BusinessMirror August 08, 2021

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TOKYO OLYMPICS MEDAL COUNT TEAM/NOC

GOLD

SILVER

BRONZE

TOTAL

1

People’s Republic of China

37

28

17

82

2

United States of America

33

36

32

101

3

Japan

24

12

16

52

4

Great Britain

19

20

20

59

5

Russian Olympic Committee

17

24

22

63

6

Australia

17

6

21

44

7

Germany

10

11

16

37

8

Italy

10

10

18

38

9

Netherlands

9

10

12

31

10

France

7

12

9

28

47

Philippines

1

2

1

4

SOURCE: OLYMPICS.COM | AS OF AUGUST 7, 2021 3:21 PM

RANK

Paalam: Silver medal ‘a symbol of my life’ By Jun Lomibao

T

OKYO—A much-anticipated second gold medal came in the form of a silver as Carlo Paalam yielded to Great Britain’s Galal Yafai in the men’s flyweight final of boxing at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, but his settling for silver was made up for by the historic overall four-medal haul: the biggest ever since the Philippines participated in the Olympics. The 28-year-old Yafai was the superior boxer in the fight, imposing the experience he reaped from years of fighting in tournaments in Europe and all over the world. In the end, the 23-year-old first-time Olympian Paalam took some beating and was almost floored midway the second round. But for Paalam, the silver medal meant more than athletic excellence. “Itong medal na ito ay simbolo po ng buhay ko,” he told Filipino reporters,

tears rolling down his face. “Isa akong mangangalakal…itong medalya ay gawa sa mga sirang gadget. Sa basura siya galing, kaya nai-connect ko po siya sa buhay ko [This medal is a symbol of my life. I was a scavenger…this medal was made from recycled gadgets. It came from trash, so I can connect it to my life].” Paalam was 10 when he moved from his native Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro City in search of a job. He ended up a mangangalakal, or scavenger, until one day, he joined a local boxing tournament and the rest was history, so to speak. Despite Paalam’s silver, the Philippines’s four-medal-haul performance in Tokyo stood as the best ever, thanks to Hidilyn Diaz’s conquest in women’s -55 kgs of weightlifting. Paalam’s silver was the second for the Philippines—and in boxing—after Nesthy Petecio in women’s featherweight. Middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial settled for a bronze also in boxing.

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A broader look at today’s business n

Sunday, August 8, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 298

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 12 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

BUBBLES, JABS AND JOBS Pandemic safety helps bring about Subic’s P1.66-B midyear income

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma sees to it that Subic seizes new opportunities under the new normal.

S

By Henry Empeño

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—Business is bouncing back in the Subic Bay Freeport, with most of 2021 first-semester revenue and other key indicators either eclipsing 2020 figures and easing toward prepandemic levels, or in some areas like export and import performance, even topping 2019 records. PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.0120

In a report to the Office of the President on July 15, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the Subic agency “capped its 2021 first-semester performance with major accomplishments in its key measures,” even when a few areas remain impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The general trend is upward where the SBMA was able to accelerate growth and surpass its performances in the previous year,” Eisma added in the SBMA midyear performance report.

She said among the measures showing positive growth from January to July 2021 were operating revenue, port operations, employment, business registration, and import and export performance. Meanwhile, tourism income, noncontainerized cargo volume, and committed investments were those that have yet to pick up, Eisma added.

Fast recovery

FOR the first semester, SBMA recorded an operating revenue of P1.66 billion, a slight increase over

the P1.53 billion in the first six months of 2020. Eisma said that while this was still short by P226 million, or 11.96 percent, from the prepandemic record of P1.88 billion in 2019, “it still shows how fast Subic is able to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 health crisis and the resulting global economic slowdown.” Much of SBMA’s revenue growth in the first half was boosted by a P718-million collection from leases of land, facilities and other real-estate assets, followed by P685 million from port opera-

tions. A P189-million income taken from regulatory fees, as well as P69 million from miscellaneous sources, sealed Subic’s remarkable growth this year. Likewise, SBMA figures showed port revenue reaching P645.8 million in the first semester—17 percent higher than last year’s figures. The upsurge came mainly from a 14-percent increase in containerized cargo volume at the Subic seaport, which rose from 107,740 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2020 to 122,862 Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4557 n UK 69.6717 n HK 6.4313 n CHINA 7.7406 n SINGAPORE 37.0240 n AUSTRALIA 37.0289 n EU 59.1992 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.3362

Source: BSP (August 6, 2021)


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