BusinessMirror December 11, 2018

DEPT. OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

2018 BANTOG DATA MEDIA AWARDS CHAMPION

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018 Vol. 14 No. 62

Tax reform bills’ passage seen to run beyond polls

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

LL the remaining packages under the Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) will likely be passed after the elections and not by year-end due to the resistance of the senators, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.

“We need to be realistic that given the election season, there is resistance in the Senate, but in the lower [chamber] it has already been approved,” Diokno told the BusinessMirror.

This was after the House of Representatives approved all the remaining tax packages under the CTRP on third and final reading.

However, these packages are still pending in the Senate except for

the tax amnesty bill, which they passed on third and final reading last month.

DOF still optimistic

THE Department of Finance (DOF),

“There is really resistance from the Senate. It’s not the schedule. Because for example, while the budget was not yet with them, they could have passed [the tax measures].”—Diokno

meanwhile, said it will still be pushing for the passage of the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill under the 17th Congress, if it is not passed by year-end.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters on Monday that lawmakers have their hands full with the budget bill still See “Tax reform,” A2

PCC gets ISO seal just 2 yrs after creation

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Stabilizing prices to fuel spending Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR

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ILIPINO consumers just a few months ago were in no mood to spend because of rising oil and food prices. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia was disturbed to learn about the slowdown in household consumption during the third quarter of the year, particularly on food and other basic products, because the pattern could further slow the economic growth.

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Executive pork bared as House nixes bid to defer Question Hour @joveemarie

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SKYSCRAPERS project progress and business confidence in Bonifacio Global City. The Department of Finance has said it will be pushing for the passage of the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill under the 17th Congress, amid concerns by some sectors that it would hurt investors’ bottom lines. NONIE REYES

Rollback in diesel, kerosene, but gas prices up

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IL firms announced on Monday a price rollback in diesel and kerosene, but they will increase the prices of gasoline starting on Tuesday.

Effective on Tuesday morning, oil firms will implement a price decrease in diesel by P0.10 per liter and a price increase of P0.40 per liter in gasoline products.

T he oi l f ir ms involved in this mixed rollback-price hike move are Seaoil, Petro Gazz, PTT

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.6560

Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum, Eastern Philippines and Shell.

Other oil firms are expected to follow suit.

The diesel price rollback is on its ninth consecutive week, bringing overall price reduction in diesel to anywhere between P10.55 and P10.75 per liter for the past two months. Gasoline prices have been reduced by anywhere between P12.05 and P12.20 per liter for the past eight weeks.

The Oil Industry Management Bureau of the energy department explained that Philippine retail prices are based on the average prices cited on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS). This refers to the prices of finished product, which include the gasoline and diesel sold in pumping stations.

Local oil firms adjust their prices on a weekly basis to reflect prices of imported oil products that arrive in the country. Lenie Lectura

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR

P25.00 nationwide | 4 sections 20 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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NLY two years in operation, the country’s antitrust body has attained its first ISO certification recognizing the quality of its services.

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) on Monday announced it was awarded ISO 9001:2015 certification for its quality management system. This is in recognition of the agency’s delivery of public services, such as mergers review, enforcement operations and policy research.

According to the PCC, its ISO certification covers reviews of mergers and acquisitions, competition law enforcement and competition policy formulation and research. It also includes capacity building and advocacies that are compliant with international standards of service.

The recognition was achieved by the PCC in spite of only two years in operation. This made the antitrust body the only ISO-certified public body among national government agencies organized since 2016. “ The certification is a testament to PCC ’s strong commitment to consistently execute its mandate toward merger reviews, enforcement cases and ot he r o p e r at ion s t h at me e t international standards.

2017 EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

HE House of Representatives on Monday rejected Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno’s bid to postpone indefinitely the Question Hour at which he was to be grilled on alleged “insertions” in the P3.757trillion budget for 2019. This, as a ranking House leader exposed alleged“Executive pork barrel” in the simmering word war between the two chambers of Congress and between the Legislative and Executive branches.

M ajor it y L e ade r R ol a ndo G. Andaya Jr. said the Question Hour will proceed as scheduled on Tuesday.

Amid insertions issues hounding the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA), Andaya of Camarines Sur exposed alleged irregularities in the awarding of the flood-control projects in the 2018 national budget.

In a privilege speech, Andaya bared alleged corrupt practices involving billions of pesos in infrastructure spending, which include flood-control projects in congressional districts, particularly in Catanduanes and Sorsogon.

Andaya said these two districts do not have any need for floodcontrol projects.

“I understand that a lot of members have the same experience. Maybe it’s about time some of you stand up for us to retake the power of the purse. We have been misunderstood and misaligned all these years. We have

“Maybe it’s about time some of you stand up for us to retake the power of the purse. We have been misunderstood and misaligned all these years. We have actually managed to decrease our influence over the budget.”—Andaya

actually managed to decrease our influence over the budget. Now, with me coming out and showing you hard proof of what you know what has been done to you, maybe it’s about time, we all as one voice, stand up and expose this sham,” Andaya said.

He said the two congressional districts—belonging to Sorsogon Rep. Deogracias B. Ramos Jr. and Catanduanes Rep. Cesar V. Sarmiento—received P2 billion and P500 million, respectively, in additional infrastructure funding.

“In t he second d istr ict of Sorsogon, nearly P2 billion in flood-control funds poured in, even though it was not needed and the congressman and constituents were not aware of it.

In Catanduanes, for this current year, the flood-control fund for the district of Cong. Sarmiento got an additional P500 million even though he had no knowledge of it; but we passed it because we were told it was proposed by the Executive and we should not touch it. That’s forbidden, they said,” Andaya revealed, in a mix of English and Filipino.

n JAPAN 0.4679 n UK 66.8994 n HK 6.7374 n CHINA 7.6593 n SINGAPORE 38.4182 n AUSTRALIA 37.7754 n EU 59.9699 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0352

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Source: BSP (10 December 2018 )

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A2 Tuesday, December 11, 2018

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DU30 forms anti-Red team, gives Cafgu aid

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

RESIDENT Duterte has created a national task force under his office to end the local communist armed conflict.

The issuance of the order came amid the collapse of the peace talks between the government and the communist rebels.

In a related development, President Duterte has also appointed Yusop Jimlani as Presidential Adviser on Local Extremist Group Concerns.

A third order, or Executive Order (EO) 69, grants financial support to

Tax reform. . .

qualified members of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) Active Auxiliary Service.

Through EO 70 signed by the President, the task force which he will lead will provide for an efficient mechanism and structure for the implementation of the whole-ofnation approach to aid in the realization of the collective aspiration of the Filipino people to attain in-

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being deliberated upon as well as other measures like the one-year extension of martial law in Mindanao, among others, which may push back passage of the Trabaho bill to early 2019.

“We will discuss again with them to see how we can push it [Trabaho bill]. It’s the last session week and they still have to look at martial law, they haven’t finished the budget.

We have to try again next year, I guess. There are some more sessions before the term of this Congress expires so we’ll see if we can finish it then, if it cannot be finished this year. It’s a risk that it’s near the elections,” Dominguez said.

Last month, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua expressed optimism that the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) will be passed under the 17th Congress, even though a number of other major bills will have to be passed at the Senate level.

C hu a ac k nowled ged t h at time is limited because the election campaign season is about to start, and the Senate is focusing on other important bills, including the 2019 national budget, making passage

by Christmas bleak.

Furthermore, Dominguez also stressed the importance of passing the 2019 budget, pointing out

that a reenacted budget would dampen the implementation of key government projects.

“I believe it’s quite remote to have a reenacted budget. A re-enacted budget is certainly not ideal because new projects cannot be embarked upon and old projects cannot be carried forward. So we just hope Congress can catch up,” he added.

The budget proposal of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for 2019 is under a cash-based budgeting system amounting to P3.757 trillion, shifting away from the previous obligation-based system.

In a document given to finance reporters, the DBM estimates disbursements to be reduced by P219.8 billion if the budget is r-enacted for 2019.

In July the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee reported that its programmed disbursements of P3.833 trillion in 2019 is 19.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The DBCC reported a disbursement program for 2018 of P3.369 trillion.

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) also reported that the impact on GDP growth under a reenacted budget for 2019 may lead to a contraction of 1.1 percentage points to 2.3 percentage points.

The programmed 7-percent

₧7,000

The monthly financial support for the months of November and December 2018, to be granted to each member of a (Cafgu Active Auxiliary) unit (CAA member), who meets the conditions prescribed in Section 2 of EO 69 clusive and sustainable peace, the Palace said.

“To ensure efficient and effective implementation of the wholeof-nation approach, a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict [Task Force] is hereby created under the Office of the President,” read the executive

GDP growth for 2019 may be reduced to 4.7 percent to 5.9 percent if the reenacted budget will be implemented.

Furthermore, the impact of a reenacted budget on employment is estimated to cut jobs by 600,000 in these sectors: construction, public administration and defense, wholesale and retail trade, land transportation and education. A reenacted budget for 2019 is also seen to push an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 individuals into poverty as a result of the contraction.

New Congress

MEANWHILE, Diokno explained that he is more optimistic of passage of the tax bills next year, since there will be a new Congress by then.

The Senate is also running against time to pass the proposed 2019 budget this week in time for the signing of the President before the year ends.

However, Diokno insisted the budget deliberations are not getting in the way of passing the tax packages.

“There is really resistance from the Senate. It’s not the schedule.

Because for example, while the budget was not yet with them, they could have passed [the tax measures],” he said.

In August, Diokno said he was “confident” that the remaining tax measures will be passed before year-end but there has to be serious and relentless efforts to

order, a copy of which was released

by Malacañang on Monday.

Aside from the President as chairman, the task force will be composed of the National Security Adviser as the vice chairman, and the heads of different government agencies, as well as two representatives from the private sector as members.

The task force is also mandated to formulate and implement in coordination with relevant national government agencies, local government units, civil society and other stakeholders, a whole-of-nationapproach-driven National Peace Framework.

“The framework shall contain the principles, polices, plans and programs that will bring inclusive peace and address the root causes of insurgencies, internal distur-

move the measures.

Still, some senators had expressed doubt that the Senate can also pass by year-end the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion 2, mainly due to time constraints and the need to vet controversial provisions, including the projected loss of tax perks for locators in economic zones. TRAIN 2, dubbed “Trabaho bill” in the House, would cut corporate income tax and rationalize fiscal incentives to business.

Package 2 plus includes measures on increasing excise taxes on “sin” products, namely tobacco and alcoholic products, mining, coal and casino operations. Package 3 talks about single valuation for real property, while Package 4 is focused on financial taxes.

Moreover, the goal for Package 3 is to lower the rate of transaction taxes on land while the offsetting measures include the rationalization of valuation of properties or increasing valuation closer to market prices.

For Package 4, the aim is to reduce the taxes imposed on interest income earned on peso deposit and investments from 20 to 10 percent. Offsetting measures include the harmonization of capital income-tax rates for dollar deposits and investments, dividends, equity and fixed income rates to 10 percent. It also includes increasing tax on stocks traded in the stock market from 0.5 percent to 1 percent on gross selling price.

bances, and tensions, as well as other armed conflicts and threats in identified areas,” it said.

Moreover, the task force shall also develop strategic communication, advocacy, and peace constituency plans in the case of cease-fire, as well as capacity-building measures, to enable local chief executives and local peace bodies to engage and facilitate local engagements or negotiations and interventions.

New adviser

JIMLANI’S appointment paper was dated December 6 but was also released on Monday.

Meanwhile, the separate order for assistance to Cafgu members, or EO 69, reads: “Financial support in the amount of Seven Thousand [P7,000] per

month, covering the months of November and December 2018, is hereby granted to each member of a [Cafgu Active Auxiliary] unit [CAA members], who meets the conditions prescribed in Section 2 of this Order. The funding requirements for the said financial support will be sourced from the Contingent Fund for fiscal year 2018.”

For the succeeding years, the Department of Budget and Management was directed to study and propose measures for the grant of financial support to qualified CAA members on a monthly basis, as well as identify funding resources against which said financial support may be charged, subject to applicable budgeting, accounting and auditing laws, rules and regulations.

Higher generation charges push up power rates for Dec

By Lenie Lectura

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@llectura

OWER rates will go up this month by P0.0902 per kilowatt-hour, resulting in an upward adjustment of around P18 in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh. The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said on Monday that overall electricity rates slightly increased to P10.1803 per kWh this month from last month’s P10.0901 per kWh, mainly on account of higher generation charge.

From P5.2725 per kWh last month, generation charge for December went up to P5.3303 per kWh, an increase of P0.0578 per kWh. The increase is mainly the result of increases of P0.5167 and P0.1783 per kWh in the cost of power from power supply agreements (PSAs) and independent power producers (IPPs), respectively.

Despite a stronger peso, PSA and IPP charges increased this month due to lower average plant dispatch.

San Lorenzo Modules 50 and 60 were on scheduled maintenance outage from October 28 to November 7, and October 28 and November

8, respectively.

The shares of PSA and IPP purchases in Meralco’s total requirement this month were 42 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the cost of power from the W holesale Electr icity Spot Market went down by P1.0268 per kWh due to improvement in the Luzon power supply situation and a lower demand for power in November. WESM provided 20 percent of Meralco’s supply needs.

Transmission charge of residential customers slightly increased

by P0.0169 per kWh. Meanwhile, taxes and other charges also went up by P0.0155 per kWh this month.

Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges, meanwhile, have remained unchanged for 41 months, after these registered reductions in July 2015.

Meralco does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the NGCP. Taxes and other public policy charges like the FiT-All rate are remitted to the government.

Executive pork bared as House nixes bid to defer Question Hour PCC gets ISO Continued from A1

“And yet when I spoke to the President, he said, ‘just do your job, do what you must do. If you think something must be stricken off, then delete it’,” Andaya added, quoting President Duterte.

Also, Andaya said 30 infrastructure contracts were won alone by CT Leoncio Construction and Trading Co. in Bulacan.

He said the lawmakers may have failed to see projects during the first two years of the administration, which submitted flood control budgets that were P50 billion apart.

In 2017, a P73-billion budget was alloted for flood control, and the figure increased by P50 billion or 68 percent in 2018.

Denying Lacson claim

IN his speech, Andaya also denied Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr.’s accusation that only allies received big allocations for their districts. “[Lacson may have referred to] allies from the previous [Pantaleon Alvarez] leadership and not from the current leadership,” he said.

Andaya noted that Arroyo was elected Speaker after the Executive department had already completed the 2019 budget proposal.

“Let us all remember that when the NEP, or the budget, was submitted to us, it was done under the previous leadership of the House. So logic dictates that the large allocations per district would be from the allies of the previous leadership and not from the present leadership,” he said.

No slowdown

A NDAYA, meanwhile, allayed fears of an economic slowdown should Congress fail to pass the 2019 national budget on time.

He shot down the notion, as peddled by Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, that a reenacted budget will result in an economic slowdown, specifically in the first and second quarter of 2019.

“That’s a lot of hot air coming from his rear end. That is not true.

Any person who believes that does not know his history. First of all, during his [Diokno’s] tenure as Secretary of Budget in the year 2000, the budget was passed on February. Did the sky fall down?

Did the country collapse? I don’t think so. We are sti l l here,” Andaya said.

Equal

AMID issues on insertions, Arroyo

has instructed the House Committee on Appropriations to give members of the lower chamber an equal funding in the 2019 national budget, Andaya said.

In a radio interview, Andaya said the leadership also directed the appropriations panel to refrain from making insertions.

“The instruction [of the Speaker] was to give equal funding. I remember that the terminology used was ‘bare minimum,’” he said.

“I even urged the appropriations panel to refrain from making insertions in the budget without notifying the Senate but, they did not heed my advice,” he added.

Andaya also denied the claims of Lacson that Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ensured additional funds for her Pampanga district.

Based on the NEP, the district of Pampanga already had a big allocation which is the original budget proposal of Arroyo.

However, Andaya said the lower chamber will still assist the Senate in analyzing the 2019 budget to resolve the issues of insertions.

Question Hour

ANDAYA said the lower chamber finds it imperative to hold on Tuesday as scheduled the

Question Hour due to the urgency of the members’ queries on the current year’s expenditures and the 2019 national budget.

“We stand firm in our intention to hold the Question Hour as scheduled and look forward to your appearance,” Andaya told Diokno in a letter.

For his part, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, who filed the resolution calling for the Question Hour, warned that they will draft a committee report recommending the replacement of Diokno if the budget secretary will not attend the question hour.

In a separate press conference, Suarez revealed that a witness, whom he did not name, will appear in the plenary to shed light on issues hounding the 2019 budget. “ T h a t ’s b e y o n d m e i f h e doesn’t at tend t he Quest ion Hour. There will be plenty of congressmen.... If he doesn’t show up I will give my piece, majority leader would also give his, and so on...and the witness would have to come here and I will ask him in the plenary to come up with a statement,” Suarez said.

Last week, the chamber adopted House Resolution 2307, filed

by Suarez, requiring Diokno’s appearance and participation in the Question Hour.

Diokno wrote the House leadership on December 10 seeking to postpone the Question Hour due to the number of questions proposed by lawmakers, and to give him time to get the necessary data and information to respond to these.

Diokno clarified the DBM supports the initiative to provide clarifications on concerns surrounding the FY 2019 budget and other relevant matters.

“Nevertheless, in view of the number of questions proposed, as well as the data and information required, the undersigned respectfully requests that the question hour be rescheduled to a later date,” Diokno said.

A s pr a c t ice d b y pre v iou s Congresses, the Question Hour is known to be a period of confrontation initiated by the Legislative to hold the Executive department, particularly Cabinet secretaries, accountable for their acts and the operation of the government.

This is the first time that Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, will hold a Question Hour.

seal just 2 yrs after creation Continued from A1

This demonstrates PCC’s ability to provide quality and timely regulatory and enforcement requirements,” PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan said.

The certification is valid until November 20, 2021, after being reviewed by Germany-based auditor TUV Rheinland.

“As the PCC quality policy emphasizes, the commission shall continually commit to fulfill our mandate as a quasi-judicial agency, achieve our mission to prohibit anticompetitive practices, attain our vision of becoming a worldclass competition authority, and improve our systems and processes to ensure the highest level of satisfaction of all our stakeholders,” Balisacan added.

The ISO 9001:2015 certification is the latest version of the ISO standards, which is internationally accepted for quality management. It is considered a seal of recognition for organizations that are able to provide effective customer and regulatory services.

Elijah Felice E. Rosales

The Nation BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BI deploys addl personnel with onset of holiday rush

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, December 11, 2018 A3

Synchronized Cha-cha plebiscite, ’19 polls ‘impossible’ now–Comelec exec

HE Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Monday said it would beef up its personnel at different international airports across the country in anticipation of thousands of arriving and departing passengers during the Christmas holidays.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente issued an order directing 56 more immigration officers to report to their respective assignments starting this week.

The additional officers are deployed to help process the thousands of international passengers expected to arrive and leave the country in droves during the holiday break.

BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina earlier recommended the augmentation of immigration personnel assigned in various international airports in view of the reported increase in the number of passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) and other airports in the past few days.

“We are actually expecting an upsurge of travelers entering the Philippines by around the second or third week of December as Christmas

time approaches,” said Medina.

The deployment of more immigration personnel, according to Medina, is intended to prevent long lines both at the immigration arrival and departure areas, which is often a cause of concern for BI officials during the Christmas season.

Out of the 56 BI officers who were issued travel orders, 19 will be reporting to the Naia, while the 37 others were dispersed to the airports in Clark, Mactan, Kalibo and Davao.

The said immigration officers are presently assigned at the BI main office and in other immigration field and satellite offices nationwide. Medina pointed out that the reassignment of the 56 BI officers is only temporary and that they are expected to return to their original posts in the second week of January. “Our goal is to provide fast and smooth immigration inspection this Yuletide season,” Medina said.

“Our priority is the overseas Filipino workers who are here for Christmas. We are providing a more efficient service so that our kababayan will be able to spend more time with their families,” he added. Joel R. San Juan

DOJ chief says Trillanes can leave the country if…

Senate OKs new measure on child-adoption process

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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USTICE Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Monday directed the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to let opposition Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV leave the country as long as there is no hold departure order (HDO) issued by any court against him.

Guevarra issued the statement after the Regional Trial Court in Davao City Branch 54 directed Trillanes to comment within five days on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) motion to issue an HDO against him for libel.

The DOJ sought the issuance of an HDO after the same branch issued four arrest warrants against the senator on December 7 over four counts of libel filed by former Davao City vice mayor and presidential son Paolo Duterte and presidential son-in-law Manases Carpio in September.

The senator has also been ordered to post bail of P24,000 for each count.

Meanwhile, Trillanes immediately posted bail on Monday through the Office of the Clerk of Court , Regional Trial Court, Pasay City, which led to the lifting and setting aside of the warrants of arrest.

“My instruction to the Bureau of Immigration is clear: If there is no HDO issued by any court, let Sen. Trillanes travel abroad,” Guevarra said in a text message.

“The matter of getting the Davao court’s permission to travel is between Sen. Trillanes and the court.

If he travels without court permission, that is his own lookout,” the DOJ chief added.

Trillanes is scheduled to travel to the Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom from December 11, 2018 to January 12, 2019 to attend various meetings and activities.

He will also go to the United States from January 27 to February 10, 2019.

T he l ibel compl a ints f i led against Trillanes stemmed from his accusations that Duterte and Carpio demanded money from ride-sharing companies, particularly Uber.

Trillanes also accused the two of being involved in illegal drugs and smuggling activities.

Mea nwh i le, Gueva r ra a lso dismissed Trillanes’s claim that the country’s justice system is “topsy-turvy” under the present administration.

“He says justice is working if it favors him, but not working if it does not favor him,” Guevarra stressed.

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ITH 17 yes votes, no negative vote and no abstention, the Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading simplifying the adoption process of a child by allowing the rectification of simulated births through a simpler administrative proceeding.

Senate Bill 2081, entitled “Simulated Birth Rectification Act of 2018,” is contained in Committee Report 498 prepared by the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.

Committee chairman Sen. Risa Hontiveros, in a news statement, said the measure aims “to grant amnesty and allow the rectification of the simulated birth of a child where simulation was made for the best interest of the child, and that such child has been consistently considered and treated by the person” who considered the child as his or her own.

The bill is a substitution of Senate Bill 1725, introduced by Sen. Grace Poe, and Senate Bill 1728, proposed

by Hontiveros and detained Sen. Leila M. de Lima.

Its counterpart measure, House Bill 5675, was approved by the House of Representatives on August 29 last year and was transmitted to the Senate two days later.

In her sponsorship speech, Hontiveros said the bill seeks to correct the status of a child whose birth was simulated by opening the avenue for a legal adoption that the child may enjoy all the benefits offered by the law to legally adopted children.

“To remedy the problem of lengthy and financially restrictive adoption proceedings, this bill likewise proposes a simpler and

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

HE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said that the holding of the plebiscite for Charter change (Cha-cha) synchronized with the 2019 midterm elections is now highly unlikely due to lack of time.

Comelec Spokesman James B. Jimenez said information campaigns for a plebiscite would usually take six months to ensure those who

less costly administrative adoption process without compromising the safety and integrity of the child,” Hontiveros added.

According to the measure, “birth simulation” refers to the tampering of the civil registry to make it appear in the record of birth that a child was born to a person who is not the child’s biological mother.

Poe, the principal author, said Republic Act 8552, also known as the “Domestic Adoption Act,” recognizes informal adoptions or more commonly known as simulated births.

“While Section 21 [b] of the said Act penalizes any person, who shall cause the fictitious registration of the birth of a child under the name[s] of a person[s] who is not his/her biological parent[s], it also provided for an amnesty for those who did so for the best interest of the child. However, this amnesty resulted in a lacuna in the law in that it only allowed the rectification of those who [1] did so before the effectivity of the law on 22 March 1998; and [2] filed a petition for adoption within five [5] years from the effectivity of the Act or until 22 March 2003,” she said.

This provision, she said, makes adoption process “tedious and excessively costly for ordinary Filipinos.”

“This leaves a lot of adoptees under assumed filiation and unduly deprived of the benefits of legitimacy and succession,” she added.

To fast-track the adoption process, those who simulated the birth record of a child should be exempt from criminal, civil and administrative liability provided that the application to rectify a simulated birth

PHL calls for stronger climate action after release of ‘alarming’ IPCC report

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HE Philippines continues to lead climate-vulnerable nations in seeking climate justice as it urged countries to push harder in the global fight against climate change.

Climate Change Commission Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman, in a news statement, said the gathering of the world leaders at the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commonly known as COP24, is an opportunity for countries to demonstrate their commitment and to set stronger climate action in Poland.

Citing the highlights of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), de Guzman said the report pointed out that world leaders need to step up climate action if the world is to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Already, the Philippines and many other countries are facing challenges such as droughts, higher sea levels and catastrophic typhoons exacerbated by climate change, he noted.

“We need to incorporate climate change

@sam_medenilla

in our long-term policy. In the climate talks, ours is a ‘leadership voice’ on behalf of the climate vulnerable. The Philippines championed climate justice,” said de Guzman, also the lead negotiator of the Philippine delegation to COP24.

At COP24, countries will need to come to an agreement on the implementing guidelines that is necessary to operationalize the 2015 Paris Agreement, signal their intention to strengthen their national climate plans by 2020 and make progress on dealing with finance.

De Guzman said the Philippine delegation to the climate talks will safeguard the continued success of the landmark Paris Agreement, adding that the country will continue to champion the following concerns of developing countries: finance is delivered, including technology development, transfer and diffusion and capacity-building; developed countries have clear programs for delivery; clarity and acceptability of the time frame of the programs to enable developing countries like the Philippines to build their national capacities to avoid future generation of greenhousegas emissions and to survive the intensifying impacts of climate change through anticipatory adaptation. Jonathan L. Mayuga

will be affected will be able to vote with an informed choice.

With only around five months remaining before the May 13,

record should be filed within 10 years from the effectivity of the measure.

Instead of going through the courts, those who will file a petition may do so through the social welfare and development officer of the city or municipality where the child resides.

The secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) shall decide

2019 elections, the Comelec official said there is now little chance the plebiscite will push through during the period.

“May is the fifth month of the year. So it’s impossible already to fit in the education period,” Jimenez said.

No less than House of Representative Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo earlier conceded that Cha-cha would have to be tackled by the 18th Congress since the draft Constitution is still pending in second reading in the Lower House.

Senators also expressed a similar view.

Once the said draft Constitution is approved by both houses of Congress,

on the petition within 30 days from receipt of the recommendation of the department’s regional director.

After all requirements for administrative adoption have been met, the child shall be considered the legitimate child of a person and as such is entitled to all rights and obligations provided by law to legitimate children born to them.

the Comelec would have to conduct a plebiscite to determine if it will be supported or rejected by the public.

“All of the factors are actually pointing to a negative possibility there. It is already unlikely to happen, even if they push it,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez noted they are now focusing their efforts on the preparations for the 2019 elections since the poll body is now already scheduled to start the printing of ballots next month.

“We are this close to finalizing the ballot design and, at this point, there is not even a completed set of amendments or revisions that can be considered,” Jimenez said.

Poe said the measure, if passed into law, will give the adoptive parents the opportunity to have the status of their adopted child or children regularized in law.

“It is also in the best interest of the parents and the children to have the records rectified for possible future uses such as medical or DNA purposes or for other legal matters,” she said.

A4 Tuesday, December 11, 2018 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

DOLE seeks rigid issuance of SWP to foreign workers

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

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O cut the number of foreign workers entering the country, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Monday vowed to push for restrictions on the issuance of the special work permit (SWP).

In an ambush interview, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said they are now in talks with the Department of Justice to limit the list of professions, which would qualify for the SWP issued by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

“I will meet with Secretary [Menardo] Guevarra on this. We will look at the possibility of minimizing or completely withdrawing the authorization of [BI in issuing SWPs],” Bello said.

The SWP is the document issued by BI to foreigners if they intend to work in the country for less than six months.

Those who will be working in the country for at least six months will be required to get the Alien Employment Permit (AEP) issued by the DOLE, which will require them to go through the “labor-market test” before they could qualify.

Possible reforms

THE DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment Director Dominique R. Tutay said his office had recommended to Bello to restrict the issuance of SWP, amid concerns from some lawmakers it is being used by foreigners, particularly Chinese nationals, to circumvent the labor-market test of the DOLE. “We can minimize the issuance of SWPs by proposing what kind of engagement or work which could qualify for it,” Tutay said.

She added they are also propose to require foreign workers to obtain the SWP ortheAEPinthePhilippinespostsabroad prior to their arrival in the country.

Under the current government regulations, the SWP and AEP are obtained once a foreigner is already in the country.

Augmentation team

TUTAY admitted their recommendation fell short of outright pushing for the scrapping of the mandate of BI to issue the SWP, since it will overburden their regional offices.

“It would be very challenging to our regional offices to issue permits because of the sheer number of those applying for it,” Tutay said.

During a Senate hearing, BI revealed it was able to issue 119,000 SWPs to Chinese nationals. For its part, the DOLE was only able to issue 115,000 AEPs in the last three years.

The authority of the BI to issue a SWP came from its Memorandum Order AFFJr. 05-009 issued in 2005 with the approval of the DOLE. The DOLE said the order was a result of the country’s commitment to its trading partners to streamline the processing of foreign workers.

Ongoing mapping

IN a related development, Tutay said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) had already agreed to help them in the mapping of establishments engaged in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (Pogos).

She said the initiative will enable the government to come out with the employment figures for Pogos, which some lawmakers claimed is the industry where thousands of foreign nationals are illegally employed.

“Currently, Pagcor still has no figures on the number of workers employed in its licensed Pogos. The mapping will address that,” Tutay said.

The mapping is expected to start in the National Capital Region before moving to other regions.

During the mapping, Tutay confirmed they will also report to the BI any foreigner, who is working in the country with SWP or an AEP. “It is really encouraging them to observer and comply with the existing rules and regulation on employment under the Philippines laws,” Tutay said.

DOF, ADB exchange documents on $600-M twin loan agreements

By Rea Cu

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@ReaCuBM

HE Department of Finance (DOF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) exchanged loan documents on Monday covering Subprogram 2 of the Expanding Private Participation in Infrastructure Program (EPPIP-2), as well as the Inclusive Finance Development Program (IFDP-1) with approved loans amounting to $300 million each.

The DOF said that the two loan agreements aim to help the Philippine government sustain its efforts on expanding financial services to small entrepreneurs, as well as to raise private sector participation in the government’s infrastructure modernization program.

“Attaining financial inclusion and modernizing our infrastructure backbone are two main tasks the Duterte administration seeks to accomplish over the next four years. These two loan packages fall squarely into the national priorities we have identified.

They will surely help us in achieving rapid, investments-led economic expansion,” said Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III. The EPPIP-2 policy-based lending worth $300 million, was signed in August with the program aimed to support government reforms to strengthen financial support to public-private partnership programs, expand the pipeline of projects, and strengthen the legal and regulatory frameworks for PPPs. The IFDP-1, also worth $300 million, was signed in October which aims to increase financial inclusion of the poorest 40 percent of the adult population, supporting government reforms to expand financial products and services to the poor, promote financial literacy, and invest in support networks and infrastructure such as the national

retail payment system and the new national identification system. “[The] ADB is committed to supporting the Philippine government as it pursue more inclusive growth across the archipelago. Boosting the government’s effort to build up infrastructure and expand financial services in underserved areas of the country will help reduce income inequality in the country, which has persisted despite sustained strong economic growth in recent years,” said ADB President Takehiko Nakao.

During the exchange of loan documents on Monday at the DOF headquarters, Nakao also announced that the bank is planning to extend loans of up to $2.5 billion annually to the Philippines, from 2019 to 2021 or a total of $7.4 billion over the three-year period to provide additional support for the government’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program.

“The reason we are increasing our lending is because we want to support BBB project of this administration and I mentioned I have met Secretary Dominguez several times and I met President Duterte three times, and we discussed a lot of the things we can do together, and we want to do it in a more quick manner and also flexible manner,” Nakao added.

Under the BBB program, the government expects to spend some $170 billion or around P8 trillion over the medium term. The program is composed of 75 high-impact infrastructure projects that will be financed by a mixture of official development assistance from foreign development institutions, funding support from the tax-reform program, offshore bond offerings and private investments through PPPs. This ambitious program aims to increase public investments on infrastructure to 7.3 percent of GDP by 2022, from 5.4 percent of GDP in 2017.

Economy BusinessMirror

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WB tells PHL, East Asia: Liberalize services sector, boost SME capacity

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By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

HE Philippines has to liberalize its services sector and grow the capacity of its small and medium enterprises (SMEs) if it intends to sustain its productivity growth, a World Bank report said.

acceded to the WTO in the 1990s [Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand], the openness of the services sector, while higher at the turn of the century, has remained relatively unchanged since,” the report read.

“The types of policies that result in the restrictiveness of service sector policies across East Asia are also striking. The problem stems mainly from restrictions on entry, ownership and operations within various subsectors rather than the presence of public sector monopolies or the complete closing of services markets,” it added.

The World Bank report claimed the playing field in East Asia is tilted against foreign providers because of the opaqueness and discretion that is prevalent in the allocation of licenses. This is reportedly accentuated in many economies by lack of accountability because regulators do not have to provide a rationale for rejecting license applications.

The report also urged developing East Asian economies to address its uneven access to finance.

“Domestic capital markets have grown in complexity and depth across much of developing East Asia, particularly since the Asian financial crisis. However, access to them, and to finance more generally, has continued to be restricted only to the largest firms,” the report read.

“For equity markets, the median issuing firm has assets about three times that of median nonissuer. For bond markets, the gap is even larger, with the median issuer about seven times larger in terms of assets than the median nonissuer. Thus, SMEs still cannot take full advantage of the deepening of capital markets,” it added.

The World Bank said this is especially alarming for countries like the Philippines. “Because SMEs remain important contributors to employment and output in most of these economies, finding ways of fostering their productivity growth remains important,” the report read.

The world’s largest lender said Philippine SMEs account for about 66 percent of total sales and employ 37 percent of the country’s labor force.

In a report titled “A Resurgent East Asia: Navigating A Changing World,” the World Bank said it is necessary for East Asian economies, including the Philippines, to adapt to the changes in global economy to sustain productivity growth. This, as they seek to transition high-income ranks from medium income.

“Labor productivity and human capital levels in developing East Asian countries still lag behind the levels of…countries like Chile and Republic of Korea [which they have] achieved at the time [they have] reached high-income status,”

the report read.

“Moreover, much of developing East Asia has also seen productivity growth slow recently, and like advanced and emerging economies elsewhere, these countries must now find ways of reactivating it in the face of a changing global, regional and domestic environment,” it added.

It argued that the Philippines had acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) earlier than Cambodia, China and Vietnam, but its services sector remained restrictive.

“In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-4 economies that had

Property valuation should be based on

Data Privacy Protection–are you familiar with the terms to stay out of trouble?

DOF rates–MAP

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HE Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) is asking lawmakers to utilize for real property the government’s valuation in the third package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).

In a news statement issued on Monday, the MAP said it supports reforms to the country’s real-property valuation as proposed in measures in the House of Representatives and Senate.

It said, however, that assessment rates must be applied based on the valuation of the Department of Finance (DOF).

The reforms seek to establish a single valuation system for properties making use of market values as basis to institute a single valuation base. Under this mechanism, a schedule of market values (SMV) will be periodically set, updated and published by the DOF for local and national taxation purposes.

“Similar to real property taxation, MAP recommends that for national tax purposes, assessment levels be likewise applied on the DOF’s valuation, as published in the SMV, to temper the impact of inflation in property values reflected when the SMVs are periodically upgraded to conform to current market values,” the statement read.

The MAP recommended an assessment level of 50 percent of DOF’s SMV for mortis causa of estate property and gratuitous transfer inter vivos of property among family members up to the fourth degree of consanguinity.

“The rationale for this being that transfer mortis causa is involuntary, mandatory pursuant to the law and without valuable consideration. The latter is, likewise, the case in donation inter vivos,” the statement read.

“The MAP believes that providing the said lower assessment level for the stated transfers is needed to give life to the rationalization of donor’s and estate tax rates to 6 percent, a laudable reform under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion.

The benefits of such lower rate of 6 percent that encourages high level of compliance going forward will be eroded if the full market values, as appraised and periodically upgraded, will be used as the valuation base for non-commercial transactions among family members,” it added.

Further, MAP is pushing for the 100-percent assessment level for commercial property transactions for valuable consideration. Elijah Felice E. Rosales

By Henry J. Schumacher

O

RGANIZATIONS, large, medium and small, have to comply with the Data Privacy Act which is effectively implemented by the National Privacy Commission (NPC).

And we also know that if we fail in compliance, and have data and security breaches, the fines are high, we will be criminally liable, jail terms are possible, and reputation loss is obvious.

It is in this context that I would like to highlight some “terms,” you, your data protection officer and your compliance team are better familiar with: “Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier, such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person; “Processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retr ieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction; “Restriction of processing” means the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting their processing in the future; “Profiling” means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person,

in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location or movements; “Pseudonymization” means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional i nfor m at ion, prov ided t h at such additional information is kept separately, and is subject to technical and organizational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person; “Filing system” means any structured set of personal data which are accessible according to specific criteria, whether centralized, decentralized or dispersed on a functional or geographical basis; “Controller” means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; “Processor” means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller; “Third party” means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the control ler or processor, are authorized to process personal data; “Consent” of the data subject

means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her; “Personal data breach” means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed; “Genetic data” means personal data relating to the inherited or acquired genetic characteristics of a natural person which give unique information about the physiology or the health of that natural person and which result, in particular, from an analysis of a biological sample from the natural person in question; “Biometric data” means personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioral characteristics of a natural person, which allow or confirm identification of that natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data; “Data concerning health” means personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health- care services, which reveal information about his or her health status.

To handle all the personal and sensitive data in an organization is not easy. Automation is a solution, because a data protection management system can:

Assess and take inventory of personal and sensitive data information assets;

Conduct self-assessment against data privacy laws;

Perform an information security assessment and on-site audit;

Map all personal and sensitive data managed across the organization;

Conduct risk assessments and documenting risk treatments; and

Conduct data protection impact assessments.

If you are interested in automation or assistance is needed, let me know; you can contact me at Schumacher@eitsc.com.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Tuesday, December 11, 2018 A5

China pressures US, Canada ahead of Huawei exec hearing

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EIJING—China raised the pressure on the United States and Canada as a bail hearing for a top Chinese technology executive was set to resume on Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A headline in a Communist Party newspaper called Canada’s treatment of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, “inhumane.” The Global Times editorial published in Monday’s edition followed formal protests by the Chinese government to both Canada and the United States over the weekend.

Meng was detained on December 1 while changing planes in Vancouver. The US wants her ex-

tradited. It alleges Huawei used a Hong Kong shell company to evade US trade curbs on Iran.

V ice Foreig n M i n i ster L e Yucheng, summoning US Ambassador Terry Branstad on Sunday, called Meng’s detention “extremely egregious.” He demanded the US vacate the arrest warrant, warning that Beijing will take further steps based on Washington’s response, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A day earlier, the Chinese government gave Canadian Ambassador John McCallum a warning of “grave consequences” if she is not released.

The Canadian province of British Columbia said in a statement on Sunday it canceled a trade mission to China because of Meng’s detention. The announcement came amid fears China could detain Canadians in retaliation.

A Canadian prosecutor asked a court on Friday to reject Meng’s bail request. The judge said he would think about proposed bail conditions over the weekend.

Meng’s arrest threatens to add to US-China trade tensions at a time when the two sides are seeking to resolve a dispute over Beijing’s technology and industrial planning. Both sides have sought to keep the issues separate, at least so far.

US Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer, speaking on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, downplayed the impact of the arrest.

“This is a criminal justice matter,” he said. “It is totally separate from anything that I work on or anything that the trade policy people in the administration work on. We have a lot of very big, very important issues. We’ve got serious people working on them, and I don’t think they’ll be affected by this.”

Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was detained on the same day that President Donald J. Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed over dinner to a 90-day cease-fire in the trade dispute.

Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear for phone and Internet companies, but its products have become the target

of US security concerns because of its ties to the Chinese government. The US has pressured European countries and other allies to limit use of its technology, warning they could be opening themselves up to surveillance and theft of information.

The hearing on whether to grant her release on bail was due to resume later Monday.

The US alleges that Huawei used a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment in Iran in violation of US sanctions. It also says that Meng and Huawei misled American banks about its business dealings in Iran.

In a brief statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Huawei said: “We have every confidence that the Canadian and US legal systems will reach the right conclusion.”

Canadian officials have de-

clined to comment on Chinese threats of retaliation over the case, instead emphasizing the independence of Canada’s judiciary along with the importance of Ottawa’s relationship with Beijing.

While protesting what it calls Canada’s violation of Meng’s human rights, China’s ruling Communist Party stands accused of mass incarcerations of its Muslim minority without due process, locking up people exercising their right to free speech and refusing to allow foreign citizens to leave the country in order to bring pressure on their relatives accused of financial crimes.

The party also takes the lead in prosecutions of those accused of corruption or other crimes in a highly opaque process, without supervision from the court system or independent bodies. AP

Oil extends gain on Opec+ output South African gold industry sees last reduction pact, Libya field outage O

IL in London extended gains near $62 a barrel on prospects for a shrinking glut as the Opec+ group agreed to curb output and protesters forced Libya’s biggest crude field to close.

Brent futures rose as much as 1.1 percent after jumping 2.7 percent on Friday as producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia committed to removing 1.2 million barrels a day of output, more than the market had expected. Skepticism before a producer meeting in Vienna last week had seen money managers boost bets against crude.

Meanwhile, Libya’s state oil firm declared force majeure at its largest oil field after members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard shut down pumps leading to tanks.

Crude is paring this year’s losses after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners defied US President Don-

ald J. Trump’s call for the producer group to keep taps open. Prices have slid from a four-year high in early October highs after Washington gave temporary exemptions from sanctions to eight nations to continue purchasing Iranian oil, while America exacerbated a global glut by pumping at record levels.

“Some positives are coming to the table and the market is reacting to the potential of less supply in the short term,” said Stephen Innes, Singapore-based head of trading for Asia Pacific at Oanda Corp.

“Now, we make the all-important pivot to the April Opec meeting and investors will be looking for evidence of how much of these cuts will be delivered.”

Brent for February settlement increased as much as 66 cents to $62.33 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange and traded 0.5 percent higher at $61.96 a

barrel at 7:22 a.m. in London. Futures rose $1.61 to $61.67 a barrel on Friday. The global benchmark crude traded at $9.28 above US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the same month.

WTI futures for January delivery were little changed and traded at $52.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose 2.2 percent to $52.61 on Friday.

Total volume traded was 32 percent above the 100-day average.

Crude futures both in London and New York surged as much as by at least 5 percent on Friday after Opec+ coalition managed to reach a deal to remove more than 1 percent of global production to revive prices. The deal is testament to the strength of Saudi Arabia’s two-year-long cooperation with Russia and showed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is willing to defy the wishes of Trump

even after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Still, uncertainty remains in the market, given the deal doesn’t specify country allocations and excludes Libya, Venezuela and Iran from the curbs, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. While Morgan Stanley expects the cuts will likely be sufficient to balance the market in the first half of next year, it sees limited upside to prices and cut its Brent crude price forecast by $10 a barrel for 2019.

In Libya, production from the Sharara oil field was shut after the state oil company declared force majeure as of Sunday, according to a statement on its web site. The closure will result in a production loss of 315,000 barrels a day, with an additional decrease of 73,000 barrels a day at the El-Feel due to its dependence on Sharara for electricity supply. Bloomberg News

Church renovation lifts Christmas spirit in Bethlehem

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ETHLEHEM, West Bank— A historic renovation of the Church of the Nativity is lifting spirits in the biblical town of Bethlehem ahead of Christmas, offering visitors a look at ancient mosaics and columns that have been restored to their original glory for the first time in 600 years.

City officials hope the renovation at the traditional birthplace of Jesus will boost tourism and a weak economy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and perhaps slow a decades-long drain of the Christian population from the lands where the faith was born.

“Christians are leaving the Holy Land due to the lack of peace and economic hardships and we are struggling to keep them in their homeland,” said Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman. “This is one of the ways.”

The renovation started in 2013, a year after Unesco declared the church a world heritage site, and is expected to be completed by the end of next year. The Palestinian Authority formed a committee of local Christian leaders to oversee the renovation and contracted an Italian company to carry out the project.

Ziad al-Bandak, the committee head, said it has collected $14 million out of $17 million needed. Roughly half of the funding has come from the Palestinian Authority and local Muslim and Christian businesses, and the rest from foreign donors.

“It has become such a beautiful church,” he said. “Every Christian in the world would love to see it now.”

One of Christianity’s most sacred

In this Thursday, December 6, 2018, photo, restoration experts work on a mosaic inside the Church of the Nativity, built atop the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, in the West Bank City of Bethlehem. The renovation is lifting spirits in the biblical town of Bethlehem ahead of Christmas, offering visitors a look at ancient mosaics and columns that have been restored to their original glory for the first time in 600 years. AP PHOTO/MAJDI MOHAMMED

shrines, the church was built in the 4th century by Saint Helena over a cave where the Virgin Mary is said to have given birth. What pilgrims mostly see today is the basilica built

by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, who ruled from AD 527 to 565.

Neglected for decades before the renovation, the roof of the church was leaking, windows were broken, mosaics were covered in grime and walls and columns were damaged.

After five years of work, it has been transformed.

Emad Nassar, a Palestinian engineer overseeing the renovations, said the project started with the ceiling. Roughly 10 percent of the beams were replaced with wood imported from old destroyed churches in Italy, windows were fixed, and outside stones and walls were renovated.

Perhaps the biggest challenge has been repairing the badly damaged

2,000 square meter (21,500 square foot) wall mosaic. So far, 120 sq m (1,292 square feet) have been restored, depicting images of Christ and Christian saints. Workers are also restoring a floor mosaic.

The restoration process is meticulous and painstaking. As Nassar spoke, three Italian workers were cleaning a mosaic with tiny brushes and covering them with protective material. AP

phase of slow death

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ACK in 1987, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa—then a 34-yearold labor union leader—led 300,000 black miners in a strike that symbolized resistance to the apartheid reg ime. Now, striking gold workers face a less politically charged battle, but one they can’t win.

The nation’s 130 -year-old gold industry—which has produced half the bullion ever mined on Earth—is locked in the final stages of a decades-long death spiral. Most of South Africa’s gold mines are unprofitable at current prices.

Dwindling output has cut gold ’s contr ibution to little more than 1 percent of the South African economy, down from 3.8 percent in 1993—the year before Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress won the country’s first democratic elections. While the industry’s demise won’t reverberate in the way it once would have, the mines minister has criticized Gold Fields Ltd.’s plan to cut jobs as the ruling ANC seeks to shore up its base before elections next year.

Operations at mines run by Gold Fields and Sibanye Gold Ltd. in South Africa have been halted by strikes over job cuts and wages, respectively. Both producers cut their output projections for this year.

South Africa’s gold industry now employs just over 100,000 people, less than a fifth of the number that used to power the apartheid economy.

The economic and social impact of a further contraction in the industry will be magnified as every gold miner supports between five and 10 dependents, while creating two jobs elsewhere, according to the country’s Minerals Council.

Higher wages and power prices, combined with the geological challenges of the world’s deepest mines, will mean more job losses and less production in the country over the next five years, said Gold Fields Chief Executive Officer Nick Holland. “ W hen you work out the math, when you keep doing that year after year, you are going to go out of business very quickly,” Holland said in an interview.

“The industry will just continue to see a slow death.”

Sibanye, the country’s biggest producer, faces wage strikes at three of its mines. CEO Neal Froneman acknowledges that pressure is building on the miner to resolve its safety problems after more than 20 fatalities this year. If that can be done, he’s optimistic that South Africa’s gold mines can survive a little longer.

South Africa’s gold output plunged 19 percent in September, the biggest decline in almost four years, as producers struggle to contain costs.

“It’s an industry in decline, yes, and if sunset means the sun setting in 10 years or 15 years, that’s still 10 or 15 years away,” Froneman said in an interview last month. “There is still money to be made.” Bloomberg News

150 countries support UN migration pact

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ARRAKECH, Morocco —Top UN officials and government leaders from about 150 countries are uniting around an agreement on migration, while finding themselves on the defensive about the nonbinding deal amid criticism and a walkout from the United States and some other countries.

The Global Compact for Migration has proven a test for globally minded policy-makers who want to ensure safe and orderly migration of people

displaced by issues like war, economic necessity and climate change.

They have run into stiff political headwinds, mostly in parts of the West that want national borders to remain sacrosanct.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres among the biggest names in Marrakech for the two-day conference that is set to agree, but not sign, the compact by acclamation shortly after the opening on Monday. AP

A6 Tuesday, December 11, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

Strictly enforce drunk driving law

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N the past years, we have seen our share of deadly accidents during the holidays, most of them caused by drunk drivers of all kinds of motor vehicles, and yet how many of them went to jail or were punished or even caught?

We have a national law against drunk driving. Republic Act (RA) 10586 or The Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013 penalizes persons driving under the influence of alcohol, dangerous drugs and similar substances and sets stiff fines, as well as jail terms for violators.

Under this law, drivers who injure others while driving under the influence of alcohol must pay a fine of P20,000 to P80,000 and face imprisonment for three months. Drunk drivers who figure in fatal accidents will face a maximum prison term of 20 years and will be made to pay a fine from P300,000 to P500,000. Nonprofessional drivers found with a blood alcohol content exceeding 0.05 percent will be penalized, while for professional drivers, it’s 0.01 percent BAH. Professional drivers driving public-utility vehicles while drunk will have their licenses revoked.

This law should be strictly enforced—meaning all the time, everywhere, no matter who gets caught. But this is obviously not the case.

For instance, statistics provided by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) show that between January 1 and June 30, 2018, only 100 motorists were apprehended for drunk driving. If the law was to be strictly enforced, authorities could probably catch 100 drunk drivers on a single night in Metro Manila alone.

Authorities should start being vigilant; especially as Christmas merrymaking gets under way. All the merrymaking during the holiday season leads to a lot of drinking, the root cause of road accidents. Traffic laws should not take a holiday during the holidays.

However, as everybody knows in this country, it is one thing to enact a law and it is another thing to enforce it.

We need a composite corps of trained traffic enforcers to implement the anti-drunk driving law. Under the law, the LTO has the task of administering alcohol breath analyzer tests on motorists suspected to be driving under the influence of alcohol. But RA 10586 also states that the LTO may deputize traffic enforcers with the Philippine National Police, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and cities and municipalities to implement its provisions. The government definitely needs to involve more personnel in addition to those fielded by the LTO, MMDA and PNP, and they would need the proper equipment, specifically more breath analyzers.

During last Tuesday’s road safety forum organized by Vera Files, MMDA Spokesman Celine B. Pialago revealed that the agency’s budget for 2019 was cut by P300 million, even if it actually needs to hire more people and procure more equipment.

Pialago specifically cited the lack of breath analyzers for suspected drunk drivers. She said the MMDA only has 47 breath analyzers, definitely not enough to enforce the law and prevent the many road crashes and pedestrian accidents caused by drunk driving.

She also noted that the agency could not deploy traffic enforcers in the wee hours, as it lacks the funds for overtime pay.

Filipinos routinely flout traffic laws, but during the holidays, especially in the wee hours after merrymaking, the more they do so. According to MMDA statistics, the most number of major vehicular accidents happen between midnight and 6 a.m. This is the time when drunk drivers are most likely on the road. So it makes sense to have traffic enforcers during these hours. And it makes no sense to expect traffic enforcers to implement the drunk driving law when they do not have breath analyzers to begin with.

This only shows how traffic officials who try to enforce laws should get more support from the government. For starters, Congress must give them the appropriate budget so they can do their jobs well.

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Stabilizing prices to fuel spending Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR Continued from A1

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OUSEHOLD consumption in the third quarter, according to Philippine Statistics Authority data, grew just 5.2 percent, the slowest since the 5-percent rise in the third quarter of 2014. Mr. Pernia was understandably concerned about the low confidence of consumers to spend amid the galloping oil prices in the world market, especially in October, and the spike in the Philippine inflation rate to a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in the same month.

(The Philippine Statistics Authority last week reported that the inflation rate in November 2018 significantly dropped to a four-month low of 6 percent from a nine-year high of 6.7 percent a month ago, mainly due to the slower increases in food and fuel prices.)

Consumer confidence is a critical economic indicator. It measures the degree of optimism that consumers perceive about the direction of the economy and their personal financial situation. Consumers buy more when their confidence on the future of the

economy is high, and purchase less and save more when their confidence is low amid uncertainties.

It is the duty of the government to restore consumer confidence, and one way of doing that is to tame prices and address the immediate factors contributing to a high inflation. The Duterte administration exactly did that when the President ordered the importation of more rice to provide a short-term solution to the immediate problem.

The recent passage of the rice tariffication bill by the bicameral

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W

E all want to hear ideas and opinions that we like. If you are a coffee drinker you want to hear that “Drinking More Coffee Could Mitigate the Liver Damage from Last Night’s Martinis”. You prefer not to read “Ten Reasons to Quit Your Coffee!”

However, a sensible person does want to be exposed to both sides of the issue to make an informed decision about any given topic. Part of the problem in this age of instant communication is that it seems that almost everything is agenda-driven.

Data is distorted. Pertinent facts are left out. Is the positive analysis about coffee funded by the “International Coffee Producers Council”? Should you “quit coffee” because the “Global Green Tea Association” says so?

How do we know what to believe?

Over the years I have advised my sons that they do not need to know everything about everything because you can always hire an accountant, attorney or other professional.

However, I also tell them that they need to know enough to be able to

ask sensible questions and enough to make sure that the “professional” is not able to take advantage of your ignorance.

For example, when a doctor prescribes a particular antibiotic, I become their worst nightmare with all my questions. Of course I have little knowledge about what the best medicine might be, but I want to be told why he or she is recommending “cephalexin” for example.

A simple “Why are you giving me this particular drug?” deserves a sensible answer.

Instant communication has created too many “instant experts” whom we are expected to believe, and that is dangerous.

Not even a week can pass without some foreign economic group

conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives is another step in the right direction because it will mean more affordable food on the dining table of Filipino consumers.

The measure will remove the monopoly of state-run National Food Authority on food supply. And with the lifting of quantitative restriction on imported rice, inexpensive rice from other countries is expected to easily reach the domestic market.

Financial markets, meanwhile, are stabilizing. Oil prices in the world market have fallen 20 percent from their high in October. The local stock market has recovered its early losses, with the Philippine Stock Exchange index safely above 7,000 points. The peso, too, has strengthened against the US dollar to around 52.60 from, the 54 level in September.

I think that with the financial markets settling down and exhibiting a semblance of stability, consumer confidence will bounce back. The inflation rate just dropped in November largely as a result of normalizing rice prices and the series of oil price rollbacks.

Robust consumer spending, I believe, will return ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays because of fewer uncertainties. The reduced prices of rice and gasoline products

are giving consumers enough reasons to buy more during this holiday season. They feel that they have more spending power now, unlike in the previous months when prices of many basic goods were rising.

The Filipino consumers can have something to look forward to in the coming months. The finance department correctly estimated the inflation rate slowed down in November from a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in October. Rice and vegetable prices are declining, although the price of meat is increasing because of the holiday season.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, for its part, is attributing the lower inflation “to the sharp decline in petroleum prices, the normalization of supply conditions in rice and other agricultural commodities, and the peso appreciation.”

The full impact of the rice tariffication bill is expected to be felt next year, but the administrative measures taken by President Duterte when he ordered the importation of more rice is starting to pay off. Food prices are now steady with the arrival of rice shipments from Vietnam, while pump prices of petroleum products are decreasing significantly.

There is a critical concern about inflation. But absolutely no mention is made by Deutsche Bank of the increase in taxes that pushed my sachet of “Tang Four Seasons Flavor powder drink juice” from P8.75 last year to P16.50 in 2018. I am not impressed with the Deutsche Bank analysis.

overheated when inflation increases due to prolonged good growth rate.”

In other words, the economy is so strong and people have become so rich that they are willing to pay more for goods when the supply has not been able to keep up with the demand. Does that really describe the Philippine economy in 2018?

Deutsche Bank: “The current account deficit has soared to a 19year high of 3.3 percent of gross domestic product.” That is correct but does not have anything to do with the economy “overheating.” In fact Deutsche Bank says it is a result of the “sustained rise in imports to feed the Duterte government’s ambitious infrastructure program” not because of an overwhelming trend of consumer demand for Chinese rubber shoes.

There is a critical concern about inflation. But absolutely no mention is made by Deutsche Bank of the increase in taxes that pushed my sachet of “Tang Four Seasons Flavor powder drink juice” from P8.75 last year to P16.50 in 2018. I am not impressed with the Deutsche Bank analysis.

making pronouncements about the Philippine economy as if their pronouncements came directly from Divine Inspiration. I have never been impressed with education or experience. Impress me with your results.

A man goes to a shoemaker to have a pair of boots made. He is unhappy with his new shoes and complains about the poor workmanship. The shoemaker says that he has been making shoes for 25 years. The customer replies, “You have been making the same pair of shoes for 25 years and you have never improved your ability.”

In a recent report, Deutsche Bank said that the Philippine economy is overheating. By definition, “Overheating of an economy occurs when its productive capacity is unable to keep pace with growing aggregate demand. An economy is said to be

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The corporate donors behind a Republican power grab David Leonhardt

NEW YORK TIMES

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ALGREENS portrays itself as the friendly neighborhood drugstore. It gives flu shots to children, helps communities after storms, donates to charity—and makes feelgood advertisements trumpeting its various good deeds.

But Walgreens also has a tougher side, one you won’t see in those ads.

To protect a tax break, the company has allied itself with Wisconsin’s brutally partisan Republican Party.

That party is now in the midst of a power grab, stripping authority from Wisconsin’s governor and attorney general solely because Republicans lost those offices last month. The power grab comes after years of extreme gerrymandering, which lets Republicans dominate the Legislature despite Wisconsin being a closely divided state.

Wisconsin’s Republicans really are trying to undo democracy. When I asked Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt—the political scientists who wrote the recent book How Democracies Die—about the situation, they agreed that the Wisconsin power grab was the sort of move their book describes. If it continues, it can lead to the breakdown of a political system.

So you might think that an organization that claims to care about community values would speak up. But Walgreens has not. Neither have other corporate supporters of Wisconsin Republicans, like Microsoft, Dr Pepper Snapple, JPMorgan Chase or Humana. It’s yet another example—alongside soaring CEO pay and stagnant worker wages—of corporations abdicating the leadership role they once played in America.

The story of Walgreens and Wisconsin has its roots in a decade-old court case.

In 2008, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of an aggressive tax strategy by the company, in a case known as Walgreens v. City of Madison. When calculating the property taxes it owed, Walgreens used an artificially low valuation of its stores. It did not pay taxes based on the actual value of those stores, as reflected by their purchase price and rent. Instead, it took into account the value of vacant stores nearby.

The court ruling allowed this “dark-store” practice—by Walgreens and other retailers—costing cities and towns millions upon millions of tax dollars. The resulting budget shortfalls, local officials point out, have caused taxes on families and small businesses to rise more in Wisconsin than in neighboring Minnesota.

The Walgreens loophole is deeply unpopular, based on the results of a nonbinding ballot initiative across Wisconsin. And last year, a bipartisan group of state legislators began a push to change the law. But then, somewhat mysteriously, the effort

died. The Legislature’s Republican leaders—including Robin Vos, the Assembly speaker, and Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader—appeared to play a crucial role in the demise of that measure.

A few weeks later, Walgreens donated $1,000 to Vos. Over the summer, it donated another $6,000 to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate. A couple of weeks before Election Day, the company gave $1,000 to Fitzgerald. These donations weren’t simply a matter of spreading money around. Walgreens did not donate to state-level Democrats this year, as it has in the past.

The sums here may not be enormous. But neither are the budgets for local campaigns. Even more important is the message that Walgreens is sending to politicians: “We don’t care if you undermine democracy, so long as we get to keep our tax break.”

“It would be healthier for companies to spend a little more time thinking about the meaning of these donations,” as Judd Legum, author of the political newsletter Popular Information, told me. “Right now, it’s all transactional.” In recent months, Legum’s reporting has caused Facebook, Google, Walmart, Major League Baseball and others to ask for the return of donations to politicians whose values the companies were not comfortable defending.

Walgreens has not been willing to do the same in Wisconsin. I asked the company last week what it thought about the recent events in Wisconsin, and it ducked the question. But Phil Caruso, a Walgreens spokesman, told me the company was “in the process of evaluating” the situation.

The silence of major companies is disappointing because they could actually make a difference. Republican politicians care about the opinions of their corporate backers.

If corporate America refuses to speak up, these attacks on democracy will become more common. The one in Wisconsin follows a similar power grab in North Carolina two years ago. And Michigan Republicans are now trying to execute their own version. In Ohio and Missouri, there are less blatant—but still alarming—attempts to overturn the will of the voters.

I realize that being able to operate in a well-functioning democracy doesn’t bring the same obvious bottom-line benefits as, say, a tax break.

But our corporate leaders are making a big mistake if they decide that democracy doesn’t matter.

Tales of port abuses Cecilio T. Arillo

DATABASE Lack of regulatory power to oversee foreign shipping lines

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ITH the advent of the world trade, foreign commercial vessels bringing in and taking out cargoes worth billions of pesos for the market are not paying enough taxes and have subjected local port stakeholders to various abuses because of lack of regulatory power on the part of the Philippine government.

Unfortunately, as the situation now stands, existing domestic laws and regulations are not able to cope up with the fast-evolving trend in the world market in regulating the operations of these foreign commercial shipping vessels within Philippine ports.

Shipping operations is an aspect of transportation that is supposed to be under the regulatory ambit of the Department of Transportation and concerned attached agencies.

To date, there is no definite law, rule or regulation that regulates the conduct of these foreign commercial vessels that are plying to and from Philippine ports. This regulatory vacuum seemingly emboldens these foreign commercial shipping lines to act with impunity and impose whatever charges on hapless port stakeholders.

In the continuously prevailing scenario, there are two opposite sides in a mutual but inequitably disproportionate spectrum. On one side are the port stakeholders composed

of importers, exporters, brokers, truckers, forwarders, etc.; and on the other side are foreign commercial shipping lines.

Of the two, the port stakeholders are at the receiving end for, whether they like it or not, they are forced to avail themselves of the services of these foreign commercial shipping lines that can continue with their unhampered operation in the Philippines because of the absence of a specific regulatory body.

Based on the above factual illustration, port stakeholders are saddled with, but not limited to, the following problems, to wit: 1) Imposition by foreign commercial shipping lines of various shipping charges without the port stakeholders’ rights to question the propriety or basis of the same. These seemingly questionable shipping charges are as follows: a) Container deposits b) Container demurrage charges c) Etc. Example (Actual) Wallem Shipping 1x40 container

Bloomberg Opinion

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S the plot thickens in the story of Carlos Ghosn’s downfall, another motive has emerged for the Nissan Motor Co. chairman’s sudden ouster.

Ghosn, who’s in custody in Japan, was planning on replacing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hiroto Saikawa right before he was swept away on charges including under-reporting his income and making personal use of company assets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The legendary auto executive was indicted on Monday

by Japanese prosecutors, according to

Kyodo. The revelation that Ghosn had been planning to remove his former protégé provides grist to those who regard the executive’s dismissal as a palace coup. Saikawa expressed “anger and despair” at a press conference on the day of Ghosn’s detention. The investigation had been proceeding under wraps for several months.

If the alleged misdeeds caused Saikawa to sour on his mentor, then Ghosn also had reason to be dissatisfied with his handpicked successor as CEO. In all the questions and theories swirling around Ghosn’s actions, his arrest and the dismal state of Nissan’s corporate governance, there has been one glaring omission—the grim state

Imposed Charges: Terminal Handling Fee — $172.00 Cleaning & Disinfection — $20.00 Delivery Order Fee — $65.00 Empty Equipment Imbalance & Hanover Charges — $900.00 Documentation Fees — $65.00 Bank Charge — $1.00 Total — $1,223.00 Plus: Container Deposit Fee P9,000.00 2) Capricious policies of foreign commercial shipping lines with regard to: a) Return of empty containers; b) The matter of container deposits, refund of the same, procedure for refund; and c) Processing of shipping documents.

The above problems have tremendous incalculable negative effects on port stakeholders and ultimately to the chain of goods in the Philippines.

As it usually happens, port stakeholders are at the mercy of these shipping lines.

With regard to shipping line impositions, port stakeholders cannot make any complaint. They must pay those impositions under the pain that any delay in payment thereof will entail delay, or worse, non-release of imported or exported goods, which for sure has multiplier negative consequences on consumers and the entire supply chain of goods.

Whatever charges that these international shipping lines impose, port stakeholders have no choice but to comply. Otherwise, they cannot release goods from them, or worse, cannot transact with them.

As a result, the upward inflation effect sets in as port stakeholders pass on the additional cost of

Surviving a criminal presidency

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By Charles M. Blow | New York Times News Service

T is very possible that the president of the United States is a criminal. And it is very possible that his criminality aided and abetted his assumption of the position. Let that sink in. It is a profound revelation.

Last week, prosecutors made clear in a sentencing memo for Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump himself had directed Cohen to break campaign finance laws.

Stop there.

Yes, there is still information dribbling out about Trump’s efforts to build a tower in Moscow during the election and about his campaign’s ties with Russians during the campaign. Yes, there is the question of obstruction of justice, which I believe has already been proven by Trump’s own actions in public. Yes, there are all the people in Trump’s circle who have been charged with or have admitted to lying about any number of things, including their contacts with Russians.

But beyond all that, we now have an actual, and one assumes provable, crime. A federal crime. And the president is its architect.

Trump likes to say on the issue of immigration that if we don’t have a border, we don’t have a country. I say that if we don’t have justice, we also don’t have a country.

America is a country of laws, and if we are to believe that, and not allow that to become a perversion, no man or woman can be above the law.

As Thomas Paine wrote in his 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense”: “In America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ‘ought’ to be king; and there ought to be no other.”

And yet, Trump, his team and to some degree his supporters in Congress seem to view Trump as very much above the law—or at least some laws. The defense is bizarre: Since he is the president, there are laws he isn’t obliged to obey. In other works, it is permissible for him to break some laws, but not others.

Last year, one of the president’s lawyers went even further, claiming that the “president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law-enforcement officer under [the Constitution’s Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case.”

This all holds the potential to further make a mockery of a

Ghosn had reason to seek his protégé’s ouster

By Anjani Trivedi

Tuesday, December 11, 2018 A7

of its business.

Ghosn is all about targets, as he’s often said. Since the alliance with Renault SA began in 1999, Nissan had taken on five so-called midterm plans with targets for operating margins and cost reductions. Under the latest six-year plan that started in April 2017 (when Saikawa became CEO), goals included revenue growth of about 30 percent to ¥16.5 trillion ($147 billion), free cash flow for the auto business of around ¥2.5 trillion and an operating margin of 8 percent.

Nissan couldn’t be further away from these numbers. Operating margins have hovered around 6 percent since 2012, and in recent quarters

have fallen as low as 2.8 percent.

Revenue has slowed sharply and free cash flow has been volatile. In press conferences, Saikawa avoided talking about the targets.

Business in the United States has cratered in the past year, with sales down almost 20 percent last month and passenger cars falling more than 30 percent, despite aggressive sales incentives. Nissan has lost more market share in the US than any other carmaker, and its dealer inventories remain above those of most peers. In China, the company hasn’t been able to keep up with Japanese competitors Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Nissan has long boasted of its

operation to the consumers.

Shipping line cargo operation is quasi-public service in nature.

Though the principal motive is profit-making, the activities involved that deal with the transacting public is highly imperative and, therefore, the government must regulate the conduct of these international shipping lines.

Worse, the newly passed Philippine law, Republic Act 10668, or the Philippine cabotage law, complicates this problem. Under this law, foreign vessels engaging in carriage conducted in accordance with the law shall not be considered common carriers and neither shall such foreign vessels be considered as offering a public service.

This law clearly conveyed that dealings and transactions within the Philippines of a foreign shipping line is not deemed a public service.

The implication is that these foreign shipping lines, specifically their actuations within Philippine ports, are outside the scrutiny of Philippine authorities.

The only time that Philippine authorities can intervene is when vessels engaged in foreign trade, including those engaged in barter trade, that enter any port, whether private or government, shall be charged port dues on each call based on Gross Registered Tonnage and also charged dockage at berth per GRT calendar day or fraction thereof, and for purposes of computation, a maximum of 50,000 GRT shall be used. On other charges involving containerized goods, the port authority has no jurisdiction.

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

system of justice that already privileges power.

America’s jails are already filled to the brim with people who have been charged with a crime but not yet convicted of one. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, “70 percent of people in local jails are not convicted of any crime.” Their primary infraction is that they are poor and powerless. The justice system doesn’t coddle them; it crushes them.

And yet, people keep making excuses for Trump: “We haven’t yet seen evidence of collusion.” “Yes, he lies, but that’s mostly rhetoric.” “So what; he paid off a porn star to spare his family shame.”

No, no, no.

According to prosecutors, Trump directed Cohen to commit a felony.

Then he lied about it and either allowed or instructed others to lie about it on his behalf. He misled the American people through a conspiracy of lies, and he did so to help attain, and then maintain, his presidency.

As The New York Times pointed out on Saturday, prosecutors have “effectively accused the president of defrauding voters, questioning the legitimacy of his victory.”

There simply must be consequences for such a brazen act of lawlessness.

Now, I am under no illusion that Trump will be indicted as a sitting

president or that any efforts to impeach him will prove successful.

But at some point his term will end, and at that point the statute of limitations may not have expired. As The Times put it, “The prosecutors in New York have examined the statute of limitations on the campaign finance violations and believe charges could be brought against Trump if he is not reelected, according to a person briefed on the matter.”

As New York magazine put it in a headline, “Trump 2020 Shaping Up to Be a Campaign to Stay Out of Prison.” The statute of limitations for campaign finance violations is five years. Reelection may well be Trump’s only hope of evading justice.

But that also gives voters enormous power in 2020. They won’t just be selecting the next president and determining the direction of the country. They may also be deciding whether or not a president will be tried, convicted and imprisoned for the first time in the country’s history.

This is a weighty responsibility, but it is a necessary one. We have to prove that our institutions are more important than our ideologies, that the dream, the whisper, the precious possibility of America cannot be trampled by the corrupt and the fraudulent, the venal and the lecherous.

America has to prove that it can indeed survive a criminal presidency.

mastery of technology for autonomous vehicles and electric cars, and asserts that it’s well equipped for the future of transport. But it failed to spin off its lithium-ion battery business, which has fallen behind the rapid advances in battery technology. Add to that the poor business performance, a slew of inspection scandals, irregularities in measuring emissions and recalls for fire risks and other issues, and the company’s future looks bleak.

Part of Ghosn’s legacy is the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance that’s almost two decades old. Speculation now abounds on the partnership’s future. Saikawa has said an allout merger doesn’t make sense, but

rejiggering the balance of power in capital between the companies could be an option.

That’s a complex process involving many vested interests. For instance, it isn’t clear how the companies can deepen their capital ties without management getting intertwined. With Ghosn having been the glue that held the alliance together, his exit may ultimately prove a subplot in its unwinding.

The 64-year-old executive had been looking to cement his legacy in the annals of auto history. Instead, its business deteriorated in his last year, and the alliance he championed is in doubt. It’s no surprise then that he was looking to oust Saikawa, and quickly.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, December 11, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop’s OK seen

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By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

HE Senate and the House of Representatives are poised to ratify before adjourning for Christmas recess this week a bicameral conference committee report endorsing to Malacañang early enactment of a law creating the so-called Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (Evoss), seen to “drive down electricity costs and provide significant savings to power consumers.”

Billed as an online platform where prospective power supply developers can “apply, monitor, and receive all the needed permits and applications, submit all documentary requirements, even pay for charges and fees,” the Evoss will be managed and maintained by

the Department of Energy (DOE).

Its principal coauthors, Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, Senate Energ y Committee chairman, and his House counterpart, Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, have agreed to adopt Senate Bill 1439, or “The Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop Act

“We are optimistic that this bill is poised to drive down electricity costs and provide significant savings to power consumers by modernizing and streamlining the permitting process behind power infrastructure projects.”—Gatchalian

of 2017,” paving the way for the remedial legislation soon to be submitted to President Duterte for signing into law.

The bicameral conference committee earlier approved the landmark anti-red tape measure crafted to “modernize and streamline the permitting process” of power generation, transmission and distribution projects in the country.

According to Gatchalian, “passing this measure is quite timely, especially when inflation continues to hover around 6 percent as of November.”

The senator added: “We are optimistic that this bill is poised to drive down electricity costs and provide significant savings to power consumers by modernizing and streamlining the permitting process behind power infrastructure projects.”

Gatchalian explained that in order to further speed up the process, all government agencies involved will be required to follow a strict time frame to act on pending applications, warning that failure of an agency to act within the prescribed time frame will result in the automatic approval of such application and potential

Narrowing rates prompt full award of ₧15-B T-bills

By Rea Cu

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@ReaCuBM

HE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) has awarded the P15 billion on offer in its latest Treasury bills (T-bills) auction on Monday on the back of a very liquid domestic market as investors expect the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to relax tightening measures.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the auction committee saw rates for the government security within internal estimates.

“We see again, at least, the very good results of our auction today,” de Leon said. “We see also

that rates have also continued to narrow given the expectation that BSP might take a pause.”

The 91-day tenor saw bids reaching P7.650 billion with the auction committee awarding the full P4 billion on offer at an average annual rate of 5.350 percent. This showed a contraction of 4.40 basis points compared to the previous auction rate of 5.394 percent.

“And also from the Fed [Federal Reserve system]; they are more dovish now and less hawkish given the results coming from the trade tensions and then of course the expectations that global growth would be slowing

down,” de Leon said. “But, obviously, for the BSP, it’s really more that they would be taking a pause during their last policy meeting this Thursday.”

The BSP Monetary Board will be holding its last policy meeting for the year on December 13.

For the 181-day IOU, the auction committee awarded the T-bills with bids amounting to P8.525 billion at an average annual rate of 6.344 percent. This showed an expansion of about 3.90 basis points compared to the 6.305 percent set during the previous auction for the security.

De leon pointed out the tenor bucket was reduced to 181 days

in view of the holidays in the next two weeks.

The auction committee decided to also award the P6 billion offer for the 364-day T-bill at an average annual rate of 6.585 percent with bids rising to P7.374 billion.

This also posted an expansion of 7.80 percent compared to the previous rate of 6.507 percent.

Meanwhile, the Treasury decided to hold another auction for Treasury bonds (T-bond) on December 11 due to the “strong demand” from investors.

“We see the very strong demand; so it’s still early to close shop,” De Leon said. “So we added the seven year for tomorrow.”

Low oil prices may influence BSP to ease tightening moves

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON as of 4:00 pm - December 10, 2018

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OWER global oil prices will give the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) room to put a brake on its tightening cycle for the year, an international think tank said on Monday.

In its upcoming monetary policy meeting this Thursday, the Central Bank Monetary Board is expected to halt rate hikes in their last monetary policy meeting for the year as local and international oil price pressures start to dissipate.

Fitch Solutions said in a note on Monday that it expects the BSP would keep its overnight reverse repo rate on hold at 4.75 percent during its last meeting for 2018 on December 13.

The research arm of Fitch Group said this move follows a 25-basis-point hike during the November meeting, which brought the total increase to the repo rate during the year to 175 basis points.

“We believe that the BSP’s 25-bps hike in November was a preemptive move to the US Fed[‘s] likely 25-basis-point hike in December,” Fitch Solutions said. “Combined with the recent decline in crude oil prices, this is likely to provide room for the BSP to remain on hold in December, barring any global risk-off event.”

In November, BSP officials announced their new inflation forecasts for this year and the next two years—with both 2019 and 2020 expected to have within-target inflation rates.

In particular, the BSP revised their inflation forecast this year from an average of 5.2 percent to 5.3 percent, taking into account international oil prices, adjustments in transport fares, updates in the latest inflation print and the third-quarter growth rate. For 2019, the BSP sees inflation hitting 3.5 percent, from its earlier forecast of 4.3 percent.

Officials said the downward adjustment in the 2019 forecast was a result of recent developments, particularly the legislation in the rice tariffication law.

For 2020, inflation target was adjusted from 3.2 percent to 3.3 percent.

The BSP remained in what markets interpreted as a hawkish tone in its November meeting. Some analysts also expect the Monetary Board will continue to emphasize the need for follow-through nonmonetary measures to mitigate the impact of supply side factors on inflation. “The BSP remains prepared to take appropriate policy actions as needed to ensure the achievement of its price and financial stability objectives,” the BSP said. Bianca Cuaresma

administrative sanctions against inefficient public officers to penalize the delay.

“On the other hand, private entities—the system operator and market operator—who fail to act within the prescribed time frame will be slapped with a P100,000 fine per day of delay,” he added.

The senator said early enactment of the Evoss law will also encourage foreign investors with the capacity to build cutting-edge power plants to enter the market and stimulate competition in the Philippine energ y generation industry. “The increased competition would then drive down generation costs,” added Gatchalian, who estimated that reduced generation costs could result in the reduction of consumer electricity prices by as much as P0.35

per kilowatt-hour. Pegged at the average household consumption rate of 200 kWh per month, this would result in savings of P840 per household every year.

Gatchalian further expects elimination of red tape in the permitting process to “go a long way toward rejuvenating our energy sector,” noting that “it will remove a formidable barrier to entry that has often discouraged foreign firms from entering the generation market.”

Greater ef f icienc y under Evoss, he said, “will result in a welcome bump in disposable income for the average Filipino family [as] we will be putting a lot of money back where it belongs—in the pockets of Filipino families struggling to pay their basic day-to-day expenses.”

DU30 TO SKIP BALANGIGA BELLS’ HANDOVER, BUT WILL BE IN SAMAR ON 15TH

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RESIDENT Duterte is expected to skip the handover of the Balangiga bells by the United States to the Philippines on Tuesday (December 11), after all, though he will attend the final turnover of the bells to the people of Samar on Saturday.

Earlier, Malacañang said the President was expected to lead Tuesday’s ceremony, as this occasion serves as an affirmation of the country’s strong and enduring relations with United States, its longstanding ally.

The church bells left Wyoming on November 15 and are expected to be delivered to military officials during a ceremony at Villamor Air Base on Tuesday.

“The President, upon the recommendation of Secretary of National Defense Delfin N. Lorenzana, will no longer be attending the handover of the Balangiga bells scheduled tomorrow, December 11, in Villamor Air Base,” Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in a statement on Monday.

“The President will instead be in Samar on December 15, Saturday, to turn over the bells to Balangiga officials,” Panelo added.

Replicas

THE US Department of Defense (DOD), meanwhile, is making replicas of the Balangiga bells to be installed on the same spot where the originals were taken out in Wyoming, to appease the American veterans who had initially objected to the return of the war booty to the Philippines.

US Embassy Press Attaché Molly Koscina said at a press briefing on Monday that the USDOD had spent for the return of the bells at an unspecified amount.

“I have no idea how much it costs, the Department of Defense shouldered the expanse… the bells are coming out of an Air Force base, but I believe on an Army plane.”

She said prior to their return, American authorities made measurements of the bells so that replicas could be cast and displayed again at the Wyoming F.E. Warren Air Force

“I would like to share that the return of the bells is of tremendous importance to many people, Americans and Filipinos. It’s an opportunity to close a chapter and to move forward, looking into the future of our enduring and important alliance.”—Koscina

Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Two of the bells used to be in Wyoming while the third one was in the US base in South Korea.

Asked if the Americans were forced to return the bells, Koscina said: “I think there are a number of Presidents who have worked for the return of the Balangiga bells, a number of Secretaries of Defense, a number of Philippine and US ambassadors. It’s been decades worth of work.”

She said the bells will be accompanied on the journey home by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Dr. Joseph H. Felter.

“It’s history in the making,” she said, adding: “It’s the efforts of many, many people, to ensure the bells return to the church [from] where they were taken.”

The Embassy spokesman said: “It is important to note that every step is important in maintaining the alliance between the Philippines and the United States.”

“I would like to share that the return of the bells is of tremendous importance to many people, Americans and Filipinos. It’s an opportunity to close a chapter and to move for ward, looking into the future of our enduring and important alliance.”

The bells were taken by American soldiers from Balangiga Church in eastern Samar, as war booty in 1901. It was said the bells were rung as a pre-arranged signal by the locals to alert the militant Filipinos of the impending arrival of the US troops, thus leading to the latter’s defeat.

President Duterte had demanded the return of the bells to the Philippines during his second State of the Nation Address last year. Bernadette D. Nicolas and Recto L. Mercene

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

B1

Vista Land secures SEC permit to sell ₧10-B bond

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By VG Cabuag

@villygc

ROPERTY developer Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc. on Monday said it secured a permit from the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell its P10-billion fixed rate bond offer.

The debt consists of five-year bonds with an interest rate of 8 percent per annum and seven-year

bonds with a yield of 8.25 percent a year.

In its earlier disclosure, the com-

pany said it has already secured board approval to sell to the public P10 billion in fixed-rate retail bonds, half of which is its principal amount and the remaining is its oversubscription option. It will get the amount from its remaining P15 billion shelf-registered bonds with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Vista Land is present in 145 cities and municipalities across 47 provinces in the country, and is moving closer to its target of reaching 200 cities and municipalities.

The company launched residential projects worth P38 billion during the first nine months of the year end-

ing September, most of which were in the low and affordable segment and outside Metro Manila.

The company also increased its leasing portfolio to 1.16 million square meters of gross floor area.

To date, the company has 26 malls, seven office buildings and over 50 commercial centers.

The company has already undertaken several liability-management exercises to lower its cost of borrowings, extend debt maturities and improve debt covenants.

The company maintains a strong balance sheet with a net debt to equity of 0.71 as of end September.

SNAP to expand solar-floating facility in Isabela to 50 MW

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

S

N Aboitiz Power (SNAP) intends to expand its solar floating facility in the Magat Dam reservoir in Ramon, Isabela to as many as 50 megawatts (MW), a top official said on Monday.

SNAP President and CEO Joseph Yu said the next investment for the company would be to scale up its 200-kilowatt hour solar project to “30 MW to 50 MW.” The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) had approved SNAP’s proposals to install the floating solar project, which will be placed over a 2,500-square-

meter area over the reservoir.

This project will focus on providing internal power to SNAP”s facilities in the area. A stress test will be conducted to ensure the facility works through incidences of massive inflows and strong typhoons.

The company wants to operate it in March or April next year after the conduct of a stress test.

“We want to operate it before the wet season. We are hoping that if it works, it is scalable and a venue for us to grow rapidly. Assuming this works, I would like to build an expansion as early as 2020,” Yu said.

NIA Administrator Ricardo R. Visaya had said that a hectare of solar

field can produce 1 MW of power.

The government agency said that if 200 of the 4,500 hectares of the Magat Dam reservoir will be used for water-based solar power, 200 MW will be generated and 200 hectares of agricultural lands could be saved.

Other than not competing for land space, floating solar facilities have a number of other benefits, according to studies. They safeguard the water levels in dams and reservoirs by preventing evaporation. Such facilities can also provide sanctuary for marine life that cannot survive in very hot temperatures.

SNAP is a joint venture between

PT&T: We never stopped operations

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HILIPPINE Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) c l a r i f ie d t h at it ne ver stopped operations even during its corporate rehabilitation, belying an earlier statement made by the chief of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Republic Telecommunications Holdings Inc. Chairman Jose Luis Santiago said subsidiary PT&T did not stop its telco operations, as it shifted its business platform from telephone services to broadband services in its assigned region.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) disqualified PT&T from the third telco auction after it failed to secure a certificate of technical capability.

A month after its disqualification, Eliseo M. Rio Jr., the chief of the ICT department, said the company had no technical capability as its operations were only regional — as

opposed to the required national scale—and had ceased operations during its corporate rehab.

“The fast-moving change in the telecom industry from legacyswitched services to IP-driven services that can deliver voice, data and video all in the same facility has made it imperative for PT&T to change its business and operating platform. This is a fact that DICT or NTC missed or simply ignored,” Santiago said on Monday.

He added the telco’s broadband service “has been in full swing and continuous up to this day, serving both private businesses and even government agencies,” including the web site of the government’s Advanced Science and Technology Institute.

“The intent of going through a rehabilitation is not to stop operations, but rather continue to operate in view of getting better. PT&T’s operation has been continuous even during the reha-

bilitation,” PT&T President James Velasquez said.

He added that on October 31, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved PT&T’s application to increase its authorized capital stock to P15.6 billion, from P3.8 billion. Its recently approved debt-to-equity conversion of P8.7 billion brings its total paid-up capital to P10.9 billion.

PT&T was granted an early exit by the rehabilitation court in August 2018, and the debt-to-equity conversion is a major milestone in the rehabilitation exit, Velasquez said.

The company is currently battling for the opening of its second package for the third telco bid.

The said box contains its committed levels of service, by which the third-telco auction was hinged on.

PT&T’s second package was not opened after it was declared disqualified on the basis of its first bid documents. Lorenz S. Marasigan

German firm taps Wilcon Depot as exclusive retail partner in PHL

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EHAU Philippines has tied up Wilcon Depot as its exclusive retail partner in the Philippines to further expand its distribution areas and strengthen its hold on the local market.

The company, REHAU Philippines Country Manager Christopher de los Reyes said, wants “to reach more customers, especially with the continued construction boom in the country.”

“We at REHAU are very excited with this partnership. We see this as an opportunity for our company to make our products accessible to consumers,” he said.

“We consider this initiative with Wilcon as a way of strengthening our commitment of helping our customers in building better infrastruc-

tures,” he added.

Per the deal, Wilcon Depot will initially be distributing REHAU’s Premium PPr pipes—the RAUFUSION. “REHAU prides itself of its premium product offerings with superior quality and performance,” de los Reyes said.

In 2014, the polymer manufacturing brand from Germany established a local subsidiary even though the Philippines is often underestimated by foreign companies.

Since then, it has tripled its business sales, thus proving the right decision to open an office here, REHAU Southeast Asia, Building Solutions Head David Herensperger said.

Bullish on the country’s continued progress and development, the company targets to quadruple its market

share by 2020.

With its partnership with Wilson Depot, the firm believes it will provide access to more contractors, builders and even end-users, particularly in the government sector, where the “Build, Build, Build” program is being prioritized.

“We see the positive impact that the initiatives from the government make in the market,” the regional top executive said.

Looking forward to its continued partnership with the retailer of construction materials, REHAU Philippines aims to expand its offerings at Wilcon Depot in the future, such as Acoustic Sewer Piping system, Glossy Acrylic Door and Surface Materials, PE Pipes, among others. Roderick L. Abad

SN Power of Norway and AboitizPower. It owns and operates the 360-MW to 380-MW Magat hydro on the border of Isabela and Ifugao; the 8.5-MW Maris hydro in Isabela; the 105-MW Ambuklao hydro in Benguet; and the 140-MW Binga hydro, also in Benguet.

PLDT adds 2 million broadband subscribers

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

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LDT Inc. noted an all-time high in customer acquisition for its broadband business, as demand online video streaming in the Philippines ramped up, a company executive said on Monday.

Oscar Enrico A. Reyes Jr., the company’s senior vice president and head for consumer business, said the telco was able to add as many as 2 million broadband subscribers in the first three quarters of 2018, boosting revenues by more than a tenth at end-September.

“People’s growing appetite for online video has helped raise the broadband penetration of PLDT Home to an all-time high of just under 2 million customers in the first nine months of 2018, an increase of 8 percent year-on-year in unique data service subscribers. This has boosted Home revenues by 12 percent in the third quarter of 2018 to P27.3 billion,” he said.

As of the third quarter of 2018, PLDT Home’s fiber coverage has already reached 5.75 million homes passed, exceeding

the 5.3-million target for the full year of 2018.

He attributed this growth to the changing consumer habits, pa r t icu l a rly t he accelerat ing shift of content consumption to online video viewing from traditional broadcast television, citing a study by research company Limelight Networks, which found that viewers in the Philippines watches online videos for eight hours and 46 minutes each week.

Reyes said the company is capitalising on that trend through plan upgrades and strategic partnerships with Google to boost Wi-fi for the home.

“We’ve found that providing services like Google WiFi significantly improves the customer experience by ensuring that all parts of the home have strong broadband service,” Reyes said.

He sa id t he company a lso boosted the capacity of its broadband facilities to 2.25 million ports, which is more than double than the previous year, and above the 2.2 million ports target.

A s of end- Se ptember, t he telco’s fiber footprint reached 221,000 kilometers, exceeding its target of laying out a total of 210,000 km of fiber for 2018.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

December 10, 2018

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

ASIA UNITED 58.8 59 59 59 58.6 59 2140 126239 112105 BDO UNIBANK 128 128.5 133 133 128 128 1255960 162116764 -26201157 BANK PH ISLANDS 93.5 93.75 94.25 94.3 93.3 93.5 3436430 322604080.5 198197182.5 CHINABANK 27.65 27.7 27.9 27.9 27.6 27.7 36700 1017850 22285 EAST WEST BANK 11.64 11.72 11.96 11.96 11.62 11.64 534900 6288714 -333716 METROBANK 79.3 79.8 79.5 79.8 77.8 79.8 3507690 277593708 138353433.5 PB BANK 11.1 11.4 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 200 2220 PHIL NATL BANK 42.15 42.2 43.5 43.5 41.8 42.15 55700 2353660 227130 PSBANK 71 71.15 73.9 74 71.15 71.15 15900 1137142.5 -172051.4999 PHILTRUST 106.3 119 116.9 122 116.9 122 530 62070 RCBC 28.3 28.35 28.4 28.5 28.3 28.3 45900 1301295 8505 SECURITY BANK 158.5 160 160 160 157.4 160 125200 19855221 -5486153 UNION BANK 65.95 66.3 65.95 67.5 65.9 65.95 5830 384241.5 -81716.5 BRIGHT KINDLE 1.5 1.55 1.55 1.55 1.55 1.55 1000 1550 BDO LEASING 2.16 2.19 2.18 2.23 2.15 2.16 70000 151650 COL FINANCIAL 15.34 15.78 15.7 15.9 15.4 15.8 113700 1760580 -15620 FIRST ABACUS 0.57 0.67 0.67 0.67 0.67 0.67 7500000 5025000 FERRONOUX HLDG 3.85 3.93 3.87 3.93 3.83 3.93 23000 88610 MEDCO HLDG 0.45 0.475 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 300000 135000 NTL REINSURANCE 0.87 0.91 0.88 0.91 0.87 0.91 336000 295920 -0 PHIL STOCK EXCH 178 179.9 180 180 178 179.9 520 93141 SUN LIFE 1810 1869 1811 1811 1810 1810 435 787360 -606360

INDUSTRIAL ALSONS CONS 1.24 1.26 1.28 1.28 1.24 1.24 570000 716630 ABOITIZ POWER 32.7 32.75 32.85 32.9 32.5 32.75 323900 10595135 -361690 BASIC ENERGY 0.246 0.25 0.255 0.26 0.247 0.25 6310000 1594690 197600 FIRST GEN 18.64 18.66 19 19.22 18.66 18.66 1240200 23414684 7721678 FIRST PHIL HLDG 63.5 64 65.1 65.1 63.15 64 408930 26233290.5 15629008 PHIL H2O 5.16 5.18 5.05 5.24 5.05 5.18 27600 142455 MERALCO 366.2 368 375.4 375.4 366.2 366.2 160030 58997282 -33088262 MANILA WATER 27.05 27.8 27.8 27.8 27 27.3 120200 3273800 -1927015 PETRON 8.26 8.27 8.34 8.37 8.25 8.27 1458900 12138309 200447 PETROENERGY 3.87 3.94 3.95 3.95 3.86 3.86 95000 368810 PHINMA ENERGY 0.89 0.9 0.9 0.91 0.9 0.9 3375000 3056530 -2679310 PHX PETROLEUM 10.82 11 10.82 11 10.82 11 152400 1674918 -1228700 PILIPINAS SHELL 47.55 47.7 48.6 48.6 47.1 47.55 47100 2251975 -649440 SPC POWER 5.19 5.2 5.19 5.21 5.16 5.2 492100 2556303 10380 VIVANT 16.22 17 16.9 16.9 16.9 16.9 1000 16900 AGRINURTURE 17.32 17.34 17.2 17.38 17.08 17.34 936900 16218238 584842 CNTRL AZUCARERA 16 16.9 15.5 16.5 15.5 16.5 2400 39500 CENTURY FOOD 14.76 14.82 14.84 14.84 14.74 14.74 313900 4644918 -2934 DEL MONTE 6.53 6.64 6.55 6.65 6.55 6.64 600 3977 -2 DNL INDUS 10.12 10.14 10.12 10.22 10.06 10.14 3633000 36,758,706( 10,358,397.9999) EMPERADOR 6.97 6.98 6.97 6.98 6.96 6.98 704400 4908002 -1956229 SMC FOODANDBEV 84 84.05 84.15 84.2 84.05 84.05 2259740 190041335.5 136113637.5 ALLIANCE SELECT 1.03 1.04 1.02 1.04 1 1.03 3754000 3831610 -284570 GINEBRA 24 25 24.2 25.95 24.2 25 754200 18655500 JOLLIBEE 291 292.8 294 294 289 291 264940 77038300 -1251862 LIBERTY FLOUR 45.05 51.05 44.05 44.05 44.05 44.05 1150 50657.5 MACAY HLDG 8.48 9.79 8.52 8.52 8.48 8.48 3900 33159 MAXS GROUP 9.99 10 10 10.04 9.95 9.99 1009500 10085826 126145 MG HLDG 0.165 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.17 10000 1700 PEPSI COLA 1.36 1.37 1.4 1.44 1.35 1.36 1444000 2010200 -1626500 SHAKEYS PIZZA 10.38 10.4 10.64 10.64 10.38 10.4 7700 80214 -54080 ROXAS AND CO 1.82 1.86 1.86 1.86 1.83 1.83 112000 205720 RFM CORP 4.75 4.8 4.8 4.8 4.6 4.8 74000 345900 -14250 ROXAS HLDG 2.68 2.84 2.67 2.67 2.67 2.67 10000 26700 SWIFT FOODS 0.122 0.127 0.122 0.122 0.122 0.122 30000 3660 UNIV ROBINA 128 128.4 127.3 128.6 127 128 828960 106039192 24364955 VITARICH 1.74 1.75 1.84 1.85 1.75 1.75 7200000 12839500 104520 VICTORIAS 2.32 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.48 2.5 301000 752400 CONCRETE A 58.8 66.75 60.6 60.6 60.6 60.6 240 14544 CONCRETE B 78.05 78.1 78.05 78.05 78.05 78.05 60 4683 CEMEX HLDG 1.68 1.69 1.67 1.72 1.66 1.68 3533000 5968870 -2283510 DAVINCI CAPITAL 6.55 6.74 6.79 6.79 6 6.65 200700 1311467 EAGLE CEMENT 14.88 14.96 14.9 14.98 14.9 14.9 5800 86444 -73034 EEI CORP 8.13 8.2 8.11 8.39 8.11 8.2 1290300 10771793 -150135 HOLCIM 6.15 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 19000 117800 MEGAWIDE 18.1 18.28 18.68 18.7 18.08 18.28 7458700 137,595,452( 2,889,233.9997) PHINMA 8.2 8.29 8.16 8.16 8.16 8.16 500 4080 TKC METALS 0.84 0.86 0.83 0.83 0.83 0.83 46000 38180 VULCAN INDL 1.79 1.8 1.83 1.85 1.77 1.79 18147000 32872080 22120 CHEMPHIL 171.8 191 191 191 191 191 50 9550 9550 CROWN ASIA 1.7 1.76 1.76 1.76 1.7 1.7 208000 357470 59400 MABUHAY VINYL 3.04 3.29 3.29 3.29 3.29 3.29 1000 3290 PRYCE CORP 5.23 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.4 20000 108000 -21600 CONCEPCION 37 37.45 37.05 37.05 37 37 11000 407010 362600 GREENERGY 2.07 2.08 2.11 2.17 2.08 2.08 6821000 14385240 520090 INTEGRATED MICR 8.65 8.7 9.03 9.03 8.65 8.65 2859600 25087248 10236349 IONICS 1.68 1.69 1.73 1.75 1.68 1.68 360000 609330 -33980 PANASONIC 6 6.15 6.15 6.15 6.15 6.15 100 615 SFA SEMICON 1.37 1.44 1.41 1.49 1.38 1.38 123000 170840 CIRTEK HLDG 30.55 31 32.45 32.45 30.5 31 368700 11441920 -5439935

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.58 0.59 0.63 0.65 0.58 0.59 40490000 24511650 -196400 ASIABEST GROUP 24.8 25 28.4 28.4 25 25 10709300 286852515 -2672080 AYALA CORP 910 916 910 923 910 910 325360 297783720 -184716620 ABOITIZ EQUITY 50.6 50.8 50.3 51.35 50.3 50.6 668480 33844974.5 -14123572 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 11.66 11.7 11.82 11.82 11.58 11.66 1156700 13485988 7349672 ANSCOR 6.4 6.44 6.42 6.43 6.4 6.4 16800 107646 76800 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.81 0.85 0.81 0.85 0.81 0.85 3000 2510 ATN HLDG A 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.39 1.33 1.36 11604000 15666650 ATN HLDG B 1.35 1.37 1.37 1.39 1.34 1.37 2471000 3351230 COSCO CAPITAL 7.2 7.29 7.44 7.45 7.2 7.2 1099800 8008207 331635 DMCI HLDG 12.7 12.74 12.6 12.78 12.56 12.7 2614000 33159022 -11606676 FILINVEST DEV 9.7 9.81 9.75 9.81 9.66 9.7 106300 1031517 FJ PRINCE A 3.4 4.79 4.79 4.79 4.79 4.79 1000 4790 GT CAPITAL 894 899.5 920 921 883 894 117940 105842585 -4706390 JG SUMMIT 49.15 49.4 50.1 50.1 48.8 49.15 1222530 60331823.5 -30327864 LODESTAR 0.55 0.56 0.57 0.58 0.55 0.55 55000 30940 LOPEZ HLDG 4.01 4.02 4.19 4.19 4.01 4.01 967000 3941680 -933220 LT GROUP 16.3 16.56 16.8 16.96 16.2 16.56 6132100 103,601,324( 3,235,580.0001) MABUHAY HLDG 0.6 0.63 0.62 0.63 0.62 0.63 604000 374500 METRO PAC INV 4.75 4.77 4.77 4.77 4.71 4.77 7752000 36701110 -2133880 PACIFICA 0.037 0.038 0.038 0.038 0.036 0.038 29700000 1097000 PRIME ORION 2.38 2.39 2.4 2.41 2.33 2.38 660000 1576690 PRIME MEDIA 1.17 1.23 1.2 1.23 1.2 1.23 14000 16860 SOLID GROUP 1.27 1.31 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 8000 10400 SM INVESTMENTS 900 914 932.5 938 900 900 394770 360231245 -101643090 SAN MIGUEL CORP 157 157.1 162.3 163.5 156 157.1 1081240 171977275 -98754014 SOC RESOURCES 0.74 0.77 0.77 0.77 0.77 0.77 3000 2310 TOP FRONTIER 275.6 280 275.2 280 274.8 280 2440 670628 -656772 WELLEX INDUS 0.25 0.255 0.27 0.27 0.25 0.25 2540000 651000 ZEUS HLDG 0.196 0.224 0.224 0.224 0.224 0.224 100000 22400

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.56 0.58 0.56 0.58 0.56 0.56 402000 227280 5699.9999 ANCHOR LAND 10 10.58 9.7 10.58 9.7 10.58 3800 37590 -3000 AYALA LAND 40.3 40.5 40.75 41.2 40.1 40.3 7844400 318379395 698755 ARANETA PROP 1.71 1.75 1.74 1.75 1.74 1.75 10000 17420 BELLE CORP 2.45 2.48 2.39 2.52 2.38 2.45 1652000 4049400 -814020 A BROWN 0.73 0.74 0.77 0.78 0.74 0.74 2261000 1699730 CITYLAND DEVT 0.85 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.88 99000 87120 CROWN EQUITIES 0.25 0.255 0.233 0.255 0.233 0.255 34730000 8596830 3184460 CEBU HLDG 5.8 6 5.6 6 5.6 6 4700 26420 CEB LANDMASTERS 3.94 4 4.05 4.05 3.94 4 349000 1393610 -178960 CENTURY PROP 0.395 0.4 0.405 0.405 0.4 0.4 1460000 585350 148500 CYBER BAY 0.325 0.33 0.335 0.335 0.33 0.33 4570000 1509950 -902750 DOUBLEDRAGON 17.48 17.5 17.7 17.78 17.5 17.5 283000 4981952 -28504.0003 DM WENCESLAO 8.05 8.07 8 8.05 8 8.05 57200 459268 EMPIRE EAST 0.475 0.48 0.48 0.48 0.48 0.48 320000 153600 FILINVEST LAND 1.45 1.46 1.5 1.5 1.46 1.46 3448000 5090130 -1008960 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.06 1.07 1.1 1.12 1.05 1.06 2138000 2285610 -13650 8990 HLDG 7.62 7.74 7.73 7.74 7.6 7.74 241700 1848665 -425432 PHIL INFRADEV 2.33 2.34 2.39 2.39 2.33 2.33 5024000 11776730 -534170 MEGAWORLD 4.71 4.72 4.78 4.78 4.7 4.71 5269000 24857740 1771200 MRC ALLIED 0.395 0.4 0.41 0.415 0.4 0.4 27760000 11219500 44500 PHIL ESTATES 0.465 0.47 0.48 0.48 0.465 0.465 700000 333800 PRIMEX CORP 3.63 3.74 3.8 3.8 3.61 3.74 506000 1862900 -882090 ROBINSONS LAND 20.6 20.7 21 21.1 20.7 20.7 3424400 71423660 14241375 PHIL REALTY 0.38 0.395 0.39 0.39 0.38 0.385 90000 34350 ROCKWELL 1.96 2 2 2 2 2 10000 20000 SHANG PROP 3.09 3.1 3.12 3.12 3.09 3.1 5000 15510 -12390 STA LUCIA LAND 1.24 1.25 1.22 1.25 1.19 1.25 4597000 5678230 -311500 SM PRIME HLDG 35.4 35.45 35.95 35.95 35.2 35.45 9198700 326011090 -109814320 STARMALLS 5.41 5.48 5.62 5.62 5.29 5.48 272200 1470488 SUNTRUST HOME 0.73 0.74 0.73 0.73 0.73 0.73 170000 124100 VISTA LAND 5.14 5.18 5.14 5.19 5.11 5.18 2623300 13,528,594( 5,658,463.9996)

SERVICES ABS CBN 19.62 19.7 19.92 19.92 19.3 19.7 262100 5099676 GMA NETWORK 5.22 5.26 5.25 5.3 5.22 5.26 39600 207670 MANILA BULLETIN 0.34 0.345 0.34 0.34 0.33 0.34 310000 103100 GLOBE TELECOM 2052 2080 2088 2090 2058 2080 8085 16844580 10285800 PLDT 1167 1168 1165 1179 1160 1168 31230 36519535 4548895 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.039 0.04 0.039 0.04 0.039 0.04 9200000 361800 IMPERIAL 1.97 2.1 2.22 2.22 1.97 2.1 29000 60620 2000 ISLAND INFO 0.105 0.111 0.111 0.114 0.105 0.111 1980000 210150 ISM COMM 5.74 5.75 5.5 5.8 5.32 5.74 14629700 80995274 3121760.0002 JACKSTONES 3.13 3.36 3.1 3.39 3.1 3.39 6000 18890 NOW CORP 3.36 3.38 3.64 3.64 3.38 3.38 4933000 17036450 747490 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.4 0.405 0.415 0.42 0.395 0.4 27980000 11249800 -476000 PHILWEB 2.97 3.01 3.02 3.09 2.95 2.97 429000 1292140 15080 2GO GROUP 10.54 10.58 11.3 11.3 10.52 10.58 51200 549552 -10520 CEBU AIR 72.1 72.15 72.5 74 70.6 72.15 234860 16821473 -9050052 CHELSEA 6.4 6.5 6.55 6.58 6.34 6.4 2863100 18502032 -2961738 INTL CONTAINER 93.6 94.4 93.6 94.6 93.5 94.4 409050 38407648.5 7771430.9996 LBC EXPRESS 13.88 14.28 13.88 14.28 13.84 14.28 1500 20924 LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.75 0.78 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 2000 1500 MACROASIA 14.04 14.2 14.68 14.68 14 14.2 1234400 17613224 -4546546 METROALLIANCE A 2.12 2.14 2.37 2.41 2.06 2.14 1559000 3496180 METROALLIANCE B 2.05 2.34 2.32 2.35 2.28 2.34 19000 44230 PAL HLDG 8.5 8.54 8.54 8.54 8.54 8.54 200 1708 HARBOR STAR 3.04 3.06 3.25 3.3 2.93 3.06 6145000 18910860 368110 ACESITE HOTEL 1.32 1.46 1.46 1.46 1.46 1.46 6000 8760 DISCOVERY WORLD 2.11 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 11000 26400 WATERFRONT 0.65 0.67 0.67 0.68 0.63 0.67 6039000 3910440 CENTRO ESCOLAR 7.6 7.61 7.74 7.74 7.6 7.61 30600 232914 FAR EASTERN U 892 919.5 892 892 892 892 30 26760 26760 IPEOPLE 10.24 14.2 10.14 10.24 10.14 10.22 3200 32704 STI HLDG 0.62 0.63 0.64 0.65 0.61 0.62 8045000 5051190 -1861100 BERJAYA 2.72 2.74 2.71 2.78 2.67 2.72 5129000 13990630 51370 BLOOMBERRY 7.84 7.85 7.99 7.99 7.8 7.85 5168000 40714617 -5194161 PACIFIC ONLINE 9.88 10.38 10.02 10.02 9.88 9.88 7200 71848 8016 LEISURE AND RES 3.51 3.55 3.48 3.6 3.42 3.55 585000 2062790 -88750 MANILA JOCKEY 5.24 5.49 5.24 5.51 5.24 5.49 132800 714083 MELCO RESORTS - - 7.25 7.26 7.25 7.25 25247300 183042928 39653150 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.82 0.83 0.75 0.85 0.74 0.82 42787000 35074620 54500 TRAVELLERS 5.24 5.26 5.25 5.25 5.24 5.24 25600 134262 -103341 METRO RETAIL 2.19 2.2 2.28 2.28 2.17 2.19 1307000 2869840 -535410 PUREGOLD 42.4 42.5 42.6 42.75 42.45 42.5 1765100 75026625 -55386160 ROBINSONS RTL 72 73 71.5 73.05 71.2 72 2114180 152346223.5 -20027702 PHIL SEVEN CORP 111.7 115.9 112.1 116 111.7 115.9 198510 22204304 -168977 SSI GROUP 2.4 2.41 2.42 2.46 2.38 2.41 4051000 9791940 -1225070 WILCON DEPOT 11.84 11.88 12.26 12.26 11.84 11.84 609200 7279466 -3242170 APC GROUP 0.405 0.41 0.4 0.415 0.4 0.405 910000 367500 109350 EASYCALL 20 20.1 19.3 23 18.54 20 1681100 35906241 -121005 GOLDEN BRIA 306 325 324.4 325 306.4 325 2410 775708 -3250 IPM HLDG 7.18 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 12500 90000 PAXYS 3.08 3.39 3.39 3.39 3.39 3.39 1000 3390 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.315 0.32 0.315 0.315 0.315 0.315 360000 113400 SBS PHIL CORP 7.07 7.45 7.45 7.5 7.07 7.07 237400 1711749

MINING & OIL ATOK 16.3 16.6 16.26 16.8 16.26 16.7 13100 213854 APEX MINING 1.61 1.62 1.61 1.62 1.57 1.61 1921000 3065870 ABRA MINING 0.0019 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 168000000 336000 54000 BENGUET A 1.13 1.18 1.13 1.13 1.13 1.13 7000 7910 BENGUET B 1.13 1.29 1.13 1.13 1.13 1.13 3000 3390 CENTURY PEAK 1.9 1.94 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 14000 26600 DIZON MINES 7.04 7.1 7.12 7.12 7.05 7.05 6100 43161 FERRONICKEL 1.68 1.69 1.68 1.69 1.66 1.69 2534000 4247320 -1844230 GEOGRACE 0.201 0.207 0.202 0.204 0.201 0.204 50000 10090 LEPANTO A 0.098 0.1 0.095 0.098 0.093 0.098 1980000 189360 LEPANTO B 0.1 0.108 0.108 0.108 0.108 0.108 10000 1080 MANILA MINING A 0.007 0.0076 0.007 0.007 0.007 0.007 1000000 7000 MARCVENTURES 1.07 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.14 1000 1140 NIHAO 1.07 1.08 1.12 1.13 1.08 1.08 52000 57550 NICKEL ASIA 2.09 2.1 2.22 2.22 2.09 2.1 13047000 27953430 -13193470 OMICO CORP 0.57 0.59 0.59 0.59 0.59 0.59 75000 44250 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.99 1 1.02 1.05 0.95 0.99 1912000 1898660 15200 PX MINING 2.75 2.76 2.82 2.82 2.75 2.75 1085000 3012910 -319990 SEMIRARA MINING 24.45 24.5 24.55 25 24.2 24.5 1957900 48378430 -12886205 UNITED PARAGON 0.0059 0.0062 0.0062 0.0062 0.0062 0.0062 2000000 12400 ORNTL PETROL A 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 114100000 1369200 ORNTL PETROL B 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 81100000 973200 18000 PHINMA PETRO 3.24 3.39 3.23 3.41 3.23 3.41 2000 6640 PXP ENERGY 15.62 15.66 15.7 15.8 15.2 15.66 1036100 16119048 -400864

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A SMC FB PREF 2 FGEN PREF G LR PREF MWIDE PREF PCOR PREF 2A SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2H

95.1 970 101.7 1 99 943 75.8 76.4 72.5 74.65 73.3

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR

18.56

97 997.5 102 1.01 101.4 1000 75.9 76.6 74 75 74

97 997.5 103 1.01 99.7 932 75.9 76.6 71.95 75 73.9

97 997.5 103 1.01 99.7 932 75.9 76.6 74 75 74

97 997.5 102 1.01 99.3 932 75.9 76.6 71.95 75 73.9

97 997.5 102 1.01 99.3 932 75.9 76.6 74 75 74

220 10 99030 35000 14640 50 100 330 26100 220 2350

21340 9975 10105090 35350 1453770 46600 7590 25278 1890195 16500 173865

59590 -

18.58

18.82

18.82

18.52

18.58

116200

2169550

-1968746

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

2.02

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 4.38 XURPAS 1.21

2.08

1.99

2.12

1.99

2.02

132000

267940

-2050

4.49 1.22

4.6 1.25

4.65 1.29

4.32 1.18

4.5 1.22

354000 6222000

1577500 7567740

-76460 -457310

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

110

110.1

111.5

111.5

110.1

110.1

9780

1082386

-

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Strongest demand for PHL office space recorded in 2018

By Roderick L. Abad

M

Contributor

@rodrik_28

ETRO Manila locators continue to take up the majority of the national office space inventory as they used almost three-fourths of the record-high 1.5 million square meters (sq m) of workspace throughout the Philippines, an industry veteran bared on Monday.

Demand in the metropolis increased by 27 percent to 1.16 million sq m by December 2018, from 910,000 sq m by the end of last year.

This included commitments already made by business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies as they struggle to compete for limited spaces accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) due for completion next year.

Of the total office space supply, Clark Global City accounted for 156,000 sq m; Cebu, 133,000 sq m; Laguna, 46,000 sq m; and Davao City, 28,000 sq m.

“We’re seeing continued growth outside Metro Manila—which is a positive development. At the same time, we are seeing a slowdown of BPO demand, which continues to be the largest single industry contrib-

uting to demand and a key driver of the economy,” Leechiu Property Consultants CEO David Leechiu said.

The top executive cited a slowdown in the tenancy of the information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry from 485,100 sq m in 2016 to 289,819 sq m in 2018, “which is a disturbing 40-percent drop.”

Nevertheless, today’s opportunities for sustaining the interest in the Philippines, including Metro Manila, of IT-BPM players cannot be ignored.

These include the rising labor cost in the United States and the diversification of a number of global companies in the country.

“Why let these opportunities pass,” he said.

The sluggish demand from the ITBPM sector in the past year, however, has been filled up by offshore gaming and flexible workspaces, he said.

Helping fill the void, he added, were the multinationals and local businesses upgrading to newer and better-equipped offices, which collectively took 322,000 sq m of the

demand. Leechiu is bullish on future prospects. He sees land prices in Clark, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas appreciating in the next three years.

“The completion of eight projects totaling 665 kilometers of roadway will make 2021 a milestone year in infrastructure development. New transportation arteries will spur growth in rising regional centers in these key areas,” he said.

To date, nearly half of the upcoming stock in Bonifacio Global City and surrounding areas has already been pre-committed “as competition for Peza accredited space tightens,” Leechiu said.

Set to be finished by the end of 2019, Century Diamond Tower is the only building with Peza accreditation in Makati as of this time, he said.

Because no other building with Peza incentives is due for completion in the next three years, a sharp decline in office supply is projected.

“We see a deficit by 2021,” Leechiu said, while encouraging developers to complete new projects by that time and beyond.

Local, regional companies tap SAP to become ‘intelligent enterprises’

V

ARIOUS companies here and in other parts of Asia have embarked on digitization toward becoming an intelligent enterprise with network security provider SAP. SAP Southeast Asia President and Managing Director Claus Andresen said the digital ecosystem in the region constantly grows and matures, presenting huge opportunities for organizations to harness the power of data.

“We are glad that companies continue to choose SAP as their trusted partner on their journey to become intelligent enterprises.”

Smart businesses operate with visibility, focus and agility to gain game-changing outcomes. They do more with less and empower employees through process automation.

Also, intelligent enterprises deliver a best-in-class experience to customers by proactively responding to their expectations. These entities invent new business models, and revenue streams.

In the Philippines, internationally awarded diversified beverage company Tanduay Distillers Inc. kicked off on its journey of revitalizing business processes with SAP S/4HANA. JG Summit also uses this solution to help achieve its goal to become the leading digital conglomerate in the country.

With SAP S/4HANA, the Gokongwei-led company aims to spur new growth areas for its main corporate arm, subsidiaries and affiliates in the country and across Southeast Asia.

Globe Telecom recently closed a

three-year deal with SAP for business-suite platform and service solutions to digitalize its financial processes, support real-time decision-making and back up the agile environment.

Singapore-based CrowdFarmX will be deploying SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud to speed up the onboarding of 10 million Southeast Asian farmers onto its platform in the next 22 years.

Meanwhile, the Body Shop Indonesia is using SAP SuccessFactors to digitize its human resource and employee processes.

Japan’s Mitsui & Co. Ltd. is standardizing the organization’s travel and expense process through SAP Concur.

For 29 years, SAP has enabled over 10,000 companies in the region to adopt digital innovations, Andresen said.

“Today, we continue to expand our innovation portfolio in new ways, allowing our customers and partners to innovate with purpose and confidence,” he said.

SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries operate at their best.

In fact, 77 percent of the world’s transaction revenue touches a SAP system that includes machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT).

Its end-to-end suite of applications and services enable more than 413,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously and make a difference. Roderick L. Abad

Global cleaning giant ISS to shed 100,000 jobs, exit markets

I

SS A/S of Denmark, the world’s largest cleaning company, is planning to get rid of about 100,000 jobs—representing a fifth of its global work force—as it exits 13 countries that were among its least profitable markets.

Shareholders will get at least a quarter of as much as 2.5 billion kroner ($383 million) in anticipated net proceeds, CEO Jeff Gravenhorst said by phone on Monday.

The countries being exited are mostly in emerging markets, including Asia and Eastern Europe.

At the same time, ISS wants to do more business with so-called key accounts, such as global banks.

The 13 countries targeted represent just 12 percent of ISS’s group revenue and 8 percent of operating profits. The plan means the company will no longer do business in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania. After leaving those markets, ISS’s work force will shrink to about 390,000 people, it said. Bloomberg News

MUTUAL FUNDS

December 10, 2018

NAV ONE YEAR THREE YEAR FIVE YEAR Y-T-D

PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC * 254.41 -8.94% 1.09% 2.55% -13.23% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC.* 1.407 -10.16% 5.36% 2.75% -11.89% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC.* 3.9279 -10.41% 2.23% 1.15% -14.48% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP.* 0.8975 -10.87% N.A. N.A. -11.75% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. * ********* 0.8358 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC.* 5.2882 -8.9% -0.11% 1.88% -12.05% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. * ****** 115.79 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. ONE WEALTHY NATION FUND, INC.* 0.8389 -14.14% N.A. N.A. -15.49% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC.* 49.6975 -7.43% 2.12% N.A. -11.87% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC.* 518.98 -7.66% 0.91% 1.99% -11.81% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC.* 1.2686 -5.9% 2.65% N.A. -9.66% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC.* 36.979 -6.13% 3.09% 4.66% -10.02% PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC.* 5.0074 -7.09% 2.92% 4.44% -11.75% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP.* 836.37 -6.92% 2.7% 4.5% -11.56% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. * 0.8682 -6.26% 0.39% N.A. -10.23% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC.* 4.1213 -5.91% 2.61% 2.88% -10.02% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC.* 0.9637 -7.32% 2.71% N.A. -11.85% UNITED FUND, INC.* 3.5389 -4.72% 4.01% 3.23% -9.12% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC.* ***111.7564 -6.6% 3.86% N.A. -11.27% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC.** $0.963 -11.15% 2.33% -0.18% -13.11% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC.* $1.203 -2.93% N.A. N.A. -4.92% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC.* 1.6623 -7.67% -1.22% -1.05% -10.8% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC.* 2.2098 -7.61% 1.14% 0.87% -10.06% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC.* 2.5368 -6.23% -2.33% -1.46% -8.42% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION* **** 1.313 -7.22% N.A. N.A. -9.75% NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC* 1.8478 -4.18% 1.2% 1.99% -7.26% PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC.* 3.5503 -6.42% -0.01% 1.23% -9.39% PHILAM FUND, INC.* 15.9789 -6.18% 0.07% 1.09% -8.99% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC.* ******** 2.0758 -4.93% 1.28% 2.63% -7.42% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC.* 3.6917 -4.83% 1.05% 1.35% -7.62% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC.* 0.9349 -5.49% 0.35% N.A. -8.37% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC.* $0.03497 -3.26% -0.44% 1.37% -3.13% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC.* $0.9545 -7.81% 2.18% -1.07% -8.83% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC.* $3.4996 -2.75% 3.76% 2.17% -4.19% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC.* $1.038 -5.95% N.A. N.A. -6.67% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC.* 342.74 1.82% 2.06% 1.71% 1.67% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC.* ******* 1.8535 -1.94% -0.71% -0.66% -2.05% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC.* 2.9612 5.46% 5.36% 5.25% 4.93% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC.* 2.1285 1.12% 1.47% 1.23% 1.25% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC.* 2.2063 - 0.32% 0% 0.2% -0.45% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP.* P 1.5664 -2.81% -0.42% -1.24% -2.68% PHILAM BOND FUND, INC.* 3.9125 -3.32% -0.46% -0.45% -3.4% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC.* 3.4942 0.16% 0.31% 0.08% -0.3% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. * 0.8915 -3.27% -0.78% N.A. -3.43% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC.* 2.7694 -0.37% 1.16% 0.46% -0.27% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC.* 1.5399 -0.7% 0.58% -0.01% -0.63% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. * $447.41 0.4% 2.31% 3.04% 0.33% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. * Є212.42 -0.7% 0.95% 1.55% -0.61% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.** $1.124 -0.91% 0.85% 1.88% -0.89% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.* $0.0249 - 0.4% 0.82% N.A. -0.4% GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP.* $1.6886 -4.83% -0.41% 1.13% -4.68% MAA PRIVILEGE DOLLAR FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. MAA PRIVILEGE EURO FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. ЄN.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. PAMI GLOBAL BOND FUND, INC* $1.0291 -4.54% -0.6% -2.46% -4.14% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.* $2.1515 -4.34% 0.65% 2.54% -4.42% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC.* $0.0569503 -0.85% 0.88% 1.83% -0.44% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC.* $2.8694 -4.81% 0.41% 1.62% -4.76% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC.* 120.52 2.58% 1.81% 1.52% 2.47% PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC.* 1.179 1.89% 0.57% 0.46% 1.87% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC.* 1.216 2.57% 2.23% 1.52% 2.57% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC.* ***** $1.0149 1.59% N.A. N.A. 1.62%

* - NAVPS AS OF THE PREVIOUS BANKING DAY ** - NAVPS AS OF TWO BANKING DAYS AGO *** - LISTED IN THE PSE.

**** - RE-CLASSIFIED INTO A BALANCED FUND STARTING JANUARY 1, 2017 (FORMERLY GREPALIFE BOND FUND CORP.).

***** - LAUNCH DATE IS NOVEMBER 6, 2017 ****** - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 08, 2018 ******** - RENAMING OF THE FUND WAS APPROVED BY THE SEC LAST APRIL 13, 2018. ********* - BECAME A MEMBER SINCE APRIL 20, 2018. ******* - ADJUSTED DUE TO CASH DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JANUARY 29, 2018

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Higher buying prices boost nine-month abaca output

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

HILIPPINE abaca output rose by 4.5 percent to 49,802.6 metric tons in January to September, from last year’s 47,644.2 MT, according to data from the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFida).

PhilFida Executive Director Kennedy T. Costales attributed the hike in output to higher buying prices, which are now at an “all-time high.” The implementation of a new classification system in October, Costales said, also boosted prices.

“From an average P50 per kilo all-in a year ago, [average

price rose] to a bit over P80 per kilo classification basis,” he told the BusinessMirror. “[The increase in prices was due to the] projected shortage of 25,000 metric tons.”

The implementation of buying abaca fiber on a classification basis pushed more farmers to harvest more to take advantage of

higher buying prices, according to Costales.

“It is to their advantage that if they produce better quality fibers, they earn more unlike before when all the fibers are produced at a fixed price and ‘all-in,’ to boot.

Now, there is motivation to produce better quality to earn more,” he said.

The PhilFida entered into a memorandum of agreement with abaca processors and manufacturers and grading establishments to end the “all-in” abaca trading scheme. The MOA took effect on October 1 but Costales explained that some of the parties have shifted to the classification basis as early as April.

“The only difference is after the MOA takes effect on October 1, if a major player is caught buying all-in, there is a graduated increase in penalty from P10,000 to P100,000 per offense,” he said.

The latest data released by PhilFIDA showed that the Bicol region remained the top producer of the natural fiber as it accounted for

Drones may attract youth to rice farming–PhilRice

31.3 percent of the nine-month output. However, production in the region declined by 13.2 percent to 15,584 MT, from 17,962 MT recorded a year ago.

Davao region was the secondlargest producer of abaca, accounting for 19.9 percent of total output. The other top producers of the fiber during the period were Eastern Visayas and Caraga, which both recorded a 12.4-percent production share.

Output in the Davao region grew by 18.5 percent to 9,921.2 MT from 8,371.5 MT, while production in Easern Visayas and Caraga expanded by 4.5 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively.

PhilFida data also showed that Northern Mindanao posted the fastest increase in terms of production during the nine-month period.

Abaca production in the region expanded by 34.5 percent to 3,757.4 MT, from 2,792.9 MT recorded a year ago. Northern Mindanao accounted for 7.5 percent of total output.

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HE Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is pushing for the adoption of the drone technology in farms to cut production cost and encourage the youth to plant rice.

PhilRice FutureRice Program (FRP) leader Roger F. Barroga said the drone technology is commercially available but has not been applied in rice farming.

“PhilRice and other public and private organizations are already exploring it so that it can finally be brought to the ground, making it less elusive to Filipino rice stakeholders,” Barroga said in statement.

PhilRice said it recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Davao-based drone firm New Hope Corp. to advance research in the rice sector.

The MOA covers the possible use of drone in fertilizer application, seeding and pest management, according to the attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Initial testing conducted by PhilRice and New Hope showed that the drone only uses 16 liters of spray per hectare to apply fertilizer compared to the usual 160 liters per hectare applied by farmers using knapsack, according to Barroga.

“This drastic change in volume can make the farmers turn

skeptical on its effectiveness for pest management in addition to investment, roughly ranging from P500,000 to a million pesos,” Barroga said.

He said further research and farm demonstrations may yield possible reduction in the seeds used per hectare from two to three bags to just one bag through the use of drones.

The promotion of the potential of drone technology in rice farming would cut farmers’ production costs while luring young people back to farming, according to Barroga.

“By bringing it to the ground, rice stakeholders in awe of this flying technology would cease to feel that it is out of reach,” he said.

“Through service providers, drone spraying can be made accessible to farmers at a price roughly ranging from P850 to P1,500 rental fee per hectare,” he added.

The DA is promoting the use of drone technology to reduce the cost of producing rice, vegetables and other crops amid the increase in the price of inputs, such as seeds and fuel.

In April, the DA said it would spend at least P7.5 million to pilot test a drone spraying technology in a 5,000-hectare farm in Benguet.

“Five thousand hectares of vegetable farms in Buguias town and oth-

er selected towns of Benguet Province will serve as the pilot area of the newest farming technology that the DA is adopting—aerial spraying using remote-controlled Drones,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a Facebook post in April.

Piñol said he made the commitment following the successful test of drone spraying in vegetable farms in La Trinidad, which was witnessed by Benguet Gov. Crecencio Pacalso and hundreds of vegetable farmers.

The spraying test was conducted by Japanese firm DMM Corp., according to Piñol.

“It took the drone just a few minutes to cover a patch of vegetables and according to the data provided by the Japanese service provider company, it will only take 10 minutes to cover one hectare,” he said.

“The drone could be used to spray foliar fertilizer and other biological pest control solutions and is expected to bring down farm operations costs and increase productivity,” he added.

With the use of remote-controlled drones, the DA chief said farmers will also avoid getting sick as they “will no longer have direct contact with the biological or chemical mists emitted by handheld sprayers.”

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

B3

Sugar workers join calls to place Negros Island under land reform

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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HE National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) on Monday threw its support behind the call to place Negros Island under agrarian reform and to immediately distribute more than 125,000 hectares of land to farmers.

The nongovernment organization joined people’s organization Task Force Mapalad in urging President Duterte to fulfill his promise to place Negros Island under agrarian reform, just like Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan.

According to the NFSW, the 125,000 hectares covered by the Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) remain in the hands of big landowners.

“If President Duterte is really sincere in fulfilling his promise, his vow to distribute lands should start with [the large tracts of land] controlled

by Danding Conjuangco, Mayor Benito Alonzo, Melvin Ibañez, Salvador Benedicto, the Teves family, and

Tim Ballesteros,” the group said in a statement.

The NFSW claimed that these lands have been issued CLOAs by the DAR as early as 1998, but are still not in the hands of agrarian-reform beneficiaries.

The group pressed President Duterte to pass a law mandating “genuine” land reform and rural development.

The NFSW noted that the President’s allies in the House of Representatives just recently passed on second reading the Resolution of Both Houses 15 revising the provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. According to the group, the resolution deleted the provisions on the government’s land reform program.

“In this proposed Charter change of President Duterte, there is no official program for land reform for our farmers and farm workers,” the group said.

“How could President Duterte pledge to distribute lands in Negros when in his proposed Cha-cha, for his federal form of government, the provision of land reform was deleted,” it added.

World’s top grower of cocoa poised for record crop due to good weather

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T’S crunch time for cocoa output in top producer Ivory Coast.

The main crop—the larger of two annual harvests that started in October—is in full swing and bean deliveries suggest the country is headed for a record season.

The two biggest risks to a bumper harvest may still be on the way though: the Harmattan—dusty winds from the Sahara that blow from December to February—and an El Niño weather event that typically brings dryness to West Africa.

Here’s where things stand so far this season:

The farmers

MARK KAUZLARICH/BLOOMBERG

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Tuesday, December 11, 2018

THE Harmattan has started later than usual and cocoa trees haven’t been affected by the increasing dryness, according to farmers from across Ivory Coast. One grower in Daloa, in the center-west, said soil moisture remains good and the leaves and cocoa pods are still green.

The harvest has been better than last year thanks to favorable weather, said a farmer in Azaguie, in the south. The data backs that up: growers in Ivory Coast sent 676,509 metric tons of cocoa to ports this season through December 2, about 35 percent more than the same time last year, according to weekly data reported

by Bloomberg.

In neighboring Ghana, the second-largest cocoa producer,

“farmers are upbeat about this season,” said Michael Acheampong, a grower in Kwarbeng, north of the capital, Accra. “We believe we can exceed last season’s cocoa output.”

The weather

AN El Niño formation tends to have a direct influence on the Harmattan in terms of intensity, said Giacomo Masato, a meteorologist at Marex Spectron. The weather this year is “nothing compared to the events that we had in 2015-16, which was one of the most aggressive Harmattan seasons recorded,” he said. The Harmattan that year decimated the crop and helped push cocoa to a six-year high.

The Harmattan is off to a slow start this year and the predicted El Niño formation is also looking weaker, said Drew Lerner, president of World Weather Inc. It’s unlikely that the desert winds

will be significant until January or February, at which point there’s potential for more persistent winds, especially if the El Niño develops more strongly, he said.

For now though, “it’s trying to get its act together but it’s having a tough time being a traditional event,” he said.

The forecasts

THE main crop in Ivory Coast, which runs until March and represents the bulk of yearly production, will probably be between 1.6 million and 1.7 million tons this year, according to three traders surveyed

by Bloomberg. That would set the country on track for a record in the annual season.

“We are having a good year, a record probably,” said Jonathan Parkman, an analyst at Marex Spectron.

“Certainly in Ivory Coast it is going to be a record.” Bloomberg News

Project aims to hike income of farmers in E. Samar

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N V ESTOR S, business ow ners and government leaders recently gathered for the first National Harampang (Visayan for “meeting” or “open forum”) on a project that seeks establish inclusive and sustainable rural development.

The event is part of the Enhancing Sustainable Income in the Philippines (ESIP) project, a five-year intervention funded by Swiss Solidarity and jointly implemented by development organization Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and People in Need (PIN).

Through the forum, the ESIP project aimed to attract partners and investors for production, marketing and distribution support for farmers and agricultural microenterprises.

The ESIP project’s main purpose is to increase the income of 12,000 smallholder farmers in Eastern Samar

and improve their resilience to natural disasters. Eastern Samar was hit

by Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013 that ravaged coconut farms.

“Using a market systems development approach, we are able to address the root causes of market failures and meet the needs of poor farmers who come from the 12 municipalities that were most affected by Yolanda,” Adwyait Kumar Roy, chief technical adviser of Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, said in a statement.

“This approach is about empowering these farmers—supporting them in a way that they can grow and develop their income, skills and productivity and market linkages for the long-term as opposed to giving them direct aid,” said Claudia Oriolo, country director of PIN. The first phase of the project

started in 2015 while the second phase commenced in 2017 and will be completed by the end of 2019.

Using the market systems development approach, the ESIP project links farmers to relevant market actors and create a sustainable business env ironment t hat benefits everyone involved in the value chain.

The project developed a system of local service providers (LSPs) who act as consolidators, consultants and business partners, supporting farmers with new technical knowledge and developing distribution channels. A total of 30 LSPs are currently operating across the 12 municipalities with 220,000 kilos of products consolidated from 3,500 farmers with an overall value of more than P7 million.

B4 Tuesday, December 11, 2018

TOP WORLD LEADERS ADDRESS DISASTER-RESILIENT COMMUNITIES IN THIS YEAR’S SUMMIT

NEW RETAIL WING AT SM CITY NORTH Like a city that keeps on growing, SM City North has added a new wing offering a unique combination of high-end retail, dining, entertainment, lifestyle and fitness just in time for Christmas. The two-story wing is the first area to open in the North Towers, a series of five cascading office towers connected by pedestrian bridges across the SM City North complex. In photo are Rep. Vincent Crisologo of First District of Quezon City in a ceremonial toast with SM Prime Holdings chairman for executive committee Hans Sy and SM Supermalls Chief Operating Officer Steven Tan.

SHOPBACK IS THE SMARTEST WAY TO SHOP FOR CHRISTMAS

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E all love to shop, but the Christmas rush can take the fun right out of it. After all, squeezing through a crowded mall for a pair of socks doesn’t seem like the smartest way to do your gift shopping.

This is the time when online shopping really proves its worth: no lines, no crowds, and no closing hours.

And that’s not even the best part—thanks to cashback platforms, like ShopBack. Every gift you buy gets you a gift in return!

With ShopBack, you can earn as much as 25-percent cashback on every amount you spend. This is nothing like the reward points from conventional reward programs— you gain real cash deposited straight to your bank account.

All you have to do is shop through the ShopBack platform. First, you must create an account via www.

shopback.ph (you can also download the smartphone app or install the browser extension).

After you register, you can browse through ShopBack’s partner stores. There are hundreds spread across all categories, including popular stores Shopee, Zalora, Lazada, Booking.com, Foodpanda, Traveloka, Honestbee and more.

Once you select a merchant, ShopBack will display details, such as cashback rates coupons, and all available promos for that particular merchant. Just click on “Shop Now” to be redirected to the merchant’s web site. Use that tab and shop as you usually would.

The most avid shoppers would do well to check for new deals that come in every day. But for the biggest rewards, hold on a bit for the 12/12 Online Fever—the most exciting ShopBack sale happening on December 12. The 12/12 Online Fever is the grandest and definitely the most rewarding season sale in the whole year.

Also, be on the lookout for delightful last-minute holiday deals on ShopBack’s ChristmasNew Year sale event from December 17 to January 3!

Skip the dizzying crowds and dreadful traffic. Beat the holiday rush by shopping online, and make it more rewarding by doing it through ShopBack. It’s not just convenient—it really is the smartest way to shop.

LEARN BEST PRACTICES IN PROJECT FEASIBILITY

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ROJECTS are the cutting edge of development. For both government and business organizations, a project entails an investment of financial resources that are expected to create additional resources, and produce benefits or returns over an extended period. For this reason, organizations need a thorough deliberation and assessment of any projects that can bring more value to them.

To help a management achieve its full potential on project investments, the Center for Global Best Practices (CGBP) will host a pioneering program, titled “Best Practices in Project Feasibility Study and Analysis”, on December 13 and 14 at Marriott Hotel. For details and a complete list of upcoming programs, visit www.cgbp.org. Learn how to score winning projects by conducting feasibility study and carefully assessing its results.

This two-day training is designed to fully equip participants with global standards in determining the feasibility of a project in various aspects, such as marketing, technical, organizational, social, environmental, financial and economic impact on your businesses. Gain knowledge on how you can prepare your very own risk-assessment matrix that will suit your business goals and identify possible sources for project funds.

This program will feature course director and lecturer, Rufo R. Mendoza, PhD, CPA. He was the chairman of finance and accounting department, and program director

of the Master in Development Management in Public Finance at the Asian Institute of Management. He was the vice chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy and Continuing Professional Development Council for Accountancy. His consulting experiences include engagements with The World Bank, Australian Agency for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Program and European Commission. He has written 4 books and 21 research and technical papers. He was a national awardee as Outstanding CPA in Professional Development (2008) and in Government Service (2010) of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountant.

This program is highly recommended for business owners, board directors, top management and anyone who wants to bring more value to their organization. Registration is open to the general public. Public officials and government employees attending this training program are exempted from the P 2,000 limit set by the Commission on Audit, based on Department of Budget and Management Circular 563 dated April 22, 2016.

The CGBP is accredited by the Civil Service Training Institute. Public officials attending this training program will earn points required by the Civil Service Commission.

Interested participants are encouraged to avail themselves of the early-bird and group discounts. Preregistration is required.

WE THE PVBLIC MARKS THIRD ANNIVERSARY

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OCIAL news and entertainment web site We the Pvblic celebrated its third anniversary with a ’90s-themed party attended by 250 guests, and held at the new office of XS Group, its mother company, in South Triangle, Quezon City on November 24.

The by-invitation-only event gathered creatives, influencers, brand representatives, artists, former employees and close friends who share memories with We the Pvblic and its sister companies in an intimate party, to celebrate the Internet media company’s milestones.

“I can’t thank our audience enough for being our primary inspiration to continue putting out content that’s current, relevant, edgy and funny. I’d also like to give props to my creative and hard-working teammates—not only do I love working with them, I actually love hanging out with them,” editor in chief and managing partner Gil Cadiz said.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Egan Roxas also thanked the readers and social-media followers for their

ever-growing support, and promised to continue engaging them with informative, entertaining and disruptive content.

“It was a wonderful night of celebrating milestones.

Genuine happiness with genuine people! I thank our readers, our brand partners, sponsors, our team and all the people in the whole XS Group who helped our digital-media platform put where it is now. The overwhelming support, not just for We the Pvblic but for the whole group, kept us humble through the years. This is just the start of many more milestones for We the Pvblic. Here’s to more shareable memes, viral videos and engaging articles,” he said.

The event also feted We the Pvblic’s recent win as Lifestyle Media of the Year (Gold) at the Asia Pacific Publishing Awards 2018 organized by Media Publishers Association Singapore. Another reason for the celebration was the successful turnout of the opening season of ProjectX, the headshot session campaign that champions creative freedom in support of XS Group’s advocacies.

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HE 2018 top leaders’ forum, themed “Changing the Game: Building a Culture of Resilience Through PublicPrivate Partnership”, was recently held at the SMXConventionCenter.Theforumbrought thecountry’stopexecutivesandleadersfrom the national and local government, private sector, academe and science community together, to discuss concrete actions in achieving disaster-resilient communities.

The highlight of the 2018 top leaders’ forum was the launch of SM Prime’s business continuityprogramforitssmallandmedium enterprise-tenantsaspartofitsdisasterriskreduction efforts for its business partners and stakeholders.

The2018top leaders ’ forum is organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and ARISE Philippines, in partnership

with SM Prime Holdings and the National Resilience Council (NRC).

Seen in photo are Hans Sy of SM Prime (seventh from left), special representative of the UN secretary general for disaster reduction Mami Mizutori, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and officials of UNISDR, NRC, ARISE Philippines, government officials and private and public sector partners.

GLOBE TELECOM BAGS INTERNATIONAL AWARDS FROM FROST & SULLIVAN

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LOBE Telecom was named the 2018 Data Service Provider of the Year and 2018 Cloud Infrastructure Service Provider of the Year by global business and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan for implementing business strategies that help boost customer satisfaction. “ T h e s e a w a r d s a r e a hu g e encouragement to the team, as we strive to make business and home connectivity easier for every company and individual. We do this by ensuring our clients are equipped with a wide array of infrastructure services that address their varying needs,” said Globe President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu. The Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards identify and honor best-in-class companies that demonstrate excellence

in their respective industries. Its analysts conduct in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify cream-of-the-crop companies in each field.

“Globe Telecom has also developed a hyperconvergence-value proposition, which allows virtual IT management through a single platform enabling easy management and deployment of cloud infrastructure. Globe Telecom’s emphasis on enhancing infrastructure capabilities and developing strong growth strategies has enabled the company to achieve a significant number of key customer wins across different segments,” Okmar Lad, Frost & Sullivan digital transformation associate, said in a letter.

“With this award, we are inspired even more to level up our game. It came at just the right time, as we introduced yet another

innovative solution with regards to our Cloud offering,” said Peter Maquera, senior vice president for Globe Business.

Globe Business data-center solutions include data-center colocation, which provides a managed space for lease for servers and IT equipment; LAN-based Internet for redundant, stable, secure and high-speed connectivity; and businesscontinuity services, such as disasterrecovery work seats and media-storage service in the event of natural or man-made disasters.

Cloud computing enables enterprises to move more efficiently and expand quickly using affordable, secure and reliable corporate data network. With this technology, enterprises can record, analyze and store data without the need for physical space.

GET UP TO 25% OFF ON APPLIANCES IN ELECTROLUX’S AMAZING ‘HOLIDEALS’ PROMO

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ON’T miss out of Electrolux’s amazing “ holideals” promo!

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IT’S A DELIGHTFUL HOLIDAY WITH GARDENIA DELICIA

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HE holiday season holds a lot of fond and warm memories for the Filipino family. They say it is the happiest time of the year, and it could not have been any truer. All people come together in merrymaking and festivities. All petty differences are cast aside, and we celebrate with each other. It is the time when families come together and share precious moments of love, joy, and generosity.

This season Gardenia Delicia chocolate spread is a perfect solution in curbing that unwelcome holiday

stress which, in turn, creates precious family moments. Spreading sweetness during the season of love and giving has never been easier with Gardenia Delicia chocolate spreads.

If you are not sure what to give your loved ones, why not add your personal touch and craft delicious treats using these creamy and delicious chocolate spreads? Delicia is a perfect addition to ramp up the flavor of traditional Yuletide fares, such as cookies and cakes that you can give to your loved ones or enjoy with your own families.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Tuesday, December 11, 2018 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

MEMBERS of the Nigeria women’s team players celebrate after they beat South Africa to win the Banyana Banyana of South Africa in the Africa Cup of Nations final in Accra, Ghana, recently.

At right is the women’s World Cup trophy on display during the w World Cup France 2019 draw in BoulogneBillancourt in Paris. AP

IN AFRICA, IT’S PLAY MORE “When I got to the World Cup, I realized that we had really good players in South Africa, in Africa, but then and still now the problem has been the lack of competition within Africa. And that has been and still is a major stumbling block.”

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By Gerald Imray The Associated Press

APE TOWN, South Africa—No one deserved to see South Africa finally qualify for the Women’s World Cup more than Fran Hilton-Smith.

Take nothing away from the players and coaches, but Hilton-Smith has been the driving force behind women’s soccer in South Africa, and to an extent Africa, for more than 20 years.

Seeing Banyana Banyana make the final of the African championship in Ghana last month and clinch a place at next year’s World Cup in France for the first time was a “life-changing experience,” she said.

Because she’s been waiting and working for the moment for much of her life, ever since South Africa returned after apartheid ended in 1994.

“I was there, it was incredible. I’ve waited personally 24 years to qualify for the World Cup,” she said, describing the scenes in the locker room afterward. “Everyone was crying and celebrating.”

A former national team player and coach, Hilton-Smith is now head of women’s soccer in South Africa and the national association’s assistant technical director, both for men and women. She’s the only woman on the Confederation of African Football’s 14-member technical committee that drives the development of the entire game on the continent.

She was Africa’s representative on a recent Fifa task force to

RIVER PLATE LIFTS COPA TROPHY M

ADRID—Madrid turned into Buenos Aires for a night on Sunday, with tens of thousands of Argentine fans transforming Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu into a stadium of their own.

River Plate fans were the only ones celebrating in the end, both at home and in Spain, after the historic victory over fierce rival Boca Juniors in the twice-suspended final of the Copa Libertadores.

River came from behind to beat the rival, 3-1, in the second leg after extra time to win South America’s equivalent of the Champions League, 5-3, on aggregate.

One of the most anticipated matches in South American soccer finally came to a conclusion, nearly a month after the first leg was played in Argentina.

The final capped one of the most embarrassing chapters in South American soccer, which saw its leaders unable to stage the historic match on the continent. The second leg had to be played in the Spanish capital after it was marred by fan violence in Buenos Aires two weeks ago, when Boca players were injured before the game after River fans attacked the team bus with rocks, bottles and wood.

Soccer great Lionel Messi and Fifa President Gianni Infantino were among those at the “superclasico” at the Bernabeu, which saw the Argentine fans chanting throughout the match in a unique scene at the traditional

RIVER PLATE players celebrate their victory in Madrid as a Boca Juniors fan reacts to her team’s loss as she watches the match on TV in Buenos Aires. AP

European stadium.

It was River’s fourth Copa Libertadores title, and first since 2015. Boca Juniors remained on six titles and missed a chance to tie Argentina’s Independiente as the competition’s most successful club.

“River was the better team throughout the entire tournament,” said Matias Biscay, River’s assistant coach who replaced the suspended Marcelo Gallardo. “Our team played against the toughest opponents and knew how to overcome

revamp women’s soccer worldwide.

So, you can’t tell Hilton-Smith anything about women’s soccer in Africa. And few people are in a better position to explain why African teams have never shone at the World Cup. It’s been frustrating for Hilton-Smith, who’s been to just about every tournament since 1994 working on Fifa’s technical team.

Nigeria, dominant in Africa and crowned African champion last weekend for the 11th time, has “brilliant players,” according to Hilton-Smith, many of them playing for clubs in Europe, and yet has made the World Cup quarterfinals once, nearly 20 years ago. That’s the best an African team has done.

The reason’s no secret, she said. African teams just don’t play enough.

“When I got to the World Cup, I realized that we had really good players in South Africa, in Africa,” HiltonSmith said, “but then and still now the problem has been the lack of competition within Africa. And that has been and still is a major stumbling block.

“I’ve always sat there and thought, gosh we have better players than a lot of these players and we could do so well at the World Cup.” Facilities are obviously important.

Hilton-Smith started an academy for girls in South Africa 13 years ago

that now provides most of the players on the national squad.

She discovered Banyana Captain and Houston Dash defender Janine van Wyk when she was 13 years old and playing for a boys team on the outskirts of Johannesburg— and guided the early part of her career, making sure she was one of the first to go to the academy. Van Wyk has now played more than 150 games for her country, more than any other South African, man or woman.

Africa certainly needs more high-level women coaches too.

Hilton-Smith made it her mission to help as many women coaches in South Africa as possible gain “A’’ licenses, Africa’s highest coaching qualification. The current South Africa coach, Desiree Ellis, was one of them.

There are now 24 in South Africa with “A’’ licenses, but that’s more than the rest of Africa put together.

Ultimately, though, African teams desperately need more competitive games.

The women’s African championship is held every two years. But it’s the only tournament of any consequence in Africa. Between African Cups, “countries just pack up their women’s teams,” Hilton-Smith said, and she fears Africa’s other two teams going to the World Cup, Nigeria and Cameroon, will do that again.

Nigeria is a stark example. The best on the continent sometimes goes more than a year without playing any games at all. Zimbabwe qualified for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics but would have gone to Brazil without

playing any preparation games if Hilton-Smith hadn’t hastily organized a match against South Africa. No surprise the Zimbabweans let in 15 goals in three games at the Olympics.

“If you don’t compete, you can’t compete. It’s that simple,” Hilton-Smith said. “You can’t compete with the rest of the world when you’re doing that.”

Compare World Cup champion United States and the big teams in Europe, who are “always playing, always competing at a high level,” Hilton-Smith said.

In Africa it’s difficult. You need money to organize more games, more tournaments and take teams traveling, and soccer in general in Africa is underfunded, let alone women’s soccer, which is still some way down the pecking order.

But Hilton-Smith is squeezing every last cent out of her tight budget to make sure Banyana Banyana does one thing above all before the World Cup in June: Play.

South Africa faces Sweden and Netherlands in January, is planning to go to the Cyprus Cup in March, and will hopefully confirm a game against the US in May. Banyana will need every minute of match practice after being pitted against two-time champion Germany, China and Spain in the World Cup draw on Saturday.

“Now we’ve got there we have to make sure we don’t just make up the numbers and we go there and make an impression,” Hilton-Smith said. “It’s not easy. It’s a huge stage with huge teams who play all the time.”

them. And in the final against our rival we were superior in both matches.”

After reaching 1-1 after 90 minutes on Sunday, River went ahead when Juan Fernando Quintero scored four minutes into the second half of extra time, and Gonzalo “Pity” Martinez added a third goal in the final minutes of the high-profile match.

Dario Benedetto had opened the scoring in normal time just before halftime for Boca, and Lucas Pratto equalized for River in the 67th.

Boca had Wilmar Barrios sent off early in extra time and then had Fernando Gago leave the field near the end because of an injury.

The first leg at Boca’s La Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires ended 2-2.

Rival fans were separated for security reasons with more than 25,000 from each club expected at the Bernabeu, and many making the expensive trip from Argentina. Only supporters of the home team were allowed in the matches in Argentina to avoid fan violence.

It wasn’t a full house, though, with 62,000 attending the match at the around 80,000-capacity stadium. There were empty sections behind both goals.

“It’s difficult to talk about the fans right now,” Boca Juniors Coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “We couldn’t win the Copa for them. They endured a lot to come here from all different parts of the world. It was incredibly sad in the changing room. It hurts a lot for me not to win the Copa, especially because of the fans.”

Quintero scored with a shot from the edge of the area after a well-coordinated attack past the Boca defense.

Martinez allowed the celebrations to begin when he scored into an open net in the final seconds as Boca goalkeeper Esteban Andrada had gone to the opposite area to try to equalize on a corner. AP

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Tennis training organization levels up

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HE Pinoy Tennis Trainers (PTT) is looking forward to an active 2019 focused on providing a higher level of training program for local tennis trainers and coaching staff.

The PTT is now led by brothers Stephan and Sebastian Lhuillier, sons of sportsmanbusinessman and tennis patron Jean Henri Lhuillier.

“We want to replicate what we did in 2017 when we went nation-wide and conducted tennis clinics in 10 different cities,” said Stephan Lhuillier, who along with his younger brother plays for the International School of Manila squad.

“This year, I was a bit focused more on my studies and had limited activities

for PTT. As it is, I will be pursuing my education in the United States, and I am passing the baton to my younger brother Sebastian, who has accepted the responsibility,” Stephan Lhuillier added.

“This is certainly one of the biggest challenge for me at this stage of my life, but I see the value of what my brother has started, and I am looking at developing further the Level 2 module that we will be using next year,” the younger Lhuillier said.

In its short span, the PTT already has close to 600 graduates, most of whom were able to improve their earnings with the higher level of training they received from group, whose top two graduates, Trudy Amoranto and JR

Wushu athletes to grace forum

JAPANESE ON ICE

Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto performs during the gala exhibition at figure skating’s Grand Prix in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday. AP

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HE successful Philippine wushu team that vied in the First Asian Traditional Wushu tournament and some applicants in the coming Philippine Basketball Association Rookie Draft will grace the last session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum for 2018 on Tuesday at the Tapa King Restaurant at the Farmer’s Plaza in Cubao, Quezon City.

Daniel Parantac, Thornton Quieney Lou Sayan,

Moreno, were sent to Thailand for an International Tennis Federation (ITF) Level 1 seminar.

The PTT also has an Adopt-A-Racket program where the organization taps friends, racket companies, tennis enthusiasts and national players like Ruber Gonzales and Treat Huey to donate their rackets, which are given to the participants of the seminar.

The PTT conducted its final free twoday Level 2 training workshop for trainers at the Makati Sports Club last weekend.

Roland Kraut, the only ITF Level 3 coach in the Philippines, handled the session with the Lhuillier brothers.

48 DRIBBLERS JOIN ROOKIE DRAFT C OLLEGE stars CJ Perez and Robert Bolick and club champion Ray Parks Jr. lead the cast of hopefuls for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Rookie Draft that has drawn more aspirants this year.

The draft is set December 16 at the Robinsons Place Manila.

A total of 48 aspirants are on the list with University of the Philippines’s Paul Desiderio and Diego Dario belatedly filing their applications at the league’s offices in Libis, Quezon City, on Monday.

The PBA extended the deadline from December 3 to 10 to give way to the collegiate

players who suited up for their respective teams in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.

The hopefuls will join the Draft Combine on December 12 and 13 at the Hoops Center in Mandaluyong City.

Perez is playing out of Lyceum of the Philippines University, which Bolick’s San Beda University beat in the National Collegiate Athletic Association finals.

Parks, on the other hand, is a former UAAP Most Valuable Player who played a key role in Alab Pilipinas’s victory in the Asean Basketball League.

Agatha Wong, Jones Llabres Inso and Dave Degala will discuss their campaign in Nanjing, China, that saw the country bag five gold medals.

Sharing the limelight in the session presented by San Miguel Corp., Tapa King and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. are Letran point guard Bong Quinto and other candidates in the December 16 draft at the Robinson’s Place in Manila.

Columbian Dyip owns the overall pick for the second straight season. The team chose Christian Standhardinger last year, but he was immediately released to San Miguel Beer in a controversial trade.

Among the big names in the draft are Bong Quinto of Letran, Abu Tratter of De La Salle, Michael Calisaan of San Sebastian and Jayjay Alejandro of National University.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

BUCKS EDGE RAPTORS NBA RESULTS

New Orleans 116, Detroit 108 Milwaukee 104, Toronto 99 San Antonio 110, Utah 97 Charlotte 119, New York 107 NEW York Knicks Head Coach David Fizdale (left) reacts to a call during the second half of their against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. AP

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Power Hitters shoot for crown

LDT tries to finish off Air Force right on its first crack at the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference crown on Tuesday at the Blue Eagle gym in Quezon City.

The PLDT Home Power Hitters took the second seeding in the Final Four but gained the twiceto-beat edge in the finals after top seed Sta. Elena-National University pulled out to represent the Philippines in the Asean University Games in Myanmar.

That paved the way for the finals playoff between No. 3 Air Force and No. 4 Cignal with the Agilas pulling off a 21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-16 decision over the HD Spikers last weekend

to stay in the title hunt.

PLDT swept Air Force in the elims meeting but the Agilas hope to sustain the momentum of their victory over the HD Spikers and get back at the Home Power Hitters, not just once but twice to snatch the crown.

Power-hitting Alnakran Abdilla, Rudolfo Labrador, Howard Mojica and Edwin Tolentino are expected to lead the Agilas’ charge against PLDT’s tested crew composed of Mark Alfafara, John Vic de Guzman, Joeven de la Vega, Kheeno Franco and Joshua Umandal.

Game time is at 3 p.m. after the 2 p.m. awards ceremony in the third season of the country’s premier men’s volleyball league organized by Sports Vision.

Petron faces Cignal, F2 Logistics meets Generika-Ayala

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ORONTO—After playing a starring role down the stretch, Malcolm Brogdon called this Milwaukee’s best performance of the season.

Brogdon hit tying and go-ahead three-pointers in the final 67 seconds, and the Bucks held on to beat Toronto Raptors, 104-99, on Sunday night.

Brogdon scored eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 19 points and matched a season high with 19 rebounds, and Brook Lopez had 19 points for the Bucks, the first team to beat Toronto twice this season.

“In terms of having a full game, playing hard on both ends and executing at a high level on both ends, executing the game plan and then finishing strong down the stretch, that is definitely the top game for us,” Brogdon said.

The Bucks (17-8) bounced back from Friday’s loss to Golden State and have yet to lose consecutive games this season.

“That’s how special this team is,” Antetokounmpo said.

Serge Ibaka scored 22 points, and Kawhi Leonard had 20 for the Raptors, who have lost two straight, the second time this season they’ve suffered consecutive defeats. Toronto, which lost 106-105 at Brooklyn on Friday, dropped three straight from November 12 to 16, losing at home to New Orleans and Detroit before an overtime defeat at Boston.

Fred VanVleet scored a season-high 19 points, and Pascal Siakam had 17 for the Raptors, whose 21-7 record is best in the National Basketball Association.

Neither Leonard (rest) nor Antetokounmpo (concussion protocol) played when the Raptors lost, 124-109, at Milwaukee on October 29, Toronto’s first defeat following a 6-0 start.

Toronto’s Kyle Lowry shot 0 for 5 and didn’t score for the first time since March 17, 2013 against Miami. Lowry led the Raptors with seven assists.

“Just couldn’t find the open ones tonight,” Lowry said. All of his misses on Sunday were from three-point range.

Milwaukee led 79-74 heading to the fourth and pushed its lead to 85-74.

Toronto battled back to lead 97-94 on a three by Leonard at 2:07, but Brogdon hit the tying three at 1:07 and followed with a goahead jumper with 40 seconds left.

“We did a great job trusting one another and moving the ball,” Antetokounmpo said.

“Malcolm hit some huge shots.”

Middleton assisted on both of Brogdon’s key baskets and finished with five assists.

“I’m going to get the glory for the shots, but Khris is the one who sacrificed and made the extra pass to get it to me,” Brogdon said.

VanVleet answered with a lay-up, but Antetokounmpo restored the three-point cushion with a driving dunk.

Leonard hit the rim with a potential tying three, and Ersan Ilyasova was fouled as he grabbed the rebound. Ilyasova sealed it by making both free throws with seven seconds remaining, and Toronto did not attempt another shot.

Milwaukee led 51-49 at halftime.

The Charlotte Hornets, meanwhile, got off to a strong start and cruised to an easy win.

Kemba Walker scored 25 points and Jeremy Lamb added 19 as Charlotte beat the New York Knicks, 119-107, on Sunday night in a game it never trailed.

Tony Parker scored 16 points, Marvin Williams had 13 and Cody Zeller finished with 12 as the Hornets led by as many as 28 points.

“We knew they played last night. We wanted to come out really aggressive on both ends of the floor, and it worked out for us,” Walker said. “We wanted to jump on them. We really needed this win.”

Knicks rookie Kevin Knox tied a season high with 26 points and set a career high with 15 rebounds, while Tim Hardaway Jr. added 21 points.

“I just wanted to make sure I gave everything I had in the tank, leave it all out on the floor,” Knox said.

Lamb’s lay-up with 8:50 left in the third quarter gave the Hornets their biggest lead at 77-49.

New York pulled within 18 on Knox’s threepointer before Walker’s long three pushed the lead to 99-78 heading to the fourth.

The Knicks opened the fourth with a 7-0 run to pull within 14 on Frank Ntilikina’s jumper with 10:47 remaining. However, the Hornets scored the next 12 points to put the game out of reach.

“Once we settled into the game, the ball was moving, shots were going down, we were getting stops,” said Hornets Coach James Borrego. AP

EAVYWEIGHTS Petron and F2 Logistics try to arrange another finals duel when they tackle separate foes in the semifinals of the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference on Tuesday at the Muntinlupa Sports Center.

Petron clashes with Cignal at 7 p.m., while F2 Logistics battles Generika-Ayala at 4:15 p.m.

University of Santo Tomas, meanwhile, tries to inch closer to the finals of the Collegiate Grand Slam when it tackles University of the East at 2 p.m.

After clashing in the past four titular showdowns, the Blaze Spikers and Cargo Movers are heavily tipped to make it all the way to the best-of-three finals series after gaining a twiceto-beat advantage in the semifinals.

The Blaze Spikers finished the preliminaries with a flawless 10-0 won-lost record, while the Cargo Movers finished second with an 8-2 card to underscore their dominance in the tournament.

Petron made short work of Sta. Lucia, 25-12, 25-14, 25-16, and F2 Logistics crushed Cocolife, 25-12, 25-22, 25-20 in the quarterfinals.

But the semifinals will be a different story.

The Lifesavers are coming in with a lot of confidence after serving as one of the only two teams who scarred the Cargo Movers’ mark in the preliminaries, 19-25, 25-22, 25-16, 28-26, on November 13.

Generika-Ayala Head Coach Sherwin Meneses said that victory sparked their campaign and pushed them all the way to their first semifinal appearance in three years.

“It was a major morale-booster for the girls.

They realized that they can also win over an elite team like F2 Logistics,” said Meneses, whose crew racked up six consecutive victories since that fateful win.

“We’ll be coming into the semifinals believing that we can win over them again.

We already did it before, we will work hard to do it again.”

On the same note, the HD Spikers are also dead serious about stopping the Blaze Spikers in their bid to sweep the entire tournament.

Head Coach Edgar Barroga said his team is finally peaking following a giant 26-28, 25-19, 25-19, 25-18 win over a heavily favored Foton side in the quarterfinals.

He said veterans Rachel Anne Daquis and Royse Tubino, as well as the vastly improved Mylene Paat, are all ready to assert their dominance and frustrate the reigning queens of All-Filipino.

“It will be a tough challenge, but I know with the right preparation and focus, we can pull off a massive win over the reigning champions,” said Barroga, who is eager to neutralize the firepower of Frances Molina, Sisi Rondina, Bernadeth Pons and Aiza Maizo Pontillas.

SPORTSMANSHIP The Creamline Cool Smashers and Ateneo-Motolite Lady Eagles pose after the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference Finals with the Cool Smashers winning the series in two games.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

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AMON CAPISTRANO shot 30 points as Team Surigao I jump-started its Fil A campaign with a front-running 108 points in the 69th Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament on Monday at the Baguio Country Club (BCC) in Baguio City.

Surigao I got 28 points from Don Petil, 26 from

Tabal intensifies focus on Tokyo 2020 Olympics

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HILIPPINE marathon queen Mary Joy Tabal has started to intensify her focus at another Olympic stint—this time Tokyo 2020—and has lined up a busy 2019 program.

Fresh from topping the National Milo Marathon in Laoag City for the sixth straight year, Tabal said she is slowly regaining her old form that earned her a ticket to her first Olympics in Rio de Janeiro two years ago.

The 29-year-old pride of Cebu City clocked two hours and 56.31 seconds in ruling the Laoag City race. The figures were below her personal best of 2:43:31 she booked at the Scotia Bank Marathon in Canada in 2016 that qualified her for Rio. Tabal, who shared the limelight with men’s champion Rafael Poliquit on Sunday, said that she is still recovering from her campaign in the Jakarta Asian Games and encountered challenges during the 42-km race in the Ilocos Norte capital.

As she embarks on another grueling season, Tabal said she looks forward to competing in the 30th Southeast Games.

“It will be an honor to represent our country. I want to continue what I started. This is a continuous process, this is not only for the SEA Games,” she said.

John Philip Dueñas, Tabal’s head trainer, said her training in Tuscany in Italy kept her in good shape.

The diminutive runner will join the Tokyo Marathon in March but Dueñas said Tabal would already be in Japan to acclimatize with the cold weather.

“We will start our intensive training next year.

We want her to break the 2:40 mark,” Dueñas said.

The Tokyo Marathon is the first qualifying race for the Olympics. The Olympic standard for the 42km women’s race will be announced one year before Tokyo 2020. The qualifying time for Rio was 2:45.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Perpetual Help nips Lyceum in three sets

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EFENDING champion University of Perpetual Help System Dalta beat Lyceum of the Philippines University, 25-20, 25-20, 27-25, on Monday to solidify its grip of the men’s lead in the 94th National Collegiate Athletic Association volleyball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

The Lady Altas, on the other hand, survived a firstset loss and trounced the Lady Pirates, 17-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-12, to breathe life to their Final Four bid in women’s play.

Cindy Imbo led the way with 16 hits she laced with 15 kills as Perpetual Help booked its second win against as many losses—good for fifth place behind joint third College of Saint Benilde and San Sebastian, which own 2-1 (win-loss) records each.

Reigning titlist Arellano University and last year’s runner-up San Beda shared first place with perfect 4-0 cards.

Shyra Mae Umandal scattered 14 points while Jowie Albert Verzosa chipped in 12 for the Macky Cariño-coached Lady Altas.

In the only other women’s game, Dolly Grace Verzosa unleashed a 20-point performance as Jose Rizal University survived Mapua, 24-26, 25-20, 2025, 25-16, 15-8, to share No. 5 with Perpetual Help on a 2-2 card.

Lyceum slipped to 1-3 while Mapua succumbed to its fourth consecutibe loss.

SURIGAO 1 UP BY 7 PTS Edgardo Lopez and 24 from Lito Camo for a seven-point lead over Che Lus I on a day when the weather turned from cool to fair. Former Tourism Secretary Ace Barbers had 16 points and did not count for the team from Mindanao.

Che Lus I had 101 points on the 30 of Mike Castro, 26 of Warren Pettelier, 23 of local surgeon Ed Montenegro—the team’s “import”—and 22 of John Quinata.

Summit Point Golf and Country Club was another three-shot down with 98 thanks to the 30 of Edsel Opulensa.

Over at Camp John Hay (CJH), Rollie Valdez opened with a 30 to lead San Miguel to 111 and a two-shot lead in Am A. Mikey Punsalan counted with a 30, Bong

Sison and Dennis Nicomedes added a 29 and 27, respectively. Rene Unson, a member of the Megafiber team that won the seniors championship, did not count with his 24.

Rodolfo Brobio and Alvin Buenaventura each shot a 29 to lead Forest Hills Palmer to 109, two off the first-day leader in the longer CJH course.

Two teams are lodged at third, two off Forest Hills at 107, Benlife Producers-Bank and Srixon.

Waterlympics Clark shot an opening 86 to hang on to a one-point lead despite a two-point penalty in Fil D competitions. Team Surigao II came in with an 85, three shots on Kiss Juice Apple.

Paterno Hernandez Jr. submitted a 28 to lead Rural Bankers II to an 89 and a three-

FORMER Junior World champion Jenz Tecson of Mizuno-Power Systems reacts after missing a birdie at the Baguio Country Club.

shot lead in Am D. Cool Jocks was three shot down with an 86, another three up on Square and Compass Nueva Ecija. Three other teams were so close to Square and Compass with Moto shooting an 82. NBI Golf Team 157 was another shot down, while Monterey was at 80.

Defending champion Manila Southwoods, meanwhile, opens its bid in the Fil and Am Championship on Tuesday at the BCC course.

Yuto Katsuragawa, the star of the 2016 Southwoods champion team, will lead youthladen team from Carmona. He will be joined by another Japanese, Aguri Iwasaki.

Cousins Aidric Chan, Ateneo’s top senior high player, and Carl Corpus as well as veteran Junjun Plana will try to make Southwoods a 17-time champion in the Fil-Am, and tie Canlubang’s record.

Southwoods, however, is the most dominant team ever counting its wins in the Am Championship since joining in 1997.

Lanz Uy and Liam Cullins will also return to make it a double whammy for Southwoods in

HUELGAS AIMS HIGH C

HAMPION triathlete Nikko Huelgas of Team Go For Gold is thrilled of the prospect of retaining his Southeast Asian Games title in front of his countrymen.

The back-to-back SEA Games gold medalist provided a preview of what he could accomplish after topping the men’s elite category in the 2018 National Age Group Triathlon (NAGT) held in Naga, Cebu, recently.

“I was surprised with my own performance because I really had a bad season this year and I don’t know why,’’ said Huelgas.

Huelgas defeated Go For Gold teammate Andrew Kim Remolino and Jorry Ycong of Rider Omega Tri team by three minutes after clocking two hours, two minutes and four seconds in the 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-km bike and 10-km run race.

“I want to thank Go For Gold for its unfailing support. If not for them, I wouldn’t be here today with two gold medals in the SEA Games,’’ Huelgas said.

Go For Gold Philippines headed by Jeremy Go has consistently bankrolled the overseas training and

competitions of the men’s elite triathlon squad that helped produce several medals and accolades for the national team.

Just recently, ace triathlete John Leerams Chicano ruled the prestigious Tri-Factor International Triathlon in Quzhou, China, under the Go For Gold Philippines banner.

The convincing victory in the NAGT has motivated Huelgas, head of the Athletes Commission in the Philippine Olympic Committee, to push himself to the limit for a third straight gold medal in the SEA Games to be held in Clark and Subic late next year.

“I’m concerned about injuries.

It can readily end my bid for a third straight gold, plus the fact that all countries are steadily improving so I don’t want to be complacent,’’ said Huelgas.

After the just-concluded NAGT, the next big challenge for Huelgas is the Ironman 70.3 race in Vietnam roughly five months from now.

NICO HUELGAS seeks a third straight Southeast Asian Games gold medal.

SANTO TOMAS JUDOKAS DOMINATE SEASON 81 U NIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) topped the women’s competition for the fifth straight year and retained the men’s championship University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 81 judo on Sunday the Enrique Razon Sports Center at De La Salle-Taft.

With heavyweight Dither Tablan and half lightweight Ryan Benavides leading the fivegold medal haul, the Growling Tigers collected 45 points to complete a “three-peat” and annex a record 14th crown overall.

Ateneo, which shared the men’s title with UST last season, settled for second place with 18 points after winning two gold medals.

University of the Philippines (UP) also had 18 points but could only muster third place

with one gold to show.

Tablan emerged as the season Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Benavides captured the Rookie of the Year honors.

Other Tigers gold medalists were Russel Lorenzo (extra lightweight), Mitchell Salcedo (middleweight) and George Kim (half heavyweight).

With MVP Khrizzie Pabulayan’s half lightweight gold and a seven silver medals, UST collected 36 points to extend its longest winning streak in the women’s division to five years. The title was also the Tigresses 11th overall.

UP captured three gold medal but placed second with 25 points, edging University of the East, which tallied 24 points in third spot.

Lady Warrior Remieanne Pangilinan, who topped the half middleweight category, took home the Rookie of the Year trophy.

In the juniors division, UST retained the boys title, while UE made it two in a row in the girls section.

Defending champion Far Eastern University (FEU)-Diliman, meanwhile, shut out Ateneo, 4-0, to stay unbeaten in juniors football on Sunday.

Kieth Absalon netted a late first-half goal while Charles Lobitana, Stephen John Soria and Marc Jessar Tobias also scored for the Baby Tamaraws.

Claiming its second straight victory after a scoreless draw with NU to open the season, FEU-Diliman improved to seven points and sits on top of the table with a superior goal difference.

Ateneo, which also has seven points, finished its firstround campaign with two wins, one draw and a loss.

In the other match at the FEU-Diliman pitch, Denzel Celebrado scored the lone goal in the 50th minute as UST gained its first full points with a 1-0 victory over De La Salle-Zobel. The Junior Archers remained without a point.

Davao City jins capture poomsae golds in Brunei

M PHILIPPINE Sports Commissione Commissioner Charles Raymond Maxey (right) receives the organization’s flag from Brunei Darussalam Games officials during the turnover ceremony on Sunday.

INDANAO ended its campaign on a colorful note as Davao City’s Elah Janica Liwag and Juan Miguel Dalangin grabbed the poomsae mixed doubles gold medal in the 10th Brunei-IndonesiaMalaysia-Philippines-Northern Territory-East Asian Growth Area (BIMPNT-EAGA) Friendship Games on Sunday at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium in Brunei.

Hours after the memorable closing ceremony at the Indoor Stadium, the University of Immaculate Conception students dazzled the crowd with their near-perfect form to give Mindanao its first taekwondo gold.

Liwag also clinched a silver and a bronze in girls’ individual poomsae, while the 16-yearold Dalangin settled for the bronze in boys’ individual poomsae.

Thee Philippines ended its campaign with 13-14-17 gold-silver-bronze tally. Davao City also had its lone gold medalist in athletics courtesy of Mark Anthony Casenas (6.77 meters) in men’s long jump.

Palawan had three athletics gold medals, two from running sensation John Lloyd Cabalo and one from Jessell Lumapas.

Davao City swimmer Fritz Jun Rodriguez, who will see action for San Beda in the National Collegiate Athletic Association,

excelled with four gold medals and a silver in the biennial event which will be hosted by Davao City in 2020.

Philippine Sports Commission Commissioner and Chief de Mission Charles Raymond Maxey congratulated Brunei Darussalam for the successful hosting of the Games.

“Truly, you have set the bar higher for the future hosts of these Games. I also admire and appreciate all the efforts from the top officials down to the volunteers for making sure our stay here in Brunei Darussalam will be comfortable and pleasant one,” said Maxey, adding that Davao City is ready to host the 11th edition of the Games.

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the Am Championship anew. The two helped Southwoods to a whopping 50-point victory last year.

This year, Southwoods will parade newbies Josh Jorge, Sean Ramos, Jegg Jung and another Japanese, Masaichi Otake.

Three teams will challenge Southwoods, including former champion Mizuno X-1R with brothers King and Ace Stehmeier returning to give the team another shot at the title.

VINCENT JUICO @VJuico Instagram vpjp_j, vince.juico@gmail.com

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS

Sports equity and equality WHILE I was doing research on my previous column on the proposal of lowering the basketball rim in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), I spoke to my father, former Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Philip Ella Juico and he mentioned gender equality and sports equity as an aspect of the proposed change.

Are they synonymous? Do they go hand in hand? Let’s get right to it—what is gender equality? According to the various source web site, “Gender equity in sports is about fairness in sport, equality of access, recognizing inequalities, and taking steps to address them. It is about changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure that it becomes equally accessible to everyone in society.” In short, gender equity implies fairness, while gender equality assumes sameness.

In other words, it should be sports for all regardless of gender, race, color, faith, social status and political persuasion making adjustments for the inherent unequally between man and woman.

Is there gender equality and equity for women and LGBTQ? The latter I’ll discuss in next week’s column but as for women, gender equality and equity for women has come a long way.

According to Lahnee Pavlovich, head of Research and Writing, Athlete Assessments, “Gender equality in sports has always been a controversial topic. Even the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, said in 1896, ‘No matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.’”

Pavlovich backs up her statement with statistics, “In America 40 percent of sportspeople are women, however only 6 to 8 percent of the total sports media coverage is devoted to them. And women-only sports stories add up to just 3.5 percent of all sports stories in the four major US newspapers.”

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, male athletes get $179 million more in athletic scholarships each year than females do. Additionally, collegiate institutions spend just 24 percent of their athletic operating budgets on female sports, as well as just 16 percent of recruiting budgets and 33 percent of scholarship budgets on female athletes.

Some people have the argument that “women’s sport isn’t interesting enough.” And even though over the years the popularity of women’s sports is growing, unfortunately the media coverage and sponsorship dollars haven’t necessarily followed through and gender equality remains an issue.

Take last July’s Women’s World Cup soccer final for example. It was the most watched soccer match—men’s or women’s—ever in the US with nearly 25.4 million viewers. Yet the players were far less compensated than their male counterparts.

To highlight the disparity, I quote Hope Solo, female American goalkeeper, “We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the men get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”

The gender equality debate was reignited recently when former South African tennis professional Raymond Moore made a number of comments that were degrading to women in the sport. This was met with a backlash from both female and male players, including World Number 1 Serena Williams who was vocal in expressing her views on the subject.”

Aside from the LGBTQ in sports, I’ll also discuss next week the disparity in pay, wages and sponsorships between men’s and women’s national teams.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Tuesday, December 11, 2018 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Man City’s Sterling: Media coverage fuels racism M ANCHESTER, England—British newspapers are helping to “fuel racism” with their portrayal of black footballers, Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling said on Sunday as police investigate whether he was racially abused during a Premier League match at Chelsea.

Two screenshots were posted on Sterling’s Instagram account highlighting contrasting coverage of young City teammates buying properties.

When Tosin Adarabioyo bought a house, the headline in January called it a “mansion” and highlighted that the purchase was made

RAHEEM STERLING has had an uneasy relationship with the media, with critical coverage before the World Cup in Russia of his decision to get a tattoo of an assault rifle on his right leg. AP

FAME TURNS TO NIGHTMARE K

BY Amir Shah The Associated Press

ABUL, Afghanistan—A young Afghan soccer fan who shot to fame after he was photographed in a Lionel Messi shirt made from a plastic bag has been forced to flee with his family to the capital after criminal gangs and the Taliban threatened to kill or kidnap him, his mother said on Friday.

Since becoming an Internet sensation, Shafiqa Ahmedi said her now seven-year-old son Murtaza—a fan of Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi—has not been able to attend school and now they are living in an unheated room in Kabul.

She said the cold and the damp are making Murtaza sick.

“He is always cold,” she said. Temperatures in Kabul hover around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day.

The picture of Murtaza in his plastic Messi shirt playing soccer went viral on social media two years ago. He met his hero in December last year.

But his popularity has turned into a nightmare for Murtaza and his family.

“I wish Murtaza had never become so famous,” she told The Associated Press. “It has created a big problem for us and for him. For the last two years we have not been able to send him to school. I wish none of this had ever happened.”

Criminals threatened to kidnap Murtaza after demanding money, assuming the boy’s brush with fame somehow resulted in a windfall of money. Taliban insurgents stopped local school buses asking if anyone knew of Murtaza. They, too, had seen pictures of young Murtaza meeting Messi in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar, where he received a t-shirt from his hero.

MURTAZA AHMADI talks as he sits beside his mother, Shafiqa, at his relative’s home in Kabul. AP

Last November, when Taliban fighters launched attacks in their home district of Joguri in violent Ghazni province, the family fled to the relative safety of Bamiyan province in Central Afghanistan.

But the threats continued.

The move to the Afghan capital three weeks ago has been painful. Murtaza is the youngest of five children and the family is paying the equivalent of about $90 a month for a room in the Afshar neighborhood in northwest Kabul.

Murtaza’s uncle Asif Ahmedi said the family received at least 10 letters and several phone calls from a variety of criminal gangs threatening to kill Murtaza or kidnap him if they didn’t give them money.

“Everyone thinks that because he became famous that we now have lots of money, but we are poor people,” he said. “The gunmen in our area were saying, ‘You got lots of money from Messi and you should give us the money otherwise your son will be kidnapped.’”

Criminal gangs roam freely in most of Afghanistan, which has been at war for 17 years. Most of the country’s 38 million people are dirt poor and the country’s police and army have been besieged by Taliban insurgents in near daily attacks.

Corruption is rampant in Afghanistan and many local police are in cahoots with criminal gangs.

Messi, meanwhile, capped a brilliant performance by following up a superb free-kick goal in the first half with another stunning set-piece goal in the second half.

The perfectly struck free kicks led Barcelona to a 4-0 rout of Espanyol in the Spanish league on Saturday, and allowed Messi to reach yet another career milestone— he had never scored two direct free kicks in a league game before.

“What can I say about Leo?” Barcelona

Coach Ernesto Valverde said. “He can break open any game. We are so lucky to have him with us and to be able to watch him play.”

Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez also scored in the Catalan derby for Barcelona, which opened a three-point lead over Sevilla and Atletico Madrid. Sevilla drew 1-1 at Valencia earlier on Saturday, while Atletico defeated Alaves 3-0 at home.

Fifth-placed Real Madrid visits last-place Huesca on Sunday, only a few hours before River Plate and Boca Juniors meet in the Copa Libertadores final at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Messi was at his best at RCDE Stadium in Barcelona, getting past defenders with ease and effortlessly putting his teammates in a position to score.

despite the player “having never started a Premier League match.”There was more positive coverage of Phil Foden, who is white, buying a house for his mother also for around £2 million ($2.5 million).

“This young black kid is looked at in a bad light. Which helps fuel racism an[d] aggressive behavior,” Sterling wrote on Instagram. “So for all the newspapers that don’t understand why people are racist in this day and age all I have to say is have a second thought about fair publicity an[d] give all players an equal chance.”

Sterling called the coverage “unacceptable.”

“You have two young players starting out their careers both play for the same team, both have done the right thing,” Sterling wrote, “which is buy a new house for their mothers who have put in a lot of time and love into helping them get where they are, but look at how the newspapers get their message across for the young black player and then for the young white player.”

The 24-year-old Sterling has had an uneasy relationship with the media, with critical coverage before the World Cup in Russia of his decision to get a tattoo of an assault rifle on his right leg.

He said it was a tribute to his late father, who was shot dead when Sterling was 2.

On Instagram, Sterling only briefly touched on Saturday’s incident at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium when a man appeared to aggressively hurl abuse at him as the ball was being retrieved on the byline. Police are reviewing footage that circulated widely online during City’s 2-0 loss.

“I just want to say, I am not normally the person to talk a lot but when I think I need my point heard I will speak up,” Sterling wrote. “Regarding what was said at the Chelsea game, as you can see by my reaction I just had to laugh because I don’t expect no better.”

The previous weekend in the Premier League, a banana skin was thrown at Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as he celebrated scoring against Tottenham in the Premier League’s north London derby.

English soccer’s anti-racism organization, Kick It Out, complained on Sunday that the chairmen of the Premier League, Football Association and Chelsea had not spoken out about the alleged abuse faced by Sterling.

“It has to be dealt with at the top,” Kick It Out Chairman Herman Ouseley said. “We do not have any leadership at the top of the game to speak out, they rely on Kick It Out.” The Football Association released a statement on Sunday afternoon condemning any act of discrimination.

“We take all allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and will work with the clubs and the relevant authorities to ensure this matter is dealt with appropriately,” the statement read.

“We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination and encourage all fans and participants who believe that they have been the subject of, or witness to, discriminatory abuse to report it through the appropriate channels: The FA, our County FAs or our partners Kick It Out.” Sterling has received widespread support for his comments with some of the strongest coming from the Black Collective of Media in Sport, an organization which highlights a lack of diversity among people employed within sports media.

A statement read: “BCOMS stands with Raheem Sterling and thanks him for raising the issue of how the media portrays black footballers and communities across the country.

“We hope this serves as a wake-up call not just for the newspapers, but all the media, and ask them to reassess how they treat Raheem and portray black sports men and women.” AP

CATCH! Oakland Raiders

wide receiver Seth Roberts (bottom) catches a pass in front of Pittsburgh Steelers strong safety Morgan Burnett (42) and Terrell Edmunds (34) during the second half of their National Football League game in Oakland, California, on Sunday. The Raiders won, 23-21. AP

SPORTS PLUS

Fifa refuses to address $25-billion league offer PARIS—A Fifa panel has met to discuss revamping the Club World Cup and creating a global Nations League, without addressing a $25-billion offer to fund them.

Fifa says the task force, with members from all six continental governing bodies, looked only

at “technical and sporting elements” of new events for clubs and national teams.

The panel will propose at least one version of each competition to a March 15 meeting in Miami of Fifa’s ruling council.

Fifa says “parallel consultation”

will also continue with clubs, league and player unions.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino has this year pushed a $25 billion, 12-year offer from Japanese investor Softbank, which has close ties to Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth.

European soccer officials blocked approval, citing Fifa’s secrecy about the no-tender deal. AP

Afghan authorities suspend soccer officials KABUL, Afghanistan—Afghan authorities have suspended the head of the soccer federation and five other senior officials amid allegations of sexual and physical abuse of female athletes.

Jamshed Rasooli, a spokesman for the attorney general, announced the suspensions on Sunday, saying

the move was intended to allow for a transparent investigation into the accusations publicized by The Guardian late last month.

The British newspaper cited senior figures associated with the team as saying the abuse took place at the federation’s headquarters in Kabul and at a training camp in

Jordan in February.

The Guardian also cited Khalida Popal, a former head of women’s soccer in the Afghanistan Football Federation who was forced to flee the country in 2016, as saying that her own investigation uncovered physical and sexual abuse, death threats and rape. AP

Italian federation introduces stronger sanctions ROME—The Italian football federation has introduced stronger sanctions in a bid to combat violence against referees, including a minimum two-year ban.

The announcement on Friday came after a spate of incidents

occurred in the lower divisions in Italy.

The minimum ban has been raised to one year for violence without need for medical assistance and a minimum of two years for cases that require medical intervention.

FIGC President Gabriele Gravina

says: “We have kept out promises” adding that “the first step toward the eradication of violence against referees is the raising of the sanctions against those who tarnish themselves with this shameful behavior.” AP

Mighty God

M

IGHTY God, those who trust in You find blessing. In faith we pray: Give us Your peace, O God. Shower Your love and care upon those who are bedridden and chronically ill. Help young people to grow in respect and good judgment. Bring healing and reconciliation to the Middle East and troubled parts of the world. May God make us firm in faith, unwavering in hope and steadfast in love, through Christ our Lord. Amen!

GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

RISE UP: FEMALE VOICES TAKE CENTER STAGE AT GRAMMYS D3

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

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Comfort is on trend for décor in 2019 ❶ AS 2019

❶

approaches, Washington D.C.-based interior designer Marika Meyer sees a trend toward warm neutral colors and antique furniture in warm wood tones, as seen in this living room designed by Meyer. PHOTOS: AP

❸

❷ SHADES

of blue were popular in 2018, says designer Marika Meyer, but she sees a growing trend toward decorating with shades of green, as seen in this Washington, D.C., area breakfast nook designed

by Meyer in a kitchen by Aidan Design.

❷

❸ AMONG the

trends emerging for 2019 are an embrace of patterned fabrics which can be paired together, as seen in this Washington, D.C., area living room designed by interior designer Marika Meyer.

By Melissa rayWorTH The Associated Press

W

HAT trends will dominate home decorating in 2019?

When we asked interior designers about the colors, fabrics and styles likely to be popular this year, one message came through loud and clear: People are seeking comfort at home.

But rather than casual, farmhouse-style comfort, these designers are seeing a trend toward a sophisticated, elegant comfort achieved through things like warm wall colors, antique wooden items with a patina of age, and rounded corners on furniture.

Along with the physical coziness these items bring, many folks seem to be seeking a degree of emotional comfort in their home décor.

“Someone just asked us if we would do an ombre carpet up their stairs, working with the ombre wallpaper up the wall,” says New York-based furniture and wallcovering designer Brett Beldock.

“They want this cocoon feeling. Our surroundings have to be really warm and comforting now... everything is crazy and we’re all up in the air.”

We’ve asked Beldock and two other interior designers—Washington D.C.-based Marika Meyer and New Yorker Dan Mazzarini—for details on what we’ll see in home design in the coming year.

COMFORTING SPACES FOR years, Americans were in love with open floor plans and large furniture. Now, “people want more intimately scaled spaces,” says Mazzarini. “Not Victorian-small, but not this kind of ‘everything open’ living.”

In response, we’re seeing “a temporary pause on

oversized things,” he says, as people feel like nesting.

Along the way, the color palette is becoming equally cozy. Popular neutral colors have “been so cool for a number of years,” Meyer says. As 2019 approaches, “we’re coming back into more warm neutrals.”

And Beldock sees furniture shapes changing: We’re seeing a return to rounded edges and pieces of furniture with big, soft, rounded arms.

PATTERNS AND PAPERS EXPECT to see lots of paper and fabric coverings on walls and ceilings in 2019. Beldock says murals are popular, as are patterns that can be mixed to create a vibrant space and give walls an appearance of depth.

Meyer agrees that patterns are increasingly important. As part of a “return to traditionalism” in home design, she sees many people opting for “heavy layering of very traditional patterns.”

Although many patterns incorporate a mix of colors,

Bringing affordable, high-quality homes to ordinary Filipinos

FULFILLING the dream of having your own home should not come at a hefty price. This is the principle that guides the Philippines’ fastest-growing mass-housing developer Bria Homes (www.bria.com.ph), as it continues to provide affordable house-and-lot packages and condominium units to legions of ordinary Filipino families. Through the years, Bria has become the perfect choice for hardworking Filipinos who want to invest in a home that is both high quality and pocket-friendly. Bria Homes aspires to address the housing problem in the country. This is why for the developer, the ultimate fulfillment comes in seeing their clients receive the key to their brand-new homes.

Before this happens, the developer makes sure that it has faithfully adhered to its five brand pillars: affordable, fast construction, pleasant communities, good service and accessible. Bria takes pride in its easy-on-the-pocket homes. To help ease the burden of financing the purchase of their homes, aspiring homeowners can opt for Pag-IBIG funding or bank financing.

In every project, Bria uses only newest technologies in home building in order to reduce construction time without compromising quality. The developer’s engineers and architects ensure that the homes can withstand all kinds of weather conditions through the years.

Bria Homes promotes holistic living among its residents and provides a secure, pleasant, and wholesome environment in its communities through various amenities that include perimeter fences, guarded entrance, covered basketball courts, etc. With its peaceful atmosphere and lush surroundings, Bria, likewise, makes its homeowners feel close to nature.

A wide range of home options are available: Elena, a 22-square-meter unit on a 36-sq-m lot; Bettina, a 44-sq-m unit on a 36-sq-m lot; and Alecza, a 36-sq-m unit on a 81-sq-m lot.

In a bid to foster healthy living and a green lifestyle in its communities, Bria Homes recently launched “Plantahan: Bria’s Plant A Tree Program,” which aims to educate its public about the importance of a cleaner environment; and “Sa Bria Lulusog ang Pamilya,” which aims to promote the importance of a proper diet to Filipino families.

Bria Homes provides only the best service by ensuring that its employees are trained to respond to customer queries immediately. Clients and residents are assured they will be given quality service and can have the best possible experience while living in Bria communities, which are within close proximity of places of worship, hospitals, schools and commercial establishments. They are also near major roads and highways and transport hubs.

expect to see plenty of rich shades of green in fabric and wallpaper patterns. While blues and indigos have been huge in recent years, Meyer says that in 2019 “green is the new blue.” It’s likely to be used in everything from upholstery patterns to kitchen furnishings.

WARM WOODS AND TRADITIONAL STYLES ANTIQUES and second-hand items are also having a moment.

“There have always been the antique lovers that we’ve worked with,” says Mazzarini. But now, a growing number of people “are responding more positively to things that have an actual sense of history.”

Meyer agrees: “More and more clients say to me they’re interested in a beautiful wood antique chest,” she says.

This trend is quite practical in the smaller-scale homes and condos favored these days, Meyer says,

because people have a real need for storage space. If a client chooses an antique wooden chest instead of a Parsons table, “it’s concealed storage.”

Traditional skirted tables are becoming popular again for the same reason: Under the soft folds of a fabric table cloth that reach to the floor, you can store items out of sight.

Even for homeowners who prefer a more modern style, warm wood tones are increasingly popular, Beldock says.

“Everyone’s using warm woods and walnuts,” she says, or “actually doing a fireplace, and around the fireplace having your extra wood in a niche on each side that’s the height of the whole wall.”

Some clients continue asking for lighter wood tones, Mazzarini says. But even when paired with white items for a very clean look, the wood grain brings a degree of warmth to a room.

When design meets sustainability A TEAM of four Industrial Design students who aspire to increase the quality of life through inclusive collaboration, sustainable design and quality products, Kamulo once again blended function and form in their latest venture—a stylistic wooden stool with a seat dressed in the unique texture of recycled denim.

The project started out as a requirement in class, wherein the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) pupils had to choose a particular material they wish to recycle, so the group went into a rigorous process of researches, experiments and executions before finally deciding to bring a different touch to a standard piece of furniture.

“We were challenged to upcycle a material that contributes to a significant amount of pollution in the world,” said Reese Paman, one of the members. “Our plan for the future is to pursue this innovation and start a business advocating sustainable design in the Filipino aesthetic.”

To push through with their concept, the young artists gathered and manually shredded old pairs of denim pants, then seamlessly mixed with special adhesives—requiring minimal glue and hardware—to take the shape of a standard 25 cm x 30 cm square seat.

Now coined as The Nim.1, the tool exhibits the balance between style and function, with a height of 25 cm from the floor for ease of sitting. It can handle more than the average human weight.

“As a test in class, our professor asked the largest student and even the biggest nearby faculty member to stand on the stool. It didn’t wobble or make a sound that would worry anyone,” Paman shared.

While the standard denim projects various hues of blue, Paman clarified that the texture and the color of each prototype that Kamulo does is never the same. “The color of each stool is purely dependent on the type of denim we use. We’re looking into using other types of textiles in the future.”

Currently, The Nim.1 is under the mentorship of Hub of Innovation For Inclusion for further enhancement and progress as the Kamulo team plans to produce more pieces and make it available for commercial purposes.

THE sustainable stool, The Nim.1, was made out of recycled denim and wood.

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In ‘Seduction,’ Howard Hughes’ Hollywood no haven for women

By Douglass K. Daniel

H

The Associated Press

OLLYWOOD history for the #MeToo movement, Karina Longworth’s Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood (Custom House) is an astute and entertaining takedown of the movie industry, the press and the multimillionaire turned wannabe filmmaker Howard Hughes. Hardly anyone emerges from the pages of Seduction unblemished by selfishness and greed once they are touched by the movie business and its promise of wealth, power and fame.

If that promise was kept, it was mainly for the benefit of men even though, as Longworth writes, women were integral to the rise of the movies. Her book recounts what happened to some of the many, many women who fell into the orbit of Hughes, for better and often for worse.

Howard Hughes is remembered today, more than four decades after his death, as a weirdly eccentric, incredibly wealthy man living in seclusion in the penthouse of a Las Vegas hotel. Or as the oddball character Leonardo DiCaprio played in 2004’s The Aviator. But for many years, mainly in the 1930s and 1940s, the press presented Hughes as a handsome if shy heir to an oil industry fortune, a creative maverick behind the camera, or an innovative and daring aviator—at times all three. The mental illness that appeared to gain on him as the years went by was hidden or downplayed as quirkiness.

The better story for readers and listeners in those years of economic depression and war was how practically every beautiful young actress was on Hughes’ arm at one time or another. That was certainly the image he sought to convey—and the public ate it up with the help of his publicists and a lazy, compliant and sometimes paid-off news media. In his day Hughes didn’t have to point and shout “fake news!” because he was too busy manufacturing it.

The women seduced by Hughes apparently bought the ballyhoo. After all, the only two movies

‘The Darkness’ is insightful character study

By Oline H. Cogdill The Associated Press

ICELANDIC author Ragnar Jonasson takes a major chance—that works extremely well— in The Darkness (Minotaur), the launch of a new series about Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir. Rather than meeting the Reykjavik, Iceland, detective at the beginning or even the middle of her career, Jonasson introduces Hulda at the end of the career that has been her lifeline.

Hulda’s swan song as a detective, as well as other choices Jonasson makes, might not seem as if the author could sustain a series based on this character. But The Darkness melds an insightful character study with a solid plot for an outstanding novel and shows how he could sustain this as a series.

A widow whose only child died decades ago, the perpetually depressed Hulda has lived for her work ever since. She thrives on this job, despite being passed over for promotions that have gone to younger and less qualified men. The 64-year-old dreads that mandatory retirement is near, but that’s next year. She’s shattered when her boss, Magnus, tells her that she will be leaving in

two weeks. She’ll get her full salary but the department needs to make room for a less experienced man who’s been hired.

As a consolation, Magnus tells Hulda she can work on a cold case of her choosing before she leaves. Hulda plunges into the case of Elena, an asylum-seeking Russian woman whose death was ruled a suicide.

Hulda quickly realizes that her colleague’s investigation was, at best, careless. Hulda’s sense of justice energizes her, despite raising the ire of Magnus, who says he really didn’t mean for her to start an investigation.

While The Darkness takes a grim path, Jonasson elevates the plot with a compelling look at a detective who has dealt with extreme personal losses and worries that she is facing a retirement, and old age, alone. Angry at having dealt with sexism and ageism, Hulda has never stopped being a good detective, a situation even Magnus is forced to acknowledge.

Hulda is not the easiest person to like— prickly and strident—but Jonasson finds many layers to his new character.

Hulda may be at the close of her career, but Jonasson is just getting started with this new series.

he directed, Hell’s Angels and The Outlaw, were troubled productions, scorned by many critics and challenged to return their over-the-top costs even with good ticket sales. Most of the two dozen others that he had a hand in producing also showed poor judgment and oversight. Exceptions like 1932’s gangster classic Scarface are outweighed by numerous embarrassments on the order of The Conqueror (1956), which famously miscast John Wayne as a young Genghis Khan.

As Longworth makes clear, Hughes and so many other men in filmmaking used their clout to seduce women who wanted to make movies, too. Untold numbers of actresses were sold the idea that they, too, could become stars, an unrealistic expectation fostered by the press as well as the movie industry.

Hughes, who sought to control every aspect of his life, habitually put young actresses under personal contract with the promise of a shot at stardom. In some cases he promised marriage, even proposing to one woman while engaged to another and nightclubbing with a third. Whether they were already engaged or even married didn’t matter. His penchant for brunettes—Ava Gardner, Jane Russell, Yvonne de Carlo, Linda Darnell, Faith Domergue and Jean Peters, among others—could have stymied a witness at a police lineup. He did manage to find time for Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe and other blondes.

Soon enough, the women discovered there might not be more to a Hughes contract than a paycheck. Some never even met him. Often, he didn’t allow a “discovery” to work for years. Domergue, for example, was under contract to Hughes for seven years and appeared in just two films. Escaping him could require emotional stamina and no small amount of court action.

The mind games and sex games that permeated Hughes’ movie career help make Seduction an engaging read. But don’t let that overshadow Longworth’s real focus—not so much Hughes but what it was like to be a woman in Hollywood back then. The women were pretty, the times were not.

And whether that much has changed for them remains debatable. n

A new collection of essays by Jonathan Franzen

ONE subject comes up frequently in Jonathan Franzen’s latest collection of essays: how to live responsibly in the face of our all but certain extinction as a species.

“Every one of us is now in the position of the indigenous Americans when the Europeans arrived with guns and smallpox: our world is poised to

change vastly, unpredictably and mostly for the worse,” he writes. “I don’t have any hope that we can stop the change from coming. My only hope is that we can accept the reality in time to prepare for it humanely.”

If you’re late to the Franzen game, or know him only through one of the controversies that have dogged him online—He snubbed Oprah!

Dissed Edith Wharton! Disrespected the Audubon Society!—this book is a good place to catch up with the acclaimed novelist (The Corrections, Freedom) whose graceful, trenchant essays are a joy to read even when the subject is terrifying.

The End of the End of the Earth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) brings together 16 essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, although the publisher chose not to list the original publication date or media outlet. Half are about birds, bird-watching and climate change, subjects he cares about as deeply as literature and writing.

“If you could see every bird in the world, you’d see the whole world,” he writes in “Why Birds Matter,” a lyrical essay that persuasively argues that bird populations “indicate the health of...our ethical values.”

The rest touch on a variety of subjects, including photography, technology and Manhattan, pre-gentrification. One piece published two days after 9/11 shows the limits of deadline journalism because like virtually everyone else in America, Franzen thought things would never be the same.

“In the space of two hours, we left behind a happy era of Game Boy economics and trophy houses,” Franzen says. Well, not exactly. The trophy houses in 2018 are even bigger.

In the final essay Franzen slyly offers up a bit of advice for readers who, like him, worry about finding a moral and ethical way to live in the late Anthropocene.

After noting the human tendency to take the short view, he observes that every minute in America, 30,000 paper cups are tossed even as rain forests are leveled to supply the world with pulp.

“Your life is complicated enough already without dragging a reusable cup around with you all day,” Franzen says. Sure, but reading that sentence, you know that’s exactly what you should do. AP

z

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Mo’Nique, 51; Gary Dourdin, 52; Jermaine Jackson, 64; Bess Armstrong, 65.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: The past will help you figure out how best to move forward this year. Rely on your ability to see the big picture, but don’t let that lead to extravagance when moderation is required. Pick and choose the best and most affordable way to get what you want. Concentrate on the details that will help you reach your goal. Your lucky numbers are 5, 16, 23, 28, 34, 39, 46.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Be good to those you love. Don’t take out your frustration or anger on someone who is just trying to help.

Look at the whole scene and you will find something positive to take from whatever situation you face. HHHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Look for a positive way to improve your life and the lives of those you care about. Building good alliances and helping those in need will shape how others judge you. Refuse to let emotions take over. HH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Refuse to let others make decisions for you. Consider what it is you want and make peace with yourself by following your heart. A demonstration that shows your integrity will far exceed anyone trying to deceive you. HHHHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Partnerships should be evaluated and decisions made. Take the initiative to put your heart on the line and be honest about the way you feel and what you want to see happen. You’ll end the year on a happy note. HHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Change someone’s life by doing something nice.

Your gesture of kindness will reflect the type of person you are, and good things will be offered in return. A shopping trip will be fun but also stressful if you go over budget.HHH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Don’t feel you have to make a change if you aren’t ready.

Listen but don’t give in to someone trying to entice you to be indulgent. Patience will be required.

Concentrate on being constructive and getting things done on time. HHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A short trip will lead to answers to questions that have been causing you stress. Share your feelings and discuss how you would like to see things unfold. Positive change will happen if you are honest about what you want.

Romance is highlighted. HHHHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Short trips, personal and physical updates and creative projects are all favored. Don’t let your emotions interfere and ruin your chance to explore and express your ideas and opinions. When it comes to money matters, slow down and spend less. HH

i j

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Only share with people you know you can trust to hold your secrets, regardless of pressure or circumstance. History plays a role in how you react, so don’t lose sight of what’s transpired in the past. HHHH CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Personal gains will require you to be calculating and practical. A solid plan will help deter anyone who wants to take advantage of you. Charity begins at home, so don’t offer handouts without knowing where your money is going. HHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Emotional spending should be controlled. Don’t buy anything you cannot afford or do not need.

Be innovative and you’ll find a way to cut corners and still enjoy life. A physical makeover can be accomplished without going into debt. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Part of your charm will come from being able to make do with what you’ve got. Use your imagination and you’ll come up with a plan that enhances your popularity. You cannot put a price tag on love or humor. HHH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are sensitive, insightful and thoughtful. You are secretive and forceful.

‘splash in the pan’ BY TIMOTHY E. PARKER The Universal Crossword/Edited by Timothy E. Parker

ACROSS 1 Apex 5 Treat horrifically 10 State of irritation 14 Take a gander 15 Wicker furniture weaver 16 Two-color cookie 17 Waterway since 7/4/1776?

20 Bill and ___ Bogus Journey 21 Anatomical backs 22 “___ you being helped?”

23 Be incorrect 24 Aromatherapy setting 26 Shocking bombshell 28 Sheep sound 29 Kenyan river 31 Some bye earners 32 Quick nosh 34 Tie-___ (promos) 35 Do a tailor’s task 36 Boat salesperson’s cornball comeon?

41 All males 42 Overnight stopover

43 Security for a debt 45 Blade sharpener 48 Secretive contracts, briefly 50 Hope unit 51 Hills with only one scarp 54 Kind of bran 55 Ozone layer depleter, briefly 56 Baseball offic.

57 More sick 59 Hero’s next status 61 Rio Grande seafood entrees make it a ...?

65 Pare or peel 66 Busy German city 67 Presidential option 68 Eye inflammation 69 Drops, as poundage 70 Old start with “while” DOWN 1 Kentucky sports legend 2 Airplane’s wake 3 Not excessive 4 ___ out a victory (barely won) 5 Club over a king

6 Modified handkerchief 7 Reverse an action 8 Crystal-ballers 9 Painter Max 10 Farming tool 11 Polished and suave 12 Viewed as terrifying 13 Lobbies 18 Sibilant “Ahem” 19 Made occur 23 Tide’s weak action 25 Water vessels 27 Circular staircase part 30 Invite through the door 33 Group’s tenets 35 Largest city of Yemen 37 Tank type 38 More than just voted for 39 Military help from up high 40 One-page ads 44 Gotham letters 45 Ballroom floor marks 46 Noisy disturbance 47 Second viewing

9 Not quite puree 4 52 Common balm ingredients 53 Kind of secret fund 58 Old World language 60 Half gainer, e.g.

62 Drain-opening liquid 63 Bonnet center?

64 Decay Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

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Rise up: Female voices take center stage at Grammys

By Mesfin Fekadu

FEMALE musicians who not only write their own lyrics but also produce their songs and albums too are taking center stage at the 2019 Grammy Awards.

Janelle Monae (from left), Kacey Musgraves, and H.E.R. are among the female musicians who scored multiple Grammy nominations. AP

The Associated Press

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EW YORK—After being nearly muted at this year’s ceremony, the 2019 Grammys are shaping up to be the year of the woman, with powerful female voices representing the majority in two of the top categories.

Kacey Musgraves, H.E.R. and Janelle Monae, performers who play instruments, write or cowrite all of their songs and are also listed as producers on their projects, earned nominations for the coveted album of the year.

They are joined by singer-songwriterinstrumentalist Brandi Carlile, whose recent album is critically acclaimed and scored nominations in the big three categories, and Cardi B—a former stripper, social-media darling and reality star who has become a pop culture sensation now competing for both album and record of the year.

Nominees for album of the year at the 2018 Grammys only included one woman—Lorde—and she was not given a performing slot on the show.

The only woman to win a solo award during the televised broadcast was best new artist winner Alessia Cara. But this year nominees in the top 4 categories expanded from five to eight, and in album of the year, five are powerful female acts.

“I love being in the company of genius women and I think that every woman that is nominated has contributed so much excellent work and heartfelt work and truthful work this year, and it’s just deserving,” Monae said in an interview with The Associated Press after Friday’s nominations were announced.

Six of the eight best new artist nominees are women, including H.E.R. Monae gave a powerful speech at the 2018 Grammys ahead of Kesha’s emotional and striking performance celebrating sisterhood and women’s rights. Monae said back then she was hoping to see the upcoming Grammys make a change.

“This is what I envisioned. This is

what I imagined. I imagined us having a stronger presence this year,” she said.

“I’m so proud of them and I can’t wait to see them at the Grammys and celebrate them and let them know that they have my support. Win or lose, we are stronger together and it’s incredible to see women who are so in control of their narrative.”

Dirty Computer, Monae’s third fulllength album, features the singer and guitarist working behind-the-scenes to craft the right songs and style: “I did produce and engineer a lot of this record.

I had a perspective and a vision that only I could sit down and execute.”

Other women nominated this year have multiple roles on their own albums.

Musgraves, also a guitarist, coproduced her entire album, Golden Hour, which earned four nominations, including best country album, best country solo performance (“Butterflies”) and best

country song (“Space Cowboy”).

“I knew I wanted to do something different than what I had been doing. I was craving the time to explore and just find that creative center again. Like when I first moved to Nashville and I just wrote every day for years and stumbled across songs that really meant something to me,” Musgraves, who worked on the album for a year and a half, told the AP on Friday. “I feel like I learned a lot about myself in making this record and I feel like I got to the heart of my own matter more so than I ever have.”

This year’s nominees mark a departure from the Grammys held earlier this year, where Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow was criticized when he said women need to “step up” when asked about the lack of women in the top categories. He later acknowledged that it was a “poor choice of words,” and it forced the academy to launch a new task force

focused on inclusion and diversity.

Kendrick Lamar and Drake are the top Grammy contenders for the 2019 show, earning eight and seven nominations apiece, respectively. They both are nominated in the album, record and song of the year categories.

But they are in competition with some top-notch female acts, including Lady Gaga, SZA, Maren Morris, Ella Mai and Carlile, nominees in either song or record of the year, or in both.

The singer H.E.R., who earned five nominations, is the only best new artist contender to receive an album of the year nomination. In best new artist, she’s one of six women nominated for the prize, along with Bebe Rexha, Dua Lipa, Margo Price, Chloe x Halle and Jorja Smith.

H.E.R. not only cowrote and coproduced each song on her self-titled album, she also plays guitar and piano.

‘Avengers 4’ gets a title, trailer and new release date LOS ANGELES—The fourth Avengers movie finally has a title. Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Co. said on Friday that the highly anticipated, and closely guarded, conclusion to the Infinity War saga will be called Avengers: Endgame.

The studios also released the first trailer for the film, in which Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow character explains that Thanos really did erase half

CHRIS EVANS as Captain America in Avengers: Endgame

the population. Avengers: Infinity War ended on that cliff-hanger as many of Marvel’s superheroes dissolved into the air. It went on to become the highest grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with over $2 billion in ticket sales.

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo Avengers: Endgame will also now debut in North American theaters a week earlier on April 26, 2019. AP

Sean Penn working on documentary on Saudi writer’s death ANKARA, Turkey—A Turkish official says Sean Penn is in Turkey working on a documentary about the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkey’s president, tells The Associated Press on Thursday that the two-time

Oscar winner interviewed him in Ankara as part of his “preliminary preparations” for the documentary before leaving for Istanbul where he was due to meet with Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée.

The Washington Post columnist who was critical of the Saudi crown prince was killed by Saudi agents on

October 2 after arriving to handle routine paperwork.

Aktay, who was a friend of Khashoggi’s, was the first to alert authorities that the journalist had disappeared inside the consulate.

Turkish media showed Penn filming in front of the consulate building on Wednesday. AP

‘Forever’ redefined in the family film ‘Three Words to Forever’

RICHARD GOMEZ, Sharon Cuneta and Kathryn Bernardo star in Three Words to Forever.

“That’s inspirational for other young women. Like, ‘You can do it. You can be a producer. You can play an instrument,’” she said on Friday. “I had to work twice as hard. I had to earn my respect as a musician growing up as a little girl because you don’t expect a little black girl to pick up the electric guitar. So, to be in that position where I can tell other little girls, ‘You can do this too’—it’s special.”

Monae, who scored a best music video nomination for “PYNK”—which she shares with director Emma Westenberg and producer Whitney Jackson—recalls filming the video for the song celebrating womanhood.

“There were so many women on set that day and it was magical. We were uplifting each other and telling each other how much we loved each other and just celebrating all that we are,” she said. “I’ll never forget that.”

THIS month, TFC at the Movies will pull at your heartstrings as it screens globally the family film Three Words to Forever, which stars Sharon Cuneta, Richard Gomez and Kathryn Bernardo. It began screening globally on December 6.

The film tells the story of three generations of couples in the family: Cristy and Rick (Cuneta and Gomez), married for 25 years but are about to end their marriage; Tin and Kyle (Bernardo and Tommy Esguerra), newly engaged couple who are figuring out their soon-to-be-married life; and Tinay and Cito (Liza Lorena and Freddie Web) who are to renew their vows for their 55th wedding anniversary but will be faced with their own marriage issues.

Part of the 25th anniversary of ABS-CBN Films Star Cinema, the film serves as the reunion project of Cuneta and

Gomez, and Bernardo’s first major project away from her loveteam partner Daniel Padilla.

It is under the helm of director Cathy Garcia-Molina and written by Vanessa Valdez, Ana Karenina Ramos and Kiko Abrillo.

With the conflicts ahead of them, will Cristy and Rick, Tin and Kyle, and Tinay and Cito be able to find a happy resolution to make it to forever?

After opening in various territories in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Three Words to Forever opens on December 13 in Australia and New Zealand; December 16 in Oslo, Norway, Espoo, Finland, Messina, Italy, Paris, France and Taiwan; and December 23 in Nicosia, Cyprus. More information is available at emea.kapamilya.com.

MICHAEL CAINE in My Generation

Final screening of ‘My Generation’, ‘Amy’ at Cine Europa 21 THE British Council’s participation in the Cine Europa European Film Festival in the Philippines this year brings two British films: My Generation (2017) by David Batty and Amy (2015) by Asif Kapadia. These two inspiring documentaries highlight the diversity of British society. Many artists from the United Kingdom come from somewhere else, yet have made the UK their home. Their artistry, imagination and creativity have contributed to new and groundbreaking ideas that have resonated with people throughout the world.

This month, Cine Europa 21 runs until December 16 at the newly opened theaters of Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong. My Generation will be shown on December 11 at 1:25 pm, and Amy will be shown on December 14 at 12:30 pm. Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

LA Film Critics name ‘Roma’ best film of the year

By Jake Coyle

The Associated Press NEW YORK—The Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday named Alfonso Cuaron’s deeply personal drama Roma best film of the year, adding to the acclaimed film’s steadily mounting honors. Cuaron’s black-and-white film, a Netflix release, has been cleaning up many of the top prizes of awards season. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and, likewise, topped the New York Film Critics

Circle. Roma is widely expected to land Netflix its first bestpicture nomination at the Academy Awards.

The Los Angeles critics, which announced their awards on Twitter, also awarded best cinematography to Cuaron. But it notably deviated from the Roma drumbeat in the directing category. Instead, Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone) was named best director for her off-the-grid father-daughter drama Leave No Trace.

Critics groups can influence the larger Oscars race, which has thus far struggled to elevate a likely female filmmaker

contender, a sore point for some considering the wealth of options (including Chloe Zhao for The Rider and Marielle Heller for Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and the historic male dominance of the category. On Thursday, the Golden Globes named an all-male field of directing nominees for the fourth time in a row, a record that has drawn increasing criticism.

The LA critics named Olivia Colman (The Favourite) best actress and Ethan Hawke (First Reformed) best actor. Hawke was also the New York critics’ choice and the winner at last month’s Gotham Film Awards.

Best supporting actor went to Steven Yeun for Lee Chang-dong’s existential thriller Burning, which was also the group’s runner-up for best film. Taking best supporting actress was Regina King for Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk.

The critics also named Sandi Tan’s Shirkers best documentary, the upcoming comic-book adaptation Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse best animated film, and Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s script to Can You Ever Forgive Me? best screenplay. Other winners

included Nicholas Britell for his score to If Beale Street Could Talk, Hannah Beachler for the production design on Black Panther and Joshua Altman and Bing Liu for editing Minding the Gap, the documentary about friends in a small Rust Belt town in Illinois.

The critics will hand out their awards in a ceremony on January 12. They will also honor Japanese filmmaker and animator Hayao Miyazaki—cofounder of Studio Ghibli and the maker of animated classics like Howls Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro—with their career achievement award.

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Art

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Yousuf Karsh’s portraits evoke a subject’s inner beauty

ALBERT EINSTEIN

By Farah Nayeri

New York Times News Service

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OT everyone in Britain is familiar with the name Yousuf Karsh. Yet just about everyone in Britain has carried his most celebrated image around in his or her pocket, wallet or purse.

Karsh was a portrait photographer who in 1941 took what became the most famous picture of Prime Minister Winston Churchill: the one where he stands, hand on hip, glaring at the lens—and the one that appears on Britain’s 5-pound note. It was taken while Churchill was in Canada, during an improvised shoot.

“Churchill was chomping on a freshly lit cigar,” said Ann Shumard, senior curator of photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington. When asked to get rid of it, he obstinately refused. So “Karsh boldly stepped forward and plucked the cigar from Churchill’s mouth and took the picture,” she said. “And he always maintained that that stern expression, as Churchill glowers into the camera, was entirely the result of that snatching of the cigar.”

The classic image—which became “the way that we visualize Churchill,” as Shumard put it—catapulted Karsh to international fame and led him to take dozens more black-and-white portraits of newsmakers in the decades that followed.

Forty-eight of his portraits of American

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

personalities are on display through January 20 at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Florida in Coral Gables.

The 48 personalities are individuals who stood out in everything from politics and science to film, culture and business.

Many are highly familiar images, such as the one of a sweater-clad Albert Einstein, hands clasped over a tabletop; of actor Humphrey Bogart, posing with a burning cigarette; and of a smiling Eleanor Roosevelt, a pencil between her fingers.

The show was made possible by a gift of more than 100 photographic prints to the National Portrait Gallery from Karsh’s widow, Estrellita Karsh. Somewhat unusually, Shumard was invited to choose the prints herself from the collections of the Karsh estate, she said.

The show has been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta (where it was paired with a portrait of the Carters by Karsh), and at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio. In early February, it opens at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York.

The museum earlier showed the portraits in its own galleries in Washington. They proved popular with visitors, so it was decided that they should be sent on tour.

“This is a form of portraiture that is unfamiliar now, in many instances,” Shumard said, explaining the appeal.

“When you’re taking a selfie, you’re definitely not getting the quality of a studio portrait.”

The Karsh shots are also “friendly pictures. They’re not ‘gotcha,’ they’re

JOHN F. KENNEDY

not paparazzi: They’re respectful and engaging,” she added. “We have many opportunities to see edgier work in the world. I also think there’s a place for something at the other end of the spectrum.”

Kim Sajet, the National Portrait Gallery’s director since 2013, said the museum was putting on touring exhibitions more systematically because “it ties into the strategic direction that we want to be in, which is really to put the ‘national’ into the ‘National Portrait Gallery.’” She said the portrait gallery had so far not been widely known and was occasionally confused with its namesake in London, so “we’d like to treat the country as our community, and it’s really important for us to get out there.”

Karsh was born in 1908 in the Armenian town of Mardin—then part of the Ottoman Empire, now part of Turkey. He experienced “some of the worst ethnic cleansing” as a child, according to Shumard, and in 1922, escaped with his family on foot to Aleppo, Syria. Two years later, he joined his uncle, a photographer named George Nakashian, in Quebec and started learning the discipline from him.

He set up his own studio in Canada in 1931 and became a photojournalist, working regularly with the Canadian government.

And that’s how the Churchill photo opportunity came up.

Because of his harrowing childhood, Karsh “could have felt that human beings were, at their core, very evil people to have been responsible for what he had experienced,” Shumard said. Instead, he

‘SHADES OF GREEN’ RAUL H. LEBAJO presents his recent works in Shades of Green at the ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum.

An exhibition that’s one year in the making, the show features a fresh view into the phantasmagorias and fantastical worlds fashioned by the prolific mind and dynamic brushwork of one of the most respected masters of his generation.

Drawing inspiration from organic forms that embellish both his artistic career and his life beyond the canvas, Lebajo grants his viewers a glimpse of otherworldly creatures and mystical realms in his latest offering. Lush foliage drips from caged trellises, form a spherical bouquet, or enmesh themselves in tufts of tall grass and blooms.

Sprouting, growing and surrounding

‘Ordo Ab Chao’ group exhibit SILVERLENS presents one of its two concluding shows of the year, Ordo Ab Chao, a three-woman exhibition by Yasmin Sison, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo and Pam Yan Santos.

Invited by Elaine Navas, who is holding a solo exhibition simultaneously, it marks the first time these three artists are featured together in a Silverlens exhibition. Both Ramilo and Sison have held solo exhibitions in the gallery, The Domestic Life of Pictures (Sison, 2012) and Construct

(Quisumbing Ramilo, 2013). This is the first time for Pam Yan Santos to show at the gallery.

The exhibit features what the trio have in common— drawing out personal experiences to craft new meanings.

It welcomes back Ramilo’s sensitive approach to material and site specificity, the recurrence of childhood elements in Sison’s works, and presents Yan Santos’ multilayered pieces.

Ordo Ab Chao (a Latin expression for “order

determined “to really bring out what he always described as people’s inner power or their beauty. Being a kind, generous spirit was his answer to the evil that he had seen.”

Karsh portraits were (with the exception of that very spontaneous Churchill shot) not spur-of-the-moment affairs. The photographer would spend time talking to the subjects beforehand and do research on them. He had sophisticated lighting in his studio to add contrast and drama to the shot. His photographs often look staged; artist Georgia O’Keeffe, for instance, is pictured sitting under a pair of antlers, a frequent motif in her painting.

Sajet—whose museum has drawn throngs of visitors with the unveiling last year of paintings of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama—said the portrait gallery aimed to think about portraiture differently and ensure that what was long “a very elitist art form” would be inclusive by portraying the widest possible range of living people and by showing contemporary art.

Although Karsh died in 2002 in Boston, where he had moved late in his life, and took pictures of long-gone personalities, he resonates with younger audiences who are curious to know, for instance, what Einstein looked like, she said.

“Portraiture is always contemporary, even if it was done back in the 4th century B.C. on a fish platter,” because as the viewer, “you’re bringing the moment to it, with all your baggage,” she said. “You the visitor are completing the picture.”

a motley cast of characters with sprigs and boughs growing out of their heads, sporting leafy spectacles, looking through brambles, or frolicking in fairy forests, vines and swirls of outlandish plant life rooting them on canvas, the artist creates new life forms undocumented in all known botanical tomes.

His fruits are voluptuous and heavy, laden with fertile meaning and promise.

His flowers have worlds built in to their centers, with life radiating through.

Birds, butterflies and worms take on different forms noble, unfamiliar and unclassifiable. An all-knowing figure confronts head-on, his own features resembling strange spacecraft shapes.

Lebajo in Shades of Green introduces a secret menagerie of reinvented beings, proving the abundance of his

passion for paint and color, and the boundlessness of his art. Exuberance pour out of his vibrant hues as his new creations germinate with efflorescence and the promise of existence sprightlier than ours.

Shades of Green is presented by Art Farm, White Walls Gallery, Dreamnaxis Photography and Carlo Rossi, with media partners Experience Travel & Living, BusinessMirror, Modedevi and Philippines Graphic.

ArtistSpace is at the ground level of the Ayala Museum Annex, Makati Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Greenbelt Park, Makati City. The gallery is open daily from 10 am to 7 pm. The exhibit is on view until December 19 and entrance is free to the public. Kaye Oyek | Photo by Nazarene Castillo.

out of chaos” or “order from disorder”) explores the possibilities of the creative process while in the state of constant disarray. Chaos termed in physical and mental senses may initially be seen as hindrances, are here it is recast into fuel and material for their works.

Acts of gathering and accumulating things are deeply ingrained into the artists’ quotidian lives. These are then incorporated into varying forms into the pieces that are produced. Layers upon layers of seemingly mismatched objects and imagery meld together to create abstracted objects, collages, installations and figurations as a manner of making sense that is rooted in

their own understanding of how things function.

This transition from collected raw materials to actual work poses an evident cycle: a constant push and pull where the production process becomes meditation, refuge and catharsis—a breathing space, an act of lifting one’s head out of the water. For the three artists, the art process turns into repeated attempts geared toward order while at the same time finding redemption in the clutter.

Ordo Ab Chao is on view until December 22, alongside Painting Palettes/Palette Paintings II by Elaine Navas at Silverlens, 2263 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City.

SIR Winston Churchill

INSTALLATION ART PIONEER AT THE CCP THE Cultural Center of the Philippines presents its last venue grant exhibition for 2018, titled Continuum / The art of Alan Rivera / A reconstruction of memories, the first retrospective exhibition of the late artist.

Most of the works of Rivera are installations—conceptual, time and space-related, thus in effect theories and philosophies culled from his psychosociocultural past which he struggled to externalize and elevate into artforms for most of his lifetime. Rivera may have succeeded in some art pieces, but there are still more desiring for expression or interpretation from other artists, students, the critical public and plain viewers.

Alan Rivera (1941-2015) was born in Cebu City, Philippines. He studied at the University of the Philippines, architecture at the University of anto Tomas and industrial design in Mapua University.

Rivera joined his first group exhibition in 1966 and had his first solo exhibition in the CCP Small Gallery in 1972. Other solo exhibitions followed in Luz Gallery, Alliance Francaise Manila, the Northern Territory University Art Gallery (Australia), Ayala Museum, Museo Iloilo Gallery and The Drawing Room, among others. His work was shown in exhibitions held in the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and the US. He was also known as cofounder of the informal artist group Shop 6 in the 1970s.

Commendation of Rivera’s practice include the CCP 13 Artists in 1972, an Asian Cultural Council grant in 1994-1995, the Art Association of the Philippines Competition in 2000, and residencies in the Samba Likhaan Artist’s Village in Quezon City, and in Perth and Darwin, Australia. Rivera was a multifaceted artist who expressed himself through drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, installation, performance, writing, photography and film.

The retrospective exhibit can be viewed until February 3, 2019, at the CCP’s Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo (Small Gallery), Pasilyo Victorio Edades (4F Hallway Gallery) and 4th floor Atrium. Viewing hours are from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm, or until 10 pm on nights with evening performances in the CCP Little Theater.