BusinessMirror December 03, 2021

PHL’s Halal-certifying bodies eye more exports

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

T

@TyronePiad

HE cou nt r y ’s 10 Ha l a lcertifying bodies continue to include more certified products for the export market in a bid to carve out a bigger share in the global market, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has announced.

“We need to be keen on the different innovations and market requirements to allow the facilitation of inclusive, competitive and exportready products to be certified as Halal,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said at the 4th Philippine National Halal Conference on Thursday.

As such, Lopez said, they are looking forward to creating a Phil-

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ippine Halal Development Plan with a goal of establishing a local Halal ecosystem with global recognition.

The Philippine Trade Training Center, a DTI-attached agency, is currently providing capacity building programs for both food and non-food micro, small and medium enterprises so they can meet the requirements needed for certification, Lopez said.

The trade official said they developed 10 new modules and trained over 400 exporters as well.

In addition, he said, the DTI also assists Halal certification bodies through programs that update them regarding the various related local and international standards.

“Subsequently, they shall be eligible for accreditation by the Phil-

ippine Accreditation Bureau [PAB] as part of the requirements by some Halal Markets such as in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and others,” Lopez said.

Lopez also welcomed the official launch of the PH Halal app, which is seen to boost the local sector in terms of supplying Halal certified products and services.

The app is also expected to “provide an easy access guide for Halal establishments and productions,” Lopez said, noting it will help Muslim tourists to locate mosques and Halal-certified restaurants when visiting the country.

“With our Halal MSMEs continuously working towards improving their trade, coupled with technology and a new mindset, we

can create a Halal industry that is pandemic-proof and pave the way for our participation in the Global Halal Ecosystem,” Lopez concluded.

In a recent event, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) urged the Malaysian investors to locate and expand their operations in the Halal hubs and production economic zones in the countryside.

Peza Director General Charito Plaza explained that the Republic Act (RA) 10817 or the Philippine Halal Export Development and Promotion Act of 2016 and RA 11439, and the Islamic Banking Act are supporting the country to become a “significant player in the global halal industry.”

See “PHL’s,” A2

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‘PANDEMIC FLEXIBILITY’ www.businessmirror.com.ph

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Friday, December 3, 2021 Vol. 17 No. 56

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages | 7 days a week

BILL PUSHED BY NEDA

By Cai U. Ordinario

I

@caiordinario

F Filipinos will learn to live with the Covid-19 virus and survive future pandemics, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) is proposing the enactment of a pandemic flexibility bill that will not only create a medical reserve corps but also provide the country financial flexibility in times of health emergencies.

This proposal is part of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua’s 10-point agenda to accelerate and sustain economic recover y, which he

ONE of the 30-foot “Twin Christmas Trees” is seen at the Ortigas Business District, at the intersection of J. Vargas and San Miguel Avenues in Pasig City, symbolizing the unity among competing businesses in the area as they cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. NONOY LACZA

shared at a recent virtual forum of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

See “Pandemic,” A2

SEC NEEDS P2.6B FOR DIGITALIZATION PLAN

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HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking a P2.6-billion budget to finance its digitalization initiatives, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, SEC Chairman Emilio Aquino said the latest of these efforts is the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC) which was launched in April.

The eSPARC has already processed 26,875 applications of business registration online.

These applications are completed in just one day and as fast as less than two minutes.

“I think you are going in the right direction, [SEC chairman] Emil [Aquino]. I think what you have achieved these last couple of years is a transformation of SEC into a real digital space. Thank you. I think it’s excellent,” Dominguez said during a recent executive committee (Execom) meeting for the DOF-supervised state corporations.

Aquino said the fastest time recorded for processing an eSPARC application after the payment of the registration fee had been made was 1 minute, 14 seconds, while the longest time was 2 hours and 37 minutes.

See “SEC,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 50.3870

BSP seals polymer deal with Australia T

HE Bangko Sentra l ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced on Thursday it has reached an agreement with Australia’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and its wholly owned subsidiary Note Printing Australia for the production of the local 1000-piso polymer banknotes.

In a v ir t ua l br ief ing , BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said

the delivery of the first batch of 1000-piso polymer notes from Australia will be in April next year. It will then be circulated to the economy in mid-2022.

“Australia is the first country to issue full series polymer banknotes and has produced and supplied polymer banknotes to several countries. As such, their advanced technology and expertise in the printing of polymer

banknotes will be the best benchmark for our first circulation,” Diokno said.

In October this year, the BSP announced that it is eyeing to circulate—on a limited and trial basis—new 1000-piso banknotes made out of polymer. Currently, Philippine banknotes are made of 80 percent cotton and 20 percent abaca.

BSP Deputy Governor Mert

Tangonan earlier said in light of the global health crisis, polymer banknotes are seen to be more hygienic and sanitary, as other centra l ba n k s have repor ted that they are less likely to host viruses and bacteria. Polymer banknotes can also be sanitized without damage, compared to paper banknotes, they said.

n japan 0.4469 n UK 66.9190 n HK 6.4659 n CHINA 7.9115 n singapore 36.9055 n australia 35.7949 n EU 57.0431 n SAUDI arabia 13.4312

See “BSP,” A2

Source: BSP (December 2, 2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, December 3, 2021

SEC...

Continued from A1

Apart from eSPARC, the SEC also plans to employ digital technology for its Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS), Online Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS), and Integrated Learning Resource Management System (ILRMS).

The DOF said the efforts also include the digitalization of SEC’s Asset Management Information System (AMIS), Procurement Monitoring and Tracking System (PMTS), Financial Management Information System (FMIS) and its Records Management Information System (RMIS).

Aquino also reported that the SEC launched several new units such as its PhilFintech Innovation Office in 2019 to ensure that the Commission keeps up with the fast-changing financial landscape in the country, supports financial technology innovations, and strengthens its protection of investors and consumers from scams and unfair financial practices.

The SEC will also set up an International Affairs Office to facilitate cross-border regulation and the adoption of international best practices as well as establish the Office for the Advancement of Strategic Investments in SMEs (OASIS) to support the interests of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and encourage them to undertake initial public offerings (IPOs).

The SEC will also create additional units to protect its systems from cyber attacks and data leaks. These include a Compliance Examination and Audit Unit, Cybersecurity and Risk Mitigation Unit, Cybercrime and Forensics Division, and a Corporate Communications and Investor Education Division. Cai U. Ordinario

www.businessmirror.com.ph

3-day vaccine drive falls short of 9-M goal; govt sets 2nd round

By Samuel P. Medenilla

T

@sam_medenilla

HE government missed its target of vaccinating 9 million people during its three-day National Vaccination Days (NVD) after it administered only 7.6 million jabs.

This despite its large surplus of available Covid-19 doses, including those which were already deemed “expired,” but later declared effective and still safe for use by its manufacturers.

In an interview with PTV last Thursday, National Vaccination Operation Center (NVOC) chairperson Myrna C. Cabotaje disclosed that 7.6 million people were inoculated from November 29, 2021 to December 1, 2021.

Region 4-A registered the most number of vaccinated individuals, administering

332,034 jabs. It was followed by Region 3, vaccinating 276,005 people; and Region 7, with 218,007 administered shots.

Cabotaje said 85 percent of the administered shots were given as the first dose of beneficiaries. Another 12 percent was used as a second dose and the remaining 3 percent as booster shots.

Extended shelf life

Among the vaccines used in the government’s ongoing vaccination drive were the nearly expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine shots and the Pfizer

Covid-19 jabs, which have an extended shelf life.

“We know the current vaccines have a very short shelf life. Like for instance, Pfizer, which initially has an November 30 expiration [date]. This was extended by another three months because they presented stability data,” Cabotaje said.

Cabotaje said they are consolidating the report on how the nearly expired vaccines and those with extended shelf vaccines were utilized by the local government units (LGU) which participated in the NVD. “We asked provinces and municipalities to bring their expired vaccines as of November 30 to our regional offices for quarantine to see if those vaccines can still be used,” Cabotaje said.

Second round

Even with the large supply of vaccines, NVOC said some regions failed to meet their target due to several factors including the regular holiday last Tuesday and long queues that prompted some people to walk out from

vaccination centers.

To take advantage of the NVD momentum, Cabotaje said the government will conduct its second round from December 15 to 17, 2021.

Despite failing to reach the 9-million goal, Cabotaje said they are still happy with the outcome of the first NVD as they were able to vaccinate over 2 million per day.

“This is more than two times the daily vaccination rate,” Cabotaje said.

No longer excused

Some LGUs will voluntarily continue the mass vaccination drive in their jurisdiction until the end of the week, but she said those who will be vaccinated in the extension period will no longer be included in the NVD figures.

Furthermore, she said, it will be up to the employers to decide whether to excuse employees who will get vaccinated during the extended period.

Under Proclamation 1253, employees who get vaccinated will only be excused from work during the three-day NVD.

BSP...

Continued from A1

T he deput y gover nor claimed polymer banknotes can be more durable, sustainable and cost-effective in production.

BSP ’s decision to testrun polymer notes during the pandemic, however, has been met with resistance— particularly from the fiber sector.

Earlier this year, Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFida) raised to lawmakers’ attention its opposition to the Central Bank’s plan to change the countr y’s currency to polymer-based from abacacotton material.

“Having abaca as a component in our paper money is a great source of pride among Filipinos as it is indigenous to the Philippines.

This position paper is also in support of the numerous abaca farmers and their families who are dependent on abaca for their source of livelihood,” PhilFida Executive Director Kennedy Costales told lawmakers earlier this year.

On Thursday, Diokno said the possible use of polymer banknotes was discussed by the Monetary Board as early as 2008. “Public concerns are making the BSP’s efforts in this regard more urgent,” the governor said.

A mong the concer ns D iok no me nt io ne d w e re the frequent sanitation of banknotes, security against counterfeits and environmental sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

As of March this year, around 57 countries have ventured into the use of polymer substrates—Among advanced economies, these include Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Among emerging and developing economies, some of those which adopted polymer banknotes include Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico, and Fiji.

“Based on our resea rc h, a mong t he most cited strengths of polymer banknotes are their being relatively more hygienic, difficult to counterfeit, durable and cost-effective, and environmentally friendly,” Diokno said. Bianca Cuaresma

Pandemic...

Continued from A1

Chua said the pandemic flexibility bill aims to strengthen government institutions to allow them to respond to health emergencies and expedite the rollout of health and social protection measures.

“Our concern right now is the number of available health care workers. So one example is [the creation of] an emergency or medical reserve corps similar to other countries. We can immediately tap these health care temporary workers to fill in the gap,” Chua explained.

The pandemic flexibility bill would be similar to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) law. However, the law was focused on natural disasters and did not cover pandemics.

The NDRRMC law does not provide enough financing for national public health emergencies as well as data privacy relaxation; electronic transactions; local and national government policy alignment; and health preparedness.

The creation of a medical reserve corps will be placed under health preparedness while privacy concerns surrounding contact tracing will be covered in the proposed bill.

“What the NDRRMC law lacks, the pandemic flexibility bill will complement,” Chua said. “Of course, the benefit would be to strengthen our institutional capacity and to respond to future health emergencies and to roll out the necessary health and social protection measures including the National ID which is a priority.”

Apart from this, Chua’s 10-point agenda includes changing the metrics used in decision making, taking into consideration that the pandemic is soon going to be endemic.

This means, the Neda chief explained, that instead of monitoring total cases, total deaths, and total vaccinated individuals, the government will monitor total severe or critical cases or hospitalization; case fatality ratios; and total vaccinated Filipinos.

This, Chua said, will reduce the need to raise alert levels when cases increase; facilitate the shift in the mindset of people to “live with the virus;” and focus on the number of severe cases and fatality ratio to emphasize the importance of vaccination.

“You know, it’s okay if there are 20,000 cases but if 95 percent are mild, then we may be reacting too much.

That is really what I’m trying to say,” Chua said.

Jabs for children

The agenda also includes efforts to expand vaccination to children as young as three years old as soon as permits are secured and the emergency use authorizations of vaccines are issued, and to fast-track vaccination through schools.

Chua added that the government also stands ready to provide booster shots to the majority of Filipinos until 2023. However, once the vaccines become commercially available, he hoped the government could seek help from the private sector to step in and share a portion of the costs.

The 10-point agenda includes the removal of restrictions and requirements for domestic travel, specifically vaccinated travelers. He said this means standardizing travel regulations across LGUs. Chua shared his recent experience traveling over 1,300 kilometers in five days in Southern Philippines to visit Neda regional offices in Davao, Koronadal, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro and Pagadian.

In order to do this, Chua needed to secure seven different passes for entry. He said some passes that required coordination with LGUs take at least 24 hours to get approved.

The Neda chief thinks requirements must be limited to only vaccination cards or RT-PCR for the unvaccinated; and one inter-scannable QR code for contact tracing.

“Our recommendation is to do away with all these and to just focus on vaccination certificates and interscannable QR code and this is being used already. If you have had a chance to travel to Boracay for instance, this is being done,” Chua said. “We estimate we can easily recover if we safely open the travel for domestic purposes.”

For international travel, Chua said the recommendation is to forego quarantine for vaccinated passengers from green- and yellow-listed countries and remove flight or passenger daily quota. However, he said, this may have to be reviewed given the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron.

Other recommendations include allowing greater mobility. Chua said this means expanding the transportation capacity in order to prevent crowding in many train and bus stations.

As buses are only allowed a 50-percent capacity, many commuters, especially in the Central Business Districts (CBDs), end up stranded in stations, creating crowds that could lead to higher transmission of the virus.

The 10-point agenda also includes those that seek to improve the country’s healthcare capacity; reopen schools; vie for digital transformation; and make medium-term preparations for pandemic resilience through a pandemic playbook.

The pandemic playbook aims to take stock of all lessons learned; prevent pandemics and other health risks by promoting healthy lifestyles; and mitigate the impact of future pandemics by strengthening healthcare and social protection systems.

PHL’s...

Continued from A1

The Peza chief—during her said meeting with Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia H.E. Charles C. Jose, Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Norman Bin Muhammad, and representatives from Pezaregistered Malaysian enterprises—noted there are 56 Malaysian locators in the ecozones.

They have contributed P17.571 billion worth of investments and currently employ nearly 11,000 workers, the regulator noted. These enterprises contribute $52.599 million in exports.

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6 of 29 Filipino fishers stranded off China coast return to PHL

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

S

IX of 29 Filipino fishermen stranded at sea since August arrived safely Thursday in Manila after months of negotiations with their Chinese employer and Chinese port authorities, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola assured the rest of the 23 Filipino fishermen are already in Shanghai, China and “will be brought home in the following days.”

Twenty-nine fishermen from Chinese-flagged fishing vessels Han Rong 362, 366 and 369 have sought to be rescued off the seas after they were abandoned by their employer, Global Marine and Offshore Resources Inc., and their Chinese principal Jenn Yih Song Seafood Ltd. “They were left with no food, clean water and medicine. Their salaries and allotments were also unpaid for months,” SEANETWORK wrote in a news release last October.

For months, the safety of these fishermen were put in peril. The master of the fishing vessel even threatened to put the Filipinos afloat in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.

In a Tweet, Arriola said “Covid-19 restrictions at China stalled the ships in southeastern China.”

‘Shrinkflation:’ Recto pushes passage of ‘fair timbangan’ bill

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

S

ENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto prodded lawmakers Thursday to frontload passage of a remedial legislation mandating government-installed weighing scales in all private and public markets long awaited by consumers to check their purchases and ensure they get what they paid for.

In sponsoring the latest version of an improved Timbangan ng Bayan bill, Recto noted “the improved version of the bill I have been filing for two Congresses now mandates the conspicuous and accessible placement of a Timbangan ng Bayan in all public and private markets, dry and wet markets, including supermarkets.”

Recto assured that the “tamperproof, heavy-duty, constantly-calibratedscale”wouldprovide bothbuyersand sellers with “a standard instrument for setting and validating weights.”

“It sets not only the market-wide benchmark for weight, but also for honesty,” the veteran lawmaker said, noting, “Its presence alone will deter the proliferation of defective weights.”

The Senate President Pro Tempore projects the market buyers will be spared from going through what he called “tinimbang ka ngunit kulang” moments when they think they have been wittingly or unwittingly sold underweight goods but have no means to confirm or debunk their suspicion.

Moreover, Recto reminded market traders “it is a fair market practice that protects the brand of the place where they do business, because in commerce, nothing is more harmful than reputation destroyed.”

Wrappinguphissponsorshipspeech ontheTimbanganbill,theSenatePresident pro tempore prodded Congress to “pass this bill so that when history and our constituents weigh us, they will not find us wanting.”

Reminding that inflation further corrodes the purchasing power of their reduced income, Recto added, however, that inflation has a “devious cousin” called “shrinkflation.”

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, December 3, 2021 A3

Neda readies 13 urban master plans for adoption to smart city principles

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

T

HE National Economic and Development Author it y (Neda) is already preparing 13 sector-wide master plans in identified urban areas nationwide to help these urban corridors adopt smart city principles.

In a recent forum, Neda OICUndersecretary Jonathan L. Uy said the plans are being created for the emerging megacities of the Philippines. The megacities in the country are Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao.

Uy said this would serve as guide in the preparation and implementation of programs and projects for sustainable infrastructure development. The master plans intend to adopt smart city principles in urban mobility, natural and built environment, sustainable energy, and economic competitiveness.

“This point out our emphasis now to look at what they call spatial consideration of infrastructure planning on an integrated basis. As pointed out earlier, this is largely led by the local governments in providing the necessary direction or guidance. So we’re increasing our bottom up approach to infrastructure development,” Uy said.

Master plans are being created for the Baguio City-La Trinidad-ItogonSablan-Tuba-Tulay (BLISTT) growth center; Butuan City; Calapan City; General Santos City; Pagadian City; Metro Iloilo; and Metro Bacolod.

Uy said the list also includes the master plans for Metro Cagayan de Oro; Metro Ormoc; Metro Tuguegarao; Vigan City; Olongapo and its immediate environs; and the Infrastructure and Master Development Plan for Investment Corridors in Central Luzon.

These plans are linked to the Asean Smart Cities Network (ASCN),

a collaborative platform where cities from the 10 Asean member-states will work toward smart and sustainable urban development.

The 26 ASCN Pilot Cities include three cities in the Philippines and these are Cebu City, Davao City, and Metro Manila. Cities elsewhere in the region include Bandar Seri Begawan, Battambang, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Makassar, Banyuwangi, DKI Jakarta, and Luang Prabang, among others.

“We are now moving forward from the traditional level of service analysis, for those who are very familiar with the economic appraisal of projects. From essentially talking about vehicle cost savings and the like [to] looking more in terms of actually the people centered perspective,” Uy said. “[Essentially we are] looking at people-centered planning for infrastructure development [and] building sustainable infrastructure in the

emerging mega cities of the Philippines,” he stressed.

Building sustainable infrastructure in Manila means focusing on the public safety and order, public and social services, environment and disaster responseability; technology enhanced educational delivery; and integrated health-care management.

Three projects associated with this are the upgrade of the Command Center which utilizes cloudbased technology; e-education to allow students to practice and review lessons with teacher supervision; and e-health to integrate records, including hospital and patient management systems as well as operating room supervision.

In Cebu City, the focus is on personal safety and security as well as mobility. Uy noted how, in the past decade, Cebu has experienced a worsening of the traffic situation.

This worsening traffic is behind

the move to create an Automated Citywide Traffic Control System to enhance traffic regulation and enforcement as well as the construction of a Bus Rapid Transit System that aims to operate as an intra-city mass transport facility.

The target operation of Phase 1 of the BRT is this year while Phase 2 of the BRT, which involves a 15kilometer extension of the facility, will be completed by 2025.

For Davao City, Uy said the focus is on public safety and security as well as building infrastructure for smart mobility.

This means creating a converged command and control center to develop technological solutions that will improve public safety and planning.

The projects also include an intelligent transport and traffic system with security to enhance traffic management capabilities by leveraging technologies and solutions.

Akbayan files 5th petition to disqualify BBM in polls

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

A

KBAYAN Citizens’ Action Party and several other private citizens on Thursday filed the fifth petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking to remove Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. from the 2022 presidential race.

In a 13-page petition, Akbayan cited Marcos’s conviction in 1995 for violating the National Internal Revenue Code as grounds on why the son of the late strongman former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. should be disqualified from participating in the polls next year.

Aside from Akbayan, the other

signatories of the said petition are Doris S. Nuval, Joanna Bernice S. Coronacion, Jo Enrica Enriquez Rosales, Raymond John S. Naguit, and Loretta Ann P. Rosales.

The petitioners cited Marcos’s conviction from failing to file income taxes, which, they said, is also a crime involving moral turpitude, made him perpetually disqualified from holding public office.

They also pointed out the court sentenced Marcos to a penalty of imprisonment of more than 18 months, which is another reason for Comelec to disqualify a candidate.

“The petitioners respectfully pray that Respondent Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. be disqualified as a candidate for President of the Republic of

Make wise use of ‘near ex’ Covid shots–lawmaker

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LAWMAKER on Thursday urged the government to immediately allow the private sector to give their excess and nearing expiration Covid-19 vaccine as booster shots to their workers.

Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor, in a news statement, supported the call of private businesses for the national vaccination task force to allow them to use their vaccine as booster shots.

He said these vaccines were procured more than four months ago and may soon expire.

“Let us authorize them to use it as booster shots to give their personnel added protection from the virus,

particularly the newly discovered Omicron variant,” he said.

Defensor said that there are reports that a number of business establishments and even some private hospitals have already inoculated their workers with boosters without the go signal from the vaccination task force.

Earlier, several business groups asked the government to allow them to use its Covid-19 vaccines as booster shots for employees and their families.

The private sector groups said that boosters are a must in order to avoid another strict lockdown measure as vaccine efficacy wanes after six months. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

MMDA apprehends 39 color coding violators on Day 1

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HIRTY-NINE violators of the number coding scheme were apprehended by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) during the first day of its implementation.

MMDA Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. paid the P300 penalty of the violators out of his own pocket.

But according to the agency’s public information office, Abalos is hoping that the apprehended motorists will not violate the scheme again.

The MMDA began to reimpose the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) or number coding scheme on Wednesday from Mondays to Fridays between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

It aims to reduce at least 2,700 vehicles per hour plying along

Edsa alone.

Abalos said that the reimplementation of the number coding scheme was already approved by the Metro Manila Council (MMC) through a resolution on the implementation of the calibrated traffic mitigation measures in the National Capital Region (NCR) aimed to avoid a traffic management crisis in the future.

According to MMDA Resolution 21-30, per the recent travel survey and analysis which was conducted by the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center, including vehicle volume count, travel time and travel speed study, and average daily traffic rate, it was determined that the current traffic situation is approaching the pre-pandemic levels. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

the Philippines,” petition read.

Marcos is also facing a similar disqualification case file by

Bonifacio Ilagan’s group.

He also has two separate petitions seeking for the cancellation of his

certificate of candidacy, which were filed by Christian Buenafe and others and Tiburcio Marcos.

Economy BusinessMirror

A4 Friday, December 3, 2021 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Bid to add palm oil in fuel mix has to undergo study–DOE

By Lenie Lectura

T

@llectura

HE Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday clarified that it has not approved the proposal of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) to include palm oil in the country’s fuel mix.

This after the FPI recommended

the use of cheaper palm oil as feedstock for a lower biodiesel price, and asked that the Philippine National Standards be prepared to accommodate palm oil for such fuel use.

The DOE stressed there is a need for the conduct of a thorough technical study, particularly on the development of standard specifications for

biodiesel from palm oil. The agency also pointed out that under Republic Act 9367 or the Biofuels Act of 2006, only locally sourced biofuel components should be used in the biodiesel-blend mandate.

However, the agency, assured that FPI’s suggestions would be submitted to the National Biofuel Board, (NBB) through its Biodiesel Committee (NBB-BDC), for a comprehensive evaluation and recommendation.

The NBB-BDC is composed of the DOE, Philippine Coconut Authority, Department of Science and Technol-

ogy, Department of Labor and Employment, and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Also, the DOE said it still needs to validate the figures presented by the FPI, specifically the Rotterdam price comparison of crude palm oil (CPO) and crude coconut oil (CNO).

The FPI has committed to provide pertinent data to support its proposal, such as the latest historical price of CPO and CNO in the world market, as well as the actual production of CPO and CNO in the Philippines,

including exported CNO volume and imported CPO volume.

FPI, in a letter to the DOE last October, recommended exporting coconut oil so that local farmers could reap the corresponding benefits of its current high price in the world market. They, likewise, proposed for the country to use the cheaper palm oil as an alternative for biodiesel production.

Meanwhile, the Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc. (AIPSI) commented that the spirit of the Biofuels Act is to lessen the Phil-

₧10,000 gratuity pay for JO, COS workers in govt pressed

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

A

PARTY-LIST group has recently filed a resolution urging President Duterte to grant P10,000 gratuity pay to job order (JO) and contract of service (COS) workers in the government for fiscal year 2021.

In House Resolution 2391 filed last Wednesday, the Bayan Muna party-list said JO and COS workers do not enjoy benefits accorded to regular government workers such as mid-year and year-end bonuses.

“The demand for P10,000 Gratuity Pay to JO and COS government work-

ers is due to the expenses related to the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation, and low salary,” the group said.

Citing August 2021 Inventory of Government Human Resources (IGHR), the group added there are a total of 582,378 government workers under the JO and COS scheme.

“This is about 25 percent of the total government personnel. Majority of JO and COS have been in service in the government for several years,” it added.

“Most JO and COS workers perform the functions of regular employees, and fill up the gaps in the severe inadequacy or lack of personnel in many

agencies,” the group said.

Also, citing the Ibon Foundation, the party-list group said the real value of worker’s salary in National Capital Region dropped by P103 per day and much higher in other regions due to high inflation.

“Granting of Gratuity Pay to JO and COS workers will be a big help during this time of Covid-19 pandemic and high prices of basic commodities,” it said.

Amid the pandemic, the partylist group said government employees especially JO and COS workers are still required to provide continuous government services for the people.

Poll bets told DepEd adds 117 more schools to take stand on in face-to-face classes pilot run ecological issues

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

T

HE top official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Calabarzon region has emphasized on Thursday the urgent need for local candidates to take a stand on the conservation of natural resources and forest protection.

DENR Calabarzon Regional Executive Director Nilo B. Tamoria, in a news statement, said only 35 percent of the total land area of the Calabarzon region is classified as forest lands. Calabarzon stands for Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces.

According to Tamor ia, in 2021 alone, the country faced various typhoons that left different parts of the country flooded.

He urged local government units, nongovernment organizations, academe, other organizations and institutions, and local communities to work together to provide a whole of government and holistic approach for the protection and conservation of our natural resources, especially our forests.

@claudethmc3

A

TOTAL of 117 schools will participate in the pilot implementation of the face-toface (F-to-F) classes on December 6, the Department of Education (DepEd) said.

In the National Capital Region, 28 public schools—two in each the cities of Manila, Caloocan, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasig, Taguig Valenzuela, Las Piñas, and Quezon City are expected to take part.

The cities of San Juan, Pasay, Malabon, and Makati will have one school each.

The 117 schools are on top of the 118 schools, which joined the pilot run in November.

Meanwhile, DepEd said that no cases of Covid-19 for participating learners and school personnel were recorded during the first week of the pilot implementation of F-toF classes.

“We would like to commend the tremendous efforts that our valued stakeholders have provided for the successful and safe pilot run of limited face-to-face classes. The involvement of everybody is crucial to the expansion of the implementation,” Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said.

At the Edu Aksyon news conference, A ssi st a nt Sec ret a r y for National Academy of Sports and Field Operations, Malcolm Garma highlighted that one of the important aspects of risk assessment is the strict adherence and enforcement of guidelines in ensuring the safety of learners and other personnel in the participating pilot schools’ operations.

Based on the partial result of the weekly school reporting on the limited F-to-F classes as of November 24, there were 4,537 learners in Kinder to Grade 3 and Grade 11 to 12 who attended the first week of the pilot run.

ippines’s dependence on imported fuel. Therefore, if palm oil is used as an alternative for biodiesel production, “it goes against the intent of the law because we substitute our domestic coconut oil with imported palm oil.”

“What the article missed to say is that CME or coco-biodiesel is a much better quality fuel than palmbiodiesel and petro-diesel. Combustion of CME reduces pollution and improves mileage,” said AIPSI Managing Director Rafael Diaz when sought for comment.

House endorses productivity incentives bill for Senate OK

T

HE House of Representatives has endorsed for Senate approval a bill strengthening productivity incentives for enterprises and promote inclusive and sustainable productivity growth.

This, after the lower chamber approved House Bill 10410 on third and final reading late Wednesday.

The bill seeks to repeal Republic Act 6971 or the Productivity Incentives Act of 1990 once passed.

Under the bill, incentives will be provided to both labor and capital to ensure that gains are fairly shared between workers and employers.

The measure said businesses with employees of 10 or more must form productivity incentive committees, composed of members from the management and labor, to formulate and implement productivity incentive programs.

It added government agencies would be required to provide enterprises with technical assistance in developing these programs.

The bill added businesses that adopt the productivity incentive program would be given tax incentives, with a special deduction from gross income that is equivalent to the total productivity incentives given to employees.

Baguio Rep. Mark Go, principal sponsor of the bill, said the bill aims to encourage higher levels of productivity in all industries and enable enterprises to compete globally.

“The ability of enterprises to compete globally is dependent on the capacity of these enterprises to produce and offer goods in the most effective and efficient way,” he said.

He added that the preservation of balance in the workplace is necessary to recognize both the rights of workers and their employers.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Availments of tourism lending window remain sluggish

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

A

VAILMENTS from the government lending facility for the tourism sector continues to remain meager even though 70 percent of sector are “in distress.”

Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed that as of November 5, 2021, there were 528 loan applications amounting to P242.83 million that have been approved by the state-owned Small Business Corp. (SBCorp) under its CARES for Travel program. Of this amount, some P223.45 million have already been released to 473 accredited tourism enterprises.

The loan approvals, however, account for just 3.72 percent of the P6 billion in funds allocated for the lending window created under Bayanihan 2. The allocation had been vigorously fought for by the DOT and the stakeholders.

During the weekly Kapihan sa

Manila Bay, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat noted, “Unlike the agricultural sector where I used to work, the tourism sector isn’t used to lending windows,” as a way of explaining the poor availment rate.

This was seconded by Tourism Congress of the Philippines President Jose C. Clemente III in the same event, “We’re not used to borrowing,” but added he has been encouraging more stakeholders to tap the SB Corp. funds, “because that’s still bridge-financing.”

He said, “70 percent of tour operators and travel agencies can be considered in distress. Many of my friends have closed [their companies] and moved into other businesses like food because of this pandemic and [for about two years], we’ve basically had zero income. A few have reopened because of domestic tourism, but that’s still not enough.”

Asia ‘most conservative’ in reopening

HE pointed out, “They are afraid

to borrow because they don’t know when the pandemic will end. But SBCorp has been very, very flexible in its lending terms, and they said, they’re open to extending the repayment on the loan in case the borrower is unable to repay on time.”

He added that the lending firm, which is under the Department of Trade and Industry, has also simplified the application process by requiring less documents.

Accredited tourism micro, small, and medium enterprises may avail of collateral-free, zero-percent interest loans under the CARES for Travel, with maximum loanable amounts from P600,000 (micro enterprises with asset size up to P3 million); to P3 million (small enterprises with assets not more than P15 million); and P5 million (medium firms with assets over P15 million, but not more than P100 million).

To boost loan availment, Clemente said he will be asking SBCorp to raise the loanable amounts, a proposal, Romulo Puyat said, the

DOT will be endorsing. “Everything that the private sector wants, we support.”

Meanwhile, Aileen Clemente, president of Rajah Travel Corp., said in the same Kapihan that the Philippines’ hosting of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Summit in March 2022, “will hopefully jumpstart the reopening of the tourism industry,” noting that “Asia is the most conservative in reopening.”

Describing it as the private sector counterpart of the United Nations World Tourism Organizations, the WTTC, she said, is the private-sector led organization gathering CEOs “of popular brands we know like Hilton, Carnival [Cruises], and airlines like Emirates, etc.” About 600 delegates are expected to participate in the in the March summit, which is being spearheaded by the Tourism Promotions Board, the marketing arm of the DOT. Clemente, a WTTC member, co-chairs the Philippine National Organizing Committee for the WTTC Summit.

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, December 3, 2021 A5

DA asks Congress for additional P12-billion budget for next year

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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HE Department of Agriculture (DA) is asking Congress for an additional P12-billion budget for 2022 to address global food and agricultural challenges in the “new world.”

In a letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said that the country is in need of a “lifeline” to sustain its productivity and meet its food security needs.

The agency initially proposed a total of P231.7 billion to support the implementation of its programs, activities and projects. But only P91 billion or 39.27 percent of the proposed amount was approved by the Department of Budget and Management.

“We are entering a ‘new norld’— the global scale of the ‘new normal’ as an offshoot of the Covid-19 pandemic—wherein every country in the world is coping with huge challenges.

These include the lingering and mutating Covid-19 pandemic, increasing prices of petrol, fertilizers and feeds, climate change, population dynamics, urbanization and aging farmers, and preventing entry of trans-boundary animal and plant diseases,” said Dar. These global challenges are expected to continue to impact adversely on food production, distribution, and consumption next year

and beyond, Dar said, adding there is a need for bigger budgetary support for agriculture.

“We believe that there is an urgency for the government to support our farmers in dealing with these global and local challenges,” he said.

Part of the DA’s proposed P12 billion augmentation includes P8.9 billion for fertilizer subsidy; P2 billion for additional budget for corn program; and P1.1 billion for urban agriculture.

“The increase in prices of inorganic fertilizers due to the declining global supply has been alarming.

Big countries and producers have stocked up most of the fertilizer supply to ensure their local requirements for crop production and food security,” he said.

“Other threats such as the rising oil prices, increasing prices of raw materials for feeds, and increasing cost of transport due to backlog in logistics transport service are adding to the lingering effect of the pandemic, which is still affecting the global supply chain,” he added.

Earlier, House Committee on Appropriations Vice Chairman Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said the lower chamber is committed to helping increase the agriculture budget for 2022.

“One key element of the 2008 economic stimulus program under President [Gloria] Arroyo, which helped inoculate us from the worst impacts of the Great Recession,

was agricultural support. I am convinced that growth and valueadded in the agriculture sector will be a key driver of economic recovery,” Salceda added.

Salceda has said they are eyeing at least 10 percent additional allocation for DA. Bukidnon Rep. Manuel Zubiri, for his part, has asked Congress to review and increase the budget of the DA for next year to ensure food security.

“We have experienced the heavy importation of rice and other meat items during this pandemic, let us not succumb to this problem again. We need to stand on our own two feet and strive for a food-secure Philippines. Food security should be our utmost priority hence the need to support this with a true and proper budget,” said Zubiri.

“As we all know the bicameral [conference committee for the 2022 budget] is just around the corner hence I believe that we can still do something to avert a shortage of food in the months to come. I implore both legislative bodies to review the budget of the DA and increase it for 2022,” he said.

Meanwhile, House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Eric Yap vowed to scrutinize anew the proposed 2022 P5.024-trillion General Appropriations Act during the bicameral conference committee.

“We haven’t seen the committee report from the Senate so we

DOH: Fully vaccinated adults may receive booster shots starting today

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

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HE Department of Health (DOH) has announced that all fully vaccinated adults are eligible to receive Covid-19 booster shots starting today, Friday, December 3, 2021.

Those who have completed their primary series of Covid-19 vaccines, DOH added, can be inoculated with Pfizer, Moderna, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, and Gamaleya, and at least 3 months after getting inoculated with singledose Janssen regardless of which vaccine brand was administered in the first two doses.

The National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) is set to issue operational guidelines on the implementation of the new order.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that for the A4 and A5 groups, there is a minimum required time interval between their second jabs and the boosters.

“Six months after second dose for all vaccines, except for Janssen, three months after 2nd dose,” Vergeire said.

PRC ‘breakthrough’

MEANWHILE, Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said they have exceeded their vaccination target as they administered over 83,000 doses of vaccines in support with the government in the National Vaccination Days from November 29 to December 1, 2021.

“This is a breakthrough for the PRC. No matter what the circumstances are, we are always first, always ready, and always there, fully involved in going the extra mile to help our fellow countrymen,” said PRC Chairman and CEO Senator Richard J. Gordon.

Gordon noted that according to the PRC Health Services, “Our initial target is to provide 53,000 doses for the National Vaccination Days, but we have exceeded our target as we administered a total of 83,532 doses through our 17

Bakuna Centers, 12 Bakuna Bus, and 25 Bakuna Teams for the 3 Day National Vaccination Days.”

“We have also mobilized 800 volunteers, including doctors, nurses, medical and nursing students for the three-day nationwide event,” added PRC Health Service.

Likewise, Gordon encourage everyone, more importantly, the unvaccinated to get their jabs at the nearest Bakuna Centers as soon as possible due to the threat of Omicron variant in the country.

First detected on November 11, 2021, in Botswana, Omicron Variant also, known as B.1.1.529, is a new heavily mutated corona variant.

With over 30 mutations on its spike protein, the World Health Organization designated the Omicron Variant as a variant of concern.

On Thursday, the DOH logged 564 additional cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 2,833,473.

There were also 694 recoveries and 40 deaths.

Army troops seize guns from Mindanao breakaway rebels

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

T

HE military seized two firearms during a series of operations against two members of a group that reportedly splintered from a communist guerrilla front in Mindanao.

Operating troops from the Army’s 10th Infantry Division under the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) recovered an M-653 rifle and 9mm pistol during the series of operations last week against Meridio Sambilad and another communist rebel in Barangay Tuyan, Malapatan, Sarangani.

Sambilad alias Yoyong and Boyaks is the secretary of the defunct Guerrilla Front Tala of the New People’s Army.

A ccord i ng to E a st m i ncom commander Lt. Gen. Greg Almerol, former members of the disbanded guerrilla front have been providing information against

Sambilad and the other rebel, including their whereabouts.

“I urge Sambilad and his comrades to surrender peacefully instead of continuing to live a pointless life in hiding. After all, they no longer have somewhere else to go since our troops have already surrounded them. Therefore, surrender now and avail of the benefits under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program [ECLIP],” Almerol said in a news statement released by Eastmincom.

In Basilan, the campaign against loose firearms, including those that are in the hands of individuals that are being used for official purposes, is gaining headway.

The Army’s 68th Infantry Battalion under the Joint Task Force Basilan stenciled loose firearms In Lamitan City in the presence of Lamitan Mayor Rose Furigay, Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay and other local government officials.

Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command commander Lt.

Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr. said a total of 541 assorted firearms that are undocumented were stenciled in the presence of Lamitan City officials.

Col. Frederick Sales, deputy commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade, said the firearms were returned to their owners after the stenciling.

The loose firearms are owned by members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team.

Rosario said that from September 2021 to date, a total of 881 loose firearms have been stenciled in Basilan. Of the 887, 229 were stenciled in the municipality of Tipo-Tipo on September 15, 75 in Tuburan on November 24 and 42 in Akbar on November 26.

In Maguindanao, a member of the Daulah Islamiyah-Tureife Group was killed on Wednesday during a firefight at Sitio Ulangkaya, Barangay Ganta, Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao.

Rosar io identif ied him as Hassan Indal.

couldn’t comment on their version just yet but we look forward to discuss and scrutinize the 2022 budget once again in the bicameral conference committee to reconcile

the disagreeing provisions of both versions of the Senate and of the House,” he said.

“While there may be conflicting provisions between the two, rest as-

sured that our common end goal is to submit a budget that will sustain our Covid-19 response efforts while supporting our gradual transition to full recovery,” he added.

A6

BusinessMirror

Friday, December 3, 2021

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

8 STONE BUSINESS OUTSOURCING OPC 5-10/f Tower 1, Pitx Kennedy Road, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

BU, YUBO Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 1.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

ZHANG, YU Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 2.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

14.

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

15.

3.

Brief Job Description: Monitor, review and report on all Marketing activity and result

16.

Basic Qualification: Analyze the productivity of the marketing plans and projects ,recommend to Senior Management

ZHENG, YAOLONG Chinese Speaking Business Consultant 4.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

18.

JIA, LIU Chinese Speaking Marketing Consultant 5.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

19.

6.

Brief Job Description: Provides customer service in foreign language, taking phone calls, answering to customer inquiries through emails. And solving customer issue.

Basic Qualification: Excellent writing, reading, listening and talking in French language.

Preferably with prior experience of at least 1 year in similar BPO outfit

20.

GUO, XIAOJIE Chinese Customer Service 7.

Brief Job Description: managing incoming calls and customer service inquires

21.

22.

8.

Brief Job Description: Delegate different customer service duties to team members to ensure a faster and smoother flow of operation through division of labor IRENE CHANDRA Customer Service Officer- Indonesian Speaking

9.

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered AGWIN CIKY DORES SINAMBELA Customer Service Officer-Indonesian Speaking

10.

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered INTAN JANIZARY SUMAMPOUW Customer Service Officer-Indonesian Speaking

11.

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered TAN YONG YANG Customer Service Officer-Malaysian Speaking

12.

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered LAM MINH CHUONG Customer Service Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

13.

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

23.

24.

AHN, KYUNGHO Customer Service Representative 25.

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints and promotions.

CHOI, SEJUN Customer Service Representative

26.

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints and promotions.

KIM, SANGIL Customer Service Representative

27.

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints and promotions.

No.

WON, HONG JAE Customer Service Representative 30.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

MATSUO, SATOSHI President/CEO 31.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Through understanding of social media and web analytics Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

GAIKWAD SRINIVASA RAO, ARUN KUMAR Director - Business Controllership 32.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Responsible for developing financial and operational reporting like bill to pay, span, ratio, over/under headcount & seats, shrinkage, attrition , etc.

CHIU, JUNG-CHENG Vice-president/managing Director 33.

Brief Job Description: In charge with managing business operations of the company

LIU, GUANGHUI CEO And Treasurer 34.

Brief Job Description: The CEO & Treasurer will be strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goal.

LIANG, SUHUI CFO 35.

Brief Job Description: The CFO will be strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goal.

SINGHA, SAPNA Sr. Service Delivery Manager

36.

Basic Qualification: 21 years old and above, fluent in Korean language

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KIM, SEHUN Customer Service Representative 28.

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints and promotions.

SONG, SEONGEUN Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description: Should have Operational Excellence to manage multiple similar processes end to end with complete P & L responsibility-client relationship management/ costs/budgeting/operations/quality and process efficiencies/workforce management and other support functions to operations. The source should have in-depth knowledge of managing operations metrics-depth and width - (ability to see the larger picture and have in-depth know-how processes).

LAI, YONGSHENG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 37.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

38.

29.

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints and promotions.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: 21 years old and above, fluent in Korean language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Must be a member of the board and has relevant experience in the same position Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as a CEO & Treasurer , Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and Heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as a CFO , Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and Heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Associate’s Degree Preferred with more than ten years of experience (with two to four years of Progressive Management Experience) preferred Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

CRONYX INC. No. 4th-10th Flr. Yinhope Bldg., Dela Rama Cor. Zoili Hilario St., Seascape Village, Ccp Complex Subd. Zone 10, Barangay 076, District 1, Pasay City

Basic Qualification: 21 years old and above, fluent in Korean language

Basic Qualification: 21 years old and above, fluent in Korean language

Basic Qualification: strong analytical skills to interpret data, identify trends and make suggestions for improvements

CONCENTRIX CVG PHILIPPINES, INC. 25/f Ayala North Exchange, Tower 2, 6796, Ayala Ave. Cor. Salcedo & Amorsolo Streets, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: 21 years old and above, fluent in Korean language

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Excellent leadership skills; Good communication skills; Ability to manage and motivate employees.

CH-MEILING INTERNATIONAL (PHILIPPINES) INC. Units A&b 20/f Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CAAN PHARMACEUTICAL CO. INC. 2053, Edison St., San Isidro, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Brief Job Description: To have general supervision of the business affairs and property of the corporation.

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Basic Qualification: 21 years old and above, fluent in Korean language

C3/CUSTOMERCONTACTCHANNELS PHILIPPINES LTD. 11/f, 17/f, 18/f, 19/f, 20/f Bonifacio One Technology Tower, 3030 Rizal Drive Cor. 31st St. Bgc, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Through understanding of social media and web analytics

Brief Job Description: To assist customers regarding their queries, complaints and promotions.

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

BPI CENTURY TOKYO LEASE & FINANCE CORPORATION 15f Bpi Buendia Center, 372 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Belair, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

LI, DESHUANG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills

Brief Job Description: Proactive selling of products to both existing and new customers in order to achieve and exceed weekly, monthly and annual sales revenue targets and other performance targets

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

ASIAN TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, INC. 11/f Tower 2, Double Dragon, Macapagal Blvd., Brgy. 076, Pasay City

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Proactive selling of products to both existing and new customers in order to achieve and exceed weekly, monthly and annual sales revenue targets and other performance targets TRAN THI QUYNH TRANG Telesales Marketing Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

Basic Qualification: Excellent communication and presentation skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Pro-active selling of products to both existing and new customers in order to achieve weekly, monthly and annual sales revenue targets NGUYEN THI HOANG MINH Telesales Marketing Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

APRICUS TECHNOLOGY INC. 8/f Aguirre Building, 107 Aguirre St. Legaspi Village, San Lorenzo, City Of Makati KHOMARROM, PHANNAPUS Customer Service Assistant Team Leader- Thai Speaking

Brief Job Description: Pro-active selling of products to both exisiting and new customers in order to achieve weekly, monthly and annual sales revenue targets KEVIN Telesales Marketing Officer-Indonesian Speaking

Basic Qualification: able to speak, read, and write chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Pro-active selling of products to both existing and new customers in order to achieve weekly, monthly and annual sales revenue targets EMY CHRISTANTY Telesales Marketing Officer-Indonesian Speaking

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

ANOC99 CORPORATION 5/f To 10/f Ayala Malls Manila Bay Building D., Macapagal Blvd. Cor. Aseana Street, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

Brief Job Description: Monitoring, analyzing and managing a monthly advertising campaign via Google ad words ISTIFARATIH ISBONO Telesales Marketing Officer- Indonesian Speaking

ALLSECTECH MANILA, INC. 3rd Floor, Market! Market! Mall, Bonifacio Global City, City Of Taguig

DEMGNE TASSE, SORELLE LENDA Bilingual French Analyst

Brief Job Description: Monitoring, analyzing and managing a monthly advertising campaign via Google ad words

MOONPANUN, KORNPAT Marketing Officer-Thai Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered HENDRI YOGIANTO Marketing Officer-Indonesian Speaking

ACE VELOCITY CONSULTANCY INC. 37/f Lkg Tower, 6801 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered NGUYEN TRUONG DAN Customer Service Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered NGUYEN THANH LUAN Customer Service Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

17.

UM, SREYNOCH Marketing Staff Mandarin Speaking

Brief Job Description: Handling phone calls involving selling, pacify and good service rendered LUONG KIM NGOC Customer Service Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION LE TAN VIET Customer Service Officer-Vietnamese Speaking

www.businessmirror.com.ph

LYU, ZIKUAN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 39.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

MU, GENSHENG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 40.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

NGUYEN NHU DUOC Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 41.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

WU, DASHAO Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 42.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

YUAN, QINGMAO Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 43.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

44.

Brief Job Description: Preparing and following general maintenance schedule.

YANG, YINLONG Mandarin Site Technical Officer 45.

Brief Job Description: Preparing and following general maintenance schedule.

46.

Brief Job Description: Excellent in time management skills to meet deadlines strong supervisory and leadership

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

53.

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written

LEE MEI CHYI Mandarin Accounts Staff

TANG, CONSUL Mandarin Branding Specialist 54.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written

55.

56.

Brief Job Description: Responsible in answering customer questions about product and services of the company

HUANG, BO-YUAN Mandarin Technical Support 57.

Brief Job Description: Responsible in answering customer questions about product and services of the company

LIM YEU TAH, MARCUS Mandarin Technical Support 58.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin.

Brief Job Description: Responsible in answering customer questions about product and services of the company

CHUA SHANG CHOU Mandarin Team Leader

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin.

Brief Job Description: Responsible in answering customer questions about product and services of the company

WONG MEI KEI Mandarin Human Resource Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Responsible in answering customer questions about product and services of the company

Brief Job Description: Responsible in answering customer questions about product and services of the company

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 LIN, QINGHAI Project Manager 59.

Basic Qualification: Full knowledge of Korean culture. Can speak, read and write in Korean

Brief Job Description: Responsible for coordination and completion of project within budget and scope. Oversee all aspect of the project.

47.

Brief Job Description: prepare airline and custom documentation

LIN, XIAO Technical Manager 60.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Perform all necessary tasks related to company systems including troubleshooting any technical issues.

48.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin

HUANG, MENGYE Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 49.

Brief Job Description: Assist / help customers, give customers information about products and services

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written

50.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the operation and management of a remittance company

61.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in mandarin speaking

DEIVASIGAMANI, GURUNATHAN Manager 62.

Basic Qualification: Vast knowledge and experience in the operation of a money remittance Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

CHEN, SHIHAO Document Approval For 5g Industry Site Delivery Account Manager

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in English, Mandarin and other multilingual language

65.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in English, Mandarin and other multilingual language

Brief Job Description: Oversee and resolve shared projects and dedicated project network issues within the SLA; Manage the DR/BCP activity as per the scheduled window

Basic Qualification: Proficiency in English, Mandarin and other multilingual language

XIAO, MENGWEI Solution Director For Customer Experience Management (cem) Digital Transformation Project

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 66.

Basic Qualification: Experience in software and IT industry as well as high level position in project management.

Deep technical background in the field of embedded system in communication facilities.

Fluent and able to read and write in Mandarin,

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

67.

51.

Brief Job Description: The Iranian Business Development Specialist will be strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goal.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

MOHEBBI, FARSHAD Iranian Operations Manager 52.

Brief Job Description: The Iranian Operations Manager will be strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goal.

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as a Iranian Operations Manager , Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and Heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

63.

Brief Job Description: responsible for the opening of digital services for carriers on Huawei public cloud and assess the cloud resource requirements; responsible for modeling network data to determine the scope of database jurisdiction, data organization form; responsible for the network experience perception of carrier customers; responsible for intelligent prediction network development with artifical intelligence (ai) technology; customize new cases based on customer requirements

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Brief Job Description: optimize the engineering delivery procedure of a service product; in charge of fiber optical network process planning and management based on the company’s strategy; ensure the implementation and localization the company’s products; and enhance design capabilities for better fiber implementation.

Basic Qualification: with at least 2 years of work experience as manager for project management of service products; has experience and skills in using planning tools; knowledgeable and experienced in home broadband product deployment and planning; and with overseas design experience and skills in using gis design software’s such as smart odn, cad, and qgis.

JIANGSU DIBANG CONSTRUCTION PHILIPPINES CORPORATION Unit 2106-a West Tower, Psec Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig HUANG, CAILONG Project Supervisor

68.

Brief Job Description: Accomplishes construction human resource objectives by selecting, orienting, training, assigning, scheduling, coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, appraising job contributions; recommending compensation actions; adhering to policies and procedures.

TANG, XINGYI Project Supervisor

69.

Brief Job Description: Accomplishes construction human resource objectives by selecting, orienting, training, assigning, scheduling, coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, appraising job contributions; recommending compensation actions; adhering to policies and procedures.

Basic Qualification: With good oral and communication skills in english and mandarin language familiar in the field of construction works Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: With good oral and communication skills in English and Mandarin language familiar in the field of construction works Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KAISER DYNASTY TRADING CORP. Unit 25d 2/f Zeta Ii Bldg., 191 Salcedo St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

LIU, SHUN-SHENG Chinese Speaking Trade Marketing Specialist 70.

NIE, YAHUI Data Analysis Manager For Carrier Network Digital Project

Basic Qualification: with at least 3 years of experience in helping customers and solution design; able to understand customer requirements clearly and help to identify its business opportunities and convert business requirements into technical solutions; with technical skills in programming languages such as C++, java, java script, sql, solution design, project management and data analysis; with expertise in programming skills

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

FRK BUILDERS AND TRADERS INC. Units 20 A & B, 20/f Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

ZEINALI, FARAHNOOSH Iranian Business Development Specialist

Brief Job Description: align with the business process design and operation of carrier customers in the project; ensure that the service design can be implemented in the carrier’s system; identify carriers’ requirements for digital transformation and data analysis; identify optimization points based on the existing service flows of the carrier; provide technical guidance and enable relevant owners of carriers in the whole process of data processing

SHEN, HUIJIAN System And Integration Manager For Fiber To Home (ftth) And Telecom Equipment Transmission Project

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: with at least 2 years of experience as data analysis manager for wireless products; proficient in using various routers, switches, and deep packet inspection products; has experience in project management, project risk management and project execution; with technical skills in network routing and switching technology, digital analysis techniques such as python, SQL, etc. and database technology, gaussdatebase, oracle, etc. must have a bachelor’s degree in computer science and technology; highly proficient in Chinese and English language

Basic Qualification: with at least 2 year of work experience in 5g industry project such as 5g port explore; with technical skills in managing ICT project contracting process; with cyber security certificate for service work, product and solution sales for account manager course certificate; must have a bachelor’s degree in electrical automation; highly proficient in Chinese and English language.

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Bachelors in Engineering (CSE); Good real time experience in L3 protocols like OSPF, BGP and MPLS protocols

Basic Qualification: with at least 3 years experience in leading the requirement planning and technical architecture of data center solution; with accredited tier designer certification on data center tier topology design skills; highly familiar with integrated product development (IPD) process and project management process (pmp); highly skilled in 2d autocad and 3d building information modelling (BIM) revit

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES PHILS. INC. U-5302, 53/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave., Cor., V.a. Rufino St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as a Iranian Business Development Specialist , Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and Heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Brief Job Description: complete the company’s value structure in 5g, and information and communications technology (ICT) fields; localize international solutions in order to create a suitable local environment; report the current status of the local business and adjust the company’s development with local business trends; develop local ecological partners in order to explore the potential opportunity in developing business

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Strong understanding of business management, technical, and leadership principles. Excellent communication, interpersonal, leadership, coaching, and conflict resolution skills. Fluent and able to read and write in Mandarin.

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Proficiency in English, Mandarin and other multilingual language

HCL TECHNOLOGIES PHILIPPINES, INC. Net Cube Center, 3rd Avenue Corner 30th Street, E-square Zone, Bonifacio Global City, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ETRANSS REMITTANCE INTERNATIONAL CORP. G/f Jx Tower Block 2 Lot 17 Fuentes Cor. San Pedro Street, Aseana, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

SUN, HAN President And Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

LUO, QINPEI Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

Brief Job Description: lead the solution strategy, business planning and requirement management for data center area; responsible for the overall technical solution including civil work, electrical and mechanical system, and align with internal and external stakeholders; summarize the different scenarios of energy-saving and modular solutions and expansion strategies; formulate technical specification and configuration quantity

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

GLOBALLGA BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING Ground Level, Level 2-5 Floor, Silver City 4, Ortigas East, Ugong, City Of Pasig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

DYNAMIC STUDIO TECHNOLOGY INC. 5th To 10th/f Platinum Tower Building, Aseana Ave. Cor. Fuentes Street, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque

64.

Basic Qualification: Proficiency in English, Mandarin and other multilingual language

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

DIGICHROM INC. Unit 2602 & 2603 26/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati

CHUNG CHOI SHIEN Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

HUANG, CHAO Design Manager For Transport Network Transformation Project

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: knowledgeable in Chinese documentation

No.

Basic Qualification: Proficiency in English, Mandarin and other multilingual language

FUFU INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD. PHILIPPINES BRANCH Unit 2105 Robinsons Equitable Tower, Adb Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

DEXIN INTERNATIONAL IMPORT AND EXPORT CORP. 534 Tomas Mapua St., 029, Bgy. 298, Santa Cruz, City Of Manila KANG, RONGHUA Chinese Cargo Office Agent

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

FRONTIER POINT MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS INC. 29/f Techzone Bldg., Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., San Antonio, City Of Makati

DABARA.PH ADVERTISING CORP. 24th Flr. Bgc Corporate Center, 11th Ave. Cor. 30th St., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig CHA, SUNGCHUL IT Operations Manager

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

A7

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written

CURRENTCORE SERVICES INC. Unit 2c, Flr. No. 4f, One Ecom Center Bldg. Ocean Drive St., Moa Complex Subd. Barangay 076, Pasay City LIU, NING Mandarin Site Technical Officer

No.

Friday, December 3, 2021

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

PENG, LIPING Chinese Speaking Trade Marketing Specialist 71.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

WU, SHUO Chinese Speaking Trade Marketing Specialist 72.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/Good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KEPCO KPS CARABAO CORP. 18/f Pacific Star Bldg., Sen. Gil Puyat Cor. Makati Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati CHO, JEABEUMM Electrical Manager 73.

Brief Job Description: Will validate and approve any process related to electric and circuit

Basic Qualification: Has an excellent experience in managing a team Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

A8

BusinessMirror

Friday, December 3, 2021

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

LERIB SERVICES CORPORATION U-3d Rose Industries Bldg., Choice Market Ortigas, Kapitolyo, City Of Pasig KIM, DONGYEOL Sales Representative 74.

Brief Job Description: Sales representative are responsible for communicating the benefits of a company’s products in order to drive sales.

Basic Qualification: College graduate with experience in the related position, fluent in English and Korean Hangeul.

75.

Brief Job Description: Thoroughly understands of organizational behavior, workforce planning, metrics and analytics

Basic Qualification: At least 10 years total experience in end-to-end workforce management process Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

MAGNUM TOBACCO MANUFACTURING CORP. Victoria Wave, Special Economic Zone, Barangay 186, City Of Caloocan FANG, ZHIMING Operations Specialist 76.

Brief Job Description: Assist the business operations manager in planning, organizing and coordinating functions relating to the operations of the business.

WU, MUWANG Operations Specialist

77.

Brief Job Description: Assist the business operations manager in planning, organizing and coordinating functions relating to the operations of the business.

WU, SHUNCHENG Operations Specialist

78.

79.

Brief Job Description: Assist the business operations manager in planning, organizing and coordinating functions relating to the operations of the business.

LIN, XIAORONG Quality Control Specialist Brief Job Description: Manage office and run daily operation

Basic Qualification: College graduate, at least 1 year of experience and good communication skills

80.

Brief Job Description: Handles internal and external affairs for divisions and oversee members of the executive such as vice presidents.

Basic Qualification: College graduate, at least 1 year of experience and good communication skills Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: College graduate, at least 1 year of experience and good communication skills Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: College graduate, at least 1 year of experience, good communication skills

81.

Brief Job Description: Radio network optimization

Brief Job Description: Planning and implementing sales strategies and customer relations.

Basic Qualification: Graduate of bachelor of Engineering with 6 yrs experience in telecom industry with proven track record with all telecom experience

TAKAYAMA, AYAHITO Manager Of The Chemicals Department 88.

Brief Job Description: Oversee the operation and monitor day to day transactions & direct reporting to general manager

82.

ROY, AMULYA Radio Network Optimization Consultant Brief Job Description: Radio Network Optimization

SHOFIA TANG MING MING Mandarin Operations Specialist 89.

Brief Job Description: Assisting with the implementation of new processes and procedures

ZHOU, FEI Mandarin Technical Support 90.

Brief Job Description: Monitoring and maintaining computer systems and networks

91.

GUO, SONG Mandarin Customer Service Specialist Brief Job Description: Customer service

83.

Brief Job Description: To respond to customers concerns on site and supply solutions

ZHOU, XIONG Chinese Customer Service Representative 84.

Brief Job Description: To respond to customers concerns on site and supply solutions

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Chinese.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

FANG, FRED Associate Manager - Account Management 92.

85.

Brief Job Description: Deal with all customer queries/ complaints should be fluent in Thai & English speaking

Basic Qualification: Preferably with 6 months1 year experience, with customer service experience

93.

Brief Job Description: Manage team quality, monitors transactions, audit transactions, and provide quality related feedback and coaching to team members, work closely with the client to improve content management system.

KATO, GO Consultant For Electrical Work For Air-conditioning And Cleanroom Systems Of Semi-conductor Manufacturing Companies Brief Job Description: Review and and provide guidance on the proper implementation

MEHAR, PUNEET Consultant 94.

Brief Job Description: Over-all management of the company which includes finance and operations.

Brief Job Description: Compiling and presenting information orally, visually and in writing, must be fluent in English and Hindi Language, making recommendations for improvement, using computer models to test them and presenting findings to client. Developing and implementing new procedures or training.

CHIU TU LONG IT Support Specialist 95.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Ability to coach and guide teams and colleagues in a BPO set-up, great communication and interpersonal interaction skills, strong metric management skills.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

Basic Qualification: 15 years experience as Head of the company; fluent in Japanese language Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Well-developed core consulting skills of research, analysis, presentation, and attention to detail, aptitude to grasp new concepts and effectively produce results, exceptional problemsolving skills - an analytical, innovative, and creative mindset, Fluency in English and Hindi Language is a must.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for providing quality it supports of enterprise systems throughout the Chinese clientele.

SEAH KAY HOW Chief Operating Officer 96.

Brief Job Description: The COO will be responsible for maintaining and driving operational results with the organization, including managerial and administrative procedure, reporting structures and operation controls to the organization.

VOUTYRAKIS, IOANNIS Operations Director Brief Job Description: Overview operations and support the COO

98.

Brief Job Description: prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Collaborate between TRION (Japan) and Tri-Phil (Philippines) for further smooth communication and information sharing on procurement and production.

College graduate with 10 years Managerial Experience

Basic Qualification: College graduate with 10 years Managerial Experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

WEI, YU Mandarin Field Marketing Officer 102.

Brief Job Description: foster human relationship through communication and distribution of marketing activities

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

VPC CORPORATE SOLUTIONS INCORPORATED 11/f 100 West, Sen Gil Puyat Ave. Cor., Washington St., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati

HUANG, ZIMEI Bilingual Finance Support Specialist 103.

Brief Job Description: Process and prepare financial business forms for the purpose of checking SEETANKAE, VIBOON Thai-speaking Customer Service Officer

104.

Brief Job Description: Prepares product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information TRAN DINH TAI Vietnam-speaking Customer Service Officer

105.

Brief Job Description: Prepares product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information

Basic Qualification: Excellent in writing, reading and speaking in bilingual languages Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Foreign language speaking Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Foreign language speaking Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

WIREPLUS CO. LTD L-29 Joy Nostalg Center, Adb Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

NGADIMAN SENTOSA Indonesian Business Manager 106.

Brief Job Description: Develop implement and review operational policies and procedures

Basic Qualification: Has significant variable experience in the same capacity for at least 5 yrs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

WNS GLOBAL SERVICES PHILIPPINES, INC. 9/f 1880 Bldg., Eastwood City Cyberpark, Bagumbayan, Quezon City

DASGUPTA, ARITRA Sr. Consultant-digital Transformation 107.

Brief Job Description: Delivers the required number of QA assessments per campaign/agent per month as agreed in the contract or the QA framework

Basic Qualification: TOM qualification via a registered training provider will be beneficial certified six sigma belt ( yellow & black ) is preferred 5+years in experience in a quality Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

ZONAC AND SHIBATA SERVICES INC. 4/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave. Cor. Rufino St., Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: fluent in Chinese writing and speaking language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ERIN CHANDRA Indonesian Customer Services Representative 108.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Operational and engineering experience for more than 25 years Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

TOTAL CREST BUSINESS SUPPORT, INC. 26/f & 27/f Alphaland Corporate Tower, Ayala Ave. Extn. Cor. Malugay St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

CHUA SHEN LOO Mandarin Customer Service Specialist

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing mandarin

VASTLINE BUSINESS SUPPORT INC. U-504p Five E-com Ctr. Bldg., Pacific Drive, Brgy. 076, Pasay City

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin both oral and written

TIGER INFRASTRUCTURE PHILIPPINES INC. Rm 501 5/f Diamond Hotel Philippines, Roxas Blvd. Cor. Dr. J Quintos St., 076, Barangay 699, Malate, City Of Manila

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

PHILIPPINE TRAILBLAZERS TECHNOLOGY CORP. 8/f Co Ban Kiat Bldg. Ii, 231 Juan Luna Street, 027, Barangay 287, Binondo, City Of Manila

101.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

TIANYU TECHNOLOGY INC. 14/f Socialdesk Tower, H.v. Dela Costa St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

97.

86.

IGARASHI, KAZUO Business Unit Manager

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ORION OUTSOURCING SERVICE INC. Unit 1701, 17/f The Pearlbank Centre, 146 Valero St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

TRAN THUC YEN Finance Specialist

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin

Brief Job Description: define a region-specific marketing plan that supports the regional sales strategy

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

TRI-PHIL INTERNATIONAL, INC. Rmt Industrial Complex, , Tunasan, City Of Muntinlupa

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information

DUONG QUANG KHANH Mandarin Field Marketing Specialist

TANZILA TRADING INC. U-29 3/f Bac., Bagong Milenyo F.b. Harrison St., Brgy. 076, Pasay City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Must have a minimum of 2 years relevant working experience in handling finance

99.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

TAIKISHA PHILIPPINES INC. Suite 501-502 5/f Golden Rock Bldg 168, Salcedo St, San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

NOVATECH (PASAY) LIMITED, INC. 4th Flr. W Mall Bldg., Diosdado Macapagal Ave. St., Zone 10. Barangay 076, District 1, Pasay City

KAMNERDKAN, SITTIPONG Thai Speaking Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: Degree holder, can speak fluently and understand Japanese language

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION CHUNG MUI JAN Mandarin Customer Service Specialist

SUTHERLAND GLOBAL SERVICES PHILIPPINES, INC. 12th Floor Philplans Corporate Center, Kalayaan Avenue & Triangle Drive, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

NEW WEATHER FORCES GROUP INC. 26/f The Enterprise Center Tower 2, 6766 Ayala Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Chinese.

No.

100.

SPEED QUALITY TECH INC. 3/f Eco Plaza Bldg., 2305 Chino Roces Ave. Extn., Magallanes, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

HO, HAO-PING Chinese Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: 2years experience in managing and directing sales team, expert in language translation in mandarin to English, can speak and write mandarin and English fluently.

SOLIDLEISURE SOLUTIONS INC. Unit 2602-d & 2603-a West Tower, Psec Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Graduate of bachelor of Engineering with 6 yrs experience in telecom industry with proven track record with all telecom experience

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

SOJITZ PHILIPPINES CORPORATION 23rd Flr. Nac Tower, 32nd Street, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Basic Qualification: Experienced and management skills.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

METROGLOBAL SERVICES, INC. Unit 2209-2210 Antel Global Corporate Center, Julia Vargas Ave., Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

CHAUBEY, BIMLESH KUMAR Radio Network Optimization Consultant

87.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

MARINA SQUARE PROPERTIES, INC. 5/f Ag New World Manila Bay Hotel 1588, 1588 Mh Del Pilar Cor. P Gil., 076 Bgy. 699, Malate, City Of Manila CHIEN, LIANG-TA a.k.a. CHIEN, STEVE Senior Vice President

LIN, RUIJIE Sales Manager

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

LIZARDBEAR TASKING INC. 17th To 20th Floors, Twenty Four Seven Mckinley Building, 24th Street And Seventh Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

ABRAHAM MATHEW, SABU Director Of Workforce

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Brief Job Description: identify and assess customer’s needs to achieve satisfaction

FUJI HAMDANI Indonesian Customer Services Representative 109.

Brief Job Description: identify and assess customer’s needs to achieve satisfaction

Basic Qualification: great communication skills and must be fluent in English language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: great communication skills and must be fluent in English language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 *Date Generated: Dec 2, 2021

Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE National Capital Region located at DOLE-NCR Building, 967 Maligaya St., Malate Manila, within 30 days after this publication.

Please inform DOLE National Capital Region if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

Basic Qualification: proficient in speaking, reading and writing mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

TheWorld

US reports 1st case of Omicron variant

S

AN FRANCISCO—The US recorded its first confirmed case of the Omicron variant Wednesday—in a vaccinated traveler who returned to California after a trip to South Africa—as scientists around the world race to establish whether the new, mutant version of the coronavirus is more dangerous than previous ones.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious-disease expert, announced the finding at the White House.

“We knew it was just a matter of time before the first case of Omicron would be detected in the United States,” he said.

The infected person was identified as a traveler who had returned from South Africa on November 22, developed mild symptoms and tested positive for Covid-19 Monday.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco obtained a sample from the patient Tuesday evening and worked feverishly overnight to assemble the genetic sequence.

The person, who had had the full two doses of the Moderna vaccine and wasn’t yet due for a booster shot, is improving, California officials said.

Fauci and other medical experts strongly emphasized that Americans should continue to get vaccinated and get their booster shots. The vaccine has been proven to reduce the risk of severe illness and death, and Fauci said it is reasonable to believe it will offer protection against the Omicron variant.

The mild nature of the California person’s infection “is a testimony to the importance of the vaccinations,” said California Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.

All the individual’s close contacts have been reached and have tested negative, officials said. The patient, who agreed to remain in quarantine, was identified only as being between 18 and 49.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed confidence in the state’s efforts to control the virus and said he does not anticipate imposing another stay-at-home order or other shutdown measures.

At least 23 other countries have reported Omicron infections since South African authorities first identified the variant a week ago—an announcement that led the US and many other nations to almost immediately bar airline travelers arriving from southern Africa.

In South Africa, new cases of Covid-19 nearly doubled in a single day to almost 8,600, authorities reported Wednesday, and the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said Omicron has now overtaken the Delta variant among samples now being analyzed at the genetic level.

But the variant is still surrounded by many unknowns, among them: Is it more contagious than other versions, as some scientists are beginning to suspect? Does it make people more seriously ill? And can it evade the vaccine?

“Any declaration of what will or will not happen with this variant, I think it is too early to say,” Fauci said.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it will take two to three weeks before it becomes fully clear what Omicron can do to the world.

“This is, in normal times, a short period. In pandemic times, it’s an eternity,” she lamented.

In California, the genetic analysis of the patient’s virus from UCSF was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We will likely see this scenario play out multiple times across the country in the coming days or weeks,” said Scott Becker, CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

“This particular case shows the system working as it was designed to work—an individual with travel history from South Africa, an astute laboratory and quick prioritization of the specimen for sequencing, and close coordination with public health officials.”

Nigeria and Saudi Arabia also reported Omicron infections Wednesday, marking the first known cases in West Africa and the Persian Gulf region.

Going further than many other countries in trying to contain the virus, Japan has banned foreign visitors and asked international airlines to stop taking new reservations for all flights arriving in the country until the end of December.

The US is working toward requiring that all air travelers to the country be tested for Covid-19 within a day before boarding their flights, up from the current three days.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization warned that blanket travel bans are complicating the sharing of lab samples from South Africa that could help scientists understand the new variant.

At the same time the Omicron variant is spreading new fear and uncertainty, the dominant Delta variant is still creating havoc, especially in Europe. Many countries there are dealing with a surge in infections and hospitalizations, despite a relatively high vaccination rate of 67 percent of the European Union’s population.

For the first time, von der Leyen said EU nations should consider making vaccinations mandatory. Greece plans to fine people over 60 who don’t get the shot. And German Chancellordesignate Olaf Scholz said he will back a proposal to require everyone to get vaccinated. AP

BusinessMirror

U

Action Service, Stefano Sannino, will meet in Washington to cochair the second session of the US-EU China Dialogue.

Topics of discussion will include economics and technology, human rights, security and disinformation and Taiwan, according to two senior State Department officials who briefed reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The talks also

A9

South Korea breaks daily virus record for second straight day

S

EOUL, South Korea—South Korea broke its daily record for coronavirus infections for a second straight day on Thursday with more than 5,200 new cases, as pressure mounted on a health-care system grappling with rising hospitalizations and deaths.

The rapid Delta-driven spread comes amid the emergence of the new Omicron variant, which is seen as potentially more contagious than previous strains of the virus, and has fueled concerns about prolonged pandemic suffering.

South Korea confirmed its first five Omicron cases Wednesday night linked to arrivals from Nigeria, prompting the government to tighten its border controls.

The country will require all passengers arriving from abroad over the next two weeks to quarantine for at least 10 days, regardless of their nationality or vaccination status. South Korea since Sunday had already banned short-term foreign travelers arriving from eight southern African nations, including South Africa, and has now extended the same rules to foreigners coming from Nigeria.

While the alarm over Omicron has forced governments around

the world to tighten border controls, scientists say it is not yet clear whether the variant is more contagious or dangerous than previous strains of the virus, including Delta, which has devastated South Korea in recent weeks.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said more than 4,100 of the 5,266 new coronavirus cases came from the capital Seoul and its nearby metropolitan region, where officials say 90 percent of intensive care units designated for Covid-19 are already occupied.

A record 733 virus patients are in serious or critical condition, while the country’s death toll is now 3,705 after 47 patients died in the past 24 hours.

Health experts have called for the government to reimpose strict social distancing rules that were eased in November to improve the economy, raising concerns that hospital systems could become overwhelmed. AP

Action delayed on Myanmar, Afghan requests for UN seats

U

N I T E D N AT I O N S — A key UN committee dec i d e d We d n e s d a y t o de l ay ac t ion on request s by Myanmar’s military junta and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take their countries’ seats at the United Nations.

T he announcement by the chair of the General Assembly’s Credentials Committee means that the ambassadors from the former governments in Myanmar and Afghanistan will remain in their jobs.

Sweden’s UN Ambassador Anna Eneström told reporters after a closed meeting of the nine-member committee which she chaired that “the committee has decided to defer its decision of the credentials in these two situations.” She said the committee has not scheduled another meeting and would not say how long the issue of credentials for Myanmar and Afghanistan would be deferred.

Myanmar’s militar y r u lers sought to replace the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, who opposed their February 1 ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi

and takeover of the government.

Fo r e i g n M i n i s t e r W u n n a Maung Lwin said in July that he had been terminated “due to abuses of his assigned duty and mandate” and that Aung Thurein, who left the military this year after 26 years, had been appointed as Myanmar’s UN ambassador.

The Taliban challenged the credentials of Ghulam Isaczai, the ambassador from Afghanistan’s former government, which they ousted on August 15, and sought to replace him with a new UN permanent representative, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, who was a Taliban spokesman during peace negotiations in Qatar.

The Credentials Committee’s decision to defer action means that Myanmar’s Thurein and the Taliban’s Shaheen will not replace their predecessors—at least for now.

Sweden’s Eneström said the committee’s report will be made public “once it has been issued for the consideration of the General Assembly.”

The members of the credentials committee are Sweden, the United States, Russia, China, Bahamas, Bhutan, Chile, Namibia and Sierra Leone. AP

US, EU set to discuss joint approach to assertive China

NITED STATES and European Union officials will discuss a joint approach to an increasingly assertive China during a high-level dialog on Thursday, saying that finding common ground on key issues makes it harder for Beijing to ignore those topics.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and the secretary general of the European External

Friday, December 3, 2021

will touch on potential areas of cooperation with China, including energy security and climate, the officials said.

An important belief underly i ng t he d i a log i s t h at t he combined weight of the US and European Union will be much harder for China to ignore than US pressure alone, one of the officials said.

Speaking Thursday at a regular

press briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreig n Ministr y spokesman Wang Wenbin urged “the relevant parties to abandon their cold war mentality” and instead “inject more stability and positive energies into the world.”

“Drawing lines along ideology or seeking cliques does not benefit world peace and stability,” he said. “It hurts others and hurts oneself.” BloombergNews

People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk by lanterns at the public stream in Seoul, South Korea on Thursday, December 2, 2021. South Korea broke its daily record for coronavirus infections for a second straight day on Thursday with more than 5,200 new cases, as pressure mounted on a health-care system grappling with rising hospitalizations and deaths. AP/Ahn Young-joon

A10 Friday, December 3, 2021 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

Much ado about Bloomberg ranking

M

ALACAÑANG reacted on Wednesday to Bloomberg’s latest Covid Resilience Ranking, saying it showed “little consideration” for local data when Bloomberg again placed the Philippines at the bottom of the list. Acting Presidential Spokesman Karlo B. Nograles took exception to the fact that the ranking gave much emphasis to general criteria such as severity, flight capacity, and vaccinated travel routes.

“There is little consideration for country-specific Covid-19 context, which in our view is imperative to objectively assess how countries manage pandemic response,” Nograles said, adding that Bloomberg did not give much weight on how the active local Covid-19 cases continue to fall, reaching only 425 active cases as of November 30, 2021—the lowest reported in 2021 after the government implemented its new Alert Level System. (Read, Bloomberg Resilience Index: Palace laments bias against local data, in the BusinessMirror, December 1, 2021).

National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. also questioned the ranking, saying Bloomberg might be doing something wrong in measuring the Philippines’ resilience to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Our numbers are very encouraging. We have 7.1 GDP [growth] last quarter. We have a [Covid] positivity rate of 2.3 percent. We have below 500 cases. I think Bloomberg should reconsider their parameters. I think there is an error, maybe,” he said.

From Bloomberg: “The Covid Resilience Ranking is a monthly snapshot of where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval. Compiled using 12 data indicators that span virus containment, quality of health care, vaccination coverage, overall mortality and progress toward restarting travel, the Ranking captures how the world’s biggest 53 economies are responding to the same once-in-a-generation threat.”

This is not the first time that Bloomberg’s ranking was criticized. When it ranked the United States Number 1 a few months back, Eric Ding, senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told CGTN anchor Wang Guan that the ranking is “not the fairest” in that it equally weighed 12 indicators and failed to capture the success a country had in containing the virus or in giving its citizens meaningful freedom. This is exactly what Galvez and Nograles are trying to say.

In an article published in Global Times—Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking is ridiculous information warfare—Andrew Korybko said: “The popular [and supposedly credible] New York City-headquartered outlet Bloomberg recently placed the US at the top of its ‘Covid Resilience Ranking’ while putting China in eighth place. This is nothing more than ridiculous information warfare, which discredits this media platform. It inaccurately exaggerates the US’s successes at containing the pandemic while ignoring its many shortcomings that continue to plague the country’s epidemiological security to this day. From the flip side, it ignores China’s successes while dishonestly attempting to discredit its effective policies. China was the first country in the world to contain Covid-19.”

In an article published in CGTN—Analysis: Why Bloomberg’s Covid resilience ranking is flawed—author Li Ruikang said: “The latest version of a Covid Resilience Ranking published by Bloomberg has drawn the ire of people across the world. The problematic attribute undermining the ranking is a relative lack of interest in both the human toll and governments’ attempts to avoid it… It ranks the US, which has recorded the most Covid-19 deaths in the world, as number one. Meanwhile, Australia, the Chinese mainland and Japan, often praised for their decisive Covid-19 measures, are ranked seventh, eighth and 23rd, respectively. Negative sentiments around the findings are high. According to a Twitter analysis, the number of people expressing a negative view of Bloomberg’s report is three times as many as those that agree with it. Netizens are calling it a “laughing stock,” as the Covid-19 calamities in some of the places at the top of the list are still a fresh memory. “Joke,” “fake” and “shameless” are the most frequent words used by social-media users to describe the ranking. What also seems to echo through them is the report’s tendency to disregard human lives.”

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The economics of reopening Dr. Luis F. Dumlao

EAGLE WATCH

O

N November 5, 2021, the National Capital Region lowered its Covd-19 Alert Level from 3 to 2. Following the InterAgency Task Force (IATF) Guidelines, that means many establishments, including restaurants and other leisure venues not under granular lockdown, will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity compared to the previous 30 percent. Connected to that, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chair Prospero de Vera III declared that universities and colleges may be allowed to conduct limited face-to-face classes in all degree programs subject to restrictions, including a maximum capacity of 50 percent.

However, even among establishments with the same easing, say from 30 to 50 percent capacity, some will be opening sooner than others. For the sake of classifying, there are two types of establishments with respect to the speed in which they will physically reopen.

First, there are establishments that are urging to reopen. Even without the official easing of restriction, they have gotten themselves as prepared as they can be, whether they are prepared enough to some objective gold standard level of preparedness or not. As soon as restriction officially eases, they will indeed open. Second, there are establishments that are not in a hurry to reopen for good reasons.

Cases in point, while personal care service providers, restaurants, and others are in the urge to open, schools, and others that can deliver their goods and services online are not as much in the urge. Speaking of peso and cents, the firsts are in the urge for self-preservation and to save livelihoods. The difference between online versus onsite delivery is shutting down the establishment and laying off workers versus reopening the establishment and saving people’s livelihoods. As for the seconds, reopening onsite has no revenue downside. More so, it adds to the costs. In the case of schools for example, reopening onsite in the middle of the semester does not add tuition revenue. Contrary,

it adds to the costs in the form of operational expenses, for example, maintenance, security, electricity, water, and so on.

Indeed, the seconds have very good reasons to drag reopening that include logistics and health risks.

But one cannot argue that logistics, health care and other concerns are more important for the seconds than to the firsts, and vice versa. In fairness, the good reasons are equally important for all humans from the chief executive officer, everyone in between and to the contractual minimum wage earner. It is just that the economic repercussion incentivizes the firsts to take the necessary risk and for the seconds not to take the unnecessary risk. For the firsts, not taking the risk means shutting down the establishment and cutting down people’s livelihoods. Taking the risks means maintaining the establishment and livelihood, for example, of barbers, hairdressers, and masseurs. For the seconds, the establishment and livelihood can be maintained while not taking the unnecessary risk. For example, delivery of education can still be done online, and still maintain the livelihood of teachers and administrators without risking their health and that of their students.

Because of the cost-benefit of reopening onsite, the firsts are naturally “more prepared” than the seconds. I emphasize that “more prepared” is expressed in quotes.

The reason is that the firsts are

not necessarily more prepared than the seconds, and vice versa. For the firsts, they might as well be below some objective gold standard level of preparedness. But out of selfpreservation, the incentive is to self-rationalize that they are prepared enough. If the establishment is at risk of shutting down and cutting people’s livelihood, there will be more justification to claim to be prepared. For the seconds, they might as well be above some objective level of gold standard of preparedness. But the incentive out of the risks from opening onsite is to self-rationalize that one is not prepared enough. If the establishment is in good enough financial position and its mission critical employees are safe in their livelihoods, then there will be justification to claim to be not prepared enough.

Albeit with so much governance failure in many aspects, the government should be credited for allowing the firsts and the seconds to reopen as they see fit. First, the government is allowing, not mandating, establishments to open to 50 percent capacity. Second, the government is allowing establishments to time their reopening as they see fit. So basically, the policy allows the firsts to reopen as fast as they need, and the seconds to reopen as cautiously as they need.

Dr. Luis F. Dumlao is Dean of the John Gokongwei School of Management at the Ateneo de Manila University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development.

Facebook: Fake scientist used to spread anti-US propaganda

By David Klepper And Amanda Seitz | Associated Press

A

disinformation network with ties to China used hundreds of fake social-media accounts—including one belonging to a fictitious Swiss biologist—to spread an unfounded claim that the US pressured scientists to blame China for the coronavirus, Facebook said Wednesday.

The company based in Menlo Park, California, did not directly attribute the network to the Chinese government. But it noted employees of Chinese state-run companies, and the country’s state-run media, worked to amplify the misleading claims, which were soon the subject of news headlines in China.

“In effect it worked like an online hall of mirrors, endlessly reflecting the original fake persona and its anti-US disinformation,” according to Ben Nimmo, who leads investigations into disinformation at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

The operation began in July, when a Facebook account was created in the name of Wilson Edwards, a selfprofessed Swiss biologist. That same day, the account user claimed, without evidence, that US officials were

using “enormous pressure and even intimidation” to get scientists to back calls for renewed investigations into the origin of the virus.

Within hours, hundreds of other accounts—some of which were created only that day—began liking, posting or linking to the post. Many of the accounts were later found to be fake, with some of the users posing as westerners and others using likely fabricated profile photos. Facebook said it found links between the accounts and a tech firm based in Chengdu, China, as well as to overseas employees of Chinese infrastructure companies.

Within a week of the initial post, large media outlets in China were reporting on the claims of US intimidation as if they had been made by a real scientist.

The operation was exposed when

Swiss authorities announced in August that they had no record of any biologist with Edwards’ name.

“If you exist, we would like to meet you!” the Swiss embassy in Beijing tweeted.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said in the past that the country’s government does not employ trickery on social media. Efforts to contact the companies cited in the report weren’t immediately successful on Wednesday.

In all, Meta removed about 600 accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to the network, Nimmo told reporters on a call Wednesday that touched on the company’s response to several disinformation networks around the world.

Facebook uncovered fake accounts affiliated with the network that had also waded into US politics last year, with some posting memes that both attacked and supported exPresident Donald Trump. One post on Instagram called him “the worst president ever!” The group behind the effort also created accounts on Twitter, which has since suspended the account supposedly created by Edwards.

Nimmo said the network was easily spotted by its clumsy tactics.

Several of the fake accounts sent out identical posts at similar times — a clear indication of coordination.

Another person apparently working for the network posted instructions for reposting the claim in what Facebook determined was likely a sloppy mistake.

China’s disinformation networks have consistently been haphazard, said Bret Schafer, who heads the information manipulation team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a non-partisan think tank in Washington.

The network unearthed by Facebook show that the Chinese are still working on their influence campaign strategy, unlike Russia, which has spent decades crafting disinformation campaigns that target unwitting Americans online and go undetected for years.

“It didn’t take long for this to be unraveled,” Schafer said. “The Chinese are still a bit sloppier with what they do. I can’t imagine the Russians doing something like this, where they just create a persona out of thin air.”

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Gang of Four or The Fantastic Four?

The Blue Christmas Tree Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

T

he current presidential contest is full of surprises just like the gift packages that we unwrap on Christmas Eve. Earlier, despite topping all pre-election surveys, we were all jolted when Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio announced that she was seeking the vice-presidential seat after all. She had opted to run in tandem with former Sen. Bongbong Marcos who will be her standard bearer. Her decision had gravely miffed her father that upon learning of his daughter’s action, the President announced in exasperation that he would file his candidacy for vice president to contest his daughter’s bid, although he abandoned it over the weekend and filed his COC for senator instead. In another unexpected move, Sen. Bong Go, who had previously slid down to VP position to open the presidential slot to Mayor Sara, refiled his COC for president under Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS).

The latest development that left us all flabbergasted while lounging in our favorite chair watching Netflix was the breaking news that Senator Go had withdrawn from the presidential race. It even eclipsed Gat Andres Bonifacio’s 158th birthday celebration. It seems that the party’s name under which he refiled his presidential bid is a misnomer. It’s definitely bereft of noble and great blood when its presidential candidate backs out from the race after admitting that he is in a “state of shock” after he filed his candidacy for president. He further said and I quote: “I’m in a very difficult situation. I’m still carefully thinking about it. I am waiting for a sign from God. If He thinks I should stay here, I will follow Him and of course the Filipinos.” Obviously, God did not endorse his candidacy. I can only commiserate with Sen. Bong Go. I know that he has all the best intentions to serve our country but as he himself admitted, this is not yet his time. Anyway, Senator Go can dedicate his efforts in the Senate where he has 3 1/2 years to serve. He can introduce legislation and initiatives like the Malasakit Centers and the Balik Probinsya Program where he is the unstinting champion. As the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Sports, he can focus on an agenda which will strengthen our unending fight against Covid-19 and promote programs that will continue our country’s resurgence in various sports. nnn

Another unforeseen development that has never happened at any point in our political history is the alliance of the families of four presidents, former and incumbent, to present a united front to capture the top 2 positions in our country. The ruling families represented by the Marcoses, Estradas, Arroyos and Dutertes have coalesced to virtually crush the opposition. You may call them the “Gang of Four” or the “Fantastic Four,” depending on your political orientation. The former, as you may recall, was the most powerful member of the political group that became very influential under Chairman Mao Tse Tung. They implemented the draconian policies of the Chinese Communist Party during the dreaded years of the Cultural Revolution in China.

Their reign of terror ended when Chairman Mao died. They were all prosecuted and jailed. Of course, the Fantastic Four is the team of superheroes based on the Marvel comics characters who saved our planet from the evil forces who all wanted to dominate the world. I hope that their goals are heroic and noble as the Fantastic Four instead of consolidating their power to impose their nefarious schemes and vicious rule. We don’t want the group to degenerate into a “coalition of the willing”—willing to plunder the country, willing to suppress human rights, and willing to bring back our nation into the dark ages. Each of the compo-

Another unforeseen development that has never happened at any point in our political history is the alliance of the families of four presidents, former and incumbent, to present a united front to capture the top 2 positions in our country. The ruling families represented by the Marcoses, Estradas, Arroyos and Dutertes have coalesced to virtually crush the opposition. nent families of the coalition had installed a president. Each one had its own share of glory and shame.

Their rabid allies claim that their president had served the country well and contend that the Philippines never had it so good until their term. Oddly enough, instead of the opposition forces unifying against the administration and its partisans, the ruling families and pro-administration forces have banded together to form what looks like an invincible alliance to steamroll everyone who dares challenge their hegemony. We don’t know if this new alignment of forces augurs well for Bongbong Marcos. The latest poll survey conducted by PUBLICUS Asia showed Marcos way ahead of his opponents. He captured 49.3 percent of the votes, with VP Leni Robredo in far second with 21.3 percent. Mayor Isko Moreno got 8.8 percent, followed by Senator Ping Lacson and Senator Manny Pacquiao at 2.9 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. On the other hand, this formidable show of force may also rally all disgruntled elements behind the opposition. Confronted by a seemingly awesome power, the “forces of light” will perforce combat the “forces of darkness” to survive. This will be an interesting contest that will be waged in the looming battle of Armageddon—the 2022 presidential election.

But the raging question is: Who will the opposition forces rally behind? VP Leni’s camp claims that she is the genuine opposition and so all the anti-Marcos, anti-Estrada, anti-Arroyo and anti-Duterte elements should mobilize under her banner. It’s true that the other presidential contenders have not been staunch oppositionists against Duterte, much less against Marcos or Estrada or Arroyo. Others even claim that they are neither pro- nor anti-Duterte, but they are pro-Filipinos. Unless the others withdraw or give way to one, unity among the opposition ranks will remain a mirage. Marcos will remain the man to beat in the coming election. It will be unimaginable what will happen to our country if the Gang of Four will be at the helm of our government. We can only pray, and that appears to be the only option we have, that they will serve and protect our country like our movie flick heroes, the Fantastic Four. And posterity will be kinder and grateful to them.

S

he was always against a blue Christmas tree. Maybe the word is not “against”; she was worried that the blue color dominating the usual red, silver and gold over the dark tree foliage of our tree will look gloomy. “Christmas should be bright,” she would say, a statement I dared not contradict.

She was our Ate Naomi, sister for a long, long time after we dropped the legalistic “in-law.” When my elder brother, her husband, died in 1999, she stayed on with us. I remember approaching her a day after the burial and, without consulting my siblings and parents, calmly assured her that we wanted her to stay with us but I, particularly, promised her she would remain part of us even if she opted to live away with us and her children.

That I would be behind her, in all her new decisions, in her new life.

In our language, she talked of how she would feel “crippled” if indeed she and the children would go away. Thus, she stayed on; and thus, we transferred with her when a new house was completed. In that new place, we survived the loneliness of leaving a home of memories.

We went through strong typhoons common in our region. While my siblings and I all moved outside the city and out of the country, she remained in that house. My parents were with her. She saw her three children grow. She saw them leave the city one by one. She witnessed them marrying off. She was happy when two of them came back to the city; she enjoyed months with the daughter abroad working.

In that house, my parents passed on. Ate Naomi was with us in that sadness. She was with us also in all our joys during fiestas and gather-

ings. In the absence of a big brother —a Manoy—she gently eased into the role of authority. It was her that we consulted when we were deciding what to prepare for special dinners and lunches. We allowed her to veto our choices ungrudgingly. She managed to learn the tedious meat recipe my father would always cook during special occasions. And she spoke the language of the Ticao Island, the island from where our side of the family came.

When the lockdown was announced, she was on her way to Manila for treatment. Some six years back, she had cancer but a series of chemotherapy brought her back to wellness. The lockdown prevented her from travelling but not in conducting classes online.

She was a nurse and part of the Universidad de Santa Isabel and was retired already when the pandemic hit the world. Introduced to the tedious use of modules through the Internet that was either unstable from her end or totally bad on the side of her students, she became an eager student of the technology. She got a new laptop and

Friday, December 3, 2021 A11

every morning, she would dress up as if she were about to step out and teach regular face-to-face classes again. But her classroom was her cozy bedroom fitted with a smart table.

She would complain about how she was not sure if the students were learning anything. She was worried about the kind of nurses this “new normal” would be able to produce.

She despaired over students who complained about the cost of Internet connections and the constant brownouts plaguing the towns in the province. Until one day, she began to complain of fatigue. We said it was from the long sessions online.

It was time to stop, her children told

her. But it was tough asking her not to teach anymore.

This year, her oncologist recommended chemotherapy sessions again. On one of these, she expe-

rienced bodily chills, the first time such a reaction happened. She had to stay in the hospital for a day. We would know much later that this time, her body was not responding well anymore to the treatment.

There would be more hospitalizations. She was home in bed, her bed propped up high against the headboard when I visited her. “It is progressing fast,” she half-whispered to me. “No one can predict anything, Ate Naomi,” I answered back. We were talking in ellipses, with me more terrified than her of the unsaid.

Two of her children were beside her that morning of the 25th of November. Another daughter was on her way back after the plane that was about to carry her back to the US met a freak accident: a vehicle towing the plane hit its nose. They were already inside the plane when they were told that their flight had been cancelled. The next morning, she would find out that the next flight was also not coming. This convinced her to return to Naga.

Ate Naomi was told of the good news that morning. An hour after or so, she passed away peacefully.

One day in September this year, I came to visit them and saw her in the living room.

Beside her was our wellpreserved artificial tree— royal in all the blue colors of the world. A blue Christmas tree. This gentle, kind sister of ours made sure she had an early Christmas. It was a celebration before her journey to the bright, blue yonder.

This was a goodbye but not a farewell; this was a consolation that, where she would go, prayers pass through white clouds, and the sky eternally promises us the hue of Heaven.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

Omicron, Delta variants combine for decision-making headache

By Lori Hinnant | Associated Press

P

ARIS—Greeks who are over age 60 and refuse coronavirus vaccinations will be hit with monthly fines of more than one-quarter of their pensions—a get-tough policy that could prove risky for the country’s politicians.

In Israel, potential carriers of the new Omicron variant could be tracked by the nation’s formidable spy agency in seeming defiance of a Supreme Court ruling from the last go-round.

Weekly protests in the Netherlands over the country’s 5 p.m. lockdown and other new restrictions have descended into violence, despite what appears to be overwhelming acceptance of the new rules.

With the Delta variant of Covid-19 pushing up cases in Europe, and growing fears over the Omicron variant, governments around the world are weighing new measures for populations tired of hearing about restrictions and vaccines.

It’s a thorny calculus made more difficult by the prospect of backlash, increased social divisions and, for many politicians, the fear of being voted out of office.

“I know the frustration that we all feel with this Omicron variant, the sense of exhaustion that we could be going through this all over again,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday, two days after the government announced that masks would be mandatory again in stores and on public transportation and required all visitors from abroad to undergo a Covid-19 test and quarantine. “We’re trying to take a balanced and proportioned approach.”

New restrictions, or variations on the old ones, are cropping up around the world, especially in Europe, where leaders are at pains to explain what looks like a failed promise: that mass vaccinations would mean an end to widely loathed limitations.

“People need normality. They

need families, they need to see people, obviously safely, socially distancing, but I really think, this Christmas now, people have had enough,” said Belinda Storey, who runs a stall at a Christmas market in Nottingham, England.

In the Netherlands, where the curfew went into effect last week, mounted police patrol to break up demonstrations against the new lockdown, which is among the world’s strictest. But most people appeared resigned to rush through errands and head home.

“The only thing we can do is to listen to the rules, follow them and hope it’s not getting worse. For me it’s no problem. I’m a nurse. I know how sick people get,” said Wilma van Kampen.

In Greece, residents over 60 face fines of 100 euros ($113) a month if they fail to get vaccinated. The fines will be tacked onto tax bills in January.

About 17% of Greeks over 60 are unvaccinated despite various efforts to prod them to get their shots, and nine in 10 Greeks currently dying of Covid-19 are over 60.

“I don’t care whether the measure will cost me some extra votes in the elections,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday after lawmakers passed the measure. “I am convinced that we are doing the right thing and I am convinced that this policy will save lives.”

Employing a carrot instead of a stick, Slovakia’s government is proposing to give people 60 and older a 500-euro ($568) bonus if they get vaccinated.

In Israel, the government this week approved resuming the use of

a controversial phone monitoring technology to perform contact tracing of people confirmed to have the Omicron variant.

Israeli rights groups have decried the use of the technology as a violation of privacy rights, and others have noted that its accuracy in indoor places is flawed, leading to large numbers of people being wrongly flagged.

The Supreme Court earlier this year issued a ruling limiting its use.

“We need to use this tool in extreme situations, and I am not convinced we are in that kind of situation,” Justice Minister Gideon Saar told Israeli public broadcaster Kan this week.

In the US, there is little appetite in either political party for a return to lockdowns or strict contact tracing. Enforcing even simple measures like mask-wearing has become a political flashpoint. And Republicans are suing to block the Biden administration’s new get-vaccinatedor-get-tested requirement for large employers.

President Joe Biden, whose political fate may well hinge on controlling the pandemic, has used a combination of pressure and urgent appeals to induce people to get their first shots or a booster. Also, the administration is working toward requiring that all air travelers to the US be tested within a day before boarding their flight, instead of the current three days.

But the president’s advisers have ruled out more widespread lockdowns.

Biden said the US will fight Covid-19 and the new variant “not with shutdowns or lockdowns but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing, and more.”

“If people are vaccinated and wear their masks, there’s no need for the lockdowns,” he added.

The rise of the new variant makes little difference to Mark Christensen, a grain buyer for an ethanol plant in Nebraska. He rejects any vaccination

mandate and doesn’t understand why it would be needed. In any event, he said, most businesses in his corner of the state are too small to fall under the regulations.

“If they were just encouraging me to take it, that’s one thing,” Christensen said. “But I believe in freedom of choice, not decisions by force.”

Chile has taken a harder line since the emergence of Omicron: People over 18 must receive a booster dose every six months to keep their pass that allows access to restaurants, hotels and public gatherings.

And Chile never dropped its requirement to wear masks in public — probably the most common renewed restriction around the world.

Dr. Madhukar Pai of McGill University’s School of Population and Public Health said that masks are an easy and pain-free way of keeping transmission down, but that cheap, at-home tests need to be much more widespread, in both rich and poor countries.

He said both approaches give people a sense of control over their own behavior that is lost with a lockdown and make it easier to accept the need to do things like cancel a party or stay inside.

Pai said requiring boosters universally, as is essentially the case in Israel, Chile and many countries in Europe, including France, will only prolong the pandemic by making it harder to get first doses to the developing world. That raises the odds of still more variants.

Lockdowns, he said, should be the very last choice.

“Lockdowns only come up when a system is failing,” he said. “We do it when the hospital system is about to collapse. It’s a last resort that indicates you have failed to do all the right things.” Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Greece; Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem; Aleks Furtula in Nijmegen, Netherlands; Zeke Miller in Washington; Patricia Luna in Santiago, Chile; Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Nebraska; Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, and Chen Si in Shanghai

A12 Friday, December 3, 2021

‘Crew-change crisis’ eased greatly in Oct–global report

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

@lorenzmarasigan

HE global maritime industry, to which the Philippines supplies the biggest manpower, has seen improvements in what is called the “crew-change crisis,” as vaccination rates lead to lower infection and eased travel restrictions.

Global Maritime Forum, an international non-profit for seaborne trade, said, citing the Neptune Declaration Crew Change Indicator (NDCCI), that the number of seafarers who remain on vessels beyond the expiry of their contract has decreased to 4.7 percent from 7.1 percent in the last month.

The number of seafarers onboard vessels for over 11 months have also decreased to 0.7 percent from 1.0 percent.

These are the lowest figures recorded by the NDCCI since it was first published in May. It builds on aggregated data from 10 ship managers: Anglo-Eastern, Bernhard Schulte, Columbia Shipmanagement,

Fleet Management (FLEET), OSM, Synergy Marine, Thome, V.Group, Wallem, and Wilhelmsen Ship Management, which collectively have about 90,000 seafarers currently onboard.

Based on the indicator, almost half or 49.5 percent of seafarers have also been vaccinated, according to the report.

However, vaccine hesitancy is still reported and supply challenges persist in certain geographies.

“We are encouraged by the Indicator’s December numbers, that shine some hope that the holiday season this year will be better for seafarers. The spread of the new Omicron variant could, however, lead to a reversal of these positive trends.

It is important that governments treat seafarers as key workers and continue to allow crew changes, when the proper health protocols are respected,” said Kasper Søgaard, Managing Director, Head of Institutional Strategy and Development, Global Maritime Forum.

The Philippines is known as the top provider of seafaring

manpower across the globe, with Filipino maritime workers composing 30 percent of the global population.

Before the pandemic, there were 400,000 Filipino seafarers deployed internationally, and another 100,000 locally.

The global crew change crisis prompted the Philippines to capitalize on the problem by pitching in to address crew change hub shortages.

At the height of the pandemic, the Philippines aimed at becoming the “Crew Change Capital of the World” with the establishment of crew change hubs in Subic, Manila, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao during the pandemic.

The hubs, supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, are considered one-stop shops (OSS) for seafarers—both Filipinos and foreigners.

T h e B u s i n e s s M i r r o r sought the insights and comments of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) of the Philippines on the latest Neptune indicators report, but its officers have yet to reply as of writing time.

CANCEL REGISTRATION OF UNITED BANGSAMORO JUSTICE PARTY–PETITION

A

LOCAL political party from Maguindanao has filed a petition to cancel the registration as a political party of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP).

The petition, filed before the Commission on Elections in Manila on November 17, included an application for the issuance of a Status Quo Ante thru a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and a Preliminary Injunction against all political activities of UBJP for the May 2022 national and local elections.

Umpungan ng Mapagmalasakit Party (UMP), the local political party as the petitioner in Special Proceedings SPP No. 21299, is represented by its Secretary General Mohajeran K. Balayman, designated as attorney-in-fact.

The case was raffled to the Second Division of Comelec on November 22, or five days after it was filed. Under the Comelec Rules of Procedure, the Clerk of Court of the commission or division shall issue the corresponding summons to the respondent within three days following the filing.

A daily follow-up with the Office of the Clerk of the commission confirmed that no summons has been issued as of Thursday, December 2.

Comelec records show that from October 1 to 8, 2021, UBJP nominated several candidates for various positions in the Province of Maguindanao for the May 2022 national and local elections. According to Balayman, the acts of nominating, announcing, and even campaigning prematurely committed by UBJP violate Section 9, Article 6 RA 11054, or the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which states that only regional political parties duly accredited by the Bangsamoro Electoral

Office, as approved by the Comelec, shall participate in the parliamentary elections in the BARMM Balayman held that UBJP’s participation is also the participation of the Regional Government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in the forthcoming May 2022 polls, which is contrary to the autonomous nature of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region established pursuant to RA11054.

“RA 11054, which established a Parliamentary System of Autonomous Regional Government in the BARMM, does not allow the UBJP to participate in the May 2022 national and local elections, or in any non-parliamentary form of elections in the Philippines for that matter. UBJP’s violations of certain specific laws are grounds for the Comelec to cancel its registration as a regional political party,” said Balayman.

Congressman Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu leads the list of candidates endorsed by the UBJP for the May 2022 polls. As such, Balayman reiterated his plea for Mangudadatu’s camp to surrender their certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) to UBJP out of delicadeza since the issuances of these CONAs were a patent nullity, UBJP being unauthorized to do so under RA 11054 and RA 7160, and they being not candidates for any parliamentary election.

The UMP secretary general also called on Mangudadatu’s camp not to cling to a regional party (whose leadership has three personalities rolled into one), which, he said, can only field candidates for parliament during a parliamentary election, pursuant to RA 11054, in relation to RA 7160 and election laws.

UMP also urged the Second Division of the Comelec to immediately issue the summons and act on the TRO and Preliminary Injunction.

Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Friday, December 3, 2021

B1

SEC allows Cirtek to sell ₧2.5B in preferred shares

By VG Cabuag

L

@villygc

aguna-based Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. on Thursday said it secured the green light of the Securities and Exchange Commission for its primary offering of up to 50 million in perpetual preferred shares.

The company is selling its preferred shares to be classified as class B-2 subseries C or D shares at P50 apiece. Cirtek expects to raise some P2.5 billion from the offering.

The public offer period will run until December 3 and will be listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange on December 14.

Cirtek has been allowed to offer up to 70 million shares, or

proceeds of about P3.5 billion, but decided to sell only up to 50 million shares.

It will raise some P1.5 billion from the sale of 30 million preferred class B-2 shares as its primary offering and an additional 20 million preferred shares as its oversubscription option, both at P50 apiece.

“Although the preferred shares are perpetual, they have a synthetic

maturity of three and five years from the listing date,” the company said.

The initial dividend rate of the preferred class B-2 subseries C shares has been set at 6.5864 percent per annum while that of the subseries D shares has been set at 7.7506 percent per annum.

If Cirtek does not redeem the two subseries C or subseries D preferred shares on the third and fifth year, respectively, the company will have to pay a higher dividend rate.

Proceeds from the offer will be used to primarily finance the additional capital expenditure and equipment, partial payments of maturing preferred class B2-A shares and maturing loans and working capital of Quintel USA Inc., Cirtek Electronics Corp. (CEC) and Cirtek Advanced Technologies and Solutions Inc. (CATSI).

“With the success of the offering, Cirtek will continue to maintain its roadmap to achieve key engagement

in the 5G market and will continue in developing and delivering innovative high-quality products, production flexibility, supply chain stability, and capability to work with customers on development of next generation products,” it said.

PNB Capital and Investment Corp. is the deal’s sole issue manager, lead underwriter and sole bookrunner.

Cirtek’s income in January to September more than doubled to $8.11 million (P408.58 million) from last year’s $3.62 million (P182.37 million).

Net sales rose 5 percent to $62.81 million from last year’s $59.52 million, mainly due to 12-percent increase in revenue contribution of CEC and 19 percent increase in revenue of CATSI. Revenue contribution from Quintel for the nine-month period amounted to $13.4 million, the company said.

Aboitiz to list retail bonds on PDEx

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

A

boitiz Power Corp. is set to list P12 billion in fixed rate retail bonds on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.

(PDEx).

This after PDEx approved Thursday the bond listing, including oversubscription.

“The PDEx approval paves the way for the secondary market trading of the Series ‘B’ bonds, with fixed interest rate of 3.9992 percent per annum maturing in 2025, and the Series ‘C’ bonds with a fixed interest rate of 5,0283 percent per annum maturing in 2028,” the power firm said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

The issuance forms the second

Meralco ties up with Peza

T

he Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) have formed a partnership to assist customers applying for electrical connections.

The partnership was sealed last November 24, Meralco said Thursday.

Under the partnership, Meralco will extend the implementation of electronic Certificates of Final Electrical Inspection (eCFEI) to economic zone locators. This paves the way for a more convenient way for electric service applicants to secure a CFEI, which is a requirement that certifies electrical wirings were inspected and found to be compliant with the provisions of the Philippine Electrical Code and other applicable government rules and regulations.

Peza will directly issue the applicants’ eCFEIs to Meralco, which in turn will notify them of receipt of certificates so that the business customers can move forward with their applications.

A three-month pilot implementation of the program began on December 1 within the Cavite Economic Zone, which is supplied with electricity by Meralco Ecozone Power.

The full implementation, which is targeted to start on March 1, 2022, will cover all Pezas-accredited businesses located within the Meralco franchise area. Lenie Lectura

tranche of its P30-billion securities under its shelf registration program approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission last March 1.

AboitizPower tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital, and First Metro Investment Corp. as joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters, and joint bookrunners for the offering.

AboitizPower, together with its partners, is the Philippines’ largest owner and operator of renewable energy based on installed capacity. In the next 10 years, the company will significantly expand its Cleanergy portfolio, in support of the government’s efforts to promote renewable energy in the country and as the

company’s contribution to the global renewable energy targets.

The power firm is aiming for a 50:50 Cleanergy and thermal capacity mix by 2030. It will spend P190 billion to develop 3,700 megawatts of new renewable energy projects by 2030.

The company also said it has remitted a total of P714 million to its host communities through the Energy Regulations (ER) 1-94 program.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) ER 1-94 stipulates that communities will get a share of one centavo per every kilowatt-hour produced by power generation plants that are hosted in their areas. The fund is meant to be used by host beneficiaries for the electrification of areas or households that have

no access to power, development and livelihood programs, as well as reforestation, watershed management, health, and environmental enhancement initiatives.

With a circular covering ER 1-94 funds issued in March 2020, host local government units may also use these shares to help manage the effects of the new virus, in accordance with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act. Around 119 of Aboitiz Power’s host communities have used the funds to build isolation facilities as well as purchase relief goods and medical supplies, among others. Other projects include the acquisition of testing kits, ambulances, multipurpose vehicles, and the establishment of Covid-19 testing laboratories.

Globe: Consumers first before technology

I

n a world where things are going digital and content permeates nearly all aspects of people’s lives, it is imperative for content creators to listen to consumers and build business models suitable for the growing market. This shift in customer behavior and demand for content essentials has prompted Globe to introduce innovations for a better customer experience.

This was shared by Nikko Acosta, Globe Senior Vice President for Content Business and Product Management, at the recent Telecoms World Asia 2021. Acosta was one of the panelists during the session titled “Turning increasing demand for content into a growing digital business model.”

“Whenever things are unclear, go to the market, and understand your market. In the end, we’re all consumers. Let’s think like consumers before we think technology,” he said.

Acosta noted that consumers today are into a lot of things—from learning and upskilling, productivity in work, e-commerce, entertainment like video and music, entrepreneurship, health and fitness, gaming and sports, to fandom and communities.

Globe is in the center of these activities to ensure that good content is delivered to customers who consider it not only as a product but more as a lifestyle.

“Content lives and breathes as part of our digital strategy especially as we head back to normalcy. We want to be a digital platform beyond data and connectivity and as an access to

Contributed photo

all kinds of services consumers use content for. We also use content and digital to improve customer experience delivery to our B2B and B2C customers. We want to represent Globe strongly, positively in this digital world through content,” he said.

Globe supported customer demand for content with a continuous expansion of its partner portfolio, which grew by 88 percent from 2019 to around 100 partners to date. Together, the company reinvents digital experience by building communities where fans are empowered to express themselves, bringing live events inside the homes, and going beyond data by creating unique offers.

However, for content to thrive, Acosta said creators should explore various business models for the markets they are serving and work-

ing. This includes managing the data offers, doing advertising and other revenue-generating measures including sponsorships through the content partnerships.

For new revenue streams, two important models that Globe has adopted are bundling and data burn.

Globe no longer limits its bundles to mobile and data services. Instead, it bundles various content with data, relevant to the customers’ digital lifestyle.

The shift in subscriber behavior to at-home digital activities has caused the increase in Globe’s data usage, posting an 11-percent increase in revenue growth from last year. Data burn is driven by online activities such as viral content from TikTok, learning online, watching Netflix, playing games like Mobile Legends, and shopping during mega sales.

Alfredo Pascual named next president of MAP

T

he Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) will be led next year by Alfredo Espinosa Pascual, a business leader who has involvement in various corporations and nonprofit organizations.

The 73rd president of the business group brings with him years of experience in the industry, not only in the corporate world but also the academe. He is succeeding Far Eastern University Chair Aurelio Luis R. Montinola III. Pascual is currently the lead independent director (ID) at SM Investment Corp. In addition, he is an ID for Megawide Construction and Concepcion Industrial.

He is a board member in Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), Institute for Solidarity in Asia, FINEX Academy, University of the Philippines (UP) Foundation, Philippine Council for Foreign Relations, and US-Philippines Society. In 2018 to 2019, he was ICD’s president and chief executive officer.

The MAP official served as president and co-chair of UP from 2011 to 2017, launching reforms and programs that helped the university to become research-intensive, in addition to raising its international ranking.

“He enabled UP to generate significant increases in financial resources from government budget allocations, private donations, and income-generating projects,” MAP said. “Extensive modernization and expansion of the campuses’ physical facilities, research laboratories, cyber-infrastructure, and information systems became possible under his leadership.”

Pascual was also a trustee at the International Rice Research Institute and Philippine Institute for Development Studies.

Prior to his UP stint, Pascual took on several positions at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for nearly two decades. These include Director for Private Sector Operations, Director for Project Finance, Advisor for Pub-

Alfredo Pascual Photo from www.pids.gov.ph

lic-Private Partnership, and Senior Investment Officer.

He crafted a strategy that provided the framework for ADB’s initiative in promoting the private sector as an economic growth driver. He also looked after several infrastructure and financial sector projects in the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

In the 1980s, he also served at Asian Institute of Management as in management educator role as finance professor.

His other affiliations include membership in Rotary Club of Makati and the Philippine-American Association of Scientists and Engineers. He is also president of the global Association of Former Employees of ADB. Pascual completed his Masters in Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry (cum laude) from UP. He was conferred honorary doctorates by his alma mater and four other universities.

Other officials leading MAP next year are DITO CME Holdings Inc. Chief Operating Officer Donald Lim, Vice President; SGV & Co. Chair and Country Managing Partner Wilson Tan, Treasurer; Lazaro Bernardo Tiu & Associates Managing Director Romy Bernardo, Assistant Treasurer; CEO Advisors Inc. Managing Director Maan Hontiveros, Secretary; and Isla Lipana & Co. Chair Emeritus Alex Cabrera, Assistant Secretary.

MAP Governors include Brain Trust Inc. Chair Ciel Habito, Phinma Education Network President Chito Salazar and Metro Pacific Water President Babes Singson. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Friday, December 3, 2021

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

December 2, 2021

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

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

1,081,540 573,613,940 170,120,899.50 3,650,630 13,568 2,368,493 250,483,850 289,360 2,452,090 2,282 671,284 123,099,206 43,743,365 41,730 484,050 106,450 13,440 910 2,850 35,090 17,080 52,080 37,500

-91,058,948 12,123,356 -456,680.00 -136,657,895 -335,394 117,000 -7,813,961 1,733,127 -20,000 -31,320 -

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 11.4 11.44 10.74 11.44 10.56 11.44 45,522,100 504,665,362 ALSONS CONS 1.06 1.14 1.06 1.14 1.06 1.14 19,000 20,220 ABOITIZ POWER 29.6 29.7 29.3 29.8 29.25 29.7 1,470,700 43,566,635 BASIC ENERGY 0.64 0.65 0.6 0.66 0.6 0.65 43,168,000 27,663,060 FIRST GEN 28.9 29 29 29.5 28.5 28.9 1,021,100 29,701,925 FIRST PHIL HLDG 72.4 72.7 73 73 72.4 72.4 53,950 3,921,402 MERALCO 298.2 299.8 295 299.8 292.4 299.8 425,400 127,021,522 MANILA WATER 23.5 23.9 23.8 24.2 23.5 23.5 1,452,200 34,410,030 PETRON 3.18 3.19 3.11 3.2 3.11 3.2 914,000 2,880,570 PETROENERGY 4 4.1 4.15 4.15 4.1 4.1 92,000 378,300 PHX PETROLEUM 11.4 11.44 10.72 11.4 10.72 11.4 19,900 221,350 PILIPINAS SHELL 20.6 20.7 20.6 20.9 20.55 20.6 191,500 3,972,740 SPC POWER 13.74 13.8 13.72 13.8 13.68 13.74 94,000 1,290,610 VIVANT 14.5 16 14.5 14.5 14.5 14.5 100 1,450 AGRINURTURE 3.96 3.97 3.98 4 3.97 4 111,000 441,390 AXELUM 2.92 2.93 2.84 2.92 2.8 2.92 890,000 2,559,020 BOGO MEDELLIN 61.05 70.75 70.8 70.8 61.05 61.05 140 8,937 CENTURY FOOD 26.5 26.75 26.1 26.95 26.05 26.75 784,500 20,921,570 DEL MONTE 14.1 14.18 14.1 14.1 14.02 14.1 32,200 452,576 DNL INDUS 8.68 8.7 8.5 8.75 8.41 8.7 3,532,600 30,628,210 EMPERADOR 17.98 18 17.9 18.04 17.76 18 9,647,600 172,555,216 SMC FOODANDBEV 74.35 75.7 75 75.7 73.6 75.7 23,030 1,726,234.50 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.52 0.55 0.54 0.54 0.52 0.52 29,000 15,100 FRUITAS HLDG 1.22 1.23 1.22 1.25 1.22 1.23 2,279,000 2,795,420 GINEBRA 99.95 100 99 100 98 99.95 35,910 3,557,180 JOLLIBEE 224.2 224.8 222 227 219 224.2 1,485,840 332,846,468 MAXS GROUP 6.4 6.5 6.4 6.45 6.35 6.45 221,800 1,422,530 MG HLDG 0.15 0.159 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.15 240,000 36,000 MONDE NISSIN 16.7 16.76 16.88 16.94 16.56 16.76 38,840,300 650,783,046 SHAKEYS PIZZA 8.48 8.5 8.41 8.5 8.35 8.5 101,500 853,783 ROXAS AND CO 0.66 0.67 0.68 0.69 0.66 0.67 446,000 302,440 RFM CORP 4.58 4.64 4.54 4.63 4.54 4.6 4,000 18,310 ROXAS HLDG 1.18 1.3 1.18 1.18 1.18 1.18 17,000 20,060 SWIFT FOODS 0.11 0.112 0.111 0.112 0.11 0.11 2,150,000 238,310 UNIV ROBINA 130.3 131.2 128.8 132 128.6 130.3 2,623,010 341,887,620 VITARICH 0.73 0.74 0.74 0.74 0.73 0.73 160,000 118,070 VICTORIAS 2.28 2.42 2.28 2.28 2.28 2.28 16,000 36,480 CEMEX HLDG 1.16 1.17 1.16 1.18 1.15 1.17 30,163,000 35,138,110 EAGLE CEMENT 13.66 13.7 13.62 13.66 13.62 13.66 9,300 126,918 EEI CORP 6.36 6.4 6.35 6.4 6.35 6.4 20,400 130,232 HOLCIM 5.38 5.39 5.34 5.5 5.34 5.39 2,856,500 15,328,106 KEEPERS HLDG 1.47 1.48 1.51 1.52 1.43 1.48 73,745,000 109,535,430 MEGAWIDE 5.1 5.15 5.07 5.19 5 5.1 1,612,600 8,240,403 PHINMA 18 18.08 17.78 18 17.78 18 53,100 951,602 TKC METALS 0.82 0.85 0.99 0.99 0.82 0.82 576,000 478,300 VULCAN INDL 0.95 0.96 0.94 0.97 0.93 0.96 1,759,000 1,679,290 CROWN ASIA 1.69 1.72 1.7 1.72 1.69 1.72 31,000 52,660 EUROMED 1.49 1.51 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 16,000 24,000 PRYCE CORP 5.82 5.87 5.84 5.87 5.84 5.87 53,900 316,194 CONCEPCION 21.3 21.7 21.3 21.65 21.3 21.65 1,100 23,780 GREENERGY 2.31 2.32 2.28 2.35 2.28 2.32 4,098,000 9,525,980 INTEGRATED MICR 8.5 8.55 8.51 8.55 8.48 8.55 667,000 5,674,594 IONICS 0.71 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.72 50,000 36,000 SFA SEMICON 1.05 1.09 1.05 1.06 1.05 1.06 177,000 185,950 CIRTEK HLDG 3.88 3.9 3.8 3.99 3.6 3.9 2,188,000 8,394,460

34,957,204 -3,290,790 -106,300 12,758,895 -3,064,380.50 38,748,400 10,708,760 -825,940 -957,635 317,874 -191,100 -2,900 -374,965 -2,808 16,769,496 7,080,744 -1,150,661.50 31,790 904,719 -123,837,166 3,180 -153,735,146 -137,794,939.00 -1,843,460 2,900 -1,343,105 -18,000 -11,470 -250,062 -257,410 716,298 8,640 1,050 75,000

HOLDING & FRIMS

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT KEPPEL HLDG A LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP METRO PAC INV PACIFICA HLDG REPUBLIC GLASS SOLID GROUP SYNERGY GRID SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

43.65 119.3 90 24.95 7.31 9.35 48.75 8.8 19.96 56.3 18.82 113.5 110.9 1.55 3.99 0.59 3.22 0.91 0.285 900 0.61 209 2,600

0.95 5.7 828 50.3 11.04 5.57 7.28 0.91 0.385 5.12 7.98 7.79 552 3.5 59 6.1 0.63 2.94 10.02 3.86 2.91 2.81 1.11 14.68 947.5 112.1 125 0.235 0.169

44 120.4 90.2 25 8.48 9.36 48.9 8.9 20 57.05 19.5 114 111 1.62 4 0.63 3.36 1.05 0.32 950 0.63 213.4 2,700

0.96 5.8 830 50.4 11.12 5.58 7.49 0.92 0.39 5.14 7.99 7.9 556 3.57 59.1 6.2 0.65 2.99 10.04 3.9 3.09 2.96 1.18 14.7 949.5 112.8 130 0.26 0.17

44 118.1 89.7 24.5 8.48 9.4 49.05 8.9 19.92 57.05 19.64 114.5 104 1.63 4.01 0.62 3.36 0.91 0.285 855 0.61 206 2,402

0.95 5.79 810 48.6 10.8 5.5 7.49 0.9 0.415 5.08 7.9 7.79 560 3.58 57.5 6.1 0.63 2.97 9.98 3.82 2.95 2.95 1.11 14.46 932 112.9 122.1 0.245 0.173

44 121.7 90.95 25.25 8.48 9.4 50.3 8.9 20 57.05 19.64 115.7 112.5 1.63 4.01 0.63 3.36 0.91 0.285 900 0.61 209 2,698

0.97 5.79 844.5 53.4 11.16 5.59 7.49 0.91 0.42 5.19 8.07 7.79 574.5 3.58 59.4 6.1 0.66 2.97 10.08 3.9 2.96 2.95 1.11 14.74 953 112.9 126 0.245 0.173

43.6 118.1 88.8 24.5 8.48 9.31 48.6 8.8 19.9 57.05 18.5 113 103.9 1.6 4 0.62 3.36 0.91 0.285 854 0.61 206 2,400

0.92 5.79 810 48.35 10.8 5.45 7.49 0.9 0.38 5.08 7.88 7.79 552 3.5 56.95 6.1 0.63 2.93 9.89 3.82 2.95 2.95 1.11 14.28 932 111.3 122.1 0.235 0.17

43.9 119.3 90 25 8.48 9.35 48.75 8.8 20 57.05 19.5 114 111 1.6 4 0.63 3.36 0.91 0.285 900 0.61 209 2,698

0.96 5.79 828 50.3 11.12 5.57 7.49 0.91 0.385 5.12 7.98 7.79 552 3.5 59 6.1 0.65 2.93 10.02 3.86 2.95 2.95 1.11 14.7 947.5 112.8 126 0.235 0.17

24,600 4,781,460 1,893,330 146,600 1,600 252,700 5,095,800 32,700 122,800 40 35,200 1,079,200 395,940 26,000 121,000 169,000 4,000 1,000 10,000 40 28,000 250 15

2,856,000 2,000 510,740 2,921,700 2,445,200 1,248,800 5,200 37,000 3,140,000 1,228,700 5,829,700 1,300 394,950 70,000 3,614,460 48,600 209,000 135,000 7,984,400 18,871,000 4,000 20,000 1,000 5,203,300 386,390 122,260 5,220 240,000 2,250,000

2,714,160 11,580 423,658,785 145,971,685 27,008,462 6,899,565 38,948 33,550 1,238,900 6,297,800 46,613,824 10,127 221,427,010 245,530 211,810,336 296,460 134,650 396,280 79,656,666 73,098,520 11,810 59,000 1,110 75,963,028 365,603,720 13,744,862 656,139 58,200 384,070

PROPERTY

ARTHALAND CORP 0.62 0.63 0.62 0.62 0.62 0.62 100,000 62,000 AYALA LAND 34 34.15 33.3 34.35 33.25 34 13,734,800 467,533,770 ARANETA PROP 1 1.02 1 1 1 1 3,000 3,000 AREIT RT 44.95 45 43.7 45.4 43.65 45 5,417,700 241,859,835 BELLE CORP 1.35 1.36 1.35 1.35 1.35 1.35 1,885,000 2,544,750 A BROWN 0.79 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.77 0.8 289,000 230,150 CITYLAND DEVT 0.72 0.74 0.73 0.73 0.72 0.72 205,000 147,700 CROWN EQUITIES 0.102 0.106 0.105 0.108 0.105 0.106 21,050,000 2,231,400 CEBU HLDG 6.11 6.4 6.07 6.07 6.07 6.07 7,400 44,918 CEB LANDMASTERS 2.82 2.83 2.82 2.84 2.81 2.82 829,000 2,339,970 CENTURY PROP 0.39 0.395 0.425 0.425 0.38 0.39 33,870,000 13,322,200 DOUBLEDRAGON 7.39 7.4 7.25 7.49 7.1 7.4 1,280,500 9,458,906 DDMP RT 1.79 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.78 1.8 4,130,000 7,409,490 DM WENCESLAO 6.8 6.85 6.8 6.92 6.8 6.85 91,000 621,075 EMPIRE EAST 0.26 0.265 0.265 0.265 0.265 0.265 100,000 26,500 EVER GOTESCO 0.31 0.315 0.305 0.32 0.305 0.315 4,960,000 1,550,250 FILINVEST RT 7.57 7.6 7.56 7.57 7.46 7.57 3,705,600 27,974,382 FILINVEST LAND 1.11 1.12 1.1 1.12 1.1 1.11 3,297,000 3,652,290 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.83 0.84 0.81 0.84 0.81 0.84 790,000 650,290 8990 HLDG 10.02 10.2 10.54 10.6 9.71 10.2 106,000 1,083,347 PHIL INFRADEV 1.12 1.14 1.09 1.12 1.09 1.12 257,000 280,970 CITY AND LAND 0.92 0.95 0.87 0.92 0.87 0.92 66,000 59,130 MEGAWORLD 3 3.03 2.99 3.1 2.99 3 25,694,000 78,146,270 MRC ALLIED 0.265 0.275 0.27 0.27 0.265 0.265 6,380,000 1,707,200 MREIT RT 18.28 18.3 18.28 18.34 18.26 18.3 7,934,500 145,226,854 PHIL ESTATES 0.51 0.52 0.54 0.55 0.51 0.51 13,067,000 6,861,340 PRIMEX CORP 2 2.01 1.87 2.05 1.87 2.01 1,096,000 2,202,900 RL COMM RT 7.18 7.2 7.17 7.2 7.11 7.2 6,029,900 43,118,542 ROBINSONS LAND 17.82 17.84 17.7 17.9 17.32 17.84 1,375,100 24,450,124 PHIL REALTY 0.211 0.223 0.217 0.224 0.217 0.223 210,000 46,270 STA LUCIA LAND 2.73 2.93 2.8 2.93 2.72 2.93 119,000 344,010 SM PRIME HLDG 34.7 34.9 34.95 35.85 34.6 34.7 9,512,800 332,941,915 VISTAMALLS 3.6 3.79 3.6 3.79 3.6 3.79 17,000 61,390 SUNTRUST HOME 1.1 1.13 1.09 1.16 1.08 1.13 14,908,000 16,486,220 VISTA LAND 3.63 3.65 3.61 3.69 3.58 3.63 477,000 1,731,030

SERVICES ABS CBN 13.12 13.14 13.06 13.12 12.88 13.12 173,000 2,256,722 GMA NETWORK 13.58 13.6 13.32 13.68 13.28 13.6 474,800 6,411,464 MANILA BULLETIN 0.41 0.435 0.41 0.41 0.41 0.41 20,000 8,200 GLOBE TELECOM 3,180 3,230 3,120 3,246 3,120 3,180 118,520 379,032,980 PLDT 1,615 1,620 1,620 1,642 1,610 1,615 139,620 226,985,415 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.071 0.072 0.071 0.073 0.07 0.072 60,570,000 4,346,450 CONVERGE 30.65 30.8 30.65 31.1 30.1 30.8 6,270,900 192,682,400 DFNN INC 2.53 2.68 2.57 2.69 2.53 2.68 568,000 1,481,900 DITO CME HLDG 5.49 5.5 5.25 5.55 5.2 5.5 5,767,400 31,202,738 IMPERIAL 1.42 1.49 1.42 1.42 1.42 1.42 2,000 2,840 JACKSTONES 1.8 1.91 1.85 1.85 1.8 1.8 6,000 10,900 NOW CORP 1.51 1.53 1.53 1.58 1.5 1.51 650,000 982,790 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.31 0.315 0.32 0.32 0.305 0.315 1,130,000 351,850 PHILWEB 1.83 1.9 1.9 1.94 1.8 1.9 443,000 810,210 2GO GROUP 7.8 8 8 8 7.71 7.8 2,400 18,542 ASIAN TERMINALS 13.8 14.14 14.16 14.16 14.16 14.16 200 2,832 CHELSEA 1.62 1.67 1.68 1.68 1.61 1.67 710,000 1,171,550 CEBU AIR 43 43.1 42 43.9 41.9 43.1 429,500 18,492,260 INTL CONTAINER 198.1 198.2 196.5 198.1 193.1 198.1 1,243,130 244,542,978 LBC EXPRESS 21.9 22 21 21.9 21 21.9 600 12,690 LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.9 0.96 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 150,000 135,000 MACROASIA 5.3 5.31 5.11 5.34 5.1 5.3 2,789,200 14,677,730 METROALLIANCE A 1.32 1.39 1.32 1.32 1.32 1.32 9,000 11,880 HARBOR STAR 0.89 0.92 0.91 0.91 0.89 0.89 110,000 99,920 ACESITE HOTEL 1.42 1.45 1.49 1.49 1.45 1.45 9,000 13,090 DISCOVERY WORLD 1.95 2 2 2 2 2 6,000 12,000 WATERFRONT 0.465 0.49 0.47 0.47 0.46 0.465 260,000 121,650 STI HLDG 0.345 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.345 0.345 810,000 282,750 BERJAYA 7.59 7.6 7.25 7.6 6.96 7.6 1,616,000 12,075,313 BLOOMBERRY 7 7.04 6.75 7.15 6.75 7 6,550,400 45,745,781 PACIFIC ONLINE 1.8 1.99 1.91 2.04 1.7 1.99 185,000 336,530 LEISURE AND RES 1.45 1.48 1.49 1.5 1.45 1.48 43,000 62,820 PH RESORTS GRP 0.85 0.86 0.8 0.88 0.8 0.86 824,000 711,820 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.43 0.435 0.43 0.435 0.42 0.435 2,460,000 1,051,900 ALLDAY 0.7 0.71 0.7 0.71 0.69 0.7 71,141,000 49,774,320 ALLHOME 9.23 9.33 9.1 9.4 9 9.23 757,100 6,992,644 METRO RETAIL 1.41 1.42 1.39 1.43 1.39 1.41 941,000 1,327,440 PUREGOLD 39.1 39.55 39.9 39.9 39 39.1 1,551,900 61,269,955 ROBINSONS RTL 63.4 63.45 62.6 63.9 62.35 63.4 289,040 18,301,438 PHIL SEVEN CORP 88.5 88.95 89 89 88.1 88.5 15,330 1,364,081.50 SSI GROUP 1.12 1.13 1.12 1.14 1.1 1.13 5,642,000 6,332,450 WILCON DEPOT 31.2 31.25 31.3 31.3 30.2 31.2 757,300 23,524,275 GOLDEN MV 526 535 535 535 535 535 50 26,750 IPM HLDG 7 7.02 7 7.02 7 7.02 7,500 52,510 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.64 0.65 0.62 0.66 0.62 0.65 10,481,000 6,786,820

MINING & OIL

ATOK 5.6 5.62 5.6 5.63 5.6 5.61 31,000 173,785 APEX MINING 1.38 1.39 1.4 1.4 1.37 1.4 49,000 67,860 ATLAS MINING 6.05 6.19 6.02 6.21 5.96 6.21 155,300 935,879 BENGUET A 5.1 5.38 5.05 5.48 5.05 5.1 5,700 29,088 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.27 0.275 0.275 0.275 0.275 0.275 90,000 24,750 CENTURY PEAK 2.6 2.65 2.5 2.65 2.5 2.65 15,000 38,250 FERRONICKEL 2.11 2.12 2.05 2.12 2.05 2.12 949,000 1,971,580 LEPANTO A 0.125 0.128 0.129 0.129 0.125 0.128 280,000 35,550 LEPANTO B 0.13 0.139 0.139 0.139 0.138 0.139 410,000 56,970 MANILA MINING A 0.0087 0.0088 0.0089 0.0089 0.0087 0.0087 22,000,000 193,500 MARCVENTURES 1.25 1.28 1.25 1.31 1.17 1.28 5,975,000 7,366,780 NICKEL ASIA 5.1 5.11 4.9 5.18 4.88 5.11 4,718,000 23,965,070 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.73 0.74 0.72 0.74 0.72 0.73 179,000 130,440 PX MINING 4.78 4.83 4.76 4.84 4.76 4.78 295,000 1,422,920 SEMIRARA MINING 23.3 23.4 23 23.45 22.6 23.4 1,115,700 25,964,465 UNITED PARAGON 0.0059 0.0062 0.006 0.006 0.0059 0.0059 13,000,000 77,400 ACE ENEXOR 24 24.5 22 24.5 21.5 24.5 848,100 19,930,290 ORNTL PETROL A 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.01 7,600,000 77,400 ORNTL PETROL B 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 28,000,000 280,000 PHILODRILL 0.0089 0.009 0.0089 0.0089 0.0088 0.0089 10,000,000 88,500 PXP ENERGY 5.9 6.01 5.88 6 5.85 6 324,700 1,926,853

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF B 99.6 101 101 101 101 101 80 8,080 HOUSE PREF A 98.6 101 100 100 98.1 98.1 2,000 197,151 AC PREF B1 511.5 526.5 515 515 511 511 200 102,240 ALCO PREF C 104 108 108 108 108 108 80 8,640 BRN PREF A 100 100.4 99.75 100.4 99.75 100 4,360 435,374 CEB PREF 43 44.2 43 43.5 42.5 43.5 7,700 333,800 CPG PREF A 102.1 103 103 103 103 103 80 8,240 DD PREF 100.6 100.8 100.8 100.8 100.6 100.6 9,400 945,648 FGEN PREF G 105.4 109.5 109.5 109.5 109.5 109.5 90 9,855 GTCAP PREF B 1,030 1,040 1,030 1,030 1,030 1,030 100 103,000 JFC PREF B 1,005 1,010 1,005 1,005 1,005 1,005 60 60,300 MWIDE PREF 2A 98 100.2 98 98 98 98 10,000 980,000 MWIDE PREF 4 98 100.6 99 100.7 98 100.6 31,720 3,133,027 PNX PREF 3B 104 104.7 104.7 104.7 104.7 104.7 80 8,376 PNX PREF 4 987 996 989 997 986 996 1,400 1,381,980 PCOR PREF 3A 1,049 1,108 1,108 1,108 1,108 1,108 10 11,080 PCOR PREF 3B 1,100 1,110 1,105 1,110 1,105 1,110 2,720 3,005,850 SMC PREF 2F 79.4 79.6 79.6 79.6 79.6 79.6 380 30,248 SMC PREF 2H 75.8 77 75.8 77 75.8 77 21,510 1,630,590 SMC PREF 2I 79.4 79.45 79.35 79.45 79.3 79.45 48,710 3,864,449.50 SMC PREF 2J 76.5 77 76.4 77 76.4 77 33,160 2,533,490 SMC PREF 2K 75.5 76.4 75.45 76.4 75.3 76.4 48,600 3,664,775.50

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 12.1 12.48 12.3 12.3 12.1 12.1 30,000 365,040 GMA HLDG PDR 13.2 13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6 100 1,360

WARRANTS TECH WARRANT 0.85 0.88 0.87 0.87 0.81 0.85 1,483,000 1,244,100

-755,010 34,829,700 -6,392,710 -1,091,446 -642,617 35,952 1,228,735 5,184,355 7,790 -50,153,085 10,740 47,175,580 14,850 -1,927,359 10,628,320 -855,170 -60,029,345 -1,204,177 -31,227 -313,690 -187,612,165 30,264,990 -44,918 45,260 -30,150 -1,468,617 -531,610 15,700 -1,083,968 1,586,040 50,556 4,219,920 135,000 -89,412,408 -540 -10,250 -8,742,817 -2,902,652 -46,873,960 -3,790 246,770 -128,313,390 -67,190,640 -71,000.00 -63,496,385 280,900 1,295,231 9,000 0 10,800 780 -52,080 -8,366,305 69,073,376 4,665,214 91,000 -71,500 1,568,683 -20,950 8,418,550 2,871,648 -34,751,480 -7,224,051 -903,223.50 -4,458,320 1,614,400 -21,400 351,180 -13,947 38,250 369,080 -232,010 577,600 -81,650 11,692,995 1,668,300 17,700 200,375 78,800 -414,530 -113,550

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ALTUS PROP ITALPINAS MERRYMART

17.76 2.08 2.9

FIRST METRO ETF

106.8

18 2.09 2.92

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

108.5

17.68 2.04 2.85

18 2.12 2.94

17.68 2 2.84

18 2.09 2.9

36,600 393,000 1,435,000

657,016 813,860 4,143,400

- -10,500 -92,290

107 108 106.8 106.8 20,670 2,223,851 214,395

www.businessmirror.com.ph

First Gen borrows ₧2.8-B to fund Avion power plant

F

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

irst Gen Corp. is borrowing P2.8 billion from banks to fund the requirements of its 97-megawatt (MW) Avion dual-fired open-cycle gas turbine power plant.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Thursday, the Lopez-led firm said its wholly- owned subsidiary, Prime Meridian Powergen Corp. (PMPC), signed a total of P2.8-billion 3-year term loan facilities with Bank of the Philippine Islands and ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch.

The proceeds from the loans will

be primarily used to fund the general and corporate working capital requirements of PMPC, which owns and operates the Avion plant.

“This is the first term loan of PMPC and it is reflective of the Avion power plant’s strong and stable cash flows since starting operations in 2016. The combined debt facilities totaling P2.8 billion is a testimony

to the strong support and continuing confidence of our lenders in First Gen’s natural-gas business,” said Francis Giles B. Puno, President and COO of First Gen. First Gen’s gas portfolio now stands at 2,017 MW. The power firm is set to deliver the country’s first Interim Offshore LNG Terminal Project, as well as additional natural gas-fired power plants.

“Today, we are honored and grateful that our lenders continue to be supportive of our endeavors to deliver clean and cost-efficient power to Filipinos,” added Puno.

First Gen is a leading independent power producer in the Philippines that primarily utilizes clean and indigenous fuels. It has 3,495MW of installed capacity in its portfolio, which accounts for 19 percent of the country’s net generation.

The company reported last month that its net income as of end-September grew by 11 percent to P10.3 billion from last year’s P9.6 billion.

The Lopez-led firm attributed the growth to the strong performance of its gas-fired power plants and renewable energy (RE) facilities from January to September.

Revenues from the electricity sales of its power facilities stood at P78.1 billion at end-September this year, up by 18 percent from last year’s P68.6-billion. The natural gas portfolio accounted for 59 percent of the revenues; hydro plants, 4 percent; and geothermal, wind, solar revenues of its subsidiary Energy Development Corp., 35 percent.

The natural gas platform posted a 20-percent year-on-year rise in recurring earnings to P7.9 billion due to higher electricity sales.

Medilines sets plan to sustain growth M

edilines Distributors Inc., a distributor of top medical equipment in the country, said it will continue to focus on resilient products that have allowed the company to grow.

“Crafting our product portfolio is at the heart of Medilines’ strategy that has brought us sustainable growth over the years,” Medilines chairman Virgilio B. Villar said.

“We focus on products with resilient demand while building our capabilities to dominate certain markets rather than chasing a hot selling item that everybody else is selling,” he said.

Villar’s company is separate entity from those of his brother, former politician Manuel B. Villar Jr., chairman of property developer Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc. and his family’s other privately-held firms.

Medilines said this strategy provides stability in sales as their products remain necessary for patient care regardless of whether the pandemic prolongs. The company is the largest distributor in the Philippines of cancer therapy equipment with over 90 percent market share and of dialysis machines with over 50 percent share according to an independent study conducted by research firm Ken Research Ltd. Cancer and kidney illnesses are among the most prevalent diseases afflicting Filipinos. Medilines also distributes diagnostic imaging devices, such as CT scans, x-rays and MRI’s. Medilines, touted as the country’s first pure-play healthcare initial public offering, is scheduled to list its common shares on the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange on December 7, Tuesday under the trading symbol “MEDIC”.

“Amid the volatility, it is a welcome development for the Philippine stock market to finally have a pureplay healthcare listed company as the companies in this sector are typically considered as defensive stocks,” Gerry B. Valenciano, president and CEO of PNB Capital and Investment Corp., said.

“Demand for healthcare is seen to be resilient and less impacted by economic changes. We see growth to be driven by the changing demographic trends such as the ageing population and increasing awareness in the importance of healthcare.”

Medilines has demonstrated a track record of growth at a higher rate than that of its industry attributing to the growing demand for its products. From 2018 to 2020, their topline grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9 percent to just under P1.5 billion, while net income grew at a CAGR of 16 percent to P103 million.

Its revenues for the six-month period ended June 30, reached P815 million while its net income was at P100 million.

Linear accelerators or LINACs, which contributed over 60 percent of the company’s sales for the period, are used for the treatment of cancer.

Ken Research estimates that the cancer therapy equipment market will grow at a CAGR of 18.8 percent until 2025 due to investments being made into developing treatment centers. The National Cancer Prevention and Control Action Plan, for instance, provides for the establishment of cancer centers in major cities nationwide.

“To sustain our growth in the dialysis category, we are transforming this business line into a one-stop-

Thai logistics firm enters PHL market

T

hailand-based courier and logistics service company Flash Express has entered the Philippine market, with the end goal of becoming a leader in its field.

Flash Express Philippines Shareholder Representative Tony Luo shared how the principal has chosen to penetrate the local market after it expanded to Malaysia.

“Actually we started the market research two years ago. Based on our research and compared to the common industry partners in Malaysia, the Philippines notices better logistics in the e-commerce market,” he told reporters during their recent simultaneous launch both onsite and online. “We have a big coverage here—from online to offline—and then, the e-commerce

market continues to rise. So that’s why we are here.”

The company started operating here last August, and since then has made its presence felt with 138 hubs and outlets nationwide manned by around 3,000 employees. It offers door-to-door free pick-up, low cash on delivery rates, fast delivery service, 24/7 customer service, and 365 days operations with no holidays to both business and individual customers.

“Flash Express is definitely ready to serve the Filipinos after months of strategic preparations. In just three months, we were able to make our services available to Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,” said Flash Express Philippines General Manager John Tarampi. Roderick L. Abad

shop where our customers can buy not only the equipment but also their regular supply of consumables,” Villar said.

“This will also help grow our bottom line as consumables tend to

have higher profit margins versus equipment.”

PNB Capital is the sole issue manager, lead underwriter and sole bookrunner for the company’s initial public offering. VG Cabuag

mutual funds

December 2, 2021

NAV

One Year Three Year Five Year

per share

Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

222.66

-0.7%

-3.59%

-1.55%

-2%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.6239

24.43%

5.56%

3.73%

23.68%

-7.1%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0869

-4.41%

-1.47%

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7498 -5.02%

-5.6% n.a.

-7.75%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7726 2.94%

-1.8% n.a.

4.18%

First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a

4.9709

-0.7%

1.86%

-1.37%

0.16%

0.6%

First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.7443

-1.05%

-3.47%

-3.45%

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

93.93

-2.45%

-5.99% n.a.

-7.79%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

45.6204

-0.9%

-2.17%

-0.03%

-2.6%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

478.31

-0.92%

-2.08%

-0.66%

-2.17%

Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d

1.12

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.2713

10.81%

0.77%

1.57%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

34.7795

2.28%

-1.38%

0.68%

0.03%

-0.6% n.a. n.a.

-2.11%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.8937

4.72% n.a. n.a.

2.07% 8.83%

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.7043

-0.04%

-1.38%

0.68%

-1.81%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

785.31

-0.24%

-1.4%

0.63%

-2.03%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7203

0.18%

-5.46%

-2.55%

0.19%

0.56%

-3.93%

-0.96%

-1.03%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.5866

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8955 - 0.65%

-1.74%

0.37%

-2.42%

United Fund, Inc. -a

-1.45%

1.28%

-0.5%

-1.18%

1.11%

3.302

0.6%

-4.13%

Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c

105.617

-0.12%

-1.8%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities $1.1294

-4.43%

5.77%

5.52%

-6.11%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.812

ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

12.02%

15.44%

11.99%

8.32%

-0.82%

Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a

1.655

1.11%

0.2%

-0.15%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.207

-1.73%

0.34%

-0.06%

-3.43%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.6211

0.56%

1.53%

1.63%

-0.22%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.2015

2.28% n.a. n.a.

NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

2.35%

2.04%

1.9633

0.55%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.6613

-2.34%

1.42%

0.92%

-3.4%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.3982

-2.22%

1.26%

0.8%

-3.2%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0665

-0.22%

0.24%

0.68%

-1.18%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.5291 -0.23%

-1.05%

0.28%

-1.24%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9712

-3.95% n.a. n.a.

-5.03%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.9063

-3.3% n.a. n.a.

-4.52%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8943

-2.83% n.a. n.a.

-4.16%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

0.9145

4.07%

-0.4%

0.4%

1.72%

-0.19%

3.02%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a

$0.03763

-3.78%

2.6%

1.49%

-3.76%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$1.0508

-6.97%

3.69%

3.43%

-7.01%

8.14%

11.2%

8.8%

4.98%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a $1.1899 0.71%

5.82%

4.35%

-1.02%

0.72%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.7375

Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

373.79

1.08%

2.94%

2.62%

1.923

1.32%

1.4%

0.34%

1.19%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2424

1.01%

3.1%

3.97%

0.84%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2461

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

-1.97%

1.83%

1.7%

-2.27%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4204 -1.14%

3.15%

1.86%

-1.34%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.3898

-5.11%

4.02%

1.89%

-5.19%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3164

-0.02%

3.77%

2.71%

-0.37%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9503

-0.74%

4.23%

2.6%

-1.27%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0245

-1.16%

4.82%

2.3%

-1.82%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.5291

10.61%

8.48%

5.95%

10.07%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-1.23%

3.91%

3.07%

-1.83%

1.7228

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$488.37

1.17%

3%

2.48%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є219.44

0.36%

1.09%

0.94%

0.1%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2018

-5.36%

2.29%

1.78%

-6.09%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 -2.63%

0.9%

1.46%

0.95%

-2.63%

-0.23%

-0.76%

-6.72%

-2%

5.04%

2.73%

-2.4%

3.1%

2.06%

0.11%

3.16%

1.55%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$1.0167

-6.93%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.4791

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0623699 0.35%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1462 -2.34%

-2.4%

Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

2.56%

0.95%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.057 0.94% n.a. n.a.

131.05

0.85%

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1

1.32%

1.314

1.13% 1.49%

2.86% 2.64%

2.53%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a

$1.06

0.8%

1.47% n.a.

0.61%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d 1.33

22.86% n.a. n.a.

17.74%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a,d

$0.96

-1.03% n.a. n.a.

-2.04%

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 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last July 8, 2021 (formerly, Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc.).

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance

CIC allows entities to swap credit data

C

REDIT reports from the database of the Credit Information Corp. (CIC) may now be transferred from one financial institution to another, the CIC announced in a statement on Thursday.

The country’s public credit registry and repository of credit information announced the addition of the transferability feature on its Covered Entity (CE) portal—a web-based application system where financial institutions register as submitting entities and access credit data.

The credits may be transferred among CIC’s accessing entities (AEs) and Special Accessing Entities (SAEs) or accredited credit bureaus.

The portal will also show the transaction history and current balances of AEs and SAEs. According to the CIC, the new feature is expected to optimize financial institutions’ credit-decisioning activities.

“This feature is similar to mobile or online banking apps where you can transfer funds from your account to another. Now, our accessing entities and credit bureaus may sell or just transfer their credits to maximize the use of CIC Credit Reports,” CIC President and CEO Ben Joshua A.

Baltazar said.

Baltazar also said the new feature can be cost-effective for financial institutions, especially the smaller lenders as it enables them to pool their resources to do a group purchase.

The designated purchasing AE can then transfer their credits to the contributing AEs accordingly. This allows them to avail of the wholesale price of P10 per credit report and lock it in before the current price validity expires in January 2022.

In August this year, the CIC issued a new pricing scheme allowing the said wholesale price which may be availed through a pre-purchase of a minimum of one million reports annually, while a retail price of P15 per credit report applies for all other cases of access to the CIC database.

“With the addition of this transferability feature, we are hoping to drive volume consumption of credit reports while also helping lenders manage risks amid this continuing crisis. This will also increase the interactivity among our AEs and SAEs, leading to a more dynamic credit ecosystem that will ultimately benefit the Filipino borrowers,” Baltazar said. Bianca Cuaresma

GSIS to release ₧3.2B as Christmas cash gift

S

TATE pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will release the 2021 Christmas Cash Gift amounting to a total of P3.2 billion to its old-age and disability pensioners starting December 6. The benefit is also known to pensioners as their “Christmas bonus.”

“Sa kabila ng hinaharap nating pagsubok dahil sa pandemya, hangad naming makatulong pa rin sa pagbibigay ng masaya at maginhawang Pasko sa aming mga pensiyonado. Kaya naman siniguro ng GSIS Board na maaga ang ecrediting ng Christmas cash gift sa kanilang mga UMID card o eCard,” GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Ledesma Macasaet said.

[Despite our ordeal due to the pandemic, we still desire to help provide a happy and cozy Christmas to our retirees. That is why the GSIS Board has ensured the early e-crediting of the Christmas cash gift on their UMID cards or eCards.]

For pensioners who received more than P10,000 in cash gift in 2020, they will be granted an amount equivalent to one-month current pension but not exceeding P12,600. For those who received P10,000 and below in 2020, they will receive a cash gift equivalent to onemonth current pension up to a maximum of P10,000.

Those who resumed their regular monthly pensions after December 31, 2020 (after the 5-year guaranteed pe-

riod) will be given an amount equivalent to one-month current pension up to P10,000.

Qualified to receive the cash gift are old-age or disability pensioners who are living as of November 30, 2021 and retired under Republic Act (RA) 8291 (GSIS Act of 1997), Presidential Decree 1146 and RA 660. For those who are on suspended status due to non-compliance with the Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation, they will be eligible to the cash gift provided they activate their status on or before April 30, 2022.

Survivorship pensioners, dependent pensioners, pensioners under RA 7699 (Portability Law) and those receiving pro-rata pension are not eligible for the Christmas Cash Gift.

New retirees from 2017 up to 2021 who availed of immediate pension under RA 8291 will receive their first annual Christmas Cash Gift five years after their retirement date. For retirees who availed of the 5-year lump sum, they will be entitled to the benefit after the five-year guaranteed period or once they start receiving their monthly pension.

Similarly, members who were separated from service from 2006 to 2021 before reaching the age of 60 and who started receiving their regular monthly pension between 2017 and 2021 will be entitled to the cash gift once they have been regular pensioners for at least five years.

BusinessMirror

I

Association World Octavio Peralta Amy: We believe that everyone has superpowers, especially rock stars. What is one skill you have that has helped you shine in your association journey? A fun bonus if you come up with a superhero name based on it.

Me: I can relate to Spiderman’s alter ego, Peter Parker. I don’t have his web-throwing prowess nor his self-healing power, but I somehow have his “Spidey’s sense”—the ability akin to ESP. My ESP though is not extra sensory perception but a special “energy to spot project ideas.”

It always happens that before I can even process an idea in my head, it already manifests itself right in front of my eyes–like when I’m read-

B3

BSP ‘recalibrates’ approach in issuance of EMI licenses

B

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

ANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno announced on Thursday that the monetary board has decided to “recalibrate” its approach in handling applications from non-bank institutions for new electronic money issuer (EMI) licenses.

“This strategic change will enable the Bangko Sentral to monitor the performance of current market players and the risks they pose to

the financial industry. This will also allow us to assess their impact in relation to our financial inclusion and digital-payments transformation

objectives,” Diokno said.

This means that all applications received by the BSP until December 15 this year will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Applications received until December 15 with noted deficiencies will be returned and considered closed. The BSP said it will no longer entertain nor accept new applications beginning December 16.

Diokno said the new approach involves closing the regular application window for new EMI licenses for non-bank financial institutions for a period of two years.

The BSP will also introduce a “test-and-learn” pathway for innovative e-money solutions that offer strong value propositions. This will include propositions for those with new business models, un-served, tar-

geted niches and new technologies.

Diokno said applicants may still participate in the digital payments and financial ecosystem by requesting for exemption under the new “test-and-learn/regulatory sandbox” framework. “[This] reflects our commitment to espouse an enabling environment for responsible and responsive innovation in the financial industry. At the same time, we will be able to ensure that the business environment continues to serve the public interest, allow healthy competition among market players, and foster safe and interoperable payments for the digital economy,” the governor said.

As of end-October, there are already 35 licensed non-bank EMls, which is more than three-times the number of players in 2019.

‘2022 budget ready for poll issues, Mandanas ruling’

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

A

NTICIPATING what he called “troubles and birthing pains,” the main sponsor of the 2022 national budget bill in the Senate gave assurances the money measure has been designed to be ready for the challenges of transition posed by the elections and the Mandanas ruling posing a fiscal challenge to the national government while increasing the monies available to local government units (LGUs).

“In many ways, 2022, Mr. President, will be a transition year—not only because of a new administration, but also because of the beginning of the implementation of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling,” Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, Finance Committee chairman, said in sponsoring the annual money measure for plenary consideration.

Angara assured that “while we recognize any change will have its fair share of troubles and birthing pains, we have tried to take steps to make sure that the process is relatively smooth.”

After summing up the senators’ amendments to the 2022 budget bill inputed by the Angara committee, the Senate voted 22 in favor with no negative votes and no abstentions.

With 22 affirmative votes, no negative and no abstention, the Senate late Wednesday passed on third and final reading its version of the P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022, keeping to a strict timeline that hopes to complete bicameral meetings between the two chambers so Congress can transmit it to President Duterte for approval before Christmas.

Before voting, Angara summed up the highlights of his Committee Report 332 or the Senate version of the “General Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022.”

An example of senators’ bid to make

The 20-Minute Association Rock Star

have never thought in my wildest dreams I will be a rock star! Recently, I had my “20-minutes of fame” as I was interviewed by Associations Rockstars, a US-based peer group created during the onset of the pandemic and now has over 600 members. It is one of the brands of Vista Cova, a boutique firm of expert facilitators headed by Lowell Aplebaum, which supports strategic planning, member engagement and governance design.

The main aim of Association Rockstars is to create stronger stakeholder connections and engagement for professionals in the association industry. The peer collaboration is meant to ask tough questions, provide a safe and fertile space for diverse views and share successes.

It was Amy Hager, strategy advisor at Vista Cova, who interviewed me.

The conversation was light and delved into my journey into the association world. Excerpts below:

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Friday, December 3, 2021

ing a magazine, doing my emails, or watching TV. Amy: Was there a moment in your association journey when you realized that this wasn’t just a job for an organization but that you had found a really good fit or your professional home?

Me: Coming from a corporate setup, I was clueless at first how I will be able to manage an association and how I will be able to build a career in the association world.

But that was 30 years ago and here I am still working with and for associations. The turning point of my journey was spearheading the founding of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (Pcaae) in 2013 as my way of giving back to a profession I was destined to have.

Amy: What do you see as the descriptors/indicators of the association rock stars of tomorrow?

Me: As you’ve noticed, I’m fond of using acronyms. This has helped

the budget attuned to the challenge from Mandanas, Angara reported that under the outlay for the Department of Budget and Management-Office of the Secretary (DBM-OSEC), “a special provision was included mandating the DBM to review and update its National Government and Local Government Unit (NG-LGU) cost-sharing guidelines on continuing subsidies for the services that have already been devolved under the Local Government Code.”

Then, Angara added, “to ensure that [LGUs] will be able to meaningfully and effectively take on the devolved functions relating to infrastructure development, an LGU infrastructure-capacity building program shall be conducted by the DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways], upon the recommendation of Senator [Panfilo] Lacson.”

Angara said passage of the budget bill was timely, in light of the recent news on the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant of concern, Omicron. The Senate version increased substantially the budget for health as approved by the House of Representatives. The Department of Health (DOH) will receive a total budget of P226.7 billion, much higher than the 182.67 billion that was appropriated under the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) passed by the House of Representatives.

Angara pointed out that the DOH will continue to receive a significant portion of the national budget in order to best prepare “for the worst-case scenario.”

“While there may be changes in the details and the allocated budget, the very spirit of our national budget is still there, which is to help uplift our nation from this pandemic,” Angara said.

Fuel subsidy

MEANWHILE, Angara said that to cushion the sustained blow from high fuel

me organize and recall my thoughts easily. I believe integrity is your passport to success so I’d say “BEST”: Be the best person you can be; Energize other people around you; Set a good example; and, be True to your word.

Amy: What legacy do you want to leave behind?

Me: Another acronym, “LEGACY”: Live; Enjoy; Give; and, Commit Yourself–to your life’s calling. Before this interview, my ESP was working again. I received an email from a longtime acquaintance, Vince Reyes, who wrote me a short verse and I quote, “This Bobby I know seeks no glory, just whole-hearted service to humanity and for this, he is recognized, unsurprisingly. What a joy and blessing to Pcaae and to society!”

Octavio Peralta is the founder and CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (Pcaae), the association of associations.

The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Pcaae and the BusinessMirror.

Email: obp@adfiap.org

prices, “significant funds up to P3 billion are appropriated for fuel vouchers and discounts to farmers and fisherfolk to be distributed by the DA [Department of Agriculture] and BFAR [Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources] regional offices to qualified beneficiaries.”

Such financial support shall be provided to farmers and fisherfolk when the average Dubai Crude Oil Price based on MOPS for three months reaches or exceeds $80 per barrel.

The Senate also reverted P5.320 billion in loan proceeds from the Philippine Rural Development Project which had been realigned by the House to road development projects. Reverting the loan proceeds to the rural development fund was requested by Finance panel ViceChairman Cynthia Villar, and Senators Lacson and Ralph Recto.

“We also provided support for the parcelization of lands for individual titling up to P2.6 billion,” Angara added.

Funds totalling P2.536 billion were set aside for the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing program administration under the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, to be transferred to government banks, private banks, thrift banks, and universal banks, as well as non-bank financial institutions such as coops, farmers or [fishermen’s] organizations, agri-fishery based corporations and other viable NGO [nongovernment organizations], Angara continued. These are “all for the benefit of registered small farmers and [fishermen] and MSMEs [micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises].”

Lion’s share for health, education

ACCORDING to Angara, some of the increases in relation to the Health appropriations made in the GAB include items related to the pandemic response: Covid-19 Benefits and Compensation for

Healthcare Workers; Covid-19 Human Resource for Health Emergency Hiring; Covid-19 Laboratory Network Commodities; the DOH’s Epidemiology and Surveillance program; preparations for national reference laboratories like the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine; and, the hiring and training of 25,000 contact tracers.

Angara noted amendments to special provisions were introduced for the purchase and allocation of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs, medicine and vaccines for Covid-19, such as Molnupiravir.

Aside from the DOH, the approved Senate version of the GAB assured that the Education sector would receive a lion’s share of the national budget. Angara said the Department of Education’s budget will see an increase of P6.7 billion under the proposed Senate bill. State universities and colleges, on the other hand, will receive a total of P26.56 billion while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will get P1.46 billion, according to the Senate Committee on Finance Chairman.

“This will be particularly important as we consider the expansion of face-toface classes to more schools across the country. Funding support will remain for our schools as they make a transition to safe, face-to-face operations,” Angara explained.

Following the approval of the Senate version of the national budget, Senate President Vicente Sotto III named the Senate contingent in the bicameral conference committee to be led by Angara.

The Senate members are: Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri; Cynthia A. Villar; Ronald Dela Rosa; Pia S. Cayetano; Sherwin T. Gatchalian; Christopher Lawrence T. Go; Richard J. Gordon; Risa Hontiveros; Imee R. Marcos; Joel J. Villanueva; Nancy S. Binay; and, Grace S. Poe-Llamanzares.

Insurer, PLDT subsidiary ink deal targeting OFWs

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

I

NSURANCE technology (insurtech) start-up Kwikinsure Corp. announced it has signed an agreement with PLDT Global Corp. targeting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for insurance products to be sold via the latter’s mobile application.

The insurtech said it expects the partnership to expand the user base of its mobile app called “Free Bee.” According to Kwikinsure, the app has been downloaded more than one million times in 200 countries.

“This partnership with PLDT Global allows us to reach more Filipinos and provide them with convenient access to discover a wide variety of insurance products that are suited to their needs,” Kwikinsure CEO

Hamilton Angluben was quoted in a statement as saying.

The company describes its app as a one-stop shop for OFWs, “providing them access to information, entertainment, job listings, important hotlines and other services.”

“There is a need to bridge the gap and insure Filipinos, especially OFWs and their families. Aside from giving them peace of mind, this can also be a way to educate them about investing in their health and the future,” PLDT Global President and CEO Albert V. Villa-Real was quoted in the statement as saying.

According to Kwikinsure, an online insurance marketplace in the Philippines, it allows customers to browse through hundreds of insurance products that are being offered by its 20 partners that, in turn, allow them to sell insurance policies online.

B4

Relationships

Friday, December 3, 2021 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

BusinessMirror

Why the long Christmas celebration?

F

By Edgar Timbungco

ILIPINOS take pride in having the longest celebration of Christmas this side of Christendom. Now that we are mere weeks away from Christmas, what benefits has this months-long long celebration given us?

A quick crowd sourcing from family members and friends in social media yielded the following benefits:

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Amanda Seyfried, 36; Tiffany Haddish, 42; Daryl Hannah, 61; Julianne Moore, 61.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: You’ll have the ability to jump from one thing to another this year, but don’t leave unfinished business in your wake. Finish what you start, and you’ll have far more success moving forward and attracting new and exciting opportunities. Choose to act and take responsibility for what you say, do and achieve, and rewards will follow. Leave nothing to chance. Your numbers are 6, 13, 23, 29, 32, 38, 40.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Go over contracts, deals and proposals carefully. You stand to gain if you pay attention to detail. Protect your health and your reputation. Do your own thing, regardless of what others do. Your instincts will pay off. HHHHH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A passionate gesture will make someone take notice. Your actions will set the stage for what’s to come.

Let your feelings lead the way, and you will convince others to get involved in your plans. Self-improvement and romance are favored. HHH

ECONOMIC GAINS THE first set of benefits point to the apparent economic gains, now enjoyed by both traditional and online retail outlets. My daughter is quick to point out how the pandemic has prompted consumers to resort to e-commerce for purchasing food and other essential items for their household. This has become part of the “new normal”—a major vehicle for the Filipinos’ Christmas shopping.

A former colleague writes, “The long celebration provides more opportunities for these businesses, in the process stimulating economic activity and boosting the local economy to get back to prepandemic levels.” Certainly, many of us joined the bandwagon of so-callled 9/9, 10/10, 11/11 and the forthcoming 12/12 sales promos.

The amount of spending is expected to spike during the Christmas season, especially now that restrictions in some urban centers have been relaxed by government.

EMOTIONAL BOOST ANOTHER workmate says, “The four-month celebration gets people into the jolly and generous Christmas mood earlier. If you have kids, it would provide a good incentive to get them to behave themselves before Christmas time.” I am reminded of how my grandson perseveres to do good in school so he could get the Christmas gift he has been praying for.

Meanwhile, a coteacher describes how “it sort of primes us up that Christmas is coming [as] we need to prepare financially, emotionally, even physically for the long parties and reunions come December.”

A photographer friend adds that “it stretches the yearning for a good family holiday and puts one in the mood.”

Meanwhile, a friend mentions that “the long Christmas celebration [also] gives us time to plan and think about the gifts we could give to our loved ones or the charitable acts we would like to do.” This is

www.businessmirror.com.ph

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Set the pace and stay in control. If you give someone a chance to meddle or interfere, you will lose control and your reputation. Stick to the truth, take a disciplined approach and finish what you start. Success will be yours. HHH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Question anything that sounds unrealistic. Use what’s available to work with to come up with a workable solution. Put your energy where it counts, and you’ll make a difference. Be honest regarding personal plans. Romance will improve a meaningful relationship.

HHH

reinforced by a friend who observes that “Pinoys tend to be more generous during Christmas.”

Another thing to plan for are the “get-togethers, reunions and extended vacations.” These are driven by the love for celebrations of Pinoys, my wife adds, admitting that she is one of those who really get excited the moment the “ber” months kick in.

But there were also those who question the practice, suggesting that it should be cut short to two months, worried perhaps about the seeming impracticality of the overdrawn celebration. One couldn’t help but be cynical: “Are there benefits to begin with?”

These opposing views notwithstanding, I think the long celebration of Christmas in the Philippines will persist. As long as there are kids who are excited to open their presents under the Christmas tree, and as long as there are adults who find joy in putting a smile on their loved ones’ faces when affirmations of love accompany the hearty food they serve and partake of at the noche buena table.

JOYFUL ANTICIPATION AS a Christian nation, we are afforded “greater opportunity to enjoy the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ,” even if the misa de gallos, noche buenas, and kris kringles now have their virtual options because of pandemic concerns. A team lead says the longcelebration engenders hope as we anticipate the series of joyful events from September to January to see us through these uncertain times.

All these are good for our mental health, a friend states. “An extra opiate for the public [in a good way],” a nephew adds.

n Edgar Timbungco is the public relations manager of Mang Inasal and is also teaching corporate communication and organizational planning and development at the School of Management and Information Technology of De La SalleCollege of Saint Benilde.

Send some healthy holiday cheer ecosystems better than non-native species. As a major part of the brand’s nature conservation advocacy, Sekaya is once again committing to match the sales of its gift packs and donate to the same cause this year.

Wellness-minded consumers can choose from any (or get all) of the selection of Prescribing Nature Gift Packs’ six gift boxes to wish loved ones a merrier, healthier holidays.

Strengthen the body’s natural defenses with Daily Immunity, or remind someone to take a break from the Christmas rush with Bestselling Brews. Keep It Hot helps one stay on track with their health goals while joining in the festivities, then Choose Your Mood lets someone get a moment of calm or a boost of energy amid all the holiday frenzy. Feel good from the inside out with Total Wellness or support the body’s detoxification functions, likely a great gift for a season of indulgences, with Total Cleanse.

These gifts of health can be found at Synnovate stores in Lazada and Shopee, or send an SMS or Viber to 09175735292.

START checking off that Christmas list with purposeful gift ideas that show how much you care for your loved ones and the environment too.

The new Prescribing Nature Gift Packs from Filipino plantbased brand Sekaya are carefully curated to naturally help with different health and wellness goals.

Moreover, every purchase also contributes to the ongoing reforestation efforts in the Cordillera region—Sekaya’s advocacy in partnership with the Cordillera Conservation Trust (CCT), an organization committed to provide sustainable solutions to environmental problems.

Sekaya (www.sekaya.com.ph) is a Filipino plant-based brand that provides natural, science-backed products to support your health goals and daily wellness. Sekaya is under Synnovate Pharma Corp., the natural products company of Unilab. With the help of everyone who bought the Prescribing Nature Gift Packs during the last quarter of 2020, Sekaya was able to provide 5,190 endemic tree seedlings, which are already adapted to the region and will support local

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Attend an event.

Get together with people who are upbeat and bring out the best in you. Don’t let the changes going on around you dampen your day. Make your feelings and intentions known, and progress will follow. HHHHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Make the adjustments that make you happy. You can’t please everyone, so do what suits your needs and helps you reach your goals. A domestic problem is best taken care of with diplomacy. Have a plan in mind, and make unbiased suggestions. HH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Say no. Don’t take on something you don’t want or know how to do. Put your time and effort where they will do the most, and you’ll eliminate a situation that makes you uncomfortable. A budget will control spending. HHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Avoid disappointment by doing for yourself.

Someone you count on will lead you astray.

Consider your objective, and take a direct path to your destination. An innovative idea will result in a cheaper, more efficient way to run your household. HHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You know the rules. Make wise decisions and take responsibility for your actions. Refuse to let someone put you on the spot or make you look bad.

Be prepared, and you will outsmart anyone who gets in your way. HHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Make sure the people you rely on are competent. Someone who sounds knowledgeable will be a better talker than a hands-on helper. Choose to put your energy behind the money you are spending to get things done right.

Take responsibility and flourish. HHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Finish what you start before you move on to events that put a smile on your face. Chatting with someone who has knowledge and experience to help you cut corners will get you into the fast lane. Leave nothing to chance. HHHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Emotional incidents will mess with your mind. Don’t take what others say to heart. Distance yourself from anyone prying or belittling you. Concentrate on personal growth, your beliefs, and feeling and looking your best. Walk away from toxic relationships. HH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are witty, determined and insightful.

You are inspiring and responsive.

‘headed for the top’ BY NANCY STARK AND WILL NEDIGER The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Top seed’s reward 4 Frolic 8 Cowboy’s pants 13 “Hahaha,” in a text 14 Now more than ___ 15 Agree 17 In the past 18 Billions actor Asia ___ Dillon 19 Move stealthily 20 Low pitch indicator, in music 22 Gets closer to 23 Aussie hopper 24 Sharp knock 26 Fjord, for instance 27 Beachcomber’s find 29 Marks on shoes 31 ___ spectrum 33 Palindromically titled fashion magazine 34 Short comedy routine 37 Doonesbury cartoonist Garry 39 What some people can’t tolerate 41 Band hidden in “One Love” 42 Name that anagrams to “coin”

44 45 47 48 51 52

Did some restaurant work Turtleneck, for one Kind of paint or glove Nicki who sang “Anaconda” Enjoyed fufu, say Athlete once ineligible for the Olympics 53 Dickinson who wrote almost 1,800 poems 54 Riboflavin, e.g.

58 Put aside for later 60 Wine list section 61 Like a fox 62 Gregarious 63 Word with “rug” or “code” 64 Take advantage of 65 Watches over, as a fire 66 Stephenson who coined “metaverse” 67 Touch gently DOWN 1 Reveal secrets 2 Class with poses 3 It hits the ground when you’re running 4 Place to end up after walking the

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 16 21 25 27 28 30 32 34 35 36 38 40 43 45

plank Shape such as 0 Cab devices Foreword follower Pet in many a YouTube video Worst possible track meet result Quaking trees Flower feature Apt rhyme for “bore” Obstacle in a course?

Strongly built Word near a handle Leave completely full Fling with force Diamond imperfection Postal delivery Toast words...or 3-, 4- and 9-Down, based on their meanings and direction?

“Gotcha” Offshoot of a lecture conference Bruins’ Golden State sch.

Homecoming queen’s crown Good source of fiber Contact a radio show

46 48 49 50 55 56 57 59

Idolize “Clean up this ___!”

“Turn on the AC!” One who cries “Uncle”?

Creative inspiration Casablanca heroine No, in Moscow Windy City trains

Solution to today’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Human still in ‘The Last Birds of Passage’

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N summer, they journey to the cooler climes of the central and southern mountains of Turkey, but in winter they are in the lowlands. They are the nomads of this place.

Their trek around the mountain trails has the support of a collective memory and consciousness formed thousands of years ago. Like any other countries around the Mediterranean and parts of Europe, the places from where they come and the upland roads they pass through and by have seen developments that negate nomadism, huntingand-gathering human groups, because under this new economic dispensation, we are supposed to be sedentary. This material rootedness is viewed as the reason how we have evolved efficiently into societies that can control not only the environments but subjugate them, as well. Against the permanent settlements that this century and the previous have embraced is the threat from those who carry in their hearts and limbs the natural and physical desire to migrate.

Herein lies the tale of the Turna Misali, or The Last Birds of Passage, a film from Turkey directed by Iffet Eren Danisman Boz, a woman filmmaker.

It is a story of a family of nomads now living separately but among non-nomads. They have with them camels and goats; they live in black tents made of goat’s hair. They are a site to behold in their brightly colored clothes and the fact that, for the lowland, they settled citizens are different. While perhaps the mountains afford them the wide spaces, down in the lowland plains, they have to think of the nursery of trees being tended to, which their goats attack. Of course, the local official comes with the complaint and the warning that they should stay in their place.

But how does one tell a nomad to stay in his place?

No one can tell the grandmother of this family who decides for everyone. She carries the knowledge of the nomad traditions and is proud of that. Her pride also extends to what she considers a given: her family is nomadic and when the right season comes, they should leave that area and start the travel to other places. These are directions that their bodies have memorized, which no mind can ever change.

It is interesting how migration has become an ancient phenomenon in an ancient civilization. While the present-day diaspora, of which Filipinos and other nationalities coming from under-developing economies participate in, is triggered by the pushand-pull factors of politics and economics, the migration of the nomads (for this is still migration of the seasonal kind) is conditioned by the instrument of cultures and traditions. The Yoruks, as they are called, have to move because they have always moved.

In one scene in the film, the nomads are invited to a kind of cultural festival in the city. They are declared as the real Yoruks, an identity important for them.

Their presence is applauded and people take their photographs as if they are museum specimens. In real life, the director admits to a prejudice these people experience. It is a discrimination that is more subtle and implicit, and which comes out only in conflicts that arise because of the fact that there are people who move from one place to another, their incursion into lands not ably validated by license or ownership.

Thus even on the way to the mountains, these people have to be careful not to tread on plantations owned by other people. Their supply of fresh and clean water is also endangered because mining and other human activities that allow humans to stay put have occupied lands and endangered the surroundings.

At the core of the story of The Last Birds of Passage is human agency placed in this grandmother, tough and strong-willed. She is so courageous even her husband is terrified of her. She attends a meeting of a group of men and she can outtalk them. In a housing program for the nomads, she encounters women who still wash their clothes manually despite the availability of a washing machine. Their problem: they cannot afford the bill that comes with the use of these appliances.

Her husband opts to live in the city, to be comfortable. The wife does not like this but she does not show her sadness at the thought that her man is going to leave her. Her camel, goats, the tent and the mountains are all that matter to her—and the family

members who decide eventually to join her.

The house made of stone will not allow her to breathe. Then comes the greatest lesson of this film: that for most of us who have moved far away from nomadism, there is no turning back. There is, however, a great wisdom in these nomads’ life not on earth but with the earth.

In the TIFF (Tokyo International Film Festival) Talk Salon, two important questions were asked of the filmmaker, Iffet Eren Danismar Boz. One question was about the actors in the film: “Are they nomads or professional actors?” The director explains that the leads are played by professional actors, with the grandmother’s role essayed by Sennur Nogaylar, one of the acclaimed Turkish thespians. All the rest are professional actors, including the two children who are part of a theater group in the place where the film was shot. Like the person who inquired about the characters, I, too, believe in the searing performances of the ensemble. This can be attributed to a keen storytelling, a result of more than four years of research.

The other question was about the title: “Are your feelings about the nomads expressed by the title you gave this film?” The director replied how these nomads are fast disappearing. In her reply could be felt a wistfulness for that from which all of us came: a tribe that travels in search for the green meadows, clean air and a mountain that is free.

The Last Birds of Passage competed in the recently concluded 34th Tokyo International Film Festival. n

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Friday, December 3, 2021

SPOTLIGHT FOR ‘SETHDREA’ GROWS BIGGER

SETH FEDELIN and Andrea Brillantes, aka SethDrea, are so cute as a love team that you’d want to spread some candy sprinkles on them and put them in your pocket.

But beyond their cute antics are two determined young ones who work hard for their dreams. The two are actually in a commitment beyond their relationship and included in their vows to each other is a promise that they would help each other and achieve their goals together. They don’t see realizing their dreams with anyone but each other. And this goes beyond their screen partnership. Andrea once declared she doesn’t like Seth dating other women.

And it seems to be paying off. Fresh from the success of their prime-time soap Huwag Kang Mangamba, the two will now be seen in Saying Goodbye, a YA (Young Adult) series.

Andrea plays Elise and Seth essays Ricky. They fatefully cross paths at an old record store fighting over the same album of their beloved artist. Their first meeting turns into an enduring friendship that will take them to an adventure as they try to fulfill the bucket list of Ricky’s, who has been dealing with heart disease since childhood. The series also features the newly formed loveteam of Andi Abaya and Kobi Brown from Pinoy Big Brother.

Saying Goodbye also marks the debut of the multi-content partnership between Global streaming service iQiyi (www. iQ.com), leading provider of beloved pan-Asian content worldwide, and ABS-CBN. The network is set to produce four Filipino original romantic series for its international subscribers worldwide.

The partnership fortifies the commitments of both companies in bringing high-quality, relatable and inspiring Philippine content with universal themes while championing Filipino talents and stories onto the global stage. Coupled with ABS-CBN’s creative capability in content production and with its seasoned pool of talents, the exclusive partnership enhances iQiyi’s extensive and growing library of Asian content from Japan, South Korea, Greater China, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia available across 191 territories.

“We are thrilled to partner with iQiyi for its first Filipino local original series as we continue to tell meaningful stories and champion Filipino talent. Through their technology and our expertise in content creation and production, we strive to bring excellent Filipino content to local and international audiences and subscribers of iQiyi,” says ABS-CBN chief operating officer of broadcast Cory Vidanes.

Another show to watch out for is Hello, Heart, which premieres on December 15 at 8 pm. Starring YouTube’s phenomenal star Gigi de Lana alongside Gerald Anderson, one of the busiest leading men around these parts, the romantic comedy follows Heart, a beautiful, perky and hardworking woman but is very unlucky in life. Her life starts to turn around upon meeting Saul, an emotionless, businessas-usual guy who hires her to pretend to be his wife to please his grandmother with dementia. Gigi performs the series’ official theme song, Roselle Nava’s “Bakit Nga Ba Mahal Kita,” which she covered in a video that went viral online.

Aicelle Santos, Mikee Quintos renew ties with GMA MULTITALENTED artists Aicelle Santos and Mikee Quintos remain loyal GMA talents as they renewed their management contracts with GMA Artist Center on November 18.

Aicelle began her long journey with the network when she captured the hearts of the Filipinos in GMA’s singing competition Pinoy Pop Superstar in 2005. Since then, she has continued to prove her passion and excellence in her craft when she represented the Philippines in Cameron Mackintosh’s critically acclaimed musical Miss Saigon in the UK and Ireland. Aside from this, she showcased her singing prowess in several GMA musical-variety shows, including Party Pilipinas, Sunday All Stars, and currently as one of the mainstays in All-Out Sundays.

“As a person, I only take things day by day. Just being with GMA throughout the years, how they just embraced and supported me with everything that I did and am still doing now, napakalaki pong utang na loob. That’s why I’m very grateful and beyond blessed that I am renewing my contract with GMA.” Mikee, on the other hand, is fairly new in her journey with GMA but she is steadily showcasing her versatility in various projects. She got her first big break as Lira in the top-rating Encantadia in the 2016 iteration. After this, she headlined various programs, including Onanay, The Lost Recipe and is presently part of Pepito Manaloto: Ang Unang Kuwento. Apart from acting, Mikee also pursued her knack for singing as she released her debut single, “Just Enough,” under

AICELLE SANTOS

MIKEE QUINTOS

GMA Playlist.

“Ang hirap i-express in words ’yung napi-feel ko right now but I’m so grateful for everything. Because of the network’s belief and trust in what I can do, that’s how I saw it din sa sarili ko.”

GMA executives celebrated this occasion with Aicelle and Mikee via Zoom, video messages, and

their presence at the Marquee Tent of Edsa Shangri-La Hotel. Present during the contract-signing were GMA Network Films Inc. president and programming consultant to the chairman and CEO Atty. Annette Gozon-Valdes, senior vice president for entertainment group Lilybeth G. Rasonable, first vice president and head of Regional TV and Synergy Oliver

Amoroso, first vice president for program management Jose Mari Abacan, senior assistant vice president for alternative productions Gigi Santiago-Lara, GMAAC assistant vice president and head for talent imaging and marketing unit Simoun S. Ferrer, senior talent managers for GMA Artist Center Vic del Rosario and Joy Marcelo.

Gozon-Valdes expressed her delight seeing Aicelle grow in her craft: “Si Aicelle, sa simula pa lang sa Pinoy Pop Superstar, nakita na natin ang galing niya. As the years have gone by, lalo pa siyang gumagaling. We’re very happy to have such a talented person here in GMA.” Rasonable is thankful to have journeyed with Aicelle in all her milestones: “Another thing we are so happy about is that through the years, we have been part of her professional and personal journey. Dito na siya nagkaroon ng asawa, ng pamilya, at ng napaka-cute na baby. That’s one of the things that gratify us. We are still together in her journey in life.”

Meanwhile, Gozon-Valdes also shared how she saw Mikee’s star quality from the start: “The moment I saw Mikee, nakita ko na she was oozing with charm.

And when she had shows in GMA, we all saw her exceptional talent. So, malayo pa ang mararating ni Mikee.”

Rasonable likewise congratulated Mikee for staying with GMA: “We are so proud of what she has achieved so far. We know that she still has a long way to go because she’s so talented. Acting, singing, dancing, talagang triple threat.”

B5

B6 Friday, December 3, 2021

SNDT Express joins Bayad’s growing payment ecosystem

Sun Life Foundation backs building of new barangay health stations

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UN Life Financial-Philippines Foundation, Inc. (Sun Life Foundation), in collaboration with its implementation partner, Health Futures Foundation Inc., (HFI) recently endorsed fully equipped and fully functional Sun Life Barangay Health Stations (SLBHS) to eight barangays in Batangas.

Each SLBHS will provide primary healthcare services to the beneficiaryresidents, especially among the marginalized sector of the community.

This ensures access to basic medical services such as consultations, immunizations, as well as other health-related services including health education and disease prevention programs.

On top of these, the SLBHS shall also assist residents in looking for facilities that will let them avail of more comprehensive medical needs like laboratory and X-ray

services should they have a need to do so.

“The Sun Life Barangay Health Stations play a pivotal role in the implementation of universal healthcare,” says Dr. Jaime G. Tan, Chairman of Health Futures Foundation, Inc. “Without the Sun Life Barangay Health Stations, the community cannot easily avail of universal healthcare services as well as affordable health systems delivery networks. HFI extends its heartfelt gratitude to Sun Life Foundation for fully supporting this worthwhile endeavor.”

Proactive care will also be promoted through the Community-Based Health and Wellness (CBHW) Program, which aims to build awareness about the prevention and treatment of diabetes, promote health and wellness knowledge among residents, enhance the skills of community health workers, and emphasize the importance of community involvement and participation

on health-related matters.

All in all, the SLBHS are expected to serve up to 4,800 patients in the beneficiary barangays and impact up to 25,000 lives through its various services.

“Through these efforts, we hope to fill the deficit in the numbers of the needed barangay health stations so we can help more of our countrymen live healthier lives,” says Benedict Sison, CEO and Country Head of Sun Life Philippines as well as Chairperson of Sun Life Foundation.

“We thank Health Future Foundations, Inc. for their trust and the community leaders in each of the barangays for their support.”

Sun Life Financial-Philippines Foundation, Inc. is the philanthropic arm of Sun Life Philippines. This initiative was launched as part of Sun Life Philippines’ 125th anniversary in the country last year.

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IVING in the new normal has further emphasized consumers’ need for greater accessibility and wider choices when it comes to financial services, especially bills payment. For service providers, presence in both online and on-site channels are critical to meet the changing behaviors and lifestyles of Filipinos.

Recently, Bayad formed a partnership with courier and logistics services provider, SNDT Express corporation that offers accessible and high-quality courier and logistics services. With 10 years of solid operational experience and expertise, serves as an enabler for Filipino entrepreneurs with its commitment to deliver logistics management reliable services.

Complementing each other’s business goals, Bayad and SNDT joined forces to make bills payment more convenient and accessible. As such, customers can experience a much more efficient way of settling their bills for house utilities, cable, telecommunications, government contributions and loans, and more to over 30 SNDT Express branches located across the country. Soon, they will also be able to access Bayad’s extensive roster of billers through their mobile app as SNDT Express improves its digital presence and increases its branches nationwide.

“We take pride in helping our clients move their parcels across the country as well as provide extra services such as food delivery and personal shopping. Through this partnership with Bayad, we’re also able to collect bills, thus making us a one-stopshop that addresses important customer needs. We are happy for this opportunity to

expand our portfolio,” said SNDT Express President, Eduard Delegero.

Meanwhile, according to Bayad President and CEO, Lawrence Y. Ferrer, “The partnership multiplies the avenues where consumers can pay their bills combined with other essential transactions over the counter. We believe that by making payments easier and more accessible, we also help consumers become financially responsible.”

Bayad continues to carry out its mission of providing innovative, efficient, and accessible payment solutions for everyone by forming partnerships with various institutions. With over 80,000 physical payment touchpoints across Bayad branches and Partner outlets nationwide, Bayad remains one of the country’s most trusted payment authorities.

Megaworld Lifestyle Malls announces 2021 holiday mall hours

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N observance of the upcoming Holiday season, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls announces its adjusted operating hours for December 2021.

Children and guests of all ages are now

welcome inside our malls with restaurants for alfresco and indoor dining.

Gyms and fitness centers and cinemas are open for fully-vaccinated guests.

Check out the mall schedules below.

Coins.ph moves forward into the future of money

Zebra Technologies opens first service center in the Philippines

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OINS.PH, the Philippines’ leading blockchain-backed e-wallet services provider, launched the Coins Movement earlier this month, a campaign that encourages financial empowerment by moving forward into the future of money.

Coins.ph currently has over 16 million customers enjoying access to e-wallet services such as local and international remittances, buying mobile load, bill payments, and 24/7 virtual assets services. Founded in 2014, its mission is to promote financial inclusion by providing Filipinos with an accessible and easy-to-use digital mobile wallet app.

“Digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation. We are embarking on the Coins Movement to bring awareness on the benefits of financial technology and provide continuous support to easily adapt to the ever-changing digital world.

At Coins.ph, we aim to build better service experiences and more innovative products in the future,” said Nauman Mustafa, CEO of Coins.ph.

Rewards for loyalty

TO make their Coins experience more rewarding, customers can now

earn loyalty points for their everyday transactions such as buy load, bill payments, game credits top up, and tollway credit purchases.

Loyalty points can then be used to redeem exciting vouchers on the Coins Rewards catalog. From groceries to online shopping, Coins.ph is giving customers the power to choose the rewards that fit their lifestyle.

Additional cryptocurrency tokens

COINS.PH also introduced six new cryptocurrency tokens this year, thus bringing the total number of crypto assets available on the platform to 10.

Recent additions include AAVE, Maker (MKR), and Uniswap (UNI), as well as USDC, Chainlink (LINK), and Kyber Network Crystal (KNC), which launched earlier this year, with more coming soon.

The Philippines, which has a very young and tech-savvy population, has been seeing a boom in cryptocurrency adoption. As the first virtual assets service provider to be licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Coins. ph prioritizes the safety and security of users’ funds, making its platform perfect for the crypto-curious, or those who just want to dip their toes in the cryptocurrency market.

New faces of Coins.ph

COINS.PH is introducing brand ambassadors to help guide Filipinos in their journey to financial empowerment.

Dingdong Dantes, an actor and entrepreneur, has leveled up his career through his work with the YesPinoy Foundation and his latest venture, dingdong. ph, which provides delivery, e-commerce, and marketplace solutions designed to uplift the lives of fellow Filipinos, particularly the entertainment industry workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

Megan Young, an actress, model, and beauty queen, is also known for using her love for gaming to bring awareness and raise funds for causes supporting the LGBTQIA community.

Enchong Dee, a swimmer-turnedmodel and actor, is also now known as “The Budgetarian.” His popular podcast advocates for financial literacy delivered in a fun, conversational, and easy-todigest manner.

These celebrities are using their platforms to inspire and educate – values that Coins.ph believes will better equip people to move into the future of money.

Interested in joining the Coins Movement? Update your Coins.ph app to the latest version or download the Coins app at Google Play or the App Store.

EBRA Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), an innovator at the edge of the enterprise with solutions and partners that enable businesses to gain a performance edge, today announced the opening of its first service center in the Philippines. The new facility in Manila reinforces Zebra’s commitment to Southeast Asia, and it joins existing service centers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Zebra’s authorized service partner, Highpoint Services Network Philippines, Inc, will operate the new service center, which is equipped with skilled technicians who are proficient in repairing Zebra’s broad portfolio of innovative mobile computers and barcode scanners.

“The opening of our first service center in the Philippines demonstrates our

continued commitment to Asia Pacific and our local Filipino customers,” said Jason Low, Country Advisor for the Philippines, under Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific. “The proximity of this new service center will be more convenient with less downtime for local businesses and enhance their business continuity and operational efficiency.”

Businesses with Zebra OneCare™ maintenance plans can leverage the services of the new service center along with those customers using Zebra products that are under warranty. Zebra OneCare further offers its users technical and software support, security software updates, analytics reports and more. Additional flexible enhancements are also available, which allow customers to tailor their service plan to meet individual business needs today and as their operations evolve in the future.

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao

UY UP BY 3 STROKES AFTER WILD 2ND RD

VARGAS: PBA WILL PROVE METTLE IN EASL

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By Josef Ramos

HE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) accepted the challenge of the East Asia Super League (EASL) to prove that Asia’s first professional league remains the toughest in the continent.

“I think the PBA has something to prove and that is our league is the best in Asia,” PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas told an online news conference on Wednesday. “We do have the talent and we are very excited to be part of this league.”

The PBA on Wednesday sealed a multi-year partnership with EASL which kicks off in October 2022. The regional league will feature eight top teams from the PBA and the pro leagues in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

“We not only have the talent but we have seasoned competitors who played in the PBA and for our national team—that’s something I’m very proud of,” Vargas said. “We have the coaching know-how to be competitive.”

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial and EASL Chief Executive Officer Matt Beyer joined Vargas in the news conference.

Beyer thanked the PBA for its participation, saying the EASL wants the best team from the league.

“That’s what the fans want to see. We want to see the best Filipino teams possible and we want to have the matches possible on a weekly basis,” Beyer said.

A top prize of $1 million is at stake in EASL, with the runner-up getting $500,000 and the thirdplacer $250,000.

But Vargas said it is not all about the money.

“What are important are the quality of the competition and pride,” he said.

The EASL started four years ago with NLEX and Blackwater playing in the inaugurals. The league was then called the Super 8 before expanding to the Terrific 12 in 2019 where Blackwater, San Miguel Beer and TNT Tropang Giga participated.

Vargas said it’s time to grab the opportunity to give the PBA teams overseas exposures.

“It’ss important to cooperate with various leagues in Asia to hone the players by playing against ‘the best talents against the best-tested teams.’”

New Abap head Picson announces 3-year program

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HE newly-installed board of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) is focused on coaches development, talent identification and ramping up of rigid and science-based training for national boxers in the current Olympic cycle.

Abap’s newlyelected president Ed Picson bared the federations’ program for cycle that ends with the Paris 2024 Olympics during the board’s first meeting held virtually on Thursday—a week after the elections.

Picson’s first task as president was his appointment of University of the Philippines professor and long-time Abap sports psychologist Marcus Manalo as secretary-general and executive director and Michael Angelo Vargas as treasurer.

“The challenge handed over to me by [former Abap president] Mr. Ricky Vargas is indeed daunting, but I dare say, not insurmountable,” said Picson, referring to the unprecedented three-medal haul of boxing in the Tokyo Olympics.

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Friday, December 3, 2021 B7

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DANIELLA UY offsets a quadruple bogey 8 with a string of birdies.

ANIELLA UY moved into the threshold of a dream Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) finish after battling back strong from a ghastly quadruple bogey on No. 8 with a string of birdies then held sway to seize a three-stroke lead over Chihiro Ikeda in a wild second round of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Riviera Ladies Championship on Thursday in Silang, Cavite.

The Langer course hounded the ladies of the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) but Uy bounced back from a 7 on the par-three No. 8 on a couple of errant tee-shots to the

hazard with three straight birdies linking both nines then ran off a gutsy streak of pars for a 38-34 to zero in on an LPGT breakthrough.

Uy had never held the lead heading to the final round of an LPGT championship but the former Junior World champion is all fired up to stay ahead till the last shot and putt are made.

“Anything can happen here at Langer,” said Uy, whose 146 total put her closer to surpassing her career-best tied for second effort at Highlands ruled by Sunshine Baraquiel three weeks ago.

“So I need to be patient and focused,” added Uy, who proved the

toughest in a day of survival as the rest came in ruffled by the wind that blew from all over and imploded on the unreceptive greens and tough pin placements.

Harmie Constantino, who stormed ahead by three after 18 holes with a 70 Wednesday, stumbled right on the first hole with a double bogey and spent the rest of the grueling day trying to recover—to no avail as she reeled with seven bogeys and a double bogey against a lone bogey. She ended up with an 81 and fell to joint third with last week’s Couples leg winner Chanelle Avaricio, who birdied the last hole to salvage a 75, at 151, five shots off Uy.

Fiery semis duels up in Champions League ALINSUNURIN

MIGUEL

OCAMPO

RUSIT

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O for Gold-Air Force takes on Global Remit and Team Dasmariñas faces VNS Manileño Spikers in a pair of semifinals showdowns that are expected to add heat to the Philippine National Volleyball Federation Champions League on Friday at the Aquamarine Recreational Center.

The Aguilas swept the threeteam Pool A but are not about to relax their guards against Global Remit—which lost its first two matches only to beat MRT-Negros in straight sets on Wednesday to catch

the last bus to the last four.

“We need to follow our system and our service receive because it will dictate our game,” said Coach Dante Alinsunurin after Go for Gold completed a two-match sweep of Pool A. “What’s important for us right from the start is we need to dominate through our service receive.”

Go for Gold-Air Force and Global Remit take the court at 1:30 p.m.

The Manileño Spikers square off with Team Dasmariñas at 4 p.m. and VNS Coach Norman Miguel isn’t taking their foes for granted, too.

“Well the players know that this is the real fight. This is what we really prepared for. Our goal is to make it to the Finals and get the title,” Miguel said.

“We fully trust the players.

The mindset is already there. By all means, they will go all out to get the championship just to give back the support of the LGU [Dasmariñas[,” he added.

The winners will battle for

Weightlifters, minus Diaz, fly to Tashkent for Worlds

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EN Filipino athletes are bound to Tashkent to compete in the International Weightlifting Federation World Championships that start on Tuesday.

Asian champion Vanessa Sarno (women’s -71 kgs) and Tokyo Olympian Erleen Anne Ando (-59 kgs) lead the Philippine campaign, which will miss Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz who begged off because of her lack of preparation.

Head coach Christopher Bureros of Cebu said the athletes are ready but aren’t aware of who the opposition will be in the Uzbekistan capital.

“We don’t really know what our chances are, but we will do our best to bring home medals,” said Bureros, who declined to comment on China’s withdrawal from the

championship because of Covid-19 pandemic issues.

“But we’re with Asian gold medalist Vanessa, our Olympian Elreen and Kristel Macrohon, so we are that confident,” Bureros added. Macrohon won gold in women’s -76 kgs at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

The other weightlifters are Ellen Rose Perez (-49 kgs), Asian championships silver medalist Mary Flor Diaz (-45 kgs), Margaret Colonia (-64 kgs), Fernando Agadin (-55 kgs), John Febuar Ceniza (-61 kgs), Dave Pacaldo (-67 kgs) and John Dexter Tabique (-96 kgs).

Joining Bureros in the coaching staff are Richard Augusto and Roberto Colonia.

The team left Manila on Wednesday night on board Korean Airlines. They will have a layover in Incheon before flying to Tashkent. Josef Ramos

Women’s tennis tour suspends China events over Peng concerns

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N the strongest public stand against China taken by a sports body, the head of the women’s professional tennis tour announced Wednesday that all Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments there would be suspended because of concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai, a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused a former

government official of sexual assault.

Peng dropped out of public view after raising the allegations about former vice premier Zhang Gaoli in a November 2 social media posting that was quickly taken down by Chinese authorities.

“Unfortunately, the leadership in China has not addressed this very serious issue in any credible way,” WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon wrote in a statement distributed by the tour. “While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe, and not subject to censorship, coercion, and intimidation.” AP

THE Women’s Tennis Association takes a brave stand for Peng Shuai. AP

the gold medal at 4 p.m. on Saturday, while the losers will contest the bronze at 1:30 p.m. The champion will be the country’s representative to the Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in May next year.

Second placers in their respective pools, Global Remit and VNS hope to sustain the momentum of their victories against MRT-Negros and Basilan Steel Spikers, respectively, last Wednesday and pull off a reversal in the semifinals of the tournament that has Rebisco, Pitmaster Foundation Inc., Top Speed, 1Pacman Partylist, Philippine Sports Commis-

sion and Philippine Olympic Committee as platinum sponsors and F2 Logistics, Asics, PLDT, MVP Sports Foundation and Mikasa as gold sponsors and BCDA, Philippine Red Cross, Lipa City, Davis Paint and Emerald PVC Pipes, Fittings and Doors as silver sponsors with PNVF godfather, Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Champions League, giving his full support.

Global Remit’s head coach Eduardo Rusit said they also tinkered on their game plan entering the semifinals and hoped that his wards live up to the demands of the knockout stage.

Ikeda, looking for a successful campaign after finishing joint runnerup at Highlands and Couples the last three weeks, birdied the first hole that however proved to be the lone bright spot in her scorecard marred by a double-bogey on the next and four bogeys. She parred the last seven holes to finish with a 76 and a 149.

Marvi Monsalve turned in a second 77 for a 154 at fifth, amateur Arnie Taguines hardly improved from a 78 with a 77, her 155 likewise moving her 18 holes away from nailing her second low amateur trophy after claiming it at Eagle Ridge Norman last July.

Taguines stayed six strokes ahead of Mafy Singson, the low amateur the last three tournaments, who recovered from a woeful 85 with a 76 for a 161.

Sarah Ababa, a former LPGT leg winner, also skied to an 81 for a 158 for seventh, Gretchen Villacencio assembled a 160 after her own version of a 10-over card, while Baraquiel bowed out with an atrocious 89 marred by two triple bogeys and three double bogeys for a 167.

“We only had three days to prepare, we only prepared for the basics,” Rusit said. “Good thing we were able to make it to the top four.

The young Manileño Spikers, who went 1-1 in Pool A, are also out to deliver their A-game against the more veteran Monarchs.

“We simply need to stick to our game plan because almost all the teams have the same skills,” VNS coach Ralph Ocampo said. “Whoever plays very consistently will win.”

The games are live streamed over the PNVF official web site volleyballphilippines.com, iWantTFC for local and international audiences, Puso Pilipinas and Smart Sports Facebook pages and YouTube channels and Gigaplay. Josef Ramos

Motoring BusinessMirror

B8 Friday, December 3, 2021

Editor: Tet Andolong

Mazda introduces Mild Hybrid Technology on select models C

Story by Randy S. Peregrino

HAMPIONING a sustainable future is Mazda Philippines’s commitment in 2022.

The country’s distributor acknowledges that the key to fulfilling the brand’s longterm aim of reducing global emissions is rationalizing its portfolio and introducing new technologies as part of Mazda’s Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 Vision.

Next year, Mazda Philippines is bringing in the e-Skyactiv-G Mild Hybrid (M Hybrid) Technology in two models – the Mazda3 and CX30. Utilizing a Multi-Solution approach that offers appropriate powertrains in consideration of each country or region’s energy policies and the energy mix is the strategy Mazda sees in achieving its goals.

The new Mazda M Hybrid system utilizes regenerative braking technology to recover energy usually lost during braking to power the vehicle’s onboard electronics. A motor then assists with engine acceleration from a standstill. By mating a DC/DC converter, an Integrated Starter Generator (ISG), and Regenerative Friction Brake Coordination system with a new 24-volt M Hybrid Lithium-Ion battery, fuel economy improves while reducing emission.

Using energy stored in the onboard MHybrid Lithium battery through regenerative deceleration, the Mazda M-Hybrid system supplements power generation and supply to the vehicle’s electrical systems. While the new ISG seamlessly restarts the engine in idle-stop (iStop) situations, it also smoothens upshifts during gear changes.

The use of this recovered energy, along with automatic engine shut-off at decelerating speeds below 20kph, lessens demand on the engine and increases vehicle mileage per tank of fuel. The e-Skyactiv-G M Hybrid technology is about smoother drive, phenom-

enal fuel savings and lower emissions minus plugging in or charging.

The 2022 Mazda3 M Hybrid

Next year, the Mazda3 M Hybrid will be available in both Fastback and Sedan body types. The model line’s new premier offering showcases the finest in craftsmanship, build quality, and features already found in the current Premium line. The M-Hybrid technology not only reduces the load on the existing 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G engine, but the system also provides an improvement in power output (162 hp) and maximum torque (213N-m).

Along with the two new M-Hybrid variants, the rest of the 2022 Mazda3 lineup also shifts up. The current Sedan and Fastback Elite editions received 2.0-liter Skyactiv engine upgrades producing 153 hp and 200 N-m of maximum torque. Moreover, full black leather seats are now in place along with the now-standard 12-speaker BOSE® Sound System. The 2022 Mazda3 2.0L Fastback and Sedan M Hybrid retail at P1.695 million, while the 2022 Mazda3 2.0L Fastback and Sedan Sport are at P1.495 million.

The 2022 Mazda CX-30 M Hybrid

The Mazda CX-30 M Hybrid, meantime, will be exclusive to the front-wheel-drive variant.

The new model retains luxurious humancentric amenities such as full red leather seats,12-Speaker BOSE® Sound System, LED Adaptive Front-Lighting System, 360-degree view camera, and 18-inch wheels (exclusive high-gloss black finish).

Aside from seven airbags, i-Activsense features such as Mazda Radar Cruise Con-

The 2022 Mazda3 and CX-30 M Hybrid models

The 2022 Mazda CX3

trol, Smart Brake Support, Lane Departure Warning with Lane Keep Assist, and RearCross Traffic Alert are also available. With premium specifications and an innovative powertrain, the price is at P1.990 million.

2022 Mazda Premium Collection

Meanwhile, Mazda Philippines fortifies its standing as a premium Japanese car marque by introducing its 2022 Mazda Premium Collection. Featuring enhancements in the Mazda2, Mazda3, Mazda CX-3 and Mazda CX-30, the latest additions to the 2022 model lineup promise to provide a heightened driving experience and premium satisfaction.

First is the 2022 Mazda2. It now sports LED Daytime Running Lights and black 16inch alloy wheels. Inside, leather seats are in a dark blue hue. Both Mazda’s Active Driving Display and analog tachometer are also available, along with a more convenient Smart-

The 2022 Mazda2

phone Mirroring/wireless Apple CarPlay and a new wireless charging pad.

As for the safety suite, including Side and Side Curtain airbags and a host of iActivsense safety features such as Front and Rear Smart City Brake Support, Lane Departure Warning, Blind-Spot Monitoring, Rear-Cross Traffic Alert, and Driver Attention Alert for long drives, only the Hatchback with a 1.5-liter Skyactiv-G gasoline engine is available for the 2022 Mazda2 line priced at P1.195 million.

Next is the new Mazda CX-3, available in 2.0-liter Sport and Elegance variants. The Sport edition features a gray-finished grille and body-color mirror caps, while the Elegance variant highlights a gloss black grille and black side mirror caps. Available as standard are LED headlights, Daytime Running Lights, and the unique 16-inch wheels.

The Sport has Black Leatherette seats with

Spotlight on Chevy & Toyota

T

HE merry season is here. Taking the lead in spreading joy to our less fortunate brethren is Chevrolet Philippines of the Covenant Car Company, Inc. Dubbed “Chevy Cheers,” the collaboration between Chevrolet Philippines and the McDonald’s Kindness Kitchen (MKK), aims to serve 10,000 meals to marginalized communities in selected areas in the Philippines.

“We at Chevrolet Philippines, through ‘Chevy Cheers,’ are truly honored to be collaborating with MKK and Pilipinas Kontra Gutom this holiday season, and are grateful for the opportunity to give back and spread holiday cheer in the form of hearty meals that can be enjoyed by the entire family,” said Alberto B. Arcilla, the dapper lawyer-president and CEO of Chevrolet Philippines.

“Chevy Cheers” will run from December 6 to 10, 2021, with NCR’s Baseco, Baclaran, Smokey Mountain, Quiapo, Tayuman, Tatalon, Payatas, Bagong Silan, Camarin, Caloocan, and Navotas as beneficiaries. Selected sites outside of NCR include specific areas in Pampanga, Iloilo, Cebu, and Davao.

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Michigan, USA, Chevrolet is now one of the world's largest car brands. Available in 79 countries, it has sold more than 3.2 million cars and trucks in 2020 alone.

Toyota award again

TOYOTA once again proved why it is the nation’s No. 1 carmaker, when it recently won a prestigious government award for excellence in a feat never achieved before by any car company.

It won the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) for performance excellence by the national government through the Department of Trade and Industry.

Toyota attained the PQA Level 4, the highest level of national recognition for exemplary organizational performance in Total Quality Management.

“I am with you in honoring public and private sector organizations that have embodied excellence in their pursuits,” President Duterte said after conferring the award to Toyota. “Continue your work that brings benefits to our people.”

In victory, Toyota became the first automo-

a distinctive center fabric pattern, while the Elegance features White Leatherette seats with tan Grand Luxe seating cushions. The tan motif, meantime, continues onto the Mazda CX-3 White’s door panels. Also available is the Mazda Connect infotainment system is also available equipped with Wireless CarPlay for both variants and a seven-speaker BOSE® setup.

As for security and safety, Smart Keyless Entry System, Rear Parking Sensors, side airbags, and side curtain airbags are standard for both variants. Both the 2022 Mazda CX-3 Sport and Elegance retail at P1.490 million.

The 2022 Mazda Premium Collection will be available in a new premium Platinum Quartz body color—a daring mixture of bright aluminum flakes and opaque pigment. All 16 Mazda showrooms nationwide will carry the 2022 Mazda Premium Collection beginning December 2021. tive company in the Philippines to become a PQA recipient, and the second Philippine organization in PQA’s 22-year history to achieve a Level 4 grade.

Said TMP chairman Alfred V. Ty: “TMP is honored to receive such high distinction in the PQA history, as well as to share TMP’s best practices that can serve as benchmark for other Philippine industries.”

The country’s largest carmaker is responsible for the development of domestic automotive manufacturing industry, currently producing the best-selling Vios and Innova models.

For his part, TMP president Atsuhiro Okamoto said, “The PQA award further inspires us to continue to improve and ultimately help our business become more sustainable, especially with new ventures that we are taking on.”

Established in August 1988, TMP is the largest automotive manufacturing company in the country with a work force of over 3,500. It has the widest vehicle line-up and most extensive distribution network with over 70 dealers nationwide.

PEE STOP Another one leaves the scene as Joseph Bautista retires as one of Isuzu’s pillars, breaking the news during Isuzu’s virtual Christmas media thanksgiving party. I have yet to see a motorman after Joseph whose attention to detail, a chassis bolt or a change of plan in a road trip, is beyond reproach. Enjoy your new life. You will be missed, Joseph…They say the return of the numbers coding on Dec. 1 will help ease traffic in the metropolis. Are you kidding me?