with published press releases by visiting the web sites of distribution services Businesswire and PR Newswire.

“While we do not expect entry-level employees to walk through the door fully equipped with the skills to draft flawless press releases and pitch letter, we do expect candidates to possess a strong base knowledge of press release writing and formatting,” Croy said.

And the best way to know these formats is through research and practice.

n Practice writing fast. Deadlines are part of challenges PR practitioners

face everywhere, anytime. That’s why some firms administer timed writing tests in their office. Croy said his agency gives candidates 20 minutes to draft a press release on the assigned subject, as this “allows them to showcase their core writing competencies and creativity within a specified time period.”

n Be prepared to go graphic. These days, both social and traditional media are about more than just words, Hindes said. It’s a visual world, and words are usually accompanied by photos or an infographic. Visuals are very important in the retail industry I represent, and

n Strut your stuff. Yes, proper grammar and spelling are important, but they are not enough to make you stand out as an applicant, Miller said. “We look for candidates who do that extra something,” she said. “Demonstrating a lot of creativity and passion, or taking the initiative to demonstrate knowledge of our company or the industries in which we work—those are things that set candidates apart for us.”

Corporate Ink’s Bermar aso looks for candidates who take risks and offer a fresh perspective in their writing.

“Our ‘written test’ is really just an outline,” she explained. “I could care less if you make up the content, as long as it’s interesting, creative and wants me to take action. I like it when people color outside the lines.”

Thank you again, Angelica. We hope these tips will help you when you take that writing test. My colleagues and I wish you the best of luck.

PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.

Perspective BusinessMirror

E4 Monday, April 22, 2019

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Journalist who covered Columbine reflects on lives unlived

IN this April 24, 1999, file photo, students embrace each other at a makeshift memorial for their slain classmates at Columbine High School on a hilltop overlooking the school in Littleton, Colorado. Twelve students and one teacher were killed in a murderous rampage at the school on April 20, 1999, by two students who killed themselves in the aftermath. AP/BEBETO MATTHEWS

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By Ted Anthony | The Associated Press

EW YORK—Daniel. Rachel. Isaiah.

“You can’t prove a negative,” our teachers and parents sometimes tell us when we’re young.

Yet when I look back upon my time in Colorado covering the almost-adults who were killed in the Columbine High School attack 20 years ago this week, all I can see are the negatives: the people who aren’t there anymore. I think of their names—names I typed and said and thought of, over and over, for a time.

Corey. Kyle. Kelly.

Nearly half my life later, when I think of Columbine, it isn’t what actually happened that occupies my mind. Instead, my brain goes to what’s no longer there. It goes to the undefined, usually unnoticed holes in the fabric of today—the spaces where people I never met are missing from the world for longer than they were here. To the long, silent aftermaths where lives used to be. To the names that fleetingly became part of my momentto-moment life and then, as for so many, receded and faded.

Cassie. Steve. Daniel again.

So often now, Americans find themselves confronting days in which shots are fired, children fall and futures are stolen. In moments of gunfire, worlds of possibilities are wiped away. Millions of things that would have happened melt into nothingness.

John. Matt. Lauren. Coach Dave.

Covering Columbine, I witnessed that feeling of unthinkable

school-day chaos up close for the first time. Looking back, I realize now: It was, really, a preview for an entire era of tears yet to be shed, of unwelcome gaps yet to be created.

Of negatives yet to be proven.

I’ve chronicled tragedy for all of my adult life, from rural Pennsylvania to urban China, from Afghanistan to Iraq. During my first job as a police reporter right after college, after I returned from a particularly harrowing murder scene, one of my mentors said to me: “You’ll get used to it.” That turned out to be wrong.

It was never the details of tragedies that lingered with me. It was the quiet aftermaths, the times when families and friends began to let in that a life had ended, that a future so many loved ones had counted on was no longer potential but had become, purely and simply, fiction.

Would one of them have discovered a cure for cancer? Become an NBA star? Traveled the world and learned from its people? Raised a family, been part of a community, paid a mortgage, shopped for groceries on the weekend, coached a youth sports team?

Made the world better, smarter, kinder?

These days, one of the things I sometimes do at work is called a “gap analysis.” It’s corporate jargon for an exercise in identifying the

IN this April 21, 1999, file photo, Rachel Ruth, Rhianna Cheek and Mandi Annibel, all 16-year-old sophomores at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado, console each other during a vigil service to honor the victims of the shooting spree in Columbine High School. AP/LAURA RAUCH

places in a business where things are lacking, or needed, and it’s the first step toward figuring out how to make them whole.

Twenty years later, I still find myself doing a mental gap analysis of Columbine, though nothing can ever make anything whole.

What I always come back to, which makes me dizzy, is contemplating what the world is lacking because these 12 young people and this teacher were abruptly removed from humanity’s equation one April morning as the last millennium’s final days waned. All

because of two young men who decided that violence would be their final path forward.

I’d like to say that I understand things a bit better now.

I’ve written hundreds of stories since then about all corners of the world. I’ve seen parts of the planet I never thought I’d see. And now I have kids in schools that do emergency drills as a matter of routine. It is the background hum of a world that, to them, has always been this way.

I’d like to say those things have helped me make sense of Col-

umbine when I look at it over my shoulder from two decades on. I’d like to say that, but I’d be lying to you. I’m still trying, though. Not as a journalist, necessarily, but as an American.

In daily journalism, the job is often to cover what has just happened, and it is frequently very loud. But more than you’d think, the quieter stories—the more important stories, even—are the ones that didn’t happen. Those are the more complex ones, too. And in the cacophony, they’re harder and harder to find.

But my profession is, at its heart, a quest not only for fact but for context. And that may be where we can actually help.

What we can do is look back on the traumatic things we’ve covered, revisit them, study them to hone and sharpen what we do. We can understand that even as we show the world the facts and the stories behind them, we also can create unintended consequences by amplifying people and actions that can be held up by ailing minds as accomplishments to be replicated.

And we can use this information to do it all better the next time.

Coach Dave. Lauren. Matt.

John.

“You can’t prove a negative,” they say. Maybe not. But you can notice one, and keep noticing it.

Daniel. Steve. Cassie.

You can remember, as a journalist, the people from the stories you covered who are no longer here.

You can wonder about their lives, and the people they left behind, and the ruthlessness of continuity that allows the world to fill in the gaps they left and move on to other spectacles, other triumphs, other tragedies and losses.

Kelly. Kyle. Corey.

And now and then, on a milestone anniversary that is no cause for celebration, you can sit in a quiet room and say, out loud, the names of people you never knew and hear them echo in a world that no longer contains them.

Isaiah. Rachel. Daniel. Again.

Ted Anthony, director of digital innovation for The Associated Press, covered the Columbine High School shootings and their aftermath in 1999. Follow him on Twitter at @anthonyted.