BusinessMirror August 13, 2020

H1 ‘sin’ tax take down 25% to ₧109B

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

E

XCISE-TAX collections from “sin” products for the first half of the year dropped by 25.3 percent to P109 billion as it took a hit from the government’s imposition of lockdowns that paralyzed the economy.

Latest preliminary data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed the total “sin” tax collections of the government at P109 billion for the six-month period this year fell short of the P146 billion it collected as of end-June last year, although this was 33.9 percent higher than its adjusted target

THE BROADER LOOK » A4-A5

POULTRY FARMERS, BUREAUCRACY FIGHT BIRD FLU VIA FORTIFIED POLICY PROPOSALS

ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS

2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year

of P81.4 billion.

This, despite the 21.7-percent rise in the state’s sin tax collection in June to P29.5 billion from P24.2 billion in the same month a year ago due to the easing of community quarantine restrictions, especially in the National Capital Region.

Finance Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa S. Habitan said the alcohol ban during the lockdown also dented the government’s sin tax collection as of end-June.

While Habitan admitted that the government’s decision to place the National Capital Region, as well as other nearby provinces,

under stricter modified enhanced community quarantine may negatively impact the government’s sin tax collection, she still expressed optimism that there would be a slight recovery in the second half of the year.

“Hopefully we would see a slight recovery in the second half of the year. I hope there won’t be further liquor bans or prolonged and broad lockdowns,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino, in a message to the BusinessMirror.

Tobacco taxes

FOR the January-to-June period, excise taxes collected on tobacco

products fell by 27.6 percent to P61.5 billion this year from P84.9 billion last year.

However, this was still 41.06 percent above its adjusted target of P43.6 billion.

On the other hand, excise tax take on alcohol products also sank by 26.4 percent to P28.7 billion as of end-June this year from P39.1 billion a year ago but still exceeded the revised target of P21 billion by 36.67 percent.

Excise tax take on sweetened beverages also slid by 14.9 percent to P18.8 billion for the first semester this year from P22.1 billion in See “Sin Tax,” A2

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR (2017, 2018)

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

DATA CHAMPION

TOURISM SECTOR LOSES www.businessmirror.com.ph

n

Thursday, August 13, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 308

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 16 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

P190B IN MARCH-JULY ‘DESPITE PANDEMIC, PHL’S LONG-TERM PROSPECTS INTACT’

By Cai U. Ordinario

D

ESPITE the damage caused by the pandemic on lives and livelihoods, the Philippine economy has retained its longterm prospects, according to an economist from the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P).

In an online briefing, UA&P economist Bernardo Villegas said the Philippines will still become an upper middle-income country within three to four years or, at the soonest, 2023. This means reaching a per capita income of around $4,000 and a growth of 6 percent to 7 percent.

Villegas added that achieving high-income status will also not be far behind in 20 years or 2040. This means those in their 20s would experience high-income growth when they become middleaged adults, while those in their 40s would already be considered seniors.

“[Any projections in the next] 12 to 18 months are pure guesstimates [because everything] depends on Covid-19 (coronavirus 2019). I give little importance to GDP growth rates in the next 12 to 18 months,” Villegas said.

The country, he said, would have achieved upper middle-income status this year had it not been for the pandemic, while attaining high income status in 20 years is consistent with the AmBisyon2040.

Based on the latest data, the World Bank said an upper middle-income economy would have a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of $4,046 and $12,535, while a high-income economy would register a GNI per capita of $12,536 or more.

Currently, the World Bank classifies the Philippines as a lower middle-income country with a GNI per capita of $1,036 to $4,045.

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

R

Special to the BusinessMirror

EVENUES of the Philippine tourism industry fell by P190 billion from March to July this year, owing to the international travel restrictions implemented by various countries to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

This was revealed in a forum hosted by the Philippine Tour Operators Association (Philtoa) for tourism stakeholders all over the country to express their sentiments on the Bayanihan 2 bill (House Bill 6953), which stripped the industry of P10 billion in funds for working capital, and reallocated this instead to tourism infrastructure.

(See, “House cuts on tourism recovery assailed” in the BusinessMirror, August 11, 2020.)

Citing new data from the Department of Tourism (DOT), Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) president Jose C. Clemente III said tourism receipts in the past four months “dropped to P6.9 billion, versus P196.4 billion earned in the same period last year,” or a decrease of 96.5 percent.

On a cumulative basis, visitor receipts in the first seven months of 2020 amounted to P81.05 billion, a Continued on A2

Intact fundamentals

VILLEGAS said the country’s long-term fundamentals have remained intact. He said these include the country’s young and growing English-speaking population.

Its location is in the most dynamic economic region in the world, Asia and the Pacific. Villegas also said the country’s membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is also a major consideration in the country’s long-term prospects.

Villegas said the Asean region is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world. Data from the International Monetary Fund HEALTH workers from the Makati Health Department conduct house-to-house anti-flu and antipneumonia vaccinations for septuagenarians at Barangay Pembo on Wednesday. Earlier, the Department of Health clarified that the vaccines are not a cure for Covid-19, but can help prevent flu and pneumonia, which could be deadly on senior citizens. ROY DOMINGO

See “Prospects,” A2

FMIC sees more cut in interest rates

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

F

IRST Metro Investment Corp.

(FMIC) is expecting the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to have another reduction in key policy rates and reserve requirement before the year ends.

The investment bank of Metrobank Group noted that while the Central Bank has already cut the policy rates several times this year, it is still possible that another one will take place to boost

the economy.

“To help stimulate the economy, the BSP continued to apply an accommodative monetary policy, having cut policy rates four times in the first half of the year for a total of 175 basis points (bps),” the FMIC said.

Currently, the overnight reverse repurchase facility is 2.25 percent, while deposit and lending rates stand at 1.75 percent and 2.75 percent, respectively. This, after the Monetary Board trimmed in-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.9700

terest rates by 50 bps in June.

Meanwhile, the firm also expects a 200-bp cut on banks’ reserve requirement from 12 percent to 10 percent.

Earlier this year, the BSP approved to slash the reserve requirements of universal/commercial banks and nonbank financial institutions with quasi-banking functions by 200 bps. The reserve requirement is the part of the total deposit balance that banks secure in the BSP’s vaults as reserves. Re-

ducing it means banks have more available funds for borrowings.

Last month, the BSP reduced the reserve requirement ratio for thrift, rural and cooperative banks by 100 bps effective July 31. This is seen to release P10 billion worth of fresh liquidity infusion into the economy.

FMIC Chairman Francisco C. Sebastian said the low interest rates are seen supporting the infrastructure drive.

See “FMIC,” A2

COFFEE BREAK A buying station of Nestlé Philippines is seen in operation in Bukidnon, home to some of the country’s best coffee varieties. The multinational food and beverage giant said it constantly pursues efforts to support Filipino coffee farmers who need assistance from various stakeholders, especially consumers. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

n JAPAN 0.4598 n UK 63.9352 n HK 6.3188 n CHINA 7.0498 n SINGAPORE 35.6924 n AUSTRALIA 34.9695 n EU 57.5055 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.0583

Source: BSP (August 12, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, August 13, 2020

Tourism sector loses ₧190B in March-July Continued from A1

71.5-percent decrease from P284.82 billion in the same period last year.

From January to July 2020, foreign visitor arrivals slumped by some 73 percent to 1.32 million.

“In light of these sobering figures, we, the tourism stakeholders around the country, respectfully urge the Bicameral Committee to re-examine the provisions of the HB 6953, specifically Sec. 7, appropriating P10 billion to finance the programs of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza)…and request that the amount appropriated for infrastructure development be used instead to fulfill the provisions in Sec. 3, (ff) pertaining to the actions to be taken by the Department of Tourism,” on the extension of credit facilities to the sector, the group said in a news statement read during the forum. The online industry forum was attended by close to 400

FMIC… Continued from A1

“I think this is the best time to spend when the interest rates are low and that will enable us to build infrastructure,” he said.

RCBC Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort, in an e-mail to the BusinessMirror earlier, said that the low interest rates would benefit borrowers given the decrease in lending or financing costs as well. This could then boost the demand for loans, he added.

In June, however, the BSP reported that bank lending only grew by 9.6 percent in June, which is lower compared to 11.3 percent in the previous month.

The Central Bank blamed the slowdown on “weak domestic economic prospects and constrained economic activity following the imposition of quarantine measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Sin tax…

Continued from A1

2019, although this breached the government’s P16.8-billion goal by 11.9 percent.

For June alone, the government collected more excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol this year compared to the same month last year.

Finance Undersecretary and Chief Economist Gil S. Beltran also attributed the improvement in the excise tax collection in June to the removal of restrictions on the sale of sin products by many local government units.

With P18.1 billion in excise tax collection on tobacco for the month, the government exceeded by 36.1 percent its take last year of P13.3 billion.

Meanwhile, excise taxes on alcohol gave the government an additional P7.7 billion in revenues in June, 9.9 percent higher than P7 billion it collected last year.

However, the state’s excise tax collection on sweetened beverages in June this year was lower at P3.7 billion, slipping by 6.1 percent from P3.9 billion last year.

To recall, President Duterte signed into law in January this year Republic Act 11467, hiking the excise taxes on alcohol and imposing new duties on heated tobacco and vapor products, in a bid to raise more revenues for the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law.

heads of various tourism associations and stakeholders across the country.

Philtoa president Cesar Cruz underscored that the P10-billion fund for working capital was urgently needed to “save 5 million jobs and 0.5 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs),” which make up the bulk of the tourism industry. “We don’t need infra at this time. We have enough infrastructure already in place, even before Covid-19,” he stressed.

He added that 70 percent of the tourism sector are MSMEs: “Hindi naman [napakahaba] ng kanilang mga pisi…. Kailangan po namin ng tulong para madugtungan pa ang mga kapital para maipagpatuloy pa namin yung aming mga negosyo at the same time, ma-proteksyonan namin yung aming mga empleyado [Their resources can’t extend for long... We need help to augment our working capital so we can keep

our enterprises afloat and save our employees’ jobs].”

For their sector, travel agencies sustained a loss of some 71 percent or P20.4 billion in terms of international ticketing sales, according to Ritchie Tuaño, president of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association. For the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) sector, Philippine Association of Convention/Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers Inc. vice president for exhibitions Marisa Nallana said they estimate losses of P2.1 billion on exhibitions and conferences to date.

During the forum, various stockholders around the country underscored their difficulties in trying to survive the pandemic:

• Carmela Geisert (Asia Grand View Hotel, Coron) said, “We’ve been exerting all efforts to reduce all costs at all sides,” like closing the Manila office. “But to be honest, we don’t really know what to

do anymore. It has been quite difficult especially for our people on how to survive and recover.”

• VG Miranda (BelAir Bus Charter) said, aside from the slowdown in business of many of his clients such as hotels and tour operators, the tourism transport sector must contend with the impending implementation of the Transport Modernization Law, which mandates the shift to Euro-4 vehicles.

“It’s impossible to implement. If you have a fleet of 10 buses, but are not Euro-4 compliant, you will have to buy 10 new buses…worth P7.5 million. Nobody can do that.”

• Tito Mora (Tour operator, Cagayan de Oro) said the local government has not helped in easing the pains of operating under the pandemic. “We’ve been paying rent when our offices are closed.

Then we’re paying all the benefits and salaries [of our staff] even if we have no sales. I don’t know how we’re going to survive this; I think

it’s worse than the pandemic when people are not able to see any hope for their future livelihood or business.”

Christine Ann U. Ibarreta, president of the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association, said many stakeholders have resorted to selling food like bread and longganisa, “just anything, just to tide their families over on a daily basis. It’s not fun when there are no funds allotted for us in tourism.” Still, she said, stakeholders hope the bicameral committee will see things their way and allot the P10 billion for working capital for the tourism sector, as the Senate bill intended.

(See, “House leader firm: P10-billion tourism fund for infrastructure, not working capital,” in the BusinessMirror, August 12, 2020.)

The bicameral conference committee will start meeting on Thursday to reconcile both chambers’ versions of the Bayanihan 2 bill.

As PhilHealth probers focus on IRM, officials told: Go on leave Continued from A8

Witness protection

JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday said his department has yet to receive a formal request from the Senate to place under its Witness Protection Program (WPP) the whistleblowers in the alleged PhilHealth fund scam.

“We are awaiting the Senate’s formal request. We shall immediately evaluate upon receipt,” Guevarra said, However, as of press time Wednesday, the Senate has yet to forward its request to the DOJ. Senate President Vicente Sotto III has reportedly approved the proposal to place former PhilHealth anti-fraud officer Thorsson

Montes Keith, board member Alejandro Cabading, and former head executive assistant Etrobal Laborte under the WPP. Guevarra, who heads the task force conducting the investigation on anomalies in PhilHealth, said the task force will meet on Friday along with invited resource persons to brief them on the various corruption activities in the agency.

“The DOJ Team met last Monday to discuss organizational matters and the operational strategy for Task Force PhilHealth. We have scheduled a conference with the other members of the task force on Friday afternoon,” he said.

“We are presently inviting certain resource persons to give us a

Industry leaders ask govt to ease transport restrictions on workers Continued from A8

Following the easing of restrictions to GCQ, private sector leaders reported that construction has resumed, with one major property builder slowly restarting 78 projects and another conglomerate reporting that their infrastructure investments largely remain on track, the DOF said.

DOF said most firms also reported they have begun to see a gradual sales recovery in June, coinciding with the partial reopening of the economy under general community quarantine (GCQ), and expect a slow reduction of losses in the coming months, after the end of the MECQ on August 18.

Despite the pandemic, telecommunications, water and energy sectors expect positive sales growth this year.

A major private sector lender reported a rise in consumer loans except for automobile loans, and a surge in loan demand mostly from large firms.

Mall owners in areas under the relatively relaxed GCQ and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) saw foot traffic returning to 24 to 30 percent compared to regular operations, but

with sales still sluggish as of June.

Mall purchases were mostly food, household items and gadgets.

In June, real-estate businesses also had an increase in the sale of residential units of up to 60 percent.

Business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies have also asked for additional office space for their employees, in compliance with physical distancing plus other health and safety protocols, according to land developers.

Liquor sales also increased by up to 34 percent in the first half of 2020 despite the lockdown and higher excise taxes imposed starting January this year under the new “sin” tax reform law.

One major fast-food chain has reopened 93 percent of its stores nationwide, but sales have remained below normal because of existing mobility restrictions.

Port operations, meanwhile, have reached a 60-percent utilization rate as of June.

Hotel operations have resumed in both GCQ and MGCQ areas but only for a limited number of bookings, such as for longstaying guests, returning overseas Filipinos and stranded passengers.

briefing on alleged irregularities at PhilHealth, so that we may clearly identify and prioritize the work to be done,” he added.

House hearing

THE chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday proposed the filing of plunder chargers against all officials involved in PhilHealth anomalies.

At a hearing of the House Committee on Public Accounts and House Committee on Good Government, Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor, citing Commission on Audit reports, questioned the surge in the number of health claims.

He said these claims did not align with those reported by the

Department of Health.

According to Defensor, the overpayments prompted the COA to recommend to PhilHealth to revisit its guidelines on all case rates payment system. “[Because of this] I submit to the members of this committee, this in fact is plunder. This billions of pesos lost is tantamount to plunder,” Defensor said.

The lawmakers said charges should also be filed against employees from the regional level.

According to Defensor, PhilHealth has lost an estimated P153.7 billion from 2013 to 2018 due to overpayment and fraud.

Butch Fernandez, Joel R. San Juan and Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

US’s Azar twits Russia as DOH vows vaccine scrutiny Continued from A8 Asked whether Trump is not trying to politicize the Taiwan visit— coming just three months before the US election—Azar replied, “My visit is about health, the health of the people of Taiwan and the health of the United States of America and the people of the world in transparent, cooperative, collaborative way, and to learn how Taiwan has managed to deal with the pandemic—less than 500 cases, most of them imported, and seven death.”

Azar is the highest US official to visit the self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979 in deference to China.

Despite hewing to the One-China Policy, the US has supplied the islandnation with the latest fighter jets and armaments, hoping to keep at bay the giant neighbor across the Taiwan Strait, which has vowed to retake Taiwan by force if necessary.

However, Azar justified his latest foray in the international arena, saying the US wanted to maintain its friendship with Taiwan, praising its excellent health-care system and vowing to help the country to join the World Health Assembly (WHA), which China had opposed.

“We wanted to see how Taiwan manufactures the face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) through its machining factory,” Azar said, adding, “Taiwan donated PPE to the US.”

After meeting senior Taiwanese officials, including President Tsai IngWen, Vice President Lai Ching-Te and a

host of academic leaders on infectious diseases, Azar said, “my message is to focus on deep partnership and friendship and recognizing Taiwan’s vibrant leadership.”

He congratulated Taiwan as a model of health care, “against the Chinese who should have disclosed more cooperatively regarding Covid-19.”

As some people cast doubt on the Russian-made Covid-19 vaccine, given its incredibly quick timeline and the need for it to undergo the third level of massive clinical trials, a DOH official assured the public that Philippine experts and the FDA will thoroughly study the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine before administering it.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also said the Department of Science and Technology was to meet Wednesday (August 12) with the members of the Gamaleya National Research Center who developed the vaccine dubbed Sputnik V.

“We can assure the public that it will undergo our procedures even if it already passed their procedures in Russia. We have this vaccine expert panel which provides recommendation to the national government—what is safe, what is the effect to the population,” Vergeire added.

Meanwhile, the DOH said that for the Avigan (an anti-Covid drug) trial, the project will be implemented in selected hospitals in National Capital Region including the Philippine General Hospital, Sta. Ana Hospital, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Quirino Memorial Medical Center.

The project will run for nine months.

Recto Mercene, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Prospects…

Continued from A1

(IMF), he said, identified the Philippines as one of the 11 Emerging Engines of Growth globally.

He added that HSBC also expects the Philippines to be among the top 20 economies in the world by 2050. In 2050, HSBC said the Philippines will be the 16th largest economy in the world.

Villegas said the country’s abundant natural resources will also ensure its long-term growth and development, especially for tourism.

The administration’s Build, Build, Build (BBB) program will also be sustained by at least two more Presidents after President Duterte, he added.

Villegas likewise pointed to growth corridors outside of the National Capital Region (NCR) where investors could relocate and grow their businesses. Among these is the Bicol region, which has been growing fast; and in terms of provinces, Iloilo and Davao.

Sunset industries moving forward are agriculture; health and wellness; computers or the technological industries; and education.

These will allow for a faster and Vshaped recovery for the Philippines.

However, Villegas said longterm challenges for the Philippine economy include low agricultural productivity, obstacles to doing business, especially for foreign direct investors, and shortage of technical skills.

He said the list of challenges includes high rates of electricity; corruption and poor governance; and high frequency of natural calamities.

Annus horribilis

UA&P economist Victor A. Abola said, however, that the Philippine economy will be in a slump this year and it won’t be until the end of 2021 when it is expected to recover.

This year, First Metro Investment Corp.-UA&P (FMIC-UA&P) expects full-year GDP to contract 8 percent to 9 percent. The country’s industry and services sectors are expected to take a beating this year with contractions of 17.5 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

In his presentation on Wednesday, Abola also said the peso-dollar rate could average P50 to P51 to the dollar; inflation to 2.5 percent; and Gross International Reserves (GIR), $97 billion.

Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are expected to decline by 8 percent to 12 percent for the full-year 2020.

Abola said OFWs have been dealt a “double whammy” with the crisis and the decline in oil prices.

Abola said due to the crises, many OFWs saw their income decline. This meant a decline in their remittances and the limitation of the remittances to prop up the country’s economy through consumption spending.

“We have gone through so many crises in the past and we have shown, time and again, our resilience as a country in overcoming the toughest of crises. The difference this time is that we are coming from a stronger position,” First Metro president Jose Patricio Dumlao, however, said.

The pandemic has brought the Philippine economy to its knees as the lockdowns meant to control the spread of the deadly disease caused GDP to contract to a historic low.

The largest contraction posted by the economy prior to the second quarter this year was toward the end of the Marcos administration in the third quarter of 1984 at 10.7 percent.

PSA said in terms of major industries, agriculture grew 1.6 percent in the second quarter, higher than the 0.7 percent posted in the same period last year.

However, industry and services both became casualties of the pandemic, contracting 22.9 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively.

Mapa said industry’s contraction was the worst in the current 2018-based series. The last time industry posted a similar doubledigit contraction was in the first quarter of 1985.

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

11 cops face raps for killing two men in ‘bogus’ drugs ops in CSJDM, Bulacan

By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

T

HE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute for kidnapping and murder the police intelligence and drug enforcement unit chief of the City of San Jose del Monte (CSJDM), Bulacan and 10 other cops, who allegedly detained six persons before killing two of them in a “bogus” anti-illegal drug operation last February.

Charged before the DOJ were Police Maj. Leo de la Rosa, chief of the PNP-CSJDM Intelligence Section/City Drug Enforcement Unit, along with Police Staff Sgts. Benjie Enconado, Jayson Legaspi, Irwin Joy Yuson, and Edmund Catubay Jr.; Cpls. Jay Marc Leoncio, Herbert Hernandez, Raymond Bayan, and Paul Malgapo; and Patrolmen Erwin Sabido and Rusco Madla, who are all operatives of the city’s drug intelligence and drug enforcement unit.

The NBI-Death Investigation Division (DID) filed criminal complaints of kidnapping/serious illegal detention with murder; violation of Section 38, Article V of Republic Act 1059, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act; and violation of Section 29, Article II of RA 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 against the police officers after gathering sufficient material evidence and testimonies from eyewitnesses.

The complaint was filed in connection with the deaths of Erwin Mergal and Jim Joshua Cordero, who were allegedly abducted and illegally detained together with four other victims Edmar Asprin, Richard Salgado, Chamberlain Domingo, and Chadwin Santos last February 13.

The NBI filed the case in behalf of the complainants Jasmin, who is the widow of Mergal; and Rochill, the mother of Cordero.

Based on the evidence gathered by the NBI, the police officers conducted a buy-bust operation at Towerville, Barangay Santo Cristo, CSJDM against a certain individual.

While waiting for the scene of the crime operatives (SOCO) to process the evidence that they have collected, the victims who were just passing by the area, were also apprehended and brought to the CSJDM Police Office on board a white van.

The NBI said the victims were reportedly blindfolded, hogtied and placed inside a room at the Intelligence Office of the police station, instead of undergoing booking and documentation procedures.

But according to the police spot report, Mergal and Cordero were killed at around 12:30 a.m. of February 18 in an illegal-drug operation at a secluded area along Pacolis Road, Barangay Gaya-Gaya, CSJDM, Bulacan.

The NBI, however, said there were witnesses who saw the six individuals being accosted and then blindfolded and handcuffed by the police officers.

‘Pinoys must conquer fear to spend amid contagion to spur economic recovery’

T

HE Duterte administration was urged on Wednesday to initiate measures to encourage consumption spending that could pave the way for recovery from the Covid-19-induced economic slump.

AttheFirstMetroInvestmentCorp.University of Asia and the Pacific’s (FMIC-UA&P)midyeareconomicbriefing, economist Bernardo Villegas said consumption spending remains the primary driving force for the economy and accounts for over 70 percent.

In the second quarter, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE) contracted 15.5 percent. However, Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE) posted a growth of 22.1 percent.

“Until Filipinos conquer their fears, regain their confidence to travel, to spend, [the economy will not recover],” Villegas said. “We have to address the whole issue [of confidence]. People suffer from fear. Until fear disappears, [spending will not increase].”

Villegas said while a stimulus will help prop up the economy, it is really consumption spending that will ensure the country’s recovery simply because of the role of consumption spending in GDP. UA&P economist Victor Abola said speeding up the country’s recovery will depend on the quick implementation of “strategic moves” such as addressing supply-chain bottlenecks and efforts to review and craft new business models and digitize business processes.

Abola also expressed optimism that efforts made by the government, especially those in the financial sector, will lead to a “one healing nation” that will pave the way for a “more serious recovery” next year.

However, Abola said he was optimistic that the country would at least be able to celebrate Christmas this year in the traditional way— with family and friends congregating in a single place.

This optimism is driven by the resumption of construction projects. Abola said the construction industry should have not been asked to stop working during the pandemic since most were horizontal projects and did not require close contact between workers.

He said, however, he welcomed Public Works Secretary Mark Villar’s recent report that at least 50 percent of the government’s infrastructure projects have resumed.

“This is not to downplay the impact of the pandemic. There will be pain all over. For a consumer country like the Philippines, definitely, to a tourism dependent economy such as Thailand. Even oil producing wealthy countries will share the pain. This Covid is a great equalizer,” First Metro Chairman Francisco Sebastian, for his part, said.

“In the school where I come from, when things get rough, when times get tough, we grit our teeth, clench our fist, and we scream, on top of our voice: ONE BIG FIGHT!” Sebastian said.

In July, Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development (ACERD) Director Alvin P. Ang said reopening the economy and loanfinanced social safety nets can help boost the economy, but these will not be sustainable and the overall lack of confidence prevents millions of Filipinos from getting jobs.

He said even with a general community quarantine remains in effect, the government must assure that protocols are clear and steps to manage Covid-19 from the national to local levels are in place.

Ang said the country cannot wait for a vaccine to be available to provide assistance, or employment, for the millions who have lost their jobs and those who may still lose it.

He said that recently, the government announced that it intends to improve testing, contact tracing and isolation efforts for those infected, which Ang said are “good” initial steps. Cai U. Ordinario

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, August 13, 2020 A3

ADB approves new $400-M policy loan for agriculture sector, poverty reduction

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

T

HE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a new policy loan to raise productivity and the competitiveness of the country’s agriculture sector and significantly reduce poverty in rural areas.

In a news statement, ADB said the $400-million policy-based loan will finance the Competitive and Inclusive Agriculture Development Program Subprogram 1, which aims to expand economic opportunities in the farm sector by implementing trade policy and regulatory reforms.

The project will help enhance public services and finance to the sector, as well as expand social protection to rural families.

“The Philippines has made tremendous strides in reducing the

national poverty rate but rural poverty remains high because of low productivity and limited crop diversification,” said ADB Vice President Ahmed M. Saeed.

“This loan will support the government’s comprehensive suite of policy and regulatory reforms, resolving institutional weaknesses in land and water management, expanding agricultural financing to boost productivity, and extending the social safety net to unserved and underserved rural families,” he said.

ADB said the project will also support reforms such as the passage of the 2019 Rice Tariffication Act and the various measures it provides. The new law removed quantitative restrictions on rice imports and replaced them with a pure tariff system.

Using collected duties on im-

ported rice, the government had established the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund to strengthen the rice industry in line with the Philippine Rice Industry Roadmap. The government is also initiating additional reforms in land and water resources, including irrigation investments.

Other reforms supported by the loan include additional assistance to farmers making the transition toward higher value crops and those affected by the pandemic such as unconditional cash grants and the Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers to provide zero-interest loans to more than 160,000 small farmers. The program also expands the government’s preschool feeding programs to families to reduce malnutrition and stunting.

The new loan will be complemented by upcoming investments to enhance flood risk management in major river basins, improve irrigation efficiency, and promote agroenterprise development.

ADB said the agriculture industry in the Philippines employs a quarter of the country’s labor force.

But the sector lags behind counterparts in other Southeast Asian countries in productivity growth and competitiveness.

Poverty rates in rural Philippines remain high along with malnutrition and stunting. The government has identified agriculture as a priority area for reform under its coronavirus disease pandemic economic recovery program, as it seeks to ensure food security and reduce poverty in the country.

Minority lawmakers: May P1.3-T USTR bares sugar ARISE bill arise as Bayanihan 3 TRQ allocation for

T

HE House minority bloc on Wednesday said the “wounded” Philippine economy could be in dire need of a “surgery” to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At a news conference, House economic cluster co-chairman and Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said passage of the proposed P1.3-trillion Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy of the Philippines (ARISE) is the surgery needed by the economy.

“Right now, surgery is needed for the economic wound; Bayanihan 1 is our first aid, Bayanihan 2 is the emergency room, but they are not enough to revive the economy. We need the Bayanihan 3, may the ARISE bill arise as Bayanihan 3,” Quimbo, an economist, said.

“Our economy contracted by 16.5 percent in the second quarter—the largest contraction in a single quarter ever recorded. We are officially in a recession. We need a proportionate response if we are to bounce back by 2021. If there is a lack of government support, many more will lose their jobs, and many more businesses will close,” Quimbo added.

According to the lawmaker, the economic managers now estimate that the economy will contract by 5.5 percent overall in 2020.

“This means we stand to lose P2.4 trillion in output. To avert that loss, we need a stimulus of P1.5 trillion. But unless we put a handle on our Covid situation, we will have to keep adjusting the amount needed for economic stimulus. We need a clearer virus prevention plan. Countries that have been able to control the spread of the virus are also those that have been able to begin the journey towards economic recovery,” she added.

With this, Quimbo, also one of the principal authors of the ARISE bill, appealed to economic managers of the Duterte administration to support the ARISE bill as Bayanihan Part 3.

“Under ARISE, we have a comprehensive plan to address the economic crisis.

ARISE proposes P1.3 trillion over three years. Special attention is given to our small businesses who are most in need of resources in order to stay afloat, with

P60 billion allocated for MSME [micro, small and medium enterprises] loans and assistance under DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] and SBC [Small Business Corp.],” she added.

“Our second quarter GDP [gross domestic product] data only confirmed that our tourism, transport, and manufacturingexporting sectors are among those that have taken the biggest hit thus far. That’s why ARISE provides for sector-specific assistance for these businesses, along with assistance for agriculture, to improve our food security,” she added.

The lawmaker said the House-approved ARISE bill has been the subject of extensive consultations with the private sector, regulators, and academe and further validated with data.

“At this point, Congress has done the hard work—the Executive need not look far to find a suitable plan of action,” she said.

“Still, many provisions of ARISE were incorporated in [P162 billion] Bayanihan 2 meaning there is support from the economic managers. Hopefully, they will be more open to determining what in the ARISE bill they agree with,” she added.

Not enough

FOR his part, Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. said the proposed P162-billion Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, or Bayanihan 2, to address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to the country is not enough to fund both Covid-19 response, as well as the country’s economic recovery efforts.

“Our GDP has contracted by 16.5 percent and we are in our first recession in three decades. It is clear that our economy needs a significant shot in the arm…,” he said.

“ThisiswhywereiteratetheneedforARISE, which the House passed two months ago. This is a measure that has the support of more than 40 local and foreign business groups, including the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines,” he added.

The minority leader urged the executive to revisit and support the proposal because ARISE seeks to keep workers employed.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

PHL next fiscal year

T

HE Philippines again obtained the same sugar quota from the United States under a preferential trade scheme for fiscal year 2019, which will kick off in October.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) recently announced the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) allocations for the next fiscal year.

The Philippines was given a sugar quota of 142,160 metric tons raw value (MTRV), or 136,201 MT commercial weight, for fiscal year 2021, which starts this October and ends on September 30, 2021.

“These allocations are based on each country’s historical shipments to the United States,” the USTR said in a news statement issued on July 22.

This is the fourth consecutive fiscal year that the US allocated a sugar quota to the Philippines at 142,160 MTRV. Countries authorized by the US to export sugar under the TRQ scheme may do so at lower duties.

The Philippines was given the third-largest allocation of the total 1.117 million MTRV in-quota quantity of the TRQ, next to the Dominican Republic and Brazil, which received 185,335 MTRV and 152,691 MTRV, respectively.

Latest Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) data showed that the Philippines, as of July 19, has shipped 67,222 MT commercial weight equivalent of sugar to the US in the current fiscal year.

Earlier, the Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA) said the country may ship a total of 100,000 MT this current fiscal year.

PSMA noted that the volume of exports to the US is “shorter” than the country’s 136,201 MTCW quota but traders are now looking for a way to find a vessel that will ship at least 20,000 MT. The SRA has issued Sugar Order 5 last July 29 that ordered the verification of outstanding “A” sugar quedans, or sugar that are allocated for export to the US market.

“There is a need for the SRA to make an accounting of all “A” US Export Market Sugar issued for CY 2019-2020 and previous crop years to determine the total available volume of all outstanding A sugar quedans,” the SRA said.

The SRA has set the deadline for the filing of the application of verification of A sugar quedan-permits on September 7.

After a two-year slump, the country’s sugar production in the current crop year 2019-2020 is poised for recovery, latest data from the SRA showed.

Preliminary SRA data as of July 7 has reached 2.145 million metric tons, 3.54 percent over the 2.072 MMT recorded in the same period of last year.

The volume was equivalent to 42.913 million 50-kilogram bags of raw sugar, compared to the 41.447 million LKg produced last year, SRA data showed.

This is now the highest sugar output in three crop years since the record-high 2.5 MMT was recorded in calendar year 2016-2017. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

MMDA allots ₧20 million to procure Covid vaccines

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent

M

ETROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority Chairman Danilo Lim on Wednesday said the agency has allotted P20 million from its internal income for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.

“The vaccine will add up to our sustained efforts against Covid-19,” he said. “Our personnel who are mostly frontliners can be fully secured of their health,” Lim added.

The procurement of the vaccines, however, would have to go through the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), an attached agency under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

According to Lim, the MMDA is in coordination with PITC President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Almarinez. Once finalized, the agency will execute a memorandum of agreement with PITC for the inclusion of MMDA in the vaccine procurement.

PITC has been mandated by President Duterte to purchase Covid-19

vaccines from overseas.

Lim also said that each employee can also nominate one member of his/her family to receive vaccination as well.

“Our employees’ families are as important as they are to us. We want them to be protected, too,” Lim added.

Moreover, the MMDA Covid-19 Committee, which oversees the implementation of internal guidelines with regard to the prevention of the virus among employees, continues to recommend additional safety protocols.

In its fight against Covid-19, the committee conducts regular disinfection on all MMDA offices and strictly implements minimum health protocols among employees and visitors.

Further, the agency had set up an isolation facility to accommodate employees exposed to persons with Covid-19, tested positive on rapid test, and for those awaiting swab test results.

Currently, the MMDA has more than 8,000 employees, with almost 80 percent working in the field on various locations in Metro Manila.

TheBroa

Business

A4 Thursday, August 13, 2020 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

Poultry farmers, bu bird flu via fortified

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

’T

@jearcalas

WAS the best of times for egg farmers; a “damn good” year, one even said, not realizing idioms mirror life: never count your eggs before they’re hatched.

The year was 2017 and egg farm owners layer raisers in technical parlance saw farm-gate prices at unprecedented levels while demand was exponentially growing.

It was a “damn good” year that has happened only twice in the past two decades, based on historical figures and records. And a proverb’s reverse settled: after good fortune came bad luck.

Unfortunately, a poultry virus reoriented that market year for Filipino egg producers: avian influenza (AI); commonly known as bird flu. Central Luzon became its epicenter.

And the year 2017 became Dickensian: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Freedom

The aftermath of the 2017 Central Luzon bird flu outbreak brought an array of lessons and changes in government protocols and farm practices.

It was the first outbreak experienced by the Philippines, which enjoyed decades-long of freedom from the fatal disease while neighboring Southeast Asian countries only watched bird flu ravage their respective poultry sector for 10 years.

The outbreak in 2017 of the highly-pathogenic avian influenza Type-A Subtype-h5n6, or HPAI (A) H5N6, led to the culling of over 200,000 birds to contain and prevent the spread of disease. Nonetheless, the Philippines eventually regained its “free-from-AI” status.

It was a short-lived freedom as three years later, bird flu outbreaks were officially detected again this year: one in a quail farm in Jaen, Nueva Ecija and another in a layer farm in San Luis, Pampanga.

The outbreaks returned with a familiarity: the same AI strain struck an egg farm in San Luis, Pampanga twice; the first being in 2017.

Origins

Dr. Arlyn Asteria V. Vytiaco, the government’s technical spokesperson for AI, told the BusinessMirror there was little to no improvement in the biosecurity of poultry farms in San Luis, Pampanga, the Ground-Zero of the 2017 Central Luzon outbreak.

It did not come as a surprise to Vytiaco that the main reason for such despite the farmers’ experience of bird flu’s potential economic damage three years ago was financial costs.

Vytiaco emphasized that having strong biosecurity measures is

key in preventing an outbreak of AI. She reminds poultry farmers to follow what is stipulated under the government’s Good Animal Husbandry Practices (GAHP).

Crafted beginning 2007, the Code of GAHP “sets out the general principles of good practice and minimum requirements in the commercial or backyard rearing or farming of animals for food use.”

The Code of GAHP aims “to ensure that the farming practices of the establishment provide greater confidence in consumers’ expectations that the final products are safe and fit for human consumption, while ensuring health safety and comfort to both the farm workers and the animals, without any degradation to the environment.”

Outbreak

BASED on the government’s initial investigation, the cause of the AI outbreak in the egg farm was the presence of migratory birds.

Migratory birds have been considered to be a carrier of the virus.

Such was also the case during the 2017 outbreak.

Ducks were also identified as possible carriers of the virus in the area, especially if they were in contact with migratory birds that had the virus, according to Vytiaco.

However, industry sources note that one possible reason on why the layer farm got hit by bird flu was man-made. They suspect that a farm worker who worked in the layer farm was also working in a nearby duck farm.

Based on the government’s AI Protection Program Manual of Procedures, bird f lu could be transmitted to other birds due to contaminated “ feed, water, cages, equipment, vehicles and clothing.”

Sources said it is possible that the farm worker was the carrier of virus. He may have been in contact with the virus while working at the duck farm and entered the layer farm without any form of sanitation or disinfection.

The outbreak in the San Luisbased egg farm in July resulted in the culling of about 38,000 birds.

(See https://businessmirror.com. ph/2020/07/30/da-confirms-resurgence-of-bird-flu-in-pampangatown-egg-farm/)

Document

UNDER the 2019 Code of GAHP for layer, broiler and duck raising, farms should have had a written protocol of biosecurity measures.

These measures should have included proper signage within the vicinity.

“Biosecurity procedures should be well implemented to prevent introduction of disease into the farm and/or to control its spread within the farm,” the more than 20-page long document read.

An example of this biosecurity procedure, as provided by the Code, is that the cages of poultry in houses and/or buildings should be protected with a net or mesh to prevent the entry of migratory birds.

The documents also stipulated that free-range chickens and ducks should be put in cages when there are cases of AI outbreaks “to prevent them co-mingling with migratory species.”

Furthermore, the standards clearly stated that farms should have “appropriate and functional lay-out and infrastructure” to ensure effective implementation of biosecurity measures.

This entails the establishment of facilities for changing, washing and shower and for disinfection at entry/exit point of the farm and the building, according to the documents.

The standards also require farm owners to conduct routine testing in qualified laboratories for surveillance and monitoring of notifiable diseases, such as bird flu.

Support

GREGORIO San Diego, a long-time poultry and layer industry leader, recognizes that biosecurity measures are indeed the farm owners’ responsibility. However, San Diego said government interventions are needed in areas that had been struck by bird flu before.

He cited as example: the government could have closely monitored the repopulation of fowls and farm practices in San Luis, Pampanga, to avert the resurgence of outbreaks.

“That is the failure of the Bureau of Animal and Industry. Why did they reallow repopulation of farms in the areas already hit by bird flu despite no improvements in biosecurity? They should have closely monitored those areas,” San Diego, Chairman of Philippine Egg Board Association and United Broiler Raisers Association, told the BusinessMirror.

“That is not anymore a business decision. That is already a security risk. Because bird flu and other animal diseases for that matter are a national threat,” he added.

Enforcement

ECONOMIST Pablito M. Villegas agreed with San Diego that animal disease outbreaks, like bird flu, should be treated as a national security concern as these outbreaks disrupt the country’s food supply.

Villegas proposed that the government establish a program to subsidize the financial costs of small-scale and backyard poultry raisers in building and implementing strong and effective biosecurity measures.

The subsidy, he noted, should

Skypixel | Dreamstime.com.

be coupled with a proactive surveillance mechanism by the government to detect cases and outbreaks. Doing so may also address underreporting or non-reporting of outbreaks, he added.

“This is a global problem. This is not just in the Philippines.

We should follow standards prescribed by the World Organisation for Animal Health. And if there are regulatory gaps between local regulations and international standards then that should be filled by the national government,” Villegas told the BusinessMirror.

“Biosecurity measures are basically a public good since diseases are a threat to national security.

And, since these are public goods, these should be funded by the government,” he added.

Nonetheless, Villegas pointed out the need for better coordination

with national agencies in curbing and curtailing the entry of smuggled food products that could pose a threat to the farm sector as they may carry diseases.

Compliance

FURTHERMORE, Villegas proposed that biosecurity measures should be part of requirements in securing a business permit from the government. If certain poultry farm applying for a business permit could not show competent biosecurity measures then they should not be allowed to operate, Villegas added.

Villegas also said poultry farm owners, especially commercial level ones, that repeatedly violate rules on biosecurity measures should be shut down to avert other farms, particularly small and backyard raisers, from being affected.

Nonet heless, Vi l legas sa id small-scale poultry raisers must be subsidized since the majority of poultry farms in the country are backyard in size.

“If you are a commercial entity you do not have the right to be subsidized. They should be closed immediately for having lax biosecurity quarantine measures,” he said.

“Biosecurity measures are a public concern and interest. This should be a requirement for commercial poultry farms and be linked up with the regulatory system of the DA,” he added.

However, San Diego said implementing such stiff business requirements would be a nightmare for the government due to lack of manpower.

This could lead to inefficiencies and may be prone to corruption, according to him.

aderLook

sMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace | Thursday, August 13, 2020

A5

bureaucracy fight ed policy proposals

Since veterinary functions have been devolved, Villegas said the local government units (LGUs) should also invest in their biosecurity measures and help poultry raisers to improve their farming practices, especially areas highly dependent on the sector for revenue generation.

Unfurled

IRWIN M. AMBAL, President of the Philippine Egg Board Association (Peba), explained that some practices make the sector vulnerable to disease. He said some poultry growers, like duck raisers, resort to open grazing as the practice reduces operating costs.

However, this practice is also what easily transmits viruses such as AI when ducks co-mingle with migratory birds, as was the case of the outbreaks in San Luis, Pampanga, Ambal added.

He noted that one of the vital biosecurity measures is to ensure that poultry raising, particularly ducks which are considered to be carriers of AI, should not be close to wet lands and marsh lands or areas where migratory birds nest.

He noted that the government could improve on its monitoring and surveillance efforts but as long as there are practices that could be an opening for virus transmission, then outbreaks are bound to happen repeatedly.

“It is really how we could address the issue. Trying to have duck farmers get good genetics, go to more biosecure and good animal husbandry practices,” he told the BusinessMirror. “We have to avoid co-mingling.”

Government investigation indicated that even the 2017 bird flu outbreak could have been spread

by ducks in San Luis, Pampanga that have been in contact with the AI-affected migratory birds.

Regulation

A MBA L said the gover nment should have a clear-cut directive or pronouncement disallowing poultry-raising in areas where migratory birds flock to.

He proposed that the government pour in money in relocating poultry farms away from migratory birds’ nests and improving their farm practices, since animal disease outbreaks are of national concern.

Ambal argued that the investments would be worth it since outbreaks would be prevented as these zoonotic and transboundary diseases have the potential to cripple a whole industry, which is a bigger economic concern.

“It is a worthy investment because this is a public health issue and you prevent potential economic damage and a big public health crisis. It would be costlier if you do not do that,” he said.

“Between the two migratory birds and duck farming which one can you control easier?” he added.

Ambal said the government could also consider imposing an off-season poultry-raising during times that migratory birds are in the country. But the government must provide affected poultry farmers with an alternative livelihood while waiting for the resumption of their businesses, he added.

Initiatives

VILLEGAS said one of the ways to help backyard poultry raisers to improve their farming practices and have better profit is by

grouping them into clusters or cooperatives.

Through such groups, they would have access to pooled resources and would have better marketing network that lessens the risk of having potential viajeros that are carriers of diseases, he added.

According to Villegas, this would also help in light of the Covid-19 pandemic wherein localized food production has been more important than ever.

“They can now market as a whole and transact with the LGUs. They don’t have to transport for very long at the risk of contracting diseases,” he said.

“And as a group they could easily receive or avail government interventions and programs which would be beneficial to all members, especially smaller ones,” Villegas added.

Ambal said the Peba holds a monthly meeting wherein members are consulted for updates and practices and whether they face challenges that the group could help handle and address.

The Peba also holds constant seminars to remind and enrich members’ knowledge of latest farming practices, particularly how to safeguard their farms from animal diseases, he added.

Ambal said there are a lot of groups and cooperatives of layer producers in Batangas that pool and share resources to ensure that member-farms have efficient biosecurity measures, knowing that a single disease outbreak could lead to an economic disaster.

Batangas alone accounts for a fourth of the country’s annual egg output of about 600,000 metric tons.

Ambal said LGUs should also shoulder and sustain disinfection programs, especially if they have huge poultry industry, to safeguard their area from virus threats.

However, Ambal noted that the government could impose a minimal cleaning or disinfecting fee for trucks that enter areas with required disinfection procedures to make the system sustainable and not too burdensome for the LGUs. Ambal also agreed that biosecurity measures should be a requirement in registering a business. He added that there should be penal provisions against unscrupulous traders who are aware the animals they transport are ill.

Tack

NO less than Agr icu lture Secretar y Wil liam D. Dar told the BusinessMir ror that they are crafting a program that wou ld subsidize to a cer tain extent the needs for back yard pou ltr y raisers in improv ing their biosecur it y measures.

During a roundtable with the BusinessMirror, Dar emphasized that the GHAP is key in preventing animal diseases outbreak, which includes a strong biosecurity protocol in every farm.

He disclosed that clustering farmers is also the way forward

in reducing the financial burden of complying with the country’s biosecurity standards. “[The] GAHP must be followed by the farmers. We need to help them to do cluster farming so they will have common service facilities that would build up their biosecurity measures,” Dar has said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has issued Administrative Order 27 that outlined the guidelines for its Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) program that seeks to attain “economies of scale, and enable more farmers, fishers and agripreneurs [agriculture entrepreneurs] produce and earn more from their toil.”

“Through the F2C2 program, the Duterte government will be able to efficiently channel assistance such as credit, modern production methods, farm machinery, post-harvest and program facilities, transport and logistics, packaging support, as well as information and communication technologies, to farm and fishery clusters,” the DA said.

Dar said they will also recommend that LGUs invest in quarantine measures to help in protecting the country from animal diseases once the Mandanas law is in effect, since these tasks have been devolved under a local official’s purview.

Yearnings

THE DA chief also highlighted the importance of research in preventing animal disease outbreaks. He pointed out that it is critical in anticipating early enough possible animal outbreaks.

The DA recently invested P6.4 million in a state university research that seeks to provide vital information in developing vaccines against animal diseases such as Africacn Swine Fever (ASF) and bird flu.

The DA has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Pampanga State Ag r icu ltura l University (PSAU) to provide the agri-fishery sector with access to cutting-edge technologies in accurately detecting and effectively addressing emerging animal diseases.

Dar added that the government will put up a P20-billion Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases this year. He said this center aims to utilize all available scientific tools for the early detection and prevention of animal disease outbreaks.

Also, for the first time in history, we will have our first border facility which is the Agricultural Commodity Examination Area (Acea). This will rise at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), according to Dar. The Acea is one of the key projects of the DA as it seeks to fulfill its role under the Food Safety law.

The project seeks to curtail the entry of any diseases that may farm the country’s agriculture sector.

And, hopefully, these moves would lead poultry growers back on the path to “damn good” years.

A6 Thursday, August 13, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Why is the world not cheering on Russia?

M

ore than 200 Covid-19 vaccines are being developed worldwide and a good number of them are already in phase III trials. Knowing the processes involved, researchers said it will take several months for those vaccines to be approved.

On Tuesday, Russia became the first country to officially register a coronavirus vaccine and declare it ready for use.

The vaccine (Gam-COVID-Vac), nicknamed “Sputnik V” after the space satellite, was developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and registered in Russia on August 11, 2020 by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin said the vaccine underwent the necessary tests and was shown to provide lasting immunity to the coronavirus, although Russian authorities have offered no proof to back up claims of safety or effectiveness. Putin said that one of his daughters has already been inoculated.

The head of a Russian government-supported investment fund said that purchase requests for 1 billion doses had been received from 20 countries, and that manufacturing was in place to produce 500 million doses, with more capacity in the works.

An AP story said even as Russian doctors and teachers start getting vaccinated, advanced trials are set to start, which will involve “several thousand people” and span several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and possibly Brazil. The Associated Press said it couldn’t find documentation in the Russian Health Ministry’s records indicating that permission to start the advanced trials was granted.

The AP report added that scientists in Russia and other countries sounded an alarm, saying that rushing to offer the vaccine before final-stage testing could backfire. What’s called a Phase 3 trial—which involves tens of thousands of people and can take months—is the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine is safe and really works. “Fast-tracked approval will not make Russia the leader in the race, it will just expose consumers of the vaccine to unnecessary danger,” said Russia’s Association of Clinical Trials Organizations, in urging government officials to postpone approving the vaccine without completed advanced trials.

Experts have warned that vaccines that are not properly tested can cause harm in many ways—from harming health to creating a false sense of security or undermining trust in vaccinations. The Sputnik V vaccine has been given to 76 volunteers as part of two early-stage trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, but no results from those trials or other preclinical studies have been published, and little else is known about the experimental vaccine.

Here’s what the experts say: Francois Balloux, Professor of Computational Systems Biology at University College London and Director of the UCL Genetics Institute: “This is a reckless and foolish decision. Mass vaccination with an improperly tested vaccine is unethical. Any problem with the Russian vaccination campaign would be disastrous both through its negative effects on health, but also because it would further set back the acceptance of vaccines in the population.”

Mike Turner, Head of Major Science Investments at Wellcome Trust: “Safety is the most important consideration when developing any vaccine. Covid-19 is the greatest vaccine development challenge in history, but speed should not compromise safety. Without the data on this vaccine being released, it is impossible to assess its efficacy or safety—even in early testing—but this data must be shared openly and transparently to maintain public trust.”

Konstantin Chumakov, a member of the Global Virus Network, an international coalition working on viral threats: “It is scientifically impossible to prove efficacy without widespread trials, known as Phase 3. Using it in general population before the results of Phase 3 trials are fully studied is a gamble… a Russian roulette, if you will.”

Professor Duncan Matthews, Professor of IP Law at Queen Mary University of London: “News of a potential Covid-19 vaccine is to be welcomed but safety must be the priority. The US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have fast-track approval procedures for emergency humanitarian use and we need to see evidence that Russia is adopting an equally prudent approach.”

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

Remembering Sixto James Jimenez

spox

L

ast Tuesday, at around noon, I saw a question pop up on the group chat of the Comelec beat reporters, asking me if it was true that former Chairman Sixto Brillantes had passed away.

Within minutes after that first query, I was inundated by calls, texts, e-mails, instant messages, and comments on my various socialmedia platforms, all asking me the exact same thing. It turns out that yes, at 11:08 that morning, Chair Brillantes had lost his battle with Covid-19. He would have been 81 on August 14.

One of the country’s foremost election lawyers, Brillantes left behind a thriving practice when he was personally selected by then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to lead the Comelec. He took over from Justice Jose A.R. Melo who managed the successful transition of the country to the Automated Election System in 2010. Brillantes assumed office as Comelec chairman on January 16, 2011.

As Comelec chairman, Brillantes successfully guided the conduct of

The trinity of fools

✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua

John Mangun

Founder Publisher Editor in Chief Associate Editor News Editor

Lourdes M. Fernandez

Senior Editors

Lorenzo M. Lomibao Jr., Gerard S. Ramos Lyn B. Resurreccion, Dennis D. Estopace Angel R. Calso

Online Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

Creative Director Chief Photographer Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President Advertising Sales Manager Group Circulation Manager

Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025.

(Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807.

(Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news@businessmirror.com.ph.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Printed by brown madonna Press, Inc.–Sun Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila MEMBER OF

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug

the 2013 National and Local Elections, and was instrumental in establishing many of the transparency measures for automated elections that are still in use today. Foremost of these, despite encountering difficulties in those early days, was the Local Source Code Review. He was a dedicated advocate for electoral management reform, strengthening and empowering the Campaign Finance Office which, to this day, vigorously pursues its mandate to hold candidates accountable for their campaign

M

ark Twain did not say it so I will. “There are three kinds of fools: fools, damned fools, and fools with statistics.”

Being a fool is not shameful by any measure. We are all fools now and then. Being a fool means that you express an opinion coming from ignorance or deep bias. There are only two types of good music. The first is everything from the 1960s and 1970s. Start with the Beatles and Elvis and move through to Queen and Pink Floyd. I also listen to all things Reggae, including ska and dub.

To the best of my knowledge, Taylor Swift is a clothier in London that has been in business since the days of Charles Dickens.

I am a fool.

The term “damned fool,” while probably accurate, is also probably rude. I prefer to use the term “expert.”

This category of fool is the most disappointing because we expect more from them, especially concerning “money.”

Experts are supposed to be well trained in their field. They are mentored and gain real-world experience to put their education to good use.

Of course, a surgeon does not go out and start doing heart transplants on

day one. But, over time, knowledge combined with experience creates wisdom and these are people that I should listen to. After all, I am only a “fool,” far beneath being a damned fool.

As I wrote before, John Kenneth Galbraith said, “In economics, the majority is always wrong.” That is depressing and a little scary. What if there are “damned fools” in other professions like epidemiology and public health? Imagine if there was a global pandemic and some of the information we received from the experts was contradictory or just plain incorrect?

Galbraith was apparently correct.

A staunch defender of the integrity of the Comelec, Brillantes went after those who sought to undermine public confidence in the electoral system, sanctioning actions that would bring violators of election laws to justice. He authorized several joint sting operations with the National Bureau of Investigation, for example, to net people claiming to have inside access to the automated election system. spending. But Brillantes sought to do more than just get candidates to own up to their expenses. He wanted to really get down to the nuts and bolts of electoral fraud and, if only things had gone differently, he would have succeeded in throwing a massive wrench into the vote buying machinery.

The unfortunately nicknamed “money ban” would have empowered law enforcement to require persons caught in possession of huge amounts of cash around election day, to explain the provenance of the money—where it was from and what it was intended to be used for. This was a solution born out of the insight that vote buying

“In the field of psychology, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability.” That is the 1999 textbook definition of “fools with statistics.” Any side of any political, social, or economic issue can be supported, even proven, by a fool with statistics.

The Second Quarter 2020 GDP forecasts came from the top economics people in the Philippines. The majority was wrong big time. The median forecast was for an 11.2 percent contraction. One foreign bank expected the economy would shrink by 4.2 percent. Our top university expert said a 20 percent decline was going to happen.

The actual decline was 16.5 percent. The only authentic expert who was near accurate—as usual—was Jonathan Ravelas at BDO bank. If I did not know that Mr. Ravelas is a genuine God-fearing man, I would swear he has a mystical book with secret symbols on the cover that he uses for his analysis.

“In the field of psychology, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cogni-

is, by and large, a cash transaction at the level of the individual voter.

This means that in the days immediately leading up to polls, election fraudsters circulate in barangays carrying around huge amounts of cash in small denominations, ready for distribution. If a money ban (there’s that ridiculously catchy misnomer again) were in place, people caught with such cash would have to prove that they weren’t vote buyers, effectively taking them out of the game just long enough for the opportunity to buy votes to pass.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court halted the implementation of the measure, on the strength of apprehensions about its application.

To this day, I still think the idea was sound, even if actually implementing it would be a tricky exercise. I suppose in the future, with vote buying still being one of the major sources of electoral fraud, there will be opportunities to revisit this idea.

Hopefully, even then, people will remember that it was Brillantes who first stood up for it.

A staunch defender of the integrity of the Comelec, Brillantes went after those who sought to See “Jimenez,” A7

tive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability.” That is the 1999 textbook definition of “fools with statistics.”

In 1599 William Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It, “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

Any side of any political, social, or economic issue can be supported, even proven, by a fool with statistics.

The United States has the highest civilian ownership of firearms with 120 guns per 100 citizens. The US murder rate is ranked 94th in the world, the same as Cuba. Jamaica has the third highest murder rate and yet has only 8 firearms per 100 people, ranking number 92. “The statistics prove that more civilian gun ownership means less murders or intentional homicides.”

Statistics are just numbers that supposedly reflect fact/facts. Sometimes they are incorrect or manipulated. But we must be most cautious about how “the fools” use statistics to fool us.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stockmarket information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sputnik V vaccine: Is it really the answer?

The great faith of a gentile Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Val A. Villanueva

Businesswise

F

or an administration that has placed all its marbles on the development of Covid-19 vaccine, the announcement of Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country has done so must be music to President Duterte’s ears.

Despite imposing the world’s strictest and longest lockdown, the Duterte administration has miserably failed to make a dent in containing the spread of the deadly virus, leaving him to pin all his hopes on the ultimate cure.

But Duterte should be well advised not to celebrate too soon. Scientists worldwide describe Russia’s announcement as a startling and confusing move. The vaccine, for one, has just been tested in only 76 people. Russia’s Ministry of Health issued what is called a registration certificate that allows the Ministry to administer the vaccine to “a small number of citizens from vulnerable groups,” including medical staff and the elderly. The certificate also prohibits its commercial use until January 2021, or after much wider clinical trials have been concluded.

This should douse Duterte’s expectations that the vaccine would be available in December of this year, something that he has been trumpeting as the best Christmas gift for the Filipino people.

Duterte is banking on the promise of Russia that the Philippines would be prioritized in the worldwide distribution of the vaccine, which Duterte says would be provided to our people for free. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch and Russia has not been known for its altruism. Putin’s government may not ask for monetary compensation, but expect negotiations to be made for some other deals in exchange for its “good deed.”

Scientists around the world decried the certificate as “premature and inappropriate.” Named Sputnik V, the vaccine—developed by the Gamaleya Institute—has yet to complete a trial that credibly prove its safety and efficacy in large groups.

Even some Russians are skeptical.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Svetlana Zavidova, a lawyer who heads the Association of Clinical Research Organizations in Russia. “I feel only shame for our country…. Accelerated registration will no longer make Russia a leader in this race, it will only expose end users of the vaccine, citizens of the country of the Russian Federation, to unnecessary danger.”

If ever, the vaccine that would be provided to Filipinos before 2021 has not hurdled the third phase of the testing, in which Duterte volunteered to be the first guinea pig.

Despite warnings that Russia is cutting corners ahead of essential, large-scale testing, Putin on Tuesday still went ahead to announce that his country has become the first to approve an experimental coronavirus vaccine and that his own daughter has already taken a dose.

Russia must have been hopeful of rekindling national pride, reliving its glory days when in October 4, 1957, it succeeded in launching its very first satellite Sputnik 1, into elliptical earth low orbit. That feat triggered a spirited space race with the United States. Russia may have been the first, but we all know now who won the race.

The Covid-19 vaccine race is closely contested by China and the United Kingdom. Two of China’s biotech firms, the Sinovac/Instituto Butantan and CanSino Biological Inc./Beijing Intstitute of Biotech, and the UK’s AstraZeneca/Oxford University are already in Phase 3.

Other countries are catching up: the US is in Phase 2; Germany in Phase 2; Australia in Phase 1, and India in pre-clinical testing. Russia has yet to undergo Phase 3.

Konstantin Chumakov of the Global Virus Network, a global

aggrupation working on viral threats, quipped: “It is scientifically impossible to prove efficacy without widespread trials, known as Phase 3.

Using it in general population before the results of Phase 3 trials are fully studied is…[a] Russian roulette, if you will.”

Practically at a standstill waiting for a vaccine to be developed, the Philippines desperately needs an immediate, novel, and effective approach to manage the pandemic should the Sputnik V vaccine fail to deliver.

In all likelihood, the National Capital Region and the Calabarzon areas would revert back to general community quarantine after a twoweek modified enhance community quarantine break, which will end on August 18. The medical sector asked for such a break to give the country a breathing space when Covid cases started to rise at alarming levels. The Philippines registered the highest number of infections in Asia, with the numbers spiking to 139,538 on Tuesday after reporting 2,987 new cases.

Duterte is under pressure to improve on health protocols, which have thus far proved ineffective in combating the disease. His administration is now being blamed by the people who reel from economic hardships. A poll has found that 60 percent of Filipinos hold the national government most responsible for the country’s failed response to the pandemic.

The Social Weather Stations conducted a national mobile phone survey from July 3 to 6, interviewing 1,555 Filipinos who were 18 years old and above. SWS logged that 3 out of 5 adult Filipinos say the national government, rather than the local government, is more responsible for solving the pandemic.

Having undergone negative growth for two quarters in a row this year, the country has slid to technical recession with the pandemic as one of the most likely culprits. In the first quarter of 2020, the country contracted by 0.7 percent. The Philippine Statistics Authority announced another contraction—a negative 16.5 percent, both measured in 2018 prices in real terms.

I have been covering the financial sector for more than 30 years now, and I haven’t seen a contraction of this scale. Records will tell us that on a yearly basis, the Philippines contracted only four times during the last 70 years: in 1984 and 1985 when the economy contracted by 7.32 percent successively for two years, in 1991 and again in 1998, by 0.58 percent (1985 prices). These last two came during the Gulf and Asian financial crises.

Simply told, this all means hardships for the Filipino people—job losses and business closing shops— unless some novel approaches are implemented during this debilitating crisis.

One thing I’m sure of, such a financial ambiguity will project a fearful shadow which will drift over the global economy for some time. Many of us would sooner or later realize that no amount of wealth will ever be able to compensate for losses incurred when a virus upended the world and cause it to stop moving, and people had to make a choice between financial survival and physical well-being. Should the Philippine government have taken better approaches to handle this pandemic so that we didn’t have to make such a choice?

For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com

A

fter the little faith demonstrated by Peter in a stormy sea, Jesus was amazed to encounter a gentile woman, a stranger, with an irresistible faith in Him (Matthew 13:21-28).

A gentile woman While in the region of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus was approached by a Canaanite woman from the neighboring pagan territory to ask Him to help her daughter being tormented by a demon. In the context of the caste system in Jewish society, this woman alone by herself and as a gentile was not qualified to be part of any social interaction. She was a seriously marginalized person, and being unclean, to be avoided at all costs, as the initial silence of the entire group of Jesus indicates. As she kept pestering them, the disciples considered her a nuisance to be rid of. Following the silent treatment, the privilege of God’s chosen people was next voiced out to put her in her proper place. Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This priority is graphically

driven home by the addition that “it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

The evangelist actually is lining up here the usual reasons why some early Christians found it difficult to have anything to do with pagans.

It was not scorn for the Canaanite woman that was here intended, but the responsibility of Jesus to His mission to take care first of the children of Israel. The woman would bypass this argument with something even more fundamental.

She responded with acumen that even “the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

In comparison with the children of Israel, pagans may be looked down upon like dogs, but they usurp nothing from the Jews. In the context of God’s universal love and magnanimity, Jews or Christians do not

Thursday, August 13, 2020 A7

exhaust divine goodness and mercy, for they are surely not loved by God to the exclusion of all others.

Great is your faith!

Jesus acknowledged the great faith of the Canaanite woman. She came to Jesus crossing the borders of pagan territory. She did Him homage, called Jesus not only “Son of David” but “Lord;” and she asked Him, “Have pity on me” and “Lord, save me.” In Matthew’s gospel that is exactly the way the disciples of Jesus approach and address him, for instance like Peter on the stormy sea, as we have just seen. The gentile woman could not be discouraged or put off. She boldly asserted her faith that Jesus could help her and heal her daughter; she humbly persisted and persevered in her faith in Jesus.

Jesus understood His mission to the Jews. But after the resurrection the mission shifted to the gentiles as well, as He sent His followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). In the community of Matthew, those who might question the mission to the gentiles have this gospel narration to illustrate to them Jesus’ own recognition of the faith gentiles are capable of. No one is excluded from salvation: all are invited to the faith in Jesus that saves.

Jesus Himself welcomed gentiles and brought them to salvation, and His

disciples are summoned to be open to others as the spread of the faith demands, even as these are different and strangers.

Alálaong bagá, in obedience to God’s plan that all peoples be included in His one family, we ourselves have to cross borders and tear down walls that separate us from each other. We may not build fences between us and those strangers who are different from us socially and culturally. The fences that are there already must come down and prejudices overcome, so that we can finally recognize that we are one in God’s love. The faith of the Canaanite woman shows that the time must come when everyone can eat “the bread of the children” and not only “crumbs falling from the table.” The vision of the thousands in the deserted place, where people of all sorts can pour in, being fed by the Teacher who does not want anyone being sent away hungry and empty, remains a challenge to his followers. Sitting at the table of the children of God, as at the Eucharist, is an undeserved privilege and an inestimable grace, but never a right we could claim for ourselves at the exclusion of others.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

Unctad: ‘A perfect storm’ upending global production system

Neda, should worry about. The global production system, which is largely based on the global value chains (GVCs) developed by the multinationals, is crumbling or being ruptured by a “perfect storm.” Unctad summarized it in one sentence: “At the start of a new decade, the global system of international production is experiencing a perfect storm, with the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic arriving on top of existing challenges arising from the new industrial revolution (NIR), growing economic nationalism and the sustainability imperative.”

As pointed out in earlier articles, the global system of international production is a product of the efforts of the multinationals to farm out or subcontract internationally the production of different parts, components and processes that make up various products sold in the market such as mobile phones, garments, shoes and so on. It is estimated that up to 80 percent of global trade is really trade between and among subsidiaries and subcontractors of the MNCs. This is why Pascal Lamy of the World Trade Organization baptized these products as goods “Made in the World.” Of course, WTO contributed to the development of this made-in-the-world trading system by pushing for the adoption by member countries of uniform trade and investment liberalization measures.

The problem is that the government economic technocrats, past and present, have been trying to latch on to the international production system as the Philippine route to development—with spectacularly

limited success. The original four Asian tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) attracted most of the FDI in the 1970s-1990s.

At the same time, these countries succeeded in climbing the industrial ladder and in nurturing home-made MNCs with their own GVCs such as Samsung, Acer and so on.

And then China came in in the 1990s and edged out everyone in attracting FDI. Factory Asia, a product of the global production system, has been transformed into China-led Factory Asia. And to the consternation of American, Japanese and European policy-makers, China, like the four Asian tigers, succeeded in building up their own industrial base and forming their own MNCs, which have their own GVCs such as Huawei, Tencent and so on.

Now Unctad is saying that the international production system is being ruptured by a “perfect storm” made up of the NIR, economic nationalism among major economic powers and the requirements of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The “new industrial revolution” or NIR refers to the technology revolution sweeping the world, which the Davos’ World Economic Forum baptized as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Artificial intelligence, robots, Internet-of-Things, 3D printing (additive manufacturing), cloud computing (big data analytics) and an endless flow of technology innovations are changing the way products are made, outsourced and moved.

The steps in making a product have become fewer, the distance/length by which outputs from different steps or production stages are assembled has been reduced, and the need to outsource production to far-flung countries in order save labor and other costs has declined. Even in China, the NIR is a major source of social tension because technology-driven growth is not creating jobs for all.

One outcome from the FIR is “reshoring.” Some MNCs from Europe and America are now recalling production work such as labor-intensive assembly of certain parts outsourced to Asia because this can be done cheaply in their home countries with the adoption of labor-saving and other technological innovations.

Moreover, some products coming on stream in the market are designed to have fewer parts or components.

For example, the internal combustion engine for a traditional car has more than 2,000 moving parts, while the electric vehicle (EV) has only 20 parts!

And these EVs are rising in number worldwide because they are part of the global response to the challenge to reduce GHG emission in order to protect Mother Earth from catastrophic climate change or global warming. Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, countries and industries are being asked to take the sustainable path by supporting industrial production processes that are less dependent on fossil fuels and are respectful of the environment.

One way of doing this is to shift to high-tech processes that are less dependent on the international production outsourcing system.

Finally, there is the raging USChina trade wars, which are giving the WTO officers sleepless nights.

The two refuse to submit themselves to the WTO discipline, which is supposed to be one pillar of stability for a global economic order based on the international production system.

Worse, the US-China conflicts are happening in other places of the globe, for examples, British exit from the EU. On the other hand, the EU itself has become protectionist and has established a tighter system of screening FDI, which enables the Union to issue an opinion if an investor is a threat or not to the Union.

This economic protectionism is now fanned by the uncontrolled spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Governments, in their effort to preserve industries and jobs in their respective countries, are spending stimulus funds to save these industries. Five decades of globalization has failed to wipe out the spirit of nationalism among countries.

In sum, the international production system that the MNCs have developed under several decades of free-wheeling globalization is being rocked by this “perfect storm.”

One wonders what is the response of our policy-makers in the executive and legislative branches to this storm?

of election laws to justice. He authorized several joint sting operations with the National Bureau of Investigation, for example, to net people claiming to have inside access to the automated election system. And he famously aligned the Comelec with

the Department of Justice to ensure the prosecution of several high profile election sabotage cases.

Internally, he was just as zealous. Within the Comelec, Brillantes kept a strict eye out for malfeasance and embarked on an unprecedented

campaign to “clean house”. On the eve of the 2016 elections, Brillantes retired, leaving behind a body of work that by any measure would rank his chairmanship as one of the most consequential in Comelec history.

Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo

LABOREM EXERCENS

I

n a previous column, we reported the study of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), the international agency monitoring the flow of foreign direct investment across the globe, on the FDC flows this year. Their World Investment Report 2020 (June 2020) gave a dire forecast on FDI flows: decline by up to 40 percent from the 2019 aggregate value of $1.54 trillion, and a further decrease of 5 to 10 percent the following year.

Together with the assessments made by the IMF and World Bank on the recessionary trends worldwide, the Unctad projection of plunging FDI flows clearly collides with the belief of some policy-makers in the executive and legislative branches that the way forward is to open up the economy so that more FDI will come in. These policy-makers believe that the full opening up to foreign equity of the few service areas (e.g., land market, telecoms, media) and the passage of the law reducing the corporate income tax will seduce foreign investors to come in and help stimulate the economy.

Where will the FDI come from given the gloomy economic environment? And should a few come, can they help resuscitate a flattened Philippine economy in a substantial way in order to engineer Philippine economic recovery in 2020-2021?

The reality is that if FDI do “come”, they will arrive mostly in the form of “pledges.” The problem is that these pledges need a time lag of one to three years before they are transformed into productive investments, assuming that these investments are not of the speculative type. Look at the big time gap between the Chinese and other investors who made commitments to the government’s build-build-build program and the delays in the implementation of quite a number of infra projects, especially those supposedly being bankrolled by the Chinese.

But there are other worrisome developments that our policy-makers, especially those ensconced in their comfortable desks at DTI and

Jimenez. . .

continued from A6

undermine public confidence in the electoral system, sanctioning actions that would bring violators

A8 Thursday, August 13, 2020

As PhilHealth probers focus on IRM, officials told: Go on leave

P

HILHEALTH officials were advised to go on leave amid an ongoing inquiry into alleged multibillion-peso anomalies involving questionable procurements, reimbursement claims and alleged manipulation of PhilHealth’s financial status.

This, as Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Wednesday Senate probers will also look into the ownership of a chain of dialysis centers that appeared to have been favored with early releases of millions of pesos under the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) even as several big public hospitals handling many Covid cases suffered delayed releases.

Sotto was referring to the B Braun Avitum Philippines dialysis centers which have branches in Manila and Quezon City, and which are reportedly owned by a ranking PhilHealth official.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who has been leading calls in the Senate for a thorough investigation of Phil-

Health, had pressed agency officials to explain the apparent favoritism in the releases of the IRM, such that even certain hospitals with hardly any Covid-19 patients received hundreds of millions in funds very early into the pandemic.

The IRM is a measure applied

by PhilHealth to provide healthcare institutions (HCIs) with emergency funds during unforeseen events like natural disasters, calamities and other fortuitous events, acocording to the agency’s explanation. This mechanism was previously tapped to respond to disasters such as Supertyphoons Ondoy and Yolanda, and recently with the Taal Volcano eruption. To prepare for a coordinated response

to the pandemic which was just starting to unfold in March this year, PhilHealth said HCIs including dialysis centers and lying-in clinics nationwide were allowed to apply for IRM equivalent to their three months’ worth of benefit claims in 2019. In late May 2020, recognizing the clustering of cases in NCR, Regions 3, 4A, 4B, and 7, PhilHealth said it revised its strategy by scaling down releases only to these areas.

As of July 31, 2020, PhilHealth has released a total of P14.9 billion in IRM. The favoritism in the release of IRM funding was one of the key points tackled at Tuesday’s second Committee of the Whole hearing of the Senate.

Call Duque–Drilon

MEANWHILE, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon suggested it is time for the Senate probers to summon Health Secretary Francisco Duque, as chairman of PhilHealth, given the mounting issues against the agency. He also backed senators’ call for officials to go on leave.

Drilon also recalled that the first two hearings basically concentrated on the IRM and on the overpricing of the information technology (IT) programs.

“My take is that indeed, there is at least prima facie case of corruption and that corruption is embedded in PhilHealth bureaucracy,” said Drilon, adding that the DOH officials involved should take a leave of absence.

The senator suggested that “at this point, all those officials named should take a leave in order to prevent them from having access to the documents” noting that “many of what was revealed would involve documents and these are evidence that can be used.”

Noting that much of the Senate inquiry referred to the IRM and the IT purchase overpricing, he suggested that “the personnel involved without passing their guilt or innocence, should take their leave to enable the investigators to have full access to the documents and to prevent them from tampering with the evidence.”

“We already heard yesterday that one of them removed the signature page in one of the documents because it could be incriminating and this is in the approval on the purchase of IT equipment, which is allegedly overpriced,” he said. “I must state and warn that at this stage that the officials involved in the IRM could be liable for violation of the anti-graft law.”

Overhaul needed

SEN. R ichard Gordon earlier pressed the need to overhaul the PhilHealth system.

Citing “corruption issues” chronically hounding government health insurer, Gordon stressed the “need to overhaul its system, or at least reshuffle or remove officials at the very least, to ensure that taxpayers’ money are spent properly.”

Gordon posed the recommendation, aside from proposing legislative measures, during Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Committee of the Whole.

He recalled the agency’s history in notoriety, “from being used to provide ID cards for election purposes.”

Noting that many regional directors, until recently, have remained in their original posts for more than 20 years, Gordon said a reshuffle is called for at the very least. He said they have a lot to answer for because they could have stopped the malpractices had they been more stringent in verifying hospital reimbursements.

Gordon, who led the investigation conducted by the Blue Ribbon Committee last year on fraudulent medical claims to the PhilHealth, asked if he could submit to the Committee of the Whole the Blue Ribbon’s findings gathered.

Continued on A2

U.S.’S AZAR TWITS RUSSIA AS D.O.H. VOWS VACCINE SCRUTINY

T

HE Depar tment of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday experts and the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will thoroughly study the safety and effectiveness of the Russian-proferred vaccine for Covid-19 before administering it, as a top US official said the point is not to be first, but to have a safe and effective weapon against the pandemic.

The United States had recently sent its Health Secretary and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan, which is hailed among those that have best managed their response to Covid-19, but which is excluded from the World Health Organization (WHO) because of a standing One China policy.

Asked to comment on Russia’s dramatic announcement on Tuesday that it was the first to have registered a vaccine for Covid-19, Azar said during a teleconference: “This is not a race to be the first. What is important is that we provide a safe, effective vaccine and the data be transparent.”

He added: “Our biochemical laboratories across the globe will deliver, as quickly as it can, [the vaccine] for the use of the United States and the people of the world.”

Of the hundreds of vaccines being developed around the world, Azar said the US has six vaccines and two are under clinical trial, and that “Russia [is] only now beginning. Their data was not disclosed while the USA has to pass through the Food and Drug Administration [FDA], to be proven safe and ethical.”

He added: “We believe that we are on track towards having tens of millions of doses by December of FDA gold-standard vaccine, and hundreds of millions of doses as we go into the new year.”

He said the US government has announced its cooperation with Moderna, an American biotechnology company, “to secure the supply of Covid-19, thanks to the Warp Speed initiative of President Trump.”

Responding to Trump’s call to develop 300 million doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine by January under Operation Warp Speed, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and AstraZeneca are collaborating to make available at least 300 million doses of a a coronavirus vaccine called AZD1222, with the first doses delivered as early as October 2020.

Continued on A2

Tariff body asked: Keep foreign MDM rate at 5%

T

HE Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) has filed a petition at the Tariff Commission (TC) to maintain the tariff slapped on imported mechanically deboned meat of (MDM) chicken and turkey at 5 percent.

The TC on August 11 issued a notice of conduct of investigation on Pampi’s petition to maintain the most favoured nation rates of duty on MDM of chicken and MDM of turkey at 5 percent.

The notice, signed by TC Chairman Marilou P. Mendoza, asked interested parties to submit their comments, inputs and positions on the petition for tariff modification on or before August 25.

Likewise, the TC said the public hearing on the matter will be announced at a later date.

Pampi told the BusinessMirror that they filed the petition on one of the grounds of preventing a hike in retail prices of certain processed meat products that use chicken and turkey MDM as raw material.

For years, Pampi has cautioned that reverting the tariff on chicken and turkey MDM to 40 percent may push prices of products like hot dogs to increase by 10 percent to 15 percent.

In June last year, President Duterte signed Executive Order 82 that retained the tariff on chicken and turkey MDM at 5 percent to avert increases in the prices of processed meat products, which are popular among most low-income households.

This is because chicken MDM is a key component for the manufacture of hot dogs and canned luncheon meat.

Duterte’s EO is only effective until the end of this year. After December 31, 2020, depending on the economic conditions at the time, the government may choose to gradually increase the tariff on MDM. (https://businessmirror.com. ph/2019/06/18/duterte-retains-tariff-onchicken-mdm-at-5/) Pampi claimed that maintaining the tariff rate on the imported MDM products at 5 percent would offset the foregone tariff collections of the government if it was at 40 percent.

Pampi explained that maintaining the tariff at 5 percent would avert price spikes that may lead to lower sales and may affect operations of certain meat processors that may result in layoffs, which would be more damaging to the economy.

United Broiler Raisers Association (Ubra) President Elias Jose Inciong said they will not participate during the TC’s public hearing and won’t even submit a position paper on the proposed tariff modification.

“It is their right to file a petition and it is up to the Executive branch if they want to forego additional tariff revenues,” Inciong told the BusinessMirror.

“Our view is that the government has decided the broiler industry can die. The government has apparently decided to leave the broiler industry, and those who can survive may survive and they will just let us be,”Inciong added. Ubra has been on the forefront in pushing for the reversion of the 40-percent tariff on MDM even before the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice was lifted.

The lowering of the 40 percent tariff on MDM to 5 percent was part of the country’s concessions in extending the rice QR in previous years.

“Our main concern right now is our survival.

Even the big companies who should be the one leading this effort have not done anything through the years. So, why should Ubra do that?”

Inciong said. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Industry leaders ask govt to ease transport restrictions on workers

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

I

@BNicolasBM

NDUSTRY leaders urged the government to ease transportation restrictions, subject to health and safety protocols, to allow the movement of more workers and consumers.

The appeal was made after business activities in various sectors of the economy started to slowly recover following an economic standstill during the 11-week strict lockdown imposed by the government in the second quarter of the year.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the industry leaders told the government’s economic cluster in a series of meetings in the third week of July that the fourth quarter of the year is a crucial period to shore up demand and consumer confidence.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, also the head of the government’s Economic Development Cluster, together with other officials from the economic cluster sought the private sector’s feedback on the status of the business operations and for advice on

how the government could help restore consumer confidence.

However, the meetings were held before President Duterte placed the National Capital Region (NCR) and parts of Central Luzon and Calabarzon anew under a more restrictive modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from August 4 up to August 18 in response to the call of the medical community amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

Prior to this, NCR along with the nearby provinces were already put under a more relaxed lockdown since June 1.

Continued on A2

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Arta tells LGUs to release permits for telco towers

T

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

he Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) has issued compliance orders to 11 local government units (LGUs) for the release of all pending documents applied by telecommunication firms for the installation of broadcast towers.

The Arta on Tuesday sent compliance orders to select LGUs directing them to issue all pending papers sought by telco operators for the setup of broadcast towers, facilities and equipment. In particular, local governments were told to release license, clearance and permit applications which have exceeded the mandated seven-day processing period under the law.

The LGUs that received compliance orders from the Arta are: Puerto Princesa City and Rizal in Palawan; Miag-ao, Cabutan, Estancia and Leon in Iloilo; Kalibo in Aklan; Masbate City; Bulan in Sorsogon; Canaman in Camarines Sur; and San Jose in Occidental Mindoro.

Arta Director General Jeremiah B. Belgica said telco firms are finalizing the list of their pending applications with complete requirements and payment. Smart Communications is now verifying its filings, while Globe Telecom has yet to submit its list.

According to Belgica, all applications with complete requirements and payment that exceeded 7 days of processing as mandated under the Ease of Doing Business Law will be declared approved automatically by operation of rule.

To monitor the action of LGUs, they are asked to submit a compliance report within a period of 3 working days from the receipt of the Arta

order. The report has to include the list of all the documents approved and pending—this, with corresponding reasons for such holdup— as well as those that require approval from the local Sanggunian.

Belgica reminded LGUs and national government agencies that they can be brought to court if they fail to do their task to act on and approve applications sought by telcos.

“There is no more choice for the LGUs or NGAs [national government agencies] but to issue the appropriate permits because it was already approved by Congress itself. Refusal to follow this very clear provision of the law will lead to administrative and criminal charges to be filed,” he warned.

The compliance orders relayed to the local governments is part of the Arta’s efforts to expedite the permitting procedure for the construction of broadcast towers.

In July the Arta signed with various agencies a joint memorandum circular that cuts processing time to 16 days, from 241 days, and reduces documentar y requirements to 35, from 86, for the application of permits, licenses and certificates needed to build telco towers. The circular will be

effective starting August 20.

Telco firms are rushing to improve their connectivity services after President Duterte lashed out at them in his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona).

In his Sona, the President gave telcos a deadline of until December to better their services, or “we will take it away from you.” He threatened he will ask Congress to step in and address the issue should telco giants Globe and Smart fail to improve their services by yearend.

In July Congress denied the franchise renewal application of ABSCBN resulting in its shutdown and the loss of at least 11,000 jobs.

For their part, Globe and Smart raised the problem of red tape in LGUs that prevent them from securing the necessary papers to install broadcast towers across the archipelago. Without the required files, they said it is challenging to set up facilities that would improve connectivity.

Under the Ease of Doing Business Law, government agencies are required to complete simple transactions within three days; complex transactions, including applications for telco permits, within seven days; and highly technical transactions within 20 days.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

B1

Shakey’s suffers net loss due to lockdown

BusinessMirror file photo

By VG Cabuag @villygc

S

hakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc., the company that owns the pizza parlor brand in the Philippines and in some areas in Asia and the Middle East, said it suffered a net loss of P290 million in the first half, from last year’s income of P389 million.

Sales fell 31 percent as most of its stores during the second quarter that were operational were subjected to shortened hours and limited to delivery and take-out only. Dine-in largely resumed in June, though at limited capacity and is subject to the ongoing review of government-mandated quarantine measures.

The company did not provide top-line figures.

Some 267 Shakey’s and Peri-Peri stores, representing 95 percent of its total store network, were up and running by the end of the quarter, the company said.

“What we are facing today are perhaps the

most challenging times. Nonetheless, there remain a number of bright spots, foremost of which is our core product pizza, which is the quintessential delivery and carry-out product,” Vicente Gregorio, the company’s president and CEO, said.

“In addition, our multi-sales channel and multi-store format approach, alongside our industry-leading margins, are giving us the much needed flexibility to weather through this crisis.

We are hopeful that the worst is now behind us.”

In the short term, Gregorio said the company’s industry-leading margins, access to credit, strong presence in the home, and market-leading brand will be the key components of its tool kits.

“In spite of continuing lockdowns, we are looking to hit cash break-even in the second half and should be on our way to recovery by 2021. At the same time, we will continue to enhance our existing delivery, digital, and carry-out platforms, and roll-out new and exciting innovations across our various sales channels.”

AC Energy registers income in Jan-June K

ey investments allowed AC Energy Philippines Inc.’s (ACEPH) to post a net income of P1.96 billion in the first half, a significant turnaround from the P552-million net loss it incurred in the same period last year.

“The strong performance was mainly driven by the successful infusion of AC Energy, Inc.’s onshore assets and recent acquisitions,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.

In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the increase in the authorized capital stock of ACEPH and the issuance of additional primary shares to AC Energy Inc. to implement the asset-for-share swap that added

176megawatts (MW) of attributable capacity. As a result, ACEPH recognized earnings retroactively.

Furthermore, the company acquired 145 MW worth of operating renewable energy plants early in 2020.

Also, higher availability of thermal plants and significantly higher contracted capacity through the Meralco Competitive Selection Process also contributed to the strong results.

For instance, South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (SLTEC) registered record availability of 95 percent in the first half, while the peaking diesel plants reached 93 percent availability in the same period.

The company commenced its 200 MW baseload and 110 MW mid-merit contracts with Meralco earlier this year. The increase in contracted capacity offset the reduced volumes and lower spot market prices experienced during the community quarantine that started mid-March.

“We’re very pleased with the company’s turnaround and the successful integration of AC Energy’s on-shore operations,” said AC Energy President and CEO Eric Francia. “This allows us to make additional near-term investments in the country, which is much needed during these difficult times.”

Earlier this year, the company announced its

plans to also integrate AC Energy’s international business. It is now in the process of changing its corporate name to AC Energy Corp., which is subject to regulatory approval.

Meanwhile, the company recently received the Philippine Stock Exchange’s nod to change its stock symbol from ACEPH to ACEN, effective August 14. The shift to ACEN signifies the forthcoming integration of AC Energy’s onshore and offshore business into a unified platform.

“ACEN aspires to become the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with the goal of reaching 5000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025,” added Francia. Lenie Lectura

Nlex unveils RCBC posts profit growth in H1 new RFID A system

N

lex Corp. is phasing out the 15-year-old Easytrip tag and is replacing it with a new RFID system that will hasten cashless transaction on its expressways.

Motorists may opt for the free installation of the small, paper-thin RFID stickers on their vehicles’ windshield or headlights.

Free installation sites were set up in various toll plazas. The remaining balances of existing Easytrip users will be carried over to their RFID stickers.

They may also opt to buy their own RFID stickers online.

“Nlex is moving towards delivering high quality infrastructure, both physical and digital. We are fully supporting…[the] campaign to ensure compatibility with all other expressways while continuing to promote the health and safety of our motorists amidst this health crisis,” Nlex Corp. President Luigi L. Bautista said.

The government is fast-tracking the shift from cash-based transactions to digital means in almost all transport modes and facilities, as it seeks to limit human interaction during the pandemic.

For RFID reloading, motorists may choose to reload via the Easytrip mobile application and online reloading partners such as PayMaya, Eon, GCash, Bancnet, Mastercard, Visa, UCPB, BPI, Metrobank, BDO, Coins.ph, and Smart Money. Lorenz S. Marasigan

part from hiking credit loss provisions, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has been extending relief to its clients through the adjustment of loan tenors to keep nonperforming loans (NPLs) from damaging the balance sheet.

Horacio E. Cebrero III, the Yuchengcoled bank’s treasurer, said in an online media briefing on Wednesday that RCBC did not only comply with the government's order on debt moratorium, but it also looked at how it can help the clients dealing with constraints in cash flows.

“Meanwhile, while we are doing that, while some of those took the relief, we continue to talk to them…about their cash flows,” he said, noting that some may be projecting lower cash flow amid the pandemic.

To provide more elbow room for the clients, the bank has offered to recalibrate the duration of the loans from short term to longer period of one to two years.

He said that the bank, in addition, extended the loan principal and interest payments from two to three months already.

“Those are the things that we are coming up with in order to help and assist the consumers to adjust what would be perceived as the reality would be in the coming future,” he said.

RCBC Cor porate Planning Head Christina Alvarez deemed it necessary to do such a measure, noting this could keep bad loans from ballooning as well.

“Without any intervention, maybe NPL levels would double,” she said.

“What we are saying here is we’re not going to let that happen because we're working with the customers to fix their cash flows.”

As of end-June, RCBC’s net NPL ratio stood at 2.2 percent, slightly higher than 2.1 percent last year. NPL coverage ratio for the period reached 95.4 percent, from 78.6 percent in 2019.

Provision for potential losses surged by 94 percent to P5.2 billion in the first half from P2.68 billion year-on-year.

First-half gains

The listed bank saw its net income in the first half climb by 17 percent to P3.1 billion, from P2.66 billion last year because of higher trading gains, which surged by 80.3 percent to P5.9 billion.

Better earnings from trading, RCBC said, helped the bank in taking a conservative approach, logging in a higher loan loss buffer to prepare the balance sheet from potential impact of the pandemic.

Net interest income rose by 20.4 percent to P12.79 billion while non-interest income climbed by 31.6 percent to P8.06 billion in the first half.

Operating expenses, meanwhile, reached P11.01 billion for the period, which is 4.8 percent higher than last year's P10.51 billion.

Deposits grew by 19.3 percent to P499.42 billion while loan portfolio increased by 17.9 percent to P480.28 billion in the first semester.

As of end-June, total assets and capital stood at P718.75 billion and P84.44 billion, respectively. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

SARANGANI HYDRO POWER PLANT Construction is in full swing for the Alsons Power Group’s 14.5 megawatt (MW) P4.5-billion run-of-river hydroelectric power plant at the Siguil River basin in Maasim, Sarangani Province. The Siguil Hydro power plant—Alsons Power’s initial foray into renewable energy—is expected to begin operations in 2022 to provide power to the rapidly developing Sarangani/South Cotabato/General Santos City region. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Thursday, August 13, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

August 11, 2020

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK PHILTRUST RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

45.75 88.5 61 20 7.72 35.15 19.94 47.5 93.05 16 91.25 53.1 0.82 21.7 2.82 0.275 0.61 156 1840

46 88.65 61.2 20.1 7.73 35.2 20.1 48.9 108.7 16.2 91.35 53.2 0.84 22.5 2.98 0.28 0.65 159 1850

45.15 89.15 62.15 20.1 7.78 34.85 20 48 108.7 15.9 91.4 53 0.83 22.4 2.84 0.27 0.66 159 1840

46 89.5 63.45 20.1 7.82 35.35 20 48 108.7 16 91.5 54 0.85 22.5 3 0.29 0.66 159 1840

45.15 88 61 20.05 7.66 34.75 19.96 47.95 108.7 15.8 90.25 53 0.79 22.4 2.79 0.27 0.62 156 1840

46 88.5 61 20.05 7.72 35.15 20 47.95 108.7 16 91.25 53.2 0.82 22.5 2.98 0.28 0.65 156 1840

4700 4158890 4843930 64900 338300 1399900 127900 400 10 5900 225120 24480 174000 1900 368000 1130000 857000 1810 255

215935 367931488.5 297731885 1302375 2621332 49255825 2557180 19190 1087 94320 20539954.5 1301041.5 140950 42720 1052980 319850 545560 285210 469200

206900 -151915295 -171883773.5 -2005 -70610 -14371430 -2347182 -15335724 -993344 -85900 70200 469200

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 2.74 2.75 2.69 2.8 2.66 2.75 16510000 45238120 ALSONS CONS 1.21 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.2 1.25 630000 765020 25.2 25.5 25.25 25.85 25 25.2 825400 21001330 ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY 0.17 0.172 0.17 0.172 0.17 0.172 860000 146240 24.7 24.85 26 26.05 24.7 24.7 712500 17871795 FIRST GEN 59.3 59.8 59 60.25 59 59.8 17660 1047836.5 FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO 267.8 268 264.8 268 264 267.8 135420 36038946 13.16 13.18 12.78 13.22 12.7 13.16 3131500 40812380 MANILA WATER PETRON 3.05 3.06 3.09 3.09 3.06 3.06 1115000 3417380 PETROENERGY 3.2 3.35 3.16 3.35 3.16 3.19 6000 19590 11.16 11.4 11.1 11.4 11.1 11.4 108100 1220298 PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL 17.52 17.54 17.52 17.6 17.5 17.54 381800 6693230 8 8.05 8.05 8.15 7.97 8.05 126900 1018517 SPC POWER AGRINURTURE 7.95 8.07 7.99 8.16 7.94 8.07 230100 1851266 AXELUM 2.4 2.41 2.36 2.41 2.3 2.4 16374000 37930060 15.98 16 16.24 16.3 15.98 16 1405500 22,526,276( CENTURY FOOD DEL MONTE 4.82 4.9 5.1 5.1 4.71 4.82 410000 1982968 DNL INDUS 5.04 5.07 5.1 5.2 5.03 5.07 1732200 8836395 9.95 9.99 10 10.08 9.75 9.99 10944400 108967882 EMPERADOR SMC FOODANDBEV 64.7 65 64.55 65 64.5 65 24120 1561582.5 0.63 0.65 0.67 0.67 0.63 0.65 784000 512570 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.18 1.19 1.17 1.19 1.17 1.18 3318000 3914540 GINEBRA 38.6 38.75 38 38.6 37.05 38.6 118700 4537115 141.1 141.8 138 144 138 141.1 1372610 194673384 JOLLIBEE MAXS GROUP 4.76 4.78 4.65 4.84 4.64 4.78 671000 3183750 SHAKEYS PIZZA 5.32 5.34 5.41 5.45 5.31 5.34 500300 2678500 1.18 1.19 1.17 1.21 1.16 1.18 1134000 1342130 ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP 4.26 4.44 4.26 4.26 4.26 4.26 9000 38340 1.59 1.63 1.56 1.59 1.56 1.59 14000 22230 ROXAS HLDG SWIFT FOODS 0.105 0.109 0.103 0.11 0.103 0.105 310000 32870 UNIV ROBINA 137 138 139.7 141.3 136.1 137 1285630 178921837 0.79 0.8 0.78 0.79 0.78 0.79 3011000 2372090 VITARICH CONCRETE B 52.55 54.95 52.05 56.75 52.05 54.95 1650 90261.5 1.1 1.11 1.06 1.11 1.06 1.1 16746000 18417180 CEMEX HLDG 10.14 10.5 10 10.5 9.9 10.5 3048800 31066786 EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP 5.17 5.18 5.25 5.25 5.17 5.18 147100 765523 4.88 4.89 5.09 5.1 4.86 4.88 2285900 11359819 HOLCIM MEGAWIDE 6.44 6.45 6.15 6.48 6.15 6.45 2010600 12904264 PHINMA 8.95 9 9 9 9 9 400 3600 0.79 0.8 0.8 0.82 0.77 0.8 328000 259450 VULCAN INDL CHEMPHIL 117 135.7 112.2 116.1 112.2 116 40 4604 1.83 1.88 1.86 1.86 1.86 1.86 1000 1860 CROWN ASIA EUROMED 2.03 2.05 2.05 2.08 2 2.03 569000 1163780 LMG CHEMICALS 4.53 4.78 4.75 4.75 4.61 4.61 44000 204720 3.5 3.75 3.6 3.6 3.5 3.5 26000 91460 MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP 4.05 4.14 4.15 4.15 4.03 4.05 41000 169330 CONCEPCION 18.7 19 19 19 19 19 411700 7822300 1.68 1.69 1.71 1.71 1.68 1.69 5889000 9950630 GREENERGY INTEGRATED MICR 4.88 4.9 4.7 4.9 4.68 4.88 83000 396700 0.97 1 1.03 1.03 0.96 0.97 298000 296770 IONICS PANASONIC 4.26 4.67 4.73 4.73 4.67 4.67 2000 9400 SFA SEMICON 1.45 1.46 1.46 1.48 1.42 1.45 2654000 3853530 6.25 6.26 5.92 6.25 5.92 6.25 2327000 14271378 CIRTEK HLDG

916790 -446790 -4356730 -7437635 59972.5 -19693304 -2816382 580870 -1710330 -55919 -11740 4,917,260.0004) 23000 276289.0004 7275359 -131867 -22230 -324309.9997 35949961 117140 -1409000 -326430 8520 -17295500 -0 8622970 -25854437 1560 65430 -4088433 3160 -0 107460 59380 -71000 22328

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.47 0.475 0.48 0.485 0.47 0.475 5430000 2578050 ASIABEST GROUP 7.64 7.89 7.85 7.93 7.56 7.88 10100 79399 747 748 730 758 720 748 215060 160030045 AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY 48.2 48.25 48.45 48.55 47.9 48.25 416700 20095370 5.99 6 5.92 6.08 5.86 5.99 27563300 165482716 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 1.78 1.8 1.8 1.83 1.77 1.78 648000 1167250 AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR 6.1 6.12 6.1 6.12 6.1 6.12 10800 65896 0.5 0.51 0.55 0.55 0.495 0.51 2023000 1021545 ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A 0.58 0.59 0.58 0.59 0.57 0.58 1225000 704650 ATN HLDG B 0.57 0.6 0.57 0.6 0.57 0.6 104000 59440 5 5.05 5.05 5.05 4.95 5 2598000 12994000 COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG 3.62 3.63 3.67 3.69 3.59 3.63 5510000 20062140 8.5 8.98 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 36300 308550 FILINVEST DEV FJ PRINCE A 3.1 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.2 1000 3200 FORUM PACIFIC 0.179 0.209 0.178 0.178 0.178 0.178 70000 12460 400 402 403 404 397 400 309420 123614068 GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT 63.95 64.05 62.5 64.05 62.5 64.05 1541720 98034525.5 KEPPEL HLDG A 4.9 5 5 5 5 5 1600 8000 0.6 0.61 0.6 0.62 0.58 0.6 216000 129810 LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG 2.3 2.32 2.33 2.33 2.31 2.31 852000 1970930 7.7 7.75 7.73 7.88 7.7 7.7 802600 6231257 LT GROUP 0.465 0.52 0.44 0.495 0.44 0.465 60000 27950 MABUHAY HLDG MJC INVESTMENTS 1.8 2.28 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 3000 5400 3.2 3.21 3.3 3.31 3.21 3.21 20018000 65124290 METRO PAC INV PACIFICA HLDG 2.91 2.97 2.91 2.97 2.91 2.97 8000 23460 0.73 0.77 0.77 0.78 0.77 0.78 30000 23230 PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP 0.98 1 0.98 1 0.98 0.98 41000 40460 SYNERGY GRID 160 170 170 170 170 170 450 76500 858 865 859.5 874 852.5 858 450930 390426150 SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP 98.7 99 98.95 99.05 98.5 99 71170 7036663.5 SOC RESOURCES 0.65 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.65 0.65 217000 141990 128.9 129 128.9 128.9 128.9 128.9 500 64450 TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS 0.188 0.201 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 20000 4000 0.157 0.159 0.148 0.16 0.147 0.159 6490000 995990 ZEUS HLDG

-332650 756 46771140 2816785 -50105914 -18060 -3486010 7965340 -12460 -96678832 -21687977 -1195630 17211 -25654610 138573880 580188 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.5 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.51 0.51 287000 147700 AYALA LAND 32.6 32.95 32.95 33.3 32.6 32.6 12988900 427013065 1.01 1.03 1.04 1.04 1.03 1.03 4000 4130 ARANETA PROP BELLE CORP 1.38 1.39 1.39 1.39 1.39 1.39 8000 11120 0.81 0.82 0.8 0.82 0.77 0.82 3823000 3056640 A BROWN 0.75 0.78 0.74 0.78 0.74 0.78 9000 6700 CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES 0.124 0.126 0.126 0.134 0.124 0.126 7820000 998760 4.98 5 5.01 5.01 4.98 5 338000 1687303 CEB LANDMASTERS CENTURY PROP 0.35 0.355 0.355 0.355 0.35 0.355 4550000 1604350 CYBER BAY 0.26 0.27 0.25 0.28 0.25 0.27 10540000 2675650 15.94 15.98 15.96 16 15.88 15.98 148100 2363746 DOUBLEDRAGON DM WENCESLAO 6.05 6.1 6.1 6.1 6.05 6.1 930300 5674805 0.265 0.27 0.27 0.27 0.26 0.27 1560000 412150 EMPIRE EAST FILINVEST LAND 0.9 0.91 0.88 0.91 0.88 0.9 11922000 10611720 8990 HLDG 7.9 7.96 8 8 7.89 7.97 51700 411680 0.89 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.88 0.89 2259000 2010510 PHIL INFRADEV MEGAWORLD 2.95 2.96 3.04 3.05 2.9 2.95 20312000 60515020 MRC ALLIED 0.245 0.246 0.24 0.245 0.234 0.245 22540000 5444770 0.3 0.33 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 100000 30000 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 1.29 1.32 1.3 1.31 1.29 1.29 33000 42950 14.88 14.9 14.3 14.9 14.2 14.9 3841100 56704922 ROBINSONS LAND 0.226 0.233 0.231 0.233 0.231 0.233 270000 62610 PHIL REALTY ROCKWELL 1.52 1.58 1.59 1.59 1.51 1.52 57000 87090 2.61 2.7 2.69 2.7 2.69 2.7 10000 26970 SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND 1.8 1.84 1.84 1.85 1.84 1.85 6000 11070 SM PRIME HLDG 30.25 30.3 29.8 30.8 29.8 30.25 9425700 285691200 3.72 3.87 3.74 3.92 3.72 3.72 149000 563730 VISTAMALLS SUNTRUST HOME 1.17 1.18 1.16 1.19 1.15 1.18 1491000 1752640 39 40 40 40 40 40 300 12000 PTFC REDEV CORP VISTA LAND 3.27 3.28 3.2 3.29 3.2 3.28 3138000 10197150

98229225 -43400 5920 -44450 -3006 -10650 -376872 779940 -250766 -27902610 -8778044 85743795 -1311040

SERVICES ABS CBN 7.48 7.5 7.8 7.8 7.5 7.5 536800 4112263 GMA NETWORK 4.99 5 5.03 5.03 4.98 4.99 900700 4503629 0.395 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 180000 72000 MANILA BULLETIN MLA BRDCASTING 11.2 11.96 11.18 11.18 11.14 11.14 1000 11158 2180 2192 2198 2198 2154 2180 37170 81161790 GLOBE TELECOM 1389 1390 1389 1400 1386 1390 172195 239507920 PLDT APOLLO GLOBAL 0.05 0.052 0.049 0.052 0.047 0.052 25880000 1271640 2.79 2.89 2.82 2.89 2.71 2.8 66000 183190 DFNN INC DITO CME HLDG 3.1 3.11 3 3.13 3 3.1 38911000 120207570 JACKSTONES 1.61 1.64 1.6 1.65 1.6 1.64 12000 19460 2.15 2.16 2.14 2.22 2.12 2.15 11417000 24721160 NOW CORP TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.174 0.177 0.173 0.177 0.172 0.177 4190000 732390 1.96 2 1.96 2.02 1.95 2 533000 1054210 PHILWEB 8.35 8.44 8.54 8.54 8.23 8.25 28500 238014 2GO GROUP ASIAN TERMINALS 15.42 16.72 15.42 15.42 15.42 15.42 300 4626 3.33 3.35 3.37 3.42 3.3 3.33 680000 2282490 CHELSEA CEBU AIR 38.85 39.2 37.6 39.55 37.6 38.85 181400 7,070,845( INTL CONTAINER 108.3 109 105.9 109.7 103.1 109 1110110 119000468 15.52 16.2 15.5 16 14.54 16 86100 1350038 LBC EXPRESS LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.73 0.76 0.75 0.76 0.75 0.76 21000 15860 5.02 5.03 4.71 5.1 4.71 5.03 8306000 41199810 MACROASIA 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.7 1.65 1.68 372000 621490 METROALLIANCE A PAL HLDG 5.87 5.88 5.88 5.88 5.87 5.88 210300 1236417 0.75 0.76 0.77 0.79 0.75 0.76 485000 373520 HARBOR STAR ACESITE HOTEL 1.17 1.2 1.17 1.17 1.17 1.17 1000 1170 0.031 0.032 0.033 0.033 0.031 0.032 61400000 1963000 BOULEVARD HLDG 1.55 1.82 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1000 1600 DISCOVERY WORLD WATERFRONT 0.39 0.395 0.39 0.395 0.39 0.39 250000 97550 567 602.5 604 604 552 602.5 150 89530 FAR EASTERN U IPEOPLE 7.22 8.39 8.45 8.45 8.45 8.45 100 845 STI HLDG 0.295 0.3 0.295 0.3 0.295 0.3 330000 97550 2.11 2.17 2.11 2.17 2.11 2.17 34000 72820 BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY 6.1 6.16 6.14 6.28 6.1 6.16 5432300 33472146 2 2.08 2 2.08 2 2 32000 65280 PACIFIC ONLINE 1.24 1.29 1.25 1.28 1.22 1.24 202000 254520 LEISURE AND RES MANILA JOCKEY 2.12 2.48 2.48 2.48 2.48 2.48 5000 12400 2.12 2.2 2.24 2.24 2.12 2.22 49000 105860 PH RESORTS GRP PREMIUM LEISURE 0.295 0.3 0.29 0.3 0.285 0.295 5620000 1644700 ALLHOME 6.37 6.38 6.46 6.48 6.35 6.38 414600 2655018 1.47 1.49 1.5 1.51 1.47 1.47 2187000 3233210 METRO RETAIL PUREGOLD 51.5 52 50 52.7 48.5 52 3392270 174364065 60.6 61 59.2 61.6 58.5 61 661210 40117110.5 ROBINSONS RTL 110 125 125 125 125 125 62130 7766250 PHIL SEVEN CORP SSI GROUP 1.03 1.04 1.04 1.05 1.03 1.03 3222000 3321830 15.5 15.54 15.4 15.5 15.14 15.5 1523400 23507038 WILCON DEPOT APC GROUP 0.305 0.315 0.31 0.315 0.305 0.305 1850000 570700 EASYCALL 6.25 6.43 6.1 6.59 6.1 6.25 37300 240248 285 299.6 299.6 299.6 299.6 299.6 200 59920 GOLDEN BRIA PRMIERE HORIZON 0.231 0.234 0.236 0.236 0.228 0.231 5200000 1199880 4.5 4.7 4.5 4.7 4.5 4.7 5000 23300 SBS PHIL CORP

-44080130 -78977885 1057320 88810 -9800 -5123.9999 1,893,380.0003) 5879383 15500 291400 3100 -1656221 -30000 12500 -1120800 645087 1811810 21016730 -11504142.5 543750 -2610610 -9171764 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 7.63 8.08 8.09 8.09 8 8.08 10200 81617 1.65 1.66 1.7 1.71 1.65 1.66 11458000 19147920 745500 APEX MINING ABRA MINING 0.001 0.0011 0.0011 0.0012 0.001 0.001 4353000000 4793400 -0 2.69 2.75 2.68 2.75 2.64 2.64 469000 1255700 -399520 ATLAS MINING 2.16 2.27 2.3 2.33 2.16 2.27 81000 183080 BENGUET A COAL ASIA HLDG 0.201 0.208 0.209 0.209 0.201 0.208 470000 97660 2.61 2.67 2.61 2.67 2.61 2.67 203000 541830 534000 CENTURY PEAK DIZON MINES 7.78 7.93 7.99 7.99 7.78 7.93 22900 179405 FERRONICKEL 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.13 1.15 6760000 7741200 1010810 0.238 0.239 0.246 0.246 0.237 0.238 230000 54850 GEOGRACE LEPANTO A 0.151 0.152 0.157 0.16 0.151 0.152 32620000 5017530 0.153 0.159 0.157 0.157 0.152 0.153 4740000 729730 182400 LEPANTO B 0.01 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.01 0.011 33900000 365700 MANILA MINING A MANILA MINING B 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.011 0.011 32900000 366000 0.95 0.96 0.98 0.99 0.94 0.95 4108000 3914600 67620 MARCVENTURES NIHAO 1.78 1.79 1.75 1.79 1.75 1.78 787000 1390420 -5250 NICKEL ASIA 3.06 3.07 3.06 3.13 3.03 3.06 17088000 52667360 1294810 0.405 0.425 0.39 0.475 0.39 0.425 86970000 34394300 -22400 OMICO CORP ORNTL PENINSULA 0.59 0.6 0.61 0.62 0.6 0.6 3260000 1969100 3.51 3.54 3.64 3.66 3.49 3.52 4019000 14237330 136650 PX MINING 9.41 9.5 9.43 9.74 9.4 9.41 7645000 72524441 -5970699 SEMIRARA MINING UNITED PARAGON 0.0058 0.006 0.0059 0.006 0.0057 0.006 42000000 246000 5.81 6.02 6 6.04 6 6.04 500 3004 ACE ENEXOR ORNTL PETROL A 0.0087 0.009 0.0092 0.0092 0.0088 0.009 22000000 196400 ORNTL PETROL B 0.0086 0.0092 0.0086 0.0086 0.0086 0.0086 11000000 94600 -86000 0.0097 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.0092 0.01 86000000 850800 PHILODRILL PXP ENERGY 5.85 5.86 5.52 5.85 5.52 5.85 1891300 10844424 -2471

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 100.5 101 100.9 100.9 100.4 100.4 1000 100475 -100475 CPG PREF A 101 102 100.5 101 100.5 101 11660 1177560 101.1 101.4 101.5 101.5 101 101 4270 431636 DD PREF FGEN PREF G 105.8 106 106 106 106 106 20 2120 1010 1020 1010 1010 1010 1010 50 50500 GTCAP PREF B MWIDE PREF 100.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 10000 1015000 PNX PREF 3B 106 107.9 107.9 107.9 107.9 107.9 50 5395 1012 1025 1012 1025 1012 1024 2430 2470350 PNX PREF 4 SMC PREF 2C 77.8 78.5 78.5 78.5 77.5 78.5 48250 3770545.5 SMC PREF 2D 75.2 75.6 75.6 75.6 75.6 75.6 10 756 77.5 78.9 78 78.9 78 78.9 25200 1987620 -789000 SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G 75.7 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 650 49725 75.9 77.1 75.9 75.9 75.65 75.65 1000 75655 SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I 78.3 78.9 78.3 78.3 78.3 78.3 5500 430650

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 7.02 7.1 7.15 7.15 7.02 7.1 269900 1921022 -1913882 GMA HLDG PDR 4.56 4.59 4.55 4.75 4.55 4.56 432000 1972800 -1680160

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.66 0.67 0.67 0.67 0.63 0.66 133000 86510

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 14.14 14.18 13.3 14.2 13.02 14.18 1166200 16214596 15432 ITALPINAS 1.9 1.91 1.86 1.92 1.85 1.9 1668000 3147930 -19410 5.18 5.2 5.12 5.23 5.11 5.18 27200 140395 KEPWEALTH MERRYMART 3.02 3.03 2.93 3.06 2.92 3.03 41978000 126476000 -1016240 0.57 0.58 0.57 0.58 0.56 0.58 1090000 620410 XURPAS

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 90.55 90.9 89.75 91 89.5 90.55 10760 974176.5 118850.5

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Stimulus, rate cut to boost PHL stock market this year’

T

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

he benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) may still end the year at the 7,000-point level, but this hinges on the country’s economic recovery via the government’s fiscal stimulus and the central bank’s further easing of its rates.

First Metro Investment Corp.

(FMIC), the investment banking arm of the Metrobank group, said its target range represents an earnings recovery from an estimated 30-percent correction in earnings per share growth this year and a 28-percent recovery next year.

Price-to-earnings ratio is pro-

jected to be 18 times to 19 times.

“The current level of the PSEi creates an opening. It’s a rare buying opportunity for investors, which we have not seen in the last 10 years,” FMIC said during its mid-year economic briefing.

The increase, however, should be supported by fiscal policy drivers

including the Bayanihan 2 package of up to P1.7 trillion to perk up consumer demand and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas's accommodative monetary policy.

Cristina Ulang, FMIC research head, said the low-point in the PSEi is “very temporary” due to the government's reaction to the pandemic and the low-interest rate environment.

Low interest rates, a lower inflation rate projection of the Development Budget Coordination Committee at 1.75 percent, a stable currency, will all boost the stock market.

“We think the PSEi will be inspired [with all of these] although recently there were attempts to dip into the major support of 5,700 points and then 5,500 because of the worries of the data of the pandemic.

We are optimistic that this is very temporary as recovery will happen next year and then earnings will

follow,” she said.

The benchmark index closed on Wednesday at 5,995 points, or 41.06 points higher than the previous close.

FMIC said issuances, like initial public offerings and the real estate investment trust sale, that were derailed earlier this year due to the pandemic are expected to come to market in the second half.

Corporate fundraising initiatives, meanwhile, were mostly done in the offshore market during the first half as rates plunged. About 13 companies, which raised $6.8 billion or about P340 billion, tapped the global market.

FMIC said the increased interest in offshore bond issuances is likely to continue for the remainder of the year as previous issuances were met with strong demand from international investors seeking higher yielding assets.

Local firms consider flexible workspaces P mutual funds

hilippine companies are increasingly looking at flexible workspace to cut cost and provide better facilities for staff finding it hard to work from home amid Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreak.

More firms inquired about flexible offices in Manila while shelving expansion plans amid the pandemic, Janlo de los Reyes, head of research and consultancy at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. in Manila, said at a virtual briefing Wednesday. Shared offices can provide employees better infrastructure support than what they have at home, including a more stable Internet connection, he said.

Office space vacancies from Shanghai to Tokyo are rising, as companies turn to work-from-home setups. In Manila, Colliers International Group Inc. estimates office rents to fall 17 percent this year while vacancies could rise to 5.3 percent as builders delay construction.

Flexible workspace arrangements also allow companies to cut costs and sign shorter lease contracts, Jonathan Wright, a director for Asia Pacific at Colliers, said at a separate briefing. “You have the ability to use a lot of the spaces when you need them.”

By allowing employees to work in different shared offices, companies can “spread risk” of a virus outbreak within their organization, de los Reyes said. Workers can also choose a work space that’s nearer them to avoid commuting, as Manila limits public transport to contain the pandemic, he added. He said while inquiries have increased, deals closed are small and cover a few seats for company.

Filinvest strategy

Conglomerate Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) has also come up with a working arrangement that seeks to ensure that its business would stay afloat during the pandemic.

“For Filinvest, our program revolves around three things—the mitigation of infection risk by managing density, testing combined with contact tracing, and the strict hygiene and social distancing protocols in the workplace,” FDC CEO Josephine Gotianun Yap said. Yap said the company decided to divide its workforce into two shifts as the government implemented certain degrees of lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19.

“Each shift works three days a week with longer hours. This cut our density in half and provided a back-up workforce should there be a spread affecting one shift,” she said. Filinvest said it arranged for shuttle service under a cost sharing scheme for their employees to reduce the risk of infection from commuting.

Yap is part of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF) Covid Task Force T3 (Trace, Test and Treat).

Filinvest has used the Stay Safe application as recommended by the IATF, which she said has become a very important tool for the company. “Every employee and our visitors are required to register in Stay Safe. Through Stay Safe, we are able to monitor daily health reporting, identify those who have been tagged suspects or probable by the LGUs before entering into our premises and it allowed us to easily trace close contacts when there is a symptomatic person.” Bloomberg News, VG Cabuag

Globe expands home broadband subscribers

G

lobe Telecom Inc. said it is gearing to become the market leader in subscriber share in the home broadband sector, noting that it is close to reaching its goal after its subscriber base grew by 58 percent in the first half.

As of end-June, the company now has 2.9 million home broadband subscribers, which helped boost the revenues of the said business by 19 percent to P12.5 billion, from P10.6 billion the year prior.

“Our Globe At Home business truly made remarkable gains this first half. We are happy with the results and will continue to push forward to serve the needs of customers doing work from home, distance learning and those that are transforming their

businesses to digital means,” Globe President Ernest L. Cu said.

He added that his group is “bent on boosting” its network expansion program in different provinces despite limitations due to the pandemic.

“We have shown resilience and will continue to remain steadfast even with this pandemic. Our network builds this third quarter will expand our capability to serve and ensure that our customers remain connected and updated. We expect more opportunities for the rest of the year as demand for internet connectivity and cloud solutions continue to grow with more companies adapting to the new normal,” Cu said. Lorenz S. Marasigan

August 12, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 195.95 -24.95% -10.69% -6.17% -22.19% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.021 -37.09% -13.21% -6.33% -26.12% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.6227 -35.83% -15.35% -9.03% -28.7% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6763 -29.06% -12.42% n.a. -24.69% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6813 -21.48% n.a. n.a. -19.78% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.2111 -22.54% -8.89% -5.95% -20.97% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6595 -24.48% -11.41% n.a.

-22.74% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 77.93 -34.93% n.a. n.a.

-24.5% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 39.2484 -24.71% -9.32% -5.05% -23.46% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 423.01 -22.45% -8.43% -5.17% -20.6% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8805 n.a. n.a. n.a. -14.52% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 0.999 -24.44% -8.82% -4.85% -22.37% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 29.3523 -24.26% -8.42% -4.55% -22.55% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7826 -24.34% n.a. n.a. -23.13% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 3.9981 -24.44% -8.85% -4.38% -23.46% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 669.6 -24.22% -8.81% -4.57% -23.21% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6022 -35.35% -12.87% -8.64% -29.27% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.102 -28.6% -10.15% -5.71% -26.3% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7673 -24.43% -9.01% -4.55% -23.33% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.816 -24.43% -7.7% -3.99% -22.92% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 89.8997 -24.03% -8.35% -3.75% -23.13% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b $1.0503 13.88% 0.45% 1.74% 2.13% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.4829 17.54% 7.86% n.a.

7.56% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5697 -9.25% -4.22% -3.65% 0.44% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0421 -12.44% -4.84% -2.48% -6.37% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.3969 -10.06% -3.29% -3.45% -8.92% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1832 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-19.82% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8301 -6.48% -1.52% -0.65% -6.7% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4833 -8.55% -2.54% -1.73% -8.07% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.5173 -9.15% -2.82% -1.91% -8.51% 1.9051 -11.38% -4.13% -1.87% -10.23% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2497 -16.99% -5.17% -3.2% -15.89% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.936 -8.76% n.a. n.a.

-7.85% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8354 -17.74% n.a. n.a. -16.16% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8084 -20.13% n.a. n.a. -18.61% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8038 -20.01% -6.08% -4.24% -17.54% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03971 3.84% 3.48% 2.24% 3.95% 8.79% 1.26% 2.25% 2.91% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $1.0414 Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.0917 10.45% 5.6% 4.61% 4.63% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.161 5.12% 3.12% n.a.

2.86% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 367.87 4.24% 3.2% 2.56% 2.77% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9481 2.08% 1.06% -0.09% 2.42% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1983 4.48% 5% 5.04% 2.58% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.3124 4.28% 3.18% 2.33% 4% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4577 4.73% 3.57% 1.97% 4.18% 9.33% 4.79% 2.75% 7.48% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.7001 Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.3091 5.91% 4.36% 2.43% 4.17% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9663 6.52% 4.45% 2.34% 4.7% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0383 8.92% 3.75% 1.73% 7.67% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1963 5.79% 5.05% 2.78% 3.92% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7609 4.95% 4.54% 2.3% 3.52% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $478.97 3.75% 2.66% 2.83% 2.27% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є217.07 -1.15% 0.72% 1.07% -1.24% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2485 4.83% 3.43% 2.83% 3.42% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0266 3.1% 2.23% 1.74% 3.1% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0976 -0.02% 0.55% 0.71% 0.37% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.5234 5.69% 4.14% 3.54% 4.99% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0611505 2.26% 2.18% 1.94% 1.41% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2638 3.86% 2.65% 2.82% 2.79% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 128.71 3.59% 3.28% 2.48% 2.29% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0437 2.38% n.a. n.a.

1.7% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2872 2.97% 3.05% 2.6% 1.75% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.047 1.62% n.a. n.a.

0.84% Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.0205 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

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

-4.04%

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

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

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

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

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

Editor: Anne Ruth Dela Cruz

Health&Fitness BusinessMirror

DOH tells moms with Covid-19 to continue breastfeeding kids

A

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

s the pandemic continues to affect the lives of many Filipinos, mothers, even those with suspected or confirmed Covid-19, are encouraged to continue breastfeeding.

“Breastfeeding is the most complete and sustainable nutrition for the first six months of life, with continued benefits when done with complementary feeding for older infants and children. In this pandemic, mothers should not be worried about breastfeeding, as long as proper infection prevention and control [IPC] measures are observed,” Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said as he observed Breastfeeding Awareness Month.

Duque added that mothers with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 should continue breastfeeding, while always remembering to wear their face masks, and wash their hands before and after contact with their child.

Among the few cases of confirmed infection in children, most have experienced only mild or asymptomatic illness, a confirmation of the immunological benefits of breastfeeding in infants and young children.

Virus free in milk To d ate, th e D e p a r t m e nt o f Health (DOH) reports that Covid-19 has not been detected in the breastmilk of any mother confirmed or suspected of having the virus.

While researchers continue to conduct tests, it appears unlikely that Covid-19 would be transmitted through breastfeeding or by giving breastmilk that has been expressed by a mother who is confirmed or suspected to have the infection.

The DOH said that babies who receive their mothers’ breastmilk receive antibodies that protect them from potentially deadly infections like pneumonia, diarrhea and sepsis.

“This is a call for mothers to breastfeed without any additional food or fluids, not even water, for the first six months, and continue breastfeeding with safe, nour-

ishing, and diverse complementary food,” the DOH said.

It added that appropriate and complementary feeding should be introduced at six months with continuous breastfeeding up to two years and beyond.

Correct information needed Because of this, the DOH said that they cannot stress enough the importance of ensuring that the correct information on health and nutrition, which includes breastfeeding, reach our people. The child and the environment greatly benefit from the efficient, climate-smart practice of breastfeeding that contributes to food security and reduces our carbon and ecological footprints.

The DOH, World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) made a joint appeal to the public to protect, promote, and support the practice of exclusive breastfeeding of infants from birth up to six months, and to continue with complementary feeding six months onwards with breastfeeding being the most healthy, efficient, and environmentally-sustainable action of mothers for their children.

This year’s theme, “I-BIDA ang Pagpapasuso Tungo sa Wais at Malusog na Pamayanan!,” reinforces the importance of breastfeeding now because of the Covid-19 pandemic which poses a challenge to infant feeding. Everyone is enjoined to ensure that Filipino infants will have proper and adequate nutrition to improve their resilience against the disease and minimize the long-term effects of malnutrition, ultimately meeting the country’s commitment to sustainable development.

Skin-to-skin care Following delivery, medical prac-

titioners and midwives are also advised to facilitate immediate and continued skin-to-skin care, including Kangaroo Mother Care, to improve thermal regulation of newborns and several other physiological outcomes. Aside from the association with reduced neonatal mortality, placing the newborn close to the mother also enables early initiation of breastfeeding which also reduces neonatal mortality.

For his part, Dr. Rabi Abeyasinghe, WHO Representative in the Philippines, said that exclusive breastfeeding protects against childhood diseases and death in infancy and childhood, while improving the nutritional status of babies.

“The protective effect of breastmilk is particularly strong against infectious diseases that are prevented through both direct transfer of antibodies and other anti-infective factors. Therefore, it is important to ensure all babies enjoy exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of their life even during the Covid-19 pandemic, following standard infant feeding guidelines but with appropriate precautions for infection prevention and control, such as wearing a mask, practicing hand hygiene and cough etiquette,” Abeyasinghe said.

Improved survival rate In all socioeconomic set tings, breastfeeding improves survival and provides lifelong health and development advantages to newborns and infants. Breastfeeding also improves the health of mothers.

According to the 2018 Expanded National Nutrition Survey, however, the percentage of zero to five months old children who are exclusively breastfed remains to be low at 29.0 percent.

“Exclusive breastfeeding is the first step towards achieving optimum nutrition for children. Aside from improving lifelong health and development, it paves the way for addressing nutrition gaps that prevent children from achieving their full potential,” said Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, UNICEF Philippines Representative.

Dendevnorov added, “We call on mothers to take this necessary first step as we remain committed in working towards sustainable health and nutrition services for every child and mother in the country.”

Several legislations have been enacted by the Philippine Congress to support better nutrition, especially during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, including Republic Act 11148 or the Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act, RA 11210 or the Expanded Maternity Leave Act, RA 10028 or the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act, RA10821 or the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act, and the Executive Order 51 or the Philippine Milk Code.

DOH, WHO and Unicef call for the firm and continuous enforcement of these legislations, particularly the Philippine Milk Code, the strict regulation of milk donations, and the implementation of the Essential Infant and Newborn Care (EINC) or “Unang Yakap” during the time of Covid-19.

PHAP donates P120M for pandemic response D

riven by their commitment to corporate social responsibility, trusted medicines and vaccines providers belonging to the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) have contributed about P120 million monetary and in-kind donations to help protect frontliners and support more than 1.5 million families and over 155 hospitals nationwide during the pandemic.

Employees of PHAP Member companies are also volunteering in community efforts to support frontline health workers and patients affected by the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

In - k in d d o natio ns of PHAP Members consist of personal protective equipment sets (coveralls, N95 masks, surgical masks, surgical gloves, face shields, goggles, shoe covers), test kits, ventilators, medicines, vitamins, vaccines, personal hygiene items, disinfectants, food packs for frontline health workers, and transportation assistance for patients. Beneficiaries include government and private hospitals, charitable institutions, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), among others.

“Even as the global biopharmaceutical industry is leading the way in developing Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, we are taking concrete actions to support the Philippine government’s Covid-19 response. We are working round the clock to ensure an uninterrupted supply of lifesaving medicines despite global lockdowns. Also a key component of these actions is our corporate social responsibility initiatives aimed at protecting frontline health workers and patients,” said PHAP Executive Director Teodoro B. Padilla.

Aside from their respec tive co mp any ’s Cov id -19 resp ons e initiatives, PHAP Members also contributed a total of P8.5M monetary and in-kind donations to the PHAPCares Foundation, the social responsibility arm of PHAP dedicated to help improve the health and lives of Filipinos disadvantaged by sickness, poverty and disasters.

“As responsible corporate citizens, PHAP and its member companies are committed to support the country’s health-care system capacity and protect health care workers and patients. We are one with the government and all concerned stakeholders in the fight

against Covid-19,” said PHAPCares Foundation Executive Director Dr. Rosarita Quijano-Siasoco.

The PHAP Members that have so far contributed to the country’s Covid-19 response are Abbott Laboratories Philippines; Astellas; AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals (Phils.)

Inc.; Bayer Philippines Inc.; Boehringer Ingelheim (Philippines), Inc.; GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Philippines Inc.; Hi-Eisai Pharmaceutical Inc. (Philippines); Johnson & Johnson; Merck Group, Inc.; MSD Philippines; Mercury Drug Corporation; Metro Drug Inc.; Mundipharma Distribution GmbH (Philippine Branch); Novartis Healthcare Philippines Inc.; Novo Nordisk; Otsuka (Philippines) Pharmaceutical Inc.; Pfizer Philippines Inc.; PHILUSA Corporation; Qualimed Pharma Inc.; Roche Philippines Inc.; Sanofi; Taisho; Takeda; The Generic Pharmacy (TGP) Pharma Inc.; and Zuellig Pharma Corporation.

The PHAPCares Foundation turned over PPEs and in-kind donations to the San Lazaro Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine General Hospital, Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and East Avenue Medical Center, San Loren-

zo Ruiz Women’s Hospital, Rizal Medical Center, Perpetual Help Medical Center–Biñan and World Citi Medical Center. Other beneficiaries were the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Ospital ng Muntinlupa, La Union Medical Center, La Union Provincial Health Office and Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center.

Other recipients of in-kind donations was the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Sta. Ana Hospital, Biñan City Main Health Center and Our Lady of Peace Hospital Foundation whose members also served as frontliners during the enhanced community quarantine and the general community quarantine in Metro Manila starting March 15. During the quarantine period, the PHAPCares Foundation also provided in-kind donations to members of the police and several barangays manning the checkpoints.

PHAP, its Members and the PHAPCares Foundation will also be initiating future pandemic-related partnerships in support of the nation’s efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19, and establish pharmaceutical security resilience in preparation for pandemics.

Thursday, August 13, 2020 B3

Eat, sleep and exercise to boost your immunity

By Anne Ruth Dela Cruz

A

lot has been said about the need to boost your immune system to enable you to fight the Covid-19 virus. According to Dr. Rolando “Oyie” Balburias, a functional medicine practitioner, the best way to boost your immune system is to eat right, sleep well and exercise.

Unlike the conventional medicine, which is disease and organ oriented, that we are familiar with functional medicine is health oriented. According to the Institute for Functional Medicine, functional medicine is a systems-biology based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of a disease. Each symptom may be one of the many contributing factors to an individual’s illness.

For example, if a patient suffers a heart attack, he is rushed to the hospital and conventional medicine practitioners will address the heart attack either through an angioplasty or open heart surgery. When the patient has fully recovered, he will be advised to undergo cardiac rehabilitation.

Root cause of the disease

A functional medicine practitioner, on the other hand, goes one step further and finds out what is the root cause of the heart attack. If the heart attack was caused by hypertension, functional medicine doctors will find out why the patient is hypertensive. This could have been caused by a very unhealthy lifestyle, chronic stress or obesity.

“Lifestyle medicine together with personalized medicine is what functional medicine is all about,” Dr. Balburias said. “I prefer focusing on the immune system because it is in charge of repairing or defending us against any invasion or disease. We have to focus on how we can boost and how it functions because for it to function, it needs a lot of micronutrients and macronutrients.”

The best and cheapest way to boost your immune system is to eat more vegetables, which according to Dr. Balbuiras, contain the micro- and macronutrients that your body will need. Vegetables like broccoli, spinach and tomatoes are good sources of minerals and nutrients for our body.

“One good thing to note about our body is that if there is a lack in any of the nutrients, it will find a way to adapt,” he said. “However, if we fail to make up for the loss of these nutrients, our immune system will be affected and you will start seeing symptoms of your disease. Other foods to eat in your diet include mushrooms

and whole grains.”

It is also best to check yourvitamin C, Zinc, vitamin E, fatty acid and amino acid levels because “those are the ones that are important to know whether your immune system can fight off any infection. “I just don’t manage and prevent your disease because what I can do is that I optimize the management of your health,” he explained.

Right sleep pattern

Getting the right amount of sleep, specifically the right sleep pattern, is as important as eating right. Adults need eight hours of sleep and it is important that you are sleep by 11 pm so that when you reach your deep sleep at 2 am, all the systems in your body will start to regenerate and recharge it time for it to face another day when you wake up at 6 am.

“You have to understand that our body is made up of different systems that are intertwined with each other and our body has a biological clock that is embedded in our genes,” Dr. Balburias said. “That is why when you eat late, you gain some weight. When you sleep late, you gain some weight as well because it affects the balance of your hormones.”

He added that we should stop eating by 8 pm so that the body can fast for 13 hours, enough time for the body to rejuvenate and recharge. If you eat the right kind of food “and the nutrients are there, you are not supposed to be hungry. But if all you are eating are simple sugar, then you will be hungry every hour or every two hours.”

Muscularly fit

Regular exercise will also help build your immune system. However, Dr. Balburias reminded that being “muscularly fit is just one component of being healthy.” “If you really want to be healthy, all your body systems should be balanced because your kind of exercise may not be appropriate for your system,” he said.

“Nutrition, exercise and sleep are the determinants of your health while the negative determinants are stress, excessive weight and environmental exposure,” he said. “This virus came about because of the damage we did to our environment, and the mutation that happened to this virus was able to manipulate our system.”

“We can strengthen our immune system and we can avoid the virus if we give everything that our body needs,” Dr. Balburias continued. “And how do we do that? By eating right, going to bed at 11 pm and by exercising.”

Asthmatics get new care strategy, better outcomes

I

n the Philippines, there are an estimated 21 million Filipinos who are asthmatic.

Asthma deaths accounts for 2.37 percent of total deaths, putting the Philippines second in asthma mortality in the world across all ages.

Mild asthma cases account for 20 to 30 percent of the total asthma cases. Among patients with mild asthma, an estimated 33 to 41 percent are hospitalized in the emergency setting according to a study on asthma control in the Asia-Pacific region where the Philippines was part of the respondents.

Paradigm shift in asthma management including mild cases

After 30 years, the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2020 has a new approach to asthma management. For safety, GINA no longer recommends treatment with short-acting beta 2 agonists (SABA) alone. The use of ICS/SABA or ICS/fast-acting LABA combinations as an alternative to a SABA as a rescue medication would accommodate patient needs and would be acceptable with patients’ self-titration strategies.

SABA is no longer the preferred reliever treatment because its overuse is associated with an increased risk of severe asthma attacks. Low dose ICS-formoterol is now the preferred reliever across asthma severities for patients requiring maintenance and reliever therapy.

AstraZeneca Philippines supports this paradigm shift in asthma management that offers not only relief to Filipino asthma patients across its disease spectrum, including mild asthma, but also the control and the prevention of asthma attacks.

In the Philippines, Budesonide/Formoterol or ICS/Formoterol is now an approved anti-inflammatory reliever across the entire asthma disease spectrum, including mild asthma. It is indicated in the treatment of asthma to achieve overall asthma control. Budesonide/ Formoterol is suitable for any asthma severity where the use of inhaled corticosteroids is appropriate. The patient will only require one

inhaler that keeps patient’s life simple as it serves as a reliever and maintenance in one.

This new indication is aligned with the latest GINA 2020 guidelines.

New asthma treatment guidelines across severities

The treatment strategy for asthma patients is to address the root problem in asthma, which is inflammation.“We need two medications for optimal asthma treatment: a bronchodilator that opens the airways and provides quick symptom relief, and an inhaled steroid to deal with the inflammation,” shared Prof. Timothy Ward Harrison, Professor of Asthma and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Nottingham and Head of Respiratory Medicine at Nottingham University Hospital in the United Kingdom.

This was supported by Prof. Camilo C. Roa, Full Professor and Past Chairman, Department of Physiology, University of the Philippines College of Medicine; and Past President, Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) saying that, “A treatment that combines an anti-inflammatory medication with a reliever medication can enhance medication adherence in Filipino patients with asthma thereby improving outcomes and preventing asthma-related mortality.”

Prof. Harrison and Prof. Roa welcomed the Global Initiative for Asthma 2020 asthma treatment strategy for adults and adolescents, which no longer recommends short-acting beta 2 agonist (SABA) monotherapy as needed. Short-acting beta 2 agonists (SABAs) are a class of prescription drugs used to provide quick relief of shortness of breath and wheezing in people with asthma. Unlike long-acting beta 2 agonists (LABAs) that are used on a daily basis, SABAs are used as needed to treat acute asthma attacks. The new GINA guidelines noted that SABA overuse is associated with an increased risk of severe asthma attacks and stated that low-dose inhaled steroid plus formoterol is now the preferred reliever across asthma severities for patients who are prescribed maintenance and reliever therapy.

B4

Show BusinessMirror

Thursday, August 13, 2020 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Peripheral visions: Short films from the regions

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

z

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Shani Davis, 38; Debi Mazar, 56; John Slattery, 58; Dawnn Lewis, 59.

Happy Birthday: Your associations will make or break you this year. Choose your allies carefully, and know enough to walk away from users and unreliable people. Set rules and stipulations when working with others. Focus on what’s important to you, and do your best to grow intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Do for yourself, and you will achieve what you set out to do.

Your numbers are 7, 10, 16, 25, 33, 41, 44.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Pick up the slack, and do your best to finish what you start. Don’t let what other people do interfere with your plans or lead to emotional turmoil. Do whatever will bring you joy or help you advance. HHHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Pay attention to the way you look and feel. Don’t worry about what others think or say. You are responsible for your happiness, so don’t wait for someone to do things for you. Make opportunities; build a stable future.

HHH

B

Y this time, the Cultural Center of the Philippines would have been packed already with cineastes. But like all film festivals, the Cinemalaya 2020 opens not in that tomblike monument by the sea but online. A virus has something to do with that.

Some of the entries in the competitive section have made the rounds of other film concourses and regional festivals. These films, which come from the periphery, are outright winners in their fresh vision and daring. I have known some of these films in competitions, where I had the opportunity to sit as part of the jury. Here are some of them: Tokwifi talks about a 1950s star—a mestiza— caught inside a TV set. A man from Bontoc takes care of her even as the star realizes he does not know how to kiss. Dense in narrative, Tokwifi nevertheless peels off layer after layer a discourse of identities, loss of one’s homeland, and cultural change, leaving in its most pristine form a tale of love and nostalgia for the vanishing. The bonus of this piece is the knowledge that the narrator—the filmmaker Carla Pulido Ocampo—migrated from the lowland and relocated to express a respect for the other cultures.

Who has the right to imagine the indigene? Everyone says Ocampo, for therein lies the search of the self that is expanded to selves. Then and only then can we talk of a nation. In the meantime, let us be content with the story of lovely stars falling from the skies and beguiling us with their borrowed allure. The kiss is optional.

Utwas (literally, “to emerge” in Hiligaynon) makes us gasp for breath for the cinematography that captures the endlessness of the sea. The blue expanse provides the backdrop for a young boy trying to learn how to dive and stay long under the sea. His mentor is his father, a fisherman who will pass on that work to his son. A great portion of the film shows us also how the sea, the provider of bounty, can be finite given the narrowmindedness of man. The young boy will soon discover in the depth the mystery of the sea that is no more about its preservation than its destruction.

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Keep a tally of what you do for others, and when the time comes, don’t hesitate to call in favors. An idea you have to improve your surroundings will pay off. Do the work yourself, and you’ll save yourself a bundle. HHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Sharing information concerning pending financial, medical or legal matters will work against you.

Someone will use what you reveal to make you look bad. Focus on personal improvement and spending quality time with loved ones. HHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Spend more time with people you look up to or who inspire you to do your very best. A show of enthusiasm will encourage others to pitch in and help you get things done to improve the way you live. HHHH

f

The tandem of Kat Sumagaysay and Richard Jeroui Salvadico is behind Utwas.

Pabasa sa Pasyon examines a cultural phenomenon without the heavy handedness of a free TV documentary. Visual and dramatic, the images pile on images stressing that there is no anachronism but only beliefs and more beliefs in contrapuntal rhythms with each other. The filmmaker, Hubert Tibi, has an eye for the discordant and the mordant: characters dressed in costumes that approximate ancient periods, the Cross always a silent presence before chanters and believers, and the singing that dares us to see in it the story of a God and those who attempt to maintain their belief in the inscrutability of the divine.

The other films are curated for exhibition. These films are the following: Buding ang Babayi nga Naglutaw, by the sheer title of it, enchants. It is a film about a woman who

floats. The town “fool” or addict sees it. Other people witness Buding levitating in her room.

Even Buding’s husband sees her up there, the body ethereal (for how else does one explain a human being countering gravity?) almost reaching the ceiling of her home. Rashomonesque in technique, this short film avoids the theme of truth being relative (Kurosawa Akira already explored the poetry of that matter). What Buding does is to bring the mystery of the event to the theme of a woman neglected by a husband and this small society who takes for granted wives pushed to the margins. The film is graced by sincere and engaging performances. Mark Raymund L. Garcia, a writer, directs Buding. The said film is a product of a progressive film community in Sagay City in Negros Occidental.

Kyle Jumayne Francisco is a master of silences. In

Continued on B5

GMA executive Regie C. Bautista

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Be open to suggestions, observe what’s going on around you and take better care of yourself mentally, physically and emotionally. Address whatever is causing anxiety and stress, and implement positive lifestyle changes. HHHHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Pay attention to the way you look and represent yourself.

Refuse to let possessiveness and jealousy take over. Put faith in what you want to pursue and how you go about your business. It’s up to you which path you choose. HHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Take care of personal business. Make positive changes at home that will bring you closer to loved ones and make your surroundings more suitable for whatever you want to accomplish. Don’t let your emotions undermine you. HHH

j

GMA appoints Regie Bautista as senior VP MEDIA giant GMA Network Inc. recently promoted Regie C. Bautista as senior vice president for Corporate Strategic Planning and Business Development. She is also the network’s concurrent chief risk officer and head of Program Support.

Bautista led the successful development and market launch of GMA Affordabox, the network’s digital TV device.

As first vice president for Corporate Strategic Planning, she has led the network’s strategic planning process, which established GMA’s strategic priorities and fast-tracked the network’s end-to-end digital transformation, among others.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Focus on what you can do to make your life better, not on the things you cannot change. Personal victory comes with loving who you are and believing in what you do. A passionate approach to whatever you pursue will pay off. HHH

As chief risk officer, she established the company’s enterprise-wide risk management system, increasing the network’s ability to manage uncertainty, respond to risks and opportunities, and boost organizational resilience. She also instituted the network’s sustainability reporting and successfully registered GMA Network as the first media and broadcast company in the Philippines to sign with the United Nations Global Compact.

Bautista, as program support head, manages the company’s marketing communications, creative services, media and on-air continuity, and digital media divisions. Among other things, her group is responsible for managing the network’s

multimedia platforms and, crafting network promotions and campaigns that have garnered multiple recognitions from local and international award-giving bodies, including PromaxBDA and the New York Festivals.

Bautista’s group likewise established the network’s growing online community, registering millions of fans and followers across the different social-media platforms. In conjunction with GMA News Online, her team also created the network’s online portal, GMANetwork.com, one of the country’s leading web sites which logs over a billion page views annually.

Bautista has been with GMA Network for almost two decades now.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What you do today will make a difference in how others feel about you. Wise decisions, positive changes and a demonstration of kindness and consideration will encourage others to see things your way and support the changes you want to enforce. HHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Make meaningful partnerships a priority in order to avoid getting caught in a no-win situation.

Being upfront about how you feel will help alleviate any uncertainty regarding what you want to do and the changes you want to make. HHHHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Keep your secrets and emotions to yourself, and you’ll avoid being the topic of conversation.

Concentrate on what you can do to help others, and it will take your mind off emotional situations you cannot change. Romance is on the rise. HHH Birthday Baby: You are fun-loving, enthusiastic and humorous.

You are assertive and persistent.

‘it’s elementary’ by emma oxford The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 VCR inserts 6 Keebler package being 9 Ruler of Qatar 13 Figure at a broker’s open 14 River featured prominently in “Aida” 16 Wind instrument?

17 Top Chef network 18 Blue-green shade 19 Really bugs 20 Suitor 23 “Absolutely!”

24 Gobble up 25 Cartoon punch sound 26 Half an altar exchange 29 Gel in a petri dish 32 Foe of Wonder Woman 36 ___ Miserables 37 Kilo-seizing authorities 38 Word after “speed” or “baby” 39 Japanese footwear brand 42 Create 43 First princess of the Disney Renaissance era 45 Acquired

46 “Over here!”

47 Sugar source 51 Affectionate letters in American Sign Language 52 Knives Out actress de Armas 53 “Thus with a kiss I ___”: Romeo 54 Opening trio 57 Chart whose symbols are needed to decode the starred entries 61 Hilarious person 63 Moderate gait 64 Step (on) 65 The second “D” in DVD 66 “Whose ___ are you on?”

67 “I’ll do it” 68 Darth Sidious’ order 69 Lawn material 70 Made simpler DOWN 1 Striped cat 2 Say 23-Across 3 Fruits in some tarts 4 You might be green with it 5 Long scarves 6 Authorizes

7 In ___ of 8 How Baked Alaska is traditionally served 9 Good’s opponent 10 Occasion for a king cake 11 Tattoos, informally 12 High-___ image 15 “Enigma Variations” composer 21 Boxer Ali 22 Sultanate on the Arabian Peninsula 27 Loading sites 28 Beginning 30 Winning gesture 31 Increase, with “up” 32 Ancient counters 33 Far from urban 34 Etiquette expert named the second most powerful woman in America in 1950 35 Blueprint detail, informally 40 Tightened as a team?

41 Showing no emotion 44 Pinocchio, famously 48 Gram and ounce 49 Polynesian New Zealanders

50 Really bug 54 Helps badly?

55 Hold responsible 56 Gave up, as land 58 Engrave 59 Extinct flightless bird 60 Width x length, for a rectangle 61 Google Maps lines: Abbr.

62 XX - XVII Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Parentlife BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Thursday, August 13, 2020

Quick and easy recipes you can try at home

What’s your ‘K-tharsis’?: Part I

M

Y friends and I have recently been watching more Korean series since the March lockdown. The first K-drama I ever watched was Crash Landing On You. Needless to say, I am one of the millions of Filipinos who adore the lead actor, Hyun Bin. I like the K-drama plots, the learnings, the songs and the amazing cinematography.

As I watched specific titles, I found much emotional release or what I call my “K-tharsis.” It brought me back to poignant memories and paved the way to finding resolutions to once repressed feelings.

On a lighter note, it also brought out unadulterated laughter and many a sweet memory.

Below are some of my K-drama recommendations and reflections. I classified them according to my “K-thartic” realizations on Self, Love, Relationships and Society. For easy reference, I also indicated the male and female leads, as well where they can be viewed.

After watching Doctors, what struck me was the strength of the female lead combined with her vulnerability because of past family wounds. She takes 13 years, changes her dreams and gives up worldly relations to get there. It was lucky she met her “person” when she was still young and open. It was also fate that led them apart to build their own lives.

In the end, she let go of the hurt in her own terms. She reached out to the people who hurt her by offering her help but not her heart. She did her duties with principles setting aside anger.

As for Dr. Hong, I admire him more for his stable loving view of life. He experienced even more hurt by losing both parents at once. He experienced deceit from family members in his teens. But the smile remained because he did not bear vengeance. He chose to love the present day and found a loving foster father who brought him to bigger heights in love and passion more than even his original life could have.

It strengthens my faith that good people’s lives may be challenging but goodness brings joy when it matters the most. Shield yourself from ill intentions and actions. What goes around comes around because God is watching. Stay clear. Stay loving. Stay happy.

If I fly and fall If I soar and cry The voice I hear The strength I feel Is that hand of faith For he who embraces All of me...Always

principled decision to step away almost emptyhanded, full of “pulled back” emotions of the people I left behind and the work I have invested in for more than 10 years. I humbly downsized who I was. But I am glad I never looked for revenge, so I never felt I wasted even one day angry. Like what the main character described about soybean fermentation that leaves a special warmth afterwards, I spent my days finding and creating warmth for a future unknown yet feels like home.

I still feel sad for the “death” of my family. I still wonder sometimes. Yet now, it matters less. Time has healed me a whole lot. The love of so many people has embraced me much more than people who I expected to love me unconditionally. I have come to see life in a different color. I will continue to live and climb faithfully and freely because, somehow, God loves me enough so that I can be free enough to live today by my own principles and not get punished further for living the life I chose for myself.

In She Was Pretty, there is a part when the lead utters this: “I wonder if I was the one who turned off my own spotlight. If we don’t turn off our own spotlights, if we never give up on our dreams, we may be able to create our own fairy tales.”

I also realized it is a gift to use a lens more than skin deep from the onset. I realized decisions based on valuing relationships is not wrong. It may take longer in realizing apparent goals but meaning is also deeper with the wait. There are people we “hug” gratefully always even with distance.

LOVE n Encounter—(Park Bo-gum, Song Hye-kyo) Viu n The Time We Were Not in Love—(Lee Jin-wook, Ha Ji-won) Dramacool n Secret Garden—(Hyun Bin, Ha J-won) Netflix n A Millionaire’s First Love—(Hyun Bin, Lee Yeonhee) Dramacool n My Suspicious Partner/Love in Trouble—(Ji Changwook, Nam Ji-hyeon) Viu

SELF n Doctors—(Kim Rae-won, Park Shin-hye) Viu n Itaewon Class—(Park Seo-joon, Kim Da-mi) Netflix n She Was Pretty—(Park Seo-joon, Hwang Jungeum) Netflix n Fight for My Way—(Park Seo-joon, Kim Ji-won) Netflix n That Winter, The Wind Blows—(Jo In-sung, Song Hye-kyo) Netflix

Itaewon Class made me again wonder how I constantly push for my values and principles. Ever since I was a kid, I valued “love” more than anything else—love for my family, love for my future husband, and love for my future kids. I worked for it. Even my high grades, I worked for to show affection rather than gain pride.

This was even harder growing up in my family.

I remember fighting for loving friends who were different. I remember being kicked out of the house for loving my sister too much. In 2010, I made another

Peripheral visions: Short films from the regions

5 benefits of breastfeeding to moms

Continued from B4 his previous work, Whereabouts, the love between two young men becomes the greatest unsaid. In Gulis (translated as “Lines”), the story revolves around the difficult story of a young man who has HIV. Coming out is enough a terrible ordeal; now this young man is about to tell his father that he is infected with the condition that is oftentimes linked to the promiscuity of particular sexual orientation.

In a series of framings where the young man and his father are demarcated, one feels that it is not only the young man that is isolated but also his father. The late Menggie Cobarrubias, one of the early victims of Covid-19, is a compelling presence in this film.

Tarang (translated as “Life’s Pedal”) is the latest work of Arvin Alindogan Belarmino. Here, we are once more in the neighborhood of pimps and prostitutes. A husband in this film peddles his wife.

The same man would approach another man to ask if his daughter is “ripe for the business.” One may think this short film is again one of those exercises in poverty porn but think again. Life is pornographic in Belarmino’s lenses: society f--ks people! n

Breastfeeding campaigns have always emphasized the benefits of breast milk to babies. Described as a near perfect mix of vitamins, proteins and fat, breast milk teems with antibodies that protect your baby from viruses and bacteria.

Breastfeed your little one exclusively for the first six months and you reduce his or her risk of developing asthma, allergies, ear infections, respiratory ailments and upset stomach. The benefits even extend well beyond the baby years. Numerous studies show breastfed children have higher IQs, maintain ideal weights, and have less incidence of diabetes.

“The beauty of breastfeeding is that it’s just as advantageous to moms,” says Carla Victoria Espina-Castro, MD at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of the country’s top health institution, Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed, www. makatimed.net.ph).

In celebration of National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, Castro cites what breastfeeding does for mothers: n It helps you lose weight. “Breastfeeding burns about 500 calories a day—that’s roughly the equivalent of a large snack,” Castro points out. “That’s about a pound a week or 4 pounds per month.” n It gives you happy hormones. According to Castro, “Breastfeeding triggers the release of prolactin [which gives you a peaceful, nurturing sensation] and oxytocin [which makes you feel a strong sense of love and bonding between you and your baby]. Oxytocin also helps your uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size and reduces uterine bleeding after birth.”

More of my K-drama recommendations and reflections next week. Happy K-tharsis to everyone. n

n It fortifies your health. “Breastfeeding boosts your immune system, making you less prone to developing a host of conditions in your later years—type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and osteoporosis,” she explains. n It’s free. “Formula costs a lot and takes time to prepare,” says Castro. n It’s a unique experience. While mothers have talked about the frustration of getting their baby to latch to their nipple and the pain that comes with nursing, much has also been written and said about the undeniable connection that mother and child feel during breastfeeding.

“Many have called it a privilege and an accomplishment,” shares Castro. “But as natural as it is, breastfeeding is also an act that a mother learns day by day.”

WHILE it can be a challenge for some, making desserts can be fun especially when you follow simple recipes and use ingredients that you can find at home.

For your next dessert project, you can try these easy-to-make treats using Swiss Miss from Universal Robina Corp. Satisfy your chocolate craving by making Swiss Miss Ice. Just dissolve a pack of Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate or Milk Chocolate in 180 ml of warm water, and pour it into an ice tray. Freeze for at least three hours. Put the Swiss Miss ice cubes in a glass, pour a milk of your choice, and enjoy a rich chocolate drink for a movie night. (bit.ly/2PHSDNW) Also, you can make merienda even sweeter with this dessert-in-a-mug recipe. Start by mixing one pack of Swiss Miss Choco Milk Blends, 1/4 cup of flour and one teaspoon of sugar in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of melted butter, and one teaspoon of vanilla extract, then stir until mixture is smooth. Pour this batter into two microwavable cups and microwave these on high power for two minutes. You can also steam these cups in a pan, over high heat, for 15 minutes. Once done, let it cool for one minute. You can add another layer of flavor by topping this with vanilla ice cream. (bit.ly/31IRH1m) Swiss Miss Choco Milk Blends is the newest variant of Swiss Miss made from pure melted chocolate, fresh milk and marshmallows.

Is it safe to reopen schools during the pandemic?

IS it safe for schools to reopen during the pandemic?

It depends on how widespread Covid-19 infections are in the community and the safety measures the school takes.

In areas where the virus is poorly controlled, public health experts say in-person education would be too risky.

In areas where the virus appears to be under control, experts say schools still need to make adjustments to minimize risk when reopening. A sustained decline in cases and a positive case rate of less than 2 percent are among the signs the virus is under control, some experts say.

But given the many lingering unknowns about the virus, school districts are approaching the school year in a variety of ways. Evidence suggests young children don’t spread the disease very easily, while kids aged 10 and up may transmit as easily as adults. But experts say more conclusive proof is needed. And even though children appear less likely to get infected than adults, and less likely to become seriously ill when they do, severe cases and deaths have occurred.

Children and teens often have only mild illness or no symptoms when infected. That means they could unknowingly pose a risk to other students—who may pass the virus on to their parents and grandparents—or to teachers and other adults who might be vulnerable to severe illness if infected.

To reduce risk, experts say schools should make adjustments when resuming in-person classes.

Recommended safety measures include wearing face coverings in schools and limiting movement so kids stay in the same classroom all day. Placing desks several feet apart is also advised. Canceling assemblies, cafeteria meals and other gatherings also helps, says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some Scandinavian countries with far fewer cases than in the United States reopened schools with adjustments, and have had no outbreaks tied to schools. But in Israel, schools that reopened when virus activity was low ended up shutting down a few weeks later when cases spiked in the community, including among students and teachers.

In the US, some school districts are planning a mix of in-person classes and online learning to help maintain social distancing. Other districts, such as those in Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles, are starting classes online only. AP

B5

B6 Thursday, August 13, 2020

PhilHealth releases recipients of P15M IRM funds

BDO Foundation backs Covid-19 pooled testing program

I

N response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, BDO Foundation is supporting a mass testing initiative touted by medical experts as highly effective, cost efficient and scientifically sound. The corporate social responsibility arm of BDO Unibank—in partnership with Go Negosyo, the local government of Makati City, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) and the Philippine Society of Pathologists (PSP)—is all set for the pilot implementation of pooled testing for underserved sectors in Makati.

Pooled testing combines swab samples from individuals and examines them together using a single reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kit. Pools of five, 10 or 20 persons are tested depending on the prevalence of COVID-19 in an area. Considered a game changer in the fight to contain the coronavirus, the method is expected to boost testing capacity, expedite tests and significantly reduce the cost of RT-PCR kits. Based on extensive research conducted by the PSP, pooled testing is very effective.

The joint initiative was officially unveiled in a virtual event witnessed

by BDO Unibank and BDO Foundation chairperson Teresita Sy-Coson, BDO Unibank president and CEO and BDO Foundation trustee Nestor V. Tan, BDO

Foundation president Mario A. Deriquito and BDO Foundation trustee Ma. Corazon Mallillin.

The event was also attended by Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion, Makati City mayor Abigail Binay, PCMC executive director Dr. Julius Lecciones, PSP president Dr. Roberto Padua Jr. and Iloilo 1st District representative Dr. Janette Garin. Dr. Garin said the collaboration “will pave the way for a model that other local government units can follow. The outcome of this pilot implementation of pooled testing will be cascaded to other LGUs.” “I am pleased to note that the first to respond to our call for support is BDO Foundation,” Concepcion remarked. “They have been really supportive of every effort needed to address the health situation, which will eventually help our economy.

Thank you for your untiring support and helping the people overcome this crisis.”

“We believe in this worthy cause,” SyCoson said. “When we learned that it will be pilot tested in Makati, we were excited to participate. We look forward to working with our partners in making this project possible.”

According to Deriquito, “We at BDO Foundation support pooled testing because we believe the method has

immense potential in making RT-PCR testing more affordable and accessible to as many Filipinos as possible. We expect this intervention to have a remarkable impact not only on cities and provinces but on the country as a whole.”

Pooled RT-PCR testing is the latest corporate citizenship initiative undertaken

by BDO Foundation in response to COVID-19. The foundation previously supported the government’s RapidPass System, donating equipment that enabled the quick passage of vehicles of frontliners at checkpoints during the enhanced community quarantine. It backed ReliefAgad, a web application that automated and accelerated the distribution of financial assistance to beneficiaries of the government’s Social Amelioration Program. BDO Foundation also launched the Peso for Peso Donation Drive to raise resources for the purchase of test kits for distribution to underserved communities nationwide.

Caption: As part of concerted efforts to contain COVID-19, BDO Foundation has partnered with Go Negosyo, PCMC, PSP and Makati City to pioneer the implementation of pooled RT-PCR testing, a methodology that will serve as a model for cities and municipalities across the country to follow.

Experts call for reforms to dismantle political dynasties

P

HILIPPINE political experts called for deep political reforms to dismantle political dynasties in a recent online forum that presented analyses of ongoing political developments and needed reforms towards a new normal.

"We are in need of stronger public institutions, responsive legislation, good governance, and more responsible citizenship.

There is a need to focus on the importance of whole-of-society solutions, strengthening institutions and legislation, the shift to e-governance, and continuous political development in building a new and better normal for the country," said Prof. Dindo Manhit in his opening remarks during the virtual townhall discussion (vTRD) held on recently.

Dr. Ronald Mendoza, Dean of the Ateneo School of Government defined oligarchy as a small group of powerful individuals or groups that can shape society as it is in politics or in economics and therefore fitting the description of political dynasties, since they are very much concentrating power in the political system.

“Size in competition policy is not necessarily a bad thing. If you use size to promote innovation, if you use size to promote export market growth and generate jobs, size does have its advantages, and we need some of those advantages from a development point of view,” said Mendoza during the forum hosted by the Stratbase ADR Institute, in partnership with Democracy Watch Philippines and Transparency International Philippines.

“Protecting our national sovereignty, human rights, and contracts may look like separate elements, but they are part of the whole democratic recovery,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza further stressed that, “Rather than directly address the health crisis in a timely and decisive manner, some of our leaders burn precious weeks focused on highly divisive issues: the Anti-Terrorism Law, and the failure to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise.”

“An abuse of regulatory powers, especially in the case of franchises. This, will attract less investments and the wrong kind of investments; those that disregard institutions, contracts, and rule of law.” Mendoza said.

Ramon Casiple, a staunch advocate for political reforms said, “Whenever we speak about it (oligarchy) , usually it's in relation to the state, or state power... Oligarchy impacts on politics just like what happened, for example, with the Lopez issue in the Philippines and its subsequent effect on press freedom.”

"When the government is playing defensive in its handling of the health crisis, it becomes political. The pandemic will be a politically-linked issue in the coming elections in the Philippines," Casiple said.

Dr. Julio Teehankee, Full Professor of Political Science and International Studies and Former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University said, “If a handful of families have managed to control all elected and appointed positions, in practically all the local government positions

and national (sic), then that is an indication of a political market failure.”

“One president’s oligarchy is another president’s crony...This system is perpetuated in collusion with the elite of power or the political class, and in the Philippines, the political class is largely composed of political dynasties.” said Teehankee.

“If the President, or even the Speaker is genuine about the dismantling of the oligarchy... then he should start in his own backyard, the House of Representatives, and start to pass a genuine anti-political dynasty law.” Teehankee said.

Prof. Ayami Suzuki, Professor of Faculty of Law, Doshisha University commented that institution is really necessary in constraining the abuse of power of leaders and at the same time it is very important to complement the lack of will on the part of the leadership or the weakness of leadership.

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Thursday, August 13, 2020

B7

PHL, Australia convene confab for ministers

T

HE Philippines and Australia held their inaugural Foreign Ministry Consultations (FMC) via video teleconference to take stock of relations and support the direction of future engagements.

The FMC was cochaired by Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Asia and Pacific Affairs Meynardo LB. Montealegre with the Commonwealth of Australia’s Foreign Affairs and Trade First Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia Julie Heckscher.

First conceptualized in 2019 and scheduled to be hosted by Australia as the pandemic occurs, the FMC

was established to serve as a chief mechanism to review and support both high- and working-level progresses of key initiatives across the entire spectrum of bilateral relations between both countries. It also serves as a platform for exchanging perspectives on regional developments of mutual interests.

The first FMC on August 4 is also

AUSTRALIA’S Foreign Affairs and Trade First Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia Julie Heckscher (left photo, right) in discussions with Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Meynardo LB. Montealegre (right photo, center). DFA

seen to jumpstart substantive preparations for the 75th anniversary of Philippine-Australian diplomatic relations in 2021.

“That we are convening this first FMC amid and [despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19)] attest not only to the resilience, but also to

the vigor, and even the tenacity, of our relations,” Montealegre said. “It mirrors our resolve to strengthen the foundations of our dynamic and wideranging relations, as well as adapt its expression in our cooperation as we approach the diamond jubilee of our ties in 2021.”

100 Pinoy patients to be given Japan’s anti-Covid medicine

T

HE Embassy of Japan announced that the Philippines has received a supply of the antiflu tablet Avigan, with the generic name favipiravir— touted as a potential treatment against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

The batch of medicines—part of the Japanese government’s grant aid to countries severely impacted by the current contagion—was turned over to the Department of Health on August 6 and will be allotted for 100 patients who were selected in the Avigan clinical trial.

According to the embassy, the Japanese-made antiviral drug “has drawn interest from many countries for its potential to prevent viral replication, even as its effectiveness

China to ship 50 more ventilators

AVIGAN TRT WORLD/SCREENGRAB FROM LAGING HANDA BRIEFING/PNA

against the novel coronavirus is yet to be established.” Responding to requests received from the international community, it said that Japan has formed close cooperation with several countries, including the Philippines, to expand clinical research on Avigan as treatment for this infectious disease.

Various researches revealed that Avigan—developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corp.—is seen

as an effective drug in treating Covid-19. In Japan, the drug has shown a degree of promise in treating Covid-19-infected patients, as some have recovered after taking it.

Health experts however cautioned against its use because of dangerous potential side effects in pregnant women, such as birth defects.

The embassy stated the arrival of the drug is part of Tokyo’s emergency grant aid to countries severely affected by the contagion. It claimed that “each recipient-government has acknowledged...Avigan’s proper usage and prescription in view of its known adverse side effects.”

“Japan hopes that this ongoing cooperation with the Philippines would further contribute to the advancement of clinical research

to contain the Covid-19 pandemic,” the embassy said.

As early as April, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III mentioned the possibility of Avigan as an anti-Covid cure. In his remarks in the Asean Plus Three Summit on Covid-19 with Japan, China and South Korea, President Duterte expressed the Philippines’s willingness to be included in clinical trials for the said medicine.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga earlier declared about his government’s plan to offer Avigan for free to nations hit by Covid-19 pandemic. He said some 30 countries had made requests to his government for the drug’s procurement. Embassy of Japan, with reports from Joyce Ann L. Rocamora and Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos/PNA

PHL Embassy-Berlin welcomes Pinoy nurses

Both sides renewed their commitments to strengthen political exchanges and dialogues, defense and security cooperation, including advocating the rule of law and adherence to international law. These especially include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or

Unclos, in the maritime sphere, as well as building on nascent collaboration in countering terrorism and transnational crimes.

Development cooperation also figured prominently in the talks.

The Philippines appreciated Australia’s strong support for Mindanao, as well as in the fields of education and training.

The two sides also took the opportunity to affirm mutual support and solidarity amid the Covid-19 health crisis, and exchange messages of appreciation for the assistance rendered by each other’s governments on the repatriation of Filipino and Australian nationals. Both underscored the heightened importance of health cooperation in insulating and adapting overall practical cooperation from future public health threats. DFA

Malaysian biz group sends medical supplies

T

HE Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industries Philippines Inc. (MCCI) handed over various medical supplies to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in support of the latter’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) containment efforts.

The supplies consisted of 200 personal protective equipment sets, 4,000 surgical masks, 1,000 KN95 masks, 200 goggles, 14 foot-bath disinfectants and 50 isolation gowns. The PPE will be distributed to various hospitals in the country.

Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, chairman of the NDRRMC, with Executive Director and Undersecretary Ricardo B. Jalad, as well as the Office of Civil Defense’s Assistant Secretary Casiano C. Monilla and Director Bernardo Rafaelito R. Alejandro IV, received in early July the donation from MCCI through its patron, Ambassador of Malaysia to the Philippines Norman Muhamad, President and Cofounder Edward Ling, Special Envoy of the President to Malaysia Atty. Wencelito Tan Andanar, as well as Malaysian Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Rizany Irwan Muhamad Mazlan and Minister-Counselor Sharifah Ezneeda Wafa.

The chamber’s Vice President and Cofounder Eric Yam, Corporate Secretary and Cofounder Alimatar Garangan II, its Executive Committee’s How Han Hui, Secretariat Lead Hazel Parial and

DEFENSE Secretary and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Chairman Delfin N. Lorenzana (left) receives medical supplies from the Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industries Philippines Inc. through Ambassador Norman Muhamad. DND/PNA

MCCI business partner Dolly Maiztegui Cater of Polymer Link Philippines Inc. joined the ceremony.

“The NDRRMC [extends] its utmost gratitude to the donors,” the agency said in a statement.

“The continuous efforts of various sectors to assist the country in its fight against Covid-19 is undeniably a tremendous support to the overall response.”

The MCCI is the first foreign-business chamber in the Philippines from an Asean-member country. It aims to achieve a successful and harmonious diversity of trade and culture with Malaysia. Priam Nepomuceno/PNA

Kashmir under siege: World should play its role

By Saadia Awan

Chargé d’Affaires, a.i.

Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

A

AMBASSADOR Huang Xilian PNA

T

HE Chinese government is sending 50 more ventilators to the Philippines to support efforts in curbing the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak.

The latest aid is expected to arrive any day, based from the interview of Ambassador Huang Xilian on CNN Philippines last week.

Huang noted that Manila and Beijing had been coordinating on strategies to stem the spread of Covid-19 since the early stages of the pandemic. Aside from an initial donation of 130 ventilators, Beijing has so far provided the Philippines with a total of 252,000 testing reagents, 1.87 million medical masks, protective suits, goggles and other epidemic-prevention materials.

In April, a team of Chinese medical experts also visited Manila to share Beijing’s best practices in fighting the disease.

Committing to continue this cooperation, Huang made an assurance that once it succeeds in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, China would prioritize the Philippines as “a close and friendly neighbor.”

The Chinese envoy said around 165 possible vaccines are being developed globally, six of which have already entered the final stages of clinical trials. Of the potential cures, he said four are manufactured by Chinese companies. Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA

AMBASSADOR Ma. Theresa B. Dizon-de Vega (first row, center) with the newly arrived Filipino nurses. BERLIN PE

B

ERLIN—A group of 13 Filipino nurses who recently arrived in Germany to take up employment were welcomed by the Philippine Embassy in the European capital on August 7.

The nurses, who were flown in

by Geras GmbH and its Philippine recruitment agency partner Global Resource for Outsourced Workers Inc., have been undergoing preparations to work in Germany since 2018.

Ambassador of the Philippines to Germany Ma. Theresa B. Dizon-de Vega led the welcoming team, with Labor Attaché Atty. Delmer R. Cruz, Welfare Officer Sylvia H. Gabriel and Consul Catherine Rose G. Torres.

The brief program was held at the embassy’s outdoor amphitheater, as hygiene measures were observed

in light of the pandemic’s situation.

Dizon-de Vega congratulated the nurses for making it through various hurdles and wished them well on the next phase of their life in Germany, which is to be integrated to the said country’s society. The ambassador assured them that the embassy would support them should they encounter difficulties, and encouraged them to get in touch with the embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in the German capital in case the need arises.

Cruz seconded this, and also encouraged the nurses to uphold the world-class reputation of Filipino health-care workers.

Geras GmbH’s Shaun Procter briefly recounted the long process of bringing the nurses in, which he was

first inspired to do after experiencing excellent service from Filipino crewmembers of a cruise ship.

Thereafter, one of the nurses, Bryan Robles, gave a brief testimonial where he acknowledged the new batch of Filipino nurse-expats’ mixed emotions in coming to Germany to practice their profession at a time when there are also health challenges back home. He said that, ultimately, their decisions are fulfillments of long-term aspirations for themselves and their families.

The program then segued to a more informal exchange, as each of the nurses introduced themselves and shared their respective journeys over a simple merienda fare from Ayan Filipino Streetfood Restaurant. DFA

UGUST 5 marks a year since Kashmir had been in a lockdown after its autonomous status and that of Jammu—internationally recognized as a disputed territory by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions— was scrapped and illegally revoked by India.

Due to the pandemic, the world has understood the dynamics of lockdowns, as well as the pressures and anxieties of living with limited movements outside our homes to protect ourselves and our communities. Though restricted in our houses, we still exercise all forms of freedom and enjoy access to the Internet, phones and hospitals.

The Indian Illegally-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), comprising 8 million people, was placed under the control of New Delhi and is under siege, leading to total shutdown, terrorism and violence in the valley.

This was after India unilaterally revoked special provisions provided in Article 370 and 35A. The freedom of speech and expression, as well as access to newspapers, television, mobile telephones, the Internet, hospitals, police stations, courts and elected representatives have been curtailed further after August 5, 2019. Kashmiri politicians, lawyers, human-rights activists and public figures who protested publicly have been incarcerated, and their voices muffled.

India has been unsuccessful in subjugating the spirits of the Kashmiris, even after repressing them for more than 72 years. They continue to raise their voices against the mass injustices taking place against them in the hands of the Indian government and Indian forces.

The situation today in Kashmir is worse in comparison. Adding to the restriction and restraints are woes caused by the pandemic. India has embarked in an aggressive settlement project

under the shroud of the coronavirus disease 2019.

On March 31, its government had introduced the new domicile law. Its aim is demographic change, and at taking the land and resources from the indigenous population of IIOJK. On May 18, domicile certificate procedures were introduced allowing Indian Hindus to settle in IIOJK, while requiring the indigenous population of Kashmir to apply for residency permits.

Further disempowerment of the people of IIOJK who are already facing inhumane and illegal occupation at the hands of Indian government’s forces can be foreseen.

These new rules violate the UNSC resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, as well as international law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It has continuously violated the said resolutions for decades.

This year, various reports have been published from of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights, reputable nongovernment organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and by many concerned citizens all across the world, as they have raised their voices against atrocities being committed against the Kashmiris in IIOJK. Pakistan’s position remains clear and unambiguous: The solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute lies in the realization of the Kashmiris’ inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the UN. The government, leadership and people of Pakistan remain firmly committed to the cause of Kashmiris’ right of freedom.

It is high time this part of the world plays its role while it urges India to eschew crimes against Kashmiris, and for the latter realize their inalienable right to self-determination per relevant UNSC resolutions.

Sports BusinessMirror

B8 Thursday, August 13, 2020

PSC disinfects offices as staff tests positive

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao

Christian Prudhomme says 2020 won’t be the year to ask for autographs or “selfies.”

T

HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) indefinitely locked down starting on Wednesday the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila and PhilSports Complex in Pasig City after one of the agency’s personnel tested positive of Covid-19.

PSC officials said disinfection procedures at the PSC Administration Building in Manila and the PhilSports administrative offices and dormitories were under way with the help of Mike Asuncion of the Philippine Amateur Baseball Association and BF Merren Pharmaceuticals.

“We are thankful because they [Asuncion and BF Merren] readily helped. We wanted to make sure that we do proper disinfection of the offices,” PSC Executive Director Atty.

Guillermo Iroy said.

The PSC also thanked Milo Philippines and Pocari Sweat for its continued support to national athletes, coaches and PSC frontline workers amid the pandemic.

Iroy also thanked the Philippine Swimming Inc., Philippine Table Tennis Federation, Pilipinas Sepak Takraw Association Inc. and other national sports associations for donating face masks, face shields and other supplies for the agency’s frontliners and stranded athletes and coaches.

“Our NSAs have been very helpful this pandemic. We all just want to lift each other and help each other get through this pandemic” Iroy said.

PSC officials and personnel underwent mandatory swab testing last week and the results were released on Tuesday.

Obiena brings pole vault act to Monaco Diamond League

T

OKYO Olympics-bound pole vaulter EJ Obiena gets his first acid test of the year when he competes in the World Athletics Diamond League in Monaco on Saturday.

Ranked 16th in the world with a season-best 5.45 meters he cleared last week for a silver medal in an Italian meet, Obiena will join a handful of the world’s best jumpers, majority of them would be his rivals in the Tokyo Games next year.

The eight-man list includes world recordholder Armand Duplantis of Sweden, reigning Olympic champion Thiago Braz of Brazil and 2017 world champion Sam Kendricks of the US. Also in the field are Ben Broaders of Belgium, Thibaut Collet and Valentin Lavillenie of France and Claudio Stecchi of Italy.

Duplantis carries the best season record of 5.94m. He set the world record of 6.17m last February in Poland. It would be Obiena’s third Diamond League appearance. His best performance came in Doha last year with 5.46m.

All athletes are required to undergo swab testing before the competition.

Three days after Monaco, Obiena will join two fellow Tokyo-bound Olympians in a virtual tournament that will be streamed live.

OJ de los Santos, meanwhile, made another statement victory by shocking to top-ranked Eduardo Garcia of Portugal to win the Athletes’ E Tournament on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old karateka, who was dropped from the national team to the 30th Southeast Asian Games last year, edged world No.1 Garcia by a the skin of his teeth, 25-24.9, to capture his fourth gold medal in a series of virtual tournaments.

It was payback time for De los Santos, who lost to Garcia in the adidas Karate World Open last month. The Filipino, representing the International Shotokan Karate Federation, was already declared the winner but the decision was reversed in favor of Garcia after the organizers announced a scoring glitch.

That defeat was de los Santos’s second setback to the Portuguese after the SportsData E Tournament World Series in May. In the semifinals of the tournament organized

by Russia, the world No.2 De los Santos beat Alfredo Bustamate of the US, 24.6-24.5.

De los Santos also topped the Balkan Open last week, the Korokotta Cup in June and the Palestine Cup in April.

HAPPY FANS “Dopple Rangers” fill the

first five rows of right field during the Major League Baseball game between the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday. AP

T

OUR de France Director Christian Prudhomme urged spectators at this year’s race to wear masks to respect the riders and the event while the dangers of the coronavirus still persist.

At the same time, the Critérium du Dauphiné—which started in Clermont Ferrand on Wednesday and ran by Tour organizers the ASO—will act as a dress rehearsal for La Grande Boucle later this month.

“There will be people along the side of the road at the Tour de France, and apart from at the starts, the finishes and on the climbs, where there will be restrictions, life will go on as normal elsewhere. That’s why we’re calling for people to please wear masks,” Prudhomme said on Tuesday.

“If you love the Tour and its champions, wear a mask when you’re cheering from the side of the road,” he said. “And that’s really not only in those areas, at the starts and finishes, where it will be enforced—we want people to wear

them everywhere.”

Prudhomme likened this year’s Tour to a number of other international sporting events, such as the biggest tennis or football competitions, which don’t allow the kind of athlete-fan interaction normally enjoyed by professional cycling.

“This won’t be the year to ask for autographs or ‘selfies,’” he said. “The riders will still say hello from a distance, but these measures are the only reason they won’t come across as friendly as they normally are. It will be more like at Wimbledon or at a Champions League final, where you can’t get an autograph from Roger Federer or Lionel Messi in the morning. But once the coronavirus pandemic is over, the Tour will return to normal, with the kind of magnificent interactions that we’re used to.”

This week’s Critérium du Dauphiné would already initiate the same measures that are to be used at this year’s Tour, as the Dauphiné’s race director, Thierry Gouvenou,

explained in an ASO press release on Tuesday, with the participating teams having had the measures explained to them the same day.

“The Dauphiné will be a competitionlevel run-through and a rehearsal of the safety measures,” Gouvenou said.

“We’re creating a ‘bubble,’ with very little interaction with the media, the race guests and the fans. The [team bus] parking areas will be closed at the starts and at the finishes, and we’ll have a ‘mixed zone’ with specific rules for interviews.

“We’re also limiting the number of people who are allowed to access the area after the finish line. Out on the route, the fans won’t be allowed in the feed zone, and we have more ‘waste zones’ for the riders,” he added, referring to the areas where riders can jettison unwanted food wrappers.

“It’s going to be the same for the podium protocol—no kisses, no interaction between the [sponsorship] partners, the local representatives and the riders. And face masks will be mandatory all along the race route, where local-authority decrees apply,” Gouvenou said, with the hope that the public on the roadside will wear masks, just as Prudhomme has called for at the Tour.

The Tour organizers also adopted France’s Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme’s policy for the Dauphiné and Tour, which already applies to all French bike races, whereby “2020” stands for keeping 2 meters away from the riders at all time, asking for 0 autographs, remembering 2 vital habits—to use antibacterial hand gel and to always wear a mask—and to take 0 ‘selfies’ with the riders.

Cyclingnews

Antetokounmpo ejected for headbutting L

AKE BUENA VISTA, Florida—Brook Lopez scored 24 points and Milwaukee beat the Washington Wizards, 126-113, on Tuesday night after Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was ejected in the second quarter for headbutting Moritz Wagner.

Wagner took a charge from Antetokounmpo, who didn’t like the call in what had become a physical game early on.

During a break in the action with Milwaukee challenging the call, Antetokounmpo approached Wagner on the way to the bench and started jabbering at him before headbutting him and drawing the ejection.

Antetokounmpo, the reigning National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player, finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.

Sterling Brown scored 23 points and Frank Mason had 19 for the Bucks, which played their reserves extensively.

Rui Hachimura led the Wizards with 20 points, and Ish Smith added 19.

The game didn’t have any playoff implications. The Bucks have already clinched the top seed in the East, while the Wizards, who fell to 0-7 in the NBA bubble, have already been eliminated from playoff contention.

Antetokounmpo’s headbutt could draw a punishment from the league and keep him out of the team’s final seeding game against the Grizzlies on Thursday.

Harrison Barnes scored 25 points, including 12 in the third quarter, and the Sacramento Kings beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 112-106, on Tuesday night.

The Kings earned their second win in the

Jump rope gets ‘serious’ in PHL

T

HE newly formed Philippine Jump Rope Association (PJRA) headed by Noel Agra is not skipping a beat in spreading the news about the fitness craze amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s for everybody. There’s no age limit.

It’s for all skill levels. You can do it anytime, anywhere and it’s very affordable,” Agra told Tuesday’s online session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

Agra, a health and fitness buff and a certified jump rope coach, said the PJRA was formed at the height of the lockdown and enjoys a membership of close to 150 nationwide.

He said jump rope enthusiasts or even other groups are welcome to join the PJRA, which has filed for membership with the International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).

“Everybody is welcome. The PJRA wants to collaborate with everyone. We want to be inclusive,” Agra, who has been doing jumping rope for five years now, told the forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Go For Gold, Milo, Amelie Hotel, Braska Restaurant and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and powered by Smart, with Upstream Media as webcast partner.

Globe, Mineski reaffirm alliance

G

LOBE recently renewed its partnership with eSports agency Mineski Philippines to level up the collaboration that focuses on the improvement of two key aspects—Liyab Esports and the Philippine Pro Gaming League (PPGL).

Professional eSports team Liyab Esports is one of the highlights of the Globe and Mineski partnership. After debuting last year, the team composed of the most promising local eSports athletes went on to compete in various regional tournaments and bagged a gold medal at the

30th Southeast Asian Games for Starcraft II. Under the renewed partnership, Team Liyab would further be expanded by adding a team for League of Legends Wild Rift—Riot’s upcoming MOBA based on the popular League of Legends franchise.

Globe and Mineski also plan to make the PPGL bigger and better by adding community leagues and continuing to build on relevant esports titles and emerging games.

“Our partnership has been very fruitful for

NBA restart—each over the Pelicans.

Barnes said the competition in the NBA bubble “is something we have to learn from.”

With both teams eliminated from the playoffs, among the top starters given the night off were Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson and Kings leading scorer De’Aaron Fox. The Kings’ only win in their first six games in the restart was a 140-125 victory over the Pelicans on Thursday, when Bogdan Bogdanovic scored a career-high 35 points. Bogdanovic had 16 points in the rematch.

“Those games are really tough to play,” Bogdanovic said, adding “especially when both teams are eliminated.... For our team it was a huge win after a couple bad days and elimination.”

Jahlil Okafor led New Orleans with 21 points. Lonzo Ball added 16 points while making The PJRA has lined up a series of events, including online competitions beginning next month. It invited foreign jump rope experts to do workshops and clinics in the country.

Agra stressed that jump rope is all about dedication, commitment and health, considering that jumping rope burns three times more calories than jogging or running.

“I’ve lost 50 pounds doing jump rope,” Agra said.

It’s still a long way to go for jump rope but Agra said he is looking forward to the sport’s inclusion in multisport international events like the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games or even the Olympics.

“It’s a sport,” he said. both Mineski and Globe,” Jil Bausa-Go, VP for Get Entertained Tribe at Globe, said. “It is a journey marked with milestones which helped make Liyab, PPGL and our continuing vision for Philippine esports grow stronger and more resilient.”

“This is definitely an exciting new chapter for us, and we are happy to have our partners at Globe remain steadfast and committed in accelerating our efforts to grow the esports industry,” said Ronald Robins, founder and CEO of Mineski Global.

“Unfazed by the current situation, our collaboration pledges to further promote the importance of esports, and the communities that support it in both the local and global stages.”

THE Wizards’ Moritz Wagner grabs his face after getting a head butt from the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo (rear). AP

four 3-pointers.

Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry said Ball had his best game of the restart.

“The biggest thing was I thought Alonzo

played well and was almost back to where he was before we had the hiatus,” Gentry said. “I thought that was important.”

New Orleans is 2-5 in the bubble. AP

Two leagues’ virtual fans Vincent Juico @VJuico, Instagram vpjp_j, vince.juico@gmail.com

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS THE National Basketball Association’s (NBA) bubble season has been on for about a month already and one of the leading stories to come out of the restarted season is, no, not the Phoenix Suns’ 5-0 (won-lost) record care of Devin Booker’s dagger against the Los Angeles Clippers, but the league rearing its creative head, so to speak.

Watching the replay, the shot was well contested by Paul George. You could hear the Suns’ fans’ “virtual” eruption as the shot hit nothing but nylon.

What did the league do to, sort of, bring the fans back, at least virtually despite the challenges posed by the outbreak? According to nba.com, “Invite fans to watch the game, in real time, through livestream and show their reactions inside the Disney arenas.”

NBA.com states, “The league collaborated with Microsoft on the technology, and partnered with Michelob Ultra to promote and roust the demand, although as the playoffs approach, getting fans into their virtual seats will be the least of the NBA’s worries on this restart.

Not only are the fans shown inside the arenas, but the national networks often cut away from the game to reveal who and what’s on the video screens, which extend along each baseline and the sideline behind the team benches.

The fans are selected multiple ways.

They register on ultracourtside.com through Michelob and are also selected by each of the 22 participating teams, who favor their most loyal followers and also families of the players.

It’s a digital stay-at-home meeting, the only difference is basketball’s version is a lot more exciting than your office’s.

“With the unfortunate situation involving the pandemic that we’re in, we began to focus how to bring our fans closer to the game in different kinds of ways,” said Sara Zuckert, the league’s head of next generation telecasts. “We’re in such

a different scenario now, with the way everyone is consuming media and watching sports. We knew this would be something different. I don’t think we could’ve predicted the response. I’m just thrilled to see how popular it is.”

Even animals get to take in the action, “Also, with increasing frequency, seats are occupied by...pets. In that sense, the game has truly gone to the dogs; creative fans even share their seats with stuffed animals.”

Over in Europe, you have Danish football collaborating with Zoom to bring virtuality or “virtualness” to its fans, as per BBC.com/football, “At their home game against Randers, AGF will install a giant screen along the side of the pitch, creating what they call “the world’s first virtual grandstand” so fans can support the team for free via Zoom—there will even be a section for away fans.

“It’s about creating an atmosphere around the game so that the players will see that they have the support from the city even though there are no supporters in the stands,” the project’s coordinator, Soren Carlsen, told BBC World Service’s Mani Djazmi.

How do both leagues monitor fans’ “virtual” behavior at the games? NBA.com says, “The lords of the project do police the audience to make sure the visuals and behavior are up to professional standards, and anyway, the NBA hasn’t had issues. Folks are keeping it clean.”

In Danish football, according to Danish football, “Any abusive language will result in expulsion from the meeting by a moderator.”

“The same rule goes for Zoom as it does at the stadium,” added Carlsen. “We will have some digital stewards and they will be monitoring it, just like the social-media platforms at the club. So they can make sure that you don’t see anything that you’re not supposed to see, and you don’t hear any profanities.”

A most creative way to get the fans and supporters engaged and to satisfy their hunger for sports.