BusinessMirror August 03, 2020

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Monday, August 3, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 298

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 16 pages |

H1 BORROWINGS HIT P1.7T ON COVID FUND BUFFER BID

DAANG Hari Elementary School teacher Lileth Ramos in Navotas City inspects the box containing some school modules to be used in the new norm of blended learning during the pandemic. The module will be distributed on Monday, August 3, 2020, to parents of students to help them get familiarized with blended learning. NONIE REYES

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Philippine government’s gross borrowings have surged past P1.7 trillion for the first half of the year as it continues to stockpile more funds for budgetary support while there is still no clear end in sight to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CHURCHGOERS are seen at the Baclaran Church in Parañaque on Sunday, August 2, 2020. The Archdiocese of Manila, as a show of support for exhausted medical frontliners, said it will "revert to the period of ECQ protocols" and will not hold public religious activities for two weeks.

Instead, online celebration of Masses will be the norm. NONIE REYES

Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed the state’s gross borrowings for the first semester this year doubled to P1.723 trillion from only P840.837 billion recorded in the same period a year ago. It was in end-May when the government breached the P1.4trillion borrowing program it set for the entire year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rise in gross borrowings also comes at a time that the government is expecting the budget deficit to widen to 8.4 percent of GDP or P1.613 trillion—equivalent to more than double the P660.2 billion or 3.4 percent of GDP it posted last year. A budget deficit occurs when expenditures exceed revenues.

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Traders’ unused import clearances ‘anomalous’

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

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HE Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said “unjustified” underutilization by traders of their approved sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) for milled rice is an “anomalous” activity that may disrupt state food sufficiency planning.

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The BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), told the BusinessMirror that the new requirements for securing SPSIC would “avoid under supply for consumption of the Filipinos and buffer stocking purposes.”

“Underutilization of approved SPS-ICs without proper justification is a kind of anomalous activity which can disrupt government

planning for food sufficiency,” BPI National Plant Quarantine Services Division (NPQSD) said in an e-mail interview.

“The new requirements will assure that applied SPS-ICs will be arriving within the specified period, and together with the local harvest, avoid undersupply for consumption of the Filipinos and buffer stocking purposes,” it added.

The BusinessMirror earlier reported that rice traders and importers who have unused sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance could be suspended by the DA as about 60 percent of issued SPS-ICs in the first half, covering almost 2 million metric tons (MMT), remained unutilized as of July 10.

LOCAL, FOREIGN BIZ: POOR TO SUFFER MORE UNDER ECQ

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

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@alyasjah

OCAL and foreign investors have warned the poor will suffer most if Metro Manila reverts—something medical professionals are pleading for—to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The businessmen said work will be restricted again to essential services to the detriment of millions of income earners.

Private-sector leaders interviewed by the BusinessMirror argued the losses outweigh the gains in a U-turn to ECQ. Business operations are just beginning to reopen,

and shutting them down again will leave millions of workers jobless, they said.

Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council Private Sector Representative George T. Barcelon said it will be costly to reimpose ECQ measures in Metro Manila, as it will require the government to roll out another round of social amelioration. “[T]here will be more losses if we revert back to ECQ because only essential sectors would be allowed to operate. Less people will be working, public transport will again [be] locked down,” Barcelon explained.

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US 49.2170 n JAPAN 0.4690 n UK 64.0018 n HK 6.3507 n CHINA 7.0297 n SINGAPORE 35.8333 n AUSTRALIA 35.3821 n EU 58.0515 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.1252

Source: BSP (Source: BSP (30 July 2020)

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BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, August 3, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Duterte, Cabinet take up medical groups’ plea for 2-week ‘timeout’ P

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM & Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco | Correspondent

RESIDENT Duterte was to meet with key Cabinet members on Sunday to tackle the medical community’s plea to place Mega Manila under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for two weeks and provide respite for exhausted health-care workers as Covid-19 cases keep rising.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque confirmed this a day after Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea met with some Cabinet members to also discuss the frontliners’ concerns.

Dozens of organizations representing health workers across all fields, led by the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP), said that after five months and with many health workers being infected along with their families, it is impossible to simply expand the Covid-19 care capacities of hospitals because besides the physical requirements, these institutions are hounded by crippling manpower shortages.

“The President will meet with ke y C abi net members tod ay [Sunday] to discuss yesterday’s letter from the frontliners. I will make the proper announcement in due course,” Roque said in a statement.

Before Saturd ay’s meeting

convened by Medialdea, the Palace said Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, Roque, National Task Force (NTF) Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr., Deputy Chief Implementer of the NTF Vince Dizon, met with the Philippine Medical Association, the Philippine Nurses Association, and the Philippine Association of Medical Technologists to discuss their August 1 letter.

The medical community proposed that Mega Manila—NCR, Central Luzon and Calabarzon— be placed under ECQ from August 1 to 15, to provide a “timeout” to refine pandemic control strategies and address urgent problems.

Among the problems they raised are hospital work force shortages, failure of case finding and isolation, failure of contact tracing and quarantine, transportation safety,

workplace safety, public compliance with self-protection and social amelioration.

The medical community made the appeal a day after the government kept the National Capital Region under general community quarantine (GCQ). Along with NCR, 12 other areas in the country are under GCQ. On Sunday, infections breached the 100,000 mark after the government reported new 5,032 cases— another record-high increase.

Labor groups

SE V ER A L l abor g roups a l so backed on Sunday the stand of the medical community. “They are the experts and frontliners that our country cannot afford to lose in this war against Covid-19.

Their exhaustion is our concern.

Their lives are as important as the many lives they save. And as essential workers and experts in the medical field, their opinion outweighs that of others as far as restrategizing the country’s pandemic approach is concerned,” Nagkaisa Labor Coalition said in a statement.

For its part, Kilusang Mayo Uno Chairman Elmer Labog said medical and scientific experts should instead be the ones to lead the Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), as it claimed the decisions and pronouncements of the current IATF are “baseless and unscientific.”

New logs

AS of 4 p.m. of August 2 the DOH said that Covid -19 cases jumped to 103,185 after recording 2,114 fresh cases and detected 2, 918 late cases.

The DOH also recorded 301 more recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 65,557.

Twenty deaths were posted, bringing the total to 2,059.

‘We hear you’—DOH

THE Department of Health (DOH) assured the medical professionals they are working closely with the Office of the President and other government institutions on the appeal for a “timeout.”

DOH said the “timeout” will also give the goverment leeway to revisit their strategies “to meet the evolving nature of the pandemic.”

At the same time, the DOH said, “this repr ieve can a lso g ive us t he cr it ica l space to marsha l l resources t hat w i l l help us w in this f ight.”

Duque said the past five months have taken their toll on the whole country, most especially healthcare workers.

“In response to your call, we commit to do more to ‘care for our carers’ with detailed plans for suppor t—from easier actions such as facilitating lodging, transportation, PPE, and food—to pushing for more systematic reforms on compensation and benefits, including necessary network-based changes to

health-care practice,” Duque said.

“We hear you,” Duque said after he met with the medical groups on Saturday afternoon.

Localized lockdowns likely

The DOH as the lead of the Task Group on Response Operations, he vowed, will work with the National Task Force (NTF) in effectively implementing localized lockdowns, and ensure that the national government will provide comprehensive support.

“We will revisit and include the inputs we have gathered in our overall gameplan. The DOH will develop this strategy in coordination with our government and nongover nment counterparts in the next seven days,” he added.

The letter to Duterte signed August 1 by Dr.Mario Panaligan, president of the Philippine College of Physicians, said, “We are waging a losing battle against Covid-19, and we need to draw up a consolidated, cognitive plan of action. Hence, we, as your healthcare frontliners call on our national government to return to Mega Manila to enhanced community quarantine for a period of two weeks, from August 1 to 15.”

“Our health-care workers should not bear the burden of deciding who lives and who dies. If the health system collapses, it is ultimately the poor that is most affected,” the group lamented.

H1 BORROWINGS HIT P1.7T ON COVID FUND BUFFER BID Continued from A1

Of the total gross borrowings as of end-June, nearly 76 percent was sourced locally while the remaining 24 percent came from foreign sources.

Gross domestic borrowings for the six-month period have soared to P1.309 trillion, growing twofold from only P615.36 billion a year ago.

On the other hand, gross foreign borrowings swelled by 83.37 percent to P413.46 billion from P225.48 billion in 2019.

Broken down, domestic borrowings include fixed-rate Treasury Bonds (P387.859 billion), Retail Treasury Bonds (P310.766 billion), Treasury Bills (P310.427 billion), and domestic loan under the repurchase agreement with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (P300 billion).

Meanwhile, external borrowings of the national government comprised program loans (P216.301 billion), dollar-denominated global bonds (P118.735 billion), euro bonds (P67.329 billion) and project loans (P11.092 billion).

June data

FOR June alone, gross borrowings nearly quadrupled to P213.23 billion from P53.709 billion in the same month a year ago.

Both domestic and foreign borrowings jumped by almost four times in June this year to P156.410 billion from last year’s P39.344 billion and to P56.817 billion from P14.365 billion in the same month a year ago, respectively.

As of end-June, the national government’s outstanding debt had breached the P9-trillion mark from P7.869 trillion in the same period in 2019.

The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, used to gauge a country’s ability to pay its debt, is also seen by the government’s economic managers to increase to 49.8 percent by year-end from a record-low 39.6 percent last year.

Despite the projected increase in the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, the government has said this is still far lower than the most recent peak of 71.6 percent in 2004.

Traders’ unused import clearances ‘anomalous’ Protection measures…

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BPI data obtained and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that only 1,803 SPS-ICs of the 3,926 SPS-ICs issued from January to June have been used by eligible rice importers as of July 10.

This corresponds to a total rice volume imported of about 1.347 MMT out of the 3.261 MMT applied volume during the six-month period, BPI data showed.

About 2,123 SPS-ICs, which cover 1.914 MMT of rice, are yet to be used by registered and eligible traders, importers, firms, cooperatives, and organizations, based on BPI data.

Citing importers’ explanations, BPINPQSD said the underutilization of the SPSICs this year was attributed to such reasons as the lockdowns in countries of origin due to Covid-19 pandemic and export ban in Vietnam.

Other reasons given by rice importers were: delayed shipments, rice suppliers limiting their export to ensure supply for their

own needs, port congestion and holidays at country of origins and high price of imported rice than locallyproduced staple, according to BPI-NPQSD.

Dar’s reminder

AGRICULTURE Secretary William D. Dar earlier issued a memorandum order (MO) reminding importers that “low utilization” of SPS-ICs could be “grounds for rejection of application or their suspension as importer.”

“Importers should regularly account and surrender any unused SPS-ICs to BPI,” Dar said in his MO No. 30 dated June 4 but made public on July 6.

“They are reminded that low utilization of applied SPS-IC can affect their track record and can be grounds for rejection of application or their suspension,” Dar added.

Dar issued the new order to address the “problem of low utilization” of SPS-IC for milled rice and “ensure availability of food”

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during this Covid-19 pandemic.

The new order required rice importers to submit additional requirements for the application of SPS-IC: 1) payment of certification of the consignment and 2) list of distribution points/warehouse of the said consignment.

“This will enable BPI and other government agencies to conduct monitoring and inventory at declared warehouses,” the BPINPQSD said.

Furthermore, BPI-NPQSD said importers who have abandoned rice shipments and could not explain why they were abandoned have been delisted.

“There were reports of abandoned shipments from different ports. We requested an explanation from importers regarding their abandonment. Since no reply was received from their part, they were automatically removed from the list of registered importers,” it said.

Salceda said conditions appear to be most acute in hospitals in the City of Manila, where bed occupancy is now nearing 80 percent.

“This is an alarming development. Sixteen out of 26 facilities in the City of Manila are now in danger levels. We call for the immediate development and rollout of the Dynamic Resource-Sharing System that we proposed earlier in our 75-page report of recommendations to President Duterte,” Salceda said.

Earlier, Salceda asked the government to “invest in data encoders in hospitals to improve both case reporting and resource reporting. Data encoders, deployed in hospitals, should be included in the government’s Covid-19-related job creation and cash-forwork programs.”

To ease some of the capacity pressure in the city of Manila, and to reallocate some of the occupancy to less crowded facilities, this investment in data and reporting is an absolute necessity, he added.

Local, foreign biz: Poor to suffer more under ECQ …

“The marginalized sectors will suffer more losing their livelihood; government must be ready to revive social amelioration ‘ayuda’ programs,” he added, warning that the peace and order situation could deteriorate if people are left to fend for themselves.

Barcelon acknowledged, however, that infection rates may go slower if households were instructed to stay at home again. As such, this will give the state and the healthcare sector the breathing room to reassess their strategies in containing the spread of the virus.

John D. Forbes, executive director at the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said reverting the nation’s capital to ECQ will result in“delayed recovery, less business activity and less income for basic needs.”

In terms of quarantine protocols, businessmen prefer barangay-level lockdowns over a region-wide ECQ, Forbes said.What should be focused on, he added, is the implementation of health protocols, particularly the wearing of face mask and social distancing.

For Forbes, the coronavirus crisis in the Philippines is not as much of a problem as it is in the United States, where more than 150,000 have now died from Covid-19.

“Also, we should feel safer that the fatality numbers are low in Southeast Asia,” Forbes said. “In the Philippines, the death toll is less than 2 percent of the United States, which has three times larger population.”

In a letter on Saturday, various health groups from all over the archipelago called on President Duterte to place Mega Manila (National Capital Region, Calabarzon and Central Luzon) under ECQ for a period of two

weeks from August 1 to August 15.

They said medical practitioners are now exhausted from the overwhelming rise of infections of Covid-19, citing the July 30 case where nearly 4,000 new positives were recorded. Many health-care workers have also been infected, subsequently infecting their families.

As such, it is necessary to impose a twoweek ECQ in the nation’s capital to give health workers the time to “draw up a consolidated, definitive plan of action,” they argued.

During this stretch, problems in containing the virus spread should be addressed, particularly on hospital work force deficiency; failure of case finding and isolation; failure of contact tracing and quarantine; transportation safety; workplace safety; public compliance with self protection; and social amelioration.

DTI chief: No going back

AMONG the first to oppose the plea of health workers is Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez.

His agency is responsible for the reopening of business operations nationwide, of which the latest move allowed gyms, Internet cafes and drive-in cinemas to resume activity areas

under general community quarantine, such as Metro Manila. “[We] cannot go back to ECQ,” Lopez told reporters on Saturday. “[It is] damaging to people’s health, with unemployment and poverty affecting health and wellness and nutrition intake. [It] will affect long-term health and capacity to learn for children.”

At least 5 million Filipinos lost their jobs when the whole of Luzon was placed under lockdown in March. Based on the April Labor Force Survey, unemployment rate swelled to 17.7 percent—from 5.1 percent last year— translating into more than 7.25 million jobless Filipinos.

Aside from the threats of income crash and permanent closure, business owners are expected to reject a return to ECQ after investing in health equipment to comply with state protocols on reopening.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will convene on Monday to discuss the health sector’s proposal to reimpose ECQ in Metro Manila. They will have to consider, among others, the public health situation of the country, as the Philippines is now nearing

Back to ECQ

WITH the increasing cases of Covid-19, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice asked the government to put back NCR to ECQ. “Science dictates that the government should immediately and without hesitation heed to the plea of our health workers to place back Metro Manila into ECQ; otherwise, the spread of the virus will further accelerate and there will be more deaths not only because of Covid but other diseases that cannot be treated as a result of failed and overwhelmed health-care system,” he said.

“Government should lead the people to safety and must exert an all-out attitude in helping the people get through this crisis.

Military should distribute food reliefs in all poor communities and capacitate public and private hospitals and provide isolation centers and testing facilities in each LGU in Metro Manila and other critical areas,” Erice added.

He said it will deal greater damage to the economy if the government will procastinate in doing what is a scientifically dictated response.

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100,000 cases with over 2,000 deaths.

DOJ chief weighs in

MEANWHILE, the business leaders got an ally in Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who expressed apprehension that placing the entire Metro Manila anew in a hard lockdown or enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) would result in more deaths not due to coronavirus infection but due to hunger and other circumstances.

Guevarra, however, said he agreed that the government should take all the necessary steps to protect the welfare of medical frontliners seeking a two-week lockdown in order for them to recover from physical and mental exhaustion caused by the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases in the country, now close to 100,000.

“I understand where our medical and health professionals are coming from. They are expectedly getting weary. I agree that they need all the support and care that the government can provide,” Guevarra said.

“But everyone else is getting weary. Millions of people need to go back to work and earn a living, or else they die of hunger. We need to stir the economy back to life, albeit gradually,

lest we reach a point where it will be doubly difficult to recover,” he added.

Guevarra urged people to continue making sacrifices which he assured will not go unnoticed when the Covid-19 pandemic is over.

“All of us have to make personal sacrifices for the common good. All these will come to pass, and when it’s all over the nation will remember with gratitude those who were heroes during this dreadful pandemic. Our doctors, nurses, and other health workers surely top them all,” the DOJ secretary explained.

Guevarra’s sentiments are aligned with the position of DTI Secretary Lopez who said that the economic cost of tougher quarantine measures could also affect Filipinos’health and well-being.

Lopez is pushing for other measures to stop the Covid-19 spread such as granular lockdowns of buildings, streets or barangays with high infection rates, along with massive tracing, testing, isolation, treatment.

He also stressed the importance of complying with health protocols by business establishments. With Joel R. San Juan

The Nation BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

LAWMAKER TO GLOBE, SMART: NAME LGUs DELAYING ISSUANCE OF PERMITS

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LEADER of the House of Representatives asked Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc. to identify which local government units (LGUs) have supposedly delayed the issuance of their permits to build more cellsite towers and other telecommunications infrastructure.

Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte issued the call on Sunday while also asking the telecommunications companies (telcos) to stop blaming all LGUs for their failure to upgrade services, more so now when President Duterte and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) have assured them there would no longer be any red tape in the processing of applications for the rollout of their cellsite towers.

“Their [telcos] epic failure for years now in bringing up their services to world-class standards have been magnified at this time of the coronavirus pandemic when superior Internet connectivity would have greatly aided national efforts to switch right away to digital technology and online transactions, in practice of physical distancing to avoid Covid-19 infection,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte added that in 2017, he already called on these “telco giants” to provide better services “and filed House Bill [HB] 1299 seeking to give consumers a venue to air their complaints against these errant firms.”

He said he has filed a proposal requiring the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to come up with a comprehensive and efficient system for subscribers to report their complaints of substandard services from their respective

telecommunication providers.

“I challenge these telcos to submit their applications for tower rollouts in CamSur because I guarantee them that Governor [Miguel Luis] Villafuerte will process their permits in an expeditious manner,” said Villafuerte, referring to his son, the incumbent provincial governor.

EODB

MOREOVER, Villafuerte questioned why telcos continue to gripe about red tape when Republic Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Law of 2018, had amended the Anti-Red Tape Act “precisely to, among others, provide the public and businesses with an effective mechanism to ensure prompt action on, or resolution of, their government transactions.”

RA 11032, which Villafuerte had coauthored, slaps penalties on local officials for their respective LGU’s failure to act on applications for permits or other official transactions within the specified time for processing such documents.

Globe President and CEO Ernest L. Cu pointed out in a meeting that LGUs require around 25 permits to 29 permits that took almost eight months to process before the company could build the cellsite towers required to deliver Internet service in unserved communities.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said during the same meeting that the DILG and other government agencies have already issued a Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) that would ensure the speedy approval of all licenses, permits and clearances for the establishment of “shared passive telecom tower infrastructure.” Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Insurer opens nomination for 2020 ‘Shero’ awardee

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NSULAR Life Assurance Co. Ltd. (InLife) announced it opened nominations to this year’s “Asia CEO-InLife Shero of the Year” award to highlight successful Filipino women leaders and achievers who contribute to nationbuilding and empower others.

“Our award recognizes strong and empowered women who are helping to build a strong and modern Filipino nation,” InLife Executive Chairman Nina D. Aguas was quoted in a statement as saying. “This award also highlights Filipino women leaders in the midst of the global pandemic.”

The award is given to a Filipino woman leader who has achieved rec-

ognizable success in overseeing organizations that have advanced the nation’s economic and/or social standing in the world, the insurer said.

The InLife Shero of the Year will be selected based on the following criteria: leadership commitment that demonstrates inspiring and empowering values; pioneering achievements to help the country’s economy and health situation; sustainability and scalability of initiatives and solutions; and social commitment.

Last year, the first InLife Shero of the Year award was given to Doris Magsaysay Ho, group president and CEO of the Magsaysay Group, one of the country’s largest business conglomerates.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, August 3, 2020 A3

Duterte to send ‘virtual’ message during AFP chief installation rites

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

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RMY Commanding General Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay will formally assume today the post of chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as General Felimon Santos Jr. officially retires from the service in twin ceremonies that will not be having the Commander in Chief as the presiding officer and principal guest speaker.

Traditionally, the installation and assumption of office of the military’s chief of staff and the retirement of his predecessor are presided over and graced by the President.

This will be the first time in years that both rites will not be administered “and even physically skipped” by the country’s highest official.

Gapay, member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1986, will succeed the officially retiring Santos. Santos will also leave his

GAPAY

post on Monday, just move one day short of reaching 56, the mandatory retirement age for members of the military and the police.

The assumption and retirement ceremonies will be held at the Tejeros Hall of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Commissioned Officers Club (AFPCOC) and not at the grandstand of Camp Aguinaldo; thus, the traditional parade and review for the twin events will

not also be happening.

Military Spokesman Major General Edgard A. Arevalo said the information he got from the secretary of the joint staff was that President Duterte has a “prior commitment,” and this is the reason he “could not personally attend the ceremonies; but we’re not sure yet.”

“But he may be sending his message, virtual message…although he may not be present. But that is not still confirmed,” Arevalo said.

But the military spokesman said it is “definite” that National Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana will preside during the turnover and retirement ceremonies, which will start with the traditional arrival honors for the incoming chief of staff.

“That will be done in front of the Lapu-Lapu grandstand, after which the remaining two parts’ the second part will be the change of command ceremony and the third and final part will be the retirement

Private sector, LGU commit to rehabilitate Mahiga River

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TOTAL of 28 private companies and organizations in Cebu have committed to rehabilitating the heavily-silted Mahiga River in the Province of Cebu, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Sunday.

This as DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, together with Mayors Edgardo C. Labella of Cebu City and Jonas C. Cortes of Mandaue City, signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) last July 21 in Cebu City with representatives of companies and organizations taking part in the Mahiga River rehabilitation efforts.

The MOA was also signed by the chairmen of six barangays where the 9.1-kilometer river traverses: Apas; Banilad (Cebu City); Kasambangan; Banilad (Mandaue City); Mabolo; and, Subangdako.

The parties agree to develop a Comprehensive Rehabilitation program to reduce the pollution load of the Mahiga River and its tributaries.

According to Lormelyn Claudio, director of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau in Region 7, the Mahiga River Creek is a critical waterway in the city “and its current condition requires intensified actions from all stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of all rehabilitation measures.”

Claudio said the river’s deterioration has reached the point where it has posed a threat to the safety and health of the communities

along its banks and which the residents and the government can no longer address effectively without help from the private sector.

She said the DENR sought assistance and commitment from donor-par tners and private entities and organizations to improve solid, hazardous and wastewater management of the river and for the surface cleanup of its specific segment.

They will also assist in the information, education and communication (IEC) campaign and community mobilization activities of the DENR and local government units (LGUs) to foster harmonious relations with the community and solicit their participation, cooperation and support for the program, among others.

Meanwhile, the Cebu LGUs, in collaboration with EMB 7, shall ensure the establishment of integrated solid, health care and household hazardous waste management pursuant to existing environmental laws at the barangay level.

For its part, the DENR—through Region 7 Executive Director Paquito D. Melicor, the Provincial and Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices and EMB 7—shall intensify the monitoring of industrial and commercial establishments, and undertake regular water quality monitoring of selected points within Mahiga River and its tributaries, to determine improvements in water quality. Jonathan L. Mayuga

House committee asks Covid-19 TFs to allow TNVS units on roads

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

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O augment the current transport capacity, the House Committee on Transportation has urged the InterAgency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the National Task Force (NTF) on Covid-19 to allow the resumption of the operations of transport network vehicle service (TNVS), including motorcycle taxis.

During the recent hearing of the committee, Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo filed the motion asking the IATF and NTF to allow TNVS operators to resume business.

She said allowing these TNVS units on the road will provide additional public transportation to commuters, especially those who still need to go to work amid the pandemic.

Castelo also asked the national government to look into allowing tricycles to ferry one additional passenger to help double capacity and cut costs.

“As long as we can implement the relevant public health measures as advised by our partner-experts, the motorcycle taxis and more passengers on tricycles will go a long way towards augmenting our current transport capacity, which has become the key bottleneck to reviv-

ing our economy,” she said.

health safety protocols for motorcycle taxi.

Pilot study

Back on track

MEANWHILE, the transportation committee also passed the motion of Manila Rep. Cristal Bagatsing for Congress to spearhead the evaluation of the pilot study of motorcycle taxis.

“The TWG [technical working group] has done good work so far in reviewing motorcycle taxi-safety during the pilot,” Bagatsing said. “Our added involvement will ensure we round out the study before we draft the final bill by examining issues of pricing, supply pools and taxation.”

Iloilo City Rep. Julienne Baronda has moved to include members of the academe and private sector to help the proper formulation of relevant measures, particularly related to public health in the context of the pandemic.

“Upon hearing Doctor [Vicente] Belizario’s presentation from the UP College of Health, I would like to reiterate my motion in collaboration with experts and with respect to oversight of authorities in power, move for the approval of the extension of testing of motorcycle taxi study in Metro Manila and selected areas under the supervision of IATF and NTF,” Baronda said.

She was referring to the collaborative study made by Angkas in partnership with the University of the Philippines on public

ACCORDING to Belizario, “motorcycle taxis operate in open ventilation with one passenger only, which makes them very good candidates to help get our economy’s transport system back on track.

“In reference to the proposed measures we gave Angkas, there is no 100-percent guarantee that this will work; but the more measures you add, the safer you get, so we are cautiously optimistic about this,” the physician added. “These are definitely worth taking calculated risks with to augment our transport system.”

Belizario was referring not just to the recently IATF-approved motorcycle barrier, but also a host of other protocols’passengers and drivers wearing their own personal helmets and masks, regular disinfection protocols, fleet-wide PCR [Polymerase chain reaction] testing, in-app public health education and information dissemination and using the platform’s already-extensive network of over 4 million downloads for contact tracing.

George Royeca, Angkas chief transport advocate, presented the specifications of the IATF-approved shield, which was given the seal of approval of a motorcycle safety school based in California, United States.

Royeca said he shares the public’s concerns

on the shield’s impact on road safety, which was why he said his company “spent months designing and prototyping it with Total Control to ensure its roadworthiness.”

Shield, app

ACCORDING to Royeca, the shield is made of high-quality plastics, weighs less than 1 kilogram for all-day usage and comfort and is extremely pliable and shatter-resistant.

“Our shield was also specifically designed and repeatedly field-tested to be aerodynamic in conditions our bikers usually operate in,” he added.

Royeca told lawmakers the shield is only one tool in a suite of many to ensure high standards for public health and road safety, and that Angkas has been working with UP CPH since the beginning to ensure operations factor in all the relevant recommendations for public health.

“All our bikers are being retrained with proper public health protocols, and we are working with partners to help passengers purchase their own quality helmets,” Royeca said.

He added their mobile app will soon become “cashless to minimize face-toface interactions.”

“It will now also serve as a platform for public health education, information dissemination, and contact tracing,” Royeca said.

ceremony for our outgoing chief of staff will take place at the Tejeros Hall,” Arevalo said.

While the ceremonies would be held at the enclosed hall, Arevalo assured that the strict protocols for Covid-19 would be observed; thus only a number of people, mostly the important guests, would be allowed inside area.

Other representatives, including from other units of the military, would just watch via streaming video the ceremonies at the grandstand.

“Notwithstanding our observance of physical distancing because of the pandemic, it will not dampen the spirit, the solemnity of the event because this is no less than the highest position in the AFP that will be having a change of command,” Arevalo said.

“At the same time, it is also the occasion where we will be according retirement honors for our 53rd outgoing chief of staff who is General Felimon Santos Jr.,” he added.

Sen. Gatchalian bats for use of e-vehicles in post-Covid period

By Butch Fernandez

S

@butchfBM

EN. Sherwin T. Gatchalian goaded concerned authorities to urgently come up with “a sound policy for more sustainable transport system” in a post Covid-world.

“As the country moves toward the promotion of sustainable transportation in a post-Covid world,” Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, emphasized the “urgency to lay down a sound policy and regulatory framework for the adoption of electric vehicles [EVs] and the sustainability of the e-vehicle ecosystem.”

In a statement over the weekend, Gatchalian affirmed the need for the Duterte administration to “be ready with its policies and infrastructure before the e-vehicle becomes popular in the country.”

Citing 2019 data of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the senator foresees the cost of EVs could “reach parity with traditional ICE [internal combustion engine] vehicles by year 2024 as batteries become much cheaper.”

“We have to make sure that we have the right policies, the right infrastructure, and the right incentives so we will be ready to roll out the EVs in a big way,” Gatchalian stressed, as he asked Congress to frontload consideration of enabling legislation embodied in Senate Bill (SB) 1382 anticipating proliferation of EVs as alternative in the wake surging gas prices.”

Gatchalian earlier filed SB 1382, to be known as the Electric Vehicles and Charging Station Act, prodding Congress to facilitate enactment of the enabling legislation crafted to pave the way for the transition to new technologies, projected to “generate jobs, and attract investments to grow globally competitive.”

“The bill is now up for interpellation in the Senate and once the bill becomes a law and if implemented correctly,” Gatchalian said, adding he is confident that “the country’s dependence on oil will be greatly reduced and that the country will save P297.92 billion of annual oil importation.”

He adds that SB 1382 provides fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for the importation, utilization, and manufacture of EVs. This includes a nine-year exemption from value-added tax, customs duties, and discounts on the motor vehicle user’s charge as well as expedited registration procedures for EV users.

Citing the 2018 Philippine Statistical Yearbook, he noted the country imports 96.84 percent of crude oil.

At least 74 percent of the country’s crude oil import comes from the Middle East, making the country more vulnerable to supply and pricing disruptions.

At the same time, Gatchalian said he is poised to sponsor a remedial legislation to “further promote and adopt electric vehicles [EV] in the country,” which he projects would help reduce Philippine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and foster greater energy independence. He pointed out that the transport sector is the second biggest GHG-contributor in the country with 31.6 percent, Gatchalian said citing 2017 Department of Energy data.

“If you want to reduce the GHG in the country, you hit the transport sector. If you want to increase the energy security in the country, you hit the transport sector. That’s why our rationale for promoting the EVs in the country is to improve the air quality, improve environmental conditions, and promote energy security,” the senator stressed.

SHIFTING TO A HEALTHIER A4

A BusinessMirr

Monday, August 3, 2020 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

HINELEBAN FARMS:

Healing for the body, healing for the soil

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HE Hineleban foundation was founded in an effort to restore the environment while providing sustainable livelihoods to local Bukidnon farmers. It provides the local indigenous people food security, sustainable income generating livelihoods through transformational Business partnerships. Even the name “Hineleban”, an indigenous Bukidnon term for “Mother Tree of the Rainforest that sustains the cycle of all life”, reflects the foundation’s dedication to sustaining both the community and the planet.

Through the marketing arm of the foundation, Hineleban Farms, the farmers’ goods are distributed and brought outside of their communities to be sold. The foundation sells a wide variety of organic products, such as honey, turmeric caps, coffee and other local crops. Their turmeric caps, in particular, contain the highest amount of curcumin. It is 100% organic, pure and potent.

One of the best known products to come from Hineleban is the Hineleban coffee. This coffee is a 100% Arabica specialty coffee grown on Mt. Kitanglad.

Its fruity and nutty undertone and caramel aftertaste earned it an excellent rating from Speciality Coffee Association Founder Marty Curtis. It is sold in Healthy Options stores nationwide, and

with every bag of coffee purchased, a tree will be planted in your name.

Another uniquely Hineleban product is the Hineleban Adlai. The local alternative to quinoa or millet is a gluten free, low glycemic index miracle grain used as an alternative to rice and pasta. Due to its versatility, it is now a staple of many restaurant and hotel menus across the country and

lifest

can be used in almost every recipe.

For the more health conscious individuals, Hineleban also sells Yacon syrup, which is a natural way to normalize blood sugar, liver fats and cholesterol. In addition to that, it also kills cancer cells and is a natural probiotic. It also aids in weight loss.

To know more about their products, please visit hinelebanstore.com.

NUTRITION KE

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By Trisha Jean V. De Leon

EALTH is wealth may now sound like a clichéd expression but just the same, many people are still taking this popular mantra by heart.

With the current global health emergency crisis brought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Filipinos are becoming more aware of their lifestyle to combat the deadly virus.

In fact, you’ll be surprised to see several local health-related videos and other forms of digital content featuring some exercise routines and food recipes, flooding different social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Having a healthy lifestyle, however, should be a life-long “trend ”—not only during times of pandemic or other health emergencies.

To help you kickstart your “health goals,” here are some tips to help improve your family’s lifestyle.

Healthy breakfast

WHEN nutritionists say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, they aren’t lying.

As the name implies, breakfast “breaks” the overnight fasting period, which means it replenishes glucose supply and amplifies your energy level and alertness.

Many studies also suggest that eating breakfast can help improve memory and concentration and minimize risks of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

style

ror Special Feature

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, August 3, 2020

A5

EY TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Oats, eggs, unsweetened Greek yogurt, bananas, 100 percent whole-grain toast, berries, and sweet potatoes are some of the best foods to eat in the morning.

More fruits and vegetables ENCOURAGING your children to eat fruits and vegetables may probably be one of the most challenging tasks to do as a parent. With the early introduction of cheap yet tasty snacks, such as chips, soft drinks, and other junk foods, it’s even harder to make your children love the healthier alternatives.

However, putting a little dose of creativity and effort can help your kids fall in love with your all-time favorite fruits and vegetables.

For instance, preparing blended fruit juice or mixing vegetables with meat can help make your children try these foods effortlessly.

Healthy Menus Via Online Delivery Platforms

FOR those who lack interest and time in preparing their

own meal, contact your favorite restaurants through their websites, social media pages, and other online platforms.

They often provide menus of freshly cooked food that won’t compromise your diet. If you have any food allergies, make sure to give them a heads-up.

Increase fluid intake

THERE’S a popular belief that drinking eight glasses of water a day is the best practice to hydrate your body. The truth, however, is that the necessary amount of fluid you need varies.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggests a total of 13 cups (about three liters) of water each day for men. On the other hand, women should at least drink at least 9 cups (a little bit over 2 liters) per day.

In a tropical country like the Philippines, you may need to take extra glasses of water to prevent dehydration, especially during a warm day. Nonetheless, if you have a medical condition like heart failure or a particular type of kidney disease, you may want to consult your doctor first to know what’s right for you.

Children are advised to drink at least six to eight cups a day, depending on their age, weight, and gender.

Sleep Better

SOME people suffer from sleep deprivation due to anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic.

Part of having a healthy lifestyle, however, is getting enough rest to help replenish your energy.

According to experts, sticking to your sleeping schedule will regulate your body’s clock and could help you fall asleep faster. You may also practice any relaxing activities before bedtime, such as playing soft and calming music. It’s also preferable to avoid bright light in the evening and expose yourself to sunlight in the morning to keep your circadian rhythms in check.

Physical activities

IT’S not easy to do a lot of physical activities, especially if you have limited space to move around. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t stop you from doing simple exercise routines to burn

your extra calories.

Dancing, for instance, is a good way to be physically active, even in the comfort of your home. Online Zumba classes are actually gaining popularity since it is a relatively easy aerobic exercise program.

46th Nutrition Month

LAST month, the National Nutrition Council (NCC) launched the 46th Nutrition Month. Among the salient points that were highlighted during the virtual launch include combatting stunting among children and the effect of the pandemic on a child ’s health.

The NCC also seeks to provide measures for the 1,000 Days program, which pertains to the first three years after birth, to demonstrate proper and appropriate complementary food preparation.

In conclusion, we all need to pay more attention to what our family does and eats. It may feel burdensome at some point but it will definitely be for everyone’s benefit in the long run.

Sheraton Manila Serves More Flavorful To-Go Options

K-CHICKEN BOX

MANGO SANSRIVAL

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ARLIER in the quarantine period, Sheraton Manila Hotel launched its togo offering featuring signatures from both its S Kitchen and Oori Korean Restaurant. Now, Sheraton continues to serve exciting dining options to bring the 5-star experience – something everyone has missed – closer and safer.

Sheraton whipped up a new cake collection from its wellloved dessert bites in its S Kitchen buffet selections such as the bestseller Ube Macapuno Cake, Mango Sansrival, and Brownie Mousse Cake. Each

cake is 8 inches in size and for Php 950 only.

Sheraton also makes its Barbecue Ribs Feast a takeaway staple after much popularity in the previous month. This party platter is Php 2,800 nett only

UBE MACAPUNO CAKE

BARBECUE RIBS FEAST

BROWNIE MOUSSE CAKE

which is good for 5 to 6 persons perfect for any celebration with or without any occasion. The star of the feast is the 2-kg baby back ribs with extra barbecue sauce on the side, mixed lettuce salad with thousand island dressing, garlic roasted potatoes and corn-green beans hash.

All these flavorsome dining options are just waiting for you.

For reservations or direct orders, kindly call 0917 822 3213 or 7902 1808. To get more hotel updates, check @sheratonmanila on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or visit www.sheratonmanila.com.

A6

Monday, August 3, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Everyone should have sufficient food

T

he Covid-19 pandemic is thrusting populations around the world deeper into a hunger crisis.

The United Nations last month said that an estimated 132 million people will have no sufficient food this year due to the effects of the pandemic.

“World hunger is still increasing—up by 10 million people in one year and 60 million in five years,” said Maximo Torero Cullen, chief economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is one of the UN agencies that compiled the report on world hunger. “Over 2 billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food,” he added. Of that number, about 746 million are severely food insecure and 1.25 billion are moderately food insecure.

The leaders of four international agencies—the World Health Organization, Unicef, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization—have called for at least $2.4 billion immediately to address global hunger.

Oxfam noted in July that the pandemic is deepening the hunger crisis in the world’s hunger hot spots and creating new epicenters of hunger across the globe. By the end of the year, it said 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to Covid-19. The pandemic is the final straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers. Meanwhile, Oxfam said those at the top are continuing to make a profit: eight of the biggest food and drink companies paid out over $18 billion to shareholders since January, even as the pandemic was spreading across the globe—an amount 10 times more than has been requested in the UN Covid-19 appeal to stop people going hungry.

“This is a critical time,” said David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program. “Nations must step up and reach deep in their pockets or we are going to have mass starvation and other significant issues.”

Although mass starvation is mostly prevalent in poor countries, it’s also a problem in rich countries.

In the United States, food waste is estimated at 30 percent to 40 percent of the food supply. The US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service cited a 31 percent food loss at the retail and consumer levels, or approximately $161 billion worth of food in 2010. There should be food for all Americans. Ironically, that’s not the case.

From Bloomberg news: “Food insecurity for US households last week reached its highest reported level since the Census Bureau started tracking the data in May, with almost 30 million Americans reporting that they’d not had enough to eat at some point in the seven days through July 21, 2020. In the bureau’s weekly Household Pulse Survey, roughly 23.9 million of 249 million respondents indicated they had “sometimes not enough to eat” for the week ended July 21, while about 5.42 million indicated they had “often not enough to eat.”

From the Borgen Project: “The Philippines’ Global Hunger Index is currently 20.3, ranking the country at 69 out of 119 countries and placing it under the “serious” category in the Global Hunger Index. Hunger poses dangerous health consequences for the Philippines, with 20.6 percent of people being underweight and 32.2 percent being stunted.”

The UN says enough food is produced today to feed everyone on the planet, but hunger is on the rise in all parts of the world. Food is a basic human need. Despite the current pandemic, governments must find ways to ensure that their citizens have the food they need to live a healthy and productive life. Only healthy citizens can effectively help in nation building.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

When almost everyone is now selling online Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

T

hese days, it is not uncommon to see that our favorite businesses like restaurants or coffee shops have already closed down. The costs of operations are greater than the meager income these businesses have been earning since the pandemic and lockdowns started.

Temporary closure does in fact make sense, according to Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion. It is wiser to padlock the business temporarily than dip into the working capital and even the savings of entrepreneurs just to keep businesses open. Close it down when cash flow turns negative, is his advice. He added that it is not the proper time to be a hero.

Everyone, from the big businessmen to small entrepreneurs, is affected by the pandemic. Many have turned to opportunities in

Fixing the road at this time Thomas M. Orbos

✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua

STREET TALK

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agriculture or online selling/marketing since these are in demand these days. Even those displaced by unemployment, housewives, and ex-overseas Filipino workers have been giving the more established restaurants some competition.

To stand out from the rest, experts have offered some techniques like taking great photos, providing plenty of details about your products, being honest with advertising, researching your products or service thoroughly, and being realistic about pricing, considering that customers need to pay extra for delivery.

D

espite the tragedy that is the Covid-19 pandemic, many nations around the world have taken advantage of this time to adopt policy changes in their transport sector; changes that are difficult to implement and achieve in normal times. Hence, we are seeing welcome initiatives in sustainable transport mainly focusing on achieving low carbon footprint and pedestrian/commuter prioritization. Bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, and green parks are taking over what was once the domain of motorized vehicles.

In a way, we are also currently experiencing this transformation in our country. The Edsa bus carousel, intended to regulate the buses in Edsa, would have been impossible to implement in pre-Covid times— but now it is happening. Designated bike lanes are also sprouting all over the metropolis. Other significant changes are the central provincial bus terminals outside the metropolis—the subject of much opposition before, but will soon be operational, as provincial buses will be banned in Edsa. This makes sense not just to decongest traffic but also to help regulate the spread of infections to and from Metro Manila.

All these are changes that we would not have seen happening if not for the pandemic. And while we

are at it, here are some suggestions that the government might consider to undertake—needed changes that would be difficult to implement in normal times but changes that would, in the long run, be beneficial for all of us.

Let’s start with the low hanging fruits, and there are plenty. One is implementing fixed stops for the jeepneys, the UV express vehicles and the buses. No more pick and drop anywhere. This will contribute to a smoother traffic flow, as well as help in lessening our carbon footprint and reducing accidents on the road. Another one would be to strictly implement the motorcycle lanes, especially on major thoroughfares. A good model on motorcycle lanes that is less intrusive and easy

The House committee on ways and means has just recently approved the substitute bill seeking to impose value-added tax on digital transactions in the country. While the measure is technically targeted toward huge foreign digital service providers like Shopee, Lazada, Zalora and the like, the small online sellers in the Philippines who are using these platforms are, of course, inevitably affected, along with the end customers who will end up paying for more expensive products and services.

Concepcion, for his part, has called on the government to give the online sellers a tax reprieve even just for the rest of 2020. People are trying to make a living and survive the economic backlash of Covid-19, so the least the administration can do is to support their efforts.

However, the House committee on ways and means has just recently approved the substitute bill seeking

The Edsa bus carousel, intended to regulate the buses in Edsa, would have been impossible to implement in pre-Covid times— but now it is happening. Designated bike lanes are also sprouting all over the metropolis. Other significant changes are the central provincial bus terminals outside the metropolis—the subject of much opposition before, but will soon be operational, as provincial buses will be banned in Edsa. to implement would be the one being implemented in Taipei, Taiwan.

Come to think of it, this will be a good time to enforce basic traffic rules and regulations to the point that people will get used to it even after this pandemic. Why not? While our enforcers are on the lookout for those not wearing face masks and enforcing social distancing, it would not take much effort to see motorcycle riders not wearing helmets, jaywalkers on the road, and to check all those illegal terminals that plagued our roads before.

On the policy side, this will also be a good time as well to think through some policies that were contentious during normal times, with some that can even be resolved and implemented during this pandemic.

One that we usually turn a blind eye to but surely know we need to address is the problem of parking.

Now is a good time to look at it point

to impose value-added tax on digital transactions in the country. While the measure is technically targeted toward huge foreign digital service providers like Shopee, Lazada, Zalora and the like, the small online sellers in the Philippines who are using these platforms are, of course, inevitably affected, along with the end customers who will end up paying for more expensive products and services.

Digital service providers, according to the bill, include the following: “A platform provider for promotion that uses the Internet to deliver marketing messages to attract buyers; a host of online auctions conducted through the Internet, where the seller sells the product or service to the person who bids the highest price; a supplier of digital services to a buyer in exchange for a regular subscription fee over the usage of the said product or service; a supplier of electronic and online services that can be delivered through information technology structure such as the Internet, or; a third party that acts as a conduit for goods or services offered by a supplier to a buyer and receives commission therefore.”

blank and come out with a bitter pill if necessary. With less demand on travel, the need for an extra car might not be there anymore. Relative to this would be the regulation on vehicles that are 15-year-old and above—something that can be resolved at this time. It may also be a good time to finish the route rationalization plan in major road corridors and implement it now. This will ensure that the proper kind and number of public transport vehicles will address the passenger demand in a particular corridor. We are now seeing this happening in Edsa with the buses. Imagine if we can also do this in the other streets. And another one more forward looking would be the policy to go electric.

Now is the logical time to finalize the policies on electric vehicles and implement it.

There are so many areas to work on that can improve our state of transportation, and much of these can be done at this time. True, we have never been collectively in such a worse condition than now but we can turn some of this into something positive. And hopefully when the pandemic ends, we can all look back at these changes we adopted and thank that we acted on them.

Thomas “Tim” Orbos was formerly with the DOTr and the MMDA. He has completed his graduate studies at the McCourt School of Public Policy of Georgetown University and is an alumnus of the MIT Sloan School of Management. He can be reached via e-mail at thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Choose Life: A declaration of opposition to the death penalty

We declare our absolute opposition to capital punishment and we call on all people of good will to join us in our fight. The second century Christian martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, who received a sentence of death from the Roman Empire, once wrote, “The glory of God is a human person fully alive.”

At the heart of our Christian faith is the belief that each human person is loved into being by God, created no less in his very image of God (Genesis 1:27), predestined from the beginning to become the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself (Romans 8:29).

There is no higher view of humanity than this: that each human person is given the gift of life to share in the image and likeness of God. An attack on any human person, the image of God, is an attack on God. Moreover, at the core of our proclamation of the Good News (evangelion), the Gospel of Christ is that God’s Son came not to condemn (John 3:17), but to offer redemption, and forgiveness: “The Lord is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to turn to him.”

[2 Peter 3:9] Rather than take the life of sinners, Christ came to offer his own life for our redemption: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Such is the depth of the love of God for us, sinners.

NOTHING—neither human sin, nor injustice, nor evil, “nor anything else in creation can separate us from the saving love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) This is the faith we confess, and we oppose the death penalty because it is contrary to the Christian principles of respect for human life, mercy, forgiveness and charity.

Furthermore, we also oppose the death penalty on the following grounds: n Capital punishment will disproportionately impact poor communities. The poor do not have adequate resources and recourse for competent legal representation. n In the Philippines, the death penalty had historically been meted out to some of the most vulnerable, for example, both children and the frail elderly. Given our broken judiciary, this could occur again. n The very serious flaws in our judicial system could mean that the death penalty would be wrongly imposed on the innocent. n A death penalty could be used to weaken democracy and silence political opposition, by sentencing human-rights activists and political dissidents to death in the name of national security. n Capital punishment does not act as a deterrent to crime, and serves only the purpose of revenge, contrary to the Gospel ethics of loving one’s enemies.

(Matthew 5:44) Our declaration of opposition to capital punishment should not be taken as a statement that persons who commit serious crimes should not be held accountable. In consonance with our Christian faith, we call on the government to offer offenders rehabilitation, so as to restore them to communion with God and the human

community. Instead of crafting laws that marginalize the poor, we call on our government officials to devote their energies on the betterment of the majority of its citizens who live in poverty.

In these islands where the wealth of the 15 richest individuals equals that of the poorest 77 million Filipinos, the focus of our government should be on reducing social inequality that is at the root of so many of the country’s problems. Peace eludes us because there is no justice. Furthermore, rather than weaken democracy and attack the defenders of democratic freedoms, the government ought to protect and strengthen our democratic institutions, our liberties, and those who guard them. The nobility of their vocation lies in the defense of human life and freedom, and service to the people.

To our President, to our lawmakers, and to our citizens, heed the word of God: “I set forth before you life and death. Choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19) Initial signatories: Most Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D., Apostolic Administrator, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila; Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza, General Secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Most Revd. Rhee M. Timbang, Obispo Maximo, Iglesia Filipina Independiente; The Rt. Rev. Rex RB Reyes, Jr., D.D., Episcopal Diocese of Central Philippines; Brother Armin A. Luistro, FSC, Provincial Superior, De La Salle Brothers in East Asia; Bishop Emergencio Padillo, Assigned to Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area, United Church of Christ in the Philippines; Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D. Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of San Carlos and Convenor, Church-people Workers Solidarity; Sr. Ma. Lisa Ruedas, DC, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation, Daughters of Charity; Sr. Rosalind Tanhueco, OSB, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation, Missionary Benedictine Sisters; Sr. Rowena Pineda, MMS, Unit Coordinator, Medical Mission Sisters; Deaconess Darlene Marquez -Caramanzana, Area Liaison for Asia and the Pacific, Genera l Board of Globa l Ministries The United Methodist Church; Fr. Rolly de Leon, Promotion of Church People’s Response; Rev. Dr. Eleazar Fernandez, President, Union Theological Seminary, Dasmariñas Cavite; Jennifer Ferariza-Meneses, Association of Women in Theology; Dr. Marita Wasan, PhD, lay leader, Roman Catholic Diocese of Antipolo; Fr. Noel Bordador, Episcopal Priest.

This declaration is open for additional signatories at the invitation of One Faith.

One Nation. One Voice (a broad network of Church people committed to defend life and human rights, while promoting Truth, Justice, and Peace in the Philippines).

References: Most Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D. and Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza One Faith. One Nation. One Voice (One Voice) simbanan.para.sa.katarungan@ gmail.com Mobile number 0928-385-4123

Marco Fernando L. Ng

DEBIT CREDIT

A

S we have opened up our business two months ago, after the great lockdown of March to May of this year, a lot of establishments suffered losses beyond their control and are trying to survive this great pandemic that hounded our planet.

And because of that they might choose to swallow the bitter pill of releasing employees currently under their employ.

This too will be a hard decision to make, but if it is necessary for the survival of their business, we respect those decisions. Because of this I would like to share and remind those employers that the “severance” payment of their employees may be exempted to withholding taxes provided they follow ministerial work needed to be coordinated with the Department of Labor and Employment and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

These paper documentations are easy since most notices are being given, and BIR has very easy requirements for this. Here is the excerpt for the primary exemption on those compensation of affected employees: SECTION 2.78.1. Withholding

of Income Tax on Compensation Income.

(A) xxx (B) Exemptions from withholding tax on compensation.—The following income payments are exempted from the requirement of withholding tax on compensation: (1) Remunerations received as an incident of employment, as follows: (a) xxx: (b) Any amount received by an official or employee or by his heirs from the employer due to death, sickness or other physical disability or for any cause beyond the control of the said official or employee, such as retrenchment, redundancy, or cessation of business.

The phrase “for any cause beyond the control of the said official or em-

Bloomberg Opinion

H

ere at last is some good news about the Covid-19 pandemic and the wholesale disruption to our lives it has caused: In many places with strict lockdowns this spring, there were far fewer premature births than is considered normal.

The trend doesn’t appear to be universal, but where it applies, the data are staggering. In Denmark, the number of babies born after less than 28 weeks of gestation—40 weeks is the norm—dropped by 90 percent during the country’s month-long lockdown this spring. In one region of Ireland, the rate of preemies with very low birth weight was down by 73 percent

between January and April compared with averages over the preceding two decades. Somewhat smaller decreases have been observed in parts of Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. Elsewhere, clinics and doctors are now scurrying to examine their own data.

One reason to rejoice is, of course, that this means many parents had healthier, happier babies this spring.

Premature birth and low gestational weight are associated with various medical complications, ranging from cerebral palsy or death in the worst cases to learning disabilities or visual problems in later life. For example, it’s why Stevie Wonder, an American singer who was born six weeks early, is blind.

But the bigger reason to cheer is

The procedures for availing of this tax exemption are prescribed in Revenue Memorandum Order 262011, as amended by RMO 66-2016.

The procedures in these issuances are easy to follow and the documentary requirements required are readily secured. The tax exemption application shall be filed with the BIR Revenue District Office. The tax exemption certificate shall be approved by the BIR Revenue Region.

It is to be noted that an essential documentation is the notice of involuntary separation of employee/s to the DOLE.

ployee” connotes involuntariness on the part of the official or employee.

The separation from the service of the official or employee must not be asked for or initiated by him. The separation was not of his own making. Whether or not the separation is beyond the control of the official or employee, being essentially a question of fact, shall be determined on the basis of prevailing facts and circumstances. It shall be duly established by the employer by competent evidence, which should be attached to the monthly return for the period in which the amount paid due to the involuntary separation was made.

Amounts received by reason of

A determined path to the SDGs in 2030 despite the Covid-19 pandemic

A

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja & Bambang Susantono

S lockdowns ease in countries across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, one thing is clear— a return to business as usual is unimaginable in a region that was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The virtual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development recently convened governments and stakeholders across the globe to focus on the imperative to build back better while keeping an eye on the Global Goals.

Asia was the first to be hit by Covid-19 and feel its devastating social and economic impacts. Efforts to respond to the pandemic have revealed how many people in our societies live precariously close to poverty and hunger, without access to essential services. Between 90 million and 400 million people in Asia and the Pacific may be pushed back into poverty, living on less than $3.20 a day. Many countries are taking bold actions to minimize the loss of life and economic costs, estimated in May by ADB at $1.7 trillion to $2.5 trillion in the region alone.

Mission orientation and mobilizing fiscal and social support that realize the SDGs As attention shifts from the immediate health and human effects of the pandemic to addressing its social and economic effects, governments and societies face unprecedented policy, regulatory and fiscal choices. The SDGs—a commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, globally, by 2030—can serve as a beacon in these turbulent times.

Our new joint report—Fasttracking the SDGs: Driving Asia Pacific Transformations—highlights six entry points for achieving the SDGs in the face of the pandemic. These include strengthening human well-being and capabilities, shifting towards sustainable and just economies, building sustainable food systems, achieving energy decarbonization and universal access to energy, promoting sustainable urban and periurban development, and securing the global environmental commons.

Each of these entry points has been disrupted by the pandemic.

Yet, these disruptions may create opportunities for new approaches to deliver on SDG targets that reflect the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda.

What will it take to align systems and institutions with the SDGs as they build forward?

The pandemic has exposed fragility and systemic gaps in many key systems. However, there are many workable strategies that countries have used to accelerate progress related to development goals and strengthen resilience. Countries have taken

Great news about births during Covid-19

By Andreas Kluth

A7

Tax exemptions to retrenched employees

T

he President has once again raised his call for the passage of a bill that restores the death penalty, having campaigned for it during the 2016 presidential election. We note the support for the reinstitution of capital punishment (death penalty) in the House of Representatives and the Senate, with deep sorrow and regret.

Monday, August 3, 2020

that this phenomenon could eventually help us understand what causes premature birth in the first place, and thus how to prevent it. For now we can only speculate, as the researchers behind the Danish and Irish work freely admit—their papers haven’t yet been peer-reviewed.

O ne e x pl a n at ion for fe wer premature births may be the decreases in air pollution during the lockdowns, as fewer people drove or flew and factories belched less.

Another factor could be that the moms-to-be had fewer infections generally—and thus less inflammation in their bodies—as we reduced contact with people and germs and obsessively washed hands.

But the most obvious and plausible

reason appears to be that for many expecting moms, though decidedly not all, the lockdowns reduced stress. This may seem counterintuitive, because a pandemic is itself a big stressor. Moreover, the lockdowns deprived many people of their livelihood and thus caused additional financial and even existential anxiety.

However, the pandemic and the shutdowns were not stressful for everybody. For the lucky ones, it was instead a time to slow down. People stayed at home, either working remotely or just resting, which is what pregnant women are advised to do anyway. The quotidian stressors of commuting and office life were gone.

We had more opportunities to nap.

An additional factor lowering stress

involuntary separation remain exempt from income tax even if the official or the employee, at the time of separation, had rendered less than 10 years of service and/or is below 50 years of age.

The procedures for availing of this tax exemption are prescribed in Revenue Memorandum Order 26-2011, as amended by RMO 66-2016. The procedures in these issuances are easy to follow and the documentary requirements required are readily secured. The tax exemption application shall be filed with the BIR Revenue District Office. The tax exemption certificate shall be approved by the BIR Revenue Region. It is to be noted that an essential documentation is the notice of involuntary separation of employee/s to the DOLE. With the current pandemic situation wrecking havoc on the businesses of enterprises, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the increase in numbers of notices to DOLE regarding retrenchment.

Following the guidelines will provide the much needed tax relief to retrenched employees.

Marco Fernando L. Ng is the Managing Partner of M.Ng & T.Lopez partnership firm. He previously worked with two of the largest auditing firms in the Philippines.

This column accepts contributions from the business community. Articles not exceeding 600 words can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail. com.

Pacific are developing ambitious new strategies for green recovery and inclusive approaches to development.

The Republic of Korea recently announced a New Deal based on two central pillars: digitization and decarbonization. Many countries in the Pacific, already proponents of ambitious clean energy targets and climate action, are focusing on “blue recovery,” seizing the opportunity to promote more sustainable approaches to fisheries management.

India recently announced operating the largest solar power plant in the region. China is creating more jobs in the renewable energy sector than in fossil fuel industries. Many countries in our region are expanding social protection systems as part of Covid-19 recovery to go beyond a temporary patch and include the marginalized, such as informal sector workers.

Institutions such as the United Nations and ADB have mobilized to support a shared response to the crisis. Now it is vital that we enable countries to secure the support they need to go beyond, to achieve the SDGs.

steps to extend universal health care systems, strengthen social protection systems, including cash transfer and food distribution systems for vulnerable households. Accurate and regular data have been key to such efforts. Innovating to help the most disadvantaged access financing and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credits have also been vital.

Several countries have taken comprehensive approaches to various forms of discrimination, particularly related to gender and gender-based violence. Partnerships, including with the private sector and financing institutions, have played a critical role in fostering creative solutions.

These experiences provide grounds for optimism.

Policy revolutions to manage complexity Responses to the Covid-19 crisis must be centered on the well being of people, empowering them and advancing equality. Driving change in the people-environment nexus to protect the health of people and natural resources is key to a future that does not repeat the crisis we are in today.

We need a revolution in policy mind-set and practice. Inclusive and accountable governance systems, adaptive institutions with resilience to future shocks, universal social protection and health insurance and stronger digital infrastructure are part of the transformations needed.

All are driven by a low carbon and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and energy transition.

Several countries in Asia and the

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Kanni Wignaraja, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Development Programme.

Bambang Susantono, Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, Asian Development Bank.

during pregnancy is feeling supported by partners and families. Studies have shown that the more fathers stay engaged, the better the mothers feel. And during the lockdown, the dads in their home offices had more opportunities to do just that.

Again, for some women this same situation increased stress and anguish, because the lockdowns also led to tragic epidemics of domestic violence. As I’ve said in different contexts, in April and again last month, SARS-CoV-2 isn’t just nasty, it’s also hugely unfair because it treats us all differently.

But is stress even a plausible factor with pre-term births? Maternal anxiety and depression certainly appear to hurt fetuses. Some studies suggest “stress seems to increase the risk of

pre-term birth,” while others hypothesize that early labor may even be an evolutionary adaptation in scary situations. That said, the mechanisms and details remain a mystery.

Anecdotally, however, there’s always been a link. Just think of Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher famous for his dark view of life being “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Hobbes was born on a Friday in 1588, when his mother, only seven months pregnant, heard of the Spanish Armada, the fiercest naval war machine ever assembled, appearing off the coast of England.

She was so frightened, she fell into labor immediately and, in Hobbes’s words, “fear and I were born twins together.”

A8 Monday, August 3, 2020

Protection measures for frontliners ‘priority’

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

A

@joveemarie

N economist-lawmaker has asked Congress to include a comprehensive funding boost for the protection, insurance, and compensation of frontliners as priority in the battle against Covid-19.

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda made a preliminary analysis following the petition of medical practitioners for urgent action to contain the spread of the virus as facilities and medical manpower are fast being overwhelmed.

He said the doctors petitioning the government for a reimposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) regime over Mega Manila have cited capacity problems as a key reason for their request.

Salceda reiterated the request to IATF to explore “circuit breaker” alternatives to full ECQs, such as the resumption of work-fromhome ar rangements for nonessential government services, shortened operating hours for nonessential businesses, curfews in “critical zones,” among other limits to mobility and increases in isolation.

“When doctors sound the alarm, at the very least, we have to listen.

Because they are on the frontlines of our battle against Covid-19, they have the right, above almost all of us, to seek comprehensive action

to ensure that we protect patients, frontliners, families, and communities,” said Salceda.

Surge capacity

ACCORDING to Salceda, the most obvious way forward is immediate expansion of health facilities in preparation for the need for surge capacity.

“We call for the mobilization of all available and appropriate government personnel, especially the Army Corps of Engineers, for the aggressive expansion of bed facilities, including ward facilities. The 14-day moving average for active cases is still rising, so relying on existing capacity is out of the question,” he said.

“Boosting the morale of our health-care frontliners, and ensuring that they have adequate personnel support and protection is a matter of life or death for them and their patients. Hospitals have cited depressed morale and fear among frontliners, as well as sickness, as reasons for lower health-care capacity,” he added.

T he law maker said investment in reporting of our health facilities inventory will be critical in ensuring that we rollout proactive response to the needs of frontliners.

“We must improve case-finding significantly, immediately. In this area, we have proposals for both testing and tracing,” he added.

See “See protection measures,” A2

‘Farms fared better than others in Q2, but will still shrink’

T

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

HE farm sector may have outperformed industry and services in the second quarter but will still post a contraction in growth, according to a research fellow from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

In a presentation in a webinar organized by the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development (ACER D), PIDS Research Fellow Roehlano M. Briones said farmers he recently interviewed had told him their incomes increased during the pandemic.

Briones said this may be enough to place the farm sector in a better

position than Industry and Services in the second quarter when the economy was at a standstill.

“The growth will not be positive.

But it will have the least contraction among sectors. Overall, incomes of farmers are not expected to increase,” Briones told BusinessMirror via SMS over the weekend.

Despite the uneven increase in incomes among farmers, which translates to better agriculture sector growth in the second quarter, prospects remain bright for the farm sector, Briones said.

Farmers selling fruits and vegetables especially benefited from the boom in e-commerce during the pandemic. This, he explained, is the basis of his positive outlook for agriculture in the country.

T he PIDS Research Fel low said the pandemic has shown that food is essential to households and that they would cut their expenses for other things

before their food expenses.

“Agribusiness is an investment option with bright prospects while also giving jobs, reducing poverty, and building the nation,” Briones said.

He said the agriculture sector has been improving, particularly in wages. Briones said wages increased by 24 percent between 2009 and 2018.

This, he said, is part of the government’s success in reducing poverty between 2015 and 2018. Data showed the country’s poverty rate was reduced to 16.7 percent in 2018 from 23.5 percent in 2015.

In 2018, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed there were a total of 17.67 million poor Filipinos, a reduction of 6 million Filipinos from the 23.68 million recorded in 2015.

Briones said that 35 percent of all workers in the country are in agriculture. This translates to as much as 62.4 percent of poor households engaged in agriculture.

Some of the factors for why many remain poor in agriculture, Briones said, are the fragmented land resources. Most farmlands are divided into small parcels, which stymies higher production.

The sector, he said, is also dominated by smallholders and small fisherfolk; plagued by weak linkages with value chains; and lacking in investments.

Briones said investments are particularly lacking in farm-tomarket roads; irrigation facilities; services, particularly storage and logistics; downstream process; and technology infrastructure, among others.

GG debt-to-GDP ratio declined to 34.1% at end-’19–Treasury

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

T

HE country’s consolidated general government (GG) debt as a share of the economy as of end-2019 dropped to 34.1 percent from 34.4 percent in 2018.

In a statement over the weekend, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the consolidated GG debt-to-GDP ratio last year was down by 0.3 percentage points compared to the 2018 level, partly because of the decline in national government debt-to-GDP ratio from 39.9 percent in end-December 2018 to a record-low 39.6 percent in the same period last year.

According to DOF, prudent cash and debt management as well as the steady growth of the country’s economy led to the drop in the national government debt-to-GDP ratio in recent years.

This, despite GG debt rising by 5.9 percent to P6.65 trillion last year from P6.28 trillion in 2018.

GG debt includes outstanding debt of the national government, social security institutions and local government units minus the intra-sector debt holding of government securities, including those under the Bond Sinking Fund (BSF).

Of the total GG debt stock, the bulk or 61.8 percent (P4.11 trillion)

was domestic borrowings while 38.2 percent or P2.54 trillion was made up of external borrowings.

Meanwhile, national government debt net of the BSF climbed by 5.6 percent to P7.17 trillion last year from P6.79 trillion in 2018.

Both domestic and external debt also grew by 6.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared to 2018 levels.

Local government debt also increased by 13.8 percent or P13 billion from that of 2018.

While not contributing to the debt stock, social security institutions such as the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System increased their holdings of government securities by 3.1 percent compared to the 2018 level.

For this year, the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) expects the country’s national government debt-to-GDP ratio to surge to 49.8 percent from 39.6 percent last year.

Despite the projected increase in the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio this year, economic managers had said this is still far lower than the most recent peak of 71.6 percent in 2004.

For 2021 and 2022, the DBCC also sees even higher debt-to-GDP ratios of 51.5 percent and 52.3 percent, respectively.

Consider frontliners’ respite plea –senators

By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

S

EVERAL senators are supporting the appeal of medical professional groups for a two-week break by placing Mega Manila under a two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

The initial expression of support came from Sens. Richard Gordon, Panfilo Lacson, Pia Cayetano and Nancy Binay in separate statements. However, they also sought a thorough study of the ECQ option, noting that more localized lockdowns, alongside other aggressive measures, might be the key.

In a statement, Cayetano noted that the medical communities said, “Throughout the pandemic, they truly have been carrying a heavy burden.” She acknowledged, though, that “on the other hand, the Inter-Agency Task Force [IATF] has the difficult task of finding the right balance between opening the economy for job creation and restricting movement to stop the spread.”

She welcomed the IATF’s response to President Duterte’s directive to study well the medical professionals’ appeal, aired in a press conference on Saturday led by the Philippine College of Physicians, and including leaders from the nursing, medical technologists and other health workers’ sectors.

Prodding government to consider the medical frontliners’ plight in imposing quarantine levels, Gordon noted the roughly 100,000 positive Covid-19 cases recorded as of the weekend, a fact that makes it easy to see why “doctors [are] already calling for a breather for exhausted frontliners.”

Gordon, chairman and CEO of the Philippine Red Cross, said there was need to consider well the medical frontliners’ plight in deciding the imposition of quarantine levels.

The doctors’ plea focused on Mega Manila—National Capital Region, Calabarzon and Central Luzon—as the fastest community transmissions have been listed there.

Gordon said that in Red Cross, “our medtechs also got infected with Covid. We must study well their suggestions, some are very meritorious, on the need to give our doctors pause.” He added that “even our isolation facilities now are overf lowing, that’s the problem.”

‘Master plan’

GORDON affirmed the need to “come up with a master plan” in the fight against the pandemic, particularly on the protection of medical frontliners.

“To me life is more important and it’s hard for us to lose our doctors. Let’s consider their plea and study it well.”

Gordon noted PCP’s Vice President Dr. Maricar Limpin saying a breather was urgent for exhausted medical frontliners, as cases started to rise after the ECQ was relaxed into the modified community quarantine. She added that aside from physical exhaustion, many hospital workers are also experiencing depression.

Last week, President Duterte retained the general community quarantine (GCQ) over Metro Manila until August 15.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, August 3, 2020

Meralco to pursue auction for additional power supply

T

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

he Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) made an assurance that its power supply is adequate to meet the current demand of its customers and that there is no need to alter its power requirements in the near future.

“So far, in terms of energy supply, we have enough to meet the current needs of our customers,” said Meralco President Ray Espinosa during a virtual press briefing held last week.

For its future power requirement, Meralco said it is still pushing through with its planned competitive auction for 1,800 megawatts (MW).

“In terms of capacity requirement for the future, we're not changing that. I think our plans have not significantly changed resulting in reduction of capacity. The CSP [competitive selection process] of 1,800 MW that we had announced will push through. We need that supply in 2024 and 2025,” Espinosa said.

Meralco said it is closely tracking the next moves of the government as these could affect the country’s electricity demand and supply. The

community quarantine, added Espinosa, has affected power consumption over the past months.

Emmanuel Genuino, Meralco vice president and head of corporate business group, said the utility firm ended June with electricity sales of 3,910 gigawatt hours (GWh). This includes unbilled residential sales from previous months, which pushed the number higher.

“We see July to be lower than this [June figure] since total energy sales will be net of unbilled. Also, cooler temperatures have tempered residential volume a bit,” Genuino said.

Based on Meralco’s first-half monthly energy sales for the year, electricity sales volume prior to the implementation of the lockdown hit 3,802GWh in February. This went down to 3,451GWh in March and

plummeted in April to 2,977GWh and slowly recovered in May at 3,330GWh. In all, Meralco sold 21,139GWh of electricity in the first six months of the year, 7 percent lower than in 2019.

“If you look at that the July numbers, build volumes for July based on NSI [net system input] is flattish to June. The industrial sector has recovered somewhat and probably will continue to recover moderately in the coming months,” said Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

"But for commercial, malaki talaga ang binagal and matumal ang recovery. For residential, I think, it’s up in July because we are seeing work-from-home arrangement.”

Meralco’s commercial customers include firms in the business process outsourcing sector, retail trade, real estate, hotels and restaurants, educational institutions, personal care establishments and food retail.

The community quarantine impacted heavily on Meralco’s sales mix as consumption shifted to higher loss-to-serve residential customers.

At end-June, Meralco’s customer base expanded to nearly 7 million, with residential, commercial and industrial segments growing at 3 percent, 2 percent, and 1 percent, respectively.

Espinosa said the resumption of

full operations of the commercial and industrial sectors depends on the government’s next moves, including possible changes in the state of quarantine in various areas within the Meralco franchise.

“That much we know is a fundamental requirement for our demand and sales outlook. So, we are very closely tracking the developments, particularly in government’s decision making process.

It’s really difficult for us to foresee what’s in store for us next year and what state of community quarantine will be. Like most, if not all businesses, we’re looking at it on an ongoing basis. The quarantine method is being reviewed every two weeks, we’re just following the lead of government,” he said.

Pangilinan, meanwhile, commented that the country’s economic recovery would depend largely on how soon the Covid-19 vaccine becomes available.

While uncertainty remains as Covid-19 continues to affect the country, he said Meralco is “moving with caution”, but the company is still optimistic that a recovery will happen soon.

NTC: Telco permits valid until end-December

D

ue to imitations brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has extended the validity of all existing telecom and broadcast permits, certificates and licenses until the last working day of December.

Under Memorandum Order 14-07-2020, the regulator said it is contributing to efforts to help Filipinos cope with the pandemic, through the extension of the validity of permits, certificates and licenses.

“All existing permits, certificates and licenses, to operate radio communications equipment, networks and facilities, public [telecom], broadcast, government or private, in various radio services, expiring in the current year shall remain valid and may be renewed on or before the last working day of December 2020 without penalties or surcharges,” the order read.

The regulatory body said this order was issued due to limitations in mobility, especially in areas under enhanced or general community quarantine.

“Due to expediency reasons and as there are still mobility

limitation issues in many regions around the country, Public Telecommunications Entities may file/submit applications for renewal of permits and/or licenses at the NTC Central Office,” the order read. Smart Communications Inc. said it appreciates the assistance of the NTC “in dealing with these difficulties created by the pandemic.”

“Hand-in-hand with the government, we will be able to surmount the challenges presented by Covid-19 and continue improving communications services for Filipinos nationwide,” Smart President Alfredo S. Panlilio said.

For its part, Globe Telecom Inc. sought for the assistance of local government units (LGUs) in building telco infrastructure to meet the current demand.

Globe President Ernest L. Cu appealed to LGUs to rationalize fees and expedite the processing of permits thereby enabling the industry to build the infrastructure needed to improve connectivity in the country.

"Each year, we make massive investments in billions of pesos to make our network perform at par with other countries.

Coca-Cola continues to invest in local operations

T

he bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the Philippines has poured in $22 million of new investment in its operations here to support its expansion projects and maintain its labor force in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc. (CCBPI) last week announced it is injecting an additional $22 million, or about P1.1 billion, in its business for this year. The new investment will augment the initial $73 million earmarked for the firm’s operations for 2020.

With more than $95 million, or roughly P4.75 billion, in total capital, CCBPI is poised to improve its new production lines spread throughout the archipelago and retain its workers in a period of job uncertainty, according to President and CEO Gareth McGeown.

McGeown said the new investment is the bottler’s way of repaying Filipinos for helping it grow throughout the years.

Likewise, the $22 million in additional capital will contribute to efforts to revive the economy and protect as many jobs as possible, he added.

“We remain confident in the Philippine economy, and this additional $22 [million] investment is testament to our faith that the Filipino people can look to a better tomorrow,” McGeown said in a statement.

CCBPI is one of the largest employers in the country with 19 manufacturing plants

and over 70 sales and distribution offices.

According to the firm, for every direct job it creates at the bottling facilities, seven more are created across its supply chains.

“Our investment in the Philippines is an investment in the Filipino,” McGeown said.

Further, the CCBPI chief called on fellow private firms to coordinate with the government in this period of trying times. Private sector should take the lead in restarting the economy to secure as many as jobs possible, help small enterprises rebuild their livelihoods and, above all, provide employment to displaced workers, McGeown said.

In July Coca-Cola Philippines signed an agreement with two microfinance institutions to initiate a P157-million lending program for small retailers, particularly sari-sari stores and carinderias, whose operations were injured by the health crisis.

In partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry, ASA Philippines Foundation Inc. and Alalay sa Kaunlaran Microfinance Social Development Inc., Coca-Cola Philippines is extending loans to some 15,000 small enterprises. Sari-sari store and carinderia owners can borrow up to P10,000 under the program with a service fee of 0.5 percent at the maximum.

Also, the beverage giant in March reallocated its P150 million of advertising space and budget toward relief and response efforts to affected sectors by Covid-19. Elijah Felice E. Rosales

B1

However, we can only go as far as what our existing infrastructure can give. If we want robust connectivity we really need to build more cellsites and roll out more fiber to homes. The current permitting process and fee structures simply do not allow us to do these," Cu said.

The Globe executive met recently with President Duterte, who threatened to shutdown telcos if their services will not improve before December.

He explained to Duterte the current state of permitting processes, which takes more than eight months per tower.

Cu likewise appealed to home owners associations (HOAs) for their cooperation. HOAs have always cited health and aesthetics as issues for not allowing telcos to build towers within their subdivisions and villages. “As Filipinos adapt to the new normal, having ample ICT infrastructure is particularly important to improve internet speed, increase coverage and capacity for data hungry customers. In addition, having many cellsites is critical to successfully roll out advanced technologies like 5G services in the country.” Lorenz S. Marasigan

Vista Land to reduce spending this year

By VG Cabuag @villygc

V

ista Land and Lifescapes Inc., the property development arm of the Villar Group, said it is allocating a capital expenditure (capex) of P25 billion for this year, mainly for its ongoing projects and land development.

The figure for 2020 is 37 percent lower than last year’s capital spending of P40 billion.

“We are revisiting our planned project launches as well as the expansion program of our leasing business for the rest of the year. And as previously mentioned, we have the capacity to fast-track construction if we deem it necessary,” Manuel B. Villar Jr., Vista Land chairman, said.

The company said some 90 percent of the capex budget will be spent for construction and land development. The rest of the amount is for land acquisition and payment of land payables.

Vista Land said its capital spending reached P6.5 billion in the first quarter

of the year. The company said it is still closely monitoring the situation and changes in consumer behavior due to the “new normal.” The company said it is optimistic about its residential business as it is seeing a pick up in activity and an improvement in its reservation sales.

Vista Land's June sales are already at about 70 percent of the pre-lockdown level and the July figure is better than the previous month's record. These sales are predominantly online, which the company deemed as a solid response to its aggressive shift to digital platforms for its marketing initiatives.

“We are hoping that these encouraging signs in our residential business will continue. With the growing importance of staying at home, we are also seeing an increased preference for our housing products especially in the provincial areas,” Vista Land President and CEO Manuel Paolo A. Villar said.

“We are now taking advantage of Vista Land’s geographic reach, being present in 147 cities and municipalities across the country.”

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, August 3, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

July 30, 2020

Net Foreign Stocks Bid Ask Open High Low Close Volume Value Trade (Peso) Buy (Sell) FINANCIALs

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK CITYSTATE BANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FIRST ABACUS FILIPINO FUND IREMIT MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH

46.1 88 68.1 19.94 6.62 7.23 34.25 8 19.78 48 15.94 92 52.95 0.67 20.5 0.5 7.14 0.96 0.27 0.59 154.2

46.3 89 68.2 19.98 8.49 7.24 34.4 8.2 19.8 49 15.96 92.8 53 0.77 20.85 0.56 8.75 0.99 0.275 0.61 156.5

46.2 90.3 68.5 19.9 6.62 7.25 34.5 8.2 19.8 48 15.96 92 52.7 0.77 20.75 0.52 8.76 1.08 0.275 0.6 157

46.2 90.3 68.6 20.05 8.49 7.25 34.6 8.2 19.8 48.95 15.96 95.55 53.1 0.77 20.8 0.75 8.76 1.08 0.275 0.61 157

46.2 88 68 19.9 6.62 7.2 34.2 8.2 19.76 48 15.94 91.9 52.7 0.77 20.5 0.5 8.76 1 0.27 0.6 154.2

46.2 88 68.2 19.98 8.49 7.24 34.25 8.2 19.8 48.05 15.94 92 52.95 0.77 20.8 0.56 8.76 1 0.275 0.61 154.2

1000 2598920 3608190 1119400 1100 88400 2654200 900 58900 2400 13600 513320 106830 5000 40400 639000 100 14000 80000 26000 2470

46200 231772596.5 246440494.5 22301659 9152 638567 91319930 7380 1165442 116290 217036 47413273.5 5656768 3850 838755 361690 876 14080 21950 15610 384032

46200 -118675583 -19095046.5 -41493370 -827158 39025 -6173762.5 -2027633.5 1540 -29600 5000 -37136

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 2.54 2.55 2.3 2.55 2.29 2.55 51415000 126366560 ALSONS CONS 1.18 1.21 1.2 1.22 1.18 1.18 319000 378620 ABOITIZ POWER 25.65 26 25.8 26 25.55 25.65 1662300 42837985 BASIC ENERGY 0.151 0.163 0.16 0.163 0.16 0.163 150000 24030 FIRST GEN 26.85 26.95 26 26.95 25.5 26.95 1292600 34379265 FIRST PHIL HLDG 59.7 59.8 60 60 59.5 59.8 76070 4552622 MERALCO 265 267 268 268 262.2 265 202470 53535512 MANILA WATER 12.78 12.8 12.56 12.9 12.42 12.8 2840000 35870700 PETRON 3.11 3.12 3.12 3.12 3.11 3.11 1533000 4768150 PETROENERGY 3.3 3.33 3.38 3.38 3.3 3.33 100000 330160 PHX PETROLEUM 11.16 11.4 11.1 11.4 11.1 11.4 17200 193714 PILIPINAS SHELL 17.4 17.42 17.2 17.4 17.08 17.4 284000 4897158 SPC POWER 7.92 8 8.05 8.05 7.95 8 14500 116025 AGRINURTURE 7.34 7.36 7.3 7.49 7.19 7.36 164200 1189788 AXELUM 2.01 2.07 2.1 2.1 1.99 2.07 3437000 6,989,020( CENTURY FOOD 14.44 14.48 14.52 14.52 14.46 14.48 705900 10231526 DEL MONTE 5.55 5.56 5.38 5.56 5.3 5.55 306200 1670369 DNL INDUS 4.61 4.68 4.59 4.7 4.59 4.61 425000 1974780 9.1 9.11 9.1 9.14 9.07 9.1 31455300 285941330 EMPERADOR 64.3 64.5 65 65 64.25 64.5 18950 1222301 SMC FOODANDBEV 0.61 0.62 0.63 0.64 0.61 0.61 223000 137670 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.16 1.17 1.16 1.19 1.15 1.17 7400000 8634810 33 33.35 31.95 33.9 31.9 33 134200 4415330 GINEBRA 134.5 135 133 135 132 135 1402350 187482550 JOLLIBEE 6.84 7.1 6.82 7.1 6.82 7.1 7000 48150 MACAY HLDG 4.63 4.65 4.71 4.71 4.65 4.65 506000 2368950 MAXS GROUP 5.9 5.96 5.95 5.96 5.9 5.9 1167400 6902353 SHAKEYS PIZZA 1.16 1.18 1.15 1.19 1.15 1.18 498000 582070 ROXAS AND CO 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.45 4.3 4.4 33000 143540 RFM CORP ROXAS HLDG 1.4 1.49 1.41 1.41 1.41 1.41 5000 7050 SWIFT FOODS 0.104 0.107 0.102 0.109 0.102 0.104 70000 7230 122.4 122.9 123.5 123.5 121.5 122.4 948190 116019953 UNIV ROBINA 0.78 0.79 0.77 0.78 0.77 0.78 2149000 1665660 VITARICH 55.25 56.95 56.9 57 55 56.95 2910 162089.5 CONCRETE A CONCRETE B 58.3 60 58 62 58 58.3 6310 371559 CEMEX HLDG 0.88 0.89 0.89 0.91 0.88 0.89 2922000 2596450 DAVINCI CAPITAL 3.9 4.19 3.55 3.9 3.55 3.9 3000 11350 EAGLE CEMENT 9.8 9.83 9.8 9.85 9.8 9.8 380800 3731860 EEI CORP 4.92 5 4.9 5 4.89 5 90000 443020 HOLCIM 4.84 4.85 4.68 4.92 4.68 4.84 720000 3479980 MEGAWIDE 6.83 6.84 6.71 6.83 6.6 6.83 1099300 7440339 PHINMA 8.39 9 9 9 9 9 500 4500 TKC METALS 0.66 0.69 0.69 0.69 0.69 0.69 12000 8280 VULCAN INDL 0.75 0.76 0.77 0.77 0.75 0.75 323000 243810 CHEMPHIL 120.1 140 118 140 118 140 20 2580 CROWN ASIA 1.84 1.91 1.88 1.88 1.84 1.84 18000 33450 EUROMED 1.91 1.92 1.94 2.01 1.9 1.91 893000 1750980 LMG CHEMICALS 4.45 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 1000 4500 GREENERGY 1.73 1.74 1.78 1.78 1.73 1.73 6346000 11164470 INTEGRATED MICR 4.63 4.72 4.75 4.75 4.61 4.63 168000 786050 IONICS 0.96 0.99 0.95 0.99 0.95 0.99 143000 138080 SFA SEMICON 1.32 1.33 1.27 1.36 1.27 1.33 2877000 3832290 CIRTEK HLDG 5.8 5.81 5.4 5.81 5.4 5.8 2583400 14648485

6408170 -6000 22235345 8094315 -3372196 -18244850 3326 -1256550 1477032 214359 1,412,099.9998) -1388588 -674445 -763690 -283846612 -607029.5 -348900 4270655 5014121 -34100 -680950 776956 23400 -1090 -62023283 -50920 -607030 -90160 -68770 811100 139718 438020 295360 -178530 -16660 -225350 267452

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.465 0.47 0.465 0.475 0.46 0.465 3180000 1481900 -213700 ASIABEST GROUP 7.5 7.87 7.93 7.93 7.35 7.88 5400 40286 AYALA CORP 724.5 726.5 723 734.5 718 726.5 179660 130389570 -48354325 ABOITIZ EQUITY 48.05 48.5 48.65 49.3 48.05 48.05 1981300 95800480 7157520 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 5.69 5.7 5.77 5.77 5.68 5.7 19285700 109,995,598( 67,805,473.9999) AYALA LAND LOG 1.65 1.68 1.68 1.68 1.64 1.65 370000 611150 263400 ANSCOR 6.2 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 1500 9375 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.475 0.5 0.47 0.47 0.465 0.47 50000 23400 ATN HLDG A 0.59 0.6 0.62 0.62 0.59 0.61 969000 585450 ATN HLDG B 0.61 0.62 0.66 0.66 0.61 0.62 391000 240960 238480 COSCO CAPITAL 4.92 4.94 5 5 4.9 4.92 2634000 12974900 -970180 DMCI HLDG 3.55 3.57 3.52 3.58 3.49 3.55 14539000 51699810 -6733660 FILINVEST DEV 8.22 8.59 8.69 8.69 8.69 8.69 200 1738 FJ PRINCE A 3.2 3.4 3.21 3.21 3.2 3.2 6000 19210 GT CAPITAL 433 439 425.4 439 424 439 93720 40706656 3448282 JG SUMMIT 62.45 62.65 63.7 63.7 62.4 62.45 2162650 135183400 -22445957.5 LODESTAR 0.56 0.59 0.59 0.6 0.56 0.58 280000 157910 LOPEZ HLDG 2.35 2.45 2.38 2.45 2.35 2.35 381000 901260 -90380 7.49 7.5 7.42 7.5 7.42 7.5 2695000 20169362 -2843195 LT GROUP 3.11 3.12 3.15 3.18 3.08 3.12 23606000 73914120 -34989840 METRO PAC INV 2.9 2.99 2.9 2.99 2.88 2.99 52000 150410 PACIFICA HLDG PRIME MEDIA 0.73 0.77 0.73 0.78 0.73 0.78 11000 8080 SOLID GROUP 0.99 1.01 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 10000 9900 SYNERGY GRID 150 160 150 150 146 150 230 34420 SM INVESTMENTS 890 894 900 900 885 890 400020 357029795 158691710 99 99.4 98.5 99 98.4 99 128330 12665663 1521150 SAN MIGUEL CORP 0.65 0.67 0.65 0.67 0.65 0.65 49000 32310 SOC RESOURCES TOP FRONTIER 121.9 123 119 124 119 123 11440 1402345 -653365 0.178 0.195 0.18 0.18 0.178 0.178 210000 37480 WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG 0.148 0.149 0.15 0.151 0.149 0.149 920000 138030

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.5 0.52 0.5 0.52 0.5 0.52 479000 241270 ANCHOR LAND 8.15 8.75 8.15 8.16 8.15 8.15 15630700 127390225 AYALA LAND 33.2 33.3 33.1 33.3 32.65 33.3 5052400 167528845 ARANETA PROP 1 1.04 1.01 1.05 1 1.04 115000 115910 BELLE CORP 1.35 1.37 1.34 1.37 1.34 1.37 22000 29990 A BROWN 0.73 0.75 0.77 0.77 0.74 0.75 647000 485320 CROWN EQUITIES 0.12 0.121 0.121 0.121 0.12 0.12 3360000 404130 CEBU HLDG 5.86 6.09 5.83 6.09 5.83 6.09 200 1192 CEB LANDMASTERS 5.02 5.05 5.05 5.05 5.01 5.05 1542100 7774028 CENTURY PROP 0.355 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.35 0.36 2880000 1028200 DOUBLEDRAGON 16 16.28 16.1 16.4 16 16 1376400 22409868 DM WENCESLAO 5.98 6 6.08 6.09 6 6 333500 2003652 EMPIRE EAST 0.245 0.248 0.248 0.248 0.244 0.248 80000 19800 EVER GOTESCO 0.095 0.1 0.09 0.1 0.086 0.095 800000 74640 FILINVEST LAND 0.87 0.88 0.86 0.88 0.85 0.87 21983000 18991140 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.79 0.82 0.79 0.79 0.79 0.79 80000 63200 8990 HLDG 8.53 8.8 8.64 8.98 8.64 8.84 75100 657212 PHIL INFRADEV 0.85 0.87 0.83 0.87 0.83 0.87 2283000 1939290 3 3.01 3 3.04 2.98 3 5432000 16336050 MEGAWORLD 0.219 0.22 0.214 0.222 0.211 0.22 40270000 8727450 MRC ALLIED 0.29 0.3 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29 430000 124700 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 1.32 1.39 1.33 1.39 1.33 1.33 33000 43980 ROBINSONS LAND 15.38 15.46 15.98 15.98 15.02 15.38 3922900 60575888 0.228 0.234 0.231 0.239 0.228 0.234 660000 151580 PHIL REALTY SHANG PROP 2.6 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.65 130000 344500 1.84 1.85 1.86 1.86 1.85 1.85 15000 27790 STA LUCIA LAND 30 30.4 30.5 30.9 30 30 6437600 195490545 SM PRIME HLDG 3.84 3.99 4.09 4.09 3.84 3.99 69000 267270 VISTAMALLS 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.19 1.16 1.17 780000 911310 SUNTRUST HOME PTFC REDEV CORP 37.05 44.95 40 40 40 40 1200 48000 VISTA LAND 3.12 3.14 3.13 3.19 3.07 3.12 3863000 12056120

13000 127184010 57622940 32760 3600 -862662 8436 1800 -1249460 -419048 -5791680 -22000 -24273716 -344500 -7440 -41589270 -19350 -1276760

SERVICES ABS CBN 7.6 7.69 7.56 7.85 7.56 7.6 460300 3496996 GMA NETWORK 5.23 5.25 5.3 5.31 5.2 5.23 793100 4147950 MANILA BULLETIN 0.38 0.385 0.39 0.39 0.38 0.38 920000 350150 MLA BRDCASTING 11.1 11.94 11 11.1 11 11.1 600 6614 GLOBE TELECOM 2062 2064 2020 2078 2008 2064 126200 259924730 PLDT 1339 1340 1320 1344 1316 1340 176975 236862585 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.048 0.049 0.049 0.049 0.047 0.049 12800000 609700 DFNN INC 2.85 2.9 2.8 2.9 2.8 2.85 104000 296790 DITO CME HLDG 2.68 2.69 2.67 2.75 2.67 2.68 13024000 35181150 ISLAND INFO 0.07 0.071 0.07 0.07 0.068 0.07 430000 29920 JACKSTONES 1.61 1.71 1.65 1.72 1.61 1.72 81000 137820 NOW CORP 1.98 2 2.02 2.02 1.98 2 1632000 3251500 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.169 0.17 0.17 0.174 0.17 0.17 2350000 399640 PHILWEB 1.9 1.92 1.8 1.92 1.8 1.9 444000 827620 2GO GROUP 8.12 8.45 8.38 8.51 8.12 8.49 36500 301050 ASIAN TERMINALS 15.38 16.76 16.76 16.76 15.34 15.34 600 9914 CHELSEA 3.33 3.38 3.24 3.38 3.24 3.33 314000 1045520 CEBU AIR 37.25 37.6 37.15 37.6 37 37.6 121300 4534265 96.5 96.6 97.25 97.25 96.2 96.5 832430 80367567.5 INTL CONTAINER 14 14.2 13.9 14.2 13.9 14 10200 142364 LBC EXPRESS MACROASIA 5.3 5.31 5.03 5.39 4.98 5.31 4951500 25865481 1.75 1.77 1.72 1.82 1.71 1.75 1605000 2824880 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 1.76 2 1.71 1.71 1.71 1.71 1000 1710 PAL HLDG 6 6.34 6.25 6.4 6 6.36 8700 52494 0.76 0.77 0.76 0.79 0.75 0.76 218000 167680 HARBOR STAR BOULEVARD HLDG 0.031 0.032 0.031 0.034 0.031 0.032 307700000 9890500 1.55 1.83 1.57 1.57 1.57 1.57 40000 62800 DISCOVERY WORLD WATERFRONT 0.37 0.375 0.36 0.375 0.36 0.375 910000 339450 STI HLDG 0.29 0.3 0.295 0.295 0.29 0.29 1380000 405050 BERJAYA 2.11 2.17 2.11 2.18 2.11 2.17 13000 27790 BLOOMBERRY 6.3 6.35 6.45 6.59 6.3 6.3 9805800 63098083 2.04 2.05 2.1 2.1 2.04 2.05 78000 160370 PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES 1.17 1.2 1.16 1.17 1.14 1.17 223000 258490 PH RESORTS GRP 2.2 2.29 2.19 2.29 2.18 2.28 35000 77610 0.295 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.295 0.3 2220000 660950 PREMIUM LEISURE PHIL RACING 7.89 7.9 7.9 7.9 7.9 7.9 100 790 ALLHOME 6.7 6.73 6.8 6.82 6.53 6.7 714300 4798009 METRO RETAIL 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.46 1.42 1.45 93000 133430 PUREGOLD 48 48.35 48.5 48.95 48 48 2910500 140290760 ROBINSONS RTL 61.5 61.75 61.3 62.5 60.25 61.75 146840 9044824.5 PHIL SEVEN CORP 125 129 123 125 123 125 29810 3726230 SSI GROUP 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.08 1.06 1.06 703000 747780 WILCON DEPOT 15 15.08 15.7 15.7 14.7 15 2750700 41056254 APC GROUP 0.305 0.315 0.305 0.315 0.305 0.315 740000 226100 EASYCALL 6.23 6.41 6.18 6.43 6.18 6.41 11800 75268 GOLDEN BRIA 285 304 304 304 304 304 50 15200 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.216 0.217 0.219 0.22 0.217 0.217 1500000 326910 SBS PHIL CORP 4.45 4.49 4.5 4.5 4.49 4.49 8000 35980

126519300 -70103210 370 623400 -1474590 -49684837.5 94374 6000 2500 -18661758 -28480 -623104 -1450 -63878575 -7491466.5 8730 -543870 -16680534 -

MINING & OIL

ATOK 7.66 8.14 8.24 8.24 7.66 8.16 6100 47226 APEX MINING 1.45 1.46 1.44 1.49 1.44 1.46 3180000 4660020 14600 ABRA MINING 0.0008 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 0.0008 0.0008 236000000 191800 ATLAS MINING 2.66 2.68 2.65 2.74 2.65 2.68 483000 1296010 19060 BENGUET A 1.98 1.99 1.95 2 1.85 1.99 109000 213310 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.195 0.204 0.214 0.214 0.195 0.204 220000 44090 -2140 CENTURY PEAK 2.6 2.69 2.69 2.7 2.69 2.7 206000 555140 -51300 DIZON MINES 7.44 7.45 7.5 7.5 7.39 7.45 4400 32662 FERRONICKEL 1.1 1.11 1.08 1.12 1.05 1.11 9270000 10056680 -245890 GEOGRACE 0.23 0.234 0.237 0.237 0.23 0.233 230000 53220 LEPANTO A 0.144 0.145 0.15 0.153 0.142 0.144 54250000 7944800 LEPANTO B 0.144 0.147 0.147 0.149 0.142 0.144 3980000 571730 MANILA MINING A 0.0095 0.0096 0.0095 0.0098 0.0092 0.0096 94000000 899300 MARCVENTURES 0.8 0.82 0.82 0.82 0.8 0.82 161000 129580 NIHAO 1.4 1.41 1.4 1.42 1.36 1.4 378000 524810 NICKEL ASIA 2.58 2.59 2.51 2.61 2.44 2.59 17001000 43006830 1966520 OMICO CORP 0.37 0.415 0.37 0.38 0.37 0.37 300000 111950 0.56 0.58 0.56 0.58 0.55 0.58 729000 411470 ORNTL PENINSULA PX MINING 3.19 3.2 3.16 3.28 3.16 3.19 1919000 6183560 -1349050 9.95 9.96 10 10.18 9.95 9.95 5845000 58620089 -11992947 SEMIRARA MINING 0.0053 0.0054 0.0054 0.0057 0.0053 0.0054 79000000 432000 UNITED PARAGON ACE ENEXOR 6 6.2 5.85 6.39 5.85 6.2 217800 1372368 -2968 0.0081 0.0084 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 3000000 24900 ORNTL PETROL A ORNTL PETROL B 0.0081 0.0084 0.0084 0.0084 0.0084 0.0084 1000000 8400 PHILODRILL 0.0079 0.008 0.008 0.008 0.0079 0.008 21000000 166800 PXP ENERGY 5.7 5.75 5.58 5.78 5.56 5.75 441900 2498379 289453

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 100.5 102.5 100.7 100.7 100.5 100.5 3480 349750 AC PREF B1 509.5 519 509.5 510 509.5 510 2020 1029200 ALCO PREF C 104.9 106.9 104.9 104.9 104.9 104.9 2920 306308 AC PREF B2R 504 518 508 508 503.5 503.5 3300 1662900 -101600 CPG PREF A 100.6 101 101 101 101 101 75800 7655800 DD PREF 101.2 101.3 101.2 101.5 101.2 101.2 39510 4004412 FGEN PREF G 105 106 106.3 106.3 105 105 22540 2382560 GLO PREF P 512 517 517.5 517.5 517.5 517.5 30 15525 GTCAP PREF B 1010 1020 1012 1012 1010 1010 500 505020 MWIDE PREF 101.2 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 5070 514605 PNX PREF 3A 100.5 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4 20 2028 PNX PREF 4 1025 1034 1033 1034 1033 1034 1500 1550000 PCOR PREF 2B 1039 1050 1039 1039 1039 1039 15 15585 PCOR PREF 3A 1045 1059 1059 1059 1050 1050 13150 13843730 SMC PREF 2C 78.2 78.5 78.5 78.6 78.5 78.5 12800 1004930 SMC PREF 2D 75.15 75.5 75.4 75.55 75.15 75.55 11320 853247 SMC PREF 2F 77.95 78.5 77.3 78 77.3 78 12010 936673 -780000 SMC PREF 2G 76 76.9 76 76.9 76 76.9 480100 36487690 76.95 77.1 76.95 76.95 76.95 76.95 825500 63522225 SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I 78.5 79 78.3 78.9 78.3 78.3 28350 2227605

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 7.06 7.1 7.48 7.48 7.05 7.1 129600 920447 -849910 GMA HLDG PDR 4.98 5 5.08 5.08 4.94 5 140400 698796 -430323

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.63 0.67 0.64 0.64 0.64 0.64 20000 12800

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 14.3 14.34 13.6 14.3 13.28 14.3 993000 13692236 -2377262 ITALPINAS 1.87 1.88 1.77 1.89 1.75 1.87 7371000 13620310 183050 KEPWEALTH 5.15 5.3 5.3 5.35 5.1 5.15 42300 217155 MAKATI FINANCE 1.9 2.15 1.95 1.95 1.9 1.9 115000 221090 MERRYMART 2.68 2.69 2.59 2.77 2.54 2.68 78476000 208501850 535730 XURPAS 0.55 0.56 0.57 0.57 0.55 0.56 1156000 640200

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 90.5 91.25 91 91.5 90.5 90.5 11780 1067978.5 -

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Megaworld issues senior unsecured fixed rate notes

M

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

egaworld Corp., the property development arm of businessman Andrew Tan, said it raised $350 million from its seven-year senior unsecured fixed rate notes offering in the offshore market, the company’s first vanilla bond issuance since 2013.

The company said its paper fetched a coupon rate of 4.125 percent, and will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on August 3.

“This issuance puts Megaworld in a good position to benefit from the eventual recovery of the Philip-

pine economy. In spite of the pandemic, demand for real estate offerings has remained strong as many still view it as a safe investment,” Kevin Andrew L. Tan, the company’s executive vice president, said.

“We foresee that business process outsourcing companies may

need more office spaces because of physical distancing requirements.

This infusion of funds will support our investment pipeline and future land banking initiatives.”

Investor calls were conducted throughout Asia and Europe on July 22, achieving participation and discussions among top investors, which centered on an update on the company’s credit and its relative resilience compared to other Philippine real estate issuers against the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic.

Terms for a new 7-year United States dollar benchmark were released the following day after receipt of significant indications of interest. Books were in excess of $500 million prior to the Asia lunch hour, and reached $1 billion prior to the release of final price guidance.

Almost 40 percent of the trans-

action was allocated to fund managers and asset managers.

Aside from setting the new record low for a dollar bond coupon from a Philippine real estate company, the printing of notes was among the largest issue size for dollar bond offering among real estate firms in the Philippines. It also recorded the fastest completion of dollar bond issuance by a Philippine corporate issuer at 11 days.

Citigroup Global Markets Limited and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd were appointed as joint global coordinators, joint lead managers and joint bookrunners, while Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities plc were appointed as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners.

BDO Capital and Investment Corp. was appointed as domestic lead manager.

ADB inks deals for Malolos-Clark rail project

A

joint venture between a Spanish and a Filipino firm and a South Korean firm bagged the first two civil contracts for the Malolos-Clark Railway Project financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

ADB said in a statement that the two civil works contracts amounted to P38 billion, or

$728 million. This will jumpstart the first phase of the project.

The first contract was awarded to the joint venture of Spain’s Acciona Construction Philippines Inc. and EEI Corp. while the second contract was secured by South Korea’s POSCO Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd.

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK Last week

Share prices fell last week with the main index falling below the 6,000-point level, as President Duterte's State of the Nation Address failed to perk up the market, but the decline was smaller compared to the levels recorded in previous weeks.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 74.81 points during the four-day trading week to close at 5,928.45 points.

“This is its smallest weekly loss in the last four weeks of trading which tells us that selling pressure is waning. President Duterte’s speech last Monday failed to uplift the general sentiment as most did not see a clear economic recovery plan,” Christopher Mangun, research head at AAA Securities Inc., said.

The PSEi came all the way down to support level at 5,800 points at the beginning of the week, but recovered during the succeeding two days as buying pressure mounted.

Second quarter earnings season is in full swing with most investors already expecting the worst, Mangun said.

Average value of trade for the week was still low at P4.01 billion, while foreign investors were net sellers at P2.08 billion.

Most of the subindices ended down with the exception of the Industrial index that gained 135.30 points to close at 6,151.38 and the Mining and Oil index that rose 359.33 to 5,489.77. The broader All Shares index fell 32.74 to 3,500.27, the Financials index declined 44.49 to 1,139.13, the Holding Firms index shed 117.60 to 6,151.38, the Property index retreated 11.47 to 2,913.03 and the Services index lost 13 to 1,379.39.

For the week, losers edged gainers 125 to 120 and 23 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers for the week were MRC Allied Inc., Nickel Asia Corp., Boulevard Holdings Inc., Merry Mart Consumer Consumer Corp., Manila Mining Corp. B and First Gen Corp.

Top losers, meanwhile, were MJC Investments Corp., Metro Alliance Holdings and Equities Corp. B, Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc., Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. B, Abra Mining and Industrial Corp. and Da Vinci Capital Holdings Inc.

This week

Share prices may remain depressed this week as investors continue to doubt an economic recovery in the second half, while the reporting season is not showing any good signs among the top listed firms.

“Slower sessions might characterize August trades, timed with the 'Ghost Festival' month,” broker 2TradeAsia said. “Uncertainties may prevail on the second half trajectory, as participants wait how companies will undertake their capex lineup.”

The broker sees immediate support for the main index at 5,500 to 5,700 points and resistance at 6,000 points.

Mangun said the main index finished the month of July down 4.5 percent, ending three consecutive months of gains as investors doubt a swift economic recovery.

“That being said, buying pressure has started to pick as investors see value at current levels. After four consecutive weeks of losses, the main index is due for a technical bounce and we may see it fulfilled in the coming week,” he said, adding that there may be an increase in trading volumes.

The government will announce this week the country's GDP performance for the second quarter. Brokers are expecting a contraction of between 12 and 15 percent as the country was in complete lockdown in April and May. The economic activity in June was not strong enough to prevent a contraction.

Stock picks

Broker COL Financial Group Inc. said it liked the stock of Puregold Price Club Inc., the grocery chain operator of businessman Lucio Co, due to its sustained sales growth amid increased demand for essential goods.

“The strong peso and better sales mix are beneficial for S&R (Membership Club),” the broker said.

It placed a fair value on the stock at P54.50 and advised clients to buy shares below P47.40.

Puregold shares closed last week at P48 apiece.

Meanwhile, the broker also advised to accumulate the stock of Aboitiz Power Corp. despite its weak earnings in 2020 due to lower power demand, large uncontracted capacity and outages.

“The worst is over as lockdowns are lifted, with power demand now at 90 percent to 95 percent of the pre-ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] level. Long-term outlook remains good given vertically integrated operations and diversified and well-balanced portfolio of power generation assets,” the broker said.

It gave a fair value on the stock at P33.57 and advised to buy below P26.90 per share.

Aboitiz Power shares closed at P25.65 apiece on Thursday. VG Cabuag

“Today’s signing of the two civil works contracts for the Malolos-Clark Railway Project is a milestone for the Philippine government’s landmark Build, Build, Build infrastructure development program,” ADB Director General for Southeast Asia Ramesh Subramaniam said on Saturday.

The joint venture of Spain’s Acciona Construction Philippines Inc. and EEI Corp. will build about 6.3 kilometer (km) of main railway lines and 1.6 km of depot access line, including an underground railway station at Clark International Airport.

The other contract, which was awarded

mutual funds

to South Korea’s POSCO Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd., will erect a 33-hectare depot and a railway operations control center in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Three more contracts for civil works are set to be awarded later this year.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency, which is cofinancing the project, will provide up to $2 billion in additional funding for the rolling stock and railway systems.

ADB said the entire project is expected to create 24,000 local construction jobs in the next three years and 14,000 more jobs related to the railway system’s operation. Cai U. Ordinario July 30, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 196.05 -27.79% -11.02% -5.77% -22.15% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0024 -39.49% -14.48% -6.59% -27.47% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.6337 -37.47% -15.63% -8.3% -28.4% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6743 -31.24% n.a. n.a.

-24.91% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6548 -27.47% n.a. n.a.

-22.9% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.2123 -25.05% -9.57% -5.52% -20.94% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.662 -26.78% -11.94% n.a.

-22.45% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

76.88 -36.34% n.a. n.a.

-25.52% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 39.3556 -27.06% -9.6% -4.8% -23.26% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 422.85 -24.78% -8.85% -4.95% -20.63% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8604 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-16.47% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 0.997 -27.04% -9.2% -4.68% -22.53% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 29.3383 -26.77% -8.73% -4.36% -22.58% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.778 -27.72% n.a. n.a.

-23.58% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.006 -26.84% -9.11% -4.13% -23.31% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

671.22 -26.59% -9.05% -4.3% -23.02% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6058 -36.8% -13.05% -8.4% -28.85% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.1063 -30.63% -10.46% -5.46% -26.2% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7696 -26.73% -9.23% -4.29% -23.1% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.8216 -26.65% -7.93% -3.78% -22.76% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 90.1122 -26.39% -8.58% -3.48% -22.95% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$1.028 3.52% -0.2% 1.38% -0.04% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.4496 9.07% 6.8% n.a.

5.14% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5599 -12.65% -4.57% -3.55% -0.19% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0441 -13.64% -5.09% -2.07% -6.28% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.3969 -11.73% -3.65% -3.11% -8.92% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1839 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-19.52% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8357 -6.99% -1.58% -0.38% -6.42% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4705 -9.57% -2.87% -1.6% -8.41% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.4552 -10.5% -3.19% -1.78% -8.88% 1.9063 -12.92% -4.22% -1.64% -10.17% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2547 -18.23% -5.39% -2.95% -15.76% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9355 -10.29% n.a. n.a.

-7.9% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8345 -19.94% n.a. n.a.

-16.25% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8088 -22.17% n.a. n.a.

-18.57% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.7998 -21.53% -6.43% -4.13% -17.95% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03929 4.86% 3.13% 2.04% 2.85% $1.0293 2.65% 0.84% 1.88% 1.71% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.0267 5.61% 4.9% 4.3% 2.97% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1479 3.11% 2.76% n.a.

1.7% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 367.33 4.4% 3.2% 2.59% 2.62% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9461 2.17% 0.97% -0.02% 2.32% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1972 4.32% 5.05% 5.05% 2.54% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.303 4.64% 3.05% 2.38% 3.58% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4543 5.39% 3.49% 2.01% 4.04% 4.6627 9.94% 4.58% 2.82% 6.63% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.3036 6.45% 4.23% 2.34% 3.73% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9635 6.97% 4.47% 2.38% 4.63% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0388 9.9% 3.81% 1.93% 7.73% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1805 6.16% 4.88% 2.95% 3.41% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7461 5.06% 4.24% 2.39% 2.65% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $477.18 3.65% 2.59% 2.8% 1.88% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є216.51 -1.09% 0.72% 1.06% -1.49% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.237 3.17% 2.75% 2.47% 4.19% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0264 2.72% 1.97% 1.59% 2.33% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.086 -0.06% 0.31% 0.45% -0.69% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4961 5.91% 3.82% 3.41% 3.85% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0609554 2.55% 2.1% 1.92% 1.09% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2387 4.73% 2.42% 2.74% 2% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 128.58 3.65% 3.28% 2.47% 2.19% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0431 2.53% n.a. n.a.

1.64% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2857 2.96% 3.04% 2.59% 1.64% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0464 1.61% n.a. n.a.

0.78% Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.0091 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.95 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-4.04%

a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

1 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 2 - Launch date is November 15, 2019. 3 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019.

4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019.

6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund). 7 - Launch date is July 6, 2020.

"While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to the correctness of the newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www.

pifa.com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

DA to DBM: Front-load 2019 excess rice tariffs

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

T

he Department of Agriculture (DA) is again asking the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to front-load the P2.1-billion excess rice tariffs collected last year to fund its crop diversification and insurance program for palay farmers.

Field Operations Service Director Roy M. Abaya told the BusinessMirror they have earlier requested the DBM that the amount be front-loaded through the 2020 unprogrammed funds. “[But] due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the request was not granted,” he added.

“The DA is again requesting the DBM that it will be included in our 2021 proposed budget,” according to Abaya, who also heads the secretariat of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Program Steering Committee (PSC).

The DA’s request comes ahead of the budget deliberations for 2021 where excess rice tariffs collected from preceding year, as mandated by the Republic Act 11203 or rice trade liberalization (RTL) law, shall be appropriated.

President Duterte has already approved the country’s P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 last Thursday but the DBM has yet to transmit the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to Congress.

The DBM has said in a statement it will be finalizing the NEP and other budget documents for submission to Congress before the 30-day Constitutional deadline.

Under the RTL law and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR), any rice tariffs collected in excess of P10 billion in the preceding year as certified by the Bureau of Customs before April 15 shall be “earmarked” by Congress and be included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the following year.

In this case, rice tariffs collected in 2019 shall be allocated in the GAA for 2021.

Under the law’s IRR, programs that could be funded by the excess tariffs as outlined by RA 11203 shall be approved and submitted by the PSC to the DBM for “review and subsequent recommendations for inclusion in the NEP.”

The law provided that rice tariffs collected beyond P10 billion could be used to bank-roll a rice farmer financial assistance program, the titling of agricultural rice lands, an expanded crop insurance program on rice and a crop diversification program.

Agriculture Secretary and PSC Chairman William D. Dar was quoted in a recent statement as saying he has already requested DBM Secretary Wendel E. Avisado “to release the excess rice tariff collections to fund our crop diversification program and expanded crop insurance program on rice.”

The DA said it plans to allot P1 billion for the crop diversification program and P1.1 for the expanded crop insurance on rice, which will be implemented by its high-value crops development program and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., respectively.

Implement RTL provisions

In a related development, the nongovernment group Action for Economic Reforms (AER) urged the DA to implement various provisions of the RTL law and its IRR that has not materialized to date.

In its first policy note, AER said the government has failed to implement a number of things under the RTL law, including the vital rice industry roadmap, more than a year after it was enacted.

For one, the group said the study on determining the optimal level of the national buffer stock to be held by the National Food Authority under the liberalized trade regime is not yet available.

The Rice Industry Roadmap was supposed to come out September 2019, the AER said. “Up to now, there is no official version released,” it added.

“A framework for targeting farmer beneficiaries of RCEF and for implementing strategic rice procurement is necessary. On transparency, the setting up of a ‘Rice Fund Impact Monitoring System’ hosted on a website is required, a year after the RTL implementation,” a statement by the AER read.

The AER also recommended that the PSC should get inputs of farmers’ organizations and non-government organizations on the utilization of the tariff revenues in excess of P10 billion for inclusion in the 2021 budget.

Housing subsidy, devt bills’ passage awaited

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

T

he passage of the National Housing Development (NHD) and Rental Housing Subsidy (RHS) bills into law will take Filipinos one step closer to achieving their dream of owning a home, according to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).

Based on government’s visioning called “AmBisyon2040,” around 61 percent of Filipino respondents said they want to own a medium-sized house.

The AmBisyon2040 is being used as the basis for the 20-year roadmap the DHSUD is formulating and which aims to build high quality and affordable housing for all Filipinos.

DHSUD Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario said the NHD bill and the RHS bill are “vital to providing one of man’s basic needs—shelter—to Filipino families, particularly those in the lowincome group.”

The NHD bill aims to earmark funds to hasten government-led housing programs for the underprivileged.

The proposed legislation had been filed in both legislative chambers last year but remains pending at committee levels.

The bill seeks a 20-year budget of P2.667 trillion for various housing construction projects as well as land banking and surveying efforts. This translates to an annual budget allocation of P135.114 billion a year.

The RHS bill, on the other hand, seeks to provide a flat-rate rental cash aid to informal sector families from the government, enabling them to access the formal housing market. Versions of the bill are pending in both the House and the Senate.

Earlier, University of the Philippines economist Toby Melissa Monsod said the fixation on resettlement finance has taken the government’s attention from other housing concerns such as rental housing.

She said “rental housing is a key feature of a vibrant housing market and an essential component of affordable housing.”

Monsod said renting is considered “the optimal form of shelter” especially for young and single individuals as well as those with relatively low incomes who may not be able to afford to buy property despite efforts to improve mortgage markets.

Meanwhile, the “National Housing Strategic Plan to Provide Adequate and Affordable Housing for the Filipino” also aims to back the housing and real estate industry in pump priming the economy.

In a recent presentation at the House of Representatives Committee on Housing and Urban Development hearing, NHA Group Manager-Management Services Group Marissa B. Maniquis said the NHA now targets to complete 68,095 from the initial target of 99,510 houses.

The number of mass housing projects that will be started this year will also be 9.48 percent lower at 51,543 units from the initial target of 56,942 this year.

For delays in project starts, Maniquis said these affected those under the Armed Forces of the Philippines/Philippine National Police Housing Program and permanent housing projects from the Yolanda Housing projects.

Data showed 318 projects that accounted for 75 percent of total completion projects covering 47,055 units were delayed.

In terms of construction “starts,” 98 projects are delayed accounting for 61 percent of total new units covering 34,528 units.

In terms of cost, the target cost of the 68,095 units that can be completed this year is P24.291 billion while for starts, the cost of the 51,543 units will amount to P45.085 billion.

Further, due to the moratorium imposed on housing payments, the agency now projects its collection to drop by more than half to P1.25 billion from the target collection of P2.82 billion.

Monday, August 3, 2020 B3

Banks may book higher opex on tech investment–Moody’s

T

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@Tyronepiad

he banking industry may book higher operating expenses (opex) in the next few years as it ramps up investment in technology amid the shift to digital, Moody’s Investor Services said.

The debt watcher said the lockdown measures and social distancing practice have prompted the surge in online banking transactions in the past few months.

“Increases in operating expenses are likely to accelerate in the next few years due to investment in technology as the coronavirus outbreak boosts demand for the digitalization of banking services,” it explained.

Moody’s said that demand for digital banking services is likely to be stable as clients become more used to them.

Ultimately, the goal of digitalization is to boost efficiency and cut costs in the long run, but this may not be the case for the banks in the next few years, Moody’s said.

It explained that the savings from the technology might still be used to develop the digital services further.

“While digitalization will help banks improve efficiency because it significantly lowers costs for acquiring customers and processing transactions, we expect any efficiency gains from digitalization to be limited in the next few years because banks will continue to reinvest cost savings in technology development,” the credit rating agency pointed out.

Moody’s said that the increase in operating expenses would partly depend on the depreciation policies for the technological investments.

“Increases in operating expenses

Perspectives

The new employee deal

A

S Covid-19 transforms the work experience, technology companies want to know how their workers are adjusting and how they can plan for a smart transition to a new working environment. Additionally, the renewed emphasis on responsible environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices is forcing organizations to examine their corporate citizenship and inclusion and diversity efforts and adjust their employee deal.

While organizations consider the long-term implications of the current health crisis, climate change and social movements on how and where people work, companies that enthusiastically support the new employee deal will thrive. They can use the disruption as a catalyst to enable a new, flexible, digitally skilled workforce that is equipped to perform in the new reality.

While many industries are confronted with the need for accelerated digital transformation, technology companies are ahead of the curve on this journey.

Instead of focusing on the tactical elements of technology enablement, they can hone their employee experience and talent management strategies. This is critical because: n Creating a consumer-like experience will help to keep employees engaged and motivated n Digital transformation without a workforce strategy is just optimization n The most brilliant innovation is irrelevant if employees are not skilled enough to use it CEOs, CIOs and CHROs who embrace the new employee deal and quickly implement corresponding human capital and technology strategies will be well positioned for success in the new reality and their employees will be better off for it.

Create a consumer experience to keep employees engaged

Times of crisis lead people to reevaluate their personal situations, including their careers. Covid-19 and the resurgent call for improved corporate ESG practices represent a litmus test against new employee expectations.

The tech sector is already in a war for talent and companies need to recruit, retain, and engage top performers. One way to do this is to treat employees and candidates like consumers who have freedom of choice and therefore must receive an exceptional experience from a company with similar values.

In exchange, successful organizations will receive long-term loyalty and an engaged workforce.

Defining the new employee deal

The employee deal, or the psychological contract between an employer and an employee, has changed. Today’s “contract” includes: n The type of work employees are doing. Is it personally fulfilling? Does it maximize the employee’s unique abilities? n Are employees able to connect their personal values and beliefs to their work and employer? n The degree to which the employer facilitates employee well-being, mental health, and skills.

The way an organization interacts with, leads, and develops people during the phases of Covid-19 and recent social movements will determine employees’ willingness to remain in the contract.

Corporate support for environmental stewardship, social and workplace equality, strong governance, continual digital transformation, and humancentered design are now all part of the new expectation—not a “nice-to-have” as they once were.

The culmination of recent social, political and cultural events is a pivotal moment where organizations have the opportunity to combat inequality and make a positive impact in their workforce and communities. Employees are now expecting that employers provide access to robust resources for underrepresented populations and their allies.

However, resources are not enough.

People are also expecting that their organizations take a role in advancing equality and justice through actions.

Inclusion and diversity strategy will be a new component of the employee deal and will impact how candidates and employees feel about working for an organization.

Flexibility, autonomy, life-long training and remote working opportunities are also becoming more important aspects of the employee deal. Employees expect to be treated as consumers and be provided high levels of service in exchange for “buying into” the organization.

Organizations must realize that employees have choices and tailor their efforts to appeal to different individuals with unique values and motivations.

The excerpt was taken from KPMG article, The new employee deal in the technology industry. © 2020 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG network of independent member-firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative, 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.

will be steeper in underbanked emerging markets because in such markets, physical bank branches will remain important for some customers, particularly those who are less technology savvy, which will make it difficult for banks to cut costs by closing branches,” it added.

The Bankers Association of the Philippines earlier told the BusinessMirror that banks should be able to protect its clients not only in the physical branches but also in digital space as well. The group said that “strong cybersecurity is vital during this time when a substantial shift to digital

transactions is evident.”

In a study by Backbase and IDC Financial Insights, it was noted that 60 percent of the bankable customers in the country are willing to shift to more digital banks.

With the increasing presence of neobanks and financial technology, the report said the unbanked and underbanked segments in the Philippines are anticipated to be reduced by half to around 20 percent in five years.

Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas earlier launched a roadmap that aims to increase the digital transaction to 50 percent in the Philippines by 2023.

B4

Style

BusinessMirror

Monday, August 3, 2020

â?ś WHITE Crepe de Chine Amman top

â?ˇ LBD update: Elegant Alerce cotton dress

â?¸ IN Good

Company’s Sebbi Linen Jumpsuit is a contemporary piece with a playful twist designed for casual days

â?š FIIKKA Tech Jersey dress

Updating the classic W HEN one talks about fashion classics, black and white pieces top the list. There is something elegant, dramatic and timeless about this attraction of opposites that continues to fascinate us.

Singapore-based fashion label In Good Company, which has stores in SM Makati, Power Plant Mall and SM Aura Premier, updates the classics with black and white pieces that explore movement and volume play. These are everyday staples you need—injected with an unexpected twist. Comfy, breathable, stylish.

The collection features classic tailoring re-imagined in new proportions. An all new modern take on workwear with oversized and soft structured stylings. For those who prefer to stay home, In Good Company is offering the Call to Deliver/ Pick-Up service within Metro Manila.

You may contact its stores at SM Makati (0917-6256622), SM Aura Premier (0917-5717308), and Power Plant Mall (0917-8951374). â–

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

â?š

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Lolo Jones, 37; Jesse Williams, 38; Jonathan Silverman, 53; Maureen McCormick, 63.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Look for the good in others, and focus on the bright side of life. Set the tone instead of letting others bring you down. Engage in activities you enjoy, and avoid making purchases you can’t afford, hoping it will make you happy. Turn this into a thoughtful, meaningful year that offers hope and future prospects.

Lay the foundation for better days ahead. Your lucky numbers are 2, 10, 13, 22, 29, 34, 43.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t worry so much about what others are doing. Consider what you need to do, and get busy working toward your goal. Personal improvement will help you bypass emotional interference from someone critical or overbearing. ★★★

â?ˇ

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Make a change because it’s the right thing to do. Learn from mistakes, and base what you do and say on how it will affect others. Getting along will ease stress and help you get what you want. ★★★

â?ś

â?¸

EXO’s Chanyeol is new model for Korean cosmetic brand

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Spend more time making improvements at home or on essential relationships. Truth, honesty and getting along with others will make the difference between a happy home environment and one that is cluttered with misunderstandings. ★★★★★

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Look at all sides of a situation before you make a move.

Concentrate on the changes you can make that will be beneficial to whatever situation you face.

Simple adjustments are favored over insisting on doing things your way. ★★

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Personal growth and physical improvements will go hand in hand.

Do what makes you feel good about who you are, what you accomplish and how you give back.

Friends and family will help you recognize what’s best for you. Romance is highlighted. ★★★★

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Learn through experience. Participate in events that will challenge you and give you alternative suggestions that can change your course of action.

Look for the positive, but don’t be fooled by someone’s exaggerated point of view or tempting offer. ★★★

WHEN a Korean beauty brand brings out teasers for a new endorser, there is always excitement. Fans always speculate and guess who that celebrity or group would be.

In mid-July, Nacific announced the brand would launch a new model and the big reveal would be on July 20. Part of the new model’s face could be gleaned from the teaser. Immediately, fans of the famous Korean boy group EXO identified the face as that of Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol is EXO’s rapper and singer. He is a popular idol, model, songwriter, brand endorser and producer. Even before this, many of my beauty editor and writer friends have been raving over Nacific’s Fresh Herb Origin Serum and Phyto Niacin Whitening Essence. I learned from them that Nacific is available on Shopee (www.shopee.ph/nacificofficial.ph).

We reached out to Nacific via their Instagram page (@nacific.ph) and were pleasantly surprised to hear back from them.

Jenny de Leon, Nacific Global sales marketing manager, said the brand’s slogan is “The Birth Of Natural Beauty� and as such, they aim to research and create naturalist cosmetics that are gentle and can be used safely by everyone. “Chanyeol’s bright and healthy image fits well with the philosophy pursued by the brand. We see more brand recognition and success because of him,� said de Leon. There will be video and image content with Chanyeol and the brand also plans to promote merchandise featuring the rapper in Nacific’s Shopee store. “Chanyeol is the exclusive model for Nacific, so he is endorsing the entire brand portfolio with recommended products to be released via content,� said de Leon.

In the Philippines, Nacific has brick-and-mortar

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Avoid emotional confrontations. Take your responsibilities seriously, and tidy up loose ends before you move on to preferred pastimes. Don’t let money, health or a legal matter disrupt your day. Address issues directly and personally. ★★★

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Stick to what you know and do best. Refuse to let anyone talk you into something you know isn’t in your best interest. A mistake will take a long time to fix.

Slow down and make calculated choices. ★★★

stores in several SM Malls, including SM City Fairview, with plans to open more before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. For now, it is doing quite well on Shopee Philippines. “The brand has been showing a steady increase in sales,� said de Leon.

Now, let’s talk about two of Nacific’s two bestselling products.

Phyto Niacin Whitening Essence’s star ingredient is one of today’s most popular skin-care ingredients— niacinamide. The brand’s promise is “bouncy, glowy skin that’s bright and supple to the touch.�

Niacinamide is a beneficial skin ingredient that reduces inflammation and help ease redness from eczema, acne and other skin conditions. It also keeps skin smooth and lightly moisturized, and may help in pore reduction over time. Niacinamide is also known to minimize oiliness.

Phyto Niacin Whitening Essence also contains bambusa vulgaris, or bamboo extract, which is rich in antioxidants. Bamboo extract also has skinstrengthening properties and can help the skin in the

fight against acne.

Fresh Herb Origin Serum has aloe barbadensis leaf extract, which can help soothe the skin and has antiinflammatory properties. It also contains aspalathus linearis, or rooibos tea or Red Tea, which is antiallergic and antibacterial. This ingredient is good for problematic and sensitive skins.

Phyto Niacin Whitening Essence and Fresh Herb Origin Serum are best applied day and night—the essence first after cleansing, and then the serum a few minutes later.

Coincidentally, the Nacific Day and Night Set, which includes these two products, is also a Shopee Philippines best seller. Tip: this is the set that my beauty editor friends have ordered. So what can Chanyeol’s fans look forward to from Nacific? “There will be a lot of content collaborations and we are all very excited to release the merch because we know that the fans are going to love it,� said de Leon.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): High energy, coupled with solid planning, will ensure your success. If someone is inconsistent or unreliable, take care of matters on your own. Physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle will improve your chance to advance. ★★★★

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Think twice before you say something that could disrupt your relationship with someone substantial in your everyday routine. Getting along will be half the battle, and doing what’s right will be the other half. ★★

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Look for an opportunity, and you will find one. A partnership looks inviting, and contracts and agreements can be formulated and put into play.

Romance is on the rise and will improve your attitude, as well as your personal living arrangements. ★★★★★

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Keep an open mind, and use insight and originality to come up with workable solutions to any problem that arises. You don’t have to follow the crowd or someone who is asking for too much. Do your own thing. ★★★ BIRTHDAY BABY: You are charismatic, playful and assertive.

You are changeable and sensitive.

JAPANESE FASHION DESIGNER KANSAI YAMAMOTO DIES AT 76

BY MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press TOKYO—Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, known for his avant-garde and colorful work that included flamboyant costumes of the late rock icon David Bowie, has died of leukemia, his company announced. He was 76.

Yamamoto developed leukemia in February and was determined to recover and come back with renewed energy, said the company, Kansai Yamamoto. He died on July 21.

Born in 1944 in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Yamamoto debuted in 1971, becoming the first Japanese fashion designer to hold a show in London. He became internationally known for blending traditional Japanese motifs with brilliant colors and bold designs.

Yamamoto designed the costume for Bowie’s

Ziggy Stardust alter ego, and also developed friendships with top artists including Elton John and Stevie Wonder, his company said.

He contributed to collections in Tokyo, New York and Paris for nearly two decades until 1992 and produced the “Kansai Super Show� and “Nippon Genki Project.�

Yamamoto, who sought a career in engineering before turning to fashion, also demonstrated his talent in designing venues and organizing social events for the 2008 G-8 summit in Toyako in northern Japan. He also won awards for his interior and exterior design of the Keisei Skyliner train connecting Tokyo and Narita International Airport. “‘Human energy is limitless’ was his motto he would never let go, and he bravely kept challenging no matter how hard the situation,� his company said in a statement.

IN this November 1982 photo, Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto (right) checks the dress of model Sayoko Yamaguchi at a studio in Tokyo.

Yamamoto was known for his avant-garde and colorful work that included flamboyant costumes of the late rock icon David Bowie. AP

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13, 2020 b5 B5 Monday,Monday, August July 3, 2020

5 Tips for Managing an Underperformer—Remotely

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By Liz Kislik

discovery does. This will help you avoid micromanaging, which is a significant temptation when you’re trying to be extremely clear about expectations.

hile a majority of employers believe that their employees will return to their workplaces after Covid-19’s impact diminishes, working from home isn’t going to disappear.

The reality is that a huge number of people were already working from home (almost 10 million workers in the U.S. in 2019); that number is only likely to rise in the post-pandemic world. As the manager of a remote team, you can’t afford to ignore underperformance from workers, whether they’re temporarily at home, working in local branch offices or half a world away.

Although you might assume that managing an underperformer in a remote environment would be more challenging, there’s actually an upside. You may actually be more effective in handling the situation because you have to plan and structure your interactions, rather than catch up in the hallway or wait for your employee to stop by when you’re in the office.

Here are five things you can do to help remote underperformers improve their game:

Revisit your expectations

Take the opportunity to reconsider what you want most from the employee, and why you feel you’re not getting it. Start by reviewing your recent directives, and whether your communications about what’s expected have been clear and consistent from the beginning. This is something you should do under any circumstances, but it’s even more important to ask yourself whether your statements have been ambiguous when you don’t see your employees in person. Part of this process is separating out whether your dissatisfaction is with your workers’ work products, or with the way they deliver.

If your employee’s style or approach is the problem, check to

Stay in close enough contact

see if you’re expecting that person to work the way you do. If that’s the case, let go of those expectations and dispassionately assess the individual’s real strengths and capacities for contributing to the team’s work. After one of the senior executives I work with came to terms with the fact that he simply didn’t like much one of his subordinates, the remote relationship worked better because he could pay more attention to her output and the praise he heard about her from other leaders, and less to his own biased reactions.

If you suspect the underperformer’s difficulties come from insufficient experience, specific skill deficits, or a lack of business or organizational acumen, consider whether he may need training or the guidance of a more experienced colleague. This may be more challenging to arrange in a remote environment, but it’s too risky to wait until you’re back in the office to provide the support your employee requires.

Learn more about your underperformers

Even if they’ve been on your team for a while, it’s important to ask about their goals and what they care about, as these things change as circumstances evolve.

Plus, you don’t have the benefit of casual, in-person contact to pick up details about family, hobbies or past work successes.

Then, modify your management approach to match your reports’ needs. For example, you might learn that a person misses working side-by-side with colleagues and would perform better if he were assigned to projects that in-

volved more regular interaction.

If you’re not familiar with your employees’ remote setup and schedule, ask. Some team members may prefer strict deadlines to structure their often-interrupted workdays; others may benefit from more flexible deadlines than usual to help them deal with the additional pressures of working from home. Take home obligations like schooling time or elder care into account.

Level with them, and be specific

You may not be in the same room, but providing feedback is still a

requirement. Many people who aren’t doing well have a vague feeling that something is wrong, but don’t really know which of their behaviors aren’t working. For example, telling a team leader that he needs to “be a better listener” doesn’t help him understand specifically what he needs to do differently. It’s much more helpful to explain that when he turns away during videoconferences or change the subject while team members are speaking, the team loses trust and confidence in him. The feedback gives him the opportunity to

actively practice in order to modify those behaviors.

Help them learn how to improve their own performance

As much as possible, use questions to encourage your underperformers to self-diagnose and project into their own future. Ask something like: “How will this experience set you up to do better in the future?” Encourage them to reach their own conclusions, rather than telling them what you have observed, which wouldn’t trigger the same kind of “aha” that self-

Keep in mind that a remote underperformer can’t just drop in to check on things or “take your temperature.” It’s on you as a manager to stay in regular touch and keep employees in the loop. Don’t assume that no news is good news.

After you’ve given an employee candid feedback and he doesn’t hear from you, he can start to worry that you’re ignoring him because you’ve written him off, and his performance can deteriorate further. Schedule regular meetings to talk about your underperformers’ progress. When a vice president I advised learned that one of her reports thought she was “ghosting” him, we came up with a consistent schedule of one full update and two quick touch-bases each week for a few months until the relationship was on a stronger footing.

If you’ve asked your underperforming employees to keep you up to date on their progress, make clear how you want them to do that.

If they tend to use email, but you’re awash in email and respond better to texts or Slack messages, tell them that. And don’t rely only on video meetings, where the lack of true eye contact can make it seem like you’re getting nonverbal clues when you’re not. If you’re concerned that you’re not getting a good read on your team members’ state of mind, plan to have at least some of your interactions by phone and listen carefully. Their tone of voice can give you more clues about what needs intervention.

It’s not easy to work with remote employees who aren’t performing well, particularly when you can’t sit down together and have a conversation. But using specific, road-tested techniques to help them improve will strengthen not only their performance, but their relationship with you as well.

Liz Kislik is the author of How to resolve interpersonal conflicts in the workplace.

Why your mentorship program isn’t working

By W. Brad Johnson, David G. Smith & Jennifer Haythornthwaite

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fter five decades of research into mentoring relationships, the evidence is irrefutable: People who have strong mentors accrue a host of professional benefits, including more rapid advancement, higher salaries, greater commitment to their organizations, a stronger identity, and higher job and career satisfaction. They also see personal benefits, such as better physical health and selfesteem, improved work-life integration and stronger relational skills. At its best, mentoring can transform lives and careers while bolstering retention and maximizing employee potential.

It is little wonder, then, that prospective employees are prioritizing the availability of mentoring when choosing an employer.

More than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer mentoring programs of some kind. However, there is little evidence that these formal programs are having a broad impact. A recent study of 3,000 professionals across industries reveals that only about half have ever had any mentoring in their careers and, among those who have, only 25 percent have ever had a mentor formally assigned to them. Perhaps more disheartening, data on the outcomes of organiza-

tional mentoring programs is at best mixed: While some employees assigned mentors report tangible relationship outcomes, a significant number report little benefit, let alone much meaningful engagement.

If there is a single, consistent Achilles’ heel in organizational mentoring structures, it is marginal mentoring. This mediocre mentoring may simply be a consequence of assigning mentors who are too busy, disinterested, dysfunctional or incompetent for the job. Prospective mentors are often randomly selected or forced into the role.

Leaders fail to provide resources for mentoring programs, or to evaluate or reward those who participate. With no meaningful incentives attached to the role, serving as a mentor is justifiably seen as an onerous add-on duty, a thankless distraction from real work.

What’s more, too often program leaders erroneously assume that any successful manager can mentor effectively with minimal training, and that the art of mentoring is innate or easy to learn. Since so many people have never had a mentor themselves, they lack mental maps for how to support their mentees effectively.

Evidence indicates that poor mentoring can be worse for employees than receiving no mentoring at all. Ill-prepared and marginally competent mentors not only give

mentoring a bad name, they also sabotage retention, commitment and employee development—the very objectives that drive mentoring initiatives in the first place.

If you’re looking to create a mentoring program in your organization or to improve upon one that already exists, you need a different approach. At a minimum, competent mentors must acquire functional mentoring skills. These behaviors and strategies can be thought of as teachable microskills. For instance, great mentors listen generously; they affirm and challenge; and they provide feedback, insider information, networking opportunities and collegiality. There is strong evidence that these habits can be instilled and refined through mentor-development training.

You also need to carefully select mentors on the basis of their foundational values and abilities. For example, excellent mentors act in their mentees’ best interests, and they demonstrate sound judgment regarding professional boundaries and confidentiality. Good mentors are also empathetic and self-aware. It’s no surprise that top rated mentors show high levels of emotional intelligence. Mentees report that, to build trust and successfully launch relationships, mentors need to be genuine and approachable. And let’s be clear: A mentor training workshop will not

instill these virtues and abilities. You must recruit people who already have them.

How can you select the best-suited employees to serve as mentors and then give them the preparation and support they need to achieve genuine expertise in the role?

Consider the “Master Mentor” approach, created and first piloted at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2012.

Leaders at the School of Medicine had noticed a high turnover rate among junior faculty members, particularly women, who often reported feeling invisible and unsupported. Mentoring of junior faculty at the time was infrequent, haphazard and defined by a highly competitive publishor-perish culture. To address this, Hopkins decided to try something radical: flip the script on mentoring such that the selection of mentors became a competitive process accompanied by perks and recognition.

The Master Mentor approach is designed to create cohorts of experienced, welltrained mentors. These Master Mentors are not only effective at enhancing the personal well-being and career trajectories of mentees, but they are also willing to serve as resources and coaches for less-experienced mentors. Successful mentors in the program accelerate the advancement of high-talent hires while elevating the quality of mentoring throughout the organization.

Here are the salient components of the model:

n The university solicits mentor nominations from directors and managers, specifying that candidates must have a consistent track record of strong informal mentoring.

Which mid-level or senior employees do new hires naturally gravitate to for advice and counsel? Who is the most generous and caring mentor according to junior employees? Which mentor has the highest degree of emotional intelligence, the best communication skills and an established record of successfully sponsoring rising stars? n A committee selects the best candidates from each division or department. For six months this cohort meets routinely for mentoring skills-building workshops and case discussions interspersed with lunches featuring consultations with subject matter experts, visits from senior leaders reinforcing the organization’s commitment to a mentoring culture and discussions about leveraging mentoring to accelerate diversity, equity and inclusion. n Following this training, Master Mentor certificates are issued—and noted in each graduate’s personnel file. From that point on, the program’s Master Mentors take on a greater share of the mentoring load in their workplaces. n Each year a new cohort of mentors is

selected and trained, as outstanding mentors gradually permeate the organization.

The school’s pilot program yielded some important lessons. First, resources are needed to administer these programs and to support mentors who are taking time away from their busy schedules to focus on this work.

Second, creating and celebrating a culture of excellence in mentoring throughout the organization requires participation by all levels of leadership. Awards, public recognition and other perks build and reinforce a clear message of institutional priority.

Yearly events and graduation ceremonies celebrating new mentors in the program bolster a sense of community and encourage networking and peer consultation.

This approach is just one way to improve your organization’s mentoring options.

Whether you have formal programs, an informal mentoring culture or some combination of the two, it’s time to banish marginal mentoring by carefully selecting, training and elevating accomplished mentors.

W. Brad Johnson is a professor of psychology at the United States Naval Academy.

David G. Smith is a professor of sociology at the US Naval War College. Jennifer Haythornthwaite is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

B6 Monday, August 3, 2020

Bata Philippines donates shoes for PGH frontliners through SM Foundation

Bata Philippines General Manager Arlyn Guanlao and UP PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi during the distribution of Bata shoes at the Philippine General Hospital. Through SMFI, Bata Philippines was able to donate 1,800 pairs of shoes to PGH as part of their “Bata Heroes” project. General Hospital.

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ata, a world-renowned shoe brand with over 6,000 retail stores across the globe, partnered anew with SM Foundation (SMFI) in donating 1,800 pairs of shoes for the front -liners of the Philippine General Hospital. This is part of Bata's Global 1 Million pairs donation project.

“Due to long and often times back-toback work shifts, a number of our health workers are experiencing foot and back pain,” says SM Foundation Executive Director Debbie Sy. “The need to constantly disinfect their shoes also results in faster wearing out of their footwear. With this, SMFI and Bata wanted to provide our health workers with quality footwear to address this need and provide them with

comfortable footwear and protection while at work and doing their rounds.”

“Bata Philippines donated these shoes as our way of saying thank you to our frontliners for the help that they have extended to the country during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Bata Philippines General Manager Arlyn Guanlao.

UP PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi expressed his gratitude to SM Foundation and Bata, “I'd like to thank SM Foundation for being ever supportive of our COVID-19 fight here in PGH. You have covered the whole spectrum of our needs from ventilators and now sneakers. Thank you to Bata shoes for having shared their different kinds of sneakers which I'm sure would go a long way into making our front-

liners feel appreciated and comfortable when they work.”

Since the onset of the outbreak, Bata through its “Bata Heroes” initiative has been working with its long-standing foundations, charitable partners, government agencies, and other organization to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the years, SMFI and Bata have been collaborating on social good projects.

In 2018, they teamed up to construct a new school building for Telabastagan Integrated School in San Fernando, Pampanga. More recently, in March 2020 for the distribution of 400 pairs of shoes for the students of Looc Elementary School in Nasugbu, Batangas.

Metrobank posts 1H income of P9.1 Billion; Sustains Reserve Build-up

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ETROBANK, one of the largest Banks in the country, earned P9.1 billion net income for the first half of the year as the Bank increased loan provisions for potential risks to P22.8 billion. The decline from last year’s income is a result of proactive measures to secure the bank from further economic slowdown that may result from the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our core business remains strong.

Pre-provision operating profit grew 61% and the balance sheet is solid, with good deposit levels. We have faced crisis events in the past, and while the current pandemic is unprecedented, our substantial capital position combined with prudent strategic actions will enable us to weather the challenges,” said Metrobank President Fabian S. Dee. “Consistent with our conservative business strategy, we are very mindful of future risks that will likely impact the entire banking industry, so we are doing an early build-up of larger provisions to ensure our readiness. We are taking all the necessary steps as we continue to focus on supporting our clients and the recovery of the overall economy,” he added.

Needless to say, some short-term consequences stemmed from the large reserve expense. The Bank sets it aside this early in order to take a prudent stand during a time of economic uncertainty.

As things become clearer in the future, however, the Bank reiterated that it will adjust its position accordingly.

Even as non-performing loans (NPL) ratio was steady at 1.56%, the Bank took the conservative route by increasing provisions to P22.8 billion, or 5 times over the P4.6 billion booked in first half last year. As a result, the NPL cover rose to

188%, which underscores the strategy of beefing up reserves early in anticipation of future risks.

With the slowdown across industries (as activities ground to a halt during the quarantine in the second quarter), the Bank’s net loans and receivables declined by 5% to P1.3 trillion. Lending for the commercial segment was tempered as expansion plans were put on hold due to the uncertain business climate. Consumer loans were little changed as steady mortgage and increased credit card receivables offset the 6% contraction in auto loans.

Metrobank’s deposit base grew 5% to P1.7 trillion, largely driven by the 20% increment in low-cost deposits, improving the CASA ratio to 69% from 61% last year.

This, together with the 175-basis-point drop in policy rates, led to the marked reduction in the Bank’s overall funding cost thus resulting in net interest margin improving by 41 basis points to 4.24%.

Meanwhile, non-interest income grew 55%, mainly due to the hefty P13.1 billion trading and FX gains. This mitigated the weakness in service fees and commissions, which declined by 16%, a result of lower transaction volumes and waiver of some fees.

Efforts to enhance productivity and efficiency resulted in muted operating cost growth of 7% to P29.6 billion, further improving the cost-to-income ratio to 45% from 56% previously.

Metrobank remains one of the largest banks in the country with P2.3 trillion consolidated assets. Total equity amounted to P323 billion at the end of June, sustaining strong capital ratios with Total CAR 19.98% and Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 18.66%, both wellabove the regulatory requirements.

Tagisan ng Galing: Realizing dreams, rewarding talent

We are stronger together: Mondelez Philippines shares Snacks with 57 Hospitals to mark Anniversary

57 hospitals given snack products, to celebrate 57 years in the country for Mondelez Philippines. #StrongerTogether

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HERE are many uncertainties in the world right now. There’s too much going on that sometimes you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. If there’s anything that remains true, it’s that whatever challenge we face, we will only get through it together, as one community.

For a Company that’s been in the Philippines for the past 57 years, Mondelez Philippines has seen its fair share of challenges over almost six decades. The Company has faced many uncertainties and through it all, its purpose remains clear: To become stronger by working together as one family and one team.

To mark 57 years of being in the country, Mondelez Philippines thought to strengthen bonds with its team and its community.

The Company’s actions are guided by its purpose to empower people to snack right; with the right snack, for the right moment and made the right way. Though unable to gather its 480 team members at this time, a virtual celebration will be held where the Team will share what they’re thankful for, how they remain ‘Driven at 57,’ and have

delicious snacks to celebrate with. Special thanks will also given to the brave food front liners who continue to make and sell the Company’s snack products, to ensure consumers continue to enjoy deliciousness in their homes.

Sharing Snacks to Help Emotional and Mental Well-being. For the community, Mondelez Philippines wanted to give thanks to the health front liners who are offering their lives in the service of the country at this time. Collaborating with partner Rise Against Hunger, the Company shared its chocolate and cheese products to 57 hospitals in Metro Manila, including those in its home city of Paranaque, as well as others in surrounding cities of Muntinlupa, Quezon City, Manila, Pasay, Makati, Navotas and Valenzuela.

In recent years snacks have become more than just a bridge in between meals.

According to a 2019 global State of Snacking report supported by the Company, people’s relationship with food is fundamentally changing. The majority of people in the report say that snacks are just as important

to their mental and emotional wellbeing as their physical wellbeing. By sharing these snacks, it is Mondelez Philippines’ hope that they can bring bright spots to health front liners’ chaotic days.

57 hospitals given snack products, to celebrate 57 years in the country for Mondelez Philippines. #StrongerTogether “As we celebrate our 57th anniversary in the Philippines, we are grateful that we are getting better and more relevant to our consumers and customers with every passing year,” shares Ashish Pisharodi, Country Director of Mondelez Philippines. “Even though many of our colleagues are working remotely at this time, we note with great pride that the culture and strong values of the Mondelez Philippines Team continue to shine through to help us win in these unprecedented times. We are truly “Driven at 57” by our love for our Consumers and Brands, who also love us back more and more in return.”

Ashish continues, “We would like to thank our team, our consumers, partners and our community for continuing to be with us these past 57 years. We look forward to being part of Filipino’s snacking moments for many more years with your support.”

On a note shared by the staff of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Manila, it said, “We are very thankful for your generosity.

We are grateful for your support, which helps us continue our mission. Happy 57th anniversary Mondelez Philippines!”

Adds Grover Cleveland R. Salamanca, MD, President of The Premier Medical Center in Paranaque, “We are very thankful for your generosity. We are very grateful for your support in these trying times. We pray for your well being and health. Together we can win this battle.”

NET25's Tagisan Ng Galing grand winners join the judges, from left: Marco Sison, Vina Morales, and Imelda Papin. Joining them are Bro. Glicerio B. Santos, Jr. and Eagle Broadcasting Corporation President Rowena dela Fuente-Deimoy.

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AGLE Broadcasting Corporation's Net 25 channel once again assisted individuals to showcase their singing and dancing skills and give them chance for stardom via the network's Tagisan ng Galing grand final competition on July 27, 2020.

Conferred Grand Champion was Jonacris Bandillo, while the Power Duo, Edrien Oclarino, the Cosmic Angles and Nicole Francisco bagged the first, second and third runner up spots, respectively.

Contest winners received well over 4 million pesos in cash prizes.

Top winner Badillo, who is also known as the “Legendary Pool Player of Laguna”, thanked the network and fans who voted online for his achievement. He recevied P2 million and 34.15% from the public's SMS and online votes.

Power Duo, the “Amazing Couple from Rizal”, brought home P1.5 Million and garnered a score of 18.02% while Edrien Oclarino, the “Captivating Guitarist from Cavite obtained 17.64% nods and was awarded P1 Million.

The other winners were given P100,000 in consolation prizes and opportunities to guest in NET25’s musical programs including Himig Ng Lahi.

The awarding ceremony was held at the Net25 Studio and graced by known

local performance artists. Among the distinguised guests was Glicerio B. Santos, Jr., General Auditor of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC).

"We will continue to search for, encourage, and develop local Filipino talent. Our artists are well-known around the world and our Tagisan ng Galing can be a breeding ground for those who may not have the opportunity otherwise to showcase their unique skills," Santos, Jr. noted.

The grand finale was aired on NET25 and on TNG’s Facebook and YouTube channels and was highlighted by the performances of Ms. Kuh Ledesma, Angeline Quinto and Marcelito Pomoy.

The show was jointly hosted by Imelda Papin, Marco Sison and Vina Morales.

The INC announced a second holding of Tagisan "to give more opportunities for Filipinos to present their world-class talents in singing and dancing," with Juke Box Queen Imelda Papin, OPM hitmaker Marco Sison and singer-actress Vina Morales to remain as judges. They will be joined by America’s Got Talent grand finalist Marcelito Pomoy.

Watch NET25 and subscribe to NET25 and Tagisan Ng Galing FB and YouTube for more updates on Tagisan Ng Galing Part 2.

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Monday, August 3, 2020 B7

Agencies pivot their way to survival PR Matters

By Abigail L. Ho-Torres

Work-from-home arrangement

One of the biggest challenges that local PR agencies faced when community quarantine was first imposed in mid-March was how to continue operating. Staff members could not go to their offices because of the suspension of operations of public transport, while those living in nearby provinces like Rizal and Bulacan were not allowed to do “cross-border” travel at the height of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

The solution: shifting to a workfrom-home arrangement.

“Working from home was the only major adjustment we had to make and, fortunately, we had started doing that for some of our staff even before the pandemic started. What we had to maintain and make stronger was the daily flow of communication among ourselves and with our partners and clients. It was fortunate that we had already been doing this for a time, and it also helped that most of our staff are young, flexible, and technologically savvy,” related IPRA Philippines Treasurer Joy Buensalido, who’s also President and CEO of Buensalido & Associates Public Relations.

Mikey de Quiros, External Affairs and Media Relations Head of Full Circle Communications Inc., said that they, too, started allowing their employees to work from home even before the imposition of ECQ, “to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of our people.”

This arrangement is likely to become permanent practice, said Ardent Communications President Ana Pista.

“The concept of office space as a four-wall workplace is now gone. Working from home is here to stay. Firms will have to trust their staff, and employees will have to be more self-starting and goal-driven. Both will have to learn how to co-exist in the new normal,” she related.

Redesigned systems and procedures

With a work-from-home scheme in place, changes in long-standing systems and procedures also had to be instituted.

“We have been compelled to

WWW.FREEPIK.COM

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MONG the many buzzwords that the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to, “pivot” appears to be one of the more popular ones used in the business world. Sure, all of us had to pivot, or change course, as our lives have undoubtedly been turned upside-down by this pandemic. Unlike our day-to-day personal lives, however, businesses have had to do more drastic shifts, given their planning horizon and a host of other dependencies.

Public relations agencies are among those experiencing major upheavals in the way they do business and engage with their clients and other stakeholders. As an industry that depends on people interaction, not being able to do just that poses a bit of a problem.

But trust the creative PR minds to think of ways to make the best out of dire situations.

Last week, we shared a glimpse into how this pandemic will possibly evolve the PR practice. Today, we’re zeroing in on how some local agencies are navigating these waters: the changes in their dayto-day operations, the new ways of engaging their publics, and the strategies they have put in place to continue to be relevant to clients and to society.

respond to challenges quickly and creatively—this means letting go of operational procedures and business strategies that used to work fine, and embracing instead ideas and activities that are frighteningly new,” related Grupo Agatep President and Managing Director Norman Agatep.

He said working from home initially “felt like punishment operationally, [as] we like seeing each other regularly, physically following up each other's work, collaborating on tasks, and gossiping by the water dispenser.” However, given the need to quickly adjust, all activities had to be shifted to the digital space.

PageOne Group CEO Ron Jabal shared similar experiences.

“We are affected because the team can no longer brainstorm face to face. There seems to be different dynamics when threshing out client briefs and ‘asks’ during personal discussions compared to online interactions. While we continue to maintain quality proposals and strategies, we think we could have done more if the discussions were done in person,” he related. “Given the absence of regular interactions during office hours, we requested team members to be online all the time. We supported them with additional resources for Internet facilities to enable them to immediately respond to client requirements.

We also asked our designers and production crew to bring home sophisticated equipment to enable them to fulfill clients’ requests.”

Virtual engagements

For stakeholder engagement, all agencies—as with most companies in other industries—have shifted to the virtual space.

Jabal related that with their event-based business dropping to zero in the past few months, they had to strengthen their other revenue streams, and even shift some of their events to the online realm.

“Shifting from physical campaigns to digital campaigns and publicity and more ‘online’ ways of managing stakeholders and advocacy work as ways to promote brand building, executive profiling, and company reputation was wholeheartedly supported by our clients,” he related. “Regular media relations activities and publicity had to take on a more digital character: more online press briefings, phone-in interviews, and Skype/

Zoom interactions between our clients and media personalities.

Event stakeholder management had to be done digitally, albeit on encrypted social media platforms to assure security of discussions.”

Buensalido did the same in her firm, using available technologies and platforms to maintain relevance and ensure good engagement amid these trying times.

She said: “the key strategy was to maintain communication with clients, with the various audiences, and with the media.”

Pista agreed, saying events were “just one of the items in the PR toolbox—PR is about building relationships. A true PR professional looks at disruption as an open door and technology as a means to go through it. The use of technology is no longer an option but a matter of survival.”

For Agatep, social media became his agency’s weapon of choice.

“What is challenging today is delivering the brand and corporate message to a remote audience that’s working from home and preferring to isolate themselves.

How do we make stakeholders experience the brand wherever they are? This means stepping up our digital capabilities: building narratives across virtual platforms, harnessing the inherent strengths of each online contact point, mounting media conferences via the web, bridging social distance through social media, demonstrating corporate social responsibility through Facebook and Twitter. The digital world is no longer virtual— it is real,” he said.

Expert PR advice

This pandemic has proven that there is always a need for expert communication advice, both from in-house teams and agencies. As Ipra President Svetlana Stavreva aptly put it: “In times of crisis, people look for experts.”

Having been in the business for more than 30 years, Buensalido shared that every major crisis and disaster in the past three decades have given rise to opportunities for PR professionals to shine by helping their clients and brands to bounce back. Today’s worst-hit industries—including tourism, travel, aviation, restaurants, leisure, and real estate—need more help in communicating with their audiences.

“This needs increased creativity, strategic thinking, and consis-

tent and focused support so they can reach their publics as they strive to bounce back,” she said.

“Some marketing experts state that this could be a more opportune time for the PR industry since there will definitely be revolutionary concepts, fresh challenges, and record-breaking changes that will have to be met, and who can better act as the initiator and conduit for these than the professional PR practitioners?”

These times also call for flexibility and empathy, she said.

Agencies should continue to support clients who are struggling and may not even be able to afford their services. This is also a good time to strengthen relationships with the media.

“We should value friendships and long-term relationships with all our partners, and offer to still work out an arrangement where we can continue to help each other until, hopefully, we are all able to weather this crisis,” she said.

De Quiros noted that these times have elevated PR’s purpose, adding that “we are now more focused in driving situation-sensitive yet purpose-led growth. We are here to help our clients bounce back and the public to remain informed and engaged.”

Jabal said this was the perfect time for PR professionals to show their value in an organization.

“The pandemic has tested and continues to test the PR professional’s role in organizations. This pandemic is also testing the relevance, efficiency, and potency of PR agencies in relation to the needs of their clients. This is an excellent time to show management that PR has a distinct role in developing and recalibrating business decisions—especially dealing with employees, regulators, consumers, government, and community, among others,” he said.

His advice to PR agencies: Propose, propose, propose.

“We are experts, and we should be providing expertise. We are not just service providers, but strategic partners and advisors. While most of the time, clients see trees and the occasional forests, we always see the forests and the tributaries that support them. Be more proactive in dealing with current clients and in looking for potential clients.

And please don’t just restrict your services to media relations, publicity, and social media management.

Public relations is more than just

writing and seeding press releases and posting memes on social media,” he said.

Agatep agreed. Amid massive budget cuts, PR and communication efforts continue to get their share of investments.

“Many brands are mounting more programs to strengthen their brand and corporate reputation.

The logic: companies that do all they can to help out during the global crisis have the best chances of being remembered and patronized in the post-pandemic era.

Companies that remain silent today will regret not doing anything when they could,” he explained.

“Many PR professionals today and those involved in corporate communication are working tirelessly to design programs that can potentially bring out the best in us— empowering companies to show their humanity, demonstrating that, in these times, people come before profit, compassion wins over commerce. Communication can do that.”

Care for people

While catering to clients’ needs, local agencies have also stepped up efforts to take care of their employees. Agatep related that they mount web-based activities for their employees, “to keep (them) sane and to maintain the family atmosphere we’ve always enjoyed.”

Pista also placed emphasis on taking care of employees.

“Our strategy is to take care of our Ardent family. Our employees are our most precious asset. If we can get through this together, then the firm will emerge stronger at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

“Take care of your people. When the pandemic is over, your staff will take care of the agency.”

PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. Ho-Torres is AVP and Head of Advocacy and Marketing of Maynilad Water Services Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations.

Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.

COACH POP, ISAAC PREFER TO STAND

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Monday, August 3, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

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By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

AKE BUENA VISTA, Florida—Jonathan Isaac stood, and stood out.

And later Friday, Gregg Popovich and Becky Hammon did the same.

Most players and coaches, but not all, are kneeling while prerecorded versions of the national anthem are being played at the restarted National Basketball Association (NBA) season. Isaac became the first player to not kneel when he stood before he and the Orlando Magic played the Brooklyn Nets.

In a later game, Popovich—a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, and coach of USA Basketball’s national team in addition to his longtime duties as head coach in San Antonio—stood with his arms at his sides before the Spurs played Sacramento.

Maroons stack up on young talents for Season 83 wars

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Hammon, one of Popovich’s assistant coaches, also stood.

She draped one arm over the shoulders of Spurs assistant Will Hardy, kneeling to her right, and the other over veteran San Antonio guard Patty Mills, kneeling to her left. Popovich and Hammon both wore “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts, as almost all players and coaches have for warm-ups and the anthem.

“I’d prefer to keep that to myself,” said Popovich, when asked what went into his decision. “Everybody has to make a personal decision. The league’s been great about that; everybody has the freedom to react any way they want. For whatever reasons I have, I reacted the way I wanted to.”

Isaac did not wear the shirt. He wore his white Orlando jersey instead, standing with his hands behind his back, the ordained minister praying silently as the song played.

“Kneeling while wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt doesn’t go hand-in-hand with supporting Black lives,” Isaac said.

Isaac’s decision was not a surprise to his teammates;

OULD high-school standouts Carl Tamayo and Gerry Abadiano emerge as the missing links to the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons’ title hunt?

Team Manager Agaton Uvero and Fighting Maroons Head Coach Bo Perasol hope so.

he revealed it in a team meeting earlier in the week. Isaac expected there would be some critical reaction, given how the kneeling is part of a statement against racial injustice and police brutality following the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.

“That’s a personal decision,” Magic Coach Steve Clifford said of Isaac’s choice to stand. “We’re all supporting each other in this. And if guys are not comfortable kneeling and they want to stand, nobody has a problem with that. I support him. His teammates support him. The organization supports him. That’s part of living in our country.”

Isaac has a history of being active with various charities and churches.

“We all support him,” Magic guard Evan Fournier said.

Players and teams at the restart at Disney have elected to kneel for the playing of the anthems, doing so along the sideline nearest their benches—which also happens to be the one where “Black

Tamayo and Abadiano, once the 1-2 punch of the untouchable National University juniors team, hooked themselves to Diliman on Saturday, joining a UP squad that is already stacked with collegiate stars Kobe Paras, Ricci Rivero and Bright Akhuetie for the University

Lives Matter” has been painted onto the playing surface.

Popovich, who often speaks out on political and racial matters, has been vocal in recent weeks about the opportunity that the platform of the NBA restart at Walt Disney World provides. Television ratings for the first two games Thursday night were massive; Turner Sports, which aired the doubleheader on TNT, said the average of 3.4 million total viewers “more than doubled the network’s average viewership” for regular season games.

Popovich has said these games, and the eyeballs that will be on them, provides “a tremendous opportunity” to spark change. He said the NBA is committed to emphasizing a need for change for the rest of the season, including the playoffs.

“We’re hoping that we can keep everybody’s mind on that,” Popovich said. “A lot of things go on in this country day after day after day.... Things get lost sometimes and we don’t want this to be one of those things.”

Isaac, in his first game since January because of a knee injury, played well. He had 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting in 16 minutes, helping the Magic to a 128-118 victory.

“I don’t think that kneeling or putting on a t-shirt, for me personally, is the answer,” Isaac said.

The NBA has had a rule since the early 1980s saying players must stand for the anthem. But Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday night, when players from New Orleans, Utah, the Los Angeles Lake rs and Los Angeles Clippers all knelt for the anthem, that he was relaxing that policy in these times when a desire for equality and social justice is at the forefront of many conversations in this country.

“Listen, the national anthem means different things to different people,”TNT analyst Charles Barkley said in televised comments Thursday. “I’m glad these guys are all unified. But if people don’t kneel, they’re not a bad person. I want to make that perfectly clear.... He should not be vilified.”

The National Basketball Players Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Isaac’s decision.

Isaac received the Magic’s community service award last year.

He has donated money to feed children affected by the coronavirus pandemic, led a Hurricane Dorian relief effort and has raised money to help organizations promote literacy for children in Central Florida.

“We all sin and the answers to all of the world’s problems, not only racism, is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Isaac said.

Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 83.

The two youngsters are expected to help fill the void left by brothers Juan and Javi Gomez de Liaño, who opted to sit out the postponed Season 83.

“They will really be a big boost for our young team which is again in the process of rebuilding,” Perasol said.

The ex-Bullpups boast of hefty credentials.

The 6-foot-7 big man Tamayo and the 6-foot guard Abadiano were part of NU’s 16-0 run that won them the juniors title in Season 82.

Representing the National Capital Region, the team also bagged the gold medal in the Palarong Pambansa and also bagged back-to-back crowns in the National Basketball Training Center tournament.

Also part of their impressive portfolio were stints in the International Basketball Federation Asia Under-18 Championship and

ELITE CYCLING BACK IN ITALY

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IENA, Italy—Elite cycling and the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour resumed Saturday with the Strade Bianche race in Tuscany following a five-month break due to the coronavirus.

Belgian rider Wout van Aert won the men’s race and Dutch rider Annemiek Van Vleuten was first in the women’s event.

Fans came out in large numbers along the characteristic gravel-road sections of the route although spectators were not allowed at the start or finish areas in Siena as part of social distancing measures.

Van Aert, a three-time cyclo-cross world champion with the Jumbo-Visma team, attacked on the final gravel section and completed the 184-kilometer (114-mile) route in just under five hours. He finished 30 seconds ahead of Davide Formolo of Italy and 32 seconds in front of Maximilian Schachmann of Germany.

“Over the last two editions of Strade Bianche, I gained a lot of confidence. It’s never easy to win and it was harder than usual in today’s circumstances,” said Van Aert, who finished third the last two years. “It makes the win even better. This is proof that I’m at the

SPURS Coach Gregg Popovich and the Magic’s Jonathan Isaac choose not to kneel during the playing of the national anthem. AP

the U19 World Cup in Greece.

“These two talents will help us secure our basketball future,” Uvero said. “We hope they will be model student-athletes in UP.” The Fighting Maroons last won a UAAP men’s title in 1986 behind the fresh off the juniors tournament Benjie Paras and spitfire guards Ronnie Magsanoc and Eric Altamirano.

UP also earlier recruited Ethan Kirkness, Sam Dowd, Anton Eusebio, Alonso Tan and Miguel Tan. Ramon Rafael Bonilla highest level now. To have won Strade Bianche at the age of only 25, with a cyclo-cross background, is a huge achievement.”

Van Vleuten, a three-time world champion with the Mitchelton-Scott team, defended her title in the 136-kilometer (85-mile) women’s race.

She finished 22 seconds ahead of Spanish rider Margarita Victoria García and 1:53 ahead of US rider Leah Thomas.

The Strade Bianche was originally scheduled for March 7.

Several more big races, such as the Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia single-day classics, plus the five-day Critérium du Dauphiné, are scheduled for this month. The Tour de France was moved from August 29 to September 20. AP

CYCLISTS pedal during the “Strade Bianche” race from Siena to Siena in Italy on Saturday. AP

MLB misreads signs Bleachers’ Brew Rick Olivares bleachersbrew@gmail.com

MAJOR League Baseball (MLB) is fending off trouble from so many fronts.

First, because of the fallout from the Covid-19 virus, teams during this shortened season, are playing to empty stadia. We know that gate receipts are a huge source of revenue. The television deals can only do so much.

Second, had it not been for the pandemic, MLB would have to worry about the headhunting for the Houston Astros’ scalps. We saw that in the preseason, and well, it’s here in this shortened season.

And a few days ago, Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly was suspended by MLB for eight matches after throwing dangerous pitches at the Houston Astros’ Alex Bergman and Carlos Correa.

What is shocking is that none of those pitches

by Kelly hit a player—although benches cleared

albeit without any fists thrown—and the fact that he wasn’t thrown out, now he is suspended for eight games. That in my opinion, is way too much. And I am not alone I guess as many MLB players have said their support in their social media.

Now, where is the justice in that incident?

The Astros were caught for their sign stealing that allowed them to win the 2017 World Series (and I certainly have no idea why they didn’t hit them for the 2019 season as well) and they have pretty much admitted to it. MLB shockingly does the wrong thing by not only granting the immunity for coming clean but does not take away the World Series trophy.

MLB has only demonstrated that yes, cheating, gets away.

They have done nothing to protect the

sanctity of the game and worse, they protect the offending team.

And while this is happening, players from the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins tested positive for the Covid-19 putting their games to a halt with the future of this season in doubt.

I really thought it was foolhardy to even start this season. In my opinion, the United States has been the most undisciplined of countries with regards to the handling of the corona virus. People go out without a care in the world. People are upset because of lockdown procedures. And well, there has been all the demonstrations stemming from the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police where people have been unmindful of social distancing.

I get the need to get economies and means of livelihood moving. The lack of a vaccine does place even more people at risk. But I cannot recall such a time when MLB as an organization did not get things right on multiple if not consecutive problems.

A few more cases that pop up here and there, then this season could most likely be over. Then what was this season all about?

The Astros had the signs when they cheated their way to a World Series crown. As for MLB? They have misread it all the way. And that is why they are whiffing. Not even in 90-mph pitches.