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A broader look at today’s business n Friday, August 9, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 303

Anemic growth leads BSP to cut policy rates

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

AME inflation and tepid GDP growth in the Aprilto-June period pushed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to cut key interest rates for the second time this year. BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno announced on Thursday the decision of the Monetary Board to cut the interest rate on the BSP’s overnight reverse repurchase (RRP) facility by 25 basis points (bps) to 4.25 percent. The interest rates on

the overnight deposit and lending facilities were slashed to 3.75 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively. “The Monetary Board’s decision is based on its assessment that price pressures have continued to ease since the previous meeting,”

Diokno said in his statement. “On balance, therefore, the Monetary Board believes that the benign inflation outlook provides room for a further reduction in the policy rate as a preemptive move against the risks associated with weakening

25 bps

The extent by which the Monetary Board slashed the interest rate on the BSP’s overnight reverse repurchase (RRP) facility, to 4.25 percent. Interest rates on the overnight deposit and lending facilities were slashed to 3.75 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively global growth,” he added. Their decision came on the heels of the government’s announcement that GDP growth in the second quarter hit 5.5 percent, lower than its target and analysts’ expectations. This came mostly from the Continued on A2

@caiordinario

HE government will have difficulties attaining its goal of halving poverty incidence by 2022 if economic performance will remain anemic for the next three years, local economists said on Thursday. Local economists made the statement after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that GDP growth for the second quarter reached 5.5 percent, lower than government’s target and analysts’ expectations. The figure is the lowest in 17 years, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda). It is also slower than last year’s 6.2 percent and the 5.6 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2019. “Weaker growth means less

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n

poverty reduction because poverty reduction is positively correlated with higher growth,” private economist Calixto V. Chikiamco told the BusinessMirror in an interview. “[While there are] no precise statistics, [slower growth] means that the government’s target of halving poverty rate within the Duterte administration is not going to be met,” Chikiamco added. Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) lead economist Emilio S. Neri Jr. said the weak GDP data caused by the dismal performance of agriculture and the construction sector likely slashed the incomes of Filipino laborers. Based on PSA data, Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishery grew by only 0.6 percent in the second quarter while construction contracted 0.6 percent. See “Growth,” A2

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BEIJING’S CRACKDOWN ON OFFSHORE GAMBLING TO HURT PHL OPERATORS By Jinshan Hong Bloomberg

HINA is stepping up a crackdown on gambling activity by its citizens offshore, threatening what has become a lucrative industry for gaming operators in places like the Philippines. China’s embassy in Manila put out a strongly worded statement Thursday, saying that its citizens are being targeted by casinos in the Southeast Asian nation, and that hundreds of millions of yuan are flowing illegally out of its borders to the region. The statement, which said all forms of gambling by Chinese people in overseas casinos are illegal, follows a run of Chinese state media coverage critical of Internet and phone gambling over the past month. In a Xinhua story July 12, China’s minister for public security, Zhao Kezhi, said it was necessary

‘Weak growth to stall govt poverty reduction efforts’ By Cai U. Ordinario

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to crack down on the “cross-border online gambling problem”because of public concern. The gaming regulator in Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal, has also forbid junket operators licensed there from using the territory as a settling platform for gambling services provided elsewhere, according to people familiar with the matter. “A conservative estimate shows that gambling-related funds flowing illegally out of China and into the Philippines amounts to hundreds of millions of yuan every year,” said the Chinese embassy statement. “There are analysts who believe that part of the illegal gambling funds has flown into local real estate markets and other sectors in the Philippines.” Online and phone betting in Southeast Asian countries by Chinese punters many miles away has See “Gambling,” A2

DOT courts diplomatic row for support in UNWTO bid By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

T A DECADE OLD Resorts World Manila (RWM) launched its 10th anniversary celebration on Thursday. RWM Director for Corporate Communications Joee Guilas tipped off the launch of the anniversary celebration with the question, “what can happen in 10 years?” Guilas said that within a decade, an infant could grow into a big child, alluding to how the property trailblazed the integrated resorts segment. Since opening on August 28, 2009, RWM now has the most number of hospitality brands and room keys in a single complex in the country. Also part of the launch was the unveiling of plans for the RWM Charity Race 2019, “Run With Me X,” to be held on August 25. Offering a toast at the launch are (from left) Boy Beloso, RWM Director for Hotel Operations, Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport City; Ana Vergara, GM of Sheraton Manila Hotel; Bruce Winton, GM of Marriott Hotel Manila; RWM President and CEO Kingson Sian; Alliance Global CEO Kevin Tan; RWM Chief Gaming Officer Hakan Dagtas; Simon McGrath, GM of Hilton Manila; Jan Marshall, GM of Hotel Okura Manila; and Rey Fabricante Area Director of Operations for Savoy Hotel Manila and Belmont Hotel Manila. ROY DOMINGO

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) has reached out to the diplomatic corps in Manila, appealing for their respective countries’ support in its bid to host the 24th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly in 2021. Some 57 dignitaries from 45 embassies attended Wednesday’s lunch hosted by the DOT at the historic Marble Hall of the Ayuntamiento de Manila in Intramuros. Those who joined the lunch represented member-states of the United Nations World Tourism Organization

US 52.1860 n JAPAN 0.4911 n UK 63.3747 n HK 6.6558 n CHINA 7.3922 n SINGAPORE 37.7530 n AUSTRALIA 35.2516 n EU 58.4535 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.9137

See “DOT,” A6

Source: BSP (8 August 2019 )

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A2 Friday, August 9, 2019

Govt nets ₧4.70 for every ₧1 of fiscal incentive–DTI By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

NCENTIVES granted to investors are not wasted as the government earns P4.70 for every P1 it gives away via tax breaks and exemptions, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Thursday. Trade Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said incentives are crucial in attracting capital into the Philippines. They are important, he argued, in compensating for the country’s inefficiencies in terms of infrastructure, labor cost and resource availability, among others. “Not all incentives are wasted, not all incentives are bad. Incentives are able to attract investments into the country, which would not have come in, considering the advantages of other countries in terms of infrastructure, cost efficiencies, labor costs or resource availability. Incentives can help compensate for the disadvantages in locating in our country,” Rodolfo said in a statement. Citing Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (Timta) data from 2015 to 2017, Rodolfo said the 10 largest economic zone firms paid a total of P45.3 billion in taxes. Tax perks availed of by locators amounted to P45.1 billion, resulting in a net revenue of P200

million for the government. Further, their exports—accounting for 22 percent of the country’s total shipments during the period—reached $40.7 billion, their purchases from local suppliers totaled P110.1 billion and jobs they generated averaged 165,300 yearly.

BOI perks

IN terms of incentives granted by the Board of Investments, firms enjoying tax holidays contribute revenue to the government through payment of other taxes at a ratio of P4.70 to P1. In 2017, total incentives provided by the BOI was P27 billion, but total taxes paid by investing firms was P128 billion. BOI incentives are also time bound, as firms can only enjoy tax break for a period of four years, resulting in zero foregone revenue, Rodolfo said. “Incentives do not all result in leakages. They definitely result in investments, job creation, expan-

₧200M

The net revenue of government after the 10 largest economic zone firms paid a total of P45.3 billion in taxes, while availing themselves of tax perks amounting to P45.1 billion sion of domestic capacities and net positive revenues to the government. Let us manage the transition period better,” the trade official said. “We are for the tax reform proposal, especially in making the incentives time bound, but we have to carefully manage the transition, and not rush the cutting of incentives, such as the 5 percent GIE [gross income earned] that we promised to the Peza [Philippine Economic Zone Authority] locators,” he added. Rodolfo said affected locator exporters have expressed concern that the change in the system may compel them to redirect their expansion plans elsewhere and even risk the possible transfer of their current operations to other countries. As a compromise, Rodolfo and the DTI are pushing for a transition period of up to 10 years in relinquishing the existing tax perks enjoyed by economic zone locators. For the meantime, the GIE can be increased to 8 percent to transmit

additional revenue to state coffers that will balance the proposed reduction of corporate income tax (CIT).

Peza: P10 trillion in economy

IN a separate statement, the Peza reported firms registered with it poured in P10.05 trillion to the economy between 2015 and 2017. This amount includes investments, exports, salaries and wages, taxes, local purchases, among others, according to Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza. Investment officials issued the statements following a report by the Department of Finance on Tuesday that the government gave away an estimated P1.12 trillion in tax breaks and incentives to about 3,150 firms from 2015 to 2017. The Peza reportedly accounted for the lion’s share of about P879.1 billion, or 78 percent of the three-year total. Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said “this is a truly massive amount,” as it was apparently over twice the running budget of the public-works agency. He argued this is reason enough to rationalize the government’s menu of incentives, as this will only enlarge the reported losses resulting from giving away tax perks. Under the second tax reform program, the government will reduce CIT down to 20 percent by 2029, from 30 percent at present, but will overhaul incentives in exchange.

Anemic growth leads BSP to cut policy rates lingering effects of the government’s failure to pass the 2019 budget bill on time. Diokno—a known pro-growth BSP governor—expressed optimism that the GDP data will improve in the second quarter of the year. “Domestically, the outlook for growth continues to be firm on the back of a projected recovery in household spending and the accelerated implementation of the government’s infrastructure spending program, after the delay in expenditures due to the legislative impasse in the approval of the budget in January to April 2019,” he said. In his earlier statements, Diokno said accommodation will depend, in part, on how strongly the Philippines’s growth drivers “kick into higher gear.” “More than the notable statis-

Gambling. . . Continued from A1

exploded in the last few years and is transforming the developing cities. In the Philippines alone, more than 50 offshore gambling companies have received permits to operate, hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers have surged into Manila to staff the industry, and property prices near gaming sites are booming. Revenue from the offshore gaming industry is projected to reach up to P9 billion ($172 million) this year, according to the Philippines gaming regulator.

Macau affected BUT the flow of Chinese gambling to Southeast Asia has meant slowing growth in Macau, the Beijing-controlled enclave that’s the world’s biggest gambling hub. A desertion by high rollers in particular—which account for 55 percent of Macau’s $40 billion in annual revenue—has put pressure on casino operators there and forced them to widen their appeal by build-

tics, for us in the BSP, the bottom line is always the Filipino people. And for this reason, we are progrowth. Remember the maxim: A rising tide lifts all boats. An improved economy should benefit all, and so the government economic policy should focus on broad economic efforts,” he said.

Inflation outlook

THE BSP also revised its inflation forecast and adjusted it downward for this year and the next. For this year, inflation is expected to hit 2.6 percent, lower than the 2.7 percent announced by the BSP in June. For 2020, the projection was also scaled down to 2.9 percent from the 3 percent announced in June. For 2021, the rate is expected to settle at an average of 2.9 percent. All are within the government’s 2 to 4 percent target range.

ing theme parks and concert halls for middle-class tourists. There are signs that the offshore services are penetrating more deeply into China’s population than expected. Some online gaming web sites offer punters wagers as low as 10 yuan and have round-the-clock live streams, making them easily accessible by lower-income Chinese in rural areas, who do not have the means to go to Macau or other ways of scratching the gambling itch. The Chinese Embassy statement said that the rise of online gambling has resulted in an increase in crimes and social problems in China, and that in connection with telecom fraud has “caused huge losses to the victims and their families.”

Money laundering OFFSHORE gaming is divided into two main categories. In online gambling, small-time bettors gather at cyber tables that can accommodate 500 gamblers at a time. Then there is proxy betting, its richer, better-dressed cousin, where high rollers communicate with staffers wearing headsets at baccarat

The BSP also said risks to the forecasts in 2019 and 2020 are broadly balanced, but is slightly skewed to the downside in 2021 on projections of weaker global growth.

More cuts seen

ANALYSTS had projected that the BSP would cut interest rates by 50 bps due to expectations that second- quarter GDP growth will fall below the government’s target. Asked why the move was not as aggressive as some expected, BSP Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila explained that Monetary Board officials project economic performance to be better in the second half. Dakila also said the BSP is confident that the government’s target of growing GDP by 6 to 7 percent this year is still “achievable.” In a reaction note following the

tables in offshore casinos. Proxy betting now accounts for 40 percent of the $1-billion VIP gaming market in the Philippines, according to brokerage CICC. The ban on junkets using Macau as a settling platform for overseas gambling services kicked in from August 1, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the order has not been made public. Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau declined to comment on the directive sent to junket operators. Junkets and Macau-based casinos with operations in Southeast Asia are already starting to halt proxy betting and video gaming services. Concern over the crackdown has hit Macau casino stocks, with a Bloomberg Intelligence index of the biggest companies down 15 percent since the first critical media reports were published on July 8. Suncity Group— the world’s biggest junket operator, which works with almost all Macau-based casino operators —ended proxy betting activities last month, said Maggie Tang, a spokesman for the company. The halt reduced the amount of in-

Continued from A1

announcement, ING Bank Manila economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa said they expect the BSP to cut policy rates again by 25 basis points at the September meeting, given previous comments from Diokno pointing to a total of 50 bps worth of rate cuts before the end of the year. “Furthermore, we expect the BSP to reduce reserve ratio requirements [RRR] further in the fourth quarter after it completes its 2019 rate cut cycle to help infuse fresh liquidity into the market,” Mapa said. “With BSP’s recent string of easing and government spending back online in second half, the Philippines will look to finish the year strong with growth fueled by all sectors of the economy to get growth above 6 percent by year end,” he added.

coming bets, which total about $230 billion annually, by around 10 percent, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public. Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd., one of Macau’s biggest gaming operators, asked its junket partners to stop all proxy betting at its Manila resort last month on concern it could face reprisals in Macau, according to people familiar with the move. The regulator is set to renew casino licenses in the territory next year, for the first time in two decades. Proxy betting is a channel for money laundering, according to a 2017 US government report, because the practice allows players to conceal their identities. Some Philippine lawmakers want casinos to be placed on a list of institutions monitored for money laundering due to high profile incidents, like a 2016 heist of $81 million from Bangladesh’s foreign reserves, which were routed through a Philippine casino, a junket operator and a gaming-room promoter. With assistance from Ian Sayson,

Andreo Calonzo and Claire Jiao.

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DENR hails SC order to fine water firms, but Manila Water says it may file MR

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has hailed the Supreme Court ruling holding the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and its two private-water concessionaires accountable for failing to comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9275 or the Clean Water Act of 2004. However, one of the two concessionaires, Manila Water Co., insisted it had complied with its commitments to provide sewage facilities besides the clean water supply, and added it will seek a reconsideration from the high court. In a statement welcoming the decision, DENR Undersecretary for solid waste management Benny Antiporda said Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu believes the favorable ruling will boost government efforts to rehabilitate Manila Bay. “Secretary Cimatu extends his gratitude to the Supreme Court for this landmark decision that augurs well for the ‘Battle for Manila Bay’s as well as other environmental rehabilitation programs

Growth. . .

Continued from A1

Construction is the only industry that registered a decline in performance during the period. This was due to the 27.2-percent contraction in public construction. “We are growing below our potential largely due to a contractionary fiscal and monetary policy mix. Contraction in agriculture and construction activity most likely led to lower incomes for a good part of [the] labor force, and caused poverty rates to stall at best,” Neri said. Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development (Acerd) Director Alvin P. Ang said higher poverty rates are “inevitable” if the current growth trend will linger. He said this could affect not only the poor in the farm sector but also the “near-poor” Filipinos regardless of their source of livelihood. Among all major economic sectors, PSA data indicated that Services recorded the fastest growth at 7.1 percent, while Industry expanded by 3.7 percent. Neda Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon said GDP expansion in the first and second quarters would have been higher by 1 percentage point if the budget impasse and “other hiccups” did not happen. However, Edillon expressed confidence that a delay in the passage of the proposed 2020 General Appropriations Act is less likely as lawmakers have seen the impact of a delay on the economy. Pernia said approving the budget on time is vital to implement more flagship projects. To date, only 11 of the 75 big-ticket public infrastructure projects are undergoing construction.

‘Better numbers’

ANG expects better growth data in the last two quarters. While the GDP expansion may not be that “dramatic,” it may help prevent more Filipinos from falling into poverty. Like Ang, UnionBank Chief Economist Ruben Asuncion said he remains upbeat about the second half of the year. “The slowdown in economic growth was undeniably related to the delayed passage of the 2019 national budget. Thus, if government spending can be fast-tracked and jobs can be generated as planned, then, poverty alleviation will not be derailed,” Asuncion said. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa expressed confidence that the economy will grow faster the rest of the year and prevent more

of the government,” Antiporda said. “We are looking forward to more people in the justice system extending their support for our fight to preserve and save the environment,” says Antiporda. At the same time, Antiporda expressed hope the high court decision would serve as “a wake-up call to big firms that they should pay serious attention and comply with our environmental laws.” On Thursday, Manila Water said it has not received an official copy of the Supreme Court decision to-date. “We are prepared to exercise all our legal options, including filing for a Motion for Reconsideration, within the prescribed time mandated by the law on receipt of the said order.” As part of its mandate as a concessionaire, Manila Water said in a statement sent to media offices that it had “invested more than P33 billion for the past 21 years and will continue to invest P38.4 billion more until 2022 as part of the government-approved. See “DENR,” A12

Filipinos from falling into poverty. Pernia expects GDP to hit 6 percent to 6.5 percent by yearend. This means that economic growth will have to average 6.4 percent in the second semester to meet the low end of the government’s target. Mapa said a 6-percent hike is “feasible” and will help the government attain its medium-term poverty targets. “I think the poverty target is still on track. But of course we have to wait for the official 2018 [data] this October so we can set the direction, moving forward to 2022,” Mapa said on the sidelines of a news briefing on Thursday. Pernia said efforts to achieve higher growth and keep poverty at bay are underway, particularly the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) law. “We will take all these things into account because we are still updating. I think the implementation of the family planning program is crucial in this undertaking,” he said.

Moving forward

BEYOND the full implementation of the RPRH law, economists urged the government’s policy-makers to also practice introspection when implementing policies. While it is true that the budget delay affected the government’s ability to finance its projects, challenges remain when it comes to absorptive capacity, according to Ang. When the 2019 budget was finally approved and signed by the President in April, Ang said agencies may not have been able to absorb the surge in funds, as reflected in the latest public construction figures. He said he remains hopeful that efforts to improve absorptive capacity are underway and would lead to better public construction data in the succeeding quarters. Chikiamco noted that the government’s decision to rely on loans for its infrastructure push caused the lackluster performance of public construction. He said relying on Official Development Assistance (ODA) could lead to slower project implementation. A side f rom inf rastr uct ure spending, Chikiamco said government should consider implementing initiatives that will improve the country’s external trade performance, as more exports mean more jobs. He also said Congress must pass the proposed Public Service Act and urged the Department of Finance to find a compromise on the Trabaho (Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities) bill, particularly the 5-percent tax on gross income earned (GIE).

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Poll official: Duterte Youth party runs risk of losing accreditation By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

N official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the entire Duterte Youth Party-list group is now at risk of suffering a similar fate to its embattled first nominee, former National Youth Commission head Ronald Cardema. Comelec Commissioner Rowena V. Guanzon said the party could have its Comelec accreditation revoked if it will be proven it collaborated with Cardema’s alleged misrepresentation in his Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance (CONA) for the 2019 midterm polls. The poll official, however, said the party must raise this issue before the Comelec en banc before it could consider this possibility. “We will not do that motu propio,” Guanzon said. As of Wednesday, Comelec said, it has yet to receive any petition for the cancellation of accreditation of Duterte Youth, which is being chaired by Cardema. “The party-list group, Duterte Youth, is still a validly registered party-list group,” Guanzon said. Despite winning a seat in the House of Representatives during the May 13 midterm polls, Duterte Youth was not issued a certificate of proclamation by Comelec pending the disqualification case of Cardema. Last Monday, the Comelec First Division disqualified Cardema for being “too old” to represent Duterte Youth. The decision, however, could still be appealed by Cardema’s camp before Comelec en banc and the Supreme Court.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, August 9, 2019 A3

Maguindanao massacre decision out in November–DOJ chief

By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE long wait for justice for the families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre is expected to be over soon after the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City wrapped up its trial on the multiple murder case involving 197 accused led by principal accused former Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Andal Ampatuan and his brother, former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan.

This was disclosed by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra who told reporters that a judgment on the case is expected to be out before the 10th year commemoration of the gruesome crime, which claimed the lives of 32 journalists. The journalists joined the convoy of then-Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael “ Toto” Mangudadatu when he filed his candidacy for governor against

Andal Ampatuan Jr. Their convoy was stopped before reaching their destination by more than a hundred armed men who abducted and massacred the victims. Their bodies were found in a mass grave in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao. Guevarra said the trial of the case was completed on July 17, 2019, and that the parties were given until August 15, 2019, to submit their respective

“After which, the case shall be considered for decision. With or without the memoranda of the parties, the DOJ expects that a judgment will be rendered before the 10th anniversary of the infamous massacre on November 23, 2019, and that justice will finally be served.” —Guevarra

memorandum, or written summation. “A fter which, the case sha l l be con sidered for dec i sion. W it h or w ithout the memoranda of the parties, the DOJ ex pects that a judgment w i l l be rendered before the 10th anniversar y of the infamous massacre on November 23, 2019, and that justice w il l fina l ly be ser ved,” Guevar ra said. The Maguindanao massacre case involves 58 victims, 197 accused with 111 of them already arrested and arraigned, 147 prosecution witnesses and 300 defense witnesses. Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes is the judge handling the case.

Palace declares Monday, Aug. 12, regular holiday in observance of Eid’l Adha By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

ORKERS are set to enjoy a long weekend after President Duterte on Thursday declared August 12, Monday, a regular holiday in observance of Eid’l Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice. Upon the recommendation of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, President Duterte decided to declare August 12 as a national holiday, according to the copy of Proclamation 789 released to reporters on Thursday, August 8. “The Office of the President hopes that with such declaration, our Muslim brothers and sisters can properly observe and enjoy the Feast of Sacrifice with their loved ones,” said Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo in a statement. For those who will work on regular holidays, employees shall be paid 200 percent of his or her regular salary for that day for the first eight hours ([daily rate + cost-of-living allowance] x 200 percent). Meanwhile, those employees who worked in excess of eight hours (overtime work), he or she shall be paid an additional 30 percent of his or her hourly rate on said day (hourly rate of the basic daily wage x 200 percent x number of hours worked); For work done during a regular holiday that also falls on his or her rest day, he or she shall be paid an additional 30 percent of his/her daily rate of 200 percent ([daily rate + Cola] x 200 percent) + (30 percent [daily rate x 200 percent]); and If the employee did not work, he or she shall be paid 100 percent of his or her salary for that day ([daily rate + Cola] x 100 percent).

A4 Friday, August 9, 2019 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

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SC affirms decision on bidding of PSAs By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court has affirmed with finality its May 3, 2019, decision directing the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to conduct a competitive selection process (CSP) on all power-supply agreements (PSAs) submitted by distribution utilities on or after June 30, 2015. The decision was reached by the High Court during its en banc session last Tuesday, according to SC Public Information Office chief and Spokesman Brian Hokasa. In a two-page resolution, the Court denied the motions for reconsiderations filed by the Office of the

Solicitor General (OSG) on behalf of the ERC and the counsel for respondent Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) for their failure to raise new arguments that would warrant the reversal of its decision. “Acting on the following motions for reconsideration of the decision

dated May 3, 2019, the Court resolved, by the same vote and with Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting joining the majority, to deny with finality the said motions for reconsideration as the basic issues raised therein have been passed upon by this Court and no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision,” the Court ruled. In its May 3, 2019, decision, the Court held that the ERC committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack, or excess of jurisdiction, when it unilaterally postponed the effectivity of the CSP requirement by issuing ERC Resolution 13 and ERC Resolution 1. The CSP rules require power distributors to get at least two offers for supply of electricity before awarding a PSA, ensuring the least cost for electricity consumers. The Court pointed out that the authority of the ERC was limited

only to the implementation of the CSP, and that the ERC had no power and authority to postpone the CSP’s application. As a consequence of the SC ruling, all PSA applications submitted by the distribution utilities (DU) on or after June 30, 2015, were required to comply with the CSP in accordance with a circular issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2015. The 2015 DOE Circular, which became effective on June 30, 2015, mandated all DUs to undergo CSP in securing PSAs. In the same ruling, the SC ordered that the power purchase cost after compliance with the CSP shall retroact to the date of the effectivity of the PSA, “but in no case earlier than June 30, 2015, for purposes of passing the purchase cost to the consumers.” The case stemmed from the petit ion f i led by t he A lyan-

sa Para Sa Bagong Pilipinas along with intervenor Bayan Muna seeking to nullify the assailed resolutions of the ERC. They claimed that the intention for the issuance of the assailed ERC resolutions is to give more time to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and respondent generation companies and other players to enter into self-negotiated PSAs in violation of the CSP policy. They alleged that by extending the CSP deadline from November 2015 to April 2016, the ERC allowed Meralco to enter into seven PSAs with its affiliated powergenerating companies, tying up 3,551 megawatts, or 90 percent of its supply, to 20-year contracts that would cost consumers P12.44 billion a year. The implementation of the 2015 DOE Circular was set aside after the ERC on October 20, 2015, issued Resolution 13, which stated that

pending the issuance by the ERC of a prescribed CSP, a DU may adopt any accepted form of CSP, subject to certain minimum requirements or standards to be incorporated in the terms of reference. It also allowed direct negotiation after at least two failed CSPs and set the cut-off date for the compliance of the CSP requirement to November 7, 2015, instead June 30, 2015, effectively postponing the implementation of the DOE circular. However, on March 15, 2016, the ERC issued Resolution 1, which restated that the effectivity of the CSP requirement for PSAs is on April 30, 2016, instead of November 7, 2015, as previously set in ERC Resolution 13. With the issuance of ERC Resolution 13 and ERC Resolution 1, the implementation of the CSP under the 2015 DOE Circular was effectively postponed for total of 305 days, from June 30, 2015, to April 29, 2016.

Lift pork-import ban, Germany tells Philippines DOF pushes for revision Renewable of land valuation system energy cost seen going By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

ERLIN is urging Manila to immediately lift its import ban on German meat after the European state imposed preventive measures to avoid comingling of shipments to the Philippines in the future. In his letter to Agriculture Assistant Secretary Enrico P. Garzon Jr., Germany’s Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Dietrich Rassow detailed Berlin’s interventions following the comingling incident of Polish pork with legitimate German meat imports last month. In his letter, Rassow said the mixing of 26 boxes of Polish pig meat (flatbones) with German meat shipments bound for Philippines was caused by a human error. Polish pork has been banned from entering the country to prevent intrusion of the African swine fever virus (ASF) since Poland has been struck by the deadly hog disease. Rassow explained that the Polish pork meat were mistakenly loaded into the German shipment bound for Philippines and were not discovered due to indistinguishable packaging. Meat shipments are prepared in pallets which are covered in opaque foil before being loaded in containers, he added. “Because of a human error in the company, the respective 26 boxes of Polish pig meat [flatbones] were incorrectly loaded onto the cutting fat pallets the day before, which was not visible from the outside,” Rassow said in his letter dated July 23, a copy of which was obtained

by the BusinessMirror. The human error made by Pro Food GmbH’s (ProFood) employees led to the suspension of the system accreditation of all Germany-based foreign meat establishments (FMEs) to export meat to the Philippines last month.

Preventive measures

RASSOW said Germany and the company had undertaken preventive measures to avoid repeating the breach of protocol in the future. Among these measures is the installation of a bar-code system wherein every package unit would be stamped with a bar code that would be scanned prior to loading into pallets. “The bar-code scanner will display an error message when an incorrect article has been scanned and an acoustic will be emitted as well,” Rassow said. Rassow added that they would also replace that opaque foil covers of the pallets with transparent ones for easier human monitoring. Additional cameras would also be installed. Germany has also ordered “an intensified surveillance of the loading of pig meat intended for export” at ProFood. Germany would now also certify through the veterinary certificates that their meat exports to the Philippines are sourced from countries that are approved for export. The veterinary certificates would now contain the following label: The meat exclusively comes from countries that are approved for export to the Republic of the Philippines.

Due to these “comprehensive” measures, Rassow asked the Department of Agriculture (DA) to lift the import ban on Germany. “In particular, I would like to kindly request that you immediately lift the import ban on products such as poultry meat, since this ban does not constitute a protective measure against African swine fever infections,” he said. Sought for comment, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), an attached agency of DA, said the accreditation review board (ARB) would still review Germany’s measures before making a decision on the import ban. If Germany wants to regain its export accreditation and resume trade with Manila, BAI OIC-Director Ronnie Domingo said it has to prove that it has improved its quarantine system. “German authorities should be able to convince the Philippine authorities that they have effective measures in place to avoid repeating the same problem,” he told the BusinessMirror via SMS last month. In a verbal note sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Manila said it is open to meet with DA officials to discuss and resolve the issue immediately. “The embassy offers its availability for a meeting with the Department of Agriculture regarding this matter if the need arises,” the document read. The Philippines purchased over 88 million kilograms of meat products from Germany last year, making it the second-biggest source of imported meat, BAI data showed.

Customs seizes smuggled agri produce worth ₧24M By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

HE Bureau of Customs-Manila International Container Port (BOC-MICP) has seized five shipments of agricultural commodities from China estimated to be worth P24 million as the government intensified anew its antismuggling operations. In a news statement issued on

Thursday, the BOC said that the five shipments arrived at the MICP last month with corresponding alert orders after examinations conducted by BOC officers revealed that there are discrepancies in the weight and declared value of the shipments. After the inspection, it was found that the shipments were declared as apples, oranges and pears, along

with carrots, onions and potatoes. Four of the five shipments were consigned to Ingredient Management Asia Inc., and one to Mcrey International Trading. “The brokers on file for Mcrey’s shipment is Ronilo Barcellano, for Ingredient Management is Anthony Sandique,” the MICP said. The seized carrots were estimated to be worth P15 million, the onions at P4 million, and the potatoes valued at P5 million. The seized goods will be condemned by the BOC since these were not covered by a ny Phy tosa n it a r y per m it from the Bureau of Pl a nt Q u a r antine. Agricultural items not covered by these permits may carry plant diseases and pests that can affect the local agriculture.

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

HE Department of Finance (DOF) is pushing to simplify the country’s cluttered land valuation system to minimize delays in the implementation of government infrastructure projects. Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua blamed numerous land valuation system, which differ for each local government units (LGU), for the slow implementation of some government construction projects. “This becomes a problem for the government, whenever it faces a right-of-way issue [for its construction projects],” Chua said during a media forum in Manila on Wednesday. “This usually reaches the courts, where it could take 10 years [top be resolved]. So we really have to fix the valuation system to fast-track our infrastructure projects,” he added. The passage of the National Valuation Bill is currently among the four revenue generating legislation now pending in Congress.

Political will

ALBAY Second District Rep. Joey Salceda, however, said out of the four legislative measures, the National Valuation Bill may be the hardest to pass into law since it may also lead to the much-needed review of the Local Government Code (LGC). “Definitely, we need a national consensus and maybe the President’s huge political capital would probably be brought to bare on this one be-

cause it is a new view,” Salceda said. The lawmaker said the bill will also raise government revenues by increasing land valuations for tax purposes. “Thirty years since the Local Government Code was created, many LGUs have yet to adjust the valuation of their lands because they are afraid of powerful land owners,” Salceda said.

Cost cutting

SALCEDA said the review of the LGC will give the government the opportunity to change the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of LGUs. The chairman of House Committee on Ways and Means said the review is crucial now more than ever, especially after the Supreme Court issued its Mandanas ruling last year that IRA should be computed base on national taxes, instead of just from the national internal revenue taxes. Salceda said the national government may not afford to lose 40 percent of its total revenue to IRA, especially amid its planned big-ticket infrastructure projects. “Definitely the national projects promoting public goods will have to be sacrificed or compromised [with the implementation of the said ruling],” Salceda said. “The only way to adjust to it is to change the law,” he added. Salceda proposed reducing if not totally removing IRAs for highly urbanized centers like Metro Manila, or basing IRA allocation on poverty incidents instead of the usual criteria of landmass and population.

Naia luggage weighing scales tell the right weight, Miaa chief says By Recto Mercene @rectomercene

ANILA International Airport Authority (Miaa) General Manager Ed Monreal has assured the public that weighing scales at the check-in counters in all four Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminals are checked daily and calibrated periodically before the first morning flight everyday. “Recurring social-media posts portraying that check-in weighing scales are inaccurate is highly irresponsible,” the airport chief said. Monreal explained that the weighing scales are inspected and tested daily using test weights. “These same scales are calibrated every six months by a third-party calibration center duly accredited by the Industrial Technology Development Institute of the Department of Science and

Technology,” he added. According to the airport chief, some airlines still deploy their own weighing scales at check-in areas, possibly giving rise to claims of passengers getting conflicting baggage weight results. “I have ordered the airport terminal managers and the head of our Quality Management System (QMS) to direct airlines to see to it that their weighing scales are inspected, tested and calibrated regularly pursuant to and in compliance with international standards,” Monreal said. The former Cathay Pacific country manager revealed that the weighing scale inspection process is enrolled as a service excellence standard in the Miaa ISO-QMS. Preventive maintenance and inspection records are kept as reference for internal and external ISO surveillance and certification audits, Monreal added.

down in 2 yrs By Ashley Manabat Correspondent

LARK FREEPORT—In two years time, renewable energy (RE) will reach its tipping point because its cost would have gone down significantly. This was the forecast of Tito Maglaqui, managing director of AlphaSolar, as he assessed the future of solar power as a source of alternative energy in this free port. Maglaqui, in a forum organized by the Capampangan in Media Inc. (CAMI), in cooperation with the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) at the Bale Balita here recently said, “as new technology is evolving, batteries will be more commercially available and affordable.” He added that “when that time comes and when solar panel prices are going down to a very affordable level, that will be the tipping point.” “Before it costs too much. But now almost 80 percent of the cost from 2011 has been discounted. The price has nose dive to 80 percent. Now it’s a matter of adaptation in technology,” he said. Even ordinary households would want solar power at that time, he said. Maglaqui said solar power started here in 2011. “It was very difficult to market solar power back then,” he recalled. Maglaqui said the 22-megawatt solar farm in Panday Pira here was started under his tutelage as managing consultant. “That started under my tutelage from planning, to project finance and then to design and construction,” he said. “But it only feeds solar power to the grid,” he added. As of now, Maglaqui said, locator firms here can save up to 38 percent in their power consumption with renewable energy. But he added the installation of solar panels and batteries are still more than the expected cost in terms of affordability. Maglaqui said the average Filipino household is about 1.5 kilowatt peak or 120 kilowatt hour or 500 kilowatt hour monthly. AlphaSolar installs solar panel at a minimum of 300 kilowatt peak or about 150 households, he explained. That is why it is still costly to install to an average household, he said. But he added that AlphaSolar is now testing its concept with Hausland Development Corp. and with the Solana group. If the concept is successful that is the good news, he said.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL rice planters to incur more losses sans trade remedies–FFF

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

he Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) on Thursday urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to immediately impose trade remedy measures to prevent local planters and traders from incurring more losses due to the influx of rice imports. FFF appealed to Acting Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar to slap antidumping duties on imported rice as rice farmers have lost at least P40 billion due to the 23-percent decline in palay prices. The group said the entry of at least 1.8 million metric tons (MMT) of rice after the effectivity of Republic Act (RA) 11203 has resulted in a supply glut and pulled down farmgate prices. This forced traders to lower their quotations for local unhusked rice from farmers. “Many local traders could not unload their stocks from the previous season due to the large volume of imported rice in the market,” FFF National Manager Raul Q.

Montemayor said in a statement. “Unless they find a way to free up their inventories, they will either stop buying palay, or they will buy at much lower prices in order to cover for anticipated trading losses. Either way, farmers will end up carrying the bag,” Montemayor added. He said trade remedies, such as safeguard measures and antidumping duties, will prevent rice planters and even traders from incurring more losses. “By raising tariffs, imports will become more expensive, thereby providing room for local traders to dispose of their stocks and buy again from farmers at higher prices,” he explained.

“The imposition of remedial tariffs should not result in higher rice prices for consumers because of the large margin between the cost of imported rice and current retail prices,” he added. Citing the Bureau of Customs data, the landed cost of imported rice is about P24 per kilogram, which is being sold by traders at P35 per kg or even higher, Montemayor said. “At the moment, there is a lot of profiteering going on. Even if import prices go up because of the remedial tariffs, there is still room for retail prices to actually go down,” he added. Under Republic Act 8800, the government could impose additional tariffs if there is documented evidence that a domestic sector has been harmed by imports. Under Republic Act 8752, or the Anti-Dumping Act of 1999, the government could impose antidumping duties on imported commodities that are sold at a lower price than its original value in its country of origin. The antidumping duty is equivalent to the difference between the export price and the normal value in the exporting country, Montemayor

said. The antidumping duty applies on top of the regular implement tariffs on imports. In both laws, the agriculture secretary could initiate a preliminary determination of a safeguard or antidumping investigation prior to due process. The implementation of R A 11203 has made it easier for traders to import rice as it removed the power of the National Food Authority to regulate the volume. Under a liberalized regime, traders who wish to buy imported rice from abroad will just secure sanitary and phytosanitary permits from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), an agency attached to the DA. Data released by the BPI showed that it has issued a total of 1,518 import permits to traders that sought its permission to import rice following the effectivity of the rice trade liberalization law in March. Figures from the agency indicated that 190 cooperatives, traders and institutions applied for sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances from March 5 to June 30 for the purchase of 1.478 MMT of imported rice.

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, August 9, 2019 A5

Neda confident new DA chief can help boost farm output

he National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) expressed its support for Acting Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar, saying the newest addition to the Cabinet has sufficient experience to expand food production. During a briefing on the National Income Accounts on Thursday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said he is confident that the growth targets of Dar are attainable. Pernia said Dar’s experience will help improve the agriculture sector’s performance as early as the fourth quarter. “I think Secretary Dar is hitting the ground running, he has already spoken to some communities,” Pernia said. “Besides he has less than three years, so I think he’ll have to redouble his efforts to be able to show some difference by having him as agriculture secretary.” The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery grew by only 0.6 percent in the second quarter. The agriculture and forestry sector’s production inched up by only 0.1 percent, while that of fisheries expanded by 3.1 percent. Pernia said improving the performance of the the agriculture sector will require investments in rural infrastructure, farm-to-market roads and postharvest facilities. Neda Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon

added that the agency supports the thrust of Dar to increase farmers’ incomes while increasing agriculture production. Edillon said this thrust means employing strategies, such as crop diversification, and ensuring farmers have insurance so they can recover the losses they incur after natural disasters strike. “All of these is really looking into the bottom line which is increasing the income of farmers and at the same time achieving food security,” she added. In his speech, Pernia said there is a need roll out a climate change and disaster risk reduction program to reduce farm production losses caused by severe weather conditions. The Neda director general also said Dar should ensure the proper implementation of the rice trade liberalization law and institute reforms in the water sector given the losses incurred by farmers due to El Niño. The PSA reported on Wednesday that crops production fell by 3.16 percent in the first half as El Niño dried up farms, particularly those planted with rice and corn. Data from the PSA showed that the crops subsector accounted for nearly half of farm output. Pernia said the reforms should lead to the creation of a Department of Water and a separate body to regulate water use, similar to the energy sector which is being overseen by the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission. Cai U. Ordinario

News

A6 Friday, August 9, 2019

BusinessMirror

DPWH revisits ‘abandoned’ airport in south By Manuel T. Cayon

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is set to undertake a new survey in and around an existing airport in M’lang, North Cotabato, as part of an initial step to upgrade the abandoned facility into a major airport servicing central Mindanao. The survey would focus on the road right-of-way (ROW) for expansion of its current runway of 1.2 kilometers and terminal building, as well as the installation, or construction, of additional facilities. Formerly called North Cotabato Rural Airport and later M’lang Rural Airport, the new survey seeks to pave the way for its planned upgrading, and later, renaming as Central Mindanao Airport, even if it remains largely unused a decade after its inauguration. The resurvey was pushed by M’lang Mayor Russel M. Abonado during the meeting he attended on Wednesday at the governor’s office, insisting that the survey should be conducted as soon as possible. He said the new survey would be based on the feasibility study conducted by the Engineering Development Corp. of the Philippines. The DPWH, for its part, will conduct a project study of the ROW of the proposed Central Mindanao airport in Barangay Tawantawan to settle the issue involving the access road traversing Barangays Langkong and Tawantawan, both in M’lang. Abonado and former M’lang Mayor Luigi B. Cuerpo, representing the landowners of the airport project, have assured DPWH they would help negotiate with other stakeholders for the implementation of the resurvey. Last week, landowners who attended the local government meeting agreed to support the immediate processing of certificate of confirmation of sale so that the project can proceed. The meeting on Wednesday was facilitated by the Central Mindanao Airport technical working group, led by Provincial Legal Officer Jonah D. Mineses and Provincial Planning and Development Office Chief Cynthia D. Ortega. Representatives from the Area Development Project Office (ADPO), DPWH 1st District Engineering Office and Provincial Engineering Office, also attended the meeting. The participants agreed to hold another meeting on September 3 to evaluate the development of the project. They will be joined by the Departments of Transportation, Environment and Natural Resources, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, National Economic Development Authority, ADPO, Mindanao Development Authority, PNB Central Office, Registry of Deeds, local government units of M’lang and the province of North Cotabato. The existing airport was inaugurated in November 2009 by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It was not used after that owing to political differences between then-Gov. Emmanuel Piñol and his successor, Emmylou Taliño Mendoza. A report in February 2016 by Davao City online news agency, Mindanews, said it was first used that month but only for cloudseeding operation during a drought.

DOT. . .

continued from A1

(UNWTO), and were treated to the best in Filipino hospitality. “We already have the support of our Asean neighbors,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in an interview with the BusinessMirror, “but we need more help from other countries to strengthen our bid.” In her keynote speech on Wednesday, Romulo Puyat said: “Taking the lead at the UNWTO General Assembly is consistent with the Department of Tourism’s advocacy to promote awareness for responsible travel and tourism that is meaningful, not only for the traveler, but more so for the communities whose quality of life is uplifted by tourism. The Philippines wants to hold itself accountable and committed to building a tourism sector that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impact.” Sustainable tourism has been a key tenet of the UNWTO, which has recognized a number of Philippine resorts and destinations for advancing this in their operations. For instance, Balesin Island Club in Quezon was a finalist in the 14th UNWTO Awards in 2018 in the Innovation for Enterprises category, while the Masungi Georeserve in Tanay, Rizal, was a finalist in the 15th UNWTO Awards in 2019 in the Enterprises category. The country’s bid to host the UNWTO GA is timed with the celebration of the quincentennial anniversary of the world’s first circumnavigation in 1521, which was completed when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s Spanish expedition arrived in Cebu. “Beyond the work that has and is

continuously being put forward, it is likewise very timely that the Philippines welcomes the world for this assembly in time for the quincentennial celebration of the first successful circumnavigation of the world. An event of great significance to mankind, a triumph in travel and exploration, one that has the Philippines in the center of it all,” said Romulo Puyat. The guests were serenaded by West End personalities Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña, who sang classic Filipino and international songs as guests were served an array of updated Filipino dishes created by Chef Happy Ongpauco-Tiu. Following the lunch reception, the diplomats were treated to a quick tour of the Ayuntamiento and interesting points in Intramuros. The Philippines earlier received the backing of the UNWTO Commission on Asia and the Pacific and the Commission on South Asia during the group’s joint meeting in Bhutan last June. In a separate interview, Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Venus Marie Tan underscored the importance of the Philippines’s hosting the UNWTO GA. “It is considered the most important global meeting of senior tourism government officials and highlevel representatives of the private sector,” she said, with expected participants around 1,000-1,500. The GA is held every two years; this year it will be in Russia. It is attended by delegates from UNWTO Full and Associate Members, as well as representatives from UNWTO Affiliate Members. Other countries pitching for the UNWTO GA in 2021 are Kenya and Morocco. Tan said inspectors from the UNWTO will be coming soon to check out the facilities in Manila and other key destinations in the country, for the country’s preparedness to hold the event.

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Friday, August 9, 2019

Why a US-China deal that once looked close now seems far-off By Paul Wiseman

A BANK employee counts US dollar banknotes next to a stack of 100 Chinese yuan notes at a bank outlet in Hai’an in eastern China’s Jiangsu province on Tuesday. China’s yuan fell further on Tuesday against the US dollar, fueling fears about increasing global damage from Beijing’s trade war with President Donald J. Trump. CHINATOPIX VIA AP

CHINA IMPORTS FROM U.S. FALL 19 PERCENT IN JULY AMID TRADE WAR

EIJING—Chinese imports of American goods plunged in July as a tariff war with Washington intensified. Impor ts of US goods fell 19 percent from a year earlier to $10.9 billion, customs data showed Thursday, though that was an improvement over June’s 31.4-percent fall. Exports to the United States declined 6.5 percent to $38.8 billion. Beijing has retaliated for US tariff hikes in a dispute over trade and technology by imposing its own punitive duties and suspending purchases of American soybeans and other goods. The latest data follow President Donald Trump’s threat last week to extend punitive duties to an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports. China’s total exports rose 3.3 percent over a year earlier to $221.5 billion, rebounding from June’s 1.3-percent contraction amid weakening global consumer demand. Imports shrank 5.6 percent to $176.4 billion, an improvement over the previous month’s 7.3-percent decline. “Shipments in and out of China held up better than expected last month, but a sustained turnaround still looks unlikely in the near term,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics in a report. C h i n a’s c e n t r a l b a n k r at t l e d g l o b a l financial markets this week by allowing i t s y u a n to we a ke n to a n 1 1 - ye a r l ow against the US dollar. That would make Chinese goods less expensive abroad but the currenc y’s 5-percent decline this year, against the dollar, is too small to completely offset US tariffs of 25 percent. China’s global trade surplus widened by 60 percent over a year ago to $45.1 billion. The surplus with the United States was little changed but stood at $28 billion, a level that might fuel American pressure for Chinese concessions in trade talks. Wa s h i n g to n a n d B e i j i n g a re l o c ke d in an increasingly costly tariff war over US complaints China steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. The United States and other Chinese trading

p a r t n e r s c o m p l a i n B e i j i n g’s p l a n s f o r government-led development of global competitors in robotics and other fields violates its market-opening commitments. Trade has weakened since Trump started hiking tariffs on Chinese goods last June. Beijing retaliated with its own penalties and ordered importers to find non-US suppliers. Trump and President Xi Jinping agreed in June to resume negotiations, but talks last week in Shanghai ended with no sign of agreement. Envoys are due to meet again next month. Economists warn the truce is fragile because the two sides still are separated by the disagreements that caused talks to break down in May. Trade weakness has added to pressure on Xi’s government to shore up economic growth and avoid politically dangerous job losses. Beijing agreed last year to narrow its trade surplus with the United States by buying more American natural gas and other exports, but scrapped that plan after one of Trump’s tariff hikes. The Chinese government said in June that any purchases must be at a reasonable level, suggested Beijing was becoming more cautious about making big commitments before it sees what Washington offers in exchange. Chinese leaders express confidence their economy can survive the tariff fight. Impor ters of American soybeans and other goods are trying to switch to Brazilian, Russian and other sources, but supplies are limited and costs are higher. Farmers who use soybeans as animal feed have been told to switch to other grains. While American expor ters have been hit hardest, Chinese industries, including electronics, that Beijing sees as its economic future have suffered double-digit declines in sales to the United States, their biggest market. Economists say even if a settlement with the US is reached, China’s exports this year will be lackluster due to weak global demand, putting pressure on manufacturers that support millions of jobs. AP

JAPAN GRANTS S. KOREA EXPORT LICENSE, LESSENING TRADE FEARS

A PA N h a s g ra nte d t h e f i r s t ex p o r t license to South Korea under a stricter m o n i to r i n g s y s te m i nt ro d u ce d l a s t month, lessening fears the clampdown could halt supplies of essential materials to some of the world’s largest technology firms. Japan had imposed more rigid checks on exports of three specialty materials used in the chip and display industries, saying there were inadequacies in its neighbor’s export controls. The move threatened to upend a global supply chain already disrupted by growing US-Chinese tensions. “As we have repeatedly explained, this is not a ban,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo. “I believe this shows that we are permitting legitimate trade without arbitrary management.” Still, Suga didn’t specify the materials the license covered, making it hard for investors to parse Tokyo’s decision. Japan will continue to monitor exports to prevent the materials from being sold via third countries or used for unlicensed purposes, he added. “Al t h o u g h J a p a n’s ex p o r t p e r m i t i s welcome, it’s hard to say this is the beginning of the settlement,” Lee Eun-taek, a strategist with KB Securities, said in a research note.

Tensions between two of Asia’s largest economies escalated in July when Japan slapped curbs on the export to South Korea of the trio of materials, dealing a blow to the likes of Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. Last week, Japan also removed its neighbor from a list of “white countries” that are seen as trusted expor t destinations, sparking outrage from South Koreans and ratcheting up concerns over the economic fallout. South Korean President Moon Jae -in said on Thursday that he didn’t understand J a p a n’s i n t e n t i o n s i n i n t ro d u c i n g n e w regulations, which he said had worsened the situation and undermined the international community’s trust. The export measures came amid a renewed dispute between the two countries over whether Japan has sufficiently compensated South Koreans for its 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said this week that court rulings holding Japanese com p a ni e s l i able to compensate S outh Koreans conscripted to work in factories and mines decades ago were a violation of the 1965 treaty, normalizing ties between the two countries. Bloomberg News

Ap Economics Writer

ASHINGTON—A deal seemed so close. As recently as May, the Trump administration and China seemed on the verge of resolving their dispute over Beijing’s combative trade policies. Then it all collapsed. A cease-fire, declared by Presidents Donald J. Trump and Xi Jinping in June, failed to stick. Now, global financial markets are shaking, and central banks across the world are trying to cushion their economies from the worst by slashing interest rates—all in the expectation that a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies will continue to rage, probably through the 2020 US presidential election. “The US-China trade talks are in serious trouble,” said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “There is less and less trust on both sides, coupled with a growing sense, in both Washington and Beijing, that they may be better off without a deal, at least for the time being.” The past week has been especially rocky. A week ago, Trump abruptly announced that starting September 1, he would impose tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports that he’s so far spared. On Monday, Beijing struck back: It halted purchases of US farm products—a blow to a critical Trump political base in the Midwest—and let its currency sink to its lowest level in 11 years. A lower-valued Chinese currency, the yuan, gives its exporters a competitive edge over foreign rivals. Beijing’s currency move led the US Treasury Department to declare China a currency manipulator for the first time since 1994. That step could eventually pave the way for additional sanctions. But for now, it stands mainly as a symbol of the increasingly rancorous feud between Washington and Beijing. “Both sides are retrenching,” said Timothy Keeler, a former chief of staff at the Office of the US Trade Representative and now a partner at the law firm, Mayer Brown. The prospect that the US-China trade war will go on indefinitely poses a serious threat to a global economy that was already weakening. It rattles financial markets, discourages trade and paralyzes businesses that must decide where to situate factories, buy supplies and sell products. When companies caught in the crossfire put such plans on hold, they collectively depress trade and growth. The International Monetary Fund expects world trade to slow down in 2019 for a second straight year. Central banks are moving to try to limit the economic damage, although reducing borrowing rates provide only a limited benefit when rates are already low. The Federal Reserve last week cut a key US interest rate for the first time in a decade. On Wednesday, the central banks of Indonesia, New Zealand and Thailand announced rate cuts of their own. “We’ll be talking about China and the trade-war dynamic over the next decade,” predicted Nate Thooft, head of global asset allocation at Manulife Investment Management. “It’s not going away permanently.” The Trump administration and Beijing are fighting over a thorny set of issues. The US side says the Chinese are cheating in their drive to dominate such cutting-edge technologies as artificial intelligence and

quantum computing. In particular, the administration alleges that Beijing is stealing trade secrets, forcing foreign companies to hand over technology and unfairly subsidizing Chinese tech firms while burying foreign competitors in red tape. Reaching a substantive deal was bound to be difficult, not least because it would require China to scale back its economic aspirations—aspirations that have become central to its selfidentity. Yet at the start of May the two sides seemed to be moving toward some kind of meaningful agreement. Abruptly, Trump accused Beijing on May 5 of reneging on commitments it had made earlier and said he would raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese products, a threat he made

good on five days later. The administration also began readying tariffs on an additional $300 billion in Chinese goods—an escalation that would target virtually everything China sells the United States. “People were way too optimistic in early May,” said Philip Levy, chief economist at the San Francisco freight company Flexport, who was an adviser in President George W. Bush’s administration. Trump and Xi offered a respite in June. Trump agreed to delay the new tariffs while broken-off talks resumed. After a 12th round of negotiations in Shanghai last month made scant progress, Trump busted the truce and said he’ll tax the $300 billion on September 1. He accused Beijing of trying to slow-walk the talks until 2020 in the hope that he would lose the election and they could negotiate with a Democratic president instead. Whether or not Trump is correct, there is little doubt that his mercurial style has made him difficult to trust in negotiations. Trump “remains a New York realestate salesman, whose abrasive tone and slippery style of haggling is not suitable for international negotiations and diplomatic relations,” said Jeff Moon, a former US diplomat and trade official specializing in China.

Beijing might have drawn a lesson from Trump’s dealings with Mexico: After pressuring Mexico into agreeing to a revamped North American trade deal last year, Trump refused, for months, to lift tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum. Finally, in mid-May, he announced that he was dropping those tariffs, restoring harmony to regional trade ties—only to turn around two weeks later and threaten Mexico with new tariffs in a dispute, later resolved, over immigration. “I’m sure the Chinese were watching the Mexican experience,” Levy said. “From the Chinese perspective, it was getting harder and harder to see what a deal would look like that would buy you trade peace.” Other factors, too, are working against a compromise. As the 2020 election near, Trump may have less incentive to reach a trade deal that would likely draw fire from Democratic presidential candidates. X i, meanwhile, has his ow n reasons for avoiding concessions that might make him look weak. His regime faces protests in the semiautonomous region of Hong Kong. A nd this fall, he w ill oversee the 70th anniversar y of Chinese Communist rule—a time for patriotic chest-beating, not compromising w ith a foreign rival.

Friday, August 9, 2019

Perdue: US farmers will regain markets lost in China trade war

NITED States Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told nervous Midwestern farmers on Wednesday that he’s confident that they’ll eventually regain the markets they’ve lost in the Trump administration’s trade war with China. Perdue appeared at Farmfest, an annual trade show near the Minnesota town of Redwood Falls, during a listening session moderated by US House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, a Democrat who represents the area. The discussion started with pleasant talk about bipartisan cooperation and agreement on the need for Congress to approve a renegotiated trade pact with Mexico and Canada, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Then Gary Wertish, president of the liberal-leaning Minnesota Farmers Union, whose family farms near Renville, raised what he called “the elephant in the room,” criticizing President Donald J. Trump for his “go it alone approach” on China. He pointed to China’s announcement on Monday that it was halting purchases of US farm products in response to Trump’s threat last week of more tariffs on Chinese imports. “This is causing long-term, devastating damage to not only farmers, but rural communities,” Wertish said. He added that farmers “greatly appreciate” the administration’s aid program for farmers hurt by the trade war, but said the bailout payments will cause farmers long-term political damage. “The taxpayer is not going to stand for this.” Brian Thalmann, a farmer from Plato who is president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, disputed recent statements by Trump that farmers are starting to do well again. “Things are going downhill and downhill very quickly,” he said. Joel Schreurs, a farmer from Tyler who sits on the boards of the state and national Soybean Growers’ Associations, told Perdue that he didn’t expect to see China back down anytime soon. “How are you going to keep the farmers farming?” Schreurs asked. “The exports just aren’t going to be there. We’ve worked a long time to develop these markets, and we’re going to lose this market share. It’s just not going to come back in a day or two. So how do we make this work?” Perdue disagreed that the lost markets won’t come back. “The markets are fungible. China is going to buy from where they see the best value.” He added that the US government is working to develop alternate markets—including in India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia— and said the soybean industry probably became “too dependent” on China. “I think we’ll gain the market back. But it’s got to be a fair, reciprocal and free-trade environment, not allowing China to cheat,” Perdue said. The Trump administration has long accused China of unfair trade practices and has imposed escalating rounds of tariffs on Chinese imports to press for concessions. The administration alleges that Beijing steals and forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets, unfairly subsidizes Chinese companies and engages in cyber-theft of intellectual property. China’s countermoves have fallen especially hard on US farmers as it targets agricultural exports. Chinese leaders have said they’re ready to talk but will take whatever steps are necessary to protect their rights. Perdue tried to end the session on a conciliatory note. Rural America in general and farmers in particular remain important parts of Trump’s political base despite the impacts of the trade war. “Obviously there’s a lot of stress out there over not only farm prices and trade, but also labor, and adding weather on that.... But it’s a great constituency. Farmers are resilient and we want to do everything we can to help them not only survive but to thrive,” he said. AP

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China exports rebound in July, just in time to face fresh Trump tariffs

HINA’S export growth rebounded in July and imports shrank less than forecast, signaling some recovery in trade just as companies brace for the arrival of new tariffs from the US. Exports increased 3.3 percent in July from a year earlier, while imports declined 5.6 percent, leaving a trade surplus of $45.1 billion, the customs administration said on Thursday. Economists had expected exports to drop by 1 percent and imports to shrink by 9 percent. China’s exports to the US dropped 6.5 percent in July from a year earlier in dollar terms, and its trade surplus with the US for the first seven months was $27.97 billion, down from $29.92 billion in the first half. Stabilizing exports are a brighter sign for China’s slowing economy after a bruising first half and follow indications that policy-makers are willing to tolerate a weaker yuan that may help boost the nation’s external competitiveness. President Donald J. Trump announced last week that the US will impose 10 percent additional tariffs on another $300 billion worth of Chinese exports starting next month, after the two sides ended their first faceto-face talks in three months without progress. Beijing said it will retaliate. “The strength in exports reflected a broad-based improvement,” said Michelle Lam, Greater China economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “But

given Trump’s latest threat, we may see some front-loaded orders again in August before more weakness in the rest of the year.” If Trump imposes the additional tariffs as scheduled on September 1, China’s economic growth will slow to 6 percent this year and 5.6 percent in 2020, according to estimates by Bloomberg Economics. China’s yuan slid past the key level of 7 to the dollar this week, weakening to its lowest level against a basket of peers since 2015 on Thursday. Economists interpreted the data differently. Despite export and imports beating expectations in July, the trade outlook remains bleak in the second half as purchasing managers indexes of major trading partners remain

IN this August 6 photo, tugboats manuever a container ship at a port in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province. Chinese imports of American goods plunged in July as a tariff war with Washington intensified. CHINATOPIX VIA AP

low, indicating sluggish external demand, said Ding Shuang, chief China and North Asia economist at Standard Chartered Bank Ltd. in Hong Kong. “ The last round of US tariff increases in June—from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion of China’s goods—will likely show its effect in the next few months,” he said. “Compared with the first half, net exports may turn from a boost to a drag on the economy.” China’s escalating trade war with the US may be nudging the world economy toward its first recession in a decade, with investors demanding politicians and central bankers to act fast to change course. The latest setback hit German industrial production, which, in June, registered its biggest annual decline in almost a decade, highlighting the severity of a manufacturing slump in Europe’s largest economy. In the Asia-Pacific region, central banks in New Zealand, India and Thailand made surprise interestrate cuts on Wednesday trying to safeguard their economies from global headwinds. Bloomberg News

Editor: Angel R. Calso

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Oil rebounds from seven-month low as Saudis seek to stem slide

IL rebounded from the lowest level since January after Saudi Arabia contacted other producers to discuss options to stem a rout that’s been driven by the worsening US-China trade war. Futures rose as much as 3.4 percent in New York, clawing back most of Wednesday’s 4.7-percent plunge. Saudi Arabia won’t tolerate continued price weakness and is considering all options, according to an official from the kingdom who asked not to be identified. That came after a surprise increase in US stockpiles, the first gain in eight weeks, helped push down prices on Wednesday. Crude has fallen around 10 percent this month as deterioration in relations between the world’s two biggest economies worsened an already bleak consumption outlook. Growth in global oil demand is slowing and won’t exceed 650,000 barrels a day in 2019, according to Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader. Bullish factors look pretty scarce now that American stockpiles have stopped sliding and tension in the Persian Gulf seems to have receded. “Oil prices have clawed back some losses, but the sentiment remains overly bearish,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at VM Markets, said in a note. “The big question remains: Will the verbal intervention be enough to stem the tide, or will oil traders use this opportunity to increase short positions?” West Texas Intermediate oil for September delivery added $1.63, or 3.2 percent, to $52.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:29 a.m. in London after rising as much as $1.75 earlier. The contract fell $2.54 on Wednesday to the lowest close since January 14, capping an 8.2 percent slide over three days.

Brent for October settlement climbed $1.58, or 2.8 percent, to $57.81 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. It plunged 4.6 percent on Wednesday. The benchmark global crude traded at a premium of $5.16 to WTI for the same month. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil expor ter, has already cut production more than required under the agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies. Planned gatherings in Abu Dhabi early next month will be critical for leaders of the Opec+ group, especially the Saudi and Russian energy ministers, to signal their intentions on production, said Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets. US nationwide crude inventories rose by 2.39 million barrels in the week through August 2, compared with the median estimate for a 2.7-million barrel decline in a Bloomberg survey. Gasoline stockpiles also climbed, an alarming development during what is typically the peak summer driving season. Vitol Group’s Chief Executive Officer Russell Hardy said in a Bloomberg TV interview that oil markets are focused on the trade war, while “slightly underpricing” the risk of supply disruptions in the Persian Gulf. Weak demand in established markets is spurring Vitol to focus on emerging economies, he said. “Uncertainties over global demand spurred by the US-China trade spat have been overshadowing potential supply risks in the Middle East,” said Sungchil Will Yun, a commodities analyst at HI Investment & Futures Corp. in Seoul. “Until we see the demand picture improving, prices will likely stay low.” Bloomberg News

Friday, August 9, 2019

US, South Korea can’t agree if defense cost talks have started

HE United States and South Korea can’t even agree on whether they’ve started talks on sharing defense costs, let alone how much to pay. President Donald J. Trump threw the long-simmering issue of alliance cost-sharing back on the agenda Wednesday with a tweet saying “talks have begun” to increase South Korea’s payments for US military protection. That prompted a South Korean government official to say that the next round of negotiations between the two sides hasn’t yet started. The tweet is the latest example of Trump’s penchant for putting pressure on allies with ever-increasing demands. South Korea has been a particular target, with the Trump administration seeking a 50-percent increase in funding last year and requesting new commitments such as joint patrols of the Persian Gulf. The last cost-sharing negotiations were so contentious that the two sides opted for a one-year deal—as opposed to the usual five-year pact—that boosted South Korea’s contribution by about 18 percent. That set up for another round of talks this year, even as the allies work to present a united front against a more provocative North Korea. Trump’s comment comes ahead of Defense Secretary

Mark Esper’s first visit to Seoul since being confirmed last month. Esper is slated to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Friday. A senior Trump administration official reiterated Trump’s comments Wednesday, saying “discussions have begun to further increase South Korea’s contributions to military defense.” Moon, who said his predecessor’s administration was “out of their minds” for caving to US demands, faces pressure to hold the line on cost-sharing ahead of parliamentar y elections next year. “If such requests are made, we must confidently negotiate in talks where we are not humiliated,” Moon said while campaigning in 2016. South Korea may be splitting hairs by saying that talks on the allies’ socalled 11th Special Measures Agreement

haven’t formally begun. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha acknowledged at a parliament meeting last week “there were exchanges of opinions on the fundamental matters” during a visit by US National Security Adviser John Bolton, although she said, “a specific amount in cost was not discussed.” “One thing that is clear, however, is that I believe a rational level of costsharing should be discussed,” Kang said. The South Korean government has previously denied reports that the US was seeking a fivefold increase to South Korea’s now roughly $1-billion annual cost-sharing bill. In his tweets, Trump expressed confidence that Seoul would pay up. “South Korea is a very wealthy nation that now feels an obligation to contribute to the military defense provided by the United States of America,” he said. Bloomberg News

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A10 Friday, August 9, 2019

Venezuela leader halts talks with opponents over US asset freeze K

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TALIBAN SUICIDE BLAST IN KABUL KILLS 14 PEOPLE, 145 WOUNDED

OGOTA, Colombia— Venezuela’s government late Wednesday halted negotiations with the opposition in protest of the Trump administration’s freezing of its US assets, thrusting into crisis the country’s best chance of peacefully resolving a political standoff that has kept the nation on the edge for more than six months. The decision surprised representatives of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who were already on the Caribbean island of Barbados awaiting what was to be the start on Thursday of the sixth round of talks that began in May under the auspices of Norway. “We Venezuelans have watched with profound indignation how the chief of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, celebrates, promotes and supports these harmful actions against our nation’s sovereignty and our peoples’ most basic human rights,” the government said in a statement on Wednesday night.

The government stopped short of abandoning the talks altogether, saying only that it would “review the mechanisms of this process to ensure its continuation is truly effective and harmonious with the interests of the people.” For weeks, representatives of Maduro and his would-be successor have been shuttling back and forth to Barbados, trying to agree on a common path out of the country’s prolonged political standoff. The meetings have been slow-going and shrouded in mystery, with neither side disclosing details.

But Maduro’s supporters have accused the US of trying to blow up the fragile process with sweeping new sanctions announced this week, that freeze all of the government’s assets in the US, and even threaten to punish companies from third countries that keep doing business with his socialist administration. “They’re trying to dynamite the dialogue,” Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Tuesday at a news conference to denounce comments by US National Security Adviser John Bolton, defending the asset freeze. “But nobody, not even 1,000 Trumps or 500 Boltons...will make us abandon the negotiating table.” Maduro sa id on Wed nesd ay night that, while he favors dialogue, he will not stand by idly, as his opponents cheer on punitive measures by the US that he believes will worsen hardships in a country already suffering from six-digit hyperinf lation, medicine shortages and a recession now deeper than the US Great Depression. “Under these conditions, no,” he said in a telephone call to a program on state TV hosted by socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello. Maduro promised to lead a “counteroffensive” from the constitutional assembly—a rubber-

stamp body set up to undermine Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress— to “ bring justice to the sellouts and traitors.” Opposition leaders reacted to Maduro’s withdrawal from the talks with a mix of disbelief and told-youso admonishments. “ T he y ’ve b e e n s ay i ng for d ays, t hey bel ieve i n peace a nd t he Oslo mec h a n ism, but at t he f i rst sig n of c h a nge, t hey fea r t he possibi l it y of a rea l pol it ic a l c h a nge i n t he cou nt r y,” l awma ker Sta lin Gonza lez, the head of Gu a idó ’s negot i at i ng tea m i n Ba rbados, sa id on soc i a l med i a. Speculation has swirled in political and diplomatic circles that Maduro’s envoys have expressed a willingness to call an early presidential election under a revamped electoral board and foreign observation. The US has insisted that Maduro must give up power before any elections can be deemed credible. Three people involved in the talks from different sides had described the environment as serious and cordial, with each delegation dining and traveling back-and-forth to the island from Caracas separately. All three insisted progress has been made, even if the thorny topic of elections is being left for last and an all-encompassing deal based on a six-point agenda is some way off. The people agreed to speak to The Associated Press only on the condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to divulge details of the talks. Such insider accounts differ sharply from the assessment of Bolton and other hardliners inside the Trump administration who have accused Maduro of using the talks to buy time. “We will not fall for these old tricks of a tired dictator,” Bolton declared on Tuesday at a meeting in Peru of more than 50 governments aligned against Maduro. “No more time for tap, tap, tapping. Now is the time for action.” To be sure, nobody in the Trump administration has disavowed the talks, and some analysts believe Bolton’s “bad cop” persona and his threats of more punitive actions to come may even provide a boost to the mediation effort. Guaidó, who heads the opposition-controlled congress, has shown no willingness to ditch the talks, despite pressure to do so from hawks inside his coalition who accuse him of turning a blind eye to Maduro’s alleged torturing of opponents. M a du ro, a lt hou g h s e ve re l y weakened by the US sanctions and increasingly isolated internationally, still enjoys the support of powerful allies like Russia and China. He also has the backing of the military, the traditional arbiter of disputes in Venezuela. Neither the military nor the US has been a party to the talks, even though Maduro’s main goal is the removal of US sanctions. Meanwhile, Guaidó’s momentum has stalled since he declared himself interim president in January over what the US and some 50 other nations saw as Maduro’s fraudulent re-election last year. Demonstrations that, at the start of the year, filled the streets of Caracas have thinned to a trickle, and a military uprising called for by Guaidó in April ended with several opposition lawmakers on the run or in exile. “A s long a s eac h side pu rsues a w inner-take-a ll approach, t hey a re less w i l l i ng to m a ke concessions a nd a dea l w i l l re main elusive,” said Phi l Gunson, a C a rac a s -ba sed a n a lyst for t he Inter n at ion a l C r isis Group. AP

ABUL, Afghanistan—A Taliban car bomb aimed at Afghan securit y forces ripped through a busy Kabul neighborhood on Wednesday, killing 14 people and wounding 145—most of them women, children and other civilians— shor tly after the extremist group and the United States reported progress on negotiating an end to Afghanistan’s nearly 18-year war. The bombing during morning rush hour was one of the worst attacks in Kabul this year, and it, again, raised fears among Afghans about what will happen once the estimated 20,000 US and NATO troops in their country go home. The explosives-packed car detonated at a security checkpoint outside police headquarters in a minority Shiite neighborhood in western Kabul, police spokesman Firdaus Faramarz said. The Taliban said they had targeted a recruitment center for security forces. Ninety-two of the wounded were civilians, Deputy Interior Minister Khoshal Sadat told reporters. Four police officers were among those killed, he said. The attack took place as many Kabul residents were preparing for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which begins Sunday. A large plume of smoke rose over the city. Some nearby buildings were left in rubble. Shopkeepers later swept up broken glass. “I was having breakfast in a restaurant when the explosion happened,” said Mohmmad Qasem. As windows shattered, he and others rushed into the busy street. Even as the US-Taliban peace talks continue and the Taliban say they will do more to protect civilians, a growing number of them are being killed. July saw the highest number of civilian casualties in a single month since 2017, with more than 1,500 killed or wounded as insurgent attacks spiked, the United Nations said earlier this month. Any Taliban attack is a barrier to the peace process, Presidential Spokesman Sediq Seddiqi told reporters, vowing, “Afghan security forces are strong and can protect the Afghan population.” President Ashraf Ghani’s government said such attacks apparently are meant to strengthen the Taliban position at the negotiating table but would not succeed. On Tuesday the Taliban warned Afghans to boycott the September 28 presidential election and avoid campaign rallies, which “could

become potential targets.” The vote already has been delayed for months over security and organizational concerns. The Taliban have been staging near-daily attacks against Afghan forces across the country, saying the war will continue as long as US and NATO forces are still in Afghanistan. The Taliban now control roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since 2001, when the US-led invasion toppled their government after it harbored Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Another round of US-Taliban talks continues this week, in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, where the insurgents maintain an office. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy tasked with finding a peaceful resolution to America’s longest war, this week, reported “excellent progress” in the talks. A Taliban official said differences had been resolved over the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Taliban guarantees that they will cut ties with other extremist groups. The US wants to make sure that Afghanistan will not become a launching pad for attacks against it. Khalilzad condemned Wednesday ’s bombing, saying in a Twitter post that “the focus should be on immediately reducing violence as we move closer to intra-Afghan negotiations that will produce a political roadmap and a permanent cease-fire.” Khalilzad has said he is hoping for a final agreement by September 1. But major challenges remain as the Taliban refuse to negotiate with the Kabul government, dismissing it as a US puppet. More civilian casualties were reported on Wednesday in the western city of Herat, where a sticky bomb wounded at least eight people, including women and children, said Abdul Ahid Walizada, spokesman for the provincial police chief. Another threat in Afghanistan is the local Islamic State (IS) group affiliate, which also has carried out several large-scale attacks in Kabul, frequently targeting minority Shiites. On Wednesday, security officials said an overnight raid in eastern Kabul targeted three locations in residential areas from which the IS group has been launching attacks. Three members of the security forces and two of the extremists were killed, the officials said, and bomb-making materials were seized. And in northern Baghlan province, a suicide bomber in a Humvee tried to attack an Afghan base but was killed by security forces, said Jawed Basharat, spokesman for the provincial police chief. AP

U.S. URGES INCREASED CAUTION FOR AMERICANS VISITING HK

ONG KONG—The US government on Thursday stepped up its warnings to travelers to Hong Kong because of increasing violence surrounding pro-democracy protests in the Chinese city. The State Department’s Level 2 travel advisory issued on Thursday urges “increased caution in Hong Kong due to civil unrest” and tells travelers to avoid demonstrations and to “exercise caution if unexpectedly in the vicinity of large gatherings or protests.” The protests were sparked two months ago by proposed extradition legislation that could have seen suspects sent to mainland China, where protesters say they could face torture and unfair politicized trials. They have since morphed into calls for broader democratic reforms in the former British colony, along with the resignation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and investigations into alleged police abuse of force. The territory’s crucial travel industry has suffered as tourists put off their visits, with Australia, Ireland, Britain and Japan having also issued travel advisories to their citizens. Hong Kong police say a total of 589 people have been arrested in the protests since June 9, ranging in age from 13 to 76. They face charges including rioting, which allows for prison terms of up to 10 years. Police have fired tear gas, rubber bullets and other projectiles at protesters, with demonstrators responding with metal sticks, bricks, gasoline bombs and carts full of burning debris. On several occasions, protesters have been attacked by unknown people believed to be linked to organized crime groups, while police took little action to stop them. The central government in Beijing, so far, has not visibly intervened in the situation, though in editorials and public remarks, it has condemned demonstrators and protest

organizers as criminals, clowns and “violent radicals” and alleged that they have been inflamed by politicians from the US, Taiwan and elsewhere. On Wednesday, the head of Beijing’s Cabinet office responsible for the territory said Hong Kong was facing its “most severe situation” since its hand over from British rule in 1997, and the central government was currently considering further measures. Hong Kong was returned to China under the framework of “one country, two systems,” which promised the city political, civil and economic freedoms not allowed under Communist Party rule on the mainland. However, many Hong Kong residents feel Beijing has been increasingly encroaching on their freedoms. Pro-democracy protesters said on Thursday they plan to hold a demonstration at Hong Kong’s international airport over the weekend, along with marches elsewhere in the territory. A protest spokesman who goes by only his surname, Chan, to avoid identification by authorities, said such actions will continue until Lam addresses the movement’s demands, something she has adamantly refused to do thus far. “The only way to regain the public’s trust in the government and the Hong Kong police force is by properly, directly and conscientiously addressing the five demands,” Chan said at a news conference, where movement representatives wore helmets and facemasks to conceal their features. “The Hong Kong government’s attempts to achieve the impossible, by trying to exhaust the inexhaustible, will not prevail,” he said. “In our struggle for autonomy, democracy and the rule of law, we will continue to fight until the end.” A police spokesman said no application for a protest at the airpor t had been received and urged any participants to remain peaceful. AP

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‘Giving TIN to alien workers required by PHL tax code’

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

HE Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday the issuance of tax identification numbers (TINs) for foreign nationals working in the Philippines will still continue, as this is in line with the provisions of the country’s tax code. In a text message to reporters, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said: “We will not suspend the issuance of TINs to foreign workers. As for the BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue], we are simply implementing the Tax Code, and requiring those earning Philippine sourced income to pay income tax.” Asked about the Chinese embassy statement on the Philippines’s role in the spread of online gambling in China, the Finance chief pointed out that the Duterte

administration will study the statement first before it decides on what to do. “I haven’t seen this statement you mentioned. We will let you know once we studied the statement,” Dominguez added. The DOF reported on Thursday that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has collected an initial P186 million in withholding taxes from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) and is getting another P170 million this month in tax payments

from these businesses employing foreign nationals. Citing BIR data, Finance Assistant Secretary Dakila Napao said that of the 48 notices sent out by the bureau directing the Pogo to pay the withholding taxes of their foreign workers, 22 have either replied or protested the tax assessments. “The BIR, though, has already collected P186 million from the notices sent out and is set to collect another P170 million moving forward. This started last month and will be collected on August 10,” Napao said. In a separate report to the President and the Cabinet, BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay said that for the initial year of operations of Pogo service providers in 2017, the BIR collected only P175 million in taxes. Pogo service providers remitted over P579 million in taxes in 2018 and voluntarily paid P789 million in the first half of 2019. As part of the steps to ensure that Pogo pay the right amount of taxes to the government, a Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) was issued requiring all foreign nationals and their employers or withholding agents to secure a TIN from the BIR as part of the documentary requirements in securing employment permits and visas.

Senate review sought on Chinese investments in 3 strategic islands By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

HE Senate was asked to mount a review of the “possible maritime and security implications” to the country of reported plans by Chinese investors to develop three strategic Philippine islands. Sen. Risa Hontiveros filed Senate Resolution 74 seeking an inquiry to look into the “strategic security implications of the developments by foreigners of Fuga, Grande and Chiquita Islands, as well as the property formerly known as Island Cove Resort.” In a statement, Hontiveros pointed out that these islands—Fuga in Cagayan Province and adjacent Grande and Chiquita Islands in Subic Bay, Zambales province—“play strategic roles in the country’s national security.” “Are we witnessing a creeping annexation?” the senator asked. “Amid China’s aggressive behavior in the West Philippine Sea, it is baffling that the Duterte government allowed this to happen. These are no ordinary islands. These parcels of land are strategic maritime fronts that play a significant role in our military history, which only proves how invaluable they are to our national security.”

Grande, Chiquita plans scuttled

OF the islands cited by Hontiveros, however, at least two are apparently already no longer subjects of Chinese development plans. The head of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority said the SBMA board had disapproved the plans of the current lessee of the Grande Island to embark on a grand plan to build high-end recreational facilities on Grande and Chiquita in light of serious constitutional questions. SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the proposal to develop the two islands strategically located at the mouth of Subic Bay ground to a standstill after the SBMA Board withdrew its consent to the change in control and ownership of GFTG Property Holdings Corp., the current holder of lease over the islands. She said that Sanya CEDF Sino-Philippine Investment Corp., which recently gained majority shares in GFTG, had proposed to put up 80 ultra-high-end housing units perched on water along the coastline of Grande Island up to Chiquita Island.

“This cannot be allowed because the Constitution limits the use and enjoyment of archipelagic waters exclusively to Filipino citizens,” Eisma pointed out. “Moreover, Executive Order 65, or the 11th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List, prohibited the presence of any foreign equity in the utilization of marine resources in archipelagic waters,” she added. The SBMA official noted that previous changes in the corporate control or ownership of GFTG were made without the consent of the SBMA. “These violated the Lease and Development Agreements that GFTG had signed with SBMA,” she said. Because of these issues, the SBMA Board passed a resolution on May 19, 2019, that withdrew consent to the change in control and ownership of GFTG, Eisma said.

Island Cove

MEANWHILE, Hontiveros also cited the development of the 32-hectare Island Cove Resort property in Kawit, Cavite, that she said was “purchased by a still-unknown investor and converted into a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator [Pogo] complex with housing facilities for an estimated 20,000 foreign workers.” She noted that Island Cove is approximately 3.5 kilometers from Danilo Atienza Air Base, home of the Philippine Air Force’s 15th Strike Wing, and Naval Base Heracleo Alano, containing the Naval Sea System Command, which operates the Armed Forces of the Philippines’s (AFP) largest industrial complex—the military shipyards providing repair and maintenance for all Navy ships and aircraft. She cited reports that the country’s unregulated Pogo industry led to an influx of illegal Chinese workers in the Philippines. Airing concerns that “questionable investments financed by Chinese money are unsettling,” the senator is concerned that “the country’s military and national security are in an undeniably vulnerable position.” “We look to the Senate to rise to the occasion and to seek the truth. We hope that the investigation is conducted through the lens of Filipino values that uphold our integrity, sovereignty and dignity,” Hontiveros said, adding: “May we never trade our dignity and sovereignty for investments. May the price paid for development and progress never be the Filipinos ourselves.” With an earlier report by Henry Empeño

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Palace, Chinese govt worry over Pogo hubs; Pagcor defends idea By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

PLAN by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) to transfer Chinese nationals working in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (Pogos) to “self-contained” hubs to limit their interaction with Filipinos, may violate the rights of Chinese workers, Malacañang said on Thursday. Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said that if rudeness is the only reason for confining Chinese nationals in Pogos to self-contained hubs, this could be addressed by prosecuting them under the Revised Penal Code. “If you will restrict their liberties, then there might be a violation, because if your only reason is rudeness, you can always subject them to violation of the Revised Penal Code,” Panelo said. The Palace spokesman reacted to the Chinese embassy’s statement expressing “grave concern” over Pagcor’s potential move to come up with Pogo hubs to address the complaints of Filipinos over the reported unruly behavior of some Chinese workers. In a statement on Thursday, the Chinese Embassy said it may infringe on the basic legal rights of Chinese citizens concerned.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy also urged the Philippine government to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in the country as some of them were physically tortured, injured and even murdered. China also urged the Philippine government to pay more attention to China’s position and concerns and take concrete and effective measures to prevent and punish Philippine casinos, Pogos, and other forms of gambling entities for their illegal employment of Chinese citizens and crack down on related crimes that hurt Chinese citizens. “Many of the Chinese citizens working illegally in Philippine casinos or Pogos and other forms of gambling entities are subjected to what media described as ‘modern slavery’ due to severe limitation of their personal freedom. Their passports are taken away or confiscated by the Philippine employers. They are confined to live and work in certain designated places and some of them have been subjected to extortion, physical abuse and torture, as well as other ill treatments. At the same time, dozens of kidnappings and tortured cases of Chinese citizens who gamble or work illegally in gambling entities in the Philippines have taken

place,” read the statement from Chinese embassy. In response to the Chinese embassy statement, Malacañang urged Chinese workers allegedly being victimized to file formal complaints. It said it does not condone any human-rights violation against foreign workers in this country.

Pagcor’s take

PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Andrea D. Domingo said the Pogo hubs are a safe haven for foreign nationals working in the sector as it will serve as a one-stop shop for their needs. “When we refer to Pogo hubs as self-contained communities, what we mean is that these hubs will have all the basic needs of the foreign employees of Pogo, such as office and residential spaces, food establishments, wellness and recreational facilities, service shops and others. No need to go to other places just for some of their needs. The hubs are in fact being established for the protection of the foreign workers. They are no longer exposed to crimes being committed against them on the streets, they are assured of good working conditions and decent living quarters, and will be given their proper visas as there will also be other relevant government agencies setting up offices at the hubs,” said Domingo. With Rea Cu

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DPWH speeds up construction of 4 evacuation centers

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

HE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is fasttracking the construction of four new evacuation centers in Zamboanga to provide liveable temporary shelters for residents in times of calamities and disasters. Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said he has “ordered the accelerated implementation” of a project that aims to build the evacuation centers in the municipality of Cabatangan in Zamboanga City, municipalities of Labangan and Dinas in Zamboanga del Sur and in the municipality of Siocon in Zamboanga del Norte. Villar said the project will ensure that residents affected by natural disasters will have a safe and livable evacuation center in case of

calamity or other emergencies. He did not give a specific timeline, and a spokesman from his office has yet to respond to the BusinessMirror’s request for clarification as of press time. Already, the public works department has completed three of these facilities costing P102 million in Zamboanga. These are in the municipality of Labason and in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte; and in the municipality of Imelda, Zamboanga Sibugay.

These facilities are built to be gender-sensitive, and can likewise accommodate persons with disability. They have provisions for wheelchair ramps, railings, separate toilets for male and female, an infirmary, laundry and drying room, and an accommodation area. “By providing strong and wellequipped evacuation centers, there will be no or less disruption for students since schools are no longer used as temporary shelter,” Villar said. In September, President Duterte instructed the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to build more evacuation centers to minimize the use of school buildings during typhoons and other natural calamities. Duterte made this directive after Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones reiterated her concerns that the use of school buildings as evacuation centers disrupts the flow of classes. Briones said the use of school buildings forces government educators to hold classes in temporary learning shelters “which exposes them to greater risks.”

PARTNERSHIP REBOOT The Mathematics Trainers Guild-Philippines and BusinessMirror have forged a memorandum of agreement to cooperate on initiatives in mathematics education, starting with BM’s publication of math problems and puzzles from MTG-Phil. Signing the MOA are (from left, seated), MTG-Phil’s Myrna Agtarap, MTG’s chief operating officer Dr. Simon Chua, BM Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon and BM Editor in Chief Lourdes M. Fernandez, with BM’s Vice President for HR and Administration Loida S. Virtudazo (standing, right) as witness. NONOY LACZA

Senate panel summons transport officials to explain Edsa gridlocks

HE Senate Committee on Public Services summoned transport officials to appear at a hearing next week, as senators are seeking solutions to the worsening daily traffic gridlocks choking Edsa, the main thoroughfare connecting major cities and towns of Metro Manila. Sen. Grace Poe, who chairs the panel, is keen to hear a satisfactory explanation from authorities concerned amid mounting complaints by commuters and motorists passing through Edsa daily. “Transport officials should explain the traffic that has choked Edsa and brought untold misery to the public, despite the test run of the Edsa provincial bus ban,” said Poe. She confirmed that the Senate panel also sent out invitations to

DENR. . .

Continued from A2

To date, it said, “sewer coverage is more than 15 percent of our water-served population and 22 percent in terms of facility acceptance/ capacity, a 700-percent increase from only 3 percent when we took over in 1997. We are accelerating various used water programs to increase coverage to 32 percent by 2022 despite persistent challenges in implementation, which include land acquisition, rights-of-way, permits and relocation of informal settlers. The biggest consideration for the government in approving these projects is the significant cost impact of these facilities on the water bill of every consumer who will eventually have to pay for these services.”

‘Use money to comply’

APPEARING before environmental reporters at a hastily-called press conference Wednesday, Antiporda appealed to the MWSS and its private concessionaires, Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. to comply with the SC order “rather than spending so much money on

other agency officials and concerned sectors to attend the public hearing at the Senate Session Hall scheduled on August 13. Poe’s panel was tasked to conduct the hearing mandated by Senate Resolution 954 seeking an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the proposed provincial bus ban along Edsa. The senator acknowledged the need to promptly look into the matter amid mounting complaints from commuters and motorists. “Commuters passing through Edsa are burdened by heavy traffic. I will see to it that those responsible for the gridlocks will be held accountable,” Poe said in Filipino. In a statement, she also wondered why authorities appear to be more concerned about experiments.

“Why do they let commuters suffer by treating them like a science project?” the senator asked, suggesting that traffic schemes and policies should “consider both vehicles and people.” She noted reports that the daily gridlocks worsened following “implementation of the yellow lane for buses and the dry run for the provincial bus ban on Edsa.” Poe pressed her point that the proposed scheme should be “thoroughly scrutinized, especially amid the public clamor to suspend it” amid legal questions raised by some groups before the courts. “We will thresh out all these issues in a productive dialogue where all stakeholders will have a voice and will be part of the solution,” said Poe. Butch Fernandez

the legal actions” as the fine proceeds would anyway go to the Manila Bay rehabilitation, which currently operates on a tight budget. “What we want is the compliance with the Clean Water Act,” said Antiporda, adding that the DENR would want Manila Water and Maynilad to come up with their immediate plans on doubling their actions in compliance with the SC order. A similar call to the water concessionaires was earlier made by Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza, who was the DENR secretary when the breaches in the Clean Water Act were discovered, and who ordered the fines imposed. However, instead of complying, the water companies sued the DENR, going all the way to the SC after losing in the Court of Appeals. Voting 12-0, the SC ordered MWSS and Manila Water to“jointly and severally”pay a fine totaling P921,464,184. It also ordered MWSS and Maynilad to pay the same amount, which covers the period of May 7, 2009, five years after RA 9275 was enacted, to August 5, 2019, or the day the decision was promulgated. MWSS, Manila Water and Maynilad were ordered to pay within 15 days from receipt of

the ruling. They were also fined P322,102 a day from the time they receive a copy of the decision until they have fully settled the fine. The SC, in imposing the fines, affirmed a previous CA ruling and denied a petition filed by the MWSS and the water concessionaires. The court ruled that the MWSS, Manila Water and Maynilad were liable for violation of Section 8 of RA 9275, which requires the connection of existing sewage line in all subdivisions, condominiums, commercial centers and other establishments, including households, to an available sewerage system. The decision stemmed from a case filed by the DENR, which in 2009, slapped the MWSS and the private concessionaires a fine of P29.4 million for their failure to install and maintain wastewater treatment facilities within five years after RA 9275 was enacted in 2004. Under the law, the daily fine increases by 10 percent every two years until full compliance with Section 8. In 2013, the CA upheld the authority of the DENR to impose fines for violation of such an important provision in the country’s clean water law. Jonathan L. Mayuga

National scientist title conferred on Javier By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

RESIDENT Duterte has accorded former University of the Philippines President Emil Q. Javier the rank of national scientist for his outstanding contributions, especially in agriculture. The Order of National Scientists is the highest national recognition conferred upon distinguished individual or collaborative achievement in the physical sciences and/or technology. Javier was recognized for spearheading the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) which popularized high-yielding crops and disease-resistant varieties in the country and in Asia. The IPB was instrumental in introducing Bacillus

thuringiensis corn, a variety that is resistant to pests, in the Philippines. “Emil Q. Javier, PhD, led and promoted sound agricultural policies and programs, massive utilization of climate resilient and environment friendly agricultural innovations, and improved governance and management systems to help improve the livelihood of Filipino farmers and fisherfolk,” read Proclamation 781 signed by the President last August 2. Javier also played an active role in informing the public about the nature of science and its potential to improve access to food and health. He also emphasized the need for high safety standards in both research and production in biotechnological innovations. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines

College of Agriculture (now University of the Philippines Los Baños). Javier also finished his masters degree at the University of Illinois and received his doctorate in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Cornell University. The conferment of national scientist recognition on Javier was made upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). National Scientists shall be given gratuities and be entitled to privileges enjoyed by National Artists. The National Academy of Science and Technology may recommend annually 10 individuals who shall be accorded by the President the rank and title of National Scientist.

Singapore NATIONAL DAY 2019

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A BusinessMirror Special Feature

Friday, August 9, 2019 A13

YEAR OF CLIMATE ACTION

Coming together to fight climate change

The WMO RAP’s presence in Singapore will foster greater regional cooperation and coordination among the various National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the region, in support of sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Singapore is collaborating with the WMO R AP on capacity development programmes for the region to enhance delivery of weather, climate and environmentrelated services.

VEN though Singapore’s share of global emissions is only around 0.11%, as a small island city-state, Singapore faces disproportionate risks from the negative impacts of climate change. It is crucial that we are prepared for the challenges climate change will bring. This includes planning for the future and making the necessary investments to guard Singapore and Singaporeans from the impacts of climate change.

Galvanising Action at Home

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong releasing the weather balloon at the CCRS. Weather balloons help collect data for local and global weather records. PHOTO COURTESY OF MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER RESOURCES

Building capabilities in climate science

THE Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) was set up in 2013 to advance the scientific understanding and prediction of the tropical climate and weather of Singapore and the wider Southeast Asia region. CCRS’ research today broadly covers both climate and weather. The Centre develops high-resolution modelling systems for climate and weather prediction for Singapore, and conducts high-resolution downscaling of global climate projections to develop national climate change projections. CCRS’ Second National Climate Change Study analysed the future climate for Singapore and Southeast Asia at a high spatial resolution. Findings from the study are used by government agencies for long term adaptation planning. This year, CCRS is embarking on a National Sea Level Programme which will bring together researchers from CCRS, local universities and international experts to deepen our understanding of sea-level science and how sea-level rise could impact Singapore and the Southeast Asian region. CCRS is also developing a numerical weather prediction model called SINGV, which is a first-in-the-world attempt to simulate convective-scale thunderstorms over our tropical region. This long-term research aims to improve the prediction of heavy rain in Singapore, and will be useful for our aviation sector and in improving flood preparedness measures.

Adaptation and Mitigation Measures Mitigation Measures

THIS year, Singapore became the first country in Southeast Asia to implement a carbon tax. As part of Singapore’s suite of mitigation measures, the tax sends an important economywide price signal to incentivise emissions reductions in the most economically efficient way. The Government is prepared to spend more than S$1 billion of the tax revenue collected over the next five years to support projects which will deliver the necessary emissions reduction. Singapore is also pursuing innovative solutions to push the envelope further, such as investing in floating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. We will be deploying one of the world’s largest floating

inland reservoir and offshore solar PV systems, respectively, in the coming years. Singapore aims to increase our adoption of solar energy to 350 Megawatt peak by 2020, and to 1 Gigawatt peak beyond 2020.

Adaptation Measures

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) was formed on 1 April 2019 to strengthen Singapore’s food safety and security. Singapore imports more than 90% of its food supply today. It is thus exposed to global price and supply fluctuations as well as possible food supply disruptions due to climate change and disease outbreaks. The SFA will work on transforming the local agrifood industry into one that is highly productive and employs climate-resilient and sustainable technologies. It has set for itself an ambitious goal of producing 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs locally by 2030. PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, continues to invest in enhancing Singapore’s water system to make it even more resilient and sustainable. Another $400 million will be invested in the next few years on drainage improvements works to enhance Singapore’s flood resilience. As sea-level rise poses long-term existential threat to Singapore, the Government is also developing a national framework for coastal protection and studying long-term plans to protect vulnerable areas along our coasts.

Forging International Partnerships for Effective Action

BEYOND these efforts, partnership and cooperation across nations are important for effective climate action. Singapore is fully committed to supporting global action on climate change, not only because we are vulnerable, but because climate change is a global challenge that requires all countries to come on board.

Special ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Climate Action (SAMCA) and the ExpandedSAMCA (E-SAMCA)

AS the Chair of ASEAN in 2018, Singapore convened the first ever SAMCA and E-SAMCA in July 2018, where ASEAN Member States and our Plus Three Partners - China, Japan and the Republic of Korea - discussed ways to step up regional climate action. Singapore also launched the Climate Action

Package at the SAMCA. The package aims to support the region’s climate action efforts by developing capacity in key areas such as climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, green climate finance and stormwater management.

United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

SINGAPORE undertook its first Voluntary National Review at the United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July 2018. Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, shared Singapore’s sustainable development journey and progress on several Sustainable Development Goals such as water and sanitation, sustainable cities, clean energy, and responsible consumption and production.

24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-24)

SINGAPORE also contributed to the conclusion of the Paris Agreement Work Programme at COP-24 in December 2018, where Parties adopted the Katowice Climate Package. At COP-24, Minister Masagos Zulkifli co-facilitated the Ministerial negotiations on the Mitigation track with his Norwegian counterpart Mr Ola Elvastuen, at the invitation of the Polish COP-24 President, Mr Michał Kurtyka. The successful outcome at COP-24 was hard-won and demonstrates the strong support for a multilateral approach in addressing global issues such as climate change.

3rd Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia and the Pacific

THIS year, Singapore hosted the 3rd Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia and the Pacific, which served as a platform for Asia Pacific countries to discuss environmental issues, and identify priorities and solutions for the region.

Relocation of World Meteorological Organisation Regional Office for Asia and South-West Pacific

SINGAPORE is host to the World Meteorological Organisation Regional Office for Asia and the South-West Pacific (WMO RAP), which officially relocated from Geneva in September 2018.

SINGAPORE designated 2018 as the Year of Climate Action, to raise awareness on the urgency of climate change, and galvanise collective action from whole-ofsociety. Over 800 climate actionrelated events were initiated and organised by advocates from the corporate, education and civil society sectors in 2018, equivalent to two events a day. More than 340,000 individuals, organisations and educational institutions have also pledged to reduce their carbon footprint.

Many ground-up initiatives were also started, including the formation of the Climate Action SG Alliance (CASA) comprising 20 sustainability leaders from the corporate and civil society sectors, which engaged businesses to be more sustainable in their daily operations and to pledge to reduce their consumption of single-use plastics.

Sustaining the Momentum

TO sustain the momentum generated from 2018, a Climate Action Week comprising activities organised by Government, businesses and civil society to raise awareness on climate change and environmental sustainability, was held in July 2019. Singapore has also designated 2019 as its Year Towards Zero Waste, to rally Singaporeans to treasure resources, and move towards more sustainable consumption and production. It is adopting circular economy strategies to move itself closer to becoming a zero waste nation. It will be releasing its inaugural Zero Waste Masterplan this year.

A14 Friday, August 9, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

Analyzing the 2nd quarter economy

NCIENT Athenian philosopher Plato in Book VI of the Republic first used the term “Ship of State” as a metaphor of the governance of a state. He argues that the only person to be the “Captain” of the ship was a philosopher-king. Unfortunately, there are not many that can accurately put that as work experience on their résumé, although many seem to try. However, outside of government service, there are so many specialists, particularly economic masterminds. They are most apparent when government data about the economy is released. On Thursday, second quarter economic growth came in at 5.5 percent, below first quarter’s 5.6 percent. This is not as high as anyone would have hoped for but is hardly a disaster as some people would like the public to believe, considering the Philippines still has one of the strongest economies on the planet. Further, the reasons for the 5.5 percent—rather than maybe 7-percent growth—are more important than the actual number. Plato’s “ship of state” was more of a boat considering the population of the region of Attica back in his time was between 250,000 and 300,000 including slaves. Plato’s metaphor is correct to the extent that the nation—and particularly its economy—is like a giant ship in that it takes a long time and much power to move it in a particular direction, in this case up. Capital Economics—the macroeconomic research consultancy based in London—analyzed the second quarter results in detail. Here’s their findings: “The breakdown of the data shows that the slowdown was broad based, but the main cause was a sharp 8.5 percent year-on-year contraction in investment growth. This was led by a fall in investment in durable equipment, as well as a slowdown in investment growth in the construction sector. This was likely a result of the slow resumption of infrastructure projects, which had been delayed due to impasse over the 2019 budget that wasn’t passed until mid-April.” We all knew that was going to happen with the constraints on government spending during the election period and politicians more focused on votes rather than doing the job. No excuse to allow this to happen again. “Consumption growth also slowed, falling to 5.6 percent year-on-year from 6.1 percent in Q2.” The reason for that slowdown in consumer spending was that inflation has been coming down from the high levels of 2018. That brings us to the next and, perhaps, the most critical point. “Meanwhile, although the BSP looks set to cut interest rates again, the lagged effects of sharp rate hikes last year are still feeding through to the economy. Despite cuts to the policy rate and banks’ reserve requirements, credit growth has slowed and broad money growth remains low by past standards.” In other words, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) increasing interest rates—which did nothing to lower inflation—did have a negative effect on economic growth that is still being felt. The takeaway is this: Congress did not do its budget job on a timely basis. The BSP rate hikes were counterproductive to economic growth. Finally, “Growth is only likely to experience a moderate recovery over the second half of this year, and given today’s weak outturn we have lowered our 2019 forecast from 6.0 percent to 5.8 percent.” Since 2005

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Clearing a constipated medicine distribution system Sonny M. Angara

BETTER DAYS

N February 2019, in another win for social justice, President Duterte signed Republic Act 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act. The law—which we were fortunate to have coauthored and cosponsored in the Senate with our friends Sens. JV Ejercito (the principal champion of this measure) and Ralph Recto, with Quezon Rep. Helen Tan as sponsor in the House—not only ensured universal coverage for all Filipinos but also expanded the benefits and health services available to them, as well. Among the substantial reforms under the UHC law would be free basic checkups and laboratory tests—which will definitely bring a sigh of relief to many as studies show that 6 out of 10 Filipinos pass on without seeing a doctor. With the increase and expansion of PhilHealth coverage, the funding requirement to fully implement the UHC for the first year alone was estimated to be a whopping P257 billion. In fact, immediately after the May 2019 elections, the Senate rolled up its sleeves to pass the law increasing the tobacco excise tax, and imposing new taxes on heated tobacco products and vapor products to augment the funding needed for the UHC law’s implementation.

That is why the recent Commission on Audit report detailing how the Department of Health (DOH) has accumulated drugs and medicines amounting to more than P18 billion in its warehouses—with a portion nearing their expiry date—is utterly disheartening. What’s worse is that the same COA report found out that more than P30 million worth of drugs and medicines were already expired—an unconscionable waste of taxpayer’s money. The COA report hits close to home

A policeman’s honor has no price

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for many, but most especially for those who are struggling with purchasing medicines. Many Filipinos are said to under-medicate because they could not afford the required dosage. Such stories are not new— but that only makes the news of any wastage of drugs and medicines a veritable slap in the face of millions of Filipinos. One of the reasons COA cited that led to the overstock and expiration of drugs and medicines was the DOH’s inefficient procurement planning and non-monitoring of inventories. And while the DOH stated that it is currently working on the immediate distribution of the drugs and medicines still in their inventory, there is still a need to allay the concerns of many that the department is not being fiscally responsible with the finite resources allocated to them. This is why we filed Senate Resolution 53 calling for an investigation on this matter to determine where the bottlenecks of medicine distribution are and how such an issue should be addressed. Another cause for alarm is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report published last month that revealed that the Philippines— among Southeast Asian countries— has the highest incidence of falsified medicines. As stated in the report, of the total number of incidents of

TELLTALES

’M happy for my former Social Security System (SSS) colleague, Attorney Gonz Duque, for being named as the new administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority. This position has been unfilled for sometime, with the President explaining during his State of the Nation Address that he was still looking for an honest man who could administer the P100-billion coco-levy trust fund. Gonz served as vice governor of Pangasinan, deputy administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and SSS commissioner representing labor. Some quarters from the labor sector questioned his SSS appointment, alleging that he did not come from their ranks and citing his long time management role as a former president and chairman of a university that his family owned. Their concern was totally unfounded since even the labor union of SSS can attest to the fact that Commissioner Duque was a pro-labor commissioner serving the best interests of labor during his SSS stint. Malacañang said: “With his credentials, we expect a man of compe-

tence and integrity in the likes of Mr. Duque to champion the cause of the Filipino coconut farmers.” Let’s pray that Diogenes who combed the land with a lamp on his hand had truly found an honest man. I have great faith that our coconut farmers can sleep soundly with Gonz prudently safeguarding their funds. nnn

IF Metro Manilans are bedeviled by water crisis, the Kenyans are hounded by scarcity of firewood. A ban on wood cutting in the country’s vanishing forest has made firewood difficult to gather and firewood thieves are now more common in rural Kenya. Firewood theft now ranks ahead of chicken and crop theft as the

One story that gives us an inspiring lift is the news about one Makati police officer—Cpl. Claro Fornis —who refused a bribe from a motorcyclist who was earlier arrested for driving without a helmet. The offender allegedly threw six pieces of P20 bills to Officer Fornis to buy his snacks. The offender was charged with corruption of a public official and direct assault. most common crime in the countryside. Lucy Muthoni, a villager, never loves dogs but nowadays a pair of hounds always tails her whenever she goes around her farm after she lost a mountain heap of firewood last year. If firewood scarcity hits us, we should include stealing firewood as a ground for death penalty to deter criminals with burning desire to deprive us of this precious commodity. At least the Kenyans, even their thieves, have food to cook. nnn

ONE story that gives us an inspiring lift is the news about one Makati police officer—Cpl. Claro Fornis—who refused a bribe from a motorcyclist who was earlier arrested for driving without a helmet. The offender allegedly threw six pieces of P20 bills

counterfeiting and illegal distribution of pharmaceutical products from 2013 to 2017, the country sits on top, followed by Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Simply put, Filipinos are fighting a war for much-needed medicines on many fronts: 1) in terms of high and rising costs; and 2) the seeming surge of counterfeit pharmaceutical products that could have low potency, at best, or highly risky, at worst. This only underscores why the DOH cannot afford to be inefficient with its inventory—and why such wastage should not be tolerated. With the upcoming implementation of the UHC Act, the department needs to institute deep reforms, ramp up all its efforts to provide health-care services to every Filipino, and clear up all blockages in our apparently “constipated” medicine distribution system. This perennial problem with undistributed expired drugs will certainly be a major point of interest in the upcoming Senate hearings on the proposed 2020 national budget of the agency. Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 15 years—nine years as representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and six as senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He recently won another term in the Senate. E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com|Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @sonnyangara.

to Officer Fornis to buy his snacks. The offender was charged with corruption of a public official and direct assault. The honest policeman was later quoted as saying: “ Some people think lowly of us. But you cannot buy a policeman’s honor. It has no price.” Fornis was the recipient of the “Pulis Magiting Award” presented to him by the Ayala Foundation and the NCR Police Command for performing his duties “with integrity, honesty and honor,” and for performing “simple but truly admirable acts of daily heroism.” You are an exemplary police officer, Cpl. Claro Fornis. May your number increase. We salute you. nnn

LGUs and local executives are now trying to outdo one another in cleaning up their cities of illegal vendors and illegal structures blocking the streets and sidewalks. It took no less than the President to order them to get their act together and gentrify Metro Manila. Putting order in the streets and sanitation in public areas are basic services that we expect from our elective local officials. Yet, many of our mayors have dismally failed their constituents in delivering this fundamental government function. What is terribly disappointing is when our local executives themselves encourage chaos in public places in See “Dooc,” A15

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Civil society failures, economic development and social preferences Dr. Noel de Guzman

EAGLE WATCH

HE recent State of the Nation Address used colorful words such as “self-purgation” and “catharsis.” To the average listener, such exhortative words may come across as mere rhetoric—delivering shock value but nothing more. Yet, once one scratches the surface, the message these words are intended to impart is as real as it gets: individual values that define the quality of social interactions are at the heart of economic development. Behind the recognition of the socioeconomic importance of individual values is an underlying model of economic development. Largely influenced by the institutional and social traditions in economics, this model identifies three institutions whose interconnections dictate the resulting development outcome: the state, the market and civil society. The development economists Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet call this the “iron triangle of development.” Each institution is an essential part of the development process but each one relies on a different mode of social relationships. The most formal institution, the state, uses coercion as well as incentives to accomplish its tasks. The market, the most impersonal institution, relies on the forces of business competition and price signals. Civil society, on the other hand, harnesses the cooperative side of human nature and is a rich source of social capital. It is this third institution wherein personal values have a large role to play. In this framework, problems of underdevelopment materialize as a result of any failure or combination of failures of any of the three institutions. Market and state failures are well known. When markets fail, as in the cases of externalities and public goods, the state is usually expected to supply solutions. When the state itself is the source of failure, then civil society can use its voice to call for and initiate reforms. However, it is also possible for there to be a “civil society failure” when the citizens of a country possess dysfunctional, anti-development values. In a general sense, this type of institutional failure is simply a manifestation of the pervasive lack of cooperative behavior in society. Specific examples include preference and tolerance for corrupt practices, lack of respect for law, free-riding behavior, cheating, lack of patriotism, and many others. In the last World Values Survey (2014), only 39.6 percent of Filipinos surveyed said that the acceptance of bribes is never justifiable while there is a substantial 14.1 percent who said that accepting bribes is always justifiable. The causes of civil society failure are manifold. Economists usually trace the lack of cooperative behavior to inherent selfish preference, as well as the tendency to discount future returns heavily. Sociologists point to the dark side of social capital—cooperative behavior may be conditional upon whether a person

Dooc. . .

continued from A14

the guise of helping the poor secure some form of livelihood. What turns our stomach is when illegal occupation on the streets, sidewalks and parks becomes a source of graft to fill up the pockets of corrupt local officials. The inevitable result is anarchy in our streets. Thus, Mayor Isko Moreno’s prompt action to recover public places from hawkers on his first day in office is a breath of fresh air. Without waiting for the MMDA’s requirement for the mayors to submit their action plans within

is dealing with another person from the same social group. History tells us that past events and choices can lead to path dependency such that certain dysfunctional behaviors and institutions are subject to lockin. Whatever the true cause of civil society failure, the “iron triangle of development” model implies that if one of the three institutions fails, then any one of the remaining two can potentially play a “compensatory role.” In most instances, the compensatory function falls on the state. Hence, the state may call upon its citizens to reexamine their values if it believes that there is a strong case of civil society failure. The problem with this compensatory solution is that the state’s developmental function may be weakened when it tries to correct civil society failure. When the state has to act as a watchdog for many otherwise ordinary transactions, resources that could have been used for projects such as poverty reduction, increased literacy, and environmental protection are diverted to catching and prosecuting law breakers, constructing elaborate and expensive systems of regulation, and adding more bureaucracy. Without the onus of civil society failure, however, the state is relatively free to engage in its more productive functions: solving market failures and pursuing growthenhancing policies. Merely urging self-purgation may or may not be an effective strategy to address civil society failure. However, its advantage as a policy tool, compared to law enforcement, is that it is relatively costless since it is preventive rather than curative. If effective, this type of “moral suasion” can shift individual preferences into what are called social preferences, or “other-regarding preferences.” These social preferences may include preferences that place negative weights on inequality and lack of fairness, preferences that emphasize the importance of reciprocity in human interactions, and preferences based on collective intentionality or team reasoning. In the fields of behavioral and social economics, all these types of social preferences lead individuals to display cooperative behavior, which in turn selects the first-best outcome. The challenge for any government is to come up with creative programs that can push individual preferences more into becoming social preferences. The author is a faculty member of the Department of Economics, Ateneo de Manila University.

30 days from their inauguration into office, he hit the ground running. In fact, I would say that the MMDA took a cue from Mayor Isko. We all pray that Mayor Isko’s initiatives will be sustained and will not just be a ningas kugon. In this regard, the good mayor appealed to all Manilans to support his programs. He said that cleaning up Manila is everyone’s concern. As Queen Elizabeth II of England has said: “Sometimes the world’s problems are so big we think we can do little to help. On our own we cannot end wars or wipe out injustice, but the cumulative impact of thousands of small acts of goodness can be bigger than we imagine.”

Friday, August 9, 2019 A15

Questioning and loving the past Tito Genova Valiente

ANNOTATIONS

YOUNG historian on his way to the Yale School of Divinity dropped by “Savage Mind.” It is a bookstore and refuge for readers in the divinely opposition town of Naga, managed by a writer, Kristian Sendon Cordero. The historian, who still refuses to be called as such, calls to mind what Leo Tolstoy must have thought of historians, that they are “like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.” That night, Jethro Calacday asked questions over and over as if someone had asked him those questions. He asked questions while looking intently at his listeners who looked at each other to check if they did ask the questions, or if they were ever interested in the question and, consequently, the answer. Calacday, like any young researcher (and I mean this in the good sense of the word), is fastidious. Irreverent. He was the right “savage” mind in that bookstore as he asked questions after questions. He was the deaf person and we were the antagonized listeners, relishing the questions and wondering if we did ask those questions. Naga prides in having one of the oldest seminaries in the country— the Seminario Conciliar de Nueva Caceres. It was set up during the period when the city was still named “Nueva Caceres.” It is a name that Spain-loving intellectuals and apologists would love to have for the rest of their thinking lives. It is a name that has the rolling yumminess and gentle slide of an expensive butter running over a muffin pondered over by a fastidious baker. “Nueva Caceres”—say it and dream of a café, a patisserie, a baker’s paradise where bread and buns rise up to heavens in our mouth. The name does not bring in slavery, exploitation, and a powerful Church unassailable only because at a certain historical point, it was more powerful than the God it was campaigning for. T he usua l stor y, of course, applies: a conquistador comes upon a land, and hit by the lightning bolt of conquest and domination, proceeds to name the territory after a leader. This time it is GovernorGeneral Francisco de Sande from Caceres in Spain. This was in the late 16th century. Jethro Calacday would hate the estimation as he would prefer, maybe dates, specific dates from 1575 to 1580. If these dates were correct,

those five years were mighty years. The short period gave an old land a new name, a “Nueva” something. This propensity to date things is to historians as the open expanse of interpretations is to anthropologists. We do not care about dates; we care how people perceive and apprehend those dates. Oh, but this is not about anthropologists. This is about this fabulous historian who proceeded to guide his audience to a parade of dates attributed to the creation of that seminary. For each historian—academically trained or self-taught—there was, if we follow the discourse and research of Calacday, a particular date he latched on to. Sometimes, one historian would drift from one date to another and there would be no explanation at all. A common thread in the historian’s writing about the seminary is the mention of another structure, an institution that was called a “miniature seminary” by one of the friars and repeated by other historians. This “small” seminary was the “Casa de Clerigos.” Calacday went on and on showing us the many dates, some coming close to each by mere 10 years or less. In the end of the talk, Calacday asked: Why the desire to establish

Work or lotto Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

ROTHERS and sisters, probably due to the public’s outcry, President Duterte repealed the suspension of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s lotto operations. We may remember that even without a clear and detailed explanation, the President discontinued all games administered by PCSO because of what he described as widespread corruption in the agency. Within 24 hours, the PNP closed down all lotto outlets in the country, accompanied by photo-ops left and right. Although we do not consent to the culture of gambling and the propagation of games such as the lottery, it is important to know the reason why President Duterte suspended the PCSO’s operations. If corruption in PCSO is that severe, will the President’s act of stopping its operations serve as a solution? If the suspension continued, it is said that hundreds of thousands of people nationwide will lose their jobs. The financial help given by PCSO to the less fortunate

who need medical help will also be affected. Many people were relieved when President Duterte repealed the suspension of the lottery. While the public’s reaction to the suspension of the lotto games was so strong that the President has to reverse his command, our reaction to President Duterte’s veto on the Security of Tenure Bill, the proposed law that aims to end contractualization or “Endo” in the country was hardly noticed. Within days before

In Naga, there is a persistent rumor that a complex of underground canals and tunnels run beneath the old parts of the city. The maze, they say, crawls under the old seminary, plodding below the massive cathedral, crosses to the terrain occupied by the oldest normal school for women, and comforting in two termini: the Naga River and the Archbishop’s palace. older origins? A student in the audience asked: Why are there so many dates and why are they conflicting against each other? Why do we want to assert always a deeper, more distant origin? Destroyed by many wars, we rarely have anything older than a hundred years. On TV, a program called “American Pickers” shows two Midwestern “antiquarians” combing usually the Midwest in search of old things. Barns and old homes yield precious antiques and singular objects. America is lucky: they brought terrible wars to other lands but they were successful to manage battles and destructions in their lands. How many photos were lost in the last World War? How many homes were reduced to ashes? Thus, our love of ruins. Every tourism council desires a ruin. Every town or city selling heritage pines for architectures reduced to skeletal frames one could date to the early 1900s and, bravo, to the 1800s! The older the more authentic. That heavy word must be the most abused modifier for any tourism major, next to heritage. The past to us is always gilded. No one thinks of the past as violated. We are all antique collectors. We amass memories of the wealthy. We don’t call them spoils of war but

the suspension of lotto, news of the President not signing the proposed security of tenure measure was carried by the tri-media. According to the President’s spokesman, further study is needed regarding the effects of the proposed bill. This disappointed the workers’ groups who believe in the President’s campaign promise to stop all forms of laboronly contractualization. If the administration’s true priority is the welfare of workers, especially those who are losing jobs after a few months, the administration and its allies in Congress should pass a law ending the unrighteous “Endo.” But our President has been in office for three years, and “Endo” still continues. Aside from this, it seems that the public took deep sorrow in not being able to bet on the lottery instead of the government’s relaxed attention to the issues of unfairness of businessmen who belittle workers. What does this say about us being citizens? One of the primary principles of the Catholic social teaching is what we call solidarity. This refers to having people with love and care for each other, having concern in the

remnants of some other kind of wars, of forgetfulness, of not loving enough our old home and places. Archaeology is our perpetual succor. We glory in diggings because each pit assures us of a hole from which we can excavate identities. In Naga, there is a persistent rumor that a complex of underground canals and tunnels run beneath the old parts of the city like the convoluted syntax of a fire-and-brimstone preacher. The maze, they say, crawls under the old seminary, plodding below the massive cathedral, crosses to the terrain occupied by the oldest normal school for women, and comforting in two termini: the Naga River and the Archbishop’s palace. Was it Zandro Villanueva the archaeologist who told me the tunnel was really a water system created by the early Franciscans, young backpackers from Europe bearing with them the fertile minds of science developing already in their lands then? Soon, a great part of the globe, including us, is about to celebrate Magellan. The words of Hannah Arendt in “The Origins of Totalitarianism” are caustic: “…the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.” Celebrating Magellan should remind us Spanish cities had once been savagely erected over our own, old lands. And that a new way of believing supplanted the old knowledge with which we understood our universe. Nothing was the same ever again. As for Jethro, I pray he discovers the divine power of history in that school of divinity and come back to puzzle us once more about dates and make us have faith in the power of memory.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

situation of their fellow people, and having a desire to take action for the common good. This principle is revealed in the book of John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” We are not asked to literally sacrifice our lives for others for the sake of bringing the principle of solidarity to life. In small ways, like our discussions regarding the issues in society and our nation, may we choose the things that truly cause greater effect not only in ourselves but for other people, especially those who are marginalized—including our fellowmen relying on jobs without security. Brothers and sisters, now that many of us can bet on the lottery again, let us try to understand the issue of “Endo” because even more lives will benefit from continuous work and complete benefits. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 Ang Radyo ng Simbahan in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph and follow its Twitter and Instagram accounts @veritasph and YouTube at veritas846.ph. For your comments, e-mail veritas846pr@gmail.com.

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, August 9, 2019

Arta sets meeting with 5 ‘errant’ govt agencies

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

HE Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) and agencies under the Office of the President are meeting with government bodies reprimanded by President Duterte for citizen complaints to come up with measures that will curb red tape. The Arta will be sitting down with officials of the five agencies that received the most number of complaints from the government’s Contact Center ng Bayan. The meeting, which will be today, Friday, in Malacañang, is intended to identify the problematic transactions and choke points of the agencies. With the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Presidential Complaint Center and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, the Arta will recommend solutions and grievance mechanisms that will improve existing procedures of the five agencies in hot water. The five agencies invited by the Arta

are the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Social Security System (SSS), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Land Registration Authority (LRA) and the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG). According to the President, these five agencies received the most number of complaints in the government’s 8888 hot line regarding delays on the delivery of their services. In calling them to Malacañang, the Arta argued “the directive of the President to curb red tape in the government is strong and clear.” “However, much [has] to be done in ensuring our responsiveness to the people’s needs. Based on complaints received by the

‘Let’s make haste slowly on Dengvaxia relaunch’ By Butch Fernandez

Leni’s legal counsel to PNP-CIDG: Present evidence against my client By Joel R. San Juan

@butchfBM

ITH the government considering suggestions to reintroduce the controversial Dengvaxia to the market after the Department of Health (DOH) recorded more than 130,00 dengue cases as of mid-July, Sen. Richard J. Gordon has proposed for the vaccine’s French manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur to first reapply for a license for the vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Gordon pointed out that new vaccines have to undergo some processes, including checks and balances in the government, before they could be introduced for private and public use, and Dengvaxia has to first go through all these. This, he added, considering Sanofi’s statement in 2017 that Dengvaxia could only be used in people who have previously has a dengue infection as there was evidence that it may worsen subsequent infections if given to people who had no previous infection. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto, meanwhile, asked the DOH to “declog” its bureaucratic arteries and “transfuse” DOH funds to effectively check the dengue epidemic. This, even as Recto acknowledged “the fight against dengue is not for DOH alone to wage but for the whole country,” conceding that “one agency cannot win the war: It must be joined by the people.” The Senate President pro tempore welcomed positive steps being taken by the DOH to defeat the epidemic, even as he stressed that “there is no magic pill against the virus.” “There is, however, a cocktail of solutions, the formulation of which DOH takes a leading part,” Recto said, adding, “For it to perform its role, DOH needs declogging and transfusion operations.” Gordon stressed: “We should make haste on this plan slowly. Sanofi should reapply for an FDA license, if the government will reintroduce the vaccine to fight the dengue epidemic that broke out in various parts of the country. Though it was already given a license during the previous administration, the process by which the drug manufacturer got it was questionable.” The old practice in the FDA was that new drugs get a one-year provisional license during which time the company monitors a number of patients and is accountable and liable for any adverse events. However, Dr. Kenneth HartiganGo suspended this requirement, which paved the way for Dengvaxia distributor Zuellig to get an outright five-year license without undergoing the one year provisional license to take care of the required number of patients. Gordon noted that the Formulary Executive Council was also railroaded into giving an approval, although it recommended that it be done in a stage procurement and advised the government not to buy the vaccine in bulk. However, the recommendations were not followed when the government procured 1 million vaccines and proceeded to conduct a mass inoculation in various schools in several regions in the country. “We should tarry a little and make the vaccine undergo the proper process for licensing first. Let’s see if they can now comply with the requirements. It was when the process was tampered that we got into trouble and in fact made it worst for hundreds of thousands of vaccinees whose seroprevalence is unknown. I hope the DOH will not be politicized again and compromise its role as Sentinel of Public Health,” he said.

Contact Center [ng] Bayan—that’s in my office—the LTO, SSS, BIR, LRA and Pag-IBIG are the top 5 agencies that need to drastically improve their service,” Duterte said in his fourth State of the Nation Address. “I reiterate my directive to the government and instrumentalities, including the LGUs [local government units] and the government corporations: Simplify [your procedures],” he added. Under the Ease of Doing Business law, agencies are mandated to streamline their transactions by simplifying procedures and removing redundancies. Local and national government bodies are required to standardize processing time to three days for simple transactions; seven days for complex transactions; and 20 days for highly technical transactions. The law is fully operational now with its implementing rules and regulations approved by Arta Director General Jeremiah B. Belgica and promulgated in July. Public servants found violating the law will be suspended for six months on the first offense. One to six years of imprisonment; a fine of no less than P500,000 but no more than P2 million; and termination of retirement benefits await those who will commit a second count.

@jrsanjuan1573

HE camp of Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to compel the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) to furnish them all evidence and affidavits of witnesses in connection with the sedition complaint lodged against the second-highest official of the land and 35 other corespondents. In an eight-page motion filed before the DOJ through her counsel Marlon Manuel, Robredo sought the DOJ’s approval for production and copying of evidence. She noted that based on news reports, that the police has other evidence to support the allegations of Peter Joemel Advincula, but these have been withheld in the complaint filed before the DOJ. “Nevertheless, assuming that such ‘evidence’ exists, the same has been deliberately withheld from the instant proceedings, in patent violation of respondent’s rights to due process,” Robredo said in the motion. Robredo’s camp is specifically asking the DOJ to require the PNP-CIDG, which referred the case to the justice department for preliminary investigation to produce the additional evidence and witnesses they referred to in the referral letter. Manuel said his client has been provided only with the copy of the sworn statement of Advincula, who claims to be “Bikoy,” in the six-part “Ang Totoong Narcolist” videos and uploaded on YouTube, which was attached to the CIDG complaint and filed at the DOJ last July 18, 2019. “They should reveal all their evidence because PNP chief Oscar Albayalde and Larry Gadon, who is the lawyer of Peter Advincula…have been saying that they have many evidence. As respondents in this particular case, we have the right to see the whole story on the complaint,” Manuel said. The preliminary investigation on the case will start, today, Friday, August 9. The complaint for sedition/inciting to sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, and harboring a criminal/obstruction of justice against Robredo and 35 other officials and personalities was filed by PNP-CIDG National Capital Region (NCR) last July 18. Aside from Robredo, included as repondents are Senators Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel and Leila M. de Lima, former Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV, “Otso Diretso” candidates Gary C. Alejano, Florin T. Hilbay, Romulo B. Macalintal, Jose Manuel I. Diokno, Paolo Benigno A. Aquino II, Samira GutocTomawis, and Lorenzo R. Tañada III. Archbishops Pablo Virgilio S. David and Socrates B. Villegas, Bishops Teodoro C. Bacani and Honesto F. Ongtioco, Bro. Armin Luistro, and clergy members Robert Reyes and Albert E. Alejo. Also named as respondents were former Integrated Bar of the Philippines President Abdiel Dan Elijah S. Fajardo, incumbent IBP President Egon Q. Cayosa; lawyers Minerva Ambrosio, Theodore O. Te, Serafin Salvador and Philip Sawali. They are being accused of being behind the release of the Ang Totoong Narcolist featuring Advincula, alias Bikoy, the hooded man in the videos which linked President Duterte, his family members and several associates in the illegal-drug trade in the country. Advincula is among those charged but he is likely to be used as state witness for the prosecution. In his affidavit, Advincula said the release of the videos was part of the so-called Project Sodoma hatched by the respondents. Project Sodoma allegedly sought to publicly discredit the President and destabilize his government by implicating him, his family and other government officials in drug syndicates. The project which was planned as early as August 2018, was also intended allegedly to derail the senatorial bid of the candidates under the Hugpo ng Pagbabago in the last election and, at the same time, prop up those from the opposition Otso Diretso.

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If you have any information / objection to the above mentioned application/s, please communicate with the Regional Director thru Employment Promotion and Workers Welfare (EPWW) Division with Telephone No. 400-6011.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

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Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Friday, August 9, 2019

DOE grants EPNS status to First Gen’s LNG

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE LNG (liquefied natural gas) project of First Gen Corp. has been declared as an “Energy Project of National Significance” (EPNS) in accordance with Executive Order 30 (EO 30).

riers with capacities ranging from 40,000 to 177,000 cubic meters; a 200,000-cubic-meter LNG storage tank with a maximum sendout capacity of up to 5 metric tons per annum (MTPA); two LNG truck loading bays; as well as provisions for a future LNG carrier loading system for vessel capacities ranging from 5,000 to 40,000 cubic meters. The second phase includes an additional 200,000-cubic-meter LNG storage tank, increasing its sendout capacity up to 7 MTPA; two additional LNG truck loading bays and an LNG carrier reloading system. The company targets to finish the LNG terminal before gas from the Malampaya facility runs out in 2024. First Gen already operates four gas-fed power plants with an aggregate capacity of about 2,000 MW. These are the 1,000-MW Santa Rita, 500-MW San Lorenzo, 414-MW San Gabriel and 97-MW Avion. The company said its LNG project will play a critical role in ensuring the energy security of the Philippines and the Luzon grid, particularly when the indigenous Malampaya gas resource no longer produces sufficient fuel for the country’s existing gas-fired power plants, and certainly not for addi-

FGEN LNG Corp. (FGEN LNG), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Gen Corp., said Thursday that its application for EPNS declaration filed in June has been approved by the Energy Investment Coordinating Council (EICC) through the Department of Energy (DOE). EPNS are significant energy projects for power generation, transmission and/or ancillary services including those required to maintain grid stability and security, and which are in consonance with the policy thrusts and specific goals of the DOE’s Philippine Energy Plan (PEP). FGEN LNG’s application for declaration was submitted on the basis that its LNG project will require the development of significant infra-

structure and capital investment involving complex technical processes and engineering designs that will result in a substantial positive impact on the environment. The LNG hub will be built in the First Gen Clean Energy Complex (FGCEC) in Barangays Santa Clara, Santa Rita Aplaya and Bolbok, Batangas City, under the management and ownership of FGEN LNG. FGEN LNG has completed significant predevelopment work to make the project site “constructionready.” It broke ground on its LNG hub, estimated to cost from $700 million to $1 billion, in May. The project will be developed in two phases. The first includes new unloading facilities for LNG car-

Bloomberry income falls in H1 on higher interest expense

AirAsia lobbies to cut airport terminal fee, junk travel tax

AZON-LED Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the operator of Solaire Resort and Casino, said its net income fell 12 percent during the first half of the year to P4.65 billion, from last year’s P5.33 billion. The company said it had lower foreignexchange gains for the period and higher interest expenses from the full drawdown of the P73.5-billion syndicated loan which it secured last year. For the second quarter alone, it had a net income of P2.45 billion, or more than half of the P1.61 billion it earned last year. Revenues for the period rose 21 percent higher to P11.62 billion, from P9.621 billion last year. Most the of net revenues were generated in the Philippines and only 1 percent was generated by its Korea operations. Consolidated net revenues in the first six months of the year were P22.38 billion, up by 12 percent from last year. “In the second quarter of 2019, Bloomberry delivered another solid set of results led by Solaire’s robust performance across all its gaming segments. It has been a great year so far and we will strive to carry this momentum into the next six months,” Enrique K. Razon Jr., the company’s chairman and CEO, said. Consolidated gross gaming revenues (GGR) for the first half of the year grew 10 percent to P28.62 billion, from P26.13 billion last year. Total GGR at Solaire was P28.23 billion, up 8 percent from the previous year. Solaire’s VIP, mass tables and electronic gaming machine’s gross gaming revenues were P12.16 billion, P8.07 billion and P8 billion, respectively, posting growth of 3 percent, 8 percent and 17 percent, respectively. VG Cabuag

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

UALA LUMPUR—Budget carrier AirAsia Philippines is pushing for lower taxes and fees on international flights, as the rationale of some of these extra costs is already “outdated,” an official said on Thursday. AirAsia Global Affairs Head in the Philippines Desiree Maxino told reporters that AirAsia Philippines is lobbying for lower taxes and fees for international flights from Philippine airports as part of their overall initiative to make flying more affordable. In particular, AirAsia is pushing for airport terminal fees—ranging from 550 to 850 pesos for international flights depending on the airport—to be slashed in half. Maxino said Filipinos should not have to pay this much if they wish to fly international from the Philippines, as they already have to shell out money just to go to the airport. As for the Philippine Travel Tax, AirAsia wants it abolished altogether. For Filipinos traveling internationally, a P1,620 travel tax is imposed by the Philippine government as provided for by Presidential Decree (PD) 1183 issued by then-President Ferdinand Marcos. “It’s a Marcos-era law and we are lobbying to have it removed. During the Marcos years, there was an attempt to try to limit the number of

Filipinos traveling overseas because people will go out and say they’re tourists and then they don’t return to the country,” Maxino said. “You want people to be able to fly. You don’t want just tourists to go, you also want to allow Filipinos to also fly out. And that takes a big portion of your total travel costs. It just adds to the three cost components when you travel by the airline,” she said. According to the AirAsia official, about 70 percent of international flights from the Philippines were “low-cost” in 2017, which means there is huge demand for lower prices of international flights in the country. “We can tell you more about our push, AirAsia’s push for dedicated low-cost flights. We think this is very important to match the market demand,” she said. Maxino said Sen. Koko Pimentel filed a bill in the 17th Congress to abolish the travel tax. “Fifty percent of the tax goes to Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority [Tieza], 40 percent goes to the Commission on Higher Education, 10 percent goes to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. And Senator Pimentel acknowledges that these are very important agencies to support but, perhaps, they can get their funding from the general operations instead of asking every single Filipino wanting to travel overseas to pay for this tax,” she said.

SMC’s H1 income dips 5% on Petron, food profit weakness

ONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. said its income slid 5 percent during the first half of the year ending June to P26.15 billion from last year’s P27.58 billion on continued profit fall of its food and petroleum units. Revenues barely moved at P509.5 billion for the first six months of the year, from P499 million last year. Consolidated operating income was lower by 14 percent to P57.61 billion from last year’s P67 billion as Petron Corp. continued to be weighed down by prevailing movements in world crude oil prices and

weak refining margins, it said. Petron’s Bataan refinery was also temporarily shut down during this period for major maintenance and additional repairs required following the April 22 earthquake. San Miguel Pure Foods was likewise affected by rising raw material costs. SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. posted consolidated off-take volume growth of 14,635 gigawatt hour during the first semester, 28 percent higher than in the same period in 2018. There were new bilateral contracts from the additional power

generated by the Masinloc, Limay, and Malita power plants, and improved plant capacity factors from the Sual and Ilijan facilities. Consolidated revenues increased 26 percent to P72.5 billion from P57.4 billion last year, while operating income increased 8 percent to P18.4 billion. SMC Infrastructure’s operating toll roads posted a combined 6-percent vehicular traffic volume growth compared to the same period last year. Consolidated revenues amounted to P12.3 billion, slightly higher than the previous year, while operating income ended at P6 billion. VG Cabuag

tional gas-fired power plants. “We would like to sincerely thank the Department of Energy for approving our application for the FGEN Batangas LNG Terminal Project as an Energy Project of National Significance. “We believe that this project is crucial to ensure the continued operations of the 3.2-GW existing natural gas-fired plants given the expected reduction in gas supply from the Malampaya field up to the expiration of the contracts by 2024,” said Jonathan Russell, executive vice president and chief commercial of-

ficer of First Gen. He added: “First Gen will continue to work hard to ensure that this project will also be available to allow the development of new gas-fired capacity, with a lower carbon footprint that will support introduction of more intermittent renewables for the Philippines.” First Gen has partnered with Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. for the LNG project. Both signed a joint development agreement (JDA) in December last year. T he JDA is a prel im ina r y agreement between the parties

to jointly pursue development of FGEN LNG project with Tokyo Gas taking a 20-percent participating interest. It said the project is also consistent with both the DOE’s Nine Point Energy Agenda and PEP 2017-2040 as it promotes liquefied natural gas importation as an option to supplement and replace Malampaya gas. FGEN LNG also received in March the formal approval of its application for a Notice to Proceed from the DOE, as defined in and required by the Philippine Downstream Natural Gas Regulation.

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PLDT tweaks core net income target for 2019 to ₧26.4 billion

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

IGITAL services provider PLDT Inc. has slightly adjusted its core net income target for 2019, as it posted encouraging results in the first half of the year on the back of the robust growth of its wireless business, which will now be headed by Alfredo S. Panlilio, as well as the slight increases in its other businesses.

Manuel V. Pangilinan, the company’s president, said the group’s core guidance for the year is now at P26.4 billion, a slight increase from the P26-billion core net income target that he announced earlier this year. This slight increase will be fuelled by the expected growth in both its mobile and fixed-line verticals— both for the consumer and the enterprise side. It will also be driven by the continued slowdown in losses from its international business, which has shifted its focus from the traditional overseas voice and text service to a more digital app-based premium service for overseas Filipinos. “This gives us greater confidence that we shall attain our overall business goals for this year. In this light,

and given the momentum we have seen in the first half of 2019, we are confident that we will attain our guidance for full-year telco core income of P26.4 billion,” he said. During the first semester, the company booked a net income of P12.2 billion, clocking a 4-percent growth from the year prior, as its revenues grew by 6 percent to P76.7 billion, while reducing expenses by 5 percent to P63.66 billion. Its telco core income, which does not take into account the losses from start-up subsidiary Voyager Innovations Inc. and the gains from its Rocket Internet shares, was flat at P13.2 billion. The consumer wireless business saw its revenues increasing by 20

percent to P34.4 billion, with data and broadband accounting for twothirds of the said figure. Revenues from its home business only increased slightly by 2 percent to P18.3 billion due to the lingering impact of the disruption of its installation and repair services that started in the latter part of 2018. Its enterprise business, on the other hand, grew by 6 percent to P19.4 billion, as it ramps up its information and communications technology (ICT) offerings, as well as growth from its data center, cloud, cyber security and managed services. To support the sustainability of its growth trajectory, the company’s board appointed Panlilio to lead Smart Communications Inc. concur-

rent with his post as the chief revenue officer of PLDT. Pangilinan signaled that Panlilio might be chosen as his replacement as the chief executive and president of PLDT. He noted, however, that this will be determined by the board in the future. “It might be drawing near. We have a more stabilized revenue picture and I somewhat feel that we’re achieving a steady state in growth and stability in revenues, as well as profitability,” he said. “For now, I’d like to see 2019 on a high note.” Pangilinan noted that while his group is performing well in terms of profitability, there is still a lot more work to be done to improve its share price in the market.

briefs

WILCON INCOME UP 8.8% IN H1

HOME improvement and construction supplies retailer Wilcon Depot Inc. on Thursday said its income grew 8.8 percent in the first half of the year to P995 million, from last year’s P914 million on higher sales. Sales rose close to 18 percent to P11.77 billion, from last year’s P10 billion, mainly on new store openings. The company said the growth came despite a high base effect from last year’s sales that shot up as a result of the election. On a per format basis, the depots still contributed the bulk, or 95.7 percent of total net sales, while project sales or those items sold to large property developers and to the hospitality industry amounted to P173 million, up 20 percent. Project sales account for the remaining 1.5 percent of Wilcon’s total net sales. The company, however, said it had flat earnings in the quarter. “The flat earnings growth of 1.1 percent we had in the second quarter was mainly due to the base effect and the slowdown in sales because of the long holidays in April wherein we also had less number of operating days and the elections in May,” said Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, the company’s president and CEO. VG Cabuag

ABOITIZPOWER SUPPLIES SM

ABOITIZ Power Corp. will supply up to 110 megawatts (MW) of power to the 15 facilities of SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SM Prime). In a ceremonial signing, SM Prime entered into a Retail Electricity Supply (RES) contract with AboitizPower to supply one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia an aggregate demand of 50MW up to 110MW for three years. SM Prime Holdings President Jeffrey C. Lim said the company chose AboitizPower because of its “values that we would like to replicate.” Lenie Lectura

MUTUAL FUNDS

August 8, 2019

NAV ONE YEAR THREE YEAR FIVE YEAR Y-T-D PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 261.87 -0.33% -1.66% 0.65% 3.83% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 1.6101 8.4% 4.8% 2.38% 11.75% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 4.0833 -1.6% -2.48% -0.34% 4.62% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP. -A 0.951 3.46% N.A. N.A. 5.55% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. -A 0.8699 1.2% N.A. N.A. 5.99% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC. -A 5.4436 0.36% -0.74% 0.69% 3.23% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,6 0.8737 -1.25% -5.17% N.A. 4.42% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. -A 119.73 10.75% N.A. N.A. 3.07% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC. -A 52.1532 2.21% -0.74% N.A. 5.95% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 545.94 2.57% -1.51% 0.64% 6.06% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC. -A 1.3252 3.99% 0.06% 2.21% 5.68% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC. -A 38.8235 3.96% 0.76% 2.15% 5.98% PHILEQUITY MSCI PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,3 1.0361 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC. -A 5.2934 3.07% 0.27% 2.63% 6.75% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP. -A 884.01 3.14% -0.02% 2.6% 6.71% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 0.9325 6.1% -0.4% N.A. 8.43% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC. -A 4.3551 4.25% 0.44% 2.27% 7.3% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC. -A 1.0158 2.68% -0.07% N.A. 6.44% UNITED FUND, INC. -A 3.7278 2.34% 1.47% 2.99% 6.48% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC. -A,C,2 118.371 3.54% 0.81% 3.64% 6.88% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC. -B $0.9183 -10.54% 1.7% -2.03% -1.16% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC. -A $1.2615 -2.4% 6.96% N.A. 14.14% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC. -A 1.7349 2.39% -2.21% -1.44% 5.07% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 2.3316 1.32% -1.06% 0.69% 5.54% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC. -A 2.6661 1.55% -0.4% -1.15% 4.84% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION -A 1.3509 0.21% N.A. N.A. 3.57% NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC. -A 1.9559 4.49% 0.11% 1.44% 6.12% PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC. -A 3.8054 4.66% -1% 0.83% 7.82% PHILAM FUND, INC. -A 17.072 5.15% -0.87% 0.76% 7.32% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC. -A 2.153 2.1% 0.06% 1.76% 4.05% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 3.9177 5.31% -0.01% 1.62% 7.3% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2028, INC. -A,D,4 1.0249 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2038, INC. -A,D,4 1.0145 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2048, INC. -A,D,4 1.0111 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC. -A 1.0046 6.36% 0.27% 1.47% 8.99% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC. -A $0.03795 7.87% 1.71% 2.42% 7.51% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC. -A $0.9561 -4.41% 1.17% -1.7% 4.64% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC. -A $3.7009 1.02% 5% 2.88% 11.86% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC. -A $1.1065 3.31% 3.34% N.A. 9.55% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 352.68 3.71% 2.12% 2.31% 2.68% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC. -A,1 1.9077 2.5% 0.09% 0.07% 2.61% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 3.0598 5.12% 5.21% 5.23% 2.81% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC. -A 2.2121 4.31% 1.15% 2.14% 3.89% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC. -A 2.3424 5.74% 1.31% 1.62% 6.23% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP. -A P 1.6078 1.64% -2% 0.13% 2.77% PHILAM BOND FUND, INC. -A 4.2859 8.66% 0.22% 1.83% 9.34% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 3.73 6.9% 0.7% 1.65% 6.05% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. -A 0.9522 5.52% -0.44% N.A. 6.84% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC. -A 3.0148 9.04% 1.25% 2.53% 9% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC. -A 1.6743 9.11% 0.81% 2.08% 8.73% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $461.2 3.91% 1.67% 2.79% 2.85% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. -A Є219.4 2.7% 1.3% 1.56% 3.16% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -B $1.1902 6.57% 1.93% 2.52% 5.73% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $0.0258 4.03% 0.92% N.A. 4.03% GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP. -A $1.7153 1.06% -2.19% 0.59% 1.49% PAMI GLOBAL BOND FUND, INC -A $1.0972 5.95% -0.37% -1.65% 5.88% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $2.38 9.59% 1.07% 3.56% 9.64% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC. -A $0.0597327 5.22% 1.67% 1.95% 4.79% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC. -A $3.1375 8.56% 0.51% 3.12% 9.24% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 124.22 4.01% 2.57% 2.04% 2.76% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A,5 1.0192 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 1.2358 5.44% 2.31% 1.4% 4.56% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 1.2499 3.88% 2.74% 2.11% 2.52% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC. -A $1.0303 2.19% N.A. N.A. 1.42% 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 - ADJUSTED DUE TO CASH DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JANUARY 29, 2018. 2 - ADJUSTED DUE TO STOCK DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JUNE 5, 2018. 3 LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 3, 2019. 4 - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 28, 2019. 5 - LAUNCH DATE IS FEBRUARY 1, 2019. 6 - RENAMING WAS APPROVED BY THE SEC LAST OCTOBER 12, 2018 (FORMERLY, ONE WEALTHY NATION FUND, INC.). "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

Sy-owned bank nets ₧4.2B in H1, up 18% C HINA Banking Corp. (Chib) announced having posted P4.2 billion in consolidated profits for the first semester of the year, which is 18-percent higher compared to the same period last year. The bank led by the Sy family said its net income jumped 27 percent for the second quarter against the first quarter of the year. “The sustained loans and deposits buildup and greater contribution from fee-based businesses resulted to improved earnings, which translated to a year-onyear return on equity of 9.45 percent and return on assets of 0.95 percent,” the bank said. Net interest income rose 6 percent to P11.7 billion, driven by double-digit growth in loans and securities. Meanwhile, fee-based income grew better than expected, by 61 percent to P3.4 billion, from higher trading gains, and service fees and commissions. “Our strong financial performance in the first half reflects our good fundamentals that provide the foundation for sustainable growth,” Chib President William C. Whang was quoted in the statement as

saying. “As we continue to build on our strengths, we are confident about meeting our goals for the year and delivering value to our customers and other stakeholders.” The 99-year-old bank said its total resources stood at P908 billion, 18 percent higher year-on-year. Deposits grew 15 percent to P750 billion, underpinned by a 15-percent increase in checking and savings accounts. Gross loans reached P533 billion, up 12 percent, driven by stronger demand across all customer segments. Despite the sustained loans growth, nonperforming loans ratio improved to 1.2 percent from 1.5 percent, while NPL coverage expanded to 148 percent. Total capital funds rose 8 percent to P90.4 billion. The bank said its Common Equity Tier 1 and total capital adequacy ratios stood at 12.9 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively, the bank said. Chib successfully raised P30 billion last month as investors supported its maiden issue of peso fixed rate bonds. Six times oversubscribed, it was one of the largest corporate bond issuances on a single issuance in the market and had the most number of registered bondholders to date.

The CEO as a board member?

CCORDING to the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE), most associations and other membership organizations in our country are governed and managed at the same time by volunteers. This is not the case in the United States where many associations, such as business enterprises, are governed separately by a volunteer board and run by a paid management staff headed by a chief executive officer (executive director or secretary general in the Philippine context). For those in this governance model, there is an ongoing debate on whether the CEO should be a member of the board and whether he or she should be in a voting or nonvoting capacity. The jury is still out there on this, but in most Western literature on association governance that I have read, the ex-officio, nonvoting CEO seems to be the preferred way to go. The main advantage is because the CEO is the one closest to the strategy, execution, and day-to-day decision-making in fulfilling the association’s mission. His inputs are critical for the volunteer board to do its fiduciary tasks well. One critical factor against this thinking is that of a potential conflict of interest. Even without this practice, there are things that associations can do to balance the need for the CEO’s input without triggering conflicts of interest. Whatever the CEO’s official status, his insights into the daily operations of the organization are essential to board decision-making. As with things in this world, there’s no one good practice in this regard that fits all associations. There are benefits and risks to having a CEO who also serves as a board member. Legally, all board members do have fiduciary duties so they should have voting rights. A nonvoting board member is really considered only as a “guest” to attend board meetings and the board still have the option of going into an executive

Association World Octavio Peralta session without the CEO. All these said, nonvoting board members, however, may still be prohibited under the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines (Republic Act 11232, or the Act Providing for the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines). I am not a lawyer but Section 24 of the Code, which also covers nonstock corporations such as associations, explicitly mentions that “the president [alternative title for CEO] must be a director [or trustee],” meaning, a voting member of the board. Not many in the association community here may realize the implications this revised code have on the current status and dynamics on the governance of associations and nonstock corporations. It may be prudent and wise that associations here be well-acquainted with the law to avoid unnecessary compliance risks and/or possible sanctions, if not outright penalties. The column contributor, Octavio “Bobby” Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (Adfiap) and the CEO and founder of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE). PCAAE is holding the Associations Summit 7 (AS7) on November 27 and 28, 2019, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) which is expected to draw over 200 association professionals here and abroad. The two-day event is supported by Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board and the PICC. E-mail inquiries@adfiap.org for more details on AS7.

Dy-led bank posts higher profit in Q2

ECURITY Bank Corp. (SBC) announced it posted P2.57 billion in net income for the April 1 to June 30 period, up 32 percent versus year-ago level. In a statement, the bank chaired by Frederick Y. Dy said total revenues grew 32 percent year-on-year (YOY) to P7.9 billion. “Net interest income from customer loans and deposits sustained its strong trajectory growing by 44 percent to P5.4 billion,” according to the 68-year-old bank’s statement. “This was driven by the continued expansion of retail loans and low-cost deposits. Retail loan growth accelerated to 54 percent YOY while low-cost deposits increased 11 percent. Retail loans now account for 25 percent of total loans versus 18 percent a year ago.” The bank said its total loans grew 11 percent YOY to P427 billion while total deposits stood at P449 billion. The bank issued on June 28 about P18 billion worth of fixed-rate peso corporate bonds with a tenor of two years “as a costefficient funding source alternative to shortterm high-cost deposits.” Total deposits

and peso corporate bonds combined grew 5 percent YOY. Net interest spread on loans and deposits increased to 5.36 percent in the second quarter, up 38 basis points quarter-on-quarter (QOQ) and 108 basis points YOY, SBC said. Total net interest income grew by 22 percent to P6.1 billion. Interest income from financial investments grew 7 percent. Overall, net interest margin increased to 3.59 percent in the second quarter, up 18 basis points QOQ and 42 basis points YOY. Service charges, fees and commissions increased 70 percent to P1 billion. This was driven by loan fees, credit cards, deposit charges and bancassurance. Securities trading gains in Q2-2019 amounted to P376 million. Total noninterest income increased by 81 percent YOY to P1.7 billion, the bank said. For the January 1 to June 30, 2019, period, net income was P4.95 billion, up 15 percent from year-ago level. Net interest income from customer loans and deposits increased by 37 percent or P2.7 billion to P10.1 billion, according to SBC.

Friday, August 9, 2019

Bills covering four tranches of tax-reform program filed

HE deputy speaker for finance at the lower chamber has filed the Department of Finance (DOF) version of the measures covering four tranches of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP). In a statement, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said he filed House Bill 1909, which seeks to reduce the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 20 percent by 2029 and rationalize fiscal incentives. Villafuerte also filed HB 1908, which aims “to put in place a just, equitable and impartial” real property valuation system for local government units (LGUs) based on international standards. He added that he also pushed HB 1907, which aims to encourage the development of the capital market “by making the tax system in the financial sector fairer, simpler, more efficient and revenue neutral.” Villafuerte also filed HB 1906, further increasing excise taxes on alcoholic drinks and smoking alternatives, such as heated tobacco and vapor (vaping) products. According to the lawmaker, these CTRP packages will broaden the revenue base, simplify and update the country’s complicated tax system and ensure the country’s long-term fiscal stability. Villafuerte said the Philippines, for the first time ever, recently secured from Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings a credit rating of “BBB+,” a grade lower than an “A” rating. The latter is generally given to the world’s stable economies, he said.

Tax base

THE lawmaker said his HB 1909, which represents Package 2 of the CTRP, “will widen the corporate tax base and plug its leakages, and help alleviate the burden on the business community, especially the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.” He said reforming tax incentives system should be “rationalized and disciplined

Lawmaker wants POGOs safe vs money launderers

LAWMAKER urged members of the House of Representatives to craft measures that would regulate and prevent Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) from being used as money laundering vehicles by local and foreign big-time drug syndicates and other criminal groups. House Committee on Dangerous Drugs Chairman Robert S. Barbers said the government “apparently appears blind on the possibility that it may be used by drug syndicates and other crime groups to launder their money here.” “We should adopt and impose strict laws, and rules and regulations to ensure that no drug or other crime syndicates would use dummy individuals to set up dummy POGO firms and be granted Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.] franchises and use them to launder their money,” Barbers was quoted in a statement as saying. According to him, the government, particularly the Pagcor, should conduct due diligence in granting franchises to these POGO firms that have now scattered all over the country. He said Pagcor has reportedly granted 87 POGO franchises from firms coming mostly from China. “But we received raw reports that there are now more than 300 POGO firms operating in the country,” he added. Citing reports, Barbers said that Pagcor, which grants foreign online casino operators in the so-called POGO franchise, was expecting additional revenue of P6 billion this year. But as of July this year, the BIR has collected only P200 million from foreigners—mostly Chinese–working in the country. The Department of Finance earlier said they could collect P2 billion a month in taxes from POGO workers. The Pagcor conceptualized POGOs to enable the Philippine government to capture a greater share of the growing, yet previously unregulated, online gaming pie, Barbers’s statement said. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

and” is expected to attract investments that will deliver tangible benefits to the people. In seeking to institute reforms in the real property valuation system, Villafuerte added these will correct inefficiencies that have hindered the growth of the country’s land sector. Villafuerte, a former governor, said HB 1908, which constitutes Package 3 of the CTRP, seeks to implement the reforms in the system through the Bureau of Local Government Finance. The BLGF is tasked as the lead agency to review and approve the “Schedule of Market Values” (SMV) of all LGUs. “With more than 23 national government agencies and 1,700 LGUs using different systems and methodologies, inefficiencies are sure to arise from the lack of a unified national standard,” Villafuerte added. He said placing the task of reviewing the SMVs of local governments on the BLGF, which is under the DOF, will “separate the technical function of real property valuation from the political function of taxation practiced by local elective officials.” Moreover, he said HB 1907 aims to simplify the 80 tax rates and tax bases in the financial sector to reduce costs, encourage transparent returns on investment, and develop the capital market “by adjusting, if not removing altogether, taxes that deter legitimate movement toward the initial public listing of companies.”

‘Sin’ tax

LIKEWISE, Villafuerte said an updated “sin” tax-reform law, as outlined in HB 1906, is necessary to discourage smoking

and excessive alcohol drinking, especially among the youth, while raising revenues to completely fill the funding huge requirement for the Universal Health Care (UHC) program. “Imposing higher excise taxes is still the most effective policy tool to affect prices to discourage consumption of sin products, in particular, among the youth and the poor who are the most sensitive to price changes,” the lawmaker said. While the previous Congress raised taxes on cigarettes and introduced a new tax on heated tobacco products (HTPs) and vapor products, Villafuerte said the estimated revenues generated from this law will only amount to P15.7 billion in 2020, and a total of P129.9 billion from 2020 to 2024, which is not enough to close funding gap of UHC program. He said the funding shortfall of the UHC program in 2020, the first year of its implementation, is an estimated P62 billion.

Expected gains

VILLAFUERTE said the additional revenues from his new sin tax reform proposal will “help sustain PhilHealth coverage for all Filipino families; improve accessibility and affordability to quality health care, and provide better outpatient benefit package, including checkup or consultation and medicines.” The lawmaker said HTPs fall within the definition of cigarettes under Republic Act 9211 and, thus, should be taxed the same rates as cigarettes. The health impact and safety of vapor products, has not yet been conclusively determined, according to Villafuerte. “However, because of the established addictive effect of nicotine, we propose to increase the excise tax rates of vapor products to discourage consumption,” he added. “To prevent children and youth from consuming vapor products, variants with flavoring other than plain tobacco or plain menthol, are proposed to be prohibited.” Earlier, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda said his committee will start hearing the measure increasing and restructuring the excise tax rates on alcohol next week. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

B4 Friday, August 09, 2019

Agri business expands with new products, trading hubs

CAREER MILESTONE. Capt. Alfonso Julian “Biboy” J. Rodriguez (extreme right), a 39 year veteran commercial pilot, poses for a souvenir shot in the cockpit of a Philippine Airlines (PAL) Airbus Neo 321 with other flight deck crew after completing his “last landing” as captain of the passenger aircraft on July 15, 2019 on PR 405, CTS-MNL. With Capt. Rodriguez are Flight Officer (F/O) Miguel Raphael K. Porcuna; Capt. Nicolo L. Puzon and F/O Monica Maria V. Rodriguez, daughter of Capt. Alfonso Rodriguez. In the entire duration of his career, Capt. Rodriguez also piloted early and late generation airplanes like the HS-748; Fokker-50; Airbus-320; G-150 and Boeing 777-300 ER and Airbus 321.

ust over a year old, Leads International Corporation, the sales and marketing arm of Leads Agricultural Products Corporation, expanded its product portfolio and eyes to open five new trading hubs located at major cities nationwide. Hiraya Brown Rice, its flagship brand of premium quality rice grains, now comes with a variety called Hiraya Germinated Rice. Besides the variant, it is also offered in two flavors: Hiraya Dagtum (Black Garlic) and Hiraya Kunig (Turmeric). Aside from functional food, LIC

introduced Green Home, an effective, safe and odorless insect killer, perfect for the rainy, dengue season. These are marketed along with the Vera Soap and Lotion lines and food supplements. LIC's future hubs will be located in the cities of Baliuag, Olongapo, Paranaque, Lapu-lapu, Dasmarinas, and Tagbilaran. Leads Agri is primarily engaged in the importation and distribution of non-crop, public health, pest control, agricultural inputs, and crop protection products, such as pesticides, foliar fertilizers, hybrid

seeds, agrochemical formulations, and plant management service contracts. Now, on its 21st year, Leads has expanded its business to include innovative health, wellness and beauty products, creating more opportunities to make all its distributors, employees and business partners truly “Proud to be Filipino.” In photo are, from left: Leads President Jofer Malveda, EVP Dr. Angie Malveda and VP for External Affairs James Joven, during the company's sales rally in Quezon City.

SM CITY CLARK SHOWCASES TERNOCON 2019. Bench and the Cultural Center of the Philippines celebrated contemporary arts as SM City Clark exhibits modern balintawaks and ternos for TernoCon 2019. The exhibit was launched at The Event Centre and will continue its showcase for the public until August 9, 2019. TernoCon2019 was championed by Pampanga’s Marlon Tuazon who bagged gold medals for both Balintawak and Formal Terno competitions.

Laundry Business: How to Guarantee Success

aundromats have actually been in existence since the 1930s in the United States: a row of fully automated self-service machines where people brought their own detergent and waited for their laundry to finish. For the Philippines, laundromats actually only started becoming popular in the late 90s and these were full service in nature. People came in and dropped off their laundry and picked them up at a later time already packed and folded. But a few years back, we started seeing the growth of self-service laundry shops and these have become so popular that you can now see one in every corner of the neighborhood. The proven advantages of the laundry business consistently make this industry a solid business choice. Experts say that the combination of flexibility and high demand appeals to aspiring entrepreneurs since these factors raise the probability of success. Besides this, it is also an advantage that laundry shops are recession-resistant as clean clothes are considered a basic necessity. Unlike other industries, the targeted customers are not restricted to certain age groups; everyone needs clean clothes so everyone is a potential customer. As a cash business, there are minimized struggles with accounts receivables and low capital investments can even bring high rates of return. Where else do you have the possibility of earning back a one million investment in just 18 months? And where else can you operate a shop where your customers do their own work? However, we must remember that success only comes with choosing the right equipment. Durability and dependability are a must before making decisions. And with Whirlpool-Maytag Commercial Laundry, these are not just words but

commitments to their partners and customers. This is why more than 1500 laundromats in the country have chosen the brand as their partner in the laundry industry. Whirlpool-Maytag offers an extended line of commercial and industrial laundry equipment such as washers, dryers, and stackable units for you to select from that offer reliable performance and highenergy savings. They are equipped with an Inverter Drive Technology that ensures energy efficiency and high extraction speeds which lessens the wear and tear on its components. These models also have advanced software that tracks payments, wash cycles, and settings so both the customers and owners can relax without worrying about their security. You can rely on Whirlpool-Maytag Commercial Laundry to work with you in determining the right solutions for your needs. From equipment selection and installation, you’ll have the knowledge and experience of an industry leader behind you through the business seminars they offer nationwide. You can profit from both our legendary reliability, and the ongoing support of the world’s #1 preferred laundry brand. Filipinos trust Whirlpool-Maytag Commercial Laundry to make their lives easier and their businesses more profitable. It’s that trust in the Whirlpool-Maytag brand that has helped build customer loyalty year after year because you can guarantee that you have a brand that’s ready to support you every step of the way.

The laundry industry has a lot of untapped potential waiting to be discovered. Should you decide to start your own laundry business, Whirlpool-Maytag Commercial Laundry is ready to help you get started. To schedule a consultation, you may contact Ms. Windy Punzalan at (0917) 8236285 or at mpunzalan@exatech.com.ph. For more information, you can drop by their showrooms located in Quezon City, Cebu, Davao, IloIlo, and Bacolod, or visit their website at www.whirlpoolmaytag.com.ph. the prestigious Fred Maytag Award for outstanding achievement

Ms. Windy Punzalan, Brand Manager

Mr. John Sioco, Operations Director

Engr. Errol Celadeña, Senior Sales Engineer

Product demo of Whirlpool-Maytag Commercial Laundry equipment

BILES: IT HITS YOU LIKE A TRAIN WRECK

Sports BusinessMirror

| Friday, August 9, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

SIMONE BILES works on the beam during practice for the US Gymnastics Championships on Wednesday in Kansas City. AP

Ronaldo lawyers file documents after Vegas rape case ruling

AS VEGAS—Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyers have filed court documents following a judge’s decision not to dismiss or keep completely secret a lawsuit by a Nevada woman who accuses the Portuguese soccer star of raping her in 2009. Partially blacked-out pleadings submitted Tuesday in United States District Court revealed no new information, and lawyers for Ronaldo’s accuser, Kathryn Mayorga, did not immediately respond Wednesday to messages. Ronaldo’s attorney, Peter Christiansen, declined to comment. The documents had been filed in June but withheld from public view as part of Mayorga’s lawsuit alleging that Ronaldo or his associates allowed word to become public last year of a $375,000 hush money settlement with Mayorga in 2010. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but Mayorga gave consent through her lawyers, Leslie Mark Stovall and Larissa Drohobyczer, to make her name public. Ronaldo’s attorneys say their client and Mayorga had consensual sex in June 2009 in his suite at a Las Vegas casino hotel.

Las Vegas police reopened an investigation of the sex assault allegation last year, at the request of Mayorga’s attorneys. Police said the case had been closed shortly after Mayorga reported it in June 2018 because she identified her alleged attacker only as a European soccer player and wouldn’t say where it took place. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided in June there was not enough evidence to prove the case at trial beyond reasonable doubt. He declined to file criminal charges. US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey ruled last week the original 2010 settlement was confidential and not open to public view. But the judge rejected Ronaldo’s attorneys’ claims that releasing other court filings would “promote public scandal... gratify private spite” and threaten Ronaldo’s endorsement deals. Ronaldo is one of the most recognizable and highly paid players in sports. He plays in Italy for the Turin-based soccer club Juventus and captains his home country team from Portugal. His sponsors include Nike and video-game maker EA Sports. AP

And while Simone Biles tries to stay focused on the healing process more than 18 months after the Olympic gymnastics champion revealed she was among the hundreds of athletes abused by disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, there are times when the massive systemic breakdown that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years becomes too much.

Ex-dean with oversight of Nassar gets one year in jail

ANSING, Michigan—A former Michigan State University dean with oversight of now-imprisoned sports doctor Larry Nassar was ordered Wednesday to serve up to a year in jail after being convicted of neglect of duty and misconduct in office that stemmed from claims he sexually harassed students. William Strampel learned his fate during a hearing in a Lansing courtroom, nearly two months after the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s ex-dean was convicted of those charges. He was acquitted of the more serious criminal sexual conduct charge. Strampel, 71, faced up to five years in prison on the felony misconduct conviction, resulting from accusations he used his public office to sexually harass, demean and proposition students who met with him to discuss academic issues. He also was convicted of willfully neglecting a duty to monitor Nassar after protocols were put in place requiring that a third person be present in the exam room for sensitive procedures and limiting skin-to-skin contact—misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in prison. Defense Atty. John Dakmak recommended probation, citing concerns about his client’s health and service to the school, state and nation. Dakmak told Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk that Strampel was tough on students but rooted “for the

underdog,” and his time leading the medical school included increasing admission of women and their faculty participation. Strampel spoke only briefly, saying he did not want to drag out the proceedings. “The jury has spoken and we’re not hiding from that,” Dakmak said. “We understand he has been found guilty. To answer for that doesn’t mean we disregard a life...of service.” During Strampel’s trial, multiple former medical students testified about sexual comments and innuendo he made during one-on-one meetings—saying they did not report the inappropriate behavior because of the power he had over their futures in medicine. They accused him of staring at their breasts. Women who worked as model patients during exams also testified about unprofessional and sexual comments. Investigators said Strampel’s work computer contained photos of nude and seminude young women with Michigan State logo piercings or clothing. Student Leah Jackson told the court Wednesday that Strampel made sexually suggestive remarks during their first meeting. “Why was he so confident he could get away with it?” she said. “It makes me wonder how many other people he had done this to. He was supposed to protect us and he chose to betray us.”

Strampel was the first person charged after Michigan’s attorney general launched an investigation in 2017 into how Michigan State handled complaints against Nassar, who pleaded guilty to molesting patients and possessing child pornography. Michigan Atty. General Dana Nessel said in a statement she appreciated the court’s “commitment to ensuring justice in this case was served.” “While Mr. Strampel’s sentence will never give back the years of pain and suffering his victims had to endure, the persistence of these courageous survivors made certain that he could no longer hide behind the title he once held to escape the reach of justice,” she said. After Strampel’s sentencing, Draganchuk declined to dismiss a felony charge against former Michigan State Gymnastics Coach Kathie Klages. She was charged with lying to investigators about her knowledge of abuse allegations against Nassar. Klages’s attorneys sought to have the charge dropped, claiming the state attorney general’s office failed to present sufficient evidence against her. Klages, who resigned in 2017 after she was suspended for defending Nassar over the years, has denied allegations that former gymnast Larissa Boyce told her that Nassar had abused her in 1997, when Boyce was 16. AP

By Will Graves The Associated Press

ANSAS CITY, Montana—The mix of rage, disappointment and grief are still there. Just under the surface. And while Simone Biles tries to stay focused on the healing process more than 18 months after the Olympic gymnastics champion revealed she was among the hundreds of athletes abused by disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, there are times when the massive systemic breakdown that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years becomes too much. “It hits you like a train wreck,” Biles said Wednesday as she prepared for the United States championships. One that leaves the greatest gymnast of her generation and the face of the US Olympic movement ahead of the 2020 Games in a difficult spot. She still loves competing, pushing herself and the boundaries of her sport in the process. And yet, the 22-year-old still finds herself working under the banner of USA Gymnastics and by extension the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). Both organizations were called out by Congress along with the FBI last week in a scathing report that detailed a series of catastrophic missteps that allowed Nassar—a longtime trainer with USA Gymnastics, as well as Michigan State University—to continue to abuse patients even after athletes started questioning his methods in the summer of 2015. While Nassar is now behind bars for the rest of his life and USA Gymnastics has undergone a massive overhaul in leadership since the 2016 Olympics as it fights to retain its status as the sport’s national governing body, the scars remain fresh for Biles, though she knows that doesn’t make her different from the other women who were abused by Nassar under the guise of treatment. “I don’t mean to cry,” the typically poised Biles said through tears two days before attempting to win her sixth national title. “But it’s hard coming here for an organization having had them failed us so many times. And we had one goal and we’ve done everything that they’ve asked us for, even when we didn’t want to and they couldn’t do one damn job. You had one job. You literally had one job and you couldn’t protect us.” Biles is in therapy to help deal with the emotional fallout, well aware that progress will be slow and that a full recovery might not be possible. “Everyone’s healing process is different and I think that’s the hardest part,” she said. “Because I feel like maybe I should be healed or this or that. But I feel like it will be an open wound for a really long time and it might not ever get closed or healed.” So Biles is doing what she can, trying

to find a balance between her pursuit to become the first woman in more than 50 years to repeat as Olympic champion while using her status as the face of her sport to effect change. “When we tweet, it obviously goes a long way,” she said. “We’re blessed to be given a platform so that people will hear and listen. But you know, it’s not easy coming back to the sport. Coming back to the organization that has failed you. But you know, at this point, I just try to think, ‘I’m here as a professional athlete with my club team and stuff like that.’ Because it’s not easy being out here. I feel every day is a reminder of what I went through and what I’ve been through and what I’m going through and how I’ve come out of it.” The process in some ways is getting easier. There were days early in her return to training in the fall and winter of 2017 and early 2018 when she would quit in the middle of practice and walk out of the gym without a word to coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi as to why. Those days are gone. Biles says therapy has helped her rediscover her joy for the sport she is redefining at every meet. Still, the effects of her experience with Nassar, combined with the inability of USA Gymnastics, the USOPC and the FBI to act decisively when athletes alerted them about his conduct, linger. She can feel it when she is introduced to a new staff member at USA Gymnastics and sense it in her reluctance to meet with trainers after practice. “How can we trust them?” Biles said. “They bring in new people all the time and I automatically put my foot up because the people that I had known for years had failed us.” Asked if she’s optimistic that USA Gymnastics—which is on its fourth president and CEO since March 2017 and filed for bankruptcy last fall in an effort to halt the decertification process—can find a way forward, Biles shrugged. Yes, the organization has taken several steps in addressing what it acknowledges was a toxic culture that played a role in Nassar hiding in plain sight, including updating its Safe Sport policy to provide better protection for athletes and clearer guidelines for coaches, parents, trainers and club owners on what constitutes abuse. Yet, Biles is wary. She has watched for the last three years as every step forward by USA Gymnastics is met with a step backward. Biles is intent on making sure she leaves gymnastics in a better place. She hopes the organization she competes for is sincere in its attempts to do the same. For now, she doesn’t sound convinced. “All we can do at this point is have faith that they’ll have our backs, they’ll do the right thing,” she said. “But at the end of the day it’s just a ticking time bomb. We’ll see. It’s a waiting game.”

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HE Korea Volleyball Association (KVA) announced it will lodge a complaint against a Russian women’s team coach for an alleged racist gesture following a recent match in the qualifying tournament for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. Russia defeated South Korea, 3-2, in the final Group E match of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Women’s Volleyball Intercontinental Olympic Qualification Tournament at DS Yantarny in Kaliningrad on Sunday. The victory earned the hosts Russia qualification for Tokyo 2020. It is alleged that after the match Sergio Busato, Russian’s Italian-born assistant coach, was photographed making a slant-eyed racist gesture. The KVA today revealed it planned to protest to FIVB and the Volleyball Federation of Russia. “We’re trying to confirm if such an act is punishable by FIVB,” a KVA official told South Korean agency Yonhap News. “We decided to take these steps to ensure something like this won’t occur again.” The 53-year-old Busato has been working in Russian men’s and women’s volleyball at club and national level for nearly 20 years, including with the Olympic gold medal-winning male team at London 2012. “The FIVB is aware of this matter and notes that the Russian Volleyball Federation immediately took steps to get the picture taken down by various sites as the image does not reflect their views or values,” a spokesman for the FIVB told insidethegames. “The FIVB has received one official complaint which it is now processing through its internal procedures,” she said. “There will be no further comment on this matter until this process is complete.” In November 2017, Colombia’s Edwin Cardona was warned by Fifa for making a similar gesture during an international football friendly against South Korea. In June, Poland’s Michal Kubiak was suspended for six matches by the FIVB after making a series of controversial statements about Iran before the two countries played each other in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Nations League. Among his comments, he claimed Iranians were “malicious and damned people.” Insidethegames

South Korea slams Russia v’ball coach for racist gesture

SERGIO BUSATO, Russia’s Italian-born assistant coach, is photographed making a slant-eyed racist gesture.

LOOK WHO’S IN VEGAS L

AS VEGAS—Gregg Popovich somehow only met Mike Krzyzewski for the first time about four years ago, when the two coaching greats saw their paths finally cross when they were together at a USA Basketball event. They’re a whole lot closer now. USA Basketball’s coaching past was alongside its present Wednesday, when Krzyzewski—who led the national team to an 88-1 record over his 12 years at the helm— was alongside Popovich for Day 3 of the team’s training camp in advance of the Fiba World Cup. And Popovich made no effort to hide how happy he was to have his predecessor in the gym to watch practice and some scrimmages. “We were anxious to get Coach K in

town to spend a couple days,” Popovich said. “I’ve already talked to him, as you might imagine, gotten advice. But to have him here, seeing the scrimmage, now we can all go back and talk about what we think needs to happen. Having him here with that added experience is invaluable.” Popovich wasn’t the only one in the gym feeling a boost from Krzyzewski’s presence on Wednesday. Among the others: USA Basketball forwards Mason Plumlee and Jayson Tatum, both of whom said they relished the chance to spend some extra time with their coach from Duke. “It was great, man,” Plumlee said. “I try to see Coach once or twice a summer, so for him to come out here...he didn’t come for me, but it was great to see him.”

Tatum chatted with Krzyzewski for a few minutes after practice, and said he got some advice. “Confidential,” Tatum said. “But it was good advice.” Krzyzewski won five gold medals in his tenure as national team coach—including three at the Olympics and two from the world championships, now known as the World Cup—started Wednesday in a morning meeting with Popovich and other coaches. He walked into practice at UNLV alongside Popovich and was expected to take part in more meetings before departing later this week. “He’s really the only guy that Pop can relate to in trying to bring this together so fast,” Plumlee said.

Krzyzewski, who politely declined an interview request through USA Basketball, first met Popovich around the time that the longtime San Antonio Spurs coach was accepting an invitation to replace the Duke coach at the helm of the US program. They were brought together in Las Vegas by USA Basketball Managing Director Jerry Colangelo during preparations for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Colangelo wanted to hire Krzyzewski’s replacement long before Rio, just to eliminate incessant speculation during the Olympic cycle about who would take over the program. He wasn’t aware at the time that the coaches had never gotten acquainted. “Once they got to know each other, they

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI talks with Celtics forward Jayson Tatum after the US training camp practice on Wednesday in Las Vegas. AP

were like bonded immediately,” Colangelo said. “Pop was in all the meetings and the practices after they met. I wanted him to get his feet wet just to see how we had done things under Mike. And I think it was a great way to get him started. But I thought that was amazing, that they had never met each other.” Krzyzewski and Popovich are loaded with similarities: Both went to service academies, both played for Bob Knight (Krzyzewski played for Knight at Army, and Knight was Popovich’s coach at the 1972 US Olympic trials, a few years before Popovich got his first head coaching job at Division III Pomona-Pitzer). Both have five championships from their ‘real’ jobs—Krzyzewski at Duke, Popovich in San Antonio. They are both considered basketball royalty, the top of the top of their profession. All that only adds to the oddity that they didn’t know each other until a few years ago. “I’m a Division III guy at heart and that’s where I spent most of my time until I somehow woke up in San Antonio and never left,” Popovich said. “We never played Duke when I was at Pomona-Pitzer.” AP

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Kinaadman, Velez share netfest honors

OSHUA KINAADMAN flashed top form and dominated the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP) Mayor Nikko Mercado Open Championship while John David Velez and France Lorin Idjao ruled the MCF Global national age-group at the Maasin Lawn Tennis Club in Leyte over weekend. The top-seeded Kinaadman dropped just five games on his way to the singles finals where the LapuLapu City bet reigned with a 6-2, 1-0(ret.) win over No. 2 Norman Enriquez, who had to endure a pair of three setters over Elmer Alila and Velez to get a crack at the crown worth P15,000 in the centerpiece event held as part of the city’s 19th Charter Day celebrations. Velez, the former Davao star now playing for Asenso Ozamiz Tennis Club, lived up to the hype in the accompanying MCF Group I age grouper, sweeping his way to the boys’ 18-under singles plum with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Vinz Lominoque. He also took the 16-under title with a walkover win over Sai Lago. An MCTA protégé and La Salle-Lipa mainstay, Lago also made it to 14-under finals and 14-under doubles finals but opted not to play due to personal reasons. On the other hand, the unfancied Idjao, from La Salle-Lipa, stunned top seed and doubles partner Gabby Zoleta in the semis, 4-2, 4-2, then repulsed Judy Anne Padilla, 6-4, 7-5, to snare the premier crown in the girls’ side of the event sponsored by the MAC’s Crankit Foundation headed by Coach Patricia ConconPuzon, the second of four MCF-backed tournaments with San Carlos City, Negros Occidental and Iloilo hosting the last two stops. Zoleta earlier took the 16-U plum with a 5-7, 6-1, 10-3 decision over Padilla. Other winners in the twin events put up by the PPS-PEPP headed by President and CEO Bobby Castro, presented by Dunlop and backed by Mayor Nikko Mercado, were Hans Cabello (boys’ 14-under), from Pardo, Corazon Lambonao (girls’ 14-under) from Ormoc City, Kirby Ramacho (boys’ 12-under) from San Carlos City, Elsmarie Denopol (girls’ 12-under) from Kulambugan, Zamboanga, and Christian Laguna (10-unisex) from Ormoc.

MENDEZ

UVIC PAGUNSAN succumbed to harsh conditions but still kept his spot on top despite a one-over 72, even padding his lead to two halfway through the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Riviera Classic in survival of the fittest at the Langer course on Thursday in Silang, Cavite. Howling winds and pelting rain forced even the long hitters to take 2-club adjustments in tackling each hole with Pagunsan, a noted strong finisher even in the most challenging conditions, yielding two strokes on the par-four 18th that marred his one-over 35-37 card. But his two-under 140 total proved enough to put him two strokes ahead of Dutch Guido van der Valk, who stumbled with a 72, and the charging Tony Lascuña and Japanese Takahashi Keisuke, who fired identical 70s that proved to be the norm in a punishing day at one of the country’s toughest championship courses. The troika pooled identical 142s with Clyde Mondilla, the reigning Philippine Open champion, coming through with a rare eagle-3 on No. 16 to at least soften the impact of his double-bogey and bogey mishaps on No. 11 and 13, respectively. He saved a 72 and took solo fifth at 143. Diminutive Joenard Rates, a former Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) Asia leg winner, closed out the frontside in birdie-double-bogey-birdiebogey-birdie fashion that best typified the field’s daylong struggle, salvaging the other 70 for joint sixth at 144 with Jhonnel Ababa, who also fumbled with a 72. “As I’ve said, nothing is certain here even

ONE-DAY breather meant torture for San Miguel Beer and TNT after an exhausting double overtime match on Wednesday in Game Two of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven Finals. But the two powerhouse teams had no luxury of a rest to get themselves ready for Game Three and move ahead in the race-to-four series on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Beermen survived a punishing, double-overtime classic against the KaTropa, 127-125, to tie the series at one apiece on Wednesday night. But the true test of character will be at 7 p.m. when the players activate their weary bodies to gift their respective squad the edge in the exciting showdown. Coach Leo Austria of San Miguel Beer admitted that hurdling TNT in a tight contest is a worthy experience. “We’re so lucky. We’re just thankful we have tied the series,” Austria said. The Beermen capitalized on the ejection of the monstrous Terrence Jones in the first extra period and the missed attempts of Jayson Castro in the second overtime. San Miguel Beer led by as many as 17 in the first half and looked headed toward an easy night. Thanks largely to Troy Rosario’s career game,

JUVIC HANGS TOUGH if I’m in the lead,” said Pagunsan, upbeat but cautious of his bid for a record fourth straight victory on the PGT following a sweep of the last three legs of the Visayas swing in Bacolod, Negros and Iloilo last June. “There are so many good players out there, so I need to focus on my own game and not be complacent,” added the most feared player in the P2.5 million tournament put up by ICTSI and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc.

TNT crawled back to life and drove past San Miguel Beer via Rosario’s triple for a 103-101 count. But the Beermen had their own hero in Terrence Romeo, who sank his own trey to force the first overtime at 106-all. The KaTropa looked to end the game with a 114-112 lead with 20 seconds left in the extra period, but Brian Heruela and Rosario muffed four of their free throws, which opened the door for an Alex Cabagnot’s lay-up that sent the match to the second overtime, 114-114. San Miguel Beer would not be denied this time, leaning on the timely baskets of June Mar Fajardo and Chris Ross, and the missed three-point attempts of Castro to escape with the thrilling victory. “They are eager to beat us, but we refused to lose,” Austria said. Import Chris McCullough unleashed 32 points, 22 rebounds, seven assists and two steals for the Beermen. Romeo ended with 29 points, while Ross added 25 points, six boards and four assists. “We don’t want to be at 0-2 because it’s hard to recover from that,” Austria said. “We’ll work on our defense and turnovers,” the mentor added as his team tallied 23 errors in the game.” Ramon Rafael Bonilla

at the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa in Mactan. After his Davao feat, Mendez sustained his top form and nailed his first Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific title in Cebu in what he described as “the biggest win of his career.” “I’m super happy, I trained myself to win but didn’t know what to expect because everyone was doing the same, they are all super strong athletes,” said Mendez, referring to a slew of top rivals from talent-rich Australia, including Braden Currie and former three-time world titlist Tim Reed, and Bermuda’s Tyler Butterfield. But the challenge that awaits him this Sunday could be the toughest in his young career with Reed also back in form following a recent win in Subic. Add the likes of Tim van Berkel, Sam Betten, Luke McKenzie, Lindsey Lawry, Mitch Robins and Justin Ghosh, all from Australia, Bahrain’s Eric Watson and New Zealand’s Terenzo Bozzone, Mendez is indeed in for his most exacting outing.

UAAP okays girls’ basketball as demo event

HE University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) will introduce in its 82nd Season a girls’ basketball tournament as a demonstration event. The tournament will be staged simultaneously with the boys’ division tentatively set to kick off on October, according to event sub-host National University (NU). “It’s long overdue for the UAAP to have a basketball tournament for the girls,” said UAAP Executive Director Rebo Saguisag, who started his first professional venture in basketball as coach of Assumption High School in the 2000s. Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle-Zobel, University of Santo Tomas and Adamson University have committed teams to the new event. The league is hoping that the rest of the member schools develop their girls basketball program for the student-athletes’ seamless transition from juniors to collegiate level. “This is very important for the

development of our women’s players. Schools want to recruit girls out of high school who are already fundamentally sound,” said Ateneo’s Representative to the Board Erika Dy, who coached the Ateneo Lady Eagles from 2013 to 2015. “Without a girls’ division, there is not much interest from young dreamers to begin with at that level.” The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has committed to identify members of the national girls’ pool from the demonstration event. “It’s a big step forward for women’s basketball. In the Asean region, we really need the exposure sa women’s side,” UAAP basketball commissioner Jensen Ilagan said. Edith Boticario, meanwhile, was named as the first deputy basketball commissioner for Season 82. Boticario, who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Wellness from University of Makati, is a Fiba-licensed official and a former Philippine Basketball Association referee.

a bogey mishap on No. 18 for that 70. “I played well despite the tough conditions, rain and wind. The course plays longer when there is strong wind. But I’m happy with my game, at least I have a chance to win again,” said Lascuña, who had won here at Riviera in 2011 after shooting a 23-under total. Angelo Que, winner of the last PGT Asia leg at Southwoods last month, faltered with a 74 but remained in the thick of things at 146 with Ira Alido, who shot the fourth and last 70 in the day, Nilo Salahog (72), Anthony Fernando (73), Rufino Bayron (74) and Reymon Jaraula (75). Exactly 40 players advanced to the final 36 holes at 10-over with former PGT Asia leg winner James Ryan Lam (77), Marvin Dumandan and Charles Hong, who turned in identical 78s, assembling identical 152s.

JUVIC PAGUNSAN hikes lead to two in difficult conditions. NONIE REYES

Mexican airs confidence in Ironman 70.3 in Cebu AURICIO MENDEZ knows fully well the odds he’s facing in pursuit of a back-to-back championship in Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 in Cebu on Sunday, but the Mexican star hopes he’ll be spared the misfortune that spoiled his most recent titleretention drive. Mendez was all set to sweep the first two editions of the Ironman 70.3 in Davao last March but suffered a technical problem on his bike and failed to finish, enabling German Markus Rolli to snare the crown on his very first IM 70.3 race in the country. This time, the 2016 Xterra world champion expects to get the breaks and race trouble-free although he would also need some luck to buck a talent-laden field and emerge a repeat winner in the 1.9-km swim/90-km bike/21-km run event organized by Sunrise Events Inc.

Barely surviving the ordeal, Van der Valk vowed to stay focused and fight for every shot in the pivotal third round of the 72-hole championship serving as the sixth leg of this year’s PGT. “It was tough. There was a lot of wind blowing around. I did well at the front but had some sloppy bogeys at the back,” said Van der Valk, who added that he got somewhat lucky on the last hole where his shot went on a hazard but still two-putted for par. “I have to fight for every shot. Club selection and trying to control the ball are so hard,” added Van der Valk, who tied Pagunsan at three-under in one stretch but reeled back with two bogeys in the last six holes at the front. Focus will also be on the multi-titled Lascuña, who finally moved into contention following a series of so-so finishes in the circuit he used to dominate. He hit two birdies at the front to negate

EDITH BOTICARIO is the first deputy basketball commissioner for Season 82.

NO LUXURY OF REST FOR SAN MIGUEL, TNT

PUERTO RICANS LOOK UP TO WILLIAMS SISTERS L

By Luis Andres Henao The Associated Press

IMA, Peru—Table tennis champion sisters Adriana and Melanie Diaz often get compared to Serena and Venus Williams—and they love it. The Puerto Ricans won the table tennis gold medal in doubles at the Pan American Games in Lima on Tuesday, and Adriana qualified for Tokyo 2020 in singles when she beat American Yue Wu in Wednesday’s final. On the last point, she raised an index finger in the air and blew kisses into a television camera, while the loudspeakers announced that she had qualified for the Olympics. “We’ve had many days filled with emotions,” said 18-year-old Adriana, who wore gold earrings shaped like table tennis paddles. “Yesterday, we had a great time. Today is one of the best days of my life.” With lightning-quick smashes and looping topsin serves, Adriana beat Wu, who took the silver medal. She would have met her 23-year-old sister in the final if Melanie had not lost to Wu in an intense match that came down to a deciding sixth game. Melanie earned bronze along with Bruna Takahashi from Brazil. Puerto Rico had the home-crowd advantage at the arena in Lima. Salsa and reggaeton played from the speakers. In a corner near the table, the Diazes’ fathercoach watched every point during their games. In the stands, his wife cheered for their daughters with dozens of fans who waved the national flag and who broke into chants after Adriana’s victory. Melanie said she had to contain her emotions after she lost her match. She hoped to play the final against Adriana. She had to be the supportive older sister and set an example. “I couldn’t let her see me sad, because she was going to get sad,” Melanie said about Adriana who competed in the Rio 2016 Olympics at the age of 15. “I needed to be strong. I yelled out as much as I could to support her from the stands.” With their popularity back home, they are sometimes compared to the tennis-playing Williams sisters. “We’ve often been compared, like the two sisters

who are growing up together for the sport that they always worked and dreamed of,” Adriana said. “That feels amazing. Serena is a legend, and so is Venus. Any comparison to them makes me proud.” Puerto Rico is best-known for baseball, but table tennis is growing on the Caribbean island. The International Tennis Federation recently praised the Universal Pan America Cup, a paid three-day event that gathered more than 10,000 people to watch table tennis in Puerto Rico. “We never thought that table tennis would have this boom,” Melanie said. Her sister is also delighted by the competitive growth of the sport, which is hugely popular in Asia and Europe. “Our national sport is baseball...but people are now watching table tennis. They’re back home now watching table tennis on TV. And that’s something that you never saw before. It’s amazing.”

Sports BusinessMirror

| Friday, August 9, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Jamaica celebrates three gold medals at Pan Am Games

L ADRIANA (right) and Melanie Diaz hug after their women’s doubles table tennis semifinal victory. AP

IMA, Peru—It was Jamaica’s day: The Caribbean nation and Olympic sprinting superpower won three gold medals in athletics at the Pan American Games on Wednesday. Olympic 100- and 200-meter champion Elaine Thompson won the women’s 100-meter gold in 11.18 seconds. Natoya Goule took the women’s 800 title in two minutes, 1.26 seconds. Defending champion Fedrick Dacres earned

gold in men’s discus with a Pan Am Games record throw of 67.68 meters. The gold medal wins came just a day after Jamaican Independence Day, which takes place on August 6. “It’s an honor to wear the national flag again. We celebrated Independence Day,” said Thompson, who won the 100-200 double at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. “It’s great to give my country something to cheer about.” There was much to celebrate both at home on another sunny, warm day in the Caribbean island, and about 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away in the Peruvian capital, even when Lima’s damp, chilly weather

JAMAICA’S Natoya Goule celebrates winning her gold medal in the women’s 800 meters. AP

became a challenge to overcome for the Jamaicans. “The temperature really gave us a warm time, no pun intended,” Dacres, 25, said. “My rhythm was off and I never hit, as well as I would want.” Reggae music blared from the loudspeakers at the Atletico stadium after some of the Jamaicans crossed the finish line. Jamaica’s Jamie Smikle won silver in the men’s discus, and Goule became the first Jamaican to win the 800 title. Although she started behind in the first 100 meters, she said she had “the guts to sprint in the end” and win. “I feel really happy about it,” she said. “It means a lot to me and my country.” AP

Compassionate God

EAR God, You are just in every way, and You call us to right relationship in Jesus. With love we pray to You: God in Your wisdom, hear our prayer. Inspire Your Church’s efforts to advocate for the dignity and protection of life, from conception to natural death. Transform the hearts and minds of those who are imprisoned, and protect them from torture and abuse. Sustain our hope for the end of terrorists acts, hackers and uphold efforts to address the root causes of gun violence and drug users. May God put a song of praise in our hearts and seal our lips with his life-giving word, through Jesus, the wisdom of God. Amen. GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

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GAB FAB: GERALD, JULIA ADDRESS ALL THE NASTY RUMORS D4

Friday, August 9, 2019

“

Toni Morrison was a national treasure. Her writing was not just beautiful but meaningful—a challenge to our conscience and a call to greater empathy. She was as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page. And so even as Michelle and I mourn her loss and send our warmest sympathies to her family and friends, we know that her stories—that our stories—will always be with us, and with those who come after, and on and on, for all time.”—FORMER PRESIDENT

BARACK OBAMA, VIA TWITTER

PHOTO BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, 88 N

By hillel italie The Associated Press

EW YORK—Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in Beloved, Sula and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York after a brief illness. “Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends,” Morrison’s family said in a statement through the publisher. “She was an extremely devoted mother, grandmother, and aunt who reveled in being with her family and friends. The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing.” Few authors rose in such rapid, spectacular style. She was nearly 40 when her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published. By her early 60s, after just six novels, she had become the first black woman to receive the Nobel literature prize, praised in 1993 by the Swedish academy for her “visionary force” and for delving into “language itself, a language she wants to liberate” from categories of black and white. Morrison helped educate her country and the world about the private lives of the unknown and unwanted. In her novels, history—black history— was a hidden trove of poetry, tragedy and good old gossip, whether in small-town Ohio in Sula or big-city Harlem in Jazz. She regarded race as a social construct, and through language founded the better world her characters suffered to attain, weaving in everything from African literature and slave folklore to the Bible and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“

If there is a book that you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it,’ Toni Morrison said. We are all so lucky to live in a world where she took her own advice and shared it with others.”—HILLARY CLINTON, VIA TWITTER

“Narrative has never been merely entertainment for me,” she said in her Nobel lecture. “It is, I believe, one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge.” Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Beloved, she was one of the book world’s most regal presences, with her expanse of graying braids; her dark, discerning eyes; and her warm, theatrical voice, which could lower to a mysterious growl or rise to a humorous falsetto. “That handsome and perceptive lady,” James Baldwin called her. Her admirers ranged from college students and housewives to Barack Obama, who awarded her a Presidential Medal of Honor; Bill Clinton, whom the author called “our first black president”; and Oprah Winfrey, who helped expand Morrison’s readership. Morrison shared those high opinions, repeatedly labeling one of her novels, Love, as “perfect” and rejecting the idea that artistic achievement called for quiet modesty. “Maya Angelou helped me without her knowing it,” Morrison told The Associated Press during a 1998

interview. “When she was writing her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I was an editor at Random House. She was having such a good time, and she never said, ‘Who me? My little book?’ “I decided that...winning the [Nobel] prize was fabulous,” Morrison added. “Nobody was going to take that and make it into something else. I felt representational. I felt American. I felt Ohioan. I felt blacker than ever. I felt more woman than ever. I felt all of that, and put all of that together and went out and had a good time.” Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, a steel town outside of Cleveland. She attended Howard University, where she spent much of her free time in the theater, and met and married a Jamaican architect, Harold Morrison, whom she divorced in 1964. They had two children, Harold and Slade. Even when she was growing up, she believed she was smarter than the white kids and took it for granted she was wiser. She was an honors student and attended Howard because she dreamed of life spent among black intellectuals. But although she went on to teach there, Howard disappointed her. Campus life seemed closer to a finishing school than to an institution of learning. Protesters, among them her former student Stokely Carmichael, were demanding equality. Morrison wanted that, too, but wondered what kind. “I thought they wanted to integrate for nefarious purposes,” she said. “I thought they should demand money in those black schools. That was the problem— the resources, the better equipment, the better teachers, the buildings that were falling apart—not being in some high school next to some white kids.” In 1964 she became an editor at Random House and one of the few black women in publishing. Over the next 20 years, she would work with emerging fiction authors such as Gayl Jones and Toni Cade Bambara, on a memoir by Muhammad Ali and books

by such activists as Angela Davis and Black Panther Huey Newton. A special project was editing The Black Book, a collection of everything from newspaper advertisements to song lyrics that anticipated her immersion in the everyday lives of the past. By the late 1960s, she was a single mother and determined writer who had been pushed by her future editor, Robert Gottlieb, into deciding whether she’d write or edit. Seated at her kitchen table, she fleshed out a story based on a childhood memory of a black girl in Lorain who desired blue eyes. She called the novel The Bluest Eye. She had no agent and was rejected by several publishers before reaching a deal with Holt, which released the novel in 1969. Sales were modest, but critics liked it and Morrison soon signed up with Gottlieb and Knopf, which became her longtime publisher. n

“

Today, the world lost a storyteller of unmatched empathy, elegance and power. Toni Morrison’s belief that language is the ‘measure of our lives’ leaves an extraordinary, inspiring inheritance, and her beautiful writing will continue to be a blessing for generations to come.”—U.S. HOUSE

SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI, VIA TWITTER

Society BusinessMirror

Friday, August 9, 2019

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Today’s Horoscope By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Hallie Eisenberg, 27; Sam Worthington, 43; Kevin Smith, 49; Mary-Louise Parker, 55. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Learn from experience. A simpler lifestyle will bring you more comfort than you realize. Eliminate unnecessary responsibilities and lower your debt; you will be able to take care of the opportunities that are heading your way. Be open about your feelings; you’ll find out who is on your side. Purge and prepare to move forward. Your lucky numbers are 5, 16, 22, 28, 31, 39, 45.

a FROM left: Flex Japan Inc. Managing Director Yasushi Miyashita, SM Supermalls COO Steven Tan, Japanese Embassy’s Junichi Hirano, Takatrans Director Takahiro Kawaguchi, @Tokyo Managing Director Roy Chua, @Tokyo Chairman Ivan Yao, Carrot Company President Takeshi Yoshida, @Tokyo Managing Director Emerson Yao, Estelle Holdings Inc. Executive Director Katsuyoshi Hirano, Sungears Sales Inc. Director Vohne Yao and @Tokyo Managing Director Marnie Chua

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Refuse to let anyone interfere with your plans. If someone is being a bully, walk away. Your energy is better spent on the people who appreciate you. Use your intelligence to gain respect and to overcome adversity. Networking will pay off. HHH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Keep your fears and concerns hidden. Don’t give anyone the chance to take advantage of you. A change someone makes will surprise you. Be prepared to compensate for any shortcomings that may result from the actions of others. HHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Look for ways to help a legitimate cause, but don’t let anyone take advantage of your kindness and generosity. Get the lowdown before you offer your time or services. Your time is best spent investing in yourself, not someone else. HHHH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Too much emotional drama will leave you exhausted. Focus on personal growth, physical improvement and creative endeavors that will ease your stress and make you feel good about your future. A romantic evening will stabilize any uncertainty you may be feeling. HH

FROM left: TJ Gamol, Ashley Ortega, Rhea Camille Chong, Almira Teng and Jeanne Khe

CARLO GUEVARRA and Chanel Morales

ALMIRA TENG (left) and Heaven Peralejo

The joys of ‘kawaii’ and more

F you’re hankering for things in Tokyo but can’t make a quick trip to Japan, fret not. At Tokyo is the latest shopping destination for unique and trendy Japanese brands, the place to look for that perfect present for friends and family. Brands under At Tokyo include Accessories Blossom, anello, Casio, Karuizawa Shirts, Legato Largo, Mis Zapatos, Owndays, Seiko and Waterfront. Known as the land of the rising sun, Japan is renowned for its wide picturesque landscapes and buzzing

city life. Deeply rooted in Zen Buddhist philosophy, their dedication to personal excellence and endeavor to add beauty in everyday life is clearly reflected in their work and output. In the country’s capital, Tokyo, you can easily see what’s new and what’s happening. It’s precisely these exceptional qualities Japan takes great pride in which inspired business partners Ivan Yao, Roy Chua and Marnie Chua to bring to Manila a place that offers a unique shopping

experience with Japanese brands. And so, a store was born. “We want our customers to feel like they’re literally at Tokyo” says Marnie Chua, one of the managing directors of At Tokyo which opened its first store in Estancia Mall in Capitol Commons. People already have an idea in mind when they hear “Tokyo”—be it the current fads in fashion or the lively cities of Shibuya, Harajuku and the like. The name At Tokyo is the best embodiment of what Ivan Yao, Roy

Chua and Marnie Chua want to come across: young, fun, stylish and modern. Additionally, all three extolled the appeal of Japanese products: they are of the best quality and consistently achieve just the right amount of minimalist aesthetic—all while providing good value for money. The reason behind these brand picks is simple: they’re the best at what they do in the field they specialize in. The price is affordable and the quality is exceptional, making them practical as gifts and everyday use. n

The sailor is missing; scrumptious remains

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Keep active and pursue the skills, knowledge and whatever qualifications you require to get ahead. Your Leo charm will help you sway others to your way of thinking. Face-to-face meetings will bring the best results. HHHHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Keep your personal financial dealings a secret. Deal with institutions or government agencies if it will help you resolve an issue that could result in an unwanted change. HHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Show gratitude if someone lends you a helping hand, but don’t give in to someone pressuring you to do things you don’t want to do. There will be a fine line between positive and negative contributions someone makes. Ulterior motives are likely. HHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Concentrate on a creative project. It’s better not to argue with someone who is stubborn. Do your own thing; you’ll have something to show for your hard work. HHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Money and health should be top priorities. You can resolve issues that concern your home, living arrangements and personal overhead if you discuss your options with an expert or someone you love. Take better care of yourself physically. HHHHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): An emotional incident with a friend or relative will leave you in a position of uncertainty. Don’t feel you have to bail someone out of a mess you had nothing to do with. HH

SOUTHERNERS can now get a taste of the famous American fried chicken brand as Popeyes Philippines opens its second branch at the ground floor of Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa. Diners are in for a treat as Popeyes offers its scrummy signature offerings—the original honey biscuits, Cajun fries, and the mouthwatering Popeyes fried chicken that’s packed with distinct Cajun-inspired flavors from Louisiana, USA. There’s also something new on the menu such as the hazelnut and white chocolate biscuits, which can be paired with your fried chicken or as a dessert; and Popeyes Spaghetti, their exclusive addition to the menu in the Philippines. Present during the opening were (from left) Popeyes Philippines Chief Operating Officer Rami Chahwan, and Kuya J Group COO Gretz Rivera, Chairman Lowell Yu, President Winglip Chang, and CFO Francis Reyes.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A change in the way you or someone from your past feels will lead to serious talks. Wager all the pros and cons before considering what to do next. Put a budget in place prior to making a commitment. HHHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Don’t take anything or anyone for granted. Know where you stand and what you can do. Look for opportunities that are within your means and for people who can help you reach your goal. HHH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are smart, goal-oriented and a crusader. You are persuasive and eager.

‘spread the dough’ BY ANNEMARIE BRETHAUER The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Goalkeeper’s goal 5 Sacred objects 10 Buddies 14 Duck instrument in Peter and the Wolf 15 Unlikely donor 16 Storage locker 17 Commotion 19 Tiny tot 20 Not needing an Rx 21 Stegosaurus, e.g., informally 22 King Arthur’s father 23 City on Jordan’s coast 25 Entryway table 27 Change what a file is called, say 29 ___-a-brac 30 Grand Teton’s state: Abbr. 31 Radiate 32 Come back from behind 34 SAT prep focus 36 Piece of luggage 37 How theremin music may sound 41 “This puzzle is hard I hope I can solve it.” is one 43 Prefix with “nautical”

4 With it 4 47 It’s measured in karats 48 Cell-phone surface 50 Marin County’s San ___ 52 Charlie Chan portrayer Warner 53 Dodecagon, for one 54 Train like Laila Ali 55 Altar words 58 Baby powder 59 Eat, or a hint to the cash synonyms hidden across each starred row 62 Red Muppet 63 Windy City airport 64 Word after “Emerald” or “Fair” 65 Google smart home system 66 Annie of Designing Women 67 Soul legend Redding DOWN 1 Lower Manhattan neighborhood 2 Share a border with 3 Like obsidian and pumice 4 Long sea creature 5 Have some booze 6 Prince Harry’s mum 7 Munch Museum’s world capital 8 Sign of the lion

9 Hit show letters 10 People try to sink them 11 “Regardless...” 12 Probable 13 Two-speaker system 18 Early man 22 Ted Kennedy, to Caroline 24 Doha’s nation 25 Rugged cliff 26 Liquid in a deep fryer 27 Race before a race? 28 Mopey punk offshoot 29 Visa or Avis 33 Hanker 35 Trumpet’s smaller relative 36 String tie 38 Most lanky 39 Pique 40 Lots and lots of time 42 Name, in Nimes 44 Go faster 45 Wolf down 46 Proverbs preceder 48 Quenches 49 Low-___ diet 51 Spaceship Earth’s theme park

52 It becomes another genre if a “P” is added to the front 54 Supreme Court position 56 The Persistence of Memory painter 57 Keats poems 59 Hit on the head 60 Socrates’s P 61 2011 Blu movie Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

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Relationships BusinessMirror

Friday, August 9, 2019

Why it can make sense to believe in the kindness of strangers By Kristin Brethel-Haurwitz University of Pennsylvania

OULD you risk your life for a total stranger? While you might consider yourself incapable of acts of altruism on that scale, it happens again and again. During hurricanes and mass shootings, some people go to great lengths to help people they don’t even know while everyone else flees. To learn whether this behavior comes more naturally to some of us than others, I partnered with Abigail Marsh and other neuroscientists working at the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience at Georgetown University. We studied the brains and behavior of some extraordinary altruists: people who have donated one of their own kidneys to a total stranger, known as nondirected donors. UNUSUALLY ALTRUISTIC THESE kidney donors may never learn anything about the recipient. That means they are not making this personal sacrifice because a relative or someone they may interact with in the future would benefit. What’s more, this act of altruism is costly in multiple ways. It is a major, painful surgery. Many donors end up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for medical and travel expenses, and they can lose out on salary and other earnings. For the most part, there’s nothing to be gained in terms of the donor’s reputation. Many people, including some medical professionals, are skeptical about the motives of altruistic donors—even questioning their sanity. These drawbacks help explain why altruistic kidney donation is extremely rare. Fewer than 2,000 people have done this to date in the United States since 1988, the first year with a recorded altruistic donor. That makes it something a mere one out of every 163,133 Americans have ever done. And the norm is for living friends and family to donate kidneys to their loved ones. That was the case when celebrity Selena Gomez, who has lupus, got a new kidney from her best friend, the actress Francia Raisa. Most commonly, the kidneys of deceased organ donors are used in transplants for strangers. There are about twice as many transplants from deceased donors as transplants from living ones. Deceased donors and living friends and family account for a total of 99.5 percent of all kidney transplants performed over the past three decades. MAMMALIAN BRAINS DEEP in the brains of all mammals—whether squirrel, bonobo or human—the same regions respond to distress and vulnerability. This response is especially common when babies cry out or appear threatened. In our most recent study, we investigated whether those brain systems, which are responsible for making all mammals care about helpless youngsters, play a key role in making some people extremely altruistic. There are two major regions in what brain scientists call the “offspring care neural network,”

evolutionarily old structures deep in the brain called the amygdala and the periaqueductal gray. The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure in both hemispheres tucked below the cortex. (Amygdala means almond in Greek.) One of its main roles in the brain is picking up on important emotional cues. Research has long established that the amygdala is largely responsible for recognizing and feeling fear. The periaqueductal gray is another small u-shaped structure at the base of the brain. It plays an important role in controlling basic behaviors like the impulse to cuddle a baby or the instinct to avoid predators. Many studies have shown these structures and the connections between them are responsible for, say, motivating female rats to take care of their pups or making humans want to console crying babies. Responding to distressed offspring is such a strong survival instinct that it can even cross species. A deer, for example, will respond when it hears a crying human infant. Other research by Marsh’s lab has studied how people respond when they sense that others are afraid and feel an urge to comfort them. The sight of frightened faces can evoke helping behavior. And people who are good at noticing that someone is afraid just by seeing their face tend to be more altruistic than the rest of us. Scientists have long hypothesized that the care people extend to strangers may be a sort of extension

of our most basic impulses to take care of our own kids. Scientists also believe that the ancient brain structures humans share with other mammals trigger these responses. A TEST TO learn more about the brains of extremely altruistic people, we did an experiment with people who had donated one of their kidneys to someone they didn’t know. In our study, we asked these extreme altruists to read scenarios, some of which described people who were the target of harmful or callous behavior, and rate how much sympathy they felt. We did the same thing with a control group of people who had not donated a kidney. Before reading some of these scenarios, we presented photos of fearful faces. These images were fleeting, lasting only 27 milliseconds. That means the participants couldn’t consciously recognize what they saw. Meanwhile, we scanned their brains. We found some interesting effects while reviewing images captured during this experiment. Most notably, the amygdalas and their periaqueductal gray were more active for kidney donors than people in our control group, with stronger reactions to fearful and distressed stimuli. What we found suggests that these two regions might be communicating or otherwise working together. We further tested this finding by looking at another aspect of our brain scans that allowed us

to analyze how these two regions are connected by nerve cells. My colleague Katherine O’Connell, a doctoral student, found that there seemed to be greater structural connections between these two regions, too. These connections may help nerve impulses travel between them. UNDERSTANDING ALTRUISM TO be sure, more studies will have to be done to confirm our results before we can be sure how the offspring care neural network contributes to human altruism. But our findings reinforce earlier neuroscience research that found that the amygdala and periaqeuductal gray, and communication between them, play an important role in caring for distressed and vulnerable others across all mammals— including humans. These findings also build on our own prior research with altruistic kidney donors. In those earlier studies, we detected stronger amygdala responses when the donors glimpsed the faces of people who were feeling fear and that while altruistic kidney donors value friends and family as others do, they tend to be more generous toward strangers. Our study of the brains of real-world altruists backs up these theories. Caring about someone you have never met, what we learned suggests, may have a lot in common with caring about the people you love. AP

Lip-smacking goodness in Cebu this weekend THERE are those days when you need and deserve just a little indulgence, especially after a punishing grind at work. This weekend, there’s no better destination for such uplift than Cebu, which is celebrating the annual Lechon Festival. Yes, it’s that time of the year when this now world-famous dish—the best iteration of which is arguably Cebu’s—becomes the subject of pomp and circumstance, although one could argue the lechon, with its famous crunchy golden skin plus tender and flavorsome meat, is always the star of any Filipino festivity. This culinary masterpiece, along with the rich history, artistry and skill that go into preparing the beloved Cebu lechon, highlights this year’s Cebu Lechon Festival, spearheaded by The Mactan Newtown in partnership with the City Government of Lapu-Lapu and the Department of Tourism Region 7 Office. The 30-hectare The Mactan Newtown of Megaworld (www.megaworld-lifestylemalls.com) is the country’s first “Live-Work-Play-Learn” lifestyle township with its own beachfront located in LapuLapu City, Mactan Island. Now on its third year, the annual gastronomic and cultural celebration promises an authentic Cebuano fiesta experience like no other this week until August 12. Treat yourself to Cebu’s much-awaited dining spectacle, featuring a mouthwatering array of lechon varieties from the best lechon craftsmen from the different parts of Cebu, perfectly complemented by a variety of cultural spectacles and performances. Here are some more reasons why you should be at The Mactan Newtown this weekend to celebrate this

year’s Cebu Lechon Festival: n FEAST ON THE MASTERPIECES OF CEBU’S BEST ‘LECHON’ CRAFTSMEN. The festival has gathered the best lechon-makers from the entire Cebu island—both the household names and the emerging, homegrown lechon entrepreneurs—at the 500-seater Mactan Alfresco inside The Mactan Newtown for the Lechon

Exhibit on August 9. “We want to capitalize on the popularity of the Cebu lechon to bring awareness to small-scale and less commercialized lechon businesses. Apart from providing these businesses with the needed platform to showcase their products and help them grow, our goal is to drive tourism in this part of Cebu and

eventually create more employment and livelihood opportunities for the locals,” says Graham Coates, head of Megaworld Lifestyle Malls. n SHOP FOR EVERYTHING ‘LECHON’ ALL IN ONE PLACE. Making this delicious festivity even more appetizing are exclusive lechon deals, which will run throughout the weeklong festival. Avail of price drops and other exclusive discounts for every kilo of lechon purchased at participating lechon sellers. n LEARN THE FINE ART OF ‘LECHON’-MAKING STRAIGHT FROM CEBU’S FINEST. Immerse yourselves in the entire lechon preparation process at Mactan Alfresco’s very own Lechon Pit. Witness lechon-makers perfect their craft and see firsthand how a lechon is made right before your very eyes—from seasoning to roasting at the coal pit, to portioning and serving on your plate. For an even more unique and immersive dining experience, you can indulge in your lechon dishes and take a bunch of selfies too while inside the colorful and iconic Philippine jeepneys stationed within the complex. n WATCH THE STREETS TURN INTO SPLASHES OF COLOR. Highlighting the Cebu Lechon Festival celebrations is a colorful grand street performance topbilled by various cultural dance groups, street dancers, marching bands, as well as the Sinulog Festival Queen. Also happening on August 9 is a traditional boodle fight featuring participants from the annual Ironman 70.3 Philippines and lechon sellers. Afterward, you can party the night away with live musical performances and see the skies light up with a grand fireworks display to cap off the day’s festivities.

Show BusinessMirror

Friday, August 9, 2019

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Gerald, Julia address all the nasty rumors GAB FAB JET VALLE

@jetvalle

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton writing book on ‘Gutsy Women’ NEW YORK—Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton have teamed up for The Book of Gutsy Women, honoring everyone from scientist Marie Curie to climate activist Greta Thunberg. Simon & Schuster announced on Tuesday that the book will come out on October 1. It’s the first time the former secretary of state and presidential candidate has written a book with her daughter. Each has published several previous works, including Hillary Clinton’s What Happened and Living History and Chelsea Clinton’s children’s book She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World. The Book of Gutsy Women includes portraits of more than 100 women, including presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm, Saudi activist Manal al-Sharif, entertainer Ellen DeGeneres and author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The Clintons also will tell of heroines among their friends and family members. “To us, they are all gutsy women—leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done,” Hillary Clinton said in a statement. “This book is a continuation of a conversation Chelsea and I have been having since she was a little girl, and we are excited to welcome others into that conversation.” Chelsea Clinton said in a statement that the women in their book “share a fierce optimism that their work and lives will make a difference in the world.” “We hope readers will draw strength from their stories as we have, because if history shows one thing, it’s that the world needs more gutsy women,” she said. Financial terms for the book were not disclosed. The Clintons were represented by Robert Barnett, the Washington, D.C. attorney who has worked on book deals for Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton and former President Barack Obama. AP

ND now Julia Barretto has spoken. Gerald Anderson, too. In a nutshell, Julia denied everything and said that she no longer wants to be Bea Alonzo’s victim of her spreading a “culture of hate.” Gerald indirectly denied the ghosting claim and said that they broke up. Where does this lead to? Apparently it leads to more fodder for netizens to feast on this so-called love triangle. Some side with Julia. A number believe Gerald. But gazillions are up in arms for Bea. The story of a woman left by a man allegedly for another woman is nothing new. Movies, books, TV shows have all raked in big bucks telling and retelling this story. A lot of real-life stories, whether it was the kapitbahay of your gardener’s uncle’s classmate 10 years ago, has popped up too in our lifetime. Too bad for Julia, Gerald and Bea that they are all public figures. And we as their fans who have shelled out money just to support their shows and endorsements, we feel we have the right to know the truth. And that feeling is damn right! When you were promoting your soap opera, you would shovel down our throats all these useless anecdotes doing that show just to promote it. You would show us doing PDA with your costar to sell the idea to us that you have chemistry so we would march to cinemas, cough up hard-earned cash and watch your movies. When we would shower you with our opinions on how good-looking you are or how gorgeous you looked in this event you attended, you would listen intently. But when you feel down and out, you would say mind our own business.... Wait, what? It cuts both ways. Sadly, you are in an industry where we have the right to know things about you. And while you certainly didn’t ask for it, we all have the right to opine on things. And this is mine. Julia, if you really didn’t do anything wrong, then stop being affected by Bea’s liking of this picture and that. That statement on Instagram is the “wrongest” of

DEREK RAMSAY gamely poses for photos with GMA fans abroad.

wrong move. Bea, spill the tea, gurl! Gerald, fix your sh*t. nnn FRANKIE PANGILINAN continues to shine on her own as she takes up the mantle of being MYX’s Celebrity VJ for the month of August. The “TYL” singer-songwriter also known as Kakie—who recently made headlines discussing her unapologetic views on the significance of being comfortable in one’s own skin—further branches out, this time by bringing in the up-and-coming, as well as the most desired tracks of today. Greyson Chance, the 21-year-old American musician who rose to fame through his performance of Lady Gaga’s song “Paparazzi,” returns to Manila as

THE actor warmly hugs a Pinoy fan in Birmingham.

the “MYX Headliner,” accompanied by fresh music from his latest album Portraits. Pop/alternative band Over October, meanwhile, boldly takes a leap into the “MYX Spotlight”—armed with their well-loved songs “Wait,” “Never Stop,” “Arbitrary” and their newest record “Mr. Sun.” Catch Celebrity MYX VJ Kakie on Pop MYX until August 10; on Pinoy MYX from August 11 to 17; on Mellow MYX from August 18 to 24; and on My MYX from August 25 to 31. Watch MYX on ABS-CBN TVplus Channel 12, SKYcable Channel 23, and SKYdirect Channel 37. Check out its new YouTube channel, All Music MYX, exclusively devoted to live performances from Filipino and international artists. For updates, visit www.abs-cbn.com/newsroom. n

DEREK visits Kabayan DXB where Filipino teachers and students help each other upgrade their skills.

Derek wins hearts of GMA fans in UAE, UK

THE actor meets one of his ultimate fans, Marge, in Michael Cinco’s salon

FILIPINOS in Dubai in the UAE and Birmingham in the UK wholeheartedly welcomed The Better Woman star Derek Ramsay during his first GMA Pinoy TV trip. On July 5, the award-winning hunky heartthrob attended the press conference of Mutya Pilipinas UAE at the Waterfront Market in Dubai where he was greeted by the 12 candidates, the local press and influencers, and the Arab Fashion Council. Derek, who was initially part of the judges’ panel for the coronation night, willingly accommodated questions from the Dubai-based press and gave encouraging words to help boost the candidates’ confidence for the competition. The event organizer, MDM Media Production, decided to move the pageant to July 19 instead at Pier Juan, Chelsea Plaza Hotel, in respect to the mourning period for the Sharjah Ruler’s son. After the press conference, Derek bonded with the members of Kabayan DXB, a group that helps each other upgrade their skills. They even made handmade gifts for him, such as floral lei, welcome cakes and pastries, décors, and much more. GMA Pinoy TV and its partner carrier Mavshack also surprised them with

free GMA On-Demand trial codes. Derek also visited renowned Dubai-based Filipino fashion designer Michael Cinco and had the chance to meet Cinco’s Filipino staff. One of his employees, Marge, was teary-eyed when she saw Derek and shared how much of an avid fan she is of the FilipinoBritish actor. She even excitedly shared that she watches his current show with Andrea Torres, The Better Woman, via GMA Pinoy TV. The video of their touching encounter was uploaded in Facebook and has already reached over a million views. After a jam-packed day of visiting Pinoys around Dubai, Derek traveled to the UK to grace the Birmingham Sandwell West Midlands Filipino Festival, held at Lightwoods Park, Adkins Lane, Smethwick, on July 7. Overseas Filipinos had a wonderful time singing along with Derek. He also led a trivia game and a dance showdown wherein the winners received premium items from GMA Pinoy TV while a new Mavshack subscriber even won a mobile phone. After the program, which was organized by the Birmingham Filipino British Community Volunteer (BFBCV), Derek also had

a special meet-and-greet with the subscribers of Mavshack. GMA Pinoy TV also surprised the GMA fans abroad with free Mavshack GMA On-Demand trial codes. Before heading home, Derek paid a courtesy visit at the Philippine Embassy in London to meet Philippine Ambassador to the UK Antonio Lagdameo and Deputy Chief of Mission and Consul General Senen Mangalile. Derek expressed his deep gratitude for the warm welcome he received from the Filipinos in Dubai and Birmingham. “Thank you to all our Kapuso abroad in Dubai and Birmingham for making my stay memorable! Nakakawala talaga ng pagod. You guys are so lovely. Even though I was only there for a short while, I really had a great time with you. You guys showed me so much love, and that love is truly appreciated. I hope I can come back and see you all again. I really enjoyed my trip,” he shared. To subscribe to Mavshack’s GMA Pinoy Pack, GMA fans abroad only need to download the mobile app on the App Store and Google Play, or visit www. mavshack.com and sign up.

Motoring BusinessMirror

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Editor: Tet Andolong

Friday, August 09, 2019 E1

BMW ROLLS OUT THE X7 S

Story & photos by Randy S. Peregrino

MC Asia Car Distributors Corp., the official importer and distributor of BMW vehicles in the Philippines, recently rolled out the X7 full-sized Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV). Offered only in xDrive30d Pure Excellence variant, this latest and largest model in the X lineup will bring fresh sensation of space to the luxury segment.

THE BMW X7 in Black Sapphire Metallic shade

LUXURIOUS cockpit highlighting the redesigned instrument panel and head unit

3.0-LITER, in-line six-cylinder diesel engine fitted with the award-winning BMW TwinPower Turbo technology

It offers an impressive cabin room with top-notch interior design, including state-of-the-art equipment features. More so, its advanced powertrain and chassis technology deliver off-roading prowess, excellent ride comfort and agile on-road handling. Notable upfront is the exceptionally large BMW kidney grille. Along with the sleek dual-LED headlamps with integrated LED fog lights and daylight running lights, the fascia exudes an unmistakable imposing presence. Interestingly, those main headlamps are equipped with BMW Laserlight headlight technology which emits a high-beam range of up to 600 meters. It can be easily identified by the blue x-shaped elements inside the headlights. On the flanks, its large windows, high ground clearance and long roofline are the exterior’s essential features. Further, there are horizontal lines, slim LED lights and the two-section split tailgate which emphasises the contemporary styling toward the rear end. Exclusive to the Pure Excellence design trim, chrome elements were added to complement the X7’s elegant character. Noteworthy are the fitted 21-inch V-spoke design light-alloy wheels wrapped in run flat tires. Boasting dimensions of 5,151 mm in length, 2,000 mm wide and 1,805 mm tall, and with a wheelbase of 3,105 mm, the X7 presents

a well-balanced proportion for a full-sized SAV. Inside, meantime, the luxurious and voluminous cabin has three rows to seat seven occupants. That third row offers full-size seats complete with armrests, cup holders and USB ports. Best part is, all seats are electronically adjusted. Cargo space, on the other hand, can be increased from 326 to a maximum of 2,120 liters, as required. By folding the 40:20:40 split rear seats, boot spaces ranges from 650 to 1,860 liters of maximum space. The X7 came standard with BMW Individual Extended Leather Trim “Merino” Upholstery, fivezone automatic climate control, the Ambient Air package, panoramic glass roof, Crafted Clarity glass applications, Harman Kardon Surround Sound System, Rear-seat Entertainment Professional system, Luggage-compartment Package, and ambient lighting, including the Welcome Light Carpet. As for the new and comfy seats, it features the new Vernasca variant leather upholstery. Anywhere you seat inside, you’ll be enveloped with carefully selected and meticulously crafted materials. As for the dashboard, the instrument panel has been redesigned along with the control display (head unit). Now with bigger 12.3-inch screens, both now run on a new BMW Operating System 7.0

THE BMW X7 in Alpine White shade

SPACIOUS second row with seat tumble function to access the back row

display and control concept. By using the multimodal interaction sysem, it allows the driver to utilize the steering wheel buttons, iDrive Controller, touchscreen display, and voice or gesture control. The BMW Live Cockpit Professional offers a fully digital instrument cluster and a Control Display. It supports Apple CarPlay along with Bluetooth and USB connectivity. Under the hood is a 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder diesel engine fitted with the award-winning BMW TwinPower Turbo technology. It dishes out 265 hp at 4,000 rpm, and a staggering 620 N-m of maximum

torque from 2,000 to 2,500 rpm range. Mated to an eight-speed Steptronic transmission, power is transferred to all four wheels via the xDrive intelligent all-wheel drive. BMW claims that fuel consumption of this X7 xDrive30d variant is at combined 6.8–6.5 L/100 km (41.5–43.5 mpg). Impressively, The X7’s standard chassis technology includes Adaptive Suspension with electronically controlled dampers, and air springs at both axles. Ground clearance can be adjusted by up to 80 millimeters via the BMW Display Key or button switch.

21-INCH V-spoke design light-alloy wheel wrapped in run flat tire

As for safety and convenience, the X7 is equipped with comprehensive array of driver assistance systems on hand. There are six airbags, Antilock Braking System (ABS), Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), Dynamic Traction Control (DTC), and Hill Descent Control (HDC). Another feature is the Active Protection. When engaged, the system closes any windows and tightens seat belts when imminent accident is detected. Moreover, there’s the integral active steering which helps improve road safety and comfort by turning the rear wheels slightly

when needed, and adjusts the weight of the steering feel for optimum manoeuvrability. Cruise Control with Braking function is also standard, as well as Parking Assistant Plus, which offers a range of functions including Park Distance Control (PDC) front and rear, along with rearview camera and surround view. The BMW X7 xDrive30d Pure Excellence is priced at P9.290 million. It comes with a five-year, 200,000-kilometer manufacturer’s warranty—a new standard in the premium automotive segment in the Philippines.

Moto

Business

E2 Friday, August 9, 2019

The all-new B-Class donning a sportier character

The rear end now is curvier with several sporty elements

The new cabin design highlighting the widescreen infotainment with MBUX

oring

sMirror

Friday, August 9, 2019

VolvoXC60

VolvoXC90

Hyundai joined Evap, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian (in photo), and EV advocates from the public and private sector in advancing the Philippine EV agenda at the seventh Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit.

Small yet potent 1.3-liter turbocharged gasoline engine

Motoring BusinessMirror

E4 Friday, August 9, 2019

RSA’s airport mega-vision clinched; Wehner speech

T took three years for San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to clinch its most ambitious project yet after getting the government’s green light this week to build the country’s biggest airport ever. This came about when no rivals in the so-called Swiss Challenge came to dispute the P375-billion SMC offer, paving the way for the start of the airport’s construction in the fourth quarter of 2019 in Bulakan, Bulacan. Giovanni Lopez, chairman of the bids and awards committee of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), said: “No one bought our bid documents, no one submitted comparative proposals to challenge the original proponent, which is San Miguel. This means we will award the project to San Miguel.” Not to brag but this corner was among the first in 2017 to break the news about SMC’s monumental aim of building an airport that can service more than 100 million travelers yearly, with its massively unparalleled four runways, easily making it one of the biggest air gateway in the world when finally operational

six years from now. The present always-crowded airport in Pasay has only one runway built more than half a century ago and, including its three Ninoy Aquino International Airport satellite terminals, has a combined passenger capacity of only 41 million yearly. Needless to say, the new Bulacan airport will generate thousands of jobs and mobility—translating into a vehicle production flurry—will be more pronounced from Manila to Central Luzon and from the North going southward. Commerce in the area will more than triple, if not quadruple. “It is our single-biggest investment in the country,” said SMC President Ramon S. Ang (RSA). “It is a landmark Filipino project that will be built at no cost to the government and with no subsidies or guarantees of any kind. What we hope to build is a long-term solution—a

RSA Photo by gettyimages

CHRISTOPHER WEHNER

sustainable and world-class Philippine gateway with enough runways and facilities to meet current and future needs.” With the NMIA (New Manila International Airport) rising in the horizons soon, a new world for the Filipino is to be born. Indeed, only a man of RSA’s stature can make possible an impossible dream.

First German

FROM here on, not only will I publish speeches of top local automotive officials but also those delivered by big shots from overseas, as well. And so, to take the first crack at it, here is the speech of Christopher Wehner during the recent launch of the BMW X7 at plush Rockwell in Makati. As everybody knows, Wehner is the dapper German managing director of BMW Group Asia, whom SMC Asia Car President Spencer Yu loves to call, “my dear buddy.”

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. “Thank you all for joining us tonight. “Before I begin, I would like to welcome our esteemed guests: “Members of the diplomatic corps, “Our valued BMW customers and dealer partners, “Our friends from the media. “And my colleagues from BMW Group Asia: “Marketing Director, Brenda Pek and, “Area Manager, Sue Ann Phoon. “2019 has been an extremely busy year for the BMW Group as we continue on our product offensive. “And despite ongoing volatility in several markets around the world, for the first time ever, the BMW Group has sold more than 1.25 million vehicles in the first half of the year. “Of those 1.25 million vehicles,

the BMW brand’s sales for the same period came to just over 1.07 million vehicles. “As you can see, our model rollout is clearly having a positive impact on our sales result, and I’m excited to say the BMW X vehicles continue to be the BMW brand’s biggest growth drivers, accounting for 43.4 percent of the brand’s overall sales. “In the month of June alone: n Global sales of the BMW X2 were up 19 percent, n Sales of the BMW X3 rose by nearly 67 percent, and; n Deliveries of the BMW X4 increased by nearly 71 percent. “Even more exciting is that less than three months after market launch, a total of 13,555 BMW X7 vehicles were delivered to customers around the world. “With The X7 now available in the Philippines, I’m confident this number will grow. “Ladies and gentlemen, luxury has a whole new meaning at BMW. “As we understand it, luxury is the ability to have time: n Time for you, n Time for other people, and; n Time for all the things we love to do.

“We believe the X7 embodies luxury in every aspect, evoking indescribable emotions and delivering unique experiences. “The X7 is proof that BMW continues to push the boundaries, and once you lay your eyes on it, you’ll immediately feel its inspiring presence. “I’m honored to be here tonight to introduce to you the first-ever BMW X7—The President of the BMW X vehicles. “BMW Group Asia is committed to working closely with SMC Asia Car, our trusted partner in the Philippines, to bring you luxurious driving experiences that you want and deserve. “Thank you all once again for being with us here and enjoy the rest of the night.” Thank you, too, Chris.

PEE STOP

One by one, they are leaving the scene of their glorious turfs. First to depart was Danny “Sir John” Isla, who retired in 2017 after almost a decade of shepherding Lexus Manila Inc.— spectacularly, that is, to say the least. Now based in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir John is enjoying “the time of my life” with her beloved “Joy It.” Then, Dave Macasadia left Berjaya as president of SsangYong last year, leaving behind decades of legendary work in several car companies. And then only last July 14, Vince Socco bade farewell to Toyota as executive vice president of Toyota Motors Asia-Pacific based in Singapore for many years. Vince left an indelible imprint that is hard to follow in the local car world. Cheers, fellas!

CALTEX FUEL ACHIEVES WORLD RECORD

Story & photo by Randy S. Peregrino

FTER the successful launch of the all-new Caltex with Techron fortified with the latest Clean and Glide technology, Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI) recently announced its latest campaign—

World Record-Breaking Fuel. This time, Caltex’s latest campaign collaborated with a two-part series on National Geographic’s Record Rides in order to demonstrate how a world-class fuel could power record-breaking feats. The automotive reality entertainment series presented a competition run between

RADIO DJ KC Montero (from left), Caltex Brand Manager Brian Fisher, Caltex Product Engineering Manager Greg Engeler, CPI Country Chairman Louie Zhang, professional rally race car driver Natasha Chang, and Caltex new brand ambassador Dingdong Dantes during the event’s ceremonial toast.

adrenaline junkie and radio DJ KC Montero and Jamaican-Chinese professional rally race car driver Natasha Chang. The challenge was to break new grounds: the fastest ascent of Doi Chang Mountain Road using an everyday car boosted with Caltex with Techron fuel. “As a leading visual storyteller, National Geographic’s programming pillars of exploration, education and science resonate well with the Caltex brand. Hence, we are proud to partner with the channel to create Record Rides for our viewers and motorists in Asia.” “This show will demonstrate how Caltex with Techron fuels can power an engine toward achieving an extraordinary journey,” said Caltex Brand Manager Brian Fisher. Guinness World Records’ long standing 63-year history and credibility made them the obvious partner to demonstrate how a world-class fuel could power record-breaking feats. “Caltex partnered with Guinness World Records and set a timing of six minutes 52.692 seconds with Natasha achieving the coveted title the fastest ascent of Doi Chang Mountain Road by using a 28-year old car,” added Fisher. That’s right. Caltex commissioned an almost three-decade old Honda Civic hatchback powered by its stock

naturally aspirated engine. “With the world record powered by Caltex with Techron, our campaign encourages drivers to fuel up the same fuel that set a world record and experience its power in their everyday drive,” Fisher further explained. In order to perform at optimum power, an engine requires unrestricted air and fuel delivery, which cannot happen when deposits are on the intake valves and port fuel injectors. Techron’s unique chemistry is proven to remove and protect an engine from deposits in these critical areas. Caltex with Techron and reinforced with Clean and Glide technology further helps to reduce friction, helping maximize power. “Caltex with Techron is specially formulated to clean and protect engines. The Guinness World Records title achievement helps demonstrate how a clean engine powered by Techron can function at its most optimum, which includes delivering maximum power to your wheels. This is the same fuel that our customers can experience at their neighborhood Caltex stations to power their everyday drive,” said Caltex Product Engineering Manager Greg Engeler. The campaign will roll out in Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia,

and Hong Kong from July to October 2019.

Caltex Philippines new brand ambassador

MEANWHILE, Caltex also introduced Jose Sixto Gonzalez Dantes III, better known as Dingdong Dantes as its latest brand ambassador. He is also known as an award-winning Filipino actor, film producer, television presenter and an effective endorser. Further, he co-owns a car dealership in Parañaque, manages his own film studio AgostoDos Pictures, and serves as the founding chairman of the YesPinoy Foundation. Dantes is also a husband and a proud father to two kids. “Dingdong Dantes’ roster of achievements is a testament to his determination to keep on taking new challenges whether in acting, in business or his personal life, each time beating his personal best,” said CPI Country Chairman Louie Zhang. “Aside from this, he is also the perfect embodiment of the Caltex’s tagline and philosophy of Enjoy the Journey. He represents the brand’s personality of being positive, friendly, genuine and he encourages people to enjoy the journey of whatever they are doing and wherever they are going,” he added.