BusinessMIrror December 24, 2018

JAN-OCT SUBSIDIES FROM NATL GOVT TO STATE FIRMS TOP P126B–TREASURY

By Cai U. Ordinario

F HOSPITAL staff at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City attend to patients in this 2017 file photo.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury, the government extended the most subsidies to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. at P50.19 billion, in the January-to-October 2018 period. NONOY LACZA

DEPT. OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

2018 BANTOG DATA MEDIA AWARDS CHAMPION

@caiordinario

I L I PI NO t a x p ay e r s s p e nt P126.39 billion in subsidies for various government institutions, including government corporations, in the January-to-October period this year, according to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).

BTr data showed the subsidies extended to public agencies and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) are already 96.41 percent of the total subsidies extended by the national government in 2017

worth P131.09 billion.

In October, total subsidies reached P1.55 billion, which is a 92.08-percent decline from September’s P19.58 billion. Subsidies extended in September were the second highest for 2018.

The highest subsidy level granted by the national government in 2018 was in March at P35.24 billion, followed

by July at P32.47 billion.

The lowest subsidy granted for the year was in January at only P922 million.

In October, the public institution that received the highest subsidies

were the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) at P5.3 billion, followed by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) at P4.95 billion and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) at P4.83 billion.

Those that received the least subsidies were the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (ZCSeza) and the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) at P4 million each followed by the Philippine News Agency People’s Television Network Inc. (PTNI) at P7 million.

See “Subsidies,” A8

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

www.businessmirror.com.ph

n

Monday, December 24, 2018 Vol. 14 No. 75

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@alyasjah

NVESTMENTS approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) for the whole of 2018 ballooned to P907.2 billion, surpassing last year’s all-time mark and the agency’s target figures.

The BOI over the weekend said it capped the year with yet another record-breaking investment approval level. Pledges to the agency this year accelerated 47.1 percent to P907.2 billion, from the P616.8 billion recorded last year.

The figure was also way beyond the BOI’s annual target of P680 billion. The surge in investments was largely pumped by fresh projects in the manufacturing sector, which rose more than fourfold to P409.3 billion, from P96 billion last year.

“More important than the record-breaking investment level is the strategic importance of these approved projects. This will result in industrial empowerment, particularly with the upstream, heavy industrial projects that will allow

₧409.3B Worth of fresh projects in manufacturing, accounting for nearly half of all BOI-approved investments for the year, and representing a fourfold increase from P96 billion last year

us to expand our capability to manufacture finished goods currently not produced in the country,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez pointed out.

Lopez added investments in key logistics, infrastructure and power projects, including liquefied natural gas terminals, will improve the country’s local industrial production base. He asserted it will also

raise the level of competitiveness of domestic industries and disperse growth to the regions.

“Equally significant is the positive effect of these projects in addressing the problem of widening trade deficit. As the country continues to grow, demand for industrial products increases. Currently, for certain key categories, demand is mainly met through imports. The agency firmly believes that the best trade strategy is a robust industrial development policy,” Lopez argued.

Investments in transportation and storage rose 628 percent to P129.6 billion, from P17.8 billion last year. Commitments in water and sewerage also surged a whopping 1,498 percent to P14.3 billion, from the previous year’s P894.4 million.

See “BOI,” A2

‘Adding MVUC billions to natl budget eases pressure of taxation’

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HE decision to abolish the Road Board and include some P45 billion in collections from the motor vehicle users’ charge (MVUC) in the national budget is timely, as it eases the burden to raise more taxes, Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said on Sunday.

This, as senators—who had earlier insisted that the House of Representatives bill abolishing the board, which they adopted and backed despite the congressmen’s belated withdrawal of the same —signaled support for a separate inquiry into alleged misuse of

Continued on A2

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 53.1730

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

T

HE Philippine economy will have to work harder to get an upgrade from one of the major credit watchers in the world, as cracks in the economy linger behind its strong numbers.

Details of Fitch Ratings’s recent assessment of Philippine economic dynamics showed that the international ratings agency gave the country’s “BBB” rating a “stable” outlook as the positive developments in the economy squarely outweigh some of the Philippines’s unimproved metrics.

A stable outlook means there is little possibility of a change in the rating—whether for an upgrade or a downgrade—in the next 12 to 18 months.

“The ratings on the Philippines balance favorable growth prospects, lower government debt and a net external creditor position against lower per-capita income levels, a weaker business environment and lower standards of governance compared with its rating category peers,” Fitch said.

THE ratings agency said the Philippines’s growth prospects remain favorable, suppor ted by strong domestic demand and increasing infrastructure investment.

“The Road Board is dead and there is nothing the House of Representatives can do to revive it.... No law is needed to abolish the Road Board. It is already dead.”—Drilon

billions of MVUC funds.

The transfer of funds to the general appropriations—where they can be examined line by line to prevent anomalies—should not end the matter, the senators added. There is a fiscal duty to find out where the P90 billion earlier flagged by the Commission on

‘Stable’ Fitch tag for PHL bares cracks in economy

Strong growth prospects but low per-capita income

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR

P25.00 nationwide | 5 sections 24 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

BOI-okayed investments up 47% on manufacturing projects

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

2017 EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

See “Fitch,” A8

‘LECHON’ SEASON Roasted pigs are lined up outside a popular lechon maker in Manila over the weekend, ready to be snapped up by families and groups using the iconic Filipino fiesta staple as the centerpiece of their holiday feast. Days before Christmas, the price range of lechon began rising, now fetching anywhere from P5,000 to P15,000 depending on the size. NONIE REYES

The ratings on the Philippines balance favorable growth prospects, lower government debt and a net external creditor position against lower per-capita income levels, a weaker business environment and lower standards of governance compared with its rating category peers.”—Fitch

n JAPAN 0.4781 n UK 67.3596 n HK 6.7908 n CHINA 7.7247 n SINGAPORE 38.7954 n AUSTRALIA 37.8379 n EU 60.9416 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.1711

Source: BSP (21 December 2018 )

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, December 24, 2018

DOTr forms TWG to study legal poser in Angkas case

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

HE chief of the transportation department has ordered the creation of a technical working group (TWG) to review the possibility of allowing motorcycles to operate as public transport vehicles, pending amendments to the law prohibiting such and a stay order issued by the Supreme Court.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade explained that his agency has heard the public clamor for the resumption of the operations of Angkas, a motorcycle-hailing app; hence, he ordered the creation of an ad hoc group of experts to discuss the matter.

It will be composed of representatives from the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Senate, House of Representatives, commuter welfare

groups, road safety advocates, motorcycle manufacturers, motorcycle organizations and law schools.

“The law is the law, and the Executive will not be the first to break it. But we at the DOTr know how to listen. So even if the SC has yet to issue a final ruling, we are already forming a TWG to study the prospect of motorcycles serving as public transportation,” Tugade said.

Under Republic Act 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code,two-wheeled vehicles are banned from being used as public-utility vehicles (PUVs) or common carriers.

The ad hoc group will discuss, among others, the appropriate standards and capacities of a mo-

“The law is the law, and the Executive will not be the first to break it. But we at the DOTr know how to listen. So even if the SC has yet to issue a final ruling, we are already forming a TWG to study the prospect of motorcycles serving as public transportation.”—Tugade

torcycle and its driver for public transportation service.

Tugade said these will include the specifications of the type of motorcycle that can be granted a franchise, the minimum cubic centimeter capacity of motor, travel speed of motorcycle taxis, franchise route, seat and helmet requirements, and training requirements for motorcycle bikers looking to register as PUV drivers.

“We understand that a number of Filipinos patronize motorcycles as public transport, but we should remember that there is a law against this, and the Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order,” he noted.

The High Court earlier issued a stay order blocking enforcement of a Mandaluyong City court’s decision that favored the continued operations of Angkas. This SC decision allowed transport regulators to implement a massive crackdown

on erring motorcycle-for-hire drivers, but the campaign was greeted by a massive outcry from the commuting public—weary of traffic and of having to jostle for precious seats on a slow ride home on public buses and jeepneys.

“Let us talk about what solutions can be reached. What should be the guidelines? Will all kinds of motorcycles be allowed? What is the minimum requirement? Will motorcycle taxis be allowed on all roads, or should we limit them to secondary roads, or areas plied less by bigger vehicles such as buses or trucks?” Tugade said.

Neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia allow the use of motorcycles for public transport.

In Jakarta, GoJek stands as the largest motorcycle-hailing app, a very popular means of getting a ride in the congestion-ridden capital.

“Another aspect is safety. How do we ensure the safety of the passengers? Should the motorcycle taxi crash while a passenger is on board, who will shoulder all expenses? If the driver himself is injured or dies, what is the motorcycle owner’s accountability?

All these should be thoroughly studied,” Tugade said. Company spokesmen were not available for comment as of press time; however, they earlier bannered Angkas’s safety record of 99.99 percent over the last year and a half.

‘Adding MVUC billions to natl budget eases pressure of taxation’ Continued from A1

Audit (COA) as having been misused, actually ended.

Asked if he will support an inquiry to look deeper into Road Board anomalies in aid of remedial legislation to prevent similar irregularities, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito told the BusinessMirror: “Of course! Pera ng taumbayan ’yan [That’s the people’s money]! I would support an investigation not to be vindictive, but so it would become a deterrent and a warning not to waste taxpayers’ money.”

Ejercito added, “Managot ang naglustay ng pondo ng bayan!

Dapat talaga may makulong nang magtanda at matakot. Problema sa atin, walang nakukulong, madalas nakakalusot, kaya wala rin takot na magnakaw sa kaban ng bayan [Those who plundered public funds should go to prison. The culprits should be jailed to serve as a deterrent. The problem here is that no one gets jailed, so the thieves are not scared to steal the people’s money].

For his part, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto said of a separate inquiry, “Yes, I would. Although I have a good idea of what happened. Off-budget items are more prone to corruption.” “Yes,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon, who earlier declared the Road Board “dead,” as the House insisted on keeping it alive, said in reply to the BusinessMirror’s query.

Senate President Sotto said, however, that while a separate legislative inquiry would be good basis for remedial legislation, “It’s better if COA will forward their

BOI. . .

Continued from A1

Investment pledges in the hospitality sector also grew 253 percent to P39.9 billion, from P11.3 billion last year. On the other hand, applied investments in the retail sector expanded threefold to P8.1 billion from P2.7

findings to the Ombudsman” so the suspected culprits can be investigated.

‘All’s well that ends well’

ALSO on Sunday, Sotto said that including the P45 billion in MVUC funds in the GAA eases the pressure to raise new taxes. “All’s well that ends well,” Sotto added in a separate radio interview, saying he learned that House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. had issued a statement on Sunday morning that “they’ll transmit their version” to the President so the Road Board abolition can be signed into law.

The Senate chief wondered aloud how the House leaders could have misinterpreted President Duterte’s wishes on the Board’s fate when, in fact, he said, “as early as January and February [2018], President Duterte had been telling me that [he wanted the Board abolished because of the irregularities].” Duterte also conveyed the same to then-Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez and then Majority Leader Rodolfo C. Fariñas Sr., Sotto added. “That’s why Senator [Manny] Pacquiao filed a bill abolishing it.”

The Senate subsequently decided to shelve the Pacquiao bill and simply adopt the House’s version of the abolition bill, in order to skip having to convene a bicameral conference committee and thus save time.

However, he recalled, the senators were stunned when the House —under the new leadership of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who assumed office in July—recalled its abolition bill and said it did not want the Board abolished,

billion in the previous year.

Overall, investments from Filipino firms surged 35 percent to P803.2 billion from last year’s P595 billion. Approved offshore pledges jumped 379 percent to P104 billion, from the previous year’s P21.7 billion.

President Duterte’s diplomatic move to establish warmer ties with China is also apparently bearing fruits in

after all.

Andaya said last week the signal to keep the Board came from Duterte himself, in a dinner a few weeks ago. However, Sotto said, Duterte had already affirmed just last Friday his early 2018 decision to scuttle the Board, and since this is also the lawmakers’ sense, then the Board should go, once and for all, and the MVUC funds integrated in the GAA.

Why Road Board is ‘dead’

IN a statement on Saturday, Drilon said, “The Road Board is dead and there is nothing the House of Representatives can do to revive it.”

Drilon, himself a former Senate President and Justice secretary, said, “No law is needed to abolish the Road Board. It is already dead.”

Even if the courts finally decide that the Road Board cannot be abolished if Arroyo does not sign, or endorse, the bill abolishing the Board, the agency is rendered inutile, Drilon stressed.

Drilon said it will only take for the members of the Board, upon the directive of the President, not to approve any project or authorize the release of funds, including the Board ’s maintenance and other operating expense (MOOE) budget.

This can be done because Congress, explained Drilon, delegated the power to appropriate the Road User’s Tax to the Road Board, majority of whom are Cabinet members, during Speaker Arroyo’s term as President.

“If the Road Board will not exercise that delegated authority,

terms of investments, as commitments from Beijing skyrocketed to P48.7 billion from P575.8 million last year. British Virgin Islands was next with P15.6 billion, Singapore with P13.6 billion, Indonesia with P7.5 billion and Malaysia with P2.9 billion.

Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo Jr. hinted the next objective could be

Congress cannot do anything,” Drilon said.

“That is how the system works: Congress authorizes, the President dispenses. It is an integral part of the check and balance in our system of government,” he added.

Moreover, Drilon said that in the 2019 budget, the Senate, consistent with its position that the Road Board should be abolished, can move that the Road Board be given a zero budget.

Last week, the Senate, upon Drilon’s motion, unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Office of the President to order the Road Board not to release funds from the MVUC, following the passage by both houses of Congress of the bill scuttling the Board.

Under the law, the funds should be earmarked solely and used exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of adequate and efficient traffic lights and road safety devices, as well as for air pollution control.

However, the COA over the past years has consistently flagged non-compliance in the utilization of the funds from the MVUC, Drilon noted.

From 2001 to May 2018, the total collection for MVUC reached P166.18 billion with total releases amounting to P136.87 billion.

“Congress has already decided to abolish the P133-billion Road Board; the President has made his position very clear that he is for its abolition. We must respect the legislative process and the decision of the President,” said Drilon.

hitting the P1-trillion mark next year.

“Given the epic surge in investments for 2018, it is but inevitable to aim for another historic milestone—the trillion mark next year. We are confident of hitting yet another growth in investment registrations next year with the impending entry of big-ticket projects as concrete fruits of the administration’s investment road shows,” Rodolfo said.

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No Filipinos affected by volcano-triggered tsunami in Indonesia

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N official at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Sunday said no Filipino has so far been affected by a volcanotriggered tsunami that hit Indonesian coasts on Saturday evening.

“The Philippine Embassy in Jakarta reported that, so far, none of the 220 members of the Filipino community in the area were among the fatalities or injured due to the tsunami,” DFA Executive Director Charmaine Aviquivil said in a report to the media.

The confirmation came from the National Disaster Management Authority, which reported that there is no Filipino national on their list of those affected.

Batocabe. . .

Continued from A8

Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) President Martin Romualdez said the country lost “another young, brilliant and outstanding public servant” with the killing of Batocabe.

“We condemn the killing of Congressman Batocabe and his security aide and demand swift justice,” he said.

Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie Kittilstvedt-Romualdez, the first nominee of Tingog Sinirangan party-list, said, “Bicolanos everywhere have lost a friend and an ally. I call on authorities to address this unforgivable, brazen and violent act immediately. Investigate and prosecute with speed and urgency.“ Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said Batocabe died in the line of duty and service, “He led us party-list lawmakers, as president of the Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc., by good example and championed the welfare of Bicolanos as leader of Ako Bicol Party-list.”

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate condemned the killing of Batocabe, saying, “This highlights the climate of impunity prevalent in our country now and we hope that the perperator of this crime is brought to justice at the soonest time possible.”

Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano said the recent killing of a government official raises yet again the atmosphere of violence and impunity in the society now. “ I call on the authorities to conduct a swift and extensive investi-

Lacson. . .

Continued from A8

Over the weekend, Lacson bared plans to call a public hearing on recent killings with impunity, in January 2019, noting that many of the cases involved prominent personalities.

Aside from Batocabe, Talaid and Halili, the victims also included: General Tinio (Nueva Ecija) Mayor Ferdinand Bote, who was shot dead inside his vehicle in an ambush (July 3); radio anchor Joey Llana, gunned down by men with automatic firearms in Daraga, Albay, while on his way to work (July 20); Lawyer Rafael Atotubo, 62, gunned down in Bacolod City by motorcycle-riding assailants (August 24); former barangay councilor Pepe Baccay, gunned down in Tumauini town in Isabela province (August 25); Ricardo Aparicio, husband of Clarin (Bohol) Vice Mayor Velden Aparicio (September 2); Ronda (Cebu) Mayor Mariano Blanco III, killed gangland-style by armed men who barged into his office while he was sleeping there (September 5); Sudipen, La Union Mayor Alexander Buquing, gunned down in Bangar town by assailants riding a pickup truck (October 1); Human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos Jr., 56, a founding member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, shot dead in front of a convenience store in Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental (November 6); Balaoan (La Union) Vice Mayor Alfred Concepcion died along

The Embassy was also able to communicate with a member of the Filipino community in Banten, who said that the tide did not hit their area.

As of this posting, the agency continues to monitor the situation in the Southeast Asian nation, where the tsunami, triggered by the eruption of Mount Krakatoa, hit Lampung and Banten.

News reports quoting the Indonesian disaster agency said the death toll has now risen to 168, with around 745 injured and 30 missing.

The DFA, for its part, expressed condolences and offered sympathies to Indonesia and bereaved families of the victims. PNA

gation on this matter. The perpetrators must be apprehended and the motive of this remorseless act should be determined,” he said.

Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said the killings of Batocabe and his police escort in broad daylight and in full view of the public makes such an act reprehensible. “ I was in Daraga last December 9 for a conference and there was no inkling from Cong. Rodel that he was in harm’s way when we talked briefly,” he said.

“He was considered the leading mayoral candidate in a three-way fight, being the only pureblood Daraganon. Daraga is known as a peaceful and bustling town right beside Legazpi City and majestic Mayon Volcano,” Villarin added.

NBI steps in

MEANWHILE, Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra has directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to step into the ongoing investigation in connection with the killing of Batocabe and his security aide.

In a statement, Guevarra said the NBI, through its field operatives, will assist the Philippine National Police in determining the motive behind the killing and in identifying its perpetrators.

“Initial investigation by the NBI agents suggests that the attack was likely politically motivated,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.“A thorough inspection of the crime scene will be conducted soon in coordination with the PNP,” the DOJ added.

A Special Investigation Task Force Group has been created

by PNP Chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde. With Joel R. San Juan with aide Michael Ulep, in an ambush (November 14). His daughter, Balaoan Mayor Aleli Concepcion, survived the ambush; former Bayambang, Pangasinan Councilor Levin Uy, who was shot dead while jogging (November 16); businessman Dominic Sytin, gunned down outside a hotel in Subic Bay Freeport (November 28); Richard Santillan, former aide of former Biliran Rep. Glenn Chong, who was gunned down in an alleged December 10 shootout (Lacson noted police said he was killed in a shoot-out in Cainta but the Public Attorney’s Office claimed he was tortured before being killed); Senior Inspector Porferio Gabuya Jr., gunned down by motorcycle-riding assailants in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental (December 19). Gabuya was deputy chief of police for operations of the Guihulngan City police. On December 21, an ambush in Talisay City in Negros Occidental left lawyer Erfe del Castillo wounded and her companion-driver, former policeman Efren Palmares, dead, Lacson added.

“When persons in authority are now being killed in a brazen manner—in broad daylight and in full public view— that is cause for concern. If these personalities who have security detail are not safe, what more the ordinary Filipino?”the senator said. Lacson added that while the PNP deserves “at least the benefit of the doubt for now, trust cannot be one-way and the PNP must exert efforts to earn the public’s trust.”

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, December 24, 2018 A3

Happy workers are more productive–DOLE

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By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

TUDIES that will look into the feasibility of raising real wage rates, which have stagnated for over a decade despite the country’s robust economic growth, are now under way according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

The DOLE said this is part of the government’s ongoing efforts to improve labor productivity growth rate for all industries by increasing the purchasing power of Filipino workers.

“Happy workers produce more efficiently. If they are unhappy their productivity is low,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said in a previous press conference.

In the last 10 years, the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Decent Work Statistics showed labor productivity growth rate remained erratic—dipping to 0.4 percent in 2011 and 2016, then peaking to 8.4 percent last year.

The World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO) noted there was zero real wage growth during this period suggesting the country’s economic growth is non-inclusive especially for the “low-paid wage workers.”

The National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) confirmed this trend, which it attributed to the structure of the local industries, which are 90 percent comprised by microenterprises. It said these micro firms tend to have low pays and labor productivity.

Under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017 to 2022, the administration is targeting an annual growth rate of 3 to 4 percent for the industry sector, and 4 to 5 percent for the services sector.

Earlier this month, the DOLE’s NWPC submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) its proposed reforms to hike wage rates.

“If we are targeting a 2-percent increase in labor productivity [for all industries] under the PDP, then there must be a corresponding target for increases in average wage in the economy,” NWPC Executive Director Maria Criselda R. Sy told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

One of the commission’s major proposals, Sy said, is to strengthen the collective bargaining power of workers.

She said the NWPC has also recommended regular increases in the salary of government workers.

“The government is the largest employer. So possibly if you do that, the wages in the government will create a competitive environment for the private sector,” she said.

Sy said the commission also supports initiatives to review the current minimum-wage system under Republic 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act. “Secretary [Bello] instructed the commission to come up

Govt assures fuel-marking scheme rollout in early 2019

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

@caiordinario

HE government’s fuel-marking program may not be implemented

by February 2019 as previously announced, but an official of the Department of Finance (DOF) made an assurance that it will still be rolled out early next year.

In a statement, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said the implementation of the program has no definite date yet. “We’re not yet precise on the date. But early next year is the target. They have a marker already that they have prepared.”

In a recent Executive Committee (Execom) meeting, the DOF said Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III instructed newly appointed Bureau of Customs (BOC) Chief Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero to bring him up to speed on the fuel-marking program.

The BOC is the lead agency that will implement the fuel-marking program, which is mandated under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act. “I expect that the commissioner is fully briefed on that,” Dominguez said during the Execom meeting, which was the first attended by Guerrero in his new job as Customs commissioner.

Finance Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven said in his report to Dominguez that the master plan has been submitted by the government’s newly chosen provider, the joint venture of Switzerland-based Sicpa SA and SGS Philippines. The master plan is expected to set the fuel marking program in motion.

As the fuel marking provider, Sicpa SA and SGS Philippines are expected to provide a unique chemical marker capable of being embedded at a molecular level to petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel and kerosene. Their contract also covers services and equipment necessary to administer and inject the marker to the fuel and the administration of confirmatory tests, both in the field and in laboratories.

Joven said Sicpa SA and SGS Philippines need to submit this master plan in 30 days counting from the signing of the fuel-marking contract on October 30. In a statement issued in May, Chua said the government loses P27 billion to P44 billion in revenues due to oil smuggling.

However, the Asian Development Bank has pegged the annual losses P37.5 billion, while a study commissioned by the local oil industry estimated foregone revenues at a much higher P43.8 billion per year.

The Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis estimated that “smuggled gasoline accounts for an average of 23 percent of gasoline consumption from 2000 to 2006,” while “smuggled diesel accounts for an average of 6 percent.”

with the study...so we are going to have a third-party study the minimumwage determination experience of the NWPC,” Sy said.

“Essentially this will determine the effectiveness of the current system and what are the options that can be explored,” she added.

Labor groups have been pushing for the abolition of the NWPC and its regional wage boards, saying the commission failed to implement a “significant wage

hike” since its creation in 1989.

Sy said they are still waiting for the Neda’s feedback on the commission’s recommendations.

The Nation BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, December 24, 2018 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

www.businessmirror.com.ph

CA rules Antipolo killings as EJK, orders cops in ‘shoot-out’ charged

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By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has declared that the death of a drug suspect in Antipolo City during an alleged shoot-out with policemen two years ago was actually an extrajudicial killing, or EJK. Thus, the appellate court recommended the filing of criminal, administrative and civil cases against Police Inspector Aristone Dogwe and Police Officer 2 Mark Riel Canilon and still-to-be-identified members of the Antipolo City Police Station’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (ACPSAIDSOTF) and Provincial Special Operating Unit Team. These were believed to be behind the alleged buy-bust operation conducted on July 5, 2016, that resulted to the death of Joselito Gonzales, a driver.

The CA also issued a permanent protection order preventing Dogwe, Canilon, Senior Police Officer 1 (SPO1) Allen Glenn Cadag and the members of ACPS-AIDSOTF from entering within a radius of 1 kilometer from the residences and work addresses of Gonzales’s wife, Christina Macandog.

It held that the respondent policemen were responsible for the extralegal killing of Gonzales.

The CA also declared Valfrie Tabian, acting regional director of the Philippine National Police Regional Office 4A; Adriano Enong, officer in charge of Rizal PNP Provincial Office; Simnar Semacio Gran, Police Supt. and OIC of Antipolo City Police Station; and their successors in office accountable for Gonzales’s death.

The CA explained that the said police officials should be held accountable for Gonzales’s death for their failure “to exercise extreme care and caution” in ensuring that the police operation was conducted in com-

pliance with police procedures.

“It would seem then that it is quite easy for police officers to commit extralegal killing and get away with it since the superior police officers appear nonchalant as to such occurrences,” the CA said in a 38-page decision penned by Associate Justice Maria Elisa Sempio Diy. The decision stemmed from the petition for writ of amparo with application for temporary protection order and witness protection order filed before the Supreme Court by Gonzales’s widow Christina.

The SC remanded the petition to the CA for a hearing and resolution.

Gonzales claimed in her petition that she and her husband “were induced by respondent police officers to deal in drugs.”

However, in mid-2016, they decided to surrender and reform but, before they could do the same, Cadag and Canilon threatened to kill them. On July 5, 2016, Gonzales was reported killed during a buy-bust operation after he allegedly engaged policemen posing as buyers of shabu in a shoot-out near White Cross, Taktak, Antipolo.

Gonzales said because of the threat to her life, she was forced to go into hiding, leaving her child behind for fear that she will be killed next.

In granting the petition for the issuance of a writ of amparo, the CA pointed out that the pieces of evidence submitted by respondents failed to provide a clear picture of the events that transpired during the police operation.

Immigration stops human trafficking attempt at Naia

By Recto Mercene

A

@rectomercene

IRPORT immigration agents stopped nine Filipinos they suspected as victims of human trafficking who disguised themselves as tourists while attempting to leave for Seoul, South Korea, via Taipei.

Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said the passengers were about to board an AirAsia flight to Taipei over the weekend when they were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

The immigration bureau’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) said the passengers admitted they were actually destined for South Korea after they were illegally recruited to work as orange pickers in a plantation in Jeju Island.

Medina said the passengers initially claimed they were traveling as tourists to watch a Nanta acrobatic exhibition show in the said island.

“When asked, they could not explain and had no idea what the Nanta show is all about and their answers to questions by immigration officers were highly inconsistent,” Medina said. “When pressed on the actual purpose of their trip, they confessed that they were hired to work on a plantation with a promised monthly salary of P65,000.”

The victims, whose identities were not divulged due to a prohibition in the anti-trafficking law, were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for assistance and further investigation.

Naia Terminal 3 Travel Enforcement Chief Glen Comia observed that the apprehension occurred barely three days after the TCEU intercepted eight Filipino trafficking victims who were illegally recruited to work in Cyprus.

“It appears that only one syndicate was behind the recruitment of these victims,” Comia said. “This is a well-entrenched trafficking syndicate that operates in both Europe and Asia.”

As in the case of the Cyprus-bound victims, the Korea-bound passengers also did not know each other. They said they only met at an office in Ermita where they were briefed by recruiters before the trip.

The victims, who all hail from remote provinces, also told in writing how they lost their life savings due to the huge sums they

have to pay their recruiters.

Airport insiders said many would-be migrant workers resort to illegal means to go abroad to find work to avoid paying the fees required by regular recruitment agencies.

Called “recruitment fee,” the amount goes to the payment of various documents, including the Overseas Employment Certificate issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, “For a little less than P60,000 a would-be migrant worker could slip through the Naia with the connivance of some airport insiders,” a person familiar with the matter said.

Security measures

MEANWHILE, security measures implemented by the country’s aviation authorities have secured a satisfactory nod from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

“The ICAO was pleased to note the progress that [the Philippine government] has made to comply with the standards security and the security-related standards to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and toward the implementation of the critical elements of a State aviation security oversight system,” the ICAO said in a letter dated October to Office for Transportation Security (OTS) Administrator Arturo Evangelista.

The ICAO had furnished copies to the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) of its latest security audit findings. It said that the OTS and Miaa satisfactorily complied with ICAO standards; with some comments and suggestions on implementing the corrective action plan crafted by the said agencies.

Airport Manager Ed V. Monreal cited the new procedures for newly hired airport personnel that will include background check on their neighborhood. Monreal also noted the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency would also conduct a background check on those implementing security controls.

“Strict measures are being put into place in terms of personnel manning security checkpoints,” Monreal said, adding that in case of a delinquency report, the concerned personnel will be immediately pulled out from the line and will undergo retraining before being sent back on line.

Even in the investigation report and spot report provided by the respondents, there were no information with regard to the members of the buy-bust team, who acted as poseur-buyers and as to who among the police operatives were fired upon by Gonzales.

The CA also pointed out that Canilon attested that during the conduct of the sale, Gonzales allegedly suspected the buyers were police officers, drew and fired at the police officers.

“If such was the case, the exchange of bullets should have occurred at close range.

However, based on the sketch detail and measurement from SOCO [Scene of the Crime Operatives]…the body of Joselito lay out about 43.2 feet away from the three cartridge cases [that] presumably came from the firearms of the police operatives as Joselito allegedly used a revolver and its three catridge cases remained inside the revolver’s cylinder,” the CA noted.

“Couple these with the fact that according to the Medico Legal Report issued by the Rizal Provincial Crime Labortatory Office 4A…, Joselito was shot at his back; the possibility that Joselito did not fire upon the police officers and was instead running for his life is not entirely implausible,” the CA added.

The respondents, according to the CA, also failed to comply with the procedures under the PNP Criminal Investigation Manual to be observed before, during and after buybust operations. These include the submission of summary information of the target, special reports, surveillance report, contact meeting report and development report.

“In view of the foregoing, we are of the considered opinion that there is substantial evidence in this case to conclude, at the very least, that the legal safeguards in place had been breached by the members of the buybust team. Accordingly, such breach merits a finding that Joselito had been the subject of an extralegal killing,” the CA ruled.

Associate Justices Romeo F. Barza and Perpetua T. Atal-Pano concurred with the ruling.

Palace praises AdMU for dismissal of ‘bully’

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

M

ALACAÑANG lauded the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) for its swift action on dismissing the junior high school student involved in the bullying incident.

“After a thorough investigation that included listening to all parties involved, the decision of the administration is to impose the penalty of DISMISSAL [emphasis AdMU’s] on the student caught bullying another student in the comfort room of the school,” AdMU President Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin said.

“This means that he is no longer allowed to come back to the Ateneo,” Villarin was quoted in a statement issued on December 23 as saying.

“The Palace commends the school administration’s swift action on the case of this student.

We note, however, that the investigation has yet to be concluded as regards the rest of those involved,” Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in a statement issued over the weekend.

“While we respect AdMU’s academic freedom, we hope that it could finish the ongoing investigation the soonest and with regard to due process, in line with applicable jurisprudence on schools.”

Furthermore, the Palace also said that they are aware that several bullying incidents also go unpunished by schools.

“We hope that this occurrence will serve as a reminder that bullying is something that should never be tolerated nor condoned in any civilized institution. We thus urge all public and private educational institutions in the country to establish proper mechanisms to strictly monitor the activities of their students and ensure the strict implementation of Republic Act 10627, otherwise known as the anti-bullying law,” Panelo added.

This, as Malacanang also advised all parents and guardians to keep guiding their children and set a good example for them to emulate.

“We consider this incident as a lesson for us to encourage our children to be more open when it comes to expressing their concerns both inside and outside their schools,” he said.

With additional reports by Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Monday, December 24, 2018 A5

Mnuchin assures markets Trump won’t oust Powell

T

REASURY Secretary Steven Mnuchin moved to reassure financial markets that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell wouldn’t be ousted, after a report said President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly discussed firing the central bank chief in recent days.

Mnuchin said in a pair of tweets on Saturday evening that he’d spoken with the president about the matter, and quoted Trump saying he didn’t believe he had the authority to remove the central bank chief. It remains to be seen if jittery markets will be convinced.

Key lawmakers and market strategists spent Saturday urging Trump not to act against Powell. Mnuchin’s tweets followed a brief, less-definitive statement three hours earlier from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who said she wasn’t “aware” of “any plans” to remove Powell.

The White House had otherwise been silent for 18 hours since Bloomberg News reported the discussions.

“I never suggested firing Chairman Jay Powell, nor do I believe I have the right to do so,” Mnuchin quoted Trump as saying. He also tweeted that that the president said, “I totally disagree with Fed policy. I think the increasing of interest rates and the shrinking of the Fed portfolio is an absolute terrible thing to do at this time, especially in light of my major trade negotiations which are ongoing.”

Trump, a prolific tweeter, didn’t address Powell’s fate on Saturday.

Trump has discussed firing Powell many times in the past few days as his frustration with the central banker intensified following Wednesday’s interest rate increase and intensifying stock market losses, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg reported late Friday that advisers close to Trump aren’t convinced he would move against Powell, and are hoping the president’s anger will dissipate over the holidays. Some of Trump’s advisers have warned him that firing Powell would be disastrous.

‘Be very careful’

FOR MER Senate Bank ing Chairman Richard Shelby publicly cautioned Trump against the move on Saturday.

“I’d be very careful about doing that,” the Alabama Republican said. “The independence of the Fed is the foundation of our banking system.”

Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, said Powell “has done nothing to warrant being dismissed.”

Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement that “Given the Fed’s consensus on monetary policy, any effort to remove Powell would hit the trifecta: unlawful, ineffective, and damaging to the economy.”

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who also sits on the banking panel, urged Trump against trying to remove the Fed chief.

‘Rule of law’

“WHAT the President fails to understand is that monetary policy should be separate from politics,” Warner said in a statement. “Any action taken to dismantle the independence of the Fed would not only be inappropriate, it’s just another threat by this president against the institutions that protect our rule of law.”

Republican Representative Dennis Ross of Florida said many of his GOP colleagues are already disturbed by Defense Secretary James Mattis’s exit, and to now be worried about Powell only aggravates their concerns. “Whether it be defense or monetary policy, we want to see some stability,” he said.

A member of the House Financial Services Committee, Ross predicted the panel’s incoming Democratic chairwoman, Maxine Waters of California, would launch a “significant oversight investigation” if Trump ousted the Fed chairman.

Passed over Yellen

TRUMP named Powell, 65, to head the US central bank in late 2017, and he assumed office in February. In picking Powell, a former investment banker who’d been a member of the Fed board since 2012, Trump passed over for Janet Yellen for a second term.

Any attempt by Trump to push out Powell would have potentially devastating ripple effects across financial markets, undermining investors’ confidence in the central bank’s ability to shepherd the economy without political interference. It would come as major US stock indexes already down sharply

Tsunami set off by volcano sweeps Indonesia Sunda Strait; 168 dead

J

AKARTA, Indonesia—During a busy holiday weekend, a tsunami apparently caused by the eruption of an island volcano killed more than 160 people around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, sending a wall of water crashing ashore and sweeping away people attending a beach concert along with hundreds of houses including hotels, the government and witnesses said.

More than 700 people have been reported injured since the tsunami hit at 9:27 p.m. Saturday, the Disaster Management Agency said. At least 30 others are unaccounted for.

The disaster could have been caused by undersea landslides from the eruption of Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island formed over years from the nearby Krakatau volcano, scientists from Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

They also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon.

Footage posted on social media showed a pop band named “Seventeen” performing for employees from a local electric company under

a tent on a beach as dozens of people sat listening at tables covered in white cloths. As bright strobe lights flashed on stage, a child could be seen wandering through the crowd.

Then, as the second song was about to begin with the drummer pounding, the stage suddenly heaved forward, throwing the band and all their equipment into the audience.

The band released a statement saying their bass player and road manager were found dead, while three other band members and the wife of one of the performers remained missing. “The tide rose to the surface and dragged all the people on site,” it said. “Unfortunately, when the current receded our members are unable to save themselves while some did not find a place to hold on.”

Tourists were also affected during the long holiday weekend ahead of Christmas. Australia and New Zealand said they have no information their citizens were among the victims but were continuing to check. AP

for the year. The most recent trigger for selling has been the march to a partial federal shutdown that started on Saturday, tied to Trump’s hoped-for border wall with Mexico.

The benchmark S&P 500 index is down 9.6 percent for 2018 to date.

“Were he to try, markets would erupt,” said Nick Sargen, chief economist with Fort Washington Invest-

ment Advisors in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“It would be construed as a loss of the Fed’s independence, and the dollar would sell off along with stocks.”

It’s unclear how much legal authority the president has to fire Powell. The Federal Reserve Act says governors may be “removed for cause by the President.” Since the chairman is also a governor, that presumably

extends to him or her, but the rules around firing the leader are legally ambiguous, as Peter Conti-Brown of the University of Pennsylvania notes in his book on Fed independence.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, said in an interview the president hasn’t expressed to him an intent to move against Powell, but that if Trump were going to pursue that

course of action he would go to the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, for advice.

Giuliani said any decision on whether to remove Powell must take into account what the law allows, what impact such a move could have on markets, and the long-term value of having an independent c entral bank. Bloomberg News

A6

Monday, December 24, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Merry Christmas and TGYF

T

HE marking of the New Year is a time for looking forward. The traditional representation of moving from one year to another is an old, tired man being replaced by a new, healthy baby. We plan for and develop our positive aspirations for the coming 12 months, hopefully with optimism.

The celebration of Christmas may be a time for looking back and remembering. There may be bittersweet recollections of loved ones that we shared a year ago that are no longer with us. It is a time to sit with family and talk about all the things that happened during the year. Friends not seen since last Christmas tell about weddings, births and wakes.

Since last Christmas—on the economic front—major changes were made to the Philippine taxation system. This helped create a wave of other events, including a strong and continuing increase in prices and an equal increase in interest rates. Global crude oil prices went from “high” to “very high” and then back to relatively low in comparison.

Economic growth made a round trip after coming off the highest level in a year toward the end of 2017 to the lowest level in years during 2018.

Since last Christmas—on the social front—another Filipina was crowned Miss Universe 2018 to add some holiday season happiness.

Immediately and with complete predictability, certain people with certain political views jumped to criticize Ms. Gray about her comments on poverty and helping the poor children in Tondo, Manila.

Everyone is entitled to her own opinion and has the right to express her views. But it must be miserable to be a person who can find something to complain about so quickly.

Christmas 2018 in the Philippines may come with some disappointments. However, it is all a matter of perspective. Helen Keller, an American author who also happened to be blind from birth, took her life motto from the Persian book The Gulistan of Sa’di. “I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”

In some ways, the Philippines comes into Christmas after experiencing a tumultuous year. Many of our national problems are no closer to being solved than when we were hearing Christmas music at the malls in 2017. For other negative conditions, there has been some progress.

However, a glance at our global neighbors might give us reason to offer a thankful prayer.

Europe is being torn apart by political divisions that make the Philippines look like one big happy family at a fiesta. France has now lived through more than a month of violent protests against the government with over 1,200 injuries, nine deaths and more than 2,000 people arrested. Angela Merkel, German Prime Minister since 2005, is nearly a toothless lame duck leader unless she resigns before elections in 2021.

Belgium’s Prime Minister since 2014 has just resigned over his government’s immigration policies.

The United Kingdom is in complete chaos as the deadline to leave the European Union comes in about three months and an orderly transition plan is not yet in place. The United States is also in complete political chaos. While President Donald J. Trump’s approval rating has been steady at around 50 percent, the chaos comes from the massive divide of 70 percent of his own political party approving and 70 percent of the opposition disapproving.

But all things considered, there are reasons for a joyful Christmas celebration. For this holiday then, we wish you a very Merry Christmas with the thought, TGYF—Thank God You’re Filipino.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

How to be more productive in 2019 Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

A

S a year-ender column, I would like to dedicate the space for something that is important to us as we prepare to enter a new year: productivity. It is closely related to the plans and resolutions that we will be writing for 2019 and could spell the difference between success and failure. There are many productivity gurus, books and online resources that I’ve come across and here I have picked tips and advice that I like from some of these sources to share with you. These may not be new to you, but even old lessons are worth revisiting as long as they are effective!

We’ve all heard about Inbox Zero, but to many, it seems difficult to get to that point. Some experts say that one way to do it is to not answer every e-mail, and to not open each one, too.

(Or at least to delay opening them up until such time that the issue resolves itself and you don’t actually need to reply.) Don’t hesitate to instantly delete unimportant messages. Admittedly, there is a certain amount

of ruthlessness necessary to be able to do this.

Make good use of extra time: waiting in traffic, lining up, sitting at the clinic lobby, etc. If you don’t have a podcast app on your phone, it’s about time to install one. And while you’re at it, you can also take that important step of deleting Facebook from your phone (!). You can also read books (either print or

Abolish the Road Board

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Creative Director Chief Photographer

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O

N June 27, 2000, Republic Act 8794 “An Act Imposing a Motor Vehicle User’s Charge On Owners Of All Types Of Motor Vehicles” was signed into law by then President Joseph E. Estrada. This law provided for a Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC), which shall be collected from and paid by the owner of the motor vehicle, (whether for hire or for private use, including government vehicles) in lieu of the registration fee under Section 8 of RA 4136, as amended by Batas Pambansa Bilang 74 and the Private Motor Vehicle Tax under Executive Order (EO) 43, series of 1986 (Section 2, RA 8794).

Section 3 of R A 8794 provided for the rates of the MVUC, as follows: “[a] For private passenger car registered as of the date of the effectivity of this Act, the MVUC to be paid shall be the private motor vehicle tax under EO 3, series of 1986, plus 25 percent for the first year, 50 percent for the second year, 75 percent for the third year, and 100 percent for the fourth year and thereafter.

That private passenger cars to be registered for the first time after the effectivity of this Act, shall be subject to the MVUC rates prescribed in section 3[b] hereof.

“[b] Except as provided under 3[a] hereof, for each motor vehicle under each of the categories as herein provided, the MVUC shall be collected from and paid by the vehicle owner, at the following base rates plus 25 percent in the first year from the effectivity of this Act; the said base rates plus 50 percent in the second year from the effectivity of this Act; and said base rates plus 100 percent in the fourth year from the effectivity of this Act and thereafter; Provided, that the MVUC for the sports-utility vehicles shall be 15 percent higher than the MVUC herein set for private utility vehicles;

Find your peak time. We all have different work habits and body clocks, so it’s great if we can figure out which hours are most conducive for work. Some people can think well early in the morning, while others can concentrate better late at night when the house is quiet. When you have known this, schedule the day’s most important work at this time. e-books), reply to important messages or make important calls to make good use of these pockets of extra time.

Find your peak time. We all have different work habits and body clocks, so it’s great if we can figure out which hours are most conducive for work. Some people can think well early in the morning, while others can concentrate better late at night when the house is quiet. When you have known this, schedule the day’s most important work at this time.

There is wisdom in keeping what

At least P70 billion has reportedly been collected since the MVUC was imposed in 2000. In its 2013 audit of the Road Board, the Commission on Audit uncovered irregularities in the use of more than P1.66 billion in funds of the Road Board. This included, among others, P319 million in various infrastructure projects nationwide, which violated provisions of The Government Procurement Reform Act. Provided, further, that motorcycles for hire with sidecars shall not pay more than P300.”

Under Section 7, the monies collected shall be earmarked solely and used exclusively (1) for road maintenance and the improvement of road drainage, (2) for the installation of adequate and efficient traffic lights and road-safety devices and for the air-pollution control.

The Road Board created by RA 8794 is chaired by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) chief, with the secretaries of finance, budget and transportation as ex officio members, together with three representatives from transport and motorist organizations.

The road tax goes to special trust accounts in the National Treasury: 80 percent to the Special Road Support Fund and 5 percent to the Special

Montaigne calls a Commonplace Book. It’s a small notebook that you keep to record anything that catches your eye. You can even turn it into a small journal to record your thoughts, reminders, notes and other things you don’t want to forget.

This greatly helps us in our work and other daily activities. There are many other productivity hacks and I will reserve some of them for next time. As we end December, it is the best time to reflect on our habits and to take up new ones that will help us become more efficient and organized in 2019.

To be continued AT this point, I would like to congratulate the big winners in the recently concluded Presidential Gold Cup Race held at the Manila Jockey Club, Inc., Carmona, Cavite, on December 9. The winners are Sepfourteen with jockey JA Guce (first place), Pangalusian Island and JPA Guce (second place), Electric Truth and MA Alvarez (third place) and Radio Active with KB Abobo (fourth place). Congratulations to all of you!

Local Road Fund for local government, both of which are under the DPWH; and 7.5 percent to the Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund under the transportation department.

At least P70 billion has reportedly been collected since the MVUC was imposed in 2000 (The Philippine Star, May 22, 2017). In its 2013 audit of the Road Board, the Commission on Audit (COA) uncovered irregularities in the use of more than P1.66 billion in funds of the Road Board.

This included, among others, P319 million in various infrastructure projects nationwide, which violated provisions of The Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184); the payment of the performance security bond of a private contractor for a P62-million project in the National Capital Region even before the firm was given a notice of award; four infrastructure projects of the Road Board in Metro Manila did not include the value- added tax computation in their bids as required by law; disbursements of several officials of the DPWH worth P276 million were not covered by appropriate documents to establish propriety, validity and legality of the transactions (business.inquirer.net) Noting these irregularities in the utilization of the Road Tax and that the Road Board merely duplicated the functions of the DPWH, the Senate See “Kapunan,” A7

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Contrasting the millennials and baby boomers

FFL Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

Odree Ianna M. Manalastas

DEBIT CREDIT

Conclusion

I

S there a generational conflict between the millennials and the baby boomers? Studies suggest that the answer to that question is yes. While majority of the overall number of the global work force is attributed to millennials, most top leadership positions are still occupied by baby boomers. Therefore, anyone can conclude that the growing number of millennials in the work force is a threat to baby boomers. Is this transition of power a problem?

Baby boomers are known for their strong work ethic. They are committed, hardworking and workaholics who prefer to work long hours. They believe that skills are essential to work but the time allotted to each task weighs more. This group is also time dependent, as they strictly follow their predetermined schedule for their job. Boomers prefer jobs where they can showcase their skills and be known for it, and want to work on a company that supports good causes and social issues. Lastly, these individuals give importance to visibility in the office and they do not need mentorship in order to get their work done. Millennials, on the other hand, want to work on their own terms and pace. People in this generation are known for being smart, creative, productive, great at multitasking and career-oriented. They prefer to work at a flexible time but not at their personal time, with this they allot a “me time” in their work schedule.

This group is known for their want for constant growth by learning new skills every time and they seek immediate results from the newly learned skills. They prefer to work in a company that values teamwork, as they work better in collaborations and engagements. Most importantly, millennials want a job where they can be themselves. Despite these stylistic differences, baby boomers and millennials have more in common than we think. This is substantiated by

Kapunan. . .

continued from A6

approved Senate Bill 1620 on February 12 seeking to abolish the Road Board and transferring its functions to the DPWH and DOT, with all existing personnel of the Road Board Secretariat to be absorbed by the DPWH. A counterpart measure, House Bill 7436, was approved by the House of Representatives on May 2018 under the leadership of thenSpeaker Pantaleon Alvarez, also the principal author of the bill. A Bicameral Conference to reconcile the differences in the two versions of the bill was rendered moot and unnecessary when Sen. Manny Pacquiao, coauthor and sponsor of SB1620 moved for the Senate to adopt HB7436 to replace SB 1620. Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III has already signed the bill for enrollment for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature but the House of Representatives under its new Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has yet to sign the enrolled bill. Apparently, upon motion of Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr., the House voided its third reading approval of the bill, causing an impasse in the approval of the bill.

What’s the beef (pork?) between the Senate and the House?

Ousted Speaker Alvarez revealed in a press interview (www.inquirer. net, December 17, 2018) that the motive behind the House move to rescind the measure to abolish the Road Board was because “Road Board funds were being used as big lump sum” unlike line items in the budget that were itemized and less prone to corruption. Lawmakers have earned and stand to earn huge kickbacks from road projects funded by the P45 billion road user’s tax controlled by the Road Board, which

a study concluded by IBM; the two generations share fundamental values about work and ethics.

One way to reconcile the varying traits of these two groups in the workplace is to prioritize mentoring relationships. Many millennials value coaching and instruction, and at the end spectrum Baby Boomer executives can use mentoring as an opportunity to foster a stronger workplace culture built on solid relationships and shared values. If they will help each other and coordinate as a team, they will make the best mix of generations in the global workforce.

Time will pass, generations will shift from one to another, the way work gets done will change, but the values underlying the quality of work will not. Ultimately, I will end this article with an excerpt from the article The Clash of the Baby Boomers and Millenials: How Can We All Get Along? by Naz Beheshti, “building a strong relationship between the generations, one based on respect and dialogue, will allow organizations to navigate the winds of change while remaining rooted in lasting values.”

Odree Ianna M. Manalastas is a Certified Public Accountant and a BS in Accountancy graduate of the University of Santo Tomas.

This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

Malacañang and the Senate want abolished against the House Leadership.” Alvarez likewise claimed “that this is the reason the allies of Speaker Arroyo picked a quarrel with Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno over alleged insertions in the P3.8 trillion proposed national budget for 2019.

House members would identify specific projects overpriced by staggering amounts, then the Road Board, in cahoots with House members, in whose district the project fell, could ‘collect’ from their favorite contractor,” Alvarez said.

Amid this deadlock between the Senate and the House on the abolition of the Road Board, the Senate passed a unanimous resolution urging the Office of the President and Office of the Executive Secretary not to release funds from the road user’s tax because Congress has “in effect” already passed a bill that would abolish the Road Board.

The Senate and the House are bickering over money that is not theirs. It is our monies, the people’s money—taxpayers money. It is not private funds that can be pocketed for private gain in the guise of social projects.

Instead of government thinking of again increasing taxes of Juan dela Cruz to cover government expenditures, or positioning to kiss the posteriors (a.k.a. “asses”) of foreign powers/financial institutions to grant our country loans to cover our budget deficit, we should simply cut the pork—all pork big and small.

Hasn’t our Supreme Court already spoken on this matter? And yet, the issue of pork barrel insertions (under other names) has again reared its ugly head.

Time to chop it off—not only the pork barrel but also the heads of all those who thrive on ingesting pork!

O

F the billions of people on Earth, some statistical studies tell us that we will be able to meet less than .000001percent. Thus, with a human population of 7.7 billion, an average person in his 50s would be able to interact, in whatever capacity, with around 7,000 people in his lifetime. But of this number, he will meet only a small fraction for a second time. Depending on a person’s social skills, he will only have a handful of close friends, by choice or circumstance. In my case, I am thankful for the gift of friends for life (FFL) who have stayed with me, in good times and in bad.

Leadership author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek said, “the strong bond of friendship is not always a balanced equation; friendship is not always about giving and taking in equal shares. Instead, friendship is grounded in a feeling that you know exactly who will be there for you when you need something, no matter what or when.” I am sure most, if not all of us, have FFL or Best Friends Forever (BFF) as everyone needs real friends.

This holiday season should give us a chance to reconnect with such

friends. In my case, a friendly wager in the recently concluded University Athletic Association of the Philippines Men’s Basketball tournament allowed me to rekindle relationships with some former colleagues in the Bureau of Immigration. I consider them more than just coworkers— they are my friends. It was indeed refreshing to see them professionally satisfied whether they moved on to other careers, such as Elaine (PAL), Erica (Pagcor), Popo (ADB), Tonette (IDLO), or stayed in public service like Dana and Vince. I also

Monday, December 24, 2018 A7

had an opportunity to mingle with high-school classmates in our annual gathering hosted by batch mate Lolit Dino Tiu. And I rediscovered who my close friends are.

Human beings are designed to be part of a community. The company we keep usually dictates who we will become. So we have to be discerning when it comes to choosing the people we associate with.

Since birds of the same feather flock together, I am extremely grateful for having my closest friends who helped me to become a responsible student, especially during my naughty high- school days. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:33 tells us, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”

Those who live alone usually struggle in times of adversity. One of the principal factors why employees, despite challenges with their superiors or dissatisfaction in their salary, stay in the workplace is the presence of friends. Somehow close relationships with their colleagues make resigning employees think twice before leaving the company.

I have witnessed a few employees who were about to resign but held on because of the bond that kept them attached, not to the company but because of the relationships they made in the company.

In the minimum-security compound of the National Bilibid Prison, most of the inmates are already senior citizens. Their relatives no longer visit them. Their friends have abandoned them. But well meaning people, like my pastor mentor Gary Galvez chose to spend time with them, as often as they can. My godson Rainier, having been gainfully employed, chose to spend his birthdays sharing his blessings with terminally ill children at the AFP Medical Center in Quezon City. In the process, he has gained friends among strangers who struggle with all kinds of illnesses.

Whether the Christmas spirit moves us to connect with people from all walks of life, we should be reminded that the more people we meet, the more opportunities we will have to know people and perhaps gain friends. Our impact in the lives of others, by way of friendship or fellowship, may not be seen in our lifetime but will definitely cascade to others touched by them. We should spread kindness to everyone we meet as much as possible. Engage people in small talk. Who knows, the next person we meet could be our FFL. For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

Why is the Diocese of Novaliches unique?

By Severino C. Samonte Special to the BusinessMirror

O

F the more than 80 bishoprics of the Roman Catholic Church in the country today, the 16-year-old Diocese of Novaliches in the Ecclesiastical Province or Archdiocese of Manila under Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle can be considered the most peculiar or unique.

For one thing, it is the only diocese named after a former town reduced to a barrio (now called barangay) over a century ago. Its territorial jurisdiction covers big portions of two Metropolitan Manila premier cities, which have their own dioceses—Quezon City and Caloocan City. It includes the three populous congressional districts of Quezon City—Districts 2, 5 and 6—and 23 barangays in North Caloocan City.

For another thing, it is peculiarly different from all of the other dioceses in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao as the name of the diocese does not represent a specific town, city or province of the country.

It is very much unlike the adjoining dioceses of Cubao, Pasig, Parañaque and Caloocan in Metro Manila, Antipolo in Rizal, Malolos in Bulacan, Balanga in Bataan, Rom-

blon in Southern Luzon, Capiz in the Visayas and Cotabato in Mindanao, among others.

The directory of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) shows that the names of the country’s Catholic bishoprics usually denote either a province, a city or a municipality.

The Diocese of Novaliches was created by the Vatican on December 7, 2002 and was canonically erected on January 16, 2003 from the Ecclesiastical Province of Manila by Pope John Paul II. It represents the former town of Novaliches, which existed during the Spanish regime from September 1855 until the early part of the American occupation when it was reduced to a barrio of Caloocan town in 1903.

The diocese was erected by the Vatican along with the Dioceses of Cubao, Pasig, Parañaque and Caloocan during the time of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime L. Cardinal Sin. The original town of Novaliches —where 12 vicariates and over 70 parishes and churches of the diocese are located—has been erased from the national map and is now divided between Quezon City and Caloocan City.

As a result, people looking at the Philippine map can no longer

What’s got oil so spooked?

By Julian Lee Bloomberg Opinion

I

T wasn’t meant to be like this.

Not only are oil prices down nearly 40 percent since early October, they’re below where they were when the Opec+ group of producers began their first round of output cuts in January 2017.

There are two main factors behind this pessimism. The first stems from an undue skepticism about the group’s willingness to trim output.

The second follows from a negative view about the global outlook that is subject to change—and if it does, a sharp rebound is in store.

The recent Russian-brokered deal to cut around 1.2 million barrels a day from global supply in January should have put a floor under prices. Their drop suggests traders don’t believe the cuts will be implemented.

They should.

The bulk of the reduction from current production levels hinges on Saudi Arabia. Its oil minister pledged in Vienna that the kingdom would go even further than it had promised to reduce output, just as it did in 2017.

The history of the Opec+ deal so far

shows that those who really matter (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia) came through with the cuts—even if it took them a little time to get there.

Production will probably also continue to fall in Venezuela, as workers flee the country and a lack of maintenance on wells, pumps and pipelines eats away at capacity. The sanctions on Iran will almost certainly be tightened when the current waivers expire in May, reducing its output further.

So you have to assume that Opec+ output will come down by something close to the promised 1.2 million barrels a day over the early part of next year, even if the target isn’t reached on January 1.

Some of the impetus for the selloff has almost certainly come from revised assessments of US production. The slide in prices began just after the Department of Energy published its production numbers for August, which showed a large and unexpected jump in US output.

Conventional wisdom had it that off take capacity constraints (a lack of pipelines) would limit production growth until mid-2019. But figures for US oil production in the second

see any trace of the original Novaliches town, unlike the other eight dioceses of the Archdiocese of Manila which are Cubao, Pasig, Caloocan and Parañaque in Metro Manila, and Antipolo in Rizal, Imus in Cavite, San Pablo in Laguna and Malolos in Bulacan.

At present, half of the Diocese of Novaliches can actually be seen as a mere portion of the official map of Quezon City, with the other half remaining with Caloocan.

Interestingly, about half of what is supposed to be the territory of the Caloocan Diocese belongs to the Diocese of Novaliches, having been part of the original town.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Caloocan also covers the adjacent cities of Malabon and Navotas. It is estimated that the Novaliches Diocese accounts for at least half of the more than 2.93 million people of Quezon City, and about the same ratio of the population of 1.58 million of Caloocan City.

The Diocese of Parañaque covers the adjacent cities of Parañaque, Las Piñas and Muntinlupa. On the other hand, the Diocese of Cubao, created on June 28, 2003, comprises the southern half of Quezon City, specifically Districts 1, 3 and 4.

The Diocese of Pasig, established also in 2003, covers the cities of

Pasig and Taguig, as well as the town of Pateros.

The first head of the Novaliches Diocese was Bishop Teodoro C. Bacani Jr. He became Bishop Emeritus of Novaliches upon his replacement by Bishop Antonio G. Tobias sometime in 2003.

The diocese, which is dedicated to Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, has its cathedral along Regalado Avenue Extension in Fairview, Novaliches. It has a total land area of 138 square kilometers The boundaries of the Novaliches Diocese are as follows: San Jose del Monte City, Meycauayan City and Marilao town in Bulacan on the North; Marikina City and the towns of Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) and San Mateo in Rizal on the East; Tandang Sora Avenue and Mactan Avenue in Diliman, Quezon City on the South; and Caloocan City-South and Valenzuela City on the West.

The dozen vicariates of the diocese are those of the Christ the King, Our Lady of Lourdes, Santo Niño, Holy Cross, Ascension of Our Lord, Good Shepherd, Holy Spirit, Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Mercy, San Bartolome, San Isidro Labrador, Saint Peter and Ina ng Lupang Pangako.

Growing concerns about the health of the global economy, rumbling trade wars, the disruptive effect of Brexit, the Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike and the threat of a US government shutdown have all played their part in the slide in prices. Those wider concerns have undermined sentiment across asset classes and oil has been caught up in the rout.

forecast by the main agencies. All three—the US Energy Information Administration, the Paris-based International Energy Agency and Opec —have trimmed their oil demand growth forecasts for 2019. And some consultancies are much more pessimistic. Vienna-based JBC Energy, for example, now sees growth of less than a million barrels a day next year.

Growing concerns about the health of the global economy, rumbling trade wars, the disruptive effect of Brexit, the Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike and the threat of a US government shutdown have all played their part in the slide in prices. Those wider concerns have undermined sentiment across asset classes and oil has been caught up in the rout.

That suggests that the solution to the current slump lies outside the industry itself. Slashing production may raise prices briefly, but the higher fuel costs will only add to the negative pressures on the wider economy. If the economic pessimism persists in 2019, expect oil prices to continue drifting lower as demand forecasts get cut. But if some of those concerns start to ease, the rebound could be swift.

half of 2018 have been revised up by more than 500,000 barrels a day in October and November. Those revisions certainly helped to turn sentiment bearish and end concerns around a lack of spare Opec production capacity.

But those higher production numbers have now been incorporated into supply/demand projections for 2019. And those forecasts show that, if Opec+ cuts production as promised, the market will be just about balanced in the first half of next year.

So what else is driving the pessimism?

It’s starting to look a lot like the market is pricing in a much weaker outlook for demand than is currently

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Monday, December 24, 2018

Solons’ bounty drive to get Batocabe killers nears ₧30M

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

M

@joveemarie

EMBERS of the House of Representatives are eyeing at least a P30million reward for the arrest of the killers of Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel M. Batocabe and his police escort, SPO1 Orlando Diaz.

Speaker Glor ia MacapagalArroyo said congressmen have already committed to put up a reward in order to fast-track investigation on who are behind the brazen killing of Batocabe just after he graced an event for the elderly in his hometown of Daraga, Albay, on Sunday.

The Ako Bicol representative had filed a certificate of candidacy for the mayorship of Daraga.

“I condemn what has happened.

Life has become so cheap. That should not be so. Nothing can justify that gruesome murder. So I hope our authorities could conduct a thorough and speedy investigation,” Arroyo said.

“Enforcement is the best deterrent. As of now [several] congressmen have already committed to put up a fund to get the killers. That really is the best way to get the killers,” she added.

Batocabe and his police escort

“We will be vigilant and will make sure that the investigation on the case would be impartial. We will not take this sitting down.

It is an assault on our institution.”—Benitez

were killed in an ambush in Barangay Burgos in Daraga town at around 3 p.m. on Saturday. Batocabe, 52, was about to ride his vehicle following a gift-giving event for senior citizens and PWDs when he was attacked at a covered court at Barangay Burgos in Daraga.

The two victims were rushed to a hospital but declared dead on arrival.

For his part, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo A. Garbin said the reward money will expedite the arrest of the perpetrators.

“Initially we have gathered around P25 million to put up a bounty and help identity mastermind/masterminds immediately.

In fact, it could reach P30 million,”

said Garbin.

Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, who initiated the collection for a bounty, said the Ako Bicol party-list group has offered P15 million, while the provincial government of Albay made a P2million commitment; members of the House of Representatives have generated at least P5 million as of Sunday night and counting.

“At least 168 congressmen have committed to give at least P30,000 to put up a reward money for the speedy capture of the perpetrators.

We are still counting,” said Benitez.

“We will be vigilant and will make sure that the investigation on the case would be impartial. We will not take this sitting down. It is an assault on our institution,” said Benitez. The remains of Batocabe were brought to the Arcilla Hall of Bicol University in Daraga. He will be laid to rest on December 31, 2018, also in Daraga.

A memorial service for Batocabe will be held at the House of Representatives on January 14, 2019.

See “Batocabe,” A2

Lacson wants permits to carry guns suspended

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

C

ITING recent murder cases committed with impunity, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Jr. on Sunday prodded the Philippine National Police to “lose no time” imposing stricter gun control measures and promptly suspend PNP-issued Permits to Carry Firearms Outside Residences (PTCFORs).

Lacson listed the latest deadly at-

tacks against Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe and former Kadingilan, Bukidnon Mayor Joelito Talaid, noting these were carried out by suspected assassins “within hours of each other” on Saturday.

In a statement, Lacson confirmed plans to convene a public hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs as soon as Congress reconvenes in January to look into the recent killings, “including those of

LOW PRESSURE AREA 165 KM NORTHEAST OF HINATUAN, SURIGAO CITY, SURIGAO DEL NORTE NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING LUZON as of 4:00 am - December 23, 2018

prominent personalities.”

At the rate “murder is being committed with impunity, it’s time for the PNP to impose stricter gun control measures,” Lacson, who chairs the committee, said on Sunday, suggesting that: “For a start, try suspending all PTCFOR. Anybody in civvies carrying firearms must be assumed to have criminal intent and apprehended on the spot.”

Lacson, who was PNP chief from 1999 to 2001, said such a policy should

also “include PNP officers who are not in police uniform.”

In a separate post on his Twitter account, the senator aired this warning: “Anybody, including PNP officers not in police uniform, must be assumed to have criminal intent and apprehended on the spot. It’s time the public developed a different mindset and assumption on people seen carrying firearms.”

Citing the killing of Batocabe as the first killing of an incumbent or sitting lawmaker in recent memory, Lacson added: “This all the more needs urgent or even ‘unpopular’ measures by authorities, including very strict gun control measures.”

Initial reports indicated Batocabe, who is running for mayor of Daraga in the 2019 elections, was gunned down along with his security escort SPO1 Orlando Diaz after attending a gift-giving for senior and PWD citizens in Daraga town in Albay province.

Lacson recalled that also on Saturday, former Kadingilan, Bukidnon Mayor Joelito “Jukens” Talaid was gunned down in broad daylight by motorcycleriding killers in Cagayan de Oro City.

The senator noted that as early as July, the PNP should have considered imposing stricter firearms control strategies following the murder of Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili on July 2, “before similar killings could reach ubiquitous levels.”

Lacson said he had long sought to deter civilians from carrying firearms outside their homes, saying only police and military personnel in uniform and on duty should be allowed to do so.

He added that, while civilians may be allowed to possess firearms, the firearms should be kept in a vault inside the owners’homes when left unattended. “Firearms are for self-defense and protection of properties from intruders, and not for offensive action by the possessor,” the senator said.

At the same time, Lacson stressed the need to reverse the perception that anyone with a firearm tucked in his waist must be a law-enforcement officer. Instead, he said, “anyone with a firearm tucked in his waist would be presumed as a bad element without doubt and, therefore, must be reported to the authorities.”

Lacson recalled that during his stint as National Police chief, he did not automatically renew expired PTCFORs but instead imposed very stringent requirements, with the objective of not issuing any PTCFOR at the appropriate time.

See “Lacson,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

AS WATER FIRMS TAKE DECADES TO FIX SEWERS, CIMATU EYES ESTEROS E NVIRONMENT Secretary Roy A. Cimatu insists that rehabilitating Manila Bay can be done, as he bared plans to target “billionaire” esteros to bring down the coliform level in the country’s historic body of water. This, even as he acknowledged that the real, long-term solution is for the private water concessionaires to fulfill their commitment to fix sewer lines in their respective areas in order to prevent the discharge of dirty water into Manila Bay. “The long-term plan is the presence of the sewer lines all over Metro Manila. This is the mandate given to the concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water. The completion of all this will be in 2037. That is our problem,” Cimatu said.

Since 2037 is a long way off, Cimatu explained his agency needed to do something in the meantime. “Unless we can accelerate this one...We need to start really. We should shorten this as much as possible. We should do something. The problem is coming from esteros in Metro Manila. The condition of the esteros, if I will describe it, we have two billionaire esteros,” he said, referring to the coliform level of the water.

The former Armed Forces Chief of Staff said he and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will find a way to prevent the direct discharge of untreated wastewater into at least four esteros in Metro Manila, all of which lead out to the Board Walk area in Manila Bay, while waiting for the private water concessionares of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS)—Manila Water and Maynilad Water Services Inc.‚to fix sewer lines in their respective areas.

A former DENR secretary, Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza, had stressed in a forum last week that the government should prod Maynilad and Manila Water to fulfill their mandate to set up proper sewer lines within a shorter time frame. This is the only way to clean up the bay as it prevents the discharge of untreated wastewater, Atienza said.

For his part, Cimatu said he will target the most polluted esteros in Metro Manila, by cleaning the esteros of garbage and preventing the direct discharge of untreated wastewater from households and business establishments.

“I accept the challenge to rehabilitate Manila Bay. If nobody else will do

Subsidies. . .

Continued from A1

At least 22 public institutions that did not receive any subsidies in October. These included the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC), Philippine National Railways (PNR), National Power Corp., National Food Authority (NFA), Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and Social

Fitch. . .

Continued from A1

Fitch forecasts the local economy to “remain strong” in 2019 and 2020 at around 6.6 percent for both years, as supported by robust private consumption and public investment.

While the forecast is still below the 7-8 percent target range growth of the government for the coming years, it signals an improvement of growth from the latest 6.1-percent print in the third quarter of 2018.

Nonetheless, Fitch said that, while the macroeconomy enjoys a strong GDP number by print, ordinary Filipinos are still not reaping the rewards of high economic growth.

“The Philippines’s structural indicators continue to lag those of peers in the same rating category,” the credit watcher said.

Fitch estimates GDP per capita at end-2018 to reach $3,179, compared with the BBB median of $10,657.

Lower govt debt but lower standards of governance

IN terms of government debt, Fitch said indicators point to a steady debt-to-GDP number for the Philippines for next year.

“Fitch expects the budget deficit to remain within manageable levels of around -3 percent of GDP in 2019 and 2020, as revenue should rise alongside the increase in government

“The long-term plan is the presence of the sewer lines all over Metro Manila. This is the mandate given to the concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water. The completion of all this will be in 2037.

That is our problem.”—Cimatu

it, who will do it? I am optimistic that it can be done. I hope that all of us join us in this endeavor that will save Manila Bay,” Cimatu said.

The short-term target, he said, is to improve the quality of water by reducing the coliform level in Manila Bay by the end of 2019.

The long-term target, he said, is to make the water of Manila Bay safe for bathing and swimming.

Using its regular budget for the implementation of Clean Water Act, the DENR will work on targeted esteros, including the Pasig River, to bring down the coliform level in areas in Manila Bay, particularly along Bay Walk to “100 most probable number per 100 milliliters” (MPN/100 ml), the level safe for swimming.

Water in some portions of Manila Bay, particularly fronting the Board Walk, right now register coliform levels of up to 333 million MPN/100 ml.

Cimatu said the DENR will count on the support of all stakeholders—particularly local chief executives and the private sector.

He said the DENR has received offers from industries to help out.

“I was asked, and I am even grateful for the offer of assistance from heads of industries to help us in this. There were offers and suggestions, including the use of resources. What we will do, by January 15, is to present the problem and probable solution and receive the offer of assistance,” he said.

According to the DENR chief, he has already asked the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority to come up with a map of all esteros in Metro Manila to identify the problem esteros.

“If we will be able to contain this pollution we can reduce the reading... just like what happened in Boracay.

Those coming out in Bulabog Beach, we were able to prevent it and reduce the coliform level,” he explained.

Jonathan L. Mayuga

Security System (SSS).

In the January-to-October period, the government extended the most subsidies to PhilHealth at P50.19 billion, followed by NIA at P26.27 billion and LandBank at P24.58 billion.

Data also showed public institutions that received the least subsidies this year were the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority at P6 million, which it received in June; and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority at P10 million composed of a P7-million subsidy it received in October and P3 million in April. expenditure,”the credit watcher said in its report.

“The agency therefore expects the government debt-to-GDP ratio to remain broadly stable at 37 percent by 2020, compared with an estimated 37.5 percent in 2018,” it added. This arises from Fitch’s expectation that expenditures from the country’s infrastructure ramp-up will rise alongside revenues given new tax laws.

However, Fitch noted that the standards of governance and human development are also weaker compared to the average ranking of those in the same rating category of BBB. The Philippines, in particular, ranks in the 41st percentile of the World Bank’s governance indicators, compared with the 58th percentile of the BBB median.

External creditor position but weak local business environment

FITCH also said that among the strengths of the Philippine economy is that it maintains a net external creditor position against the BBB median’s net debtor position.

“In addition, the Philippines is less vulnerable to large outflows compared with some of its neighbors in the region, given lower nonresident holdings of domestic debt and equities,”Fitch said.

Back home, however, Fitch noted that the Philippines’s local business environment remains weak.

Fitch noted that the Philippines slipped by 11 notches in the recent World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index rankings.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, December 24, 2018

B1

SMC proposal for Bulacan airport okayed, needs review

T

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM & Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

HE final terms of San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) proposed Bulacan airport project have been approved, but they are still subject to review by the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.

This developed as the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board held its meeting in Malacañang on Friday to talk about the unsolicited proposal for the Bulacan airport project.

A review by the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) and the finance department will be needed prior to the final approval of the SMC-backed Bulacan airport concession agreement, based on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) law implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

Based on Section 10.9 of the BOT IRR, approval of unsolicited contracts by the head agency or local government unit (LGU) will be based on the terms and conditions set by the approving body, which, in this case is the Neda Board.

Prior to the approval, the draft contract will undergo review by the “OGCC, the Office of the Solicitor General [OSG] or any other entity prescribed by law/issuances as the statutory counsel of government-

owned and -controlled corporations [GOCCs] and LGUs.” “The prescribed statutory counsel, and if necessary, the DOF, shall issue an opinion on the draft contract within 10 days upon their receipt of the draft contract as submitted by the Agency/LGU,” the IRR stated further. However, the meeting was not chaired by President Duterte, but by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Board Vice Chairman Ernesto M. Pernia.

“President Duterte was not present. All the issues raised in the Investment Coordination Committee [ICC] meeting last Wednesday were resolved. Final terms of the unsolicited proposal were approved subject to review by the DOF and the DOJ. Final deadline: January 14,” Diokno said in a text message.

The ICC Cabinet Committee (ICC-Cabcom) recommended in its meeting last week the amendment of the draft concession agreement for SMC’s proposed airport project before it is submitted to

President Duterte for approval.

Earlier, Pernia clarified to the BusinessMirror that the concession agreement would be revised according to the guarantees that the ICC wanted to change in the current draft.

Transportation Undersecretary Ruben S. Reinoso Jr. also said the ICC-Cabcom wanted to revise the provisions in the agreement that pertained to the guaranteed terminal fee increases and “certain adverse government actions.”

Reinoso said a provision in the existing draft concession agreement stated that in case an increase in terminal fee is granted by the regulator but is subsequently not implemented, the difference between the existing terminal fee and the approved new rate will be shouldered by the government.

The ICC-Cabcom also recommended the provision for the Clark Airport Operation and Maintenance be followed, as well as on the computation of termination payment.

On “adverse government action” Reinoso said this means political risk arising from local government policies.

But Reinoso said SMC wanted to avoid some issuances that could adversely affect the proposed project.

That is why it included the provision on the concession agreement.

Last October, the Department of Transportation said the Bulacan airport may replace the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) once the project expires.

However, Pernia has also since said that the Bulacan airport will not replace the Naia and will instead only complement it.

Since the Bulacan airport project was an unsolicited proposal from SMC., it will be subjected to a Swiss challenge where groups will be invited to make competing offers with the original bidder and the right to match any better proposal.

The Bulacan airport is the largest infrastructure project approved by the Neda Board this year in a bid to end airport congestion in the Naia.

“Changes to the draft contract as agreed upon by Agency/LGU and the original proponent and as approved by the Head of Agency/LGU shall not be allowed, except for changes to contract terms affected or decided by the winning bidder’s bid during the solicitation of comparative proposals and matching by the original proponent,” it added.

Once the process is completed, only then can the tender documents be issued for the project. The tender documents will include the concession agreement which will be considered final and nonnegotiable.

After the tender documents are issued, only then can the Swiss challenge ensue. A Swiss challenge is a process by which other private groups could still come forward to make an offer to match the bid of the proponent.

Other companies will be given 60 working days to match the proposal made by an original proponent of a certain project. If there are no other proposals submitted, the project is granted to the original proponent.

However, according to the BOT law “in the event another proponent submits a lower price proposal, the original proponent shall have the right to match that price within 30 working days.”

SEC approves ₧1-B IPO of ACE Medical Center Iloilo

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

T

HE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has submitted the lowest tariff bid that will supply power to the New Clark City, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said.

The Meralco-Marubeni Consortium, comprised of Meralco and Japan-based firms Marubeni Corp., The Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc., proposed a tariff bid of P0.6188 per kilowatt-hour. This bested the P0.9888 per kWh bid of the Aboitiz-Kepco Consortium of the Olongapo Energy Corp. and Kepco Philippines Holdings Inc. New Clark City is slated to become the country’s first smart, green and sustainable metropolis, where firms and residents will enjoy low utility prices. The BCDA has earlier set the tariff ceiling for power distribution at P1.25 kWh. BCDA Senior Vice President and Chief Finance Officer Nena D. Radoc said the Meralco-Marubeni

Consortium would next undergo post-qualification procedures before the award. The BCDA is eager to sign the agreement with the winning bidder early next year.

The bid was determined last Tuesday during the opening of technical and financial proposals at the BCDA Corporate Center. Present at the opening of bids were representatives from the Asian Development Bank, the BCDA’s transaction advisor for the project.

New Clark City is envisioned to possess the first completely smart-power grid in the country.

On the back of state-of-the-art facilities found in other smart cities across the world, New Clark City is penciled to have better reliability standards. Locators and residents can likewise enjoy access to real-time information from utility distributors, allowing them to manage their consumption more effectively.

The first phase of the New Clark City’s development includes the construction of the National Government Administrative Center. The city will host the Southeast Asian Games next year.

PT&T leaves corporate rehab program, eyes expansion

T

HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the P1-billion initial public offering (IPO) of Allied Care Experts (ACE) Medical Center Iloilo Inc. According to its prospectus, ACE Medical will sell 36,000 common shares as its primary offering. It will sell the shares at 10 shares per block at a price of between P250,000 and P400,000 per block.

“Primary use of proceeds will be for construction expenses,” the company said, referring to the hospital.

“Total construction cost estimate of the project is at P825 million. Those will be partially financed by the proceeds of the public offering, as only 40 percent of the proceeds is allotted for this,” it said.

Other use of the proceeds will be for medical equipment, architect and other professional fees, pre-operating expenses, and hospital and office furniture and fixture.

It said the commitment of its major stockholders to fund the construction, development, pre-operation and start-up operations is backed up with a P1.06- billion credit line facility with the Land Bank of the Philippines through 2026. It already used up part of the said facility.

As of November, its hospital in Iloilo is 75 percent complete and is expected to open in September 2019.

ACE Medical was incorporated in 2014 and hopes to set up a tertiary hospital in Jaro, Iloilo. Its health-care facility will be a nine-story, 200-bed capacity hospital, with a total floor area of 25,086 square meters. VG Cabuag

Meralco has lowest bid to supply power to New Clark City

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

T CALL-CENTER BUILDING AT M.O.A. A crew of workers constructs a call-center building in the Mall of Asia, Pasay City as construction continues to boom in the country.

ROY DOMINGO

Saudi carrier Flyadeal drops Airbus for Boeing with 30-jet order

S

AUDI Arabian discount carrier Flyadeal will defect to Boeing Co. jets from an all-Airbus SE fleet after ordering 30 737 Max narrow-body planes worth $3.5 billion at list prices. The unit of state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines or Saudia announced the purchase on Friday and said it has options to add 20 more of the aircraft, which feature upgraded engines and compete with Airbus’s A320neo model.

The accord represents as a setback for the European manufacturer, since Flyadeal’s current fleet comprises only A320 “classic” planes. It had been competing with Boeing for the order since

mid-2016, with the airline delaying a decision on several occasions.

Flyadeal didn’t say if it would retain its Airbus jets, though discount operators typically use only one type to keep down costs.

The deal came two and a half months after Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime, was murdered by agents of the government, triggering expressions of outrage from European nations. US President Donald J. Trump has evinced his continued support for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even after the Central Intelligence Agency reportedly concluded that he ordered the killing.

Based in Jeddah, Flyadeal began flights in September last year and currently serves eight destinations.

The fleet expansion will allow it to add more domestic routes and expand into foreign markets, Saudia Director General Saleh Al-Jasser said in the statement.

Airbus said in an email that it regrets the order decision, having supported Flyadeal since its inception. Saudia itself operates more than 100 aircraft from the Toulouse, France-based planemaker, while rival Flynas LCC has orders for 120 A320neos and SaudiGulf agreed last month to buy 10 of the planes. Bloomberg News

HE Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) is intensifying its expansion plans after officially exiting corporate rehabilitation, a company executive said on Sunday.

James Velasquez, the company’s president, said his group has formally exited rehabilitation proceedings, as it has “substantially complied with the conditions set forth” by the court.

It was scheduled to exit the rehab program in 2025.

This, he said, “allows PT&T to further grow its operations and unlocks the true potential of PT&T as a fixed and wireless broadband player from its roots in the telecommunications industries since 1962.”

“We have been waiting for this and it is in line with our growth aspirations and vision of turning PT&T into a digital services provider,” Velasquez added.

This, he explained, means the company now “has the financial muscle to support its existing operations as well as its promised multibillion-peso capital expenditure to roll out infrastructure over a five-year period to compete aggressively in the Philippines telecommunications industry.”

PT&T plans to spend roughly P7 billion to expand its network across the Philippines. It has successfully secured the approval of the Securi-

ties and Exchange Commission to increase its capital stock and conduct a debt-to-equity conversion.

As of end-October, its total liabilities stand at P1.5 billion, a significant drop from its total debt of roughly P10 billion, which started when it was badly hit by the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago.

The company’s paid-up capital was also raised to P10.9 billion, from P2 billion. Its assets reached P837.60 million as of October this year, higher compared to its P759.46-million resources in 2017.

“We want to assure the public and the government that we had the financial capability to support our bid to become the new major player and our existing operations,” Velasquez said.

He was alluding to his group’s bid to become the third major player in the telco industry, a failed attempt as the government already awarded the license to Mislatel Consortium of Davao-based businessman Dennis A. Uy and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. P&T has a pending case against the National Telecommunications Commission over its disqualification from the third telco license auction, which was held in November.

“What is also relevant to point out is that PT&T met all the financial qualification requirements for the new major player bid. The new management promises to sustain our growth trajectory,” Velasquez added.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, December 24, 2018

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

December 21, 2018

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

ASIA UNITED 58.6 59 59 59 59 59 10 590 590 BDO UNIBANK 128.9 129 129.5 129.5 127.8 129 4962600 640090895 -57368039 BANK PH ISLANDS 90.7 91 93.5 93.85 90.7 90.7 2655620 242364293.5 -65061435 CHINABANK 27.4 27.45 27.7 27.7 27.4 27.45 24900 685910 -235085 EAST WEST BANK 11.7 11.98 12.4 12.4 11.7 11.7 1510900 18066056 -9807132 METROBANK 81.1 81.15 81.95 81.95 79.95 81.1 3774870 305028745 117387962.5 PHIL NATL BANK 42.3 43 42.9 43.4 42.3 42.3 89200 3797715 -2825920 PSBANK 63.8 63.85 64 64 63.8 63.85 10800 689246 3200 RCBC 28.5 28.8 28.05 28.5 28.05 28.5 74600 2110270 -177015 SECURITY BANK 154.1 154.5 157.1 159 154 154.5 421240 65121623 -12949642 UNION BANK 63.6 63.7 63.7 63.7 63.7 63.7 1440 91728 -64974 BRIGHT KINDLE 1.49 1.5 1.51 1.54 1.49 1.49 527000 787740 193700 BDO LEASING 2.18 2.2 2.18 2.19 2.18 2.19 5000 10940 COL FINANCIAL 15.8 15.9 15.9 15.9 15.9 15.9 400 6360 FERRONOUX HLDG 5.06 5.1 4.91 5.4 4.91 5.1 3690000 19003640 18920 IREMIT 1.4 1.47 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 52000 72800 MEDCO HLDG 0.475 0.49 0.485 0.49 0.475 0.485 150000 72250 NTL REINSURANCE 0.88 0.91 0.87 0.91 0.87 0.91 1245000 1107370 -80930 PHIL STOCK EXCH 178 179 178 180 178 179 1030 183890 SUN LIFE 1801 1849 1800 1800 1800 1800 80 144000

INDUSTRIAL ALSONS CONS 1.25 1.26 1.26 1.26 1.26 1.26 54000 68040 ABOITIZ POWER 34.6 35 34.2 35 33.5 35 3219800 111035935 -5411750 BASIC ENERGY 0.234 0.235 0.248 0.248 0.235 0.235 2990000 705940 378400 FIRST GEN 19.54 20.2 20 20.3 19.54 19.54 2137400 42645418 14343771 FIRST PHIL HLDG 64.35 64.95 64.8 65.1 64.35 64.35 368520 23874524.5 7072068 MERALCO 387.4 390 390 391 385.4 390 313870 122237010 21513872 MANILA WATER 26.5 27 26.8 27 26.5 26.5 3211700 85285235 -10801355 PETRON 7.77 7.8 8.11 8.12 7.77 7.77 4655900 36742704 -11260964 PETROENERGY 3.9 4.02 3.95 3.97 3.9 3.9 55000 216550 PHINMA ENERGY 1.18 1.19 1.18 1.23 1.17 1.19 29429000 35177520 -13273130 PH RESORTS GRP 5.38 5.39 5.7 5.7 5.3 5.39 245400 1327566 -61455 PHX PETROLEUM 10.52 10.64 10.66 10.66 10.52 10.64 64700 685300 PILIPINAS SHELL 46.7 46.95 47 47.05 46.7 46.7 290600 13614815 -2578330 SPC POWER 5.37 5.4 5.27 5.42 5.22 5.4 788300 4217284 388509 VIVANT 16.88 17 16.88 16.88 16.88 16.88 200 3376 AGRINURTURE 17.12 17.28 17.4 17.78 17.08 17.28 1073600 18562136 4800600 BOGO MEDELLIN 91.15 93.5 93.55 93.55 93 93.5 260 24238.5 CNTRL AZUCARERA 16.9 17 15.8 16.8 15.8 16.8 4700 78460 CENTURY FOOD 14.6 15.94 15.7 15.96 14.6 14.6 1354100 19937256 3271600 DEL MONTE 6.55 6.6 6.6 6.6 6.6 6.6 6200 40920 DNL INDUS 10.52 10.54 10.44 10.58 10.36 10.52 2305700 24225008 -813018 EMPERADOR 7 7.1 7.18 7.2 7 7 1538200 10785283 -2445113 SMC FOODANDBEV 80.3 81.7 82 82 80 81.7 97680 7945359 -4394480.5 ALLIANCE SELECT 1.02 1.03 1.03 1.03 1.01 1.03 1323000 1351130 -2040 GINEBRA 25 25.05 25.05 25.05 25.05 25.05 14000 350700 JOLLIBEE 302 302.4 303 303 298.6 302.4 715510 215698614 46042862 LIBERTY FLOUR 40.1 57.95 45 45 45 45 1000 45000 MACAY HLDG 8.53 9.89 9.89 9.89 9.89 9.89 4000 39560 MAXS GROUP 10.34 10.44 10.46 10.46 10.2 10.34 245000 2544556 37468 PEPSI COLA 1.39 1.4 1.39 1.44 1.37 1.4 3922000 5515650 -3824200 SHAKEYS PIZZA 11.46 11.7 11.4 11.76 11.36 11.46 435500 5002022 -3175036 ROXAS AND CO 1.97 2.01 2.06 2.06 1.96 1.96 244000 483620 RFM CORP 4.7 4.75 4.8 4.8 4.72 4.75 47000 223450 -199850 ROXAS HLDG 2.68 2.77 2.73 2.73 2.68 2.68 26000 70220 59460 SWIFT FOODS 0.125 0.128 0.125 0.128 0.125 0.128 70000 8930 UNIV ROBINA 128.4 128.5 128.8 128.8 128.2 128.5 1516080 194895557 -41370687 VITARICH 1.87 1.88 1.95 1.99 1.82 1.88 15658000 29651610 317660 CEMEX HLDG 1.72 1.73 1.75 1.79 1.71 1.73 10934000 19180650 -900320 DAVINCI CAPITAL 6.97 6.99 7.16 7.9 6.99 6.99 3172200 23717905 EAGLE CEMENT 14.9 15.3 15.18 15.3 15.1 15.3 450800 6882950 -4651584 EEI CORP 8.18 8.19 8 8.3 8 8.19 67900 556560 197539 HOLCIM 5.77 5.8 5.9 5.9 5.76 5.8 34200 198961 -160775 MEGAWIDE 17.96 18 18.08 18.38 17.98 18 2155300 38,796,754( 25,600,937.9996) PHINMA 8.41 9.02 8.78 9.02 8.78 9.02 53500 472450 TKC METALS 0.83 0.86 0.84 0.86 0.83 0.86 116000 96890 VULCAN INDL 1.68 1.69 1.71 1.71 1.66 1.68 2951000 4969420 258410 CHEMPHIL 160.8 170 175 175 170 170 3510 603880 CROWN ASIA 1.71 1.76 1.78 1.78 1.7 1.71 38000 66060 26600 LMG CHEMICALS 4.3 4.39 4.3 4.39 4.3 4.39 163000 701170 PRYCE CORP 5.75 5.85 5.75 5.75 5.75 5.75 186400 1071800 -130525 CONCEPCION 37.3 37.85 37.2 37.2 37.2 37.2 200 7440 GREENERGY 1.98 1.99 2 2.04 1.97 1.99 7053000 14046010 1330320 INTEGRATED MICR 10.52 10.54 10.7 10.7 10.4 10.52 2480300 26017202 15878846 IONICS 1.85 1.88 1.88 1.88 1.84 1.85 443000 822330 29600 PANASONIC 5.8 5.9 5.86 5.86 5.8 5.8 6000 34842 SFA SEMICON 1.4 1.44 1.42 1.45 1.35 1.44 180000 249150 CIRTEK HLDG 31.2 32 32.55 33 31 32 502600 15943805 -255760

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.59 0.6 0.63 0.63 0.59 0.59 19105000 11587310 -362780 ASIABEST GROUP 25.35 26 26.5 27 25.05 26 112200 2868880 53355 AYALA CORP 912 914 918 919.5 910 914 404820 370060230 -22393865 ABOITIZ EQUITY 55.7 56 56.8 56.9 55 56 1820520 101920526 51172086 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 12.28 12.3 12.4 12.4 12.22 12.3 7213500 88772972 -20625704 ANSCOR 6.5 6.55 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 2000 13000 7150 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.88 0.9 0.9 0.93 0.9 0.9 26000 23650 ATN HLDG A 1.37 1.38 1.36 1.39 1.35 1.37 3212000 4405620 ATN HLDG B 1.39 1.41 1.38 1.39 1.37 1.39 1059000 1462900 214820.0002 COSCO CAPITAL 6.65 6.84 6.8 6.84 6.65 6.65 1496700 10081687 -5620551 DMCI HLDG 12.68 12.7 12.9 12.9 12.54 12.7 5085900 64692728 1890158 FILINVEST DEV 11.9 11.92 12.92 13.8 11.8 11.92 2263700 27855802 2646978.0001 GT CAPITAL 991.5 992 975 993 969.5 991.5 137330 135600685 56444440 HOUSE OF INV 5.81 6.12 5.81 5.87 5.81 5.83 1600 9378 JG SUMMIT 55.55 56.1 53.9 56.1 53.55 56.1 3234430 179078401.5 40862170.5 LODESTAR 0.56 0.57 0.58 0.58 0.57 0.57 2000 1150 LOPEZ HLDG 4.02 4.08 4.11 4.19 4.01 4.08 4472000 18489270 -5480580 LT GROUP 16.5 16.6 16.8 16.9 16.5 16.6 2160900 36073892 -5778606 MABUHAY HLDG 0.61 0.62 0.61 0.62 0.6 0.62 858000 522400 12000 METRO PAC INV 4.61 4.62 4.6 4.64 4.6 4.62 21140000 97690300 19160190 PACIFICA 0.036 0.038 0.037 0.039 0.036 0.036 14400000 539800 PRIME ORION 2.5 2.52 2.56 2.57 2.46 2.5 820000 2064890 -51200 PRIME MEDIA 1.17 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.17 1.25 40000 48290 SOLID GROUP 1.3 1.31 1.31 1.31 1.31 1.31 9000 11790 SYNERGY GRID 448 500 481 481 480 480 60 28840 SM INVESTMENTS 910 912 918 921 906 910 558390 508087570 -149129695 SAN MIGUEL CORP 144.9 145 145 147 145 145 628120 91268095 -16762435 TOP FRONTIER 250 250.2 258 269.8 250 250.2 2180 552696 -122918 WELLEX INDUS 0.247 0.249 0.25 0.25 0.243 0.247 2220000 546890 ZEUS HLDG 0.209 0.222 0.223 0.223 0.206 0.206 20000 4290

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.82 0.83 0.9 0.92 0.82 0.83 10014000 8701430 451990 ANCHOR LAND 11.24 11.84 11.24 11.88 11.24 11.24 2300 25916 AYALA LAND 41.3 41.4 42.05 42.7 41.1 41.3 14895700 615636860 -57704345 ARANETA PROP 1.7 1.74 1.69 1.7 1.69 1.7 214000 363700 BELLE CORP 2.19 2.24 2.24 2.25 2.19 2.19 5643000 12447780 -11073250 A BROWN 0.83 0.84 0.84 0.84 0.82 0.83 1121000 930060 CITYLAND DEVT 0.86 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.88 3000 2640 CROWN EQUITIES 0.248 0.249 0.248 0.25 0.248 0.249 1100000 273430 119040 CEBU HLDG 5.88 6.47 6.2 6.47 6.2 6.47 7700 48415 CEB LANDMASTERS 3.96 3.99 4 4 3.93 3.99 82000 326210 -107560 CENTURY PROP 0.425 0.43 0.425 0.425 0.415 0.425 2680000 1131450 127500 CYBER BAY 0.395 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.38 0.395 730000 282500 DOUBLEDRAGON 18.02 18.38 18.38 18.5 18.02 18.02 499400 9096288 -3687320 DM WENCESLAO 7.9 7.94 7.9 7.9 7.82 7.9 140400 1109067 561632 EMPIRE EAST 0.485 0.49 0.485 0.49 0.485 0.49 50000 24400 EVER GOTESCO 0.113 0.124 0.124 0.124 0.124 0.124 10000 1240 FILINVEST LAND 1.43 1.45 1.43 1.45 1.41 1.43 4172000 5968440 -889760 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.06 1.07 1.05 1.07 1.05 1.06 1450000 1540630 -0 8990 HLDG 7.97 8.01 7.86 8.03 7.74 8.01 2071800 16508360 59549 PHIL INFRADEV 2.27 2.28 2.27 2.31 2.25 2.28 3240000 7381030 11430 MEGAWORLD 4.78 4.8 4.8 4.81 4.75 4.8 20015000 96066200 -20730340 MRC ALLIED 0.425 0.43 0.43 0.435 0.42 0.43 16310000 6961400 -8500 PRIMEX CORP 3.55 3.57 3.55 3.57 3.54 3.57 380000 1347560 -110040 ROBINSONS LAND 20.55 20.9 21 21.2 20.55 20.55 2301000 47681325 -6217455 PHIL REALTY 0.42 0.44 0.43 0.44 0.42 0.44 830000 351200 ROCKWELL 2 2.02 2 2.01 1.99 2 73000 145480 SHANG PROP 3.08 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.08 3.08 18000 55560 -18600 STA LUCIA LAND 1.25 1.26 1.25 1.26 1.22 1.25 264000 328240 SM PRIME HLDG 34.95 35 35.5 35.8 34.8 35 15584900 546543330 -63403150 STARMALLS 5.81 5.87 5.92 5.92 5.8 5.87 318800 1862156 58998 SUNTRUST HOME 0.7 0.73 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 17000 11900 VISTA LAND 5.24 5.25 5.25 5.28 5.23 5.25 4038000 21194330 -9707871

SERVICES ABS CBN 19.94 20.05 19.98 20.05 19.94 20 147100 2940280 GMA NETWORK 5.47 5.5 5.46 5.54 5.46 5.5 297300 1637238 MLA BRDCASTING 17.4 18.48 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 2100 36540 GLOBE TELECOM 1900 1950 1951 1960 1900 1900 48150 92120115 -22987825 PLDT 1149 1150 1169 1169 1139 1149 150175 172276760 -73848900 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.04 0.041 0.042 0.043 0.041 0.041 10900000 456700 DFNN INC 6.81 7.67 7.67 7.67 7.67 7.67 70100 537667 IMPERIAL 1.88 1.9 1.88 1.9 1.88 1.9 5000 9480 ISLAND INFO 0.122 0.123 0.124 0.127 0.122 0.123 10030000 1237540 46740 ISM COMM 6.02 6.03 5.87 6.13 5.8 6.02 11429200 68626795 -1426549 NOW CORP 3.37 3.38 3.4 3.43 3.32 3.38 1012000 3416280 -73890 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.455 0.46 0.44 0.47 0.435 0.46 92710000 42228300 102400 PHILWEB 3 3.05 3.1 3.16 3 3.05 1797000 5460580 -2596430 2GO GROUP 13.68 13.7 14.16 14.16 13.68 13.7 336800 4683702 41100 ASIAN TERMINALS 13.5 13.88 13.5 13.5 13.5 13.5 100 1350 -1350 CEBU AIR 72 73 72 73.2 72 72 251440 18151765 -11375047 CHELSEA 6.43 6.46 6.45 6.59 6.42 6.46 1220100 7923335 -109536 INTL CONTAINER 103 103.5 101.7 103 100 103 1297890 132387802 29754952 LBC EXPRESS 14.5 14.6 14.5 14.5 14.5 14.5 3700 53650 MACROASIA 16.44 16.46 16.56 16.56 16.1 16.46 517700 8508800 976946 METROALLIANCE A 2.01 2.06 2.05 2.07 2 2.06 139000 280540 PAL HLDG 8.3 8.33 8.3 8.3 8.3 8.3 1900 15770 HARBOR STAR 3.02 3.07 3.06 3.17 3 3.07 653000 1987430 4930 ACESITE HOTEL 1.34 1.36 1.5 1.5 1.36 1.36 436000 606270 105380 WATERFRONT 0.68 0.69 0.68 0.69 0.67 0.69 1446000 980580 CENTRO ESCOLAR 7.61 7.8 7.8 7.8 7.8 7.8 1000 7800 FAR EASTERN U 892 900 890 890 890 890 50 44500 IPEOPLE 11.2 11.5 11 11.2 11 11.2 200 2220 STI HLDG 0.73 0.74 0.75 0.75 0.73 0.73 3748000 2759430 703090 BERJAYA 3.9 3.91 3.97 4.02 3.89 3.9 8104000 31669160 -46590 BLOOMBERRY 9.77 9.78 9.83 9.83 9.68 9.78 19499400 190843287 -13751426 PACIFIC ONLINE 9.98 10.38 10.42 10.42 10 10 11800 122200 LEISURE AND RES 3.42 3.5 3.55 3.62 3.4 3.5 1473000 5177100 -651360 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.83 0.84 0.83 0.84 0.82 0.84 2718000 2255600 101390 TRAVELLERS 5.29 5.3 5.25 5.29 5.25 5.29 488000 2572746 -68690 METRO RETAIL 2.48 2.49 2.5 2.5 2.48 2.48 724000 1798450 -59540 PUREGOLD 42.2 42.45 43 43 42.2 42.2 1450500 61573055 -23019930 ROBINSONS RTL 79.05 80 79.75 81.25 78.6 80 648220 51997725.5 6627085.5 PHIL SEVEN CORP 110 112 110.9 112 110.9 112 186250 20670487 -109800 SSI GROUP 2.38 2.39 2.45 2.45 2.38 2.39 1857000 4450390 -865540 WILCON DEPOT 12.2 12.38 12.4 12.4 12.18 12.38 1441100 17764408 2682144 APC GROUP 0.41 0.42 0.41 0.42 0.41 0.42 170000 70000 EASYCALL 15.9 15.98 16.3 16.3 15.66 15.9 59200 933504 9480 GOLDEN BRIA 316.6 325 324.8 325 316.6 325 480 155128 IPM HLDG 7.2 7.8 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 7100 51120 PAXYS 3.15 3.49 3.39 3.5 3.11 3.11 181000 629640 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.32 0.335 0.32 0.33 0.32 0.32 950000 306900 SBS PHIL CORP 7.53 7.54 7.55 7.55 7.54 7.54 24000 181040

MINING & OIL APEX MINING 1.64 1.65 1.61 1.68 1.61 1.65 2714000 4470760 ABRA MINING 0.002 0.0021 0.0021 0.0021 0.002 0.002 56000000 115300 10000 BENGUET A 1.34 1.45 1.35 1.45 1.35 1.45 2000 2800 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.29 0.295 0.295 0.295 0.295 0.295 220000 64900 CENTURY PEAK 2.04 2.05 1.99 2.04 1.99 2.04 1254000 2527240 -36629.9999 DIZON MINES 7.06 7.27 7.06 7.31 7.04 7.27 10800 76417 -35207 FERRONICKEL 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.69 1.68 1.68 284000 477800 -190520 LEPANTO A 0.108 0.11 0.109 0.112 0.104 0.11 8790000 952120 LEPANTO B 0.109 0.112 0.112 0.112 0.112 0.112 280000 31360 31360 MANILA MINING A 0.0066 0.007 0.0069 0.007 0.0069 0.007 2000000 13900 MARCVENTURES 1.31 1.33 1.42 1.42 1.31 1.31 2048000 2739990 NIHAO 1.02 1.07 1.08 1.08 1.02 1.07 220000 224640 NICKEL ASIA 2.16 2.2 2.15 2.21 2.15 2.2 4320000 9483090 2416660 OMICO CORP 0.6 0.61 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 199000 119400 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.97 0.95 0.95 209000 200070 -2910 PX MINING 2.69 2.7 2.73 2.75 2.65 2.7 1311000 3550050 -10920 SEMIRARA MINING 22.5 22.7 23.5 23.75 22.5 22.5 4152600 94860600 -32576870 UNITED PARAGON 0.0055 0.0057 0.0059 0.0059 0.0056 0.0056 66000000 375600 5700 ORNTL PETROL A 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.013 300000 3800 ORNTL PETROL B 0.012 0.013 0.013 0.013 0.013 0.013 10200000 132600 -2600 PHILODRILL 0.012 0.013 0.013 0.013 0.012 0.012 34000000 421400 26000 PHINMA PETRO 3.39 3.4 3.36 3.4 3.36 3.39 129000 436750 PXP ENERGY 14.54 14.56 14.5 14.68 14.5 14.54 690100 10035486 -1579246

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A AC PREF B1 AC PREF B2 DD PREF FGEN PREF G LR PREF PNX PREF 3B PCOR PREF 2A SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2G SMC PREF 2H

96 448.2 490 97 102 1 102.2 985 74 76.15 72.5 72.05

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR GMA HLDG PDR

18.7 5.28

96.9 456 499 98.9 103 1.02 108 1007 75.85 76.2 73.5 73.25

97 456 499 98.9 103 1.02 105 1005 75.9 76.2 72.55 73.25

97 456 499 98.9 103 1.02 105 1007 75.9 76.2 72.55 73.25

97 456 499 98.9 103 1.02 105 1005 75.2 76.15 72.5 73.25

97 456 499 98.9 103 1.02 105 1007 75.2 76.15 72.5 73.25

150 40 10 10 250 5000 100 30 320 440 2600 4240

14550 18240 4990 989 25750 5100 10500 30190 24204 33521.5 188593 310580

-

18.8 5.3

19.1 5.37

19.1 5.37

18.7 5.3

18.8 5.3

20400 89000

387062 472330

-383262 -

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

1.95

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 4.45 XURPAS 1.58

2.03

2.08

2.09

1.92

2.05

336000

673950

20400

4.5 1.59

4.54 1.54

4.6 1.65

4.44 1.49

4.5 1.59

212000 15427000

950690 24485100

-2060380

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

111.7

111.8

112.5

112.5

111.5

111.8

6480

724636

-

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Bond bulls pour in to help won, Asia’s worst currency

F

OREIGN investors piling into South Korean bonds have made them the second-best performers in emerging Asia in the past six months. The coming week may give them more reason to keep buying.

Seen as a haven from this year’s sell-off in emerging-market assets, the nation’s debt has drawn $45.6 billion from global funds this year.

A weakening won—the currency is Asia’s worst performer this quarter—and a November rate increase by the Bank of Korea, its first in a year, have failed to deter overseas buyers.

That’s because the nation’s eco-

nomic outlook still remains uncertain, with any additional rate hikes seen far from given and markets actually pricing in the possibility of a cut. Korean bonds have also benefited from a global investment shift in favor of fixed income as concerns about world growth rise. The notes have returned 4.2 percent since the end of June.

“Foreign investors bought South Korean bonds this year looking at the nation’s high credit rating and current-account surplus,” said Kim Sanghoon, a fixed-income strategist at KB Securities Co. “These will not change in the new year, hence bond purchases are expected to continue.”

South Korea’s notes may serve as haven assets for investors next year as financial-market volatility could increase, according to HSBC Holdings Plc., the nation’s biggest offshore bond arranger.

Against such a backdrop, should data on Korean business surveys for manufacturing and nonmanufacturing conditions show a continuation of the recent downtrend—readings for December matched or fell to the lowest since early 2017—bond bulls may be encouraged to boost hold-

ings. January figures are due on December 28.

Just a few days back, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol shared a view that economic conditions next year will not be good, as external uncertainties remain high and investment and employment are sluggish. The BOK next reviews policy on January 24.

But not everyone is optimistic about the debt outlook. Paik Yoonmin, a fixed-income analyst at Kyobo Securities Co., believes that yields on Korean bonds may actually rise as the securities “are currently being overbought, even considering next year’s slow sentiment.”

“While most investors are looking at slower growth next year, the market is overreacting to such projections,” he said. Bloomberg News

PA Properties brings cheer to local communities this holiday season

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EAL-ESTATE company PA Alvarez Properties and Development Corp. (PA Properties) celebrates the Christmas season with an annual activity in communities where the company operates, particularly in Laguna and Cavite.

Dubbed “Pamaskong Handog 2018,” this initiative done by the firm for more than a decade

forms part of its corporate social responsibility thrust.

On the first day of the activity, a collection drive consisting of toys, clothes and books was organized with Cittadinni School for adults and children of San Pedro.

Apart from gift-giving, volunteers treated the participants to a breakfast of bread and porridge.

The second and third days of

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK LAST WEEK

SHARE prices fell last week as profit taking set in after the US Federal Reserve surprised the markets with its 25-basis points rate hike.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 44.66 points to settle at 7,479.71 points.

The main index was down almost all week long except on Wednesday when it gained 159.22 points.

Average daily trading for the week was still lackluster at P5.89 billion. Foreign investors dumped shares at a net sell of P2.51 billion.

Most of the subindices were down, but the Industrial index was up 47.54 points to 11,010.54 and the Services index rose 19.48 to 1,450.55.

The broader All Shares index was down 4.92 to 4,501.58; the Financials index fell 29.27 to 1,756.28; the Holding Firms index declined 61.19 to 7,368.92; the Property index was down 20.35 to 3,620.82; and the Mining and Oil index plunged 255 to 7,943.55.

For the week, gainers slightly edged losers 104 to 107 and 34 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers for the week were the A and B shares of Keppel Philippines Holdings Inc., Xupas Inc., Ferronoux Holdings Inc., Benguet Corp. A and B shares, Phinma Energy Corp. and Filinvest Development Corp.

Top losers were Chemical Industries of the Philippines Inc., Acesite (Philippines) Hotel Corp., Paxys Inc., Philippine Bank of Communications and United Paragon Mining Corp.

THIS WEEK

SHARE prices are expected to remain volatile during the week, dousing some hopes for a year-end rally for the main index.

“The Fed’s surprise move to raise benchmark interest rates by another 25 basis points connotes increased funds flow volatility. Appetite toward fixed income is back, as comparative instruments scale up on expectations of increased fiscal and corporate borrowings for 2019,” broker 2TradeAsia said.

“While higher benchmark interest would take its toll on debt charges, it would be prudent to sift through listed firms’ debt profile to see which ones are variable versus fixed. Fixed interest notes are better shielded in situations when rates move up, thus protecting earnings that could be distributed as dividend,” it added.

It will be a three-day trading week, as there will be no trading on December 24 and December 25.

The PSE, however, clarified there will be trading on December 26.

“With a long weekend coming up, expect the PSEi to respond to the moves of the US market when our market opens once again on Wednesday. Barring any jarring event abroad, we might see a resumption of the light trading next week, especially with the shortened trading schedule and another long weekend next week.

Trading range should be between the recent lows and highs of 7,350 to 7,700,” Gabriel Jose F. Perez of P2P Trade Online said.

STOCK PICKS

BROKER Regina Capital and Development Corp. recommended to buy the stock of Ayala Land Inc. when its support price of P41.91 per share holds.

“The uptrend that began two months ago pushed the stock above both its shortand long-term moving averages although the indicators suggest that the uptrend may begin to consolidate as the buying pressure begins to lose its momentum,” it said.

It gave a weekly target on the stock at P42 per share Ayala Land shares closed on Friday at P41.30 apiece.

Meanwhile, the broker advised to trade the range on the stock of LT Group Inc. after its shares managed to consolidate between the 100-day and 200-day moving averages.

“Hence, the indicators have plateaued,” it said.

It gave a weekly target on the stock at P16.85 and support price of between P16.64 and P16.56.

LT Group shares closed at P16.60 last week. VG Cabuag

Pamaskong Handog were celebrated with differently abled children in San Pedro, Laguna and Carmona, Cavite.

This was in cooperation with the Department of Social Welfare and Development of San Pedro and Persons with Disability Affairs Office, a local government unit from Carmona, Cavite.

On Day 2, PA Properties, to-

MUTUAL FUNDS

gether with its joint venture partner, Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corp., and the LEAD Graduates of PA Properties led the gift-giving to differently abled children in San Pedro, Laguna.

Following this was a lunch and a dance presentation of a mascot from a local fast-food chain. The same activity was held on Day 3 in Carmona, Cavite. Roderick L. Abad

December 21, 2018

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

PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC * 255.46 -11% 1.53% 3.08% -12.87% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC.* 1.4302 -9.76% 7.32% 3.23% -10.43% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC.* 3.9443 -12.18% 2.88% 1.34% -14.12% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP.* 0.9026 -10.79% N.A. N.A. -11.25% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. * ********* 0.8323 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC.* 5.3101 -9.96% 0.46% 2.2% -11.69% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. * ****** 120.35 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. ONE WEALTHY NATION FUND, INC.* 0.8446 -13.66% N.A. N.A. -14.92% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC.* 49.8659 -9.65% 2.6% N.A. -11.57% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC.* 520.34 -9.86% 1.29% 2.43% -11.58% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC.* 1.2687 -7.72% 2.92% N.A. -9.66% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC.* 37.0576 -7.93% 3.45% 5.02% -9.83% PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC.* 5.025 -9.35% 3.31% 4.85% -11.44% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP.* 839.43 -9.16% 3.11% 4.97% -11.24% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. * 0.8692 -8.45% 0.81% N.A. -10.12% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC.* 4.108 -8.32% 2.74% 3.22% -10.31% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC.* 0.9669 -9.51% 3.1% N.A. -11.56% UNITED FUND, INC.* 3.537 -6.96% 4.32% 4.01% -9.17% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC.* *** ● 112.2067 -8.82% 4.27% 6.07% -10.92% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC.** $0.9085 -15.65% 0.91% -0.99% -18.03% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC.* $1.1358 -9.91% N.A. N.A. -10.23% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC.* 1.663 -9.34% -1.16% -0.96% -10.76% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC.* 2.2168 -8.57% 1.45% 1.03% -9.78% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC.* 2.5511 -6.7% -1.51% -1.07% -7.9% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION* **** 1.313 -8.58% N.A. N.A. -9.75% NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC* 1.8531 -5.43% 1.36% 2.42% -7% PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC.* 3.5562 -7.97% 0.16% 1.68% -9.24% PHILAM FUND, INC.* 16.0027 -7.68% 0.27% 1.5% -8.86% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC.* ******** 2.0872 -5.83% 1.6% 2.97% -6.91% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC.* 3.6779 -6.6% 0.99% 1.64% -7.97% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC.* 0.9306 -7.02% 0.32% N.A. -8.79% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC.* $0.03519 -2.63% -0.18% 1.58% -2.52% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC.* $0.9341 -10.62% 2.02% -1.22% -10.78% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC.* $3.3793 -7.23% 2.86% 1.34% -7.48% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC.* $1.0201 -8.11% N.A. N.A. -8.28% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC.* 343.23 1.85% 2.03% 1.84% 1.82% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC.* ******* 1.8569 -1.95% -0.75% -0.53% -1.87% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC.* 2.967 5.38% 5.34% 5.27% 5.14% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC.* 2.1301 1.26% 1.49% 1.39% 1.33% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC.* 2.208 -0.3% 0.07% 0.25% -0.37% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP.* P 1.5638 -2.86% -0.55% -0.8% -2.84% PHILAM BOND FUND, INC.* 3.9175 -3.25% -0.46% -0.14% -3.27% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC.* 3.5004 0.32% 0.24% 0.38% -0.13% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. * 0.8919 -3.32% -0.91% N.A. -3.39% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC.* 2.7635 -0.55% 0.83% 0.67% -0.49% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC.* 1.5381 -0.74% 0.43% 0.19% -0.75% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. * $448.04 0.57% 2.35% 3.08% 0.47% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. * Є212.71 -0.59% 1.04% 1.58% -0.47% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.** $1.1247 -0.86% 0.95% 1.88% -0.83% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.* $0.0249 - 0.4% 0.82% N.A. -0.4% GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP.* $1.6887 -4.57% -0.41% 1.11% -4.67% 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* $1.0343 -3.34% -0.43% -2.46% -3.65% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.* $2.1704 -3.47% 0.95% 2.71% -3.58% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC.* $0.0569737 - 0.74% 0.92% 1.87% -0.4% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC.* $2.8678 -4.68% 0.39% 1.64% -4.81% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC.* 120.73 2.7% 1.9% 1.55% 2.65% PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC.* 1.1805 2% 0.62% 0.49% 2% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC.* 1.2177 2.63% 2.25% 1.56% 2.72% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC.* ***** $1.0154 1.65% N.A. N.A. 1.67%

* - 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

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, December 24, 2018

B3

Passage of bill on regulatory, legal framework for Collective Investment Schemes pushed

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

HE House of Representatives is pushing for the final passage of a measure providing for the comprehensive regulatory and legal framework for Collective Investment Schemes (CIS).

House Bill 8791 was approved on second reading on December 12. It is expected to be approved on third and final reading when session resumes in January.

The chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means,

Rep. Estrellita B. Suansing of Nueva Ecija, is sponsor of the bill. She said it will provide more investment opportunities for the low- to middle-income individuals in CIS while giving them access to the capital markets, reap the

benefits thereof, including diversification and better returns for investments.

House Committee on Economic Affairs Chairman Gwendolyn Garcia, also sponsor of the bill, said the proposal will incorporate mechanisms that would safeguard the public interest, as well as recognize the interests of the other parties involved in the CIS industry.

She added it will also promote investor protection by ensuring high governance standards in the establishment, management, operations and sale of the CIS securities.

The bill refers to the CIS as any arrangement whereby funds are solicited from the investing public and pooled together for the purpose of investing, reinvesting and/or trading in securities or other investment assets or different classes thereof as allowed under this proposed law.

Under the bill, all CIS shall be covered, regulated, governed and must comply with the requirements, rules and regulations set under this proposed law.

House Bill 8791 provides for the tax treatment of CIS. The provision is intended to be the sole tax regime for CIS products to the exclusion of all other provisions of the current tax laws.

It allows the organization of a Real Estate Investment Trust, Exchange-Traded Funds and other forms of investment arrangements existing and accepted in other inter nationa l markets, consistent with the International Organization of Securities and Exchange Commission objectives and principle of Securities Regulation.

The bill ensures that a company acting as fund manager for a CIS should be duly licensed by the appropriate regulatory agency, orga-

nized as a stock corporation and with a minimum paid-up capital of not less than P100 million.

It also determines appropriate regulatory requirements for both judicial and contractual CIS. T he mea su re requ i res t he submission of annual reports for the investors, such as holding statements for Unit Investment Trust Funds, separate financial statements for insurance companies and annual report for mutual funds.

It also entails the election of independent directors in the juridical CIS and in an investment company or mutual fund involved in CIS. It likewise requires that all forms of CIS shall have an independent third-party custodian that shall be primarily responsible for holding the investment assets of the CIS. Meanwhile, the measure imposes a liability on directors and

offices and the creation of an independent oversight body in cases where there is only a single responsible entity in a CIS. The measure also provides for the creation of a Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on CIS to be composed of the chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on Economic Affairs, Banking and Financial Intermediaries, Trade and Industry, and one of additional two members who shall come from the minority, to oversee the implementation of this proposed act.

It also provides the appropriate regulatory agency the power to adjudicate small claims involving CIS amounting to not more than P1 million.

Meanwhile, violators of the Act may face administrative sanctions with a penalty of up to P1 million and criminal penalties with possible penalty of up to P5 million.

BSP urged to require banks to post remittance prices T

A MONEY changer in Manila counts new peso and dollar bills in this 2018 file photo. NONIE REYES

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) should require banks to visibly display their international remittance prices on their web sites, the party-list group ACTS-OFW said.

“We see no reason why regulators cannot compel banks to clearly post their applicable remittance prices for all to see. Banks are already obliged to make public most of their other fees and charges anyway,” said ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto D. Bertiz III. “Greater transparency from banks with respect to their remittance prices would give more meaning to the rights of consumers, mainly our migrant workers, to be informed and to choose,” he added ACTS-OFW has been batting for reduced bank remittance charges to help ease the burden on migrant Filipino workers and their families.

“The less our workers pay for bank money-transfer charges, the more cash goes into the pockets of their families here,” Bertiz said.

After the crash, dreams die hard for Wall Street crypto bankers

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IMBO —t h at ’s where to f i nd Wall Street when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

Squeamish from the start about pursuing profits in one of the darker corners of finance, established firms this year slowed their already halting efforts to make a business out of Bitcoin mania. While none has thrown in the towel, and some continue to develop a trading infrastructure, most flinched as the value of virtual coins collapsed.

Take Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which sought to position itself at the cutting edge of digital assets that skeptics see mainly as a domain of day traders and anarchists.

Progress has been so slow as to be barely noticeable, according to people familiar with its crypto business. Many in the industry now say it was quixotic to have expected last year’s frenzy to translate into a Wall Street crypto offering.

“The market had unrealistic expectations that Goldman or any of its peers could suddenly start a Bitcoin trading business,” said Daniel H. Gallancy, chief executive officer of New York-based SolidX Partners, which hopes to launch a Bitcoin ETF in the US. “That was top-of-the-market-hype thinking.”

Goldman remains a focal point for expectations of an establishment embrace of crypto. The firm was among the first on Wall Street to clear Bitcoin futures and people familiar with the matter said last year it was preparing a trading desk—the bank even provided its bankers to the New York Times for an interview on its plans.

After considering a custody service for crypto funds, the firm invested in custodian BitGo Holdings Inc. It’s also offering derivatives on Bitcoin called non-deliverable forwards.

The bank has yet to offer trading of crypto and has gained little traction for its NDF product, having signing up just 20 clients, according to people familiar with the matter. Justin Schmidt, who was hired to head its digital-asset business, said at an industry conference last month that regulators are limiting what he can do.

Still, Goldman plans to add a digital-assets specialist to its prime brokerage division, the person said.

With regulators offering little clear guidance on how they will classify the broad universe of tokens—as commodities, securities or something else—banks and investment firms are treading cautiously. Criminal and regulatory probes aren’t helping either.

Even after the plunge that erased $700 billion from the value of crypto assets, believers are sticking to their script Morgan Stanley, which hired Andrew Peel as its head of digital assets earlier in the year, has been technically prepared to offer swaps tracking Bitcoin futures since at least September, yet thus far has not traded a single contract, according to a person familiar with the matter. A person with knowledge of the business said in September the contracts would be launched once there is proven institutional client demand.

Meanwhile, Citigroup Inc. has not traded any of the products it designed for cryptocurrencies within existing regulatory

structures, according to a separate person with knowledge of its business. The socalled digital asset receipts enable trading by proxy without direct ownership of the underlying coins, a person with knowledge of the plans said in September.

In London, Barclays Plc., which has sounded out client interest on a cryptocurrency trading desk, is almost back to square one. Earlier in the year the British bank appointed two former oil traders—Chris Tyrer and Matthieu Jobbe Duval—to explore the business. Tyrer, who led the digital-assets project, left in September, while Jobbe Duval followed two months later, according to people familiar with the matter. Barclays currently has no plans for a crypto trading desk, according to a spokesman.

Officials for Citigroup and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on their cryptocurrency businesses. For its part, Goldman’s “primary focus is thoughtfully and safely serving our clients’ needs,” said Spokesman Patrick Lenihan in New York.

Even after the staggering sell-off in digital assets in 2018—a year after Bitcoin came in touching distance of $20,000 it now trades at around $4,000—crypto pros see signs institutions are getting ready to jump back in if they need to.

“The more important story is all the infrastructure that’s being built now to enable institutional trading,” according to Ben Sebley, a former Credit Suisse Group AG trader who is now head of brokerage at crypto boutique NKB Group. Bloomberg News

The United Nations’s Social Development Goals seek to lessen income inequality by eventually lowering the cost of an international cash remittance to a global average of 3 percent of the amount sent.

Banks charge the most

“BANKS remain the most expensive type of [remittance] service provider, with an average cost of 10.51 percent of the amount sent,” according to the World Bank ’s Remittance Prices Worldwide quarterly report as of September this year.

“The report basically implies that for every $200 sent home through banks, our migrant workers pay

an average of $21.02 in transfer charges, which is too much,” Bertiz said.

Overseas Filipinos still prefer to wire their money home via banks, despite the rise of The Western Union Co., MoneyGram International Inc. and other nonbank remittance agents.

Banks capture some 85 percent of all the money sent home by overseas Filipinos, the World Bank said.

Overseas Filipinos sent home through the banking system a total of $21.29 billion from January to September this year, up 2.5 percent, from $20.78 billion in the same nine-month period in 2017, the BSP said.

B4 Monday, December 24, 2018

DREAMING OF A BRIGHTER FUTURE BEYOND THE HOLIDAYS FIND THE OPPO SMARTPHONE FOR YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES THIS CHRISTMAS

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T ’S t he most wonder f u l t ime of t he yea r—a nd t he per fect opportunity to enjoy a brand new Oppo smartphone.

Whether you’re upgrading to your dream phone or opening a world of tech possibilities for your loved ones, Oppo has you covered with exciting smartphone options that deliver a variety of features suiting different needs and budgets.

An empowering choice for urbanites who love the nightlife.

Night photography on your phone

doesn’t need to be so challenging— thanks to the OPPO R17 Pro powered by a triple camera, a unique imageenhancing technology and variable smart aperture designed to empower users to seize the night. Plus, there’s the super VOOC technology that makes charging so much faster and provides enough battery juice to go on all night.

For only P38,990, the R17 Pro is a great gift to reward yourself, or as a gesture of appreciation for that special someone.

A premium option that reflects the breadth and depth of your affection. They say that when it comes to gifting, it’s the thought t hat cou nts— and you can s ho w t h at you have thoroughly t hought of t he recipient with a gift as precious, impressive, and useful as the OPPO Find X (P49,990 SRP).

This global mobile sensation w i l l d e f i n it e l y make the recipient

swoon with a seamless combination of d ist inct ive a r t a nd f ront-l ine technology that takes user experience to the next level.

A powerhouse of style and substance for millennials on the go. Looking to be more productive this 2019? Gift yourself with the OPPO F9, a smartphone that can power your productivity goals. This gorgeously designed piece of technology not only boasts of a unique gradient body design, but also VOOC flash-charge capabilities to keep you connected, engaged and empowered all day. Priced at P17,990 for the 6-gigabyte model, this model offers flagship features at an affordable price.

Features-packed entry-level smar t phone for t he f ledg ling techy. Perfect for fledgling techies of every age, the OPPO A7 offers a great combination of features and stylish design at an equally great price point.

The unique waterdrop screen not only offers a distinctive visual feature, but also an overall smarter interactive experience for users. And with an SRP of only P13,990, this is an ideal starter phone for your kids, nephews or nieces, as well as your tita, tito, parents and grandparents.

Enjoy a truly merry Christmas with Oppo!

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ILIPINOS love celebrating homecomings. This is especially true for those with family members who are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Such occasion are marked with teary eyes, big smiles and warm hugs—starting from airport arrival to the various celebrations held to welcome the balikbayan.

Saving up for a round-trip ticket and a family Christmas celebration is no mean feat, given that a big amount of his or her salary goes to the family’s expenses for their daily needs, education or even for house building.

But why not break the cycle and prepare for a future filled with more time with family?

Sun Life Grepa Financial Inc. (Sun life Grepa) offers the chance to build one’s dreams with its various financial-protection solutions that include life insurance, as well as investment-linked insurance products for different needs in easily affordable installment plans.

“We encourage our kababayans to think of their financial security beyond their employment-contract tenure,” says Sun Life Grepa President Richard S. Lim. “While providing for your children’s education or paying for a house is an immediate goal that we want every OFW to achieve, we also want to help our OFWs

to be financially prepared for their future regardless of what happens.”

With Sun Life Grepa’s life-insurance coverage, an OFW can be assured that his income is protected in case of uncertainty, giving financial security to his family. “An OFW’s salary can only do much to provide for his family’s needs,” Lim says. “By setting aside regular amounts for a life-insurance policy, an OFW can provide greater financial benefits to his loved ones beyond his monthly remittances.”

Aside from life coverage, many of Sun Life Grepa’s products come with an investment component that can also help grow the OFW’s savings. “Given that most OFWs save in cash, we want to help them optimize their money’s value over time,” Lim adds.

For an OFW coming home this Christmas, getting financial protection can be the best gift for the family. “The earlier they can financially prepare for their future, the more likely they can actually be permanently reunited with their loved ones sooner and enjoy peace of mind about their future.”

For inquiries, e-mail at wecare@sunlifegrepa. com, visit any Sun life Grepa branch or visit www. sunlifegrepa.com. Interested OFWs may also visit their nearest RCBC, RCBC Savings Bank or CTBC Bank branch.

ENTERPRISE ROADSHOW, SEMINAR FOR BUSINESS OWNERS Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) business owners are invited in the biggest international processing- and packaging-trade event in the country from January 24 to 26, 2019, at the World Trade Center. In photo are some of the experts who will share their knowledge and expertise: (from left) Lieutenant Col. Joseph Ross Jocson, president of the Packaging Institute of the Philippines; Dr. Lotis Francisco, president, Philippine Association of Food Technologists; Daisy Tañafranca of the Department of Science and Technology; Justine Pau of UBM Thailand; Dennis Dungo of Asia Integrated Machinery Inc., and Dexter Deyto of UBM Philippines. ProPak Philippines will showcase new technologies, machinery and solutions, especially for food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors with over 180 exhibitors from 17 countries, with 10 international pavilions from across the globe. ProPak Philippines is organized by UBM Asia, a part of Informa Plc., the largest and leading business-to-business information-service group in the world.

MAKE GIFT GIVING SPECIAL WITH GILTBOX

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ITH the maddening crowd in malls and not to mention the horrendous traffic situation, why burden yourself with all that when you can have your gifts delivered at home?

Giltbox, on its second month of partnership with cosmetics and lifestyle giant Avon Philippines, will feature two makeup and two skin-care products from Avon Trueline.

The perfectly matte-delicate lipstick is Avon’s first delicately diffused, soft matte lipstick. The delicate color looks as soft as it feels and available in eight shades, which retails for only P399!

The ideal oil control plus dual-powder foundation makes skin look fairer, protects with SPF and from pollution, doesn’t clog pores, smoothens complexion, brightens skin, covers blemishes and pores, wearls long and matches Asian skin. The lead size is only P399, while the refill is only P179.

Avon True Nutraeffects mattifying day cream SPF 15, an ultra lightweight oil-free cream, is formulated to reduce the oil, minimize the pores and provide a no-shine, matte finish look that lasts all day. With SPF 15 to combat harmful UV rays, this daily cream is also nonsticky/nongreasy and free from harmful ingredients, which is perfect for oily and sensitive skin.

The water-light, 15-gram Avon True Nutraeffects mattifying night gel cream is uniquely formulated to help balance the skin, so you can wake up to a complexion that looks and feels fresh and shine-free overnight. This gel cream helps minimize oil production in the skin while increasing the skin’s natural moisturizer.

Go to www.giltbox.ph and subscribe today.

Supplies are limited. Get a 15-percent discount on any product you see at www.avonshop.ph by using the code AvonGiltboxNov for a one-time purchase valid until December 30.

BRINGING SHOPPING A LOT CLOSER TO CUSTOMERS

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UTY Free Philippines (DFP) hits another milestone this year by bringing shopping a lot closer to its customers by officially signing up with Speed Regalo for its online-shopping platform.

Speed Regalo is an innovative online-shopping web site that DFP partnered with to offer a variety of gift items ranging from Pinoy-made products, confectioneries, gift baskets, flowers, plush toys and many more.

DFP offers a wide selection of items featuring some of the famous brands from all over the world that are perfect for gifts during this holiday season. From Duty Free staples, such as chocolates, tobacco, liquor, perfume and grocery items, shoppers can also shop from famous brands, like Kate Spade, Bally, Long Champ,

Tumi, Coach, Michael Kors and Dior. Shoppers can also have a taste of the Philippines’s finest when they visit the Go Lokal section.

With the recent trends in online shopping, DFP continues to serve its customers by providing options to make their shopping experience more convenient, efficient, and enjoyable. You can now shop and give Duty Free Philippines’s world-class products to your families and loved ones.

Visit www.dutyfreephilippines.ph.

In photo are (from left) Speed Regalo President Jason Cheng, Speed Regalo general manager Jose Carlo Medina, DFP Chief Operating Officer Vico Angala and DFP Deputy COO Bernardine Belmonte.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Monday, December 24, 2018 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

GYMNASTICS BODY FOCUSES GREEDY EYES ON PARKOUR P

By John Leicester The Associated Press

ARIS—Their test of skill and courage was as dangerous as it was effective: Having clambered as stylishly as they could to the summit of a jagged, pyramid-shaped climbing wall in the suburbs of Paris, the young men would hang each other upside down by the feet from the top.

One slip and the four-story drop could have killed them.

Chau Belle flashes a grin at the memory of those heady days in the 1990s, when he and his gang of friends and cousins pushed each other and pushed the envelope of what has since mushroomed into a globalized street sport of urban acrobatics known as parkour. The sport is talked about as a possible new Olympic discipline but is also the focus of a heated custody battle as its popularity and marketing potential grow.

Parkour, derived from the French word for path or journey, was still just an exploration of self and of manhood when Belle and his friends were dangling each other off the 17-meter-tall (55-feet) Dame du Lac, with its view over Paris’s southern outskirts.

“It was a form of courage. A bit crazy, too. You really had to trust the person who held you,” the 41-year-old recalls. “It was a test. A test of self-belief. Of one’s friends.

Of family. Of ourselves, too.”

Parkour was built around the simple philosophy that almost any terrain can, with imagination and training, be turned into a playground for running, jumping, climbing and pushing oneself.

Male practitioners call themselves traceurs; women are traceuses. Both roughly translate as pathfinder. They regard urban furniture—stairwells, walls, fences, pillars, tables, benches, trees, bridges, etc.—not as obstacles but as opportunities, free apparatus with which to have fun.

A milestone in parkour’s growth was injecting the adrenaline jolt into Daniel Craig’s opening scenes as James Bond, with the actor haring through a construction site in Casino Royale in pursuit of a terrorist with Spiderman skills, played by Sebastien Foucan.

Foucan was one of the founding practitioners of parkour, along with Belle, his cousin David Belle and a half-dozen others. Calling themselves “the Yamakasi” and the sport they were inventing “the art of movement,” they pieced together their new moves on, around and over the street furniture of Paris’s suburban concrete jungles.

“People see only what’s in front of them, at their feet. We succeeded in telling ourselves to look upward, to say, ‘There are things we can do with this,’” Belle says. “We’d do the same exercise 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 times.”

“We obsessed about repetition, numbers, trying to figure out if something was useful,” he adds. “We were so hooked on this thing, on this search for ourselves.”

Others became hooked, too.

PARKOUR Cofounder Chau Belle trains in a park in Paris as participants of the Parkour Generations work on their practice runs outside of Wembley Stadium ahead of the 13th Rendezvous International Parkour Gathering in London in August. AP

A child of the Internet age, parkour spread virally and globally in part because its practitioners’ derring-do videos of gravity-defying flips, jumps and other exploits work in any language and readily generate social-media clicks and followers.

But the sport’s coming of age has also attracted a powerful and determined suitor, one unwelcomed by many in parkour: gymnastics.

Using its financial muscle and clout within the Olympic movement, the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) is steadily bringing—critics say forcing—parkour under its wing. This month, a FIG Congress officially recognizeg parkour as gymnastics’ newest discipline. FIG is now organizing introductionto-parkour coaching courses, scheduling its first world championships for parkour in 2020 and intends to lobby the International Olympic Committee for parkour’s inclusion in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

All this despite a #WeAreNOTGymnastics protest

movement by parkour lovers on social media and howls of complaint from parkour groups.

“This is the equivalent of a hostile takeover,” says Eugene Minogue, chief executive of Parkour Earth, the grouping formed in 2017 from six national associations that is one of FIG’s most vocal critics but is struggling to defend itself against the 137-year-old gymnastics federation that has the ear of Olympic leaders and the sports establishment.

“They are completely whitewashing our sport, its integrity, its history, its lineage, its authenticity,” Minogue said.

Minogue suspects FIG of wanting to get its hands on parkour’s young and growing fan base, to stay relevant with Olympic leaders who want action sports that appeal to 21st-century audiences and sponsors. Other long-established sports have done likewise: Cycling, for example, absorbed BMX in the 1990s and skiing became the international federation for snowboarding.

“They want to codify it, they want to monetize it,” Minogue says of FIG. “It’s about money, about influence, about power, about control. It’s about having a seat at the table.”

Another concern is that FIG-organized competitions could denature parkour’s “let’s play” philosophy and endanger parkour athletes by encouraging them to try overly dangerous, crowd- and judge-pleasing tricks.

“The one thing I hope is that gymnastics does not condone risk-taking and that it doesn’t glorify an elite. Because we’ve been fighting for 20 years against young people chasing clicks, filming themselves doing acrobatics and taking risks with the aim of becoming famous and finding a sponsor,” says Sacha Lemaire, president of the France-based Federation de Parkour.

“We’re afraid that glorifying competition will feed this phenomenon and that we’ll bear the brunt for that.”

FIG insists that parkour and gymnastics are far more of a natural fit than its critics acknowledge. As

3.5B PEOPLE VIEW 2018 WORLD CUP G

PEOPLE watch a giant screen during the World Cup final between France and Croatia at the Champ de Mars in Paris in July. AP

ENEVA—More than 3.5 billion people viewed some of the 2018 World Cup action, with 1.12 billion watching at least one minute of France beating Croatia, 4-2, in the final, according to Fifa.

A Fifa-commissioned review of World Cup viewing published on Friday said the television audience for the final was 516.6 million by the traditional measure of “global average in-home audience.” More watched on digital devices and out-of-home screenings in public spaces, bars and restaurants.

Changing viewing habits—and no South American team in the final—help explain a drop from the 545-million average TV audience for the GermanyArgentina final in 2014.

In comparison, the 2016 European Championship final attracted a 284.4-million average audience for Portugal beating host France. The most-watched Super Bowl in the United States was 114.4 million when the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks in 2015.

Fifa said the global TV audience for the 64-match tournament in Russia averaged 191 million per game— up from 187 million for the 2014 edition in Brazil.

“Each game was a global televisual event in its own right,” soccer’s governing body said, citing research by Publicis Media Sport & Entertainment.

The 10 most-watched games all had a verified average TV audience of more than 260 million viewers.

The second-highest rating was 327.5 million for Croatia’s semifinal win over England in extra time.

Fifa’s research suggests most viewers also watched for longer than they did four years earlier.

The number of people watching at least 30 consecutive minutes of any game in their home was almost 2.5 billion—up more than 27 percent from the

an example of how the sports can coexist, it points to Sweden, where parkour joined the gym federation in 2014 and where traceurs/traceuses often train in gymnastic facilities to avoid the Nordic weather.

In response to e-mailed questions from The Associated Press, FIG’s secretary general, Andre Gueisbuhler, said its competitions would not reward risk, would not be “about jumping furthest and highest” and would help make parkour safer.

FIG “offers an infrastructure which has all necessary means to develop the sport worldwide within a short time,” Gueisbuhler wrote.

Belle, who teaches what he still calls the art of movement, says he struggles to see convincing parallels between the activity dreamed up by the Yamakasi in their youth and what he regards as the codified, rigid world of gymnastics.

“Parkour has become a merchandise now,” he said. “At the beginning, it was free.”

same measure in 2014.

South Americans were the most avid viewers despite watching fewer hours overall of a tournament where Brazil exited in the quarterfinals, and Argentina in the round of 16.

Fifa said 96.6 percent of South America’s population saw at least one minute of any game. However, their 5.52 billion hours of total viewing fell 26.9 percent from the 2014 tournament where host Brazil placed fourth.

In Europe—which provided all four semifinalists in Russia—the 2018 World Cup reached 86 percent of people watching an average of 14.6 hours.

“In contrast only 38.4 percent of the Asian population were reached by World Cup coverage, reflecting relatively lower interest in the Indian subcontinent,” Fifa said.

Still, almost 30 percent more viewing hours were measured in Asia, where games in Russia were played in time zones more convenient than in 2014.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino, meanwhile, still looks set to be reelected unopposed, with a pledge of 25 votes from Caribbean soccer federations.

The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) says its executive committee agreed unanimous support for Infantino for the June 5 vote in Paris.

The CFU says all its members “already provided individual letters of support.”

Infantino has promises from a majority of the 211 Fifa member-federations.

The deadline for a rival candidate to declare is on February 5.

Infantino is seeking a first full four-year mandate. The Swiss lawyer was elected in February 2016 to complete the fifth term of Sepp Blatter, who was banned by Fifa’s ethics committee. AP

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C2 Monday, December 24, 2018

Russia prevents Wada from finding doping data in Moscow laboratory

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OSCOW—World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) inspectors are leaving Moscow empty-handed after Russian authorities prevented them from accessing key doping data that the country’s authorities had agreed to hand over.

Wada reinstated the suspended Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) in September on the condition Russian authorities hand over lab data, which could help confirm a number of violations uncovered during an investigation that revealed a state-sponsored doping program designed to win medals at the Sochi Olympics and other major events.

But on Friday, Wada said its delegation “was unable to complete its mission” because Russia unexpectedly demanded its equipment be “certified under Russian law.”

Wada says the demand wasn’t raised at earlier talks. The deadline to turn over the data is December 31.

Wada says team leader Toni Pascual will now prepare a report on the failed mission. The Wada compliance review committee that recommended Rusada’s reinstatement will meet on January 14 and 15, where it could recommend the ban on Rusada be reimposed.

Wada kept open the option of returning to the lab before year’s end if Russia resolves the issue.

Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told local media the Wada team would return, but there was no word on the date and no mention of the issue raised by Wada.

Wada leaders portrayed Russia’s willingness to turn over the data as a key reason for agreeing to reinstate Rusada despite its failure to comply with key requirements on the “road map” Wada had set out.

“We’ve tried to come to terms with the Russians on how this was to be done, and this is the first time since discussing it that they’ve actually said ‘yes,’” Wada Director General Olivier Niggli in September, in an impassioned defense of the decision. “We hope they’ll fulfill that promise.”

It was a widely criticized decision, and the reaction to Friday’s news was predictable.

“Surprise, surprise—anyone shocked by this?” said Travis Tygart, the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency. “Let’s hope Wada leadership has finally learned the lesson and immediately declares them noncompliant. Anything else is simply another shiv in the back of clean athletes.” AP

Shiffrin jots 35th slalom win, ties childhood idol’s World Cup record

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ASHINGTON—Thomas Bryant’s perfect night was something the National Basketball Association (NBA) hadn’t seen in nearly a quarter-century.

Bryant’s 14 for 14 effort from the floor in Washington’s triple-overtime 149-146 win over Phoenix on Saturday night was the first such game in the NBA since Gary Payton had the same shooting numbers in Seattle’s win over Cleveland on January 4, 1995.

“It’s amazing,” Bryant said. “I had no idea throughout the game and I had no idea after the game until people started telling me about it.”

They will be telling him about this one for a long time.

Bryant became the fifth player to have a 14-for-14 game or better, joining Payton, Bailey Howell, Billy McKinney and Wilt Chamberlain. Howell was 14 for 14 for the Baltimore Bullets—the Wizards’ franchise—against San Francisco on January 3, 1965, and McKinney was 14 for 14 for Kansas City against Boston on December 27, 1978.

Chamberlain had four such games—he was 15 for 15 against the Los Angeles Lakers on January 20, 1967, an NBA-record 18 for 18 against Baltimore on February 24, 1967, and 16 for 16 against Baltimore again on March 19, 1967, recording all of those for Philadelphia. He was 14 for 14 for the Lakers against Detroit on March 11, 1969.

Bryant scored 31 points on Saturday, more than he had posted in any other two NBA games of his career. He easily exceeded his previous career-highs for points (was 16), field goals (was five) and field goals attempted (was eight).

Bryant was three for three in the first quarter, 1 for 1 in the second quarter, two for two in the third quarter, didn’t take any shots in the fourth quarter, 4 for 4 in the first overtime, three for three in the second overtime and 1 for 1 in the third overtime.

The previous high for shots made without a miss in a game this season was 12, by Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis against New York on October 31.

“I had no idea,” Bryant said. “I was just in the flow of

the game. I just let the game come to me. Then as soon as I felt that I was in a rhythm, I just went out and took it.”

Bryant was also 3 for 3 from the foul line—adding to his perfect night. Of the others to go 14 for 14 from the field or better in a game, only Payton also didn’t miss from the foul line, as well.

“MVP, by far, by far,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal, who had a triple-double with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists, said when seeing Bryant’s stat line from the night’. “That’s my boy. He plays his tail off every minute.”

Going back to Washington’s game against Houston on Wednesday, Bryant is 19 for 20 from the field and has made his last 16 shot attempts.

The Wizards play at Indiana on Sunday.

Paul George, meanwhile, hasn’t stopped thinking about last season’s playoff exit against the Utah Jazz.

“I’ve owed this to this team. I didn’t like the way I finished in this arena last time I was here. That was on my mind,” said George, who had 43 points and 14 rebounds to help the Oklahoma City Thunder hold off Utah, 107106, on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.

The Thunder lost to the Jazz 4-2 in the first round of the 2018 NBA playoffs. George wasn’t fully healthy and struggled at times, and that sour taste has stuck with him.

“This building. This building,” he repeated, shaking his head.

Jerami Grant and Steven Adams each scored 15 as the Thunder (21-10) won their fourth straight game and tied Denver for the best record in the Western Conference.

Russell Westbrook had eight points on three-for-17 shooting with 12 rebounds and nine assists.

Rudy Gobert had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Jazz (16-18). Donovan Mitchell scored 20, Derrick Favors added 16 and Ricky Rubio had 12 points and 14 assists, his most since he’s been in Utah.

Three nights after scoring 43 points against Sacramento, George went 15 for 25 from the field and made five three-pointers while dishing out six assists.

PERFECT NIGHT IN WASHINGTO “He really got into an unbelievable rhythm and flow.

What he did was remarkable out there,” Thunder Coach Billy Donovan said.

George hit a jumper to extend Oklahoma City’s lead to 106-97, but the Jazz fought back on the strength of their defense.

After a miss by Westbrook, Mitchell drove for a lay-up to make it 107-105. After Mitchell and Dennis Schroder exchanged steals, Westbrook fouled out trying to block Mitchell on a potential tying dunk with 1.5 seconds remaining.

“Russ saved the game,” George said.

Mitchell was slow to get up after hitting the floor hard, and his first free throw rimmed out. Mitchell launched the second free throw high, apparently attempting to generate a long rebound, but it swished through for the final margin.

“Just missed a free throw,” Mitchell said. “No way around it. That can’t happen.”

Westbrook was on the bench with four fouls when Rubio made a three-pointer to give the Jazz a 79-70 lead midway through the third quarter. George scored 18 points in the last 6:04 of the period—on everything from driving dunks to spinning threes—to forge a 93-81 advantage after three free throws with five seconds left.

“Russ went down and I knew I had to take over. I looked to be aggressive, attack and make plays,” George said.

THOMAS BRYANT becomes the fifth player to have a 14-for-14 game or better. AP

WARRIORS HOLD OFF MAVERICKS O

AKLAND, California—On this night, Jonas Jerebko ignited the home crowd much the way Stephen Curry typically does when the two-time Most Valuable Player throws his arms in the air begging for a little help and noise. And Draymond Green got back to his trash-talking best.

Golden State needed a big contribution from the Swede, a couple of nice three-pointers from Green and the chatter afterward, along with solid outings from the other reliable regulars.

Kevin Durant had 29 points including a key three-pointer with 15 seconds left, and added 12 rebounds and eight assists,

OURCHEVEL, France—Mikaela Shiffrin wrote more World Cup history on Saturday, winning a slalom for a women’s record-equaling 35th career victory in the discipline and 50th win overall.

Shiffrin extended her first-run lead of 0.04 seconds to finish 0.29 clear of Petra Vlhova, who has been runner-up to the American star in all three traditional slaloms this season.

Shiffrin tied her childhood idol Marlies Schild of Austria with 35 slalom wins on the World Cup circuit. Schild’s final slalom victory, in December 2013, was achieved at the age of 32. Shiffrin turns 24 in March.

Shiffrin is also the youngest of the eight skiers, four men and four women, to win 50 World Cup races across all disciplines. Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s 86 wins is the record.

“It’s so distracting that they give out those numbers for me,” Shiffrin said in a post-race interview. “I was trying as hard as I could not to focus on that today.”

Olympic slalom champion Frida Hansdotter was third on Saturday, trailing Shiffrin by 0.37.

Shiffrin has won every slalom race since her surprise fourth-placed finish at the Pyeongchang Olympics in February.

She said she was “maybe a bit lucky today” after overcoming a rare error early in her first run. Shiffrin lost speed through a combination of gates, but made up time lower down the Courchevel course to edge ahead of Vlhova.

“I don’t know how I snuck away with the lead in the first run. Petra skied better than I did,” Shiffrin said.

Shiffrin’s seventh win this season, from just 11 races started, earned 100 World Cup points. It extended her lead in the overall standings to a massive 501 points over second-placed Vlhova.

In the World Cup prize money table, Shiffrin’s 351,000 Swiss francs ($352,000) is more than three times any other woman racer.

Shiffrin and Schild are joined in the record book for at least one week before the next slalom at Semmering, Austria.

Though now-retired Schild was a pure slalom specialist—gaining only two World Cup race wins in other disciplines—Shiffrin has already won in every discipline. AP

and the Warriors held off a fourth-quarter rally and beat the Dallas Mavericks, 120-116, on Saturday night.

“They made tough shots at the end. I don’t want to get discouraged because of the last three minutes,” Durant said. “...I thought the whole basketball game we played pretty solid.”

Durant and Andre Iguodala made consecutive threes for the Warriors late in the third for a 94-87 lead entering the final 12 minutes, then the Warriors extended the lead to double digits before the Mavericks made a game of it in the closing minutes.

Harrison Barnes’s jumper with 1:20 remaining against

his former team got Dallas within 117-115, then Durant missed a lay-up on the other end.

“This season we’ve done a good job of fighting and going up against adversity,” Barnes said. “Tonight was one of those things where they got into a rhythm, we got down a little bit there in the second half and we battled within a couple points.”

Curry contributed 22 points, five rebounds and five assists and Jerebko provided a nice boost with a careerhigh 23 points on 10-for-12 shooting with six rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench. The made field goals also were his most this season, and Jerebko received a rousing

ovation when he took a seat with 6:39 to play.

“This is a very accomplished team, so I’m just trying to fit in where I can and do whatever it takes,” Jerebko said.

Wesley Matthews scored 25 points on ninefor-15 shooting with seven three-pointers as Dallas lost its fifth straight.

Mavericks rookie sensation Luka Doncic made five of 11 shots with three three-pointers in the first half for 14 of his 19 points, helping Dallas take a 61-58 lead at intermission. DeAndre Jordan matched his season high with 23 rebounds,

MIKAELA SHIFFRIN writes more World Cup history. AP

STEPHEN CURRY contributes 22 points, five rebounds and five assists. AP

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ONDON—Dillian Whyte stopped Dereck Chisora in the 11th round of an all-British heavyweight bout at the 02 Arena on Saturday to make a claim to be Anthony Joshua’s next challenger.

A largely competitive fight was instantly ended when Whyte threw a powerful left hook that left Chisora unconscious and down for worryingly long. Chisora landed heavily on his head but gradually recovered after attention from his team, potentially leaving him facing retirement at the end of a tough career.

Whyte beat Chisora on a split decision in 2016, but there was no disputing the result this time.

Chisora led on the cards of two of the three judges but left his jaw exposed and Whyte took advantage.

Whyte improved his record to 25-1 with 18 knockouts. The one loss was against Joshua in 2015 when both were on the rise.

Joshua has gone on to own the World Boxing DILLIAN WHYTE (right) stares at a fallen Dereck Chisora. AP

Whyte KOs Chisora in round 11 of hea Association, International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization titles, and his priority next year is lining up fights against World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Deontay Wilder or former world champion Tyson Fury.

In Manchester, England, Josh Warrington retained his IBF featherweight title by beating Carl Frampton by unanimous decision after a thrilling 12-round fight on Saturday.

The pair engaged in one of the contenders for fight of the year at Manchester Arena.

Warrington, an underdog with the bookmakers despite relieving Lee Selby of the world title in May, was rewarded for a huge workrate to earn his 28th win from 28 fights.

The judges gave it to Warrington 116-112, 116-112, and 116-113 in his first title defense.

Frampton came back into the fight in the middle rounds but couldn’t sustain the pressure and lost for only the second time in 28 bouts, and a second world title fight.

Jermall Charlo, meanwhile, had every reason to be distracted when he entered the ring to defend his WBC interim middleweight championship.

Minutes before his bout in New York with Matt Korobov, Jermall’s twin, Jermell, lost a unanimous decision to Tony Harrison, costing Jermell his WBC super welterweight crown. It was a new experience for both Charlos, who entered on Saturday night unbeaten.

Jermall (28-0) kept up the family name with a onesided 12-round victory over the game but outclassed Korobov (27-2).

“I felt like Jermell made his fight harder than it was,” he said. “I had a really tough opponent, but he wasn’t better than me. There was a lot on my mind in the ring.”

Jermall was emphatic at the finish—perhaps to erase any doubt with this set of judges. He staggered Korobov in the middle of the 12th round, and they slugged it out pretty much until the finish.

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HT ON

NBA RESULTS LA Clippers 132, Denver 111 Washington 149, Phoenix 146, 3OT Philadelphia 126, Toronto 101 Houston 108, San Antonio 101 Miami 94, Milwaukee 87 Golden State 120, Dallas 116 Oklahoma City 107, Utah 106

In all, the Thunder outscored the Jazz 23-2 when everything went through George. He flexed while facing the Utah crowd on the baseline, he talked trash with Joe Ingles and he demanded the ball, even while drawing double-teams at times.

George didn’t do it just by shooting. In the fourth quarter, Mitchell looked as though he was headed for a breakaway dunk and George somehow took the ball from him. A couple of plays later, the Jazz overplayed him and he deftly dropped the ball off to Adams for an easy slam.

“He’s putting the ball in the hole at an incredible rate,” Donovan said. “Everybody talks about the points, but he had 14 rebounds tonight and he gets those four, five, six seven assists and he gets a few steals. But it’s the total impact he has on the game and he’s been doing an incredible job.”

George took some time getting in a rhythm after offseason knee surgery, and the Thunder lost four straight. Since then, he has become nearly unstoppable. AP

HOTSHOTS CHAMPS! The Magnolia

Hotshots, led by Head Coach Chito Victolero, are feted to a victory party by San Miguel Corp. top honcho Ramon S. Ang and Sports Director Alfrancis Chua at the San Miguel Corp. Head Office Complex in Mandaluyong City on Friday. The Hotshots topped the Philippine Basketball Association Governors Cup, 4-2, capped by a Game Six 102-86 victory against the Alaska Aces.

NONOY LACZA

getting 12 before the break.

Green had 14 points for his fourth double-digit scoring performance this season to go with 10 rebounds and five assists in Golden State’s 12th straight victory against the Mavericks at Oracle Arena.

“He’s talked about it. It’s no secret he wants to shoot the ball better,” Curry said. “It gives us a nice little energy boost when he just shoots with confidence, no matter if he makes or misses really.”

Green, limited by injuries, vowed that his shots would start falling. He hit just his second and third three-pointers since early November, then gestured at the Mavericks to guard him. Green had been 1 of 16 from deep since making two on Halloween.

“You practice your shots, you put your work in, you’ve got the right to shoot,” he said. “That’s why I’ll keep shooting.”

Klay Thompson had 14 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. AP

avyweight fight Jermall Charlo won 119-108 on one card, 116-112 on the other two. The Associated Press had it 117-111 for Charlo over Korobov, who was subbing for Willie Monroe Jr. after Monroe failed a drug test.

“I haven’t been that far in a fight in a couple of years. It felt good to be in there, get hit and bang with someone,” Jermall added. “He was an experienced guy who will make me better.”

Earlier, Harrison withstood a late surge by Jermell Charlo to take his title in a unanimous decision that drew heavy boos from the crowd of 9,177 at Barclays Center.

When the verdict was announced, Harrison leaped around the ring in celebration while Charlo stood in disbelief. Soon after, Charlo broke into Harrison’s interview on Fox to say “You know I won this fight.”

Not according to judges Julie Lederman and Ron McNair, who had it 115-113 for Harrison. Robin Taylor scored it 116-112 for the winner.

The AP had it 115-113 for Charlo. AP

Monday, December 24, 2018

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ILIPINO athletes under the Go For Gold program have delivered both in the local and international scenes in the year that’s about to end.

The paddlers from the Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragonboat Federation have become world champions again after capturing five gold medals in a global meet held in the United States this year before triathlete John Leerams Chicano ruled the prestigious Tri-Factor International Triathlon in China last month.

Go For Gold cyclists Jonel Carcueva and Rex Luis Krog topped the elite and junior races of the punishing Tour de Linggarjati in Indonesia. Skateboarder Margielyn Didal, who won a gold medal in the Asian Games, is preparing for an Olympic qualifying tournament GO in Brazil early next year.

“Our national athletes under the Go For Gold program have made the country proud in their respective competitions. Overall, I can say that the program is successful,’’ Go For Gold godfather Jeremy Go said.

Aside from cycling, dragonboat, triathlon and skateboarding, Go For Gold has also embraced the national sepak takraw and wrestling teams.

“We have succeeded in attaining our goals for 2018. The program has brought home medals from different sports around the world,’’ Go For Gold project director Ednalyn Hualda said. “Still, there are a lot of things that we have to work on to produce more top-caliber athletes.’’

Filipino wrestlers Margarito Angana, Michael Vijay Cater, Noel Norada, Luke Cruz, Minalyn Foy-os and Noemi Tener accounted for the six gold medals during the country’s campaign in the Southeast Asian Senior Wrestling Championships two months ago.

The sepak takraw team brought home one gold and three bronze medals from the world championships in Thailand. This was before two-time SEA Games gold medalist Nikko Huelgas ruled the men’s elite category of the National Age Group Triathlon recently.

“We have partnered with the national sports associations of these athletes and teams as we continue to strive for excellence, especially that the Southeast Asian Games next year is looming on the horizon,’’ Hualda said. Go also announced that the Go For Gold cycling squad has transformed into a continental team that will allow them to compete in more challenging races and set the stage for a possible stint in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Capping Go For Gold’s impressive year-round campaign for the national athletes was the rewarding performance of the Filipino grapplers in a continental meet in Singapore, where they seized two gold medals courtesy of Jhonny Morte and Alvin Lobreguito.

Besides these victories, the Pinoy wrestlers claimed three silver medals and a pair of bronzes through the efforts of the Ronil Tubog and Cadel Evance Hualda.

SPORTS PATRON REAPS MULTIPLE SUCCESS IN 2018

Milliam extends streak with 3-title feat in Naga

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LEXA MILLIAM staked her claim as the best player in the junior ranks today, upending top seed Bliss Bayking twice in the semis to complete another three-title romp in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPSPEPP) City of Naga age-group tennis tournament at the Naga tennis courts before the weekend in Cebu.

The 14-year-old Milliam topped her age-group

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category with a 6-0, 6-1 victory Kay Gabonada then stunned Bayking, 6-2, 7-6(5), in the girls’ 16-under semifinals before holding off No. 2 Rose Bahonsua, 6-3, 6-3, to claim the championship.

The Pontevedra, Negros Occidental ace repeated over Bayking, 6-1, 6-3, in the 18-under semifinals then blasted Bless Coderos, 6-2, 6-1, to clinch the premier crown, thus matching her three-title feats in the Dumaguete, Argao, Cebu and Negros stops of the circuit presented

by Dunlop the last two months.

“Through hard work and dedication, Milliam has achieved her goal to become the best and her amazing run of victories should inspire the other youngsters as they prepare for another busy season next year,” said PPS

President and CEO Bobby Castro, who has lined up a record 70-leg circuit in 2019.

Top seed Vinz Alforque, meanwhile, overpowered No. 8 Eric Longakit, 6-1, 6-2, in the boys’ 16-under finals and trounced Carl Zaragosa, 6-3, 6-1, for the 18-under plum as he shared the Most Valuable Player honors with Milliam in the season-ending tournament of the annual circuit put up by the country’s leading remittance center.

Other singles winners were Valencia, Dumaguete’s Sharra Paliwag (girls’ 12-under), Pardo, Cebu’s Aaron Tabura (10-under unisex) and local bets Mitch Largo (boys’ 12-under) and Longakit (boys’ 14-under), while Milliam teamed up with Ghylliana Yu to edge Bayking and Coderos, 8-6, for the 18-under doubles title.

Other doubles winners were Alforque-Longakit (boys’ 18-under), Paliwag and Sheynna Yu (girls’ 14-under), Hans Cabellon and Raymund Goco (boys’ 14-under) and Paliwag and Velos (10-under), while victors in the Legends division were Jonathan Largo and Longakit (40-above), Roel Canillo and Eduardo Parangan from Balamban, Cebu (50s), and Johnny Bohol and Fritz Tabura from Pardo, Cebu (60s).

Petil-Salahug team leads National Doubles roster

ON PETIL taps a new partner in JR Salahug, hoping to make it two in a row against a souped-up field in the National Doubles Amateur Golf Championship set from Wednesday to Saturday at the Camp Aguinaldo Golf Club in Quezon City.

Fourteen squads lead the early roster of teams vying in the eighth staging of the annual event also held to keep the country’s leading and rising players in shape during the holidays as they hone up for the Philippine Amateur Golf Championship early January.

Petil and then teammate Paolo Wong pounced on Gab Manotoc and Lester Lagman’s shaky start and roared to a

five-stroke triumph in last year’s staging of the event, which features the four-ball (best ball), aggregate and foursomes (alternate shot) formats.

Sean Ramos, winner of two individual tournaments this year, hopes to cap an impressive season with a doubles victory as he teams up with Gabby Macalaguim, while Josh Jorge, Leandro Bagtas and Masaichi Otake link up with Jet Hernandez, Francis Lanuza and Rald Sarmiento, respectively, in the season-ending event of the National Golf Association of the Philippines, which also serves as part of the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour.

Other early entries in the event sponsored by the MVP

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Tanauan gals retain U18 softball crown

ANAUAN City saved its best for last and bucked the absence of its ace pitcher to rule the Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippine Junior Women’s (18-under) Softball Championship over the weekend at the Sto. Niño Field in Marikina City.

The team from Batangas pulled the rug from under early favorite Rizal in the championship match, 6-3, to claim its second straight title behind the steady pitching of Royeve “Diday” Palma, sister of last year’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Royevel Palma.

The MVP Palma was not allowed to join this tournament being a member of the national team. She booked a remarkable performance in the Senior League Softball World Series Championship in Waco, Texas, earlier this year where she collected 14 strikeouts to lead Tanauan to the title.

Tanauan, however, had to hurdle Bulacan teams San Miguel and Sta. Maria in the page system tournament to earn the right to face Rizal for the crown.

Rizal dominated the Cebuana Lhuillier-backed tournament going into the final round and even scored an 8-4 victory over Tanauan in the semifinals, but succumb to pressure in the payoff match as Palma, a reliever for Diane Pasco, was unbreakable atop the mound in the final game.

“I commend and congratulate Tanauan City for its backto-back championship,” Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier said. “We need teams like Tanauan, which are local government unit-based.”

“Diday [Palma] pitched very well and our defense clicked,” said Tanauan Coach Lito Villanueva, who also led the team to two Palarong Pambansa crowns.

Palma was named MVP of the final.

Rizal committed two fielding errors at the bottom of the second inning that gave Tanauan its first two runs.

Tanauan added four more runs in the fourth inning as Rizal committed three more errors to give the defending champions a 6-0 advantage.

Rizal tried to rally in the seventh and final inning as pitcher Alexandra Romero-Salas hit a homerun that also sent Roma Jane Cruz home. Sathia Nicole Romero-Salas also scored on a base hit that also sent Mariel Grace Sumanting home.

Sports Foundation, are the tandems of Santino LaurelKristine Torralba, Tomi Arejola-Nicole Abelar, David GuangkoAnnika Guangko, Ivan Monsalve-Aldo Barro, Jeff Jung-Paqo Barro, Arnie Taguines-Samantha Dizon, Diana Araneta-Sam Martirez and Demy Saclot-Perry Bucay.

Format is four-ball in the first day then play shifts to aggregate in the next day with the final round to feature the two-ball foursomes.

Aside from Group I for members of national team and for players with handicap index of 4.0 or less, also on tap are the Group 2 (4.1 and above) and Group III (players 30 years old and above regardless of handicap).

But that was all Rizal could muster and yielded the crown to Tanauan.

Rizal, however, walked away with the top individual awards with Sumanting hoisting the MVP, Best Pitcher (22 innings pitched, zero earned run) and Best Slugger (35 total bases, 30 at bats, 1.26 average) trophies and Alexandra Romero-Salas emerging as Best Hitter (19 hits, 27 at bats, .703 average) and making the most number of RBIs (24) and homeruns (6). Sta. Maria’s Mary Rose Letegio, meanwhile, had the most number of stolen bases (five).

MEMBERS of the Tanauan City team strike a championship pose.

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RICK OLIVARES bleachersbrew@gmail.com

BLEACHERS’ BREW

Make me dream

A MEDIA colleague greeted me the other night and also paid compliment to the way my Liverpool Football Club has been playing. This before its 2-0 win over Wolverhampton and Manchester City’s surprise 3-2 loss to Crystal Palace within a day of each other.

I thanked him, but downplayed the current success.

I have seen that early-season success crash and burn at a time when a win was most needed.

Nevertheless, the results guaranteed that Liverpool remains on top of the English Premier League on Christmas day with a 15-3-0 record that is good for 48 points.

Manchester City, the erstwhile leader for most of the season, is right behind with a 14-2-2 record and 44 points.

Tottenham Hotspur are in third with a 13-0-4 record with 39 points. At fourth is Chelsea with an11-4-3 record and 37 points. Arsenal has the same record but slides down to fifth spot due to its goal difference with Chelsea and its plus-20 GD to the Gunners’ plus-16.

There is a banner that frequently is unfurled in Liverpool’s home ground that reads, “Make us dream.” It is in reference to the long hoped for dream of the club winning its first Premier League title. In the days prior to the formation of the Premier League, Liverpool was the top dog winning titles left and right. But since 1991, there has been a prolonged drought.

There have been a few trophies—Champions League, FA Cup and other cups, but the return to the English throne has been an agonizing and prolonged one.

There have been about four title chases in previous years where the club finished second. They should have won it during those occasions, but a brutal end of December and January hurt them with results ending in draws and defeats.

As a long time Reds fan, a supporter from some 11,000 kilometers away (since 1979), I have been to about 10 matches across three continents—Europe, North America, and Asia—with two in their home turf of Anfield. I have taken the stadium tour a couple of times and stayed in the city of Liverpool for a total of eight days.

I have about two dozen of their DVDs, a smattering of their books, about 15 kits and an equal number of scarves.

I stay up to the wee hours of the morning to watch their matches and my mood for the day matches their results. It isn’t by far a fraction of their home supporters, but I am a fan who devours news about the club on a daily basis.

Sure, it is nice for the club to have all that history, but I cannot help but think of the time when Liverpool supporters would jeer Chelsea fans as having no history.

Actually, outside Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal, Chelsea has had their history of success in the last 15 years. Heck, even Blackpool and Leicester City have a Premier League title to their name.

But I am not from Liverpool as the home supporters might have a different purview of things. But right now, we have no Premier League history (really, no one remembers who finished second, but everyone knows who won it all). And it is the opposing teams that jeer us.

Having said that, I think this is the year when the club should really win it all. There is no next year. The time is right. The pieces are all in place to win it all. They have a world-class goalkeeper in Allison. It took Xherdan Shaqiri three years to get to Anfield, but at least he is there now.

There is quality now on defense with Virgil Van Dijk in the back to join Dejan Lovren, the brilliant Andy Robertson, and the steady Joe Gomez, and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Imagine if Adam Lallana finds his old form as he joins Shaqiri, Fabinho, Naby Keita, Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson to form a very fluid midfield.

Of course, the strike force of Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge is without problem. It is just rotating them.

And there too is manager Jurgen Klopp.

The man is simply a miracle worker and has been for his previous clubs—Mainz and Borussia Dortmund. His passion and zeal for the game is contagious. Watching him afar in Dortmund, he was incredible. And when the opportunity came for him to be in Anfield, I was ecstatic.

I have had the great fortune of interviewing the German manager on two occasions in the last two years (and getting a picture with him, as well). I notice from all his interviews, he gravitates to intelligent questions and can be dismissive of contentious and potentially malicious if not stupid questions.

It isn’t every day that you can floor a manager with a tough question that makes him think and appreciate it, but I did, twice too. During the last interview two years ago [I interviewed him in both Anfield and in Hong Kong], I asked him then, “When do you know that the time is right to win a championship?”

He answered, “You’ll never know. A win streak is good, but what matters is consistency all throughout a season. You have to manage a perfect and imperfect season [because there will be days or even weeks when things do not go right]. You don’t win on reputation alone. Or beating an opponent by a big score line. You will know when you play like champions every single day, every single match.”

Cut forward to the post-match presser after the 2-0 win against Wolves. And there he was repeating the same thing he told me a year ago. About the correct attitude even on a bad day.

You know, I’d really love for Liverpool to win it all. For the club that has endured so much. For the city and its people. For the management and the people who run the club. For the supporters all over the world. But most of all, it would be nice to create new history instead of harping on the old ones.

Yes. Make me dream.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Monday, December 24, 2018 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

MESSI, MBAPPE IN DOMINANT FORM

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ARCELONA, Spain—Lionel Messi ensured Barcelona reached the Spanish league’s winter break atop the standings, playing a part in both goals of a 2-0 win at home over Celta Vigo on Saturday.

Messi scored Barcelona’s second goal to take his league-leading tally to 15 in 17 rounds, including six goals in his last three matches, as Barcelona stayed three points ahead of Atletico Madrid.

“Our goal was to finish the year as leaders, and with the same advantage we had going into the round,” Barcelona Coach Ernesto Valverde said.

Messi helped to set up Ousmane Dembele’s opener when he received a pass from Jordi Alba and took a shot that was saved by goalkeeper Ruben Blanco. The rebound fell to Dembele to drive between the legs of a defender to take the 10th-minute lead.

Messi made it 2-0 in the 45th after Jordi Alba found him arriving to the center of Celta’s box completely unmarked to fire in a left-footed shot.

“On the first goal I looked for [Messi] like always, and on the second goal Luis [Suarez] and Dembele made runs to pull away defenders and left Leo alone,” Alba said about his role in both goals. “And Leo never misses.”

Third-placed Sevilla trails Barcelona by six points before visiting Leganes on Sunday.

After Sunday’s games the Spanish league stops play for two weeks.

Mbappe scores winner for PSG as Monaco continues to struggle

PSG BOOKS SCRAPPY VICTORY AT HOME

TWO days after celebrating his 20th birthday, Kylian Mbappe grabbed Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) winner against Nantes in a scrappy 1-0 home result on Saturday in Paris.

With PSG heading toward a third straight French league draw, Mbappe slid in at the back post to stab home Angel Di Maria’s corner from the right in the 68th minute.

It took France’s World Cup star to the top of the league scoring charts with 13, and ensured PSG heads into the winter break unbeaten in domestic competitions.

PSG is 13 points ahead of second-placed Lille, which lost at home to Toulouse 2-1 and has played two games more than PSG. Third-placed Lyon closed the gap on Lille to two points as forward Nabil Fekir netted for the third straight game in a 1-1 draw at fourth-place Montpellier. Lyon

has a game in hand on Lille, and Montpellier has one in hand on Lyon after previous weekends saw a spate of postponements due to widespread anti-government protests around the country.

Saint-Etienne was the big winner on the night, moving level on points with Montpellier after a comfortable 3-0 home win against Dijon. Saint-Etienne’s front line worked well, with Kevin Monnet-Paquet, Wahbi Khazri and Robert Beric all scoring.

At the other end of the table, the pressure was mounting on beleaguered Monaco Coach Thierry Henry after losing at home to last-placed Guingamp 2-0. Since taking charge in October, Henry has won only three out of 14 matches overall.

Monaco was in 19th place and only two points ahead of Guingamp, which scored in the second half through forwards Marcus Thuram and Nolan Roux.

LIONEL MESSI powers Barcelona heading into the winter break as Paris Saint-Germain’s Angel Di Maria (above) and Kylian Mbappe celebrate a goal against Nantes in Paris. AP

Thuram is the son of France great Lilian Thuram, Henry’s teammate when France won the 1998 World Cup and the European Championship two years later.

Ronaldo trial for tax fraud set in January

MAN U WINS BUT NOT MAN CITY, CHELSEA

MANCHESTER United was stunning and Manchester City was stunned.

United responded to a change in coach by producing a rampant display to thrash lowly Cardiff, 5-1, hours after English Premier League leader City slumped to a first defeat at home, to struggling Crystal Palace, 3-2, on Saturday.

Former striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, back at United as manager in midweek after Jose Mourinho was sacked, appeared to give the team a new lease of life as it turned on the style in the Welsh capital.

The last time United scored five goals was in Alex Ferguson’s last match in charge in May 2013, a 5-5 draw with West Bromwich Albion.

Meanwhile, City’s loss brought to an end its 100 percent home record in the league, and left leader Liverpool four points clear at the top after 18 rounds.

In another upset, former England striker Jamie Vardy scored to guide Leicester to a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge and inflict on fourth-placed Chelsea its first loss at home, also.

Arsenal drew level on points with Chelsea after

THAILAND TOLD TO RELEASE REFUGEE SOCCER PLAYER S YDNEY—Human rights groups along with current and former soccer players on Saturday called on Fifa and the Australian government to intervene to stop a Melbourne-based refugee and semiprofessional soccer player being extradited from Thailand to Bahrain.

Hakeem al-Araibi, a 25-year-old former representative of Bahrain’s national team, was granted refugee status in Australia last year after fleeing his homeland, where he said he was persecuted and tortured. He was arrested

easing past Burnley 3-1.

Southampton won for the second successive match under new coach Ralph Hasenhuttl when it defeated Huddersfield 3-1, while Watford ended West Ham’s run of four consecutive victories by winning at London Stadium, 2-0.

Bournemouth beat Brighton, 2-0, and Newcastle’s home game with Fulham ended, 0-0. AP

while on holiday in Thailand last month due to an Interpol notice in which Bahrain sought his custody after he had been sentenced in absentia in 2014 to 10 years in prison for allegedly vandalizing a police station—a charge he denies.

At a news conference in Melbourne, former Australia captain Craig Foster and Amnesty International Australia lawyer Diana Sayed called on Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, plus Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), to stop Thailand extraditing al-Araibi.

Ronaldo of four counts of tax fraud from 2011 to 2014 worth €14.7 million ($16.5 million). Ronaldo was accused of

having used shell companies outside Spain to hide income made from image rights.

The accusation does not involve his salary from former club Real Madrid.

Ronaldo left Madrid to play for Italian champion Juventus last summer.

In 2016 Barcelona forward Lionel Messi received a suspended 21-month jail sentence after being found guilty of defrauding tax authorities of €4.1 million (then $4.6 million).

On Saturday in Seville, it was raining stuffed toys at the stadium of Spanish club Real Betis Many of the 49,000 spectators tossed stuffed toys onto the pitch at Benito Villamarin Stadium duing halftime of the match against Eibar in an initiative by the club to collect toys for needy children for the winter holidays.

The result was a colorful cascade of furry animals falling from the stands, and volunteers scrambling to collect them all before the second half.

Many of the fans wore Santa Claus hats which, instead of traditional red and white, were Betis’ green and white colors.

The club gave instructions that participants could toss only completely soft toys and they could not include batteries. AP

Speaking on behalf of a player representative body, Professional Footballers Australia, Foster said the global football community had a duty to ensure it did everything in its power to ensure the safe return to Australia of al-Araibi, who now plays semiprofessional soccer in Melbourne.

“Australia’s footballers implore Fifa and the AFC to comply with their own rules of governance to demand the return of Hakeem to Australia,” Foster said. “Fifa and the AFC have a constitutional obligation to not only observe the human rights of their participants but proactively promote such rights.”

Sayed said that Payne and the Australian government “must continue to pressure the Thai authorities to return Hakeem back to his home in Australia.”

Thai officials insist they are following the law in holding him, but rights groups suggest he should not have been detained because of his refugee status, and that international law to

which Thailand is a party bars sending him to Bahrain if he has a legitimate fear of persecution and torture.

In a statement earlier this month, Fifa urged that al-Araibi should be returned to Australia “at the earliest possible moment.”

“We know the history of human-rights violations in Bahrain and so it makes Hakeem’s case and current detention in Thailand even more important for the international community, and for [the] Australian football federation and others to stand behind him at his time because there is a very real risk that he could be extradited back to Bahrain,” Sayed said.

While Payne has previously called for al-Araibi to be released, Foster said she should visit Thailand to “lend her personal and direct support” and to meet Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to discuss the matter. AP

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ADRID—A Spanish court says Cristiano Ronaldo will be tried for tax fraud on January 21.

Ronaldo is expected to plead guilty and receive a suspended two-year sentence, in agreement with a deal the Portugal forward struck with Spain’s state prosecutor and its tax authorities this year.

The deal includes Ronaldo agreeing to also pay a fine of close to €19 million ($22 million) for the reduced sentence.

In Spain, a judge can suspend sentences for two years or less for first-time offenders.

Last year a state prosecutor accused

RONALDO

Prayers and ponderings at Christmas time

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ESPECT for life: Dear God, during this Advent Season especially we ponder: Are we grateful, and do we thank You often, for the gift of life-our own and the life of our loved ones and others? Do we take the necessary measures, consistent with our needs and resources, to nurture and safeguard our life, the lives of those entrusted to us, and of all we come in contact with?

Do we really make an effort to be firm in manifesting that we have respect for life? Oh God, please help us. Amen.

GIVE US THIS DAY, SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL AND CHILDREN’S ROSARY FOUNDATION

Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life BusinessMirror

ALL ACCESS: SENIOR STARS WHO CONTINUE TO SPARKLE AND SHINE D3

Monday, December 24, 2018 D1

Best of 2018: The spectacular TernoCon

BENCHSETTERS at TernoCon 2018: Megan Young in Niv Lagman de Leon (from left), Solenn Heussaff in Cary Santiago, Gabbi Garcia in Dinnes Obusan, Marco Gumabao in Joey Samson barong Tagalog, Ara Arida in Michael Leyva, Juliana Gomez in JC Buendia and Lovi Poe in Albert Andrada.

audience side was used as a display area for Sotto’s ostentatious ternos.

TOTA PULCHRA

MISS CHARLIZE @misscharlize

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HROUGH political changes and design challenges, the terno has continuously evolved, remaining relevant and visible. In the 2015 coffee-table book Fashionable Filipinas: An Evolution of the Philippine National Dress in Photographs 1860-1960 by Gino Gonzales and Mark Lewis Higgins, the terno began as “a dress with identical embroidery on the camisa and pañuelo (1890 to 1900)” and became “a dress of any cut or style with ‘butterfly’ sleeves (1940s).”

Gonzales, a set designer and heir apparent to National Artist for Theater Design Salvador Bernal, reinforced the terno’s resurgence with the “Fashioning the Terno” workshop series, educating young design talents about its virtues at the Ateneo Art Gallery in 2016.

In 2017, the idea of promoting the terno on a bigger scale came into fruition—the TernoCon, “a ternomaking convention and contest with the aim of promoting the use of the Philippine National Dress and allowing regional participants to shine on a national level.”

The project was an initiative of retail behemoth Bench and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). As an artistic director, Gonzales hopes TernoCon will be an annual undertaking. Thirty participants from the workshop series were asked to create one cocktail terno (balintawak) and one formal terno.

Gonzales tapped industry stalwarts to mentor the upstarts: Inno Sotto as chief mentor, JC Buendia for Luzon, Cary Santiago for the Visayas and Len Cabili for Mindanao. The culminating activity was a cultural and fashion spectacle at the CCP directed by Dexter Martinez Santos, with the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo stage itself. The

CHAMPIONS OF THE TERNO TERNOCON is the year’s best design competition, and the finals night on November 11 was truly unforgettable.

With performances by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra String Ensemble, Male Ensemble Nine and the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, the 30 participants outdid each other in the two categories. Mentors Buendia, Santiago and Cabili also presented astonishing collections (which merits a separate feature).

It was an evening when the exceptional entries on the runway were at par with the couture creations worn by the audience, like contest judge Myrza Sison clad in a vintage Ramon Valera owned by Rajo Laurel’s grandmother. Another lady in a wellpreserved Valera she matched with precolonial jewelry. And a millennial proudly dressed in Christian Espiritu.

Marlon Tuazon of Angeles City, Pampanga, in a remarkable feat, was a double gold-medal winner. He created a column dress of Mikado silk overlaid with an illusion tulle, which drops from the butterfly sleeves embellished with

white pearls. His winning balintawak was a “pale pink sheath dress partially concealed by a black lace bouffant overlay.” The back was “fastened by three straps with bows.”

Nenita Morden of Villasis, Pangasinan, won silver for her formal terno: “The tattooed images in the Boxer Codex was the inspiration for the beaded and stitched terno top with a contemporary red patadyong.”

Bronze winner was Joseph Bawar of Santa Maria, Bulacan: “Solihiya pattern (traditionally used for Philippine furniture) was the inspiration for this handcrafted ensemble of gray fabrics.”

Dan Ryan Duran of Siaton, Negros Oriental, won the silver medal for the balintawak category: “Built like a suit with stylized lapels, pockets and separate metallic houndstooth trousers. The back portion has ruching that hints at an alampay.”

Santi Obcena of Quezon City, a Project Runway Philippines finalist, won bronze: “Beaded scales were hand-stitched on a nude fabric. Swathes of strung bugle beads were attached on the shoulder and waist to suggest the alampay and pañuelo.”

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR BENCH bigwig Ben Chan produced or lent his support to the biggest fashion shows of 2018: the biannual Bench Fashion Week, Bench Design Awards, Worldclass: Weddings

TERNOCON 2018 Formal Terno Winners: Model with Maria Nenita Morden (silver), supermodel Jasmine Maierhofer with Marlon Tuazon (gold) and model with Michael Joseph Bawar (bronze).

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BENCH LIFESTYLE+CLOTHING FACEBOOK PAGE AND BENCHTM INSTAGRAM

at the Waterfront, Red Charity Gala, Miss World Philippines and TernoCon. “TernoCon is a collaboration between Bench and CCP that aims to save the terno by promoting the knowledge and skills involved in producing it. I am fortunate to be working with this team of passionate individuals for this cause. Inno Sotto for mentoring and inspiring the participants, always pushing them to do their best in expressing their creativity. Gino Gonzales for planting the seeds of wisdom that inspired all of us to support this project. [His] enthusiasm and dedication is infectious indeed,” Chan said in an Instagram post.

He is grateful to CCP Chairman Margie Moran “for opening the doors of the CCP to be the breeding ground to harness the skills of so many Filipino talents. You always give 100 percent in everything you do. A true mark of a queen,” Chan said of Miss Universe 1973.

For lending their time, talent and expertise to promote our national heritage, Chan thanked the TernoCon mentors: “Your selflessness in teaching the craft to bring the terno forward so that the young designers may continue taking pride on it, I commend everyone for doing a wonderful job and hope [we will] be working together again in the future.”

‘Somewhere over the rainbow....’

THE phenomenon of the appearance of a rainbow after a spell of rain is very much comparable to how women age. Biology and external factors such as lifestyle and environment dictate how the body functions and their manifestation. Oftentimes, the results are sadly unfavorable, just like the havoc of thunderstorm wreaks.

However, after the battering of harsh conditions, there is always the likelihood of something beautiful happening to the body—yes, just like the appearance of a rainbow.

And this likelihood comes in the form of a new service from health and beauty center SvelT’i: Rainbow Drip.

The center introduces quick-acting solutions for a multitude of skin and health concerns collectively, called the rainbow drip. Each color in this unique collection of treatments targets and treats some of the most common but pressing conditions that plague women as they age not only superficially but thoroughly, bringing about holistic healing.

Because these treatments are taken intravenously, quick effects are guaranteed. You will not need to wait for weeks or even months just for the medications to gradually kick in.

While it is unavoidable that sometimes we go through our own version of inclement weather (which comes in the form of stress, aging, and other conditions that decrease our satisfaction and make us feel bad about ourselves) in our lives, there is always the chance of a rainbow appearing afterward to make everything look and feel good again.

TERNOCON 2018 Balintawak Winners: Model Krystal Espiritu with Santi Obcena (bronze), model Sirene Sutton with Marlon Tuazon and Dan Ryan Duran with supermodel Jo Ann Bitagcol.

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Style

BusinessMirror

Monday, December 24, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Raf Simons out at Calvin Klein after 2 high-profile years RAF SIMONS, the winner of the awards for menswear designer of the year and womenswear designer of the year at the 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards. AP

By Jocelyn Noveck The Associated Press

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EW YORK—Less than two years after he shook up the New York fashion world with a splashy runway debut for Calvin Klein, designer Raf Simons is leaving the company.

The company and the Belgian designer announced they had “amicably” decided to part ways after Calvin Klein “decided on a new brand direction different from Simons’ creative vision.” A representative for Simons said in an e-mail on Friday night that the designer would have no further comment.

Simons revitalized Calvin Klein with his hip European sensibility after being appointed chief creative officer in 2016. His New York Fashion Week shows were the talk of the industry, beginning with his February 2017 debut, which had a clear political message, opening and closing with the David Bowie song “This is Not America.”

Celebrities flocked to his shows, critics raved and the fashion establishment rewarded him with three top awards in two years. He won the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) award for womenswear in both 2017 and 2018, and in a rare feat also took the menswear award in 2017.

But critical raves don’t necessarily translate to commercial success. There was reportedly disappointment on the part of PVH, the corporation that owns Calvin

Klein, in sales under Simons.

Simons, 50, who previously worked at Dior and Jil Sander, brought an artsy European approach to the iconic American brand, often citing numerous cultural references—but especially Hollywood—as inspiration.

In September, his runway show riffed on the movie Jaws, with models in various types of wetsuits strolling in front of enormous screens depicting a glistening ocean.

Many of the garments had big bites taken out of them—as in shark bites.

Simons said the shark represented danger.

“Very often we are attracted to things that we actually know are dangerous,” he said in an interview.

“But we can’t stay away from it.”

Some of models wore tasseled caps and robes; Simons was also riffing on The Graduate.

At his show in February, Simons coated the former American Stock Exchange Building in downtown Manhattan with a huge bed of popcorn. Guests slogged through the kernels to get to their seats, with bits of popcorn falling into boots and shoes and coating one’s clothes with powder.

It was Simons’ version of an American landscape, including a huge barn house. But the clothes evoked not so much rural America as a dystopian world on another planet, with balaclavas, huge gloves and bits of Mylar flowing from the garments.

As was typical, that show was attended by a slew of celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Margot

z

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Ryan Seacrest, 44; Stephenie Meyer, 45; Ricky Martin, 47; Diedrich Bader, 52.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Revisit past hardships and you’ll find the answers you are searching for. Change can manifest in many ways. If it’s from the heart, it will not disappoint you.

Trust in your ability to bring about improvements that will touch those you love. The key to getting what you want is to recognize what’s important to you. Your lucky numbers are 2, 13, 20, 24, 32, 39, 41.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Give from the heart, not from the wallet. Give thought to the changes you want to make and the goals you set for yourself moving forward. Speak openly, and make plans with someone you love. Don’t limit what you can accomplish. «««««

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Don’t get worked up or stressed out. Things don’t have to be perfect. Kindness, consideration, and letting things unfold naturally will put you at ease and make it easier for loved ones to touch your heart and bring you joy. ««

a

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. A problem dealing with a peer, relative or friend should be handled with wisdom, patience and respect. Think before you speak, and hold your thoughts if they aren’t kind. ««««

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CANCER (June 21-July 22): Remember what’s important. Let bygones be bygones. Make this a day to rejoice, not one to bring up the past.

Focus on bringing joy to those you love. Take pride in the way you look and how you treat others. «««

Robbie, Laura Dern, and—straight from a premiere party—the cast of Black Panther, including Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Chadwick Boseman.

Calvin Klein will not show during New York Fashion Week in February 2019. No word was given about a successor.

Simons also has his own, eponymous menswear label.

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Enjoy festivities with people you care about, but don’t be too quick to share your personal plans. Someone will let you down if you count on him or her to do something for you. Spend less and give more of yourself. «««

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take a moment to say something nice to someone you love. It’s a busy time of year, and often the ones we care about most are the ones neglected. Be thankful for what you have, practice moderation and avoid temptation. «««

It’s Christmas time...and gifting time g CELEBRATE Christmas with Miniso’s wide collection of creative and affordable finds perfect for your holiday gift ideas.

Treat your loved ones to a gift of beauty this Christmas with Miniso’s Pink Panther-inspired powders, luminous blushers, shimmery eye shadows, long-lasting eyeliners, waterproof mascaras and high-definition lipsticks. There are also velvety brushes and exquisite perfume scents to complete your holiday look.

For those of us who will be making that

holiday getaway with family and friends, Miniso also takes pride with their new “Minigo” products that will help you travel in style. There are suitcases, lightweight and waterproof shoe bags, toiletry bags and cosmetic pouches that are convenient and easy to use and store.

With stores in most SM Supermalls nationwide, Miniso is a one-stop shop from creative home necessities, fashion accessories, health and beauty products, stylistic gifts, digital products and more.

FROM left: TechnoMarine Ocean Manta, TechnoMarine UF6 and TechnoMarine Sea Manta.

Ready for adventure THIS holiday, give the man in your life the perfect gift—a TechnoMarine timepiece that reflects and inspires the spirit of adventure. Engineered for any kind of environment, TechnoMarine offers distinct models to suit any personality or lifestyle.

For adventure seekers, there’s the TechnoMarine Ocean Manta collection that seamlessly articulates exceptional motion in design while maintaining its remarkable, Swiss made prowess. For urban dwellers and corporate movers, the perfect partner would be the TechnoMarine UF6, which embodies the key components of active sophistication, combining high-performance materials with compelling design.

For dressier occasions or a night out on the town, the perfect complement is the TechnoMarine Sea Manta Chronograph, a classic timepiece that is smart and stylish, in stainless steel with a black dial.

On offer until December 31 is an exclusive holiday from TechnoMarine of up to 30-percent discount on featured collections.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Recognize what others do, and be thankful for any help you receive. Keep the peace, even if you don’t agree with someone. It’s best to take the high road, regardless of what others do or say. Pay attention to those in need. ««

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take time out to spend with someone you love or to do something that will show how much you care. Time spent with friends or family will bring you closer together. A gesture someone makes will impact your life. «««««

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Learn from your experiences. It’s best not to overdo it if you want to make a good impression. Pace yourself to avoid being put in an awkward position.

Keep your emotions under control, and be helpful, not a hindrance. «««

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’ll be offered compliments that will encourage you to take on something you’ve never considered in the past. Live in the moment, and enjoy the people who make you feel good about your life and your future. «««

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Don’t make promises you cannot keep. Talking big or sending the wrong impression will result in changes you may not like. Be direct and lay your cards on the table. Don’t put your reputation on the line. «««

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Put greater emphasis on living within your means and using your ingenuity to come up with precious offerings that have meaning and will leave a good impression. Romance is in the stars and will enhance your personal life. «««««

THE gift of fragrance from Miniso

THE Pink Panther-inspired kit for holiday glam

BIRTHDAY BABY: You are passionate, impressive and sensitive. You are impulsive and proactive.

‘rung in cheek’ BY TIMOTHY E. PARKER The Universal Crossword/Edited by Timothy E. Parker

ACROSS 1 Archaeological find 5 Elbows’ homes 9 Ancient Israeli port city 14 Having wings 15 Big toe woe 16 Wheel turners 17 Rung’s span?

20 Sheep-ish 21 Auto-racing site 22 Most clean 25 Place to slide a mouse 26 Endangered wildcat 28 Office orderer 32 Estrange 37 Bub relative 38 What a bad rung can cause?

41 Like a wrapped candle 42 Reverberated again 43 Join up with 44 Fisherman’s basket 46 One-third of a three-step 47 Old autocratic Russian rule 53 Destructive precipitation

8 Veranda in Hawaii 5 59 Rung’s church members?

62 Geometry findings 63 Discharge 64 Chair 65 Makes infertile 66 Reject 67 Ospreys’ kin DOWN 1 Eagle’s claw 2 Martini throw-in 3 Mob family 4 TV’s Musberger 5 Turkish VIP 6 198 inches 7 Does drywall 8 Treeless expanse 9 Cynical 10 Cut down, as a tree 11 Defect 12 Goat’s milk cheese 13 Paler than pale 18 Director Spike 19 Admiral type

3 Walk of Fame symbol 2 24 Monkey variety 27 Romance or comedy, e.g.

28 Little Women girl 29 Eclectic collection 30 ___-gin fizz 31 Beach stuff 32 Class of ‘97 member 33 Country road 34 Put in neutral 35 Work over, as text 36 76er’s rival 37 NBC overseer 39 Yard parts 40 Snakelike fishes 44 Burn with intent 45 Busted, as a joint?

46 Salad garnish 48 ____ mode 49 Better a poker bet 50 Word with “tube” 51 The devil 52 Light sprays 53 “Oh woe!”

4 Pond fish 5 55 Thing leading to a patent 56 June 1944 event 57 Title 60 Yang complement 61 Pig’s home

Solution to Friday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

Monday, December 24, 2018

D3

Senior stars who continue to sparkle and shine FROM left clockwise) Tony Mabesa, Anita Linda, Eddie Garcia, Gloria Romero, Ronaldo Valdez and Rosemarie Gil

ALL ACCESS RICKY GALLARDO rickygallardoTFI@gmail.com

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T’S the happiest week of the year and everyone is on a celebratory mood. Schools are on their annual year-end break and most employees are taking it easy at this time of the year. Some companies have even opted to practice a “stop work week” for their staff to enjoy their respective holiday traditions, and to be with the most important people in their lives during this love-filled season.

More than anyone else, children have always been at the center of every Christmas celebration.

Gifts, programs, food, family reunions never fail to put smiles on the face of every child.

But Christmas is not just for kids, it’s for everyone. I’d like to think that we should also give special attention those who are already in the twilight of their lives because they won’t have as many Christmases to celebrate in the future as many of us would.

Which brings to mind some of the more senior members of the entertainment industry who continue to share with us their immense gifts of time, acting prowess, professionalism and selflessness.

There’s the iconic Eddie Garcia who at 89 remains one of the most exquisite actors this industry has ever produced. He continues to bring accolades to his producers, his peers and the country by the level of artistic excellence he has always set for himself.

Garcia stars in a movie that is part of the annual all-Filipino December film festival. Titled Rainbow Sunset, the movie is about the solid and undying relationship between two same-sex longtime companions and how they held on to each other despite the inevitabilities that age brings.

Garcia is Ramon, a retired politician who decides to leave his family temporarily to be with his cancerstricken soulmate Fredo for the remaining days of the sick man’s life. Movie queen Gloria Romero gives life to the selfless, ever-understanding wife of Ramon, and thespian Tony Mabesa plays the diseaseafflicted lover Fredo. Romero just turned 85 a week ago, and Mabesa turns 84 in January.

This family drama, which also stars Aiko

Melendez, Sunshine Dizon and Tirso Cruz III, is touted to be a front-runner for the acting awards that will be handed out a few days after Christmas.

Well-loved Anita Linda also comes to mind in this roster of esteemed senior actors. According to one of her grandsons, the celebrated interior design expert and professor Pojie Pambid, Linda just turned 94 a month ago and has retired from acting. The multiawarded actress is enjoying a quiet life with her daughter in Alabang.

We are also very happy to see Rosemarie Gil back at what she does best, which is acting. Gil is in the main cast of the ABS-CBN weeknight drama series Ngayon at Kailanman, and she plays a fierce and forthright matriarch. She was already on semi-retirement when she lived in the US with her preacher-artist-husband Eddie Mesa for many years. Earlier this year, Gil scored a surprise best actress victory at the Cine Filipino Film Festival for her performance in Delia & Sammy.

On the boob tube, the amiable and still very charming Ronaldo Valdez is the central character of the afternoon soap opera Los Bastardos. Through the years, Valdez has been consistent in choosing only the best projects where his acting chops are always maximized.

This Christmas, like the priceless smiles of the children, the light of these senior stars continue to illuminate both the big and small screens of the local entertainment circuit.

First look photo of 20th Century Fox’s ‘The Kid Who Would Be King’ 20TH CENTURY Fox has just released the first look photo of the much-awaited The Kid Who Would Be King, written and directed by Joe Cornish (co-scribe of blockbuster Ant-Man) and starring up and coming actor Louis Serkis in the titular role.

Set for release in the Philippines in March 2019, The Kid Who Would Be King is an exciting epic family adventure where old school magic meets the modern world. Louise Serkis (son of Andy Serkis and whose recent film credits include Alice Through the Looking Glass, Taboo and Mowgli) stars in The Kid Who Would Be King as Alex, a teenager who thinks he’s just another nobody—until he stumbles upon the mythical Sword in the Stone, Excalibur. Now, he must unite his friends and enemies into a band of knights and, together with the legendary wizard Merlin (Patrick Stewart), take on the wicked enchantress Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson). With the future at stake, Alex must become the great leader he never dreamed he could be.

With a pedigreed team that includes worldrenowned cinematographer Bill Pope, who worked on the worldwide hit The Matrix trilogy and the upcoming immersive Alita: Battle Angel, The Kid Who Would Be King also features young actors Dean Chaumoo, Tom Taylor, Rhianna Doris and Angus Imrie.

LOUISE SERKIS

Hold up, Beyonce did not release new music

By Mesfin Fekadu The Associated Press

NEW YORK—There’s no more juice in Beyonce’s lemonade jar: The singer did not release new music though two albums featuring old Beyonce songs hit streaming services on Thursday.

Under the name Queen Carter, the albums Have Your Way and Back Up, Rewind appeared on Spotify and Apple Music, featuring demos, previously released songs and unreleased tracks by Beyonce. Hours later, they were removed.

The 10-track Have Your Way included songs like “After All Is Said and Done,” Beyonce’s duet with Marc Nelson from the Best Man soundtrack, released in 1999; “Hollywood,” a song with Jay-Z from his 2006 album, Kingdom Come; and “Hey Goldmember” from the soundtrack for 2002s Austin Powers in Goldmember, which starred Beyonce. It also featured “Crazy Feelings,” the singer’s collaboration with Missy Elliott from the rapper’s sophomore album, 1999s Da Real World; and “Fever,” a cover of the ’50s hit used in an ad for Beyonce’s

perfume and for the soundtrack for The Fighting Temptations, another film Beyonce appeared in.

Back Up, Rewind, featured 11 tracks including “Keep Giving Your Love to Me,” from the Bad Boys II soundtrack, released in 2003, and “What It’s Gonna Be,” a Beyonce bonus track from 2003.

The stand-alone song, “Control,” also appeared on streaming services.

Representatives for Beyonce, Apple Music and Spotify didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.

Beyonce’s last three albums were released in surprise form: her self-titled album came out in 2013; Lemonade followed in 2016; and Everything is Love, her collaborative album with Jay-Z where the couple is billed as The Carters, was released earlier this year.

R&B singer SZA on Thursday addressed an album of her older demos that recently hit streaming services under the name Sister Solana (her real name is Solana Rowe). SZA called the project “random scratches from 2015” and explained that the songs are “def not new new!”

ALJUR and Kylie Padilla-Abrenica

Kylie Padilla begins a new chapter in her life VERSATILE GMA actress Kylie Padilla is glowing with happiness following her fairy tale-like wedding with longtime beau, Aljur Abrenica, on December 11 at Villa Milagros Mansion and Gardens.

The star shared how she felt during her big day since it was how she and Aljur imagined it to be after a yearlong engagement: “Pinipigilan ko yung happiness that day, to be honest, kasi ayoko umiyak. Kasi kung hahayaan ko yung sarili ko na umiyak, buong araw na ako iiyak sa saya.”

Kylie expressed that she was grateful as to how everything fell into place that day—giving them an intimate Romeo and Juliet-themed nuptials.

“Medyo over the top but, yes, it was my dream wedding. That day, I was really happy because it was both our decision to have that kind of wedding. And another thing, I’m happy because Aljur gave me the creative freedom sa preparation.”

She admitted that they had only less than a month to put together everything in time for the wedding. Nonetheless, the guests who witnessed the romantic ceremony were thrilled with every ornate detail. The couple took magical to the next level—from the black acrylic aisle inscribed with the poem especially written by Lang Leav for Aljur and

Kylie, to the many tear-jerking moments during the union, and the presence of both their families for the celebration.

“When asked how I want to be married, the first thing that popped into my head is the song. Then from there, nag-breed na siya. Kaya masaya ako talaga na pati yung mga invited sa wedding namin—our friends and relatives, na-appreciate yung effort namin na ‘yun.”

As she begins a new chapter in her life, Kylie has decided to embrace the beautiful family they have created and the woman she has proudly become.

“Now, gusto ko talaga i-celebrate kasi it’s a good thing to be married. It’s a good thing to be in love.

Everybody wants to be in love and be loved.”

The love that can withstand time is definitely worth celebrating. For Kylie, her wedding with Aljur is not their happy ending but the start of a new chapter of the best that’s yet to come: “Our wedding was definitely one of the best days of my life, second ito nung pinanganak ko si Alas. It’s good kasi ibibigay na namin kay God yung relationship namin but as they say, hindi doon natatapos because you still have to work on it every day. Kaya kapag sinasabi na happy ending, lagi kong sinasabi, ‘No, it’s only the beginning.’”

Style

D4 Monday, December 24, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

My favorite products for 2018: Part 1

lot. Otherwise, since it’s hot and humid most of the time in Metro Manila, I set it with Coty Airspun.

AND THEN SOME DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

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VERY YEAR, I try to come up with a list of my favorite products. Admittedly, this year was one that saw me becoming more adventurous in terms of exploring other brands. I used to just stick to those I was familiar with but I tried going beyond my comfort zone and was pleasantly surprised a lot of times.

Please note that these products are my favorites and may not work for others. I’m merely sharing my experiences.

1. MAC Hint of Colour Lip Oil ATTACH the words “limited edition” to any product and you have my attention. These lip oils were released in Asia only in 2017 but finally became available in other markets this year. They are like nonsticky and moisturizing lip glosses that come in four colors. They’re color-changing, too, which makes the lip oil fun. My favorite is La La Love You, a magenta. This is also my daughter’s favorite lip product; she has actually finished a tube of this.

2. Benefit Hello Happy Soft Blur Foundation I LIKE to think of this as a foundation that hides my flaws but not so much that it looks like a mask. It’s quite easy to apply (hands work better than a sponge or a brush) and doesn’t need to be set with powder unless it’s a particularly hot day when you know you’ll be sweating a

3. Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder I LOVE the La Mer and Laura Mercier loose face powders but they’re really pricey for everyday use. Coty Airspun costs P550 to P700, depending on where you buy it from.

There are six shades. I use Translucent. That small tub that comes with a puff lasts forever. I’ve had mine for six months now and there’s still a lot of powder left.

4. Epiduo Gel EPIDUO has adapalene and benzoyl peroxide so it really treats even the most severe acne. If your pimple problem is mild to moderate, you can use this every other day in the beginning. I love Epiduo because it really works on me. Better to ask your dermatologist about it first before buying a tube as it is quite expensive (around P1,700). Reminder: You need to apply a generous amount of sunscreen during the day.

5. Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint in Uncuffed IF you’re a morena looking for the perfect brownish-pink lipstick, Uncuffed is it. I wore this lipstick for one week straight after I got it. I love the color and the texture, plus it’s not drying at all.

6. Charlotte’s Magic Cream by Charlotte Tilbury MAKEUP artist Charlotte Tilbury uses this on models before she applies their makeup for shoots and runway shows. I’m not sure about the magic involved in creating this but it is a good day cream for those with mature, dry or combination skin with dry spots. If your take the time to massage it on your skin for about three minutes, your makeup will glide on like silk and stay put for hours. The only setback is that Charlotte’s Magic Cream is so expensive (around $100) but the last time I was in Hong Kong, women were lined up to buy it at Lane Crawford in Harbour City.

Kris Aquino and Ever Bilena for glowing Filipinas KRIS AQUINO has mastered the art of achieving a long-lasting glow through makeup. Now she has collaborated with Ever Bilena (everbilena.com.ph), a leading local

cosmetics brand, to let other Filipinas get that same glow. The collaboration has produced five Kris Matte Liquid Lipstick (P225) shades, all named by the Queen of All Media after her life experiences: Lucky, Loyal, Laugh, Love and Life.

Lucky is a universal mauve pink that suits any skin tone. Loyal is its darker alternative for a bolder look. Laugh and Life complement fairer skin tones, while the classic red Love flatters all skin tones.

Ever Bilena and Aquino designed the shades to suit Filipino skin tones. The liquid lipsticks are infused with antioxidants that moisturize despite its matte formula. They are also paraben- and cruelty-free. Aside from the lipsticks, other quality makeup will result from the Kris and Ever Bilena collaboration.

The Kris Matte Lipsticks underscore Ever Bilena’s commitment, under Chief Executive Officer Dioceldo Sy, to expand continuously while offering its quality beauty products at fair and affordable prices.

KRIS AQUINO and Ever Bilena CEO Dioceldo Sy’s collaboration offers quality cosmetics for all Filipina skin tones.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, December 24, 2018 E1

DIGITAL GROWTH DEPENDS MORE ON BUSINESS MODELS THAN TECHNOLOGY

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By Mark W. Johnson

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n Customer Value Proposition (CVP), which is a way to help customers get a job done. n Profit Formula, or how you create value for yourself while providing value to a customer. n Key Resources, which are the assets that are required to deliver the CVP to the customer at a profit, meaning the people, technology, products, facilities, equipment, channels and brand. n Key Processes, the operational and managerial capabilities that allow a company to deliver value in a way that can be repeated and scaled.

These include manufacturing, budgeting, planning, sales and marketing and customer service.

Successful business models have an exceptionally strong CVP and a stable, scalable system in which all the elements mesh together seamlessly while complementing each

other. As simple as this framework may seem, its power lies in the complex interdependencies of its parts. Major changes to any one of these elements affect the others and the whole.

For an example of digitally enabled business model transformation, consider Domino’s Pizza, which has experienced a massive turnaround since 2010. As it improved its online and mobile platforms, it introduced heavily advertised features such as pizza profiles, which allowed users to order more easily, and loyalty programs, which boosted frequency of use. Domino’s transformation was enabled by its online storefront, but it worked because it successfully attracted and retained new customers while turning occasional customers into dedicated fans, at the same time that it extracted more value from each transaction.

Building its own digital platform was a game changer for Dominos, but it’s not what changed its game.

It did that by strengthening its CVP (adding more in the way of both convenience and fun) and its Profit Formula (by increasing its volume and its resource velocity), and by upgrading the resources and processes that it needed to support them. The key to transformational growth is still a powerful and coherent business model.

Mark W. Johnson is a cofounder and senior partner of the strategy consulting firm Innosight.

Alec Lee is a research analyst at Frontier Strategy Group.

Stopping data breaches will require help from governments

By Samir C. Jain & Lisa M. Ropple

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S the risk of cyber attacks has become better appreciated, we see an increasingly punitive focus in holding corporate America solely responsible.

Multiple, overlapping laws at the national and state level require companies to have reasonable security, a concept that is largely undefined and elusive. And regulatory enforcement actions and lawsuits in the wake of cyber attacks declare any exploited security vulnerability “unreasonable,” without a meaningful assessment of the company’s overall security program or acknowledgment that the company has been the victim of a crime.

It is simply not possible, at present, for every company in America to have sufficient internal cyber-expertise to manage the risk.

The challenge is compounded by the resources and sophistication that state and criminal cyber attackers can bring to bear.

Companies that suffer cyber attacks are, and should be treated primarily as, victims.

Yet a company that suffers a breach faces a substantial risk of multiple regulatory investigations and class action lawsuits, all focused on assigning blame to the organization for having inadequate security measures, no matter the strength of the company’s overall security program or the investment made.

That perspective is not only unfair, but counterproductive. Instead of focusing on remediating the incident, restoring operations, improving security and mitigating potential harms, a company in the midst of a cyber breach also needs to worry about the record that is being created, what is being written down, whether lawyers are sufficiently involved in the

© 2018 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. (Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)

By Alec Lee

N October 28, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil’s Social Liberal Party defeated Fernando Haddad of the Worker’s Party in the country’s presidential election. Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate, picked up 55 percent of the vote.

Three factors led to this outcome. The most important was the lack of a strong economic recovery following the end of Brazil’s recession in 2017, the deepest in its history. These economic trends were exacerbated by both a deteriorating security situation across Brazil’s major cities, driven by rising unemployment and cuts to public-security funding and a strong anti-corruption wave. These forces clearly favored Bolsonaro, an ex-army captain perceived to be the “cleanest” of the candidates.

To understand where Brazil’s economy will go following Bolsonaro’s election, it’s necessary to first understand why the economic recovery has been so lethargic. This can largely be laid at the feet of one monumental failure of the current government under President Michel Temer: the lack of a comprehensive pension reform.

The World Bank estimates that Brazil’s debt-to-GDP ratio, which currently stands at approximately 75 percent, would rise to 150 percent by 2030 without a significant fiscal adjustment led by reform to the country’s existing pension benefits. This bleak outlook, and the continued lack of clarity around a potential fix, is the major reason financial institutions have yet to aggressively increase lending and why businesses’ appetite for new investment has remained muted.

Bolsonaro was the only candidate in the runoff election who supported a reform of the pension system. Our forecasts suggest that while he is likely to pass pension reform in 2019 (both raising the retirement age and also reducing benefits), Bolsonaro is unlikely to make dramatic inroads into addressing other ills of the market, such as its burdensome tax system, its challenging labor code or its underfunded infrastructure. For all the differences between Bolsonaro and his predecessors, he will face many of the same governing challenges that they did.

VERY successful company, whether it knows it or not, owes its success to its business model.

I explained this in an article that was published in Harvard Business Review in 2008 and, now, 10 years later, that still holds true, as more and more of the business discourse is focused on digital transformation. A digital platform, or a digital solution, may enablea new epoch of transformative growth, but when you get under a company’s hood, the engine of transformation turns out to be its business model.

In my article, I identified the four interlocking elements that, taken together, create and deliver value to both companies and its customers:

WHAT BUSINESSES SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BRAZIL’S NEW PRESIDENT

forensic investigation and other considerations bearing only on protecting against liability.

The government has a number of comparative advantages over the private sector, such as the ability to collect and exploit intelligence and to coordinate internationally with other governments and law-enforcement agencies.

It should do more to give the private sector the benefit of these advantages.

Companies that meet a defined set of riskbased requirements, which could be developed through a collaborative, multi-stakeholder process, should have a safe harbor from liability, recognizing that they are victims, not perpetrators, of malicious cyberactivity.

Samir C. Jain and Lisa M. Ropple are partners at Jones Day. This article represents the personal views and opinions of the authors.

IMPACT INVESTING COULD ACCELERATE THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

By Richard G. Hamermesh & Kathy Giusti

A

GENERATION of philanthropists whose wealth was created via entrepreneurship in technology-driven fields has the chance to make a real difference in accelerating the fight against cancer. Our research has revealed a variety of investment approaches that can help speed up the development, approval and commercialization of new cancer therapies.

Rapid advances in precision medicine and immunotherapy are ushering in a new era in the treatment and cure of many cancers. And impact investing has emerged as a path to meet their goals. Three big ideas underlie these approaches: precision

medicine, disease-focused investing and investing at scale.

The improved odds of success in drug discovery are providing donors opportunities to back what has become known as venture philanthropy.

In this system, drug discovery is developed around a specific disease and financed by the efforts of a diseasefocused foundation. What is needed are many investments aimed at the underlying causes of each specific cancer type. While this creates concentration risks, which are typically avoided by venture funds, they are precisely what disease foundations should be doing and where generation of philanthropists can make an enormous difference by taking on one particular type of cancer.

While venture-philanthropy funds represent a way to invest at scale in research related to a particular cancer, larger funds are beginning to emerge that invest at much greater scale in a broader range of cancers. Andrew Lo, a finance professor at MIT, has been a trailblazer in this area. Armed with numerous simulations, Lo has argued that a megafund of investments in cancer companies could not only help find cures but also produce more predictable returns for investors.

Richard G. Hamermesh is a senior fellow at Harvard Business School. Kathy Giusti, founder of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium, is also a senior fellow at Harvard Business School.

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

E2

Monday, December 24, 2018

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

As seas warm, Galápagos Islands MASUNGI GEORESERVE face a giant evolutionary test Global model for conservation innovation

BLUE-FOOTED boobies near Isabela Island in the Galápagos Islands on November 11.

Climate change is ravaging the natural laboratory that inspired Darwin, and the creatures here are on the brink of crisis.

JOSH HANER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

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LCEDO VOLCANO, Galápagos—When the clouds break, the equatorial sun bears down on the crater of this steaming volcano, revealing a watery landscape where the theory of evolution began to be conceived.

Across a shallow strip of sea lies the island of Santiago, where Charles Darwin once sighted marine iguanas, the only lizard that scours the ocean for food. Finches, the product of slow generational flux, dart by.

Now, in the era of climate change, they might be no match for the whims of natural selection.

In the struggle against extinction on these islands, Darwin saw a blueprint for the origin of every species, including humans. Yet not even Darwin could have imagined what awaited the Galápagos, where the stage is set for perhaps the greatest evolutionary test yet.

As climate change warms the world’s oceans, these islands are a crucible. And scientists are worried. Not only do the Galápagos sit at the intersection of three ocean currents—they are in the crosshairs of one of the world’s most destructive weather patterns, El Niño, which causes rapid, extreme ocean heating across the Eastern Pacific tropics.

Research published in 2014 by more than a dozen climate scientists warned that rising ocean temperatures were making El Niño both more frequent and more intense. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) now warns that the Galápagos Islands are one of the places most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

To see the future of the Galápagos, look to their recent past, when one such event bore down on these islands. Warm El Niño waters blocked the rise of nutrients to the surface of the ocean, which caused widespread starvation.

Large marine iguanas died, while others shrank their skeletons to survive. Seabirds stopped laying eggs. Forests of a giant daisy tree were flattened by storms, and thorny invasive bushes took over their territory.

Eight of every 10 penguins died, and nearly all sea lion pups perished. A fish the length of a pencil, the Galápagos damsel, was never seen again.

That was in 1982. The world’s oceans have warmed at least half a degree Celsius since then.

David J. Anderson, a biologist at Wake Forest University who studies the bluefooted booby, a seabird, said the ravages of El Niño were a surprise when he began working on the islands in the 1980s.

“Now we are wondering, how frequent do these things get? El Niños have a bulldozer effect,” he said. “And they are happening more and more.”

Though the Galápagos lie at the heart of the geographic tropics, it’s hard to guess that, standing on one of the islands, because of a vast current that flows north from southern Chile.

That stream, the Humboldt Current, keeps the islands cool and rainless most of the year, unusual given that the equator crosses through the archipelago.

It means the islands are subtropical in climate, a rare place where penguins and corals exist side by side. But sometimes the cool Humboldt Current suddenly slows.

The ocean waters start warming rapidly, heating up as much as 2°C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), within months. Storms begin to strike the islands with rain and flash floods. And, as if overnight, the Galápagos

become warmer: It is the start of El Niño, Spanish for “the boy child,” a reference coined by Peruvian fisherman because the changes can occur around Christmas.

“The Galápagos marine system is analogous to a roller coaster,” said Jon D. Witman, a professor of biology at Brown University who studies coral ecosystems in the Galápagos, noting that the spikes of hot temperatures were followed by spells of falling temperatures, known as La Niña.

The problem with global warming, Witman said, is that the baseline from which these swings occur is rising as the ocean temperatures do. This, as the intensity and frequency of El Niño is increasing.

Before he published Moby-Dick, Herman Melville sailed past the Galápagos and saw the black marine iguanas clinging to the rocks. They were “that strangest anomaly of outlandish nature,” he wrote in a literary sketch published in the 1850s.

One particular anomaly of the marine iguanas offers a clue into what warmer Galápagos seas may have in store for them.

Mar tin Wikelski, an evolutionar y biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology in Germany, was spending his research seasons off the coast of Genovesa Island when he noticed something strange in his calculations. When the seas warmed, the size of the iguanas started to decrease.

“Obviously an animal can’t shrink, it’s impossible,” he said he initially thought.

“But they looked odd, like frogs where the legs were too long for the body.”

It turned out the iguanas were in fact becoming much smaller.

Rising ocean temperatures mean less algae, the main source of food for marine iguanas. Scientists say they believe that the reptiles may reabsorb parts of their skeleton in order to decrease their size and increase their chances of survival on a smaller diet.

Stress hormones may trigger the process, but little more is understood about how the iguanas adapt. Nevertheless, the changes could be central to their survival as El Niño cycles become more frequent.

Evolution has led other animals in different directions, which could now prove fatal as ocean temperatures rise.

On a recent day on the southern shores of Isabela, the largest island in the Galápagos Archipelago, a male sea lion howled over a gaggle of pups in a tide pool. Sea lions and fur seals here have no set breeding season, so males are constantly on the defense against competitors—a costly vigilance that takes away from their time to hunt fish.

When sea temperatures rise, the sardine population around Isabela Island drops. In the 1982 El Niño, nearly every large adult male fur seal died of starvation. Most of the sea lion pups born that year died as well because parents couldn’t feed their young, according to a study by Fritz Trillmich, a behavioral ecologist.

“It’s like if our generation didn’t have kids,” said Robert Lamb, a doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University.

Creatures have also been devising new ways to hunt.

Last month, the craggy rocks in a cove off the north shore of Isabela Island were strewn with the bones of a massive fish— tuna, which scientists say they haven’t seen sea lions eat before.

But just after dawn on a recent morning there, sea lions chased one large tuna into the cove, then slaughtered it in the shallows.

Whether this is simply a new behavior that emerged when populations of smaller fish grew scarce hasn’t been studied, but the new diet could prove advantageous to sea lions as El Niños become more frequent.

Other animals have fewer options to change their diet.

Blue-footed boobies, birds known for their bright feet and clownish waddle, line the shores here. But at sea, these specialized fish-eaters soar gracefully above the waves before plunging into the ocean like competitive divers, scattering the clouds of fish so they can be picked off individually.

The blue-footed boobies once lived principally on sardines. But for reasons unknown, sardine populations plummeted in 1997 and the fish remain scarce, forcing the birds to eat other fish. When sea temperatures rise during El Niño, these other fish also start to disappear.

“They basically stop trying to breed,” Anderson, the Wake Forest biologist, said of the boobies. He said the pattern had become more frequent in parallel with El Niños.

New York Times News Service

A

Story by Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

RE you looking for unique outdoor fun and adventure?

Or do you simply want to spend the weekend away from the stressful city life? Try the Masungi Georeserve in Baras, Rizal.

A conservation project in the Southern Sierra Madre Mountain Ranges, Masungi Georeserve was recently honored as a global model for conservation innovation and excellence at the inaugural Pathfinder Awards.

“We are extremely humbled and honored to receive such a prestigious award at the global stage,” Billie Dumaliang, a trustee and advocacy officer of Masungi Georeserve, told the BusinessMirror through Messenger. “ The recognition by no less than world conservation leaders reaffirms our efforts to conserve Masungi, despite the many challenges we encounter on a day-today basis,” she added.

World-class conservation approach

THE award to Masungi was lauded by an international biodiversity expert, Theresa Mundita S. Lim, the executive director of Asean Centre of Biodiversity (ACB).

A former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Lim said effectively using innovative approaches in raising funds for conservation initiatives is “a very notable and praise-worthy feat for any management of biodiversityrich protected areas.”

“Finding a strategy and successfully implementing it in generating income, while at the same time conserving the environment, is a challenge,” Lim said.

The UN award Masungi received not only brings honor and recognition to the Philippines, Lim said, but also to the Asean region as it shows that Filipinos and the Asean people are capable of achieving world-class conservation approaches.

“This is the kind of innovation that we are developing in our protected areas and Asean Heritage Parks—localized strategies that meet each area’s unique conservation needs,” Lim said.

The Asean Heritage Parks is one of the f lagship programs of ACB. They are selected protected areas in Southeast Asia known for their unique biodiversit y and ecosystems, wilderness and

AERIAL photographs of Duyan, one of the attractions at the Masungi Georeserve. BILLIE DUMALIANG

outstanding values. They were given the highest recognition because of their importance as conservation areas.

Tourist attractions

ESTABLISHED in 1996, the georeserve at Kilometer 47, Marcos Highway, is characterized by rugged limestone karst peaks, steep slopes and surrounding lush montane rainforests.

Among the popular attractions in the park is the Sapot or “cobweb” made of a metallic platform with wooden steps. It allows visitors to walk on suspended netting above the karst and get a 360-degree view of the Sierra Madre and the Laguna de Bay. It also has Duyan, a giant rope hammock, spanning a few hundred feet.

The Masungi Georeserve only allows guests to the conservation area on a limited number and via a trail visit request. Guests are guided by an experienced park ranger throughout the trek who also provides in-depth information about sustainable tourism.

Not a glamorous task

ACCORDING to Dumaliang, conservation “is not a glamorous task,” describing it as “being long days under the heat of the sun or standing your ground against big interests.”

“The award encourages us, our park rangers and the people who have sacrificed so much to protect Masungi from various threats for over more than 20 year, to continue what we are doing. We hope it inspires others, too, to choose the important and necessary task of protecting the Philippine environment,” she said.

The Pathfinder Awards was presented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and WildArk during the plenary session of the 14th Conference of Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, last month.

International jury

M A SUNGI Georeser ve was

AERIAL photographs of Sapot, one of the attractions at the Masungi Georeserve. BILLIE DUMALIANG

awarded the 2018 Pathfinder Award Special Commendation for its “outstanding and innovative” approach to conservation financing and resourcing.

The local conservation project protects a geological heritage comprising the Masungi karst landscape and its rich biodiversity in Baras, Rizal.

A high-level international jury composed of experts on protected area financing and resourcing selected the winners from over 200 nominations from around the world.

The jury includes Inger Andersen, director general of the IUCN; Yasmine Fouad, minister of Egypt; Mark Hutchinson, founder of WildArk; Kathy MacKinnon, chairman of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas; Cristiana Paşca Palmer, executive secretary of CBD; Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, minister of Costa Rica; and Achim Steiner, administrator of UNDP.

Innovative solutions

THE Pathfinder Award recognizes outstanding and innovative solutions for protected and conser ved areas, developed and implemented by ind iv idu a ls, organizations or groups.

The inaugural awarding edition celebrates solutions that address insufficient investment for protected and conserved areas.

While protected and conserved areas provide considerable and diverse financial and nonmonetary benefits, the global funding gap to effectively manage these sites is huge—estimated at the $30 billion to $35 billion a year.

The jury lauded Masungi’s innovative techniques and approaches in conservation financing, using geotourism to fund and achieve conservation objectives.

Through this model, the reserve is able to complement the work of the government and local communities in taking care of the country’s threatened ecosystems.

In particular, the jury noted Masungi’s practices that balance the attractiveness of the park to visitors with low pressure on the environment.

A model Protected Area

IN a joint statement, the UNDP, IUCN, WCPA and WildArk noted: “The nomination by Masungi Georeserve Foundation describes an innovative approach to ecotourism, based on the pillars of conservation, education/research and sustainable development, and using ‘mindful engineering’ through tourism infrastructure that mimics nature, e.g., spider webs.”

They noted how the reserve can be replicated by other protected and conserved areas around the globe when it comes to creating long-term and sustainable value for environmentally sensitive areas. “ You cannot tell how impressed I was w ith [Masungi Georeserve’s] work. [They] must continue what they are doing,” said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister and Pathfinder jury member who presented the awards to Masungi Georeserve Trustees sisters Ann and Billie Dumaliang.

Unique limestone formation, rich biodiversity

A CONSERVATION initiative of Masungi Georeserve Foundation in partnership with the DENR, the Masungi Georeserve is home to a sprawling limestone formation dating back 60 million years that was the subject of rampant environmental degradation and real-estate speculation.

After 20 years of daunting dedicated conservation work, it is coming back to life and is now a sanctuary for more than 400 species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic to the Philippines and Luzon island.

The project’s latest mission is to restore and conserve in perpetuity some 3,000 hectares of denuded mountains around the geological reserve through the Masungi Geopark Project.

The mountains remain in constant threat of quarrying, illegal logging, (slash and burn), treasure-hunting and land speculation despite previous efforts to conserve them.

“This singular honor from the UN and IUCN will boost the spirit of our team on the ground, and those in the government, private sector and civil society who tirelessly toil for the environment and even risk their lives protecting it, and inspire others to follow in their footsteps and join our movement,” Ann Dumaliang, also the project manager of Masungi Georeserve, said in a statement.

This year’s award is organized in cooperation with the UNDPBiodiversity Finance Initiative and the Panorama-Solutions for a Healthy Planet initiative, which IUCN co-leads.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

Monday, December 24, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

E3

IMUS BLAZING THE TRAIL

Eco-friendly solutions to garbage woes

I

Story & photos by Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

MAGINE yourself carrying a fashionable bayong (native market bag) for the charcoal briquettes you will buy, while briskly walking on a clean and green sidewalk made of ecofriendly bricks.

Then you harvest or buy organic vegetables grown in your community using compost as a soil enhancer.

This is how officials of the Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office (PGENRO) of Cavite province imagine life should be in pursuing various programs to get rid of the province’s burgeoning garbage problem.

Fortunately, PGENRO Anabelle L. Cayabyab, Cavite’s top env ironment and natura l resource official, said there are best practices in various local governments on proper solidwaste management.

B esides i mple me nt i ng i n tegrated coastal management (ICM) anchored on “ridge-toreef ” environmental protection program, Cayabyab said proper solid-waste management is a major strategy in addressing the province’s looming water crisis.

Pemsea ICM site

A PARALLEL site for the ICM of the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia, Cavite province became an ICM site in 2004.

The program covers the province’s nine coastal towns, providing a framework and process for Cavite to strengthen coastal governance, as well as the implementation of management programs to address the threats and challenges of unbridled development, land conversion, pollution from industrial, commercial and residential areas, illegal fishing and a growing population.

The ICM activities in Cavite i nc lude t he de ve lo pme nt of long-ter m strateg y, infor mation management, awarenessraising and mobilizing stakeholders’ support, development of coastal use-zoning plan to address multiple-use conf licts, marine-protected areas management, implementation of oil spill contingency plan and rehabilitation of major river systems.

As an ICM site, Cavite also became a part of Pemsea’s Network of Local Governments (PNLG).

According to Cayabyab, dur ing the PNLG meeting in A nsa n, Sout h Korea, Cav ite, G ov. Jesu s C r i s pi n R e mu l l a sig ned the A nsan Declaration, committing to work toward the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goa ls (SDG), par ticu larly SDG 6 , or “ En su r i ng av a i l a bi l it y and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”

Looming water crisis

INTERVIEWED by the BusinessMirror recently, Cayabyab said a 2012 study on water supply availability in Cavite revealed that by 2020, or two years from now, the province, with its current population of 3.9 million, will experience severe water shortage, estimated to reach by as much as 51 million liters per day.

“Water and sanitation has been Governor Remulla’s topmost priority. All our programs are focused on addressing the water problem,” Cayabyab said in mixed English and Filipino.

According to Cayabyab, another study revealed high fecal coliform level in coastal areas despite years of coastal cleanups and relocation of informal settlers.

“Pollution comes from upstream. There are six major rivers in Cavite and we are monitoring them now,” she said.

According to Cayabyab, of the 10 companies that offer septictank cleaning service operating in Cavite, only Maynilad has its own wastewater-treatment facility, as well as adequate health and sanitary permit or accreditation from the Department of Health.

“The rest have no wastewatertreatment facility and we have proof that they are dumping the sludge in the river upstream,” Cayabyab said.

Worse, she said septic tanks in the old days were built with no concrete to prevent leak that contaminate groundwater.

“When met with the LGUs [local government units], we informed them of the problem and we also warned them against issuing [building] permits [without proper septic tanks],” she said.

According to Cayabyab, the Cavite government had also advised LGUs to tighten their watch over junk shops that buy and sell home appliances and other e-waste that require proper handling as mandated for by Republic Act 6969, or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990.

She said the provincial government supports local government initiatives to address the garbage problem, whether they require financial or technical support.

“Fortunately, we have LGUs with best practices, which we can promote as model for replication,” she added.

Model LGU

ONE such LGU with best practices on solid-waste management is Imus City.

MAXIMIANO VILLANUEVA (left), administrator of the Imus City Composting Facility in Barangay Malagasang 1A, administers the mixing of agricultural waste.

sis, Imus’s garbage is composed of 27.2 percent recyclable, 36.78 percent biodegradable; 21.93 percent residual, 13.99 percent plastic and Styrofoam, and 0.10 percent toxic and hazardous waste.

Plastic waste

EMPLOYEES of the city ecology center of Imus show bags made from recycled plastics.

The city has blazed the trail in finding eco-friendly solutions to the city’s garbage problems, particularly plastic and biodegradable waste.

Under the mantra “May Pera sa Basura [There is money in waste],” Imus has endeavored to make the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse and Recycle—of solid-waste management work.

The city is currently producing bags and wallets from recycled plastics, which it sells from P50 to P150. It also produces charcoal briquettes made from coconut shell, twigs and dried leaves that produce less smoke and more heat in cooking, and sold for only P35 per pack, or three for P100.

To r i d t h e c i t y ’s p l a s t i c waste, it also makes eco-bricks, made of shredded plastics mi xed w ith cement that it sells for P12 a piece.

The local government is also producing ver micompost and compost soil enhancers from food waste and other biodegradables collected from households and public markets, which it distributes for free to farmers and the community for backyard or urban farming and gardening.

Top waste producer

WITH its population of 403,785 based on a 2015 census, Imus is

besieged by environmental problems associated with unbridled development—garbage.

The indiscriminate dumping of garbage and poor collection and hauling system was a major problem until the local government started implementing various programs and introduced environment-friendly solutions.

Doris L. Sagenes, supervising environmental management specialist of Imus, said until now, waste segregation remains a big challenge.

“The people are accustomed to just throwing away garbage,” she told the BusinessMirror in a recent interview.

She said the city environment office implements information, education and communication campaigns in various day-care centers and schools, to educate the young about the importance of proper solid-waste management.

Also, the owners and managers of various business establishments, she said, undergo seminar and training on proper solid-waste management.

“Before we issue a [business] permit, they have to undergo seminar and training,” she said.

According to Sagenes, Imus is currently producing 200 tons of garbage a day. Based on the latest waste characterization and analy-

Fortunately, we have LGUs with best practices, which we can promote as model for replication.”

—Cayabyab

IMUS is besieged by plastic pollution. To address this concern, the city government maximized the use of the city’s Ecology Center in Barangay Buhay na Tubig.

T he ecolog y center does t ra i n i ng on compost i ng , or ganic farming and gardening, recycling waste and rainwater har vesting system.

A major initiative of the city environment office is the implementation of the “Basura Raffle” project, wherein people bring to the barangays in exchange of raffle tickets the plastic waste, which junk shops do not buy.

“One kilogram of plastics earn them one raffle ticket. They get the chance to win raffle prizes like an electric fan or rice cooker,” she said.

According to Sagenes, through the project, the environment office is able to collect 1.5 tons of plastic a month, which they bring to the Villar Foundation to be recycled into school chairs.

So far, Imus’s partnership with the Villar Foundation has yielded 300 chairs of recycled plastics.

Imus City is also known for producing eco-bricks, part of which is made from plastics, made in partnership with Clean Technology.

Some of the eco-bricks were used as paving blocks for the repair of sidewalks in front of the city hall, the city plaza, in Barangay Anabu and Nueno Avenue.

Agricultural, kitchen wastes

TO rid the city of another major wa ste problem—t he bio degradable waste from public markets and kitchen waste from households—it has established a composting facility along Pedro Reyes Street in Barangay Malagasang 1A. During a site visit, environment office employees showed the city’s 2,300 -square-meter facility and explained the process of producing compost.

It also has three bioreactor machines that act as digester for

various agricultural waste collected from public markets and food waste from households.

“It is able to serve two clustered barangays. We receive an average of 6 tons of vegetable and food waste a week,” said Maximiano Villanueva, administrator of the composting facility.

According to Villanueva, several steps are followed to make compost for effective soil enhancers. The vegetables from the market are shredded and digested using the bioreactor. After three days, the byproduct is applied with effective microorganism and dried in open air.

The vegetables are shredded and dried anew. Without a bioreactor, the process will take three months, at least.

The kitchen and food wastes undergo almost the same process, except that sawdust are added to boost the drying process. The byproduct is dried and shredded anew before packing for distribution. “ We d i s t r i b ut e t he m for free. Sometimes, the demand for compost is big, maybe because it is free and it works,” Villanueva said in mixed English and Filipino.

Solid-waste dilemma

IN a recent interview with OIC Antonio Bernan T. de la Cruz of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office, he said garbage is a major cause of water pollution in Imus.

“We conduct IEC information, education and communication campaign. From time to time, from January to December, we implement IEC campaign to inform the people about our programs,” he said.

He said Imus City, under Mayor Emmanuel L. Maliksi, is determined to boost the implementation of the city’s eco-friendly solutions.

“We have identified three possible sites for composting facility.

By next year, we are eyeing to put up one facility in Pasong Buwaya.

It can accommodate three to four clustered barangays. Hopefully, in the next three years, we will be able to accommodate all 97 barangays in Imus,” he said. The city’s barangays are clustered into nine groups.

According to de la Cruz, he is proposing the formation of cooperatives in every barangay to engage the communities more and become part of the solution.

“Just like our ‘Basura Eskwela’ initiative, through a cooperative, parents can gain something from recycling. From garbage to money. Pera sa basura,” he said.

He said once the cooperative grows from waste recycling, they could start to try other livelihood activities.

“There will be profit sharing and they can also start their own livelihood program,” he said.

“Although there are existing and active cooperatives in some barangays, we plan to tie up with them. It will be like an ecological cooperative working to address our garbage problem,” he said.

U.K. TO PACKAGING MAKERS: PAY FOR YOUR PLASTIC POLLUTION

U

NITED Kingdom packaging manufacturers will have to pay for the full cost of dealing with the waste their goods produce under new government plans that seek to exceed European Union targets after Brexit.

A wide-ranging waste and resource strategy published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs this past week will also pledge food-waste collections for every home in Britain.

The food-waste measures are a boost to developers of anaerobic digestion plants, which convert refuse into methane gas that can be used to generate power and heat.

Those developers, including Orsted A/S, depend on steady streams of waste to fuel their plants and benefit from tighter rules on what can be dumped into landfills.

“The new strategy is strong on ambition,” said Dustin Benton, policy director for Green Alliance, a research group. “If it is implemented,

it will end the scandal of producers paying just 10 percent of the cost of waste they put onto the market, give households effective collections for recycling and food waste, and shine a light on the estimated 77-percent waste, which hasn’t been tracked.”

Recycling rates have plateaued in the past five years in Britain at about 45 percent, and the new plans aim to encourage companies to design products in such a way so that they generate less waste.

Defra said it will extend so-called Producer Responsibility program, which currently requires companies pay 10 percent of the cost of waste they put on the market.

A consultation will be announced in the new year that asks producers to pay the full net costs of waste they produce for packaging.

Defra said it plans to have new laws in place by 2023 that will match or exceed EU packaging and recycling targets for 2025 and 2030. Bloomberg News

A STACK of neon plastic drinking straws stands in an arranged photograph in London, UK, on October 23.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s government wants to eliminate plastic waste by 2042. CHRIS RATCLIFFE/BLOOMBERG

ExecutiveViews BusinessMirror

Monday, December 24, 2018 E4 www.businessmirror.com.ph |

R

ENOWNED wellness brand Organique Acai Berry was the brainchild of internationally accredited nurse Catherine Salimbangon and information technology professional Joseph Elton.

Being a giver of medical care, the compassionate heart of Salimbangon went out to her elderly patients, who are almost always forced to take unpalatable supplements along with their medications. They often muttered that there must be an alternative to be reinvigorated without having to take a bitter pill every time.

Health concerns and health-care delivery are considered lingering issues, especially for the elderly. But as they say, every problem has a solution—but having an excellent one is better…

Even the daily stresses of life took their toll on the health of the couple somehow, who worked very hard in raising their children. They realized the irony that, while they were working for the health sector, they were not in the best state of health.

Salimbangon was often feeling exhausted from the demands of her daily grind as a nurse. Then a “eureka” moment came when, one time from work, she witnessed a group of elderly men and women happily jogging.

Another instance that clinched her resolve happened in the nursing home she managed, when she closely observed a patient who took acai berry suddenly became physically active again.

Ambassador of health

WHILE they were based in the US, the couple aspired to bring the wonderful news of wellness back home. Thus in June 2009, Organique Inc. was born. It became an all-Filipino company that commissioned itself to produce a world-class food supplement— in the form of acai berries harvested from the Amazon rainforests of Brazil.

Starting the Organique Acai Berry business was hardly a bed of roses, but the indefatigable spirit of Salimbangon and Elton made them forge ahead, both being driven and full of optimism. The tandem did not see it merely as a business opportunity, but a means to help improve the health of many Filipinos.

As they packed their bags in 2010, the couple returned to the Philippines to begin the challenging task of introducing an awesome beverage: a purple-colored, all-natural fruit juice with a delicious chocolate-berry taste, minus the preservatives.

Through countless research, the purplish-black acai berry has been proven to have the highest level of antioxidants and phytochemicals to boost a sagging immune system and help the body combat free radicals, toxins and other harmful viruses.

As an ambassador of Organique Acai Berry, Salimbangon firmly believes in the adage “health is wealth.” It is for this reason she wanted to share the wonders of

acai to her fellow Filipinos.

Wasting no time, the enterprising nurse took it upon herself to initially start the business through personal selling and online marketing, as she addressed every inquiry on acai’s exceptional nutritional value.

Later on, Salimbangon went to retail stores, doctors and wellness clinics to actively promote the manifold and superior health benefits of Organique Acai Berry.

That was also an opportune time.

The government’s awareness efforts in making people understand the value of health and going back to basics were becoming aggressive, and that neglecting or stubbornly abusing their physiques will impact their lives and those of their loved ones, eventually.

Promoting a lifestyle

WITHIN eight years, Organique Asia, gained credible standing among its peers in business; and equally too, for its unique product—now an indispensable health supplement staple for thousands of Filipinos of all ages, regardless of their health disposition.

Sales saw a steady climb and consequently grew through strategic media efforts that helped gain a wider audience for Organique Acai Berry. The result: a significant market share—thanks to the availability of the product in major drugstores and supermarkets nationwide.

Salimbangon is grateful for the invaluable support of media partners who helped pave the way for Organique Acai Berry. They helped reach more people in different parts of the country as they learned more about its nutritional benefits.

The valuable involvement of likeminded wellness advocates who are knowledgeable of the importance and value of good health have become its staunch believers and partners. This, after they have personally experienced the delicious, health-giving goodness of acai berry.

Being the company’s chief executive, Salimbangon is thankful to its stellar roster of ambassadors, led by wellness guru and TV-radio host Cory Quirino; supermodel, actress and entrepreneur Tweety de Leon; as well as actress, fashion designer and dancefitness coach-instructor Regine Tolentino.

Organique Asia has also tapped as subject matter experts former Health Undersecretary, broadcast anchor, alternative and natural health-medicine expert Dr. Sonny Viloria; as well as anti-aging medicine and Clinical Aesthetics Society President Dr. Sarah Cabodil, who spoke the truth about Organique Acai Berry as a super-food.

Salimbangon has thus achieved what she had envisioned: A healthier lifestyle for Filipinos, regardless of social status. As she put it: “Organique Acai Berry is not just a drink, but a lifestyle that one should embrace. Because, like in life, good health doesn’t just happen... One has to be intentional and persistent.”

CATHERINE SALIMBANGON

HARNESSING THE POWER OF A BERRY— FOR BETTER HEALTH